THE SPELL OF GRAND MONARCHY 357

the East. Under his successor, Charles VIII, began the
'Italian Wars' (1*±94-1559) of France with the Hapsburgs,
who had meantime succeeded to the imperial throne/'1

We have before referred to the rise of Calvinism, the per-
secution of the French Huguenots, and the massacre of SL
Bartholomew's Day. These events took place during the
regime of the House of Valois-Orleans (1498-1589). The
accession of the Bourbon Henry of Navarre brought some re-
lief to the persecuted Protestants of France by the Edict of
Nantes (1598), though his Catholic subjects obliged him to
consider that ' Paris was worth a Mass/ Henry IV ruled
wisely and well from 1589 to 1610 under the advice of his
worthy minister Sully. Sully set to work to re-establish the
kingly power, which had suffered greatly under, the last three
rulers of the Valois family. He reduced the great burden of
debt which had weighed upon the country, laid out new
roads and canals, and encouraged agriculture. He also ap-
plied himself to the task of dismissing useless noblemen and
officers who were mere parasites. But this, combined with
religious fanaticism, brought about his assassination in 1610.

Cardinal Richelieu, one of the most famous ministers of
France, carried on the administration (1624-42) for Henry
IV's son, Louis XIII, during the momentous years of the
Thirty Years' War. He did more than anybody else to rouse
the national ambitions of his country and set France on the
ruinous policy of self-aggrandisement. He declared war
against Catholic Spain in 1635, after having formed a for-
midable alliance with the chief enemies of the House of
Austria who were all heretical Protestants. But France gain-
ed the rich provinces of Alsace and Lorraine as a result of
this policy, though their acquisition meant the sowing of the

1. Russell, The Tradition of the Roman Empire, pp. 122-3-