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LIVE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU 
 
 COUNT OXENSTIERN— COUNT OLIVAREZ, 
 
 AND 
 
 CARDINAL MAZARIN. 
 
 BY G. P. R. JAMES, 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 CAREY, LEA & BLANCHARD 
 
 1836. 
 
1. 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CARDINAL DE -RICHELIEU. 
 
 BORN, 1585 — DIED, 1642. 
 
 At length, after a great deal of delay and agitation, 
 the monarch consented; but Cinq Mars had rendered 
 himself so much beloved by the soldiers, that it ap- 
 peared dangerous to attempt to seize him in the camp 
 at Perpignan ; and Louis, under the pretence of illness, 
 retired to Narbonne. There Cinq Mars received more 
 than one direct intimation that his schemes were dis- 
 covered, and that the cardinal had again gained the as- 
 cendency: but he would not take warning till it was 
 too late; and when he at length determined upon at- 
 tempting to escape, he found that the gates of Narbonne 
 were shut. After an ineffectual endeavour to conceal 
 himself, he was arrested,* and conveyed first to Mont- 
 pellier and then to Lyons. He was carried thither, 
 we are assured by some writers,! in a small boat, towed 
 
 * Jane 14, 1642. 
 
 f Such is the account of madame de Motteville, who, though 
 not an eye-witness to this barbarous spectacle, seems to have re- 
 ceived her information from those who were. 
 VOL. II. 2 
 
 60578 
 
14 LIFE OF 
 
 at the stern of the magnificent barge in which Riche- 
 lieu, in a dying state, but surrounded by more than 
 royal splendour, proceeded to Lyons, after having re- 
 gained a degree of temporary strength. Other ac- 
 counts, however, make it appear that the minister was 
 borne by his own guards all the way from Tarascon to 
 Paris in a magnificent litter, rendered so large that the 
 gates of almost all the towns through which he passed 
 were obliged to be thrown down to give it room. A 
 person sat beside him, on a low seat in the litter itself, 
 to amuse him with tales and anecdotes as he proceed- 
 ed ; and thus, with eastern pomp and luxury, he made 
 his progress back to the capital from an expedition 
 which had nearly ended in his utter ruin. As far as 
 there are any means of judging between these two ac- 
 counts, it would seem that part of the journey was 
 performed on the water, the litter in which Richelieu 
 reclined being placed in a barge and towed slowly up 
 the Rhone, with the victims destined to satisfy his 
 vengeance following. A considerable part we know 
 to have been accomplished by land; but there can be 
 no doubt that, in his state at the lime, the cardinal must, 
 have been anxious to save himself from such fatigue as 
 far as possible. 
 
 It was long, however, ere Richelieu was able to un- 
 dertake the journey; and before that period he obliged 
 the king to come to him at Tarascon, where, lying on 
 two beds side by side, they held the first conference 
 which had taken place between them for many weeks. 
 Richelieu reproached the monarch for having listened 
 to the insinuations of his enemies; and Louis, with 
 tears, avowed his fault like a chidden school-boy, pro- 
 
THE CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU. 15 
 
 mising obedience for the future. The king then re- 
 turned to Paris; and after a considerable delay Riche- 
 lieu followed, as we have seen, in triumph. The 
 garrison of Perpignan surrendered on the 7th of Sep- 
 tember, having exhausted every sort of provision which 
 the place contained; and its fall was immediately suc- 
 ceeded by that of Salces,* which had also been left, by 
 the negligence of Spain, without the means of resist- 
 ing a long or a vigorous siege. 
 
 In the mean while the duke of Bouillon was arrested 
 in Italy, and De Thou, Chavagnac, and several other 
 persons, were also placed in custody. The duke ot 
 Orleans, as usual, no sooner heard that the conspiracy 
 had been discovered than he at once abandoned his 
 friends, without making an effort to save them, and 
 sent messengers to the king and the cardinal beseech- 
 ing forgiveness and pity. Richelieu, however, kept 
 the fear of punishment hanging over his head, to in- 
 duce him to give evidence against his accomplices; 
 and, without remorse, that ungenerous prince made a 
 declaration which brought their heads to the scaffold. 
 He was induced, by his own pusillanimous apprehen- 
 sions, to write down all he knew; end it would seem 
 that at one time the cardinal was so convinced of his 
 utter undignified baseness, that he proposed to confront 
 him with his former friends as a witness against them. 
 This, however, was more than he would perform; not 
 that abhorrence of the act deterred him, but that he 
 feared to meet the eyes of those whom he had betray- 
 ed and ruined, and slunk from the pointing finger of 
 
 * Sept. 30. 
 
16 LIFE OF 
 
 public scorn. He obtained from the cardinal, who 
 rarely favoured such scruples, a promise that he should 
 be indulged with merely a private interrogatory, which 
 was accordingly pursued by the chancellor in presence 
 of six commissioners; and the will of Richelieu pro- 
 nounced that this testimony was to be held good in 
 law. 
 
 As soon as this was concluded, the trial of the pri- 
 soners by a special commission proceeded ; but the 
 duke of Bouillon, in whose favour the most powerful 
 interest was made, was saved by the wise and prudent 
 conduct of his wife, who held up before the eyes of 
 the cardinal, as the price of her husband's life, the long 
 desired principality of Sedan, which was possessed by 
 the house of La Tour independent of the crown of 
 France. Cinq Mars, De Thou, and Chavagnac, were 
 alone brought to trial; and it would have been difficult 
 to convict either of the three, even by one of Riche- 
 lieu's iniquitous tribunals, had they not been betrayed 
 both by the duke of Orleans and themselves. The 
 treaty, which in the hands of the cardinal afforded the 
 basis of the accusation against them, and formed the 
 principal feature of their crime, was, in fact, but a 
 copy; and though undoubtedly genuine, might have 
 been altogether fictitious. Richelieu, we are told, could 
 not even prove whence it came, and thus it might have 
 been either manufactured by himself or by some other 
 enemy of the accused. The duke of Orleans, how- 
 ever, established its genuineness; and lest his testimony 
 should not be sufficient, the prisoners were induced by 
 the basest means to criminate each other. Cinq Mars 
 was informed that De Thou had given evidence against 
 
THE CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU. 17 
 
 him, and, there can be no doubt, was also offered his 
 own life on the condition of making a full confession. 
 He was thus brought to avow all, acknowledging that 
 De Thou had known the treaty entered into w 7 ith 
 Spain ; but adding many particulars, which proved the 
 innocence of his unfortunate friend in every other re- 
 spect. This was sufficient: De Thou, confronted with 
 Cinq Mars, and fearing the torture with which he was 
 threatened, acknowledged that he had known the ex- 
 istence of such a treaty, but declared, as his friend had 
 done before, that he had used every means in his power 
 to dissuade the conspirators from every criminal pro- 
 ceeding. Of the guilt of Cinq Mars there could be no 
 doubt, and his doom had been fixed by his own con- 
 fession; but in regard to De Thou much difficulty arose, 
 even amongst the creatures of Richelieu, who had been 
 appointed to judge him. The attorney-general, how- 
 ever, discovered a law of Louis XI. by which every 
 one who did not divulge any treasonable matter which 
 they heard were to be held guilty of treason them- 
 selves, and upon it De Thou was condemned, as well 
 as Cinq Mars. 
 
 Of course, no regard was paid to the promises by 
 which the grand ecuyer had been beguiled; and, with- 
 out any delay, the unhappy men were brought to the 
 block in the great square of Lyons. Both died very 
 generally regretted, for Cinq Mars, by personal graces 
 and popular accomplishments, had won the hearts of 
 the multitude during his continuance in favour; and 
 De Thou possessed those higher qualities of the mind 
 which command respectduring life, and win reverential 
 love to dwell with the memory of the dead in the 
 
 * 
 
18 LIFE OF 
 
 hearts of all men. The only person tried with Cinq 
 Mars and De Thou was Chavagnac, a protestant, who 
 had fought gallantly under the duke de Rohan, and had 
 since attached himself to the grand ecuyer. Against 
 him, however, nothing could be proved; and his in- 
 nocence was so apparent, that even the creatures of 
 Richelieu dared not condemn him. The duke of 
 Bouillon offered to barter his principality of Sedan for 
 mercy, and obtained it; and the duke of Orleans, con- 
 temned and despised by all, lived on almost forgotten 
 till the troubles of another reign called him once more 
 into malefic activity. 
 
 Tidings of the death of Cinq Mars and De Thou, and 
 of the fall of Perpignan, reached Richelieu at the same 
 time, and he communicated them to the king in these 
 few words, "Sir, your arms are in Perpignan, and 
 your enemies are dead." But the conquest of Roussil- 
 lon was not the only success which .was destined to 
 adorn the last years of Richelieu's ministry. , The 
 marechal de la Mothe Houdaincourt, with an inferior 
 army, defended Catalonia against the whole forces of 
 Spain. Prince Thomas of Savoy nearly drove the 
 Spaniards out of Piedmont. Torstenson, the Swedish 
 general, twice defeated the Austrians, and the count de 
 Guebriant, having captured a number of towns on the 
 Rhine, attacked General Lamboi in his lines, and after 
 a severe struggle defeated and took him prisoner. 
 England was already plunged in a civil war; Italy was 
 torn with the struggles of its petty princes; the armies 
 and the finances of Spain were both in a state of utter 
 ruin; Austria was humbled and restrained ; Flanders 
 could scarcely maintain itself against France and Hoi- 
 
THE CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU. 19 
 
 land ; and Richelieu might look around him on every 
 side with pride and exultation, and say, — " This is my 
 deed." 
 
 France, at the same time, was reduced to tranquillity, 
 the Huguenots remained in peaceful subjection, no se- 
 cond rule was acknowledged within the empire; the 
 turbulent nobles, stripped of their power and diminished 
 in their possessions, bowed humbly to the hand that had 
 striken them so often and so severely, and the voice of 
 faction was unheard thoughout the land. Richelieu 
 and the king reigned alone; but, ere the scene closed, 
 there was one more act to be performed by the cardinal, 
 and that was a triumph over the monarch himself. 
 Affecting to believe that the king's guards had been 
 gained by Cinq Mars, Richelieu refused to trust his 
 person amongst them ; and on this pretence he induced 
 Loui^ to perform three acts, which left him but a 
 shadow of royalty in his own palace. First, he de- 
 manded that the king, for the transaction of business, 
 should come to meet him instead of making him visit 
 St. Germains. To this Louis consented without diffi- 
 culty. The next demand of the minister was the dis- 
 missal of several of the most attached officers of the 
 royal guards. The monarch resisted, vented his indig- 
 nation upon the inferior ministers, and then yielded to 
 the dictation of the more powerful mind. But another 
 still more extraordinary request followed, which was, 
 that whenever the minister visited the king a number 
 of his guards, equal to those of the monarch's, should 
 be admitted to the palace, and to this also the king 
 consented. 
 
 The end, however, was now approaching fast. It 
 
20 LIFE OF 
 
 seemed as if just sufficient corporeal strength had been 
 afforded to the great minister to see the accomplishment 
 of all his favourite plans, and to plant the last steps 
 which a subject could take in the course of ambition. 
 The illness from which he had suffered at Narbonne 
 had diminished, but had not left him, and towards the 
 end of November it returned with redoubled force. 
 His strengh failed ; and after various means had been 
 employed to give him relief violent fever succeeded, 
 accompanied with great difficulty of breathing. It now 
 became apparent to all that the minister was dying, and 
 not less so to Richelieu himself. Having caused the 
 physicians to tell him the truth, he proceeded to per- 
 form all the rites which the Roman catholic faith re- 
 quires of the dying. He confessed, received the via- 
 ticum, and demanded extreme unction; but the priest 
 having informed him that it was not necessary for a 
 personage of such high clerical rank, he persisted in 
 being treated, in all respects, as the lowest in the state. 
 He bade adieu to his friends with the most perfect calm- 
 ness and serenity, appeared to regret no act of his life, 
 and declared boldly that all he had done was undertaken 
 for the benefit of the state and the catholic faith. The 
 most virtuous, the most mild, the most benevolent of 
 men could not have shown a greater degree of satisfac- 
 tion in the retrospect of his life, nor more cofidence in 
 his future salvation ; and in this frame of mind he met 
 the gradual approach of death with firmness, which 
 never abandoned him for a moment. During his last 
 hours the king visited him twice, and Richelieu bade 
 him adieu for ever, in a tranquil voice, and with a strain 
 of eloquence which evinced how unimpaired was still 
 
THE CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU. 21 
 
 the mighty mind by all the sufferings of the weak body. 
 He showed himself very solicitous for his relations, and 
 anxious that the monarch should retain in office the 
 ministers whom he himself had trained up in the ways 
 of policy; and although his whole demeanour proved 
 that he in no degree feared death, yet he appeared still 
 to desire a longer life; for even after his physicians had 
 pronounced him to be dying, he took eagerly the 
 remedies of a quack, who pretended that he could effect 
 his cure. Some relief he certainly did experience, and 
 his friends began to entertain delusive hopes of his re- 
 covery ; but shortly before mid-day of the 4th De- 
 cember, 1642, an abscess, which had been long ad- 
 vancing in the chest, broke, and in less than half an 
 hour Richelieu expired with firm tranquillity. 
 
 The king, on being told of his death, only remarked, 
 "There is a great politician gone!" and Anquetil has 
 declared that this comprised all that could be said of 
 Richelieu; but he himself, however, has said more. 
 The king, too, though he might not love his minister, 
 owed him a higher tribute; for weak, unstable, suspi- 
 cious, blood-thirsty, cold-hearted, and narrow-minded 
 as Louis himself was, he was indebted to Richelieu for 
 everything that was great or dignified or excellent in 
 his reign ; and perhaps of all the many feeble monarchs 
 which that age produced, he would have been alone 
 distinguished by surpassing them in their weaknesses, 
 and possessing none of their virtues, had it not been 
 for the powers of his minister. 
 
 To the king Richelieu bequeathed the palace which 
 he had built for himself, and which afterwards was 
 called the Palais Royal, with a part of the magnificent 
 
22 LIFE OF 
 
 furniture which it contained. He left the monarch 
 also the sum of 1,500,000 livres, which he had been in 
 the habit of keeping constantly by him, against im- 
 portant occasions, and which he declared had more 
 than once saved the state. He besought the king, 
 however, to apply this sum to the same purposes for 
 which it had been hitherto employed. Besides these 
 two legacies he left immense wealth to his relations, 
 and a number of considerable bequests to his friends 
 and domestics. He yet is not charged with any pe- 
 culation; the finances of the state were at his death 
 in a better condition than that in which he found them; 
 the armies of the king had never been suffered, by his 
 negligence, to want supplies, except in the inex- 
 plicable business of the Grisons; and the navy, the 
 commerce, and the manufactures of the country had all 
 greatly improved during his administration. The num- 
 ber of offices he held, and the rich benefices which he 
 accumulated in his person, were sufficient to supply the 
 royal expense that he maintained, and to leave a con- 
 siderable surplus; while the multitude of estates for- 
 feited by conspirators, and the immense revenues sup- 
 pressed on the occasion of his enemies flying into exile, 
 poured large sums into the coffers of the state. 
 
 In person Richelieu was above the middle height, 
 extremely thin, and not particularly graceful. His fea- 
 tures were fine and expressive, with an air of grave 
 sternness which well became his character. In com- 
 plexion he was sallow, and in constitution weak. His 
 greatest foible seems to have been vanity, and his 
 worst passion the love of vengeance. His ambition 
 followed next, and, previous to his accession to power, 
 
THE CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU. 23 
 
 it led him to many actions alike injurious to his country 
 and to his patrons. After becoming minister, however, 
 his personal ambition linked itself to the interests of 
 the state; and there can be little doubt that the selfish- 
 ness which is so powerful in blinding all eyes taught 
 him to believe that his preservation and his domination 
 were absolutely necessary to the welfare of the country; 
 that his enemies were the enemies of France, and, 
 therefore, that they were to be sacrificed without re- 
 morse. The sternness with which he, like the great 
 Gustavus Adolphus, suppressed the barbarous practice 
 of duelling was then often imputed to him as a crime: 
 but will now be readily admitted as a virtue. 
 
 His constant efforts to humble the nobles of France 
 had most probably a better foundation than his personal 
 enmities. He despised as well as hated them ; but he 
 saw also that the kingdom would know no peace, that 
 internal prosperity could never be obtained, nor exter- 
 nal policy be rendered effectual, so long as a body of 
 men so unprincipled as the French nobles then undoubt- 
 edly were, could at any time ravage the country, inter- 
 rupt commerce, put a stop to industry, and occupy the 
 forces of the kingdom at their pleasure. To correct 
 such an evil state of things, we find that he pursued, 
 with undeviating steadiness, his purpose of lowering 
 the power and changing the habits of the French no- 
 bility. Had he possessed the higher purposes of the 
 Christian and the philosopher, he might have striven 
 to purify and ennoble the minds, to elevate and dignify 
 the character, of those whose vices were even more 
 dangerous to the state than their power. It is probable, 
 indeed, that the best directed efforts would have been 
 
24 LIFE OF 
 
 ineffectual ; but the character of the policy of that age 
 was rather physical than moral. In no country, 
 except England, did high enthusiasms or glorious aspir- 
 ations either inspire the people or support the govern- 
 ment; and Richelieu's endeavours were confined to 
 crushing the power of the great nobles, and depriving 
 them of all influence in the state, without one effort to 
 render them just, wise, or patriotic. He took means 
 to reduce the number of their followers, to diminish 
 their fortunes, to seize upon their strong holds, to drive 
 them from their castles to the court, and to make them 
 the dependents upon the royal bounty, rather than the 
 opponents of the royal will. 
 
 By so doing, however, he wrought a great change 
 in society, against which he forgot to provide any 
 counteraction. He destroyed the equipoise as it then 
 existed, and failed to substitute anything which might 
 restore it at an after period. Had he been disposed 
 to create a counterbalancing power in order to check the 
 great influence he cast suddenly into the hands of the 
 people by the debasement of the privileged classes, the 
 elements were ready for his purpose in the three great 
 councils, the parliament, the notables, and the states- 
 general, and from these he might have raised an insti- 
 tution which would have guarded France against sudden 
 convulsions. It was, perhaps, too much, however, to 
 expect that he should foresee all the consequences to 
 which his acts gave rise ; and as he did not degrade the 
 French nobility so low by a thousand degrees as they 
 afterwards degraded themselves, but only put them in 
 the way to sink lower and lower, it would have been 
 enough had he not broken down also the only other bar- 
 
I 
 THE CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU. 25 
 
 rier between the throne and the people. But his des- 
 potic character would bear no opposition ; he set the 
 example of violating the laws by trampling upon all 
 the privileges of the parliament, and showed France 
 how frail was that barrier to which men were accus- 
 tomed to look for protection against tyranny. 
 
 The history of his dealings with the people in gene- 
 ral presents a contrariety in the two great objects which 
 he pursued unremittingly through his ministry. He 
 first, and above all things, sought to render the mo- 
 narchs of France utterly despotic, and at the same time 
 strove to civilise, to enlighten and to enrich the nation ; 
 forgetting that a prosperous and well-instructed people 
 are the last tamely to endure a despotism; that it is 
 only while the great mass is plunged in one or other of 
 the two sorts of barbarism, the barbarism of ignorance 
 or the barbarism of corruption, that absolute power can 
 be tolerated. The cause of this contrariety may be 
 sought in the struggle of the clear-sighted politician with 
 the ambitious tyrannical man; and, in his efforts towards 
 the attainment of each of the great ends that he proposed 
 to himself, traces of the same struggle may be found. 
 His best endeavours for enlightening the nation ; his 
 patronage of sciences, literature, and arts ; his attempts 
 to extend the commerce of France, and to generate a 
 spirit of productive industry amongst the people, are all 
 chequered with traits of an arbitrary disposition; and 
 at the same time in almost all of his most odious acts of 
 tyranny we see the strong, vigorous, and, in one sense, 
 philosophical mind of the statesman, tempering, guiding, 
 and sometimes overpowering the vengeful passions of 
 the tyrannical minister. 
 
 VOL. II. 3 
 
26 LIFE OF 
 
 What would have been the result had his life been 
 prolonged sufficiently to pursue to a conclusion his 
 general scheme of policy, or whether he had any ge- 
 neral scheme at all, cannot be told. That he fixed his 
 mind, from a very early period, upon two or three great 
 objects there can be no doubt ; but whether he had any 
 defined plan for attaining them is more problematical : 
 and it is not improbable that his general scheme, if he 
 had any, was very vague; for through his life men re- 
 marked that in the execution of his most important 
 designs he was ever ready to stop and seize any col- 
 lateral advantage. At all events, during his short mi- 
 nistry of eighteen years, he accomplished several very 
 extraordinary things, both in general policy and admi- 
 nistrative detail. He gave the final blow to the feudal 
 system, and threw down the last remnant of an insti- 
 tution that in its infancy, its prime, and its decay had 
 outlived a thousand years. He restored the balance of 
 power in Europe, which had been lost, by the ascen- 
 dency of the house Austria, since the reign of the em- 
 peror Charles V. He reduced to total subjection a 
 body of men, who, as a political and religious party, 
 had divided the means and paralysed the energies of 
 France ever since the reformation. He extended on 
 every side the boundaries of the country which he go- 
 verned. He established and consolidated the first great 
 trading company of France, — the company of the 
 Indies. He founded,* endowed and transmitted to 
 posterity the greatest and most splendid literary insti- 
 
 * In 1635. This institution has undergone very little change of 
 organization since the days of Richelieu. 
 
THE CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU. 2£_ 
 
 tutionof Europe, L'Academie Frangaise, an institution 
 which is at once glorious to its founder and reproachful 
 to the rest of Europe. He re-established, increased, and 
 improved the royal navies of France; and he introduced 
 into the army a degree of discipline, and into the com- 
 missariat a degree of accuracy which had never been 
 known till li is time, and which obtained for the French 
 armies many of the successes that attended their efforts, 
 not only in his own life but long after his death. 
 
 Richelieu possessed almost all those gifts which 
 constitute a great minister. He was eloquent, clear, 
 and precise in speech; and in his despatches and letters 
 there is to be found that union of great and compre- 
 hensive views, with the most intimate knowledge of 
 detail, which is so seldom to be met with. His direc- 
 tions were always definite and distinct; and while he 
 brought all the great objects to be gained into one 
 general group, he omitted not one of the minor parti- 
 culars which were necessary to the attainment of his 
 purpose. In argumentation, too, he was very success- 
 ful. Whenever he sought to combat any proposal be- 
 fore the council, he always began by producing, in 
 eloquent language, all that could be said in its favour, 
 and then taking up the contrary side, appeared to 
 overthrow his former reasoning with regret, and only 
 to state the cogent arguments on the opposite part from 
 a sense of duty. 
 
 Strange to say, however, in the theological pursuits 
 of his earlier years, and in the purely literary amuse- 
 ments with which he relieved the cares of government 
 at a later period, he showed none of those powers 
 which he displayed in his political writings and ora- 
 
28 LIFE OP THE CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU. 
 
 tions. In controversy he was weak and subtle, and 
 as far as we can judge from the works attributed to 
 him, he was in his literary compositions trifling and 
 affected. The instance of the condemnation of the 
 Cid, which he procured from the French academy, has 
 often been brought forward to show the badness of his 
 taste ; but it would seem that the author more than the 
 work was the object of Richelieu's dislike. 
 
 He was keen, penetrating, and rapid in business, ac- 
 tive, diligent, and indefatigable. His comprehension 
 of everything submitted to him was quick, and his de- 
 cision immediate. When once taken, his resolutions 
 knew no change; for although he appeared occasionally 
 to relax a part of those conditions which he demanded, 
 there can be no doubt that he always required more 
 than he expected to obtain, in order to leave room for 
 concession. In temper, he was hasty, irritable, and 
 revengeful, and in the relations of private life showed 
 himself capricious and unequal, but not incapable of 
 strong attachments. His diet was plain and scanty, 
 but in every other respect he appeared luxurious and 
 ostentatious. He left many who hated him, many who 
 feared him, some who respected him, some who ad- 
 mired him, but few who loved him; and was, indeed, 
 a great minister, though he can hardly be considered 
 as a great man. 
 
 The writing of biography is often a sad task, as it 
 shows us intimately to what height a man may rise 
 amongst his fellows, what power he may attain, and 
 what deeds he may perform, without accomplishing 
 those grand purposes which can alone be formed in a 
 noble heart, and executed by a mighty mind. 
 
*. 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 
 
 BORN, 1583 — DIED, 1654. 
 
 Few particulars of the private life of the famous 
 chancellor Oxenstiern have come under my notice; 
 and the greater part of those which I have met with 
 are either trifling in themselves, or of very doubtful 
 authenticity. The principal traits of his behaviour, as 
 related by Siri, are contradicted by others; and all the 
 collectors of anecdotes, who swept up the crumbs of 
 history towards the end of the reign of Louis XIV., 
 have left us very scanty notices of one of the greatest 
 statesmen of his age. The cause probably is, that the 
 life of Oxenstiern, unlike that of his great contempo- 
 rary Richelieu, was altogether the life of a politician, 
 the individual had therein very little part; and while 
 the personal views, interests, and passions of the French 
 minister affected events throughout all Europe, it was 
 the events themselves which affected the actions of 
 Oxenstiern. 
 
 Axel Oxenstiern was born at Fano of Upland, in 
 Sweden, in the year 1583.* His family was one of 
 high consideration in the country, its head for thirteen 
 generations having held a seat in the Swedish senate. 
 His father, baron Gabriel Oxenstiern, one of the first 
 
 * A print of Oxenstiern, engraved from the life by Miervelt, in 
 1636, represents him as at the age of fifty-three. 
 
 3* 
 
30 LIFE OF 
 
 hereditary barons created by Eric, died while he was 
 yet in infancy, and left him and a younger brother to 
 the care of their mother, under whose eye their first 
 education was carried on. At an early period, how- 
 ever, the young Oxenstiern was sent from home to 
 pursue his studies at various German schools; and while 
 at Wittemberg and Jena was directed to apply himself 
 principally to theology, as his relations hoped to be 
 able to advance his fortunes in the protestant church 
 of Sweden. This idea, however, was soon given up; 
 and it would seem that, before he returned to his own 
 country, the course he was destined to pursue had been 
 decided by his friends, though few perhaps expected 
 that he would thereby rise to such a height as he after- 
 wards attained. 
 
 The acquisition of foreign languages was at this time 
 one of the chief objects of his studies; and he obtained 
 great facility both in writing and speaking Latin, Ger- 
 man, and the modern tongues commonly used in the 
 north of Europe. But he did not alone content him- 
 self with possessing the keys of knowledge without 
 opening the gates, and acquiring the treasures within; 
 and if the picture drawn of him by the queen Chris- 
 tina, one who is likely to have known him well, be 
 correct, his application at this period of his life must 
 have been most extraordinary, to obtain all the varied 
 stores with which his mind was enriched. 
 
 Before he reached his eighteenth year he proceeded 
 to visit the various courts of Germany, and devoted 
 his attention, with a zeal which was well repaid in 
 after years, to acquire a thorough knowledge of the 
 views and interest of each ere he returned to his native 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 31 
 
 land. In the year 1602, however, Oxenstiern, in com- 
 mon with all the absent nobility of Sweden, was re- 
 called to his own country, in order, we are told, to 
 swear allegiance to Charles IX.;* and having been in- 
 troduced to the particular notice of that monarch, he 
 was sent in 1606, on a diplomatic mission to the court 
 of Mecklenburg. The business he had there to trans- 
 act would appear to have been of no great importance; 
 but his manner of conducting it gave satisfaction to the 
 king, and from that time he was constantly employed 
 in the service of the state. He returned to Sweden, 
 however, before the year 1609, at which period he 
 was named one of the members of the senate, and 
 about the same time he married; but events, both 
 foreign and domestic, had been long advancing to- 
 wards maturity, which soon called him from his do- 
 mestic circle and his native country, and which require 
 some brief investigation in this place. 
 
 Gustavus Vasa had, upon the wisest political grounds, 
 fixed the protestant faith as the national religion of 
 Sweden, and had, by a fundamental law, excluded all 
 Roman catholics from participation in the government. 
 The throne had been made hereditary in. his family by 
 the consent of a willing and grateful people ; but by a 
 voluntary act of the king, with the approbation of the 
 nation, Gustavus rendered it a condition that no future 
 monarch should attempt to alter the established religion. 
 His second son, however, John duke of Finland, who 
 
 * Such is the general account of the biographers of Oxenstiern; 
 but it is asserted by others that although Charles governed Sweden 
 with undivided authority from the year 1599, yet he was not abso- 
 lutely elected k'ng of Sweden by the states till 1604. 
 
32 life or 
 
 afterwards dethroned the elder, Eric, and succeeded to 
 the crown, soon became a convert to the catholic faith, 
 and, on his accession, gave manifest indications of a 
 wish to introduce the religion he had adopted into the 
 kingdom he was called to govern. This first awakened 
 the jealousy of the Swedes; but when his son Sigis- 
 mond, who had become in his father's lifetime king of 
 Poland, succeeded, and at once evinced a determination 
 of restoring Catholicism and oppressing the protestants, 
 the states of Sweden prepared for resistance. Charles, 
 duke of Sudermania, the fourth son of Gustavus Vasa, 
 put himself at the head of the malecontents, and, taking 
 advantage of Sigismond's absence in Poland, seized 
 upon the crown of Sweden. Supported by a united 
 people, he was not to be shaken by all the efforts of 
 Sigismond, and retained the sceptre under the title of 
 Charles IX. Sigismond continued to look upon his 
 uncle Charles as a usurper, and long, but not very 
 sanguinary, contentions succeeded. 
 
 On the other hand, the kings of Denmark, who had 
 held the crown of Sweden till expelled by Gustavus 
 Vasa, never abandoned entirely their claims to that 
 country; and Christian IV., the reigning sovereign, a 
 brave and skilful, though somewhat headstrong pfince, 
 carried on the war with Sweden on various pretences 
 with very considerable success. While Charles, the 
 old king of Sweden, maintained the military reputa- 
 tion which he had acquired in his earlier years, Oxen- 
 stiern was despatched on a new mission to Livonia, 
 where he displayed so much skill in consolidating the 
 Swedish party in that province, notwithstanding all 
 the intrigues of Poland, and in healing the differences 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 33 
 
 which had arisen between the city of Revel and the 
 neighbouring nobility, that his character as a statesman 
 was established, and the eyes both of the king and the 
 nation were called to his talents, as those which were 
 destined to influence, if not to guide, the fortunes of 
 the stafe. 
 
 Surrounded by enemies on every side, Charles saw 
 the necessity of increasing the armies, and drawing 
 forth all the resources of Sweden; and with these views 
 he called together the states, and demanded prompt 
 and vigorous assistance.* Popular assemblies, espe- 
 cially when they are not habituated to the orderly dis- 
 charge of business by regular periods of assembling, 
 are always slow and generally penurious; and Charles 
 met with so much opposition at a time of extreme 
 urgency, that, giving way to the violence of temper 
 which characterised his family, he fell into a fit of 
 passion which produced a sudden stroke of palsy. 
 Several of his faculties became enfeebled; but, wise 
 enough to perceive that this was the case, he called 
 around him the men on whose abilities and honesty 
 he could most fully rely, and entrusted to their hands 
 a great part of those important affairs which he had 
 hitherto conducted himself. The principal amongst 
 these counsellors was Oxenstiern; and when at length 
 in 1611 the king felt death approaching, he named a 
 council of regency, the selection of the members 
 composing which was somewhat curious, at least in 
 one respect. His queen Christina, of course, held a 
 place therein; and Oxenstiern, though only twenty- 
 eight years of age, was particularly named ; but, be- 
 
 * 1609. 
 
34 LIFE OF 
 
 sides these and several members of the senate, the king 
 appointed his nephew John, half-brother of Sigismond, 
 king of Poland, to be one of the guardians of his son 
 and one of the regents of the kingdom, during the 
 short minority that ensued. That magnanimous prince 
 held the ancient province of eastern Gothland, with 
 the title of duke, was much beloved by the Swedes, 
 adhered to the protestant faith, was brave and skilful 
 as a military commander, and displayed, on many oc- 
 casions, an active enterprising disposition. He was, 
 moreover, descended from the elder branch of the 
 house whereof Charles IX. was the younger brother, 
 had, on a former settlement of the succession, been 
 named contingent successor to the throne in the event 
 of Sigismond dying childless, and was in every re- 
 spect nearer to the throne of Gustavus Vasa than Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus, who now succeeded. Yet such had 
 been the confidence of his uncle, Charles IX., in his 
 honour and moderation, that with wise policy he had 
 named him to a post which placed great power in his 
 hands; and such was the generous magnanimity of 
 John, that as soon as the short minority of Gustavus 
 Adolphus was expired,* he made a voluntary renun- 
 ciation of all his rights to the throne of Sweden, and 
 through life obeyed and served his cousin with the zeal 
 and affection of a friend and brother. 
 
 No sooner had Gustavus reached the period of his 
 majority, which in Sweden had been fixed at the be- 
 ginning of the eighteenth year, than the queen and 
 
 * Some writers assert that he refused to accept the guardian- 
 ship of the young 1 prince, and at once renounced all claim to the 
 throne. 
 
AXEL COUNT OXEXSTIERN. 35 
 
 Oxenstiern called a meeting of the states, and the order 
 of succession, as it had been settled at Linkoping on his 
 father's accession, was fully confirmed, leaving Gustavus 
 Adolphus in his eighteenth year absolute monarch of 
 Sweden. During the assembly of the states, Oxenstiern 
 acted throughout as the director of the young king's 
 councils; and about this time also was raised to the 
 office of chancellor of the kingdom of Sweden. 
 
 The task of prime minister, which was, in fact, that 
 which Oxenstiern had now to fulfil, was not without 
 manifold difficulties in Sweden at this epoch. Russia, 
 allied with Poland, and having chosen the son of Sigis- 
 mond as czar, threatened to overwhelm the dominions 
 of Gustavus on the one hand, while Denmark, under 
 Christian, continued the war fiercely on the frontiers 
 and in the Baltic. Gustavus almost immediately on 
 his accession put himself at the head of his forces, and 
 prepared to carry on hostilities vigorously against the 
 persevering enemies of Sweden; but his campaigns on 
 the Danish border, though success often attended par- 
 ticular enterprises, were not upon the whole advan- 
 tageous to Sweden. 
 
 In the course of the year 1612, however, the En- 
 glish ambassadors at the courts of the two kingdoms 
 endeavoured, by order of their sovereign, to bring 
 about a peace between Gustavus Adolphus and the 
 Danish king; and Oxenstiern was appointed to con- 
 duct the negotiations on the part of the young monarch. 
 Extraordinary delays protracted the discussions for 
 months: and it is laughable to find that the principal 
 causes of a dispute in consequence of which so much 
 blood had been shed, and so much misery entailed 
 
36 LIFE OF 
 
 upon both countries, were points of heraldry and pre- 
 cedence, insignificant, unworthy, and absurd. Such 
 considerations, however, were at that time held as very 
 weighty by the northern nations; and during the course 
 of the negotiations themselves, we find curious in- 
 stances of tenacity in regard to etiquette, which delay- 
 ed for some time the conclusion of the treaty. An- 
 struther, ambassador from England at the court of 
 Denmark, proceeded to the place of conference, for 
 the purpose of mediating between the belligerants 
 conjointly with sir John Merick, and Spence, the 
 English envoy of Sweden. No sooner did he arrive, 
 however, than he sent his secretary to Spence to beg 
 that diplomatist to call upon him, as the king of Den- 
 mark had prohibited him from rendering the first visit 
 to an ambassador at the court of Sweden. Spence re- 
 ferred the demand to Oxenstiern; who replied angrily, 
 that Denmark had no real, nor even apparent,* supe- 
 riority over Sweden, and he would not suffer Spence 
 to comply. It was at length arranged, however, that 
 the two ambassadors should meet in a tent, half way 
 between the Danish and Swedish quarters, and the ne- 
 gotiation then proceeded. 
 
 Oxenstiern displayed infinite skill in the whole of 
 the ensuing transactions, suffering Denmark to gain by 
 slow degrees some of the ceremonial advantages for 
 which she strove, while he obtained for Sweden the 
 restitution of all the places which had been taken from 
 her, except one, which was also to be restored on the 
 payment of a sum of money. Several particulars of 
 small importance delayed the conclusion of the treaty 
 for some time after the principal terms were agreed 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 37 
 
 upon ; but it was signed in the beginning of the fol- 
 lowing year,* and left Sweden free to oppose the efforts 
 of Russia and Poland. Not contented, however, with 
 having thus freed his country from an enemy, whose 
 proximity rendered constant attention necessary, Oxen- 
 stiern applied himself to strengthen the power of his 
 sovereign by foreign alliances; and sent ambassadors 
 to Holland, in order to negotiate a defensive and com- 
 mercial treaty with the States General; while, at the 
 same time, the warlike monarch under whom he acted 
 obtained permission to raise two bodies of auxiliaries 
 in Scotland and the Low Countries. 
 
 A number of excellent fiscal regulations and internal 
 arrangements were made about this time in Sweden, 
 for the purpose of promoting commerce and manu- 
 factures, curtailing the expenses of law suits, and 
 withdrawing the youth of the country from foreign 
 universities to that of Upsal, an institution which both 
 the king and the minister did all in their power to 
 improve and support. It is difficult, however, to dis- 
 tinguish, with any certainty, which of the wise laws 
 that we now find promulgated emanated from Gustavus 
 Adolphus himself, which from Oxenstiern. In almost 
 every other country at that epoch appeared a sovereign 
 and a favourite of very different powers; and the 
 acts of the one are generally easily separated from 
 those of the other. In England, indeed, the monarch 
 and the favourite were equally weak ; but in France 
 and Spain the effects of Richelieu's sagacity and Oli- 
 varez's activity were at once to be distinguished from 
 the proceedings of their imbecile and indolent masters. 
 
 * Jan. 19, 1613. 
 VOL. II. 4 
 
38 LIFE OF 
 
 Oxenstiern and Gustavus Adolphus, however, approach- 
 ed each other so nearly in character, their objects were 
 so much the same, and their union of purpose and effort 
 was so complete, that, except in military proceedings, 
 it is seldom possible to ascertain what act sprang from 
 the mind of Gustavus alone, what originated in the 
 suggestions of Oxenstiern. 
 
 In 1614 the chancellor, after having executed an 
 embassy to the court of Denmark, in order to explain 
 the motives of the approaching contest between Gus- 
 tavus and the czar, accompanied the monarch in his 
 expedition against Russia, and there, together with 
 his master, studied more scientifically the art of war, 
 under the famous De la Gardie. The advantages ob- 
 tained by the Swedish arms were not particularly bril- 
 liant; but before the conclusion of the following year, 
 Russia was well inclined to listen to the terms of paci- 
 fication proposed by the ambassadors of Holland and 
 England; and, after long discussions, a treaty was 
 ultimately agreed upon at Stolborn,* by which the 
 czar finally ceded to Sweden the whole of the sea-coast 
 of Carelia and Ingria. In 1617 Oxenstiern assisted at the 
 coronation of the king, which took place at Upsal. and 
 then aided him in bringing to perfection all those admira- 
 ble internal arrangements which securedtranquillityand 
 prosperity at home, while the monarch pursued against 
 Poland those military operations which the proceedings 
 of his cousin Sigismond now rendered absolutely ne- 
 cessary to the stability of his throne. 
 
 During the two succeeding years the war with 
 Poland was carried on languidly, interrupted by fre- 
 
 * Feb. 17, 1617. 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 39 
 
 quent truces, and renewed by reiterated provocations; 
 but still without any great success attending the pro- 
 ceedings of the Swedish monarch, who was, as yet, 
 but trying that strength which he afterwards used as a 
 giant when a great opportunity presented itself. 
 
 About this time, however, an accident which befell 
 Gustavus had nearly terminated, not only his own 
 career, but that of Oxenstiern. By some unexplained 
 negligence a castle, situated at a short distance from 
 the capita], in which the king and the chancellor had 
 met for the transaction of business, took fire, during 
 the night, and ere either the monarch or his minister 
 were aware of their danger the staircases had become 
 impassable. Both were forced, as a last resource, to 
 leap from the windows, and then to swim the moat, 
 in which, owing to the quantity of tenacious mud that 
 it contained, they had nearly been drowned. The 
 king escaped perfectly unhurt, but the chancellor re- 
 ceived several injuries, which seemed severe at the 
 time, but did not ultimately affect his health. In 1619 
 a meeting was proposed, and carried into effect, be- 
 tween Gustavus and Christian, king of Denmark, at 
 a frontier town, where, in the midst of festivities and 
 tokens of friendship, a number of important measures 
 were agreed upon for the security of both countries ; 
 and in the course of the following year the Swedish 
 monarch, we are told, visited in disguise the capitals of 
 several German princes, and ended his journey at the 
 court of Berlin. Some have supposed the monarch to 
 have been actuated in this proceeding, which was cer- 
 tainly dangerous, by political reasons, and some have 
 believed that his sole motive was the desire of seeing 
 
40 LIFE OF 
 
 with his own eyes the princess Maria Eleanora of 
 Brandenburg, who afterwards became his queen. Cer- 
 tain it is, however, that towards the end of the year 
 1620 Oxenstiern was sent to conduct the princess to 
 the court of her future husband, with whom her mar- 
 riage took place immediately on her arrival at Stock- 
 holm. 
 
 To the siege of Riga, which followed, Oxienstiern 
 accompanied the king, and served under him in a 
 military capacity. He remained, however, always 
 near the person of his master during the sieges of Riga, 
 Dunamond, and Mittau. A multitude of confused 
 events succeeded, which would be too long and tedious 
 to relate in this place; and it is only necessary to say, 
 that during the succeeding war with Poland Oxenstiern 
 acted alternately as warrior and statesman, and that, 
 after attending the king to Livonia, he conducted 
 several negotiations concerning peace, all of which 
 proved ineffectual. At length the constant successes 
 of Gustavus Adolphus compelled the weak and short- 
 sighted Sigismond to consent to a truce of six years, 
 beginning in August, 1629; and in the negotiations 
 which preceded the treaty, Oxenstiern showed all that 
 skill and judgment which he had previously displayed, 
 obtaining for his master the virtual cession of those 
 parts of Livonia which Gustavus had conquered, as 
 well as the towns and territories of Memel, Braunsberg, 
 and Elbingen, and the strong fortress of Pillau. 
 
 Two anecdotes are related of Oxenstiern's conduct 
 during the war and the negotiations with Poland, 
 which, though perhaps doubtful, may have a place here, 
 as they do not in any degree affect the truth of history. 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 41 
 
 On all occasions Gustavus Adolphus exposed his person 
 as much as any common soldier in his army: three 
 times, during the war with Poland, he had nearly been 
 taken prisoner, and was twice wounded. The remon- 
 strances of his friends were vain; and Oxenstiern. 
 more boldly than the rest, urged the necessity of 
 caution. " My good chancellor," answered the 
 monarch, "you are too cold in your nature for me." 
 Oxenstiern immediately replied, " That may be, sire; 
 but if my ice did not sometimes serve to abate your 
 fire, your majesty might have been scorched long ago.'* 
 The second anecdote relates to the ceremonial stiffness 
 of the Polish and Swedish etiquette, and is sometimes 
 told of Oxenstiern, sometimes of his son. On meeting 
 to confer for a truce, the ambassadors of the two 
 countries, for many minutes, maintained a perfect 
 silence, each pretending that it was the business of the 
 other to speak first. At length the chancellor of 
 Poland began by saying, in a tone of reproach, "Illus- 
 trious gentlemen of Sweden, in order that politeness 
 may be upon our side, we wish you a good morning." 
 To which Oxenstiern replied, — "That we may not 
 appear ungrateful, we wish you right minds."* If 
 there be any truth in the anecdote at all, it is probably 
 applicable to the statesman of whom I now speak, as 
 I cannot discover that his son was ever engaged in 
 such negotiation with the Poles as to justify the con- 
 trary supposition; and certainly never was so with 
 
 * The jest loses its point in any other language than that in 
 which it was made. The dialogue was carried on, as usual with 
 the Poles and Swedes, in Latin, and the words of Oxenstiern were 
 "Precamur vobis bonam mentem." 
 
 4 * 
 
42 LIFE OF 
 
 the Polish ministers said to have been present at this 
 interview. 
 
 Some time before the signature of the treaty with 
 Poland, Oxenstiern undertook, and conducted with 
 success, one of the most difficult negotiations in which 
 he was ever engaged ; but as this will lead us to the 
 opening of a new scene in the eventful wars of those 
 times, we must turn for a moment to the state of Ger- 
 many, in which the house of Austria was rising to a 
 height of power that made all the inferior princes of 
 the empire tremble for their liberties and privileges. 
 
 The first seeds of that famous series of hostilities, 
 called, in general, the Thirty Years' War, were sown 
 by a dispute in regard to the succession of Juliers ; 
 but they were rendered prolific by the election of Fer- 
 dinand II. to the throne of -the empire, and by the 
 civil dissensions which took place between and his 
 oppressed subjects in Bohemia. On his accession to 
 the imperial dignity,* Ferdinand found himself with- 
 out money, without forces, and without friends ; his 
 remote territories in revolt, his nearer dominions 
 coldly disaffected, the electors of the empire divided 
 amongst themselves, and a strong party throughout 
 Germany opposed to the religious and political opi- 
 nions which he was disposed to support wilh tyrannical 
 zeal. Yet, in eleven years, by skilful but deceitful 
 policy, by the improvement of accidental circum- 
 stances, by the division of the electors, and the suc- 
 cesses of his generals, he had defeated his enemies, over- 
 run their territories, and annihilated their power : he 
 had quelled insurrection in all parts of his hereditary 
 
 * March 20, 1619. 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 43 
 
 dominions; had completely overawed and intimidated 
 the south of Germany ; had reduced to despair the 
 union of protestant princes who had leagued in defence 
 of their religion and their rights ; had defeated and 
 forced to fly Christian, king of Denmark, who had 
 been called to their aid ; and, sending Wallenstein in- 
 to Pomerania, he was now attempting to possess him- 
 self of the command of the Baltic, in order to subject 
 the north of that great tract which lies between the 
 Rhine and the Nerva to the same bondage whereunto 
 he had already reduced the south. The only oppo- 
 nent that he feared was the young king of Sweden ; 
 and, while he had been prosecuting his ambitious 
 views in the south, he had taken care to foment every 
 dispute between Gustavus and his neighbours, sending 
 reinforcements to the king of Denmark during the 
 hostilities which at one time took place between Chris- 
 tian and the king of Sweden, and giving throughout 
 the war such covert aid to Sigismond, king of Poland, 
 as to enable him to struggle with Gustavus; hoping to 
 exhaust both competitors, in order to take advantage of 
 their weakness at an after period. 
 
 The successes of Wallenstein in Pomerania were 
 only equalled by the licence he permitted to his sol- 
 diery. But the town of Stralsund in the end opposed 
 an obstacle to his course; and after endeavouring, by 
 various treacherous means, to obtain possession of that 
 fortress, he at length besieged it in form. The king 
 of Denmark, however, had time to aid the government 
 of Stralsund by a reinforcement from his own army ; 
 and the fleets of Denmark and Sweden contrived to 
 keep the port open, and from time to time to throw in 
 supplies and ammunition. Thus the siege was pro- 
 
44 life or 
 
 tracted for an extraordinary length of time: but Wal- 
 lenstein, furious at being frustrated in his attempts, 
 pressed it forward more vigorously than ever ; and it 
 became apparent to Gustavus that, unless the city could 
 be succoured speedily, its fall would be inevitable, Aus- 
 tria would obtain one of the best ports in the Baltic, 
 and the command of that sea would be wrested from 
 Sweden and Denmark. The king of the latter coun- 
 try, defeated, exhausted, and pursued even to his own 
 territories, could afford Stralsund no efficient aid ; but 
 still, as he was already jealous of the superiority of 
 Sweden, it seemed likely that he would rather make 
 his peace with Austria, and see a counterbalancing 
 power rise up against Sweden in the Baltic, than yield 
 so great an advantage to Gustavus as the possession of 
 Stralsund would bestow. The duke of Pomerania, 
 too, though ruined and pillaged by the Austrians, was 
 likely to oppose the views of the Swedish king; and 
 Stralsund itself might prefer obtaining such advan- 
 tageous terms from Austria, as its gallant defence was 
 sure to command, than yield itself to the power of a 
 nation of which the Hanseatic towns had long been 
 jealous. 
 
 To overcome all these difficulties, Gustavus de- 
 spatched Oxenstiern first to Stralsund, and then to the 
 court of Denmark". In all his negotiations the chan- 
 cellor was completely successful; and a treaty, offensive 
 and defensive was entered into with Denmark.* The 
 duke of Pomerania dared not take an active part against 
 the house of Austria, but was found in no condition to 
 oppose the king of Sweden; and the government of 
 Stralsund itself gladly caught at the offers of Gustavus, 
 
 * May 29, 1628. 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 45 
 
 and besought him to send the promised succour as 
 promptly as possible. That succour was not only- 
 prompt, but such as to render it effectual; and imme- 
 diately upon receiving notice that his troops would be 
 received, Gustavus despatched Leslie, a veteran Scotch 
 officer in the service of Sweden, with 6000 men, and 
 an immense convoy of provisions and ammunition. 
 Wallenstein continued the siege for some time longer, 
 but at length decamped ; leaving Leslie not only in 
 possession of Stralsund but of the isle of Rugen, which 
 the commander of the Swedes had conquered since his 
 entrance into that city. 
 
 The foreign power which had most contributed to 
 bring about the peace between Poland and Sweden was 
 France, which, under the government of the famous 
 cardinal de Richelieu, was now preparing all her ener- 
 gies to reduce the excessive influence of the house of 
 Austria, and to aggrandize the French monarchy at the 
 expense of that of Spain. In pursuit of the latter of 
 these objects, Richelieu saw that the troops of Louis 
 XIII. would find sufficient employment; and in order 
 to accomplish the abasement of the German branch of 
 the Austrian family, he sought to raise up enemies to 
 the emperor, and to supply them with the means of 
 checking him in his hitherto uninterrupted course of 
 success. With this view he had laboured to put an 
 end to the war, which wasted the resources and em- 
 ployed the troops and energies of Gustavus; and he 
 now suggested to the Swedish monarch the glory and 
 advantage which would accrue to him from contending 
 with the head of the German empire. The princes 
 of the protestant union, for the third or fourth time, 
 eagerly applied to Gustavus to give them aid and pro- 
 
46 LIFE OF 
 
 tection, as soon as they saw him free to grant their re- 
 quest. The Hanse towns joined in the petition, and 
 offered the resources of their wealth. The states of 
 Holland, engaged in a war with Spain, supported 
 warmly the petition of the protestant league, and 
 many of the catholic princes themselves intimated that 
 they would either remain neuter, or aid the king of 
 Sweden to repress the overgrown authority of a 
 tyrannical prince. 
 
 Gustavus, however, paused, although the emperor 
 had acted towards him both with open hostility and 
 with base and ungenerous duplicity; and before here- 
 turned to Sweden he held more than one conference 
 with Oxenstiern upon the step to which he was urged 
 by so many motives. The chancellor agreed to the 
 necessity of checking the progress of ihe house of 
 Austria in the north, by declaring war against the em- 
 peror, but, unaware of all the latent resources of his 
 master's mind, he advised him strongly to confine him- 
 self to merely defensive operations. He represented 
 to the king the large army which Austria had already 
 in the field, her vast dominions, her veteran troops, her 
 proved and skilful generals. But Gustavus possessed 
 that power of seeing — of foreseeing, indeed, — all the 
 mighty combinations which were certain of taking 
 place in his favour. His soldiers were few, it is true, 
 but they were veterans also: they were disciplined in 
 a manner both peculiar to themselves, and superior to 
 the discipline of the imperial armies, and they were 
 commanded by generals whose skill, courage, and 
 fidelity had been thoroughly tried. The support and 
 confidence of the people of Sweden, too, was sure, and 
 the resources of the country were great, and were 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 47 
 
 easily rendered available; while the forces of the Ger- 
 man protestants, and the various bands of independent 
 adventurers which had hitherto been generally arrayed 
 against the emperor, offered the means, under the di- 
 rection of a powerful and commanding mind, of coun- 
 terbalancing the superior strength of Austria, in the 
 contest with Sweden. Nor could Gustavus feel within 
 himself the mighty energy of his own character, strug- 
 gling for opportunity to exert its powers upon a w r orthy 
 object, without calculating upon an ally in his own 
 genius which was enough to baffle all the hosts of 
 Ferdinand. 
 
 The reasonings of the monarch were conclusive 
 with his minister, who was one of those rare men who 
 may be convinced; and leaving Oxenstiern behind* 
 with 10,000 men, to preserve the territory he had con- 
 quered, the Swedish monarch returned to his own do- 
 minions, and laid before the senate his views in regard 
 to the war, at the same time demanding their advice 
 as to whether it should be rendered merely defensive, 
 or carried into the heart of Germany. The opinion 
 of the senators strongly confirmed that of the king ; 
 and in a subsequent meeting of the states, the unani- 
 mous and enthusiastic voices of his people bade him 
 go forth and conquer, promising all that strong and 
 willing support which a united nation can give to a 
 monarch beloved, admired, and revered. 
 
 An offensive war was now fully determined upon; 
 and the government of Sweden applied itself to use all 
 means for rendering that war successful, both by the 
 preparation of magazines, armies, and funds, and by 
 
 * Some accounts state that Oxenstiern was not left behind, but 
 returned to Stockholm with the king. 
 
\ 
 
 48 LIFE OF 
 
 the conclusion of alliances with every one who feared 
 or hated the house of Austria. Ferdinand, in the 
 mean time, used every effort to embroil Gustavus with 
 Denmark; and Christian, king of the latter country, 
 who was not well pleased to see his young and ener- 
 getic rival engage in an enterprise which had baffled 
 him and all the Danish forces, though he concluded a 
 treaty of amity and mutual defence with Sweden, of- 
 fered to mediate between Gustavus and the emperor. 
 The imperial envoy, and the Danish mediators pro- 
 ceeded to Dantzic; and Oxenstiern, who was still in 
 Prussia, received orders to confer with them. The 
 clear-sighted minister, however, soon perceived that 
 the Danes leaned to the Austrian side of the question; 
 that the imperial envoy had no intention of concluding 
 peace upon terms honourable to Gustavus, or advan- 
 tageous to the protestants; and that his chief object in 
 visiting Dantzic was to examine the preparations of 
 Sweden, and detach the Dantzicers from their alliance 
 with the king. It seemed more than probable, also, 
 that the eagerness which the emperor displayed in ac- 
 cepting the mediation of the Danish king was caused 
 by the hope of entangling the Danes and Swedes in 
 disputes which would end in open opposition; and the 
 minister of Gustavus saw at once that it would be dif- 
 ficult to negotiate, and yet dangerous to decline, lest 
 the Danes should therein find a pretext for joining the 
 house of Austria. Oxenstiern therefore endeavoured, 
 in the first instance, to withdraw the imperial envoy 
 from the scene of his machinations, by refusing to 
 treat in Dantzic; and finding that his opponent would 
 not conduct the negotiations in any other place, as well 
 as knowing that they would be fruitless, he seized a 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 49 
 
 pretext by which the Danes could not be offended, and 
 declared that he would not proceed to Dantzic, alleging 
 that the emperor not having chosen to give his sove- 
 reign the title of king in his letters, nor having fur- 
 nished his envoy with full powers, it was evident he 
 had no intention of treating sincerely. He sent, how- 
 ever, the terms to which his master was willing to 
 consent, and which were no more than he had a right 
 to demand: but they were at once rejected; and al- 
 though the emperor endeavoured to protract the nego- 
 tiations so as to gain time for the completion of all his 
 schemes, and the consolidation of his power, ere Gus- 
 tavus disputed the field with him, that monarch was 
 not to be delayed nor deceived; and hastening his pre- 
 parations, he was ready to open the campaign early in 
 the year 1630. 
 
 In the mean time the imperialists had endeavoured; 
 as far as possible, to secure for themselves the strong 
 places of Pomerania, in which district they easily per- 
 ceived that Gustavus must make his first descent, and 
 they even attempted to persuade the sovereign of that 
 country to receive an Austrian garrison in his capital 
 of Stettin; but the duke steadily refused, endeavour- 
 ing, however, to induce Gustavus to lead his forces in 
 some other direction, or to grant him the privilege of 
 neutrality. The Swedish monarch positively declined 
 to make any such concession, replying, "He who is 
 not for us is against us;" and on the twenty-fourth of 
 June, 1630, he embarked his troops, and, after a tem- 
 pestuous and troublesome navigation, landed on the 
 isle of Rugen,* which had been taken from the impe- 
 
 * Some historians declare that Gustavus went to Usedomef, bore 
 either landing at Rugen or visiting Stralsund. 
 VOL. II. 5 
 
50 LIFE OF 
 
 rialists by general Leslie some short time before. The 
 whole force which he now possessed on the continent 
 seems to have been numerically under 30,000 men; 
 and with these he prepared to wage an offensive war- 
 fare against a monarch commanding nearly eight times 
 that number of veteran soldiers. But, as it is not the 
 biography of Gustavus that forms the subject of this 
 memoir, a slight sketch of his successful career may 
 be sufficient, until Oxenstiern again appears upon the 
 scene. 
 
 The whole of Pomerania, with the exception of two 
 fortresses, was speedily overrun, and the duke forced 
 to enter into a treaty with Sweden. Gustavus then 
 turned his attention towards Mecklenburg and Bran- 
 denburg ; but, meeting with unexpected difficulties, 
 was obliged to return to secure his conquests in Pome- 
 rania, and capture the towns of Goldberg and Dem- 
 min. In the meanwhile, however, Tilly advanced 
 against him at the head of the imperial army, and cut 
 to pieces without mercy a Swedish detachment in Bran- 
 denburg. But Gustavus could not be tempted to give 
 the Austrian general battle under disadvantageous cir- 
 cumstances; and while the two armies lay in the 
 neighbourhood of each other, success in almost all the 
 skirmishes was on the side of the Swedes. To compen- 
 sate the loss of Pomerania, by some advantage gained, 
 Tilly beseiged Magdeburg; and taking it by surprise, 
 after a long resistance, encouraged his soldiery in the 
 most barbarous massacre that is perhaps recorded in 
 history. Frankfort on the Oder, however, was taken 
 by Gustavus by storm, and the garrison were there re- 
 fused all quarter. 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 51 
 
 The landgrave of Hesse Cassel now openly joined the 
 king of Sweden ; and the elector of Saxony, after having 
 in vain attempted to create a separate interest for him- 
 self, and to gain such power as would enable him to hold 
 the scales between Sweden and the empire, was driven, 
 by the triumphant insolence of Tilly, to submit to the 
 former, and to beseech Gustavus for protection against 
 the general oppressor of Germany. About the same 
 time France concluded a treaty of alliance with Sweden; 
 and from this moment success seemed assured to the 
 opponents of the empire. Tilly, after having rendered 
 himself master of a considerable part of Saxony, and 
 exercised the most brutal cruelty upon the people of 
 that country, approached Leipsic; and having com- 
 pelled that city to surrender, awaited under its walls 
 the attack of Gustavus, who having effected his junction 
 with the Saxon army, now pursued the imperialists, in 
 order to risk a general battle. The two armies were 
 nearly equal in point of numbers; and Tilly having 
 been induced, by the eagerness of some of his officers, 
 to abandon the position he had taken up, was successful 
 in his attack upon the Saxon part of the allied army, 
 but was subsequently completely defeated by Gustavus. 
 The slaughter of the imperial forces were dreadful: 
 numbers were taken prisoners ; and the rout of the 
 rest was so complete that for many days not three 
 thousand Austrians could be collected to form the 
 nucleus of a fresh army. The way to Vienna and the 
 hereditary dominions of the house of Austria was now 
 open to the Swedes, and the prospect was very seductive 
 to one ambitious of military glory: but Gustavus was 
 something more than a mere soldier; and, leaving the 
 
52 LIFE OF 
 
 Saxon army to advance towards the imperial capital, 
 probably with very little hope of its effecting anything 
 in that quarter more than a mere diversion, he himself 
 pushed forward into the heart of the empire, in order to 
 destroy the catholic league, and free the protestant 
 princes from the trammels which had been imposed 
 upon them. 
 
 The necessity of obtaining reinforcements, however, 
 was now pressing; and G-ustavus took measures to 
 recruit his forces, as well with native troops as auxi- 
 liaries. At the same time, to secure possession of the 
 territories he had already acquired, he left Oxenstiern 
 with a small corps of troops behind him, fixing the 
 chancellor's principal residence at Erfurth, under the 
 title of legatus ab exercitu. Here that great minister 
 was in his proper sphere; and although his efforts were 
 of that quiet and unobtrusive class which gain but little 
 public attention and admiration, yet unrivalled in those 
 times as an administrator, he kept constantly open the 
 means of communication between Sweden and his so- 
 vereign's army in all its many marches; secured the 
 districts which had been freed from the Austrians 
 against fresh attempts; and by his moderation, punc- 
 tuality, and sense of justice, so gained the love of the 
 people of Pomerania and Saxony, that universal re-. 
 joicings celebrated the anniversary of Gustavus's en- 
 trance into Germany as the day of deliverance from 
 tyranny and oppression. 
 
 At length, when the king, after having forced his 
 way in arms from the Baltic to the Rhine, took pos- 
 session of Mayence (or Mentz,) and the queen of Swe- 
 den prepared to join her husband in that city, Oxen- 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 53 
 
 stiern put himself at the head of the troops which had 
 accompanied her from Sweden, and leaving the north 
 in perfect security, proceeded to reinforce his sove- 
 reign's army. His march was through a country which 
 the king had already subdued; and on his arrival at 
 Mayence, he was greeted gladly by his sovereign, who 
 bestowed on him the fine library of the elector, which 
 Oxenstiern, always the thoughtful friend of literature, 
 immediately despatched to one of the Swedish uni- 
 versities. 
 
 Plain in his manners, and by no means addicted to 
 flattery, Oxenstiern's first salutation to the king might 
 have awakened the anger of any other monarch. "Why, 
 sire," he exclaimed, "I expected by this time to see 
 you in the Austrian capital." Gustavus, however, 
 could afford to treat the minister's taunt as a jest, because 
 he could prove to him that the banks of the Rhine 
 yielded a more commanding situation for the king of 
 Sweden than Vienna itself. Oxenstiern was not long 
 in acknowledging that the monarch was right; and long 
 and important conferences ensued between Gustavus 
 and his minister, in which it is supposed that the plans 
 were arranged, not only for obtaining the precise kind 
 and proportion of assistance from France which was 
 necessary to the views of the king, but also for uniting 
 and consolidating, in favour of Sweden, all the scat- 
 tered and ill-combined powers, which the divisions, 
 jealousies, and selfishness of the protestant princes of 
 Germany rendered unwieldy and ineffectual. 
 
 At the end of the conferences which now took place, 
 not only between Gustavus and his minister, but be- 
 tween the court of Sweden and the ambassadors from 
 
 5* 
 
54 LIFE OP 
 
 various German and other states, the king proceeded 
 on his career of victories, despatching his chancellor 
 to Torgau, in order to frustrate the efforts which the 
 court of Austria was making to detach the weak and 
 vacillating elector of Saxony from the common cause of 
 the German protestants. The statesman acquitted him- 
 self of his commission with sagacity and firmness ; and 
 the elector was prevented from openly abandoning his 
 friends, though he was led by evil favourites to act 
 remissly in their behalf. Gustavus'then advancing to 
 the Lech, gave Tilly his final defeat at the passage of 
 that river, and proceeded towards Bavaria, leaving 
 Oxenstiern at Mayence as commander-in-chief upon 
 the Rhine. In the neighbourhood of that city many 
 manoeuvres succeeded; in the course of which Oxen- 
 stiern showed not only considerable military skill in 
 obliging a large body of troops from the Low Countries 
 to retire with but little success, but also great political 
 sagacity in checking the efforts made by Richelieu to 
 aggrandize France by means of the dissensions of the 
 German princes. News, however, that Wallenstein 
 with an army of sixty thousand men held Gustavus in 
 check under the walls of Nuremberg soon called Oxen- 
 stiern from the circles of the Rhine. The king, being 
 determined to defend the Nurembergers to the last, 
 while he formed an intrenched camp around the city, 
 had despatched messengers to all his detachments and 
 allies, in order to hasten their junction with the forces 
 under his own command, which did not exceed sixteen 
 thousand men. William duke of Weimar hurried from 
 Lower Saxony; and Oxenstiern having collected rein- 
 forcements from the army of the landgrave of Hesse 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 55 
 
 Cassel and the count palatine, advanced with rapid 
 marches to the succour of his master. At Kitzingen 
 he was joined by duke William, and at Windsheim by 
 duke Bernard of Weimar, as well as by the famous 
 Banier; and then proceeding without a moment's delay, 
 he brought in safety to the little army of his king a 
 reinforcement of fifty thousand men, which at once 
 gave the monarch the advantage over Wallenstein. But 
 the number of troops only served to increase one of the 
 greatest evils under which the king's army already 
 suffered. Want of provision was beginning to be felt 
 in both camps ; and it soon became absolutely necessary 
 for Gustavus to abandon his lines under the walls of 
 Nuremberg, and relieve the town from the famine 
 which was approaching. In the first instance, however, 
 he attempted to storm Wallenstein's camp, but its po- 
 sition rendered it utterly impregnable; and after having 
 sustained considerable loss, Gustavus was forced to 
 retire. No resource was now left ; and assembling the 
 magistracy of Nuremberg, he told them of his pur- 
 pose, but at the same time offered to leave them a suffi- 
 cient garrison to defend the town against all attacks, 
 and promised to remain within such a distance as to 
 enable him to return and fight the enemy, if Wallen- 
 stein quitted his camp to form the seige. As a sort of 
 honourable hostage for the performance of this last pro- 
 mise, he left in their hand the chancellor Oxenstiern, 
 who, knowing the honour and punctuality of his mas- 
 ter, willingly remained to suppoTt and counsel the peo- 
 ple of Nuremberg. 
 
 W r allenstein, however, decamped as soon as Gustavus 
 was at a sufficient distance to enable him to do so in 
 
56 LIFE OF 
 
 safety; and while the Swedish monarch proceeded to 
 attack Bavaria, hurried on into Saxony, in order to 
 force the vacillating elector to abandon the cause of 
 Sweden. At the same time every effort was made by 
 the house of Austria to detach other princes from the 
 ill-connected protestant union; and Gustavus found 
 himself obliged to turn from his projected conquests in 
 Bavaria, and the prospect of still further successes, 
 which some fresh revolts against the Austrian govern- 
 ment had opened before him, in order to save the 
 elector of Saxony from utter destruction. Leaving a 
 small force in Bavaria, to make head against the enemy, 
 the king now hastened on to Nuremberg, while the 
 main body of his army proceeded by a different route. 
 From that city and the neighbouring towns he with- 
 drew the greater part of the garrison ; and, accom- 
 panied by Oxenstiern, marched rapidly to Arnstadt. 
 
 At Nuremberg, and on the march, the king and the 
 minister concerted various plans for uniting the vacil- 
 lating princes of Germany more firmly in the league ; 
 and Oxenstiern received from his sovereign directions 
 to return to Nuremberg, and summon a general meet- 
 ing of the princes and nobles of the four upper circles 
 at Ulm. Gustavus also conferred upon the chancellor 
 unlimited power in those four upper circles, both in re- 
 gard to negotiations and hostilities; and after remain- 
 ing several days with the king at Arnstadt, Oxenstiern 
 proceeded towards the Lower Palatinate, in order to 
 keep the princes and*cities in that part of the country 
 firm in their attachment to the protestant union. 
 While on his way he received, we are told, a letter 
 from his sovereign, in which Gustavus, as if foreseeing 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 57 
 
 that his career was approaching its termination, ex- 
 pressed his last wishes, and pointed out the plans which 
 it would be necessary to pursue in case of his death. 
 The chancellor had already summoned a meeting of 
 the representatives of the four higher circles, when he 
 received the sad intelligence that his heroic master 
 had fallen at the battle of Lutzen in the arms of vic- 
 tory. * 
 
 The deep grief which that event occasioned to the 
 minister may be judged by a peculiar trait. Oxen- 
 stiern was a man of that peculiar and happy constitu- 
 tion of mind and body, which enables some statesmen, 
 when surrounded by the utmost difficulties, cares, and 
 anxieties, with the fate of empires and of worlds upon 
 their heads, to cast off thought at will, and withdraw 
 their minds, when they wish it, from all the tumultuous 
 troubles of their station. He boasted that he always 
 threw off his cares with his clothes when he went to 
 bed; and he was never known to spend more than two 
 sleepless nights during his long and busy life. The 
 first of those nights was after receiving the news of his 
 great monarch's fall — the second took place some 
 years after, when Sweden lost the battle of Nordingen. 
 
 Oxenstiern, however, gave no way to vain regret; 
 and, in common with every other Swede, seemed in- 
 spired with double energy from the great necessity of 
 the moment. Instantly quitting Upper Germany, the 
 chancellor hastened towards Saxony, in the hope of 
 consolidating in that quarter the general protestant 
 league; and, with consummate skill and firmness, he 
 veiled from the eyes of the weak and timid princes 
 
 * November, A. D. 1632. 
 
58 LIFE OF 
 
 with whom he was called to act the apprehensions 
 which weighed upon his own mind, and the difficulties 
 which he foresaw arising before him. His firm de- 
 meanour saved the common cause of the protestant 
 princes ; for the first signs of alarm on the part of 
 Sweden would have sent the lesser sovereigns over to 
 the views of the empire in shoals. Duke Bernard of 
 Weimar, however, who had taken the command of 
 Gustavus's army on the fall of the king, greatly con- 
 tributed to support his party, by driving the imperial 
 forces out of Saxony ; and although Oxenstiern could 
 not succeed in forming a general confederacy against 
 Austria in the north, he at least prevented, by his pre- 
 sence and negotiations, the immediate defection of 
 others, — Brandenburg, Saxony, and Brunswick. This 
 being secured, and having obtained full powers from 
 his native country, where the young queen Christina 
 was universally recognised, and her authority fixed 
 upon an unshakeable basis, Oxenstiern hastened to the 
 south, in order to meet the states of Upper Germany, 
 who had been summoned to assemble at the small 
 town of Heilbron, on the Neckar. Here was accom- 
 plished the greatest effort of Oxenstiern's statesman- 
 ship ; for he was called upon to meet, to persuade, to 
 unite, and to invigorate men who were full of opposing 
 interests, passions, fears, and weaknesses; to support 
 the timid, to overawe the unruly, to confirm the va- 
 cillating, to bribe the mercenary, to accelerate the 
 slow, and to satisfy the jealousy and gain the assistance 
 of foreign powers, who had but a cold and remote in- 
 terest in the affairs which involved the prosperity of 
 Germany and Sweden. A multitude of all classes of 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 59 
 
 people flocked to Heilbron; and, besides deputies from 
 universities and other public bodies, the representatives 
 of twelve free cities, as well as ambassadors from Eng- 
 land, France, and Holland, appeared in the assembly.* 
 Oxenstiern, well knowing the influence of vigour, and 
 even of display, upon such occasions, laid aside the 
 simplicity of his habits and his constitutional coldness, 
 showed himself at the meeting with all the splendour 
 of the crown he represented; and demeaned himself 
 with all the firmness and even vehemence which the 
 most commanding situation could have justified. The 
 general lead in the deliberations was universally per- 
 mitted to himself; and he opened the assembly in a 
 long and eloquent speech upon the state of Germany, 
 and ended by showing that nothing but union, perse- 
 verance, and activity, could preserve any of the pro- 
 testant states from the power and vengeance of the 
 empire. 
 
 All the deputies present promised, for those they 
 represented, the conduct which Oxenstiern desired; 
 but when he came to particularise his demands, he 
 found at once all the weaknesses and bad passion of his 
 auditors arrayed against his views. They would not 
 consent to make a general declaration against the em- 
 peror; they would not furnish the necessary supplies 
 for carrying on the war with vigour: every one had 
 something to complain of, every one had something to 
 demand ; every one some new cause for delay. Oxen- 
 stiern, however, assumed a tone of authority and power 
 which concealed the real weakness of Sweden: he 
 argued, he threatened, he refused to hear of written 
 
 * April, 1633. 
 
60 LIFE OF 
 
 deliberations; and he finally obtained in favour of 
 Sweden, first, the general direction of the evangelic 
 league for himself, though it was shackled by a council 
 of spies; secondly, a regular contribution to be paid 
 by the states of 2,500,000 rix dollars for the expenses 
 of the war; and, thirdly, a firmer compact amongst the 
 princes and cities of the four upper circles. Added to 
 this were promises of future indemnification to Sweden 
 for all her exertion, and a proposal to bestow the elec- 
 torate of Mayence upon Oxenstiern himself. 
 
 It is more than probable that the Swedish minister 
 had aimed at that dignity, and used means to obtain it; 
 but France, who sought to gain possession of Mayence 
 for herself, made such strenuous opposition, that Oxen- 
 stiern did not press the states to pursue their purpose. 
 Although at that moment he might probably have re- 
 alised the most ambitious schemes for himself, Oxen- 
 stiern, on the contrary, instead of increasing the Swe- 
 dish possessions in Germany, determined to divide a 
 great part of what had been already acquired amongst 
 the various princes of the confederacy. By this means 
 he insured their desperate opposition to the house of 
 Austria in defence of the territories thus acquired, and 
 he relieved the Swedes from the necessity of defend- 
 ing unassisted a vast tract of country. The palatinate 
 he at once restored to the heirs of the unfortunate 
 elector Frederic, who had been stripped of his posses- 
 sions by the emperor. To the landgrave of Hesse- 
 Cassel he promised Munster, Fulda, Paderborn; to the 
 duke of Wurtemberg, a considerable part of the here- 
 ditary possessions of Austria, which lay surrounded by 
 his territories; and to duke Bernard of Weimar, a part 
 of Franconia. But no sooner did the German nobles 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 61 
 
 and princes find that the chancellor was in such a libe- 
 ral mood, than demands of all kinds, totally subversive 
 of every principle of the Germanic constitution, were 
 made upon him with the most unblushing effrontery. 
 The honest though perhaps ambitious Swede could not 
 restrain the expression of his indignant contempt; and 
 at length, when some more extravagant demand than 
 all the rest was laid before him, he exclaimed aloud, 
 " Let it be written down in our archives that a German 
 prince made such a request as this to a Swedish gen- 
 tleman, and that, too, upon German ground!" 
 
 We cannot attempt, even in general terms, to follow 
 all the fortunes of the Swedish arms, nor to relate all 
 the measures which Oxenstiern used in order to pre- 
 vent the elector of Saxony and others from detaching 
 themselves from the protestant league. For some time 
 the balance of success seemed to remain in favour of 
 the armies of the confederates. In Bavaria especially, 
 which was left exposed to the incursions of the Swedes, 
 by the effects of Wallenstein's animosity to the elector, 
 Bernard of Weimar obtained frequent and signal vic- 
 tories; but those victories were for a time interrupted, 
 and Oxenstiern involved in very considerable difficul- 
 ties, by an event as unforeseen as it was difficult to re- 
 medy. The soldiers of Gustavus had served during 
 the lifetime of their monarch with zeal, fidelity, and 
 powers of endurance hardly equalled in history, with 
 no advantages but their pay, and with that even often 
 somewhat in arrear. They saw the imperial troops 
 enriching themselves by plundering friends and ene- 
 mies alike; but the contributions raised by Gustavus 
 were scarcely sufficient to supply the payment of his 
 troops, and pillage was punished with the utmost seve- 
 
 VOL. II. 6 
 
62 LIFE OP 
 
 rity. Love and admiration kept the native forces of 
 Sweden in complete subjection to the will of their so- 
 vereign so long as he lived ; and awe of his talents, as 
 well as fear of his immovable sternness, held even the 
 many mercenaries which formed the bulk of his ar- 
 mies in respect. After his death, however, when they 
 found that the same severe discipline was to be kept 
 up, the same toils to be endured, and^he same dangers 
 to be encountered, while their pay was considerably in 
 arrear, and the fruits of their victories went to enrich 
 others, discontent first, then turbulence, and then-open 
 mutiny appeared, in the army of duke Bernard. He 
 paused on his career of conquest ; and after fortunately 
 intercepting the letters which the mutineers had de- 
 spatched to the other armies of Sweden, to notify their 
 proceedings and require co-operation, he transmitted 
 the demands of the soldiery to Oxenstiern. 
 
 It is quite clear that Bernard of Weimar, who was 
 loved by the soldiery with little less veneration than 
 had been obtained by Gustavus himself, did not exert 
 himself to stop the progress of discontent, or to repress 
 the turbulence of the troops when they had once ven- 
 tured upon disobedience. Some historians, indeed, do 
 not fail to point him out as the chief of the mutineers: 
 and there can be no doubt that he profited by his influ- 
 ence in a manner not verv creditable to himself. The 
 soldiers demanded that certain towns should be given 
 up to each regiment, as security for the payment of 
 their arrears ; and they granted the chancellor a month 
 to consider their proposal, threatening, if he refused 
 it, to pay themselves, and abandon the service of Swe- 
 den. Oxenstiern applied to the duke to use his known 
 authority with the soldiers; but Bernard replied, that 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 63 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus had held out to him the prospect 
 of being created duke of Franconia, and that he could 
 do nothing till this expectation was fulfilled, and till 
 he was also created generalissimo of the Swedish ar- 
 mies. The indignation of Oxenstiern now broke forth; 
 and it would appear that, in virtue of the power grant- 
 ed him by Sweden and by the German states, he at 
 first determined to dismiss the duke from the service. 
 But policy soon prevailed: Bernard had hitherto been 
 the most successful general which Sweden had obeyed 
 since the death of the monarch: he was adored by the 
 soldiery, and feared by the enemy. On the other hand, 
 Oxenstiern had neither funds to satisfy the demands of 
 the army nor power to overawe it ; and he conse- 
 quently determined to grant such part of duke Ber- 
 nard's demands as would implicate him inextricably in 
 hostilities with Austria, and to refuse him that part 
 which would increase his power over the army. To 
 the bishoprics of Bamberg and Wurtzburg he. added 
 Konigshofen, and some other territories, to make up 
 the duchy, which was to be held by Swedish investi- 
 ture; and he found several plausible excuses, as the 
 seniority of Banier, Wrangel, and other officers, for re- 
 fusing him the chief command of the Swedish armies. 
 Bernard, however, was satisfied; and the facility 
 with which he quelled the mutiny, in the army, and 
 restored discipline and obedience, spoke loudly of his 
 previous negligence or treachery. Such sums of mo- 
 ney as could be procured were distributed amongst the 
 officers; and Oxenstiern was obliged to resign to their 
 cupidity several confiscated estates. Spanish troops 
 had in the mean time poured into the upper circles, 
 under the command of the duke of Feria ; and general 
 
64 LIFE OP 
 
 Horn now separated from Bernard, to check their pro- 
 gress. Joined with the palatine of Birkenfeld, Horn 
 drove the Spaniards out of Suabia, across the Black 
 Forest, and through the Breisgau into Alsace, from 
 whence he again pursued them into Bavaria, where 
 their army nearly disbanded, and the duke of Feria 
 died, it is said, of disappointment. In the meanwhile, 
 Bernard of Weimar, with increasing instead of dimi- 
 nished forces, crossed the Danube, and made a demon- 
 stration upon Munic; but suddenly turning upon Ra- 
 tisbon, which was feebly garrisoned, he took that 
 important city, and was then pushing on towards Aus- 
 tria when the approach of Wallenstein, who had been 
 equally successful in the middle circles, caused him to 
 retreat. Wallenstein, however, pursued him no fur- 
 ther than the Danube; and taking advantage of a de- 
 monstration of the Saxons against Bohemia, retired to 
 that kingdom, where he remained in despite of the 
 emperor's orders, and the entreaties of the elector of 
 Bavaria. 
 
 The inactivity of Wallenstein was not without a 
 cause. He had never forgiven his formal dismissal 
 from command; and he had long formed the determi- 
 nation of attempting to render himself independent of 
 the emperor, and, by the aid of the Saxons, to raise 
 himself to the throne of Bohemia. Could he have 
 acted sincerely towards the Swedes, it is possible that 
 he might have succeeded in his attempt; but his hatred 
 towards that nation, as well as his peculiar situation 
 with the emperor, rendered his demeanour vacillating 
 and unequal. He was obliged occasionally to hold out 
 specious promises to them as the allies of Saxony, on 
 whose co-operation he founded his great hopes; but he 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 65 
 
 could not prevail upon himself to act in such a manner 
 as to give any assurance of his purposes. Such was 
 his conduct at Munsterberg, some time before he ad- 
 vanced to oppose duke Bernard. At that place he had 
 intrenched himself with 40,000 men : but on the ap- 
 proach of Thurn and Arnheim with a Swedish and 
 Saxon force of 24,000, instead of giving them battle 
 he proposed a suspension of arms; and in after-confer- 
 ences endeavoured to make terms for joining his army 
 to theirs, and marching to dethrone the emperor, on 
 condition of being created king of Bohemia. 
 
 Some time before, Wallenstein had made similar 
 overtures to the French ambassabor at Dresden ; and 
 Feuquieres, who well knew that Richelieu would be 
 pleased to see any new apple of discord cast upon the 
 course of the German princes, offered to the imperial 
 general both pecuniary aid and the countenance of the 
 French monarch in pursuit of his ambitious designs. 
 He now heard, with doubt and suspicion, however, 
 that so reserved and taciturn a man as Wallenstein had 
 opened his views to the Saxons, and especially to Arn- 
 heim, who was known to be in the interest of Austria, 
 and he immediately communicated his anxieties on the 
 subject to Oxenstiern, who was then at Gelhausen. 
 Wallenstein, it would appear, had already found means 
 to negotiate with Oxenstiern; but in the first place, 
 the advantages he held out to the Swedes were not suf- 
 ficient to tempt the great statesman to risk anything 
 in his behalf; and in the next, the chancellor both 
 doubted his sincerity in any of his proposals, and more 
 than suspected him of meditating treachery towards 
 the Swedes. 
 
 Whether Arnheim, the Saxon general, was sent for 
 
 6* 
 
66 LIFE OF 
 
 to confer with Oxenstiern at Gelhausen, or whether he 
 spontaneously bore thither Wallenstein's message de- 
 manding the aid of several veteran regiments of Swedes 
 for the execution of his plan against the emperor, I do 
 not know; but the chancellor, without positively re- 
 fusing his demand, did not consent to their march, and 
 communicated to Arnheim his suspicions of Wallen- 
 stein's sincerity. The Saxon general, though himself 
 a faithless and double-dealing politician, seems not to 
 have suspected Wallenstein: but Oxenstiern's clear- 
 sighted penetration and accurate reasoning raised doubts 
 in his mind; and on returning to his camp, he found, 
 to his surprise, that the imperial general, in violation 
 of every principle of honour and decency, had attempt- 
 ed to entrap and seize a considerable body of Saxon 
 officers who had visited his camp upon the faith of the 
 armistice which had been so lately concluded. An 
 open breach of the truce on the part of Wallenstein 
 soon followed; and both Saxons and Swedes attributed 
 his conduct to treacherous designs against themselves 
 rather than against the emperor. Such, too, might 
 have been the view of the case which descended to pos- 
 terity; for many parts of Wallenstein's actions are irre- 
 concilable with any known motive: but the emperor, 
 by depriving him of the command of the armies, and 
 proclaiming him a traitor, showed that the imperial 
 court at least judged his offers to Saxony to have 
 been made in sincerity. Wallenstein, still confident 
 of his own powers, hastened to the strong fortress of 
 Egra, accompanied by that small part of all his vast 
 forces which remained with him after the emperor's 
 proclamation, and eagerly despatched messengers to 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 67 
 
 Oxenstiern and Arnheim, for aid in his present 
 difficulty. 
 
 The movements of imperial armies against him, the 
 price put upon his head, and his flight to Egra, were 
 sufficient testimonies of his sincerity; and Oxenstiern, 
 who was now again in the circles of the Rhine, immedi- 
 ately ordered three separate corps to march upon Egra 
 from different parts of the country, under the command 
 of the duke of Saxe Lauenburg, 'the count palatine, 
 and the duke of Weimar. Could these three bodies of 
 veteran soldiers have effected their junction with the 
 troops which still remained attached to the rebel 
 general, the imperial throne itself would have been 
 shaken; but ere either of them reached Egra, Wallen- 
 stein had fallen under the blows of assassins, and the 
 emperor was freed from one of the greatest perils which 
 he had yet encountered. 
 
 Another success also awaited him: the duke of Saxe 
 Lauenburg, either through imprudence or treachery, 
 suffered himself to be decoyed into Egra, after it had 
 fallen by Wallenstein's death into the hands of the im- 
 perialists, and surrendered with all his troops. Ber- 
 nard of Weimar, however, was more cautious ; and 
 halted in time, cutting to pieces an imperial regiment 
 which he met in his retreat. But now, for a consi- 
 derable period, fortune abandoned the protestants' arms, 
 and weakness pervaded their councils. Oxenstiern 
 had, in the meantime, assembled the states of the league 
 at Frankfort on the Maine, and endeavoured to instil 
 into them some degree of union and activity, but in 
 vain; and seeing that greater resources would soon 
 become necessary, he despatched his son John to 
 England, to treat for further assistance. The emperor, 
 
68 life or 
 
 on his part, placed his forces under his son, the king 
 of Hungary, with Gallas as their real commander ; and 
 both the prince and the general, anxious to distinguish 
 themselves after the fall of Wallenstein, advanced by 
 rapid marches, and laid siege to Ratisbon. In vain 
 the duke of Weimar and count Horn endeavoured to 
 raise the siege of that city by various means. It fell 
 after a vigorous resistance; and the king of Hungary 
 and Gallas led their forces on to new conquests. Dona- 
 wert was captured, and next Nordlingen was besieged 
 by the united armies of Spain and Austria. The forces 
 under Weimar and Horn marched immediately to its 
 relief; but it was strongly against the advice of the 
 latter general that a battle was risked against the su- 
 perior force and the superior position of the imperial- 
 ists. Duke Bernard, however, overbore all opposition; 
 the Swedes attacked the imperial army early in the 
 morning, and, after a long and desperate conflict, were 
 completely routed.* Horn was taken, with a number 
 of other officers ; the cannon, baggage, and colours of 
 the Swedes fell into the hands of Austria: and 12,000 
 veteran soldiers are said to have remained upon the 
 field of battle. 
 
 No army sufficient to oppose the progress of the 
 imperial forces could be collected by duke Bernard, 
 who fled to Frankfort; and Oxenstiern in vain appealed 
 to the princes of the protestant league for any assist- 
 ance. All seemed faithless or terror-stricken; no one 
 was prepared to act ; Saxony was evidently negotiat- 
 ing a separate peace for herself with Austria; Bran- 
 denburg was treading in her steps; and the whole 
 
 * September 6, 1634. 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 69 
 
 burden of supporting the war fell at once upon Ox- 
 enstiern. Obliged to decide in haste, he recalled the 
 garrisons from a number of small fortresses in Alsace, 
 and, abandoned by the Germans, applied to France for 
 aid, offering to give up Philipsburg to that power, if 
 she would instantly march a body, of troops to the 
 banks of the Rhine. The cardinal de Richelieu at 
 once agreed to a proposal which he had long desired; 
 and the approach of the army of the marechal de la 
 Force restored some degree of confidence to the friends 
 of Sweden. The French general, however, acted but 
 very inefficiently; and no force was ready to defend 
 the territory of Wurtemberg, which was overrun by 
 the Austrian troops immediately after the battle of 
 Nordlingen. France, however, promised to create a 
 diversion in favour of Sweden, by declaring war against 
 Spain, and attacking her possessions in the Nether- 
 lands; and she furnished also some small sums to pay 
 a part of the arrears due to the Swedish troops. 
 
 Oxenstiern, in the meanwhile, laboured by every 
 honourable means to recall the elector of Saxony to a 
 sense of the danger in which the liberties of Germany 
 were placed, representing to him that the moment for 
 making an advantageous peace was certainly not after 
 a casual reverse, and that the only means of saving the 
 German protestants, and upholding the rights of the 
 princes of the empire, were perfect union and renewed 
 exertion. The elector himself was weak, timid, and 
 unprincipled; his minister, Arnheim, was the creature 
 of Austria; Oxenstiern was forced to demand, the em- 
 peror was willing, on the contrary, to grant; and under 
 these circumstances the elector would listen to no ar- 
 guments on the part of Sweden. During the winter 
 which followed the fatal battle of Nordlingen, the 
 
70 LIFE OP 
 
 treaty between Saxony and Austria was concluded; 
 and the elector prepared to persecute his former allies 
 with all the virulence of apostacy. 
 
 Still Oxenstiern yielded not to despair, although, in 
 addition to the defection of Saxony, a renewal of hos- 
 tilities with Poland was to -be expected as the truce ap- 
 proached its conclusion, and although the progress of 
 the Austrians was daily becoming more important. 
 Spires, Treves, Philipsburg itself, fell into the hands 
 of the imperial or Spanish generals, and the aid of 
 France was feeble and ineffectual. A diet of the pro- 
 testant princes was held at Worms; and at length 
 Oxenstiern determined to proceed in person to Paris 
 and Holland, for the purpose of inviting those states, 
 which had so strongly contributed to engage Sweden 
 in the war, to give her now some powerful support in 
 sustaining it. Ere he went, however, to negotiate with 
 those two powers, on the one hand, he gave every 
 necessary direction for treating with Poland on the 
 other. A small Swedish army was landed in Prussia, 
 in order that no weakness might appear; but the son 
 of Oxenstiern, who with several other commissioners 
 managed the interests of Sweden, was commanded to 
 obtain a prolonged peace at any honourable sacrifice. 
 The negotiations conducted under the mediation of the 
 count d'Avaux, ambassador from France, were in this 
 respect successful ; and yielding a considerable tract 
 of conquered territory to the demands of Poland, a 
 new treaty was entered into for twenty-one years. 
 
 Previous to this final arrangement, Oxenstiern had 
 set out for the court of France. He was received by 
 Richelieu with honours paid to no other ambassador: 
 his whole expenses were defrayed during his stay; 
 and the cardinal visited him in person, a mark of 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 71 
 
 respect which he seldom showed to any one. Some 
 distinction the French minister claimed in deference to 
 the purple, which, perhaps, the protestant Swede might 
 at other times have refused; but Oxenstiern came for 
 important purposes, and not for petty ceremonies; and 
 after some brief conferences, he concluded such ar- 
 rangements with France as promised greater success 
 for the ensuing campaigns. He thence proceeded to 
 Holland, where he did all that could be done to stimu- 
 late the States to greater activity; but on his return to 
 Germany, he found the actual position of the Swedes 
 even worse than when he had left the country. Seve- 
 ral other German princes were treating with the em- 
 peror: the army of Weimar was exhausted by disease 
 as well as desertion; and against the stronger force of 
 Banier in the north, the elector of Saxony was em- 
 ploying the means of corruption more destructively 
 than the force of arms. 
 
 The exertions of Richelieu, however, who now en- 
 tered eagerly into the interests of Sweden, soon began 
 to be felt. A supply of money enabled duke Bernard 
 to recruit and keep together his army, and similar 
 assistance afforded Banier the means of paying off a 
 part of the arrears due to his troops, and thus re- 
 moving an argument which the Saxons had used to 
 seduce them from his standard. The French forces, 
 though at first they effected but little in the field, af- 
 forded at least such a diversion as saved the Swedish 
 armies from being overwhelmed at once; and though a 
 number of princes and free towns had gone over irre- 
 coverably to the emperor, they became, under the 
 skilful management of Oxenstiern, more serviceable to 
 Sweden as enemies than they had ever been as friends, 
 
72 LIFE OF 
 
 supplying readily both provisions and contributions to 
 the armies that demanded them at the point of the 
 sword, which' they had refused to the same forces when 
 they came to protect them from oppression. 
 
 At length a signal victory obtained by Banier over 
 the Saxon forces near Domitz raised again the hopes of 
 the Swedes; and various other successes, followed by 
 another general battle, won by Banier, in 1636, com- 
 pletely restored that nation to a commanding position. 
 About the same time Oxenstiern, who had now been 
 many years absent from his native country, retired to 
 Sweden, leaving the war to be carried on by those 
 whose profession it peculiarly was. 
 
 The confederacy of Heilbron was now formally at 
 an end, and the office that he held as its general di- 
 rector no longer existed. He resigned then the autho- 
 rity in Germany, which had been granted him by the 
 regency of Sweden, and appeared once more in the 
 senate as the chancellor of the kingdom, and one of 
 the young queen's guardians. From that period, for 
 several years, his attention seems to have been prin- 
 cipally devoted to rearing the mind of Christina in 
 habits of business, and knowledge of political details. 
 He persuaded her, even from her early youth, to take 
 part in the deliberations of the council, and endeavoured 
 to instil into her those principles of government apd 
 that political knowledge which long experience had 
 taught him. He had to encounter many difficulties, 
 however, at this time in Sweden: a difference of 
 opinion often existed between himself and the other 
 regents; and the queen-mother, whose incapacity for 
 government was notorious, pressed eagerly for a share 
 of authority. Oxenstiern, it would appear, was justi- 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 73 
 
 fied in excluding her, by the last commands of Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus himself; but the queen resented his 
 opposition, and, leaving the country, betook herself to 
 Denmark. 
 
 In that quarter, too, other storms were gathering. 
 Christian IV., the Danish monarch, used every unjus- 
 tifiable means to gain advantages over Sweden, while 
 she was entangled in the German war: he oppressed 
 her commerce, impeded her in the navigation of the 
 Sound, and showed so plainly what were his intentions, 
 that Oxenstiern, seeing that hostilities were inevitable, 
 resolved to commence them at one. ere the preparations 
 of Denmark had begun. Bold, indeed, was the deter- 
 mination to plunge into a new war, while the forces of 
 Sweden found almost the whole armies of Germany 
 arrayed against them ; but at that moment Torstenson 
 was maintaining the cause of his country with renewed 
 success; and the chancellor, while he prepared an ir- 
 ruption into Denmark from Sweden itself, sent orders 
 to that great commander to make a sudden and secret 
 march upon Holstein. 
 
 So completely did Torstenson veil his manoeuvres, 
 that the whole of Europe contemplated them with 
 surprise and perplexity ; and so well was the secret 
 kept at Stockholm, that neither France, Holland, nor 
 Denmark herself, even guessed the approaching attack 
 upon the latter kingdom, till the Swedish armies were 
 actually in Holstein. The Danish monarch was utterly 
 unprepared for resistance; but he hastened to levy 
 forces to oppose Torstenson, who in a few days over- 
 ran the whole duchy. Another Swedish army attacked 
 Shonen with success, and threatened to cross over into 
 Funen and Zealand 5 and the king of Denmark himself 
 
 vol. 11. 7 
 
74 LIFE OF 
 
 was defeated and wounded in command of his fleet. 
 The only hope was from the efforts of Austria; and 
 the emperor did not fail to make immense exertions to 
 drive the Swedes from Holstein: but, after a faint pro- 
 mise of success, Galas, the imperial general, was de- 
 feated and driven from post to post by Torstenson, till 
 the army under his command was absolutely annihilated. 
 Various other reverses induced the king of Denmark 
 to sue for peace on any terms; and, under the mediation 
 of France and Holland, Oxenstiern concluded a treaty 
 with that prince at Bremesboor,* upon conditions the 
 most advantageous to Sweden that success could com- 
 mand. 
 
 Christina, who had now attained her age of majority, 
 and had taken upon herself the government of her do- 
 minions, lost no time in testifying her gratitude for the 
 important services which Oxenstiern had just rendered 
 her ; and, together with several considerable estates, 
 she bestowed upon him the title of count, and publicly 
 pronounced upon him a high eulogium in an assembly of 
 the states. Always the enlightened friend of literature 
 and science, as every great minister has universally 
 shown himself to be, Oxenstiern was elected chancellor 
 of the university of Upsal ; and a great part of his 
 time was, after this period, directed to promote the 
 purposes of that institution. His favour at the court, 
 however, was not so great as it had been ; and the 
 strong objections which he raised to several of the 
 princes who aspired to the hand of the young queen 
 have given rise to suspicions that he both sought to 
 retain the chief power in his own hands, and enter- 
 tained even the wilder scheme of marrying his son 
 
 * 1615. 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 75 
 
 i 
 
 Eric to his sovereign. Certain it is, that he thwarted 
 in the most open way the desires of the elector Frederic 
 William of Brandenburg, between whom and Christina 
 a marriage had been proposed even in the time of Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus; but the reasons that he assigned for 
 his opposition appear perfectly natural and sufficient. 
 The proximity of that prince's dominions to Sweden 
 gave great facilities, it is true, for mutual support and 
 assistance; but, at the same time, it was probable, both 
 from the known character of the elector, and the ordi- 
 nary propensities of man, that he would fill Sweden, 
 if ever he became its king, with favourites of his own 
 nation, and, perhaps, ultimately reduce it to a mere 
 appendage to the German empire. 
 
 In the meantime Torstenson again defeated the im- 
 perial troops, and laid siege to Vienna itself. Turenne 
 and Conde carried on the war upon the part of France. 
 Wrangel succeeded Torstenson in his victories and his 
 command : the emperor was reduced to the very lowest 
 condition; and, in the end, the peace of Munster ter- 
 minated the war with great advantages to Sweden. In 
 the negotiations for that peace, John Oxenstiern, the 
 son of the chancellor, appeared on the part of Sweden, 
 acting under the direction of his father; but Christina, 
 who began to grow weary of the great authority of her 
 father's chancellor, sent also the famous Salvius to the 
 conferences, for the purpose, it is supposed, of keeping 
 Oxenstiern in check. It is probable that, under other 
 circumstances, the calm firm policy of the great minis- 
 ter might have obtained more important advantages for 
 Sweden ; but he was destined to see many of his hopes 
 for the prosperity of his master's child ruined by her 
 own perverseness. Charles Gustavus, first cousin of 
 
76 life or 
 
 the young queen, had, during the latter years of the 
 war, appeared several times in Sweden, with a view of 
 obtaining the hand of Christina; and, according to some 
 accounts, his suit was favoured by the chancellor. 
 Christina, however, had other views; and in the end of 
 the year 1649 she signified her intention of naming 
 that prince as her successor to the throne of Sweden. 
 Oxenstiern opposed this purpose with many other in- 
 fluential members of the senate, but in vain ; and in 
 the following year, the queen called an assembly of the 
 states, and obtained their nomination of Charles Gus- 
 tavus, duke of Zweibrucken, as heir to the Swedish 
 crown, in case of her death. 
 
 This was but a preparatory step, for although she 
 went through the ceremony of her coronation, she, 
 early in the following year, evinced a determination 
 to abdicate in favour of her cousin. Oxenstiern again 
 opposed her purpose, and called, to support his views, 
 not only the French ambassador, but Charles Gustavus 
 himself. Christina's resolution, however, was immov- 
 able, and doubtless wise ; for the irregularity of her 
 conduct, her avowed disrespect for the religion of the 
 country which she was called to govern, and her weak 
 and capricious character, were day by day alienating 
 the affections of all that were honest in Sweden.* 
 
 Long remembered love for her father kept the 
 chancellor still faithful to the interests of his child, 
 
 * Amelot de la Houssaie declares, that the Swedes were on the 
 point of deposing" and confining her, if she had not made a virtue 
 of necessity, and resigned the throne. I find no proof of this, 
 however, though her disgusting" immorality and want of principle 
 were too well known to be concealed by wit, or covered by the 
 thin veil of counterfeit philosophy. 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 77 
 
 although he could not close his eyes to her unworthi- 
 ness ; and he opposed her abdication to the last, re- 
 plying to those who pointed out the certain proofs of 
 her bad conduct, "Alas, alas! be it as it may, she is 
 nevertheless the daughter of the great Gustavus." 
 Using all his influence with the senate, Oxenstiern 
 induced the senators to present so strong a remon- 
 strance to the queen in 1651, that she consented still 
 to retain the reins of government; but before the 
 year 1654, the nation had become well prepared for an 
 event which was now generally desired. Measures 
 had been concerted to prevent the abdication from 
 giving any shock to the affairs of state ; and though 
 the senate made a slight parade of opposition, every- 
 thing was arranged to facilitate the queen's descent 
 from the throne. 
 
 The states were accordingly assembled in May, 
 1654; and Christina announced her determination in 
 one of those pompous and rhetorical speeches in which 
 her vanity led her frequently to indulge. She at- 
 tempted then to induce the states to name her favour- 
 ite, the baron de Tott, successor to Charles Gustavus, 
 to whom she resigned the throne ; but she found 
 them not at all inclined to listen to her nomination. 
 All that she required for herself they granted ; but 
 for De Tott she could obtain nothing, although she 
 eagerly pressed to have the title of duke bestowed 
 upon him, offering to elevate count Brahe and Oxen- 
 stiern to the same rank. Those two nobles, however, 
 boldly replied, that the ducal coronet had never been 
 granted to any but the sons of their kings, and they 
 only desired to raise themselves above their fellows 
 by their virtues. Christina, although disappointed in 
 
 7* 
 
78 LIFE OF 
 
 this respect, persevered in her determination to with- 
 draw from the restraint of government ; and, covering 
 bad passions and evil conduct under the profaned 
 mantle of philosophy, she resigned the throne, with 
 much pomp and display, on the 16th of June, in the 
 same year. All the officers of the crown were pre- 
 sent, and took part in the solemnity, except the great 
 chancellor Oxenstiern, who could be induced by no 
 persuasion, either to sanction the act of abdication as 
 a senator, or to appear in the scene in which it was 
 executed. "I promised upon oath to Gustavus, my 
 king," he replied, to every solicitation, " to place 
 and to maintain the crown of Sweden on the head of 
 his daughter ; and it would be criminal and treache- 
 rous, on my part, to concur in an act which deprives 
 her of royalty." 
 
 The mortifications which he had lately undergone 
 had hastened the ravages which time, aided by ex- 
 treme labours, was making on the frame of the chan- 
 cellor; and to discover as he did, shortly after Chris- 
 tina's abdication, that the revenues of the state were 
 diminishing, and that its exchequer was every day 
 becoming more and more in debt, added fresh griefs 
 to those which already oppressed him. At length, a 
 constitution which had been once extremely powerful 
 gave way ; and having been seized with a slight fit 
 of apoplexy at the palace, while transacting business 
 with his new sovereign, Charles Gustavus, he retired 
 to his own house, and prepared for death. The end 
 of the great statesman's days was, as he anticipated, 
 approaching; and in the month of August, 1654, he 
 left a world in which he had played a noble and dis- 
 tinguished part. 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 79 
 
 Axel Oxenstiern was well made, and handsome in 
 person, with a peculiarly noble and expressive coun- 
 tenance. His constitution was robust, and his health 
 through the greater part of life almost uninterrupted; 
 but, in comparison with others of his age and nation, 
 lie was extremelv moderate, both in eating and drink- 
 ing ; avoiding carefully the excesses into which al- 
 most all the immediate followers of Gustavus fell, in 
 consequence of the roving, hazardous, and unsettled 
 life which they were forced to lead, from the out- 
 breaking of the war till its close. Though brave, 
 and, indeed, apparently fearless to the same degree as 
 his great sovereign, he never seems to have sought 
 the character of a general, feeling himself better fitted 
 to act in the cabinet than in the field. Yet, at the 
 same time, it is but fair to state, that in all his military 
 undertakings he was successful, keeping several newly- 
 acquired and inimical provinces in perfect subjection 
 with a very small force, and leading, on various oc- 
 casions, considerable detachments to join his sove- 
 reign, through the midst of defensible countries, and 
 in the face of infinitely superior forces. 
 
 His erudition was very extensive and also very pro- 
 found ; and various compositions are supposed to have 
 issued from his pen, under the names of other persons, 
 which, were the fact clearly established, would place 
 him high in the ranks of literature. As a statesman, 
 perhaps, his character stands above that of any other 
 in the history of modern Europe; for he showed all 
 those qualities which are requisite in the great and 
 perilous course of the politician, with most of those 
 virtues which adorn any station, and exalt the man 
 higher than the minister. He was penetrating, clear- 
 
80 life or 
 
 sighted, firm, courageous, enduring, comprehensive in 
 his views, prompt in his decisions, persevering in his 
 purposes: yet he was just, humane, a lover of truth, 
 amenable to reason, candid in the acknowledgment 
 of his faults, liberal in his judgment of others, devo- 
 tedly attached to those he loved, yet neither tenacious 
 of resentment, nor sanguinary in his enmities. 
 
 Where is the minister who has not been charged 
 with ambition ? Perhaps, in regard to the electorate 
 of Mayence, Oxenstiern, did covet and strive for an 
 honour which was not an empty one, a dignity which 
 would have conferred real power j but the moment 
 he found that his pursuit of that object would impede 
 the execution of his dead sovereign's designs, and 
 might prove detrimental rather than beneficial to his 
 country, he abandoned it without a murmur. It 
 might be, also, that he showed himself as Schiller 
 declares he did, both unscrupulous in the distribution 
 of territories over which he had no right but that of 
 the sword, and forgetful of the constitution of the 
 Germanic empire. But we must remember that 
 those who could have disputed his title to distribute 
 founded their own claims on the same right by which 
 he possessed, and that the persons to whom he gave 
 were members of that very empire, and struggling 
 for its privileges against those who were thus stripped. 
 It is true that Gustavus came to uphold the constitu- 
 tion of the Germanic empire, not to destroy it ; but 
 the emperor himself had set the example of making 
 a private contention the plea for stripping an elector 
 of his territories, and those who supported him in in- 
 justice exposed themselves to retaliation. 
 
 If Oxenstiern sought to wed his son to the queen 
 
AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 81 
 
 Christina, he pursued his purpose with such modera- 
 tion as to leave no trace of his endeavours, except in 
 surmise; and if he clung to power, his enemies them- 
 selves never denied that he used it ever for the good 
 of his country. That he was occasionally haughty 
 and passionate when he was assailed by the mean, the 
 base, and the interested, there can be no doubt ; and 
 that he often treated with contemptuous indignity the 
 feeble, selfish, vacillating princes, who surrounded 
 him in the Thirty Years' War, is equally true : but 
 where he met with talents or with virtues he was 
 sure to show them honour; and the native dignity of 
 his character, which those who had none stigmatised 
 as cold pride, guarded him against the commission of 
 any mean and pitiful acts. 
 
 He treated as an equal with Richelieu, the most 
 penetrating and politic man of his age, and was not 
 overreached ; but Oxenstiern had great advantages 
 which more than equalled the cardinal's powers of 
 deceit and subtilty. He was not so vain, arrogant, os- 
 tentatious, or ambitious. So far from loving to govern 
 alone, and seeking for all the fame, and all the advan- 
 tages proceeding from every great act, he retired from 
 notice, as much as it was possible to do, in a respon- 
 sible situation ; and it is difficult to prove that many 
 of those strokes of policy, which we are internally 
 convinced emanated from his mind, were not sug- 
 gested or modified by others.* But still, on all oc- 
 
 * Thus I 4?ave not placed the famous constitution given to 
 Sweden after Gustavus's death amongst the acts of Oxenstiern, 
 to whom it is usually ascribed, because some doubts exist in my 
 mind as to whether it* might not be as a part or a whole dictated 
 by the king himself at his last interview with his minister, or in 
 
82 LIFE OF AXEL COUNT OXENSTIERN. 
 
 casions where he does appear, the same masterly in- 
 tellect, the same vigorous firmness, the same noble 
 moderation, the same comprehensive mind, stand forth, 
 and show him as at once one of the noblest and one of 
 the wisest of his age. 
 
 one of the letters which he wrote to him shortly before the battle 
 of Lutzen. 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 GASPAR DE GUZMAN, COUNT OLIVAREZ, 
 DUKE OF SAN LUCAR. 
 
 BORN ABOUT 1587, DIED A.D. 1643. 
 
 Issuing from a distinguished branch of the ancient 
 and renowned family of Guzman, possessing conside- 
 rable wealth, and third count of Olivarez, the minister 
 afterwards famous as the count-duke, met with few 
 difficulties in his ascent to power. His father, a Cas- 
 tilian nobleman of some talent, w r as successively am- 
 bassador at Rome, viceroy of Sicily and Naples, and 
 counsellor of state to Philip III. During his embassy 
 to the papal court, under the pontificate of Sextus V., 
 the ambassador inhabited a house said to have been 
 built on the ruins of the old palace of Nero, and in 
 this dwelling was born the future minister; an event 
 from which his enemies did not fail, at an after period, 
 to insinuate that the spirit of the Roman tyrant had 
 entered into the bosom of the infant. After the re- 
 turn of his father to Spain, Olivarez was sent to the 
 university of Salamanca, where he pursued his studies 
 with very great distinction ; and thence proceeded to 
 Madrid, where the court offered at that time a scene 
 of vice and corruption, from which it was difficult for 
 a young man to escape unsullied. Much that he saw, 
 — the venality, the fraud, and the insincerity, which 
 were apparent in every saloon and every office, act- 
 ing upon a heart naturally disinterested, but suspi- 
 
84 LIFE OF 
 
 cious, gave that sternness to his integrity, and that 
 haughty jealousy to his demeanour which afterwards 
 characterised all his proceedings during his continu- 
 ance in power. The softer and the more fascinating 
 vices, however, of the Spanish court, — those which 
 did not disgust by their grossness, nor shock by their 
 baseness, could hardly fail to prove alluring to one 
 young, wealthy, and powerful, who found facilities 
 of all kinds on the path of passion. He thus spent 
 some time at Madrid in the society of the fair, but not 
 chaste dames, with which that capital was then crowd- 
 ed, the votary of a softer power than the ambition 
 which was to follow after. To dwell upon such scenes 
 is rarely necessary, and never pleasing, and therefore 
 we shall not pursue the course of Olivarez through 
 the various amours which, truly or falsely, have been 
 attributed to him by those who have collected the 
 anecdotes of his early life. On one attachment of the 
 kind, however, it may be necessary to pause, as the 
 consequences of this adventure became afterwards of 
 importance, and are connected with some of the most 
 singular acts and some of the most curious traits of 
 character in the life of the count himself. 
 
 Various branches of the family of Spinola had emi- 
 grated from Genoa during the reign of Philip II., and 
 had settled in Spain, where they were received into 
 the ranks of the nobility, and distinguished themselves 
 highly both in civil and military employments. One 
 of this house married a Spanish lady, and by her had 
 three daughters of extraordinary beauty; the eldest of 
 whom, Margueret, left with little but an unfortunate 
 dowry of loveliness, was besieged with views but 
 little honourable by a number of the nobles of a disso- 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 
 
 85 
 
 lute court ; and at length choosing more from interest 
 than passion, she yielded to don Francesco de Valea- 
 zar, alcade of the court, a man of great wealth and in- 
 fluence, but advanced in years. At the time that 
 Olivarez arrived in Madrid she was the acknowledged 
 mistress of Valeazar; but seeing her, and becoming 
 fascinated with her beauty, he easily obtained means 
 of introducing himself to her, and found little diffi- 
 culty in persuading a dissolute woman to deceive a 
 man for whom she entertained no affection. This 
 intercourse continued for some time, and at length a 
 son was born, the paternity of which was very doubt- 
 ful. The alcade, however, was the reputed father; 
 but feeling anything but secure of the fidelity of his 
 mistress, Valeazar took but little charge of the child ; 
 who, till he reached the 3ge of eighteen, never re- 
 ceived any name but that of Julian, which had been 
 given him at his baptism. His mother, however, 
 having died, and left him in poverty, he obtained 
 permission of the alcade to take the name of Valeazar; 
 and though feeling strongly convinced that the child 
 was not his own, that officer obtained for him a small 
 post in South America, the golden land of all the ad- 
 venturous spirits of the age. 
 
 Educated without any care by a mother who had 
 showed herself devoid of all principle, it was not to be 
 expected that the young adventurer would distinguish 
 himself by virtue, although he is generally admitted 
 to have possessed considerable talent. His career in 
 Mexico is not well ascertained, but it is confidently 
 stated that he there committed crimes for which he 
 was sentenced to the galleys. From that fate, how- 
 
 VOL. II. 8 
 
S6 LIFE OF 
 
 ever, he was saved by the viceroy, who was an inti- 
 mate friend of his reputed father; and having re- 
 turned to Spain, in which country the alcade had 
 in the meantime died, he found himself utterlv des- 
 titute. He then is said to have entered the army as 
 a simple soldier, and served for some years in Flan- 
 ders and Italy, showing considerable courage and 
 talent, but at the same time evincing a strong dispo- 
 sition to make his manners and demeanour harmonise 
 with the rank of life into which he had now fallen. 
 From Italy he returned in 1631 or 1632 nearly as 
 poor as he went, but he was destined to find high for- 
 tunes awaiting him. 
 
 In the meantime he who was probably the real 
 father of this unfortunate man had gradually changed 
 his pursuits, casting aside love for ambition, and was 
 seeking advancement at the court, where he was first 
 appointed one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to 
 Philip, the heir-apparent to the throne. Olivarez ap- 
 plied himself diligently to gain the young prince's 
 favour ; and by his wit, his varied learning, and his 
 knowledge of his master's foibles, he made considera- 
 ble progress. A most formidable opponent existed in 
 the person of the count de Lemos, a nobleman who 
 had been placed near the prince by the duke of 
 Lerma, then prime-minister, and whose personal 
 graces, vigour of mind, and dignity of character, 
 gave him great advantages over the young Olivarez. 
 Lemos, however, applied himself more to gain the 
 favour of the king, Philip III., than that of the prince; 
 and to support the falling authority of his own uncle, 
 the cardinal-duke of Lerma, against the machinations 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 87 
 
 of that minister's ungrateful son, the duke of Uceda.* 
 The house of Guzman, however, lent their aid to 
 Uceda: the bold frankness of the count de Lemos 
 only offended th'3 weak king, and the duke of Lerma 
 was, in the end, disgraced and banished from the 
 court. 
 
 All the offices which had been held by Lerma were 
 now at once seized upon by Uceda, except that of su- 
 perintendent of the prince's education ; which was 
 filled for some days by the conde de Paredes, but was 
 soon resigned by that nobleman. Every effort was 
 now made by the family of Olivarez to gain it for 
 one of their connexions; and at length Uceda bestowed 
 it on don Baltazar de Zuniga, uncle of the future 
 minister. During the rest of the life of Philip III. 
 Olivarez remained unnoticed, but still advancing in the 
 favour of the prince, over whom his power became in- 
 finite after the removal of Lemos and his friends. At 
 length, in the year 1621, Philip IV. succeeded to the 
 throne of Spain, at the age of sixteen; but, far from 
 obeying the directions of his father, who had recom- 
 mended to him to retain the ministers already in office, 
 one of his first acts was to dismiss Uceda, and to name 
 as prime minister his former preceptor, don Baltazar de 
 Zuniga. 
 
 This appointment, however, seems to have been 
 merely made at the desire of Olivarez, who, for the 
 time, affected a degree of humility and disinterested- 
 ness which deceived the king, but not the people. At 
 
 * I do not know why this name is constantly written Uzeda in 
 English. Cespedes and all the old Spanish authors which I have 
 met with always use the letter c and not z. 
 
88 LIFE OF 
 
 the same time the favourite governed under the name 
 of his uncle, and, Cespedes implies, even openly shared 
 in the administration. The favour of the monarch 
 daily increased, instead of diminishing, and the effects 
 thereof soon became apparent. Olivarez was appointed 
 to various high offices, was named duke of San Lucar, 
 and raised to the rank of grandee of Spain, with the 
 universal applause of the people, gran valedor de novi- 
 dades, as the historian calls the Spanish nation. Oli- 
 varez now threw off the mask: his uncle, don Baltazar, 
 resigned his power into his nephew's hands, and died 
 shortly after, leaving the favourite to assume the title as 
 well as the functions of minister. 
 
 The first acts of Olivarez showed a disposition to 
 severity, which was afterwards somewhat mitigated, but 
 which never wholly left him. His predecessor, the 
 duke of Uceda, was arrested, and thrown into prison. 
 The famous duke of Ossuna, at the moment that he 
 thought himself likely to be called into favour and 
 authority, was seized, and conveyed to the castle of 
 Almeida. His trial was immediately commenced, a 
 number of follies and a number of crimes offering fair 
 foundation for the charge against him; but the pro- 
 ceedings were protracted with cruel delay, and, at the 
 end of three years, he died, still a prisoner. * Uceda 
 escaped more gently, having been condemned to fine 
 and exile; but the king remitted the punishment, gave 
 him letters of abolition, and named him to the vice- 
 royalty of Catalonia, which 1 am led to believe he de- 
 clined.! At the same time the padre Aliaga, confessor 
 
 *Some say of dropsy, some of apoplexy, some of poison taken 
 voluntarily. 
 
 f Cespedes leaves the matter in doubt. 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 89 
 
 to the late king and grand inquisitor, received a com- 
 mand to retire to his convent, and was ultimately de- 
 prived of his rank in the inquisition, with the consent 
 of the pope. 
 
 Still more severe measures, however, were pursued 
 towards the duke of Lerma and his favourite Cal- 
 deron. The former was proceeded against criminally 
 on account of various alleged peculations committed 
 while he held the reins of government; and though his 
 rank in the Roman hierarchy, as cardinal, shielded him 
 from death or imprisonment, he was stripped of all his 
 wealth, and even of his hereditary property, in order 
 to make up the sum of 1,400,000 crowns, which he was 
 alleged to have obtained unjustly by a monopoly of the 
 corn from Sicily. The latter, don Rodrigo de Calderon, 
 count of Oliva, who, from a low origin, had risen, by 
 the favour of Lerma, to wealth, power, and rank, — a 
 man of talent, application, and many high and noble 
 qualities, but one on whom fortune had acted unfavour- 
 ably in rendering him haughty and ostentatious, — was 
 made a sacrifice to the hatred of the people he had 
 often insulted, and to the jealousy of men less worthy 
 than himself. If he had not borne prosperity meekly, 
 he at least endured adversity with the dauntless fortitude 
 of a man of high courage, and the calm humility of a 
 Christian. Long imprisonment, cruel delays, and brutal 
 insults served but to call forth virtues in him which had 
 previously lain dormant ; and when at length he was 
 executed for crimes that no one believed he had com- 
 mitted, is demeanour was so noble and so affecting, 
 that even. his enemies shed tears, and regretted the act 
 they had thus consummated. 
 
 These first proceedings of the new minister tended to 
 
90 LIFE OF 
 
 render him both loved and feared by the populace ; for 
 those whom he struck were old favourites of the court, 
 and, consequently, had long been objects of popular 
 hatred. Nor were external events less favourable on 
 his accession to power. Marmora, which had been be- 
 sieged by an army of 50,000 Moors, was relieved, and 
 the attacking force defeated. Don Frederic, of Toledo, 
 gained several advantages over the Dutch, who were 
 driven about the same time from the Moluccas, while the 
 famous Spinola was sent to take the command in the 
 Low Countries, and laid siege to Juliers, which sur- 
 rendered after a resistance of five months. At the same 
 time, the Spanish and the imperial troops upon the Rhine 
 were gaining constant advantages over the unfortunate 
 Palatine, and everything gave Olivarez reason to hope 
 that the power of the house of Austria was rising 
 triumphant above its rivals. His plans and his ambition 
 increased with these successes, but still he was not 
 so much without foresight as he is frequently repre- 
 sented to have been ; and although he could not but per- 
 ceive thatFrance was the enemy with which Spain would 
 have ultimately to contend, yet he lost no opportunity, 
 especially at this point of his career, to conciliate his dan- 
 gerous neighbour, and thus keep the Spanish armies free 
 to pursue the war against Holland. Even the breaking 
 of the truce with the states-general, which has often been 
 attributed to Olivarez as a fault, can scarcely be fixed 
 upon him with any certainty.* Indeed it would appear 
 to have been determined upon by the duke of Uceda 
 long before the count-duke had any share of power; 
 
 * Olivarez in his exculpation does not deny the act, but defends 
 the policy. 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 91 
 
 and, "whether peace was broken by his authority or not, 
 it is certain that the Spanish and Dutch forces had been 
 aclualjy opposed to each other prior to the death of 
 Philip III. No doubt, however, can be entertained 
 that Olivarez was willing to carry on the war against 
 Holland with vigour and perseverance; and, could he 
 have prevented himself from being drawn into conten- 
 tion with other powers, his hostilities against the united 
 states might have been politic though not just. Towards 
 the end of a long truce, it was either necessary to recog- 
 nise the independence of the states, or to continue the 
 war in order to re-establish the dominion of Spain. To 
 have suffered the truce to be prolonged, would have been 
 a virtual resignation of the claims of the Spanish crown, 
 without an}^ of the advantages which might be hoped 
 from either of the more direct modes of proceeding. To 
 resign the claims of Spain, and acknowledge the inde- 
 pendence of Holland, even receiving some indemnifi- 
 cation, Olivarez could not attempt; for he well knew 
 that not only the king, but the whole Spanish nation, 
 would oppose him as one man ; and even if the design 
 ever crossed his mind, which probably it never did, — 
 for we must not forget that Olivarez was a Spaniard, — 
 it would have been insanity to have attempted its 
 execution. 
 
 Towards the end of the preceding reign, took place 
 the occupation of the Valteline and the building of 
 forts in that district, of which we have already 
 spoken,* and the threats of France now produced ne- 
 gotiations for the re-establishment of the sovereignty 
 of the Grisons. These negotiations ended in a vague 
 
 * See Life of Richelieu. 
 
92 LIFE OF 
 
 treaty, the terms of which were never observed, but 
 which served to lull the suspicions of France, then 
 struggling with a war against the Huguenots, and ruled 
 by the weak uncertain hands of Luines and Vieville. 
 Finding, however, that even the latter began to awake 
 from his lethargy and to renew the threats which had 
 before been used in regard to the Valteline, Olivarez — 
 who fell into the common error of mistaking the cha- 
 racter of his opponents, and attributed to the French 
 many of the distinctive traits of the Spanish people — 
 determined to place the strong places of the Valteline 
 as a deposite in the hands of the pope, imagining that 
 French ministers would show as much scrupulous re- 
 verence for the holy see as was testified on all occa- 
 sions by the government of Spain. 
 
 Thus rested the whole affair till the staff of rule in 
 France fell into the vigorous grasp of Richelieu ; but 
 in the mean time the arrangement made by the count- 
 duke was looked upon in Spain as a fine stroke of po- 
 licy. The satisfaction which was thus spread through 
 the country was somewhat diminished by the news of 
 Spinola having been forced to raise the siege of Ber- 
 gen-op-Zoom; but the canonisation of four Spanish 
 saints, which Olivarez had obtained from the willing 
 pontiff, was sufficient to cast a lustre over the whole of 
 the year 1622 ; and successes on the side of Germany, 
 as well as some brilliant but unprolific exploits upon 
 the coast of Africa, served to keep the nation in high 
 good humour with the minister. 
 
 The following year also presented to the Spanish 
 people several of those scenes of splendour and display 
 which excite the imagination and render a haughty 
 nation content with itself and with all attached to it. 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 93 
 
 For many months negotiations had been carried on 
 between the Spanish and the English courts concern- 
 ing the marriage of prince Charles, afterwards the un- 
 fortunate king, Charles I., with the infanta, sister of 
 Philip IV. ; and in the course of the ensuing year that 
 prince, together with his favourite, Buckingham, ap- 
 peared at Madrid. Charles affected to have come in- 
 cognito, but he was received with roval honours. Oli- 
 varez, however, taking advantage of the imprudent 
 step which the English prince had committed, sought 
 to obtain more advantageous terms for Spain. The 
 pope, probably at his suggestion, delayed the necessary 
 dispensations for the marriage of the infanta ; and every 
 art was used both to increase the inclination of the 
 prince for the proposed alliance, and yet to exact hard 
 conditions. Buckingham, whose pride and licentious- 
 ness soon rendered him odious, is reported to have at- 
 tempted the virtue of the duchess Olivarez, during his 
 visit to Spain, with the same libertine vehemence 
 which he afterwards displayed towards the young 
 queen of France. The facts, however, have never 
 been clearly ascertained ; but either in the fear of en- 
 countering Spanish revenge, as a consequence of his 
 unprincipled audacity, or of seeing the prince himself 
 fall a victim to the imprudent step which he had coun- 
 selled, Buckingham induced Charles to make a some- 
 what hasty retreat from the Spanish court, and subse- 
 quently broke off the treaty of marriage, which all the 
 diplomatic skill of Olivarez was unable afterwards to 
 renew. The count-duke viewed with jealousy, in- 
 deed, and laboured hard to frustrate the negotiations 
 which immediately afterwards took place between 
 France and England on the same subject, but it was in 
 
/ 
 
 94 LIFE OF 
 
 vain; and the inauspicious marriage between Charles 
 and Henrietta took place. 
 
 In the mean time, Holland was left alone to contend 
 with Spain, Olivarez gained various advantages, and 
 the states met with several reverses. Prince Maurice 
 was forced to abandon the attempt which he had made 
 upon Antwerp with considerable loss ; and during the 
 same year 160 Dutch vessels were seized in Spanish 
 ports, where they were trading under the flag of the 
 Hanse towns. Various events affecting the fortunes 
 of the house of Austria took place about this time both 
 in Germany and Italy ; but having given a sketch of 
 these in the preceding pages,* we shall only notice 
 them casually in their order, directing our principal 
 attention to the facts with which the name of Olivarez 
 is immediately connected. Thus the affairs of Flan- 
 ders and the Indies, of the coast of Africa and the in- 
 ternal policy of Spain, require more particular notice 
 in this place than even the events of greater magnitude 
 which occurred in Germany and Italy. 
 
 Indeed the state of Spain itself, at the period of the 
 accession of Philip IV., is the most important for the 
 consideration of all who would examine the actions of 
 Olivarez as those of a celebrated statesman ; for it was 
 the error of not justly appreciating the exact condition 
 of the country he had to rule, in relation to his exter- 
 nal enterprises, which was the great defect in the 
 policy of the count-duke. It is true that, had the same 
 personages only remained upon the political scene, 
 which occupied it # on his first entrance into office, or 
 had others as weak succeeded them, the vast designs 
 
 • See Life of Richelieu and Life of Oxenstiern. 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 95 
 
 of the Spanish minister, notwithstanding the consum- 
 mate talents of the brothers of Nassau, and the ex- 
 hausted state of the finances of Spain, would probably 
 have been crowned with success. The influence of 
 the house of Austria might have been permanently 
 established in Germany on the complete abasement of 
 all the inferior princes : in Italy it might alsf have 
 been rendered permanent, and Holland might have 
 been yet reduced to great concessions; but Richelieu, 
 Gustavus Adolphus, Oxenstiern, Cromwell, had yet to 
 appear ; and Olivarez had not any right to calculate 
 upon no man of talent rising up to oppose him amongst 
 all the many states whose interests were adverse to 
 those of Spain. His designs were too vast for his re- 
 sources, — such has been the principal charge against 
 him as a politician, and in some degree this charge is 
 well founded, but. by no means to that degree which 
 it seems to reach at first sight. In order to form a 
 just opinion on this subject, we must remember, that 
 into many of his greatest undertakings and into the 
 Ions and ruinous war which at length utterly ex- 
 hausted the powers of Spain, Olivarez was impelled by 
 the acts of his opponents, as well as by his own views 
 of aggrandizing Spain ; and it must not be forgotten 
 that he laboured hard, and not unwisely, both to pro- 
 crastinate the moment of actual contest, and, while he 
 did thus procrastinate, to recruit the resources, dimi- 
 nish the expenses, and consolidate the powers of the 
 country, whose energies he was called upon to wield 
 to the best advantage. Had he appreciated with per- 
 fect accuracy all the circumstances, he woul/J have 
 made greater sacrifices, forborne many tempting ad- 
 vantages, and yielded many points of national pride, 
 
96 LIFE OF 
 
 if not of national honour, in order to direct his unin- 
 terrupted efforts to remedy the internal diseases of the 
 Spanish monarchy ; but even had he done so, it is pro- 
 bable that the designs of Richelieu would have forced 
 him into the war which he sought to avoid. As it 
 was, his error lay in overstepping a very narrow and 
 ill-defined line. The result seems to show that he 
 was wrong; but a very small portion more of mode- 
 ration would have rendered him right. 
 
 In regard to the state of Spain, I shall have to speak 
 more fully hereafter, when I come to compare it with 
 the condition of its great rival France. The promul- 
 gation, however, of several important laws at the time 
 of which I now treat, renders it necessary to say that 
 Olivarez, on his becoming minister, was placed in one 
 of the most difficult positions, and undertook one of 
 the most laborious tasks that it is possible to conceive. 
 The discovery of the New World was the first step 
 towards the ruin of Spain. It drained the country of 
 its enterprising spirits; it afforded revenues without 
 exertion ; and, acting upon the nation, like plentiful 
 food without labour upon an individual, it debilitated 
 {■he whole people, and unstrung the nerves of industry 
 throughout the land. The long wars of Philip II. and 
 Philip III., the loss of Holland, the evils of divided 
 monarchy and widely separated territories, ail contri- 
 buted to diminish the finances of the state, and to im- 
 poverish those very kingdoms which had already lost 
 their activity under the influence of a sudden and 
 unnatural influx of wealth. Industry returned not 
 with necessity : whatever enterprise remained sought 
 other shores where encouragement was certain and 
 success probable ; the people, long habituated to idle- 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 97 
 
 ness, found privation preferable to exertion ; the ground 
 remained nearly uncultivated ; the population became 
 thinner every day; those who drew a certain portion 
 of riches from either the New World, or from large 
 estates, crowded into the principal towns; and the rest 
 of the people lived in poverty and wretchedness, whe- 
 ther as poor and unemployed gentlemen, or as indo- 
 lent and half-starved artisans. The picture presented 
 of a Spanish country gentleman's dwelling, by the 
 great Cervantes, its poverty, its misery, is not alone 
 applicable to that of Don Quixote.* It is the portrait 
 of a whole class. The only persons who had conti- 
 nued to cultivate in Spain the arts of industry with 
 unremitting perseverance and success, had been the 
 Morescoes, or descendants of the ancient Moors ; but 
 these had suffered banishment under the government 
 of Lerma, whose weakness, profusion and irregularity 
 had given the last stroke to the finances of the state. 
 
 Such was the situation of Spain, when Olivarez 
 came into power; and to bring remedies to the dis- 
 eases which afflicted it, was one of the first steps of 
 
 * Through the whole of the inimitable book to which I refer 
 runs a sad deep moral satire, imperceptible to those who are not 
 well acquainted with the state of Spain at that time, and even 
 darkly concealed from the people of the age in which it was writ- 
 ten, lest the safety of the writer should have been compromised. 
 Let it not be supposed that Cervantes sought to display nothing 
 but the wanderings of a pure and mighty mind overthrown, or the 
 burlesque adventures of a humorous peasant. He had undoubt- 
 edly far higher and nobler objects in view, in every page reading 
 some moral lesson, pointing out some glaring evil, suggesting 
 some great improvement, or lashing some reigning vice ; and the 
 history of the knight of La Mancha, that most perfect of gentle- 
 men, and his squire, however brilliant and admirable in itself, is 
 but the vehicle for more important matter. 
 VOL. II. 9 
 
98 LIFE OP 
 
 that minister. On the 10th of February, 1624, he 
 published a decree by which an immense number of 
 useless officers were at once dismissed. Added to this, 
 he announced several sumptuary laws of very doubtful 
 policy, forbidding any persons whatever to entertain 
 more than eighteen domestic servants, and regulating 
 the dress of all classes, with provisions which were 
 offensive and easily to be evaded. But, at the same 
 time, every means was taken to encourage persons in 
 the lower ranks to marry, in order to supply the 
 lamentable want of a labouring population. A newly 
 married man was exempt from all taxes for four years, 
 and a man with six children was free for life. Laws 
 against emigration also were enacted ; measures were 
 employed to prevent the people of the provinces from 
 flocking into the large towns ; and the most extraordi- 
 nary privileges and immunities were held out to those 
 who devoted themselves to agriculture or to manufac- 
 tures. At the same time, advantages of every kind 
 were offered to all foreign manufacturers, agriculturists, 
 and artisans who chose to settle in Spain. 
 
 The end of the year 1624, and the beginning of 
 1625, were inauspicious towards Spain. On the 
 coasts of South America, as well as on those of 
 Flanders, the Dutch fleets made great progress. 
 France furnished the states with money, and engaged 
 them by treaty not to make peace with Spain: the 
 marquis de Cceuvres, without showing any great re- 
 spect for the papal authority, took possession of the 
 Valteline, and drove out the pontifical troops; and 
 everything announced that a new and powerful hand 
 had seized the reins of government in France. Oli- 
 varez, however, did not show himself unequal to the 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 99 
 
 occasion. Taken by surprise, indeed, in regard to the 
 Valteline, he could not recover that important territory, 
 but four fleets were instantly equipped in Spanish ports. 
 The duke of Feria was ordered to march to the relief 
 of Genoa, now attacked by the French and Savoyards; 
 the galleys of the catholic king hastened to the support 
 of that city; a league was entered into between Spain, 
 Lucca, Tuscany, Modena, and Parma, to oppose the 
 progress of the invaders; and the armies of France 
 and Savoy were obliged to abandon all they had ob- 
 tained, and retreat with loss from the territory they 
 had divided in the anticipation of conquest. The 
 tide of affairs, too, turned on the coast of America; 
 a great part of what had been seized by the Dutch was 
 regained by Spain, and a dangerous insurrection was 
 appeased without serious inconvenience. The death 
 of Maurice of Nassau, also, was considered by the 
 Spaniards as equal to a victory; and the great advan- 
 tages gained by the emperor tended to strengthen all 
 the branches of the house of Austria. 
 
 Nevertheless, Olivarez most wisely determined, as 
 far as possible, to avoid entering into a general war. 
 Although the French and Spanish armies had encoun- 
 tered each other in the field, and though various acts 
 of direct hostility had been committed by each country 
 against the other, yet they were not held to be in an 
 absolute state of warfare; and the Spanish minister 
 sought eagerly and skilfully to calm the differences 
 that existed between the two kingdoms. The necessity 
 of doing so became the more obvious while the nego- 
 tiations were going on, from symptoms of insurrection 
 in various parts of Spain. The Catalonians especially, 
 believing the government to be entangled in a foreign 
 
100 LIFE OF 
 
 war, and counting upon support from France in case of 
 actual revolt, refused all subsidies; and even while 
 the court was present at Barcelona, one of the King's 
 principal officers was stabbed in the assembly of the 
 states of the province. Olivarez immediately withdrew 
 with the monarch from that city ; but the people im- 
 puted even that very justifiable act to bad designs, and 
 new signs of resistance manifested themselves. 
 
 Luckily for Spain, it happened that France was en- 
 gaged in suppressing internal dissentions likewise, that 
 her arms in Italy had received a severe check, and that 
 her finances were in a state of terrible disorder. The 
 overtures of Olivarez were willingly listened to by 
 Richelieu ; and, at the very time when the Spanish 
 provinces were preparing to resist, France concluded a 
 treaty with Spain, which deprived the opponents of 
 the Spanish minister of all their hopes of support. 
 The Catalonians instantly became tranquil, the subsi- 
 dies were voted, and by the transactions which ensued, 
 Olivarez obtained conditions from even the keen-sight- 
 ed Richelieu, which rendered the duke of Savoy an 
 enemy to France. 
 
 At the same time, Olivarez diminished considerably 
 the expenses of the war against Holland and England, 
 but he diminished also its vigour, and the Dutch in 
 consequence gained many advantages. Eager to see 
 the court of France embroiled with its protestant sub- 
 jects, the count-duke entered into a secret treaty with 
 France, by which he engaged that the Spanish fleet 
 should blockade the port of La Rochelle, while the 
 army of Louis XIII. besieged that city by land ; but 
 having little inclination to free the hands of the French 
 minister, by aiding him to gain a complete triumph 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 101 
 
 over the factions which had so long distracted France, 
 Olivarez is supposed to have given secret orders to 
 don Frederic of Toledo, the Spanish admiral, which 
 prevented him from yielding any real assistance to the 
 besieging force. During the blockade of Rochelle, 
 however, the death of Vincent, duke of Mantua, 
 created a cause of contention between France and 
 Spain. The duke of Nevers, legitimate successor of 
 the late sovereign of Mantua, was a Frenchman by 
 birth ; and lest that nation should obtain by his means 
 the footing in Italy, for which she had been so long 
 striving, against all the precautions of Spain, Olivarez 
 was tempted to abandon the course he had hitherto 
 pursued, and to risk a general war. The occasion, it 
 is true, seemed favourable ; Richelieu was occupied 
 with the siege of Rochelle, to which place England 
 held out promises of such assistance as would have 
 protracted the defence to an indefinite period. The 
 protestants of the south of France were maintaining 
 themselves in open insurrection; the duke of Savoy 
 was willing to share in the spoil of Mantua, and to 
 exclude the French from Italy; and the Spanish pro- 
 vinces voted a large donation to supply the necessities 
 of the state. Olivarez, therefore, acting in concert 
 with the emperor, opposed the rights of the duke of 
 Nevers, and for a time was completely successful: 
 Montferrat was overrun and its principal strong places 
 taken; Mantua itself ultimately fell before the arms of 
 the emperor, and the unfortunate duke found himself 
 stripped of all his dominions. But ere these advan- 
 tages were secured, Rochelle had surrendered; Riche- 
 lieu had declared France the protector of the duke of 
 Mantua; Louis XIII. forced the pass of Suza, and in 
 
 9* 
 
102 LIFE OF 
 
 the campaigns which we have already mentioned* re- 
 covered part of that which the duke had lost, gaining 
 other successes, which ended ultimately in a new 
 treaty of peace. 
 
 In the mean time Holland had obtained tremendous 
 advantages, both by land and sea, in Flanders and in 
 America. The famous Spinola, called from the Low 
 Countries into Italy, had been ill treated by Olivarez, 
 and blamed and neglected, and dying of disappoint- 
 ment and indignation, left no one who could supply 
 his place. Flanders, abandoned to the defence of in- 
 efficient generals, began to show signs of disaffection 
 towards the crown of Spain. Cabals were formed 
 in various cities; and at length a regular conspiracy 
 took place, for the purpose either of establishing a 
 republic in imitation of Holland, or of calling in the 
 troops of France. The views of the conspirators, 
 however, were communicated by the duke of Arschot 
 to the archduchess, governess of the Netherlands, 
 who, by his advice, took means to frustrate their 
 attempts, without punishing the offenders. Olivarez, 
 however, was not so moderate ; and a number of the 
 nobles of Flanders, were arrested and treated with 
 various degrees of severity. 
 
 Feeling every day more and more the financial em- 
 barrassments of the state, Olivarez now sought even 
 to conclude a peace with Holland, but in vain. Spain 
 intrigued with all the disaffected in France; and 
 France, w r hose views for the abasement of the house 
 of Austria were now beginning to expand, did not fail 
 to stimulate and support all the external enemies of 
 Spain. Every effort made by Olivarez towards a 
 
 * See Life of Richelieu. 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 103 
 
 peace was frustrated by the diplomacy of Richelieu, 
 who was already engaged in open hostilities against 
 the emperor, while the Spanish monarch naturally 
 afforded all the assistance in his power to. the imperial 
 branch of his own family. Such a state of covert war- 
 fare could not of course endure for any great length of 
 time; and Olivarez, seeing that a rupture must even- 
 tually take place, determined that the first advantages 
 to be gained by it should be in favour of the house of 
 Austria. After the fatal battle of Vordlingen, Philips- 
 burg had been given up to France by the Swedes, and 
 the elector of Treves had long shown his inclination to 
 aid the enemies of Spain and the empire. Towards 
 the Rhine the eyes of all Europe were turned, as it 
 seemed at that moment that the destinies of many 
 states were about to be decided upon the banks of that 
 river. There, then, the first blow was struck by Spain 
 against that powerful enemy, who never ceased the hos- 
 tilities which ensued, from that moment till the resources 
 of the peninsula were totally exhausted. Treves and 
 Philipsburg were both taken by the Spaniards, and the 
 elector of the former place was carried away a prisoner 
 to Antwerp. 
 
 Richelieu instantly sent a herald to Brussels to declare 
 war, and a French army entered the Low Countries; 
 but fortune had not yet become favourable to the arms 
 of France. After some successes on the part of that 
 country, the cardinal-infant, who had now succeeded 
 the archduchess in the government of Flanders, ob- 
 tained the superiority, and in return carried the war 
 into Picardy and Champagne. Olivarez, all activity, 
 attacked at the same time the coasts of Provence; and 
 Spain became possessed of several islands in the gulf. 
 
104 LIFE OF 
 
 A French and Savoyard army were defeated on the 
 banks of the Po ; and Galas, with the imperial forces 
 on the Rhine, drove back the cardinal de la Valette, 
 and forced him to take shelter under the cannon of 
 Metz with very considerable loss. 
 
 The following year produced advantages still more 
 important. A Spanish army from Flanders invaded 
 Picardy and menaced the capital of France. Guy- 
 enne was entered from the Pyrenees; and St. Jean 
 de Luz fell into the hands of Spain. But neither the 
 cardinal-infant who commanded the Spanish army in 
 the north, nor the admiral of Castille who conducted 
 that in the south, pushed the several enterprises in 
 which they were engaged with activity, and all was 
 lost almost as soon as gained. Not so, however, sped 
 the affairs of Italy: Leganez, though neither a skilful 
 nor successful general, opposed the French and Savoy- 
 ards with advantage, and driving them out of the 
 Milanese, led his troops into the territory of Parma 
 and Placentia. Now was the moment in which Oli- 
 varez should have chosen to conclude a solid and ad- 
 vantageous peace; and though the dull cloud of diplo- 
 macy prevents us from seeing the wishes or even 
 actions of public men on many occasions of importance, 
 yet there is much reason to believe, from the pope 
 having eagerly pressed forward at this time as a media- 
 tor, that the count-duke was sincerely desirous of 
 taking advantage of the successes of the Spanish arms 
 to enter into a treaty with France, and to pursue his 
 plans for the restoration of internal prosperity. Riche- 
 lieu, however, was averse to peace, although the forces 
 of France had not been so successful as he had hoped 
 they might be. He foresaw that both Spain and the 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 105 
 
 empire must soon be exhausted by the many detached 
 points which they were forced to defend, and his great 
 object of humbling the house of Austria was yet to be 
 obtained. Although the place of conference was 
 named, and the legate had actually set out, yet the ne- 
 gotiation was brought to a sudden close, and the war 
 was resumed as fiercely as ever. 
 
 In the mean time the course of Olivarez's private 
 life had been affected by some events on which it may 
 be necessary to pause. He had now been long mar- 
 ried to a noble and high-spirited, but somewhat over- 
 bearing woman, who, having been appointed to the 
 highest station near the person of the queen, ruled the 
 royal palace with the same despotic authority which 
 her husband exercised in the government of the coun- 
 try at large. Although not blessed with a very easy 
 or placable disposition, the duchess of San Lucar had 
 the wisdom to know that her interests and her happi- 
 ness were in the hands of her husband; and to promote 
 his views all her efforts were directed, while in domes- 
 tic life, without any very extraordinary degree of af- 
 fection, they lived h.'ippily. No heir had sprung from 
 this union, and for some years Olivarez and his wife 
 employed a part of their large revenues in embellish- 
 ing their beautiful country-seat in the neighbourhood 
 of Madrid, and in founding a splendid monastery of 
 Dominicans on their estate; while the count's nephew, 
 don Louis de Haro, son of the marquis de Carpio, was 
 considered the heir of the minister, and his successor 
 in power. 
 
 A little before the period to which we have now 
 brought the narrative of the public life of Olivarez, 
 Julian Valeazar, son of Margueret Spinola,and reputed 
 
106 LIFE OF 
 
 son of the alcade Valeazar, returned to Spain, and after 
 living for some time in great poverty, made acquaint- 
 ance with a girl, whom we find called dcfnna Isabella 
 de Azueda, to whom he was about to be married, 
 when by some means, in regard to which I have no 
 information, he attracted the attention of the count- 
 duke. Handsome in person, and possessing consider- 
 able abilities, the minister was well pleased to believe 
 him his son, as Julian's birth had taken place at the 
 period of his own intrigue with Margueret Spinola. 
 For a considerable time his purposes in the young 
 man's favour do not seem to have taken any decided 
 form, and he appears to have contributed to his 
 support, without either openly acknowledging him as 
 his offspring or exercising any authority over him. 
 Even his marriage with Isabella de Azueda was allow- 
 ed to take place, though the character of the lady was 
 not peculiarly pure; and it is probable that Olivarez 
 at first, struck with the coarseness of his supposed 
 son's manners, carried his intentions no farther than to 
 place don Julian above want, and leave him in the 
 rank of society into which he had naturally fallen. 
 
 Rumours, however, of the count having discovered 
 his son began to fly through Madrid; various quarrels 
 took place between Olivarez and the family of Carpio; 
 and hatred towards his presumptive heir, don Louis 
 de Haro, united with the desire of seeing a child of 
 his own succeed to his fortune and his power. Under 
 these circumstances, the minister took the most extra- 
 ordinary resolution of endeavouring to improve the 
 manners and cultivate the mind of his supposed son, — 
 a difficult undertaking at the age of seven or eight and 
 twenty, — and of formally adopting him as a legitimate 
 child. The mortification and offence which this design 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 107 
 
 inflicted on all the members of the family of Carpio 
 may be easily conceived; but their wrath only hastened 
 the proceedings of the count-duke, and by a solemn act 
 of legitimation executed under the sanction of the king, 
 he acknowledged the child of Margueret Spinola as his 
 son and heir. By the same act, and by the monarch's 
 authority, his name was changed from Julian de Valea- 
 zar to Henry Philip de Guzman. All that remained 
 was to elevate his manners to a level with his new 
 rank; and for this purpose the count laboured inde- 
 fatigably, procuring for him masters of all kinds, and 
 establishing for him a splendid household supported by 
 a princely income. Though not totally ineffectual, 
 the attempt to give him the carriage and manners of a 
 Castillian noble was not very successful; but the par- 
 tiality of Olivarez soon blinded his eyes to the defects 
 of his legitimised son; and he now turned his mind 
 both to place him in the road to power and greatness, 
 and to secure for him, by alliance, support amongst 
 the great families of Spain. 
 
 The unfortunate marriage which don Henry had 
 contracted, was a great obstacle in the way of the 
 latter purpose; but Olivarez, passionate in pursuit of 
 all his designs, overbore all obstacles, and determined 
 to annul the union which formed such an impediment. 
 Tiie pope was applied to, who appointed the bishop of 
 Avila to investigate and decide; but donna Isabella 
 was refractory, and determined to have a share in the 
 good fortune of her husband, dared to struggle against 
 the will of the minister — producing the authentic 
 proofs of her marriage, and resisting the divorce with 
 all her power. That resistance, however, was una- 
 vailing: the good bishop was more pliant to the will 
 
108 LIFE OF 
 
 of Olivarez, than was the wife of his son: an in- 
 formality was discovered in the marriage ceremony, 
 which had been performed in the house of the bride's 
 own mother, and not within the precincts of the 
 bride's own parish. This was quite sufficient for the 
 purposes of the minister and the wishes of the bishop, 
 and the marriage was formally annulled. 
 
 The ambition of Olivarez now seemed to centre in 
 the elevation of his son: the king, led at will by his 
 minister, soon received don Henry — as he was now 
 called — into high favour: his origin, even his defects, 
 were forgotten; flocks of courtiers besieged his doors; 
 he was appointed a commander of the order of Cala- 
 trava, received the title of Excellency, and was invest- 
 ed with a number of high offices and distinctions.* The 
 next thing was to obtain for him the hand of some lady 
 whose birth and rank would afford firm support to her 
 husband in case of need; and Olivarez fixed upon the 
 daughter of the constable of Castille, descended from a 
 royal stock, and holding one of the most important posts 
 in the kingdom. However much the pride of the high 
 Castillian noble might be hurt by the union of his 
 daughter with the natural son of the minister, means 
 were found of inducing him to comply, and Henry de 
 Guzman was formally united to donna Johanna de 
 Velasco. Although the courtiers and the nobles forgot 
 the stigma attached to the birth of don Henry, and the 
 bend sinister of his own arms w r as not observed by the 
 side ef the four royal quarters on the escutcheon of his 
 new bride, the populace had a more retentive memory 
 
 * It is not quite clear, whether he was ever actually appointed 
 president of the council of the Indies or not; but if not his eleva- 
 tion to that important station was only stopped by his father's fall. 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 109 
 
 and keener eyesight, and saluted him, as he rode 
 through the street,, by the title of 
 
 "Enrique de dos hombres y dos mugeres, 
 Hijo de dos padres y de dos madres." 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that the nobles 
 themselves submitted to the intrusion of the count's 
 illegitimate son into their class without anger. Many 
 w r ere bitterly offended ; nor did they fail to testify 
 their discontent; while the wealth and the dignities 
 which Olivarez heaped upon don Henry, and the 
 splendour and the pageantry with which he took care 
 to surround him, only served to excite their envy 
 without diminishing their contempt. 
 
 While the factions were growing up at home, which 
 were destined to work the fall of Olivarez, those ex- 
 ternal wars which were ultimately to give force and 
 importance to internal discontent were pursued by the 
 minister with varied fortune. The success which 
 attended the Spanish arms in 1637 was greater than 
 that obtained by France. By some unaccountable 
 neglect the Valteline, which had been gained and kept 
 with so much difficulty, was lost to the French crown; 
 the duke of Parma, left to his fate by Richelieu, en- 
 tered into a treaty of peace with Spain, and sacrificed 
 a part of his dominions to preserve the rest; while 
 Leganez attacked the united French and Savoyard 
 army, and obtained a victory near Nice. In Flanders 
 successes and reverses were nearly balanced ; but in 
 an attack upon Leucate, the Spanish troops were de- 
 feated by the marechal de Schomberg; and the islands 
 
 VOL. II. 10 
 
110 LIFE OF 
 
 on the coast of Provence were recovered by France, 
 as well as the post of St. Jean de Luz. 
 
 An event, however, occurred in the course of the 
 same year, which by the skill of Olivarez, was ren- 
 dered highly serviceable to Spain. The duke of 
 Savoy did not long survive his defeat ; and the mo- 
 ment that he was dead, Olivarez instigated his brothers 
 to dispute the regency of the duchy with the sister 
 of Louis XIII., his widow. Civil war soon desolated 
 Savoy, and for a long time a considerable French 
 force was employed in that country, while but small 
 expenses on the part of Spain sustained the princes of 
 Savoy in their struggle for the guardianship of their 
 nephew. In Flanders the cardinal-infant outdid all 
 expectations, with inferior forces holding in check 
 the French on one side, and the Dutch on the other : 
 but the Brazils were now lost to Spain; and the 
 Swedes, recovering their advantage, were driving the 
 emperor to the brink of ruin. 
 
 Olivarez in the meantime had exhausted every 
 means that human ingenuity could devise for the pur- 
 pose of obtaining money and men to carry on the 
 war. Few and scanty donations from the states had 
 been increased by large loans, some voluntary in re- 
 ality, and some only apparently so. Confiscations 
 and fines had been resorted to, and the exigency of 
 the state had acquired for the minister a character of 
 cruelty which he probably did not deserve. All ordi- 
 nary means, however, were now exhausted ; and 
 feeling that peace was absolutely necessary, Olivarez 
 again attempted to obtain it even at a considerable 
 sacrifice. But Richelieu saw his difficulties with 
 triumph, and still held the sword unsheathed ; while 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. Ill 
 
 Olivarez, bold under misfortune, contemplated the 
 approaching struggle between himself and the Spanish 
 people, and, finding that peace wa3 not to be ob- 
 tained without a farther effort, only strove to com- 
 pel France by the success of his arms to grant him 
 repose before the embarrassments of Spain reached 
 their climax. 
 
 In this point the policy of Richelieu and Olivarez 
 stand strongly opposed to each other. Both had en- 
 tered upon power with exhausted finances, and a tur- 
 bulent, dissatisfied people to hamper the march of 
 government ; but Richelieu, before he suffered him- 
 self to be tempted into any foreign war, applied him- 
 self to gain complete command over the internal re- 
 sources of his country, by crushing every faction that 
 could oppose his policy, or divide the energies of the 
 state. For this purpose he hesitated not to enter into 
 treaties with the determination of breaking them 
 whenever it was convenient, and to make a thousand 
 promises and stipulations which he never intended to 
 observe. Olivarez was more scrupulous, and had 
 also a more difficult task to perform. The finances 
 of France, it is true, were exhausted, and the people 
 turbulent ; but in Spain the very elements of society 
 were injured, though not destroyed. The spirit of 
 industry was at an end in all branches, and the popu- 
 lation itself was too scanty to support the drain of 
 long continued warfare. A great commercial or a 
 great manufacturing country can maintain, with ad- 
 vantage to herself and to them, innumerable colonies, 
 and reciprocation of supplies will insure the prospe- 
 rity of all ; but a country where manufactures and 
 commerce are both neglected, will soon find her colo- 
 
112 LIFE OF 
 
 nies a burthen rather than a benefit. The former is 
 like an industrious man with plenty of employment 
 and a large family of children, who all contribute to 
 aid their parent's exertions : the latter like an idle 
 spendthrift, to whom every child is an additional 
 burthen. But the immense number and scattered 
 position of the Spanish colonies, though forming an 
 evil of no slight magnitude in the state to which she 
 was now reduced, were not the original cause of 
 that state, and only aided to sink her lower when 
 she was already depressed. The process of her fall 
 had been very simple ; and though we have alluded 
 to it before, we must speak more fully thereupon in 
 this place. 
 
 At a time when arms was the great trade of Eu- 
 rope, and when Spain in prosperity of every kind 
 stood amongst the highest of existing nations, the 
 discovery of the mines of South America had, as I 
 haye before remarked, drained her of enterprising 
 spirits, and had supplied to her that fatal ore which 
 afforded the means of obtaining both necessaries and 
 luxuries without exertion. From that moment her 
 commerce, which had been considerable, rapidly de- 
 creased, for she became now merely the purchaser of 
 the commodities of other nations, and no longer the 
 vendor of her own productions. Foreign countries 
 gave her their merchandise, and she returned her 
 silver. Thus failed her commerce, and her manufac- 
 tures followed it in its fall. There were many coun- 
 tries in Europe eager to raise up their prosperity upon 
 the basis of productive industry, and nothing but the 
 most zealous competition could keep the manufactures 
 of any land upon an equality with those of numerous 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 113 
 
 rivals. To create that eager competition, the stimulus 
 of necessity or of avarice was required ; and while 
 Spain saw herself annually inundated with silver, 
 while the means of obtaining from other people, with 
 little trouble, the articles which cost much labour to 
 produce, were constantly present, and commerce 
 made no immediate demand upon the industry of 
 the manufacturing classes, it was a natural conse- 
 quence, that the fabrication of everything formerly 
 required for internal consumption or external traffic 
 should gradually fall into disuse. The want of com- 
 merce and of manufactures speedily produced a de- 
 crease of population ; for all history proves the justice 
 of the remark, that where opportunities of obtaining 
 active employment are wanting, the numbers of the 
 people decrease, even though the necessaries of life 
 may from any adventitious cause be abundant. It 
 is not only sustenance which man requires as the 
 condition of his numerical increase, but it is suste- 
 nance obtained by industry. All these causes com- 
 bined, produced, and were reciprocally affected by, 
 the utter decline of agriculture. Thus was a country 
 possessing a soil of infinite fertility, a climate calcu- 
 lated to mature every necessary and every luxury, 
 a geological structure rich and inexhaustible, an im- 
 mense extent of sea-coast, and colonies comprising 
 all the finest portions of the globe, reduced with ex- 
 traordinary rapidity to a state of penury such as 
 nations very seldom know, — without commerce, with- 
 out manufactures, without agriculture, without a full 
 population ; and with revenues depending upon dis- 
 tant mines, with which her communication was never 
 
 10* 
 
114 LIFE OF 
 
 certain, and of which her possession was but ill as- 
 sured. 
 
 It is not, however, to be denied, that all these evils 
 were increased by the internal constitution of the 
 Spanish monarchy. Subdivided into a number of pro- 
 vinces or kingdoms, each possessing peculiar privi- 
 leges and customary laws, every part of Spain was 
 jealous of the neighbouring division, and all jealous of 
 Castille, as the predominant kingdom from which the 
 royal authority governed the rest. Every state was 
 anxious to shelter itself under its privileges from bear- 
 ing the burthens which pressed upon the rest; and 
 each, pretending to much greater rights than had ever 
 been conceded to them, were the more ready to break 
 into rebellion the moment any of these privileges were 
 questioned, from a consciousness of many of them 
 being untenable, and all of them unjust. Another 
 consequence of these numerous divisions of the Spanish 
 territory was such a complication of the fiscal system, 
 and such an obstruction in the circulation of money, 
 that the revenue was nearly lost in collection, and in- 
 superable obstacles were placed in the way of internal 
 traffic. Multitudes of custom-houses and swarms of 
 custom-house officers disgraced every provincial fron- 
 tier, and interrupted the passage of merchandise in 
 every town; and instead of recognising the first great 
 object in fiscal legislation — namely, to leave industry 
 as free as possible, while the burthen of taxation is 
 principally cast upon accumulation — each petty state, 
 in its jealousy of its neighbour, seemed to vie with the 
 other in impeding the communication between one 
 part of the country and another, in making the trader 
 pay for the very right of exerting himself, and in leav- 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 115 
 
 ing the idle exempt from all contribution to the neces- 
 sities of the state.* No sooner did the exigencies of 
 the government require any extraordinary supply, 
 however justly incurred and imperatively necessary, 
 than the states of each province prepared to resist, to 
 the utmost of their ability, all demands of either pecu- 
 niary or military contribution, and were ready rather 
 to fight against the government of their own country, 
 than against a foreign enemy. 
 
 Thus, whatever were the evils and difficulties which 
 Richelieu had to encounter in France, Spain offered 
 her minister a much more perplexing task; none of 
 the provinces were actually in revolt, though many 
 were prepared for any sort of disobedience, and none 
 but Castille was willing to contribute any thing to the 
 support of the state. The Spanish minister, however, 
 wanted either the courage or the wickedness to stir 
 any portion of the king's subjects into insurrection for 
 the purpose of reducing them to more thorough sub- 
 jection; and he suffered himself to be drawn into a 
 general war ere he had obtained complete command of 
 the people, from which he was to obtain resources for 
 
 * The most luminous and extraordinary view of the deplorable 
 state of Spain at a much later period is given in a little book called 
 Pan y Toros, " Bread and Bulls," which was published surrepti- 
 tiously some years ago, and attributed to don Juan de Jovellanos. 
 It was lent to me during some time, by my late talented and la- 
 mented friend, William Woodhouse, Esq. but I have never been 
 able to procure another copy, though the extraordinary vigour of 
 the style, the mighty and overwhelming eloquence of the writer, 
 and his deep knowledge of all the secrets of the Spanish govern- 
 ment, made me'most anxious to possess .a work unequalled in its 
 kind by anything, except, perhaps, one or two of the letters of 
 Junius. 
 
116 LIFE OF 
 
 carrying it on. Now, however, pressed forward by 
 Richelieu, who knew that everyday during which the 
 war could be prolonged, added to the difficulties of 
 Spain, and brought on the ultimate triumph of France, 
 Olivarez made one last effort. Crown lands were sold 
 in Italy; assistance was eagerly demanded of the states; 
 new loans were required ; the currency was debased 
 for the temporary benefit to be derived from a trans- 
 action which, whatever it may be in a government, 
 would be felonious in an individual; and advantage 
 being taken of some difficulties in which France, for 
 the time, was engaged, Olivarez pushed the war in 
 Italy with great but transitory success. 
 
 In two campaigns the duchess-regent of Savoy, 
 trembling between the grasping ambition of Richelieu 
 and the impatient eagerness of her husband's brothers, 
 saw herself stripped of almost all her possessions, her 
 people in revolt, her liberty threatened, and Spanish 
 forces in possession of her capital. But a truce, most 
 fatal to Spain, was concluded for two months, the en- 
 terprising count Harcourt appeared upon the scene, 
 and all that had been gained by Olivarez .was lost 
 almost as quickly. The same fate, however, awaited 
 the French arms in Roussillon, where the prince de 
 Conde besieged and took the town of Salces, and one 
 or two other places ; but the younger Spinoia, having 
 been sent into that province with a considerable force, 
 retook Salces, and completely defeated Conde, who 
 attempted to interrupt his proceedings. 
 
 Even the inventive genius of Olivarez, who had 
 long found resources after every apparent means of 
 supplying funds had been exhausted, could furnish no 
 new expedient, so long as the unjust and absurd dis- 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 117 
 
 tinctive privileges remained in force, which exempted 
 various detached provinces of Spain from bearing a 
 part in efforts that were necessary for the preservation 
 of the whole. He determined, therefore, to assail 
 those privileges; but before proceeding to extreme 
 measures, he once more applied for support to Catalo- 
 nia, as one of the richest and most capable of the 
 various states composing the Spanish monarchy. 
 Receiving no satisfaction, he at once ordered the Cas- 
 tillian troops, who had just defeated the prince de 
 Conde, to take up their winter quarters in that pro- 
 vince; and, commanding the Catalonians to raise and 
 equip six thousand soldiers for the wars of Italy, he 
 assigned them their proportion of the expenses of the 
 state, enjoining the stales to raise it, by a decree of the 
 king. 
 
 Had the Castillian troops remained tranquil and or- 
 derly, overawing the Catalonians by their presence 
 and their discipline, without enraging them by their 
 excesses and their insolence, perhaps Olivarez might 
 have carried through his bold design, and annihilated, 
 one by one, the destructive privileges of the various 
 provinces. But, on the contrary, they committed 
 every sort of violence and injustice. Their pay greatly 
 in arrear, and at bitter enmity with the Catalonians, 
 they considered every act of pillage or of brutality 
 which they committed but a just compensation to them- 
 selves, or a merited infliction on their stubborn and 
 tumultuous neighbours. The Catalonians, stirred up 
 to vengeance, sought retribution in chance combats, 
 lost their dread of the Castillian troops by frequent 
 contests with them, and were excited almost to frenzy 
 by their violence and rapine. In the mean time, the 
 
118 LIFE OP 
 
 states of Catalonia refused to obey the royal decree, 
 and sent two deputies to remonstrate with the king 
 and his minister. These messengers unfortunately 
 executed their commission in an insolent and menacing 
 tone; and Olivarez, of a haughty and inflexible cha- 
 racter, caused them instantly to be arrested. 
 
 These tidings reached Barcelona at the moment 
 when some fresh outrage, committed by the Castillian 
 soldiers, had excited popular indignation to the highest 
 pitch; and a general insurrection was the immediate 
 consequence. The viceroy was slain upon the spot, 
 and a negotiation was instantly entered into with 
 France in order to procure support in rebellion. The 
 courage of Olivarez did not fail even under this fresh 
 misfortune: all the disposable troops in Spain were 
 instantly directed upon Catalonia; and all the other 
 provinces, but more especially Portugal, were ordered 
 to arm for the suppression of the revolt. 
 
 Turbulent subjects and interested allies are always 
 sure to take advantage of the moment of difficulty. 
 The Portuguese, hating with even more bitter animo- 
 sity than the Catalonians, the yoke of Castille, op- 
 pressed by Vasconcellos, who ruled them under the 
 vice-queen, duchess of Mantua, and called upon to aid 
 in suppressing an insurrection to which they looked 
 with pleasure and hope, now instantly threw off the 
 rule of Spain. A conspiracy burst forth, which had 
 been preparing under the knowledge and advice of 
 Richelieu for more than three years; and the duke of 
 Braganza, a prince of no great abilities, was proclaimed 
 king. Few great excesses were committed: Vascon- 
 cellos, indeed, was made a sacrifice to the fury of an 
 oppressed people; but the duchess of Mantua, whose 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 119 
 
 gentleness had secured her the affectionate respect 
 even of a nation which suffered under her rule, though 
 arrested by order of the new government, was treated 
 with reverence and kindness. It was long before 
 Olivarez ventured to inform the king of the rising of 
 Portugal against his authority, as he could not conceive 
 that even the weak and toy-like Philip IV. would 
 bear such events with indifference. There can be no 
 doubt also, that he gave much thought to the manner 
 in which the communication was to be made; and at 
 length, thoroughly acquainted with his master's cha- 
 racter, he told him what had occurred in a joke. " The 
 duke of Braganza has gone mad, sire," he said, "and 
 has suffered himself to be proclaimed king of Portugal. 
 His imprudence will be worth a confiscation of twelve 
 millions to your majesty." The king's only reply 
 was, " It must be looked to !" and he turned to other 
 things as if nothing extraordinary had occurred. 
 
 To provide against the necessities of the moment, 
 however, was far less easy than the king imagined. 
 Castille had been already drained of troops for the 
 purpose of repressing the insurrection in Catalonia : 
 no sufficient force could be collected to recover Por- 
 tugal, and the spirit of disaffection was spreading ra- 
 pidly in other provinces. Fortunately for Olivarez, 
 that spirit showed itself more decidedly in the dis- 
 tricts bordering on Portugal than in any other quarter; 
 and the small body of troops which the count-duke- 
 could send to the Portuguese frontier, though utterly 
 inefficient in reducing that country once more to sub- 
 mit to the Spanish government, was sufficient to re- 
 strain Andalusia from breaking out also into revolt. 
 That province, however, was upon the very eve of 
 
120 LIFE OF 
 
 insurrection, when a happy accident discovered to 
 Olivarez this new danger. No sooner had the duke 
 of Braganza been proclaimed king of Portugal, than, 
 by the advice of the same wise friends who had raised 
 him with so little difficulty to the throne of his an- 
 cestors, he sent the marquis of Ayamonte to Anda- 
 lusia, which was then under the government of the 
 duke of Medina Sidonia, His object was to divert 
 the attention of the Spanish court from Portugal, by 
 inciting that nobleman, whose territories were im- 
 mense, to erect Andalusia into a separate state, and 
 assume the sovereignty thereof himself. The design 
 was bold in every respect, especially as the duke of 
 Medina was the near relation of the count-duke Oliva- 
 rez. Nevertheless, the persuasions of Ayamonte and 
 the facility of the enterprise he proposed — while 
 Spain, exhausted by external wars, and torn by in- 
 ternal contentions, seemed ready to crumble spon- 
 taneously into fragments — were sufficient to seduce 
 the ambitious duke. Ayamonte believed his success 
 complete, and sent off a monk to Lisbon with an ac- 
 count of his negotiation; but either through treachery, 
 or from vanity, the monk betrayed his trust, and in- 
 formation of the conspiracy reached the ears of Oliva- 
 rez in time. 
 
 On the same day Medina Sidonia received a letter 
 from the minister, calling him to Madrid, and news 
 that several Castillian regiments were marching into 
 Andalusia. For some time he hesitated as to whether 
 he should obey or fly to Portugal ; but, at length, de- 
 termined on the former course. He accordingly set 
 out for Madrid, and proceeded at once to the house 
 of his cousin Olivarez, by whom he was received with 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 121 
 
 kindness, and assured that a complete confession of 
 his errors would ensure him a full pardon. This he 
 accordingly made, disclosing the whole plan which 
 had been organised for the raising of Andalusia ; and 
 Olivarez immediately brought him to the presence of 
 the king. Here, again, he repeated his former state- 
 ment, acknowledged his crime, and, casting himself 
 at the monarch's feet, besought his clemency with 
 tears. The king is said to have wept also ; but at all 
 events he granted the criminal noble immediate par- 
 don. Olivarez, however, more severe than his master, 
 exacted that the duke should remain at Madrid, while 
 garrisons were thrown into the strong places of Anda- 
 lusia ; and the revolt was stifled in its birth. 
 
 All these steps were prudent and wise on the part 
 of the minister; but the conspiracy of Andalusia ter- 
 minated in an act which would have been absurd in 
 any other country than Spain, and which was not 
 very sensible even there. To wipe off all imputation 
 from his character, the duke of Medina Sidonia was 
 directed by Olivacez to challenge the king of Portu- 
 gal, who had attempted to seduce him from his alle- 
 giance ; and although that nobleman sought to excuse 
 himself, he was at length forced to comply. Olivarez 
 then drew up, with his own hand, the cartel, in man- 
 ner of manifesto, treating the Portuguese monarch, 
 however, merely as duke of Braganza. Copies of this 
 were sent to all European courts; and on the day 
 appointed, the duke of Medina presented himself at 
 Valencia de Alcantara, armed at all points, and ac- 
 companied by a number of witnesses. The king of 
 Portugal, however, of course did not appear ; and the 
 
 vol. ii. 11 
 
122 LIFE OF 
 
 farce, which might have proved a tragedy, ended 
 there. 
 
 In the meantime the marquis de los Velez had 
 taken the command of the army sent against the Cata- 
 lonian rebels; and a willing instrument of the minis- 
 ter's vengeance, he exercised the most barbarous 
 cruelties as he marched on into the refractory province. 
 The town of Tortosa was taken and sacked by his 
 soldiers, and the people subjected to every sort of 
 violence. Fire, massacre, and desolation marked his 
 progress; but, instead of inspiring crouching terror 
 and trembling self-abandonment, his conduct roused 
 up lion-like revenge. Hurrying on the negotiations 
 with France, the Catalonians accepted any terms 
 which Richelieu chose to offer, declared themselves 
 subject to the French crown, and pronounced the 
 authority of Spain at an end for ever in Catalonia. A 
 small corps of French troops was immediately thrown 
 forward from Roussillon, and advanced to Taragona 
 under the command of D'Espenan, a general who had 
 shown great skill and courage at Salces. The Cata- 
 lonians, with the usual bravado of their nation, had 
 represented their army as a thousand-fold stronger, 
 both in numbers and discipline, than it really was ; 
 and the French officers were in consequence lamenta- 
 bly disappointed when they saw the militia which was 
 to support them, and still more disappointed when 
 they beheld that militia in face of an enemy. As a 
 last resource against the large Spanish force under Los 
 Velez, D'Espenan threw himself into Taragona, in 
 opposition to the advice of Besangon, who was em- 
 ployed, on the part of France, in organising the Cata- 
 lonians. Here he was almost immediately besieged : 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 123 
 
 and, being destitute both of provisions and ammuni- 
 tion, was soon forced to sign a capitulation, whereby 
 he agreed to evacuate the territory of Spain with all 
 the troops which had entered Catalonia from France. 
 This convention he executed, notwithstanding all 
 remonstrances and petitions on the part of the Cata- 
 lonians; and, retreating at once from Taragona to 
 the French frontier, he abandoned the field to the 
 enemy. 
 
 Had Olivarez now seized the favourable moment, 
 while the Catalonians were struck with fear, and 
 abandoned to their own resources — had he offered a 
 general amnesty, and followed up his first successes 
 with acts of clemency, it is probable — it is more than 
 probable — that Catalonia would at once have been paci- 
 fied, and that her dangerous privileges would in part 
 have been sacrificed to the desire and necessity of peace. 
 The rest of the various kingdoms which composed the 
 monarchy, terrified by the ill success of so promising 
 an insurrection, could have offered but little resistance 
 to the will of the minister, and the great scheme of Oli- 
 varez might have been executed. But the count-duke 
 sought revenge as much as advantage ; and he was 
 soon taught that, with great bodies of men at least, if 
 not with individuals, hatred can become a stronger 
 a continuance of resistance : the Catalonians sustained 
 passion than fear. Continued severity only produced 
 themselves till the French forces returned in greater 
 numbers, and with more experienced commanders : 
 the tide of success turned against the Castillians ; and 
 Los Velez was recalled to give place to Leganez, 
 who, on more than one occasion, had encountered the 
 armies of France with success. 
 
124 LIFE OF 
 
 The opposition of Richelieu and Olivarez had by 
 this time grown into personal rivalry, and had begot- 
 ten personal hatred; and, as the Spanish minister saw 
 himself assailed by conspiracies, fomented by his rival, 
 he determined to pursue towards his enemies the same 
 system. He had already, on more than one occasion, 
 lent some small aid to the duke of Orleans in his weak 
 efforts against the French minister; had encouraged re- 
 bellion in France wherever it had broken out ; and had 
 shown a generous consideration for all the French 
 exiles who sought the Spanish territory. But he now 
 took more active measures; and learning the discontent 
 of the count de Soissons and the duke of Bouillon, he 
 made them unbounded offers of assistance, and excited 
 them by every means to light the flame of civil war in 
 France. Their own inclinations seconded his sugges- 
 tions, and the confederates of Sedan were soon in arms 
 against Richelieu. Spain kept her promise punctually: 
 arms, troops, and money were liberally supplied ; the 
 battle of the Mar'fee was fought and won, and the fate 
 of France trembled for a moment in the balance. The 
 fortune or the skill of Richelieu, however, averted the 
 impending evils. The count de Soissons was slain 
 after the victory was gained ; the duke of Bouillon 
 hastened to make his peace; and the advantages ob- 
 tained by Spain were few and trifling. 
 
 In Portugal, too, the plans of Olivarez were frus- 
 trated. The conspiracy which placed John IV. on 
 the throne of that country had been conducted by his 
 wife and his friends in the utmost secrecy ; so that some 
 have even supposed the prince himself was unaware 
 of the machinations in his favour, till the way to the 
 throne was opened at once before him. Many persons, 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 125 
 
 however, of very great influence and wealth, were kept 
 in ignorance of his views ; and though they afterwards, 
 either tacitly or actively, acknowledged his title, they 
 nevertheless felt angry and jealous at seeing one of 
 their own order suddenly raised to authority over 
 them. Amongst these personages, the principal were 
 the duke of Camina and the marquis of Villareal, both 
 of whom were remotely descended from the ancient 
 sovereigns of Portugal ; and many other nobles shared 
 in their feelings, and attached themselves to their views. 
 Thus was one strong party formed in Lisbon against 
 the new sovereign, on his very accession to the throne. 
 Another, however, existed, comprising still greater 
 numbers, and possessing influence of a different kind, 
 consisting of all those who had been raised and sup- 
 ported by the Spanish government during its possession 
 of Portugal. Some of these had lost their offices, and 
 some had not; but all were attached, either by grati- 
 tude or interest, to Spain ; and at the head of this party 
 appeared the archbishop and the grand inquisitor De 
 Castro. Such were the favourable elements that Oli- 
 varez found ready for the formation of a conspiracy, 
 which, had it succeeded, would have cast Portugal for 
 ever into the power of Spain ; and never did any one 
 labour more skilfully to cement, strengthen, and direct 
 one of those great and fearful engines than did the 
 count-duke on the present occasion. Could he have 
 been present himself, with that peculiar combination 
 of cautious suspicion and resolute boldness which cha- 
 racterised him, it is scarcely to be doubted that the 
 plot would have succeeded; but obliged to guide it 
 from a distance, and to trust to inferior agents, Olivarez 
 could not prevent the secret from being divulged to 
 
 11* 
 
126 LIFE OF 
 
 several persons unworthy of confidence, and that secret 
 was consequently betrayed. The marquis of Ayamonte 
 is said to have discovered and revealed it to the queen? 
 and instant measures were taken to guard against the 
 conspiracy and arrest the conspirators. A horrid scene 
 of butchery then took place, and both the scaffolds and 
 the prisons flowed with gore ; a degree of remorseless 
 cruelty being shown by the government, which sets 
 in the fairest light the moderation displayed by the 
 people at the time of the insurrection, and which is 
 not to be excused by the assertion, that the conspira- 
 tors would have shown themselves equally sanguinary 
 if they had been successful. 
 
 In the mean time an attempt had been made at 
 Naples to induce the people of that country, then a 
 Spanish possession, to follow the example of Portugal 
 and Catalonia. Measures had been concerted with 
 France., and a French fleet was sent to favour the pro- 
 posed insurrection ; but don Francesco de Mello, who^ 
 commanded there, overawed the conspirators by his 
 firmness and decision, and not an arm was raised 
 against his government. He even caused the prince 
 of Sanzo, by whom the malecontents had been insti- 
 gated and directed, to be carried off from Rome, and 
 brought his head to the block. While, at home, Oli- 
 varez was struggling with increasing difficulties; in 
 Flanders, the cardinal-infant was, with skill and cou- 
 rage, calm perseverance and ready promptitude, de- 
 fending the territory committed to his charge, against 
 the superior forces of France on the one side, and of 
 Holland on the other. Unfortunately for his country, 
 his career was destined to be but short ; and having 
 been taken ill while besieging Aire, in Artois, he left 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 
 
 127 
 
 the command of the army to Francesco de Mello, who 
 had by this time joined him, and retired to Brussels, 
 where he died on the 9th of November, 1641. 
 
 External successes could do but little, however, to 
 counterbalance internal difficulties, and those diffi- 
 culties were now reaching their crisis. In various 
 engagements which took place in Catalonia, the Spanish 
 armies were defeated by the French: the Catalonians 
 themselves became better soldiers under the severe 
 discipline of necessity; and though the Spanish fleet 
 defeated the French oflf Taragona, and saved that city 
 from the enterprises of La Mothe, the general result 
 of the campaign was decidedly unfavourable to Spain. 
 At the same time, the French were making progress in 
 Roussillon; and in the year 1642 the king himself 
 prepared to invade that small territory, with the evi- 
 dent intention of dissevering it from the Spanish 
 crown. Several minor places having been taken, 
 siege was laid toPerpignan : the people of the country 
 were not at all unwilling to pass under the dominion 
 of France; and another serious misfortune threatened 
 the ministry of Olivarez. At this time was concerted 
 the conspiracy of Cinq Mars, which has been already 
 spoken of fully ; and the count-duke eagerly entered 
 into the views of the French malecontents, and pro- 
 mised them every assistance they demanded. The 
 failure of the conspiracy, the arrest and execution of 
 some of the conspirators, and the fall of Perpignan, 
 came rapidly one upon the other, showing the fortune 
 of Richelieu still triumphing over all the best laid 
 schemes of his adversaries. 
 
 Such was the situation of Spain when the enemies 
 of Olivarez, taking advantage of his misfortunes and 
 
r 
 
 128 life or 
 
 his faults, determined to strike the blow which was to 
 hurl him from the summit of power ; but ere we speak 
 of the actual fall of the count-duke, it may be necessary 
 to examine briefly the immediate causes which brought 
 it about. 
 
 Monsieur Salvandy thinks* that Olivarez had formed 
 one general system for establishing the absolute power 
 of the king upon the ruins of the privileges of the 
 various provinces, and upon the debasement of the 
 grandees. Nothing is so seducing as that spirit of 
 generalisation which pervades the French school of 
 history; and I cannot help thinking that, in the present 
 instance, it has led the learned and talented writer, 
 whom I have just mentioned, into a considerable error, 
 hurrying him beyond the point where fact stops and 
 imagination is left to pursue her way alone. I believe 
 that all statesmen of eminence have proposed to them- 
 selves the general attainment of certain great objects, 
 but that those who have sought such objects by a pre- 
 determined and consistent scheme are much fewer 
 than we are apt to imagine. That Olivarez contem- 
 plated doing away the iniquitous and injurious privi- 
 leges of the provinces, there can be no doubt, for every 
 act of his ministry speaks such a determination ; but 
 that he ever thought of rendering his sovereign abso- 
 lute by the depression of the grandees, is not only un- 
 supported as a supposition by any direct evidence, but 
 is opposed to many of his proceedings. That almost 
 all the grandees of Spain were inimical to him, there 
 can be no doubt; but their animosity might proceed 
 
 > 
 * Biographie Universelle, t. xxxi. p. 575. 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 129 
 
 from a thousand other causes, without any view on his 
 part to the destruction of the class. 
 
 Olivarez was of a suspicious and a jealous nature; 
 and, from his very first entrance into power, he applied 
 himself to shut out from any share of the royal favour 
 every one but persons devoted to himself. This was 
 enough at once to range the whole excluded class of 
 grandees amongst his enemies. Envy, jealousy, avarice, 
 ambition, all combined to make them look with cold dis- 
 like upon a man who exercised the whole power of the 
 state, enjoyed all the favour of the court, and barred the 
 path to wealth, influence, and activity, against every 
 one but his own particular friends. Such was the first 
 foundation of their enmity; but, as the administration of 
 Olivarez proceeded, other causes were added to increase 
 their hatred. Olivarez at once struck at all the corrupt 
 practices of former ministers. The wealth of India 
 poured out at his feet would not have bought place, 
 pension or dignity from the count-duke; none of his 
 friends, none of his servants, was allowed to carry on a 
 trade in the favours of the court, as had been the case 
 in the days of the duke of Lerma. Such a man was, of 
 all others, the one to be detested and assailed in pros- 
 perity, and to be hated and respected in adversity. As 
 misfortunes fell upon him, Olivarez was also forced 
 into a number of steps, which at once increased the 
 dislike of the grandees, and gave them greater power 
 to injure him. Often keeping back from the ear of the 
 king the tidings of any unfavourable event, till he found 
 a good moment for communicating it, and always leav- 
 ing him in ignorance of those negotiations which turned 
 out unsuccessful, and those occasional errors of judg- ' 
 ment into which every minister must at times fall; 
 
130 LIFE OP 
 
 the count-duke dared not suffer any one to approach 
 the monarch, who might be bold enough to reveal the 
 thing which he wished to keep secret. The grandees 
 were therefore shut out from any'private communication 
 with the king; and, when they appeared at court, were 
 treated with a degree of insolence and harshness which 
 Castillian pride could not support. The pomp and os- 
 tentation of the minister himself added fresh matter; 
 and the pretensions of his natural son, don Henry de 
 Guzman, made the cup overflow. Few of the grandees 
 appeared at the court at all; their duties in various 
 hereditary offices were performed but negligently, and 
 every excuse was embraced for avoiding the society of 
 the minister. 
 
 But the most redoubtable enemy which Olivarez had 
 yet to encounter, was one whom he could not exclude 
 from the presence of the king — namely, the queen her- 
 self, who, with talents and virtues which rendered her 
 well worthy of every confidence, had been kept at a 
 distance from all public affairs, and shut out from all 
 knowledge of what was passing, except through the 
 uncertain channels of rumour. In order to control 
 her communications with the court, and even to fetter 
 her conversations with the king; the duchess of 
 Olivarez had been appointed both principal lady of her 
 bedchamber and governess of the infanta. A bold, 
 harsh, and haughty woman, the duchess, by her intru- 
 sive daring, governed the queen's household, and pre- 
 vented any secret influence rising up in that quarter 
 against the authority of her husband ; while Olivarez 
 had taken care to instil into the mind of the weak 
 monarch, from his earliest youth, that women were 
 unfit to meddle at all in any matters of importance. 
 Although his own wife might have taught him the re- 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 131 
 
 verse, it was his common axiom — " Men to act, monks 
 to pray, and women to bear children!" 
 
 But the time had now arrived when the queen felt 
 bound by her duty to her husband to interfere, and to 
 rouse him at least so far as to examine with his own 
 eyes into the state of his own affairs. It may be doubted, 
 indeed, whether the result of the steps she now took 
 was politic or impolitic, whether the removal of Oli- 
 varez, at the very moment that death had taken from 
 his path the great predominant spirit of those days, 
 and left the way to the objects for which he had always 
 striven open and free from the shadow of Richelieu, 
 did or did not produce evils to Spam: but no one can 
 deny that, seeing her husband's dominions dismember- 
 ed day by da)-, — seeing Roussillon, Portugal, Catalonia 
 lost; Artois almost conquered, Alsace in the hands of 
 France, Luxemburg overrun; Ormuz, Goa, Fernam- 
 buco, Brazil possessed by the enemy ; Naples and 
 Sicily upon the eve of a revolt, and nothing but dis- 
 content, insurrection, and resistance in Spain, beggary 
 in the exchequer, and desertion, disease, and scarcity 
 in the army; while her husband, amusing himself with 
 idle pleasures, trusted the whole business of the state 
 to one man, — no one can deny that, with this scene 
 around her, it was her duty to call the king's attention 
 to the condition of his people and his Jiingdom. It 
 must also be acknowledged that she acted with the ut- 
 most gentleness in pursuit of her purpose, and strove 
 to open the king's eyes without seeking the ruin or 
 the blood of a minister who had done her injustice. 
 
 The queen's first step was to induce the monarch to 
 visit the army destined to act against Catalonia; but to 
 bring him to such a resolution, and to support him 
 
 t 
 
132 LIFE OF 
 
 therein against all the opposition of Olivarez, cost her 
 no slight exertion of skill and perseverance. In the 
 army, she well knew that the minister's measures for 
 keeping the king at a distance from his subjects would 
 be more or less difficult of execution, and she trusted 
 that Philip would there meet with men who would 
 disclose to him the real state of the country. At the 
 same time she doubted not that, during the absence of 
 the king and the minister, the government of Madrid 
 would be intrusted to her; and that, even if no very 
 great power thus fell into her hands, she would be able 
 to gain much information which might prove highly 
 beneficial at an after period. Some occasion, too, of 
 serving the state could hardly fail of presenting itself 
 during her government; and at all events, such politi- 
 cal discussions would be absolutely necessary between 
 herself and her husband, after his return, as would ena- 
 ble her to speak more freely than she had ever found 
 occasion to do on the condition and prospects of the' 
 country. Notwithstanding bold and even impudent 
 opposition on the part of Olivarez, Philip persisted in 
 the resolution, which had been suggested by his wife, 
 although every member of the council, except the mar- 
 quis de Grana, imperial ambassador, who had been 
 called to give his opinion by the express order of the 
 king, opposed the proposed journey into Arragon. 
 Finding that he could not prevail by direct opposition, 
 Olivarez determined to prevent the king's expedition 
 from proving disadvantageous to his views, by strata- 
 gem; and leading him first to Aranjuez, and next to 
 Molina, he amused him with hunting and a variety of 
 other pastimes, till everything was prepared at Sara- 
 gosa. He then led the king to that city, where he 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 133 
 
 kept him very nearly as far from any knowledge of the 
 real state of the country as ever, on the pretext of the 
 enemy being so powerful in the neighbourhood as to 
 render it dangerous for the monarch to visit the camp. 
 Surrounded by the creatures of the count-duke, Philip 
 passed his days in a sort of splendid imprisonment, 
 amusing himself in seeing his subjects play at tennis 
 under his windows, while his minister, w T ith twelve 
 carriages and 200 guards, proceeded daily to the head- 
 quarters of the army, and acted the part of king. From 
 the same windows, however, at night, Philip beheld 
 the smoke and flames of the towns and villages set on 
 fire by the enemy rising up before him ; and after a long 
 interval of tedious inactivity, he returned to his capital, 
 assured that the people were suffering, but ignorant of 
 the cause. 
 
 Everything, however, was prepared at Madrid to 
 open the king's eyes. In that city the queen was 
 in the meanwhile labouring with activity and wisdom, 
 not only to prepare the means which wrought the 
 fall of the minister, but to excite the people to support 
 the monarchy. Suddenly emerging from the solitude 
 to which she had previously confined herself, she 
 mingled with the populace — she courted the nobles — 
 she encouraged the soldiery. Her graceful suavity, 
 her frank and generous zeal, and her confident reli- 
 ance on the patriotic spirit of the people, won all 
 hearts, opened all treasures, edged all swords in her 
 behalf; and before Philip returned, she had raised 
 for his service a more considerable army, and ob- 
 tained for his support a larger contribution, than 
 Olivarez had been able to do in several years. Such 
 actions won the confidence of her husband, and pre- 
 
 VOL. II. 12 
 
134 LIFE OP 
 
 pared his ear to listen to her representations. How 
 far those representations went, we cannot tell ; but 
 she certainly urged that Olivarez had been the most 
 unfortunate minister that Spain had ever known, andQ 
 that he was hated alike by the highest and the lowest 
 classes. 
 
 Lest her own opinion should be subject to suspicion 
 on account of the severity with which she had been 
 treated by the minister, she called upon the monarch 
 to question his grandees, pointing particularly to some 
 of the connexions of the minister himself, who most 
 strongly and eagerly corroborated the queen's state- 
 ment against their own relation. But it must be re- 
 membered, that the count-duke, by legitimating his 
 natural son don Henry, had given mortal offence to 
 his family, especially to that part thereof which had 
 hoped to succeed to his wealth, and therefore his own 
 brother-in-law, the marquis de Carpio, was one of the 
 first to bear testimony against him. The imperial 
 ambassador added all the weight of his master's name 
 to the party formed to ruin a man whose first great 
 object through life had been the aggrandizement of 
 the house of Austria. Still it would appear, that for 
 some weeks nobody dared to accuse Olivarez openly 
 of misconduct ; but at length, the minister, seeing 
 that a cabal was forming against him in the royal 
 household, and attributing a great share of it to the 
 king's nurse, a personage of considerable importance 
 in a Spanish court, caused her to be dismissed from 
 the palace upon some fair pretext. At the same time 
 boldly remarking the king's gloom and depression, 
 he demanded permission to retire from a station which 
 was so full of fatigues and so void of all enjoyments. 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 135 
 
 The king refused his request, merely replying, "We 
 have both need, count, to seek diligently for reme- 
 dies to our ills." 
 
 Shortly after this, tidings reached the court, which 
 might well raise the drooping spirits of the count- 
 duke, and renew his hopes and projects. The death 
 of Richelieu, on the 4th of December, 1642, was an- 
 nounced as one of the greatest advantages which had 
 occurred to Spain for many years ; and it is more 
 than probable, that had Olivarez been still retained in 
 power, he might have accomplished in the end the 
 great designs he meditated from the first ; for Mazarin 
 was then far inferior to him in vigour of mind, in 
 decision of character, and in political experience. But 
 the stream, which had long borne him forward but 
 slowly, had now turned against him. The duchess 
 of Mantua, whom he had carefully kept from the 
 court after she had been suffered to return to Spain 
 from Portugal, and whom he had treated with brutal 
 and ungentlemanly severity and neglect, made her 
 escape by night from the place of her exile, and sud- 
 denly presented herself in Madrid in a hired carriage, 
 and with a suite little worthy of a princess. Not- 
 withstanding all the minister's efforts to prevent her 
 from telling her own history to the king, she found 
 an opportunity of so doing in the apartments of the 
 queen. Facts were then made known to Philip con- 
 cerning the loss of Portugal, and the imprudent care- 
 lessness of the count-duke in regard to that kingdom, 
 which shook all his old prepossessions in favour of 
 Olivarez. Letters that he had never heard of, warn- 
 ings that he had never received, were proved to have 
 been sent by the duchess; and the most favourable 
 
136 LIFE OF f 
 
 construction that could be put upon the conduct of 
 Olivarez was, that that minister had treated the mo- 
 narch as a child. / 
 
 Still, however, the king hesitated ; but new dis- 
 asters fell upon his armies in Catalonia and Arragon ; 
 and at length donna Anna de Guevara, his nurse, 
 found her way into the palace ; and stationing herself 
 in a corridor through which the king passed daily at 
 a certain hour in proceeding from his own to the 
 queen's apartments, she cast herself at the monarch's 
 feet, when he appeared, and besought him to hear her. 
 Philip raised her with kindness, and bade her speak 
 her wishes ; whereupon she replied, that she did not 
 come to seek graces at his royal hand, but to render 
 him the greatest service that the crown of Spain could 
 receive. She had given her milk to nourish him in 
 his infancy, she said, using the bold figures of the 
 south, and she was now ready to spill her blood if 
 necessary for his service. It was on this account that 
 she came to tell him truths, which no one, who did not 
 feel as a mother towards him, would dare to tell. She 
 then went on to detail, in powerful language, all the 
 misfortunes which overwhelmed Spain ; and, in the 
 end, declared that these were the punishments with 
 which God had visited him, for leaving entirely to 
 another the discharge of those duties which Heaven 
 had imposed upon him for the benefit of the country. 
 She besought him then to issue from the state of tute- 
 lage in which he was kept, and not to provoke farther 
 the anger of the Almighty by suffering his country to 
 be lost, his subjects maltreated, and the prince, his 
 son, perhaps to be driven ultimately into exile, with 
 scarcely the fortune of a private gentleman. 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 137 
 
 The king listened with attention, and replying, 
 u You have spoken the truth," led the way into the 
 queen's apartments, where the conversation was pro- 
 longed for several hours. A number of the queen's 
 women were present at the latter part of the con- 
 ference ; and the wife of Henry de Gusman, who was 
 in the palace, soon gained information of the whole 
 proceedings. The news also spread to other quarters ; 
 and the effect was visible both in the demeanour of the 
 minister and his son, who appeared from that moment 
 to be plunged into grief and despondency, and in the 
 conduct of the other nobles, who took care to pour 
 their accusations of the count-duke into the now open 
 ear of the king. The imperial ambassador, about the 
 same time, received a letter from the emperor, which 
 he was directed to present to Philip; and which, after 
 stating in plain terms the terrible situation of the house 
 of Austria, suggested distinctly the dismissal of the 
 count-duke. 
 
 A number of other circumstances combined to drive 
 the monarch to try other counsels than those which 
 had hitherto guided him ; and in order that he might 
 know the real state of his army and his treasury, he 
 sent notes to the councils of war and of finance, de- 
 manding precise information regarding the actual 
 numbers of the forces in Catalonia, and the funds for 
 continuing the war. The reply from the first of these 
 was, that the Catalonian army had been reduced by 
 various losses to 5000 men; and from the second, that, 
 of 6,000,000, which had been required, only 1,000,000 
 was to be obtained. This news disturbed even the 
 statue-like repose of the king's habitual demeanour, 
 and the fall of Olivarez was resolved. 
 
 12* 
 
138 LIFE OF 
 
 On, the 15th of January, 1643, Philip with his own 
 hand wrote to his minister, forbidding him to inter- 
 fere farther in affairs of state, and commanding him to 
 retire to his country house, at a distance of a few 
 leagues from Madrid. The minister, who had long 
 perceived that his favour was shaken, was not so 
 much astonished or depressed as his family, and bore 
 his reverse with fortitude and dignity. His wife, who 
 was absent at the time, returned in haste to the capital, 
 and throwing herself at the feet of the king and of the 
 queen, besought their clemency and forbearance in 
 the most abject terms. In the meantime don Louis 
 de Haro, nephew of Olivarez, who had no slight cause 
 of dislike towards his uncle, found means to insinuate 
 himself into the good graces of the king; but he em- 
 ployed his opportunity to no evil purpose, beseeching 
 the monarch on the contrary, to suffer the retreat of 
 the disgraced minister to take place with as few signs 
 of displeasure as possible. And thus, during several 
 days after the minister had received his dismissal, he 
 remained in the palace, transacted business occasion- 
 ally with the king and the council, while in secret his 
 preparations were made for quitting the court. The 
 monarch also granted him permission to destroy all 
 such papers relating to his own conduct as he thought 
 fit ; and after lingering as long as he could, in hopes 
 that a change might take place in his favour, Olivarez 
 made up his mind to retire. The unrestrained ani- 
 mosity of the people, however, he had reason to be- 
 lieve, might inflict insult, if not injury, upon him as 
 he passed through the town ; and he accordingly sent 
 his own equipages from the front of the building, 
 while a hired carriage conveyed him with two priests 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 139 
 
 from another door. His apprehensions were not un- 
 founded, and his precaution wise ; his carriages were 
 attacked, his attendants ill-treated, and it was only by 
 showing the mob that the minister himself was not 
 present that they were suffered to proceed. That he 
 had quitted the palace, however, was soon known 
 through the town, and a public rejoicing took place 
 as if a victory had been gained. The bakers gave 
 away their bread, the fruiterers distributed their fruit 
 without payment ; and the short-sighted but enthusi- 
 astic populace gave way to as much joy as if peace 
 and prosperity could not fail of being instantly re- 
 stored, thus preparing disappointment for themselves, 
 and the bitter task of undeceiving them for the minis- 
 ter who was to follow. 
 
 No such rejoicings took place in the court. Fa- 
 vourable changes were slow in making their appear- 
 ance ; Philip, unaccustomed to business, and knowing 
 his own incompetence, became both wearied and 
 alarmed under the weight that he had suddenly taken 
 upon himself. Olivarez had made no statesmen, for 
 his suspicions had kept men of talent from public em- 
 ployments, and his unwearied application had supplied 
 the place of many inferior officers. Don Louis de 
 Haro, though possessed of considerable abilities, was 
 as yet inexperienced; and the time very speedily came, 
 when Philip began to regret his former minister, and 
 to think of recalling him to power. It unfortunately 
 happened, however, that just at the moment when pru- 
 dence might have secured his return, Olivarez, un- 
 wisely, published a vindication of his own conduct, 
 which, by its violent language, gave so much offence 
 to the queen, and every other influential person at the 
 
140 . LIFE OF 
 
 court, that, instead of once more calling him to his 
 councils, Philip sent him a command to quit the vici- 
 nity of Madrid, and remain at Toro, in the kingdom 
 of Leon. Olivarez obeyed; but disappointment prey- 
 ed upon his health, and, we are even told, injured his 
 mental faculties. His strength gradually failed; and 
 after lingering for some time, he died in 1645. 
 
 The count-duke Olivarez possessed many of the 
 qualities of a great statesman, but, at the same time, 
 many of the faults of a weak man. His views were 
 vast, and in general not inaccurate in their principal 
 features, though their extent often prevented that cor- 
 rect calculation of details which, previously made, 
 would have prevented many of his enterprises from 
 being undertaken, and would have secured success to 
 many others. He had great powers of application, 
 considerable skill in discovering the schemes of others, 
 and much diplomatic ability. His negotiations were 
 almost always more successful than his arms; but in 
 neither did fortune favour him, or success attend him 
 as with Richelieu. On the other hand, Olivarez was 
 suspicious, inflexible, and despotic. He employed but 
 few persons, and those in few matters of importance; 
 rather choosing to bear the whole labour of adminis- 
 tration, than to share his authority, communicate his 
 schemes, or endanger his favour. 
 
 There was a curious difference between the great 
 judgment with which Olivarez saw into the characters 
 and designs of those opposed to him, and the total 
 want of discrimination which appeared in his selection 
 of persons for his own service. Thus he was always 
 individually prepared to encounter the most artful po- 
 litical wiles of his adversaries; but he had no person 
 
GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 141 
 
 attached to him who was worthy of being intrusted 
 with any negotiation of importance. No famous ge- 
 neral owed his rise to Olivarez; no statesman of any 
 abilities issued from his school. 
 
 The defects of national character often affected the 
 shrewdness of the minister. His ideas of the power 
 and grandeur of Spain, and his contempt for her oppo- 
 nents, particularly the Portuguese, made him lose many 
 valuable opportunities, and neglect many a wise pre- 
 caution. In regard to the latter, indeed, the warnings 
 that he received and treated with indifference afford 
 matter for the most serious charge that can be made 
 against his abilities as a statesman. His inflexibility 
 was part of his character as a man which often made 
 him appear cruel, but which sometimes assumed the 
 appearance and supplied the place of a virtue. He 
 maintained great pomp and state, though far less than 
 the duke of Lerma ; but, at the same time, his inte- 
 grity and disinterestedness were very great. All the 
 large revenues which his various offices produced, all 
 his own income, and part even of the principal of his 
 private fortune, he spent either in maintaining his own 
 station at the court, or in aiding the state in moments , x 
 of difficulty. Bribery was unheard of during his ad- V W y 
 ministration; and when he quitted office, he was poorer 
 than when he first took the reins of government. The 
 same disinterested spirit pervaded all his actions. He 
 sought no strong places as a retreat in case of danger; 
 he obtained no provinces to govern, where he might 
 have opposed or controlled the will of his sovereign, 
 on the occurrence of disgrace. He coveted power, he 
 was avaricious, and jealous of authority; he kept a 
 weak prince in ignorance of affairs which he was in- 
 
142 LIFE OF GASPAR COUNT OLIVAREZ. 
 
 competent to direct and only likely to derange; but 
 whatever were the errors and faults of the count-duke, 
 his sole object seems to have been the good of his 
 sovereign, his first desire to aggrandize his master. 
 
 In person, we are told, Olivarez was plain, and some- 
 what ill-proportioned ; and in manners grave, except 
 when, for the purpose of concealing misfortunes, he 
 affected a gaiety which he did not feel. His integrity, 
 his talents, and his devotion to his monarch deserved 
 better fortunes; and it is probable that, at any other 
 period, his ministry would have been one of the most 
 successful that Spain had ever seen. One who knew 
 him as a youth (Cespedes,) describes him as of strong 
 judgment, grave, studious, showing a disposition for 
 arms, active and prompt in affairs, ready and resolute. 
 One thing at least is certain, — had the schemes of Oli- 
 varez onlv so far succeeded as related to the internal 
 
 ■J 
 
 policy of Spain, a great part of the evils, the preju- 
 dices, the fetters, in short, of all kinds, which have 
 chained her down, and kept her to one spot, while the 
 rest of the world has advanced, would have been dis- 
 solved at once. 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 JULIUS CARDINAL MAZARIN. 
 
 BORN, 1602 DIED, 1661. 
 
 Much obscurity hangs over the early life of Julius 
 Mazarin, and the place of his birth is by some said to 
 have been Piscina in the Abruzzi, while some contend 
 that he first saw light in Rome itself. All agree, how- 
 ever, that he was born on the 14th of July, 1602, and 
 that his early education was conducted at Rome. 
 Many writers assert that his parents were in very poor 
 circumstances, and exercising handicraft employments; 
 while others represent them as in affluence, allied to 
 the noblest families in Rome, and descended from one 
 of the most ancient races of Sicily. It is probable 
 that the family of Mazarin was poor, for it is proved 
 that he had considerable difficulty in forcing his way 
 forward ; and it is also likely that his relations held no 
 very distinguished situation, as we find that he care- 
 fully avoided allusions to his early years ; but it seems 
 equally clear that they were noble by birth and re- 
 spectable in station, as at his outset in life he was em- 
 ployed in situations where such advantages were then 
 considered indispensable. The first studies of Mazarin 
 were pursued under the instruction of the Jesuits at 
 Rome ; and he is said to have distinguished himself 
 highly at the college of those learned men. Having 
 attracted the attention of Jerome Colonna, afterwards 
 cardinal Colonna, he accompanied that personage at an 
 early age to the university of Alcala, and continued 
 
144 LIFE OP 
 
 his studies in Spain- for a short time with great dis- 
 tinction. But, either in consequence of some disputes 
 with the Spaniards, or of his own eagerness to advance 
 his fortunes in a more extended sphere, he quitted that 
 country before he was twenty years of age, and enter- 
 ed the ecclesiastical arm} 7 under Torquato Conti. He 
 afterwards served for some time with the marquis de 
 Bagni in the Valteline as captain of infantry, and shared 
 in the disgraceful flight of that officer before the French 
 troops under Coeuvres. As a soldier he never obtained 
 any distinction; and his military life is only remark- 
 able, as showing the same extraordinary difference be- 
 tween his original profession and his subsequent pur- 
 suits which is to be found in the case of Richelieu. 
 
 As a negotiator, however, he early distinguished 
 himself, — taking advantage of men's weaknesses to dis- 
 cover the secrets of their hearts by the most opposite 
 means. Thus, even while in the Valteline, he pur- 
 posely provoked the duke of Feria to betray, in a fit 
 of passion, his intention of opposing the papal influ- 
 ence at the court of Spain; while afterwards, in deal- 
 ing with the mareehal d'Estrees, he gained the same 
 object by suppleness and insinuating gentleness. To 
 the family of Bagni, Mazarin now attached himself; 
 and, in 1628, he accompanied the cardinal de Bagni to 
 France, whither that prelate was sent as nuncio, to re- 
 place Spada, whose violence and freedom of speech 
 had given constant offence to the imperious minister 
 of Louis XIII.* To that monarch, and to the cardi- 
 
 * The cardinal de Retz declares that Bag-ni, the genera], in- 
 formed him that Mazarin, while with the army in the Valteline, 
 was considered as nothing 1 but a sharper, and yet to this very 
 family of Bagni did he owe his first support. De Retz, however, 
 is not to be relied upon when speaking 1 of his enemy Mazarin. 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 145 
 
 nal de Richelieu, Mazarin was now formally intro- 
 duced; and from that moment, without detaching him- 
 self at once from the papal court, he did all that he 
 could to gain the favour of France, and attract the no- 
 tice of the French minister. His first efforts appeared 
 in the disputes, which afterwards produced a long- 
 continued war, concerning the succession to the duchy 
 of Mantua. To prevent actual hostilities, the pope 
 despatched the cardinal Sachetti to Turin, to negotiate 
 with the duke of Savoy in regard to the claims of the 
 latter upon Montferrat. Mazarin, who was then study- 
 ing jurisprudence, set out in company with Sachetti, 
 on the very day after he had taken his degree of doc- 
 tor of laws. 
 
 The cardinal did not long remain at Turin ; but, 
 on his return to Rome, Mazarin was left behind with 
 the title of internuncio, and all his endeavours were 
 directed to persuade the Spanish and imperial courts 
 to abandon their attack upon the duke of Mantua, and 
 conclude a peace with that prince upon honourable 
 terms. But these endeavours were ineffectual, and 
 arms were destined to decide the fortune of the house 
 of Nevers. Richelieu, however, who loved subservi- 
 ency, did not fail to remark, and in the end to recom- 
 pense, the leaning of Mazarin to the part of France; 
 and in the course of a mission which the Italian under- 
 took, at the instigation of the duke of Savoy, for the 
 purpose of staying the march of the French army into 
 Piedmont, the cardinal minister had a long interview 
 with the young Roman, and conceived the highest 
 opinion of his talents for diplomacy. 
 
 If Richelieu, however, esteemed and praised Ma- 
 zarin, there is little doubt that the Italian suffered him- 
 
 VOL. II. 13 
 
146 LIFE OF 
 
 self to be gained over entirely to the interests of 
 France; and that, while he kept up the appearance of 
 being merely the servant of the pope, he was busily 
 engaged in forwarding the views of Richelieu, or in 
 obtaining for him such information as might guide his 
 operations to a successful result. During the war 
 which now took place in Savoy, Mazarin was con- 
 stantly employed; ever giving himself out as the eager 
 promoter of peace, and ever favouring the cause of 
 France against Spain and the empire. He was now 
 brought several times into contact with Richelieu and 
 the king of France, and always found means to raise 
 himself in their favour. At length, though in general 
 hostilities languished on both sides, and Richelieu suf- 
 fered the territories of Mantua to be wrested from the 
 duke, the war was carried on more vigorously in the 
 Montferrat. Cassal was besieged by Spinola and de- 
 fended by Thoiras with equal skill ; but in the end the 
 garrison became incapable of protracting the defence 
 both of the town and the citadel, on account of the 
 sickness of the troops and the scarcity of provisions. 
 
 Mazarin, being informed of the state of the case, 
 contrived to negotiate a suspension of arms between 
 the two generals; and Thoiras gave up the city to Spi- 
 nola, but merely as a deposite to be returned in case a 
 French army could relieve the citadel within a certain 
 period. In the meantime, the French found means to 
 introduce a certain quantity of provisions into the cita- 
 del; and Mazarin himself, while conducting the nego- 
 tiation, furnished the governor with several sums of 
 money, which was as much wanting as any other sup- 
 ply. A treaty, however, was concluded at Ratisbon, 
 during the continuance of this truce, by which it was 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 147 
 
 stipulated that, within a fixed time, the whole Mc-nt- 
 ferrat should be given up, by the Spaniards, to the 
 duke of Mantua. Previous to the publication of the 
 treaty in Italy, a French force had been collected for 
 the relief of Cassal, Spinola had fallen ill and retired 
 from the Spanish camp, and the army and generals he 
 had left behind were not competent to offer a vigorous 
 resistance. Under these circumstances, the French 
 generals refused to acknowledge the treaty of Ratis- 
 bon; and, declaring that its provisions would force the 
 armies to keep the field all the winter, demanded that 
 Cassal should be given up to the duke of Mantua at 
 once. To this Mazarin obtained the consent of the 
 Spanish general; but the facility with which one ex- 
 action was permitted induced the French to require 
 more; and Mazarin was sent back in order to procure 
 the instant evacuation of all the principal towns held 
 by the Spaniards in the Monlferrat. A decided refu- 
 sal, however, was now given; and marshal Schomberg, 
 with his fellow commanders, advanced to attack the 
 Spanish lines. * Mazarin, in the meanwhile, was 
 urging the Spaniards, with all the plausible eloquence 
 of which he was master, to consent to the terms pro- 
 posed, and he at length succeeded. But by this time 
 the French were within half a mile of the Spanish 
 lines, Picolomini had thrown forward a body of mus- 
 keteers to annoy Schomberg in his advance, and the 
 cannon had already opened their fire from the Spanish 
 position. Mazarin, borrowing a swift horse, however, 
 galloped as fast as he could towards the advancing 
 army, waving his hat, and exclaiming, "Halt! halt! ,; 
 
 * October 26, 1630. 
 
148 LIFE OF 
 
 and, though he ran considerable risk from the fire of 
 both parties, he reached marshal Schomberg in safety. 
 The French army was now halted; and the generals of 
 both nations having met, the terms were agreed upon, 
 and were ultimately executed on the part of the Spa- 
 niards with good faith, on the part of the French with 
 treacherous delay. 
 
 The partiality of Mazarin to the interests of France 
 was well known to that power, but was as yet concealed 
 from her enemies; and Richelieu, consequently, lost no 
 opportunity of negotiating with the princes of Italy 
 through the mediation of the Roman diplomatist. The 
 next transaction of any import in which he was engaged, 
 regarded the cession of Pignerol to France* by the duke 
 of Savoy; and, in respect to this business, he conducted 
 the negotiations so skilfully as to persuade the duke not 
 only to yield one of his most important fortresses with 
 scarcely an effort to retain it, but, after having placed 
 himself at the mercy of France, to deceive, with the 
 utmost duplicity, the Spaniards from whom he had 
 hitherto derived support. To such services Richelieu 
 was never insensible, and he now bent all his efforts 
 to induce the pope to name Mazarin nuncio at the 
 court of France. He met with more difficulties, 
 however, than he expected: or, at least, the proceed- 
 ings of the sovereign pontiff were slower than he de- 
 sired. 
 
 Though employed at the period solely as a papal 
 
 * The Biographie Universelle attributes the whole scheme of 
 concealing a part of the garrison in Pignerol to Mazarin. The 
 events connected therewith have been already related in the Life 
 of Richelieu; but I find no proof that Mazarin had any direct 
 part in the plot or its execution. 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 149 
 
 minister, Mazarin had not yet decided upon entering 
 into the ecclesiastical state; but, shortly after the affair 
 of Pignerol, the hopes of support at the pontifical 
 court, held out to him by France and the favour of 
 the pope himself, induced him to resign the sword, 
 and put on the surplice. One of the rich canonicates 
 of the Lateran was his first reward; and, not long after- 
 wards, he was appointed vice-legate to Avignon. The 
 post of nuncio in France, however, was that which he 
 most earnestly desired; and to obtain it he employed 
 all the resources of his keen and intriguing mind. 
 Richelieu seconded his efforts powerfully; but the 
 Spaniards, who had by this time learned to suspect the 
 Roman minister, opposed his views. Favoured by the 
 pontiff himself, Mazarin soon saw success approaching; 
 but the Spanish ambassador, who at length perceived 
 that further opposition was useless, as it was already 
 determined that the aspiring Italian should be sent as 
 nuncio extraordinary to Paris, endeavoured, in the 
 next place, to insure that the object intrusted to Maza- 
 rin's negotiation should be of such a nature as either 
 to embroil him with Richelieu if he pressed it severely, 
 or disgrace him with the pope if he neglected to en- 
 force it. The subject fixed upon was the quarrel be- 
 tween France and Lorraine, but Mazarin was too 
 shrewd to engage himself in difficulties; and though 
 he affected to use every means to induce Richelieu to 
 restore the duke to his territories, yet his applications 
 were fruitless, and they certainly were not sincere. 
 
 While he remained at Paris, the first decided rupture 
 took place between France and Spain, on account of the 
 attack made by the latter power upon the archbishopric 
 of Treves; and, under these circumstances, Mary of 
 
 13* 
 
150 LIFE OF 
 
 Medicis, the exiled mother of the French king, with- 
 out influence, without power, without even a party in 
 France, took upon herself the mighty task of reconcil- 
 ing the two crowns. The personage on whom she 
 fixed as a mediator was no other than Mazarin; and to 
 him she wrote, recommending the promotion of a 
 general pacification. She also addressed an epistle to 
 the king her son, once more endeavouring to touch his 
 heart on her own account, and entrusted the letter to 
 the care of Mazarin. But the king paid no attention 
 to her entreaties, and Mazarin played into the hand of 
 her most bitter adversary. The very reply that he 
 thought fit to send was dated from the cardinal's house 
 at Ruel; and all his actions showed that Mazarin had 
 given himself up to the sole guidance of Richelieu. 
 During a severe fit of illness which he now suffered, 
 the cardinal minister showed him more real and tender 
 kindness than, perhaps, he ever displayed to any other 
 human being; and Mazarin resumed his official duties 
 with the certainty that no efforts would be spared by 
 France to raise him to a seat in the conclave. 
 
 In the meanwhile his late conduct had fully con- 
 firmed the suspicions of the Spanish court; and, by 
 representations and remonstrances, it forced the pontiff 
 to recall Mazarin to his station as vice-legate at Avignon, 
 He was suffered not long after to return to Rome; but 
 there new difficulties arose, and obstructed his advance, 
 springing from the very steps which he had taken to 
 facilitate his progress. In order to gratify the cardinal- 
 nephew, Antonio Barberini, Mazarin had obtained from 
 Richelieu that the French ambassador, Noailles, should 
 be recalled, and that the marechal d'Estrees should be 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 151 
 
 sent to Rome in his place. But the bluff and hasty 
 manners of the latter displeased the pontiff as much as 
 Noailles had displeased his nephew, and every means 
 was used to cause the removal of D'Estrees. 
 
 Richelieu, however, remained firm ; and also, in re- 
 gard to the invasion of Parma, showed a degree of 
 resolution which surprised the Roman court. Mazarin 
 it was who suffered from the French minister's deter- 
 mined conduct; and the cardinal's hat, which Riche- 
 lieu eagerly demanded for him, was withheld, without 
 any plausible excuse. New quarrels ensued between 
 D'Estrees and the Roman court ; and one of his at- 
 tendants was murdered, upon which Scotti was sent 
 as nuncio to Paris. Richelieu, however, refused to 
 receive him in that quality, or to treat farther with 
 Rome till his creature was raised to the conclave, 
 and other personal demands granted. The pope con- 
 tinued obstinate, and Scotti endeavoured to intimidate 
 Richelieu; but an assembly of the clergy of France, 
 called by the minister, spoke so boldly of the encroach- 
 ments of the Roman see, and pointed so distinctly to 
 the means of checking its exactions, that the pontiff 
 began to fear the consequences, and moderated his tone 
 towards the marechal d'Estrees. 
 
 Richelieu, on his side, abandoned part of his de- 
 mands, but still required the hat for Mazarin; and 
 some new events occurred in the course of 1640, which 
 increased his obligations towards the Roman statesman, 
 and caused him to press his request more eagerly. The 
 siege of Turin having taken place,* count Harcourt 
 hastened to its relief; but Richelieu, who not only 
 desired to deliver the city, but to gain the princes of 
 
 * See the Life of Richelieu. 
 
152 LIFE OF 
 
 Savoy to his own party, sent for Mazarin, and directed 
 him, as ambassador from the king of France, to endea- 
 vour to conclude a truce by which not only the Pied- 
 montese capital might be relieved, but prince Thomas, 
 as well as his brother, be brought over to the French 
 interests. The first of these objects had been accom- 
 plished, by the gallantry and skill of count Harcourt, 
 before Mazarin arrived: but the latter part of the ne- 
 gotiation he carried through with consummate policy ; 
 and both planned and executed'the arrest of the duchess 
 of Savoy's mostfaithful counsellor, count Philip d'Aglie, 
 who had always opposed the ambitious and exacting 
 views of France. 
 
 The act was base, treacherous, and a direct violation 
 of the rights of nations; but it was serviceable and 
 gratifying to Richelieu ; and, in the course of the fol- 
 lowing year, the name of Mazarin appeared in the 
 papal list of promotions to the conclave. He had re- 
 mained in France during the interval, following the 
 court and occupying various posts of minor importance. 
 On the march to Perpignan, he accompanied the mi- 
 nister; and at Valence was met by the nuncio bearing 
 the hat from the sovereign pontiff.* It was bestowed 
 on him, with the usual ceremonies, by the hands of the 
 king himself; and an Italian regiment, which served 
 with credit in the expedition to Roussillon, was dis- 
 tinguished by his name. During that very expedition, 
 however, Mazarin saw all the hopes which he had con- 
 ceived from the favour of Richelieu, tremble on the 
 eve of falling: with the fortunes of the minister himself. 
 The conspiracy of Cinq Mars, the last and most dan- 
 gerous of all those that threatened the cardinal de 
 Richelieu, now reached the point at which it was to 
 
 * February, 1642. 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 153 
 
 be executed or discovered. The minister underwent 
 the first severe attack of an illness which was after- 
 wards to prove mortal, and both his friends and his 
 enemies believed him to be dying; but that which, 
 used skilfully against him, might have proved his de- 
 struction, in the unskilful hands of his opponents saved 
 him from ruin. Cinq Mars and his associates, sup- 
 posing that his days were numbered, paused in their 
 course to let fate spare them the pain and danger of 
 the deed. Time was given for Richelieu to receive 
 the evidence of their treason; and he recovered suffi- 
 ciently to complete and to witness their fall. One of 
 the most, and one of the least, culpable of the conspi- 
 rators, forfeited life upon the scaffold. The blood of 
 the king's brother was spared, while his honour was 
 sacrificed ; and the duke of Bouillon's pardon was 
 purchased by the resignation of his principality of 
 Sedan. As Richelieu, from an abscess in the arm, 
 could not sign the compact which secured immunity 
 to the duke and Sedan to France, he deputed Mazarin 
 to draw up the paper, and afterwards sent him to re- 
 ceive the surrender of the principality. In the tyran- 
 nical exactions which Richelieu, during the few re- 
 maining months of his life, practised upon the king, 
 in order probably to punish his participation in the 
 conspiracy of Cinq Mars, Mazarin wisely refrained 
 from appearing; but when the monarch's anger burst 
 forth against Chavigny, whose bold mind would 
 scarcely bend to the ceremonial respect due to the 
 station of a sovereign whom he saw his principal 
 trample on daily with impunity, Mazarin stepped 
 forward to plead the cause of the secretary ; and, by 
 
154 „ LIFE OP 
 
 rendering himself the protector of his rival, rendered 
 himself his superior. 
 
 At length the death of Richelieu left vacant the 
 office of prime minister, and Mazarin immediately 
 began to exercise the functions, if not to bear the title, 
 of that officer. Chavigny was personally disliked by 
 the king; de Noyers was not agreeable to him; and 
 though he had promised Richelieu to continue in place 
 the ministry which that extraordinary man had formed, 
 he did not feel himself at all bound to advance either 
 of the two secretaries to the vacant post. Some pas- 
 sages in the letters of Mazarin seem to imply, that to 
 the recommendation of Richelieu himself he owed the 
 distinction, which he immediately enjoyed upon the 
 great statesman's decease ; but it is more probable that 
 the real foundation of his favour was his own supple 
 and courtierlike demeanour, his political sagacity, and 
 persevering cunning. 
 
 The inclination of the king towards Mazarin did 
 not in the least diminish after the death of Richelieu; 
 and, as one of the strongest proofs of its continuance, 
 the monarch appointed him godfather to his eldest son? 
 afterwards famous as Louis XIV. The illness and 
 approaching death of Louis XIII., however, gave him 
 some cause for apprehension ; and he took care to 
 guard as far as possible against contingencies, first by 
 inducing the king to place his name second in the 
 council of regency, which the monarch appointed pre- 
 vious to his death; and, secondly, by obtaining from 
 him an order, according to the tenor of which the 
 regent was to dispose of all ecclesiastical offices and 
 dignities by the advice of Mazarin alone. All these 
 precautions, however, were vain. 
 
CARDINAL MAZAEIN. 155 
 
 Mazarin did not, indeed, stand ill with the queen, 
 but Potier, bishop of Beauvais occupied a much higher 
 station in her favour ; and scarcely was the king dead 
 when Anne of Austria proceeded to the parliament and 
 annulled the will of her husband, which she had pro- 
 mised most solemnly to observe. She was now left 
 by the decree of the parliament to name her own council 
 of regency, and to follow its advice or not, as she 
 thought fit; and she immediately raised the bishop of 
 Beauvais to the high office of prime minister. If few 
 women were less qualified than Anne of Austria to 
 govern a turbulent and dissatisfied people like the 
 French, no man was ever more unfit to exercise the 
 functions of minister in moments of difficultly than the 
 prelate whom she now selected. The wittv and fac- 
 tious cardinal de Retz, addressing a third person, calls 
 him " more idiot than all the idiots of your acquaint- 
 ance;" and declares that his first act was to propose to 
 the people of Holland to abandon their religfcm and 
 become papists. At all events, it is sufficiently evident 
 that he was unequal to the station which he occupied; 
 and the queen herself soon began to feel that the dig- 
 nity of the regent suffered from the folly of her 
 minister. 
 
 It was very difficult, however, at that moment to 
 supply his place, inasmuch as three parties existed at 
 the court, each of them powerful, and two of them 
 dangerous. The first consisted of the friends, sup- 
 porters, and confidential advisers of the late cardinal 
 de Richelieu: the second, of the persons whom, he had 
 banished or cast into prison, and who, now recalled 
 to Paris, made their appearance once more on the 
 political stage, with ideas far behind the point to which 
 
156 LIFE OP 
 
 the genius of Richelieu had hurried forward the age ; 
 the third contained a mixed party, gathered, like the 
 last, from Richelieu's enemies, but comprising all those 
 whom the powers of his mind or the fears of his 
 vengeance had restrained from actual attempts to over- 
 throw his government. To this last body were added all 
 the factious and turbulent of Paris; all those who, 
 amidst the population of a great capital, find their real 
 or putative talents overlooked ; all those who are dis- 
 satisfied with the slow and regular paths to dignity and 
 emolument ; all those who are discontented with every- 
 thing they do not understand; all those who are so in- 
 famous, so unprincipled, or so stupid as to have no 
 hopes nor prospects, except in the destruction of that 
 civil order, which guards the peaceable from the fangs 
 of the unruly. 
 
 However, as the incapacity of the bishop of Beauvais 
 became daily more apparent, and even he himself, 
 though* jealous of all who were likely to succeed him 
 in office, felt his weak mind staggering under the 
 burden of the state, it was determined to call Mazarin 
 more immediately to the councils of the queen. The 
 cardinal had kept himself prepared to return to Italy on 
 the least appearance of danger; his horses and carriages 
 were even held ready ; and he himself made perpaps 
 too great a parade of his desire of retiring from the 
 French court, to convince any one of his sincerity. 
 At length, however, the bishop of Beauvais, on pre- 
 tence of visiting his diocess, quitted Paris, and Mazarin 
 received notice that the queen required his assistance. 
 
 Hitherto all had been tranquil, though all had been 
 weak. The queen had given everything to those who 
 asked her, till monsieur de la Feuillade declared that 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 157 
 
 the French language had reduced itself to five little 
 words, "The queen is so good/" The regent her- 
 self had exhibited plentiful foibles; and her favourite 
 for the time, the duke of Beaufort, who assumed the 
 airs, without possessing the privileges, of a lover, ruled 
 all things, and distributed all gifts. The queen had 
 sense enough to perceive that such a state could not 
 exist much longer; and her choice of Mazarin was 
 perhaps as wise as any other she could have formed. 
 Chavigny was firmer, more enlightened, and more 
 vigorous, resembling Richelieu in more points than 
 did Mazarin. But the day of Richelieu had gone by: 
 he himself had exhausted his own influence, had . 
 worked out the mine he had discovered, and had 
 brought about a state to which the very government 
 that had produced it was no longer applicable. It is 
 possible that the great mind of Richelieu, his gigantic 
 power, and the terrors of his name, might have enabled 
 him, if he had lived, to have carried on his system 
 longer than he did; but no other man could do it after 
 he was gone; and Mazarin, convinced that such was 
 the case, determined to modify the policy of the mi- 
 nister he followed, in a manner to which it is probable 
 the character of Chavigny would not have submitted. 
 
 At his very first outset, however, he was destined 
 to encounter that factious opposition which pursued 
 him through a great part of his ministry. The duke 
 of Beaufort had been one of the persons who had 
 suffered from either the policy or the enmity of Riche- 
 lieu ; and the sight of a creature of that minister raised 
 to the most important office in the state was insuffera- 
 ble to the son of Vendome. He opposed, he pro- 
 tested, he caballed, and, with five or six other noble- 
 
 VOL. II. 14 
 
158 LIFE OF 
 
 men of inferior rank, gave himself and his plans such 
 airs of consequence, that they acquired the name of 
 the Importants, and afforded Mazarin a pretext for 
 arresting the duke,* and driving the rest from Paris. 
 Many persons have contended that the duke had se- 
 riously planned the imprisonment or meditated the 
 death of the minister; and Mazarin during a whole 
 day either felt great alarm, or affected the appearance 
 thereof with much address. In arresting the duke of 
 Beaufort, however, Mazarin did not alone accomplish an 
 act necessary to his own security, but he also satisfied 
 the enmity of the prince of Conde, who had personal 
 • , causes of dislike towards the rash, weak duke ; and 
 he gratified the duke of Orleans, who was for a time 
 bound in the strictest ties of friendship to the prince. 
 
 This step being securely planted, another followed 
 in the same course ; the bishop of Beauvais was or- 
 dered to remain in his diocess, and a number of other 
 prelates, who had offended both Mazarin and Conde, 
 were directed to retire from Paris. About the same 
 time, also, the cardinal induced the queen to remove 
 from the Louvre to the palace of the iate minister 
 Richelieu, which was thenceforward called the Palais 
 Royal, and obtained for himself therein a suite of 
 rooms which possessed an outlet to the rue des Boris 
 Enfans, as well as by the great gates to the rue St. 
 Honore. 
 
 Mazarin was now all powerful in the mind of the 
 queen ; and, notwithstanding every effort of faction, 
 he remained in authority till the end of his life, ruling 
 France either from Paris, the provinces, or a foreign 
 
 * September, 1643. 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 159 
 
 country, with difficulty, it is true, but not without 
 success. The arrest of the duke of Beaufort, who, a 
 few months before, had appeared omnipotent at the 
 court, gave immense advantages to the minister ; and 
 this one act of vigour, together with the impetus 
 which Richelieu had given to the government up to 
 the last hour of his life, carried the cardinal calmly 
 through the first four years of the regency. He him- 
 self affected extreme moderation and great humility; 
 and while with keen penetration he watched all the 
 manoeuvres of the courtiers, and took «are to frustrate, 
 without encountering, every attempt to injure him, 
 he attached multitudes to his interests by his mild- 
 ness, his liberality, and his placability. These quali- 
 ties, however, without some sterner virtues, are those 
 which too often make a minister despised ; but al- 
 though Mazarin's character wanted the boldness, and 
 perhaps the firmness, which are necessary to afford 
 for love the steadfast foundation of respect, yet the 
 success of his measures, and the constant triumph of 
 the French armies under his ministry, shielded him 
 during those four years from that light and laughing 
 scorn with which the inhabitants of Paris are too apt 
 to treat all those who do not trample on their necks. 
 To carry on the war with vigour, Mazarin had to 
 overcome some opposition in the council, many mem- 
 bers of which, favoured it is supposed by the queen 
 herself, were desirous of concluding a peace with the 
 family from which she sprung. The cardinal, how- 
 ever, prevailed ; and renewing the treaty which had 
 lately expired with Holland, he gave the command 
 of the army, destined to act in concert with the Dutch 
 fleet, to the inconstant duke of Orleans, who made 
 
160 LIFE OP 
 
 himself master of Gravelines, after a tedious siege. 
 About the same time, however, general Rantzau was 
 defeated with very severe loss, and Freiburg taken ; 
 but the exploits of Conde and Turenne soon made 
 ample compensation ; and the French victory at Frei- 
 burg, with the capture of Philipsburg, Spires, Worms, 
 and Mayence, effaced all memory of the foregoing 
 disasters. 
 
 The employment of the most influential persons in 
 the state at a distance from the capital greatly tended 
 to confirm the power of Mazarin ; but the parliament 
 of Paris, so often trampled on by Richelieu, began to 
 raise its head against the more feeble rule of his suc- 
 cessor. Mazarin, at first, far from showing any dis- 
 position to oppose that body, did all that circum- 
 stances permitted to 4 Court its favour, causing the queen 
 to declare, upon ?\\ occasions, that she wished to rule 
 by its advice alone. An opportunity soon presented 
 itself, however, for the parliament to show some slight 
 contempt for the royal authority : the court took one 
 vigorous measure, which was speedily disavowed, and 
 the parliament pursued its course but the more boldly. 
 Mutual concessions quelled the dispute : but the body 
 of the law never forgot the triumph it had gained, and 
 from that moment it proceeded more eagerly in its 
 exactions. The disposition of the parliament to op- 
 pose the court now became so apparent, that in many 
 cases, where small and indirect taxes were levied in 
 order to carry on the growing expenses of the war, 
 the individuals on whom the burden fell appealed to 
 the parliament, and thus both embarrassed the minister 
 and decreased the revenue. Many of these taxes 
 were of old establishment, and had been frequently 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 161 
 
 confirmed ; but still the parliament, feeling its im- 
 portance increased both with the court and the people, 
 by the difficulties it could throw in the way of the 
 minister, persisted in entertaining the appeals of all 
 kinds that were made to it, and deliberated with 
 solemn pomp on trifles naturally removed from its cog- 
 nisance. In fact, without precisely perceiving what 
 was wanting to insure the freedom of the subject, and 
 to afford that best security for the stability of the 
 throne, the parliaments of Paris were struggling — and 
 had been struggling during many ages — for the pri- 
 vileges of a legislative assembly, though their efforts 
 were generally rendered pitiful, from not having a 
 distinct and comprehensive purpose, and of course be- 
 came ineffectual, because their own rights to legislate 
 — they not being the representatives of the people — 
 had no better foundation than those of the king whom 
 they opposed. 
 
 Not. long after his accession to power under the re- 
 gency, Mazarin had to conduct three difficult nego- 
 tiations, in two of which he was very successful ; and, 
 indeed, his mind was much better adapted to the calm 
 though intricate paths of diplomatic intrigue, than to 
 the rough and dangerous ways through which he was 
 forced to advance in his internal government of the 
 country. His first attempt, however, was unsuccess- 
 ful. The death of Urban VIII. having left the chair 
 of St. Peter vacant in the middle of the year 1644, 
 Mazarin strained every nerve to cause the election of 
 a new pope favourable to the interests of France. But 
 the reign of Urban had been long ; and neither Ma- 
 zarin himself, nor the Barberinis, who were intrusted 
 with the interests of France, w T ere experienced in the 
 
 14* 
 
162 LIFE OF 
 
 intrigues of the conclave. In spite of all Mazarin's 
 efforts, by the bad management of the cardinal An- 
 tonio Barberini, Innocent X., who had formerly been 
 nuncio in Spain, was elected, and the French can- 
 didate was excluded. Some accused the Barberinis 
 of having betrayed the interests of France: but the 
 persecution which they underwent during the first 
 years of Innocent's government exculpated them in 
 the eyes of Mazarin ; and during their exile from 
 the court of Rome they were received in France with 
 a degree of tenderness which did honour to the heart 
 of the minister. Previous to the death of the former 
 pope, however, Mazarin had accomplished the pacifi- 
 cation of central Italy, by negotiating a treaty between 
 Urban and the duke of Parma ; and in the following 
 year, by restoring peace between the Danes and the 
 Swedes, he left the armies of the latter free to act 
 once more against the house of Austria. To the great 
 object of diminishing the power of that family Maza- 
 rin devoted his chief attention ; and though incapable 
 of conceiving or executing the mighty schemes which 
 had been formed by his predecessor, he pursued this 
 part of Richelieu's designs with skill, perseverance, 
 and courage. 
 
 In the mean time the parliament did not fail to con- 
 tinue the investigation of all complaints in regard to 
 taxes affecting the citizens of Paris ; and several of the 
 leading members were accused of exciting the people 
 to make the appeals which were afterwards to be 
 judged by themselves. Mazarin now perceived that 
 the government could not be carried on without some 
 vigorous measure to check the constant interference of 
 the parliament ; accordingly he issued an order of 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 163 
 
 council banishing the four most factious members of 
 that < body from Paris, and putting one of them, the 
 president Barillon, under strict arrest. The parlia- 
 ment remonstrated, and despatched a deputation to 
 petition the queen to restore the officers suspended to 
 the exercise of their functions. The queen, however, 
 and her council remained firm ; and as a means of 
 forcing her to yield, the various courts of which the 
 parliament was composed assembled almost daily, to 
 consider new remonstrances, thereby totally interrupt- 
 ing the dispensation of justice to which the)' were 
 bound by their offices. On this the court yielded to a 
 certain point, and suffered the three exiled members to 
 return ; but in regard to the president Barillon no le- 
 nity was shown ; and various efforts to obtain his re- 
 lease having proved ineffectual, he was conducted a 
 prisoner to Pignerol. 
 
 All seemed quiet now for a certain time; but the 
 state was still at a very great expense; immense ar- 
 mies continually in the field, drained the exchequer; 
 and the infamous peculation exercised in the collection 
 of the revenue left the country always in a state of 
 exigence. The impetus given to the affairs of the go- 
 vernment by the energy of Richelieu gradually ceased. 
 In vain Turenne and Conde carried on the war with 
 the most triumphant success ; in vain the Swedes re- 
 covered their superiority over the armies of Austria; 
 in vain more than sixteen fortified cities were captured 
 in less than a year by the French generals ; the re- 
 venue was not equal to the expenses of the state ; and 
 the country suffered, though the territories of which 
 it consisted were augmented. 
 
 It would be tedious to investigate all the causes 
 
164 LIFE OF 
 
 which were now hurrying France on towards a civil 
 war : the immediate pretext for the first open rupture 
 between the cardinal and the parliament, more abso- 
 lutely demands examination in this place. Amongst 
 other means of recruiting the finances of the country, 
 a tax, according to a certain tariff, had been laid upon 
 the entrance of all goods into Paris. This most bur- 
 densome and distressing of all kinds of imposition had 
 been sanctioned by the court of aides, and had been in 
 operation nearly a year, when, on the repeated remon- 
 strances of the people, the parliament interfered as a 
 body, and threatened to forbid its longer continuance. 
 The court contended that it was not within the cogni- 
 sance of the parliament, but merely of the court of 
 aides; and Mazarin, who knew nothing of the laws 
 and customs of the French people, and even spoke the 
 language at that time with a strong foreign accent, 
 drew great ridicule upon himself by the terms in 
 which he supported the tariff in a conversation with 
 deputies from the body of magistrates. Ridicule is in 
 France one of the most dangerous arms that can be 
 employed against a minister; and Mazarin soon found 
 that the edict and tariff would ere long be annulled by 
 a decree of the parliament. To spare the royal au- 
 thority from insult under these circumstances, he him- 
 self suppressed the tariff, but soon after presented a 
 variety of other edicts more burdensome than the 
 former. 
 
 It is said, indeed, that Mazarin himself had no part 
 in devising these measures ; and whatever blame is at- 
 tached to them is often cast upon Emery, the superin- 
 tendent of finance. As prime minister, however, and 
 the queen's favourite, the odium at the time fell upon 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 165 
 
 the cardinal, which was not decreased by his having 
 added to his other employments that of superintendent 
 of the young king's education. The parliament re- 
 fused to verify the edicts; but a declaration for the 
 establishment of a chamber of domaines, which had 
 been verified two or three years before, but had been 
 suspended as too onerous to the people, was now 
 brought forward, and as the parliament could not deny 
 its own act, was immediately put in execution. The 
 people, however, showed symptoms of tumult ; and 
 the parliament, obliged to support its own decrees, 
 now endeavoured to suppress the agitation. An im- 
 prudent display of military forces had nearly thrown 
 the capital at once into a state of insurrection ; but an- 
 other turn was given to their appearance, and the peril 
 passed away. 
 
 More taxes, however, were found necessar)' ; and 
 the king in person carrying them to the parliament 
 caused them to be registered in his presence. This 
 compulsion, of course, only served to irritate those it 
 was intended to overawe : the parliament remonstrated, 
 resisted, and at length decreed a union of all the dif- 
 ferent courts, for the purpose of introducing a reform 
 into the state. The regent and her council now did 
 all that irresolution and weakness could do to encou- 
 rage the bold proceedings of their opponents. At one 
 time, the union of the courts in the hall of St. Louis 
 was forbidden; at another, it was tacitly permitted, 
 and then again suppressed with violence. At length, 
 however, the occasion of a great victory gained at 
 Lens was seized by the court to execute a hazardous 
 act of authority. On the day of the Te Beam, which 
 celebrated the battle of Lens, the soldiers who accord- 
 
166 LIFE OF 
 
 ing to custom, lined the streets through which the 
 royal family had to pass, formed in battalions after the 
 ceremony, and occupied the Place Dauphine and the 
 Pont Neuf, while a party of the queen's guards arrest- 
 ed the President Blancmesnil, who had distinguished 
 himself by his animosity to the court, and the coun- 
 sellor Peter Broussel, a great favourite of the people. 
 The one was carried prisoner to Vincennes, and the 
 other to St. Germain; but no sooner did the tidings of 
 Broussel's arrest spread through Paris, than the people 
 rose in every quarter of the town, approached the 
 Palais Royal, where the court then was, and threat- 
 ened to force the guards. 
 
 Both the queen and Mazarin showed great firmness 
 on the occasion ; and had it not been for the fears and 
 irresolution of those by whom they were surrounded, 
 would have resisted all menaces, and supported with 
 arms the rash and unwise step they had committed. 
 What might have been the consequences had the tu- 
 mult gone on throughout the night cannot be known. 
 De Retz asserts, that the capital would have been pil- 
 laged ; but his sincerity in the whole business is much 
 to be doubted, and his hatred of Mazarin was not con- 
 cealed. The wily demagogue was now making the 
 first essays of his power over the people ; and though 
 it would appear that he directed and even headed them 
 in their clamour for the release of Broussel, while he 
 affected to be only anxious for the safety of the queen 
 and the good of the state ; yet he also indubitably saved 
 the marechal de Meilleraye from a skirmish with the 
 populace, which might have ended ill for that officer, 
 and he eventually persuaded the crowds to disperse 
 
 and retire to their homes. 
 
 f 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 167 
 
 De Retz, however, was more than suspected at the 
 palace : every tongue was loud against him ; and his 
 passion for intrigue, his indecent life, and the pains he 
 took on all occasions to court the people, added to all 
 the doubtful particulars of that day of tumult, con- 
 vinced the cardinal that in him was destined to appear 
 one of the most artful, and one of the most powerful, 
 enemies of the court. It seems clear that his arrest 
 was determined, as soon as it was ascertained the 
 crowds had dispersed ; and that in addition to this step, 
 Mazarin had taken the resolution of banishing the par- 
 liament itself to Montargis. The same night, how- 
 ever, many of De Retz's friends, who had passed the 
 evening at the palace, brought him tidings which 
 roused him into active resistance. As archbishop- 
 coadjutor of Paris, he had obtained vast power, and he 
 now employed that power with great art to prepare 
 for the morrow a far more serious insurrection. Se- 
 veral of the captains of the quarters and other burgher 
 officers were called to consult with him; and before 
 daylight the next day the citizens were armed, and 
 ready to take advantage of the first signal to revolt. 
 It was soon given by the appearance of the carriage of 
 the chancellor rolling towards the Hotel de Ville.* 
 
 That officer knew the danger of the task he under- 
 took, but, nevertheless, he hesitated not to execute it. 
 His brother the bishop of Meaux, and his daughter 
 the duchess of Sully, insisted upon accompanying him, 
 and sharing his fate. By the time he had reached the 
 Pont Neuf, the whole rabble of the town were in 
 arms; while the more respectable citizens contented 
 
 * August 27, 1648. 
 
168 LIFE OF 
 
 themselves with protecting their own houses, without 
 at all impeding the violence of the rest towards those 
 whom they considered to be the enemies of the people. 
 The carriage of the chancellor was instantly attacked, 
 and though it drove furiously on, he had only time — 
 while the people were working themselves up to a 
 pitch of fury sufficient for deliberate murder — to make 
 his escape with his brother and child to the hotel de 
 Luines, where they were concealed by an old servant, 
 in a boarded closet, separated by a flying partition from 
 a large room. The crowd, in the mean time, having 
 followed his carriage as fast as they could, tore it to 
 pieces before the gates, and concluding that he had 
 entered there, broke into the house and ran hastily 
 over it, swearing that they would tear him limb from 
 limb, and scatter his body through the streets of the 
 capital. Their steps and their imprecations were all 
 heard; and making a hasty confession to his brother 
 the bishop of Meaux, he prepared for death. The in- 
 surgents, however, passed on without noticing his 
 place of refuge; and concluding that he had left his 
 carriage and escaped on foot, they quilted the hotel de 
 Luines, where he remained till he was rescued by the 
 marechal de Meilleraye and a regiment of the guard. 
 As he was conveyed back to the Palais Royal, the 
 people still endeavoured to snatch him from the hands 
 of those that escorted him, and poured a fire of mus- 
 ketry upon the carriage in which he had been placed, 
 as it passed by the Place Dauphine. The fair duchess 
 of Sully was slightly wounded by a ball in the arm, 
 and several of the guards and attendants were killed ; 
 but the chancellor remained unhurt, and returned to 
 the queen with tidings that Paris was completely io 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 169 
 
 the hands of malecontents; that chains were drawn, 
 and barricades raised in every street, and that the most 
 serious consequences were likely to ensue unless she 
 yielded so far as to set Broussel at liberty. 
 
 Shortly after his arrival the parliament appeared in 
 procession, to demand the liberation of the prisoner; 
 but the queen received them with firmness, and replied 
 by declaring that she had no personal enmity against 
 Broussel, but that she was determined to make the 
 authority of the king respected. " If," she added, 
 " the courts of law have any boon to demand at my 
 hands let them first return to their duty, and they will 
 not find me slow to confer any favour which they are 
 entitled to ask." 
 
 With this unsatisfactory answer the parliament were 
 forced to return, but the populace would not let them 
 pass the barricades; and with threats and imprecations 
 on the head of the chief president, whom they believed 
 to be favourable to the court, they sent them back to 
 demand the immediate liberation of Broussel. At the 
 Palais Royal they retired to a room to deliberate in 
 order to find means of entering into a compromise; 
 and after having received some refreshments a long 
 discussion took place, at the end of which they pro- 
 mised the queen to suspend their obnoxious delibera- 
 tions for some months if she would set Broussel at 
 liberty. To this, by the advice of her minister, and 
 of the weak and undecided duke of Orleans, she con- 
 sented; and for a time some degree of tranquillity was 
 restored. 
 
 The firing of musketry, however, continued all 
 night; and the next day, even after Broussel had been 
 set at liberty, several little accidents caused from time 
 
 VOL. II. 15 
 
 li 
 
170 LIFE OF 
 
 to time new assemblies of the people, who by a word 
 might have been directed against the palace itself. 
 Two powder wagons entering the city produced an 
 immediate tumult, in which they were torn to pieces 
 and pillaged. The appearance of some cavalry in the 
 neighbourhood of the town occasioned a report to be 
 spread that it was the queen's intention to carry off the 
 king, and then give the city up to the soldiery; and 
 taking a bold resolution she sent away all extraordi- 
 nary guards, and, despatching a messenger for the 
 Prevot des Marchands, informed him of what she had 
 done, gave up the keys of Paris to the people, and 
 endeavoured to prove, by the confidence which she 
 displayed, that she entertained no sinister design 
 against the citizens. Towards night the tumult in- 
 creased, especially around the Palais Royal; the appre- 
 hensions of the courtiers were so great that all courtly 
 restraint was at an end; and the queen heard, from 
 every one who entered, fresh tales of the abuse 
 showered upon her and her minister, and new tidings 
 of danger. She bore the whole with courage and 
 equanimity; but not so Mazarin, who lost all firmness 
 and presence of mind: he surrounded himself with 
 guards; he disguised himself in gray; he kept his 
 horses and servants constantly prepared for flight by 
 the back of the building, and showed himself utterly 
 incapable of giving the queen either assistance or ad- 
 vice in her moment of need and peril. In a brief 
 conference with the parliament, he was so agitated as 
 to repeat over and over again a few insignificant words ? 
 which he seemed to have got by heart, till, in the midst 
 of the danger of the state, and the anxiety of all par- 
 ties, he excited laughter by his unmanly apprehensions. 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 171 
 
 When at length the tumult ended, and the streets of 
 Paris, as the night advanced, began to resume some 
 degree of tranquillity, whatever might be thought of 
 the firmness and intrepidity of the queen, there was 
 but one opinion amongst the courtiers as to the weak- 
 ness and timidity of the minister. 
 
 Quiet having been for a time restored, Mazarin en- 
 tertained hopes of being able to regain his advantage 
 over the parliament during the vacation. He might, 
 indeed, expect to do so on the most justifiable grounds; 
 as the approach of peace gave reason to believe that a 
 great diminution might be effected in the expenses of 
 the state, and that the people might be thus relieved 
 from the burdensome taxes which weighed them down. 
 On the 24th of October, 1648, a definitive treaty of 
 peace was signed at Munster, between the king of 
 France and the emperor; and the vast advantages 
 gained by France, the triumph of Richelieu's far-seeing 
 policy, and its full consummation by the diplomatic 
 skill of his successor, were well calculated to raise the 
 government of Mazarin in the favour of the nation. 
 The effect, however, was not such as might have been 
 expected. The parliament had obtained too much 
 power not to demand greater concessions still ; the 
 people were disgusted and shocked by the corruption 
 and ostentation of Emery, the superintendent of finance, 
 an Italian adventurer of the worst character. No im- 
 mediate relief in regard to imposts could of course be 
 afforded; and the populace sustained the parliament in 
 all their unjust exactions, while the parliament excited 
 the people to every sort of attack upon the court. One 
 demand followed another, and was granted ; till at 
 length the parliament required permission to sit even 
 
172 life or 
 
 during the very vacation on which Mazarin had calcu- 
 lated for the re-establishment of his power. To refuse 
 was useless, as the courts were evidently determined 
 to sit without permission, if they could not obtain it; 
 and, having granted their request, the queen, with the 
 young king and her minister, quitted Paris and retired 
 to Ruel. 
 
 The parliament and the people now became alarmed: 
 the prince of Conde and his victorious army were daily 
 expected, to punish the Parisians for their turbulence, 
 while the king was at a distance from their menaces: 
 and Mazarin showed that he felt his power increased 
 by ordering the arrest of Chavigni and Chateauneuf, 
 two persons whom he suspected of giving concealed 
 encouragement to the cabals of Paris. The courage 
 of the malecontents would probably now have failed 
 them, had not the archbishop-coadjutor de Retz sus- 
 tained their resolution by his own daring, and gained 
 fresh advantages by his skill in intrigue. An old de- 
 cree — pronounced at the time of the death of Concini, 
 marechal d'Ancre— by which foreigners were forbid- 
 den to meddle with affairs of state, was revived against 
 Mazarin; and the prince of Conde himself, jealous of 
 the minister, was brought still farther over to the party 
 of the parliament by De Retz. He was anxious, how- 
 ever, to preserve tranquillity; and, after long negoti- 
 ations, obtained a declaration, by which Chavigni was 
 restored to liberty, but exiled. The king, too, return- 
 ed to Paris, the parliament tacitly agreeing'to abandon 
 its proceedings against the minister. 
 
 It soon, however, found means to recommence the 
 attack upon Mazarin. Libels of the most infamous 
 description, directed both against the cardinal and the 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 173 
 
 queen, were the daily amusement of the Parisians; and 
 the very first edict which issued from the court, for the 
 purpose of borrowing money for the necessary expenses 
 of the state, was made a fresh subject of agitation and 
 resistance. All old grievances were resumed, and ne- 
 gotiations which had commenced with the Spanish 
 viceregal court in Flanders were carried on so openly, 
 that information thereof was obtained by the regent.* 
 A thousand evil reports were circulated to exasperate 
 the people against the regency by the opposite party, 
 who had, by this time, acquired the name of the 
 Fronde; and at length it was determined by the queen 
 and her council to carry the king to St. Germain, in 
 order to use more vigorous measures against the re- 
 fractory parliament. The deliberations which preceded 
 this step, and the execution of the queen's evasion it- 
 self, were conducted with the greatest secrecy; so that 
 while the turbulent Parisians fancied the court fully 
 occupied with the festivities of Christmas, Mazarin, 
 the prince de Conde, who was now more friendly to 
 the regent, the king, the queen, and all the principal 
 members of the administration, made their escape from 
 Paris on the night preceding Twelfth-day. The army 
 was brought near to Paris; a lettre de cachet was sent 
 to the parliament, commanding it to retire from the 
 capital to Montargis. The prince de Conde declared 
 that he w r ould take Paris in fifteen days; and Le 
 Tellier, who knew the Parisians better than any of the 
 court, declared that the stoppage of supplies on two 
 market days would be enough to reduce the town by 
 famine. 
 
 * This appears from a letter of the regent, addressed to the 
 Prev6tdes Marchands, &c. and dated January 5th, 1649. 
 
 15* 
 

 174 LIFE OF 
 
 At first the parliament seemed terror-struck; but re- 
 fused to receive the lettre de cachet, and sent an hum- 
 ble remonstrance to the queen. Anne of Austria, on 
 her part, would not hear the remonstrance; and despair 
 gave back to the parliament that energy of which fear 
 had deprived it. A decree was immediately passed, 
 banishing Mazarin from the country, and putting him 
 without the pale of the laws if he remained in France 
 eight days ; and the civil war commenced with an ir- 
 regular siege of the capital. But before the blockade 
 of Paris had continued two months, though it was 
 weakly conducted, and provisions entered in abundance, 
 all members of the parliament began to grow weary of 
 the w r ar. The generals whom they had elected to 
 command them were divided into various factions: 
 the common people were unruly and bloodthirsty; 
 the nobles selfish, vain, and light; and though Spain 
 offered immediate aid, and the famous Turenne de- 
 clared against the court, deputies were sent out to treat 
 for a peace; which was concluded by the parliament 
 on the 11th of March, 1649. The generals, however, 
 refused to take part in this treaty, and endeavoured to 
 gain greater advantages for themselves ; but each 
 sought his own interests, or consulted his own vanity 
 alone. While they thus by their divisions and follies 
 defeated their own purposes, the minister sought the 
 accomplishment of his, with skill and moderation; 
 the army of Turenne, bribed as one body by Mazarin, 
 abandoned its great commander; and the generals were 
 ultimately obliged to accept the amnesty proposed by 
 the court, which was received by the parliament on 
 the 1st of April. The only person of distinction, * 
 whose name was not particularly specified in the am- 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 175 
 
 nesty, was Gondi, archbishop-coadjutor of Paris, 
 afterwards cardinal de Retz; but this was done at his 
 own desire ; for while the general pacification rendered 
 his personal security certain, his apparent exclusion 
 maintained in full force all his influence over the peo- 
 ple.* 
 
 The queen did riot immediately return to Paris, 
 although she had promised to do so ; but on the con- 
 trary, proceeded first to Compeigne and then to Amiens. 
 It has been supposed, that she was induced to act thus 
 by the fears which Mazarin entertained of the Parisian 
 populace. Madame de Motteville, however, who was 
 with the court, does not mention any such motive. 
 Nevertheless, neither the queen nor her minister de- 
 ceived themselves in regard to the probable stability of 
 the peace. Friends had been rewarded, enemies had 
 been bribed in vain, for both were alike insatiable; and 
 the supporters of the minister contended that their re- 
 compenses had not been equivalent to their past ser- 
 vices, while his opponents saw that renewed rebellion 
 would obtain fresh advantages. Conde, whose arm 
 had supported the weakness of the court during its ab- 
 sence from Paris, estimated the benefits he had conferred 
 at a much higher rate than he was justified in dorng, 
 
 * The British Museum, amongst the Brienne papers, contains 
 one of the most curious collections of documents concerning' the 
 wars of the Fronde that I have ever met with. Some of the 
 manifestoes, remonstrances, and proclamations of the Fronde are 
 models in their peculiar kind of composition. Did we not know 
 from other sources that Paris was ringing with riot laughter, 
 ribaldry, and libels during the whole time of the siege, from these 
 documents we should infer that her walls had then contained no- 
 thing but a band of stern patriots defending their rights and 
 liberties, with deep grief, against the worst of tyrants. 
 
 
176 LIFE OP 
 
 and became not only exacting, but insolent. In order 
 to give law to the court, he united himself to the 
 Fronde, led by his fair and intriguing sister, the 
 duchess of Longueville; but divisions soon spread 
 among the different parties of which the faction con- 
 sisted, and Mazarin hastened to take advantage of their 
 weaknesses. 
 
 Tired of flattering the parliament, Conde made some 
 steps towards a reconciliation with the court. The par- 
 liament even began to separate itself from the party of 
 the Fronde; and in the midst of these intrigues the 
 prince de Conde was persuaded that the leaders of that 
 faction had laid a scheme for assassinating him. This 
 caused a complete rupture between leaders, whose 
 union must have proved ruinous to Mazarin; but still 
 Conde treated the minister with contempt and indig- 
 nity, and endeavoured to form a separate party from 
 amongst the various princes of his own family, against 
 both the court and the Fronde. He boldly charged 
 the latter with attempting to assassinate him ; but his 
 accusation against the chiefs of the faction proved un- 
 availing, and only served to drive them over to the court, 
 with whom the parliament was now acting in concert. 
 At length, the domineering tone which he assumed, and 
 the power which he was likely to obtain, produced a 
 coalition of all the most opposite parties against him. 
 The queen sent for the coadjutor at night ; and with 
 him and his friends the arrest of the princes of Conde 
 and Conti and of the duke de Longueville was deter- 
 mined upon. Although the step was bold, with the 
 aid of the parliament and the Fronde it was easily 
 executed ; and on the 18th of January, 1650, the three 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 177 
 
 princes were arrested in the queen's apartments, and 
 conducted prisoners to Vincennes. 
 
 Consternation spread amongst their partisans; but 
 efforts were soon made to support their cause by more 
 vigorous means than mere complaints and remon- 
 strances. The duchess of Longueville fled to Nor- 
 mandy, and excited an insignificant part of that pro- 
 vince to revolt. In Burgundy, of which Conde had 
 been governor, symptoms of insurrection began to 
 show themselves; and a number of his friends and ad- 
 herents retired to the south, and sowed the seeds of 
 rebellion in Poitou and Guyenne. The court, how- 
 ever, accompanied by a small force, proceeded at once 
 into Normandy, and forced the duchess de Longueville 
 to fly to Holland by sea. Thence turning towards 
 Burgundy, Mazarin reduced that province to subjec- 
 tion, and then again returned to Paris, crowned with 
 complete success, both in the east and west. While 
 in Burgundy one of the regiments which had accom- 
 panied the court had suffered itself to be seduced by 
 the friends of the imprisoned princes, and had con- 
 trived a scheme for arresting the minister. But Maza- 
 rin received timely warning, and took such means as 
 frustrated the efforts of the conspirators. He exercised, 
 great moderation, however, and no severity followed. 
 
 In the mean time the factions which had agitated 
 Paris were beginning to show themselves anew. The 
 princess-dowager de Conde appealed to the parliament 
 in favour of her children; and the same irregular as- 
 semblies and tumultuous proceedings began to take 
 place which had ushered in the civil war. In the 
 meanwhile the dukes of Bouillon, Rochefoucault, and 
 others, with the young princess of Conde, had excited 
 
178 LIFE OP 
 
 a revolt in Guyenne ; and on his return to Paris, 
 Mazarin found all the former factions blended together 
 in a state of inextricable confusion, from which it 
 would be in vain in this place to attempt to disentangle 
 even the principal threads. Suffice it that Mazarin per- 
 ceived new cause for apprehension, and induced the 
 queen once more to put herself at the head of her army, 
 and proceed to superintend the siege of Bordeaux. That 
 town, after a gallant resistance, capitulated upon terms 
 honourable to its defenders ; and the great moderation 
 which Mazarin showed in this instance, as well as on 
 every other occasion throughout the wars of the 
 Fronde, marks one of the best traits in his character, 
 and distinguishes him strongly from Richelieu. The 
 imprisonment of the princes, however, and the war of 
 Guyenne had done far greater injury to the cardinal 
 and his party than the fall of Bordeaux had done good. 
 The people began to pity the prisoners, the parliament 
 of Paris showed an interest in their fate and in that of 
 the revolted Bordelais: the duke of Orleans himself, 
 now guided entirely by the coadjutor, took part against 
 Mazarin on several occasions; and on his return from 
 Bordeaux, the minister once more found the capital on 
 the eve of a revolt. 
 
 He seemed to trust, however, to his previous success 
 and to his natural cunning to bear him triumphantly- 
 through the new difficulties that threatened him. 
 Judging, perhaps wrongly, that the coadjutor had 
 raised up many of the obstacles which had lately im- 
 peded his course, and jealous of the prelate's influence 
 with the duke of Orleans, Mazarin showed a determi- 
 nation to break with him entirely. The tale-bearers 
 of the court magnified every appearance against the 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 179 
 
 Jt 
 
 coadjutor, who at length became alarmed for his per- 
 sonal security. On the arrest of the princes, Mazarin 
 had made a voluntary offer of obtaining for Gondi a 
 cardinal's hat; but the coadjutor had then refused it, 
 knowing that any favour received from the minister 
 would ruin his credit with the people. He now, how- 
 ever, looked upon the rank of cardinal in a very dif- 
 ferent light; and he demanded the support of Mazarin 
 in obtaining that which he had before declined, being 
 certain that if it were refused his open breach with the 
 minister would restore him fully to the favour of the 
 people; and if it were granted, his new dignity would 
 secure him from the bad effects of Mazarin's enmity. 
 The cardinal, however, opposed his promotion ; and 
 Gondi determined to release Conde, and place him at 
 once in direct opposition to the minister. 
 
 Vigour was given to this determination by news that 
 Turenne, who had hitherto remained in exile, had 
 gathered together a considerable number of French 
 malecontents, and had been reinforced by a large body 
 of veteran troops from the Spanish Netherlands. He 
 now occupied Chateau Porcien, and Rethel; and the 
 force of the marechal du Piessis, which was opposed 
 to him, was by no means sufficient to resist his farther 
 progress. In the midst of all the intrigues of the 
 court, however, Mazarin quitted Paris, and, gathering 
 together various bodies of troops, advanced to support 
 Du Piessis. During his absence the Frondeurs, who 
 doubted not that Turenne would easily overthrow the 
 minister, lost no opportunity of turning his absence to 
 advantage. A requisition was presented to the parlia- 
 ment on behalf of the princess de Conde, praying that 
 the princes might be brought to Paris, and either tried 
 
ISO LIFE OF 
 
 « 
 
 or set at liberty. Every means that eloquence, cun- 
 ning, and deceit could employ were brought forward 
 to obtain that object; and for several days the proceed- 
 ings of the parliament became more and more mena- 
 cing, when suddenly the news arrived that Mazarin 
 had taken Rethel, and immediately afterwards that 
 Turenne had been totally defeated, while marching to 
 succour that town. 
 
 Consternation spread amongst the princes' partisans; 
 and for a time nothing seemed sufficient to raise them 
 from the state of discouragement into which they had 
 been thrown. The coadjutor, however, the princess 
 palatine, the duchess de Chevreuse, and several inferior 
 persons, laboured indefatigably to unite into one party 
 all who favoured the princes and all who disliked the 
 minister. Secret treaties were entered into; the par- 
 liament had already declared itself; the Fronde, which 
 had strengthened the hands of Mazarin for the arrest 
 of Conde, was now prepared to liberate the princes, in 
 order to destroy the minister, and the duke of Orleans 
 was easily brought to entertain the same views. The 
 only difficulty was to induce him to act openly. All 
 these proceedings had been kept perfectly secret till 
 the minister once more returned in triumph; and the 
 people even were so little prepared for what was to 
 follow, that they received him well, and thronged to 
 see him pass through the streets. The scene very 
 soon changed, and the clouds darkened over the poli- 
 tical horizon. Though his danger was certainly great, 
 Mazarin had still one resource, — to free the princes 
 himself, and make a merit of the act. To this he was 
 pressed by many persons; and even his most bitter 
 enemies willingly left him the opportunity of doing so 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 181 
 
 on more than one occasion, holding out threats of a 
 union against him which could not be misunderstood* 
 Nevertheless, Mazarin, with that narrow cunning 
 which mingled with and debased many of his most 
 skilful negotiations, now overreached himself. Be- 
 lieving the threats held out, and the attitude assumed 
 by the parliament, the Fronde, and the duke of 
 Orleans, to be all an unsubstantial display, produced 
 for the purpose of intimidating him, he attempted to 
 deceive them in his turn. But after various delays, 
 his surprise was not small to find that the tremendous 
 coalition with which he had been menaced had really 
 taken place. The parliament led the way, the Fronde 
 followed; and at length the duke of Orleans, too irreso- 
 lute to be calm, and too weak to be moderate, 
 not only openly declared himself in favour of the 
 princes, but worked himself up into fury in a conver- 
 sation with the minister, and quitted the palace, vow- 
 ing that he would never take his seat in the council 
 again till Mazarin had been expelled. 
 
 The cardinal, under the sudden tempest which broke 
 upon his head, if we may trust madame de Motteville, 
 showed greater calmness and firmness than he had 
 hitherto evinced in situations of difficulty. A great 
 part of the army was strongly attached to him ; a con- 
 siderable force was within a short distance; and his 
 friends advised him strongly to call the troops to his 
 aid, and once more to assert the royal authority in 
 arms. But Mazarin did not choose to compromise 
 the king and queen in a contention with the parliament 
 and the duke of Orleans; and as soon as he heard the 
 declaration of that prince he sought the regent, and de- 
 clared that he was ready either to quit the realm, in 
 
 VOL. II. 1 6 
 
182 LIFE OF 
 
 order to free it from the factions to which his stay 
 seemed to give rise, or to remain, and in her service 
 risk still farther the life which was already threatened 
 on all sides. The queen hesitated long, and Mazarin 
 waited till the last moment that his stay was safe: but 
 at length he determined to fly, and liberate the princes 
 himself. On the evening of his proposed flight he 
 joined the royal circle, which was exceedingly crowded* 
 and conversed calmly with the queen in public. One 
 of his confidants, however, having privately informed 
 him that his intended escape from Paris had been ru- 
 moured, and that the people were running to arms, he 
 took leave of the queen in a casual manner, and hasten- 
 ing to his own apartments, disguised himself with a 
 red cloak and a plumed hat, and issuing forth, on foot, 
 by the door which led into the rue de Richelieu, he 
 walked to a spot where horses had been prepared for 
 him. 
 
 He found the town in a state of great agitation, and 
 had he been recognised would probably have been as- 
 sassinated. He effected his exit through the gates, 
 however, in safety, and did not pause till he reached 
 St. Germain. He thence proceeded to Havre, to which 
 place the imprisoned princes had been removed ; and 
 as he bore a secret order from the queen to set them 
 at liberty, it is probable that he hoped to effect his re- 
 conciliation with Conde, and return with him to the 
 capital ; but after treating him with much politeness, 
 the three princes set out alone, and Mazarin, losing 
 his hopes, retired at once into exile. He wisely 
 avoided taking advantage of the offer of an asylum 
 made him by the Spanish government of the Nether- 
 lands ; but, on the contrary, retired to the electorate of 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 183 
 
 Cologne, where he lived in peace, governing the pro- 
 ceedings of the court as absolutely, though not so 
 easily, from the banks of the Rhine, as he had done in 
 the French capital. In a long letter to the king he 
 justified himself from the imputations cast upon him 
 by the Fronde, and set forth his real services to the 
 country. It is generally supposed, also, that he caused 
 the disgrace of the keeper of the seals, who had been 
 certainly intriguing with his enemies, and that it was 
 by his advice that Anne of Austria resolved to gain 
 the prince de Conde, at any price, more for the sake 
 of dividing her opponents than from any substantial 
 support which she could hope to obtain from him. 
 
 In the mean time, the parliament proceeded to 
 every step which could irritate the court, and not only 
 rendered decrees directly levelled against Mazarin, but 
 also obtained declarations, by which all cardinals, whe- 
 ther foreigners or natives, were to be excluded from 
 any share in the government for ever.* But while 
 the body of the law was thus proceeding, other events 
 were taking place which prepared the way for Maza- 
 rin's return. Conde, gained to the court, left the duke 
 of Orleans in disgrace ; the duke of Beaufort for a time 
 abandoned the Fronde, and attached himself to the 
 princes. The duke of Orleans, timid and ungenerous, 
 forsook the coadjutor Gondi, in order to make his 
 peace with the regent, keeping up with the archbishop, 
 however, a secret correspondence, which soon proved 
 of great utility to both. On the other hand the cardi- 
 nal, from his place of exile, opposed the fulfilment of 
 
 % 
 
 * De Retz explains how the court so completely lost its influ- 
 ence in a few words : " La cour chicana toutes choses a son ordi- 
 naire ; elle se relacha aussi de toutes choses a son ordinaire." 
 
184 LIFE OF 
 
 those excessive concessions which Conde had exacted, 
 and which would have left the crown stripped of half 
 its power. Conde, indignant at this tergiversation, 
 quarrelled with the queen, put himself at the head of 
 a party, and prepared to wrest from the regency by 
 opposition that which had been denied to favour. But 
 the queen by this time had gained the archbishop- 
 coadjutor and the duke of Orleans ; and Conde, thwart- 
 ed in his plans, and disappointed in his expectations, 
 after long and tedious disputes with the court, the par- 
 liament, and the coadjutor, quitted Paris, and retired 
 to Guyenne. Here he raised troops, gathered stores, 
 and treated with Spain; but Turenne declared for the 
 regency ; and the queen took prompt measures for op- 
 posing force by force. 
 
 The court, with the king, who had now reached his 
 majority, set out in the end of September for Berri, in 
 order to conduct the war against the prince de Conde 
 with greater vigour; and messengers were sent to 
 Mazarin, for the purpose of informing him of all that 
 had occurred, and of inviting him to return to France. 
 Mazarin accordingly advanced to Dinan, where, with 
 the aid of a number of his friends who had joined him, 
 he began to raise troops, for the purpose both of sup- 
 porting the king and insuring his own safety. News 
 of considerable successes gained by the count de Har- 
 court against the raw, ill-regulated troops of the prince 
 de Conde, soon reached the cardinal; and at length, at 
 the head of 8000 men, commanded by the marshals 
 d'Aumont and de Hocquincourt, the minister com- 
 menced his march into the heart of France. The par- 
 liament which had lately shown but little activity, rose 
 in fury as soon as the news of Mazarin's advance 
 reached Paris, pronounced a thousand virulent decrees 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 185 
 
 against him, ordered his splendid library to be sold, 
 and offered 150,000 livres for his head. The effect of 
 parliamentary wrath which gave Mazarin the greatest 
 pain, seems to have been the sale of his library ; and 
 the fulminations of the assembly did not make him 
 even hesitate on his march. 
 
 The court was now at Poitiers ; and it was the 30th 
 of January, 1652, ere Mazarin reached that fine old 
 town. His reception was more gratifying even than 
 he could have expected : the king and his brother 
 went out to meet him ; and the queen loaded him with 
 congratulations, although it had been remarked, and 
 even notified to Mazarin, that her majesty had shown 
 less eagerness for his return since the retreat of Conde 
 to Bordeaux than she had done while her will was 
 more powerfully opposed. He now resumed the title 
 of minister, and wielded the whole power of the state; 
 while Harcourt, Hocquincourt, and Turenne defended 
 the cause of the king in the field. Both armies now 
 approached the capital; and on one occasion the court 
 and minister would have fallen into the hands of the 
 insurgents near Gien, had not the calm firmness of 
 Turenne stopped the impetuous course of Conde, and 
 remedied the defeat of the marechal de Hocquincourt. 
 Previous to this event, however, an occurrence took 
 place which gave to Mazarin the prospect of better 
 support than he had hitherto obtained during his ad- 
 ministration. He had become the favourite of the 
 regent, it is true, and had at different times been up- 
 held by each of the various factions which had flitted 
 over the phantasmagoria scene of the capital; but no 
 great and influential body had ever come forward to 
 
 16* 
 
186 LIFE OF 
 
 applaud his conduct, and to reprove his enemies, till a 
 deputation from the clergy of France, headed by the 
 archbishop of Rouen, waited upon the king to present 
 a remonstrance against the violent proceedings of the 
 parliament of Paris towards one of the princes of the 
 church. The archbishop did not fail to seize this oc- 
 casion of praising the minister; and the court was not 
 a little gratified to receive this public testimony of the 
 approbation of the French clergy in regard to the step 
 which had just been taken in recalling Mazarin. 
 
 The parliament of Paris continued its opposition to 
 the minister; and the prince de Conde, having quarter- 
 ed his troops in the immediate vicinity of the capital, 
 joined with the duke of Orleans and the courts of law 
 to demand the expulsion of Mazarin, as an enemy of 
 the king and the state, though their own forces were 
 daily carrying on the war against their sovereign. 
 Nothing, however, was concluded; and at length, on 
 the 2d of July, Turenne, with superior numbers, at- 
 tacked the army of Conde as the prince was endea- 
 vouring to effect his retreat from St. Cloud. Conde 
 took refuge in the Faubourg St. Antoine, which he 
 defended with extraordinary gallantry and skill ; but 
 the larger force of Turenne and his not unequal talent 
 would have overpowered the prince, had not the 
 daughter of the duke of Orleans, unable to persuade 
 her despicable father to act in aid of his cousin, forced 
 her way into the Bastille which commanded the field 
 of battle, and poured a cannonade upon a part of 
 Turenne's army which was marching to take Conde 
 in flank, while she caused the guards to open the Porte 
 St. Antoine, and give admission to the prince and his 
 forces. 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 187 
 
 During the few following days some dreadful scenes 
 of tumult and confusion now took place in the capital; 
 and a horrible and indiscriminate massacre at the 
 Hotel de Ville filled the city with terror, and drove 
 all but the mere daring and ill disposed from the par- 
 liament. But still that body attempted to negotiate 
 with the court in order to obtain the exile of Mazarin, 
 issuing, at the same time, the most insolent decrees, 
 which were instantly annulled by the king's council. 
 At length, Louis retired to Pontoise, commanding the 
 deputies of the parliament to follow him thither; but 
 the parliament on its part now proceeded to open re- 
 bellion, appointed the duke of Orleans lieutenant-gene- 
 ral of the kingdom, and named the prince de Conde 
 commander-in-chief of the insurgent armies. The 
 court, however, was now no longer to be intimidated; 
 and decrees of the council were issued, rendering 
 void those of the parliament, and summoning that 
 body to follow the king to Pontoise. The duke of 
 Orleans wrote to all the governors of provinces : and 
 the parliament of Paris communicated with all pro- 
 vincial parliaments, in order to bring about a general 
 rising throughout the country ; but the result showed, 
 that while rebellion and faction were in the capital, 
 the rest of France desired nothing but tranquillity. 
 Not one governor answered the letter of the duke of 
 Orleans, but De Sourdis ; not one parliament was led 
 away by that of Paris, except in Guyenne. 
 
 In the meantime, several members of the parliament 
 of Paris found means to escape from the metropolis in 
 disguise and follow the king to Pontoise, where they 
 assembled as the legitimate court, and again proceeded 
 to petition the king to dismiss Mazarin from hiscoun- 
 
188 LIFE OF 
 
 cils. The princes had already declared that they 
 would lay down their arms as soon as the minister 
 was gone ; and Mazarin himself determined once 
 more to withdraw from the court, and to deprive the 
 insurgents of their only pretext for continuing the 
 war ; thus casting upon them the whole blame of any 
 farther tumults which might take place. In conse- 
 quence of this determination, Louis XIV. issued a 
 declaration in reply to the last remonstrance of the 
 parliament, and setting forth the high qualities of the 
 minister, he stated that, notwithstanding the great 
 services the crown had received from Mazarin, the 
 king had determined, in compliance with the wishes 
 of his parliament, to grant that permission to retire 
 from France, which the cardinal himself required. 
 Mazarin accordingly left the court at Pontoise and 
 retired to Bouillon, where he still governed the coun- 
 try by means of Le Tellier, who had been reinstated 
 in the ministry. The parliament of Paris, however, 
 the prince of Conde, and the duke of Orleans, con- 
 tinued to treat with the court instead of laying down 
 their arms ; and the count of Fuensaldagnes seized 
 the opportunity of attempting to penetrate into France 
 with a considerable army. He had already com- 
 menced his march into Picardy, when the vigorous 
 remonstrances of Mazarin, who assured him that the 
 court would sooner join forces at once with Conde 
 than suffer him to advance, alarmed the Spanish gene- 
 ral, and induced him to retreat. 
 
 In the mean time, the divisions which existed in 
 the faction opposed to the court, soon brought on its 
 own ruin. The duke of Orleans and the Parisians 
 were heartily tired of the war ; the prince of Conde 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 189 
 
 was hated by the people, whom he one day courted 
 and the next insulted ; personal quarrels were fre- 
 quent and sanguinary ; and at length Conde quitted 
 the capital, on the 13th of October, and threw him- 
 self into the hands of the Spaniards. Deep humilia- 
 tion and despondency succeeded with the Parisians ; 
 a degree of agitation which, as De Retz declares, 
 might have been turned to any purpose, took posses- 
 sion of all minds, and nothing was heard but petitions 
 for the king to return. At length, after some hesita- 
 tion, the court determined once more to take up its 
 residence in Paris, and, not without alarm, the king 
 and queen re-entered the capital. The applause of 
 the people, however, was so great, that all fears were 
 done away ; and the first act of the king was to com- 
 mand his uncle, the duke of Orleans, to retire from 
 Paris with his daughter. The step might be bold ; 
 and De Retz has attempted to prove that it was fool- 
 ish : but it was successful, and it was necessary ; for 
 nobody in France could doubt that, wherever the duke 
 of Orleans was, there would be faction. 
 
 On the day following a general amnesty was pub- 
 lished ; and the court applied itself to conciliate the 
 favour of the talented and factious Gondi, now cardi- 
 nal de Retz, hoping, probably, to deprive him of his 
 authority with the people by attaching him to the 
 court. But de Retz remained intractable ; and at 
 length it was determined to arrest the demagogue, 
 even in the midst of the populace he had so long com- 
 manded. This resolution was executed, however, 
 without any difficulty. The coadjutor was made a 
 prisoner at the Louvre, and remained there for several 
 hours, while the news of his arrest spread quickly 
 
190 LIFE OF 
 
 through the town ; but no tumult or attempt to rescue 
 followed, and he was safely lodged in Vincennes. It 
 is very doubtful whether Mazarin took any share in 
 advising the queen to this measure, and he afterwards 
 himself joined in a petition for the liberation of De 
 Retz ; but it is very clear that no measure was ever 
 more wise. The people were so tired of faction, that 
 the court judged — and judged wisely — that, deprived 
 of the council and direction of their great leader, they 
 would not even rise to give him liberty ; and thus an 
 act which at the commencement of the troubles of the 
 Fronde would have been one of madness, and would 
 certainly have produced an insurrection, now gave 
 the last* blow to a party which had already fallen too 
 far to defend itself any longer. Mazarin, it appeared 
 to all, might now return in safety ; but, with wise 
 caution, he remained upon the frontiers of the king- 
 dom, visiting the different generals opposed to the 
 Spaniards, and making preparations to render the 
 efforts of France against her enemies more vigorous 
 and successful for the future than they had been during 
 the civil wars. At length his absence began to sur- 
 prise the people. No longer arrayed in opposition to 
 his return, they learned to desire it; and when he at 
 length did come back to the capital, his entrance was 
 far more triumphant in appearance that even that of 
 the king had been. The young monarch a R d all the 
 court went out to meet him at the distance of two 
 leagues from Paris; all the courts and associated bodies 
 of the metropolis, even to the parliament itself, came 
 to congratulate him on his return ; apartments were 
 assigned him in the Louvre; the people shouted their 
 gratulations in the path of him they would have mur- 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 191 
 
 dered a year before ; and the whole city gave itself up 
 to rejoicings, which were continued far into the night. 
 The coadjutor himself might almost have heard the 
 sounds from his solitary prison at Vincennes. Such 
 is popularity. 
 
 Some disputes with the parliament, it is true, did 
 succeed ; but Mazarin, taught by experience, mingled 
 a degree of severity with his gentleness, and suc- 
 ceeded in preventing any fresh revolt. Provence, 
 Burgundy, and Guyenne returned to obedience; and 
 while Turenne maintained the honour of France in 
 the field, internal union, commerce and tranquillity 
 began to re-appear throughout the country. The first 
 three years of the regency had been carried on by 
 the force of Richelieu's administration; all then fell 
 into disorder : but, after the wars of the Fronde, a 
 new impetus was given to the government by the 
 great and successful exertions to which it had been 
 driven ; while, at the same time, the reaction which 
 the oppression of Richelieu had called forth amongst 
 the people died away, and left the path open to the 
 gorgeous depotism of Louis XIV. So completely 
 had a change come over all the feelings of the nation, 
 that in the description afforded by an Italian of a 
 splendid fete at the Hotel de Ville, given to the minis- 
 ter by the magistrates of the town, on the 29th of 
 March, 1653, we find that the Place de Greve was 
 filled with the populace, who received Mazarin with 
 continued shouts of applause, called down benedictions 
 on his head, and poured forth execrations on those 
 who had calumniated him. The minister showed 
 himself frequently at the window, and was received 
 with loud acclamations, while the hotel itself, yet 
 
192 LIFE OF 
 
 reeking with the blood of those who had been slain 
 on a mere suspicion of favouring him, and black with 
 the smoke of flames which his hated name had kin- 
 dled, was now crowded with the wives and daughters 
 of citizens who had acted many a blood-thirsty part 
 against him in the wars just past. 
 
 In the beginning of the following year, Mazarin saw 
 the continuance of his favour confirmed by the mar- 
 riage of his niece, Anna Maria Martinozzi, with the 
 prince de Conti, brother of the great Conde. It is not 
 improbable that the prince, who was destitute alike of 
 his brother's talents and his firmness, was glad to make 
 his peace with the successful minister whom he had so 
 bitterly offended, by any means short of actual degra- 
 dation. He continued, however, faithful to the king, 
 although various severe measures were adopted in re- 
 gard to the prince de Conde himself, who, on the con- 
 trary, remained in actual rebellion. About the same 
 time a scheme for assassinating the cardinal was disco- 
 vered, and Conde was accused of having bribed the 
 assassins. Madame de Chatillon, also, was supposed to 
 be implicated: but who it was that actually instigated 
 the villains to their base and cowardly design has never 
 been clearly shown. The two men themselves were 
 arrested, tried, found guilty of having undertaken, for 
 a price, to murder the minister, and were condemned 
 to be broken on the wheel. Mazarin interceded for 
 their lives, but was refused ; and only obtained, as a 
 mitigation of their sentence, that they should be stran- 
 gled ere the more cruel part of the punishment award- 
 ed was put in force. 
 
 The coronation of Louis XIV. took place soon after, 
 while the armies of the king kept the field against the 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 193 
 
 Spaniards; but previous to that ceremony, Mazarin, 
 who had a peculiar fondness for military fame, led the 
 young monarch to the siege of St. Menehould, which 
 place was quickly taken, and afterwards accompanied 
 him to the attack of Stenai, which also surrendered. 
 Arras, however, was in the mean time besieged by 
 Conde and the Spaniards, and it now became the great 
 object of the French generals to relieve that important 
 city. Turenne, rather than sacrifice it, determined to 
 attack the enemy in his lines; and that famous battle 
 took place, which saved Arras from the power of Spain. 
 With Turenne remained the glory of the day; but 
 Mazarin drew down upon his head no small ridicule 
 by attributing to himself in a despatch, written in the 
 king's name to the parliament, all the honour of hav- 
 ing raised the siege of Arras, without once mentioning 
 Turenne. 
 
 One of the most important acts of Mazarin's poli- 
 tical life was now about to follow. Charles I. of Eng- 
 land was dead. Cromwell swayed the destinies of 
 Great Britain ; and Charles II., an exile and a wan- 
 derer, derived a feeble and inefficient support from 
 France. The protector, offended with France, mani- 
 fested a disposition to enter into a league with Spain ; 
 and Mazarin resolved, at any price, to induce Crom- 
 well to break off negotiations, which, if successful, 
 would have proved ruinous to the French interests. 
 The history of the whole transaction is too long for 
 detail. Suffice it to say that the commanding mind of 
 Cromwell overbore all the barriers of Mazarin's timid 
 policy. The French minister yielded much of the 
 dignity of the crown he served, suffered the usurper 
 of the English throne to interfere in the affairs of 
 
 VOL. II. 17 
 
194 LIFE OF 
 
 France respecting the huguenots of Nismes, abandoned 
 to their fate the catholics of England, and forgot the 
 rites of hospitality and the dues of kindred, which 
 Charles II. could claim from the French monarch ; but 
 he gained his object, detached Cromwell from the in- 
 terests of Spain, and secured powerful support in his 
 operations against Flanders. That support was indeed 
 the more necessary, as the prince de Conde, command- 
 ing a body of Spanish troops, still kept up a dangerous 
 correspondence with many persons in France, and had 
 very nearly obtained, through the mediation of a coun- 
 sellor in the parliament, named Chenailles, possession 
 of the important town of St. Quentin. The duchess 
 of Chatillon, who, during the preceding year, had en- 
 deavoured to seduce the marechal d'Hocquincourt to 
 the interest of the prince de Conde, had been arrested 
 by order of the minister; and he now proceeded with 
 still greater severity against Chenailles; though a strong 
 proof of Mazarin's humanity is afforded by the depo- 
 sition of one of the witnesses on the trial, who stated 
 that, when the minister discovered the treasonable 
 proceedings of the prisoner, he exclaimed, " I would 
 rather have given 50,000 crowns than that he should 
 have fallen into such an error!" Although the pro- 
 ceedings were conducted as in a case of high treason, 
 and the prisoner was found guilty, the sentence was 
 comparatively mild. He was stripped of his dignities, 
 offices, and possessions, and banished the country. 
 
 No sooner had Mazarin concluded the arrangement 
 with Cromwell, and left Spain, exhausted as she was 
 by long wars, without the support of a single ally, 
 than he applied himself eagerly to induce that country 
 to treat for a final peace. Accordingly Lionne, one of 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 195 
 
 the council, was sent secretly to Madrid to demand the 
 hana of the infanta for Louis XIV., and offer those 
 terms by which the cardinal hoped to bring the war 
 to a termination. Long negotiations succeeded; but 
 Philip IV. had then no male heir, and the hand of the 
 infanta was sought also by the emperor for his son. 
 Thus the wishes of Mazarin were frustrated for the 
 time, and the war with Spain continued. That war, 
 however, was carried on upon the part of France with 
 great and decided success. Some partisans of the 
 prince de Conde attempted to excite revolt in the pro- 
 vinces, and from time to time the parliament offered 
 some resistance to the will of the minister; but min- 
 gling firmness with moderation, Mazarin soon quelled 
 all internal opposition; and early in the year 1658 he 
 led Louis XIV. to the siege of Dunkirk. Conde and 
 don John of Austria immediately united their forces, 
 and advanced to the relief of that place, but were met 
 upon the sandhills by Turenne, who, after a severe and 
 long contested battle, forced them to retreat. Dunkirk 
 surrendered in a few days, and the siege of Gravelines 
 succeeded ; but very soon after the first of those places 
 had fallen, the king was taken violently ill at Calais, 
 and for some days great apprehensions were enter- 
 tained for his life. 
 
 Intrigues of course immediately took place; and 
 Mazarin, it would appear, wisely determined, in case 
 of the king's death, to quit France at once, and retire 
 to Rome. The monarch, however, recovered; and 
 several of those who, during his illness, had shown 
 their purposes against Mazarin too clearly, were driven 
 into exile by the minister. He had now gained the 
 ascendency over the mind of the young king more 
 
196 LIFE OF 
 
 completely than he had formerly done in regard to 
 Anne of Austria; and he is accused of showing some 
 degree of neglect towards his former benefactress, 
 which madame de Motteville attributes to the hesita- 
 tion that the queen had shown in recalling him about 
 the time of his march to Poitiers. 
 
 While these events w r ere passing in France and on 
 the frontiers of Flanders, two changes had taken place 
 affecting Mazarin's views in regard to Spain. In 1657 
 the emperor had died; and the cardinal instantly sent 
 ambassadors to Germany, in order to obtain the impe- 
 rial dignity for the elector of Bavaria, and thus strike 
 another stroke at the house of Austria. In this he 
 was not successful ; and the electors placed the crown 
 on the head of Leopold, son of the last emperor; but 
 events had occurred in Spain, of a kind more favoura- 
 ble to his views. Philip IV. had married again, and 
 a male heir had diminished the importance attached to 
 the hand of the infanta in her father's eyes, though 
 not in the eyes of Mazarin. To conclude the war as 
 soon as possible, if it could be done upon advantageous 
 terms, was now the great object of Mazarin, who, 
 though he had sustained Richelieu's external policy 
 with firmness and success, and had reaped in the peace 
 of Westphalia rich fruit from the seed which his bold 
 predecessor had sown, was naturally of a pacific dis- 
 position, and had brought to the French cabinet that 
 Italian spirit of negotiation which was so well calcu- 
 lated to conclude what it had required a more power- 
 ful mind to commence. Instead, however, of once 
 more directly appealing to the court of Spain, now 
 humbled by repeated losses, Mazarin affected to listen 
 to proposals which had been made regarding the mar- 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 197 
 
 riage of the young king with the princess Marguerite 
 of Savoy; and for the purpose of giving public testi- 
 mony of his desire to conclude that alliance, he led the 
 court to Lyons, in order to meet the duchess of Savoy 
 and her daughter. 
 
 In promoting the marriage of Louis with either the 
 infanta or the princess Marguerite, Mazarin made a 
 noble and a prudent sacrifice to honour and good 
 policy. The young monarch, after his return to 
 Paris, had been frequently thrown in company with 
 mademoiselle de Mancini, the cardinal's niece, and 
 showed so decided a preference for her that the queen 
 and the court became alarmed. He sought her on all 
 occasions; and though her personal attractions were 
 but few, yet he seemed never content but in her so- 
 ciety. She, on her part, eager and passionate by 
 nature, did not scruple to show her attachment to the 
 young monarch ; and as no one suspected her of over- 
 stepping the bounds of virtue, it was not by any means 
 impossible that Louis might be induced to raise her to 
 share his throne. Mazarin had far more power over 
 him than his mother: the princess of Savoy was ex- 
 tremely ugly: very slight impediments would have 
 prevented any renewal of the negotiations with Spain; 
 and if Louis XIV. ever felt through life the slightest 
 portion of true love for any being on earth but himself, 
 it was for mademoiselle Mancini. 
 
 Happily, however, for Mazarin, what was most wise 
 and what was most honourable, in this instance, went 
 hand in hand. Without apparently yielding a thought 
 to the more ambitious course, he led the French court, 
 as I have said, to Lyons, on the 23d of October,* where 
 
 * 1658. 
 
 17* 
 
198 LIFE OF 
 
 it was joined shortly after by that of Savoy. Mazarin's 
 views, however, were soon explained to the duchess of 
 Savoy; and as she could not deny that every principle 
 of good policy required the French minister to prefer 
 the infanta to her daughter, she contented herself with 
 claiming consideration in case the cardinal should not 
 be successful in his purposes regarding Spain. But 
 the first part of Mazarin's plan was already perfectly 
 successful. The rumours, which he had caused to be 
 spread of an approaching marriage between the young 
 king and the princess of Savoy had reached Madrid 
 and alarmed the ministers of Spain. An envoy from 
 Philip was already on his way to renew negotia- 
 tions, when Louis reached Lyons; and in a few days 
 after he appeared, bearing an offer of the hand of the 
 infanta. The French court, having gained this object, 
 returned immediately to Paris, and a preliminary 
 treaty of peace was at once concluded. The greatest 
 difficulties, in regard to these arrangements, had arisen 
 from the situation of the prince de Conde, then actually 
 serving Spain against his country. The Spanish am- 
 bassador, of course, sought to obtain favourable terms 
 for the prince; but Mazarin held out sternly against 
 one whom he justly considered a rebel, though a noble 
 one. Conde, however, generously determined to 
 prove no obstacle to the re-establishment of peace; and 
 wrote to the Spanish ambassador to abandon his in- 
 terests rather than allow so laudable an endeavour as 
 that of restoring tranquillity to Europe to be frustrated.* 
 
 • It is not very clearly ascertained whether this letter was 
 written during 1 the conferences in Paris, or those which took 
 place afterwards on the frontier between don Louis de Haro and 
 Mazarin. 
 
\ 
 
 CARDINAL MAZARIN. 199 
 
 Neither Mazarin nor the ambassador suffered this letter 
 to p r ove greatly injurious to Conde; but it facilitated 
 the negotiation; and as soon as the preliminary treaty 
 was signed, the cardinal commanded the French armies 
 to pause in their career of success. For doing so, ere 
 the definitive treaty of peace was ratified, he has been 
 greatly blamed; and it is probable that he did thereby 
 lose several advantages in the conferences which he 
 afterwards held with the Spanish minister, don Louis 
 de Haro. For the purpose of entering into these con- 
 ferences, Mazarin set out from Paris on the 26th of 
 June: but before he did so, two of the most mortifying 
 events which he had yet met with occurred to him; 
 and his conduct in either circumstance shows his cha- 
 racter in a noble and interesting point of view. 
 
 During the holy week of the year 1659, a large 
 party of libertine young men set out for the chateau of 
 Roissi, determined to outrage all the feelings of their 
 severer brethren, by dedicating to debauchery and 
 impiety a period particularly set apart by the Roman 
 catholic religion as a time of mortification and prayer. 
 At the head of these, trusting to his uncle's power and 
 favour, was Mancini, the nephew of Mazarin; but the 
 scandal of these proceedings soon reached the court, 
 and the conduct of the cardinal was very different 
 from that which had been expected. From amongst 
 the whole he selected his nephew as an example; and 
 leaving the rest to be reprimanded by the king, he 
 banished Mancini from the court, refusing to hear any 
 supplications in his favour. The passionate attachment 
 of the young king to his niece, Maria de Mancini, was 
 also at this time a subject of great uneasiness to the 
 minister. Negotiations were far advanced regarding 
 
200 LIFE OF 
 
 the king's marriage with the infanta. The queen-mo- 
 ther abhorred mademoiselle de Mancini, on account of 
 the mutual love existing between her and Louis XIV.; 
 and yet the monarch, after his return from Lyons, dis- 
 played more and more his attachment to the young 
 Italian. Mazarin determined to withdraw her from 
 the court, and Louis, in a moment of passion, proposed 
 to his minister to raise her to the throne. Mazarin, 
 however, had by this time chosen his part; and we 
 have the authority of one not too favourable to that 
 minister (mad. de Motteville) for saying that he acted 
 with a firmness, a dignity, and a disinterestedness more 
 honourable to the man than his most skilful measures 
 were to the minister. He replied to the king's pro- 
 posal, that he had been chosen by the monarch's father, 
 and afterwards by his mother, to aid him with his best 
 councils; that up to that time he had served him with 
 inviolable fidelity, and that he should take care not to 
 abuse the confidence placed in him by the king's con- 
 fession of such a weakness, nor to misuse the power 
 which Louis gave him in his territories by suffering a 
 thing to be done so contrary to his sovereign's interest 
 and honour. The king was his own master, he added, 
 but he himself had a right to dispose of his niece; and 
 he would rather stab her with his own hand than raise 
 her to the throne by the betrayal of his trust. 
 
 This conference was immediately followed by the 
 exile of Maria Mancini from the court; and though, 
 doubtless, good policy required Mazarin to act as he 
 did act, yet happy is the man who, in situations of 
 difficulty and temptation, has both the wisdom to see 
 that good policy and a high sense of honour are united, 
 and the firmness to tread the giddy precipice of power 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 201 
 
 without stumbling over some of those small but fatal 
 irregularities which selfishness strews thickly in the 
 path of ambition. 
 
 After the removal of his niece from the CGurt of 
 France, Mazarin set out to enter into those important 
 negotiations which ended in a peace,* that all the di- 
 plomatic skill of the agents employed at Munster and 
 Osnabruck had not been able to effect. Since the treaty 
 of Westphalia, Spain had continued the war against 
 France and Holland unsupported by any other power, 
 and now treated with her principal opponent under the 
 disadvantage of exhausted finances and defeated armies. 
 But still the persevering arrogance of the court of Philip 
 rendered her demands as extreme, and her obstinacy as 
 insurmountable by any ordinary means, as if she had 
 been at that moment in the height of prosperity. No 
 man, however, was better calculated than Mazarin to 
 encounter the difficulties of such a negotiation. Patient, 
 placable, and sincerely desirous of terminating, in a 
 solid peace, the war which he had carried on success- 
 fully during his whole administration, he was neither 
 to be irritated by the pride of Spain, nor wearie* out 
 by her delays. At the same time his keen sagacity 
 and subtle activity were the best arms that could be 
 used against the high pretensions of the Spanish 
 minister, and the tedious and dilatory proceedings 
 of a pompous court. Don Louis de Haro, prime 
 minister of Spain, advanced to the frontiers of his 
 country, while Mazarin, on his part, proceeded to 
 St. Jean de Luz; and a temporary building having 
 been erected on a small island in the midst of the 
 Bidassoa, the conferences were there opened and con- 
 tinued for several months. 
 
 * June 26, 1659. 
 
202 LIFE OF 
 
 Many difficulties arose which it would be tedious 
 to dwell upon in this place; but at length all points 
 of import were sufficiently determined to justify the 
 court of France in approaching the place of conference. 
 The prince of Conde also returned to his native land 
 after an absence of several years ; but the death of 
 the second son of the king of Spain, by bringing the 
 infanta nearer to the crown, caused some apprehension 
 lest the treaty of marriage should be broken off. Upon 
 that alliance were fixed the hopes and expectations of 
 Mazarin ; for he had long before perceived, that the 
 succession to the Spanish throne might probably ere 
 long fall to the lot of the infanta : that, under such 
 circumstances, no renunciation of contingent rights, 
 on her part, would be of any importance ;* and, there- 
 fore, that by a marriage between herself and Louis 
 XIV. the consummation of Richelieu's policy would 
 be fully effected. He had clearly announced his 
 views upon this subject so long before as the signature 
 of the peace of Munster, and he had never ceased to 
 labour for the same object. Various causes contributed 
 to procrastinate the negotiations ; and though the 
 promise of the infanta's hand was not withdrawn 
 on the death of her brother, Mazarin found himself 
 obliged to make some farther concessions than he had 
 at first intended. 
 
 * One of his letters to the French plenipotentiaries at Munster 
 in 1645 shows that he had considered all the results of this mar- 
 riage fifteen years before it took place ; and that Spain also con- 
 sidered the renunciation of the contingent rights of the infanta 
 in the same light as the French minister, is proved by the words 
 of Philip IV., when the act of renunciation was read to him. "Esto 
 es una patarata," he said; "y si faltasse el principe de derecho 
 mi hija ha de heredar." 
 
CARDINAL MAZARItf. 203 
 
 The French court in the mean time, remained 
 during the winter in Provence; but all things being 
 at length arranged for a meeting between the royal 
 families of France and Spain, and for the marriage of 
 the young king with the infanta, Philip on his side 
 advanced to Fontarabia, while Louis proceeded to St. 
 Jean de Luz. Some points which had been left un- 
 settled concerning the exact frontier line of the two 
 kingdoms were now arranged, and, by the skill of 
 Mazarin, rendered favourable to France. The mar- 
 riage took place ,* and the famous peace of the Pyre- 
 nees was sworn to by the two monarchs in each 
 other's presence. This negotiation, which ultimately 
 seated the Bourbons upon the throne of Spain, is the 
 most celebrated act of Mazarin's political life, although 
 the enemies of that minister founded upon it «an ac- 
 cusation of weakness and bad policy, which only 
 showed their own want of skill and diplomatic know- 
 ledge. Setting aside, however, their objections, which 
 are scarcely relevant, and not even inquiring whether 
 the success of Mazarin's most ardent wishes have not 
 ultimately, by accidental circumstances, proved more 
 detrimental than beneficial to the country he wished 
 to serve, there is another point of view under which 
 his conduct may be regarded. No man saw more 
 clearly that it had been absolutely necessary for all 
 the states in Europe to unite for the purpose of hum- 
 bling the house of Austria ; no one knew better that 
 that sovereign house had extended its dominion too 
 far for its own security ; and yet the grand object 
 which he proposed to himself in his treaty of the 
 Pyrenees was to place the house of Bourbon very 
 nearly in the same position which had been filled by 
 
204 LIFE OF 
 
 the house of Austria. His object was a mistaken one: 
 to humble the house of Austria, to guard against its 
 ever again attaining inordinate power, was wise ; 
 perhaps to extend the territories of France on the side 
 of Flanders, and to incorporate Franche Comte and 
 Lorraine with the dominions which his sovereign 
 already possessed, was prudent and politic ; but the 
 seating a Bourbon race upon the throne of Spain was 
 the greatest mistake committed in the 'policy of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 After the marriage had taken place, the court re- 
 turned by slow journeys to Fontainebleau, where the 
 young king and his bride remained, while Mazarin 
 and the queen-mother proceeded to Paris, to cause 
 preparations for the public entrance of the two sove- 
 reigns. On the minister's arrival, all the great bodies 
 of the capital waited upon him, to compliment him 
 on his return, and to express their admiration of his 
 conduct in the difficult negotiations which had re- 
 stored peace to Europe. The parliament itself sent 
 a deputation of its most distinguished members to 
 honour and congratulate the minister, on whose head, 
 not long before, they had set a price ; and rejoicings 
 of every kind welcomed him to the capital, as the 
 great benefactor of the country which had adopted 
 him. In reply to the various addresses which he re- 
 ceived, Mazarin spoke long and eloquently ; but his 
 health was already giving way under the wearing in- 
 fluence of cares and exertions. A fit of the gout 
 succeeded ; and we are told that unskilful treatment 
 repelled the disease from his extremities, and endan- 
 gered his life. The young king, who had by this 
 time removed from Fontainebleau to Vincennes, hear- 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 205 
 
 ing of his situation, came privately to Paris to visit 
 him, and ask his advice concerning some proceed- 
 ings of the court ; but Mazarin was, at the moment 
 of his arrival, suffering an aggravation of his former 
 pains, by an attack of the stone, and his mind, for a 
 time, gave way under the agony he endured. " Sire," 
 he replied to the king, " you come to ask the advice 
 of a man who has lost the command of his reason. 
 Sir, my mind wanders !" On this reply, the king 
 is said to have retired into a neighbouring corridor, 
 and wept over the prostration of that intellect which 
 he had learned to revere in his earliest youth. 
 
 Mazarin, however, recovered, and endeavoured to 
 cover the decay of his frame by the external splen- 
 dour of his appearance. In the beginning of Septem- 
 ber, 1660, the king and queen made their public entry 
 into Paris, with all that theatrical pomp and splendour 
 which suited the character of the times, the monarch, 
 and the nation. The household of Mazarin, however, 
 which figured in the procession, was scarcely inferior 
 in magnificence to that of the king. We are told that 
 it took an hour in passing the gates, and that the at- 
 tendants of the monarch's brother seemed pitiful when 
 compared with those of the minister. But his power 
 and his splendour were now drawing to their close. 
 During the autumn he became worse in point of 
 health, and seldom left his apartments, where the 
 meetings of the council of state were regularly attend- 
 ed by the young king. A slight amelioration took 
 place in the month of February, 1661, and the dying 
 minister followed the court to Vincennes; but there 
 his illness increased ; symptoms of water in the chest 
 succeeded ; and on the 9th of March, meeting deatfy 
 VOL. II. 18 
 
206 LIFE OP 
 
 with unshrinking firmness, Mazarin rested for ever 
 from the toils of state. 
 
 We are told, on sufficient authority, that during 
 the last days of his life Mazarin endeavoured eagerly 
 to persuade the king to retain in his service Le Tellier, 
 Lionne, and Colbert : the first had shown himself not 
 incapable of sincere attachment, and was an active, 
 clear-sighted, intelligent man of business ; the second 
 has been suspected of being both less faithful and less 
 talented ; the third was the greatest and most patriotic 
 statesman that France has ever known. But at the 
 same time that the minister endeavoured to secure the 
 fortune of those whom he had trained in the ways of 
 policy, he gave his sovereign the singular, the wise, 
 and the prophetic advice to dispense, for the future, 
 with the services of a prime minister, and to govern 
 his kingdom for himself. 
 
 Such were some of the cares which agitated Ma- 
 zarin upon his deathbed ; but there were others of 
 a more private nature which did not affect him less. 
 The means which he had taken to accumulate, in 
 a few years, the immense fortune which he left, in 
 dying disturbed his conscience; and as the king, if 
 any one, was the person who had suffered, Mazarin, 
 to quiet his own mind, made a voluntary donation of 
 all that he possessed to the monarch a few days before 
 his death. Louis, as a matter of course, restored to 
 him his property, giving him permission to dispose of 
 it as he pleased; and the minister, completely satisfied 
 by this piece of acting, divided his enormous wealth 
 amongst his relations. In regard to the amount which 
 he thus left much doubt exists ; but it is clear that to 
 one of his nieces alone, he left 28,000,000 livres. 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 207 
 
 Although it is probable that Louis began to grow 
 weary of the domination of Mazarin, yet there is no 
 reason to believe that he did not sincerely regret him. 
 No one at the court even affected to do so, except the 
 king; but that young monarch went into mourning on 
 his death, expressed deep grief, and confirmed all the 
 appointments which he had made ere he died. In 
 Notre Dame, a magnificent funeral service was cele- 
 brated, by the king's order, in memory of Mazarin; 
 and, at his own desire, his heart was sent to the church 
 of the Theatins, — an order which he first introduced 
 into France, while his ashes were deposited in the 
 chapel of the college he himself had founded. All 
 his personal requests Louis attended to with scrupulous 
 care; and through life he honoured the memory of his 
 minister, by punishing or neglecting those who ven- 
 tured to speak against him. " There is a great diver- 
 sity of opinions respecting cardinal Mazarin," says M. 
 Dipping. "Some historians have regarded him as a 
 statesman of the first order; others have seen in him 
 nothing but a contemptible personage and a minister 
 often incompetent and always feeble. One must allow 
 that, putting aside the degree of exaggeration displayed 
 in this last opinion, his conduct in different circum- 
 stances justifies the most opposite judgments. " I can- 
 not exactly agree with monsieur Dipping in his con- 
 clusion. That all men have weak points in their 
 character, and that those weak points will lead them 
 sometimes to act in opposition to the impulses of their 
 higher qualities, there can be no doubt; but it does not 
 seem to me that Mazarin displayed more of these con- 
 tradictions than any other statesman, or any other 
 
208 life or 
 
 man, would have done in circumstances of great dif- 
 ficulty. 
 
 Very simple causes seem to have produced all the 
 defects in his policy, especially those defects which 
 encouraged and protracted the civil war. He was na- 
 turally timid ; and at his entrance into power he was 
 utterly ignorant of the laws, customs, and character of 
 the French people. This ignorance led him continu- 
 ally into difficulties which he had not foreseen, while 
 his timidity prevented him from crushing the opposi- 
 tion which he thus created, as Richelieu would have 
 done under similar circumstances. The queen-mother, 
 though less ignorant in regard to the country in which 
 she had lived so long, was not competent to correct 
 the errors of her minister; and Emery, whom Maza- 
 rin first employed in that most delicate branch of ad- 
 ministration, the finances, was even less acquainted 
 with the genius and rights of the people than the car- 
 dinal himself, and did everything that could be done 
 to shock the prejudices, and draw down the wrath of 
 the French nation. Mazarin, one of the most pene- 
 trating and sagacious of men, comprehended in a mo- 
 ment the characters of the individuals with whom he 
 had to deal; delected them under all shapes, and pene- 
 trated all disguises: he saw, with unerring skill, the 
 embryo of great genius in the mind of youth, long 
 before it was apparent to others; he even understood 
 as thoroughly, perhaps, as ever man did that strange 
 and complex thing, human nature; but he did not un- 
 derstand or appreciate, especiall} 7 at first, the peculiar 
 modification of human nature which distinguishes the 
 inhabitants of France. The Spaniards he knew well; 
 and, when occasion served, played upon them as an 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 209 
 
 instrument, and made them sound what stop he pleased. 
 To deal with the Germans he found more difficult; but, 
 with regard to them, he was placed in a commanding 
 position, which enabled him as far to dictate terms as 
 his natural moderation permitted. With the French 
 it was very different. He was placed in a most dif- 
 ficult situation, as the successor of a minister of far 
 greater powers of mind, of far more intimate know- 
 ledge of the people, of a determined and ruthless cha- 
 racter, and of sagacity no way inferior to his own. 
 Richelieu had ridden the French people as a fiery 
 charger, with a heavy curb and a strong hand; but, 
 when he was dead, the nation found the curb gone, the 
 hand tender, the rider ignorant of the charger's met- 
 tle, and ran away amidst precipices equally dangerous 
 to all. Mazarin's ignorance of the national character 
 of the people he had to govern, his ignorance even of 
 the very laws by which he was to rule, a large legacy 
 of difficulties left him by his predecessor, and a cha- 
 racter originally timid and yielding, appear to me to 
 have caused all the errors of his administration; while 
 his keen sagacity, his diplomatic subtlety, his indefa- 
 tigable activity, his close powers of application, and 
 his persevering constancy, obtained for France, and 
 for himself, those immense advantages which far more 
 than counterbalanced the evil consequences of his 
 faults. 
 
 That he divined Louis XIV.,* that he trained Col- 
 bert, that he detected and overcame De Retz, may well 
 be received as proofs of his penetration, his sagacity, 
 
 * He was accustomed to say that there was enough in Louis to 
 make four kings and one honest man. 
 
 18* 
 
210 LIFE OF 
 
 and his political skill. That he carried on successfully 
 the vast designs of Richelieu, that he maintained the 
 honour of France in the field, and that he closed one 
 of the most memorable wars in history by two treaties 
 in the highest degree advantageous to the country he 
 was called to govern, will always place his name high 
 amongst the statesmen of modern Europe. That he 
 passed through a fierce civil war without shedding one 
 drop of blood upon the scaffold, although the hatred of 
 faction was directed personally against himself, that he 
 was always the advocate of peace where it was com- 
 patible with honour, that he never raised his voice but 
 to mitigate punishment or to allay animosity, may be 
 told to the honour of his heart. His severity towards 
 his nephew, his firmness in regard to his niece, dis- 
 play that best kind of political wisdom, which com- 
 bines virtue and prudence; and that, after having been 
 hated and despised by the French nation, he rendered 
 himself loved and admired, must have proceeded from 
 high qualities of his own, as well as from the leyity 
 of the people. 
 
 Thus far all is fair; but Mazarin was not, by any 
 means, without great defects. He was avaricious to 
 an extraordinary degree, and but little scrupulous in 
 regard to the means of increasing his wealth; he was 
 subtle and deceitful even to his best friends, mean in 
 his condescension to those he feared, and occasionally 
 overbearing and insolent to those who opposed him. 
 As superintendent of the young king's education, he 
 shamefully neglected his duty; and by so doing drew 
 upon himself a charge which, perhaps, was just, of de- 
 siring to keep the monarch in ignorance, in order that 
 his own power might be of longer duration. I do not 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 211 
 
 find any instances of gratitude recorded in his favour; 
 and to the queen, Anne of Austria, he was certainly 
 ungrateful. In early life he was modest and unassum- 
 ing; but years and success, which gave him firmness 
 and dignity, rendered him also ostentatious and vain- 
 glorious in the most extravagant degree. 
 
 He first introduced at the court of France the pas- 
 sion for gaming which had long been common in Italy; 
 and he thus destroyed his own health, ruined and de- 
 graded the French nobility, and did much to demora- 
 lise the whole people.* After long days of fatigue, 
 anxiety, and exertion of mind, he would pass great 
 part of the night at the gaming table, employing over 
 his cards, with even less honesty than in his negotia- 
 tions, the same subtle spirit which animated his whole 
 policy. Others, however, we are told, might cheat 
 him also with impunity, provided they did so with 
 such address as either to conceal the deceit, or win his 
 admiration of the cunning. He has been accused of 
 personal cowardice; and that he evinced a degree of 
 fear on more than one occasion is undoubted: but, on 
 the other hand, in various circumstances of great dan- 
 ger, he showed not only perfect coolness, but great 
 presence of mind. At Casal he displayed neither fear 
 nor hesitation, though both the armies were firing upon 
 each other when he passed between them ; and in 
 many other instances in the field he exposed himself 
 unnecessarily to imminent danger. At the same time 
 
 * So deeply was the young" monarch himself infected with this 
 vice, that, even in the boat which conveyed him and his bride 
 from Langdon to Bordeaux, he could not refrain from play; and 
 one of the courtiers (an abbe) lost 50,000 crowns ere the party 
 broke up. 
 
212 LIFE OP 
 
 we must remark, that the only occasion on which he 
 gave signs of personal terror occurred during the tu- 
 mults in Paris; and even the great Conde acknow- 
 ledged that he was himself the greatest coward on 
 earth in such warfares, on which he bestowed a witty 
 but somewhat dirty epithet. The faults of omission 
 in a man of immense power nearly rise into the enor- 
 mity of crimes: and when we say that, during many 
 years of tranquillity and unbounded authority, Maza- 
 rin founded no great institution; led the way to no 
 important improvement, either in the government ar- 
 rangements or the state of society, and introduced into 
 France nothing but the Opera; that he suffered the 
 finances of the state to fall into terrible decay, and left 
 the talents which he knew Louis XIV. to possess un- 
 cultivated, and very nearly undirected ;* we accuse 
 him of more serious errors than any that he committed 
 during the wars of the Fronde. 
 
 In private life, his character has been very variously 
 represented: to those whom he did not seek to 
 please, he was, we are told by madame de Motteville, 
 dry, cross, and petulant, affecting more humility in 
 adverse than in prosperous times. He was fond of 
 raillery, and sometimes indulged in it too far; he had 
 naturally considerable taste for the fine arts, and was a 
 discerning and liberal friend to science and literature; 
 nor, probably, was his patronage of literature at all 
 
 * Mazarin, though superintendent of the king's education, left 
 him, as before observed, miserably destitute of knowledge; but 
 towards his death he became sensible of his error, and, in his 
 letters to the monarch during the negotiation for peace with 
 Spain, gave him the most profound lessons in the arts of diplo- 
 macy that any one then living could furnish. He also endeavoured 
 to improve the finances, and succeeded in a degree. 
 
CARDINAL MAZARIN. 213 
 
 directed to secure praise to himself; for, although he 
 was by no means without personal vanity, he seems to 
 have been perfectly callous to all the satires* that were 
 written against him, and very little obliged to those 
 who took the trouble of defending him. In person he 
 was remarkably handsome, with a peculiarly fine fore- 
 head and eyes; he was active and dexterous at various 
 exercises, and skilful at all games. To those he sought 
 to please, his manner was most captivating; and, though 
 he always spoke French with a foreign accent, he was 
 nevertheless eloquent, witty, and adroit in using that 
 tongue. No one told a story, or wrote a letter, better 
 than Mazarin ; and madame de Motteville, though she 
 loved him not, acknowledged that he was " the most 
 agreeable man in the world. "t During his life, and 
 after his death, his character and policy were subjected 
 to the strictures of many; and, though generally lauded 
 by the rest of Europe, were blamed and scoffed at in 
 
 * He deprived Scarron of his pension for having" written the 
 Mazarinade; but as he never attempted to punish any one else 
 for much more atrocious libels, it was probably the ingratitude of 
 the poet at which he struck this blow, and not his insolence. The 
 queen, Anne of Austria, was not so forgiving, and many of the 
 satires, in which she was personally assailed, were followed by 
 sanguinary punishments. 
 
 fin another place, however, she does not give the most agree- 
 able description of him. She says in her Memoirs (vol. ii. p. 350.,) 
 "II etait plus humain et plus doux dans le malheur que dans la 
 prosperity ; il ne fuyait pas ceux qui lui voulaient parler avec la 
 
 meme secheresse Malgre la douceur du cardinal, il n'en avait 
 
 pas souvent dans son procede, ni meme dans ses paroles: elles 
 etaient quasi toujours seches, et fort differentes de ses promesses, 
 qui ne produisaient jamais, ou rarement, de bons effets, s'il n'y etait 
 contraint par l'intrigue des pretendans: ils ont quasi toujours 
 arrache ses bienfaits de sa foiblesse plutot que de sa bonte." 
 
214 LIFE OF CARDINAL MAZAEIN. 
 
 France. It must, however, be remembered, that, sur- 
 rounded with difficulties, opposed by factions, and im- 
 peded by civil war, under his administration Alsace, 
 Artois, and Roussillon were re-annexed to France ; 
 that a way was laid open for her arms into Flanders, 
 Germany, and Italy; and that by his hand was won 
 the prize for which Richelieu had begun the strife. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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