Class JL£l34- t s a a t auu ) SMITHSOi\L\X DEPOSIT. picWrial HISTORY OF FRANCE N E M A N D Y, FROM THE EARLEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT THE; WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE REVOLUTION, AND THE SEVERAL REBELLIONS OF 1848. BY W. C* TAYLOR, LL.D. OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. AUTHOK OF MANUAL OF ANCIENT AND MODEHN HISTOHT, ETC, ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS BY THE BEST ARTISTS PHILADELPHIA: THOMAS, COWPERTHWAIT & CO., 253 MARKET STREET. FOR HORACE ROBINSON. 184S. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by THOMAS, COWPERTHWAIT & CO. in the clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. "9 4°) . STEREOTYPED BY J. FAGAN. (2) PEEEACE, BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. The history of France is full of interest, and it forms a most important study, particularly for the people of our owh country. Situated in the centre of Europe, France has exerted great influence in promoting the ad- vance of civilization, ever since its people were con- verted to the Christian religion. In the history of its several dynasties we are able to trace the progress of every form of government from barbarism to feudalism, and from feudalism to simple despotism. And in the events of the last half century we observe the gradual interrupted, but certain progress from despotism to the noblest and wisest of all forms of government — a free republic. France not only presents to the American a most profitable study in its history, but it advances a strong claim to the sympathy of our own happy country. To her we are in a great measure indebted for the success- ful assertion of our own claim to national independence. To her we are indebted for the Lafayettes, the Rocham- beaus, the Armands, the De Grasses, and the D'Estaings of the Revolution ; and to her great Napoleon we owe the easy acquisition of a most important portion of our national territory. Every American should therefore study the history of France, and draw from it lessons of political science. (iii) lY PREFACE. In this history, written by the accomplished Dr. Tay- lor, the events are narrated clearly and forcibly ; and justice is done to the great characters who have figured on that grand theatre of human affairs. The American editor has made some few additions to the text, inclu- ding new chapters, which bring the history down to the present time. He has also inserted the numerous his- torical embellishments, consisting of portraits, costumes, historical pictures of battles and sieges, and views of important places. In editing the work, he has endea- voured to conform to the active spirit of improvement, which is so marked a feature of the present age. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. The Gauls 7 II. The Franks, from Clovis to Charlemagne 14 III. The reign of Charlemagne 28 IV. The Carlovingian race 35 V. Do. continued 43 VI. Do. concluded 49 VII. From the accession of Hugh Capet to the First Cru- sade 56 VIII. The History of Normandy 63 IX. The History of France from the First Crusade to the accession of Philip Augustus 72 X. The reign of Philip Augustus 85 XI. The reigns of Louis VIII. and IX 101 XII. Do. of Philip the Hardy, and Philip the Fair 112 XIII. Do. of Louis the Quarrelsome, Philip the Long, and Charles the Fair 122 XIV. The reign of Philip of Valois 127 XV. Do. continued — John 137 XVI. John— the Regency 149 XVII. Charles V., surnamed the Wise 154 XVin. Charles VI 161 XIX. Charles VI.— Henry V. of England 171 XX. Charles VII., surnamed the Victorious 180 XXI. Louis XI 190 XXn. Charles VIII. surnamed the Affable and Courteous. 200 XXIIL Louis Xn., surnamed the Father of his People. ... 208 XXIV. Francis 1 214 XXV. Do. continued 225 XXVI. Henry IL— Francis II • 232 XXVIL Charles IX 240 1* (y) \1 CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE XXVIII. Henry III 252 XXIX. Henry IV 266 XXX. Louis XIII 276 XXXI. Louis XIV.— the Wars of the Fronde 290 XXXII. Louis XIV. to the treaty of Ryswick 300 XXXIII. Do. to the War of the Spanish succession 312 XXXIV. Louis XV 321 XXXV. Do. continued 330 XXXVI. Louis XVI 337 XXXVII. Do. continued 348 XXXVIII. The Republic 356 XXXIX. The Empire 374 XL. Do. continued 383 XLL Do. Do 394 XLII. The Hundred Days 400 XLIII. The Restoration and Revolution of 1830 409 XLIV. Louis Philippe 418 XLV. Tiie Revolution of 1848— Downfall of Louis Philippe 441 XL VI. France under the Provisional Government 467 XLVII. France under the National Assembly. — Rebel- lion of June, 1848 478 THE HISTORY OF FRANCE AND NORMANDY. CHAPTER I. An Ancient Gaul. THE GAULS. From Ister's icy stream a barbarous crowd In horrent furs, a herd promiscuous stood, Swift as their savage game, far wide they roam ; In tribes and nations ignorant of home* Episoitiab. 1. The difficulties that impede our inquiries into the origin of nations are so many, and so various, that we must, in most cases, be contented with probability, since the most laborious (7) 8 HISTORY OF FRANCE. researches fail to supply us with certain information. But as the Gauls were a conspicuous portion of that great Celtic family by which all the western continent of Europe and the British Isles were peopled, some brief sketch of their several migrations, as far as they have been ascertained, cannot fail to be interesting. The offspring of Japhet, we are told in Scripture, colonized " the isles of the Gentiles," as Europe is designated in the Old Testament ; of these the Cimmerians, or Cimbrians, who were descended from Gomer,* settled in the north and east of Europe, and gradually spread ihem- A Romanized Gaul. * The numerous descendants of Gomer are usually called the Celtic tribes ; but the names given to the Cushite warriors are as numerous as their conquests ; to them belong the Scythians, the Tar- tars, the Goths, the Scots, and almost all the tribes of wandering warriors who have at different periods effected the greatest revolu- tions in the Eastern and Western world. THE GAULS. 9 selves westwards. 2. The descendants of Cush, known by the names of Scythians and Tartars, have, from the earliest ages, been the greatest wanderers and the most warlike of na- tions. A horde of these barbarians attacked the Cimmerian colonies, expelled the inhabitants, and gave their own name to the country they had subdued. The Cimmerians, driven from their former settlements, fled through the extensive forests of Germany, and took up their residence in Gaul, of which they appear to have been the first inhabitants. 3. The date of this migration is probably about the ninth or tenth century before the Christian era ; for Homer men- tions the Cimmerians as the inhabitants of the countries bor- dering on the Don and Danube, but when Herodotus wrote, we find that they had been displaced by the Scythians. 4. The ofl^spring of Cush, who delighted in a wandering life, spread themselves over the German forests, every where driving the Cimbri before them, until at length the Rhine formed the boundary between the two nations. In the time of Julius Caesar the distinctions between the two nations were strongly marked, and that great warrior and historian more than once declares that the Germans must have been a nation differing in origin from the Gauls. 5. The southern part of Gaul was frequently visited by the Phoenician, Carthagenian and Grecian merchants, for the purpose of commerce, but the most important event connected with this part of the country was the foundation of Marseilles by the Pho- -og" cseans, who introduced a spirit of commercial enterprise, and taught the inhabitants the arts of social life. 6. Although the Gauls did not make such extensive conquests as the de- scendants of Cush, they sent out several hordes at various timts which spread ruin and devastation over the finest parts of Europe. About the time of the first Cimbrian migration, a body of these wanderers crossed the Alps and seized the Ita- lian province, which, by a slight corruption of their name, was thence called Umbria. At a subsequent pe- g^g' riod a new horde seized the north of Italy, and gave it the name of Cisalpine Gaul. The rich productions of Italy, and especially its wines, continued to attract fresh war- riors across the Alps, and Rome itself nearly fell a ooq' prey to these barbarians. Another equally numerous horde penetrated into Greece and laid siege to Delphi ; they were driven from this with great slaughter, but their numbers being increased by fresh recruits, they became formidable 10 HISTORY OF FRANCE. enemies to the successors of Alexander, they engaged in de- structive civil wars. After a variety of adventures some of them settled in the north of Thrace, but the greater part, passing over the Hellespont, seized on a province of Asia Minor, which was thence called Gallatia or Gallo-Graecia. 7. The Gauls were always jealous of the people of Mar- seilles, whom they looked on as intruders, and the wars be- tween the native Celts and the Grecian colonists afforded the first pretence to the Romans for invading their country. They did not resign their liberties without a desperate re- sistance, and Caesar resided ten years in their country before he had completed their subjugation. 8. The Gauls possessed all the characteristics of the Celtic race : they had a fair complexion, light hair, blue eyes, and loud voices ; their temper was lively and enthusiastic, but they were deficient in steadiness and perseverance. Their first attack in battle was almost irresistible, but if that was repelled, they did not sustain the fight with equal courage. They were ardent in their likings and dislikings, but so fickle as to pass from the extreme of affection to that of hatred on the most trivial grounds. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that a similar character is usually given to the modern French. 9. The rivers of ancient Gaul frequently overflowed the country, and the marshes thus formed divided it into three great districts, Aquitain in the south, the territory of the Celts in the middle, and that of the Belgae on the north. The inhabitants were divided into several tribes, each governed by their respective sovereign, and these were again subdivided into septs or clans, the head or chief of which possessed an almost absolute authority in his own domains. 10. These diflerent communities were held together by a federal union similar to that of the Amphictyonic council in Greece, but there was no regular time appointed for holding the grand council ; it was only summoned on occasions of great emer- gency, and consequently frequently met too late to avert the evil against which it was summoned to provide. The govern- ment of the Celts appears to have been every where a complete aristocracy, differing from that established in the feudal times by the absence of any gradations between absolute power and absolute slavery. 11. But the most remarkable feature in all the Celtic na- tions is their order of ecclesiastical nobility called Druids. This class of men enjoyed the highest honours, and the THE GAULS. 11 greatest privileges ; they had the supreme control over all re- ligious ceremonies, and appeal could be made to their tribunal in civil cases ; their persons were sacred, and they were ex- empted from all taxes and military service : in a word, they enjoyed so many immunities and distinctions, that princes were ambitious of being admitted into their societies. 12. They are divided into three classes, the Druids, properly so called, to whom the care of religion was entrusted; the Bards, who were the historical poets of the nation ; and the Euvates, who were a kind of religious poets, that pretended to inspiration and delivered oracles. There were also female Druids, who were held in high respect, and frequently called Druids. to assist at the council of the nation. The British Druids were the most celebrated, and the candidates for the priest- hood were frequently sent from Gaul into Britain to complete their education. 13. The sun and fire were worshipped as the most forcible emblems of the Supreme Divinity; but they also adored the moon, and a host of inferior deities. The Druids exceeded ail other heathens in the extravagant cruelty of their sacrifices; they not only ofl^ered up human victims singly, but on some occasions they formed a huge colossal figure of a man, from osier twigs, and having filled it with human beings, surrounded it with hay, and reduced 12 HISTORY OF FRANCE. it, with all the miserable creatures it contained, to ashes. The great object of their reverence was the deru^ or oak, from which their name is derived ; and the misletoe, a parasitical plant, sometimes found growing on the oak, was especially venerated ; it was annually cut with great ceremony, and carefully preserved by the Arch-Druid, or chief of the priests. 14. The learning of the Druids was confined, in a great degree, to a smattering of astronomy and anatomy : the for- mer they cultivated in consequence of their belief in the in- fluence of the stars, the latter they learned from the dissec- tion of their human victims ; but they seem never to have derived any practical advantage from either study. Like the priests of Egypt and Persia, they are said to have had two systems of religious belief, one for the vulgar, and one for the initiated ; to the latter they taught the unity of the God- head, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the worthlessness of many practices required from the vulgar. The doctrine of the Metempsychosis which Pythagoras pub- lished to the Greeks appears to have prevailed amongst the Druids from the remotest antiquity. 15. The Druids were detested by the Romans because they stimulated the inhabitants to the most vigorous efforts for their independence ; when, therefore, Gaul became a Ro- man province, the Druids were discouraged and their num- bers diminished. Early in the second century, Christianity was introduced into the country, and spread over it with sur- prising rapidity. Many superstitious observances derived from the Druids prevailed, however, for several centuries after- wards. 16. It is worthy of remark, that the Celts were the most easily converted, and the most devotedly attached to the church of all the nations of antiquity. The Gothic nations, after their conversion, for the most part fell into the Arian heresy, but the Gauls were always zealously attached to the Catholic doctrines. 17. After the subjugation of Gaul by the Romans, the van- quished adopted the language and customs of the conquerors ; the ferocity of the Gauls was abated, the arts of civilized life introduced, and the former national character almost effaced. But with their freedom the Gauls lost the military spirit by which their ancestors had been distinguished ; luxury de- stroyed their courage, and they fell an easy prey to the de- scendants of those barbarians, by whom their ancestors had been expelled from the east of Europe. 14 HISTORY OF FRANCE. CHAPTER II. THE FRANKS— FROM THE REIGN OF CLOVIS TO THE ACCESSION OF CHARLEMAGNE. How easy 'tis when destiny proves kind, With full-spread sails to run before the wind. Drtdett. 1. The Romans continued undisturbed masters of Gaul during two entire centuries ; but about the year 260, various barbarous tribes began to make incursions into it; the em- perors, sunk in debauchery, neglected the care of the pro- vinces, and this beautiful country became the prey of its fero- cious invaders. In the year 414, the Burgundians and Visi- goths, two Germanic tribes, obtained from the emperor Hono- rius settlements in the southern provinces of Gaul, while the northern parts were seized on by the Franks, a fierce tribe, who had assumed their name from their firm determination to THE FRANKS. 15 remain free. These people invaded Belgic Gaul, and, after a struggle which continued more than a century, succeeded in making themselves masters of a considerable tract, of which they made Treves the capital. Inauguration of a King of tlie Franks. 2. Before the accession of Clovis, several kings ruled over the Franks, of whom the most celebrated ' / M^as Pharamond ; he, as well as king Arthur, is a fa- vourite hero of romance ; his dynasty is usually called the Merovingian, from Meroveus their supposed ancestor. 3. On the accession of Clovis, who was inaugurated in the usual manner of kings of the Franks by raising him on the shield, Gaul was divided into five states ; that of the Bur- gundians and Visigoths in the south, that of the Franks in the north-east, the independent republic of Armorica, which oc- cupied the place of the present province of Brittany, and a small part of Belgic Gaul, which still remained subject to the Romans. 4. The first enterprise of Clovis was an attack on the Roman province where Syagrius, the provincial go- vernor, was aiming at royal power ; Clovis, at the early age of nineteen, completely defeated Syagrius near Soissons, drove out the Romans, and thus laid the foundation of the future greatness of the French monarchy. It was after this battle, and the sacking of the city of the Soissons, that an 16 HISTORY OF FRANCE. incident occurred, showing the little authority possessed by the kings of the Franks over their subjects. Saint Remi, the Bishop of Rheims, demanded of Clovis a sacred vase, which he had seen among the spoils of the city. Willing to pro- pitiate the priests, and if possible gain them to his interests, Clovis was about to take up the vase and present it to the bishop, when a soldier, springing forward, struck it a violent blow with his battle-axe, which broke it into many pieces, de- claring that he would not let the king take any thing belong- ing to his part of the booty. Clovis for a time restrained his anger ; but about a year afterwards, seizing the opportunity of a review of his troops, he struck the battle-axe from the hands of the soldier, and while he stooped to pick it up he killed him with a blow of his own axe, saying, Remember the vase of Soissons. ■4, The Vase of Soissons. 5. The Gauls detested the Roman yoke, and were strongly attached to Christianity. Clovis won their affections by treating them with mildness, respecting their religion, and fa- vouring their bishops. His marriage with Clotilda, niece of Gondebald, king of Burgundy, made his new subjects enter- 18 HISTORY OF FRANCE. THE FRANKS. 19 tain hopes that he would abjure idolatry for the Christian faith ; to which he was gradually reconciled by the exhorta- tions of that pious princess ; but he hesitated to make an im- mediate change on account of the attachment of the Franks to their ancient faith, 6. At length, having defeated the Alemanni at Tolbiac, and attributing that victory ^' ^' to the God of Clotilda, whom he had invoked in the ClQvis at the Battle of Tolbiac. crisis' of the engagement, he caused himself to be baptized by St. Remi, bishop of Rheims, and the greater part of his sub- jects followed his example. After this event, having the sup- port of the bishops, Clovis greatly enlarged his dominions. He extended his conquests to the Loire ; and the battle of Voille, near Tours, gained against the Visigoths, enabled the victorious Franks to carry their banners from Toulouse to Bourdeaux, across the whole of Aquitania. On his return from the conquest Clovis entered in triumph the '^' city of Tours. 7. The crimes of Gondebald afforded Clovis a pretext for attacking the Burgundians ; he was joined in this war by Theodoric the Great, king of Italy ; but after having completed the conquest, Clovis found that he had more cause to dread his ally than his enemy, he therefore made peace with Gondebald and restored him to his dominions. 20 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 8. Clovis next resolved to seize on the territories of Ala- ric, king of the Visigoths ; he covered his designs under the mask of religion, continually exclaiming against the horrid impiety of suffering Arians to reign in Gaul, for the Visigoths had adopted that heresy. Though Alaric vv^as no persecutor, the Catholic clergy in his dominions favoured the enterprise of Clovis, and afforded one of the earliest instances of ecclesiastical interference in the affairs of nations. At the battle of Vouille, near Poictiers, Clovis crowned the vi'ishes of his party by a decisive victory, in which the Visigoths were totally overthrown and their sovereign Alaric slain. 9. Theodoric, alarmed at the progress of the Gauls, sent an army across the Alps, which checked the victorious career of Clovis, and inflicted on him a severe defeat near Aries. In consequence of this, Provence and part of Aqul- tain became subject to the Gothic monarchs of Italy. A. D. 507. Clovis. 10. Clovis dishonoured the latter part of his reign by atrocious acts of treachery and cruelty to his own relations, whom he stripped of their possessions. At the same time he built churches and monasteries ; doubtless from a persuasion that the Divine laws, like those of the barbarians, admitted a pecuniary compensation for every crime. A. D. 511. THE FRANKS. 21 11. On the death of Clovis his dominions were shared among his four sons, Thierry, Clodomir, Childebert, and Clotaire ; and the monarchy was unhappily dismembered into four kingdoms ; Austrasia or Metz, Orleans, Paris, and Soissons. This division of necessity produced the most bloody civil wars ; the brothers became bitter enemies, and perpetrated the most savage enormities. Clotaire and Chil- debert wrested their dominions from the sons of Clo- domir, two of whom Clotaire stabbed with his own hand. They afterwards united in an invasion of Bur- gundy, in which they were completely successful. A. D. 534. Clotaire I. 12. After a series of ruinous wars, Clotaire I. became the sole monarch of France ; but deriving no advantage from ex- perience of the calamities that had been caused by the former dismemberment of the kingdom, he too divided the monarchy between his four sons, and thus bequeathed another half- century of civil war to his unfortunate country. 13. The evils of this calamitous period were greatly ag- gravated by the sanguinary ambition of two women, who rather deserved the epithet of furies than the title of queens. These were Brunehaut and Fredegonde. The former, a princess of Spain, had married Sigebert, king of Austrasia , 22 HISTORY OF FRANCE. the latter, at first mistress of Chilperic, king of Soissons, had prevailed on him to espouse her after divorcing his wife. Their mutual hatred and uncontrolled influence over their husbands, gave birth to numerous crimes equally fatal to the people and the royal family. Sigebert was murdered by Fre- degonde's emissaries while he was besieging Chilperic in Tournay. She afterwards sacrificed the children of her hus- band by his former marriage to secure for her own son the Brunehaut. right of succession. Brunehaut, on her part breathing ven- geance, armed the princes, and fanned the flames of civil war ; but at last, falling into the hands of Clotaire, the son of Fredegonde, she was condemned to the most horrid tor- ments, as guilty of the murders of ten kings or children of kings. There was an old German custom, according to which, the chief of a troop of warriors was expected to grant them, from time to time, some mark of his favour, generally an ornamented battle-axe, or a fine war-horse. When the Franks were established in Gaul, and the chief had become the king, instead of arms and horses, he preferred to distribute among them a part of his domains. Originally, these henejices were only temporary, being reunited to the royal domain after the death of the chief to whom they had been granted, or even THE FRANKS. 23 during his life, in case of forfeiture or of treason. Thus the king's favours seldom lessened his means ; but, when he consented to alienate for ever portions more or less consider- able of his domain, he soon found it impossible to repair his prodigalities. When the leudes could obtain no more from the king, they began to desert him •, an independent aristo- cracy vi^as formed, which daily increased in power as the royal authority became less. It was the Austrasian leudes who first obtained this right by the treaty of Andelot : the Neustrian and Burgundian leudes were not slow in demand- ing and obtaining it also. 14. Clotaire II., son of Chilperic and Fredegonde, again united France under a single monarch, after '' massacring a multitude of princes. He restored tran- quillity, and gained the confidence of his subjects, but by in- creasing the power of the nobility, and confiding the admi- nistration of government to the mayors of the palace, he opened a way for the revolution which expelled his family from the throne. Fredesonde. 15. Clotaire II. left the kingdom between his two sons, but Dagobert, by the murder of his brother, ob- tained possession of the entire. He is the most cele- brated of the Merovingian princes, and though he was guilty A. D. 631. 24 HISTORY OF FRANCE. oi" many atrocious crimes, he is deservedly praised for his impartial administration of justice, which was publicly sold by his predecessors. On the other hand, he loaded the peo- ple with severe impositions, both to supply his debaucheries, and according to the custom of the period, to expiate his crimes by profuse donations to the church. A. D. Throne of Dagobert, in the Museum at Paris. 16. After the death of Dagobert the monarchy fell ■t' ^' into the possession of a series of monarchs who fol- lowed each other in rapid succession, and whose reigns present an almost perfect blank. They are commonly called Les Rois Fain^ans^ or the sluggard kings, and appear to have well merited the disgraceful appellation. 17. The entire power of the state was possessed by the mayors of the palace, who left to the monarch little more than the shadow of royalty ; of these the most illustrious was Pepin d'Heris- tal, who ruled the province of Austrasia for twenty-seven years with equal prudence and courage. During the greater part of this period Pepin was virtually the sovereign of France, and kept the rightful monarch a prisoner in the palace, per- mitting him only to show himself annually to the people at the assemblies in the Champ de Mars. THE FRANKS. 25 18. Pepin was succeeded by his illegitimate son, Charles Martel, one of the greatest generals that '^' •France has ever produced. 19. The Saracens, who had previously subdued the greater part of Spain, crossed the Pyrennees with an overwhelming force, and directing their course to Aquitain, defeated the governor, and subdued the Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours. greater part "of the province. Charles Martel hasted to meet them, a battle was fought near Tours, and the '' Saracens were defeated with incredible slaughter. By this victory France was saved from becoming a Mohammedan country, and a check was given to the progress of a power which threatened the subjugation of Europe. 20. Thence- forward Martel employed himself in consolidating the strength of France, and introducing order into a kingdom which had been so long distracted. After having conferred these great blessings on his country he died, bequeathing the _^ , ' inheritance of his office to his sons Pepin and Carlo- man. 21. After having obtained some successes in Germany, 3 26 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Carloman became disgusted with the world, and retired into a monastery; thus the whole authority of the state devolved on Pepin, who resolved to add the title to the power _■ * of sovereign. 22. At a time when the Papal power was assailed by the Greeks and Lombards, and when the support of an active partizan was likely to be well re- warded, Pepin laid before the Pope the following case of con- science, " Who ought to bear the title of king, a prince in- capable of governing, or a minister already invested with the royal authority, which he administered with honour.?" The Pope decided as Pepin wished, the clergy of France embraced his cause with zeal, the nobility respected his abilities, and the nation in general willingly agreed to remove a race of obscure inactive kings, who were scarcely known, even by name. 23. Childeric, the nominal monarch, was degraded, and, together with his son, shut up in a monastery ; Pepin was, without resistance, raised to the throne, and solemnly anointed at Soissons by St. Boniface, Bishop of Mentz, who had been long one of his most vigorous supporters. Pepin repaid the Pope by leading an army into Italy against the opponents of the Holy See : this expedition was very suc- cessful, Pepin conquered the Lombards and the Greeks in every engagement, and wrested from them several provinces, all of which he gave to the Pope. 24. The remainder of Pepin's reign was glorious and fortunate : he subjected the Saxons and Sclavonians to tribute, obliged the duke of Bavaria to take an oath of fidelity, and reunited the province of Aqui- tain to the French crown. He died in the seventeenth _,' ■ year of his reign, equally respected at home and abroad. By consent of his nobility he divided his dominions between his two sons, Charles and Carloman, the reign of the former of v/hom forms a great epoch in history. The character of Pepin may be best gathered from his acts. He was ambitious and remorseless ; but not wantonly cruel. His prudence has passed into a proverb ; and his superstition was never perhaps exceeded. In his civil ad- ministration it was his policy to appear to give the reins to the national assemblies ; but in reality he exercised absolute power by bribing the most influential of the nobles and clergy, and by intimidating the rest. To him papacy was indebted for its temporal power, and for its pretensions to universal sovereignty — the authority to exalt and dethrone princes, and to dispose of kingdoms and people at a word. THE FRANKS. 27 In person, Pepin was short, insomuch that he was called Le Bref; but he was stout, vigorous, and hardy — a warrior fit for the rough times in which he lived. An anecdote re- lated of him shows at least the opinion entertained of his muscular power and courage ; and affords at the same time an idea of the popular sports during his reign. At a public exhibition, while a strong lion held a furious bull by the throat almost strangled, the king proposed that some of the company should go forward and rescue the animal. No one, however, durst attempt the act, till Pepin, rising from his seat, leaped into the arena, and with a single stroke of his sword cut of the head of the bull. Then, turning to the spectators he said, " David who slew Goliah was a little man ; and Alexander also was short of stature, yet he had more strength and courage than many of his officers who were taller and handsomer than himself." Ancient Helmet, Shield, and Saddle. 28 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Charlemagne, from a Mosaic, made by order of Pope Leo HE. CHAPTER III. THE REIGN OF CHARLEMAGNE. A. D. All was prepared — the fire, the sword, the men To wield them in their terrible array; The army, like a lion from his den, March'd forth with nerves and sinews bent to slay. A human Hydra issuing from his fen To breathe destruction on its winding way. Btroit. 1. The French monarchy was divided between «' 'j'" Charles, called afterwards Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, and his brother Carloman. A civil war which was on the point of breaking out between the rival brothers was prevented by the death of the latter, and Charle- magne became the sole monarch of France. Having secured his accession he married the daughter of Didier, king of the Lombards, but soon after divorced her without assigning any cause. Didier, enraged at this affront, afforded an asylum to Carloman's widow and her two sons, who had been deprived THE REIGN OF CHARLEMAGNE. 29 of their inheritance by Charles, and attempted to gain over pope Adrian 1. to his side. 2. But the pope was far from wishing to gratify the Lombard prince ; on the contrary, he entered into a closer alliance with the French king, on which Didier ravaged the territories that Pepin had given to the church, and which were now called the patrimony of St. Peter. Upon the news of these events Charlemagne passed the Alps with a numerous army, and by forced marches arriving at Verona before his approach was suspected, cap- tured the town, and made his sister-in-law with her two chil- dren prisoners. He next laid siege to Pavia, and by its capture put an end to the kingdom of the Lombards, „!,, ' which had subsisted two hundred and six years. Didier died in a monastery, but history is silent as to the fate of Charlemagne's nephews. 3. During the siege of Pavia Charlemagne paid a visit to Rome, where he was met by the whole body of the clergy, with banners in their hands : Adrian received him with great pomp in the church of St. Peter, and the people sung " Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the LordP Charlemagne is said to have ratified the gift made to the church by Pepin ; but as neither the original nor any copy of such an important deed has been ever produced, the truth of this event appears very questionable. 4. Almanzor, the king of the Saracens in Spain, was one of the greatest and wisest monarchs in Europe ; he had com- pletely subdued the Christian princes in the Peninsula, and compelled them to pay him tribute ; the rulers of Sara- gossa and Arragon however revolted, and called in '' Charlemagne, whom they acknowledged as their sovereign. The French monarch passed the Pyrennees and subdued the whole country as far as the Ebro, but on his return the rear of his army was attacked at Roncesvalles by the duke of Gascony, and his gallant nephew Roland slain. This trifling engagement has furnished the theme of an im- mense number of romances. 5. During all this period the war with the Saxons con- tinued : Pepin had compelled them to pay tribute, and besides forced them to receive missionaries, but they could neither bear to pay the one nor embrace the religion of the other, the pacific spirit of which was so contradictory to the human passions. Having massacred several of the missionaries, and committed several other outrages, they provoked Charlemagne 3* 30 HISTORY OF FRANCE. to wage war against them, and so strenuously were they at- tached to liberty, that they held out against his power ^'q^' for thirty years. 6. In one of these battles Witikind, the Saxon general, inflicted a severe defeat on the French, which Charlemagne cruelly revenged by the massacre of Verden, where four thousand five hundred of the principal Saxons were beheaded. 7. At length Witikind, after being Submission of Witikind. defeated with great slaughter in several battles, made his sub- mission, and embraced Christianity. His followers were not equally tractable ; they often revolted, and were not com- pletely subdued until Charlemagne removed many thousand families of them, which he dispersed through Flanders and other countries. Some of the most resolute tribes retired into Scandinavia, carrying with them an implacable hatred against the dominion and religion of the French. 8. Every nation in Germany that attempted to make the least resistance to the arms of Charlemagne was subdued ; the Sclavonians in Pomerania shared the fate of the Saxons, and were compelled to become Christians and subjects. Tassilo, duke of Bavaria, the nephew of Charlemagne, had THE REIGN OF CHARLEMAGNE. 31 encouragea the Saxons in their rebellion, and Charlemagne in turn entered Bavaria. The duke in his distress sought the alliance of the Huns or Abares, who had settled !n the king- dom of Hungary, to which they have given their name. This nation of robbers used to sally out and plunder all the neigh- bouring states, and then return with their booty to some for- tified enclosures which they called rings. This alliance with the Bavarian duke was fatal to both parties ; his own subjects, disgusted with their barbarous allies, rebelled against Tassilo, and delivered him up to Charlemagne, by whom he was sen- tenced to perpetual imprisonment; the Huns, after a severe and protracted struggle, which lasted nine years, were totally subdued, their rings taken, and the accumulated plunder of two hundred years seized on by the French monarch. 9. On the death of queen Hildegard, Charlemagne took for his wife Fastrade, a woman of low birth, but _,' ' of a vindictive and haughty temper; this marriage was fatal to his peace and to his fame : she filled his mind with jealousies and suspicions, stimulated him to acts of cruelty, and made him the oppressor both of the nobles and the people. 10. This conduct created disaflfection, a conspiracy was formed to dethrone Charlemagne, and ' ' to place the crown on the head of Pepin, one of his natural sons. The plot was fortunately discovered, and most of the conspirators punished, but Charlemagne never again recovered the full confidence of his subjects. 11. Leo HI., who succeeded Adrian on the papal throne, immediately after his accession sent the stan- '^J dard of Rome to Charlemagne, entreating him to send a deputy to that city to receive the allegiance of the inhabit- ants ; a clear proof that the pontiffs at this period acknow- ledged the sovereignty of the emperor. Three years after, the relations of the late pope brought an accusation against Leo, attacked him in the open street, overwhelmed him with a shower of blows, and shut him up half dead in the prison of a monastery. From thence, however, he contrived to make his escape, and fled to Charlemagne, who received him with the greatest respect, sent him back loaded with honours, and promised soon to follow him into Italy. 12. In the following year Charlemagne proceeded ' to Rome, to investigate the charges made against Leo ; jjj.^' several of the clergy objected to this proceeding, de- claring that ecclesiastics could not be tried by a lay tribunal, 32 HISTORY OF FRANCE, but Leo consented to make his defence, and was honourably acquitted. On the Christmas-day following, the pope, in the midst of divine service, placed an imperial crown on the head of Charlemagne, and the people shouted, " Long life to Charles Augustus, crowned by the hand of God, great and pacific emperor of the Romans?'' Leo by this act threw off the nominal subjection under which the popes still were to the emperors of Constantinople, and from this period there were two empires, the eastern and the western, Charlemagne being ^he first emperor of the west. ]3. The death of Fastrade having left Charlemagne again a widower, he designed to marry Irene, who had usurped the throne of Constantinople, after having dethroned and mur- dered her son Constantine. This match was prevented by a new change in the east ; Irene was dethroned by the patrician Nicephorus, who confined her in a monastery, and mounted the throne. 14. The new emperor, dreading the power of „*, . ■ Charlemagne, hastened to enter into alliance with him ; a treaty was concluded, by which the limits of the two empires were settled ; and thus the sovereignty of the entire Roman empire, so long claimed by the monarchs of Constantinople, was resigned. 15. The fame of Charlemagne penetrated into Asia. The celebrated caliph, Haroun al Raschid, whose name is familiar to every reader of the Arabian Tales, and who was one of the greatest encouragers of learning in the east, sent an em- bassy to Charlemagne with many valuable presents, among which was a striking clock, said to have been the first ever seen in France : as a further proof of his friendship, the caliph ceded to him the sovereignty of Jerusalem, which, even at this period, was frequented by pilgrims for the pur- poses of devotion. 16. Charlemagne had now vanquished all his old „* ■ enemies, when a new and more formidable foe ap- peared on his coasts ; the Normans, a people fi'om the northern shores of the Baltic, under the command of a brave leader named Godfrey, made several piratical incursions on the shores of France, and carried oft' immense spoil. Charlemagne led an army against the country of these pirates, but finding the difficulties of the war insuperable, was com- pelled to make peace with them and return home. 17. One great cause of the ruin of states, in the middle THE REIGN OF CHARLEMAGNE. 33 ages, was the absurd custom of dividing them, after the de- cease of the sovereign, among several princes ; Charlemagne adopted this absurd practice, and by his will, which he caused to be signed by the bishops and other great lords, he shared his empire between his three sons, Charles, Pepin, and Louis, appointing them also his lieutenants during his ' ' life-time. But soon after this arrangement the two eldest died, and Charles associated his surviving son Louis with him in the kingdom. 18. The death of " ' his children weighed heavily on the mind of Charles; from a state of vigorous health he passed all at once to the infirmity and decrepitude of old age ; as the hour of his dis- solution approached, he devoted his time to preparation for the awful change, and spent the last year of his life in the study of the Scriptures, in prayer and in acts of charity. When Charles felt that the moment of his dissolution was at hand, he gathered sufficient strength to make the sign of the cross with his right hand ; then quietly composing himself in the bed, he exclaimed, " Into thy hands I commend my spirit," and expired as he uttered the words. 19. Charlemagne died in the seventy-second year of his age, and the forty-fourth of his reign, after having acquired a vast empire, which his abilities could alone maintain. He was master of all France, Germany, Hungary, and Belgium, together with the country of Barcelona in Spain, and Italy as far as Benevento. His abilities, as a conqueror and general, did not surpass his great qualities as a monarch and states- man. He created a naval force to control the piratical at- tempts of the Normans, he designed a canal of communica- tion between the Rhine and Danube, which would have united the commerce of the Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea — a useful project, which the want of intelligent work- men prevented from being put into execution ; he founded schools and universities, and gave his subjects a code of laws called capitularies ; which, amid many absurdities, contain a great number of useful enactments. The administration of justice during the reign of Charlemagne, was provided for by the establishment of commissioners, who made quarterly circuits through the provinces, to receive and judge of all complaints against the local governors, and to whom the clergy were subject as well as the laity. The greatest defect in the policy of Charlemagne was his constant intermeddling with points of religious belief, and his issuing edicts on ob- C 34 HISTORY 01< FRANCE. ^ scure questions of theology, many of which transcended the bounds of human knowledge. The procession of the third person in the Trinity, was one of the topics on which Charlemagne thought fit to legislate, and but for the prudence of Leo JII. the emperor's determination on this subject would have produced as great a schism between the Italian and Gal- ilean churches, as that between the Latins and Greeks. Though Charlemagne censured the riches and luxury of ec- clesiastics, he made several rich donations to the church, and greatly increased the power and possessions of the papal see. 20. In private life the French monarch was a very estima- ble character; he divided the day into several portions, as- signing to each its different employment. He was a kind master, a tender husband, and an afl^ectionate father. He was strongly attached to literature, and conversation with men of learning was the favourite employment of his hours of re- laxation. THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 35 Ancient Crossbow Men. CHAPTER IV. FRENCH MONARCHS OF THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE O monarch, listen. — How many a day and moon thou hast reclined Within these palace walls in silken dalliance, And never shown thee to thy people's longing! — Till all, save evil, slumbered in the realm. Bxnonr. 1. The empire which had been established by the wisdom and policy of Charlemagne, soon crumbled r,\/ to pieces during the reigns of his weak and inglorious successors. The entire history of the period is confused and entangled by the divisions which the sovereigns made of their dominions between their children, by the rapid changes of territory and succession of monarchs, distinguislied only by their name ; the reader should therefore refer to the tabular view of the French kings at the end of the volume, when- ever he finds himself impeded by these difficulties. The people of France hailed the accession of Louis with joy, be- cause he had endeared himself to the people of Aquitain, 36 HISTORY OF FRANCE. where he had hitherto resided, by gentleness and good temper, and seemed more attached to his native subjects than to foreigners ; while Charlemagne was supposed to have dis- liked both the language and the people of France. From the suavity of his manners and kindness of his disposition, his subjects called him Louis Le Debonnaire, or the Good-natured; a name expressive of qualities valuable in private life, but not the best suited for the management of a powerful empire. 2. Two years after his accession he received the „■ ■ imperial crown from the hands of Pope Stephen V., ■ and soon after committed the greatest and most com- mon error of the French sovereigns, by dividing the monarchy among his children ; thus still more weakening an authority already much enfeebled by the folly of the government. He gave Aquitain to Pepin, Bavaria to Louis, and made Lothaire, the eldest of these princes, his partner in the empire. 3. "Bernard, the nephew of Louis, enjoyed the crown of Italy as a fief of the empire ; indignant at the elevation of Lothaire, he raised the standard of revolt, and broke out into open rebellion. Being abandoned by his troops, he was taken prisoner, tried, and condemned to death ; but Louis commuted the punishment, and caused his eyes to be put out; three days after the young prince died. In order to prevent new troubles, the emperor shut up in a monastery three natural sons of Charlemagne, and compelled them to take the mo- nastic vows. 4. After these acts of rigour, Louis became distracted with remorse ; he reproached himself as the murderer of his ne- phew, and the tyrant of his brothers; these feelings were ag- gravated by the artifices of the clergy, who, at length, per- suaded the king to accuse himself in a general assembly, and to solicit the prelates to admit him to public penance. Though the clergy pretended to be greatly edified by his proceedings, they saw how easily a man of such feeble un- derstanding might be enslaved to their authority, and were not slow in taking advantage of the mistaken devotion which degraded the imperial majesty. 5. An opportunity soon pre- sented itself; after the death of his first wife, Louis had been united to Judith, daughter of the count of Bavaria, and had by her a son who was afterwards king of France, under the name of Charles the Bald. As this child seemed to be ex- cluded from the succession by the partition made in favour of the children of the first marriage, Louis was prevailed upon THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 37 to make a new division, and obtain the consent of Lothaire, who was principally concerned to oppose it, and who soon found reason to lament his complaisance. The three princes soon after formed a party to re- store the original arrangement, and received effective q' ' aid from Vala, abbot of Corbie, who, though reputed a saint, did not scruple to put himself at the head of a fac- tion. Prodigies were inventefl to inflame the credulous mul- titude, the most odious charges were brought against the go- vernment, and especially the empress was accused of having committed adultery with Count Bernard, a minister who had rendered himself odious by his stern inflexibility. 6. The weak-minded Louis humbled himself to the rebels, his em- press was confined to a cloister, the king himself narrowly escaped a similar fate, and was compelled to publish a general amnesty, which only increased the insolence of the seditious. 7. The flames of this rebellion had scarcely been extinguished, when a multitude of errors kindled an- 'r.^' other. Louis began once more to exercise the powers of a sovereign ; he recalled Judith to court, when her am- bition was exasperated by a thirst of vengeance ; he banished Vala, regardless of the popularity which he had acquired by his pretensions to sanctity, and finally he disinherited his two sons Lothaire and Pepin, thus affording them a pretext for their unnatural hostility. He even made himself odious to his' able minister, count Bernard, by giving himself up to the councils of a monk, who had unhappily gained his confi- dence. 8. Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis, assembled their troops in Alsace, and prepared to march against their „' * father and their sovereign. Pope Gregory IV. joined them under the pretence of acting as a mediator, but dis- played all the zeal of a warm partizan, and threatened the weak monarch wiih the terrors of excommunication. Upon this several of the loyal prelates of France sent a spirited remonstrance to the pope, accusing him of treason to his sovereign, threatening him with excommunication for excom- munication, and even with deposition, if he persevered in his rebellion. Agobard, bishop of Lyons, the most celebrated of the French prelates, refused to concur with his brethren, and joined with Vala and a monk named Ratbert, in asserting that the pope was invested with the authority of universal judge, and was amenable to no human tribunal. Gregory, acting on 4 e3S HISTORY OF FRANCE. the principles of his supporters, replied to the reraonstrance of the loyal prelates in terras of haughtiness, previously unparalleled, and asserted an authority which no pope had hitherto claimed. 9. The crafty Lothaire sent Gregory to propose terms of accommodation with Louis : it is not known what passed at the interview, but the consequences were destructive of the royal cause. By the intrigues of Gregory the monarch was suddenly deprived of all support, and obliged to surrender to his enemies at discretion. He was then deposed by a tumul- tuous assembly, and the empire conferred on his son ; after which the pope returned to Rome. 10. In order to give permanency to this revolution, Ebbo, whom Louis had raised from a servile condition to the see of Rheims, proposed the following extraordinary and iniquitous method. "A penitent," he said, " ought to be excluded from holding any civil office! therefore a king who is a penitent must be incapable of governing; consequently, to subject Louis to penance, will for ever bar his way to the throne." The advice was acted upon, Louis was compelled to perform public penance in the monastery of St. Medard de Soissons, and after having signed a written confession, was stripped of his royal robes, clothed in the habit of a penitent, and im- mured in a cell ; while Agobard was employed to write a vindication of all these horrors. 11. But the prelates had proceeded too far; the cry Qo / of outraged nature and th-e voice of justice made a deep impression on the minds of the people ; Lothaire became the object of universal detestation, and a new revolu- tion restored Louis to his throne. His superstitious weakness became now more conspicuous than ever; he refused to re- sume the title of sovereign until he had received absolution, professed the most profound submission to Gregory, and, after a short suspension, restored Agobard to his former authority. 12. A repetition of the same faults naturally pro- ■ ■ duced the same misfortunes ; on the death of his son ■ Pepin, Louis divided his dominions between Lothaire and Charles, to the exclusion of the Bavarian prince, who immediately had recourse to arms. While the emperor was on his march against this rebellious son, tortured with grief, and terrified by an eclipse of the sun which he deemed an evil omen, he fell sick in the neighbourhood of Mentz, where THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 39 he expired in the twenty-eighth year of his reign. A pro- vision for his favourite son Charles occupied his attention even in his last moments, and he hequeathed to him the pro- vinces of Burgundy and Neustria, which was subsequently called Normandy. 13. During this reign the Saracens having subdued Sicily, infested the Tuscan Sea and threatened to make themselves masters of Italy; and in the mean time the Normans con- tinued to ravage the coasts of Flanders and France. Thus with enemies on the north and south, discord, crime, and civil war raging within, Europe at this period presented a most lamentable picture ; the misfortunes of France above all demand our attention, for its crimes were the greatest and its sufferings were the most severe. 14. A bad son will never make a good brother; scarcely had Lothaire been seated on the throne, when q\/ he prepared to strip his brothers of their dominions. Louis and Charles, united by common interest, marched against their eldest brother, and defeated him at Fontenai in Burgundy. Few battles have been more bloody than this ; historians differ as to the precise number of the slain, but all agree that the loss which France sustained in that fatal field, was one of the principal causes of the subsequent triumphs of the Norman invaders. 15. hi order to procure the assistance of the Saxons, Lo- thaire had promised to suspend the laws of Charlemagne, which compelled them to observe the ordinances of Chris- tianity ; this afforded his brothers a pretence for endeavouring to procure his deposition. A numerous meeting of bishops was held at Aix-la-Chapelle, before whom the two princes preferred their complaint ; and the bishops having examined the charge, pronounced that Lothaire had forfeited his right to the empire, which they assigned over to his brothers. This decree would have been observed to its full extent, had Lo- thaire been as ready to obey it as his brothers. But this prince was still formidable, and compelled his rivals to a new treaty of partition, subsequently confirmed at Mersen on the Maes, by which he retained most of his former dominions. 16. A few years after these transactions, Lothaire died; a little before his dissolution he commanded gig' himself to be clothed in a monkish dress ; a convenient piece of devotion, by which bad princes thought that their crimes might be expiated at the moment of death. His 40 HISTORY OF FRANCE. dominions were divided among his sons ; Louis had Italy with the title of emperor, Lothaire II. obtained that province which from him was called Lotharingia, and subsequently Lorraine^ and Charles had the kingdom of Provence. Thus the empire of Charlemagne was divided into a number of petty states, the mutual jealousies of which were productive of constant bloodshed. The dominions of Charles the Bald were the most unfortunate of these states ; governed by a prince who inherited the weakness of his father and the turbulent spirit of his mother, devastated by the Normans, who carried fire and sword to the very gates of Paris, and distracted by dis- sensions between the clergy and nobility, who, intent on their own petty jealousies, abandoned the state to its enemies. In this condition of affairs Charles was unable to make any re- sistance to the Normans, and when they sailed up the Seine to besiege Paris, he could only save the city by bribing them to retire ; a course of proceeding which only made them the more eager to return. 17. The weakness of the successors of Charle- ^" ^' magne, had stimulated the ambition of the popes to ■ establish their authority over all the European monarchs, and an event which occurred about this time not a little contributed to their success. Lothaire II. king of Lor- raine, divorced his wife Teutberga on a false charge of incest. She had first justified herself by the ordeal of boiling water, but was subsequently convicted on her own confession, if a declaration extorted by threats and brutal violence, can be called by that name. Lothaire then married his concubine Valdrada, and persuaded a council of bishops assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle, to sanction his proceedings. 18. The flagrant iniquity of this act in some degree justified the inter- ference of the pope : it was perhaps his duty to have rebuked Lothaire, but Nicholas was resolved to bring him to trial. A council was assembled at Mentz which proceeded to examine into the affair, and, contrary to the universal expectation, it decided in favour of Lothaire. Nicholas deposed the bishops who had been most influential in procuring this decision, and sent a legate to threaten the king of Lorraine with prompt excommunication unless he recalled Teutberga. The intimi- dated monarch consented, and even gave up Valdrada to be taken as a prisoner to Rome. She however escaped on the road, and returning to Lorraine, was restored to her former honours ; while Teutberga, wearied out by the contest, as- THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 41 sented to the nullity of her own marriage, and acknowledged her rival as legitimate queen. 19. This did not satisfy Nicholas; but death prevented his interference, and his suc- cessor, a prelate of greater moderation, contented himself with summoning Lothaire to Rome. That prince swore on the Holy Sacrament, that he was innocent of the crimes laid to his charge; and his death, which occurred soon after, was universally looked upon as the punishment of his perjury. 20. The dominions of Lothaire were seized by his uncles, Charles the Bald and Louis the Germanic, to the exclusion of his brother the emperor Louis. In vain did pope Adrian threaten the king of France as an usurper ; supported by the celebrated Hencmar of Rheims, he issued a manifesto assert- ing the supremacy of the state over the church, and declaring that yVee men would not allow themselves to be enslaved by the bishop of Rome. The pope soon found means to annoy the French monarch ; Charles had shut up his two younger sons in a monastery ; Lothaire, who was lame and sickly, re- conciled himself to his lot, but Carloman resisted his father's determination, and found the pope an assistant in his rebel- lion. Carloman was eventually defeated, and obliged to seek an asylum in the court of Louis the Germanic. 2L Meantime Louis II. died without male issue, and their mutual advantage persuaded the French q^p-* court and the holy see to lay aside their jealousies. Adrian wrote a friendly and even flattering letter to Charles ; his successor, John VIII. went farther, and crowned him as emperor at Pavia. About the same time died- Louis the Ger- manic, dividing his kingdom as usual among his three chil- dren. Charles made an ineffectual attempt to deprive them of their possessions, but was defeated with loss and disgrace. It appears a strange instance of imprudence that he should thus aim at foreign conquests, while he was unable to pre- serve his own dominions from the ravages of the Normans, who devastated the country in every direction. 22. The Saracens still continued to lay waste the shores of Italy, and the pope, terrified at their progress, q~-' summoned the emperor to his assistance, threatening that he would deprive him of the empire in case of a refusal. Charles complied with the mandate, but he had scarcely ar- rived in Italy, when the news reached him that his nephew Carloman was on his march to deprive him of the imperial crown. He hasted to return to France, but on the road he 4* 42 HISTORY OF FRANCE. was deserted by his lords, and being seized with disease, died miserably in a wretched hut by the way-side. 23. This reign is remarkable as being that in which the feudal system was finally established. The government of provinces and districts, which had been previously held during pleasure, or at most for life, was by a capitulary enacted in the last year of this reign, made hereditary ; and thus the power of the nobles was firmly established on the ruins of the royal authority. 24. About this time also, the Gauls and Franks began to be amalgamated into one nation, and the lan- guage of the country, which had been previously a mixture of Latin and German, began to settle down into two dialects, deriving their name from the word in each that signified yes. The southern was called langue d^oc, and was the parent of the Proven9al or language of the Troubadours, the northerns used the langue d''oui, from which the modern French has been derived. THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 43 Chaiies tlie Balil. CHAPTER V. THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE CONTINUED. In vain recorded in historic page They court the notice of a future age : Those twinkling tiny lustres of the land Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand ; Lethean gulfs receive them as they fall, And dark oblivion soon absorbs them all. CoWPER. 1. Charles the Bald was succeeded by his son Louis, sur- named Le Begue, or the Stammerer, during whose brief reign of two years, no event of importance occurred. He left behind two sons, Louis and Carloman, and some months after his death, a posthumous son, Charles, was born, who was afterwards surnamed the Simple. III. and Carloman shared between them the dominions of their father, and lived together in harmony. But Bozon, the father-in-law of Carloman, dismembered the French monarchy by the erection of a new kingdom. A council, held at Mante, in Dauphiny, declared that they had been divinely inspired to give the kingdom of Aries, or, as it is more usually called, A. D. 879. Louis 44 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Provence, to the Duke of Bozon. 2. The pope sanctioned the proceeding, and personally crowned the new monarch, Bozon proved a wise and politic sovereign ; he preserved his little kingdom safe from all the calamities by which the rest of the country was devastated, and during several centu- ries Provence continued the centre of all the elegance and re- finement of France. 3. The sons of Charles the Bald did not long pos- ojj . ■ sess the throne ; both died prematurely, and the right of inheritance devolved to Charles the Simple, then in his fifth year. The nobles of France saw that in the present condition of that country, an infant sovereign would precipi- tate the ruin of the state, and they therefore gave the crown to Charles, surnamed le Gros, or the Fat, the only surviving son of Louis the Germanic. As he had previously succeeded to the inheritance of his two brothers, and had obtained the' imperial crown from the pope, the greater part of the domi- nions of Charlemagne were again united under one head ; but that head, destitute of genius and courage, was unequal to the management of such extensive territories. 4. Charles was proud and cowardly; he was also rendered contemptible by his gluttony, and infamous by his disregard of treaties. Soon after his accession, he purchased a peace from the Normans, by yielding up to them the province of Friezland, and stipu- lating to pay them tribute ; but he again provoked their hos- tility by repeated acts of treachery, and they fell upon France with greater fury than ever. 5. Advancing through the coun- try, they burned Pontoise, and at length laid siege to Qg^' Paris. This siege is celebrated both in history and romance for the valiant resistance of the besieged. Eudes, Count of Paris, had put the town into a good state of defence, and augmented the garrison by the addition of several brave nobles, among whom two bishops, Goslin and Ansheric, were conspicuous. 6. For more than a year they held out, anxiously expecting the approach of their sovereign to raise the siege. At length he appeared at the head of a numerous army, but though almost sure of victory, he had not the spirit to hazard an engagement, but purchased the re- treat of the Normans by the payment of an enormous ransom. 7. All the nations of the French empire were seized with a spirit of revolt, principally arising from their disgust at this disgraceful transaction. The Germans first took up arms, THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 45 and elected Arnolph, a natural son of the king of Bavaria, as their sovereign. Italy submitted to the dukes of Friuli and Spoleto, and France chose as its sovereign, Eudes, the heroic defender of Paris. The unhappy Charles fell into a state of confirmed insanity ; deserted by his servants, and expelled from his palace, he would have wanted the common neces- saries of life but for the compassion of Luitbart, bishop of Mentz, and under the protection of that generous „' " prelate he terminated his miserable existence. 8. Eudes had been elected king of France, but his domin- ions were limited to the provinces that lie between the Meuse and the Loire; even in this diminished territorythere were several principalities, whose submission to the sovereign was only nominal, of whom the counts of Flanders and Anjou were the most powerful. After a short time, the people of France became dissatisfied with the vigorous administration of Eudes, and the count of Vermandois united with the archbishop of Rheims to restore the throne to the qqo* rightful heir, Charles the Simple. 9. After some fight- ing, it was ' agreed to divide the kingdom between the two monarchs ; Eudes retaining Paris and its neighbourhood, 46 HISTORY OF FRANCE. while the court of Charles was established on the 911. banks of the Moselle. At length Eudes died, and Charles became the sole monarch of France. 10. After an absolute blank of some years, we meet with an account of the appearance of RoUo, the most celebrated of the Norman chieftains. He every where defeated the French forces, seized on Rouen, which he converted into a place of arms, and struck the king with so much terror, that he resolved to purchase peace on any conditions. He sent a bishop as an ambassador to Rollo, offering to give him his daughter in marriage, and cede the province of Neustria to him and his followers, provided that he should become a Christian, acknowledge the king of France as his feudal sove- reign, and aid in repelling any future invasions of his coun- trymen. Rollo, to whom religion was a matter of perfect indifference, assented to all the conditions, stipulating only that Bretagne should be ceded to him until the other province was cultivated. This was granted, the marriage soon after- wards took place, and Rollo paid homage to the crown more like a conqueror than a vassal. 11. The weakness and incapacity of Charles became „■ * every day more apparent ; he allowed himself to be entirely governed by Haganon, a man of low birth, hated by the nobility, and despised by the people. Robert, brother of king Eudes, appeared in arms against him •, and Charles, instead of levying an army, assembled a council, where he procured the excommunication of his opponents. 12. After a slight struggle, Robert was killed in battle, and his son, Hugh the Great, or the Abbot, though he might have obtained the crown for himself, chose rather to bestow it on Raoul or Rodolph, duke of Burgundy. Rodolph gained over the nobles by lavish donations of the land which still belonged to the crown ; Charles was made a prisoner, and his qon* queen Elgiva fled to the court of her brother Athelstan, king of England, accompanied by her son, a boy about nine years old. Herbert, count de Vernandois, had obtained possession of the person of the unhappy Charles, under the pretence of undertaking his defence ; but he detained him a prisoner, in order to procure good terms from Rodolph by threatening him with the liberation of his rival. By this means he procured the county of Laon from the new sove reign, and Charles soon afterwards died, poisoned, as it is said by the count de Vernandois. THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 47 13. During his unhappy reign, France was for ever deprived of Germany and the empire. Despising the weakness of Charles the Simple, the German states unanimously elected Otho, duke of Saxony, to the imperial throne; but Otho de- clining it on account of his advanced age, proposed Conrad, duke of Franconia, and his choice was confirmed by the assembly of the states. This monarch died in 919, recom- mending to the nobility Henry, son of his benefactor Otho, as his successor. At a general'assembly of the states this recom- mendation was adopted ; and Henry, surnamed the Fowler, from his love of hawking, obtained possession of the empire. This prince and his immediate successors were celebrated for their valour and prudence ; they restored tranquillity to the middle of Europe, and thus the house of Saxony became the heirs both to the glory and power of Charlemagne. 14. Though Rodolph was nominally king of France, all the real power of the state was lodged in the hands of Hugh the Great, who had raised him to the throne. In addition to his hereditary property, he enjoyed the revenues of so many abbeys, that he is frequently called the Abbot. The posses- sions of the church were now so great that they had attracted the cupidity of the laity, and though the papal see frequently endeavoured to check such a glaring abuse, it con- tinued to prevail during this and the following age. q^p.' Rodolph did not long enjoy the crown ; he survived the unhappy Charles about six years, leaving no children. Rollo, the conqueror of Normandy, died about three years before, leaving his son William, surnamed longue epee, or Long-sword, the heir both of his principality and his virtues The laws were at this time regulated pretty much by the king's will. The ancient Franks had an annual meeting, at which all th^ wars for the coming year were regulated, and the tribute due to the king was usually brought to him. These meetings were originally held in March, which wa=i the beginning of the old French year, and were called les Champs de Mars ; afterwards the time of meeting was in the month of May, and these meetings were then called les Champs d(i Mai. Besides these annual assemblies, there were, in the time of Charlemagne, frequent meetings held by the bishops and nobles, for discussing the business of the state : there were also lesser provincial parliaments for the regulation of the affairs of each province. 48 HISTORY OF FRANCE. As regards the nature of the laws in force at this period, it is extremely doubtful whether the Franks had any written system, code, or maxims of jurisprudence. It is generally believed, indeed, that they were governed by mere customs and traditions brought with them from Germany, and having reference chiefly to the unsettled life they had been accus- tomed to lead among their native wilds. This, however, is certain, that, in operation, the laws or customs were merely prohibitive, penal, and retributive ; and that almost every kind of offence might be compounded for with money. " The right concealed under this custom of composition," it has been said, "is that of every man to do himself justice, and to avenge himself by force. It is the war between the offender and the offended . . . the latter preserving, in the most barbarous times, the right of election between compo- sition and war, — of rejecting the wehrgeld, and having re- course to vengeance." Men's lives were valued at a fixed rate, according to their rank and station. The Frank, his wife, his free tenant, and his serf, were not estimated at the same sum, but their personal security was made matter of tariff. Though the wehrgeld of the king was highest of any, the life of the serf was likewise protected — from all but his master — by the pecuniary value set upon it. A leg, an arm, an eye, a finger, had each its separate worth, according to the wehr of its owner. From his lord the unhappy serf had no protection. He was a chattel upon the freeman's domain, and was constantly bought and sold as such, in the same way as a horse, or an ox, — his value being somewhat more than that of the latter and less than the former. He had no power to change his situation or condition, to move from one place of residence to another, or to marry, except with permission of his owner : — and if he did marry, the abominable law of mercheta taught him how abject was his slavery, and how barbarous the power and appetite of his conqueror. THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 49 CHAPTER VI. THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE CONCLUDED. O mortal, mortal state! and what art thou? Even in thy glory comes the changing shade, And makes thee like a vision fade avi^ay ! And then misfortune takes the moisten'd sponge And clean effaces all the picture out. .^SCHTLUS. 1. On the death of Rodolph, the supreme power remained in the hands of Hugh, who, in addition to ^'^„' the county of Paris, his paternal inheritance, possessed the duchies of France and Burgundy. Either disliking the title of king, or dreading the jealousy of the nobles, Hugh a second time refused the crown, and invited Louis, the son of Charles, to return from his place of refuge in England, 5 D 50 HISTORY OF FRANCE. and assume the reins of government. 2. Athelstan dreading some treachery, endeavoured to dissuade his nephew from compliance ; but the young prince was eager to return to his country, and the character of Plugh removed all grounds of apprehension. Louis, surnanied cP Outremer^ or the Stranger, was received on his landing with the greatest respect ; Hugh conducted him to Rheims, where he was crowned by the title of Louis IV. 3. Louis was superior to his predecessors in ability and courage, but he was destitute of honour and in- tegrity, deficiencies which made all his other qualities ineffec- tual. Hugh had indeed invited Louis to return, but had not the slightest intention of giving up the administration. The king made an attempt to obtain the reins of power, but Hugh then became his enemy, placed him under restraint, and did not restore his liberty until he had ceded the county of Laon, which was almost the only part of the royal domains that re- mained unappropriated. 4. Hugh had been excommunicated by several councils, and even by the pope : the clergy, and especially the bishops of Lorraine, consequently embraced the cause of Louis, and thus originated a war which continued for several years. The principal ally of Hugh in this conflict was William Longue epee, duke of Normandy, one of the bravest nobles of the time. 5. The count of Flanders adopted the royal cause, and having a private quarrel with the duke of Nor- mandy, procured him to be assassinated under circumstances of the greatest treachery. William left a young son named . Richard, whom Louis brought to court under pretence of un- dertaking the care of his education. 6. The count of Flan- ders instigated the king to murder the orphan, but by a strata- gem of Osmond, his governor, the young prince was rescued from their grasp, and placed under the protection of his ma- ternal uncle, the count de Senlis. Soon after these g\g" transactions Louis was made a prisoner by the count de Senlis, and could not obtain his freedom until he had restored several places in Normandy, which he had un- justly seized on. Richard was at length established in his dukedom ; he was a good and a pious prince, equally con- spicuous for his personal graces and moral qualifications. The Norman historians called him Richard Sans Peur, or the Fearless, and relate many anecdotes of his piety, charity, and intrepidity. 7. Louis d'Outremer died in the thirty-third year of his THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 51 age, by a fall from his horse, leaving behind him two sons, Lothaire and Charles. Lothaire was only four- ' ' teen years old when he began to reign, but the go- vernment was so well administered by his mother and her brother, St. Bruno, that for three years France enjoyed a pro- found tranquillity. Hugh the Great died two years after Louis, and his son Hugh Capet inherited both his wealth and his ambition. 8. Lorraine, an ancient fief of the French crown, had been seized on by the German emperor, and Otho, to secure the possession, bestowed it as a fief on Charles the brother of Lothaire. This arrangement equally displeased the French king and the people ; Lothaire was indignant at the loss of the province, and the nation considered their honour degraded by one of their princes becoming tributary to a foreign power. 9. Lothaire, without waiting to publish a declaration of war, invaded the dominions of Otho, and nearly made the young emperor a prisoner at Aix-la-Chapelle ; so completely was he surprised, that he was obliged to rise from the table where he was sitting at dinner and trust to the fleetness of his horse for escape. Lothaire stripped the palace at Aix-la-Chapelle of every thing valuable, and returned to Paris laden with booty. 10. Otho in turn invaded France, and advanced to the very gates of Paris, but Hugh Capet had so well secured the town, that Otho was compelled to vent his rage in empty menaces. 11. On his return, Otho had to cross the river Aisne, but as his army arrived on the banks late in the day, the emperor and a part of the army only could pass over ; during the night the water rose so considerably that the second division were unable to ford the stream. In this situation they were attacked by Lothaire, and Otho had the mortification of witnessing the defeat of his army, with- out being able to afford them any assistance. At length he sent over the count of Ardennes in a small skiff, to challenge Lothaire to single combat : the French nobles would not per- mit this challenge to be accepted, declaring that they did not wish to lose their own king, and that under no circumstances would they recognise Otho as a sovereign. ^ 12. Peace was eventually concluded between the rival monarchs, and soon after Lothaire died. His son ngn, and successor, Louis V. survived him but a few months, and Charles, duke of Lorraine, was now the sole survivor of the race of Charlemagne. But the character of Charles was odious to the French people, his acceptance of Lorraine as a 52 HISTORY OF FRANCE. fief of the empire was looked on as an act of treason against his country; the nation therefore rejected him, and chose as their monarch Hugh Capet, count of Paris, whose family, lilie the ancient mayors of the palace, had long been the real sove- reigns of France. 13. Before entering on the history of a new dynasty, it will be useful to take a view of the state of society during the period whose history we have just completed ; because there were many institutions originated in those dark ages, which long exercised a powerful influence over the whole of Europe. Those which more particularly demand our atten- tion are the usurpations of the church, the establishment of the feudal system, and the institution of chivalry. The in- crease of power acquired by the clergy during the reigns of Charlemagne's successors, was for the most part owing to their being the sole depositaries of learning. Ignorance had risen to such a height in the West, that few persons except the monks could either read or write. Hence they brought under their cognizance some of tlie most important relations of life, and became the registrars and judges in all matters connected with contracts, marriages, and wills. This pro- duced a mixture of civil and ecclesiastical law, which created the most fatal confusion among all ranks, while it opened to the clergy new sources of wealth and power. 14. In mar- riage especially their interference was productive of many serious evils. Under the first Christian emperors marriage had always been considered as a civil contract, and as such subjected to the control of the general legislature ; but the clergy averred that marriage was a sacrament, and, therefore, could only be regulated by ecclesiastical authority. They formed new obstacles of consanguinity and affinity, which they carried to such a length that people scarcely knew where to find a lawful wife ; for there was none within the seventh degree. As the popes assumed a special right of determining on this important subject, and of granting dispensations, they obtained a power of interfering in the domestic concerns of princes, which they frequently perverted to the worst of purposes. 15. Religion was overwhelmed with a multitude of cere- monies ; pilgrimages, the procuring of relics, offerings, and legacies to the church, were represented as of more value and importance than piety and virtue ; nay, were even considered as an expiation of the most atrocious crimes. The censures THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 53 of the church, which in a purer age had been used to check transgressions, were now made the instruments of party ven- geance. Tiie priesthood, originally designed to bless, was more employed in cursing ; excommunications were inflicted according to the dictates of policy or revenge, and hurled against nobles or princes whom the prelates were anxious either to plunder or enslave. 10. The manners of the clergy themselves were a scandal to religion. Scarcely were they acquainted with common decency. Debauchery and vice spread their sway over the entire ecclesiastical body, and not unfrequently found their way to the papal throne. The possessions of the church were openly exposed to sale, and ecclesiastical dignities were either the purchase of bribery, or the reward of violence. The sovereigns were unable to restrain these excesses, for the clergy asserted their independence of every civil tribunal ; in many instances they appealed to the pope to remedy these evils, and thus aflbrded precedents for papal interference, which they afterwards had reason to lament. 17. But the great source of the power which the popes soon after obtained, and the great support of their subsequent influence, arose from the creation of several new monastic orders. The monastic reformation of Clugny took its rise about the beginning of the tenth century, and its progress was amazingly rapid. The monks of this order, distinguished for their piely and austerity, seemed, in an age of general de- pravity, like angels sent from heaven to save the human race. They soon triumphed over all the ancient orders, as well as the secular clergy ; but the wealth that had corrupted their predecessors, proved equally fatal to their virtues. The court of Rome lavished upon them unheard-of privileges ; exempt- ing them from every jurisdiction except their own, and bind- ing them to her interest by every imaginable tie. In return, they exalted every where the power of the popes ; besides, being accustomed from their youth to obey the commands of a superior with the same implicit submission as the mandates of Heaven, they were easily led to suppose that the head of the church was invested with unbounded authority. Thus, in the subsequent age, did religion serve more than ever as a pretext for the greatest excesses : it entered into all affairs of importance, and was the primary spring of all events. It is, therefore, necessary to be acquainted with the errors and abuses by which it was corrupted ; for at that time theology 5* 54 HISTORY OF FRANCE. mingled with all political transactions, and seemed to have absorbed the mental powers of mankind, who certainly were never so little acquainted either with politics or religion. 18. The establishment of the feudal system made the nobles independent sovereigns in their respective districts the greater part were tyrants in their own domains, and rob- bers in those of others. Hence arose innumerable private wars which kept the country in continual anarchy, and the very remedies applied to cure the evil, were sources - ■ ■ of fresh calamity. 19. The bishops, to check these enormities, published what they called " The Truce of God,^'' enacting, ttiat from Wednesday evening until Mon- day morning, no act of violence should be committed, under pain of fine and excommunication. But this was found too severe a law, and the truce was .subsequently shortened to the IntCTval between sunset on Saturday and sunrise on Monday; so that during all the rest of the week, murder and robbery might seem to be authorized. 20. The institution of chivalry served in some degree to alleviate these horrors. Romaniic notions of honour, and an extravagant devotion to the fair sex, however absurd in modern times, were a check to many extravagances in an age of violence. And when justice in courts of law was impos- sible to be obtained, the existence of a body of men sworn to redress wrongs, and defend innocence, could not have been wholly destitute of utility. It must be confessed, however, that chivalry tended to keep alive the love of war, and a thirst for military adventure, which, in a subsequent age, caused those calamitous wars, ihe crusades; but it also introduced a spirit of generosity which often softened the horrors of war by noble instances of magnanimity and humanity. The tournaments were so exactly suited to the temper of the French, that their fondness for them became almost a madness. Even the ladies used to be present at them, and entered with the greatest vivacity into the success of the several combatants. They would encourage their favourite knights by decking them with ribands and scarfs from their own dress, and during a long and anxious combat, the poor ladies would appear at last almost stripped of their finery, which was seen tied to the armour of the combatants. In time the cost of these tournaments was carried to an inordinate excess ; and there are many instances in which a French noble has been contented to end his days in distress, and to THE CARLOVINGIAN RACE. 55 consign his children to poverty and obscurity, for the sake of giving a splendid tournament. Their dress and the equip- ment of themselves and their horses were in itself an enor- mous expense. Ship of the Tenth Century. 56 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Hugh Capet. CHAPTER VII. FROM THE ACCESSION OF HUGH CAPET TO THE FIRST CRUSADE. Ill hap attend That worst of traitors, a perfidious friend! Loyal in guise, his serpent-coil he winds Round the frank singleness of noble minds. Wat. 1. The abilities of Hugh Capet did not rise above gQ«' the standard of mediocrity, but he possessed a great share of strong sound sense, and that practical know- ledge which is commonly called worldly wisdom. Perceiving the vast influence of the clergy, he gained them over to his side by renouncing the rich abbeys which his father had pos- sessed, and through their means spread a report, that St. Riquier, whose shrine he had visited barefoot, had made him a promise of the crown. In an assembly held at IVoyons he was formally elected king, and was immediately after conse- crated at Rheims. HUGH CAPET. 57 2. Charles of Lorraine did not endure his exclusion pa- tiently ; but as he was unable to cope with his adversary in the field, he had recourse to treachery and fraud. Arnolph, the illegitimate son of his brother Lothaire, was a priest at Laon ; through his means, Charles being admitted into the town, took possession of the palace of his ancestors, and was proclaimed king by the old retainers of his family. Ancelin, bishop of Laon, took a prominent part in these transactions, and thus acquired the confidence of Charles, whom he had previously determined to betray. 3. Capet, alarmed at the progress of his rival, endeavoured to detach Arnolph from his interest, and accordingly raised him to the archbishopric of Rheims. But Arnolph proved ungrateful to his benefactor ; he admitted Charles into Rheims, but to save appearances, required the prince of Lorraine to send him as a prisoner to Laon. 4. Hugh at length levied an army, and formed the siege of Laon, but his forces were defeated by an unexpected sally of the enemy, and he was compelled to retreat. Pros- perity was ruinous to Charles ; believing that the rais- ing of the siege of Laon left him in perfect security, ggn' he gave himself up to ease and enjoyment. This was the opportunity which Ancelin had long expected ; he in- vited Hugh to approach the town, opened the gates to him during the night, and made liim master of the persons both of Charles and his queen. They both died in confinement, leaving behind them two sons, who were born in prison, and two daughters, who, having remained in Germany, escaped the captivity of their parents. 5. The sons of Charles ap- pear to have been taken under the protection of the emperor of Germany, and to have resigned all claims to the throne of France. A descendant of one of the daughters was married to Philip Augustus, and through her the late royal family of France claim to be descended from Charlemagne. 6. The trial of Arnolph soon after this engaged the attention of the state. His partisans maintained that this cause ought to be carried before the pope, but the Bishop of Orleans strenuously maintained the contrary, and persuaded the council to adopt the same opinion. The king came in person to pass sen- tence, when Arnolph threw himself at his feet, promising obedience for the future. His life was spared, but he was deprived of his see, and the celebrated Gerbert appointed in his stead. 7. Gerbert had been originally the son of a pea- sant, afterwards he became a monk at Aurillac, and soon out- .58 HISTORY OF FRANCE. A.D. 996. stripped all his brethren in literature and science. The envy of the other monks compelled him to quit his convent, he passed into Spain, and there studied mathematics and natural philosophy among the Arabians. The fame that he acquired in these pursuits, made him suspected by the vulgar as a magician, but recommended him also to the emperor of Ger- many and the king of France, as a fit tutor for their children. 8. The fortune and merit of the new archbishop made him an object of envy to the Frencli prelates ; they appealed to the court of Rome against Arnolph's deprivation, because the consent of the pope had not been previously obtained. The pope sent a legate into France, and Hugh, who dreaded a quarrel with his holiness, was compelled to deprive Gerbert and restore Arnolph. 9. But the fortune of both was only changed in appearance ; Arnolph was detained in prison, but Gerbert obtained the archbishopric of Ravenna from his former pupil, Otho III, emperor of Germany, and eventually became pope under the title of Silvester II. 10. Hugh died in the tenth year of his reign, and was suc- ceeded by his son, Robert I., surnamed the Pious, whom the old French historians describe as a saint, and the moderns as an idiot ; to a weak intellect, he imited a scrupulous and ignorant de- votion, whicli exposed him to the artifices of an ambi- tious and enterprising clergy. 11. He married Bertha, daughter of Conrad, duke of Burgundy, who was equally distinguished by her good temper and beautiful person. Unfortunately, she was fourth cousin to the king, a degree prohibited by the canons of the Romish church ; and though several French bishops had assented to the marriage. Pope Gregory V. undertook to annul it. 12. Accordingly, without even hearing the parties, he issued a decree, ordering the king and queen to separate under pain of excommunication, and suspending all the bishops who had been accomplices in their Robert the Pious. HUGH CAPET. 59 pretended crime. Robert, passionately attached to his wife, made no haste to comply, but reckoned himself as excommu- nicated. 13. Such was the superstition of the period, that he was immediately forsaken by all his courtiers ; only two do- mestics continued their services, and even they cleansed with tire the plates used at table by the king, believing that they were polluted by his sacrilegious touch. 14. Robert, worn out by importunity, and dreading a revolt, at length consented to a divorce, and Bertha retired to a con- vent. The king's next marriage was with Constance, daugh- ter of the count of Aries ; a woman of insatiable ambition, proud, cruel, fond of expense, and totally devoted to pleasure. Robert found his court insupportable, he gave himself up en- tirely to the monks, and spent his time in the practice of superstitious austerities ; while the queen, with her train of troubadours and young Provengal nobles, filled the palace with noisy festivity. 15. About this time, the news of the cruelties practised on the Christians of Palestine , ' ' by the Saracens excited the indignation of all Europe. Pope Silvester II. preached up a crusade, but ineflectually, and the wrath of Christendom was vented on the Jews. These unfortunate people, whose persecution in the middle ages was almost considered a virtue, were suspected of acting as spies for the Saracens, and on this vague suspicion numbers were ruthlessly massacred. 16. Henry, duke of Burgundy, brother to Hugh Capet, dying without issue, Otho William, his wife's son by a former husband, took possession of his dominions. Robert, conceiv- ing that his own claim to the duchy was superior, proceeded to assert it by force of arms. As he was not a warrior him- self, he summoned to his aid the duke of Normandy; and having by his means assembled a considerable army, he laid siege to Auxerre. Near the town was an abbey sacred to Saint Germain, which it was necessary to storm previous to the assault of the garrison. When the royal troops were about to advance to the attack, a priest met the king, and warned him not to violate the sanctuary of the saint ; while he was yet speaking, a mist rose from a neighbouring river ; superstition magnified this common event into a miraculous appearance ; the soldiers exclaimed that the saint had come to defend his temple, and took to flight with their king at their head. After this strange termination of the first cam- paign, the war lingered a few months longer ; it eventually 60 HISTORY OF FRANCE. terminated by William's resigriing the dukedom to the king, but retaining all the power and real advantages of sovereignty under the humbler title of count of Burgundy. 17. Robert's eldest son died young; the second was an idiot, and Henry was therefore chosen by Robert as his suc- cessor. This arrangement was opposed by Constance, who endeavoured to secure the crown for her younger son Robert ; the strict friendship that existed between the brothers, and the unexpected firmness of Robert, defeated her intrigues : she, however, succeeded so far as to fill the royal , ■ ■ family with quarrels and disunion. The inglorious reign of Robert terminated in the sixtieth year of his age ; on his return from a pilgrimage he was seized with a violent fever at Melun, which soon ended his life. 18. Henry I. was about twenty years of age when he succeeded to the throne ; Constance and Robert op- posed his accession, but by the aid of the duke of Nor- mandy he triumphed over all opposition. Constance retired to a convent, where she soon after died ; as the king be- lieved that his brother's hos- tility had arisen more from the persuasion of his mother than his own inclinations, he not only restored him to his confidence, but gave him the province of Burgundy. 19. The most remarkable circum- stance in the reign of this prince is, that he took for his second wife Anne, daughter of Jarodislas, czar of Muscovy. The obstacles to marriage were so greatly multiplied, and the example of his father so terrifying, that he thought it expe- dient to send for a wife into a country then almost unknown, rather than encounter the dangers of an excommunication. 20. The evils that had arisen from the disorders of the clergy and the feuds of the nobles, appear to have reached their height. Hildebrand, who was afterwards pope under the name of Gregory VII., laboured strenuously and successfully to sub- Henry 1. HUGH CAPET. 61 ject all Europe to the despotism of the church ; he virtually ruled the holy see long before his election to the papal throne, and directed all his efforts to subject monarchs and emperors to the papacy. The private wars of the nobles were more like those of princes than subjects, and during the reign of Henry, several pitched battles were fought, attended with un- usual slaughter. 21. Henry at his death left three sons, of whom Philip, the eldest, was onlj/' seven years old. Pur- ^^r.^ suant to the will of the late king, the regency was en- trusted to Baldwin, earl of Flanders, who took better care of the monarchy than of the monarch. Philip was permitted to grow up uneducated, the slave of uncontrolled passions and unregulated desires. 22. In his fourteenth year he was freed from all restraint by the death of his guardian, and soon after was involved in a war with Robert, count of Friezland. Philip was compelled to make peace with the count, and as one of the conditions, was obliged to marry Robert's step- mother. The king was by no means pleased with the match, and after some years divorced her on the plea of con- sanguinity. 23. He then enticed from her husband, i/^qq Bertrade, the wife of Fulk, count of Anjou, and openly married her in spite of every remonstrance. Pope Urban II., after many ineffectual threats, excommunicated Philip; the monarch took no notice of the proceeding, but continued to live with Bertrade, deriving new hopes from the death of his former wife, and from the consent of Fulk, who bore the loss of his faithless spouse with great patience. 24. The conquests of the Saracens in the east, and especially the capture of Jerusalem, had alarmed the ifiq/ emperor of Constantinople for his safety ; in an evil hour he wrote to the pope, soliciting him to stir up the west- ern princes to form a league against the Saracens. The con- sequence of the papal exertions was the Crusades, or Holy Wars,* but before we enter on the history of that eventful * Not one king enrolled himself in the ranks of ihe first crusade ; but a multitude of powerful nobles and knights were engaged, together with priests and inferior leaders, sufficiently numerous of themselves to have formed an army; and the mass of the common people was greater than, in all probability, had ever before been mustered for the accomplishment of any one object. The condi- 62 HISTORY OF FRANCE. period, it is necessary to give some account of the province of Normandy, from which England had about this time re- ceived a new race of sovereigns. tion of the general body of the array, however, was far from being such as would have satisfied a skilful general. The various corps had no connection with each other. The majority were undis- ciplined, unaccustomed to the use of arms and to long marches, and resembled a miscellaneous rabble rather than a host of war- riors. Among the whole of those who first set forth, there were but eight horsemen; a circumstance which led to the observation of an historian that "it was no wonder that a bird, with such short wings, and so long a tail, should not be able to take a distant flight." Then, so ignorant and superstitious were they, that, in- stead of making due provision for their march, they relied literally and implicitly upon the assurance of the pope, that "no accidents or dangers could attend them on their march ; for that Jesus, in whose service they had volunteered would protect and preserve them, if they would but devoutly trust in him." HISTORY OF NORMANDY. 63 The Ship in which William the Conqueror sailed to England. CHAPTER VIII. THE HISTORY OF NORMANDY. 0"er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free, Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, Survey our empire and behold our home. BxEON. 1. The nations who successively invaded southern Europe from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, were originally de- scended from the same stock ; but when, by conquest, they had obtained a settlement in any country, they gradually adopted the arts of the vanquished, and laid aside their habits of plunder for the more useful pursuits of agriculture. The next horde of invaders refused to acknowledge these degene- rate warriors as their countrymen, and inflicted on them the same calamities which they had caused the original inhabi- tants to suffer. The Saxons in Britain, the Goths and Franks 64 HISTORY OF NORMANDY. in Gaul, found in the Danes or Normans the avengers of the cruelties which they had previously practised on the Celtic population. The severe persecution of the Saxons by Char- lemagne induced many of their bravest warriors to fly into Scandinavia; their representation of the cruelties practised on the worshippers of Odin, stimulated their brethren of the north to prepare for revenge, and we have already seen that even in the reign of Charlemagne, the northern shores of France were devastated by Scandinavian pirates. 2. The invasion of Rollo, in the reign of Charles „■ * the Simple, was the last of their plundering expedi- tions ; by an agreement with that monarch, who was anxious to save his country from devastation, and to secure for himself an active body of partisans, the province of Neus- tria, and the hand of the king's daughter, were given to Rollo, who thenceforward took the title of Robert I., duke of Nor- mandy. The remains of the Celtic Gauls, who had been cruelly oppressed by the Franks, gladly submitted to the equitable administration of Rollo, and the number of his sub- jects was continually increased by parties of the aboriginal natives, who sought, under a new master, relief from the op- pression of their former conquerors. 3. But the Normans were not so successful in obtaining the affections of the inha- bitants of Brittany, whom Charles, unable to subdue himself, had transferred to his new allies. This province, situated at the north-western extremity of Gaul, was known to the Romans by the name of Armorica •, it was inhabited by the bravest Celtic tribes, and had successfully resisted most of the invaders who had seized on the rest of Gaul. 4. When the Saxons had established their dominion in Britain, many of the ancient inhabitants removed to Armorica, with the consent of the ancient inhabitants, who acknowledged them as brethren of the same origin ; the new settlers distributed themselves over the whole northern coast, as far as the territory of the Veneti, now called Vannes. The name of Brittany was thenceforth given to this province. The increase of the population of this western corner of the country, and the great number of people of the Celtic race and language thus assem- bled within a narrow space, preserved them from the irruption of the Roman tongue, which, under a form more or less cor- rupt, had gradually become prevalent in every other part of Gaul. 5. Remembering the evils that had forced them to become exiles, the Bretons had a vehement dislike of all HISTORY OF NORMANDY. 65 foreign rule, and under every change of fortune, were eager to seize an opportunity for asserting their independence. 6. Under the command of their Tierns, or Counts, as the Normans called them, Alan and Berenger, they made a des- perate resistance to Robert, and were with difficulty subdued. The conqueror appears to have exercised his victory with moderation, and to have been contented with receiving homage from the leaders as their feudal suzerain. 7. The conduct of the Norman duke, and his successors in their dominions, is honourably contrasted with that of their contemporaries. Robert gave his subjects a charter, provided for the due administration of justice; and encouraged strangers to settle in his dominions. The historians describe the tranquillity and security of Normandy during his reign, by assuring us that ornaments of gold and silver were ex- posed unguarded on the highways without any danger of their being carried off by robbers. 8. Robert re- „' ' signed the crown to his son William, called Longue- epee, or Long-sword, and spent the remaining three years of his life in retirement. 9. An insurrection of the Bretons, and a more formidable rebellion of the Normans, broke out during the first years of William's reign ; but by united valour and prudence he sup- pressed both, and treading in the steps of his father, applied himself diligently to the improvement of his dominions. The Danes maintained a friendly intercourse with the con- querors of Normandy ; and when Harold, king of Denmark, was dethroned by his rebellious son Sweyn, he sought refuge in the Norman court, and owed his restoration to the friend- ship and valour of William. 10. To succour unfor- tunate princes, seems to have been the fated employ- „' " ment of the Norman duke. When Hugh, count of Paris, endeavoured to deprive Louis d'Outremer of the throne, William exerted his utmost efforts in behalf of the rightful sovereign of France, and was the principal means of securing him on the throne. With similar generosity, he embraced the cause of Herbin, count of Montreuil, whom his treacher- ous neighbour Arnold, count of Flanders, had expelled from his dominions. William defeated the usurper in a decisive engagement, and rejected every reward which the restored nobleman offered to him. 11. But this expedition was the cause of his death. Arnold, enraged at his defeat, resolved 6* E 66 HISTORY OF NORMANDY. A, D. 942, to employ treachery, since open force had failed ; he solicited an interview with William in one of the is- lands of the Somme, and having craftily separated the duke from his attendants, caused him to be assassinated. 12. Richard I. was but a child at the time of his father's death, but the administration of affairs was undertaken by four Norman nobles, of whom Bernard, count of Harcourt, commonly called Bernard the Dane, was the chief Louis, who owed his crown to William, ungratefully conspired with Hugh, count of Paris, to strip his son of his dominions. With this design he entered Normandy, at the head of a nu- merous army, pretending that his intention was merely to avenge the murder of the late duke : but after he had been received as a friend at Rouen, he seized on the person of the young duke, and sent him off to Paris under the pretence of having him properly educated. 13. At the instigation of the countof Flanders, Louis designed the assassination of Richard, but he was rescued from the danger by the fidelity of his tutor Osmond. This faithful attendant went to the castle of Laon, where his young master was confined, and under pretence of going to feed his horse, conveyed him out of the castle en- veloped in a truss of hay. They directed their course to the residence of the Count de Senlis, Richard's maternal uncle, and reached their place of refuge in safety. 14. Meantime the gratitude of a prince whom William had benefited, was about to be displayed by the restoration of his son to his do- minions. Bernard, count of Harcourt, had successfully ex- erted himself to sow disunion between the French king and the count of Paris ; he had also sent a secret message to Harold, king of Denmark, informing him of the state of affairs, and entreated him to aid in the deliverance of Nor- mandy from the dominion of the French. Harold came at the first summons ; the Normans, headed by Bernard, has- tened to join him, and Louis, unable to compete with their united forces in the field, solicited an interview to settle the terms of peace. While the two kings were discussing the articles, a Norman, recognising the count of Montreuil in the hostile army, bitterly reproached him with his ingratitude, and, when he made a haughty reply,aDane that was present struck him dead. This became the signal for a general en- gagement, which commenced before the two kings had heard of the transaction. The French were totally defeated, and Louis made prisoner ; his captors treated him with great re- HISTORY OF NORBIANDY. 67 spect, but he was obliged to restore Normandy to the young duke, and pay a heavy ransom before he could obtain his liberty. 15. Richard was surnamed Sans Peur, or the Fear- less; he inherited* all the noble qualities of his race, and though surrounded by powerful enemies, preserved his domi- nions secure and tranquil. His marriage with the daughter of Hugh the Great alarmed the fears of Louis ; he entered into an alliance with Olho, emperor of Germany, Conrad, king of Burgundy, and Arnold, count of Flanders, to over- whelm both Hugh and Richard. But the efforts of the allies' were every where unfortunate : unable to make any impres- sion on Paris, they directed their march towards Normandy, where Richard cut off some of their best soldiers in an am- buscade, and repulsed them from before the walls of Rouen with loss and disgrace. 16. On the death of Hugh the Great, Richard was ap- pointed guardian to his children, and by his fidelity in the execution of that office, again provoked the hostility of the French monarch. After a long struggle, in which the Nor- mans were every where successful, Richard triumphed over the treachery and the forces of his opponents, and compelled them to beg a peace. Some years after, Hugh Capet, aided by his former guardian, obtained the throne of qq^.' France, and thus changed that from a hostile into a friendly country. The rest of Richard's reign was spent in profound peace, and at his death Normandy was one of the most flourishing countries in Europe. 17. Richard H., sur- named the good and intrepid, succeeded. The early part of his reign was disturbed by an insurrection of the peasantry, and by the rebellion of his natural brother, the count de Hiemes. Richard having quelled his adversaries, shut up his brother in a prison, where he remained five years. Having at length made his escape, he suddenly pre- , jj„„' sented himself before Richard, while he was hunting, in a squalid dress, and earnestly solicited forgiveness. The duke generously granted him his pardon, and restored all his former possessions. 18. The throne of England was at this time possessed by Ethelred, who with difficulty maintained himself against the Danes ; to secure a powerful ally, he mar- ried Emma, sister to the duke of Normandy; but no aid that he could obtain was sufficient to repel the invasion of Sweyn, the Danish monarch ; and Ethelred, compelled to abandon his kingdom, lived for some time in exile at the court of his 68 HISTORY OF NORMANDY. brother-in-law. 19. The king of France, having united with some of the princes who bordered on Normandy, Richard found himself unable to resist the coalition alone, and soli- cited the aid of the Danes. A numerous army was sent to his assistance, but he found that his allies were more injurious to his cause than even his enemies. The king of France having agreed on terms of peace, the Danes, enraged at losing the prospect of plunder, turned their arms against Brittany, where they committed the most frightful outrages. Richard was obliged to purchase their departure with a large sum of money, and from this time forward, the intercourse between Denmark and iSTormandy appears to have declined. 20. So great was the duke's character for honour, thatGeoifry, count of Brittany, with M'hom he had been often at war, nominated the Norman regent of that province, during his absence on a pilgrimage. Geoffry was accidentally killed, but Richard acted as a faithful guardian to his children, and when they came of age, gave them immediate possession of their father's territories. 21, On the death of Ethelred, Canute became sole monarch of England, and queen Emma, with her two children, were compelled to take refuge in the court of her brother. Richard prepared to invade England, but his 1028 ^^^^ being shattered in a storm, he made peace with Canute, and gave him Emma as his wife. 22. The sons of Ethelred seemed by this specification to have lost all chance of inheriting the British crown ; but several years after, Canute's sons having died without heirs, Edward, sur- named the Confessor^ returned from exile, and obtained the throne of his ancestors. Richard, after a long and successful reign, died, leaving behind him two sons, Richard and Robert. 23. Richard III. did not long survive his father; after a short reign of eighteen months, he died at Rouen, poisoned, as is believed, by his brother. 24. Robert II., surnamed the liberal and magnificent^ suc- ceeded his brother; the early part of his reign was disturbed by insurrections, but he so completely subdued them, that he thought he might with safety venture on a pilgrimage '„ * to Palestine. The climate of Asia completely de- stroyed his health, and he was obliged to complete his journey in a litter. Another Norman pilgrim returned from the holy city, met Robert, supported by four Saracens ; he asked the duke what account he should give of him on his return .? " Tell my friends," said Robert, " that you saw me HISTORY OF NORMANDY. 69 borne into Paradise by four devils." He died on his way back at Nice, in Bithynia, leaving no legitimate heir. 25. Before Robert had set out for Palestine, he had nomi- nated his natural son William to be his successor, and the states of Normandy had confirmed his choice ; but w^hen the news of his death reached Europe, several of the ducal family endeavoured to have William set aside. The states, however, obstinately adhered to their former decision, and William triumphed over all his competitors. 26. These wars evidently proved the source of the duke's future prosperity, as they supplied him with an army inured to combats, and inspirited by repeated success, with which he was enabled to take advantage of the opportunities presented him by fortune. Edward the Confessor, on his return to England, became dis- gusted with his Saxon subjects, and gave himself up to Nor- man favorites. The family of Godwin, Earl of Kent, were particularly odious to him, and to prevent their becoming his successors, (which, as he had no heirs, appeared very proba- ble,) he bequeathed his crown to William, duke of Normandy. On the death of Edward, Harold assumed the crown of England, but William passing over at the head of i/^/^« a gallant array, defeated the English at the decisive battle of Hastings, slew Harold, and subjected the whole William the Conqueror receiving the Crown of Eagland. 70 HISTORY OF NORMANDY. country to the Norman sway. From henceforward the his- tory of Normandy is so intimately connected with that of France and England, that it is no longer necessary to treat of it separately. 27. A little before the conquest of England, some Norman adventurers founded a new kingdom in Italy, under circum- stances so extraordinary as to demand some notice. A. D. ini fi Forty Norman gentlemen, returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, saved the city of Salerno, which was on the point of being seized by the Saracens, and refused to re- ceive any of the rewards offered to them by the gratitude of the inhabitants. The fame of this exploit spreading through Italy, induced several of the Italian princes to take into their pay troops of Norman adventurers, who were ever ready to sell their services. The duke of Naples, to whom they had been of great use in his contest with the prince of Capua, bestowed upon them a considerable territory, situated between the two cities, where they founded the city of Aversa. This establishment attracted new adventurers. Three sons of Tan- cred of Hauteville, a gentleman of Normandy, one of whom was called Willia7n Fier-a-bras, or Bras-de-Fer (Iron in4fi ^'"f") l^i^^ '■^1^ foundation of a new principality for ' their family. After having wrested La Puglia from the Catapan, the title of a magistrate acting under the authority of the court of Constantinople, they shared the conquest with the other officers. Bras-de-fer was elected count of La Puglia by his soldiers ; he was succeeded by his brothers, Drogon and Humphrey, who being afterwards joined by their younger brother, Robert Guiscard, soon became formidable to the Italians. Leo IX. dreading that these adventurers would not respect the property of the church more than that of the laity, formed an alliance against the strangers, whom he had previously excommunicated. The Normans, who scarcely exceeded three thousand men, sent him a most respectful message, promising to do him homage for their fiefs ; but the pope having refused the offer, they cut his army in pieces, took himself prisoner; but instead of doing him any injury, they prostrated themselves before him, and having received absolution, restored him to liberty. 28. What they offered to Leo IX. was accepted by ,^',Q Nicholas II. Robert Guiscard having received from him the investiture of all the conquests which he had gained in La Puglia and Calabria, and all that he might after- HISTORY OF NORMANDY. 71 wards make in those provinces or in Sicily, took the oath of feudal fidelity to the pope. With equal vigour and success they attacked the forces of the Greek empire in the south of Italy, and the Saracens in Sicily ; victory followed victory in rapid succession, until they had obtained actual possession of those countries of which the pope had only given them the empty titles. Thus powerful vassals were attached to the holy see, valuable rights of lordship were acquired, and new means of aggrandizement were procured. 72 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Philip I. CHAPTER IX. FROM THE FIRST CRUSADE TO THE ACCESSION OF PHILIP AUGUSTUS. But when on high the sacred standard rose, Through all their veins a brisker current flows, New hopes, new strength, inspire the pious throng, " 'Tis Heaven's high will," they shout, and rush along. Miss Pordeit. A. D. 1. We must now return to the history of France, .^q^' Although Urban II. had excommunicated the king, he * did not hesitate to take refuge in France when exposed to danger by the quarrels between the emperor and the holy see. He called a council at Clermont, and in a long speech recommended to the assembly's notice the state of Palestine, exhorting all to take up arms and rescue its sacred soil from the infidels. 2. The preaching of Peter the Hermit, an en- thusiastic monk of Picardy, who had lately returned from a 74 HISTORY OF FRANCE. THE FIRST CRUSADE. 75 pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and who gave a most pathetic de- scription of the calamities to which the pilgrims were exposed, had prepared their minds ; no sooner then did they hear the papal recommendation, than all with one acclaim shouted Deus id vulu *■' God wills it." 3. At the same council, Ur- ban once more excommunicated Philip, forbade princes to give investitures* and ordered that bishops and priests should not for the future do homage to their sovereigns. He next travelled from province to province, commanding the people everywhere to join the crusades; deposing those bishops who had in any way resisted his power, and lavishing privi- leges on the monks, who had been found by experience to be the most strenuous supporters of the holy see. 4. The crusading frenzy which seized on France produced the most dreadful- calamities ; a disorderly rabble, headed by Peter the Hermit, and a Norman gentleman called Walter the Pennyless, first set out; their numbers exceeded 300,000. They displayed their furious zeal on the way, by the mas- sacre of Jews, laid waste for subsistence the countries through which they passed, and excited against themselves the ven- geance of the indignant population. On his arrival at Con- stantinople, Peter the Hermit was graciously received by tlie emperor of the east, Alexis Comnenus, who hastened to for- ward the march of the rabble who accompanied him, into Asia Minor. Nearly all of them perished miserably of hun- ger, fatigue, and suffering, before they reached the Holy Land. In the regular army that followed under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon, were some of the principal nobles of France ; among these the "most conspicuous were, Hugh de Vermandois, brother to the king ; Robert of Normandy, sou of William the Conqueror ; Robert, earl of Flanders ; Ste- phen, count of Blois, father of king Stephen ; and Ray- mond, count of Toulouse. After many vicissitudes, the cru- saders captured Jerusalem, July 15th, A. D. 1099, and founded a Christian kingdom in Palestine. 5. After this exploit, most of the French who survived returned home ; but being re- proached by their countrymen as deserters of the sacred cause, they again set out for Palestine under the command of William, duke of Aquitaine. This chieftain, more distin- * The right of the king to give, the investiture or possession of the see to a bishop was always resisted by the popes ; they thought that if they permitted any interference of the state in ecclesiastical matters, their own supremacy would be gradually undermined. 76 HISTORY OF FRANCE. guished for his literary talents than political wisdom, was soon involved in a dispute with the emperor of Constanti- nople. 6. The treacherous Greek, in revenge for some insults he had received, betrayed the Crusaders to the Saracens ; they were led by false guides into defiles that exposed them to be attacked at a disadvantage ; in this situation they were assailed by an army of the Saracens, who routed them with great slaughter, a few only of the nobles saving themselves by flight. 7. While the bravest of his subjects were thus uselessly wasting their strength in Palestine, Philip continued sunk in the lowest debauchery ; he obtained absolution from the pope, and went barefooted to a council at Paris with Bertrade, to swear that they would live no longer together. The pope's legate gave them absolution ; but the condition of reiudiating Bertrade does not appear to have been insisted on, for the king continued to live with her, and had her children de- clared capable of inheriting the crown. 8. Philip died in the fiftieth year of his inglorious 1 iVlR r^ig"- 'The royal dominions did not at this time ex- ■ tend over more than one hundred square miles; but the monarchy had reached its lowest state of debasement, and from henceforward began to increase in power and terri- tory during every succeeding century. 9. The accession of Louis VI. was hailed by the French with delight; he had been associated with his father in the sovereignty several years before,and had given striking proofs both of his valour and justice, by subduing and punishing the lords of Mont- I'heri, Montford, and other barons who had become cap- tains of banditti, and sallied out from the towers which they had erected along the roads, plundering travellers, and devastating the country. 10. The popularity he had . thus obtained, exposed him to great danger, for Bertrade, jealous of his fame, and anxious to secure the crown for her own son Philip, gave him a poisonous draught. Though THE FIRST CRUSADE. 77 Louis was saved by a skilful physician, he ever after felt the injurious effects of it, and his complexion even till his death continued pale and sallow. 11. The education of the young prince had been shamefully neglected, but his own taste led him to cultivate the manly exercises of chivalry, and at the same time he acquired those high principles of honour and integrity, by which knighthood was distinguished in tlie earlier ages. His great corpulence, which procured him the surname Ze Gros^ or the Fat, did not render him inactive, and the situation of France at the time of his accession, was such as to require the most vigorous exertions. 12. The nobles still continued to act the part of oppres- sors, and Louis scarcely subdued one ere he was compelled to march against another ; however he persevered, and though his half-brother Philip joined with some of the factious nobles, he finally prevailed in restoring something like social order to the distracted country. 13. A few years ii'tq after Louis was engaged with a more powerful foe. Henry L of England had seized on the duchy of Normandy, shut up his brother Robert, the rightful duke, in prison, and compelled Robert's son, William, to seek for safety in the court of France. Louis undertook to restore William to his dominions the more readily, because Henry had lately erected the strong castle of Gesors on the frontiers of Normandy, and had thus become formidable to the French monarchy. A battle was fought at Brenneville, in which the English were victorious, but there was not much blood shed, as both parties were anxious to take their enemies alive for . ," .' the sake of their ransom. This was the first battle fought between two nations whose subsequent hostility has shed so much blood. 14. Henry J. of England, was a more clever politician than his gallant rival, and he contrived to involve Louis in a quar- rel with Henry V. of Germany. Pope Calixtus V. had been driven out of Italy by the emperor, and compelled to take refuge in France. The pope assembled a council at Rheims, and thundered out an excommunication against the emperor, who on his part resolved to destroy the town where so gross an insult had been offered to him. 15. The king of France unfurled the oriflainme* the several vassals of the crown * The oriflamme, or sacred banner of France, was reported to have descended from heaven, in honour either of Olovis or Charle- magne. It was, according to Mailly, a square banner of flame- 7* 78 HISTORY OF FRANCE. flocked to the sacred standard, and he soon found himself at the head of 200,000 men. The emperor did not venture to come to an engagement, but quickly repassed the Rhine with all his forces. Louis wished to take advantage of these cir- cumstances and invade Normandy, but his nobles refused to join in the expedition, dreading that the precedent of punish- ing a disobedient vassal might at some future period be turned against themselves. 1 6. The death of his eldest son in the prime of , ,'„.■ life, by a fall from his horse, was the source of bitter affliction to Louis ; he never afterwards took the same interest in public affairs ; and when he had procured the co- ronation of his second son Louis, he seemed to devote AD- • . ,'o,~' himself entirely to the affairs of another world. 17. On his death-bed he addressed his son in words that cannot too often be repeated to a sovereign : " Remember, ray son, that a kingdom is a public trust, for the exercise of which you must render a strict account after your death." 18. This reign is distinguished by several useful establish- ments, especially by that of communes^ which were some- thing like our corporations. To check the extravagant power of the nobility, whose excesses the royal power was unable to restrain, the king sold permission to several of the cities and towns to form associations for mutual protection, coloured taffeta, without figures or embroidery, but with three deep indentures at the bottom ; and suspended from a gilded lance. Hence was derived its compound name ; or, alluding to the gilded staff, and flamme. signifying both the colour of the silk and the shape of the banner. It was always raised when the king intended to summon the aid of all his vassals. When displayed in the battle- field, it was a signal that no quarter would be given. The folly of the age attributed many fabled virtues to this banner, and it was believed that its presence would ensure victory. The falsehood of this, however, was fatally proved at Crecy. Nothing can more de- cidedly mark the respect in which the oriflamme was held, than the oath administered to its bearer: — "You swear and promise, on the precious body of Christ Jesusj here present, and on the bodies of Monseigneur St. Denis and his companions, here also, that you will loyally, in your own person, guard and govern the oriflamme of our lord the king, also present, to the honour and profit of himself and his kingdom, and that you will not abandon it for the fear of death or any other cause, but that you will in all things do your duty, as becomes a good and loyal knight, towards your sovereign and liege lord." THE FIRST CRUSADE. 79 and to choose their own magistrates. This example was im- itated by several of the nobility, anxious to raise money to furnish themselves for the crusades ; and thus a system of municipal government was gradually established in France, which greatly tended to promote commerce and civilization. 19. After the example of Charlemagne, Louis sent justices itinerant through the country, who formed a court of appeal against unjust sentences in the baronial courts. This institu- tion was equally beneficial to the king and the people ; it diminished the authority which the nobles derived from their territorial jurisdiction, and corrected many evils which had arisen from local oppression. These wise establishments were the work of four brothers named Garland, and of the abbe Segur, who were the principal ministers of Louis le Gros. 20. During this reign the monasteries were greatly multi- plied ; and the authority of the monks everywhere increased. The most conspicuous of the ecclesiastics who interfered in public affairs, was St. Bernard, abbe of Clairvaux, a man greatly celebrated for his piety and eloquence ; by the force of his talents he acquired a great personal influence over the pontiffs, kings, and nations, but not possessing real political wisdom, he did not exercise his power to any beneficial pur- pose. 21. Arnold de Brescia, another monk, preached against the influence exercised by ecclesiastics in state affairs, and maintained that the clergy violated their duty by interfering in politics. These doctrines roused the in- dignation of the ambitious clergy, and the tenets of Arnold were everywhere proscribed •, still the number of his followers increased, until the pope, dreading the pro- gress of such opinions, had him condemned and burned as a heretic. 22, Louis VIJ., surnamed the youngs had been associated in the kingdom with his father, some years before the death of that monarch. His ardent temper soon after his accession involved him in a quarrel with the church. The chapter of Bruges elected an arch- Loujg vii. 80 HISTORY OF FRANCE. bishop displeasing to the king, Louis annulled the election, and commanded them to proceed to a new one. Pope Inno- cent II., although he owed the tiara in a great measure to the influence of the French monarch, warmly espoused the cause of the chapter, consecrated the new archbishop himself, and when Louis refused to admit him, placed the kingdom under an interdict. Thibaut, Count of Champagne. 23. Thibaut, count of Champagne, devoted to the cause of the monks more through ambition than zeal for religion, took up arms against his sovereign ; while St. Bernard filled the country with faction, by incessantly declaiming against the king's impious interference with religion. 24. Louis 1 {a^ assembled his forces, and invading Champagne, took ■ the town of Vitri by storm : a merciless slaughter was made of the inhabitants; thirteen hundred had fled into a church, hoping that the sanctity of the place would prove tlieir protection ; but by command of the king, the edifice was set on fire, and they all perished miserably in the flames. 25. Remorse for this crime ever after preyed on the mind of Louis, and to make atonement, he resolved, at the instigation THE SECON'D CRUSADE. 81 of St. Bernard, to join in the second crusade. 26. On this occasion, all the enthusiasm of the former expedition was re- newed. At an assembly held at Vezelai, the king and Ber- nard, mounted on a scaffold, addressed the multitude, and impressed on tliem the duty of waging war against the idola- ters^ as they ignorantly called the Mohammedans. So great was the enthusiasm produced in the assembly, that the crosses which had been prepared were not sufficieijt, and Bernard tore his robe in shreds to supply the crowd of volunteers. The command of the expedition was offered to the saint, but he had the good sense to refuse ; he trusted to his talents as a preacher rather than as a warrior, and having succeeded in France, he proceeded to Germany, where he kindled a similar flame. 27. Two monarchs, Conrad III., emperor of Germany, and Louis of France, were the leaders of the , ^.1 second crusade. Few expeditions have been more calamitous. The treachery of the Greeks, who dreaded the crusaders even more than the Saracens, the ignorance of the leaders, the disunion of their followers, and the total absence of discipline, combined to ruin the two armies. After a series of calamitous defeats, the monarchs were obliged to visit Je- rusalem as pilgrims instead of conquerors ; and returned to Europe without honour, and almost without followers. 28. Eleonora, the queen of Louis, had accompanied him on this expedition ; she was the heiress of Poitou and Aquitaine, and by her marriage these rich provinces had been united to France ; but while Louis was advancing through Palestine, Eleonora remained at Antioch, indulging in the most criminal excesses, and Louis resolved at all hazards to obtain a divorce. During the absence of the king the administration of affairs had been trusted to the abbe Segur, under whose judicious management the nation enjoyed peace and tranquillity. He had opposed the project of the crusade, but was borne down by the superior influence of Bernard, and he made an equally ineffectual resistance to the meditated divorce. 29. Louis repudiated Eleonora on the old pretext of consanguinity ; six weeks after she married Henry 11. of England, and thus united the provinces of Aquitaine and Poitou to the English crown. This created mutual jealousy between the rival monarchs, and produced a desultory warfare, which, with little interruption, lasted nearly twenty years. 30. During one of the brief in- tervals of peace, the two monarchs went to visit pope Alex- ander in., whom the disturbances of Italy had compelled to F 82 HISTORY OF FRANCE. take refuge in France, and showed their submission to the pontiff by taking each a rein of his horse's bridle, and con- ducting him in this state to the lodgings that had been pre- pared for his reception. 31. Through hatred of Henry, Louis strenuously supported the celebrated Thomas-a-Becket, in his resistance to his sove- reign, and aided Henry's unnatural sons in their frequent rebellions agaii^t their indulgent father. Queen Eleanor was? the principal cause of these troubles in the family of Henry; as she had brought him so rich a dowry, she expected that the monarch would have evinced his gratitude by devoted affection; and when she found herself neglected, she urged her sons to raise the flames of civil war in those provinces that had been committed to their government. Young Henry in Normandy, Geoffry in Brittany, and Richard in Aquitaine, threw off allegiance to their king and father nearly at the same lime. The war was principally remarkable for the mutual treachery of the rebels and their adherents ; the brothers seemed to hate each other as much as they did their father, and one of them, Geoffry, declared that " mutual hatred was the family inheritance of the Plantagenets." 32. Louis dur- ing the war exhibited several gross instances of vile treachery, especially at the siege of Rouen, where, having granted the inhabitants a truce, he attempted to storm the town while they were off their guard ; but a priest on the walls having observed the bustle in the enemy's camp, rung the alarm-bell, the garrison at once hurried to the walls, and Louis was re- pulsed with disgrace. 33. After the conclusion of a truce with the English, Louis resolved to crown his eldest son Philip ; but on the day ap- pointed for the ceremony, the young prince lost his way while hunting in the forest; and when discovered, had suffered so much from cold and fatigue that he fell into a dangerous sick ness that threatened his life. The fond father undertook a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas-a-Becket, on whose pa- tronage he conceived that he had had a strong claim. The journey was fatal to the old king; the rapidity with which he travelled, and the anxiety of his mind, brought on an attack of the palsy, from which he never recovered. The corona- tion of Philip was celebrated with extraordinary splendour, but illness prevented his father from witnessing the ceremony ; he lingered, however, some months longer, and when he fell LOUIS vii. 83 the near approach of death, he ordered all his private property to be distributed among the poor. 34. In this reign the poetry of the Troubadours had at- tained the summit of its popularity. These poets were for the most part natives of Provence, and their songs were writ- ten in the dialect of that country. Love and gallantry were the principal subjects of their poetic effusions ; but though many of them display considerable refinement, a great num- ber are sullied by grossness and indelicacy. 35. About this time also we find the first traces of the French drama, in the theatrical representations introduced by the monks. The subjects were principally some of the historic events recorded in Scripture, or the legend of some favourite saint. They were called mysteries, and long continued to form an import- ant part of every religious festival. 36. Coats of arms and surnames became hereditary about the time of the second crusade ; they were introduced to designate the rank and lineage of the several leaders engaged in the wars for the recovery of Palestine. Louis the Young was the first king who assumed the fleur-de-lis, as the royal cognizance ; it is disputed by antiquarians whether this en- sign be really the flower of the lily, or rather the head of the ancient French javelin. The majority of heraldic writers seem inclined to adopt the latter opinion. We give here two anecdotes to illustrate the manners of the court and the monastery at this period of French history. At a royal marriage at the court of Navarre, the princes and princesses were entertained by a spectacle which would now be thought too disgusting to please even a m6b at a fair. This was a combat between two blind men and a pig. The men were armed with clubs, and the pig was to be the prize of whichever could knock it on the head. The pig, having the use of its eyes, could generally avoid the blows which were aimed at it, and the blind men, instead of striking the pig, generally hit one another ; and in this it seems, the chief diversion of the sport consisted, to the by-standers at least. When Pope Alexander was in France, he went to pay his devotions in the church of St. Genevieve, at Paris. A splendid carpet was prepared for him to kneel on. When the pope had finished his devotions and left the church, his attendants and the monks of St. Genevieve quarrelled for the possession of this carpet : they fell to blows, and the uproar became so great that the king came in person to quell 84 HISTORY OF FRANCE. it. But his presence was no restraint on the combatants, who continued their battle with such indiscriminate rage, that even the king himself got his share of the blows, and was obliged to retreat. PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 85 Ptiilip II., surnamed Augustus. A. D. CHAPTER X. THE REIGN OF PHILIP AUGUSTUS. Still if you glory in the lion's force, Come, nobly emulate that lion's course! From guarded herds he vindicates his prey, Nor lurks in fraudful thickets from the day. LOVIBOND 1. The reign of Philip Augustus forms an import- ant era in the history of France ; previous to his ac- i'*,'c.^° cession, the monarchs had only a nominal supremacy over a confederation of princes, who w^ere in reality inde- pendent sovereigns ; but in the course of this reign, the power of these vassals was broken, and the absolute authority of the king established. As he was only fifteen at the time of his father's death, the regency was entrusted to the count of Flanders, but Philip, impatient of control, soon took the reins of government into his own hands. 2. The first act of the new monarch was one of questionable policy and absolute injustice ; he confiscated the property of all the Jews in France, and banished them from his dominions, under the 80 ' HISTORY OF FRANCE. pretence that they had been guilty of usury and extortion ; but subsequently finding the want of rich capitalists, he per- mitted them to return. 3. The vigour of the young monarch was soon experienced by the clergy and nobility. When the clergy at Rheims were asked for a subsidy, they requested the king to be contented with their supplications for his success; soon after, they applied to Philip for protection against some nobles that ravaged their territories, and Philip replied that he would supplicate these nobles to abstain from injuring the church. The entreaties of Philip were encouragement to the assailants ; a fresh complaint was made by the clergy, and Philip, in reply, said, " Of what do you complain, my friends ? have not I protected you with my prayers, as you assisted me with yours ?" The clergy then promised that they would, for the future, exhibit more substantial proofs of loyalty, and Philip, in his turn, afforded them more efficient protection. The count of Flanders, who had usurped some of the royal domains, was forced by the vigorous measures of Philip to restore them ; and Henry II., who had often cajoled Louis VII., found the new sovereign a formidable rival in policy. 4. The causes of disunion between the French and English sovereigns were numerous and complicated ; the more so, because they were mixed up with the quarrels between Henry and his sons. The possessions of Aquitaine and Brittany, which Henry had obtained by his wife Eleonora, made his share of France nearly equal to the dominions of Philip, and the union of so many provinces under a single sovereign, made him too formidable a vassal. The daughter of Louis had been betrothed to Richard, count of Poitiers, the son of Henry; and the young princess was sent to the court of the British king until she attained a marriageable age. The mar- riage was delayed in consequence of the wars between Henry and his children ; but slander assigned other reasons, and it was asserted that a criminal intercourse had taken place be- tween Henry and his intended daughter-in-law. Several con- ferences on these topics took place between Philip and Henry, under an elm near Gisors, which grew exactly at the confines of France and Normandy ; but the superior wisdom of Henry so frequently baffled the French monarch, that he ordered the elm to be cut down, declaring that no future conferences should be held under its shade. 5. At length the interference of the pope restored peace for a time : when the news of the capture of Jerusalem, by PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 87 Saladiii, reached Europe, the Roman pontiff sent legates into every part of Christendom, entreating princes to lay aside their mutual jealousies, and unite for the recovery of the holy sepulchre. Amongst others, appeared William, archbishop of Tyre, driven from his see by the victories of the Saracens — one of the most celebrated men of the age for learning and eloquence. By his persuasion, the tvi^o kings agreed to ad- journ their differences, and to unite in a new expedition against Palestine. 6. But this apparent reconciliation lasted only for a short time ; count Richard engaged in war with the count of Toulouse; the French king, to avenge the cause of his vassals, attacked the English territories, and Henry, much against his will, found himself involved in a new war. Richard, who had been the original cause of the war, made a private offer to the king of France of doing him homage, and swearing fealty, provided that he were put in possession of all his father's continental dominions, and Philip readily agreed to the conditions. 7. Against such a coalition, Henry found himself unable to maintain a contest, and solicited the intervention of the pope. A legate was sent, who threatened to place the kingdom of France under an interdict, but Philip was not to be daunted by this threat. 8. He replied, " Sir legate, pass the sentence if it please thee, for I fear it not. The Roman church has no right to harm the kingdom of France, either by interdict or otherwise, when the king thinks proper to arm against his rebellious vassals, to revenge his own injuries and the honour of his crown. Besides, I see by thy discourse, that thou hast smelled the king of Eng- land's eslerlins?'' 9. To annoy Henry the more, Philip and Richard made a great parade of their friendship ; they lived in the same tent, ate at the same table, and slept in the same bed ; and yet we shall see their friendship after a few years terminating in the most rancorous hatred. At length Henry, worn out by successive calamities, died at Chinon, having pro- , /qq nounced a malediction on his children, which he could never be prevailed on to retract. Richard visited his father on his (leaih-bed, and afterwards returned to the French camp, where he jested about the impotent hostility the old king had shown during the interview. 10. Richard, now become king of England, prepared to join with Philip in the third crusade ; the two monarchs pub- licly renewed their former league of amity, and swore that OO HISTORY OF FRANCE. each should protect the dominions of the other as if they were his own. But this friendship was not of long duration ; during their delay in the harbour of Messina, which was the rendezvous of their fleets, frequent subjects of dispute arose. Richard was haughty and tyrannical, both in manner and'dis- position ; Philip was proud, jealous, and deceitful ; violence on the one side was opposed by artifice on the other, and the other crusaders had reason to dread that the expedition would be frustrated by a war between the ambitious rivals. 11. These dissensions were with difficulty quelled in Messina, but they broke out with fresh violence in Palestine, until at length, Philip, unable to brook the pre-eminence that Richard had obtained by his superior valour, feigned indisposition, and returned to Europe. In his way back, he applied to the pope to be absolved from his oath of fidelity and friendship, but the pontiif rejected his request with becoming indignation. 12. Notwithstanding Philip stimulated John to rebel against his absent brother, and attempt to seize on his dominions, the labours of both were frustrated by the Norman nobles, who admired the valour of their sovereign, and felt a personal interest in the honour that the prowess of Richard, whom they surnamed the Lion-hearted, had added to the Norman name. 13. The news of these events recalled Richard from Pales- tine ; but on his return, while passing through Ger- , I'qo niany in the disguise of a pilgrim, he was discovered ■ and imprisoned by the duke of Austria, whom he had grievously insulted in the Holy Land. After a long and tedious captivity, the English monarch was liberated, and re- turned to England eager to avenge the wrongs inflicted on him by his rebellious brother and treacherous rival. When Philip heard of Richard's liberation, he sent John a billet announcing the news in these emphatic words, "■ Take care of yourself; the devil is unchained." 14. From Richard's return until his death, an aljnost inces- sant war was continued between him and Philip; but their hostility was confined to petty skirmishes on the borders, and to aiding rebellious vassals who took up arms against the rival sovereigns. The king of France, dreading the military skill of Richard, only once ventured to encounter him in the field, and was then defeated with the loss of his baggage, among which were the archives of the kingdom. PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 89 15. The death of Richard liberated Philip from a A.D. powerful rival ; and a conjuncture of favourable cir- , .' ' cumstances in the inglorious reign of his successor, enabled him to seize on the hereditary dominions which the English kings had for so many years possessed on the Con- tinent. We have previously seen that the people of Brittany were strenuous assertors of their own independence, and very averse to foreign domination. In order to secure their affec- tions, Henry II. having appointed his second son count of Brittany, united him in marriage with Constance, a descendant of the native princes of that country. As soon as Constance had borne a son, the Bretons insisted on his being baptized by the name of Arthur, because there had been for a long period, prophecies circulated among all the Celtic tribes, fore- telling that a prince of that name should restore the ancient glories of the Breton race. 16. John was recognised as king, in England, Normandy, and Aquitaine; but the duchy of Brittany, the counties of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, with several others, acknowledged Arthur as their sovereign, and claimed the protection of the king of France. Philip having thus obtained an entrance, dismantled the towns and razed the fortresses of his new vassals ; but despairing of being able to retain these provinces against the will of the in- habitants, and in despite of the king of England, he made peace with John, and sacrificed to him Arthur and his fol- lowers. 17. But while Philip was thus despoiling young Arthur of his inheritance, he had him educated at court with his own sons, and kept him as an useful agent in the possible case of a new rupture with John. This rupture soon took place, in consequence of an insurrection of the Poi- tevins under the command of the count de la Marche, lorjo from whom the king of England had taken his be- trothed wife. Philip on this broke the peace, proclaimed Arthur count of the Bretons, Anjouans, and Poitevins, mar- ried him to the princess Mary, then only five years old, and sent him at the head of an army to conquer those towns of Poitou, which still held out for the king of England. 18. The issue of the war was calamitous to Arthur; he laid siege to Mirebeau, a small town near Poitiers, in which the dowager queen of England then resided. The town was taken, but Eleanor retired into the citadel, and sent pressing messengers to John to advance to her relief Eager to libe- rate his mother, the English king hurried across the country 8* 90 HISTORY OF FRANCE. ■ i« illilliillllliil^t^ Death of Prince Arthur. bv forced marches, attacked the besiegers, who were totally unprepared, and made Arthur, together with the principal leaders of the insurrection, prisoners. He carried them all into Normandy, where Arthur soon disappeared, murdered by his uncle, as the Bretons affirmed ; or accidentally killed in attempting to make his escape, as the Normans relate the story. 19. The death of Arthur stung the Bretons to madness ; in him they had placed the last hope of regaining their national independence, and the same ardent imagination which had led them to believe their future destiny connected with that of this child, inspired them with a sort of mad affection for Philip, because he was the enemy of young Arthur's murderer. They accused John before the French king, as his feudal siizerain^ of young Arthur's murder; and he in consequence summoned John as his vassal for Normandy, to appear and defend himself before the twelve peers of France. As no notice was taken of this summons, the lands which John held under the French crown were declared foffeit, and an army was levied to put the sentence into execution. 20. The conqupst of Normandy was effected almost with- out an eflx)rt on the part of Philip. The Bretons, forgetful that they were forging chains for themselves, and listening PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 91 only to the dictates of a blind revenge, poured their forces into the country, and committed such ravages .oni that the other parts of the province gladly submitted to the king of France, from whom alone they could expect protection. The English monarch made no attempt to rescue his dominions, but passed his time in hunting and other diver- sions, 21. When the people of Rouen, after having made a fierce resistance, and endured every extremity, sent- a deputa- tion to inform him that they must surrender unless relieved, the envoys found their king playing at chess ; he did not rise i'rom the board, nor give them an answer, until the game was finished. He then said to them drily — " I have no means of succouring you within the time appointed, so do the best you can." The town of course surrendered; those which still held out followed its example ; and the conquest of all the English dominions but Guienne was completed. 22. In less than a century after this conquest, the Normans had become so identified with the French, that in every war against Eng- land, their privateers did more injury to the British trade than any other portion of the French navy. 23. The reign of Philip Augustus is remarkable by being intimately connected with the pontificate of Innocent 111. This pope, who seemed to have inherited the haughtiness and ambition of Gregory VII., treated crowned heads as if they were merely his vassals. He commenced by excommunicat- ing Philip, and placing his kingdom under an interdict, on account of his having divorced his wife Ingeberge, and the king was forced to make a show of submission. 24. The vengeance of the pope was next directed against John, for refusing to allow Stephen Langton to take possession of the see of Canterbury ; not content with placing the kingdom under an interdict, he declared the throne vacant, and offered to bestow it on Philip. The French monarch, listening only to the dictates of ambition, and forgetting that this precedent might hereafter be directed against himself, prepared a fleet and levied an army to go and take possession.' John was too great a coward to encounter the storm ; he surrendered his crown to Pandolf, the papal legate, and consented to hold England for the future as a vassal of the holy see. In conse- quence he was formally reconciled to the church, and the French were forbidden to attempt any thing against one who was under the peculiar protection of the holy see. 92 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 25. Indignant at being thus deceived, Philip con- tinued his preparations : and though attacked by a crowd of enemies, extri- cated himself by his valour and prudence. The empe- ror Otho and the count of Flanders, united with the English, invaded France, and Philip, with far inferior forces, met ihem on the plains of Bouvines, near Tournay. The French ob- tained a complete victory ; Otho having encountered a French knight, was dis- mounted and rescued with difficulty ; alarmed at the danger, he seized another horse and fled ; while Philip Avith an exalting smile said to his nobles, " My friends, we shall see nothing to-day but his back." The flight of the emperor was the signal for the ruin of his army ; the Imperialists no longer resisted, and a terrible slaughter ensued. After having obtained so glorious a victory, Philip returned to Paris, and entered his capital in triumph. His two most bitter enemies, the count of Flanders and the count of Boulogne, were led in triumph and confined in the Louvre, then a castle in the vicinity of Paris, which served both for a palace and a prison. 26. John, after this defeat of his allies, was on the brink of ruin ; he had been compelled by his barons to sign Magna Charta, and swear to its observance, but the oath was violated almost as soon as it had been taken. On this the barons declared him deposed, and elected as their 1^^*,^* sovereign Louis, the eldest son of Philip, whose wife, Blanche of Castile, was the grand-daughter of Henry II.; and this prince was actually proclaimed in London. When Innocent heard of these transactions, he redoubled his ex- communications, but they were disregarded ; indignation threw him into a fever, and he died while meditating new King John of England. PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 93 PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 95 acts of violence. 27. The greater part of England had already submitted to Louis, when the death of John saved that country from a foreign yoke ; the English everywhere submitted to Henry !][., the son of John, and Louis had the good sense to resign a crown which he could scarcely have retained. 28. We have already seen how the death of prince Arthur enabled Philip to establish the royal authority in the northern provinces of France ; circumstances, equally extraordinary, destroyed all the national power of the inhabitants of the country between the Mediterranean, the Rhone, and the Ga- ronne. These men, for the most part vassals of the count of Toulouse, were, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, far superior to the rest of Gaul in wealth and civilization. They carried on an extensive and lucrative commerce with the East, where the signature of their count had then greater weight than the king of France's great seal. Their towns had a municipal constitution like the Italian republics, their mer- chants enjoyed many of the privileges of nobility, their litera- ture was the most refined in Europe, and their literary dialect, the Froven9al, was classical in Italy and Spain. But with all these advantages, they had one greater source of pre-eminence, which yet was the cause of their ruin. They had anticipated, and in some degree exceeded, the religious reforms of the six- teenth century ; they had virtually renounced the authority of the Romish see, which vainly exhausted the resources of its immense diplomatic organization to bring them into obe- dience. The emissaries of the pontiff brought to Alby, Nar- bonne, and Toulouse, bulls of excommunication against the enemies of the Romish faith ; but the clergy, and even the bishops, had shared in the alleged heresy, and the weapons of the church were disregarded. To stop this spreading con- tagion, it was necessary to destroy the freedom and social order from which it arose, and Innocent III. ^nno undertook the task. He preached a crusade against the inhabitants of the county of Toulouse and diocese of Alby, as his predecessors had done against the Saracens ; and published throughout Europe, that whoever would take up arras and war against them to the uttermost, should obtain remission of all his sins, and a part of the property of the heretics. 29. Unfortunately the period was favourable for this cru sade of Christians against Christians. The conquest of Nor 96 HISTORY OF FRANCE. mandy had dispossessed many of its gallant knights, and made them soldiers of fortune ; companies of warlike adven- turers roamed through Europe, offering their services to any sovereign that v^ould take them into pay, and there vi'ere few kings who dared to refuse sending soldiers to the aid of a pontiff, who was so ready to fulminate interdicts and excom- munications. Besides, the pilgrimage against the Albigenses (for so was this war called) promised greater profit, with less risk, than the crusade against the Saracens. A numerous army was levied, entitled Vost de notre Seigneur, (the host of our Lord,) and its general, Simon, count de Montford, did homage to the king of France for territories over which his sovereignty was not as yet extended. 30. Raymond VI., count of Toulouse, interested himself in favour of his unhappy subjects, the Albigenses, whom the pope wished to exterminate ; for this he was excommunicated as a favourer of heresy, and all his dominions confiscated. No submission, no degradation, not even submitting to be beaten with rods as a public penance, and taking up arms against his faithful subjects, could procure Raymond's pardon. He was obliged to seek refuge in the court of his brother-in- law, the king of Arragon, and leave his unfortunate subjects to their fate. 31. The war was carried on with more fero- cious cruelty than any ever recorded in history ; the fanatical fury of the soldiers was stimulated by the exhortations of the clergy ; at the storming of Beziers, when it was pro- loVo posed to spare the Catholics, a monk exclaimed, " Kill ■ all, God will recognize his own ;■*' and the atrocious precept was but too well obeyed. The war terminated by the complete devastation of the country, and the almost com- plete extermination of its inhabitants. Philip obtained the sovereignty over these valuable provinces, and the inquisition was established at Toulouse, to prevent the profession of any doctrines condemned by the pope. A singular crusade took place during the reign of Philip Augustus. His sister, Margaret of France, was married to Bela, king of Hungary. At his decease she took an oath to live only for Christ, and to close her life in the Holy Land. Accordingly she herself headed a crusade of her subjects, and led them to the holy war. 32. In the close of Philip's reign, the fifth crusade took place. This expedition sailed against Egypt. At first they were successful, and captured Damietta, but fortune soon A. PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 97 G PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 99 changed ; when they advanced into the country, the adven- turers were suddenly hemmed in by an inundation of the Nile, and were glad to purchase a safe retreat by the surrender of all their conquests. 33. Philip died in the 44th year of his reign, after having laid the permanent foundation of the royal au- ^nno ihority in France. His claim to the title of Augustus, uniformly given to him by the French historians, appears very questionable 5 his treachery to king Richard and prince Arthur, his persecution of the Jews, and his crusade against the Albigenses, are foul blots on his character, not to be com- pensated by his having paved the streets of Paris, erected an aqueduct, or having reduced all ihe provinces of Gaul mto the kingdom of France. He was the first European sovereign who maintained a standing army ; under pretence that he was in danger of being assassinated by his rival Richard, he insti- tuted a corps of body-guards, whom he called ribands, and on whom he conferred many privileges. During his reign, the university of Paris acquired great eminence, but no useful branches of learning were cultivated ; science still was con- fined to the Arabians, and religion was disgraced by a number of offensive ceremonies, all of them absurd, and many inde- cent. Philip Augustus is, however, a great favourite with the French, because he raised the dignity of the crown, and did more than any other king had done before for the embellishment and improvement of Paris. His first great improvement was to pave the streets, and the circumstance which led to his making this improvement is thus quaintly told by an old historian. " The king, one day walking about in his royal palace, went to the window to divert his thoughts b}^ watching the course of the river. Wagons drawn by horses were traversing the city, and by throwing up the mud, made such an intolerable stench that the king could not endure it. He at that moment conceived a diffi- cult but necessary project — a project which none of his pre- decessors had dared to execute, because of its extreme diffi- culty and expense ; and this was the paving of the streets," The two principal streets (and perhaps others) were, in con- sequence, paved with large flat stones. The accumulation of soil has since been so great, that the original pavement, which is still to be found, is seven or eight feet below the present surface. The next great work which this king undertook was to inclose the buildings, closes, gardens, and 100 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Other cultivated lands that bordered the two banks of the Seine, with a strong wall flanked with round towers. This was a great undertaking, and was between twenty and thirty years in completing ; but when finished, Paris, though still small, compared with the present city, was nearly four times its original size. The palace of the Louvre, which now stands in the heart of Paris, was built by Philip as a country residence on the outside of the new wall. It was a heavy, gloomy building, and according to the fashion of the times, it was intended both for a palace and a prison. Philip built, on the site of the old cathedral of Notre Dame, a new church, in that style of architecture which had been brought from the East by the crusaders. He a!sii inclosed the park at Vincennes, on the outskirts of Paris ; and our King Henry H. supplied him with deer to stock it. Amongst other things, Philip built a bazaar for the convenience of the merchants, who were thus enabled, as the old historians tell us, to expose their goods for sale without the hazard of their being stolen by " les gentilhommes." But the most im- portant benefit which Philip conferred on Paris was an aque- duct which he caused to be constructed for the purpose of supplying the city with water. Figures taken from monuments of the twelfth century. LOUIS IX. 101 Louis VIII. CHAPTER XI. LOUIS VIIL LOUIS IX. On their broad shields they bore liim from the plain, To sense a corpse, and nuniber'd with the slain. His fixed eyes in hovering shades were drown'd, His gallant limbs in death-like fetters bound. The shouts tumultuous, and the din of war. His ear received like murmurs heard afar; Or as some peasant hears, securely laid Beneath a vaulted cliff or woodland shade, When o'er his head unnumberYl insects sing In airy rounds; the children of the spring. Efigoniad. 1. Louis VIIL, descended from Charlemagne by the mother's side, was the first of the Capetian line who 1903 had not been crowned during the lifetime of his father. Previous to his accession, he had been engaged in endeavour- ing to drive the English from Guienne, and had so far suc- 9* 102 HISTORY OF FRANCE. ceeded, that only a few towns on the sea-coast remained in their possession. These must soon have yielded, had not Louis been summoned away by the pope to complete the sub- jugation of the Albigenses. He captured Avignon, situated in the independent territory of Provence, and even penetrated as far as Toulouse. On his return he died, poisoned, it is said, by Thibaut, count of Champagne, who was in I99fi ^°^^ with the queen. 2. Louis IX., afterwards called St. Louis, was but twelve years old at the time of his father's death, but the regency was ably managed by his mo- ther, Blanche of Castile. The proud nobles were averse to the government of a foreigner, and a woman;* but the queen, by a mixture of prudence and firm- ness, disconcerted all their ef- forts, and retained the reins of government until the young king had reached his twenty-first year. The persecution of the Albigen- ses still continued ; this unfortu- nate people having made some resistance to the crusaders, were assailed by fresh armies, and forced into submission. 3. When the young king came of age he showed liis gratitude to his mother by con- tinuing to her a share in the ad- ministration ; he then applied himself diligently to the refor- * A strange anecdote is recorded of the oppression of the clergy, and bold spirit of the queen regent. In the year 1223, the chapter of Notre Dame levied a heavy tax on the villages over which they had jurisdiction. The inhabitants of Chatenay were either unable or unwilling to pay the required sum; they were all arrested and crowded into a small prison by their reverend taskmasters. Queen Blar.che having learned that these unfortunate beings were deprived of air and food, solicited the chapter to set them at liberty. But the canons, so far from complying, were so enraged at the queen's in- terference, that they apprehended the wives and children of the prisoners, and thrust them into the same wretched place of confine- ment. Exhausted by hunger, thirst, and want of air, many of these unfortunate beings died miserably; when t]ie queen, exasperated at the conduct of the canons, went to the prison, accompanied by Blanche of Castile. 104 HISTORY OF FRANCE. LOUIS IX. 105 mation ol" the state, and especially the abuses intro- duced by the licentiousness of the clergy, and he so ,t^'.^' far succeeded as to correct some of the most glaring "^ "*' evils. 4. His tranquillity was first disturbed by the revolt of the count of Marche, who, being aided by Henry III., took up arras against Louis. The revolters and their allies were twice defeated, and the war terminated by the annexation of a considerable portion of the count's territory to the crown of France. 5. Soon after this Louis fell sick, and while his recovery was doubtful, made a vow that he would, on his restoration to health, attempt the liberation of Palestine. His mother and his wisest counsellors in vain endeavoured to change his resolution ; as soon as he became well, he assumed the cross, and the nobility, who were ardently attached to him, followed his example. 6. Three years were spent in preparations for this expedi- tion •, and the precautions taken by the king showed, that though seduced by the prejudices of the time to adopt this absurd scheme, yet he could display such prudence and wis- dom in the execution, as almost to atone for its defects. Th-? Sieur de Joinville, who accompanied the king, has left us an interesting record of this calamitous expedition, i^^q from which the following sketch is extracted. 7. After a long delay at Cyprus, Louis directed his course to Egypt, where he found an army of Saracens prepared to oppose his landing. No sooner had his vessel touched the ground, than Louis leaped into the water, followed by his bravest troops, waded to the shore under a heavy fire of arrows, and attacked the ene- my with so much impetuosity, that they were instantly broken, and forced to fly in disorder. So great was the panic produced by this de- feat, that Damietta, which was well prepared to make a long resistance, was surrendered almost without a blow. 8. Louis, compelled to re- Louis ix. main at Damietta during the inundation of the Nile, had the some servants wliom she commanded to break the door. The ser- vants refused, dreading the consequences of a quarrel with the 106 HISTORY OF FRANCE. grief to see his soldiers give themselves up to every species of licentiousness. At length the falling of the waters per- mitted the advance of the crusaders, and Louis prepared to lay siege to Cairo. During the march, the army were ex- posed to incessant attacks from the Saracens, which, though they were always repulsed, greatly harassed the invaders. A more serious impediment soon appeared ; they reached the banks of the Astmoun canal, and were utterly at a loss how to proceed. 9. After some delay, an Arab, induced by a large bribe, pointed out a ford, and the count of Artois, brother to the king, passing over, defeated a body of Mamelukes who had been posted there to defend the passage. Contrary to the advice of the Templars, and those who were acquainted with the Saracenic mode of warfare, the count pursued the fugi- tives into the town of Massoura, where his cavalry were soon entangled in the streets. Assailed by stones from the roofs of the houses, and attacked by the troops, who had rallied afresh, the whole detachment would have perished had not Louis come to their assistance. The Saracens were finally defeated, but the victors had suffered more loss from the battle than the vanquished. 10. New combats increased the glory, but weakened the strength of the crusaders ; while the Sara- cens, constantly on the watch, cut off all their supplies ; famine and disease attacked the camp at the same time, while their enemies were every day strengthened by the arrival of fresh troops. While preparing to retreat to Damietta, the camp of the crusaders was suddenly attacked, when the king lay exhausted in his tent by disease and disappointment ; even in this bitter moment he displayed all the valour and energy of his character; he mounted his steed, and endeavoured to marshal his line, but fell exhausted by weariness. 11. One of his knights dragged him with difficulty out of the melee, and gave him in charge to a woman that followed the camp ; the victory of the Saracens was complete, and Louis remained a prisoner. 12. His queen, who had accompanied him in the church. The queen determined to accomplish her design, com- menced breaking the door herself; when the first blow was struck, the charm was dissolved, and an entrance was soon forced by the attendants. A multitude of men, women, and children, pallid and tottering through weakness, immediately came forth, and dreading to be subjected to fresh punishment, implored protection of the queen, who succeeded in delivering them from their state of bond- age to the chapter. LOUIS IX. 107 expedition, was at Damietta when this unfortunate event oc- curred, unable to move, as she was near the time of her con- finement. An old knight was her only attendant, and from him she obtained a promise that he would put her to death sooner than see her fall into the hands of the Saracens. In the midst of this distress she was delivered of a son, whom, in allusion to her calamity, she named Tristan. 13. Louis entered into a treaty with the Sultan of Egypt, by which he agreed to restore Damietta for his own ransom, to pay one hundred thousand marks of silver for the redemption of the other captives, and to keep peace with the Saracens for ten years. From Egypt he proceeded to Palestine, where he col- lected the money that he had promised the sultan, and hon- ourably fulfilled all the conditions of the treaty. At length the news of his mother's death showed him the necessity of returning to his own dominions. Grief for the misfortunes of her son, and remorse for the unjust execution of two men whom she had deemed guilty of spreading a false account of the great calamity that had overwhelmed the French army, brought down the queen regent's gray hairs with sor- row to the grave. Louis, at his landing, was received ,.-,"^/ with the greatest joy by the people, but, at the same time, they remarked with sorrow, that he still continued to wear the cross, a sign that his crusading spirit was not yet extinct, and that he still meditated a new expedition. 14. The affairs of the government at home engaged all the king's attention after his return ; the tyranny and oppression of the nobles had risen to an extravagant height, and the courts of justice were notoriously influenced by the most corrupt motives. In his own conduct, Louis exhibited the most difficult part of justice to put in practice, the virtue of restitution •, he ordered that all the fiefs which had been un- justly annexed to the royal domains, should be restored to their legitimate owners. He gave up to the king of England several of the towns which his father had conquered in Guienne, receiving in return a renunciation of that monarch's claims over Normandy and Touraine. 15. Such was the im- pression produced by this generous conduct, that Louis was chosen arbitrator of the disputes between n.^^^ Henry HI. and his turbulent barons, headed by the earl of Leicester. An assembly of tlie states of France was summoned at Amiens, and there, in the presence of that as- sembly, as well as in that of the king of England, and Peter 108 HISTORY OF FRANCE. de Montfort, Leicester's son, he brought this great cause to a trial and examination. The decision of Louis was, tliat the royal authority should be restored, and tiie provisions of Magna-Charta observed ; but this equitable sentence displeased both parties, and it became manifest that the dispute could only be settled by a civil war. 16. During this reign the au- thority of the kings of France was extended over new portions of the southern provinces ; Charles of Anjou, brother to the king, before the crusade had been married to Beatrice, the heiress of Provence ; and thus the national independence of that interesting little country was annihilated. The Provencals made several ineffectual efforts to shake off the yoke, but these be- ing defeated, served only to rivet their fetters the tighter. Louis exchanged with the king of Arra- gon his right to Catalonia, for that monarch's claim to several towns in the south of France ; and ac- quired by purchase a great portion of the territories of the count of Champagne. 17. The prudence that dictated these measures seems to have forsaken the king on another occasion, where it is difficult to reconcile his conduct either with wisdom or justice. — The hatred which the popes had shown to Frederic IL extended to his posterity. On his death, Innocent IV. offered the crown of Naples to the king of England, for his second son prince Edmund ; but this invasion was defeated by the emperor Conrad, who appears to have inherited the abilities of his father. Soon after, the victor was poisoned by his natural brother Manfredi, who assumed the reins of go- vernment nominally as guardian to the young prince I9fifi Conradin. The pope however claimed the kingdom of Naples as a hef of the holy see, and offered it to Charles of Anjou. Louis was weak enough to permit his brother to accept the offer, and allowed a crusade to be preached throughout his dominions against Manfredi and Conradin. By this means Charles soon found himself at the Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily. LOUIS IX. 109 head of a powerful army, and passing into Italy, defeated and slew Manfredi, at the battle of Benevento. Conradin, who was only sixteen years old at the time, still continued the war, but at length the superior skill of Charles prevailed, the young prince was defeated and made a prisoner. 18. As Conradin had been excommunicated, his cruel cap- tor refused him the rights of a prisoner of war, and ordered him to be publicly executed. In this trying moment Con- radin exhibited a courage and spirit worthy of his illustrious race. When brought to the scaffold, he drew off his glove, and flinging it into the midst of the assembled multitude, en- treated the person into whose hands it might fall, to bear it to some of his relations as a symbol of inheriting his rights, and an obligation to avenge his judicial murder. The glove was picked up by a knight, and carried to Peter, king of Arragon, who subsequently exacted terrible vengeance for Conradin's death. 19. Although the former crusade had been attended with such calamitous consequences, Louis was eager to engage in another ; and the English king, relieved from his difficulties by the defeat and death of the earl of Leicester, promised to send him a body of auxiliaries under the command of his gallant son Edward. 20. Louis did not wait for ^n^yn the arrival of his allies ; he embarked on board some Genoese vessels, but instead of proceeding to Egypt or Pales- tine, he directed his armament against Tunis. The siege had not lasted more than a few weeks when a pestilence broke out in the camp, and destroyed great numbers of the troops. At length the king himself fell sick, and finding his end ap- proaching, sent for his eldest son Philip, and put into his hands a manuscript containing directions for his future con- duct. He then received the comforts of religion prescribed by the Romish church, and piously resigned his soul into the hands of his Creator. 21. Charles, of Anjou, about the same time landed to join his brother, but he found Louis and his son Tristan dead, Philip sinking under disease, and the army on the brink of ruin. In these calamitous circumstances, Charles took upon himself the management of affairs, and adopted such measures as the emergency rendered necessary. 22. Louis IX. was a goo^J, rather than a great king ; his piety was sincere and unaffected, but greatly sullied by the prejudices of the age. His crusading expeditions were not the only instances of his intolerance, for he continued the in- 10 110 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Funeral of St. Louis. quisition at Toulouse, and joined in the persecution of the unhappy Albigenses. He was so much attached to monastic institutions that he intended at one time to become a monk, and was with diiEculty dissuaded by his son and brother. To the lower ranks of his subjects he was deservedly dear ; he afforded them protection against the nobles, and appointed a day in every week for receiving and examining their petitions. He also increased the municipal privileges of cities and towns, established a judicious system of police, and encouraged com- mercial enterprise. His most valuable bequest to his subjects was a code of laws containing many judicious regulations.* * The reign of Saint Louis may be considered the golden age of religious communities in France. He founded several new monas- teries, and enlarged the revenues of others. He was constantly sur- rounded by monks, who inspired him with a blind confidence in all they did. The king was even anxious to enter the cloister, but be- ing prevented by the remonstrances of his family, he contented himself with practising the austerities of a monastic life. He kept all the fasts of the church in their utmost rigour, frequently per- formed severe penance, and even suffered himself to be whipped by his confessor. The following is the extraordinary list of relics which he pur- chased from the emperor Baldwin : — 1. Our Lord's crown of thorns. 2. Part of the true cross. 3. A cross called the Cross of Triumph, LOUIS IX. Ill Finally, though he does not appear to have quite deserved the title of saint, it is certain that the name has been given to many of inferior merit. because it was carried before the Christian emperors in battle. 4. Some blood of Jesus Christ. 5. The clothes in which he was wrap- ped in his infancy. 6. Some blood that flowed from a miraculous image when struck by an infidel. 7. The chain with which Christ was bound. 8. The holy tablecloth. 9. A piece of the holy sepulchre. 10. Some of the virgin's milk. 11. Part of the head of the lance by which Christ was pierced. 12. Part of the purple robe. 13. The reed given to Christ as a sceptre. 14. Part of the sponge dipped in vinegar. 15. His grave-clothes. 16. The towel with which he wiped the feet of the apostles. 17. The rod of Moses. 18. The top of the head of St. John the Baptist. 19. The skiiiJs of St. Blaise, St Clement, and St. Simon. 112 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Philip the Bo!d. CHAPTER XII. PHILIP THE HARDY AND PHILIP THE FAIR. Cruelties you 've practised, Practised on us with rigour, this hath forced us To shake our heavy yokes oif ; and if «-edress Of these just grievances be not granted us. We Ml right ourselves, and by strong ha id defend What we are now possessed of. Massijiger. A. D. 1270. 1. Phit.ip III. was twenty-five years old at the time of his father's death, but as he was sick of the disease which caused the death of Louis, Charles of Anjou took the command of the French army, and defeated every attack of the Moors. When Philip was recovered, he wisely resolved on withdrawing his forces from Africa. Peace was concluded with the king of Tunis, on condition that he should defray the expenses of the war, permit the public ex- ercise of Christianity in his dominions, liberate all his captives. PHILIP THE HARDY. 113 and pay an annual tribute to Charles of Anjou. This was the last crusade ; these wars, which had cost the blood of two millions, and incalculable sums of money, terminated by leaving Palestine in the possession of the Mahommedans. 2. After Philip had honoured his father's remains with a mag- nificent funeral, he applied himself to the affairs of state, but evinced in their management little of that spirit which in his earlier years had procured him the epithet Hardy or Bold. Warm, if not rash, in the formation of projects, the vigour with which he commenced his undertakings was lamentably contrasted with the weakness displayed in their execution. This instability of character exposed him to the artifices of favourites, and one La Brosse, who had been his father's bar- ber, having insinuated himself into the king's confidence, instigated him to the commission of several crimes. 3. On the death of his first wife, Philip was united in marriage to Maria of Brabant, a princess whose talents and accomplish- ments gave her considerable influence over the mind of her husband. Jealous of this. La Brosse resolved to effect her destruction, and on the death of Philip's eldest son, spread a report that he had been poisoned by his step-mother. Accord- ing to the custom of the age, the queen offered to prove her innocence by a judicial combat.* Her champion triumphed in the lists, and this was deemed a sufficient proof of her innocence. 4. Alphonso, king of Castile, was a monarch so devoted to literary pursuits, that he totally neglected the affairs of his kingdom ; his eldest son had married Philip's sister, but on his death the widow and children were seized on, and impri- soned by Sancho, Alphonso's second son, who wished to secure the crown for himself Philip undertook the liberation of his nephews, but, by the treachery of his favourite, all his counsels were betrayed to Sancho, and he was obliged to re- treat without having performed any service. Soon after Philip learned the treason that had been practised by La Brosse, and he immediately ordered him to be executed. 5. The tyrannical conduct of Charles of Anjou, in Sicily, had alienated the affections of his subjects ; . 'J Peter HI. of Arragon had received the glove of the * A nun, who pretended to the gift of prophecy, was also consulted by the king respecting the queen's guilt; and the testimony of this impostor, in favour of the accused, is said to have produced a very powerful effect on the mind of the king. 10* H 114 HISTORY OF FRANCE. murdered Conradin, and was married to the daughter of Man- fredi ; Pope Nicholas HI. was indignant with Charles for having refused to give him his daughter for one of his ne- phews ; and from these circumstances originated one of the most atrocious conspiracies recorded in history. It was de- termined to massacre all the French in Sicily at the same mo- ment. John de Procida, whom Charles had illegally deprived of his property, was the principal agent in preparing this horrible tragedy : during two years the measures for its exe- cution were carried on with so much secresy, that not a single circumstance appeared which might warn the victims of their impending fate. 6. In this interval Nicholas died ; his suc- cessor was not made acquainted with the conspiracy, for, being a Frenchman by birth, it was feared that he would have prevented such an attack on the family of his native sovereign. The signal for arras was the ringing of the vesper bell* on Easter eve, whence this massacre is commonly called the Sicilian Vespers ; as soon as its fatal knell sounded, the un- suspecting Frenchmen were everywhere attacked, and in two hours one of that nation alone survived in the island,* whose superior probity made him respected even by the assassins. Peter of Arragon had waited the event with a considerable fleet on the coast of Africa, and as soon as he had learned the complete success of the conspiracy, hasted over to Sicily, where he was received as its legitimate sovereign. 7. Peter dreaded the power of the king of France, who was greatly attached to his uncle, and in order to gain time, sent Charles a challenge to meet him, and decide their pre- tensions to Sicily by single combat. Charles, more chival- rous than wise, accepted the challenge ; and, on the morning of the appointed day, appeared on the ground that had been specified, but waited in vain for his antagonist ; at length the count of Anjou, wearied out, departed. Late in the evening of the same day Peter came, and satisfied with having made this mock appearance, returned from the field of battle with the utmost speed, pretending that he was afraid of being ar- rested and detained by the king of France. But during the absence of Charles, the Neapolitans had revolted, and his son had been taken prisoner by De Lauria, the Arragonese admi- ral, the most celebrated commander of the time. Charles of Anjou in vain endeavoured to retrieve his losses, and died of sheer vexation and disappointment. * His name was William des Pourcelets, a native of Provence. PHILIP THE FAIR. 115 8, The pope had in the meantime excommunicated tlie king of Arragon, and given his dominions to io'qp-" Ciiarles, the second son of Philip. The French king advanced with a powerful army to place his son on the throne, but his success did not answer his expectations ; his fleet was captured by De Lauria, and disheartened by the mis- fortune, he resolved to return home. On his way back he died at Perpignan in the forty-first year of his age. 9. The reign of Philip is not remarkable for any improvement in the territories or government of France : he is said to have been the first monarch that granted patents of nobility, a preroga- tive which he exercised in favour of his goldsmith, who was also his banker. 10. Philip IV., surnamed the Fair, obtained the crown in his seventeenth year : the war with the king of Arra- gon still continued ; but, after much bloodshed, the son of Peter retained possession of Sicily and Arragon, while the son of Charles of Anjou was permitted to keep the crown of Naples. 11. This war had scarcely terminated, when another more furious arose out of a trivial circumstance. A quarrel having arisen be- tween an English and a Nor- man sailor, the latter was slain. The Normans cruized against the English to revenge the death of their coun- tryman ; but they were defeated, and an English fleet ^qo appearing on their coast, plundered several of their towns. Philip summoned Edward 1. as duke of Guienne, to appear before the court of peers, and answer for having borne arms against his suzerain ; Edward sent his brother, the earl of Cornwall, to plead his cause, but he being overmatched by the policy of Philip, surrendered some towns in Guienne as pledges for his brother's appearance, which, when Philip once got into his possession, he refused to restore. The English engaged the count of Flanders on their side, while Philip per- suaded the king of Scotland to espouse his cause, 12. This Philip the Fair. A. D. 116 HISTORY OF FRANCE. war was fatal to the allies on both sides ; the principals en- tered into a treaty of peace which was cemented by a double marriage, Edward espousing Margaret, sister to the king of France ; and his son, afterwards the unfortunate Edward II., was married to Philip's daughter Isabella. Edward then di- rected his whole strength against Scotland, which he easily subdued ; and Philip sent his uncle, Charles of Valois, to at- tack Flanders, which was unable to make any effective re- sistance. The count of Flanders was in the decline of life ; he had served in the crusades under Saint Louis, and believing that he had therefore some claim on the moderation of France, he obtained a safe conduct from Charles of Valois, and pro- ceeded to Paris. Philip, contrary to the law of nations, threw him into prison, and the Flemings, partly by bribes, and partly by force, were completely subjected to the French crown. 13. But Philip the Fair had soon to engage with a more formidable enemy, pope Boniface VIII., whose manner of ob-_ taining the papal crown is the best description of his charac- ter. He persuaded Celestine V., who, with all the sanctity of an anchorite, was the most simple of the human race, to abdicate an employment for which he was totally unfitted, and then got himself elected in his room. He afterwards confined the virtuous Celestine in a vile prison, and had him put to death. No one was ever more intoxicated with the chimerical pretensions of the Church of Rome to universal empire than Boniface ; he sent his orders to all crowned heads as if he had been their legitimate sovereign. 14. But the obstinacy of Philip was fully a match for the violence of Boniface ; when summoned by the pope to appear at Rome and answer for his invasion of Flanders, Philip treated the insolent message with merited contempt, and thus provoked the anger of the pontiff, who wanted only an opportunity of venting his indignation. This he soon obtained ; Philip see- ing his resources exhausted, insisted that the clergy should bear a part of the burdens of the state; they, on their part, claimed their privilege of exemption, and appealed to Rome. 15. Boniface forthwith published a bull, prohibiting the clergy, or any religious order, to pay any tax whatever without the pope's special permission ; and all who either paid or received such tax were declared to be excommunicated. Philip in his turn issued an edict, prohibiting the exportation of money from the kingdom, a severe stroke against the court of Rome, PHILIP THE FAIR. 117 which annually obtained enormous sums from France. Boni- face declared by another bull, that if the prohibition extended to him and the clergy it was madness^ as no secular princes had any authority over them. The king retorted by a spirited manifesto, that as the clergy were members of the state they were as much interested in its preservation as the rest of the people, and ought therefore to contribute to its necessities. The pope replied by a series of bulls in rapid succession, each more violent than the preceding, but Philip treated them with contempt, and declared tliat he believed the pope had lost his senses. 16. At length, to put an end to this unseemly contest, Philip assembled the states general; this as- sembly consisted of the clergy and nobles, to whom , „'^„' Philip, for the first time, added deputies from the com- mons. The states general unanimously asserted the inde- pendence of the crown, but in their declarations of attach- ment to the king, most of the clergy inserted the following clause; saving the fidelity due to the pope. Had Boniface mingled any share of prudence with his violence, he might have had better success ; but his rashness and vehemence only covered him with ridicule. He held a council at Rome, in which he procured it to be decided, that the two swords mentioned in the gospel were symbols of the temporal and spiritual authority with which the pope was invested. 17. He published the bull which, from its two first words, is com- monly called Unam Sanctum, in which it is declared, that " the temporal sword ought to be employed by kings and warriors in the service of the "church, as the pope shall per- mit and direct. The temporal power is subject to the spiritual, and cannot itself be judged but by God alone. To resist the spiritual power, then, is to resist God, unless the two princi- ples of the Manichaeans be admitted." 18. Philip again had recourse to a council of the states ; before them the chevalier de Nagaret, advocate-general, accused the pope of simony, heresy, and magic, and insisted on the necessity of his depo- sition. Boniface, on his part, put the kingdom under an in- terdifct, and ofiered the crown of France to Albert of Austria, whom he had hitherto treated as a rebel and usurper, but whom he acknowledged as emperor when about to employ him as the instrument of his passion. All the orders of the kingdom joining with Philip appealed to a future pope and a general council against what had been or should be done to the disadvantage of the royal authority. 19. Boniface fulmi- 118 HISTORY OF FRANCE. nated his bulls against the king and the nation, and was pre- paring another still more injurious to crowned heads, when he was arrested at Anagni by Nagaret and Sciarra Colonna. The latter, who was the pontiff's personal enemy, loaded him with abuse, and even struck him on the face : perhaps Boni- face might have been subjected to still greater indigni- 1 ^n^ ^'^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ people of the town taken up arms in his defence, and rescued him from the hands of his enemies. The pontiff returned to Rome, but vexation for the insult he had received threw him into a fever, and his death relieved Philip from his most dangerous enemy. 20. During the heat of the disputes with Boniface, Philip the Fair experienced a sad reverse of fortune. The tyranny of the governors to whom the administration of affairs in Flanders had been committed, made the Flemings rebel, and, being animated by a simple citizen of Bruges, they massacred almost all the French. The count d'Artois, who was sent with a numerous army to reduce them, despising them as a mob, rashly exposed himself in the year 1302, when he lost the famous battle of Courtrai, where he and the flower of the French nobility fell. So many knights were slain, that four thousand gilt spurs remained with the enemy as monuments of their victory. 21. The king marched in person to exact vengeance for his loss, but his first campaign was ineffectual, and though he obtained a great victory the following year, the revolters re- turned so often to the charge, that the king exclaimed, *' I believe it rains Flemings." 22. A treaty was at length made, by which it was agreed that the count of Flanders should be restored to his dominions on condition of his acknowledging the king of France as his suzerain, and thus, after torrents of blood were shed, matters reverted to their original situation. Nearly at the same time, Robert Bruce expelled the English from Scotland, and thus these unjust aggressions, which com- menced at the same time, had the same disgraceful termination. 23. Though Benedict XI., the successor of the ^nn^ vloleut Bonifacc, had absolved Philip the Fair from the excommunication, that haughty and revengeful prince was not yet satisfied. After the death of Benedict, the cardi- nals being divided into two parties, lie caused the votes to fall upon Bertrand de Got, a native of Gascony, devoted to the interests of France. The principal bulls of Boniface were suspended or annihilated, and a prosecution commenced PHILIP THE FAIR. 119 against his memory. The council assembled at Vienna ^ ^ for this extraordinary trial acquitted the deceased pon- ^^^^ tifF of heresy, and refused to investigate the other charges. Two Spanish knights otfered to vindicate his memory by judicial combat; a strange proposition to make in a council ! 24. The Templars, a military and religious order instituted for the recovery of Palestine, had rendered themselves odious by their riches, pride, and debauch- ery ; their immense possessions had excited the cupidity of Philip, and he prevailed on the ^ . PI- A. D. pope to unite with nim |orv.y for their destruction. Under the pretence of consulting about a new crusade, they were summoned to meet at Paris, and no sooner had they assembled, than they were all arrested and thrown into prison. They were accused of the most horrid, but at the same time the most absurd crimes, and were tortured into confessions. These they afterwards retracted, and were in consequence sentenced to death as relapsed heretics and traitors. 25. Fifty-seven of the knights were burned alive, and after some delay, James de Molai and three others were put to death by the most ex- cruciating tortures, protesting the innocence of the order with their last breath. The property of the Templars was nomi- nally transferred to the Hospitallers, now called the knights of Malta, but the greater part of it was retained by their per- secutors. 26. The expenses of the crusades and other vpars, had so impoverished the royal exchequer, that Philip debased the coin to recruit his finances; an expedient which produced incalculable evils. Some of his regulations were, however, more valuable ; he gave form and permanency to the courts of justice, which the French call parliaments ; he introduced into them legists^ or men of the law, by whose report causes were decided, and raised the legal profession to its proper im- portance in the state. A Kniglit Templar. 120 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 27. If we were to judge of the national manners from those of the court during this reign, the following anecdote must give us a dreadful idea of them. Before the death of Philip the Fair, the wives of his three sons were accused of adultery. One of them was strangled in prison ; the second escaped by saying that her marriage was null on account of kindred ; and the third was reconciled to her husband. 28. Pliilip died by a fall from his horse while hunting, in the 46th year of his age and 28th of his reign. 29. It was during this reign that the league of Swiss inde- pendence was formed. The emperor Albert of Austria, seeing the spirit of liberty spreading among his subjects, thought that he could stifle it by the rigours of a despotic government. Three cantons, tha't of Schweilz, which gave name to the en- tire confederacy, and those of Ury and Underswalden leagued together in 1307, to free themselves from an odious yoke, and after a series of brilliant victories, succeeding in establish- ing a free constitution. The public discontent during the reign of Philip the Fair, had, by a variety of circumstances, been excited throughout the realm. Among the number of exactions, the coin had been debased to meet the exigencies of the state, and this obstructing the operations of commerce, and inflicting wrongs to a greater or less extent upon all classes, every one loudly complained of injustice, robbery, and oppression, and in the end several tumults occurred, in which the residence of the king himself was attacked, and the whole population were with difficuly restrained from insurrection. In Burgundy, Champagne, Artois, and Forez, indeed, the nobles, and bur- gess class having for the first time made common cause of their grievances, spoke openly of revolt against the royal authority, unless the administration should be reformed, and equity be substituted in the king's courts for the frauds, extortions, and malversations, which prevailed. The sudden death of Philip delivered the people from their tyrant, and the crown from the consequences of a general rebellion. Pope Clement, the king's firm friend, had gone to his last account on the 20th of the preceding April. As the feudal system declined, the nobles became less of fighters, and their chateaux (for in France every gentleman's house is called a chateau) became less like fortresses. The castle of Joinville is a fair specimen of the ancient feudal castle. The dwelling of the chief is placed on the top of PHILIP THE FAIR. 121 the hill, surrounded by a wall, which, although it is appa- rently intended more for ornament than defence, is a wall nevertheless. Along the slope of the hill is a vineyard ; and there, during times of danger, the labourers, while at work, were under the protection of the archers on the walls. At the bottom of all is the town or village, where the houses of the serfs stood clustering under the eye and shelter of their liege lord. The French built their casdes with loftier towers and with still more massy walls than the English. In the general plan and disposition of the different parts of the building, they were probably much alike. We find, how- ever, one dissimilarity in the interior arrangements which may be worth noticing. The lord of an English castle always dwelt in the centre tower or keep, the upper part of which was occupied with the state apartment ; while in a French castle the keep, or, as they call it, the donjon tower, was the habitation of the four principal officers ; and the lord or castellan had a separate house in the outer ballium, which in an English castle, was the place appropriated for the barracks and stables, &c. Huntsman and Valet of Philip the Fair. 11 122 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Louis X. CHAPTER XIII. LOUIS THE QUARRELSOME. — PHILIP THE LONG.— CHARLES THE FAIR. In quick succession regal forms pass by, Their pride, their power, but creatures of the day, Like the bright meteor of a summer sky, Their short-lived glory dies and fades away. Cooke. 1. Louis X., surnamed Hutin, or the quarrelsome, iqii succeeded his father, and commenced his reign with an act of injustice, sacrificing the superintendant Marigni, who was persecuted by the public hatred, and un- justly accused of being the author of the national misery. Some Italian financiers, for the French were too ignorant to transact the business of the revenue, had caused the coin to be debased during the late reign, and this pernicious system was attributed to Marigni. Magic made one of the articles of his indictment, and absurdity served instead of proofs. LOUIS THE QUARRELSOME. 123 The count de Valois, uncle to the king, and the minister's personal enemy, caused him to be condemned without a hearing, and hanged as if he were a worthless criminal. His death was in some degree avenged by the remorse with which the count was seized, and even the people were afflicted at his execution. 2. In the mean time, money was wanted to supply the exigencies of the state ; and the same expedients which had occasioned disturbances on former occasions, could not be repeated. A scheme was therefore conceived to sell liberty to the inhabitants of the country, who were still serfs, bound to the soil, and could not leave the lands of their lords, or dispose of their property. 3. The king's edict for the general enfranchisement, says, " accordirtg to the law of nature every man is born free ;" an expression the more remarkable, as that natural right was obliged to be purchased ; and what appears rather whimsical, numbers who were not desirous of freedom were actually compelled to purchase it against their will. 4. Louis engaged in war with the Flemings, aild formed ' the siege of Courtray, but the elements conspired against him ; famine also appeared in his camp, and he was compelled to withdraw his army. He died the following year, not without some suspicions of poison. 5. After the death of Louis, a great difficulty ioi« arose about the succes- sion. The queen was delivered of a son, who lived only eight days ; and the duke of Burgundy maintained that Joanna, the king's daughter, ought to succeed ; but the three estates of the realm de- cided that, according to the Salic law, no female could inherit the crown of France. They there- fore elected Philip V., surnamed the Long, brother to the late king. 6. This did not extend to any other countries, nor even to the grand fiefs. Joanna, whose claim had been rejected, was acknow- ledged queen of Navarre, which thus became again separated from France. Philip the Long. 124 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 7. The Jews and lepers were accused of having agreed with the Turks to poison all the wells and springs ; their real crime was, that the former had acquired great wealth by commerce, and that the charitable bequests made to erect lazar-houses or hospitals for the latter, amounted to a very considerable sum. Great numbers of these unfortunate people were burned, and their property seized by the king. 8. During the brief reign of Philip, some good was done, and much more attempted. He excluded the bishops from parliament, where they had too great influence, in order that the ecclesiastical jurisdiction might no longer interfere with the civil tribunals. He paid large sums to several barons as a compensation for their resigning their privilege of coining money, which they had grossly abused. The frequency of private wars, and the disturbances which party quarrels con- tinually created, had risen to an intolerable height; and, as a remedy, the king compelled the citizens to deposit their arms in arsenals, from whence they could not be taken but in his wars, and for his service. He proposed to fix an uniform standard for money, weights, and measures, through his do- minions ; but the nobles every where opposed this beneficial project, which they supposed to be in some way or other connected with a new scheme of taxation ; and while the matter was yet in debate, Philip was seized with a quartan fever, which soon terminated his existence. 9. As he died without male issue, his brother 1^22 Charles IV., surnamed the Fair, succeeded him with- out opposition. The great vassals of the crown were summoned to attend the coronation ; all obeyed but the count of Flanders, and the duke of Guienne, who was also king of England. This was made the pretext for a war on the dominions that the English still retained on the continent ; and Charles of Valois being sent with a numerous arrny, re- duced Edmund, earl of Kent, brother to the king of England, and governor of the province, to such straits that he was compelled to surrender himself a prisoner. He was, however, permitted to return home, on the condition that if the king of England did not, within a certain space, give satisfaction to his suzerain, the earl of Kent should come back to his prison. 10. Edward H., who was at that time on the throne of England, was a prince equally weak and unfortunate ; by his attachment to favourites, he had provoked the enmity of his queen and nobility, who were secretly preparing to removt CHARLES THE FAIR. 125 him from the throne. When the earl of Kent arrived in Eng- land, queen Isabella offered to conduct the negociation with her brother the king of France. She took her children with her on this journey, and conducted the negociations with so much prudence, that her son, prince Edward, was invested with the duchy of Guienne, and the county of Poictou, foi which he did homage. 11. But Isabella, after having finished this business, refused to return home, pretending that her life was endangered by the Spencers, and applied to her brother for assistance and protection. Charles at first espoused the cause of Isabella, but disgusted with the open preference she showed for the company of Mortimer, more than suspected of being her paramour, he ordered her to quit his dominions. 12. Driven from France, she retired to the county of Fonthieu, and from thence to Hainault, where the brother of the count, according to the custom of the times, declared himself her knight, and assembled a large body of troops, by which she was enabled to vanquish and imprison her unfortunate hus- band. 13. The pope during this reign was involved in a long war, and made several attempts to obtain money from the Galilean Church, which were successfully resisted by the king and the clergy. But the pope, by offering to share with the monarch, induced him to withdraw his opposition, and the clergy were forced to submit to their united influence. 14. Charles of Valois, who had acted so conspicu- ous a part in this and the former reigns, was seized iook with a disease, which being unknown to the physi- cians, was of course attributed to magic •, while a kw sus- pected that he had been poisoned, for during this century the crime of assassination by poison had fearfully increased in France. On his death-bed he bitterly repented the share that he had in procuring the unjust condemnation of Marigni, and took every means in his power to efface the stigma that had been affixed to his character. It was remarked of Charles as of the English John of Gaunt, that though he never sat upon the throne, yet his father, brother, nephew, and son, were kings. 15. Charles the Fair, though avaricious, appears to have been a good king ; he provided for the due ad- , o^q ministration of justice, and employed no ministers but such as were distinguished for wisdom and integrity. He died at Vincennes at the early age of thirty-four. 11* 126 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Education was at a low ebb in France at this period. One circumstance was favourable, however, of a college. The Latin was employed less exclusively, and the vulgar tongue, that is, the language of the country, began to take its place. The pretended science of astrology became about this time a favourite study.. It is not known whether or not it was taught in the University of Paris ; but it is cer- tain that after this period Master Gervaise, astrologer to Charles V., founded a college in Paris for the express use of students in astrology, which college was afterwards sup- pressed, and the building is now a barrack for veteran sol- diers. The university of Paris was filled with students of all nations. Charles the Fair. PHILIP OF VALOIS. 127 Philip VI. CHAPTER XIV. PHILIP VI., CALLED ALSO PHILIP OF VALOIS, AND THE FORTUNATE. Hopeless and sad they mourn'd their heroes slain, The best and bravest on their native plain, The king himself in deeper sorrow mourn'd ; With rage and mingled grief his bosom burn'd. Like the grim lion, when his offspring slain He sees, and round him draws the hunter's train ; Couch'd in the shade with fell intent he lies, And glares upon his foes with burning eyes. Epigoitiad. A. D. I. The death of the three last monarchs without male issue, made room for the election of Philip, and j 3*28'^ procured him the surname of Fortunate, an epithet which the misfortunes of his calamitous reign strongly con- 128 HISTORY OF FRANCE. tradicted. Another candidate for the crown was Edward III. of England, and as their respective claims are not very com- monly understood, it may be useful to state them. Edward was son to the sister of the late king, Philip was that mon- arch's cousin-german. 2. The points admitted on both sides were, that a nephew was a nearer relative tlian a cousin, and that no female could inherit the crown ; but on the part of Edward,* it was contended, that though his mother could not have ascended the throne, yet as her claim was only barre(i by the incident of her sex, she could transmit her claim to her next male representative, who would, therefore, possess the right free from the disqualification. On the part of Philip, it was asserted that the exclusion of females was absolute, that Isabella consequently never had a right to the throne, and therefore could not transmit that wliich she never pos- sessed. The peers and great barons of France were assem- bled to decide this great question ; Robert d'Artois, count de Beaumont, warmly supported the cause of Philip, and finally prevailed in having him acknowledged as sovereign. 3. This reign was almost one continued series of wars ; the first in which Philip engaged was with the Flemings, who had expelled their count and his principal nobility The very day after his coronation, Philip advanced against these insur- gents, accompanied by the king of Bohemia, and the count of Hainaull. The Flemings took up a strong position on the mountains near Cassel, and when they saw the French en- camped in the valley below, undertook an enterprise of great hardihood, which was very near being crowned with success. Dividing their army into three bodies, they made a desperate attempt to break into the French camp and seize the three leaders; the French, however, were on the alert, and the three parties, overwhelmed by superior numbers, suffered very se- * When Edward assumed the arms of France, he explained his claim to them in the following Leonine verses, — Anglorum regno sum ego rex jure paterno, Matris jure quidem Gallorum nuncupor idem ; Hinc est armorum variatio justa meorum. To this specimen of royal reasoning in verse, a Frenchman re- plied in the following lines, — Prsedo regnorum qui diceris esse dnorum, Regno materno privaberis atque paterno, Mater ubi nullum jus, natus non habet ullura ; Hinc est armorum variatio stulta tuorum. PHILIP OF VALOIS. 129 verely ; but such was their determined valour, that they main- tained the fight until night, and Philip dreading their despair, drew off his troops to allow them an opportunity of retreat- ing. 4. In consequence of this victory, all Flanders sub- mitted to the victorious monarch ; several of the towns were dismantled, others deprived of their municipal privileges, and compelled to receive foreign garrisons ; the leaders of the in- surgents were driven into banishment, and thus the country was reduced to apparent tranquillity; but there remained a bitter hatred of the invaders in the breasts of the population, which only waited for an opportunity to burst forth with fresh violence. 5. The delay of Edward to perform homage for the duchy of Guienne created suspicions in the mind of Philip; he therefore sent an embassy to England, summoning him as his vassal to appear under pain of forfeiting his fief Edward on this assembled his council ; the state of the kingdom com- pelled him to temporize ; the nation was still distracted by the intrigues between the queen-dowager and Mortimer; the Scots under the Bruces were a powerful nation, and in close alliance with France; Edward, therefore, saw that the time was not yet arrived for preferring his claim, and resolved to wait for a more favourable opportunity. 6. Having privately made a protestation to his council that he reserved his claim to the throne of France, he promised that he would in a short time proceed to Philip's court, and there perform homage similar to his predecessors. Accordingly, in a short time Ed- ward went to Amiens, where Philip, accompanied by the kings of Bohemia and Majorca, made the most brilliant preparations for his reception. 7. The English monarch acknowledged himself a vassal to the crown of France in general terms, but absolutely refused to perform liege homage ;* Philip insisted on this important ceremony, and Edward, either fearing, or pretending to fear, that he would be detained as a prisoner, privately returned to England. Soon after, dreading that Philip might seize on Guienne, he executed letters patent sealed with the great seal of England, in which he acknow- ledged that, as duke of Guienne, he owed liege homage to the king of France. * The important phrase used in liege homage was, "I become /our man," a humiliating expression which Edward was naturally unwilling to use. I 130 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 8. Philip, believing that his throne was now perfectly se- cure, prepared to embark on a new crusade, and for this pur- pose levied considerable sums on the nobles, clergy, and people; One of his taxes, that on salt, called the gahelle^ was particularly obnoxious ; in allusion to it, Edward called Philip the inventor of the Salic law. 9. But the money which he had raised for this purpose was soon diverted to other objects. 10. Several circumstances occurred nearly at the same time, adverse to Philip and favourable to Edward, which induced the latter to assert his claim to the crown of France, and to prepare for an invasion of that kingdom. Ro- bert of Artois, to whom Philip was in a great degree indebted for his crown, had been deprived by the king of the county of Artois, and in consequence of some rash expressions of indignation, had been driven out of the kingdom. The Fle- mings, enraged by the loss of their privileges, were eager to engage in a new insurrection ; and de Montfort, a claimant for the duchy of Brittany, saw that he could not succeed without the aid of England, as his competitor was a favoured cousin of the French king. At the same time, Edward, by the im- prisonment of the queen-dowager, and the execution of her paramour Mortimer, had restored tranquillity and order to England, while his signal victory over the Scots had freed him from all dangers on that side. 11. The war that now broke out is remarkable for the numerous instances of chivalrous heroism it exhi- bited, and on that account its history is valuable, as throwing some light on the state of society and manners pro- duced by the institution of chivalry. No sooner had Edward and his allies resolved on the war, than they severally wrote challenges to Philip, and sent them to him by a bishop ! Sir Walter Manny, without waiting for a declaration of war, in- vaded France on the side of Flanders, and by the successes that he obtained, both inspired the English with fresh courage, and induced the Flemings openly to embrace the quarrel. 12. The principal person employed by Edward to stir up the people of Flanders was Jacob Van Arteveld, a rich merchant, whose great wealth gave him more influence than was pos- sessed by any nobleman at the time ; he prevailed on the towns to declare in favour of England, and when some scru- pled to violate the allegiance they had so lately sworn, Edward assumed the title and arms of king of France^ and thus quieted their consciences. A. D. 1336. PHILIP OF VAT.OTS. 131 13. Philip having entered into alliance with the king of Castile, obtained from him the aid of a fleet, which, united with his own, dreadfully ravaged the coasts of England; but being soon after met by Edward, near the Scheldt, a fierce engagement ensued, in which the French were defeated, with the loss of half their vessels and twenty thousand men. 14. Edward followed up this victory by attacking several towns on the borders of Flanders ; but in the midst of his suc- cesses he consented to a truce, which by the interference of a papal legate was protracted for two years. 15. The war again broke out on the loji* side of Brittany. John de Montfort had been taken prisoner by his rival, and sent a prisoner to Paris ; Charles of Blois thought that his triumph was secure, but Margaret, countess of Montfort, one of the great- est heroines that the world has produced, defended the sinking cause of her hus- band, and with unexampled intrepidity, prepared for a desperate resistance. 16. At length she was shut up in the castle of Hermebond, and so closely besieged that every chance of escape seemed cut off: she had even commenced to treat of a surrender, but turning once more an anxious glance to the sea, she saw in the distance the English fleet, under Sir Walter Manny, coming to her re- lief; all thoughts of yielding were given up, and that evening Hermebond was relieved. The siege, however, was still con- tinued, but Manny, at the head of a small body of adventur- ous knights sallied out, destroyed the engines of the besieg- ers, and returned almost without loss to Hermebond. The countess was so pleased with this exploit, that she ran out and kissed Manny in the street, declaring that he was truly a gallant and accomplished chevalier. Charles of Blois soon Jolia (le Montfort and his Countess 132 HISTORY OF FRANCE. after consented to a iruce, anil Margat'et passed over to Eng- land in order to obtain more effective aid, 17. A sliocking act of treachery on the part of the , ' ' king of France renewed the flames of war. Oliver de Clisson, w^ith several other knights of Brittany, had accompanied Charles of Blois to a tournament at Paris ; Philip suspectmg that they were secretly attached to the English, had them all seized and put to death without even ihe form of a trial. 18. The French nobility were justly indignant at this infamous proceeding, and withdrew their affections fiom a monarch who had acted with so much cruelly and perfidy. Edward on liearing of the event prepared to renew the war with greater spirit than ever : he proceeded himself to Nor- mandy ; the earl of Derby was directed to attack France on the side of Guienne, and Robert of Artois was sent to sup- port the de JVlontfort party in Brittany. 19. Although Nor- mandy had been so lately a fief to the English, crown, its in- habitants made a fierce resistance to the invaders, and were conse- quently treated by them with great severity ; having laid waste their country, the English mon- arch advanced into Picardy, marking his path by ruin and desolation as far as the gates of Paris. 20. At length Philip col- lected an army far superior in number to the invaders, and Ed- ward retreated with the utmost speed towards the boundaries of Flanders. But the rapid advance of the French compelled him to make a stand, and though lie had only 24,000 rnen, enfeebled by fatigue and disease, he resolved to hazard an engagement with Philip's army, amounting to more than 100,000 men, on the memorable plains of Cre§y. . „„ 21. The king of France had encamped the night ifaR ' '^^''°''^ ^^^ battle at Abbeville, about nine miles from the field of battle ; the morning of tlie engagement was spent in consultations, and when tlie resolution to fight was taken, the march was made with so much haste that the Charlos of Blois, PHILIP OF VALOIS. 133 ranks were a little disordered. Several other circumstances contributed to increase this confusion; the sun and wind were in the face of the advancing army ; an order to halt, partially heard and still more partially obeyed, mingled the first and second lines *, finally a heavy shower of rain damaged the bow-strings of the Genoese archers, on whom Philip placed his principal reliance. 22. At length about four o'clock in the afternoon they came in sight of the English army, drawn up in three lines, of which the foremost was commanded by Edward the Black Prince, and the reserve by the king him- self. 23. Having made a brief pause, the count d'Alengon ordered the Genoese archers to begin in the name of God and St. Dennis. They advanced in rather a strange way ; they took three leaps forward, setting up a shout after each ; and Battle of Crecy. 12 134 HISTORY OF FRANCE. when they had given the third spring they discharged their arrows. But as their strings had been damaged by the rain their shot produced but little effect, while the English archers, who had kept their bows in cases, returned a flight of arrows so close and well directed, that the Genoese fell into irreme- diable disorder. The count d'Alengon, surprised and morti- fied at the conduct of the archers, called out treason, ordered the cavalry to ride over the run-a-ways, and fall on the Eng- lish lines. This foolish command increased the confusion •, the cavalry rode down their own archers, but were in their turn entangled among the routed Genoese, while the English archers kept up an incessant " hail-shower of shafts," that did fearful execution, " There were besides," says an old histo- rian, " some rough feUotvs in the English army, who being armed only with knives, ran out of the ranks when they saw a knight dismounted and cut his throat." 24. When Alen^on at last freed himself from this tangled rout and came up with the English line, his troops were disordered and out of breath, while his enemies were fresh and vigorous. The French che- valiers maintained the battle valiantly, but the total want of discipline in their army, the dis- order of their ranks, and the continued fire of the archers, who availed themselves of every opportunity, rendered all their valour unavailing. 25. The blind king of Bohemia, who had accompanied his friend and ally to this fatal field, hearing the rout, resolved to lose his life rather than fly, and ordered two of his knights to fasten the reins of his horse to the bridle of theirs and gallop with him into the midst of the enemy, that he might strike one good stroke. His commands were obeyed ; he fell in the first line fighting valiantly, and the three ostrich feathers which adorned his crest, together with his motto Ich Dien, / serve, were assumed by the Black Prince, and have ever since been the cognizance of princes of Wales. 26. Philip made several efibrts to rally his troops, but they were ineffectual, and at length his at- Crossbow Man, from nn old Picture of the Battle of Crecy. PHILIP OF VALOIS. 135 Earl of Alencon, killed at Crepy. tendants bore him off badly- wounded from the field. The battle continued until late in the evening, and several slight skirmishes took place during the night; but on the follow- ing morning the English learned the extent of their victory ; thirty thousand of the enemy's infantry, and twelve hundred knights, amongst whom were the kings of Bohemia and Ma- jorca, lay upon the plain. 27. There appears to have been no quarter given in this battle. As a signal of his determination to show no mercy, Philip in the commencement of the bat- tle had ordered the Oriflamme to be unfurled, which added, to all the other advantages of the English, the furious courage arising from despair. 28. The day after the battle was equally distinguished by slaughter; large bodies of recruits from the neighbouring towns had come to join the army of Philip, whom they be- lieved marching to certain victory ; these unfortunate persons fell in with a detachment of the English, and were literally slaughtered without resistance. 29. In another part of the kingdom, the French suffered a similar calamity about this time. John, duke of Normandy, son of king Philip, had been long besieging the castle of Aiguillon, on the borders of Guienne, and had made a vow that he would not depart from before its Avails until he had captured the place ; but the valour of the garrison, and the advance of the earl of Derby compelled him to raise the siege. In his retreat, the English, under the command of Sir Walter Manny, harassed his rear, made several important prisoners, and compelled him to change his retreat into a hurried flight. The earl of Derby being thus left master of the field, reduced several towns in the neighbourhood of Guienne, and became as formi- dable in the west, as his sovereign was in the east of France. In the battle of Crecy, King Philip was himself in immi- nent danger. The day had closed, he had already had one horse killed under him ; and now, unable to restore order to his routed army, and attended by only five barons and sixty 136 HISTORY OF FRANCE. men-at-arms, he seemed obstinately bent on continuing the fight. He couhl not be prevailed upon to leave the battle- field, till John of Hainault, seizing his bridle, earnesdy called to him, " Come away, sire. It is high time to withdraw," and in a manner led him away by force. With this small escort, Philip reached the chateau of Broye, where the drawbridge having been taken up, as the night was very dark, " Open — open, castellan," cried Philip, in the anguish of his heart, " it is the unfortunate king of France," Ladies of the Twelfth century PHILIP OF VALOIS. 137 A Knight of the Fourteenth Century. CHAPTER XV. PHILIP OF VALOIS CONTINUED. — JOHN. S. Bring up the catapults and shake the walls; We will not be outbraved thus. N. Shake the earth, Ye cannot shake our souls. Bring up your rams, And with their armed heads make the fort totter ; Ye do but rock us unto death. Beaumont. 1. The war in Brittany presented a very extraordi- nary spectacle ; Charles de Blois having laid siege to ^^,j Roclie d'Arien, a fortress of great importance, the countess de Montfort sent a parly under the command of sir 12* 138 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Thomas Dagworth, to seek means of conveying relief to the garrison. As his parly was too small to attack the besieging army with any prospect of success, he resolved to proceed by stratagem, and accordingly ordered a knight named Hartwell to beat up the enemy's quarters, and then to retreat towards a defile where the rest of the forces would remain in ambush. Hartwell attacked the camp, but led on by youthful impetu- osity, instead of retreating after having given the alarm, he led his little troop into the midst of the hostile lines, where they were surrounded, and as they disdained a surrender, only two or three escaped. Seeing their plan defeated, the officers in Dagworth's detachment proposed to retreat; but he wisely remarked, that their success would throw the besiegers so much off their guard, that victory was more certain now than ever. After midnight, he advanced to the hostile camp, and found its inmates as he had anticipated, rendered secure and careless by their late success : a sudden attack surprised them so much that scarcely any resistance was made, and Charles de Blois remained a prisoner. 2. His wife, emulating the countess de Montfort, thenceforward took the command, and these two heroines continued to carry on the war in Brittany ; but although these contests were distinguished by many traits of individual valour, they were not productive of any event which produced a lasting effect. 3. After his victory at Cre9y, Edward saw the necessity of securing some town which would facilitate his communica- tion with England, and for this purpose resolved to lay siege to Calais ; but before detailing the events of the siege, it may be as well to mention the adventures of one who performed there a part equally conspicous and honourable. 4. Sir Wal- ter Manny had been engaged in attacking the French on the side of Guienne ; he had performed there many actions of the most heroic valour, and when the siege of Aiguillon was raised, he had harassed severely the duke of Normandy in his retreat, and taken several prisoners. Soon after he heard of Edward's victory at Cregy, and of his intention to besiege Calais ; anxious to serve personally under his sovereign, he went to one of his captives, and proposed that instead of ran- som, he should procure a safe conduct for Sir Walter and twenty followers through France. The knight to whom the offer was made being a relative and favourite of the duke's, gladly accepted the offer, and in a short time procured the passport. Sir Waller proceeded through the country as far PHILIP OF VALOIS. 139 as Oriean?, hxti was there arrested and sent as a prisoner to Paris. After being detained there for some time, Philip was at length prevailed on to respect his son's plighted word, and not only consented to the liberation of Sir Walter, but invited him to a royal entertainment. He then, before finally dis- missing him, made him several rich presents, which Sir Wal- ter accepted only on the condition, that his sovereign would consent to his retaining them. When the gallant knight ar- rived before the walls of Calais, Edward requested him to re- turn the presents of Philip, saying, " I trust, cousin, that I am not yet so poor, but that enough is left for me and you." Sir Walter immediately returned the presents by a young knight named Mansell to Philip ; the French king refused to receive back what he had once bestowed, and Mansell, who was not quite so scrupulous as Sir Walter, kept them himself. 5. The siege of Calais was protracted to an unusual length ; at an early period the garrison turned out all useless persons in order to spare their provisions, and Edward, with great hu- manity, permitted these unfortunate beings to pass through his camp. But this was only a temporary relief to the de- fenders of the walls ; when they had been shut up more than a year, their provisions became quite exhausted ; but they had not quite lost the dauntless spirit which had enabled them so long to resist a victorious army, and to baffle every effort which the chivalrous spirit of enterprise, that so peculiarly characterized Edward's army, had made for their subjugation ; a letter which they sent to the king of France, and which was intercepted by Edward, will best illustrate their state and their feelings. ('). " Sachez, tres-doute seigneur, que vos gentz in Caleys ont niangez leurs chevals, chiens, et ratz, et nest remit rien pour leur vivre, sinon chescun mange aultre. Par quey tres- honeurable seigneur, si nous ne eymes hastife succoure la ville est perdue ; et nous sommes toutz accordes, si nos ne eymes eyde, de yesser et mourir sur nos ennemis, en honneur, plus tost que dedens mourir par defaulte." " Know, dread lord, that your people in Calais have eaten their horses, dogs, and cats, and there is nothing left for their support unless they eat each other. Wherefore, honourable lord, if we have not hasty succour the town is lost, and we are all agreed if we do not receive aid, to go and die honour- ably over our enemies, rather than perish here by hunger." 7. Edward transmitted this letter to Philip with an insult- 140 HISTORY OF FRANCE. ing message to hasten to the relief of his subjects. The French kuig immedialely assembled all his forces and marciied to raise the siege, but when he arrived before Calais, he found the besiegers so strongly entrenched, that he could not attack them with any prospect of success. In vain did he send heralds to Edward, offering to fight him in a fair field ; the challenges were treated as Philip had himself previously treated similar messages ; they were answered by a declara- tion that Edward would not relinquish the advantages of situ- ation. Finding all his efforts ineffectual, Philip was obliged to draw off all his forces the third day after his arrival. 8. The brave defenders of Calais had given way to the Inost en- thusiastic joy when they perceived from their battlements the banners of France waving in the distance; during the inter- val of delay, they endeavoured, by various devices, to de- scribe their calamitous condition to their countrymen ; but when they saw the army retreating without attempting their deliverance, they broke out into wild shouts of despair, tore down the standard of France from their rampart, hurled it into the ditch, and unfurled the banner of England in its stead. 9. When Edward saw this sign of submission, he sent Sir Walter Manny to inform the garrison that they should sur- render at discretion, but was afterwards prevailed on to pro- mise, that if six principal burgesses were sent as an atone- ment for the rest, that he would spare the lives of the inha- bitants. 10. When this cruel message was delivered to the inhabitants of Calais, the whole town resounded with lamenta- tions. At length, Eustace St. Pierre came forward and volun- tarily offered himself as a victim ; this noble act of heroism was imitated by five others, and Sir Walter Manny led back the devoted band to the English camp. Edward, irritated by the length of the siege, and by the great losses which he had sustained before the place, ordered them to instant execution. 11. Sir Walter Manny and the principal commanders in the English army supplicated for the lives of Eustace and his companions in the most moviiig terms, but Edward was im- placable, until his queen, Pliilippa, who had lately arrived from England, after having obtained a brilliant victory over the Scots, fell on her knees before her husband, and with some difiiculty procured their pardon. Calais was afterwards re-peopled from Englatid, and was not re-taken by the French until after the lapse of two centuries. 12. During this period, several important events had oc- PHILIP OF VALOIS. 141 Q.ueen Philippa interceding for the Citizens of Calais. " curred in Flanders; Von Arteveld had promised Edward that he would procure for his son the title of count of that pro- vince, but the Flemings, though displeased with their prince, were unwilling to deprive him of his inheritance, and the only effect produced by the proposal was to deprive Arteveld of all his popularity. His enemies were not slow in taking advantage of this, and procured the assassination of the de- magogue in a popular tumult. 13. The Flemings, however, still adhered to the English cause, and refused to aid their count, who warmly supported the pretensions of Philip ; at length he fell on the field of Cre9y, and his subjects, on hear- ing the news, sent for his son from Paris. When the young count arrived in Flanders, the burgesses of the cities possessed all the real authority, and gave a strong proof of it by con- tracting him in marriage to Edward's daughter, without even asking his consent. The youthful prince, disliking the match, fled to the court of Philip, and was some time after permitted by that monarch to conclude a private truce with England, which pledged Flanders to a total neutrality. 14. France was not devastated by the horrors of war alone, a severe famine first afflicted the people, io'^q and this was followed by the most terrible plague that had hitherto appeared in Europe. It appeared first in China, 142 HISTORY OF FRANCE. or, as it was then called, Cathay, and having traversed Asia and Greece, attacked the territories of France and Germany, where it literally decimated the population. 15. Religious fanaticism produced at the same period a new sect, called the Flagellants, who asserted that the anger of Heaven could only be averted by voluntary tortures ; they proceeded through the cities and country, lacerating themselves with whips, but at length their enthusiasm degenerated into robbery, and they were suppressed. 16. The war went on but slowly after the capture of Ca- lais ; a truce was concluded between the rival monarchs, which, with little interruption, continued to the end of Piiilip's reign. An attempt was made to recover Calais, by bribing one of the commanders of the garrison, but he, after receiving the money, betrayed the conspiracy to Edward, who imme- diately went over with a reinforcement; when the French presented themselves before the town, instead of being ad- mitted, they were attacked by a numerous party which had been placed in ambush, and cut to pieces. 17. In the midst of all his misfortunes. Pliilip had the satisfaction to see the province of Dauphiny annexed to the crown of France. Its last count dying without issue, bequeathed his dominions to Philip, on condition that the eldest son of the French ,o_" king should bear the title of Dauphin. Soon after, Philip, broken down by cares and misfortunes, died, leaving to his son a disunited people, and a shattered kingdom. 18. John, duke of Normandy, succeeded his father, and seemed to have inherited his faults as well as his dominions. Philip, by illegally putting to death those whom he suspected of being attached to the English, had alienated the affections of many of his subjects, and John commenced his reign by a similar exhibition of crime and folly. The noblemen whom the king gave into the hands of the executioner, without even the form of trial, were his natural brother, the count of Marche, and the count d'Eu ; the causes of his suspicion furnish a curious illustration of the manners of the time, and are, therefore, worthy of being recorded. 19. James, count of Marche, while serving against the Saracens, was accused of treason by Visconti, a near relation of the king of Cyprus. The leaders of the Christian army fearing to offend either of the crowned heads, to whom the disputants were related, re- ferred the decision of the matter to Edward, king of England, whom they looked on as the flower of chivalry. 20. Marche JOHN. 143 and Visconti having agreed to the reference, came to the Eng- lish court, where it was resolved that the controversy should be decided by judicial combat. Lists were prepared in West- minster, and the combat took place in presence of the king and a brilliant court. Both warriors were completely locked in steel, and wore barred visors over their face ; on this ac- count, the lance and sword could produce little effect. 21. The count de Marche, wearing gauntlets (gloves cased with steel) having spikes at every joint, struck his adversary back- handed blows on the visor, through whose bars the spikes could penetrate, which Visconti, whose gauntlets were plain, could not return. The pain of these blows at length com- pelled Visconti to scream, on which Edward called out '"-Ho," and threw down his wardour, declaring Visconti conquered by the laws of arms, and totally at the disposal of his adver- sary. 22. The count of Marche declared that he was satis- fied by having thus vindicated his character, and delivered over Visconti to the will of the prince of Wales. 23. When Marche returned to France, he found the king very indignant at his having submitted to the arbitration of Edward, the ene- my of their family ; he apologised by mentioning the high chivalrous character of Edward, in which lie was joined by the count d'Eu, who had been a prisoner in England. But the apology seemed to John a greater crime than the original offence ; they were both arrested and privately beheaded. 24. Among the vassals of France was Charles, king of Navarre, who appears to have well deserved the epithet of the Bad, which is given him by all the French historians ; he had married one of John's daughters, and claimed as her portion several fiefs which, being already in the possession of others, it was not in the power of the crown to bestow. Suspecting that the constable of France had influenced the king to refuse his requests, Charles watched his opportunity, attacked the constable's residence during the night, and murdered him in his bed. 25. Not satisfied with this outrage, he sent a letter to John justifying his conduct; the weakness of his kingdom compelled the monarch to temporise, a mock investigation took place, and Charles was acquitted of guilt. But John only waited for an opportunity of vengeance ; he ordered his son to court the favour of the king of Navarre, and when suspicion was lulled, he arrested Charles and his principal friends while dining with the prince-royal. The friends of 144 HISTORY OF FRANCE. the king of Wavarre were put to death without trial, and Charles himself sent a close prisoner to Paris. 26. This treachery produced the most lamentable conse- quences to John ; the brother of the imprisoned king, and the relatives of the murdered nobleman, applied to England for aid in avenging their injuries, and as the truce had terminated some time before, the war broke out with greater fury than ever. 27. Edward the Black Prince, to whom his father had given the duchy of Guienne, assailed John on one side, while the earls of Derby and Lancaster, aided by the friends of Navarre, attacked him on the other. The Black Prince was his most impetuous adversary ; he overran all the provinces in the neighbourhood of Guienne, but as he had laid waste the country wherever he came, he soon found himself with diminished forces at a distance from all his resources, I'Jc^n and unable to retreat with his army through an ex- hausted country. 28. In this situation prince Edward, with only 8000 men, was overtaken by John, accompanied by an army of more than 60,000. 29. The ruin of the Prince of Wales appeared inevitable ; he took up, indeed, a strong position, but his army was destitute of provisions, his retreat cut off, and his enemies need only have remained quiet to ensure his destruction. The cardinal of Perigord, the pa- pal legate, thought that this was a favourable opportunity for restoring peace ; he went frequently between both armies, but the unreasonable demands of the French prevented all ac- commodation, and after a day had been wasted in useless negociations, both sides prepared for the memorable battle of Poictiers. c fin ^^- '^f'he prince of Wales had drawn up his little l^^fi ' '^^"^ "" ^ rising ground surrounded with vineyards and hedges ; in his front was a long and narrow lane, running through a thick coppice; this he lined with archers, and at the end of the lane in front of his cavalry and men-at-arms, he placed a strong body of archers, disposed in the form of a hearse. When the French king saw these ar- rangements, lie ordered all his cavalry to dismount except the German auxiliaries, and a body of about three hundred, whom he placed in the van. 31. The English archers were alvvays considered the best in the world, and never did they maintain their fame better than on this eventful day. The van of the French had no sooner entered the lane, than a well directed and close fire opened on their flanks and front, which they JOHN. 145 could neither retaliate nor avoid, so that their first line was defeated alojost before it reached the enemy. The charge of prince Edward completed their overthrow, and the cavalry was ordered up to their rescue ; but while they were advanc- ing, the English archers had gained a favourable position on their flanks, a cloud of arrows threw them into confusion, they fell back on the Germans, who in their turn, recoiled on the second line, and broke its ranks. 32. Edward seized the decisive moment to charge, and the cowardly flight of a large body that had been left to guard the four sons of John adding to the enemy's dismay, there was scarce a moment's resist- ance when the French were completely broken, and their gallant army scattered over the plain. Bitterly did they la- ment the fatal order that had deprived them of their horses ; encumbered by heavy armour, their lines broken, and their 13 Battle of Poictiers. K 146 HISTORY OF FRANCE. lances useless, they were trampled down by the English cav- alry, or swept away by the dense body of men-at-arms who advanced under the cover of the archers. 33. John had still a third division of his army under the command of himself and his youngest son Philip, which, being superior in number to the English, might have changed the fate of the day; but they were dispirited by the defeat of their companions ; they were, besides, for the most part unused to fight on foot, and being drawn up in close column, they presented an unerring mark to the archers. The English, "■mad with success and drunk with gore," broke this last body by one furious charge ; but the individual valour of John and his immediate attend- ants still maintained the fight. 34. The English and Gascon knights, who recognised his person, frequently exhorted him to surrender, but he refused to yield to any but his cousin, the Prince of Wales ; having learned, however, that he was in a distant part of the field, he gave his gauntlet to John de Morbeck, a gentleman of Artois, whom he had banished some years before.* John and his son Philip remained prisoners, * The individual heroism shoviri by an English knight in this battle deserves to be recorded, especially as his conduct displays much of that noble and generous spirit which chivalrous feeling frequently produced. The lord James Audley had been long a fa- voured friend of the Black Prince, and materially assisted him in making those arrangements which produced this great victory. When every preparation was made, he rode up to Edward, accompanied by his four esquires, and stated that he had made a vow to strike the first stroke, in whatever battle he should be engaged. Edward permitted him to advance with his four esquires beyond the front of the English lines ; he proceeded down the lane, and taking post under the cover of some trees, patiently awaited the approaching vanguard of the French. When they rushed tumultuously into the lane, Audley furiously attacked them, and was saved from the con- sequences of his hardihood by the French becoming entangled in the difficult ground, and disordered by the heavy showers of arrows. When the English charged through the disordered lines, Audley kept still in front, and was one of the foremost who cut through the se- cond line of the French. Duritig the entire fight he was the most conspicuous among the English chivalry, but towards the end of tlie day he was no longer seen in the field. When the fight was over, Edward earnestly inquired after his gallant friend ; he was brought before him, borne in the arms of his faithful esquires, covered with blood, and exhausted by his wounds and exertions. The prince complimented him on his valour, and as a reward settled on him a pension of 500 marks annually. No sooner was Audley carried to JOHN. 147 but the greater part of the French nobility fell. Indeed, the slaughter was principally confined to the knights and nobles, owing, probably, to their having been deprived of their horses before the beginning of the engagement. 35. The generous Edward treated his royal captive as his sovereign ; he refused to be covered or sit down in his pre- sence, and even attended him at supper. Afterwards, when he brought him over to England, John rode into London on a white horse, richly caparisoned with all the ensigns of sovereignty, while the victor attended him, mounted on a little black pony, as a sign of his inferiority. John was lodged in the palace of the Savoy, and was treated rather as a king than as a prisoner. Less respect was shown to royalty in France after this disaster. The dauphin, having fled from the battle-field, convoked the states of the kingdom, and prepared to assume the sovereignty in the absence of his father. The assembly, however, before so impracticable with John, were still more presuming towards the runaway from Poictiers. Before listen- ing to him, they demanded the liberation of the king of Na- varre, whose name, they considered, would serve as a rallying point in the great struggle for which they were preparing ; and they further required the imprisonment of seven of the principal members of the royal council. They wished a council of regency to be formed of their own choice, to con- sist of four prelates, twelve nobles, and twelve citizens. These concessions made, they were willing to grant a supply of thirty thousand men for one year. To agree to such terms the dauphin judged was to abdicate before assuming power. He broke up the assembly, and during the Christ- mas holidays visited the emperor, Charles IV., his maternal uncle. From him, however, no assistance could be obtained ; and, returning to Paris, the dauphin endeavoured to find a resource, by tampering with the money, as his father had done. This attempt failed. It was opposed by Stephen Marcel, in the name of the trades, and when the depreciated his tent than he serrt for his nearest friends, and in their presence made over the entire grant on his four esquires, to whose valour and fidelity he declared himself indebted both for life and honour. When Edward was informed of this generosity he not only con- firmed the former, but settled a new pension of greater amount on Audley, and afterwards spoke of him as the most perfect example of what a true knight should be. 148 HISTORY OF FRANCE. coin was offered in payment for commodities, no one would receive it. He met the regent at St. Germain d'Auxerrois, at the head of an armed multitude, whom he had induced to revolt ; and, having defended the course he had taken, at the close of their interview, he sent orders to the several trades instantly to suspend their labour, and to appear at a place which he indicated, under the banners of their several cor- porations. Charles was compelled to yield. He called in the new money, dismissed the counsellors proscribed by the states general, and convoked that body anew to meet on the 5th of February, 1357. King John riding into London. JOHN. 149 King John. CHAPTER XVI. JOHN. — THE REGENCY. Within that land was many a malcontent, Who curs'd the tyranny to which he bent ; That soil full many a wringing despot saw, Who work'd his wantonness in form of law ; Long war without, and frequent broil within, Had made a path for blood and giant sin. That wanted but a signal to begin New havock, such as civil discord blends. Which knows no neuter, owns but foes or friends. Btbon. 1. The situation of France after its monarch had been taken prisoner, was the most miserable that can , ^^-^ be conceived ; the dauphin was young and inexperi- enced, the officers of the crown destitute both of wisdom and patriotism, the nobility intent on serving themselves, the generals robbing friend and foe under pretence of supporting their troops, and the lower classes of the population, maddened by oppression, ready to break out into open rebellion When the dauphin assembled the States-general to consult 13* 150 HISTORY OF FRANCE. about the state of the kingdom, he heard nothing but com plaints of the administration ; they refused to entrust him with the regency, and elected a council of fifty to take charge of the finances. 2. The rapacity of the new government sur- passed all that had preceded it ; the taxes were levied almost at discretion ; those who refused to pay were cruelly tortured, and the nation became hostile to the States-general, which had sanctioned these exactions, and which protected the tax- gatherers in hopes of sharing their plunder. This afforded prince Charles an opportunity of shaking off the yoke of par- liamentary control, which he eagerly embraced ; aided by a numerous body of the nobility, he expelled the council and assumed the reins of government. 3. But his authority was only nominal, every noble acted as if he were a sovereign in his own domains, every city became a little republic ; the citizens of Paris armed themselves, chose as their leader a merchant named Marcel, and assumed hoods of mixed red and blue as the badge of those who defended the privileges of the city. The escape of the king of Navarre from prison made matters still worse ; once at liberty, he recovered all his for- mer dominions, and became so formidable that the dauphin was obliged to submit to whatever terms he thought proper to impose. 4. He was invited to Paris, and on his arrival there he made a long speech to the citizens on the hardships which he had suffered during his imprisonment, his zeal for the benefit of the state, and above all his great affection for the city of Paris. His flatteries had so great an effect on the citizens, that the dauphin found himself totally destitute of authority, and was obliged to submit to the insults offered by the wearers of the variegated hoods, who had chosen the king of Navarre as their patron. 5. On one occasion. Marcel, the leader of the mob, rushed into the presence of the dauphin, attended by his partizans, seized on three noblemen, whom he asserted had given bad advice, ordered them to be massa- cred on the spot, and then, going up to the prince, made him take off his hat and put on the parti-coloured hood. 6. While the city wa§ thus distracted by faction, a , .Jp-o' terrible insurrection of the peasantry broke out in the country, which threatened the most calamitous results. The nobility, who looked on their serfs as an inferior order of beings, treated them with the most savage cruelty ; they also reduced several to slavery who had purchased their free- dom from the king, until at length human nature could no JOHN. 151 longer submit, and the peasants every where broke out into rebellion. They avowed their determination to exterminate every nobleman and gentleman, and they proceeded to exe- cute their resolution with the sternest ferocity. The castles of their oppressors were stormed, their wives and children ruthlessly slaughtered, every noble who fell into their hands was tortured for their amusement, and in fine, every horror that could be expected from exasperated barbarians, was per- petrated. 7. This rebellion was called the Jacquerie, because, when the nobles plundered the peasants, they called in derision any one that complained, Jacques hon liomme (good man James), not remembering that an injury, sharpened by an in- sult, is never forgiven or forgotten. At length the nobles of every parly combined to check this wide-spreading evil, in the suppression of which, England, France, and Navarre, were equally interested. The Jacquerie was suppressed, but the country was left a desert. 8. Marcel was doomed to experience the truth of the asser- tion, that popular favour is an uncertain support; being sus- pected of an intention to admit the English into Paris, he was murdered in a popular commotion, and the crowds, who an hour before followed shouting in his train, saw w^ith indiffer- ence his body dragged through the streets and suspended from a gibbet. 9. The party of the king of Navarre declined after the death of Marcel, but that monarch was more enraged than discouraged at the event. He assembled a numerous army, and assisted by two of the Black Prince's most celebrated generals, the captal of Busche, and Robert Knowles, an Eng- lish knight, advanced to the walls of Paris ; he closely blockaded the city, which was badly supplied with provisions, and thus brought France to the very brink of ruin. 10. But at this moment, when destruction appeared inevitable, the king of Navarre suddenly offered the most favourable terms of peace to the dauphin, and after this unaccount- , '„' able change of sentiment, quietly retired to his own dominions. 11. During all this time, a nominal truce continued between the French and English, though it was not much regarded by the commanders of independent companies, and negociations were in progress for concluding a treaty. The terras offered by Edward were sent over by the captive John to be submitted to the States-general, but they were so severe, that the as- sembly rejected them unanimously. 12. Edward, enraged at 152 HISTORY OF FRANCE. this refusal, prepared for a new invasion of France ; passing over to Calais with a. numerous army, he advanced through the country without meeting any resistance, and at length pitched his camp at Montlehery, within seven leagues of Paris. But nothing could induce the dauphin to risk, a battle, the calamities of Cre9y and Poictiers were too fresh in his memory, and he permitted sir Walter Manny and some other daring spirits, to ride with impunity to the very barriers of Paris, and reproach the chivalry of France with cowardice. 13. The legate of the pope in vain solicited Edward to listen to the terms of accommodation, but a dreadful storm, which was believed to be a token of divine anger, proved a more efficacious monitor; and Edward sent to the dauphin a friendly invitation to appoint commissioners for finally termi- nating these destructive wars. 14. Deputies from the different contending parties soon assembled at Bretigny, and as all were anxious for peace, the articles were settled within a week. It was agreed, that three million crowns of gold should be paid for the ransom of king John, one-third immediately, and the remainder secured by hostages; that Edward should retain Calais and all his con- quests in Guienne, that he should resign his claim to the crown of France, and that the allies on both sides should not be molested for the share they had taken in these wars. 15. As soon as the treaty was signed, John Avas brought over to Calais, and permitted to return to his dominions after an ab- sence of four years. 16. He did not, however, long enjoy his freedom ; his two sons, whom he had given as hostages to the English, broke their parole, and as they refused to re- turn, John considered himself bound in honour to go back to his prison. His friends in vain attempted to change his resolution, he declared that, " If honour and truth were ban- ished from the rest of the world, they ought still to be found in the bosom of kings." John returned to his old residence at the palace of the Savoy, then outside the walls of London, and was received in the most friendly manner by Ed- • l^fii '^^^^- l'^- While he was endeavouring to settle all remaining subjects of dispute with the English mon- arch, he was suddenly attacked by a disease which proved mortal in a few days. His remains were escorted to the sea- side by a great number of the English nobility, and after- wards conveyed to the cemetery of Saint Denis, the usual burial-place of the French monarchs. 18. A little before JOHN. 153 his return to England, the duchy of Burgundy reverted to the crown by the failure of heirs; and John granted it as a fief to his son Philip, surnamed the Hardy, who had so bravely fought beside his father at the battle of Poictiers; Philip soon after married the heiress of Flanders, and thus acquired so much additional power and influence, that the house of Bur- gundy soon became formidable rivals of the royal family of France. 154 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Charles V. CHAPTER XVII. CHARLES v., SURNAMED THE WISE. Ill fated prince! on Crecy's glorious plain, Thou shouldst have fallen amid the heaps of slain ; And not to pale disease a helpless prey, Felt lingering life too slowly waste away ! Crook. 1. Charles had shown great talents for politics during the regency, and his accession to the throne was hailed with joy by his subjects, who hoped to obtain some respite from the calamities with which they had been hitherto afflicted. Though this king never appeared at the head of his armies, yet it was to his prudent arrangements that they owed their numerous victories. He was also so fortunate as to obtain a general, whose skill and valour made him almost fit to be a rival of the Black Prince ; this was the celebrated Bertrand du Guesclin, a knight of Brittany, one of the brightest orna- CHARLES V. 155 rnents of chivalry. 2. The king of Navarre and the duke of Brittany, not having been included in the treaty of Bretigny, continued to maintain a desultory warfare; the former prin- cipally relied on the valour of the captal of Buche, whom we have before mentioned ; but the captal being defeated and made prisoner by du Guesclin, Charles of Navarre found liimself no longer able to maintain a war against the king of France. Du Guesclin was next sent to support the cause of de Blois in Brittany, where the count de , r,'^ .' Montfort, aided by the talents of the English general, lord Chandos, had recovered most of his paternal possessions. In this expedition du Guesclin was in his turn defeated and made prisoner ; but Charles turned even this misfortune to advantage, for when he learned that de Blois was killed in the battle, he put an end to the war by acknowledging Mont- fort as duke of Brittany, provided that he would hold the duchy as a vassal of France. By thus availing himself equally of victory and defeat, Charles was enabled to make peace with the sovereigns of Navarre and Brittany, and to obtain an opportunity for consolidating the strength of his kingdom, previous to his intended plan of re-conquering the provinces which had been wrested from France by the English. 3. France, however, was still laid waste by other enemies; a great number of military adventurers, whose only trade was war, had formed themselves into troops under different leaders, and supported themselves by levying heavy contri- butions on those parts of the country which they thought fit to visit. These banditti, whom the English called _/ree-coffi- panies, and the French malandrins^ were too numerous and formidable to be subdued by force, when it was attempted by James de Bourbon, a prince of the royal blood ; he was defeated with great loss, and the companies be- , „'^_' came in consequence worse than ever. 4. But a for- tunate circumstance soon enabled Charles to get rid of these robbers, and at the same time to render an essential service to one of his most valuable allies. Peter I. king of Castile, surnamed the Cruel^ on his acces- sion to the throne, had treacherously mui-dered his father's mistress, and by similar tyrannical deeds, had provoked the hostility of all his subjects ; Henry, count Transtamora, his natural brother, resolved to avenge the wrongs of his mother and his country. But not being able to compete with his brother unaided, he sought the assistance of the king of 156 HISTORY OF FRANCE. France, already irritated against Peter on account of his cruelty to his queen, a princess of the Bourbon branch of the royal family. On his arrival in France, Henry requested per- mission to take the companies into his pay ; his request was cheerfully granted, and du Guesclin undertook to be their leader. He met the commanders of most of the bands, and set before them the great advantages of the expedition, ex- horting them by every religious motive to atone for their own sins by punishing the impious Peter, who had been lately put under the ban of the church. 5. The free companies had been lately excommunicated themselves, and were eager to obtain absolution ; the means, which under the guidance of du Guesclin they took to ob- tain it, give us a very strange picture of the times. Advanc- ing under his guidance towards Avignon, where the pope re- sided, they threatened the pon- tiff and his court, unless they obtained the pardon of their sins, and a large contribution besides. The pope hesitated about complying with the lat- ter part of their requisition, but the companies soon showed such a determination to enforce their demands, that his holiness was obliged to comply ; and the adventurers having thus obtained absolution and money, declared themselves ready to follow du Guesclin into Spain. 6. Peter, deserted by his subjects, was unable to ,op~ meet Henry in the field, and seeing no other means of ' safety, he fled across the Pyrenees to the prince of Wales, who was then in Guienne, seeking from him protec- tion and assistance. 7. Edward, who envied the glory of Guesclin, unhesitatingly adopted the cause of Peter, and im- mediately led his army into Castile. At his approach, the " troops of the free companies," who almost adored the Black Prince, at once flocked to his banner ; Henry was obliged to confide in the undisciplined forces of his own kingdom, and Bertrand du Guesclin. CHARLES V. 157 these were unable to meet warriors who had been so long inured to battles. 8. At Najara, Henry was totally defeated, and du Guesclin taken prisoner. But the prince of Wales had no reason to rejoice in his victory; Peter refused to pay the expenses of the war, a fearful sickness broke out in the English camp, and Edward was obliged to retrace his steps, after having exhausted his funds, wasted his men, and irre- trievably injured his constitution. He liberated du Guesclin, who again joined Henry in an invasion of Castile, when Peter was defeated and slain. 9. The prince of Wales had exhausted all his revenues in the Castilian expedition ; on his return, he levied a tax on the provinces, which they refused to pay, and appealed to the king of France as their feudal sovereign. Charles received the appeal, and summoned Edward to appear iq"f.q in Paris and answer for his conduct. The prince of Wales refused to obey ; in consequence of which, Charles declared that he had forfeited all the provinces that he held under the crown of France. 10. The war on this broke out afresh, and the English were every where unsuccessful. Their armies indeed laid waste the country and ravaged the fields as far as the gates of Paris, but the towns opened their gates to the troops of France ; the peasantry concealed their provi- sions when Edward appeared, but readily yielded up their stores to the soldiers of Cliarles, and thus every victorious march became a real source of weakness. 11. Du Guesclin, who had been appointed constable of France, had been the first to suggest this harassing mode of warfare, and to him the management of it was entrusted. 12. At length, after having captured Limoges, Edward found himself so com- pletely enervated by disease, that he was compelled to return to England, and though he lived three years longer, the state of his health prevented him from again seemg the theatre of his glory.* * The premature decease of the Prince of Wales was looked upon by the English people as the greatest national calamity. His death is thought to have shortened the days of his royal father, and broke the heart of that renowned warrior, John de Grielly, captal de Buche, who refused all nourishment, and was impatient to follow his beloved master to the grave. The parliament, though in no very good humour, discovered the deepest concern for his death, and the highest veneration for his memory, by attending his remains to the cathedral of Canterbury, and by petitioning the king to introduce 14 158 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 13. When the Black Prince returned home, the English in France were overwhelmed by a long succession of misfor- tunes ; the leaders of several companies who had been per- sonally attached to Edward, when he was no longer present joined du Guesclin : their fleet, under the earl of AD • , .j-.-J Pembroke, was defeated by the Spaniards; the king of Navarre withdrew from their alliance ; the captal of Buche fell into the hands of the French ; and finally, a fleet which had been prepared for the relief of some towns that were besieged, was prevented from sailing by stormy weather until the towns had surrendered. 14. Du Guesclin died in the midst of his brilliant career, just after he had signed the capitulation of the fortress of Auvergne, which he was besieging. When the garrison heard of his death, they desired the governor to refuse a surrender, but he, faithful to his promise, brought the keys of the garrison, and laid them as a trophy at the feet of the departed hero. 15. During this period, war had been re-kindled in Brittany by the French king's attempt to annex that province com- pletely to the French crown ; but de Montfort, supported by the people, was enabled to maintain his duchy, and Charles seemed to be aware of the injustice of his attempt; for after his first vigorous efforts were defeated, he allowed the war to linger for a great length of time. Eventually, de Montfort, by the aid of the English, recovered all his dominions ; and Charles directed his attention to the more honourable and useful task of driving the English from their remaining pos- sessions in Guienne. 16. The glories which had adorned the com- ,rv'«-.' mencement of the reign of Edward III. were now vanished, he was broken down by misfortunes, and grief for the death of his gallant son " brought down his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave." His successor, Richard II., was a minor; the devastation of England by a pestilence, and the incursions of the Scots in the commencement of his reign, so weakened a government already distracted by the jealousies of the king's uncles, that no succour was sent to the English in France. 17. In a very short time Charles so improved his advantages, that out of all their brilliant acqui- sitions, there only remained in the possession of the English, the prince's only son, Ricliard, then only ten years old, into their assembly, that they might have the pleasure of beholding this only representative of their beloved prince. CHARLES V. 159 Calais in Artois, Cherburg in Normandy, and Bordeaux in Guienne. 18. Charles of Navarre had attempted to poison the king of France while he was yet dauphin, he re- , ' ^* newed the attempt after the expulsion of the English, dreading that the increased power of the king would be di- rected against his dominions. To effect this detestable design, he sent his son with several attendants on an embassy to Paris, but the meditated treachery was discovered; two knights who were charged with its execution were put to death, and the prince of Navarre, who seems not to have participated in his father's treason, was shut up in prison. 19. The king of France had long been wasting away; it was said that he never recovered the effects -.oon of the poison that had been administered in his youth, however the physicians kept him alive by opening an issue, declaring that when that dried up his case would be hopeless. When it did cease, Charles prepared himself for death with becoming fortitude, and in his last moments employed him- self in directing his sons to persevere in the paths of justice and rectitude. 20. Charles appears to have merited the name of Wise, which has been given him by the French writers ; the state of France in the beginning and end of his reign is the noblest testimony to his character ; on his accession, he found the throne tottering, the people distracted, the best provinces in the possession of the enemy, and the country almost a desert ; to his son he bequeathed a peaceful succession, a rich treasure, and, above all, subjects thriving and contented. How few princes merit such an eulogy ! Charles the Sage, " the ruling passion, strong in death," was seen faithful in his last moments to the habits of his former life. On the day of his departure, he dictated to the lawyers in attendance, on ordinance by which certain im- posts were in part abolished. The following epitaph was placed on his tomb at St. Denis : — " Here lies Charles V., wise and eloquent, the son of King John, who reigned six- teen years, five months, and seven days, and died in the year of grace, 1380, the 16th day of September." This king, whose dying vi^ords fell on the ear of a town clerk, and who was the first to fly from the field of Poictiers, nevertheless governed triumphantly in this age of chivalry. It is most remarkable, that all the mighty changes of his 160 HISTORY OF FRANCE. reign were effected in his closet, consulting with Bureau de Riviere, and looking from the windows of his hotel St. Paul. CHARLES VI. 161 Charles VI. CHAPTER XYIir. CHARLES VI. Unhappy king! even by thy pomp opprest. Like some rnde clown for royal pageant drest^ Who struts his hour of borrowed state, and then Stripped of his robes to nothing sinks again — How poor, how less than little art thou grown, Mean in all eyes, and meanest in thine own. Miss Porden. L The last reign was short and prosperous, that on which we are about to enter was long and calamitous ; , .-."J the ambition of the young king's uncles, the licen- tiousness of the nobles, the madness of the king, the crimin- alities of his wife, and a new invasion of the English, pro- duced a series of miseries, if possible worse than any we have hitherto narrated. Charles VI. was but thirteen years old at the time of his father's death, the regency was entrusted to his uncle the duke of Anjou, but the dukes of Burgundy 14* L 162 HISTORY OF FRANCE. iuid Bourbon were jealous of his authority, and anxiously endeavoured to obtain a share in the government. For this purpose they compelled the regent to consent to the king's coronation, after which the States declared that Charles shoidd himself assume the administration of affairs, and be guided by the counsels of his uncles. 2. Joanna, queen of Naples, having been driven from the throne by her cousin Charles Durazzo, had in revenge adopted the duke of Anjou as her heir, and soon after falling into the hands of her enemies, was strangled in prison. The duke of Anjou then resolved to assert his claim to the Neapohlan crown, and in order to obtain forces, he resolved to seize on the royal treasures which had been collected bv the late mon- arch. These were concealed in the castle of Melun, and the secret of the place where they were deposited entrusted to a confidential servant named Savoisy. The (hike prevailed on him to betray his trust, and having thus provided himself with funds, he levied an army, and led them across the Alps into Italy. 3. This expedition was singularly unfortunate, a few successes in the beginning were followed by such a rapid suc- cession of reverses, that in a few months the duke of Anjou saw his baggage lost, his army destroyed, and himself re- duced to such poverty, that of all his ill-gotten wealth, only a single silver goblet was left. He died soon after of vexa- tion and disappointment, leaving his son Louis the inheritor of his pretensions. 4. This fruitless attempt proved the source of many cala- mities to France ; a promise had been made to the people that they should be released from some of the severe taxes which had been levied during the last reign ; but as the royal trea- sures were exhausted, instead of decreasing their burdens, the king found himself compelled to redouble the imposts, and thus produced universal dissatisfaction through the country. 5. The Flemings, for similar reasons, had revolted against their count; he appealed to the king of France for assistance as his feudal sovereiafu, and through the influence of A. D. • • - ■ ■ his son-in-law, the duke of Burgundy, who had suc- ceeded the duke of Anjou in the management of affairs, his request was readily granted. 6. Charles headed the army in person, a decisive battle was fought at Rosbec, in which the Flemings were defeated, and their leader, Arteveld, son to the former demagogue of the same name, slain. 7. Having ^.liumphpd over the insurgents in Flanders, Charles resolved CHARLES VI. 16^^ it.^ " Battle of Rosbec. to punish those in his own dominions, uhp, oppressed by a load of taxes, had been induced to commit several excesses. On his approach to Paris, the citizens went armed to meet him, lioping by this display of strength to inspire the monarch with fear. But they did at once too much and too little, — they convinced him that thev were formidable subjects, but, by dispersing on the first summons, they left themselves and their city totally at his mercy. Charles entered Paris as a place which had been conquered; he dismantled its fortifica- tions, broke down its gates and barriers, disarmed the inhabit- ants, and, without any form of trial, put to death more than three hundred of the factious by the gibbet, or by tying them up in sacks and throwing them into the river. 8. Having thus filled the city with terror, Charles sum- moned all the citizens of both sexes to a public assembly in the courts of the palace. There they were received by the king seated on his throne, and addressed on the subject of their manifold treasons by the Chancellor d''Orgemont, in terms so harsh and threatening, that the whole assembly ex- pecting nothing but instant death, threw themselves on their knees, and earnestly supplicated for mercy. The dukes of Berry and Burgimdy united in the petition, untiT at length Charles, as if moved with compassion, declared that he would 164 HISTORY OF FRANCE. substitute civil for criminal punishment; in other words, that he would commit robbery instead of murder. 9. The end of this " tragic farce," as the French call it, was, that the Paris- ians were obliged to pay more than half their wealth in fines, and that the taxes were levied with greater severity than ever. 10. The duke of Burgundy, on the death of his father-in- law, had become count of Flanders, and endeavoured to con- ciliate his new subjects, whom commercial wealth had ren- dered haughty and turbulent. The greater part of the trade of Europe at this time centered in the Low Countries. Bruges especially was the depot of commerce ; the treasures of the east were brought thither from Italy by the Lombard mer- chants, and exchanged for the less costly, but more useful productions of northern and western Europe. Their manu- factories, especially of woollen, were unrivalled ; and the wealth which they acquired by their trade had given them a consequence and importance which made them proud and others jealous. 11. Through the influence of the duke of Bur- i^Qp; g'^^^y? Charles was married to Isabella of Bavaria, a princess remarkable for her personal qualifications, and for every bad disposition which could render her charms pernicious. She brought innumerable misfortunes on her husband, her family, and the whole kingdom. 12. Under the weak and despicable government of Richard II., England had lost her former eminence, and the French, eager to revenge the calamities that had been inflicted on them by Edward III., resolved to invade that country. A great naval force was collected at Sluys, every vessel that could be purchased or hired between Sweden and Flanders was collected, and a huge wooden castle was constructed to be towed across the channel, an invention from which great advantages were anticipated. 13. But all these mighty pre- parations were rendered unavailing by the jealousy of the duke of Berry ; unwilling that an expedition planned by his rival Burgundy should succeed, he detained the fleet at Sluys until the sea was no longer navigable; the stormy season came on, a great part of the armament was destroyed, and the wooden castle floating out to sea, fell into the hands of the English mariners. The project of an invasion was renewed in each of the two succeeding years, and was similarly de- feated by the mutual quarrels of the king's uncles and the great nobles. CHARLES VI. 165 Philip tlie Bold, John the Fearless, and Philip the Good, Dukes of Burgundy 1386. 14. During this period of ineffectual preparation, an instance occurred of tlie vengeance that overtakes the guilty even in this life. Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, found at length a death worthy of his crimes. Worn out by debauchery, he endeavoured to restore vital heat to his limbs by wrapping himself in sheets soaked in spirits ; by some accident these took fire; before any assistance could be obtained, the fire had reached his vitals ; he lingered for a few days in the most excruciating agonies, and at length expired, to the great joy of every party by whom his secret treach- eries were equally feared and detested. 15. When Charles had arrived at the age of man- hood, he became jealous of the power wielded by his . ' J uncle, the duke of Burgundy, and determined to take the administration of affairs into his own hands. The duke, with a very bad grace, resigned the delegated authority, and had the mortification to see all his friends at once stripped of their offices, and their places supplied by the creatures of the duke of Orleans, the king's brother and most favoured adviser. 16. Oliver de Clisson, who had worthily succeeded du Gues- clin in the office of constable, was the president of the king's council, and under his guidance affairs began to assume an aspect of tranquillity. But de Clisson had, by some ambi- tious projects, provoked the hostility of the duke of Brittany, a prince long suspected by the French court, on account of 166 HISTORY OF FRANCE. tlie former connection between the Montforts and the English. A nobleman of infamous character, named deCraon, attempted to assassinate the constable in the streets of Paris, and be- lieving that he had been successful, fled for safety to the count of Brittany. The protection given him by the duke aflxirded some ground of presumption that he had been the original instigator of the crime. De Clisson, who had been only wounded, called loudly for redress, and Charles, ever rash and impetuous, without waiting to make any inquiries, levied an army, and hastily marched towards Brittany. 17. On a very hot day in tlie month of August, I^'q2 ^'^^ ^^"S' wearing on his head a heavy cap of scarlet cloth, rode apart from his company, attended only by two pages. Weakened by the debaucheries of youth, and oppressed by a cumbrous dress, he passed slowly on, almost fainting beneath the rays of a sultry sun. Suddenly a tall spectre-like figure in black sprung from a neighbouring thicket, seized the king's bridle, and exclaimed, " Stop, king, whither are you going ? you are betrayed." Having said these few words, he again disappeared among the trees. Nearly at the same time, one of the pages, whom the overpowering heat had inclined to slumber, let his lance fall against the helmet of his companion. This sudden clash of arms, combining with the recent warning, was too powerful for the mind of the unhappy monarch; in a moment he became raging mad, and drawing his sword, fell furiously on his servants. 18. With great difficulty he was overpowered and secured; his attendants fastened him with ropes on a cart, and in this piteous state he was conveyed to the nearest town. His uncles had him brought to Paris, and took on themselves the admi- nistration of affairs for some months; but on the king's reco- very, the duke of Orleans again recovered his power, and thus commenced the hostility between the factions of Orleans and Burgundy, which had nearly caused the utter ruin of the nation. 19. A strange accident soon after caused a return ,o'nq of the king's malady. At the marriage of one of the ■ queen's attendants, the king and five young nobles re- solved to appear in the character of savages ; for this purpose they prepared dresses of coarse cloth, smeared with pitch, and then sprinkled over with loose flax. When they entered the saloon, the duke of Orleans took a torch to examine their dresses more closely ; a spark fell on the flax, it imme CHARLES VI. 167 fliately burst into flames, and a scene of indescribable confu- sion ensued ; four of the masques were burnt to death, a fifth escaped by plunging into a cistern of water : the king was saved by the presence of mind of the duchess of Berri, who threw a cloak over him, and kept him in a corner of the apartment until the flames were extinguished. This horrid scene produced a second fit of insanity, which, with a few lucid intervals, lasted during the rest of the king's unfortunate life; prayers were offered up, and processions made, medicine and magic were both tried, but all the remedies that the wis- dom of the age could suggest were equally inefficacious. 20. In one of the king's lucid intervals, a success- • • -AD ful attempt was made to reconcile for a time the dif- . ' ' ferences between France and England ; the sovereigns of both met near Calais, and agreed on a truce ; in con- sequence, Richard married the daughter of Charles, and re- signed the towns of Brest and Cherburg. 21. An unfortunate event for the English monarch, as it increased the discontents among his subjects, who justly dreaded that these ports would again become nests of privateers, and harass the English trade. 22. The dukes of Orleans and Burgundy continued to con- tend for the supreme power, and their contests kept the court and the kingdom in constant agitation. The disputes of their wives aggravated their mutual haired : the duchess of Bur- gundy, proud of her illustrious descent and immense wealth, looked down with contempt on Valentina of Orleans ; she, in her turn, confiding in her beauty and accomplishments, ridiculed the person of her haughty rival. The duchess of Orleans was universally esteemed one of the most charming women of the time ; she had so much influence over Charles, even in the most violent of his paroxysms, that her enemies attributed her power to magic. A truce of |/,-,q twenty-eight years had been concluded with the Eng- lish, when the aid of the French was solicited by Sigismond, king of Hungary, against the redoubtable Bajazel, the Turkish sultan, and the count de Nevers, John sans Peur, (John the Fearless,) son of tf\e duke of Burgundy, led a numerous army to his relief This force was defeated beneath the walls of Nicopolis, and the flower of the warriors of France were slain or made prisoners on that fatal day. The count de Nevers was ransomed by the people of Burgundy for two hundred thousand crowns. At length the death of the duke of Burgundy, in 1404, seemed to have secured the triumph 168 HISTORY OF FRANCE. John the Fearless before Nicopolis. of Orleans, but he found the son and successor of his rival a still more formidable enemy than the father had been. 23. The queen was a warm partizan of the Orleans' party, she was indeed more than suspected of having carried her attach- ment to the duke beyond the bounds of innocence, and it is questionable whether she did him more service by the aid she afforded, or injury by the hostility which her crimes pro- voked. Her conduct as a mother and wife was infamous ; the tutor of her children was unable to procure the common ne- cessaries of life for his charge, and when complaints were made to the wretched Charles, he replied, "Alas! I am not better treated." In fact, it appeared that he had passed five months without a bed or a change of linen. 24. After the kingdom had been long distracted by the contending factions, an apparent reconciliation was effected between the rivals; the duke of Burgundy feigned a more than ordinary affection for his cousin of Orleans, lamented A. D. 1407. CHARLES VI. 169 the length of time that they had been disunited, and appeared anxious to drown the memory of former hostilities by con- tinued marks of favour and kindness. But all this was pre- paratory to an act of execrable treachery. While the duke of Orleans was going one night to visit the queen, he was suddenly attacked by assassins, whom his rival had hired, and cruelly murdered. 25. After this horrid deed, the duke of Burgundy fled to his estates, and the widow of the deceased prince came to Paris, accompanied by her three cliildren, to claim vengeance. The duke of Burgundy was, however, a criminal too power- ful to be punished. When summoned to take his trial, he appeared at the head of an army ; a monk whom he had hired, pleaded his cause before the council, but his soldiers were ar- guments still more powerful; he was acquitted and restored to all his former authority. 26. The young duke of Orleans had married the daughter of the count d'Armagnac, one of the most powerful nobles of Gascony, and as he gave himself up entirely to the direc- tions of his father-in-law, the partizans of Orleans were for the future called Armagnacs. At first they were reduced to the very brink of ruin by the Burgundians, whose party was warmly embraced by the populace of Paris ; the duke of Burgundy, by his immoderate use of victory, pro- i /iV voked the iiostility of the nobles, and was compelled to give way in his turn. He fled to his estates, a royal army marched against him, and he was obliged to purchase peace on the most humiliating conditions. This period of history is remarkable for the great schism in the church of Rome. It began in 1377, when Pope Gre- gory XI. removed the papal see from Avignon back to Rome. He died in the following year, and after his death there was a great schism among the cardinals, who could not agree in the choice of a new pontifT. Those who were in the inte- rests of Rome wished to elect a pope who would remain at Rome ; while, on the contrary, those who were in the inte- rests of France, wished to bring back the papal see to Avig- non, As the two parlies could not agree in naming tlie same pope, they both chose one of their own, so that there were two popes. This schism lasted forty years, and caused continual disturbances throughout Italy. At last there were three popes all at one time, John XXIIl., Gregory XII., and Benedict XIII. The emperor Sigismond, who was very 170 HISTORY OF FRANCE. anxious to restore the peace of Italy, obliged John, much against his will, to summon a council at Constance, for the three purposes of terminating the schism, of reforming the church, and of extirpating heresy. This council met on the feast of All Saints, 1414, and the emperor compelled John to make a public declaration, that he would resign his dignity, provided his two rivals would do the same. John, however, had no intention of keeping his word, but he dis- simulated for fear of the emperor, who kept him as a kind of prisoner. He now bitterly repented having come to Con- stance, and resolved to get away as soon as he could. But this, as the town was full of Sigismond's partisans, was no easy matter. At last, the duke of Austria, who was his friend, contrived to favour his escape, by proclaiming a tournament, during the bustle of which the pope got away in the disguise of a postilion. The emperor was very angry with the duke of Austria for assisting John in his escape; he laid him under the ban of the empire, and would forgive him only on condition that he gave up the fugitive pope. John was suspended from his pontifical powers, and im- prisoned for about three years at Heidleberg, at the end of which time he was released on his consenting to acknowledge Martin V., who had been elected pope by the members of the council. Thus in 1417 an end was happily put to the schism which had so long embroiled Italy, and the more happily, because Martin was a peace-making good man. Ladies of the Fifteenth century. CHAllf.-ES VI. 171 Knighl of the Fifteenth Century, in fall Armour. CHAPTER XIX. CHARLES VI.— HENRY V. OF ENGLAND. Hadst thou seen, Skilful as brave, how Henry's ready eye Lost not a thicket, nor a hillock's aid, From his hersed bowman, how the arrows flew, Thick as the snow flakes, and with lishtning force, Thou wouldst have known, such soldiers, such a chief. Could never be subdued. Socthey^ 1. While the Armagnacs and Burgundians were exhausting themselves and their country by their , /.J bloody contests, the English were preparing to renew 172 HISTORY OF FRANCE. the glories of Edward, and make a second effort for the sub- jugation of France. The reign of Richard II. had been too weak, and that of the usurper Henry IV. too turbulent, for any attempts at so great an enterprise; but on the accession of Henry V. the whole English nation so passionately cla- moured for an invasion of France, that Henry would pro- bably have endangered his throne had he hesitated to com- ply. With no better excuse than the almost forgotten pre- tensions of Edward II f. he published a declaration of war, and passing over into Normandy, laid siege to Harfleur. 2. The garrison made an obstinate defence for several months, but at length their provisions were exhausted ; their suppli- cations for assistance were disregarded by the government, and they were forced to surrender at discretion. 3. From Harfleur, Henry advanced through Normandy towards Calais, meeting with little or no resistance, but the heat of the wea- ther and the quantities of rich fruits eaten by the soldiers, produced a pestilence in his camp, by which numbers of his soldiers were destroyed, and the rest greatly weakened. O t 94 ^" ■'" ^^^^ calamitous situation, Henry was over- , '. ^ ' taken by the constable d'Albret, with an array eight times more numerous than his own, on the plains of Azincourt. It was late in the evening when the two armies came in sight of each other, and the engagement was consequently deferred to the following day. On the side of the French, there was confidence in strength and numbers, " they jested," says an old historian, " at those scarecrows of English who could scarcely sit on their famished horses." 5. Notwithstanding the disparity of forces, two anecdotes will serve to convince us that the English and their gallant sovereign were not totally destitute of hope. Henry sent a Welsh captain named David Gam, to bring him some account of the number of the French, and David returned with the following report, "May it please your majesty, there are enough to be killed, enough to be taken, and enough to run away." When Henry heard his brother wish for more men, he said, "• I would not desire another : if we are to fall, I wish not that the loss of our country should be increased ; if we are to win, the fewer that share our glory the better." 6. The morning of St. Crispin's day saw both armies prepared for the battle. The fight, though the odds were so unequal, was not long maintained by the French, they were defeated, as at Cre9y and Poictiers, by the heavy fire of the archers. CHARLES VI. 173 The Duke of Orleans, taken Prisoner at Azincourt. which drove their cavalry back on the infantry, and mingled both in remediless confusion. 7. The Duke of Orleans was one of the prisoners taken by the English. But the victori- ous army was unable to maintain its conquests ; sickness and the climate were enemies not to be resisted, and Henry hav- ing with difficulty brought his shattered bands to Calais, re- turned home. 8. It would have been naturally supposed, that the pre- sence of a public enemy would have checked the private dis- sensions of France ; but on the contrary, they seem rather to have become worse in consequence. The two eldest sons of the king having died within a very short space, Charles, a sworn enemy to the house of Burgundy, succeeded to the title of Dauphin, and united himself in strict alliance with d'Armagnac, who on the death of d'Albret, had been ap- pointed constable of France. The queen was the only per- son whose authority could counterbalance the weight of this party, and the constable resolved to remove her from his path. As she lived in the practice of open and avowed licentiousness, it was not difficult to find a pretence for put- ting her under arrest; one of h6r paramours was seized, con- victed, and drowned, and she was sent as a prisoner to Tours. Thenceforward she was animated with the most im- placable hatred against the constable, and against the daupliin her own son, whom, though only sixteen years old, she de- tested for having assented to her degradation. 15* 171 HISTORY OF FIIANCE. Heary V. of England. 9. The imprisonment of the queen, the iiniiappy 1 /, ' death of two dauphins, the deprivation of a great num- ber of officers, the pillage of the open country by the unpaid soldiery, and the depredations of the Armagnaes, who even took the plate out of the churches, afforded the duke of Burgundy pretexts sufficiently specious for renewing the war, under pretence of liberating the king, and tranquillizing the nation. At the request of the queen he came to Tours and rescued her from captivity ; thence he proceeded to Troyes, where the queen proclaimed herself regent, summoned an as- sembly of the states, and had a great seal made, on wliich her own figure was engraved. 10. In so favourable a con- juncture the English monarch was not remiss, he invaded Normandy a second time, and soon made himself master of the greater part of that province. And yet the constable was contented to see France dismembered by the English, rather ihan hazard its being governed by his enemy. 1 1. The citi- zens of Paris were become weary of a domestic war which CHARLES VI. 175 exhausted all their resources ; they had not forgotten their former attachment to the house of Burgundy, and the Armag- nacs had on many occasions violated the privileges of the city ; for these reasons when I'Isle Adam, a partisan of the duke, appeared in the streets shouting, " Peace and Burgundy," he was immediately joined by such a numerous body of the citizens, that it was impossible for his enemies to make any resistance. 12. But the cry of peace was treacherous and delusive, a cruel slaughter of the Armagnac party commenced ; nor was it confined to them, every man that had a personal enemy was designated an Armagnac, and the name at once procured him to be murdered. The dauphin was saved with difficulty by a faithful friend; but the count d'Armagnac, and the ministers of the crown, remained prisoners with an infu- riate mob, who knew not the name of mercy.* They vvere all cruelly put to death, and with bitter mockery, the erect^ or St. George's cross, was cut on their bodies, for that was the symbol of the Armagnacs, as the oblique^ or St. Andrew's, was of the Burgundians. 13. The flight of the dauphin was the signal for civil war in every part of France \ while the English taking advantage of these dissensions, steadily pursued their career of victory, and subdued town after town without meeting any effective resistance. At length the duke of Burgundy i /iq* made proposals to the dauphin for an accommodation, it was agreed that they should meet on the bridge of Monte- reau, and a barrier was erected on it to protect both from the hostility of their mutual followers. Some friends of the murdered duke of Orleans took this opportunity to revenge his death ; leaping over the barrier in the midst of the confer- ence, they fell on the duke of Burgundy and slew him. It is uncertain whether the dauphin had any share in this treach- erous transaction, but its consequences nearly proved fatal to him and to his followers. 14. Philip, son of the murdered duke, assembled a numerous army, the queen joined him with her forces, and a peace was concluded with England, by which * Tliese excesses, we are told by the old historians, were followed by the most brilliant processions ever seen. The murderers sought to palliate their crimes by associating them with religious ceremo- nies. The scarcity occasioned by the pillage and conflagrations in the environs of Paris, was followed by a contagious disease, which made such dreadful ravages, that, in the space of five weeks, fifty thousand of the citizens died. 176 HISTORY OF FRANCE. it was stipulated that Henry V. should marry Catharine, the daughter of the French king, that he should be appointed re- gent during the life of Charles VI., that then the crown of France should devolve on Henry and his successors, and that no peace should be made with the dauphin without the con- sent of the two kings, the duke of Burgundy, and the three estates of the realm. Catharine, Wife of Henry V. of England. 15. When this treaty had been completed, Henry 1 42(1 ^^^ Charles proceeded together towards Paris, where the duke of Burgundy appeared before the council, and entered an accusation in form against the dauphin for the murder of his father. After the absent prince had been re- gularly summoned, sentence of confiscation and banishment was pronounced against him, and the succession of Henry formally recognized by the parliament and the council. 16. The following year, during Henry's absence in England, his army, under the command of his brother the duke of Clarence, was attacked by the dauphin's soldiers, under the guidance CHARLES VI. 177 of the earl of Buchan, a Scotch nobleman, while besieging- Beange in Anjou. In this engagement the English were de- feated and their general slain. 17. When the news reached Henry, he passed over into France with a fresh arm)'-, and used every exertion in his power to provoke the dauphin to come to an engagement ; but that prince was too wise to hazard a battle, and the English monarch, after having ex- hausted his soldiers by long and fatiguing marches, gave up the pursuit and returned to Paris. 18. A little before this, his queen had been delivered of a son, to whom the name of his father was given. Henry made his tri- i^,y.^ umphant entry into Paris on the day of Pentecost, but did not long enjoy his tranquillity ; having learned that the dauphin meditated some fresh enterprises he marched against him, but on the road was seized with a disease which soon proved mortal : with his dying breath he appointed the cardinal of Winchester guardian of his infant son, the duke of Gloucester regent of England, and the duke of Bedford regent of France ; particularly recommending the latter to use every possible means of retaining the friendship of the duke of Burgundy, on whose alliance he justly believed that the security of the English conquests in France depended. 19. In a few months after, died Charles VI. of France, who had been politically dead for several years past. He was buried in the cathedral of St. Denis, unattended to the tomb by any prince of his blood ; even the duke of Burgundy was absent, as he did not think it consistent with his dignity to yield precedency to the duke of Bedford. 20. During this troubled reign, Europe was dis- tracted by what is usually called "the schism of i o'~q THE WEST." The inhabitants of Rome had been long grieved by the continued residence of the popes at Avig- non, and on the death of Gregory VI. they surrounded the conclave to demand a pope of their own nation, threatening to exterminate the whole college in case of a refusal. Urban VI. was chosen and consecrated, but soon after, rendering himself odious to a great body of the cardinals, they retired to Fondi, where they elected a second pope, Clement VII., under the pretence that the former election was void, in consequence of the force that had been used. v^ 21. Thus there were two popes, one at Avignon and one at Rome, both claiming infallibility, and both excommuni- cating each other as heretics and schismatics. This disgrace- M 178 HISTORY OF FRANCE. ful exhibition continued for forty years; all Europe was di- vided as the potentates happened to be led either by prejudice or interest. France embraced the cause of Clement and his successors, but England and Germany asserted the cause of Urban and the popes chosen in Rome ; a division that not a little exasperated national animosities. 22. While these two pontiffs thundered curses and ana- themas against each other, engaged in a most furious war, distracted the consciences of men, and disturbed the govern- ment of kingdoms, each of them reckoned a number of saints on their side, of whose revelations and miracles they boasted as proofs of the goodness of their cause. St. Catharine of Sienna wrote every where in favour of Urban, and in her letter to the king of France, called the cardinals who were favourers of Clement, devils incarnate. Such a powerful authority re- quired a counterpoise, and some miraculous claims equally strong were opposed to it ; but the greatest miracle would have been to act with temper, a miracle which it is scarce necessary to add was not exhibited. 23. At length the sovereigns of Europe combined 1414. ^^ P"^ ^" ^^^ ^*-* what they justly deemed a scandal ' on religion ; and a council being assembled at Con- stance, both popes were deposed, and Martin V. elected in their stead. 24. But the council sullied the glory that they obtained by thus putting an end to the schism. They sum- moned John Huss and Jerome of Prague to appear before them on a charge of having broached heretical doctrines, and notwithstanding the emperor's safe-conduct, condemned them to the flames. They also refused to make any of those re- forms in the church which the general wishes of Europe and the increasing knowledge of the age demanded, and thus they prepared a way for the great religious revolution which was about to commence in a succeeding century. 25. Neither were the followers of Huss in Bohemia reduced to submission, they took up arms in defence of their liberties, and maintained a desperate war against their oppressors. Their general, John Trasnow, surnamed Ziska or the One-eyed, defeated his an- tagonists in several engagements ; on his death-bed he gave orders that a drum should be made of his skin, to inspire the soldiers with courage. At length a peace was concluded, by which the privileges of the Bohemians were confirmed, and freedom of religious worship conceded to the Hussites. 26. The reign of Charles VI. is also remarkable for the first CHARLES VI. 179 appearance in Europe of that extraordinary people who have been called Zingeys, Bohemians, or Gypsies ; ,1^1 it is not easy to account for their origin, but the most probable opinion appears to be, that they were an Indian tribe expelled from their country by some of the revolutions which have taken place in that country. . They certainly were not Egyptians, as has been generally supposed ; for in language, dress, and manner of life, they are totally different from any people that ever inhabited Egypt. They were soon treated as a proscribed race, and, like the Jews, persecuted wherever they appeared ; but, like that people, they survived persecutions, and their descendants still continue to exist as a distinct people in many parts of Europe. John Huss before the Council of Constance. 180 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Charles VII. CHAPTER XX. CHARLES VII., SURNAMED THE VICTORIOUS. Thus the French, In bright array, and high in confident hope, Await the signal; whilst with other thoughts, And anxious awe, once more the invading host Prepare them in the field of fight to meet The Maid of Obleans. SOUTHET. 1. Nothing could' be more deplorable than the 1422 P'"o^P^'^*'^ of Charles VII. when, by his father's death, he became the lawful monarch of France. All the provinces from the Scheld to the Loire and the Saone, were possessed by the Burgundians and the English, the duke of Brittany deserted him, his treasury was so low that a shoe- maker refused to give him credit for a pair of shoes, and his favourite general, the earl of Buchan, had fallen into the hands of his enemies. His infant rival, Henry VI., was peace- CHARLES VII. 181 ably crowned at Paris, most of the great cities sent their de- puties to swear allegiance to the English, and the wise admi- nistration of the duke of Bedford seemed to have reconciled the French to an English government. 2. Charles himself appeared to have lost all hope, for, neglecting public aflairs, he gave himself up to indolence and dissipation ; his friends in vain endeavoured to inspire him with better thoughts, and one of them, when asked his opinion of some festival which engaged the attention of Charles, replied, " Sire, I do not be- lieve it possible for any one to lose a kingdom with greater gaiety." 3. This state of affairs was first disturbed by the mad am- bition of the duke of Gloucester, who had married Isabella, countess of Hainault, while her husband, the duke of Bra- bant, was alive, and had taken up arms to obtain possession of her dominions. Such a proceeding greatly displeased the duke of Burgundy, who was cousin-german to the injured husband, and the war which took place between him and Gloucester inspired the Burgundian with a distaste for the English, which all the skill of the duke of Bedford was una- ble to remove. The war terminated when the pope declared Jacqueline's second marriage null and void, but the jealousies to which it had given rise were never ef- i /nq faced. 4. Orleans was now the only town of im- portance which Charles possessed, and it was closely besieged by the Earl of Salisbury. Charles, unable to relieve the town, was preparing to yield to his unhappy fate, and retire into Dauphiny, but he was diverted from this disgraceful course by the exhortations of his mistress, the celebrated Agnes Sorel, a woman whose many virtues in some degree atone for her single crime. 5. The garrison of Orleans pro- posed to surrender the town to the duke of Burgundy, to be held in trust for their duke, who had been a prisoner in Eng- land ever since the fatal battle of Agincourt ; but this proposal was rejected by the besiegers, and thus a new cause of jeal- ousy arose between the dukes of Burgundy and Bedford. The earl of Salisbury was killed by a cannon-shot while di- recting the siege, but this loss was compensated by the total defeat of the French army while endeavouring to intercept a convoy of herrings that were being conveyed to the English camp. 6. When Orleans almost approached its ruin, and no hope seemed to appear in any quarter, the town was saved, and the fortunes of Charles restored by one of the most ex- 16 182 HISTORY OF FRANCE. traordinary revolutions recorded in history. A young girl, about eighteen years of age, called Joan of Arc, declared her- self comnussioned by heaven to rescue Orleans, and have Charles crowned at Rheims, It is not easy to determine whether she was an enthusiast or an impostor ; it is probable that, like Mohammed and many others, she united both cha- racters. Her pretensions were at first derided, but Charles, in the unfortunate posture of his aflairs, eagerly caught at the first glimpse of hope, and summoned her to his presence. 7. On this occasion she is said to have given miraculous proofs of her vocation ; she discovered the king, though disguised, amidst a crowd of courtiers ; she pointed out a place in a church where a sword, ornamented with the cross and the arms of France, had been concealed for time beyond human memory, and the king declared that she had discovered to him a secret known to himself alone. In short, as the delusion or imposture was likely to be of service, no means were left untried to confirm its authority. 8. Armed with the miraculous sword, and displaying a consecrated banner, the Maid of Orleans, as she is usually called, advanced against the English with an army whom en- thusiasm had made irresistible. The siege of Orleans was raised, and the English, who believed that they had to con- tend against a supernatural enemy, began to lose their con- quests with greater rapidity than they had been gained. 9. Her next exploit was one of equal difficulty and importance; she escorted Charles safely to Rheims almost through the very midst of his enemies, and personally assisted at his coro- nation. As a reward for these services, Joan and her family were ennobled ; she now declared, that as the objects of her mission were accomplished, she would again return to private life, but allowed herself to be persuaded that it was her duty to remain until the English were totally banished from France. Ere long she had cause to repent this change in her resolu- tion ; Compeigne being besieged by the Burgundians, the he- roine threw herself into the place with some of her devoted followers, and by her means the town was enabled to make a successful defence. 10. But the governor, jealous that his honours should be shared with a woman, closed the barriers against her as she was returning from a successful sally, and thus Joan fell into the hands of the Burgundians, who sold their prisoner to her inveterate enemies the English. CHARLES VII. 183 Coronation of Charles VII. 11. The diike of Bedford, enraged that the wise plans and labours of himself and his deceased brother , /qi' should have been baffled by a female, refused to treat the Maid of Orleans as a prisoner of war ; a species of eccle- siastical tribunal was appointed for her trial at Rouen, and there she was accused of sorcery, heresy, and unchastity. 12. The only charge proved against her was that she had worn the dress of a man, and consequently her judges could not with any appearance of justice condemn her to death ; they sentenced her to perpetual imprisonment — in their own ex- pressive words — "to drink the cup of sorrow and eat the bread of affliction," adding, that if she were to be again de- tected wearing the dress of a man, death would be the certain consequence. 13. The latter part of the sentence suggested to her enemies a piece of execrable cruelty ; they left in her prison several articles of male attire, and watched for the mo- ment when she would be tempted to try them on. The event answered their expectation ; in an unguarded moment the maid put on some portion of a warrior's dress, she was 184 HISTORY OF FRANCE. dragged a second time before the barbarous tribunal, con- demned, and burned to death in the streets of Rouen. 14. In her last moments she protested her innocence, and appealed to Heaven for vengeance on her persecutors. She is said by some to have prophesied that God would punish the nation which had thus murdered the innocent ; if so, the expul- sion of the English from France, and their subsequent sufferings in the civil wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, were an ample fulfilment of her prediction. 15. Twenty-five years after her death, tardy justice was done to her memory; Charles directed the proceedings on her trial to be subjected to the higher courts in Paris, by whom they were unanimously set aside as illegal and un- just. 1 6. *The forces and treasures of both na- 1435. tions being exhausted by the length of the war, little of importance was at- tempted on either side for Monument of Joan of Arc. some years. But the English power at length met two unex- pected misfortunes, which soon destroyed all the effects of their former victories. The first of these was a reconcilia- tion between the king of France and the duke of Burgundy, the second was the death of the duke of Bedford, whom vexation and grief for this unexpected event hurried to his * The wars had so depopulated the country, that wolves and other beasts of prey infested even the city of Paris. In 1437 they entered the city by the river, and devoured fourteen or fifteen persons. In the following year they appeared again, killed four women and se- verely bit seventeen other individuals, of whom eleven died of their wounds. There was one formidable wolf in particular, called Courtand, because he had no tail, that became an object of universal dread. When any person was leaving the city, it was said, " garde: vous de Courtand" which afterwards passed into a proverb. CHARLES VII. 185 Death of Joan of Arc. 16^ CHARLES VII. 187 grave. Paris opened her gates to Charles, city after city fol- lowed the example of the capital, England became distracted by civil war, and in a few years nought remained of all their boasted conquests but Calais. 17. The kingdom had been scarcely freed from the evils of a foreign enemy, when Charles found his quiet , ' ' disturbed by the artifices and cabals of his eldest son Louis. This prince, who was a monster of depravity, had employed assassins to murder a nobleman against whom he had conceived some personal dislike. When the attempt was discovered, Charles reproved the treachery of his son in se- vere terms, and Louis, impatient of control, retired from the court with a firm resolution never again to be subject to his father's power. He is accused, but rather from his general character than from any definite proofs, of having poisoned Agnes Sorel, the beloved mistress of his father; but his cha- racter is sufficiently blackened by undeniable crimes, w^ithout those which at best have no foundation but suspicion. 18. The people of Guienne, and especially the citir zens of Bordeaux, had been always remarkable for , /p.^ their attachment to the English ; after they had re- mained for some time subject to Charles, they became wearied of a government which disregarded their privileges and loaded them with oppressive taxes. Deputies were sent to England, entreating Henry VI. to receive them again under his protec- tion, and to send them a body of forces to assist in the ex- pulsion of the French. 19. Talbot, the most celebrated general of the period, was sent to Guienne with a strong body of forces. At first he obtained several victories, and reduced the greater part of the province, but Charles having assembled all the forces of the kingdom, overpowered the little army of the English near Castillon. Talbot and his gallant son were slain, the greater part of their soldiers either killed or made prisoners, and no means of resisting the power of Charles remained. Bourdeaux surrendered after a short siege, several of its inhabitants were banished, two castles called the Chateau Trorapette, and the Chateau-Ha, were erected to control the rest, and thus Guienne and Aquitaine were irrevocably united to the crown of France. 20. When Louis the dauphin had withdrawn from his father's court, he retired to his own province, Dauphiny; but there his cruelties and exactions were so intolerable, that his subjects were compelled to appeal to the king. , ^'^ „ Charles sent Dammartin to arrest his disobedient son ; « 188 HISTORY OF FRANCE. but Louis, having obtained notice of his approach, fled to the territories of the duke of Burgundy, who received him with all the respect due to the son of his sovereign. Charles sent frequent embassies to the duke, requiring him to withdraw his protection from the dauphin, warning him that " he nourished a serpent who would repay his hospitality by attempting his life." The Burgundian would not listen to these remonstrances, although he knew that Louis had excited his own son, the count of Charolois, to acts of rebellion. Charles was i^m ^° exasperated against Louis, that he was with diffi- ■ culty prevented from disinheriting him, and transfer- ring the right of succession to his second son. 21. But in the midst of his deliberations, he received positive intelligence that his domestics had been bribed to poison him by his un- natural son. His apprehensions became so great, that not knowing from whose hand he could receive food with safety, he abstained from eating for several days 5 at the end of that lime it was no longer in his power to swallow, and thus his death was accelerated by his precautions. He died in the 59th year of his age, and 39th of his reign ; having, by a series of favourable chances, overcome so many dangers and difficulties, that he would have deserved the epithet of For- tunate, had he been blessed with a different father and a dif- ferent son. 22. The wars in this reign show us that the spirit of chi- valry was fast declining. We meet no traces of that indi vidual heroism which throws such a romantic interest over the history of Edward's invasion, and Azincourt was the last great battle in whicii the superiority of the English archers was made available. Fire-arms were gradually superseding the use of the bow, and cavalry, which had been hitherto the most important part of an army, was, by the new system of warfare, considerably diminished in value. These changes in the art of war had a considerable influence on the political condition of society : for the knights and small proprietors, who had hitherto possessed great influence by the importance of their services, sunk all at once when these were performed by hired soldiers. Tlie authority of the feudal aristocracy was thus destroyed : in England it was transferred to the members of the house of commons, and thus secured for that country the blessings of a free constitution ; but in France it centered in the crown, and thus the government became an absolute monarchy. CHARLES VII. 189 The costume of this period is thus described by Mon strelet. " In the year 1461, the ladies laid aside their long trains to their gowns, and in lieu of them had deep borders of furs of minever, marten, and others, or of velvet and vari- ous articles of great breadth.. They also wore hoods on their heads of circular form, half an ell or three quarters high, gradually tapering to the top. Some had them not so high, with handkerchiefs wreathed round them, the corners hanging down to the ground. They also wore silken girdles of a greater breadth than formerly, with the richest shoes ; with golden necklaces much more trimly decked in divers fashions than they had been accustomed to wear them. At the same time the men wore shorter jackets than usual, after the manner in which people were wont to dress monkeys, which was a very indecent and imprudent thing. The sleeves of their outwai'd dress and jackets were slashed, to show their wide white shirts. " Their hair was so long that it covered their eyes and face, and on their heads they had cloth bonnets of a quarter of an ell in height. " Knights and squires, indifferently, wore the most sump- tuous golden chains. Even the varlets had jackets of silk, satin, or velvet; and almost all, especially at the courts "of princes, wore peaks at their shoes of a quarter of an ell in length. " They had also under their jackets stuffings at the shoulders, to make them appear broad, which is a vanity, and perchance displeasing to God." 190 HISTORY OP FRANCE. Louis XI. CHAPTER XXL LOUIS XL Not serve two masters ? here's a man will try it ; Will still serve God, yet give the devil his due; Says grace before he does a deed of villany, And returns thanks devoutly when 'tis acted. Scott. 1. The conduct of Louis XL, while dauphin, to 14fil' '^^''^^ ^^'s father and his subjects in Dauphiny, suffi ciently proved to the people of France, that his acces sion to the throne would be any thing but desirable. He. seemed to have some misgivings on the subject himself, foi when he heard the news of his father's death, he came to Paris escorted by the duke of Burgundy and his son, with about fourteen thousand horse. He treated his subjects as if they were a conquered people ; he deprived of their situa- tions every officer that his father had appointed, took a ma- licious pleasure in undoing every thing that had been done in LOUTS XI. 191 the former reign, limited the provision made for his brother, loaded the people with taxes, plundered the nobles, and in- sulted the clergy. 3. These proceedings naturally provoked the hostility of his subjects ; an alliance was formed against Louis, called the league of the public good, but in which every leader sought merely his own private advantage. The duke of Berri, brother to the king, looked for a larger appanage* the dukes of Bourbon and Brittany wished for an enlargement of their dominions, the count of Saint Paul desired the office of con- stable, and the counts of Armagnac and Damartin sought the restitution of their estates. At the head of this confederacy was Charles, count of Charolois, the former friend and future rival of Louis ; the friendship that they had professed in the court of Burgundy while Louis was an exile, had changed into the most bitter enmity, and indeed mutual hatred appears to have been the necessary consequence of the character of both. 3. Charles was headstrong, impetuous, and self-willed, unable to disguise or control his violent passions, ambitious of glory, regardless of consequences, but possessing many re- deeming qualities of the soldier, for he was frank, sincere, candid, and generous. Louis, on the other hand, was a con- summate master of hypocrisy ; his manners were gentle, kind, and insinuating ; he never forgave, but he could dissemble his hostihty until a moment favourable for its display had arrived ; he felt more pride in having overreached an enemy than in winning a battle ; fraud and perjury were his favourite weapons, and few have ever wielded them with equal dex- terity ; he had no confidence in men, for he believed that all were hypocrites like himself. Boththe rivals were harsh, cruel, and unprincipled, but the unthinking Charles broadly exhibit- ed his faults to the public, while Louis disguised them under an affected appearance of humility, which rendered him less suspected but more dangerous. It is a strange part of this monarch's character, that he was the most credulous as well as the most crafty of mankind, he devoutly believed in all the absurdities of judicial astrology, and usually had several professors of this pretended science in his train ; he was a complete devotee in all the forms of worship, frequently con- fessing himself to his chaplain, and addressing prayers to the leaden images of the saints with which he had adorned his dress. His favourite companions were selected from the lowest * Property assigned for the support of a younger son. 192 HISTORY OF FRANCE. grade of society ; indeed the character of Louis and his court may be sufficiently determined by the fact, that his principal favourites were Oliver Dain his barber, and Tristan I'Hermile, the public executioner. 4. The count of Charolois without waiting for his allies ad- vanced towards Paris, and Louis eager to save his capital, hastened to reach it before his rival. The two armies met at Mont I'Hery ; both were anxious to avoid an engagement, but the seneschal of Normandy, one of the leaguers, precipitated a battle, and was himself one of the first that fell. From the description given us of this fight, it appears to have been the most extraordinary that ever took place, the greater part of both armies ran away, and when night separated the combat- ants, each believed himself defeated. It was proposed in the Burgundian camp to take advantage of the night in order to make good their retreat, and they were not a little surprised in the morning to find themselves masters of the field. 5. " This unexpected victory," says Philip de Comines, " was the source of all the calamities which the count of Charolois afterwards experienced, for it inspired him with so much confidence in his own skill and prowess, that he disregarded all advice." 6. Louis retired to Paris, and there began to practise the counsel given him by his ally, Sforza, duke of Milan ; the crafty Ita- lian had recommended him to promise the leaguers all that they demanded, and then, after they had disbanded their troops, to sow causes of dissension among them, and attack them in detail. This was just the plan which Louis was calculated to execute, he made a truce with the leaguers, went into the hostile camp, and pretended to feel a wonderful revival of af- fection for the count of Charolois ; he made similar demonstra- tions of esteem to all the principal leaguers, and expressed the utmost anxiety to regain their friendship on any terms short of resigning his crown. 7. The treaty was accelerated by an unexpected event, which made Louis consent to the ar- ticle which he had hitherto most pertinaciously refused. The leaguers insisted on the duchy of Normandy as an appanage for the king's brother, and Louis dreading that the possession of such an important province might prove a step to the crown, had rejected the proposal ; but while the matter was still a subject of negociation, the Normans, eager to obtain provincial independence, everywhere opened their gates to the forces of the league. When the news reached the king, he resolved to make a merit of granting what he could no longer withhold, and immediately signed the treaty. LOUIS XI. 193 8. The policy of Sforza's advice soon appeared : the duke of Britlany wished to rule over Normandy in the name of its new duke ; Berri was unwilling to permit him, and tliis quar- rel nearly caused the ruin of both. Louis marched his forces towards Caen, and summoned the duke of Brittany to appear before him: that prince, terrified and surprised, consented at the conference to resign into the king's hands all the towns that his soldiers garrisoned in Lower Normandy. The re- mainder of the province yielded either to threats or violence, and the duke of Berri, destitute of friends, nioney, spirit, or counsel, thought himself happy in escaping with his life to the court of Brittany. Normandy enjoyed its qualified inde- pendence only two months, but the desire shown to obtain it cost the life of several of its nobles, whom Louis put to death without any of the formalities of justice. 9. The count of Charolois was very indignant when the news of these pro- ceedings reached him, but Louis had provided employment for him at home, by stirring up the factious citizens of Liege and Ghent to rebellion. While the count was reducing the insurgents to obedience, his father died, and he succeeded to the immense riches and resources of the duchy of Burgundy. The citizens of Ghent and Liege were forced to submit to very severe terms, and the young duke having increased his treasury, by exacting from them heavy pecuniary punish- ments, prepared to turn his attention to France, where Louis was rapidly recovering all that he had resigned at the peace. 10. The king had made a furious irruption into Brittany: several of the frontier towns had submitted 14^0 to his arms, when news reached his camp, that Charles of Burgundy with a gallant army was rapidly advancing towards the Somme. Before his arrival, the leaguers, unable to make any effective resistance, had made terms with the king ; a piece of news which so surprised and enraged Charles, that he was with difficulty prevented from hanging the herald who brought him the intelligence. H. Louis was naturally anxious to get rid of his vigorous rival, whose presence at the head of an army gave encouragement to all the discontented spirits of the kingdom. For this purpose, by the advice of the cardinal Balue, he took the most extraordinary step that can be imagined. Relying on his own superior address, he re- solved to pay a personal visit to Charles in Peronne, attended only by four or five followers, hoping that he would thus be enabled to divert his attention to other objects, or to excite jealousy between him and the confederates. 13. But, a few 17 N 194 HISTORY OF FRANCE. days before his journey, Louis had sent emissaries to excite another rebellion in Liege, and in his hurry either forgot to countermand them, or persuaded himself that the insurrection would not break out during his visit. On his arrival at Peronne, he was alarmed at meeting in the court of Charles several nobles whom his tyranny had banished from France ; to save himself from their vengeance, he entreated to be lodged in the citadel, and thus voluntarily threw himself into prison. 13. Meantime the people of Liege had broken out into a tierce rebellion, murdering the Burgundian officers and several of the clergy, whom they deemed hostile to their civic privi- leges. When this news reached Peronne, Charles became furious with indignation ; he shut the gates of the town, thus making Louis a close prisoner, and was with difficulty pre- vented from proceeding to farther outrages. 14. For three days Louis remained in terrible suspense, but he did not forget his accustomed arts ; he bribed Avith large sums and larger promises, all those courtiers whom he supposed likely to have any influence over the mind of Charles, and amongst the rest, Philip de Comines, to whom we are indebted for this narra- tive. At length Charles consented to be pacified ; a new treaty was made, by which several counties were annexed to Burgundy, and it was further stipulated, that Louis should personally assist the duke in the reduction of Liege. 15. The anger and disappointment both of the king and Charles were vented on that unfortunate place ; it was taken by storm, the greater part of its inhabitants were put to the sword, and of those that escaped, many subsequently perished by cold and famine. 16. The people of Paris were infinitely amused at the manner in which Louis had outwitted himself by too much artifice, and taught all their magpies to cry out Peronne, Peronne. But the king punished them for their jest, by ordering all the tame animals which were kept as pets through the city to be put to death. The cardinal Balue, who was suspected of secret intelligence with the duke of Burgundy, was arrested and confined in an iron cage, a punishment that he well merited, as he was the original inventor of such a barbarous torture. 17. The king persuaded his brother to take the 1A--C) duchy of Guienne instead of the provinces bordering '^' on Burgundy, that had been agreed on at Peronne. The inhabitants of Guienne and Gascony still remembered their national independence with regret, and intrigued with LOUIS XI. ■ 195 their new duke to throw off the yoke of France. But the duke of Guienne was taken off by poison as soon as the king, his brother, perceived that he was Hstening to these sugges- tions ; and a French army came and besieged, in Lectoure, count John of Armagnac, who evinced the most activity in the old Gascon interest. The town was taken by assault and given up to fire and sword, the count perished in the mas- sacre ; and his wife, in the seventh month of her pregnancy, was compelled to take a beverage to produce abortion, of which she died herself in two days. Finally, James d'Ar- magnac, duke of Nemours, who harboured,? or was supposed to harbour similar designs, was decapitated at Paris ; and his children were placed under the scaffold, that their father's blood, dropping on their heads, might warn them never again to attempt war against the king of France. 18. The impetuous duke of Burgundy frequently renewed the war with Louis, and as frequently was bribed to grant fresh truces ; the constable Saint Paul, who had possessed himself of some towns on the confines of Burgundy, exasperated the animosities of both parties, foreseeing that their agreement would prove his destruction. Equally distrusted by the king and the duke, he dealt out impartial treachery to both, and made his eventual destruction certain, though, by his artifices, it was for some time deferred. The insatiable iV-vk ambition of Charles involved him in wars with the German princes and with the Swiss, but his hatred of Louis was the principal guide of his actions. Though he mortally hated the house of York, yet he accepted the " order of the garter" from Edward IV., and invited him to invade France, promising that he would aid him with all his forces. 19, Ed- ward, glad of such a pretence for levying money on his sub- jects, with whom a French war was always popular, passed over to Calais. The duke of Burgundy failed to appear at the rendezvous, and when he arrived after a long delay, he was unable to furnish his quota of troops. 20. The constable had promised that he would surrender Saint Gluentin to the duke's allies, but when the forces of Edward came before the town, they were fired on and compelled to retire. These cir- cumstances furnished Edward with an honourable excuse foi putting an end to the war, of which he was already weary, and the liberal offers of Louis were not less influential mo- tives. In fact, the French king literally bribed Edward and his principal nobility, who for several years after disgracefully continued the pensioners of France. 21. The two monarchs 196 HISTORY OF FRANCE. had an interview at Pequigni, in which the terms of a treaty- were soon arranged ; but the duke of Burgundy was so in- dignant that he refused to be comprehended in it, yet after- wards being eager to continue his unjust war on the Swiss and the princes of Lorraine, he concluded a truce with Louis. 32. The constable St. Paul saw now that his ruin was in- evitable, he fled as a last resource to the court of Burgundy, but Charles delivered him up to the king, who instantly or- dered him to be executed. 23. The success of the war that Charles waged against the Swiss was proportioned to its injustice, he was defeated ■tAy^ at the battle of Granson with great loss, and the follow- ing year he lost his army and his life together at the still more fatal field of Morat, by the treachery of an Italian officer, the count of Campobasso. This traitor had been long attached to the house of Lorraine, of whom Charles was a bitter enemy ; he had sworn the destruction of his unhappy master, and had almost openly bargained for his assassination. Charles, with almost inconceivable credulity, continued to trust him, though warned of his treachery ; and when Louis sent him word to beware of the Italian, the unhappy duke declared the letter to be the strongest proof of Campobasso's fidelity: for, said he, "if evil were designed, Louis would be the last to send me warning." Scarcely had the armies of Lorraine and Burgundy met on the field of Morat, when Campobasso deserted with his followers, leaving behind him fourteen desperadoes to assassinate the duke in the confusion. Dismayed by this unexpected defection, the Burgundians gave way at the first onset ; after the slaughter, rather than the battle, was over, Charles was found lying under a heap of slain, so disfigured with wounds that he could scarcely be re- cognised. 24. His generous enemy, the young duke of Lor- raine, when shown the dead body, took hold of his once for- midable right hand, and pronounced these simple words, "God rest thy soul ! thou hast caused us much evil and sorrow." He then ordered his body to receive an honourable interment. The Swiss were so little accustomed to articles of luxury, that they did not know the value of the rich plunder found in the Burgundian camp, and it is said that they sold the silver ves- sels found there as pewter. 25. The death of his rival left Louis without a competitor, he at once seized on several towns of Burgundy, though at the same time honourable means were ofl!ered to him of ob- taining the whole ; for the princess Mary, daughter and heiress LOUIS XI. 197 of the unfortunate Charles, offered to unite her dominions to those of France by a marriage with the dau- phin. But Louis seemed to despise possessions acquired honestly ; he was even base enough to betray the letters of the young princess to the factious citizens of Ghent, who were her masters rather than her subjects, [n consequence of this perfidy, the people of Ghent seized several of the princess's most fa- voured servants, and murdered them almost in her presence. She was afterwards married to Maximi- lian, son of the emperor Frederic TI., but died in a few years by a fall from her horse. The people of Ghent chose her infant son and daughter for their sovereigns, and betrothed the girl to the dauphin. 26. Louis had now overcome all his enemies, but the vengeance of Heaven would not permit him to en- ^^^-^ joy prosperity purchased by crimes ; while sitting at dinner, he was suddenly seized with a species of apoplectiq fit, which at once deprived him of sense and speech. Though he partly recovered from the attack, his health was never per- fectly restored ; day after day he visibly declined, and the nearer death came, the more did he show that he dreaded its approach. Every thing seemed to inspire him with jealous fear, he removed his queen from the court, kept his son a close prisoner in the castle of Amboise, and always retained in his suite Louis, duke of Orleans, the first prince of the blood, whom, with barbarous policy, he had deprived of the advan- tages of education. He forced him to marry the princess Jane, who possessed, indeed, an amiable disposition, but was deformed and barren. 27. There is a kind of gloomy satis- faction in contemplating the miseries which this cruel tyrant suffered from the dread of death. Shut up in his castle of i Plessis les Tours, which could only be entered by a single wicket, and which was fortified with the most extraordinary care, the wicked monarch employed every means to prolong life that superstition and quackery could suggest, for his disease was bevond the reach of medical art. The companions of 17* An Archer of I he Guard of Louis XI. A. D. 198 HISTORY OF FRANCE. his solitude were his barber, his hangman, and his physician ; the latter, named Coctiers, was an artful quack, and had per- suaded Louis that, according to the decrees of fate, he should die exactly four days before the king. 28. Louis, therefore, took care of a life with which he believed his own so inti- mately connected, and submitted to all the insolence which the impostor chose to exhibit. While thus lingering at the point of death, the tyrant en- deavoured to persuade the world that his health was perfectly re-established, sending embassies to foreign princes, wearing the richest robes instead of the plain, not to say shabby, dress that he had hitherto worn, and adding, while he lived, fresh victims to his suspicious cruelty and undying revenge. He had placed his principal hope in the efficacy of the p^rayers of Francis de Paule, a pious hermit whom he sent for out of Calabria ; before this man he prostrated himself, supplicated, flattered, entreated ; but the hermit, with unusual honesty, de- clared to him that his case was hopeless, and recommended him to prepare for another world. Thus deprived of his last hope, and finding himself grow weaker every day, Louis sent for his son, and exhorted him not to govern without the aid and counsel of the princess and nobles, not to change the great officers of state at his accession, not to continue I /oq the oppressive taxes, and in fine to make his adminis- * tration as unlike his father's as possible. Soon after this he died, in the 61st year of his age and 22d of his reign. 29. There are few princes whose memory has been held in more universal execration than that of Louis XL ; more than four thousand persons perished for state ofTences by the hand of the executioner during his reign, and he took a diabolical pleasure in witnessing their torments. It is but fair, however, to state, that he diligently attended to the administration of justice, and made several judicious regulations in the law courts ; he was the first who established posts through the kingdom, in order to gratify his restless anxiety for news,, and finally, in his reign, the first printing-press was erected in Paris. When very young Louis XL was married to Margaret, daughter to James L, king of Scotland ; but this princess, although amiable and gentle tempered, never could acquire his regard, and died of grief, as it was said, at his neglect and unklndness. His second wife, Charlotte of Savoy, was not more happy; and although he acknowledged that she was " a virtuous LOUIS XL 199 and loving wife," he treated her with harshness and inat- tention, alleging as his chief cause of being offended with her, that she expressed more compassion than he approved of for the house of Burgundy. By her he had three children, one son and two daughters : Charles, who succeeded him ; Anne, married Pierre de Bourbon, lord of Beaujeu. Joan married the duke of Orleans. Mezerai tells us, that Louis caused more than four thou- sand persons to be put to death by different modes of exe- cution, many of which he himself took pleasure in witness- ing. He kept the cardinal de Balue for many years shut up in an iron cage, as a punishment for his numerous political intrigues ; and only released him from his imprison- ment on the cardinal's feigning himself at the point of death. Louis added greatly to the territories of the crown oi France. He won a considerable district from the house of Burgundy. The county of Boulogne he acquired by pur- chase. The counties of Maine and Anjou were bequeathed to him by Charles of Anjou, count of Maine ; who also left to him the rich inheritance he had derived from his uncle Regnier of Anjou, This inheritance included Bar and Pro- vence, together with the imaginary claims of the house of Anjou to the crown of Naples. In this reign the art of printing was introduced into France. ^ Louis XI. and Francis de Taule. 200 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Charles VIII. CHAPTER XXII. CHARLES VIII., SURNAMED THE AFFABLE AND COURTEOUS. The king of France, with twenty thousand men, Marched up the hill, and then marched down again. Old Proverb. 1. Charles had reached his fourteenth year, the , .Qo' legal age of majority, at the time of his father's death, but the weakness of his constitution, and the ignorance in which he had been brought up, rendered him unfit to un- dertake the management of affairs. Louis had by will ap- pointed Anne, princess of Beaujeu, guardian to her brother, a woman of excellent understanding, high spirit, and vigorous resolution, possessing much of her father's craft, without any share of his cruelty and perfidy. 2. The princes of the blood, especially the dukes of Bourbon and Orleans, thought it be- neath their dignity to submit to the control of a woman ; they' CHARLES VIII. 201 declared that since the Sahc law excluded females from the crown, by similar reasoning it made them incapable of exer- cising regal functions, and the states general were summoned to decide on this important point. Contrary to the expectation of the princes, the states confirmed the will of the late king, and acknowledged the lady of Beaujeu as regent, but they ap- pointed a council of twelve, selected from the highest ranks of the nobility, to aid her in the administration. The dukes of Bourbon and Orleans took up arms, but the promptitude of the regent disconcerted their plans ; the former was obliged to submit to whatever terms she pleased to dictate, and the latter was compelled to seek a refuge in Brittany. 3. We have already seen on several occasions the strong love of independence by which the inhabitants of Brittany were animated, and their unwillingness to become incorporated with either Normandy or France ; but the discontent of a large portion of that people induced ihem to solicit the aid of the king of France against their duke, and they found too late that a powerful ally soon becomes a master. Charles sent them an army far surpassing the number that had been stipu- lated ; he garrisoned the towns with French troops, and laid claim to the duchy in right of the family of Blois, the former rivals of the JVlontforts, who had bequeathed their pretensions to the king. 4. The Bretons discovering their error when too late, submitted to their duke and joined him with all their forces; but the allied forces were totally defeated iVoa* by the French at Saint Aubin, their bravest leaders either slain or made prisoners, and the whole country placed at the mercy of their victorious enemies. Amongst the prison- ers were the duke of Orleans and the prince of Orange ; the lady of Beaujeu shut up the former, whom she mortally de- tested, in close prison, but liberated the latter. 5. In consequence of this decisive overthrow, the duke of Brittany was compelled to make peace on very disadvantageous terms ; but grief shortened his days, he died soon after, leav- ing behind iiim two daughters, one of whom quickly followed her father to the grave. Anne, the heiress of Brittany, though only in her fourteenth year, conducted herself with great wis- dom under all the diiHculties of her situation. Her subjects were divided into several parties concerning her marriage; she herself selected the archduke Maximilian, and the nuptials were celebrated by proxy ; but that prince, either from indo- lence or inability, never came to her assistance, though he knew that she was attacked by all the power of France. 6. 202 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Under these circumstances, the duke of Orleans, whom the king had released from prison, contrived an interview between Charles and Anne at Rennes ; both were so well IdW pleased with each other, that a marriage was the con- ' sequence, and thus Brittany became completel}^ united to France. 7. This was a double insult to Maximilian, for Charles had been long contracted to his daughter, and she was actually at the time residing in France, whither she had been sent by the people of Flanders in the former reign, waiting for the completion of the marriage, but as the archduke was powerless, and had in some degree caused his own misfortunes by his neglect and irresolution, he could only show his indig- nation by vain complaints and idle menaces, which nobody regarded. 8. Charles when advanced in life became sensible of the defects of his early education, and made some attempts to supply them by study ; but with the unsteadiness of purpose, which was his most distinguishing characteristic, he gave up the attempt, and gave himself up to folly and dissipation. 9. As heir to the house of Lorraine, he had some slight preten- sions to the kingdom of Naples, which would probably have remained for ever buried in oblivion, but for the artifices of Ludovico Sforza, a man remarkable even in that depraved age, for his pre-eminence in every base quality that can dis- grace humanity. Anxious to wrest the duchy of Milan from his nephew Galeazzo, he had been long restrained by his fear of Ferdinand, king of Naples, to whose grand-daughter Galeazzo was married ; and in order to remove this impedi- ment, he incessantly sohcited Charles to invade Italy. 10. All the old advisers of the king endeavoured to dissuade him from this expedition, but his resolution was fixed : he wasted however two years' in making preparations, and at length set out with an army in which the regular troops did not exceed 18,000 men ; but there were besides great numbers of the young nobility serving as volunteers ; soldiers, whose valour might be serviceable in the field of battle, but quite unfit for a long and tedious enterprise, as they could not endure either fatigue or discipline. 11. The slate of Italy at this time presents a frightful pic- ture of crime ; Ferdinand, king of Naples, and his son Al- phonso, duke of Calabria, were universally execrated by their subjects for their oppressive exactions and sanguinary cruel- ties. Alexander VI. possessed the see of Rome ; his cha- racter is thus emphatically described by a Roman Catholic CHARLES VIII. 203 historian : " The abominations and crimes of this monster would have been unparalleled, but for the still greater atrocities of his natural son, Cresar Borgia." The Venetians had made perfidy a law of their state. Peter de Medicis was labouring to estabhsh the supremacy of his family at Florence, without being very scrupulous about the means. Finally, to use the words of Mezeray, " all the Italian princes of the period were destitute of religion, displaying a brutal atheism in their words and actions, but priding themselves on their profound wisdom and crafty policy." But they certainly did not show much of the latter quality on this occasion, for during the two years employed in making preparations for the invasion, not a single step was taken to dissuade an unsteady prince, or to resist a weak array directed by a brainless council. 12. Charles crossed the Alps, and after some delay at Asti, where he was seized by the small-pox, ad- i VqV vanced to Turin. Here he found his resources already so exhausted, that he was obliged to borrow the jewejs of the duchess of Savoy, and marchioness of Montferrat,which he pledged in order to raise money for the payment of his troops. He then marched to Pavia, where he found his cousin Galeazzo, duke of Milan, dying of poison, which had been administered to him by the perfidious Sforza; when he reached Placentia, he learned the death of this unfortunate prince, and was at the same time deserted by Sforza, who hastened back to Milan to reap the fruit of his crimes. The French were indignant at being thus made in some degree participators in the murder of a prince who was the cousin- german of their sovereign ; they would gladly have stopped to exact vengeance, but Charles hurried on to complete his conquests, and equally disregarded the claims of his relative and the anger of his soldiers. 13. His success was indeed sufficient to intoxicate a young monarch possessed of a stronger mind than Charles; his progress resembled a triumphal pro- cession, for no enemy appeared to impede his march ; Pisa, Florence, and even Rome itself, submitted to his forces ; Ferdinand died at Naples of sheer terror, Peter de Medicir. fled into exile, and Alexander submitted to the king's plea- sure, giving his son Caesar Borgia, and the Turkish prince, Zizim,* as hostages. • This young prince was the brother of the sultan Bajazet, and having been engaged in an unsuccessful insurrection, was com- pelled to consult his safety by flight. Alexander treated him as 204 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 14. The conquest of Naples was effected with as I Jqp much facility as the march through Italy. Alphonso * resigned his crown to his son Ferdinand, and fled across the Sicilian strait to Messina. His terror was so great, that although his enemies were still 180 miles off, " he ima- gined that he saw them in the streets of Naples, and that the walls, trees, and stones were shouting the war-cry of France. His wife entreated him to remain at least three days longer, in order that he might complete a year in his kingdom, but he refused to give her this satisfaction, and threatened to throw himself out of the window if further attempts were made to detain him." His son Ferdinand, who merited a better father and a better fate, in vain endeavoured to resist the in- vaders ; his troops deserted, his cities opened their gates to the French, he was compelled to seek refuge in the island of Ischia, and thus in fifteen days Charles obtained the possession of all the Neapolitan territories, with the exception of Brindisi, Reggio, and Gallipoli. 15. Success produced its natural effects on weak minds : the king and his followers neglecting every kind of business, gave themselves up to riot and debauchery ; the soldiers lived at discretion, the public treasures were squandered, the inha- bitants plundered and insulted, until at length the Neapolitans found reason to regret even the tyrants whom they had so lately hated. But, in the mean time, a powerful league was formed against Charles, at the head of which were his old enemy Maximilian, now become emperor of Germany, and the pope. 16. Having entrusted the care of the newly-ac- quired kingdom to the count d'Aubigny and the duke de Montpelier, with whom he left about 4000 soldiers, Charles proceeded to return homewards at the head of an army dimin- ished to about 9000 men. He delayed some time at Pisa, vainly expecting to be joined by the duke of Orleans with a reinforcement : but that prince having some claim to the duchy of Milan, had attacked Sforza on his own account, and after some trifling successes, was closely blockaded in Novarra. a prisoner, and even entered into a negociation for delivering up the hapless fugitive to his cruel brother. This meditated treachery was prevented by the king of France, but before the pope gave Zizim up to Charles, he is said to have poisoned him. It is not easy to discover whether there is just ground for this accusation, but any charge against pope Alexander is credible. He was a monster that disgraced not merely the church but human nature. CHARLES VIII. 205 17. This delay gave the conffderates time to concentrate their forces ; they assembled an army of 40,000 men, and posted them in a valley near Fornova, through which the French would necessarily pass. The folly of the confederates in post- ing themselves in a space so very narrow, that their numbers served only to create confusion ; the avarice of some who hurried to plunder the baggage, instead of facing the enemy, and the terror which the previous triumphs of the French inspired, combined to give Charles an easy victory. With the loss of only eighty men, Charles routed the confederates, and forced them to take flight, leaving 3000 dead upon the field. 18. But notwithstanding this success, the French suf- fered almost as much as if they had been defeated, for their provision waggons were destroyed, and they had to endure all the extremities of famine before they reached the friendly town of Asti. 19. Here a new treaty was concluded with Sforza, but Charles, scarcely waiting for its conclusion, re- passed the Alps, and hastened to Lyons, where he soon forgot his love of military enterprise in riotous excesses and dissipa- tion. 20. The kingdom of Naples was lost almost as easily as it had been won: all the Italian- princes assisted ij^q^ Ferdinand ; but his most effective ally was the king of Arragon, who sent him a body of Spanish troops under the command of Gonsalvo de 'Cordova, surnamed "the Great Captain." The French made a courageous resistance, but their enemies being masters of the sea, cut off all reinforce- ments ; victory itself became a source of weakness, since they could not replace those who fell; the generals were therefore compelled to surrender, and in a few months the onl}'' trace of the conquests of Charles was the memory of the evils they had caused. 21. The French were naturally indignant at this termina- tion of their brilliant exploits, but many causes combined to prevent them from recovering what they had lost. The king had destroyed his constitution by debauchery ; he was jealous of the duke of Orleans, the presumptive heir of the crown, and he was naturally of a fickle and wavering disposition. He roused himself, however, so far as to assemble an army, but when part of them had already crossed the Alps, the expedi- tion was suspended and finally laid aside. 22. Charles find- ing his health beginning to decay, resolved to adopt a new course of life ; he dismissed the companions of his guilty 18 206 HISTORY OF FRANCE. pleasures, and began to apply himself diligently to the reform- ation of the kingdom ; but before his subjects could derive much advantage from this beneficial change, he was 14Qk" suddenly attacked by a fit of apoplexy, of w^hich he died, in the 28th year of his age and 15th. of his reign. 23. Charles appears to have been a monarch of good natu- ral dispositions : he was so dearly beloved by his domestics that some of them died of grief for his loss ; but the barbarous policy of his father in depriving him of the advantages of education, and shutting him up in the company of menials, produced the most destructive effects on his character; it gave him a taste for sensual pleasures, because he knew no other, and led to that mixture of obstinacy and indecision in his cha- racter which is commonly observable in men of vigorous minds and little information. His courtesy and kindness of manner endeared him to all who knew him ; and it is said, that during his whole life, he never made use of an expression which could hurt the feelings of a single individual. 24. Charles died without issue, and the crown consequently came to the duke of Orleans, his cousin in the third degree ; this was the second time that the succession in the Capetian family devolved on a collateral branch. The circumstances attending the death of Charles VIII., are thus related by a writer of our own times. He lived luxuriously. His body, withered and disproportioned, sunk under the excesses in which he habitually indulged. " Though but eight-and-twenty years of age," says Marillac, "his constitution was more worn than that of an ordinary man at threescore." He, however, still thought only of enjoyment, when, in the fine season of July, 1498, being at Amboise, and surrounded by architects and painters, who had just built for him the wonderful chateau on which his equestrian statue appeared, they submitted for him new plans for vast erections, which he contemplated for the em- bellishment of his capital. Occupied with these, he appeared to have no thought of dying ; but on the 7th of July, after dinner, he proposed to the queen that she should accompany him to the fosses of the chateau, there to witness the game of tennis. He conducted her by the gallery of Ha- quelebac, the least commodious passage of the castle, where many nuisances were permitted. As they advanced, the king struck his forehead against a door-way. The injury, however, was considered slight, and he went forward, and CHARLES VII. 207 remained for a long time looking at the players. On his return by the same gallery, he suddenly fell to the ground in a fit of apoplexy. There, for nine hours, he was suffered to remain, the place being open to all comers and goers, stretched on a coarse palliasse, from which he was not removed till he breathed his last. Notwithstanding his childish arrogance, and his nullity in his politics, " the good little king" was beloved by his people. "Never," according to Brantome, "had a king of France been seen so mild, so benign, and so liberal." So affec- tionately attached to him were the officers of his household, that it is recorded, one of his archers and one of his butlers expired from grief, at the moment his remains were lowered into the vaults of St. Denis. Such funeral eulogies, while they do honour to the man, prove litde or nothing for the king. Mazirailian, Emperor of Germany, husband of Mary of Burgundy 208 HISTORY OF FRANCE. CHAPTER XXIII. LOUIS XII., SURNAMED THE FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE. Seek not to govern by the lust of power ; Make not thy will thy law ; believe thy people Thy children all ; so shall thou kindly mix Their interest with thy own, and fix the basis Of future happiness in godlike justice. C. JoHIfSOIT. 1. The calamities which Louis had suffered in the i4Qft' ^^""^y P^""*^ ^^ ^'^ ''^"^ produced a beneficial effect on his * character; "he had suffered persecution, and had learned mercy ; he was a good king, because he had long been a faithful subject, and he had learned to moderate the rigours of despotism, because he had personally experienced their effects." On his accession to the throne, he declared that he would not punish any of those by whom he had been injurec^ or offended in the former reigns, declaring, " that the king of France would not revenge the injuries of the duke of Orleans.' 2, Unfortunately for his subjects, he was like his predecessor infatuated with the desire of Italian conquests, and duped by LOUIS XII. 209 the artifices of the perfidious potentates who then ruled that ill-fated land. Pope Alexander had taken an invincible dis- like to Ferdinand of Naples, because he had refused to give his daughter to Csesar Borgia, the pontiff's natural son ; the Venetians were anxious to ruin Sforza, whom they found a powerful and dangerous foe ; the Florentines were eager to recover Pisa ; and all were dissatisfied with their present con- dition. 3, The pope had it in his power to oblige the king; he had been married in his early youth much against his will, to Jane, the daughter of Louis XL, and he now sought a di- vorce on the ground of the force that had been put on his in- clinations. To obtain this favour, Louis created Cfesar Borgia duke of Valentinois, and entered into a close alliance with Alexander ; the pope, on his part, sent Borgia with a bull, constituting a court to try the validity of the king's marriage. The form of a trial was gone through, the divorce was formally pronounced, and Louis immediately after was married to the queen dowager, a choice probably dictated by his anxiety to keep the province of Brittany united to the crown of France. 4. The invasion of Italy was crowned with success ; the character of Sforza was so infamous that no one iVqq* would venture to support his cause ; his subjects de- serted him, and the governors of his cities, emulating their master's treachery, sold themselves to the enemy. Louis, on the news of this success, passed the Alps, made his public entry into Milan, clothed in the ducal robes, and was acknow- ledcred as its legitimate sovereign by all the Italian princes. On the king's return to France, Sforza, by a new revolution, re- gained the greater part of the Milanese territories, but was soon after defeated and made- prisoner by La Trimouille, Louis's bravest general. Sforza, on account of his crimes, was imprisoned for life in the castle of Loches. 5. Though Louis was sufficiently powerful to attempt the conquest of Naples without foreign aid, he was unfortunately induced to engage the assistance of Ferdinand of Arragon, whose general, Gonsalvo, already had possession of several of the principal fortresses. Frederic, king of Naples, unable to resist so powerful a coalition, surrendered himself a prisoner to Louis, by whom he was generously treated, and presented with a pension, vi'hich was continued even after the expulsion of the French from Naples. The Spaniards and French, after having subdued the Neapolitan dominions, quarrelled about their shares of the prize ; a furious war commenced between 18* O 210 HISTORY OF FRANCE. them, which ended with the total defeat of the French, and their complete expulsion from all their conquests. 6. The death of pope Alexander produced an entire -.^A change in the politics of Italy; he had prepared poi- * soned wine to destroy a rich cardinal whose inheritance he desired, but through a mistake of the servants, the poison was given to the pontiff himself and his son ; Csesar Borgia escaped, because he had only taken a small quantity, but Alexander perished miserably. He was succeeded by Pius II., who survived his election only twenty-six days ; Julius II. was elected in his room, a pontiff remarkable for his crafty policy, restless ambition, and intense hatred of the court of France. 7. Louis made vigorous attempts to punish the Spaniards for their perfidy, but the death of La Trimouille caused the ruin of the expedition sent against Naples ; two armies which had been sent to invade Spain were defeated, from the incapacity or treachery of the leaders, and Louis was so mortified by these repeated disappointments, that he fell into a dangerous illness, which nearly proved fatal. 8. In the reign of Louis XI. we mentioned that the people of Flanders had undertaken the guardianship of the son and daughter of their count the duke of Burgundy, whom their unfortunate mother had left at her death in helpless infancy. The son, on reaching the years of maturity, found himself in peaceable possession of Flanders and its riches, his father elevated to the empire, and his wife presumptive heiress to the throne of Castile. The kingdoms of Castile and Arragon had been united by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, during whose reign the power of the Moors was destroyed in Spain, and the new world discovered. 9. But the happiness of Isabella was not unmixed ; her only son and eldest daugh- ter, whom she passionately loved, died in the prime of life, and grief for their loss hurried her to the grave. The crown of Castile descended to the archduchess Joanna, who proceeded to Spain, accompanied by her husband and her infant son, afterwards the celebrated Charles V. Soon after Philip died, and grief for his loss produced such an effect on the ■•roj mind of Joanna, that she became incapable of manag- ing the affairs of state ; in consequence of this, Ferdi- nand of Arragon took upon himself the office of regent, acting in the name of his grandson Charles, then only seven years old. 10. Charles had been contracted to the princess royal of France, who, in default of male heirs, had succeeded to her mother's right over the duchy of Brittany ; but the states- LOUIS XII. 211 general, unwilling that this province should be disunited from the kingdom, protested against this union, and caused the princess to be married to her cousin Francis, duke of Valois, the presumptive heir to the crown. This was the third insult which Maximilian had received in a similar manner, and he ardently longed for opportunities of revenge. 11. The Venetians, enriched by a long monopoly of eastern commerce, which, notwithstanding the dis- i-'z-je covery of the passage round the cape of Good Hope, continued to flow for some years in its accustomed channels, had, b}' their haughtiness and ambition, ofl^ended all the princes of southern Europe. Their most dangerous enemy was pope Julius, who formed against them the powerful league of Cambray ; by which the emperor, the pope, the kings of France and Spain, vi'ith the duke of Savoy, were united against the republic. 12, Louis was the first to take the field ; he almost annihilated the Venetian forces at the battle of Agnadello, and Venice would have been utterly ruined but for a new change in the policy of Julius. The senate conciliated the pontiff by the cession of all the towns that he de- ^^^n manded ; upon which the pope, breaking his engage- ment vt'ith the allies, detached the king of Spain from their league by giving him the full and entire investiture of the kingdom of Naples, and turned all the activity of his hatred against the king of France. 13. Louis, before entering on a war with the pope, consulted the clergy as to the lawfulness of a war with the head of the church, and having received a favourable answer, prepared to carry on the contest with vigour. The French gained many victories, especially one at Ravenna, where their favourite hero, Gaston de Foix, was slain ; but they obtained no permanent advantage, partly from the king's unwillingness to reduce Julius to extremities, and the scruples of his queen, who believed a war with the pope impious ; but still more from the hatred of the inhabitants, who were wearied of the French. 14. The Swiss, who had been long the faithful allies of Louis, were induced to join the papal side, because Louis had spoken of them sHghtingly, and refused to increase their pay, while the monarchs of England and Germany were silently preparing to dismember his do- minions. 15, In the midst of the struggles Julius died, a vie- tim to a violent fit of passion, and was succeeded by igio* Lpo X. ; a prelate conspicuous for his talents and pa- tronage of literature, but whose vices rendered him unfit to be the head of the Christian Church ; he continued the war 212 HISTORY OF FRANCE. against France, but was not so virulent an adversary as his predecessor. 16. Henry VIII. of England, eager to prove both his va- lour and his devotion to the cause of the church, invaded the province of Picardy in conjunction with the emperor Maximi- lian. The French, advancing to prevent him from besieging Terouenne, commenced an engagement at Guinnegate, where they were totally defeated, and the duke de Longueville Avith the celebrated chevaher Bayard, were among the prisoners. This is usually called the battle of the spurs, because the French made more use of them than of their swords on that day. In consequence of this victory Terouenne surrendered, but the two princes not being able to agree about its posses- sion, terminated their dispute by burning it to the ground. Tournay shortly after submitted, and was garrisoned by the English. 17. But Henry soon became wearied of the war, especially when his father-in-law, Ferdinand of Arragon, by whose means he had been chiefly induced to engage in it, re- fused to perform any of his promises. The death of the French queen suggested to the duke of Longueville apian for effecting a peace ; he proposed that Louis should marry the princess Mary,* Henry's sister, and that a large sum of money should be paid to defray the expenses of the war. 18. On these conditions the treaty was concluded, but the rejoicings on account of the marriage so weakened the constitu- ,j.', _* tion of Louis, already broken down by the vexations resulting from fifteen years of unsuccessful warfare, that he died shortly after in the 53d year of his age, and the 17th of his reign. 19. The memory of Louis XII. was deservedly venerated by his subjects, because he diminished the old taxes one half and never imposed any new, notwithstanding his long wars and numerous reverses. In vindication of his economy, he frequently said, " I had rather see the courtiers laugh at my avarice, than my people weep on account of my expenses." Had he spared the blood of his subjects as well as their money, he would have better merited the applause of posterity ; but the desire of acquiring dominions in Italy seems to have been * This marriage was negociated byde Longiieville, who had been a prisoner in England since the battle of the spurs. She had been previously contracted to the Spanish prince Don Carlos, and had even taken the title; but the object of her affections was the beauti- ful and accomplished Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, to whom she was married after the death of Louis. LOUIS XII. 213 long a mania of the French princes, of which they could not be cured, even by misfortune. When on his death-bed, Louis sent for his heir, the duke of Valois, and embracing him said, " I am dying, I commend my subjects to your care." Thus showing that anxiety for the welfare of his people occupied his last moments. A Courtier of the Fifteeatb Century. 214 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Francis 1. CHAPTER XXIV. FRANCIS I. Hold, good sword, but this day, And bite hard, where I hound thee; and he'-'^after I'll make a relique of thee, for young soldiers To come like pilgrims to, and kiss for conquest. Beaumoitt. 1. Francis, count d'Angouleme and duke of Valois, .p.\J was in the twenty-first year of his age at the time of his accession ; he was brave, generous, and open- hearted, but at the same time rash and daring, ambitious of military glory, but destitute of the wisdom and steadiness necessary for the completion of great enterprises. Like his predecessor he made the acquisition of the duchy of Milan his principal object, and like him he was destined to meet with great triumphs followed by signal disappointment. Maximilian Sforza, who was at that time duke of Milan, see- ing the storm ready to burst over his head, a))plied to the different princes of Europe for protection, and a confederacy FRANCIS I. 215 was formed, consisting of the emperor, the pope, the Swiss cantons, and Ferdinand of Arragon, to prevent the French from re-establishing themselves in Italy. 2. The Swiss hav- ing secured the principal passes of the Alps, it was thought that Francis would be compelled to resign the contest; but Trevulzio, an old Milanese general in the service of France, led the army through the mountains of Piedmont, and at the same time the advanced guard having entered Italy by a dif- ferent route, surprised the papal forces, and made their gen- eral. Prosper Colonna, prisoner. So little was the appearance of the enemy expected, that Colonna was preparing to sit down to dinner at the moment he was taken. 3. On the news of this success, Francis hastened to join his army, which had already advanced within sight of Milan. The confederates, terrified at his rapid success, and not very closely united amongst themselves, proposed terms of peace; the treaty was on the point of being completed, when the arrival of 10,000 Swiss auxiliaries at once interrupted the negociations. Eager for plunder they demanded to be led immediately to battle; their leaders were obliged to comply, and about four in the evening a furious attack was made on the French camp at Marignano. 4, The advanced guard of the French, after some resistance, were compelled to give ground, but the king coming up with some of his choicest troops, prevented the enemy from pursuing their advantage. Never was there so well contested a fight. Trevulzio said that the twenty-five battles in which he had been before, were but children's play compared with this, which was a battle of giants. The combat continued through a great part of the night, until both armies were so exhausted as to be compelled to desist by mutual consent. The soldiers on both sides were intermingled, but so complete was their lassitude, that they lay down to sleep in the order, or rather disorder, in which they found themselves. Francis spent the night on the car- riage of a gun, and was compelled to quench his thirst with a little water mingled with mud and blood, which a soldier brought him in his cap; but fatigue and heat made even this draught a luxury. Before dawn Francis was on the alert, disposing his artillery, musketry, and Gascon cross-bows in the most favourable positions. The Swiss renewed the attack at daylight, but the artillery and musketry placed on their flanks, threw their battalions into confusion, their lines began to waver; at this decisive moment the cavalry charged, and cut to pieces the disordered ranks by which they were opposed. 216 HISTORY OF FRANCE. The Swiss commanders made an effort to rally their forces, in which they were partially successful, but the appearance of Venetian troops advancing to the assistance of the French, convinced them that their case was hopeless; they retired in good order, but ten thousand of their best troops were left dead upon the plain. 5. In consequence of this victor}", Francis obtained posses- sion of INlilan ; Maximilian Sforza resigned his claim to the duchy, in exchange for a pension ; the Swiss cantons agreed to a cessation of hostilities ; and the pope paid him a visit at Bo- logna, in order to treat with him in person. Having thus, as he believed, firmly established his power in Italj', the king re- turned to Lyons, where his mother and wife awaited him, so elated by his victory that he thought himself irresistible. 6. In the following year died Ferdinand of Arragon, who had been the principal cause of all the wars that devastated the south of Europe ; one of his panegyrists observes, that " the only thing for which he deserves blame was his habit of al- ways breaking his word ;" a crime which the Italian historians seem to think very pardonable. On his death, Francis made some preparations for the invasion of Naples, but the deter- mination of the emperor, the Swiss, and all the Italian powers to check his further progress, prevented him from putting his intentions into execution. 7. Charles V. succeeded to the crowns of Arragon and Castile, as his mrother was now sunk into confirmed insanity, and one of the first acts of his govern- ment was to make peace with France. 8. The death of the emperor Maximilian, the most A. D. 1- 1 r 11 I • • ._,Q extraordmar}' cnaracter of all his cotemporanes, was destined to produce a great change in the politics of Europe. 9. This prince had been equally distracted by ava- rice and ambition ; his marriage with the heiress of Flanders and Burgundy, gave him a claim to the extensive dominions of Charles the Bold, but his efforts to recover them were weak and desultory ; on the death of his wife, the Flemings deprived him of all authority, and took upon themselves the guardian- ship of his children, an arrangement to which he submitted with a very bad grace. A new opportunity of acquiring power was presented to him by Anne of Brittany, who chose him for her husband ; but Maximilian, instead of affording her any assistance, deserted her in the midst of her enemies; she in consequence broke the contract and married the king of France. Maximilian in revenge made several confederacies against the French power, but as he alwaj^s deserted his aihes FRANCIS I. 217 in the time of action, all the preparations ended in nothing. One of his schemes was to have himself elected pope, on the death of Julius II. ; but his unwillingness to part with money, was probably the cause of his not coming forward as a candi- date at the election. 10. His reign will ever be memorable for the commencement of the Reformation in Germany, Pope Leo X. had exhausted the papal treasury by the magnificent buildings which he erected in Rome, and in order to replenish his funds, issued bulls for the sale of indulgences ; Tzetzel, the papal agent in Germany, conducted the infamous traffic with such indecent vehemence, that he provoked Martin Lu- ther, an Augustinian monk, to oppose the sale. The pope sided with Tzetzel, and in the progress of the dispute, Luther was led to oppose not only indulgences, but several other gross corruptions which had crept into the Christian Church. The Romish clergy instead of making any concessions, which the increasing spread of knowledge imperatively required, clung to the corruptions as if they were the essentials of Christianity, and thus closed the door against all accommodation. Lulher and his followers in Germany, Zuinglius in Switzerland, the remnant of WicklifFe's followers in England, and the descend- ants of the Albigenses, called Hugonots, in France, made al- most a simultaneous attack on the papal power, and finally succeeded in withdrawing a great part of Europe from its al- legiance to the holy see. 11. On the death of JMaximilian, Francis and Charles be- came candidates for the empire, protesting at the same time, that their rivalry would make no change in their mutual friend- ship. Charles was the successful candidate, partly by the ex- ertions of the duke of Saxony, who refused the empire him- self, and partly by the influence of a large sum of money, which had been sent from Spain to be distributed among the electors. In spite of his professions, Francis could not but feel disappointed at his defeat; besides, he was justly alarmed at the increase of power obtained by his rival, who being the legal representative of the dukes of Burgundy, he feared might attempt to recover the possessions and avenge the wrongs of his family. 12. To secure himself from these threat- ening dangers, he courted an alliance with Henry VIII. icon* of England, who was equally jealous of the increased power of Charles; an interview was arranged between the monarchs, and in June they met near Ardres, in a plain, called from the magnificence displayed there, the field of the cloth of gold. After the young monarchs had met, they alighted 19 218 HISTORY OF FRANCE. and entered into a pavilion prepared for their reception, each attended by two or three ministers, where they held a brief conference on public affairs. They soon became wearied of business, and spent the following fourteen days in festivals and tournaments. Before separating, they confirmed their treaty by a solemn oath on the sacrament, which they received to- gether. 13. Francis did not derive any advantages from this alliance, for Charles V. soon after took an opportunity of land- ing in England, and prevailed upon Wolsey by bribes and flatteries, to persuade his vacillating master to hold himself neuter, and to be ready to act as an umpire if required. 14. A war soon commenced between Charles and Francis, each accusing the other of having been the first to commence hostilities. The two rivals somewhat resembled Louis IX. and Charles the Bold in their character and conduct. The empe^ ror was cautious, prudent, and calculating, never hazarding any enterprise until he had taken every precaution to ensure its success ; careful in his selection of ministers and generals, and more proud of skill in negocialions than of glory in the field. The king, on the other hand, was hasty, rash, and im- provident, ready to undertake the most dangerous expeditions, but utterly regardless of his means; extravagant in his plea- sures, the slave of his mother; a bold unprincipled woman, the dupe of corrupt ministers and unskilful generals. 15. The war first commenced in Flanders, where Francis had an op- portunity of crushing the power of his rival by a single blow, but neglected to avail himself of it, in order to annoy the con- stable, Charles of Bourbon, against whom he had conceived a fatal dislike. The constable had affi-onted the king's mother by some harsh remarks on her glaring vices, and had dis- pleased the king by the stern severity of his morals, but he was the only general then in France capable of managing an army. 16. In Italy the French were everj^where defeated, notwithstanding all the exertions of their leader, Lautrec ; and before the first year of the war had ended, they had been driven from all their conquests in the Milanese. This event gave so much pleasure to Leo X. that he died of joy. 17. Francis, who was the real author of this calamity, as he had wasted the money required for the payment of the troops in luxury and debauchery, severely reproached Lautrec for having suffered such a loss. The general threw the blame on Semblancai, the minister of finance, for not having furnished him with the means of satisfying the soldiers. Semblancai declared that he had paid the money to the queen-dowager FRANCIS I. 219 and offered to produce her receipt ; but that princess dreading an exposure, had bribed a clerk in the treasury to steal the receipt, and the venerable minister was sentenced to be exe- cuted. The chancellor du Prat is said to have participated in this crime, from envy of the influence that Semblancai had with the king, who always called him "his father." Du Prat The Chancellor du Prat and his Wife. was then employed to raise money, which was effected by the most illegal and scandalous methods : the royal domains were alienated, the offices of state publicly sold to the highest bid- der, and the taxes, already oppressive, were doubled. 18. The artifices of Wolsey, who expected to be raised to the papacy by the influence of Charles, had . ^^.^ induced Henry to join in the war against Francis, but the king's folly and his mother's iniquity raised up a more dangerous enemy in the bosom of his kingdom. We have already seen that the constable of Bourbon had been treated with neglect, but the king's mother, not satisfied with this, resolved to rob him of his properly. For this purpose she laid claim to the duchy of Bourbon, and as she had the selec- tion of the judges by whom her claims were to be tried, it was not difficult to foresee how the matter would be decided. At the same time the admiral Bonivet, who looked upon the con- stable as his rival, laboured to widen the breach between him and the king, and succeeded so completely, that Bourbon was 220 HISTORY OF FRANCE. reduced to despair. In his distress, he adopted the unfortu- nate resolution of deserting to Charles. Francis was on the point of setting out for Italy when the defection of Bourbon alarmed him Avith the danger of an insurrection at home ; but notwithstanding this peril, and though an English army had actually invaded France, he sent Bonivet across the Alps to make another effort for the recovery of the Milanese. 19. Bonivet was by no means a match for Launoy, Pescara, and Bourbon, the generals of Charles ; after an infinite num- ber of errors, which he was unable to repair, he found himself compelled to retreat, hotly pursued by his justly exasperated enemy the constable of Bourbon. The French did not, how- ever, suffer much during the retreat, owing to the admirable arrangem.ents of the chevalier Bayard, who commanded the rear. This favourite hero of the age was the last model of chivalry that appeared in Europe ; he was usually called the knight without fear and without reproach, (le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche) ; though he held only the rank of cap- tain, he really possessed more influence than any general, from the universal respect and admiration inspired by his high character. 20. Unfortunately, while engaged in repelling an attack on the rear-guard, he was mortally wounded ; unwil- ling that the army should be delayed by his misfortune, he ordered himself to be placed against a tree with his face toward the enemy. In this condition he was found by the constable, who began to lament the chance of war that had reduced so noble a knight to such a miserable condition ; but Bayard declared, " I am not an object of pity, sir duke ; I die happy in having performed my duly to my kmg and country ; it is you who deserve pity, who are bearing arms against your native land, forgetting that the death of every traitor is violent, and his memory detested." 21. France was now on every side encompassed with T^W '^^"g'^rs ; Charles, Henry, and the Bourbon, had en- tered into a treaty of partition for dividing it between them; Henry was to have the provinces which formerly be- lono-ed to England, the Bourbon was to receive the ancient kingdom of Provence, and all the rest was to be given to Charles. But it was necessary to conquer France before di- viding it, and in this the confederates totally failed ; Bourbon invaded the country, but not one of his former partizans would take up arms in his behalf; the English king did not send the promised subsidies, the emperor withheld the auxiliaries ne- cessary to recruit the invading army, and on the approach of FRANCIS I. 221 Francis with a numerous train, the constable was obliged to raise the siege of Marseilles, and retreat precipitately into Italy. 22. Thither, with his characteristic imprudence, Francis resolved to follow him. He was at first very successful, Milan surrendered without any resistance, the imperial generals fled before him, and had Francis pursued their dispirited forces, he would probably have put a glorious end to the war; but yielding to the injudicious advice of Bonivet, he laid siege to Pavia, a well-fortified town, defended by a numerous garrison under the command of Antonio de Leyva, a general of great abilities. At the same time Francis weakened his army by sending one detachment to invade the kingdom of Naples, and another to take possession of Savona. 23. The siege of Pavia went on but slowly ; so great was the improvidence of the king, that his attacks -ij-'ok' were frequently suspended from want of ammunition, and his schemes disconcerted by want of wisdom in his offi- cers and discipline in his soldiers. Meantime, Launoy and Bourbon having recovered from their panic, advanqed with a numerous army to raise the siege. Had Francis retreated on their approach, he might easily have entrenched himself in Milan, and set the imperialists at defiance, but he had made a promise not to stir from before Pavia until it had submitted, and all persuasions to the contrary were useless. 24. On the night of the 23d of February, the imperiahsts attacked the camp of the French, but were repulsed from the entrench- ments with some loss ; Francis, believing that victory was now in his hands, imprudently sallied out, and by the impetu- osity of his charge, threw the hostile cavalry into confusion; but Bourbon coming up, rallied his forces, and introducing some bodies of musketry between the troops of horse, com- pelled the French to give ground in turn. At this moment, Ley\a, making a sally from the town, fell on the rear of the French ; the effect of this manoeuvre was decisive ; placed between two fires, the lines were everywhere broken. The duke d'Alen^on, first prince of the blood, seized with a dis- graceful panic, set the example of a shameful flight, and never halted until he arrived at Lyons, where he soon after died of shame and vexation ; several of the nobility followed him, and Francis was left almost alone in the midst of his enemies. Yet, even in this distress, the king showed a courage worthy of his fame ; he fought gallantly against the fearfui odds by which he was opposed, and when all hope was gone, he re- fused to yield himself to the traitor Bourbon, but surrendered 19* 222 HISTORY OF FRANCE. himself a prisoner to Launoy. The French had not met with so great a calamity since the battle of Poictiers, their king was a captive, the flower of their nobility and the best of their soldiers were slain. Bonivet fell amongst the rest, and when Bourbon saw his dead body, he exclaimed, " Unfortunate man, you have ruined France, yourself, and me." 25. The battle of Pavia produced terror in France, joy in Spain, jealousy in England, and dissatisfaction in Italy. Louisa of Savoy, the king's mother, took upon herself the regency, and by her prudent conduct, restored order and confidence to France. Wolsey, finding that he had been duped by Charles, inspired his capricious master with so much distrust of the emperor, that Henry entered into a league with the regent to preserve the integrity of France. The Italian states, dreading to be overwhelmed by the victorious Charles, entered into a confederacy for their mutual protection, while the emperor himself affected to conceal his joy under an appearance of moderation, but rejected the counsels of those who advised him to immortalize himself by an act of generosity, and set Francis at liberty without ransom. 26. Launoy did not know in what manner to secure his illustrious captive ; if he kept him in Italy, he had reason to dread that the Swiss or the Italian princes would rescue him in hopes of obtaining a reward ; the number and strength of the French galleys rendered it dan- gerous to send him by sea to Spain, and the journey to Ger- many was equally hazardous. In this dilemma, Launoy craftily suggested to Francis that every thing might be arranged by a personal interview with Charles; weary of his imprisonment, the king eagerly caught at the proposal, and issuing orders to his naval forces, not to intercept him on the voj^age, allowed himself to be quietly transmitted to Spain. 27. On his arrival there, he was not received by the em- peror as he expected, but was shut up a close prisoner in the tower of Madrid. Vexation for his losses, and that delay of hope which makes the heart sick, soon produced a violent fit of illness that brought the royal captive to the verge of disso- lution ; Charles dreading that his prisoner would thus escape, and deprive him of his expected advantages, paid him a visit, and held out expectations of a speedy and honourable accom- modation. This gleam of hope restored the health of Francis, but his captivity was prolonged for several months. 28. At length it was agreed that he should be liberated on condition of paying a large ransom, resigning to Charles the duchy of Burgundy, and all the provinces claimed by the French in FRANCIS I. 223 Italy, giving- his two sons as hostages, and plighting his kingly word, that if the conditions of the treaty were not observed, he would return to prison. 29. But Francis had no intention of dismembering his kingdom; under the pretence that the states of irofi Burgundy would not consent to the proposed arrange- ment, he refused to give Charles that province, and at the same time entered into an alliance with the king of England, the pope, and the princes of Italy, to check the alarming power of the emperor. Nothing could equal the indignation of Charles when he learned this news ; he saw that he had lost an opportunity which he could scarcely hope to regain, and that he had been guilty of a harsh ungenerous action without obtaining any advantage. He vented his indignation on the unfortunate young princes who had been left to him as hostages, conduct which served only to increase the hostility of Francis, and to excite the indignation of all the European princes. The circumstances attending Francis's entry into France, after his liberation, are thus detailed by a recent writer. Lannoy attended him to the Bidassoa with an escort of fifty horse, and found Lautrec waiting on the opposite shore, vvith the two princes who were to be left as hostages, and a like escort. In the middle of the river a large empty bark had been moored, where the exchange was to take place. The attendants drew up on the two opposite banks. Lannoy, with eight gentlemen, put off from the Spanish shore ; and Lau- trec, with an equal number, advanced from the French side. Lautrec had scarcely put into the hands of Lannoy the two hostages, when Francis, after hastily embracing the dauphin, then eight years of age, and the duke of Orleans, jumped into the French boat. On reaching the shore, he mounted a Turkish horse, which waited for him, and galloped off at full speed to St. Jean de Luz, and thence to Bayonne, joy- fully exclaiming several times, "I am still a king!" but scarcely daring to believe that he was at liberty, while he remained in sight of the Spanish soil, on which he had ex- pected to end his days. After a captivity of two years, Francis was more eager to lead the life of a grand seignior than to attend to the affairs of his kingdom. His first care was to resume those pleasures from which he had been severed so long. It was at Bor- deaux, while he rejoined his court, that he formed his liason with Anne de Pisseline, the duchess of Etampes, who was 224 HISTORY OF FRANCE. to renew the part of Agnes Sorel, so well known in French history. At Cognac, the place of his birth, Francis fell from his horse, while engaged in the chase, and was detained there some time. Monument of Montmorency. FRANCIS I. 225 French Knight of the Sixteenth Century. CHAPTER XXV. FRANCIS I. CONTINUED. Fight like your first sire, each Roman, Alaric was a gentle foeman, Match'd with Bourbon's black banditti ! Rouse thee, thou eternal city ! Btboit. 1. Charles, anxious to regain his Italian acquisi- tions, sent the constable Bourbon to seize the Milanese , J^y territory, promising him the investiture of the duchy, to the exclusion of Sforza, Bourbon having soon subdued the Milanese; prepared to march against Rome, in order to satisfy with its plunder his soldiers, who were mutinous for want of 226 HISTORY OF FRANCE. pay. On the evening of the 5th of May, the imperialists ar- rived before the Avails of Rome, and on the following morning the orders for the assault were given. 2. The constable was slain by a musket-shot at the very first onset, but his death being concealed from the soldiers, they advanced as if ani- mated by his spirit, and " the immortal city" fell into the hands of barbarians, as savage and as merciless as those hordes whose ravages had before levelled her beauties to the earth. For several months the city remained in the possession of the imperialists, and was the theatre of every crime which the worst passions of the heart could dictate, or the fiercest vio- lence execute. The pope was taken prisoner, and was long in great danger of his life from those who pretended to be his most devoted adherents ; for it is a strange circumstance, that the Catholic Spaniards evinced more hostility on this occasion to the city and the pope than was shown by the Germans, who were for the most part Lutherans. 3. This event occa- sioned two other strange proceedings, which may well be styled solemn farces. The imperialists gravely proclaimed Martin Luther pope ! The emperor, upon receiving news of the captivity of his holiness, instead of sending orders to set him at liberty, ordered prayers to be offered up, and proces- sions to be made for his deliverance, after which he compelled him to purchase his freedom with a large ransom. The con- querors of Rome, by their excesses, soon destroyed themselves ; a pestilence broke out among them, and out of all their forces scarcely five hundred survived when the city was liberated by the French general Lautrec, ten months after its capture. ■ 4. The war betvveen Francis and Charles was now renewed, but it was not productive of any very important events ; the rival sovereigns mutually gave each other the lie, and sent challenges to decide their disputes by single combat, but these indecent bravadoes served only to make both contemptible. 5. Meantime, Italy was a prey to the ravages of war. The French at first had the advantage, and Pavia was sacked with the utmost cruelty in memory of the battle that had been lost before it. But Andrew Doria, a Genoese of distinction, Avho had essentially aided the French with the galleys of his re- public, became suddenly discontented with the conduct of Francis ; he went over to the emperor, and fortune changed with him. The same errors which had produced former calamities were repeated ; the money raised for the support of the army Avas lavished by the king and his court in luxury, the supplies were delayed until they were no longer useful ; FRANCIS I. 227 the siege of Naples, undertaken by the French general Lau- trec, was protracted with obstinacy as blind and fatal as that which Francis had displayed at Pavia ; and at length the entire army was obliged to surrender to the imperialists, almost at discretion. 6. This contest, as well as many others, was attended with no other fruit than the spilling of human blood ; but at length the course of these numerous calamities was suspended by the treaty of Cambray, concluded for the two monarcbs by two women, the duchess of Angouleme and Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Coun- . "^q tries. 7. Francis I. abandoned his allies, gave up his claim on Milan, his lordship of Artois and Flanders, and en- gaged to pay two millions of gold crowns for the ransom of his children ; Charles V., besides these advantages, reserving to himself the power of prosecuting at law his pretensions to Burgundy. Sforza had the Milanese, and by an article of a treaty before concluded between the pope and the emperor, the Medicis were to be reinstated in the government of Florence. The ransoming of the two French princes was found a difficult task in the exhausted state of the finances, and could not have been efi'ecled but for the generous assist- ance of Henry VIIL, who presented Francis with a consider- able sum of money. 8. The followers of Luther, about this time, took the name of protestants, because they protested against an edict issued at Spires, prohibiting innovations in religion. They also pub- lished an authentic statement of their principles, drawn up by Philip Melancthon, the most moderate of Luther's followers; this important document is usually called the confession of Augsburg, from the place where it was written. Soon after, perceiving that their ruin was determined upon, the protestant princes entered into an alliance called the league of Smalkald, and applied for assistance to Francis, the inveterate enemy of the emperor, and Henry VIIL, who was now in open hostility with the pope. 9. Charles V. did not, however, immediately proceed to extremities with his protestant subjects ; the necessity of check- ing the increasing power of the Turks, and his anxiety to se- cure his superiority in Italy, compelled him to temporize; and by the aid of those persons on whose destruction he was re- solved, the emperor obtained several triumphs over the Turks in Hungary and the Moors in Africa. Francis, during the peace, employed himself in improving the city of Paris, and indulging his taste for the fine arts, but he had not laid aside 228 HISTORY OF FRANCE. his ambition and thirst for revenge. From the time that he had signed the humiliating treaty of Cambray, he meditated new projects of war, and used every effort to stir up all the powers of Europe, but his measures did not succeed. Pope Clement VII., whose niece he had married to his second son Henry, died before any advantage could be derived from the alliance. Henry VIII. was too much embarrassed with the consequences of his divorce to engage in any hazardous enter- prise, and the members of the league of Smalkaid, irritated by Francis's conduct to the French protestants, refused him the least assistance. 10. Francis had indeed acted with a violence sufRcient to stir up the professors of the new rehgion against him. Some fanatics having posted up hbels against the clergy and the eucharist, he ordered a solemn procession, in order to efface the scandal, and assisted at it himself with a torch in his hand ; he afterwards pronounced a vehement speech before the bishop of Paris, in which he said, "that if one of his limbs was infected with heresy, he would cut it off, and would sacrifice his own son if he found him guilty of that crime." To conclude the scene, six Lutherans were burned alive in the most cruel manner, being alternately let down and drawn up from the flames by means of a machine, until they ex- pired. 11. The war between Charles and Francis was soon -^J,?A renewed with all its former violence ; the emperor in- ' vaded Provence, but by the judicious measures of the constable Montmorency, was compelled to retreat with pre- cipitation. The French king summoned Charles to appear before the parliament as his vassal for Flanders and Artois ; no notice of course was taken of the summons, and the two fiefs were declared legally confiscated. After two years of desultory warfare, a truce was concluded. 12. The in- habitants of Ghent, dissatisfied with the heavy taxes imposed upon them by Charles, broke out into open rebellion and offered to aid Francis in the subjugation of Flanders, if he would grant them his protection ; but he was infatuated with the desire of the duchy of iVlilan, the investiture of which he ardently desired, and in hopes to obtain it, he betrayed the whole negociation to the emperor. Charles, perfectly ac- quainted with the character of his rival, engaged to grant him the object of his desires, provided that he would permit the emperor and his train to pass through France in his way to the Low Countries ; Francis readily assented ; Charles was re- FRANCIS I. 229 Charles V. and Francis I. Visiting the Tomb of St. Denis. ceived with the greatest pomp, remained seven days at Paris, where he was loaded with marks of friendship and confidence, and after visiting the Tomb of St. Denis in company with Francis, he was permitted to depart without even leaving any authentic testimony of his promises. Ghent was soon re- duced, the rebels in Flanders forced to yield themselves to the mercy of the emperor, but the promises made to Francis were forgotten. 13. War again recommenced, Henry VIII. a second time embraced the cause of Charles, and France was , _\„* invaded by their united armies. Inevitable destruction would have overtaken the kingdom had the invaders acted in concert, but their mutual jealousies prevented them from un- dertaking anj'' thing of importance ; on the other hand, the army of the empire might have perished by famine but for the treachery of the king's mistress, who betrayed the coun- cils of her lover to Charles. A new treaty was concluded at Cressy, by which it was stipulated that the investiture of the Milanese should be given to the duke of Orleans on his mar- riage with the daughter or niece of the emperor. The death 20 230 HISTORY OF FRANCE. of this prince soon after nullified this article, and the Milanese remained in the possession of Charles. The war with Henry VIII. continued for some time longer, but at length terms of accommodation were agreed to, and Henry retained posses- sion of Boulogne as a security for an annuity of 800,000 crowns, to be paid him during eight years, by Francis. 14. Neither of these princes long survived the treaty. ,J.J Henry VIII. died in January; and Francis in the March following. His funeral procession was the most imposing ceremony that had been hitherto witnessed in France. The foUies and errors of Francis were pardoned for the sake of his magnificence and generosity ; the tears of his people watered his hearse, and his memory was consecrated by the eulogiuras of the literary men, of whom he had been ever a generous patron. But the bigotry of which Francis afforded an example, and the persecutions which he not merely tolerated but encouraged, were the deepest stains on his cha- racter. One instance will suffice. The parliament at Aix had issued an arret against the Protestants so very atrocious, that its execution was for some years suspended by the court. They had condemned to the flames as heretics, all the mas- ters of families of Merindol, at the same time giving orders to raze all the houses of that large market-town, and even to root up the trees of the neighbouring forests. The cardinal de Tournon persuaded Francis to have this barbarous decree put in execution. As soon as the court had granted its permis- sion, two magistrates, more deserving the name of execution- ers, at the head of a body of troops, proceeded to commit the most horrid cruelties. They massacred three thousand per- sons without distinction of age or sex. Merindol, with twenty-two other towns and villages, fell a prey to the flames. An act of barbarity so calculated to bring odium on the re- ligion in support of which it was perpetrated, that it may be looked on as the signal for those dreadful wars, which bigotry and fanaticism soon after kindled in the kingdom. 15. Francis died in the fifty-third year of his age and the thirty-second of his reign ; he was succeeded by his second son, Henry; Francis, the eldest, having died by poison several years before his father. The poison was administered by an Italian physician named Montecuculi, at the instigation, as some say, of the emperor, but as others, vi^ith more pro- bability, assert, at the command of Catherine de Medicis, the wife of prince Henry. FRANCIS I. 231 Peter Castelan, who made the funeral oration of Francis I., declared from the pulpit that the king's pious death was (such at least was his conviction) an indication that, in his case, purgatory would be dispensed with, and that the monarch had passed at once into Paradise or Heaven. The university deemed the assertion heretical, and sent a com- mission of doctors to complain of the court panegyrist. " Gen- tlemen" said the Spaniard, John Mendoza, maitre d'hotel to the deceased, " you come to M. le Grand Aumonier, to inquire about the place in which, perhaps, the soul of the late king, our good master, now resides. If you wish to obtain any information on the subject from me, who have known him better than any other man in the world, I can- assure you that he was not of a disposition to remain long in any place whatever, even when he was most at his ease ; and, therefore, if he have been in purgatory, he would only rest there for a short time, and perhaps do no more than taste the wine as he passed through, according to his custom." At the bottom, however, of a sensual and capri- cious nature, there lay concealed, when he was not engaged in scenes of parade, something generous and noble, which renders him a distinguished object in the gallery of French kings. Francis had entered the thirty-third year of his reign when he died. He was fifty-two years and six months old. His son, Henry H., who succeeded him, had just attained his twenty-ninth year, on the day when he ascended the throne. Catherine de Medicia. 232 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Henry II. CHAPTER XXVI. HENRY II.— FRANCIS II. What trivial influences hold dominion O'er wise men's counsels, and the fate of empire ! The greatest schemes that human wit can forge, Or bold ambition dares to put in practice. Depend upon our husbanding a moment, And the light lasting of a woman's will ! RowE. 1. Francis on his death-bed had given his son a 1547 ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ &°*'^ counsel, and amongst other matters, " had advised him to beware of the ambition of "the house of Lorraine," and not to recal the constable de Mont- morenci, whom he had sent into banishment ; the tomb had scarcely closed over him, when Francis, duke d'Aumale, the son of Claude, duke of Guise, the most powerful of the Lor- raine family, was loaded with favours, and Montmorenci sum- moned to court. 2. Henry, hke his father, was devotedly attached to his favourites ; the person by whom he was most HENRY II. 233 influenced was Diana of Poictiers, a lady neither very young nor very handsome, yet whose arts and accompHshments enabled her to maintain a complete supremacy over the king's affections. This had, however, one beneficial effect, it checked the influence of the queen, Catherine de Medicis, a woman capable of every crime, and not possessed of a single virtue. 3. The situation of Europe was at the moment of Henry's accession very critical ; the Protestants in Germany, weakened by the defection of Maurice of Saxony, were placed almost at the mercy of the emperor ; the council of Trent, which had been for some time assembled, were strenuously labouring to restore the papal supremacy ; in England, the guardians of young Edward were employed in endeavouring to aggrandize themselves, regardless of the honour or good of the country ; the neighbouring state of Scotland was similarly distracted during the minority of its infant sovereign, the un- fortunate Mary, and there seemed to be no means left by which the exorbitant power of the house of Austria could be checked. 4. But at the very moment when every thing seemed to promise Charles the quiet possession of all his acqui- , ^ko sitions, a sudden and unexpected revolution overthrew the fabric which he had spent so many years in erecting. Maurice of Saxony, foreseeing the utter ruin which impended over the Protestant religion and the liberties of Germany, secretly prepared a league against the emperor, and secured the assistance of the French king. So well were all his pro- ceedings concealed, that he was commissioned by the emperor to conduct the siege of Magdeburg, at the very time that he was making preparations for the war. Magdeburg surren- dered on conditions apparently the most favourable to the interests and wishes of Charles, but measures were at the same time privately taken to make all these stipulations ineffectual. At length when every thing was ripe for action, Maurice pub- lished a manifesto calculated to gain men of every party. He declared that his design was to secure the Protestant religion, to maintain the Hberties of Germany, and to deliver the land- grave of Hesse from his unjust confinement. So rapid were his movements, that the emperor narrowly escaped being made a prisoner at Inspruck, and was obhged, notwithstanding his illness, to be conveyed across the Alps in a litter during a heavy storm of wind and rain. Henry, on the other side, as- sumed the title of Protector of the Germanic liberties, and marched his troops into Lorraine, where he scarcely met with 20* 234 HISTORY OF FRANCE. any resistance. Toul, Verdun, and Metz, which had been long considered the bulwarks of the empire on that side, sur- rendered, and have ever since remained in possession of the French. 5. Charles finding himself destitute of men and money, was obliged to submit to the demands of the German princes ; a treaty was concluded at Passaw, by which the religious liberty of the Protestants, and the independence of the German states was secured ; but no mention was made of the king of France, who experienced the treatment that foreign princes generally meet when they interfere in a civil war. 6. The emperor, eager to regain the frontier towns from the French, hasted to lay siege to Mentz, whose dilapidated fortifications made him expect an easy conquest. But the duke of Guise, assisted by several of the young nobihty, who came as volunteers from every part of France, made such an excellent defence, that Charles was obliged to raise the siege. So much had his troops suffered from cold and famine, that several entire battal- ions surrendered to the duke of Guise, who harassed the retreat, without firing a shot. With humanity the more credit- able as it was unusual at the period, the duke of Guise treated his prisoners with the greatest humanity. The next year Charles was more successful at the siege of Tourenne, but having taken the place by assauh, he put the entire garrison to the sword, and so effectually destroyed the town, that its very ruins have perished. 7. The fatigues and disappointments which Charles , J(.J had undergone, produced an injurious effect both on his mental and bodily health ; the death of his mother, to whom he was ardently attached, increased his weariness of the world ; he resolved to retire from the busy stage of life, where he had so long played a conspicuous part, and spend the remainder of his life in seclusion. He resigned the crown of Spain to his son, Philip 11. , an ambitious, hypocritical bigot, who had been lately married to the English queen, Mary, a princess every way worthy of him. In the following year, Charles gave up the empire to his brother Ferdinand, and retired into a monastery in Spain. 8. His last pubhc act was the conclusion of a truce with the French, in order to secure the peaceable commencement of his son's reign. But this suspension of arms did not long continue ; pope Paul IV., anxious to extend the dominions of the holy see, entreated Henry to aid him in expelling the Spaniards from Italy, promising that he would give him the investiture of the king- HENRY II. 235 dom of Naples as a reward. The experience of the last cen- tury ought to have convinced the French of the perfidy of the Italian princes, and the uncertainty of any possessions in that country ; but the monarchs were infatuated with the desire of dominions beyond the Alps, and to obtain transitory glory, neglected permanent advantages. 9. The duke of Guise led an array into Italy, but his success did not answer his expec- tations ; pride and presumption prompted him to efforts which produced nothing but reverses, and he would have entirely lost his brilliant reputation, had not greater disasters at home recalled him to a new scene. 10. While the duke of Guise was making fruitless attacks on the kingdom of Naples, Philip, aided by the English, had sent a numerous army, commanded by the duke of Savoy, to invade France. The invaders laid siege to St. Q,uentin, which was gallantly defended by the admiral Coligny, nephew to the constable Montmorenci. But as the garrison was in- adequate to the defence of the place, the constable, conscious of its importance, advanced to its relief, and after experiencing considerable difficulties, succeeded in throwing a small garri- son into the town. Having performed this duty, he would gladly have retreated without coming to an engagement, but the Spaniards pursued him with so much celerity, that he was obliged to fight without having time to put his men in order of battle. The valour of the French kept the fate of the day undecided for four hours, but they were finally defeated with the loss of their baggage, artillery, and the greater part of their army. Four thousand men, of whom six hundred were gen- tlemen, fell ; the constable with a great number of the nobility were made prisoners ; France had not experienced so calami- tous a defeat since the days of Cre§y and Azincourt. 11. The ignorance and obstinacy of Philip prevented him from obtaining any decisive advantages from this splendid victory. Instead of advancing against Paris, he ordered the duke of Savoy to continue the siege of St. Quenlin. Its gov- ernor, Coligny, maintained the town against the victorious army for three weeks longer, and during that time, Henry had made such preparations as enabled him to set the Span- iards at defiance. 12. Never did France exhibit a more patriotic spirit ; the nobility assembled from every quarter to defend the kingdom ; the cities and towns subscribed large sums to pay the troops, and the peasants hastily formed them- selves into a rude militia to check the advance of the invaders. 13. The return of the duke of Guise still further tended to 236 HISTORY OF FRANCE. elevate the spirits of the French ; his popularity does not ap- pear to have been destroyed by his misconduct in Italy ; and his first enterprise after his return completely effaced the memory of his former errors. Calais, the last remnant of the conquests of Edward III., had remained in the possession of the English during more than two centuries. Its garrison was always diminished during the winter, when it was supposed to be secure from the dangers of a siege. The duke of Guise J rj came before it while thus unprepared, and after a ,_lrj' weak defence of only eight days, the town was sur- ■ rendered. The popularity of this success added greatly to the power of the duke of Guise, which was still further strengthened in the following year, by the marriage of the dauphin to his niece Mary, the young queen of Scotland. 14. In the following year a treaty was concluded at Cha- teau-Cambresis, between Philip and Henry, in which the English queen Elizabeth was included. To strengthen the union it was agreed that Philip should marry the eldest daughter of Henry, and that his sister should be united to the duke of Savoy. 15. The most brilliant preparations were made for the celebration of these nuptials, and tournaments (which were not yet out of fashion) were celebrated at Paris. The king, who excelled in these chivalrous exercises, ran several courses with great success ; but at length, while tilting with the count of Montgomery, a splinter of the lance entered his eye, and he fell without sense or motion to the ground. He survived, in a state of insensibiUty for eleven days, and then expired, in the forty-first year of his age and the thir- teenth of his reign. 16. The persecution of the protestants was rigorously con- tinued during this entire reign. They were burned alive without mercy, the judges were prohibited from alleviating the severity of the sentence ; those who petitioned in their favour, were themselves subjected to the penalties of heresy ; and some members of the parliament were sent to prison for re- monstrating against the severity of these edicts. The family of Lorraine, with the duke of Guise at their head, were the principal patrons of persecution ; but in spite of their efforts the number of protestants increased every day. 17. Francis II. was but sixteen years old at the time -. _Vq of his father's death ; feeble both in body and mind, he was incapable of managing the affairs of the state, the administration of the government devolved in consequence on the duke of Guise and the cardinal of Lorraine, uncles to FRANCIS II. 237 Francis II. the queen. Catherine de Medicis, the king's mother, anxious to obtain the management of affairs, adroitly increased the jealousies that sub- sisted between the families of Lor- raine and Bourbon, while the con- stable Montmorenci sought to re- cover the authority which he had possessed in the former reign. 18. Religion was another source of dis- cord, Coligni and d'Andelot, ne- phews of the constable, and the prince of Conde, the youngest of the Bourbon princes, were steady protestants ; but the queen, the con- stable, and the entire Lorraine family, were bitter persecutors of all who professed the principles of the reformation. The head of the house of Bourbon was first prince of the blood, and king of Navarre, but the latter was little more than a nominal title, as the greater part of Navarre had been seized by the Spaniards in 1513, and nothing left to its former possessors but a few districts east of the Pyrenees. The party of the duke of Guise, supported by the queen and the clergy, triumphed over the friends of the Bourbons ; they renewed the persecutions of the former reign with greater severity, and established tribunals called Les chamhres ar^ denies, because they condemned protestants to flames. 19. These atrocities roused the persecuted to resistance, a conspiracy was formed to destroy the family of Guise, and place all the authority of the state in the hands of the Bour- bons ; but all who shared in the plot were sworn to attempt nothing against the king, the two queens, and the princes. By the imprudence of La Renaudie, one of the leaders, the whole plot was discovered ; the court retired to Amboise oa the Loire, the duke of Guise was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and detachments of soldiers stationed on the several roads, arrested the parties of conspirators who were proceeding to the appointed place of rendezvous. 20, These unfortunate men were mercilessly butchered, twelve hundred were put to death in Amboise by the most cruel tortures, while Catherine de Medicis and the ladies of the court witnessed their sufferings as a most gratifying spectacle. The prince of 238 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Conde was more thau suspected of having had a share in this conspiracy, but he defended himself with so much eloquence and abiUty before the council that he was set at liberty. 21. Soon after these transactions, the admiral Coligny had the courage to present a memorial in favour of the protestants, to the king in council. A debate ensued, in which two bishops, John de Montluc and Charles de Marsilac, strenu- ously advocated the cause of the petitioners, asserting that the religious schism was not so much attributable to the preaching of the reformers as to the tyranny of the pontiffs and ignorance of the clergy. The result of this council was a convocation of the states-general at Orleans. 22. The king of Navarre and the prince of Conde were summoned to attend, and a solemn pledge for their safety was given. They had, how- ever, scarcely arrived when they were arrested and thrown into prison. They had formed a new conspiracy against the Guises, which had been betrayed by one of their agents, and their destruction was fully determined. The prince of Conde refused to plead before the commissioners appointed to con- duct his trial, and appealed to the court of peers. Sentence of death was passed against him, but the chancellor de I'Hopital, the only honest minister in the court of France, exerted himself to save the prince, and interposed so many delays that he eventually succeeded ; for while Conde was thus on the brink of destruction, the king was suddenly seized with an abscess in the head, and died after an illness of a few days. This unexpected event caused an immediate change in the politics of all parties ; Catherine de Medicis set the prince of Conde at liberty, because she wished to secure the aid of the Bourbons in checking the power of the house of Lor- raine. 23. Francis was not quite eighteen months upon the throne, and had just attained his seventeenth year at the time of his death. His remains were treated with the greatest neglect, so intent were the queen-mother and the rival princes to secure their own power. His unfortunate consort, Mary, queen of Scots, was compelled to quit the brilliant court of France and return to her native country. As if foreseeing the calamities which awaited her at home, she gazed on the receding coast of France with tearful eyes, nor could she be persuaded to quit the deck of the vessel until night interrupted her view. It is said that Elizabeth, irritated with Mary for having claimed the crown of England, intended to intercept her return, and that she only escaped by accident. FRANCIS II. 239 Francis II. died from an abscess of the ear, at the age of seventeen years and ten months, after reigning a year and a half. His illness had rapidly increased while he was making a beard; and some reported that his barber, who was secretly a Calvinist, uneasy on the subject of a profession of faith, which all the people in the chateau were required to sign, had, while shaving him, touched the abscess with a poisoned razor. The speech of Picard would seem to indi- cate that he was no stranger to the crime, if one had been committed; or at all events that he was soon informed of what had taken place. The Huguenots did not dissemble the joy felt on the occasion of this death. Their ministers, in their public preachings, scrupled not to declare that the fate of the king was an instance of the justice of God, di- rected against the enemies of the gospel [^December, 1560.] The tilting between Henry II. and the Count of Montgomery. 240 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Charles IX. CHAPTER XXVII. CHARLES IX. Oh shame to religion! when God's holy word Is proclaimed by the trump and confirmed by the sword. CcifNINGHAM. 1. The hopes entertained by the French people that ,J^^ the late king, on attaining the years of discretion, ' would have put an end to the factions by which the country was distracted, were frustrated by his premature death ; and France was now in a worse condition than it had been at the decease of Henry II. The houses of Lorraine and Bourbon were at the heads of the Catholic and Protestant parties : they were bitterly exasperated against each other, not merely on account of religious differences, but also in con- sequence of the late attempts against the life of the prince of Conde. Catharine de Medicis, intent on usurping the power CHARLES IX. 241 of the state, intrigued with, and betrayed both parties, dealing out treachery with the most perfect impartiality. The duke p{ Guise, not having the same claim on power that he pos- sessed during the former reign, entered into alliance with the constable Montmorenci and the marshal St. Andre, an union which was very aptly designated the triumvirate. 2. The prince of Conde and the admiral Coligny were the leaders of the Protestant party, but were weakened by the defection of the king of Navarre, who, with his characteristic weakness, joined the party of his most bitter enemies. Catharine saw that under these circumstances the duke of Guise would be her most formidable opponent, and as a counterpoise she pro- cured a formal acquittal of the prince of Conde from the states, and published an edict in favour of toleration. The zealous catholics of the kingdom look the alarm ; they believed that their church was in danger, and every where prepared to de- fend their faith by force of arms. The protestants on the other side, confiding in the protection of the court, re-opened their churches, and publicly celebrated the reformed worship. 3. When the minds of two parties are thus inflamed, a small spark will suiEce to produce a conflagration, -t^cn The duke of Guise, while coming to Paris, happened to pass on the road a congregation of Hugonots worshipping their God in a barn. Some of his servants insulted the pro- testant assembly, a scuffle took place in which many were wounded on both sides, and some of the protestants killed. This event, which both parties misrepresented, was the signal of civil war. 4. The duke of Guise and his friends took pos- session of the person of the king and brought him by force to Paris, where the citizens were all in their interest. Catherine, who had fallen into the usual error of all intriguing persons, that of using too much dissimulation, was obliged to follow in her son's train. The prince of Conde proceeded to Orleans and put himself at the head of the protestants, a party inferior in number, but possessing that species of sullen enthusiasm which cannot be subdued by defeat, or cooled by misfortune. 5. The first important enterprise was the siege of Rouen, the principal support of the protestant cause in Normandy ; after a gallant defence it was taken by assault, and for eight days given up to be plundered at the mercy of a bigoted and savage soldiery. Its governor, the count de Montgomery, whom Catharine hated for having accidentally killed her husband, made his escape with some difficulty to Havre. 6. In the assault, the king of Navarre received a wound which his de- 21 Q 242 HISTORY OF FRANCE. bauchery rendered fatal ; and died as he had lived, " halting between two opinions," for he received the sacrament from a catholic minister, and immediately afterwards declared that if he recovered he would become a champion of protestantism. His dying recommendation to his wife and son was, to keep away from the court, and to be always on their guard against the treachery of Catharine and the Guises. 7. The Hugonots soon after experienced a second calamity ; they waited for their enemies at St. Dreux, in Normandy, and in the early part of the engagement, slew St. Andre, took Montmorenci prisoner, and put an entire Aving of the enemy to flight; but the fortune of the day soon changed, the pro- estants were every where repulsed, the prince of Conde taken (Orisoner, and their entire army only saved from destruction by the able manner in which the admiral Coligny covered the retreat. 8. Inspired by this victory the duke of Guise laid siege to Orleans, which was on the point of being captured, when the duke received a wound in the shoulder from a pistol fired by a person named Poltrot, who had been lying in wait for him. The assassin was arrested, and being put on the rack, declared that he had been instigated to make the attempt by Coligny. But little credit is due to an accusation obtained by torture, and it is worthy of notice that when Coligny de- manded a truce, in order that he might be confronted with Poltrot, he met with a peremptory refusal. 9. The duke only survived six days : before his death he exhorted Catherine to lay aside her schemes of persecution, and make peace with the Hugonots. He left behind him three sons, of whom the eldest became duke of Guise ; the second cardinal of Guise, and the third duke of Mayence ; his only daughter was mar- ried to the duke de Montpensier. He appears to have been a nobleman possessed of many good qualities, which ambition and bigotry perverted to his own destruction and that of his country. 10. During this period, Catharine was diligently employed in strengthening her authority, and, by alternately holding out hopes to the two gi-eat parties which divided the kingdom, she rendered both subservient to the purposes of her ambition ; under pretence of an interview with her daughter the queen of Spain, she held a conference at Bayonne with the duke of Alva, the most cruel persecutor of the reformed religion, and at the same time pretended to the protestant princes that she was anxious to secure the free toleration of their faith. The subsequent cruelties of Alva, when he assumed the govern- CHARLES IX. 243 ment of Flanders, greatly alarmed the protestants ; the prince of Conde and the admiral Coligny, believing that their lives were in danger, formed a plan for surprising the court at Meaux, and would have succeeded, had not their march been unaccountably delayed until Catharine and her son had time to escape. 11. A second civil war hegan ; the prince of Conde, far from being disconcerted by his failure at Meaux, surprised the town of St. Denys and set fire to twenty-four windmills in sight of the walls of Paris. Though his forces scarcely ex- ceeded three thousand men, he held the city blockaded for six weeks, and then fearlessly gave battle to the constable Mont- morenci, who was marching to its relief with about twenty thousand soldiers. The battle lasted three hours ; it ended in the defeat of the Hugonots, but their adversaries had not much reason to boast of their victory, having lost their leader Mont- morenci and a great number of their bravest troops. The defeat of the insurgents was not so pleasing to Catharine as the death of the constable ; she had now seen every person removed who could dispute her authority, and she was ena- bled to gratify the ambition of her favourite son Henry by having him appointed to the command of all the royal forces, with the title of the king's lieutenant-general. But Henry of Anjou was not able to compete with Conde ; the protestants, though abandoned by their allies, made so vigorous a resist- ance, that the court consented to grant them peace on favour- able conditions. 12. An iniquitous attempt to seize the admiral and Conde led to the third civil war; they narrowly escaped from their pursuers, and fled to Rochelle, whither they were followed by the whole force of the protestants, in spite of the resistance of the royal troops. The queen of Navarre, accompanied by her son the prince of Beam, afterwards Henry IV.' of France, joined the revolters, and they were further strengthened by queen Elizabeth of England, who sent Conde a sum of money and a considerable supply of ammunition and artillery. The duke of Anjou on the other side took the field with a power- ful force, commanded by the best generals of the age. An engagement soon took place at Jarnae, in which the protest- ants were routed, and their leader, Conde, after surrendering himself a prisoner, was murdered in cold blood. The admiral made an excellent retreat, Jane of Navarre encouraged the protestants not to despair, and induced them to choose as their leaders her son the prince of Beam, and Henry, the son of 244 HISTORY OF FRANCE. their late genera] Conde. Though again defeated at Moncar- tour, the protestants maintained so bold an aspect, that the court again had recourse to negocialion, and granted all the aemands of the Hugonot leaders. 13. The events which followed have been so fiercely con- troverted, and so foully misrepresented by rival parties, that it is not easy to determine the truth from the contradictory state- ments. In the following account, the authorities from which the narrative is deduced, are the contemporary memoirs of persons who were actors in the scenes, and strict attention has been paid to the distinction between the facts which they saw, and the conjectures which they formed. Charles, who was now about twenty years of age, was, or affected to be, weary of the state of pupilage in which he was kept by his mother, and jealous of the preference which she showed for her fa- vourite son, Henry of Anjou. He averred that the merit of the peace was his own, and that he had made it, in spite of the queen-mother, the Spaniards, and the Guises. His directipns respecting the execution of the treaty were more favourable to the protestants than the articles themselves ; and, finally, he intimated his design of giving his sister in marriage to the prince of Beam, threatening the duke of Guise with death for daring to aspire to the hand of that princess. 14. The difficulty is to determine whether Charles was sin- cere in this fine of conduct, or whether he was induced by his mother to adopt a course of dissimulation unparalleled in the annals of human wickedness. The memoirs of his brother and sister attest his sincerity, which is rendered still more pro- bable by the weakness of his character and the violence of his passions ; qualities quite inconsistent with the astonishing power of hypocrisy ascribed to him by the contrary supposi. tion. He was informed that the admiral was sending some assistance to the oppressed protestants, and Charles not only declared his approbation of the proceeding, but promised to aid the enterprise, and actually commenced preparations for the purpose. He finally invited the admiral to court, and treated him with the greatest confidence and kindness. 15. Henry of Anjou, afterwards Henry HI. of France, de- clares that he and his mother were greatly alarmed by the king's avowed determination to make the admiral Coligny his principal adviser. Nor were these alarms groundless ; a pro- ject had been formed by some influential persons for changing the succession to the crown, and recognising Francis, duke of Alen^on, as heir to Charles, instead of Henry, duke of Anjou, CHARLES IX. 245 and several of the protestant leaders openly favoured the pro- ject. It would be impossible indeed to describe the various intrigues which agitated the courts both of France and Na- varre when they met in Blois to arrange the terms of union between the princess Margaret and Henry of Navarre. 16. Early in the negociations Jane, queen of Navarre, died ; many suspected that she was poisoned by the agency of Ca- tharine de Medicis, who dreaded a rival possessing so much talent, discretion, and influence, but the examination of the body refuted this suspicion, and the protestants showed that they did not believe the charge by continuing to frequent the court and urge forward the preparations for the mar- riage. On the 17th of August, Henry of Navarre, ip-U-g the founder of the Bourbon dynasty, was affianced to the princess Margaret, but she was so disinclined to the match that she refused to sign the contract ; and when the marriage ceremony was performed she would not speak, but the king her brother forced her to nod her head, which was taken as a sign of consent. The marriage took place on a Monday, Avhich, with the three following days, was spent in revelry and rejoicing. 17. On Friday the 22d of August, as the admiral was walking from the court to his lodgings, he received a shot from a window in the street, which wounded him severely in the left arm. He immediately said, " Behold the fruits of my reconciliation with the duke of Guise." In the evening the king visited Coligni and said, " Though it is you who are wounded, it is I who suffer !" At the same time Charles vowed that he would take vengeance on the assassins. 18. The admiral suspected that his murder had been planned by the duke of Guise, but there is abundant evidence to prove that the crime was planned by Henry of Anjou and the queen-mother, who were both afraid of the political in- fluence which the admiral had acquired, and alarmed, lest he should persuade the king to alter the succession in favour of the duke of Alen^on. Their, failure in the murder increased their peril ; the protestants had gained evidence implicating the duke of Anjou, and they imprudently vented their rage against him and his mother, vaunting that the king was of their party. 19. Catherine de Medicis, under these circum- stances, held a cabinet council, which was attended by the following persons : Henry, duke of Anjou, afterwards king of Poland and France ; Gonzagua, duke of Nevers ; Henry of Angouleme, grand prior of France, and natural brother to the king ; the marshal de Tavannes, and the count de Retz. 20. 21* 246 HISTORY OF FRANCE. After a brief debate it was resolved to massacre all the chiefs of the protestant party, and it was with some difficulty that the more merciful or more prudent of the party obtained an exception in favour of the king of Navarre and the prince of Conde. It was further resolved, that the execution of this atrocious plot should be entrusted to the duke of Guise ; that the guards should be placed under arms, that the city mihtia should be assembled by its officers, and that the work of de- struction should commence when a signal was given by ring- ing a bell at the Louvre. 21. These resolutions were adopted late on Saturday, and were communicated to the young king by his mother. The unfortunate Charles shrunk with horror from the atrocity pro- posed to him, but the persuasions of his mother, the dread of a new civil war, and the hopes of reigning without control prevailed ; he passed from one extreme to the other, and ex- claimed, " If any are to die, let there not be one left to re- proach me with breach of faith." But his mother and bro- ther were still so much afraid of his hesitating or altering his mind, that they gave the signal before midnight, the hour originally appointed. 32. Scarcely had the bell sounded when the duke of Guise, accompanied by some nobles of his party, and a detachment of Swiss guards, attacked the house of the admiral Coligni, and soon forced an entrance. Awakened by the noise, the admiral sprung from his bed, and perceiving that his life was principally sought, commanded his attendants to make their escape while he faced the assassins. These soon rushed into his room ; the aged hero fell under a multitude of wounds ; and his body, after having been treated with savage indignity by the duke of Guise, was suspended from a gibbet. Coligni's attendants were slaughtered as they attempted to escape over the tops of the houses, and amongst the victims was the gal- lant Teligny, son-in-law of the murdered admiral. 23. In the Louvre itself the gentlemen in waiting on the king of Navarre and the prince of Conde, were butchered in the king's presence ; two of them, wounded and bleeding, sought shelter in the bed-chamber of the young queen of Navarre, and were pursued thither by the assassins. 24. The princess herself had been kept in ignorance of the plot, and was in some danger of falling by the random blows of the pursuers ; she hurried to her mother's chamber, followed by other shriek- ing victims, beseeching her pity and claiming her protection. But she was helpless, and in momentary dread that the lives CHARLES IX. 247 of herself and her husband would be sacrificed with the rest. 25. We must now direct our attention to the other incidents of this fearful night. The infuriate populace filled every part of the city with corpses ; old and young, male and female, rich and poor, all who were Hugonots, or suspected of favour- ing their principles, were mercilessly slaughtered. The aged, borne down by the decrepitude of years, were extended on the same pile with the infant that had scarcely seen the light; whole families lay exposed together on the same bloody couch ; and the monsters who conducted this butchery, added insults to the dead and dying which will not bear to be recorded. 26. From the palace windows, Catharine beheld with a fiendish joy the progress of the murderers. Her son having recovered from his indecision, had now gone into the opposite extreme, and resolved himself to bear a share in the massacres ; he posted himself with a musket at one of the windows facing the Seine, and fired on those who endeavoured to escape by swimming across the river. 27. The protestants in the suburbs hearing the shouts in the city, supposed that their brethren had been attacked by the faction of the duke of Guise, and resolved to go and solicit the protection of the king, whom they still beheved their friend. Fortunately, they could not obtain im- mediate admission at the gates ; during the delay, a wounded fugitive acquainted them with the real state of affairs, and they had time to make their escape before the arrival of the soldiers sent for their destruction. 28. The massacre continued eight days with scarce any in- termission. Many Catholics were destroyed in the indiscri- minate slaughter. " It was heresy to possess wealth, to hold an envied office, to have a personal enemy, or an avaricious heir." At length, when more than five thousand had been slain, the murderers ceased their labours from actual weari- ness. 29. The young king of Navarre and the prince of Conde were spared, but were compelled to conform to the Ca- tholic religion. The king had the honour of procuring their conversion ; his arguments w^ere, it must be confessed, rather difficult to be resisted, since they consisted only of three em- phatic words, " the mass, the bustille, or death.'''' 30. Orders were sent to commence a similar massacre in the provinces. Some governors obeyed, but others immortal- ized their names by a spirited refusal. The viscount d'Orthe, governor of Bayonne, wrote to the court that "the king had many brave soldiers in that garrison, but not a single execu- 248 HISTORY OF PRANCE. tioner." The bishop of Lisieux acted in a manner worthy of his dignity and Christian character. When the commandant had exhibited to him the orders of the court, "You shall not execute them," he replied ; " those whom you wish to mur- der are the sheep entrusted to my charge ; they have strayed, indeed, but I am daily endeavouring to bring them back to the fold. The gospel does not command the shepherd to massacre his charge ; I read there, on the contrarj'', that he should lay down his life for theirs." 31. It had been originally the intention of Catharine and Charles to throw the entire blame of this atrocious proceeding on the duke of Guise ; but when Guise and his party refused to accept such a tremendous responsibihly, they changed their mind, and glorying in their wickedness, ordered a medal to be struck in commemoration of the event, with the motto, Pietas armavit justitiam, " Piety has armed justice." 32. At Rome and in Spain, thanksgivings were offered up for this triumph of the faith, and Pope Gregory XIII. ordered it to be cele- brated by a jubilee ! In every other part of Europe it was regarded with just detestation, and the massacre of St. Bar- tholomew, as it was named from the day of its perpetration, made the name of France odious in every land where the in- quisition was not established. 33. In concluding this painful narrative, it may be remarked that every one of the actors in the horrid tragedy seem to have been overtaken by divine vengeance. The duke of Guise was assassinated by the com- mand of his partner in guilt, the duke of Anjou, afterwards Henry III. Henry met the same fate on the very spot where he had first joined in the conspiracy, the cardinal of Lorraine died raving mad, Catharine de Medicis met a worse fate, she lived on to an unhonoured old age, imprisoned by her favourite son, deserted by all her former friends, tormented by the pangs of disappointed ambition, and still more by the consciousness that she was the object of universal scorn. 34, Notwithstanding the share that Charles had in the mas- sacre, his subsequent remorse entitles him to our pity, and ren- ders it probable that he was the involuntary agent of his mo- ther through the entire transaction. Immediately after it, he had boasted that " he should now enjoy peace," but peace was ever after a stranger to his bosom. The visions of a troubled conscience haunted his pillow, a terrible disease that caused blood to issue from every pore of his body, rendered his life miserable, and he had every day more reason to believe that his infamous mother was inclined to hasten his death in ordei CHARLES IX. 249 to procure the crown for her favourite son the duke of Anjou. 35. To these calamities was added a civil war, which burst forth with new violence. The Hugonots, i^iignant at the massacre of St. Bartholomew, took up arras with a firm reso- lution never to lay them down until they were secured in the free profession of their religion : they made Rochelle tlie capi- tal of their league, and chose as their leaders the king of Na- varre and the prince of Conde, who had escaped from the Louvre, and again embraced that religion which they had only resigned through terror. The duke of Anjou was ap- pointed by Catharine to conduct the royal army, much against the will of Charles, who viewed his brother with just suspi- cion. 36. The king's forces being far superior to the Protest- ants in number, were enabled to undertake the siege of Ro- chelle. The inhabitants of the town made a gallant resistance, they valiantly repelled the assaults of the besiegers, and en- dured with patience the severest extremities of famine. 37. Henry of Anjou was at length wearied of the protracted siege, and besides, received an account of his election to the, crown of Poland. Under these circumstances, he con- , -'^.-^ eluded a treaty with the Protestants on the most favour- able conditions, and returned to Paris. 38. He did not, how- ever, on his arrival display any great alacrity to visit his new kingdom. Love or ambition made him linger at court, until Charles, becoming hourly more jealous of his designs, threat- ened to proceed to violence. Catharine then interfered ; she desired her son to depart for Poland, adding that his delay there would not be long, and Henry at length set out, to the great gratification of the king. 39. Catharine was now the real sovereign of France, but the use she made of her power provoked the hostility of all parties. Charles was eager to shake off her authority, but his mind and body were so enfeebled by disease, that he was un- equal to the exertion. The Hugonots looked on her as an in- carnate fiend, and the Catholics suspected her sincerity. To add to the distraction of the kingdom, a third faction now sprung up, who called themselves the politicians. They pro- fessed themselves indifferent to the religious disputes, but de- clared that their object was to reform the state, humble the Guises, exclude the queen from the administration, and banish all Italians from the kingdom. The Montmorencis were the first who formed this design, in which they were joined by the duke of Aleneon the king's brother, and by all the leaders of the Protestant party. 40. A new war was just comraenc- 250 HISTORY OF FRANCE. ing, when Charles concluded his miserable career in -. ^1 the twenty-fourth year of his age and the fourteenth * of his reign. His last act was to appoint his mother regent until the return of his brother from Poland. Catharine is said to have obtained this appointment from him with great difficulty, and to have been bitterly reproached by him for all the crimes that he had committed by her instigation. 41. Nature had gifted Charles with a fine form, talents above mediocrity, and a good disposition ; but his mother, intent only on acquiring power, had designedly corrupted his education, and early instructed him in every species of vice. He was so accustomed to the absurd vice of swearing, that oaths formed the ordinary staple of his conversation. His temper was violent and unregulated, his manners coarse and boorish, his amusements disgraceful and infamous. To coin false money, to play such practical jokes as the most riotous school-boy would be ashamed to own, were the favourite pas- times of this sovereign. But as he grew up, he discovered his errors when too late ; just as he was about to atone for them by commencing a new mode of life, death arrested him in the midst of his imperfect resolutions. His last hours were disturbed by remorse for the massacre of St. Bartholomew ; with his latest breath he declared how agonizing was the re- membrance of the event, and asserted that he had been forced to sanction it by his mother. Charles IX. was a young man of lofty figure, somewhat courbe (the back inclined inwards,) a pale complexion, and he had a habit of carrying his head a little on one side. He was a good cavalier, a great hunter, a brilliant fencer, and was so fond of violent exercises, that he forged several casques and cuirasses with his own hands. He had com- posed a book on sexual enjoyments, which Brantome highly eulogizes, and his verses to Ronsard have had some cele- brity. His sickly temperament had a bad influence on the events of his reign. The explanation of St. Bartholomew is certainly not to be found in religious passion, nor in poli- tical interest. Physiologists think it may be traced to the bile from which the king suffered. History, perhaps, will find it in the influence of all combined. After so many rude convulsions, it might have been hoped that a new reign would have brought some repose to France. Such was not the case. Still panting for breath, as she was from the last struggle, in which she had been engaged during CHARLES IX. 251 the long period of fifteen years, the fifteen years which were to follow proved equally stormy. While Charles IX. breathed his last in agony, his brother, Henry, king of Poland, but indifferently at his ease, remained a foreigner in his kingdom, indulging carelessly in pleasure, and badly disguising the disgust inspired by all around him, he seemed to live but in the hope of seeing St. Germain and the Louvre shortly. Catherine kept her favourite son duly informed of the progress of the king's malady, and on his death he was with all speed informed of the event. In a secret committee, he suddenly resolved on abdicating the crown of Poland, and concerting with his attendants the means of escaping, without slander, from the fidelity of the Poles. One night, courtiers and king, after the fashion of discontented schoolboys, fled with all speed to the frontier, and there, believing themselves safe, commenced a triumphal march by Vienna, the German states, Italy, and Turin, and arrived in France to assist in new revolutions, and to act their parts in the civil discords of the nation [1575.] The Dukes of Guise. 252 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Henry III. and his Q.ueen. CHAPTER XXVIII. HENRY III. The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloom Of hasty greatness finds the fatal doom. ; His foes' derision and his subjects' blame ; And steals to death from anguish and from shame. JoExsoir. 1. The death of Charles without heirs gave the , ly^ throne of France to Henry III., ttie favourite son of * Catharine ; he had joined in all her plots and persecu- tions, had been the commander of forces against the Hugo- nots in the field of battle, and their virulent persecutor in the time of peace. But in his progress to Poland, the coolness with which he was treated by the princes of Germany, had served to show him the horror with which the massacre of St. Bartholomew was viewed by all but the slaves of Rome, and he never after amidst his many crimes and follies showed him- self a persecutor. 2. On learning the news of his brother's HENRY in. 253 death fearing to be detained by the Polish nobles, he abandoned his kingdom secretly ; some of the nobility followed him be- yond the boundaries, and to them he gave an indefinite promise of returning at some future period, which he had no intention to perform. The Poles eventually elected another king, and Henry and his former subjects seem speedily to have forgotten the existence of each other. 3. In his earlier years, Henry had shown some traits of a manly and energetic spirit, but all traces of it seemed to have disappeared at his accession. He showed from the very beginning a dislike of serious occupations, a devotion to trifles and debauchery, and a total abandonment of all the cares of government to his niother and his favourites. 4. Catherine encouraged these dispositions, which allowed her to gratify iier insatiable thirst of dominion. The two great parties by which the kingdom was divided, had now acquired so much strength and consistency, that impartiality was scarcely possi- ble ; the royal council was similarly divided ; the president, de Thou, treading in the steps of the chancellor de I'Hopital, recommended that peace should be estabhshed on the basis of an amnesty for the past, and a toleration of the protestants for the future ; the partisans of the duke of Guise would be con- tented with nothing short of a total extirpation of heresy. The queen, as usual, endeavoured to make both parties sub- servient to her purposes ; but her arts had been too often practised to be any longer available, and both parties prepared to recommence the war, if indeed they can be said ever to have laid it aside. 5. The duke of Alencon, who afterwards obtained the title of duke of Anjou, and the king of Navarre, had been restored to liberty by Henry immediately after his arrival in France ; but finding themselves exposed to suspicion, and deprived of all interest in the state, they quitted the court to place them- selves at the head of the politicians and the protestants. 6. The war was distinguished by no great exploit on either side, and was terminated by a peace, in which more favour- able conditions were granted to the Hugonots than they jeyg had hitherto obtained. The violent catholics, headed by the duke of Guise, loudly protested against this treaty, which they deemed subversive of the established religion, and entered into an alliance called the Holy League, in defence of what they called true Catholicity. The declared objects of his union were to defend the church, the king, and the state ; ts effects were the dishonouring of religion, the murder of the 23 254 HISTORY OF FRANCE. king, and almost the utter ruin of the nation. As soon as the Hugonots had learned the news of this powerful combination for their destruction, they prepared to defend themselves, and stood to their arms in every part of the provinces. 7. Henry III., after some vain attempts to remain neutral, embraced the party of the league, and recalled the edicts of toleration which he had lately issued ; but there is some reason to doubt his sincerity in this transaction ; in fact, he seems to have placed himself at the head of the league, merely to exclude the duke of Guise from being appointed its leader. 8. For five years the history of France presents nothing to our view but a series of petty combats, enterprises badly planned and worse executed, treaties hastily made, and as hastily broken ; treachery, disunion, and discontent in every part of the kingdom. The protestants were broken into as many parties as there were leaders ; the king of Navarre, who was nominally their head, suffered full as much from the jealousy of his followers, as from the malice of his enemies ; on the other hand, the king mortally detested the duke of Guise, whose popularity with the clergy and people made him a rival rather than a subject, and the duke despised the king, to whose incapacity he attributed the continued existence of heresy. 9. An unexpected event produced a new change of parlies, by compeUing the queen-mother and the duke of Guise to remove the veil which had hitherto concealed the objects of their ambition. The duke of Anjou having ,p«,c deserted the king of Navarre, became apparently re- conciled to his brother, and even led an army against those Hugonots of whom he had been once the leader. 10. But not being able to continue at the court of his brother, where he found himself equally detested and despised, he secretly fled into Flanders, and placed himself at the head of the provinces which had revolted from the crown of Spain. The states of Holland chose him for their prince, partly in- fluenced by a belief that he was likely to become the husband of queen Elizabeth, and that they would thus obtain the assistance both of England and France. But Elizabeth had no intention of marrying any body, she coquetted with the duke of Anjou as she had done with many others, and broke off the negociation when it seemed on the point of being com- pleted. 11. The report was, however, serviceable to the duke, as it facilitated his reception by the Flemings, and gave him some authority with his new subjects. But the prince soon lost these advantages ; he displayed incapacity in the field HENRY III. 255 and treachery in the cabinet, until at length being detected in an attempt to make himself king, he was compelled to fly into France, where he died overwhelmed with shame and vexation. 12. The death of the duke of Anjou, and the im- probability of Henry's ever having any children, soon iroV made the members of the league develop their real designs. Henry of Navarre, according to the fundamental laws of the kingdom, was the next heir to the crown ; but as he was only related to the king in the fourteenth degree, and was besides a protestant, Catharine and the duke of Guise severally laboured to prevent his succession. Catharine re- solved, in defiance of the Salic law, to procure the crown for the descendants of her favourite daughter, the duchess of Lor- raine ; the duke of Guise, with duplicity equal to her own, pretended to join in her design, but strenuously laboured to procure the rich inheritance for himself. 13. The clergy were the foremost in exciting a new war ; every pulpit re- sounded with declamations on the dangers of the church if the throne were possessed by a protestant, every confession-box became the means of secretly whispering treason into the ears of the populace, and the press, which was almost totally in the hands of the ecclesiastics, produced daily the most inflam- matory appeals to the prejudices and bigotry of the nation. In these invectives the king was not spared ; his severe edicts for raising new taxes, his lavish profusion to unworthy favourites, his disgraceful debaucheries, and the hypocritical grimace which he substituted for devotion, furnished ample scope for satire ; and it was said in addition, that he had formed a secret alliance with the king of Navarre for the pro- tection of the Hugonots. 14. The duke of Guise was the main-spring of all these complicated movements ; as he could not openly claim the crown for himself, he persuaded the old cardinal of Bourbon, uncle to the king of Navarre, that he was the right heir to the crown in consequence of his ne- phew's heresy. The cardinal, whom contemporary his- torians briefly but emphatically designate an old fool, vA'as easily persuaded to assert his chimerical claim, and published a manifesto declaring himself chief of the league. Henry, however, could not be persuaded to set aside the claims of his cousin, the king of Navarre, even though that prince had re- fused to come near the court after he had been frequently in- vited, and had firmly resisted every attempt made to persuade him to change his religion. 256 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 15. The accession of the king of Spain to the league ,_'oJ became the signal for renewing the war; the Protest- ants fought no longer for their privileges but for their existence ; the duke of Guise scarcely concealed his designs upon the throne, the king of France was exposed to the at- tacks of both factions, and was in equal danger from the suc- cess of either. This is generally called the war of the three Henrys, viz. the king of France, the king of Navarre, and the duke of Guise. 16. The most extraordinary of all the matters connected with this tedious conflict was the conduct of the pope; though the league was professedly intended to exalt the power of the holy see, Sextus V. looked upon it as a rebelhous alliance, equally dangerous to the interests of royalty and religion. Possessed of as proud and ambitious a spirit as any pontiff that had ever held the papal throne, he reverenced in others any manifestations of that courage and vigour which formed so conspicuous a part of his own character. He ex- communicated Henry of Navarre and queen Elizabeth ; the former made a spirited appeal to a general council, and had his defiance posted on the gates of the Vatican ; Elizabeth excommunicated the pope in her turn. When Sextus heard of those instances of intrepidity, he declared, that though he- retics, these were the only sovereigns in Europe that deserved to wear a crown. 17. But Avhatever may have been the private sentiments of the pope, his bull afforded a pretext to the leaguers, of Avhich the duke of Guise was not slow in availing himself. The leaders of the sixteen departments into which Paris was di- vided, the entire mob of that city, all the clergy, regular and secular, were on his side ; and the deposition of Henry III. was an object openly avowed b}'- his partisans. The duke's brother, the cardinal of Guise, declared publicly that the king should be sent into a monastery: his sister, the duchess of Montpensier, whom Henry had insulted by some remarks on her want of personal beauty, exhibited the scissors which were to give him the clerical tonsure. 18. Henry of Navarre began now to show some proofs of those noble qualities, which have since deservedly procured for him the title of Great. The weakness and indecision of his father had shaken the confidence of the protestants in the house of Bourbon ; but his mother had redeemed the errors of her husband ; she was adored by her subjects, Avith whom she loved to reside, far from the intrigues and vices of the court. In the remote and wild districts of Bearne, Henrv re- HENRY III. 257 ceived the education of a hardy mountaineer, and was early- taught to encounter difficulties and dangers. When brought to court, he was not proof against the seductive arts by which Catharine de Medicis endeavoured to bring him over to her party. Indifferent as to the means by which her ends were accomphshed, Catharine laboured with some success to lead the young prince into habits of debauchery, in order that she might rule his actions by means of the artful mistresses with . which she had supplied him. But the impending dangers of the league woke him from his dream of guilty pleasure ; he placed himself at the head of the protestant party when its fortunes were at the lowest ebb ; often defeated but never con- quered, he maintained his ground amidst the violence of ene- mies and the insincerity of friends, until he finally triumphed, as much by the admiration inspired by his moral character, as by the terror of his arms. 19. Catharine made some ineffectual efforts to pre- vent this war by negociation, but being distrusted by , ^^J both parties, she completely failed. The royal army, under the duke of Joyeuse, an unworthy favourite of Henry's, was totally defeated at Contras by the king of Navarre. On the other hand, the duke of Guise cut to pieces an army of Germans, who had invaded France to make a diversion in fa- vour of the Hugonots. The populace of Paris were so in- toxicated with joy at the news of the victory obtained by their idol, that Henry, who had appeared for some time to have re- signed all care of the state, was roused from his lethargy by the imminent peril that threatened his crown and life. 20. He sent an express to Guise, forbidding him to approach Paris ; but the duke, pretending not to have received , Jao the royal mandate, hastened his approach to the city, and was received there with all the honours of a triumph. In order to reduce the power of the Sixteen, Henry introduced a body of his Swiss guards into Paris, but the citizens, instigated by the partisans of Guise, immediately took up arms ; the shops were shut, the alarm bells rung, barricades and chains were drawn across the streets, and the soldiers driven back from post to post, until the king found himself and his attend- ants closely penned up in the Louvre. Henry escaped during the night, leaving the duke of Guise in full possession of the capital, but Catharine remained behind to exert her arts of in- trigue in bringing about an accommodation. 21. A treaty was concluded, which neither party intended to observe, and in consequence of one of its stipulations, an assembly of the 22* R 258 HISTORY OF FRANCE. States was ordered to be held at Blois. The debates and votes in this assembly sufficiently showed the dangerous designs en- tertained by the duke of Guise, and the great resources that he possessed for their accomplishment. To proceed against him for high treason would have been absurd, when all the states of the realm were in his favour; open war would cer- tainly terminate in the king's defeat ; nothing then remained but the detestable means of assassination, and this Henry de- termined to adopt. 22. A letter from pope Sextus greatly contributed to confirm his resolution ; his holiness advised the king " to render himself master of his rebellious subjects by any means in his power." Having armed nine of his most trusty followers with daggers, Henry sent to invite the duke of Guise to a speedy conference on matters of the utmost im- portance. The duke hastened to obey, but just as he was about to enter the room in which the king was, the assassins fell on him altogether, and he was instantly slain. His brother, the cardinal, shared the same fate on the following day. Thus fell, in the prime of life, two men whom nature had endowed with abilities that might have made them the brightest orna- ments of France, but which bigotry and ambition had rendered useless to themselves and pernicious to the nation. 23. Henry proceeded from the scene of blood to his mother's apartments, and announcing to her the news, said, "Now, madam, I am indeed a king ;" she heard the account with the utmost indifference, but advised him to take advantage of the confusion which the event would cause in the league, and se- cure Paris. But Henry, believing all danger removed by the death of his greatest enemy, relapsed into his ordinary indo- lence. Soon after, Catharine, overwhelmed with sorrow at the disappointment of all her schemes, and broken down by whnessing the ruin which her profligate ambition had brought, on her children, felt herself sinking into an unhonoured grave. Her last advice to Henry was to establish liberty of conscience, and to enter into close alliance with Henry of Navarre. She died unlamented and almost forgotten : the dissolution of one who had played so prominent a part was regarded everywhere as an ordinary incident of trifling importance. 24. Instead of "finding himself indeed a king," Henry, in consequence of his crime, was on the brink of ruin. The members of the league openly threw off their allegiance, and choosing as their leader the duke de Mayenne, the brother of the murdered duke, gave him the pompous title of " lieutenant- general of the royal state and crown of France," which wa.s HENRY III. 259 HENRY III. 261 in fact giving him the authority of a sovereign writhout the name. 25. Most of the provinces and large cities of France declared in favour of the league, and Henry saw no hopes of preserving his authority unless he obtained the assistance of his cousin of Navarre. That prince suspected the king's sin- cerity, for once, unjustly, and remembered too well the share that Henry had taken in the massacre of St. Bartholomew to trust him too readily. But their natural necessities compelled both to bury their former animosities in oblivion ; the two Henrys had an interview at the castle of Plessis -. jJUq les Tours, and entered into a close alliance which was never afterwards violated. 26. Henry III. was now superior to his enemies ; he advanced to Paris and laid close siege to the city ; the inhabitants were unprepared for his attacks, they had but a small stock of provisions and an inadequate garrison ; the duke de JVIayenne was unable to collect an army for their relief; every thing seemed to promise a speedy surrender, when an unexpected event produced a new and total revo- lution. 27. A monk, named James Clement, was persuaded by his own fanaticism, aided by the artful suggestions of some of the leaguers, that he would perform a meritorious action by killing a monarch who was an enemy to the church. For this pur- pose he resolved to go on to St. Cloud, where the king resided, and under the pretence of giving him a letter, stab him in the midst of his guards. Never did an assassin display so much intrepidity ; on his road he met La Guesle and his brother, who were going to join the royal army ; he was by them con- veyed to the camp, and spent the night of his arrival in their tent. He supped gaily with La Guesle's followers, retorted with considerable humour the jokes passed on his monkish habit, readily answered every question put to him, and after leaving the table, spent the night in a profound sleep. On the following morning he was introduced to the king, and pre- sented his letters ; while Henry was engaged in looking at them, Clement stabbed him with a knife which he had con- cealed in his sleeve ; the king immediately called out that he was murdered, and drawing out the knife from the wound, struck the assassin in the face ; at the same time the attendants despatched him with their swords. The death of Clement prevented any discovery of those by whom he had been in- stigated to the atrocious deed, but it appears very probable that the family of Lorraine were those who had most share in the contrivance, in revenge for the murder of the duke of Guise. 262 . HISTORY OF FRANCE. When Henry found that his wound was mortal, he prepared for death with much apparent resignation. He took an affectionate farewell of the king of Navarre, whom he declared his successor, after having strenuously exhorted him to conciliate his future subjects by embracing the Catholic religion. Having then confessed himself with much apparent devotion, he expired in the 88th year of his age and the 15th of his reign. 28. With him ended the house of Valois, which had held the throne of France for 261 years. During their dynasty, the several in- dependent principalities into which Gaul had been so long divided, were consolidated into the single compact kingdom of France ; but this advantage was more than counterbalanced by the estabhshment of arbitrary principles of government, and the continual weakening of the influence previously pos- sessed by the assemblies of the states. The news of the assassination of Henry III. had been received at Paris with odious joy. It was celebrated by bonfires, and other marks of rejoicing. The duchess of Montpensier got into a carriage with her mother, and passing through the streets, called out to the people, from time to time, " Good news ! good news !" The pulpits resounded with eulogies on the glorious martyr, James Clement. Crowds ran to see his mother, a poor rustic, whom the duchess of Montpensier had brought to Paris ; and the six- teen, in their harangues, applied to her these words of scrip- ture, " Happy is the womb which has borne thee, and blessed are the breasts which have given thee milk." The Parisians, however, demanded a king. Mayenne, not daring to take the crown himself, because he knew the people, as well as the king of Spain, were opposed to his wishes, caused the old Cardinal de Bourbon to be proclaimed, under the name of Charles X. " He was," says L'Etoile, " the true king of the theatre and of painting," and was, at that time, the prisoner of Henry IV. For himself, Mayenne was content to bear the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, which, in fact, placed in his hands all the power of the state. He then invited the parliament, the provinces, and the nobility, to deliver their king from captivity, and to stand forward in defence of their religion. At the same time, he established a secret understanding with the royal army, and endeavoured to gain over both the officers and soldiers. As with Henry HI. the race of Valois, by the deed of Clement, was extinguished, the direct line of the Capets ceased by the death of the three brothers without male issue. HENRY III. 263 Assassination of Henry III. HENRY III. 265 The next heir to the throne was Henry de Bourbon, king of Navarre, related to the late king in the twenty-second de- gree ; but the name which he bore as a Hueguenot was, in the opinion of many, enough to exclude him for ever from the throne. The Catholics, who would have deemed it a crime to conspire against Henry HI., their legitimate king, scrupled not to repulse Henry IV. altogether, or, at all events, till he should have re-entered the bosom of the church. One other thought influenced them generally, or at least a great number of them ; they had an idea of making him purchase their adhesion, or, perhaps, of creating small sovereignties, in particular cities and provinces. Valet and Footman of Henry III. 266 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Henry IV., his Queen, and the Dauphin. CHAPTER XXIX. HENRY IV. But be thy failings cover'd by thy tomb, And guardian laurels o'er thy ashes bloom ! Hatlet. 1. The death of Henry III. relieved Paris from the 1K«Q ii^niinent dangers to which it had been exposed ; the ' title of Henry IV. was indeed acknowledged by the principal leaders of the besieging army, but his religion pre- vented them from warmly espousing his cause ; the greater part drew off their forces, and Henry was compelled to raise the siege, which his diminished forces could no longer con- tinue. The duke of Mayenne, who might have assumed the title of king, chose rather to proclaim the cardinal of Bourbon, though he remained a prisoner; and having collected a nu- merous band of leaguers, he pursued Henry on his retreat to Normandy. 3. The royalists, though inferior in numbers, gained two brilliant victories at Arques and Ivri, over the par- tizans of the league; but though these triumphs served to HENRY IV. 267- raise the character of Henry, they were not sufficient to crush a party bound together by their own bigotry, the gold of Spain, and the spiritual authority of the pope. 3. His own followers gave the king nearly as much trouble as his enemies ; the catholic royalists detested the Hugonots ; the protestants returned the hatred, and were, besides, divided amongst them- selves ; the princes of the blood were either too young to exert any influence, or had ranged themselves under the banners of the league, and Henry found himself engaged in this dan- gerous war almost s()lely dependent on his own personal resources. 4. The king of Spain was anxious to obtain the crown of France for his daughter, Clara Eugenia; the pro- testant princes of Europe, dreading the additional power that would thus be added to the Spanish monarchy, already formi- dable, resolved to support the cause of Henry, the queen Eli- zabeth, especially, assisted him with money and warlike stores. 5. These aids, and the confidence inspired by seve- ral successive triumphs, soon enabled Henry to under- ic-qa take the siege of Paris, where the hatred of the leaguers displayed itself with more violence, in proportion as the king showed himself more worthy of afTection. Though their shadow of a king, the cardinal de Bourbon, had lately died, and they had not selected any other in his place, so far were they from thinking of submitting to their rightful sove- reign, that the doctors of the Sorbonne declared that Henry, being a relapsed heretic, could not receive the crown even though he should obtain absolution, and this shameful decree was confirmed by the parliament. 6. In the meantime, Paris being closely blockaded and ill supplied with provisions, was attacked by all the horrors of a severe famine. Bread was made of bones ground into powder, food the most revolting was eagerly sought after, multitudes dropped daily dead in the street from extreme starvation, but no one spoke of yielding. The clergy had promised a crown of martyrdom to all who died in the cause of the church, and their deluded followers submitted to every privation without a murmur. Still, had Henry not been moved with a paternal pity for his frantic sub- jects, he might have taken Paris by assault ; but when urged to give orders for the purpose, he replied — "I had rather lose Paris, than get possession of it when ruined by the death of so many persons." He gave the fugitives from the city a safe passage through his camp, and permitted his officers and sol- diers to send in refreshments to their friends. By this lenity he indeed lost the fruit of his labours for the present, but he 268 HISTORY OF FRANCE. gained the approbation of his own conscience and the admira- tion of posterity. 7. The prince of Parma, who commanded the Spanish army in Flanders, advanced to the rehef of Paris when the citizens were at the very point of despair ; by a series of masterly movements, he disconcerted the efforts made by Henry to bring on an engagement, relieved the garrison, and returned to continue his wars with the Dutch ; after having performed this essential service to the league with scarcely the loss of a man. 8. The following year, Henry met a similar disappointment at the siege of Rouen, where the escape of the prince of Parma was effected under such difficult circum- stances, that Henry could scarcely believe the evidence of his senses when he found that the hostile troops were beyond his reach. 9. Death soon after delivered the king from this for- midable rival ; the prince died in Flanders at the age of forty- seven ; his military talents and great virtues would have brought the United Provinces again under the yoke of Spain, had it been possible to find a remedy for despotism and per- secution. 10. The conduct of the Sixteen at Paris, contributed much to weaken the influence of the league ; these hot-headed rebels pretended to give the law both to the duke de Mayenne and the parliament. When a man whom they wished to destroy was acquitted, they suddenly broke out into the most furious excesses, and actually hanged three of the magistrates who had been judges at the trial, amongst whom was Brisson, the first president of the parliament. The duke de Mayenne acted on this occasion with a promptitude and decision foreign to his character ; he marched to Paris at the head of his most trusty followers, delivered the most violent of the murderers to the executioner, deprived the Sixteen of the Bastille, which had been their principal stronghold, and thus finally crushed a de- testable faction, which derived its whole strength from the madness of fanaticism. 11. But these favourable events were not sufficient to put Henry in possession of the kingdom, while he professed a religion odious to the majority of his subjects ; his most faithful followers, protestant as well as catholic, re- commended him to change his religion, and Henry only de- layed through fear of offending Elizabeth and the protestant princes of Germany. At length, finding that the states-general had proceeded so far as to offer the crown to the Spanish in- fanta, on condition of her marrying a French prince, Henry saw that further delay might bring ruin on his cause, and |RQq publicly abjured protestantism in the church of St. Denis. 12. Though this conversion was any thing HENRY IV. 269 but sincere, it was followed by the most beneficial effects. The nobility, in general, hastened to reconcile themselves to a king whose character they respected, and most of those who still held out, only did so in hopes of receiving some reward for returning to their allegiance. 13. The duke de Mayenne and some few of the more violent leaguers, however, obstinately refused to acknowledge the king, until he had received abso- lution from the pope ; the bigoted clergy preached with their accustomed vehemence against the man of Beam, as they still called their sovereign ; but the efforts of some men of genius who had joined the royal cause, weakened the force of their invectives. 14. Several ingenious writings against the follies and absurdities of these ignorant bigots, especially the Menippean satire, covered them with such merited ridicule, that they found their declamations unheeded and neglected. At length Paris opened its gates to Henry, and found in him not a vindictive conqueror, but a paternal sove- jgoY reign. 15. While he was employed in giving the Henry IV. Entering Paris. most remarkable proofs of his beneficence and zeal for the public good, his life was attempted by a young fanatic, named John Chatal. When the assassin was interrogated, he pleaded in excuse the doctrine of tyrannicide, which he had learned among his masters, the Jesuits, and had heard preached by the 23* 270 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Capuchins. The parliament having witnessed so forcible a proof of the dangerous tendency of the doctrines preached by these monastic orders, commanded them to be banished from the kingdom. 16. At length the long expected bull of absolution ,p.*q_" arrived from the pope; and the leaguers having no further grounds of resistance, prepared everywhere for submission. The duke de Mayenne set the example, and during the remainder of his life was one of Henry's most faithful and devoted subjects ; the other chiefs followed his example, but exacted a high price for the purchase of their loyalty, which Henry, notwithstanding the disordered state of his finances, faithfully paid. 17. Philip, king of Spain, was now Henry's only enemy ; and even he, notwithstanding his blind and brutal obstinacy of character, saw that the league was irretrievably ruined. He still continued the war, captured Calais, and soon after added to his conquests the city of Amiens, wliich his forces surprised. 18. But Henry soon recovered the latter, and forced the Spanish arnvy to retreat. The pro- testants were naturally displeased with the king for having deserted their religion, and were inclined to create dis- irqe turbances in the provinces. Henry, therefore, to con- ciliate this portion of his subjects, issued the celebrated edict of Nantes, by which they were granted a perfect tolera- tion of their religion, and full security both in person and pro- perty. 19. Soon afterwards the war with Spain was termin- ated by the treaty of Vervins, which Henry, by the tacit con- sent of his aUies, the Dutch and English, concluded separately with Philip. 20. The death of the Spanish king followed in a short time after the conclusion of this pacification, and with him the power of Spain seems to have terminated. His efforts to crush protestantism in Europe, dictated by bigotry rather than by policy, were eminently unsuccessful, and served in the end to ruin the country which was cursed with him as a sove- reign. England defeated the armada arrogantly named in- vincible, and crushed the naval power of Spain ; Holland suc- ceeded in throwing off Philip's yoke, and acquiring independ- ence ; the league perished in France ; his only successful project was the establishment of the inquisition in Spain, which long continued to degrade that unhappy country. 21. The return of peace and tranquillity produced a period of comparative happiness in France, to which its inhabitants had been long unaccustomed. The protestants, indeed, thought that Henry was not sufficiently grateful to his oldest and most HENRY IV. 271 faithful friends, but the nation in general were delighted with a monarcii, wliose greatest anxiety was to prove himself the father of his subjects, and who, unhke all his predecessors, extended his care to the peasantry, who had been hitherto treated as an inferior class of beings. 22. But though the dis- positions of the king were noble and generous, it is doubtful whether they would have proved so beneficial, had they not been directed by his faithful friend and able minister, the marquis de Rosny, afterwards duke of Sully. Under him the Sully. finances, which were in a frightful state of disorder, were, by a series of judicious measures, made available for the services of the kingdom ; commerce, which had been oppressed by a load of monopolies and absurd restrictions, was unfettered ; industry was every where encouraged, useful public works undertaken, and the administration of justice purified from the corruptions which had long made it a system of legalized ini- quity. Henry, too sensible to the allurements of pleasure, was frequently made the dupe of his mistresses, and the beau- tiful Gabrielle d'Estrees had so much power over him, that he designed to marry her if he could obtain permission from Rome to divorce his wife, Margaret of Valois, with whom he had not hved for several years. On the death of Gabrielle, Henry took as his second mistress Henrietta d'Entragues, an artful woman, who very nearly succeeded in becoming his queen. Henry showed his promise ready signed to Sully, when the virtuous minister, transported with indignation, in- 272 HISTORY OF FRANCE. stantly tore it to pieces. "I believe you are mad," cried Henry in a rage. " It is true, I am mad," replied Sully, " and I wish I were the only madman in France." Henry was finally divorced from Margaret, and soon after married Mary de Medicis ; by her he had a son who afterwards suc- ceeded him, but in every other respect the match was unfor- tunate. 23. During the wars of the league, the duke of ir'm ^^^°y ^^'^ made several encroachments on the territory ■ of France ; the exertions of Sully had supplied the king with the means of punishing these usurpations, and he accordingly commenced a vigorous war against that prince. It began and ended in one campaign ; the duke was compelled to beg a peace, which he could only obtain by the cession of a considerable portion of his dominions. 24. But the duke had left the seeds of rebellion in the kingdom, and even seduced the marechal de Biron, who had been one of Henry's best and earliest friends, to obhterate the remembrance of his former services, by joining in a treasonable conspiracy against his country and his king. Henry, who had the most unquestion- able proofs of his guilt, offered him a pardon if he would can- didly confess his crime ; but Biron obstinately refusing to make any acknowledgment, he was delivered over to justice. It is remarkable that this nobleman, who had always exhibited great personal bravery in the field of battle, betrayed the most Avomanish weakness on the scaffold ; so much does heroism consist in a consciousness of moral rectitude. 25. The kingdom of France for several years continued to enjoy the fruits of an excellent administration, and saw her strength revive with her happiness ; but plots were daily con- trived against the king, principally fomented by his perfidious mistress d'Entragues. So infatuated was Henry, that he con- tinued his affection to this perfidious woman even after he had received the most unequivocal proofs of her guilt. The duke de Bouillon, who had received the greatest marks of kindness, endeavoured to excite a new civil war, by working on the dis- contents and disappointments of the Hugonots. Henry hav- ing in vain tried gentler methods, at length marched against the duke, and deprived him of his principahty, Sedan, but restored it again on his repentant submission. 26. These disturbances did not, however, produce ■tp(\a any serious effect on the general tranquillity of France ; ■ under the prudent administration of Sully, that coun- try was fast recovering from the evils that had been inflicted HENRY IV. 273 by the civil wars ; and Henry being left at liberty to direct his attention to forelofn affairs, endeavoured to merit the name of the Pacifier of Europe, a title more honourable than that of the most illustrious conqueror. The republic of Venice had provoked the hostility of the court of Rome, by sentencing to capital punishment an Augustine monk, who had been guilty of the most enormous crimes, and prohibiting the alienation of lands to the clergy, who had become a burden to the state, from their numbers, their extensive possessions, and their ex- emption from taxation. Paul V., who was then pope, excom- municated the republic, and not trusting entirely to the effi- cacy of ecclesiastical censures, levied an army in order to compel the Venetians to submission. Henry, perceiving the scandal that this war was likely to bring on religion, successfully offered himself as a mediator, and notwith- -innA standing the vehement opposition of the Spanish court, effected a reconcihation. The states of Holland, though vir- tually independent, were not as yet acknowledged as a separate state by their former masters, the Spaniards ; the war had now lasted forty years, and the Dutch had not only driven their oppressors out of the country, but also obtained several im- portant settlements in the extremity of Asia. 27. Henry me- diated a peace between the new states and their former rulers ; a labour of no small difficulty, for the Spanish court, with the same obstinate pride by which it is distinguished at the present day, preferred a nominal title over their former subjects, to the solid advantages of a beneficial peace. 28. We are told by Sully, that Henry meditated the forma- tion of a Christian republic in Europe ; it was proposed to divide Europe between fifteen sovereigns, none of whom should be permitted to make any new acquisition, but should form altogether an association for maintaining a mutual balance and preserving peace. This project was one of very ques- tionable utility, and at all events could never be realized ; his second object, to set bounds to the ambition of the house of Austria, both in Germany and Italy, was more practicable, and more immediately useful. 29. He had already made the ne- cessary preparations for this enterprise, when the emperor, Rodolph II, , furnished him with a pretence for commencing the war, by sequestrating the duchies of Cleves, Juliers, and Bergue, after the death of the last duke. Henry entered into a league Avith the elector of Brandenburgh and the count Pa- latine of Neuburg, who both pretended to the succession. The protestants of Germany, always justly suspicious of Austrian S 274 HISTORY OF FRANCE. treachery, formed a new alliance for the protection of their civil and religious liberties, of which Henry was privately the contriver, and publicly the chief support. The pope, the re- public of Venice, and the confederacy of the Swiss cantons, all led by separate interests, were united in the common reso- lution of checking the imperial power. 30. Never was any enterprise better concerted. Henry was to march into Germany at the head of forty thousand excel- lent soldiers. Sully had provided ample resources for the ex- penses of the army ; the allies were all eager to perform their several stipulations. On the other side, the emperor was im- mersed in the study of astrology, and a vain search after the philosopher's stone ; his only supporter, the king of Spain, was the slave of bigotted inquisitors and avaricious favourites ; both were destitute of wisdom, confidence, and resources. 31. Henry was impatient to join the army, but was detained much against his will to gratify the queen with the vain ceremony of a coronation, which she insisted on with the most eager vio- lence. During the festivities which took place on this occa- sion, the mind of Henry was distracted by the most gloomy forebodings, and he more than once felt that " coming events cast their shadows before," in fearful anticipations of a sudden and violent death. 32. His apprehensions were fatally ful- filled. Passing along a street, his coach was entangled in a crowd, and a desperate fanatic, named Ravaillac, took that op- portunity of stabbing him. The assassin mounted on the hind wheel of the coach, and plunged a knife into the king's bosom, who was so intent on the perusal of a letter, that he did not even see his murderer. The courtiers who were in the coach drew up the windows, and ordered the driver to return to the Louvre, but hfe was extinct before they reached the palace. 33. Thus died at the age of fifty-seven a prince worthy of im- mortality, against whom more than fifty conspiracies were formed by his contemporaries, but whose memory has been hallowed by the admiration of posterity, and whose reign might serve as a model to all princes who love their subjects. Let us bury in oblivion a few spots which stain his private life, weaknesses which are unhappily too common to heroic minds, and honour him for the clemency which he showed to his in- veterate enemies, the wisdom with which he tranquillized a land distracted by civil wars for nearly half a century, and the enlightened toleration of which he gave a bright example him- self, and recommended the practice to his successors. 34. Much of the glory both of the public works that Henry exe- HENRY IV. 275 cuted, and those still greater which he had projected, undoubt- edly belongs to Sully ; but it is no small praise to have selected such an adviser, and to have borne with patience the reproofs which Sully frequently gave him with a boldness almost re- publican. The king was happy in possessing such a minister, and the minister was as happy in having such a king. The nation was still more fortunate in enjoying such a rare combi- nation as a virtuous sovereign and a patriotic administration. ""■•■''^"''«'"lKr^-^. 276 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Louis XIII. CHAPTER XXX. LOUIS XIII. Talents angel bright If wanting worth are shining instruments, In false ambition's hands, to furnish faults Illustrious, and give infamy renown. Youiro. 1. The assassination of Henry IV. overthrew the ifi'in ^^^^^^ structure which his wise conduct had raised, dispelled all the hopes that lovers of their country had formed, and plunged the kingdom irtto every species of mis- fortune. In the midst of the public sorrow, the queen and several of the courtiers could scarcely conceal their joy at the removal of the restraint which had hitherto checked their am- bition and rapacity. Louis XIII. was but nine years old, and the appointment to the regency was a natural source of all the artifices of political intrigue. 3. The queen dowager, Mary de Medicis, was like her predecessor Catharine in desire of power, but was not quite so unscrupulous in the use of ini- LOUIS XIII. 277 quitous means for its attainment. Her great friend and assist- ant, the duke d'Epernon, went to ttie parliament which was then sitting, and threatened violence if the queen were not immediately invested with the sole authority of the regency. That body, partly moved by his threats, and partly anxious to annex the legislative authority of the states-general to their judicial functions, complied with his request, 3. Nothing could equal the vices and follies of the new go- vernment. The Florentine Concini, Marquis d'Ancre, and his wife Eleanor, obtained a complete ascendancy over the mind of the queen, who was as weak in intellect as she was ardent in ambition. These two foreigners, equally rapacious and subtle, raised themselves from a condition below mediocrity to the summit of fortune. With them were joined the pope's nuncio, the Spanish ambassador, and a Jesuit named Cotton, the whole forming a secret conclave by which all the import- ant measures of the state were directed, whilst the delibera- tions of the council of state were rendered an absolute nullity. 4. The objects that engaged their attention were to cement an union between France and Spain, by the marriage of Anne of Austria with the king, and his sister Elizabeth with the son of Philip III., to dissolve all the alliances formed in the last reign, to exterminate the Hugonots, and to dissipate all the treasures that had been collected by the economy of the former reign. 5. Sully soon became wearied of vyitnessing crimes that he could not check, and profusion that he could not con- trol ; he demanded and obtained permission to retire to his country-seat, where he passed the remainder of his life in literary retirement, engaged in composing those interesting memoirs of his own times, which have proved almost as useful to succeeding generations as his public hfe was to France. Once again he returned to court, when Louis XIII. wished for his advice. The young courtiers began to ridicule his old- fashioned dress and behaviour, which Sully perceiving, said to Louis, " When the king, your father, did me the honour of consulting me, he first dismissed all the buffoons of the court." This great man survived to the year 164L 6. The misconduct of the government soon produced a civil war. The prince of Conde, with several of the most power- ful nobles, took up arms, and the queen, unable to resist them in the field, was compelled to concede all their demands by the treaty of Sainte-Menehoulde. 7. One of these jgji was the convocation of the states-general, which were accordingly assembled, but spent their whole time in useless 24 278 HISTORY OF FRANCE. disputation. The clergy insisted on the publication of tne decrees of the council of Trent, whicii the other orders looked on as subversive of the independence of the kingdom ; on the other hand, a proposal of the third estate to enact a law de- claring, " That no temporal or spiritual power has a right to dispose of the kingdom and absolve the subjects from their allegiance," was rejected by the ecclesiastics as an heretical novelty. This can scarcely be deemed surprising when we learn that the regency annulled an arret of the parliament, declaring the king independent of foreign jurisdiction. One would almost have supposed that the court of Rome had pre- sided in the king's council. 8. The parliament Avere at length roused to enquire into the state of the country ; they made remonstrances to the court on the dissipation of the royal treasures, but were severely checked for intermeddling with affairs of state. The prince of Conde, placing himself at the head of the Hugonots again, had recourse to arms. After publishing a most violent manifesto, he suffered himself to be duped by the Italian arti- fices of the queen, laid down his arms, returned to court, and was shut up a close prisoner in the Louvre. Soon after, the Marchioness d'Ancre made a total change in the ministry, and promoted to the office of secretary of state, Richelieu, bishop of Lucon, who was afterwards destined to be the virtual sovereign of France. 9. The Concinis, though equally despised and de- 1^1^ tested by the great, were long enabled to resist all their efforts; but they met with a more formidable enemy in young Luines, whose rise was almost as rapid and astonishing as their own. This man had risen to favour by his skill in training birds for the amusement of the monarch ; he found means to inspire Louis with a jealousy of the authority possessed by the regency, persuaded him to shake off the yoke of his' domineering mother, and the still more odious slavery in which he was held by foreigners, who, through her means, were his masters, and the actual rulers of his kingdom. 10. These insinuations produced their in- tended effect ; orders were issued to arrest the marquis d'An- cre ; and Vitri, captain of the guard, executed them according to the intention of Luines ; that is, Concini was slain under pretence of having made some resistance. This service pro- cured for Vitri a marechal's staff; the same honour had previ- ously been conferred on one Themines, for having arrested the prince of Conde. What must the government have been LOUIS XIII. 279 when such services were rewarded with the highest military- honours ! 11. The trial of the marchioness d'Ancre was a glaring mixture of folly and absurdity. The principal accusa- tion against her was that she had obtained an influence over the qu'een by sorcery ! When asked by her judges, " what magic she had used to fascinate Mary de Medicis ?" she replied with equal sense and spirit, " the ascendancy which a superior genius has over a weak mind." The parliament de- clared her guilty of treason against God and man, without specifying any particular action which could be con- ^ ^ siderei as either, and sentenced her to be beheaded, jgjg_ after which her body was to be burned. 12. The exile of the queen mother was a necessary con- sequence of the execution of her favourites; she was sent to Blois, where she intrigued with the duke d'Epernon to regain her influence by force of arms. Twice was she on the point of commencing a civil war, but the evil was on both occasions averted by negociations, in the latter of which Richelieu was honourably distinguished. Luines imitated the example of the Florentines, whose ruin he had effected ; he enriched himself with their spoils, and in a short time rose from the rank of a private gentleman to the very highest dignities of the state. His weak-minded master gave him the sword of constable, and, with still greater folly stirred up a war amongst his subjects, in which his favourite might have an opportunity of exhibiting his incapacity. 13. The edict of Nantes having been flagrantly and repeatedly violated, the Hugonots resolved to defend themselves from continued insults and oppressions : an assembly of their leaders was held at Rochelle, where it was resolved, unless their wrongs should be redressed, that they would throw off' the yoke of France and erect a republic on the model of the Dutch. 14. The constable Luines, equally ignorant and presump- tuous, imagining that he could easily crush this formidable party, undertook the management of the war ; and ^ ^^ Louis, at his instigation, laid siege to Montauban, but ^^^l. after having wasted much blood and treasure before its walls, was "forced to make a hurried and disgraceful retreat. 15. Two great captains, the duke of Rohan and his brother Soubise, were at the head of the protestants, and nothing could detach them from a cause which they thought it their duty to defend. Luines died after this disgraceful expedition ; the ofHce of constable, which became vacant by his death, was an object sufficiently tempting to prevail on the brave but ambi- 280 HISTORY OF FRANCE. tious Lesdiguieres, to desert his religion and his party ; he ab- jured protestantism, and became a formidable enemy to the Hugonots, of whom he had long been one of the most favourite leaders. 16. The war was carried on with more valour than skill on both sides ; in the attack on the island of Rhe, the king displayed great personal bravery, and cut to pieces a large body of the insurgents ; but the Hugonots were still so formi- dable, that he was obliged to renew his former treaty with them, and again confirm the edict of Nantes ; thus a desultory war was again terminated by an insincere peace. 17. The entire policy of Europe was now about to IfiW ^fidergo a complete revolution, effected by the superior genius of one man. We have already noticed the first introduction of Richeheu into public life, and the share that he had in reconciling the queen mother to her son ; for this ser- vice he had been rewarded with a cardinal's hat ; but the king had by an express stipulation, excluded him from holding any office in the state. Louis, who was not totally destitute of re- ligious feelings, was disgusted by the cardinal's licentious life, which his sacred profession rendered more disgraceful. At length he yielded to his mother's importunities, and made Richelieu one of his council ; the cardinal knew well how to improve the opportunity ; five years after his appointment to the council, he became prime minister and all-powerful ; but from the first moment of his introduction he was the master of all his compeers. 18. The great objects of the cardinal's policy were to destroy the Hugonots and humble the house of Austria. For this purpose he undertook and executed several preparatory measures of great importance. He concluded a marriage between Henrietta, the king's sister, and the prince of Wales, afterwards Charles I. ; he delivered the Alpine pro- vince of the Valteline from the yoke of Rome and Spain ; he concluded an alliance with the Dutch, who, though distracted by internal religious wars, were maintaining a vigorous con- test against the Spaniards, and seizing on some of their most important colonies both in Asia and America. 19. Before Richeheu could undertake his magnificent projects with any chance of success, it was necessary to secure himself in the ministry against the factions of the French nobility, who still .preserved some portion of their former feudal power. Gaston, duke of Orleans, brother of the king, was at the head of a party opposed to the cardinal, whose assassination he meditated. The fickleness and cowardice of Gaston was the ruin of his accomplices ; he reconciled himself to the court by disclosing 282 HISTORY OF FRANCE. ;l,,,i^ni^.'hiVM.mm4ff\\\i:Mi>f miiata Gaston, Duke of Orleans, disclosing the Conspiracy to Richelieu. LOUIS xrii. 283 their conspiracy to Richelieu, and again formed new conspira- cies, whose failure only served to strengthen the exorbitant power of the minister. Never had a statesman so many diffi- culties to encounter, but they only served to give scope to his genius, and his ambitious spirit supphed him with an energy and perseverance that triumphed over all opposition, 20. To authorise the changes that he intended, an assembly of the Notables was convoked ; this was merely a convocation of the principal nobility, and did not, like the states-general, contain any popular representatives. Richelieu proposed several im- portant measures for the reformation of finance, and addressed the assembly with equal wisdom and eloquence ; he said that it was better to provide for the due execution of former edicts than to form new ordinances, and that actions rather than words would be found a proper remedy for the evils of the state. All his edicts were approved without opposition. 21. Whilst the genius of Richeheu ruled the whole kingdom of France, the duke of Buckingham, the im- -i^cy^ prudent minister of Charles I., was arming England, against her ancient enemy. The imprudent zeal of Henri- etta's catholic attendants had provoked the hostility of the English ; the attacks made on their protestant brethren, the Hugonots, had excited the national sympathy in their favour, and Buckingham took advantage of these circumstances to revenge an insult which had been offered him by Richelieu. Whilst the English duke had been employed in negociating the marriage between Henrietta and Charles, he was weak enough to form a romantic attachment for Louis's queen, Anne of Austria. Anxious to pay her a second visit, he passed over into France, under the pretence of concluding a treaty against Spain, but Richelieu being informed of his sentiments, caused him to be denied admittance at court, and Buckingham, irri- tated at his disappointment, resolved to encourage and support the Hugonols, who, equally suspicious and suspected, were again engaged in an insurrection. 22. The rashness of Buckingham caused the ruin of Rochelle, which had long been justly looked on as the principal bulwark of the French pro- testants. Richelieu undertook its siege in person, and showed, during its continuance, the valour of a soldier, the skill of a general, the wisdom of a statesman, but little of the attributes which belonged to his profession of an ecclesiastic. The duke of Buckingham, on the other hand, undertook nothing that did not prove his complete incapacity for the situation into which he had been thrust by the favour of his foolish sove- 284 HISTORY OF FRANCE. reign. He made a descent on the isle of Rhe, which was badly contrived, and worse executed ; after being disgracefully defeated he returned home, leaving Rochelle completely in- vested both by sea and land. To exclude the English suc- cours, the cardinal had caused a mole to be constructed across the entrance of the harbour ; he was not interrupted in the execution of this daring project, for the duke of Buckingham having been assassinated at Portsmouth, the sailing of the English fleet was delayed until after this great work had been completed. 23. The inhabitants of Rochelle bore all the horrors of a fierce siege and pressing famine, with unparalleled courage and patience. Guiton, their mayor, would not listen even to the proposal of a surrender ; when told that the majo- rity of the inhabitants were fast falling victims to hunger and disease, he replied — " it is enough if one remains to shut the gates." The mother and sister of the duke de Rohan ani- mated the garrison by their spirited exhortations, and encour- aged the citizens by their example of patient submission to privation. But, though heroic perseverance may be exhibited with the very faintest glimmerings of hope, it decays and per- ishes when the failure of the last faint expectation is witnessed. 24. The hope of relief from England had supported the Rochellans under all their sufferings ; the English fleet hove in sight ; the worn-down inhabitants crawled to the walls, eager to witness the success of this their last and only chance. They saw that fleet, after a weak and ineffectual effort to break through the mole, tack about and leave them to their fate. The courage by which they had been hitherto supported at once failed, they immediately surrendered almost at discre- tion, and a royalist garrison manned the walls of Rochelle, ere the topsails of the fleet that had been sent for their de- 1fi2ft liverance were out of sight. 25. The victorious army * seemed, on entering the city, to have come into the abode of death; more than two-thirds of the inhabitants had fallen victims to the calamities of the siege, and the survivors resembled skeletons rather than living men ; the streets were silent and deserted, " there was not a house in which there was not one dead ;" and one of the victorious generals was compelled to exclaim, "we have only triumphed over carcas- ses." A few da)fs after the surrender of the town, a violent tempest destroyed the mole which had proved its ruin, but Richeheu had demolished the fortifications, and the citizens were too few and too dispirited to make any new attempt for freedom. 26. Nismes and Montauban shortly after surren- LOUIS XIII. 285 dered, but as the protestants were still formidable, the cardinal granted them favourable conditions of peace. The cause of the Hugonots was, however, completely ruined ; they no longer retained any of those cautionary towns, by the possession of which they could enforce the observance of treaties. They were whollj' at the mercy of their enemies, and were destined in the next reign to experience how weak is the security of promises between the powerful and the feeble. 27. The cardinal having subdued the Hugonots pre- pared to execute his great scheme of humbling the i^oq' house of Austria. The war was successful in Italy, but it was in Germany that the cardinal more fully displayed the resources of his genius, for he had there an ally, whose heroism has been rarely paralleled. The emperor Ferdinand, by the most flagrant violations of treaties, had provoked the protestant princes to take up arms : they found a leader worthy of their cause, in Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, whom history has honoured with the name of the Lion of the North. 23. This contest in Germany, which is usually called the thirty years' war, was supported by the money of France and the soldiers of Sweden ; it was on the whole unfavourable to the imperial arms, notwithstanding the great abilities displayed by the generals Tilly and Wallenstein. 29. In the mean time, Gaston, duke of 1^*00 Orleans, instigated by the queen-mother, and en- couraged by the duke of Lor- raine, to whose sister he was married, renewed the civil war. Weaker even than his brother, this prince, the slave of unworthy flatterers, com- menced rebellions to gratify his favourites, and then sacri- ficed them to obtain peace. The duke of Lorraine was punished by the loss of his best places, and the forfeiture of a great part of his domi- nions. The duke of Mont- morenci, who had been in- duced to join in the plot by the hope of obtaining the office of constable, was still more unfortunate. Having fallen into Gaston, Duke of Orleans. 286 HISTORY OF FRANCE. the hands of his enemies, he was sentenced to expiate his am- bition on the scaffold, and notwithstanding the great services his family had performed to the state, and the interest made to save his life by all the nobihty of France, he was publicly executed. Gaston's marriage with the princess of Lorraine, having been contracted without the royal assent, was declared null by the lawyers of Paris, and set aside by the parliament. The quarrel between him and his brother was after some time accommodated, but bitter hostility still remained in the breasts of all the parties. 30. The death of Gustavus Adolphus, in the arms of victory, for a time checked the triumphant career of the protestants in Germany; but Richelieu, though the determined enemy of the reformed religion in France, saw that by supporting it in the empire, he could alone check the exorbitant power of the house of Austria. A new treaty was concluded with the duke of Saxe Weimar, and additional subsidies were sent to ,^oJ enable him to carry on the war with vigour. 31. The * hostihties between Spain and Holland still continued to the great advantage of the latter ; Richelieu entered into close alliance with the Dutch, and by a treaty agreed to a par- tition of Flanders as if it had been already subdued, 32. The first and second campaigns were disastrous to the French ; the soldiers mutinied for want of pay ; the Dutch made but little exertion, dreading to extend the dominions of a neighbour so powerful as France to their frontiers ; the Flemings continued faithful to Spain, because their municipal privileges were re- spected, and, with the single exception of the duke de Rohan, all the French generals exhibited the most signal proofs of presumption and incapacity. The Spaniards invaded Picardy, and were at first so successful, that the French trembled for their capital ; but they lost all their advantages through the misconduct of their generals, and the spirit of national resist- ance which is roused in a patriotic people by an invasion. It would be equally superfluous and tiresome to enter into the particulars of a war so complicated, and carried on with such obstinacy, in which the strength of the powers was every- where exhausted as well by victories as defeats. Suffice it to say, that the Spaniards were finally overwhelmed by a series of calamities, their armies were defeated by the count d'Har- court, the Dutch admiral, Van Tromp, destroyed their fleet, Catalonia revolted, and placed itself under the protec- 1fi4n '■'*^" '^^ France, and Portugal, having thrown off the ' yoke of Spain, placed the duke of Braganza on its LOUIS XIII. 287 throne. 33. The death of Weimar and Bannier for a time dispirited the Swedes, but they had previously so weakened the empire by several brilliant victories, that Austria contend- ed rather for independence than dominion ; and their new leader, Tortenson, seemed not inferior to any of his prede- cessors. 34. The internal history of France presents us during this period with nothing but a series of intrigues for overthrowing the power of RicheHeu, all of Avhich were disconcerted either by his superior skill or the weakness of his enemies. These plots were fatal to many of the French nobility, for the car- dinal procured from the corrupted courts of justice the con- demnation of those who had conspired for his overthrow. He continued, however, to veil his passions under an air of gran- deur. After the execution of the last victims that were sacri- ficed to his jealous fears for his security, he wrote to Louis XIII. in the following terms : — " Sire, your enemies are dead, and your arms are in Perpignan." That important town had been just taken from the Spaniards. 35. But when his power seemed to have arrived at its greatest height ; when Mary de Medicis, who had been his early patron, but had subsequently become his most bitter and dangerous foe, had perished in misery and exile at Cologne ; when the nobility dreaded him more than their sovereign, and seemed to have resigned ail hopes of throwing off the yoke ; at that moment he was surprised by the hand of death, and i^a,^ was cut short in the midst of his triumphant career. 36. Richelieu appears to have possessed shining rather than solid abihties ; his enterprises were always vast and magni- ficent, but were not uniformly important and useful. His moral character was of the worst description, unscrupulous in the use of any means by which he might retain the situation of minister, he corrupted the administration of justice, and added to the legal murder of his opponents the mockery of an iniquitous trial before tribunals of his own selection. At the same time it must be confessed that the cardinal does not ap- pear to have been worse than his rivals ; public virtue seems at this period to have been banished from France, and if more of crimes are recorded of Richelieu than of his antagonists, let it be remembered that his situation was more conspicuous. In private life he was fond of show and grandeur, his expen- diture equalled that of the sovereign, and the palace which he erected for his own residence (the Palais Royal) is still one of the noblest structures in Paris. He wished to be deemed a 288 HISTORY OF FRANCE. patron of the fine arts, and had the vanity to think himself an excellent dramatic poet. But to this weakness must be op- posed the vigour with which he resisted the whole nobihty of France, and destroyed the remnants of their feudal power. It was during his administration that the government of France was finally formed into an absolute monarchy, and it was the remembrance of this that probably induced Peter the Great of Russia to exclaim, " I would give half my dominions for one Richelieu to teach me how to govern the remainder." 37. Louis XIII. did not long survive his minister, lfi49 ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ apparent resignation in the forty-second ' year of his age and thirty-third of his reign, leaving his kingdom again exposed to all the evils of a long minority, for his son and successor had not yet attained his fifth year. Louis had so little share in the government of the kingdom, that he can scarcely be said to have reigned ; his defective education and natural weakness of intellect subjected him com- pletely to his servants, and it has been well observed by a late writer, that " during this reign Louis XIII. wore the crown, and cardinal Richelieu swayed the sceptre." By the advice of Mazarin, Louis, just before his death, caused a declaration to be prepared for creating a council of regency, to consist of the queen, the duke of Orleans appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom, the Prince of Conde, whose son, the young duke d'Enghien, took the command of the army of the north, the Cardinal Mazarin, the chancellor, Seguier, De Boutellier, and De Chavigny. Desnoyers, the declared servant of the queen, was excluded from it. By this, ministers were made a sort of co-regents, and the queen and the duke of Orleans were bound to sub- mit to the opinion of the majority. Tho queen was out- raged by such an arrangement, but she dissembled her indig- nation, with a view of letting the king die in peace. Louis strongly insisted on this declaration ; he desired that it should be irrevocable, and as firmly secured as the Salic law. He signed it, and caused it to be signed by the queen and the duke of Orleans, and wrote himself below, " The above is my express will, which I desire may be carried into execu- tion." Afterwards, on transmitting it to the president. Mole, he said, " I have settled the affairs of my kingdom. This is the only satisfaction lean have in dying." His last moments were disturbed by the renewed discon- tents of the Fronde. At St. Germain, even the partisans of the queen, and those of the ministers, were every day ready LOUIS XIII. 289 to come to blows. In the midst of these disorders, the kino-, left almost alone, wished for death. A few days, however, before his death, the young dauphin having said, while play- ing in his apartment, " My name is Louis XIV.," the monarch started up in surprise, and exclaimed with anger, " Not yet." On the 14th of May, 1643, twenty-three years to a day after the decease of his father, he expired, leaving his crown to his son, then in his nonage. " Historians are not agreed," remarks the president, Re- nault, " on what grounds Louis XIII. received the surname of ' the Just.' Facts do not justify it as they do the epi- thets of Henry the Great and Louis the Great. It was not enough that Louis XIII. should have had a minister like Richelieu ; to merit it, he should have personally assisted, as Henry did Sully, as Louis did Colbert." His character was essentially feeble in many respects, but where blood was to be shed, he placed himself under a stronger mind, and Richelieu, with an unflinching hand, " shut the gates of mercy." That he himself did not concur in the character given of him to posterity, is obvious, from the shrinkings which he experienced in declining life. Once being at Ecouen, a palace of which the Montmorencies had been despoiled, the conscious Louis saw, or thought he saw, the ghost of the decapitated duke approaching him in anger. The monarch, appalled, attempted to save himself by flight, and never returned to the place. Lady and Gentleman riding to Court. — SKteenth Century. T 290 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Louis XIV. CHAPTER XXXI. LOUIS XIV.— THE WARS OF THE FRONDE. A. D. Each party joined to do their best, To damn the public interest, And herded only in consults To put by one another's bolts. HUDIBBAS. 1. Loris XIII. on his death-bed had appointed by 1 fi*4^' ^^^ ^^'^ ^ council of regency, at the head of which were ■ placed the queen, Anne of Austria, and the duke of Orleans. To insure its execution, he made the queen and the duke swear to its observance, after which he ordered it to be registered by the parliament. But all his precautions were unavailing; the grave had scarcely been closed over him, when his will was openly and shamelessly violated. The queen, being aided by the duke of Orleans, obtained an arret of parliament, giving to her the nomination of the council, and the right of appointment to all the great offices of state. 2. Having thus obtained all the real authority of the kingdom, LOUIS XIV. 291 she chose as her principal adviser and minister, cardinal Ma- ?arin, a native of Italy, whose diplomatic abilities had recom- mended him to the notice of Richelieu, and wij^p seemed to have inherited all the ambition and much of the abilities of his patron. 3. The war with Spain still continued, and was main- tained on the side of Flanders with distinguished ability by the duke d'Enghien, afterwards better known by the name of " the great Conde." On the death of the king, orders had been sent him not to risk an engagement ; but anxious to re- lieve the important town of Rocroi, which was closely besieged, he resolved to hazard a battle. The Spanish infantry were at that time considered the best in Europe ; they boasted that their lines had never yet been broken, and deemed that Conde was marching to certain defeat. But the judicious manoBU- vres of this youthful general soon humbled the pride of the Spanish veterans ; in the third charge their ranks were broken, and their entire army hopelessly routed. 4. The capture of Thionville was the consequence of this brilliant victory, which may indeed be said to have placed Flanders at the mercy of France. From thence Conde proceeded to Germany, where the French had experienced some reverses ; but the presence of this young hero soon changed the fortune of the war. 5. With inferior forces he attacked the imperialists in their en- trenched camp near Friburg, and defeated them after an ob- stinate battle which lasted three days. Philipsburgh, Mentz, and several other fortresses on the Rhine, were the fruits of this brilliant victory. Gaston, duke of Orleans, had a little be- fore made himself master of Gravelines, which had sustained a vigorous siege for two months. But the French were less successful in Catalonia, where Philip IV. defeated their forces, and captured the important towns, Lerida and Balaguier. 6. At the end of the campaign, Conde returned to Paris, leaving the command of the army to the mare- t/^^e* chal Turenne. This general advanced into the heart of the country to take advantage of a great victory gained by the Swedish general Torstenson, in Bohemia. On this occa- sion, Turenne committed a capital error, the only one, it is said, of which he had ever been guilty, by consenting to the separation of the allied forces : Merci, the imperial general, was not slow in taking advantage of this oppoi'tunity, he at- tacked the French at Manendahl in Franconia, and gained a complete victory. 7. On the receipt of this news Conde has- tened to join Turenne, he then led his forces against the im- A. D. 1648. 292 HISTORY OF FRANCE. perialists, attacked them at Nordlingen, and obtained a third triumph even more glorious than his preceding victories. 8. The psifice then marched to besiege Dunkirk, but Maza- rin, jealous of his fame and influence, had him removed to the command of the army in Catalonia, where, for want of neces- sary succours, he could undertake no enterprise of importance. His inaction did not long continue ; the emperor's brother, the archduke Leopold, having invaded Flanders and compelled the French army to retire, it was necessary to recal Conde and send him again to the scene of his former glory. He was too late to relieve Lens, which surrendered almost in his sight. But he well avenged his countrymen in the battle that ensued ; he to- tally defeated the archduke after a brief but sanguinary engagement, in which he left it doubtful whether he had displayed more skill or valour. Never since the foundation of the monarchy had France obtained such a series of splendid triumphs ; never be- fore had Frenchmen exhibited so much courage and conduct. 9. On the other hand, the Spanish monarchy had expe- rienced a succession of re- verses at least equally re- markable ; the loss of Hol- land and Portugal had been followed by that of the Brazilian settlements in South America, and the most valuable Spanish colonies in the East Indies. 10. To these was added about this time the revolt of the Neapohtans, who chose as their leader a fisherman named Masaniello. This demagogue vi^as afterwards murdered by the populace, who had only the day before hailed him as a divinity. The insurgents then resolved to establish a republic under the protection of France, and elected as doge the duke of Guise, who had some hereditary claims on Naples. Guise hastened to take possession of his new dignity, but receiving no succours from Mazarin, he was betrayed to the Spaniards and detained more than four years in prison. The Spaniards punished the revolters with fear- ful severity ; no less than fourteen thousand are said to have been ruthlessly massacred. 11. Experience has given a Cardinal Mazarin. LOUIS XIV. 293 further proof of the truth of the remark made by the old Ita- lian historian, Giannone, "No people," says he, "is more greedy and less capable of liberty than the Neapolitans. Giddy in their conduct, inconstant in their affections, unsteady in their opinions, they hate the present, and are too much de- pressed with the fears or hopes of futurity, according to the dictates of impetuous passion." 12. At length the separate interests of the several contend- ing powers required them to think of peace. Spain and Hol- land, after a war which had been protracted for eighty years, were wearied of the contest ; the former country saw that it would be vain to continue any further their la- ioao hours for the subjugation of the revolted provinces ; and the Dutch had begun to dread the dangerous increase of the French power. The complicated interests of the Ger- manic body, made the arrangement of the claims of the dif- ferent parties a matter of considerable difficulty ; but some new successes of the Swedes showed the emperor the danger of delay ; and the dread of a civil war in France made Mazarin still more anxious to bring matters to a satisfactory conclusion. The inferior powers were obliged to follow the example of Austria and France ; and at length the articles of the cele- brated treaty of WestphaHa were signed at Munster, on the 24th of October. 13. Spain and France were now the only countries that re- mained at war, and the civil dissensions that were caused in the latter by the unpopularity of the government greatly facili- tated the progress of the Spanish arms. The hatred that the oppressive taxes and despotic edicts of Mazarin inspired, was the cause of this war. The parliament of Paris not only re- fused to register his edicts, but forgetting the bounds of their jurisdiction, abolished the intendants of provinces, who were instituted by Louis XIII. ; and the court being filled with in- dignation, resolved to strike a decisive blow. By the cardinal's orders, a president and counsellor who had been distinguished for their vehement speeches against the court were arrested and thrown into prison. Upon this the Parisians took up arms, threw chains across the streets, erected barricadoes, killed seve- ral of the royal army, and had nearly made Mazarin himself the victim of their resentment. The cardinal, alarmed at the violence of the populace, displayed weakness as cowardly as his former proceedings had been rash, and ordered the prison- ers to be set at liberty. 25* 294 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 14. The opponents of the court took the title of Frondeurs,* they were stimulated to action chiefly by the coadjutor to the archbishop of Paris, afterwards the celebrated cardinal de Retz, a man equally distinguished by abilities and profligacy. The leaders of the Fronde were the prince of Conti, brother to the great Conde, with the dukes of Longueville, Beaufort, Vendome, and Bouillon. Conde, though discontented, sided with the court, and when the parliament had declared their intention to take up arms, blockaded Paris. 15. This strange war was carried on by the pen as much as by the sword ; every occurrence was made the subject of a jest or ballad ; satires, lampoons, andijeux cf esprit of every description were circulated every hour; ladies of rank forgetting the dignity of their sex, forced themselves into every political intrigue ; in short, the war was ridiculously begun, ridiculously con- ifidq ducted, and still more ridiculously concluded. 16. A ■ seeming accommodation was effected between the par- ties, a general amnesty was published, and the court returned to Paris. But the following year, the prince of Conde. whose pretensions knew no bounds, quarrelled with the cardinal, and was, in consequence, sent to prison ; at the same time his brother, the prince of Conti, and his friend, the duke of Longueville, were arrested. 17. Mazarin could not have re- solved on a bolder, or apparently a more successful measure. The populace celebrated with bonfires the imprisonment of those princes whom they had a few months before looked on as their patrons and defenders, and followed with shouts in the train of a minister so lately the object of their execration. But the intemperate vanity of JVIazarin rendered this tranquil- lity of short duration ; he affronted GJaston, duke of •tar.{ Orleans, a man ever ready to change sides, and pro- ■ voked the Frondeurs, who still breathed sedition. The parliament demanded the release of the imprisoned princes, * The origin of this name has been variously narrated, but the following account appears to be the most probable : — At the commencement of the troubles, Bachaumont, a counsellor of the parliament, sportively said, that his associates were like school-boys, amusing themselves with a. fronde (sling) in one of the city ditches ; they dispersed themselves whenever the civil lieu- tenant approached, and collected together as soon as he had turned his back. This comparison was considered so applicable, that it was celebrated in songs, and on the same evening the parliament- party put bands resembling slings round their hats. From thence- forward the opponents of the court were caWeA. frondeurs. LOUIS XIV. 295 and pronounced sentence of perpetual banishment against the cardinal. Mazarin went in person to release the prince of Conde and his associates, hoping that he might be able to at- tach them to his interest, but received from them only marks of contempt. He then retired to Liege and afterwards to Cologne, whence he still governed the queen-regent as abso- lutely as if he had never quitted the court. 18. Conde took up arms against the court, and was opposed by Turenne, who had formerly been a leader of the Fronde. The two great generals came to an engagement under the walls of Paris, in which the royalists were victorious, though the daughter of the duke of Orleans, by turning the cannon of the bastille against the king's forces, prevented them from immediately reaping the fruits of their triumph. 19. As the hatred against the minister seemed implacable, the king consented to his removal, and dismissed him after having made his eulogium in a declaration. The Parisians then joyfully opened their gates to their sovereign, and the face of affairs was entirely changed. The duke of Orleans went to end his days in banishment, the cardinal de Retz was imprisoned, and Conde took refuge with the Spaniards, where, like the constable of Bourbon, he found that ail his former in- fluence and all his former glory were annihilated the moment that he became a traitor. 20. To the storms of the Fronde succeeded so still a calm that Mazarin again appeared peaceably at court, i^eo resumed all his authority, and saw himself courted by every body, even by the parliament ; a conclusion worthy of an absurd war, the history of which, as was observed by Conde, after he had played his part in it, deserved only to be written in burlesque verse. The faction of that prince were called the party of the petits rnaitres, because they wanted to make themselves masters of the state. In a short time the name petits rnaitres, given to youthful coxcombs, and the term Frondeurs, applied to factious censurers of the govern- ment, were the only relics of these foolish wars. 21. The Spaniards, during these contests, recovered many of their former losses, and deprived France of the advantages that it had obtained from the victories of the great Conde. That prince was now in arms against his country, and would have exposed it to the greatest dangers had he not been op- posed by Turenne. These great rivals attracted the attention of all Europe. Turenne had been deemed an unequal match for Conde, but the prince was not in a situation to display his 296 HISTORY OF FRANCE. military talents ; he was depressed by the consciousness of fighting against his countrymen, and was besides unable to convince the Spanish generals, equally ignorant and obstinate, of the superior merit of his own plans. 22. England, at this time under the vigorous administration of Cromwell, may be said to have held the balance of European power; the alliance of the protector was eagerly courted by both parties, but at length Mazarin prevailed by his excessive complaisance, not to say meanness. The English auxiliaries restored -I ana superiority to the French. Turenne, aided by six ■ thousand British troops, laid siege to Dunkirk, while the port was blocked up by twenty sail of English men-of-war. Don John of Austria and the prince of Conde marched to its rehef ; Turenne attacked them near Dunes, and gained a complete victory, a consequence which the prince of Conde had predicted when he saw the bad dispositions which were made against his will. The fruits of this triumph were the surrender of Dunkirk, which was garrisoned by the English, and the capture of all the frontier towns in the Spanish Neth- erlands. 23. Completely crushed by the weight of the war, Spain began to turn her thoughts on peace, and Mazarin anxiously negotiated a marriage between Louis and the infanta. It would be, perhaps, paying too high a compliment to Maza- rin's prophetic power, to say that he foresaw that in conse- quence of this marriage the throne of Spain would devolve to the family of the Bourbons ; but such a contingency was fore- seen, as there was an express renunciation of the infanta's claim inserted in the articles, which eventually shared the fate of all similar renunciations, that is to say, was violated on the first opportunity. 24. During the negotiation of this treaty, which l^pq'o was named that of the Pyrennees, Charles II., the i('e-f\ exiled monarch of England, came to Fontarabia to sohcit the protection of the two crowns, but neither Mazarin nor the Spanish minister, Don Louis de Haro, would deign so much as to listen to him. But at this very moment, when all his hopes seemed blighted, a counter-revolution took place in England, and by the aid of general Monk, Charles was restored to the throne of his ancestors. 25. In the following year died cardinal Mazarin, as absolute master of the state as Richelieu had been, displaying the same pomp, though he had first put on the appearance of modesty, and leaving to his heirs an immense fortune, accu- mulated by means that exposed him to just reproaches. His LOUIS XIV. 297 LOUIS XIV. 299 nieces were married to the most illustrious nobles of France and Italy ; their portions were paid out of the public funds, which greatly exhausted the finances. Mazarin does not appear to have been a man of brilliant abilities, but he pos- sessed good sense and good fortune, qualities sufficient to make a great though not a good minister. It would, however, be unjust to refuse him the praise he merits for having negociated the treaties of Westphalia and the Pyrennees ; the title of peace-maker is glorious, and the wars thus concluded had caused many miseries, devastations, and massacres. 300 HISTORY OF FRANCE. The Grand Dauphin, Son of Louis XIV., and a Lady of the Court. CHAPTER XXXIl. LOUIS XIV. TO THE TREATY OF RYSWICK. There shall they rot — ambition's honour'd fools ! Yet. honour decks the turf that wraps their clay! Vain sophistry ! in these behold the tools ! The broken tools, that tyrants cast away By myriads, when they dare to pave their way With human hearts — to what? — a dream alone. Can despots compass aus^ht that holds their sway? Or call with truth one spot of earth their own, Save that wherein at last they crumble bone by bone. « Btkoit. 1. It was not imagined that Louis XIV. after hav- Ififil ^'^^ ^° '°"? delegated his authoritj^ to another, would have assumed the reins of government on the death of his minister. Ill-educated, ignorant of business, addicted to pleasure, and of an age in which the passions usually predo- minate over reason, it was naturally supposed that, like so many other princes, he would have devolved the cares of the state on some new favourite, and devoted himself to sensual LOUIS XIV. 301 enjoyments. But the predominant passions of his soul were ambition of military glory, and a thirst for extensive domi- nions ; even during the life of Mazarin he had been impatient of the yoke, and no sooner was he liberated from it by the death of the cardinal than he declared his resolution to be sovereign of France in fact as well as in name. 2. The finances, under the administration of the able Colbert, were retrieved from their former ruinous state, and became a source of prosperity and splendour; the prince of Conde and mar- shal Turenne, now happily united, were the greatest generals of the age ; and Louvois, the minister at war, possessed abili- ties capable of directing the greatest exploits. 3. While France was thus happily situated, the rest of Europe exhibited nothing but weakness. Holland, though powerful by sea, was destitute of an army ; the empire, weakened by late wars, was scarcely able to resist the arms of the Turks ; England, under the profligate government of Charles II. had lost all the authority which she had acquired during the protectorate ; Spain, governed by women and priests, was sunk almost be- low contempt, and the northern powers, engaged in petty dis- putes, possessed no influence on the continent. It is no wonder that, under these circumstances, Louis secretly che- rished the hope of making the French monarchy the first in Europe, and obtaining for it that pre-eminence which it had possessed in the reign of Charlemagne. 4. Before the commencement of the war which developed these designs, Louis gave several signal proofs of his spirit, and also of his political skill. He threatened to renew the war with Spain, unless the right of precedence was conceded to his ambassador, and actually sent an army into Italy to punish the pope for an insult offered to the French embassy, and which had been provoked by insolence and outrage. Dun- kirk was purchased from the necessitous Charles II., to the great and just displeasure of the English people, who saw it, when strengthened by new fortifications, become a powerful bulwark of France, and a port formidable to the English trade from the protection it afforded privateers in time of war. As- sistance was sent to the Austrians; by which they were ena- bled to check the progress of the Turks ; and by the aid of some French forces, the independence of Portugal was finally completed. 5. Commercial jealousy had led to a war between England and Holland, which was equally injurious to both countries. Louis supported the Dutch, and aided them by a powerful fleet, which the judicious measures of Colbert may 26 302 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Colbert. be almost said to have created. Holland was at this time go- verned by the grand pension- ary, John de Wit, who opposed the English with equal wisdom and resolution. Several fierce naval engagements were fought without any decisive advantage being gained, and England soon began to disco- ver that the war was any thing but politic. The great plague and the great fire of London were national calamities that calmed the desire for war. Ne- gociations were commenced at Breda, but before the -lan^ peace was concluded, the EngHsh had the mortification to see de Ruyter enter the Thames and burn several vessels. The treaty was not, however, broken off by this event, and the articles were, on the whole, favourable to England. 6. Although by the treaty of the Pyrennees, the queen of France had resigned all claim to the dominions of her father, yet Louis formed the design of reviving some of those rights, and securing a portion of that vast succession. The emperor Leopold and the French king had actually entered into a treat}-- for the partition of the Spanish dominions, by which it was agreed that France should receive Brabant and the Nether- lands, and that Spain should be given to Leopold, if, as seemed probable, Charles, the reigning monarch, should die without issue. Both parties seemed ashamed of the agreement, and took the most extraordinary precautions to keep it a profound secret. No copy was taken of the instrument, and the original, locked up in an iron box, of which the two sovereigns alone kept the keys, was entrusted to the care of the grand duke of Tuscany. 7. But Louis claimed Flanders also in right of his wife, because, by the law of inheritance established in that country, the female issue by a first marriage succeeded in pre- ference to the male offspring of a second union. 8. Aided by such able ministers and generals, the , «^J king marched to certain conquest, Flanders and Franche ' Comte were subdued before the end of the second campaign, and would probably have been annexed to the do- minions of France had not all Europe taken alarm at the dangers with which its repose was threatened by the rapid LOUIS XIV. 303 progress of the French arms. England, Sweden, and Hol- land formed a triple alliance to check the ambitious career of Louis, and he was very unwillingly compelled to resign the greater part of his conquests, and confirm anew the treaty of the Pyrennees. 9. The French monarch was naturally indignant at being thus deprived of a prey which had seemed certain. He was particularly enraged against the Dutch, whom he had assisted when attacked by the English and the bishop of Munster. He thirsted for revenge and conquest, neglecting no means which were likely to insure both. 10. His most important measure was to break the alliance between England and Hol- land, which being dictated by mutual interest, seemed likely to be permanent ; but with a perfect knowledge of the cha- racter of the English king, Louis prepared to assail him by two powerful bribes, a pension and a mistress. Suspected by his parliament of a design to introduce popery and arbitrary power, Charles was not able to procure from his people money enough to support his lavish expenditure ; a slave to depraved passion, it was judged probable that the charms of Madame de Kerouille would be sufficient to ensnare his heart. To complete this disgusting scene, the entire negociation was en- trusted to the duchess of Orleans, Charles's own sister, and by her intervention a secret alliance was concluded against Hol- land; the king of England became the pensioner of France, and to secure his obedience, Madame de Kerouille, created duchess of Portsmouth, became chief favourite of the degraded sovereign. H. The emperor Leopold was engaged in war with his Hungarian subjects, the German princes were for the most part purchased by the French monarch, Sweden was bribed to desert the alliance, Spain was utterly helpless, and Louis thought himself sure of easily conquering the defence- less republic. 12. As there was no solid reason for the war, re- course was had to the most ridiculous pretences. A. -i/^y-i* medal had been struck, on which was an inscription, stating that Holland had secured the laws, purified religion, succoured, defended, and reconciled the monarchs, asserted the freedom of the seas, and established the tranquillity of Europe. This innocent piece of national vanity was gravely denounced as a serious grievance ; the Dutch broke the die, but Charles and Louis had taken their resolution, and war was declared. 304 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 13. Holland was at this time divided into two factions ; the pensionary de Wit had caused William III. to be formally- excluded from the stadtholdership, but with a generosity of which history furnishes but few parallels, he had taken care that the young prince should receive such an education as would be most likely to render him capable of serving the state in any department. William, who was afterwards the king of England, showed from his earliest youth proofs of the great talents which were destined to preserve the liberties of Europe ; but he was naturally ambitious to recover the dignity that had been transmitted to him by his ancestors, and was ani- mated rather by a desire of revenge on de Wit than by love for his country. 14. Though the grand pensionary had raised the naval power of Holland to its highest summit, he left -i^'^A the country totally unprovided with land forces, deem- ■ ing an invasion so improbable, that it was not necessary to provide against it. Louis marched at the head of all his forces, accompanied by his most illustrious generals, against the Httle republic. 15. He passed the Rhine almost without any difficulty, as the river was low and the opposite bank badly defended. But this trivial success was magnified by a host of poets and historians, who formed a regular corps of attend- ance, into one of the greatest exploits of ancient and modern times. The greater part of the provinces were subdued al- most without resistance ; the cannon of the invaders could be heard in Amsterdam, and flying parties of the enemy had ap- peared within sight of its gates. 16. Like the Phocceans in ancient history, the Dutch seriously deliberated on the project of flying in their fleet to the East Indies, and seeking hberty in another country, leaving their own to Louis a useless desert. De Wit sent deputies to treat about a surrender, notwithstand- ing the opposition of the prince of Orange, who, with all the energies of youth and valour, insisted that they should defend themselves to the utmost extremity. 17. The intolerable con- ditions prescribed by Louis were fatal to de Wit; no sooner were they made known to the populace, than, maddened by indignation and despair, they fell on the grand pensionary and his brother, and literally tore them to pieces. The young prince of Orange was created stadtholder, and invested with almost absolute authority. 18. His speech on the occasion was brief and characteristic — " I have a sure method," said he, "to prevent my being a witness of my country's ruin, I can die in her last diich." The entire of the united provinces LOUIS XIV. 305 seemed to be animated by a similar spirit ; they cut the dikes which had been erected to keep out the sea, and thus laid the ♦ whole country under water. At sea, their navy, though op- posed to the combined fleets of England and France, by the valour and dexterity of Ruyter was able to prevent their enemies from becoming masters of that element. 19. The eyes of all Europe were opened to the dangerous ambition of Louis XIV. : Germany, Denmark, and Spain came forward to rescue the Hollanders, and the people of England loudly complained of the impolicy which had forced them into a war with a nation, the destruction of whose liberties would proba- bly have been fatal to their own. Charles 11. seeing the tem- per of the parliament, and having no hope of obtaining new subsidies, sold a peace to the Dutch for a bribe of three hun- dred thousand pounds. However, he still left a body of ten thousand troops at the disposal of Louis, but promised not to recruit their losses. 20. Unable to retain the provinces, Louis was obliged to re- lease them on the payment of a ransom, and the tide, of war flowed to the Spanish Netherlands, which had been almost abandoned by the parent state. The prince of Conde was opposed to the stadtholder, marechal Turenne found an anta- gonist worthy of him in Montecuculi the imperial general, and Louis himself headed the army that invaded Franche Comte. The bare enumeration of the battles fought in these campaigns would be sufficient to fill a volume ; Montecuculi and William in. were generals equal in ability to Conde and Turenne, they therefore checked the French in their career of conquest, with- out being able to obtain any very decisive advantage. Battles were fought, and an immensity of human blood spilled, but their only efl^ect was to display the talents of the leaders and their utter disregard for waste of hves. 2L During these pro- tracted contests, Turenne sullied all his former glory by an ac- tion of the most savage barbarity, which he perpetrated by order of his court. The elector palatine having deserted the cause of France, orders were given to lay waste his country ; the cruel edict was fearfully executed ; two cities and twenty- five villages were reduced to ashes, and their innocent inhabit- ants left to perish by cold and hunger ! The unfortunate elector who witnessed the devastation from the walls of his palace at Manheim, sent to challenge Turenne to a personal combat ; but the French general replied, that, " from the time he had been honoured with the command of the French forces, he never fought but at the head of twenty thousand men." 26* U 306 HISTORY OF FRANCE. The military career of those leaders whose renown ,^'Ji' filled Europe, terminated nearly at the same time. Tu- * renne was killed at the battle of Salzbach ; Conde, who succeeded him in opposing the imperialists, retired at the end of the campaign from public life, and his example was followed by Montecuculi, who was unwilling to hazard in a contest with younger men the reputation that he had previously acquired. De Ruyter, whose naval exploits had rivalled their fame, was killed in an engagement with a French fleet in the Mediterra- nean ; after having risen from an humble cabin boy, to be the best admiral in Europe. The war, however, was still pro- tracted, and France made considerable acquisitions in the Spa- nish Netherlands. 22. But the resources of all parties were exhausted, and by the mediation of the king of England, who had given his niece, Mary, in marriage to the prince of Orange, negociations for peace were opened at Nimeguen, Four days after the treaty was signed, the prince of Orange, who ardently desired to continue the war, attacked the French, under the duke of Luxemburg, near Mons, but, after an useless sacrifice of the lives of his soldiers, was compelled to retire. 23. The Dutch, against whom the war had been tf^ja begun, and whose very existence seemed at one time ' in danger, were restored to all their possessions at the conclusion ; the terms between the French and Germans were nearly the same as those of the treaty of Munster; but Spain and Sweden, who had joined only as auxiliaries, were severely punished, the former was compelled to cede the greater part of the Netherlands to France, the latter was stripped of all her influence in the empire. 24. Louis having dictated the terms of the peace of Nime- guen, became intoxicated with his successes, and, by his con- duct, provoked the hostility of the greater part of Europe. He seized on several dependencies of the neighbouring Germanic states, under the pretence that they belonged to Franche Comte: he compelled the free city of Strasburg to receive a French garrison : and though he retired from the siege of Luxemburg, when the empire was endangered by an invasion of the Turks, he returned to it again when the Mohammedans were driven out by the valiant king of Poland, John Sobieski. Spain and Austria, unable to resist his power, purchased peace again by making fresh concessions : but they retained a bitter sense of their degradation, and were resolved to seek the ear- liest opportunity of obtaining vengeance. Algiers was bomb- arded by the French, and the pirates forced to beg for mercy ; LOUIS XIV. 307 John Sobieski. Genoa was similarly punished, and its magistrates compelled to make the most humiliating submissions to save the republic from ruin. 25. But all these triumphs were more than coun- terbalanced by the death of Colbert, whose labours to establish a good system of finance were less valuable than his success- ful efforts to prevent the renewal of religious persecutions. 26. Colbert protected the Hugonots, from a convic- tion that they were as useful as the other subjects of the i/.'or crown, and that a persecution would produce nothing but mischief; but by his death they were delivered up to the chancellor le Tellier, and his son, the marquis de Louvois, two men whose maxim was that every thing civil and religious should be regulated according to the king's pleasure. In 1684, they sent troops into the districts inhabited by Protestants, and Louvois wrote, that it was his majesty'' s pleasure that all who did not conform to his religion shoidd suffer the greatest se- verities. The soldiers sent to enforce this absurd and cruel declaration were principally cavalry, whence the persecution has been commonly called the dragonnade : every cruelty that could be perpetrated by a licentious and rapacious soldiery was committed with impunity, and by an excess of cruelty it was made a capital offence for Protestants to attempt making their escape out of the kingdom. 27. In the following year 308 HISTORY OF FRANCE. the edict of Nantz, by which Henry IV. had established the principles of religious libert)'-, was revoked, freedom of con- science was abolished, all the Hugonot churches were de- biroyed, declarations and decrees of councils followed one an- other in rapid succession to heighten their despair, and at length orders were issued to take away the children of Pro- testants from their parents and give them to the care of their Catholic relations. Notwithstanding all the precautions of Louis, nearly half a million of Protestants quitted France, carrying with them some wealth, but what was still more valuable, much industry and ingenuity, the true riches of a nation. England, Holland, and Germany gladly received these useful fugitives, who carried into other countries the knowledge of those manufactures which had been hitherto confined to France, and who diffused through all the Protestant nations of Europe an intense hatred of Louis, which the sub- sequent wars gave them many opportunities of displaying. 28. The prince of Orange, whom the French pretended to despise, was far their most formidable enemy ; the just repre- sentations that he made to the different European powers of the grasping ambition of Louis, had mainly contributed to the formation of the league of Augsburg, by which the confede- rates engaged to preserve the boundaries agreed on by the treaties of Munster and Nimeguen. Louis did not want this fresh provocation to stimulate him to war; he resolved to an- ticipate the designs of his enemies, and sent an army of a hun- dred thousand men under the command of the dauphin to invade the empire, which was filled with dismay. 29. Phi- lipsburg, Mentz, Spires, and several other important cities Avere taken, and the Palatinate was again cruelly given up to the flames. This little principality, which the industry and peaceable habits of its inhabitants had made the most thriving and happy state of Germany, was literally turned into a desert ; more than forty cities, and an infinite number of vil- lages, were reduced to ashes. But while Louis was thus engaged, events were taking place in England, which were soon destined to make that nation the most determined and formidable of his enemies, by placing on its throne the prince of Orange, whose hatred of Louis seemed to be almost equally personal and political. 30. The attacks which James IL had made on the Tfi^ hberties and religion of the country, had made the * English nation weary of their sovereign, and induced them to apply to the prince of Orange. An expedition was LOUIS XIV. 309 prepared in the Dutch ports, and Louis, who had discovered its destination, sent intelligence to the besotted James, who treated it as chimerical. WiUiam III. landed in England, and in a very short time was joined by the whole nation. Deserted by his friends, and despised by his enemies, James fled to France, and the convention-parliament considering his flight as an abdication of the throne, elected William king of Great Britain. The greatest opposition to this signal revolution was made in Ireland, whither James proceeded from France ac- companied by some auxiliary troops. But misfortune still pursued the unhappy sovereign ; he was unable to reduce the town of Derry, which its inhabitants defended under the most discouraging circumstances. Soon after, William landed, and at the decisive battle of the Boyne James lost Ireland. The Irish, indeed, held out for some time longer, but at length a treaty was concluded at Limerick, by which that island be- came completely subject to WiUiam. 8L The war on the continent was on the whole favourable to the arms of France; the marechal de ^oqA Luxembourg proved himself a pupil worthy of the great Conde and Turenne ; William was defeated by Luxem- bourg, and Namur was taken by Louis almost in sight of the hostile army. In Italy, the marechal Catinat successfully opposed prince Eugene, and Victor Amadeus, duke of Savoy ; de Lorges and de Noailles were equally fortunate in Spain and Germany. 32. But these advantages were counterbal- anced by the total defeat of the French fleet under Tourville, off Cape la Hogue. James II. beheld from a neighbouring eminence this calamity, by which all his hopes of being re- stored to the throne of his ancestors were for ever annihilated. It is said, that when he saw the English sailors boarding the enemy's ships with their accustomed heroism, admiration of their valour overcame his remembrance of the cause in which they fought, and he exclaimed, "None but my brave English could have done this." 33. The war continued with very little advantage to either party ; men and money were lavishly wasted, and nothing gained. Mutual exhaustion made all heartily wish for peace, or rather a suspension of arms, for treaties were universally disregarded. Four treaties ^ ^ were concluded at Ryswick, a small village in Hoi- ^qq'^ land, the conditions of which, notwithstanding all his victories, were very humiliating to Louis. He was compelled to restore all his conquests, and to resign those districts which he had seized on as appendages to Franche Comte. 310 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 9 34. The people of France murmured at such a conchision of a war which had gratified their national vanity by numer- ous triumphs. But many circumstances combined to make Louis wish for peace : his able minister, Louvois, and his best general, Luxembourg, were dead ; losses not easy to be sup plied ; the finances were exhausted, the taxes, though severe on the people, were not very profitable to the king, and the navy was beginning to fall into disorder. Besides, he saw that peace was necessary for maturing his designs on the Spanish succession ; an object which he had so much at heart, that he not only acknowledged William's title to the throne of England, but even attempted to conciliate him by secret negociations. By the treaty of Ryswick, all the conquests made by Louis since the treaty of Ninieguen were given up, and William IIL solemnly recognized as king of England, to the exclusion of the Stuarts from the throne. The treaty with the emperor and the empire was not signed till 30th Octo- ber. Louis XIV. retained Strasbourg; but he relinquished all the places which he had gained since the treaty of Nime- guen, and Fribourg, Philisbourg, and Brisach. Leopold, son of Duke Charles V., regained possession of Lorraine, with the exception of Sarrelouis, the king of France reserving to himself the right of a free passage through the duchy. Cle- ment of Bavaria was recognized by Louis XIV. as elector of Cologne ; the Cardinal de Furstemberg was reinstated in his property, honours, and dignity, by the emperor ; finally, the pretensions of the duchess of Orleans to the succession of the Palatinate was arranged by a pecuniary indemnity. Whatever might be the good disposition of the parties who were concerned in all the treaties made since the peace of Westphalia, to maintain what statesmen now began to call " the equilibrium of Europe," they proved, through the influence of some parties, or by the force of events, merely armistices. At Nimeguen, as at Aix-la-Chapelle, as at Ra- tisbon, it was Louis XIV. who reserved to himself, in petto, the right and the occasion to recommence the war. At Ryswick he wished for peace, as did every one ; but the course of events decided otherwise. In the course of ten years, the expenses of the war had absorbed 703,416,000 francs. The re-coinage and the alteration in the money current, by deteriorating it, had given 40,000,000. The » taille," or poll-tax, had been doubled ; small towns erected into governments ; the titles of the LOUIS XIV. 311 noblesse, the offices of the municipal functionaries were sold, and forty thousand new offices were created in the course of thirty years. Ponchartrain, we read in the Me- moirs of Choissy, had produced in eight years 150,000,000 by means of parchment and wax, in imagining situations, and making foolish bubbles for sale, which were readily sold. Necessity caused an impost to be created, in the shape of a capitation tax, which produced 22,000,000 francs. But the people perceived the embarrassments of the govern- ment ; and the treaty of Ryswick did not take place before it was ardently desired by every class of Louis's subjects. French Postilion.— Fifteenth Century. 312 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Louis XIV., Madame de Maintenon, and Philip, Duke of Orleans. CHAPTER XXXIII. LOUIS XIV.— THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. A. D. Does he not mourn the valiant thousands slain — The heroes once the glory of the plain, Left in the conflict of the fatal day, Or the wolfs portion, or the vulture's prey ? Priob. 1. The last male descendant of the emperor iTrtO C^harles V. was Charles II., king of Spain, a monarch equally weak in health and intellect. He was fast sinking into the grave, and as he had no children, the ques- tion of his succession was the chief object of speculation throughout Europe. The king of France and the emperor of Germany were both his cousins and his brothers-in-law ; their claims to the inheritance were therefore nearly equal, but Louis, who in both ways had the advantage of seniority in the princesses from whom his right was derived, had formally resigned all his pretensions by the treaty of the Pyrennees. Before the inheritance was yet vacant, a treaty of partition was made for dividing the Spanish monarchy between the LOUIS XIV. 313 sons of the claimantl ; but the dying monarch, having heard of the circumstance, published a will in favour of his grand- nephew, the young prince of Bavaria. This prince dying almost immediately after at Brussels, a new treaty was formed; but the emperor, hoping to acquire the whole of the Spanish dominions for his son, refused his assent ; and thus by grasp- ing at too much lost all. At first, Charles of Spain was so much enraged with Louis, that he acknowledged the arch- duke as his successor; but the Austrians satisfied with this took no further pains to conciliate Charles, and by their con- tumelious behaviour disgusted a prince, who naturally expected the liveliest gratitude for so rich a bequest. The king's con- fessors, who were in the pay of France, took advantage of this to change his mind, and prevailed on him, a little before his death, finally to bequeath the whole Spanish monarchy to the duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV. 2. Such was the astonishment of all Europe at beholding a prince of the Bourbon family ascend the throne of Spain, tha-t all the powers except the empire remained for some time in perfect tranquillity. The duke of Anjou, under the name of Philip v., set out to take possession of the crown, and his grandfather said to him at parting, there are no more Pyren- nees. 3. In Italy the resistance to the will of Charles II. be- gan ; the imperial forces there were commanded by a general, whose fame soon began to rival that of the most illustrious warriors ; a na- tive of France, and its severest scourge. Prince Eugene was son of the count de Soissons and of madame Marcini, niece of cardinal Mazarin ; being slighted in his youth by the French court, he took an eternal farewell of his country, and went to serve the emperor against the Turks. His abil- ities accelerated his promotion, and though very young, he was entrusted with the command of the imperial forces in Italy, and opposed to the veteran Catenat. The French general, restrained by orders from his court, was unable to check the progress of prince Eugene ; Villenois, a crafty courtier rather than a prudent general, was then sent to head the army, but he was totallj'' defeated by the imperial generals at Chiari. 4. The war was yet but a single spark, when Louis, by 27 Prince Eugene, 314 HISTORY OF FRANCE. one imprudent step, kindled a general conflagration. On the death of James II. he proclaimed his son king of Great Britain, after having determined in council not to lake this dangerous step. The indignation of the people of England was the most violent imaginable. William, who had hitherto been thwarted by his parliament, found them ready to forward all his views, and the nation, which had been previously averse to a continental war, were eager to punish such an outrageous insult. 5. But before William was able to take advantage of this favourable opportunity of accomplishing his favourite object, the humbling of the French power, he was unfortunately thrown from his horse, an accident which, ■ijne^ combined with his previous ill-health, proved fatal. It has been quaintly said, that he was king of Holland and Stadtholder of England, the parliament of the latter coun try having always opposed his inclinations, except when animated by their national hatred against France. His highest character is, that he was the principal means of rescuing from ruin the religion and liberties both of England and Holland. 6. The French court had hoped that the death of William would have separated England from the confederates, but the first step taken by Anne after her accession, was to renew the aUiance with Holland and the empire. The command of the English and Dutch forces was given to the earl of Marl- borough, whose abihties both as a general and as a statesman have had but one parallel in English history. 7. While the allies were under the direction of such leaders as Marlborough and prince Eugene, France had fallen into extraordinary decay; Louis, completely under the guidance of his mistress, Madame de Maintenon, had lost all the energy of character by which he had been formerly distinguished. The opera- tions of the' war were decided in the cabinets, no discretion of availing themselves of circumstances was allowed to the gene- rals, discipline was permitted to decay, and promotion was re- gulated by court favour. 8. On the side of Flanders, the earl of Marlborough was everywhere successful, but the junction of the elector of Bavaria with the French prevented the allies from obtaining any decisive advantage on the upper Rhine, where at first they had possessed a great superiority. 9. The French did not, however, profit much by their advantages; marechal Villars, whose valour and prudence principally con- tributed to their success, was recalled, in consequence of a quarrel between him and the elector of Bavaria ; the generals sent to replace him were of inferior abilities, and the war was LOUIS XIV. 315 permitted to linger. Villars was sent to command against the protestants of the Cevennes, who, maddened by persecution, had taken up arms against their oppressors. These wild mountaineers derived so much courage from fanaticism, that three marshals of France, and three royal armies, were sent against them before they were subdued. The emperor also was engaged in a religious war with his Hungarian subjects, whom a better system of government would have made his most faithful defenders. 10. At length the doubts which hung over the final fortunes of the war began to be dispelled, and Louis -i-^rw^ was destined to meet a succession of calamitous defeats, which effaced the memory of his former triumphs. The forces of the empire being hard pressed in Germany, Marlborough, who had lately been elevated to a dukedom, by a brilliant series of manoeuvres forced his way through the French lines near Donawert, and joined his forces with those of prince Eugene ; at the same lime the elector of Bavaria was joined by the French marechals Tallard and Marsin. The forces of the alhes amounted to about fifty thousand men ; those of the elector exceeded sixty thousand. On the 18th of August, both armies came to an engagement near the villages of Hochstet and Blenheim. The left wing of the allies, under the com- mand of the duke of Marlborough, forded a marsh which had been deemed impracticable, and fell with so much fury on the wing commanded by marechal Tallard, that they broke their ranks irretrievably, and penetrated even to the centre. Tallard, who was short-sighted, threw himself into the midst of a hos- tile squadron by mistake, and remained a prisoner. In the meantime, Eugene, after being three times repulsed, forced the elector and Marsin to a retreat, which the advance of the vic- torious English turned into a complete rout. 11. They fled, leaving twelve thousand of their best troops shut up in the village of Blenheim, who were compelled to surrender with- out firing a shot. The consequences of this brilHant victory, by which the French lost forty thousand men, were the cap- ture of several of the most important fortresses on the upper Rhine, the establishment of the complete superiority of the alhes in the Netherlands, and the total subjugation of Bavaria, whose elector, reduced to the condition of a fugitive, took re- fuge in Brussels. The capture of Gibraltar, and some other triumphs of less importance in Spain, completed |«vq=' the successes of the allies in this brilliant campaign. 13. The following year produced no events of importance, 316 HISTORY OF FRANCE. either in Flanders or Germany ; Marlborough was badly sup- ported by the imperialists, who, as usual, thought that the English should fight as well as pay all. But in Spain, the earl of Peterborough, who commanded the auxiliaries which had been sent to sustain the cause of Charles, subdued the whole province of Catalonia. During the winter, the duke of Marlborough successfully laboured to prevail on the states of Holland to lay aside their cautious policy of not risking an engagement ; and at the opening of the next campaign, he began to act with greater boldness than he had hitherto ^ya^ displayed. 13. On the 23d of May, was fought the ' decisive battle of Ramilies, in which the French lost twenty thousand men, and which was followed by the reduc- tion of Spanish Flanders. In Spain also, Philip had been compelled to raise the siege of Barcelona, and subsequently to yield up the capital to his rival. 14. But their successes in Italy were some consolation to the French for their defeats every where else. The duke de Vendome had completely defeated the imperialists, and the French possessed so decided a superiority, that they ventured to lay siege to Turin. Unfortunately for them, Vendome was recalled to take the command of the army in Flanders, and the conduct of the siege was intrusted nominally to the duke of Orleans, but in reality to the duke de Feuillade, a court favourite, totally destitute of all military experience. Prince Eugene set out to raise the siege, and after a brilliant march, in which his judicious movements were powerfully contrasted with the folly of his enemies, effected a junction with the duke of Savoy. The duke of Orleans then proposed that the siege should be broken up, and that they should march to meet the enemy; but when the council were about to adopt this judi- cious measure, by which alone they could have any chance of success, Marsin produced a letter from the court ordering the army to remain in its entrenchments. On the 7th of Sep- ^tember, prince Eugene attacked the French lines, and in about two hours was every where successful ; the camp with all its equipage and munitions of war was taken ; the enemy fled in every direction, and the fugitives were severely harassed by the Piedmontese peasantry, who attacked them in their retreat and cut them off in the defiles of the mountains. 15. By this single defeat France lost the fruits of all her former campaigns, and was not only deprived of all her conquests in Italy, but saw her southern frontier exposed to the enemy. LOUTS XIV. 317 16. The battle of Almanza revived a little the hopes of France ; the duke of Berwick, the natural son of ,'!L'i^ James IL, gained a complete victory over the allied forces commanded by lord Galway, after which the cause of PhiHp seemed gradually to gain ground ; but on the other hand, the aUies still retained their superiority in Flan- ders. 17. The dukes de Vendome and Burgundy -i^/^q were defeated by Marlborough and prince Eugene at Oudenarde, after which the allies besieged and took Lille, whose possession seemed to open to them the road to Paris. The pope soon after deserted the French, whom he had hitherto supported, and acknowledged Charles's title to the throne of Spain. To so many losses the scourge of nature seemed to be added ; prince after prince of the royal family fell victims to disease, so that Louis had reason to dread that he should be left without a successor ; and to complete the whole, France was threatened with all the horrors of a severe famine. 18. Under these circumstances, Louis solicited peace; conferences were opened at Gertruydenberg, -,>^iA but the allies, intoxicated with success, insisted on con- ditions so very extravagant, that the negociations were broken off. They had the cruelty to require that Louis should send an army to drive his grandson from the throne of Spain ; the aged monarch replied to the insulting proposal with becoming spirit : " If I must continue the war," he said, " I should rather fight against my enemies than my children," The consequences of this ineffectual attempt were beneficial to Louis ; his people, who had justly murmured against the calamities by which they were oppressed, now resolved to defend their monarch to the utmost, as he had done every thing consistent with national honour to afford them relief. 19. Two unexpected events changed the entire face of European politics. The emperor of Germany died, ,-,,' and was succeeded by Charles, the nominal king of Spain ; this of course affected the original principles of the war, for the union of Spain and the empire would have been as fatal to the balance of power as the joining of France and Spain. In England, the Whigs, who had so long supported the duke of Marlborough, were no longer in office, and their Tory successors, Harley and Bolingbroke, were anxious to ob- tain a peace on any terms. 20. In his last campaign, the duke exhibited all the wisdom and skill by which he had been so often distinguished ; he forced the lines which Villars had 27* 318 HISTORY OF FRANCE. declared impregnable, and captured Bouchain in the presence of the enemy's army, thus removing the principal obstacles between him and Paris. But at the end of the campaign, he was stripped of all his employments, and the command of the Enghsh forces was given to the duke of Ormond, with secret directions to do nothing. 21. The conferences for the celebrated treaty of -j^.fj Utrecht began in January, but proceeded at first very * slowly ; the Dutch and imperial ambassadors threw every obstacle in the way of accommodation, and the deaths of the dauphin, his wife and son, by opening to Phihp the probable succession to the throne of France, created fresh dif- ficulties. At length Philip renounced his future claims in favour of his younger brother the duke of Berry ; as the Eng- lish and French were earnest in their desire of peace, they soon agreed on preliminaries, but the rest of the alUes refused to concur. Deprived of the support of the English, the Dutch and imperialists still ventured on another campaign, but prince Eugene being totally defeated at Landrecy, and several of the towns captured by Marlborough having been retaken, Holland became alarmed, and concluded a treaty. The emperor held out a year longer, and lost several advantages by his obstinacy, until finding himself unable to continue the war alone, he was obliged to conclude a separate peace at Rastadt. The Catalans were the last who kept alive the expiring flames of the war; they refused to acknowledge Philip as their sovereign, and though deserted by every body, maintained a furious resist- ance. At length Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, was taken after a vigorous siege, the citizens deprived of their pri- vileges, and some of their leaders capitally punished. 22. The treaty of Utrecht put an end to the long wars which the ambition of Louis XIV. had excited in Europe, and placed all the powers nearly on the same footing that they had been at the commencement. The Enghsh ministers who concluded it were subsequently impeached, and narrowly escaped with their lives ; it would be now useless to revive the discussion of a question by which England was once fear- fully agitated, but it may be remarked, that by that treaty England secured all the objects for which the war had been originally undertaken, though the motives and measures of Harley and BoHngbroke were any thing but honourable and patriotic. 23. Though Louis had the satisfaction of seeing a war which threatened the entire ruin of France thus happily con- LOUIS XIV. 319 eluded, yet his situation at its close was the most miserabla conceivable, all the national resources were exhausted, the manufactures were destroyed, and commerce was totally ex- tinct. The royal family had, as was already mentioned, been visited by an unusual mortality, and the next heir to the crown was the king's great-grandson, a weak and sickly infant. 24. Theological disputes distracted the court and the nation. A divine, named Gluesnel, had published a book, entitled "Re- flections upon the Old Testament." A hundred and one pro- positions extracted from this book by a bigoted fool, Le Tel- lier, the king's confessor, were condemned by the celebrated bull Unigenitus, issued by pope Clement XI. The disputes about the registration of this bull filled the whole kingdom, while its aged monarch, distracted by useless remorse, was fast drawing to the close of his miserable existence. 25. At length, in the seventy-second year of his reign, he became sensible of the near approach of his i~\k dissolution : he sent for his successor, and gave him much good advice, which kings are always more ready to be- stow in the hour of death than to practise in their course of life. He made arrangements for the future regency by his will, and ordered that his natural children, whom he had le- gitimated, should be ranked among the blood royal of France, but these regulations were violated immediately after his de- cease. Having thus provided for all his worldly concerns, he received the last offices of the catholic church, and met the stroke of death with becoming resignation. 26. The calamities experienced by the French in the latter part of this reign had so complately effaced the glories of its commencement, that the news of Louis's death was received with joy. Impartial posterity has, however, stripped his cha- racter of the flatteries which loaded it during his life, and the defamation heaped on it after his death. He was a monarch of a great mind and good intentions, but bad education spoiled the one, and artful courtiers depraved the other. He was a great encourager of literature and the arts, and his reign is de- servedly esteemed the Augustan age of France. " The eighteenth century," we read in the Cahiers de His- toire, " commences with the regency. Louis XIV. is dead, and instantly a reaction takes place against all that had been obtained in his reign ; the parliament assembles, and unani- mously resolve to set aside the will of the great king, while the populace insult his obsequies. The duke of Orleans is declared regent instead of the duke of Maine. •' Great was the difference between these two princes 320 HISTORY OF FRANCE. The latter was the pupil of De Maintenon, the assiduous courtier of the last years of the reign of Louis XIV., and consequently the friend of his old friends, Villeroy, D'Har- court, D'Uxelles, and De Villars. The regent was only connected with the past, by recollected affronts and perse- cutions. He. at length breathes ! he is free ! he is master! The transition from hypocritical virtue to unblushing vice was sudden and abrupt : high and low at once threw off the mask, and passed immediately from fasting to dissolute orgies. " The relief of the Jansenists, the change of object as well as of the form of administration, the proceedings against the farmers-general of taxes, the rupture of the alliance with Spain, all of these steps were in opposition to the policy of France in the seventeenth century. " Apart from the private life of the regent, and it is not for the governed to inquire into all the concerns of those who govern, the duke of Orleans holds an honourable place in history ; and when Louis XV. became a man and a king, remembering his feeble and afflicted infancy, his gratitude ought to have been great to the tutor, to the uncle, who, almost in despite of nature, had given him a throne and life. Dubois, notwithstanding his trifling, to say no more, was not unworthy of his strange elevation." LOUIS XV. 321 Louis XV. CHAPTER XXXIV. LOUIS XV. To swell some future tyrant's pride, Good Fleury pours the golden tide On Gallia's smiling shores ; Once more her fields shall thirst in vain For wholesome streams of honest gain, While rapine wastes her stores. Earl Nttgent. 1. The new king of France was but five years old at the time of his accession, and the arrangement of -,ji^ the regency, as usual, gave rise to much political in- trigue. At length the parliament gave undivided power to Philip, duke of Orleans, nephew to the late king, a man of great abilities, but of greater depravity, whose private life was stained with the practice of every species of debauchery. He had been unjustly suspected of having poisoned the three dauphins whose successive deaths have already been men- V 322 HISTORY OF FRANCE. tioned, and it is probable, had Louis XIV. died a few years earlier, that the regency would never have been con- ferred on the duke of Orleans ; but the natural children of Louis were still more unpopular with the French ; and hatred of them made the nation more ready to submit to their rival. 3. The first opposition made to the regent was by cardinal Alberoni, who then wielded the destinies of Spain. Alberoni was one of the greatest statesmen of the age, but he had one great fault which rendered all his talents useless ; he was too extravagant in his designs, and aimed at effecting great changes without calculating the means necessary for their execution. To place the Pretender on the throne of England, to wrest from the emperor what he had obtained in Italy by the treaty of Utrecht, to make the king of Spain regent of France, and acknowledged heir to the throne, were the daring enterprises contemplated by Alberoni. 3. His schemes were detected, and the parties whom he had endangered combined for their mutual protection. France, England, and Holland united to enforce the observance of the treaty of Utrecht ; they were soon after joined by the emperor, and the system of Alberoni was overturned by the quadruple alliance. Conspi- racies were vainly attempted both in France and England. The Spanish ambassador, the duchess of Maine, the cardinal de Polignac, and several others, joined in forming a scheme for carrying off the regent ; but the papers were artfully stolen from a young Spanish abbe who was secretary to the embassy, and thus the whole plot was discovered. The am- bassador and his secretary were seized, several of the principal accomplices sent to the Bastille, and war declared against Spain. Thus France armed against the grandson of Louis XIV., whom she had elevated to a throne at the expense of her own ruin. 4. Happily the war was not of long continuance. ■ijiQ The Spanish fleet was defeated by admiral Byng, and * twenty-three of their ships taken ; their forces in Sicily were defeated the following year by the imperialists, and the armament designed for the invasion of England dispersed by a storm. Spain itself was destined to feel the horrors of war ; the English carried destruction into the port of Vigo, and the French having invaded the country, took several towns, de- stroyed some magazines, and burned sixteen ships of war which had been newly constructed. Philip, naturally 1720 ^ weak monarch, was terrified at such a series of cala- * mities ; he acceded to the quadruple alliance, and LOUIS XV. 323 banished Alberoni, whose removal was made an indispensable condition of peace. 5. The wars of Louis XIV. had left the finances of France in a deplorable condition, and an attempt made to remedy the disorder only completed their ruin. An exiled Scotchman, named Law, conceived the scheme of paying off the enormous debt by an issue of paper money. The duke of Orleans, fond of novelty, adopted the plan, and a commercial company was formed, the profits of whose exclusive trade with Louisiana were to liquidate all the debts by which France was oppressed. The success of the Mississippi scheme, as it was called at first, equalled Law's expectations. The prices of shares in the company rapidly rose to an extravagant height, a blind in- satiable avarice induced people to strip themselves of their money to purchase notes, and to such a pitch was this carried, that the notes issued amounted to more than eighty times the current coin. The effect of such excessive issue was of course the depreciation of the notes ; the bank became unable to meet the demands made upon it, and its entire credit vanished in an instant ; the notes became no better than waste paper, and numberless families were reduced to indigence. The regent for some time defended Law from the popular indigna- tion, but was eventually forced to yield to the voice of the na- tion. Law fled from France, scarcely carrying with him a sufficiency to support existence. 6. The fortune of the cardinal Dubois was as extravagant, but more permanent, than that of Law. He was the son of an apothecary, and had come to Paris at a very early age. By a series of fortunate circumstances, he became private tutor to the future regent, and was the detestable cause of the debauchery by which that prince was dishonoured. By flat- tering the vanity and pandering to the passions of his former pupil, he obtained such an ascendancy over him, that he was appointed prime minister of France, and having taken holy orders, was raised to the dignity of cardinal. After his death, the duke of Orleans assumed the title of prime minister, be- cause the king was then of age. 7. But his riotous excesses hastened his dissolution ; he died a victim to tjcy-i intemperance, and was succeeded in the ministry by the duke de Bourbon-Conde. The character of the regent has been emphatically given in the following brief sentence by a modern writer — " He was a good ruler and a bad man." 8. The only thing remarkable in the administration of • Bourbon-Conde was his having negociated a marriage between 324 HISTORY OF FRANCE. the young monarch and Maria Seczinska, daughter of Stanis- laus, the ex-king of Poland. 9. He was succeeded by Car- dinal Fleury, an old man of seventy-three, who had been introduced at court as preceptor to the king, and seldom has any country been blessed with a better minister. He was attentive to economy, studious of peace, amiable and gentle in his manners, just such a minister as suited a nation that required relief rather than splendour. 10. The repose ry'il ^^^^^ Europe had enjoj^ed since the treaty of Utrecht ' furnishes few materials for history, but its tranquillity was at length disturbed from a quarter in which it was least expected. On the death of Augustus, king of Poland, his old rival Stanislaus was elected to the vacant throne ; the emperor of Germany, in conjunction with Russia, caused this election to be set aside, and gave the crown to the son of the late monarch. Louis XV. felt himself bound in honour to espouse the cause of his father-in-law ; but the succours given to Sta- nislaus amounted only to fifteen hundred men, and he was a second time expelled from the kingdom of Poland, which was every day becoming more and more a dependency of Russia. 11. Though France did not act with much vigour in Poland, she compensated for her inactivity there by the vigour of her attacks on the Emperor. In two brilliant campaigns the Austrians were completely humbled in Italy ; the imperialists, though commanded by prince Eugene, were defeated on the Rhine ; and a Spanish army under Don Carlos conquered the entire kingdom of Naples. Defeated on a>ll quarters, the Em- peror applied to the maritime powers, soliciting their media- tion, but the pacific disposition of cardinal Fleury rendered their intervention unnecessary. 12. By the treaty of peace, Spain acquired the kingdom of Naples for Don Carlos ; France obtained the provinces of Lorraine and Bar for Stanis- laus, which, after his death, were to be for ever united with the French dominions ; and the duke of Lorraine was no- minated successor to the grand duke of Tuscany, the last of the illustrious family of the Medicis. This was the second time that John Gaston, duke of Tuscany, had seen the in- heritance to his dominions arranged by foreign powers ; he made the insult the subject of a jest, humorously asking, "if they would not supply him with a third heir, and what child France and the empire would get for him?" 13, The reason why the Emperor so readily consented to the strengthening of France by the valuable acquisition of Lorraine, was his anxiety to obtain the guarantee of that LOUIS XV. 325 power to the celebrated pragmatic sanction, an instrument to prevent the partition of the Austrian dominions in case of the failure of heirs male, and to secure the peaceable accession of his daughter Maria Theresa, who was married to Francis of Lorraine, the reigning duke of Tuscany. Almost all the powers of Europe had signed the treaty to this effect, but prince Eugene very wisely remarked, that " an army of one hundred men would guarantee it better than one hundred thousand treaties." 14. In fact, the Emperor was scarcely laid in his grave when a host of competitors ^-l^n appeared to have claims for the succession. The king of Poland, the elector of Bavaria, and the kings of Spain and Sardinia, began to urge their pretensions, but did not imme- diately attempt to enforce them by arms. 15. The signal of universal war was given by a power which had not hitherto taken any leading part in the affairs of Europe, but which the abilities of its monarch was destined to place in the first rank of the continental nations. Frederic III., king of Prussia, was in the twenty-eighth year of his age, and possessed consider- able talents, which had been sharpened in the school of adver- sity. His father had treated him with the most unjustifiable severity, and would probably have taken his life had not the Emperor interfered ; but while detained in prison, he had recourse to the consolations of literature, and improved his mind while he lightened his captivity. But though he had no great reason to be pleased with the manner in which his father had treated him, he had every cause to be pleased with the conduct which made his kingdom a valuable inheritance ; Frederic II. left his son a rich treasury, and a well-disciplined army, valuable acquisitions to a young and ambitious monarch. 16. Two months after the Emperor's death, Frederic appeared in Upper Silesia at the head of thirty thousand men, and re- vived some forgotten claims of his family to that province. His troops were better than his cause ; Silesia was conquered with little trouble, and Frederic, flushed with success, sent to Maria Theresa, offering to secure her in the rest of her do- minions, provided that she would concede to him the quiet possession of his recent conquest. The Empress indignantly rejected the offer, and though surrounded by enemies, spi- ritedly determined not to purchase a peace by the sacrifice of her rights. 17. Cardinal Fleury in vain endeavoured to prevent ^ ^ France from being involved in this war, but the count, ly^^V afterwards duke de Belleisle, had sufficient influence 28 326 HISTORY OF FRANCE. to procure the adoption of a contrary resolution. They thought that the favourable moment had arrived for executing the favourite project of Richelieu, the humiliation of the house of Austria, and acting on this design they induced the king to violate the pragmatic sanction which had lately been con- firmed with so much solemnity. They determined to procure the imperial crown for the elector of Bavaria; a numerous army was raised, and that prince was by letters-patent created lieutenant-general of Louis XV. 18. The success of the French and Bavarians was at first complete ; they marched into Austria, captured Lentz, threatened Vienna with a siege, and then penetrating into Bohemia, took Prague by escalade. Maria Theresa was forced to become a fugitive, but her very misfortunes made her formidable; she appeared before the states of Hungary bearing her infant son in her arms. The speech which she made in Latin to the assembly, drew tears from all her audience ; the spirit of that chivalrous nation was roused, and they all exclaimed with one accord, Moriamur pro rege nostra Maria Theresa ; " Let us die for our king* Maria Theresa." The English people were enthusiastic in their admiration of the heroine. The duchess of Marlborough assembled the principal ladies of London, who engaged to raise for her 100,000/. sterling, and the duchess herself sub- scribed 40,000/. ; but the queen of Hungary had the magna- nimity to refuse the offer, declaring that she would receive no assistance except from the nation assembled in Parliament. 19. But the faults of her enemies still more powerfully as- sisted the cause of the empress ; the marechals Belleisle and Broglio were jealous of each other, the elector of Bavaria was totally destitute of military talents, and the cavalry especially was in a miserable state of inefficiency. The light troops of the Austrians, Pandours, Croats and Hussars, harassed the scattered troops of the French and Bavarians ; without a battle being fought they were stripped of all their conquests, and the new emperor being deprived even of his hereditary dominions, was obliged to become the pensioner of France. The king of Prussia made a treaty for himself, by which he secured the possession of Silesia ; and the marechal de Belleisle had only the honour of saving 13,000 men, the wreck of his great and victorious army, by a brilliant retreat from the heart of Ger- many to the banks of the Rhine. • The Hungarians used this form of speech in reference to their old constitution, which excluded females from the throne. LOUIS XV. 327 20. The death of cardinal Fleury changed the mea- sures of the French government ; instead of acting any ^Z^A longer as auxiliaries, they became principals in the war, and were imitated by the finglish, whom the Hanoverian possessions of George II. had unfortunately involved in con- tinental politics. 21. They tried their strength at the battle of Dettingen, where George II. and his son, the duke of Cumberland, were present in person. The English were commanded by the earl of Stair, a pupil of the famous Marl- borough; the marechal de Noailles, a cautious and a clever general, was at the head of the French. By the excellent arrangements of the marechal, the English were brought into a very difficult position, where they could neither advance nor retreat without being exposed to be attacked at serious disadvantage, their supplies were cut off, and the French were on the point of obtaining a victory almost without a battle, when the impetuosity of one of their generals disconcerted all their arrangements. He advanced to assail a British post through a dangerous defile ; while his troops were entangled there, the earl of Stair attacked them fiercely, a general en- gagement ensued, and the French, being unable to retrieve their error, were defeated. No advantage, however, was de- rived from this victory, the English having strangely neglected to pursue their success. 22. Flanders next became the theatre of war, and Louis XV. took the field in person. He captured several towns, but was stopped in the midst of his career by receiving the disaofreeable news that prince Charles of Lorraine had crossed the Rhine, and reduced the greater part of Alsace. Louis hastened to meet the Austrian forces, but before his arrival, they had been recalled to resist the progress of the king of Prussia, who, alarmed at the increasing power of Austria, had again taken up arms. While the war was carried on with doubtful success, the elector of Bavaria, whose mad ambition had caused it, died of a broken heart ; and his son entered into a treaty with the empress. 23. It might have been rea- sonably expected that this event would have induced all parties to seek for peace, but the French and English, ani- mated by national hatred, prevented the flames from being extinguished. In Flanders, marechal Saxe, natural son of the king of Poland, was placed at the head of the French forces, and the English had no general at all comparable to him in ability. The decisive battle of Fontenoy ef- ^^A^ faced the memory of Marlborough's triumphs; the 328 HISTORY OF FRANCE. allies were totally defeated, and were not able in that or the two following campaigns to recover sufficient strength, so as to check the progress of the victorious general. 24. At sea the English were more successful ; two victories were 1747 S^^"^'^ by admirals Anson and Hawke in the same ■ year, which reduced the navy of France to a single ship. The allies, after many reverses, were also eventually victorious in Italy, from which they expelled the French and the Spaniards. 25. The invasion of England by the young Pretender, who had made the government at one time tremble for its existence, was the principal cause of the disinclination to peace evinced by the British cabinet ; but the means of revenge were not at their command ; and when Marechal Saxe, by the capture of Maeslricht, had opened the frontiers of Holland, it be- 74S ^^^^^ necessary to think seriously about a peace. 26. The preliminaries were settled at Aix la Chapelle the 30th of April, and the definitive treaty was signed October 18th. This treaty was a complete sarcasm on the folly of those who make either war or peace. The contest was com- menced with the design of dismembering the Austrian do- minions, and overturning the pragmatic sanction ; with the single exception of Silesia, Austria lost nothing, and the new arrangement of the succession was solemnly confirmed. 27. But the diplomatists who arranged the differences between England and France exhibited a still more ludicrous spectacle ; they cautiously omitted any mention of the many disputed points between the two countries, and signed a treaty of peace replete with the elements of future war. The peace of Aix-Ia-Chapelle restored to France her colonies, secured Silesia to Prussia, and' Parma and Placen- tia to the Bourbons in Spain. France, on this occasion, affected great magnanimity. Her ambassador declared that he had nothing to demand ; he came to make peace not for a merchant, but for a king. Besides giving up his conquests, Louis consented to the port of Dunkirk being rendered useless. Maria Theresa recovered Austrian Flanders ; and England, giving up Louisburg, in North America, retained Acadia. France and her great rival gained little for the blood and treasure she had expended ; but England had to boast of having saved Austria, and firmly established the throne of Maria Theresa, and thus preserved the balance of power of Europe. France had bitterly felt her weakness ; but she could not LOUIS XV. 329 immediately profit by the lesson she had received. The government of mistresses had succeeded to that of aged priests. Mademoiselle Poisson, Marchioness de Pompa- dour, reigned twenty years. By birth the daughter of a citizen, she had some feelings of patriotism. Her creature, the comptroller Machaut, wished to tax the clergy. D'Ar- genson organized the administration of the war department with all the talents and* severity of Louvois. In the midst of the disputes between the parliament and the clergy, phi- losophy gained ground; even at court it had partisans. Although the king was a decided enemy to every new idea, he had his own printing-office, and printed himself the eco- nomical theory of his physician, Quesnay, who proposed a single tax to be imposed upon landed property, to which the nobility and clergy, who were the principal landholders, must have contributed. AH these projects ended in mere discussions ; the old corporations resisted ; royalty, flattered by the philosophers, who wished to arm and turn its power against the clergy, experienced a vague alarm at perceiving their progress. Voltaire was preparing a universal anti- christian history (Essay on Manners, 1756.) A mighty movement was about to commence. Its approach was per- ceived by all classes. The king himself confessed it. "The monarchy grows very old," said he, "but it will last my time." We may remark, that the selfishness indicated by this reflection was abundantly participated in by those who then surrounded the throne. Calculating that the established system would endure long enough for them, they cared not what convulsions and horrors might follow. Marechal Saxe. 330 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Frederic the Great. CHAPTER XXXV. LOUIS XV. CONTINUED. Yet reason frowns on war's unequal game, Where wasted nations raise a single name; And mortgag'd states their grandsires' wreaths regret, From age to age in everlasting debt. Johnson. ^ ^ 1. The wise negociators at Aix la Chapelle had in- ^j^Q serted in the treaty the following extraordinary clause; ' " all other matters shall be placed on the same fooling that they were or ought to have been, before the commence- ment of the war." The Engh'sh and French had never accurately marked the limits of their colonies in Asia and America, and when they came to determine what they ought to have been, acts of violence, mutual recriminations and mani- festoes heralded a new war. The French complained that their British neighbours encroached on Canada ; their adver- LOUIS XV. 331 saries retorted by similar complaints; both were mutually ex- asperated, until at length the British government, without issuing any formal declaration, caused the French fleet, bound to Canada, to be attacked, and Louis immediately took up arms. 2. Such was the beginning of the celebrated -i-}^--' seven years' war, a contest which produced events '"* ' almost incredible, in which France sunk from the summit of glory to the depths of humiliation, at the very moment when her ultimate triumph seemed to be most secure. The most extraordinary feature of all was the alliance between France and Austria, nations that had been at war for nearly two cen- turies, and the junction of England with Prussia, powers that had hitherto shown great jealousy of each other. This change of alliances is said to have been eifected by the marchioness de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV., who was gratified by the compliments of the crafty Maria Theresa, and enraged at the sarcasms which had been uttered against her by the king of Prussia. 3. The commencement of the war was favourable to France ; the English received some severe checks in Canada; the island of Minorca, with the formidable fortress of Port Mahon, was wrested from them by the marechal Richelieu ; the duke of Cumberland was defeated in Germany, and obliged by a disgraceful convention at Closterseven, to capitulate with all his army, and yield up Hanover to the enemy. The king of Prussia, after having conquered Hanover and obtained a brilliant victory at Prague, was in his turn defeated by count Daun, and reduced to the brink of ruin. 4. But the battle of Rosbach, which Frederic gained over the ■•J- J united forces of the French and Ausirians, produced a change in affairs as great as it was unexpected. By the rapidity of movements which their superior discipline enabled the Prussians to execute with facility, the enemies' lines were thrown into irremediable confusion, and a decisive victory ob- tained almost without a battle. A second victory in the same year at Lissa restored him the possession of Silesia, and the English, notwithstanding the convention of Closterseven, drove the French from Hanover. A long series of battles followed in Germany, without producing any important consequences ; the French were forced to retreat at Crevelt, before the prince of Brunswick ; they were in their turn victorious at Bergen, but were overthrown at Warsbourg and at Minden. The hereditary prince of Brunswick does not appear ijeja to have followed up his victories with sufficient prompt- 332 HISTORY OF FRANCE. itude ; he gave the enemy time to recover themselves, and met with two severe checks, when at too late a period he at- tempted to extend his conquests. 6. The king of Prussia, weakened by his very victories, seemed to be on the brink of destruction. Russia having united with Austria, the forces of the imperialists seemed on the point of overwhelming him, when he was saved by one of those unexpected events which baffle human calculation. Elizabeth, empress of Russia, died ; her successor, Peter III., was an enthusiastic admirer of Frederic, and not only broke off his alliance with Austria, but promised to assist the Prus- sian king with all his forces. This, which would probably have been the total ruin of the imperialists, was prevented by another revolution ; Peter was dethroned, and his wife Catha- rine, equally conspicuous for her talents and her crimes, as- sumed the Russian sceptre. Catharine resolved to preserve a rigid neutrality, and Frederic, who had maintained the same undaunted spirit during all these changes, was enabled to di- rect all his strength against the Austrians, over whom he ob- tained several advantages. 7. But the principal calamities of the war fell on the fo- reign possessions of France. In India the English took Chan- denagore, Pondicherry, and all the principal settlements of their enemies in that quarter ; in Africa, the fort of Senegal and the island of Goree were captured ; and in America, Ca- nada was subdued by the heroic Wolfe, who died in the arms of victory ; and the greater part of the French West ,J^,* India islands were surrendered to the British. 8. Alarmed at the rapid increase of the English naval power, Spain, which had hitherto been neutral, concluded a strict alliance with France by a treaty called the Family Com- pact; but it was only to participate in her calamities and dis- grace. The English rescued Portugal from menaced invasion, captured Cuba in the west, and the Philipine isles in the east, acquiring immense booty in both places, while their fleets everywhere ruled the sea, and totally destroyed the com- , Jpo merce of their enemies. 9. At length all parties be- gan to wish for peace ; it was concluded at Paris on terms the most favourable to England, as she retained the pos- session of almost all her colonial conquests. 10. During this war France was distracted by disputes be- tween the clergy and the magistracy, which brought great dis- grace on religion, and facilitated at a subsequent period the spread of infidehty. The fanaticism excited by these disputes LOUIS XV. 333 induced a young enthusiast named Damien to attempt the king's life ; he did not succeed, and the manner of his execu- tion will be for ever a stain on the character of the French. A committee of physicians was appointed to determine what were the most painful tortures that could be inflicted without imme- diate loss of hfe ! Damien, whose insanity deserved to be pitied rather than punished, was subjected to all the torments suggested by these scientific barbarians, and finally torn to pieces by wild horses. 11. The Jesuits, who were supposed to have been the principal instigators of this assassin, as they probably were of a similar attempt made on the life of the king of Portugal, experienced the vengeance of the court. Their order was abolished in France, Spain, and Portugal, though no injury was done to their persons. The edict for their suppression was subsequently confirmed by a 1^70 bull of Pope Clement XIV. It would not be consistent with the design of this work to examine into the truth or false- hood of the charges brought against the Jesuits ; but it is cer- tain that their dissolution was more the result of political in- trigue and private animosity than public justice. 12. The supineness of the British government per- mitted the French to make a valuable acquisition in lYfift the Mediterranean. The island of Corsica, unable to support the domination of the Genoese, made a vigorous effort to establish its independence. At the head of the insur- gents was Paschal Paoli, who united to a patriotic spirit supe- rior military talents. The republic of Genoa, unable to main- tain their power, ceded the island to France ; and the duke de Choiseul, who was then at the head of the French ministry, availed himself of this cession to seize on the island. Paoli made a gallant but unsuccessful resistance ; at length all hope was banished, and the gallant patriot, unwilling to witness the degradation of his country, became a voluntary exile, and re- tired to England, the common refuge, at that time, of the un- successful friends of the liberties of the human race. 13. Soon after this, the duke de Choiseul was disgraced and banished, chiefly through the influence of madame du Barri, who had succeeded the marchioness de Pompadour, as mistress to the king. His dismissal was followed by a succes- sion of edicts depriving the parliaments of all the privileges they had previously enjoyed, and depriving the nation of the little remnant even of the forms of liberty which they had been hitherto permitted to enjoy. 334 HISTORY OF FRANCE. 14. The remainder of this reign is the most disgraceful part of the French history ; the excessive vice and riotous debauchery of the court was infamous and disgusting. The monarch set the example of every species of hcenliousness, and the courtiers emulated his infamy. All parts of the ad- ministration were in the utmost disorder, the finances were exhausted, national credit gone, and public confidence ban- ished. The charitable donations given for the erection of hos- pitals were used to support luxury and extravagance. The money destined to redeem French captives from the Algerine pirates shared the same fate. All the offices of state, all ap- pointments, civil, military, and ecclesiastic, were exposed for sale, and were, consequent 1}', the prey of incompetent and rapacious characters. In a word, Louis XV. left to his suc- cessor a kingdom without money, without laws, and without morality. 15. Louis died of the small-pox in the 64th year of -j,^-'^ his age, and the 59th of his reign. His character may ' be easily learned from his history ; if any thing more be wanting, it is sufficient to add that his death was deemed a national blessing, and filled France with universal joy. 16. The progress of science and literature during this reign was very great ; but it was more than compensated by the rapid strides with which infidelity advanced through the upper and middle ranks of life. The school of French philosophy may be considered to have been founded by Voltaire and Rousseau, men of unquestionable talents, but whom foolish vanity had induced to reject Christianity, as a system that fettered too much their mental independence. Their enmity to Christian truth had all the bitterness and all the virulence of personal hostility; it seemed almost a species of madness, for they exhibited a zeal and eagerness in destroying the prin- ciples of behef which were perfectly astonishing. The moral degradation of the upper ranks contributed to their success : men who lived in the practice of every vice were eager to persuade themselves that their fears of future punishment were groundless. We cannot say with some writers that in- fidelity necessarily produces imn)orality, but we may reverse the proposition, and safely assert that immorality predisposes men to infidelity. To this fatal source may be traced many of the evils by which France was assailed in the next reign ; if false philosophy did not generate the revolution, at least it aggravated its horrors and made its consequences fatal. LOUIS XV. 335 17. Voltaire, whose name has obtained such a bad emi- nence, was a native of Paris. The celebrity of his early writings induced Frederic, king of Prussia, to invite him to his court. Frederic was himself an author and a philosopher, and the vanity of both soon changed their friendship into vio- lent enmity. Voltaire's account of the quarrel is amusing enough : he tells us, " It was reported that I had said the place of king's atheist was vacant, and no notice was taken of the imputation ; but it was whispered that I had called the king a maker of bad verses, and my banishment followed as a matter of course." He retired to Ferney, near Geneva, where he died at an advanced age. His writings are remarkable for their caustic satirical wit, and exquisite powers of ridicule, but it is melancholy to reflect that such talents were devoted to the worst of purposes. He was also an excellent dramatic poet, but his attempt at an epic poem is now generally ac- knowledged to be a failure. 18. John James Rousseau was born at Geneva, of humble parents, and from his earliest years manifested a strong attach- ment to literature. His writings are remarkable for their en- ergetic eloquence, but unfortunately, also, for their pernicious tendency. He was, perhaps, the vainest man that ever ex- isted, and his self-conceit led him into so many absurdities, that we may almost describe him with one of his disciples as " an inspired idiot." Rousseau was for some time in England, where his eccentricities caused shame to his friends, but fur- nished every body else with infinite amusement. It has been remarked that there was a mournful similarity between the latter years of Louis XV. and those of the pre- ceding reign. Both raonarchs, unsuccessful in war, were constrained to submit to conditions of peace, which Europe deemed humiliating to France. Louis XIV. was held in the chains of Madame de Maintenon ; and his successor was the slave of a courtesan, who was only less hypocritical be- cause she was more shameless. They were seen to revel in heardess splendour, while the nation was almost reduced by misery to despair. Both kings saw, in some, degree, the course of nature inverted ; and their children perished in the flower of their youth. The son of Louis XV. had inherited much of the piety of his mother ; and when the dauphin and dauphiness were called away by death, the regret manifested was as universal as it was rational, that the young and the virtuous should be withdrawn, while the aged 336 HISTORY OF FRANCE. and the depraved remained to affront the power that spared them ; and as the disgusted multitude was prepared to re- ceive the most unfavourable impressions of those who were so notoriously degraded by their vices, it was even believed that the young prince and princess had been purposely re- moved, through the vile arts of those whose impurity was rendered more odious from the contrast presented by an opposite course of life. This horrible suspicion was not removed by the death of the queen, who soon followed her son to the grave. Nor was even religious persecution wanting to render the parallel complete. The fickle Louis, accordingly as he was moved by his minister or his mistress, was ready to assail the Jansenists or the Jesuits ; and sinning against all deco- rum himself, he could still be deluded into a belief that it was for him to vindicate the dignity of religion. Some monstrous scenes were witnessed, prompted by bigotry. An unfortunate protestant, named Galas, had a son, who, being insane, committed suicide. It was asserted by the catholics that the youth meditated joining their church, and that to prevent that his own father had murdered him. This almost incredible charge was believed by the infuriated populace, and listened to with grave attention by the magistrates. In vain did the accused offer the best possible proof that he had never shared the intolerant spirit of those who pursued him ; but that he had made ample allowance to one of his sons, who had embraced the Catholic faith. Presumptive proofs of innocence were disregarded ; while evidence was given to every story that malice could invent, or folly utter against him. Eventually, he was condemned by the parlia- ment of Toulouse to perish on the rack, and his goods were confiscated. To the honour of Voltaire let it be mentioned, that when the remnant of this ill-fated family took refuge in Geneva, where he had fixed his abode, he took up their cause with generous indignation, and pursued, with equal activity, courage, and address, the authors of their wrongs; nor desisted till he had rescued the memory of the victim from obloquy, whom he could not recal from the grave, brought shame on the fiend-like criminals who had caused his ruin, and driven the guilty magistrate who had been most forward in promoting the atrocious sentence, to a state of absolute insanity. LOUIS XVI. 337 Louia XVI. CHAPTER XXXVI. LOUIS XVL And since the rabble now is ours, Keep the fools hot, preach dangers in their ears ; Spread false reports o' th' senate ; working up Their madness to a fury quick and desp'rate j Till they run headlong into civil discords, And do our business with their own destruction. Otwat. 1. Few monarchs ever ascended a throne under more favourable auspices than Louis XVL He was i^U-V known to have disliked the vicious profligacy of his grandfather's court ; though scarcely twenty he had shown some capacity for conducting the business of the state ; anec- dotes of his generous and kindly disposition were circulated through Paris ; finally, his marriage with Marie Antoinette seemed to secure external tranquillity, by uniting France with 29 W 338 HISTORY OF FRANCE. the empire. The first measures of the new reign were judi- cious and popular ; the administration of finance was entrusted to Turgot, a minister equally remarkable for his virtues and abilities ; other departments of the state were entrusted to Maurepas and Malesherbes, men who were animated by the soundest loyalty and purest patriotism. 2. But the nobility of France, and especially that part of it immediately connected with the court, had been too much demoralized during the late reign to be pleased with virtuous measures that threatened to destroy corruption, and deprive them of the pensions which they lavished .in guilty indulgence. A resolution was taken to destroy Turgot, and an opportunity for effecting it was soon presented. 3. Louis XVI. had recalled the parliament which his grandfather had sent into exile, in spite of the remonstrances of Turgot, who saw that an institution combining judicial and legislative powers was likely to prove injurious ; the parlia- ments retained their indignation against the minister, and when he presented to them an edict for the abolition of corvees, com- pulsory labours that the tenants were obliged to perform for their landlords, they refused to enrol it, and were supported in their resistance by the whole body of the nobihty. This ill-judged effort to preserve the most disgraceful and oppressive p3rt of the feudal system was one principal reason of the in- veterate hatred to the aristocracy subsequently shown by the French people. The in- trigues of interested courtiers succeeded in procuring the dismissal of Turgot ; his place was supplied by Neck- er, a Swiss banker, more popular than Turgot, but far inferior to him in ability. Necker was too much ad- dicted to theory, and seemed totally devoid of practical wisdom ; his speculations on finance were ingenious and beautiful, but his measures were injurious. 4. Great Britain, though everywhere successful at the end of the seven years' war, was greatly exhausted by the con- test ; the ordinary revenue was found insuflScient to pay the interest of the debt and the ordinary expenses of government, some new resources were required, and in an evil hour it was resolved to levy a tax on the British colonies in North America : LOUIS XVI. 339 for, under the pretext that the war had been undertaken for the protection of their frontier, the ministry alleged that they should bear a proportionate share in liquidating its expenses. The Americans denied the right of the British parliament to levy taxes on them, as they sent no representatives thither ; a brief war with the pen was followed by an appeal to the sword ; the exasperation of both parties hourly augmented, until at length the congress of deputies from the several colonies, on the 4th of July 1776, formally threw off their allegiance to the British crown, and proclaimed themselves independent, under the title of the United States of America. 5. The French court and people still smarted under the re- collection of the defeats and disgraces they had endured in the former war ; every man in his senses was aware that they would seize the first opportunity of declaring in favour of the Americans ; but the court of St, James's, shutting their eyes to the dangers by which it was threatened, took every method of widening the breach between Britain and its former sub- jects, nor was the delusion of the English ministry dispelled until the evil was irreparable. An alliance was entered into at Paris between France and the United States, to -tjja which Spain and Holland soon after acceded. 6. As this war belongs rather to the history of England than that of France, we shall only give a brief summary of the principal events. At sea, several indecisive actions were fought ; twenty naval engagements at least took place between the belligerent powers, but victory remained undetermined until the I2th of April 1782, when Admiral Rodney totally defeated Count de Grasse in the West Indies, aiKi re-established the superiority of the British flag. In the East Indies the English were everywhere successful, and almost annihilated the power of their enemies in that quarter, but on the other hand the French subdued several of the West Indian islands, and the Spaniards conquered Florida. The Dutch suffered most severely, having been deprived of almost all their colonies by the British. In Europe, the French and Spaniards subdued Minorca, but were defeated at the siege of Gibraltar, by the gallant general El- liot. 7. In North America, the war was carried on for some time with various success, until at length the whole British army, commanded by the marquis Cornwallis, was forced to surrender almost at discretion to the united forces of the French and Americatis, commanded by the marquis de la Fayette and general Washington. When the news of this event reached England, every person in the country saw that the further 340 HISTORY OF FRANCE. prosecution of the war was hopeless. A new ministry ac- knowledged the independence of the United States, I Joo ^i^d entered into negociations with France. 8. A peace was concluded under the auspices of Joseph [I., em- peror of Germany, and the empress of Russia, who acted as mediators ; and England obtained more favourable terms than could reasonably have been expected after the number of re- verses she had experienced. 9. To support the expenses of this war, Necker had re- course to loans, a fatal system, which only deferred the evil to return with accumulated violence at a future period ; after his dismissal, Fleury, Ormesson, and Calonne pursued the same improvident career, until at length the clamours of the people, oppressed by taxation, and the fears of the state-creditors that a national bankruptcy would reduce them to poverty, brought the country into the most deplorable condition. At the same time, the army who had fought for the freedom of America brought home with them some of that attachment to hberty which they had imbibed from their allies ; and the aspirations for a free constitution, so new to the French, were strengthened when they looked across the channel, and saw England, not- withstanding all her reverses, enjoying comparative happiness and tranquillity. 10. Calonne saw that unless all parties in the state combined to support their relative shares of the pubhc burdens, ruin was inevitable ; he therefore resolved to propose that the nobihty and clergy should resign, or at least suspend, those privileges by which they were exempted from , Jq^ taxation. For this purpose he convened an assembly * of the notables at Versailles, and though they were the persons whose interests were most affected, Calonne would probably have secured the adoption of his plan, but for the in- trigues of De Brienne, who aspired to the post of prime min- ister. 11. After a long struggle between justice and privilege, the latter prevailed, Calonne was dismissed, and after a brief interval succeeded by Brienne, whose first act was to dismiss the notables. The only resource now left for raising money, was by issuing royal edicts, but the parliament refused them registration. The new minister seemed to have chosen Riche- lieu for his model, regardless of the far different circumstances in which the government was placed ; he procured the exile of the parliament to Troyes, whence, after a few weeks, -ijoq they were recalled, more refractory than ever. The ' minister next resolved to shelter himself under the king's authority ; at a royal sitting, Louis ordered several LOUIS XVI. 341 financial edicts to be registered in his presence. 12. The duke of Orleans, who had lately placed himself at the head of the popular party, more through personal hatred of the queen than any regard for the public intecest, had the courage pub- licly to protest against the registration, for which he was exiled to his country seat. At length Brienne, after having retained the post of minister only eighteen months, during which period, however, he had done more real injury to the state than any of his predecessors, became terrified at the dangers by which he was surrounded, and resigned his situation ; he soon after died in retirement, overwhelmed by shame and disappointment. 13. Necker was recalled to the ministry, and as he attri- buted his former dismissal to the influence of the aristocracy and the clergy, he resolved to strengthen himself by an alli- ance with the popular party, and for this purpose prevailed on the king to convoke the states-general. A convention of the notables was summoned to decide on the necessary preli- minaries for this national convocation. There were two great questions to be decided — whether the deputies of the commons should be equal in number to those of the nobility severally or collectively? and whether the states should meet in separate chambers or in one general assembly ? The first point was decided in favour of the popular party ; the latter, and in- finitely the more important question, was left to the decision of the states-general themselves. Such an assembly had not been convoked since 1614; at no time does their constitution appear to have been fixed and determinate ; the summoning them was therefore looked on as a boon to the nation, and any prudent conditions affixed to their meeting would have met with universal acquiescence; but the foolish precipitancy of Necker caused this golden opportunity to be neglected, and the consequences were fatal. 14. The assembly of the states-general took place at Versailles on the 5th of May; the session was opened i.^eq by the king in a brief but patriotic speech, Necker presented his financial report, and every thing seemed to pro- mise peace and tranquillity. But these appearances were delusive; the representatives of the commons soon perceived their superior strength, and at once insisted that the states-gen- eral should form but one body. The clergy and the nobility protested against this claim, by which they foresaw that their privileges would be annihilated ; they were supported by the court, but they were betrayed by a large portion of both their own orders. 15. The inferior clergy were disgusted with the 29* 342 HISTORY OF FRANCE. The States-General. haughtiness and power of the prelates ; they were, besides, united to the commons by the prejudices of birth and educa- tion ; a considerable body of the nobility, headed by the duke of Orleans, privately encouraged the popular party to persist in their claims, promising to unite with them on the first op- portunity. Thus supported, the deputies of the commons passed a decree, by which they declared themselves the Na- tional Assembly. The court rashly attempted, by a demon- stration of violence, to compel the deputies to alter their reso- lution, but the firmness of the popular leaders was not to be shaken ; they declared that they would remain in the assembly until they were expelled by actual force. The junction of a majority of the clergy and a large minority of the nobles with the third estate, completed the defeat of the court, and Louis, to prevent greater calamities, wrote, himself, to the remaining portions of the privileged orders, advising them to unite with the national assembly. 16. The courtiers of Louis XVI., more eager to preserve their pensions and privileges than their country or their monarch, hurried the monarch into acts of indiscretion LOUIS XVI. 343 which still more increased the popular excitement. A. large army was collected between Paris and Versailles ; Necker, whom the court justly looked on as the cause of all their diffi- culties, was dismissed ; a report was spread that the national assembly would be dissolved, and some of the leading popular deputies capitally punished for high treason. In this stale of things, it required the most extreme caution on the part of the royalists lo prevent the people from breaking out into open rebellion ; but, unfortunately, the nobility of France had been too long accustomed to look upon the commonalty as an infe- rior order of beings, whom the first appearance of a mihtary force would terrify into submission. While an unarmed mob were bearing in procession the images of Necker and the duke of Orleans, they were imprudently attacked by a party of royal dragoons, and the busts broken. The city at once rose as one man; the citizens formed themselves into a military body, under the title of the national guard ; they seized on all the arms in the gun-smiths' shops, and took possession of several pieces of cannon and thirty thousand stand of arms, which were kept at the hospital of the invalids. 17. The 14th of July is usually esteemed the date of the commencement of the revolution. On that day i.^oq the memorable capture of the Bastille took place. The governor, de Launay, anticipating an attack, had made every possible preparation for defence; the store of ammunition was increased, the garrison were all at their posts, but the assault against which they had to defend themselves was that of the whole population of Paris. The plan of attack was formed on the evening of the 13th, but all plans were superseded by the fury of the populace. Early on the morning of the 14th, groups of armed men were seen forming in the vicinity of the fortress ; the governor ordered the cannon to be turned on the capital, but was prevailed upon to remove them, as they only served to increase the fury of the people. Shortly afterwards, a deputation from the commune of Paris, headed by the pop- ular leaders, arrived, and demanded a conference with the governor. The draw-bridge was lowered for their admission, but they had scarcely entered the first court when they were followed by a multitude demanding arms and. ammunition. On seeing this, the governor ordered the bridge to be raised, and directed the garrison to fire upon the intruders. The shrieks of the wounded and dying; the confused cries of" as- sassination ! treason 1" redoubled the rage of the assailants. Two men, lowering themselves from a guard-house, got be- 344 HISTORY OF FRANCE. yond the bridge and broke its chains with an axe, under a heavy fire of musketry. The garrison still kept the assailants in check, but the arrival of a detachment of grenadiers, with some pieces of cannon, gave fresh energy to the besiegers. Heaps of straw were set on fire beneath the walls to conceal their movements, while a heavy fire from the neighbouring houses nearly drove the besieged from the ramparts. The Bastille. The governor, in despair, resolved to blow up the fortress, but was prevented ; he solicited a barrel of gunpowder for his own destruction, but this also was denied ; and at length a white flag was hoisted on the battlements, and the garrison capitulated. The invalids laid down their arms, and a de- tachment was ordered to escort the governor to the Hotel de Ville as a place of safety, but, just as he reached the steps of the building, he fell a victim to the fury of the populace ; his head, and that of the second in command, were borne on pikes in a triumphant procession through the streets of Paris. 18. The two parlies into which France was divided were now fairly at issue, the nobility attached to the court, and the feudal lords of the country, were determined at all hazards to retain their privileges ; the middle and lower ranks of hfe were determined to preserve the advantage they had acquired over an aristocracy that had abused its powers. The king, placed between both, had not sufficient energy to adhere firmly LOUIS XVI. 345 to either ; early associations, the arts of the courtiers, and the influence of the queen, led him to check ih^ rising power of the commons by measures both injudicious and intemperate; while a dread of popular violence and a noble dislike to the shedding of blood, induced him to retrace his steps at the first appearance of determined resistance. This vacillating policy, at all times dangerous, vi^as, under the circumstances of France at the period, certain destruction. 19. On the 4th of August M. de Noailles and M. d'Aiguillon, both members of the no- bility, endeavoured to conciliate the people by a noble sacri- fice. They proposed that all the privileges belonging to their order should be abolished, and that all remaining traces of the feudal system should be abolished in France. The greater part of the nobility and clergy supported the proposition with zeal, and it was strange to see the enthusiasm with which the different privileged orders hastened to resign all the peculiar distinctions which had hitherto distinguished their rank in the state. But this sacrifice was made in vain ; the popular party looked on it as a boon extracted by terror, and the provincial nobility, a body remarkable for pride, poverty, and ignorance, saw themselves degraded below the class of merchants and traders, whom they had previously been accustomed to de- spise. 20. The very rapidity with which they had obtained their liberty unfitted the French nation for its enjoyment, and made them jealous of its security. Suspicions were naturally enter- tained of the sincerity of the court, and though they were par- tially dispelled by the king's judicious visit to Paris, they broke out with new violence in consequence of the queen's indiscre- tion. At a dinner given by the soldiers of one regiment to the officers of another, Marie Antoinette made her appearance with the dauphin in her arms, probably in imitation of her mother's appeal to the states of tlungary. She was received with enthusiasm ; the king was persuaded to enter, and several royalist toasts were drunk in his presence. The wine flowed freely, and under its influence many of the officers, who were chiefly young nobles, gave vent to sentiments which were ad- verse to the rising liberties of the nation. 21. An exaggerated narrative of these ridiculous orgies was spread through Paris, the dread of a counter-revolution became general, and the na- tional guard, now organised into a regular army under the command of La Fayette, prepared to defend their liberty, which they believed to be threatened. On the 5th of October, the sound of the tocsin alarmed Paris, the people assembled in 346 HISTORY OF FRANCE. tumultuous groups, and a rt'solution was taken to bring the king by force to the capital. A multitude of both sexes set out for Versailles ; the women to make a representation to the king of the famine which prevailed in Paris ; the men to be revenged on the royal guards for an insult said to have been ofTered to the national cockade. These were followed by the national guard under the command of La Fayette, whose pro- fessed design was to request of the king to come with them to Paris, but they were silent as to their intentions in case of a refusal. 22. On the morning of the sixth, the palace was at- tacked by a fierce mob, several of the royal guards murdered, the queen obliged to fly half naked to the king's apartments, and the whole royal family on the very brink of being mur- dered. At this moment La Fayette appeared, but found that he had overrated his influence ; nothing would satisfy the mob but the king's immediatt-ly setting out for Paris, and with a heavy heart he found himself forced to obey. Nothing can be conceived more humiliating than this journey, which lasted six hours, though the distance is but twelve miles; the royal carriages were surrounded bj^ an infuriate mob, red with slaughter and maddened with success; the heads of the mur- dered soldiers who had fallen victims to their loyalty were borne on pikes, and even held before the windows of the king's coach with cruel insult. The king was lodged in the Tuil- leries, the city was brilliantly illuminated, and the Parisians spent the night in extravagant joy. The national assembly followed the king, and for the future held their sittings in Paris. Forced to reside in Paris, the king invited the national assembly to transfer their sittings to the capital, which they did. The duke of Orleans wailed on the king, who received him without bitterness ; but called his attention to the various sinister acts imputed to him. He accepted his submission ; but, in order to tranquillize the city, ordered him to proceed to England ; and, under the pretext of being charged with a special mission, the duke set out for London. Some of the emissaries of his faction, however, were stationed at Bou- loo-ne, where he was to embark, in order to compel him to return to Paris ; and the positive orders of the king and the national assembly were necessary to make him continue his journey. The first care of the king was to endeavour to provide for the capital being properly supplied with provisions ; and the queen, to relieve the sufl^ering poor, engaged to redeem from the Monte de Piete all articles, such as linen and house LOUIS XVI. 347 hold goods, which had been pledged for sums not exceeding twenty-four livres. But the most outrageous calumnies continued to be daily circulated against the king, and more especially against the queen. They were exposed to a series of wanton insults ; and, confined within the walls of Paris, it was only during certain hours in the day that they were allowed to promenade the gardens of the Tuilleries. This restraint was so long continued, that at length the royal sufferers became objects of pity ; and a deputation from the municipality, with the mayor at their head, peti- tioned the assembly that the king might be allowed the indulgence of the chase, which, from his being long accus- tomed to it, had become necessary to his health ; but Louis expressed himself content to give it up, in the then state of public affairs. Prince of Conde. 348 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Robespierre and Danton. A. D. CHAPTER XXXVII. LOUIS XVI. IN CONTINUATION. The senate weak, divided and irresolute, Want power to succour the afflicted state ; Vainly in words and long debate they're wise, VVhile the fierce factions scorn their peaceful orders. And drown the voice of law in noise and anarchy. RoWE. 1. The king of France was now a prisoner in his vyeq °^^" capital, and hiad no other choice but to assent to * the changes proposed by the national assembly or resign his crown. The first and most important of the pro- posed alterations was the confiscation of the church property, which was ordered to be sold for the advantage of the nation, but at the same time it was agreed that a sufficient portion of the revenue should be applied to the maintenance of the clergy, and other ecclesiastical purposes. On the same day that this decree was passed, another law was enacted, sweep- ing away all distinctions of rank whatever, coats of arms, titles of honour, «fec. ; Necker had the courage to oppose the latter decree, but his resistance was vain, and finding his popularity LOUIS XVI. 349 on the wane, he had the good sense to withdraw from public hfe, and spend the remainder of his days in literary retirement. 2. The character of Necker has suffered equally from his friends and enemies, the injudicious and unmerited praises bestowed on him by the former, have induced the world to lend a more ready ear to the calumnies of the latter; his in- tentions appear to have been always honest, but he had not sufficient firmness to put them into execution ; his abihties as a financier would have made him a valuable auxiliary to a clever statesman, but his want of political wisdom unfitted him for the situation of premier, especially in such a troublous period as the reign of Louis XVI. 3. The greater part of the nobility and the royal family had emigrated, and formed a small army on the 1^00 frontiers. They declared that the king being under duresse,* no act of his would be valid. The king perceiving the dangers to which he was exposed by such injudicious conduct on the part of his friends, went voluntarily to the national assembly, took an oath of fidelity to the new constitu- tion, and repeated it afterwards at a solemn act of federation held in the Champ de Mars. This was a very imposing spectacle, but it was merely a spectacle ; the revolutionists, or at least a large portion of them, seem now to have resolved on the establishment of a republic, while the friends of the old regime contemplated nothing less than the establishment of the ancient despotism. The monarchs of Europe, who at first looked on with apathy, began to take a lively interest in the affairs of France, especially the court of Austria, so nearly connected with the hapless Marie Antoinette. All these circum- stances made the friends of the revolution look with a suspi- cious eye on their monarch, while the indignities to which he was daily subjected, naturally disgusted him with the freedom which repaid all his sacrifices with sufferings and with sorrow. 4. The prince of Conde assumed the command of the little army of emigrants, too small to produce any i-vq/ impression on France, but sufficiently numerous to in- spire a vindictive jealousy, which was visited on the head of the unfortunate monarch. The only persons of the royal family now remaining in France were the king and queen with their children ; monsieur, the king's brother, and his wife, madame ; and the princess Elizabeth, the king's sister. Worn out by the persecutions to which they were exposed, they me- * Duresse, a force that prevents the exercise of the will. 30 350 HISTORY OF FRANCE. dilated their escape to the frontiers, an attempt in which Mon- sieur and Madame fortunately succeeded. 5. A strange fatality seems to have disconcerted every arrangement made for the rescue of Louis XVI. Never was there a plan better formed, nor with greater chances of success than that for the escape of the king ; passports were procured for the royal family under fictitious names, a body of faithful troops were ready to meet them at the pont de Sommerville, and the army at Lon- guy, under the command of M. de Bouille, was ready to re- store the falling throne. But an accidental delay ruined every thing, the escort having wailed long beyond the appointed time, rode off from the place of rendezvous, the king having impru- dently put his head out of the coach-window was recognized by Drouet, son to the postmaster of Varennes ; the escort com- ing up too late found that they could not advance farther with- out a fierce struggle ; and Louis, ever desirous to prevent the ef- fusion of blood, surrendered himself a prisoner. He was brought back to Paris by a tumultuous mob, and detained in honourable captivity at the palace of the Tuilleries. 6. The emigration continually augmented ; the nobility with their dependants flocked to Coblentz, and scarcely disguised their intention of checking the progress of the revolution by force of arms. The national assembly having completed their projected outline of a constitution, presented it to the king for acceptance ; the monarch publicly swore to its observance, and the event was celebrated by a public fete in the Champ de Mars. 7. The national assembly having, as they fondly supposed, placed the liberty and tranquillity of France on a sure basis, dissolved themselves, after having declared themselves inca- pable of being elected members of the legislative assembly by which they were succeeded. This exclusion of all who might have learned wisdom from experience was a fatal mea- sure ; the legislative assembly, consisting principally of men chiefly remarkable for violence and enthusiasm, soon gave the most lamentable proofs of their utter unfitness for managing the affairs of the nation. The most violent decrees ITQQ were issued against the emigrants, and at length war '^* was declared against the emperor of Austria for having given them his protection. Every thing seemed to threaten the speedy downfall of the monarch3% and the injudicious con- duct of the king's friends hastened the fatal consummation. 8. The duke of Brunswick having been appointed to the command of the allied army of Austrians, Prussians, and emi- grants, issued a proclamation at Coblentz, couched in language LOUIS XVI. 351 the most calculated to provoke the determined resistance of an independent nation. He denounced military execution against all who, in the slightest degree, supported the revolution, and insisted on the complete restoration of the former despotism, under the pain of giving Paris up to be plundered, and punish- ing as rebels all those who made any resistance. 9. The effect of this intemperate and ill-timed effusion on a people so re- markable for their national vanity as the French, may easily be conjectured ; all who had hitherto wavered became violent revolutionists, and those who had been previously inclined to preserve some share of power to the king, threw themselves into the ranks of his enemies. 10. On the 20th of June an infuriate mob made an attack upon the palace, subjected the unfortunate king to the most cruel insults, and retired after having degraded royalty by forcing the king to wear, instead of a diadem, a red cap, which was the signal of revolt. 11. But this was merely preparatory to the fearful tragedy of the 10th of August, At half-past ten o'clock on the morning of that day, the populace collected in vast multitudes around the palace. The legislative body assembled on the report of a general insurrection, and the king having received an oath from the Swiss and part of the national guard, that they would de- fend his person and family, took shelter with the queen and his children in the hall of the national assembly. Soon after, the mob attempted to force an entrance into the palace, and the Swiss at length, compelled to fire, forced them back with the loss of two hundred men. A furious battle ensued, but the violence of the multitude forced through every obstacle. The palace was carried by storm, its brave defenders were massa- cred without mercy, the halls streamed with blood, the stair- case was piled with the mangled bodies of the slain. Sixty of the Swiss guard, arrested in various places, were dragged to the Place de Greve and executed ; those who attempted to escape were pursued and murdered in the Champs Elysees, or upon the banks of the river. 12. On the 14th of the same month, the royal family were sent as prisoners to the old palace of the Temple, a gloomy and melancholy place, which seemed but too well suited to their altered fortunes. 13. The victo- ries of the duke of Brunswick made the Parisians tremble for their capital, and the populace were stimulated to fresh ex- cesses by the Jacobin party, as it has been usually called, at the head of which were Danton and Robespierre, men of the most daring and sanguinary character. On the second of September, about three in the afternoon, the mob assembled 352 HISTORY OF FRANCE. under these ferocious leaders, and resolved to murder all the prisoners who had been arrested on suspicion of being disin- clined to the revolution. The scene that followed is inde- scribable, the assassins massacred all without distinction of sex or age, the innocent and the guilty fell indiscriminately, and the blood of the victims for six days flowed in an uninterrupted torrent through the streets of the city. No obstacle to the car- nage was offered by the government, the murderers were paid a daily salary from the public funds, and the Jacobins cele- brated this horrid tragedy as a splendid victory. 14. In the midst of all these horrors, the legislative assem- bly terminated its labours, and was succeeded by the national convention. The greater part of the members were returned by the influence of the Jacobin party, and were firmly resolved on the deposition and trial of the king. On the very second day of their meeting they voted for the abolition of royalty in France, and so far did the rage of republicanism extend, that the ordinary appellations of Monsieur and Madame were pro- hibited, and the appellation of citizen, as being more agreeable to principles of equality, substituted in their stead. 15. The arms of the republic were successful against the allies ; before the close of the year the duke of Brunswick was not only driven out of the country, but the French, becoming invaders in their turn, captured several important places in the Austrian Netherlands and in the provinces bordering on the Rhine. 16. The unfortunate prisoners in the Temple had been long subjected to every species of cruelty and indignity ; the head of the princess de Lamballe, one of the victims of the second of September, was paraded before the window of the queen, whose favourite she had been ; the guards appointed to watch the royal captives insulted them every moment ; the common necessaries of life were withheld, and they hourly expected to fall victims to the violence of the populace or the secret treachery of their guards. 17. At length, on the 20th of December, Louis was brought as a criminal to the bar of the convention. The crimes attri- buted to him were utterly without foundation. He was accused of having accepted the constitution with bad faith, and of correspondence with foreign powers hostile to France. Not a shadow of proof was offered in support of these charges, which, even if true to the last letter, could not affect his invio- labihty as settled by the constitution. The fallen monarch demanded a copy of the accusation, and the right of naming counsel to conduct his defence, requests which were conceded LOUIS XVI. 353 Tower of the Temple. with some difficulty. He chose as his advocates Deseze and Tronchet, two lawyers highly distinguished for their ability and integrity, together with the venerable Malesherbes. After a long trial, in which the king's advocates exhibited the greatest zeal and talent, the monarch was condemned to death by a majority of five votes. 18. The duke of Orleans, who had lately assumed the title of Philip Egalite, was one of those who voted for the judicial murder of his cousin and his king. 19. Louis received the account of his condemnation with firmness, and solicited a brief delay to arrange his i^qo worldly affairs, and prepare himself for another world. This was refused, but he was permitted to see his family, and bid them farewell. The abbe Edgeworth was chosen by the king as his confessor, be visited him on the evening of the 20th January, and Louis, after having received the rites of the church, retired to bed, where he slept soundly. At nine o'clock on the following morning, a message was brought to inform him that " a carriage was in waiting." He immedi- ately rose, and, accompanied by his confessor, walked steadily through the outer court of the Temple to the gate, where the mayor's coach stood ready to receive him. The mournful procession moved slowly through deep files of soldiers, who 30* X 354 HISTORY OF FRANCE. lined the streets from the Temple to the place of execution The melancholy procession occupied two hours, during which time Louis employed himself in repeating with his confessor the prayers for persons at the point of death. He ascended the scaffold with a firm step, and said with a loud voice, "Frenchmen, I die innocent, and I trust that my blood" — at this moment Santerre ordered the drums to beat, and the rest of the sentence was inaudible. Louis then quietly resigned himself to the executioner ; he was bound to the fatal instru- ment, and his head fell. Some few cried out Vive la nation, but the greater part of the spectators were melted into tears. His body, without being placed in a coffin, was hurriedly thrown into a plain grave, and quick-lime poured over it to accelerate the decomposition. Thus perished in the 39th year of his age, one of the most virtuous monarchs that ever filled the throne of France, a victim to the indiscretion of his friends and the malice of his enemies. 20. In the course of the year, the unfortunate queen, and madame Elizabeth, the king's sister, were sacrificed to the mad cruelty of the republicans. The young dauphin, after having been forcibly torn from his mother's arms, was given in charge to a cobbler named Simon, a monster that vitiated his infant mind and destroyed his health ; but death fortunately soon released him from his miseries. The last survivor of the royal family, the princess who subsequently became the duchess of Angouleme, was, after a tedious captivity, exchanged with the Austrians for some French prisoners of distinction. 2L Phihp Egalite derived no advantage from the infamous vote by which he had endeavoured to acquire popularity. He was accused of infideHty to the repubhc, convicted, and hur- ried to execution, amid the shouts and execrations of the mul- titude, which he sustained with great patience, and submitted to his fate with surprising resolution. The abuses which were experienced while France, norai- nally under her kings, was really governed by a series of mistresses and their minions, paved the way for the convul- sions which were to follow. From the affected piety which was the order of the day at the close of Louis XIV. 's reign, the transition to the shameless dissipation which prevailed under the regent was striking in the extreme. France had ample reason to be disgusted with the monstrous profusion and gratuitous scorn for decorum exhibited by many of her rulers. By them the church was degraded. Offices that ought to have been held by men of unblemished fame were LOUIS XVI. 355 given to reprobates, whose lives were a satire on the sacred rank they were permitted to hold. The clergy, corrupted by their superiors lent themselves to conceal — to extenuate their vices, and were mixed up with their intrigues, till the whole mass became too offensive for endurance. For a time, the reflecting complained unheard ; the thoughtless laughed at the apprehensions of the wise ; and the system which enabled certain classes to revel in luxury, and mock the sufferings of others, was supposed to be based on a rock which would endure for ever. But, in all enlightened countries, monstrous oppression is sooner or later followed by a daring irresistible effort to recover freedom. The volcanic fire may smoulder long, but at last it bursts forth with terrifying violence. Louis XV., in the midst of his sensual abandonment, perceived that " a great coming was on its way." " Society grows old," said he, that society which he, through the audacity of his grand- father, had known all his life, " but it will last my time." In this he was not deceived ; and the tempest which lowered over degraded royalty, while he wore the crown, burst in thunder on the head of his hapless successor. The violence and the vices which had long surrounded the throne prepared the way for its overthrow. It was in vain that Louis XVI. strove, by the urbanity of his manners, and by really im- portant concessions, to appease the raging multitude. The temple had been fired, and the conflagration was not to be stayed. For the mournful sequel, we have only to say, it was similar to that which has been too often witnessed in the course of human affairs : the long suffering victims rose in their might, to become in their turn heardess vindictive tyrants ; and distracted France punished the crimes of mo- narchy but to precipitate herself into a sea of blood, and the more intolerable horrors of revolutionary anarchy, from which she could only be snatched by a new despot, and the genius of a Napoleon. 356 HISTORY OF FRANCE. The Tuilleries. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE REPUBLIC. sacred hunger of ambitious mindes And impotent desire of men to reign! Whom neither dread of God, that devils bindes, Nor lawes of men, that eommon-weales containe. Nor bands of nature, that wild beasts restraine, Can keepe from outrage, and from doing wrong, Where they may hope a kingdom to obtaine, No faith so firm, no trust can be so strong, No love so lasting then, that may enduren long. Spensek. 1. The tragical end of Louis XVI., the success of , Jqq the French arms, and a vote of the convention against ' monarchical power, produced a general coalition of the European courts. The convention did not wait to be attacked, but boldly declared that the republic was at war with the king of England and the stadtholder of Holland. The campaign commenced with a series of reverses on the part of the French, which induced the leaders of the Jacobin party to suspect THE REPUBLIC. 357 general Dumourier of treachery. 2. Four commissaries were sent with Boumouville, the minister at war, to bring him to Paris for trial; but Dumourier was by no means willing to fall a victim to the convention ; he arrested the commissioners and sent them as hostages to the Austrians. He hoped that by his personal influence he would have prevailed on the army to join him in efl^ecting the restoration of monarchy ; but finding himself disappointed, and dreading that he would be given up to the convention, he fled to the Austrian camp, and thus terminated his military career for ever. 3. The party of the Jacobins, or the Mountain, as it has sometimes been called, were now triumphant in the conven- tion ; and it would be impossible to give even an imperfect delineation of the mingled atrocities and absurdities which they perpetrated. Their rule was emphatically denominated the Reign of Terror. All who dared to oppose the madness of the day were dragged to the scaffold ; the catalogue of public crimes to be punished with death was extended to the most innocent actions, and the first fruits of French liberty were a tyranny more odious than had ever before disgraced any country. Impiety accompanied cruelty, Christianity was de- clared to be abolished as an useless superstition, the churches were pillaged, their lands confiscated, and their plate melted down to pay the soldiers. The entire calendar was changed in order to efface the remembrance of the days consecrated to devotion, and it was declared that the only deities acknow- ledged by regenerated France, were Liberty and Reason, In short, a national insanity seems to have prevailed, that hurried men on to commit crime for the mere pleasure of being criminal. 4. The campaign, a little after its commencement, seemed to promise the allies a favourable issue ; Conde was delivered up to the Austrians, and Valenciennes was captured by the English, under the command of the duke of York. But the British general having laid siege to Dunkirk, was forced to retire by general Houchard, with the loss of a large portion of his arms and ammunition. On the upper Rhine the Austro- Frussian army was more successful, and forced general Cus- tine to retreat. The victorious Houchard and the defeated Custine were, however, equally obnoxious to the convention, and were both guillotined. Shortly afterwards, twenty mem- bers of the convention were brought to trial on vague accusa- tions and sentenced to death. Bailly, the mayor of Paris, who 358 HISTORY OF FRANCE. had been one of the most conspicuous leaders of the revolu- tion, was among the number. 5. In several parts of the country disgust at the crimes of the capital produced insurrectionary movements. Lyons set the example, and supported a long siege before it fell into the hands of the revolutionary army, but then its fate was dread- ful ; at the head of the commission sent down by the conven- tion to investigate the crimes of the unfortunate city, was a vile buffoon named Collot d'Herbois, who had in former years been hissed off that stage. 6. Thousands of persons perished by his orders ; the executioners were unable to destroy the vic- tims with sufficient celerity, and cannon was directed against them to insure their wholesale destruction. Marseilles, to avoid a similar fate, submitted, but the people of Toulon sur- rendered their town and fleet to the English. The revolutionary army approached, and principally by the judicious measures of Napoleon Buonaparte, a young Corsican,* whose name was afterwards to fill so large a portion of the history of the world, compelled the British to evacuate the town. Before their de- parture they burned most of the vessels which they could not bring off; but the inhabitants of Toulon were left to meet the same fate as those of Lyons. 7. In another quarter a still fiercer war was carried on. The inhabitants of La Vendee had been from the very beginning of the revolution inclined to support the cause of royalty, and had shown many proofs of their dislike for the new republic. At length they commenced a furious war on the convention and its supporters, which in the beginning was everywhere crowned with success. But the allies neglected to send them assistance until it was too late ; the leaders became jealous of each other, disunion crept into their councils, while an over- whelming army of the republic spread devastation through the province. Peace was restored to La Vendee, but it was the peace of desolation, obtained by the ruin of the province and massacre of its inhabitants. 8. The close of this eventful year saw the republic every where triumphant. The Prusso-Austrian army were com- pelled to retire before the French under Hoche and Pichegru, and the alhes who had commenced so successfully, were in the end defeated by an enemy whom they had rashly despised. * Buonaparte's military propensities were indicated at the school of Brienne, where he commanded his schoohnates in their mimic warfare of snowballs and snow forts. THE REPUBLIC. 359 THE REPUBLIC. 361 9. The preparations for the following campaign were on the most extensive scale ; like the former it began i~'qV favourably for the allies and terminated in their total defeat. The convention issued orders to their soldiers to give rw quarter to the allies ; on the other hand, the duke of York issued a proclamation forbidding the British soldiers to retaliate, and reminding them that humanity is the greatest ornament of heroism. 10. At length the Parisians themselves became wearied of the crimes of the Jacobins. On the 28th of July, France was delivered from those monsters, who set no bounds to their sanguinary fury ; they were all dragged before that revolutionary tribunal, by means of which they had committed so many crimes, and lost their lives on the same scaffold which they had inundated with the blood of so many thousand vic- tims. From thenceforward, the republic ceased to exhibit the horrid scenes of massacre and bloodshed by which it had been hitherto disgraced. 11. In this memorable year the French won six pitched battles, and captured one hundred and twenty-four towns ; but the British squadron maintained their superiority by sea, and almost all the French colonies in the West -i-Jqk Indies were taken without much difficulty. Pichegru, who commanded the army of the repubhc in the Netherlands, did not suspend military operations during the winter. Taking advantage of a heavy frost, he crossed the Waal on the ice, and in an incredibly short space of time subdued Holland. The prince of Orange was forced to take refuge in England, and the United Provinces, under the name of the Batavian re- public, became a dependency of France. 12. Soon after, the allies were weakened by the defection of Prussia, which pro- fessed a strict neutrality, and Spain, which, though governed by a prince of the Bourbon family, entered into a league, of- fensive and defensive, with the republic. 13. The burden of the war now fell upon Austria and England ; the imperial forces, after having gained some successes on the Rhine, con- cluded an armistice with their opponents ; the efforts of the British were confined to an ill-concerted expedition against the French coast, designed to revive the war in La Vendee. The French emigrants, with a numerous body of their countrymen which the British government had in pay, made a descent in the bay of Quiberon. Having taken possession of a fort de- fended by the republicans, they entrenched themselves in a position selected by their leader, the count d'Herville, with more courage than judgment. Here they were attacked by 31 362 HISTORY OF FRANCE. the republicans under general Hoche, their camp surprised, and the greater portion of their army either slain or made prisoners. 14. During the armistice between the French and ■f^QP Austrians, both parties made extensive preparations for ■ renewing the war. The command of the republican army in Italy was entrusted to Napoleon Buonaparte, who had already distinguished himself at the siege of Toulon. Ele- vated at the early age of twenty-six to a station of such im- portance, he soon showed such proofs of military skill, as placed him at the head of all the generals in Europe. In one campaign the Austrians lost the greater part of Italy, the Pied- montese and the pope were forced to purchase security by sub- mitting to whatever terms the conqueror pleased to impose, and the king of Naples compelled to seek peace on humiliating conditions. The most brilliant action of the campaign was the passage of the bridge of Lodi, which was forced by the French grenadiers in the teeth of the Austrian batteries, which vainly poured a murderous shower of grape-shot on the ad- vancing columns. 15. The campaign on the Rhine was less fortunate but equally honourable ; after the Austrians had de- feated marshal Jourdan, the ruin of the French army com- manded by Moreau seemed inevitable, but that general by a masterly retreat, which lasted twenty-seven days, disconcerted all the schemes of the enemy, and brought his army safely across the Rhine in the presence of the hostile army. 16. In the course of the year the French made an attempt to invade Ireland, in order to assist the United Irishmen, who were discontented with the conduct of the British government. The fleet escaped from Brest, without being discovered by the English squadron, but a violent storm dispersed the ships, and prevented those which reached Bantry-bay from effecting a landing. As many of the soldiers that had been sent on this expedition were criminals taken from the galleys, the French government did not know how to treat them on their return. At length they determined to send them against Great Britain itself. They effected a landing at Fishguard in Wales, on the 23d of February 1797, and surrendered themselves prisoners the same evening without making any resistance. 17. Mantua, the last strong hold of the Austrians in ,^^^ Italy, having surrendered, Buonaparte advanced along ■''■ the shores of the Adriatic, and passing through the Alpine defiles which separate Italy from Germany, threatened Vienna. The emperor, terrified at the dangers by which he 364 HISTORY OF FRANCE. tr'^mt"' *^^v. THE REPUBLIC. 365 was threatened, hastened to make a peace. A treaty was concluded at Campo Formio, by which the Austrian Nether- lands were given up to France, and the north of Italy, nomi- nally formed into an independent state, under the name of the Cisalpine republic, was virtually subjected to the same power. 18. The constitution of France was gradually assuming a monarchical form, two councils, that of the ancients, and that of the five hundred, had succeeded the convention, and the executive power was entrusted to a directory that held the regal authority in commission. 19. England alone now opposed the republic, and by its naval superiority sustained the contest with iJqq vigour. The French marine had never recovered the blow inflicted by lord Howe on the 1st of June 1794 ; the Spanish fleet had been signally defeated off' Cape St. Vincent in 1797, and in the latter end of the same year, the Dutch navy had been nearly annihilated in a sanguinary battle near Camperdown. This prevented the French from aiding the insurgents in Ireland, who had actually taken up arms. The rebellion was over before any attempt to aid the insurgents was made by the French, and even then only about a thou- sand men were sent, who were soon forced to surrender. 20. Buonaparte having subdued Switzerland, and deposed the pope without meeting any resistance, resolved, if possible, to humble the British, whose insular situation protected them from his ambition and his vengeance. Perceiving that her commerce with India was one of the great sources of British wealth ; to destroy this, he resolved to take possession of Egypt. At the same time the Directory, probably to disguise their real designs, threatened an invasion of England, but after much boasting it was laid aside as impracticable. The fleet and army designed for the subjugation of Egypt sailed from Toulon on the 13th of May ; by the treachery of the knights they obtained possession of Malta, and pursuing their course, landed safely in Egypt, where they soon made themselves masters of Alexandria. The victory of Embabeh secured them the possession of Cairo, and thus in a very short time the French found themselves masters of Lower Egypt. 21. Meantime admiral Nelson had sailed in pursuit of the Toulon fleet, and had actually passed them in the Mediter- ranean, but the want of frigates prevented him from discover- ing their movements. At length he discovered them on the 1st of August, moored in the bay of Aboukir, presenting an 31* 366 HISTORY OF FRANCE. imposing line. Having made his arrangements, the English admiral commenced the engagement about sunset, and before the dawn of the following morning obtained one of the com- pletest victories recorded in the annals of naval warfare. Of the entire French fleet only two line-of-battle ships and two frigates escaped ; the rest were either burned or captured. Even those that fled were afterwards taken by the British cruisers in the Mediterranean. 22. Buonaparte, thus cut off from all communication with France, pursued his conquests in Egypt with equal spirit and success. The splendid cavalry of the Mamelukes were de- feated in every attack that they made on the invaders, while the French horse, under the command of " the handsome swordsman," as Murat was generally called, were victorious in every encounter. Having provided for the security 1700 of Egypt, Buonaparte advanced into Syria, but sullied all his triumphs by remorselessly murdering all his prisoners in cold blood at Jaffa. Soon after, he laid siege to Acre, which the Turks, aided by Sir Sidney Smith, defended with such bravery for sixty days, that Napoleon was com- pelled to return to Egypt. A splendid victory over the Siege of Acre. THE REPUBLIC. 367 Mamelukes near Aboukir revived the drooping spirits of the army ; but Napoleon saw in the distraction of France an opportunity of obtaining higher honours than the laurels of Egypt, and having resigned the command of the army to general Kleber, he privately departed from Egypt. 23. Having safely passed through the British cruisers that guarded the Mediterranean, he landed at Frejus and pro- ceeded to the capital, where he was received with the greatest enthusiasm. Aided by the unanimous support of the troops, he abolished the Directory, and in its place established a con- sulate, of which he was himself the chief. The council of five hundred, who opposed this arrangement, were dispersed at the point of the bayonet. This great revolution was effected without bloodshed, although certainly with violence, and thenceforward the French republic existed only in name. 24. Meantime the Enghsh government had excited the Neapolitans and Austrians to renew the war. The Russian emperor sent an army under Suwarrow to aid the coalition, and thus strengthened, the allies had liberated Switzerland, recovered the north of Italy, and were even threatening an invasion of the southern French provinces. This gloomy aspect of affairs had facilitated the revolution of which we have just spoken ; for the nation, remembering the former triumphs of Napoleon, trusted that his abihties would restore their conquests and their glory. The first consul addressed a letter, professing the most pacific intentions, to the king of Great Britain, which was answered by Lord Grenville, in terms that plainly showed it to be the intention of the British cabinet to continue the war. 25. The defection of the Emperor of Russia, who ^ ^ believed, with some justice, that the Austrians had not iqqA properly supported his general Suwarrow, consider- ably weakened the allies, and by giving Napoleon the undis- turbed possession of Switzerland, enabled him to execute the most extraordinary enterprise recorded in the history of war. 23. This was to pass over the most difficult part of the Alps, and throwing himself in the rear of the Austrian army, to force genera] Melas to come to an engagement under circum- stances where reverse must needs be ruin. The better to conceal this project, he pretended to assemble an army of reserve at Dijon, and the Austrians, fixing their entire atten- tion on this mass of raw recruits, gave themselves up to the most extravagant transports of hope and joy. The march of a numerous army, with its train of ammunition-waggons and 368 HISTORY OF FRANCE. artillery, over mountains covered with, eternal snow, along airy ridges of rock, where the hunter of the chamois, the goat- herd, and the outlawed smuggler, are alone accustomed to venture, was an undertaking so perfectly astonishing, that the Austrians could scarcely believe the intelligence, when they learned that Napoleon, after having, hke Hannibal, triumphed over nature, was driving their posts before him through the north of Italy. 27. Melas marched to meet him, and on the 13th of April was fought the decisive battle of Marengo. In this engagement the Austrians at first obtained great ad- vantages, which they failed to improve ; the arrival of the reserve under Dessaix checked their advance, while Napoleon recalled his retreating troops. The victory was yet doubtful, when the timely charge of Kellermann on the Austrian flank determined the fate of the day ; the imperialists were every where broken, hundreds were drowned in attempting to pass the little river Bormida, and whole corps, to avoid a similar fate, surrendered themselves prisoners. 28. After this brilliant achievement. Napoleon returned to Paris, where he was re- ceived with the greatest enthusiasm. He concluded an armistice with the Austrians, but the remonstrances of the British cabinet prevented the emperor from concluding the peace. During the progress of the negociations, the life of the first consul was in imminent danger from the plots of the jacobins and royalists, who were equally enemies to his usurpation. One of these, called the plot of the infernal machine, had nearly succeeded. A barrel of gunpowder, surrounded with grape-shot, was placed in a cart, which be- ing set on fire by a slow match, was to explode at the moment when Buonaparte was passing through a narrow street. The engine exploded only half a minute after his carriage had passed, killing twenty persons, and wounding more than fifty, but Napoleon escaped uninjured. He took advantage of the sensation excited by this treacherous attempt, to create a new arbitrary tribunal for the trial of oifences against the state, and to obtain new powers for himself, under the pretence of guard- ing the republic from its secret enemies. 29. In November the war was renewed; it continued for some time indecisive, but at length the Austrians were de- feated in every point, and the bloody battle of Hohenlinden laid the empire prostrate at the feet of France. A treaty was concluded at Luneville, on terms dictated by the conqueror, and France was now the undisputed mistress of the con- tinent. THE REPUBLIC. 369 30. England still maintained the contest single- handed, and sustained the glory of her arms by two iq^|' signal triumphs in parts of the globe far remote from each other. The army under the command of general Aber- cromby expelled the French from Egypt, but its gallant leader died in the moment of victory. 81. The northern powers having coalesced to destroy the naval superiority of England, admiral Nelson was sent into the Bahic, and having made overtures for negociation in vain, he attacked and destroyed the Danish fleet at Copenhagen. The French renewed their threats of invasion, but the appointment of Nelson to the command of the channel-fleet made them again lay aside the enterprise as hopeless. 32. The retire- ment of Mr. Pitt from the British ministry was the signal for commencing negociations. After many delays, a treaty was concluded at Amiens on the 10th of October, to the great de- light of both nations. 33. The peace of Amiens had scarcely been signed, when it began to appear nothing better than a mere ,or>2 suspension of arms, and that a new war would soon be rekindled by the restless ambition of Napoleon. Shortly after the signing of the preliminaries, he procured himself to be appointed president of the Cisalpine republic in the north of Italy, a proceeding which greatly irritated the Austrian cabinet. His attention was next directed to the organization of the Li- gurian republic, of which Genoa was declared the capital. He also brought about a political reform in Switzerland, and sent thirty thousand men into that country to support his ambitious projects. The consolidation of his power at home was not neglected ; by a concordat concluded with the pope, the Ro- man catholic religion was again established in France, and the entire ecclesiastical authority lodged in the hands of the first consul. Universal liberty of conscience was established for all rehgious opinions ; and the emigrant clergy were invited to return to their flocks, provided that they would promise their support to the established order of things. Flis next step towards despotism was to procure himself to be appointed consul for hfe ; soon after which he instituted a new order of chivalry, called the legion of honour, the members of which were chosen from all the public professions indifferently. 34. St. Domingo, the most beautiful and valuable of the French islands in the West Indies, was in a state of frightful insurrection; the negroes, under the command of Toussaint Louverture, had estabhshed their independence, and the colo- Y 370 HISTORY OF FRANCE. nists had been either driven out or slain. Leclerc, brother-in- law to the consul, was sent to recover the island, and suc- ceeded, principally by the treachery of some of the negro- chiefs. Toussaint Louverture surrendered in consequence of a negociation ; but Leclerc, dreading his influence, had him soon after arrested and sent to France, where he died in prison. But the French rulers having attempted to re-establish slavery, the negroes again broke out into rebellion, and after a fearful contest, in which the French lost multitudes of soldiers, the insurgents prevailed. St. Domingo was lost to France, and the island has ever since continued an independent negro state, under the name of Hayti. 35. One of the conditions of the treaty concluded at TSm -A-miens was, that the English should restore the island ■ of Malta to the knights of St, John ; but being con- vinced of the probability of war, they refused to give up a post which secured to them the commerce of the Mediterranean. On the 16th of May, letters of marque were issued against France, and all the French vessels in British harbours were seized. Napoleon retaliated by seizing on the persons of all the British travellers whom business or pleasure had induced to visit the continent ; and these unfortunate persons were de- tained as prisoners of war. General Mortier marched against Hanover, of which he took possession without resistance ; and the mouths of the rivers Elbe and Weser, which formed the principal outlets of European commerce, were shut against the English. On the other hand, the British navy blockaded the ports, and attacked with success the colonies of the enemy, while a threatened invasion raised such a spirit of patriotic resistance through the island, that the people readily granted to the ministry all the supplies of men and money that they demanded. 36. The attention of Europe was fixed upon the 1S04 projected invasion of England, when two strange events ' occurred in Paris, that excited universal astonishment and indignation. A conspiracy was said to have been dis- covered against Buonaparte, at the head of which were Pichegru, the conqueror of Holland, George Cadoudal, a Ven- dean chief, and Moreau, whose military fame rivalled that of Napoleon. The conspirators were arrested, and the gallant Pichegru secretly assassinated in prison. A kw days before this, the Parisians heard in one breath, that the heir of the house of Conde, the duke d'Enghien, had been arrested at Ettenheira, a town in the principality of Baden, and tried and THE REPUBLIC. 371 Death of the Duke d'Enghien. executed within sight of their own houses at Vincennes. This horrid murder was aggravated by a mock trial, in which every form of law and every principle of justice were violated. The unhappy prince was arrested in a neutral state, tried for a civil offence before a military tribunal, at the hour of midnight, when it was against the laws of France to hold any trial ; no counsel was allowed for his defence ; the execution took place immediately after the sentence, without any time being al- lowed for the prince to lodge an appeal, and finally, had even all the legal forms been observed, the duke owed no allegiance to the government of France. He died with a firmness and constancy worthy of his noble birth, and was buried in the ditch of the castle of Vincennes. This fatal event is the greatest blot on Napoleon's character ; its imprudence was to the full as great as its wickedness, for such an act of wanton cruelty provoked against him the personal hostility of the Eu- ropean sovereigns. The remark of the callous Fouche on the subject has passed into a proverb — "It was worse than a crime — it was a blunder." 37. The first consul soon afterwards obtained the object of his highest ambition ; he was created by a subservient senate emperor of the French, the philosopher and statesman CarnoJ; having alone had "the courage to protest against the appoint- ment. Thus vanished like a shadow the French republic, the establishment of which had been purchased by so many lives. 372 HISTORY OF FRANCE. The only important nailitary event in this year was the seizure of the Spanish plate-fleet by the English without any forma! declaration of war ; this of course produced a close alliance between the courts of Paris and Madrid, though there is reason to believe that they had been previously united in hostility to England. 38. The conspirators against Buonaparte were brought to trial ; George Cadoudal and ten of his associates were exe- cuted ; General Moreau was permitted to transport himself to America; the remainder were pardoned. Freed thus from dangers, Napoleon prepared for the ceremony of his corona- tion, and, to the astonishment of all Europe, prevailed on the pope to officiate on the occasion. He was crowned emperor of the French on the 2d of December, and in the following year assumed the title and ensigns of king of Italy at Milan. His coronation aa emperor of the French, took place in the cathedral of Notre Dame. The capital was throng'ed with crowds of visiters from every part of France. The people were represented at the ceremony by deputations of the presidents of the cantons, the presidents of the electoral colleges, and the whole corps of the legislative body, which had been convoked in the month of October ; the army, by deputations from every regiment. By all these, increased to a vast muhitnde of spectators of the highest station in the country, the walls of the splendid old cathedral were clothed with what a spectator has described as " living tapestry," galleries having been erected almost to the roof. The pope first left the Tuilleries, and went in procession to the cathe- dral, preceded, according to established custom, by his cham- berlain on a mule, which novel sight had nearly proved de- structive to all solemnity, by exciting the risibility of the Parisians ; but the functionary thus humbly mounted pre- served his gravity of countenance so admirably, that he repressed the fatal sound which had impended. The em- peror and empress, in the same open carriage, traversed Paris, through a great crowd of spectators, who, it is said, looked on the procession rather coldly. They first seated themselves with their backs to the horses, by mistake ; and though the error was instantly rectified, it was observed, and said to be " an evil omen." They, and their whole retinue, arrayed themselves in splendid robes in the archbishop's palace, and with their long and gorgeous line of courtiers, marshals, and dignitaries, in gold and rich colours and waving plumes, gained the cathedral by a long gallery, erected for THE REPUBLIC. 373 the purpose. At the moment the emperor appeared in the cathedral, there was one simuhaneous shout, which made but one explosion, of " Vive V Empereur !^^ All was per- formed in order ; mass was said, and the crown was blessed by the pope : but at that point the emperor ceased to be submissive. Not even the supreme pontiff himself was per- mitted to place the crown upon the head of Napoleon. It was placed there by his own hand ; immediately removed ; and again, by his own hand, placed on the head of Josephine ; then laid on the cushion, where it had rested before. " This scene," says Norvins, " is a scene of yesterday ; yet it belongs not to our age. We can scarcely believe ourselves the contemporaries of events so strange and so unlike our time." Napoleon crowning Josephine. 374 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Napoleon. CHAPTER XXXIX. THE EMPIRE. When Europe bowed beneath the yoke, And Austria bent and Prussia broke. Scott. 1. The murder of the duke d'Enghien facilitated i'qV^' ^^^ formation of a coalition between the cabinets of Petersburgh, Stockholm, and London, against France. It was not, however, until after the delay of some months, that Austria and Prussia could be prevailed upon to unite with the THE EMPIRE. 375 Other allies for maintaining the independence of Europe ; and the indecision of the latter power prevented her from sharing in the contest. 2. From the extreme of sloth, the Austrian government, irritated by the news of the usurpations of the French in Italy, suddenly passed into the opposite and more dangerous one of inconsiderate rashness. Without waiting for the Russian troops, or even securing the co-operation of Prussia, the Austrian emperor commenceu the war. 3. His first proceeding was almost as tyrannical as any of vi^hich he complained on the part of the French. The elector of Bava- ria having a son travelling in France, was anxious to remain neutral, and submissively entreated the German emperor to grant him permission to do so ; his request was not only re- fused, but he was ordered forthwith to incorporate his forces with the Austrians, and place his soldiers under their chiefs. This was of course refused. The Austrians poured their forces into Bavaria, and acted as if they were in an enemy's country, while the elector retired into Franconia, and anxiously awaited the arrival of the French as his deliverers. 4. The army which Napoleon had designed for the inva- sion of England, immediately was ordered to march on the German frontier, while Massena was directed to commence offensive operations, and penetrate, if possible, into the here- ditary dominions of Austria, 5. On both sides the French were pre-eminently successful ; Mack, the Austrian general, after a series of blundering operations which completely proved his incapacity, shut himself up in Ulm with 20,000 men, and surrendered the town on the 17th of October, under circum- stances that show he was not only a coward but a traitor. Mas- sena defeated the Austrians in Italy, and Napoleon was con- sequently enabled to make himself master of Vienna without any opposition. But Austria had still some chances in her favour; the Russian emperor had at length brought up his forces, and the two armies were concentrated in Moravia. 6. Napoleon, with a precipitancy that might have cost him dear, passed the Danube, and after a series of manoeuvres, in which the allies showed but little skill, the two armies met on the second of December, to decide for a time the destinies of Europe, on the plains of Austerlitz. The Russians having incautiously too much extended their line. Napoleon poured a force through the gap which completely severed that wing from the centre ; the centre itself was soon broken by the French cavalry under Murat, and the right wing of the allies, which for a moment had held the fate of the day in suspense, 376 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Napoleon on the Evening before the Battle of Austerlitz. was overwhelmed by masses of superior force. A great num- ber endeavoured to make good their retreat over some frozen lakes, but the French broke the ice about them with a storm of shot, and more than 20,000 were either drowned or swept away by the artillery. 7. The fate of the continent was de- cided : the Austrian and Russian emperors were obliged to accept peace on any terms that the conqueror pleased to dic- tate. The Germanic constitution* was dissolved, and a new connection formed between the states, called the Cojifederation of the Rhine, with Napoleon at its head, under the title of Protector. The electors of Bavaria and Wirtemberg were created kings ; Murat became grand-duke of Berg, and Louis, the brother of Napoleon, was named king of Holland. 8. But before the battle of Austerlitz was fought, France sustained a signal defeat in another quarter, which almost bal- anced that victory. The combined fleets of France and Spain were almost annihilated at Trafalgar by the Enghsh under lord Nelson, who fell in the midst of his triumph. Napoleon on his return to France completed his abolition of that republic which had cost France so dear, by distributing titles and dig- * The Germanic, or, as it was in diplomatic style termed, the Holy Roman Empire, wliich was thus dissolved, had lasted one thousand and six years, reckoning from the time when Charlemagne had re- ceived the imperial crown from pope Leo III. THE EMPIRE. 377 nilies to the generals who had shared in the glories of this brilliant campaign, 9. Unawed by the calamitous defeat of Austria, and untaught by a knowledge of the errors which had ^ona caused these disasters, Prussia rushed heedlessly into war with the French, and committed over again the same faults that led to the ruin of the emperor. After some alter- cations in notes and manifestos, the Prussian army marched into Saxony, and treated the country as Bavaria had been treated by the Austrians in the preceding year. 10. Napoleon saw and took advantage of their error; by an unexpected movement, he turned the right wing of his opponents, seized and blew up their magazines, and placed his army between the Prussians and their resources. The explosion ^ ^^ of his magazines first made the rash king aware of the extent of his danger ; his attempts to extricate himself brought on the battle of Jena, in which the Prussians were defeated, and their cause irretrievably ruined. 11. The con- sequences of this memorable battle were still more disastrous, the different corps of the Prussian army were obliged to lay down their arms in succession ; the fortresses were surren- dered after a very inefficacious resistance, either by the cow- ardice or treachery of their governors. Blucher, who alone of all the Prussian leaders had exhibited any courage or mih- tary skill, was forced, after a brilliant retreat, to surrender, and the king of Prussia having abandoned his capital, was com- pelled to take refuge in Konigsberg with the shattered remains of his forces. Thus within the brief space of a month was the fabric of the Prussian power, which the abilities of the great Frederic had erected, totally, and to all appearance, remedilessly destroyed. 12. The emperor of Russia now ordered his forces to unite with the remnant of the Prussian army, but -jorj-i^ the French maintained their superiority until the seve- rity of winter compelled both armies to lay aside hostilities for a brief period. 13. In the latter end of January, the Prus- sians having received some reinforcements, resumed the offen- sive, and on the 8th of February was fought the bloody battle of Eyiau. After a horrible scene of carnage, night separated the combatants, and the victory remained undecided. For some time after both armies remained inactive, but during the interval, the French made themselves masters of Dantzic. At length, on the 14th of June, the decisive battle of Friedland was fouo-ht; the Russians maintained the combat with distin- 32* 378 HISTORY OF FRANCE. guished bravery, and retreated in good order. 14. But the consequences of the battle were as great as those of the most brilliant victory ; the emperor of Russia concluded an armis- tice, and on the 25th of June had a personal interview with Napoleon at Tilsit, where a treaty of peace was negociated. The king of Prussia was stripped of half his dominions, and was given to understand that he owed the preservation of the remainder to the friendly intercession of Russia. The cruel and contumelious treatment of the unhappy monarch produced such an effect on his high-spirited and lovely consort, that she died of a broken heart. 15. Napoleon had issued from Berlin those celebrated de- crees which forbade the introduction of British manufactures on the continent; he confirmed them anew at Tilsit, and took the most vigorous means to shut out England from all com- mercial intercourse with the rest of Europe. But this was an enterprise in which it was impossible for him to succeed ; long habit had made British manufactures and colonial pro- duce necessaries of life ; they continued to be surreptitiously introduced, with the connivance of the French allies, and even of Buonaparte's brother; while the vexatious tyranny of the custom-house officers produced a deep and popular resent- ment, whose effects were severely felt in the sequel. 16. The king of Sweden had engaged in the war as an ally of Prussia, but after the treaty of Tilsit he was forced to retire before the superior power of the French, and a resolu- tion was taken to deprive him of his crown. 17. The situation of Denmark was at this time in the highest degree embarrassing, for it was evident that its govern- ment could not, even if they were inclined, prevent their fleet from being seized upon by the French emperor, and made subservient to his purposes. The British cabinet, which up to this period seemed to have resigned all concern for the safety of the country, suddenly acted with a promptitude and decision that formed a powerful contrast to its previous tor- pidity : a fleet consisting of twenty-seven sail of the line, and having on board a respectable body of land-forces under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, was sent to enforce the surrender of the Danish fleet, not as possessions, but as pledges to be restored at the conclusion of a general peace. 18. The cabinet of Denmark at first refused to comply, but the bombardment of Copenhagen terrified them into submis- sion, they unwillingly surrendered their ships, and imme- diately after declared war against England. The seizing of THE EMPIRE. 379 the Danish fleet was undoubtedly a strong measure, but it seems to be justified by the circumstances of the time. 19. The period immediately following the peace of Tilsit was the happiest time of the French empire ; the publication of that admirable code of laws, justly styled the code Napoleon^ at once raised the legal system of France from the very worst to one of the best in Europe ; the erection of splendid bridges and aqueducts improved the state of the country, roads and canals were constructed with more skill than had been hitherto witnessed on the continent, and the vanity of the Parisians was gratified by the erection of some magnificent pubhc buildings, and by the adornment of their galleries with pic- tures and statues extorted from conquered states. The strict- ness of the police and the fear of the mihtary conscription were the only severities of despotism that the French ex- perienced ; but these, and especially the latter, were serious evils. 20. We are now approaching the transaction, whose per- fidious commencement and fatal termination should for ever be a lesson to statesmen and princes, that treachery invariably brings its own punishment. Spain was at this time governed by a court, whose criminahty can scarcely be paralleled in the annals of infamy. Charles, its sovereign, was a weak ignorant man, whose imbecility bordered on idiotcy ; the queen lived in the open practice of the most revolting de- bauchery ; Godoy, her paramour, whom she had raised from the rank of a private soldier to the title of Prince of the Peace, was a compound of ignorance and vanity, with every incHna- tion, but not with sufficient abilities, to attain eminence by the most iniquitous means. Ferdinand, prince of Asturias, the heir apparent, united in an eminent degree his mother's per- fidy with his father's folly, and was at the same time openly hostile to both his parents. 21. With this court Napoleon negociated a treaty for depriving England of her commerce with Portugal, and sent an army under Junot to enforce obedience to his imperious edicts. The prince regent of Portugal endeavoured to purchase security by an inglorious submission, but at the same time unwilling to commit an act of gross injustice to his oldest and most faithful allies, he gave the English merchants early notice to make their escape with all the property that they could collect, before he published in bis dominions the Berlin decrees, which commanded the for- feiture of all British manufactures. 23. This submission did rot satisfy Napoleon ; he published in the French official paper 380 HISTORY OF FRANCE. that the house of Braganza had ceased to reign ; the prince regent had then no other means left to escape a prison but to take refuge on board the English fleet, by which he was escorted to the Brazilian dominions of Portugal in South America. ^ ^ 23. The occurrences which enabled Napoleon to 1808 ^^'^^ °" ^^^ persons of the Spanish royal family are ' still involved in great mystery ; a conspiracy was said to have been formed by the prince of Asturias ; soon after the king of Spain and Godoy resolved to quit the kingdom and settle in South America ; the news of this caused a popular insurrection, which terminated in the resignation of Charles and the quiet accession of Ferdinand. While men were won- dering how all this would end, Charles published a proclama- tion, asserting that his resignation was an involuntary act, and claiming the assistance of his French ally for the recovery of his crown. 24. By the most consummate arts. Napoleon suc- ceeded in persuading all the parties to refer the disputes to his decision, and to come and meet him at Bayonne for the pur- pose. The wretched dupes crossed the frontier, and when they were irrevocably in the power of the emperor, were in- formed that the Bourbon family should no longer govern Spain, and that its crown was transferred to Joseph Buonaparte, who had been hitherto the nominal king of Naples. 25. When the news of this unparalleled treachery was spread through Spain, it produced the most violent effect on that fierce and haughty nation ; the populace everywhere rose and com- mitted furious excesses on the partizans of Godoy and Napo- leon, which the French, and especially xMurat, who commanded at Madrid, fearfully retaliated. The Spaniards in every quarter erected provincial juntas to administer the affairs of govern- ment, and raised numerous armies under the command of dif- ferent leaders, but want of skill and unity made their labours ineffectual. The English nation deeply sympathised in the Spanish struggle for independence ; the deputies from that na- tion were received in the most friendly manner, the prisoners were restored, supplies of arms and money forwarded to the peninsula, and a treaty concluded with the "leaders of the in- surrection both in Spain and Portugal. 26. The patriots being raw and inexperienced troops at first suffered several de- feats, but at length general Dupont was forced to surrender with 20,000 men to the Spaniards under the command of Cas- tanos, and the French besiegers of Zaragossa were foiled in their attack on this unfortified city by Palafox, a young noble- man of romantic bravery. THE EMPIRE. 381 27. At length an expedition was sent from Britain to aid in the expulsion of the French from the peninsula ; it was com- manded by Sir Arthur Wellesley, already distinguished by his victories in India and Denmark. On the 8th of August, a landing was effected in the bay of Mondego ; on the 17th, the French, under general Laborde, were defeated near Roviga, and on the 21st, a still more decisive victory was obtained over Junot, at Vimiera. 28. But after having obtained such bril- liant success, the Enghsh general had the mortification to find himself deprived of the supreme command by the arrival of Sir Henry Burrard, and afterwards of Sir Hew Dalrymple, older but less skilful generals. General Dalrymple concluded the celebrated convention of Cintra with the French general, by which the fruits of Wellesley's brilliant victories vi^ere lost, and the French permitted to retire with the plunder of Portugal. 29. The news of the successes obtained by the insurgents in Spain, and the British in Portugal, convinced Napoleon that his presence was necessary to secure the fruits of his perfidy. With his characteristic rapidity, he crossed the Pyrennees ac- companied by a brilliant army, and immediately commenced a series of operations which the unskilful Spaniards were unable to resist. The generals of the patriots could never be induced to act in concert, they were consequently overpowered in detail, and the Enghsh general. Sir John Moore, who had advanced to their assistance, was forced to retreat towards Co- runna. 30. The greater part of Spain was thus again sub- jected to its new king, Joseph, who was, however, nothing more than his brother's deputy ; and Buonaparte having for once seen a British army retreating before him, returned to Paris. Marshal Soult hung close on the rear of the English army during their disastrous retreat, until at length Sir ^ ^ John Moore perceived that it was impossible to em- ^Agg bark without either a convention or a battle. He did not hesitate in his choice ; on the 19th of January, he attacked the French with so much vigour that they were compelled to retreat. The British were consequently permitted to embark without molestation, but their heroic comtnander had fallen in the arms of victory. He was buried at night on the field of battle. 382 HISTORY OF FRANCE. The following beautiful monody on the death of Sir John Moore, by the Rev. Charles Wolfe, presents a most graphic description of his funeral. BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE. Not a drum was heard, nor a funeral note, As his course to the ramparts we hurried ; Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot O'er the grave where our hero we buried We buried him darkly at dead of night, The turf with our bayonets turning, By the struggling moonbeam's misty light, And the lanterns dimly burning. Few and short were the prayers we said, And we spoke not a word of sorrow ; But we steadfastly gazed on the face of the dead. And we bitterly thought on the morrow. No useless coffin confined his breast ; Nor in sheet nor in shroud we bound him — But he lay, like a warrior taking his rest, With his martial cloak around him. We thought as we heap'd his narrow bed, And smooth'd down his lonely pillow. That the foe or the stranger would tread o'er his head, And we far away on the billow. Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone. And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him — But nothing he'll reck, if they let him sleep on In a grave were a Briton has laid him ! But half our weary task was done. When the clock told the hour for retiring ; And we heard by the distant and random gun. That the foe was suddenly firing. Slowly and sadly we laid him down, From the field of his fame fresh and gory— We carved not a line, we raised not a stone. But we left him alone with his glory ! THE EMPIRE. 383 The Retreat from Moscow. CHAPTER XL. THE EMPIRE, CONTINUED. The feign'd retreat, the nightly ambuscade, The daily harass, and the fight delay'd, The long privation of the hoped supply, The tentless rest beneath a frozen sky. The stubborn wall that mocks the leaguer's art, And palls the patience of his bafSed heart, Of these they had not dream'd. BxHoir. I. We mentioned in the last chapter that Napoleon returned from Spain without completing, as he in- lo'rjq tended, and probably might have accomplished, the entire subjugation of that country. The cause of this change in his plans was the news that reached him of the probability of a new war with Austria, which still smarted under the de- gradation of its late defeat, and was eager to retrieve the power and possessions of which it had been deprived. The war was begun and ended in one campaign ; it was com- 384 HISTORY OF FRAiNCE. menced without the form of a declaration, and the combatants exhausted all the wiles of diplomacy to throw on each other the blame of the first aggression. The Austrians began as before by invading Bavaria, and taking possession of Munich, which the king was obhged to abandon at their approach. 2. But Napoleon's arrival changed the face of things. With- out delaying at Paris, he hurried from Spain to Germany, and by his superior skill was enabled to attack the divisions of the Austrian army separately, and beat them in detail. Finally, the battle of Wagram, fought almost under the walls of Vienna, completely broke up the Austrian power, and left the country and its sovereign at the mercy of Napoleon.* 3. It was naturally to be expected that the temerity of the Austrian emperor would be punished by his deposition, but to the surprise of all Europe, the terms on which peace was con- ceded were far from being severe, and some persons began to speak of the moderation of Buonaparte ! The secret of this leniency and of the protracted negociations at Schoenbrunn, the palace of the Austrian emperor near Vienna, will be ex- plained in the sequel. 4. In the Peninsula, Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had been again sent out to take the command, expelled the French from Portugal, and having pursued them into Spain, obtained a glorious victory at Talavera on the 28th of July.t But being * Throughout the entire of Germany, a determined spirit of popu- lar resistance was manifested against the French; colonel Schill, though wholly unauthorized hy his government, raised a small but gallant army in Prussia; the duke of Brunswick at the head of a few faithful followers, became formidable in the north of Germany, and Hofer at the head of the Tyrolese peasantry, emulated the ex- ploits of the Swiss mountaineers in the middle ages. But the total defeat of the Austrians made all their exertions ineffectual. Schill perished in a sortie from Stralsund ; the duke of Brunswick, with difficulty, escaped on board the English fleet; and the Tyrolese patriots, ungratefully deserted by the Austrian government, were given up to the vengeance of the French, who treated them not as enemies but as rebels. Hofer was shot as a traitor : he died with firmness worthy of the cause which he had supported. f The British government, instead of sending out forces sufficient to expel the French from the Peninsula, which at that time they might have done, dispatched an expedition to the coast of Flanders, under the command of the earl of Chatham, an old and incompetent general. They obtained possession of Flushing, but there their suc- cess terminated. The judicious measures of Bernadotte prevented their farther advance, the unwholesome marshes of Walcheren pro- THE EMPIRE. 385 unable to resist the united forces of the French he was obliged to retire within the Portuguese frontier. The Spanish armies were every where beaten, but the country was no where sub- dued ; the straggling soldiers and peasantry formed them- selves into small bands called guerillas, which cut off the French convoys, massacred the stragglers, and left no part of the country subject to their sway, except that actually occu- pied by their military posts. 5. In the north of Europe a strange revolution took place ; Gustavus Adolphus IV., king of Sweden, had engaged in a war with Russia, to w^hich his resources were wholly inade- quate ; in consequence, he was deprived of the province of Finland, and this loss so irritated the Swedish nation, that they at once deposed their sovereign, excluded his children from the succession, and elected the duke of Sundermania, the uncle of Gustavus, first regent, and afterwards king. 6. In the south the pope was stripped of his dominions, and sent a prisoner to France ; an event which some years before would have set the whole south of Europe in a flame, but which, on the present occasion, only produced secret hos- tility and a concealed desire of vengeance. 7. The secret of the negociations at Schoenbrunn was at last discovered, and it surprised all Europe, lo-tn Napoleon, seeing that Josephine was childless, and anxious to strengthen his power by an alliance with the old royal families of Europe, had resolved on divorcing this faith- ful companion, and in some degree the principal cause of his fortunes, in order to marry the archduchess Maria Louisa, daughter to the emperor of Austria. 8. The marriage was celebrated with extraordinary splendour, and was at the time looked upon as the greatest security to the throne of the French emperor. But in reality it weakened the foundation of Napoleon's power, for it blighted the hopes which some of the French marshals must have nourished, and it irritated all those attached to revolutionary principles throughout Europe, who looked on the reigning house of Austria as the worst enemies to the freedom and happiness of the human race. 9. The annals of the peninsular war, carried on with con- summate skill by Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had been created duced a fever almost as fatal as a plague, and at length, having suffered immense loss, the inglorious expedition returned to Eng- land, after an useless sacrifice of human life, which ought never to be remembered without shame and sorrow. 33 Z 386 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Lord Wellington, belong to the history of England rather than that of France ; suffice it to say, that notwithstanding some brilliant victories, the English general was compelled to retreat into Portugal before the superior forces of Massena. The Portuguese destroyed every thing that could afford shelter or sustenance to the invading army, and Wellington having placed his army in the impregnable lines of Torres Vedras, which covered Lisbon, quietly waited the time when famine would compel Massena to retire. 10. Louis Buonaparte, king of Holland, had displeased his imperial brother, by conniving at the importation of English merchandise ; he was therefore deprived of his dominions, which, together with the old Hansealic territories, were united to France. IL This new insult to northern Germany was allowed to pass without remonstrance ; Prussia was too much weakened by recent misfortunes, and Sweden had lately cho- sen for its sovereign a general of France. The prince of Augustenburgh, who had been recognised as heir to Charles XIIL (duke of Sundermania), died suddenly, and the diet chose as his successor Charles John Bernadotte, a French general distinguished above his compeers for honourable and humane conduct. They probably designed by this choice to conciliate the favour of Napoleon, but to him the choice was far from being agreeable, for he was jealous of Bernadotte, whose fame had been established before Buonaparte had been placed at the head of affairs. 12. The birth of a son seemed to make the happi- Iftll "^^^ °^ Napoleon complete ; he was immediately pro- * claimed successor to the empire, with the title " king of Rome," and all the vassal sovereigns of Europe sent am- bassadors to congratulate the emperor on this event. Even the degraded royal family of Spain had the meanness to join in this act of homage, thus showing that they almost merited their fate by succumbing to the author of their ruin. 13. But amid all his pomp and power. Napoleon could not but discern the signs of an approaching storm ; the diplomatic intercourse with Russia had begun to assume a very angry character ; the Enghsh had completed the conquest of all the French and Dutch colonies in the east, the Spanish guerilla warfare was continued with unceasing pertinacity, and Massena was forced to retreat from Portugal. The military skill displayed by Massena in this retreat has been always praised, but the abo- minable atrocities committed by the French soldiery, and sanctioned by their commander, will be remembered with THE EMPIRE. 387 horror to the latest posterity. Lust, rapine, and cruelty per- petrated every crime that such diabolical passions could prompt and ferocious violence execute ; Portugal remained free, but it remained a desert. 14. The emperor of Russia had foreseen from the moment of the Austrian alliance, that it would be -loio* scarcely possible for him to avoid hostilities with France ; the necessities of his country had compelled him to relax the severity of the Berlin decrees, and connive at a com- mercial intercourse with England; and he well knew that to thwart Napoleon's favourite project of excluding British manu- factures from the continent, was the surest means of provoking his inveterate hatred. All the statesmen who had in early times possessed the confidence of Napoleon, had remonstrated in vain against a war with Russia; Talleyrand, Fouche, and his uncle, cardinal Fesch, tried their influence with the em- peror in vain ; confident in his resources and his fortune, he mocked at their forebodings, and acted as if victory was al- ready secure. 15. It must be confessed that the inilitary power then possessed by the French emperor in some degree rendered his confidence excusable ; he had a disposable force exceeding half a million of men, a greater number than had ever been commanded by any European sovereign, and far exceeding any that the limited resources of Russia would allow her to bring into the field ; his soldiers were accustomed to triumph, his generals had proved their courage and conduct in many glorious fields, and all the states of the European con- tinent, save Russia itself and the Peninsula, were his tributa- ries and auxiliaries. Swedish Pomerania and the island of Rugen were occupied by the French troops early in January, probably because Napoleon had reason to suspect the designs of Bernadotte ; soon after, a treaty was concluded with Prus- sia, by which that power, much against its will, was obliged to assist the French with 20,000 men ; Austria had previously agreed to send 30,000 under prince Schwartzenberg. 16. On the 16th of May, Napoleon arrived at Dresden, where the emperor of Austria, the kings of Prussia, Naples, Wirtemberg, and Westphalia, together with all the minor po- tentates of Germany, had been ordered to meet him. Having figured there for some time as the undisputed king of kings, he broke up his court, sent back the empress to France as re- gent, and proceeded to Dantzic, where negociations were con- tinued for a fortnight longer. 17. On the 22d of June, Napoleon published a declaratioa 388 HISTORY OF FRANCE. of war, whose proud and confident tone was powerfully con- trasted with the modest and affectionate address to his subjects, which Alexander pubhshed in reply. Before commencing the Russian campaign, we shall just take a glance at the events that occurred during this year at the Peninsula. 18. Early in spring,.Wellington made himself master of the strong fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo, and Badajoz. He then followed Marmont to Salamanca, where he defeated the French army, on the 22d of July, with immense loss. In consequence of tills victory, the English army were enabled to march upon Madrid, in the confident expectation that such brilliant exploits would rouse the whole Spanish nation to one simultaneous ex- ertion. But the pride and bigotry of the Spaniards took fire at the idea of submitting to an Englishman, the French were permitted to concentrate their forces, which more than doubled the number of the Enghsh, and Wellington leisurely retired with his troops to the frontiers of Portugal. 19. The Poles had anxiously hoped" that Napoleon would have restored their independence, but his connection with Aus- tria prevented him from performing an act of justice so advan- tageous to his interests ; had he done so, the enthusiasm of a nation eager to regain its freedom might probably have changed the event of the war. But this golden opportunity was lost, and the Poles, who hated the Austrians at least as much as the Russians, viewed the contest with sullen indifference. 20. Warned by the fatal examples of Austria and Prussia, the Russians resolved to imitate the line of conduct which Welhngton, with such brilliant success, had pursued in Por- tugal ; they retreated before the enormous masses of the invad- ing army, deliberately destroying their magazines, and laying waste the country. The first design of Napoleon was to march directly on St. Petersburg, and in his way seize the Russian fleet at Cronstadt ; but the obstinate defence of Riga, the garrison of which was strengthened by the sailors of the English fleet, compelled him to change his plan, and advance in the direction of Moscow. The Russians retired before the advancing army, fighting wherever a favourable opportunity ^ was afforded, but not venturing to hazard a regular engage- ment. On the 16th of August, the French arrived before Smolensko, which the Russians seemed at first determined to defend ; three times was the place assaulted, and as often were the French repelled, but during the night the garrison set fire to the town, which was almost totally consumed, and retreated to the army beyond the river. THE EMPIRE. 389 21. It became now extremely difficult to persuade the Rus- sian soldiers to continue their retreat ; they were eager to take vengeance on the invaders of their country, and there was some reason to dread that checking their enthusiasm would be attended with fatal consequences. At the same time, also, Barclay de Tolly, who had hitherto held the supreme com- mand, was appointed to the war-ministry at St. Petersburg, and the veteran KutusofF, the darling of the Russian soldiers, sent to the army in his room. A strong position between Bo- rodino and Moskwa, on the high road to Moscow, was at length selected by the Russian general, and there he resolved to gratify his troops by giving them an opportunity of meeting their in- vaders. 22. After some preliminary skirmishing, a dreadful battle was fought on the 7th of September, which lasted the entire day. The Russians fought with unparalleled despera- tion ; peasants, that until that day had never seen a hostile array, rushed like furies on the disciplined battahons of the French ; as they fell before the unbroken lines, others rushed to supply their places, and seemed eager in pursuit of death. At the close of the day the French gave over their attacks ; both sides claimed the victory, but though no less than 80,000 men lay dead on the field, neither could claim a triumph. When the subordinate generals had presented Kutusoff with their reports of the state of their several divisions, he saw that from the extent of his losses it would be inexpedient to risk another engagement, he accordingly retired slowly, leaving the road to Moscow open to the enemy. 23. Shortly after, it was resolved not to attempt any defence of that capital, which the Russians venerated as the Jews did Jerusalem, or the Mahom- medans Mecca; its garrison, accompanied by the principal in- habitants, withdrew from the devoted city in mournful silence. 24. On the 14th of September the French army came with- in sight of Moscow, and were surprised that no civic deputa- tion appeared to present them with the keys of the city ; this was explained when they had effected an entrance, for they found that all, except the very lowest of the population, had deserted their habitations. The French army dispersed them- selves in plundering parties, and as usual committed frightful excesses. During the night the town was found to be on fire, but the flames were got under, and Napoleon prepared to take measures for the government of the city. 25. But on the following night a dreadful conflagration burst forth, Russian emissaries had disposed combustibles in several places ; the water-pipes were cut and rendered useless, the fires broke out 33* 390 HISTORY OF FRANCE. in parts the most distant, and it soon became evident that no- thing could save Moscow from the fate of Smolensko. During four days the city continued to burn with unabated violence, until four-fifths of the houses were totally consumed. 26. Napoleon, who saw his army thus deprived of all chance of winter-quarters, and exposed at once to the severities of cold and famine, attempted to negociate with the Russian govern- ment, but had the mortification to find that all his advances were rejected. However, he still continued to linger at Mos- cow, though dangers were aggregating around him with fear- ful rapidity, until at length the defeat of Murat roused him from his lethargy, and he resolved to retreat towards Poland by a route different from that by which he had advanced. Moscow was totally evacuated on the 22d of October; multi- tudes of sick and wounded were left to the mercy of the Rus- sians, and yet the French army was encumbered with thou- sands of waggons laden with the plunder of the city. 27. Kutusoff seems to have divined the intentions of Na- poleon, and baffled them by taking up a strong position on the line of march. The French advanced to Malo-Yaraslevetz, a town in front of the Russian position, and took possession of it without resistance ; but that night they were assaulted by the enemy and driven beyond the river. The next day was spent in a succession of obstinate contests, during which the town five times changed masters. Finally the French prevailed, but their victory was useless, for they found the position of the Russian army impregnable. Some precious time was wasted in vain attempts to force a passage, but they were un- avaihng, and the Russian army which had occupied Moscow, began now to send out its Cossacks, who severely harassed the French rear. It became manifest that the retreat of the army must be continued through the country which their ad- vance had exhausted. 28. On the 28ih of October the cala- mitous march began, and at every step they met some new disasters ; the Cossacks, under their Hetman, Platoff, hovered around the army, breaking down the bridges before them, charging the rear at every opportunity, cutting off stragglers, and intercepting straggling parlies ; the army of Kutusoff was moving in a line parallel to the route of the French, while two other Russian divisions pressed upon the rear. On the 6lh of November a new enemy appeared ; a Russian winter of un- paralleled severity set in with all its horrors. The train of artillery, and the waggons which had been brought from Mos- cow were abandoned, the horses, badly fed, were unable to THE EMPIRE. 391 support the cold and fatigue, they sank and stiffened by thou- sands ; all discipline was banished except from a few battalions kept together to protect the rear by the personal exertions of marshal Ney ; the rest dispersed themselves over the fields, and many sunk to rise no more ; others were swept away by the Cossacks. 29. In this deplorable plight they reached Smolensko, where they hoped to find some respite from their woes, but that town had been, as we have seen, almost de- stroyed by the Russians ; its roofless houses and blackened walls afforded but little shelter, its exhausted magazines sup- plied no food. The retreat was continued, but the Russians now made several desperate assaults on the different French divisions, and every where defeated them. Ney, however, managed to preserve the shattered remnant of his battalions, by passing over the thin ice that had just formed on the Dnieper ; the waggons containing the wounded attempted to pass over this frail bridge, but the ice broke, and the wag- gons sunk amid the shrieks of the wretched sufferers, and the groans of their helpless comrades. 30. The grand army, which had mustered 120,000 men when leaving Moscow, hardly exceeded a tenth of that num- ber when it was joined by the divisions of Victor and Oudinot, who, though defeated by Wittgenstein, still mustered about 50,000 men. Had the Russians taken advantage of their vast superiority, and poured their united forces on the retreating army, a messenger would not have escaped to convey the news of their ruin to France. 31. The passage of the Bere- sina was one of the most fearful scenes in this series of horrors though the Russians, by the most culpable negligence, did not avail themselves of the opportunity of preventing it altogether. The divisions of Wittgenstein and Platoff arrived on the heights commanding the rear, before the army had completed its passage. When the Russian cannon opened on the crowd assembled on the bank, eager to place the river between them- selves and the enemy, it produced a scene of indescribable confusion. Men, women, horses, waggons, rushed in one mass to the larger bridge ; the weight was too great for its frail timbers, it broke, and the multitude were at once precipi- tated into the half-frozen stream. The universal shriek which announced this calamity was heard loud and clear above the roar of artillery and the hurrahs of the Cossacks. The re- maining bridge stood firm, but the crowd thai hurried over its narrow planks under the dreadful fire of the Russian artillery fell into the stream by hundreds, swept away by ihe fierce 392 HISTORY OF FRANCE. shower of shot, or thrown over by their comrades.* Victor, who had gallantly maintained his post, led his division over the bridge by night and then set it on fire, abandoning to their fate his wounded soldiers, and the attendants of the camp. 32. The remainder of the retreat was equally disastrous ; entire companies were frozen to death, or cut off by the inde- fatigable Cossacks, who, as their leader observed, " killed many, but made kw prisoners." It is, however, painful to dwell on these horrors, of which the most vivid description would convey but a faint idea. On the 5th of December, Napoleon having learned that a conspiracy for the subversion of his government had been formed in France itself, hastily abandoned his army, and having narrowly escaped being made prisoner, arrived at Warsaw, from whence he proceeded to Paris. 33. The French were driven from Poland by the Cossacks, and at length the miserable remains of this mighty host took shelter in the dominions of Prussia, where they were hospita- bly received by the inhabitants, who generously forgot the oppression to which they had been subjected, when they saw the miserable state towhich their oppressors had been reduced. 34. The losses of the French in this disastrous campaign have been variously estimated ; but the following list will be found tolerably accurate. Of the invading army there were Slain in battle ....... 125,000 Died of fatigue, famine, and cold . 132,000 Taken prisoners 193,000 Totalloss 450,000 Among the prisoners were forty-eight generals, and nearly three thousand regimental officers. The Russians captured also seventy-five eagles and standards, together with nearly a thousand pieces of cannon. The following extract from a recent writer, exhibits a curious picture of the state of affairs in Paris on the approach of the allied army to that city. " The Parisians, as was the case during the wars of the league, shut their eyes to the impending danger. Even when the cannon of the allied array were within hearing, the mass of the people felt little • The Russians declare that when the ice of the Beresina broke up in the following year, 36,000 dead bodies were discovered in the bed of the river. THE EMPIRE. 393 alarm, so totally ignorant were they of the number of the enemy, and so entirely confident in the " fortune" of their emperor, who, they doubted not, would soon surround the invaders, and take them all prisoners. As some excuse for this blind folly, it ought to be added that every thing was done on the part of the government to encourage the delu- sion of the people. The number of the enemy was repre- sented as being only thirty or forty thousand, and the news- papers, which were all under the direction of the govern- ment, propagated the most barefaced falsehoods. Defeats were passed over, and every trifling advantage was magni- fied into a great victory. To favour this deceit, every prisoner of war that could be mustered was paraded with great ceremony through Paris. All who were immediately connected with Buonaparte, were doubdess very well informed on the subject. The empress retired to Blois on the first approach of the allies, taking with her fifteen wagon loads of treasure. An En- glish gentleman gives a curious account of what he saw in Paris at this interesting period. " At daybreak of the morn- ing," he says, " on which the empress left Paris, the dis- order which had reigned all night in the Tuilleries was ex- posed to the public. The window shutters being opened, the wax lights in the chandeliers were seen expiring in their sockets. The ladies were seen running from room to room, some weeping and in the greatest distraction, and servants hurrying from place to place in like confusion." 394 HISTORY OF FRANCE. * Blucher. CHAPTER XLT. THE EMPIRE, CONTINUED. Farewell to the land where the gloom of my glory Arose and o'ershadow'd the earth with her name — She abandons me now — but the page of her story, The brightest or blackest is fiU'd with my fame. I have warr'd with a world which vanquish 'd me only When the meteor of conquest allur'd me too far. I have coped with the nations that dread me thus lonely; The last single captive to millions in war. BiBOIf. 1. The arrival of Napoleon in Paris announced to le'A' ^^^ French nation the great misfortune by which they had been overtaken ; but their confidence in the for- tune of the emperor was not yet shaken, and the most amaz- ing exertions were made throughout France for the com- THE EMPIRE. 395 mencement of a new campaign. 2. It was soon known that the Prussians had joined the aUiance with Sweden and Russia ; and that the patriotic exertions of the people to supply resources for the war, exceeded the demands of their sove- reign. Napoleon, undaunted by calamities, soon found him- self at the head of 350,000 men, and hasted to Germany, with a confident hope that a battle such as Jena or Austerlitz would again make him the master of Europe. 3. On the 18th of April, Napoleon joined his army and advanced to meet the allies in Saxony. The activity with which he had repaired his losses was a powerful contrast to the negligence of his opponents ; in fact, the Russians had not brought half their disposable forces across the Vistula, while Napoleon had raised a new army and equipped them for the field. The allies were now outnumbered and defeated in two desperate battles ; but the French gained nothing by the victory, no cannon or prisoners were taken. 4. Perceiving all the obstacles which he had to encounter, Napoleon began now to entertain some thoughts of peace ; an armistice was agreed on in June, and conferences were opened at Prague under the mediation of Austria. 5. They continued until the 10th of August, but produced no effect, for the French emperor would not forego his usurpations in Spain and Italy, neither would he consent to restore the independence of Ger- many. It was in vain that his ministers represented to him the danger of arming all Europe against his person ; it was in vain that Austria gave unequivocal proofs of her determina- tion to join the allies ; Napoleon persisted, until it was too late to retrace his steps. 6. On the 10th of August, Austria joined the allies ; the French emperor, alarmed by the news which he had received from Spain, attempted to renew the ne- gociations, but the allies would no longer listen to his offers. 7. It was late in May when Lord Wellington commenced his last and most glorious Spanish campaign. The French retreated before him until they had concentrated their forces, under the command of marshal Jourdan and Joseph Buona- parte, at Vittoria. On the 21st of June, the Enghsh having possessed themselves of some heights previously occupied by the French, a general engagement ensued. The English gained a complete victory, their enemies retreated so rapidly, that they abandoned all their baggage and artillery ; one hun- dred and fifty pieces of cannon, with more than four hundred waggons of ammunition, fell into the hands of the conquerors; the vanquished army, after suffering severely in their retreat, 396 HISTORY OF FRANCE. escaped into France, whither the victors were preparing to follow them as soon as they had reduced the fortresses, which it would be dangerous to leave in their rear. 8. On the recommencement of hostilities, the allies resolved to drive the French from their advanced positions on the right bank of the Elbe, as well as in Lusatia and Silesia. They succeeded in the attempt, and soon after occupied the heights above Dresden, in which city Napoleon had fixed his head- quarters. On the 27lh of August, the aUies made a rash at- tempt on Dresden, in which they were defeated with consi- derable loss. On this occasion, general Moreau, who had come from America to assist his old companion, Bernadotte, was killed. 9. The allies retreated across the mountains that sepa- rate Saxony from Bohemia, vigorously pursued by marshal Vandamme, with a division of the French army ; but Van- damme's rashness proved fatal, he was forced to surrender with 10,000 men, his artillery and baggage, to the armies of Russia and Prussia, by which he was surrounded. 10. The arrival of Bernadotte with the Swedish army restored the su- periority of the allies, and at the same time they learned that the king of Bavaria had acceded to their Coalition, and placed 65,000 men at the disposal of the Austrian government. After a series of comphcated movements, the allies so far prevailed, that NapoleOn, with his faithful friend, the king of Saxony, was forced to retire from Dresden to Leipsic. 11. The conduct of Napoleon in the last great struggle for the empire of Europe, was worthy his former fame. He drew up his forces in a circle round Leipsic, so as that each might mutually support the other, while the allies occupied a parallel, and, of course, a wider circle, which their successes enabled them daily to contract. On the 15th of October, the emperor dehvered eagles to some new regiments which had just joined him ; it was an imposing ceremony ; " the soldiers knelt be- fore the emperor, and in presence of all the Hne ; military mass was performed, and the young warriors swore to die rather than witness the dishonour of France. Upon this scene the sun descended ; and with it the star of Napoleon went down for ever." 12. On the 16th, 17th, and 18th, the position of the French was vigorously attacked, and as obstinately defended ; but the numerical superiority of the alHes was too great to be resisted, and Buonaparte found himself obliged to command a retreat. On the morning of the 19th, Napoleon took a sad farewell of his ally, the king of Saxony, and quitted the city round whose THE EMPIRE. 397 walls the battle was raging with fury. The Saxons now de- serted the French and turned their cannon on the retreating army ; marshal Macdonald and Poniatowski, however, slill gallantly protected the rear ; but a new calamity rendered all their efforts unavailing. Orders had been given to blow up the bridge over which the army retreated as soon as the pas- sage was completed, but the officer to whom that business was entrusted, terrified at the approach of the allies, fired the mine long before it was needed, and 25,000 Frenchmen, thus left at the mercy of the enemy, surrendered themselves prisoners of war. 13. The retreating army were severely harassed by the irritated peasantry in their flight; but they cut their way through the Austro-Bavarian army, who attempted to inter-? cept them. This was, however, only a temporary relief; the retreat became at last a rapid flight, and it was with difficulty that the shattered remains of the second grand array escaped across the Rhine. 14. The battle of Leipsic was followed by a crowd of im- portant events in such rapid succession, that men had scarce time to express their astonishment at one, when they heard intelligence of another still more surprising. The confedera- tion of the Rhine crumbled to pieces in a moment ; Hanover, Brunswick, Hesse, returned under the sway of their heredi- tary rulers ; and Holland in one simultaneous burst of popular loyalty threw off the yoke of France, and invited the stadt- holder to return from his long exile in England. 15. Equally disheartening was the intelligence that Napo- leon received from Italy and Spain. The Austrian general Hiller had defeated the viceroy of Italy, the English were masters of the Adriatic, and Murat was entering into negocia- tions with the Austrians against his brother-in-law and bene- factor. Even in France itself, parties hostile to the emperor began to be discovered. The royalists prepared for the resto- ration of the exiled Bourbons, and some of the old leaders of the revolution began to hope that the republic might yet be restored. 16. The calamities which France had inflicted on other nations, were now about to be severely retaliated J014 on herself. Early in January, two armies under the command of Blucher and Schwartzenberg passed the Rhine, and masking the fortresses along the river, advanced boldly into the country. The superior skill of Napoleon enabled him to inflict several severe checks on the advancing forces, 34 398 HISTORY OF FRANCE. who did not advance in sufficient union. 17. But these suc- cesses were the ruin of the emperor, for they fed him to break off abruptly the conferences for peace which had commenced at Chatillon, and the alhes, justly indignant at his insincerity, sternly rejected all future attempts at negociation. 18. In the south of France, Wellington appeared with the soldiers that had delivered Spain; no popular resistance was made to his march, every effort of Soult's army to retard his progress was defeated. Pourdeaux had been taken, and the Bourbons were proclaimed by the people. 19. The French emperor still undauntedly maintained himself under all these evils ; but in an ill-omened hour he 'placed his army in the rear of the allies, and thus left the road to Paris open. On the 30th of March, the division of the French army assigned for the defence of Paris were drawn up in line on the heights that covered the city, defended by one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon. The allies attacked them with great vigour, and Marmont and Mortier resisted the assault with equal spirit, but the force of numbers prevailed, and long ere night the heights were in possession of the aUied forces. Joseph Buonaparte, to whom the defence of the capital had been entrusted, fled, and Mar- mont, seeing all further resistance useless, signed a capitulation. 20. On the 31st of March, the allied army entered Paris in triumph, and were received with the loudest acclamations. They acted not as conquerors but as friends, and declared them- selves hostile not to the French nation, but to Napoleon. By their invitation the senate was assembled and a provisional govern- ment established, at the head of which Talleyrand was placed. Soon after the senate decreed the deposition of the emperor, and proclamations in the name of the old royal family were everywhere distributed. In the meantime, Buonaparte having discovered the designs of the allies, resolved to make a vigor- ous effort to save his capital ; he hasted back with his army, but on the road he learned that he was too late ; he retired to Fontainbleau, receiving at every step news of the defection and treachery of his ministers and generals. After a vain attempt to have the crown transferred to his son, on the 11th of April, Napoleon signed a formal instrument, "renouncing for himself and heirs the thrones of France and Italy." On the very same day, a glorious but useless victory was obtained by the English, under lord WeUington, at Thoulouse ; it is not certain how the news of the capture of Paris was delayed, or whether marshal Soult deserves to be blamed for this use- less effusion of blood ; on the 14th, however, the tidings of THE EMPIRE. 399 peace reached both camps, and hostilities were immediately suspended. 21. The sovereignty of the island of Elba, with a consi- derable pension, was settled on Napoleon ; the duchies of Par- ma and Placentia were settled on Maria Louisa and her heirs ; and pensions were granted by the French government to Jo- sephine, and other members of the Buonaparte family. This faithful though deserted woman did not long survive the fall of her beloved lord ; she died of a broken heart before the allies had left France. 32. On the 3d of May, Louis XVIIL entered Paris, where he was received with every demonstration of joy, and France soon after received a constitution, founded on the principles of rational and moderate liberty. On the 30th of the same month the articles of a general peace between France and the allies were signed at Paris, and thus at length the tranquillity of Europe seemed finally secured. 400 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Napoleon's Return from Elba. CHAPTER XLII. THE HUNDRED DAYS. And Harold stands upon this place of skulls, The grave of France, the deadly Waterloo ! How, in an hour, the power which gave annuls Its gifts; transferring fame as fleeting too! In pride of place here last the eagle flew, Then tore with bloody talon the rent plain ; Pierced by the shaft of banded nations through, Ambition's life and labours all were vain; He wears the shatter'd links of the world's broken chain. Btrott. 1. The sudden change from a fierce war to a pro- ,4^1 p^ found peace produced so great a revolution in the * different European stales, that their attention was engrossed with their domestic affairs, and France, with the illustrious exile in Elba, seemed for a time to be forgotten. There were, however, causes in operation which threatened to make this tranquillity of but brief duration. The prisoners of war who returned from the different countries of Europe, THE HUNDRED DAYS. 401 could not conceive how their comrades had been so easily de- feated ; the army, maintained in full strength, were displeased to find themselves under the control of an indolent and peace- ful prince, instead of the enterprising leader, who had so often led them on to glory and plunder; there was a mutual jealousy between the nobility of the royal and imperial courts; and many of the returned emigrants began to speak openly of restoring the same order of things which had existed before the revolution. Joachim Murat, who had been permitted to retain the throne of Naples, became rather suspicious of the sentiments with which he was regarded by the aUied sove- reigns ; and finally the French government, with equal folly and injustice, withheld the stipulated pension from Napoleon. During the winter of 1814, Sir Neil Campbell, the British resident at Elba, became aware that some plan for the restora- tion of the deposed emperor vv^as in agitation, and frequently sent intimations on the subject to his government, which ap- pears not to have given these warnings the attention that they merited. 2. Ambassadors from the different European powers were assembled in congress at Vienna, when they were astounded with the intelhgence that Buonaparte had landed at Cannes, on the coast of Provence, on the morning of the 1st of March. The entire number of forces which Napoleon brought with him to invade France did not amount to one thousand men ; he narrowly escaped from the English cruisers and a French man-of-war. But he rehed on the magic of his name, and the devoted attachment of the army, to restore to him once more all that had been lost. The success was as astonishing as the attempt. The soldiers every where united themselves to their beloved chief; most of the marshals hasted to renew their allegiance to the emperor, and before the end of a month. Napoleon, almost without firing a musket, found himself master of all France. 8. When the news of these events reached the congress at Vienna, a proclamation was issued, declaring that " the Em- peror Napoleon had placed himself beyond the pale of society, and that as an enemy and disturber of the tranquillity of the world, he had rendered himself liable to public vengeance." A treaty was at the same time concluded, by which Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England engaged each to maintain 150,000 men in arms, until Buonaparte should either be de- throned or reduced so low as no longer to endanger the repose of Europe. 4. The exertions made by the French to oppose 34* 2 A 402 HISTORY OF FRANCE. this powerful confederacy, were truly amazing ; the campaigns of 1812, 13, and 14, had almost annihilated their cavalry and artillery, and yet they were in the short space of two months able to collect a brilliant body of horse, and to procure a park of artillery sufficient for the fearful encounter. 5. In the mean time, Murat hasted to his ruin ; he placed himself at the head of the Neapolitan army, and advancing through Italy, called on the inhabitants to throw off the yoke of Austria. The Austrian general in Lombardy at once assembled his forces and advanced against Murat; the cowardly Neapolitans fied almost at the sight of an enemy, and Murat, finding himself unable to retain his kingdom, fied for refuge to France. But fresh mortifications awaited him there : Buonaparte, indignant at the desertion of his brother-in-law in 1814, refused to receive him in Paris. After remaining some time in obscurity at Toulon, Murat proceeded to Corsica, from thence he sailed to the Italian coast to make an effort for the recovery of his king- dom ; but his little band was defeated, he himself taken prisoner, and soon after shot, pursuant to the sentence of a military commission. He died as he had lived, with un- daunted bravery, and Napoleon afterwards said more than once, that the fate of the world might have been changed had Murat headed the French cavalry at Waterloo. 6. The forces of the English and Prussians were in the meantime rapidly concentrating on the Belgic frontier; the head-quarters of Blucher were at Namur, and those of the duke of Wellington at Brussels; the Austrians were known to be advancing through the north of Italy, Spanish troops al- ready occupied the passes of the Pyrennees, and the Russians were fast hastening to the scene of action. Napoleon saw that it would be injudicious to hazard another campaign in France, and hoped that by striking suddenly some great blow, he might break up the great European confederacy, and pro- bably be enabled to dictate the conditions of peace. 7. On the 1st of June, a species of national assembly, called Le champ de Mai, was held, in which the new constitution of the French empire was ratified with great pomp, but with little sincerity ; ten days after. Napoleon quitted Paris to place himself at the head of his army; saying, as he entered the carriage, "I go to measure myself against Wellington." 8. On the 15th of June, Napoleon drove in the Prussian outposts, and assaulted Charleroi ; Ziethen, the Prussian general, held out against the immense disparity of force until the alarm had been commu- nicated to all the other divisions, and then coolly retired on THE HUNDRED DAYS. 403 Ligny, where Blucher was concentrating his forces. 9. So totally unexpected was the rapid advance of Napoleon, that on the evening of the 15th most of the Enghsh officers were at a ball given by the duchess of Richmond at Brussels, when the distant roar of cannon interrupted their festivities. The drum beat, and the bugle sounded at midnight; long before the dawn, Sir Thomas Picton, who had only that night arrived from England, was advancing with his division on Qtuatre-bras. 10. On the 16th, at noon, the French emperor, with the main body of his forces, commenced a furious attack on Ligny, while Ney assaulted the English at Q,uatre-bras. The battle of Ligny was long and fierce ; the intense animosity between the Prussians and French gave the combat the character more of personal than national hostility ; quarter was neither asked nor given, each seemed more anxious to destroy his enemy than to save himself. At length Blucher became convinced of the necessity of retreating ; one division of his army under Bulow was absent, and his troops were weakened by succes- sive charges of the French, in one of which the veteran was himself dismounted, and rode over both by friends and enemies without beinff recognised. 11. At Q,uatre-bras, the English, after a fi.erce engagement, in which the gallant duke of Brunswick was slain, remained masters of the field ; but the retreat of the Prussians rendered the victory unavailing, and Wellington, in order to preserve his communication with Blucher, retired on Waterloo. 12. The retreat occupied the greater part of the 17th ; on the evening of that day, the English, amid torrents of rain, took up their station on a rising ground about a mile and a half in front of the little town of Waterloo. They were drawn up in a convex line, which dropped off at the extremity towards the forest in their rear ; the chateau and gardens of Hougou- mont, and the farm-house of La Haye Sainte were strongly garrisoned, and formed the outworks of their line of defence. 13. The morning of the 18th was rainy and tempestuous, when Buonaparte, having ascended the opposite hill of La Belle Alliance, for the first time saw before him the army of the only European general whose fame rivalled his own. Time was the most important object with both generals, for Wellington knew that victory was certain if he could only hold out until the Prussians came up. About noon the French commenced the battle by a tremendous cannonade, and under cover of the fire made a furious attack on Hougoumont ; their leader was unable to carry the chateau, and masking the post. 404 HISTORY OF FRANCE. pushed forward against the British right. The English formed in squares, and resisted all their efforts ; after a protracted struggle, the French were forced to retire, and the little garri- son of Hougoumont was reheved and strengthened. 14. The second attack was made on the British centre by a numerous body of cuirassiers, and four columns of infantry. The French cavalry were met in mid career by the English heavy horse, and soon forced to retire behind their artillery ; the English having followed too far, were charged in their turn by fresh troops, and driven back with considerable loss ; among others, the gallant Sir T. Picton was slain. 15. The French infantry had in the mean time taken La Haye Sainte, and forced in some Belgian regiments, but being attacked in front by general Pack's brigade of foot, and on the flank by a body of heavy cavalry, they were routed with great loss, and compelled to fly, leaving behind them 2,000 prisoners and two eagles. At the same time they were forced by a heavy shower of shot and shells to evacuate La Haye Sainte. 16. The third assault was made on the British right, where the infantry, drawn up in chequered squares, like those of a chess-board, and protected by a battery of thirty pieces of can- non, awaited the onset of the French cuirassiers. The artil- lerymen were driven from their guns, and the cavalry rode furiously on the British squares ; these steadily waited until the enemy were within ten yards of them, and then poured in a volley so close and deadly that the 'cuirassiers were forced to give back. These devoted men renewed their onset several times with fearful desperation ; they rode between the squares, forced their horses up to the very points of the bayonet, but the English line could not be broken, and the close cross-fire of the squares almost annihilated these fearless cavaliers. 17. The battle had now lasted seven hours, three desperate charges had failed to break the British ranks, their wings had also gradually advanced, forming now a concave line ; the heads of the Prussian columns began to be seen through the wood, and Napoleon saw that on one great effort depended the fate of his empire. He formed his favourite soldiers, the im- perial guard, into two columns, and entrusted these, who had not yet shared in the battle, to the guidance of Ney, telling them that if they charged boldy success was certain. 18. Previous to this a fierce cannonade had been kept up on the British line, but the soldiers, by WeUington's directions, lay upon their faces, and thus its deadly effect was much dimin- ished. As the charging columns advanced, the Enghsh rose, THE HUNDRED DAYS. 405 THE HUNDRED DAYS. 407 and forming into a line four deep, poured on their front and flank a deadly shower of musketry, which never ceased for a moment. Under this heavy fire the French columns vainly attempted to deploy into hne ; they halted for the purpose, wavered, and fell at once into remediless confusion. 19. Wellington seized the decisive moment to charge ; some un- broken battalions of the French guard for a moment seemed to oppose a formidable obstacle, but they waited not the attack of the British bayonet ; with indescribable agony Napoleon saw these his last hope, reel, break, and mingle with the mass of fugitives which lately was an army. 20. The Prussians had now come up, and continued the pursuit of the broken army with terrible effect; the English halted almost on the bloody field, quite spent with the fatigues of this arduous and long-contested fight. They had indeed won a brilliant victory, but it was dearly purchased by the loss of 600 officers, and 15,000 men killed and wounded. 21. Napoleon returned to Paris, and soon found that the army were his only friends in France ; in vain he appealed to the chambers, he was a second time forced to sign his abdi- cation, and a provisional government was at once appointed. Had Napoleon at once attempted his escape to the United States of America, he would probably have succeeded ; but he lingered, hoping that some chance might yet appear in his favour. When at length he arrived at Rochfort, he found the coast blockaded by the British cruisers, and found it impos- sible to carry out his design of escaping beyond the Atlantic. 22. On the 15th of July, he surrendered himself to Cap- tain Maitland of the Bellerophon, and on the 24th he arrived in Torbay. After some delay he was informed that the allied sovereigns had resolved to send him as a prisoner to St. He- lena. Thither he was sent, and there he died on the 5th of May 1821. We are too near the time and the scene of this great man's career, lo form an impartial estimate of his char- acter and conduct ; but no stronger proof could be given of the reverence in which his memory is held by his former subjects, than the fact, that after a lapse of nearly twenty years they sent an expedition, commanded by a son of the reigning mon- arch, to bring back the emperor's remains in order that they might be interred in the capital of France. 23. The battle of Waterloo put an end to the war; a military convention was concluded, according to which the allies took possession of Paris, and the French army retired behind the Loire. Louis XVIIL was once more restored to 408 HISTORY OF FRANCE. the throne of his ancestors; but unfortunately, he adopted harsher measures against the adherents of Napoleon than were prudent, or perhaps justifiable, and thus increased the discon- tent and dissatisfaction of the nation. The allies did not treat France with the forbearance which they had exhibited in the preceding year ; they exacted a contribution to defray the ex- penses of the war; they compelled the restoration of those works of literature and art which the French had wrested from conquered countries ; they took possession of several fortresses on the frontiers, and stationed an army of occupation in the country to prevent any insurrection of the people. THE RESTORATION. 409 Louis XVIII. CHAPTER XLIII. THE RESTORATION, AND REVOLUTION OF 1830. "France gave a crown and half a heart." M. C, 1. France was in a very unhappy condition, after the re- storation of Louis XVIII. ; the great body of the nation might have been contented with the king, but he was surrounded by persons whose counsels were justly suspected of a tendency to despotism. The royalists seemed resolved to make an ex- treme use of the victory which the aUies had won for them, and to destroy every vestige of constitutional freedom. The appointments to the magistracy, and to the National guard, were taken from the people ; so that the force which ought to have been constitutional, became the mere instrument of a party. The partisans of ultra-royalty were closely allied with the more violent portion of the French clergy, and under their influence several outrages were committed against the pro- testants in various parts of France ; and even when govern- ment was forced to interfere, the murderers were allowed tc 35 410 HISTORY OF FRANCE. escape unpunished. The nobility possessed almost a monopoly of the executive power, and they employed it to deprive the people of the franchises and privileges ceded by the charter. In addition to this, the accusations for treason and sedition brought against all who opposed the government, the violence of the clerical missionaries, who profaned religion to advance political purposes, and the intrigues at the elections for de- puties, diffused feelings of general dissatisfaction through the nation. 2. The accession of France to the " Holy Alliance," at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, engaged the government in a system of policy, designed to secure the power of monarchs throughout Europe ; but a considerable body of the French deputies resisted the extension of the royal prerogative, and Decazes, the prime minister, supported by the moderate royalists, endeavoured to frame a system which would strengthen tlie monarchy, without injuring the constitution. He was, however, fiercely opposed by the ultras or violent royahsts, and an unfortunate event gave them a temporary triumph. The duke of Berry was assassinated by a political fanatic named Louvel, Feb. 13lh, 1820, and the ultras, or " the extreme right," as they were called, from the part of the chamber which they usually occupied, denounced Decazes for encouraging doctrines subversive of the monarchy. These accusations produced a sensible effect on the court, if not on the chambers, and Decazes resigned. He was succeeded by the Due de Richelieu, and a ministry was formed of the warmest adherents of monarchical power. 3. Laws were passed, giving the minister the power of arresting suspected persons, imposing consorship on the press, and raising the qualifications for the elective franchise ; but even these violations of the charter did not satisfy " the ex- treme right," and they joined " the left," or liberal party, in strenuous efforts to eject the Richelieu ministry. The debates in the chambers were fierce and stormy, often indeed quite unbecoming the dignity of a deliberative assembly. Richelieu resigned his office, Dec. 17th, 1821, and was succeeded by a ministry still more violently royal: the dissatisfaction of the nation was shown by countless plots, conspiracies, riots, and incendiary fires, which were made the pretext for fresh laws of restriction. 4. Villele, the head of the new ministry, re- solved to send a French army into Spain, for the purpose of restoring the king to the power of which he had been deprived by the Cortes ; but he was opposed by a party, which more THE RESTORATION. 411 than compensated for its weakness in numbers, by talents, ex- perience, and influence with the people. The royalist majo- rity, however, showed itself so very unscrupulous, by rejecting a member for revolutionary doctrines without allowing him to make any defence, that "the left side" quilted the house in a body, and the funds for the Spanish war were voted without opposition. 5. The French army crossed the Pyrennees and met with little opposition from the Spaniards, who had little money in their exchequer, less valour in their soldiers, and no wisdom in their counsels. Cadiz alone made an attempt at resistance, but was finally compelled to capitulate, and king Ferdinand was restored to absolute power. The monarchical principle was thus established in the person of a Bourbon, and the go- vernment at the same time acquired some popularity with the army ; but it is doubtful whether the services rendered to le- gitimacy were not dearly purchased by the heavy expenses of the campaign. 6. Scarcely had the Spanish campaign thus favourably ter- minated, when the nation was alarmed by the increasing illness of the monarch, who, though not very generally revered, was still far more popular than his brother, the heir to the crown. He lingered for several months, enduring his disease with great firmness and resignation ; at length he expired, Sept. 16, 1824. Louis XVIII. possessed much natural sagacity and a highly cultivated mind ; but during his long exile he had be- come enfeebled by age and disease : he did not understand the change which had been wrought in the character of the people of France during his banishment; and he wanted firmness of character to resist the ultras, of whom it was said, with equal severity and justice, that during their exile " they had forgotten nothing and learned nothing." , 7. Charles X., formerly count of Artois, succeeded his brother, and won at first much favour by consenting to abolish the censorship of the press; but he continued to retain Villele at the head of the administration ; and, at his coronation, he revived many of the old superstitious usages which Louis had wisely abandoned. Under the new reign Villele brought for- ward two very unpopular measures ; one granting an indem- nification to the families of those emigrants whose estates had been forfeited during the revolution, and another reducing the rate of interest on the public debt. The laws were carried, but not without great opposition. Some concession, however, was made to public opinion by acknowledging the independ- 412 HISTORY OF FRANCE. ence of Hayti, and opening commercial intercourse with the South American republics. At the same time commercial treaties were concluded with Great Britain and the empire of Brazil. 8. In 1826 Villele strengthened his ministry by creating thirty-one new peers. He endeavoured to establish the aris- tocracy on a permanent basis, by reviving the laws of primo- geniture and entail ; but the former was so odious to the great body of the French nation, that it was rejected by the chamber of peers. Public attention was chiefly engaged by the trial of Ouvrard, who had furnished the supphes for the French army when it invaded Spain. The terms of his contract were exorbitant, and he succeeded in effecting it by extensive bribery ; he had also joined in drawing double rations and double pay for the soldiers employed in the campaign. When Villele first heard of the transaction, he caused Ouvrard to be arrested and brought to trial ; but in the course of the investi- gation it appeared that many persons of great rank and influ- ence were impHcated in the transaction, and the minister in- duced the peers to bring the matter to a speedy conclusion. The abuses, however, which had been detected, were already made public, and the attempt to screen the guilty, combined with the illegal protection given to the Jesuits, exposed the THE RESTORATION. 413 minister to public and not unmerited reproaches. The disso- lution of the national guard, the revived censorship of the press, and several harsh measures used in dispersing popular assemblies, completed the alienation of the French from the minister. Villele felt that he was losing ground, and he there- fore dissolved the chamber, though three years of its time were unexpired. At the same lime he created no less than seventy- six new peers, an act utterly inconsistent with the spirit if not the letter of the constitution. 9. The result of the elections disappointed Villele ; a hberal majority was returned, and the king himself seemed to aban- don the principles of "the holy alliance," by congratulating the chambers on the victor}'' of Navarino, and expressing him- self favourable to the liberties of Greece. Soon afterwards he accepted M. Villele's resignation, and appointed a more hberal ministry, of which M. Portalis was the most distinguished member. 10. The new ministry had no elements of strength; it was violently opposed by " the extreme right," by the clergy, whom the law of sacrilege had filled with hopes of recovering their former supremacy, and secretly by many of its own professed adherents. After a struggle of a year and a half, M. Portalis, hated by "the right," and suspected by "the left," found his embarrassments increasing so fast, that he was compelled to resign, but not until he had procured for himself the presidency of the court of cassation, the highest judicial office in France. 11. On the 9th of August, 1829, the ministry, which finally proved fatal to the reigning branch of the house of Bourbon, was formed. Its principal mfembers were prince Polignac, who in his youth had been implicated in Pichegru's conspiracy, and owed his life to the clemency of Napoleon. Since 1823, he had been ambassador to the court of London, and he always professed a predilection for England, though he did not con- ceal his dislike of the democratic part of its constitution. Next to him was count Bourmont, who deserted Napoleon on the field of Waterloo, and found his treachery profitable after the restoration. Baron Montbel, a zealous supporter of the clergy, was named minister of the interior ; and M. D'Haussey, re- markable only for his ignorance and his conceit, received the charge of the navy. From the very outset, this unfortunate cabinet was assailed with unrelenting hatred by the leading hberals of France, both privately and publicly. The minis- ters were accused of having formed fixed plans for the sub- version of liberty and the re-establishment of despotism, and 35* 414 HISTORY OF FRANCE. the nation was summoned to guard the franchises which it had gained by the long struggles of the revolution. Polignac and his associates were not daunted ; they hoped that the declara- tion of war against Algiers would divert the attention of the nation from the constitutional struggle at home ; and without waiting to calculate the elements of their own strength, they opened the parliamentary session with a declaration, which rendered a violent contest between the royal and constitutional parties inevitable. 12. The king's speech to the chambers, March 2d, 1830, contained the following significant threat : " If guilty intrigues should throw any obstacles in the way of my government, which I cannot and will not anticipate, I should find force to overcome them, in my resolution to preserve the public peace, in the just confidence I have in the French nation, and in the love which they have always evinced for their kings." There was a considerable majority in the chamber of deputies against the ministers ; the address, in answer to the royal speech, frankly declared that a concurrence did not exist between the views of the government and the wishes of the nation, and with equal firmness and prudence warned the king : " Sire, France does not wish for anarchy any more than you do for despotism." The king, on the other hand, declared his deter- mination to support his ministers, and, to prevent further dis- cussion, prorogued the chambers to the 1st of the following September. 13. In the mean time, the French expedition against Al- giers sailed, and soon reached Africa. Algiers was captured with little loss, the treasures of the Dey became the reward of the conquerors, and since that period the city and its de- pendent territory has remained in the possession of the French. 14. In May the king dissolved the chambers, and addressed a justificatory proclamation to the electors, which w^as one of the most reprehensible public documents yet issued by the ministry. It insulted the nation, it libelled the majority of the late chamber, and it stated the claims of royalty with an ab- surd extravagance, which would have disgraced school-boys. The only effect this document produced, was to destroy Yi^hat- ever little popularity the ministers had gained by the conquest of Algiers ; in consequence, the elections went against the crown, and a majority of opposition members again appeared ready for the field. 15. Bigotry is equally violent and blind, and nothing but bigotry was the characteristic of the king, his ministers, and THE REVOLUTION OF 1830. 415 of the whole court party. Pohgriac was resolved to subvert the constitution, but he wanted talent to act the despot : the wickedness of his proceedings is in some degree hid by their clumsiness and stupidity. On the 2<5th of July three ordinances appeared ; the first annulled the late elections, the second suspended the Hberly of the press, and the third, on the royal authority, established a new electoral system. So infatuated were the men who perpetrated such outrages against all con- stitutional government, that they seem not to have anticipated any resistance, and made no preparations even for quelling ordinary tumults. It was late in the day when the ordinances became known, but the consequences became apparent in rapid succession : the bank refused discounts, the chief manu- facturers closed their works and discharged their workmen ; the editors and conductors of journals met, and published their resolutions not to obey the laws ; Pohgnac's windows were broken, but the mob soon dispersed. 16. On the morning of the 37th, the agents of pohce seized the types and broke the presses of the refractory journalists ; and as the latter did not in every instance quietly give way, crowds ready for tumult were collected around the offices. The signs of commotion were hourly increasing in violence, but they escaped the notice of the king and his ministers. Charles went to enjoy a hunting excursion with the dauphin ; and Polignac gave a splendid dinner to his colleagues. As evening approached, the efforts of the police to maintain order became more and more ineffectual ; recourse was had to the military, which had been placed under the command of Marshal Marmont, and some smart skirmishes took place, in which the citizens were defeated. 17. When the soldiers returned to their barracks, Polignac was congratulated on his victory ! He vi^ent tranquilly to rest, as did the rest of the royalists, in full confidence that the whole business was arranged. The citizens spent the night far differently; arms were procured, barricades erected, the na- tional guard revived and formed into companies, and all the insignia of royal authority removed from shops and offices. The ministers had limited their operations to issuing a new ordinance declaring Paris in a state of siege. 18. On the morning of the 28th, the citizens commenced the struggle by raising the tri-coloured flag in every direction ; they carried with little loss the detached guard-houses, the arsenal, the powder magazine, and began to menace the Palais Royal. It was twelve o'clock before Marmont, who 416 HISTORY OF FRANCE. waited m hopes of some conciliatory offers from the court which would have soothed the insurgents, reluctantly led his soldiers to the fight. He ordered the troops to clear circuits of streets, dividing them into four columns ; and every step taken by each of these divisions was fiercely and steadily dis- puted by the people. After a day of hard fighting the soldiers returned to their barracks, where no provision had been made for their refreshment ; while the combatants, on the other side, where cheered with every luxury that the citizens of Paris could command. During the day Marmont wrote to the king, that the disturbances were assuming a dangerous and revolutionary aspect, but he received no answer until night, and was then directed to persevere ; some of the lead- ing hberals also sought an interview with Prince Polignac, but were refused admittance. 19. On the morning of the 29th, hostilities were renewed with great fury, but with no decisive result until noon, when the fifth regiment of the line entered into a treaty of neutrality with the populace, and abandoned its position. The citizens seized the advantageous post, and the guards made an effort Revolution of 1830. THE REVOLUTION OF 1830. 417 to recover it ; during the struggle two regiments of the line openly joined the populace, and Marmont was thus forced to consent to a sort of armistice. Before, however, it could be arranged, the citizens stormed the Louvre and Tuilleries, from the windows of which they opened a murderous fire on the Swiss and the royal guards. These brave men, weakened by hunger, disgusted by neglect, fatigued by extraordinary exer- tions, outnumbered and disadvantageously posted, could make ho long resistance ; they effected their retreat with some diffi- culty, and at three o'clock in the afternoon the revolution at Paris was completed, and the city left quietly in the possession of its armed and triumphant citizens. The deputies who had come to Paris were fortunately suffi- ciently numerous to organize a provisional government. 20. They decreed, that the national guard should be organized and placed under the command of the marquis La Fayette; and on the 30lh of July they took the decisive step of inviting the duke of Orleans to place himself at the head of the govern- ment, under the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Charles now recalled his ordinances, but it was too late ; he resigned his crown, as did the dauphin his rights, in favour of the duke de Bordeaux, son of the late duke of Berri ; but no notice was taken of his proceedings, farther than to intimate that his personal safety would be endangered by a longer resi- dence in France. He set out on his second exile, accompa- nied by his family, and on the 17th of August landed in Eng- land. He took up his abode for a short time in Holyrood palace, near Edinburgh, after which he removed to Germany, where he soon sunk into neglect and oblivion, 2L In the meantime the French chambers assembled, and, after some debate, the crown was conferred on the duke of Orleans, under the style of " Louis Phihppe L, king of the French." 2B 418 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Louis Philippe. CHAPTER XLIV. LOUIS PHILIPPE. Then came a deeper, dreader sound. Crash echoed crash so loud and fast, We deemed a whirlwind swept the ground. Crushing the forests as it passed ; And quaked the earth ; and luridly Coursed the swift lightning through the sky. HinsT. The revolution which had so suddenly altered the po- litical aspect of France, driven her king from his throne, and opened the road towards freedom, was not without its attendant evils. Too many of those instrumental in produc- ing it, had, unfortunately, acted either from sinister motives, or with a culpable indifference respecting the ultimate end of the movement, and a callous disregard of human life. Unlike the pure patriots of the American revolution, they LOUIS PHILIPPE. 419 Dupont de I'Eure. had combated, not so much for principles, as from a love of change and excitement. This was especially the case with the middle class of citizens, the bourgeoisie. In the heat of the struggle they had called loudly upon the lower ranks to defend the charter against the ordonnances of Charles X.; but when the monarch's power was abolished, and the peo- ple's aid no longer needed, they were expected to relapse into their former servility. Nor did the presumptions of the middle classes end here. Not satisfied with oppressing the people, they looked upon the peerage with hatred and jealousy, embracing every opportunity to abridge their power, in order to enlarge their own. To this character of the great mass of the middle classes, there were some illustrious exceptions. M. Dupont de I'Eure, Lafitte, and others were true republicans, anxious for their country's welfare, and willing to make any sacrifice to promote it. Louis Philippe appears to have been of the same opinion at first, asserting either with sincerity or the better to dissemble his real designs, that he was but " a bridge to arrive at a republic." But these few were opposed by men, eminent both as scholars and politicians, and whose 420 HISTORY OF FRANCE. decisions on important questions were founded upon a thorough knowledge of the French character. M. de Bro- glie and Guizot were at their head. These men considered that the great object of the revolution had been, not the esta- blishment of republicanism, but the restoration of the charter; and consequently they opposed all attempts at limiting the royal prerogative, or granting concessions to the people. To these difficulties, arising from a variance of opinion as to the real object of the revolution, were added others of a still graver character. The more zealous repub- licans, alarmed by the apparent designs of the new sovereign, and deeming themselves betrayed by his election, seemed willing to unite with a number of idle and discontented young men, who declaimed against what they termed the treachery of Louis Phihppe, and threatened to engage all Europe in a war of opinion. The separation of church and state tended to alienate the affections of the clergy from the new monarch ; while at the same time, the partisans of the Buonapartes, and the exiled family, were each engaged in intrigues to promote their favourite objects. Amid these elements of discord and anarchy, the French throne stood for a long while, in a tottering condition, supported only by a doubtful union between royalists and the middle classes, and by the active measures of its possessor and his adherentSo The strength of the new administration was brought to the severest test by the arrest of the late king's ministers. This act had not been occasioned by the efforts of Louis Philippe, who would doubtless have been glad of their escape. Four of them being detected at a distance from Paris, while endeavouring to escape, under false passports, were arrested and hurried by zealous patriots to the capital. The govern- m.ent being forced to send them for trial to the chamber of peers, they were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and sent to a distant prison. So great, however, was the excite- ment produced by their arrest, that one of the most formi- dable riots ever known in France, took place at the capital, defying, for three days, all the efforts of the national guards to suppress it. The outrageous conduct of the republicans only tended to weaken their cause, and excite against them the strenuous efforts of all the friends of order. The feelings of many amounted to perfect fanaticism. Attempts to assassinate the king were made by half insane persons, who, when brought LOUIS PHILIPPE. 421 to trial, openly derided all constitutional authority, thus bringing discredit and suspicion upon the republicans. The Carlists, or partisans of the exiled family, also injured their cause by a foolish insurrection in the southern provinces, which after effecting nothing was almost immediately sup- pressed by the government. About the same lime the duchess de Berri, whose son, the due de Bordeaux, was legitimate heir to the cjown, landed in La Vendee, for the purpose of heading the royalists in that district. But govern- ment had so well prepared itself for her arrival, that she found her partisans disheartened, and their movements so closely watched, that it was impossible to assemble them in any force. Not discouraged, she persevered against the greatest odds until her movements had resolved themselves into a series of insignificant attacks. In the midst of her perplexities, one of her followers betrayed her into the hands of the royalists, who immediately threw her into prison. Some time before her arrest, she had been secredy married, a circumstance, which, while in prison, she found it neces- sary to disclose in order to save herself from dishonour. The circumstance involved her enterprise in ridicule, and caused its advocates to remain quiet. During the progress of these events, another rebellion had taken place in Paris, in consequence of the funeral of General Laraarque. The fighting lasted five hours, and was attended with great loss of life. While the French monarchy was thus striving to sus- tain itself against a number of hostile parties, difficulties of a foreign nature demanded its serious attention. Ever since the fall of Buonaparte, the Algerines and other barbarians of the African coast, had committed a series of ravages on all Christian nations, so that it had become unsafe to reside in the Barbary states, or even to trade along the coast. In Algiers, owing to the frequent feuds among different classes, the French and English residents were sometimes obliged to leave the city, the French consul was insulted, and other outrages committed. These had led to the expedition against Algiers, which, together with the capture of the city, has been narrated in a previous chapter. The difficulties in that quarter, were, however, not yet at an end. General Bourmont, on receiving notice of Louis Philippe's accession to the throne, sailed for his native country, leaving the com- mand of the army in Algiers with General Clauzel. The 86 422 HISTORY OF FRANCE. General Bourmont. first care of this officer was to quell an insurrection conse- quent upon the departure of the late general. He then marched with a considerable force towards Tittery, a province in the Atlas range. On the 18th of November, 1830, when within a league of Belideah, or Blida, he discovered about eighteen hundred Arabs drawn up in battle array. Their chief demanded that the French troops should not enter into the city, and appeared disposed to defend it. One brigade was sent to turn the place to the right, whilst another attacked the enemy's line in front. The troops soon forced the Arabs to fly, and pressing rapidly forward, entered the place at two opposite points. General Clauzel remained there on the 19th, during which time two detachments from the army invaded a neighbouring tribe, whose inhabitants had taken an active part in the defence of Blida. Their villages were burnt, and a number of the inhabitants captured. On the 21st the army resumed its march for Medeah, entering the Atlas range over a road peculiarly rocky and jagged. It had not proceeded far before General Clauzel perceived signs of an enemy, and immediately after ascer- tained that they were occupying the Col de Tenia, one of the strongest mountain gorges in Barbary. At this place the bey of Tittery had assembled his LOUIS PHILIPPE. 423 principal forces, numbering eight thousand men, of whom more than two thousand were Turks. Of this force fifteen hundred Arabs were posted with two pieces of artillery on the right and left of the road, and they remained so disposed in and around the gorge, as to occupy all the most favourable points. Here they were attacked by the French soldiers, and after an obstinate struggle, in which the assailants moved through heavy fires to the mouth of opposing batteries, were driven from every stronghold and forced to fly. After this victory, the French descended from the pass and entered the city of Medeah, [November 22,] capital of the beylic of Tittery. A government was established for both city and province, and measures taken to render the foreign residents secure in the enjoyment of their rights. On the 24th, Ge- neral Clauzel, with his army, marched from Medeah, reach- ing Algiers on the 29th. In 1831, General Clauzel returned to France, in con- sequence of being promoted to the rank of marshal, and was succeeded by General Berthezene. In consequence of a revolution in Medeah, this officer undertook a second ex- pedition against that place, where he re-established the bey appointed by Clauzel, suppressed all disaflfection, and left artillery and men to reinforce the French garrison. On his re- turn he was attacked by about twelve thousand of the enemy, posted on the summits of high mountains, which flanked a long defile, so narrow and diflScult that but one man could pass it at a time. Through this the French were compelled to march, and here they were assailed by their covered foe. For a short time the front of their column was thrown into confusion, from which they speedily recovered, and charging the Arabs with fixed bayonets, overthrew their masses in succession, and gained a complete victory. In this ex- pedition the French lost sixty-three men killed, and one hundred and ninety-two wounded. In the early part of 1832, General Berthezene was succeeded by the duke de Rovigo, acting as the commander of the army, and a civil functionary, to act as governor of the French possessions. Rovigo's policy was the very op- posite of his predecessors, being harsh and overbearing towards the friendly Arabs, and rigid with his own troops. His conduct exasperated the natives, and finally roused up the most troublesome enemy ever opposed to the French arms in Africa. This was the famous Abd-el-Kader, a 424 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Abd-el-Kader. member of the Oran tribe of Arabs, and endowed with all the qualities necessary to the monarch and conqueror. By his influence among the neighbouring tribes, he banded most of them together in an expedition against the infidels, and threw over his plans the sacred but powerful veil of a zeal for religion. The health of the French general was such that he could oppose but little to so powerful an adver- sary; and in 1833 he was succeeded by General Desmichels. This officer restored the mild sway of Marshal Clauzel, and commenced active preparations for opposing his enemy. But Abd-el-Kader, proof against either rigor or kindness, suddenly assumed the title of emir, and marching rapidly upon the port of Arzew, caused himself to be proclaimed absolute ruler of the country. Meanwhile the French general was completing his plans for a vigorous opposition to the Arab's growing power. Leaving Oran, he retook. Arzew, and at length defeated the LOUIS PHILIPPE. 425 Count d'Erlon. emir in two battles. Offers of peace were then made by the victors, and accepted ; a treaty was signed on the 26th of February, 1834 ; and every thing seemed flattering to the prospect of a long and quiet French dominion in Africa. It proved, however, but a hollow pretence, a cloak under which the Arab prince concealed his own intentions, until sutBcient strength could be gathered to attempt their developement. The news of this transaction was received with dis- gust in France, it being regarded as the virtual surrender of all the conquests in Africa, and a prelude to abandoning the country. Government, however, declared its determination still to hold the regency of Algiers, under the title of " French possessions in the north of Africa," and committed the civil and military command to Count d'Erlon, acting as governor- general under the minister of war. General Desmichels was succeeded by General Trezel. By this time Abd-el- Kader had so far matured his plans, as to be able to march, in opposition to the direct remonstrance of the French, upon Medeah, defeat a party of hostile natives who threatened it, and enter the town in triumph. Soon after he made dar- ing incursions against tribes planted by the French and 36* 426 HISTORY OF FRANCE. General Desmichels. under their protection. These applied to General Trezel for protection, which was promptly given. ' Marching rapidly from his encampment, the general came up with the hostile army [June 26, 1835] posted in a well chosen position, ten leagues from Oran. Although the enemy were greatly superior to his own numbers, Tre- zel ordered a charge. After a desperate struggle, their posi- tion was carried, their troops driven from the ground, and great numbers either killed or wounded. Soon, however, reinforcements began to pour into the emir's camp to such an extent that the French decided upon a retreat. In effect- ing this, they were obliged to pass through a narrow defile near the Macta river, where they were again attacked by vast multitudes, their line was broken, and the whole com- mand forced from the passage. But for the intrepidity of General Trezel, who brought the advance guard to the rear and rescued the baggage, the defeat would have been total. This disaster compelled the French to confine their military operations to a narrower territory than they had hitherto done, and caused so much indignation in France, that Tre- zel was recalled, and Marshal Clauzel again sent to take command in Africa. On arriving at the seat of war, that officer found himself at the head of a fine army, numbering LOUIS PHILIPPE. 427 ten thousand men, and honoured by the presence of the king's eldest son. In marching towards the interior, he found fields laid waste, cities and towns deserted, the high- ways clogged with dead bodies, and other signs of the de- vastation effected by the emir's troops. The shrieks and lamentations of widows, orphans, and houseless wretches, flying from their burning homes, were heard in every quarter, causing the heart of even the rough soldier to relent. Abd- el-Kader succeeded in escaping the vigilance of the French general, until after the return of the latter to Oran. He was then defeated by the marshal, and narrowly escaped cap- ture. Not long after this success, Clauzel returned to Paris, for the purpose of communicating with the ministry. He had scarcely sailed, before General d'Arlanges, command- ing the army, was attacked by the Arabs in his camp, at Tafna, many of his men cut to pieces, himself wounded, and the army compelled to fall back upon a more secure position. A still worse fate might have fallen upon him but for the timely arrival of four thousand five hundred men, under General Bugeaud. This officer selected his best troops, and by a sudden march towards the interior, came up with the emir's army of seven thousand men, strongly posted at Sickah. A long and bloody conflict ensued, in which, after displaying admirable courage, the Arab chief with his army was defeated, and its moral force greatly diminished. When Marshal Clausel arrived at Paris, he imme- diately urged upon government the necessity of capturing Constantina, w^ere Ahmed Bey, subject to the Turkish emperor, had for a number of years given the French as much trouble as Abd-el-Kader had in the west. For the expedition, Clauzel demanded thirty thousand fighting men, four thousand cavalry, and supplies in proportion. This was granted, principally through the active exertions of M. Thiers ; but when the marshal arrived on the Algerine coast, full of hope and confidence, he received the mortify- ing intelligence of Thiers's fall, and that the new adminis- tration were opposed to granting so large a supply for the nrmy in Africa. But notwithstanding these discouragements, the old general resolved to prosecute the expedition without delay. Amid the greatest difficulties, in raising and equipping troops, obtaining provisions, and providing for the march, he col- lected his army of seven thousand men at Bona, and on the 428 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Marshal Clauzel. 12th of November began his disastrous journey. Heavy rains had destroyed the roads, so that cannon could be con- veyed only by dragging it through fields of mud, where at every step the soldiers sunk knee deep. Terrific storms of thunder and lightning scared away most of their oxen, and drenched the troops in such a manner, that numbers sickened and died. Snow and hail succeeded, attei^ded by frost so intense as to kill several men. Yet amid these scenes of desolation, the soldiers pushed forward, animated by the hope that Constantina would be found undefended, and thus fall an easy prey. Great was the astonishment and chagrin of both men and officers, to behold, after a nine days' toilsome march, the red flag of defiance waving over a city whose stony walls were impervious either to mine or artillery, while between it and themselves was a ravine of immense depth, between whose perpendicular sides rushed the angry waters of the Rummel river. The sight, to men broken down by toil, hunger, and disease, was overpowering. Many mingled their moans with the roar of the snow-storm then raging near. The French troops crossed the ravine on a narrow bridge, exposed to a blinding storm of hail and snow, as well LOUIS PHILIPPE. 429 as to the enemy's fire. After spending the 22d and 23d of November in skirmishes, the assailants commenced a furious attack upon the town on the night of the 23d. It was made by two columns, one led by General Trezel, the other by Colonel Duvivier. Trezel was shot through the neck. Cap- tain Grand and Commandant Richpanse killed, and the whole army driven off with great loss. The retreat to Bona was a terrible one. Famine, weariness, and the elements combined with the sword against the French. On the 1st of December, their shattered columns re-entered Bona, having lost four hundred and forty-three killed or dead of cold, and two hundred and twenty-eight wounded. France received intelligence of this disaster with a storm of indignation. Marshal Clauzel was immediately recalled, for the purpose of having his conduct submitted to trial, the Count de Damremont appointed in his place, and General Bugeaud placed over the province of Oran. The new leader arrived in February of the following year. Im- mediately after was fought the battle of Boudouaou, in which nine hundred Frenchmen, under M. de la Torre, routed a force of five thousand Arabs. But as the emir still main- tained a haughty front, Bugeaud took the field with nine thousand men, and marched fifteen days before hearing any thing of his enemy. He now received an invitation for a personal interview, which was accepted; and selecting four thousand men, he marched on the 1st of June to a beautiful valley, named by Abd-el-Kader. Here, after waiting until he had lost all patience, the French general was at last per- mitted to obtain a sight of his redoubtable enemy. The conduct of the latter was in the highest degree cool and dig- nified, while Bugeaud behaved in a manner ill becoming his rank or mission. The result, however, was the ratification of the celebrated treaty of Tafna, by which the Arab prince regained a considerable part of the territory which had been taken from him during the war. Soon after the conclusion of this instrument, the French general received orders to undertake a second expedi- tion against Constantina. Accordingly, in the latter pai't of September, Count Damremont, assembled his army, numbering fifteen thousand men, at the camp of Medjez Amar, from which he began his march early in October. Although every precaution had been taken to guard against the disaster of the previous expedition, yet the troops 430 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Zoaves. suffered from cold and violent storms almost as much as those of Clauzel's army. The rain poured down in torrents, the soil became perfectly saturated, provender for the ani- mals failed, while at every step marks of death and desola- tion stared in their faces. On the 6th of October, 1837, the first column of the French army arrived on the plains of Mansourah, in front of the city. They were received with a shout of defiance, and a heavy fire of musketry from the garrison. Some sharp-shooters, about three hundred in number, concealed among the adjoining aloes, after greatly annoying the ad- vance troops, were charged by the Zoaves, or French allies, and driven into Constantina. About the same time, small squads of Turkish horsemen, descending from the mountains, kept the camp in a state of continual alarm. After almost superhuman exertions, the count suc- ceeded in transporting his artillery across a muddy plain, LOUIS PHILIPPE. 431 and placing it in a position to open advantageously upon the city's outer works. His men surrounded the walls in a kind of semicircle, and after the artillery had made con- siderable impression, they rushed forward with fixed bayo- nets, and carried the outer works. General Damremont then sent a young Musselman with a flag of truce, to sum- mon the garrison to surrender; but the haughty answer was returned, " If the French have no more powder or bread we will give them some. We will defend our houses and our town to the very last. Constantina shall not be taken until its last defender shall have been slaughtered." On receiving this answer, the count resolved on an assault, and rode forward to examine the enemy's batteries. While thus engaged he was struck down by a cannon-shot, and Geneial Perregaux, leaning over him, also fell. The command devolved on Lieutenant-General Valee, who was hailed by the acclamations of the entire army. On the fol- lowing day the French marched to the assault in three columns, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Lamdriciere, Colonel Combes, and Colonel Corbin. The garrison had made every preparation for their reception. The shock of battle was terrible. Gradually the Turks were driven from their batteries, the walls cleared, hundreds being dashed from the ramparts, and the assailants rushed into the streets. In these pathways, so narrow that a man could almost step across, thousands of infuriated combatants crushed and hacked each other, while occasionally a falling wall, or the explosion of a mine, as though impatient of the bayonet's slow work, hurried friend and foe in one undistinguished mass to destruction. One by one the Moslem standards were pulled down, and the tri-coloured flag run up in its place ; onward, with fearful slaughter, the French pressed, until their enemies began to thin, and crowds sought refuge in flight ; then a silence succeeded, broken occasionally by the shout of victory, and the loud moans of the dying; Con- stantina was taken. The loss of oflacers among the assailants was great. Besides the two already mentioned, Serigny and Halset, of the engineers, were killed ; Colonel Lamoriciere, Vieux, Dumas, Leblanc, Richpanse, and Colonel Combes were all wounded. The latter soon after died. The due de Nemours accompanied the expedition, and took a prominent part in the siege. After taking the proper measures for the 43'2 HISTORY OF FRANCE Duke of Nemours. securing of this conquest, General Valee retired towards Algiers, leaving twenty-five hundred men in Constantina, under command of Colonel Burnell. Valee was subse- quently made marshal of France and governor-general of Algeria. Not long after Abd-el-Kader renewed the war, for which his treaty had only been a pretence to gain time, and by the most strenuous exertions kept the French in a state of alarm and continual activity until 1847, when he was captured and conveyed a prisoner to France. Meanwhile events of a still greater character on the European continent had called for the national intervention. In 1830 a revolution had broken out in Belgium, the object of which was the establishment of a republic, or a union with France. This drew upon them the resentment of the Dutch, who prepared to march into the country with a large army. At the same time. King William of Prussia, issued a procla- mation, calling upon his subjects to aid in repressing a de- monstration so dangerous to the peace of Europe. His schemes were arrested by M. Mole, prime minister of France, who declared that the moment a Prussian army appeared in Belgium, a French force should march to meet it. The Dutch, however, met with considerable success, staining LOUIS PHILIPPE. 433 General Chass^. their victories at the same time with atrocities of the darkest character. But at length the republicans, rising in great numbers, drove the invaders from point to point, and wrested from them all the places they had occupied. Antwerp, which had hitherto stood out against the republicans, was bombarded on the night of October 27th, by General Chasse, and partly reduced to ashes. The news of this success was received in Paris with a burst of enthusiasm. All were eager to acknowledge as part of the French people, those who against great odds had so bravely maintained their independence. Unfortunately this disposition of the populace was not echoed by govern- ment. Louis Philippe, though willing to receive Belgium as part of his dominion, feared that by doing so he would offend England, by whom the efforts of the revolutionists to free themselves from Holland were considered a violation of the treaty of 1815. There can be little doubt, that a decided policy would have secured Belgium to the Fi-ench rule with- out danger of the consequences threatened by Great Britain; but the vacillation of the Paris ministry prevented the ad- vantages of such a union, and rendered the nation despicable to the eyes of Europe. Nor was the misfortune obviated by the French delegate to the grand conference of the five great powers, then meeting at London. He was the celebrated M. Talleyrand, so skilled as a diplomist, and contemptible as a man. His policy was the very opposite of what coni- 37 2C 434 HISTORY OF FRANCE. mon sense would have dictated as the interest of France; so that Belgium, which had hitherto manifested a desire to unite with that country, now began to look upon such a step with alarm. Anarchy showed itself in many of the Belgic provinces, so that to the horrors of a foreign foe at their firesides, was added the prospect of a fearful civil war. Republicanism, which in the abstract had appeared so charming, became less so every day ; so that at length, the national assembly began seriously to consider the necessity of electing a king. The discussion on this subject was long and animated, terminating, however, by an offer of the Belgic crown to the duke of Nemours, son of Louis Philippe. Nearly at the same time, Talleyrand had agreed with the London conference that no French prince should ever sit upon the throne of Belgium. The consequence was that Louis Philippe refused the crown offered to him for the duke of Nemours. The kingdom was subsequently given to Prince Leopold, the former husband of the Princess Charlotte of England. In July, 1831, Holland renewed its attempts to conquer Belgium, and marched an army along the whole eastern frontier. Leopold was placed in a precarious situation. He applied to France for aid, a requisition which was prompdy answered, by sending General Gerard to his aid, with fifty thousand men. This praiseworthy step was undertaken in direct opposition to the demands of the conference. Late in October, the French crossed the frontier, and laid siege to Antwerp, then garrisoned by the Dutch, under General Chasse. The siege lasted with great vigor until the 23d of December, when the city capitulated on terms highly honour- able to Gerard, and his gallant troops. The Dutch were soon after obliged to evacuate Belgium, which has ever since remained an independent kingdom. In 1831 France was grossly insulted by Don Miguel, king of Portugal. Seizing upon two French subjects, resi- dents of Lisbon, he condemned one to be whipped in the public streets, and the other to be transported to Africa. The oflfences of both had been merely imaginary. On the French government demanding reparation, Don Miguel an- swered by ordering their minister to leave the country. A reiterated demand for justice being met in a similar manner, Admiral Roussin was sent up the Tagus, with a small fleet, and after safley passing the Portuguese forts, anchored near LOUIS PHILIPPE. 435 Marshal Gerard. Lisbon, and speedily brought the haughty monarch to terms. Full indemnity was exacted both for the expenses of the expedition, and the insults offered to the French residents. At this time the revolution in Poland was engrossing the attention and sympathies of the world. No people felt a more lively interest in the movement than the French ; but cramped by her alliances with the other powers, she was prevented from taking any part other than that of an impassioned spectator. The consequences was, that after sustaining, alone, a chivalrous but hopeless struggle, Poland fell, and was blotted from the list of nations. On the 20th of September, 1833, Ferdinand, king of Spain, died, leaving his" crown to the Princess Isabella, who was proclaimed at Madrid. Hers was destined to be one of the most stormy reigns that Spain ever witnessed. Im- mediately after the accession, a revolution broke out in favour of Don Carlos, the late king's brother. France, England, and Portugal, united in support of the infant queen, the first guarding the frontier, while England blockaded the coasts. The difficulty continued, however, several years, and caused a total change in the French ministry, consequent to the differences of opinion relative to it. The new officers, however, did not possess the confidence of the chambers, and their ministry was consequently dissolved in the follow- ing February. It was under their administration that the diflSiculty occurred with the United States, relative to the 436 HISTORY OF FRANCE. M. Thiers. twenty-five million francs claimed by President Jackson, as indemnity to American citizens for outrages perpetrated under the Berlin and Milan decrees, and which threatened for a while to involve both countries in a disastrous war. In February, 1836, a new cabinet was formed under M. Thiers, who boldly supported the republic of Cracow, the dey of Tunis, and the queen-regent of Spain. But the re-establishment in Spain, of the constitution of 1812, caused Louis Philippe to refuse his consent to the plans of his minister, and Thiers was succeeded by Count Mole, who endeavoured to promote peace with foreign powers, and in- ternal tranquillity. Many of those imprisoned for political offences were pardoned, — among others the ex-ministers of Charles X. This probably emboldened Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, a nephew of the emperor, to excite an insurrec- tion at Strasburg, October 29ih. It was speedily suppressed, and the young prince sent to America. After remaining here some time he returned to Europe, and took up his abode in Switzerland, whence the French government attempted to expel him. To avoid involving the country in war, he voluntarily quilted it, and landed August 6th, 1840, at Bo- LOUIS PHILIPPE. 437 logne, in France. Arming a few friends, he led them into the town, carrying his hat on a sword, while they shouted lono- live the emperor ! Some of the troops in the town being told that a revolution had taken place, and that Louis Philippe was dethroned, were about to put themselves under the prince, when their captain awaking, rushed out of his quar- ters, and restored order, by shouting long live the king.' The prince fired a pistol at him, wounding a private soldier. By this time the people had noticed the confusion, and begun to aid the garrison ; several of the prince's party were soon in prison, and the remainder, with their leader, taken to the city castle. Afterwards young Buonaparte was sentenced for life, to the fortress of Ham, but escaped in 1847. Simultaneously with this last attempt, another event oc- curred of great interest to the French people. From the moment of the overthrow of Charles X., the ardent desire of the French to bring back the remains of Napoleon from their resting place at St. Helena, began to be manifested. Numerous petitions were presented to the government, praying that the necessary steps should be taken to have the warrior's ashes restored to the nation, but for ten years no notice was taken of these requests — fears being entertained that the popular enthusiasm, which the presence of the relics of the emperor could not fail to excite, would inspire the people with the design of reviving the dynasty, and placing one of the Buonaparte family on the throne of France. On the accession of Thiers to the prime ministry, however, the subject was brought before the cabi- net, and it was resolved to accede to the popular desire. Accordingly, in May, 1840, the British government was requested to permit the exhumation of the imperial remains, and their transportation to France. The request was granted without hesitation, and orders given to the British authorities at St. Helena to render every assistance to the agents of the French government. The frigate Belle Poule, and the corvette Favourite, composed the expedition, which sailed from Toulon, July 7th, 1840, under the command of the prince de Joinville. Generals Bertrand and Gourgaud, and MM. Saint Denis and Noverraz, two of Napoleon's valets de chambre, accompanied the prince. On the 7th of October the ships arrived at St. Helena, and on the 8th were moored in the harbour. A few days having been occupied ill the necessary preparations, on the 15th of October the 37* 438 HISTORY OF FRANCE. exhumation took place, under the direction of the British authorities. Having been covered with an additional leaden coffin, and the whole placed in an ebony sarcophagus, sent for the purpose by the French government, the remains were embarked on board the Belle Poule, and on the 18lh the expedition sailed for France. On the 30lh of Novem- ber the squadron anchored in the port of Cherbourg, and proceeded thence to Havre, which was fixed as the port of debarkation. Here the coffin and sarcophagus were transferred to the national steamer La Normandie, on which they were conveyed up the Seine as far as Val de la Haye, where the steamer Dorade took the place of the Nor- mandie, and transported the remains to Courbevoie, near Paris. The progress of the imperial corpse up the Seine drew together thousands of the people, whose enthusiasm knew no bounds. The national guards were every where under arms, and the most impressive solemnities were ob- served as the pageant passed. The 15th of December was fixed for the entry into Paris. On that day the capital was thronged by thousands upon thousands, among whom were not a few of the soldiers of Napoleon. The coffin was con- veyed from the suburbs to the Invalides, between lines of national guards several miles in length. The prince de Joinville presented the remains to the king, who received them in the name of France. They were then deposited in state in the church of the Invalides, where they were visited by immense numbers of people, who gazed on them with an affeciion and reverence almost amounting to adoration. A monument in the church of the Invalides now marks the resting-place of all that w^as mortal of Napoleon. Previous to this, several attempts were made upon the life of Louis Philippe. On the 28th of July, 1835, while proceeding with a splendid retinue, to review the troops of the line and national guard, a terrific explosion suddenly took place from a machine in a window adjoining the street where he passed. More than forty persons, including the Marshal Mortier, were killed or wounded. The escape of the king and his three sons was almost miraculous. He behaved with the utmost bravery, riding calmly along to the end of the line, and then returning over the scene of the catastrophe to complete th6 review. The contriver of this "infernal machine" was a Cor- sican, named Fieschi. He was immediately seized. No LOUIS PHILIPPE. 439 Duke of Orleans. motive was assigned for the act, other than hatred to the king, and no evidence could be found implicating any sect or party in his guilt. The ministry, however, so far im- proved on the occurrence, as to succeed, at the next session of the chambers, in passing three laws — one directed against the press; another allowing jurors to vote by ballot, and providing that a mere majority should in future be sufficient to convict, instead of two-thirds, as had hitherto been cus- tomary; and a third providing for the constitution of courts of assize, and the treatment of contumacious prisoners. On the 25th of June, 1836, a third attempt was made on the king's life, as he was leaving the Tuilleries in his carriao-e, by an enthusiastic republican name Alibaud, who was guillotined on the 11th of July. In December of the same year, the king narrowly escaped death at the hands of an assassin named Meunier, who was sentenced to death, but was afterwards banished. A fifth attempt was made on the 15th of October, 1841, by one Darmes, who was guillotined. The year 1842 was marked by two disasters. One was an accident on the railroad between Paris and Ver- sailles, which cost the lives of two hundred persons ; the other the death of the duke of Orleans, heir apparent to the throne, who was killed by being thrown from his carriage. In 1838, the refusal of the government of Mexico to in- 440 HISTORY OF FRANCE. demnify France for losses sustained during the troubles of that republic by French citizens, led to an attack by Rear Admiral Baudin, upon the city and castle of Vera Cruz, which were greatly injured by the bombardment, and taken possession of, November 28th. AVar was declared by Mexico, but through the intervention of Mr. Packenham, the British minister, an amicable arrangement was effected. In the year 1840, a treaty was made in London between Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, settling the question of the possession of Syria by the pacha of Egypt, without reference to the decision of France. This led to violent expressions of feeling from the French people, who believed their nation insulted : the ministry breathed the same spirit, and the king consented to the augmentation of the army to six hundred and thirty-nine thousand men. The plan for the fortification of Paris, as it was called, for- merly rejected by the chambers, was now resumed by Thiers among his other preparations for war, and this would seem to be the only object arrived at, by the king, in apparently coinciding with the war feeling ; for he refused to allow his minister to denounce the treaty of July formally to the chambers, and to ask for further warlike preparations. Thiers, in consequence resigned, and a new ministry was formed, of which the master spirit was Guizot. That statesman continued the fortification of Paris, and coincided fully with the wish of Louis Philippe to preserve the peace of Europe. He remained at the head of government from 1840 until the revolution of 1848. By every means in his power he preserved his country from European hostilities, brought about an exchange of visits between the sovereigns of England and France, and promoted on all occasions the intrigues of the king for the aggrandizement of the royal family, and its establishment by intermarriages with other courts of Europe. But his internal policy was characterized by pride and a disposition to encroach on the liberties of the people. During the whole term of his administration, the work of fortifying Paris was continued, until the whole city was surrounded by a girdle of fortifications of impreg- nable strength, the guns of which were expected to serve equally well in repelling a foreign foe or in crushing a revolt in Paris. But a storm, of which neither Louis Philippe nor Guizot dreamed, was soon to burst over Paris, sweeping, for a time at least, all vestige of royalty from France. REVOLUTION OF 1848. 441 Lamartine. CHAPTER XLV. THE REVOLUTION OF FEBRUARY, 1848.— DOWNFALL OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. The hearts Of all his people do revolt from him, And kiss the lip of unacquainted change. Shakspeahe. To the eye of political wisdom, the throne of France occupied by Louis Philippe, and supported by the learned and sas^acious Guizot, appeared stronger than ever it had been, since the days of the empire. Nothing appeared less likely than a successful revolution of the people ; nothing more probable, than that the vast fortifications of Paris, de- fended by hundreds of thousands of armed troops, would 442 HISTORY OF FRANCE. triumph over every attempt at reducing them, whether made by a foreign foe, or an armed populace. Nothing was more unlooked for by France and the world, than an effort to overthrow royalty ; nothing, consequently, could have been more astonishing, even to the actors of the eventful drama, than the terrible convulsion, which with the power of an avalanche, swept the citizen king from the monarchical cata- logue of Europe. The events which produced it are now to be narrated ; its remote causes we for the present postpone. For some time previous to the revolution of February, signs of discontent began to manifest themselves among the French people, although by means sufficiently well marked to authorize an apprehension that the scenes of July, 1830, were about to be re-enacted. A desire for parliamen- tary reform pervaded all classes; opposition to the ministry was loud and firm, and no less than sixty-two popular as- semblages, denominated reform banquets, were held in differ- ent towns during the summer and fall of 1847. On almost all these occasions the king's health was omitted on the list of toasts, a circumstance which gave peculiar poignancy to the irritation with which such displays were regarded by the government. Emboldened by the enthusiasm with which the idea of reform was received at the banquets, the members of the opposition in the chambers resolved on hold- ing a monster banquet at the capital. These demonstrations alarmed Louis Philippe. He well knew that the acts of government would there be criticised with a boldness which might endanger his ministry, and in- volve France in the horrors of a civil war. He therefore determined to prevent the threatened assemblage at all hazards. Military preparations were^ordered on a most ex- tensive scale ; guns mounted on all the fortresses around Paris ; large stores of ammunition provided, and no means neglected which might crush any insurrection in the capital. On the 29th of December, 1847, the chambers met. In his speech, the king congratulated the members on the peace and prosperity of the country, intimating at the same time his determination not to deviate from the policy he had hitherto been pursuing. With regard to the reform question, he said, " The more I advance in life, the more I dedicate with devotedness to the service of France, to the care of her interests, dignity, and happiness, all the activity and strength which God has given, and still vouchsafes me REVOLUTION OF 1848. 443 Guizot. Amidst the agitation that hostile and blind passions foment, a conviction animates and supports me, which is that we possess in the constitutional monarchy — in the union of the great powers of the state — sure means of overcoming all those obstacles, and of satisfying all interests, moral and material. Let us firmly maintain according to the charter, social order, and all its conditions. Let us guarantee accord- ing to the charter, the public liberties and all their develope- ments. We shall transmit unimpaired to the generations that may come after us the trust confided to us, and they will bless us for having founded and defended the edifice under shelter of which they will live happy and free." The debate on the address, replying to the royal speech, was protracted through nineteen sittings. The ministers declared their determination to prohibit the reform banquet; the opposition members announced their resolution to attend it — each party appealing to the law in justification of its re- spective views. At length the government intimated that the banquet might take place under a sort of compromise. They demanded that a single commissary of police should be stationed at the door of the banqueting hall, to warn those 444 HISTORY OF FRANCE. attending of the illegality of their proceedings, and then withdraw. On the 12th of February, after the paragraphs of the ad- dress had been voted separately, a division took place on the whole collectively. The opposition refusing to vote, two hundred and forty-one votes, out of two hundred and forty- four, were given for the ministers. The opposition depu- ties assembled next day, and resolved unanimously, not only to attend the banquet, but also, that no member of their party should participate in presenting the address to the king, even though chosen by lot to do so. Before adjourning they prepared a manifesto, fixing Tuesday, the 22d of February, as the day for the banquet to take place, and inviting the national guard, and students from the universities to be present. This call upon the national guards alarmed the govern- ment. It is true that they were to appear without arms, but at the same time to be drawn up in regular line, with the officers at their head. Dreading the result, three pro- clamations were issued by GeneralJaqueminot, commander- in-chief of the guards, Delessert, prefect of police, and by government, positively forbidding the holding of the proposed meeting. When this was made known in the chamber of deputies, the doors were suddenly burst open, and two hun- dred and fifty deputies rushed to their places. In five mi- nutes the hitherto almost empty room was filled to overflow- ing. M. Odilon Barrot immediately arose, and amid the most intense excitement of all around, denounced the new measure of government, and charged them with the respon- sibility of what might happen. He was answered by M. Duchatel, minister of the interior. Debate ran high, and the excitement was so great that occasionally the speakers could not be heard. At six o'clock the chamber adjourned in a perfect tumult. The proclamations of the government authorities were placarded at the place of meeting on Monday evening. When the fact of the suppression became generally known in Paris, it produced a scene wild and extraordinary. One of the evening papers could be procured only by main force. When the fortunate purchaser had fought his way through the crowd, with the paper crushed in his hand, to save it from being snatched from him, he was besieged by crowds of anxious listeners, to whom the bontents were read by the REVOLUTION OF 1848. 445 Odilon Barrot. light of the nearest lamp, or shop window, or of torches held by the crowd. Boys carrying papers to the stands where evening papers are sold, were intercepted, and the papers forced from them by competitors who seemed willing to pay any price. Meanwhile government was not idle. During Monday night, military wagons and artillery caissons, escorted by cavalry, were continually passing along the line of Boulevards, which connects Vincennes with the quarter of the Tuille- ries and Bourbon palace. Orders had been issued to con- centrate troops around the chamber of deputies, on Tuesday morning ; passports were delivered to all those whose business or offices called them to the chamber ; the garrison was in- creased to one hundred thousand men ; while besides the usual military arms, each company carried hatchets, adzes, picks, and other implements suited to the demolishing of barricades. Early on Tuesday morning, [February 22,] numbers of people, belonging chiefly to the labouring classes, were moving through the avenues leading to the Champ Elysees. At noon, the vast area between the chamber of deputies 38 446 HISTORY OF FRANCE. and the Madeleine church was thronged with a multitude which, for a while, numbered thirty thousand persons. About noon a procession was formed, which marched to the hotel where the meetings cf the opposition had usually been held. The object of this movement was not to support the banquet, which had been abandoned by the popular leaders, but to demand a change of ministers. The same request had been made by a deputation of students, who had already presented a petition to that effect. On hearing the sum- mons to disperse read to them, the crowd adjourned. Mean- while, on the river side of the chamber of deputies, about five thousand of the populace were engaged in escnlading the railing and walls of the garden. Some succeeded in gaining the interior, when they rushed into the reserved parts of the gallery, from whence they were soon ejected by the troops. The mob then retired, singing the Marseillaise hymn, and crying "Down with Guizoi!" By this time the crowd around the church of the Madeleine had become most formidable. The regiment which had arrived was drawn up in line along the railing of the church, and were soon joined by several squadrons of the municipal cavalry. The people were then requested to disperse, and on their refusing to do so, were charged by the dragoons. At first the troops did not draw, but finding their onset without effect, they made a second charge, using the flat of their swords. By this means the mob was dis- persed without any loss of life ; and at one o'clock the main thoroughfares were cleared. In about an hour, the demon- strations again became formidable. The populace laughed at the efforts of the cavalry, and began the erection of barri- cades, and the plunder of powder stores. All the avenues leading to the Bourbon Palace were occupied by foot, mu- nicipal guards, and troops of the line. While one squadron was in constant motion to clear the Concord bridge, another was employed in dispersing a large mob, who were singing the Marseillaise hymn, and crying " Down with Guizot!" Meanwhile, the chamber presented a gloomy aspect. At first few deputies were in attendance; the benches of the opposition were completely vacant. At an early hour M. Guizot arrived, looking pale, but confident. At three o'clock the opposition took their seats, and business continued until five. After this Odilon Barrot ascended the tribune, and deposited on the table a formal proposition for impeaching REVOLUTION OF 1848. 447 the ministry. It accused tliern of having betrayed abroad the honour and interests of France ; of having falsified the principles of the constitution, violated the guarantees of liberty, and attacked the popular rights ; of having, through the systematic corruptions of private interest, perverted the representative government ; of having, for ministerial pur- poses, trafficked with public officers, and other prerogatives of pow^er, and also wasted the finances of the kingdom ; of having violently despoiled the citizens of their constitutional rights ; and of having, by a policy overtly counter-revolu- tionary, placed in question all the conquests of two revolu- tions, and thrown llie country into a profound agitation. The paper was signed by fifty-three members, Barrot's name being first. The president dismissed the chamber without presenting it at that time. During the whole afternoon the skirmishing between the mob and soldiery continued ; but by midnight all the barri- cades erected during the day, had been thrown down, and Paris was throughout the night in possession of the troops, who bivouacked in the streets and market-places. On Wed- nesday morning all vehicles had disappeared from the public ways, their owners being warned by the fate of those seized on the previous evening. In several parts of the city the pavements had been torn up to supply weapons to the popu- lace. At ten P.M., new barricades had been erected in various quarters, at which conflicts were now held with the municipal guards. At the Place du Caires, two men and one woman were killed, and several persons wounded. At the barricade in Cadreu street a child was killed, two men and three women seriously wounded. At noon the market- places were filled with troops. Two pieces of cannon were mounted, one directed towards the Rue (street) Mont- martre, the other towards the Rue de la Ferronnerie. Both were ready for use at a moment's notice. The national guards of the second legion had assem- bled at an early hour in the Rue Lepelletier, fronting the opera house. They formed in two lines across the street, one division being at each extremity of the theatre, with the officers in the centre. One of their number being asked what had happened, replied that they had declared for reform. Shouts for reform and of "Down with Guizot!" broke from the surrounding crowd, and as if by magic the national guard declared for the populace. An hour after 448 HISTORY OF FRANCE. they were proceeding in full uniform to the Tuilleries. At one they returned to the Rue Lepelletier. At this monient a squadron of horsemen arrived, and were ordered to draw their swords. The ranks of the national guard closed, amid the reiterated shouts of the people. An interview took place between the leader of the squadron and the officer of guards, when the former quietly retired. By half-past two o'clock three more scenes of the same kind had occurred. The municipal guards, who occupied the unpopular position of the gendarmes of 1830, were now, by order of the government, mixed up with the troops of the line, on whom the people were lavish of their compliments and caresses. A column of cavalry and in- fantry, municipal guards, cuirassiers, and municipal guards and infantry of the line, arrived by the Boulevard at the end of the Rue Lepelletier. They made a move like the others as if to wheel info that street, but the attitude of the national guard made them pause, and immediately the word was given to continue their march, the people rending the air with cries for reform, for the infantry and the national guard. Again a precisely similar occurrence took place, but this time it ended with the absolute retreat of the troops, for they turned round and retired up the Boulevard. Such was the conduct of the second legion of the na- tional guard. The initiative, however, appears to have been taken by the third legion, who this morning, at the mairie of the third arondissement — Place des Petits Peres — declared for reform. The municipal guards, whose bar- racks adjoin the church of the Petils Peres, were ordered to disarm them, and advance to the charge with bayonets levelled ; but the movement was imitated by the national guard, the bayonets crossed ; blood was about to flow, when the colonel of the national guard, M. Textorix, cried out, " Hold, soldiers ! these are the people ; respect the people." The effect was electric. The municipal guards raised their bayonets, shouldered arms, and marched off. In this position of afl'airs, the officers of the national guard met in council, and agreed to inform the king through their colonel, with the demand for reform and a change of ministers. That officer immediately proceeded to the palace, but could not obtain admittance into the royal presence. He saw, however, General Jacqueminot, commander-in-chief of the national guard, who promised that he would instantly 450 HISTORY OF FRANCE. REVOLUTION OF 1848. 451 convey the message to Louis Philippe. The troops were meanwhile waiting with impatience for an answer, design- ing, in case of their request being refused, to march upon the Tuilleries. At the meeting of the chamber, M. Guizot announced that his cabinet had been dissolved, and that Louis Phi- lippe had sent for Count Mole in order to form a new ministry. In a moment after this news was made known to the people, who received it with the wildest bursts of enthusiasm. In less than half an hour it was spread throughout Paris. Hostilities ceased, the populace were in the highest state of exultation, victory inspired good humour in all, and all hoped for a speedy return of tranquillity. But the fair prospect was soon to be destroyed. At ten o'clock in the evening, large bodies of insurgents passed through the street hooting Guizot, and persuading the people to illuminate. Encouraged by their success, they made a formal proposition to the guard to illuminate Guizot's house. While the parley was going on — the street excessively crowded not only with insurgents, but a vast number of re- spectable persons drawn there by curiosity — the whole line of troops suddenly fired. Fifty-two victims fell dead or wounded. At first the people fled in consternation, but this feeling soon gave way to a thirst for vengeance. Then burst on the night air those terrible cries, " To arms 1" ♦' Down. with Louis Philippe ;" " Barricades ! barricades !" The pent up floods of that wrathful deluge, which had so long threatened the kingdom, now burst forth to overwhelm all opposition. The dead bodies were drawn away on a cart, surrounded by hundreds, who, while uncovering the ghastly wounds, shed tears of grief and rage. Breathings deep but terrible, like the lashing sea before a tempest, rose from the excited crowd. The star of the Bourbon dynasty had set. Amid the general uproar, M. de Courtais, an opposition deputy, hurried to inquire the cause of the firing. He found the colonel of the off'ending regiment greatly concerned at what had taken place. He stated that when the crowd ar- rived, a musket, which (as he erroneously supposed) went off by chance, broke the leg of his lieutenant-colonel's horse. The oflScer commanding the detachment supposed it to be the commencement of an attack, and with a culpable irre- flection commanded his men to fire. He was in consequence 452 HISTORY OF FRANCE. sent to prison. It was afterwards found that the shot fired at the troops was no chance one. It was discharged by Lagrange, the condemned Lyons conspirator of 1832, who according to his own confession, on finding that affairs were likely to take a favourable turn for royalty, determined on a desperate step in order to rouse the passions of the multi- tude. A few minutes afterwards another murderous volley was discharged on the crowd in the Rue de la Paix, which still further increased the popular indignation. Returning to the barricades, they worked all night with such assiduity, that on the following morning there was not a single lead- ing street in the capital without a fortress. Carriages, de- signed for the military, were stopped, emptied of their am- munition, and broken up for forts. All night the drums of the national guard called the soldiers to their posts. The defences of the municipal guards were attacked and taken, and every thing, even bags of money, committed to the flames. Many of the guards were driven away without clothing, others escaped only by changing their dress, while some were killed or burned to death. At every house the people demanded arms, which were freely given by the citizens. Meanwhile the attempt to form a ministry under Mole failed, and late at night the king sent for M. Thiers, that he might organize a cabinet. Before attempting to do so he demanded that M. Odilon Barrot should be one of his colleagues. To this the king acceded, and Thiers pro- ceeded to name his ministers. Such was the state of Paris on Thursday morning. At every successive hour the situation of the government grew more critical. News arrived each moment at the Tuilleries that the national guard were fraternizing with the populace, and the regiments of the line with the national guard. The whole population was arming, and before noon the military power had passed from the government. At eleven o'clock proclamation of the new cabinet was posted at the corners. The papers were instantly torn down ; and at the same mo- ment the dense mass moved rapidly for the Tuilleries and the Palace Royal. By twelve o'clock the whole of that quarter of the town was invested. In vain the new minis- try had gone among the people and exerted all their per- sonal influence to allay their fury. They were coldly re- ceived, and could effect nothing except to place themselves 454 HISTORY OF FRANCE. REVOLUTION OF 1848. 455 in danger. Before one o'clock a second proclamation was posted, declaring that the king had abdicated in favour of the Count de Paris, with the duchess of Orleans as regent. It proclaimed " a general amnesty, dissolution of the chamber, appeal to the country.'* But it was too late. Neither the dynasty nor its palace could be saved by so tardy a concession. Red flags were here and there hoisted among the mob, with the word republic rudely traced upon them. The ominous cry began to swell, " To the gallows with Louis Philippe !" At half past twelve, the attack on the Palace Royal commenced, and for an hour the firing upon it was excessive. It was carried by storm, and at the same time the Tuilleries surren- cered without resistance. As the people entered on one side, Louis Philippe with his family escaped on the other. The national guard marched in with their muskets shouldered, the muzzle downwards, followed by thousands of the people. A general ransack of the royal apartments commenced ; con- ducted with a strange mixture of order, enthusiasm, and inconsistency. While the worth of millions was destroyed with patriotic indifference, no one was allowed to appropri- ate to himself the least article, even though, from its nature, it could never revive the remembrance of royalty. One unfortunate man attempted to steal a silver spoon. Those who had just been smashing the furniture of the palace, compelled him to kneel, and after declaring that they thus served robbers, shot him dead. At the same moment the covering of the throne was being torn into shreds, and distributed among the mob. The throne itself was first broken to pieces, and then burned. All the king's private property was ruthlessly demolished, his carriages at the Chateau d'Eu were burned, many treasures of art in both palaces destroyed, and repeated attempts made to fire the Tuilleries. The money found there was carefully preserved, and subsequently restored to its true owners, while private property other than that of royalty was com- mendably respected. The king's papers, together with most of the documents of state, were thrown into the fire. In the chamber of deputies, the scene on Thursday was most extraordinary. It was not an inapt repetition of what occurred in the constitutional assembly, on the 10th of August, 1792, and of the decisive blow struck by Buona- parte on the 18th Brumaire, when with his grenadiers he 456 HISTORY OF FRANCE. turned the legislative body out of doors. At one o'clock the president took the chair, upwards of three hundred mem- bers being present. They gazed on each other with min- gled anxiety, alarm, and exultation. Half an hour afterwards the duchess of Orleans entered with her two sons, and the dukes of Nemours and Montpensier. The young count de Paris came first, led by one of the'deputies. With great difficulty way was made for him, amidst the crowd of officers and soldiers of the national guard. His appearance at the door caused a strong sensation, which soon broke forth into murmurs and hostile exclamations. Several of the people, however, rushed into the chamber with the young count, and placed him under the tribune. Immediately after the duchess of Orleans entered and seated herself in a chair, with her two sons beside her. By this time the passages and every vacant space was filled with such of the populace as had succeeded in pressing themselves in along with the national guard. The chamber was agitated in every part. M. Dupin arose, and announced the abdication of the king, and the regency of the duchess of Orleans. The scene that followed this announcement baffles description. One voice was heardabove the others exclaiming, " It is too late." The duchess and her children now appeared amid a group of depu- ties, (^See p. 461:) the national guards hastened to surround the royal family. The debate commenced — one long and stormy. During its progress a crowd rushed into the chamber, composed of national guards in arms and citizens carrying sabres, guns, swords, and flags. So great was the excite- ment that many of the deputies hastily retired, together with the duchess and her sons. The king's picture was shot at, and attempts made to tear it down. M. Lamartine, and M. Ledru RoUin mounted simultaneously on the tribune, but could not be heard. They wrote out, however, the names of members for a provisional government, which were car- ried about the chamber, on the top of a musket. AH the deputies then retired. At four o'clock the chamber was empty. Another terrible scene now took place at the Hotel de Ville, where, on adjourning from the chamber, the members of the provisional government sat to decide upon the course to be adopted. Suddenly the doors of the Salle du Conseil were violently shaken, and the people demanded aloud to have the first act of the provisional government communi- cated to them. Individually the great majority of the mem- REVOLUTION OF 1848. 457 REVOLUTION OF 1848. 459 Ledru KoUin. bers were opposed to the establishment of an unmitigated democracy. The populace, however, filled the hall, and completely overpowered them by demonstrations of their in- flexible purpose of seeing a republic in its most democratic form resolved on. In vain it was attempted to adjourn the question till minds should become calm. Every proposi- tion of that nature was met by menacing shouts, directed even against the most popular members of the government. M. Dupont de I'Eure, who made many attempts to defend the proposition of a republic in its less democratic shape, was compelled to silence by the most deafening shouts, and was so exhausted by fatigue and excitement that he twice fainted. M. Marie met with no better success. The anxie- ties he underwent had such an etTect on his countenance, that in leaving the meeting his own son could not recognize him. The populace willed that a pure democratic republic should be formed, and that every male above a certain age should be eligible to the national guard, and empowered to carry arms. Every attempt to oppose this, in however miti- gated a form, was the signal of renewed shouts of menace and indignation. The popular will prevailed, and resolu- tions were passed in accordance with it. 460 HISTORY OF FRANCE. The new government immediately issued a proclamation, declaring liberty and equality to all, and calling on the people to maintain order. The names of the members were MM. Dupont de I'Eure, Lamartine, Cremieux, Arago, Ledru RoUin, and Gamier Pages. They disbanded the municipal guard, and confided the protection of Paris to the national guard. The appearance of the mob at this time is most graphically described in the following account by an eye- witness. " Truly there was something in the aspect of that savage mob that might have appalled the stoutest heart. The wild, strange figures, I beheld among them recur to my memory like the shapes of an incoherent dream. Hideous faces, distorted with rage, gaunt with want, inflamed with liquor, came nearer and nearer ; some blackened with soot — some reddened with ochre — hundreds crowned with the terrible RED CAP. The fiercest and most reckless were of course in front. Amongst the motly crowd were figures that, under any other circumstances, would have excited laughter. I saw a great blacksmith armed with a delicate rapier, having a<;ostly hilt of sparkling steel and jewels. He eagerly be- sought a gamin next him to take this weapon in exchange for a great cutlass which the urchin carried, and which his strength was manifestly inadequate to wield ; but the boy disdainfully refused. There was a miserable object, clad in rotten, loathesome rags (through which his flesh showed in a dozen places,) carrying a tall spear with a broad antique blade, richly damasked, springing from a great tassel of gold and silk, and having for cross-piece a twisted serpent curi- ously carved in steel. A ragged boy had a pair of pistols with ivory stocks, and set with a large ruby ; and I saw him freely give one of these to an urchin as ragged as him- self. There was a man who had lost his gun offlering a hatful of cartridges for a sword — a bargain which was caught at in a moment. One had a butcher's hook — another a car- penter's adze — a third carried a heavy area spike, the tip of which showed as if it had been lately on the grindstone. Many had bayonets or short pikes fixed on the ends of broomsticks. I saw one man with nothing but a long piece of wire, about as thick as a stair-rod, sharpened at the ex- tremity. Sledge-hammers, crowbars, shapeless lengths of iron, gleamed amongst the weapons. I saw a man with a great scythe blade, another with a hoe, while a third carried REVOLUTION OF 1848. 461 REVOLUTION OF 1848. 463 in his hand a coil of rope with an iron weight at the end. One man toiled under a fluted iron column — a gas-post, pro- bably, torn down to serve as a battering-ram. Amongst the boys I noticed several with their aprons full of stones. " Suddenly a soldier's horse, richly caparisoned, broke loose, dashed into the middle of the place, and after stopping and looking around him, began to kick furiously. He was caught and mounted by a beggar with ragged trousers and naked feet, who carried a plank with a piece of red carpet nailed to it by way of a flag, and brandished above the red cap on his head a butcher's chopper. Thus raised, he seemed to think himself the leader of the insurrection ; but whilst he was bawling with violent gesticulations, the horse suddenly set off" at full gallop, dashed through the infantry, who hastily opened their ranks to let him pass, and disap- peared beneath the archway beyond — with his luckless rider, capless, flagless, hatchetless, clinging in terror to his mane. In the midst of this strange confusion two figures especially struck me : — one, that of a Turk in full costume, with his loose trousers, silk sashes, &c., who stood gravely, sword in hand, apparently well disposed for the fray ;* the other, that of a young woman, elegantly dressed in a richly-coloured velvet visile, who kept close beside a handsome young fellow with long hair, armed to the teeth with pistols, sword, musket, and bayonet. I set them down for a student and his mis- tress ; — they both laughed and talked eagerly — evidently enjoying the scene, and apparently indifferent to the danger. I could not see the girl's face, but I pictured her with the features of an antique heroine, glowing with dauntless love." During this time the king and queen passed from the palace through crowds of the people and national guards, and entered two small black carriages, with one horse each. In the first were two children. The coachman drove with frantic speed towards the channel. The remaining portions of the royal family were scattered in every direction. The duchess of Montpensier, after flying from the palace, wan- dered about the streets of Paris until five o'clock. She was accompanied by an old Spanish servant, who was ignorant of the French language. Being recognized by a citizen, she was taken under his protection, and on the 29lh of February • This was, perhaps, Achmet Pasha, son of Mohammed Ali, who is known to have fought gallantly on the popular side. 464 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Gamier Pages. reached England. The duchess of Orleans passed the night at the " Invalides." The dukes of Nemours and Montpen- sier were both separated from their wives during the flight, and could not rejoin them until after arriving in England. The ex-king and queen embarked for England on the evening of March 2d, in the English steamer Express. Both were completely disguised. They landed at Newhaven bridge, about noon of the 3d, and were kindly received by the popu- lace and authorities. Such was the fall of the Bourbon dynasty. Louis Philippe reigned seventeen years and a half; during no period of which can he be said to have been popular with the mass of his subjects. His political errors may be reduced to two classes. He neglected to furnish the people with objects of national interest on which they might lavish their proverbial resdess- ness ; while on the other hand, he sought the aggrandize- ment of royalty and his own family, even at the expense of pooplar rights. Throughout his whole reign he contended with the latent flames of republicanism and national military renown ; the first fostered by two revolutions, the second by the am- REVOLUTION OF 1848. 465 bilious genius of Napoleon. The policy of Louis Philippe was that of international peace — and especially during liie Guizot administration did his efforts to pursue it approach almost to weakness. Whether this were right or wrong, it certainly accorded ill with French ambition, and the popular remembrance of the conquests of 1808-11. Here was one grand difficulty under which the citizen king laboured. The nation longed to assist Poland ; Louis Philippe restrained it. It would have plunged into the eastern quarrel, but the king held back. For a little while the affairs of Belgium pro- mised a gratification of the martial appetite; but tlie course of Louis Philippe dampened the public ardour, and brought odium upon himself. The prospect of war with Mexico was clouded by the treaty with that nation ; and the antici- pated quarrel with the United States was prevented in a similar manner. To atone in some measure for this oppo- sition of views, the monarch should have embarked in com- merce, or some such active pursuit; but, unfortunately, he pent up that great outlet of angry waters — war — which had ever occupied so great a portion of popular sympathy, and at the same time prevented the opening of any other. The consequence was, that the accumulations of years burst like a deluge over its barriers, and swept king and kingdom be- fore. He saved Europe from a general war, but paid for its salvation in the ruin of his family. The second error of Louis Philippe was his selfish eager- ness to aggrandize the Bourbon family. His pacific policy was partly for the furtherance of this end. By means of assiduous negotiations, he intermarried his children and relatives with the other powers of Europe, thus strengthen- ing himself by the ties of consanguinity and domestic in- terest. Not the least of his political crimes was the attempts at suppressing the publication of all journals likely to oppose his favourite schemes. All mention of his measures, except in praise, was forbidden. All violent attacks upon any class of citizens, blame against government, all censures against either of the chambers, or criticisms on public insti- tutions were forbidden under penalty of fine or imprison- ment. Corrupt courts of law and packed juries were of frequent occurrence. The Court of Peers, appointed by the Crown, sat in judgment on newspaper writers and edi- tors ; printers and booksellers could be deprived of their licenses even without trial; few would venture to publish 2E 466 HISTORY OF FRANCE. an opposition paper, or in any way to censure the proceed- ings of government. Neither were the civil and religious rights of the people respected, as they had hoped would be the case in 1830. The manner of arrest, of trial, and of imprisonment, was frequently in defiance of the constitution ; and in political cases it was extremely difficult for the prisoner to obtain an acquittal. Public instruction was so much neglected that one half of the population were unable to read or write. Private meetings of more than twenty persons were forbid- den, if the object of assembling was politics. At the same time the expenses of government were enormous. The numerous diplomatic transactions with other European courts ; the protracted struggle in Algiers ; the frequent intermarriages ; the standing army of hundreds of thousands of men ; the belt of fortifications around Paris ; the im- mense number of public officers depending on the crown, made France poor, and paralyzed exertions which if pro- perly applied and fostered, might have given to the nation that commercial or manufacturing importance for which it is admirably adapted by nature and geographical position. These were the principal causes which led to the down- fall of Louis Philippe. In summing them up, we may ob- serve, that his foreign policy was in general commendable, but opposed to the character of his people ; his internal policy was marked by selfishness, added to a strange blind- ness as to the ultimate consequence. PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 467 Louis Bianc. CHAPTER XLVL FRANCE UNDER THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT The more the bold, the bustling, and the bad, Press to usurp of power, the more Behoves it virtue, with indignant zeal, To check their combination. Thomson. Although the day after the battle [February 25] passed away without any infraction of peace, it was one of strange tumultuous excitement. The streets were crowded with pro- menaders of both sexes, wearing more the appearance of cele- brating a festival, than reviewing the traces of a recent and bloody revolution. Notwithstanding the superficial mirth and forced hilarity of the citizens, the whole city wore a sad and desolate aspect. Pavements, trees, posts, portions of 468 HISTORY OF FRANCE. houses, had been torn up to construct barricades. The streets appeared as though an earthquake had suddenly destroyed all order, and heaved their contents together, in heavy confused masses. Near the residence of the minister of foreign affairs, pools of blood lay, fifty paces long. Quantities of blood were in other places, although not in the same amount. During the day all the detached forts around Paris surren- dered without resistance. Through the exertions of La- martine, order was in a great measure restored before night. With the most admirable courage and exertion, he moved among the still infuriated mob, exhorting them to trust in the provisional government, and rally for its defence. From the windows of the H6tel de Ville he five times addressed the people, and prevented an outbreak, which, once started, would have been the most terrible witnessed by France since 1793. By his suggestions, capital punishment for political crimes was abolished, and the tri-coloured flag sub- stituted for the fearfully emblematic red one. His words to the people on the latter subject are worthy of preservation. " To-day you demand from us the red flag instead of the tri-colour one. Citizens ! for my part I will never adopt the red flag ; and I will explain in a word why I will oppose it with all the strength of my patriotism. It is, citizens, be- cause the tri-colour flag has made the tour of the world, under the republic and the empire, with our liberties and our glories, and that the red flag has only made the tour of the Champ de Mars, trailed through torrents of the blood of the people." The effect of such oratory was all-powerful. While shedding tears, the populace seized the speaker's hands, embraced him, and bore him away in triumph. Soon after fresh masses of the people arrived, armed with swords and bayonets. Rushing into the doors, they filled the large saloons of the Hotel de Ville, and demanded the destruction of the provisional government. Terrible cries were now heard outside, where it was believed that the mob were massacring the members. Lamartine was again called for ; but when raised on a staircase, it was half an hour before he could be heard. During that fearful interval, weapons of every kind were brandished around him, yells of demo- niac fury rang along the walls, and all trembled lest he should be torn from his place and trampled under foot. His very calmness at length restored some degree of quiet, and then folding his arms, he commenced his address. It was PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 469 finished by softening, appeasing, and caressing the people, causing them either to withdraw, or unite as the safeguards of the new government. On the following day, the restoration of order was com- pleted. The public departments resumed their duties, business revived, and a more cheerful aspect began to pre- sent itself in the streets and places of public resort. Under the scientific direction of the students of the polytechnic school, the streets were partially cleared of the barricades, but in such a way as not to compromise the security against a surprise afforded by these popular fortifications. This enabled farmers to bring in their provisions, which by this time were greatly needed. The coach and cab drivers resumed their occupations ; the law courts their sittings ; fancy shops were reopened, and every means taken to calm the popular apprehensions. On the same day, Lamartine proclaimed to shouting multitudes the establishment of a republic, the abolition of the death punishment for political crimes, and other measures adopted by the provisional government. They had been deliberated upon and passed in a session of sixty consecutive hours, amid the infuriated yells of an intoxicated and distrustful populace. The abo- lition of capital punishment contributed, perhaps, more than any other measure to convince the irritated populace of the wisdom and moderation of their new leaders, and to save France, for that time, at least, from the horrors of anarchy and civil war. The unanimity with which the people ac- cepted their new rulers was strangely in contrast with the bitter prejudices they had previously entertained, thus form- ino- as sudden and remarkable a transition from one extreme to the other, as we have seen characterizing all the great events of this extraordinary revolution. Marshal Bugeaud on the part of the army, and the archbishop of Paris on that of the clergy, immediately gave in their adhesion ; while with regard to the middle classes, whether in Paris or the provinces, together with the entire press, there appears to have been litde hesitation. A few attempts to get up a legitimatist demonstration were either suppressed or treated with cold indifference. The Sabbath [February 27] was set apart as a day of festivity and rejoicing. The barricades had been removed, the streets were crowded, and every thing appeared as though the events of the week had been forgotten. At two P.M., the provisional government re- 40 470 HISTORY OF FRANCE. viewed the national guards, before the " column of July." In the evening, the city was illuminated in such a manner as to make the tri-colour conspicuous in the most important public buildings. Newspapers were distributed among the vast crowds, and to attract notice, the carriers proclaimed aloud that the ex-king was dead. Although in general both public and private property was respected, yet beyond the walls of the capital there was much wanton destruction. On Saturday, the king's beau- tiful country-seat at Neuilly was burned to the ground, although most of its valuable contents were saved. A large body of marauders then rushed into the cellars, where they found wine of all descriptions, and a cask of rum, which they broke open. After free indulgence, they commenced a furious battle with empty bottles, during which most of them were felled to the ground. Meanwhile, those above having pillaged the building, set it on fire, thus burning to death or suffocating their drunken comrades. More than one hun- dred dead bodies were dug out on Sunday. On the same day [Sabbath] the splendid mansion of the Baron Roths- child, at Surennes, was committed to the flames, under the impression of its being the king's property. On ascertain- ing their mistake, the mob, with ridiculous insolence, waited upon the proprietor, to apologize for their mistake. A gang of incendiaries proceeded to Maison Lafitte, near Paris, for the purpose of burning the bridge. The national guard im- mediately took arms, but not being sufficiently strong to oppose the mob, they were reinforced by a larger detach- ment, accompanied by a squadron of dragoons. These attacked the incendiaries, killed eight, took a number pri- soners, and saved the bridge. The greatest damage was that done to the northern railroad, where property was de- stroyed to the value of two millions of dollars. The gradual restoration of confidence between different classes of the populace, as well as with the government, was the work of the week immediately succeeding the revolu- tionary one. The provisional authorities immediately com- menced repairing the mischief done in the " three days," taking freely into employment all workmen at that time idle. As an additional security, a " garde nationale mobile" of twenty-four battalions, to be clothed and paid by the state. Twenty thousand of the most indigent youth of Paris were quickly enrolled and marched off for the frontiers. Satur- PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 471 day, March 4, was devoted to the funeral obsequies of those who had been killed among the people. The remains were wrapped in tri-coloured winding-sheets, and laid on fifteen open biers, each containing five or six bodies. The pro- cession moved from the Hotel de Ville to the Madeleine ; funeral rites were performed at the church ; then the pro- cession moved to the Place de la Bastile ; and finally the dead were deposited beneath the column of July. It was an interesting pageant. People assembled by myriads to gaze upon it. The day was beautiful ; and the bright sun shining on the clear outlines of the Grecian church, and glancing from the forest of bayonets glittering among hundreds of tri- coloured flags, formed a spectacle at once exciting and bril- liant. While standing in the centre, no end could be seen to the mass on either side. The procession from the church was led by national guards ; then Masters of Ceremonies followed ; then the Orpheonistes — pupils in classes on Wilhelm's system, with the Societe Musicale. These frequently sang, with an effect even sublime. Presently followed the clergy of the Madeleine, and the funeral cars containing the dead. As these passed, the "Marseillaise" was sung; one verse by the female voices alone, and then the chorus by men. As the hymn arose the crowd uncovered, and remained so till the cars, which were open so as to show the coffins under the palls, had passed. Other bodies followed, and then came the liberated victimes politiqites — among them, in carriages, the once Beau Barbes, now bent and worn by eight years' incarceration, and Hubert, both of them too weak for the fatigue of walking. More national guards succeeded, then the representatives of the various trades and callings, the families of the victims, members of the munici- palities, judges, freemasons, the pupils of the military schools, and the university, &o. To these succeeded such of the wounded as could bear the fatigue of the day; they were all young men. The cause for which they had fought was symbolized by the car of liberty, a colossal and gorgeously adorned vehicle, drawn by eight cream-coloured horses. This harmless exhibition was the only part of the pageant that bore any resemblance to the spuriously classical pomps of the first revolution. It is said that a bat never ceased to hover round the summit of the car during the whole proces- sion, until it arrived at the Bastile, where the creature dis- 472 HISTORY OF FRANCE. appeared, leaving the superstitious in a most amusing state of wonder and alarm at so dire an omen. The provisional government and the national guard closed the long line of march, which reached the column of July at five o'clock. In front of the column were erected two very lofty square altars, hung with black cloth set with sil- ver stars, and with the " sacred fire" burning on their tops. The bodies of the dead were consigned to the vaults, and the vast concourse dispersed, without a single untoward occurrence throughout the day. Impressive as was this scene, it had its incidents of folly, and theatrical heartlessness, equally with all the events of the revolution. In the first burst of enthusiasm, consequent upon the proclamation of a republic, the different persons appointed to register the victims' names had not had time to examine and verify each individual case submitted to them. This circumstance was taken advantage of by those having relatives lately deceased, who, by imposing on the committees, obtained burial for those dying a natural death, together with public support for their families. Another aff'air, of a somewhat similar nature, occurred on the 7th. The Tuilleries, it will be remembered, had been taken by an armed mob, many of whom had remained in or near it ever since the restoration of order. About two hun- dred of these self-possessors of national property, including among their number many malefactors of the blackest cha- racter, arrogated to themselves the title of "guards" of the Tuilleries ! They posted regular guards, sent for provisions and ammunition, and attempted something like social organi- zation. The authorities requested them to leave the palace ; but in vain. In the cellars were found excellent wines, and soon the charms of female society were added to their other enjoyments. The noise of balls, concerts, and similar enter- tainments, soon attracted the notice of the populace, who loudly expressed their indignation. The provisional go- vernment again requested the " guards" to leave the palace, but this they refused to do, except for a compensation of eighty thousand francs. This so exasperated the people, that they assembled in crowds outside, clamouring for the desired evacuation. At length Caussidiere, prefect of police, sent in a final summons to surrender. The garrison an- swered, that, having fifty rounds of ammunition to a man, they designed, in case of being attacked, to fire the buildings PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 473 and then fight their way out. But on ascertaining that vigorous measures were in preparation against them, they lost courage, and agreed to capitulate. Fifty escaped during the night of the 6th ; carrying with them jewels and money to an immense amount. The remainder surrendered on the following morning. On the 24th of February, the mob, on that*same spot, had shot one of their number for attempt- ing to purloin a silver spoon ; now the same mob gazed half stupidly, half angrily, at scores of robbers, who had revelled for two weeks in a palace, and were now bearing away treasures which would have replenished a kingdom's treasury. After the restoration of peace, the new government turned its attention to the subject of electing permanent officers for the republic. The arrangements necessary to enable a na- tional election to take place constituted a gigantic task. The mode of ballot, the rate of representation, the naming of polls, and the qualifications of both voters and candidates, had all to be arranged for a population of some millions of freemen, unaccustomed either to choosing their rulers or ruling themselves. The 9th of April was at first named as the day of election, but this was subsequently changed to the 23d and 24th. The provisional government decided that the new constitution should be drawn up by a constituent assembly, to be elected by the people. A decree was ac- cordingly published, proclaiming that the election should be based on the number of the population; that the total num- ber of representatives should be nine hundred, including Algeria, and the colonies ; the representatives to be divided among the departments ; the suffrage to be direct and uni- versal ; every Frenchman twenty-one years of age to be an elector, unless deprived of civil rights ; every citizen twenty- five years old, to be eligible if in possession of civil rights ; that the ballot should be secret ; that all electors should vote at the principal town of their cantonment ; that each repre- sentative should receive during the session of the assembly twenty-five francs per day. Soon after the publication of this decree, two official cir- culars were issued on the same subject by M. Carnot, mi- nister of public instruction, and Ledru RoUin, member of the provisional government. The former was of an excep- tionable character, and met with general disapprobation. The other made an open appeal to the revolutionary flame 40* 474 HISTORY OF FRANCE. still smothering, and declared that it was the duty of the people to elect a certain class from their own number, even though ihey would be obliged to resort to another overthrow of government. On the appearance of this dangerous paper, a deputation of the club appointed for the liberty of elections, waited upon the government to remonstrate against the doc- trine. Lamartine replied at considerable length, virtually disavowing the document. " The provisional government," he declared, " had not directed any one to speak in its name to the nation, and especially to speak a language superior to the law." Not long after a proclamation appeared in the name of the whole government, calculated to remove the bad impression caused by Ledru Rollin's circular. The cor- rection was ill received by the minister of the interior. This was palpably manifested during the deliberations of the pro- visional government, on the night of March 15th, when after making a proposition which was rejected, he threatened that unless it was reconsidered and agreed to, he would call in the people assembled in the court, and appeal to their sympathies. On hearing this, M. Gamier Pages immedi- ately arose, drew a pistol from his pocket, and declared that he would shoot Rollin through the head, should he attempt the execution of his threat. Here the matter dropped. But notwithstanding his unpopularity with the public mi- nisters, Ledru Rollin pursued his favourite schemes with unabated vigor ; and so well was he seconded by his agents in the different departments, that many of the latter were on the eve of plunging into a civil war. One of these functionaries assumed authority to double the taxes in Lyons, and prohibit all persons who left the town from carrying with them more than five hundred francs. The ultra-republican clubs in Paris, indulged in the most inflam- matory language, threatening to attack the national assembly, unless it should be entirely formed by men of their own party. Meanwhile the working classes, disgusted with the surrounding quietness, and craving excitement, amused them- selves by planting " trees of liberty," thrciughout Paris. Even the clergy joined in this work, sprinkling the roots with holy water, and performing other idle ceremonies. At night, houses were illuminated, volleys of artillery fired, and similar demonstrations made by the different mobs. The spirit of revolution and anarchy was kept alive by inflamma- tory addresses, posted throughout Paris, and appealing to the PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 475 lowest feelings of the community. " The elections," ob- served one of these documents, " if they do not cause social truth to triumph — if they are but the expression of the inte- rests of a caste, extorted from the confiding loyalty of the people — the elections, which should be the safety of the republic, will be its ruin : of that there can be no doubt. There would be then but one means of safety for the people who made the barricades — it would be to manifest a second time its will, and to adjourn the decision of a false national representation. * * * * Paris looks on herself with reason, as the representative of all the population of the national territory. Paris is the advanced post of the army that com- bats for the republican idea. If anarchy works in the dis- tance — if social influences pervert the judgment or betray the will of the masses of the people, dispersed and scattered, the people of Paris believe and declare themselves guardians of the interests of the whole nation." The consequences of such appeals soon manifested them- selves. On Sunday, April 16th, an attempt was made to overthrow the moderate section of government, and substi- tute for it the so-called committee of safety. This plot was, however, defeated by the prompt and cordial support given to the cause of order by the national guard. As though by magic, two hundred thousand men, of all ranks and condi- tions, rallied around the government. At the same time, the great bulk of the working nxen of Paris, emphatically declared their adhesion to the honest and rational portion of the provisional government, thus separating their cause from that of the selfish demagogues, and spurious philanthropists, led by Ledru Rollin and others. This event proved the good policy of admitting the workmen into the national guards, since it is probable that in case of being excluded, they would have been made tools of the revolutionary fac- tions. Lamartine and his colleagues found their hands greatly strengthened, and were enabled to bring back the army to Paris, without danger to themselves, and with the entire approbation of the citizens. A still more formidable demonstration made by the clubs and "trades," was sup- pressed by the firmness of the national guard. No lives were lost. On Thursday, April 20th, the grand fete of fraternity to celebrate the return of ihe troops of the line to Paris took place. That day the city presented a sublime 476 HISTORY OF FRANCE. spectacle. Three hundred thousand armed men and as many spectators, were mingled together for seven or eight hours with the greatest cordiality. The illumination in the evening was brilliant and general — even the suburbs being lighted. Meanwhile, the election for representatives to the National Assembly had taken place, [April 23-4.3 They excited great and universal interest — there being reason to suppose that the republic was not as popular in the provinces as in Paris. Two great parties existed. One composed of moderate men, favourable to the republic, and opposed to the wild schemes of Ledru RoUin and others of his stamp ; the other denouncing Lamartine and the provisional govern- ment, demanding a common distribution of wealth for the whole nation, and interpreting the words liberty and equality to mean, the privilege of doing as they pleased, and of re- ducing all, except themselves, to poverty. Amid scenes of great excitement, the elections took place at the time ap- pointed. In several places disgraceful riots occurred, while in others, especially in Paris, thousands abstained from voting, thus proving, that although ready enough to take part in a military revolution, they cared little about any other manner of securing liberty. The republican party were eminendy triumphant. Late on Monday night, April 24, the ballot boxes were closed, and the elections terminated. The general examination of votes was reserved for the 28th, when the senior mayor of Paris presided. The candidates who obtained more than two thousand votes were then pro- claimed by the mayor " representatives of the people." Their number had been previously fixed at nine hundred. Lamartine was elected by nine of the principal cities of the republic. The announcement of the names was received by the people amid the wildest shouts of enthusiasm. The 4th of May was the day chosen to publish to the people official notice of the new republic. On that day an immense multitude assembled at the Place de la Concorde, on the bridge, and around the national palace. At the re- quest of General Courtais, commander of the national guard, the whole assembly appeared before the people, and pro- claimed the republic amid the waving of innumerable ban- ners, the firing of artillery, and the shouts of the delighted multitude. A resolution passed the previous day to liberate all slaves, either in France or her colonies, and to deprive PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 477 of citizenship any one engaged directly or indirectly in the slave trade was received with rapturous applause. On the following day, the assembly met at noon, and after receiving a verification of their powers, entered into an election for president. M. Buchez was chosen by a large majority. The members of the provisional govern- ment then appeared, and one by one submitted reports of their proceedings since the 24th of February. Their re- signations were then received, and the thanks of the country tendered to them. On the following Wednesday, the assembly appointed five of their number as an executive committee, to act in place of the provisional government. These names were Arago, Gamier Pages, Marie, Lamartine, and Ledru RoUin. Meanwhile, the doctrines of the ultra-republicans — the questions of socialism and communism had excited scenes of a rather serious character at Rouen, Elboeuf, and other manufacturing towns. In the former place, a report had been circulated that M. Deschamps, the communist candi- date, would not poll the number of votes necessary to his election, and in consequence groups of workmen began to collect, crying "Down with the National Assembly!" " Down with the aristocrats !" They were dispersed, how- ever, by the dragoons. The night passed away without any serious occurrence, but on the following morning the disorder was renewed with alarming violence. The people threw up barricades, skirmishes were carried on until sun- set, and at night the national guard were assaulted by volleys of stones. At length the troops fired, killing ten or twelve of the rioters, and by a vigorous charge compelling the re- mainder to disperse. On Friday the riots were renewed, and more blood shed ; but the soldiery having been rein- forced by the garde mobile of Paris, were enabled to restore order by Saturday morning. Twenty-two lives had been sacrificed. The avowed object of these movements was to bring about a reaction in the new republic, favourable to the dissolution of the then existent condition of society, and establish their absurd schemes of a community of goods and manners. Though often defeated, the advocates of this theory, led by the celebrated Louis Blanc and others, clung to their opinions with fanatical tenacity, and watched gloomily for the moment when they would be favoured by fortune to assert them with force of arms. 478 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Armand Marrast. CHAPTER XLVII. FRANCE UNDER THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.— REBEL- LION OF JUNE 1848. Yet famine, Ere clean it o'erthrow nature, makes it valiant : Plenty and peace breed cowards ; hardness ever Of hardness is mother. Shaksfeabe. The operations of the provisional government had been conducted in such a manner as to disarm in a great measure the bitterness of faction, and induce all parties to hope for the accomplishment of good to themselves. It was no doubt this hope — the expectation of good to follow — which contributed largely to- the maintenance of peace, and the abolition, to a great extent, of mob law. So long as the FRANCE UNDER THE ASSEMBLY. 479 curiosity of men can be kept in a state of excitement, they may easily be persuaded to suspend darling designs, by the prospect of having them executed without trouble to them- selves. But no sooner did this state of suspense termi- nate — no sooner had the temporary government resigned in favour of the substantial one — no sooner had the long ex- pected relief gratified the hopes of one party, and blasted those of the other, than the restrained waters of commotion burst forth, fiercer, from accumulated strength, and swept in torrents through the populace, charged with all the rancour, prejudice, and revenge of incurable party hatred. Royalty had passed away as a by-gone tale ; the flag of the repub- lic floated in triumph over deserted palaces, and the shout for liberty, equality, fraternity, was on every tongue ; but republicanism was to have its day of darkness ; the song of freedom was to be changed for the yell of battle ; and the manes of royalty, rising dark and horrible over the ruins of thrones and sceptres, was yet to make one terrible struggle for revenge. The first serious outbreak occurred on the 15th of May. Early in the morning, the Paris clubs, and an immense assemblage of the people, met in the capital to express sympathy with the Polish patriots, who had lately attempted a revolution. The most inflammatory addresses were made, the National Assembly denounced, and red flags hoisted side by side with others bearing emblems of the feeling for Poland. They finally appointed a committee to present petitions to the assembly, requesting French intervention in the Polish quarrel. An immense crowd, numbering more than fifty thousand persons, followed the deputies to the national chamber. Meanwhile, the assembly had convened at noon, a num- ber of national guards being posted outside in order to pre- vent an outbreak. Discussions commenced on the relations with Italy and Poland ; but after some time they were inter- rupted by the noise of loud and prolonged shouting from outside. This became louder at every moment, until at length speaking ceased in the assembly, and was succeeded by the dread, fearful silence of men waiting some antici- pated though indefinite crisis. In a short time a violent knocking was heard at the door, which in a little while was forced open. Amid great agitation, M. Degousse ascended the tribune, and announced that the commander of the na- 480 HISTORY OF FRANCE. tional guards, General Courtais, had allowed the mob to pass his soldiers without the least interruption. The ex- citement following this declaration is indescribable ; but before the members could decide upon any course of action, the tribunes at the end of the hall were invaded by an over- whelming crowd, bearing banners and branches of trees, and shouting for Poland. Those in the galleries, including many ladies, rushed in one mass to the door, but the representa- tives entreated them by voice and signs to remain, as the mob outside would prevent all egress. M. Clement Tho- mas then ascended the platform, to present the petition, but could not be heard. M. Barbes, one of the leading sup- porters of the Communist party, followed, but his voice also was drowned in the tumult. A shot was heard outside, and a second crowd poured into the chamber, with deafening shouts, and were soon joined by numbers from the galleries, who descended from a height of forty feet, by sliding down the pillars. Men were knocked down and trampled on, the females rushed from the hall, the seats of deputies and re- porters were invaded, some of the representatives borne down by the press, and a scene of uproar and anarchy en- sued which no language can describe. The noise of the angry multitude resembled the loud thunderings of a cataract. At length the appearance of Louis Blanc near the president's chair, caused a slight cessation, which he improved by pro- posing that the petition in favour of Poland be read. Amid deafening cheers, M. Raspail then read the petition, the conclusion of which was received with shouts that lasted several minutes. M. Blanqui, a prominent member of the clubs, then succeeded in making himself heard. After ex- patiating on the necessity of France having a " strong will and a universal determination" manifested in favour of Po- land, he reverted to the massacres of Rouen, and demanded that the prisons of that city should be opened, and all per- sons confined there for the late disturbances set at liberty. He declared that the people had been neglected by the pro- visional government, and that the national assembly " must, without intermission, without stop, without manifestation of fatigue, continuously concert together to give work, to give bread to the people. After being rapturously cheered, he was followed by M. RoUin, who, after speaking of the justice of their demand in favour of Poland, and of the " admirable good sense of the people of Paris," de- FRANCE UNDER THE ASSEMBLY. 481 clared that without doubt the assembly would bestow proper attention to the subject, and that consequently the people should withdraw. The latter request was re- ceived with murmurs of dissatisfaction, and cries of " Let it vote at once." " The matter has been sufficiently debated." " We have enlightened the assembly." After much con- fusion, M. Barbes again appeared in the tribune to address the crowd. " A fixed tax of a milliard," he said, " shall be levied on the rich to carry on the war with Poland." " All the cheers of the day," says an eye-witness,* " were mere trifles to that which now burst forth ; I thought it would never cease." Great confusion followed, amid which M. Hubert, a political prisoner under the former government, mounted the tribune, and cried, " Citizens, I proclaim in the name of the sovereign people of France, that the national assembly is dissolved." The scene following this annun- ciation is incapable of description. The mob was mad with ecstacy. Once commenced, the demand for redress knew no bounds. Another contribution of a thousand millions of francs was levied upon the rich for the benefit of the poor. An executive government, composed of Barbes, Albert, Louis Blanc, Flocon, Blanqui, Raspail, and Cabet, was im- mediately appointed. Finally, M. Barbes demanded the re-establishment of the guillotine. At that terrible word the dread spirit of anarchy rose with haggard aspect over Paris, and sent up a shriek of war and desolation at which France and Europe grew pale. As soon as the attack on the national assembly was known throughout Paris, the alarm drum calling the army together was beaten. With admirable promptitude the national guard rallied for the republic, crying that they had been be- trayed by their general. Two legions went towards the national assembly, and were joined by several of the repre- sentatives, asking arms. The remaining legions, with de- tachments of the "garde mobile," bodies of infantry and cavalry, and a battery of artillery proceeded to the Hotel de Ville, to capture the several " provisional governments" who had located themselves there. In the second legion were Lamartine and Ledru Rollin, side by side, on horseback. The people hailed them with enthusiasm, shouting for the assembly. After capturing about one hundred persons at • Correspondent of the New York Herald. 41 2F 482 HISTORY OF FRANCE. the Hotel de Ville, they proceeded to the representative hall. The two distinguished members were almost borne in the arms of the multitude — M, Lamartine shaking hands with thousands on each side, and with tears in his eyes, thanking them for their devotion to liberty. Between six and seven o'clock, P.M., the legions outside of Paris entered it, by all the barriers, in order to offer their support to the national assembly. In a short time the mob were dispersed, and their most prominent leaders, Barbes, Albert, Blanqui, Ras- pail, and Sobrier thrown into prison. Quiet had scarcely succeeded these terrible commotions, when the citizens of Paris were summoned by government to the great national festival of Concord, in honour of the republic. It was held Sunday, May 21. The proces- sion moved from the Place de la Concord to the Champ de Mars. In front were the members of the provisional go- vernment, and representatives to the national assembly, fol- lowed by the mayor, M. Marrast, and municipalities of Paris, wearing tri-coloured scarfs ; then the delegates of the differ- ent departments from Calais to the Pyrenees, each with its appropriate banner ; the delegates of the emancipated blacks, and of the Germans, Italians, Belgians, and Irish. After the delegates marched the various trade corporations, with specimens of their respective productions, and occupying triumphal cars or other vehicles, each drawn by four horses. These were followed by the wounded of February, suc- ceeded by judges and members of the law courts in robes of office. Next, surrounded by flags, was the colossal statue of the republic, drawn by four horses, and followed by bands of choristers, chanting national or patriotic hymns. The latter included a party of five hundred young females, dressed in white muslin robes, with tri-coloured ribbons on their shoulders, and wreaths of flowers on their heads. They were followed by soldiers on foot and horseback ; pupils from the military schools ; cars emblematic of agriculture, the arts, sciences, and professions, with an endless variety of other gorgeous spectacles, moving amid strains of music, the booming of cannon, and the shouts of the populace. In the evening Paris was brilliantly illuminated. The Champ de Mars, Champ Elysees, and Tuilleries were lighted by half a million of coloured and ten thousand Chinese lanterns. The lights for this affair cost two hundred thousand francs, and twelve hundred thousand persons participated in the festival. FRANCE UNDER THE ASSEMBLY. 483 This aifair was followed by serious disturbances with the workmen employed by government. With characteristic short sightedness, the public authorities had engaged so many of this class that in a very short time great financial difficulties were the consequence, and thousands were sud- denly discharged. This produced the usual consequences, so that it was found necessary to call out large bodies of the national guard. It was found on investigation that every species of roguery had been practised upon the government by many of the labourers. Many arrests were made, and the movement was, for the time, suppressed without bloodshed. A more serious demonstration ensued on the occasion of Prince Louis Buonaparte, nephew of the late emperor, being elected by some of the districts which had sent in double returns at the original elections. Although he was person- ally known to but a few of the population, and his election had been probably unknown to himself, yet such was the magic influence attached to his name, that he became in one short day, one of the most important men in France. On Sunday his name was echoed by all the holiday assemblies of the lower class, and the assembly began with justice to dread the popularity of so dangerous a member. On Mon- day appeared a new journal, entitled " The Napoleon," and devoted to the advancement of his cause. On the same day, crowds collected in the quarters leading to the national assem- bly, troops and national guards were called out, and all the excitement and commotion of a Parisian mob were brought into full developement, because — M. Louis Buonaparte was expected to take his seat in the national assembly. Many carried in front of their hats a ballot, on which was inscribed, in large letters, " Louis Napoleon ! long live the emperor ! down with the republic !" About five o'clock in the evening, the government issued orders of a decisive nature against the crowds assembled in the Place de la Revolution. Regiments of infantry and cavalry, with large bodies of the national guard, immedi- ately crossed the bridge in front of the Palace of the Assem- bly, and forming a junction with those already on the Place cleared it at the point of the bayonet. So rapid was the execution of this work, that though this Place is the largest in Europe, it was swept in five minutes. This done, a column of two thousand guards, after wheeling into order, moved in double quick time to the hotel of the minister of 484 HISTORY OF FRANCE. foreign affairs, and there halted. Meanwhile, the dragoons were advancing from the Place de la Revolution, driving be- fore them the people, who still cried, " Long live the em- peror !" The excitement continued for an hour or two after this; but ultimately the people retired after venting their displeasure in loud shouts. Later in the evening similar demonstrations took place, but were suppressed with but little trouble. Lamartine took advantage of the panic caused in the assembly by these proceedings, to propose that the laws of 1816 and 1832, forbidding the entrance of the Buona- parte family into France, should be enforced against the prince. The motion was adopted by acclamation — only to be repealed as hastily at a subsequent sitting. We now come to the opening of that terrible struggle which brought the working and middle classes of the repub- lic in direct collision, displaying Socialism in all its hideous deformity, and deluging the streets of Paris with brother blood shed by brother hands. Here the red flag of anarchy, carried by its hundred thousand worshippers, met and strove with the tri-colour of the republic ; and the history of that struggle will render the month of June, 1848, memorable in future history. Although differing so greatly in object, in the parties concerned, and in the final result, from the revo- lution of February, it was, however, the offspring of that movement ; and the connection between the two can be easily and distincdy traced. Three causes conduced to the victory of the lower order in February. These were their own united efforts, the co-operation of the military, and the apathy of the middle classes. But at the same time that monarchy was over- thrown, a difference displayed itself between the active and passive agents of the revolution. From the outset, the ope- rative and middle classes were at variance. They had em- barked in the revolutionary career from different motives. In their intentions, ideas, and aspirations, they were dia- metrically opposed. The working classes, or " Red Repub- licans," embued with the doctrines of communism, and demanding a regeneration of society, expected that the recent political change would be productive of a social revolution — that thenceforward the workmen of France would no more lack either occupation or adequate pay. But the middle classes did not share these ideas. Though conniving at the overthrowing of a corrupt monarchy because it was corrupt, REBELLION OF JUNE. 485 they wanted no red flag to give rise to another " Age of Reason." To them the old tri-colour suggested ideas of poUtical, not social change ; — ideas of republicanism, as dis- tinguished from tyranny — of an elective president instead of an hereditary chief — and of the old social principles go- verning free as well as despotic states, which hitherto had been the guides of mankind in all the peaceful pursuits of modern civilization. These two principles were first brought into collision, in the hour of their combined triumph over monarchy. It was when the infuriated mob met at the Hotel de Ville and de- manded of the newly constituted provisional government, the red flag as the national ensign. In the midst of diffi- culty and dangers of the most appalling nature, and when thousands of weapons were brandishing around, Lamartine stood up against the significant demand, and by his eloquence induced the mob to furl its flag and adopt that of the nation. But while the emblem was discarded, the thought remained. The orator had touched the imagination, not the heart of the multitude. The provisional government was composed of men from each of the dominant factions. The Communists saw their opportunity, and improved it to the utmost, labouring as- siduously in council and in public, to set in operation a train of causes which might produce the anticipated social change. The people were informed that the revolution which they had wrought should this time be turned to their advantage ; and that though often deceived before, yet in future labour and wages should never fail the working classes. During the first few weeks of the republic, these ideas gained ground rapidly, and whether understood by the other members of the government or not, they were at least acquiesced in. The acts of the provisional government at this time dis- play a strange want of prudence and foresight. National workshops were established by unanimous consent. The tax-paying community, already overburdened, were further taxed in order to support them. Although trade was at a stand, and as a necessary consequence of the late convul- sions, the middle classes daily lost some portion of the rewards of industry, enterprise, and economy, yet the lower classes received high wages, and were supported at the national expense, either in total idleness or in work, which being of little or no advantage to government, soon became a 41* 486 HISTORY OF FRANCE. public loss. The consequence was, that the workmen, flushed with success, flattered by all parties, and amused with fetes and festivals of the most gorgeous description, defended the new order of things with the same enthusiasm that had been so valuable in founding it. On the other hand, the middle classes — those engaged in trade and commerce — were unable to see the right of those who possessed nothing to live upon the substance of others. The dispute was not between republicans and monarchists, but between tradesmen and labourers. Matters were in this condition when the financial crisis ensued, and thousands of workmen were thrown simultane- ously out of employment, by the tottering government. The excitement attending this operation was fearful. The charm which had hitherto bound the lower orders to the provisional government was dissolved, and they were convinced that their rulers were either not able or not willing to revolution- ize society. The election of an anti-Communist national assembly convinced them that they had lost ground, and henceforth could expect little sympathy of operation with those who were to legislate in the name of the republic. Among the first fruits of their disappointed hopes was the rash and ill-conducted attempt of May 15, undertaken with the ostensible object of evincing sympathy for Poland. By a decisive exercise of their civil and military resources, the assembly broke up this plot, dispersed the mob, and im- prisoned its most active leaders. But notwithstanding this check, the flame of dissension continued to widen. One party prepared for a more vigor- ous attack, the other for sterner resistance. The object of the Red Republicans was to overthrow the existing govern- ment, and establish a republic of their own ; while the assembly resolved that if once called to arms by the faction of Communism, they would crush it for ever. The crisis was hastened by the necessity for disbanding the still large army of workmen — amounting to more than one hundred thousand men, and composed, not only of Parisian operatives, but of idle and dissolute adventurers, galley-slaves, and plun- derers, who, having flocked into Paris from all parts of the country, were consuming the vitals of the nation, at a moment when its strength was exhausted. The sincere operatives, aided by their villanous companions, entered into strict organization, appointed resolute commanders, and REBELLION OF JUNE. 487 secretly, but effectually made all preparations for the final siruw-gle. The first hostile demonstration took place on Thursday morning, June 22d, when a considerable body of workmen appeared before the Palace of the Luxembourg, and requested an interview with the members of the executive government. M. Marie consented to receive a deputation of five delegates. This being appointed, the leader announced himself as one of those who had invaded the assembly, upon which M. Marie refused to hear him. He listened, however, atten- tively to the complaints of the other four, and then answered at some length, with the hope of persuading them not to be led astray by dangerous and disorderly people, whose object was to instigate a rebellion against both government and society. He assured them of the good intentions of the government, which was deeply interested in their welfare, and was at that moment seriously considering what could be done for their good. But so little were the deputation satis- fied by these assurances, that on returning to their compa- nions, they announced that they had nothing to expect, and that M. Marie had called them slaves. A scene of distress- ing excitement followed. Assembling in one mass, they moved up the Rue de Bac, crying "Down with Marie!*' " Down with the assembly !" " Down with the executive committee!" and chaunting in chorus, "We will remain," " We will remain," in allusion to their determination not to leave Paris and retire to their homes. At the Faubourg St. Antoine and the Faubourg St. Marian, the crowd greatly increased, numbers arriving from different quarters during the whole day. In the evening they stationed themselves at the Place de la Bastile, crying out from time to time, "Long live Napoleon !" " Long live the emperor !" "Down with Marie !" " We will remain." Fears were entertained that they designed an invasion of the assembly; but fortu- nately for that body, these proved groundless. But at half- past eight in the evening, about five thousand persons proceeded towards the Hotel de Ville, and thence to the Faubourg du Temple, for the purpose of joining the other party on the Place de Bastile. This movement created so much alarm, that additional military force was called out, and kept under arms all night. Early on the following morning, [June 23,] alarming reports of the progress made by the rioters began to be cir- 488 HISTORY OF FRANCE. culated throughout Paris. It was soon ascertained that they had thrown up barricades in every quarter of the city, and were preparing for a desperate struggle. An eye-witness thus describes the appearance of the principal streets : " I found the shops in the whole line of the Boulevards all closed, the streets crowded with people anxious to know what was doing, the drums under the escort of strong pickets, beating to arms, and strong bodies of national guards gather- ing on the Place de la Bourse and the Boulevards. On approaching the neighbourhood of the Porte St. Denis, I was surprised not to see a single soldier or national guard ; but, on the other hand, I was equally surprised to see seve- ral thousands of the conspirators in possession of the whole of the district, and already strongly intrenched in barricades of the most formidable description. Across the Boulevard, and quite close to the Porte St. Denis, was an immense barricade formed of four or five omnibuses, several carriages, a huge wagon, and paving stones, taken from the streets, which were torn up for a considerable distance on both sides. A little beyond the Rue St. Denis was another bar- ricade, fully as formidable as the first, and composed of pretty much the same miscellaneous materials ; and still further on towards the Porte St. Martin, was a third barri- cade, not quite so large as the first, but still sufficient to be a powerful defence against a storming party. The end of the Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, was also closed up with a huge barricade, which prevented the approach of troops from the outside. The Rue St. Denis, the Rue Villeneuve Bourbon, the Rue de Clery, and the other streets abutting on the spot in possession of the conspirators, were similarly defended ; and thousands of gamins [armed youth] were industriously working with pikes and spades, tearing up the streets and adding to the defences. The mere enumeration of these extensive works shows how much time must have been spent in their erection, and it is wonderful to think that the authorities, who had been forewarned of what was doing, and who have since shown so much alacrity, in calling out troops, should have allowed them to have been completed without interruption. The barricades were defended by some hundreds of people, many of \«hom were not armed, or at least did not show their arms. They had a great num- ber of tri-coloured flags stuck upon the top of the barricades, with different mottoes inscribed upon them. The Porte St. 490 HISTORY OF FRANCE. REBELLION OF JUNE. 491 Denis, which was in the hands of the conspirators, was decorated with a black flag, and on the top of it were arrayed heaps of paving stones, apparently for the purpose of being hurled upon the heads of those who might attack it. The whole scene was a very curious and busy one. Every one seemed bent on completing the defences ; but there was no appearance of alarm, anger, or any excitement beyond that of their eagerness to complete their work." Before sunrise the general roll of the military drum was heard calling troops together from all parts of the city ; and soon dense columns of infantry were winding along the streets leading to the Porte St. Denis. At the same time, a strong body of troops of the line, with the second legion of the national guard, approached the barricades from the oppo- site side, thus surrounding the insurgents and cutting off all retreat. Immediately after a volley of musketry was poured upon the national guard, who returned the fire with spirit, and a sharp conflict commenced, which continued half an hour. At the same time, a battery of artillery was pouring heavy discharges of grape-shot into the barricades ; while on the other hand, fires of rifles and musketry were kept up upon the soldiers from the windows of houses on each side. Several were killed or wounded on each side, but the barri- cades were finally carried at the point of the bayonet. In this spirited conflict boys and even women participated, frequently appearing on the barricades waving flags and other emblems, having significant mottoes inscribed upon them. Several women were captured with the insurgents, and one or two afterwards killed. Meanwhile, the Hotel de Ville had been garrisoned by a large number of troops, who guarded all the streets leading to it, so as to prevent the erection of barricades. In the Rue St. Antoine, a barricade erected during the night was carried at the point of the bayonet ; and a like fate attended two others at the Palais de Justice. At the same time, the executive committee met at the Palais de Luxembourg, and were joined at ten o'clock A.M., by the president of the national assembly. Their most important act was the naming of General Cavaignac, then minister of war, as chief commander of all troops of the line, and other military forces in the department of the Seine. The general accepted the offer on condition of being allowed to take all steps of a military nature which he deemed proper, without inter- 492 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Women at the Barricades near the Porte St. Denis. ference from the civil authorities. On Saturday, the insur- gents continuing their operations with obstinacy in the Fau- bourgs St. Marceau, St. Antoine, St. Denis, and several other points, the assembly declared Paris in a state of siege, and appointed General Cavaignac dictator. Before evening he had suppressed the insurrection on the left bank of the Seine and the Cite. But the most terrible struggle of this day was at the Clos St. Lazarre, on the right bank. Pre- vious to the assault. General Cavaignac renewed his command for all persons to remain at their homes. The assailants fought with a desperation rarely equalled. At four o'clock two hundred men of one battalion of the garde mobile had fallen. Colonel Mitchell, of the artillery, was wounded in the breast. At six o'clock, the national guards of Amiens, and some artillery, with General Lamoriciere, and M. Duconex, a representative, at their head, joined their REBELLION OF JUNE. 493 42 REBELLION OF JUNE. 495 Death of M. La Roche. companions in a grand effort upon the Clos St. Lazarre. Previous to this, a party led by General Cavaignac in per- son, carried the first barricade of the Faubourg St. Antoine ; but all efforts to reduce the stronger position was vain. As an instance of the dreadful slaughter in this position, it is reported that of eight hundred men composing the seventh battalion of the garde mobile, only nine or ten escaped unhurt.* At this time the appearance of Paris was dreary in the extreme. At least three hundred thousand troops were under arms, against one hundred and twenty thousand of the insurgents. One-fourth of the city had either been ruined to build defences, or was so barricaded and garrisoned as to be utterly impassable. All day the heavy booming of cannon rocked the strongest buildings to their foundations ; while hundreds of dead and dying were borne through the streets or laid down to die. The hospitals seemed turned * On Sunday, at the barricade La Rochechouart, Roche, the editor of Le Pert Duchesne, was killed. He was summoned by the garde mobile to surrender, and having refused, the garde shot him in the head. In falling, a pistol, which lia Roche held in his hand, went off, and shot the garde mobile through the body. 496 HISTORY OF FRANCE. into charnel-houses. At night all the streets were guarded. Sentinels cried to each other from line to line, " Take care of yourselves." Persons walking in the streets were searched, and then escorted home. Sadness and horror were depicted in every countenance. Strange as it may seem, several of the public papers were at this time publishing articles calculated to infuriate the passions of the mob, and prolong the civil war. On ascer- taining this, General Cavaignac, with a firmness and prompti- tude which does him honour, immediately ordered their suppression, arresting at the same time citizen Girardin, editor of the " Presse." At the same time the publication of all placards on political subjects was strictly forbidden, unless emanating from the authorities. On this day (Sunday) the contest at the Pantheon was of the most determined character. During fifteen hours no cessation of the firing was perceptible. The attack was commenced by the eleventh legion, who after a gallant strug- gle, were obliged to give way. Two hours afterwards the garde mobile endeavoured to take the houses which sur- rounded it. Amid murderous discharges of grape-shot and musketry, these gallant youth pressed forward, until their loss became so great that they were forced to intrench them- selves in the Ecole de Droit. It was not until one o'clock, when the troops of the line arrived, that the combined forces succeeded in breaking through the railings of the Pantheon, and gaining the interior. This, however, was but a small part of the task. Several of the strongest barricades still remained to be attacked. For five hours more the artillery continued to be heard ; the slaughter on each side was ap- palling ; but eventually the coolness and perseverance of military discipline triumphed. At four o'clock the streets were free, and M. Payer, representative from the Ardennes, whose house had been invaded by the insurgents, succeeded in getting to the assembly. His details of the cruelties per- petrated by the mob are horrible. Several soldiers and gardes mobiles who fell into their hands, had their throats cut. A captain of cuirassiers had his hands cutoff; and an officer of rank, although severely wounded, was deprived of his feet, and then sent out on horseback. At the same time, it should be remembered, that many of these individuals were in a destitute and starving condition, driven to open resistance by bad men, who held out to them the most 498 history: OF FRANCE. REBELLION OF JUNE. 499 powerful inducements. These wretched labourers fought on, hour after hour, without uttering a cry, and died without a groan. At this stage of the rebellion, the archbishop of Paris waited on General Cavaignac in person, and tendered his services to go among the insurgents and endeavour to restore order. The general gladly accepted the offer, and immedi- ately issued orders that every facility should be extended to the venerable prelate. The archbishop proceeded to the Place de Bastille, bearing with him a copy of General Cavaignac's proclamation for hosiiUties to cease. On his appearance, the firino- on both sides was suspended, and almost alone, he fearlessly ascended the barricade, and opened his laudable mission. During this cessation of hostilities the combatants unwittingly came within reach of each other, and began mutual accusations, which were followed by personal scuf- fles. Suddenly the firing recommenced. The prelate was thus placed between the two parties, and almost at the same moment, a shot from an adjoining window pierced him in the groin. His servant, in endeavouring to catch him, was wounded in the side. He was borne away by the soldiers, and expired on Tuesday morning, at eleven o'clock. No single event of this unhappy rebellion, caused so much regret among all classes as the fate of this noble servant of Heaven. The insurgents positively denied all intention of doino- him injury, and it seems almost certain that the fatal shot was directed by some careless person, firing at random. On Monday morning the conflict was renewed with des- perate valour on both sides. The principal scenes of action were the Faubourg St. Antoine, the Place Maubert, and the neighbourhood of the Pantheon. The former surrendered at discretion, at eleven o'clock. The other places were stormed, and the garrison of each killed or captured. The last barricade attacked was at the corner of the Rue de la Roquette. General Lamoriciere, after having captured all the barricades in the Faubourg du Temple, arrived at the Place de la Bastille, from which he attacked the enemy's works with cannon and shells. A shell falling on one of the adjoining houses set it on fire, upon which the insurgents fled. From that moment, all the efforts of the leaders to rally the mob were ineffectual. They fled to the Barriere de Menilmontant, and thence into the country. During the four days that this insurrection lasted, the loss 500 HISTORY OF FRANCE. on both sides was almost incredible. Twenty thousand killed and wounded is but a small estimate, since thousands of victims were no doubt concealed from the authorities. Paris, amid all her revolutions, never witnessed so much slaughter among her own citizens, as was perpetrated during these four days. Thousands of prisoners were taken by the military; while the government seemed as much embar- rassed as to the proper method of disposing of their cases as it had been in suppressing the riot. Amid all the trying scenes of the insurrection the courage and zeal of the members of the assembly were eminently conspicuous. We have already mentioned, that one of them was wounded in the early part of the fighting ; and in different parts of the city several were continually seen, either endeavouring to restore peace, or exciting the soldiers to duty. On one occasion, General Cavaignac, when in view of one of the nio.si obstinate struggles of the whole affair, was accompanied by Lamartine, Caussidiere, and Pierre Napoleon, all of whom acted, in a manner every way worthy of their high position in the public estimation. The remaining days of this week were occupied in bury- ing the dead, repairing damages done to the city, and re- establishing order. General Cavaignac resigned his absolute power to the assembly on the 29th, a measure which was hailed with the most enthusiastic demonstrations of feeling. He was immediately created president of state, with autho- rity to name his officers. The city gradually resumed its wonted cheer, and government proceeded to ascertain the prime leaders of the rebellion. In this, however, they have hitherto been unsuccessful, although many labour under heavy suspicions, even including several members of the national assembly. For a few days subsequent to the suppression of this rebellion, troops continued to pour into Paris, until their number finally amounted to nearly three hundred thousand. Many of the Jiattalions travelled on foot, carrying with them ammunition, clothing, and large stores of provisions. All these troops were subsequently reviewed by government, many receiving posts of honour, and all were treated in the most attentive and grateful manner. General Chan- garnier was appointed by the president commander-in-chief of the national guard. Soon after, for the further security of society, the assembly passed a resolution to establish an REVOLUTION OF 1848. 601 REBEiiLION OF JUNE. 503 army of at least fifty thousand men around Paris, exclusive of the garde mobile, the republican guards, the gensd'arms, and several thousands of artillery men. On assuming com- mand, General Changarnier reprimanded one battalion of infantry, broke a colonel and five captains, and dissolved their companies, for surrendering to the insurgents. The resolution and promptitude displayed by General Cavaignac, vs'hile endeavouring to suppress the latent seeds of revenge and insurrection, were most admirable and praise- worthy. On the night of July 11, he received notice of another contemplated rising among the disaffected, and im- mediately despatched a sufficient force against some of their leaders, who were captured. In several places papers were found among the workmen containing inscriptions — " Fifty francs for the head of a garde mobile, forty for soldiers of the line, thirty for a national guard, and twenty for a guardian of Paris." Guards were placed throughout the length of every street, to prevent the assassination of citizens ; but at the same time every liberty was given consistent with the security of society from violence and pillage. Yet strange as it may seem, many were still anxious to renew the late struggle, and sought every opportunity to elude the presi- dent's vigilance, while prosecuting their seditious schemes. Monarchists and anarchists, foreign agents and the disaffected at home, united their sympathies with the rioters, and em- ployed assassins, convicts, and maniacs to carry out their views. But to each and every emergency General Cavaig- nac showed himself fully equal ; and the insurrectionists became daily convinced of a lesson they had needed for years — that they were under the authority of one who, dis- carding all false fantasies about freedom, and rising by untiring energy above a slavish deference to popular opi- nions, was determined to make law and order the basis of French government. On the 15th of July, Lamartine, in a great speech before the committee of foreign affairs of the national assembly, triumphantly vindicated the foreign policy of the provisional government, and refuted the base slanders which, since the revolution, had been heaped upon him. With respect to the vexed relations with Spain, he says : " From the time of Louis XIV. to JNapoleon, and down to Louis Philippe, all the attempts of France on Spain have brought ruin on our diplomacy. Our treaties, our alliances, our armies, 504 HISTORY OF FRANCE. have always come back to us in tatters or cut to pieces. Spain is not the road to the grandeur of France ; she can g'ive us no aid on the seas, since she has only ports that ai'e empty, deserted arsenals, and some dismantled frigates at Carthagena; she can furnish us no auxiliaries by land, for it is never on the side of the Pyrenees that the existence of France can be threatened. Speaking in a diplomatic sense, vv^e cannot and we ought not to see in her but one sole action — the action of a friendly country ; but we ought not to mix ourselves up with her government or her internal factions. Every other diplomacy in Spain is a deception, where much may be lost and nothing gained ; and a useless and dangerous occasion of coolness and rival influences with England. Would you have the proof that this diplomacy is the best for an influence ? If you would, look at what has passed. I instructed our agents in Spain to pursue the policy I have adverted to. I recommended them not to mix themselves up with any intrigues in Spain, and to abandon affairs to themselves. What has been the result? Why, that at the end of three months England has lost there all the ground she thought she had gained, and that in spite of the dynastic sympathies, which declared themselves at first against the republic, the favour of the government and the nation has. returned of itself, as a matter of justice, to con- fidence and good relations with us." In another part of this able speech is the following noble language : — " One word in reply to a reproach which cut me to the heart, in the speech of M. Napoleon Buonaparte. He said, 'The republic has no policy — no foreign diplomacy. I prefer ray bad policy to no policy at all. There are poli- tical follies which are glorious, which sometimes save the people, or at least do honour to the people whom they de- stroy.' He referred, to justify his declaration, to the four- teen armies of the convention, and the great wars of that heroic epoch of crisis and of glory. But he has forgotten one thing — that in the midst of its energies the convention was full of wisdom and moderation towards those nations and governments which did not attack France ; and that it had, and preserved allies, not only amongst the republics, but absolute sovereigns ; that it did not carry war into countries gratuitously, which had offered it peace; that its policy of fourteen armies was not a policy of choice, but of necessity and despair ; and that in this despair and necessity REBELLION OF JUNE. 605 alone, did the convention find, relying on the nation, the energy to raise these fourteen armies, and to bring about the triumph of the republic and French nationality. It was not the diplomacy of the convention, it was its heroism, it was the desperate heroism of the country. We are not in the same circumstances, thanks to the wisdom of that very policy you accuse ; but if we should be, we would find the same energy and the same support from the nation. As to the diplomacy of Napoleon. I am an admirer of all con- nected with him but two things — his idea of legislative organization at home, and his diplomacy abroad. As to his legislative idea, it was only a sublime but unintelligent re- action, in my opinion, against the democratic party, that he would regulate and restrain, but not destroy. All these institutions were opposed to revolution — the age and liberty. As to his diplomacy, it was only the diplomacy of the can- non. He tore the map of the world without one attempt to restore it; he mutilated with the sword all the nationalities, and all the natural alliances of France, without thinking of the morrow. After so much blood was spilled, and so much glory acquired, what remained to us ? Only his name. As to France, when she looked around her she found herself abandoned, suspected by all governments, odious to all na- tions ; with Poland, whose liberties she held in her hand, more enslaved than ever ; with Italy, which she had occu- pied for ten years, without having done more than accus- toming her to change of servitude, and without having implanted a single vital germ of independence. With Spain, animated by remembrances against us of an atrocious war ; with Germany, violated and usurped in all its territories ; with Russia, incensed even to her deserts ; with Europe, in short, charging all her defeats and all her resentments to the account of France. This may be called glory, I admit; but if it be called diplomacj'', it is at least a diplomacy that the republic should not imitate with my consent, so long as I shall have a voice in its councils. The republic of the 24th of February boasts of another diplomacy than that of the convention and empire — than that of despair or conquest. The influence acquired in four months by France, the im- possibility of seeing again formed against her a coalition, unless she herself renew it with her own hands, attests, whatever M. Napoleon Buonaparte may say, that there is a policy as democratic as national ; a policy as firm as mode- 43 506 HISTORY OF FRANCE. rate. It is this policy that the government of February has inaugurated, and of which I have no doubt the present government will follow the great outline, and the auspicious traditions." The 14th of July had been appointed for the holding of a great banquet, at which two hundred thousand workmen were to participate. Its occurrence was prevented by dis- closures of the most fearful nature, which, though perhaps exaggerated, display in a forcible manner the condition of the French community at that time. General Cavaignac was informed that upon a given signal, the members of the national assembly and heads of government were to be massacred, and the whole city was to be seized by the in- surgents. The consequences of such a plot being successful, may be imagined. The slaughter of the government offi- cers would have momentarily paralyzed the people, the guards, and perhaps the army itself, thus affording the in- surgents time to barricade the city, gain the chamber of the national assembly, and fortify themselves. At the same time, the masses, filled with wine and excitement, would have carried pillage and desolation throughout Paris. Such was the terror inspired among all classes by rumours of these designs, that General Cavaignac experienced the utmost difficulty in convincing the inhabitants that the means of government were sufficient to protect them. The excite- ment was increased by the occasional appearance at night of signals, similar to those observed previous to the rebellion of June. These were generally made by flashes of powder, on the tops of houses, or from the windows of upper stories ; and although each building where this occurred was quickly searched, the actors very often escaped. Soldiers were sta- tioned throughout Paris, spending the day on guard, and sleeping in the streets at night, with loaded guns and bayo- nets charged. Immediately after this occurrence, government passed a stringent law against the numerous clubs of Paris, which had lately assumed an attitude which endangered the exist- ence of society, the members either carrying arms them- selves, or exciting an armed resistance against every measure not in accordance with their views. By the new act, all clubs were to make known their existence to government, (if new ones, forty-eight hours before the time of organiza- tion,) with their times and places of meeting; that they REBELLION OF JUNE. 507 should keep a record of their proceedings, which was to be open to inspection ; reserve one-fourth of their seats for strangers ; have a government officer always present, dressed in his uniform, who was to have a seat reserved for him, and power to insert in the journal such words and opinions as he thought proper; and that all communication from club to club, should absolutely cease. These regulations produced the desired effect ; and the efforts of the president, cordially aided by those of the national assembly, rendered the city more tranquil than it had yet been since the days of Napoleon. In taking a review of the various incidents and episodes attending this rebellion, no one appears more singular or lamentable than the death of the archbishop of Paris. The details of this melancholy affair, as gathered from the narra- tives of eye-witnesses, may not be inappropriate in this place. On Sunday evening, the prelate, accompanied by two of his vicars-general, proceeded from the place of his interview with General Cavaignac, to the Place de la Bastille, where the combat still continued. In his progress he was sur- rounded by citizens, soldiers, and women, who, falling on their knees, implored his benediction, and invoked the bless- ings of heaven on his head. Some, however, more prudent than the rest, represented to him the danger which he would incur, without, perhaps, effecting his design. The arch- bishop answered, " It is my duty to offer up my life." It is said that he frequently repeated to himself — " It is well for the pastor to sacrifice himself for his flock." On reaching the scene of combat, he requested the colonel commanding to suspend his fire for a few minutes, hoping thereby, that the insurgents would do the same, and he might take advantage of the temporary truce to open a par- ley with them. The colonel assented, and immediately after the insurgents stopped their fire, and moving to the top of the barricade, held the butt-ends of their muskets in the air. The archbishop, with his two vicars-general, M. Jacquemet and M. Ravinet, advanced towards the works, preceded by a person carrying in his hand the branch of a tree, by way of reconciliation. Many of the rioters then descended into the street, some appearing peaceably inclined, others with menace in their features and language. With a misguided zeal, many of the prelate's friends now approached, fearful of his receiving injury from those who had shown them- selves deaf to every former overture of peace. This was 508 HISTORY OF FRANCE. contrary to the archbishop's express command, and the consequences which he had foreseen soon followed. Re- proaches and threats were exchanged, and personal struggles took place, the disastrous consequences of which the two ecclesiastics sought to prevent, in the name of religion and of the prelate, who had come to stop the effusion of blood. Amid these altercations, which seriously delayed the ac- complishment of the mission, a musket was unexpectedly discharged. Although it was not known on which side this had taken place, nor whether it was intentional or not. It was the signal for the immediate resumption of hostilities. Cries of "Treason," "Treason," arose on all sides; the combatants retired, and the firing began more severe than ever. The archbishop was thus placed between two fires. He displayed no alarm, and it is reported did not attempt to escape either to the right or left. Advancing towards the barricade, he, in company with the vicars-general, mounted it, and was thus in full view of both parties and exposed to their fire. Balls were whistling in every direction, and one of his attendants received three balls through the hat. The voice of the archbishop was drowned in the uproar of battle, and after using every means to induce a second suspension of hostilities, he descended into the street. He had scarcely done so, when a ball pierced him in the loins, and at the same time his servant, in endeavouring to catch him, was wounded in the side. The fatal ball was thought to have been sent from a window adjoining, but this is uncertain. His fall produced the deepest sensation throughout each army. The insurgents ran to his assistance, and carrying him to the hospital of the Quinze Vingts, placed a guard over him. Their whole number present signed a declaration that he had not been shot by those on the barricade with him — a point which they appeared very anxious to establish. There is reason to believe that the occurrence hastened the restitution of order, for in an hour's time the firing ceased, not to be renewed. The calmness and serenity which had attended the arch- bishop before the barricade, did not leave him after his being wounded. On being informed by M. Jacquemet that his wound was serious, he asked — "Is my life in danger?" " It is," was the reply. " Well, then," replied the arch- bishop, " let God be praised, and may He accept the sacri- fice which I again ofier him for the salvation of this misguided REBELLION OF JUNE. 609 Monseigneur Affre, ArchbiBhop of Paris. people. May my death expiate the sins which I have com- mitted during my episcopacy." He afterwards confessed, and received the sacrament of extreme unction, preserving throughout his sufFerings admirable presence of mind, and expressing his satisfaction at accomplishing what he called his duty. On Monday morning he was carried to his palace ; and as he passed through the streets, the people fell on their knees with a feeling of veneration. He was escorted to his residence by a party of the garde mobile ; and an interesting anecdote is told of one of these youth. The prelate had observed him at the barricade, fighting most bravely ; and now, beckoning him to approach, he detached a small cross from his own neck, and suspending it to that of the young man, said, " Never part with this cross — place it near your heart ; it will bring you happiness." Soon after his arrival at his palace, in the Isle St. Louis, the archbishop expired, blessing all around, and praying that his blood might be the last shed under such circumstances. 43* 610 HISTORY OF FRANCE. General Negrier, On the Sabbath following, the body was laid in state at the palace, arrayed in the arch-episcopal robes, and sur- rounded with insignia of office. It was visited by thousands of people. Mass for the repose of the soul was performed in all the Catholic churches of Paris, and in several of those in London. Another sincerely lamented victim of the rebellion was General Negrier. The gallant and dignified bearing of this officer, his honourable character, the urbanity of his man- ners, and his great personal bravery, made him a favourite, not only among the large circle of his immediate acquaint- ances, but also in the national assembly, of which he was a member, and in which at the time of his death, he filled i"he office of questor. General Negrier was born in Portugal of French parents, and during the occupation of the peninsula by the French, under the empire, Marshal Lannes, who look a strong inte- rest in young Negrier, sent him to France, under the care REBELLION OF JUNE. 511 of his ai(]-cle-camp, Gederal Subervie, who was recently minister of France in the provisional government. Having entered the army, he rose through the various subordinate ranks to that of General of Division, a promotion well earned by active services in the field. When the dangerous character of the rebellion in June became fully understood, General Negrier, with character- istic devotion to duty, imm-ediately offered his services in defence of order. During the sanguinary conflict, he fought at several points, obtaining at each the most signal success. By Sunday evening, [June 25,] with his detachment of the line and national guards, he had (h-iven all opposition before him, and carried barricade after barricade, near the Hotel de Ville. He then proceeded by the quays towards the Fau- bourg St. Antoine, to act against the insurgents strongly posted in that vicinity. While advancing towards a barri- cade at the head of his men, he was struck by a ball, and fell dead. At the same time, General Charbonnel, also a member of the assembly, was mortally wounded by his side. The funeral service for the general was performed on Saturday morning, July 1, in the church of St. Gervais. General Perrot, with several other officers, and a number of the members of the national assembly, were present. The state defrayed the expenses. As he had left a widow and two children unprovided for, the national assembly, on Thursday, the 29lh of June, had decreed, that in addition to the usual pension of five hundred francs, Madame Negrier should receive an annual grant of three thousand francs, reversible in equal shares to the two children. It was also ordered that the general's heart should be deposited in the Invalides, at Paris, and his body taken to the city of Lisle, which claimed it. After the conclusion of the funeral cere- monies, detachments of the line, of the garde mobile, and of the national guard, both from Paris and the departments, escorted the body to the end of the northern railway, whence it was taken to Lisle. An account of the rebellion in June could not be closed better than in the words of the following extract, in which the author describes the strength of one of the insurgents' positions : " When those who have been at Waterloo learn that for more than a mile the wall of the city of Paris was as pro- fusely furnished with loop-holes as was the garden wall of 612 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Hougnemont, they will easily imagine how formidable was the obstacle it presented. The barricades in advance were composed of paving stones of a hundred weight each, or of the cut stones for a hospital in progress of erection, and they were protected by houses adjoining to or commanding them, and as occasion presented itself throughout Saturday and Sunday, a constant, unerring. and deadly fire was kept up on the assailants by an almost invisible garrison. What will be the feeling of all military men when they are told that the whole of these works were defended by between eighty and one hundred and fifty insurgents !* How many of the in- surgents were killed on Sunday at the Barriere Rochechouart, think you, while the loss of the armed force was more than one thousand ? Two — one of them shot through the brain while firing through a loop-hole not six inches in diameter. Five were wounded. They ran from loop-hole to loop-hole with the greatest agility, leaving the cover of the high wall only to seek ammunition. I was shown the mark of the crucible under the wall, in which they melted lead for bul- lets, during the fight. They even attempted to fabricate gun powder. Against these men were brought as fine an army and as serviceable a park of artillery as the world could produce, and nothing less would have suflSced to dis- lodge them, unless their position had been turned, and they were attacked in the rear. Let us recollect also, that on eight hundred other points of Paris, the troops were occu- pied in contending with the rebels, at the same moment, and how this must have embarrassed the general ; that the usual means of obtaining information were not available. nor when information was obtained could it be relied on. When these facts are taken into consideration, there will not be so much surprise at the offensive and defensive efforts of the rebels, who, though comparatively few in number, were intimately acquainted with the ground, strongly forti- fied, and above all, supported by the sympathies and the positive co-operation of the whole population of the con- tinuous line of town that borders the outer boulevard." * This is doubtless a mistake. The author had either under- rated the actual force, or been deceived as to the numbers. Few barricades were destitute of several thousand defenders. The writer, however, may possibly allude merely to the most influ- ential, excluding masses of the population, of whom he afterwards says that they lent their " sympathies and positive co-operation."