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HISTORY    OF    FRANCE. 


VOL.   I. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

LYRASIS  members  and  Sloan  Foundation 


http://archive.org/details/historyoffrancet12bonn 


HISTORY   OF  FRANCE.  .; 

I 

BY  ; 

EMILE   DE   BONNECHOSE. 


TO 


THE    KEVOLUTION    OF    1848, 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 
VOL.    I. 


AUTHORIZED  TRANSLATION,  EDITED  BY  S.  O.  BEETON, 
FROM    THE    THIRTEENTH   EDITION. 


LONDON : 
WAED,   LOCK,    AND   TYLER, 

WARWICK    HOUSE,     PATERNOSTER     ROW. 

1868. 


PEEFACE. 


"VTAPOLEON  has  said,  "  The  history  of  France  must  be  written  in  two 
-i- 1  volumes  or  in  a  hundred."  The  latter  task  is  beyond  the  powers 
of  one  man.  "Whilst  still  young  I  dared  to  undertake  the  former ;  and 
when,  a  few  years  after  the  Revolution  of  1830,  I  first  printed  this  work, 
we  had  not  in  our  language  any  precis  of  our  history  continued  down  to  a 
contemporary  period.  In  writing  these  volumes,  I  purposed  presenting 
to  my  reader,  in  a  compact  form,  a  comprehensive  set  of  events,  describing 
the  principal  causes  and  the  great  men  who  gave  birth  to,  or  who 
directed  them ;  and  to  elicit  from  the  confused  mass  of  details  the 
particular  character  of  each  epoch.  In  a  word,  to  exhibit  what,  through 
past  centuries,  France  owes  to  the  force  of  circumstances,  to  chance,  to 
the  progress  of  time  and  civilization.  This  very  arduous  task  was  in  my 
first  work  but  very  incompletely  carried  out. 

In  the  succeeding  editions  of  my  history,  I  very  much  extended  the 
"^-Onarrative,  and  more  than  once  I  modified  either  my  exposition  of  facts,  or 
my  deductions  from  them.     There  is  a  wide  interval  between  the  tran- 
sient glances  of  youth  and  the  clearer  observation  of  mature   age  ;    the 
historian,  as   his    view   becomes    wider    and    his    knowledge     deeper, 
feels   the  necessity  for  making   his  reader   acquainted  with  his  progress, 
that  he  may  share  in  the  narrator's  more  advanced  views  as  to  men  and 
^    things.     Besides,  what  thoughtful  man,   living  in  the  agitated  times  in 
which  we  have   lived,  could  be  vain   enough  never  to  correct  his  first 
..  judgment  by  the  lessons  of  events  and   experience  ?     Nevertheless,  my 
opinions  as  to  essential  points  have  not  varied;   and  it  will  not,  perhaps, 
be  useless  to  make  here,  in  a  few  words,  my  profession  of  principles  from 
;  the  twofold  point  of  view  of  morals  and  policy  in  history. 

At  the  present  day,  as  in  the  past,  I  believe  that  the  immutable  laws  of 

.     morals  are  the  same  for  nations  as  for  individuals;  and  that  it  is  by  the 

"*>.  light  of  conscience  illumined  by  Divine  agency  that  we  must  judge  of  the 

history  of  entire  humanity.     At  the  present  time,  as  formerly,  I  believe  that 

the  upward  growths  of  ideas  and  of  manners,  aided  by  the  advances  made 

vol.  l  b 


VI  PBEEACE. 

in  commerce  and  industry,  and  recently  by  so  many  admirable  discoveries, 
are  tending  to  make  the  peoples  understand  better  every  day  that  they 
are  not  the  natural  enemies  of  each  other;  that  the  waves  and  seas  are 
not  placed  between  nations  as  eternal  barriers  to  separate  them,  but  as 
the  mighty  means  of  bringing  together  and  uniting  them.  I  believe, 
contrarily  from  what  was  believed  in  pagan  antiquity,  that  the  in- 
dividual is  not  made  for  the  State,  but  the  State  for  individuals  ;  and  that 
the  more  freely  men  are  allowed  to  exercise  all  their  rights,  under 
the  guidance  of  religion,  of  morals,  and  of  law,  the  more  shall  we  see 
the  State  increase  in  prosperity  and  in  power.  I  believe,  finally,  that  the 
best  governments  are  those  which  elevate  the  moral  and  intellectual  level 
of  the  people,  increase  the  general  well-being,  and  cause  the  greatest 
possible  number  of  persons  to  participate  in  the  benefits  of  civilization. 
'  Such  are  the  truths  which  the  historian,  according  to  my  lights,  is  bound 
to  receive  and  never  to  lose  sight  of. 

In  the  primitive  scheme  of  this  work,  as  in  all  the  subsequent  editions 
of  it,  I  concluded  my  narrative  with  the  Eevolution  of  1830.  I  showed 
how  monarchical  and  parliamentary  government  had  been  introduced 
among  us,  and  I  briefly  recounted  the  first  period  of  its  existence.  It 
remained  for  me  to  narrate  the  latter  period,  and  to  say  how  France, 
after  having  possessed  parliamentary  and  monarchical  liberty  during  thirty- 
four  years,  lost  it. 

During  the  first  years  which  followed  the  Eevolution  of  February,  and 
whilst  a  return  to  the  fundamental  principles .  of  a  representative  and 
parliamentary  monarchy  appeared  chimerical,  the  duty  of  the  historian 
was  to  let  the  heat  of  political  passions  subside,  and  silently  to  mature 
his  judgment  on  recent  events.  He  might  thus  be  able  to  refrain  from 
recalling  painful  recollections,  especially  for  those  men  whose  errors, 
no  less  than  whose  services,  whose  honourable  character,  whose  rare 
talents,  France  has  never  been  able  to  forget.  But  at  this  day,  when  the 
nation  seems  about  to  awake,  and  when  so  many  eloquent  and  generous 
voices  recall  to  mind  the  ideas  and  the  traditions  of  free  govern- 
ment, it  is  no  longer  seemly  in  the  historian  to  remain  quiescent.  He  must 
remember  that  history  is  the  guide  of  peoples,  and  that  to  aid  them,  and 
to  preserve  them  from  shipwreck,  it  must  signal  to  contemporaries  the 
rocks  on  which  others  have  struck  and  broken. 

Finally,  the  more  general  and  ardent  the  desire  to  regain  lost  liberties, 
the  more  necessary,  at  the  same  time,  is  the  study  of  the  reign  which 


PEEFAOE.  Vll 

alone  can  tell  us  how  those  liberties  perished.  The  truth  as  to  this  reign 
has  never  been  wholly  told.  It  has  been  distorted  by  its  enemies,  and 
often  obscured  by  its  friends,  whilst  by  many  mere  spectators  of  events  as 
they  happened,  and  by  many  who  have  written  on  this  period,  after  taking 
therein  a  more  or  less  active  part,  the  verities  have  been  presented  in  a 
very  attenuated  form.  It  could  not  be  otherwise.  Rarely,  indeed,  do  we 
resign  ourselves  to  accept  equally  the  honour  of  success,  or  the  responsi- 
bility of  disgrace,  and  it  seems  a  dangerous  thing  to  reveal  the  wounds 
of  a  regime  which  we  aspire  to  see  renewed.  Many  feel  constrained  to 
draw  a  veil  over  or  keep  back  the  truth,  out  of  a  very  commendable  re- 
gard for  great  misfortunes.  More  are  afraid  of  causing  displeasure — 
either  to  actors  in  the  events  of  yesterday,  or  to  those  who  may  be 
participators  in  the  events  of  to-day  or  to-morrow.  Each  one  makes 
terms  with  his  recollections.  We  seek  to  set  up  an  illusion,  and  the 
opinion  takes  root  that  the  greatest  political  and  social  deluge  of  this 
century  was  an  effect  without  any  necessary  or  logical  cause, —  the 
simple  result  of  an  unfortunate  concourse  of  exceptional  and  fortuitous 
circumstances.  Thus  no  one  has  any  very  serious  reproaches  to  make 
against  himself.     Destiny  has  so  designed,  Fatality  has  done  it  all. 

Is  it  well  that  we  should  write  history  thus,  with  posterity  before  our 
eyes  ?  Do  we  know  what  we  are  doing  by  these  compromises,  these 
cowardly  evasions  ?  We  forget  the  truth  spoken  by  Montesquieu,  that 
"behind  great  events  there  are  always  great  moral  causes;"  and  we  fail  to 
see  that  if  no  one  be  responsible  for  the  misfortunes  we  deplore,  we  must 
demand  an  account  from  these  very  institutions  which  we  regret,  from 
these  very  lost  liberties  which  we  desire  to  see  recalled.  Thus  become 
justifiable  in  the  eyes  of  many  men  political  indifference,  distrust,  disdain 
even,  for  parliamentary  government,  and  for  those  liberties  to  which  they 
attribute  all  our  misfortunes.  Such  must  be  the  inevitable  results  of 
the  defaults  of  history,  of  interested  or  generous  reticence,  of  com- 
plaisant and  fatal  frauds.  No !  if  the  most  essential  of  our  political 
liberties  have  perished,  the  fault  lies  not  in  these  liberties,  nor  with  the 
charters  in  which  they  are  written  ;  the  loss  is  due  partly  to  individuals, 
partly  to  causes  which  will  be  examined  in  their  place.  I  shall  here  indi- 
cate but  one  cause,  particularly  disastrous  under  a  representative  form  of 
government,  and  I  shall  call  public  attention,  with  many  other  writers,  to  the 
abuses  of  our  administrative  system,  and  to  the  dangers  of  excessive  cen- 
tralization— the  unhappy  legacy  of  the  old  regime  and  of  the  first  Empire. 

12 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

I  wish  not  to  be  misunderstood.  In  pronouncing  at  this  period, 
with  almost  the  whole  of  my  countrymen,  against  centralization  without 
limits,  I  nevertheless  acknowledge  all  the  advantages  it  has  lent,  during 
many  centuries,  to  the  unity  of  public  power ;  and  I  do  not  forget  the 
most  characteristic  fact  of  our  history  which  exhibits  France,  from  the 
days  of  Charlemagne  down  to  an  epoch  approaching  our  own,  ever  increas- 
ing in  power  and  extent,  according  as  the  power  of  the  Sovereign  or  of 
the  State  grew  and  absorbed  within  itself  all  other  powers.  No  one  at 
the  present  day  can  deny  that  which  the  royal  authority,  aggrandized  and 
firmly  established,  has  done  in  consolidating  territory,  in  putting  an  end 
to  intestine  wars,  in  delivering  the  people  from  feudal  oppression.  I  will 
go  further.  In  a  great  country  like  France,  formed  out  of  many  states 
for  a  long  period  almost  strangers  to  each  other,  and  surrounded  by 
powerful  neighbours,  a  force  capable  of  maintaining  the  integrity  of  the 
soil,  of  preserving  order  and  peace  within,  of  acting  abroad,  and  extend- 
ing afar  our  relations  and  our  influence,  is  an  incontestible  necessity,  and 
one  which  all  judicious  men  are  constrained  to  admit. 

But  when  overleaping  every  barrier,  this  same  central  power,  in  place 
of  widening  the  sources  of  a  people's  life,  hinders  and  limits  them,  as  was 
the  case  in  France  during  the  second  half  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIY. ; 
when  it  contracts  or  destroys  the  liberties  necessary  to  the  equilibrium 
of  the  social  forces ;  when,  instead  of  stimulating  the  activity,  the 
vigilance,  and  the  energy  of  every  member  of  the  State,  it  benumbs  and 
paralyzes  them;  when  it  tends,  by  substituting  itself  for  the  combined  actions 
of  all,  to  deprive  every  individual  member  of  the  State  of  the  desire 
to  act,  this  central  power  becomes,  instead  of  a  means  of  progress,  an 
obstacle  and  a  danger. 

During  the  last  century  we  may  discover  many  points  of  resemblance 
between  the  practices  of  the  French  administration  and  the  governments 
of  China  and  of  the  Lower  Empire ;  and  if  there  was  in  the  legitimate 
aspirations  of  France  in  1789  an  idea  which  dominated  every  other,  an 
idea  common  to  all  the  three  orders  of  the  State,  an  idea  clearly 
and  warmly  expressed  by  all,  it  was  the  desire  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of 
centralized  administration.  Open  the  famous  records  of  the  period,  and 
at  every  page  we  shall  see,  under  one  form  or  another,  the  same  com- 
plaints, the  same  hopes. 

The  dangers  to  which  excessive  centralization  gives  rise  both  for 
governments  and  the  governed  have  been   exposed  in  our  own  time  by 


PREFACE.  IX 

the  most  eminent  men,  and  the  Emperor  himself  has  admitted  the  evil 
by  displaying  the  desire  to  apply  a  remedy.  Of  the  consequences  of  such 
a  system  I  shall  confine  myself  to  the  recalling  the  most  pernicious,  from 
the  double  point  of  view  of  morals  and  of  policy.  On  the  one  hand, 
we  see  face  to  face  with  the  omnipotence  of  the  State  the  complete 
separation  from  power  of  every  non-official  man,  and  his  absolute  impo- 
tence, whence  most  frequently  result  the  forgetfulness  of  the  public  weal, 
the  entire  absorption  of  the  individual  in  material  and  private  interests, 
general  apathy  and  abasement  of  character.  On  the  other  hand,  we  see 
the  inherent  instability  of  institutions,  of  laws,  of  interests,  and  of 
affairs  when  the  governmental  or  administrative  machine  works  in  such 
a  way  that  it  needs  but  the  touch  of  a  bold  and  firm  hand  upon  the 
principal  wheel,  upon  the  chief  motor,  tc  render  all  resistance  impossible, 
to  establish  by  coercion  a  victory  over  order. 

To  account  for  a  condition  of  things  rife  in  revolutions  of  all  kinds,  more 
often  under  a  representative  regime  than  any  other,  and  denounced  to  the 
preceding  generation  in  austere  and  indignant  language  by  the  illustrious 
Roy er- Collar d  when  passing  in  review  some  of  the  most  famous  events 
of  the  revolutionary,  consular,  and  imperial  epochs,  he  named  but  a 
sole  cause — administrative  centralization — growing  and  gathering 
strength  under  the  most  diverse  forms  of  government,  and  planting 
its  foot  upon  the  ruins  of  every  institution  where  French  liberties  had 
found  a  fleeting  refuge.  "  Monstrous  power,"  said  he,  "  power  destruc- 
tive, among  other  liberties,  of  electoral  liberty,  without  which  Ministerial 
responsibility  is  but  a  dead  letter,  and  representative  government  but  a 
fiction  and  a  phantom."  Such  was  the  gnawing  evil  which  Royer- 
Collard  pointed  out  in  the  state  of  France  under  the  Restoration,  an  evil 
which  has  existed  under  every  subsequent  reign :  it  has  proved  a 
mortal  wound  to  the  one  regime  as  to  the  other. 

To  struggle  against  an  evil  so  deeply  rooted,  to  cripple  the  action  of 
this  absorbing  and  limitless  power,  two  methods  present  themselves :  we 
may  restrain  it  by  abridging  the  number  of  its  prerogatives,  or  by  set- 
ting up  beside  it  other  powers  and  other  forces.  These  two  means  may 
be  essayed  simultaneously ;  to  speak  truly,  they  are  but  one  and  the 
same,  for  to  abridge  excessive  powers  is  to  create  salutary  checks. 

In  favour  of  this  view  there  is  the  feeling,  growing  stronger  every  day, 
which  tells  each  of  us  that'  our  revolution  has  destroyed  too  much,  has 
broken  too  many  of  our  traditions,  has  toO  far  forgotten  that  nations,  no 


X  PREFACE. 

less  than  families  and  individuals,  cannot  violate  natural  laws,  and  con- 
sequently cannot,  without  peril,  separate  themselves  entirely  from  their 
past.  Further,  if  it  were  shown  that  there  was  something  in  the  con- 
stitution of  ancient  France  the  loss  of  which  was  to-day  much  regretted, 
would  it  be  but  acting  courageously  and  sensibly  if  we  sought  to  recover 
it — at  least,  if  there  were  anything  to  be  regained,  if  all  had  not  been  so 
completely  destroyed  that  not  a  trace  could  be  discovered  ? 

It  is  a  fact  of  the  highest  importance,  according  to  my  view,  that  there 
exists  in  France  an  opinion  favourable  to  this  research — to  this  examina- 
tion. We  feel,  and  we  acknowledge,  that  the  administrative  power,  at  the 
present  day  omnipotent  and  concentrated  about  the  very  heart  of  the 
State,  can  only  wisely  be  limited  and  balanced  by  other  mighty  forces, 
whose  component  parts  should  work  freely ;  and  already  our  glances  are 
directed  towards  that  one,  of  all  our  institutions,  where  abides  some  feeble 
remnants  of  the  liberties  of  ancient  France — I  mean  the  institution  of 
General  Councils  of  our  departments. 

Great  and  legitimate  hopes  lie  in  this  direction  ;  there  lies  the  germ  of 
a  fruitful  institution,  as  is  proved  by  our  esteem  for  these  modest 
assemblies.  But  this  esteem  is  only  a  happy  sign,  a  wholesome  presage ; 
the  call  to  follow  in  this  track  is  but  faint.  What,  indeed,  in  a  vast 
empire  can  these  feeble  deliberative,  or  rather  consultative  bodies,  effect 
— elected  only  yesterday,  without  any  grave  powers,  meeting  so  rarely,  and 
for  so  short  a  time  ?  What  a  wide  interval  between  them  and  the 
ancient  meetings  in  our  country  of  States  and  of  Provincial  Assemblies,* 
the  happy  attributes  of  which,  before  the  French  Eevolution,  an  eloquent 
and  able  pen  has  recently  recalled  to  our  memory.  What  are  they,  in 
fine,  compared  with  those  Provincial  States  which  in  neighbouring 
countries — in  Belgium  and  in  Holland — are,  through  their  delegates, 
permanently  and  successfully  acting  as  the  agents  of  the  executive  power  ? 

It  is  not  solely  as  a  guarantee  of  the  maintenance  of  the  public 
liberties  that  the  prerogatives  and  the  authority  of  our  departmental 
assemblies  should  be  increased ;  it  is  desirable  they  should  possess 
enlarged  powers  in  order  that  those  who  take  part  in  their  deliberations 
should  be  raised  in  rank  thereby;  thus  the  right  to  sit  in  them  would 
become  the  object  of  a  high  and  legitimate  ambition,  the  sole  means 
perhaps  of  mitigating  the  evil  which  devours  us,  of  arresting  that  furious 

*  See  the  remarkable  work  of  M.  de  Lavergne,  on  "  The  Provincial  Assemblies  of 
France  previous  to  1789." 


PBEFACE.  XI 

and  disordered  movement  which  precipitates  the  provinces  upon  Paris, 
•which  each  day  draws  away  from  the  limbs  of  the  social  body  more 
blood  and  more  vital  strength  to  throw  them  upon  the  heart,  where  the 
plethora  is  mortal.* 

Statesmen,  celebrated  publicists,  have  understood  the  necessity  of 
creating  or  rather  of  re-establishing  throughout  the  extensive  territories 
of  our  departments  the  powerful  elements  of  local  forces,  and  of  strong 
incentives  to  human  activity. 

Already  in  some  parts  power  has  been  brought  together  to  act  on  the 
springs  of  justice,  of  military  authority,  and  of  public  instruction.  It 
remains  to  give  action  to  this  power.  This  appears  possible  only  by 
reanimating  in  a  sufficient  degree  the  representative  elements  of  the 
country,  so  that  the  elective  assemblies  shall  represent  not  simply  de- 
partments, but  vast  portions  of  the  soil,  called  indifferently  territorial 
or  seignorial  divisions. 

I  shall  dare  to  go  farther ;  and  may  my  presumption  be  pardoned  to 
one  of  the  historians  of  our  old  France !  I  shall  dare  to  dispute  the 
right  to  obliterate  some  of  the  names  of  our  ancient  provinces,  at  the  risk 
of  wounding  that  fatal  levelling  tendency  in  France  beneath  which  I 
have  always  seen,  whether  under  a  monarchical  or  republican  form,  the 
most  powerful  auxiliary  to  despotism.  It  has  dragged  our  sires  over  that 
dangerous  path  opened  by  the  author  of  the  "  Contrat  Social,"  when  out  of 
hatred  for  privileges  they  brought  down  all  things  to  the  level  of 
tyrannical  unity,  and  when  they  thought  that  in  order  to  be  free  it 
sufficed  to  be  equal.  The  members  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  at 
least  acted  logically  :  resolved  to  erase  every  vestige  of  the  institutions  of 
our  country;  all  powerful  in  the  centre  of  the  State; — it  being  moreover 
necessary  to  their  purpose  to  render  all  opposition  impossible — there  were 
no  more   effectual  means  for  the  execution  of  their   project  than  those 

*  I  can  only  give  here  a  few  sketches,  and  it  is  not  the  place  to  create  a  system. 
Preoccupied,  in  the  interests  of  general  liberty,  with  increasing  the  power  of  the  great 
provincial  elective  assemblies,  I  have  not  spoken  of  the  cantonal  and  communal  organi- 
zation. It  will  be  understood  that  these  will  form  the  basis  of  the  institutions  destined 
to  moderate  the  administrative  central  force,  and  to  balance  it.  A  celebrated  writer, 
Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill,  has  said :  "  In  many  cases  though  individuals  may  not  do  the 
particular  thing  so  well,  on  the  average,  as  the  officers  of  Government,  it  is  never- 
theless desirable  that  it  should  be  done  by  them  rather  than  by  the  Government,  as 
a  means  to  their  own  mental  education."  I  invite  the  reader  to  peruse  the  excellent 
comments  of  M.  Edou'ard  Laboulaye,  on  the  system  of  Mr.  Mill,  in  his  w oik,  "De 
l'Etat  et  de  ses  limites,''  pp.  53-68. 


Xll  PREFACE. 

they  conceived  and  carried  out.  Perceiving  an  obstacle  to  their 
enterprise  in  the  ancient  provincial  organization  of  the  country,  they 
extinguished  our  provinces ;  they  divided  them,  split  them  up  into 
scanty  fragments,  deprived  them  of  all  common  action,  and  of  all  those 
natural  bonds  created  by  heroic  names,  memorials,  and  historical  tradi- 
tions. The  provinces  thus  isolated  and  separated  one  from  the  other, 
it  presently  needed  but  the  word  of  a  master  to  prevent  their  making  the 
least  effort  without  his  orders,  or  of  settling  for  themselves  the  simplest 
question  or  the  most  trifling  affairs.  Paris  thus  became  more  and 
more  the  burning  hearthstone  of  all  our  interests,  of  all  political  contests, 
and  of  all  ambition  ;  the  equilibrium  of  the  body  social  has  been  dis- 
turbed for  the  apparent  benefit  of  .a  single  city ;  on  the  banks  of  the 
Seine  there  has  been  concentrated  movement  and  life,  whilst  almost 
everywhere  else  there  is  nought  but  paralysis  and  death. 

I  am  of  those  who  are  struck  by  the  perils  of  such  a  state  of  things, 
and  who  believe  that  it  is  imperative  to  act  against  the  baleful  tendency 
which  dragged  our  fathers  so  far.  To  carry  out  our  purpose,  we 
must  show  ourselves  to  be  as  logical  as  they  were ;  they  have  mutilated 
and  divided  the  limbs  of  France  in  order  to  enfeeble  them ;  we  must  now 
restore  life  to  them,  reunite  them  and  group  them  together  according  to  the 
natural  affinities  indicated  by  geography  and  by  history.  That  which 
has  been  overthrown  to  the  vital  prejudice  of  local  liberties,  the 
veritable  ramparts  of  all  political  liberties,  we  must  restore  in  the 
highest  possible  degree,  for  the  advantage  of  those  very  liberties  to  which 
we  afresh  aspire,  and  which  an  august  speaker  has  rightly  called  the 
crowning  of  the  edifice. 

Utopia !  cry  the  clever  and  superstitious  admirers  of  unity.  I  am 
aware  how  strongly  prejudice  acts  against  such  a  work,  against  any  re- 
constitution  of  provincial  powers.  A  writer  already  cited,  M.  Lavergne, 
although  he  has  demonstrated  better  than  any  one  else  the  action  of  the 
provincial  assemblies  created  under  Louis  XVI.,  yet  seems  to  me  not  to 
have  completely  comprehended  all  the  bearings  of  the  act  which  has 
destroyed  our  provinces.  "  This  act,"  he  says,  "  by  which  appellations 
derived  from  a  river  or  a  mountain  have  been  substituted  for  the  ancient 
names  of  the  provinces  of  France,  had  neither  advantages  nor  disadvan- 
tages, being  only  revolutionary  child's  play."  No,  it  is  not  child's  play  to 
substitute  for  a  national  name,  surrounded  by  the  spell  of  centuries,  a 
new  name  which  recalls  nothing  to  the  mind — to  the  memory.     It  is   in 


PBEFACE.  Xlll 

this  respect  that  states  and  bodies  are  constituted  like  historical  families ; 
in  snatching  from  them  their  past,  their  traditions,  the  honour  and  renown 
of  their  acts,  you  deprive  every  one  of  the  high  ambition  of  being  allied 
with  them,  of  the  legitimate  pride  of  being  an  off-shoot  from  them. 
Alas,  France,  so  jealous  of  her  honour,  of  her  preponderance,  towards 
foreign  nations,  is  afraid  of  herself  and  of  her  past !  Her  history,  if  one 
of  the  most  humble  of  those  who  have  written  it  may  be  permitted  to  say 
so,  her  history  is  that  of  her  provinces ;  we  cannot  read  a  page  of  it 
without  meeting  their  glorious  names,  those  of  her  ancient  geogra- 
phical subdivisions,  so  familiar  to  the  ears  of  our  ancestors,  and  so 
rapidly  being  effaced  from  our  own  minds.  The  French  provinces  appear 
not  only  in  our  own  history  but  in  the  history  of  Europe,  in  the  literature 
of  all  the  peoples  of  the  world ;  some  of  these  provinces  have  conquered 
kingdoms ;  they  reappear  everywhere  except  in  our  own  official  and 
political  language  and  on  our  own  maps,  to  the  inexpressible  astonish- 
ment of  strangers,  but  not  of  ourselves  !  *  This  forgetfulness  is  so  great, 
this  sad  prejudice  so  deeply  rooted  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  France 
could  of  herself  open  her  eyes  to  the  enormity  of  the  injury 
she  has  done  against  herself :  a  cruel  and  deep  wound  which 
perhaps  only  a  firm  will  at  the  summit  of  the  State  can  close  and 
heal.  Come  what  may,  the  glory — a  pure  and  lasting  glory — 
will  be  assured  to  the  prince  who,  without  lessening  the  proper  powers 
of  the  State,  shall  create,  or  rather  re-establish  in  France,  under 
whatever  denomination,  numerous  centres  of  interests,  of  powerful 
action,  and  of  life ;  to  him  who,  like  the  prophet  of  old,  shall  say, 
"Arise!"  to  these  languishing  limbs  of  the  State,  to  these  dry  bones ; 
to  him  who  shall  found  in  various  parts  of  the  empire  firm  institutions, 
natural  protections  of  the  rights  and  interests  of  all,  and,  to  use  the 
words  of  an  illustrious  man,  "capable,  should  they  be  wounded,  of  uttering 
a  loud  and  succour-bringing  cry  of  anguish. ""j" 

But,  as  we  know,  just  as  the  most  solid  ramparts  oppose  but  a  poor  re- 
sistance if  they  have  not  behind  them  disciplined  arms  and  intrepid  hearts, 

*  That  which  I  believe  to  be  desirable  and  practicable  to  save  from  oblivion  the  old 
names  of  our  provinces  exists,  and  has  been  recently  enforced  upon  a  very  important 
point  as  to  territory.  The  names  of  Savoy  and  of  Upper  Savoy  have  been  given  to  two 
new  departments  of  France.  What  danger  can  there  now  be  of  doing  for  the  interior 
of  the  Empire,  and  for  provinces  of  France  centuries  old,  that  which  has  been  done 
without  disadvantage  and  without  fear  for  a  frontier  territory  of  recent  annexation? 

+  Koyer-Collard. 


XIV  PREFACE. 

so  we  see  the  best  institutions  offer  but  a  weak  defence  if  those  who 
possess  them  have  not  the  heart  to  maintain,  and  are  ignorant  how 
to  defend  them  :  they  always  show  themselves  feeble  and  clumsy,  if 
they  be  not  surrounded  by  moral  and  temporal  interests  to  watch  over, 
by  rights  and  liberties  to  demand  or  to  maintain ;  sole  means  by  which 
all  can  be  gradually  brought  to  comprehend  and  to  practise  their  duty 
towards  their  country.  It  is  thus  that  the  men  of  our  workshops  and 
of  our  fields  may  rise  to  a  sense  of  the  public  weal,  above  the  too 
material  occupations  which  at  this  day  absorb,  without  enlarging,  their 
intelligence. 

Among  the  rights  and  liberties  which  every  Frenchman  has  an  interest 
in  demanding  or  in  defending,  the  most  sacred  are  those  of  conscience 
and  of  worship.  The  noblest  minds  of  our  time,  belonging  to  parties 
the  most  opposite,  but  alike  animated  by  love  of  country  and  of  wise  pro- 
gress, agree  in  the  view  that  religious  liberty  is  the  root  and  the  mother 
of  the  most  essential  of  the  liberties  of  modern  peoples.  Those  who 
are  free,  and  those  who  aspire  to  become  so  ;  all,  Catholics  or  Pro- 
testants, declare  the  religious  sentiment,  a  firm  Christian  belief,  to  be  the 
grand  foundation  of  the  liberty,  no  less  than  the  prosperity  of  some  of  the 
neighbouring  peoples,  and  the  most  powerful  instrument  for  resisting 
internal  tyranny  or  foreign  oppression.*  My  voice  joins  with  their 
eloquent  voices  in  protesting  against  all  trammels  imposed  upon  the  free 
exercise  of  religious  worship ;  against  maintaining  by  the  edicts  of 
authority,  a  pretended  uniformity  of  belief,  too  often  only  an  apparent 
uniformity,  the  sad  product  of  indifference  or  ignorance,  and  which 
before  long  conducts  a  people  to  the  worst  of  deaths — by  moral  and 
spiritual  atrophy. 

It  imports  very  much  less  whether  men  belong  to  this  or  that  Christian 
community,  than  that  they  hold  in  their  hearts  the  belief  in  God  and  the 
gospel.  The  chief,  the  indispensable  thing  is,  that  they  should  be 
Christians,  and  Christians  by  conviction.  In  vain  during  modern  days, 
so  different  from  antique  times,  shall  we  seek  for  a  free  nation  outside 
Christianity,  a  truth  which  is  comprised  in  the  grand  words  of  De  Tocque- 
ville :  "If  the  people  are  unbelievers,  they  must  be  serfs;  if  they  are 
free,  they  must  be  believers."     No  perils  then  in  liberty  :  in  throwing  off 

*  I  shall  cite  only  three,  because  in  my  eyes  they  are  the  most  eminent  representa- 
tives of  the  three  distinct  religious  tendencies — MM.  de  Montalembert,  de  Pi-essense", 
and  Laboulaye.     All  three  are  unanimous  on  the  point. 


PREFACE.  XV 

externally  an  illegal  and  tyrannical  yoke,  men  will  retain  for  themselves 
that  of  divine  law,  the  most  lawful  and  most  sacred  of  all  yokes ;  and 
whilst  astonishing  the  world  by  prodigies  of  heroism,  they  will  not  terrify 
it  by  their  crimes.  Servants  of  a  living  God  and  of  the  gospel,  they  will 
accomplish  what  anti- Christian  France  of  the  eighteenth  century  could 
not  achieve.  Should  liberty  be  wanting  to  them,  they  must  conquer 
it,  and  having  conquered  it,  they  must  guard  it. 

Stop  here.  I  thought  that  a  profession  of  principles,  clear  and 
distinct,  would  not  be  out  of  place  at  the  head  of  a  work  wherein  I  have 
endeavoured  to  draw  from  events  a  moral  lesson,  and  to  demonstrate 
under  what  conditions  a  people  acquires  liberty  and  preserves  it.  Of 
these  conditions  some  are  universal  and  immutable,  as  I  have  already 
shown  in  another  work.*  Others  necessarily  vary  according  to  time, 
circumstances,  and  the  genius  of  races.  But  if  it  be  true  that  popular 
liberty  consists  in  a  whole  people  participating  in  the  direction  of  its 
own  affairs,  it  is  but  a  delusion  if  this  participation  be  only  imaginary. 
Popular  liberty  is  only  possible  in  our  vast  modern  states  by  the  voice  of 
representation,  and  we  cannot  have  a  Government  representative  and  free 
save  when  representation  is  sincere  and  thorough. 

The  continued  violation  of  this  vital  condition  of  free  governments 
necessarily  conduces  to  despotism,  or  to  fresh  revolutions  ;  a  formidable 
truth  which  cannot  too  strongly  be  brought  to  light  during  the  present 
period  when  political  liberty  appears  ready  to  take  root  in  France.  I  have 
essayed  this  work,  the  more  difficult  because  of  the  narrow  limits  of  my 
framework.  I  have  done  my  task  without  anger,  most  often  with  sorrow, 
always  with  a  profound  feeling  of  the  duties  of  the  historian,  of  the  dan- 
ger towards  unborn  generations  of  ignoring  the  truth  as  to  contemporary 
times.  It  is  undoubtedly  fitting  that  all  friends  of  the  public  weal, 
to  whatever  party  they  may  formerly  have  belonged,  should  forget  their 
dissensions ;  it  is  good  that  they  should  mutually  pardon  each  other's 
errors  and  defects ;  but  it  is  needful  that  they  institute  a  severe  scrutiny 
of  these  errors  and  defects.  Merely  to  throw  a  convenient  veil  over  the 
past  is  not  to  serve  but  to  compromise  the  cause  of  those  liberties  which 
we  love  and  which  we  have  lost ; — is,  as  I  have  already  stated,  to  bring 
back  that  very  evil  which  has  not  been  able  to  preserve  these  liberties 
from  shipwreck. 

Free    institutions    and    the    great   principles   which  they   represent, 

*  "  Histoire  d'Angleterre  depuis  l'origine  jusqu'a  la  Kevolution  franyaise." 


XVI  PEEFACE. 

are  the  highest  expression  of  political  genius  among  the  civilized 
nations  of  modern  Europe.  The  governments  of  the  monarchs  of  the 
stagnant  East,  of  the  Caesars  of  pagan  Eome,  of  Sultans  and  of  Viziers, 
are  the  governments  of  infant  or  decrepit  peoples  steeped  in  ignorance  or 
brutishness.  There  is  nothing  there  to  imitate,  nothing  to  borrow  for  the 
French  nation — a  viril  and  Christian  nation.  The  Prince  who  governs 
France  has  already  many  times  expressed  the  generous  desire  to  increase 
her  franchises.  That  desire  is  sincere.  I  will  never  admit  that  an  able 
Prince,  knowing  his  strength,  and  imbued  with  the  feeling  of  true 
greatness,  would  prefer  the  enjoyment  of  absolute  power  to  the  honour 
of  reigning  over  a  people  truly  free ;.  I  will  not  believe  that  any  monarch 
would  not,  like  one  of  our  old  rulers,  be  more  happy  and  more  proud  to 
command  Freemen  than  Slaves,  Franks  than  Serfs. 

In  extending  my  work  to  a  recent  and  very  celebrated  date,  in 
alluding  to  deep  wounds  still  bleeding,  I  have  not  deceived  myself  as  to 
the  perils  of  the  enterprise.  Warnings  as  to  it  have  not  been  wanting, 
and  friendly  voices  have  been  raised,  telling  me  that  notwithstanding  my 
efforts  to  reconcile  truth  with  the  respect  due  to  character,  to  talent,  and  to 
misfortune,  it  would  be  rashness  in  me  to  display  perhaps  a  wide  diver- 
gence from  men  very  properly  highly  placed  in  public  esteem :  but  their 
acts  belong  to  history,  and  the  time  is  past  when  I  should  be  able  to  pardon 
in  myself  the  apprehensions  of  vulgar  prudence.  I  have  reached  that 
period  of  life  when  duty  is  endowed  in  men's  eyes  with  renewed  authority, 
when  a  single  ambition  is  allowed  to  reside  in  our  souls — that  of  being 
useful  to  mankind.  I  have  but  one  thing  to  ask  from  men,  a  very  great 
thing,  it  is  true,  and  most  difficult  to  obtain  from  them — their  confidence. 

I  ask  it  for  the  historian  very  much  more  than  for  the  work,  necessarily 
imperfect.  What  a  field  for  errors,  indeed,  the  space  of  twenty  cen- 
turies !  But  in  soliciting  the  indulgence  of  the  reader  for  my  faults, 
I  believe  that  I  have  never  given  to  any  one  the  right  to  place  in  doubt 
my  veracity,  my  sincerity  as  a  writer.  If,  notwithstanding  all  my  efforts, 
I  have  not  been  able,  in  touching  upon  a  contemporary  period,  to 
steer  completely  clear  of  reefs  or  rocks,  I  make  bold  to  allege  in 
my  justification  the  grand  and  simple  words  that  have  run  through 
the  centuries,  and  which  every  historian  worthy  of  the  name  should 
carefully  preserve  in  the  depths  of  his  heart — I  believe  ;  that  is  why  I 

have  spoken. 

Emile  de  Bonnechose. 


CONTENTS 


OF 


THE     FIRST     VOLUME, 


INTRODUCTION. 

PAGE 

I.  GAUL  BEFOKE  THE  ROMAN  CONQUEST 1 

II.  CONQUEST  OP  GAUL  BY  CESAR .     .8 

III.  GAUL  UNDER  THE  ROMAN  DOMINATION 17 

IV.  INVASIONS  OP  THE  BARBARIANS — DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE    .   23 


FIRST  EPOCH. 

REIGN  OF  THE  MEROVINGIAN  AND  CARLOYINGIAN 

DYNASTIES. 

BOOK  I. 
GAUL  UNDER  THE  MEROVINGIAN  DYNASTY. 

CHAP.      I.    THE  REIGN  OP  CLOVIS 37 

—  II.    PROM  THE  DEATH  OF  CLOVIS  TO  THAT  OF  DAGOBERT  1 46 

I.   THE  CUSTOMS  OP  THE    FRANKS — STATE   OF    GAUL    UNDER    THE  MERO- 
VINGIANS      46 

II.    GAUL  UNDER  THE  SONS  OF  CLOVIS 51 

III.  GAUL    UNDER   THE    GRANDSONS    OF    CLOTHAIR   I. — RIVALRY    OF   FRE- 

DEGONDE  AND  BRUNHILDA. — EPISODE  OF  GONDEVALD      .  .  .55 

IV.  REIGN  OF  DAGOBERT  1 68 

—  III.    SLOTHFUL   KINGS— DECAY   AND    END   OF   THE  MEROVINGIAN   DYNASTY — 

FROM   THE    DEATH    OF    DAGOBERT    I.    TO   THE   DEPOSITION     OF   CHIL- 

DERIC  III 70 

I.   THE  FIRST   SLOTHFUL   KINGS — GOVERNMENT  OF  EBROUIN,  MAYOR  OF 

THE  PALACE  IN  NEUSTRIA     .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .70 

II.   CONTINUATION      OP     THE     SLOTHFUL     KINGS — STRUGGLE     BETWEEN 

AUSTRASIA  AND  NEUSTRIA — MAYORALTY    OF    PEPIN  OF  HERISTAL    .      74 
III.    THE     LAST     SLOTHFUL     KINGS — END    OF     THE     STRUGGLE     BETWEEN 
AUSTRASIA.     AND'  NEUSTRIA — INVASION    OF    THE    MUSSULMANS — 
GOVERNMENT  OF  CHARLES  MARTEL         .  .  .  ,  .  .76 


XV1H  CONTENTS. 

BOOK  II. 
GAUL  UNDER  THE  CAKLOVINGIAN  DYNASTY. 

PAGE 
CHAP.      I.    PEPIN  AND  CHARLEMAGNE 85 

I.   BEIGN  OF  PEPIN  THE  SHORT 85 

II.   CHARLEMAGNE 89 

—  II,   FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLEMAGNE  TO  THAT  OF  CHARLES  THE  FAT  .    102 

I.   LOUIS  THE  D^BONNAIRE,  OR  THE  PIOUS 102 

II.    FROM   THE   DEATH    OF   LOUIS   THE  DtsBONNAIRE  TO  THAT  OF  CHARLES 

THE  FAT 109 

III.  FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLES  THE  FAT  TO  THE  EXPULSION  OF  THE 

CARLO VINGIAN  DYNASTY 115 

I.  GAUL  DIVIDED  BETWEEN  THE  •RACE  OF  CHARLEMAGNE  AND  THAT  OF 

ROBERT  THE  STRONG,  UP  TO  THE  ACCESSION  OF  LOUIS  IV.    .     .115 
II.  GAUL  UNDER  THE  LAST  CARLOVINGIANS  :  LOUIS  IV. ,  CALLED  D'OUTRE- 

MER,  LOTHAIRE,  AND  LOUIS  V.,  CALLED  THE  SLOTHFUL  .     .     .  120 


SECOND  EPOCH. 

THE  FEUDAL  MONARCHY,  FROM  HUGUES  CAPET  TO 

FRANCIS  I. 

BOOK  I. 

FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  HUGUES  CAPET  TO  THE  DEATH  OF 

ST.  LOUIS. 

THE     SUPREMACY    AND    GRADUAL    "WEAKENING    OF     THE     ARISTOCRACY — PROGRESS 
OF     THE     ROYAL      POWER — CONQUESTS     OF     THE    CROWN — THE      CRUSADES — 
ENFRANCHISEMENT   OF   THE     COMMUNES — ESTABLISHMENT    OF    THE     JUDICIAL 
ORDER. 

CHAP.      I.    EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FEUDAL  SYSTEM 135 

H.   REIGN    OF     THE    FIRST     CAPETIAN     KINGS — HUGUES      CAPET,      ROBERT, 

HENRY   I.,  AND   PHILIP   1 142 

HUGUES  CAPET 142 

ROBERT 144 

HENRY   1 147 

PHILIP  1 149 

—  III.  REIGNS   OF  LOUIS  VI.  AND   LOUIS  VII. .160 

LOUIS  VI. 160 

louis  vii 163 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

PAGE 

chap.  iv.  eeign  op  philip  ii.,  surnamed  augustus,  and  op  louis  viii.        .  167 

philip  ii. 167 

louis  viii 178 

—  v.  eeign  op  louis  ix.  (saint  louis) 180 

vi.  general    considerations   upon    the  state  of  france,  and  upon 

the  events  which  transpired  during  the  past  three  centu- 
ries, from  the  accession  of  hugh  capet  to  the  death  of 
saint  louis 192 


BOOK  II. 
FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  ST.  LOUIS  TO  THAT  OF  CHARLES  VI. 

DESPOTISM  OF  THE  ROYAL  GOVERNMENT  AND  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  LEGISTS — 
ACCESSION  OF  THE  VALOIS  TO  THE  THRONE — HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  WITH 
ENGLAND — THE  CELEBRATED  STATES- GENERAL — DISASTERS  IN  FRANCE — 
GREAT   SCHISM   OF   THE   EAST — ANARCHY. 

CHAP.      I.    REIGNS    OF    THE    SUCCESSORS   OF   SAINT   LOUIS,    UNTIL   THE   ACCESSION 
OF   THE    VALOIS — PHILIP  III. — PHILIP  IV. — LOUIS  X. — PHILIP   V. — 

CHARLES   IV. 207 

PHILIP  III 207 

PHILIP   IV 210 

louis  x 220 

PHILIP  V. 221 

CHARLES   IV.,   CALLED   THE   FAIR 223 

—  II.    ACCESSION   OF   THE   VALOIS — REIGN   OF   PHILIP   VI.         .  .  .  .    226 

—  III.    REIGN   OF    KING   JOHN 234 

IV.    REIGN   OF   CHARLES  V.,  CALLED   THE  WISE 251 

—  V.    REIGN   OF   CHARLES  VI 265 


BOOK  III. 
FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLES  YI.  TO  THAT  OF  LOUIS  XII. 

AWAKING  OF  THE  NATION — -EXPULSION  OF  THE  ENGLISH — END  OF  THE  HUNDRED 
YEARS'  WAR — EXTINCTION  OF  THE  GREAT  FEUDAL  SYSTEM  IN  FRANCE  BY  THE 
UNION  OF  THE  DUCHIES  OF  BURGUNDY  AND  BRITTANY  WITH  THE  CROWN- 
FIRST   WARS   WITH   ITALY. 

CHAP.       I.    REIGN    OF    CHARLES   VII 286 

II.    REIGN   OF    LOUIS   XI 306 

—  III.    REIGN  OF   CHARLES  VIII 31£ 

—  IV.   REIGN   OF   LOUIS  XII. '  .  .  .  .    332 


XX  CONTENTS. 


THIRD    EPOCH. 


ABSOLUTE    MONARCHY. 


FROM  THE  ACCESSION"  OF  FRANCIS  I.  TO  THE  CONVOCA- 
TION  OF  THE  STATES -GENERAL  BY  LOUIS  XVI. 


BOOK  I. 

FEOM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  FRANCIS  I.  TO  THE  FIRST  WARS  OF 

RELIGION  IN  FRANCE. 

RIVALRY  OF   FRANCIS   I.  AND   CHARLES  Y.~—  PREACHING    OF    THE    REFORMATION- 
CONTINUATION   AND   END   OF   THE   ITALIAN   WARS. 

PAGE 
CHAP.      I.    REIGN    OF     FRANCIS    I.     UNTIL    THE     SIGNATURE     OF     THE    TREAT!    OF 

MADRID 345 

II.    COURSE   AND   END    OF   THE   REIGN   OF   FRANCIS   1 356 

—  III.    REIGN   OF   HENRY  II. 372 


BOOK  II. 

FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  FRANCIS  II.  TO  THE  DEATH  OF 

HENRY  IV. 

RELIGIOUS    WARS — THE   LEAGUE — END   OF   THE   DYNASTY   OF   THE   V ALOIS— ACCES- 
SION  OF  THE    BOURBONS — REIGN    OF   HENRY   IV. 

CHAP.      I.    REIGNS  OF  FRANCIS  II.    AND   CHARLES  IX.  .  .  .  .  .  382 

FRANCIS  II 382 

CHARLES  IX 388 

—  II.    REIGN  OF   HENRY  III 405 

—  III.   FROM  THE   DEATH   OF  HENRY  III.  TO   THE   PEACE  OF  VERVINS  AND  THE 

PROMULGATION   OF   THE   EDICT   OF   NANTES       .....    423 
HENRY   IV 423 

—  IV.   FROM     THE     PEACE     OF     VERVINS     TO     THE     END    OF     THE    REIGN    OF 

HENRY  IV 439 


\ 


HISTORY    OF    FRANCE. 


INTRODUCTION. 
I. 

GAUL   BEFORE   THE    EOMAN   CONQUEST. 

The  vast  territory  contained  between  the  Rhine,  the  Alps,  the 
Pyrenees,  and  the  Ocean,  and  which  is  now  almost  entirely  known 
as  France,  originally  bore  the  name  of  Gaul.  In  the  most  remote 
periods  it  was  occnpied  by  the  Celtic  race  of  the  Gaels  and  by  the 
Iberians.  The  Gaels  formed  the  basis  of  the  Gallic  population,  and 
drove  the  Iberians  back  into  Spain.  Still,  the  latter  people  did  not 
entirely  disappear  from  the  soil  of  France,  but  partly  occupied  some 
southern  countries,  under  the  name  of  Aquitanians  or  Ligurians. 

The  Phoceans,  a  people  of  Greece,  eventually  formed  important 
establishments  in  the  south  of  Gaul ;  and  one  of  their  colonies  founded 
the  city  of  Marseilles,  or  Massalia. 

Another  nation,  that  of  the  Kymrys,*  made  an  irruption  into  Gaul 
about  three  centuries  B.C.,  the  greater  part  of  them  settling  between 
the  Seine  and  the  German  Ocean.  These  Kymrys  are  identical 
with  the  Belgas  or  Belgs  mentioned  by  Caesar,  to  whom  he  attri- 
butes   a    German    origin.      A    portion    of  the    Kymrys    went    even 

*  The  Kymrys  are  generally  confounded  with  the  Cimbri.  This  opinion  has  recently 
met  with  learned  contradictors  ;  one  of' whom,  M.  Roget  de  Belloquet,  in  his  "Gallic 
Glossary,"  an  introduction  to  his  "  Gallic  Ethnology,"  regards  the  Kymrys  as  closely 
related  with  the  Gaels,  and  considers  the  Cimbri  as  an  entirely  different  and  essentially 
Germanic  nation. 


2  GAUL   BEFORE    THE    ROMAN   CONQUEST.  [INTKODUCTION 

farther,  and  established  themselves  upon  the  seaboard  as  far  as  the 
month  of  the  Loire,  where  they  received  the  name  of  Armoricans,  or 
maritime  races.  All  these  tribes  are  indistinctly  designated  in  history 
by  the  name  of  Grauls.  They  were  generally  distinguished  for  frank- 
ness, courage,  and  generosity  :  they  were  hospitable,  but  intemperate ; 
fond  of  sumptuous  repasts,  and  ready  for  quarrels,  which  frequently 
ensanguined  their  banquets.  They  were  divided  into  a  multitude  of 
smaller  tribes  or  clans,  constantly  engaged  in  war  with  each  other. 

The  Grauls  originally  adored  the  material  forces  of  nature,  thunder, 
the  winds,  and  the  planets  ;  but  as  they  advanced  in  civilization  they 
•worshipped  the  moral  powers,  and  deified  the  virtues  and  the  arts. 
Their  best-known  divinities  are,  Hesus,  the  genius  of  war ;  Teutates, 
the  god  of  commerce  and  inventor  of  the  arts ;  and  Oginius,  the  god 
of  eloquence  and  poetry. 

Their  priests,  called  Druids,  were  divided  into  three  orders :  the 
druids,  properly  so  called,  who  were  the  interpreters  of  the  laws, 
instructors  of  youth,  and  judges  of  the  people ;  next,  the  vates,  or 
ovates,  intrusted  with  the  divinations  and  sacrifices  ;  and,  lastly  the 
hards,  who  preserved  in  their  songs  the  reminiscences  of  national  tradi- 
tions, which  they  were  forbidden  to  record  in  writing,  and  the  exploits 
of  their  heroes. 

The  priesthood  was  hierarchical,  and  had  as  its  head  a  sole  chief 
elected  for  life,  whose  power  was  unbounded.  The  ovates  and  bards 
lived  in  public  as  members  of  the  community ;  but  the  druids  of  the 
first  class  dwelt  together  in  profound  retreats,  where  they  initiated  into 
their  mysteries  and  sciences  the  young  disciples  who  aspired  to  the 
sacred  functions.  The  novitiate  was  painful,  and  sometimes  lasted 
twenty  years  ;  but  the  great  privileges  attaching  to  the  druids,  their 
exemption  from  taxation,  the  respect  shown  to  them,  and  the  authority 
they  exercised,  concurred  to  attract  numerous  disciples.  Their  books 
and  precepts  were  composed  in  verse,  "and  were  learned  by  heart ;  for  it 
was  an  invariable  rule  with  them  that  no  law  should  be  recorded  in 
writing.  They  taught  the  immortality  of  souls,  and  their  perpetual 
transmigration,  until  they  deserved  admission  to  the  celestial  mansions. 
They  were  versed  in  natural  philosophy.  Cassar,  in  his  "  Commentaries 
on  the  Gallic  War,"  tells  us  that  they  instructed  youth  in  the  movements 
of  the  stars  and  the  grandeur  of  the  universe,  as  well  as  in  the  nature 


I.]  GAUL   BEFORE    THE    ROMAN   CONQUEST.  3 

of  things  and  the  power  of  the  immortal  gods,  the  most  revered  of 
whom  was  Mercury,  inventor  of  all  the  arts,  guide  of  travellers,  and 
protector  of  commerce. 

There  were  among  them  druidesses,  or  females  affiliated  to  their 
order,  some  of  whom  adhered  to  celibacy.  These  women  were  the 
object  of  great  veneration :  they  were  supposed  to  have  a  foreknowledge 
of  events,  and  were  said  to  be  endowed  with  the  gift  of  curing 
diseases  and  commanding  the  elements. 

At  certain  periods  of  the  year,  and  on  all  solemn  occasions,  the  druids 
made  sacrifices,  offering  to  the  gods  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  domestic 
animals,  and  human  victims.  They  believed,  with  the  majority  of  the 
ancient  nations,  that  human  life  could  alone  be  ransomed  by  that  of 
their  fellow-men,  and  that  the  offering  most  agreeable  to  the  gods  was 
the  blood  of  criminals.  They  also  sacrificed  prisoners  of  war  ;  and, 
in  default  of  culprits  or  captives,  a  victim  was  designated  by  lot  : 
frequently,  too,  men  devoted  themselves  in  order  to  appease  the  wrath 
of  the  gods.  The  sacrifices  were  effected  either  by  fire,  which  con- 
sumed wicker-work  monsters  in  which  the  priests  enclosed  the  victims 
or  by  the  swordr  upon  large  stones  hollowed  out  on  the  surface,  and 
which,  laid  horizontally  on  other  stones  placed  in  a  vertical  position, 
formed  altars  called  dolmans.  A  great  number  of  these  are  still  in 
existence,  and  clumsy  representations  of  trees  and  animals  may  be 
seen  carved  on  them.* 

The  druids  attributed  a  medical  and  magical  virtue  to  vervain, 
snakes'  eggs,  and,  above  all,  to  mistletoe,  which  they  plucked  with 
mysterious  ceremonies  from  oaks,  trees  regarded  by  them  as  being 
under  the  special  protection  of  the  gods.  They  had  their  retreats 
and  principal  sanctuaries  in  the  depths  of  gloomy  forests,  where  no 
one  was  allowed  to  fell  or  lop  wood.  The  people  believed  these  sacred 
retreats  inaccessible  to  wild  animals,  impenetrable  by  the  storm,  and 
protected  from  lightning :  the  ground  in  them,  it  was  said,  trembled, 
and  abysses   opened,  from  whence   darted  snakes  that  clung  to   the 

*  In  some  parts  of  France,  and  especially  in  the  west,  other  druidic  monuments  are 
found  called  pentvans  or  mencheis  ;  they  are  enormous  blocks  of  uncut  stones,  set  up 
either  separately,  or  arranged  in  several  rows  in  avenues,  as  at  Carnac,  where  they  form 
eleven  parallel  lines  covering  an  immense  extent  of  ground.  A  third  variety  of  druidic 
monuments  consists  of  tumuli,  ,or  conical  mounds  of  earth  surmounting  a  tomb. 

E   2 


4  GAUL  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  CONQUEST.  [Introduction 

trees,  which  bent  and  straightened  of  their  own  accord,  while  the 
whole  forest  sparkled  with  fires.  The  druids  kept  in  these  forests  the 
military  standards,  to  which  they  alone  had  access ;  and  it  is  recorded 
that  they  were  themselves  not  uninfluenced  by  terror  on  entering  them. 
The  power  exercised  by  the  druids  was  not  solely  religious,  but 
political  and  social,  for  they  were  at  the  same  time  priests  and 
magistrates.  At  a  solemn  assembly  held  twice  a  year  on  the  frontier 
of  the  country  of  the  Carnutes  (pays  Ohartrain),  which  was  reputed 
to  be  the  central  point  of  Gaul,  they  delivered  judgment  and  had 
cognizance  of  nearly  all  public  and  private  disputes.  If  any  crime  was 
committed,  or  a  quarrel  ensued  about  an  inheritance,  they  decided  it ; 
and  to  them  also  belonged  the  right  of  rewarding  and  punishing.  The 
most  formidable  punishment  was  the  interdict,  and  they  pronounced 
it  against  any  man  who  proved  rebellious  or  indocile  to  them.  Those 
whom  the  druids  had  interdicted  from  sacrificing  were  placed  in  the 
ranks  of  criminals,  any  appeal  to  justice  was  closed  to  them,  and  they 
were  shunned  as  though  afflicted  with  a  contagious  disease. 

Among  the   Gauls    each  tribe  had,  at  the   first,  its    special  chief, 

who  ordinarily  assumed  the  title   of   king.      These   princes,  almost 

absolute  in  war,  were  during  peace  subject,  like  the  rest  of  the  nation, 

to  the   despotic  authority  of  the  priests,  who  were  for  a  lengthened 

period  omnipotent  in  Gaul.     Each  tribe  had  also  a  species  of  military 

equestrian  corps,  composed  of  nobles  or  knights.     Around  these,  men 

assembled — persons  of  free  though  inferior  condition,  who  selected  from 

-  among  the  nobles  a  defender  or  patron,  to  whom  they  attached  them- 

:  selves.     They  escorted  him  everywhere,  followed  him  to  the  wars,  and, 

in  exchange  for  the  protection  and  rewards  they  awaited  at  his  hands, 

•  devoted  themselves  to  his  person,  even  more  than  to  his  fortune,  and 

were  ready  to  die  or  live  for  him.     The  rank  of  a  noble  or  knight  was 

^estimated  by  the    number  of  followers  who  formed  his  escort.     The 

\mass  of  the  population  had  no  participation  in  public  affairs,  save  in 

revolutions  caused  by  the  rivalry  of  the  knights,  priests,  and  nobles, 

which  were  as  frequent  as  the  quarrels  and  wars  between  the  various 

tribes.     Still,   in  spite  of    these  clannish   feuds,   the    sentiment  of  a 

common   nationality  existed  among   the  Gauls;  and  at  certain  periods 

deputies  from  all  the  tribes  assembled  to  watch  together  over  the 

interests  of  the  whole  community. 


I.]  GAUL   BEFORE   THE    SOMAN   CONQUEST.  5 

It  was  impossible  for  the  numerous  tribes,  which  were  more 
occupied  with  war  than  with  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  to  find 
sufficient  resources  among  themselves.  Several  of  them  emigrated 
en  masse.  Countless  hordes  left  Gaul  at  different  epochs  and  spread 
over  the  adjacent  countries  and  even  remote  lands,  which  they  ra- 
vaged, and  where  they  went  to  conquer  a  new  country.  Among  the 
causes  which  produced  these  migrations,  the  chief,  next  to  want  of 
food,  was  the  temper  of  the  Gauls,  to  whom  repose  was  disagreeable, 
and  who,  rather  than  remain  at  home  in  peace,  entered  the  military 
service  of  foreign  nations.*  Frequently,  too,  the  tribes  conquered  in 
civil  discords,  abandoned  their  country,  and  sought  fortune  far  away. 

There  arose  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  nations  originating  in 
Gallic  colonies  :  one  of  these,  in  Spain,  formed,  by  fusion  with  the 
natives,  the  celebrated  nation  of  the  Celtiberians,  who  offered  the 
most  strenuous  resistance  to  the  Roman  invasion ;  and  others  settled 
in  different  points  of  Great  Britain,  peopling,  in  the  course  of  time, 
the  entire  southern  seaboard  of  that  island.  The  Gauls  also  burst 
into  Italy  on  several  occasions ;  one  of  their  tribes,  the  Umbrians, 
invading  that  country  about  fourteen  centuries  B.C.  and  establishing" 
themselves  in  that  portion  to  which  the  name  of  Umbria  has  adhered. 
Eight  centuries  later  (590  B.C.)  two  brothers,  Bellovisus  and  Sigovisus, 
nephews  of  a  celebrated  king  of  the  Bituriges  (inhabitants  of  Berri), 
each  directed  the  flood  of  a  formidable  invasion,  one  in  Italy,  the 
other  in  Germany.  The  army  of  Bellovisus  crossed  the  Alps,  being- 
attracted,  so  it  is  said,  by  the  delicious  fruits  of  the  south ;  invaded- 
the  country  to  the  north  of  the  Po,  and  founded  Milan.  Fresh- 
swarms  of  Gauls  came  one  after  the  other  to  settle  in  the  entire 
northern  part  of  Italy,  to  which  the  Romans  gave  the  name  of  Gallia 
Cisalpina  (or  Gaul  on  their  side  of  the  Alps).  The  principal  nations 
that  emanated  from  these  various  immigrations  were — to  the  north  of" 
the  Po,  the  Insubri  and  Cenomani,  and,  to  the  south  of  that  river,  the 
Boieni,  Lingones,  and  Senones.  The  last,  in  the  year  390  B.C.,  de- 
scended southward,  encountered  and  defeated  a  Roman  army  on  the 
banks  of  the  Allia,  captured  Rome,  and  attacked  the  Capitol.     While 

*  The  kings    of   Egypt,  Macedonia,    Epirus,   Carthage,  Syracuse,  and  the  monarchs 
of  Asia,  paid  a  heavy  price  for  the  help  of  the  Gauls,  whose  bravery  iWas  so  highly  - 
esteemed  that  it  was  thought  impossible  to  have  a  good  army  without  them. 


6  GAUL   BEFOEE   THE    ROMAN   CONQUEST.  [INTRODUCTION 

Italy  was  thus  a  prey  of  the  Gauls,  Germany  was  also  troubled  by 
them.  Those  who  followed  Sigovisus  penetrated  as  far  as  Pannonia, 
between  the  Danube  and  the  Save,  whence,  at  a  later  date,  fresh  bands 
rushed  like  a  torrent  over  Macedonia  and  Greece.  Other  Gauls 
founded  a  colony  in  Thra  ,  and  then  invaded  Asia  Minor,  where 
they  established  themselves  under  the  name  of  Galatians.  "  Gaul," 
says  Etienne  Pasquine,  "like  a  large  tree,  thus  extended  its  branches 
for  a  long  distance,  and  the  terror  of  the  Gallic  name  spread  over 
all  the  countries  of  the  universe." 

What  Tacitus  said  of  the  Britons  might  equally  be  said  of  the 
Gauls  :  if  they  had  been  united,  they  would  have  been  invincible. 
But  we  have  seen  how  perpetual  wars  affected  the  interests  of  the 
numerous  tribes  or  clans.  They  formed  great  and  powerful  confedera- 
tions among  themselves  for  the  common  defence ;  but  war  was 
waged  among  these  confederations  in  the  same  way  as  among  the 
separate  tribes ;  and  the  Romans  ever  had  the  art  of  securing  the 
support  of  one  to  crush  the  other.  They  did  not  venture  across 
the  Alps  till  they  had  subjugated  Cisalpine  Gaul ;  and  they  awaited 
a  favourable  occasion  to  extend  their  conquest  further.  They  were 
in  this  matter  powerfully  seconded,  not  only  by  the  war  which 
the  numerous  Gallic  tribes  waged  against  each  other,  but  also  by 
the  civil  troubles  and  internal  dissensions  between  the  various  classes. 
About  three  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  the  royal  government 
was  abolished  in  most  of  the  cities  of  Gaul,  in  the  midst  of  sanguin- 
ary revolutions :  the  warriors  and  the  druids  disputed  the  authority, 
and  the  whole  of  Gaul  was  weakened  by  their  divisions. 

This  intestine  contest  was  still  going  on  when,  a  century  and  a  half 
before  the  Christian  era,  the  Greek  inhabitants  of  Massalia  (Marseilles) 
invoked  the  assistance  of  Borne  against  the  enterprises  of  some 
Gallic  tribes  in  the  vicinity.  The  Bomans  responded  to  this  appeal ; 
and,  after  conquering  the  Gauls,  gave  their  territory  to  the  city  they 
had  succoured.  Thirty  years  later,  summoned  by  the  Massaliotes 
against  a  neighbouring  Gallic  nation,  the  Salic  Ligurians,  the  Bomans 
were  again  victorious ;  but  on  this  occasion  tthey  retained  a  portion 
of  the  conquered  territory,  and  built,  to  the  north  of  Massalia,  a  city 
originally  called  Aqua?  Sextse,  which  is,  at  the  present  day,  Aix,  the 
most  ancient  Roman  colony  founded  in  Gaul  (b.c.  123).     Eventually, 


I.]  GAUL   BEFOEE    THE    KOMAN   CONQUEST.  7 

the  Romans,  taking  advantage  of  disputes  which  had  broken  out 
between  the  confederation  of  the  Hsedui  and  that  of  the  Allobroges 
and  Arverni,  gained  two  great  victories  over  them  under  the  leadership 
of  the  consul  Fabius.  The  second  battle  was  fought  near  the  Rhone, 
and  was  one  of  the  most  sanguinary  recorded  in  history :  one  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  Gauls  are  said  to  have  lost  their  lives,  either  in 
the  waters  of  the  river,  or  by  the  sword  of  the  conquerors.  A  portion 
of  the  country  of  the  Allobroges  (Dauphine)  was  reduced  to  a  Roman 
province,  as  was  the  entire  seaboard  of  the  Mediterranean  as  far  as 
the  Pyrenees.* 

The  Romans  founded  there,  118  B.C.,  a  celebrated  colony,  that  of 
Narbonne,  and  gave  the  name  of  JSTarbonensis  to  the  vast  and  splendid 
province  which  they  formed  in  the  south  of  Gaul.  For  this  name 
that  of  Septimania  was  eventually  substituted  for  the  country  situated 
between  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Rhone ;  the  territory  contained  between 
the  latter  river  and  the  Alps  alone  retaining  the  name  of  Province 
or  Provence. 

The  Romans  did  not  cross  the  limits  of  the  colony  until  about  the 
middle  of  the  first  century  B.C.  They  had  in  the  interval  to  repulse 
a  formidable  invasion,  that  of  the  Teutons,  who  rushed,  like  a  torrent 
which  had  overflowed  its  bed,  over  the  Narbonensis.  Marius  exter- 
minated the  invaders  in  the  year  102,  near  the  city  of  Aix.  Forty 
years  later,  Julius  Caesar  appeared,  and  sought  to  acquire,  by  con- 
quering Gaul  at  the  head  of  the  Roman  legions,  a  sufficient  title  to 
reduce  Rome  herself  to  serfdom. 


*With  the  Romans,  that  portion  of  the  Transalpine  whose  conquest  preceded  the 
arrival  of  Caesar  in  Gfaul,  was  the  Province.  Hence  their  authors  are  frequently  found 
■designating  it  "by  the  name  Provincia.  At  a  later  date  the  epithet  of  Narbonensis 
was  added,  when  Narbonne  had  become  its  chief  city.  From  the  Latin  Provincia  is 
derived  Provence,  which  title,  before  it  was  restricted  to  that  portion  of  the  French 
territory  which  still  retains  the  name,  spread  for  a  long  time  over  the  whole  of 
France.  Sometimes  the  province  was  called  by  the  name  of  Gallia  braccata — 
derived  from  the  breeches,  in  Latin  braccce,  which  the  inhabitants  wore  ;  and  also  in 
opposition  to  the  Cisalpine,  where  the  Roman  garment,  the  toga,  was  adopted  at  an 
early  period,  whence  the  Province  obtained  the  name  of  Gallia  togata.  That  part  of 
Transalpine  Graul  which  still  retained  its  independence  was  called  Hairy  Gaul,  or  Gallia 
comata,  the  various  tribes  being  remarkable  for  their  long  hair,  while  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Province  wore  theirs  short,  after  the  Roman  fashion.  (Courgeon,  "  Recite  de 
VHistoire  de  France"  vol.  i.,  p.  43,  note  1.) 


8  CONQUEST   OF   GAUL   BY   CiESAR.  [INTRODUCTION 

II. 

CONQUEST   OF    GAUL   BY   C^SAE. 

In  his  immortal  work,  the  "  Commentaries,"  Caesar  has  himself  drawn, 
the  picture  of  the  country,  at  the  period  when  he  arrived  in  it  as  Pro- 
consul. "The  whole  of  Gaul,"  he  says,  "is  divided  into  three  parts, 
of  which  one  is  inhabited  by  the  Belgae,  another  by  Aquitani,  and  the 
third  by  those  whom  we  call,  at  Rome,  Galli,  and  who,  in  their  lan- 
guage, call  themselves  Celti.  These  nations  differ  from  each  other  in 
language,  manners,  and  laws.  The  Gauls  (Celts)  are  separated  from 
the  Aquitanians  by  the  Garonne,  from  the  Belgians  by  the  Marne  and 
the  Seine.  The  Belgse  are  the  bravest  of  all  these  tribes ;  strangers 
to  the  elegant  manners  and  civilization  of  the  Roman  Province,  they 
do  not  receive  from  external  trade  those  products  of  luxury  which 
enervate  courage ;  and,  moreover,  as  neighbours  of  the  Germans  who 
live  on  the  other  bank  of  the  Rhine,  they  are  continually  at  war  with 
each  other. 

"  The  part  inhabited  by  the  Gauls  (Celts)  begins  at  the  Rhone, 
and  has  for  its  boundaries  the  Garonne,  the  ocean,  and  the  country  of 
the  Belgee ;  it  also  extends  as  far  as  the  Rhine  on  the  side  of  the 
Helvetii  (Swiss)  and  Sequani  (Franche  Comte)  ;  it  is  situated  in  the 
north.  The  country  of  the  Belgae  begins  at  the  extreme  frontier  of 
Gaul,  and  is  bounded  by  the  lower  part  of  the  course  of  the  Rhine  ;  its 
position  is  in  the  north-east.  Aquitania  is  bounded  by  the  Garonne, 
the  Pyrenees,  and  the  ocean." 

These  three  great  nations  were  divided,  as  we  have  already  seen,  into 
a  multitude  of  independent  states,  in  the  majority  of  which  royalty 
had  been  abolished  for  the  last  three  centuries,  and  which  were 
governed  by  an  aristocratic  assembly,  called  by  the  Romans  the 
Senate,  in  which  two  factions  disputed  the  power.  One  of  the 
most  frequent  causes  of  discord  was  the  choice  of  alliances  which 
it  was  necessary  to  make,  in  the  midst  of  the  general  conflagration 
frequently  produced  by  the  rivalry  of  two  tribes.  "  In  Gaul,"  says 
Caesar,  "  each  town,  each  canton,  and  nearly  each  family,  is 
divided  into  factions :  before  the  entrance  of  the  Roman  legions 
into   Gaul,  .some  inclined  to  the  Hsedui,  and  others  to  the  Sequani. 


II.]  CONQUEST   OF    GAUL   BY   C^SAR.  9 

The  latter,  too  weak  of  themselves,  because  the  principal  authority- 
had  been  for  a  long  time  in  the  hands  of  the  Haedui  who  possessed 
the  largest  number  of  supporters,  had  united  with  Ariovistus,  king  01 
the  Germans,  whom  they  attached  to  them  by  presents  and  promises. 
Victors  in  several  battles,  in  which  they  destroyed  the  whole  of  the 
Haeduan  nobility,  the  Sequani  acquired  so  much  power,  that  a  great 
number  of  tribes,  formerly  allied  to  the  Haedui,  went  over  to  their  side. 
They  took  away  as  hostages  the  sons  of  the  chief  citizens,  imposed  on 
the  nation  the  oath  to  undertake  nothing  against  them,  seized  that 
portion  of  the  territory  conquered  by  their  armies,  and  obtained  the 
preponderance  through  the  whole  of  Gaul."  Such  was  the  internal 
state  of  the  country  when  Caesar  appeared  there. 

The  future  conqueror  first  displayed  himself  to  the  Gallic  nations  in 
the  character  of  a  protector.  They  were  menaced  by  a  formidable 
invasion.  Three  hundred  thousand  Helvetians,  after  burning  their 
own  towns,  and  ruining  their  own  fields,  so  as  to  destroy  all  hope 
of  return,  had  just  invaded  the  country  of  the  Sequani  and  the 
Haedui.  These  innumerable  hordes  had  already  commenced  an 
attack  on  the  neighbouring  Allobroges,  when,  summoned  by  these 
nations,  Caesar  hurried  up  at  the  head  of  his  legions,  defeated  the 
Helvetians  in  three  sanguinary  engagements,  and  drove  them  beyond 
the  Jura,  into  the  deserts  they  had  themselves  produced.  Deputies 
from  nearly  the  whole  of  Gaul  (Celtica)  afterwards  came  to  congratu- 
late the  victorious  hero. 

Some  time  later,  after  the  general  assembly  of  the  Gauls  had 
been  convened,  the  same  citizens  returned  to  Caesar ;  and,  throwing 
themselves  at  his  feet,  conjured  him  to  deliver  them  from  Ariovistus 
and  his  Germans,  who,  called  in  by  the  imprudent  Sequani,  were  now 
oppressing  their  own  allies  and  the  whole  of  trembling  Gaul.  Caesar 
alone  could  save  the  country  from  an  impending  and  cruel  servitude. 
The  Proconsul  responded  to  their  appeal  and  marched  against  the 
terrible  Ariovistus.  The  Germans  were  defeated,  and  the  debris  of 
their  dispersed  army  only  halted  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  twenty 
leagues  from  the  field  of  battle.  This  was  Caesar's  first  campaign 
in  Gaul. 

The  domination  of  the  Germans  was  succeeded  by  that  of  the 
Homans;    Caesar  imposed  his  will  on  the  country ;  and  the  Gauls  (Celts) 


10  CONQUEST   OP   GAUL   BY   C^SAR.  [INTRODUCTION 

soon   perceived   that  they   had   given   themselves   a   master   in   this 
formidable  auxiliary.    They  desired  a  change,  some  through  patriotism, 
others  through  inconstancy  and  levity  of  character. #     They  applied  to 
the  Belga3  to  deliver  them  from  the  Romans,   just  as  they  had,  in 
the  previous  year,  called  the  latter  to  help  them  against  the  Germans. 
The  Belgians  entered  into  a  league  :  but  Ca3sar  had  made  an  alliance 
with  one  of  their  most  important  tribes,  the  Remi ;    and,  introduced 
by  them  into  the  heart  of  Belgium,   he  crushed   the  confederates  on 
the  banks  of  the  Aisne  with  a  frightful  carnage,    and   then  exter- 
minated the  Meroii   (people  of  Hainault),  beyond  the  Sambre.      Of 
60,000  combatants  scarce   500  escaped,  and  the  name  of   the  nation 
disappeared.     The  Adriatici  (a  people  encamped  between  the  Sambre 
and  the  Meuse)    being,    however,    still   in  arms  in   Belgium,   Caesar 
stormed  Mannes,  their  principal  town,  massacred  a  part  of  its  defenders, 
and  reduced  the  rest  to  servitude,  no  less  than  53,000  prisoners  being 
sold  as   slaves.     His  lieutenant,   Crassus,  next  subjugated  Armorica. 
Caesar  had   only  appeared,  and  already  the  whole   of   Gaul   seemed 
conquered.     At  the  news  of  this  extraordinary  success,  fifteen  days' 
rejoicings  were  decreed  at  Rome. 

But  the  resolutions  of  the  Gauls  were  prompt  and  unforeseen.  In 
the  following  year  (56  B.C.)  Caesar,  who  was  then  in  Illyria,  learned 
that  the  tribes  of  Armorica  were  holding  as  prisoners  the  military 
tribunes  who  had  gone  among  them  as  friends  to  procure  provisions 
for  the  seventh  legion,  which  was  in  winter  quarters  in  the  territory 
of  the  Andes  (Augenvins).  The  Veneti,f  reassured  by  the  situations 
of  their  towns,  which  were  inaccessible  by  land  and  defended  by 
an  internal  sea  (the  gulf  of  Morbihan),  with  whose  ports,  isles, 
and  shoals  the  Romans  were  unacquainted,  had  given  the  signal; 
and  their  neighbours  at  once  imitated  them :  the  Britons,  inhabiting 

*  Commentaries  (Book  ii.).  Caesar  frequently  dwells  on  these  traits  of  the  Gallic 
character.  "It  is  the  custom  in  Gaul,"  he  writes,  "to  compel  travellers  to  stop, 
in  order  to  interrogate  them  about  what  they  know  or  what  they  have  heard  said. 
In  the  towns,  the  people  surround  the  merchants,  question  them  about  the  countries 
whence  they  came,  and  urge  them  to  tell  what  they  have  learnt.  It  is  on  such  rumour 
and  reports  that  they  frequently  decide  the  most  important  matters  ;  and  they  do  not 
fail  to  repent  of  having  thus  put  faith  in  uncertain  news,  which  is  frequently  invented 
to  please  them. " 

f  Tribes  of  Morbihan  whose  capital  was  Dariorigum,  at  the  present  day  Vannes. 


II.]  CONQUEST    OF   GAUL   BY   C^SAK.  11 

the  island  of  Britain,  also  promised  them  assistance.  Caesar  there- 
upon marched  up  from  Illyria ;  and,  although  the  Romans  were 
almost  strangers  to  the  navigation  of  the  ocean,  a  fleet  was  built  by 
his  orders  at  the  mouth  of  the  Loire.  Thus  prepared,  the  Romans 
attacked  the  enemy's  fleet,  and  captured  most  of  their  ships,  by 
boarding  them  :  a  calm  that  set  in  compelled  the  rest  to  surrender. 
The  most  distinguished  of  the  warriors  were  put  to  death ;  and  Caesar, 
entering  the  capital  as  an  irritated  victor,  caused  the  senators  to 
be  killed  by  way  of  example,  and  sold  the  whole  of  the  conquered 
population  by  auction.  While  he  was  thus  subjugating  Armorica,  his 
lieutenant  Sabinus  occupied,  after  several  engagements,  all  the  terri- 
tory between  that  country  and  the  Seine  ;  and  Crassus,  being  also 
victorious  in  the  south,  between  the  Loire  and  the  Garonne,  and 
from  the  latter  river  to  the  Pyrenees,  the  whole  of  Gaul  was  again 
conquered,  or  held  in  subjection. 

New  and  innumerable  enemies,  however,  contested  his  conquest  with 
Caesar.  Germany  was  agitated  on  hearing  of  the  disasters  in  Gaul, 
and  400,000  Usipetes  or  Teucteres  crossed  the  Rhine.  Caesar,  in  spite 
of  it  being  winter,  marched  against  these  barbarians,  surprised  and 
checked  them  at  the  confluence  of  the  former  river  and  the  Meuse, 
where  he  exterminated  nearly  the  whole  of  the  horde.  He  then 
crossed  the  Rhine  by  a  bridge,  which  he  constructed  in  ten  days, 
and  descended  the  opposite  bank,  which  point  no  Roman  general  had 
ever  before  reached. 

Caesar  presently  returned  to  Gaul,  and,  proceeding  to  the  sea-coast, 
where  Britain  offered  itself  as  a  prey,  he  resolved  to  invade  that 
island  the  same  year,  either  to  isolate  the  Britons  from  Gaul,  punish 
them  for  the  assistance  they  had  given  the  Yeneti,  or  in  order  to  obtain 
a  further  title  to  the  admiration  of  the  Romans.  He  crossed  the 
straits  with  the  infantry  of  two  legions  only,  and  landed  in  sight 
of  the  enemy  assembled  in  arms  on  the  shore.  The  Romans  gained 
several  battles ;  but  a  tempest  broke  up  and  dispersed  a  portion 
of  their  galleys,  and  drove  ashore  eighteen  vessels,  with  all  their 
cavalry  on  board.  Caesar  had  never  found  himself  in  greater  danger  ; 
-and  never  did  he  display  more  remarkable  daring,  resource,  and  bold- 
ness. He  collected  the  wrecks  of  his  galleys,  and  had  others  built ; 
and,  besieged  in  his   camp    by  the  Britons  whom  his  disaster  had 


12  CONQUEST   OF   GAUL   BY   CESAR.  [INTRODUCTION 

encouraged,  he  repulsed  and  pursued  them,  proudly  dictating  peace, 
and  demanding  hostages.  But,  while  speaking  as  an  irritated  master, 
he  was  preparing  to  retreat,  and  soon  after  re-embarked  with  his 
army. 

This  precipitate  departure,  in  spite  of  several  victories,  resembled  a 
flight;  and  Caesar  consequently  returned  the  following  year  (b.c.  54), 
with  several  legions  and  a  formidable  fleet,  resolved  to  make  the 
people  of  Britain  fully  feel  the  power  of  Rome  and  his  own.  Sailing 
from  Portus  Itius,*  he  landed  without  impediment,  sought  and 
pursued  the  Britons  into  the  interior  of  the  island,  fomented  divisions 
among  them,  attacked,  defeated,  and  subdued  them :  he  imposed  an 
annual  tribute  on  them,  received  their  hostages,  and  returned  with  a 
multitude  of  captives,  and  without  the  loss  of  a  single  vessel.  Rome 
derived  but  slight  profit  from  these  two  expeditions ;  and  Caesar,  as 
a  great  historian  remarks,  rather  pointed  out  than  gave  Britain  to  his 
successors.  Still,  he  had  attained  his  object,  in  acquiring  the  glory 
which  is  ever  attached  to  distant  enterprises  on  little-known  coasts ; 
and  already  he  had  no  equal  in  the  Roman  world. 

The  Gallic  war,  in  which  up  to  this  time  most  of  the  nations  had 
fought  separately,  appeared  to  be  at  an  end ;  but  they  united,  and 
it  broke  out  again  more  terrible  than  ever.  The  two  chiefs  of  the 
new  confederation,  which  was  first  formed  in  Belgium,  were  Indu- 
ciomarus  of  the  Treviri  (Treves)  and  Ambiorix  the  Eburone  (Liege), 
who  arranged  to  surprise  the  legions  dispersed  in  their  winter 
quarters.  Ambiorix  surprised,  in  a  defile,  a  legion  on  the  march, 
and  exterminated  it.  This  first  success  inflamed  the  warlike  tribes 
of  the  north  (Cambresis  and  Hainault),  and  they  flattered  them- 
selves with  the  hope  of  surprising  a  second  legion,  quartered  in  their 
country  and  commanded  by  Q.  Cicero,  brother  of  the  orator.  On  this- 
occasion  the  Romans  did  not  suffer  themselves  to  be  taken  off  their 
guard ;  but  they  were  shut  up  in  their  entrenched  camp,  which 
was  at  once  closely  invested.  Caesar  was  a  long  way  off,  but  he  im- 
mediately set  out,  and  on  arriving  by  forced  marches,  with  only  7000 
legionaries,  dispersed  the  multitude  of  Gauls,  and  liberated  the  camp. 

*  The  site  of  Itius,  which  was  situated  on  the  seaboard  of  the  country  of  the  Morini 
(Picardy),  is  extremely  uncertain.  Some  "believe  that  it  is  Calais,  others  Mardik.  It  is- 
generally  thought  to  be  the  old  port  of  Wessant,  near  Boulogne. 


jL]  CONQUEST   OF   GAUL   BY   C^JSAR.  13 

Winter   suspended  military  operations,  but   both  sides  prepared  for 
a  new  war. 

So  soon  as  spring  set  in,  Induciomarus,  the  confederate  of  Ambiorix, 
marched  against  Labienus,  who  was  quartered  among  the  Remi ;  but 
the  barbarian  was  defeated  and  his  head  sent  to  the  general.  Caesar 
completely  crushed  the  Treviri ;  and  then,  marching  through  the 
whole  forest  of  Ardennes,  fell  on  the  Eburones.  It  was  necessary  that 
their  chastisement  should  be  terrible.  Caesar  wished  to  destroy  even 
the  name  of  the  guilty  nation  ;  and,  inviting  the  neighbouring  German 
tribes  to  aid  him  in  his  vengeance,  he  left  the  territory  to  the  first 
occupant.  In  a  few  days  this  unfortunate  people  was  annihilated,  and 
the  whole  of  northern  Gaul  appeared,  for  the  time,  pacified.  In  the 
same  year  the  general  assembly  of  the  Gauls,  presided  over  by  Caesar, 
was  held  at  Lutetia,  the  capital  of  the  Parisii. 

Caesar,  however,  only  imperfectly  attained  his  object  by  terrorism. 
So  many  frightful  executions  inflamed  in  the  heart  of  his  enemies 
an  inextinguishable  thirst  for  vengeance,  and  imparted  to  the  con- 
quered the  courage  of  despair.  The  barbarities  committed  in  Belgium 
combined  against  the  Romans  all  the  nations  of  Gaul.  A  young 
Arverucan  (Auvergnat)  chief,  named  Yercingetorix,  was  the  soul  of 
the  general  league.  Elected  king  by  his  fellow-citizens,  he  displayed 
in  the  contest  an  activity,  an  intelligence,  and  a  heroism,  which,  had 
he  been  opposed  to  any  other  than  Caesar,  would  have  sufficed  to 
liberate  his  country. 

The  Proconsul  had  recrossed  the  Alps,  his  legions  were  scattered 
about  Gaul,  the  winter  was  severe,  and  the  snow  impeded  any  com- 
munication between  them :  the  moment  to  shake  off  the  yoke  seemed 
to  have  arrived.  A  solemn  oath,  taken  on  the  collected  standards, 
bound  together  all  the  principal  nations  of  Gaul,  and  the  revolt  com- 
menced with  the  massacre  of  the  Romans  quartered  in  the  city  of 
Getabena,  now  Orleans.  The  news  spread  almost  instantly  to  the 
furthest  extremities  of  Gaul,*  and  nearly  the  whole  country  revolted. 

*  "  The  news  soon  reached  all  the  states  of  Gaul ;  for,  whenever  any  remarkable  event 
occurs,  they  announce  it  to  the  neighbouring  country  by  shouts,  which  are  repeated  from 
one  to  the  other.  Thus  what  had  happened  at  Getabena  at  sunrise  was  known  to  the 
Arvernians  before  the  close  of  the  first  evening,  at  a  distance  of  160  miles." — De  Bella 
Gallico,  b.  vii. 


14  CONQUEST   OF    GAUL   BY   CiESAK.  [INTRODUCTION 

Yercingetorix  took  possession  of  the  fortified  town  of  Gergovia 
(Clermont),  whence  his  emissaries  spread  among  the  Gallic  tribes, 
announcing  that  the  hour  of  deliverance  had  arrived.  His  appeal  was 
universally  listened  to,  a  supreme  council  was  formed  of  confederate 
deputies,  and  the  chief  command  was  entrusted  to  Yercingetorix,  who 
was  speedily  surrounded  by  a  numerous  and  martial  army.  He 
divided  it  into  two  corps,  sent  one  southward  against  the  Roman 
province,  passed  with  the  other  through  the  country  of  the  Beturiges 
(Berri),  whom  he  induced  to  revolt,  and  prepared  to  attack  the  legions 
scattered  through  Belgium. 

Suddenly  it  was  learned  that  Caesar  had  reappeared  in  Gaul ;  and 
that,  after  securing  the  safety  of  the  Roman  province,  he  had  crossed 
the  snows  of  the  Cevennes,  ancf  was  now  carrying  fire  and  the  sword 
into  Arvernia.  Yercingetorix  turned  back  and  flew  to  the  defence  of 
his  native  country,  where,  however,  he  wished  that  the  Romans 
should  find  only  a  desert.  The  Arverni  themselves  burnt  their  cities 
so  that  they  might  not  fall  into  the  enemy's  hands  :  twenty  towns  were 
thus  destroyed,  and  only  one,  Avaricum  (Bourges),  the  capital  of  the 
Beturiges,  and  one  of  the  handsomest  cities  in  Gaul,  was  spared.  Caesar 
soon  besieged  it,  took  it  by  storm,  and  the  whole  population  was 
murdered  without  distinction  of  sex  or  age.  The  conqueror  next  pro- 
ceeded with  his  whole  army  to  besiege  Grergovia.  Yercingetorix  had 
arrived  under  the  wall  of  the  city  before  him,  and  his  camp  was 
already  set  up  at  the  foot  of  the  ramparts.  Caesar  attacked  it  with 
his  accustomed  vigour ;  but  Yercingetorix  drove  the  Romans  in  dis- 
order into  the  plain,  where  they  were  surrounded,  and  would  have 
been  destroyed,  had  it  not  been  for  the  immortal  tenth  legion,  which 
checked  the  advance  of  the  enemy,  and  enabled  the  fugitives  to 
re-enter  their  lines. 

This  success  inflamed  the  Gauls  with  new  courage.  Caesar,  aban- 
doned by  all  their  tribes  excepting  the  Remi  and  the  Lingones  (in- 
habitants of  Langues),  raised  the  siege  and  retired  beyond  the  Loire  into 
the  country  of  the  Senones  (Sens),  where  four  legions  were  under  the 
command  of  Labienus.  The  two  armies  joined,  and  Caesar,  thus  rein- 
forced, descended  the  valley  of  the  Saone,  in  the  direction  of  the 
Roman  province. 

During  this  period,  a  meeting  took  place  at  Bibracte  (Autun)  of  all 


II.]  CONQUEST   OF   GAUL   BY   CESAR.  15 

the  Gallic  nations,  which  by  common  accord  had  accepted  Vercinge- 
torix  as  their  supreme  commander.  Yercingetorix  had  moved  rapidly- 
forward  to  intercept  the  retreat  of  Caesar,  and  came  up  with  him.  The 
principal  strength  of  the  Gallic  army,  consisting  of  cavalry,  was  sent 
against  the  Roman  cavalry ;  but  a  corps  of  Germans  in  the  pay  of 
Caesar  turned  the  enemy's  flank,  and  the  Gallic  cavalry  and  infantry 
were  driven  into  the  river.  With  the  relics  of  his  army  "Vercingetorix 
withdrew  behind  the  walls  of  Alesia,  one  of  the  strongest  places  in 
Gaul,  and  Caesar  immediately  followed  him.* 

The  siege  of  Alesia  is  the  most  memorable  event  in  the  conquest  of 
GauL  Caesar  undertook  it  with  forces  inferior  to  those  of  the  be- 
sieged, and  carried  it  on  in  sight  of  200,000  Gauls,  who  had  hurried 
up  from  all  points  to  succour  the  city,  which,  being  already  closely 
invested,  and  suffering  from  the  horrors  of  famine,  despaired  of  deli- 
verance. The  conqueror  of  Gaul  never  displayed  greater  vigour, 
prudence,  and  genius  than  upon  this  occasion.  Three  deep  lines  of 
gigantic  circumvallated  works,  defended  by  formidable  intrenchments, 
and  innumerable  caltrops  scattered  about  the  trenches,  or  sharp  stakes 
driven  into  the  ground  at  regular  distances,  separated  the  Roman 
camp  from  the  city ;  while  other  lines,  no  less  formidable,  called  lines 
of  countervallation,  were  formed  between  the  camp  and  the  Gallic 
army  outside,  running^for  a  distance  of  14,000  paces.  Notwithstanding 
these  immense  precautions,  the  Roman  camp  was  all  but  surprised, 
being  attacked  simultaneously  by  the  army  of  the  confederates  and 
the  garrison ;  but  Caesar,  everywhere  present,  with  a  clear  head  in 
the  most  extreme  danger,  surveyed  calmly  all  the  points  menaced, 
and,  opposing  extraordinary  efforts  to  those  of  the  Gauls,  repulsed 
their  double  attack.  At  this  moment  the  corps  of  German  horse 
which  he  had  in  his  pay  appeared,  after  making  a  long  detour,  in 
the  rear  of  the  Gallic  army,  and  fiercely  attacked  it  at  the  moment 
when  the  Roman  legions  were  compelling  it  to  retreat.  This  final 
attack,  sudden  and  unforeseen  by  all   but    Caesar,   decided   the   fate 

*  This  town  was  situated  in  the  territory  of  the  Mandubi.  Its  site  is  still  undecided, 
and  the  question  has  given  rise  to  numerous  and  interesting  discussions  among  the 
learned.  Some  believe  they  find  Alesia  in  Alase,  to  the  n  ,rtk  ot  Salins  in  Franche 
Comte,  while  others  place  it  at  Alese-Sanite-Eeine  in  Mouat  Auxcis  in  Burgundy.  The 
latter  opinion  appears  to  us  the  better  founded,  after  a  stm  y  of  the  text  and  of 
topographical  charts. 


16  CONQUEST    OF    GAUL    BY   02ESAB.  [INTRODUCTION 

of  the  day,  and  that  of  Graul.  A  panic  terror  seized  on  the  conquered, 
who  fled  in  disorder,  and  fell  in  thousands  beneath  the  swords  of  the 
victorious  Romans.  Vercingetorix  and  his  army  were  witnesses  of 
the  defeats  of  those  from  whom  they  expected  their  salvation,  and 
re-entered  the  city,  which  was  left  to  itself,  without  provisions,  and 
incapable  of  prolonging  its  defence. 

Superior  to  his  fortune,  and  even  to  his  victors,  Vercingetorix  sent 
a  deputation  to  Caesar,  surrendering  the  fortress  to  him,  and  offering 
himself  as  a  sacrifice  to  save  his  adherents.  All  the  chiefs,  by  the 
Proconsul's  order,  were  brought  before  him.  Vercingetorix  sur- 
rendered himself.  "Wearing  his  richest  armour,  and  mounted  on  his 
war-charger,  he  went  round  the  tribunal  in  which  the  impassive  Pro- 
consul was  seated,  and,  stopping  in  front  of  the  conqueror,  silently 
threw  his  javelin,  helmet,  and  sword  on  the  ground.  Caesar  was 
pitiless.  The  hero  was  thrown  into  chains  and  taken  to  Rome, 
where  he  languished  in  prison  for  six  years :  he  was  eventually 
brought  forth  to  adorn  the  triumphal  procession  of  Caesar,  and  then 
died  by  the  hand  of  the  executioner. 

Gaul  never  recovered  from  the  great  disaster  it  had  undergone  at 
the  siege  of  Alesia,  when,  represented  by  the  majority  of  its  tribes,  it 
was,  as  it  were,  entirely  conquered  in  one  day.  A  last  campaign 
sufficed  for  Caesar  to  extinguish  the  smouldering  revolt  in  all  parts  of 
the  vast  territory,  and  he  did  so  with  blood.  In  this  way  he  com- 
pletely crushed  the  Beturiges  (inhabitants  of  Berri),  the  Carnutes 
(people  of  the  pays  Chartrain),  and  the  Bellovaci  (people  of  Beau- 
voisis)  :  he  passed  through  the  whole  of  Belgium  as  a  conqueror, 
and  then  returned  south,  grasping  and  pressing  his  vast  prey  in  his 
powerful  hands.  The  last  town  that  resisted  him  was  the  small  fort 
of  Uxellodunum,  in  the  country  of  the  Cadurci  (Quercy),  which  he 
took  by  cutting  off  the  water  supply,  and  barbarously  lopped  off  the 
hands  of  all  its  defenders,  whom  he  sent  away  in  this  state,  as  living 
testimonies  of  his  anger  and  his  vengeance. 

Such  was  the  end  of  this  terrible  war,  during  which,  as  Plutarch 
says,  Caesar,  in  eight  campaigns,  took  by  storm  800  towns,  subjected 
300  tribes,  and  fought  against  3,000,000  men,  of  whom  one-third 
perished  in  the  field  of  battle,  or  were  massacred,  while  another  third 
were  reduced  to  a  state  of  slavery. 


III.]  GAUL   UNDER   THE   ROMAN   DOMINATION.  17 

Master  of  Gaul,  which  was  conquered  by  his  arms,  but  whose- 
inhabitants  he  knew  to  be  too  brave  to  be  held  in  slavery  by  rigour,  he* 
resolved  to  win  them  by  entirely  different  conduct,  and  rendered  their 
yoke  easy.  The  country  was  reduced  to  the  state  of  a  Roman 
province,  but  Ccesar  spared  it  confiscations  and  onerous  burdens  :  the- 
cities  preserved  their  government  and  laws,  and  the  tribute  he  imposed 
on  the  conquered  was  paid  under  the  title  of  "military  pay.'* 
Reckoning  on  their  support  for  the  execution  of  his  ambitious  plans, 
he  enrolled  the  best  Gallic  warriors  in  his  legions,  conquered  Rome 
herself  by  their  help,  and  gave  them  in  recompense  riches  and 
honours.     The  Roman  Senate  was  opened  to  the  Gauls.* 

IIL 

GAUL  UNDER  THE  ROMAN  DOMINATION. 

The  Emperor  Augustus,  who  gave  an  organization  to  Gaul,  main- 
tained the  division  of  the  country  into  four  great  provinces,  but  he- 
changed  their  limits,  and  gave  the  name  of  Lyonnese  or  Lugdunensis 
to  Gallia  Celtica,  which  was  restricted  to  the  territoiy  contained  between 
the  Seine,  the  Saone,  and  the  Loire  ;  and  detached  from  it  on  the  east  a 
territory  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Sequanensis,  and  joined  to 
Gallia  Belgica.  The  latter,  when  thus  enlarged,  had  for  its  boundaries 
the  Rhine,  the  Seine,  the  Saone,  and  the  Alps.  Aquitania,  hitherto 
enclosed  between  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Garonne,  extended  as  far  as 
the  Loire  ;  and,  lastly,  Gallia  ISTarbonensis  was  comprised  between  the:. 
Mediterranean,  the  Pyrenees,  the  Cevennes,  and  the  Alps.  The  entire- 
country  was,  in  addition,  divided  into  sixty  municipal  circumscriptions, , 
or  cities,  the  principal  of  which,  after  Lyons,  the  seat  of  the  Roman 
government,  were :  Treves,  Autun,  Mmes,  Bordeaux,  ISTarbonne,  Tou- 
louse, Vienne,  and  Aries.  Eventually,  under  Diocletian,  the  Roman 
Empire  was  divided  into  four  great  prefectures  :  that  of  Gaul,  whose 

*  Julius  Cissar  only  admitted  into  the  Roman  Senate  the  principal  citizens  of  Gallia, 
Narbonensis  :  it  was  the  Emperor  Claudian  who,  in  the  year  48,  passed  the  celebrated 
decree  by  which  public  offices  and  the  Senate  were  thrown  open  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Gallia  Comata.  At  a  later  date  the  title  of  Ptoman  citizen  was  given  by  Caracalla  to 
all  the  free  men  of  Gaul  and  the  rest  of  the  Empire,  which  caused  a  contemporary  poet, 
to  say  of  this  Emperor  : — 

"  Urbem  fecisti  quod  prius  orbis  erat." 
(You  have  made  a  city  of  what  was  heretofore  a  world.) 

C 


18;  GAUL   UNDER   THE    EOMAN   DOMINATION,  [INTRODUCTION. 

chief  city  was  Treves,  comprised  three  great  dioceses  of  vicarships, 
Britain,  Spain,  and  Gaul.  The  latter  was  divided. for  the  last  time  at 
the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  by  the  Emperor  Gratianus,  into 
17  provinces,  containing  120  cities.  Each  province  was  governed  by 
an  officer  of  the  Empire,  and  the  cities  or  towns  received  from  the 
Romans  their  internal  administration  and  civic  organization:  they 
were,  in  addition,  governed  by  municipal  assemblies,  called  curies,  to 
which  landowners  were  alone  summoned.  Occasionally,  the  deputies  of 
all  the  provinces  met,  but  these  assemblies  never  had  saij  appointed  or 
regular  times  of  meeting,  and  they  fell  into  desuetude. 

Gaul  remained  for  four  centuries  subject  to  the  Romans..  Every- 
thing became  Roman  there :  there  were  knights  and  senators,  and 
the  druids  became  priests  of "  the  Greek  polytheism.  There  was 
indubitably  a  great  difference  between  the  civilization  of  the  Northern 
and  Southern  Gauls ;  but  the  religion,*  the  civil  laws,  the  municipal 
government,  and  administrative  system  of  Rome  prevailed  from  one 
end  of  Gaul  to  the  other.  All  those  who  possessed  politeness,  civiliza-, 
tion,  learning,  or  culture,  piqued  themselves  on  being  Roman.  The 
two  nations  spoke  the  same  language,  and  the  name  of  Gallo-Romans 
bears  testimony  to  their  intimate  fusion.  The  old  national  code  of 
laws  disappeared,  and  in  the  fifth  century  there  was  no  trace  of 
Gallic  institutions  in  Gaul. 

The  Gauls  transferred  to  the  arts  of  peace  that  intelligent  activity 

which  they  had  for  so  many  years  fruitlessly  expended  in  war,  and 

Roman  Gaul  was  for  a  long  time  flourishing.      The  axe  cut  down  the 

druidic  forests,  which  made  way  for  cultivation,  and  numerous  roads 

facilitated    the   progress    of    commerce    and   industry.      New   cities 

were   founded,    and  those    already  in   existence    increased  in  extent 

and  opulence,  rivalling   the  cities   of    Gallia    Narbonensis.      Treves, 

Mayence,    Cologne,    Bordeaux,    grew    and    prospered    through    the 

favour  of  an  advantageous  situation  for  trade  or  war ;  and  Lutetia 

(Paris),    reserved   for   such   great   destinies,    became    the    residence 

of  the  Ceesars.     Most  of  the  Gallic  towns  were  adorned  with  palaces, 

statues,  thermse,  and  triumphal  arches.      At   various   points  of  the 

Gallic  territory  may  still  be  seen  ruins  of  Greek  art,  and  imposing 

#  Augustus  abolished  human  sacrifices,  and  only  granted  the  right  of  citizenship  to 
those  who  abandoned  the  druidic  rites. 


III.]  GAUL   UNDER   THE    ROMAN   DOMINATION.  19 

remains  of  aqueducts,  temples,  amphitheatres,  and  other  monuments 
of  Roman  architecture.  Schools,  which  soon  became  nourishing,  were 
established  in  several  cities.  Those  of  Lyons,  Autun,  and  Bordeaux 
acquired  a  great  reputation,  and  produced  grammarians,  orators,  and 
poets  ;  but  nearly  all  who  distinguished  themselves,  and,  among  others, 
the  poets  Valerius  Cato  and  Cornelius  Gallus,*  and  the  orators  Marcus 
Ca3sar  and  Domitius  Afer,  the  master  of  Quinctilian,  who  lived  in  the 
age  of  Augustus,  were  descended  from  the  Roman  colonies  of  Gallia 
Narbonensis.  Eventually,  Gaul  prided  itself  on  having  produced,  in 
the  fourth  century,  the  poet  Ausonius  of  Bordeaux ;  and,  in  the  fifth, 
Rutilius  Numatianus,  and  Sidonius  Apollinarius,  who  was  a  poet  and 
bishop,  and  whose  letters  are  a  precious  heirloom  for  history. 

The  Emperors  imagined  they  had  annihilated  druidism  by  proscribing 
the  druids,  abolishing  their  faith,  and  declaring  all  the  Gallic  gods 
Roman :  but  a  faith  is  not  destroyed  until  another  has  taken  its  place, 
and  the  paganism  of  Rome  had  already  lost  all  power  overmen's  minds. 
What  it  was  unable  to  do,  Christianity  effected;  and  the  last  druidic 
altars  fell  before  the  new  creed  in  the  recesses  of  the  forests.  It  was 
introduced  into  Gaul,  toward  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  by 
some  priests  of  the  Church  of  Smyrna,  whom  the  Bishop  St.  Poly- 
carp,  a  disciple  of  the  Apostle  St.  John,  sent  to  preach  the  Gospel 
in  the  Transalpine  countries,  placing  at  their  head  the  illustrious 
Pothinus,  first  Bishop  of  Lyons.  The  pious  missionaries  settled  in 
the  latter  city  about  the  year  160,  and  diffused  there  the  light  of  the 
Gospel. 

But  Rome,  while  introducing  her  civilization  into  Gaul,  had,  at  the 
same  time,  introduced  her  dissolute  manners  and  sanguinary  spectacles^ 
dear  to  the  multitude,  but  against  which  the  Christians  forcibly  pro- 
tested by  their  language  and  example.  They  had  thus  the  whole  of 
Pagan  society  hostile  to  them;  and,  amid  the  bloodthirsty  perse- 
cutions ordered  by  the  Emperors,  no  country  counted  more  heroic 
martyrs  than  Gaul,  and  no  Church  was  more  fertilized,  by  their  blood 
than  that  of  Lyons.  The  persecuting  edict  issued  by  Marcus  Aurelius 
against  the  Christians  produced  the  woes  of  that  Church  and  its  glory. 
The  Bishop  Pothinus,  ninety  years  of  age,  was  stoned  by  the  people, 

*  Valerius  Cato,  grammarian  and  poet,  was  surnamed  the  Latin  Siren.  Cornelius 
Gallus,  an  elegiac  poet,  was  the  friend  of  Virgil  and  Augustus. 

c  2 


20  GAUL  UNDER  THE   KOMAN  DOMINATION.  [Introduction 

and  died  of  his  wounds ;  forty-seven  confessors  perished  in  the  midst  of 
torments,  at  the  hands  of  the  executioner,  or  were  rent  asunder  by  wild 
beasts.*  St.  Irenaeus,  surnamed  the  Light  of  the  "West,  collected  at  a 
later  date  the  dispersed  members  of  the  Church  of  Lyons,  and  the 
word  of  Christ  was  borne  into  the  rest  of  Gaul,  toward  the  middle 
of  the  third  century,  by  seven  pious  bishops,  who,  leaving  Rome  for  the 
most  glorious  of  conquests,  proceeded  to  various  points  of  the  Gallic 
territory,  and  all  of  them  acquired  the  crown  of  martyrdom.  Among 
these  the  most  celebrated  was  St.  Denis,  who  halted  on  the  banks  of 
the  Seine  at  Lutetia :  he  was  decapitated  near  that  city  on  the  Hill  of 
Mars  (Montmartre),  and  interred  in  the  plain  which  still  bears  his 
name.  The  work  of  these  holy  confessors  was  successfully  resumed 
in  the  fourth  century  by  St.  Hilarius,  Bishop  of  Poitiers,  and  by  St. 
Martin  of  Tours,  whose  words  fructified  in  the  west  and  centre  of 
Gaul,  where  Christianity,  as  everywhere  else,  was  propagated  by  the 
very  efforts  intended  to  annihilate  it. 

Gaul,  subdued  by  the  civilization  of  Rome  as  much  as  by  her  arms, 
was,  under  the  first  Emperors,  tranquil  and  resigned.  A  few  daring 
chiefs,  such  as  Julius  Floras  in  Belgium,  and  Sacrovir  in  the  Lyon- 
nese,  tried  in  vain  to  rouse  the  Gallic  tribes  to  revolt.  They  found 
themselves  abandoned  so  soon  as  they  took  up  arms  against  Rome,  and 
perished  by  their  own  hands.  But,  eventually,  Gaul  suffered  greatly 
through  the  disorders  of  the  Empire  and  the  perpetual  revolutions  that 
shook  it.  No  law  determined  the  form  of  accession  to  the  imperial 
throne  :  the  armies,  scattered  about  the  provinces,  frequently  arrogated 
the  right  of  electing  the  sovereign,  and  victory  decided  between  them. 
The  Gauls  took  part  in  these  sanguinary  quarrels.  Thus,  on  the  death 
of  Nero,  being  influenced  by  Aquitanus  Vindex,  they  supported  Galba, 
and  afterwards  Vitellius.  On  the  death  of  the  latter,  they  dreamed 
of  regaining  their  independence.  Civilis,  aided  by  the  prophecies  of 
the  celebrated  druidess  Velleda,  collected  under  his  banners  the 
Batavi,   his   countrymen,  and  the  Belga?.     A  Gaul  of   the  name  of 


*  The  history  of  the  Church  has  preserved  for  us  the  names  of  the  most  illustrious 
martyrs  pof  this  glorious  epoch.  Not  one  of  them  surpassed  in  courage  the  slave 
Blandina,  a  maiden  of  delicate  complexion,  on  whom  the  executioner  exhausted  in  vain 
all  the  refinements  of  the  most  cruel  barbarity,  and  who,  when  under  torture,  answered 
all  the  efforts  of  her  persecutors  with  the  words,  "J  am  a  Christian  " 


HI.]  GAUL  UNDER  THE  ROMAN  DOMINATION.  21 

Sabimis  assumed  the  title  of  Emperor ;  the  druids  then  emerged  from 
their  forests,  and  announced  that  the  Gallic  Empire  was  about  to 
succeed  the  Roman.  The  insurrection  spread,  and  two  Roman  legions, 
allowing  themselves  be  led  away,  marched  against  Rome.  But  Ves- 
pasian was  reigning,  and  his  lieutenants,  under  his  firm  and  vigilant 
authority,  made  the  rebellious  tribes  and  legions  return  to  their 
obedience.  Civilis  defended  for  some  time  longer  his  independence 
in  Batavia;  but  Sabinus,  conquered,  and  deserted  by  all,  hid  himself 
in  a  vault,  where  his  wife,  Eponina,  who  immortalized  herself  by  her 
conjugal  tenderness  and  her  courage,  buried  herself  with  him  during 
nine  years.  Sabinus  was  at  length  discovered  ;  and  Eponina,  in  order 
to  save  him,  embraced  the  knees  of  the  inexorable  Emperor :  unable 
to  obtain  his  pardon,  she  resolved  to  follow  him  to  the  grave,  sharing 
his  punishment,  as  she  had  shared,  during  his  life,  his  prison  and  his 
tomb. 

For  nearly  two  centuries  Gaul  served  as  the  battle-field  for  the 
generals  who  contested  the  Empire.  Already  the  numerous  and 
formidable  tribes,  formed  into  a  grand  confederation  in  Germany,  had 
tried,  on  several  occasions,  to  reach  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  ;  and 
occupied,  on  the  frontiers,  the  principal  strength  of  the  Roman  armies. 
In  this  incessantly  returning  peril,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  general 
disorder,  the  ties  that  connected  the  provinces  to  the  Empire  became 
daily  relaxed ;  and  toward  the  middle  of  the  third  century  Gaul  made 
a  new  effort  to  detach  itself.  The  legions  of  the  prefecture  of  Gaul 
recognized  as  Emperor,  about  the  year  260,  one  of  their  generals,  of  the 
name  of  Posthumus,  of  Gallic  origin,  who  was  assassinated,  and  had, 
during  thirteen  years,  several  successors,  known  in  history  under  the 
name  of  the  Gallic  Caesars.  Tetricus,  who  was  the  last  of  these,  weary 
of  power  and  its  dangers,  betrayed  his  army,  and  surrendered  himself 
to  the  Emperor  Aurelian. 

After  the  voluntary  fall  of  the  Gallic  chief,  barbarous  hordes  rushed 
upon  Gaul,  and  ravaged  it.  Devastated  by  them  on  the  one  hand, 
and,  on  the  other,  crushed  with  taxes  imposed  by  the  various 
candidates  to  empire,  and  exhausted  of  men  and  money,  the  Gallic 
cities  at  length  fell  into  the  most  miserable  condition.  The  fields 
remained  sterile,  for  want  of  men  to  cultivate  them ;  commerce 
perished ;   and  so  great  was  the  desolation  of  these  countries,  that  a 


22  GAUL   UNDER  THE   ROMAN   DOMINATION.  [INTRODUCTION 

great  number  of  freemen  made  themselves  serfs  or  slaves  in  order 
to  escape  the  obligation  of  bearing  a  share  of  the  public  burdens. 
The  serfs  revolted  toward  the  close  of  the  third  century,  and,  taking  up 
arms  under  the  name  of  Bagaudes,  burned  several  towns,  and  devas- 
tated the  country.  Maximian  crushed  them ;  but  his  victory  did  not 
restore  life  to  the  Gallic  nation,  for  the  decaying  Empire  imparted 
its  own  distress  to  all  the  nations  it  had  conquered. 

Gaul  breathed  again,  however,  during  a  few  years,  under  the  protect- 
ing administration  of  Caesar  Constantius  Chlorus,  who  was  called  to  the 
imperial  throne  in  305,  by  the  double  abdication  of  Diocletian  and  Max- 
imian. After  him,  Constantine,  his  son,  was  proclaimed  Emperor  by 
the  army,  and  Christianity  began  its  milder  reign.  Persecution  ceased, 
and  this  prince,  like  his  father,  made  great  efforts  to  restore  prosperity 
to  the  cities  of  Gaul,  and  security  to  its  frontiers ;  but  the  dissensions 
which  troubled  the  Empire  upon  his  death  drew  down  fresh  calamities 
upon  it.  The  barbarians  drove  back  the  legions  entrusted  with  the  de- 
fence of  the  Rhine,  as  far  as  the  Seine  ;  and  terror  reigned  in  the  ruined 
cities  of  Gaul,  until  Constantius,  the  son  of  Constantine,  sent  the 
celebrated  Julian,  his  son,  invested  with  the  dignity  of  Caesar,  to  the 
help  of  this  unhappy  country.  Julian,  by  a  memorable  victory,  gained 
in  357,  near  Strasburg,  over  seven  Allemannic  kings  or  chiefs,  freed 
Gaul  for  some  time  from  the  presence  of  the  barbarians.  He  selected 
as  his  residence  the  capital  of  the  Parisians,  which  he  called  his  dear 
Lutetia ;  *  gained  the  love  of  the  people  by  his  vigilant  administration 
and  justice ;  and  employed,  with  indefatigable  ardour,  the  leisure  of 
peace  to  repair  the  ravages  of  war.  But  he  only  offered  a  temporary 
remedy  for  continuous  evils,  which  were  too  profound  to  be  cured  by 
human  hands.  Julian  himself  ascended  the  imperial  throne  on  the 
death  of  Constantius.  The  period  of  his  elevation  to  the  rank  of 
Augustus  was  also  that  of  his  apostasy.  He  abjured  Christianity,  and, 
in  his  fury,  attempted  to  destroy  it.  But  the  light  of  the  Gospel  had 
already  penetrated  beyond  the  Roman  world ;  and  Christianity,  more 
powerful  than  the  priests  of  the  Empire,  made  its  irresistible  sway 
felt   by   the   new   nations   which    God   had  reserved   for    the    over- 

*  Paris,  called  Lutetia  at  that  period,  was  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  lie 
de  la  Cite  ;  but  a  suburb  already  ran  along  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine :  here  stood  the- 
Palace  of  the  Thermae,  inhabited  by  Julian,  and  the  ruins  of  which  still  exist,  and  have 
retained  their  name. 


IV.]  INVASIONS   OF   THE    BARBARIANS'.  g£ 

throw  of  the  Empire.  They  completed  the  work  of  destruction 
commenced  by  civil  discords,  the  want  of  industry,  indolence,  misery, 
the  cowardice  of  the  multitude,  and  the  corruption  of  the  higher 
classes.  All  that  was  condemned  to  perish  was  overthrown  by  the 
barbarians  ;  but  they  stopped  before  the  Christian  Church,  which  they 
found  erect  and  established,  and  which  subdued  themselves. 

IV. 

INVASIONS   OF   THE   BARBARIANS — DESTRUCTION    OF   THE   WESTERN   EMPIRE. 

406—476. 
The  nations  that  destroyed  the  Roman  Empire  were  three  in  number : 
the    Gothic   nation,*  the   Tartar  nation,   or  Huns,    and  the  Teutonic 
nation.     They  were  subdivided  into  a  great  number  of  peoples. 

These  invasions  were  at  the  outset  neither  voluntary  nor  simul- 
taneous, but  solely  the  consequence  of  other  invasions.  Thus,  the 
emigration  of  the  Goths  in  the  second  century  drove  back  the  Germans 
on  to  the  frontiers  of  the  Empire ;  and  two  hundred  years  later  the 
arrival  of  the  Huns  in  Europe  forced  upon  it  a  portion  of  the  Goths 
themselves.  Up  to  the  Christian  era,  the  Goths  and  Tartars  were 
unknown  to  the  Romans ;  but  this  was  not  the  case  with  the 
Teutonic  nation,  which  occupied,  so  early  as  three  centuries  B.C.,  the 
vast  space  contained  between  the  Rhine,  the  Danube,  the  Oder,  and  the 
German  Ocean.     All  the  men  of  this  race  called  themselves  Germans — 

.  *  This  great  people,  whose  traces  are  still  visible  throughout  Europe,  had  settled  on 
the  shores  of  the  Baltic  ;  but  were  driven  thence  by  the  invasion  of  an  Asiatic 
people  led  by  Odin  into  the  northern  countries  of  Europe  toward  the  second  century. 
The  Goths  halted  on  the  shores  of  the  Euxine,  and  there  divided  into  two  groups,  which 
derived  their  name  from  their  geographical  position,  the  Visigoths,  or  western  Goths,  and 
the  Ostrogoths,  or  Eastern  Goths.  In  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  the  invasion  of 
the  Huns  into  these  countries  took  place.  The  Visigoths  then  emigrated,  and,  casting 
themselves  upon  the  Roman  Empire,  did  not  cease  to  ravage  it  till  the  period  when 
Ataulf ,  brother  of  the  terrible  Alaric,  founded  in  Southern  Gaul  and  Spain  the  monarchy 
of  the  Visigoths  (412). 

The  Ostrogoths,  after  enduring  the  yoke  of  the  Huns,  went,  under  ^Theodoric  the  Great 
and  with  the  assent  of  the  Emperor  Zeno,  to  reconquer  Italy  from  the  Herulians,  and  esta- 
blished there,  in  493,  the  kingdom  of  the  Ostrogoths,  which  perished  beneath  the  blows 
of  Belisarius  and  Narses  in  the  years  between  534  and  553. 

A  portion  of  the  Goths  had  remained  in  the  desert.  The  name  of  Gepidse  (laggards) 
was  given  to  them.  They  were  exterminated  in  the  sixth  century  by  the  Lombards,  at 
that  time  their  neighbours. 


24  INVASIONS    OF   THE    BAKBARIANS.  [INTRODUCTION 

welir-m'dnner,  a  word  in  their  language  signifying  men  of  war.  In 
the  end,  the  general  denomination  of  Germany  was  applied  to  all  the 
regions  which  they  occupied.  This  people,  however,  had  been  divided, 
long  prior  to  the  Christian  era,  into  two  great  factions,  the  Suevi  and 
the  Saxons,  who  were  separated  by  the  Hyrcinian  forest,  situated  in  the 
centre  of  Germany.*  These  were  the  Germans,  who,  before  invading 
the  Roman  Empire,  sustained  its  attacks,  for  so  lengthened  a  period,  in 
their  gloomy  forests. 

Two  great  historians,  Caesar  and  Tacitus,  have  depicted  these 
T>arbarians  for  us.  The  former  shows  us  a  pastoral  people  living  on 
milk  and  the  flesh  of  their  flocks ;  with  no  other  worship  than  that  of 
the  stars,  without  any  permanent  political  government,  and  led  into 
action  by  chiefs  temporarily  elected,  who  were  arbiters  of  life  and  death. 
The  most  noticeable  thing  we  find  in  Tacitus,  when  we  seek  in  his 
History  the  deep  and  imperishable  traits  that  characterized  in  his  day 
the  majority  of  the  German  peoples,  is  a  manly  feeling  of  human 
dignity,  and  a  love  of  individual  independence,  tempered  in  warlike 
minds  by  devotion  to  the  chief  and  respect  for  noble  blood.  What  in  the 
highest  degree  attracts  attention  in  their  customs  is  the  division  of 
power  between  the  prince  and  the  people,  the  sanction  of  the  laws  by 
popular  assent,  and  the  trial  of  accused  persons  by  assessors  freely 
elected.  Still,  these  forms  of  civilization  were  blended  in  the  Germans 
with  great  barbarity  ;  and  Tacitus  tells  us  that,  as  the  reward  of  their 
services,  they  received  from  their  chiefs  copious  repasts  and  took 
impart  in  sanguinary  orgies  ;  that  they  only  lived  for  war  and  the  chase, 
and  performed  superstitious  rites  of  the  most  horrible  kind,  amid  the 
cries  of  the  human  victims  sacrificed  by  them  on  these  occasions.  Such 
was  the  nation  destined  to  expel  the  Roraan  conquerors  from  the  soil 
of  Gaul,  and  to  found  a  new  and  great  people  by  the  admixture  of 
Germanic  and  Gallic  blood. 

All  the  Teutonic  tribes  did  not  participate  in  this  work,  although 

*  The  Teutonic  people  established  to  the  south  and  west  of  the  Hyrcinian  forest,  had 
received  the  name  of  Suevi,  derived  from  the  verb  sckovehen,  meaning,  to  be  in  motion.  The 
Suevi,  in  truth,  were  constantly  on  the  move,  and  made  perpetual  efforts  to  invade 
neighbouring  countries.  Those  Teutons,  on  the  other  hand,  who  dwelt  to  the  north  of 
the  forest,  being  less  nomadic  than  the  others,  were  known  by  the  name  of  Saxons,  a  word 
■-derived  from  sitzen  (sass  in  the  preterite),  to  be  seated,  or  at  rest.  This  great  division  of 
Germany  subsisted  up  to  the  second  century  of  the  Christian  era,  the  period  when  the 
three  great  Germanic  confederations  were  formed. 


IV.]  DESTRUCTION   OF   THE    WESTERN   EMPIRE.  25 

many  of  them  "invaded  Gaul  at  different  points.  A  small  number  of 
clans  maintained  themselves  in  the  country,  after  a  conquest  which 
was  for  a  long  period  slow,  and  limited  to  the  northern  frontiers. 
But  before  we  observe  the  future  masters  of  Gaul  crossing  in  turn  the 
Yssel,  the  Rhine  and  the  Meuse,  and  thus  adyancing  step  by  step  as 
far  as  the  banks  of  the  Seine,  it  is  important  that  we  should  notice 
the  events  which,  in  the  second  century  of  the  Christian  era,  had 
modified  the  state  of  the  German  tribes. 

The  great  emigration  of  the  Goths  from  north  to  south  had  just  over- 
thrown central  Europe ;  and  a  part  of  the  Suevi,  expelled  by  them  from 
the  country  of  the  lower  Danube,  went  up  toward  the  sources  of  that 
river,  between  the  Hyrcinian  forest  and  the  Rhine.  This  country 
received  from  them  the  name  of  Sue  via  or  Suabia;  they  formed  there 
a  confederation  of  the  relics  of  several  peoples  of  different  races,  who 
adopted  the  general  title  of  Allemanica,  or  collection  of  men  of  all 
descriptions  (Allemanner) .  The  territory  of  this  southern  confederation 
extended  between  the  Rhine  and  the  Hyrcinian  forest,  from  the  Maine 
up  to  the  Helvetic  Alps. 

The  peoples  of  Northern  Germany,  living  to  the  north  of  the  Hyr- 
cinian forest,  or  the  Saxons,  were  also  shaken  by  the  Gothic  migration, 
although  their  territory  remained  intact.  A  part  of  these  tribes, 
nearest  to  the  Scandinavians,  being  subjected  by  the  sons  of  Odin, 
themselves  adopted  the  Odinic  worship :  they  formed  a  body  under 
the  general  denomination  of  Saxons,  and  this  aggregation  was  joined 
by  the  Angles,  who  inhabited  a  country  called  Anglia,  to  the  south  of 
the  Cimbric  Chersonese.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
the  future  conquerors  of  Great  Britain,  who  established  themselves 
on  the  shores  of  the  Elbe,  the  Baltic,  and  the  German  Ocean.  For- 
midable pirates,  they  spread  devastation  along  the  coasts  of  Gaul, 
Great  Britain,  and  Spain,  as  early  as  the  third  century. 

Pressed  between  the  imperial  armies  and  several  powerful 
•confederations  of  nations  of  their  own  race,  the  Central  Germans, 
settled  between  the  Weser  and  the  Rhine,  also  recognized  the  necessity 
of  uniting  for  the  common  defence  ;  and,  toward  the  middle  of  the 
third  century,  a  new  confederation  was  formed  in  the  countries  com- 
prised between  the  two  rivers,  under  the  name  of  Francs  (Franken),  a 
-German   word,   whose   meaning   approaches   to   that   of  ferox,    and 


26  INVASIONS   OF  THE   BAKBARIANS.  [IntkoducIion 

signifies  proud  and  warlike.  These  tribes,  worthy  of  their  name,  were 
in  fact  the  most  celebrated  among  the  barbarians  for  their  bravery, 
and  it  is  from  them  that  the  French  have  derived  their  name.  "With 
the  exception  of  the  Frisons,  who  maintained  their  independence,  they 
included  in  their  confederation  all  the  peoples  established  between  the 
Rhine  and  the  Weser,  and  in  this  number  were  the  Bructeri,  the 
Teucteri,  the  Chamavi,  the  Oatti,  the  Angrivarii,  and  the  Sugambri. 
The  Franks  are  mentioned  in  history  for  the  first  time  in  the  year  241 ; 
and  a  few  years  later,  in  256,  a  horde  of  this  nation  traversed  Gaul, 
crossed  the  Pyrenees,  ravaged  Spain,  and  spread  as  far  as  Africa. 
The  Emperor  Probus  transported  a  colony  of  Franks  to  the  shores  of 
the  Euxine  ;  but  they  soon  grew  weary  of  their  exile,  and,  seizing  a 
few  barks,  they  audaciously  skirted  the  coasts  of  Asia,  Greece,  and 
Africa,  passed  between  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  faced  the  perils  of  the 
sea,  and,  following  the  coast  as  far  as  the  German  Ocean,  they  re- 
entered by  the  mouths  of  the  great  rivers  the  countries  whence  they 
originally  came. 

Thus,  in  the  third  century  of  our  era,  three  formidable  confedera- 
tions closed  Germany,  from  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  to  the  sources  of 
the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  against  the  imperial  armies  and  fleets — the 
Saxons  in  the  north,  the  Franks  in  the  west,  and  the  Allemanni  in  the 
south,  while  the  Goths  were  encamped  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Danube. 

All  these  nations,  between  which  the  Roman  Empire  of  the  West 
was  eventually  divided,  did  not  attack  it  at  the  outset  with  the 
intention  of  destroying  it.  Impelled  by  violent  and  irresistible  causes 
to  cross  its  frontiers,  they  were  all  eager  to  have  their  conquests 
legitimated  by  imperial  concessions  and  treaties  which  incorpo- 
rated them  with  the  Empire,  whose  powerful  organization  and 
superior  civilization  filled  them  with  astonishment  and  admiration. 
Their  kings  gladly  assumed  the  Roman  titles  of  patricians,  consuls, 
and  chiefs  of  the  militia,  dignities  with  which  several  of  them  were 
invested  by  the  Emperors,  as  allies  of  the  Empire  ;  and  their  highest 
ambition  was  to  be  united  by  marriage  with  the  imperial  family. 

At  this  period  all  the  frontiers  had  received  numerous  military 
colonies  of  barbarians,  hired,  under  the  name  of  Letes,  for  the 
service    of    the    Imperial    Government,    which    attached    them    to 


IV.]  DESTRUCTION   OF   THE   WESTERN   EMPIRE.  27 

it  by  the  concession  of  lands,  called  "  letic  lands."  "  The  em- 
perors," Procopius  tells  us,  "could  not  prevent  the  barbarians 
entering  the  provinces  ;  but  the  barbarians,  on  their  side,  did  not 
consider  they  actually  possessed  the  land  they  occupied,  so  long  as  the 
fact  of  their  possession  had  not  been  changed  into  right  by  the 
imperial  authority." 

The  Franks  were  among  the  barbarians  who  also  received  great 
concessions  of  territory  in  Gaul  long  before  the  epoch  assigned  to  their 
first  invasion  by  a  number  of  historians.  Repulsed  from  the  banks  of 
the  Weser  by  the  Saxons,  two  of  the  principal  tribes  of  the  Frank 
confederation,  the  Angrivarii  first,  and  then  the  Catti,  emigrated  in 
the  third  century,  and  drew  nearer  to  the  banks  of  the  Yssel,  the 
frontier  of  Batavia.  The  Romans  gave  these  Franks  the  name  of 
Salics,  or  Salii,  according  to  all  appearance  from  that  of  the  Tssel 
(Isala),  on  whose  banks  they  had  been  encamped  for  a  long  period.* 
This  people,  by  favour  of  the  civil  wars  and  revolts  which  agitated 
Northern  Gaul  at  the  end  of  the  third  century,  crossed  the  river,  and 
established  themselves  in  Batavia.  The  Emperor  Maximian,  after 
attempting  to  expel  them  from  the  Empire,  saw  that  it  would  be  more 
advantageous  to  have  their  help  in  defending  it ;  and,  about  the  year 
587,  he  allowed  the  Salic  Franks  to  settle,  as  military  colonists,  between 
the  Moselle  and  the  Scheldt,  from  Treves  (Augusta  Trevirorum)  as  far 
as  Tournay  (Turnacum). 

A  few  years  later,  two  other  Frank  tribes,  the  Bructeri  and 
Chamavi,  crossed  the  Rhine  in  order  to  support  the  claims  of  the 
usurper  Carausius  to  the  imperial  throne.     Constantius  Chlorus  and 

*  Archaeologists  have  supplied  different  etymologies  for  the  word  Salic.  I  have 
adopted  the  one  which  appeared  to  me  most  probable.  "M.  Gfuerard  has  proved,"  says 
M.  de  Petigny,  ' '  that  the  Salic  land  was  only  the  glebe  attached  to  the  manor  or  house, 
whose  name  is  Sal  in  all  the  German  dialects,  and  which,  as  it  could  not  be  divided,  did 
not  form  part  of  the  inheritance  of  the  daughters."  Still,  M.  de  Petigny  does  not 
believe,  and  I  agree  with  him,  that  we  can  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Salie 
Franks  derived  their  name  from  this  usage,  which  was  common  to  them  with  the  other 
tribes  of  Germany.  "  Let  us  not  forget,"  he  says,  "that  the  name  of  Salii  was  given 
them  by  the  Romans  :  now,  the  Romans  were  extremely  ignorant  of  German  customs, 
and  would  not  have  sought  the  designation  of  a  colony  of  expatriated  Germans  in  a 
custom  which  was  not  even  special  to  them.  Is  it  not  more  natural  to  think  that  the 
Belgian  Franks  were  called  after  the  name  of  the  country  which  they  had  quitted,  in 
order  to  settle  on  Roman  territory  ?  This  country  was  the  right  bank  of  the  Yssel, 
where  they  had  lived  for  upwards  of  a  century  before  entering  Batavia.  The  Latin 
name  of  the  Yssel  was  Isala." 


28  INVASIONS    OF   THE   BARBAlilANS.  [INTRODUCTION 

Constantine  his  son  contended  against  them  for  a  long  time,  and  the 
Emperor  Julian,  after  conquering  them,  allowed  them  to  found  a 
military  colony  between  the  Rhine  and  the  Meuse.  These  Franks 
were  called  Ripuarii,  from  the  Latin  word  ripa,*  because  they  settled 
along  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  one  of  the  two  great  rivers  which 
served  the  Roman  Empire  as  a  barrier  against  the  barbarians. 

The  Salic  Franks  and  Ripuarian  Franks  occupied  nearly  the  same 
respective  positions  in  the  fifth  century.  At  this  period  the  Empire 
was  divided  between  the  sons  of  the  great  Theodosius,  Honorius 
reigning  at  Rome,  and  Arcadius  at  Constantinople.  Gaul  formed  part  of 
Honorius's  share,  and  under  this  weak  prince  the  "Western  Empire 
gave  way  on  all  sides.  A  multitude  of  causes  had  hastened  its  disso- 
lution, and  anarchy  was  rampant  in  the  State.  The  barbarians  ad- 
vanced to  plunder  that  which  they  were  badly  paid  to  defend.  In 
vain  Rome  humiliated  herself  so  deeply  as  to  become  their  tributary, 
endeavouring  to  stop  by  presents  these  fierce  men,  against  whom  she 
could  no  longer  effect  anything  by  her  arms,  or  the  majesty  of  her 
name :  the  work  of  destruction  commenced,  and  in  spite  of  a  few 
fortunate  days  for  the  Roman  arms,  the  invading  flood  never  halted 
till  it  had  swallowed  up  the  Empire,  and  even  Rome  herself. 

The  Suevi  and  Yandals  f  burst  into  Gaul  in  406,  and  from  that 
date  up  to  4*76,  the  epoch  when  a  barbarian  chief  deposed  the  last 
emperor,  Italy  and  Gaul  were  one  vast  scene  of  carnage  and  desola- 
tion, in  which  twenty  nations  of  different  origin  came  into  furious 
collision. 

The  Suevi  and  Yandals  were  followed  by  the  Yisigoths,  who,  after 
ravaging  one  half  of  the  two  Empires,  and  sacking  Rome,  tore 
from  the  Emperor  Honorius,  who  was  invested  in  Ravenna,  the  con- 
cession of  the  southern  territory  of  Gaul,  situated  to  the  west  of  the 
Rhone.  The  Western  Empire  was  dismembered  on  all  sides.  The 
island  of  Britain  had  already  liberated  itself  from  the  yoke  of 
the  Romans,  and  the    Armorican  provinces    of   Western    Gaul  rose 

*  Ripuarios  a  ripa  Rheni  sic  vocatos,  et  primum  a  Romanis  ad  defensionem  limitis 
ad  versus  Gernianis  constitutes  fuisse,  nullus  dubitat.— Prcef.  Eccardi  ad  Legem  Rip. 

+  This  most  barbarous  of  the  barbarous  nations  was  of  Slavonic  origin.  Their  hordes 
■wandered  about  Germany  for  a  while,  and  eventually  joined  the  Suevi  in  invading  the 
Empire.  After  crossing  Graul,  the  Vandals  established  themselves  in  Spain,  and  in  the 
fifth  century  passed  over  to  Africa,  where  Belisarius  exterminated  them. 


IV.]  DESTKUCTION   OP  THE   WESTERN   EMPIRE.  29 

in  insurrection.  About  the  same  period,  the  Burgundians,  a  people 
of  Vandal  origin,  crossed  the  Rhine,  and  in  413,  founded,  on 
Gallic  territory,  a  first  Burgundian  kingdom,  between  Mayence  and 
Strasburg.*  The  chroniclers  of  the  eighth  century,  copied  by  all  sub- 
sequent writers,  have  selected  this  epoch  (418)  for  a  new  invasion  of 
the  Salic  Franks,  under  a  chief  whom  they  have  named  Pharamond, 
and  whose  existence  is  most  uncertain.  Contemporary  writers  did  not 
allude  to  him  ;  and  we  have  seen  the  Franks  established  in  the  north  of 
Gaul  in  the  third  century,  where  they  remained  almost  stationary  up  to 
the  fall  of  the  Empire. f 

Valentinian  III.  succeeded  Honorius  in  424,  and  reigned  in  sloth 
and  indolence  at  Bavenna,  to  which  city  the  seat  of  the  Western 
Empire  had  been  transferred.  .^Etius,  who  had  been  brought  up  as  a 
hostage  in  the  camp  of  the  Visigoth  conqueror,  Alaric,  commanded  the 
Roman  armies.  This  skilful  general,  the  last  whom  Borne  possessed,  had 
fought  with  success,  and  had  subjugated  several  barbarous  tribes  esta- 
blished in  Gaul,  the  Franks,  Visigoths,  and  Burgundians.  But  at  this 
moment  other  barbarians  poured  over  that  country.  The  Huns,  a  Scy- 
thian people,  the  most  cruel  and  savage  of  all,  left  the  shores  of  the 
Euxine  and  followed  Attila.  Their  multitude  was  innumerable.  Guided 
by  the  instinct  of  destruction,  they  said  of  themselves  that  they  were 
going  whither  the  wrath  of  God  called  them.  They  entered  Gaul, 
and  fired  and  devastated  everything  before  them  as  far  as  Orleans.  They 
threatened  Paris,  and  the  Parisians  attributed  the  salvation  of  their 
city  to  the  prayers  of  Sainte  Genevieve.  Still,  the  Romans  and 
Visigoths,  allied  under  the  command  of  ^Etius  and  Theodoric,J  com- 
pelled the  Huns  to  retreat:    Alaric  fell  back  into  Champagne,  and 

*  Questions  Bourguignonnes,  by  Roget  de  Belloquet.  This  work,  -which  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions  and  Belles  Lettres  has  crowned,  offers  opinions  as  profound  as  they  are 
ingenious,  about  the  origin  and  existence  of  the  Burgundians  in  Germany  and  Gaul. 
The  author  has  added  a  map  of  the  first  kingdom  of  Burgundy. 

+  Concerning  the  true  or  supposed  existence  of  Pharamond,  and  the  authenticity  of 
the  passage  in  the  Chronicle  of  Prosperus,  the  sole  record  of  the  fifth  century,  in  which 
Pharamond  is  mentioned,  consult  the  learned  and  judicious  dissertation  of  M.  de 
Persigny,  in  his  Etudes  sur  VEpoque  Merovingienne. 

%  This  Theodoric,  king  of  the  Visigoths,  and  successor  of  Tallin,  must  not  be  confounded 
with  the  great  Tkeodoiic,  king  of  the  Ostrogoths,  who,  a  few  years  later,  was  destined  to 
conquer  Italy. 


30  INVASIONS    OF    THE    BARBARIANS.  [INTRODUCTION 

there,  near  Chalons- sur-Marne,  on  the  Oatalaunian  plains,  a  fright- 
ful battle  took  place  in  the  year  451,  which  was  won  by  .iEtius, 
and  followed  by  a  most  awful  carnage,  in  which  it  is  said  that  300,000 
men  perished.  Merovseus,  chief  of  the  Franks,  joined  the  Romans  and 
Visigoths  on  this  sanguinary  day,  and  contributed  greatly  to  their 
victory  by  his  exploits. 

Gaul  remained  the  scene  of  bloodthirsty  struggles  between  the  dif- 
ferent tribes  that  occupied  the  country,  and  each  moment  of  repose 
was  followed  by  a  new  and  frightful  crisis.  Majorienus,  proclaimed 
emperor  in  457,  had  chosen,  as  his  lieutenant  in  Graul  and  master 
of  the  militia,  Syagrius  JEgidius,  who  belonged  to  one  of  the  great 
families  of  the  country,  and  was  distinguished  by  the  most 
eminent  qualities..  The  exalted  dignity  of  master  of  the  militia 
was  the  object  of  the  ardent  ambition  of  the  barbarian  chiefs,  esta- 
blished in  the  Empire  by  the  title  of  colonists,  letes,  or  confederates ; 
and  the  latter  respected  the  person  invested  with  it  as  the  delegate 
of  the  Emperor,  whose  supremacy  they  recognized.  An  example  of 
this  was  seen  in  the  time  of  -ZEgidius,  in  a  fact  worthy  of  attention,  and 
which  has,  for  a  long  time,  been  misunderstood.  Merovaeus,  king 
of  the  Salic  Franks,  having  died  in  458,  was  succeeded  by 
his  son  Childeric,  who  was  proclaimed  king  in  spite  of  his  extreme 
youth,  and  soon  afterwards  dethroned  and  expelled  by  the  people  who 
had  raised  him  on  the  shield.  The  Franks,  no  longer  possessing  a 
prince  of  the  royal  race,  voluntarily  subjected  themselves  to  the  Grallo- 
Roman,  ^Egidius,  master  of  the  militia,  and  recognized  him  as  their 
chief.  ^Egidius,  having  been  declared  an  enemy  of  the  Empire  by 
the  Roman  Senate,  the  Franks  recalled  Childeric,  placed  him  again  at 
their  head,  and  helped  in  the  overthrow  of  ^Egidius.  Childeric,  at  a 
later  date,  was  himself  invested  with  the  dignity  of  master  of  the 
militia,  and  fought  with  glory  for  the  Empire,  against  the  barbarians 
who  were  rending  it  asunder. 

The  Empire  subsisted  for  a  few  years  longer,  a  prey  to  frightful  con- 
vulsions. On  one  side  were  effeminate  princes,  indifferent  to  the 
public  calamities,  succeeding  each  other  on  the  throne  ;  chiefs  who  rose 
rapidly,  and  fell  as  rapidly,  by  assassination  or  revolt ;  an  army,  com- 
posed of  a  multitude  of  men  of  all  nations,  who  recognized  no  country, 


iy.]     .  DESTBUCTION    OF    THE   WESTBEN    EM2IEE.  31' 

whom  cupidity  alone  attached  to  tlie  Empire,  and  who  ravaged  it, 
when  more  was  to  be  gained  by  pillage  than  by  mercenary  service  •  and 
an  ignorant  and  wretched  people,  who  knew  not  what  laws  to  obey, 
who  were  exhausted  by  the  Emperors,  plundered  by  the  armies  and 
barbarian  hordes,  and  who  would  have  long  ceased  to  be  Romans,  had 
they  known  to  whom  they  could  submit  with  security.  On  the  other 
side,  were  new  and  ferocious  nations,  whose  independent  and  haughty 
temper  contrasted  with  the  effeminate  character  of  the  Romans ; 
tribes  which,  though  differing  in  manners,  language,  and  worship,  as 
well  as  origin,  seemed  to  have  come  to  an  understanding  to  hurry 
from  the  confines  of  the  world,  and  rush  together  on  the  Empire  as 
their  prey. 

Between  this  worn-out  society  and  these  new  races,  the  Christian 
Church  rose,  acquired  strength,  and  won  over  a  multitude  of  men,  to 
whom  the  world  only  offered  suffering,  and  who  eagerly  embraced 
the  hope  of  a  happier  existence  in  a  better  world.  The  Church  received 
them  all  into  its  bosom,,  without  respect  of  rank  or  fortune,  giving  its 
dignities  to  the  most  learned  and  the  most  able.  The  Church  alone 
was,  in  the  West,  the .  depository  of  some  learning ;  and  laboured  to 
produce  a  new  civilization  out  of  the  chaos  into  which  Europe  threat- 
ened to  fall.  Alone  it  stood  erect  and  constituted,  while  everything 
was  crumbling  away  around  it ;  and  when  the  Roman  magistracy 
disappeared  in  Gaul,  the  title  of  "defender  of  the  city"  passed  to 
the  bishops,  and  the  ecclesiastical  dioceses  were  everywhere  sub- 
stituted for  the  imperial  dioceses.  : 

The  Empire  terminated  its  painful  agony  between  the  years  475 
and  480.  The  last  prince  elected  by  the  Senate  of  Rome  and  the 
Emperor  of  Constantinople,  and  who,  by  this  double  title,  had  been 
legally  recognized  as  Emperor  of  the  West,  was  ISTepos,  proclaimed  Au- 
gustus at  Rome  in  474.  An  officer  of  barbarian  origin,  Orestes,  formerly 
secretary  to  Attila,  placed  by  Nepos  at  the  head  of  the  imperial  troops, 
(Jrove  him  from  the  throne,  compelled  him  to  fly,  and  raised  in 
his  stead  a  son  of  his  own  by  his  marriage  with  a  Roman  lady  of 
illustrious  race.  This  son,  named  Romulus,  was  recognized  as 
Emperor  by  the.  Senate  of  Rome  ;  but  his  election  was  not  confirmed 
by  the    Court  of  Constantinople.:    he   only  received  the  shadow    of 


32  INVASIONS   OF  THE   BARBARIANS.  [Introduction 

power,  and  was  called  in  contempt  by  the  sobriquet  of  Augustulus. 
He  was  overthrown  a  year  after  bis  election  by  another  barbarian 
officer  of  the  name  of  Odoacer. 

Gaul,  upon  the  fall  of  the  Empire,  was  divided  between  the  Visi- 
goths under  Euric,  in  the  south ;  the^peoples  of  Armorica,  in  the  west ; 
the  Germans  and  Burgundians,  in  the  east ;  and  the  Franks,  in  the 
north.  The  latter,  still  divided  into  two  nations,  the  Salic  and  the 
Ripuarian,  occupied  nearly  the  same  territory  they  had  conquered, 
and  the  possession  of  which  had  been  confirmed  to  them  in  the  two 
previous  centuries.  The  Ripuarian  Franks,  who  occupied  the  two 
banks  of  the  Rhine,  extended  on  the  French  side  of  that  river  as  far 
as  the  Scheldt.  The  Salic  Franks  occupied,  between  the  Scheldt,  the 
German  Ocean,  and  the  Somme,  a" territory  which  they  had  conquered 
under  their  King,  Clodion,  toward  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century. 
They  were  divided  into  three  tribes  or  small  kingdoms,  the  principal 
cities  of  which  were  Tournay  (Turnacum),  Cambray  (Cameracum), 
and  Therouanne  (Theruenna).  The  chiefs  or  kings  of  these  tribes  all 
belonged  to  the  royal  race  of  Clodion,  and  his  son  Merovasus.  The 
tribe  of  Tournay  had  acquired  the  first  rank  and  predominant 
influence  under  King  Childeric. 

A  portion  of  Gaul,  between  the  Somme  and  the  Loire,  had  re- 
mained Roman,  and  maintained  itself,  for  some  time  after  the  fall  of 
the  Empire,  independent  of  the  barbarians.  This  rather  extensive 
country  was  governed  at  that  time  by  the  Roman  general  Syagrius, 
son  of  the  celebrated  -<3Sgidius,  the  ex-master  of  the  imperial 
militia. 

The  Anglo-Saxons,  at  this  period,  having  invaded  Great  Britain, 
and  established  themselves  in  that  island,  a  great  number  of  the 
old  inhabitants  emigrated  and  settled  at  the  extremity  of  the 
western  point  of  Armorica,  where  they  were  kindly  welcomed  by 
the  natives,  who  had  a  community  of  language  and  origin  with  them. 
French  Brittany  derived  its  name  from  these  expatriated  Britons. 
About  the  same  period,  a  colony  of  Saxons,  expelled  from  Ger- 
many, established  themselves  in  Lower  Normandy,  in  the  vicinity  of 
Bayeux ;  while  another  colony  of  the  same  people,  hostile  to  the 
Britons,  occupied  a  part  of  Main 3  and  Anjou. 


IV.]  DESTRUCTION   OF   THE   WESTERN   EMPIRE.  33 

Such  was  the  state  of  Granl  when,  in  481,  Clotwig,  better  known 
by  the  name  of  Cloyis,*  son  of  Childeric,  and  grandson  of  Merovig 
or  Merovaeus,  who  gave  his  name  to  his  dynasty,  was  elected  king  or 
chief  of  the  Salic  Franks  established  at  Tonrnay. 

*  Among  most  of  the  barbarian  nations  the  proper  names  of  men  and  women  nearly 
always  indicate  some  distinctive  quality.  Merowig  or  Merwig,  is  formed  of  the  two 
words  mer,  great,  and  wig,  a  warrior.  Clohvig  is  derived  from  clot,  celebrated,  and 
ioig,  warrior  ;  Clothild  or  Lothild,  from  lot,  celebrated,  and  Mid,  a  boy  or  girl.  The 
barbarian  names  are  generally  harsh  or  difficult  of  pronunciation,  and  they  have  been 
transformed  by  use  into  softer  names.  Thus,  for  instance,  of  Merowig,  the  French  have 
made  Merc  vie  ;  of  Clotwig  or  Chlodowig,  Clovis  ;  of  Brunehild,  Brunehaut  ;  of  Theo- 
dorik,  Thierry ;  of  Gundbald,  Grondebaud ;  of  Karle,  Charles  ;  of  Leodgher,  Leger  ;  of 
Rodulf,  Raoul  ;  of  Atlrick,  Alaric,  &c. 


FIRST     EPOCH. 


KEIGN  OP  THE  MEKOYINGIAN  AND  CABLOYINGIAN 

DYNASTIES. 

481-986   (five  centuries). 


d2 


BOOK   L 

GAUL  UNDER  THE  MEROVINGIAN  DYNASTY,  481-752. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE    REIGN   OP    CLOYIS. 

481-511. 
The  success  of  the  Franks  in  that  part  of  Gaul  which  had  remained 
subject  to   the   Romans,  was   partly  due  to  the  state  of   oppression1 
into  which  the  Imperial  Government  had  plunged  the  people,  who, 
crushed   by   taxation,   impatient   to  break  the   yoke,    and   forced   to 
sustain  continual  struggles,  were  yet  deficient  in  resolution  and  vigour 
to  defend  themselves.      Other  causes  favoured  their   rapid  progress 
in  the  countries  occupied  by  the  Visigoths  and  Burgundians.     These 
hordes,  whose  invasion  of  Gaul  had  been  violent  and  accompanied  by 
great  ravages,  had  been  rapidly  softened  by  the  influence  of  a  superior 
civilization:    the    Goths,  more  especially,  assumed    Roman  manners, 
which  were  those  of  the  civilized  inhabitants  of  Gaul,  and  sought 
to    acquire   the   politeness,  arts,  and  laws  of   the   conquered,    whose 
religion,  however,  they  did  not  adopt.     They  were  attached  to  the 
Arian  heresy,  while  the  nations  they  had  conquered  were  maintained 
in   the    orthodox,   or  Catholic,  faith  by  their  bishops.-     The  latter, 
children  of  Rome  and  inheritors  of  the  administrative  power  of  the 
Roman  magistrates,  bound  to  recognize  as  their  pattern  and  head  the 
bishop  of  the  Eternal  City,  to  regulate  their  faith  by  his,  and  to  con- 
tribute  by   the  unity  of  religion  to  the  unity  of  the  Empire,   still 
laboured,  at  the  period  of  the  conquest,  to  retain  under  the  authority 


38  THE    EEIGN   OF   CLOVIS.  [Book  I.  CHAP.  I. 

of  Rome,  by  the  bond  of  religious  faith,  countries  in  which  the  bond 
of  political  obedience  was  severed. 

The  Yisigoths  and  Burgundians  did  not  recognize  the  authority  of 
the  bishops,  who  had  greater  hopes  of  a  nation  still  pagan  and  free 
from  prejudices,  as  the  Franks  were  at  that  time,  than  of  tribes 
who,  already  converted  to  Christianity,  refused  to  acknowledge  their 
creed  or  take  them  as  guides.  The  Goths  and  Burgundians,  besides, 
at  the  moment  when  they  were  attacked  by  the  Franks,  had  lost 
some  of  their  primitive  energy,  and  had  made  no  progress  in  the 
military  science  of  the  conquered  races  ;  but  the  Franks,  on  the 
contrary,  had  retained  all  the  savage  vigour  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Germany,  and  nothing  had  softened  their  natural  ferocity,  or  their 
spirit  of  independence.  When  they  were  conquered,  fresh  migrations 
of  Germanic  tribes  incessantly  arrived  to  repair  their  losses ;  when 
they  were  conquerors,  they  had  all  the  superiority  which  is  produced 
by  the  boldness  of  success  and  the  thirst  of  pillage,  peculiar  to  warlike 
tribes  that  have  nothing  to  lose  and  everything  to  gain. 

Clovis,  elected  chief  of  the  Franks,  soon  seconded  the  wish  of 
the  bishops  of  Gaul  by  espousing  Glotilda,  daughter  of  Childeric, 
king  of  the  Burgundians,  the  only  woman  of  the  Germanic  race  who 
at  that  period  belonged  to  the  Catholic  communion. 

The  first  enemy  he  attacked  was  Syagrius,  the  Boman  general 
and  governor  of  that  part  of  Gaul  still  independent  of  the  barbarians, 
whose  capital  was  Soissons :  Syagrius  was  vanquished,  and  the 
Franks  extended  their  limits  up  to  the  Seine.  Clovis  next  marched 
against  the  hordes  of  Allemanni,  who  were  invading  Gaul  to  wrest 
their  conquests  from  the  Franks,  and  fought  an  aetion  at  Tolbiac. 
Defeated  in .  the  early  part  of  the  day,  he  promised  to  adore  the 
God  of  Clotilda  if  he  gained  the  victory:  he  triumphed,  and  kept 
his  vow.  He  was  baptized  by  St.  Bemi,  bishop  of  the  city  of  that 
name.  "Sicambrian,  bow  thy  head!"  the  prelate  said  to  him;  "  burn 
what  thou  hast  adored,  and  adore  what  thou  hast  burned."  Three 
thousand  Frank  warriors  imitated  their  chief,  and  were  baptized 
on  the  same  day:  it  was  thus  that  the  Boman  Church  gained  access 
to  the  barbarians.  Clovis  at  once  sent  presents  to  Borne,  as  a  symbol 
of  tribute,  to  the  successor  of  the  blessed  Apostle  Peter,  and.  from 
this  moment  his  conquests   extended  over  Gaul  without  bloodshed. 


481-511]  THU  EEIGN  VF  3L0VIS.  39 

All  the  cities  in  the  north-west  as  far  as  the  Loire,  find  the  territory 
of  the  Breton  emigres,  opened  their  gates  to  his  soldiers.  The  bishops 
of  the  country  of  the  Burgundians  soon  sent  a  deputation  to  the 
conqueror,  supplicating  him  to  deliver  them  from  the  rule  of  the 
Arian  barbarians ;  and  Clovis,  on  their  solicitation,  declared  war 
against  the  Burgundian  King  Gondebaud,  the  murderer  of  Clotilda's 
father,  and  made  him  his  tributary.  Gondebaud,  when  conquered, 
promised  to  become  a  convert  to  Catholicism ;  and  most  of  the  towns 
on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Saone  were  united  under  the 
authority  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

Six  years  later,  Clovis  meditated  fresh  conquests,  and  turned 
his  attention  to  the  fair  southern  provinces  occupied  by  the  Visigoths* 
He  assembled  his  warriors  on  the  Field  of  Mars,  and  said  -to  them, 
"  I  am  grieved  at  the  thought  that  these  Arians  possess  a  part  of 
Gaul :  let  us  go,  with  God's  help,  and,  after  conquering  them,  possess 
their  territory."*  War  was  at  once  decided  on.  Clovis  obtained 
for  this  expedition  the  consent  of  the  Eastern  -Emperor  Athanasius, 
and  was  supported  by  the  Burgundian  King  Gondebaud.  He  nego- 
tiated with  the  Catholic  bishops  of  the  provinces  occupied  by  the  Visi- 
goths, kept  his  troops  under  strict  discipline,  and  offered  himself  to 
the  Catholic  population  of  the  country  as  a  liberator  and  avenger. 
Then,  marching  southward,  he  terrified  Alaric  II.  by  the  rapidity 
of  his  progress.  This  prince  called  to  his  aid  his  father-in-law, 
the  great  Theodoric,  King  of  the  Yisigoths,  who  at  that  time  was 
governing  Italy  with  glory  ;f  and  not  daring,  before  the  junction 
of  their  armies,  to  engage  in  a  decisive  action  with  the  Franks, 
retreated  before  them.  Clovis,  however,  -hurrying  on,  came  up  with 
Alaric's  army  near  Youille,  three  leagues  to  the  south  of  Poitiers,  and 

*  Gregory  of  Tours  {Historic*,  Francorum,  I.  2).  This  work,  which  contains  the 
annals  of  Gaul  from  the  year  417  to  591,  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  memorials  of 
the  national  history.     It  is  written  in  Latin,  like  all  the  ecclesiastic  MSS.  of  that  period. 

+  Theodoric  had  entered  into  an  engagement  with  the  Emperor  Zeno  to  penetrate  into 
Italy,  wrest  that  country  from  Odoacer,  and  govern  it  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor  of 
the  East.  He  therefore  set  out  with  his  people,  and,  in  489,  met  the  army  of  Odoacer 
on  the  banks  of  the  Isonzo.  He  conquered  it,  and  invaded  Lombardy,  where  Odoacer, 
after  a  few  successes,  followed  by  numerous  reverses,  perished  by  assassination.  Theo- 
doric from  that  time  governed  Italy  wisely,  and  tried  to  re-establish  there  Roman  law 
and  civilization. 


40  THE   REIGN  OF  CLOYIS.  [Book  I.  Chap.  L 

attacked  it.  Alaric  lost  his  life  in  the  engagement ;  the  Franks  were 
victorious  ;  and,  before  long,  the  greater  portion  of  the  country  occupied 
by  the  Visigoths,  as  far  as  the  sources  of  the  Garonne,  obeyed  Clovis* 
Carcassonne  checked  his  victorious  army.  A  portion  of  his  forces, 
under  the  command  of  his  elder  son,  Thierry,  marched  into  Arvernia 
(Auvergne),  in  concert  with  the  army  of  the  King  of  the  Burgundians ; 
and  the  combined  armies  subjugated  the  whole  country  as  far  as  Aries, 
the  capital  of  the  Yisigothic  Empire,  to  which  they  laid  siege.  In 
the  meanwhile,  the  Ostrogoths  of  the  great  Theodoric  were  approach- 
ing, and  the  Franks  and  Burgundians,  retiring  before  them,  raised  the 
siege  of  Aries  and  Carcassonne.  Peace  was  finally  concluded,  after  a 
battle  gained  by  the  Ostrogoths.  -  A  treaty  insured  the  possession  of 
Aquitaine  and  ISTovempopulania  (Gascony)  to  Clovis ;  Theodoric, 
as  the  price  of  his  services,  claimed  the  province  of  Aries  up  to  the 
Durance;  the  Burgundians  kept  the  cities  to  the  north  of  that 
city,  with  the  exception  of  Avignon ;  and  the  monarchy  of  the 
Visigoths  was  reduced  to  Spain  and  Septimania,  of  which  Narbonne 
was  the  capital,  having,  as  its  nominal  head,  a  child  of  the  name  of 
Amalaric,  son  of  that  Alaric  II.  who  was  killed  at  Vouille,  and 
grandson  and  ward  of  Theodoric.  The  latter  remained,  in  reality, 
and  up  to  his  death,  the  absolute  sovereign  of  the  two  great  divisions 
of  the  Gothic  Empire  on  either  side  of  the  Alps. 

The  Franks,  thus  checked  in  the  south  by  the  Ostrogoths,  marched 
westward,  and  arrived  at  the  country  of  the  Armoricans,  whose  great 
towns  submitted,  and  consented  to  pay  tribute :  the  Breton  emigres 
alone  defended  the  nook  of  land  in  which  they  had  taken  refuge,  and 
managed  to  retain  their  independence. 

The  campaign  in  Aquitaine  added  greatly  to  the  military  renown  and 
power  of  Clovis,  who  received,  at  this  period,  the  consular  insignia  from 
the  Emperor  Athanasius,  then  reigning  at  Constantinople,  and  who 
had  approved  his  expedition  against  the  Goths.  Clovis  proceeded  to 
Tours  in  the  year  510,  in  order  to  inaugurate  his  consulate  in  the 
most  venerated  sanctuary  of  Catholic  Gaul,  in  the  presence  of  the 
tomb  of  St.  Martin.  He  made  his  solemn  entry  into  the  city  on 
horseback,  with  a  diadem  on  his  head,  attired  in  the  chlamys,  and 
scattering  gold  pieces  among  the  mob :  he  proceeded  in  this  way  from 


481-511]  THE    REIGN   OF   CLOYIS.  41 

the  basilica  of  St..  Martin  to  the  cathedral,  to  thank  Heaven  for  his 
victories  ;  and  from  this  day  he  was  called  Consnl  and  Augustus. 

Clovis,  upon  this  occasion,  made  considerable  donations  to  the 
churches  of  his  states,  both  in  money,  derived  from  the  immense 
possessions  of  the  treasury,  and  lands  taken  from  the  imperial 
domains,  which  the  barbarian  kings  seized  in  all  the  conquered  pro- 
vinces. The  basilica  of  St.  Martin  obtained  the  greater  share  of  his 
liberality,  and  he  even  gave  to  it  his  war- charger. 

On  his  return  from  his  warlike  expedition  into  Aquitaine,  Clovis 
fixed  his  residence  at  Paris,  in  the  ancient  Palace  of  the  Thermae, 
formerly  occupied  by  the  Caesars.  His  attention  was  then  turned  to 
the  north  of  Gaul,  which  was  occupied  by  tribes  of  his  own  race,  and 
divided  between  the  puissant  kingdom  of  the  Ripeware  or  Ripuarian 
Franks,  which  extended  along  the  two  banks  of  the  Rhine,  and  the 
kingdom  of  the  Salic,  or  Salian  Franks,  who  were  enclosed  between  the 
Scheldt,  the  Somme,  and  the  sea.  Clovis  held  beneath  his  authority 
two-thirds  of  Gaul;  but  was  still  unrecognized  by  the  tribes  of  his 
own  nation,  with  the  exception  of  the  Salic  tribe  of  Tournay,  at  the 
head  of  which  he  had  gained  all  his  victories.  Tournay,  where  he  had 
alone  succeeded  in  propagating  Christianity,  had  become  an  episcopal 
see.  The  Salic  Franks  of  the  two  other  kingdoms,  Cambray  and 
Therouanne,  and  the  Ripuarian  Franks,  had  remained  attached  to 
paganism. 

Clovis  resolved  to  subjugate  them  all.  Religion  had  neither  repressed 
his  ambition,  nor  softened  his  ferocity  ;  and  he  employed  cunning  and 
violence  to  attain  success.  He  had  had  as  his  companion  in  his  last 
exploits,  Chloderic,  son  of  his  ally,  Sigebert,  King  of  the  Ripuarians ; 
and  he  inflamed  the  ambition  of  the  young  prince  by  language  as  flat- 
tering as  it  was  perfidious.  Chloderic,  urged  to  parricide,  went  to  join  his 
father,  who  was  hunting  at  the  time  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine, 
and,  surprising  him  in  the  wilds  of  Germany,  assassinated  him  there  ; 
after  which  he  hastened  to  Cologne,  seized  the  treasury,  and  had  him- 
self proclaimed  king.  Clovis,  constituting  himself  avenger  >  of  the 
murder  he  had  provoked,  procured  the  assassination  of  Chloderic  ;  and 
then,  setting  out  with  his  army,  seized  Verdun,  and  penetrated  into 
Cologne.     Taking  advantage  of  the  stupor  into  which  the  loss  of  their 


42  THE  KEIGN  OF  CLOVIS'.  [Book  I.  Chap/I. 

chiefs,  and  his  sudden  march,  had  plunged  the  Ripuarians,  he  affected 
to  be  horrified  by  the  crime,  and  solemnly  declared  that  he  was  inno- 
cent of  the  blood  of  Sigebert  and  Chloderic,  whose  deaths,  he  said, 
would  expose  the  Ripuarians  to  great  evils,  unless  they  accepted  his 
protection,  and  placed  themselves  under  his  laws.  His  words,  backed 
by  the  presence  of  a  victorious  army,  were  listened  to  ;  and  the 
Ripuarians  raised  Clovis  on  the  buckler,  and  proclaimed  him  their 
king.  He  then  marched  against  the  Salic  tribes  of  Courtray  and 
Therouanne,  whose  chiefs,  Cararic  and  Raghenaher,  had  maintained 
their  independence,  and  subjugated  them,  rather  by  the  aid  of  treachery 
than  by  the  force  of  arms.  Cararic  and  his  son  were  surrendered  to 
him  without  a  blow ;  Raghenaher,  deserted  on  the  battle-field,  was 
thrown  into  fetters  by  his  own  soldiers,  and  his  brother  Ricaire  shared 
his  fate.  Both  chiefs  were  brought  before  the  ferocious  conqueror. 
"  Unhappy  man !  "  said  Clovis  to  Raghenaher,  "  dost  thou  thus  dis- 
honour our  blood  ?  a  Salian  allow  himself  to  be  chained !  was  it  not 
better  to  die  ?  "  And,  so  saying,  with  one  blow  of  his  axe  he  cut  off 
his  head.  Then,  turning  to  Ricaire,  Clovis  said,  "  Why  didst  thou  not 
defend  thy  brother  better  ?  he  would  not  have  endured  this  shame ;" 
and,  raising  his  blood-stained  axe,  laid  him  also  dead  at  his  feet.  At 
the  first,  he  did  not  prove  so  terrible  in  his  treatment  of  Cararic  and 
his  son.  They  promised  to  enter  the  Church,  and  he  contented  him- 
self with  cutting  off  their  hair  as  a  sign  of  degradation.  Cararic, 
however,  unfortunately  uttered  the  imprudent  words,  "  Of  what  use  is 
it  to  cut  off  the  foliage  of  a  green  tree  ?  it  will  grow  again."  These 
words,  revealing  a  threat,  the  significance  of  which  Clovis  was  not 
slow  to  comprehend,  were  a  decree  of  death  to  father  and  son :  both 
of  them  were  massacred,  as  well  as  another  son  of  Cararic,  named 
Rignomer,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the  city  of  Mans. 

After  all  these  murders,  the  barbarous  king  exclaimed,  "  "Wretched 
man  that  I  am !  I  have  no  relations  left ;  all  have  revolted  against  me, 
and  all  have  perished.  Is  there  not  any  member  of  my  family  still  in 
•existence  to  console  me  in  my  old  days  ?  "  This  lamentation,  the  chro- 
niclers say,  was  only  an  artifice  employed  by  Clovis  in  order  to  assure 
himself  that  no  scion  of  his  race  was  left  whom  he  might  fear  and  put 
out  of  the  way.     But  this  pitiless  desire  was  already  fulfilled,  and  of 


•481-511]  'THE   EEIGN   OF   CLOTIS.  4B 

all  the  descendants  of  Clodion  and  Merovig,  Clovis  henceforth  remained 
alone  with  his  children. 

If  the  chroniclers  have  told  the  truth  in  attributing  Clovis'  lamenta- 
tions to  interested  calculation,  which  they  do  not  condemn,  we  may  be 
also  permitted  to  believe  that  remorse  had  something  to  do  with  them. 
The  Church,  doubtless,  was  most  indulgent  to  Clovis,  for  it  was  greatly 
indebted  to  him ;  and  a  portion  of  the  clergy  applauded  the  extermination 
of  princes  of  the  royal  blood  who  were  still  attached  to  Paganism.* 
Still,  such  sanguinary  deeds  struck  the  people  with  horror,  and  the 
public  cry  found  an  echo  in  the  consciences  of  a  few  holy  priests, 
and  in  that  of  the  culprit.  Shortly  after  the  murder  of  Raghenaher 
and  Cararic,  Clovis  went  to  Tournay,  where  the  Bishop  St.  Eleutherus 
resided,  and  proceeded  to  the  church  to  pray.  The  bishop,  who  awaited 
him  on  the  threshold,  said,  "  0  King,  I  know  why  thou  comest  to 
me  !"  and  when  Clovis  protested  that  he  had  nothing  to  say  to  the 
bishop,  St.  Eleutherus  replied,  "  Speak  not  so :  thou  hast  sinned  and 
darest  not  confess  it !  "  At  these  words  the  monarch,  deeply  affected, 
confessed  that  he  felt  himself  guilty,  shed  tears,  and  begged  the  pious 
prelate  to  implore  from  Heaven  the  pardon  of  his  crimes. 

Everything  in  the  history  of  Clovis  shows  that  his  religious  actions 
were  inspired  as  much  by  the  ardour  of  a  sincere  faith  as  by  policy ; 
and  that  he  carried  out  his  mission  as  chief  and  representative  of  the 
Catholic  party  in  Gaul,  because  he  was  himself  attached  to  the 
Church  of  Rome.  He  constantly  mixed  up  religious  undertakings 
with  his  warlike  expeditions.  In  the  later  part  of  his  life  he  went 
to  Orleans,  where  he  had  convened  a  general  council  of  the  bishops 
of  the  provinces  over  which  his  authority  extended.  Those  of  the 
provinces  recently  conquered  from  the  Visigoths  were  present,  and 
one  of  them,  the  Bishop  of  Bordeaux,  presided  over  the  council, 
which  cemented  an  intimate  union  by  mutual  concessions  between 
the  Catholic  clergy  and  the  King  of  France.  Clovis  confirmed  the 
gift  of  immense  domains  to  the  Church,  which  he  established  on  the 
solid  basis  of  freehold  property ;  he  respected  the  right  of  asylum  in 
holy  places ;    he   recognized  the   privilege  of  the  clergy  to  be  only 

*  Prosternebat  enim  quotidie  Deus  hostes  ejus  sub  xnanu  ipsius  et  augebat  regnum 
«jus,  eo  quod  ambulabat  recto  corde  coram  eo  et  faciebat  quae  placita  erant  in  oculis 
«jus. — [Greg.  Tur.  Hist.,  Lib.  II.) 


44  THE   REIGN"   OP   CLOVIS.  [Book  I.  Chap.  I. 

tried  by  their  ecclesiastical  superiors,  and  liberated  their  property 
from  any  seizure  by  the  fiscal  authorities.  In  return  for  such  great 
concessions,  the  council  decided  that  no  freeman  should  receive  holy 
orders  without  the  King's  permission,  and  no  serf  without  his 
master's  knowledge.  The  King  limited  the  right  of  asylum,  pro- 
hibited the  bishops  from  excommunicating  persons  who  might  plead 
against  them,  and,  lastly,  the  assembly  submitted  all  its  decisions 
to  the  monarch's  approval.  "We  have  answered,"  the  bishops  said, 
"  the  questions  on  which  you  have  consulted  us,  and  the  articles  pre- 
sented to  us  by  you,  in  order  that,  if  your  judgment  approve  of  what 
we  have  decided,  the  decrees  passed  by  so  venerable  an  assembly  may 
be  strengthened  for  the  future  by  the  assent  of  so  great  a  king."  *  The 
council  completed  its  labours  by  drawing  up  canons  which  regulated 
the  administration  and  division  of  the  property  and  revenues  of  the 
Church,  and  settled  the  share  of  the  inferior  clergy,  schools,  the  poor, 
and  the  infirm. 

After  the  closing  of  the  Council  of  Orleans,  Clovis,  on  returning  to 
Paris,  busied  himself  with  the  propagation  of  Christianity  among  the 
Frank  tribes  which  he  had  recently  subjected  in  Northern  Gaul ;  and  it 
is  supposed  that  the  same  period  should  be  assigned  to  the  Latin 
edition  which  he  issued  of  the  Salic  law,  or,  more  correctly,  of  the 
customs  of  the  Salian  Franks,  while  modifying  them  so  as  to  render 
them  more  in  harmony  with  the  new  situation  which  he  had  made  for 
his  people  in  Gaul. 

The  work  of  Clovis  was  now  accomplished,  and  in  the  course  of 
the  same  year  (511)  he  died  at  Paris,  after  bestowing  fresh  largesses  on 
the  clergy,  and  dividing  his  states  between  his  four  sons,  Thierry, 
Clodomir,  Childebert,  and  Clothair,  who  were  all  recognized  as  kings. 

In  order  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  character  of  this  king  we 
must  carry  back  our  thoughts  to  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  We  are 
bound  to  remember  that  there  were  two  men  in  Clovis — the  barbarian 
chief  and  the  Christian  neophyte  ;  and  if,  on  one  hand,  we  are  sur- 
prised to  find  in  some  of  his  actions  so  many  vestiges  of  barbarity, 
we  are,  on  the  other,  astonished  at  what  he  did  to  elevate  his  people 
and  himself  to  a  higher  stage  of  belief  and  civilization.  An  imposing 
and  terrible  grandeur  marked  his  exploits  as  well  as  his  misdeeds, 
*  Concil.  Auril.,  Epist.  ad  Chlodoveum  regem. 


481-511]  THE   EEIGN   OF   CEOVIS.  45 

He  joined  to  the  lively  intellect  that  conceives,  the  strong  and  active 
will  that  executes  ;  and  God,  who  allowed  him  to  combine  the  talents 
of  the  warrior  with  those  of  the  politician,  set  upon  him,  at  an  early- 
age,  the  seal  of  the  conqueror.  He  was  the  instrument  employed  by 
Providence  to  lead  the  powerful  nation  of  the  Franks  to  Christianity, 
and  to  effect  the  fusion  of  the  barbarous  nations  with  the  civilized 
peoples  of  the  Roman  world, — a  fusion  which  could  alone  be  effected 
by  means  of  religion,  and  which  was  not  complete  until  the  con- 
quering people  had  adopted  the  faith  of  the  conquered.  The  popula- 
tion of  Gaul  being  subjected  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  Clovis,  the 
disciple  of  the  same  Church,  was,  on  that  account,  better  able  to 
subjugate  it  than  were  the  Arian  kings  of  the  Burgundians  and  Visi- 
goths, who  had  separated  from  the  Church.  He  understood  his 
situation  and  the  part  he  was  called  on  to  play.  It  was,  above  all,  as 
chief  of  the  religious  party  and  defender  of  the  national  faith  that  he 
offered  himself  to  the  native  tribes  and  Catholic  clergy  of  Graul :  he 
restored  the  shaken  authority  of  the  Church  from  the  shores  of  the 
German  Ocean  to  the  Pyrenees,  and  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic 
to  the  forests  of  Germany.  Rome,  grateful  to  Clovis,  decreed  him 
the  glorious  title  of  "  Elder  Son  of  the  Church,"  and  he  transmitted 
it  to  all  his  successors. 


46  CUSTOMS   OF.  THE   FRANKS.  [Book  I.  Chap.  M 


CHAPTER  II. 

FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  CLOVIS  TO  THAT  OF  DAGOBERT  I. 

511-638. 

I. 

THE  CUSTOMS    OF   THE   FRANKS. — STATE    OF   GAUL   UNDER  THE  MEROVINGIANS. 

Before  continuing  the  history,  of  the  Franks  under  the  race  of 
Clovis,  it  will  be  advisable  to  take  a  glance  at  their  religion,  laws,  and 
customs,  and  to  explain  the  relations  of  the  conquerors  to  the 
conquered. 

Royalty  among  the  Franks  was  at  once  elective  and  hereditary: 
the  title  of  king,  in  the  German  language,*  merely  signified  chief,  and 
was  decreed  by  election.  On  the  death  of  a  king,  the  Franks  assem- 
bled for  the  purpose  of  choosing  his  successor :  and  we  have  seen 
that  they  chose  him  from  one  family,  that  of  Merovig,  and  that,  when 
they  had  nominated  him,  they  consecrated  him  by  raising  him  on  a 
buckler,  amid  noisy  shouts.  The  chief  mission  of  the  ruler  they  gave 
themselves  was  to  lead  them  against  the  foe,  and  to  pillage :  he  re- 
ceived the  largest  share  of  the  booty,  frequently  consisting  of  towns 
with  their  territory,  which  constituted  the  royal  domain,  and  the 
treasure  with  which  the  king  recompensed  his  antrustions  or  leudes, 
the  name  given  to  the  comrades  in  arms  of  the  prince,  who  devoted 
themselves  to  his  fortunes  and  swore  fidelity  to  him.  These  leudes 
formed  a  separate  class,  from  which  the  majority  of  the  officers  and 
magistrates  was  selected.  The  following  anecdote  will  instruct  us  as 
to  what  were  the  limits  and  extent  of  the  royal  power.  After  the 
battle  of  Soissons,  Clovis  wished  to  withdraw  from  the  division  of 
the  booty  a  precious  vase,  claimed  by  St.  Remi.  All  his  warriors 
consented,  except  one,  who,  breaking  the  vessel  with  a  blow  of   his 

*  Konig,  a  king,  derived  from  the  verb  konnen,  to  be  able,  or  powerful.  This  word 
still  exists  among  the  Scotch,  in  the  modified  form  of  "  canny,"  while  we  have  perverted 
it  into  "  cunning." — L.  W. 


51^-638]  CUSTOMS  OF   THE   FRANKS.  4£. 

axe,  said,  brutally,  to  the  King*,  "Thou  shalt  only  have,  like  the  rest,, 
what  chance  gives  thee!"  Clovis  concealed  his  passion;  but  the 
following  year,  while  reviewing  his  troops,  he  stopped  before  this 
soldier,  and  tore  from  him  his  weapon,  which,  he  said,  was  in  a  bad 
condition.  "  Remember  the  vase  of  Soissons !"  said  the  King,  and 
cleft  his  skull  with  a  blow  of  the  battle-axe. 

When  a  king  died,  his  sons  inherited  his  domain;  and  being  richer 
than  their  companions  in  arms,  were  in  a  better  position  than  other 
persons  to  secure  suffrages.  It  was  thus  that  the  supreme  authority 
was  handed  down  from  father  to  son  in  the  race  of  Clovis,  at  first 
by  election,  and  then  by  usage,  which  in  time  became  law. 

The  sons  of  Clovis,  having  all  been  recognized  as  kings,  each  took 
up  his  abode  in  the  chief  city  of  his  dominions,  so  that  there  were 
from  this  time  four  capitals,  Paris,  Orleans,  Soissons,  and  Reims.*  All . 
these  capitals,  residences  of  kings,  were  chosen  to  the  north  of  the 
Loire,  in  a  rather  limited  space,  because  the  countries  in  which  they 
were  situated  were  alone  considered  the  land  of  the  Franks.  The 
provinces  to  the  south  of  the  Loire  were  still  filled  with  reminiscences 
of  the  Romans.  The  great  cities,  far  richer  and  more  populous  than 
those  of  the  north,  and  brilliant  with  the  relics  of  imperial  grandeur, 
struck  the  barbarous  Franks  with  a  stupid  astonishment.  They  found 
themselves  uncomfortable  amid  the  ruins  of  the  civilized  world,  and 
hence  they  only  sojourned  there  with  repugnance.  They  left  their 
administration  to  the  municipal  bodies  and  the  bishops,  and  contented 
themselves  with  occupying  the  country  by  bodies  of  troops,  which  kept 
it  in  obedience  by  the  terror  which  they  everywhere  inspired.  The 
Church  was,  at  that  time,  the  sole  power  that  contended  against 
barbarism,  and  the  only  curb  on  the  ferocious  passions  of  the  con- 
querors;  who,  prior  to  Clovis,  had  no  other  faith  but  that  of  the 
Scandinavian  Odin,  and  had  only  learned  to  expect  in  another  life  the 
thoroughly  sensual  joys  of  the  Walhalla,  a  palace  which  they  believed 
to  exist  in  the  clouds,  and  where,  blending  festivity  with  combats, 
they  promised  themselves,  as  the  supreme  felicity  after  death,  to  quaff, 
beer  or  hydromel  out  of  the  skulls  of  their  enemies.  When,  following  . 
the  example  of  Clovis,  they  were  converted  in  a  mass  to  Christianity, ; 
without  being  instructed  in  it,  the  majority  of  them  remained  igno-.- 
*  Metz  was  soon  after  selected  as  the  capital  in  the  place  of  the  last-named  city. 


48  .  CUSTOMS   OP  THE   FEANKS.  [Book  I.  CiiAP.  II.,: 

rant  of  that  which,  was  sublime    and  spiritual    in  the   religion  they 
had  embraced.     Coarse    and   rude,  they  required  an  external   faith, 
which  terrified  them  by  carnal  menaces,  and  captivated  them  by  the 
majesty  of  its  spectacles ;  and  therefore  we  can  easily  conceive  that 
Catholicism  triumphed  over  the  rival  creeds.     In  fact,  the  images  of 
saints,  the  relics  of  martyrs,  the  renown  of  the  miracles  which  were 
said  to  be  effected  by  them,  and  the  pomp  of  the  ceremonies,  struck 
the  imagination  of  the  barbarians   with  astonishment   and   respect. 
The  civil  power  of  the  bishops  ;  the  external  and  visible  hierarchy  of 
the  clergy,  whose  head  was  at  Rome,  in  the  Eternal  City  ;   and,  above 
all,    the   great   name    of  Rome,    respected   even  by  her    conquerors, 
gave  the  Catholic  clergy  a  power  over  this  untameable  population,  far 
greater  than,  the  priests  of  any "  other  Christian   Church  could  have 
obtained.     The  clergy,  besides,  were  distinguished  at  this  time  by 
great  virtues,   and   made  energetic  efforts  to  combat  the  unbridled 
passions  of  the  people  and  the  kings.     The  barbarism  was,  however, 
still  so  great  that  men  treated  God  as  they  would  have  liked  them- 
selves to  be  treated,  hoping  to  disarm  His  justice  and  turn  away  His 
wrath  by  giving  Him  gold,  jewels,  horses,   and  estates,  with  which 
they  enriched  the  Church,  and  enabled  the  clergy  to  maintain  their 
necessary  ascendancy  over  the  converted  conquerors. 

At  the  moment  when  the  Franks  invaded  Gaul,  there  were  numerous 
monasteries  in  that  country,  the  most  ancient  of  which  was  Mar- 
moutiers,  near  Tours,  founded  by  St.  Martin,  who  introduced  cenobitic 
life  into   Gaul.     The  following  ages  witnessed  the  foundation  of  a 
great  number  of  other  pious  establishments,  among  the  most  useful  of 
which  we  may  distinguish  those  of  the  illustrious  order  of  the  Bene- 
dictines, founded  in  Italy  in  the  sixth  century  by  St.   Benedict,  and 
which  soon  spread  its  numerous  ramifications  over  the  whole  of  Europe. 
The  adepts  of  this  order  were  subjected  to  the  three  vows  of  chastity, 
poverty,  and  obedience ;    and  St.   Benedict  had  also   prescribed  for 
them  prayer,  study,  manual  labour,  and  the  instruction  of  youth.     ISTo 
religious  order  contributed  more  than  this  one  to  the  progress  of  letters 
and  the  sciences.  It  was  necessary,  amid  the  perpetual  scenes  of  fighting, 
pillage,  and  crime,  that  the  unhappy  should  find  somewhere  an  asylum 
against  violence  ;  and  when  the  soil  was  bristling  with  armed  men, 
whose  only  thought  was  to  destroy  each  other,  it  was  important  that 


511-638]  CUSTOMS    OP   THE    FRANKS.  49 

large  associations,  animated  by  a  pious  and  intelligent  zeal,  should 
devote  themselves  to  the  fatiguing  task  of  draining  marshes,  clearing 
land,  collecting  the  information  contained  in  the  scattered  manu- 
scripts which  had  escaped  so  many  devastations,  and  in  opening 
schools,  and  handing  down  to  posterity  the  knowledge  of  contem- 
porary facts.  Such  was  the  laudable  occupation  of  the  first  in- 
habitants of  monasteries,  and  it  was  thus  that  they  deserved  the 
respect  and  gratitude  of  the  nations. 

The  authority  of  the  kings  was  purely  military,  and  the  legislative 
power  belonged  to  the  entire  nation  of  the  Franks,  who  assembled 
under  arms  in  the  month  of  March  or  May,  whence  these  malls,  or 
national  comitia,  have  been  entitled  "  the  assemblies  of  the  field  of 
March"  and  "the  field  of  May."  They  took  place  regularly  every  year 
in  the  early  period  of  the  conquest ;  but  when  the  Franks,  after  becom- 
ing landowners,  were  rapidly  scattered  over  the  soil  of  Gaul,  they 
neglected  to  assemble,  the  kings  ceased  to  convoke  them  regularly, 
and  the  legislative  power  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  monarchs,  their 
officers,  and  the  bishops.  Each  city  was  administered  by  its  own 
municipality,  under  the  direction  of  the  bishop,  who  was  elected  by 
the  people  and  the  clergy  of  his  diocese. 

Justice  emanated  from  the  people.  All  the  freemen  in  each  district, 
designated  by  the  name  of  armans  or  rachimbourgs,  had  the  right  of 
being  present  at  the  courts,  where  they  performed  the  duties  of 
judges,  under  the  presidency  of  the  royal  officers,  men,  counts,  or  cen- 
turions. No  subordination  existed  between  the  several  courts,  and  no 
appeal  was  admitted.  Each  of  the  tribes  that  occupied  the  soil  of 
Gaul  retained  its  own  laws.  The  Gallo- Romans  continued  to  be 
governed,  in  their  civil  relations,  by  the  Theodosian  code  ;  *  the  Salian 
and  Ripuarian  Franks  and  the  Burgundians  each  had  a  special  code. 

The  law  which  the  Salic  Franks  obeyed,  and  which  obtained  from 
them  the  name  of  the  Salic  law,  was  not  drawn  up  till  after- 
the  conquest ;  but  it  was  based  on  maxims  long  anterior  to  the 
invasion  of  Gaul  by  the  Franks.  This  law,  moreover, '  established 
offensive  distinctions  between  the  races  of  the  Franks  and  Gallo- 
Romans.     The  reparation  for  the  heaviest  crimes  was  estimated  in 

*  This  was  the  name  given  to  the  collection  of  Roman  laws  dra,vn  up  by  order  of  the 
Emperor  Theodoric  II.,  and  promulgated  in  433.     This  was  the  first  official  code. 

E 


50  CUSTOMS    OF   THE    FRANKS.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  II. 

money ;  and,  by  consenting  to  pay  a  certain  snm,  any  man  could  with 
impunity  commit  robbery,  murder,  or  arson.  In  this  species  of  com- 
position the  law  always  valued  the  life  of  a  Frank  at  double  that  of  a 
Roman.  Churchmen,  however,  were  respected,  and  enjoyed  several 
privileges.  Under  the  sons  of  Clovis,  the  penal  laws  became  more 
severe,  and  the  penalty  of  death  was  substituted  in  certain  cases  for 
fines.  The  law  of  the  Ripuarian  Franks,  promulgated  by  Thierry  I., 
established  compensation  for  offences  on  principles  similar  to  those  of 
the  Salic  law.  The  law  of  the  Burgundians,  called  the  lot  Gombette, 
after  Grondebaud,  its  first  author,  was  more  favourable  to  the  old 
inhabitants  than  the  laws  of  the  Salic  and  Ripuarian  Franks ; 
and,  resembling  in  this  point  the  law  of  the  Visigoths,  it  established 
no  distinction  between  the  Romans  and  the  conquerors,  for  crimes 
committed  on  the  person. 

All  the  laws  of  the  barbarians  prove  that  these  nations  had  an 
"unbounded  faith  in  the  immediate  and  constant  intervention  of  the 
Divinity  in  human  interests.  Some  established  as  judicial  proof  the 
oath  of  the  friends  and  relatives  of  the  accused  person  or  the  debtor ; 
others  the  issue  of  a  duel  between  the  parties  ;  while  others,  again, 
prescribed  the  ordeal  of  fire  and  water.  The  accused  was  obliged  to 
seize  a  red-hot  iron  bar,  or  plunge  his  hand  into  boiling  water :  his 
arm  was  then  carefully  wrapped  up,  and,  at  the  expiration  of  a  certain 
number  of  days,  if  the  burn  left  traces  the  unhappy  man  was  punished 
as  guilty ;  but,  if  no  traces  were  left,  his  innocence  was  proclaimed. 
They  believed  that  the  judgment  of  Grod  Himself  was  thus  obtained, 
just  as  it  was  by  the  duel. 

In  Graul,  after  the  conquest,  a  distinction  was  made  between  the 
freemen  (possessors  of  independent  estates  or  owners  of  benefices) 
the  colonists,  and  the  slaves  or  serfs.  The  first  among  the  freemen, 
whether  Franks  or  Grallo-Romans,  were  the  leudes,  or  companions  of 
the  kings,  and  possessors  of  the  royal  favour ;  after  the  freemen,  or 
owners  of  the  soil,  came  the  colonists,  who  cultivated  it  in  considera- 
tion of  rent  or  tribute  ;  and,  lastly,  the  serfs,  some  of  whom  were 
attached  to  the  person  of  the  master,  and  others  to  the  soil,  with 
which  they  were  sold  and  handed  over  like  cattle. 

The  clergy,  as  we  have  seen,  formed  a  separate  and  very  powerful 
class.     All  the  public  offices  which,   to  be  properly  filled,    required 


511-638]  GAUL   UNDER   THE    SONS    OP    CLOVIS.  51 

learning  and  knowledge,  were  given  to  the  clerks  or  chnrchmen,  owing 
to  their  superior  instruction  ;  and  in  this  way  they  found  means  to 
increase  the  wealth  which  they  derived  from  the  liberality  and  piety 
of  the  faithful. 

The  territorial  estates  were  divided,  among  the  barbarians,  into  two 
chief  classes,  allodia,  and  benefices,  or  fiefs.  The  allodia  were  estates 
free  from  any  charge,  and  belonging  entirely  either  to  the  conquerors 
or  the  conquered  among  the  Franks :  by  virtue  of  the  Salic  law,  they 
could  not  be  inherited  by  females.  The  benefices  were  lands  which 
the  kings  detached  from  the  royal  domain  in  order  to  reward  their 
leudes.  The  possession  of  benefices  entailed  the  obligation  of 
military  service  ;  and,  being  only  held  for  life,  they  could  be  recalled. 
The  offices  of  dukes  and  counts,  possessed  by  the  first  lords,  were  not 
transmissible  by  right  of  inheritance  to  their  children.  But,  after  a 
time,  the  bravest  warriors,  enriched  by  the  royal  favour,  formed  a 
dangerous  aristocracy :  they  became  more  powerful  in  proportion  as 
the  royal  authority  grew  weaker,  and,  their  claims  having  increased 
with  their  power,  they  rendered  their  domains  and  titles  hereditary  in 
their  families.  This  usurpation  on  the  part  of  the  nobles  was  one  of 
the  principal  causes  of  the  downfall  of  the  Merovingian  dynasty. 

II. 

GAUL    UNDER   THE    SONS    OF    CLOVIS. 

Fratricidal  wars  and  frightful  crimes  marked  the  reign  of  the 
descendants  of  Clovis.  The  sons  of  that  prince  divided  his  states 
among  them  with  barbarous  ignorance,  and  this  clumsy  division  was 
the  source  of  sanguinary  quarrels. 

Thierry  resided  at  Metz,  the  capital  of  Eastern  France  ;  Clothair  at 
Soissons  ;  Childebert  at  Paris ;  and  Clodomir  at  Orleans.  The  last 
three  also  shared  among  them  the  lands  and  cities  conquered  in  Aqui- 
taine.  At  this  period  a  great  number  of  German  tribes  formed  an 
alliance  with  the  Franks,  whose  confederation  extended  to  the  Elbe. 
The  Frisons,  Saxons,  and  Bavarians  were  included  in  this  league  ;  the 
Thuringians,  allied  with  the  Varnians  and  Herules,  had  spread  along 
the  banks  of  the  Elbe  and  the  Neckar,  where  they  had  formed  a 
new  monarchy.      Sullied  with    fearful    atrocities,  they  resisted    the 

e  2 


52  GAUL   UNDER   THE    SONS   OF    CLOVIS.  [Book  I.  Chap.  II 

Franks,  who  marched  against  them  under  Thierry  and  Clothair,  and 
defeated  them  in  two  battles,  assassinated  the  Thuringian  princes, 
put  a  part  of  the  nation  to  the  sword,  and  attached  Thuringia  to  the 
monarchy  of  the  Franks. 

Sigismund,  son  of  Gondebaud,  who  assassinated  Chilperic,  the 
father  of  Qneen  Clotilda,  was  reigning  at  this  time  in  Burgundy. 
Forty  years  had  elapsed  since  the  murder,  but  the  widow  of  Clovis 
swore  to  take  vengeance  for  it,  although  the  murderer  was  no 
longer  in  existence.  She  resolved  to  make  the  son  expiate  the 
father's  crime ;  and,  collecting  her  sons  together,  she  made  them 
promise  to  avenge  the  death  of  Chilperic,  their  grandfather.  Clodomir 
and  Clothair  at  once  entered  Burgundy,  gained  a  battle,  made  King 
Sigismund  a  prisoner,  and  threw  him  down  a  well  with  his  wife  and 
children.  Gondemar,  brother  of  the  conquered  king,  became  his 
avenger.  He  defeated  Clodomir's  army  at  Yeseronce,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Rhone,  killed  Clodomir,  expelled  the  Franks,  and  was  recognized 
as  king  by  the  Burgundians,  over  whom  he  reigned  till  the  year  532. 
Clothair  arid  his  brother  Childebert  then  attacked  him,  conquered  him, 
and  took  possession  of  the  kingdom. 

These  two  princes  sullied  their  character  by  a  frightful  crime  after 
the  death  of  their  brother  Clodomir,  King  of  Orleans,  who  had  left  three 
children  of  tender  age,  who  were  being  brought  up  by  their  grandmother 
Clotilda.  Clothair  and  Childebert  coveted  the  inheritance  of  their 
nephews;  and,  in  order  to  get  them  into  their  power,  promised  to  have 
them  crowned.  The  children  went  in  high  glee  to  join  their  uncles, 
followed  by  their  servants  and  tutors ;  but  all  at  once,  they  were  sepa- 
rated from  them,  and  the  servants  were  thrown  into  dungeons.  Clo- 
thair and  Childebert  then  sent  to  Clotilda,  their  mother,  a  pair  of 
scissors  and  a  dagger — directing  her  to  choose  between  a  monastery 
and  death  for  her  grandchildren.  "  Sooner  death  !"  replied  the  heart- 
broken woman.  The  kings,  on  receiving  this  answer,  proceeded 
straight  to  their  nephews.  Clothair  murdered  two  of  them  with  his 
own  hands,  and  their  servants  were  also  massacred.  The  third  son 
of  Clodomir,  of  the  name  of  Clodoald,  escaped  from  the  fury  of  his 
uncles,  became  a  monk,  and  founded  the  monastery  of  St.  Clodoald 
(Saint  Cloud). 

Thierry   I.,  the   eldest    of  the  sons   of   Clovis,   died  in  534,   after 


511-638]  GAUL   UNDEE   THE    SONS   OP   CLOVIS.  53 

ravaging  Auvergne,  which  had  tried  to  shake  off  his  yoke.     His  son, 
Theodebert,  succeeded  him. 

The  empire  of  the  Goths  was  at  this  period  beginning  to  decline. 
The  great  Theodoric  was  no  longer  alive.  This  prince  had  governed 
Italy,  Spain,  and  Southern  Gaul :  he  had  reconquered  from  the  Franks 
a  large  portion  of  the  provinces  taken  from  the  Visigoths  after  the 
battle  of  Vouille,  and  had  striven  to  re-establish  in  his  states  the  laws, 
customs,  and  manners  of  the  Roman  Empire  ;  but  he  had  no  son  to 
whom  to  hand  down  his  immense  kingdom.  He  had  only  two 
daughters,  Amalasontha  and  Theodegotha,  and  by  them  two  grand- 
sons, Athalaric  and  Amalaric,  between  whom  he  divided  his  empire. 
Athalaric  had  the  kingdom  of  the  Ostrogoths  in  Italy,  with  the  pro- 
vinces of  G-aul  up  to  the  Rhone  and  the  Durance.  Amalaric,  the  son  of 
Alaric  II.,  and  Theodegotha,  reigned  over  the  Visigoths  in  Spain  and 
Gaul,  from  the  base  of  the  Pyrenees  as  far  as  the  Lot  and  the  Rhone. 
This  prince  resided  at  Karbonne,  and  espoused  Clotilda,  daughter  of 
Clovis.  Clotilda  was  a  Catholic  among  an  Arian  people.  Outraged 
by  the  populace,  she  was  treated  still  more  cruelly  by  her  husband. 
Her  blood  flowed  :  she  staunched  it  with  a  veil,  and  a  faithful  servant 
conveyed  to  the  Frank  kings  this  blood-stained  veil  as  an  appeal  to 
their  vengeance.  Inflamed  with  fury  at  the  sight,  Childebert  set  out, 
and  led  an  army  of  Franks  to  the  frontier  of  Septimania,*  where  he- 
defeated  the  Visigoths.  Amalaric  fled  in  terror  to  Barcelona,  and 
perished  there  by  assassination.  Childebert  gave  up  Narbonne  to 
pillage,  and  then  returned  to  Paris,  loaded  with  the  spoils  of  the 
rich  province;  but  as  he  neglected  to  secure  the  possession,  it  reverted 
to  the  Visigoths  eventually.  The  Franks,  a  few  years  later,  crossed 
the  Alps,  and  advanced  into  Spain,  as  far  as  Saragossa.  This  fortress 
arrested  them,  and  they  recrossed  the  mountains,  without  obtaining 
any  serious  or  durable  result  from  the  expedition. 

The  race  of  Theodoric  ceased,  at  about  the  same  period,  to  reign  in. 
Italy,  where  his  grandson  Athalaric  died  young.  The  Ostrogoths,  after 
his  death,  and  that  of  his  successor,  Theodatus,  the  second  husband  of 
his  mother,  Amalasontha,  selected  as  their  ruler  Vitiges,  the  most 
skilful  of  their  generals.     They  were  at  that  time  engaged  in  a  war 

*  The  name  of  Septimania  was  beginning  to  prevail  over  that  of  Narbonensis  Prima, 
given  by  the  Romans  to  the  country  which  was  afterwards  called  Languedoc. 


54  GAUL   UNDER   THE    SONS    OF   CLOYIS.  [Book  I.  Chap.  II. 

■with.  Justinian,  the  Emperor  of  the  East,  who  asked  the  support  of 
the  Frank  king,  Theodebert  I.,  son  of  Thierry  I.,  against  the  Ostro- 
goths. Theodebert,  equally  appealed  to  by  the  latter  to  help  them 
against  Justinian,  passed  the  Alps  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  army, 
and  received  gold  from  both  sides  :  then,  breaking  his  engagements, 
he  made  a  frightful  carnage  of.  both  armies,  ravaged  Lombardy  with, 
fire  and  sword,  burned  Genoa  and  Pavia,  and  extorted  Provence  from 
the  Ostrogoths ;  whose  empire,  already  tottering,  finally  succumbed 
beneath  the  attacks  of  Belisarius  and  ISTarses,  the  illustrious  generals 
of  Justinian. 

Theodebert  was  meditating  an  invasion  of  the  Empire  of  the  East, 
when  he  died  in  548,  leaving  the  throne  to  his  son  Theodobald,  who 
only  reigned  seven  years.  On  the  death  of  the  latter,  Clothair,  his 
great-uncle,  seized  his  kingdom :  his  other  grand-uncle,  Childebert, 
jealous  of  this  usurpation,  set  up  against  Olothair  his  son  Ohrammus, 
and  at  first  supported  him  with  his  army,  but  himself  soon  fell  ill  at 
Paris  and  died.  Clothair  inherited  his  kingdom,  pursued  his  own 
rebellious  son,  and  had  him  burned  alive,  with  his  wife  and  daughters. 
He  had  now  succeeded  his  three  elder  brothers,  and  held  under  his 
sway  the  whole  of  Roman  Gaul,  in  which  were  comprised  Savoy, 
Switzerland,  the  Rhenish  provinces,  and  Belgium.  Septimania  alone 
remained  to  the  Visigoths  :  Clothair's  authority  extended  beyond  the 
Rhine,  over  the  Duchies  of  Germany,  Thuringia,  and  Bavaria,  and  the 
countries  of  the  Saxons  and  Prisons.  He  made  no  use  of  this  colossal 
power,  and  the  only  memorial  that  remained  of  the  two  years  during 
which  he  governed  the  monarchy  of  Prance  alone,  was  the  murder  of 
his  son.  Clothair  was  taken  ill  a  year  after  this  horrible  execution, 
and,  amazed  at  the  approach  of  death,  exclaimed,  "  Who  is  this  King 
of  Heaven  who  thus  kills  the  great  kings  of  the  earth  ?  " 

This  princely  murderer  of  his  family  had  among  his  wives  a 
princess  of  the  name  of  Radegonde,  daughter  of  the  last  King  of 
Thuringia,  who,  owing  to  her  rare  education  and  holy  and  noble  life, 
presents,  on  the  throne,  a  remarkable  contrast  to  the  barbarous 
manners  and  almost  general  ignorance  of  her  age.  Having  volun- 
tarily left  the  royal  residence  for  a  cloister,  she  founded  near  Poitiers 
the  celebrated  convent  of  Saint  Croix,  where  she  divided  her  leisure 
between  the  cultivation  of  letters  and  the  duties  of  piety  and   un- 


511-638]  GAUL   UNDER   THE    GRANDSONS   OF   CLOTHAIR   I.  55 

bounded  charity.     She  died  there  in  589,  and  her  tomb  may  still  be 
seen.* 

III. 

GAUL    UNDER    THE    GRANDSONS    OF    CLOTHAIR    I. — RIVALRY    OF    FREDEGONDE 
AND   BRUNHILDA. — EPISODE    OF   GONDEYALD. 

Clothair  I.  left  four  sons — Caribert,  Gontran,  Chilperic,  and  Sigebert 
— who  divided  his  states  among  them.  Caribert  lived  but  a  short 
while,  and  left  no  male  child :  from  his  death  dates  a  fresh  division 
between  the  three  surviving  brothers,  which  it  is  important  to  under- 
stand thoroughly.  The  vast  country  situated  between  the  Rhine  and 
the  Loire  was  divided  in  two,  as  if  a  diagonal  line  were  drawn  from 
north  to  south,  from  the  mouths  of  the  Scheldt  to  the  environs  of 
Langres,  near  the  sources  of  the  Saone  :  the  part  situated  to  the  west 
of  this  line  was  named  Neustria  (Neuster  :  west) — and  the  other  part, 
to  the  east,  was  named  Austrasia  (Ostro  :  east).  Neustria  fell,  in  the 
partition,  to  Chilperic,  and  Austrasia  to  Sigebert.  Burgundy  formed 
the  third  great  division  of  Gaul,  and  fell  to  the  share  of  Gontran. 
Yast  countries,  afterwards  conquered,  were  regarded  as  appendices  of 
the  Frank  Empire,  and  it  was  arranged  that  a  separate  division  should 
be  made  of  them  :  these  were  Provence,  Aquitaine,  and  Gascony.  The 
first  was  attached  to  Eastern  France,  Austrasia  and  Burgundy, 
and  was  divided  between  Sigebert  and  Gontran;  the  second  was 
divided  into  three  parts,  reputed  equal,  each  of  which  formed  a 
small  Aquitaine  ;  and  lastly,  Gascony  was  divided  between  Chilperic 
and  Sigebert,  to  the  exclusion  of  Gontran.  The  German  provinces, 
governed  by  dukes  nominated  by  the  kings,  were  scarce  taken  into 
consideration  in  this  division ;  they  were  allotted,  with  Austrasia,  to 
Sigebert,  who,  in  order  to  watch,  over  them  better,  transferred  his 
residence  from  Reims  to  Metz,  which  he  made  his  capital.  The  three 
brothers  made  a  strange  convention  with  regard  to  the  city  of  Paris : 
owing  to  its  importance,  they  promised  that  neither  should  enter  it 
without  the  consent  of  his  brothers.  This  celebrated  division  of  the 
inheritance  of  Clothair  I.  was  made  in  the  year.  567,  and  from  this 

*  We  refer  our  readers  to  the  interesting  history  of  Sainte  Radegonde  in  M.  Augustin 
Thierry's  charming  Eecits  Merovingiens. 


56  GAUL   UNDER   THE    GRANDSONS    OF   CLOTHAIR   I.      [Book  I.  Chap.  II. 

moment  commenced  the  long  and  bloody  rivalry  between  Neustria  and 
Austrasia. 

Chilperic  and  Sigebert  distinguished  themselves  by  their  fratricidal 
hatred ;  and  were  surpassed  in  audacity,  ambition,  and  barbarity,  by 
their  wives,  whose  names  acquired  a  great  and  melancholy  celebrity.  . 

Sigebert  had  married  Brunhilda,  daughter  of  the  King  of  the 
Visigoths  ;  and  Chilperic,  surnamed  the  Nero  of  France,  jealous  of  the 
alliance  contracted  by  his  brother,  put  aside  the  claims  of  his  mistress, 
Fredegonde,  in  order  to  espouse  Gralswintha,  sister  of  Brunhilda.  He 
had,  at  this  period,  three  sons  by  his  first  wife  Andovera,  whom  he 
repudiated,  and  imprisoned  at  Rouen.  Shortly  after  his  second 
marriage,  he  had  Gralswintha  strangled,  at  the  instigation  of  Fredegonde, 
and  took  the  latter  for  his  wife.  Brunhilda  swore  to  avenge  her  sister, 
and  the  enmity  of  the  two  queens  caused  streams  of  blood  to  flow. 

After  an  unsuccessful  war  against  his  brother  Sigebert,  the  King  of 
ISTeustria  submitted,  asked  for  peace,  and  accepted  a  treaty,  which  he 
violated  almost  immediately  afterwards  by  taking  up  arms  again. 
Sigebert  marched  on  Paris,  which  city  Chilperic  had  seized,  laid  the 
environs  of  the  city  waste,  took  it  by  storm,  and  forced  his  brother  to 
shut  himself  up  in  Tournay  with  his  wife  and  children.  The  Australian 
army  invested  the  latter  town,  and  Sigebert  declared  that  he  would 
kill  Chilperic ;  but  he  wished  first  to  have  himself  elected  King  of 
Keustria,  and  designated  for  this  solemnity  the  royal  domain  of  Vitry, 
near  Douai.  Germanus,*  Bishop  of  Paris,  tried  in  vain  to  move 
Sigebert  by  exciting  the  pity  of  Queen  Brunhilda,  who  was  even  more 
ardent  for  vengeance  than  her  husband.  He  addressed  the  King 
himself  in  these  words  :  "  King  Sigebert,  if  thou  wilt  renounce  the 
thought  of  killing  thy  brother,  thou  shalt  be  victorious  ;  if  thou  hast 
another  thought,  thou  shalt  die."  Sigebert  persisted  in  his  fratricidal 
projects.  He  proceeded  to  Vitry,  where  he  was  raised  on  the  buckler, 
and  proclaimed  King  of  Neustria  in  the  assembly  of  the  Franks ; 
but,  in  the  midst  of  the  rejoicings,  two  young  emissaries  of  Frede- 
gonde stabbed  the  King  with  poisoned  knives.  He  died,  and  his  army 
dispersed  :  Chilperic  regained  his  crown  and  Paris,  into  which  city  he 
entered  as  a  victor. 

*  The  Church  canonized  him,  and  he  is  known  by  the  name  of  St.  Germain. 


511-638]  RIVALRY    OF    FREDEGONDE    AND    BRUNHILD  A.  57 

The  widow  of  the  assassinated  King  Sigebert,  Brunhilda,  was  still 
in  that  city  with  her  two  daughters  and  her  youthful  son,  Childebert. 
By  order  of  Chilperic  she  was  arrested  and  kept  as  a  prisoner,  with 
her  children,  in  the  old  imperial  Palace  of  the  Thermae  ;  but  Gronde- 
baud,  an  Austrasian  noble,  contrived  the  escape  of  young  Childebert. 
The  royal  child  was  let  down  in  a  basket  from,  a  window  of  the  palace  ; 
and  a  faithful  servant  placed  him  behind  him  on  a  horse,  and  carried 
him  to  Metz,  where  Child.ebert  II.  was  proclaimed  King  of  Austrasia 
in  575. 

King  Chilperic  then  sent  Brunhilda,  with  her  two  daughters,  in  exile 
to  Houen,  where  she  was  joined  by  Merovic,  the  son  of  Chilperic  and 
the  unfortunate  Andovera,  and  himself  exposed  to  the  furious  hatred 
of  his  formidable  mother-in-law,  Fredegonde.     Merovic  conceived  a 
violent  passion  for  Brunhilda,  which  she  returned ;  and  they  asked  for 
the  nuptial  blessing  at  the  hands   of  Bishop  Pretextatus,  who  united 
them   in   secret,    and   thus    drew    down  on  himself  the  implacable 
vengeance    of    Fredegonde.       Chilperic,    speedily    informed   of    the 
marriage,  took  umbrage    at   it,    and   hastened   to  Rouen,  where  he 
separated  the  couple.     Brunhilda  regained  her  liberty,  and  fled  into 
Austrasia ;   but  Merovic  was  arrested  by  his  father's  orders,  under- 
went the  tonsure,  was  ordained  priest,  in  spite  of  his  protests,  and  in 
defiance  of  the  canons  of  the  Church,  and  exiled  to  the  monastery  of 
St.  Calais,  near  Mans.     While  being  taken  by  an  armed  body  to  the 
place    of    his    exile,    Merovic,    escaping    from   his    guardians,    took 
refuge  in  the  Basilica  of  St.  Martin  of  Tours,  where  the  celebrated 
Bishop    Gregory   at   that   time    occupied    the    episcopal    see.      The 
right  of  asylum  in  churches  was,   in  this  utterly  barbarous  age,  the 
sole  safeguard  of  the  oppressed  against  the  violence  of   the  princes. 
Bishop  Gregory  maintained  this  dangerous  right  in  all  its  rigour,  and 
dared,  for  a  long  time,  to  defend  Merovic  against  his  father's  arms ; 
but  the  young  prince  at  length  grew  weary  of  his  voluntary  seclusion 
in  a  church,  and,  quitting  it,  with  an  escort  of  horsemen,  he  tried  to 
join  his  wife,  Queen  Brunhilda,  in  Austrasia.     But  the  latter,  during 
the  minority  of  the  youthful  Childebert,  her  son,  was  herself  living 
with  him  under  the  formidable  guardianship  of  the  Austrasian  leudes ; 
and   was   powerless   to   protect   her   husband   against   them.      They 
repulsed  Merovic,  and  the  fugitive  prince  was  constrained  to  continue 


58  EIVALEY   OF   FEEDEGONDE   AND   BEUNHILDA.      [Book  I.  Chap.  II. 

his  vagabond  route  through  Neustrian  Gaul,  pursued  by  the  implacable 
anger  of  his  father  and  Fredegonde.  At  length,  surrounded  on  all 
sides,  and  on  the  point  of  falling  into  their  hands,  he  committed 
suicide,  and  his  servants  perished  in  frightful  tortures.  Fredegonde 
was  not,  however,  sufficiently  avenged ;  and  her  fury  fell  even  upon 
the  prelate  who  had  dared  to  bestow  the  nuptial  blessing.  The 
Metropolitan  of  Rouen,  Pretextatus,  was,  in  her  eyes,  guilty  of  a 
crime,  and  she  had  him  assassinated  at  the  foot  of  the  altar.  Only 
one  child,  of  the  name  of  Clovis,  by  Chilperic's  first  marriage,  sur- 
vived Merovic.  Fredegonde  conspired  his  ruin.  She  accused  him  of 
witchcraft  and  casting  spells  on  her  own  children :  his  young  wife  was 
handed  over  to  the  hangman,  and  Clovis  was  stabbed  to  death  at  Noisy. 

Nothing  checked  the  Merovingian  princes  in  the  transports  of  their 
unregulated  passions  and  fury :  as  barbarians,  who  had  attained  the 
enjoyment  of  Roman  luxuries  and  civilization  before  they  had  put  off 
their  savage  instincts,  they  set  no  bounds  to  their  desires,  and  the  pre- 
mature end  of  their  race  could  be  foreseen.  One  day,  when  Chilperic 
was  residing  at  his  palace  of  Braine,  two  Gallic  bishops,  Salrius  of 
Alby,  and  Gregory  of  Tours,  were  walking  together  round  the  palace : 
suddenly  Salvius  stopped,  and  said  to  Gregory,  "  Dost  thou  see  any- 
thing over  this  building  ?  " 

The  Bishop  of  Tours  replied,  "  I  see  the  belvedere  which  the  King 
is  having  built." 

"  Dost  thou  not  perceive  something  else  ?  " 

"  No  !  but  if  thou  seest  aught,  tell  it  to  me  !  " 

Salvius  sighed,  and  continued,  "  I  see  the  sword  of  the  wrath  of 
God  suspended  over  the  house." 

Chilperic,  after  his  re- establishment  on  the  throne,  set  no  bounds  on 
his  ambition  and  cupidity.  He  invaded  the  states  of  his  brother 
Gontran  during  a  war  that  prince  was  waging  against  the  Lombards, 
and  was  supported  in  his  aggression  by  the  people  of  Aquitaine,  a 
portion  of  whom  were  the  subjects  of  Gontran.  An  army  of  Aquita- 
nians,  under  the  command  of  Didier,  Count  of  Toulouse,  marched 
upon  Burgundy;  but  Gontran  had,  as  leader  of  his  troops,  a  great 
captain,    the   Patrician*    Mummoles ;    who,    after   exterminating    the 

*  The  Patrician  was,  after  the  King,  the  first  dignitary  among  the  Burgundians. 


511-638]  RIVALRY   OF   FREDEGONDE   AND   BRUNHILDA.  59 

Lombards,  attacked  tlie  Aquitanians,  destroyed  their  army,  and  recap- 
tured all  the  places  which  Chilperic  had  seized.  Six  years  later,  a  new 
invasion  of  the  Neustrians  into  Burgundy  was  repulsed,  and  Chilperic 
perished  soon  after,  being  assassinated  in  the  forest  of  Chelles  by  the 
orders  of  Fredegonde.  Of  all  the  male  children  he  had  by  this  san- 
guinary woman,  only  one,  a  child  of  the  name. of  Olothair,  survived  him.. 
His  mother  undertook  the  guardianship  of  him,  and,  being  menaced 
simultaneously  by  all  the  enemies  whom  her  crimes  had  aroused  against 
her,  she  placed  herself,  with  her  son,  under  the  protection  of  King 
Gontran,  the  best — or,  speaking  more  correctly,  the  least  cruel — of  the 
sons  of  Olothair  I.,  and  who  was  surnamed  "the  Good,"  less  on 
account  of  his  merits,  than  from  a  comparison  with  the  other  princes, 
of  his  race. 

Brunhilda  was  at  this  period  disputing  the  guardianship  of  her 
young  son,  Childebert  II.,  with  the  nobles  of  Austrasia.  She^united 
to  a  vast  and  active  genius  indomitable  passions,  and  wished  at  once 
to  punish  Fredegonde,  her  rival,  and  retain  her  authority  over  the 
Austrasians,  who,  neighbours  of .  Germany,  the  cradle  of  their  ances- 
tors, were^the  most  undisciplined  nation  in  Gaul.  Brunhilda  was  fond 
of  Boman  civilization  :  she  desired  to  establish  in  her  son's  states  the 
centralization  of  the  monarchical  power,  and  the  system  of  the  Boman 
government  in  levying  the  public  imposts.  But  the  Austrasian 
nobles  endured  with  impatience  the  yoke  of  the  royal  authority ;  the 
Boman  system  of  taxation  was  especially  odious  to  them ;  and  they 
regarded  imposts  as  a  disgraceful  tribute  which  should  only  be  paid  by 
the  vanquished :  they,  therefore,  formed  a  league  against  Brunhilda, 
and  became  her  most  dangerous  enemies.  The  Frank  kings  had,  up  to 
this  time,  been  accustomed  to  set  one  of  their  leudes  over  the  officers- 
of  their  house,  as  steward  of  the  royal  domains :  this  officer,  who  had 
the  title  of  majordomo,  was  at  a  later  date  called  "mayor  of  the 
palace  of  the  kings,"  and  was  merely  their  first  domestic.  But,  after  the 
death  of  Sigebert,  the  Austrasian  nobles,  jealous  of  Brunhilda's 
authority,  elected  one  of  their  number  mayor  of  the  palace ;  and 
added  to  his  functions  that  of  presiding  over  them  and  watching 
the  youthful  King.  Brunhilda  tried  in  vain  to  oppose  the  haughty 
aristocracy,  who  claimed  a  share  in  the  guardianship  of  her  son :  she 


60  EPISODE   OF   GONDEVALD.  [Book  I.  Chap.  IL 

therefore  restrained  herself  till  Cliildebert  was  of  the  age  to  govern  by 
himself,  and  inspired  him  with  a  profound  dissimulation. 

It  was  not  alone  in  Austrasia  that  a  reaction  was  visible  against  the 
descendants  of  Merovic.  Royalty  was  no  longer  in  Gaul  what  it  had 
formerly  been  in  the  savage  forests  of  Germany.  xV  multitude  of  canses 
had  concurred  to  produce,  this  change:  the  conquest  of  vast  countries; 
the  possession  of  numerous  domains  and  large  treasures,  the  fruit  of 
immense  spoils ;  the  rarity  of  the  national  meetings,  owing  to  the 
dispersion  of  the  conquerors  over  the  land ;  and,  lastly,  the  traditions 
of  the  majesty  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  absolute  power  of  the 
Emperor, — all  this  fed  the  ambition  of  the  descendants  of  Clovis. 
They  believed  themselves  the  legitimate  successors  of  the  Ceesars, 
and  gradually  usurped  an  arbitrary  and  despotic  authority  over  their 
own  comrades  in  arms  and  the  Frank  aristocracy. 

The  aristocracy  resisted  ;  they  had  lost  their  strength  by  becoming 
dispersed,  and  re-acquired  it  by  becoming  landowners.  Hitherto 
floating,  they  had  become  fixed;  they  had  acquired  perpetuity  with 
property :  a  multitude  of  freemen  resorted  to  them  for  their  support 
against  the  exactions  of  the  treasury  and  royal  officers ;  and  this 
patronage  spread  in  spite  of  the  prohibitions  of  the  kings.  The 
Church  itself,  though  it  had  at  first  favoured  the  progress  of  the  royal 
authority,  grew  weary  of  a  despotism  which  no  longer  respected  its 
immunities  "and  privileges,  and  the  bishops  leagued,  themselves  with 
the  principal  leudes. 

A  formidable  conspiracy  was  entered  into  against  the  Kings  of: 
Austrasia  and  Burgundy.  The  aristocracy  desired  a  king  who  would 
be  a  passive  instrument  in  their  hands,  and  turned  their  attention  to  a 
natural  and  unrecognized  son  of  Clothair  I.,  of  the  name  of  Gonde- 
vald.  The  latter,  fearing  the  suspicious  jealousy  of  the  kings  his 
brothers,  had  sought  a  refuge  at  Constantinople,  at  the  court  of  the 
Emperor  Maurice.  No  other  man  was  better  adapted,  by  his  name 
and  character,  to  serve  the  projects  of  the  ambitious  nobles  of  Gaul. 
An  Austrasian  lord,  whom  his  treachery  has  rendered  shamefully  cele- 
brated, Gontran  Boson,  was  sent  by  the  leudes  of  Burgundy  and 
Austrasia  to  Gondevald,  to  seduce  him  by  the  lure  of  a  brilliant  share 
of  the  inheritance  of  Clothair  I.,  his  father.      He  at  the  same  time 


511-638]  EPISODE    OF    GONDEVALD.  Gl 

flattered  the  Emperor  Maurice  with  the  hope  of  recovering  a  portion  of 
his  imperial  rights  over  Gaul  by  favouring  the  enterprise  of  Gondevald  ; 
and   the  latter   quitted    Constantinople  with  immense  wealth  which 
he  received  as  a  present  from  the  Emperor.     But  the  treasures  which, 
in  his  idea,  were  destined  to  aid  his  success,  paved  the  way  for  his  ruin. 
They  tempted   the  cupidity   of   the  traitor  Boson,   who  stole  them, 
and,  returning  to  Austrasia,  purchased  his  pardon  of  King  Childebert. 
Gondevald,  however,  was  enthusiastically  received  in  the  south  of 
Gaul.       The   Aquitanians    and   Provencaux,    among    whom    Roman 
civilization    had    been    best    preserved,    impatiently    endured     the 
barbarous  yoke  of  the    Franks  ;    and,  attempting  to  liberate  them- 
selves  after   the    death   of    Chilperic,    the   insurrection    spread    the 
furthest  in  those  parts  of  Aquitaine  subjected  to  the  Kings  of  ISTeustria 
and  Burgundy.     The  most  powerful  men  in  those  countries  espoused 
the  cause  of  Gondevald  ;  and  he  had  at  the  head  of  his  armies  Didier, 
Duke    of    Toulouse,    Bladast,    Duke    of    Bordeaux,    and  the   famous 
Patrician  Mummoles,  who,  formerly  a  general  of  Gontran,  had  become 
his  enemy.     Gondevald  announced  himself  as  heir  of  Clothair  I.  in 
those  parts  of  Aquitaine  dependent  on  Neu stria  and  Burgundy ;  but 
he    respected  the  claims  of   Childebert  II.  in  Austrasian  Aquitaine. 
Bordeaux,  Toulouse,  and  other  large   towns,  opened  their   gates   to 
Gondevald,  and  the  larger  portion  of  Gaul  to  the  south  of  the  Loire 
was  gained  over  or  conquered.     Deputies  then  proceeded   to    King 
Gontran,  and  summoned  him  to  give  Gondevald  the  share  of  the  king- 
dom belonging  to  him ;  "  otherwise,"  they  said,  "  he  will  come  with 
his  army,  fight  with  you,  and  God  will  judge  whether  he  is  the  son 
of  Clothair  or  not."     Gontran,  in  answer,  had  them  tortured;   but, 
terrified  by  the   progress  of   the  revolution,    he  invited  his  nephew 
Childebert  II.  to  join  him  against  Gondevald,  and  drew  him  into  the 
alliance  by  adopting  him  as  his  heir. 

On  the  approach  of  the  formidable  armies  of  Burgundy  and 
Austrasia,  defections  commenced  in  Aquitaine,  Duke  Didier  setting 
the  example.  Gondevald,  abandoned  by  a  great  portion  of  the 
Aquitanians,  was  compelled  to  seek  a  refuge  in  the  town  of 
Comminges,  where  he  shut  himself  up  with  Mummoles,  and  a  band 
of  valiant  warriors.  This  town,  built  on  a  scarped  rock,  was  defended 
by  nature,  by  formidable  ramparts,  and    above  all  by  the  genius  of 


62  EPISODE   OF  GONDEVALD.  [Book  I.  Chap.  II. 

the  invincible  Mummoles.  The  besiegers  saw  that  they  conld  not 
subdue  the  victor  of  the  Lombards  by  force  of  arms,  and  after  use- 
lessly employing  force,  they  attempted  successfully  to  seduce  Mm. 
Mummoles  promised  to  deliver  up  Gondevald  ;  and,  proceeding  with 
the  principal  chiefs  to  the  prince,  said  to  him,  "  Leave  the  city,  go 
to  your  brother,  and  be  not  "afraid."  Gondevald  saw  that  he  was 
lost ;  and  replied,  with  a  torrent  of  tears,  "  I  came  to  Gaul  on  your 
entreaties.  I  came  with  immense  treasures  :  they  have  been  taken 
from  me  ;  and,  excepting  the  aid  of  Heaven,  I  placed  all  my  hopes 
in  you.    Let  God  be  the  judge  between  you  and  me  !  " 

Mummoles  and  the  chiefs  were  inflexible.  They  led  Gondevald  out 
of  the  town,  and  surrendered  him  to  Ollon,  Count  of  Bourges,  and 
to  Gontran  Boson,  who  had  despoiled  him  of  his  treasures.  "  Eternal 
Judge!"  exclaimed  the  unfortunate  prince,  "  Avenger  of  innocence ! 
avenge  me  on  those  who  have  surrendered  me,  an  innocent  man,  to 
my  enemies  !"  He  went  toward  the  army  of  the  besiegers,  arrayed 
on  the  plain.  "Here,"  said  Count  Ollon,  "is  the  man  who  calls 
himself  the  son  and  brother  of  kings  !"  and,  at  the  same  moment,  he 
ran  his  spear  through  him.  Endeavouring  to  rise,  he  was  hurled 
down  again,  and  killed  by  a  fragment  of  rock  thrown  by  Boson. 
Thus  perished  Gondevald,  after  a  harsh  experience  of  the  inconstancy 
of  men,  and  the  most  extreme  vicissitudes  of  fortune. 

This  treachery  was  of  no  advantage  to  the  traitors.  The  Austro- 
Burgundian  army  penetrated  into  the  town,  which  they  fired ;  and  in- 
habitants, priests,  and  soldiers  all  perished,  by  the  sword,  or  by  fire. 
Mummoles  was  not  spared  :  his  rebellion  had  effaced  his  services, 
and  Gontran  ordered  that  he  should  be  put  to  death.  This  powerful 
chief  perished  by  assassination,  in  the  midst  of  the  army  which  had 
gained  the  victory  solely  through  him ;  and  with  him  vanished  the 
great  conspiracy  which  had  made  the  King  of  Burgundy  tremble 
on  his  throne.  Shortly  afterwards,  at  an  assembly  held  at  Andelot, 
the  traitor  Gontran  Boson  was  condemned  by  the  two  Kings,  and  a 
price  set  on  his  head.  The  house  of  a  bishop,  in  which  the  proscribed 
man  had  taken  refuge,  was  burnt  like  the  lair  of  a  wild  beast.  Boson 
came  out  of  it,  sword  in  hand,  and  expired  on  the  threshold,  trans- 
fixed by  a  cloud  of  arrows :  when  dead,  he  stood  erect,  fixed  to  the 
wall.     Such  was  the  mode  in  which  royal  decrees  were  carried  out : 


511-638]  RIVALRY    OF    FREDEGONDE    AND    BRUNHILDA.  63 

acts  of  justice  were  not  distinguished  from  those  of  violence  ;  but  were 
as  barbarously  executed  as  the  crimes  they  were  intended  to  punish. 

The  two  princes,  uncle  and  nephew,  then  formed  a  new  compact 
in  the  solemn  assembly  of  Andelot.  The  common  interests  of  the 
kingdoms  of  Burgundy  and  Austrasia  were  regulated  there,  and  the 
survivor  of  the  two  Kings  was  recognized  as  the  heir  of  the  other. 
After  this,  King  Ohildebert,  encouraged  by  his  successes  in  Aquitaine, 
the  support  of  Grontran,  and  the  genius  of  his  mother,  Brunhilda, 
shook  off  the  yoke  of  his  leudes,  and  put  several  of  them  to  death. 
A  conspiracy  against  his  life  was  detected.  A  powerful  lord,  the 
ferocious  Rauking,  who  had  agreed  to  kill  him  with  his  own  hand,  was 
summoned  to  the  presence  of  Ohildebert,  and  found  him  surrounded  by 
his  guards  :  the  King  had  the  intended  assassin  killed  in  his  presence. 
On  another  occasion,  he  invited  his  court,  and  Magnovald,  the  most 
formidable  of  the  nobles,  to  witness  a  combat  of  animals,  and  while  the 
bull  was  expiring  in  the  arena,  a  warrior  cleft  the  head  of  Magnovald 
with  his  axe. 

While  the  youthful  Ohildebert  was  signalizing  his  reign  in 
Austrasia  by  bloodthirsty  acts,  old  King  Gontran  was  terminating 
his  in  Burgundy  by  reverses.  His  armies  were  defeated  in  Septimania, 
or  Languedoc,  by  the  Yisigoths,  and  fell  back  in  Novempopulania 
before  the  Vascons,  the  ferocious  mountaineers  of  the  Pyrenees.  The 
old  King  died  in  593,  and  Ohildebert,  his  nephew  and  adopted  son, 
succeeded  him.  By  his  succession  to  the  throne  of  G-ontran  the 
strength  of  Austrasia  was  doubled ;  and  Queen  Brunhilda,  thinking 
the  moment  favourable  to  avenge  herself  on  her  old  enemy,  the 
Austrasian  army  marched  against  Neustria,  where  the  youthful 
Clothair  II.  reigned,  under  the  direction  of  his  mother,  Fredegonde, 
and  Landeric,  mayor  of  the  palace.  Fredegonde  anticipated  her 
rival.  She  occupied  Soissons,  and  offered  battle  in  the  plains  of 
Truccia,  near  Chateau  Thierry.  Ohildebert' s  army  was  suddenly 
seized  with  a  panic  at  the  sight  of  a  moving  forest  apparently 
marching  against  them.  It  was  the  ISTeustrian  army,  the  soldiers 
of  which  carried  in  front  of  them  leafy  branches,  for  the  purpose  of 
concealing  their  numbers.  The  Austrasians  took  to  flight,  and  Ohilde- 
bert accepted  a  peace,  which  could  only  be  a  short  truce.  He  sur- 
vived his  defeat  only  a  few  years,  and  died,  after  undertaking  some 


64 


DEATH    OF    FREDEGONDE.  [BOOK  I.  Chap.  II. 


other  wai*like  expeditions,  in  596,   leaving  two  sons  of  tender  age, 
Theodebert  and  Thierry. 

At  this  time  the  three  kingdoms  of  the  Franks  recognized  as 
Kings  three  boys.  Clothair  II.  reigned  in  ISTeustria,  Theodebert  II. 
in  Austrasia,  and  Thierry  II.  in  Burgundy — the  first  under  the 
guardianship  of  Fredegonde,  the  two  others  under  that  of  their 
grandmother  Brunhilda.  The  implacable  hatred  of  these  two 
queens  rekindled  hostilities ;  and  in  a  great  battle  fought  at  Latofao, 
near  Sens,  by  Fredegonde  and  Landeric,  against  the  sons  of  Childebert, 
the  Austrasians  and  Burgundians  took  to  flight.  Fredegonde  entered 
Paris  victoriously ;  reconstituted  the  old  kingdom  of  Neustria  in  its 
integrity  ;  and  died,  after  triumphing  over  all  her  enemies,  either  by 
the  sword  or  by  poison. 

The  enterprises  of  Brunhilda  were  much  more  difficult  than  those 
of  her  rival  had  been,  and  her  genius  constantly  encountered 
invincible  obstacles.  The  nobles  of  Austrasia,  for  a  time  subdued  by 
Childebert,  tried  to  render  themselves  independent  during  the 
childhood  of  his  son,  and  combined  once  again  against  the  despotism 
of  Brunhilda.  The  young  King  himself,  as  weary  as  they  were  of 
his  grandmother's  yoke,  was  their  secret  accomplice.  In  order  to 
save  her  life,  the  old  Queen  left  the  palace  of  Theodebert  and 
Austrasia  as  a  fugitive,  and  sought  an  asylum  in  Burgundy,  where 
she  was  received  with  great  honour  by  her  other  grandson,  King  Thierry, 
and  the  Burgundian  nobles.  It  is  said  that  she  had  recourse  to  crime, 
and  corrupted  the  morals  of  the  young  prince  in  order  to  subject 
him  the  better  to  her  will.  Irritated  against  Theodebert,  who  had 
seconded  or  permitted  the  violence  to  which  she  had  been  exposed 
in  Austrasia,  Brunhilda  deferred  taking  vengeance  on  him  till  she 
had  satiated  her  hatred  of  the  son  of  Fredegonde.  Excited  by  their 
grandmother,  the  two  brothers,  Theodebert  and  Thierry,  formed  an 
alliance  against  Clothair  II.,  and  the  united  Austrasian  and  Burgundian 
armies  came  up  with  the  Ueustrians  at  Dormeille,  in  the  country  of 
Sens.  Clothair  was  conquered,  and  the  carnage  was  awful.  The 
chroniclers  of  the  age  tell  us  that  the  exterminating  angel  was  seen 
waving  his  sword  of  fire  over  the  two  armies.  Two  years  later, 
Brunhilda,  at  the  head  of  the  Burgundians,  gained  another  victory 
over  the  Neustrians  at  Etampes.      Clothair  had  all  but   fallen   into 


511-638]  RIVALRY   OF    FREDEGONDE    AND    BRUNHILDA.  65 

her  hands,  when  she  learned  that  Theodebert,  King  of  Australia,  had 
treated  at  Compiegne  with  their  common  enemy,  whom  he  had  it  in 
his  power  to  crnsh.  This  peace  saved  the  son  of  Fredegonde,  but 
filled  with  rage  the  heart  of  Brunhilda,  who  from  this  moment  only 
thought  of  punishing  Theodebert.  She  armed  Thierry  against  his 
brother,  and,  after  a  sanguinary  war  that  lasted  several  years,  between 
the  Burgundians  and  Austrasians,  the  two  armies  met  on  the  already 
celebrated  plains  of  Tolbiac.  The  contest  was  horrible  :  the  com- 
batants, Fredegarius  tells  us,  were  so  crowded  that  the  dead  had  no 
room  to  fall,  but  stood  erect  one  against  the  other  as  if  still  living. 
Theodebert  was  conquered,  and  fled  ;  but  fell  into  the  hands  of  his 
brother,  who  put  his  young  son  to  death  before  his  eyes,  while  Theo- 
debert himself  was  murdered  by  the  orders  of  his  implacable  grand- 
mother.    Thierry  died  suddenly  in  the  following  year. 

The  priests  alone,  at  this  period,  raised  their  voices  to  brand  so 
many  crimes,  and  their  pious  courage  frequently  exposed  their  lives  to 
danger.  The  crimes  of  Fredegonde  drew  from  Pretextatus,  Bishop  of 
Rouen,  a  few  Christian  and  bold  remarks  ;  and  she  had  him  assassinated 
at  the  foot  of  the  altar.  Other  Grospel  teachers  reproached  Brunhilda, 
who  was  nearly  sixty  years  of  age,  for  her  shameful  debaucheries  ;  and 
one  of  them,  St.  Didier,  was  stoned  by  her  orders.  Another,  of  the 
name  of  Columbanus,  who  enjoyed  a  great  reputation  for  sanctity, 
refused,  in  the  presence  of  Brunhilda,  to  bless  the  King's  bastards. 
He  broke  the  festive  cup  offered  him,  and  poured  the  wine  on  the 
ground,  in  reprobation  of  the  royal  conduct.  He  was  exiled:  the 
people  flocked  round  to  bless  him,  and  his  progress  to  the  frontier  was 
a  triumph. 

Thierry  left  four  sons,  of  whom  Sigebert,  the  eldest,  was  scarce 
eleven  years  of  age.  Brunhilda  undertook  to  have  him  crowned  alone, 
and  to  maintain  the  unity  of  his  father's  states  by  evading  the  custom 
of  division.  This  attempt  excited  a  rebellion,  and  the  nobles  sum- 
moned to  their  aid  Clothair  II.,  King  of  Neustria.  Clothair  was  already 
on  the  Meuse,  and  marched  upon  the  Rhine.  Brunhilda  proceeded  to 
Worms  with  her  great-grandsons,  and  sought  support  from  the  Ger- 
mans. A  portion  of  the  Austrasian  leudes  had  already  passed  over  into 
Clothair' s  camp  :  the  others  flocked  round  their  King  in  order  to  betray 
him  more  easily.     The  most  distinguished  of  the  conspirators  were 

F 


66  DEATH  OF  BRUNHILDA.  [Book  I.  Chap.  II. 

two  powerful  Austrasian  lords,  whose  children  became  by  intermarriage 
the  stem  of  the  second  royal  dynasty  of  France.  They  were  Arnolph, 
afterwards  canonized  as  Bishop  of  Metz,  and  Pepin  of  Landen  (a 
town  in  Hainanlt),  or  the  Old  One.  They  both,  under  the  authority 
of  the  celebrated  Warnacharius,  Mayor  of  the  Palace  in  Burgundy, 
aided  the  success  of  the  famous  plot  whose  object  was  the  overthrow 
of  Queen  Brunhilda  and  her  race. 

The  combined  Austrasian  and  Burgundian  armies  met  the  ISTeu- 
strians  on  the  banks  of  the  Aisne  in  Champagne.  The  conspirators 
then  declared  themselves.  Clothair  II.  was  hailed  as  king  by  all  the 
Franks,  and  three  of  Thierry's  sons  were  surrendered  to  him.  He  had 
the  young  King  Sigebert  murdered,  with  one  of  his  brothers  :  he 
exiled  another  to  ISTeustria,  but  the  fourth  escaped  him,  and  never 
reappeared.  Lastly,  the  haughty  Brunhilda  herself  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  son  of  Fredegonde,  who  avenged  himself  as  his  mother 
would  have  done.  Brunhilda — daughter,  wife,  sister,  and  mother  of 
kings — was  abandoned  for  three  days  to  the  executioners-,  then  carried 
semi-naked  round  the  camp  on  a  camel,  and  exposed  to  the  outrages  of 
the  soldiery,  after  which  she  was  fastened  alive  to  the  tail  of  a  wild  horse, 
which  tore  her  into  fragments.  She  had  been  for  forty-eight  years  the 
terror  of  her  enemies,  and  eventually  succumbed  because  she  tried  to 
impose  on  a  semi-savage  nation  the  government  of  an  advanced  civili- 
zation. The  coarse  minds  of  the  Pranks  did  not  comprehend  the 
advantages  derived  from  the  unity  of  a  vast  empire  ;  and,  even  had 
they  done  so,  they  would  have  refused  to  sacrifice  their  individual 
ambition  and  fierce  independence  for  them.  Brunhilda  was  fond  of  the 
arts  :  she  repaired  several  Roman  rOads,  and  restored  many  fine  monu- 
ments. In  her  religious  zeal  she  lavished  immense  sums  on  the  clergy, 
and  built  a  prodigious  number  of  churches  and  monasteries.  All  that 
this  queen  did  received  from  her  a  gigantic  stamp.  Her  long  reign  was 
sullied  by  many  crimes,  but  it  did  not  pass  away  without  a  certain 
grandeur  and  some  amount  of  glory. 

After  the  death  of  Brunhilda,  Clothair  II.  united  under  his  sceptre 
the  entire  Prank  monarchy,  and  was  soon  able  to  discover  that  the 
unity  of  his  vast  empire  was  only  apparent.  The  nobles  of  Austrasia, 
in  overthrowing  Sigebert,  had  thought  much  less  about  raising  Clothair 
than  aggrandizing  themselves.    They  wanted  a  prince  to  reside  among 


511-638]  RIVALRY   OF   FREDEGONDE   AND   BRUNHILDA.  67 

them,  that  they  might  direct  him  as  they  thought  proper ;  and  they 
forced  the  King  to  share  his  throne  with  his  son  Dagobert,  and  give 
them  the  latter  as  their  sovereign.  Dagobert,  who  had  scarce  emerged 
from  infancy,  reigned  Tinder  the  gnardianship  of  Arnolph,  Bishop  of 
Metz. 

The  most  celebrated  event  in  the  reign  of  Clothair  II.  was  the 
council,  or  synod,  of  Paris  in  615.  In  the  midst  of  the  chaos  into  which 
the  Frank  conquest  had  plunged  Gaul,  everything  was  in  disorder  and 
gloom  except  the  Church,  which  had  alone  retained,  through  tradition, 
literary  associations  and  ideas  of  public  order  and  regular  government. 
The  bishops  were  generally  respected  and  feared  by  the  kings,  in  spite 
of  the  violence  to  which  several  of  them  were  exposed  ;  and,  in  various 
instances,  they  combined  with  the  lay  nobles  to  place  a  check  on  the 
foolish  and  barbarous  authority  of  the  Merovingian  princes.  They 
held,  during  the  sixth  century,  numerous  councils ;  and  in  the  one 
which  assembled  in  Paris  in  the  reign  of  Clothair  II.,  two  aristo- 
cracies came  together,  that  of  the  bishops  and  that  of  the  lords.  The 
famous  edict  which  this  assembly  promulgated  forms  an  epoch  in 
history ;  for  it  marked  the  success  of  the  reaction  of  the  nobles  against 
the  kings,  by  shaking  the  system  of  arbitrary  government  which  the 
latter  had  tried  to  found.  By  this  edict  canonical  elections  were 
established;  the  clerks  remained  independent  of  secular  justice;  the 
treasury  was  prohibited  from  seizing  successions  ab  intestato  and  raising 
the  taxation ;  and  the  judges  and  officers  of  the  king  were  rendered 
responsible.  The  edict  further  ordered  the  restitution  of  the  benefices 
taken  from  the  leudes,  protected  rich  widows,  nuns,  and  virgins,  from 
the  caprice  and  violence  of  the  princes ;  and  punished  any  infraction 
of  its  provisions  with  death.  One  of  the  chief  articles  settled  that 
the  judges,  or  counts,  should  be  always  selected  from  the  landowners 
of  the  parts  where  their  jurisdiction  would  be  exercised ;  and  from 
this  time,  the  dignity  of  count  belonged  nearly  always  to  the  richest 
proprietor  in  each  county,  and  the  royal  choice  had  narrow  limits. 
"We  know  but  little  more  about  the  reign  of  Clothair  II.'  Sanguinary 
wars  broke  out  between  him  and  his  son  Dagobert,  whose  independ- 
ence he  was  compelled  to  recognize ;  and  his  life  was  extinguished 
in  the  midst  of  civil  troubles.  He  died  in  628,  before  he  had  been 
able  to  secure  the  establishment  of  his  second  son,  Caribert. 

F  2 


68  [Book  I.  Chap.  III. 

IY. 

REIGN    OF    DAGOBERT    I. 

The  sceptre  of  Dagobert  extended  over  the  three  great  kingdoms  of 
the  Frank  monarchy — ISTeustria,  Austrasia,  and  Burgundy  ;  from  which 
he  detached  Aquitaine,  that  is  to  say,  the  territory  between  the  Loire, 
the  Rhone,  and  the  Pyrenees,  and  gave  it  to  his  brother  Caribert.  The 
latter  soon  died,  and  his  eldest  son  was  assassinated,  it  is  said,  by  a 
faction  devoted  to  Dagobert,  who  resumed  possession  of  his  brother's 
states ;  but  left  Aquitaine,  under  the  title  of  duchy,  to  the  two  re- 
maining sons  of  Caribert,  Boggis  and  Bertrand,  reserving,  however,  all 
the  royal  rights  over  them.  The  unity  of  the  Frank  monarchy  was 
thus  once  again  restored. 

If  a  Merovingian  king  could  have  arrested  the  fall  of  his  dynasty, 
Dagobert  would  have  had  this  glory.  He  followed  in  the  track 
of  Queen  Brunhilda,  and  supported  himself  against  the  nobles 
by  appealing  to  the  Grallo-Roman  populations,  who  detested  their 
tyranny  :  he  made  terrible  examples  in  Austrasia  and  Burgundy,  and 
kept  the  factions  in  obedience  by  the  terror  he  inspired.  ~Not  one 
of  the  kings  descended  from  Clovis  caused  his  power  to  be  more 
respected,  or  displayed  greater  magnificence.  The  bishops,  leudes,  and 
foreign  ambassadors,  crowded  his  court ;  and  the  spoils  of  a  portion 
of  Europe,  gold,  silk,  precious  stones,  were  displayed  in  his  country 
palaces,  and  in  his  royal  residence  of  Clichy,  near  Paris.  The  splendour 
of  Dagobert  nearly  equalled  that  of  Eastern  potentates.  In  the  early 
part  of  his  reign,  he  did  not  allow  his  mind  to  be  weakened  by  the 
luxury  with  which  he  surrounded  himself,  and  devoted  his  time  to 
useful  occupations.  He  it  was  who  had  the  Salic  and  Ripuarian  laws 
revised  and  written,  as  well  as  those  of  his  Allemannic  and  Bavarian 
vassals.  In  the  end,  however,  he  gave  way  to  debauchery  and  cruelty ; 
he  forgot  the  claims  of  justice,  and  imposed  heavy  tributes  on  his 
people.  At  the  same  time,  his  arms  were  not  successful.  The  Wincli, 
or  Yenedes,  a  Sclavonic  nation,  having  been  liberated  from  the  yoke 
of  the  Avarians  by  the  Frank  Samo,  elected  him  as  their  king,  took 
possession  of  a  portion  of  Bohemia,  and  established  themselves  in  the 
valley  of  the  Danube,  which  was  at  this  period  the  great  commercial 
route  between  Northern  Gaul  and  Constantinople  and  Asia.     A  large 


511-638]  REIGN   OP   DAGOBERT   I.  69 

caravan  of  Franks  was  plundered  and  massacred  by  this  people. 
Dagobert  demanded  satisfaction ;  and,  being  unable  to  obtain  it,  sum- 
moned the  Franks  to  take  vengeance.  War  was  proclaimed  in  all  his 
states,  and  among  his  northern  and  western  vassals  ;  and  the  Germans 
and  Thuringians,  united  with  the  Franks  and  Lombards,  marched 
against  the  Windi.  These  armies  perished  in  the  desert  countries,  and 
the  power  of  the  Franks  was  shaken  through  the  whole  of  Germany. 

Dagobert,  from  this  time,  confined  his  attention  to  keeping  his  own 
subjects  in  obedience.  The  Austrasians,  ever  ready  to  revolt,  forced 
him  to  share  his  throne  with  his  son  Sigebert,  three  years  of  age,  and 
give  him  to  them  as  king.  Dagobert  confided  the  child  to  Duke 
Adalgesil ;  but  he  demanded,  and  obtained,  that  Pepin  of  Landen, 
and  other  Austrasian  lords,  should  remain  at  his  court  as  hostages. 
He  also  had  another  son,  of  the  name  of  Clovis,  designated  and 
recognized  as  King  of  Neustria  and  Burgundy.  The  bishops  and 
nobles  of  Austrasia,  constrained,  as  a  contemporary  historian  states, 
by  their  terror  of  Dagobert,  swore  to  sanction  the  dismemberment 
of  his  empire.  This  prince,  in  the  last  year  of  his  reign,  repulsed 
an  invasion  of  the  Yascons,  repressed  a  revolt  in  Aquitaine,  and  made 
a  treaty  with  the  Bretons,  who  recognized  his  supremacy. 

In  spite  of  the  reverses  of  his  arms  against  the  Windi,  and  numerous 
causes  of  internal  dissolution,  Dagobert  remained  to  the  end  of  his 
reign  powerful  and  feared.  He  combined,  like  many  of  the  princes  of 
his  race,  a  great  fervour  for  religion,  and  a  superstitious  devotion, 
with  licentious  tastes.  He  made  immense  gifts  to  the  clergy,  and 
covered  France  with  churches  and  monasteries.  He  gave  his  confidence 
to  the  referendary  Audouen,  and  the  jeweller  Eligius,  the  master  of  the 
royal  mint.  These  two  men,  better  known  by  the  names  of  St.  Ouen 
and  St.  Eloi,  were  both  canonized,  and  their  memory  has  become 
popular.  Dagobert  died  in  638.  He  had  displayed  great  generosity 
to  the  monastery  of  St.  Denis,  whose  basilica  he  covered  with  gold 
and  precious  stones,  and  where  he  was  buried  with  great  pomp.  This 
king,  despite  all  his  vices,  surpassed  in  merit  the  majority  of  the 
princes  of  his  family.  When  he  died,  a  century  and  a  half  had. 
elapsed  since  the  elevation  of  Clovis  to  the  throne  of  the  Franks,  and 
this  period,  marked  by  so  much  devastation  and  so  many  crimes,  was 
the  most  memorable  during  the  reign  of  the  Merovingians. 


70  SLOTHFUL  KINGS.  [Book  I.  Chap.  III. 


CHAPTER   III. 

SLOTHFUL    KINGS. — DECAY   AND    END    OF   THE    MEEOYINGIAN    DYNASTY. FROM 

THE    DEATH    OF    DAGOBERT   I.    TO    THE    DEPOSITION    OF    CHILDERIC    III. 

638-652. 
I. 

THE    FIRST   SLOTHFUL     KINGS. GOVERNMENT   OF    EBROUIN,     MAYOR    OF   THE 

PALACE    IN   NEUSTRIA. 

After  the  death  of  Dagobert  I.,  the  Merovingian  family  only  offers  us 
phantoms  of  kings,  brutalized  by  indolence  and  debauchery,  and  whom 
history  has  justly  branded  with  the  title  of  rois  faineants.  Through 
their  very  nullity  they  had  an  additional  title  to  the  throne  in  the 
sight  of  those  who  reigned  in  their  name.  By  the  side  of  royalty 
grew  up  the  magistrature  of  the  Mayors  of  the  Palace,  who,  during 
some  of  the  later  reigns,  had  already  several  times  substituted  their 
authority  for  that  of  the  monarch.  They  took  advantage  of  the  weak- 
ness of  the  Merovingians  to  usurp  de  facto  the  entire  power.  Elected 
by  the  leudes,  they  had  for  a  long  period  been  supported  by  them  in 
governing  the  sovereigns ;  but,  when  their  power  was  thoroughly 
established,  they  crushed  the  nobles,  in  order  that  there  might  be 
henceforth  no  other  authority  than  their  own.  They  then  transmitted 
their  office  to  their  sons,  and  it  was  eventually  regarded  as  the  appanage 
of  a  family,  in  the  same  way  as  the  sceptre  seemed  to  belong  by  right 
to  the  race  of  Clovis. 

Dagobert,  when  dying,  had  recognized  Ega  as  mayor  in  Neustria, 
and  Pepin  of  Landen  in  Austrasia;  and  had  confided  to  them  the 
guardianship  of  his  two  sons,  Sigebert  III.  and  Clovis  II.,  between 
whom  his  states  were  divided.  Ega  died,  and  Erkinoald  succeeded  to 
his  office.     The  childhood  and  character  of  the  two  kings  contributed 


638-652J  GOVERNMENT   OF   EBROUIN.  71 

to    a   great  extent  in  establishing  the  power  of  the  mayors  of  the 
palace. 

Sigebert  III.,  who  was  entirely  devoted  to  religions  practices,  lived 
like  a  monk  in  his  Anstrasian  states,  and  restricted  the  exercise  of  his 
authority  to  the  care  of  enriching  the  churches  and  building  monas- 
teries :  he  died  in  the  flower  of  his  age.  Clovis  II.,  on  the  contrary, 
only  saw  in  the  royalty  of  Neustria  and  Burgundy  the  fatal  facility 
for  satisfying  his  shameful  taste  for  debauchery.  Still,  his  nominal 
authority  extended  over  the  entire  monarchy  of  the  Franks,  and 
Austrasia  also  recognized  him  as  king.  The  mayor  had  been  succeeded 
by  his  son  Grimoald.  The  latter,  on  the  death  of  Sigebert  III.,  had 
tried  to  get  the  sceptre  into  his  family.  He  had  the  youthful  Dago- 
bert,  son  of  Sigebert,  conveyed  to  Ireland,  concealed  the  place  of  his 
retreat,  and  dared  to  place  the  crown  on  the  head  of  his  own  son.;  but 
the  Austrasian  nobles  revolted  against  an  authority  which  was  inde- 
pendent of  their  choice.  They  put  Grimoald  and  his  son  to  death, 
and  recognized  as  their  master  the  weak  Clovis  II.,  King  of  Neustria, 
who  very  shortly  after  followed  his  brother  Sigebert  III.  to  the  grave, 
and  left  his  sceptre  and  empty  royal  title  to  Clothair  III.,  his  elder  son. 

The  famous  Ebrouin,  gifted  with  great  talents,  and  of  an  inflexible 
character,  was  at  that  time  mayor  of  the  palace.  Still,  he  did  not 
succeed  in  long  maintaining  the  apparent  unity  of  the  monarchy. 
The  Austrasian  lords  required  a  king  who,  like  his  predecessors, 
should  be  subject  to  their  influence.  They  summoned  the  youthful 
Childeric,  second  son  of  Clovis  II.,  greeted  him  as  King  of  Austrasia, 
and  gave  him  for  guardian  the  Mayor  Wulfoald. 

The  nobles  had  been  unable  to  establish  a  regular  aristocratic 
government  in  any  one  of  the  three  kingdoms  forming  the  monarchy  : 
their  power  had  only  tended  to  render  them  more  and  more  inde- 
pendent. Ebrouin  saw  in  the  progress  of  their  individual  authority 
a  step  toward  general  anarchy.  He  was  jealous  of  the  excess  of 
their  power;  and,  either  through  policy  or  personal  ambition,  he 
wished  to  remain  sole  master  in  Neustria  and  Burgundy.  His  des- 
potism caused  all  the  nobles  to  revolt.  The  celebrated  Bishop  of 
Autun,  Leger,  of  whom  the  Church  has  made  a  saint,  placed  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  insurgents  in  Burgundy,  and  gave  the  example  of 
an  obstinate  resistance.     Ebrouin  at  first  subdued  the  rebellion,  but 


72  GOVERNMENT    OF    EBROUIN.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  III. 

tlie  death,  of  Clothair  III.  shook  Lis  power.  He  did  not  dare  convene 
the  nobles,  according  to  custom,  in  a  national  mall,  in  order  to  elect 
a  successor  to  this  prince,  who  died  childless ;  and  he  proclaimed  as 
king",  of  his  own  authority,  the  youthful  Thierry,  third  son  of  Cloyis  II. 
This  violation  of  the  old  customs  of  the  kingdom  armed  the  nobles 
against  Ebrouin.  The  lords  of  Neustria  and  Burgundy  were  no  more 
willing  than  those  of  Austrasia  to  see  the  mayors  usurp  the  right  of 
election  to  the  throne,  and  they  offered  the  crown  of  the  two  king- 
doms to  Ohilderic  II.,  King  of  Austrasia. 

Ebrouin,  abandoned  by  all,  took  refuge  in  a  church.  His  life  was 
spared :  he  was  forced  to  take  the  tonsure,  and  was  imprisoned  in 
the  monastery  of  Luxeuil.  Thierry  III.  was  led  as  a  prisoner  into  his 
brother's  presence,  and  confined -by  his  orders  at  St.  Denis. 

Childeric  II.  removed  his  residence  from  Metz  to  Paris.  This  prince 
combined  with  the  brutal  passions  of  his  degenerate  race,  the  energetic 
character  of  his  ancestors.  Constrained,  at  first,  to  subscribe  the  con- 
ditions imposed  on  him  by  the  nobles  who  had  crowned  him,  he  no 
longer  observed  them  when  he  felt  his  strength.  He  combated  the 
leudes  with  severity,  and  shut  up  Bishop  Leger  in  the  same  monastery 
of  Luxeuil,  into  which  the  latter  had  thrown  Ebrouin.  Misfortune 
reconciled  for  a  time  these  two  great  enemies.  They  formed  a  conspiracy 
against  the  rash  Childeric,  who  had  dared  to  inflict  on  one  of  his 
leudes,  of  the  name  of  Bodolus,  a  dishonourable  punishment  reserved 
for  slaves.  Bodolus  and  the  conspirators  surprised  the  King,  while 
hunting  in  the  forest  of  Bondy,  near  the  royal  mansion  of  Chelles. 
Their  vengeance  was  atrocious,  for  they  murdered  him,  with  his  wife 
and  children.  Ebrouin  and  Bishop  Leger  came  out  of  captivity 
together,  and  became  once  more  deadly  foes.  Ebrouin  eventually 
gained  the  victory  over  his  formidable  rival,  whom  he  deprived  of 
sight,  and  then  had  him  tried  by  an  episcopal  synod,  and  condemned 
to  death.  Taking  from  prison  the  weak  Thierry,  a  useful  and  blind 
instrument  of  his  despotic  will,  he  obtained  the  support  of  the  masses 
against  the  nobles,  and  exercised  for  a  long  time  an  uncontrolled 
power.  He  set  everything  to  work  to  break  up  the  hereditary  aris- 
tocracy. He  brought  the  benefices  into  circulation  again ;  he  tore  the 
estates  of  the  treasury  from  the  powerful  families  that  had  long 
regarded  them  as  their  patrimony  :  he  divided  them  among  new  men, 


638-652]  DEATH    OF    EBROUIN.  73 

thus  interesting  a  numerous  class  of  poor  tenants  in  the  defence  of  his 
work. 

Still,  a  formidable  cloud  collected  against  Ebrouin  in  Austrasia. 
After  the  death  of  Childeric  II.,  this  country  was  again  separated 
from  the  kingdoms  of  JSeustria and  Burgundy.  Y oung  Dagobert,  son 
of  Sigebert  III.,  was  recalled  from  the  monastery  where  he  lived 
concealed,  in  Ireland.  This  young  prince,  who  was  greedy  and  cruel, 
wished  to  make  victims  of  the  authors  of  his  fortunes,  and  his 
rashness  was  only  paralleled  by  his  violence.  Imitating  the  last  King, 
Childeric,  he  met  with  a  similar  fate,  and  was  assassinated  by  the 
nobles  of  Austrasia,  without  leaving  an  heir. 

Among  his  murderers  were   several  partizans  and  relatives  of  the 
old  mayor,  Pepin  of  Landen,  whose  male  posterity  had  become  ex- 
tinct with  Grimoald  and  his  son,  but  whose  family  for   a  long  time 
retained    great    influence.       A    daughter    of    Pepin,     of     the   name 
of   Legga,   had  married  the  son    of  the   great  Arnolph,    Bishop    of 
Metz.    She  had  a  son  by  him,  who  received  the  name  of  his  maternal 
grandfather,  and  whom  historians,  in  order  to  distinguish  him  from 
Pepin   the  Old,   have  surnamed  Pepin    of  Heristal,    from    the  name 
of  a  celebrated  estate   on  which  he  lived  on  the  banks  of  the  Meuse. 
This  young  man,  during  the  interregnum  which  followed  the  death  of 
Dagobert,  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  chiefs   of  the  aristocracy  of 
the   dukes  and  counts  of  Austrasia.      The  nobles    triumphed  in  this 
country,  and  were  crushed  in  Neustria  and  Burgundy.     A  multitude 
of   exiles    from    these   two    kingdoms    demanded   vengeance    of  the 
Dukes  of  Austrasia  upon  Ebrouin,  and  a  fresh  and  terrible  collision 
took  place  on  the  plain    of   Latafao,   which  had  already   been  fatal 
to  the  Austrasians.     Neustria   was   once   more  victorious.     Ebrouin 
triumphed  :  but  he  was  unable  to  cull  the  fruits  of  his  victory.      A 
lord,  of  the  name  of  Ermanfroi,  who  had  been  proved  culpable  in  his 
office,  and  threatened  with  death,  anticipated  Ebrouin,  by  cleaving  his 
skull  with  his  axe,  and  fled  to  Austrasia,  where  Pepin  of  Heristal 
overwhelmed  him  with  honours.     The  historians   of  the, age,  mostly 
deadly  enemies  of  Ebrouin,  display  him  to  us  as  very  pitiless  and  per- 
fidious ;  but  his  memory  was  honoured  in  some  popular  legends.  "  He 
violently  repressed,"  Ave  are  told  in  them,  "  all  the  iniquities  that  were 
committed  on.  the  face  of  the  earth.     He   chastised  the  misdeeds  of 


74i  STRUGGLE   BETWEEN   AUSTRASIA  AND   NEUSTEIA.    [Book  I.  Chap.  III. 

proud  and  unjust  men,  and  caused  peace  to  reign :  he  was  a  man  of  a 
great  heart,  although  he  was  too  cruel  to  the  bishops."  *  Ebrouin, 
though  he  had  no  sceptre  or  crown,  had  reigned  for  twenty  years  with 
a  power  that  no  king  had  exercised  before  him. 

II. 

CONTINUATION     OP     THE    SLOTHFUL     KINGS. STRUGGLE     BETWEEN    AUSTRASIA 

AND   NEUSTRIA. MAYORALTY    OF    PEPIN    OF   HERISTAL.'l 

The  feeble  Thierry  was  still  reigning  in  ISTeustria,  when  Waratho,  and 
after  him  Berthair,  succeeded  Ebrouin  in  his  office.  The  reins  of 
government,  on  slipping  from  his  powerful  grasp,  were  relaxed  in  their 
feeble  hands.  Civil  discord  agitated  Neustria  :  hope  was  rearoused  in 
the  banished  lords.  They  renewed  their  applications  to  Pepin  of 
Heristal,  and  the  other  dukes  of  Austrasia,  and  another  revolution  was 
resolved  on.  Pepin  announced  himself  as  the  avenger  of  the  Frank 
nobles  and  priests  despoiled  by  the  mayors  of  Neustria,  and  was  pro- 
claimed commander-in-chief.  He  encountered  the  Neustrian  army  at 
Testry,  in  the  county  of  Vermandois,  gained  a  great  victory,  and  made 
King  Thierry  a  prisoner.  Having  then  assured  himself  that  no  one  was 
more  fitted  than  this  weak  prince  to  play  the  part  of  a  puppet  king,  he 
recognized  him  as  monarch  of  Neustria  and  Austrasia,  and  governed  in 
his  name  as  mayor  of  the  palace,  after  destroying  the  rulers  of  the 
party  opposed  to  the  nobles.  After  the  death  of  Thierry,  Pepin  crowned 
in  succession  his  two  sons,  Clovis  III.  and  Childebert  III.,  and  then 
his  grandson,  Dagobert  III. ;  but  he  was  the  real  military  chief,  and 
sole  grand  judge  of  the  nation  of  the  Franks.  He  restored  the  old 
national  customs,  which  had  been  unregarded  by  Ebrouin. 

The  great  medium  or  annual  assembly,  which  had  fallen  into  desue- 
tude, was  regularly  held  on  the  calends  of  March,  and  all  the  members 
of  the  nobility  were  convened  to  it.  The  King  proceeded  thither 
in  a  chariot  drawn  by  oxen,  wearing  the  royal  insignia,  and  with  his 
long  hair  floating  down  his  back.  He  seated  himself  in  the  midst  of 
the  assembly,  on  a  golden  throne,  where  the  monarch  in  effigy  granted 
an  audience  to  the  foreign  ambassadors,  and  gave  them  the  answers 
which  had  been  dictated  to  him.     He  uttered  a  few  remarks  touching 

*  Legends  of  St.  Projectus  of  Auvergne,  and  St.  Martial  of  Limoges._ 


638-652]  MAYORALTY   OF   PEPIN   OF   HERISTAL.  75 

peace,  war,  and  the  duties  of  government  towards  churches  and  orphans  ; 
and  then,  returning  as  he  had  come,  was  sent  by  Pepin  to  one  of  the 
large  royal  farms,  where  he  was  guarded  with  honour  and  respect. 

This  grand  scene  took  place  annually  :  it  testifies  to  the  prestige  which 
the  memory  of  Clovis  still  exercised  over  the  Franks,  and  to  what 
an  extent  popular  respect  attached  to  the  blood  of  Merovic.  This 
superstitious  worship  of  a  degenerate  race  is  a  thing  difficult  to  under- 
stand in  our  days  ;  and  we  do  not  know  which  to  feel  more  surprised 
at — the  boldness  of  the  mayors  who,  in  the  presence  of  a  people  to 
whom  the  name  of  Merovingian  was  sacred,  thus  humiliated  the  last 
representatives  of  this  family  ;  or  the  cowardly  imbecility  of  the  latter, 
who  were  all  recognized  as  kings,  though  not  one  of  them  took  advan- 
tage of  these  solemn  occasions  to  be  so  in  reality. 

The  empire  of  the  Franks  began  to  be  broken  up  after  the  battle  of 
Testry.  The  princes  of  the  Saxons,  Frisons,  Allemans,  Bavarians,  and 
Thuringians,  hitherto  vassals  of  the  Merovingian  kings,  considered 
themselves  the  equals  of  Pepin  when  they  had  contributed  to  his 
victory.  Pepin  contended  against  them,  and,  almost  to  his  death,  had 
to  sustain  long  and  sanguinary  wars  on  all  the  northern  frontiers,  while 
the  peoples  of  Burgundy  and  Provence  shook  off  his  yoke  in  the 
south.  Those  of  Aquitaine  rallied  under  the  celebrated  Eudes,  Duke 
of  Toulouse,  and  descendant  of  the  Merovingian  Caribert,  brother 
of  Dagobert  I.,  to  whom  they  gave  the  title  of  king,  and  rendered 
themselves  almost  independent  of  the  Frank  monarchy. 

Pepin  had  two  sons,  Drogon  and  Grimoald,  by  his  wife  Plectrude, 
and  a  third,  of  the  name  of  Charles,  by  his  concubine,  Alpaide.  He 
gave  the  duchy  of  Champagne  to  his  eldest  son,  who  died  in  708,  and 
during  his  own  lifetime  invested  his  second  son,  Grimoald,  in  the 
office  of  mayor  of  Neustria.  An  implacable  hatred  subsisted  between 
the  mothers  of  Charles  and  Grimoald,  who  became  deadly  foes.  Pepin 
grew  old ;  he  fell  sick,  and  was  all  but  dead,  when  his  son  Grimoald 
was  murdered  almost  in  his  presence.  He  collected  all  his  strength  to 
avenge  him  ;  he  sprang  from  his  death-bed,  destroyed  all  the  authors 
of  the  murder,  and  shut  up  his  son  Charles,  whom  he  suspected  of 
being  an  accomplice,  in  Bologna :  then  he  established  Grimoald's  son 
Theobald,  who  was  hardly  five  years  of  age,  as  mayor  of  the  palace. 
This  energetic  act  exhausted  his  strength.     "  He  died  in  714,"    the 


76  THE    LAST    SLOTHFUL    KINGS.  [SoOK  I.  Chap.  Ill- 

annals  of  the  Franks  tell  us,  "after  commanding  for  twenty-seven 
years  and  six  months  the  whole  Frank  people,  with  the  kings  subject  to 
him — Thierry,  Clovis,  Childebert,  and  Dagobert." 


III. 

THE    LAST    SLOTHFUL    KINGS. END     OF    THE     STRUGGLE    BETWEEN   AUSTRASIA 

AND     NEUSTRIA. INVASION      OF     THE      MUSSULMANS.  —  GOVERNMENT      OF 

CHARLES    MARTEL. 

Pepin  left  at  the  head  of  the  monarchy  two  boys — one  king,  the  other 
mayor — under  the  guardianship  of  the  aged  Plectrude,  the  grand- 
mother of  Theodebald.  The  Neustrians  grew  indignant  at  such  a  yoke. 
They  revolted  against  Plectrude  and  her  son,  and  chose  Raginfred  as 
mayor  of  the  palace  :  then,  allying  themselves  with  the  Frisons  and 
Saxons,  they  attacked  and  disarmed  Austrasia.  Pressed  on  all  sides, 
the  Austrasians  in  their  turn  deserted  Plectrude  and  her  son.  They 
took  out  of  a  monastery  the  youthful  Charles,  the  natural  son  of 
Pepin,  who  was  endowed  with  heroic  qualities,  and  enthusiastically 
recognized  him  as  king.  Still,  the  name  of  the  Merovingians  pos- 
sessed a  certain  prestige ;  and  on  the  death  of  Dagobert  III.  both 
factions  elected  a  pretended  member  of  this  degenerate  race  as  king, 
Chilperic  II.  in  Neustria,  and  Clothair  IV.  in  Austrasia.  They  nomi- 
nally reigned,  while  the  two  real  masters  of  these  states,  Raginfred 
and  Charles,  prepared  for  war,  and  marched  against  each  other.  The' 
victory  could  not  be  long  undecided.  The  Franks  of  Austrasia,  which 
country  bordered  Germany,  had  lost  none  of  their  warlike  energy. 
The  advantages  they  derived  from  the  conquest  were  a  powerful 
lure  for  the  Grerman  tribes  in  their  vicinity,  and  successive  immigra- 
tions naturally  kept  up  in  the  Austrasian  nation  a  more  energetic 
military  spirit,  and  more  warlike  habits,  than  in  Neustria.  Charles,  at 
first  defeated,  took  refuge  in  the  Ardennes,  and,  assembling  veteran 
bands,  placed  himself  at  their  head :  he  surprised  the  Neustrians, 
committed  great  carnage  among  them,  pursued  them,  and  by  the 
memorable  victory  of  Vincy,  near  Cambray,  gained  in  717,  the  whole 
of  ISTeustria  became  his  conquest.  The  Neustrians,  vanquished  but 
not  subjugated,  summoned  to  their  aid  Eudes,  King  of  Aquitaine, 
and  offered  him  the  sceptre.     The  Aquitanians  regarded  the  Franks 


638-652]  INVASION    OF    THE    MUSSULMANS.  77 

of  the  Rhine  as  far  more  barbarous  than  those  of  the  Seine.  They  had 
cause  to  fear  lest  the  ferocious  bands  of  Charles  might  wish,  like  those  of 
Clovis  in  former  times,  to  taste  the  fruits  of  the  south.  They  con- 
sequently united  with  the  Neustrians,  and  marched  against  Charles, 
who  defeated  them  near  Soissons,  and  pursued  them  up  to  Orleans. 
Clothair  IV.,  the  puppet  King  of  Austrasia,  had  just  died.  Charles, 
the  victor  over  the  Neustrians  and  Aquitanians,  had  Chilperic  II.,  the 
imbecile  King  of  Neustria,  recognized  as  sovereign  of  the  whole 
empire  of  Clovis  ;  and  on  his  death,  which  took  place  two  years  later, 
he  gave  him  Thierry  IV.  for  a  successor,  and  reigned  alone  in  his 
name. 

The  Austrasians,  or  Ripuarian  Franks,  triumphed  after  obstinate 
wars,  and  the  battles  of  Yincy  and  Soissons  were  the  last  efforts  of 
the  Neustrians.  The  seat  of  the  Frank  Empire  was  eventually  trans- 
ported to  the  Meuse  and  the  Rhine ;  and  this  was  necessary  in  order 
to  arrest  aud  draw  back  the  devastating  tide  of  new  Germanic  emi- 
grations. 

A  more  terrible  foe  menaced  the  empire  of  the  Franks.  Only  a 
century  previously,  Mohammed  had  founded  a  new  religion  in  Arabia  • 
and  already  his  armies,  electrified  by  religious  fanaticism  and  a  spirit 
of  conquest,  had  invaded  Asia,  Africa,  and  Spain,  and  were  advancing 
into  Gaul.  Never,  since  the  days  of  Attila,  had  a  more  formidable 
invasion  menaced  Europe.  The  torrent  crossed  the  Pyrenees,  and 
first  dashed  down  upon  Septimania.  Narbonne  succumbed,  and  the 
fall  of  that  city  decided  the  fate  of  the  country,  where  the  Arab 
rule  was  substituted,  as  in  Spain,  for  that  of  the  Visigoths. 

The  Mussulmans  next  menaced  Aquitaine,  and  the  other  possessions 
of  King  Eudes.  This  prince,  whom  Charles  had  conquered  at  Sois- 
sons, held  beneath  his  sway  in  Southern  France  several  countries 
which,  up  to  this  time,  had  not  formed  part  of  the  duchy  of  Aqui- 
taine, and  among  others  the  country  of  the  Waskes,  or  Basques,  better 
known  by  the  name  of  Gascons.  This  valiant  race,  who  dwelt  in 
Upper  Navarre,  and  were  descended  from  the  ancient  Iberi,  had 
occupied  for  two  centuries  the  two  watersheds  of  the  Pyrenees,  where 
for  a  long  period,  they  defended  their  independence  against  the 
Visigoths  and  Franks.  Toward  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  they 
made  an  irruption  into  Gaul,  and  settled  in  a  portion  of  Novempopu- 


78  INVASION   OF   THE    MUSSULMANS.  [BOOK  I.  Chap.  III. 

lama.,  which,  received  from  them  the  name  of  Gascony.  At  the  close 
of  the  following  century,  King  Eudes,  either  by  victories  or  treaties, 
annexed  it  to  Aquitaine,  and  the  two  peoples  formed  but  one  at  the 
time  when  Eudes,  attacked  by  the  Saracens,  gained  a  great  victory 
over  them  on  the  plains  of  Toulouse.  He  defeated  them  a  second 
time,  but,  being  beset  by  new  legions  of  enemies,  he  purchased  a 
peace  of  one  of  their  generals  of  the  name  of  Munuza,*  by  giving 
him  in  marriage  his  daughter  Lampagia.  Munuza  went  away,  and 
soon  after  perished  in  a  civil  war  against  Abd-ul  Brahman,  Yali,  or 
chief,  of  the  Mussulmans  in  Spain :  his  wife,  daughter  of  King* 
Eucles,  fell  into  the  power  of  the  victor,  who,  in  his  turn,  invaded 
Aquitaine. 

Eudes  was  still  carrying  on  the  war  in  the  north  of  his  states, 
against  the  invincible  Charles,  chief  of  the  Franks,  when  he  was 
menaced  in  the  south  by  the  enemies  of  all  the  Christians :  he  saw 
his  army  destroyed  by  the  Mussulmans  before  Bordeaux,  that  city 
burnt,  Aquitaine  pillaged,  and  its  inhabitants  massacred.  Feeling  that 
he  was  too  weak  to  contend  against  all  these  foes,  and  constrained  to 
submit  either  to  the  Franks  or  Arabs,  his  religion  dictated  his  choice. 
He  proceeded  as  a  fugitive  to  the  martial  court  of  Charles,  recognized 
him  as  his  suzerain,  and  obtained  at  this  price  the  help  of  the  Franks. 
Charles  made  a  warlike  appeal  to  all  the  warriors  of  Neustria, 
Austrasia,  and  Western  Germany;  and  the  formidable  army  thus 
raised  encountered  that  of  Abd-ul  Rahman,  in  October,  732,  on  the 
plains  of  Poitiers.  The  destinies  of  the  human  race  were  about  to  be 
staked  on  this  famous  field :  the  army  of  the  Franks  was  the  sole 
barrier  capable  of  arresting  the  Mohammedan  invasion,  and  it  was 
soon  to  be  known  whether  the  world  would  become  Mussulman  or 
Christian. 

For  seven  days  the  two  armies  observed  each  other  without  fighting. 
At  last,  the  Mussulmans,  whose  number  the  chroniclers  estimate 
at  several  hundred  thousand,  deployed  on  the  plain  ;  and,  on  a  signal 
from  Abd-ul  Rahman,  his  light  cavalry  commenced  the  action  with 
a  cloud  of  arrows,  and  dashed  like  a  whirlwind  on  the  army  of 
the  Franks.      The  latter,  motionless   on  their  powerful  horses,   and 

*  The  Arabic  name  of  this  famous  chief  was  Ebn  Abinruca ;  according  to  others, 
Abi  Nessa. 


638-652]  INVASION    OF    THE    MUSSULMANS.  79 

defended  by  their  heavy  armour,  for  a  long  time  opposed  a  wall  of 
iron  to  the  repeated  charges  of  the  Saracens,  and  remained  firm  in 
close  and  serried  masses.  All  at  once,  the  battle-cry  was  raised  in  the 
rear  of  the  Arab  army;  it  was  the  cry  of  King  Eudes  and  the 
Aquitanians,  who  had  turned  the  enemy's  flank,  and  had  fired  his 
camp.  A  portion  of  the  immense  army  of  Abd-ul  Rahman  faced  the 
Aquitanians,  and  disorder,  the  effect  of  surprise,  opened  the  ranks  of  the 
Arabs.  Charles,  in  his  turn,  gave  the  signal :  the  wall  of  iron  broke, 
the  heavy  masses  of  Germans  fell  on  Abd-ul  Rahman's  squadrons, 
and  the  war- axe  and  broad- swords  of  the  Franks  cropped  down  entire 
ranks.  Abd-ul  Rahman,  vainly  endeavouring  to  rally  his  soldiers,  fell, 
in  the  midst  of  his  picked  troops,  pierced  with  lances,  and  crushed 
beneath  the  horses'  hoofs.  The  Arabs  sought  a  refuge  in  their  ravaged 
camp.  Night  having  set  in,  Charles  arrested  the  pursuit ;  and  on  the 
morrow,  at  daybreak,  the  Franks  saw,  in  the  distance,  only  a  blood- 
stained plain  covered  with  corpses :  darkness  had  protected  the  retreat 
of  the  Mussulmans,  and  the  Christian  cause  was  gained. 

The  Arabs  evacuated  Aquitaine  after  their  disastrous  defeat  at 
Poitiers ;  and  this  day,  for  ever  memorable,  on  which  it  was  said  that 
Charles  had  hammered  the  Saracens,  gained  him  the  glorious  surname 
of  Martel,  which  posterity  has  retained. 

One  of  the  results  of  this  famous  campaign  was  to  restore  the 
great  province,  or  kingdom,  of  Aquitaine  and  Grascony  to  the  mon- 
archy of  the  Franks  by  the  oath  of  vassalage  which  King  Eudes 
had  made  to  his  liberator.*  But  in  delivering  the  southern  provinces 
from  Mohammedanism,  Charles  neither  saved  them  from  pillage,  nor 
arson,  nor  massacre :  devastation  marked  the  passage  of  his  army,  and 
sullied  his  victory,  for  which  the  Aquitanians  did  not  feel  grateful  to 
him;  and  a  profound  enmity  subsisted  between  the  more  civilized 
nations  of  the  south  and  the  northern  barbarians.  Charles  Martel 
turned  his  arms  against  several  tribes  of  Ganl  that  had  ceased  to  obey 
the  unworthy  successors  of  Clovis..  He  subjugated  the  Burgundians, 
penetrated  into  Septimania,  and,  bj  the  capture  of  two  famous  cities, 

*  Several  chronicles,  among  others  the  Annahs  du  Metz,  say  that  Charles  returned 
home  after  subjugating  Aquitaine,  that  is  to  say,  that  Eudes  fulfilled  the  engagements 
imposed  on  him  by  his  oath,  and  doubtless  renounced  the  title  of  king,  the  sign  of  his 
past  independence,  and  only  bore  that  of  Duke  of  the  Aquitanians.  See  Hist,  de  France^ 
by  Henrr  Martin,  years  732,  733. 


80  GOVERNMENT   OF   CHARLES   MABTEL,         [Book  I.  Chap.  III. 

Aries  and  Marseilles,  completed  the  subjugation  of  Provence  to  the 
monarchy  of  the  Franks. 

Under  his  government  the  perpetual  progress  of  the  clergy  in  power 
and  wealth  was  arrested,  or,  more  correctly  speaking,  suspended,  in  Gaul. 
The  army  constituted  the  sole  strength  of  Charles  ;  and,  in  order  to 
attach  it  better  to  him,  he  ventured  to  seize  the  estates  of  the  Church, 
and  distribute  them  among  his  warriors.  He  did  not  assume  the 
name  of  king,  but  he  appointed  no  successor  to  Thierry  IV.,  son  of 
Dagobert  III.,  whom  he  had  crowned  upon  the  death  of  Chilperic  II. 
His  most  dangerous  enemies  were  the  Frisons,  Allemans,  and  Saxons, 
who  were  constantly  attracted  to  the  Rhine  by  the  success  of  the 
previous  invasions.  Charles  succeeded  in  driving  them  back  by 
sanguinary  and  repeated  expeditions,  and  restraining  them  by  the 
terror  of  his  name.  Death  surprised  him  in  741,  when  he  was  under- 
taking an  expedition  into  Italy,  to  succour  the  Pope  against  the 
Lombards  ;  but,  before  expiring,  he  divided  his  authority  between  his 
three  sons,  Pepin,  Carloman,  and  Griffo. 

Pepin  and  Carloman  dispossessed  their  brother,  and  divided  the 
paternal  heritage  between  them;  but  they  soon  saw  that  Charles 
Martel  had  not  handed  down  to  them  with  his  power  the  prestige 
attaching  to  his  formidable  name ;  and,  in  order  to  support  their 
authority,  they  drew  from  the  monastery  the  last  of  the  Merovingians, 
who  was  proclaimed  King  of  the  Franks,  by  the  name  of  Childeric  III. 
The  two  brothers  then  contended  successfully  against  the  Allemans, 
the  Bavarians,  the  Saxons,  and  Aquitanians.  Carloman  soon  felt  a 
disgust  of  terrestrial  grandeur  ;  he  became  a  monk,  and  entered  the 
monastery  of  Mont  Cassin.  Pepin,  under  the  title  of  Mayor  of  the 
Palace,  remained  sole  master  of  the  Frank  monarchy.  He  maintained 
at  this  period  intimate  relations  with  the  Holy  See,  and  gained  its 
gratitude  by  offering  to  defend  it  against  the  Lombards,  and  favouring 
with  all  his  power  the  success  of  the  missions  sent  by  the  Pope  into 
Saxony  and  Frisia,  to  convert  these  still  pagan  and  savage  countries 
to  Christianity.  At  length  he  grew  weary  of  reigning  without  sceptre 
and  crown  on  the  steps  of  the  throne ;  and,  having  asked  the  Pope 
for  the  title  of  king,  he  obtained  it,  and  was  crowned  in  752  by  St. 
Boniface,  the  apostle  of  Germany.  He  then  assembled  the  general 
comitia  at  Soissons,  and,  relying  on  his  own  power,  the  name  of  his 


638-652.]  GOVERNMENT  OF  CHARLES  MARTEL.  81 

ancestors,  and  the  Papal  sanction,  he  was  elected  King  of  the  Franks. 
Childeric  returned  to  his  cloister,  which  his  race  never  left  again  ; 
and  Pepin  founded  a  second  royal  dynasty,  which  was  called  the 
Carlovingian,  after  his  father's  name. 

The  power  of  the  Merovingian  kings  had  attained  its  apogee  under 
Dagobert  I.  The  Frank  Empire  had  at  that  time  for  its  boundaries 
the  German  Ocean,  the  Atlantic,  the  Pyrenees,  the  Mediterranean, 
the  Adriatic,  the  Upper  Danube,  and  the  Rhine.  The  various  nations 
inhabiting  this  vast  territory  recognized  the  authority  of  the  Mero- 
vingian kings,  some  as  being  directly  subject  to  them,  others  as 
tributaries. 

The  imperial  divisions  into  provinces  only  existed  in  the  ecclesi- 
astical order.  For  this  ancient  partition  of  the  territory  new  divisions 
had  been  substituted,  determined  by  the  successive  conquests  of  the 
barbarians,  and  the  good  pleasure  of  their  chiefs,  and  which  nearly  all 
have  ethnographical  denominations,  that  is  to  say,  borrowed  from  the 
different  nations  that  had  conquered  the  soil,  or  occupied  it,  such  as 
Frisia,  Burgundy,  Gothia,  Yascony,  &c.  Some,  however,  derived 
their  name  either  from  the  astronomical  or  geographical  situation  of 
the  country,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  Neustria  and  Austrasia  ;  or 
from  the  configuration  of  the  soil,  like  Champagne  (country  of  plains). 
Provence  (Provincia)  and  Aquitaine  (Aqruitania)  alone  retained  their 
Roman  names. 

The  great  divisions  of  the  Frank  Empire  directly  subject  to  the 
Merovingian  princes,  were — Neustria  (the  country  of  the  West)  and 
Austrasia  (country  of  the  East),  whose  limits,  as  already  described, 
varied  but  slightly  during  the  whole  existence  of  the  dynasty ;  Bur- 
gundy, which  also  comprised  Provence,  and  extended  from  the  southern 
frontier  of  Austrasia  as  far  as  the  Cevennes,  the  Mediterranean,  and 
the  Alps  ;  and  Aquitaine,  enclosed  between  the  Atlantic,  the  Loire,  and 
the  Garonne.  Dagobert  ceded  this  great  province  to  his  brother 
Caribert,  and  after  him  to  his  two  sons,  in  order  that  it  might  be  held 
by  them  and  their  descendants,  with  the  title  of  a  duchy.  ,  Aquitaine 
thus  remained  for  a  long  time  excluded  frcm  the  states  which  dimly 
recognized  the  authority  of  the  Merovingian  kings  or  of  the  mayors 
of  the  palace. 

Round  these  great  states  were  others  governed  by  separate  chiefs, 

G 


Wf 


82  GOVERNMENT  OF  CHARLES  MARTEL.    [Book  I.  Chap.  III. 

wlio  frequently  gave  the  Frank  kings  no  other  sign  of  submission 
beyond  a'  slight  tribute.  These  countries  were — to  the  north  of 
Austrasia,  between  the  Rhine  and  the  Weser,  Frisia  and  Thuringia ; 
to  the  east,  Allemania  and  Bavaria;  and  to  the  west  of  Neustria, 
Brittany. 

Two  countries  to  the  south  of  Aquitaine  still  contended  for  inde- 
pendence :  they  were  Sejptimania  (Narbonensis  Prima),  covered  with 
fortified  places,  and  which,  defended  by  its  geographical  situation 
between  the  Rhone,  the  sea,  and  the  Pyrenees,  could  not  be  torn  from 
the  Yisigoths  ;  and  Vasconia  or  Qascony.  This  country,  which  occupied 
a  portion  of  JSTovenipopulania  (Lower  Languedoc),  again  formed,  on 
the  death  of  Eudes,  a  nearly  independent  state,  which  sustained,  as  we 
shall  see  in  the  reigns  of  the  *  descendants  of  that  prince,  long  wars 
against  Pepin  and  Charlemagne. 

The  territory  subject  to  the  Merovingians  was  divided,  as  concerns 
the  administration,  into  duchies  and  counties,  whose  limits  were  more 
or  less  extended  according  to  the  will  of  these  princes.  The  dukes 
and  counts  nominated  by  them  were  their  principal  military  and  civil 
officers.  These  were  the  Dukes  of  Auvergne,  Aquitaine,  Touraine, 
Poitou,  Burgundy,  Provence,  &c.  The  counts  were  intrusted  with 
the  government  of  the  old  municipal  cities,  and  also  with  the  admi- 
nistration of  the  paoi,  or  districts  forming  their  territories.  The 
subdivision  of  the  counties  into  hundreds,  or  tithings, '  dates  from  the 
sixth  century.  Bodies  of  one  hundred  and  of  ten  families  were 
certainly  formed  under  the  authority  of  a  civil  and  military  officer ; 
but  the  regular  organization  of  hundreds  and  tithings  was  only  in- 
troduced under  the  Carlo vingians. 

The  Church  alone  retained  the  old  Roman  division  into  provinces 
and  cities  much  as  the  Empire  had  formed  them.  An  ecclesiastical 
province  corresponded  with  each  of  the  seventeen  civil  provinces. 
Each  old  metropolis  was  the  see  of  an  archbishop,  and  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty  cities  or  territorial  districts  were  so  many 
dioceses.  In  the  fifth  century  the  Yiennaise  had  been  divided  into 
two  provinces,  that  of  Yienne  and  that  of  Aries.  The  number  of 
archbishoprics  was  thus  raised  to  eighteen.  These  ecclesiastical 
divisions  of  old  Graul  existed,  with  but  slight  modifications,  up  to  the 
fourteenth  century. 


638-652.1         GENEALOGICAL   TABLE    OP   THE   MEROVINGIAN   KINGS. 


83 


Genealogical  Table  op  the  Merovingian  Kings. 

Clodion,  428-448 

1 
Merovic,  448-458 

I 
Childeric  I.,  458-481 

I 
Clovis  I.,  481-511 


Thierry  I. , 

King  of  Austrasia, 

511-534. 

! 
Theodebert  I., 

534-547. 

I 
Theodebald, 

547-555. 


Clodoinir, 

King  of  Orleans, 

511-524. 


Childebert  I., 

King  of  Paris, 

511-558. 


Clothair  I. , 

King  of  Soissons, 
511-561. 


Caribert  I.,  Gontran,  Sigebert,  Chijperic  L, 

King  of  Paris,     King  of  Burgundy,     King  of  Metz,     King  of  Soissons 
561-567.    '  561-593.  561-575.  561-584. 


Childebert  II., 

King  of  Austrasia 

and  Burgundy, 

575-596. 


Theodebert  II., 

King  of  Austrasia, 

596-612. 


Thierry  II., 

King  of  Burgundy, 

596-613. 


Clothair  II., 

King  of  Soissons, 

then  sole  King, 

584-628. 


Dagobert  I., 

King  of  Austrasia  (628), 

sole  King  631-638. 


Caribert  II., 

King  of  Aquitaine, 

628-631. 


Sigebert  II. , 
King  of  Austrasia, 
638-656. 

I 
Dagobert  II., 

King  of  Austrasia, 

673-678. 


Clovis  II., 

King  of  Neustria 

and  of  Burgundy, 

then  sole  King, 

638-656. 


84  GENEALOGICAL  TABLE  OF  THE  MEROVINGIAN  KINGS.     [Book  I.  Chap.  III. 

Clovis  II., 

King  of  Neustria, 

and  of  Burgundy, 

then  sole  King, 

638-656. 


Clothair  III., 

King  of  Neustria, 

656-670. 


Childeric  II., 

King  of  Austrasia, 

then  sole  King, 

660-673. 


Thierry  III., 
sole  King, 
670-691. 


Ohilperic  II., 
715-730. 

I 

Childeric  III., 

742-752. 

Last  Merovingian  King. 


Clovis  III., 
691-695. 


Childehert  III. 
695-711. 

Dagobert  III., 
711-715. 

I 
Thierry  IV., 

720-737. 


His  death  was  followed    by   an   interregnum  of  five  years,  after 
which  Childeric  III.  was  crowned. 


.    BOOK    II. 

GAUL  UNDER  THE  CARLOVINGIAN  DYNASTY,   7o2-987. 


CHAPTER   I. 

PEPIN   AND    CHARLEMAGNE. 

752-814. 
I. 

EEIGN  OF  PEPIN  THE  SHORT. 

The  race  of  Pepin  the  Short  and  Charlemagne,  before  commencing 
the  second  French  dynasty,  had  been  for  more  than  150  years  in 
possession  of  everything  that  attracts  and  merits  human  respect.  It 
was  distinguished  by  illustrious  birth,  and  the  triple  lustre  of  great 
services,  virtues,  and  the  most  exalted  dignities.  Several  of  its 
members  had  occupied,  with  glory,  the  episcopal  see  of  Metz,  and 
were  canonized,  and  we  have  seen  Austrasia  growing  in  power  under 
the  two  great  ancestors  of  this  family,  Pepin  the  Old  or  of  Landen, 
and  Pepin  of  Heristal.  Their  services  were  surpassed  by  the  great 
deeds  of  Charles  Martel,  the  vanquisher  of  the  Mussulmans,  who 
transmitted  his  name  to  all  his  descendants,  and  whose  son,  celebrated 
in  history  by  the  name  of  Pepin  the  Short,  was  the  first  king  of  his 
race. 

Pepin  was  the  first  to  grant  the  Pontiff  of  Rome  the  right  of  dis- 
posing of  crowns.  The  Lombards  at  that  time  possessed  the  whole 
northern  part  of  Italy,  and  there  King  Astolph  was  contesting  with 
Pope    Zachariah   the   government   of  the  city  of  Rome.     Zachariah 


86  KEIGN    OF    PEPIN    THE    SHORT.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  I. 

required  a  powerful  supporter,  and,  counting  on  the  help  of  Pepin  if 
he  could  render  him  favourable  to  his  cause,  he  declared  that  the  throne 
belonged  to  the  man  who  performed  the  duties  of  king,  even  though 
he  did  not  occupy  it.  The  most  respected  authority  at  the  time  was 
that  of  the  Church:  and  Pepin,  feeling  the  necessity  of  giving  an 
imposing  sanction  to  his  usurpation,  received  for  his  coronation  the 
ceremonies  employed  at  that  of  the  Jewish  kings.  This  example  was 
followed  by  his  successors. 

Stephen  II.  succeeded  Zachariah  as  Pope.  Menaced  by  ihe  Lombards, 
he  went  to  Pepin  and  implored  his  support.  The  King  treated  him 
with  the  greatest  honours,  and  the  Pontiff  consecrated  him  a  second 
time,  with  his  two  sons,  Charles  and  Carloman.  In  the  sermon  which 
Stephen  preached  on  this  occasion,  he  implored  the  Franks  never  to 
elect  a  king  from  any  other  family  but  that  of  Pepin,  and  excommu- 
nicated those  who  might  be  tempted  to  do  so.  From  this  time  the 
papal  power  daily  made  rapid  progress.  The  Popes  soon  believed 
themselves  masters  of  the  world :  they  demanded  the  obedience  of 
the  sovereigns  whom  they  crowned  and  deposed  according  to  their 
caprices  ;  and  streams  of  blood  were'shed  in  supporting  or  combating 
their  arrogant  claims. 

Stephen  had  implored  Pepin's  assistance  against  Astolph,  King  of 
the  Lombards.  The  Frank  monarch  collected  an  army,  led  it  to  Italy, 
was  victorious,  and  ceded  to  the  Pope  the  Exarchate  of  Ravenna.* 

Pepin  successfully  waged  long  and  sanguinary  wars  with  the  Bre- 
tons, Saxons,  Saracens,  and  Aquitanians.  The  latter,  more  especially, 
offered  him  a  furious  resistance.  Their  vast  province,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  been  several  times  detached  from  the  monarchy  of  the  Franks. 
The  families  of  the  conquerors  who  settled  there  had  adopted  the 
manners  and  language  of  the  population,  who  were  of  Gallic  or  Roman 
origin,  and  spoke  a  corrupt  Latin.  The  Aquitanians,  more  civilized 
than  the  Franks,  ever  detested  the  latter  as  barbarians.  The  revolution 
which,  by  elevating  the  Carlovingians,  had  surrounded  the  throne 
with  new  Austrasian  or  Germanic  bands,  gave  their  government,  in 

*  The  name  of  Exarchate  had  been  given  to  this  territory  because  Ravenna  was  for  a 
long  time  the  residence  of  the  exarchs  or  viceroys  of  Italy.  The  celebrated  Pentapolis 
(five  cities),  composed  of  Rimini,  Pesaro,  Fano,  Smigaglia,  and  Amona,  formed  part  of 
the  exarchate. 


752-814.]  KEIGN   OF   PEPIN   THE    SHORT.  87 

the  eyes  of  the  Aquitanians,  an  even  more  savage  ^appearance,  and 
redoubled  the  horror  with  which  it  inspired  them. 

Still,  after  the  defeat  of  the  Saracens  at  Poitiers,  Duke  Eudes 
remained  at  peace  with  Charles  Martel,  whose  suzerainty  he  had 
recognized.  He  died  in  735,  leaving  Aquitaine  to  his  elder  son 
Hunald,  and  Gascony  to  his  second  son  Otton.  Hunald  despoiled  his 
brother  of  the  greater  part  of  his  states,  and  resolved  to  rend  the 
bonds  that  subjected  him  to  the  Kings  of  the  Franks.  He,  therefore, 
waged  war  against  Carloman  and  Pepin,  the  sons  of  Charles  Martel, 
with  the  greater  energy  because  he  was  a  Merovingian,  and  regarded 
them  as  usurpers  of  the  rights  of  his  family.  In  745,  however,  when 
Pepin  invaded  Aquitaine  at  the  head  of  a  formidable  army,  Hunald 
ostensibly  submitted,  laid  down  his  arms,  and  swore  fidelity  to  the 
Frank  kings.  This  humiliation  to  the  enemies  of  his  race  concealed 
other  thoughts,  which  were  aroused  in  him.  either  through  the  decline 
of  his  strength,  or  the  pride  and  hope  which  he  had  in  his  son  Guaifer. 
This  young  prince  possessed  all  the  qualities  that  constitute  a  hero, 
and  Hunald  saw  in  him  the  only  man  capable  of  defending  Aquitaine 
against  the  Franks.  He  resolved  to  abdicate,  and,  after  placing 
Aquitaine  in  the  valiant  hands  of  his  son,  he  bade  him  farewell,  put 
on  a  monk's  robe,  and  shut  himself  up  in  the  monastery  of  the  Isle  of 
Re,  where  his  father  Eudes  lay  interred. 

The  war  was  suspended  for  several  years  between  Gruaifer  and 
Pepin :  both  observed  each  other  and  collected  their  forces  before 
attacking.  Gruaifer  had  opened  his  states  to  Greffo,  Pepin's  brother, 
who  had  rebelled  against  him,  but  he  only  kept  him  a  short  time.  The 
war  between  the  Franks  and  Lombards  was  still  going  on.  Greflb 
resolved  to  go  to  Italy  and  join  King  Astolph  ;  he  left  Guaifer  and 
perished  on  his  journey.  Pepin,  after  bringing  the  Italian  war  to  a 
successful  end,  resolved  to  conquer  Septimania,  before  attacking  the 
son  of  Hunald.  He  subjected  that  country,  which  was  weary  of  the 
Saracen  yoke,  recaptured  Narbonne,  and  annexed  the  whole  province 
to  the  Frank  monarchy,  after  which  he  invaded  Aquitaine.  Then 
commenced  a  nine  years'  war,  marked  by  frightfcd  devastations.  Pepin 
ravaged  Berri,  Auvergne,  and  the  Limousin  with  fire :  Guaifer  requited 
it  by  ravages  on  the  Franks ;  but,  at  last,  having  lost  Clermont, 
Bourges,   and  his   principal   towns,  he   levelled  the  walls  of  all  the 


88  REIGN   OF  PEPIN  THE   SHOET.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

others.  He  perished  soon  after,  assassinated  by  his  countrymen. 
With  him  the  name  of  Merovingians  became  extinct  in  history,  and 
the  grand- duchy  of  Aquitaine  was  again  attached  to  the  crown  of  the 
Franks. 

Pepin  bestowed  great  largesse  on  the  clergy,  and  through  his  whole 
life  displayed  the  greatest  deference  to  them.  He  frequently  assembled 
the  comitia  of  the  kingdom,  to  which  he  always  summoned  the 
bishops,  seeking  to  interest  them  in  the  success  of  his  enterprises. 
He  was  of  short  stature,  whence  his  sobriquet :  but  is  said  to  have 
possessed  great  courage  and  prodigious  strength.  History  gives  us  an 
instance  which  should  perhaps  be  placed  amid  fables,  but  which,  at 
any  rate,  depicts  the  manners  of  this  barbarous  age.  Combats  of  wild 
animals  were  the  chief  amusement  at  the  court  of  the  Frank  kings. 
Pepin  was  present  at  one  of  these,  in  which  a  lion  attacked  a  bull. 
The  latter  was  all  but  defeated,  when  Pepin  pointed  to  the  savage  com- 
batants, and  shouted  to  the  members  of  his  suite,  "  Which  of  you  will 
dare  to  separate  them?"  No  one  answered.  Pepin  leaped  into  the 
arena  and  cut  off  the  heads  of  the  animals.  "  Well,"  he  said  to  his 
lords,  as  he  threw  away  his  blood- dripping  sword,  "  am  I  worthy  to  be 
your  king  ?  "  In  truth,  it  was  sufficient  at  that  day  to  be  brave  and 
strong  in  order  to  merit  the  throne.  Pepin  combined  with  these  two 
qualities  moderation  and  prudence.  He  asked  the  advice  of  his  nobles 
in  dividing  his  estates  between  his  two  sons  Charles  and  Carloman, 
and  died  in  768,  after  a  reign  of  seventeen  years. 

The  assembly  of  nobles  and  bishops  had  recognized  Charles  as  king 
of  the  west,  and  Carloman  as  king  of  the  east. 

The  first  expedition  of  the  two  brothers  was  directed,  by  mutual 
agreement,  against  Aquitaine,  where  an  insurrection  had  been  brought 
about  by  the  aged  Hunald,  who,  to  avenge  his  son  Guaifer,  emerged 
from  the  monastery  in  which  he  had  lived  for  twenty- three  years. 
His  efforts  were  powerless,  and  Hunald,  betrayed  and  conquered,, 
sought  refuge  with  the  King  of  the  Lombards. 

Ambition  soon  armed  Charles  and  Carloman  against  each  other. 
The  death  of  the  latter,  which  event  took  place  in  770,  stifled  the 
germs  of  civil  war,  and  Charles  usurped  the  states  of  his  brother,  to 
the  prejudice  of  his  nephews.  The  latter,  with  their  mother,  found 
an  asylum  in  Lombardy.     The  whole  nation  of  the  Franks  from  this 


752-814.]  .     CHAELEMAGNE.  89 

moment  recognized  the  authority  of  Charles,  for  whom  his  victories 
and  great  qualities  acquired  the  glorious  surname  of  Great  or  Magnus, 
and  who  is  only  known  in  history  by  the  name  of  Charlemagne. 

II. 

CHAELEMAGNE. 

Dueing  a  reign  of  forty-six  years  this  prince  extended  his  frontiers 
beyond  the  Danube,  imposed  tribute  on  the  barbarian  nations,  as  far 
as  the  Vistula,  conquered  a  portion  of  Italy,  and  rendered  himself  for- 
midable to  the  Saracens.  He  first  went  into  Italy,  on  the  entreaty  of 
Pope  Adrian  I.,  and  marched  to  assist  him  against  Didier,  King  of  the 
Lombards,  whose  daughter  he  had  himself  married  and  repudiated. 
He  made  this  king  a  prisoner,  and  put  an  end  to  the  Lombard  rule  in 
Italy,  which  had  lasted  for  two  hundred  and  six  years.  Arigisus,  son- 
in-law  of  King  Didier,  continued,  however,  to  defend  himself  in  his 
duchy  of  Benevent.  Charlemagne,  during  this  expedition,  went  to 
Rome,  where  he  humbly  presented  himself  to  the  Pope,  whom  he  had 
saved,  kissing  each  step  of  the  pontifical  palace.  He  believed  himself 
called  to  subject  to  Christianity  the  barbarous  nations  of  Europe,  and 
when  persuasion  did  not  avail  to  the  triumph  of  the  faith,  he  had 
recourse  to  conquest  and  punishments. 

The  Saxons  formed  at  this  period  a  considerable  nation,  divided 
into  a  multitude  of  small  republics.  They  were  idolators,  like  the 
northern  tribes.  Their  colonies  had  possessed  England  for  a  long  time 
past,  and  had  formerly  also  subjugated  some  districts  in  northern 
Gaul.  Their  assemblies  were  held  annually  on  the  banks  of  the 
Weser.  At  one  of  these,  in  771,  a  priest  of  the  name  of  Libuin 
invited  them  to  be  converted,  while  threatening  them  with  a  great 
king  of  the  west.  The  Saxons  took  no  heed  of  his  words,  and  wanted 
to  massacre  him :  they  burnt  the  church  of  Daventer  and  all  the 
Christians  in  it.  Charlemagne  heard  of  this  and  marched  against 
them.  A  great  man  of  the  name  of  Wittikind  commanded  their  army, 
but  his  heroism  was  of  no  avail.  The  Saxons  were  conquered  and 
subjected.  Charlemagne,  after  putting  down  several  revolts,  held  a 
celebrated  assembly  at  Paderborn,  where  he  obliged  all  the  Saxons  to 
receive  baptism,  and  divided  their  principalities  among  abbots  and 


90  CHARLEMAGNE.  [Book  IL  Chap.  I. 

bishops.     Hence  dates  the  origin  of  the  ecclesiastical  principalities  in 
Germany.     Wittikind  took  refnge  with  a  northern  king. 

After  conquering  the  Saxons,  Charlemagne  turned  his  arms  against 
the  Saracens.  This  people,  in  subjecting  Spain,  had  taken  to  that 
country  civilization  and  learning.  Civil  wars  began,  in  the  eighth 
century,  to  shake  their  power  there.  The  Mussulmans  were  divided 
between  the  family  of  the  Abassides,  who  resided  at  Bagdad,  and  that 
of  the  Ommiades,  who  governed  Spain.  The  latter  country,  how- 
ever, was  agitated  by  factions,  and  one  of  them  entreated  the  aid  of 
Charlemagne  against  Abd-ul-Rahman,  lieutenant  of  the  Caliph  Om- 
miades. This  great  man  seized  the  opportunity  which  was  offered 
him  of  driving  back  Islamism  beyond  the  Ebro,  and  thus  extinguish- 
ing a  formidable  focus  of  troubles  and  revolts  on  his  own  frontiers : 
he  therefore  sent  two  powerful  armies  into  Spain.  Saragossa  was  the 
point  selected  for  their  junction ;  for  the  Arab  Emir  who  commanded 
that  place  had  promised  to  surrender  it  to  the  Frank  monarch. 
Charlemagne's  expectations  were  deceived :  Saragossa  did  not  open  its 
gates,  and  was  besieged  to  no  effect.  The  whole  province,  on  which  he 
had  reckoned  to  help  him,  rose  against  him.  The  principal  object  of 
this  famous  expedition  proved  a  failure :  other  cares,  moreover, 
recalled  Charlemagne,  and  he  ordered  a  retreat.  The  defiles  of  the 
mountains  were  held  at  the  time  by  the  Basque  nation,  who  resided  in 
Vasconia,  a  country  governed  by  Duke  Wolf  IL,  son  of  Guaifer,  and 
grandson  of  Hunald.  This  prince  had  inherited  the  hatred  of  his 
race  for  the  family  of  Charlemagne,  and  when  he  saw  the  Frank  army, 
on  its  retreat,  entangled  in  the  defiles  of  Bonce svalles,  he  had  it 
attacked  by  his  mountaineers,  who  rolled  stones  and  rocks  down  on  it. 
The  disaster  was  immense :  the  rearguard  was  destroyed  to  the  last 
man  ;  and  here,  too,  perished  the  famous  Paladin  Boland,  who  is  hardly 
known  in  history,  and  so  celebrated  in  the  romances  of  chivalry. 

Charlemagne  completed,  in  the  following  year,  the  conquest  of 
Saxony,  which  had  again  revolted  and  defeated  his  lieutenants.  He 
subjected  it  once  again  in  782,  and,  in  order  to  keep  it  in  check  by  a 
terrible  example,  he  beheaded,  on  the  banks  of  the  Aller,  four  thousand 
five  hundred  Saxon  prisoners.  This  cruel  deed  exasperated  their 
countrymen.  "Wittikind  had  reappeared  among  them ;  they  were  twice 
defeated  and  cut  to  pieces  at  Detmold,  near  Osnaburg,  and  remained 


752-814.]  CHARLEMAGNE.  91 

quiet  for  several  years.  Wittikind  laid  down  his  arms  in  785,  and 
proceeded  to  Attigny-sur- Seine  to  do  homage  to  the  King  of  the 
Franks. 

The  Frisons,  the  Bretons  of  Armorica,  and  the  Bavarians  next 
revolted:  they  attacked  Charlemagne  simultaneously,  and  tried  his 
power.  Tassillon,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  was  son-in-law  of  King  Didier, 
and  brother-in-law  of  Arigisus,  Duke  of  Benevent.  He  summoned 
the  Avarians  and  Sclavons  to  his  assistance,  and,  in  accordance  with 
Arigisus,  rose  against  the  Franks :  but  he  was  conquered  without  a 
contest,  accused  of  treason  at  the  assembly  of  Ingelheim,  condemned 
to  death,  and  eventually  confined  in  the  monastery  of  Jumieges.  The 
nationality  of  the  Bavarians  was  destroyed,  as  that  of  the  Lombards 
had  been.  The  duchy  of  Benevent,  protected  by  the  mountains  of 
the  south,  alone  escaped  the  conqueror. 

Charles  had  given  Aquitaine,  with  the  royal  title,  to  his  son  Louis, 
under  the  guardianship  of  William  Shortnose,  Duke  of  Toulouse. 
Three  other  great  provinces  were  equally  subject  to  the  authority  of 
the  young  king.  They  were — on  the  east,  Septimania  or  Languedoc, 
conquered  by  Pepin  the  Short ;  on  the  west,  Nbvempopulania  or  Gas- 
cony  ;  and  lastly,  on  the  south,  the  marches  of  Spain.  This  name  was 
given  to  the  provinces  conquered  by  the  Franks  beyond  the  Pyrenees 
They  were  divided  into  the  march  of  Gotkia,  which  contained  nearly 
the  whole  of  Catalonia ;  and  the  march  of  Gascony,  which  extended  as 
far  as  the  Ebro  into  Arragon  and  Navarre.  The  latter  provinces  had 
for  their  chiefs  Saracen  lords  who,  according  to  circumstances,  obeyed 
in  turn  the  Frank  king  and  the  Arabic  sovereign.  This  vast  kingdom 
of  young  Louis',  bordered  by  the  Loire,  the  Ebro,  the  Rhone,  and  the 
two  seas,  was  attacked  in  793  by  the  Saracen  general  Abd-ul-Malak, 
who  defeated  Duke  William  at  the  passage  of  the  Orbrin,  made  a 
great  carnage  in  the  Christian  army,  and  returned  to  Spain  with 
immense  booty.  Charlemagne  deferred  taking  his  revenge :  he  was 
occupied  with  Church  matters,  the  opinions  of  the  faithful  being 
divided  at  the  time  between  the  second  Council  of  ISTicaea,  which,  in 
787,  had  ordered  the  adoration  of  images,  and  the  Council'of  Frank- 
furt, which  condemned  them  in  497  as  idolatry.  Charlemagne  ener- 
getically supported  the  decision  of  the  last-named  council,  and  defended 
it  against  the  Pope  in  a  treatise  divided  into  four  books,  which  were 


92  CHARLEMAGNE.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

called  the  Caroline  Books.  Adrian,  who  adopted  the  opinion  of 
the  Council  of  Nicsea,  however,  avoided  the  expression  of  any  view, 
and  evaded  the  question  in  order  not  to  offend  his  powerful  pro- 
tector. 

Charlemagne  next  turned  his  efforts  against  the  Avarians,  indefa- 
tigable horsemen  inhabiting  the  marshes  of  Hungary.  After  several 
disastrous  expeditions  had  been  undertaken  to  subdue  them,  Pepin,  his 
son,  penetrated  into  their  country  at  the  head  of  a  Lombardese  and 
Bavarian  army,  and  seized  their  famous  fortified  camp  called  Buy,  in 
which  they  had  collected  for  a  number  of  years  the  spoils  of  the  East. 
Pepin  carried  them  off,  and  his  father  distributed  them  among  his 
favourites  and  the  nobles  of  his  court. 

The  Saxons  had  joined  the  Avarians  in  this  war  ;  they  had  burnt 
the  churches,  murdered  the  priests,  and  returned  in  crowds  to  their 
false  gods.  Charlemagne  then  adopted  against  them  a  system  of 
extermination  ;  he  established  himself  with  an  army  on  the  Weser, 
ravaged  Saxony  with  fire  and  sword,  carried  off  a  large  number  of 
the  inhabitants,  either  as  prisoners  or  hostages,  and  transported  them 
to  the  western  and  southern  countries.  But  the  Saxons  were  not  finally 
subdued  till  the  year  804,  after  thirty-two  years  of  fighting,  revolt, 
and  massacres.  Charlemagne,  in  order  to  watch  and  restrain  them 
the  better,  transferred  his  usual  residence  to  Aix-la-Chapelle,  which  he 
made  the  capital  of  his  empire. 

Leon  III.  succeeded  Adrian  I.  in  795  upon  the  pontifical  throne. 
Priests  conspired  to  drag  him  off  it.  Wounded  and  imprisoned  by  them, 
he  escaped  and  fled  to  Spoleto,  where  he  implored  the  help  of  Charle- 
magne, who  made  a  last  journey  to  Italy  for  the  purpose  of  restoring 
Leon  his  crown.  Charles,  on  Christmas  day,  was  on  his  knees  and 
praying  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Peter :  the  Pope  went  up  to  him  and 
placed  the  imperial  crown  upon  his  head.  The  people  straightway 
saluted  him  with  the  name  of  Augustus  ;  and  from  this  moment 
Charlemagne  regarded  himself  as  the  real  successor  of  the  Roman 
Emperors  of  the  West.  He  adopted  the  titles  and  ceremonials  of  the 
court  of  Byzantium,  with  which  he  kept  up  regular  relations,  and,  in 
order  to  establish  the  empire  in  its  integrity,  the  only  thing  remaining 
was  for  him  to  espouse  the  Empress  Irene,  who,  after  having  her  son 
assassinated,  was  reigning  at  Constantinople.    Such  was  Charlemagne's 


752-814.]  CHARLEMAGNE.  93 

wish,  but  he  was  unable  to  accomplish  it,  for  Irene  was  dethroned  and 
died  in  exile. 

Charlemagne,  after  his  coronation  as  Emperor,  had  but  insignificant 
wars  to  wage,  and  on  attaining  the  supreme  dignity,  he  also  reached 
the  end  of  his  most  difficult  enterprises.  He  received  in  his  palace  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle  the  homage  of  the  independent  princes  of  the  Veneli 
and  Dalmatians,  who  ruled  at  the  other  extremity  of  Europe ;  and 
such  was  the  ascendency  of  his  name  and  fortune  that  he  saw  several 
nations  voluntarily  range  themselves  under  his  laws. 

During  the  last  eight  years  of  his  reign  he  promulgated  decrees  and 
instituted  numerous  administrative,  ecclesiastical,  judicial,  and  military 
institutions,  which  were  all  intended  to  strengthen  the  social  order, 
and  maintain  all  parts  of  his  immense  empire  in  union  and  peace.  He 
convened,  at  the  field  of  Mars,  in  the  year  806,  an  assembly  of  the 
nobles  of  his  kingdom,  in  order  to  arrange  with  them  the  partition  of 
his  states  between  his  three  sons,  Charles,  Pepin,  and  Louis.  To  the 
first  he  assigned  the  northern  part  of  Gaul  with  Germany ;  to  the 
second  he  gave  Italy  and  Bavaria  with  his  conquests  in  Pannonia  ;  the 
third  had  Aquitaine,  Burgundy,  and  the  marches  of  Spain.  This 
division,  consented  to  by  the  nobles  and  the  people,  was  sanctioned  by 
the  Pope. 

The  last  years  of  Charlemagne  were  saddened  by  domestic  sorrows. 
He  had  to  blush  at  the  irregularities  of  his  daughters,  and  lamented  the 
death  of  his  two  eldest  sons,  Charles  and  Pepin.  The  first  left  no 
children,  the  second  had  a  son,  Bernard,  to  whom  the  Emperor  granted 
the  kingdom  of  Italy.  He  next  wished  to  have  the  last  of  his 
legitimate  sons,  whom  death  had  spared,  Louis,  King  of  Aquitaine, 
recognized  as  his  successor,  and  summoned  him  to  the  great  Sep- 
tember assembly  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.  There  he  presented  his  son  to 
the  bishops,  abbots,  counts,  and  lords  of  the  Franks,  and  asked  them 
to  recognize  him  as  emperor.  All  consented.  Then,  desirous  that  his 
son's  power  should  devolve  on  him  from  God  Himself,  he  laid  on  the 
altar  a  crown  resembling  his  own,  and  after  giving  Louis  an  affecting 
exhortation  about  his  duties  to  the  Church,  his  subjects,  and  relatives, 
he  ordered  him  to  take  up  the  crown  and  place  it  on  bis  brow. 

Charlemagne  was  attaining  the  close  of  his  glorious  career.  He 
devoted  the  last  months  of  his  life  to  devotional  works,  and  divided 


94  CHAKLEMAGNE.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

his  time  between  prayer,  the  distribution  of  alms,  and  the  study  of 
versions  of  the  Gospels  in  different  languages.  He  directed  this  task 
up  to  the  eve  of  his  death.  He  was  attacked  by  fever  toward  the 
middle  of  January,  814.  He  languished  for  some  days ;  then,  feeling 
death  at  hand,  he  received  the  sacraments  at  the  hands  of  Hildebald, 
his  chaplain,  and,  arranging  his  limbs  for  the  eternal  rest,  he  closed 
his  eyes,  repeating,  in  a  low  voice,  "  In  manus  tuas  commendo  spiriturn 
meum"  and  expired.  He  had  entered  into  his  seventy- second  year: 
he  had  reigned  for  forty- seven  years  over  the  Franks,  forty- three  over 
the  Lombards,  and  fourteen  over  the  Empire  of  the  West.  He  was 
interred  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Mary,  which  he  built. 

The  exploits  and  conquests  of  this  great  monarch,  too  often 
stamped  with  the  barbarism  of  the  age,  are  not  his  greatest  titles 
to  the  admiration  and  respect  of  posterity.  What  really  elevates 
him  above  his  age,  is  the  legislative  spirit,  and  the  genius  of  civiliza- 
tion, both  of  which  he  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree.  Charlemagne 
undertook  to  substitute  order  for  anarchy,  learning  for  ignorance,  in 
the  vast  countries  that  obeyed  him,  and  to  subject  to  the  laws  and  a 
regular  administration,  so  many  nations,  still  savage,  strangers  to 
each  other,  differing  in  origin,  language,  and  manners,  and  with  no 
other  link  among  them  than  that  of  conquest. 

The  principal  and  permanent  division  which  he  established  in  his 
empire  was  the  county,  a  division  generally  responding  to  the  old 
Roman  districts  called  cities.  The  counts  or  principal  officers 
of  the  state,  held  all  the  ^  civil,  judicial,  and  military  attributes. 
Below  them  were  the  hundredmen,  also  called  viquiers,  or  vicars  ;  they 
were  called  liundredmen,  because  their  authority  extended  over  a 
canton,  or  territory  originally  occupied  by  one  hundred  families.  The 
Emperor  had  the  permanent  officers  and  magistrates  watched  by  a 
certain  number  of  high  functionaries,  called  royal  envoys  or  missi 
dominici,  who  corresponded  directly  with  him ;  they  were  intrusted 
with  the  duty  of  inspecting  the  various  counties,  and  presiding  over 
the  provincial  assemblies. 

In  addition  to  these  assemblies,  at  which  local  interests  were  dis- 
cussed, two  great  national  assemblies  were  convened  annually.  These 
meetings,  whose  origin  dated  back  to  the  old  customs  of  Germany, 
had  fallen  into  desuetude  under  the  last  Merovingian  kings.     They 


752-814.]  CHARLEMAGNE.  95 

acquired  a  new  authority  on  the  accession  of  the  second  race,  which 
was  raised  to  the  throne  by  the  Austrasian  armies,  in  which  the 
Germanic  element  prevailed.  These  assemblies  were  almost  sovereign 
after  the  reign  of  Charlemagne.  But  this  prince  was  always  able  to 
direct  them ;  they  were  inspired  with  his  genius,  and  generally 
restricted  themselves  to  sanctioning  his  wishes.  At  this  epoch  they 
were,  besides,  but  the  shadow  of  the  great  malls,  at  which  the  great 
nation  of  the  Franks  formerly  assembled.  The  influence  of  Gallo- 
Eoman  civilization,  the  distances  to  be  covered,  and  the  inequality 
which  was  established  among  the  conquerors  themselves,  modified  the 
composition  of  these  great  assemblies,  from  which  the  public  were 
soon  excluded.  "  It  was  the  custom,"  writes  Archbishop  Hincmar,  "  to 
hold  two  assemblies  annually.  The  first  took  place  in  the  spring.  The 
general  affairs  of  the  kingdom  were  regulated  at  it ;  and  no  event, 
unless  it  was  an  absolute  necessity,  caused  any  change  in  what  had 
been  settled.  At  this  assembly  came  together  all  the  nobles  (majores) 
both  ecclesiastics  and  laymen  (dukes,  counts,  and  bishops) :  they 
formed  decisions,  and  submitted  them  for  adhesion  to  the  members  of 
fhe  second  class  (minores — the  vicars,  hundredmen,  and  royal  officers 
of  inferior  rank),  irho  were  merely  consulted."  Hincmar  goes  on  to 
tell  us  that  "  the  other  assembly,  at  which  the  general  ^gifts  of  the 
kingdom  were  received,  was  solely  composed  of  the  most  important 
members  of  the  previous  assembly,  and  the  king's  councillors.  At  it 
were  discussed  affairs  for  which  it  was  necessary  to  make  provision — 
war,  truce,  administrative  measures,  &c.  At  both  these  assemblies  the 
king  submitted  for  deliberation  the  articles  of  law,  called  capitula, 
which  he  had  himself  drawn  up,  with  the  inspiration  of  Grod,  or  which 
had  been  found  necessary  in  the  interval  between  the  two  assemblies. 
Messengers  of  the  palace  served  as  intermediators  between  the 
assembly  and  the  prince  ;  still,  if  the  members  expressed  the  desire, 
the  king  would  go  to  them,  remain  as  long  as  they  pleased,  and  they 
gave  him  their  opinion  on  all  sorts  of  matters  in  a  most  familiar  way, 
questioning  him,  and  recommending  each  to  inform  himself  of  all  that 
was  going  on  within  and  without  the  empire  during  the  period  before 
the  next  meeting."  * 

*  Epist.  ad  Proceres  regu.  pro  instit.  Carolomanni  regis  et  de  ordine  palat.  ex  Ada- 
lardo.     (Hincmar,  Opera,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  201-205.) 


96  CHARLEMAGNE.  [Boos  II.  CHAP.  I. 

A  part  of  tlie  ordinances  to  which  Hincmar  alludes  by  the  name  of 
capitulars  has  been  handed  down  to  us,  and,  in  spite  of  their  confused 
language,  they  bear  testimony  to  the  wisdom  of  their  author.  His 
genius  embraces  everything.  He  provides  with  equal  intelligence  for 
the  greatest  interests  of  his  people  and  the  administration  of  his 
private  domains.  His  chief  attention  is  directed  to  the  clergy,  whom 
he  provides  for  by  tithes,  in  order  to  compensate  them  for  the 
spoliations  of  Charles  Martel.  He  prescribes  to  ecclesiastics  subordi- 
nation, the  obligation  of  self-instruction,  the  transmission  of  their 
learning  to  the  people,  the  reformation  of  abuses,  and  a  prohibition  of 
appearing  in  arms  and  fighting.  It  was  a  small  thing  to  make  wise 
laws,  but  their  execution  had  also  to  be  provided  for.  Charlemagne 
succeeded  in  effecting  this  by  means  of  his  envoys.  We  have  seen 
that  they  corresponded  directly  with  the  Emperor ;  he  was  also 
informed  of  everything,  and  his  authority  acted  simultaneously  at 
each  point  of  his  vast  estates. 

Charlemagne  understood  that  the  most  efficacious  method  of  civi- 
lizing a  nation  is  by  instructing  it ;  he  consequently  sought  to  restore 
a  taste  for  letters  and  the  arts.  He  encouraged  the  laborious  tasks  of 
the  monks,  who  preserved  the  celebrated  writings  of  antiquity  by 
transcribing  them  ;  he  even  obliged  the  princesses,  his  daughters,  to 
occupy  themselves  in  this  task.  He  founded  and  supported  schools  in 
a  multitude  of  places  ;  he  frequently  inspected  them  himself,  and 
examined  the  pupils.  He  established  one  in  his  own  palace  ;  and  the 
following  words,  addressed  by  him  to  the  young  students  who  frequented 
it,  have  been  recorded  : — "Because  you  are  rich,  and  sons  of  the  first 
men  in  my  kingdom,  you  believe  that  your  birth  and  wealth  are  suffi- 
cient for  you,  and  that  you  have  no  need  of  these  studies,  which  would 
do  you  so  much  honour.  You  only  think  of  dress,  sport,  and  pleasure  : 
but  I  swear  to  you  I  attach  no  weight  to  this  nobility  and  this  wealth 
which  attract  consideration  to  you ;  and,  if  you  do  not  recover  most 
speedily  by  assiduous  study  the  time  you  have  lost  in  frivolities,  you 
will  never  more  obtain  anything  from  Charles." 

He  employed  of  preference  in  affairs  of  state  those  persons  who 
were  distinguished  by  their  acquirements.  A  library  had  been  formed 
by  his  care  in  his  palace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and,  during  his  meals,  he 
had  esteemed  works  read  to  him  or  conversed  with  learned  men.     His 


752-814]  CHAELEMAGNE.  97 

secretary,  Eginhard,  who  lias  left  us  curious  details  about  this  reign, 
was  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  time  ;  and  Charlemagne  spared 
nothing  to  attract  to  his  court  men  of  letters  and  clever  professors. 
Among  those  who  enjoyed  his  favour,  the  most  celebrated  is  the  Saxon 
Alcuin,  a  prodigy  of  learning  for  the  age  in  which  he  lived. 

The  principal  occupation  of  those  who  applied  themselves  at  that 
time  to  letters  was  poetry,  the  study  of  grammar,  theology,  the 
Scriptures,  and  the  Church  Fathers.  Interminable  controversies  were 
carried  on  about  the  honours  which  ought  to  be  paid  to  images  ;  these 
disputes  occasioned  long  wars  in  the  East,  and  several  times  shook 
the  throne  of  Constantinople.  Geometry,  astronomy,  and  medicine 
were  cultivated,  but  charlatanism  and  superstition  disfigured  the  two 
last  sciences.  Exalted  men  or  scamps  asserted  that  they  could  read  the 
future  by  examining  the  planets  ;  and  this  false  science,  studied  under 
the  name  of  astrology,  was  long  held  in  honour.  People  were  beginning 
to  occupy  themselves  with  sculpture,  painting,  and  goldsmith's  work  ; 
and  among  the  fine  arts  architecture  was  cultivated.  Charlemagne 
enriched  his  residence  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  with  precious  marbles  from 
Ravenna,  and  the  spoils  of  several  other  Italian  cities  ;  he  also  erected 
numerous  buildings,  and  the  vestiges  of  the  edifices  of  that  age  display 
far  more  solidity  than  elegance  in  the  processes  of  the  art. 

Among  the  inventions  of  this  century  we  must  mention  paper  made 
of  cotton,  organs  played  by  water,  and  Turkey  carpets.  Clocks  with 
wheels  also  began  to  be  known  in  the  West ;  the  Caliph  Tlarcun-al- 
Haschid,  one  of  the  greatest  princes  the  Mussulmans  ever  had,  sent  a 
very  remarkable  and  valuable  one  to  Charlemagne.  The  Church 
chants  contributed  greatly  to  the  solemnity  of  the  service ;  people 
went  regularly  to  the  divine  office  in  the  daytime,  and  some  at  night 
too.  Charlemagne  decided  that  the  Gregorian  Chant  should  be  used 
in  all  the  churches  of  his  empire  ;  and  the  custom  established  in  the 
eighth  century  of  reckoning  the  years  by  the  Christian  era,  or  from 
the  birth  of  the  Saviour,  became  general  in  his  reign.  This  prince, 
who  was  ignorant  himself,  but  worthy,  through  his  genius,  of  sharing 
in  everything  that  was  great  and  useful,  seconded  mental  efforts  of 
every  description  by  his  assiduous  care,  praise,  and  rewards.  This 
was  the  way  in  which  he  employed  his  leisure  between  his  martial 
undertakings. 

H 


98  CHARLEMAGNE.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

In  the  Empire  of  Charlemagne  a  distinction  must  be  drawn  between 
the  countries  directly  subject  to  the  Emperor  and  administered  by  his 
counts,  and  those  which  were  only  tributary.  The  former  alone  con- 
stituted the  Empire  properly  so  called,  whose  limits  were — to  the 
north,  the  German  Ocean  and  the  Baltic,  as  far  as  the  Island  of  Rugen ; 
to  the  west,  the  Atlantic,  as  far  as  the  Pyrenees  ;  to  the  south,  the 
course  of  the  Ebro,  the  Mediterranean,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Ebro, 
in  Spain,  to  that  of  the  Garigliano,  in  Italy,  and  the  Adriatic,  up  to 
the  promontory  of  Dalmatia ;  to  the  east,  Croatia,  the  course  of  the 
Theiss,  Moravia,  Bohemia,  a  part  of  the  Elbe,  and  a  line  which, 
starting  from  the  angle  which  the  latter  now  makes  when  turning 
westward,  would  run  along  the  western  shore  of  Rugen. 

The  immense  country  comprised  between  these  limits  was  adminis- 
tered by  the  free  counts.  We*  must,  however,  except  the  Armorican 
peninsula  or  Brittany,  which  was  only  tributary,  as  well  as  the  country 
of  the  Navarrese  and  Basques,  situated  between  the  Elbe  and  the 
Pyrenees  ;  the  States  of  the  Church,  or  Patrimony  of  St.  Peter, 
governed  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome  ;  Gaeta,  Venice,  and  a  certain 
number  of  maritime  cities  in  Dalmatia,  which  were  dependent  on  the 
Greek  Empire  of  Constantinople. 

Along  these  frontiers  was  a  number  of  tributary  states  more  or  less 
in  a  state  of  dependence  on  the  Emperor.  The  principal  nations  were 
— in  Italy,  the  Beneventines  ;  in  Germany,  several  Sclavonic  tribes  on 
the  banks  of  the  Danube,  the  Elbe,  and  the  Baltic,  up  to  the  Oder. 
The  sceptre  of  Charlemagne  also  extended,  in  the  Mediterranean, 
though  not  without  perpetual  and  sanguinary  conflicts,  over  the  Ba- 
learic Islands,  Corsica,  and  Sardinia. 

Charles  Martel,  Pepin,  and  Charlemagne,  after  taking  into  their 
own  hands  the  mayoralties  of  ISTeustria  and  Austrasia,  and  overthrowing 
the  hereditary  Dukes  of  Aquitaine,  Lombardy,  Allemania,  Tkuringia, 
Bavaria,  and  Frisia,  subjected  all  the  states  of  the  Prank  Empire  to 
the  same  political  organization.  Charlemagne  divided  them,  for 
administrative  purposes,  into  legations  and  counties,  which  responded 
generally  to  the  old  territorial  divisions  of  the  Roman  Empire  into 
provinces  and  cities.  These,  however,  were  wont  to  vary  according  to 
circumstances,  and  the  will  of  the  prince.  The  legations,  the  adminis- 
tration of  which  Charlemagne  entrusted  to  his  missi  or  envoys,  seem 


752-814]  CHARLEMAGNE.  99 

to  have  been  the  origin  of  the  principal  duchies.  The  Emperor  had 
received  the  direct  administration  of  the  countries  between  the  Rhine 
and  the  Meuse,  in  which  the  ancient  domains  of  his  family  were 
situated. 

Some  provinces  upon  the  borders  bore,  as  we  have  already  stated, 
the  name  of  Marches.  They  were — the  "Western  March  (Austria)  : 
the  March  of  Oarinthia  (the  Duchy  of  Friseli),  to  which  were 
attached  all  the  countries  to  the  south  of  the  Drave,  and  the  two 
Marches  of  Spain,  Grothia  and  Grascony. 

In  addition  to  the  great  divisions  into  legations,  we  have  seen 
that  Charlemagne  established  or  reconstituted  for  his  sons  Louis 
and  Pepin  two  kingdoms :  that  is,  Italy,  with  the  March  of 
Carinthia  and  the  Patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  and  that  of  Aquitaine, 
with  the  Marches  of  Spain.  Still,  he  kept  the  two  kings  in  strict 
dependence  ;  and  though  they  had  a  more  pompous  title  and  more 
extensive  functions,  they  were  in  their  states,  like  the  missi  in  the 
legations,  no  more  than  the  first  lieutenants  and  representatives  of  the 
Emperor. 

Pepin  ceded  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome  the  Exarchate  of  Ravenna  and 
the  Pentapolis :  Charlemagne  confirmed  this  gift.  These  two  territories, 
joined  to  the  city  of  Rome  and  the  surrounding  country,  formed  the. 
state  temporally  governed  by  the  Pope,  which  retained  the  name  of 
the  Patrimony  of  St.  Peter.  Authors  are  not  agreed  as  to  the  con- 
ditions on  which  this  donation  was  made ;  but  the  general  opinion  is 
that  the  Domain  or  Patrimony  of  St.  Peter  was  considered,  up  to  the 
reign  of  Louis  the  Debonnaire,  a  fief  dependent  on  the  Emperor. 

The  Merovingian  princes  had  laid  the  foundation  of  numerous  cities 
in  their  states,  and  more  especially  in  Neustria,  where  their  principal 
residences  were.  The  Carlovingian  kings,  their  successors,  made  their 
most  important  foundations  in  Austrasia,  and  beyond  the  Rhine. 
Many  cities  owe  their  existence  to  Charlemagne,  the  best  known 
among  them  being  Halle,  Hamburg,  Deventes,  Tugolstadt,  andAix-la- 
Chapelle.  The  latter  city,  which  he  rendered  flourishing  in  a  few 
years,  became  his  principal  residence,  and  capital  of  his  empire.  He 
also  founded  several  bishoprics,  and  numerous  monasteries,  most  of 
which  became,  in  the  course  of  time,  important  towns.  Many  other 
cities   were   also  embellished  and  enlarged  by  Charlemagne  ;  among 

ii  2 


100  CHARLEMAGNE.  [BOOK  II.  Chap.  I. 

others,  Ingellieini  and  Nimeguen,  where  lie  had  two  magnificent 
palaces,  Metz,  Mayence,  Strasburg,  Essenfeld,  Paderborn,  Ratisbon, 
and  Magdeburg,  which,  being  nearly  all  strongly  fortified,  served  as  a 
defence  or  barrier  to  his  empire. 

Charlemagne  kept  his  peoples  united  and  under  subjection  by  the 
ascendancy  of  his  glory  and  the  terror  of  his  arms  ;  but  for  vast 
associations  of  men  to  subsist  for  any  length  of  time  with  a  common 
centre  upon  an  immense  territory,  it  is  necessary  either  that  the 
peoples  should  submit  to  an  absolute  authority,  which  was  repulsive  to 
the  haughty  and  independent  humour  of  the  Frank  race,  or  else  that 
learning  and  civilization  should  have  made  sufficient  progress  for  them 
to  recognize  the  necessity  for  their  union,  as  well  as  the  obligation  of 
sacrificing  private  to  general  interests.  Such  was  not  the  state  of  the 
nations  governed  by  Charlemagne.  Some  distinguished  men  raised 
their  voices  in  vain :  the  masses  remained  plunged  in  barbarism.  A 
few  years  do  not  suffice  to  make  a  people  pass  from  a  savage  into  a 
civilized  state,  from  ignorance  to  learning.  Such  a  task  is  one  of  ages. 
Charlemagne  appeared  to  the  world  as  a  brilliant  meteor,  which,  in 
disappearing,  only  leaves  behind  a  reminiscence  of  its  brilliancy,  and 
the  vivid  light  it  shed  around  :  but  this  reminiscence  was  not  useless 
to  the  world,  and  the  example  which  this  great  man  gave  bore  its 
fruit  among  posterity.  He  himself,  however,  was  able  to  observe  the 
certain  signs  of  an  approaching  dissolution.  He  knew  the  national. 
enmities  which  subsisted  between  the  different  nations  he  had  sub- 
jected ;  and  the  calmness  which  they  had  long  enjoyed  internally  was 
not  that  of  a  nation  reposing  in  its  strength,  but  rather  a  ealm  of 
weariness  and  exhaustion.  His  capitularies  rendered  military  service; 
obligatory  on  every  free  man  possessed  of  a  meusa  of  land  or  twelve- 
acres,  under  penalty  of  paying  the  enormous  fine  of  sixty  pence  im 
gold,  or  the  loss  of  liberty :  a  great  number  preferred  slavery.  The 
greater  portion  of  the  crown  lands  had  been  given  to  nobles  and 
bishops  ;  and  the  right  of  possession  over  the  inhabitants  being  at  that 
time  confounded  with  the  ownership  of  the  soil,  a  multitude  of 
labourers  had  fallen  into  a  condition  of  serfdom.  The  free  men  them- 
selves, crushed  by  the  weight  of  taxation  and  military  service,  and 
wearied  with  so  long  a  reign,  eagerly  desired  its  termination.  They 
only  performed  with  repugnance  their  duty  as  citizens,  and  generally 


752-814]  CHARLEMAGNE.  101 

• 

neglected  going  to  the  provincial  assemblies  or  those   of  the  Field  of 
May. 

The  expenses  of  the  journey,  and  the  presents  demanded  of  them, 
rightly  appeared  to  them  an  intolerable  burden  ;  and  they  displayed  no 
zeal  in  supporting  institutions,  of  which  they  recognized  neither  the 
wisdom  nor  the  utility. 

Such  were  the  imminent  precursive  signs  of  a  rapid  dissolution. 
Charlemagne's  presentiments  were  only  too  fully  justified  toward  the 
close  of  his  life.  New  nations,  that  came  from  the  north,  the  Danes, 
also  called  Normans,  infested  the  coasts  of  his  empire.  In  order  to 
repulse  them,  he  had  large  barques  built,  which  defended  the  mouth  of 
the  rivers.  This  barrier,  and  the  terror  he  inspired,  sufficed  during 
his  lifetime  to  keep  these  barbarian  invaders  aloof.  One  day,  however, 
ships,  manned  by  Scandinavian  pirates,  unexpectedly  entered  the  port 
of  a  town  in  Gallica  ISTarbonensis,  where  the  Emperor  was  residing.  He 
saw  them,  and,  going  up  to  a  window  to  watch  their  flight,  he  stood, 
there  for  a  long  time  with  his  face  bathed  in  tears.  Then,  turning  to 
the  nobles,  who  were  watching  him,  he  said  to  them,  "Do  you  know, 
my  faithful  friends,  why  I  am  weeping  so  bitterly  ?  Assuredly  I  do 
not  fear  that  these  pirates  will  injure  me,  but  I  am  profoundly 
afflicted  by  the  thought  that  they  nearly  landed  on  these  shores 
during  my  lifetime,  and  I  am  tortured  by  a  violent  grief,  when  I 
foresee  all  the  evils  they  will  inflict  on  my  nephews  and  their  peoples." 

The  perpetual  wars  which  Charlemagne  waged  in  order  to  maintain 
the  unity  of  his  immense  empire,  and  substitute  in  it  civilization  for 
barbarism,  originated  from  his  victories  themselves :  and  they  rather 
bear  testimony  to  the  greatness  of  his  efforts  than  to  their  success. 
His  work  remained  incomplete,  but  his  glory  consists  in  having  under- 
taken it ;  and  if  he  did  not  complete  it,  it  was  because  completing  was 
impossible. 


102  LOUIS    THE    DEBONNAIRE.  [BOOK  II.    Chap.  II. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLEMAGNE  TO  THAT  OF  CHARLES  THE  FAT. 

814—888. 
I. 

LOUIS    THE    DEBONNAIRE,    OR   THE    PIOUS. 

814—840. 

Charlemagne's  object  had  been  to  rescue  Europe  from  the  anarchical 
reign  6f  brute  force :  he  wished  that  his  will  should  be  everywhere 
present.  "He  applied  himself,"  as  a  modern  historian  has  said,  "to 
render  the  exercise  of  power  regular  and  salutary  to  the  people  ;  *  and 
he  everywhere  substituted  his  intelligent  and  central  action  for  the 
action  of  a  number  of*  blind  and  isolated  local  authorities,  whom  he 
held  in  check,  without  destroying.  These  powers  derived  their  origin 
and  force  from  old  Germanic  institutions  and  customs ;  and  these  did 
not  work  in  unison  either  to  establish  or  maintain  the  unity  of  a  vast 
Empire.  Among  these  customs,  three  were  quite  incompatible  with 
the  principle  of  imperial  authority,  such  as  Charlemagne  had 
attempted  to  re-establish  in  the  West.  They  were,  first,  the  legislative 
and,  in  some  cases,  sovereign  power  of  the  national  assemblies  ;  next, 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  nobles  over  their  vassals,  and  the  right  of 
private  war ;  and  lastly,  the  custom  which  shared  the  succession 
among  all  the  sons,  and  which,  in  default  of  sons,  left  the  right  of 
succession  doubtful  between  the  nephews  and  uncles. 

Charlemagne  did  not  make  any  absolute  attack  on  these  three  cus- 
toms, though  they  were  so  incompatible  with  the  monarchical  system 
which  he  attempted  to  introduce.    We  have  seen  that  he  recognized  the 

*  Gruizot,  Histoire  de  la  Civilisation  en  France. 


814-888]  LOUIS   THE    DEBONNAIRE.  103 

legislative  authority  of  the  national  assemblies,  and  that  the  latter, 
which  he  directed  and  converted  into  useful  instruments,  were  regularly- 
convoked  during  his  reign ;  he  did  not  destroy  the  right  of  seignorial 
Jurisdiction,  which  was  a  formidable  right,  and  one  difficult  to  separate 
from  the  right  of  private  war ;  he  was  even  constrained  to  confirm 
the  latter,  by  obliging  the  vassals  or  liegemen  to  follow  their  lord  in 
his  private  quarrels,  under  penalty  of  losing  their  benefices  ;  *  and  he 
could  not  prevent  the  duties  of  the  vassal  toward  his  lord  appearing 
more  sacred  than  those  which  attached  them  both  to  the  State. 
Lastly,  in  the  partition  which  Charlemagne  made  at  Thionville,  of  his 
states  among  his  sons,  we  do  not  find  that  he  dreamed  of  maintaining 
the  unity  of  his  empire  after  his  own  death ;  he  did  not  raise  the 
eldest  above  the  others ;  and,  at  a  later  date,  when  he  shared  his 
authority  with  Louis  the  Debonnaire,  his  two  brothers  were  dead : 
hence,  then,  the  great  question  of  the  supremacy  attaching  to  the 
imperial  title,  and  of  the  degree  of  power  which  the  prince  invested 
with  it  would  have  to  exercise  over  the  kings  of  his  own  family,  was 
not  settled  by  Charlemagne.  Perhaps  he  had  a  foreboding  that  so 
many  nations,  differing  in  language,  origin,  and  customs,  could  not  live 
for  any  length  of  time,  united  under  the  same  hand ;  perhaps,  too,  by 
himself  dividing  his  vast  states  between  his  sons,  he  had  hoped  to 
prevent  disastrous  wars,  and  he  doubtless  believed  that  it  would  be 
better  to  do  by  common  agreement  what  time  and  violence  would  not 
fail  to  do  after  his  death. 

If  such  were  Charlemagne's  previsions,  they  were  speedily  confirmed 
by  the  inutility  of  his  son's  efforts  to  retain  for  any  length  of  time 
the  fiction  of  imperial  unity.  The  situation  was  more  powerful  than 
the  men,  and  the  Carlovingian  Empire  crumbled  away  less  through  the 
weakness  of  Louis  the  Debonnaire  and  his  successors,  than  through  the 
want  of  the  institutions  necessary  for  its  duration,  and,  above  all,  by 
the  impossibility  of  rendering  the  latter  acceptable  to  the  peoples  they 
were  intended  to  govern.     The  dissolution  of  this  empire,  accelerated 

*  Et  si  quis  cum  fidelibus  suis  contra  adversarium  suum  pugnam  ant  aliquod  cutamen 
agere  voluerit,  et  convocavit  aliquem  de  coinparibus  suis  ut  ei  adjutorium  prsebuisset,  et 
e!le  nolu.it  et  exindo  negliques  permansit  :  ipsum  beneficium  quod  babuit  auferatur  ab 
eo,  et  ditur  cui  in  stabilitate  et  fidelitate  su4  permansit.— -Karoli  M.  Capitularc> 
a.  813-820. 


104  LOUIS    THE    DEBONNAIEE.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  II. 

by  so  many  causes,  had  as  its  principal  results  the  complete  separation 
of  the  peoples  of  different  race,  and  the  subdivision  of  each  of  these 
peoples  into  a  multitude  of  small  principalities,  which  had  no  other 
bond  of  union  than  that  which  was  established  by  the  feudal  regime. 

Louis  I.,  surnamed  the  Debonnaire  and  the  Pious,  son  and  successor 
of  Charlemagne,  was  soon  crushed  by  the  burden  which  his  father  had 
left  him.  Unskilful  in  his  conduct,  and  of  weak  character,  but 
animated  by  a  desire  for  justice  and  a  desire  for  the  right,  he  hastened 
to  order  severe  reforms ;  and  ere  he  had  established  his  authority  on  a 
solid  basis,  he  punished  powerful  culprits,  and  tried  to  destroy  a  mul- 
titude of  abuses  by  which  the  nobles  profited.  The  oppressed  nations 
found  in  him  a  just  judge  and  indulgent  master.  He  protected  the 
Aquitains,  the  Saxons,  and  Spanish  Christians  against  the  imperial 
lieutenants,  and  diminished  their  "taxes,  to  the  injury  of  their  governors. 
He  reformed  the  clergy,  by  obliging  the  bishops  to  remain  in  their 
dioceses,  and  subjecting  the  monks  to  the  inquisition  of  the  severe 
Benedict  of  Amacia,  who  imposed  the  Benedictine  rule  upon  them. 
Lastly,  giving  the  example  of  good  manners,  he  tried  to  avenge  morality 
by  disgracefully  expelling  from  the  imperial  palace  his  father's 
numerous  concubines,  and  the  lovers  of  his  sisters.  But  he  could 
not  keep  either  his  court  or  his  warriors  in  obedience,  and  his  weakness 
for  his  wives  and  children  occasioned  long  and  sanguinary  wars. 

In  the  hour  of  danger,  all  those  whose  interests  he  had  violently 
injured  leagued  against  him.  The  first  insurrection  took  place  in 
Italy.  The  Emperor  had  shared  the  empire  with  his  son  Lothair,* 
with  the  assent  of  the  Franks  assembled  at  the  comitia  of  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  in  817  ;  then  he  gave  the  kingdoms  of  Bavaria  and  Aquitaine 
to  his  other  two  sons,  Louis  and  Pepin :  his  nephew  Bernard  remaining 
King  of  Italy.  The  latter,  whose  father  was  the  Emperor's  elder 
brother,  was  jealous  at  the  elevation  of  Lothair,  for  he  hoped,  after  his 
uncle's  death,  to  obtain  the  imperial  crown  as  chief  of  the  Carlovingian 
family.  A  great  number  of  malcontent  lords  and  bishops  invited 
Bernard  to  assert  his  rights,  and  collected  troops.  Louis  marched  to 
meet  his  nephew  at  the  head  of  his  soldiers  of  France  and  Germany. 

*The  second  race  adopted  the  names  of  the  first,  but  the  German  language  was 
beginning  to  lose  its  roughness  in  Graul  :  thus,  the  name  of  Klothair  became  Lothair, 
&c.  &c. 


814-888]  LOUIS    THE    DEBOSNAIRE.  105 

On  his  approach,  Bernard,  who  was  deserted  by  a  portion  of  his  fol- 
lowers, obtained  a  safe  conduct  from  the  Emperor,  and  went  into  his 
camp,  with  several  chiefs  of  his  army.  Louis,  impelled  to  act  with 
unjust  rigour  by  his  consort  Ermengarde,  who  coveted  Italy  for  her 
sons,  had  Bernard's  accomplices  tried  and  executed,  while  the 
unfortunate  King  himself  was  condemned  to  lose  his  sight,  and  did  not 
survive  the  punishment.  A  few  years  later,  the  Emperor,  in  a  national 
assembly  held  at  Attigny,  on  the  Aisin,  did  public  penance  for  this 
crime,  and,  prostrated  at  the  feet  of  the  bishops,  asked  for  absolution. 
From  this  period  he  only  displayed  weakness.  The  frontier  nations 
insulted  the  Empire  with  impunity ;  the  Gascons  and  Saracens  in  the 
south,  the  Bretons  in  the  west,  and  the  Norman  pirates  in  the  north, 
committed  frightful  ravages,  and  spread  terror  around  them.  Internal 
discord  seconded  their  audacity :  the  imperial  troops  were  defeated,  and 
Louis  saw  his  frontiers  contracted  in  the  north  and  south.  In  this  way, 
the  kingdom  of  Navarre  was  founded  at  the  foot  of  the  Pyrenees. 

Ermengarde,  the  wife  of  Louis  the  Debonnaire,  died  in  818,  and 
the  Emperor  espoused  in  the  following  year  Judith,  daughter  of  a 
Bavarian  lord.  He  had  by  her  a  son  called  Charles,  for  whom  his 
mother  asked  a  kingdom  ;  and  Louis  promised  him  one,  although  he 
had  given  everything  away  before.  After  granting  to  Lothair  the 
kingdom  of  Italy,  the  heritage  of  the  unfortunate  Bernard,  he 
obtained  from  that  prince  the  oath  to  defend  his  young  brother  Charles, 
and  maintain  him  in  the  possession  of  the  share  which  might  be 
assigned  him ;  after  which,  the  Emperor,  at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  held 
in  829,  gave  Charles,  the  son  of  Judith,  Suabia,  Helvetia,  and  the 
Grisons,  which  he  formed  into  the  kingdom  of  Germany. 

Lothair  soon  repented  the  pledge  he  had  given  his  father,  and 
sought  a  mode  of  destroying  the  result  of  the  decisions  of  the  Diet. 
He  found  an  opportunity,  in  the  blind  weakness  of  the  Emperor  for  the 
Aquitanian  Bernard,  Duke  of  Septimania,  and  son  of  his  old  guar- 
dian, William  Shortnose.  Duke  Bernard  was  generally  considered  the 
lover  of  Judith  and  father  of  Charles.  Louis  made  him  his  sole  coun- 
cillor and  prime  minister.  The  public  clamour  became  general ;  a 
numerous  party  of  malcontents  was  formed,  principally  composed  of 
nobles  and  bishops,  and  who  were  joined  by  the  Emperor's  three  sons, 
who  were  irritated  at  his  weakness  and  anxious  about  their  possessions. 


106  LOUIS    THE    DEBONNAIKE.  [Book  II.  ChAP.  II. 

The  latter  commenced  an  impious  war  against  their  father.  He  fell 
into  their  power  at  Compiegne.  Judith  was  confined  by  them  in  a 
convent ;  Bernard  took  to  flight,  and  the  Emperor  was  left  under  the 
direction  of  a  few  monks,  while  Lothair  seized  the  government  of  the 
Empire. 

The  peoples  were  divided  between  Louis  and  his  sons ;  the  latter 
were  supported  in  their  revolt  by  the  inhabitants  of  Gaul,  while  the 
Germans  remained  faithful  to  the  Emperor,  who  consulted  a  general 
assembly  of  the  states  for  the  same  year,  at  one  of  their  cities, 
JSTimeguen.  They  pronounced  in  his  favour  and  against  his  sons. 
Lothair  was  reconciled  to  his  father  by  sacrificing  all  his  partizans  to 
him.  Judith  and  Bernard  were  recalled  to  court,  and  purified  them- 
selves by  oath  from  the  crimes  imputed  to  them ;  Louis  began  to 
reign  again,  and  once  more  disgusted  the  nation  by  his  weakness.  His 
sons — Lothair,  Louis,  and  Pepin — revolted  once  again,  took  up  arms, 
and  marched  against  their  father.  Pope  Gregory  IV.  was  with  them, 
and  tried  in  vain  to  prevent  bloodshed.  The  two  armies  encountered 
near  Colmar ;  all  at  once  the  Emperor's  troop  sdeserfced  him.  The 
which  this  defection  took  place  received  the  name  of  the  Plain  of 
plain  on  Falsehood.  Th  eunfortunate  King  fell  into  the  hands  of  his 
son  Lothair,  who  carried  his  impiety  so  far  as  to  make  him  undergo 
an  infamous  punishment  under  the  cloak  of  a  Christian  and  voluntary 
humiliation,  in  order  to  degrade  him  for  ever.  A  council  of  bishops 
devoted  to  Lothair  was  assembled  for  this  purpose  at  Compiegne  and 
presided  over  by  Ebbon,  Archbishop  of  Reims,  a  furious  enemy  of 
Louis.  A  list  of  crimes  was  drawn  up,  among  which  figured  that  of 
having  ordered  the  army  to  march  during  Lent,  and  convoking  the 
Parliament  on  a  Good  Friday.  The  captive  Emperor  was  forced  to 
make  a  public  confession.  He  appeared  in  the  cathedral,  pale  and 
bowed  down  by  shame  and  sorrow.  He  tottered  along  through  a  multi- 
tude of  spectators,  and  in  the  presence  of  Lothair,  who  had  come  to 
enjoy  the  humiliation  of  his  father  and  his  Emperor.  A  hair  cloth  was 
laid  at  the  foot  of  the  altar ;  the  archbishop  ordered  the  sovereign  to 
take  off  his  imperial  ornaments,  belt,  and  sword,  and  prostrate  himself 
on  the  cloth.  Louis  obeyed  :  with  his  face  against  the  ground  he 
demanded  a  public  penance,  and  read  aloud  a  document  in  which  he 
accused  himself  of  sacrilege  and  homicide.   A  proces-verbal  was  drawn 


814-888]  LOUTS    THE    DEBONNAIRE.  107 

up  of  this  criminal  scene,  and  Lothair  conducted  his  father  as  a  pri- 
soner to  Aix-la-Chapelle,  the  seat  of  the  Empire,  a  place  which  had 
formerly  witnessed  his  grandeur  and  now  his  ignominy. 

Louis  the  German  and  Pepin  declared  themselves  the  avengers  of 
their  outraged  father,  far  less  through  affection  for  him  than  through 
jealous  hatred  of  their  brother ;  the  latter,  deserted  by  his  partizans, 
took  refuge  in  Italy,  while  the  Emperor,  with  the  assent  of  the  states 
assembled  at  Thionville,  resumed  his  crown.  He  pardoned  Lothair, 
but  in  838,  at  the  states  of  Kersy-on-the-Oise,  he  for  a  second  time 
benefited  his  son  Charles  at  the  expense  of  his  elder  brother,  and  Louis 
the  German  consented  to  cede  a  portion  of  his  provinces  to  his 
brother. 

Pepin,  King  of  Aquitaine,  died  in  the  course  of  the  year ;  he  left  a 
son  of  the  same  name,  dear  to  the  Aquitains,  who  had  seen  him  attain 
man's  estate  among  them,  and  who  eagerly  recognized  him  as  king. 
This  people  always  endured  with  impatience  a  foreign  rule.  It  nou- 
rished the  hope  of  forming  an  independent  and  separate  nation,  and 
hoped  to  induce  Pepin  II.  to  revolt  against  the  Emperor,  as  his  father, 
Pepin  I.,  had  on  several  occasions  been  persuaded  to  do. 

The  Emperor,  however,  had  other  projects ;  he  secretly  reserved 
Aquitaine  for  his  son  Charles.  On  his  side,  Louis  regretted  the  conces- 
sion which  he  had  made  at  Kersy  of  the  great  portion  of  his  states  to 
his  brother,  and  had  taken  up  arms  again ;  the  Germans  had  followed 
his  banner  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine ;  but  the  armies  of  Gaul, 
composed  of  a  mixture  of  men  of  the  Gallic  and  German  races  estab- 
lished for  a  long  time  in  that  country,  and  to  whom  we  may  henceforth 
give  the  name  of  French,  had  remained  faithful  to  the  Emperor.  He 
crossed  the  Rhine  at  their  head.  On  his  approach  the  Germanic  army 
disbanded  without  striking  a  blow :  his  son  Louis  retired  into  Bavaria. 
The  Emperor  punished  him  by  reducing  his  inheritance  to  that  soli- 
tary province. 

The  moment  had  arrived  to  secure  Charles  the  share  which  his  affec- 
tion had  always  desired  for  him  at  the  expense  of  his  brothers.  He 
resolved  to  divide  the  Empire,  exclusive  of  Bavaria,  into  two  parts  of 
equal  size,  destined  for  Lothair  and  Charles,  and  decided  that  one  of 
these  princes  should  make  this  division,  and  the  other  have  the  choice. 
This  new  partition  was  to  be  sanctioned  and  proclaimed  in  a  Diet  con- 


108  LOUIS    THE    DEBON^TAIEE.  [Book  II.  Chap.  II. 

voked  at  Worms  in  the  month  of  May,  839.  Lothair  proceeded  thither. 
In  the  presence  of  the  assembled  nobles,  he  threw  himself  at  his 
father's  feet  and  asked  his  pardon  for  the  annoyance  he  had  caused  him. 
Then,  having  left  to  his  father  the  task  of  dividing  his  Empire,  the 
Emperor  effected  the  partition  by  aline  which,  starting  from  the  mouths 
of  the  Scheldt,  ran  along  the  Meuse  up  to  its  source,  and  the  Saone  as 
far  as  its  confluence  with  the  Rhone,  and  terminated  at  the  mouth  of 
the  latter  river.  The  choice  was  left  to  Lothair,  who  took  the  eastern 
moiety  of  the  Empire,  comprising  Italy,  Germany,  less  Bavaria,  Pro- 
vence, and  a  small  part  of  Burgundy  and  Austrasia ;  Charles  had  for 
his  share  Aquitaine,  Neustria,  and  the  rest  of  Austrasia  and  Burgundy. 
The  claims  of  their  brother  Louis  were  entirely  passed  over  in  this 
partition,  and  Pepin  II.,  the  Emperor's  grandson,  was  despoiled.  These 
two  princes  took  up  arms,  and  the  Emperor,  who  was  already  ad- 
vancing upon  Aquitaine,  stopped  in  indecision,  not  knowing  which  foe 
to  fight  first,  his  grandson  or  his  son.  At  length,  on  seeing  the 
Bavarians,  Thuringians,  and  Saxons,  in  insurrection  on  behalf  of  Louis, 
the  old  Emperor  turned  his  army  against  him ;  and  he  marched  into 
Germany  to  encounter  his  son,  who  had  rebelled  for  the  third  time, 
when  he  was  attacked  by  an  illness,  which  brought  him  to  the  grave 
at  the  end  of  forty  days.  "Alas  !  "  he  said,  while  expiring,  "I  pardon 
my  son ;  but  let  him  remember  that  he  caused  my  death,  and  that  God 
punishes  parricides."  He  died  at  Ingelheim,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two. 
Louis  the  Debonnaire  was  not  born  for  the  throne ;  still,  he  had 
some  of  the  qualities  of  a  good  prince.  His  morals  were  firm ;  he  paid 
great  attention  to  the  administration  of  justice  and  the  instruction  of 
his  people,  made  useful  regulations,  and  frequently  consulted  the 
comitia  of  the  Empire ;  but  he  possessed  neither  strength  nor  dignity, 
without  which  the  supreme  authority  is  but  a  vain  word.  His  impru- 
dent weakness  for  Charles,  the  son  of  his  old  age,  occasioned  wars 
which  were  only  extinguished  with  his  race.  In  order  to  ensure  him  a 
vast  empire,  he  embroiled  all  the  frontiers  of  his  states ;  and  this  par- 
tition accelerated  the  outbreak  of  frightful  calamities. 


814-888]  DEATH   OF   LOUIS    TO   THAT    OF   CHARLES    THE    FAT.  109 

II. 

FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  LOUIS  THE  DEBONNAIRE  TO  THAT  OF  CHARLES  THE 

FAT. 

After  the  death,  of  Louis  the  Debonnaire,  the  Empire  was  plunged 
for  ten  years  into  a  horrible  anarchy.  His  three  sons  and  his  grand- 
son, Pepin  II.,  levied  troops  and  carried  on  an  obstinate  war  against 
each  other.  The  Emperor  Lothair  united  with  his  nephew  Pepin  to 
despoil  his  two  brothers — Louis,  who  was  called  the  German,  and 
Charles  II.,  who  from  this  period  was  surnamed  the  'Bald.  The  former 
only  possessed  Bavaria;  the  second  w&s  master  of  the  whole  of 
Germany.  The  deplorable  situation  of  the  Empire,  thus  parcelled  out 
by  different  masters  and  torn  by  their  hands,  has  been  eloquently 
described  by  a  contemporary  poet : — "  Who  could  worthily  describe," 
he  says,  "the  asylums  of  religious  life  overthrown,  the  holy  spouses  of 
the  Lord  surrendered  to  the  infamy  of  the  secular  yoke,  the  very 
chiefs  of  the  Church  exposed  to  the  perils  of  arms  and  carnage  ? 
....  Once  on  a  time  flourished  a  noble  empire,  with  a  dazzling 
diadem ;  it  had  but  one  prince,  and  a  great  people  was  subject  to  him. 

Now  the  proud  edifice  has  fallen  from  its  height,  as  crown  of 

flowers  falls  from  the  brow  which  it  decorated.  .....    The  unity  of 

the  empire  has  perished  in  a  triple  partition ;  no  one  is  longer  con- 
sidered as  emperor ;  in  lieu  of  a  king  there  is  only  a  weak  prince ; 
instead  of  a  kingdom  the  fragments  of  a  kingdom.  The  wall  is 
threatened  with  an  immense  and  sudden  ruin ;  it  is  already  cracked 
and  bulging,  and  scarce  supported  by  a  liquid  mud  which  is  about  to 
fall,  and  the  overthrow  is  universal."  * 

The  combined  armies  of  the  two  kings,  Louis  and  Charles,  encoun- 
tered those  of  the  Emperor  Lothair  and  his  nephew  Pepin  near 
Auxerre,  and  fought  a  sanguinary  engagement  in  the  Plains  of 
Fontenay ;  it  is  said  that  one  hundred  thousand  men  perished  on  this 
day.  Lothair  was  conquered,  and  the  two  victorious  princes,  who 
were  themselves  weaker  than  they  had  been  before  the  victory,  could 
not  pursue  him.  They  proceeded  to  Strasburg,  where  they  resumed 
their  alliance  in  the  presence  of  the  people.    The  oath  which  Louis  the 

*  Flori  cTeaoni  Lugdunensis  Guertia  de  divisione  imperii  post  mortem  Ludov.  Pii. 


110    DEATH  OF  LOUIS  TO  THAT  OF  CHARLES  THE  FAT.   [BOOK  II.  Ch.  II. 

German  pronounced  on  this  occasion  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  understood 
by  his  brother's  Neustrian  and  Gallo-Roman  army,  is  the  oldest 
memorial  history  has  preserved  for  us  of  the  Romanic  language.* 

A  new  partition  was  made  soon  after  at  Verdun  between  the  three 
brothers,  and  irrevocably  separated  the  interests  of  Gaul  as  a  power 
from  those  of  Germany.  Charles  had  the  countries  situated  to  the 
west  of  the  Scheldt,  Saone,  and  Rhone,  with  the  north  of  Spain  up 
to  the  Ebro.  Louis  the  German  had  Germany  up  to  the  Rhine. 
The  Emperor  Lothair,  renouncing  all  supremacy,  connected  to  Italy  the 
territory  situated  between  his  brother's  states.  The  long  strip  of 
land,  which  comprised  four  populations,  and  in  which  four  different 
languages  were  spoken,  formed  an  entirely  factitious  division,  of  such 
a  nature  that  it  could  not  be  perpetuated.  The  two  other  divisions  were 
more  durable,  and  henceforth  the  denomination  of  France  was  employed 
to  designate  the  kingdom  of  Charles,  in  which  Neustria,  Brittany,  and 
Aquitaine  were  comprised. 

So  many  commotions  and  combats  completely  exhausted  the 
kingdoms  formed  out  of  the  debris  of  the  empire.  The  little  amount 
of  strength  left  to  them  was  consumed  by  these  intestine  wars,  the 
frontiers  were  abandoned  to  foreigners,  the  land  remained  uncultivated, 
famine  destroyed  entire  populations,  and  the  ancient  barbarism  re- 
appeared. The  Normans,  united  to  the  Bretons,  in  the  north  and  west, 
the  Saracens  in  the  south,  laid  waste  everything  with  fire  and  sword ; 
bands  of  wolves  came  after  them  down  the  mountains  and  even 
entered  the  towns.  Rouen,  Bordeaux,  and  Nantes  were  burnt ;  the 
Normans  reached  Paris  on  board  three  hundred  galleys ;  and  while 
terror  kept  Charles  shut  up  at  Saint  Denis,  they  plundered  the  capital, 
and  only  left  it  to  reappear  there  soon  after  more  numerous  aud  formid- 
able. These  men  of  the  north,  called  Danes  in  England,  and  Normans 
in  Gaul,  had  remained  pagans,  and  were  still  proud,  even  in  the  ninth 
century,  of  their  title  as  sons  of  Odin.  Their  natural  ferocity  was 
kept  up  and  incessantly  excited  by  a  continual  life  of  brigandage. 
A  law  of  the  country,  which  was  maintained  wherever  this  people 
founded  establishments,  tended  to  perpetuate  on  the  coasts  of 
Denmark  and  Norway  the  existence  of  this  race  of  pirates.    It  was  one 

*  This  language  is  composed  of  a  corrupt  Latin,  mixed  up  with  the  idiom  of  some  of 
the  peoples  of  Frank  Gaul. 


814-838]  DEATH     OF    LOUIS    TO    THAT    OF    CHARLES    THE    FAT.  Ill 

of  the  principal  causes  of  the  frightful  evils  which  they  inflicted  from 
the  ninth  to  the  eleventh  century  on  European  nations  ;  and  to  it 
must  be  referred  the  first  origin  of  the  empires  which  these  peoples 
founded.  This  law,  which  is  still  in  force  in  England,  gave  to  the 
eldest  son  alone  in  Denmark  and  Norway  the  patrimony  of  the  family. 
It  affected  the  families  of  the  kings  as  well  as  those  of  the  subjects. 
The  eldest  son  of  the  chief  or  king  alone  inherited  his  father's  sceptre 
and  estates.  His  brothers,  though  recognized  as  kings  by  the  customs 
of  the  northern  nations,  had  the  ocean  as  their  kingdom,  on  which  they 
sought  their  fortune  :  hence  the  name  of  sea-Mngs,  which  was  given  to 
them,  and  which  collected  under  their  banner  a  multitude  of  men, 
who,  like  themselves,  had  no  other  patrimony  beyond  their  sword. 
One  of  these  chiefs,  who  was  famous  for  his  audacity  and  ferocity, 
the  pirate  Hastings,  after  ravaging  France,  penetrated  into  Italy,  and 
returned  to  spread  desolation  and  terror  on  the  whole  country  between 
the  Seine  and  the  Loire.  Charles  the  Bald  had  intrusted  the  defence 
of  this  territory,  with  the  title  of  Count  of  Anjou,  to  a  celebrated 
warrior,  Robert  the  Strong,  who  was  already  Count  of  Paris*  and 
the  glorious  founder  of  the  Capitian  dynasty.*  Robert,  whom  the 
chronicles  of  the  time  called  the  Maccabaeus  of  France,  was  killed,  and 
nothing  arrested  the  devastating  torrent  from  that  moment. 

In  the  midst  of  the  general  weakening  of  the  Empire,  the  clergy 
alone  increased  their  fortune  and  power.  The  more  miserable  the 
people  were,  the  more  they  directed  their  thoughts  to  another  future, 
and  respected  the  men  in  whom  they  recognized  the  power  of  opening 
the  gates  of  a  better  world  for  them.  The  real  master  of  Graul  was 
Hincmar,  Archbishop  of  Reims.  He  it  was  who  defended  with  the 
greatest  success  the  authority  of  Charles  the  Bald,  against  those 
who  jareferred  to  him  his  brother,  Louis  the  Grerman.  The 
bishops  supported  the  kings  they  had  crowned ;  they  governed 
temporal  and   spiritual  affairs,  war  and  peace  ;  it  was  Hincmar  who 

*  After  long  researches,  intended  to  trace  this  family  back  to  Childebrand,  brother  of 
Charles  Martel,  it  is  generally  agreed  that  it  was  of  Saxon  origin,  since  genealogists 
even  wish  to  give  ib  as  founder  the  celebrated  Wittikind.  However  this  may  be,  this 
family,  established  in  the  centre  of  Graul,  speedily  acquired  a  great  influence  there,  and 
was  invested  in  succession  with  the  counties  of  Paris  a^d  Orleans,  the  county  of  Anjou, 
the  duchy  of  France,  and  several  other  great  fiefs.  The  name  of  Capitians  was  not 
given  to  its  members  till  after  Hugues  Capet. 


112       DEATH   OF   LOUIS   TO    THAT   OP   CHARLES   THE    FAT.         [BOOK  II.  Ch.  II. 

convoked,  in  the  king's  name,  the  bishops  and  counts  to  march  against 
the  enemy. 

The  Emperor  Lothair  I.  had  died  in  a  monastery  in  855,  after 
sharing  the  Empire  for  the  last  ten  years  with  his  son,  Louis  II.,  sur- 
named  the  Young,  and  giving  kingdoms  to  his  other  sons,  Provence  to 
Charles,  and  the  country  contained  between  the  Meuse,  Scheldt,  Rhine, 
and  Franche  Comte  to  Lothair  II.  It  was  called,  after  the  name  of 
its  sovereign,  Lotharingia,  whence  we  have  the  name  of  Lorraine, 
which  has  adhered  to  it.  The  decrees  of  the  councils  touching  the  two 
marriages  of  Lothair  II.  occupied  the  whole  of  Christendom  during 
fifteen  years.  Separated  by  mutual  agreement  from  his  wife,  Tentberga, 
and  forced  to  take  her  back  by  Pope  Adrian  II.,  Lothair  went  to  Rome 
in  order  to  justify  himself.  The  Pontiff  called  down  the  vengeance 
of  Heaven  on  him  if  he  did  not  amend  his  ways.  He  died  within  a 
week,  and  the  whole  of  his  suite  in  the  year.  .  His  three  sons 
survived  him  but  a  short  time ;  and  Louis  the  Grerman  and  Charles  the 
Bald  divided  their  estates  between  them. 

Oil  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Louis  II.,  which  event  took  place  in 
875,  his  uncle  Charles  the  Bald  seized  the  imperial  crown ;  but  this 
crown,  reduced  to  a  part  of  Southern  Germany  and  Italy,  was,  on  his 
brow,  but  the  shadow  of  that  worn  by  Charlemagne.  The  Empire  was 
exhausted ;  the  perpetual  wars  of  Charlemagne,  the  incessantly  renewed 
quarrels  of  his  grandsons,  had  decimated  the  martial  population  during 
several  generations.  In  the  midst  of  the  constantly  increasing  anarchy, 
the  freemen,  preferring  security  to  an  independence  full  of  perils, 
made  themselves  the  vassals  of  powerful  men  capable  of  defending 
them ;  and  so  early  as  847,  the  weak  Charles  the  Bald  allowed  the 
edict  to  be  drawn  from  him,  known  as  the  Edict  of  Mersen,  to  the 
effect  that  every  freeman  can  choose  a  lord,  either  the  king  or  one  of 
his  vassals,  and  that  none  of  them  would  be  bound  to  follow  the  king 
to  war  except  against  foreigners.  The  king  thus  remained  powerless 
and  disarmed  in  civil  wars. 

Thirty  years  later,  the  nobles  completed  the  ruin  of  imperial  and 
royal  authority  by  obtaining  at  Kersy  from  the  same  King,  then 
Emperor,  the  celebrated  decree  which  rendered  it  legal  to  inherit 
benefices  and  offices.  For  a  long  time  past,  the  rights  of  property 
in  the   soil  had    been  confounded  with  the  rights  of  administration 


814-888.]       DEATH  OF  LOUIS  TO  THAT  OF  CHARLES  THE  FAT.      113 

and  jurisdiction  possessed  by  the  counts  or  officers  of  the  Emperor. 
The  counts,  taking  advantage  of  the  general  anarchy  as  well  as  of  the 
ignorance  and  sloth  of  the  sovereigns  of  the  first  and  second  races,  had 
in  the  first  place  contrived  to  render  their  offices  irrevocable,  after 
the  example  of  holders  of  benefices;  then  they  transmitted  them  to 
their  sons.  But  no  law  sanctioned  this  right  of  inheritance.  Charles 
the  Bald,  by  legalizing  it,  dealt  the  last  blow  to  the  authority  of  the 
sovereigns.  This  act  of  his  reign  has  been  bitterly  reproved  by  most 
historians,  but  in  accomplishing  it,  it  is  certain  that  he  only  yielded 
to  circumstances,  and  involuntarily  consummated  a  sacrifice  which  his 
situation  imposed  on  him.  Henceforth,  it  was  not  the  king  who  chose 
the  counts,  but  the  counts  disposed  of  the  throne.  The  dismember- 
ment of  the  Empire  was  rapidly  effected,  and  a  new  order  of  things, 
the  feudal  system,  was  the  consequence  of  this  edict — the  last 
mportant  act  of  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Bald,  who  died  in  the 
same  year  (877)  at  a  village  on  Mount  Cenis. 

The  last  descendants  of  Charlemagne  nearly  all  proved  themselves, 
in  weakness  and  nullity,  the  rivals  of  the  last  Merovingians.  Louis  II., 
called  the  Stammerer,*  and  successor  of  Charles  the  Bald  in  Italy 
and  Gaul,  lost  in  turn,  through  revolts,  Italy,  Brittany,  Lorraine,  and 
Gascony.  He  recognized  the  fact  that  he  only  owed  his  title  to  the 
election  of  the  lords,  bishops,  and  peoples.  He  allowed  the  nobles 
to  fortify  their  mansions  ;  and  during  his  two  years'  reign,  Pope 
John  VIII.,  expelled  from  Italy,  came  into  France,  and  governed 
the  kingdom. 

Louis  the  Stammerer  left  three  sons,  Louis,  Carloman,  and  Charles. 
The  first  two  were  recognized  as  kings  in  879  ;  the  elder,  Louis  III., 
reigned  over  the  north  of  France,  and  Carloman  over  the  south. 
These  two  princes  lived  on  good  terms  ;  but  during  their  reign  the 
Normans  committed  frightful  ravages.  At  the  same  period,  Duke 
Boson,  brother-in-law  of  Charles  the  Bald,  seized  on  Provence,  which 
was  also  called  Cis-peran  Burgundy,  of  which  country  he  was  pro- 
claimed king  by  an  assembly  of  bishops. 

Louis  and  Carloman  both  died  very  young,  the  first  in  882,  in  an 
expedition  against  the  Normans  ;  the  second  in   884,  while  hunting. 

*  This  Louis  II.,  King  of  France  and  son  of  Charles  the  Bald,  must  not  he  confounded 
with  the  Emperor  Louis  II.,  called  the  Young,  and  son  of  Lothair. 

I 


) 

/ 

; 

\ 

\ 

114      DEATH    OP   LOUIS   TO    THAT   OF   CHARLES   THE    FAT.      [Book  II.  Chap.  II. 

Neither  left  any  male  descent,  but  they  had  a  younger  brother  of  the 
name  of  Charles,  a  posthumous  son  of  Louis  the  Stammerer,  and  issue 
of  a  second  marriage.  The  crown  devolved,  by  hereditary  right,  on 
this  boy,  who  was  only  five  years  of  age  at  the  death  of  his  brother. 
His  youth  caused  him  to  be  excluded  from  the  throne  by  the  nobles, 
who  elected  in  his  stead  as  king  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fat,  son  of 
Louis  the  German.  This  prince,  by  the  death  of  his  two  brothers, 
and  the  three  sons  of  Lothair,  his  cousins,  had  inherited  Germany  and 
Italy :  he  joined  Gaul  to  them,  and  the  Empire  of  Charlemagne  was 
momentarily  re-established  in  his  hand.  But  the  hand  was  an  unworthy 
one.  Charles  the  Fat  was  only  nominally  emperor  and  king  ;  and  is 
only  known  by  the  lustre  shed  by  the  crown  of  Charlemagne,  imbe- 
cility, cowardice,  and  misfortunes.  The  Normans  braved  him,  and 
carried  on  their  daring  inroads  under  his  eyes.  Paris  sustained  a 
memorable  siege  against  them,  in  which  Eudes,  Count  of  Paris,  and 
Robert  distinguished  themselves;  both  sons  of  the  famous  Robert 
the  Strong,  killed  twenty  years  previously,  while  fighting  the  same 
enemies.  Their  valour  and  the  heroic  efforts  of  Goslin,  Bishop  of 
Paris,  ensured  the  safety  of  the  city,  while  Charles  the  Fat,  at  the 
head  of  an  army  assembled  to  save  his  people,  made  a  cowardly  com- 
position with  the  foreigners,  and  allowed  them  to  pillage  his  richest 
provinces.  A  cry  of  indignation  was  raised  against  him  on  all  sides. 
He  was  deposed  at  the  Diet  of  Tribur  in  888,  and  died  the  same  year 
in  indigence,  deserted  by  all  his  friends. # 

*  Historians  have  not  counted  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fat  in  the  list  of  sovereigns 
of  the  name  of  Charles  who  reigned  in  Graul,  because  they  have  regarded  his  reign  as  a 
usurpation.  In  their  eyes  the  legitimate  king  was  young  Charles,  son  of  Louis  the 
Stammerer,  who  was  elected  at  a  later  date. 


888-987]  GATJL  DIVIDED.  115 


CHAPTER   III. 

FROM    THE    DEATH    OF    CHARLES    THE    FAT    TO    THE    EXPULSION    OF    THE 

CARLOYINGIAN    DYNASTY. 

888-987. 
I. 

GAUL   DIVIDED  BETWEEN  THE    RACE    OF    CHARLEMAGNE  AND    THAT    OF   ROBERT 
THE    STRONG,  UP   TO    THE    ACCESSION    OF    LOUIS    IY. 

888-936. 

The  definitive  partition,  which  irrevocably  completed  the  dismember- 
ment of  the  Empire,  took  place  on  the  death  of  Charles  the  Fat. 
Italy  became  a  separate  kingdom  :  all  the  country  comprised  between 
the  Fancelles  Mountains  (a  transverse  chain  of  the  Vosges),  the  sources 
of  the  Rhine,  and  the  Pennine  Alps,  formed,  under  the  name  of  Upper 
or  Trans-peran  Burgundy,  a  new  kingdom,  of  which  Rodolph  Wolf 
was  the  founder.  Prior  to  this,  Boson,  brother-in-law  of  Charles  the 
Bald,  had  assumed  the  title  of  King  of  Provence,  or  Cis-peran  Bur- 
gundy. This  kingdom  has  as  its  limits  the  Jura,  the  Alps,  the 
Mediterranean,  the  Saone,  and  the  Cevennes.*  Lotharingia,  or  Lor- 
raine, was  restricted  between  the  Fancelles  Mountains,  the  Scheldt,  the 
Rhine,  and  the  German  Ocean.     Aquitainef  extended  to  the  Pyrenees, 

*  The  kingdoms  of  Trans-peran  and  Cis-peran  Burgundy  were  entirely  distinct  from 
the  part  of  old  Burgundy  situated  between  the  Saone  and  the  Loire,  and  which  received 
and  retained  the  name  of  Duchy  of  Burgundy.  In  933  these  two  kingdoms  were 
formed  into  one,  which  took  the  name  of  the  Kingdom  of  Aries. 

+  Carloman,  son  of  Louis  the  Stammerer,  was  the  last  of  the  Carlovingians  who  bore 
the  title  of  King  of  Aquitaine.  This  vast  state  ceased  from  this  time  to  constitute  a 
kingdom.  It  had  for  a  lengthened  period  "been  divided  between  powerful  families,  tLe 
most  illustrious  of  which  are  those  of  the  Counts  of  Toulouse,- founded  in  the  ninth 
century  by  Fredelon,  the  Counts  of  Poitiers,  the  Counts  of  Auvergne,  the  Marquises  of 
Septimania  or  Gothia,  and  the  Dukes  of  Gascony.     King  Eudes  had  given  William  the 

I   2 


116  GAUL    DIVIDED.  [BOOK  II.  Chap.  III. 

and  the  greater  part  of  the  territory  enclosed  between  these  divers 
states  and  Brittany  henceforth  retained  the  name  of  France.  Abont 
the  same  period,  the  Counts  of  Vermandois  extended  their  power  to 
the  north,  while  the  powerful  houses  of  Poitiers]  and  Toulouse  sprang 
up  in  Aquitaine,  and  opposed  a  barrier  to  the  incursions  of  the 
Saracens.  From  this  last  dismemberment  of  the  Empire  of  the 
Franks  dates  the  historic  existence  of  the  French  nation.  On  the 
deposition  of  Charles  the  Fat,  young  Charles,  third  son  of  Louis 
the  Stammerer,  was  only  eight  years  old :  his  age  was  a  second  time 
the  cause  of  his  exclusion,  and  the  nobles,  alarmed  by  a  new  invasion 
of  the  Normans,  preferred  to  him  Budes,  Count  of  Paris,  son  of 
Hobert  the  Strong  ;  not  through  any  desire  to  desert  the  cause  of 
France,  a  contemporary  historian  tells  us,  but  through  impatience  to 
march  against  the  enemy.  Eudes  was  already  celebrated  by  his 
defence  of  Paris  against  the  Normans :  he  was  elected  king  in  888. 

With  the  reign  of  Eudes  commenced  a  long  series  of  civil  wars, 
which  was  terminated  at  the  end  of  a  century  by  the  definitive  exclu- 
sion of  the  Carlovingian  race.  This  prince  always  had  arms  in  hand, 
either  against  the  lords  of  Aquitaine,  who  tried  to  render  themselves 
independent,  or  against  Charles,  his  youthful  rival,  who  was  supported 
by  Arnolph,  King  of  Germany.  Eudes  eventually  ceded  to  him 
several  provinces,  and  he  was  about  to  recognize  him  as  his  successor 
when  he  died  in  898.  Charles  III.  was  then  proclaimed  King  of 
France,  and  is  known  by  the  souhriqiiet  of  Charles  the  Simple  ;*  and 
history,  which  is  silent  as  to  the  majority  of  events  in  his  reign  of 
twenty-five  years,  has  handed  down  to  us,  with  his  surname,  the 
recollection  of  his  incapacity.  The  most  celebrated  act  of  his  life 
was  the  cession  made  by  Charles  in  912  of  the  territory  afterwards 
called  Normandy,  to  a  formidable  Norman  chief,  who  had  been  dis- 
inherited by  his  father,  and  banished  from  Norway,  his  native  land. 

Pious,  Count  of  Auvergne,  the  investiture  of  the  duchy  of  Aquitaine.  On  the  extinction 
'  of  that  family  in  928,  the  Counts  of  Toulouse  and  those  of  Poitou  disputed  the  preroga- 
\aispes,  and  their  quarrel  stained  the  south  with  blood  for  a  long  time.     At  length  the 

Counts  of  Poitou   acquired  the  title  of  Dukes  of  Aquitaine  or  Guyenne,  which  remained 

in  their  house  up  to  the  marriage  of   Eleanor  of  Aquitaine  with  Henry  Plantagenet  I. 

King  of  England  (1151). 

*  The  Carlovingian  kings  of  the   name  of    Charles  come  in  the  following  order  : — 

Charles  I.,  or  Charlemagne;  Charles  II.,   or  the  Bald,  son  of  Louis  the  Debonnaire  ; 

Charles  III.,  or  the  Simple,  posthumous  son  of  Louis  the  Stammerer. 


88S-987J  GAUL   DIVIDED.  117 

This  chief,  who  had  previously  desolated  Gaul  by  perpetual  invasions, 
is  celebrated  in  history  by  the  name  of  Rollo,  and  was  the  first  Duke 
of  Normandy.  He  paid  homage  to  the  King,  was  converted  fco  Chris- 
tianity, and  divided  his  vast  territory  into  fiefs.  His  warriors,  whom 
he  kept  down  by  severe  laws,  became  the  fathers  of  a  great  people 
which  was  the  firmest  bulwark  of  France  against  the  invasions  of  the 
northern  races. 

Numerous  revolts  troubled  the  end  of  this  reign.  For  sixty  years 
the  French  were  divided  between  two  families  of  sovereigns,  that  of 
Charlemagne  and  that  of  King  Eudes.  The  nobles  reproached 
Charles  with  giving  all  his  favour  to  his  minister  Haganon,  whom  he 
had  raised  from  an  obscure  rank  to  place  him  over  them,  and  who  at 
times  carried  his  familiarity  so  far  as  to  take  off  the  King's  hat  and 
place  it  on  his  own  head.  The  chief  of  the  malcontents  was  the 
brother  of  King  Eudes,  Robert,  Duke  of  France,*  who  repented  thai 
he  had  not  disputed  the  succession  to  his  brother  with  Charles  the 
Simple.  This  Duke  formed  a  league  against  Haganon :  then  he  told 
the  King  that  he  would  not  suffer  an  unworthy  favourite  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  the  nobles  of  the  kingdom,  and  that,  unless  Charles  sent 
him  back  to  his  original  position,  he  would  hang  him  without  mercy. 
The  King  despised  this  menace.  Robert  then  decreed  his  deposition 
with  the  nobles  of  the  land,  and  assured  himself  of  the  adherence  of 
the  King  of  Germany,  Henry  the  Fowler :  he  then  entered  Soissons 
with  a  band  of  conspirators,  penetrated  to  the  prince's  apartments, 
and  made  him  a  prisoner.  On  hearing  of  this,  Herve,  Archbishop  of 
Reims,  faithful  to  the  cause  of  Charles,  armed  his  vassals,  entered 
Soissons  at  their  head,  broke  open  the  palace  gates,  reached  the  King, 
dispersed  his  guardians,  and,  taking  the  hand  of  the  unfortunate 
prince,  said  to  him,  "  Come,  my  king,  and  command  thy  servants," 
He  took  him  away  at  once,  and  conducted  him  to  Reims.  Charles 
the  Simple,  thus  delivered  by  the  Archbishop,  retired  to  the  heart  of 
Belgian  Gaul,-}-  the  cradle  of  his  family,  and  took  up  his  residence  in 

*  This  duchy,  which,  it  is  said,  was  conceded  in  861  to  Robert  the  Strong  by  Charles 
the  Bald,  comprised,  in  addition  to  the  counties  of  Paris  and  Orleans,  the  Gfallicois,  the 
Chartrans,  the  Blaisois,  Perche,  Anjou,  Touraine,  Maine,  and  Beauvoisis. 

•f  This  was  the  name  given  in  the  tenth  century  to  the  greater  portion  of  the  kiDgdora 
of  Lorraine. 


.118  GAUL    DIVIDED.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  III. 

the  city  of  Tongres.  But  his  reign  was  at  an  end :  his  deposition  was 
pronounced  by  the  nobles  at  an  assembly  held  at  Soissons  in  920,  and 
Robert  was  elected  king,  and  consecrated  at  the  Church  of  St.  Remi, 
in  Reims  (922).  Charles  called  his  partizans  around  him.  He 
interested  the  Belgians  or  Lorraines  in  his  misfortunes :  he  marched 
at  their  head  to  meet  his  rival,  and  his  army  encountered  that  of 
Robert,  near  the  old  royal  residence  of  Attigny,  in  Champagne. 
Jlere  a  sanguinary  action  was  fought,  in  which  King  Robert  was 
killed,  while  fighting.  Charles  was  flying  when  he  heard  of  Robert's 
death,  but  he  did  not  take  advantage  of  this  circumstance  to  secure 
the  crown  on  his  own  head  ;  and  not  daring  to  trust  to  his  subjects,  he 
returned  with  his  army  to  Lorraine. 

Robert,  Duke  of  France,  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  the  celebrated 
Hugues  the  Great,  or  the  "White,  who  made  kings  and  would  not  be 
one  himself.  This  powerful  lord  had  the  deposition  of  Charles  the 
Simple  confirmed,  and  decreed  the  crown  to  his  brother-in-law,  Raoul, 
or  Rodolph,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  father-in-law  of  King  Robert, 
who  accepted  the  crown  against  his  wish.  Charles  the  Simple  was 
then  drawn  into  a  snare  by  Herbert,  Count  of  Vermandois,  who  seized 
him  and  retained  him  a  prisoner  at  Peronne. 

Raoul,  elected  in  923,  reigned  for  eleven  years.  He  had  to  contend 
against  the  Normans,  whom  he  repulsed,  and  against  the  perfidious 
Herbert,  who,  master  of  the  person  of  King  Charles,  wished  to  domi- 
neer over  King  Raoul,  and  placed  no  bounds  on  his  demands.  He 
asked  for  the  county  of  Leon,  and  when  it  was  refused  him,  he  set 
Charles  at  liberty  again.  But  soon  after  he  again  sought  the  favour  of 
Hugues  the  Great,  who  had  crowned  Raoul ;  and  on  becoming  recon- 
ciled with  him  imprisoned  the  unfortunate  Charles  for  the  second  time. 
Raoul,  however,  moved  by  a  feeling  of  equity,  the  chronicler  says,  or 
by  compassion,  went  to  visit  the  captured  king,  and  begged  him  to 
pardon  him.  He  did  not  restore  to  him  the  supreme  authority ;  but  he 
gave  him  back,  with  his  liberty,  the  royal  residences  of  Ponthiou  and 
Attigny.  Charles  the  Simple  languished  for  some  time,  and  died  in 
929,  crushed  by  sorrow  and  illness. 

Raoul  reigned  for  seven  years  longer,  and  the  close  of  his  reign  was 
troubled  by  a  bloody  war,  which  Hugues  the  White,  Duke  of  France, 
waged  against  the  Count  of  Vermandois  and  the  Duke  of  Lorraine. 


888-987]  GAUL    DIVIDED.  119 

The  King  of  France,  suzerain  of  Hugues,  and  lie  of  Germany,  Henry 
the  Fowler,  suzerain  of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  were  drawn  into  this 
war,  and  appeared  more  like  allies  of  their  vassals  than  as  sove- 
reigns. 

Germany  and  Gaul  were  a  prey  to  frightful  calamities :  foreign 
invasion  added  its  scourge  to  those  of  intestine  dissensions,  and  the 
Hungarians  ravaged  Germany.  These  ferocious  hordes,  vanquished  in 
933  by  Henry  the  Fowler  in  the  celebrated  battle  of  Merseburg, 
returned  two  years  later,  crossed  Germany,  and  penetrated  into  Bur- 
gundy. King  R-aoul  marched  to  meet  them.  At  the  rumour  of  his 
approach  the  Hungarians  evacuated  Burgundy  and  fell  back  on  Italy. 
Raoul  died  the  following  year.  He  left  no  sons  to  succeed  him  on  the 
throne,  which  no  member  of  his  family  inherited.  His  duchy  of  Bur- 
gundy, the  real  seat  of  his  power,  did  not  pass  in  its  entirety  to  his 
natural  heirs.  Hugues  the  Black,  his  brother,  only  obtained  a  part  of 
it ;  his  brother-in-law,  Hugues  the  Great,  Count  of  Paris,  took  advan- 
tage of  a  civil  war  to  seize  the  larger  portion  of  it.  This  powerful 
noble,  son  of  King  Robert,  nephew  of  King  Eudes,  and  brother-in-law 
of  the  last  King  Baoul,  governed,  as  Duke  of  France,  all  the  countries 
situated  between  Normandy  and  Brittany  in  the  west,  the  Loire  in  the 
south,  and  the  Meuse  in  the  north.  He  owed  the  name  of  Great  rather 
to  the  vast  extent  of  his  states  than  to  his  personal  merit ;  and  he 
surpassed  so  greatly  in  power  all  the  lords  of  Gaul  that  he  only 
required  to  stretch  out  his  hand  to  the  crown  in  order  to  ensure  the 
possession  of  it.  "But,"  writes  the  author  who  appears  to  us  to  have 
judged  the  situation  most  correctly,  "  Hugues  seems  to  have  considered 
the  power  of  an  hereditary  lord  in  his  fief  as  far  more  satisfactory  to 
ambition  than  the  prerogatives  of  an  elective  king  among  independent 
vassals.  He  had  already  extended  considerably  the  inheritance  of  his 
family,  and  intended  to  extend  it  further.  But  he  wished  to  give  all 
his  usurpations  the  sanction  of  the  royal  authority,  and  he  judged 
that  they  would  be  far  more  respected  if  he  placed  between  the  other 
vassals  and  himself  the  name  of  a  legitimate  king,  whose  master  he 
would  be,  than  if  he  ran  the  risk  of  seeing  the  acquisitions  he  had 
made  contested,  as  well  as  his  own  title  to  the  crown.  All  the  nobles 
of  the  south  of  Gaul  and  Aquitaine  had  wished,  in  the  last  wars,  to 


120  GAUL  UNDER   THE    LAST    CARLOVINGIANS.  [Book  II.  ChAP.  IIL 

remain  faithful  to  the  blood  of  Charlemagne ;  and  Hugues  calculated 
on  governing  them  in  the  name  of  a  descendant  of  that  Emperor."* 

Hugues  the  Great,  therefore,  thought  of  Louis,  son  of  Charles  the 
Simple.  This  young  prince,  who  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  was  living 
at  the  time  in  England  privately  with  his  mother,  the  sister  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  King  Athelstane,  and  he  owed  to  this  circumstance  the 
surname  of  Louis  d*  Outre-Mer,  or  from  across  the  sea.  Hugues 
gave  him  the  crown  by  agreement  with  William  Longsword,  second 
Duke  of  Normandy,  and  with  the  lords  of  old  Neustria  and  Aqui- 
taine.  A  solemn  embassy  conveyed  their  wishes  to  the  court  of 
the  King  his  master,  inviting  him  to  come  and  reign  in  France.  Louis 
accepted  the  crown,  and  was  consecrated  at  Reims  in  the  year  936,  at 
the  same  period  when  Otho  the  Great,  of  the  House  of  Saxony,  suc- 
ceeded Henry  the  Fowler,  his  "father,  on  the  imperial  throne  of 
Germany. 

II. 

GAUL    UNDER   THE    LAST    CARLOVINGIANS  :    LOUIS    IV.,    CALLED    D?OUTRE-MER, 
LOTHAIRE,    AND    LOUIS    V.,    CALLED    THE    SLOTHFUL. 

The  royal  domain  was  at  this  period  limited  to  the  county  of  Laon. 
■  There  alone  Louis  TV.  reigned  de  facto  as  well  as  nominally ;  every- 
where else  in  Gaul  the  dukes  and  counts  were  more  sovereign  than 
the  king.  Hugues  the  Great,  while  doing  him  homage,  did  not  intend 
to  free  him  from  his  guardianship.  The  young  monarch  himself 
claimed  his  independence  :  he  had  the  soul  of  a  king,  if  he  had  not  the 
power ;  and  his  reign  was  a  stormy  and  perpetual  struggle. 

A  formidable  invasion  of  the  Hungarians  marked  its  opening.  A 
numerous  horde  of  this  savage  people  passed  through  the  kingdom 
and  back  again  like  a  devastating  torrent ;  and  this  scourge  suspended 
for  a  time  the  rupture  on  the  point  of  breaking  out  between  Louis  and 
his  powerful  vassal.  Hugues,  upon  seeing  the  King  escape  from  his 
influence,  made  a  close  league  with  several  lords  of  northern  Gaul,  and 
more  especially  with  William,  Duke  of  the  Normans,  Arnolph,  Count 

*  Sismondi,  Histoire  des  Frangaisy  Part  ii.  Cap.  iv. 


888-987]  GAUL   UNDER   THE    LAST    CARLO  VINGIANS.  121 

of  Flanders,  and  the  same  Herbert,  Count  of  Yermandois,  who  had 
for  so  long  a  period  kept  Charles  the  Simple  prisoner. 

The  Lorrainers,  at  this  period,  had  revolted  against  the  Emperor 
Otho  the  Great,  King  of  Germany,  their  suzerain,  and  transferred 
their  homage  to  Lonis  d'Outre-Mer,  who  accepted  it.  A  war  broke  out 
between  the  two  kings ;  and  in  this  struggle  the  confederate  nobles, 
vassals  of  Louis,  allied  themselves  against  him  with  the  King  of 
Germany,  whom  they  proclaimed  King  of  the  Gauls  at  Attigny.  Otho 
did  not  retain  this  title ;  but  he  recovered  Lorraine  and  made  peace 
with  Louis,  the  husband  of  his  sister  Gerberge,*  a  princess  of  rare 
merit,  who  eventually  employed  her  influence  with  success  to  maintain 
friendly  terms  between  her  husband  and  brother.  The  struggle  of 
Louis  against  the  rebel  lords  was  prolonged  for  two  years  more,  and 
was  ended  by  the  intervention  of  Pope  Asapete  and  the  Emperor  Otho. 
The  latter  reconciled  Hugues  the  Great  with  the  King. 

The  kingdom  was  agitated  at  this  period  by  a  famous  quarrel 
between  two  priests,  who  disputed  the  archiepis copal  see  of  Reims. 
One  was  Hugues  of  Yermandois,  son  of  Count  Herbert,  who  was  con- 
secrated almost  on  leaving  the  cradle,  and  protected  by  the  Count  of 
Paris.  The  other,  elected  by  the  people,  and  a  partizan  of  the  King, 
was  the  Bishop  Artaud.  The  latter  was  for  a  time  expelled  from  his 
see,  and  Reims  liberated  itself  from  the  royal  authority.  This  quarrel 
was  prolonged  during  the  entire  reign  of  Louis  d'Outre-Mer.  It  occu- 
pies a  considerable  place  in  the  annals  of  the  epoch ;  and  in  order  to 
understand  its  importance  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  bishops  were, 
in  Gaul  during  the  tenth  century,  the  real  masters  of  the  cities  in 
which  they  had  their  sees,  and  that  a  town  at  that  time  was  frequently 
a  state,  and  sometimes  almost  a  kingdom. 

In  these  barbarous  times  the  violence  of  the  nobles  did  not  stop  at 
assassination,  and  the  law  was  impotent  against  the  abuses  of  brute 
force.  The  prince  who,  next  to  Hugues  the  Great,  was  the  most  for- 
midable vassal  of  the  crown,  William  Longsword,  Duke  of  Normandy, 
himself  fell  the  victim  of  an  odious  snare.  He  was  cowardly  murdered 
by  the  emissaries  of  Arnolph,  Count  of  Planders,  and  the  murderer, 


*  Hugues  the  Great,  Count  of  Paris  and  Duke  of  France,  had  married  another  sister 
of  the  Emperor  Otho,  of  the  name  of  Hedwig. 


122  GAUL    UNDER   THE    LAST    CARLOYINGIANS.        [BOOK  II.  Chap.  Ill; 

whom  the  royal  justice  could  not  reach,  remained  unpunished.*  The 
conduct  of  Louis  d'Outre-Mer  was  not  at  all  loyal  in  this  affair.  The 
Normans  had  recognized  as  William's  successor  a  natural  son  of  that 
prince,  the  youthful  Richard,  ten  years  of  age,  who  was  afterwards 
surnamed  the  Fearless.  Louis  hastened  to  confirm  him  in  the  honours 
and  privileges  of  the  ducal  rank,  and  then  asked  and  obtained  that  the 
boy  should  be  entrusted  to  him  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  at  his 
court  an  education  worthy  of  his  fortunes.  Master'of  his  person,  Louis, 
in  agreement  with  Hugues  the  Great,  thought  of  depriving  him  of  his 
duchy.  They  hoped  to  divide  Normandy  between  them,  and  made  an 
alliance  for  that  purpose.  These  culpable  hopes  were  foiled.  Osmond, 
governor  of  the  prince,  escaped  the  surveillance  of  his  keepers  by  a 
stratagem.  He  concealed  Richard  in  a  truss  of  hay,  placed  him  thus 
on  his  horse,  and,  starting  at  a  gallop,  reached  during  the  night  the 
castle  of  Coucy,  where  he  placed  the  prince  in  surety.  Louis, 
when  he  found  Richard  was  at  liberty,  openly  renounced  the  idea  of 
despoiling  him,  and  Hugues,  having  nothing  further  to  hope  from  the 
King's  alliance,  became  his  enemy  again. 

Louis,  in  his  turn,  became  the  victim  of  a  trick  on  the  part  of  the 
Normans.  Receiving  an  invitation  from  them,  he  proceeded  to  Rouen, 
and  the  reception  they  gave  him  completely  deceived  him.  The  city 
of  Bayeux  had  at  the  time  as  governor  an  ex-Danish  king  of  the  name 
of  Harold,  who  had  been  expelled  from  his  states  by  his  son.  This 
Harold  requested  a  conference  of  King  Louis,  who  went  unsuspect- 
ingly with  a  small  suite  to  meet  him  at  the  ford  of  Herluin.  Here,  at 
a  signal  from  the  Norman  chief,  an  armed  band  suddenly  fell  on  the 
royal  escort,  dispersed,  and  put  it  to  flight.  The  King's  squire  was 
killed  in  defending  him  ;  and  Louis,  carried  across  country  by  a  swift 
horse,  re-entered  the  walls  of  Rouen  alone,  where,  instead  of  a  refuge? 
he  found  a  prison.  The  inhabitants,  who  were  accomplices  in  Harold's 
perfidy,  seized  the  King's  person,  and  made  him  a  prisoner.  The 
Count  of  Paris  pretended  to  take  an  interest  in  the  fate  of  the  captive 
monarch.  He  interfered  in  his  favour,  and  demanded  as  hostages  his 
two  sons  of  Grerberge,  their  mother.  Grerberge  would  only  give  one. 
Hugues  induced  the  Normans  to  accept  him  in  exchange  for  King 

*  Richer  gives  us  to  understand  that  Hugues  the  Great,  and  even  the  Emperor  Otho, 
were  the  instigators  of  this  murder. 


-888-987]  GAUL    UNDER    THE    LAST    CARLOYINGIANF.  123 

Louis,  and  the  latter  was  delivered  over  by  tliem  into  his  hands. 
Hugues  then  threw  off  the  mask,  and,  having  the  King  in  his  power, 
he  broke  his  word,  kept  him  captive,  and  repulsed  the  powerful  inter- 
vention of  Edmund,  King  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  in  favour  of  his 
nephew.*  Hugues  unworthily  abused  his  advantage;  he  overwhelmed 
the  unhappy  prince  with  reproaches,  and  forced  him  to  surrender  Laon, 
his  finest  city,  as  his  ransom. 

Delivered,  at  this  price,  the  King  proceeded  to  Compiegne,  where  his 
wife  Gerberge,  celebrated  for  her  virtues,  was  awaiting  him,  and 
several  bishops  and  a  few  faithful  friends  were  assembled.  Then  he 
could  no  longer  restrain  his  grief.  "  Hugues,  Hugues  !  "  he  exclaimed, 
u  what  property  hast  thou  robbed  me  of;  how  many  evils  hast  thou 
done  to  me !  Thou  hast  seized  on  the  city  of  Reims  ;  thou  hast 
defrauded  me  of  Laon.  In  those  two  cities  I  met  with  a  good  recep- 
tion, and  they  were  my  sole  ramparts.  My  captive  father  was 
delivered  by  death  from  misfortunes  like  those  by  which  I  am  crushed  ; 
and  I,  reduced  to  the  same  extremities,  can  only  recall  to  mind  the 
appearance  of  the  royalty  of  my  ancestors.  I  feel  a  regret  at  living, 
and  I  am  not  allowed  to  die  !"f  Louis,  in  his  distress,  implored  and 
obtained  the  assistance  of  his  brother-in-law,  the  Emperor  Otho  the 
Great,  King  of  Germany,  and  of  Conrad  the  Pacific,  King  of  Trans- 
peran  Burgundy  and  Provence.  With  the  assistance  of  their  armies, 
he  recaptured  the  city  of  Reims,  where  he  re-established  Archbishop 
Artaud  in  the  archiepiscopal  see.  Then  he  invested  the  city  of  Laon, 
and  seized  it  by  surprise. 

A  council,  at  which  appeared  the  Kings  of  France  and  Germany, 
assembled  at  Ingelheim,  under  the  protection  of  the  imperial  armies. 
The  principal  object  of  the  meeting  was,  on  the  one  hand  to  suspend 
the  hostilities  of  Count  Hugues  against  the  King,  and,  on  the  other,  to 
settle  the  too  famous  dispute  between  Bishop  Artaud  and  his  compe- 
titor. The  latter  was  deposed,  and  Pope  Asapete  confirmed  this 
decision.  The  council  prohibited  Hugues  from  henceforth  taking  up 
arms  against  his  lord  the  King  ;  and  the  Count,  refusing  to  obey,  was 
excommunicated. 

*  Louis  d'Outre-Mer's  mother  was  sister  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Kings  Athelstane  and 
Edmund*. 

f  Richer,  Histoire  de  son  Temps. 


124  GAUL   UNDER   THE    LAST    CARLO  VINGIANS.        [BoOK  II.  CHAP.  III. 

The  anathema  of  the  Church,  far  from  disarming  this  powerful 
vassal,  rendered  him  more  violent  and  formidable.  Joining  the 
Normans,  he  ravaged  the  lands  of  King  Louis,  fired  his  castles,  and 
carried  pillage  and  murder  into  his  towns.  Louis  continued  the 
contest  with  more  courage  than  success.  At  length,  recognizing  his 
powerlessness,  he  applied  to  the  Pope,  King  Otho,  and  the  bishops  to 
effect  a  reconciliation  between  him  and  Hugues.  They  obtained  the 
signature  of  a  truce.  Hugues  once  again  recognized  the  royal 
authority,  and  swore  fidelity.  Louis  d'Outre-Mer  did  not  long  enjoy 
the  repose  which  this  peace  seemed  to  promise  him.  He  saw 
several  parts  of  Romanic  France,  among  others  the  Yermandois, 
the  diocese  of  Reims,  and  Laon,  ravaged  by  the  Hungarians,  and 
survived  the  invasion  of  these  barbarians  but  a  short  time.  While 
proceeding  from  Laon  to  Reims,  a  wolf  crossed  his  road.  The  King 
dashed  in  pursuit,  but  his  horse  fell,  and  he  was  mortally  wounded. 
He  died  at  the  age  of  33,  in  September,  954,  esteemed  for  his  valour 
and  talents,  which,  under  other  circumstances,  would  have  sufficed  to 
keep  the  crown  on  his  head.  The  race  of  Charlemagne  displayed  its 
last  lustre  in  the  person  of  Louis  d'Outre-Mer  :  so  long  as  he  lived, 
there  was  still  a  king  in  France,  although  there  was  no  kingdom 
left. 

Louis  IV.  left  two  sons,  of  youthful  years,  Lothaire  and  Charles. 
Their  mother,  Gerberge,  sister  of  Otho  the  Great,  King  of  Germany, 
understood  that  without  the  assistance  of  the  Count  of  Paris  the 
throne  would  slip  from  her  family.  She,  therefore,  asked  his  support ; 
and  the  same  motives  which  had  induced  Hugues  to  crown  the  father 
determined  him  also  to  crown  the  son,  from  whom  he  expected  greater 
"docility.  Lothaire,  elder  son  of  Louis  d'Outre-Mer,  was,  therefore, 
proclaimed  king  at  Reims  at  the  close  of  954,  under  the  protection  of 
Hugues  the  Great ;  and  he  recognized  this  service  by  adding  to  the 
possessions  of  Hugues  the  duchy  of  Aquitaine,  with  which  he 
invested  him,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  orphan  children  of  Raymond 
Pons,  Count  of  Toulouse,  whom  he  despoiled  of  their  father's  heritage. 
Hugues  at  once  led  an  army  into  Aquitaine ;  and,  after  an  unsuccessful 
expedition,  he  was  preparing  a  second,  when  death  surprised  him  at 
the  Castle  of  Bourdon,  on  the  Orge  (956).  During  his  lifetime,  there 
was  no  other  power  in  Gaul  comparable  to  his  j  he  employed  it  with- 


888-987]  GAUL    UNDER    THE    LAST    CARLOVINGIANS.  125 

out  moderation,  but  not  without  prudence.  He  was  the  real  founder  of 
the  grandeur  of  his  family,  but  he  did  not  attach  his  name  to  any 
useful  and  really  glorious  work  ;  and,  if  he  opened  for  his  son  the 
road  to  the  throne  on  which  his  father  and  uncle  had  already  sat,  he 
also^contributed  to  dishonour  royalty,  hj  teaching  the  nobles,  through 
his  own  example,  how  to  brave  and  oppress  those  whom  they  had 
crowned. 

Hugues  the  Great  left  the  duchy  of  France  and  the  county  of 
Paris  to  his  son  Hugues,  who  was  afterwards  named  Capet.*  Henry, 
his  second  son,  inherited  the  duchy  of  Burgundy.  Both  were  children 
a,t  their  father's  death.  Hugues,  the  elder,  was  hardly  ten  years  of 
age.  Their  mother  Hedwig,  and  Queen  Gerberge,  mother  and  guardian 
of  the  young  King  Lothaire,  were  sisters  ;  their  brother  was  Otho, 
King  of  Germany,  and  they  placed  their  children  under  his  protection. 

This  prince,  of  the  House  of  Saxony,  was,  at  that  period,  the  most 
illustrious  and  powerful  prince  in  Europe.  He  had  conquered  Italy 
from  King  Beranger  II.,  and  he  received  the  imperial  crown  from 
the  hands  of  the  Pope,  as  Charlemagne  had  done.  Through  his  great 
qualities  and  victories,  he  restored  all  its  vigour  to  the  Germanic 
monarchy.  His  alliances  added  to  his  greatness,  and  gave  him  an 
influence  over  the  greater  part  of  Western  Europe.  Saint  Bruno,  his 
brother,  governed  Lorraine  :f  his  brother-in-law,  Conrad  the  Pacific, 
reigned  in  Trans-peran  Burgundy  and  Provence :  lastly,  his  sisters,  one 
Queen,  the  other  Duchess  of  France,  received  advice  and  instruction 
from  him.  His  fortune  and  genius  brought  together  the  scattered 
members  of  the  old  Empire,  and  the  latter  appeared  to  be  born  again 
in  his  hands.  This  great  monarch  died  in  973.  His  successor  was  his 
son,  Otho  II. ;  and  his  death  was  followed  by  sanguinary  disorders  in 
several  countries  which  he  had  kept  in  peace  or  subjection  by  the 
terror  of  his  arms  and  his  name. 

*  There  are  very  many  versions  of  the  etymology  of  this  surname,  which  became  the 
patronymic  of  the  third  race.  One  of  the  hest  accredited  is  that  which  derives  it  from 
chap ot us  (hood),  because  Hugues,  among  his  other  titles,  was  Abbot  of  St.  Martin 
of  Torss,  and  wore  the  insignia. 

T  Lotharingia,  or  Lorraine,  Lad  been  annexed  to  the  Grerman  crown  about  the  year  923, 
by  the  Emperor  Henry  L,  called  the  Fowler.  On  becoming  a  province  of  the  Empire, 
its  government  was  given  by  Otho  to  his  brother,  St.  Bruno,  Archbishop  of  Cologne. 
The  latter  divided  it  into  two  parts,  Upper  Lorraine,  in  the  Mosellaise,  and  Lower  Lor- 
raine :  the  latter  was  almost  entirely  formed  of  the  countryTwhich  is  at  the  present  day 
Belgium. 


126  GAUL    UNDER   THE    LAST    CARLOVTNGIANS.         [BOOK  II.  Chap.  III. 

The  bonds  of  blood  and  gratitude  attached  King  Lothaire  and 
Ungues  Capet,  Duke  of  France  and  Count  of  Paris,  to  the  Emperor 
Otho  II.,  son  of  the  great  man  who  had  protected  their  youth:  and 
both  formed  fresh  bonds  with  his  family  by  each  marrying  one  of  his 
sisters.  Still,  the  peace  between  the  two  kings  was  of  short  duration  : 
a  dispute  broke  out  on  the  subject  of  Belgian  Gaul  or  Lower  Lorraine, 
to  which  country  both  asserted  a  claim.  Lorraine,  divided  by  Otho 
the  Great  into  Upper  and  Lower  Lorraine,  and  annexed  to  the  German 
crown  by  his  predecessor,  Henry  the  Fowler,  had  since  been  con- 
sidered a  province  of  the  Empire.  Charles,  brother  of  King  Lothaire, 
had  inherited  a  few  fiefs  from  his  mother  ;  and  after  the  death  of 
Otho  the  Great,  he  claimed  them  with  arms  in  his  hand.  The 
Emperor  Otho  II.,  who  was  troubled  on  his  other  frontiers,  offered 
Charles  the  duchy  of  Lower  Lorraine,  to  be  held  by  him  as  a  fief  of  the 
Germanic  crown.  Charles  accepted  it,  and  Ofcho  believed  that  he  had 
satisfied  King  Lothaire  by  this  concession  :  but  the  latter,  on  learning 
the  following  year  that  the  Emperor  was  unsuspectingly  residing  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  formed  the  plan  of  surprising  him  there  ;  and  an 
expedition  was  unanimously  decided  on  against  the  King  of  Germany. 
The  army,  immediately  assembled,  was  marched  upon  the  Meuse,  and 
King  Otho  was  all  but  surprised  in^ his  capital.  Lothaire's  soldiers 
occupied  the  city  and  palace :  the  royal  tables  were  overthrown,  the 
imperial  insignia  removed,  and  the  bronze  eagle  which  Charlemagne 
had  placed  above  his  palace  with  outstretched  wings  and  turned  to 
the  west,  was  made  to  face  the  south-east,  as  a  symbol  of  the  preci- 
pitate flight  of  the  Germans.  Here  Lothaire's  success  stopped,  and 
he  led  back  his  army  without  obtaining  any  serious  advantage. 

Otho  II.  took  revenge  for  his  disgrace  :  he  invaded  Gaul  at  the 
head  of  a  formidable  army  of  Germans,  and,  ravaging  the  whole 
country  on  his  passage,  advanced  up  to  the  gates  of  Paris.  Here,  oil 
the  summit  of  Montmartre,  he  made  his  soldiers  strike  up  the  Canticle 
of  the  Martyrs,  so  as  to  be  heard  by  the  inhabitants,  and  Count  Hugues, 
who  defended  the  capital  against  him.  This  useless  bravado  was  the 
sole  satisfaction  which  the  King  of  Germany  obtained.  Despairing  of 
entering  Paris,  and  not  daring  to  remain  among  a  hostile  population, 
he  returned  to  his  states  ;  and  his  retreat,  which  was  disturbed  by 
Lothaire  and  Hugues,  was  asf-precipitate  as  his  attack  had  been. 

Lothaire  understood,  however,  that  there  was  greater  safety  for  him 


888-987]  GAUL    UNDER   THE    LAST    CARLOVINGIANS.  127 

in  the  alliance  of  the  King  of  Germany,  than  in  his  resentment :  he, 
therefore,  surrendered  to  him  his  claims  on  Lorraine,  and  they  were 
reconciled.  From  this  momenet  Hugues  Capet  and  Lothaire  became 
enemies.  But  Hngnes  soon  saw  all  the  dangers  with  which  the  union 
of  the  two  kings  threatened  him,  and  he  made  up  his  mind  to  divide 
them.  He  proceeded  secretly  to  King  Otho,  concluded  peace  with 
him,  and  on  his  return  passed  in  disguise  through  Lothaire's  posses- 
sions, contriving  to  escape  his  traps.  The  King  and  the  Duke 
employed  perfidious  machinations  against  each  other,  and  the  nations 
suffered  for  a  long  time  from  their  enmity.  At  length  recognizing 
their  impotence  to  destroy  each  other,  they  made  peace,  and  were 
ostensibly  reconciled. 

Lothaire,  during  his  lifetime,  shared  the  throne  with  his  son  Louis, 
who  was  scarce  thirteen  years  of  age.  This  young  prince  was  crowned 
in  978  at  Compiegne,  by  Adalberon,  Archbishop  of  Reims,  in  the 
presence  and  with  the  consent  of  Hugues  Capet  and  the  nobles  of  the 
kingdom.  Lothaire  attempted  to  secure  Aquitaine  for  his  son,  by 
giving  him  as  wife  Adelaide,  princess  of  Southern  Gaul,  and  widow 
of  Baymond,  Duke  of  Septimania.*  But  Louis  did  not  redeem  his 
dissipated  habits  by  any  royal  quality.  The  nobles  of  Aquitaine  did 
not  recognize  his  authority  :  his  wife  herself  deserted  him,  and  he  was 
in  a  perilous  situation,  when  King  Lothaire  entered  Aquitaine  at  the 
head  of  an  army,  and  brought  back  his  son. 

Otho  II.  died  at  this  period  (983)  at  Borne,  leaving  a  son  only  three 
years  of  age,  who  was  crowned  by  the  name  of  Otho  III.  Lothaire 
took  advantage  of  the  disorders  which  paralyzed  the  strength  of 
Germany  during  this  lad's  minority,  once  more  to  assert  his  rights 
over  Lorraine :  he  led  an  army  into  that  country,  besieged  and 
captured  Verdun.  On  returning  to  the  city  of  Laon,  he  was  medi- 
tating a  new  expedition  into  Lorraine,  when  he  fell  ill  and  expired 
(986),  in  the  forty-fifth  year  of  his  life,  and  the  thirty- third  of  his 
reign,  f 

Louis  "V.,  the  last  king  of  his  race,  merely  passed  over  the  throne. 
Comparing  his  weakness  with  the  power  of  his  vassal,  Hugues  Capet, 

^'Several  chronicles  state  that  Louis  espoused  a  princess  of  Southern  Gaul,  of  the 
name  of  Blanche,  who  eventually  poisoned  him.  We  have  followed  the  far  more  detailed 
version  of  Richer. 

+  We  are  told  in  several  chronicles  that  Lothaire  was  poisoned  by  Queen  Emma,  his 
wife,  who  was  guilty  of  adultery. 


128  GAUL    UNDER    THE    LAST    CAELOVINGIANS.  [Book  II.  Chap.  III. 

he  went  to  him,  and  said,  "  My  father,  when  dying,  recommended  me 
to  govern  the  kingdom  with  your  counsels  and  yonr  help.  He  assured 
me  that  with  your  assistance  I  should  possess  the  riches,  armies,  and 
strong  places  of  the  kingdom :  be  good  enough,  therefore,  to  give  me 
your  advice.  I  place  in  you  my  hopes,  my  will,  my  fortune."  The 
King  thus  appeared  himself  to  lay  his  crown  at  the  feet  of  his  vassal. 
Still,  the  historian  who  has  preserved  these  words  for  us,  adds  that 
the  Duke  allowed  himself  to  be  dragged  involuntarily  by  the  King  into 
a  war  against  Adalberon,  Archbishop  of  Reims,  to  whom  the  King 
imputed,  among  other  crimes,  that  of  having  facilitated  the  last 
invasion  of  Otho  II.  during  his  father's  lifetime,  and  having  assured 
his  safety '  and  that  of  the  Grermanic  army  by  assisting  him  in  his 
retreat.  The  King  and  Hugues  Capet,  therefore,  laid  siege  to  Reims, 
and  menaced  the  city  and  the  Bishop  with  the  severest  punishment, 
unless  the  latter  consented  to  purge  himself  publicly  from  the  accu- 
sations brought  against  him.  The  Metropolitan  promised  to  justify 
himself  and  appear  on  an  appointed  day ;  he  gave  hostages,  and  the 
siege  was  raised. 

Another  prelate,  of  the  name  of  Adalberon,  Bishop  of  Laon,  was, 
like  him  of  Reims,  exposed  to  persecutions  during  this  reign.  Accused 
by  the  public  clamour  of  adultery  with  Emma,  the  widow  of  Lothaire, 
he  was  expelled  from  his  see.  The  Queen  shared  his  disgrace,  and  both 
escaped  from  their  enemies  by  flight ;  but  they  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Charles,  brother  of  Lothaire,  Duke  of  Lower  Lorraine,  and  he  threw 
them  into  prison.  Hugues  Capet,  in  the  meanwhile,  was  secretly 
forming  engagements  to  the  family  reigning  in  Germany  ;  he  drew 
more  closely  the  bonds  attaching  him  to  Otho,  and  gained  over  to  his 
ambitious  views  the  Empress  Theophania,  guardian  of  the  youthful 
Otho  III. 

The  crisis  was  approaching.  Louis  "V.  had  a  fall  at  Senlis,  the 
consequences  of  which  were  mortal,  and  he  expired  only  one  year  after 
his  father's  death,  May  22,  987,  and  was  buried  at  Compiegne. 

The  nobles  of  the  kingdom,  after  being  present  at  the  King's 
funeral,  assembled  in  council  to  elect  his  successor.  Louis  had  left 
no  children  ;  but  his  uncle  Charles,  Duke  of  Lower  Lorraine,  was  his 
next  heir,  and  put  forward  his  claim  to  the  crown.  He  had  Hugues 
Capet  for  a  rival,  and  had  made  a  dangerous  enemy  of  the  Metro- 
politan, the  same  Archbishop  Adalberon  who,  exposed  to  the  wrath  of 


888-987]  GAUL   UNDER   THE   LAST   CARLOVINGIANS.  129 

the  late  king  had  promised  to  justify  himself  publicly  of  the  crimes 
imputed  to  him.  Adalberon  appeared  at  the  assembly  of  Compiegne. 
No  one  having  come  forward  to  support  the  accusation,  the  Bishop 
was  acquitted,  and  admitted  to  deliberate  on  the  affairs  of  the  State. 
Taking  his  place  among  the  nobles,  he  voted  for  the  election  being 
deferred  for  a  few  days,  and  convened  a  general  assembly  at  Senlis. 
According  to  the  testimony  of  Richer,  this  assembly  was  numerous 
and  imposing  :  at  it  were  present  Frank,  Breton,  Norman,  Aquitanian, 
Gothic,  Spanish,  and  Gascon  nobles.  The  Archbishop  of  Reims 
addressed  them.  "  Charles,"  he  said,  "has  his  partizans,  who  declare 
him  worthy  of  the  throne  by  the  right  which  his  parents  transmitted 
to  him ;  but  the  kingdom  is  not  acquired  by  hereditary  right,  and  no 
one  ought  to  be  raised  to  the  throne  except  a  man  who  is  not  only  of 
illustrious  birth,  but  possessing  wisdom  :  a  man  sustained  by  faith  and 
greatness  of  soul.  Are  these  qualities  to  be  found  in  this  Charles, 
who  is  not  governed  by  faith,  who  is  enervated  by  a  shameful  torpor, 
who  has  sunk  the  dignity  of  his  person  so  far  as  to  serve  without 
shame  a  foreign  king,  and  marry  a  wife  inferior  to  him,  drawn  from 
the  rank  of  simple  warriors  ?  *  How  could  the  grand  duke  suffer  a 
woman,  selected  from  among  his  knights,  to  become  queen,  and  domi- 
neer over  him.  If  you  desire  the  misfortune  of  the  state,  then  choose 
Charles  !  If  you  desire  its  welfare,  crown  the  excellent  Duke  Hugues. 
Choose  him,  and  you  will  find  we  have  a  protector,  not  only  of  the 
republic,  but  also  of  everybody's  interests."  Hugues  was  raised  to 
the  throne,  unanimously  crowned  at  Noyou,  on  June  1,  987,  by 
Adalberon,  and  recognized  as  king  by  the  different  nations  of  Gaul. 

*  If  Charles  had  been  very  powerful  of  himself  the  reproach  made  by  the  Archbishop 
would  have  been  valueless,  especially  in  the  mouth  of  an  enemy  ;  it  being  the  constant 
practice  of  lords  at  that  period  to  possess  simultaneously  fiefs  under  several  suzerains. 
But  Charles  had  no  personal  authority ;  the  desert  domain  he  inherited  in  France  from 
his  brother  only  consisted  of  a  few  towns  ;  he  derived  all  his  strength  from  his  fief,  and, 
as  Duke  of  Lower  Lorraine,  he  was  entirely  dependent  on  his  suzerain,  the  King  of  Ger- 
many ;  hence  there  was  reason  to  fear  lest  the  Germanic  crown  might  weigh  too  heavy  in 
the  destinies  of  France.  Charles,  moreover,  had  injured  himself  in  the  sight  of  the 
nobles  of  the  kingdom,  by  doing  homage  for  his  duchy  to  the  King  of  Germany  at 
the  very  time  when  the  suzerainty  cf  that  fief  was  claimed  by  King  Lothaire.  These 
reasons  were  among  those  that  led  the  nobles  to  prefer  Hugues  to  Charles  as  king,  and 
there  is  nothing  to  support  the  idea  of  an  asserted  opposition  to  a  dynasty  of  Germanic 
origin. 

K 


130  GAUL   UNDER   THE    LAST   CARLOVINGIANS.      [Book  II.  Chap.  III. 

The  fall  of  the  Carlovingians  was  not,  as  has  been  stated,  the  result 
of  a   popular   opposition  to  the   dynasty,  which   was    deposed  by   a 
national  feeling  as  founded  on  conquest.     This  opinion,  the   error  of 
an  illustrious  historian,  and  which  has  been  sustained  with  all  the 
power  of  talent,  is  not  confirmed  by  contemporary  testimony.     If  it 
be  true  to  say  that  Charles  Martel  penetrated  into  Western  France  at 
the  head  of  new  Germanic  bands,   it  must  be  also  allowed  that  he 
found  there  a  people  already  half  German  through  its  government, 
its  laws,  and  a  conquest  prior  by  more   than   two    centuries.     The 
chronicles  of  the  period   bear  witness  that  the   descendants  of   the 
Gauls  and  Germans  only  formed,  in  the  tenth  century,  one  people  in 
the  northern  part  of  ancient   Gaul,  and  that  the  traditional  respect 
for  the  blood  of  Charlemagne  had  survived  the  unity  of  his  empire. 
In  the  decomposition   of   the  latter,   in  the  absence  of    any  general 
idea,  and  when    society  was  broken  up    all  around,  it  was  natural 
that  the    King   should   be    engaged  in  a  contest  with   his   powerful 
subjects,  and  that  the   peoples     should    support    their    direct    lords 
against  everybody,  even  were  it  the  King.     The  same  fact  has  been 
reproduced    in    other  countries,  and,    in    order   to  understand  it,  it 
is   not   necessary  to   base   it    on   the   hereditary  hatred  of  the   two 
races.     Some   writers   have  pointed   out   a    double   cause   of  dislike 
of  the   Carlovingians,  and  popular   sympathy  for  the  descendants  of 
Robert  the  Strong,  in  the  Germanic  origin  of  the  former,  and  in  the 
support  they  at  times    asked    of   a   foreign    potentate,  the   King  of 
Germany,  a  man  of  their  own  race  and  blood.     But   long  before   the 
accession  of  the  third  race  to  the  crown,  the  family  of  the   Carlovin- 
gians had  disappeared  from  the  Imperial  throne  and  that  of  Germany. 
It  is  also  now  notorious  that  the  family  of  Robert  the   Strong  was 
quite  as  Germanic  as  that  of  Charlemagne ;  and  if  the    Carlovingian 
kings  of  Gaul  had  the  kings  of  Germany  as  allies  on  various  occasions, 
they  found  in  them  at  others  their  most   formidable    enemies,  and 
finally,    towards   the  close,  the  Duke   of  France,   and  the   King,  his 
suzerain,  were  seen  seeking,  with  equal  ardour,  the  support  of  the 
Gemanic  crown  in  their  contest. 

The  real  explanation  of  the  accession  of  the  third  race  will  be  found 
in  the  state  of  society,  which  was  assuming  another  form,  and  being 
established  on  a  new  basis.     Charlemagne  had  attempted  to  impress 


888-987]  GAUL   UNDER   THE    LAST    CARLOVINGIANS.  131 

on  the  monarchy  a  grand  character  of  unity,  and  these  ideas  of  unity 
and  the  concentration  of  power  were  the  dream  and  object  of  the 
efforts  of  his  successors,  either  on  the  Imperial  throne,  or  at  the  head 
of  the  states  into  which  the  Empire  was  broken  up,  but  these  proud 
pretensions  were  no  longer  tenable  in  Gaul  at  the  end  of  the  tenth 
century :  they  were  opposed  to  the  tendencies  of  the  age,  and  formed 
a  singular  contrast  with  the  feebleness  of  those  who  were  crushed  by 
the  royal  title.  A  subterranean  revolution,  from  which  feudalism 
emerged,  was  slowly  accomplished  ;  another  society  was  formed ;  and 
any  new  society  can  only  live  and  prosper,  so  long  as  it  has  at  its  head 
a  representative  of  the  principles  that  constituted  it.  Hugues  Capet, 
the  most  powerful  of  the  feudal  lords,  was  in  France  the  natural 
representative  of  the  new  social  order  based  on  feudalism :  and  it  was 
especially  for  that  reason  that  he  was  elected  king. 

The  tenth  century  is  one  of  the  most  obscure  and  disastrous  epochs 
in  the  history  of  France :  everything  became  weak  simultaneously,  the 
pious  zeal  and  virtues  of  the  clergy,  the  authority  of  the  laws,  and  the 
independence  of  the  inhabitants  of  cities.  The  Saracens,  Hungarians, 
Germans,  and  Normans  desolated  the  country,  and  burnt  the  cities  j 
the  latter  were  no  longer  the  seat  of  government  or  of  subaltern 
administrations,  and  the  residences  of  the  rich.  The  castles  alone 
afforded  a  refuge  against  foreign  invasions  and  civil  wars,  and  to  them 
retired  all  those  who  enjoyed  any  authority :  there,  too,  justice  was 
done,  and  the  courts  were  held.  Commerce  disappeared,  and  with  it 
the  citizen  and  industrious  classes  :  independent  men,  rich  landowners 
and  manufacturers,  were  succeeded  in  most  of  the  cities  by  a  trembling 
and  servile  population :  the  tradesman  had  no  longer  any  fixed  resi- 
dence; he  travelled  from  manor  to  manor,  carrying  his  wares  with 
him,  and  concealing  his  profit  in  terror.  Around  each  castle  sprang 
up  wretched  cabins,  inhabited  by  serfs,  who  carried  on  mechanical 
trades,  or  cultivated  the  soil  on  behalf  of  the  lord :  nearly  the  whole 
people  consisted  of  serfs,  at  the  mercy  of  the  nobles,  and  victims  of 
each  political  commotion.  The  frightful  misery  and  general  desolation 
seemed  at  that  time  to  justify  the  popular  belief  that  the  end  of  the 
world  was  at  hand,  and  that  it  would  happen  in  the  year  1000.  Still, 
at  the  moment  of  this  decadence,  and  when  the  old  social  order 
perished,  another  rose  on  its  ruins,  founded  by  the  small  number  of 

k  2 


132 


GAUL    UNDER   THE    LAST    CARLO  VINGIANS.         [BOOK  II.   ChAP.  III. 


persons  who  had  remained  free  and  powerful,  in  the  protection  of  their 
castles.  This  new  order  of  things,  which  received  the  name  of  feu- 
dalism, had  taken  deep  root  during  the  past  century,  and  despite  its 
immense  abuses  prevented  the  utter  dissolution  of  every  social  tie,  and 
a  return  to  the  barbarism  of  remote  periods. 

GENEALOGICAL    TABLE    OF    THE    CARLOVINGIAN    KINGS. 


Pepin  the  Short, 

752-768. 
1 

1 
Charlemagne, 

1 
Carloman, 

768-814. 

768-771. 

Louis  I., 

called  the  Debonnaire, 

814-840. 

1 

l                                1                                1. 
Lothaire  I.,                 Pepin  I.,                     Louis  II., 

1 
Charles  II., 

Emperor.           King  of  Aquitaine.     called  the  German,          called  the  Bald, 

King  of  Bavaria,                 840-877. 

was  father  of 

the  Emperor  Charles,               Louis  II., 

called  the  Fat 

,                    called  the 

King  of  the  Grauls                Stammerer, 

from  884-888. 

877-879. 
1 

1                                            1 
Louis  III.                           Carloman, 

1 
Charles  III., 

879-882.                         879-884. 

called  the  Simple, 

excluded  from  the 

throne  from  884-888 

bv  Charles  the  Fat : 

from  888-898  by 

Count  Eudes : 

eventually  reigned 

from  898-923. 
1 

Louis  IV.,  called  d?  Outre  Mer, 
excluded  from  the  throne  from  933-936 
by  Raoul,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
reigned  from  936-954. 


Lothaire, 
954-986. 

I 
Louis  V. , 

called  the  Slothful, 

986-987, 

last  Carlovingian  king. 


Charles, 

Duke  of  Lower  Lorraine, 

excluded  from  the  throne 

after  the  death  of 

his  nephew,  Louis  V. 


SECOND     EPOCH. 


THE   FEODAL   MONABCHY,  FKOM  HUGUES  CAPET 

TO   FBANCIS  I. 

987-1515. 


BOOK   I. 


FROM  THE  ACCESSION    OF  HUGUES   CAPET  TO  THE 
DEATH   OF   ST.  LOUIS. 

THE    SUPREMACY   AND    GRADUAL   WEAKENING   OF  THE   ARISTOCRACY — PROGRESS 

OF    THE    ROYAL    POWER — CONQUESTS    OF    THE    CROWN — THE    CRUSADES 

ENFRANCHISEMENT    OF   THE    COMMUNES ESTABLISHMENT     OF    THE    JUDI- 
CIAL   ORDER. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EXPOSITION   OF   THE    FEUDAL    SYSTEM. 


The  accession  of  Hugues  Capet  had  for  result  the  development  of  the 
feudal  system  by  consolidating  it.  Under  the  previous  race,  the  lords 
had  rendered  the  cession  of  benefices  irrevocable,  and  made  them 
hereditary  in  their  families  ;  and  as  the  German  customs  authorized 
the  possessors  of  estates  to  regard  as  their  own  property  not  only  the 
soil  acquired,  but  also  everything  that  existed  on  the  soil  at  the  moment 
of  the  cession  or  conquest,  they  soon  persuaded  themselves  that  they 
had  a  right  to  exercise  civil,  judicial,  and  military  power  in  their  domains, 
by  virtue  of  their  sole  title  as  owners.  Authority  was  consequently 
established  by  possession,  and,  by  a  strange  fiction,  power  was  attached 
to  the  land  itself.     Such  was  in  France  the  origin  of  feudalism. 

Under  the  second  race,  the  kings,  ever  sacrificing  the  future  to  the 
present,  had  in  turn  abandoned  to  the  dukes  and  counts  all  the  regal 
or  royal  rights — those  of  raising  troops,  administering  justice,  coining 
money,  making  peace  or  war,  and  fortifying  themselves ;  and  from 
the  moment  when  they  recognized,  by  the  edict  _  of  Kersy,  the  trans- 
mission of  offices  to  the  next   heir  as  legal,    the    dukes  and  counts 


136  THE   FEUDAL   SYSTEM.  [Book  I. 

regarded  themselves  as  possessors  of  the  provinces  in  which  their  will 
was  law.  While  de  facto  independent  of  the  crown,  the  majority, 
however,  still  remained  subordinate  to  it  by  the  bond  of  the  oath  of 
fidelity.  They  distributed,  of  their  own  free  will,  domains  among  the 
nobles,  who  received  them  on  faith  and  homage  :  and  the  latter  granted 
inferior  benefices  to  freemen  on  the  same  title.  A  great  number  of 
independent  proprietors,  alarmed  by  the  ravages  of  external  foes,  and 
the  commotion  of  the  civil  discords,  sought  support  from  their 
powerful  neighbours,  and  obtained  it  by  doing  them  homage  for  their 
lands,  which  they  received  back  from  the  lords  to  whom  they  offered 
them  as  fiefs,  the  possession  of  which  henceforth  entailed  the  obligation 
of  rendering  faithful  service  to  the  suzerain.  Thus,  he  who  gave  a 
territorial  estate  *  in  fief  became  the  suzerain  of  him  who  received  it 
on  this  title,  and  the  latter  was  called  a  vassal,  or  liegeman.  The 
landholders  were  thus  considered,  throughout  the  entire  extent  of  the 
kingdom  of  France,  as  subjects,  or  vassals  to  each  other.  This  system, 
which  extended  to  the  provinces,  as  well  as  to  simple  private  domains, 
established  a  connecting  link  between  all  parts  of  the  territory.  In 
the  feudal  hierarchy  the  first  rank  belonged  to  the  country  or  state 
which  bore  the  title  of  kingdom ;  and  this  title,  on  the  coronation  of 
Hugues  Capet,  was  acquired  for  the  ancient  duchy  of  France,  a  great 
fief,  which,  on  account  of  its  central  position,  the  warlike  character  of 
its  inhabitants,  and  the  extinction  of  the  kingly  title  in  the  neighbour- 
ing states,  was  in  a  position  eventually  to  obtain  a  real-supremacy. 

The  feudal  system  rapidly  embraced  old  Gaul,  Italy,  and  Germany, 
and  afterwards  spread  over  the  whole  of  Europe  :  it  prepared  the  for- 
mation of  the  great  states,  and,  during  two  hundred  and  forty  years, 
took  the  place  of  the  social  bond,  and  of  legislation. 

The  first  portion  of  this  period  resembles  an  interregnum,  during 
which  the  king  was  only  distinguished  from  the  other  lords  by 
honorary  prerogatives.  Each  fortress  of  any  importance  gave  its 
owner   rank  among  the  sovereigns  ;  and  as  the  civil  discords  made 

*  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  land  alone  could  be  the  object  of  a  feudal  concession. 
Immaterial  things,  such  as  a  large  number  of  rights,  were  also  constituted  into  fiefs,  and 
conceded  on  the  same  conditions.  Amongst  these  may  be  mentioned  the  rights  of 
fishing  and  hunting,  of  established  taxes  on  highways  or  rivers,  and  the  exclusive  right 
of  grinding  corn,  &c. 


Chap.  I.]  THE   FEUDAL   SYSTEM.  137 

the  nobles  feel  the  necessity  of  attaching  to  themselves  a  considerable 
number  of  men  for  their  personal  security,  they  divided  their  domains 
into  a  multitude  of  lots,  which  they  gave  in  fief;  granting  to  their 
vassals  the  permission  to  fortify  themselves,  which  they  had  themselves 
wrung  from  Louis  the  Stammerer  ;  and  a  great  number  of  castles 
were  erected  round  the  principal  fortress.  It  is  the  general  opinion 
that  doing  homage  for  a  fief  ennobled ;  and  the  nobility  thus  sprang 
up,  to  a  great  extent,  from  the  ninth  to  the  tenth  century.  The  right 
granted  to  subjects  of  providing  for  their  own  defence  arrested  the 
devastations  of  foreigners ;  strengthened  the  national  character ; 
revived  a  healthy  feeling  of  self-respect  among  the  members  of  a 
numerous  class ;  and  authorized  them  in  demanding  equal  politeness 
from  those  from  whom  they  held  estates,  as  well  as  from  those  to 
whom  they  ceded  them,  the  feudal  contract  being  annulled  by  the 
violation  of  the  obligations  contracted  on  either  side.  This  new  subor- 
dination was  partly  based  on  the  faith  of  the  oath ;  and  respect  in 
sworn  fidelity  and  loyalty  thus  became  one  of  the  distinctive  traits  in 
the  character  of  the  nobility.* 

The  principal  obligations  contracted  by  the  vassal  under  this  system 
were  to  bear  arms  for  a  certain  number  of  days  on  every  military 
expedition  ;  to  recognize  the  jurisdiction  of  the  suzerain  ;  and  to  pay 
the  feudal  aids — a  species  of  tax  raised  for  the  ransom  of  the  lord,  if 
he  were  made  prisoner ;  or  on  the  occasion  of  the  marriage  of  his 
eldest  daughter ;  or  when  his  son  was  made  a  knight.  Whenever  a 
fief  passed  from  one  to  another,  either  by  inheritance  or  sale,  a  fee  was 
paid  to  the  suzerain,  who,  on  his  side,  promised  his  liegeman  justice 
and  protection.  On  these  conditions,  the  vassal  was  independent  on 
his  own  land,  and  enjoyed  the  same  rights,  and  was  bound  by  the  same 
duties  towards  his  own  vassals,  as  his  suzerain. 

In  this  organization  of  feudal  society  the  old  pleas  of  the  nation 
were  altered  into  county  pleas,  in  which  the  vassals  united  under 
the  presidency  of  the  count,  and  judicial  combat  was  brought  back 
into  use,  and  became  the  basis  of  jurisprudence  between  gentlemen. 

*  The  following  is  the  formula  of  the  oath  pronounced  by  the  vassal  on  asking  the 
investiture  of  his  fief  : — "  Sire,  I  come  to  your  homage,  in  your  faith,  and  become  your 
man  of  mouth  and  hands,  and  swear,  and  promise  to  you  faith  and  loyalty  toward  all,  and 
against  all,  and  to  keep  your  right  in  my  power." 


138  THE  FEUDAL  SYSTEM.  [Book  I. 

From  this  time,  the  different  codes  of  laws,  which  had  so  long  subsisted 
among  the  various  indigenous  or  conquered  nations  of  Graul,  entirely- 
disappeared.  It  was  generally  admitted  that  no  man  could  be 
tried  save  by  his  peers,  by  which  word  was  meant  vassals  of  the  same 
rank.  The  great  vassals  of  the  crown — the  Dukes  of  Normandy, 
Aquitaine,  and  Burgundy,  and  the  Counts  of  Flanders,  Toulouse,  and 
Champagne — were  nominated  peers  of  France  ;  and  to  these  six  lay 
peers  were  eventually  added  six  ecclesiastical  peers,  who  were 
the  Archbishops  of  Reims  and  Sens,  and  the  Bishops  of  Noyou, 
Beauvais,  Chalons,  and  Langres.  When  a  peer  of  France  was 
summoned  before  the  rest,  the  king  presided  at  the  trial.  All  these 
laws,  conventions,  and  usages  only  concerned  the  nobility:  the 
people  were  counted  as  nothing ;  and  the  nobles  and  gentry,  isolated 
from  them  in  their  habitations  and  through  their  privileges,  were 
even  more  distinguished  by  their  dress  and  weapons.  It  was  thus 
that  they  kept  the  wretched  and  defenceless  population  in  subjection. 
The  military  art  underwent  a  change,  and  the  cavalry  henceforth 
became  the  strength  of  armies :  bodily  exercises,  equitation,  the 
management  of  the  lance  and  sword,  were  the  sole  occupation  of  the 
nobility ;  and  the  sale  of  arms,  one  of  the  principal  branches  of 
trade  in  Europe.  This  first  period  of  the  feudal  confederation 
witnessed  the  birth  of  chivalry,  respect  for  women,  and  modern 
languages  and  poetry. 

Such  were  the  chief  effects  of  this  system  as  concerns  the  general 
policy  and  the  interests  of  the  nobility.  We  have  now  to  examine  it 
in  its  relations  with  the  Church  and  the  people. 

After  the  invasion  of  Gaul  by  the  Franks,  religion,  so  far  as  the 
mass  of  the  people  were  concerned,  mainly  consisted  in  external 
ceremonies,  and  in  the  veneration  of  relics,  of  images  of  the 
Virgin  and  the  saints,  and  of  pictures  representing  the  mysteries  of 
the  faith,  the  actions  of  Christ  and  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  first 
believers.  The  magnificence  of  the  worship  exercised  a  great 
influence  ;  and  the  priests,  under  the  Carlo vingians,  imposed  on  the 
people,  and  more  especially  upon  the  nobles,  by  means  of  their  riches 
and  their  power.  But  the  Church  which,  in  the  fifth  and  sixth 
centuries,  had  alone  resisted  the  invasion  of  barbarism,  was  less 
powerful  to  restrain  the  corruption  entailed  by  an  excess  of  wealth. 


Chap.  I.]  THE   FEUDAL   SYSTEM.  139 

Large  numbers  of  barbarians  had  entered  the  ranks  of  the  clergy, 
and  virtue  and  learning  almost  entirely  disappeared  from  amongst 
them  from  the  eighth  to  the  tenth  century.  In  default  of  these  claims 
on  the  respect  of  men,  the  only  means  the  Church  possessed  of  pre- 
serving its  ascendancy  in  these  unhappy  times  was  to  remain  rich  and 
powerful ;  and  at  the  period  of  the  progressive  establishment  of  the 
feudal  system,  it  saw  with  terror  the  great  vassals  encroaching  on  its 
domains.  The  clergy  soon  comprehended  that,  as  all  the  authority 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  possessors  of  fiefs,  they  must  themselves 
form  part  of  the  new  confederation.  They  therefore  did  homage  for 
the  Church  domains,  and  then  divided  them  into  numerous  lots, 
which  they  converted  into  fiefs,  thus  obtaining  suzerains  and  vassals. 
As  the  obligation  of  military  service  was  inseparable  from  the  pos- 
session of  fiefs,  the  clergy  were  subjected  to  it  like  all  the  other 
vassals ;  they  took  up  arms  at  the  summons  of  their  suzerains,  and 
constrained  their  liegemen  to  fight  for  them.  From  this  time  a  great 
number  of  bishops  and  abbots  lived  the  lives  of  nobles;  arms  occu- 
pied them  as  much  as  the  religious  services ;  and  they  neglected  the 
most  sacred  duties  of  religion"  for  the  licence  of  camps.  Wherever 
the  clergy  did  not  embrace  a  martial  life,  the  temporal  lord  obtained 
an  immense  advantage  over  them,  and  the  bishops  and  -abbots  often 
found  it  necessary  to  place  themselves  under  the  protection  of  a  noble 
who  was  paid  to  defend  them ;  and  who  was  called  advocate,  or 
vidaine.  The  clergy,  through  these  feudal  organizations,  were  diverted 
from  the  object  of  their  institution,  the  people  more  rarely  obtained 
consolation  and  succour  at  their  hands,  and  most  of  the  dignitaries  of 
the  Church  joined  the  ranks  of  the  oppressors. 

An  immense  majority  of  the  people  lived  in  a  servile  condition. 
The  class  of  freemen,  as  we  previously  said,  had  to  a  great  extent 
disappeared  under  the  Carlovingians ;  the  citizen  class  had  grown 
weaker,  as  the  importance  of  the  cities  became  diminished;  and  we 
may  fairly  say  that,  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  century,  there  was  no 
middle  class  between  the  nobles,  the  sole  possessors  of 'all  the  enjoy- 
ments of  life,  and  the  wretches  whose  humble  cabins  surrounded  their 
castles,  and  who  were  called  serfs,  or  men  of  servitude,  attached  to 
the  glebe — that  is  to  say,  to  the  land  they  cultivated.  They  were 
bought  and  sold  with  the  land,  and  were  unable  to  leave  it  of  their 


140  THE    FEUDAL    SYSTEM.  [Book  I. 

own  accord,  to  establish  themselves  elsewhere,  when  they  found  them- 
selves too  cruelly  oppressed.  They  possessed  nothing  of  their  own — 
neither  the  huts  in  which  they  lived,  nor  their  implements  of  labour, 
nor  the  fruit  of  their  toil,  nor  their  time,  nor  their  children :  every- 
thing belonged  to  the  lord ;  and  if  they  were  guilty  of  any  fault  in 
his  sight,  they  could  not  invoke,  for  their  defence,  any  law  or  authority, 
for  the  right  of  seignorial  justice,  of  life  and  death,  was  absolute. 

The  condition  of  the  freemen,  who  did  not  hold  fief,  and  lived  on 
seignorial  domains,  seems  to  have  been  equally  deplorable.  Designated 
as  villains,  or  "  roturiers,"  they  hardly  enjoyed  the  right  of  marrying 
whom  they  thought  proper,  or  of  disposing  of  their  property  as  they 
pleased.  They  were  gradually  crushed  by  intolerable  burdens,  or  sub- 
jected to  humiliating  obligations  ;  -they  had  not  the  slightest  protec- 
tion, and  had  incessantly  to  fear  the  imposition  of  some  fine  or  new 
tax,  or  the  confiscation  of  their  goods.  A  great  number  of  them  took 
refuge  in  the  towns,  where  equally  great  evils  followed  them.  The 
counts  exercised  there  over  them  an  authority  equal  to  that  of  the 
seigneurs  on  their  lands  ;  the  tolls  and  dues  of  every  description  were 
infinitely  multiplied  ;  and  the  towns  were  eventually  subjected,  like 
the  country,  to  an  arbitrary  impost  called  taille  ;  they  were  obliged  to 
keep  their  lord  and  his  people  when  he  came  within  their  walls  ;  pro- 
visions, furniture,  horses,  vehicles — in  short,  everything  they  possessed 
was  taken  by  main  force  from  the  inhabitants,  at  the  caprice  of  the 
master  or  his  followers,  without  payment  or  compensation  of  any 
kind.  In  a  word,  all  social  force  and  influence  resided  in  the  possessors 
of  fiefs,  who  alone  had  liberty,  power,  and  enjoyment. 

Such  was  the  system  which,  under  the  name  of  feudalism,  weighed 
down  Europe  for  centuries.  But  it  rescued  her  from  the  anarchy  and 
chaos  into  which  she  was  plunged,  and  was  the  first  clumsy  attempt 
at  social  organization  made  by  society  itself  since  the  fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  In  this  vast  system,  the  hierarchy  often  only  existed 
theoretically ;  the  stronger  contrived  to  make  themselves  independent, 
and  incalculable  evils  resulted  from  this.  The  territory  of  Old  Graul 
was  for  a  long  time  a  blood-stained  arena  open  to  the  ambition  of 
kings  and  nobles ;  but  the  want  of  union  among  the  oppressors  finally 
turned  to  the  advantage  of  the  oppressed,  who  were  sustained  by  the 
royal  authority,  when  the  latter,  through  its  conquest  over  the  aristo- 


Chap.  I.]  THE    FEUDAL    SYSTEM.  141 

cracy,  prepared  new  and  more  happy  destinies  for  France.  An  impor- 
tant progress  toward  a  better  order  of  things  was  that  which  consti- 
tuted a  central  force,  sufficiently  powerful  to  keep  all  in  check,  and  to 
destroy  the  tyranny  of  the  lords,  and  which,  by  creating  a  middle 
class  between  the  nobility  and  the  serfs,  granted  one  portion  of  the 
people  the  most  precious  rights  of  civil  liberty.  History  shows  us 
the  French  advancing  to  this  double  goal  through  long  convulsions, 
amid  internal  discords,  and  foreign  wars.  For  centuries  they  ap- 
proached, but  did  not  reach  it ;  they  owed  their  first  progress  to  the 
providential  concurrence  of  events  as  much  as  to  their  own  efforts, 
and  these  combined  causes  resulted  primarily  in  the  rapid  growth  of 
the  power  of  the  king,  the  decay  of  seignorial  authority,  the  restora- 
tion of  industry,  and  the  enfranchisement  of  the  people  of  the  towns. 


142  HUGUES   CAPET.  [Book  I.  Chap.  II. 


CHAPTER   II. 

REIGN    OF    THE    FIRST    CAPETIAN    KINGS — HUGUES    CAPET,    ROBERT,    HENRY    L, 

AND   PHILIP   I. 

987—1108. 

HUGUES  ^  CAPET. 

On  the  accession  of  the  third  race,  France,  properly  so  called,  only- 
comprised  the  territory  between  the  Somme  and  the  Loire ;  it  was 
bounded  by  the  counties  of  Flanders  and  Vermandois  on  the  north ; 
by  Normandy  and  Brittany  on  the  west ;  by  the  Champagne  on  the 
east ;  by  the  duchy  of  Aquitaine  on  the  south.  The  territory  within 
these  bounds  was  the  duchy  of  France,  the  patrimonial  possession  of 
the  Capets,  and  constituted  the  royal  domain.  The  great  fiefs  of  the 
crown,  in  addition  to  the  duchy  of  France,  were  the  duchy  of  Nor- 
mandy, the  duchy  of  Burgundy,  nearly  the  whole  of  Flanders  formed 
into  a  county,  the  county  of  Champagne,  the  duchy  of  Aquitaine,  and 
the  county  of  Toulouse.*  We  have  already  seen  that  the  sovereigns 
of  these  various  states  were  the  great  vassals  of  the  crown,  and  peers 
of  France,  Lorraine,  and  a  portion  of  Flanders  were  dependent  on 
the  Germanic  crown,  while  Brittany  was  a  fief  of  the  duchy  of  Nor- 
mandy. 

The  efforts  made  by  Hugues  to  reach  the  throne,  which  was  the 
object  of  all  his  wishes,  seem  to  have  exhausted  his  strength,  and  he 
appears  in  history  less  formidable  as  king  than  he  had  been  as  vassal. 
He  had,  in  the  first  instance,  to  conquer  Charles  of  Lorraine,  his  com- 
petitor ;  and  he  triumphed  over  him  by  cunning  more  than  by  arms. 
This  unhappy  prince  exclaimed,  as  he   addressed  his  followers,  with 

*  The  county  of  Barcelona  beyond  the  Alps  was  also  one  of  the  great  fiefs  of  the  crown 
of  France. 


987-1108]  HUGUES    CAPET.  143 

his  face  bathed  in  tears,  "My  age  is  advancing,  and  I  find  myself, 
when  in  years,  despoiled  of  my  patrimony.  I  cannot,  without  weeping, 
look  upon  my  young  children,  the  scions  of  an  unfortunate  father.  0 
my  friends,  come  to  my  succour — come  to  the  help  of  my  children  !  ' ' 
He  had  a  momentary  hope  of  regaining  his  hereditary  crown ;  he 
made  himself  master  of  the  city  of  Laon  by  the  treachery  of  Arnoul, 
Archbishop  of  Reims ;  but  it  was  soon  afterwards  torn  from  him  by 
another  act  of  treachery,  and  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  rival,  who 
threw  him  into  prison^  with  his  wife  and  children.  Thus  the  illustrious 
race  of  Charlemagne  expired  in  Gaul,  as  far  as  history  is  concerned.* 

Hugues  Capet,  like  his  first  successors,  made  a  close  alliance  with 
the  Church,  and  found  it  difficult  to  maintain  in  obedience  the  nobles 
who  had  raised  him  to  the  throne.  He  contended  for  a  long  time 
against  Adalbert,  Count  of  Berigard,  one  of  his  most  obstinate  adver- 
saries. 

"Who  made  you  count?"  Hugues  asked  him  angrily,  while  re- 
proaching him  with,  his  rebellion. 

"And  who  made  you  king?"  was  the  haughty  answer,  which, 
revealed  to  the  King  the  inconveniences  and  perils  of  his  situation. 
Hugues  next  waged  a  sanguinary  war  against  his  vassal,  Eudes,  Count 
de  Chartres.  He  took  from  him  the  town  of  Melun,  and,  to  complete 
his  subjugation,  was  compelled  to  unite  his  forces  with  tnose  of  the 
count's  worst  enemy,  Foulques,  Count  of  Anjou. 

One  of  the  most  important  occupations  of  this  King  was  the  convo- 
cation of  synods  or  councils.  The  bishops  at  that  time  had  the  greatest 
share  in  the  government  of  the  cities.  One  of  them,  the  celebrated 
Arnoul  of  Reims,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  was  guilty  of  treason  against 
the  King  in  surrendering  the  town  of  Laon  to  his  rival,  was  summoned 
before  a  council,  and  deposed.  Pope  John  XV.  quashed  this  sentence, 
and  the  clergy  signalized  their  opposition  by  submitting  the  papal 
decision  to  a  new  council. 

Cruel  wars  between  the  great  vassals  and  fearful  calamities  marked 
the  course  of  this  reign,  and  confirmed  the  people  in  the  idea  that  the 
end  of  the  world  was  at  hand.     A  horrible  pestilence  ravaged  Aqui- 

*  Six  hundred  years  later,  the  ambitious  princes  of  the  House  of  Guise  claimed  the 
French  throne,  by  appealing  to  the  rights  of  this  same  Charles  of  Lorraine,  from  whom 
they  declared  themselves  descended. 


-4  ROBERT.  [BookI.Chap.II. 

taine  and  a  great  part  of  the  kingdom,  and  so  great  was  the  suffering 
of  the  time,  that  the  expectation  of  universal  destruction  inspired 
many  hearts  with  hope  rather  than  fear.  The  rich  and  the  great, 
sharing  in  the  general  belief,  lavished  immense  donations  on  the 
clergy ;  many  valiant  military  chiefs  exchanged  the  sword  and  cuirass 
for  the  frock  and  hair-shirt  of  the  monk ;  and  Hugues  Capet  himself 
reigned  without  wearing  the  diadem,  either  because  he  doubted  the 
validity  of  his  royal  title,  or  because  he  desired  to  give  his  people  an 
example  of  humility  and  respect  for  sacred  things.  He  continued 
during  his  whole  life  to  wear  the  cape  as  titular  abbot  of  St.  Martin 
of  Tours.  He  placed  his  crown  under  the  safeguard  of  the  Church, 
and  during  his  lifetime  caused  his  son  Robert  to  be  crowned,  and 
recommended  to  him,  above  all  things,  to  guard  the  treasure  of  the 
abbeys,  and  submit  himself  to  the  Pope. 

Hugues  Capet  died  in  his  bed,  after  a  reign  of  nine  years ;  he  is 
only  illustrious  as  the  founder  of  a  new  dynasty,  and  this  great  event 
must  be  attributed  to  circumstances,  far  more  than  to  his  genius. 

The  custom  of  appanages,  or  territorial  gifts,  of  more  or  less  extent, 
granted  to  the  younger  sons  of  the  kings,  dates  from  the  accession  of 
the  third  race.  These  appanages,  restricted  at  the  outset,  evidently 
embraced  entire  provinces,  and  this  custom  became,  ■with  them,  the 
chief  obstacle  to  the  territorial  unity  of  the  kingdom. 

ROBERT. 

Robert  was  faithful  to  the  pious  instructions  of  his  father.  This 
King  seems,  through  his  rare  gentleness  and  his  indulgent  kindness,  to 
belong  to  another  age.  Profoundly  moved  by  the  sufferings  of  his 
people,  he  appeared  to  have  undertaken  the  task  of  relieving  the 
wretched  by  unbounded  charity ;  and  disarming  the  rigour  of  Heaven 
by  angelic  patience,  and  the  practice  of  the  most  fervent  devotion. 
Many  instances  of  simple  and  touching  goodness  are  recorded  of  him. 
A  beggar,  whom  he  was  feeding  with  his  own  hand,  stealthily 
removed  a  fringe  of  gold  from  the  King's  robe,  and  Queen  Constance 
observed  the  theft.  "  The  man  who  stole  the  fringe  from  me,"  said 
the  good  monarch  to  his  wife,  "  doubtless  needs  it  more  than  I."  On 
another  occasion,  a  thief  cut  off  one  half  of  his  cloak  while  he  was 
at  prayers  :  "  Leave  the  rest  for  another  time,"  said  the  King,  mildly. 


987-1108]  HIS    SUPERSTITION.  145 

This  prince,  whose  pious  zeal  equalled  his  charity,  composed  sacred 
hymns,  sang  at  the  choristers'  desk,  and  directed  the  choir  of  St. 
Denis  on  holy  days. 

Among  other  peculiar  traits  of  his  simple  superstition,  it  is  recorded 
that  he  did  not  believe  an  oath  obligatory,  unless  made  over  the  relics 
of  saint  or  martyr,  to  which  he  offered  special  worship.     In  order  to 
avoid  the  sin  of  a  violation  of  faith,  he  made  those  in  whose  word  he 
had  no  confidence,  swear,  without  knowing  it,  at  a  shrine  from  which 
the  relics  had  been  removed ;  and  when  he  himself  took  an  oath  upon 
this  empty  shrine,  he  did  not  scruple  to  perjure  himself.     His  fervent 
piety  did  not  protect  Robert  from  ecclesiastical  censures  ;    or  from 
the  most  violent  persecutions  of  the  Court  of  Rome.     The  laws  of  the 
Church  at  that  time  composed  the  entire  civil  legislation  :  the  Popes 
constituted  themselves   sovereign  arbiters  of  cases  in  which  marriage 
was  permitted  ;  and  this  displayed  a  praiseworthy  courage  in  contend- 
ing against  the  unbridled  passions  of  the  kings  ;  and  their  firmness 
powerfully  contributed  towards  preserving  Christianity  from  sad  dis- 
orders, and  possibly  from  polygamy.  But,  by  an  abuse  of  their  authority, 
they  carried  the  prohibition  of  marriage  too  far,  and  proved  terrible 
to  those  who  dared  to  violate  their  injunctions,  which  were  frequently 
arbitrary  and  unjust.    Excommunication,  and  the  placing  of  a  territory 
under  an  interdict,  were  among  the  means  most  frequently  employed 
by  the  Pontiffs  to  compel  the  submission  of  sovereigns.    No  one  might 
eat,  drink,  or  pray  with  an  excommunicated  person,  under  penalty  of 
being  himself  excommunicated  :  when  the  Pope  placed  a  country  under 
interdict,  it  was  forbidden  to  celebrate  divine  service,  to  administer 
the  sacraments  to  adults,  or  to  bury  the  dead  in  consecrated  ground  ; 
the  sound  of  bells  ceased,  the  pictures  in  churches  were  covered,  and 
the  statues  of  saints  were  taken  down  and  laid  on  beds  of  ashes  and 
thorns.     The  Court  of  Rome  struck  at  its  enemies  with  these  redoubt- 
able weapons,  not  dealing  less  rigorously  with  sovereigns  than  with 
subjects.     King  Robert  experienced  this  ;  Hugh,  his  father,  disquieted 
by  the  Normans  established  at  Blois,  who  had  refused  to  recognize 
him,   gained  them  over  by  making  his  son  espouse  the    celebrated 
Bertha,  widow  of  Eudes  I.  of  Blois.  This  princess  possessed  claims  on 
the  kingdom  of  Burgundy,  bequeathed  by  her  brother  Rodolph  to  the 
Empire,  and  had  power  to  transmit  them  to  the  reigning  family  of 

L 


146  PERSECUTION    OP   THE    JEWS.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  II. 

France.  The  Einperor  Otho  III.  was  alarmed  at  this,  and  Pope 
Gregory  "V.,  alleging  a  degree  of  relationship  against  the  marriage, 
ordered  Robert  to  leave  his  wife,  and  on  his  refusal,  excommunicated 
him.  It  is  recorded  that  upon  this  the  King  was  at  once  abandoned 
by  all  his  servants  ;  and  it  was  a  popular  belief,  kept  up  by  the  monks, 
that  Queen  Bertha  was  delivered  of  a  monster.  Robert,  compelled  at 
length  to  repudiate  her,  espoused  the  imperious  Constance,  daughter 
of  the  Count  of  Toulouse.  She  reigned  in  his  name,  having  his 
authority,  and  caused  the  King's  favourite,  Hugues  of  Beauvais, 
to  be  murdered  in  his  presence. 

Robert,  in  spite  of  his  habitual  gentleness,  was  an  accomplice  in  the 
cruelties  inflicted  on  the  heretics  by  Constance,  twelve  of  whom  were 
ordered  before  a  council  held  at  Orleans  under  his  presidency,  and 
sentenced  to  be  burnt  alive  :  amongst  them  was  an  ex-confessor  of  the 
Queen.  The  King  believed  that  he  was  doing  a  pious  deed  by  being" 
present  at  their  punishment ;  and  Constance,  who  was  standing  on  the 
road  leading  to  the  pyre,  put  out  one  of  her  confessor's  eyes  with  a 
stick  as  he  passed  along.  This  barbarous  fanaticism,  one  of  the  cha- 
racteristic features  of  the  epoch,  lasted  for  six  centuries  longer  in 
Europe ;  and  the  Jews  were,  during  the  greater  portion  of  the  time, 
the  object  of  so  much  execration,  that  any  act  of  cruelty  to  them  was 
regarded  as  a  meritorious  deed.  Nearly  everywhere  they  were  out- 
raged and  plundered  with  impunity,  the  people  barbarously  taking 
vengeance  for  their  own  sufferings  on  these  hapless  beings,  and  think- 
ing that  they  honoured  God  in  persecuting  them. 

Victims  of  the  perpetual  discords  of  the  nobles,  the  people  saw 
their  own  crops  destroyed  and  cottages  burned  :  there  was  for  them 
neither  rest  nor  security.  Still,  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns  were 
already  beginning  to  endure  with  reluctance  the  vexatious  tyranny 
of  their  lords,  and  to  regard  with  some  degree  of  irritation  their 
precarious  condition.  The  cities  which  had  preserved  municipal 
institutions  invoked  old  and  unappreciated  rights ;  and  in  others 
corporations  were  formed ;  the  workmen  organized  a  militia,  fortified 
their  walls,  and  guarded  the  gates.  Acts  of  great  injustice  caused 
resentment,  which  had  been  too  long  repressed,  to  break  out,  and 
commotions,  which  were  scarcely  recognized,  presaged  the  revolu- 
tions which  in  the  following  century  brought  the   enfranchisements 


987-1108]  HENEY  I.  147 

of  the  towns.  The  inexhaustible  charity  of  Robert  only  afforded  an 
almost  imperceptible  relief  for  the  misfortunes  of  his  people,  not  rich 
enough  to  remove  their  wretchedness,  and  too  weak  to  put  down  their 
oppressors.  He  died  in  1031,  lamented  by  the  wretched  and  regretted 
by  the  clergy,  leaving  his  kingdom  augmented  by  the  duchy  of  Bur- 
gundy,* which  he  had  united  to  it  in  1002,  on  the  death  of  his  uncle, 
Henry  the  Great.  During  his  reign  a  wise  and  learned  Frenchman 
succeeded  Gregory  V.  on  the  pontifical  throne,  and  renewed  the 
alliance  between  the  holy  see  and  the  house  of  Capet.  This  was  the 
illustrious  Gerbert,  who  derived  from  the  Moors  and  the  nourishing 
schools  of  Cordova  all  the  secrets  of  the  sciences  then  known :  he 
studied  belles-lettres  and  algebra,  learned  the  art  of  clock-making, 
and  passed  in  the  eyes  of  his  admiring  contemporaries  for  a  magician. 
First  preceptor  of  the  sons  of  the  Emperor  Otho,  then  Archbishop  of 
Rheims  and  afterwards  of  Ravenna,  he  eventually  became  Pope,  under 
the  name  of  Sylvester  II.,  and  exercised  the  triple  authority  of  the 
pontificate,  of  learning,  and  of  genius. 

.  HENEY   I. 

Heney  I.,  the  son  and  successor  of  Robert,  had,  at  the  commencement 
of  his  reign,  to  sustain  a  family  war  against  his  mother,  Constance, 
who  raised  her  young  brother  Robert  to  the  throne.  The  Church 
declared  for  Henry ;  and  the  celebrated  Robert  the  Magnificent,  Duke 
of  the  Normans,  lent  him  the  aid  of  his  sword,  and  placed  the  crown 
more  firmly  on  his  head.  Henry  vanquished  his  brother,  forgave  him, 
and  granted  him  the  duchy  of  Burgundy,  the  first  Capetian  house  of 
which  was  founded  by  Robert.  A  famine,  during  this  reign,  com- 
mitted such  fearful  ravages  in  Gaul,  that  at  several  places  men  were 
seen  devouring  one  another.  After  this  plague,  troops  of  wolves 
devastated  the  country  ;  and  the  feudal  lords,  more  terrible  than  the 
wild  beasts,  continued  their  barbarous  wars  amid  the  universal  desola- 
tion :  the  clergy  scarce  able  to  induce  them  to  suspend  their  fury  by 

*  The  duchy  of  Burgundy,  which  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  transjuran  and 
cisjuran  kingdoms  of  Burgundy,  comprised  Burgundy  proper.  From  884  to  1001  this 
duchy  belonged  to  princes  allied  to  the  family  of  Robert  the  Strong,  among  whom  was 
Eaoul,  King  of  France.  Henry  the  Gfreat,  brother  of  Hugues  Capet,  was  the  last  mem- 
ber of  this  ducal  branch ;  and  from  1001  to  1032  his  states  remained  annexed  to  the 
kingdom  of  France. 

L   2 


148  THE    TRUCE    OF    GOD.  [BOOK  I.    CHAP.  II. 

threatening  the  judgments  of  Heaven,  and  by  asserting  a  multitude  of 
miracles.  At  length,  the  councils  ordered  all  to  lay  down  their  arms  : 
they  published,  in  1035,  the  Peace  of  God,  and  menaced  with  excom- 
munication those  who  violated  so  holy  a  law.  When  in  each  province 
a  council  had  established  this  peace,  a  deacon  announced  the  fact  to 
the  people  assembled  in  the  churches  ;  and  after  reading  the  Gospel, 
he  went  up  into  the  pulpit,  and  uttered  the  following  malediction 
against  all  who  infringed  the  peace :  "  May  they  be  accursed,  they, 
and  those  who  assist  them  to  do  evil !  may  their  arms  and  their 
horses  be  accursed !  may  they  be  allotted  a  place  with  Cain,  the 
fratricide,  the  traitor  Judas,  and  Dathan  and  Abiram,  who  entered 
alive  into  hell !  and  may  their  joy  be  extinguished  at  the  aspect  of  the 
holy  angels,  just  as  these  torches  are- extinguished  before  your  eyes  !  " 
At  these  words,  all  the  priests,  who  held  lighted  torches  in  their 
hands,  turned  them  against  the  ground,  and  extinguished  them ;  while 
the  people,  struck  with  horror,  repeated,  in  one  voice,  "  May  God 
thus  extinguish  the  joy  of  those  who  will  not  accept  peace  and 
justice  !  " 

But  passions  were  too  impetuous,  ambitions  too  indomitable,  for 
the  evil  to  be  thus  totally  uprooted.  The  "Peace  of  God  "  multiplied 
the  sacrilege  without  diminishing  the  number  of  assassinations.  Five 
years  later,  another  law,  known  as  the  Truce  of  God,  was  substituted 
for  it.  The  councils  that  proclaimed  this  new  peace  no  longer  at- 
tempted to  arrest  the  working  of  all  human  passions ;  but  tried  to 
regulate  and  subject  war  to  the  laws  of  honour  and  humanity.  An 
appeal  to  force  was  no  longer  prohibited  to  those  who  could  invoke  no 
other  law  ;  but  the  employment  of  this  force  was  subjected  to  wise  and 
salutary  restrictions.  From  sunset  on  Wednesday  until  sunrise  on 
Monday,  as  well  as  on  festival  and  fast  days,  military  attack  and  the 
effusion  of  blood  were  prohibited,  and  a  perpetual  safeguard  was 
granted  to  the  churches,  and  to  unarmed  clerks  and  monks  :  the  pro- 
tection of  the  truce  extended  to  the  peasants,  flocks,  and  instruments 
of  labour.  This  wise  and  beneficent  lav/,  which  was  first  promulgated 
in  Aquitaine,  was  adopted  throughout  nearly  the  whole  of  Gaul, 
where  the  nobles  swore  to  observe  it,  and  although  it  was  frequently 
violated,  and  fell  too  soon  into  desuetude,  it  was  a  great  benefit  to 
the  nation,  whose  manners  it  softened,  and  was  the  noblest  work  of 


987-1108]  PHILIP  i.  149 

the  clergy  in  the  middle  ages.  The  rumour  was  propagated  that  a 
horrible  disease,  called  the  "  sacred  fire,"  was  inflicted  upon  all  who 
broke  the  "  Truce  of  God."  The  weak  King  Henry,  through  an  insen- 
sate pride,  was  almost  the  only  one  who  in  his  states  refused  to 
recognize  the  Truce,  under  the  pretext  that  the  clergy  encroached 
upon  his  authority  by  attempting  to  establish  it. 

This  king  has  left  no  honourable  recollection  in  history.  It  is  said 
that,  fearing  lest  he  might  unconsciously  marry  a  woman  related  to 
him  by  blood,  he  sought  a  wife  at  the  extremity  of  Europe,  and  that 
this  motive  led  him  to  choose  as  his  third  wife  the  Princess  Anne, 
daughter  of  Jaroslas,  Grand  Duke  of  Russia. #  He  had  three  sons 
by  this  marriage,  the  eldest  of  whom,  Philip,f  he  caused  to  be  crowned 
during  his  life.  Henry  I.  carried  on  an  unsuccessful  war  against  his 
vassal,  William  the  Bastard,  Duke  of  Normandy,  and  died  in  1060, 
after  a  reign  of  twenty-nine  years. 

PHILIP    I. 

Philip,  at  the  age  of  eight  years,  succeeded  his  father  under  the 
guardianship  of  Baldwin  V.,  Count  of  Flanders.  The  great  event  of 
his  reign,  and  with  which  he  was  entirely  unconnected,  was  the  con- 
quest of  England. 

The  Norman  knights  were  distinguished  from  all  others  by  their 
immoderate  desire  for  martial  adventure,  and  by  their  brilliant 
exploits.  Some  of  them,  who  had  landed  sixty  years  previously  as 
pilgrims  on  the  southern  coast  of  Italy,  aided  the  inhabitants  of 
Salerno  to  repulse  a  Saracen  army  of  besiegers.  Animated  by  the 
success  of  their  countrymen,  the  sons  of  a  simple  gentleman,  Tancred 
of  Hauteville,  followed  by  a  band  of  adventurers,  conquered  the  pro- 
vince of  Apulia  from  the  Greeks,  the  Lombards,  and  the  Arabs,  and 
sustained  successfully  an  equal  struggle  against  the  Emperors  of 
Germany  and  Byzantium.      They  took  prisoner    the  German  Pope, 

*  The  Russian  nation,  which  had  only  been  converted  to  Christianity  for  a  century, 
was  composed  of  almost  savage  tribes  scattered  over  an  immense  territory.  Still,  its  two 
capitals,  Kief  and  Novogorod,  already  contained  the  germs  of  a  highly  advanced 
civilization. 

•f  It  has  been  asserted  that  this  name,  which  appears  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
France,  originated  in  a  presumed  connection  between  the  Princess  Anne  and  Philip  of 
Macedon,  father  of  Alexander  the  Great. 


150  CONQUESTS    OF   THE    NORMANS.  [Book  I.  Chap.II. 

Leo  IX.,  who  was  devoted  to  tlie  family  of  the  Emperor  Henry  III., 
and  hiimbliiig  themselves  before  their  captive,  they  obtained  leave  to 
retain  their  conquest  as  a  fief  of  the  Church.  Robert  Guiscard  com- 
pleted the  subjugation  of  Apulia  and  Calabria,  and  his  brother 
Roger  conquered  Sicily :  it  was  thus  that  the  kingdom  of  the  two 
Sicilies  was  founded  in  1052  by  the  Normans,  and  the  Pope  became 
its  suzerain. 

Nothing  was  talked  of  in  Europe  but  the  valour  of  the  Normans ; 
and  when  "William  the  Bastard,  Duke  of  Normandy,  and  son  of 
Robert  the  Magnificent,  collected  an  army  to  conquer  England,  war- 
riors flocked  beneath  his  banners  from  all  sides,  full  of  confidence 
in  his  fortune.  Great  Britain,  or  England,  which  had  been  for  several 
centuries  subject  to  the  Saxons,  obeyed  at  this  time  King  Harold, 
successor  of  Edward,  surnamed  the  Confessor.  A  tempest  had  cast 
Harold,  before  he  became  king,  on  the  coast  of  Normandy,  and  he 
was  delivered  up  to  Duke  William,  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of 
the  times,  shipwrecked  men  being  regarded  as  abandoned  by  the  judg- 
ment of  Heaven  to  the  lord  of  the  coast  on  which  the  tempest  drove 
them,  who  could  keep  them  captive,  and  even  put  them  to  torture, 
in  order  to  obtain  a  ransom.  William,  when  master  of  Harold's 
person,  made  him  swear  that  he  would  help  him,  after  the  death  of 
Edward,  to  obtain  the  kingdom  of  England ;  but  Harold  did  not 
afterwards  consider  himself  bound  by  an  oath  which  had  been  extorted 
by  violence.  When,  therefore,  the  throne  of  England  became  vacant, 
and  Harold,  succeeding  to  it,  had  been  crowned,  William  reminded 
Harold  of  his  promise,  and  appealed  to  a  true  or  false  will  of  Edward 
the  Confessor  in  support  of  his  claim,  declaring  at  the  same  time  that 
he  would  leave  the  matter  to  the  decision  of  the  Church.  A  consistory 
held  at  the  Lateran  pronounced  in  his  favour,  and,  on  the  instigation 
of  the  monk  Hildebrand,  adjudged  England  to  him,  by  sending  him, 
together  with  a  consecrated  standard,  the  diploma  of  sovereign  of  that 
country.  A  great  battle,  fought  in  1066  near  Hastings,  between  the 
rivals  to  the  English  crown,  decided  the  war.  Harold  lost  his  life  in  it, 
and  England,  after  an  obstinate  contest,  became  a  conquest  of  the  Nor- 
mans. William  distributed  all  the  estates  as  fiefs  to  his  knights ;  and 
from  this  time  feudalism  spread  over  this  country  the  net- work  with 
which  it  already  covered  France,  Germany,  and  Italy.  A  few  years  after- 


987-1108]  THE    MONK    HILDEBRAND.  151 

wards  a  prince  of  the  house*  of  France,  Henry  of  Burgundy,  founded 
the  kingdom  of  Portugal,  after  a  long  series  of  victories  gained  oyer 
the  infidels.  These  great  events  inflamed  minds,  and  disposed  the 
nations  for  adventurous  expeditions  in  remote  countries :  they  were 
the  precursors  of  the  crusades,  or  wars  undertaken  for  the  deliverance 
of  the  Holy  Land. 

A  revolution,  of  which  the  celebrated  Hildebrand  was  the  principal 
author,  was  at  this  time  accomplished  in  the  Church.  The  tenth  cen- 
tury more  especially  had  been  for  her  a  period  of  desolation ;  the  see 
of  St.  Peter  had  become  the  prey  of  intrigue  and  violence  :  and  these 
disorders  were  not  the  only  evils  that  afflicted  the  Church.  Prom  the 
time  the  clergy,  in  order  to  defend  their  domains,  had  hastened  to 
enter  the  feudal  hierarchy,  they  had  been  bound  down  by  the  autho- 
rity of  the  princes  and  their  great  vassals.  Nearly  all  the  bishops  of 
Prance  held  fiefs  of  the  crown,  and  in  the  course  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury there  was  an  odious  traffic  in  ecclesiastical  lands  and  dignities, 
which  were  not  given,  as  formerly,  to  the  most  worthy,  but  to  the 
highest  bidder.  The  Pope  himself,  who  at  that  epoch  was  chosen  by 
the  clergy  and  the  people,  was  constrained  to  demand  of  the  Emperor 
of  Germany,  as  successor  of  Charlemagne,  the  confirmation  of  his 
election,  and  the  Emperor  Henry  III.,  taking  advantage  of  the  intes- 
tine divisions  among  the  Romans,  claimed  the  sole  right  of  nominating 
and  appointing  the  successors  of  St.  Peter.  Such  was  the  situation  of 
the  Church  towards  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century.  Nicholas  II., 
who  had  just  ascended  the  pontifical  seat,  had  as  councillor  a  monk 
who  felt  indignant  at  the  vices  of  the  ecclesiastics,  the  degrada- 
tion of  the  Church,  and  the  encroachments  of  the  temporal  power 
on  the  spiritual  authority.  This  monk,  this  man  so  celebrated  in 
religious  history,  was  Hildebrand.  He  resolved  to  deprive  the  feudal 
lords  of  every  species  of  influence  over  the  clergy,  to  strengthen  the 
ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  and  to  raise  the  Pope  above  the  kings  of  the 
earth,  hoping  thus  to  enable  the  Church  to  recover  her  efficiency,  her 
splendour,  and  all  her  power.  Such  a  prospect  of  universal  supremacy 
was,  in  the  age  of  Hildebrand,  a  conception  of  genius.  This  great 
man  had  consulted  the  spirit  of  his  age.  The  rights  of  humanity 
were  nowhere  respected ;  the  nations,  oppressed  by  a  thousand 
tyrants,  had  no  other  representatives,  and  no  other  natural  defenders, 


152  HILDEBRAND    CHOSEN    POPE.  [BookI.   Chap.  II. 

than  tlie  clergy.  Most  of  the  members  of  this  order  come  from  the 
lower  classes ;  and  ecclesiastical  dignities,  and  even  the  tiara  itself, 
were  often  bestowed  on  men  of  the  most  obscure  birth ;  so  that  the 
voice  of  the  Church  combating  the  temporal  power  might,  to  some 
extent,  be  regarded  as  the  energetic  protest  of  the  people  against  their 
oppressors.  There  was  merit  and  grandeur,  under  the  feudal  des- 
potism, in  determining  to  regenerate  the  world  on  a  Christian  basis, 
by  giving  it  as  guide  the  man  who  was  universally  recognized  as  the 
visible  chief  of  Christianity.  Hildebrand's  honour  consists  in  having 
re- animated  religious  enthusiasm  by  attempting  to  enfranchise  the 
spiritual  authority  of  the  Church  from  all  temporal  servitude  ;  his 
error  consisted  in  having  listened  too  much  to  his  own  ambition,  in 
attempting  to  render  the  political  government  of  the  princes  subser- 
vient to  the  ecclesiastical  authority. 

Many  priests  and  bishops  contracted,  by  marriage,  ties  which  ren- 
dered them  dependent  on  the  princes.  Nicholas  broke  those  ties  :  he 
forbade  the  marriage  of  priests,  and  severely  punished  monks  living 
in  a  state  of  concubinage. 

Hildebrand  was  chosen  in  1073,  by  the  people  and  clergy  of  Rome, 
as  the  successor  of  Pope  Alexander  III.  At  first,  he  deferentially  asked 
his  confirmation  of  the  Emperor  Henry  IY.,  and  when  he  had  obtained 
it,  he  displayed  under  the  name  of  Gregory  VII.  his  vast  and  haughty 
genius  and  his  inflexible  character.  He  withdrew  the  nomination  of 
the  Popes  from  the  influence  of  the  Emperors  by  establishing  the  Col- 
lege of  Cardinals,  specially  entrusted  with  the  election  of  the  Pontiff: 
he  renewed  the  bull  condemning  the  marriage  of  priests  ;  he  prohi- 
bited emperors,  kings,  and  the  great  vassals  from  giving  ecclesiastical 
investitures  to  bishops  ;  and,  finally,  he  published  the  famous  decretals 
known  by  the  name  of  Dictatus  J?apce,  in  which  he  placed  among  the 
papal  privileges  those  of  deposing  emperors,  of  making  monarchs  kiss 
his  feet,  of  judging  without  appeal,  and  of  being  made  holy  by  the 
mere  fact  of  ordination. 

Philip  I.,  King  of  Prance,  and  Henry  IV.,  Emperor  of  Germany, 
were  both  leading  at  this  time  a  life  full  of  scandal  and  violence  ; 
and  in  order  to  supply  their  unbounded  extravagance,  they  carried  on, 
in  defiance  of  Gregory's  prohibition,  the  most  disgraceful  traffic  in 
Church  endowments.      The  indignant  Pontiff  threatened  Philip  with 


987-1108]  DEATH    OF   GEEGOEY   VII.  153 

excommunication,  and  laid  it  upon  the  Emperor.  An  obstinate  war 
began  between  them,  which  is  known  in  history  by  the  name  of  "  The 
War  of  Investitures,"  because  the  Pope  maintained  by  it  his  prohibition 
of  princes  investing  bishops,  and  reserved  that  right  solely  for  himself. 
In  this  celebrated  war  the  principal  allies  of  the  Pontiff  were  the 
Normans  of  Apulia  and  Sicily,  and  the  Countess  Matilda,  sovereign  of 
Tuscany.  Gregory  VII.  liberated  the  subjects  of  Henry  from  the 
oath  of  allegiance  ;  and  the  Emperor,  abandoned  by  them,  found  him- 
self reduced  to  implore  pardon  of  his  haughty  victor :  he  presented 
himself  as  a  suppliant  in  the  month  of  January,  1077,  at  the  Castle  of 
Canossa,  the  residence  of  the  Pope,  who  insulted  his  misfortune,  and, 
before  granting  absolution  to  him,  compelled  the  Emperor  to  remain 
for  three  days  and  nights  in  a  court  of  the  palace,  exposed  to  the 
severe  cold,  with  his  bare  feet  in  the  snow.  At  length  he  deigned  to 
absolve  him.  But  so  many  outrages  had  revolted  the  crowned  heads 
and  moved  the  partisans  of  the  Emperor  with  indignation.  Henry  IY. 
avenged  himself,  and  Gregory  VII.  died  in  exile.  The  colossal  edifice 
raised  by  this  Pontiff  did  not  perish  with  him ;  his  successors  con- 
solidated it  amid  terrible  upheavals  in  the  Empire  and  the  Church : 
he  had  founded  the  universal  monarchy  of  the  Popes  on  a  durable 
basis,  on  the  ruling  spirit  of  his  age,  and  this  supremacy  attained  one 
hundred  years  afterwards  its  culminating  point.  The  Crusades  con- 
tributed greatly  to  its  consolidation ;  Gregory  conceived  the  idea,  but 
it  was  not  given  to  him  to  see  its  accomplishment :  the  first  of  those 
memorable  events  had  its  origin  in  the  time  of  Philip  I.,  and  under  the 
Pontificate  of  Urban  II. 

Palestine,  or  the  Holy  Land,  held  for  many  ages  by  the  Mussulmans, 
had  been  one  of  the  first  victories  of  the  disciples  of  Mahomet,  and 
henceforward  the  subjugation  of  that  country  had  been  a  theme  of 
indignation  and  sorrow  to  Christendom.  It  was  believed  that  an 
especial  sanctity  was  attached  to  the  places  where  Christ  had  suffered 
death  for  mankind,  and  where  his  tomb  was  yet  to  be  seen.  The  pil- 
grimage to  Jerusalem  was  regarded  as  the  most  effectual  means  for  the 
expiation  of  sins ;  and  great  numbers  of  pilgrims  journeyed,  alone  or 
in  bands,  to  Palestine,  to  pray  at  the  tomb  of  the  Saviour.  Already 
adventurous  knights,  after  seeking  through  Europe  new  fields  for  their 
valour,  had  carried  defiance  to  the  Mussulman ;  but  most  of  these  had 


154  PETER  THE   HEEMIT.  [Book  I.    Chap.  II. 

been  slain,  only  a  few  returned  to  Europe,  where  the  recital  of  their 
perils,  and  of  their  glorious  deeds  of  arms,  filled  every  soul  with  an 
ardent  and  pious  emulation. 

Such  was  the  public  disposition  of  feeling,  when  an  enthusiast,  known 
as  Peter  the  Hermit,  quitted  the  town  of  Amiens,  his  native  place, 
to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem.  The  sight  of  the  holy  places 
excited  to  the  highest  degree  his  pious  fervour  :  he  returned  to  Europe 
and  repaired  to  Italy.  There  he  exhorted  Pope  Urban  II.  to  place 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  nations  of  Europe,  conjoined  for  the 
deliverance  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  and  the  rescue  of  the  bones  of  the 
Saints  from  the  hands  of  the  Mussulmans. 

He  won  over  the  Pontiff  to  his  views,  and  received  from  him  letters 
to  all  the  Christian  princes,  with  the  mission  of  stimulating  them  to 
this  holy  enterprise.  Peter  travelled  throughout  Europe  ;  he  inflamed 
the  imagination  of  the  nobles  and  the  people,  he  preached  to  them 
salvation,  and  promised  them  Paradise  if  they  would  go  to  Palestine. 
Two  years  later,  in  1095,  a  council,  convoked  by  Urban,  assembled  at 
Clermont,  in  Auvergne.  A  prodigious  number  of  princes  and  nobles 
of  all  ranks  flocked  thither,  and  three  hundred  and  ten  bishops  sup- 
ported the  solemnity  under  the  presidency  of  the  Pope  himself.  After 
having  decided  clerical  affairs,  Urban  drew  a  pathetic  picture  of  the 
desolation  of  the  holy  shrines,  he  lamented  bitterly  the  afflictions 
suffered  by  the  Christians  of  Palestine,  and  the  listening  throng  burst 
into  sobs  and  tears. 

The  Pontiff  next  recounted  the  audacity  and  insolence  of  the 
enemies  of  Christ,  and,  indignant  at  such  outrages,  exclaimed  in  the 
tone  of  inspiration :  "  Enrol  yourselves  under  the  banners  of  God ; 
advance,  sword  in  hand,  like  true  children  of  Israel,  into  the  Land  of 
Promise ;  charge  boldly,  and  doubt  not  that,  opening  a  path  through 
the  armies  of  the  infidels  and  the  numbers  of  their  host,  the  Cross 
will  ever  be  victorious  for  the  Crusader.  Make  yourselves  masters  of 
those  fertile  lands  which  infidels  have  usurped ;  drive  out  thence  heresy 
and  impiety ;  in  short,  make  their  land  to  produce  palms  only  for  you, 
and  out  of  their  spoils  raise  magnificent  trophies  to  Griory,  Religion, 
and  the  French  nation." 

At  these  words  the  transport  was  general,  his  hearers  quivered  with 
indignation,   and  impatiently   desired   to   arm  at  once  —  at  once  to 


f 


987-1108]  THE    FIRST   CRUSADE.  155 

depart : — "  Let  us  go,"  said  the  whole  assembly:  "  it  is  the  will  of  God  ! 
it  is  the  will  of  God  !  " 

"Go  then,"  replied  the  Pontiff:  "  go,  brave  champions  of  Jesus 
Christ,  avenge  His  wrong ;  and,  since  all  together  have  cried,  '  It 
is  the  will  of  God ! '  let  those  words  be  the  battle-cry  of  your  holy 
enterprise." 

The  distinctive  sign,  common  to  all  these  warriors,  was  a  cross  of  red 
cloth  worn  on  the  right  shoulder,  and  from  this  was  derived  the  word 
"  Crusade.''''  The  princes  and  nobles  received  such  crosses  from  the 
hands  of  the  Pope ;  the  people  came  in  a  crowd,  and  the  cardinals  and 
bishops  distributed  them  with  their  benedictions :  to  take  the  Cross 
was  to  vow  to  make  the  sacred  journey. 

The  Crusaders  separated  to  prepare  for  departure  and  to  communicate 
to  all  their  pious  ardour.  The  general  meeting  of  the  ardent  host  was 
fixed  for  the  spring  of  the  following  year.  The  enthusiasm  extended 
to  every  class,  each  one  desired  to  merit  salvation  by  devoting  himself 
to  a  desperate  undertaking,  by  essaying  an  adventurous  life  in  unknown 
lands.  An  immense  number  of  serfs,  peasants,  homeless  wanderers, 
and  even  women  and  children,  assembled  together,  and  their  impatience 
could  brook  neither  obstacles  nor  delays ;  they  divided  into  two  bands, 
led,  the  one  by  Peter  the  Hermit,  the  other  by  a  knight  named  "  "Walter 
the  Moneyless."  Their  fanatic  zeal  displayed  itself  on  the  way  by 
a  general  massacre  of  the  Jews.  They  devastated  for  their  support 
the  countries  which  they  passed  through,  raising  up  in  arms  against 
themselves  the  outraged  populations ;  and  almost  all  perished  of  famine, 
fatigue,  and  misery  before  reaching  the  Holy  Land. 

Notwithstanding,  the  flower  of  European  chivalry  took  up  arms  for 
the  Cross,  the  nobles  pawned  their  property  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  the  enterprise  ;  they  divided  themselves  into  three  formidable 
armies :  the  first  was  commanded  by  Robert  Curt-Hose,  son  of 
William  the  Conqueror,  the  second  by  Godfrey  de  Bouillon,  the  hero 
of  his  age,  the  third  and  last  marched  under  the  banner  of  the  Count 
of  Toulouse,  Raymond  de  Saint- Gilles.  Godfrey  was  proclaimed 
commander-in-chief;  ten  thousand  knights  followed  him  with  seventy 
thousand  men  on  foot  from  France,  Lorraine,  and  Germany  ;  the 
general  muster  was  at  Constantinople,  where  reigned  Alexis  Com- 
nenus.     This  Emperor  received  them  with  discourtesy,  and  hastened 


156  DEATH    OP   WILLIAM    THE    CONQUEROR.  [Book  I.  CHAP.  II. 

to  give  them  vessels  to  cross  the  Bosphorus,  after  having  cunningly 
obtained  from  them  the  oath  of  homage  for  their  future  conquests. 
The  Crusaders  first  possessed  themselves  of  Mcea,  then  of  Antioch, 
through  sanguinary  struggles,  and  at  length  achieved  the  conquest  of 
Jerusalem. 

In  1099,  a  Christian  kingdom  was  founded  in  Palestine  :  Godfrey  de 
Bouillon  was  its  recognized  king,  but  contented  himself  with  the  title  of 
"Baron  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre."  Feudalism  was  organized  in  the 
East ;  three  great  fiefs  of  the  crown  of  Jerusalem  were  created  :  there 
were  the  principalities  of  Antioch  and  Edessa,  and  the  Earldom  of 
Tripoli ;  they  had  a  Marquis  of  Jaffa,  a  Prince  of  Galilee,  a  Baron  of 
Sidon,  and  the  name  of  "  Franks "  became  in  Asia  an  appellation 
common  to  all  Eastern  Christians:  Such  were  the  principal  facts  of 
that  first  and  celebrated  Crusade.  There  only  returned  to  Europe 
one- tenth  of  the  number  who  quitted  it. 

Philip  I.  did  not  associate  himself  with  that  expedition.  He  took 
no  part  in  the  great  enterprises  which  signalized  the  age  in  which  he 
lived,  and  his  reign  offers  nothing  worthy  of  record.  In  10 72,  the 
widow  of  his  tutor,  Baldwin,  Count  of  Flanders,  having  been  deposed 
by  her  son  Robert  le  Trison,  had  recourse  to  Philip  ;  the  king  took  up 
arms  for  her,  marched  against  Robert,  and  suffered  an  ignominious 
defeat  before  Cassel.  He  also  carried  on  a  war  for  twelve  years  against 
William  the  Conqueror,  which  was  not  marked  by  any  memorable 
event.  William  gained  over  the  councillors  and  partisans  of  Philip 
by  offering  them  the  bribe  of  large  estates  in  England.  Philip,  on  his 
side,  promised  protection  to  all  the  Norman  malcontents,  and  espoused 
the  cause  of  Robert,  eldest  son  of  William,  in  rebellion  against  his 
father.  After  a  truce,  and  during  an  illness  of  the  duke,  he  derided 
him  on  account  of  his  excessive  stoutness,  asking  when  he  expected 
his  accouchement.  William  heard  of  it,  and  furious,  swore  that  at  his 
"  churching  "  he  would  send  him  ten  thousand  lances  in  place  of 
tapers.  He  assembled  a  formidable  army,  and  carried  fire  and  sword 
through  Philip's  dominions,  but  at  the  sack  of  Mantes  his  horse 
stumbled,  and  the  rider  was  wounded  in  the  fall.  They  carried 
William  in  a  dying  condition  to  Rouen,  where  he  expired  in  1087.  He 
was  scarcely  dead  when  the  nobles  who  surrounded  him  left  hastily  for 
their  castles ;  his  servants  pillaged  his  valuables,  carried  off  even  the 


987-11081  DEATH    OF   PHILIP   1.  157 

funeral  bed,  and  left  the  naked  body  of  the  Conqueror  on  the  floor.  A 
poor  knight  found  it  in  that  condition,  and  touched  by  compassion 
undertook  the  care  of  the  funeral  rites  for  the  love  of  God  and  the 
honour  of  his  nation.  The  body  was  put  into  a  coffin  at  his  expense  and 
transported  to  Caen,  where  it  was  to  be  buried  in  a  church  founded  by 
William  himself.  At  the  moment  when  the  funeral  oration  was  being 
pronounced,  and  the  body  about  to  be  lowered  into  the  grave,  a  Norman 
named  Asseline  advanced,  and  said  : — "  This  ground  belongs  to  me  ; 
that  man  whose  eulogy  you  are  pronouncing  robbed  me  of  it.  Here, 
even  here,  stood  my  paternal  mansion ;  this  man  seized  it  against  all 
justice,  and  without  paying  the  price  of  it.  In  the  name  of  God,  I 
forbid  you  to  cover  the  body  of  the  plunderer  with  earth  that  belongs 
to  me." 

Notable  example  of  the  vanity  of  an  existence  which  offers  the  most 
singular  mixture  of  grandeur  and  iniquity,  of  violent  barbarities  and 
useful  and  fruitful  creations !  This  William,  the  conqueror  of  a  great 
kingdom,  who  had  grasped  immense  domains  in  a  strange  country,  only 
obtained  through  pity  a  grave  upon  his  native  soil ;  those  who  assisted 
at  his  burial  were  obliged  to  put  down  the  price  of  it  on  his  coffin. 
None  of  his  three  sons  paid  him  the  last  duties,  but  they  made 
furious  war  over  his  heritage ;  William  Rufus  succeeded  him  in 
England,  and  ended  by  seizing  upon  Normandy,  while  Robert  was 
fighting  in  Palestine. 

The  death  of  the  redoubtable  William  was  a  great  source  of  joy  to 
Philip,  and  allowed  him  to  continue  his  indolent  and  scandalous  career. 
He  had  married  Bertha,  the  daughter  of  Count  Plorent  of  Holland  ;  he 
left  and  imprisoned  her  ;  afterwards  he  carried  off  Bertrade,  the  wife 
of  Foulque  le  Rechin,  Count  of  Anjou,  and  married  her.  Pope  Urban 
ordered  the  dissolution  of  this  marriage,  and  on  the  refusal  of  Philip, 
a  council,  assembled  at  Autun  in  1094,  sentenced  him  to  excommunica- 
tion. Philip  was  not  permitted  to  carry  longer  the  outward  marks  of 
royalty  :  he  was  afflicted  with  grievous  infirmities,  in  which  he  recog- 
nized the  hand  of  God;  at  length,  in  the  year  1100,  he  associated 
his  son  Louis  with  himself  in  the  kingdom,  and  reigned  only  in  name. 
A  dreadful  fear  of  hell  seized  him ;  he  renounced  through  humility  the 
regal  privilege  of  being  interred  in  the  tomb  of  the  kings  at  St.  Denis, 
and  died  in  1108  in  the  habit  of  a  Benedictine  friar. 


1-58  THE    SEVEN    GEEAT    FIEFS.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  II. 

The  extent  of  the  royal  possessions,  properly  speaking,  varied  little 
under  the  first  Capets  :  its  limits  were  those  of  the  ancient  duchy  of 
France.  The  authority  of  the  King  was  not  exercised  freely  and 
directly,  except  in  his  quality  of  Duke  of  France,  and  only  in  some  of 
the  cities  of  that  duchy  ;  and  between  these  even  the  communications 
were  difficult.  The  great  fiefs  of  the  crown  to  the  number  of  seven 
were  the  same  as  under  Hugh  Capet,  the  duchy  of  France,  to  the  pos- 
session of  which  the  royal  title  was  attached,  the  duchies  of  Normandy, 
of  Burgundy,  and  of  Guienne  or  Aquitaine,  and  the  baronies  of  Flan- 
ders, Champagne,  and  Toulouse  ;  to  these  great  states  must  be  added, 
beyond  the  Pyrenees,  the  barony  of  Barcelona.*  The  seven  great  fiefs 
held  each  in  their  tenure  inferior  fiefs,  of  whom  many  were  themselves 
very  considerable. 

The  duchy  of  France  had  for  its  principal  fiefs  the  baronies  of  Paris 
and  Orleans,  the  barony  of  Maine,  and  that  of  Anjou. 

From  the  duchy  of  Normandy  arose  the  barony  of  Britanny,  those 
of  Alencon,  Aumale,  Evreux,  Mortain,  and  many  other  great 
seigniories. 

The  duchy  of  Burgundy  held  in  its  tenure  the  baronies  of  Bar, 
Nevers,  Charolais,  &c. 

Upon  the  vast  duchy  of  Guienne  or  Aquitaine  were  dependent  the 
duchy  of  Gascoigne,  the  baronies  of  Berry,  Poitiers,  Marche,  Angouleme, 
and  Perigord,  &c. 

The  barony  of  Flanders  comprised  Ponthieu,  Artois,  Hainault,  &c. 

The  barony  of  Champagne,  which  in  1019  annexed  the  vast 
possessions  of  the  counts  of  Vermandois,  comprised  under  its  tenure 
the  baronies  of  Meaux,  Troyes,  Blois,  Chartres,  Valois,  Rhethel,  &c. 

The  barony  of  Toulouse  comprised  within  itself  the  baronies  of 
Quercy  and  Romagne,  the  marquisate  of  Provence,  detached  from  the 
ancient  kingdom  of  Aries,  and  which  received  also  the  name  of  the 
barony  of  Venaissin.  The  Seven  Great  Fiefs  became  the  viscounty 
of  Narbonne,  &c. 

All  the  fiefs  of  the  lower  order  had  themselves  in  their  tenure  many 

*  Brittany  and  Anjou  have  often  "been  declared  as  being  fiefs  to  the  crown  under  the 
early  Capetian  kings.  This  is  an  error.  Brittany  was  directly  allied  to  the  duchy  of 
Normandy,  and  Anjou  to  the  duchy  of  France.  Philip  I.  received  direct  homage  from 
the  Count  of  Anjou,  not  as  King,  but  as  Duke  of  France. 


987-1108]  THE    FIEFS    OWNED    BY   THE    CLERGY.  159 

"  arriere  fiefs,"  which  mostly  consisted  of  "  vicomtes  des  villes," 
"baronnies,"  "  chatellenies,"  each  one  containing  parishes  or  villages  ; 
below  these  fiefs  we  find  those  of  simple  possessors  of  chateaux. 

The  clergy  possessed  of  itself  a  great  number  of  very  important 
fiefs.  The  archbishops  and  bishops  were  lords  of  the  city,  or  part  of 
the  city  where  their  seat  was  situated,  and  suzerains  of  many  con- 
siderable baronies  and  seigniories.  Many  abbots  at  length  were 
lords  of  the  cities  where  their  monastery  raised  its  head,  and  possessed 
also  other  seigniories.  The  abbots  of  St.  Germain,  of  St.  Genevieve, 
and  of  St.  Yictor,  were  each  one  suzerain  ofa"  quarter"  of  Paris.  The 
abbot  of  Fecamp  possessed  ten  baronies,  that  of  St.  Martin  de  Tours 
had  twenty  thousand  serfs  on  his  domains.  And  one  may  gain  an 
idea  of  the  immensity  of  the  ecclesiastical  possessions  in  the  twelfth 
century,  when  we  know  that  at  that  time  France  counted  about  2,000 
monasteries  on  her  soil. 


1G0  ACCESSION   OF   LOUIS   VI."  [Book  I.  Chap.  III. 


CHAPTER    III. 

REIGNS    OF    LOUIS    VI.    AND    LOUIS  VII. 

1108-1179. 

LOUIS   VI. 

The   reign  of  Philip  I.   and  of  his  immediate  predecessors  had  been 
,         nothing;  but  one  long1*  anarchy  ;  vet  France  had  not  re- 

Accession  of  °  °  *    '    •> 

Loms  vi.  1108.  mained  stationary,  she  had  made  great  progress  at  the 
end  of  the  eleventh  century.  Her  cities  were  more  numerous,  more 
populous,  more  industrious.  Her  citizen  class  began  to  enfranchise 
itself,  and  defended  its  liberties  by  force  of  arms.  The  language  and 
poetry  of  France  arose ;  at  length,  the  clergy  encouraged  with  all  their 
power  the  progress  of  literary  and  scientific  instruction  ;  they  crowned 
v/ith  rewards  and  raised  to  the  highest  dignity  those  who  dis- 
tinguished themselves  by  their  learning ;  but  the  studies  of  this  age 
consisted  solely  of  subtle  discussions  on  logic  and  theology. 

The  earlier  of  the  Capetian  kings  had  remained  ignorant  of,  and 
almost  indifferent  to,  the  progress  of  France  under  their  rule,  and  had 
outwardly  exercised  no  personal  influence.  Louis  VI.,  nicknamed  at 
first  L'Eveille,  afterwards  Le  Grros  and  Le  Batailleur,  understood  best 
the  spirit  of  his  times.  He  was  the  first  knight  in  his  kingdom,  and  it 
was  with  casque  on  head  and  lance  in  rest  that  he  sought  and  won 
the  esteem  of  every  one.  His  personal  estates,  almost  confined  to  the 
cities  of  Paris,  Orleans,  Etamps,  Melun,  Compeigne  and  their  terri- 
tories, were  bordered  on  the  north  by  those  of  Robert  le  Jerosolymitain, 
Count  of  Flanders,  and  on  the  east  by  the  estates  of  Hugues  I.,  Count 
of  Champagne.  The  dominions  of  Thibaut,  Count  of  Meaux,  Chartres 
and  Blois,  and  those  of  Foulque  V.,  Count  of  Anjou  and  Touraine, 
closed  in  on  the  south  this  feeble  kingdom  of  France,  which  the  vast 
possessions  of  Henry  I.,  son  of  William  the  Conqueror,  King  of 
England  and  Duke  of  Normandy,  confined  on  the  west.     During  the 


1108-1179]  WAR   AGAINST   HIS    VASSALS.  1G1 

whole  of  his  life  Louis  liad  to  contend  with  these  powerful  enemies, 
of  whom  the  most  formidable   was  Henry  I.     After   a   aj_  *     ,     . 

J  Stnig-prle  ot 

preliminary  struggle,  unfruitful  in  any  important  result,  Louis vi.  against 
as  to  the  possession  of  the  Castle  of  Gisors,  he  em-  of  El)o'laud- 
braced  against  Henry  the  cause  of  his  nephew  William  Clinton,  the 
son  of  Robert  Curt-Hose,  and  dispossessed,  as  was  his  father,  of  the 
duchy  of  Normandy.  Louis  YI.  was  vanquished  at  the  battle  of 
Brennevilie,  fought  in  1119.  He  made  an  appeal  also  to  the  militia  of 
the  cities  and  of  the  Church,  and  found  them  disposed  to  second  him ; 
the  prelates  ordered  the  inferior  clergy  to  summon  their  parishioners 
to  arms,  and  these,  led  by  their  pastors,  ranged  themselves  under  the 
royal  standard,  and  entered  with  Louis  "VI.  into  Normandy,  where 
they  committed  great  ravages.  A  council  was  assembled  at  Bheims, 
under  the  presidency  of  Pope  Calixtus  II. ,  with  the  intention  of 
putting  an  end  to  this  ruinous  war.  Louis  presented  himself  there 
and  recited  his  grievances.  The  conditions  of  peace  were  decided 
by  the  council.  Henry  was  to  remain  in  possession  of  Normandy,  for 
which  his  son  should  render  homage  to  the  King  of  France. 

Besides  this  important  war,  Louis  le  Gros  sustained  an  almost 
incessant  contest  against  his  own  barons,  and  amongst   ,Tr         .    , 

o  '  o         War  against 

others  against  Thomas  de  Maries,  son  of  Enguerrand  de  lus  vassals- 
Coucy.  They  infested  like  brigands  the  roads  around  Paris  and 
Orleans,  pillaging  villages  and  destroying  the  traders.  The  King,  b}r 
force  of  arms,  reduced  a  great  number  of  them  to  obedience,  or  at 
least  rendered  them  powerless  for  evil,  thus  securing  public  safety  in 
his  dominions.  But  such  was  the  weakness  at  this  period  of  a  King  of 
France,  that  Philip  I.  had  all  his  life  vainly  endeavoured  to  seize  on 
the  castle  of  the  sire  de  Monthery,  six  leagues  from  the  capital.  This 
baron  was  stained  with  the  crime  of  brigandage,  and  very 're  doubtable. 
Louis  le  Gros  overcame  him  in  his  stronghold,  and  reunited  it  by  this 
change  of  owners  to  the  seigniory  of  his  territories. 

The  King  associated  his  elder  son  Philip  with  himself  in  the  govern- 
ment. This  young  prince,  who  gave  bright  promise,  was  killed  acci- 
dentally, and  the  King  substituted  for  him  his  second  son  Louis, 
surnamed  the  Young.     He  continued  without  success  his  war  against 

o  -  o 

Henry  I.,  who  died  in  1135.     A  sanguinary  struggle  ensued  for  the 
succession  to  that  prince's  crown  between   Stephen  of  Boulogne,  his, 

M 


162  DEATH    OF   LOUIS   LE    GEOS.  [BOOK  I.  Chap.  III. 

nephew,  and  his  daughter  Margaret,  widow  of  the  Emperor  Henri  V., 
and  married  a  second  time  to  Geoffrey  Plantagenet,  Connt  of  Anjon, 
the  founder  of  the  celebrated  house  of  Plantagenet  which  reigned  so 
long  in  England.  William  X.,  the  powerful  Duke  of  Aquitaine  and 
Count  of  Poitou,  supported  the  pretensions  of  Geoffrey,  and  with  him 
carried  fire  and  sword  through  Normandy,  but  returned  covered  with 
the  maledictions  of  the  people.  William,  overcome  by  remorse,  under- 
Marriageof  took   a   pilgrimage    to    St.    James    of    Compostella,   jlu 

■withSEieanorUofS   Spain,  and  offered  his  daughter  Eleanor  to  Louis,  son  of 

quuame.  ^g  ]^ing  0f  France.     This   alliance  promised  to   double 

the  estates  of  the  King,  who  hastened  to  conclude  it ;  he  sent  his  son 
into  Aquitaine  with  a  brilliant  cortege,  and  the  marriage  was  cele- 
Death  of  brated  between  the  solemnisation  of  two  funerals  ; — that 

Louis  vi.  1137.  0f  William  X.,  who  sank  on  his  pilgrimage,  and  that 
of  Louis  le  Gtos,  who  died  the  same  year,  in  1137. 

We  observe  in  this  reign,  and  more  especially  after  the  battle  of 
Brenneville,  that  the  alliance  of  the  King  with  the  Church  and  with  the 
commons  of  the  kingdom  becomes  apparent.  The  support  of  the  King 
was  necessary  to  the  Church  and  the  rising  bourgeoisie,  to  enable  them 
to  resist  the  oppression  of  the  feudal  nobility.  It  was  to  this  com- 
munity of  interests  that  the  kings  of  France  owed  in  a  great  measure, 
firstly,  the  preservation  of  their  crown,  and  subsequently  their  influence 
and  their  conquests.  The  sanction,  accorded  by  Louis  "VI.  to  the 
enfranchisements  of  many  communes,  illustrated  the  spirit  of  his  reign.* 
Nevertheless  he  did  nothing  but  legitimize  revolutions  already  accom- 
plished, almost  always  sanctioning,  under  condition  of  a  pecuniary 
compensation,  arrangements  or  treaties  concluded  between  the  nobles 
and  bourgeoisie  ;  sometimes  even,  as  we  may  see  in  the  quarrel  between 
the  commune  of  Laon  with  its  bishop,  after  having  sold  to  the 
bourgeoisie  for  a  heavy  sum  certain  privileges,  he  would  receive  money 
from  their  seigneurs  for  permitting  the  latter  to  revoke  them.  On  this 
occasion  the  inhabitants 'of  the  village  revolted,  murdered  their  lord, 
their  bishop,  and  sought  the  support  of  the  renowned  Thomas  de  Maries, 
who  defended  them  for  some  time  against  the  King,  and  finished  by 
falling  with  them.  Louis  VI.  in  his  conduct  towards  the  bourgeoisie  of 
the  cities  was  in  no  way  actuated  by  zeal  for  the  public  liberty,  he  cared 

*  For  an  account  of  the  condition  of  the  commons  in  the  twelfth  century,  see  Chap.  VI. 


1108-1179]  ACCESSION   OP   LOUIS   VIJ".  163 

only  for  the  needs  of  his  treasury,  which  was  recruited  in  this  manner, 
and  for  the  interests  of  his  power,  which  continued  to  increase  up  to  the 
time  of  his  death,  especially  in  the  centre  of  France,  where  the  royal 
authority  had  before  him   been  almost    disregarded,  and  where   he 
caused  it  to  be  respected.     He  did  not  care  to  accord,  within  his  own 
dominions,  those  privileges  which  he  ratified  on   the   territories    of 
others,  and  we  can  recognize  in  him  neither  the  founder  of  the  liberties 
of  the  people,  nor  an  enemy  to  the   privileges  of  the  nobility.     An 
illustrious  man,  the  Abbe  Suger,  acquired  at  this  period        er  Abb-of 
a  reputation  as  a  statesman,  a  great  politician,   and  a   St- Dems- 
profound  scholar ;  he  obtained  by  his  individual  merit  the  celebrated 
abbacy  of  St.  Denis,  the  sanctuary  of  the  first  patron-saint  of  the 
kingdom,*  and  was  in  the  following  reign  charged  with  the  regency  of 
the  State. 

LOUIS    VII. 

Louis  VII.,  surnamed  the  Young,  exhibited  on  ascending  the  throne 
a  spirit  as  warlike  as  his  father.     He  supported  Geoffrev    * 

r  rr  J     Accession  of 

Plantagenet  against  his  rival  Stephen,  and  aided  him  JjjStSthe 
to  conquer  Normandy,  for  which  Geoffrey  did  homage.  Youns> 1137- 
England  remained  to  Stephen,  who  recognized  the  son  of  Geoffrey  and 
Matilda  as  heir  to  his  crown.  Louis  kept  the  barons  and  the  clergy 
in  order  :  he  opposed  the  usurpations  of  Pope  Innocent  II.,  and  re- 
fused to  recognize  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges,  elected  by  that  Pontiff, 
"who  soon  laid  an  interdict  on  every  place  where  the  King  stayed. 
Louis  the  Young  was  the  fourth  Oapetian  King  thus  struck  at  by  the 
Holy  See.  No  family  had  shown  more  deference  towards  the  Court 
of  Home,  none  had  been  treated  by  her  with  more  rigour. 

The  most  memorable  event  of  this  reign  is  the  second  Crusade, 
preached  with  immense  success  by  Saint  Bernard,  Abbot  of  Clairvaux, 
and  commanded  by  the  King  in  person.  Louis  believed  that  he  had  a  great 
crime  to  expiate  :  in  a  war  with  Thibaut,  Count  of  Champagne,  his  sol- 

*  "  Montjoie  et  Saint  Denis  !"  was  for  a  lengthened  period  the  war-cry  of  the  French ; 
the  banner  tinder  which  the  vassals  of  the  abbey  fought  became  the  national  standard. 
Louis  the  Fat  and  his  successor  took  it  from  the  altar  on  which  it  reposed  when  setting 
forth  upon  an  expedition,  and  returned  it  thence  in  pomp  at  the  conclusion  of  the  war. 
It  bore  the  name  of  "  oriflamme,"  because  the  staff  was  covered  with  gold,  whilst  the 
edge  of  the  flag  was  cut  into  the  form  of  names. 

M  2 


164  SECOND    CRUSADE.  [Book  I.  ClIAP.  III. 

diers  liad  set  fire  to  the  church  of  Vitry,  and  thirteen  hundred  persons 
Mas=acre  of  perished  in  the  flames.    Terrified  at  this  frightful  disaster, 

7"  he  asked  for  absolution  from  the  Pope,  and  only  succeeded 

in  obtaining  it  from  Celestin  II.,  successor  to  Innocent.  It  effected 
but  little  towards  calming  his  conscience.  Edessa  in  Palestine  had 
succumbed  to  the  arms  of  the  Sultan  Zinghi.  Nothing  was  heard 
of  throughout  Christendom  but  the  fall  of  this  famous  city  and  the 
massacre  of  its  inhabitants ;  exclamations  of  fury  and  of  vengeance 
arose  on  all  sides.  France  was  the  first  to  be  convulsed  by  the  voice 
0       -,  „       ,       of  Saint  Bernard,  and  communicated  the  movement  to 

Second  Crusade,  ' 

1147*  Europe.     Louis  VII.  took  up  the  Cross,  and  asked  per- 

mission to  depart  from  Suger,  Abbot  of  Saint  Denis,  from  whom,  by 
a  singular  effect  of  the  feudal  system,  he  held  Vexin  in  fief,  and 
received  from  his  hands  the  oriflamme  ;  he  confided  to  him  the 
regency  of  the  kingdom  and  went  forth  on  his  journey  at  the  head 
of  a  hundred  thousand  French.  But  here  ended  his  reputation 
as  king  and  knight.  Conrad,  Emperor  of  Germany,  who  had  pre- 
ceded him  with  a  formidable  army,  was  treacherously  led  by  Greek 
guides  to  Asia  Minor  ;  his  troops  being  surprised  and  annihilated 
amongst  the  defiles  of  Lycaonia.  Louis  VII.  gathered  together 
the  remnants  of  the  host,  but  himself  lost  the  half  of  his  own  forces 
on  the  mountain  of  Laodicea.  He  fruitlessly  undertook  many  enter- 
prises, each  of  which  was  marked  by  a  disaster  ;  in  fine,  the  whole  of 
the  expedition  of  Louis  VII.  was  reduced,  as  far  as  he  was  concerned, 
to  a  pious  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  He  returned  to  Europe 
wTith  the  Crusader  princes,  and  brought  back  with  him  only  a  few 
soldiers.     His  entire  host  had  been  annihilated. 

Louis  found  his  kingdom  at  peace,  indeed  almost  flourishing,  thanks 
to  the  wise  administration  of  the  great  and  modest  Suger.  But  the 
deplorable  result  of  that  Crusade,  for  which  he  had  laid  a  heavy  tax  on 
his  people,  had  destroyed  all  the  King's  popularity,  even  his  charactei' 
seemed  weakened  by  it,  and  from  that  time  history  sees  in  him  less  of 
the  king  than  of  the  monk.  Under  pretext  of  too  near  blood  relationship 
.  T     .     he   divorced  his   Queen,  Eleanor,  who,  thus  abandoned, 

Divorce  of  Louis  ^  ' 

o?a  rnitaiXan0r  £>ave  ner  nan(^  to  Henry  Plantagenet,  heir  to  the  crown 
1152,  of  England,  and  carried  to  him  her  dowry  of  Aquitaine, 

taken    away   from    France   by   this    fatal    divorce.      Louis  saw  with 


1108-1179]  RISE    OF    THOMAS    A   BECKET.  165 

emotion  the  half  of  his  territories  about  to  pass  to  his  rival,  and 
sought  in  vain  to  throw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  marriage.  The 
new  husband  of  Eleanor  succeeded  Stephen  on  the  throne  of  England, 
and  became  the  celebrated  Henry  II.  He  conquered  Ireland,  menaced 
Scotland,  and  showed  himself  on  the  Continent  the  most  redoubtable 
and  powerful  of  sovereigns.  He  possessed  in  France  Anjou,  Maine, 
Touraine,  Aquitaine,  and  Normandy.  He  professed  great  friendship 
toward  Louis  the  Young,  and  united  in  marriage  his  son,  seven  years 
of  age,  to  the  daughter  of  Louis,  still  in  her  cradle.  War  broke  out 
on  the  subject  of  the  dowry  of  this  princess,  and  suddenly  Louis 
obtained  a  powerful  auxiliary  in  the  clergy  of  England,  excited 
against  Henry  II.  by  the  famous  Thomas  a.  Becket,  Arch- 

Stvu^srle  between 

bishop  of  Canterbury.     This  prelate,  at  first  a  courtier,    Hemyand 

n   n        T7-.  n   T-i  -i  •  Thomas  a  Becket. 

afterwards  chancellor  of  the  King  of  England,  and  in- 
tended by  him  to  occupy,  as  his  creature,  the  first  episcopal  seat  of  his 
kingdom,  scarcely  found  himself  therein,  when  he  surrendered  the 
pleasures  of  the  court  for  the  austere  duties  which  he  regarded  as 
inseparable  from  his  new  position.  He  took  in  hand  and  maintained  to 
his  death  the  defence  of  the  cause  which  Gregory  VII.  had  defended  to 
the  last  extremity — that  of  the  spiritual  authority  as  opposed  to  the 
regal ;  and  while  Pope  Alexander  III.  barely  held  his  own  against  the 
anti-Pope  Victor,  and  against  the  powerful  Frederick  Barbarossa,  Em- 
peror of  Germany,  a  Becket  constituted  himself  in  the  West  the  most 
intrepid  champion  of  the  Church,  of  which  Henry  II.,  by  the  edict  of 
Clarendon,  violated  the  privileges  in  suppressing  ecclesiastical  tribunals 
and  the  benefit  of  clergy.  These  privileges  gave  rise,  no  doubt,  to  nume- 
rous abuses  and  insured  immunity  to  many  culprits,  but  such  were  the 
barbarous  ignorance  and  odious  corruption  of  the  lay  tribunals  in  the 
twelfth  century,  that  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  alone  inspired  some 
confidence  in  the  people,  and  the  least  heavy  yoke  was  that  of  the 
Church. 

A  Becket,  pursued  by  the  resentment  of  Henry  II.,  took  refuge  in 
France,  where  Louis  received  him  with  great  favour,  and  the  war  con- 
tinued between  the  two  kings  until  the  peace  of  Montmirail.  Thomas 
a  Becket  returned  to  England,  and  Henry  exclaimed  one  day  in  a 
transport  of  fury  :  "  Will  none  of  the  cowards  whom  I  support  rid  me 
of  this  priest?  "     These  words  were  heard  •  four  knights,  devoted  to 


166  DEATH   OF   THOMAS   A   BECKET.  [BookI.  ChAP.III. 

the  King,  assassinated  Thomas  a  Becket  at   the    foot  of     he    altar. 
Death  of  Thomas   There  was  an  universal  cry  of  malediction  throughout 

a  Becket  1172. 

the  Church  against  the  homicidal  monarch,  and  the 
martyred  and  canonized  prelate  became  more  baleful  to  Henry  II. 
after  his  death  than  he  had  ever  been  during  his  life.  Every  one 
turned  with  horror  from  the  King,  who,  to  appease  the  public  clamour, 
submitted  to  a  humiliating  penance.  Then  was  seen  the  most 
renowned  prince  in  Christendom  exhibiting  tokens  of  the  humblest 
contrition,  remaining  fasting  and  with  bare  feet  during  forty- eight 
hours  in  the  cathedral,  the  scene  of  the  murder,  and  submitting  to  be 
beaten  with  rods  by  the  clergy,  the  monks,  and  choristers  of  that  church. 

Henceforth  Henry  II.  enjoyed  no  more  quiet ;  his  wife  Eleanor, 
irritated  by  his  infidelities,  incited  his  three  sons  to  revolt  against  him, 
and  in  accordance  with  the  disgraceful  custom  of  the  times,  Louis  VII. 
supported  them  in  the  unholy  war.  They  rendered  him  homage  for 
Kormandy,  Aquitaine,  and  Brittany,  but  they  were  defeated  by  their 
father ;  the  two  kings  were  then  reconciled.  Louis  placed  the  crown 
on  the  head  of  his  son  Philip  Augustus,  and  made  a  pilgrimage  to 
the  tomb  of  Saint  Thomas  a  Becket ;  he  died  immediately  afterwards, 

th  f  L  i  leaving  the  reputation  of  being  a  devout  monarch,  full  of 
vii.,  1179-  reverence  for  the  secular  orders,  and  of  benevolence  to- 

wards his  subjects  ;  but  in  spite  of  all  his  grandeur  and  his  able  policy 
he  lived  too  long  for  his  own  glory  and  for  the  prosperity  of  France, 
which  lost  in  the  latter  part  of  his  reign  those  provinces  which  she 
had  acquired  in  the  beginning  of  it  by  his  marriage,  and  which  she 
never  finally  recovered  till  after  ages  of  warfare  and  disaster. 

During  the  lifetime  of  this  King,  the  Emperor  Frederick  Barbarossa 

commenced  against  the  cities  of  Lombardy  a  sanguinary  war,  which 

for  a  long  time  involved  Italy  in  bloodshed,  and  weakened  the  imperial 

power  while  increasing  the  influence  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiffs.     This 

famous  war  is  known  in  history  under  the  name  of  the 

War  of  the  J 

Gueiphs  and  the  wars  of  the  Gruelphs  and  the  Grhibellines  ;    the    former 

Ghibellines.  L 

were  supported  by  the  Emperor,  the  latter  were  the  par- 
tisans of  the  Pope,  and  fought  for  the  independence  of  the  cities  of 
Lombardy.  The  Popes  contended  at  this  juncture  for  the  liberty  of 
the  people  against  the  despotism  of  the  kings  and  of  the  feudal  aris- 
tocracy. 


1108-1179]        '  ACCESSION    OF   PHILIP   AUGUSTUS.  167 


CHAPTER  IV. 

KEIGN   OF   PHILIP   II.,    SUENAMED   AUGUSTUS,    AND    OF   LOUIS   TILL 

1179-1226. 

PHILIP    II. 

When  Philip  II,  surnamed  Augustus,5*  ascended  the  throne,  the  ter- 
ritory which  composes  France  of  the  present  day  was  almost  entirely 
nnder  the  sway  of  various  powerful  princes.  The  greater  part  of  the 
provinces,  at  first  independent,  had  recognized  the  sovereignty  of 
some  monarch;  those  of  the  west  were  subject,  in  a  great  measure, 
to  the  King  of  England,  those  of  the  east  to  the  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many, and  those  of  the  north  to  the  King  of  France  ;  lastly,  Provence 
and  a  part  of  Languedoc  pertained  to  the  sceptre  of  Arragon.  Philip 
saw  all  the  crowns  rival  to  his  eclipsed  before  him,  and  the  glory  is 
his  of  having  been  the  first  of  his  race  who  made  his  influence  felt 
from  the  Scheldt  to  the  Mediterranean,  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Ocean. 
Great  events  mark  the  course  of  his  reign  :  there  were  the  third  and 
fourth  Crusades ;  the  sudden  acquisition  of  monarchical  power  by 
the  seizure  of  the  continental  provinces  of  the  King  of  England ; 
and  lastly,  the  destruction  of  the  Albigenses,  or  heretics,  of  Languedoc 
and  Provence. 

Before  the  age  of  fifteen  years  this  prince  signalized  his  accession 
to  the  throne  by  a  frightful  persecution  of  the  Jews,  whom  Religious  perse. 
he  despoiled  and  drove  from  the  kingdom.  He  showed  cutlons- 
himself  yet  more  cruel  with  regard  to  a  sect  of  heretics  named  "  Pa- 
tarins,"  and  condemned  them  to  the  flames.  These  blasphemers  found 
in  him  a  pitiless  judge  :  the  rich  were  compelled  to  pay  twenty  "  golden 
sous,"  the  poor  being  thrown  into  the  river.  A  series  of  contests  and 
negotiations  with  the  great  vassals  of  the  crown  occupied  the  early 
years  of  this  reign.  Philip  espoused  the  daughter  of  the  Count  of 
*  Because  he  was  born  in  the  month  of  August. 


168  THIRD    CEUSADE.  [BOOK  I.  OhAP.  IV. 

Flanders,  and  obtained  by  this  marriage  the  city  of  Amiens,  and  the 
barrier  of  the  Somme,  so  important  to  the  defence  of  his  stales. 
He  increased  his  power  by  unfair  means,  fomenting  civil  wars  among 
his  neighbours,  and  exciting,  np  to  the  death  of  Henry  II.,  the 
children  of  that  king  against  their  father.  The  latter  signed  a 
humiliating  treaty  with  his  son  Richard  and  Philip  Augustus.  He 
heard  of  the  revolt  of  John,  his  third  son,  and  died  of  grief  at  Chinon. 
Richard  succeeded  him  on  the  throne  of  England,  and  won  by  his  fiery 
and  impetuous  valour  the  surname  of  Coeur  de  Lion. 

The  enthusiasm  of  the  Crusades  was  rekindled  in  Europe  by  the 
recital  of  the  misfortunes  which  overwhelmed  the  kins^- 

Fall  of  the  king-  ,  (  ° 

Oom  of  Jem-         dom  of  Jerusalem*  where  Lusie'nan  bore  rule.     Saladin, 

salera.  .  . 

surnamed  the  Great,  prince  or  sultan  of  the  Mussulmans 
in  Egypt  and  in  Sjnna,  had  inflicted  numerous  reverses  on  the  Chris- 
tians of  Palestine :  these,  succumbing  to  the  baneful  influence  of  the 
climate  and  manners  of  the  East,  had  promptly  degenerated,  and  most 
of  their  chiefs  had  hastened  their  misfortunes  by  conceiving  them- 
selves absolved  from  the  obligation  of  keeping  their  oaths  with  the 
infidels.  Saladin  gained  over  them  the  celebrated  battle  of  Tiberias  : 
Jerusalem  and  her  King  fell  before  the  power  of  the  conqueror. 

This   terrible   news    struck    Christendom    with    consternation,   and 
1C.     ,        filled  it  with  mourning;    a    formidable    expedition  was 
113&  prepared  :    the    three    greatest    sovereigns    of    Europe, 

Frederick  Barbarossa,  Emperor  of  Germany,  Richard,  King  of  Eng- 
land, and  Philip,  King  of  France,  took  up  the  Cross,  and  each  led 
into  Palestine  a  numerous  army.  The  results  by  no  means  corre- 
sponded to  these  grand  efforts  ;  Frederick,  before  arriving,  was 
drowned  crossing  the  river  Selef,  near  Seleucia.  Philip  and  Richard 
quarrelled  over  the  siege  of  St.  Jean  d'Acre.  Philip  was  jealous  of 
the  prodigious  exploits  of  his  rival,  whilst  Richard,  indignant  and 
irritated  at  the  superiority  which  Philip  affected  towards  him  as  lord 
suzerain,  supported  with  impatience  the  feudal  yoke.     The  King  of 

*  This  kingdom,  founded  by  the  Crusaders  in  1099,  had  at  first  been  circumscribed 
"by  the  limits  of  the  ancient  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  of  Israel  ;  subsequently  it  spread 
itself  over  almost  the  whole  of  Syria.  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  was  the  first  King  of 
Jerusalem;  Baldwin  I.,  Baldwin  II.,  Foulques,  Baldwin  III.,  Amaury,  Baldwin  IV., 
Baldwin  V.,  Guy  of  Lusignan,  were  his  successors.  Thenceforward  the  title  of  King  of 
Jerusalem  became  purely  nominal. 


1179-1226]  DEATH    OF    EICHAED    CCEU11    DE    BION.  169 

France  returned  to  his  kingdom,  leaving  his  army  under  the  com- 
mand of  Richard.  He  swore,  on  leaving  him,  not  to  undertake  any- 
thing against  him  in  his  absence,  and  to  defend  his  territories  as  he 
would  his  own.  Richard  pursued  his  heroic  career  in  Palestine  ;  he 
gained  brilliant  but  fruitless  victories,  wearing  out  the  Crusaders,  who 
murmured,  wishing  to  return  to  their  own  country,  till  at  length 
they  compelled  him  to  quit  the  Holy  Land.  Saladin  offered  to  the 
Christians  peaceable  possession  of  the  plains  of  Judea,  and  liberty  to 
perform  the  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem :  Richard  agreed  to  these  con- 
ditions, and  embarked  for  Europe ;  he  landed  in  Austria,  upon  the 
territories  of  the  Duke  Leopold,  his  mortal  enemy,  wbo 

r  J  '  Captivity  of 

delivered   him  up   to    the  Emperor    Henry  VI.,  whose   Richard  Coeur  tie 

hatred  Richard  had  excited  :»  Henry  imprisoned  him  in 

the  Castle  of  Dierstein,  and  sent  to  inform  the  King  of  France  of  it. 

Philip  had  returned  to  his  kingdom  full  of  animosity  towards 
the  King  of  England.  He  had  sworn  not  to  attack  his  dominions 
in  his  absence  ;  nevertheless,  he  had  already  applied  to  the  Pope 
to  be  absolved  from  his  oath,  when  he  heard  of  the  captivity  of  his 
rival.  The  Pope  refused  to  release  him  from  his  word ;  but  Philip, 
taking  no  heed  of  his  refusal,  commenced  the  war.  Richard  was 
then  betrayed  by  his  brother  John,  who  had  possessed  himself  of  a 
portion  of  his  territories,  and  who,  as  well  as  Philip,  offered  the 
Emperor  enormous  sums  of  money  to  keep  the  English  monarch 
captive  ;  but  the  imprisonment  of  that  prince,  the  hero  of  the  Crusade, 
outraged  all  Europe,  and  the  public  clamour  compelled  Henry  VI.  to 
give  him  his  liberty,  which  he  sold  to  him  for  a  heavy  ransom.  He 
required  of  him,  in  a  public  diet  of  the  empire,  homage  as  his  suze- 
rain, and  released  him  after  ruining  him  by  an  exorbitant  ransom. 
Richard  returned  unexpectedly  to  his  dominions  ;  he  reduced  his 
brother  to  submission,  and  avenged  himself  on  Philip  by  forming 
an  alliance  with  the  most  powerful  of  the  barons  inimical  to  the 
French  monarch.  The  war  was  prolonged  between  these  two  rivals 
with  divers  success ;  they  signed  a  truce  for  five  years,  and  Richard 
was  killed  at  the  siege  of  the  small  fortress  of  Chaluz-   „    ,-'„.■.., 

°  Death  of  Eichard 

Chabrol  in  Limousin  (1199).  and  usurpation  of 

v  y  -  John,  surnamed 

John,  the  youngest  son  of  Henry  II.,  seized  the  crown   LacMand» 1199- 
of  England,  and  Philip  supported  against  him  the  just  pretensions 


170  DEATH   OF   PRINCE  AETHUE.  [Book  I.   Chap.  IV. 

of  Arthur  of  Brittany,  his  nephew,  the  son  of  his  elder  brother ;  this 
young  prince  promised  homage  to  Philip  for  all  his  possessions  in 
France,  and  ceded  Normandy  to  him.  A  sangninary  war  arose* 
Death  of  Arthur  Arthur  with  his  knights  was  captured  by  King  John,  and 
of  Bnttany.  me£  ]^g  (Je^fr  by  assassination.     It  is  said  that  his  nncle 

came  by  night  to  the  tower  of  Rouen  where  he  held  him  captive,  and 
that  after  vainly  striving  to  make  him  cede  to  him  his  rights,  he 
stabbed  him  with  his  sword,  fastened  a  heavy  stone  to  the  body,  and 
himself  threw  it  into  the  water.  This  frightful  crime  excited  uni- 
versal indignation,  and  it  was  to  the  interest  of  France  that  he  should 
meet  chastisement.  It  was  in  fact  a  measure  which  served  the  inte- 
rests of  the  crown  no  less  by  its  immediate  results,  than  by  the  idea 
which  it  gave  of  the  power  of  the  French  monarch  and  of  the  de- 
pendence thereupon  of  his  great  vassals.  John,  King  of  England, 
and  vassal  of  the  crown  for  his  continental  possessions* 

Citation  of  King  r 

John  before  the  -^ag  cited  by  Philip,  his  suzerain,  before  his  peers  to 
answer,  among  other  heads  of  the  accusation,  for  the 
murder  of  his  nephew  Arthur.  He  did  not  repudiate  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  tribunal,  but  dreading  its  sentence,  he  did  not  appear  before  it : 
Condemnati  n  f  ^e  COIIr^  °^  peers  condemned  him  to  death  as  contu- 
KingJohn.  macious.     Normandy,  Brittany,  Guienne,^  Maine,  Anjou, 

SSthientai  ms  and  Touraine,  lands  which  he  held  in  fief  from  France, 
theCrownS07lth  were  declared  confiscated,  pertaining  to  the  King,  and 
reunited  to  the  crown.  This  reunion,  however,  did  not 
take  place  without  numerous  battles  and  a  vast  effusion  of  blood. 
In  this  war  John  was  himself  his  worst  enemy :  his  cruelties,  exac- 
tions, and  avarice  roused  the  people  against  him  ;  he  attacked 
the  clergy  through  their  property,  and  was  soon  excommunicated ; 
Pope  Innocent  III.  offered  his  kingdom  to  Philip,  who  assembled 
an  army,  intending  a  descent  upon  England.  John,  in  alarm,  became 
as  humble  towards  the  Church  as  he  had  before  been  insolent ;  he  sub- 
mitted to  the  Pope,  and  did  homage  to  him  for  his  crown.  Philip 
then  marched  against  him  in  virtue  of  the  Pontifical  sentence,  but  the 
submission  of  King  John  had  made  a  change  in  the  views  of  the  Holy 
See.     It  had  been  for  Philip,  but  was  now  for  the  King  of  England. 

*  Guienne,  however,  remained  long  subsequently  to  the  kings  of  England  ;  but  Poitou 
was  detached  from  it  by  Philip  Augustus,  who  conquered  its  territory. 


1179-1226]  SIGNING   OF  MAGNA   CHAETA.  171 

Pandolpii,  legate  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  repaired  to  France  and  forbade 
Philip  to  proceed  further ;  yet,  to  calm  his  resentment,  he  pointed  out 
the  Count  of  Flanders  as  a  rich  prey  to  promise  to  his  army :  Flanders 
might  be  accepted  in  exchange  for  England.  Old  grievances  existed 
between  Ferrand,  count  of  that  province,  and  Philip  ;  the  King  could 
now  obtain  satisfaction  by  force  of  arms.  Ferrand  hastened  to  league 
himself  with  John  of  England,  and  with  his  father  Otho  IY.,  Emperor 
of  Germany.  The  French  army  met  that  of  the  enemy  between  Lille 
and  Tournay.  They  joined  battle  at  the  bridge  of  Battleof 
Bouvines  ;  the  Emperor  and  the  King  of  France  com-  Bouvmes> 1214- 
manding  in  person,  when  the  latter  achieved  a  brilliant  victory; 
five  counts,  and  among  them  the  Count  of  Flanders,  fell  into  his 
hands,  the  communes  of  five  French  cities  had  sent  their  soldiers  to 
the  battle,  and  they  rivalled  the  knights  in  glory.  Philip  was 
received  in  Paris  amid  the  acclamations  of  his  people,  and  the 
glorious  battle  of  Bouvines,  in  which  he  vanquished  three  sovereigns, 
prodigiously  increased  the  consideration  and  renown  of  the  Capetian 
dynasty  in  the  eyes  of  Europe.. 

Nevertheless  King  John  had  never  intended,  in  submitting  his  king- 
dom to  the  Church,  to  sacrifice  to  it  his  own  criminal  passions.  He 
rendered  himself  so  odious  and  so  contemptible  that  his  barons  leagued 
themselves  against  him,  and  sword  in  hand  forced  him,  on  the  15th  of 
June,  1215,  to  sign  the  charter  which  has  become  the  basis  of  the 
liberties  of  the  English  people,  and  which  is  known  as  M  charta 
Magna  Charta.  By  it  the  King  engaged  himself  not  to  13lD• 
despoil  widows  and  minors  confided  to  his  charge,  to  raise  no  taxes 
without  the  approbation  of  his  Privy  Council  or  of  Parliament,  never 
to  imprison,  mutilate,  or  condemn  to  death  freeholders,  merchants,  or 
peasants  without  the  consent  of  twelve  of  their  equals.  These  clauses 
and  some  others  appeared  intolerable  to  the  despotic  King :  he  only 
made  oath  to  that  Charter  in  the  hope  of  being  released  from  it  by 
the  Pope,  and  in  fact  he  was  so  released.  His  barons  then  offered  the 
crown  to  Louis  of  France,  the  son  of  Philip  Augustus.  This  prince,, 
despite  his  father's  vow  and  the  prohibition  of  the  Pope,  whose  legate 
excommunicated  him,  crossed  over  to  England.  He  was  Louig  f  ^  ^ 
received  with  open  arms  by  the  barons  and  possessed  m  England,  1216. 
himself  of  the  kingdom  ;    but    King   John  died    at   this   time,  and 


172  FOURTH    CRUSADE.  [BOOK  I.  Chap.  IV. 

his  partisans  proclaimed  his  young  son  Hemy,  King.  The  English 
people  attached  themselves  to  the  youth,  and  Louis,  abandoned  by  his 
supporters,  returned  to  France,  after  having  contributed  to  establish  on 
a  more  solid  basis  the  liberties  of  England. 

Philip  Augustus  found  himself  under  the  ban  of  excommunication, 
the  common  lot  up  to  that  time  of  almost  all  his  race.  He  was  anathe- 
matized on  the  occasion  of  his  third  marriage  "with  Agnes  de  Meran, 
during  the  lifetime  of  his  second  wife,  Ingeburge  of  Denmark.  He 
showed  signs  of  resistance  :  all  his  possessions  were  placed  under 
interdict.  No  one  could  be  married,  or  receive  communion,  nor  could 
the  dead  be  buried.  The  people  were  seized  with  terror,  and  the  King 
was  finally  driven  to  submit. 

A  fourth  Crusade    took  place   under  his  reign.     It  was  preached 

by  the  enthusiastic    Fulk,    cure    of  JSTouilly-sur-Marne. 

Taking  of  Con- '    The  powerful  Counts  of  Flanders  and   Champagne  set 

the  Crusaders,       the    example    and   took  up   the   Cross  :   they  were    fol- 

1202—1204.  . 

lowed  by  Dampierre,  by  Montmorency,  by  the  famous 
Simon  de  Montfort,  and  a  multitude  of  nobles  from  the  north 
of  France,  to  whom  the  Venetians  furnished  fifty  galleys  for  the 
transport  of  the  army ;  the  Marquis  de  Montferrat  and  the  Count  of 
Flanders  were  the  recognized  chiefs  of  this  expedition,  which  was 
really  directed  by  the  old  blind  Doge  Dandolo.  It  was  he  who,  under 
pretext  of  having  furnished  the  expense  of  their  transport,  carried 
the  Crusaders  to  the  conquest  of  Zara,  the  capital  of  Dalmatia,  which 
he  seized  in  the  name  of  the  Venetian  Republic  ;  then,  taking  advan- 
tage of  a  civil  war  which  was  desolating  the  Byzantine  empire,  and  of 
the  promises  of  a  young  Greek  prince,  who  came  to  the  camp  of  the 
Crusaders  to  implore  their  succour,  to  re-establish  on  the  throne  the 
Emperor  Comnenus,  his  father,  Dandolo  pointed  out  to  them  that 
Constantinople  was  a  rich  prey  and  easy  to  seize,  and  decided  them 
to  commence  the  Crusade  by  that  conquest.  In  vain  the  Pope  threw 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  this  adventurous  expedition  ;  in  vain  a  great 
number  of  the  Crusaders  separated  themselves  from  it,  and  proceeded 
straight  to  Palestine.  Dandolo  threw  the  army  against  Constanti- 
nople, which  disputed  with  Venice  the  empire  of  the  sea.  The 
Crusaders  carried  that  famous  capital  by  assault,  and  re-established  on 
the  throne  Isaac   Comnenus,  whom  an  usurper  had  driven  from  it; 


1179-1226]  CRUSADE    AGAINST   THE    ALBIGENSES.  173 

but  very  shortly  a  popular  tumult  took  place,  the  old  Emperor  was 
strangled,  and  the  Crusaders  were  obliged  once  more  to  gain  the  city 
by  assault.  This  time  the  Greek  empire  was  divided  amongst  the 
conquerors,  and  Baldwin,  Count  of  Flanders,  descendant  of  Charle- 
magne, elected  Emperor.     Thus  was  founded  the  Latin  ,  ..      , 

°       7  x  Foundation  of 

empire  of  Constantinople,  which  endured  for  fifty- seven  §eco^m£plr8 
years.  The  Venetians  required  for  their  share  three  of  110ple' 1204, 
the  eight  quarters  of  that  city,  and  obtained  besides  the  greater  part 
of  the  isles  and  sea-board  of  the  empire.  The  Marquis  de  Montferrat 
had  the  kingdom  of  Thessalonica.  The  Morea  became  a  principality, 
and  the  territory  of  Athens  a  feudal  duchy.  The  Crusaders  never 
crossed  the  Bosphorus. 

The  event  which  agitated  Europe  most  profoundly  during  the  reign 
of  Philip  Augustus  was  the  war  of  the  Albigenses,  or  the 

Crusade  against 

crusade  undertaken  against  the  sectarians  of  the  South,    the  Albigenses, 

°  _  m  1208—1229. 

There  was  a  great  number  of  these  in  Provence,  in  Cata- 
lonia, and  especially  in  Languedoc.  The  inhabitants  of  these  provinces 
were  industrious,  given  to  commerce,  to  the  arts,  and  to  poetry  :  their 
numerous  cities  flourished,  governed  by  consuls  under  a  somewhat 
republican  form  of  rule.  Suddenly  this  beautiful  region  was  aban- 
doned to  the  fury  of  fanaticism,  its  cities  were  ruined,  its  arts  and 
commerce  destroyed.  All  these  massacres,  all  this  devastation,  had 
for  then*  end  a  purpose — the  stifling  of  the  first  germs  of  a  religious 
reformation. 

In  these  countries  the  clergy  were  not  distinguished,  as  in  France 
and  in  the  northern  provinces,  by  their  zeal  in  instruction  and  in 
diffusing  the  light  of  religion.  They  were  notorious  for  disorderly 
living,  and  fell  every  day  into  greater  contempt.  The  need  for  reform 
made  itself  felt  before  long  in  the  breast  of  the  provincial  populations, 
and  many  reformers  had  already  appeared.  Long  before  this  they  had 
formed  themselves  into  associations,  which  had  for  their  aim  the  puri- 
fication of  the  morals  and  doctrines  of  the  Church.  There  were  those 
of  the  Patarins,*  and  of  the  Catharins,'f  or  "poor"  of  Lyons,  better 
known  under  the  name  of  Yaudois.  But  the  operative  reforms  extended 
themselves    gradually,    the    dogmas    themselves   were    attacked,    the 

*  So  called  from  pater,  because  these  sectarians  admitted  of  none  but  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
f  From  the  Greek  Jcaiharos,  pure,  on  account  of  the  purity  of  their  liyes. 


174  RELIGIOUS    DOCTRINES    OF   THE    ALBIGENSES.      [Book  I.  Chap.  IV. 

priests  exposed  to  the  insults  of  the  people,  and  the  domains  of  the 
Church  invaded.  Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  the  famous 
Innocent  III.,  aged  39,  ascended  the  Pontifical  throne  in  1198,  bring- 
ing thereto  a  domineering  spirit,  and  the  fiery  energy  of  a  violent  and 
inflexible  character.  This  Pontiff,  who  kept  Europe  in  fear,  sought  out 
and  punished  any  free  exercise  of  thought  in  religious  matters-  He 
was  the  first  to  perceive  the  serious  menace  to  the  Romish  Church, 
apparent  in  a  liberty  of  conscience  which  went  so  far  as  to  break  into 
revolt  against  her  tenets.  He  saw  with  inquietude  and  anger  the  new 
tendency  of  feeling  in  Provence  and  Languedoc,  and  proscribed  the 
reformers.  Some  among  them,  above  all  those  denominated  Albi- 
genses, were  Manicheans,  that  is  to  say,  they  admitted 

Religious  doc-  ^ 

trinesofthe         the    dangerous  doctrine    of  two  eternal   principles   and 

Albigenses.  ° 

powers  of  good  and  evil ;  but  a  great  number,  known 
under  the  name  of  Vaudois,  professed  opinions  but  little  different 
from  those  which,  three  centuries  later,  were  preached  by  Luther. 
They  denied  the  Transubstantiation  in  the  Sacrament  of  the  Eucharist, 
rejected  confession,  and  the  Sacraments  of  confirmation  and  marriage, 
and  stigmatized  as  idolatry  the  worship  of  images.  These  latter  were 
spread  over  Lyons,  Dauphine,  and  Provence ;  the  Albigenses  occupied 
more  particularly  Languedoc :  their  principal  centres  of  action  were 
Bezisrs,  Carcassone,  above  all  Toulouse,  a  very  large,  powerful,  and 
industrious  city,  whose  count,  Raymond  VI.,  was  the  richest  prince 
in  Christendom ;  his  nephew,  Raymond  Roger,  a  young  man  full  of 
ardour  and  courage,  was  Count  of  Beziers.  Both  the  one  and  the 
other,  without  breaking  with  Rome,  had  favoured  the  new  doctrines. 

Innocent  III.,  impatient  to  stifle  the  heresy,  sent  in  the  first  place 
inquisitors  into  the  province  of  ISTarbonne  :  they  were  badly  received. 
The  legate  Pierre  Castelnau  succeeded  them ;  he  excommunicated 
Raymond,  who,  fearing  the  menaces  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  was  forced 
.  ,    to  submit  and  to  permit  the  persecutions.     A  gentleman, 

Assassination  of  . 

gentleman  of  a  vassal  of  the  count,  indignant  at  the  humiliation  of  his 
Toulouse,  1208.  suzerain  and  the  cruelty  of  the  legate,  assassinated  the 
latter,  and  by  this  murder  gave  the  Pope  pretext  to  preach  a  crusade 
against  the  dominions  of  Raymond  VI.  and  of  his  nephew.  The 
monks  of  Citeaux  seconded  the  vengeance  of  Innocent ;  they  offered 
ample  indulgences  to  all  those  who  would  bear  arms  for  forty  days 


1179-1226]  MASSACRE    OP   BEZIBRS.  175 

against  the  sectarians.  A  multitude  of  English,  French,  and  Germans, 
eager  to  gain  them,  nocked  under  the  banners  of  the  Pope.  The  im- 
mense preparations  of  the  crusaders  struck  terror  into  Raymond  VI., 
who,  worn  with  age  and  unable  to  offer  a  vigorous  resistance,  sub- 
mitted himself  and  went  to  the  Abbot  of  Oiteaux,  the  new  legate 
of  the  Pope.  This  latter  reconciled  him  to  the  Church  by  causing 
him  to  be  beaten  with  rods  at  the  foot  of  the  altar ;  he  ordered 
him  to  guide  the  enemy's  columns  into  the  heart  of  his  states,  and  to 
deliver  up  his  chief  castles.  The  young  Viscount  de  Beziers,  nephew 
of  Raymond,  indignant  at  the  pusillanimous  conduct  of  his  uncle, 
declared  war,  and  determined  to  be  buried  with  his  knights  in  the 
ruins  of  his  strongholds.  The  crusaders  threw  themselves  in  a  body 
on  his  lands,  seized  his  castles,  burnt  all  the  men  they  found  in  them, 
violated  the  women,  massacred  the  children,  and  carried  Beziers  by 
assault.  An  immense  number  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  neighbouring 
country  had  taken  refuge  within  the  walls  of  that  city;  the  legate 
being  consulted  by  the  conquerors  as  to  the  fate  of  these  unhappy 
creatures,  of  whom  only  a  portion  were  heretics,  pronounced  these 
execrable  words:    " Kill  them  all;    God  toill   know  his  „ 

Massacre  of 

own"   A  frightful  massacre  followed  these  words,  and  the   B(?ziers>  1209. 
city  was  reduced  to  ashes.     The  army  of  crusaders  marched  thereupon 
to  Carcassonne,  and  was  sharply  repulsed  by  the  Viscount  de  Beziers. 
This  young  hero  afterwards  repaired  to  the  legate  to  treat  for  peace, 
and  was  captured  with  three  hundred  knights  in  spite  of  a  safe  con- 
duct, in  virtue  of  the  maxim  "  that  one  is  not  bound  to  keep  faith  to- 
wards heretics  and  infidels."    The  inhabitants  of  Carcassonne  evacuated 
the  city  by  secret  subterranean  passages  unknown  to  the  crusaders, 
but  four  hundred  and  fifty  of  them  were  taken  and  put  to  death.      The 
crusaders  themselves,  weary  of  such  horrors,  desired  to  retire  at  the 
end  of  the  forty  days.    The  legate  made  fruitless  efforts  to  detain  them, 
and  gave  all   the   conquered   country   to   the   ferocious   _    .,    f  , 
Simon,  Count  de  Montfort ;  he  delivered  over  to  him  also   B&iS?* de 
the  Viscount  de  Beziers,  who  died  by  poison. 

A  part  only  of  the  Albigenses  had  been  subjected  and  destroyed  in 
this  first  crusade.  The  states  of  the  Count  of  Toulouse  remained 
intact,  and  against  these  in  following]  years  the  monks  of  Citeaux 
preached  new  crusades  throughout  Europe.     In  vain  the  unfortunate 


l'<3  BATTLE   OF  BIURET.  [Book  I.  Chap.  IY. 

Count  Raymond  wished  to  allay  the  storm;  the  Council  of  Saint 
Gilles  imposed  infamous  conditions  on  him,  and  ordered  him  to  deliver 
over  to  the  stake  those  whom  the  priests  pointed  out  to  him.  The 
aged  Raymond  remembered  his  heroic  nephew,  and  the  thousands  of 
men  slain,  whose  blood  cried  out  for  vengeance ;  his  indignation  re- 
animated his  valour,  and  he  prepared  for  war  to  the  death.  The 
crusaders  arrived  from  all  parts  ;  Simon  cle  Montfort  was  at  their  head 
and  distinguished  himself  by  frightful  cruelties  :  immense  piles  were 
prepared ;  the  legate  and  Foulquet,  Bishop  of  Toulouse,  confounded 
in  the  same  holocaust  heretics  and  Catholics  suspected  of  heresy.  The 
n  L„    r  battle   of  Muret,  fouoht  in   1213,  terminated  this  war  ; 

Battle  of  °  7  7 

Muret,  1213.  Don  Pedro5  King  of  Arragon,  who  had  brought  succour 

to  the  Count  of  Toulouse,  perished  there.  The  Albigenses  were 
defeated,  and  that  defeat  gave  a  mortal  blow  to  their  cause. 

The  victorious  executioners  quarrelled  among  themselves  and 
fought ;  the  people  regained  courage.  Toulouse  rose.  Montfort 
made  himself  master  of  it  by  the  horrible  treachery  of  the  Bishop, 
Foulquet ;  the  latter  invited,  in  the  name  of  the  God  of  peace,  all  the 
inhabitants  to  come  out  and  meet  Montfort,  who,  with  his  knights, 
was  awaiting  them,  and  put  them  all  in  chains.  The  war  was  con- 
tinued with  various  success,  till  at  last  all  Languedoc  rose  in  arms. 
Montfort  was  killed  before  Toulouse,  which  he  was  besieging  ;  Count 
Raymond  was  recalled,  and  received  in  that  city  with  the  acclamations 
of  the  people  :  he  died,  the  priests  refused  him  sepulture,  and  his  coffin 
remained  many  days  exposed  at  the  door  of  a  church.  These  were 
the  principal  events  in  the  wars  of  the  Albigenses,  but  this  was  not  the 
end  of  the  misfortunes  of  that  country.  The  conquerors  desired  to 
desolate  the  very  soil  which  had  supported  these  heretics.  The  Popes 
preached  new  crusades  against  Raymond  VII.,  son  and  successor  of 
the  old  Count  Raymond.  Great  calamities  again  overwhelmed  these 
people  ;  their  cities  were  destroyed,  their  fields  desolated  :  at  lengthy 
after  twenty-two  years  of  atrocities,  when  the  language,  the  arts,  and 
industry  of   these   provinces   had  disappeared   with  the 

Cessation  of  the  -  .  .  . 

war  against  the     reformation,  the  executioners  were  wearied,  and  the  war 

Albiyeuses. 

ceased  under  the  following  reign,  to  the  great  advantage 
of  France.  Raymond  VII.  ceded  to  it  a  portion  of  his  territories  by 
the  treaty  of  Paris,  signed  in  1229. 


117P-1226]  LABOURS   OF   PHILIP  AUGUSTUS.  177 

Philip  Augustus  took  no  active  part  in  this  war  of  extermination  ;  he 
couffht,  on  the  contrary,  to  repair  its  disasters,  and  while 

*       °  m  Government  and 

fanaticism   was    steeping   the    southern    countries'  with   administration  of 

Philip  Augustus. 

jjlood,   he   extended   his   dominions  and  rendered  them 
flourishing.       The   national   assemblies   had   fallen    into   desuetude  : 
pbilip  appealed  to  his  chief  barons  to  form  his  council  and  sanction 
his  decrees. 

Jle  conquered  JSTormandy,  Maine,  Anjou,  Touraine,  and  Poitou, 
formerly  forfeited  to  the  King  of  England ;  he  conquered  also  the 
county  of  Auvergne.     Under  his  reign  Valois,  part  of  Yermandois, 

|  alld  Amienois,  fell  to  the  crown  by  the  extinction  of  the  families  who 
possessed  them  ;  this  King  also  re-annexed  Artois  to  his  crown  by  his 

|:  uniou  with  Isabelle  of  Flanders  and  Hainault :   finally,  he  gave  the 
inheritance  of  Brittany  to  Pierre  Mauclerc,  a  member  of  his  family, 
and  a  Capetian  dynasty  was  founded  in  that  country.   Ne    D    h    f 
Thus  was  formed  the  new  duchy  of  Brittany,  which  be-   Brittany- 

jf  came  one  of  the  great  immediate  fiefs  of  the  crown  of  France.  These 
results  were  as  much  the  work  of  his  -policy  as  of  his  fortune  and 
valour.  He  caused  his  great  vassals  to  bend  before  him,  and  obtained 
hy  his  victories  over  them  the  superiority  which  belonged  to  him  by 
rioht  of  his  royal  title.  The  citation  of  King  John  to  his  tribunal, 
and  the  judgment  pronounced  against  him,  dealt  a  mortal  blow  to 
feudal  "aristocracy. 

Philip  Augustus  was  occupied  all  his  life  in  warfare,  treaties,  re- 
forms, laws  for  his  fiefs,  and  secured  upon  a  firm  basis  the  i^g^^^y^an 
relations  between  lords  and  vassals,  which  until  then  had  Aueastus. 
hoen  only  in  an  unsettled  and  arbitrary  condition,  and  was  thus  the 
principal  founder  of  feudal  monarchy.      The  military/art  owed  some 

:  progress  to  him ;  soldiers  received  pay,  and  for  this  purpose  he  esta- 
blished the  first  permanent  imposts,  he  appointed  three  maritime 
armaments,  and  obtained  by  his  activity,  his  prudence,  and  his 
talents,  the  respect  both  of  sovereigns  and  people. 

The  important  foundation  of  the  University  of  Paris  dates  from 
this   prince,    who  defined  its  privileges.     The   name  of 

1  '  .  Foundation  of 

University  was  given  to  this  celebrated  school  because   the  University  of 

J  &  Paris,  1200.       ^Z 

It  was  universal  in  its  scope,  and  admitted  masters. and 

Biudents  without  regard  to  the  nation  to  which  they  belonged ;  thus, 


1*78  RISE   OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OP  PARIS.       [Book  I.  Chap.  iy. 

there  were  found  in  it  the  sections  of  France,  England,  Normandy 
and  Picardy.     Paris  saw  at  this  time  a  multitude  of  colleges  sprino- 
up  in  its  midst,  several  of  which  acquired  a  great  celebrity.     All  the 
schools  were  placed  under  the  authority  of  the  provost  of  Paris,  and 
Philip  Augustus  confirmed  a  bull  of   Pope   Oelestin  m.   by  which 
the    scholars   were    released    from    ecclesiastical  .  jurisdiction.      The 
University  thus  rose  under  the  double  patronage  of  the  Holy  See 
and  of  Royalty.     It   alone  possessed  the  right  of  granting  the  de- 
grees of  bachelor,  licentiate,  and  doctor  in  the  different  faculties  of 
letters  and  sciences ;  and  though  its  rights  and  privileges  were  fre- 
quently the  source  of  great  disorders,  it  acquired  a  high  renown  and 
became  one  of  the  great  powers  of  the  state.     The  majority  of  the 
students,  at  that  time,  devoted  themselves   to   the   priesthood :  the 
French  Church  sought  with  admirable  learning  and  patience  for  the 
scattered  memorials  of  ancient  literature,  and  struggled  successfully 
against   barbarism   and  ignorance.      Philip   had   comprehended   the 
grand  effect  of  the  rising  University :  he  encouraged  the  studies,  with 
all  his  power,  and  desired  that  the  abode  of  those  who  abandoned 
themselves  to  learning  should  be  an  inviolable  asylum.     So  much  care 
for  an  object  of  such  general  interest  didnot,  however,  divert  his 
attention  from  matters  of  a  secondary  importance.     Paris,  especially, 
was  indebted  to  him  for  useful  alterations.     Up  till  that  time  all  the 
streets    of  the  capital  became,  in  rainy  weather,  infectious   sewers; 
but  the  principal  thoroughfares  were  paved  and  embellished  by  his 
orders.     He  enlarged  the  city,  enclosed  it  with  walls,  built  market- 
places, and  surrounded  the  Cemetery  of  the  Innocents  with  cloisters ;  l 
he  built  a  palace  by  the  side  of  the  large  tower  of  the  Louvre,  and  con- 
tinued the  Cathedral,  which  had  been  commenced  prior  to  his  reign 
He  gained  by  his  conquests  and  institutions  the  esteem  of  his  con- 
Death  of  Phiii    "temporaries,  and  died  at  Nantes  in  1223,  after  a  reign 
Augustus,  1223.     0£  forty- three  years,  leaving  a  portion  of  his  immense 
wealth  to  the  priests  and  crusaders,  and  also   making   considerable 
gifts  to  the  poor. 

-    louis  vrn. 

Louis  Vni.,  son  of  Philip  Augustus,  only  reigned  three^ years.     This 
prince,  whom  his  flatterers  named  Cceur  de  Lion,  was  descended  on^f 


1179-1226]  ACCESSION   OF  LOUIS   Yin.  1^9 

the  female  side  from  Charlemagne,  and  seemed  to  unite  in  his  person 
the  claims  of  the  Carlovingian  and  Capetian  houses.  Acce  . 
During  his  father's  life  he  had  been  recognized  King  of  Louis  VIn- 1223- 
England  by  the  barons  hostile  to  King  John,  but  being  abandoned 
by  his  partisans  he  was  obliged  to  quit  the  kingdom.  On  returning 
to  France,  he  took  from  the  English  Poitou,  which  they  had 
reconquered,  as  well  as  several  important  places  in  Aunis,  Perigord, 
and  Limousin,  among  others  Rochelle,  and  signalized  the  end  of 
his  reign  by   a   second   crusade    against  the   unhappy 

Second  crusade 

Albigenses.     The  principal  cities   of  Languedoc,   Beau-   against  the 

AJuigenses^  1226. 

caire,  Carcassonne,  and  B6ziers,  opened  their  gates  to 
him,  and  the  south  of  France,  with  the  exception  of  Guienne  and 
Toulouse,  recognized  the  royal  authority.  Louis  was  marching  against 
the  latter  eity  when  an  epidemic  fever  attacked  his  army,  and  he 
died  at  Montpensier,  either  from  an  attack  of  the  .malady,  or,  as 
some  believed,  from  poison,  administered  to  him  by  Death  f 
Thibaut  of  Champagne,  who  was  violently  enamoured  of  Lom8  VIIL  1226- 
Queen  Blanche  of  Castille,  whom  the  "King  left  a  widow,  with  five 
children  of  tender  years.     The  eldest  of  her  sons  was  St.  Louis. 


*  2 


180  REGENCY   OF   QUEEN   BLANCHE.  [BOOK  I.   Chap.  V. 


CHAPTER  V. 

REIGN   OP  LOUIS   IX.    (SALNT  LOUIS),    1226-1270. 

Louis  IX. }  justly  venerated  under  the  name  of  St.  Louis,  was  only 
eleven  years  of  age  on  the  death  of  his  father,  and  the  regency  of  the 
kingdom  was  disputed  between  Queen  Blanche,  his  mother,  and  his 
uncle,  Philip  Hurepel,  son  of  Philip  Augustus  and  Agnes  de  Meran, 
whose  marriage  the  Church  had  refused  to  recognize.  A  great 
number  of  the  nobility  supported  the  claims  of  Philip,  and  Henry  III. 
of  England  declared  "himself  their  leader ;  but  the  devotion  of  the 
powerful  Thibaut,  Count  of  Champagne,  insured  the  advantage  to 
the  queen-mother,  and  caused  the  submission  of  a  portion  of  the 
rebels.  Blanche  had  a  mind  at  once '  great,  proud,  and  Christian  I 
Regency  of  sne   g,aye  excellent   masters   to   her   children,    and  had 

^.ieen Blanche.     tliem  ^eft^y  brought  up  in  the   fear  of  Cod.     "My 

son,"  she  said  to  the  young'  King,  "you  know  how  "dear  you  are 
to  me,  and  yet  I  would  sooner  .  see  you  dead  than  gnilty/of  a  mortal 
sin."  This  pious  Queen  also  possessed  political  talent,  and  kept  a 
firm  hand  over  the  malcontent  lords,  who  wished  to  oppose  the  coro- 
nation of  her  son.  Surprised  by  their  troops  on  the  Orleans  road, 
she  took  refuge  in  the  tower  of  Montlhery  and  summoned  to  her  aid 
the  citizens  of  Paris,  who  arrived  in  arms  to  deliver  her.  She  enabled 
Prance  to  reap  the  fruit  of  the  horrible  war  with,  the  Albigenses. 
Treaty  of  Paris  ^ne  ^reaty  °^  Paris,  signed  in  1229,  between  ~her  and 
1229,  Raymond  VII.,  Count  of  Toulouse,  attached  to  the  crown 

a  large  portion  of  Lower  Languedoc,  forming  the  -seneschalship  .of 
Beaucaire  and  Carcassonne,  and  Raymond  recognized  as  his  heir  in 
the  rest  of  his  territory  his  son-in-law  Alphonse,  one  of  the  brothers 
of  Louis  IX.,  declaring  the  inheritance  should  revert  to  the  crown  if 
there  were  no  child  of  the  marriage  of  Alphonse  with  his  only  daughter, 
Jane :  an  eventuality  which  came  to  pass.    Blanche  next  brought  into 


1226-1270]  INVASION   OF   THE    EAST   BY   MONGOLS.  181 

obedience  the  Dukes  of  Brittany  and  Burgundy,  in  spite  of  the  assist- 
ance  afforded    them  by  the  King  of  England ;  and   a 
trace,  which  terminated  this  civil  war,  was  signed  at  aqWu  da  rior- 

_.  .  raicr,  1231. 

St.  Aubin  dn  Cormier  between  her,  the  barons,  and  her 
brother-in-law. 

Louis  IX.  was  nineteen  years  of  age  when  he  married  Margaret 
of  Provence,  then  only  thirteen.  Queen  Blanche  separated  them  for 
six  years,  and  always  afterwards  showed  a  jealousy  about  Margaret's 
influence  over  the -King.  A  few  years  afterwards  the  sister  of  this 
princess  married  Henry  III.,  Kong  of  England,  who  thus  became  the 
brother-in-law  of  St.  Louis.  The  picture  which  Erance  presents  from 
the  treaty  of  St.  Aubin  up  to  the  time  when  the  King  attained  his 
majority  is  that  of  general  peace ;  but  Louis  IX.  had  soon  to  contend 
against  the  great  vassals  and  nobles,  to  whom  his  grandfather,  Philip 
Augustus,  had  dealt  such  terrible  blows.  The  Counts  de  la  Marche,  of 
Foix,  and  several .  other  vassals,  united  with  Henry  III.,  who  crossed 
the  sea  with  an  army,  and  claimed  the  provinces  taken  from  John 
Lackland.  The  English  and  their  allies  were  conquered  by  Louis 
at  the  bridge  of  Taillebourg,  and  again  before  Saintes,  B  ttle  of  Taille. 
which  city  he  united  to  the  crown,  with  a  part  of  bour6»1242- 
Saintonge,  by  the  treaty  of  Bordeaux.  The  rebellious  lords  submitted 
to  a  master  who  generously  pardoned  them,  and  Henry  returned  to 
England. 

•  All  the  East  shook  at  this  time  in  the  expectation  of  a  frightful 
catastrophe.    The  Mongols  had  set  themselves  in  motion,   T 

r  •  o  7    Invasion  of  the 

and  their  countless  hordes,  emerging  from  Upper  Asia,  Eastt»yMongoi!?. 
exterminated  every  nation  they  passed  through.  Their  vanguard  had 
invaded  the  Holy  Land,  and  gained  a  sanguinary  victory  over  the 
Christians  and  Mussulmans,  whom. terror  had  united:  five  hundred 
Templars  were  left  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  Jerusalem  B  f  Gaza 
had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  ferocious  conquerors.  m4, 
St.  Louis  was  ill  and  almost  dying  when  the  news  of  this  disaster 
reached  Europe.  As  soon  as  he  felt  better,  to  the  astonishment 
of  all,  he  ordered  that  the  red  cross  should  be  placed  on  his  bed 
and  on  his  garments,  and  made  a  vow  to  go  and  fight  for  the 
tomb  of  Christ.  His  mother  and  even  the  priests  implored  hinfto 
renounce  this  fatal  design :  it  was  in  vain ;  and  no  sooner  was  he 


182  .  FIFTH   CRUSADE.  [Book  I.  Chap.Y. 

convalescent  than  he  summoned  his  mother  and  the  Bishop  of  Paris 
to  his  bedside,  and  said  to  them:  "As  you  believe  that  I  was  no! 
perfectly  in  my  senses  when  I  pronounced  my  vows,  here  is  my  cross, 
which  I  tear  from  my  shoulders  and  hand  to  yon.  Bnt  now  yon  must 
acknowledge  that  I  am  in  fall  possession  of  my  faculties.  Restore 
me  my  cross,  then;  for  He  who  knows  all  things  knows  also  that 
no  food  will  enter  my  lips  till  I  have  been  marked  anew  witli 
His  sign."  "It  is  the  finger  of  Grod,"  exclaimed  all  present;  "His 
will  be  done." 

The  religious  enthusiasm  of  Louis  grew  with  his  years,  and  domi- 
nated every  other  feeling'  in  him.    It  is  in  his  conscience. 

Fifth  Crnsade.  J  °  ' 

and  not  in  his  interests,  that  we  must  seek  the  motives 
of  all  his  actions.  He  joined  to  an  enlightened  reason,  a  tender,  pure, 
and  generous  mind;  but  his  ardent  faith  was  sometimes  blind, 
and  a  false  scruple  on  his  part  caused  the  greatest  misfortunes. 
Determined  on  leading  an  army  to  the  Holy  Land,  he  felt  that  the 
safety  of  that  army  depended  in  great  measure  on  the  route  which  lie 
selected  for  it.  The  safest  was  that  by  Sicily,  a  country  subject  to 
Frederick  II. ;  but  this  Emperor  was  excommunicated  by 'the  Pope, 
his  implacable  enemy,  and  Louis,  after  impotent  efforts  to  procure 
.  absolution  for  him,  was  afraid  of  halting  in  the  states  of  a  reprobate 
monarch,  and  resolved  to  proceed  towards  Egypt  by  Cyprus,  instead 
of  going  to  Syria  by  Sicily.  This  pious  fault  was  his  ruin.  After 
De  artureof  settling  all  the  affairs  of  his  states  and  appointing  his 
tiw  HoiySmd  mother  regent,  Louis  took  the  pilgrim's  staff  and  the 
1248,  orinamme  from  St.  Denis,  and   left  Paris  on  the  12th 

of  June,  1248,  to  embark  at  Aigues-Mortes,  a  town  he  had  founded  at 
a  great  cost,  in  order  to  have  a  port  in  the  Mediterranean.* 
s  The  King  sojourned  a  year  at  Nicosium,  the  capital  of  Cyprus,  and 
then  set  out  for  Egypt.  On  arriving  in  sight  of  Damietta  he  leaped 
into  the  sea,  sword  in  hand,  at  the  head  of  his  knights,  repulsed 
the  enemy,  and  seized  this  strong  city  and  all  its  immense  rei~$ 
sources. 

The  only  course  open  was  to  march  on  Cairo  and  subjugate  Egypt 
by  a  rapid  invasion  ;  but  the  swelling  of  the  Nile  alarmed  the  Khigi 

*.  This  port  is  now  dried  up  :  the  water  in  retiring  has  left  a  space  of  half  a  league 
between  the  sea  and  the  shore. 


1226-1270]  CAPTURE   OF   KItfG  LOUIS.  183 

and  he  remained  for  five  months  inactive  at  Danrietta.  At  length  he 
left  that  town,  and  marched  without  any  precautions  on  Mansourah, 
The  Turks  surrounded  him  on  a  burning  plain,  and  hurled  on  his 
baggage  and  camp  blazing  bitumen,  known  by  the  name  of  *t  Greek 
fire."  Louis,  in  this  desperate  situation,  made  a  violent  B  m  f  M 
effort :  he  gave  orders  for  the  battle ;  the  Count  Artois,  $oural1' 1249- 
his  brother,  rushed  imprudently  on  Mansourah  and  surprised  the 
town,  but  was  surrounded  there  and  killed,  with  the  knights  who 
followed  him.  The  King,  who  had  been  unable  to  relieve  them, 
fell  back  on  a  camp  of  the  Saracens,  carried  it  and  shut  himself 
up  in  it,  but  his  position  became '  as  dangerous  there  as  his  pre- 
ceding one.  Disease  and  repeated  assaults  carried  off  one  half  of 
his  army,  and  he  was  himself  taken  dangerously  ill.  He  ordered 
a  retreat  on  Damietta,  where  he  had  left  the  Queen  and  a  powerful 
garrison,  but  Turkish  galleys  blocked  the  passage  of  the  river,  and 
finding  himself  without  resources  he  fell  a  prisoner,  with  all  his 
knights,  into  the  hands  of  the  Mussulmans.  A  great  number  of 
his -soldiers  apostatized  to  escape  death,  but  he,  thrown  into  irons  and 
Trader  the  most  atrocious  menaces,  preserved  the  majesty  of  a  king 
and  the  resignation  of  a  Christian.  Queen  Margaret,  at  Damietta, 
proved  herself  worthy  of  her  husband.  On  hearing  of  the  reverses  of 
the  army  she  shuddered  at  the  thought  of  falling  into  the  hands  of 
the  Turks,  and  asked  an  old  knight  who  never  left  her  to  grant  her 
one  favour,  that  of  running  her  through  with  his  sword,  rather  than 
allow  the  Mussulmans  to  seize  her.  "  I  had  thought  of  that,  Madam," 
replied  the  old  warrior.  But  Damietta  was  not  taken  by  storm  : 
Margaret  kept  the  city  as  a  pledge  for  the  safety  of  the  King, 
and  it  was  offered  with  400,000  livres  for  the  royal  ransom.  At 
this  price  Louis  recovered  his  liberty.  His  barons  returned  to 
*  France,  but  he  remained  four  years  longer  in  Syria,  exhorting  his 
knights  to  rejoin  him,  and  employing  his  treasures  in  fortifying 
Tyre,  Sidon,  and  all  the  other  places  in  Palestine  that  belonged  to 
the  Christians. 

Before  the  news  of  his  deliverance  became  known  a  crusade  of  a 
new  description  was  set  on  foot.  The  people  felt  as  much  love  for  the 
King  as  hatred  for  the  nobles  who  oppressed  them.  A  man  suddenly 
appeared  who  affirmed  that  he  had  received  from  the  Virgin  a  letter, 


184 


RETURN   OF   KING   LOUIS. 


[Book  I.  Chip.  V. 


which  lie  held  in  one  of  his  hands,  which  was  always  closed.     She 
ordered  him,   so  he    said,  to    collect   all   the   Christian 

Crusade  of  the  '  .     1 

Christian  shepherds  he   could  find  and  march  at  their  head  to  de- 

shepherds.  r 

liver  the  King,     victory  was  refused  fco  the  mighty,  and 

promised  to  the  feeble  and  humble.  This  uneducated  man  possessed 
eloquence,  and  ere  long  a  multitude  of  shepherds  followed  his  flag, 
and  outlaws  and  bandits  also  joined  themselves  to  him.  The  priests 
excommunicated  this  undisciplined  mob,  who  avenged  themselves 
by  massacring  a  great  number  of  ecclesiastics  at  Orleans.  Queen 
Blanche,  who  at  first  had  favoured  the  association,  from  this  moment 
did  everything  in  her  power  to  dissolve  it.  The  preachers  of  the 
shepherds  excite,d  the  people  against  the  priests.  They  were  in 
the  habit  of  preaching  surrounded  by  a  guard  of  armed  men  ;  and 
one  day  Blanche  introduced  among  them  an  executioner,  who  stepped 
behind  their  chief,  and  with  one  stroke  sent  his  head  rolling  at  the 
feet  of  his  horrified  audience.  Knights  then  galloped  up  and  dis- 
persed the  shepherds,  who  were  massacred  by  the  people  who  had 
previously  honoured  them. 

Queen  Blanche  died  in  1253,  after  a  wise  regency,  and  the  King 
~    ..    ,_  felt   the    most  bitter  grief  at    his   loss.      He   returned 

Death  of  Queen  & 

rJS-fofthe  ^°  France,  and  made  his  entry  into  Paris,  in  Sep* 
Kmg,  1254.  tember,  1254,  displaying  on  his  countenance  the  seared 

impression  of  all  his  disasters. 

On  his  return,  Louis  occupied  himself  actively  with  the  reformation 

of  his  kingdom,  and  displayed  the  lofty  qualities  of  a  legislator.     He 

completelv  destroyed  the  sovereign  authority  of  the  nobles 

Legislation  and  .    .  .  ... 

administration       by  depriving:  them  of  the  right  of  dealing  -justice  arbi- 

of  Saint  Louis.  .  .  .  . 

trarily.  An  important  discovery  seconded  his  efforts  : 
the  code  of  Roman  laws  known  by  the  name  of  the  Pandects  of  Justi- 
nian, and  which  governed  the  Empire  of  Constantinople,  became  known 
at  this  period  in  France.  This  collection  of  laws,  so  justly  celebrated, 
had,  at  the  time,  such  a  superiority  over  every  other  code,  that  it  was 
hailed  as  written  reason.  It  gave  a  living  impulse  to  the  minds  of 
men,  and  its  application  was  immediately  demanded ;  but  the  igno- 
rance of  the  nobles  was  so  great  that  it  was  found  necessary  to  call 
in  men  versed  in  the  study  of  the  laws  to  explain  it.  Saint  Louis 
was  the  first  to  introduce  these  lawyers  into  a  parliament,  which  he 


1226-1270]  PROMULGATION   OP   THE    PRAGMATIC   SANCTION.  185 

constituted  as  a  court  of  justice.  This  court  was  composed  of  three 
kio'h  barons,  three  prelates,  nineteen  knights,  and  eighteen  clerks,  or 
lawyers,  who  drew  up  the  decrees.  The  latter  succeeded  in  securing 
the  entire  management  of  affairs  by  disgusting  the  barons  through 
the  wearisomeness  of  the  proceedings ;  they  then  exercised  a  portion 
of  the  feudal  authority,  and  wished  to  render  that  of  the  King  absolute 
by  actively  seconding  him  in  all  his  projects  of  reform  and  attacks 
upon  feudal  rights. 

This  pious  and  humane  monarch  attempted  to  put  an  end  to  the 
private  wars  between  his  barons,'  and  prohibited  judicial  combats. 
He  decreed  that  when  an  inSult  was  offered,  the  two  parties,  before 
having  recourse  to  arms,  should  observe  a  truce  of  forty  days,  called 
"  the  king's  quarantine,"  thus  granting  time  for  passions  to  calm.  He 
ordered  that  judicial  debates  should  be  substituted  for  judicial  com- 
bats ;  and  considerably  enlarged  the  authority  of  the  crown  by  esta- 
blishing "royal  cases,"  in  which  he  himself  heard  causes  between  his 
subjects  and  their  lords.  The  lawyers  gave  the  greatest  extension  to 
these  appeals.  Nor  did  the  King  permit  cities  to  be  rendered  inde- 
pendent of  his  authority ;  he  transformed  many  communes  into  royal 
towns  by  the  ordinance  of  1256,  which  ordered  them  to  put  forward 
four  candidates,  from  among  whom  the  King  should  choose  the 
mayor,  who  was  to  be  responsible  to  him  for  his  conduct.  It  was 
then  settled  that  the  King  alone  had  the  right  to  make  communes, 
that  they  should  owe  him  fidelity  against  all,  and  that  the  title  of 
"King's  citizen"  should  be  a  safeguard  under  all  circumstances. 

The  name  of  "Establishments  of  Saint  Louis  "  has  been  given  to  a 
collection  of  decrees  passed  by  this  King  for  the  people  of  his  domains. 
This  celebrated  collection  contains  wise  and  useful  laws  against 
venality  in  the  administration  of  justice,  the  greediness  of  creditors, 
imprisonment  for  debt,  and  usurious  profits.  Louis  IX.  also  displayed 
the  independence  and  firmness  of  his  -judicious  mind  by  „ 

J-  o  j     Pragmatic 

publishing  the  Pragmatic  *  Sanction,  which  became  the  Sauctl0U- 
basis  of  the  liberties  of  the  Gallican  or  French  Church.  This  famous 
ordinance  prohibited  the  raising  of  money  for  the  Court  of  Rome  within 
the  kingdom  without  the  King's  permission,  and  fixed  the  cases  in 
which  it  would  be  permissible  to  appeal  from  ecclesiastic  to  royal 
*  This  word  is  derived  from  the  Greek  pragma,  which  means  "a  rule." 


186"  REFORM   OF   THE    COINAGE.  [Book  I.   Chap.Y. 


justice.  Lastly,  in  spite  of  his  great  devotion,  he  managed  to  keep 
in  check  the  extravagant  zeal  of  the  bishops.  "  Several  prelates,"  says 
Joinville,  "  having  corne  to  see  the  King  at  the  palace,  the  Bishop  of 
Auxerre  said  to  him,  '  Sire,  the  lords  here  present,  archbishops  and 
bishops,  have  commissioned  me  to  tell  yon  that  Christianity  is  perish- 
ing in  your  hands.'  The  King  crossed  himself  and  asked,  ' How  so?  ' 
1  Sire,'  the  bishop  resumed,  'because  so  little  heed  is  paid  to-day,  and 
eveiy  day,  to  excommunications,  that  people  "will  die  excommunicated 
rather  than  obtain  absolution,  and  will  not  give  satisfaction  to  the 
Church.  The  prelates  enjoin  you,  Sire,  by  the  love  of  G-od,  to  command 
your  provosts  and  bailiffs  that  all  those  who  remain  excommunicated 
for  a  year  and  a  day  shall  be  forced  to  seek  absolution  by  the  seizure  of 
their  property.'  The  King  replied  that  he  would  readily  give  such  an 
order  with  respect  to  all  those  who  were  proved  to  him  to  be  in  the 
wrong.  The  bishop  said  that  it  was  not  for  the  King  to  judge  then 
causes  ;  but  the  King  replied  that  he  would  not  order  otherwise,  for  it 
would  be  contrary  to  G-od  and  all  reason  if  he  forced  people  to  obtain 
absolution  when  the  clerks  acted  unjustly  to  them.  '  As  an  example  of 
this,'  the  King  added,  '  I  will  give  you  the  Count  of  Brittany,  who  has 
pleaded  for  seven  years,  while  excommunicated,  against  the  prelates  of 
Brittany,  and  has  eventually  induced  the  Pope  to  condemn  them  all. 
Hence,  if  I  had  constrained  the  Count  of  Brittany  in  the  first  year 
to  obtain  absolution  I  should  have  acted  wrongly  towards  Grod  and 
towards  him.' " 

Louis's  last  reform  was  that  of  the  coinage.  Eighty  nobles  had  the 
right  of  coining  in  their  domains,  but  Louis  fixed  the  value  of  the 
coinage  in  each  case,  and  brought  his  own  everywhere  into  currency. 
He  also  effected  greater  security  on  the  highways  of  the  kingdom,  by 
obliging  the  nobles  who  levied  a  toll  to  guarantee  the  security  of  the 
roads  through  their  domains.  * 

So  much  care  devoted   to   the  prosperity  of  the  kingdom   and  to 

the  salutary  establishment  of  his  authority  did  not  so  fully  occupy 

the  great  mind  of  this  King  as  to  divert  him  from  occu- 

datio'ns:  The       pations  of  less  general  interest,   but  of  no   less  useful 

Quinze-vingts,  .  , 

the  Holy  chapel,  kind.     He  founded  a  public  library   rn   Pans;    created 

the  Sorbonne. 

the  hospital  of  the  Quinze-vingts,  intended  to  receive 
300   blind    people ;  and  built  the   Holy  Chapel,  which  may  still  be 


226-1270]  PIETY   OF   LOUIS   THE   NINTH.  187 

admired  at  Paris,  near  the  Palace  of  Justice,  at  that  period  the  palace 
of  the  King.  During  his  reign,  Robert  de  Sorbon  also  founded 
the  college  which  bears  his  name — the  Sorbonne,  which  became  the 
seat  of  the  celebrated  faculty  of  theology,  whose  decisions  were  so 
respected  that  it  was  called  "the  perpetual  Council  of  Gaul." 

This  King's  truly  great  and  really  Christian  piety  did  not  solely  con- 
sist in  the  external  observance  of  the  practices  of  the  K  ofLouis 
Church :  it  sprang  from  the  heart,  and  consisted  chiefly  the  Nmth- 
in  the  love  of  God  and  an  internal  sanctity  of  the  soul.  Appro- 
priate to  this,  Joinville  relates  an  affecting  interview  which  he 
had  with  this  prince :  " c  Seneschal,'  the  King  said  to  me,  in  the 
presence  of  several  priests,  '  what  is  God  ? '  And  I  answered  him, 
1  Sire,  so  good  a  thing  that  there  can  be  nothing  better.'  c  Truly,' 
the  King  replied,  'that  is  a  very  good  answer,  for  the  answer  you 
have  made  is  written  in  this  book  which  I  hold  in  my  hand. 
Now,  I  ask  you,  which  would  you  prefer :  to  be  a  leper,  or  to 
have  committed  a  mortal  sin  ?  '  And  I,  who  never  lied  to  him, 
replied,  that  'I  would  sooner  have  committed  thirty,  than  be  a  leper.' 
And  when  the  brothers  had  departed,  he  called  me  aside,  made  me  sit 
at  his  feet,  and  said,  l  You  speak  without  reflection,  like  a  thoughtless 
man ;  for  there  is  no  leprosy  so  villanous  as  that  of  being  in  deadly 
sin ;  because  the  soul  then  resembles  the  fiend  of  hell.  This  is  why 
no  leprosy  can  be  so  loathsome.  When  a  man  dies,  he  is  cured  of  the 
leprosy  of  the  body ;  but  when  the  man  who  has  committed  a  deadly 
sin  dies,  it  is  not  certain  that  he  has  been  so  penitent  as  to  cause  God  to 
pardon  him.  Thence  he  should  feel  a  great  fear  lest  this  leprosy  may 
endure  so  long  as  God  is  in  Paradise.  Therefore,  I  pray  you,'  he 
added,  '  as  strongly  as  I  can,  that,  for  the  love  of  God  and  myself, 
you  will  prefer  to  have  any  malady  affect  your  body  rather  than  a 
mortal 'sin  affect  your  soul.'  Then  he  asked  me  if  I  washed  the 
feet  of  the  poor  on  Holy  Thursday  ?  '  Sire,'  I  said  to  him,  '  I  will 
never  wash  the  feet  of  those  churls.'  '  Truly,'  he  replied,  '  that  is 
wrongly  spoken,  for  you  ought  not  to  hold  in  disdain  what  God  has 
done  for  our  instruction.  Hence  I  pray  you,  for  the  love  of  God  and 
me,  to  accustom  yourself  to  wash  the  feet  of  the  poor.'  " 

Joining  to  this  touching  piety  a  great  zeal  for  equity,  Louis  himself 
taught  the  respect  due  to  the  laws.    He  liked  to  render  justice  to  his 


188  ARBITRATION  OF  LOUIS  IX.  [Book  I.  Chap.  Y. 

subjects  in  person.  "  Many  times,"  Joinville  also  says,  "it  happened 
that  in  summer  he  would  go  and  sit  in  the  wood  of  Yincennes  after 
mass,  and  leaning  against  an  oak,  he  made  us  sit  down  round  him, 
and  all  those  who  had  business  came  to  speak  with  him  freely,  unim- 
peded by  ushers  or  others." 

More  than  once  he  passed  severe  sentences  on  members  of  his  own 
family,  and  nobles  with  whom  he  was  intimate.  Still,  in  spite  of  such 
wisdom  and  pure  zeal,  he  committed  several  faults,  the  consequence 
of  errors  which  belonged  to  his  age  rather  than  to  himself:  laid 
cruel  penalties  on  Jews  and  heretics ;  and  four  hundred  and  fifty 
bankers  or  merchants  of  Asti  were  seized  by  his  orders  and  cast  into 
dungeons  for  lending  money  on  interest,  though  at  a  very  moderate 
rate.*  A  scruple  fatal  to  France  disturbed  the  mind  of  this  holy 
monarch.  The  conquests  of  Philip  Augustus  and  the  confiscation  of 
the  property  of  the  English  crown  oppressed  him,  and  appeared  to 
him  in  the  light  of  usurpations ;  and  he  concluded  at  Abbeville,  in 
T  t  fAbb  1259,  contrary  to  the  advice  of  his  barons  and  his 
tiolfof  a  portion  family>  a  treaty,  by  which  he  restored  to  Henry  III. 
of  PheiiipnqueStS  Perigord,  Limousin,  Agenois,  Querey,  and  Saintonge ; 
while  Henry  on  his  side  gave  up  his  claims  to  Nor- 
mandy, Anjou,  Maine,  Touraine,  and  Poitou.  The  prejudices  and 
scruples  of  Saint  Louis  alone  urged  him  to  conclude  this  unfavour- 
able treaty,  which  the  English  monarch  could  never  have  obtained 
by  force.  This  prince  was  at  the  time  at  war  with  his  barons, 
who  extorted  from  him  the  concessions  known  as  "  the  Provisions 
Arbitration  of  °^  Oxf°roV'  by  which  they  exercised  a  portion  of  the 
tween Henryiii  royal  authority.  Such  was  the  reputation  of  Saint 
and  his  barons.  Louis,  that  by  common  accord  he  was  selected  as  arbi- 
trator between  them  and  their  sovereign.  He  decided  in  favour  of 
Henry  III.,  and  the  Provisions  of  Oxford  were  annulled. 

Almost  at  the  same  time  that  Louis  signed  the  treaty  of  Abbeville 
he  signed  with  the  King  of  Arragon  the  treaty  of  Corbeil,  by  which 
Treat  of  Corbeil  ^at  prince  gave  up  all  the  fiefs  he  still  possessed  in 
l'm"  Languedoc,  and  his  claims  to  Provence  ;  in  return  for 

which  France  surrendered  her  suzerainty  over  the   countries  of  Bar- 

*  According  to  the  Laws  of  the  Church,  and  in  the  ideas  of  the  middle  ages,  lending 
money  on  interest  was  regarded  as  a  crime. 


1226-1270]  FALL    OF    CONSTANTINOPLE.  189 

celona,  Roussillon,  and  Cerdagne.  The  King  of  Arragon  only  retained 
in  France  the  lordship  of  Montpellier,  and  the  Pyrenees  became  the 
frontier  of  the  two  States. 

Saint  Louis  had  lost  his  eldest  son,  and  several  members  of  his 
family  proved  to  be  turbulent  and  dangerous  to  France.  Charles  of 
Anjou,  his  brother,  an  ambitious  and  cruel  prince,  heir  by  his  marriage 
with  Beatrice  of  Provence  to  the  powerful  counts  of  that  name,* 
caused  him  very  great  anxiety,  and,  with  the  intention  of  removing 
him,  Louis  favoured  his  projects  with  regard  to  Naples  and  Sicily, 
then  possessions  of  the  Imperial  crown. 

The  illustrious  house  of  Suabia  was  humbled ;  Frederic  II.,  its  last 
Emperor,  met  with  his  death  in  struggling  against  the    Pope,  who 
sold  his  heritage,  and  offered  to  the  King  of  France  the 
kingdom  of  Naples,  where  Manfred,  the  bastard  son  of  first  house  of  An- 

,  jou,    at    Naples. 

Frederic  II.,  then  reigned.    Saint  Louis  refused  the  offer  Battle  of  Gran- 

°  .  della,  1266. 

for  himself,  but  allowed  his  brother  to  accept  it.     Charles 
of  Anjou  left  France  with  an  army  gathered  together  in  Provence ; 
and  six  years  later,  in  1266,  the  battle  of  Grandella,  where  Manfred 
perished,  placed  the  crown  of  Naples  and  Sicily  securely  on  his  head. 

The  East  now  attracted  more  forcibly  than  ever  the  attention  of 
Saint  Louis.  The  Roman  Empire  in  Constantinople  was  no  more  ; 
the  Creeks  had  retaken  that  city  in  1261.  Taking  advantage  of  the 
divisions  among  the  Christians  in  Syria,  Bendocdard,  the 

°  J        '  Fall  of  the  Roman 

sultan  of  Egypt,  made   a  series  of  rapid  conquests  in   Empire  in  Con- 

bJ  r  '  r  ^  stantinople,  1261. 

Palestine  :  Csesarea,  Jaffa,  and  Antioch,  had  fallen  into  his 
power,  and  a  hundred  thousand  Christians  had  been  massacred  in  the 
last-named  town.     On  receiving  intelligence  of  this  frightful  disaster, 
Saint  Louis  made  a  vow  that  he  would  take  up  the  Cross  for  the  second 
time.       After   making  pilgrimages  to   the  principal   churches  in  his 

*  Provence  had  for  a  long  time  formed  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Aries,  composed  of  the 
two  Burgundies,  Cis  and  Transjuran.  In  1033  Conrad  II.,  having  joined  this  king- 
dom to  the  German  Empire,  Provence,  which  comprised  the  four  republics  of  Nice, 
Aries,  Avignon,  and  Marseilles,  was  detached  from  it  and  remained  independent  under 
sovereign  counts.  Raymond  Berengarius  was  the  last,  and  Beatrice,  his  daughter 
and  heiress,  having  married  Charles,  Count  of  Anjou,  Provence  passed  into  the  pos- 
session of  the  latter,  who  soon  after  became  King  of  Naples  and  Sicily.  Such  was 
the  origin  of  the  powerful  house  of  the  Counts  of  Anjou,  Kings  of  Sicily,  and  Counts  of 
Provence,  which  became  extinct  with  "  Good  King  Rene,"  who  died  in  1480. 


190  SIXTH  CRUSADE.  [Book  I.  Chap.  V. 

kingdom,  he  embarked  again  at  Aigues-Mortes,  in  1270,  and  set  sail 
for   Tunis.     He  had  appointed  a   rendezvous   with   his 

Sixth  Crusade.  ; 

Second  De-  brother,  Charles  d  Anjou,  within  the  walls   of   ancient 

parture  of  Saint 

Louis  for  the        Carthage.    He  disembarked  opposite  to  this  ruined  town, 

Holy  Land,  1270.  &  ... 

and  had  to  suffer  an  infinity  of  evils,  from  the  dryness  of 
the  soil,  the  heat  of  the  sun,  and  the  arrows  of  the  Moors.  The  plague 
carried  away  part  of  his  army,  which  he  was  compelled  to  hold  back 
in  fatal  inaction  ;  it  struck  down  his  second  son,  the  Count  de  ISTevers, 
and  he  himself  was  attacked  at  the  end  of  a  month.  He  employed 
his  last  moments  in  giving  good  counsels jto  Philip,  his  third  son  and 
his  heir.  "  Dear  son,"  said  he  to  him,  "  the  first  thing  that  I  wish  to 
impress  upon  thee  is  that  thou  love  God ;  for  without  that    no  one 

can  be  saved Have  a  gentle  and  compassionate  heart  for  the 

poor,  for  the  feeble,  and  comfort  and  aid  them  whenever  it  is  in 
thy  power.  Maintain  the  good  customs  of  the  kingdom,  and  destroy 
the  bad.     Do  not  covet  the  property  of  thy  people,  and  do  not  charge 

it  with  rates  or   taxes Be   careful   to   have  the   society  of 

prudent  men,  and  loyal,  who  are  not  full  of  covetousness.  Flee  and 
escape  from  the  society  of  evil  men.  Listen  willingly  to  the  word  of 
God,  and  retain  it  in  thy  heart ;  seek  also  willingly  for  prayers  and 
pardons.  Love  thine  honour,  and  hate  evil,  of  whatever  nature  it  may 
be.  Be  loyal  and  firm  in  rendering  justice  to  thy  subjects,  neither 
turning  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left ;  but  aid  and  sustain  the 
cause  of  the  poor  until  the  truth  is  brought  to  light.  Guard  the  cus- 
toms of  thy  kingdom,  and  if  there  be  anything  to  amend,  amend  it 
and  correct  it.  Give  the  livings  of  the  holy  Church  to  good  men, 
with  spotless  lives,  and  act  under  the  advice  of  men  of  probity.  Keep 
thyself  from  being  moved  into  war,  without  great  necessity,  against 
Christian  men.  Take  care  that  the  expenses  of  thy  household  are 
reasonable.     Lastly,  dear  son,  see  that  masses  are  sung  for  my  soul, 

and  prayers  offered  up  for  thy  kingdom I  bestow  on  you  all 

the  blessings  that  a  good  father  can  give  to  his  son May  God 

give  you  grace  to  do  always  His  will,  in  order  that  after  this  mortal 
life  we  may  be  with  Him,  my  son,  and  praise  Him  together."  # 

The  King  delivered  himself  up  at  last  entirely  to  religious  observ- 
ances ;  he  expressed  a  wish  before  death  to  be  raised  from  his  bed  and 

*  Meinoires  du  Sire  du  Joinville. 


1226-1270]  DEATH    OP    SAINT   LOUIS.  191 

laid  upon  ashes,  and  there  he  expired,  holding  the  crucifix  in  his  arms. 
"  On  the  Monday,  the  good  King  raised  his  clasped  hands  to  heaven, 
and  said : — i  Lord  God,  have  mercy  on  the  people  who  dwell  here,  and 
conduct  them  into  their  own  land  ;  let  them  not  fall  into  the  hands  of 
their  enemies  ;  and  let  them  not  be  led  to  forswear  Thy  holy  name  ! ' 
Shortly  before  his  death,  and  while  he  was  slumbering,  he  sighed 
and  said,  in  a  low  tone,  '  0  Jerusalem  !  0  Jerusalem  !  '  "  *  His  last 
thoughts  were  concerning  Grod,  the  Holy  City,  and  France,  and  he 
gave  up  the  ghost  on  the  25th  of  August,  1270,  after  having  ap- 
pointed as  regents  of  the  kingdom,  Mathieu  de  Saint-  Death  of  gaint 
Denis  and  Roger  de  Nesle.  No  other  king  was  more  Louls'  12'°- 
worthy  of  the  admiration  of  his  fellow- men,  and  alone,  out  of  all  his 
race,  the  Church  bestowed  on  him  the  honours  of  canonization. 

*  Petri  Episl.  ap.  Spicileyium. 


192  GENERAL    RETROSPECT.  [BOOK  I.    ChAp.  VI. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS  UPON  THE  STATE  OF  FRANCE,  AND  UPON  THE 
EVENTS  WHICH  TRANSPIRED  DURING  THE  PAST  THREE  CENTURIES,  FROM 
THE    ACCESSION    OF    HUGH    CAPET    TO    THE    DEATH    OF    SAINT   LOUIS. 

The  two  Hundred  and  ninety  years  of  which  we  are  about  to  trace  the 
principal  events  were  fertile  with  calamities  and  also  with  progress. 
Among  the  latter,  the  most  worthy-  of  attention  are  the  gradual  and 
constant  increase  of  the  royal  authority,  the  birth  of  the  bourqoisie,  or 
the  Third  Estate,  which,  almost  imperceptible  at  the  end  of  the  tenth 
century,  started  into  existence  suddenly  towards  the  year  1100,  as  a 
social  power  in  the  first  communal  revolutions,  and  finished  by 
absorbing  nearly  the  whole  nation. 

We  have  shown,  in  the  preceding  chapters,  the   gradual  and  suc- 
cessive progress  of  royalty  ;  we  have  seen  it  grow  great  under  Louis 
the  Eat,  then   afterwards  to  acquire   reality  under  Philip  Augustus, 
by  the  prodigious  extension  given  to  the  possessions  of 

Conquests  by  the 

Crown  under  the   the  Crown;    bv  the  building  of  large  ships:  and  bv  the 

Feudal  system.  ...  ...  .  . 

superiority  which  public  opinion  accorded  to  it  in 
virtue  of  an  ancient  right  attached  to  the  royal  title  and  majesty. 
"We  see  it  later  adding  to  its  prerogatives  by  the  wise  decrees  of  Saint 
Louis,  and  removing  from  the  nobles  the  essential  rights  of  feudal 
power,  by  the  restrictions  placed  on  private  warfare,  and  above  all 
by  the  establishment  of  a  court  of  justice.  The  people  recognized,  in 
the  authority  of  the  monarch,  the  sole  power  capable  of  struggling 
with  success  against  their  numerous  oppressors.  They  desired  that 
this  authority  should  be  powerful  and  awe-inspiring,  hoping  in  case 
of  need  to  lean  upon  it,  and  applauded  with  fervour  its  rapid  pro- 
gress, which  was  then  of  a  noble  and  incontestible  utility.  Louis  the 
Eat,  in  fact,  bestowed  upon  royalty  its  character  of  public  power 
and  protection ;  Philip  Augustus  reconstructed  the  kingdom,  and  in- 
spired in  the  people  under  his  sceptre  the   sentiment  of  nationality ; 


1226-1270]  THE   ROYAL   POWER.  193 

Louis  IX.  impressed  on  his  government  a  character  of  equity,  a  re- 
spect for  the  public  rights,  and  a  love  for  the  public  welfare,  unknown 
until  his  time.  At  this  time,  then,  the  development  of  the  royal  power 
had  produced  an  epoch  of  happiness  for  France  ;  but  the  progress  of 
this  power  afterwards,  without  any  counterbalance,  insomuch  as  it  is 
considered  connected  with  the  true  interests  and  prosperity  of  the 
nation,  ceased  with  Saint  Louis,  and  was  afterwards  suspended  during 
more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

This  prince  did  not  regard  his  authority  as  absolute ;  it  had,  however, 
no  precise  limit  with  him,  and  the  proneness  towards  despotism  was 
easy.  Royalty,  upon  thus  being  abandoned  to  it,  created  great  perils 
against  France  and  against  itself.  Before  recalling  the  new  destinies, 
it  is  necessary  to  throw  a  glance  at  the  results  which  had  been  produced 
upon  the  civilization  and  manners  of  the  French  by  the  great  events 
which  had  agitated  Europe  for  three  centuries.  One  of  the  most  re- 
markable facts  of  this  important  period  was  the  rapid  development  of 
the  middle  classes.  It  will  be  convenient,  in  the  first  place,  in  order  to 
give  an  account  of  this,  to  examine  the  principal  constituent  elements 
of  the  communes. of  France,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  greater  part 
obtained  their  charters  of  freedom. 

Ancient  Gaul  was  then  divided  into  two  parties,  distinguished  by 
their  language.  The  provinces  of  the  North,  where  they  spoke  the 
Roman  "Walloon  dialect ,*  were  called  Provinces  of  the   ^  .  .      .  „    , 

Division  of  Gaul 

Langue  d'Oil,  in  consequence  of  the  inhabitants  making  j?J°  l^d\^lgilQ 
use  of  the  word  oil  instead  of  oui  when  answering  in  the  Lan£'ue  d'OiL. 
affirmative ;  they  were  ruled  by  customs  derived  probably  from  ancient 
Gaul,  or  perhaps  from  the  German  people.  The  provinces  of  the 
South,  where  they  spoke  the  Roman  Provencal,  received  from  the 
monosyllable  oc,  of  which  the  meaning  is  equally  affirmative,  the  name 
of  the  Provinces  of  the  Langue  d'Oc ;  they  were  ruled  by  the  Roman 
or  written  law.  A  great  number  of  the  towns  throughout  the  southern 
provinces  had  preserved  the  form  of  municipal  govern- 
ment which  they  had  held  under  the  Romans  ;  others  had   t0WDS  *"  the 

•>  '  '   eleventh  and 

for  a  long  time  lost  the  liberties  which  that  power  had  twelfth  centuries, 
bestowed  on  them.     As  to  the  towns  of  recent  origin,  they  were  built 

*  That  is  to  say,  one  composed  of  corrupt  Latin  mixed  with  the  language  of  ancient 
Gaul.     The  Walloon  country  comprised  a  portion  of  Belgium. 


194  STATE    OF    THE    TOWNS.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  VI. 

•under  the  auspices  of  the  most  powerful  noble  in  the  province  or 
neighbourhood,  and  their  inhabitants  enjoyed  those  civil  rights  and 
privileges  which  it  pleased  that  nobleman  to  grant  or  guarantee  to 
them.  At  the  time  when  the  feudal  system  was  established,  the 
nobles,  both  ecclesiastical  and  lay,  opposed  with  all  their  power  the 
municipal  franchises.  They  substituted  in  great  part  their  own 
authority  where  franchises  existed,  and  usurped  all  the  rights  where 
the  franchises  were  either  destroyed  or  unknown.  Those  also  who,  in 
the  hope  of  increasing  the  population  of  their  fiefs,  had  guaranteed 
rights  and  liberties  to  men  who  came  to  settle  there,  afterwards 
violated,  for  the  most  part,  their  engagements  and  their  charters. 
Nearly  all  raised  arbitrary  taxes  in  the  towns,  forbade  the  citizens 
to  unite  together  and  arm  themselves  for  the  common  defence,  and 
usurped  the  right  of  high  and  low  justice.  They  disposed  also  of  the 
fortunes  and  the  lives  of  the  citizens,  and  their  oppression  soon 
became  intolerable.  Reduced  to  despair,  the  oppressed  people  fre- 
quently had  recourse  to  arms  ;  they  recalled  their  ancient  franchises, 
requested  guarantees  for  their  property  and  persons,  and  took  advan- 
tage of  the  avidity  of  the  nobles  either  to  buy  back  again  or  conquer 
their  liberties. 

The  period  when  the  energy  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns  roused 
L  itself  coincides  with  that  of  the  first  Crusade  ;  that  event 

Enfranchisement 

of  the  communes.  ^^  a  powerful  though  indirect  influence  upon  the  enter- 
prise, and  was  favourable  to  it.  The  nobles  needed  gold  for  their 
distant  expeditions  ;  large  numbers  consented,  on  receiving  consider- 
able sums  of  money,  to  resign  an  authority  which  a  great  portion  of 
them  had  usurped.  They  quitted  France  for  a  lengthened  period, 
taking  with  them  in  their  suite  a  multitude  of  knights,  who,  under 
their  orders,  had  been  the  terror  of  both  town  and  country.  The 
absence  of  the  oppressing  party  or  the  weakening  of  their  numbers 
favoured  the  citizens  in  their  attempts  at  independence  ;  but  they  did 
not  unite  everywhere  so  easily.  Many  towns,  after  having  bought 
their  franchises,  were  obliged  to  resort  to  arms  in  order  to  preserve  them. 
These  liberties  differed  slightly  from  those  which  secured  municipal 
institutions;  but  they  gave  to  those  holding  them  a  certain  extension 
and  offered  more  guarantee.  Citizens  obtained  by  them  the  right  to 
form  conjurations  or  communes,  that  is  to  say,  to  defend  themselves 


1226-1270]  ENFRANCHISEMENT    OF   THE    COMMUNES.  195 

with  arms,  to  elect  their  mayors,  their  civil  magistrates,  their  council- 
men,  to  assess  their  own  taxes,  to  dispense  justice,  and  manage  their 
own  public  affairs  as  they  pleased.  The  engagements  which  they 
undertook  amongst  them  indicated  a  deep  feeling  for  the  rights  of 
humanity,  and  their  oath  had  a  grand  character  of  -independence  and 
energy.  They  assembled  in  the  principal  church  or  in  the  market- 
place, and  there  they  swore  on  holy  relics  that  they  would  support 
each  other.  All  those  who  bound  themselves  in  this  manner  took 
the  name  of  communiers  or  of  jures,  and  these  titles  expressed  the 
idea  of  reciprocal  devotedness.  The  liberties  which  they  asked  for, 
however,  were  not  political  liberties,  such  as  we  understand  them  at 
the  present  day.  They  did  not  request  the  power  to  make  laws  and 
participate  in  the  government  of  the  State,  they  wished  to  obtain  strong 
guarantees  against  servitude,  and  to  free  themselves  from  an  insup- 
portable tyranny.  They  demanded  the  right  to  acquire  property  and 
preserve  it,  to  live  in  security  under  established  laws,  and  lastly,  that 
civil  liberty  which  at  the  present  day  social  progress  assures  to  every 
citizen  in  nearly  every  part  of  Europe. 

After  being  constituted,  the. first  act  of  a  commune  was  to  choose  a 
tower  in  order  to  establish  a  bell  or  belfry,  and  the  first  clause  of  the 
oath  taken  by  the  inhabitants  was  the  obligation  to  repair  to  the 
public  place  of  the  town,  fully  armed,  as  soon  as  the  sound  of  this  bell 
was  heard.  The  communes  enfranchised  by  the  nobles  engaged 
generally  to  give  them  a  part  of  the  harvests,  to  pay  a  rent  for  each 
person,  and  another  for  each  room  in  their  house,  and  the  monopoly 
of  the  mills  and  ovens,  while  the  inhabitants  were  bound  to  a  personal 
service  of  a  fixed  number  of  days.  Lastly,  the  merchants  were  obliged 
to  hold  an  open  credit  with  their  ancient  master,  up  to  a  certain  sum. 
Notwithstanding  these  hard  conditions,  and  the  most  solemn  oaths, 
a  great  number  of  nobles  wished  to  break  the  treaties,  the  price  of 
which  they  had  spent,  as  soon  as  they  felt  powerful  enough  to  violate 
them  with  impunity.  The  citizens  struggled  almost  everywhere  with 
courage,  but  they  understood  the  necessity  of  obtaining  a  sanction 
which  would  be  respected  by  the  nobles  themselves.  They  appealed  to 
the  kings,  and  prayed  to  be  delivered  from  the  charters  of  enfranchise- 
ment, and  to  be  taken  under  their  protection.  The  kings  of  France 
saw  in  this  demand  a  source  of  riches  for  themselves  and  a  means  of 

o  2 


196  ENFRANCHISEMENT    OP   THE    COMMUNES.    [Book  I.  Chap.  VI, 

patronage  directly  opposed  to  the  nobles,  whom  they  distrusted  ;  they 
sold,  then,  their  support  to  the  communes  of  the  kingdom,  and  so 
added  much  to  their  own  authority.  Louis  YI.  was  the  first  who 
granted  these  charters,  but  he  did  not  create  the  communes,  nor  did 
he  enfranchise  their  inhabitants.  The  towns  conquered  their  liberties 
for  themselves,  and  the  King  only  made  legitimate  liberties  already 
obtained,  by  selling  his  supreme  sanction.  These  royal  acts,  done  with 
that  special  motive,  strengthened  the  monarchy,  by  uniting  its  cause 
with  that  of  the  people.  But  at  this  period  the  effective  royal  power 
only  made  itself  felt  between  the  Somme  and  the  Loire,  and  the  only 
towns  to  which  Louis  VI.  sold  his  charters  were  Beauvais,  Noyou, 
Soissons,  Amiens,  Saint- Riquier,  Saint- Que ntin,  and  Abbeville.  In 
the  other  parts  of  France  proper,  the  kings,  until  the  time  of  Saint 
Louis,  had  no  part  in  the  maintenance  of  the  liberties  of  the  communes, 
as  the  counts  would  not  suffer  the  royal  intervention. 

In  the  towns  of  the  southern  country  the  establishment  of  communes 
met  with  fewer  obstacles  than  in  the  north,  the  struggle  was  shorter, 
and  the  success  more  decisive ;  the  feudal  system  laid  itself  less  heavily 
upon  them ;  while  the  greater  part  preserved  something  of  the  ancient 
municipal  institutions  which  Rome  had  bestowed  on  them.  These 
flourishing  towns,  such  as  Aries,  Narbonne,  and  Toulouse,  kept  up, 
besides,  frequent  commercial  relations  with  the  cities  of  Lombardy, 
where  the  republican  spirit  commenced  to  rule,  and  we  see  rapidly  the 
consulat  municipal  *  pass  from  Italy  into  southern  France :  there  the 
commercial  system  only  helped  to  develope  and  guarantee  the  liberty 
of  the  citizens. 

We  have  seen  the  restrictions  brought  to  bear  by  Saint  Louis  on  the 
independence  of  the  towns  which  he  preserved  from  anarchy  by 
maintaining  there  the  royal  authority  :  wisely  checked,  the  communal 
revolution  was  fruitful  in  happy  results.  The  country  gentlemen  living 
near  the  towns  envied  the  fate  of  their  inhabitants  ;  a  large  number  of 
them  abandoned  their  seigneurial  lands,  in  order  to  become  themselves 
members  of  the  communes,  and  many  towns,  of  which  the  population 
increased  by  this  means,  placed  their  walls  farther  back.     It  was  in 

*  Until  the  French  Revolution,  the  name  of  consul  was  preserved  by  the  municipal 
magistrates  of  the  towns  of  the  south.  At  Toulouse  the  hotel-de-ville  is  still  called  the 
capitole. 


1226-1270]  INFLUENCE   OF  THE   CRUSADES.  197 

this  manner  that  the  power  of  the  cities  increased  by  degrees,  while 
that  of  the  chateaux  was  enfeebled.  When  each  person  in  the  towns 
had  obtained  security  for  his  life,  for  his  fortune,  and  for  the  free  enjoy- 
ment of  the  fruits  of  his  work,  industry  arose  and  commerce  extended 
itself.  The  bourgeois  class  became  every  day  stronger,  richer,  more 
respectable  ;  the  general  feeling  of  ease  increased,  and  civilization  made 
rapid  steps.  This  progress  was  more  perceptible  and  more  prompt  in 
Flanders  than  in  the  other  countries  of  the  north.  The  maritime 
situation  of  most  of  the  great  cities  favoured  the  establishment  of 
manufactories  which  enriched  the  citizens,  and  accustomed  them  at 
all  times  to  unite  together  all  their  efforts  against  ravages  by  sea. 
After  having  ascertained  that  it  was  sufficient  for  them  to  associate 
together  to  rule  the  ocean,  they  were  all  prepared  to  unite  in  order 
to  struggle  against  feudal  oppression  and  to  triumph  over  ifc. 

But  among   all  the  events  which  characterized  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  centuries,  those  which  ruled  the  epoch,  and  which  exercised 
the  greatest  influence  upon  the  spirit,  the  manners,  and 
the  existence  of  all  classes  of  the  nation,  were  the  Crusades,    crusades  upon 

manners. 

Until  then  the  wild  valour  of  the  warriors  of  the  East, 
excited  by  a  thirst  for  domination  and  riches,  had  only  had  for  its 
aim  conquests  of  a  material  kind.  The  Crusades  in  the  Holy  Land  did 
not  soften  the  soldier-rudeness  of  manners  ;  but  they  gave  to  courage 
a  more  noble  and  more  elevated  aim.  They  spiritualized  its  origin. 
Men  accustomed  themselves  to  fight,  to  undergo  the  most  cruel  priva- 
tions, to  give  their  lives  for  something  that  was  immaterial  and  ideal, 
for  a  cause  that  elevated  their  souls  ;  they  felt  themselves  destined  for 
another  end  than  that  of  gratifying  their  own  gross  inclinations. 
Those  distant  expeditions,  in  transporting  innumerable  multitudes  to 
so  great  a  distance  from  their  country,  weakened  the  national  hates  and 
prejudices  of  the  different  classes.  It  was  impossible  that  so  many 
men,  armed  for  the  same  cause,  could  close  their  hearts  to  all 
sentiment  of  fraternity.  The  manners  of  the  nobility,  above  all,  proved 
the  happy  effects  of  the  Crusades.  The  religious  enthusiasm  gave 
birth  to  chivalry,  which  shone  forth  with  the  most  sparkling 
brilliancy  at  the  end  of  this  epoch.  To  serve  God,  and 
to  cherish  and  respect  his  lady,  to  defend  intrepidly,  lance  in  hand, 
towards  and  against  all,  this  double  object  of  an  enthusiastic  worship, — 


198  ARMORIAL    BEARINGS.      HERALDRY.  [BOOK  I.  ChAP.VI. 

such  was  tlie  duty  of  a  preuas  chevalier.  Domesticity  was  considered 
noble  service ;  the  court  of  the  sovereign,  the  castles  of  the  nobles, 
became  schools  where  young  gentlemen  learnt  to  serve  under  the  names 
of  varlets,  gallants,  knights,  and  to  merit  also  themselves  the  supreme 
honour  of  chivalry.  The  study  of  letters  or  science  did  not  enter  into 
the  education  of  a  gentleman,  who  passed  for  an  accomplished  man 
when  he  knew  how  to  pray  to  Grod,  to  serve  the  ladies,  to  fight,  to  hunt, 
and  to  manage  his  horse  and  lance.  Beyond  that  his  ignorance  was 
absolute,  and  we  must  attribute,  above  all  things,  to  the  want  of 
intellectual  instruction,  the  singular  mixture  of  fanatical  superstition, 
brutal  violence,  sincere  purity,  enthusiasm  for  women,  and  the  mixture 
of  courtesy  and  ferocity  which  the  chivalresque  character  displayed  for 
so  long  a  time. 

It  is  to  the  first  Crusade  that  we  must  go  back  for  the  usages 
Armorial  bear-  concerning  the  family  names  of  the  nobility.  It  was 
ings.  Heraldry,  necessary  in  these  immense  collections  of  men  of  many 
nations,  that  every  knight  should  be  recognized  by  a  name  that  should 
be  proper  to  himself,  and  for  the  most  part  they  adopted  that  of  them 
fief.  Armorial  bearings  and  heraldic  emblems  are  of  the  same  date. 
An  extraordinary  brilliancy  was  connected  in  public  opinion  with  the 
exploits  of  the  Crusades.  The  nobles,  in  order  to  perpetuate  the  remem- 
brance of  them,  placed  in  their  castles,  in  the  most  conspicuous  place, 
the  banners  under  which  they  had  fought  in  the  Holy  Land  ;  they  were 
the  monuments  of  their  glory,  and  the  members  of  their  families,  on 
going  out  themselves,  communicated  these  signs  of  illustration.  The 
ladies  embroidered  the  device  on  their  furniture,  on  their  robes,  and  on 
those  of  their  husbands ;  the  warriors  caused  them  to  be  painted  upon 
their  shields,  and  indicated  in  an  abridged  manner  the  exploits  that 
these  ensigns  recalled.  An  arch  signified  a  bridge  defended  or  taken  ; 
by  a  battlement,  a  tower  was  designated ;  by  a  helmet,  the  complete 
armour  of  a  vanquished  enemy.  Each  of  these  distinctive  signs 
became  the  escutcheon  of  a  family,  and  the  domestics  exhibited  them- 
selves bedizened  with  it  on  the  occasion  of  ceremonies.  Heraldry  was 
the  art  of  interpreting  these  emblems  ;  it  was  in  principle  a  species 
of  language  by  which  alliances  and  rights  to  public  esteem  were 
made  known. 

The  first  essays  of  French  poetry  belong  to  this  time.     The  trouveres- 


1226-1270]  POETRY.      FINE   ARTS.  199 

in  the  north,  and  the  troubadours  in  the  south,  composed  songs  which 
the  minstrels  or  singers  recited  from  castle  to  castle,  accompanying 
themselves  on  instruments.  The  trouveres  were  distinguished  above 
all  in  the  epic  style.  The  adventures  of  the  Crusades  or  some  mar- 
vellous legend  inspired  them.  Their  most  celebrated  works  are  : 
U  Alexandre,  by  Alexandre  de  Bernay  (the  originator  of  the  Alex- 
andrine verse)  ;  Gerard  de  Nevers,  by  Gilbert  de  Montreuil ;  Garin 
le  Loherain,  by  Jehan  de  Flagy ;  and  above  all  the  famous  Homan  de 
la  Hose,  or  the  Art  of  Loving,  by  Guillaume  de  Lorris  and  Jean 
de  Meung.  To  them  also  we  are  indebted  for  several  lays,  virelays, 
and  fables,  remarkable  for  their  natural  grace. 

The  troubadours,  on  the  contrary,  among  whom  we  reckon 
Bertrand  de  Born,  Raimond  Beranger,  Arnauld  Daniel,  William  IX. 
Count  of  Poictiers,  cultivated  in  preference  the  lyric  style,  which 
they  named  the  "gay  science." 

The  French  language  then  disengaged  itself  from  the  Latin  forms, 
and  became  that  of  the  legists,  of  the  chroniclers  and  romancers,  or 
trouveres.  The  Assises  or  laws  of  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  were 
written  in  this  language,  so  also  were  the  chronicles  of  Ville-Hardouin, 
Marshal  of  Champagne,  who  describes  the  fourth  Crusade  ;  and  that  of 
the  Sire  de  Joinville,  a  biography  of  Saint  Louis.  This  latter  work, 
charmingly  written,  is  perhaps  the  most  curious  monument  of  the 
French  language  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

The  arts  also  made  progress  during  the  period  of  the  Crusades.    We 
see  these  arising  in  several  of  the  most  curious  monu- 
ments  of  architecture,  called  Ogival,  which  we  admire  in   Sculpture, 
the  Gothic  cathedrals.     These  were  decorated  with  the 
productions  of  a  statuary,  coarse  as  yet,  but  full  of  originality,  and  by 
the  rich  paintings  which  illuminate  their  glass,  of  which  the  secret,  it 
is  said,  goes  back  as  far  as  the  tenth  century.     The  greatest  progress 
in  painting  at  this  period  manifested  itself  in  the  chefs-d'oeuvre  in 
miniature  which  decorated  the  missals  and  the  livres  d'heures,  of  which 
a  great  number  have  been  handed  down  from  age  to  age,  and  are 
still  admired  at  the  present  day. 

Tournaments  also  date  their  birth  from  the  same  period.     These 
military   games    were    intimately    connected    with    the 
manners  of  chivalry.     The   times  which  preceded   and 
followed   that   of   chivalry    offer  nothing   resembling   them.     People 


200  TOURNAMENTS.      RELIGIOUS   ORDERS.  [Book  I.^Chap.  VI. 

hurried  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom,  as  to  national  fetes ;  gentle- 
men fought  there  armed  cap-a-pie,  with  lances,  axes,  and  swords,  of 
which  the  steel  had  been  blunted ;  sometimes  the  combat  was  allowed 
to  proceed  to  extremity.  The  cavaliers  sought  to  surpass  each  other  in 
the  games,  not  only  in  magnificence  but  in  strength,  in  address,  and  in 
courage.  They  appeared  there  distinguished  by  their  mottoes,  under 
the  eyes  of  kings,  of  princes,  and  of  ladies,  the  applause  of  whom  they 
were  ambitious  to  gain  :  the  ladies  gave  the  prizes  to  the  victors.  The 
tournaments  were  regulated  by  a  particular  legislation,  of  which  the 
principal  author  was  Geoffroi  de  Preuilly. 

The  most  celebrated  religious  military  orders  were  founded  by  the 

French  on  the  occasion  of  the  first  Crusade,  and  from  France  they 

spread  themselves  over  the  whole  of  Europe.     The  first 

Religious  Orders.  *„  . 

were  the  Hospitallers  of  Saint  John  and  the  Temjylars  ; 
they  devoted  themselves  humbly  to  the  service  of  the  Holy  Land,  and 
from  soldier-monks?  as  they  were  at  first,  they  became  sovereigns.  A 
third  order,  that  of  the  Antonines,  consecrated  themselves  to  the  relief 
of  those  who  were  attacked  by  a  species  of  plague  called  holy  fire.  It 
is  to  Christian  charity  that  humanity  was  indebted  for  the  foundation 
of  Ecclesiastical  Orders,  which,  for  the  most  part,  enriched  at  last  by 
pious  largesses,  deviated  from,  their  aim?  and  degenerated  from  their 
holy  origin.  The  orders  of  Hospitallers,  instituted  for  the  purpose  of 
ransoming  prisoners  taken  by  the  Infidels,  and  for  the  relief  of  the 
sick,  were  founded  later ;  also  the  celebrated  order  of  the  Dominicans 
or  Freres  precheurs,  and  also  that  of  the  Franciscans  or  Cordeliers,  so 
called  from  the  cord  which  served  them  for  a  girdle.  These  two  last 
were  called  mendicant  orders,  because  they  made  a  vow  of  poverty  and 
lived  upon  alms,  according  to  the  formal  instructions  of  their  illus- 
trious founders  Saint  Francois  d'Assise  and  Saint  Dominique  de  Guz- 
man. They  acquired  great  power  in  a  short  time  ;  in  virtue  of  papal 
commissions  they  preached,  administered  the  sacraments,  and  directed 
the  consciences  of  kings  and  people,  thus  taking  away  by  degrees  all 
the  functions  of  the  bishops  and  of  the  secular  clergy.*  Not  having 
anything,  they  possess  all  things,  said  the  chancellor  Pierre  des  Yignes 

*  The  secular  clergy  was  so  called  because  it  lived  in  the  world,  in  the  siecle.  It 
was  composed  of  all  the  ecclesiastics  who  were  not  under  vows  in  a  religious  community. 
The  ecclesiastical  members  of  communities,  or  inhabitauts  of  convents,  composed  the 
regular  clergy. 


1226-1270]  COMMERCE.  201 

to  the  Emperor  Frederic  II.  They  sapped  into  the  bases  of  the 
ancient  hierarchy  of  the  Church ;  for  they  annulled  in  some  sort  the 
power  of  the  bishops,  whose  authority  they  braved.  They  wished 
also  to  direct  the  schools  and  to  take  to  themselves  the  chairs  of  the 
University,  where  the  secular  clergy  still  ruled.  The  g  le  f 
latter  resisted,  and  an  obstinate  struggle  resulted.  The  ordersT^ainst 
dispute  lasted  thirty  years,  and  was  prolonged  during  a  the  Universlty- 
large  portion  of  the  reign  of  Saint  Louis.  At  last,  after  lengthened 
storms  and  reciprocal  excommunications,  the  University  was  com- 
pelled to  yield  by  Pope  Alexander  IY.  The  mendicant  orders 
obtained  some  of  the  chairs  in  the  schools,  and  the  University  con- 
ferred the  grade  of  Doctor  upon  two  illustrious  members  of  these 
orders,  on  the  Franciscan,  Bonaventura,  and  on  the  Dominican, 
Saint  Thomas  dAquinas,  who  was  surnamed  the  Angel  of  the  School, 
and  whose  theological  writings  excited  the  enthusiastic  admiration 
of  his  contemporaries. 

The  religious  movement  of  the  Crusades  was  very  favourable  to 
this  prodigious  increase  of  the  power  of  the  monks,  and  provoked 
the  establishment  of  a  multitude  of  pious  foundations.  The  vast 
and  magnificent  monasteries  of  Cluny  and  Citeaux  were  gorged  with 
wealth ;  they  served  as  places  of  assembly  for  the  nobility,  and  the 
abbes  were  admitted  into  the  councils  of  the  kings. 

The  Crusades  communicated  in  everything  a  lively  and  strong 
impulse  to  civilization  and  to  manners.  Propitious  to  the  enfran- 
chisement of  the  communes,  they  favoured  also  the  progress  of  the 
bourgeoisie  by  the  extension  which  they  gave  to  commerce.  The 
delicacies  of  the  Bast  caused  new  wants  to  arise ;  the    _ 

'  Commerce. 

merchants,  hitherto  despised,  acquired  more  considera-  Industiy- 
tion,  and  formed  the  link  between  Europe  and  Asia.  Maritime  com- 
merce, above  all,  which  scarcely  existed  before  the  Crusades,  acquired 
by  them  a  very  vast  development ;  European  industry  gained  equally 
by  the  expeditions  of  the  Crusaders.  Silk  stuffs,  spices,  perfumes,  and 
the  other  treasures  of  the  East,  were  known  in  Europe  from  the  time 
of  the  Carlovingians ;  but  they  were  only  seen  in  the  courts  of  princes 
or  the  dwellings  of  the  great.  During  this  period  the  art  of  dyeing 
the  tissues  of  silk  was  brought  to  perfection,  and  amongst  the  principal 
conquests  of  industry  in  the  thirteenth  century  we  must  reckon  saffron, 


202  THE  SERFS.  [Book  I.  Chap.  VI. 

indigo,  the  sugar-cane,  and  the  art  of  extracting  its  precious  contents. 
The  rich  tissues  of  Damascus,  the  glass  of  Tyre,  imitated  in  Venice, 
and  which  was  afterwards  substituted  for  metallic  mirrors,  windmills, 
and  cotton  stuffs,  were  also  made  known  at  this  period  to  Europeans, 
who  learnt  at  the  same  time  damaskeening,  the  engraving  of  seals  and 
money,  and  the  manner  of  applying  enamel  to  metals.  The  towns 
had  become,  partly  by  the  effect  of  the  Crusades,  the  centres  of  free 
„  ,  „.       activity,  of  commerce,  and  of  wealth  ;  luxury  extended 

Progress  of  the  J '  '  J 

Third  Estate.  itself  in  every  direction.  The  manner  of  living,  of  fur- 
nishing, of  feeding,  became  different ;  ease  increased  in  the  houses  of 
the  nobles  and  the  bourgeoisie,  and  the  Third  Estate  made  with  these 
rapid  progress. 

In  all  the  towns  workmen  of  different  professions  formed  particular 
associations,  called  corporations,  in  which  the  members 
found  a  support  in  one  another,  and  an  assistance  for 
the  aged,  the  widows,  and  the  orphans.  Each  of  these  was  instituted 
under  the  invocation  of  a  saint,  who  was  looked  upon  as  its  patron. 
They  had  all  chiefs,  and  syndics  or  juries,  who  prevented  frauds  and 
watched  the  observation  of  the  rules.  These  assured  to  the  members 
of  each  corporation  the  monopoly  of  their  industry  after  a  long  and 
severe  apprenticeship.  The  rules  of  Saint  Louis  constituted  the  chiefs 
of  the  trades  the  police  of  their  corporation,  and  rendered  them 
responsible  for  the  disorders  committed  in  their  body. 

The  last  and  most  numerous  class  of  the  nation  was  that  which 
received  the  least  advantages  from  these    expeditions ; 

Thfi  serfs 

nevertheless,  the  unfortunate  serfs  were  not  total  strangers 
to  their  results.  The  Popes  decided  that  no  Christian,  in  whatever 
condition  he  might  be  born,  could  be  prevented  from  taking  up  the 
Cross  and  departing  for  the  Holy  Land.  This  was  to  sever  at  one 
blow  the  ties  which  bound  the  serfs  to  the  glebe  or  the  land  of  their 
lord.  It  admitted  them  to  a  species  of  fraternity  in  arms,  and  dis- 
played to  their  eyes  the  consoling  sentiment  of  their  individual  dignity 
as  members  of  the  human  family.  But  although  these  peasants,  who 
had  become  soldiers  of  the  Church,  obtained  their  enfranchisement,  the 
establishment  of  a  free  class  of  peasants  did  not  follow  as  a  result. 
Of  that  great  multitude  of  men  who  left  for  Palestine,  only  a  small 
number  returned  to  their  country ;  the  greater  part  perished  of  misery, 


1226-1270]  ABEILARD.  203 

of  fatigue,  and  of  excess,  or  were  cut  down  by  the  scimitars  of  the 
Mussulmans. 

The   human  mind,   stimulated  by  different   and   powerful   causes, 
made  notable  progress  during  the  period  of  the  Crusades  ;  and  already, 
under  Louis  VI.,  the  schools  of  Paris  had  attained  great 
celebrity.     This   was  the   first   epoch  of  scholastic  phi- 
losophy* only  taught  from  the  chairs  of  the  University,  and  of  the 
famous   quarrels    between  the   philosophic   sect   of  the 
'Realists  and    that    of    the   Nominate.      The   first   only  Realists  and  of 
admitted  reality  in  that  which  they  called  the  universaux, 
that  is  to  say,  general  ideas,  collective  beings,  and  attached  itself  to  the 
Platonic   theories ;  the   second   only  saw   in   the   universauoc,  words, 
names,  simple  abstractions  of  the  mind,  and  depended  in  preference 
on  the  theories  of  Aristotle.     These  two  schools  had  for  their  chiefs 
two  men  of  great  renown.     Roscelin  de   Compiegne  professed  with 
brilliancy,  in  the  twelfth  century,  the  doctrine  of  the  JVominals,  while 
his  realistic  adversary,  Gruillaume  de  Champeaux,  was  director  of  the 
school  of  the  cloister,  Notre  Dame,  at  Paris.      Then  appeared  the 
Breton,    Pierre   Abeilard,    as   much   celebrated    for  his 
amours  with  Heloise  and  by  his  own  misfortunes,  as  by 
his  science  and  his  immortal  genius.     Profound  logician,  without  a 
rival  in  dialectics,  and  of  a  marvellous  eloquence,  Abeilard  shone  forth 
in  the  first  ranks  of  the  JVominals.   His  prodigious  success  in  philosophy 
did   not  shake  his  religious  and  Christian  faith;  but  he  wished  to 
submit   the   Catholic    dogmas   to    analysis,  to    comment   upon   them 
reasonably.      His  principles  upon  different   points  of  theology,   and 
among  others  upon  Free   Will,  appeared  to  be  in  opposition  to  the 
decisions  of  the  councils,  and  for  the  first  time  he  was  condemned  by 
the  Council  of  Soissons  for  having  taught  without  previously  obtain- 
ing  the  approbation  of  the  Pope  and  of  the  Church.     Abeilard  retired 
into  the  solitary,  sandy  district  of  Champagne,  where  he  raised  with 
his  own  hands  an  oratory,  composed   of  thatch  and  rushes,  which 
afterwards  became  the  celebrated  Abbey  of  Paracleti      His  disciples, 
and  among  them  the   illustrious  Arnold  of  Brescia,  discovered  his 
retreat ;  they  hurried  from  all  parts  ;  they  braved  the  austerities  of  the 
desert  in  order  to  follow  their  master,  to  hear  his  words,  to  pray  and 

*  The  philosophy  called  scholastic  was  subordinate  in  all  its  affirmations  to  theology. 


204  ABEILARD   AND    SAINT   BERNARD.  [Book  I.  Chap.  YI. 

to  meditate  with  him.  Persecuted,  condemned  afresh,  Abeilard  sought 
a  more  profound  retreat  in  the  Abbey  of  Saint- Gildas,  in  Brittany. 
Then,  suddenly,  braving  his  enemies,  he  reappeared  brilliantly  in 
Paris,  where  his  renown  drew  together  a  number  of  students  from  all 
parts  of  Europe.  His  books  flew  from  hand  to  hand,  his  doctrines 
spread  themselves  from  the  capital  to  the  extremities  of  the  kingdom, 
his  glory  was  at  its  height,  when  a  redoubtable  antagonist  crushed  him 
under  the  thunderbolts  of  the  irritated  Church.  This  was  Saint 
Bernard,  founder  of  the  celebrated  Abbey  of  Clairvaux. 

Stru0*0*^  between 

Abeilard  and  This  illustrious  man  pushed  the  monasterial  austerities  to 
an  almost  unheard-of  rigour,  living  a  life  more  ecstatic 
than  terrestrial.  Bearing  in  a  body  weak,  pale,  reduced  by  watchings 
and  fastings,  an  incomparable  vigour  of  soul,  leaning  his  words  and 
his  acts  on  the  authority  that  gives  the  conviction  of  a  holy  mission 
and  a  supernatural  inspiration,  no  one  exercised  more  power  over  his 
contemporaries  in  an  age  when  the  faith  of  the  people  was  so  strong 
and  their  reason  so  weak.  The  Pope,  the  emperor,  the  kings,  the 
bishops,  the  people,  submitted  to  the  authority  of  his  genius ;  at  one 
time  he  extinguished  a  schism,  or  drew  up  in  the  solitude  of  his  cell  the 
constitution  of  a  religious  order  ;  at  another,  disposing  at  his  pleasure 
of  the  sword  of  kings,  he  directed  their  armies  to  the  east  or  the 
south,  according  to  the  interests  of  the  Church.  His  word,  they  said, 
was  as  a  law  of  fire,  which  went  forth  out  of  his  mouth,  and  every- 
where there  were  reports  of  the  marvellous  cures  which  followed  his 
steps.  This  prodigious  man  taxed  with  pride  the  reason  which 
attempted  to  explore  mysteries ;  he  was  irritated  with  the  efforts  of 
Abeilard  to  explain  inexplicable  dogmas,  and  cried  out  in  the  bitter- 
ness of  his  spirit, — "  They  would  search  even  into  the  entrails,  the 
secrets,  of  God."  A  new  council  assembled  at  Sens,  and  the  two  great 
adversaries  appeared  there  in  presence  of  the  King,  the  princes,  and 
the  bishops  ;  but  Abeilard  foresaw,  without  doubt,  that  the  discussion 
would  not  be  free;  he  declined  the  solemn  debate,  making  an  appeal 
to  the  Pope  as  he  retired  from  it,  and  was  condemned  to  seclusion  in  a 
convent  to  the  end  of  his  days.  Then,  bending  his  head,  he  confessed 
himself  vanquished,  and  concealed  his  life  in  the  monastery  of  Cluny ; 
he  closed  it  in  1142,  in  the  priory  near  to  Chalons,  where  he  died, 
reconciled  with  Saint  Bernard.     He  had  had  to  combat  with  a  far 


\ 


1226-1270]  SCIENCE.  205 

niore  redoubtable  adversary  than  that  great  man.  Abeilard  struggled 
all  his  life  against  the  dominant  spirit  of  his  age,  which  regarded 
every  attempt  made  by  human  reason  to  attain  at  independence  as  a 
culpable  insurrection.  The  genius  which  had  animated  him  survived 
him,  but  many  years  passed  away  before  any  part  of  Europe  dared  to 
proclaim  and  admit  the  principle  of  which  Abeilard  could  not  assure 
the  triumph — the  liberty  of  examination  and  discussion  in  matters  of 
conscience  and  of  faith. 

Already,  however,  the  secrets  of  nature  were  studied,  but  the  dark- 
ness was  as  yet  too  profound  to  permit  the  human  mind 

Science 

to  attain  its  aim.  The  study  of  mathematics  became 
that  of  astrology.  Medicine  degenerated  into  sorcery,  and  natural 
philosophy  into  alchemy.  Nevertheless,  in  the  midst  of  these  gropings 
in  the  dark,  science  made  some  important  discoveries  :  the  alchemists, 
who  endeavoured  obstinately  to  find  the  grand  ceuvre,  or  the  philoso- 
pher's stone,  discovered  by  chance  various  properties  of  the  bodies 
submitted  to  analysis,  and  the  world  was  enriched  by  these  discoveries, 
which  they  looked  upon  as  nothing.  It  is  thus  that  distillation  was 
brought  to  light,  the  fabrication  of  acids,  salts,  convex  lenses,  and 
lastly,  gunpowder,  the  composition  of  which  was  discovered  by  the 
monk,  Roger  Bacon,  towards  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

Finally,  many  sciences  are  indebted  to  the  Crusades  for  great  pro- 
gress, among  others  the  military  art,  navigation,  history,  and  geo- 
graphy. The  aspect  of  so  many  different  countries,  the  observation 
of  new  and  varied  manners,  and  the  comparison  of  a  multitude  of 
customs,  extended  the  ideas  of  the  people,  and  uprooted  a  great  number 
of  errors  and  prejudices.  Nevertheless,  a  great  part  of  the  ameliora- 
tions of  which  the  Crusades  were  the  cause  only  manifested  themselves 
very  slowly,  while  others  did  not  bear  their  fruit  until  long  after 
Europe  had  given  up  these  religious  expeditions.  The  Crusades  were 
also  accompanied  and  followed  by  a  great  number  of  calamities,  and 
it  is  necessary  to  recognize  one  of  their  most  mournful  results  in  the 
sanguinary  ardour  which  they  appear  to  have  communicated  to  the 
Christians,  a  disposition  entirely  contrary  to  that  of  the  Divine 
founder  of  their  religion.  The  Christian  people  for  a  long  time  back, 
it  is  true,  regarded  as  accursed  of  Grod  all  those  who  did  not  belong 
to  their  faith ;  the  Crusades  strengthened  this  fatal  tendency  of  their 


206  PEKSECUTION   OF   HEEETICS.  [Book  I.  ChAP.VL 

minds.  People  who  were  reputed  heretics  were  soon  persecuted  with 
as  much  fury  as  the  Mussulmans  and  Jews,  and  the  extermination  of 
the  Albigenses  opened  the  field  for  a  long  series  of  cruel  wars.  The 
weakness  of  the  progress  of  Christianity  in  the  East,  and  several  of 
the  disasters  among  the  Christians  in  Palestine,  ought  to  be  in  great 
part  attributed  to  the  barbarities  of  the  Crusaders,  who  believed  them- 
selves entitled  to  act  as  they  pleased  towards  infidels,  and  did  not 
consider  themselves  bound  to  keep  their  word  with  them.  They 
forgot  that  the  best  proof  that  men  can  give  of  the  superiority  of 
their  civilization  and  of  the  sanctity  of  their  religion  is  the  respect 
that  they  show  for  virtue  and  truth. 


1270-1422]  ACCESSION   OF   PHILIP   III.  207 


BOOK  II. 

FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  ST.  LOUIS  TO  THAT  OF 

CHARLES  VI. 

Despotism  op  the  Royal  Government  and  Authority  of  the  Legists. 
— Accession  of  the  Yalois  to  the  Throne. — Hundred  Years' 
War  with  England.  —  The  Celebrated  States-General.  — 
Disasters  in  France. — Great  Schism  of  the  East. — Anarchy. — 

1270-1422. 


CHAPTER  I. 

REIGNS    OF   THE    SUCCESSORS    OF  SAINT   LOUIS,  UNTIL   THE   ACCESSION  OF   THE 
VALOIS. — PHILIP  III. — PHILIP   IV. — LOUIS  X. — PHILIP   V. — CHARLES  IV. 

1270-1328. 

Philip  III. 

The  third  son  of  Saint  Louis,  Philip  III.,  called  without  any  known 
reason  Philip  the  Bold,  did  not  follow  the  glorious  example  of  his 
father  ;  he  reigned  surrounded  by  valets,  and  wholly  given  up  to 
superstitious  practices. 

The  same  day  that  Saint  Louis  died  he  received  Charles  d'Anjou, 
his  uncle,  who  entered  into  the  port  of  Carthage  with  a  fleet  and  an 
army.  Notwithstanding  this  reinforcement  the  Crusaders  rested  in 
inaction,  rightly  accusing  Charles  d'Anjou  of  having  directed  his 
brother  to  Tunis  in  his  own  interest,  so  that  he  might  force  the 
Moorish  king  to  pay  to  him  the  tribute  which  ancient  Neapolitan 
treaties  imposed  upon  him.  Peace  was  concluded  that  year ;  a  large 
sum  of  money  was  handed  over  by  the  African  prince,  and  all  the 
prisoners  given  up.  Then  the  army  returned  to  Europe,  diminished 
to  one-half  by  the  heat,  the  fatigue,  and  the  plague.     In  sight  of  the 


208  INCREASE    OF   THE    ROYAL   DOMAIN.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

coast  of  Sicily,  a  tempest  swallowed  up  eighteen  French  vessels, 
together  with  all  the  rich  tribute  paid  by  the  King  of  Tunis.  The 
Crusaders  saw  in  this  disaster  the  hand  of  God,  which  chastised  them 
for  having  returned  without  visiting  the  Holy  Land.  Philip  re-entered 
France  preceded  by  five  coffins,  those  of  his  father,  his  wife,  his  son, 
his  brother,  the  Count  of  Nevers,  and  of  his  brother-in-law,  Thi- 
baut  II.,  Count  of  Champagne,  King  of  Navarre.  His  uncle  Alphonso* 
died  shortly  afterwards  without  offspring,  and  his  death  made  Philip 
heir  to  the  county  of  Toulouse,  which,  notwithstanding 

Aggrandizement  „  .  . 

of  the  Royal         all  the  disasters  of  the  war  with  the  Albigenses,   was 

Domain.  ,  m 

still  the  most  considerable  fief  m  France.  It  comprised, 
together  with  ancient  Languedoc,  the  Marquisate  of  Provence,  or 
county  of  Venaissin,  the  county  of  Poitiers,  the  land  of  Auvergne, 
the  Aunis,  and  a  part  of  the  Saintonge.  Gregory  X.,  one  of  the  most 
venerable  men  that  ever  occupied  the  Pontifical  throne,  was  elected 
Pope.  Philip  ceded  to  him  the  county  of  Yenaissin,  to  which  he 
himself  had  only  doubtful  rights,  and  engaged  himself  in  wars  of 
Cession  of  the  succession.  Alphonso  X.,  King  of  Leon  and  Castille, 
siTto7  theVpope"  was  dead,  without  having  been  able  to  cause  his  grand- 
1274,  sons  to  be  recognized  as  his  successors ;  they  were  the 

children  of  Ferdinand  of  Cerda,  and  Blanche,  the  daughter  of  Saint 
Louis.  Philip  III.  appealed  in  vain  concerning  their  rights  to  the 
throne  of  their  grandfather.  The  Cortes^  of  Segovia  had  designed 
as  the  successor  of  Alphonso,  Sancho,  his  second  son,  already  cele- 
brated for  his  warlike  talents  5  their  decision  overthrew  all  the  prin- 
ciples of  legitimacy. 

A  thick  cloud  conceals  from  us  the  particular  actions  of  Philip  III. ; 
_.  ,        he  appeared  to  see  and  to  act  only  through  Pierre  de  la 

Disgrace  and  ± r  •>  ° 

execution  of        Brosse,  who  had  been  his  chamberlain,  and  who,  raised 

Pierre  de  la  '  '  ' 

Brosse,  1278.  ky.  J3ase  intrigues  to  the  post  of  prime  minister,  had 
drawn  upon  himself  the  hate  of  all  the  court.  A  bloody  catastrophe 
terminated  the  days  of  that  favourite.  Jealous  of  the  influence  of  the 
Queen,  Marie  de  Brabant,  second  wife  of  the  King,  he  had  accused  her 
of  the  death  of  Prince  Louis,  eldest  son  of  his  first  wife.     Philip 

*  Alphonso,  brother  of  Saint  Louis,  had  married  Jeanne,  daughter  and  heiress  of 
Raymond  VII.,  last  Count  of  Toulouse. 
t  Cortes.     The  national  assemblies  of  Spain  were  so  called. 


1270-1328]  THE   SICILIAN   VESPERS.  209 

ordered  inquiries  to  be  made  on  the  subject.  t  At  that  time  they 
believed  that  they  could  not  find  out  the  authors  of  a  crime  except 
by  the  torture  of  the  accused,  or  by  the  intervention  of  the  celestial 
and  infernal  powers.  Philip  consulted  those  persons  whom  the  super- 
stition of  the  time  looked  upon  as  being  endowed  with  the  power 
of  reading  the  future.  The  Vidame  of  the  Church  of  Laon,  a  Sara- 
baite,*  and  a  nun  of  Nivelles,  were  considered  to  have  revelations. 
All  three  at  once  began  to  give  credence  to  the  reports  spread  about 
against  the  Queen;  but  afterwards  they  retracted,  and  advised  the 
King  to  beware  of  Pierre  de  la  Brosse.  Two  years  passed  away, 
when  one  day  a  monk  brought  to  the  King  at  Milan  letters  sealed 
with  the  seal  of  his  minister.  The  contents  of  these  letters  remain 
a  mystery  ;  but  La  Brosse  was  arrested  immediately  and  thrown  into 
prison.  Philip  appointed  as  his  judges  three  of  the  greatest  nobles  in 
his  court,  his  enemies ;  and  La  Brosse  was  condemned,  and  hanged 
at  the  gibbet  of  Montfaucon  in  1278. 

The  reign  of  Philip  III.  left  no  glorious  souvenir  for  France,  either 
in  the  interior  of  the  kingdom  or  in  foreign  lands,  and  this  period  was 
marked  by  the  frightful  disaster  which  overthrew  the  French  Grovern- 
ment  in  Sicily.  Charles  d'Anjou,  after  having  caused  his  rival,  the 
young  Conradin,  son  of  Conrad  IV.  and  grandson  of  Frederic  II.,  to 
be  condemned  to  death  and  executed,  believed  himself  securely  seated 
upon  his  new  throne.  Conradin  was  the  last  prince  of  the  house  of 
Hohenstaufen ;  his  death  left  the  field  clear  for  Charles  d'Anjou, 
who  from  that  time  believed  that  he  could  oppress  Naples  and  Sicily 
under  a  frightful  tyranny. 

Vengeance  brooded  in  every  heart";  John  of  Procida  became  tho 
soul  of  the  conspiracy :  he  was  certain  of  the  assistance  of  the 
Greek  Emperor,  Michael  Paleologus,  and  of  the  King  of  Aragon,, 
Don  Pedro  III.  The  latter  assembled  together  a  fleet,  which  he 
entrusted  to  the  celebrated  Roger  of  Loria,  his  admiral,  with  the  order 
to  await  events  upon  the  coast  of  Africa.  Suddenly,  on  the  30th  of 
March,  1282,   the  people  of  Palermo   arose  at  the  mo-  -  „,,    „. 

'  x        *■  The  Sicilian 

ment  when  the  vesper  bells  sounded.     At  the  stroke  of  VesPera,  1282. 

*  Monks  who  did  not  live  in  community  and  did  not  submit  themselves  to  any  rule 
were  so  called  ;  they,  however,  wore  the  tonsure  and  gave  themselves  out  a3  rigorists. 
(Du  Cange  :    Glossary.) 


210  DEATH   OF  PHILIP   III.  [BookII.   ChAP.I. 

this  tocsin,  the  French  were  massacred  in  the  streets  of  Palermo,  and 
in  a  month  afterwards  the  same  thing  had  occurred  throughout  the 
whole  of  Sicily.  Charles  d'Anjou,  furious,  attacked  Messina ;  Roger 
of  Loria  came  forward  and  destroyed  his  fleet  under  his  very  eyes. 
Charles  gave  vent  to  cries  of  rage,  and  demanded  vengeance  from 
King  Philip,  his  nephew.  The  Pontiff,  Martin  IV.,  sustained  his 
cause  with  ardour ;  he  declared  Don  Pedro  deprived  of  the  crown  of 
Aragon,  in  order  to  punish  him  for  having  assisted  the  Sicilians,  and 
by  the  same  bull  he  named  Charles  de  Valois,  second  son  of  Philip, 
successor  to  Don  Pedro,  against  whom  he  preached  a  crusade. 
Philip  III.  commanded  the  expedition,  but  it  was  unfortunate  : 
Gironne  opposed  a  long  resistance  to  France,  while  the 

Crusade  of  the  rr  ... 

French  into  King  of  Arag-on,  with   his  faithful  Almogavares  *  half 

Aragon.  °  °  °  ' 

savage  soldiers,  held  the  neighbouring  mountains.  His 
unexpected  and  multiplied  attacks,  together  with  dearth  and  fever, 
mowed  down  the  army  of  Philip  ;  he  returned  to  France  ill  and 
almost  alone,  carried  on  a  litter,   and  expired  in  the  course  of  the 

year.  Charles  d'Anjou  died  shortly  before  him,  through 
Philip  in.,  1284.  disappointment  at  having  lost  Sicily  ;  and  Martin  IV. 
and  the  King  of  Aragon  followed  Philip  closely  to  the  grave. 

During  this  reign,   a  simple  gentleman,  called  Rodolph,  Count  of 

Hapsbure:,   was  elected  Emperor  in  1273,    and  became 

Foundation  of  r  &'  r  ' 

the  imperial         the  founder  of  the  new  house  of  Austria.     One  of  the 

house  of  Haps- 

burg,  1273.  most  remarkable  events  of  this  period  was  the  sudden 

reunion  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  Churches,  effected  by  Gregory  X. 
in  1274,  at  the  second  General  Council  of  Lyons.  The  Emperor, 
Michael  Paleologus,  was  received  by  the  Pope  into  the  number  of  the 
faithful ;  but  the  Greeks  did  not  lend  themselves  to  this  reconciliation, 
which  nearly  cost  the  Emperor  his  life. 

PHILIP     IV. 

1284-1314. 
Philip  IV.,  surnamed  the  Fair,  was  sixteen  years  of  age 

Accession  of  '  7^0 

Philip  iv,  1284.    -when  ne  succeeded  to   the  throne  of  Philip  the   Bold, 

*  This  name,   borrowed  from  the  Arabs,  was  applied  in  Catalonia   to  light  infantrj 
soldiers. 


1270-1328]  ACCESSION   OF   PHILIP   IV.  "  211 

his  father.      His  extreme  youth  did  not  offer  an   occasion  for  any 
trouble ;    and   such   was  the  progress    of  the    monarchical  spirit  in 
France,  that  the  nobles  of  the  kingdom,  instead  of  claiming  to  be 
either  his  equals  or  masters,   assembled  round  him  as  his  servants. 
Philip  at  once  continued  the  war  against  Aragon,  which  his  brother 
had  commenced,  and  which  was  prolonged  for  many  years   w 
without  any  decisive  success.      It   was   terminated    by   Ara8'on- 
the   Treaty  of  Tarascon,    signed  in  1291,  and  confirmed  by  that  of 
Aragon.     These  treaties  recognized  Alphonso  III.,  son  of 
Pedro   III.,  Kins:   of  Aragon,  and  Charles   II.,   son  of  Tarascon  and  of 

.      .  .  Aragon,  1289. 

Oharles  d'Anjou,  King  of  Naples.  The  new  house  of 
Anjou  was  thus  firmly  established  in  the  possession  of  this  beautiful 
kingdom,  from  which,  however,  Sicily  was  detached  and  given  up  to 
the  sovereigns  of  Aragon.  Charles  II.,  crowned  by  the  Pope,  ceded 
his  hereditary  domains,  Maine  and  Anjou,  to  Charles  de  Yalois,  second 
son  of  Philip  the  Bold. 

The  first  ordinances  of  the  new  King  were  favourable  to  the  bour- 
geoisie and  the  Jews ;  but  Philip,  whose  character  was  hard,  irascible, 
and  rapacious,  put  no  curb  on  his  pride  and  cupidity.  He  oppressed 
his  subjects  without  pity,  and  in  his  exactions  was  supported  by  un- 
principled men  of  law,  notorious  for  their  skill  in  the  art 

-*■  x  Authority  of 

of  chicanery,  as  well  as  for  their  base  servility.  These  the  legists. 
legists,  judges,  councillors,  and  royal  officers,  were,  under  him,  the 
tyrants  of  France  ;  their  work,  however,  in  so  far  as  it  touched  legisla- 
tion, had  a  useful  influence  which  cannot  be  forgotten.  Imbued  with 
the  ideas  of  the  Roman  imperial  law,  they  proceeded  with  an  impas- 
sible perseverance  to  introduce  it  into  the  French  political  law  by 
joining  together  the  privileges  of  the  sovereignty  in  the  sole  hands 
of  the  prince,  and  by  the  equality  of  the  subjects  before  the  law.  In 
civil  law  they  played  the  same  part ;  the  Pandects  always  before  them, 
they  tried  to  introduce  the  same  spirit  of  reason  and  of  natural 
oquity  which  had  inspired  the  great  jurisconsults  of  the  empire.  In 
this  manner  they  demolished  the  social  order,  as  it  had  been  created 
under  the  feudal  system,  organized  at  the  same  time  monarchical 
centralization,  and  became  the  true  founders  of  the  civil  order  in 
modern  times. 

The  court  of  the  King,  or  Parliament,  the  supreme  tribunal  of  the 

p   2 


212  THE    PARLIAMENT    OF   PAEIS.  [BOOK  II.    ChAP.  I, 

Parliament  of  kingdom,  became  the  seat  of  their  power.  This  body-, 
Paris,  1302.  founded  by  Saint  Louis  with  the  political  and  judicial 
privileges  of  the  time,  was  modified  by  Philip  IV. ;  the  judicial 
element  at  this  period  alone  was  preserved.*  The  Parliament  in  the 
meantime  ceased  to  be  itinerant.  An  ordinance  of  the  23rd  of  March, 
J  302,  fixed  it  in  Paris,  and  established  it  in  the  Cite,  at  the  ancient 
palace  of  the  kings,  which  took  from  that  time  the  name  of  the 
Palace  of  Justice.  It  was  composed  of  clerks  and  jurisconsults,  all 
persons  of  the  Third  Estate,  and  it  became  the  focus  of  the  anti- 
feudal  revolution. 

In  order  to  sustain  this  new  form  of  government,  to  make  it 
respected,  and  to  execute  the  judgments  of  the  men  of  law,  it  was 
necessary  to  have  an  imposing  force.  The  King  had  to  pay  a  judicial 
and  administrative  army,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  horse  and  foot 
sergeants  alone  cost  large  sunns,  and  it  was  necessary  to  wrest  this 
money  by  violence  from  the  unfortunate  population.  Thence  sprang- 
the  despotism,  thence  the  cruel  miseries,  which  held  in  suspense  for  so 
long  a  time  the  advantages  of  the  central  and  monarchical  power,  and 
the  barbarous  rule  established  by  the  feudal  government. 

No  prince  employed  more  iniquitous  and  odious  means  of  increasing 
Cui  able  ^s  t,reasmy  than  Philip  the   Fair.      History  recounts  a 

exactions.  thousand  instances  of  his  violent  and  cruel  extortions. 
The  revenues  of  most  of  the  provinces  were  pledged  to  two  Italian 
brothers,  rich  traders,  for  the  price  of  supplies  which  they  had  fur- 
nished to  the  King.  He,  in  order  to  settle  with  them,  caused  all  the- 
Italian  bankers  and  traders  to  be  arrested  on  the  same  day,  under  the 
pretext  of  usurious  traffic,  and  compelled  them  to  redeem  themselves 
from  torture  at  an  enormous  sum.  He  renewed  this  execrable  expe- 
dient on  the  French,  and  the  tribunals  were  the  accomplices  of  his 
hateful  violence. 

This  king,  far  from  warlike,  saw  without  emotion  the  disasters 
among  the  Christians,  and  the  capture  of  Saint  Jean  d'Acre,  their  last 
stronghold  in  Palestine.  He  had  obtained  from  the  Pope  the  per- 
mission to  levy  tithes  upon  the  clergy  for  the  purpose  of  undertaking 
a  crusade  ;  but  this  impost  only  profited  himself,  and  he  alone  reaped 

*  It  was  not  so  in  the  course  of  time ;  and  a  century  later,  the  Parliament  recovered  by 
union  with  the  Court  of  Peers  its  political  privileges. 


1270-1328]  WAR  IN   GUIENNE.  213 

the  produce.  The  successes  of  Edward  I.,  King  of  England,  troubled 
.him  more.  That  prince,  at  the  death  of  Alexander  III.,  King  of 
Scotland,  caused  himself  to  be  recognized  as  arbiter  be-  Troubleg . 
tween  the  aspirants  to  the  throne,  and  had  awarded  it  Scotland- 
to  John  Baliol,  whose  weakness  he  knew.  He  threatened  to  invade 
that  kingdom,  when  Philip  caused  him  to  be  summoned  before  the 
Parliament  of  Paris  as  his  vassal  for  Aquitaine.  Peace  had  reigned 
for  thirty-five  years  between  the  two  crowns,  and  Philip,  in  sum- 
moning his  powerful  rival  to  appear,  alleged  as  a  pretext  certain 
troubles  caused  by  the  rivalry  of  commerce  between  the  two  nations. 
Edward,  indignant,  stirred  up  as  enemies  to  France,  Adolph  of 
Nassau,  King  of  the  Romans,*  and  Guy  de  Dampierre,  Count  of 
Flanders.     But  Philip  seized  the  daughter  of  that  count 

War  in  Guienne.. 

by  treachery,  and  held  her  as  a  hostage,  while  a  French 
army  invaded  Guienne,  of  which  Philip  the  Fair  took  possession.     He 
pledged  himself,  on  the  other  side,  to  King  Baliol  to  take  up  arms, 
-and  support  the  celebrated  Scotchman,  William  Wallace,  against  the 
F]nglish  monarch. 

He  afterwards  formed  an  alliance  with  the  revolted  Flemings,  and 
excited  Albert  of  Austria,  son  of  Rodolph  of  Hapsburg,  to  take  up 
arms  against  Adolph  of  Nassau.  Many  of  the  electors  of  the  empire 
supported  him.  Adolph  of  Nassau  was  slain,  or  perhaps  assassinated, 
in  a  battle ;  Albert  of  Austria  succeeded  him  in  the  empire,  and  de- 
fended the  interests  of  France.  Philip  the  Fair  displayed  remarkable 
talent  in  all  these  negotiations.  Edward,  pressed  on  all  sides,  proposed 
to  Philip  to  submit  their  differences  to  the  decision  of  Pope  Boni- 
face VIII.  That  Pontiff  was,  in  some  respects,  indebted 
for  his  tiara  to  the  King  of  France,  who  accepted  him  as   arbiter 

between 

arbiter.  Boniface  pronounced  in  his  favour,  and  only  Edward  i.  and 
ordered  the  restitution  of  a  part  of  the  lands  confiscated 
under  Edward.  He  imposed  a  long  truce  between  the  two  kings,  and 
united  their  interests  by  means  of  marriages.  The  King  of  England 
abandoned  the  Count  of  Flanders,  and  Philip  no  longer  defended 
Scotland,  which  Edward  seized  for  the  second  time.  The  French 
.monarch  then,  with  flattering  promises,  invited  the  Count  of  Flanders 
to  place  himself  at  his  discretion.     That  unfortunate  nobleman  gave 

*  The  term  "King  of  the   Romans"  was  applied  to  th    chief  elected  for  the  empira 
&i  Germany  before  his  coronation  by  the  Pope. 


214  WAE    IN    FLANDERS.  [BOOK  II.   ChAP.  I. 

himself  up  with  confidence  to  the  King.     He  was  immediately  thrown 

Confiscation  of      *D^°  Prison?  arLd  all  his  states  were  seized  by  Philip,  who 

pianders.  gave  to  ^  FiemingS  Jacques  de  Chatillon  for  a  governor. 

The  French  gentlemen  despised  the  bourgeois  of  that  industrious 

country,  and  believed  that  they  had  the  right  to  despoil  them.     The 

tyranny   which   they   exercised    excited    the    people    of 

Revolt  of  the  tti        -i  i  mi 

Flemings,  1301.      ±  landers  to  revolt.     The  trades  corporations  assembled 

War  in  Flanders. 

together,  massacred  the  French  in  Bruges,  and  in  the 
other  towns,  restoring  independence  to  their  country.  The  Flemish 
militia  occupied  Courtray,  in  front  of  which  town  the  French  army 
Battle  of  Cour-  was  encanTPe(l.  They  went  out  to  meet  it,  and  waited 
cJ3eatSoTthenary  bravely  f°r  the  battle.  The  Flemings  attended  mass  and 
French,  1302.  took  the  sacrament  together.  The  knights  who  were  with 
them  embraced  the  chiefs  of  the  trades.  They  gave  no  quarter  to  the 
French,  and  repeated  that  Chatillon  was  coming  with  casks  full  of  cords 
to  hang  them  with.  The  Constable,  Raoul  de  Nesle,  proposed  to  turn 
the  flank  of  the  Flemings  by  cutting  them  off  from  Courtray ;  but  the 
cousin  of  the  King,  Robert  d'Artois,  was  indignant  at  this  prudent 
counsel,  and  asked  him  if  he  was  afraid  of  the  Flemings,  or  whether 
he  had  an  understanding  with  them.  The  Constable,  son-in-law  of 
the  Count  of  Flanders,  answered  haughtily — "  Sir,  if  you  come  where- 
I  shall  go,  you  will  be  well  in  front,"  and  then  rushed  forward  blindly 
at  the  head  of  his  cavalry.  Each  one  wished  to  follow  him,  those 
behind  pressing  on  those  before.  On  approaching  the  Flemish  army 
they  found  a  ditch  five  fathoms  deep,  into  which  they  fell  huddled 
together,  and  pierced  through  by  the  stakes  of  the  enemy.  In  that 
spot  was  interred  the  flower  of  the  chivalry  of  France  —  Artoisr 
Chatillon,  Nesle,  Aumale,  Dammartin,  Dreux,  Tancarville,  and  a 
crowd  of  others.  The  Flemings  had  only  the  trouble  of  killing  them. 
— smashing  in  the  heads  of  the  conquered  with  iron  mallets.  This 
defeat  weakened  the  feudal  power  in  France,  and  strengthened  royalty. 
Philip  resolved  to  avenge  in  person  the  affronts  on  his  nobility  at 
Courtray.  He  entered  Flanders  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army,  and 
victories  of  the  occupied  Tournay.  His  fleet,  united  with  a  Genoese 
zStoee*and  at  squadron,  overcame  the  Flemings  at  Zeriksee,  and  his 
Treaty  ofpe^e,    knights  achieved  a  brilliant  victory  at  Mons-en-Pueller 

where  six  thousand  of  the  bourgeois  of  Flanders  were 
left  upon  the  field  of  battle.     But  when  he  believed  that  these  people 


1270-1328]  BONIFACE   VIII.  AND    PHILIP    IV.  215 

were  subdued,  lie  saw  with  surprise  a  new  Flemish  army,  sixteen 
thousand  strong,  appear  under  the  walls  of  Lille,  which  he  was  be- 
sieging. These  were  the  brave  bourgeois  of  Ghent,  of  Bruges,  of 
Ypres,  and  of  other  towns  in  Flanders,  who  had  bound  themselves  by  an 
oath  never  to  see  their  hearths  again  until  they  had  obtained  an  honour- 
able peace  or  victory.  "  Better,"  said  they,  "  to  die  in  battle  than  live 
in  servitude."  Defied  in  his  camp  by  this  formidable  army,  the  King 
listened  to  the  prudent  counsel  and  advice  of  his  generals.  He  signed 
a  treaty  by  which  the  Flemings  gave  up  to  him  French  Flanders,  as 
far   as   the   Lys,  with   the   towns  of   Lille  and  Douai. 

__,.,.  t  „  ,  ~  T,,        n  _,  Reunion  of  Lille 

Philip   set  at  liberty  the  new  Count  of  slanders,  Robert   and  Douai  with 

.  France. 

de  Bethune,  son  of  Guy  de  Dampierre,  and  recognized 
the  independence  of  the  Flemings. 

The  pride  of   the  King  had  been  already  deeply  wounded  by  the 
hauerhty  Boniface  VIII.,  who  had  shown  that  he  was  his   a,       .  .  . 

o      J  '  Struggle  between 

rival  in  ambition,  violence,  and  cupidity.  Founding  his  andPiSiiJSe 
power  partly  on  his  wealth,  he  had,  at  the  expiration  of  Fair" 
the  thirteenth  century,  again  established  the  Centenary  Jubilee,  pro- 
mising entire  remission  of  sins  to  every  one  who  visited,  during  thirty 
consecutive  days,  all  the  churches  of  Borne.  An  enormous  multitude 
of  pilgrims  hurried  to  place  their  rich  offerings  at  the  feet  of  the 
Pontiff.  Boniface  then  extended  his  hand  over  all  the  sceptres:  he 
wished  to  sell  Sicily  to  Charles  II.,  King  of  Naples ;  he  called  to 
justice  Albert  of  Austria  for  the  murder  of  Adolph  of  Nassau ;  pro- 
tected the  children  of  La  Cerda  in  Castile  ;  claimed  to  interpose 
between  England  and  Scotland,  issued  a  bull  against  the  King  of 
Hungary,  and  supported  the  Bishop  of  Pamiers,  his  legate,  against 
the  implacable  vengeance  of  Philip  the  Fair,  whom  that  prelate  had 
insulted. 

Philip  had  already,  on  his  own  authority,  levied  tithes  upon  the 
clergy,  and  often  abused  the  royal  right ;  #  irritated  by  the  preten- 
sions of  the  Pope  and  the  reproaches  of  the  bishop,  he  caused  those 
of  his  men  of  law  who  were  most  devoted  to  his  will  to  obtain  an 


*  This  royal  right  was  one  of  the  causes  of  frequent  quarrels,  which  took  place  at 
different  epochs  "between  the  court  of  France  and  that  of  Rome.  It  was  the  right 
bestowed  on  the  King  by  the  Gallican  Church  to  receive  the  revenues  of  the  bishoprics 
and  abbeys  during  the  vacancy  of  the  sees. 


216  THE    BULL   AUSCULTA,   FILL  [BookII.   ChAP.I. 

accusation  against  the  latter — and  in  the  number  of  these  it  is  necessary 
to  cite  Pierre--  Flotte,  his  chancellor ;  Enguerrand  de  Marigny,  his 
confidant ;  Guillaume  de  Plaisian  and  Guillaume  de  Nogaret.  These 
men,  always  skilful  in  finding  guilty  those  whom  the  King  wished 
to  strike,  soon  discovered  charges  against  the  Bishop  of  Panders 
sufficient  to  give  a  motive  for  his  arrest.  Philip  ordered  it  for 
the  crime  of  lese-majeste,  or  high  treason  against  the  King,  and  de- 
manded his  degradation  from  the  Archbishop  of  JSTarbonne,  his  metro- 
politan. But  Boniface,  indignant  that  the  archers  of  the  King  should 
lay  hands  on  a  bishop,  revoked  the  judgment,  and  warned  the  King 
of  his  wrong  doings  in  the  bull  Amculta,jili  (Listen,  0  my  son), 
Bull  Auscuita  "where  these  words  may  be  read : — "  Do  you  think,  then, 
■^  O  my  son,  that  you  have  not  a  superior,  and  that  you 

must  not  submit  yourself  to  the  supreme  hierarchy  ?  We  cannot 
conceal  from  you  that  you  disquiet  us,  that  you  oppress  your  subjects, 
both  those  in  the  churches  and  ecclesiastical  persons  generally,  the 
peers,  counts,  and  barons,  also  the  universities,  and  that  you  scan- 
dalize the  multitude.  .  .  .  We  have  warned  you,  and  far  from 
correcting  your  errors,  we  see  that  your  hate  has  only  increased," 
&c.  Philip,  excited  to  fury,  supported  by  the  University  of  Paris, 
caused  the  Pope's  bull  to  be  burned,  and  convoked  the  first  States- 
General  where  the  deputies  of  the  common  people #  had  been  sum- 

*  For  several  centuries  the  great  assemblies  of  all  the  freemen,  the  mals,  had  ceased. 
Already,  at  the  end  of  the  Merovingian  dynasty,  the  Champs  de  Mars  were  almost  out  of 
use.  Pepin,  carried  to  the  throne  by  a  Germanic  movement,  reinstated  with  vigour  the 
ancient  customs,  and  the  nation  was  often  convoked,  no  longer  at  the  Champs  de  Mars,  on 
account  of  the  severity  of  the  weather,  hut  at  the  Champs  de  Mai.  Although  these 
assemblies  still  bore  the  name  of  placites  generaux  of  the  Franks,  the  nobles  alone 
participated  in  the  business.  Under  Charlemagne  these  assemblies  became  regular,  and 
were  only  composed  of  majors  and  minors  (see  the  reign  of  Charlemagne)  ;  the  people 
were  only  spectators.  The  successors  of  the  great  Emperor  preserved  this  custom,  and 
it  existed  until  nearly  the  end  of  the  Carlovingian  dynasty,  of  synods,  of  plenary  courts, 
and  of  parliaments  held  in  the  name  of  the  people,  where  the  people  were  never  repre- 
sented. This  was  one  of  the  assemblies  which  decreed  the  crown  to  Hugh  Capet. 
Under  the  third  race  the  assemblies  continued  to  be  composed  of  barons  and  feudal 
prelates.  Philip  the  Fair  was  the  first  of  the  Capets  who  recognized  the  right  of 
suffrage  belonging  to  the  Third  Estate  ;  still,  this  right,  even  as  late  as  the  fifteenth 
century,  only  belonged  to  walled  towns,  or  bonnes  villes.  Otherwise  there  was  nothing 
fixed,  either  concerning  the  forms  of  the  convocations,  or  upon  the  mode  of  the  elections, 
not  only  for  the  Third  Estate,  but  also  for  the  two  other  orders  ;  and  this  uncertainty 
continued  almost  till  1788.     No  law,  no  ordinance,  had  regulated  these  forms.     For  a 


1270-1328]  DEATH   OF   BONIFACE   VIII.  217 

moned  alongside  the  barons  and  bishops.      The  majors,  aldermen, 
jurats,  consuls  of  the  bonnes  villes,  hurried  to  Paris,  and  took  their 
places  in  Notre  Dame,  where,  on  the  10th  of  April,  1302,  the  first 
sitting  was  opened.     The  King  assisted  in  person,  and,   Firat  stat 
after  having  made  known  to  the  assembly  the  pontifical  {hreerord°ersthe 
bulls,  a  letter  of  remonstrance  addressed  to  the  court  1302, 
of   Rome  was  obtained  from  each  order.      In   it,  the  nobility,   the 
clergy,  and  the  Third  Estate  proclaimed  the  complete  independence 
of  the  crown.      Boniface  avenged  himself  by  excommunicating  the 
King ;    and  the  two    rivals    prepared    themselves    for   an    obstinate 
struggle  by  reconciling  themselves  with  their  enemies,  and  sacrificing 
every  other  interest  to  that  of  their  hate.     The  Pope  allied  himself 
with    Albert    of   Austria,   and   Philip    restored    Guienne    in   fief   to 
Edward.     Strengthened  by  the  support  of  the  States- General,  which 
he  convoked  for  a  second  time  at  the  Louvre,  Philip  wished  to  strike 
a  great  blow.    His  representative,  William  de  Nogaret, 
betook  himself  to  ,Anagni,  where  the  Pope  resided,  and  ^Jf®*  by 
made  himself  master   of  his  person  ;    Sciarra  Colonna,    Hls  death> 1303- 
a  Roman  gentleman  who  accompanied  Nogaret,  struck  the  old  man 
with  his  iron  gauntlet.     However,  Boniface  astonished  his  enemies 
by  his  courage.      "  Behold  my  neck — behold  my  head !  "   said  he  to 
them  ;  "  betrayed  like  Jesus  Christ,  and  ready  to  die,  at  least  I  will 
die  Pope  !  "     Ereed  by  the  people  of  Anagni,  he  expired  at  Rome, 
a  month  afterwards,  of  a  fever  caused  by  the  shock,  and  by  anger, 
at  the  age  of  eighty- six  years. 

Arbiter  of  the  election,  in  consequence  of  his  influence  with  the 
Erench  cardinals,  after  the  death  of  Benedict  XL,  in  1305,  Philip 
promised  to  the  Cardinal  Bertrand  de  Goth,  his  enemy  in  old  times, 
to  cause  him  to  be  elected  Pope  if  he  engaged  to  hand  over  to  him 
for  five  years  tithes  on  the  members  of  the  clergy,  to  render  to  Philip 
an  important  service,  which  he  would  claim  and  name  at  the  proper 
time,  and,  lastly,  to  stain  the  memory  of  Boniface  VIII.  This 
bargain,  which  the  people  called  the  Diabolical  Bargain,  was,  it  is 
said,  concluded  in  a  forest  of  Saintonge,  near  Saint  Jean  d'Angeley. 
Bertrand  de  Goth  accepted  the  terms,  consented  to  all,  placed  himself 

profound  research  into  this  subject  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  Hisloire  des  Etats 
gZneraux  de  France,  by  M.  E.  Rathery. 


218  SUPPRESSION   OP   THE    TEMPLARS.  [Book  II.   Chap.  I. 

■under  the  discretion  of  the  King  in  the  county  Yenaissin,  where  he 
was  the  first  to  establish  the  residence  of  the  Holy  See,#  and  be- 
Eiection  of  Pope  came  Pope  under  the  name  of  Clement  V.  He  did 
not  leave  France  before  he  had  kept  all  his  promises. 
The  service  which  Philip  had  exacted  without  naming  it  before- 
hand was  the  suppression  of  the  Order  of  the  Tern- 
Destruction  of 
the  Order  of  the  plars.     Their  power  wounded  the  pride  of  the  monarchy 

Templars,  1309.  ...  ... 

while  their  immense  wealth  tempted  his  cupidity.  Be- 
fore they  had  any  suspicion  of  his  design,  he  caused  all  those  in  his 
kingdom  to  be  seized  and  thrown  into  dungeons.  Then  commenced 
a  frightful  prosecution  against  them,  where  torture  furnished  the 
evidence,  and  where  the  men  of  law  won  over  by  Philip  filled  the 
places  of  judges.  The  King  confiscated  the  property  of  his  victims,, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  he  stained  their  characters  with  horrible 
imputations  without  legal  proofs.  The  Templars  perished  by  the 
sword,  by  hunger,  and  by  fire,  retracting  in  the  face  of  execution 
the  confessions  which  torture  had  torn  from  them.  Jacques  Molay^ 
their  Grand  Master,  rendered  himself  illustrious  by  his  courage  ;  he 
protested  his  innocence  in  the  middle  of  the  flames,  and  it  is  said 
that  he  summoned  both  the  monarch  and  the  Pontiff  to  appear  before 
Cxod  during  the  year. 

Philip  was  then  the  most  powerful  king  in  Europe.  He  invited 
all  the  sovereigns  to  follow  his  example ;  Edward  II.,  King  of  Eng- 
land, and  Charles  II.,  King  of  Naples,  acceded  to  his  wishes,  and 
seized  upon  the  Templars  in  their  states :  fifteen  thousand  families 
were  broken  up  by  this  terrible  measure. 

Philip  IV.,  dishonoured  among  the  people  by  the  surname  of  the 
Philip  iv  alters  ^a^se  Coiner,  continued  his  hateful  and  vexatious  acts ;  he 
the  coinage.  levied   enormous  taxes,  and  debased  the  coinage,  and,, 

*  At  first  this  was  at  Carpentras,  the  capital  of  the  county  Venaissin,  gained  by 
Gregory  X.,  and  at  which  Clement  V.  established  himself  in  1308.  Avignon  did  not 
form  a  part  of  this  county — indeed  did  not  belong,  at  this  period,  to  the  Holy  See. 
This  town,  where  the  Popes  had  already  resided  for  many  years,  was  sold,  in  1348,  by 
Clement  VI.,  to  the  Countess  of  Provence,  Jeanne  de  Naples,  and  her  successors  re- 
mained there  till  1377.  Notwithstanding  their  return  to  Rome,  and  without  excluding 
some  temporary  occupations,  particularly  under  Louis  XIV.,  the  county  Venaissin  never 
ceased  to  belong  to  the  Holy  See  until  the  legislative  assembly,  in  1791,  declared  its 
union,  together  with  that  of  Avignon,  with  France,  thus  forming  the  department  of 
Vaucluse. 


• 


1270-1328]  DEATH    OF   PHILIP   IT.  219 

after  the  money  was  issued,  he  refused  to  receive  it  again  thus 
altered  by  himself.  In  one  day  he  caused  all  the  Jews  in  his  kingdom 
to  be  imprisoned,  and  despoiled  them  of  their  wealth.  He  was  the 
most  absolute  despot  who  had  reigned  in  France ;  yet  he  was  the 
first  of  his  race  who  granted  a  representative  privilege  to  the  com- 
munes. He  showed  a  sort  of  favour  to  the  bourgeois,  consulting 
their  deputies  more  freely  than  those  of  the  nobility. 

His  policy. 

He  knew  that  men  elevated  from  a  low  degree,  gratified 
with  their  prominent  position,  would  offer  little  resistance  ;  and  it  was 
from  among  obscure  men  that  he  selected  his  favourites  and 
ministers,  of  whom  the  most  celebrated  was  Enguerrand  de  Marigny. 
He  wanted  support  in  order  to  sustain  him  in  his  perfidious  and 
cruel  measures,  and,  in  summoning  the  bourgeois  to  the  councils 
of  the  kingdom,  he  felt  strong  enough  to  fear  nothing  from  a  liberty 
which  was  only  so  in  name ;  torture  was  used  profusely,  and  the 
whole  nation  was  ruled  by  terror.  Towards  the  close  of  his  days  he 
exercised  severities  upon  his  own  family  :  the  wives  of  his  three  sons 
were  accused,  at  the  same  time,  of  adultery ;  he  threw  them  into 
prison,  and  caused  those  whom  he  suspected  to  be  their  lovers  to  be 
flayed   alive.      He   expired   shortly   afterwards,   recom- 

J  .  .  .  His  death,  1314. 

mending    to    his    son    piety,    clemency,    and    justice. 

Clement  V.,  his  accomplice,  died  shortly  afterwards;  while  Henry  YIL 

had  expired  in  the  preceding  year. 

Under  Philip  the  Fair  the  domain  of  the  crown  was  increased  by 
La  Marche  and  Angoumois,  which  he  confiscated;   by 
Lyonnais,  which  he  detached  from  the  empire ;  and  a  part   the  crown  under 
of  French  Flanders.     He  had  married  Jeanne,  heiress  of 
the  kingdom  of  Navarre,  of  the  county  of  Champagne,  and  of  Brie. 
The  results  of  that  union  were  favourable  to  France. 

The  reign  of  Philip  is  one  of  the  most  gloomy  in  the  history  of 
France.  At  this  period — from  towards  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century 
till  the  commencement  of  the  fourteenth — the  French  lived  beneath 
a  yoke  of  iron ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  heroism  displayed  two  hun- 
dred years  before  in  the  communal  revolutions,  they  were  in  general 
strangers  to  the  spirit  of  independence  which  agitated  most  of  the 
countries  around  them,  and  to  which  Italy  and  Flanders  owed  their 
arts  and  their  industry.     Robert  Bruce  in  Scotland,  and  William  Tell 


220  ACCESSION   OF   LOUIS   X.  [BOOK  II.   CHAP.  I. 

in  Switzerland,  had  restored  freedom  to  their  countries.  Still,  the 
great  events  which  then  shook  some  states  were  caused  much  less 
by  the  spirit  of  individual  liberty  than  by  the  love  of  national 
independence ;  and  the  greater  part  of  the  people  of  Europe,  after 
constituting  themselves  nations,  fell  again  under  a  yoke  as  hard  as 
that  which  they  had  shaken  off. 

LOUIS   X. 

Philip  left  three   sons  and  one  daughter.     Louis  X.,  the  eldest,  sur- 
named  Le  HutinJ*  in  consequence  of  his  vicious  tastes, 

Accession  of  x 

Louis  x.,  1314.  was  twenty-five  years  of  age  at  the  death  of  his  father, 
and  had  already  worn  for  fifteen  years  the  crown  of  Navarre,  which  he 
had  inherited  from  his  mother,  together  with  that  of  Champagne  and 
Brie.  His  two  brothers,  Philip  and  Charles,  like  himself,  were  given 
up  to  vicious  habits,  and  their  sister  Isabella,  wife  of  Edward  II.,  only 
distinguished  herself  by  crime  and  infamy. 

Philip  the  Fair,  as  a  matter  of  policy,  had  entrusted  the  great 
offices  of  the  state  to  obscure  men,  who  owed  all  they  possessed  to 
his  favour.  His  family  censured  this  system,  and  one  of  the  first  acts 
of  Louis  was  to  arrest  and  bring  to  judgment  the  Chancellor  Pierre 
Latelli,  who  was  pardoned,  and  Enguerrand  de  Marigny,  prime 
minister  of  the  late  King.  Charles  de  Valois,  uncle  of  the  monarch, 
begged   that   sentence    of    death    should  be    passed   on 

Trial  and  execu-  .  .    . 

tion  of  Marigny,   JMarigny,    m  consequence   ol    a    personal  injury.     Inis 

1315. 

minister,  who  was  held  responsible  for  all  the  tyrannical 
acts  of  his  master,  and  accused  of  sorcery,  was  condemned,  and  hanged 
at  the  gibbet  of  Montfaucon.  Marguerite  of  Burgundy,  wife  of  the 
King,  was  shut  up  in  the  Chateau  Gaillard  des  Andelys,  on  a  charge 
of  adultery.  Louis  caused  her  to  be  strangled,  and  afterwards  mar- 
ried Clemence  of  Hungary.  He  always  lived  surrounded  by  prodigal 
young  noblemen,  whom  he  made  the  companions  of  his  pleasures  ; 
and  the  nobility,  taking  advantage  of  their  influence,  obtained  from 
him-  the  right  to  be  restored  in  possession  of  their  ancient  pri- 
feeb  -  entof  v^ge8-  He  thus  weakened  the  mainspring  of  the 
e  roya  power.    monarci1yj  R0  anxiously  cared  for  by  his   father.      The 

f.       *  An  old  French  word,  long  out  of  use. 


1270-1328]  DEATH   OF   LOUIS   X.       PHILIP   V.  221 

judicial  combat  was  re-established  ;  confederations  of  the  nobles 
were  formed  in  most  parts  of  the  provinces,  and  each  obtained  a 
charter,  and  the  nobles  of  the  north  recovered  their  royal  rights. 
But  the  King,  pressed  by  want  of  money,  issued  also  some  de- 
crees favourable  to  the  national  liberties,  offering  to  the  peasants 
of  the  crown,  and  to  the  serfs  held  in  mortmain,  to  sell  them 
their  liberty ;  but  he  gave  no  guarantee  of  the  rights  that  he  recog- 
nized, and  such  was  the  misery  of  the  people,  and  such  the  distrust 
that  the  King  inspired,  that  his  decree  was  only  received  by  a  small 
number,  and  brought  little  money  into  the  treasury.  Great  disorder 
in  the  financial  department,  and  the  horrors  of  a  famine,  accompanied 
by  astounding  scandals,  marked  the  rapid  course  of  this  reign.  Then 
might  be  seen  the  clergy  themselves  conducting  in  the  provinces  pro- 
cessions of  penitents,  entirely  naked,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
from  Heaven  favourable  weather  for  the  harvests.  Louis  X.  died  in 
1316,  in  consequence  of  an  imprudence,  leaving  his  wife,  Death  of  L  j 
Clemence  of  Hungary,  enceinte.  By  his  first  marriage  x*' 1316, 
he  had  only  one  daughter,  called  Jeanne,  then  six  years  old. 

PHILIP  v. 

Philip  V.,  called  the  Long,  brother  of  Louis  le  Hutin,  took  posses- 
sion of  the  regency,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Queen,  who   Accession  f 
gave  birth  to  a  son,  named  John.     This  child  only  sur-   Phlhp  v> 1316- 
vived  a  few  days,  and  Philip,  uncle  of  the  Princess  Jeanne,  already  in 
possession  of  the  royal  authority,  caused  it  to  be  decreed  by  the  States- 
General,  and  by  the  Universitv  of  France,  that  the  law 

-  .  .  The  Salic  law. 

of  succession  established  among  the  ancient  Franks  for 
the  Salic  land,*  should  be  applied  to  the  crown  of  France,  and  that, 
in  virtue  of  that  law,  women  should  never  inherit  the  throne.     This 
was  the  first  application  of  that  celebrated  law. 

The  new  King  felt  the  want  of  being  supported  by  the  legists,  and 
showed  towards  them  an  altogether  special  favour.  He  bestowed 
attention  on  the  administration  of  the  interior,  appointed  the  captains- 
general  of  the  provinces  and  the  captains  of  the  towns,  and  organized 
the    militia   of  the    communes,    decreeing,    however,    that    the  arms 

*  See  page  27. 


22  DEATH   OF  PHILIP   V.  [Book  II.   Chap.  I. 

should   remain    deposited  in   the   houses   of  the   captains  till   there 

was  a  necessity  for  their  use.     Save  a  rapid  and  useless  expedition 

into  Italy,  he  had  no  interior  or  exterior  war  to  sustain,  and  yet  blood 

streamed  in  France  under  his  reign.     A  new  religious  fury  seized  the 

shepherds  and  inhabitants  of  the  plains,  designated  under  the  name  of 

Pastoureaux,     They  met  together  in   crowds,  with   the 
Pastoureaux. 

intention  of  passing  into   the    Holy  Land   and  setting 

free   the   Holy  Sepulchre.     From  mendicants,   however,  they  turned 

into   plunderers,    and   it   became   necessary  to   punish   them.     They 

offered  in  a  holocaust  to  God  all  the  Jews  that  they  met,  and,  after 

having  committed  a  multitude  of  highway  robberies   and  murders, 

they  were  nearly  all  massacred   and  destroyed  by  the    Seneschal  of 

Carcassonne.      A   horrible   proscription   included   those 

the  lepers  and  of    attacked  with  leprosy,  during  the  same  reign  ;  they  were 

the  Jews. 

accused  of  having  poisoned  the  wells  of  drinking  water 
throughout  the  kingdom.  Philip  V.  and  Pope  John  XXII.  both 
believed  in  magic  ;  they  gave  credence  to  the  crime  of  the  lepers 
without  any  proof  except  that  forced  out  by  horrible  tortures.  From 
that  time  all  those  who  were  attacked  by  skin  disease  were  arrested 
and  accused  of  sorcery  ;  and  as  such,  they  were  forbidden  to  have 
recourse  to  the  tribunals  of  the  kingdom.  The  Jews,  suspected  of 
being  in  complicity  with  them,  perished  in  the  same  torments.  In 
the  midst  of  these  atrocious  executions  the  King  fell  ill  of  a  wasting 
disease.  The  relics  from  the  Sainte-Chapelle,  which  they  brought 
Death  of  Phiii  nmi)  an0^  which  he  kissed  devoutly,  could  not  revive 
v.,  1322.  him. :  he  died  at  Longchamp,  in  1322. 

Most  of  the  ordinances  of  Philip  V.  are  remarkable  for  the  con- 
tinual confusion  of  the  personal  interests  of  the  King  with  those  of 
the  kingdom,  and  for  the  desire  to  regulate  the  use  of  the  sovereign 
will  without  at  the  same  time  recognizing  any  limit  to  it.  By  a 
decree  of  1318,  the  King  ordered  himself  to  attend  mass  every 
morning,  and  regulated  the  manner  of  making  his  bed ;  by  another 
he  denied  to  himself  the  right  to  transfer  the  domains  of  the  crown, 
Letters  of  anc^  rev°ked  all  the  gifts  of  his  father.     This  prince  gave 

nobihty.  letters  of  nobility  to  persons  of  mean   origin.     At  last 

these  letters  were  sold  for  money,  and  this  innovation,  in  renewing 
the  aristocracy,  altered  its  character  and  weakened  it.     Amongst  the 


1270-1328]  ACCESSION  OP    CHAELES    IV.  223 

numerous  edicts  of  Philip  V.,  those  which  organized  the   -■/.*..    e 

*  °  Useful  edicts  of 

militia,  the  chambers  of  exchequer,  the  administration  of  thisPriuce- 
the  woods  and  forests,  and  the  office  of  the  collectors,  indicate  the 
progress  of  order,  and  the  substitution  of  the  despotism  supported  by- 
law for  the  despotism  sustained  by  the  sword. 

CHARLES    IV.,    CALLED    THE    FAIR. 

Philip  V.  had  one  son  and  four  daughters  when  he  asked  the  States 
to  exclude,  in  perpetuity,  daughters  from  the  throne.  A  few  months 
afterwards  he  lost  his  son,  and  was  the  first  person  wounded  in  his 
paternal  love  by  the  law  which  he  had  caused  to  be  passed.  His 
brother  Charles  inherited  the  sceptre  ;  he  was   the  third    , 

x  Accession  of 

son  of  Philip  the  Fair,  and  was  then  twenty-eight  years   Charles  iv.,1322. 
of  age.     He  issued  ordinances  for  the  purpose  of  ameliorating  the  lot 
of  the  lepers  and  Jews ;   there  are  few  things  besides  in  his  reign 
that  history  has  handed  down  to  us.     The  foundation  of 
the  Floral  Games,  at  Toulouse,  dates  from  this  epoch. 

While  the  civil  war  desolated  England,  Charles,  at  the  instigation 
of  his  sister  Isabella,  wife  of  Edward  II.,  usurped  the  rights  of  that 
prince  in  Aquitaine.  The  English  monarch  sent  his  son  to  him,  in 
order  to  pay  him  homage  ;  Charles  held  back  the  young  prince  at  his 
court,  as  a  hostage,  and  furnished  soldiers  and  money  to  his  sister  in 
order  to  fight  against  her  husband.  That  unfortunate  king  was  made 
prisoner,  and  shortly  afterwards  a  frightful  death  put  an  end  to  his 
days.  Charles  IV.  fell  ill  at  this  period,  and  decreed  that  if  the 
queen,  then  enceinte,  should  give  birth  to  a  son,  his  _..  fC 
cousin-german,  Philip  of  Yalois,  should  be  regent  of  the  IV; 
kingdom  ;  if  she  gave  birth  to  a  daughter,  his  intention  was  that  the 
twelve  peers  and  the  high  barons  of  France  should  sit  in  parliament 
and  decree  the  crown  to  whomsoever  it  belonged  by  law.  He  died  on 
Christmas  day,  in  the  same  year,  carried  oft',  like  his  brothers,  in  the 
vigour  of  his  life.     Thus  appeared  to  be  accomplished 

&  .  .  7  .  His  death,  1327. 

the  judgment  of  God,  with  which  the  house  of  Philip  the 

Fair  had  for  a  long  time  been  threatened,  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  in 

punishment  for  its  crimes. 

We  have   seen  the  successive   enlargements  of  the  royal  domain 


224  HOUSES  OF  FEUDAL  PEINCES.  [Book  II.  Chap.  L 

since  tlie  time  of  Philip  I.    It  had  acquired  during  these  two  centuries 
by  conquest,  by  confiscation,   or  by  inheritance,  Berry, 

Recapitulation  of  _  .  . 

the  acquisitions     or  the  viscounty  of  Bourges,   Normandy,   Maine,  Anjou, 

made  by  the  .  __ 

royal  domain,        Poitou,  Valois,  Vermandois,  the  counties   of  Auvergne 

from  the  end  of  # 

the  eleventh  cen-  and  Boulogne,  a  part  of  Champagne  and  Brie,  Lyonnais, 
fourteenth  cen-  Angoumois,  Marche,  nearly  the  whole  of  Languedoc,  and 
lastly,  the  kingdom  of  Navarre,  which,  belonging  in  her 
own  right  to  Queen  Jeanne,  mother  of  the  last  three  Capetians, 
Charles  IV.*  united  with  the  crown.  But  the  custom  among  the  kings 
of  giving  apanages  or  estates  to  the  princes  of  their  house  detached 
afresh  from  the  domain  a  great  part  of  the  reunited  territories,  and 
created  powerful  feudal  princely  houses,  of  which  the  chiefs  often 
made  themselves  formidable  to  the  monarchs.  Among  these  great 
Princely  feudal  houses  of  the  Capetian  race,  the  most  formidable  were 
houses.  — jfoe   ]20lise  0f  Burgundy,  which  traced  back   to  King 

Robert ;  the  house  of  Dreucc,  issue  of  a  son  of  Louis  the  Big,  and 
which  added  by  a  marriage  the  duchy  of  Brittany  to  the  county  of 
that  name ;  the  house  of  Anjou,  issue  of  Charles,  brother  of  Saint 
Louis,  which  was  united,  in  1290,  with  that  of  Valois  ;  the  house 
of  Bourdon,  descending  from  Robert,  Count  of  Clermont,  sixth  son 
of  Saint  Louis ;  and  the  house  of  Alengon,  which  traced  back  to 
Philip  III.,  and  possessed  the  duchy  of  Alencon  and  Perche. 

Besides  these  great  princely  houses  of  Capetian  stock,  which 
owed  their  grandeur  and  their  origin  to  their  apanages,  there  were 
other  feud  l  many  others  which  held  considerable  rank  in  France,, 
houses.  an(j    0£   w]1ic}1    the     possessions^  were    transmissible   to 

women ;  while  the  apanages  were  all  masculine  fiefs.  The  most 
powerful  of  these  houses  were  those  of  Flanders,  Penthievre, 
Chatillon,  Montmorency,  Brienne,  Coucy,  Vendome,  Auvergne,  Foix., 
and  Armagnac.  The  vast  possessions  of  the  two  last  houses  were  in 
the  country  of  the  Langue  d'Oc.  The  Counts  of  Foix  were  also 
masters  of  Beam,  and  those  of  Armagnac  possessed  Fezensac, 
Rouergue,  and  other  large  seigniories. 

Many  foreign  princes,  besides,  had  possessions  in  France  at  the 
accession  of  the  Valois.     The  King  of  England  was  lord 

Foreign  princes  .  .  .  n 

landowners  in       of  Ponthieu,  of  Aunis,  of  Saintonge,  and  01  the  duchv  of 

France.  '  '  &  J 

Aquitaine;  the  King  of  Navarre  was  Count  of  Evreux, 


270-1328]  FOREIGN   LANDHOLDERS    IN    FRANCE.  225 

and  possessor  of  many  other  towns  in  Normandy  ;  the  King  of  Majorca 
was  proprietor  of  the  seigniory  of  Montpellier  ;  the  Duke  of  Lorraine, 
vassal  of  the  German  empire,  paid  homage  to  the  King  of  France  for 
many  fiefs  that  he  held  in  Champagne  ;  and,  lastly,  the  Pope  possessed 
the  comity  Yenaissin,  detached  from  Provence. 


226  ACCESSION   OF   THE   YALOIS.  [BOOK  II.   CHAP.  II. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ACCESSION    OF   THE   YALOIS. — REIGN    OF   PHILIP   VI. 

1327—1350. 

With  the  new  reign  commenced  a  long  series  of  disastrous  wars  be- 
tween England  and  France.  When  the  calamities  to  which  they  gave 
birth  had  transformed,  in  the  eyes  of  the  two  nations,  the  particular 
rivalries  of  their  kings  to  national  rivalries,  the  French  and  the 
English  persuaded  themselves  that  they  were  natural  enemies,  and  this 
prejudice  existed,  to  the  misfortune  of  humanity,  for  five  centuries. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  the  war  only  broke  out  between 
them,  as  in  the  preceding  centuries,  in  the  interest  of  their  sovereigns^ 
who  both  raised  rival  pretensions  to  the  succession  of  Charles  IV. 

Jeanne  d'Evreux,  widow  of  that  monarch,  gave  birth  to  a  daughter,, 
and,  according  to  the  will  of  the  late  King,  the  Parliament  was  sum- 
moned to  decide  between  the  candidates  for  the  throne.  The  two 
principal  were  the  Regent,  Philip  of  Vaiois,*'  grandson  of  Philip 
the  Bold,  and  cousin-german  of  the  last  three  kings  of  France  ;  and 
Edward  III.,  King  of  England,  son  of  Isabella,  sister  of 

Accession  of  the  .  . 

Vaiois.    Philip      those   princes.     The  interpretation  already  twice  given 

VI;,  1328. 

during  twelve  years  to  the  Salic  law  then  received  a 
third  and  last  sanction.  Women  were  declared  to  be  deprived  of  all 
right  to  the  crown,  which  the  Parliament  solemnly  awarded  to  Philip 
of  Yalois.  This  decision  was  from  that  time  recognized  as  a  funda- 
The  s  lie  la  •  cental  law  of  the  state.  Ideas  of  legality  began  to  make 
fundamenfafiaw  ^neir  wa7  ^'0  ^ne  spirit  of  the  nation,  and  law  was  ap- 
of  the  state.  pealed  to,  supported  by  force  ;  however,  no  constitution 

up  to  that  time  had  fixed  the  rights  of  heirdom  to  the  crown,  and 
Philip,  in  his  office  of  Regent,  had  exercised  so  great  an  influence 
on  the  jurisconsults,  creatures  of  the  kings  and  flatterers  of  power,  that 

*  Vaiois,  a  small  tract  of  country  in  the  He  de  France,  tad  been  given  in  apanage, 
with  the  title  of  count,  to  Charles,  youngest  son  of  Philip  the  Bold,  and  father  of 
Philip  of  Yalois. 


1327-1350]  philip  vi.  227 

Edward,  in  appealing  himself  to  the  law,  would  not  recognize  the 
authority  of  the  men  charged  with  its  interpretation,  and  appealed  from 
their  decision  to  his  sword.  But  many  years  rolled  away  before  he 
declared  war  against  Philip  of  Yalois ;  and  in  the  meantime  he  still 
paid  him  homage  for  the  fiefs  which  he  possessed  in  France. 

Philip,    Count  d'Evreux,*  another   grandson   of  Philip  the   Bold, 
and  husband  of  Jeanne,  daughter  of  Louis  X.,  the  eldest  of  the  last 
three  Capetians,  was  the  third  candidate  for  the  crown.     He  received 
from  the  monarch  the  kingdom  of  Navarre,  to  which  his  wife  had 
legitimate   rights    through   her   grandfather^    and   which   was    also 
detached   from   the    crown    of   Prance.     But  the   royal  The  crown  of 
domain,  by  the  accession  of  Philip  of  Yalois,  gained  the   *} ^g^mo? 
county   of    Yalois,    Maine,    and   Anjou  ;    these    latter  yS"  Maine*"1' 
provinces  had  been  ceded  by  the  house  of  Anjou  to  the 
house  of  Yalois,  under  Philip  IY= 

Philip  YI.  was  thirty-six  years  old  when,  in  1328,  he  was  recog- 
nized as  king.  This  prince  was  brave,  violent,  vindictive,  and  cruel ; 
skilful  in  all  muscular  exercises,  he  was  ignorant  of  the  first  notions 
of  the  military  art  and  of  financial  administration.  With  him  the  art 
of  reigning  was  to  inspire  terror  by  executions,  and  admiration  by 
pomp  and  magnificence.  The  first  acts  of  his  reign  were  the  alteration 
of  the  coinage  and  the  judgment  of  death  on  Pierre  Henry,  treasurer  of 
finances  under  the  previous  reign.     Philip  YI.  accused 

Execution  of  the 

him  of  embezzlement  :     Remy  was   executed,   and  the   treasurer,  Pierre 

J  '  Remy,  1327. 

King  took  possession  of  his  rich  spoils.     Soon  after  he 
marched  into  Flanders  to  the  assistance  of  the  ferocious  Count  Louis, 
who  was  always  at  war  with  his  subjects  ;  and  the  bloody  Battl    f  Cagcel 
battle  of  Cassel,  where  thirteen  thousand  Flemings  were   1328- 
slaughtered,  restored  to  the  Count  his  states. 

The  issue  of  a  scandalous  lawsuit  caused  the  first  germs  of  discord 
to    spring   up   between   Edward   III.    and    Philip    YI.    „  ,.  . 

*         °        x  x  Preliminaries 

Robert    d'Artois,    brother-in-law  of  Philip,   had   vainlv   tf  the  "undred 

'  ■r'  J     Years  War 

bribed  witnesses,  in  order  to  obtain  from  the  Kins:  and   bet^en  England 

'  o  and  France, 

Parliament  that  the  county  of  Artois,  adjudicated  to  his   1331-1338- 

*  The  county  of  Evreux  had  been  given  in  apanage,  in  1307,  by  Philip  the  Fair  to 
his  brother  Louis,  younger  son  of  Philip  the  Bold, 
t  See  page  224, 

Q   2 


228  WAR  WITH   ENGLAND.  [Book  II.   Chap.  II. 

aunt  Mahaut,  should  be  given  up  to  him.  Blinded  by  his  fury,  after 
having  uselessly  employed  assassins,  he  had  recourse  to  demons  ;  and 
the  King,  filled  with  the  superstitious  beliefs  of  that  age,  learned  with 
fright  that  he,  as  well  as  his  son,  were  envonlte's  (bewitched)  by  his 
brother-in-law.  They  then  believed  that  if  a  little  image  of  wax, 
representing  any  person,  were  baptized  by  a  priest,  and  afterwards 
pierced  with  a  needle  in  the  place  of  the  heart,  the  person  whom  the 
figure  represented  would  suffer  from  the  wound,  and  soon  die.  The 
demons  were  invoked  in  this  magical  operation,  which  was  called 
"  making  a  voult  (a  vow)  against  any  one,"  or  "  Venvoulter."  The 
King  was  no  more  exempt  than  his  people  from  the  fear  which  this 
superstitious  belief  inspired.  Robert,  pursued  by  his  vengeance, 
found  an  asylum  with  Edward,,  and  never  desisted  from  urging 
him  on  to  war. 

That   monarch   was    then   recognized    on   the    continent   by  most 
powerful   allies.     The  cruelties  of  the  Count  of  Flanders  had  again 
caused  a  revolt  among  his  subjects.     Ghent,  the  richest  and  most 
populous  town  of  the  Low  Countries,  had  revolted,  and  placed  itself 
under  obedience  to  the  celebrated  brewer,  Jacquemart  Artevelt,  who 
was  the    soul    of   a   new  league    against    Count    Louis    and  France. 
Having  need  of  the  support  of  England,  Artevelt,  in  the  name  of  the 
Flemings,  recognized  Edward  as  the  King  of  France.    About  the  same 
time,  the  Emperor  Louis  IV.  of  Bavaria,  irritated  against  Philip,  who 
had  refused  homage  for  the  fiefs  which  he  held  from  the  empire  upon 
the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  declared  solemnly  at  the  Diet  of  Coblentz, 
held  in  1336,  that  Philip  was  entirely  deprived  of  all  protection  from 
the  empire  until  he  had  restored  his  maternal  inheritance  to  Edward. 
He  also  named  the  latter  monarch  his  representative  for  all  the  lands 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  held  by  the  imperial  crown. 

However,  the  chivalrous  King  John  of  Bohemia  allied  himself  with 
Philip,  and,  loaded  with  wealth,  seduced  the  German  princes  and  the 
Emperor  himself,  and  held  neutrality  during  the  terrible  struggle  about 
to  take  place  between  the  Kings  of  France  and  England.  He  strove 
also  to  bring  about  an  excommunication  of  the  Flemings  by  Pope 
Benedict  XII.,  but  Edward  submitted  himself  to  the  wrill  of  the  Pon- 
tiff, threatening  him  with  the  fate  of  Boniface  VIII. 

Edward  then  took  the  title  of  King  of  France ;  he  entered  Flanders 


1327-1350]  CIVII    WAR   IN   BRITTANY.  229 

at  tlie  head  of  an  army,  and  confirmed  all  the  privileges  of  the  Flem- 
ings.   Philip  sustained  against  him,  with  superior  forces,   First  hostilities, 

1338. 

a  defensive  warfare,  refusing  to  engage  in  any  general 

action.     The  English,  nevertheless,  took  the  French  fleet  by  surprise, 

shut  up  in  a  narrow  creek  near  Ecluse.    They  gave  them   Battle  of  Ecluse 

battle,   and  obtained  a  complete  victory.      France  lost     34°" 

ninety  vessels  and  more  than  thirty  thousand  men.     This  battle  was 

followed  by  an  armistice  between  the  two  nations. 

A  bloody  and  fatal  war  to  France  broke  out  in  the  following  year 
in  Brittany.     John  III.,  duke  of  that  province,  had  died 

Commencement 

-without  issue,  and  two  rivals  disputed  his  inheritance,    of  the  civil  war  in 

'  r  Brittany,  1341. 

The  one  was   Charles  de  Blois,  husband  of  one  of  his 
nieces  and   nephew  of  the    King    of   France ;    the    other,   Montfort, 
conqueror  of  the  Albigenses  :  he  was  the  younger  brother  of  the  last 
duke,  andmad  been  disinherited  by  him.    The  Court  of  Peers,  devoted 
to  the  King,  adjudged  the  duchy  to  Charles  de  Blois,  his  nephew. 
Montfort  immediately  made  himself  master  of  the  strongest  places,  and 
rendered  homage  for  Brittany  to  King  Edward,  whose  assistance  he 
implored.     This  war,  in  which  Charles  de  Blois  was   supported  by 
France  and  Montfort  by  England,  lasted  for  twenty- four  years  without 
interruption,   and  presented,  in  the  midst  of  heroic  actions,  a  long 
course  of  treacheries    and    atrocious   robberies.      Amongst  the  most 
famous  combats  of  this  terrible  struggle  history  quotes,  during  a  truce 
with  England,  the   Combat  of  the  Thirty,  a  bloody  duel 
between  thirty  Bretons  under  Jean  de  Beaumanoir,  and   Thirty- 
thirty  English  commanded  by  Bemborough.     Victory  remained  with 
the  Bretons  ;  but  it  had  no  influence  upon  the  issue  of  the  war.     Two 
women — two  heroines — vied  in   courage  at  this  time  with  the  most 
celebrated  warriors.     They  were  Jeanne  la  Boiteuse,  wife  of  Charles 
de  Blois,  and  Jeanne  la  Flamande,  wife  of  Montfort.     They  were  the 
soul  of  their  parties  ;  and  the  defence  of  Hennebon  rendered  Jeanne 
de  Montfort  immortal. 

Charles  de  Blois,  nephew  of  Philip  VI.,  only  inherited  on  the  female 
side  the  duchy  of  Brittany.     The    King'    sustained  his 

J  J  °  Perfidy  and 

cause    for  a   family  interest,    and   he   had   recourse    to   ^Tue.lt;y of  p*JmP 

J  '  VI.  in  regard  to 

perfidy  and  cruelty.      In  a  tournament,    to  which   the   aevSedto  n°bles 
Breton  knights  had  repaired  without  mistrust,  he  caused  Montfort- 


230  BATTLE  OF  CRESSY.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  II. 

twelve  of  the  party  of  Montfort  to  be  arrested.  Oliver  Clisson,  one 
of  the  most  powerful  nobles  of  Brittany,  was  of  this  number.  All 
were  beheaded,  without  legitimate  cause  and  without  a  trial.  The 
widow  of  Clisson  immediately  took  by  surprise  a  fortress  belonging  to 
the  King,  and  caused  the  whole  of  the  garrison  to  be  slaughtered  before 
her  eyes.  The  parents  and  friends  of  the  knights  put  to  death  by 
treachery  all  passed  over  to  the  side  of  Montfort,  and  called  their 
enemies  to  their  assistance.  One  of  them,  Geofiroy  d'Harconrt,  being 
threatened  with  the  same  fate  by  Philip,  obtained  from  King  Edward 
a  vow  to  avenge  them  ;  and  in  the  year  following,  an  English  army, 
commanded  by  Edward,  and  conducted  by  this  same  Harcourt,  dis- 
embarked in  Normandy,  and  ravaged  the  kingdom  without  obstacle, 
until  they  arrived  beneath  the  walls  of  Paris. 

Philip,  appealing  to  all  the  nobility  of  France,  assembled  round  him 
a  formidable  army,  before  which  Edward  retired.  The  retreat  of  the 
English  was  difficult ;  very  inferior  in  numbers  to  the  French,  they 
passed  over  the  Somme  at  the  ford  of  Blanquetaque,  and,  compelled 
to  fight,  they  fortified  themselves  upon  a  hill  which  commanded 
the  village  of  Cress?/,  and  there  placed  cannons,  which 

First  employ-  &  .  . 

ment  of  artillery    were  then  for  the  first  time  used  in  European  armies. 

in  warfare,  1346. 

The  French  had  come  by  forced  marches.  If  they  had 
taken  some  repose,  by  prudent  arrangements  victory  would  have  been 
assured  to  them  ;  but  the  impatient  Philip,  who  had  scarcely  arrived 

in  sight  of  the  enemy,  ordered  an  attack  to  be  made  by 

Battle  of  Cressy,  &  Ji  J 

1346-  his  Genoese  archers,  who  formed  the  advanced  guard. 

They  endeavoured  vainly  to  make  him  observe  that  they  were  exhausted 
by  hunger  and  fatigue,  and  that  the  rain  had  rendered  their  bows 
useless.  He  renewed  the  order  ;  they  advanced  with  bravery,  and 
were  repulsed.  Philip,  furious,  caused  them  to  be  massacred,  and  his 
brother,  the  Duke  d'Alencon,  trod  them  down  under  the  hoofs  of  his 
cavalry.  This  ferocious  act  caused  the  loss  of  the  army  ;  the  English 
took  advantage  of  the  confusion  in  the  front  ranks,  and  rushed  upon 
them,  and  the  advanced  guard  was  thrown  back  upon  the  general 
body  of  the  army,  where  a  frightful  carnage  took  place.  Thirty 
thousand  Frenchmen  lost  their  lives,  and  amongst  them  eleven 
princes,  twelve  hundred  nobles  or  knights,  and  the  chivalrous  King  of 
Bohemia,  allied  with  Philip,  who,  although  blind,  caused  himself  to 


1327-1350]  CAPTURE   OF   CALAIS   BY   EDWARD   III.  231 

he  led  into  the  midst  of  the  affray,  in  order  to  perish  valiantly.  The 
elite  of  the  nobility  was  cut  down  in  that  bloody  day's  work.  The 
celebrated  Black  Prince,  fifteen  years  of  age,  commanded  the  English, 
under  King  Edward,  his  father,  and  powerfully  contributed  to  the 
victory.  Philip,  twice  wounded,  and  carried  away  by  his  men  far 
from  the  field  of  battle,  presented  himself  before  the  castle  of  Braye, 
only  accompanied  by  five  knights.  "  Open"  said  he,  as  he  knocked  at 
the  gate,  "  it  is  the  fortune  of  France  !"*'+■ 

The  taking  of  Calais  was  one  of  the  most  fatal  results  of  the  defeat 
of  Oressy.     The  inhabitants   of  that  town,   reduced  by 

Siege  and 

famine  to  capitulate  after  eleven  months  of  courageous   capture  of 

r  p  °  Calais  by  the 

defence,  were  summoned  to   deliver  up  to  Edward  six   King  of  England, 

9  r  m  1346. 

persons  from  among  them  upon  whom  that  King  could 
satiate  his  vengeance.  At  this  news  the  people  broke  out  into  wailing. 
"  But  then,"  says  Froissart,  "  there  uprose  the  richest  bourgeois  of 
the  town,  whom  they  called  Sieur  Eustache  de  Saint-Pierre,  and  he 
spoke  thus  before  them : — '  Great  pity  and  great  misfortune  would  it 
be  to  see  such  a  people  as  this  perish.  I  have  so  great  a  hope  of 
having  grace  and  pardon  from  our  Lord  if  I  die  to  save  this  people, 
that  I  wish  to  be  the  first,  and  I  will  place  myself  willingly  at  the 
mercy  of  the  King  of  England.'  When  Eustache  had  said  these 
words  the  crowd  was  moved,  men  and  women  throwing  them- 
selves down  at  his  feet,  weeping.  Then  another  bourgeois,  who  had 
two  daughters,  and  was  called  Jean  d'Aire,  arose,  and  said  that  he 
would  accompany  his  friend  Sieur  Eustache. "t  This  noble  example 
Was  followed  by  two  brothers  named  Wissant ;  lastly,  two  other  bour- 
geois, whose  names  history  has  not  preserved,  offered  to  share  their 
fate.  The  whole  six,  with  ropes  round  their  necks,  and  bearing  the 
keys  of  the  town,  were  conducted  by  the  governor,  John  de  Vienne, 
to  the  English  camp.  Edward,  on  seeing  them,  called  for  the 
•executioner ;  but  the  Queen  and  his  son  interceded  for  them  and 
obtained  their  pardon.    All  the  inhabitants  of  Calais  were  driven  from 

*  Some  authors  have  denied,  but  without  sufficient  proof,  the  authenticity  of  this 
speech,  and  also  that  of  most  of  the  historical  sayings  of  our  kings  and  great  men. 
These  are,  in  our  view,  efforts  to  he  regretted,  as  they  tend  systematically  to  despoil 
history  of  its  poetry  and  its  grandeur,  in  order  to  profit  a  doubtful  and  most  frequently 
sterile  science. 

f  Froissart. 


232  THE    PLAGUE    OP   FLORENCE.  [Book  II.  CflAP.  IL 

the  town,  which  became  an  Englisli  colony ;  and  for  two  hundred 

years  it  was  an  entrance-place  into  France  for  foreign  armies.     The 

capture  of  this  important  place  was  followed  by  a  truce 

Truce,  1346-1385.  r  r  r  J 

between  the  two  monarchs. 
The  disasters    of  the  war   took   away  nothing  from   the   pride    or 
the  magnificence  of  Philip  of  Valois.     When  his  treasury  was  empty 
he  altered  the  coinage,  or  else  united  together  the  pre- 

New  taxes.  .  . 

lates,  barons,  and  certain  deputies  of  the  towns,  upon 
whom  he  imposed  his  will.  Through  them  he  caused  new  taxes  to  be 
sanctioned,  and  it  was  thus  that  he  decreed  the  tax  of  the  twentieth 
denier  on  the  price  of  all  merchandise  sold,  and  thus  that  he  estab- 
lished La  Gabelle*  transferring  to  the  fiscal  power  the  monopoly  of 

salt  throughout  all  the  kingdom.     The  preamble  of  his 

Establishment  of  °  °  r 

LaGabeiie.  edicts  tended  to    show  that  they  were  issued   for   the 

welfare  and  in  the  interest  of  good  people,  and  by  the  national  will  ,- 
however,  the  States- General  were  only  on  one  single  occasion  legally 
convoked  during  this  reign,  and  merely  distinguished  themselves  by 
their  servility. 

The  frightful  plague,   known  under  the  name  of    The  Plague   of 
Florence,  spread  its  ravages  throughout  France  during 

Plague,  1348.  '      r  to  &  ° 

the  year  1348.  It  is  estimated  that  the  disease  cut  down 
about  one- third  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  kingdom.  The  ignorant  and 
ferocious  populace  accused  the  Jews  of  having  poisoned  the  rivers 
and  fountains,  and  those  unfortunates  were  burnt  and  massacred  by 
thousands.  So  many  calamities  served  as  food  for  superstition  and 
fanaticism.  Enthusiasts,  of  both  sexes,  believed,  like  the  Fakirs  of 
India,  that  their  sufferings  were  agreeable  to  the  divine  power.  They 
could  then  be  seen  in  numerous  bands,  traversing,  half- naked,  the  towns 
and  the  country,  cutting  their  shoulders  with  blows  from  the  lash,  in 
order,  as  they  said,  to  blot  out  the   sins   of  the  world  ;  they  called 

themselves  Flagellants.     Their  sect,  persecuted  and  ex- 

Flagellants.  J  . 

terminated  by  the  Church,  had  only  a  short  existence. 
Philip  VI.  had  rendered  the  power  of  the  Inquisition  formidable  in 
France  ;  nevertheless,  he  authorized  the  appeals  from  abuse  of  the  eccle- 
siastical tribunals  to  the  Parliament,  f 

*  See  Book  II.,  Chapter  III. 

J  This  appellation  was  given,  from  the  time  of  Saint  Louis,  to  the  appeal  authorized 


1327-1350]  DEATH   OP   PHILIP  VI.  233 

In  1350,  already  well  advanced  in  years,  he  married  the  young 
Blanche  de  Navarre,  sister  of  King  Charles  surnamed  The  Bad,  and 
died   in  less    than  a   month  afterwards,    at  the   age  of  Deathof  Phil; 
fifty- eight  years.     He  had  bought  the  seigniory  of  Mont-   SonofV?*" 
pellier,  for  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  crowns,  from   MoSpSier  and 
James  II.,  last  King  of  Majorca,  and  acquired  from  the   withSnclf, 
Dauphin,  Humbert  II.,  the  province  of  Dauphine,  which 
was  given  in  apanage  to  the    eldest  sons  of   the  kings  of  France. 
From  that  time  they  bore  the  name  of  Dauphins,*  and  the  frontiers  of 
the  kingdom  were  thus  extended  as  far  as  the  Alps. 

by  the  Gallican  Church  against  certain  ecclesiastical  acts  in  the  case  of  usurpation  or 
excess  of  power,  such  as  the  publication  of  bulls,  pastoral  letters,  and  other  despatches 
of  the  Court  of  Rome,  without  the  approbation  of  the  Government,  and,  in  general,  all 
violations  of  the  liberties  and  customs  of  the  Gallican  Church.  There  were  other  cases 
of  abuse,  which  only  interested  private  individuals.  In  this  second  category  must  be 
ranged  the  acts  which,  in  the  exercise  of  religion,  could  compromise  the  reputation  of 
the  citizens,  or  disturb  their  consciences  by  an  arbitrary  persecution.  The  injuries  pro- 
nounced publicly  from  the  pulpit,  the  refusal,  without  grounds,  to  proceed  to  a  burial,  &c, 
belong  to  these  cases  of  abuse.  From  Philip  of  Valois  to  the  French  Revolution,  Parlia- 
ment always  took  up  these  questions  ;  at  the  present  day  they  are  submitted  to  the 
Council  of  State. 

*  This  surname  had  been  given  to  the  Counts  of  Vienne  (in  Dauphine')  on  account  of 
the  dolphin  which  they  carried  upon  their  helmets  and  on  their  armorial  bearings. 


234  PROGRESS   OF  THE   BOURGEOISIE.         [Book  II.   Chap.  III. 


CHAPTER  III. 

REIGN   OF   KING   JOHN." 

1350-1364. 

The  disasters  of  the  last  war  with  the  English,  the  prodigalities, 
the  frauds,  the  exactions  of  King  John,  and  the  dishonest  acts 
of  his  ministers,  were  the  principal  causes  which,  under  his  reign, 
rendered  the  States- General  independent  of  the  crown,  and  gave 
thern  a  new  authority,  which  was  almost  absolute.  This  revo- 
lution was  also  partly  due  to  the  growing  importance  of  the 
bourgeoisie,  or  of  the  Third  Estate,  in  numbers  and  in 

Prosrrcss  of  th.6 

bourgeoisie,  or      wealth.      Continual  transactions  with  the  Italians  and 

Third  Estate.  .  ■,-.       n         t  •,   •         -i       -n 

people  of  the  East  had  rapidly  developed  in  the  French 
nobility  habits  of  great  luxury.  In  the  fourteenth  century,  above 
all,  expensive  tastes  made  marked  progress,  and  gave  full  career  to 
new  branches  of  industry,  which  added  to  the  welfare  of  the  bourgeois 
class.  They,  when  they  acquired  wealth,  acquired  also  the  feeling  of 
power,  and  exercised  more  courage  and  perseverance  in  appealing  to 
and  defending  the  laws  of  individual  liberty  and  property. 

Until  the  reign  of  "King  John  the  members  of  this  class  had  not 
appeared  to  be  animated  with  any  national  spirit ;  they  appeared  to 
remain  strangers  to  the  political  interests  of  the  kingdom.  As  far  as 
they  were  concerned,  the  country  was  restricted  to  the  walled  precincts 
of  the  city ;  they  abandoned  to  the  great  vassals  and  the  King  the 
•care  of  watching  over  the  destinies  of  the  state,  and  all  their  energy 
displayed  itself  at  first,  not  against  the  government,  which  had  often 
protected  them,  but  against  the  tyrannical  oppression  of  their  respec- 
tive seigniors.  However,  when  in  its  turn  the  royal  authority  crushed 
them  under  an  intolerable  yoke,  they  seized,  in  order  to  resist  it,  upon 
the  moment  when  they  saw  it  shaken  by  unheard-of  misfortunes  and 
incredible  mistakes,  and  united  together  against  it  with  the  nobility 
and   clergy.     The  States-  General   from  that  time  took  an  imposing 


1350-1364]  ACCESSION   OF   KING  JOHN.  235 

aspect ;  but  the  result  of  their  energetic  efforts  was  only  transitory. 
Soon,  the  first  two  orders  of  the  nation  became  frightened  at  the 
success  obtained  in  the  States  against  the  authority  of  the  prince ; 
they  became  indignant  at  the  importance  which  the  order  of  the  Third 
Estate  had  suddenly  acquired,  and  began  to  see  that  the  interests  of 
that  order,  which  tended  to  social  equality,  were  directly  opposed  to 
their  own,  whose  existence  depended  upon  privileges :  they  aban- 
doned it  to  itself.  Hostile  to  the  crown  in  other  respects,  they  united 
with  it  against  the  Third  Estate,  and  the  disasters  with  which  the 
bourgeoisie  were  burdened,  in  consequence  of  some  ephemeral 
triumphs,  were  turned  to  the  advantage  of  royal  despotism. 

John  was  more  than  thirty  years  of  age  when,  in  1350,  he  succeeded 
Philip  de  Yalois,   his  father.     His  education,  although    . 

r  fe  '  o       Accession  of 

it  had  been  carefully  conducted,  had  made  him  more  King  John,  1350. 
a  valiant  knight  than  a  wise  and  experienced  king.  Impetuous 
in  character,  irresolute  in  mind,  rash  rather  than  brave,  prodigal, 
obstinate,  vindictive,  and  full  of  pride,  perfectly  instructed  in  the 
laws  of  chivalry,  and  ignorant  of  the  duties  of  the  throne,  he  was 
always  ready  to  sacrifice  to  the  prejudices  of  honour,  as  then  under- 
stood, the  rights  of  his  subjects  and  the  interests  of  the  state.  France 
was  exhausted  at  the  time  of  his  accession ;  nevertheless,  he  spared 
nothing  at  the  fetes  of  his  coronation.  The  expense  was  so  pro- 
digious, and  the  empoverishment  of  the  royal  treasury  so  great,  that 
the  King,  in  the  following  year,  found  himself  obliged  to  call  together 
the  States  of  the  kingdom. 

The  first  acts  of  his   reign   were    characterized   by  violence    and 
despotism.    He  seized  upon  the  person  of  the  Count  d'Eu, 
constable,  who,  a  prisoner  of  the  English  and  free  upon   despotism  of 
his  parole,  had  come  to  France  to  gather  together  his   Execution  of  the 

_  ,  ,    -  .  „   ,  Count  d'Eu. 

ransom.  John  accused  mm  ol  treason,  and  caused  his 
head  to  be  cut  off  without  trial.  During  the  same  year  he  issued 
eighteen  ordinances  concerning  the  alteration  of  the  coinage,  increas- 
ing and  diminishing  alternately  the  value  of  the  gold  mark,  and 
confiscated  to  his  own  profit  all  the  claims  of  the  Jew  and  Lombard 
merchants  established  in  'the  kingdom.  He  forbade  his  subjects 
to  pay  what  they  owed  to  them,  under  penalty  of  being  compelled 
to  pay  a  second  time.      These  disastrous  ordinances  struck  a  blow 


236  COMPETITION  FOR  THE   THRONE.        [Book  II.  Chap.  ILL 

at  the  heart  of  commerce  and  threatened  to  destroy  it.  Through 
tie  Jews  and  Italians  nearly  all  the  commerce  of  France  was  nego- 
tiated :  a  great  number  left  the  country ;  the  others,  in  order  to. 
compensate  themselves  for  their  risk,  exacted  enormous  profits,  which 
increased  the  general  misery.  The  King  felt  no  fear,  after  these 
iniquitous  acts,  in  summoning  together  the  States  of  his  kingdom ; 
and  such  was  still,  at  that  period,  the  ignorance  or  submission  of  the 
deputies,  that  they  did  not  raise  a  murmur.  The  monarch  treated 
with  those  of  each  state  in  particular,  obtained  from  each  that  which 
he  wished,  and  then  dismissed  them.* 

These  new  resources  were  exhausted  at  the  moment  when  the  truce 
concluded  between    England  and   France  had   expired. 

Competition  for  . 

the  throne  of        Edward  reproached    Kino*    John  with  having1  deprived 

France.  .  r  °  ... 

him  of  the  ransom  of  the  Constable  by  assassinating  him,, 
and  swore  to  avenge  himself  for  that  crime.  Another  enemy,  nearly 
as  formidable,  declared,  about  the  same  time,  war  against  France  -y 
this  was  Charles,  King  of  Navarre  and  Count  of  Evreux.  This  prince,, 
as  well  as  Edward,  had,  on  the  female  side,  rights  to  the  throne,  and 
he  was,  moreover,  nearer  by  a  degree,  as  he  was  son  of  a  daughter  of 
Lotus  le  Hutin.  King  John,  of  whom  he  was  the  son-in-law,  had 
the  imprudence  to  incur  his  enmity  by  not  paying  faithfully  over  the 
dower  of  his  daughter,  while  he  himself  piled  up  his  wealth,  and 
appointed  as  Constable  the  Spaniard  Charles  de  la  Cerdra,  the  personal 
enemy  of  the  King  of  Navarre.  That  monarch,  whose  vices  and 
cruelties  had  fixed  upon  him  the  surname  of  The  JBad,  took  the 
Assassination  f  Constable  by  surprise  at  Aigle,  in  Normandy,  and  assas- 
ChariesSdebia  sinated  him.  Then  calling  round  him  all  his  barons  and 
Kni-a0f  Navarre  n^s  Norman  nobles,  he  braved  the  fury  of  King  John^ 
iaries  the  Bad.  .^j^  powerless  to  reduce  him  by  arms,  summoned  him 
to  the  throne.  Charles  of  Navarre  consented  to  appear  there,  re- 
ceived the  pardon  of  the  King,  and  became  reconciled  to  him  by  the 
treaty  of  Yalogne. 

•    War,  however,  broke    out  with   England.     The  King  issued  new 
ordinances  for  the  falsification  of  the  coinage  •  the  gold  mark  mounted 

*  This  first  assembly,  of  which  the  roll  was  afterwards  rendered  void,  was  the  only 
one  under  John  where  the  deputies  of  the  two  great  divisions  of  the  kingdom,  the 
countries  of  the  Langue  d'Oil  and  the  Langue  d'Oc,  were  represented. 


1850-1364]  THE    STATES-GENERAL,    1355.  237 

up  frorn  four  livres  to  seventeen,  and  then  fell  back  again  to  four 
livres.  These  odious  proceedings  only  brought  into  the  treasury 
insufficient  resources.  The  King,  in  order  to  create  new  means, 
convoked  the  States- General  of  the  Langue  d'Oil  to  Paris  in  1355. 

The  States  met  together  on  the  2nd  of  December,  in  the  Great 
Chamber   of  Parliament.       The  Archbishop    of  Rouen, 

-,-!-,  ,      /-in  -n  t  States-General  of 

Pierre  de   la  ±orest,  Chancellor  oi  .trance,  opened  the  the  Langue  crou, 

1355. 

Assembly,  and  requested  subsidies  for  the  war.  John  de 
Craon,  Archbishop  of  Reims,  in  the  name  of  the  clergy ;  Gauthier  de 
Brienne,  Duke  of  Athens,  in  the  name  of  the  nobility  ;  Etienne  Marcel, 
head  magistrate  of  the  merchants,  in  the  name  of  the  Third  Estate, — 
requested  permission  to  consult  among  themselves  concerning  the 
subsidies  to  be  granted  and  the  abuses  to  be  reformed.  Their  first 
declaration  announced  that  a  revolution  had  taken  place   T 

*  Important  acts 

in  their  minds.  They  carried,  that  no  rule  should  have  of  the  states, 
the  force  of  law  until  it  had  been  approved  by  the  three  orders,  and 
that  any  order  which  had  refused  its  consent  should  not  be  bound  by 
the  vote  of  the  other  two.  By  this  famous  declaration,  the  Third 
Estate  caused  itself  to  be  recognized  as  a  political  power,  equal  to  that 
of  the  clergy  and  the  nobility.  The  demands  of  the  King  were 
solemnly  discussed ;  and,  before  subscribing  to  them,  the  States 
enacted  that  the  value  of  the  silver  mark  should  be  stable,  and  remain 
fixed  at  four  livres  and  twelve  sous.  They  suppressed  the  law  of 
taking  possession,  which  gave  to  the  purveyors  of  the  King,  to  the 
princes,  and  to  the  great  officers,  the  right  of  taking,  without  pay- 
ment, in  their  journeys,  everything  that  they  considered  necessary  for 
their  convenience.  They  forbade  all  prosecution  for  the  recovery  of 
property  seized  from  the  Italian  merchants,  and  abolished  the  monopo- 
lies established  by  people  in  government  places.  In  return,  they 
undertook  to  furnish  thirty  thousand  soldiers  and  five  millions  of 
livres  to  make  up  the  balance  for  a  year ;  but  they  wished  that  this 
money  should  remain  in  the  hands  of  their  receivers  and  be  levied  by 
them.  They  made  it  also  necessary  that  they  should  assemble  again 
on  the  1st  of  March  in  the  following  year  to  receive  the  accounts  of 
the  treasurers  ;  then  at  the  end  of  a  year  to  renew  the  taxes,  if  there 
were  necessity,  and  to  provide  for  the  expenses  of  the  war.  The  King 
undertook  to  respect  these  conditions. 


238  NEW  TAXES.  [Book  II.  Chap.  III. 

In  this  manner  the  nation  appears  to  have  regained  its  ancient 
periodical  assemblies,  and  the  monarchy  was  "brought  to  recognize  the 
share  of  sovereign  power  between  itself  and  the  three  orders  of  the 
States- General.  But  these  latter,  skilful  in  reforming  abuses,  and  in 
gaining  for  themselves  precious  rights,  showed  in  the  assessment  of 
taxes  *  a  deplorable  incapacity.  Composed  of  men  without  experience, 
assembled  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  unknown  to  one  another ; 
only  having  obtained  from  the  King  three  days  in  order  to  agree  upon 
the  means  of  filling  the  treasury,  of  reinsuring  confidence,  of  organiz- 
ing the  army,  and  of  driving  the  enemy  from  the  kingdom,  they 
raised  the  tax  of  the  gdbelle,  or  the  tax  upon  salt,  and 
established  an  aide  of  eight  deniers  in  the  livre  upon 
the  sale  of  all  merchandise. 

The  first  of  these  taxes  fell  upon  a  commodity  indispensable  to  all, 
and  struck  at  the  poorest  and  most  numerous  class ;  the  second,  in 

*  From  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  among  the  Gauls,  there  no  longer  existed  a 
general  annual  revenue,  and  the  feudal  taxes,  exacted  upon  the  domains  of  the  crown, 
constituted  the  only  revenues  of  the  King  of  France,  who,  in  this  respect,  was  looked 
upon  as  a  simple  seignior.  The  military  service  at  their  own  expense  was  the  only  duty 
imposed  upon  the  great  vassals,  and 'the  natural  consequence  of  this  absence  of  revenue 
was  that  perpetual  and  arbitrary  variation  of  the  market  price  of  money  decreed  by  the 
sovereigns,  in  order,  fictitiously,  to  raise  the  value  of  their  feebl^  resources.  However, 
in  certain  critical  positions,  the  kings  addressed  themselves  to  the  States-General,  in 
order  to  obtain  the  aides,  or  extraordinary  help,  of  which  the  assemblies  voted  the 
gathering  for  a  limited  period  ;  the  taxes  might  be  upon  the  revenue,  upon  the  sale  of 
merchandise,  or  upon  landed  property.  Such  was  the  nature  of  the  taxes  established  in 
1335.  This  system  continued  until  1439,  at  which  period  Charles  VII.  established  an 
annual  and  permanent  tax. 

There  were  then  in  France  four  principal  branches  of  public  revenue,  the  names  of 
which  reappear  every  moment  in  this  history,  and  it  is  of  importance  to  know  them. 

1st.  The  land  tax,  called  taille,  because  in  ancient  times,  the  use  of  writing  being 
little  diffused,  they  noted  the  payment  of  this  tax  by  means  of  entailles,  or  notches  cut 
in  a  piece  of  wood.     It  was  only  collected  by  people  of  mean  origin. 

2nd.  The  aides.  This  name,  which  at  first  included  all  the  taxes,  ended  by  being 
applied  specially  to  the  taxes  laid  upon  drinks,  beasts,  fish,  wood,  tallow  and  candles, 
the  weirs  of  rivers  and  canals — in  one  word,  to  that  which  we  call,  at  the  present  day, 
indirect  taxation. 

3rd.  The  gabelle  (from  the  German  word  gale,  which  signifies  a  tax).  This  was  the 
tax  upon  salt.  Little  burdensome  in  its  origin,  this  tax  became  at  last  the  most  heavy 
charge  and  the  most  vexatious  of  the  whole  ancient  system  of  French  finance,  every  head 
of  a  family  [throughout  the  most  part  of  the  provinces  being  compelled  to  buy  very 
dearly  from  the  royal  granaries  a  certain  quantity  of  salt,  fixed  by  edicts,  and  repre- 
senting the  supposed  consumption  of  his  family. 

4th.  The  revenues  of  the  domain  of  the  crown. 


1350-1364]  CIVIL  TKOUBLES.  239 

•which  persons  of  every  estate  and  all  conditions  were  included, 
wounded  the  pretensions  of  the  nobility  and  clergy,  and  caused  an 
intolerable  inquisition  to  weigh  heavily  upon  the  mercantile  classes, 
and  interfered  with  every  commercial  operation. 

Soon  fatal  symptoms  of  discord  made  themselves  manifest.  The 
people  murmured,  the  foreign  merchants  abandoned  the 

r      r  '  a  .  Civil  troubles. 

kingdom,  the  French  merchants  gave  up  their  business, 
and  commerce  was  extinguished  ;  both  town  and  country  were  opposed 
to  the  gdbelle,  and  spread  complaints  against  the  States  everywhere. 
The  ecclesiastics  refused  to  pay  the  tax,  threatening  to  suspend  alto- 
gether the  divine  service.  Many  seditions  broke  out.  Arras  arose, 
and  fourteen  of  the  bourgeois  were  slaughtered  by  the  mob.  In  the 
middle  of  these  calamities  the  time  arrived  when  the  States  ought  to 
assemble  anew ;  but  already  the  people,  incapable  of  going  back  to  the 
source  of  evil,  saw  the  deputies  with  mere  distrust ;  they  suspected 
them  of  complicity  with  their  oppressors.  A  large  number  of  the 
towns  abstained  from  sending  representatives  to  the  States ;  the 
Normans  and  the  Picards  refused  to  be  represented  there,  and  declared 
that  they  would  not  pay  the  two  established  taxes.  The  King  of 
Navarre  and  the  Count  d'Harcourt  supported  the  disaffected.  The 
new  States- General,  much  less  numerous  than  their  predecessors, 
abolished  the  gabelle  and  the  aide  of  eight  deniers  in  the  pound  on  the 
sale  of  all  merchandise,  and  replaced  those  imposts  by  a  tax  rendered 
proportional  to  the  fortune  of  each  person. 

However,  the  King,  who  had  only  granted  a  pardon  to  Charles  of 
Navarre  for  the  murder  of  his  Constable  through  impotence  to  avenge 
him,  seized  an  occasion  to  satisfy,  at  one  blow,  his  ancient  and  his 
new  resentments.  He  learned  that  on  a  fixed  day  the  Dauphin  had 
invited  to  his  table,  at  the  chateau  of  Rouen,  the  King  of  Navarre, 
the  Count  d'Harcourt,  and  some  other  noblemen.  He  immediately 
left  Orleans,  where  he  then  resided,  entered  Rouen  on  the  day  ap- 
pointed, followed  by  a  numerous  escort,  and  presented  himself  at  the 
entrance  of  the  hall  where  the  nobles  were  seated  at  table.  Lord 
Arnould  d'Andeneham  preceded  him,  and,  drawing  his  sword,  said, 
"  Let  no  one  stir  for  anything  that  he  may  see,  unless  he  wishes  to 
•die  by  this  sword."  King  John  advanced  towards  the  table,  and  the 
guests,  seized  with  terror,  rose  in  order  to  salute  him,  when,  laying 


240  ARREST    OF   CHARLES    OF   NAVARRE.         [Book  II.    Chap.  III. 

his  hand  upon  Charles  of  Navarre,  the  King  stopped  him,  and,  shaking 

him  with  rudeness,   "  Traitor,"  said  he,    "you  are  not 

of  Navarre  by    '   worthy  of  sitting  at  the  table  of  my  son.     I  neither  wish 

King  John.  . 

to  eat  nor  to  drink  as  long  as  you  shall  live.  A  witness 
of  this  violence,  Oollinet  de  Breville,  a  knight  of  the  King  of  Navarre, 
pointed  his  sword  at  the  breast  of  the  King,  and  said  that  he  would 
slay  him.  "Let  this  man  and  his  master  be  arrested,"  said  King 
John.  His  sergeant-at-arms  immediately  seized  the  King  of  Navarre, 
who  vainly  implored  mercy.  The  Dauphin,  then  very  young,  threw 
himself  at  the  feet  of  his  father.  "Oh,  sire!"  said  he,  "you  will 
dishonour  me.  What  will  they  say  of  me,  when  I  have  invited  the 
King  and  the  nobles  to  my  house,  and  you  have  treated  them  thus  ? 
They  will  say  that  I  have  been  treacherous."  "  Hold  your  peace, 
Charles !  "  answered  the  King  ;  "  they  are  evil  traitors  :  you  know 
not  all  that  I  know."  The  King  then  advanced  some  paces,  and, 
seizing  a  club,  he  struck  the  Count  d'Harcourt  with  it  between  the 
shoulders,  and  said,  "  Proud  traitor !  by  the  soul  of  my  father  you 
shall  not  escape."  Two  nobles  of  the  suite  of  the  King  of  Navarre 
were  arrested  with  that  prince  and  his  knight.  King  John  caused  his 
prisoners  to  be  dragged  outside  the  chateau,  and  said  to  the  chief 
of  his    guards,    "  Free  us  from  these   men."      D'Harcourt   and   the 

three  noblemen  were  then  immediately  beheaded  before 

Execution  of  the 

Count  d'Harcourt   }±imt     Roval  dignitv  saved  Charles   of  Navarre.      John 

and  other  J  °        J 

noblemen,  1355.     Spared  his  head,  but  he  held  him  prisoner  closely  con- 
fined in  a  tower  of  the  Louvre,  and  seized  his  French  apanage.* 

This  act  of  violence  drew  down  great  misfortunes  on  the  kingdom. 
Philip  of  Navarre,  father  of  King  Charles,  and  Geoffrey  d'Harcourt, 
uncle  of  the  beheaded  Count,  immediately  united  themselves  with  the 
King  of  England,  and  recognized  him  as  the  King  of  Prance,  and 
paid  him  homage  for  their  domains.  Edward  proclaimed  himself 
the  avenger  of  the  executed  gentlemen.  He  sent  a  formidable  army 
into  Normandy,  while  the  Prince  of  Wales  carried  fire  and  sword  into 
the  heart  of  the  country,  ravaged  Auvergne,  Limousin,  and  Berry,  and 
approached  Tours.  John,  whose  vindictive  fury  had  brought  down 
this  tempest  upon  France,  made  an  oath  that  he  would  fight  with  the 
Prince  of  Wales  wherever  he  should  meet  him,  and  called  together  all 

*  Froissarfc,  Chronicles. 


1350-1364]  BATTLE   OF   POITIERS.  241 

liis  nobility.  The  army  assembled  in  1356,  in  the  plains  of  Chartres, 
and  overtook  the  English  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Poitiers.  Already 
scarcity  had  made  itself  felt  in  the  camp  of  the  enemy,  and  the  Black 
Prince  offered  very  advantageous  terms  for  France.  If  John  had  not 
fought,  the  English  would  have  been  conquered  by  famine  and  compelled 
to  lay  down  their  arms  ;  but  so  much  prudence  did  not  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  those  chivalric  times.  Battles  were  not  founded  on  calcu- 
lations, but  were  merely  the  fruit  of  an  unexpected  meeting  and  a 
warlike  impulse ;  they  decided  less  the  existence  than  the  honour 
of  nations.  The  French  army,  besides,  was  more  than  fifty  thou- 
sand strong,  while  the  army  of  the  enemy  only  consisted  of  eight 
thousand.  King  John,  then,  resolved  to  fight :  he  felt  confident  of 
victory. 

The  Black  Prince  had  only  two  thousand  knights,  four  thousand 
archers,  and  two  thousand  foot  soldiers,  and  he  saw  before  him  an 
army  of  fifty  thousand  men,  amongst  whom,  besides  the  King  of 
France  and  his  four  sons,  there  were  twenty- six  dukes  B 
or  counts,  and  a  hundred  and  forty  knights  banneret.  Poitiers. 1356- 
He  fixed  his  camp  at  Maupertuis,  two  leagues  north  of  Poitiers,  upon 
a  hill  covered  with  hedges,  bushes,  and  vines,  impracticable  for  cavalry, 
and  favourable  to  sharpshooters ;  he  concealed  his  archers  in  the 
bushes,  dug  ditches,  and  surrounded  himself  with  palisades  and 
waggons.  In  fact,  he  converted  his  camp  into  a  great  redoubt,  open 
only  in  the  centre  by  a  narrow  defile,  which  was  lined  by  a  double 
hedge.  At  the  top  of  this  defile  was  the  little  English  army,  crowded 
together,  and  protected  on  every  side.  There  was,  moreover,  an 
ambuscade  of  six  hundred  knights  and  archers  behind  a  small  hill 
which  separated  the  two  armies. 

The  French  army  was  disposed  in  an  oblique  line,  in  three 
battalions  or  divisions.  The  left  and  most  advanced  wing  was 
commanded  by  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  brother  of  the  King  ;  the  centre, 
somewhat  further  back,  by  the  sons  of  the  King ;  the  right  wing  or 
reserve  by  the  King  himself.  The  cries  of  the  combatants  could 
already  have  been  heard,  when  two  legates  interposed  their  mediation. 
The  Prince  of  Wales  offered  to  restore  his  conquests  and  his  prisoners, 
and  not  to  serve  against  France  for  seven  years  ;  but  John  exacted 
that  he  should  give  himself  up  as  a  prisoner  with  a  hundred  knights. 

E 


242  KING   JOHN   IS   MADE    PRISONER.  [Book  II.  Chap.  III. 

The  English,  refused,  and  the  King,  who  could  have  taken  him  by 
famine,  ordered  the  battle. 

A  corps  of  three  hundred  French  men-at-arms  rushed  into  the 
defile ;  a  shower  of  arrows  destroyed  it.  The  corps  which  followed, 
disturbed  by  this  attack,  threw  itself  back  upon  the  left  wing,  and 
threw  it  into  disorder.  This  was  only  a  combat  of  the  advanced  guard ; 
but  the  English  ambuscade  throwing  itself  suddenly  upon  the  centre 
division,  that  also  was  seized  with  panic  and  terror,  and  took  to  flight 
without  having  fought.  At  this  sight,  Chandos,  the  most  illustrious 
captain  of  the  English  army,  said  to  the  Black  Prince,  "  Ride  forward : 
the  day  is  yours !  "  The  English  descended  the  hill,  and  carried 
everything  before  them.  "  Three  sons  of  the  King,"  says  Froissart, 
"  with  more  than  eight  hundred  lances,  in  good  condition  and  whole, 
took  to  flight  without  ever  "approaching  their  enemies."*  The  left 
wing  took  refuge  in  disorder  behind  the  division  of  the  King,  which 
was  already  in  trouble,  but  intact.  The  English  went  out  from  the 
defile  in  good  order,  and  advancing  into  the  plain  found  before  them 
that  division  where  was  the  King,  his  youngest  son,  and  his  brilliant 
staff  of  nobles.  The  French  had  still  the  advantage  over  their 
enemies,  who  were  very  inferior  to  them  in  numbers  ;  but  John, 
remembering,  to  his  misfortune,  that  the  disaster  at  Cressy  had  been 
caused  by  the  French  cavalry,  cried  out,  "  On  foot !  on  foot !  "  He 
himself  descended  from  his  horse  and  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
•own  men,  a  battle-axe  in  his  hand.  The  engagement  was  fierce  and 
bloody  ;  but  the  French  knights  were  unable  to  struggle  on  foot 
against  the  great  horses  of  the  English  and  the  arrows  of  the  archers. 
They  fought  until  they  were  all  killed  or  taken,  but  without  order,  by 
troops  or  by  companies,  as  they  found. themselves  gathered  together  or 
scattered.  Thus  perished  all  the  flower  of  the  chivalry  of  France.  The 
King  remained  almost  alone,  with  bare  head,  wounded,  intrepid, 
fighting  bravely  with  his  axe,  accompanied  by  his  young  son,  who 
parried  the  blows  of  his  enemies.     He  was  obliged  to  give  himself  up. 

The  Black  Prince,  scarcely  twenty- six  years  of  age,  showed  himself 

worthy   of  his   good  fortune:    he   surrounded   the  van- 
King- John  is  J  .  1. 
made  prisoner.      quished  King  with  respect,  serving  mm  at  table,  standing, 

with  head  uncovered,  and  declaring  that  he  had  deserved  the  prize 

*  Chronicles, 


1350-1364]  DESOLATION   OF   THE    KINGDOM.  243 

for  valour  on  that  memorable  day.  Such  was  the  disastrous  issue  of 
the  celebrated  battle  of  Poitiers.  The  Dauphin,  already  named  by  his 
father  lieutenant-general  of  the  kingdom,  took  the  reins  of  state 
during  the  captivity  of  the  King ;  he  issued  six  ordinances  concerning 
the  coinage,  in  order  to  provide  for  the  first  wants  of  the  treasury, 
and  assembled  at  Paris  in  the  same  year  the  States  of  the  Langue 
d'Oil. 

The  disaster  of  Poitiers  and  the  captivity  of  the  King  had  plunged 
the  kingdom  in  sorrow,  and  every  one,  at  the  height  of 

to  J  '  _  °  States-General  of 

this  dangerous  crisis,  understood  the  extreme  importance  1356- 
of  the  States- General  convoked  by  the  Dauphin  in  1356  :  eight  hundred 
deputies  were  sent  to  it,  and  it  was  presided  over  by  Charles  de 
Blois,  Duke  of  Brittany.  On  the  demand  for  fresh  subsidies,  they 
answered  by  the  election  of  several  commissioners,  taken  from  each 
order,  and  who  in  their  imperious  requests  demanded — the  sole  power 
in  matters  of  finance  throughout  the  states ;  the  power  to  bring  to 
judgment  the  counsellors  of  the  King ;  the  creation  of  a  permanent 
council  of  four  prelates,  twelve  knights,  and  twelve  bourgeois,  in  order 
to  assist  the  young  regent ;  lastly,  the  right  of  the  States  to  meet 
together  without  royal  .  convocation.  Upon  these  conditions  they 
agreed  to  furnish  an  army  of  thirty  thousand  men. 

Jealous  of  the  authority  which  the  States  arrogated  to  themselves, 
the  Dauphin  requested  time  for  reflection ;  he  dragged  out  the  dis- 
cussions to  great  length,  flattered  the  deputies,  deceived  them  by 
vain  speeches,  and  tired  them  ;  the  greater  part  returned  to  their 
homes ;  and  at  last  the  assembly  separated  without  obtaining  any- 
thing or  granting  anything. 

The  English  then  desolated  the  most  beautiful  provinces  of  the 
kingdom  ;    commerce  was  annihilated ;  the  soldiers,  dis-   -     ,  „ 

7  '  Desolation  of  the 

banded  and  without  pay,  ravaged  the  country.  There  kinsdom- 
was  no  more  safety  for  the  peasants  in  their  cottages,  for  the  monks 
and  nuns  in  their  convents ;  the  fields  abandoned  remained  unculti- 
vated, and  the  towns  received  a  multitude  of  men  without  asylum  and 
without  bread,  who  caused  famine  to  enter  with  them  within  their 
walls  ;  the  enemy,  in  short,  was  at  the  gates  of  Paris. 

In  the  midst  of   so  much  calamity,   Etienne  Marcel,  chief  of  the 

R  2 


244  CONCESSIONS   OF  THE   DAUPHIN.         [Book  II.  Chap.  Ill, 

merchants  of  the  capital,  a  true  representative  of  the  Third  Estate  in 
the  fourteenth  century,  displayed  great  courage  and  the  qualities 
of  a  superior  genius.  He  reanimated  the  Parisians,  finished  and 
fortified  the  precincts  within  the  walls  of  the  town,  caused  iron 
chains  to  be  stretched  across  the  streets,  accustomed  the  bourgeois 
to  arms,  and,  strengthened  by  an  immense  popularity,  he  presented 
himself  at  the  famous  States  of  1357,  convoked  at  Paris, 

Celebrated 

states-General  of  in  general  assembly,  by  the  Dauphin.     Robert  le  Coq, 

xooi* 

Bishop  of  Laon,  spoke  for  the  clergy,  John  de  Pequigny 
for  the  nobility,  and  Etienne  for  the  Third  Estate.  Assembled  in  a 
time  of  disorder,  convoked  by  a  prince  who  could  do  nothing  without 
their  concurrence,  in  the  heart  of  an  excited  country,  the  new  States 
reproduced  the  requests  of  the  preceding  assembly,  adding  to  them 
other   pretensions,    and    forcing    upon   him   all   their   demands.     In 

exchange  for  a  subsidy  destined  to  furnish  thirty  thou- 

Concessionsofthe  ,       ..  .   -  .  .,  n  n 

Dauphin.    Ordi-  sand  men,  and  which  was  to  be  collected  and  managed, 

nance  of  1357. 

not  by  the  people  of  the  King,  but  by  those  of  the 
States,  the  Dauphin  engaged  solemnly  to  turn  aside  nothing  for  his 
personal  interest,  from  the  money  consecrated  to  the  defence  of  the 
kingdom,  to  refuse  every  letter  of  pardon  for  atrocious  crimes,  no  more 
to  sell  or  farm  out  the  offices  of  judicature,  to  seek  out  and  to  punish 
prevaricators  in  the  Chamber  of  Exchequer  and  in  that  of  Public 
Inquiry,  to  establish  good  money,  and  to  bring  about  no  further 
change  without  the  consent  of  the  three  States,  to  prohibit  every 
prize  for  royal  service,  and  to  cause  the  collectors  accused  of  em- 
bezzlement to  render  an  account.  Such  were,  in  brief,  the  principal 
dispositions  of  the  celebrated  ordinance  of  1357.  The  Dauphin  swore 
besides  that  he  would  conclude  no  truce  without  the  sanction  of 
the  States,  and  that  he  would  dismiss  as  "  unworthy  of  all  charge," 
twenty- two  counsellors,  to  whom  public  hatred  attributed  all  the 
misfortunes  of  the  country.  The  States  before  separating  agreed 
to  meet  again  three  times  before  the  end  of  the  year,  and  appointed 
thirty-six  commissioners,  taken  from  their  midst,  to  administrate 
finances  and  direct  affairs,  in  concert  with  the  prince,  during  the 
intervals  of  the  sittings. 

By  these  conditions,,  to  which  the  Dauphin  consented,  we  can  judge 


1350-1864]  KING   JOHN  IS   TAKEN  TO   LONDON.  245 

of  the  number  of  grievances  raised  against  the  court  and  the  nobles,  and 
of  the  enormity  of  the  abuses  under  which  the  nation   Considerations 
groaned.     These  reforms  were  attempted  by  the  prevot   ordered  by  the 

.  States,  in  1327. 

Etienne  Marcel,  and  by  the  Bishop  Robert  le  Coq,  ancient 
legist,  both  of  whom  used  culpable  violence  to  sustain  them.  The 
lasting  success  of  their  great  enterprise  was  impossible.  The  only  class 
which  could  then  rightly  believe  itself  interested  in  the  triumph  of  the 
principles  which  they  established  was  the  class  of  the  Third  Estate,  or 
bourgeoisie,  and  they  did  not  form  a  body  animated  throughout  by  the 
same  spirit.  Disseminated  through  a  great  number  of  towns,  feudally 
in  submission  to  a  similar  number  of  powerful  nobles,  and,  for  the 
most  part,  recently  united  with  the  kingdom,  the  diversity  of  their 
customs,  their  manners,  their  prejudices,  and  of  their  material  in- 
terests, rendered  the  men  of  the  bourgeois  class  rivals,  and  jealous  of 
one  another ;  no  social  tie  existed  between  them ;  feebly  affected  by 
the  general  destinies  of  the  state,  which  offered  to  them  no  advantage, 
they  revolted  against  the  sacrifices  which  its  defence  exacted.  When 
they  could  do  so  with  impunity,  they  disavowed  their  representatives, 
and  did  not  lend  them  the  support  necessary  against  the  jealousy  of 
the  privileged  orders.  It  was  necessary  that  the  action  of  a  central 
and  energetic  power  should  make  itself  felt  in  the  time  still  to  come,  in 
order  to  blend  together  so  many  particular  wishes  in  one  general  will, 
and  before  there  could  arise  in  France  a  national  spirit  wise  enough 
to  comprehend  the  advantages  that  a  vast  and  powerful  association 
could  procure,  and  the  duties  that  it  would  impose ;  a  spirit  also 
enlightened  enough  to  appreciate  at  its  just  value  public  liberty,  and 
strong  enough  to  conquer  it  and  defend  it.  The  year  1357  was  the 
period  when  the  States- General  had  greatest  power  during  the  Middle 
Ages  ;  from  that  time  they  rapidly  declined  ;  they  lost,  as  did  also 
the  Third  Estate,  all  political  influence,  and  for  some  centuries  were 
only  empty  shadows  of  national  assemblies. 

King  John  had  been  conducted  from  Poitiers  to  Bordeaux,  thence 
to  London,  and  during  the  negotiations  on  the  subject  of  His  ransom 
a  truce  of  two  years  was  concluded  between  England  and  France. 
About  the  same  time  the  death  of  Geoffroy  d'Harcourt  freed  the 
Dauphin  from  an  implacable  foe.  Charles  breathed  again ;  he  had 
only  given  way   by   constraint  to  the  wish  of  the    States,  and  he 


246  THE   KING   OF  NAVAKEE   SET   FREE.       [Book  II.  Chap.  III. 

hastened  to  break  from  their  yoke  as  soon  as  he  could  dispense  with 
dissimulation.  He  retained  the  ministers  whom  he  had  promised  to 
dismiss  and  prosecute,  and,  at  their  instigation,  he  encouraged  the  pre- 
tensions of  the  nobles  and  the  murmurs  of  the  people  in  opposition  to 
the  votes  of  the  States.  The  contributions  consented  to  by  them  were 
never  paid ;  the  prince  then'declared  that  he  alone  ruled,  and  dismissed 
the  thirty-six  commissioners.  They,  feeling  that  public  opinion,  the 
only  power  capable  of  sustaining  them,  had  abandoned  them,  separated 
without  any  resistance.  From  that  time  the  struggle  was  only  sustained 
by  the  bourgeoisie  of  Paris,  and  its  magistrates  stretched  their  authority 
over  the  whole  of  France.*  Troubled  with  the  hostile  disposition  of 
the  Dauphin,  the  chiefs  of  the  movement  desired  to  gain  a  protector 
capable  of  defending  them,  and  cast  their  regards  upon  the  King  of 
Navarre,  then  a  prisoner  in  the  castle  of  Arleux.     John 

The  King  of  '  r 

Navarre  set  at       de  Pequig-nv  took  the  fortress,  and  set  free  the  Kins', 

liberty  by  John  1     B    J  '  ^  °' 

de  Pequigny,  wk0  returned  to  Paris,  where  he  was  received  as  the 
future  liberator  of  the  kingdom. 
The  new  States  assembled  on  the  17th  of  November,  1357,  but  they 
only  found  a  few  deputies  for  the  clergy,  and  not  a  single  noble ;  their 
influence  was  void,  and  the  struggle  continued  between  the  Commons 
of  Paris  and  the  Dauphin,  who  failed  in  his  promises,  and  braved 
public  opinion  by  drawing  nearer  to  his  person  the  ministers  and 
great  officers  condemned  by  the  preceding  States.  No  tribunal  had 
dared  to  prosecute  them ;  they  affected  the  most  profound  contempt 
for  the  nation,  threatening  to  re-establish  all  the  abuses.  The  moment 
of  the  crisis  had  arrived.  The  celebrated  prevot  of  the  merchants, 
Marcel,  had  recourse  to  violent  measures.  He  made  the  Parisians 
adopt  a  national  colour,  and  gave  them  for  a  rallying  sign  a  red  and 
blue  hood,  the  colours  of  the  town  of  Paris.  He  appeared,  followed  by 
armed  men,  before  the  Dauphin,  on  either  side  of  whom  he  found  the 
Lord  of  Conflans,  Marshal  of  Champagne,  and  Robert  de  Clermont, 
Marshal  of  Normandy,   both   of  whom  had  been  proscribed  by  the 


*  The  convocation  of  the  States- General,  at  Paris,  on  the  7th  of  November,  1357,  was 
made  conjointly  by  the  Dauphin  and  hj  the  prevot  of  the  merchants  of  Paris.  "And 
sent  his  letters  to  the  people  of  the  Church,  to  the  nobles,  and  to  the  walled  towns,  and 
summoned  them.  The  said  prevot  also  sent  his  letter%,  spoken  of  above,  with  the 
letters  of  my  lord  the  Duke." — Chronicles  of  Saint-Denis. 


1350-1364]  ETIENNE   MARCEL.  247 

States.     Some  words  were  exchanged  between  the  prince  and  Marcel  ; 
then,    upon  a  sign    from  the  prevot,    the   men    of    his 

•  t  t       j_t  Murder  of  the 

suite    drew    their    swords    and     massacred     tne    two   marshals  of 

Champagne  and 

marshals.     The  Dauphin,   covered  with  their  blood,  mi-   Normandy,  by 

the  order  of 

plored  his  life  from  Marcel,  who  placed  upon  his  head  Etienne  Marcel, 

x  A  prevot  of  the 

the  red  and  blue  hood,  and  conducted  him  to  the  Hotel  merchants. 

7  Marcel  makes 

de  Ville  under  the  safeguard  of  the  popular    colours.   h]™sel?™a,s*F 

°  r    jr  0f  pans,  1358. 

There  the  Dauphin,   seized  with  fright,  declared  to  the 

people  that  the  two  assassinated  marshals  were  traitors,  and  that  they 

had  deserved  their  fate.     Marcel  was  king  in  Paris. 

This  double  assassination,  in  restoring  for  some  time  power  to  the 
States,  did  not  consolidate  them,  but,  on  the  contrary,  only  rendered 
their  fall  more  certain;  it  raised  up  implacable  resentments  in  the 
heart  of  the  Dauphin  and  amongst  the  nobility.  Already  the  two 
privileged  orders  were  indignant  at  seeing  the  despised  bourgeois 
exercising  a  power  equal  to  their  own  ;  secret  hates  fermented,  the 
prejudices  of  the  nobility  divided  the  three  orders,  while  the  murder 
of  the  marshals  caused  discord  to  break  out.  The  nobles  of  Champagne 
assembled  together  and  demanded  vengeance  from  the  Dauphin ;  he, 
who  had  become  regent  of  the  kingdom  by  his  majority,  profited  by 
these  arrangements,  so  favourable  to  his  designs,  and  called  together 
the  States  at  Compiegne,  far  from  the  centre  of  agitation ;  the 
nobility  alone  presented  themselves  in  great  numbers,  and  the  reaction 
became  imminent.  Marcel  foresaw  the  storm,  and  prepared  for  the 
combat ;  he  attacked  the  Louvre,  then  out  of  the  capital,  and  took 
possession  of  it ;  he  united  the  town  with  the  chateau,  and  fortified 
the  precinct  within  the  walls.  The  regent  called  round  him  the  no- 
bility, and  assembled  seven  thousand  lancers,  while,  by  the  advice  of 
Marcel,  the  bourgeois  of  Paris  proclaimed  the  King  of 

.  r  &  Civil  war,  1358. 

.Navarre  their   captam-general.     Civil  war   commenced, 
and  with  it  a  new  scourge  showed  itself. 

The  people  in  the  country,  utterly  powerless  against  the  oppression 
which  presented  itself  on  every  side,  overcharged  with  taxes  by  the 
nobles,  despised  by  the  bourgeois,  pillaged  by  the  soldiers,  suffered  at 
this  period  from  intolerable  evils.  A  proverb  of  the  time  describes 
with  energy  their  excessive  misery.  The  nobles  were  in  the  habit  of 
calling  these  unfortunate  people  by  the  name  of  Jacques  Bonhomme, 


248  THE    JACQUERIE.  [BOOK  II.   CHAP.  III. 

and  said  ironically,  "  Jacques  Bonhomme  does  not  part  with  his  money 
unless  lie  is  thrashed j  out  Jacques  Bonhomme  will  pay,  for  he  knows 
that  he  will  he  thrashed.  The  disaster  of  Poitiers  increased  the  evils 
of  this  unfortunate  class.  The  barons  and  gentlemen  taken  prisoners 
by  the  English,  and  released  upon  parole,  submitted  their  serfs  to 
atrocious  persecutions  in  order  to  tear  from  them  the  price  of  their 
ransoms.  Then  the  instinct  of  despair  united  the  peasants  ;  one  sole 
rp.    T         .         sentiment  seized  their  minds,  that  of  a  mad  vengeance. 

The  Jacquerie,  '  & 

V3i)8-  In  the   Beauvoisis*    they  arose  in  a  mass,    and  swore 

war  to  the  death  against  the  nobles.  They  burnt  their  castles,  the 
inhabitants  of  which  they  tortured  and  massacred  ;  they  violated  and 
murdered  women  and  girls,  and  pushed  their  fury  even  to  forcing 
children  to  eat  the  body  of  their  father,  which  they  had  burnt  before 
their  eyes.  In  fact,  they  committed  every  excess  to  which  ignorant 
and  barbarous  men,  for  a  long  period  victims  of  a  cruel  oppression, 
could  abandon  themselves  to.  In  a  short  time  they  were  masters  of 
ail  the  country  between  the  Oise  and  the  Seine  ;  many  towns,  Paris 
even,  received  them  as  allies  against  the  common  enemy.  This  rising 
received  in  history  the  name  of  the  Jacquerie.  It  was  soon  suppressed  ; 
the  nobility,  invincible  under  its  iron  armour,  exterminated  these  half- 
naked  wretches.  Dispersed  before  Meaux,  they  nearly  all  perished, 
and  the  plains  throughout  many  provinces  became  deserted. 

Paris  was  then  besieged  by  the  army  of  the  Dauphin  ;  the  bourgeois 
sie"-e  of  Pms  suspected  Charles  the  Bad  of  treachery,  and  dismissed 
theDaupnm.  him.  Soon  the  peril  of  the  capital  became  extreme,  and 
Marcel  had  no  other  hope  than  that  which  he  reposed  in  the  prince 
whom  they  had  just  expelled.  He  had  an  interview  with  the  King  of 
Navarre  ;  he  reminded  him  that  on  the  female  side  he  was  the  nearest 

*  Some  people  from  the  rural  towns,  without  any  chief,  assembled  in  Beauvoisis,  and  at 
first  did  not  number  one  hundred  men,  and  said  that  all  the  nobles  in  the  kingdom  of 
France,  chevaliers  and  knights,  disgraced  and  betrayed  the  kingdom,  and  that  it  would  be 
to  the  general  good  if  they  were  destroyed.  Then  they  assembled,  and  without  further 
counsel,  and  no  arms  except  sticks  tipped  with  iron  and  knives,  they  issued  forth.  .  .  . 
And  they  multiplied  so  greatly  that  they  were  soon  six  thousand  in  number  ;  and  where- 
ever  they  went  their  number  increased  ;  for  each  one  of  their  own  class  followed  them. 
(Chronicles  of  Froissart,  Book  I.,  Second  Part,  chap,  lxv.)  But  they  were  already 
so  multiplied  that  if  they  had  been  together  they  would  have  numbered  a  hundred  thou- 
sand men.  And  when  they  were  asked  why  they  acted  so,  they  answered  that  they  did 
not  know,  but  they  vowed  to  make  others  do  the  same,  and  did  it  also.  —(Ibid. ,  chap.  Ixvi. ) 


1350-1364]  ASSASSINATION   OF   MARCEL.  249 

heir  to  the  throne,  and  invited  him  to  return  to  Paris.  He  engaged 
at  the  same  time  to  give  to  him  the  title  of  captain-general,  perhaps 
to  proclaim  him  king.  The  King  of  Navarre,  dazzled,  accepted  the 
offer,  and  it  was  arranged  that,  on  the  night  between  the  31st  of  July 
and  the  1st  of  August,  the  gate  and  bastille  of  Saint-Denis  should  be 
delivered  up  to  him.  But  a  bourgeois  named  Maillard,  a  partisan  of 
the  Dauphin,  had  discovered  the  plot.  Accompanied  by  armed  men, 
he  presented  himself  at  midnight  at  the  gate  Saint-Denis,  took  Marcel 
with  the  keys  in  his  hand,  cried  out  "  Treason  !"  and  slew  him  with  a 
blow  on  the  forehead  from  a  battle-axe.  The  same  blow  struck  all  the 
party  of  the  tribune.     The  death  of  the  famous  prevot 

-...  .       The  assassina- 

smootlied  the  way    tor    the   regent,  who    entered   .Paris   tionof  Marcel, 

.  .  1358. 

as  a  conqueror,  leaning  on  the  shoulder  of  Maillard,  and 
signalized  his  power  by  numerous  executions. 

Meanwhile,  King  John,  weary  of  his  long  captivity,  had  signed  a 
disgraceful  treaty,  which  gave  over  half  of  France  to  England.  This 
treaty  was  rejected  with  one  voice  by  the  regent  and  the  States  of 
1359.  The  Dauphin,  who  had  gained  popularity  by  this  patriotic  act, 
then  declared  that  the  ministers  and  great  officers  proscribed  by  the 
preceding  States  had  never  lost  his  confidence,  and  re-established 
them  in  their  posts.  He  received  some  subsidies,  but  the  people 
could  not  pay,  and  in  order  to  sustain  the  war  against  the 
English — encamped  at  Bourg-la-Reine,  two  leagues  from  Paris — he 
again  altered  the  coinage.  The  celebrated  treaty  of  Bretigny  (near 
to  Chartres)  terminated  at  last  the  hostilities  between  Treat.of 
France  and  England.  Its  principal  articles  declared  that  B^tiguy,  13^o. 
Guienne,  Poitou,  South  Gascony,  Ponthieu,  Calais,  and  some  fiefs, 
should  remain  entirely  in  the  possession  of  the  King  of  England  ;  that 
Edward  should  renounce  his  pretensions  to  the  crown  of  France,  to 
JSTormandy,  Brittany,  Maine,  Touraine  and  Anjou,  possessed  by  his 
ancestors,  and  that  John  should  pay  three  millions  of  gold  crowns  for 
his  ransom.  The  two  sovereigns  confirmed  this  treaty  at  Calais 
in  1360. 

Great  calamities  followed  the  deliverance  of  King  John.  That 
prince,  in  granting  his  daughter  to  Galeas  Yisconti  of  Milan,  had 
caused  him  to  purchase  the  honour  of  his  alliance  for  a  hundred 
thousand  florins.     This  sum  was  useful  to  France  for  the  ransom  of 


250  DEATH   OF   KING  JOHN.  [Book  II.   Chap.  III.. 

the  King,  but  was  far  from  being  sufficient.     The  people  were  laid 
under  arbitrary   taxation,  and   their   misery   increased. 

Sufferings 

throughout  the      Numerous  companies  of  adventurers,  always  in  the  pay 

kingdom.  r  . 

of  the  party  who  offered  the  most,  and  without  employ- 
ment in  time  of  peace,  infested  the  plains;  the  fields  remained 
uncultiyated ;  and  famine,  followed  by  a  plague  of  three  years'  dura- 
tion, devastated  the  kingdom. 

In  the  midst  of  so  many  evils  a  happy  circumstance  occurred 
for  France.  John  acquired  Burgundy  by  the  death  of  Philip  de 
Bouvre,*  the  last  duke,  to  whom  he  succeeded,  in  his  capacity  of 
nearest  relative.  But  he  did  not  at  all  understand  the  importance 
of  this  acquisition  in  the  national  interest,  and  hastened  to  detach 
this  beautiful  province  anew  from  his  crown,  giving  it  as  an  apanage 
™.m-  „.-  ™  «      to   his   fourth   son   Philip,  whose   valorous    conduct   at 

Philip  the  Bold,  r7 

^cond  houseof  P°itiers  had  gained  for  him  the  surname  of  the  Bold, 
Burgundy,  1362.  an(j  ^Q  paternal  predilection.  Thus  the  second  house  of 
Burgundy  was  founded,  which  rendered  itself  so  formidable  in  Prance. 
Each  of  the  acts  of  this  King  appears  to  be  marked  with  the  stamp  of 
the  most  deplorable  fatality.  After  so  many  faults,  and  in  the  midst 
of  cries  of  distress  from  the  nation,  he  contemplated  uniting  himself 
with  the  King  of  Cyprus,  who  was  engaged  in  a  new  crusade,  and, 
encouraged  by  the  Pope  Urban  V.,  he  took  up  the  cross  at  Avignon; 
but  he  soon  learned  that  his  son,  the  Duke  of  Anjoa,  had  fled  from 
England,  where  he  had  left  him  as  a  hostage :  from  this  circumstance  he 
experienced  very  great  affliction.  If  guilty  of  complicity  with  his  son, 
the  King  would  have  violated  the  laws  of  chivalry,  which  he  respected 
even  to  a  nicety.  Impatient  to  justify  himself,  he  demanded  a  safe 
_    ..    .  „.         conduct,  obtained  it,  and  returned  to  England,  where  he 

Death  of  King  '  '  o  ' 

John,  1364.  died  in  1364.    Pew  kings,  with  his  estimable  qualities  and 

right  intentions,  have  drawn  down  more  evils  upon  their  people.  The 
following  beautiful  sentiment  has  been  attributed  to  this  prince  : — 
If  good  faith  were  banished  from  the  rest  of  the  ivorld,  it  ought  still  to 
be  found  in  the  hearts  of  Icings ;  a  noble  maxim,  which  would  have 
done  more  honour  to  King  John  if  it  had  always  inspired  his  actions. 

*  This  name  came  to  him  from  the  castle  of  Rouvre,  where  he  was  born.  Philip  de 
Rouvre  was  the  last  descendant  of  Robert,  son  of  Robert  King  of  France,  and  founder 
of  the  first  Capetian  house  of  Burgundy. 


1364-1380]  CHARLES   V.  251 


CHAPTER  IV. 

REIGN   OF    CHARLES   V.,  CALLED   THE    WISE. 

1364-1380. 

When  Charles  V.  mounted  the  throne  he  was  twenty-nine  years 
of  age.  He  had  already  governed  France  for  nearly 
eight  years.  Nothing  then  announced  in  him  the 
restorer  of  the  monarchy.  Wot  much  esteemed  by  the  nobility,  on 
account  of  his  unwarlike  qualities  and  his  conduct  at  Poitiers  ;  hated 
by  the  bourgeoisie,  which  he  had  subdued  by  executions  ;  weak  in 
body,  and  of  a  sickly  constitution,  everything  appeared  likely  to 
become  an  obstacle  during  his  reign.  And  yet,  by  his  address  and 
prudence,  more  than  by  great  talent,  he  was  enabled  to  reconquer 
a  large  part  of  the  provinces  which  his  father  had  lost.  He  re-estab- 
lished order  in  the  interior  of  the  kingdom ;  but  all  this  could  only 
be  done  at  the  expense  of  the  authority  of  the  States-  General,  whom 
he  strove  to  annul.  His  principal  merit  consisted  in  the  sagacity  with 
which  he  appreciated  circumstances  and  men,  arranged  useful  alliances, 
seized  always  the  favourable  moment  to  attack  his  enemies,  and 
attached  to  himself  skilful  ministers  and  great  generals,  at  the  head 
of  whom  appeared  Boucicaut,  Olivier  de  Clisson,  and  the  brave  Du 
Guesclin.  He  is  justly  reproached  with  having  neither  respected  the 
rights  of  the  people  nor  the  treaties  with  his  enemies ;  but,  having 
occupied  the  throne  between  two  disastrous  epochs,  he  ought  to  have 
double  credit  for  the  repose  which  France  appeared  to  enjoy  under 
his  reign,  and  posterity  confirmed  the  surname  of  Wise  which  he 
received  from  his  contemporaries. 

Nothing  threw  more  brilliancy  upon  the  reign  of  Charles  V.,  and 
contributed  more  to  his   success,  than  the  illustrious  Ber- 
trand  du  Guesclin.    A  simple  Breton  gentleman,  with  no 
personal  advantages,  accomplishments,  or  fortune,  of  a  mind  so  little 


252  ACCESSION   OF   CHARLES  Y.  [Book  II.   Chap.  IV. 

opened  that  he  could  never  learn  to  read,  he  had  nothing  appa- 
rently of  that  which  announces  a  hero,  except  his  valour.  This  was 
the  man  who,  after  having  fought  obscurely  for  Charles  de  Blois  upon 
the  heaths  of  Brittany,  became  the  first  captain  of  the  age,  whom 
God  seemed  to  have  caused  to  be  born  a  contemporary  of  Charles  V. 
in  order  to  save  France.  "A  strong  soul,"  says  his  historian, 
"  nourished  in  iron,  moulded  under  the  palms,  and  in  which  Mars 
held  school  for  a  long  period."  His  first  exploit  for  Charles  was 
a  victory.  Boucicaut  had  just  taken  by  surprise  the  town  of  Mantes, 
which  belonged  to  the  King  of  Navarre  ;  that  of  Meulan  had  like- 
wise fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  French.  The  Captal  or  Seignior  of 
Buch,  a  brave  Gascon  captain  in  the  service  of  Charles  the  Bad, 
made  arrangements  in  order  to  _  take  his  revenge.  He  united  with 
John  Joel,  an  English  captain,  and,  afc  the  head  of  seven  hundred 
lancers,  three  hundred  archers,  and  five  hundred  foot  soldiers,  he 
awaited  the  French  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Cocherel,  near  Evreux, 
B   u  where  he  arranged  his  troops   on  the  height  of  a  hill, 

Cocherel.  on   j^1Q   "border  of  a  wood.     Bertrand  du   Guesclin  ap- 

proached ;  he  perceived  that  the  Captal  possessed  the  advantage  of 
the  ground ;  but  his  own  soldiers  were  in  want  of  provisions  :  it  was 
necessary  to  give  fight,  and  draw  the  enemy  into  the  plain.  Du 
Guesclin  had  not  his  equal  in  stratagems  of  war ;  he  prepared  an 
ambuscade  and  ordered  a  precipitate  retreat.  John  Joel,  deceived  by 
this  artifice,  rushed  forward,  against  the  orders  of  the  Captal,  to  the 
cry  of  "  Forward,  Saint  George  !  Who  loves  me  follows  me  !  "  The 
Captal  saw  the  peril,  and  followed  John  Joel  to  save  him ;  but  then 
the  French  stopped.  "Forward,  friends!"  cried  Du  Guesclin,  "the 
day  is  ours.  For  God's  sake  remember  that  we  have  a  new  king  in 
France,  and  that  to-day  his  crown  must  be  handselled  by  us !  "  A 
fierce  combat  then  took  place,  and  the  ambuscade  showed  itself;  thirty 
knights  rushed  upon  the  Captal  at  a  gallop  and  took  him  prisoner. 
The  victory  was- vigorously  disputed  :  but  John  Joel  fell,  wounded  to 
death,  and  the  men  of  Navarre,  without  a  chief,  dispersed,  only  a 
small  number  contriving  to  escape.  The  victory  of  Cocherel  placed  in 
submission  to  Charles  Y.  nearly  the  whole  of  Normandy.  He  received 
the  news  at  Reims,  in  the  midst  of  the  fetes  of  his  coronation,  and 
recompensed  Du  Guesclin  by  the  gift  of  the  county  of  Longueville. 


1364-1380]  THE    GREAT   COMPANIES.  253 

The  war  went  on  continuously  in  Brittany  between  the  two  aspi- 
rants, the  son  of  John  de  Montfort  and  of  the   celebrated  Jeanne  de 
Flandres,  allied  with  the  English,  and  Charles  de  Blois,  sustained  by 
France.     The  celebrated  battle  of  Auray,  when  the  latter 
was  slain,  was  soon  followed  by  the  treaty  of  Guerande,   Treaty  of  Gu<$- 

.  _  n  .       rande.  End  of  the 

which  assured  the  duchy  of  Brittany  to  Montfort.      This   war  in  Brittany, 

,;  J  1365. 

treaty,  signed  with   care   by  Charles  V.,  rendered    the 

duchy  reversible  to  the  widow  and  children  of  Charles   de  Blois  in 

case  Montfort  died  without  issue.     Thus  terminated  an  atrocious  war, 

which  had  lasted  twenty- four  years.     The  Duke   of  Montfort,  under 

the  name   of  John  V.,  hastened  to  return  to    Paris,  where  he    did 

homage  to  the  King. 

Charles  V.  found  himself  at  last  at  peace  with  all  his  neighbours. 

His  people  began  to  breathe  again,  and  returned  to  the  work  of  the 

fields,  interrupted  for  so  long  a  period  ;  order  and  peace  existed  once 

more.    But  the  scourge  of  the  companies  of  adventurers   m. 

o  r  The   great  com- 

threatened  to  arrest  this  return  to  a  better  state,  and  to   Pani8S- 

ruin  the  kingdom.  During  this  period,  when  the  caprices  of  princes, 
a  gift,  an  exchange,  or  a  marriage  decided  every  day  the  destiny  of 
the  people,  a  multitude  of  men  considered  themselves  as  belonging  to 
no  country,  and  offered  their  swords  to  any  one  who  sought  their 
services.  The  length  of  the  wars,  which  rendered  their  services 
necessary  to  so  many  princes ;  the  feebleness  of  the  laws,  which  seemed 
to  authorize  all  kinds  of  disorder  and  violence,  had,  during  twenty- 
five  years,  prodigiously  increased  the  number  of  these  greedy  and 
licentious  men.  When  France  was  at  peace,  they  all  remained  without 
employment  and  without  means  of  existence.  They  then  spread 
themselves  like  wild  beasts  over  the  country,  and  there  committed 
frightful  ravages.  The  only  means  of  subduing  them  so  far  had  been 
by  arming  against  them  the  national  militia  of  the  kingdom ;  but 
experience  had  taught  Charles  to  fear  above  all  things  the  influence  of 
the  middle  classes.  He  refused  to  increase  their  number,  and  from 
that  time,  not  being  able  to  exterminate  the  great  companies,  he  was 
compelled  to  employ  them.  For  a  considerable  time  Peter,  King  of 
Castile,  surnamed  the  Cruel,  had  alienated  himself  from  his  family 
and  subjects  by  acts  of  atrocity.  He  had  poisoned  his  wife,  Blanche 
of  Bourbon,  and  ordered  the  murder  of  his  natural  brother,  Henry  of 


245  BATTLE    OF   NAVARETTE.  [Book  II.   CHAP.  IV. 

Transtamare ;  tlie  latter,  in  the  hope  of  punishing  him  and  of  sup- 
planting him  upon  the  throne,  implored  the  assistance  of  Charles  V., 
.^        .    .  and   obtained   it.      Charles    seized   with  eagerness  this 

War  against  ° 

Kin"  o^CaSe1'  occasi°n  0I>  avenging  Blanche,  his  relation,  and  of 
1366-  giving    employment    to    the    great    companies,    whose 

"brigandages  he  feared.  Du  Guesclin  commanded  the  expedition. 
In  charging  him  with  this  difficult  mission,  the  King  embraced  him 
with  all  his  heart.  "Valiant  Bertrand,"  said  he  to  him,  "I  owe 
you  more  than  if  you  had  conquered  a  province  for  me." 

These  terrible  adventurers,  in  passing  near  Avignon,  to  which 
place  the  popes  for  half  a  century  had  transferred  their  residence, 
levied  contributions  on  the  sovereign  Pontiff.  They  afterwards  entered 
Spain,  and  the  troops  of  Peter  disbanded  themselves  before  them. 
That  prince,  repulsed  by  his  subjects,  driven  from  Portugal,  where  he 
sought  a  refuge  with  Peter  the  Justiciary,  as  barbarous  as  himself, 
abandoned  his  throne  to  his  rival,  and  retired  to  the  court  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  who  received  him  at  Bordeaux  with  great  honours ; 
and  Henry  took  possession  of  the  crown  of  Castile  without  obstacle. 

But  Peter  solicited  succour  from  the  English,  and  promised 
to  enrich  their  captains ;  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  armed  in  his 
favour  without  breaking  with  France.  The  great  companies,  who 
had  just  established  Transtamare  on  the  throne,  rushed  now  to  the 
side  of  his  brother,  drawn  by  the  appetite  for  gold  which  he  promised 
them.  Du  Guesclin  supported  Transtamare,  but  the  latter  was  con- 
Battie  of  quered  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  at  the  battle  of  Nava- 

rette,  and  Du  Gruesclin  was  made  prisoner.  Peter  the 
Cruel  recovered  his  kingdom,  and  his  brother,  a  fugitive,  sought 
refuge  with  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  eldest  of  the  brothers  of  Charles  V. 
and  commandant  of  Languedoc.  That  prince,  an  enemy  of  the 
English,  received  Transtamare  as,  in  the  preceding  year,  the  Prince 
of  Wales  had  received  Peter  the  Cruel. 

Du  Gruesclin  was  only  able  to  recover  his  liberty  by  defying  the 
English  prince  to  grant  it  to  him.  He  himself  fixed  his  ransom  at  a 
hundred  thousand  gold  florins,  and  when  the  prince  asked  him  how 
a  poor  knight  could  find  such  a  sum :  "  The  Kings  of  France  and 
Castile  will  pay  it,"  answered  Bertrand;  "and  there  are  a  hundred 
Breton  knights   who  would  sell  their  lands  to  make  up   that  sum; 


1364-1380]  BATTLE    OF   MONTIEL.  255 

and  the  girls  who  spin,  in  my  country,  would  make  more  than  my 
ransom  with  their  distaffs  rather  than  that  I  should  be  left  prisoner !" 
The  Princess  of  Wales  contributed  twenty  thousand  livres  on  the  spot, 
and  the  brave  Chandos,  rival  of  Du  Guesclin,  offered  his  purse  to 
deliver  him.  Freed  on  parole,  Du  Guesclin  departed  in  order  to 
gather  together  his  ransom.  He  returned  with  it ;  but  whilst  on  the 
road  he  met  ten  poor  knights,  who  had  great  difficulty  in  finding 
their  ransoms.  He  gave  them  all,  and  arrived  at  Bordeaux  with 
empty  hands  to  retake  his  place  in  prison.  Charles  V.  paid  his 
ransom  and  set  him  at  liberty.  He  then  sent  him  anew  into  Spain, 
at  the  head  of  his  army ;  and  Du  Guesclin,  conqueror  Battle  of 
at  the  battle  of  Montiel,  replaced  Transtamare,  for  a 
second  time,  upon  the  throne  of  Castile.  Peter  the  Cruel  was  made 
prisoner.  On  recognizing  each  other,  the  two  rival  brothers  threw 
themselves  with  rage  upon  one  another,  and  Peter  died,  stabbed  by 
the  hand  of  Henry,  in  the  tent  of  Du  Guesclin. 

At  this  period  Charles  contemplated  the  recovery  of  those  provinces 
which  had  been  ceded  to  the  English  by  his  father ;  and  saw  with  joy 
Edward  III.  enervated,  more  by  pleasures  than  by  age,  and  his  illus- 
trious son,  the  Black  Prince,  the  conqueror  of  Cressy,  of  Poitiers,  and 
of  Navarette,  attacked  by  a  wasting  disease  the  symptoms  of  which 
were  mortal.  He  deceived  the  English  monarch  by  demonstrations  of 
friendship,  and  fomented  revolt  in  all  the  provinces  given  over  to 
England  by  the  treaty  of  Bretigny.  The  English  treated  the  in- 
habitants of  these  countries  more  as  vanquished  people  than  as 
brothers  and  fellow-citizens.  Hence  arose  amongst  them  an  ardent 
desire  to  be  restored  to  France. 

Charles  profited  by  these  inclinations,  and  attached  to  himself  the 
most  influential  nobles.    A  rising  broke  out  in  Gascony  on   Rising  0f  the 
the  occasion  of  a  hearth- tax,  an  imposition  established  by   th^E  "gifshTnS 

1368 

the  English  prince  upon  each  fire.  The  Gascons  claimed 
that,  up  to  that  time,  they  had  been  free  from  all  taxes,  and  appealed 
to  the  King  of  France,  as  sovereign  of  Guienne  and  of  Gascony. 
Charles  V.,  in  contempt  of  the  treaty  of  Bretigny,  which  granted 
these  provinces  in  complete  sovereignty  to  Edward,  received  their 
appeal,  and  caused  the  Black  Prince  to  be  summoned  before  the 
Chamber  of  Peers,  as  his    subject.      He  believed  he  was  powerful 


256  WAR  WITH   ENGLAND  RENEWED.  [Book  II.  Chap.  IV. 

enough  at  the  same  time  to  venture  upon  some  acts  of  popularity 
without  compromising  his  power.  He  dared  to  convoke  the  States, 
states-General,      an(l  pretended  to  consult  them,  being  assured  beforehand 

1369 

that  he  would  find  them  docile.  They  assembled  in 
1369,  and  approved  of  all  the  acts  of  his  reign  without  restriction. 
He  prosecuted  his  designs  against  England  ;  he  increased  the  privi- 
leges of  the  revolted  towns,*  which  gave  themselves  up  to  France ; 
and  the  clergy,  won  over  by  him,  raised  the  people  in  his  favour. 
Lastly,  when  he  had  arranged  everything  for  success,  the  Court  of 
Peers  issued,  in  1370,  a  decision  declaring  that,  in  default  of  having 
Decision  of  the  appeared  before  it,  Edward  was  deprived  of  his  rights 
Stast  Edward  w^n  regard  to  Aquitaine  and  his  other  possessions  in 
in.,  1379.  France,  and  it  confiscated   them  to   the    profit    of    the 

crown.  A  scullion  was  entrusted  to  carry  this  sentence  to  the 
English  monarch,  who,  seized  with  indignation,  prepared  for  war. 

Charles  V.  strengthened  his  position  with  Scotland  and  Spain.     A 
„  Castilian    fleet,    victorious   over    the    English    fleet    at 

Recommence-  '  & 

™eTwithh0stlll~  Rochelle,  opened  for  him  Poitou ;  the  Constable  Du 
England,  1370.  Gruesclin  subdued  this  province  to  France.  The  Duke 
of  Brittany,  Montfort,  was  from  his  heart  devoted  to  the  English, 
who  had  restored  to  him  his  duchy :  he  allied  himself  with  Edward. 
But  Charles  knew  how  to  manage  the  friendship  of  the  Breton  nobles. 
Two  of  their  number,  Olivier  de  Clisson  and  Du  G-uesclin,  enjoyed  his 
highest  favour ;  they  gained  over  for  Charles  the  hearts  of  their  com- 
patriots, and  the  duke  was  expelled  from  his  duchy,  which  allied  itself 
with  France  against  England.  Edward,  however,  assembled  together 
a  powerful  army ;  it  disembarked  at  Calais,  under  the  command  of 
the  Duke  of  Lancaster.  Charles  V.,  still  struck  with  the  recollec- 
tion of  Cressy  and  Poitiers,  ordered  his  generals  to  watch  the 
enemy,  to  impede  his  movements,  and  to  decline  to  give  battle.  His 
orders  were  obeyed.  Lancaster  encamped  before  Paris,  and  an 
English    knisrht    planted    with    impunity   his   lance  in 

New  system  of  °  or  r  j 

warfare.  ^he  gates  of  Saint  Jacques.     French  valour,  restrained 

*  Royal  decrees  of  1370.  Letters  declaring  that  the  inhabitants  of  Rodez  should 
he  able  to  transact  business  throughout  the  kingdom,  without  paying  any  rates  for 
merchandise  which  they  purchased  (February,  1370);  letters  declaring  that  the  town 
of  Milhaud  should  be  exempt  from  taxes  for  twenty  years  ;  and  an  order  granting 
privileges  to  the  town  of  Tulle  (May,  1370),  &c.  &c. 


1364-1380]  TRUCE    BETWEEN   ENGLAND   AND    FRANCE.  257 

by  the  prudence  of  the  monarch,  bore  the  insulting  provoca- 
tions of  the  enemy  from  Calais  as  far  as  Guienne,  where  their  army 
arrived  exhausted  and  almost  destroyed  by  disease,  fatigue,  and 
scarcity  of  provisions.  The  fortune  of  England  tottered :  its  hero, 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  whose  last  and  sad  exploit  was  the  sack  of 
Limoges,  was  just  dead ;  Edward  III.  himself  was  drawing  near  to 
the  tomb,  and  was  about  to  abandon  his  sceptre  to  the  hands  of  an 
infant.  His  fleet  had  been  conquered  at  Rochelle  ;  his  powerful  army 
had  consumed  itself;  already  the  fruits  of  the  victory  of  Poitiers 
were  lost  to  him,  and  France  had  recovered  nearly  all  its  provinces. 
The  old  King,  so  formidable  in  times  of  old,  and  now  so  humiliated, 
signed  a  truce  with  Charles  V.,  and  shortly  afterwards  Truce  of  B 
died  in  the  arms  of  a  courtesan,  leaving  the  throne  to  England  and 
his  grandson,  the  unfortunate  Richard  II.  France,  1375. 

Freed  from  his  most  dangerous  enemy,  Charles  abandoned  himself 
to  his  revenge  against  his  brother-in-law,  Charles  the  Bad,  then  in 
Spain,  where  he   meditated  an  alliance  with  England. 

r        '  °  Vengeance  of 

He  compelled  the  son  of  that  prince,  who  had  come  CharlesV- 
without  distrust  to  his  court,  to  sign  an  order  which  gave  over  to  the 
French  all  the  places  possessed  by  his  father  in  Normandy.  He 
caused  also  De  Rue  and  Du  Tertre  to  be  arrested,  the  one  chamberlain 
of  the  King  of  Navarre,  and  the  other  governor  of  one  of  his  places, 
and  both  intimate  friends  of  their  master.  They  were  given  over  to 
an  extraordinary  commission,  and  summoned  to  confess  that  their 
prince  was  guilty  of  atrocious  crimes,  and,  among  others,  of  an 
attempt  to  poison  Charles.  They  repelled  these  horrible  accusations, 
but  this  did  not  prevent  them  from  being  condemned  to  death  and 
executed  as  accomplices  of  these  crimes,  in  order  to  give  a  ground  to 
the  suspicions  which  Charles  V.  wished  to  bring  to  bear  upon  his 
brother-in-law.  Bernay,  Evreux,  Pont-Audemer,  Avranches,  Mor- 
tain,  Valognes,  opened  their  gates,  and  in  Normandy  the  town  of 
Cherbourg  alone  belonged  to  the  King  of  Navarre. 

This  point  seems  to  give  us  an  opportunity  for  stopping  a-  moment 
to  glance  at  the  politics  of  Charles  V.     Arriving,  as  he 
did,    at   royalty   under  the   most   unfavourable   circum-    charles"V. 
stances,  burdened  with  an  enormous  debt  to  pay  to  foreigners,  without 
a  treasury,  without  an  army,  he  had  seen  Irs  subjects  diminish  to  one- 

s 


258  THE    POLICY   OF   CHAELES.  [BOOK  II.   Chap.  IV. 

half  in  number,  by  war,  by  famine,  by  pestilence,  and  despoiled  by 
bands  of  brigands,  masters  of  the  kingdom.  Nevertheless,  in  the 
course  of  years,  he  had  succeeded  in  retaking  from  the  English 
Ponthieu,  Quercy,  Limousin,  Rouergue,  Saintonge,  Angoumois,. 
and  Poitou.  He  had  engaged  the  vassals  of  Upper  Grascony  to  give 
themselves  over  to  him,  expelled  the  Duke  of  Brittany 

His  policy. 

from  his  duchy,  and  the  King  of  Navarre  from  nearly 
all  his  Norman  possessions.  Skilful  also  in  exterior  politics,  he  had 
favoured  in  Castile  a  revolution  which,  in  assisting  him  to  get  rid  of 
the  pest  of  the  great  companies,  promised  to  him  a  grateful  ally. 
He  attached  Flanders  to  France,  by  assuring,  through  a  marriage 
with  his  brother,  Philip  of  Burgundy,  the  succession  of  that 
country ;  he  carefully  preserved  the  friendship  of  John  Graleas 
Visconti,  his  brother-in-law,  master  of  Lombardy,  and  that  of  the 
Emperor  Charles  IV. ;  whilst  he  held  the  Pope  under  his  subjection  at 
Avignon.  The  companies  of  adventurers  had  disappeared  from  the 
kingdom,  the  roads  had  become  safe,  order  was  re-esfcablished,  royal 
authority  was  exercised  without  obstacle,  and  in  all  parts,  at  last, 
subjects  who  had  been  detached  from  the  monarchy  by  a  humiliating 
treaty,  left  the  foreign  yoke  to  become  once  more  Frenchmen. 

Charles  had  gathered  round  him,  in  order  to  assist  in  accomplish- 
ing these  happy  changes,  men  little  elevated  by  their 

Principal  .  . 

ministers  of  that   birth,  but  by  superior  merit.     Amongst  them  must  be 

prince, 

mentioned  Guillaume  and  Michel  de  Dormans,  Philip 
de  Savoisy,  and  Bureau  de  la  Riviere.  These  men  had  all  his  con- 
fidence ;  they  were  his  ministers,  and  not  his  favourites :  whilst  he 
took  advantage  of  their  counsels  he  always  remained  their  master.* 
He  ceased  to  alter  the  money,  and  did  not  oppress  the  people 
with  taxes,  substituting  for  the  taille,  or  land-tax  upon  villeins,  the 
indirect  tax  of  the  aides,  which  had  for  its  particular  object  the 
taxation  of  both  bourgeois  and  noble. 

This  wise  conduct  ought  to  be  attributed  equally  to  his  solicitude 
for  his  subjects  and  the  fear  with  which  they  inspired  him.  Never 
did  he  forget  that  the  people  had  made  him  tremble  when  he  was 
only  Dauphin  ;  and  he  rarely  pardoned  an-  offence.    However,  he  knew 

*  For  this  reason,  Freret  is  reported  to  have  said  of  him,  "  Never  L  prince  received 
so  many  counsels,  and  allowed  himself  to  be  less  governed." 


1364-1380]  DEATH   OF   POPE    GREGORY  XI.  259 

liow  to  put  off  chastisement,  and  he  was,  according  to  circumstances, 
master  of  his  pity  and  likewise  of  his  anger.  When  the  English  armies 
laid  waste  the  country  and  burnt  the  villages  under  his  eyes,  no  sign 
of  pity  escaped  from  him  ;  and  Froissart,  the  historian  of  the  period, 
narrates  that  in  all  these  conflagrations  he  could  only  see  smoke, 
which  could  not  drive  him  from  his  inheritance.  In  his  connection 
with  the  people,  lastly,  his  principal  aim  seems  to  have  been  to  compel 
them  to  submit  to  the  sovereign  will,  without  hearing  a  murmur,  and 
without  experiencing  any  resistance.  He  only  once  convoked  the 
States- General  during  his  reign,  and  substituted  for  them  assemblies 
of  the  most  considerable  inhabitants,  where  he  only  admitted 
members  of  the  Parliament  and  of  the  university,  some  prelates,  and 
his  great  officers  of  state.  The  political  power  of  the  Third  Estate 
found  itself  enfeebled;  but  at  the  same  time  Charles  V.,  jealous  of 
keeping  the  balance  between  the  different  classes  of  the  nation, 
despoiled  the  nobles  of  many  of  their  privileges.  A  Celebrated 
decree  of  1372  exclusively  reserved  to  the  crown  the  decree  of  1372- 
right  of  granting  charters  to  the  municipalities,  and  of  letters  of  en- 
noblement to  private  individuals. 

It  was  from  the  interior  of  his  palace  that  he  mysteriously  directed 
all  these  intrigues.  Prudence  had  always  directed  his  policy ;  and  that 
which  was  the  particular  aim  which  he  proposed  to  himself  in  all 
his  acts,  that  which  he  strove  to  reach,  was  the  only  one  which  was 
then  suited  to  the  true  interests  of  France.  The  end  of  this  reign 
was  not  free  from  storms.  Charles  saw  awakening  round  him  in 
all  directions  symptoms  of  that  fermentation,  of  that  liberal  tendency 
in  men's  minds,  which  he  had  taken  such  great  care  to  suppress. 
Sectarians,  known  under  the  name  of  Beguins  or  Turlupins,  multi- 
plied in  his  states :  he  allowed  a  large  number  of  these  unfortunates 
to  be  burnt  alive  ;  but  the  executions  could  not  restrain  the  flight  of 
human  reason.  ISTew  sects  were  formed,  and  the  great  Schism  of  the 
East  stimulated  throughout  Europe  the  spirit  of  doubt  and  of  inquiry. 

Gregory  XI.  died  in  1378  at  Rome,  and  the  College  of  Cardinals 
gave  him  for  a  successor  Bartholomew  Prognagni,  who  took  the  name 
of  Urban  VI.  The  violent  conduct  of  the  new  Pope  soon  alienated 
from  him  those  who  had  crowned  him ;  threatened  by  him,  they  all 

s  2 


260  GEEAT    SCHISM    OF    THE    EAST.  [BOOK  II.    Chap.  IV. 

declared  that  his  election  was  illegal ;  they  chose  Robert  of  Geneva, 
who  took  the  name  of  Clement  VII.,  and  went  to  take  up  his  resi- 
dence at  Avignon.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  famous  Schism  of  the 
Great  Schism  of  East.  Europe  divided  itself  between  the  two  popes, 
the  East,  13/9.  each  kingdom  following  its  own  political  interests. 
Charles  V.  declared  himself  for  Clement,  who  resided  in  France  ;  his 
allies,  the  sovereigns  of  Naples,  of  Castile,  and  Aragon,  followed  his 
example.  The  party  of  Urban  VI.  was  embraced  by  England,  by 
Bohemia,  Hungary,  Portugal,  and  Flanders.  Charles,  in  declaring  for 
one  who  was  hereafter  to  be  declared  anti-pope,  opened  up,  in  spite 
of  himself,  new  views  to  the  independence  of  human  reason  and 
unbelief. 

The  symptoms  of  agitation  thus  visibly  arising  were  not  the 
only  alarming  movements  which  he  saw  in  his  latter  years.  Con- 
queror of  the  English  without  having  fought  them,  he  thought 
r,    a     l-^   c      himself  master  enough  over  the  minds  of  the  Bretons 

Confiscation  of  ° 

Brittany7  Revolt  ^°  confiscate  their  province  and  to  unite  it  to  his 
of  the  Bretons.  domain#  He  deceived  himself.  The  Duke  John  V., 
summoned  by  his  order  before  the  court  of  the  Parliament,  was 
judged  by  it  before  his  summons  was  notified  to  him  in  Flanders, 
where  he  resided,  and  condemned  without  being  heard,  as  being 
guilty  of  an  alliance  with  England  against  his  sovereign.  He  was 
declared  deprived  of  his  titles  in  Brittany,  and  the  Parliament  confis- 
cated his  duchy  in  contempt  of  the  rights  of  the  widow  and 
children  of  Charles  de  Blois,  expressly  reserved  in  the  treaty  of 
Guerande.  Charles  Y.  did  not  gather  any  fruit  from  this  unjust  act. 
The  inhabitants  of  that  country,  jealous  of  their  national  independence, 
arose  in  a  body,  recalled  their  duke,  and  welcomed  him  as  their 
liberator ;  the  brave  Breton  captains  left  the  royal  army  ;  Du  Guesclin, 
always  faithful  to  the  King,  disapproved  of  his  course,  and  became 
suspicious  of  him  :  his  noble  pride  made  him  indignant.  It  is  said 
that  he  wished  to  give  up  his  Constable's  sword,  and  was  anxious  to 
retire  to  Spain,  in  order  to  die  there  ;  but,  before  leaving  the  standard 
of  Charles,  he  went  to  rejoin  the  Marshal  de  Sancerre,  his  friend,  and 
one  of  the  most  illustrious  warriors  of  the  age,  before  the  little  place 
of  Chateau-Randon,  in  Grevaudan,  which  he  was  then  besieging.     He 


1364-1380]  DEATH    OF   DU    GUESCLIN.  261 

was  attacked  by  a  fatal  malady.     Feeling  that  death  was  approaching, 
he  raised  himself  upon  his  conch,  and  taking  in  his  vic- 

r^  -i-ii-iT  Illness  and 

torious  hands  the  sword  of  the  Constable,  he  looked  upon   death  of  Du 

Guesclin,  1380. 

it  in  silence,  with  tears  in  his  eyes.  "  It  has  aided 
me,"  said  he,  "to  conquer  the  enemies  of  my  King,  but  it  has  given 
me  cruel  enemies  near  him."  Then,  turning  towards  Sancerre,  "I 
deliver  it  over  to  you,"  continued  he ;  "  and  I  protest  that  I  have 
never  betrayed  the  honour  that  the  King  did  me  when  he  entrusted  it 
to  me."  He  bowed  his  head,  kissed  his  noble  sword,  and  said  to  the 
old  captains  who  surrounded  him,  "Forget  not,  in  whatever  land 
you  may  be  engaged  in  war,  that  people  of  the  Church,  women,  and 
children,  are  not  your  enemies."  Upon  the  point  of  death,  he 
dictated  these  words  for  Olivier  de  Clisson,  his  companion  in  arms. 
"My  Lord  Olivier,  I  feel  that  death  approaches  closely,  and  cannot 
say  many  things  to  you.  You  will  say  to  the  King  that  I  am  greatly 
grieved  that  I  cannot  serve  him  longer,  and  that,  if  Grod  had  granted 
me  the  time,  I  had  good  hope  of  clearing  his  kingdom  of  his  Eng- 
lish enemies.  He  has  goods  ervants,  who  will  exert  themselves  as 
much  as  I  have  done,  especially  you,  my  Lord  Olivier,  the  first  before 
all.  I  pray  you  deliver  to  the  King  the  sword  of  the  Constable  ;  he  will 
know  well  how  to  dispose  of  it,  and  make  choice  of  a  person  worthy 
of  it.  I  commend  to  him  my  wife  and  my  brother.  Adieu  !  I  am  not 
able  to  do  more."  The  garrison  of  Randon  had  promised  to  give 
up  the  town  if  it  were  not  succoured,  and,  faithful  to  its  word, 
it  deposited  the  keys  of  the  town  upon  the  coffin  of  the  great 
captain. 

Charles  persevered  in  his  objects    of   usurpation ;    but  his  troops 
were  driven  from  Brittany,  and  he  met  everywhere  with 

Reverses  of 

the  same  unanimity  against  himself  which  a  short  time   diaries  v.  in 

J      °  Brittany. 

ago  had  been  shown  in  his  favour  against  the  English. 

Louis,    Count  of  Flanders,  also   solicited  assistance  at  the  same  time 

against  his  revolted   subjects.     A  formidable  rising  also   „.  .      ,  , 

°  J  o  Rising  of  La>i- 

broke    out   in   Languedoc,  where   the   Duke    of   Anjou,    £uedoc« 
brother  of  the  King,  crushed  the  people  by  an  intolerable  oppression, 
Charles- was  compelled  to  recall  his  brother,  and  took  his  government 
from  him.     He,  lastly,  saw  the   King  of  Navarre  give  up  Cherbourg 
to  the    English,   and   a  new  English   army  fall   upon  the   kingdom. 


262  DEATH   OF   CHARLES   V.  [Book  II.  Chap.  IV. 

He  ordered  that  it  should  be  received  in  the  same  manner  as  that 
Death  of  Charles  wn^cn  preceded  it.  In  the  meanwhile,  he  died  at  his 
v.,  1380.  Castle  of  Beauty,  on  the  Marne.     His  death  was  that  of 

a  Christian  and  of  a  monarch  who  had  been  long  tried  by  the  hard- 
ships of  fortune.  He  assembled  round  him  the  prelates,  the  barons, 
and  the  members  of  his  council,  and  addressed  them  on  the  different 
acts  of  his  policy  in  a  touching  discourse,  full  of  wisdom.  Then  he 
requested  them  to  bring  the  crown  of  thorns  of  the  Saviour,  which 
they  then  believed  that  they  possessed  at  Paris  among  a  number  of 
sacred  relics.  It  was  placed  on  high  before  him,  and  he  prayed  for 
a  long  time,  fixing  his  eyes  upon  it.  Afterwards,  having  caused  his 
perishable  crown — that  used  at  the  coronation  of  the  kings — to  be 
placed  at  his  feet,  he  said,  "  O  orown  of  France,  that  art  precious  and 
vile  at  the  same  time — precious,  as  the  symbol  of  justice  ;  but  vile,  and 
most  vile  of  all  things,  when  we  consider  the  labour,  the  anguish,  the 
perils  of  the  soul,  the  pains  of  the  heart,  the  conscience,  and  the 
body,  which  thou  castest  upon  those  which  bear  thee — those  who 
know  all  these  things  would  rather  leave  thee  lying  in  the  mud  than 
raise  thee  in  order  to  place  thee  on  their  heads!"  Afterwards,  having 
received  the  extreme  unction,  the  King  ordered  that  the  doors  should 
be  opened  to  his  officers  and  to  the  people,  and  said,  "  I  know  that 
in  the  government  of  my  kingdom  I  have  given  many  causes  of 
offence;  for  that  I  pray  you  accord  me  mercy:  pardon  me."*  He 
then  raised  his  arms,  and  stretched  out  his  hands  over  all,  in  the 
midst  of  sighs  and  tears.  He  gave  his  blessing  to  his  eldest  son,  the 
Dauphin,  then  eleven  years  old ;  and  whilst  they  read  the  Passion  of 
the  Saviour,  from  the  Grospel  of  Saint  John,  he  expired  in  the  arms 
of  the  Lord  of  La  Riviere,  whom  he  tenderly  loved,  on  the  26th  of 
September,  1380,  at  the  age  of  forty-four  years.  He  had  scarcely 
closed  his  eyes  when  his  nearest  relatives  gave  vent  to  the  evil 
passions  which  they  had  restrained  during  his  life.  The  eldest  of  his 
brothers  and  one  of  the  tutors  of  his  son,  the  avaricious  and  fierce 
Duke  of  Anjou,  rushed  into  his  chamber,  seized  his  jewels,  and 
pillaged  the  palace.  The  new  reign  commenced  under  these 
darkening  auspices. 

*   Livre  des  Faicts  et  bonnes  Mceurs  du  sage  Hoy  Charles   V.    Par  Christine  de 
Pisan. 


1364-1380]  LITERATURE   AND    SCIENCE.  263 

The  arts  and  sciences  were  still  very  slightly  cultivated  in  France 
during  the   reigns  of   John   and  Charles  V.  ;   while  at 

•  .  .  General  observa- 

the  same  time  they  began  to  nourish   in  Italy,  where  tions.  Literature 

and  science. 

Dante   and   Petrarch  were  then  famous.      The   French 
nobles  gave  themselves  up  entirely  to  warlike  exercises,  and  had  the 
most  profound  contempt  for  men  of  intellect ;   the  most  celebrated 
captains  could  only  sign  their  names  with  difficulty,  and  Du  Guesclin 
could  not  read.     The  principal  works  of  antiquity,  however,  began  to 
be  known ;  already  there  were  several  translations   of  Titus  Livius, 
.Sallust,  and  of  Caesar.     The  historian  Froissart  lived, 
and  his   simple   and  picturesque  chronicle  is  one  of  the 
most  precious  monuments   of  modern  history.      Charles  "V.,  one   of 
the  most  educated  men  of    his   time,    may  be   looked  upon  as   the 
founder  of  the   Bibliotheque  Boyale.     His   father  had  only  left  him 
twenty  volumes  ;   he  collected  together  nine  hundred,  a  prodigious 
number  for  the  period.     The  greater  part  were  books  on  theology, 
canon  law,  and  astrology,  the  only  sciences  which  were  then  studied. 

From  the  thirteenth  century,  clocks  with  wheels,  spectacles,  paper, 
earthenware,  and  crystal  mirrors  were  known  in  Italy.  The  towns 
of  that  beautiful  country,  and  also  those  of  Flanders,  possessed 
manufactures  and  enriched  themselves  by  commerce,  whilst  war 
was  almost  the  only  occupation  of  the  French.  Gunpowder,  which 
was  frequently  used  in  sieges,  was  despised  in  battles.  The  nobles 
did  not  care  to  favour  the  use  of  an  arm  which,  in  neutralizing  in- 
dividual force,  must  contribute  to  the  levelling  of  the  ranks. 

The  studies  of  the  universities  only  taught  the  art  of  sustaining 
the  vain  disputes  of  scholastic  theology.  Careful  to  repulse  every- 
thing that  could  encroach  upon  the  authority  of  the  Church,  ihe 
popes  interdicted  in  the  universities  the  study  of  civil  law,  and  only 
tolerated  that  of  canon  law.  They  still  often  decided  the  destinies  of 
empires  ;  it  was  thus  that  Urban  V.,  in  granting  permission  to  Philip 
the  Bold,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  to  marry  Marguerite  of  Flanders,  the 
licence  for  which  he  had  refused  to  the  son  of  Edward  III.,  firmly 
assured  to  the  house  of  France  the  inheritance  of  that  powerful  count. 
The  same  Pope  was  again  taken  as  arbiter  by  Charles  V.  and  Charles 
the  Bad,  on  the  subject  of  their  pretensions  to  Burgundy ;  and  later, 
Gregory  XI.  caused  his  mediation  to  be  accepted  between  the  Kings  of 


264  ROYAL   ORDINANCES.  [Book  II.  Chap.  IV. 

France  and  England.  The  former,  agreeing  with  the  popes  in  their  de- 
signs against  progress  and  the  spirit  of  independence,  resisted  them  at 
all  times  when  the  rights  that  they  arrogated  to  themselves  encroached 
npon  those  which  he  himself  believed  that  he  possessed,  and  he  dared 
to  take  the  title  of  King  before  his  coronation.  One  of  the  ordinances 
Ro  ai  ordi-  which  does  most  honour  to  his  memory  is  that  by  which 

nances.  j^  arme(j  justice  against  his  own  authority.     He  forbade 

Parliament  to  modify  or  to  suspend  its  judgments  in  virtue  of  any 
order  sealed  with  the  royal  seal.  He  had  already  made  the  Parlia- 
ment permanent,  which,  until  then,  only  assembled  twice  in  the  year? 
at  Paques  and  Toussaint,  and  had  established  it  in  the  ancient  Palace 
of  the  Kings,  in  the  city  of  Paris.  Another  ordinance,  equally  cele- 
brated, was  issued  by  this  prince.  In  order  to  shorten  the  stormy 
time  which  he  foresaw  would  occur  during  the  minority  of  his  suc- 
cessor, he  fixed  the  majority  of  the  kings  at  fourteen  years.  This 
dangerous  innovation  was  too  often  fatal  to  France. 


1380-1422]  SITUATION   OF   FEANCE.  265 


CHAPTER  V. 

EEIGN   OF    CHARLES   VI. 

1380-1422. 

The  disasters  of  tlie  last  wars  Had  cut  down  tlie  first  nobility  of  the 
kingdom :     after   the     defeats    of    Cressv  and  Poitiers,    _..    .. 

°  J  '     Situation  of 

amongst  the  great  vassals  of  France  there  only  remained  France- 
the  Dukes  of  Brittany  and  Burgundy*  who  lived  in  such  state  that 
they  could  hold  up  their  heads  with  the  monarch ;  the  royal  family 
had  profited  by  the  decline  of  the  others.  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  so 
many  blows  aimed  at  the  high  feudal  aristocracy,  the  spirit  of  feudality 
existed  still  in  its  strength,  and  at  the  side  of  the  monarch  arose  a 
new  aristocracy,  as  formidable  to  the  throne  ;  it  consisted  of  princes 
of  the  royal  family.  They  had  received  in  apanage  the  states  which 
the  kings  ought  to  have  united  to  their  domains,  and  for  the  most 
part  they  governed  with  harshness  the  people  who  were  intrusted  to 
their  care. 

From  the  end  of  the  last  reign  insurrections  had  broken  out  in 
many  parts  of  the  kingdom  and  in  the  states  feudally  . 

obedient  to  the   crown  of  France.      This   agitation  soon    and  anarchv- 
became    general.       The   people    suffered,   crushed   and    despoiled   by 
avaricious   tyrants,  and   formidable   insurrections  were    quenched  in 

*  The  duchy  of  Burgundy,  properly  speaking,  in  1363,  at  the  accession  of  the  house 
of  Valois,  only  comprised  the  towns  of  Dijon,  Beaune,  Auxonne  and  Chatillon,  with 
their  territories.  By  his  marriage  with  Marguerite  of  Flanders,  heiress  of  Count 
Louis  II.,  Philip  the  Bold  received  in  1384  the  counties  of  Flanders,  Artois, 
Rhetel,  Nevers,  and  Burgundy  (free  county).  The  vast  possessions  of  this  house  were 
extended  still  further  under  Charles  VII.  It  acquired  hy  the  treaty  of  Arras  (1435), 
in  the  east  of  France,  the  counties  of  Macon  and  Auxerre,  and  the  seigniory  of  Bar  ; 
to  the  north  the  counties  of  Guignes  and  Ponthieu.  It  finally  gained  by  succession,  by 
marriages,  and  by  purchase,  Hainaut,  Brabant,  Limbourg,  Luxembourg,  the  counties  of 
Frise,  of  Zealand,  of  Holland,  the  towns  of  Antwerp  and  Malines,  and  the  duchy  of 
Gueldre.  (See  Hisloire  des  Dues  de  Bourgogne  de  la  Maison  de  Valois,  by  Baron  de 
Barante.) 


%66  ACCESSION   OF   CHAELES   YI.  [Book  II.  Chap.  V. 

streams  of  blood.  A  deep  exasperation  existed  between  the  nobility 
and  the  inferior  classes  ;  but  the  struggle  was  not  equal  :  the 
nobles  knew  how  to  unite  together,  to  bear  down  in  a  body  on 
their  isolated  enemies,  and  to  strike  them  separately.  The  barbarity 
and  the  superstition  of  the  people  arrested  all  their  efforts  to  obtain  a 
better  destiny,  and,  when  a  stroke  of  fortune  threw  the  power  for 
a  moment  into  their  hands,  they  could  not  make  a  better  use  of  it 
than  their  noble  oppressors.  So  many  causes  of  dissolution,  united 
together,  plunged  France  into  frightful  anarchy,  and  made  the  reign 
of  Charles  "VI.  the  most  disastrous  period  in  French  his- 

Sad  state  of  L 

Europe.  tory.    At  the  moment  when  this  King,  a  minor,  mounted 

his  throne,  England,  submissive  to  Richard  II.,  bore  also  the  evils 
of  a  minority :  the  empire  of  Germany  had  for  a  chief,  in  Venceslas, 
son  of  Charles  IV.,  a  prince  brutified  by  intemperance  ;  Charles  the 
Bad  reigned  in  Navarre ;  Jeanne  I.,  murderess  of  her  husband, 
governed  Naples,  and  two  candidates  for  the  papacy,  Urban  VI.  and 
Clement  VII.,  shook  the  Christian  world  by  discharging  at  each 
other  mutual  anathemas.  All  the  people  suffered  from  frightful  cala- 
mities ;  but  none  of  them  were  more  crushed  than  the  French  people. 
Charles  VI.  had  arrived  at  the  age  of  eleven  years  and  some 
.        .       .        months   when    his    father   died.      His    three    paternal 

Accession  of  * 

CnariesVL,  1380.  u^]^  the  Dukes  of  Anjou,  Berry,  and  Burgundy,  and 
his  maternal  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  disputed  among  themselves 
concerning  his  guardianship  and  the  regency.  They  agreed  to  eman- 
cipate the  young  King  immediately  after  his  coronation,  which  was  to 
take  place  during  the  year,  and  the  regency  was  to  remain  until  that 
period  in  the  hands  of  the  eldest,  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  the  same  who, 
given  by  his  father  as  a  hostage,  fled  from  England,  and  whose 
first  act  was  to  appropriate  the  treasure  amassed  by  the  late  King. 
Nature  had  endowed  Charles  VI.  with  amiable  qualities  ;  he  was  bene- 
volent and  full  of  grace  and  affability.  His  uncles  vied  with  each  other 
in  stifling  this  happy  disposition  ;  they  were  bent  on  persuading  him 
that  the  most  glorious  triumphs  for  a  King  are  those  which  he  gains 
over  his  own  subjects.  A  wise  administration  could  have  closed  the 
wounds  of  the  people.  The  English  army  conducted  into  Brittany 
by  Buckingham  was  dissolved,  and  the  sixteen  millions  left  by 
Charles  V.  would  have  been  more  than  sufficient  to  free  France  from 


1380-1422]  NEW   TAXES.  267 

tlie  foreigners.  But  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  adopted  by  Jeanne  of  Naples 
as  her  successor,*  and  impatient  to  be  seated  on  her  throne,  had 
received  this  treasure  to  defray  the  expenses  of  an  expedition  against 
Charles  de  Duras,  his  rival.  He  soon  raised  a  numerous  army ;  it 
perished  in  Italy,  mowed  down  by  privations,  fatigue,  and  disease, 
and  he  himself  died  miserably  in  the  country  which  he  had  come  to 
conquer. 

The  beginning  of  this  reign  was  signalized  by  popular  movements. 
A  report  had  spread  about  that  the  late  King  on  his  deathbed  had 
decreed  the  abolition  of  all  the  taxes,  and,  according  to  the 
chronicle  of  Saint-Denis,  each  one  throughout  the  kingdom  of  France 
ardently  desired  liberty,  and  thought  only  of  shaking  off  the  yoke  of 
the  taxes.  Fearing  an  insurrection,  the  governing  princes  issued  a 
decree  abolishing  in  perpetuity  the  established  taxes,  under  some 
name  that  had  existed  since  the  time  of  Philip  the  Fair.  However, 
it  was  necessary  to  provide  for  the  cost  of  the  war  against  England, 
and  for  other  expenses :  the  treasury  was  empty,  and  the  revenues  of 
the  royal  domain  were  very  inadequate.  They  did  not  dare  to  convoke 
the  States- General,  and  they  could  draw  nothing  from  the  assemblies 
of  the  nobles.     It  was  necessary  to  re-establish   a   tax 

New  t&xcs. 

upon  merchandise    of  every   kind.     Immediately  a  for- 
midable tumult  broke  out ;    the  Parisians  ran  to  the  arsenal,  where 
they  found  mallets  of  lead  intended  for  the  defence  of  the  town,  and 
under  the  blows    from   which   the  greater  part    of  the 
collectors  of  the  new  tax  perished;  from  the  weapons   the Maiiiotins, 

Til-  n        ,  1380. 

used  the  insurgents  took  the  name  of  Maiiiotins.     Reims, 

Chalons,  Orleans,  Blois,  and  Rouen  rose  at  the  example  of  the  capital. 

This  prince,  in  favour  of  whom  King  John  had  newly  constituted  in  apanage  the 
duchy  of  Anjou,  reunited  to  the  crown  by  Philip  VI.,  was  the  head  of  the  second  house 
of  Anjou  which  reigned  at  Naples,  or  rather  which  claimed  that  crown.  The  first 
house  of  Anjou,  founded  by  Charles,  brother  of  Saint  Louis,  was  only  represented  in 
1380  by  Jeanne  I.,  Queen  of  Naples,  and  by  Charles  de  Durazzo  (or  Duras)  of  Anjou, 
her  cousin.  Jeanne,  to  the  detriment  of  her  natural  heir,  adopted  Louis,  son  of  King 
John  ;  and  from  that  time  commenced  a  long  struggle  between  the  second  house  of 
Anjou  and  the  royal  branch  of  Durazzo.  Louis  I.  in  1383,  and  Louis  II.  in  1390, 
both  invaded  the  kingdom,  but  neither  of  them  could  hold  it.  The  Durazzo  (or  Duras) 
reigned  until  1435.  At  this  period  Jeanne  II.  died  :  she  was  daughter  and  last  heiress 
to  Charles  de  Durazzo,  and  her  succession  caused  a  new  war  to  break  out.— See  further 
forward  in  this  volume,  The  State  of  Italy  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  (Reign  of 
Charles  VIII.) 


268  AVAR   WITH    FLANDERS.  [Book  II.    Chap.  V. 

The  States- General  of  the  Langue  d'Oil  were  then  convoked  at 
Compiegne,  and  separated  without  having  granted  anything.  The 
Parisians  were  always  in  arms,  and  the  dnkes,  powerless  to  make 
them  submit,  treated  with  tnem,  and  contented  themselves  with  the 
offer  of  a  hundred  thousand  livres.  The  chastisement  was  put  off 
for  a  time. 

The  Duke   of  Berry,  Governor  of  Languedoc,   then   reduced    the 
,,      T         .       inhabitants  of  that  province    to   despair.      A  crowd  of 

New  Jacquerie  *  r 

m  Languedoc.  wretched  men,  despoiled  of  every  resource,  concealed 
themselves  in  the  forests  and  mountains  of  Cevennes,  where  they 
formed  themselves  into  bands,  which  were  known  by  the  name  of 
Tuchins,  and  which  were,  for  a  long  period,  the  terror  of  the  nobles 
and  men  of  wealth. 

The  estates  of  the  north,  held  under  the  crown,  were  neither  more 
peaceable  nor  more  happy.  Count  Louis  of  Flanders,  driven  away 
by  his  people,  whose  municipal  franchises  he  had  violated  every  day, 
now  burning  with  a  desire  to  avenge  himself,  obtained  the  support 
of  the  young  king,  his  sovereign.  A  numerous  army  of  knights 
assembled  together,   and  Charles  marched  at  its  head ; 

War  with  Flan-  . 

ders.   Battle  of      Clisson  was  appointed  Constable,  and  the  brave  Sancerre 

Rosebecque,  ■*■  x 

1882-  commanded  under  him.     The  French  army  met  near  to 

Rosebecque  an  army  of  fifty  thousand  Flemings,  commanded  by 
Philip  Artevelt,  son  of  the  famous  brewer  who  was  leader  of  the 
sedition  in  1336.  The  Flemings  occupied  an  excellent  defensive 
position  ;  they  wished  to  march  against  the  enemy,  and  demanded 
battle  with  loud  cries.  Artevelt,  compelled  to  accede  to  this  desire, 
formed  all  his  army  into  a  square  phalanx ;  all  the  men  Avere  tied 
together  with  cords,  and  he  himself  took  his  place  in  the  midst  of  his 
brave  men  of  Ghent.  Then  this  enormous  and  compact  mass  ad- 
vanced, their  pikes  lowered,  with  a  regular  and  firm  step,  and  without 
uttering  a  word.  The  artillery  of  the  King  could  not  break  this 
terrible  phalanx  ;  the  Flemings  advanced,  so  say  the  chroniclers,  with 
the  impetuosity  of  wild  boars.  The  French  line  recoiled ;  but  the 
enemy  presented  a  smaller  front  than  they  did,  and  were  soon  sur- 
rounded on  all  sides.  After  the  first  shock,  the  two  wings  of  the 
royal  army  fell,  at  the  same  moment,  on  this  mass,  which  was 
incapable  of  deploying  or  defending  itself;  the  Flemings  were  driven 


1380-1422]  PUNISHMENT    OF   THE   PARISIANS.  2G9 

back  upon  themselves  by  the  long  lances  of  the  knights,  and  thou- 
sands of  men  perished  by  suffocation  without  receiving  a  wound  ;  the 
carnage  was  frightful.  Philip  Artevelt  perished  in  the  fight.  The 
towns  of  Flanders  were  given  over  by  the  conqueror  to  flames  and 
pillage  ;  Ghent  alone  still  resisted.  Courtray,  guilty  only  of  having 
been  the  theatre  of  an  ancient  defeat  of  the  French,  was,  by  order  of 
the  young  King,  destroyed  from  foundation  to  roof,  and  all  the 
inhabitants,  without  distinction  of  age  or  sex,  were  massacred.  The 
victorious  army  returned  to  Paris ;  the  moment  for  striking  the 
rebels  had  arrived. 

The  Parisians  perceived  with  fear  that  defence  was  impossible,  and 
received  the  order  to  lay  down  their  arms.  The  young  King  of 
fourteen  years  entered  the  town  as  an  irritated  conqueror ;  refusing  to 
pass  through  the  gates,  he  caused  a  breach  to  be  made  in  the  walls 
of  the  town,  and  it  was  through  it  that  he  penetrated  to  the  capital. 
For  many  days  he  remained  silent  ;  Paris  was  in  Chastisement 
anguish.  At  last  the  scaffolds  were  erected,  and  the  the  Parisians. 
executions  commenced  ;  one  hundred  of  the  richest  inhabitants  were 
executed,  and  among  this  number  was  the  virtuous  John  Desmarest, 
advocate-general  to  the  Parliament,   whose   crime   con-   _       ,.      . 

o  '  Execution  of 

sisfced  in  being  desirous  to  conciliate  all  parties.  "  Master  John  Desmai'est. 
John,"  they  said  to  him,  while  leading  him  to  execution,  "  cry  to 
the  King,  in  order  that  he  may  pardon  you."  Desmarest  answered, 
"  I  have  served  King  Philip  his  grandfather,  King  John,  and  King 
Charles  his  father,  well  and  loyally ;  never  could  those  three  kings 
reproach  me,  and  this  monarch  would  not  have  done  so  if  he  had 
had  knowledge  of  mankind ;  to  God  alone  I  wish  to  cry  for  mercy." 
A  crowd  of  other  citizens  awaited  their  sentences.  The  dukes  then 
threw  themselves  at  the  feet  of  the  King,  and  feigned  to  beg  mercy 
for  the  town,  begging  him  to  convert  the  executions  into  fines. 
Charles  listened  favourably  to  their  covetous  wishes.  The  wealth  of 
the  bourgeoisie  was  confiscated,  all  the  taxes  were  re-established, 
and  Paris  lost  its  municipal  privileges,  together  with  the  right  of 
electing  its  prevot  and  civil  magistrates.  The  soldiers  demolished  the 
principal  gates,  and  tore  away  the  iron  chains  which  served  as  a 
defence  in  all  the  streets.  Rouen,  Reims,  Chalons,  Troyes,  Gens, 
and  Orleans,  were  treated  in  a  similar  manner,   by  royal   commis- 


270  A  DESCENT  ON  ENGLAND   PROJECTED.        [Book  II.    ChAP.  V. 

sioners,  who  ordered  confiscations  and  executions.  The  dukes  seized 
upon  all  the  money  from  the  towns,  and  spent  it  in  profusion,  while 
the  treasury  remained  empty. 

The  revolt  of  Flanders  was  not  stifled  ;  so  many  atrocities  com- 
mitted by  the  French  had  excited  general  horror  and  indignation; 
the  town  of  Ghent,  which  alone  contained  more  than  one  hundred 
thousand  souls,  showed  the  example  of  perseverance  and  courage. 
Ackermann  commanded  it ;  Pierre  Dubois  and  he  reanimated  the 
Flemings,  and  allied  themselves  with  Richard  II.,  King  of  England. 
An  English  army,  commanded  by  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  descended 
upon  Flanders,  pillaged  it,  and  sacked  the  towns,  which  were  occu- 
pied by  French  garrisons  contrary  to  the  wish  of  their  inhabit- 
ants. Charles  VI.  marched  forward  to  meet  the  English.  Flanders, 
the  victim  of  its  protectors  and  of  its  enemies,  became  a  theatre  of 
incendiarism  and  murder.  The  heroism  of  the  men  of  Ghent  saved 
that  unfortunate  country,  and  the  two  parties,  gorged  with  booty, 
longed  for  peace  on  either  side.  The  Count  of  Flanders  alone, 
furious  against  the  town  of  Ghent,  impeded  the  negotiations  ;  while 
the  Duke  of  Berry,  impatient  of  all  delay,  stabbed  the  Count  with 
his  dagger  and  killed  him.  The  death  of  Count  Louis  terminated 
the  war :  a  truce  was  signed  in  1384,  and  Flanders  passed  to  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  who  had  married  Marguerite,  heiress 

Flanders  is  °  J'  &  ' 

transmitted  to      to    that  powerful  county.       Ghent    submitted   itself   to 

the  Duke  of  Bur-  x  ^ 

gundy,  1384.         that  prince  in  the  following  year,  and  preserved  all  its 
franchises. 

Hostilities  commenced,  during  that  year,  between  France  and 
England.  Charles  sent  an  army  into  Scotland,  under  the  command  of 
John  of  Vienna,  admiral  of  France;  it  disembarked  near  Edinburgh, 
which  then  barely  contained  four  hundred  houses  of  a  rough  appear- 
ance. Another  army  marched  into  Castile  in  order  to  oppose  John 
of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  uncle  of  Richard  II. ,  and  claimant 
of  the  crown  of  that  kingdom ;  lastly,  Charles  himself,  and  his 
uncles,  made  arrangements  for  a  descent  upon  England, 
descent  upon         Immense   preparations   were    ordered ;    in    Flanders    a 

England;  im- 

meuse  prepara-      formidable  army  assembled,  of  which  twenty  thousand 

tions,  1386.  . 

knights    and   as    many   archers    formed    the    principal 
force  ;  fifteen  hundred  vessels  had  to  serve  for  transport.      It  was 


1380-1422]  EEVEESES    OP   THE    FEENCH    AEMY.  271 

desired  that  a  town  should  be  ready  to  receive  the  army  when  it 
disembarked;   Olivier   de   Clisson,   the   Constable,   caused  one  to  be 
constructed,    of  three  thousand  paces  in  diameter,  in  the  forests  of 
Brittany ;  it  was  capable  of  being  taken  to  pieces,  and  would  then 
form  the  cargo  of  seventy- two  vessels.       This    enormous  armament 
met  at  the  port  of  Ecluse.     But  the  King  forgot  himself  in  the  midst 
of  his  fetes.     He  started,  but  pleasures  retarded  his  march.     He  only 
came  to  the  place  of  meeting  at  the  end  of  November,  and  the  Duke 
of  Berry  caused  him  to  wait  for  a  still  longer  period.     On  arriving, 
he  dissuaded  Charles   from   the    expedition ;  the    King   gave    it  up, 
disbanded  the  army,  and  abandoned  the  supplies  to  the  Disbandi  „ot 
pillage  of  the  chiefs.     Three  millions  of  livres  were  thus  the  army- 
lost,  without  profit  to  the  nation  and   without  profit  to   the  King. 
The  French  army  sent  to  the  succour  of  the  Scotch  against  England 
was  beaten.      That  which  fought  in  Castile  was  not  more 
fortunate  ;    and  shame  was  the    only  fruit  of  so   many  French  in  Scot- 
ambitious   projects.      Two   years   later,   Charles,  always  and  in  Guiidre, ' 
enamoured  of  war,  and  directed  by  his  uncles,  sustained 
the  Duke  of  Brabant,  and  made  war  for  him,  without  success,  against 
the  Duke  of  Guiidre.     Harassed  and  pursued  by  German  marauders, 
his    army    returned     to     France    in    distress    and    burdened    with 
humiliations. 

The  King  at  length  opened  his  eyes ;  he  attended  to  the  ancient 
counsellors  of  his  father ;  they,  and  amongst  others,  Bureau  de  la 
Riviere,  Jean  de  Noviant,  and  the  Cardinal  Bishop  of  Laon,  Pierre 
Montargis,  showed  him  that  the  finances  were  plundered,  justice 
unknown,  public  safety  without  guarantee,  instruction  of  the  young 
abandoned,  the  roads,  the  fortified  places,  and  the  arsenals  falling  into 
ruins  for  want  of  being  repaired  ;  above  all,  they  pointed  out  the  general 
frightful  state  of  disorder,  produced  by  the  rapacity  of  the  princes  and 
the  nobles,  to  which  they  attributed,  with  justice,  so  many  misfortunes. 
Charles  permitted  himself  to  be  convinced,  and  in  a  great  council, 
where  the  Cardinal  of  Laon  requested  him  to  exercise  the  royal  power 
at  once,  without  participation,  he  signified  to  his  uncles  that  he  alone 
would  govern.  This  unexpected  declaration  announced  a  happy 
revolution  for  the  people  ;  but  a  few  days  afterwards  a  sinister  event 
struck  every  heart  with  fear  :  the  Cardinal  of  Laon  died  from  poison. 


272  THE    KING    EULES    ALONE.  [Book  II.   CHAP.  V. 

The  Duke  of  Burgundy  immediately  left  for  Dijon,  and  the  Duke  of 
Berry,  already  the  murderer  of  the  Count  of  Flanders,  retired  into 
Languedoc. 

After  having  borne  the  yoke  of  his  uncles,  of  which  one  alone,  the 
„,.   v.  Duke  of  Bourbon,   deserves   some   esteem,   Charles   VI. 

llie  Kinggoverns  '  ' 

by  himself,  1389.  foo^  wise  measures  in  the  interests  of  the  people.  He 
would  have  done  much  more  in  the  same  direction  if  he  had  had 
more  knowledge,  and  less  taste  for  pleasure.  Bureau  de  la  Riviere, 
Lamercier,  the  Lord  of  ISToviant,  Le  Begue  de  Yilaine,  all  honourably 
known  under  the  preceding  reign,  formed  the  royal  council,  which 
was  directed  by  Olivier  de  Clisson.  Soon  a  crowd  of  officers,  avari- 
cious despoilers  of  the  people,  were  destitute.  The  irritated  princes 
designated  under  the  contemptuous  nickname  of  marmousets  (little 
monkeys),  ov petites  gens    (little  women),  the  members 

Government  of  .  ,1 

the  Marmousets,   oi  the  new  government,    which    the     nation    received 

1389.  .  & 

with  favour  and  hope. 
Charles  also  gave  his  attention  to  the  extinction  of  the  Grand 
Schism ;  but  neither  of  the  two  Popes  would  show  himself  disposed 
to  sacrifice  his  pretensions  or  his  rights  to  the  interests  of 
Christianity ;  the  efforts  of  the  King  in  this  respect  were  powerless. 
He  turned  his  attention  towards  the  interior  of  the  kingdom,  and 
undertook  a  journey  to  the  south  of  France.  Fetes  awaited  him  in 
all  the  towns  ;  but  the  groans  of  the  people  reached  him  in  the  midst 
of   his    licentious  pleasures.     He    saw  Languedoc    laid  waste ;    the 

frightful  misery  of  that  beautiful  province  attested  to 
joimiegUofdthe  ^e  barbarity  of  the  Duke  of  Berry,  his  guardian. 
«iatgprovinfe)  Betizac,  the  minister  of  his  extortions,  was  arrested  by 
lo89'  order  of  the  King.     A  general  cry  was  raised  against 

him ;  the  lay  judges,  however,  dared  not  condemn  him,  and 
sentence  of  death  was  only  obtained  by  denouncing  him  in  the 
Church  as  a  heretic.     Charles  dismissed  the  Duke  of  Berry,  his  uncle, 

and   afterwards  freed  the  province  from    the    brigands 

who  infested  it.  Lastly,  interesting  himself  in  the 
progress  of  the  morality  of  the  people  and  in  military  instruction,  he 
closed  the  gaming-houses,  and  opened  everywhere  shooting-grounds 
for  the  bow  and  the  crossbow.  These  happy  omens  of  a  better 
future  were  of  short  duration.     The  Consbable  de  Clisson,  chief  of  the 


1380-1422]  MADNESS    OF   CHAELFS    YI.  273 

Marmousets,   in  going  out  from  the  royal  hotel  of  Saint  Paul,  was 
attacked  and  struck  with  many  blows  by  brigands  in  the  Attem  ted 
pay  of  Montfort,  Duke  of  Brittany,  his  mortal  enemy.   Jheaconstab?e0f 
Clisson  did  not  die  from  his  wounds,  and  the  King,  in   De  cllsson' 1393- 
a,  fury,  swore  to  avenge  him.     He  commanded  the  Duke  to  deliver  up 
Craon,  the  chief  of  the  assassins,  who  had  taken  refuge  with  him  ; 
Montfort  refused,  and  Charles  marched  into  Brittany  with  an  army. 
He  went  out  from  Mans,  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  in  the  month  of 
July,  in  the  year  1392,  and  passed  through  a  forest,  when  a  man  in 
delirium  rushed  before  the  King,  seized  the  reins  of  his  horse,  and 
said:  "  O  King!  go   not  further  forward ;  you  are  betrayed ! "     The 
guards  removed  the  man ;  the  King  kept   silent  and  continued  his 
inarch,  but  the  words  had  taken  possession  of  him.     For  a  long  time 
previously  his  excesses  had  shaken  his  brain.     Suddenly,  his  lance, 
which  was  carried  by  one  of  his  pages,  struck  against  the  helmet  of 
his  squire.     At  this  noise  Charles  shuddered ;  he  turned  towards  the 
place,  and  cried  out,  "lam  betrayed!"    Then  forcing  his   Ch  ri    VI 
horse  into  a  gallop,  he  rushed  sword  in  hand  upon  his  becomes  mad- 
officers,  and  killed  those  whom  he  could  reach  :  he  was  mad. 

Then  commenced  the  third  and  fatal  epoch  of  that  disastrous  reign. 
The    faction    of   the    dukes  again   seized   power  :    the   „    ..      .,, 

°  r  '  Faction  of  the 

Duke  of  Burgundy  took  possession  of  the  right  of  the  Princes-  Anarchy. 
royal  signature  and  exercised  sole  authority;  the  army  which 
marched  into  Brittany  was  dissolved  ;  the  council  of  the  King  was 
broken  up ;  all  his  ministers  were  prosecuted  and  thrown  into 
dungeons  ;  the  Constable  took  flight,  and  retired  into  Brittany,  where 
he  recommenced  the  war  against  Montfort.  The  Parliament  was 
subservient  to  the  passions  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy ;  it  banished 
the  Constable  as  a  traitor,  and  condemned  him  to  pay  a  fine  of  a 
hundred  thousand  silver  marks.  The  Jews,  wisely  taken  care  of 
by  the  late  monarch,  always  offered  great  resources  to  the  state  ; 
but  being  creditors  of  the  nobles  and  charged  with  maledictions 
by  the  clergy,  they  were  driven  away.  Worse  than  all,  the  princes 
caused  the  shooting-grounds  for  the  crossbow  to  be  closed,  and 
opened  the  gambling-houses,  well  knowing  that  when  one  wishes 
to  tyrannize  over  a  people  it  is  necessary  to  disarm  it  and  corrupt 
it.     Such  were  the  first  deeds  which  signalized  that  horrible  period. 

T 


274  THE    GREAT   SCHISM.  [Book  II.  CHAP.  V. 

Soon  after  frightful  dissensions  "broke  out  among  the  princes  them- 
selves. 

No  fundamental  law  existed  which  could  regulate  the  future  of  the 
monarchy  and  decide  between  so  many  rival  pretensions.  The  fate 
of  the  state  was  then  abandoned  to  a  royal  council,*  which  was 
ruled  by  the  uncles  of  the  King,  whose  barbarous  avidity  was  too 
well  known;  by  his  wife,  the  Queen  Isabeau  of  Bavaria,  whom  the 
people  called  Lady  Venus  {Dame  Venus),  a  frivolous  and  avaricious 
princess,  passionately  fond  of  fetes  and  pleasure ;  and,  lastly,  by 
the  Duke  of  Orleans,  brother  of  the  King,  who  had  been  at  first 
excluded  from  the  government  by  his  uncles,  and  who  quickly 
showed  himself  their  emulator  in  despotism  and  cupidity.  Charles 
was  still  considered  to  be  -reigning ;  each  one  sought  in  turn  to 
get  possession  of  him,  and  each  one  watched  his  lucid  moments  in 
order  to  stand  well  in  power.  His  flashes  of  reason  were  still 
more  melancholy  than  his  fits  of  delirium.  Incapable  of  attending 
to  his  affairs,  or  of  having. a  will  of  his  own,  always  subservient  to 
the  dominant  party,  he  appeared  to  employ  his  few  glimmerings  of 
reason  only  in  sanctioning  the  most  tyrannical  acts  and  the  most 
odious  abuses.  It  was  in  this  manner  that  the  kingdom  of  France 
was  governed  during  twenty-eight  years. 

The  malady  of  the  King  was  attributed  to  enchantment ;  the  princes 
and  the  nobles  profited  by  this  to  strike  those  whom  they  wanted  to 
put  out  of  the  way.  Valentina  of  Milan,  wife  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans, 
was  herself  accused  of  sorcery,  and  taken  away,  under  that  pretext, 
from  Charles,  whose  confidence  she  had  gained. 

Nevertheless,  the  unfortunate  Charles  VI.  attributed  his  disease  to 

the  schism  which   desolated  Christianity,  and  believed 

Great  Schism  of     himself  punished  by  Heaven  for  having  neglected  to 

the  East.     State  ,  .  ...  T 

of  Europe  and  of   extinguish  it.     Tue  inflexible  Pierre  de  Luna,  who  took 

France. 

the    name    of   Benedict  XIII.,  had  replaced    the    anti- 

*  This  council,  besides  tlie  Queen,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  Dukes  of  Berry,  of 
Burgundy,  and  of  Bourbon,  was  composed  of  Charles  III.,  King  of  Navarre,  and  of 
his  brother,  the  Count  of  Mortain  ;  of  three  princes  of  the  branch  of  Bourbon,  of 
the  Duke  of  Brittany,  and  of  the  Count  of  Alengon.  In  1400,  the  Duke  of  Anjou, 
Louis  II.,  driven  from  Naples,  sat  there  with  the  title  of  King  of  Sicily;  and  in 
1404  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  John  the  Fearless,  caused  his  two  brothers  to  be 
admitted. 


1380-1422]  BATTLE    OF   NICOPOLIS.  275 

pope  Clement  VII.  In  vain  the  King  had  recourse  to  prayers  and 
to  force  in  order  to  urge  him  and  the  legitimately  elected  Pope, 
Boniface  IX.,  to  a  mutual  cession.  The  obstinate  Pierre  de  Luna 
resisted  the  soldiers  who  besieged  him  in  his  palace  of  Avignon,  as 
he  had  resisted  the  wishes  of  the  King,  of  the  Sorbonne,  and  of  the 
clergy.  To  so  many  scandals  was  added  an  invasion  of  Europe  by 
the  Turks  almost  as  formidable  as  that  under  Abderame ;  the  Greek 
empire  and  Hungary  were  invaded,  and  the  ferocious  Sultan  Bajazet 
boasted  that  he  would  lead  his  horse  to  eat  oats  in  Rome  upon  the 
altar  of  Saint  Peter.  Sigismund,  afterwards  Emperor,  and  then  King 
of  Hungary,  requested  assistance  from  France.  A  brilliant  army,  the 
chosen  of  the  youth  of  Prance,  set  out  under  the  orders  of  the 
Count  of  Nevers,  eldest  son  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy ;  they  crossed 
the  Danube  and  besieged  ISTicopolis,  in  Bulgaria ;  but  under  the  walls 
of  that  town  the   Christian  army  was  exterminated  by   „  ...     .  .... 

«/  J      Battle  of   Nicc- 

Bajazet,   and   the   conqueror  only   spared    the    lives   of  pohs'  13S8- 
twenty   princes   and   high   nobles,    for   whom   he   hoped    to   receive 
immense  ransoms  :    that  of  the  Count  of  ISTevers  was  two  hundred 
thousand  crowns,  and  the  people  of  Burgundy  paid  it. 

The  principal  states  of  Europe  were  then  the  prey  to  anarchy  or 
civil  war ;  but  the  unskilful  chiefs  who  then  governed  Prance  did  not 
know  how  to  profit  by  this  favourable  circumstance  so  as  to  maintain 
peace,  then  so  necessary  for  the  kingdom.  England  had  accom- 
plished a  revolution  by  breaking  the  absolute  power  of  Richard  II. 
Deposed  by  the  Parliament,  that  monarch  was  assassinated;  Here- 
ford, Duke  of  Lancaster,*  cousin  of  Richard,  and  proscribed  by 
him,  reigned  in  his  place  under  the  name  of  Henry  IV.,  and  struggled 
against  rebellions  which  sprung  up  incessantly.  It  was  the  in- 
terest of  the  council  of  the  King  of  Prance  to  keep  well  with  him j 
but  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  whose  influence  increased  every 

-.  ,       '  . ..         ,  .  ,         ,        ,,      .  ,.  Administration 

day,  was  bent  upon  exciting  Jus  anger  by  deadly  insults  :    of  the  Duke  of 

->  •    i     p        Orleans. 

he  broke  the  truce,    and   let   loose   the   most   frightful 
calamities  upon  the  kingdom.. 

This  prince,  after  the  death  of  his  uncle  Philip  the  Bold,  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  came  up  in  1404,  and  exercised,  without  curb,  an  absolute 

*  The  father  of  Hereford  was  the  third  son  of  King  Edward  III.  Richard  II.  was 
the  son  of  the  eldest,  the  celebrated  Black  Prince. 

T   2 


276  ASSASSINATION   OF   THE    DUKE    OF    ORLEANS.    [Book  II.   Chap.  V. 

power,  and  decreed  an  enormous  tax,  of  which  he  divided  the  produce 
with  the  Queen.  The  misery  of  the  people  became  intolerable.  The 
law  of  taxation  was  exercised  pitilessly  upon  the  cottages,  and  even 
upon  the  hospitals  ;  the  poor  and  the  sick  were  violently  despoiled  by 
all  the  officers  of  the  nobles.  This  law  was  at  last  suspended  for  four 
years  by  those  who  had  most  abused  it.  The  princes  dissipated  the 
money  of  the  treasury  in  fetes  and  orgies ;  while  the  unfortunate  King*, 
deserted  by  all,  deprived  of  attention,  devoured  by  vermin,  and  often 
famished,  alone  understood  the  evils  of  the  people,  because  he  partook 
of  them  himself,  and  compassionated  the  sufferings  which  he  was 
unable  to  soothe. 

The    Duke  of  Orleans  soon  met  with  a    formidable   rival    in    the 

new  Duke  of  Burgundy,  the  same  John,  Count  of  ISTevers, 

between  the  who   was    conquered  at  Mcopolis,  and  whose    audacity 

Dukes  of  .  .  l'li 

Orleans  and  in  that  deplorable  expedition  had  bestowed  on  him  the 

surname  of  John  the  Fearless,  a  vindictive,  cruel, 
and  ambitious  prince,  fatal  to  his  race  and  his  country.  He 
arrived  from  his  county  of  Flanders  at  the  head  of  an  army.  At 
his  approach  the  Queen  and  the  Duke  of  Orleans  retired  to  Melun ; 
but  Burgundy  seized  the  royal  princes  and  princesses,  and  guarded 
them  in  Paris,  where  he  nattered  the  popular  passions,  restored  to 
the  bourgeois  their  arms  and  their  franchises,  taken  away  since 
the  sedition  of  1382.  His  rival,  on  the  contrary,  relied  on  the 
aristocracy.  Both  of  them  assembled  troops  together,  and  civil  war 
was  on  the  point  of  breaking  out.  The  other  princes,  however, 
maintained  peace.  On  the  same  day  the  two  enemies  were  reconciled, 
embraced,  and  conversed  together.  On  the  following  day  the  start- 
ling news  was  spread  that  the  Duke  of  Orleans  was  assassinated. 
,.        .    ,.  In  the    evening;    he    went    out    from    the    hotel    of  the 

Assassination  ° 

OrieM?ui407f  Queen,  mounted  upon  a  mule,  and  followed  by  a  feeble 
escort,  when,  near  the  Barbette  gate,  a  troop  of 
brigands  threw  themselves  upon  him,  crying  out  "  To  death !  to 
death!"  and  massacred  him  in  the  middle  of  the  street.  Terror 
reigned  in  the  council,  from  which  Burgundy  was  driven  away ;  he 
saved  himself  in  the  states,  then  he  returned,  followed  by  an  army, 
and  openly  proclaimed  himself  the  murderer  of  his  enemy. 
Already  his  crime  seemed  to  be  forgotten  •  the  interesting  Valent.'na 


1380-1-122]  THE   UNDEKHAND   PEACE.  277 

of  Milan,  widow  of  the  assassinated  prince,  alone  demanded  ven- 
geance ;  she  was  obliged  to  take  to  flight.  John  the  Fearless  was 
master  in  Paris,  and  he  chose  John  Petit,  a  famous  doctor  in 
Sorbonne,  to  vindicate  his  crime  before  the  whole  court.  John 
Petit  maintained  publicly  that  the  Duke  of  Orleans  was  a  despot, 
and  that  it  was  a  duty  of  all  men  to  kill  tyrants.  "  This  dis- 
course appeared  very  strange  to  .some  of  the  nobles  and  priests," 
says  a  chronicler  of  the  period,  "but  there  was  no  one  bold  enough 
to  speak  against  it  except  in  secret."  The  murderer  only  consented 
at  a  later  period  to  demand  the  pardon  of  the  King  and  of  the 
young  princes  of  Orleans ;  peace  was  sworn  between  them  at 
Chartres,  and  the  bad  faith  of  those  who  signed  the  treaty  caused 
it  to  receive  the  name  of  the  Underhand  Peace.  That  underhand 
same  year,  1409,  saw  Genoa  rise  against  the  French,  to  eace' 
whom  it  had  been  offered  ;  the  French  were  all  driven  from  Italy. 

A  slight  calm  succeeded  these  storms.     But  soon  the  members  of 
the    council,  jealous    of  the   ever-increasing  popularity  of  the  Duke 
of  Burgundy,  and  disquieted  about  their  own  safety,  quitted  Paris, 
and   rejoined  at   Gien  the  young  princes  of   Orleans,   of  whom  the 
eldest  married  the  daughter  of  Count  Bernard   of  Armagnac.     This 
pitiless  man,  who  was   one  of  the  most  celebrated  representatives  of 
the  great  feudal  system,  became  the  chief  of  a  party  to   c.  n  War 
which  his  name  was  attached.     An   army  of  ferocious   Burgaundians.nd 
Gascons  marched  under  his  orders,  and  threatened  in-   1410' 
surgent  Paris,  where  John  the  Fearless  caressed  the  vilest  populace.*5 
Burgundy  relied  on  the  name   of  the  King,   whom  he  held  in   his 

*  The  reaction  of  1385  had  inflicted  upon  the  high  bourgeoisie  wounds  much  more 
deep  than  those  of  1359.  The  latter  had  simply  struck  at  its  political  ambition,  but 
the  former  had  impoverished,  dispersed,  and  deprived  it  of  its  lustre  and  its  hereditary 
influence.  The  town  of  Paris,  among  others,  perceived  that  it  was  declining  in  two 
ways  :  by  the  loss  of  its  municipal  franchises,  and  by  the  ruin  of  the  families  which  had 
governed  and  given  counsel  in  the  days  of  its  liberty.  This  lowering  of  the  superior 
class,  composed  of  the  first  merchants  and  the  bar  of  the  sovereign  courts,  had  caused, 
in  a  degree,  an  intermediate  class  to  rise — that  of  the  richest  of  the  men  who  exercised 
manual  professions— a  less  enlightened  class,  grosser  in  manners,  but  to  whom,  however, 
the  force  of  circumstances  gave  influence  in  the  affairs  of  the  city.  From  thence  came 
the  character  of  uncurbed  political  power,  which  showed  itself  suddenly  in  the  Parisian 
population  when,  in  the  year  1412,  having  recovered  its  franchises  and  its  privileges, 
it  was  summoned  by  the  communes  to  play  a  political  part.  —A  ugustin  Thierry  :  Essai 
suv  VHistoire  du  Tiers-Etat,  chap.  iii. 


2/8  CONVOCATION   OF   THE    STATES-GENERAL.        [Book  II.   Chap.  V. 

power,  and  armed  in  the  capital  a  corps  of  one  hundred  young 
butchers  or  horse-knackers,  who,  from  John  Caboche,  their  chief,  took 
the  name  of  CabocJiiens.  A  frightful  war,  interrupted  by  truces 
violated  on  both  sides,  commenced  between  the  party  of  Armagnac 
and  that  of  Burgundy.  Both  sides  appealed  to  the  English,  and  sold 
France  to  them.  The  Armagnacs  pillaged  and  ravaged  the  environs 
of  Paris  with  unheard-of  crueltie.s,  while  the  CabocJiiens  caused  the 
capital  they  defended  to  tremble.  The  States- General,  convoked  for 
the  first  time  for  thirty  years,  were  dumb — without  courage  and 
without  strength.  The  Parliament  was  silent,  the  university  made 
itself  the  organ  of  the  populace,  and  the  butchers  made  the  laws. 
They  pillaged,  imprisoned,  and  slaughtered  with  impunity,  according 
to  their  savage  fury,  and  found  judges  to  condemn  their  victims. 

Nevertheless,  in  the  midst  of  such  an  anarchy,  the  commissioners  of 
the  town  and  of  the  university  laboured  at  the  reformation  of  the 
abuses  exposed  before  the  last  State s-General,  and  from  their  hands 
issued  a  code  of  reformed  and  wise  laws — the  first  sketch  of  French 
judicial,  administrative,  and  financial  legislation,  where  the  dominant 
idea  was  centralization,  then  so  necessary.*  Very  different  from  the 
Celebrated  r  l  cel^rated  ordinance  of  1357,  equally  dictated  by  the 
25th  May  1413 e  P°Pular  spirit,  this  one,  with  the  exception  of  the  elec- 
ofdomance  Caho-  ^on  which  it  instituted  for  judicial  offices,  respected  all 
the  attributes  of  the  royal  power.  Nevertheless,  its  prin- 
cipal clauses,  which  were  declared  inviolable,  and  presented  as  the 
fundamental  law  of  the  nation,  only  lasted  a  short  time.  The  dis- 
orders which  accompanied  the  publication  of  the  new  ordinance 
caused  it  to  be  discredited  by  honest  citizens ;  it  was  nicknamed  the 
Ordonnance  Cabocldenne.  From  that  time  it  was  condemned,  and 
three  months  later  it  was  annulled. 

The  demagogues  pursued  their  violent  course.  They  besieged  in 
his  hotel  the  Duke  of  Guienne,  Dauphin  of  France  ;  a  popular  orator, 
a  surgeon,  John  of  Troyes,  overwhelmed  him  with  reproaches  and 
threats,  and  the  favourites  of  the  prince  were  massacred.  The  King, 
always  a  slave  to  the  party  which  ruled  near   him,  approved    and 

*  This  celebrated  ordinance,  divided  into  ten  chapters,  treated  of  property,  of  money, 
of  indirect  taxation,  of  the  treasuries  during  war,  of  the  Chamber,  of  the  Exchequer,  of 
the  Parliament,  of  justice,  of  chancery,  of  the  woods  and  forests,  and  of  the  men-at-arms. 


1380-1422]  INVASION    OF    THE    ENGLISH.  279 

sanctioned  without  understanding  all  these  excesses,  which  terrified 
even  Burgundy  himself.  The  reaction  broke  out  at  last.  Tired  of 
so  many  atrocities,  the  bourgeoisie  took  up  arms,  and  shook  off  the 
yoke  of  the  horse-knackers.  The  Dauphin  was  delivered  by  them. 
He  mounted,  on  horseback,  and,  at  the  head  of  the  militia,  went 
to  the  Hotel  de  Yille,  from  which  place  he  drove  out  Caboche  and 
his  brigands.  The  counter  revolution  was  established.  Burgundy 
departed,  and  the  power  passed  to  the  Armagnacs.  The  princes 
re-entered  Paris,  and  Bang  Charles  took  up  the  oriflmmne  (the  royal 
standard  of  France),  to  make  war  against  John  the  Fearless,  whose 
instrument    he    had    been   a   short    time  before.      His   Treaty  of  Arras 

■  t->  ^  i',;i  ijT        between  Charles 

army  was    victorious.      Burgundy  submitted,  and    the   vi.  and  John 

the  Fearless, 

treaty  of  Arras    suspended  the   war,  but  not   the   exe-    1415. 
cutions  and  the  ravages. 

Henry  Y.,  King  of  England,  judged  this  a  propitious  moment  to 
descend  upon  France,  which  had  not  a  vessel  to  oppose  the  invaders. 
They  disembarked  without  obstacle  at  the  mouth  of  the  Seine,  and 
invested  Harfleur,  then  a  town  of  great  maritime  importance,  com- 
manding the  entrance  to  the  Seine,  and  one  of  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom.      France,  with   its   mad  King,   and  its  court   T       .      ,  .. 

°  '  &'  Invasion  of  the 

divided  into  hostile  factions,  was.  without  government,  Tafcin?of 
and  all  co-operation  against  a  foreign  power  was,  at  the  Harfleur« l415- 
outset,  impossible.  Harfleur,  however,  to  which  rushed  a  brave 
nobility,  was  valiantly  defended,  and  only  succumbed  after  a  month 
of  heroic  defence.  The  inhabitants  were  set  free  on  ransom,  and 
expelled  from  the  town ;  and  the  King  resolved  to  make  the  conquered 
place  a  town  altogether  English,  as  was  the  case  already  with  Calais. 
During  the  siege  his  army  had  suffered  enormous  losses,  less  by  the 
sword  than  by  disease ;  dysentery  and  fatigue  had  reduced  it  to  one- 
half,  and  of  thirty  thousand  men  that  he  had  brought  before  that 
place,  not  more  than  fifteen  thousand  remained.  This  number  was 
insufficient  to  conquer  the  kingdom ;  and,  on  the  other  side,  part  of 
the  French  army  under  the  Constable  d'Albret,  and  under  the  Dukes 
of  Orleans  and  Bourbon,  began  to  unite  together  in  Picardy.  Henry, 
placing  his  hope  in  the  slow  movement  of  a  divided  enemy,  believed 
that  he  had  time  to  reach  Calais  hj  land,  where  he  reckoned  upon 
halting  and  receiving  reinforcements. 


280  BATTLE    OF  AGINCOTJET.  [BoOK  II.   Chap.  V. 

Notwithstanding  the  careful  discipline  observed  by  the  English,  the 
population,  all  French  at  heart,  showed  themselves  hostile  in  all  direc- 
tions. They  traversed  the  country  of  Caux,  harassed  and  decimated, 
and  directed  their  course  towards  the  Somme,  which  they  crossed. 
The  French  army,  three  or  four  times  more  numerous,  awaited  them 
on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  near  to  the  village  of  Agincourt.  There 
occurred  a  battle  similar  to  those  of  Cressy  and  Poitiers.  The  armies- 
passed  the  night  opposite  to  each  other.  On  the  side  of  the  English, 
whose  peril  was  imminent,  everything,  by  order  of  the 
armies  near  to      King,  was  said  and  done  in  subdued  tones  and  in  dark- 

Agincourt,  1415. 

ness.  Amongst  the  French,  on  the  contrary,  great  fires 
were  lighted,  and  all  was  noise,  agitation,  and  confusion.  However^ 
while  the  French  thus  awaited  "the  perils  of  the  morrow,  they  sun- 
dered the  party  hatreds  which  had  for  so  long  separated  them,  and 
mutually  embraced  each  other  with  cordiality,  each  of  them  pardoning 
Battle  of  ^e  on?ences  0I*  ^ne  other.*     They  engaged  in  battle  at 

Agincourt.  break  of  day.     The  French  cavalry,  restricted  by  want 

of  space,  flung  themselves  pell-mell  upon  a  soil  moistened  by  rain,, 
and,  under  a  shower  of  arrows,  rushed  upon  the  sharp  stakes  which 
the  English  had  planted.  On  seeing  the  ranks  thus  overthrown^ 
the  English  issued  from  then'  fortified  enclosure,  and,  having  at 
their  head  King  Henry  V.,  penetrated  to  the  middle  of  the  second 
line  of  the  enemy.  The  King  of  England  had  then  run  into  great 
danger :  twenty- eight  noblemen  had  sworn  an  oath  to  join  together 
near  him,  and  strike  the  crown  from  his  head,  or  to  die  in  the  attempt, 
as  they  did.  They  nearly  pushed  forward  to  the  King,  and  one  of 
them  delivered  so  heavy  a  blow  on  his  helmet  that  he  struck  off  one  of 
the  ornaments  of  the  crown ;  but  they  were  surrounded,  overpowered 
by  numbers,  and  perished  even  to  the  last  man.  The  rearguard  of 
the  French  still  remained  intact,  but  seeing  the  first  two  ranks, 
overcome,  they  hardly  waited  for  the  shock,  but  turned  their  bridles 
and  fled.  The  battle  was  finished,  when  some  one  came  to  Henry  V., 
and  told  him  that  the  camp  was  attacked  by  a  fresh  army,  and 
Henry,  seeing  the  numerous  prisoners  that  he  had  made,  and  for 
whom  he  expected  heavy  ransoms,  ordered  that  all  the  captives 
should   be   put   to    death.     The    alarm   was   found   to   be  false,  but: 

*  Lefevre :  Saint-Henri. 


1380-1422]  PROGRESS   OF   THE    CIVIL   WAR.  281 

already  nearly  all  had  perished.  Extended  on  the  field  of  battle 
might  be  seen  ten  thousand  French,  nearly  all  nobles,  of  whom  a 
hundred  and  five  bore  standards,  and  seven  were  princes,  together 
with  the  Dukes  of  Severs,  Alencon,  and  Bar,  and  the  Constable 
d'Albret.  Amongst  the  few  surviving  prisoners  were  the  Marshal  of 
Boucicaut,  the  Counts  of  Eu,  Yen  dome,  and  Bichemont,  and  the 
Dukes  of  Bourbon  and  Orleans.  The  conqueror  King,  master  of  the 
sad  field,  cast  his  eyes  slowly  around  him,  and  having  asked  the 
name  of  a  neighbouring  chateau,  a  voice  answered,  "  Agincourt." 
"  "Well,"  said  he,  "  this  battle  will  take  the  name  of  Agincourt,  now 
and  for  ever."  *     . 

Then,  more  terribly  than  ever,  civil  war  broke  out.     The  Count  of 
Armagnac,    appointed    Constable,    reigned  in  Paris  by   Course  of  thQ 
terror  only ;    he  caused  a  multitude  of  Burgundians  to   cml  war- 
be  drowned  in  the  Seine,  in  which  river  he  forbade  the  Parisians  to 
bathe,  in  order  to  protect  the   secret  of  his  murders.     The  Queen 
Isabeau  of   Bavaria  alone  could  equal  the  authority   of  Armagnac ; 
she  was  sent  into  exile  by  her  husband  to  Tours.     Burgundy  took 
away  the  Queen  from  her  guardians,  and  proclaimed  her  regent.     A 
short  time  afterwards,  a  bourgeois  of  Paris,  named  Perinet  le  Clerc, 
delivered  [up  one  of  the  gates   of  the  capital  to  Isle- 
Adam,  an  officer  of  John  the  Fearless.     The  Burgun-    cierc  takes 

,         -,     .  -,  n  i'ii  i        Paris  from  the- 

dians   entered   into    the    town,    from   which   place   the   Burgundians, 

1418. 

Prevot  Tanneguy  -  Duchatel  carried  off  the  young 
dauphin,  Charles,  the  last  and  only  surviving  son  of  the  King,, 
enveloped  in  his  bed-clothes.  The  populace  rose  again  under  the 
leadership  of  the  executioner  Capeluche  :  they  seized  the  Count  of 
Armagnac,  with  his  partisans,  and  threw  them  into  prison.  On 
Sunday,  the  12th  of  June,  1418,  the  murderers  rushed  Massacre  of  the 
to  the  prisons  at  the  Temple,  at  Saint  Eloi,  and  the  two  Armagnacs,  ui& 
Chatelets,  and  then  the  massacre  commenced ;  on  the  following  day 
it  continued  in  the  streets  and  houses  in  the  midst  of  Paris,  and  the 
very  pigs  were  fed  on  human  flesh.  The  Constable  had  perished,  one 
of  the  first,  and  the  people  took  a  hideous  pleasure  in  cutting  from 
his  corpse  a  large  strip  of  skin,  in  order  to  represent  the  scarf  of 
the  Armagnacs.     The  Queen  Isabeau,  brought  back  by  the  Duke  of 

*  Lefevre:  Saint-Remi. 


282  THE    ENGLISH   IN    FRANCE.  [Book  II.   ChAP.  V. 

Burgundy,  made  her  triumphal  entry  into  the  town  sullied  by  so 
many  horrors,  and  took  in  hand  the  sovereign  authority.  The  faction 
of  Orleans  then  conducted  the  Dauphin  to  Poitiers,  and  recognized 
him  as  regent.  There  were  thus  in  France,  in  the  midst  of  the 
calamities  of  a  foreign  war,  two  distinct  governments  more  hostile 
to  one  another  than  the  common  enemy  which  infested  the  kingdom. 
Henry  Y.  pursued  his  ravages  into  the  heart  of  the  kingdom. 
He    had    entirely    conquered   Normandy ;    Rouen    also, 

Progress  of  the  .  ;  . 

English  in  notwithstanding  the  valour  of  its  inhabitants,  sustamed 

France. 

by  the  heroic  Alain  Blanchard,  had  fallen  into  his 
power.  The  French  princes  seemed  at  last  to  perceive  the  necessity 
of  union.  The  Dauphin  had  appointed  an  interview  with  the  Duke 
of  Burgundy  on  the  bridge  of  MOntereau  ;  the  Duke,  after  hesitating 
for  a  long  time,  presented  himself,  and,  as  he  bent  the  knee  before 

the  Dauphin,   Tanneguy-Duchatel  struck  him  with  an 

Assassination  of  m  . 

John  the  Fear-      axe  upon  the  head,  and  killed  him  before  the  eyes  of  his 

less,  1419.  r  '  J 

master.  Thus  died  by  assassination  John  the  Fearless, 
the  assassin  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  This  murder  made  peace 
impossible.  Philip  the  Grood,  the  new  Duke  of  Burgundy,  in  order 
to  avenge  his  father,  offered  the  crown  to  Henry  Y.,  and  the  guilty 
Isabeau,  unworthy  queen  and  still  more  unworthy  mother,  negotiated 
between  her  unconscious  husband  and  Henry  Y.  the  shameful  treaty 
Treat  of  °^  r^royesj  signed  in  1420,  by  which,  in  contempt  of  the 

Troyes,  1420.  rights  of  the  royal  princes  of  France,  the  crown  was 
bestowed  in  perpetuity  on  Henry  and  his  descendants.  This  treaty, 
which  could  not  come  into  effect  until  the  death  of  King  Charles  YL, 
was  immediately  sealed  by  the  marriage  of  her  daughter  to  Henry. 
The  regency  of  the  kingdom,  during  the  malady  of  the  King,  was  to 
be  entrusted  to  Henry  Y.,  with  the  title  of  regent ;  and  he  swore  that 
lie  would  maintain  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Parliament,  as  well  as  the 
rights  of  the  peers,  the  nobles,  the  cities,  towns,  and  communities  of 
France,  and  to  govern  each  kingdom  according  to  its  laws  and 
customs.  This  treaty  was  received  with  favour  by  the  Parisians, 
equally  tired  of  the  yokes  of  the  Armagnacs  and  the  Burgundians, 
states-General  anc^  was  solemnly  approved  of  by  the  shameful  States- 
cf  1420.  General,  convoked  in  the  capital  and  presided  over  by 

the  King.     But  Henry  Y.  took  upon  himself  the  task  of  destroying 


1380-1422]  COUNCIL    OF   CONSTANCE.  283 

the  new  people  whom  he  ought  to  have  governed,  and  it  was  through 
his  cruelties  that  the  heart  of  the  French  people  was  restored  to  the 
Dauphin.  That  young  man,  sixteen  years  of 'age,  was  declared  guilty 
by  the  Parliament  of  homicide  on  the  person  of  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, and  deprived  of  his  rights  to  the  throne.  He  wandered  for 
a  long  time  in  the  provinces  of  the  south,  flying  before  the  English 
arms,    over   whom  his   generals  obtained  at  Bauge,  in 

°  °  Victory  of  the 

May,  1421,  a  glorious  but  useless  victory.     The  sudden  French  at  Bauge, 
death  of  Henry  V.,   in    1422,    prepared  a  new  destiny  J^athof 
for  the  Dauphin.     Charles  VI.  died  shortly  afterwards  ;   and  of  Henry  v., 
he  had  occupied  the  throne  for  forty- two  years. 

With  this  deplorable  reign  ended  the  scandals  of  the  Great  Schism 
of   the  East.     Innocent  VII.,  then  Gregory   XII.,  had   Course  and  ena 
succeeded    in  Italy   to   Boniface    IX.      The    anti-pope,    gcMsm^the 
Benedict  XIII.,  still  lived,  and  Erance  remained  neutral   East' 
between  him  and    his  rival,   until  the   cardinals  of  the  two   courts 
united  together  in  common  agreement  and  convoked,  in    _       ,     f 
1409,  the  Council  of  Pisa,  which  deposed  Gregory  and   constSwe* 
Benedict,  and  proclaimed  Alexander  V.    Alexander  died,   1409-1418- 
and  was  replaced  by  John  XXIII.     Lastly,  the  Emperor  Sigismund 
convoked  in  1414  the  famous  Council  of  Constance,  at  which  there 
attended  with  him  many  princes  of  the  empire,  twenty-seven  ambas- 
sadors of   sovereigns,  and  a   great  number  of  prelates  and  doctors. 
The    superiority  of   the  general   councils   over  the  popes  was  there 
established   by   a    celebrated    decree ;    John    XXIII.,    convicted    of 
enormous     crimes,    was    deposed,    and     the    assembly,    in    choosing 
Martin  V.  to  succeed  him,  considered  him  the  only  legitimate  Pope. 
Gregory  XII.  had  abdicated ;  the  obstinate  Benedict  XIII.  struggled 
to  the  death,  and  entrenched  himself  in  his  fortress  of  Peniscola  in 
Spain. 

The  Council  of  Constance  condemned  the  criminal  doctrine  pro- 
fessed by  John  Petit,  the  apologist  of  the  crime  of  John  the  Fear- 
less, and  attempted  to  repair  the  immense  injury  which  the  schism 
had  inflicted  upon  the  Catholic  religion ;  but  the  spirit  of  doubt  and 
of  examination  penetrated  into  all  quarters.  Already  John  Wycliffe 
had  preached  a  reform  very  boldly  in  England,  and  his  disciples, 
called  Lollards,    multiplied  every  day.      John  Huss  and   Jerome  of 


284  RELIGIOUS   REFORMERS.  [Book  II.   Chap.  Y. 

Prague,  other  reformers,  less  bold  than  "Wycliffe,  fixed  the  attention 
of  Grermany.  The  Council  of  Constance  caused  them  to  he  burned, 
notwithstanding  the  safe  conduct  which  the  former  had  received  from 
the  Emperor ;  it  believed  that  it  could  stifle  their  heresy  by  their 
execution ;  it  deceived  itself.  The  principles  established  by  the  men 
did  not  die  with  them ;  violence  and  treachery  only  engender  indig- 
nation, hate,  and  revolt.  Soon  the  war  of  the  Hussites  broke  out, 
and  was  the  forerunning  sign  of  the  conflagration  which,  in  the 
following  century,  caused  the  face  of  the  Christian  world  to  change. 
jSTo  period  was  more  sterile  in  great  characters  and  more  fruitful 
in  scoundrels  than  the  reign  of  Charles  VI.     Some  men, 

Celebrated  men.  . 

however,    acquired   in   France  a  reputation  worthy   01 

being  transmitted  with  honour  to* posterity.     Amongst  these  were  the 

Chancellor  of  the  University,  John  Grerson,  who  distinguished  himself 

above  all  by  his  ardent  and  disinterested  zeal  for  the 
John  Gerson.  #  .  .    i       ~  m 

extinction  of  the  schism,  and  to  whom  is  attributed,  but 

without  sufficient  proof,  the  admirable  book  of  the  Imitation;  the 

Advocate- General,  John  Desmarets,  who  was  borne  to  the  scaffold  as 

an  accomplice  in  the   seditions  to  which,  on  the  contrary,   he  had 

opposed   the  authority   of   his   power;    the  magistrate   Juvenal  des 

Juvenal  des  Ursins,   father  of   the  historian  of  that  name,  intrepid 

Ursms'  in  braving  the  fury  of  the  nobles  and  in  repressing  their 

criminal  violences  ;  lastly,  the   great  citizen,  Alain  Blanchard,  who 

immortalized   himself   in    the    defence   of   Rouen,    and 

Alain  Blanchard. 

r  y  -  lost  his  life  in  his  devotion  to  France  and  to  his  King. 

The  nation  at  this  epoch  did  not  honour  itself  by  any  useful  inven- 
tion ;  but  at  that  time  sprang  into  existence,  amid  streams  of  blood, 
playing  cards  and  the  dramatic  farces  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Passion 
and  the  lawyers'  clerks. 

The  gloomy  picture  of  the  crimes  and  misfortunes  of  France  during 
Moral  conside-  ^~e  hundred  and  fifty  years  from  the  death  of  Saint 
rations.  Louis  to  that  of  Charles  YL,  fill  the  soul  with  horror 

and  fear.  It  is,  notwithstanding,  fruitful  in  grave  proofs  that  the 
frightful  calamities  had  been  drawn  down  upon  their  authors,  whether 
they  were  monarchs,  princes,  nobles,  bourgeois,  or  peasants,  on 
account  of  so  many  acts  of  violence.  The  cruelty,  the  frauds,  and 
the   brutal   despotism   of   some  of   the   successors   of    Saint   Louis^ 


1380-1422]  GENERAL   CONSIDERATIONS.  28-5 

.aroused  the  wars  which  desolated  their  kingdom  and  their  lives ;  the 
nobility,  assassins  and  assassinated,  expiated  with  their  own  blood 
that  which  they  had  shed  ;  lastly,  the  violence  of  the  bourgeoisie  as 
soon  as  it  became  powerful,  the  refusal  of  all  personal  sacrifice,  and 
the  horrible  excesses  of  the  Jacquerie,  dishonoured  and  ruined  the 
popular  cause  for  a  lengthened  period  of  time.  Centuries  of  mis- 
fortune taught  the  nation  that  which  we  ought  never  to  forget;  it 
taught  them  that  a  people  cannot  enjoy  in  peace  the  advantages  of 
a  great,  strong,  and  free  nation,  until  it  knows  how  to  understand 
those  of  union,  of  obedience  to  the  laws,  and  of  the  sacrifice  of 
particular  interests  to  the  general  interest  of  the  country. 


286  CHARLES    YIL  [BOOK  III.  CeAJ>  I. 


BOOK    III. 

FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLES  VI.  TO  THAT  OF 

LOUIS  XII. 

Awaking  of  the  Nation. — Expulsion  of  the  English. — End  of  the 
Hundred  Years  War.  —  Extinction  of  the  Great  Feudal 
System*  in  France  by  the  Union  of  the  Duchies  of  Burgundy 
and  Brittany  with  the  Crown. — First  Wars  with  Italy. 

1422-1515. 


CHAPTER  I. 

REIGN    OF    CHARLES   VII. 

1422-1461. 
The  Kings  of  France,  while  becoming  more  absolute,  had  lost,  by 
f  Fr  nc      ^e  a^nse  °f  power,  that  which  had  in  great  part  made 
of  Charles  vn1     their  fortunes  from  the  reign  of  Louis  the  Big  to  that 
U22'  of  Saint  Louis.     The  people,  crushed  by  taxes  arbitrarily 

established,  pillaged  by  mercenary  soldiers,  and  oppressed  by  the 
nobles,  who  constituted  the  principal  force  of  the  armies,  ceased  to 
look  upon  the  cause  of  their  sovereigns  as  their  own,  and  withdrew 
from  them  their  confidence  and  their  love.  This  disaffection  of  the 
people  showed  itself  in  numerous  revolts,  and  aided  powerfully  the 
rapid  success  of  the  foreigners  in  the  heart  of  the  country.  The 
scourges  which  desolated  France  during  a  century  and  a  half,  and 
which  shook  the  monarchy,  were  only  suspended  in  the  course  of 
the  last  years  of  Charles  V.  ;  we  have  seen  how  they  reappeared 
more  terribly  than  ever  during  the  long  reign  of  his  unfortunate 
son.  At  the  end  of  that  period  the  monarchy  only  existed  in  name, 
and  appeared  to  be  sinking  in  general  dissolution.  God,  however, 
had  better  destinies  in  reserve  for  France. 


1422-1461]  STATE   OP  FRANCE.  28? 

A  central,  energetic,  and  powerful  authority  was  alone  capable 
of  striking  the  final  blow  at  the  feudal  arrnv ;  of  maintaining  in  the 
body  of  the  nation,  in  a  durable  manner,  so  many  persons  of  different 
origin  as  then  composed  the  kingdom ;  and  of  uniting  to  the  crown 
the  states  which,  between  the  Rhine,  the  Pyrenees,  and  the  ocean, 
were  still  separated  from  it.  The  English  themselves  assisted  in 
re-establishing  the  fortunes  of  France.  The  intolerable  oppressions 
which  they  caused  to  be  laid  upon  the  vanquished,  and  the  barbarity 
of  their  exterminating  government,  united  against  them  all  the 
oppressed.  A  national  sentiment  was  thus  created  amongst  those 
who  were  united  nnder  a  common  misfortune,  and  made  the  people 
turn  anew  with  hope  to  the  prince  who  had  been  proscribed  by  their 
tyrants,  and  who  alone  could  rescue  them  from  a  hateful  yoke. 
That  prince  was  Charles  VII.  From  his  accession  to  the  throne 
till  the  total  extinction  of  the  feudal  power,  during  a  century, 
the  destinies  of  the  royal  power  appeared  to  be  newly  connected  in 
an  intimate  manner  with  those  of  the  nation ;  and  both  went  on 
increasing  in  strength  and  in  power. 

A  blind  chance  does  not  preside  over  the  destinies  of  the  world. 
History,  which  has  shown  to  us  the  progress — very  slow,  it  is  true, 
but  real — of  humanity  towards  a  better  order  of  things,  proves 
sufficiently  the  existence  of  a  providential  action  in  the  midst  of  the 
innumerable  calamities  which  we  excite  by  our  passions  and  our 
vices.  This  action  of  divine  goodness  becomes  apparent  when  it 
assures  the  triumph  of  an  apparently  despairing  cause,  and  when 
the  means  employed  to  reach  the  end  seem  altogether  deprived  of 
power  and  strength.  Such  was  the  principal  sign  in  which  must 
be  recognized  the  assistance  that  God  deigned  to  lend  to  France 
after  the  signature  of  the  fatal  treaty  of  Troyes.  On  the  side  of 
the  foreigners  there  had  lately  been  seen  a  victorious  monarch,  in 
the  prime  of  life,  master  of  two-thirds  of  the  kingdom,  strong  in 
the  assent  of  the  States- General,  and  in  his  close  union  with  the  King 
and  Queen  of  France.  However,  Henry  was  no  more ;  but  still 
among  the  English  party  might  be  reckoned  the  greater  part  of  the 
French  princes,  also  the  great  vassals  of  the  crown,  the  capital,  and 
a  numerous  and  well-organized  army.  On  the  other  side  there  was 
to   be    seen   a   turbulent    nobility,   undisciplined   captains,   bands    of 


288  THE  EIVAL  KING.  [Book  III.  Chap.  I. 

ferocious  adventurers,  who  sought  less  to  save  the  kingdom  than  to 
divide  its  spoils  among§t  them;  lastly,  a  young  prince  of  eighteen 
years,  without  strength  of  mind  or  character,  stained  with  the 
suspicion  of  a  great  crime,  disgraced  by  a  decree  of  Parliament, 
abandoned  by  his  father  and  his  mother,  and  only  reigning  nominally 
over  some  provinces  which  were  a  prey  to  anarchy.  But  the  safety 
and  the  destiny  of  France  were  attached  to  the  triumph  of  his  cause, 
and  God  certified  it  in  a  few  years,  contrary  to  all  human  fore- 
sight. :  I  *> 
Catherine  of  Valois,  daughter  of  Charles  VI.  and  wife  of  Henry  V., 
had  brought  into  the  world  a  son  who  succeeded  his  father  in  1422, 
under  the  name  of  Henry  VI.  ;  he  was  then  scarcely  a  year  old,  and 
was  crowned  at  Paris  as  King  of  France  and  England. 

Henry  VI., 

King  of  France,    The    Duke    of   Bedford,    eldest   brother   of    Henrv   V., 

1432.  \  J 

governed  the  kingdom  in  the  name  of  his  nephew, 
and  knew  how  to  attach  to  himself  the  two  greatest  vassals  of  the 
crown,  John  VI.,  Duke  of  Brittany,  and  Philip  the  Good,  Duke  of 
Burgundy.  The  latter,  in  order  to  avenge  more  surely  his  father's 
assassination,  bestowed  the  hand  of  his  sister  on  the  Duke  of  Bedford, 
and  was  for  a  long  period  the  firmest  supporter  of  the  English  in 
France. 

The  Dauphin  Charles,   then   nineteen   years    old,   had   taken,   im- 
Sit  ati  n  f  mediately  after  the  death  of  his  father,  the  title  of  King, 

Charles  vii.  an(j  resided  a£  Bourges  with  the  Queen,  Marie  of  Anjou, 
his  wife.  The  remains  of  the  Armagnacs,  in  the  provinces  of  the 
centre  and  of  the  south-east,  only  recognized  his  authority,  and  the 
people,  who  still  remembered  tho  frightful  excesses  of  that  party, 
hesitated  at  first  to  declare  in  favour  of  the  young  prince,  who  was 
contemptuously  designated  by  his  enemies  the  King  of  JBoarges. 
The  soldiers  of  the  army  of  Charles  were  for  the  most  part 
foreigners,  like  those  of  Henry  VI. ;  his  army  was  composed  of 
Scotch,  and  of  ferocious  Armagnacs  or  Gascons,  for  a  long  period 
subjects  of  England.  His  constable  even,  the  Count  of  Buchan,  was 
a  Scotchman;  and  the  King,  surrounded  by  savage  men,  appeared 
for  a  long  time  to  take  as  little  interest  as  the  people  themselves  in 
his  own  cause. 

The  battle  of   Crevant-sur-Tonne,  lost  by  his  troops,  and  that  of 


1422-1461]  THE    CONSTABLE    RICHEMONT.  289 

Verneuil,  still  more  disastrous,  where  the  Constable  perished,  caused 
Charles  VII.  to  perceive  the  necessity  of  having  power-   Battles  of 
ful  supporters.      He  fixed  his   choice  upon  the  famous   Yonne,  and  of 

x  x  .  Verneuil,  1424. 

Richemont,  brother  of  the  Duke  of  Brittany,  and 
offered  him  the  sword  of  the  Constable.  Richemont  only  accepted  on 
condition  that  the  Armagnacs  should  be  driven  from  the  court,  and 
that  Charles  should  separate  himself  from  the  assassins  of  John 
the  Fearless.  Tanneguy-Duchatel,  the  most  powerful  and  the  most 
guilty,  left  the  first,  and  hastened  by  his  voluntary  exile  the  useful 
bringing  together  of  Richemont  and  the  King.  Freed  from  the 
faction  which  had  held  him  in  guardianship,  Charles  ceased  to  be 
looked  upon  as  the  instrument  of  a  hateful  party,  and  appeared  to 
reign  himself ;  but  years  had  still  to  roll  away  before  he  was  King 
in  reality,  and  worthy  of  the  devotion  of  his  people.  Character  f  th 
Without  character  and  without  will,  incapable  of  any  KiD£- 
serious  occupation,  indolent  and  voluptuous,  he  was  the  plaything 
and  the  slave  of  his  favourites,  or  of  all  those  who  obtained  an 
ascendancy  over  his  mind ;  and  he  forgot  them  as  soon  as  chance  or 
violence  had  separated  them  from  him.  He  received  successively  from 
the  hand  of  the  Constable  two  favourites,  the  Lords  of  Griac  and  of 
Beaulieu :  to  each  in  turn  he  granted  a  blind  and  foolish  confidence, 
and  saw  them  without  anger,  one  after  the  other,  assassinated  by 
that  same  Richemont  who  had  placed  them  near  him, 

Violent  acts  of 

but  to  whom  the  confidence  bestowed   on  them  by  the   the  Constable 

Richemont. 

King  had  given  umbrage.  Richemont  had  given  a 
third  favourite  to  the  King,  the  Lord  of  La  Tremouille ;  but  he  also 
met  with  the  fate  of  his  predecessors,  through  getting  out  of  favour 
with  the  Constable ;  and  Charles  saw  with  indifference  his  court  and 
his  nobility  divided  between  the  two  rivals.  He  then  lingered  at 
Chinon  in  effeminacy  and  pleasures,  while  his  party  was  weakening 
every  day,  and  discord  reigned  in  his  camp.  Already  the  English 
threatened  Orleans,  the  most  important  of  the  towns  still  remaining 
faithful ;  they  had  made  themselves  masters  of  the  head  of  the  bridge 
and  the  outworks,  notwithstanding  the  bravery  of  La  Hire,  of 
Xaintrailles,  of  Gaucourt,  and  above  all  of  the  famous  Dunois, 
bastard  son  of  Orleans,  the  last  and  powerless  defenders  of  the 
French  monarchy.     Lastly,  the  defeat  of  the  French  and  Scotch  at 

u 


290  JOAN  OF  ARC.  [Book  III.  Chap.  I. 

the  battle  of  the  Herrings  *  appeared  to  give  the  finishing  stroke  to 
Battle  of  the         ^ie  "^  °^  ^at  ^0wnj  an(^  ^°  inflict  a  mortal  wound  upon 

Herrings,  1429.        ^e  cailse  0f    Charles. 

But  in  proportion  with  the  new  triumphs  gained  by  the  English, 
their  yoke  became  more  intolerable,  and  developed  in  the  kingdom 
a  national  sentiment  capable  of  working  prodigies  if  ifc  were  set  in 
action  by  hope  and  confidence.  Religious  enthusiasm  mingled  itself 
in  the  heart  of  the  French,  who,  seeing  in  their  misfortunes  the 
chastisements  of  an  avenging  God,  awaited  the  end  of  their  sufferings 
from  the  divinity  alone. 

Such  were,  in  1429,  the  sentiments  of  the  mass  of  the  nation, 
when  a  young  girl  of  twenty  years,  named  Joan  of  Arc, 

Vocation  of 

Joan  of  Arc,  born  of  poor  parents  in  the  village  of  Domremy,  upon 
the  frontiers  of  Lorraine,  announced  that  she  had  re- 
ceived from  Grod  a  mission  to  cause  the  siege  of  Orleans  to  be  raised 
and  to  conduct  the  King  to  Reims  to  his  coronation.  She  was 
beautiful,  endowed  with  a  noble  and  pure  soul,  and  united  much 
reason  and  humility  to  a  great  religious  fervour.  She  was  assured 
that  interior  voices  had  revealed  to  her  the  heavenly  will,  and 
Joan  of  Ar  t  requested  to  be  led  to  Chinon  to  Charles  VII.  Brought 
Chmon.  -^q  ^g  preserLCej  sne  distinguished  him,  it  is  said,  upon 

the  spot,  among  all  his  courtiers,  and  kneeling  before  him,  she 
repeated  to  him  the  order  which  she  declared  that  she  had  re- 
ceived from  heaven.  Charles,  whom  she  still  called  the  Dauphin, 
caused  her  to  be  examined  by  prelates  and  matrons,  in  order  to 
assure  himself  of  the  truth  of  her  inspiration,  and,  on  their  report, 
placing  faith  in  her  word,  he  caused  a  complete  suit  of  armour  to 
be  given  to  her.  She  wished  to  have  a  white  standard  sprinkled 
with  fleurs-de-lis,  and  declared  that  in  digging  into  the  earth  at 
Saint  Catharine  de  Fierbois,  near  the  principal  altar,  a  sword 
bearing  upon  its  blade  five  particular  signs  would  be  found.  It  was 
found  there,  and  she  made  the  sword  her  own.  She  did  not  wish  to 
use  it  so  as  to  kill  any  one,  and  she  often  said  that  although  she 
loved  her  sword,  she  loved  her  standard  forty  times  more.     "  I  have 

*  This  battle  received  its  name  from  a  convoy  of  salt  fish  sent  "by  the  English  to  those 
who  were  besieging  Orleans.  The  French  artillery  broke  open  the  casks  in  which  the 
fish  were  contained,  and  the  field  of  battle  was  strewed  with  herrings. 


1422-1461]  HEE  EXPLOITS.  291 

seen  her,"  wrote  one  who  lived  at  that  period,  u  armed  at  all  points, 
&nd  all  in  white  except  the  head,  mount  npon  a  great  black  steed,  and 
then  turn  to  the  door  of  the  church,  which  was  near,  saying  in  a  femi- 
nine voice — '  Yon,  the  priests  and  people  of  the  chnrch,  canse  pro- 
cessions to  be  made,  and  offer  np  prayers.'  Then  she  turned  again 
to  her  path,  saying,  '  Press  forward,  press  forward /  '  And  she  had 
her  standard  folded  np,  and  carried  by  a  handsome  page,  and  bore 
her  little  battle-axe  in  her  hand."  *  The  report  soon  spread  among 
the  two  armies  that  a  being  endowed  with  supernatural  power  had 
come  to  fight  for  Charles  VII.  ;  and  whilst  the  French  saw  divine 
intervention  in  this  prodigy,  the  English,  stricken  with  terror,  only 
wished  to  recognize  in  it  the  influence  of  the  demon. 

For  her  first  exploit  Joan,  notwithstanding  the  strict  blockade, 
conducted  into  Orleans  an  army  which  had  left  Blois.  Orleans  delivered 
"In  five  days,"  said  she,  "Orleans  will  be  free."  The  1429. 
English  had  encircled  the  town  with  formidable  fortifications  ;  almost 
all  of  these  were  carried  by  assault  by  the  besieged.  One  only 
resisted,  that  of  Tournelles,  a  veritable  citadel,  where  the  enemy  had 
concentrated  all  his  forces.  The  French  generals  had  decided  that 
they  would  wait  till  they  received  reinforcements  before  they 
commenced  the  attack,  and  signified  their  resolution  to  the  heroine. 
She  answered, — "  You  have  held  your  council,  but  the  council  of 
my  Lord  will  be  accomplished,  while  that  of  men  will  perish."  She 
carried  along  with  her  the  people  of  Orleans,  and  the  soldiery 
followed  by  impulse.  However,  after  three  hours  of  terrible  fighting, 
the  assault  was  repulsed,  and  the  retreat  sounded.  Joan  was 
wounded,  and  fell  at  the  foot  of  the  parapet,  but  she  raised  herself, 
and  going  aside  into  a  vineyard  remained  for  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  in  prayer.  Then  she  rushed  out  anew,  seized  again  her  standard, 
and  planted  it  upon  the  fortress,  and  in  an  inspired  voice  cried  out, 
"All  is  yours  !  enter  within."  Consternation  and  fear  had  seized  the 
defenders;  their  chief,  Grlasdale,  perished  with  the  elite  of  his  soldiers, 
and  the  French  penetrated  into  all  parts  of  the  conquered  fortifica- 
tion.    Joan,  at  the  head  of  the  people  and   of  the  army,  re-entered 

*  This  letter,  written  by  Guy  de  Layal,  from  the  place  which  he  held  at  the  court,  is 
one  of  the  most  precious  monuments  of  the  period,  and  one  of  the  most  perfect  models 
of  wit  and  of  chivalric  loyalty  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

V  2 


292  DEFEAT    OF    THE    ENGLISH.  [BOOK.  III.  ChAP.  L 

Orleans  in   the  evening,   to  the  sound  of  the  ringing  of  bells  and 
amid  cries  of  triumph  and  joy  from  the  delivered  city.  * 

Suffolk  and  Talbot,  the  English  generals,  had  been  witnesses  of 
this  astonishing  reverse,  without  daring  on  their  side  to  attempt 
anything  to  prevent  it.  They  held  a  council,  and  raised  the  siege 
on  the  same  night.  From  that  time  Joan,  under  the  name  of  the 
Maid  of  Orleans,  soon  became  celebrated  throughout  the  whole 
kingdom ;  France  awoke,  enthusiasm  gained  men's  hearts,  and  a 
Awaidn"-  of         crowd  of  soldiers  rushed  to  join  the  standard  of  Charles, 

while  Bedford  saw  his  English  seized  with  fear.  Places 
on  the  banks  of  the  Loire,  Jargeau,  Meun,  and  Beaugency,  were 
speedily  taken ;  everywhere  the  English  fell  back ;  at  last  Joan  and 

her  army  met  thenj  at  Patav,  in  the  plains  of  Beauce. 

Defeat  of  the  J  #  J '  r 

English  at  Patay,   La  Hire  and  Xaintrailles,  who  led  the  advance-  guard  of 

1429.  '  ° 

the  French,  immediately  charged  the  enemy  without 
permitting  them  to  entrench  themselves ;  the  latter  were  at  once; 
thrown  into  disorder,  and  the  victory  was  gained  by  the  main  body 
of  the  army.  In  vain  Talbot  surpassed  himself;  by  his  obstinacy  he 
only  rendered  his  defeat  more  sanguinary.  Joan  of  Arc  triumphed 
over  that  famous  captain ;  and  then,  as  on  other  occasions,  she 
compassionated  the  sufferings  of  the  conquered,  caused  the  succour 
of  religion  to  be  brought  to  the  wounded,  while  she  herself  bestowed 
her  pathetic  care  upon  them. 

After  this  glorious  battle,  Joan  of  Arc  went  to  find  the  King  at 

Gien,  and   coniured  him  to  march  boldly  upon  Reims, 

Joan  of  Arc  . 

conducts  the  King  there  to  cause  himself  to  be  crowned,  and  solemnly  to 

to  Reims.  * 

take  possession  of  his  kingdom.  Charles  allowed  him- 
self to  be  persuaded,  and  advanced  across  Champagne  with  his  army. 
Troyes,  situated  upon  the  road  to  Reims,  closed  its  gates.  It  was  in 
this  town  that  the  last  treaty,  so  humiliating  for  France,  had  been 
signed,  and  they  feared  the  vengeance  of  the  King.  The  besiegers 
were  short  of  provisions,  the  country  round  about  was  all  ruined,, 
everything  appeared  desperate.  The  council  of  war  wished  to  raise 
the  siege,  but  Joan  presented  herself;  the  internal  voices,  she  said,, 
had  assured  her  that  within  two  days  the  town  would  give  itself  up. 

*  A  fete  was  instituted  in  honour  of  the  raising  of  the  siege,  and  celehrated  on  the 
5  th  of  May,  every  year,  at  Orleans. 


1422-1461]  CORONATION    OF   CHARLES    VII.  293 

The  event  followed  the  prediction :  on  the  following  day  the  town 
capitulated.  Charles  VII.  went  over  the  town  in  the  grand  panoply 
of  war,  and  then  pursued  his  march.  Chalons  opened  its  gates  to 
him,  and  he  arrived  at  last  under  the  walls  of  Reims,  at  the  glorious 
end  of  his  journey.  The  Burgundian  captains  who  commanded  the 
town  evacuated  it  without  giving  battle.  Charles,  on  the  16th  of 
July,  made  his  triumphal  entry,  and  he  was  crowned  in  the  ancient 
cathedral.     The  Maid  of  Orleans  placed  herself  near  to 

Coronation  of 

the  King  and  the  principal  altar  during  the  ceremony,    Charles  vil, 
standing   erect   with   her    standard   in   her  hand.     Her 
mission  was  accomplished.* 

After  the  coronation,  Joan  embraced  the  knees  of  the  monarch,  and 
,said  to  him,  "  Gentle  King,  now  is  the  pleasure  of  God  executed.  He 
.desired  that  you  should  come  to  receive  your  coronation  worthily,  by 
showing  that  you  are  the  true  King,  and  he  to  whom  the  kingdom 
ought  to  belong.  I  have  accomplished  that  which  was  commanded 
of  me,  which  was  to  raise  the  siege  of  Orleans,  and  to  cause  the  King 
to  be  crowned.  I  would  now  wish  to  go  back  to  my  father  and 
mother,  to  take  charge  of  their  sheep  and  cattle."  These  simple  and 
touching  wishes  were  not  heard  favourably  ;  the  captains  of  Charles 
Jiad  recognized  in  Joan  their  most  powerful  auxiliary,  and  they 
prayed  that  she  would  remain  with  them.  She  consented  with  regret, 
but  showed  still  the  same  courage  in  action,  although  not  the  same 
confidence  in  herself.  She  was  wounded  at  the  unfortunate  siege  of 
Paris,  and  lastly  taken  prisoner  in  a  sortie,  whilst  heroically  defending 
Compiegne,  which  the  English  and  Burgundians  attacked  together. 
John  of  Luxembourg',  commander  of  the  siege,  sold  her 

°'  &    '  Joan  of  Arc 

to  the  English  for  ten  thousand  livres,  and  the  Regent  prisoner  of  the 

°  °  English. 

Bedford  caused   a  solemn  Te  Deum  to  be  sung  on  that 

occasion.     Then  party  spirit  exhibited  itself  in  its  most  hideous  form. 

In  the  rage  into  which  the  English   lashed   themselves    against  the 

*  The  King  recognized  the  immense  services  which  it  had  pleased  God  'to  render  to 
his  cause  through  the  feeble  hands  of  a  woman.  He  ennobled  all  the  family  of  Joan  of 
Arc  in  perpetuity,  and,  by  a  unique  but  perfectly  comprehensible  exception,  it  was  said 
that  nobility  transferred  itself  to  this  family  through  females.  Joan  obtained  a  short  time 
afterwards  the  sweetest  and  purest  of  recompenses,  by  the  royal  edict  which  exempted 
for  ever  from  the  land-tax  the  villages  of  Grreux  and  Domremy,  where  she  was  born  and 
where  she  had  passed  her  infancy. 


294  DEATH   OF  JOAN   OP  ARC.  [Book  III.   Chap.  I. 

woman  who  had  made  them  tremble,  can  be  recognized  that  merciless 
feeling,  the  resentment  of  fear  and  of  humiliated  self-respect. 

Delivered  over  to  the  Inquisition,  as  suspected  of  magic  and  sorcery, 
the  unfortunate  girl  was  shut  up  in  the  dungeons  of  Rouen,  and 
there  was  found  a  Bishop  of  Beauvais,  Pierre  Cauchon,  who,  altogether 
devoted  to  the  English  by  vengeance  and  ambition,  lent  to  their  fury 
m .  .   .  T       t     his    shameful    ministry.     The    trial    commenced :    inn- 

Trial  of  Joan  of  J 

Arc-  delities,  atrocious  threats,  and  sacrileges,  everything  was 

used  in  order  to  consummate  the  sacrifice  of  an  heroic  virgin  ;  and 
while  the  civil  power  and  the  ecclesiastical  authority  leagued 
together  to  convict  Joan  of  imposture  and  alliance  with  the  devil, 
she  opposed  to  the  subtleties  of  theology  and  the  plots  hatched  by  a 
merciless  hate,  the  inspirations  of  a  most  open  conscience,  the  lights 
of  a  righteous  and  superior  reason,  which  confounded  her  enemies 
themselves.  It  was  to  God  that  she  attributed  all  her  successes. 
The  bishop  asked  her  if  she  was  in  a  state  of  grace.  Joan  said, 
"  If  I  am  not,  God  wishes  to  put  me  into  that  state  ;  if  I  am,  then  God 
wishes  that  I  should  remain  so."  When  interrogated  as  to  her  words 
and  acts  in  the  battles,  she  answered,  "  I  said,  Go  boldly  among  the 
English;  and  I  went  myself."- — "Does  God  hate  the  English?" 
asked  the  bishop. — "  Of  the  love  or  of  the  hate  that  God  has  for  the 
English,"  she  said,  "  I  know  nothing ;  but  I  know  that,  with  the 
exception  of  those  that  die  here,  all  will  be  driven  out  of  France." — 
"  Was  her  hope  fixed  in  her  standard  or  in  herself?  "■ — "  It  is  founded 
in  our  Lord,  and  not  otherwise." — "Why  did  she  carry  the  standard 
before  the  King  to  Beims?" — "It  had  been  in  trouble,"  she  said, 
"  and  it  was  right  that  it  should  be  held  up  to  honour." 

So  much  reason  and  good  sense  did  not  affect  her  judges  ;  they 
had  declared  that  God  could  not  wish  Charles  VII.  to  triumph; 
after  that,  the  demon  alone  had  inspired  Joan.  They  condemned  her 
to  be  burnt  alive. 

On  the  31st  of  May,  1431,  she  was  led  to  the  place  of  execution, 

dressed  in  a  long  black  robe.    She  forgot  neither  her  King,  nor  France 

for  which  she  died  ;  she  prayed  for  them,  and  requested 

Death  of  Joan  of 

Arc  at  Rouen,       the    prayers    of   all    the   assistants,    and    pardoned  her 

enemies.     Her  youth,  her  tears,  and  the  Christian  words 

which  fell  from  her  lips,    drew   tears  even  from  English    eyes,  and 


1422-1461]  HATRED   TOWARD   THE   ENGLISH.  295 

filled  the  minds  of  her  judges  with  terror.  The  trouble  caused  by  this 
frightful  spectacle  was  such  that  the  civil  sentence  was  not  even 
pronounced.  "Lead  her  on!  Lead  her  on!"  said  the  affrighted 
bailiff  to  the  executioner.  The  soldiers  dragged  her  away  and  bound 
her  to  the  post,  the  infamous  mitre  of  the  Inquisition  was  placed  upon 
her  head,  and  then  the  flames  brightened.  "Jesus!"  she  cried,  and 
pressed  to  her  heart  a  wooden  cross ;  then  she  asked  earnestly  that  the 
crucifix  from  the  neighbouring  church  should  be  brought  to  her  ;  she 
kissed  with  fervour  the  image  of  the  Just  One  who  was  sacrificed  for 
sinners,  of  the  Man- God  who  died  for  the  salvation  of  the  world  ;  she 
invoked  his  name,  she  invoked  all  the  angels  of  Paradise,  where  the 
saints  had  promised  to  conduct  her.  Perhaps  then  she  understood  at 
last  the  true  sense  of  their  prophetic  words  :  "  Joan,  Joan,  take  all 
things  patiently,"  said  the  voices,  "and  have  no  care  for  your 
martyrdom  ;  you  will  be  delivered  by  a  great  victory."  That  victory 
was  the  last  which  broke  her  fetters  and  opened  up  to  her  heaven. 
"Jesus!  "  she  Cried  again,  in  the  midst  of  the  flames;  then  she  bent 
her  head,  and  breathed  forth  her  innocent  soul  and  her  last  sigh. 

Charles  heard  of  her  death  with  indifference;  he  did  nothing  to 
prevent  it  or  to  avenge  it,  and  waited  for  twenty-five  years  before 
ordering  that  the  memory  of  the  heroine  should  be  reinstated.  He  had 
again  fallen  into  his  culpable  indolence.  His  favourite,  La  Tremouille, 
had  drawn  him  away  from  warlike  pursuits,  and  in  order  to  preserve 
his  ascendancy,  kept  him  at  the  Chateau  of  Chinon  by  the  attraction  of 
fetes  and  pleasures.  Charles,  surrounded  by  his  mistresses,  failed 
again  in  his  fortune,  while  his  captains  fought  separately,  as  chiefs  of 
partisans ;  they  received  from  him  no  order,  no  pay,  no  support,  and 
submitted  the  country  where  they  ruled  to  frightful  exactions.  The 
English,  however,  were  still  more  odious  to  the  people ;  in  vain 
Bedford,  in  order  to  hold  the  capital,  called  within  its  walls  the  young 
King  Henry  VI.,  and  caused  him  to  be  crowned  ;  in  vain  he  deposed 
himself  from  the  title  of  regent  in  order  to  bestow  it  on  a  French 
prince,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy;  the  English  and  their  allies  the 
Burgundians  were  equally  detested,  and  insurrections  broke  out  in  all 
parts  of  the  kingdom. 

The    most    skilful    of    the    captains    of    Charles,    the    Constable 
Richemont,  fell  into  disgrace,  was  restored  to  favour,  and  commanded 


296  THE   ENGLISH   LEAVE   PARIS.  [Book  III.  Chap.  I. 

the  army.  About  the  same  time,  in  1435,  Bedford,  brother-in-law 
of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  died,  and  his  death  broke  the  ties  of  that 
duke  with  England.  Burgundy  sacrificed  at  last  his  long  resent- 
ment to  the  interest  of  France,  and  became  reconciled  to  Charles  VII. 
He  was  exempted  from  all  vassalage  during  his  life ;  the  King  ceded 
„    ,     .  .  to  him  the  counties  of  Auxerre  and  Macon,  with  other 

Treaty  of  Arras,  ' 

1435,  places.     He  promised,  besides,  to  disavow  the  murder  of 

John  the  Fearless,  to  deliver  up  its  authors,  and  to  grant  an  amnesty 
to  all  those  of  his  subjects  who  had  taken  up  arms  against  him.  On 
these  conditions  Philip  swore  to  forget  the  past,  and  signed  with  his 
cousin  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  in  the  town  of  Arras.  The 
French  were  united,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  English  dominion 
became  impossible.  Paris,  after  belonging  to  the  crown  of  England 
for  seventeen  years,  opened  her  gates  to  her  King,  and  soon  the 
English  only  remained  in  Normandy  and  Gruienne. 

An  extraordinary  and  complete  change  was  effected  in  the  mind  of 
A  akin  of  Charles  VII.,  and  the  honour  was,  in  part,  to  be  attri- 

Chariesvu.  buted  to  his  mistress,  Agnes  Sorel.  A  will  full  of 
energy  had  taken  the  place  of  his  indolent  indifference  ;  his  frivolity 
was  changed  into  prudence  and  wisdom,  and  his  voluptuous  tastes  no 
longer  excluded  him  from  an  active  perseverance  in  warlike  and 
political  affairs. 

The  French,  since  the  union  of  Charles  with  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  began  to  enjoy  some  repose  ;  but  then,  as  in  the  time  of 
Charles  V.,  at  the  end  of  the  long  civil  wars,  bands  of  mercenaries, 
without  pay  and  without  employment,  infested  the  kingdom.  The 
captains  of  Charles  VII.,  and  amongst  them  the  celebrated  La  Hire 
and  Xaintrailles,  for  a  long  period  accustomed  to  make  war  on  their 
own  account  and  without  discipline,  continued,  in  despite  of  the 
treaty  of  Arras,  to  pillage  Burgundy,  and  gloried  in  the  name  of 
Ecorclieurs  (horse-flayers),  which  the  hatred  of  the  people  had 
bestowed  on  them.  Charles  repressed  their  disorders,  and  wished  to 
prevent  their  recurrence.  With  this  object  he  undertook  a  wise 
measure,  which  contributed  powerfully  to  the  peace  of  the  interior 
states  g  n  it  ailc^  ^°  ^e  strengthening  of  the  royal  authority.  After 
Orleans,  1439.  having  convoked  the  States- General  at  Orleans,  he 
asked  and  obtained  from  them  a  tax   of  twelve  hundred  thousand 


1422-1461]  PERPETUAL    TAX.  297 

livres  for  the  pay  of  a  permanent  army.     This  tax  was  destined  for 
the   support  of   fifteen   hundred   men-at-arms,    each    of 

1  L  Organization  of 

whom  was  to    be   followed   by  five  men  on   horseback,    a  permanent 

J  army,  1439. 

a  page,  a  cutler,  and  three  archers.  The  King  divided 
them  into  fifteen  privileged  companies,  which  he  disseminated  through 
all  parts  of  the  kingdom  ;  .each  being  entrusted  with  the  charge 
of  its  own  garrison.  On  their  part,  the  soldiers  could  not  separate 
without  leave,  and  each  captain  was  responsible  for  the  pillages 
and  violences  of  his  men,  who  were  to  be  in  submission  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  bailiffs  and  the  jprevots.  The  pay  for  a  man-at- 
arms  and  his  suite  was  fifteen  livres  per  month.  Some  years  later 
Charles  completed  the  organization  of  the  permanent  army,  by 
compelling  each  parish  to  furnish,  at  the  call  of  the  King,  a  good 
infantry  soldier  fully  equipped,  and  on  whom  the  military  service 
conferred  several  privileges,  high  pay,  and  exemption  from  taxes. 
These  foot  soldiers  were  called  free  archers. 

This  reconstruction  of  the  military  system  produced  immense  re- 
sults ;  the  King  thus  obtained  an  army  always  numerous  and  always 
ready  to  run  down  in  mass  upon  all  points  menaced  by  revolt  or 
war.  He  caused  the  elite  of  his  captains  and  soldiers  of  adventure 
to  enter  it ;  while  terror  restrained  those  who  could  not  be  admitted. 
To  the  States- General  of  1439  must  be  attributed,  in  fact,  the  merit 
of  this  creation,  for  it  was  by  them  that  the  first  necessary  funds 
were  granted ;  however,  they  had  only  granted  the  tax  of  twelve 
hundred  thousand  livres  for  one  year  ;  the  King  on  his  own  authority 
made  it  perpetual.  Thus  was  established  in  France,  illegally,  the 
direct  permanent  tax.  Nevertheless,  the  people  paid 
without  murmuring.  Besides,  Charles  VII.  by  his  1439- 
ordinance  had  only  made  regular  a  state  of  things  which  already 
existed.  The  levy  of  troops  had  not  been  interrupted,  and  the 
prospect  of  being  delivered  from  the  pillage  of  the  soldiery  was 
an  immense  relief  to  the  dwellers  in  the  country.  The  perpetual  tax 
was  personal  or  real,  according  to  the  different  provinces  ;  that  is  to 
say,  either  established  on  all  the  revenues  of  the  tax-payer  or  only 
upon  his  landed  property.  At  first  it  was  popular,  but  there  were 
bad  readjustments  of  the  impost,  its  amount  was  always  increasing, 
and   above   all   the   innumerable    immunities  admitted   later    on    in 


298  INSURRECTION   OF  THE   PRAGUERIE.  [Book  III.   Chap.  I. 

favour  of  the  privileged  classes  rendered  it  hateful  throughout  the 
whole  kingdom.* 

Crimes  of  every  description  multiplied  in  a  fearful  manner ;  the 
King  gave  to  the  prevot  of  Paris,  Robert  d'Estouteville,  full  power 
to  judge  and  condemn  every  person  convicted  of  any  crime  what- 
soever. The  Parliament,  whose  rights  were  forgotten,  kept  silence  ; 
all  liberty  was  stifled,  and  the  kingdom  given  over  to  a  despotic 
power.  The  people  had  suffered  too  long  for  want  of  government ; 
they  had  passed  through  a  horrible  anarchy,  and  felt  the  want  of 
a  central  and  vigorous  authority.  Commerce  sprung  up  again, 
agriculture  became  flourishing,  and  the  King  was  hailed  as  the 
restorer  of  order. 

However,  the  military  aristocracy  could  not  see,  without  uneasi- 
ness, the  progress  of  the  royal  power.  It  made  an  insurrection 
which  was    called   Praguerie. f     In    this    revolt  it  was 

Praguerie,  1440.  m 

necessary  to  have  chiefs ;  the  Dauphin,  who  was  after- 
wards Louis  XI.,  the  princes  of  royal  blood,  and  the  captains  of  the 
JEcorcheurs,  offered  themselves.  They  seized  several  towns  and  forti- 
fied places,  and  wished  to  recommence  a  civil  war ;  but  the  times 
were  changed.  Charles  VII.,  at  the  head  of  a  disciplined  army, 
marched  against  the  rebels,  who  one  after  the  other  submitted. 
One  only  remained  formidable,  and  that  was  the  prince  who  was  heir 
to  the  crown.  He  retired  into  Dauphine,  and  from  that  time  a  deep 
enmity  existed  between  father  and  son. 

After  having  pacified  the  interior,  Charles  VII.,  profiting  by  the 
civil  wars  which  were  exhausting  England,  tried  to  expel  the  enemy 
from  the  kingdom.  Two  great  provinces,  Gruienne  and  Normandy, 
were  still  under  the  foreign  yoke.  In  a  year,  half  of  the  fortified 
places  in  Normandy  were  reconquered.  The  Duke  of  Somerset,  who 
continued  to  bear  the  title  of  Regent  of  France,  vainly  endeavoured 
to  defend  Rouen  against  the  army  of  Dunois.  In  the  following  year 
the    Constable   Richemont    and  the    Count   of    Clermont   gained    a 


*  Refer  for  the  taxes  in  France  to  Chap.  III. ;  and  further  on,  under  Charles  VII. ,  to 
the  establishment  of  the  Court  of  Aides. 

t  The  name  of  Praguerie,  which  was  given  to  this  revolt,  came  from  Prague,  a 
town  in  Bohemia,  then  famous  throughout  Europe  for  its  seditions  during  the  war  of 
the  Hussites. 


1422-1461]  EXPULSION   OF   THE    ENGLISH.  299 

sanguinary   victory   at   Formigny,    between    Carentan    and   Bayeux. 
That  battle  decided  the  fate  of  the  war ;  all  the  towns 

■  _,  Victories  of  the 

m  Lower  JN  ormandy  revolted  ;  Cherbourg  was  taken,  and   French  at 

Formigny  and 

the  entire  province,  with  its  two  capitals  and  its  hundred   at  Castnion. 

Expulsion  of  the 

fortresses,  was  again  united  to  France.     Guienne  alone   English, 

'  &  1550-1553. 

belonged  to  England.  It  was  soon  conquered  by 
the  victorious  army ;  but  as  soon  as  the  expedition  terminated,  the 
English  reappeared,  and  Bordeaux  in  receiving  them  within  its  walls, 
rendered  a  new  campaign  necessary.  Talbot,  then  eighty  years  old, 
commanded  the  English;  he  attacked  the  French  army  before 
Castillon,  which  he  besieged:  a  cannon-ball  carried  off  both  the 
old  hero  and  his  son.  Their  deaths  were  the  signal  of  a  complete 
defeat.  The  town  was  given  up ;  then  Libourne,  and  lastly 
Bordeaux,  opened  their  gates.  Guienne  was  for  the  future  French ; 
and  of  all  its  continental  possessions  England  only  preserved  Calais. 
The  hundred  years  war  was  finished,  and  a  long  period  of 
internal  quarrels  and  calamities  commenced  for  England  in  the 
madness  of  Henry  VI.,  who  had  just  married  the  heroic  and  ambitious 
Margaret  of  Anjou. 

A  truce  had  suspended  the  hostilities  between  the  English  and  the 
French,  when  the  Emperor  Frederick  III.  requested  the  support  of 
France  against  the  republican  cantons  of   Switzerland.     The  assist- 
ance  of  Charles   VII.    was    equally   solicited   by  Bene,    Campai„ns  of 
Duke  of  Lorraine,   against  the   free  town  of  Metz  and   s^i^Smd'and 
against    Toul,   Verdun,    and    some    other    towns,  which   Lorrame' 1444- 
called  themselves  subjects  of  the  empire.     Charles  VII.  complied  with 
these  requests   and   sent   two  armies,  one  into   Switzerland  and  the 
other  into  Lorraine.     The  Dauphin  Louis  commanded  the  first,  which 
was  composed  of  men  of  all  nations,  and  of  a  band  of  adventurers, 
compelled  to  be  so  through  the  inaction  caused  by  the  treaty  with 
England.     This    army   met    that    of    the    Swiss    Cantons    at    Saint 
Jacques,    near   Bale.       The    Swiss   were  then  the   best 

„  Battle  of  Bale,  or 

infantry  in  Europe.     They  were  armed  with  long  pikes,    Saint  Jacques, 
which   they   wielded  with  as    much   strength  as  skill ; 
they  had    gained  great    victories  for   a   century  over   the   chivalry 
of  the  empire.      They  advanced  with  fury  against  the  advance-guard 
of  the  French  army,  and  threw  it  into  disorder ;  but  having  ventured 


300  THE    PRAGMATIC   SANCTION.  [Book  III.  ChAP.  I. 

imprudently  to  attack  the  main  body  of  the  army,  they  were  in  their 
turn  repulsed  and  broken  up.  The  Dauphin,  struck  with  their 
bravery,  made  peace  with  them,  in  spite  of  the  Emperor  and  the 
empire ;  he  desired  to  attach  the  Swiss  to  himself,  and  concluded  an 
alliance  with  those  whom  he  had  vanquished. 

The  events  of  the  campaign  in  Lorraine  were  little  decisive.  The 
towns  of  Toul  and  Verdun  recognized  the  King  as  their  protector ; 
Metz  resisted,  was  besieged,  and  bought  the  maintenance  of  its 
liberty  by  a  contribution  of  war.  This  rapid  campaign  gave  a  proof 
of  the  pretensions  of  Charles  VII.  upon  a  portion  of  Lorraine,  but 
there  was  no  other  important  result. 

The  wounds  of  France  closed,  and  prosperity  began  to  spring  forth 
anew.  The  King  had  taken  up  the  tradition  of  the  government 
of  his  grandfather  Charles  V. ;  by  his  care  the  whole  administration 
was  reformed.  After  the  ordinances  upon  the  military  state,  there 
Reforms  in  the  appeared  the  ordinances  concerning  the  accounts  of  the 
.administration,  treasury,  the  assessment  of  the  land-tax,  and  the  render- 
ing of  accounts.  A  special  court  was  then  instituted  for  every  civil 
and  criminal    trial    connected   with  the  taxes ;    this  su- 

Royal  decrees. 

preme  jurisdiction,  called  the  Court  of  Aides,  had  soon 
numerous  tribunals.  To  this  prince  also  belonged  the  honour  of 
having  commenced  the  regulation  of  the  Customs.     Until  that  time, 

throughout  the  north  of  France,  then  called  the  countrv 

Court  of  Aides.  °  .  J 

Regulation  of        of  Customs,  justice  was  only  dispensed  according:  to  a 

the  Customs.  ...  . 

legislation  which  was  not  written.  By  the  creation  of 
the  Parliament  of  Toulouse  the  King  restrained  the  jurisdiction  of 
that  of  Paris,  which  then  extended  itself  throughout  the  provinces. 
Under  the  following  reign  several  other  parliaments  were  instituted, 
one  of  which,  held   at  Grenoble,  replaced  the  Delphic  court.    After 

having:   organized  the   army,   the  treasury,  and   justice, 

NewParliaments.  .  .  . 

Charles  occupied  himself  with  the  Church  of  France. 
It  was  he  who,  in  1438,  promulgated  solemnly,  before  the  French 

clergy  assembled  at  Bourges,  the  Pragmatic  Sanction, 
sanction,  1438.  proclaiming  the  liberties  of  the  Grallican  Church,  such 
as  the  council  then  sitting  at  Bale  had  denned.  It  recognized  the 
superiority  of  the  General  Councils  over  the  Pope,  restricted  to  a 
small  number  the    cases    of   right  to  appeal  to  Rome,  forbade   the 


1422-1461]  JAQUES   CKEUE.  301 

publication  of  papal  bulls  in  the  kingdom  before  being  registered  in 
Parliament,  deprived  the  pontifical  court  of  the  revenue  of  vacant 
benefices,  and  entrusted  the  election  of  the  bishops  to  the  chapters, 
of  the  churches. 

In  these  works,  which  were  so  important  and  so  diverse,  the 
States- General  had  only  a  feeble  part ;  their  last  meeting  had  taken 
place  at  Orleans,  in  1439,  and  for  twenty-two  years  Charles  did  not 
convoke  them  ;  instinctively  he  hated  these  assemblies,  guilty,  in  his 
eyes,  of  having  favoured  the  troubles  of  the  preceding  reigD,  and  of 
having  sanctioned  the  shameful  treaty  of  Troyes;  but  Charles  was 
seconded  in  his  work  by  skilful  counsellors,  who,  for  the  most  part,, 
had  been  drawn  from  the  ranks  of  the  bourgeoisie.  The  two  most 
illustrious  were  John  Bureau,  master- general  of  ordnance, 

°  _       Jacques  Cceur. 

and  Jacques  Cceur,  rendered  as  much  celebrated  by  his 
prosperity  as  by  his  misfortunes.  By  commercial  speculations  in 
Europe  and  Asia,  Jacques  Cceur  had  acquired  immense  wealth,  with 
which  he  generously  supported  the  credit  of  Charles  VII.  That 
prince  ennobled  him,  and  named  him  his  treasurer;  it  is  to  him 
that  all  the  financial  reforms  of  "that  period  are  to  be  attributed.  But 
the  avaricious  courtiers  coveted  his  fortune  and  came  between  the- 
King  and  him.  His  wealth  was  soon  seized  and  divided  amongst 
those  who  had  been  appointed  his  judges,  and  amongst  them  was 
to  be  seen  the  man  who  succeeded  him  in  his  office.  Accused 
of  embezzlement,  and  deprived  of  all  means  of  defence,  Jacques  Cceur 
was  condemned  without  proof,  and  banished  from  the  kingdom. 

Charles  had  become  the  wisest  and  the  most  powerful  monarch 
in  Europe,  but  just  causes  of  distrust  and  resentment  with  regard 
to  the  Dauphin  embittered  his  latter  years.  Louis,  who  had  married 
first,  Margaret  of  Scotland,  had  secondly  espoused,  contrary  to  the 
wish  of  his  father,  Charlotte,  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  The 
King  ordered  him  to  come  and  justify  himself  at  his  court,  where  the 
Count  of  Dammartin,  an  enemy  of  the  prince,  was  all  powerful.  The 
Dauphin,  fearing  all  the  counsellors  of  his  father,  and  ndt  being  able 
to  obtain  surety  for  his  person,  thought  at  first  to  resist  with  open 
force,  and  assembled  troops ;  but,  soon  convinced  of  his 

i  1  n  •    t  ^  ^  « -    "      .        Flight  of  the 

powerlessness,  he  took  to  mgnt,  and  sought  refuge  in  Dauphin  into 

B  urgundy. 

the  court  of  Burgundy,  where  he  was  received  by  Philip 

the   Good  and  by  Charles  his   son   with  honour   and   munificence. 


302  FALL   OF   THE    GEEEK   EMPIRE.  [Book  III.   Chap.  I. 

The  King  soon  took  possession  of  Dauphine,  caused  all  the  revenues 
to  be  seized,  and.  united  that  province  to  the  states  which  were  held 
directly  from  the  crown.  The  Dauphin  had  implored  the  pardon 
of  his  father,  but  the  King  knew  his  false  and  perverse  heart,  and 
vainly  requested  that  he  would  ask  for  pardon  verbally  ;  unfortunately, 
a  formidable  example  had  recently  increased  the  distrust  of  his  son. 
The  Duke  of  Alencon,  prince  of  the  blood  royal,  was  accused  by 
the  King  of  treason  and  of  complicity  with  England.  The  peers  of 
the  kingdom  convoked  for  his  judgment  condemned  him  to  death. 
Charles  commuted  the  punishment,  and  caused  the  prince  to  be  shut 
up  in  the  tower  of  the  Louvre  ;  the  Dauphin  declined  to  expose 
himself  to  a  similar  chastisement.  The  King,  from  that  time,  believed 
that  he  lived  in  the  midst  of  the  emissaries  of  his  son  and  of  their 
ambushes.  Lastly,  fearing  that  he  would  be  poisoned  by  them,  and 
suffering  besides  from  an  abscess  in  the  mouth,  he  refused  all 
Death  of  Charles  nourishment  an(i  allowed  himself  to  die  of  hunger.  He 
vii.,  1461.  expired  on  the  22nd  of  July,  1461,  in  his  fifty-eighth  year. 

Some  years  before  the  death  of  this  prince  there  was  accomplished 
Fall  of  the  Greek  on  ^ne  banks  °^  ^he  Bosphorus  the  grand  catastrophe 
Empire,  1453.  which  terminated  the  Middle  Ages.  Already  Bajazet, 
conqueror  of  the  Christians  afc  "Nicopolis,  had  twice  encamped  before 
the  gates  of  Constantinople.  The  invasion  of  the  Mogul  Tamberlane 
into  the  Asiatic  possessions  of  the  Turks,  and  the  famous  battle  of 
Agora,  where  Bajazet  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  new  conqueror,  alone 
saved  the  Greek  empire,  or  at  least  retarded  its  fall  for  half  a 
century.  Mahomet  II.  achieved  the  work  which  his  predecessors 
had  attempted.  At  the  head  of  an  army  of  250,000  men  he  besieged 
by  land  and  by  sea  that  illustrious  capital.  The  cry  of  distress  of 
the  Greeks  was  not  heard  in  Christendom,  which  was  then  divided 
by  schisms,  by  revolts,  and  by  wars.  Constantinople  at  length 
succumbed,  and  its  last  emperor,  Constantine,  perished,  buried 
beneath  its  ruins,  in  1453.  Greece,  Epiria,  Bosnia,  and  Servia  were 
conquered ;  the  Isle  of  Rhodes  alone,  defended  by  the  brave  knights 
of  Saint  John,  escaped  from  the  infidels. 

At    the    moment    when  the    Turks    had   established 

State  of  Europe  .  . 

at  the  end  of  the    themselves   m  Europe   in  order  to    remain    there,    the 

Middle  Ages. 

popedom,  after  an  absence  of  seventy  years,  which  the 
historians  of  the  Church  called  the  captivity  of  Babylon,  returned 


1422-1461]  CONDITION   OF   EUROPE.  303 

to  Rome  ;  but  it  saw  its  spiritual  prestige  weakened  by  the  scandals 
of  the  schism,  and  its  temporal  power  incessantly  shaken 
by  the  conspiracies  of  the  Roman  nobility  and  the  sedi- 
tions of  the  populace. 

For  a  long  time  the  republics  of  Lombardy,  deprived  of  their 
ancient  glory,  had  been  the  prey  of  their  powerful  neighbours  or  their 
ambitious  citizens.  Milan,  the  most  illustrious,  bent  its  head  under 
the  Visconti,  to  whom  succeeded  the  Sforza.  Florence,  on  its  side, 
crushed  by  the  quarrel  of  the  Whites  and  Slacks,  descendants  of  the 
Gruelphs  and  Ghibellines,  was  by  degrees  subdued  by  a  race  of  opulent 
merchants  and  patrons  of  art,  the  famous  Medici.  Grenoa  and  Venice 
disputed  the  empire  of  the  sea,  and  exhausted  themselves  by  that 
rivalry.  Naples,  lastly,  was  conquered  under  the  second  House  of 
Anjou  by  Alphonso  V.,  King  of  Aragon  and  of  Sicily,  who  received 
from  the  Pope,  in  1473,  the  investiture  of  that  new  kingdom. 

The  Iberian  peninsula,  where  the  Moors  still  held  the  kingdom 
of  Grenada,  was  divided  into  many  small  states,  which  ain 
were  always  at  war  with  one  another — Portugal,  Cas-  Portugal- 
tile,  Navarre,  and  Aragon.  This  latter  kingdom  commenced  to 
predominate  ;  it  extended  itself  to  the  exterior  by  conquests,  and, 
uniting  itself  with  Castile  by  the  marriage  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
it  soon  formed  the  true  kingdom  of  Spain. 

In  the    north,   England,    which  Henry  V.  at  the  commencement 
of  the  century  had  raised  to  so  high  a  fortune,  exhausted 
itself  under  an   imbecile   king  and  a  haughty  queen  to 
preserve  its  conquests  by  sea,  while,  in  the   heart   of  the  country, 
already  the  germs  of  the  terrible  Wars  of  the  Roses  fermented. 

In  Germany,  the  wars  of  the  Hussites  inundated  Bohemia  with 
blood.      The    Emperor    Sigismund   had    succeeded   the 

r  °  Germany  and 

ignoble  Yanceslas,  but  he  was  powerless  in  trying  to  Hungary, 
extinguish  the  fire  which  the  funeral  pile  of  John  Huss  had  kindled  ; 
and  the  fierce  Taborites,*  commanded  by  Zisca,  the  terrible  blind 
man,  and  by  the  Procope,  only  succumbed,  after  twenty  years  of 
struggle,  under  their  own  blows.  Sigismund  died  in  1437,  and  the 
imperial  crown,  which  encircled  the  head  of  Albert,  already  King  of 

*  The  name  of  Taborites  was  given  to  the  Hussites  on  account  of  a  mountain  in 
Bohemia,  where  their  camp  was  established,  and  which  they  had  called  Tabor. 


304*  INTELLECTUAL    PROGRESS.  [Book  III.  Chap.  L 

Hungary  and  Bohemia  and  Archduke  of   Austria,    went  no  longer 
to  the  House  of  Hapsburg. 

France   was   at   peace,    but   she   groaned    under    a    multitude    of 

torments  and  abuses.  The  new  day  which  had  already 
under  Charles       enlightened     Italy    commenced,  however,    to    penetrate 

into  the  kingdom.  French  poetry  had  acquired  grace 
and  harmony :  the  lyrical  verses  of  Charles  of  Orleans,  the  prisoner 
of  Agincourt,  and  of  King  Rene  of  Anjou,  obtained  a  merited  repu- 
tation. Among  the  poets  of  that  time  may  be  reckoned  Oliver  of 
La  Marche,  Alain  Chartiers,  historiographer  of  France,  and  lastly, 
Francois  Villon,  who  introduced  the  burlesque  style.  These  men 
would  without  doubt  have  contributed  to  give  to  French  poetry  a 
national  stamp  if  the  greatest  event  of  the  fifteenth  century  had  not 
turned  their  minds  in  another  direction.  The  taking  of  Constan- 
tinople disseminated  throughout  the  whole  of  Europe  the  literary 
wealth  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  the  powerful  genius  of  antiquity 
placed  his  yoke  upon  the  almost  newly-born  genius  of  modern 
literature. 

Commerce  and  industry  also  aboiit  this  period  made  happy  progress 

in  France  as  well  as  in  the  rest  of  Europe.     The  require- 

!Prosrr6SS  or 

commerce  and  ments  of  nations  were  better  known ;  they  knew  the  value 
of  the  different  productions,  and  the  extent  of  their  con- 
sumption in  each  country ;  men  who  were  well  informed  and  pos- 
sessed of  large  capital  could  establish  factories  in  all  places  of  mer- 
chandise, and  embrace  Europe  and  Asia  in  commercial  speculations. 
It  was  in  this  manner  that  Cosmo  of  Medicis  at  Florence,  and  Jacques 
Cceur,  acquired  their  riches.  Lastly,  the  time  approached  for  the 
great  discoveries  which  were  about  to  make  the  second  half  of  the 
fifteenth  century  famous,  and  to  which  the  darkness  of  preceding 
ages  gave  still  more  brilliancy. 

"  It  is  the  distinctive  character  of  this  epoch,"   says  an    eminent 

historian,  "  that  it  was  employed  in  order  to  convert 

General  conside-    primitive  Europe  into  modern  Europe ;  in  this  consists 

rations. 

its  importance  and  historical  interest.  If  we  did  not 
consider  it  from  this  point  of  view — if  we  only  sought,  above  all, 
what  came  from  it,  we  should  not  only  misunderstand  it,  but  should 
leave  it  promptly.     Seen  by  itself,  in  fact,  and  in  part  of  its  results, 


1422-1461]  GENERAL   CONSIDERATIONS.  305 

it  is  a  time  without  character,  a  time  when  confusion  went  on 
increasing  without  any  one  perceiving  the  causes — a  time  of  move- 
ment without  direction,  of  agitation  without  results.  Royalty, 
nobility,  clergy,  and  bourgeois,  all  the  elements  of  social  order,  seemed 
to  turn  in  the  same  circle,  equally  incapable  of  progress  or  rest. 
They  made  attempts  of  all  kinds :  all  failed ;  they  tried  to  settle 
governments,  to  establish  public  liberty;  they  tried  even  religious 
reform :  nothing  was  done — nothing  was  finished.  If  ever  the 
human  race  appeared  devoted  to  an  agitated  yet  stationary  destiny, 
to  a  ceaseless  yet  fruitless  work,  it  was  from  the  thirteenth  to  the 

fifteenth    century Considered,   on  the  contrary,    in   its 

connection  with  that  which  followed,  this  period  is  bright  and 
animated  ;  we  can  discover  in  it  a  harmony,  a  direction,  and  a  pro- 
gression ;  its  unity  and  its  interest  lie  in  the  slow  and  concealed 
work  which  was  accomplished  in  it."* 

*  Ghiizot's  Histoire  Generate  de  la  Civilisation  en  Europe. 


X 


306  LOUIS  XI.  [Book  III.  Chap.  II. 


CHAPTER  II. 

EEIGN   OF   LOUIS   XI. 

1461-1483. 

Louis  XI.  was  thirty-eight  years  old  when  he  mounted  the  throne. 
Policy  of  Louis  His  reign  formed  an  epoch,  not  only  by  the  consider- 
able extension  which  the  kingdom  obtained  under  him 
and  by  the  strengthening  of  the  absolute  power  of  the  monarch, 
but  also  on  account  of  the  new  tendency  of  European  policy  and 
of  the  powerful  impulse  which  the  character  of  Louis  was  able  to 
impress  upon  it.  The  art  of  negotiation  was  up  to  that  time 
almost  unknown ;  the  sovereigns,  governed  by  their  blind  and 
violent  passions,  always  sacrificed  to  the  present  the  interests  of  the 
future,  and  force  decided  everything.  Policy,  however,  began  to  be 
for  them  an  object  of  serious  study.  Louis  was  the  first  who 
converted  diplomacy  into  a  system.  Endowed  with  a  subtle  and 
astute  mind,  he  made  this  art  the  study  of  his  whole  life,  and 
contributed  more  than  any  other  to  the  substitution  in  politics  of 
the  power  of  intelligence  for  the  authority  of  force.  But  he  mis- 
understood all  the  principles  of  morality,  and  to  his  contempt  for 
them  was  falsely  attributed  the  greater  part  of  his  success.  The 
policy  which  rests  upon  perfidy  is  as  fruitful  in  calamities  as  that 
which  only  recognizes  brutal  violence  as  law.  The  custom  which 
caused  Louis  XL  to  deceive  always,  often  became  fatal  to  him ;  and 
he  was  indebted  for  the  greater  part  of  his  advantages  over  his 
enemies  neither  to  his  falsehoods  nor  his  treacheries.  He  triumphed 
over  all,  because  he  knew  how  to  comprehend  his  true  interests,  to 
understand  men,  to  appreciate  merit  and  to  use  it,  and  because,  em- 
bracing in  his  projects  the  future  and  the  present,  he  submitted 
them  nearly  always  to  the  calculations  of  reflection  and  of  con- 
summate prudence.    Finally,  it  may  be  said  that  he  drew  upon  himself 


1461-1483]  HIS   FIRST  ACTS.  307 

his  reverses  by  his  vices,  and  that  he  obtained  his  most  brilliant 
successes  by  his  intellectual  qualities,  when  allied  with  wholesome 
morality. 

Feudalism  had  regained  all  its  power  during  the  long  anarchy  of 
the  preceding  reigns,  and  Charles  VII.  himself,  while  situation  of 
he  held  in  respect  the  Dukes  of  Brittany  and  Burgundy 
and  the  Count  of  Anjou,  the  great  vassals  of  the  crown,  did  not 
obtain  from  them  any  pledge  of  obedience.  The  houses  of  these 
three  princes  vied  with  the  royal  house  in  power  and  in  splendour. 
That  of  Burgundy  was  mistress  of  Burgundy,  of  Flanders,  of  the 
Low  Country  and  of  the  Free  County,  and  was  the  richest  in  Europe ; 
that  of  Anjou,  which  had  lost  the  throne  of  Naples  but  had  acquired 
Lorraine  by  marriage,  possessed,  besides,  Maine  and  Provence,  and 
enclosed  the  domains  of  the  King  in  its  vast  possessions.  The 
south  groaned  under  the  tyranny  of  the  counts  of  Albret,  of  Foix, 
of  Armagnac,  and  of  a  crowd  of  other  noblemen  who,  for  the  most 
part,  exercised  a  despotic  and  absolute  power  throughout  their  lands. 
The  feudal  system  was  then  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the  tendencies 
which  drew  together  the  people  who  inhabited  the  same  soil,  and 
to  the  healthy  progress  of  national  sentiments ;  it  had  become  at 
last  the  scourge  of  Europe,  which  it  had  saved  in  the  tenth  century. 
The  glory  of  striking  it  a  mortal  blow  belongs  to  Louis  XI. 

This  prince,  who  from  being  a  fugitive  became  a  kitig,  was 
informed  of  the  plots  hatched  against  him  in  the  court  of  his 
father,  and  also  of  the  hatred  which  the  most  influential  men  in 
the  kingdom  bore  him,  and,  according  to  the  expression  of  a  cele- 
brated writer,  he  only  saw  in  the  opening  of  his  reign  the 
commencement  of  his  vengeance.*  He  believed  that  he  had  need 
of  the  support  of  the  people  against  his  enemies,  and  promised  at 
his  accession  to  diminish  the  taxes  and  to  submit  the  national 
charges  to   the   approval    of  the    States- General.     But   „   . 

°  rr  First  acts  of 

his  liberalities  towards  those  whom   he  wished  to  gain  LouisXL 
exhausted  the  treasury ;  the  taxes  were  augmented,  and  the  States- 
General  left  in  oblivion.     Some   insurrections  broke   out,  but  Louis 
knew    how  to    suppress  them.     One  of   the    first    acts    of  his  reign 
was  the  abolition  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  which  he  decreed   in 

*  Montesquieu, 

x  2 


308  LEAGUE   OF  THE   PUBLIC    GOOD.  [Book  III.  Chap.  II. 

hatred  of  the  institutions  of  his  father ;  at  the  end  of  his  life, 
however,  he  re-established  the  principal  dispositions.  Another  ordi- 
nance, apparently  of  futile  interest,  profoundly  irritated  the  nobility. 
The  King,  passionately  fond  of  the  chase,  and  jealous  of  his  pleasures 
as  of  his  authority,  forbade  that  sport  in  the  royal  forests ;  and 
soon  after  he  added  to  this  edict  others  which  afforded  new  grounds 
for  discontent.  Economical  himself,  and  strict  in  the  administration 
of  finances,  he  did  not  permit  them  to  be  pillaged  by  the  princes 
of  his  family.  His  yoke  bore  equally  upon  all ;  his  active  vigilance 
surveyed  at  the  same  time  each  part  of  the  kingdom,  and  he  would 
not  suffer  any  tyrant  in  the  country  but  himself. 

The  irritation  became  general ;  the  princes  wished  for  apanages 
which  would  render  them  independent ;  the  nobles  demanded  dig- 
nities and  gold  :  they  wished  back  with  all  their  hearts  the  anarchy 
of  Charles  VI.,  and  leagued  themselves  against  Louis  XI.  He,  in 
seeking  to  divide  his  two  most  formidable  neighbours,  Francis  II., 
Duke  of  Brittany,  and  the  Count  of  Charolais,  son  of  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  excited  them  against  himself.  He  had  perfidiously  given 
to  both  of  them  the  government  of  Normandy,  in  the  hope  of  seeing 
them  dispute  ;  however,  they  united  together  against  him.  The  resent- 
ment of  the  Count  of  Charolais  was,  however,  more  vehement  because 
Louis  had  been  loaded  with  benefits  by  Philip  the  Good,  his  father. 
This  count,  who  was  afterwards  Charles  the  Bash,  and  one  of  the 
most  powerful  sovereigns  in  Europe,  offered  a  striking  contrast  to 
Louis  XL  Violent  and  untamable,  always  governed  by  pride  or 
ano-er,  he  showed  himself  during  the  whole  of  his  life  the  most 
ardent  and  the  most  terrible  enemy  of  the  monarch  his   sovereign. 

It  was  around  him  and  the  Duke  of  Brittany  that  the 
Public  Good,         princes   of  the  royal   blood   rallied,    together  with  the 

great  nobles  who  were  discontented,  in  the  number  of 
whom  must  be  reckoned  those  who  had  obtained  more  glory  under 
the  late  King,  and  who  had  served  him  better*— Dunois,  Saint  Pol, 
Tanneguy-Duchatel,  and  Antoine  of  Chabannes,  Count  of  Dammartin. 
They  gave  to  their  league  the  name  of  the  League  of  the  Public  Good, 
Battle  of  Mont  anc^  place(3-  a^  their  head  the  Duke  of  Berry,  Charles 
lhery,  1465.  0f  France)  brother  of  the  King,  who  claimed  Normandy 

from  him  as  an  apanage.     The  bloody  battle   of   Montlhery,  where 


1461-1483]  POLICY   OF   LOUIS   XL  309 

Louis  left  the  field  of  battle  to  the  Count  of  Charolais,  was   soon 
followed  by  the  rising  of  Normandy  in  favour  of  the  princes. 

The  King,  seeing  himself  the  weakest,  laid  down  his  arms  and  had 
recourse  to  negotiations.  No  one  possessed  better  than  he  the  art  of 
gaining  hearts  by  insinuating  and  flattering  words.  He  feigned  to 
stifle  his  just  anger,  to  forget  all  his  injuries,  and  signed  the  treaty 
of  Oonflans,  by  which  he  gave  Normandy  to  his  brother,  Treat  f 
and  satisfied  the  exorbitant  pretensions  of  the  princes.  Conflans> 1465- 
Louis  ceded  to  them  towns,  vast  domains,  and  governments,  and  piled 
up  dignities  upon  the  rebel  nobles.  Saint  Pol  was  named  Constable. 
But  Louis  only  gave  with  one  hand  to  take  back  with  the  other  when 
the  moment  should  arrive.  He  studied  his  enemies,  and  from  that 
time  his  principal  care  was  to  gain  at  any  price  the  most  skilful,  and 
to  divide  the  others  and  crush  them  separately.  It  was  thus  that  he 
attached  to  himself  the  Duke  of  Bourbon  and  many  ministers  of  his 
father,  among  others  the  Chancellor,  Juvenal  des  Ursins,  and  the 
celebrated  Count  of  Dammartin.  He  needed  the  support  of  the 
nation,    and  convoked  the   States- General  at  Tours   in   _.  .     _,        ,  . 

7  States-General  of 

1468  ;  however,  he  only  had  recourse  to  the  people  when   Tours,  1468. 
he  knew  that  they  would  have  no   other  will  than  his   own.     Louis 
opened  the  States  in  person  ;  and  the  Chancellor,  after  having  pointed 
out  to   the  deputies  "the  great  wish  which  the  monarch  had  always 
and  had   still  of   augmenting  and  increasing  the  kingdom   and  the 
crown,"  spoke  strongly  against  the  enemies  of  the  nation,  who  had 
caused  the  King's  own  brother  to  serve  as  an  instrument  for  their 
ambition,  and  only  sought  to  enfeeble  the  State  by  dismembering  it. 
Louis  was  obeyed ;  never  did  States   show  themselves  more  docile. 
They  annulled,  according  to  the  wish  of  the  King,  the 
treaty  of  Conflans,  retaking  Normandy  from  Charles  of  treaty  of  Con- 
France,  and  declaring  that  the  prince  ought  to  consider 
himself   satisfied  with  his   income  of  twelve   thousand   livres,  fixed 
by  Charles  VII.  as  the  apanage  of  the  princes  of  the  blood  royal. 
Louis,  having  obtained  from  them  all  that  he  wished,  was  anxious  to 
dismiss  them.     They  only  remained  in  assembly  for  eight  days ;  and 
it  was  remarked,  as  a  symptom  of  the  progress  of  the  bourgeoisie, 
that  the  three  orders  had  voted  in  common     This  was  the  only  con- 
vocation of  the  States- General  under  this  reign.     Louis  XI.  distrusted 
public  liberty  quite  as  much  as  feudal  power. 


310  TEEATY   OF  PEEEONNE.  [Book  III.  Chap.  II. 

Charles    of  France,    irritated   at   losing   Normandy,    nnited  again 
New  league  of       with    the   Duke    of    Brittany    and    with    Charles    the 

the  Princes 

Rash,    who    had    become  Duke    of   Burgundy   by  the 
death  of  Philip  the  Good,  his  father.     All  three  treated  with  England 

9 

Treat  of  An-  against  France,  and  invited  King  Edward  IV.  to  trans- 
cems,  1468.  port  an  army  into  the  kingdom.     Louis  foresaw  their 

attack ;  he  marched  unexpectedly  against  the  Duke  of  Brittany,  who, 
separated  from  his  allies,  and,  seized  with  fear,  submitted  by  the 
treaty  of  Ancenis. 

The  King  then  sought  to  gain  over  his  people ;  he  gave  charters 
to  many  of  the  towns,  protected  commerce  by  wise  ordinances,  and 
reorganized  the  national  militia  of  Paris,  composed  of  all  the  men 
between  sixteen  and  sixty,  of  whom  he  made  a  list ;  it  numbered 
eighty  thousand  men,  arranged  under  sixteen  banners,  and  was 
placed  in  possession  of  the  right  to  elect  its  own  officers.  Louis 
endeavoured  afterwards  to  find  allies  in  the  states  of  his  most 
powerful  enemy.  The  rich,  populous,  and  manufacturing  towns  of 
Flanders  were  prompt  to  revolt  against  the  cruel  violences  of  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  their  sovereign.  Ghent,  Bruges,  and  Liege  were 
distinguished  amongst  them  for  their  power  and  their  energy  in 
seeking  after  liberty.  Louis  sent  an  emissary  into  the  latter  town, 
already  irritated  against  the  bishop,  its  sovereign  prince,  allied  with 
Charles,  and  excited  it  to  revolt,  promising  his  support.  In  the  mean- 
time, in  order  the  better  to  deceive  the  Duke  and  to  lull  his  sus- 
picions, he  demanded  from  him  a  safe- conduct,  obtained  it,  and, 
trusting  too  much  to  his  own  seductive  manners,  he  went  close  to  his 
enemy  at  Peronne.  Scarcely  had  he  arrived  when  the  revolt  of 
Liege  broke  out.  Charles  learnt  that  the  populace  had  given  itself 
up  to  the  most  horrible  excesses  ;  that  the  bishop,  Louis  of  Bourbon, 
his  relation  and  his  ally,  was  massacred,  and  that  Louis  XI.  was  the 
author  of  the  sedition.  At  this  news  his  rage  knew  no  bounds  ;  he 
held  the  King  prisoner,  and  threatened  to  kill  him.  Louis  submitted 
Treat  of  Pe"  ^°  everytlnng  in  order  to  get  out  of  his  peril ;  he  signed 
ronne,  1468.  jfcQ  treaty  of  Peronne,  which  took  away  from  him  all 

sovereignty  in  the  states  of  Burgundy,  and  gave  to  his  brother 
Champagne  and  Brie  as  an  apanage ;  lastly,  he  oifered  to  the  Duke 
to  march  in  person  against  the  revolted  inhabitants  of  Liege.  On 
these  conditions  he  was  freed  ;  but  first,  he  was  witness  of  the  ruin  of 


1461-1483]  NEW  DANGERS   TO   LOUIS   XI.  311 

that  unfortunate  town  which  he  himself  had  incited  to  rebellion ;  he 
saw  a  part  of  its  inhabitants  massacred,  and  felicitated  Charles  on 
his  frightful  triumph. 

England  was  then  desolated  with  the  war  of  the  Two  Roses* 
Louis  XL,  having  taken  the  side  of  the  red  rose,  united  against 
Edward  IV.,  with  his  relative  Margaret  of  Anjou,  wife  of  Henry  VI. , 
and  with  the  famous  Earl  of  Warwick,  surname  d  the  King -maker. 
Edward,  conquered,  retired  to  Holland,  and  implored  the  assistance 
of  Duke  Charles,  his  brother-in-law.  Louis,  without  anxiety  on 
the  part  of  England,  followed  up  his  advantages.  He  convoked  an 
assembly  of  the  principal  inhabitants,  whom  he  took  care  to  choose 
himself,  says  Comines,  from  those  who  would  not  contradict  his 
wishes ;  and  he  caused  the  treaty  of  Peronne  to  be  annulled  by 
them,  under  the  pretext  that  Charles  had  onlv  imposed   _,.       .    .    , . 

'  . .       . r  J  r  The  principal  m- 

it  upon  him  by  causing  him  to  break  his  word.     Louis,   theiieXyof*1 
in.  disengaging  himself  from  his  obligations,  created  for   Perorme> 147U 
himself  new  dangers.     Edward  IV.,   assisted  by   Charles  the  Rash, 
had  retaken  his   crown ;   Henry  "VI.  and  his   son  were   „      , 

'  J  New  dangers  to 

assassinated  ;  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  called  into  France  Louls  XL 
the  English  monarch,  and  promised  Marie,  his  daughter  and  heiress, 
to  Charles  of  France,  Duke  of  Guienne,  who  had  recently  received 
that  province  from  Louis  XL  as  an  apanage.  The  Duke  of  Brittany 
renewed  his  intrigues ;  and  the  Constable  Saint  Pol  sold  his  services 
to  the  two  parties,  seeking  to  raise  himself  at  the  expense  of  one  or 
the  other. 

The  King  thus  saw  himself  threatened  with  a  new  storm,  when  his 
brother  fell  ill,  and  died  after  some  months  of  suffering.  Louis  was 
accused    of  poisoning  him,    and  did   not   deny  it,   and   _  ._     .    ..  . 

x  °  J  Sudden  death  to 

his  memory  is  stained  with  the  crime.  The  Duke  of  hls  brother. 
Burgundy  soon  caused  his  troops  to  march  into  Picardy,  massacred 
the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Nesle,  and  spread  terror  before  his 
.steps.  But  the  admirable  defence  of  Beauvais,  where  Jeanne 
Hachette  immortalized  herself  by  her  courage,  arrested  his  army, 
while   the    King  negotiated   separately   with   each   of  the  rebellious 

*  This  name  was  given  to  the  Civil  War  because  the  two  houses  which  contested  the 
throne,  those  of  York  and  Lancaster,  both  issuing  from  Edward  III.,  bore  in  their 
coat  of  arms,  the  first  a  white  rose,  and  the  second  a  red  rose. 


312  VENGEANCE  OF  LOUIS  XI.  [Book  III.  Chap.  II. 

princes,  and  attached  to  himself  by  his  liberality  the  two  cleverest 
men  of  their  party,  the  Lord  of  Lescun,  favourite  of  the  Duke  of 
Brittany,  and  Philip  de  Comines,  confidant  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy. 
The  manoeuvres  of  Louis  spread  division  among  the  chiefs  of  the 
league :  the  Duke  of  Brittany  signed  a  new  truce,  and  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy  marched  against  the  Constable  Saint  Pol,  who  had  seized  on 
his  own  account  the  town  of  Saint  Quentin.  The  King  took  advantage 
from  that  moment  of  every  opportunity  to  crush  some  of  his  enemies. 
He  caused  the  Duke  of  Alencon  to  be  tried  and  condemned  to  death, 
for  the  second  time,  by  the  Parliament  of  Paris.     The 

Vengeance  of  '      J 

Louis  xi.  Cardinal  La  Balue  owed  his  fortune  to  Louis  XL,  and 

had  betrayed  him ;  he  was  shut  up  in  an  iron  cage,  eight  feet  square, 
invented  by  the  Cardinal  himself,  and  there  he  remained*  a  prisoner 
for  ten  years.  Lastly,  Cardinal  Albi,  John  Goffredi,  formerly  Bishop 
of  Arras,  and  a  famous  inquisitor  in  Flanders,  where  he  had  perpetrated 
atrocious  barbarities,  was  ordered  by  the  King  to  punish  the  guilty 
Count  of  Armagnac,  one  of  the  supporters  of  the  League  of  the  Public 
Good,  and  who,  in  marrying  his  own  sister,  had  added  incest  to  all 
his  other  crimes.  Besieged  in  the  town  of  Lectoure,  he  gave  himself 
up  to  the  Cardinal,  who  had  promised  hint  safety  for  his  person,  and 
who  caused  him  immediately  to  be  stabbed  before  the  eyes  of  his  wife, 
who  was  enceinte ;  he  caused  her  to  be  poisoned ;  "and  the  dreadful 
Goffredi,  wishing  to  exterminate  every  witness  of  his  perjury,  gave 
orders  that  all  the  inhabitants  of  Lectoure  should  be  massacred,  and 
the  town  itself  given  up  to  the  names. 

Edward  IV.,  King  of  England,  drawn  over  by  the  Duke  of 
Brittany,  was  then  in  France  with  a  numerous  army;  Charles,  his 
ally,  seconded  him  badly,  and  the  English  remained  isolated  in  the 
kingdom.  Louis  XL,  always  more  prompt  to  negotiate  than  to 
fight,  gained  over  by  his  bribes  the  confidence  of  Edward,  and  was 
prompt  in  signing  with  him  a  truce  of  nine  years.  The  King  gave 
seventy- five  thousand  crowns,  ready  money,  to  Edward, 

Mercantile  J  "*  * 

truces,  1475.  an(j  engaged  to  pay  sixty  thousand  every  year  until  a 

projected  marriage  between  the  Dauphin  and  the  daughter  of  the 
English  monarch  could  be  accomplished.  Charles,  abandoned  by 
the  English,  also  signed  with  Louis  a  truce  for  nine  years.  Each 
of  these  two  enemies  sacrificed  on  that  occasion  those  on  whom  his 


1461-1483]  CONQUEST   OP   LORRAINE.  313 

adversary  wished  to  take  vengeance :  Charles  delivered  to  the 
scaffold  the  Constable  Saint  Pol;  Louis  abandoned  his  ally,  Rene, 
Duke  of  Lorraine,  whose  inheritance  Charles  the  Rash  coveted.  Con- 
temporaries saw  a  matter  of  traffic  only  in  these  two  truces,  and  they 
were  called  the  Mercantile  Truces. 

Sovereign  of  the  duchy  of  Burgundy,  of  the  Free  County,*  of 
Hainaut,  of  Flanders,  of  Holland,  and  of  Ghieldre,  Charles  wished,  by 
joining  to  it  Lorraine,  a  portion  of  Switzerland,  and  the  inheritance  of 
old  King  Rene,  Count  of  Provence,  to  recompose  the  ancient  kingdom 
of  Lorraine,  such  as  it  had  existed  under  the  Carlovingian  dynasty; 
and  nattered  himself  that  by  offering  his  daughter  to  Maximilian, 
son  of  Frederick  III.,  he  would  obtain  the  title  of  king. 
Deceived  in  his  hopes,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  tried  means  to  take 
away  Lorraine  from  the  young  Rene.  That  province  was  necessary 
to  him,  in  order  to  ioin  his  northern  states  with  those    „         ,   „ 

'  o  Conquest  of 

in  the  south.  The  conquest  was  rapid,  and  Nancy  cSStheRasii 
opened  its  gates  to  Charles  the  Rash ;  but  it  was  14/6, 
reserved  for  a  small  people,  already  celebrated  for  their  heroic  valour 
and  by  their  love  of  liberty,  to  beat  this  powerful  man.  Irritated 
against  the  Swiss,  who  had  braved  him,  Charles  crossed  over  the  Jura, 
besieged  the  little  town  of  Granson,  and,  in  despite  of  a  capitulation, 
caused  all  the  defenders  to  be  hanged  or  drowned.     At 

.  Battles  of  Gran- 

this   news   the    eight    cantons   which    then    composed   sou  and  of 

°         t  r  Morat,  1476. 

the  Helvetian  republic  arose,  and  under  the  very 
walls  of  the  town  which  had  been  the  theatre  of  his  cruelty  they 
attacked  the  Duke  and  dispersed  his  troops.  Some  months  later, 
supported  by  young  Rene  of  Lorraine,  despoiled  of  his  inheritance, 
they  exterminated  a  second  Burgundian  army  before  Morat.  Charles, 
vanquished,  reassembled  a  third  army,  and  marched  in  the  midst 
of  winter  against  Nancy,  which  had  refallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
Swiss  and  Lorraines.  It  was  there  that  he  perished,  betrayed  by  his 
mercenary  soldiers,  and  overpowered  by  numbers.  His  corpse  was 
found  naked  and  pierced  with  wounds,  lying  in  a  frozen  Death  of  Charles 

tlic  Rtisli  before 

pool ;  u-iid  the  people  learned  with  transports  of  delight  Nancy,  1477. 
that  they  were  freed  from  a  tyrant  as  cruel  as  he  was  formidable. 

*  The   imperial   county  of  Burgundy   had   acquired   by  its  strong  position    in    the 
mountains  a  kind  of  independence,  from  which  came  the  name  of  the  Free  County. 


314  TREATY  OF  ARRAS.         [Book  III.  Chap.  II. 

At  this  news  Louis  immediately  seized  the  duchy  of  Burgundy, 
and  many  fortified  towns  on  the  Somme,  on  the  pretext  that  they 
were  masculine  fiefs,  and  he  claimed  the  guardianship  of  the  daughter 
of  Charles,  Mary  of  Burgundy.  His  cruelty  excited  him  in  propor- 
tion as  his  security  increased.  The  Duke  of  Nemours,  of  a  younger 
branch  of  the  Armagnacs,  formerly  an  accomplice  of  his  enemies, 
was  his  prisoner.     The  Kino-  caused  him  to  be  tried  by 

Execution  of  the  ... 

Duke  of  Ne-        the    Parliament,  to  which  he  added  commissioners  en- 

mours. 

riched  beforehand  with  the  spoils  of  the  unfortunate 
Duke.  Nemours  was  condemned  to  death,  and  Louis  ordered  that 
his  children  should  be  placed  upon  the  scaffold  during  the  execution 
of  their  father  and  be  sprinkled  with  his  blood.  He  caused  them 
afterwards  to  be  thrown  into  dungeons,  where  they  were  subjected 
to  horrible  tortures. 

The  perfidy  and  ferocity  of  the  King  raised  all  the  new  states 
which  he  had  seized  against  him.  Soon  a  powerful  enemy  threatened 
him.  This  was  Maximilian  of  Austria,  recently  united  to  Mary  of 
Burgundy,  and  who  claimed  her  heritage.  The  bloody  and  in- 
Battie  of  Gui  -  decisive  battle  of  Gruinnegate,  given  in  1479  by  the 
negate,  1479.  French  to  the  Flemish  and  Burgundian  troops  of 
Maximilian,  was  followed  by  a  long  truce ;  and  four  years  later,  on 
the  death  of  Mary,  young  Marguerite  of  Austria,  her  daughter, 
then  two  years  old,  was  promised  to  the  Dauphin.  The  treaty  of 
Arras,  concluded  by  Louis  with  the  states  of  Flanders  and  the 
Treat  of  Arras  Emperor,  confirmed  to  him  the  possession  of  the  duchy 
uvo  Burgundies  °^  Burgundy,  of  the  Free  County  or  county  of  Bur- 
^?h°the  crown  g,imdy,  an(^  ^ne  counties  of  Macon,  Charolais,  Auxerre, 
1482'  and  Artois. 

Old  Rene  of  Anjou,  sovereign  of  Lorraine  and  Provence  and 
titular  King  of  Naples,  had  died  a  few  years  before.  This  prince, 
whose  goodness,  generosity,  and  love  of  fetes  had  gained  for  him 
the  name  of  "  Grood  King  Bene,"  had  for  a  long  period  abdicated 
the  ducal  crown  of  Lorraine  in  favour  of  Rene,  the  son  of  his 
eldest  daughter.  He  left  by  will  the  rest  of  his  estates  to  his  nephew 
Charles  of  Maine,  the  last  male  scion  of  the  second  house  of  Anjou. 
He  only  survived  his  uncle  a  short  time ;  he  died  without  children, 
and  bequeathed  his  domains  in  France  and  his  rights  to  the  crown 


1461-1483]  SUPEESTITION   OF  LOUIS  XI.  315 

of  Naples  to  Louis  XI.,  who  had  already  obtained  from  Reunion  of  the 

1  states  of  the 

the  King*  of  Aragon,  as  a  pledge  for  a  loan  of  two  hun-   second  house  of 

s  &       '  .  Anjou  with  the 

dred  thousand  crowns,  Roussillon  and  Cerdagne.  crown,  i48i. 

However,  the  King  was  growing  old,  and  trembled  at  the  thought 
of  dying.  After  having  deceived  every  one,  he  sought  to  deceive 
himself.     Free  from  the  cares  which  politics  had  given 

Terrors  and 

him,  he  appeared  to  be  consumed  by  a  fierce  and  gloomy  superstition  of 
melancholy.  Shut  up  in  his  chateau  of  Plessis-lez- 
Tours,  his  ordinary  residence,  dreading  the  approach  of  his  confidants 
and  the  members  of  his  family,  he  redoubled  his  precautions  and 
executions.  Ten  thousand  mantraps  were  disseminated  through 
the  avenues  of  the  chateau,  round  which  wandered  unceasingly 
the  grand  prevot,  Tristan  the  Hermit.  Every  suspected  man  was 
hanged  or  drowned  without  trial.  Scotch  archers  watched  on  the 
walls  and  struck  fatally  all  those  who  approached  within  reach  of 
their  arrows  ;  and,  while  the  neighbourhood  of  the  royal  residence 
resounded  with  the  cries  of  so  many  victims,  the  monarch,  whose 
fanatical  devotion  equalled  his  cruelty,  multiplied  his  pilgrimages, 
despoiled  his  people  in  order  to  enrich  the  churches,  caused  relics  to 
be  brought  at  great  expense  from  all  parts,  and  prayed  to  God  and  the 
saints  to  prolong  his  miserable  life.  The  Virgin,  above  all,  was  the 
object  of  his  particular  worship  ;  he  invented  for  her  the  prayer  called 
the  Angelus  ;  he  created  her  Countess  of  Boulogne ;  and  he  did  not 
meditate  an  act  of  perfidy  or  cruelty  without  having  implored  her 
assistance  first.  He  was  the  first  who  bore  constantly  the  name  of 
Very  Christian;  and  no  man  showed  more  clearly  to  what  aberration 
a  superstitious  faith  separated  from  all  morality  will  lead.  No  oath 
was  sacred  for  him  unless  it  had  been  taken  under  the  cross  of 
Saint  L6,  which,  he  believed,  had  been  made  from  a  piece  of  the  true 
cross.  His  strange  superstitions  were  those  of  his  time,  when  it 
was  generally  supposed  that  certain  practical  externals  of  devotion 
were  sufficient  to  efface  the  most  enormous  crimes. 

This  King,   so  much  dreaded,  had  joined  to  the  crown  Berry,  the 
apanage  of  his  brother,   Provence,   the  duchy  of  Bur- 
gundy, Anjou,  Maine,  Ponthieu,  the  counties  of  Auxerre,    the  crown  under 
of  Macon,  Oharolais,  the  Free  County,  Artois,  Marche, 
Armagnac,    Cerdagne,   and   Roussillon.*      He    survived   the  greater 

*  The  seven  latter  provinces  did  not.  yet  remain  irrevocably  united  with.  France  :  one 


316  DEATH  OF  LOUIS  XI.  [Book  III.   Chap.  II. 

part  of  his  enemies,  and  when  the  tomb  had  closed  over  those  who 
conld  have  destroyed  his  work,  God,  whom  he  had  so  much  offended, 
did  not  permit  him  to  enjoy  it.  He  died  on  the  30th  of  Angnst,  1483, 
Death  of  leaving   the   sceptre   to  his  yonng   son,   Charles.     This 

Louis  xl,  1843.  q^h^  na(j  excited  his  suspicions.  Louis  had  left  him  in 
ignorance  in  order  that  his  ambition,  which  he  feared,  might  be  less 
dangerous ;  and  he  only  taught  him  one  single  sentence  of  the  Latin 
language,  which  was  a  faithful  resume  of  his  policy  : — ■ 

Qui  nescit  dissimulare  nescit  regnare.4' 

France  was  indebted   to    Louis   XI.    for   many   wise   institutions, 

nearly  all  created  with  the  design  of  centralizing  the  action  of  power 

and  beating  down  the  remainder  of  the  feudality.     To  attain  this 

end,  he  tried  to  establish  in  the  kingdom  uniformity  of 

Ordinances  of  .. 

Louis  xl   Posts,  customs,    and   of  weights    and   measures ;    he    created 

New  Parliaments.  #  m  ' 

posts,  establishing  on  the  great  roads  couriers,  solely 
destined  to  carry  public  news  to  the  King,  and  to  carry  his  orders  ;  he 
replaced  the  corps  of  free  archers  by  Swiss  corps,  and  some  privileged 
companies  by  a  Scotch  guard.  Louis  XL  instituted  three  new 
parliaments,  at  Grenoble,  Bordeaux,  and  Dijon.  The  most  remark- 
able edict  of  his  reign  is  that  which  declared  judicial  offices  to  be 

held  for  life.  That  edict  founded  the  independence 
Qf  the  judicial       and  the  power  of  the  parliaments,  but  was  not  inspired, 

however,  by  love  of  justice  ;  for  no  one  more  often  than 
Louis  XL  had  recourse  in  his  criminal  trials  to  commissions  and  to 
illegal  and  violent  means.  Under  his  reign  legislature  became  a 
science ;  the  schools  acquired  new  life,  and  letters  obtained  a  con* 
sideration  which  they  had  not  enjoyed  up  to  that  time. 

Louis  sought  for  a  long  time,  but  in  vain,  to  gain  the  hearts  of  the 
people  by  the  simplicity  of  his  manners  and  the  familiarity  of  his 
conversations  with  men  of  humble  condition.  He  was  more  hated 
than  any  of  his  contemporary  princes ;  not  that  they  were  much  less 
perfidious  or  cruel,  but  they  appeared  to  commit  evil  by  a  blind  and 
brutal  instinct,  while  Louis  was  ferocious  in  cold  blood,  and  submitted 
crime  to  calculation.     Jealous  of  all  superiority,  he  placed  round  him 

part  was  given  anew  in  apanage,  and  the  other  part  restored  to  foreign  sovereigns,  and 
only  returned  one  "by  one  to  the  Crown  of  France. 

*  "  He  who  knows  not  how  to  dissimulate  knows  not  how  to  reign." 


1461-1483]  INVENTION    OF   PRINTING.  317 

only  obscure  men.  John  Cottier,  his  physician ;  Olivier  le  Dain,  his 
barber  ;  and  Tristan  the  Hermit,  the  grand  prevot,  whom  he  called 
his  gossip, — these  were  his  confidants.  There  had  not  been  a  great 
man  during  his  reign ;  but  history  has  preserved  to  us  the  beautiful 
answer  addressed  to  the  King  by  the  first  president,  John  de  la 
"Vaquerie.  That  magistrate,  considering  that  a  royal  edict  was  con- 
trary to  the  public  welfare,  presented  himself  before  Louis  XI.  at 
the  head  of  his  corps.  "  What  do  you  wish  ?  "  said  the  King  to 
him.  "  The  loss  of  our  offices,"  answered  La  Vaquerie,  "and  even 
death,  rather  than  betray  our  consciences." 

Printing,  which  was  about  to  change  the  face  of  the  world,  was 
invented  in  Germany  during  this  reign.  That  invention,  of  which 
many  countries  dispute  the  honour,  is  generally  attri-  _.  ,.  n  f 
buted  to  John  Gutenburg,  of  Mayence.  Louis  XL,  at  rnntin=- 
the  request  of  two  theologians,  caused  the  first  French  printing  press 
to  be  established  at  Sorbonne.  He  gave  encouragement  to  scholars, 
founded  universities,  and  opened  manv  schools  of  law 

...  Schools. 

and   medicine.       The  learned  Philip   of   Comines,    who 

lived  for  a  long  time  in  his  intimacy,  was  the  historian  of  his  reign. 

Louis   XL    also   protected   commerce,    created    manufactories   for 
precious  stuffs,  respected  the  value  of  the  coinage,  and   „ 

r  -  Commerce  and 

permitted  the  nobles  to  devote  themselves  to  commerce  industlT- 
without  derogating  from  their  position  ;  but,  although  he  lived  without 
pomp,  and  exercised  towards  himself  a  sordid  parsimony,  he  exhausted 
his  kingdom  by  gifts  to  those  whom  he  wished  to  gain,  to  corrupt, 
or  to  maintain  faithful.  The  taxes,  which  only  rose  in  the  time  of 
Charles  VII.  to  eighteen  hundred  thousand  livres,  were   T,  .  . 

°  liaising  of  the 

raised  under  his  successor  to  four  millions  seven  hundred   taxes- 
thousand,  a  prodigious  sum  for  a  time  when  public  credit  did  not 
exist,  and  when  agriculture,  commerce,  and  industry,  the  sources  of 
public  wealth,  were  still  in  their  infancy. 

The  principal  work  of  Louis  XL  was  the  abasement  of  the  second 
feudality,  which  had  raised  itself   on  the  ruins  of  the     - 

-i-ii  i  -,    Abasement  of 

first,  and  which,   without  him,   would  have  replunged   the  nobles  under 

.  .  r        o         Louis  XI. 

Prance   into    anarchy.       The    chiefs    of    that    feudality 

were,    however,    more   formidable,     since,    for   the    most   part,    they 

belonged   to   the   blood   royal    of   Prance.     Their   powerful   houses, 


318  FOREIGN  POSSESSIONS   IN   FRANCE.  [Book  III.  Chap.  II. 

which  possessed  at  the  accession  of  that  prince  a  considerable  part 
of  the  kingdom,  were  those  of  Orleans,  Anion,  Burgundy, 

Feudal  houses.  &  '  Via 

and  Bonrbon.  They  found  themselves  much  weakened 
at  his  death,  and  dispossessed  in  great  part,  as  we  have  seen  in  the 
history  of  the  reign,  by  confiscations,  treaties,  gifts,  or  heritages. 
By  the  side  of  these  houses,  which  issued  from  that  of  France, 
there  were  others  whose  power  extended  still,  at  this  period,  in 
the  limits  of  France  proper,  over  vast  domains.  Those  of  Luxem- 
bourg and  La  Marck  possessed  great  wealth  upon  the  frontier  of  the 
north  ;  that  of  Yaudemont  had  inherited  Lorraine  and  the  duchy 
of  Bar ;  the  house  of  La  Tour  was  powerful  in  Auvergne ;  in  the 
south  the  houses  of  Foix  and  Albert  ruled,  the  first  in  the  valley  of 
Ariege,  the  second  between  the  Adour  and  the  Pyrenees.  In  the 
west  the  house  of  Brittany  had  guarded  its  independence  ;^but  the 
moment  approached  when  this  beautiful  province  was  to  be  for 
ever  united  with  the  crown.  Lastly,  two  foreign  sovereigns  held 
possessions  in  France :  the  Pope  had  Avignon  and  the  county 
Venaissin ;  and  the  Duke  of  Savoy  possessed,  between  the  Rhone  and 
the  Saone,  Bugey  and  Valromey.  The  time  was  still  distant  when 
the  royal  authority  would  be  seen  freely  exercised  through  every 
territory  comprised  in  the  natural  limits  of  the  kingdom.  But 
Louis  XL  did  much  to  attain  this  aim,  and  after  him  no  princely 
or  vassal  house  was  powerful  enough  to  resist  the  crown  by  its  own 
forces,  and  to  put  the  throne  in  peril. 


1483-1498]  CHARLES   VIII.  319 


CHAPTER  III. 

REIGN   OF   CHARLES   VIII. 

1483-1498. 

Charles  VIII.,  son  and  successor  of  Louis  XI.,  mounted  the  throne 
at  the  age  of  thirteen  years.  He  had  two  sisters,  of  whom  the  eldest 
was  married  to  the  Lord  of  Beaujeu,  of  the  house  of  Bourbon.  She 
had  intellect,  and  certain  traits  of  the  character  of  her  father,  who 
had  preferred  her  to  his  other  children,  and  had  specially  charged 
her  and  her  husband  to  direct  the  new  King.  Jeanne,  his 
youngest,  not  favoured  by  nature,  was  married  to  her  cousin  the 
Duke  of  Orleans.  Charles  had  passed  a  part  of  his  solitary  youth  in 
the  chateau  of  Amboise,  where  long  illnesses  had  deformed  his 
body.  Kept  by  his  father  in  profound  ignorance  of  everything,  he 
did  not  know  how  to  fix  his  attention  on  anything.  Incapable  of 
application  and  of  discernment,  and  feeling  his  weakness,  he  lived 
for  a  long  time  in  guardianship,  though  he  was  fully  of  age  when 
his  father  died,  having  attained  his  fourteenth  year. 

Anne  of  Beaujeu,  profiting  by  the  influence  which  long  custom 
had  given  her  over  her  brother,  preserved  the  guardianship  of  his 
person,  and  took  possession  of  the  power  conjointly  with  her  husband. 
This  authority  was  soon  disputed  by  the  Dukes  of  Orleans  and 
Bourbon,  and  the  Count  of  Clermont,  all  three  princes  of  the  blood 
royal  and  chiefs  of  the  feudal  reaction.  The  first  was  heir  pre- 
sumptive to  the  throne,  and  the  second  eldest  brother  of  the  Lord 
of  Beaujeu.  At  last,  in  order  to  put  an  end.  to  their  dangerous 
rivalries,  with  one  accord  the  States-General  were  convoked  at 
Tours.  The  deputies  separated  themselves  into  six  com-  states.Generalof 
mittees  under  the  name  of  the  "  Six  Nations,"  France  (He  1484, 
de  France),  Burgundy,  Normandy,  Aquitaine,  Languedoc,  and  Langue- 
doil  (centre  province),  and  showed  themselves  in  most  respects 
worthy  of  the  States  of  1356  under  King   John.     They  laid   their 


320  MEETING  OF  THE    STATES- GENERAL.  [Boon  III.  Chap.  II. 

hands  on  all  abuses,  described  all  the  reforms,  and  invoked  the 
ancient  French  constitution,  which,  however,  was  only  written  in 
the  hearts  of  men,  and  existed  only  in  name.  The  order  of  the 
clergy  demanded  the  liberties  of  the  Grallican  Church,  contrary  to 
the  wish  of  the  bishops  ;  the  nobility  claimed  anything  that  could 
restore  to  it  its  ancient  military  importance ;  the  third  estate 
solicited  the  abolition  of  prevotal  justice,  the  diminution  of  the 
costs  of  law,  the  moderation  of  the  tolls,  and  the  surety  of  the  roads ; 
then,  presenting  the  picture  of  the  miseries  of  the  people,  it  entreated 
the  King  to  reduce  the  expenses,  and  above  all  to  abolish  the  land-tax 
(tattle),  affirming  that  the  inhabitants  of  many  of  the  districts  of 
France  had  fled  to  Brittany  or  to  England.  "  Others,"  they  said, 
"  were  dead  of  hunger  ;  others- in  their  despair  had  killed  their  wives 
and  children  and  then  themselves  ;  lastly,  a  great  number  who  had 
been  robbed  of  their  cattle  were  themselves  harnessed  to  the  waggon 
with  their  children  ;  many,  in  order  to  escape  the  seizure  of  their 
oxen,  only  dared  to  labour  in  the  fields  by  night." 

Louis  XI.  had  stretched  his  jurisdiction  too  strongly,  and  the  reac- 
tion broke  out  in  every  part.  The  whole  of  France,  by  the  mouth  of 
its  deputies,  demanded  a  return  to  the  government  of  Charles  VII. 
Emboldening  themselves  by  degrees,  the  States  dared  to  deliberate  on 
the  opportunity  of  a  permanent  council  of  guardianship,  taken  from 
their  midst,  to  be  charged  with  the  direction  of  affairs  in  the  name  of 
the  King.*  However,  when  threatened  by  the  princes,  the  States  grew 
weak,  and  committed  themselves  to  the  wisdom  of  the  infant  prince 
to  grant  their  requests.  They  named  the  Duke  of  Orleans  president  of 
the  council,  gave  the  second  place  to  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  constable, 
and  gave  the  third  to  the  Lord  of  Beaujeu ;  they  decided  that  the 

*  It  was  in  the  course  of  this  discussion  that  an  orator,  the  Lord  of  La  Roche,  deputy 
of  the  nobility  of  Bui-gundy,  pronounced  the  following  words :  —  "Royalty  is  an  office, 
not  an  inheritance.  It  was  the  sovereign  people  who  originally  created  kings.  The 
state  is  the  affair  of  the  people  ;  sovereignty  does  not  belong  to  princes,  who  only 
exist  through  the  people.  Those  who  hold  the  power  by  force,  or  in  any  other  manner, 
without  the  consent  of  the  people,  are  usurpers  of  the  rights  of  another.  In  case  of 
minority  or  incapacity,  public  affairs  return  to  the  people,  who  retake  them  as  their 
own.  The  people — that  is,  the  universality  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  kingdom,  the 
States-General — are  the  depositaries  of  the  will  of  the  kingdom.  An  act  could  only  take 
the  force  of  law  by  the  sanction  of  the  States ;  nothing  is  holy,  nothing  solid,  without 
their  approval." — Journal  des  Etats-Generaux. 


1483-1498]  LEAGUE    OF   THE    PRINCES.  321 

States  alone  had  the  right  to  tax  the  people,  ordered  redactions  in 
the  army,  and  voted  a  tax  of  twelve  hnndred  thonsand  livres  for  two 
years,  declaring  that  at  the  expiration  of  that  period  it  wonld  be 
necessary  to  convoke  them  anew,  in  order  to  arrange  that  the  tax 
should  be  kept  np.  They  established  these  principles  without  taking 
any  of  the  guarantees  necessary  to  cause  them  to  be  observed.  Soon 
the  discussions  degenerated  into  shameful  quarrels  concerning  the 
redivision  of  the  land-tax  in  the  provinces.  Profiting  by  these 
divisions  and  the  lassitude  of  the  deputies,  the  princes  promised 
everything  for  the  King,  and  hastened  to  dismiss  the  States.  "No 
promise  was  kept,  and  none  of  the  wishes  expressed  heard  favourably. 
The  Duke  of  Orleans,  a  young  prince  less  occupied  with  business 
than  pleasure,  was  soon  removed  by  his  sister-in-law,  Anne,  from 
the  council,  of  which  the  deputies  had  named  him  president ;  and  the 
kingdom  was  governed  by  a  woman,  who  held  her  title 

Anne  of  Beaujeu 

to  power  neither  by  the  wish  of  the  States  nor  the  laws   governs  the  king- 

1  J  m  dom. 

of  the  kingdom.     The  wisdom  and  vigour  with  which 
this   princess    employed   the   royal   authority    caused   the   people   to 
forget  that  she  had  usurped  it;  but  a. league  was  formed  against  her, 
composed  of  the  princes  of  the  blood  roval :  at  their  head   T  ,  , 

r  x  J  League  of  the 

figured  the  Dukes  of  Orleans  and  Bourbon,  the  Prince  Princes>  U35- 
of  Orange,  Philip  de  Comines,  and  the  Count  of  Dunois,  son  of  the 
famous  bastard  of  that  name,  and  the  most  skilful  negotiator  of  his 
century.  These  confederates,  less  guilty  in  having  struggled  against 
the  usurpation  of  the  regency  than  in  opening  the  kingdom  to 
foreigners,  called  to  their  aid  Maximilian  of  Austria,  and  Francis  II. 
Duke  of  Brittany. 

That  province  was  a  prey  to  anarchy.  The  old  Duke  Francis  II., 
nearly  imbecile,  reigned  only  in  name.  He  had  given  all  his  con- 
fidence to  the  son  of  a  tailor  named  Landais,  whom  he  had  made 
his  treasurer  and  favourite.  The  nobles  of  Brittany,  irritated  by  the 
tyrannical  yoke  of  this  parvenu,  were  leagued  ^  together  against  him 
and  against  their  duke.  Anne  of  Beaujeu,  always  acting  in  the  nam 
of  the  King,  made  an  alliance  with  them.  She  united  herself  in  a 
similar  manner  with  Rene  of  Lorraine  and  the  Flemings,  who  had 
revolted  at  this  period  against  Maximilian  of  Austria,  their  sovereign. 

Richard   III.,    of    the   house    of  York,    then  reigned  in  England. 

Y 


322  END    OF    THE    WARS    OF    THE    KOSES.      [Book  III.  Chap.  III. 

Tutor  to  his  nephews  at  the  death  of  Edward  IV.,  he  had  commenced 
by  contesting  their  birth,  and  then  caused  them  to  be  killed.  The 
Dukes  of  Orleans  and  Brittany  united  themselves  with  this  monster, 
and  for  the  price  of  his  assistance  engaged  to  deliver  up  to  him 
Henry  of  Richmond,  a  prince  of  the  royal  race,  and  avenger  of  the 
Lancastrians,  who  was  then  taking*  refusre  on  the  continent.  Anne  of 
Beaujeu  supported  this  prince,  and  furnished  him  with  troops,  with 
which  he  disembarked  in  England.  Soon  the  battle  of  Bosworth, 
,  where    Richard   III.    perished,    assured   the   throne    to 

End  of  the  War  of       _  r  ' 

the  Two  Roses  in   kis   rival.       Henry    of    Richmond,    grandson   of    Owen 

England.  J  '     & 

Tudor  and  Catherine  of  Valois,*  was  recognized  King 

of  England  in  1485.     He  had  married  Elizabeth  of  York,  and  thus 

reunited    in    person    the    risrhts    of    the    two    families 

Accession  of  the 

House  of  Tudor,    between   whom   the  kingdom  had  been  divided   for  so 

1485.  ° 

many  years.  The  Wars  of  the  Two_  Roses,  or  of  the 
houses  of  York  and  Lancaster,  ended  at  his  accession  to  the  throne. 
About  the  same  time  the  Breton  nobles  triumphed.  They  seized 
Landais  in  the  very  chamber  of  their  sovereign,  who  delivered  him  up 
while  asking  for  mercy  ;  it  was  in  vain :  Landais  was  condemned  to 
death  and  executed,  and  the  feeble  Francis  II.  approved  of  the  sentence. 
Anne  of  Beaujeu  profited  skilfully  by  the  success  of  her  allies. 
civil  war  in  ®ne  s"°-bdued  the  south,  and  took  Guienne  away  from  the 

trance,  i486.  Count  of  Commingle,  who  had  embraced  the  side  of 
the  princes.  The  latter  were  in  consternation.  Dunois  reanimated 
their  courage ;  he  addressed  many  princes  far  distant  from  one 
another,  to  whom  he  gave  hopes  of  gaining  the  hand  of  the  daughter 
of  the  Duke  of  Brittany,  heiress  of  the  duchy.  It  was  thus  that 
lie  flattered  one  by  one,  and  drew  over  to  or  maintained  on  his  side, 
Alain  d'Albret,  the  Lord  of  Beam,  Maximilian  of  Austria,  recently 
elected  King  of  the  Romans,  and  the  powerful  Yiscount  of  Rohan. 
However,  Anne  caused  her  brother  to  summon  to  the  throne,  in  the 
Parliament  of  Paris,  the  leagued  princes  and  the  principal  nobles  of 
their  party.  They  did  not  appear  ;  and  in  the  month  of  May  following 
a  sentence  was  issued  by  which  Count  Dunois,  Lescun,  Count  of  Com- 

*  Catherine,  after  the  death  of  Henry  V.,  had  married,  a  second  time,  a  Welsh 
gentleman  named  Tudor,  a  descendant  on  the  female  side  from  the  third  son  of 
Edward  III.,  John  of  Gfaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster. 


1483-1498]  TREATY   OF   SABLE.  323 

minge,  Philip  de  Comines,  the  Lord  of  Argenton,  and  many  other 
nobles,  were  condemned  as  being  guilty  of  high  treason  against  the 
King.     JSTo  sentence  was  pronounced  against  the  princes. 

Anne  followed  up  her  advantages.     She  entrusted  the  royal  army 
to  La  Tremouille,  who  marched  into  Brittany  and  met 

^  .  Battle  of  Saint 

the    army    of    the    princes    near    to     Saint    Anbin    du   Aubindu 

J  r  m  Cormier,  1487. 

Cormier.  Marshal  de  Bieux,  the  Lord  d'Albret,  and 
Chateaubriand  commanded  it ;  the  Duke  of  Orleans  and  the  Prince 
of  Orange  were  in  its  ranks.  They  engaged  in  battle ;  it  was 
gained  by  La  Tremouille,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  union  of 
Brittany  with  France.  The  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  Prince  of  Orange, 
and  a  great  number  of  nobles  were  taken  prisoners.  The  conqueror 
invited  them  to  his  table,  and  when  the  repast  was  finished  two 
Franciscan  monks  entered  the  saloon.  The  guests  were  struck  with 
stupefaction :  La  Tremouille  rose  and  said,  "  Princes,  I  send  back 
your  sentence  to  the  King  ;  but  you,  knights,  who  have  broken 
your  faith  and  falsified  your  oath  of  chivalry,  you  will  expiate  your 
crime  with  your  heads.  If  you  have  any  remorse  in  your  con- 
sciences, here  are  two  monks  to  confess  you."  The  saloon  resounded 
with  sobs ;  the  knights,  supplicating,  embraced  the  knees  of  the 
princes,  who,  seized  with  horror,  remained  immovable.  The  con- 
demned were  led  out  into  the  courtyard  and  put  to  death.  The 
Duke  of  Orleans  and  the  Prince  of  Orange  were  led  back  into 
France,  where  Anne  held  them  prisoners.  The  treaty  _ r  ..  g  w^ 
of  Sable,  concluded  in  the  same  year,  suspended  hos-  1487- 
tilities  between  France  and  Brittany. 

The  Constable,  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  was  dead  ;  his  brother,  Lord  of 
Beaujeu,  had  inherited  his  title  and  all  his  power.  Anne,  who  had 
become  Duchess  of  Bourbon,  lived  after  the  battle  of  Saint  Aubin 
du  Cormier  in  possession  of  an  authority  which  ceased  to  be  con- 
tested. This  princess  had  had  for  a  long  time  in  view  the  union 
of  Brittany  with  the  crown.  No  project  could  be  more  useful  to 
the   kingdom,    which   was    constantly  in   peril  through 

.  Death  of  the 

the  independence  of  that  great  fief.     A  few  months  after   Duke  Francis  n. 

Different  parties 

the   signature   of  the   treaty    of    Sable,  old  Francis   II.    in  Brittany, 
died.     Charles    VIII.     claimed      the     guardianship     of 
his   daughters,     of    whom.    Anne,    the    eldest,    was    scarcely   twelve 

y  2 


324  MARRIAGE    OF    CHAELES    YIII.  [BOOK  III.  Chap.  III. 

years  old.  While  princes  and  powerful  nobles  disputed  her  hand, 
many  parties  were  formed  in  Brittany,  where  the  different  aspi- 
rants called  for  assistance  from  the  English  and  Spaniards.  The 
latter,  sent  by  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  and  by  the  celebrated  Isabella 
of  Castile,  opposed  the  pretensions  of  the  Lord  d'Albret,  who  was 
supported  by  the  English.  All  were  leagued  against  France,  but 
very  much  weakened  through  anarchy.  Such  was  the  state  of  affairs 
in  the  duchy,  when,  in  1490,  the  young  Anne  of  Brittany,  in  order 
to  escape  from  her  persecutors,  consented  to  marry  the  King  of  the 
Romans,  Maximilian  of  Austria.  That  prince  was  absent,  and  the 
marriage  was  only  celebrated  by  procuration.  Deceived  in  his  hopes, 
the  Lord  d'Albret  betrayed  the  Bretons,  and  sold  to  Charles  YIII. 
the  town  of  ISTantes,  of  which  Jie  Avas  the  governor.  The  King 
obtained  new  advantages,  and  soon  after  surprised  Rennes,  where 
the  Duchess  was,  and  carried  her  off.  Then  was  seen  accomplished 
a  strange  fact  in  the  annals  of  history.  Anne  of  Brittany  and 
Charles  VIII.  were  married,  the  former  to  Maximilian,  and  the 
latter  to  Marguerite  of  Austria,  eleven  years  old,  daughter  of  the 
same  Maximilian  and  Mary  of  Burgundy ;  but  neither  of  the  two 
marriages  had  been  consummated.  Both  one  and  the  other  were 
annulled  by  the  Church,  and  Charles  YIII.  married,  in  1491,  Anne 
of  Brittany,  who  ceded  to  him  all  the  rights  of  sove- 

Charles  VIII.  .  . 

marries  Anne  of  reio-nty,  ^eneras'ine*  herself,    if  she  became   a  widoAv,   to 

Brittany,  who  8      ./>         8    8     8^  »        .  ^ 

cedes  to  him  her    marry  only  the  heir  to  the  kingdom.     In  the  following; 
rights  of  sove-  J  J  °  ° 

reignty  over  her  year  Charles  YIII.  promised  solemnly  to  respect  the 
privileges  of  the  Bretons ;  he  swore  that  he  would  not 
raise  any  subsidy  from  them  without  the  consent  of  the  States  of 
the  province,  that  no  Breton  should  be  called  into  judgment  except 
before  the  judges  of  his  country,  and  that  there  should  be  no  appeal 
from  the  Parliament  of  Brittany,  which  they  called  The  Great  Days, 
to  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  except  in  cases  of  denial  of  justice  or  false 
judgment. 

Charles,  who  was  twenty-two  years  of  age,  was  then  the  most 
powerful  sovereign  in  Europe.  Since  the  preceding  year  he  had 
thrown  off  the  prudent  guardianship  of  his  sister.  The  first  act 
of  his  authority  was  to  set  at  liberty  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  whom  she 
held  a  prisoner  in  the  tower  of   Bourges,  and  on  whom  he  heaped 


1483-1493]  HIS    CONCESSIONS   TO    FOREIGN   STATES.  325 

proofs  of  his  tenderness  and  confidence.  He  soon  abandoned  him- 
self to  his  chivalric  ideas,  and  dreamed  of  distant  enterprises  and 
conquests.     In   order  to   facilitate  the   execution  of  his   n         .       , 

^  Concessions  of 

adventurous  projects,  he  hastened  to  conclude  with  the  ^^efo-n111' 
principal  sovereigns  of  Europe  onerous  treaties,  by  which  sovereisus- 
he  sacrificed  some  of  the  most  precious  acquisitions  of  his  father. 
Maximilian  of  Austria,  whose  wife  he  had  carried  off  and  whose 
daughter  he  had  repudiated,  contemplated  a  startling  vengeance. 
Charles  VIII.  appeased  him  by  giving  up  to  him,  by  the  treaty  of 
Senlis,    the    counties    of    Burgundv   and   Artois.      The   „     ;     .  „    .. 

'.  o  J  Treaty  of  Senlis, 

King  of  England,  Henry  VII.,  whom  he  had  assisted  1493- 
in  conquering  his  kingdom,  repaid  him  with  ingratitude,  and,  having 
obtained  large  subsidies  from  his  people  in  order  to  make  war  against 
France,  he  besieged  Boulogne  with  an  army.  Charles  obtained  peace 
by  recognizing,  in  the  treaty  of  Etaples,  a  debt  of  seven  hundred 
and  forty-five  thousand  gold  crowns,  payable  to  that  avaricious 
monarch,  who,  according  to  the  expression  of  the  great  Bacon,  his 
historian,  made  his  people  pay  for  war  and  his  enemies  for  peace. 
He  lastly  gave  up,  in  the  same  hope,  by  the  treaty  of  Treat  f 
Barcelona,  to  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  and  Isabella  of  Barcelona> 1493- 
Castile,  vanquishers  of  the  Moors,  and  conquering  in  Grenada,  the 
counties  of  Boussillon  and  of  Cerdagne,  dearly  purchased  by  Louis  XI. 
In  peace  with  the  neighbouring  states  and  with  his  people,  Charles 
VIII.  saw  himself  able  to  satisfy  his  passion  for  distant  adventures 
and  chivalrous  conquests.  Brought  up  in  ignorance  of  men  and 
things,  possessing  no  historical  instruction,  incapable  of  all  calcu- 
lation and  of  all  foresight,  he  had  only  nourished  his  intelligence  by 
reading  romances  of  chivalry,  and  gave  himself  up  to  no  other  exercises 
than  those  of  jousts  and  tournaments.  His  imagination,  warmed  by 
the  recital  of  the  exploits  of  Charlemagne  and  of  the  Norman 
knights,  persuaded  him  that  he  was  called  upon  to  follow  their 
example.  He  thought,  they  say,  of  conquering  Constantinople;  but 
bounded  his  ambition  at  first  with  Italy  and  Sicily. 

Eor  a  long  time  Italy  had  excited  the  cupidity  of  the  French.  The 
successive  pretensions  of  the  two  houses  of  Anjou  had  called  over, 
since  the  time  of  Saint  Louis,  in  each  generation,  swarms  of  French  or 
Provencal  adventurers  to  that  beautiful  country.     Thos3  who  did  not 


326  STATE   OF  ITALY.  [Book  III.  Chap.  IIL 

fall,  returned  covered  with  brilliant  armour  made  in  Lombardy,   or 

with  sumptuous  stuffs  from  Florence.     They  boasted  of  the  delights 

of  a   splendid   climate,    of    the   exquisite   wines    of    the    South,    the 

wonders  of  industry  and  luxury,  and  of  all  the  wealth 

State  of  Italy  at  J  J 

*^  "uiof  the       that  had  tempted  them.     This  beautiful  country  seemed 

loth  century.  x  J 

an  easy  prey  to  seize,  in  the  midst  of  the  decadence 
and  servitude  of  all  Italy.  Venice  alone,  with  its  3,000  vessels,  its 
army  of  condottieri  well  paid  and  well  disciplined,  its  industry 
flourishing,  and  its  terrible  constitution,  the  safeguard  of  its  liberty, 
remained  independent  and  formidable,  extending  its  territories  from 
the  frontiers  of  Camiole  almost  to  those  of  Switzerland. 

The  kings  of  France  had  never  lost  sight  of  Italy;  Louis  XI., 
among  others,  sought  to  obtain  rights  over  it :  it  was  at  his  instiga- 
tion that  the  old  King  of  Naples,- Rene  of  Anjou,  designated  as  his 
heir  Charles  of  Maine,  his  nephew,  to  the  prejudice  of  Rene  II., 
Duke  of  Lorraine,  son  of  his  eldest  daughter.  Charles  of  Maine,  on 
taking  the  title  of  King  of  Naples,  named  Louis,  in  his  turn,  his 
sole  heir.  This  will  was  the  only  title  on  which  Charles  Till. 
rested  his  pretensions  to  the  crown  of  Naples  and  Sicily,  then 
possessed  by  a  prince  of  Aragon,  Ferdinand  I.,  son  of  Alphonso  the 
Magnanimous.* 

o 

There  was  always  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples  a  party  favourable  to 
the  house  of  Anjou,  and  which  was  called  the  Angevin  party.  It  was 
composed  for  the  most  part  of  barons  who  had  revolted  against  the 
atrocious  tyranny  of  Ferdinand.  They  appealed,  uselessly,  to  Rene  of 
Lorraine  to  come  into  the  kingdom ;  in  place  of  him  they  addressed  - 
themselves  to  Charles  VIII.,  and  offered  to  him  the  crown.  This 
prince  had  still  another  supporter  in'  Italy.  Louis  the  Moor,  son  of 
the  great  Francesco  Sforza,  was  all-powerful  at  Milan.     He  had  made 

*  The  Queen  of  Naples,  Jeanne  II.  of  Duras,  had  separately  adopted  Louis  IIL,  of 
the  second  house  of  Anjou,  and  afterwards  Alphonso  V.,  King  of  Aragon.  Louis  died 
while  disputing  the  inheritance  with  the  King  of  Aragon,  and  his  brother  Eene  succeeded 
to  his  lights.  The  struggle  continued  between  him  and  Alphonso,  who  ultimately  gained 
the  victory.  He  was  the  first  who  bore  the  title  of  King  of  the  Two  Sicilies.  It  was  known, 
in  fact,  that  from  the  time  of  the  Sicilian  Vespers,  Sicily  had  ceased  to  belong  to  Aragon. 
At  the  death  of  Alphonso  (1458),  the  kingdom  was  again  dismembered.  The  island 
returned  to  Aragon,  where  John  succeeded  his  brother,  and  Naples  remained  to  Fer- 
dinand, a  natural  son  of  Alphonso. 


1483-1498]  INVASION   OF  ITALY.  327 

himself  master  of  the  regency  of  this    duchy  in  1479,   supplanting 
in  power  Bonne   of   Savoy,  sister-in-law   of  Louis  XI.   Situationand 
and  mother  of  the  young  Duke  John   Galeas,  brutified  gS0°0fr^touis 
by  sensual  pleasures,  and  incapable  of  reigning  himself.   Mllan- 
Louis  the  Moor,  uncle  of  John  Galeas,  had  left  to  him  the  title  and 
apparel  of  sovereign  power ;  but  he  held  all  the  authority  in  his  own 
hands.     Afflicted  by  the  divisions  in  Italy,  he  thought  of  uniting  it 
into  one  body;  but  his  genius  provoked  the  jealous  hate  of  all  the 
sovereigns   of    that  country.       Threatened   by   the   Venetians,    and 
distrusting  the  new  Pope,  Alexander  VI.,  who  was  always  ready  to 
sell  himself  to  the  party  that  offered  most,  he  believed  that  he  needed 
the  support  of  the  French,  and  called  them  into  Lombardy. 

From  that  time  Charles  VIII.  no  longer  hesitated  ;  encouraged  by 
his  two  favourites,  the  Cardinal  Briconnet,  Bishop  of  Saint  Malo,  and 
of  Vesc,  Seneschal  of  Beaucaire,  and  vainly  opposed  hy  Anne  of 
Bourbon  and  her  husband,  he  resolved  to  depart.  Already  he  thought 
that  after  having  conquered  Italy  he  would,  through  the  Pope,  set 
free  the  Sultan  Zizim,  whom  his  brother  Bajazet  II.,  Emperor  of  the 
Turks,  had  driven  from  the  throne,  and  intended  with  the  support  of 
his  name  to  march  upon  Constantinople.  About  this  time  Ferdinand 
died  at  Naples,  leaving  two  sons — Alphonso  II.,  who  succeeded  him, 
already  celebrated  in  his  wars  against  the  Turks ;  and  Frederic,  to 
whom  his  brother  entrusted  the  command  of  the  Neapolitan  fleet. 

It  was  in  the  month  of  August,  in  the  year  1494,  that  the  French 
army  began  to  pass  over  the  Alps.     It  was  composed  of 
three   thousand    six    hundred    men-at-arms,    of    twelve    Charles  vnr.  for 

'  Italy.     First 

thousand   archers    or    cross    bowmen,     eight    thousand   hostlllties> 1494- 
Gascon  foot   soldiers   armed    with    arquebuses,   and    eight  thousand 
Swiss  and  Germans,  forming  in  all  thirty-two   thousand  men,   acconi-„ 
panied  by  a  formidable  artillery,  then  the  best  in  Europe.     Italy  rose 
at  their  approach. 

On  arriving  at  Milan,  the  King  saw  in  the  citadel  Duke  John 
Galeas,  who,  nearly  deprived  of  sense,  and  exhausted  by  his 
debauches,  was  sinking,  attacked  by  a  disease  which  poison  had 
probably  caused,  and  which  shortly  afterwards  bore  him  to  the  tomb. 
Louis  the  Moor  soon  took  the  title  of  Duke  of  Milan.  The  French 
army  continued  its  march  across   Lombardy,   and  arrived  upon  the 


328  FALL    OF    FLORENCE    AND    PISA.  [BOOK  III.  Chap.  III. 

territory  of  Florence,  where  some  places  which  barred  its  progress 
were  carried.  The  Swiss  committed  frightful  barbarities  there, 
massacring-  all  the  prisoners,  both  inhabitants  and  soldiers.  Terror 
went  before  the  army.  Alarmed  by  the  recital  of  these  atrocities, 
Peter  di  Medici,  son  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  and  chief  of  the 
Florentine  republic,  delivered  to  the  French  many  towns  and 
strong  castles.  The  people,  indignant,  rose  against  him,  while  that 
young  man,  incapable  and  presumptuous,  sought  a  refuge  in  Venice, 
and  the  Florentines  believed  themselves  free.  They  hailed  the 
French  with  acclamations  as  their  liberators.  Pisa  and  Florence 
opened  their  gates,  and  Charles,  admitted  into  the  towns  as  an  ally, 
entered  them  as  a  conqueror.  A  stranger  to  the  revolution  that  was 
being  enacted  around  him,  ignorant  of  the  motives  of  the  kind 
ci  ri  viii  t  recePJci°n  °f  ^ne  people,  he  spoke  as  a  master  to  their 
Florence,  1494.  deputies,  and  told  them  in  answer  to  their  friendly 
speeches,  that  he  did  not  know  yet  whether  he  would  give  them  as 
governors  the  Medici  or  French  counsellors.  The  indignation  of 
the  Florentines  was  at  its  height.  "If  it  be  so,"  said  Peter  Caponi, 
chief  of  the  deputation,  "  sound  your  trumpets,  and  we  will  sound 
our  bells."  The  people  ran  to  arms  :  the  houses  and  the  vast  palaces 
of  Florence  were  filled  with  soldiers.  Charles  VIIL  perceived  the 
danger,  and  renounced  his  pretensions.  He  recalled  Caponi,  obtained 
a  subsidy  to  help  him  in  his  enterprise,  and  promised  to  restore  at 
the  end  of  the  war  the  fortresses  delivered  up  by  the  Medici. 

Ferdinand,  son  of  Alphonso  II.,  charged  by  his  father  to  stop  the 
French,  was  supported  neither  by  the  Pope  nor  the  Florentines. 
Too  weak  to  struggle  alone,  he  recoiled  before  the  enemy,  and 
Charles  VIII.  arrived  almost  at  Home  without  drawing  sword. 
Alphonso,  whose  armies  melted  away  without  fighting,  reduced  to 
despair,  abandoned  his  people  and  his  throne,  and  thenceforth  only 
thought  about  his  treasures  and  his  conscience.  Minister  to  the 
cruelties  of  his  father,  he  saw  arranged  before  him  the  shadows  of 
his  victims,  and  recognized  the  hand  of  God  in  his  disasters. 
Agitated    by   a   superstitious    terror,    he    abdicated   in. 

Abdication  and 

tiight  of  favour  of  his  son  Ferdinand ;  then  he  embarked  with 

Alphonso  II.,  1495.       _ 

his  riches,  and  sailed  towards  Mazarra,  in  Sicily.     There 
he  shut  himself  up  in  a  house  of  the  religious  Olivetans,  passing  his 


1483-1498]  CHARLES    VIII.    ENTERS    NAPLES.  329 

clays  in  fasting  and  prayers  ;  he  died  during  the  same  year.  Fer- 
dinand II.  saw  his  army  seized  with  fear.  A  sedition  broke  out  in 
Naples.  He  left  in  order  to  calm  it  down,  and  entrusted  his  army 
to  the  Milanese  Trivnlzio,  who  betrayed  him,  and  sold  the  army  to 
Charles  VIII.  Ferdinand  only  came  back  in  time  to  be  witness  of  this 
infamous  treachery ;  he  returned  to  Naples,  which  shut  its  gates 
upon  him,  and  embarked  with  his  family  for  the  island  of  Ischia. 
Charles  VIII.  arrived  before  Naples,  all  of  the  privi-  E 
leges  of  which  he  confirmed,  and  made  a  triumphal  ^Jj^f  J^11' 
entry  into  the  town.  149°' 

The  French  warriors,  intoxicated  with  their  glory,  thought  only 
of  enriching  themselves  promptly.  Their  captains  had  demanded 
from  the  King  the  highest  dignities  and  the  most  important  fiefs  in  the 
kingdom,  and  Charles  refused  nothing.  He  knew  neither  the  names 
of  the  Angevin  barons  to  whom  he  owed  gratitude,  nor  those  of 
the  barons  of  Aragon,  the  proper  treatment  of  whom  was  of  great 
importance  to  him.  He  offended  all,  and  there  was  scarcely  a 
gentleman  whom  he  had  not  thrown  into  the  party  of  malcon- 
tents by  a  denial  of  justice  or  by  some  imprudent  outrage.  Still, 
the  storm  growled  behind  him.  The  powers  of  Europe  became 
alarmed  at  his  rapid  successes.  Spain,  Maximilian,  Venice,  and  the 
Pope  leagued  themselves  secretly  together  against  him,  Europeanleague 
and  the  soul  of  this  league  was  his  ancient  ally,  Louis  vlii8ty$*TlQa 
the  Moor.  The  conduct  of  the  French  in  his  respect 
was  as  injurious  as  it  was  rash.  Forgetting  his  services,  and  the 
need  that  they  still  had  for  him,  they  haughtily  reproached  him 
with  the  death  of  John  Galeas,  refused  to  recognize  his  title,  and  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,  invoking  the  rights  that  he  held  from  Valentina 
Visconti,  his  grandmother,  entitled  himself  the  Duke  of  Milan. 
Louis  the  Moor  only  waited  for  the  moment  of  vengeance,  and 
that  moment  soon  presented  itself.  Philip  de  Comines,  ambassador 
from  the  King  to  Venice,  was  informed  of  the  projects  of  this 
formidable  league,  and  hastened  to  give  a  warning  to  the  King, 
who  slept  upon  his  triumph  in  the  midst  of  the  most  frivolous 
and  foolish  occupations.  Charles  ordered  an  immediate  Retreatofth 
retreat,  and,  rejecting  the  offer  that  Ferdinand  II.  had  French- 
made  to  him  io  hold  for  him  in  fief  the  crown  of  Naples,  he  named 


330  EATTLE   OP  FOENOVO.  [Book  III.  Chap.  III. 

his   relation    Gilbert    de  Montpensier  viceroy   of  the  kingdom,   and 
entrusted  to  him  a  portion  of  the  army. 

The  Duke  of  Orleans,  whom  Charles  had  left  at  Asti  in  order  to 
preserve  communications  with  his  kingdom,  had  compromised  by 
his  imprudence  the  retreat  of  the  French.  Impatient  to  seize  the 
ducal  crown  of  Milan,  he  had  attacked  Louis  the  Moor,  who,  after 
having  repulsed  him,  held  him  in  blockade  at  ISTovarre.  All  Lom- 
bardy  arose ;  the  Venetian  army  arrived  and  united  itself  with  the 
Milanese ;  Francis  cli  Gonzaga,  Marquis  of  Mantua,  commanded  their 
united  forces,  and  the  retreat  was  cut  off.  The  French  army,  very 
inferior  in  numbers,  met  them  near  Fornovo ;  it  was  attacked  in 
the  pass  of  Taro,  and  gained  a  signal  victory.  This  battle  of 
Battle  of  FomoYo  ^'orilo^ro,  where  a  multitude  of  Italians  lost  their  lives, 
1495,  made  safe  the  retreat  of  Charles  VIII.     The  King,  by 

the  treaty  of  Verceil,  made  peace  with  Louis  the  Moor,  and  recog- 
Treaty  of  Verceii    I1^ze^  mm  as  Duke  of  Milan,  and  that  prince  declared 
himself  in  return  a  vassal  of  the  crown  of  France  for 
the  fief  of  Genoa.* 

While  Charles  returned  to  his  states, '  Ferdinand  and  Gonzalvo  of 
Cordova — the  conqueror  of  Grenada,  and  the  greatest  captain  of  his 
century — attacked  the  French  left  in  the  kingdom  of  jSTaples.  The 
The  French  lose  Y^CGT0Ji  Gilbert  de  Montpensier,  was  compelled  to 
Naples  and  Sicily,  evacuate  the  capital.  He  permitted  himself  to  be  shut 
up  in  Atella;  reduced  to  capitulation,  he  with  five 
thousand  soldiers  laid  down  their  arms,  and  engaged  to  leave  the 
kingdom  after  having  restored  all  the  captured  places  with  the 
reserve  of  Gaeta,  Venosa,  and  Tarentum.  An  epidemic  cut  down 
his  troops ;  he  himself  was  attacked  by  it,  and  died  at  Pozzuolo : 
barely  five  hundred  soldiers  survived  him.  Charles  VIII.  received 
the  news  of  these  disasters  at  Lyons  and  Tours,  in  the  midst  of 
licentious  fetes.  He  projected  a  second  expedition,  when  in  1498 
Death  of  Charles  ^e  was  s^ruc^  with  apoplexy,  in  consequence  of  a 
viii.,  149S.  violent   shock.     He  died   in   his    chateau   of  Amboise, 

at  the  age  of  twenty- eight  years. 

*  A-ter  the  revolt  of  1409,  the  republic  of  Genoa  was  given  anew  to  France.  Charles 
VIII.  ceded  it  to  the  Duke  of  Milan  ;  Louis  XII.  recovered  it ;  and  Francis  I.  lost  it 
definitively. 


1483-1498]  CHARACTER    OF   CHARLES   VIII.  331 

One  of  the  distinctive  traits  of  his  character  was  an  extreme 
kindness  of  disposition.  "  The  most  humane  and  the  sweetest  word 
of  man  that  ever  existed,"  wrote  Comines,  "was  his;  for  never 
did  he  say  to  any  man  a  thing  that  conld  displease  him."  His 
incapacity  was  generally  known,  and  his  military  successes  in  the  eyes 
of  his  contemporaries  were  looked  upon  as  prodigies.  His  gentleness 
and  goodness  were  appreciated ;  France  knew  that  there  was  good  in- 
tention in  that  which  he  wished  to  do  for  her,  and  dropped  tears  to 
his  memory.  He  had  in  the  space  of  two  years  lost  three  sons  at 
a  very  early  age.  The  Duke  of  Orleans,  grandson  of  the  brother 
of  Charles  VI.,  was  his  nearest  relative. 


332  LOUIS  XII.  [Book  III.  Chap.  IY. 


CHAPTER  IY. 

REIGN    OF    LOUIS    XII. 

1498-1515. 
The  Duke  of  Orleans  was  thirty-six  years  old  wlien  he  ascended  the 
Accession  of         throne  nnder  the  name  of  Louis  XII.     He  soon  took 
Louis  xil,  1498.   the  titles  of  King  of  France,  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  Two 

Sicilies,  and  Duke  of  Milan,  in  order  that  there  might  be  no 
doubt  in  Europe  as  to  his  pretensions  with  regard  to  Italy.  The 
accession  of  this  prince  restored  to  the  crown  the  apanage  of 
Orleans,  of  which  part  constituted  the  duchy  of  Orleans,  .the  county 
of  Blois,  and  that  of  Valois.  Louis  XII.  bestowed  the  latter  county 
in  apanage  on  Francis,  Count  of  Angouleme,  his  cousin,  and  who  was 
his  successor.  He  treated  with  kindness  La  Tremouille  and  his 
ancient  enemies,  saying  that  the  King  of  France  could  forgive  the 
injuries  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans ;  and  he  gave  all  his  confidence  to 
Georges  d'Amboise,  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  and  afterwards  cardinal. 

The  first  acts  of  Louis  XII.  were  wise  and  useful.  He  diminished 
the  taxes,  re-established  order  in  the  finances  and  the  administration, 
and  confirmed  an  ordinance  that  the  Chancellor  Guy  de  Roquefort  had 
made  Charles  VIII.  sign,  for  the  creation  of  a  sovereign  court  or 
great  council.  This  court,  composed  of  the  chancellor,  twenty 
m,    „     ,  counsellors,  ecclesiastical  or  lay,  and  the  masters  of  the 

The  Great  '  J  ' 

Council.  petitions  of  the  royal  mansion,  was   destined,  said  the 

King,  to  sustain  his  rights  and  prerogatives.  It  strengthened  and 
adjusted  the  royal  authority,  and  Louis  XII.  deserved  the  gratitude 
of  the  people  on  account  of  the  wise  reforms  which  it  brought  into 
the  legislation.  It  restrained  the  abusive  privileges  of  the  university, 
by  which  the  jurisdiction  of  the  tribunals  and  the  gathering  of  the 
taxes  were  continually  impeded.  The  four  faculties  assembled  on 
this  subject,  and  pronounced,  as  customary,  the  cessation  of  the 
studies  and   of    preaching.     The   King   and   his   ministers   severely 


1498-1515]  HIS   MARRIAGE.  SSS 

reprimanded  their  deputies.  The  struggle  lasted  for  eight  months, 
after  which  the  university  submitted,  and  ceased  to  have  recourse 
to  that  scandalous  expedient. 

Queen  Anne  had  retired  into  Brittany  soon  after  the  death  of 
Charles  VIII.,  her  husband,  and  hastened  to  make  an   Marriage  of  the 

,  „  ..,..  ,  IT"!-  Ki"S  Wlth  AllUe 

act  of  sovereignty  by  issuing  moneys  and  publishing  of  Brittany, 
edicts.  Her  duchy  was  about  to  escape  from  France  if 
she  did  not  espouse  the  King,  and  Louis  resolved  to  accomplish  this 
marriage.  He  was  .married  to  Jeanne,  daughter  of  Louis  XI. ;  and 
although  there  was  no  legal  motive  for  a  divorce,  he  solicited  from 
Pope  Alexander  VI.  the  rupture  of  the  first  engagement,  and  caused 
him  to  be  favourable  by  promising  the  duchy  of  Valentinois  to  Caesar 
JBorgia,  his  son.  Jeanne,  who  lived  apart  from  her  husband,  given  up 
Entirely  to  exercises  of  piety,  opposed  conscientiously  an  unexpected 
resistance  to  a  project  which  appeared  culpable  to  her,  and  the 
scandal  of  a  shameful  trial  became  public.  All  the  motives  alleged 
by  the  King  were  false  or  deceptive  ;  however,  the  judges  pronounced 
the  divorce,  and  the  dispensation  for  a  new  marriage  was  brought  to 
Louis  by  Csesar  Borgia,  who  delivered  to  Greorges  d'Amboise  the 
cardinal's  hat.  Louis  XII.  immediately  married  Anne  of  Brittany, 
and  the  contract  proved  that  he  had  again  acted  more  in  the  interest 
of  his  own  greatness  than  that  of  France,  for  the  duchy  was  not 
irrevocably  united  with  the  crown,  but  was  declared  transmissible  to 
the  second  child  of  the  Queen,  or,  in  default  of  a  second  child,  to  her 
nearest  heir. 

Soon  after  this  union,  Louis  made  his  claims  upon  the  Milanese 
profitable,  although  he  could  only  invoke  them  in  quality  of  being 
grandson  of  Valentina  Visconti.  The  duchy  of  Milan  was  an 
imperial  masculine  fief;  the  rights  invoked  by  Louis  XII.  were  there- 
fore void.  They  were  sustained  by  a  powerful  army,  which,  with  the 
support  of  the  Venetians  and  the  Pope,  subdued  the  Milanese  in 
twenty  days.     Louis  Sforza,  or  the  Moor,  abandoned  by   _ 

»>         J  7  7  J      Conquest  of 

all,    took    refuge    with     his    son-in-law,    the    Emperor   ^e  Milanese, 
Maximilian.        The    administration    of    the    French    at 
Milan  was    oppressive  ;    a  revolt  soon  broke  out ;  Louis  Sforza  re- 
turned with  imposing  forces,  and  La  Tremouille,  at  the  head  of  a  new 
army,  passed  into  Italy.     Louis  the  Moor  was  defending  Novarre  with 


334  WAR  WITH  SPAIN.  [Book  III.  Chap.  IV. 

numerous  troops  when  La  Tremouille  appeared  before  that  place. 
Swiss  fought  in  the  two  armies,  and  composed  the  principal  force  of 
Louis  ;  they  betrayed  him,  capitulated  shamefully  in  spite  of  him,  and 
delivered  him  up  to  the  French.  Louis  XII.  abused  the  rights  of  a 
conqueror  with  respect  to  his  prisoner ;  he  held  him  until  his  death 
locked  up  iu  the  tower  of  Loches  in  strict  captivity.  Master  of  the 
Milanese,  he  assisted  the  Pope  and  Caesar  Borgia  in  subduing  the 
Romagna  ;  then  he  turned  his  eyes  towards  Naples,  the  ephemeral 
conquest  of  Charles  VIII.,  where  Frederic,  in  1496,  had  succeeded 
his  nephew  Ferdinand  II. 

Louis   XII.    was   not   alone   in    covetiug   this   beautiful    country ; 
Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  King  of  Aragon,  wished  for  his  part.    In  spite 
of   the  ties  of   family  which  united  him   with  Frederic,  the   Kin< 
Treat  of  °^  ■^-rao0n  acceded  at   Grenada  to    a  secret    treaty  by 

Grenada,  1500.  which  Naples  and  the  Abruzzi  were  chosen  by  France 
and  the  southern  provinces  by  Spain. 

Frederic,  menaced  by  the  French  armies,  solicited  the  support  of  his 
relative,  that  same  Ferdinand  who  had  just  despoiled  him,  and  who 
hastened  to  send  to  him  the  celebrated  Gonzalvo  of  Cordova.  The 
latter  promptly  introduced  the  Spaniards  into  the  principal  fortresses, 
and  then  showed  to  the  unfortunate  Frederic,  so  shamefully  deceived, 
^    .  .  the  treaty  of  division.     The  war  between  the  despoilers 

War  between  J  x 

|Paj^eand  was  the  only  result  of  this  detestable  conquest.      The 

French  and  the  Spaniards  disputed  about  the  revenues  of 
the  kingdom,  and,  when  Gonzalvo  believed  that  he  was  strong  enough, 
hostilities  broke  out.     He  gained  two  consecutive  victories,  the  one  at 
Aubigny,  in  Seminara,  and  the  other  at  Cerignoles,  where  the  Viceroy 
Nemours,  the  last  of  the  Armagnacs,  perished,  and  the 

Battle  of  .  .  . 

cerignoles,  French  only  preserved  in  the  kingdom  the  single  town 

of  Gaeta.  Louis  XII.  assembled  three  new  armies,  of 
which  two  marched  upon  Spain ;  the  third  advanced  towards  Naples, 
when  suddenly  the  death  of  Alexander  VI.  unsettled  all  Italy ;  Caesar 
Borgia  fell  dangerously  ill  at  the  same  time.  The  illness  of  Caesar 
Borgia  at  the  moment  of  his  father's  death  annulled  his  power  and 
took  from  him  all  the  fruit  of  his  iniquitous  intrigues.  Louis  XII. 
lost  his  most  powerful  ally  in  Italy  in  the  person  of  Alexander  VI. ; 
and   the  irascible  Julius  II.,   successor  to  the  Pontiff,  soon  created 


1498-1515]  TREATY   OF   BLOIS.  335 

for  him  in  that  country  new  perils  and  insurmountable  obstacles. 
The  French  army,  commanded  by  the  Marquis  of  Mantua,  was  for  a 
long  time  held  in  check  by  Gronzalvo  on  the  banks  of  the  Garillan ; 
but  at  last,  when  attacked  by  that  great  captain,  it  took  to  flight. 
Gaeta  opened  its  gates  to  the  Spaniards,  and  the  French  were  every- 
where repulsed,  in  spite  of  the  exploits  of  La  Palisse,  of  Aubigny, 
of  Louis  d'Ars,  of  D'Aligre,  and  the  heroic  valour  of  the  Chevalier 
Bayard,  the  most  celebrated  amongst  these  illustrious 
warriors.  The  kingdom  of  Naples  was  thus  lost  a  S^Sn^dom^f 
second  time  to  France.  Naples. 

While  France  experienced  in  the  exterior  such  great  reverses,  a 
greater  danger  threatened  her  in  the  interior.  Queen  Anne,  an 
ambitious  and  haughty  princess,  altogether  occupied  with  the 
interests  of  her  family,  was  little  affected  by  the  grandeur  and 
prosperity  of  the  kingdom.  She  wished  for  her  daughter  Claude, 
heiress  of  the  duchy  of  Brittany,  a  husband  who  had  in  per- 
spective the  sceptre  of  universal  monarchy,  and  destined  for  her 
young  Charles  of  Austria,  who  was  then  Charles  Quint. 

This  prince,  son  of  the  Archduke  Philip,  sovereign  of  the  Low 
Countries,  inherited  Spain  through  his  mother,  Jeanne  the  Foolish ; 
and  Louis  XII.,  by  the  secret  treaty  of  Blois,  ceded  to  him,  as  a 
dowry  for  the  Princess  Claude,  Brittany,  part  of  the  in-  . 

heritance  of  the  dukes  of  Burgundy  united  with  France,  1505- 
all  his  rights  over  the  Milanese,  and  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  The 
King  signed  this  treaty,  which  would  have  rendered  him  guilty  of 
treason  towards  France  if  Louis  when  signing  it  had  had  the  use 
of  his  reason ;  but  he  was  then  dangerously  ill  at  Blois  :  it  was 
thought  that  his  end  was  approaching,  and  the  Queen,  only  thinking 
of  her  own  interests,  arranged  immediately  for  her  retirement  into 
Brittany.  Already  had  she  embarked  on  the  Loire  with  her 
treasures,  when  the  Marshal  of  Grie,  governor  of  Angers,  and  super- 
intendent of  the  education  of  young  Francis  of  Angouleme,  prevented 
her  flight,  which  threatened  to  infringe  the  integrity  of  the  king- 
dom. He  caused  the  vessels  laden  with  the  riches  of  the  Queen  to  be 
seized,  and  signified  to  her  that  he  would  arrest  her  if  she  passed 
beyond  the  boundary.  Louis  XII.  recovered  ;  but  the  Marshal,  accused 
of  the  crime  of  high  treason  against  the  crown  for  this  act  of  firmness, 
was  punished  by  the  loss  of  his  offices. 


336  LEAGUE   OP   CAMBRAY.  [Book  III.  Chap.  IV. 

Feudalism  expired.  However,  such  was  still  the  respect  for  its 
customs  that  in  the  year  1505  Louis  XII.  did  homage  to  the  Emperor 
Maximilian  for  the  duchy  of  Milan,  and  made  him  an  oath  of 
obedience.  In  the  following  year  he  received  from  the  States- 
General  assembled  at  Tours  the  surname  of  Father  of  the  People? 
and  was  entreated  by  them  to  marry  his  daughter 
Princess  Claude     Claude    to    his    cousin   Francis,    Count    of    Angouleme, 

with  Francis  of  .  .  .  .    , 

Anprouieme.  heir  presumptive  to  the   crown.*     This   request   antici- 

Definite  union 

of  Brittany  with   pated  the   secret  desire  of  the  King,   who,  reproaching 

France,  1506. 

himself  with  the  sad  treaty  of  Blois,  had  already  seized 
an  opportunity  to  break  it.  He  heard  with  favour  the  wish  of  the 
States,  and  the  royal  betrothals  were  immediately  celebrated. 

Louis  XII.,  in  spite  of  his  reverses,  had  always  fixed  his  eyes  on 
Italy.  Genoa  then  was  in  submission  to  the  French,  who,  carrying  into 
that  republic  all  the  prejudices  of  the  feudal  nobility,  were  indignant 
at  seeing  the  bourgeois  exercising  the  power  conjointly  with  the 
nobles.  The  latter,  sustained  by  the  French  Government,  insulted 
the  people,  and  walked  about  with  poignards  upon  which  they  had 
caused  to  be  engraved  an  insulting  device.  The  people  revolted, 
took  a  dyer  for  Doge,  and  drove  away  the  French, 
chastises  revolted   Louis  XII.   swore   that  he  would  have   vengeance,  and 

Genoa,  1507.  . 

soon  appeared  under  the  walls  of   Genoa  with  a  brilliant 
army.     He  entered,  sword  in  hand,  into  the  vanquished  city,  caused 
seventy-nine  of  the  principal  citizens  together  with  the  Doge  to  be 
hanged,    and   pardoned   the  others,  burdening  them  with    a   tax   of 
three  hundred  thousand  florins,  a  sum  sufficient  to  ruin  the  republic. 

Venice  served  as  the  bulwark  for  France  against  Germany,  and 
had  shown  itself  her  faithful  ally  in  the  campaign  of  Italy.  The 
King  ought  to  have  kept  on  good  terms  with  Venice  as  much  for 
policy  as  for  gratitude ;  but  the  hate  which  animated  the  sovereigns  of 
Europe  against  republics  stifled  every  other  sentiment  in  the  heart 
of  Louis  XII.  He  excited  without  motive  the  Emperor  Maximilian, 
the  Pope,  and  the  King  of  Aragon,  against  the  Venetians.  The 
Cardinal  d'Amboise  was  the  soul  of  this  league,  known  under  the 
League  of  Ca  -  name  0I"  ^ne  League  of  Cambray,  a  town  where  the 
bray,  1509.  treaty  of  alliance  was  signed  between  those  sovereigns 

and   Louis   XII.     The   French   soon   marched  against  Venice,    and 

*  Louis  XII.  had  no  male  chill. 


1498-1515]  COUNCIL  OP  PISA.  337 

gained  the  victory  of  Agnadel.     The  King,  putting  in  practice  the 
odious  principles  of  the  Florentine  Machiavelli,  subdued  _  ...     .  . 

-l  Jr  7  Battle  of  Agna- 

his  enemies  by  terror  and  treated  the  vanquished  with  del> 1509- 
pitiless  cruelty.  The  Venetian  state,  as  far  as  the  lagunes,  was  soon 
conquered.  But  the  design  of  Pope  Julius  II.  was  to  make  the  pon- 
tifical state  dominant  in  Italy,  to  free  the  Peninsula  from  the  foreign 
yoke,  and  to  constitute  the  Swiss  guardians  of  its  liberties.  He 
had  only  entered  with  regret  into  the  treaty  of  Cambrai,  in  order  to 
subdue  some  places  in  the  Romagna,  and  through  jealousy  with  regard 
to  the  Venetian  power.  It  was,  however,  only  with  the  assistance  of 
the  Venetians  that  he  could  deliver  Italy  from  its  most  dangerous 
enemies.  He  connected  himself  with  them  after  their  reverses,  and, 
detaching  himself  from  the  League  of  Cambrai,  he  formed  another, 
which  he  called  The  Holy,  with  the  Venetians,  the  Swiss,  and  Ferdi- 
nand the  Catholic.     All  together  attacked  the  French ;   _   _  . 

o  '    The  Holy 

nevertheless   the   latter  obtained  some  brilliant  advan-   Lea&ue>  151°- 
tages  under   the   young   and   impetuous    Gaston    de   Foix,  Duke    of 
Nemours,  nephew  of  the  King,  who  achieved  three  victories  in  three 
months.     The  glorious  battle  of  Ravenna,  where  this  hero  of  twenty- 
three   years,    "  a   great  captain   before   he   had   been  a  '    ...    ,  „ 

•r  7  -o  r  Battle  of  Raven- 

soldier,"*  perished,  dying  at  the  moment  of  his  triumph,   na> 1512- 
was  the  end  of  the  successes  of  Louis  XII.  in  Italy. 

A  council  held  at  Pisa  by  some  schismatic  cardinals,  partisans 
of  the  king  of  France  and  the  emperor,  had  suspended  c 
the  authority  of  the  Pope.  Louis  XII. ,  in  spite  of  the  1511- 
scruples  of  his  conscience  and  the  profound  discredit  which  fell 
upon  this  council,  had  caused  its  declaration  to  be  published  in 
France,  in  the  hope  of  compelling  the  Pontiff  to  sue  for  peace. 
The  inflexible  Julius  II.  responded  to  this  boldness  on  the  part  of 
the  King  by  signing  the  Holy  League,  and  by  convoking  the  council 
of  Lateran,  where  eighty-three  bishops  from  all  parts  of  Christendom 
recognised  him  as  head  of  the  Church.  New  disasters  for  France 
marked  out  the  course  of  that  year,  Genoa  revolted,  and  elected  as 
doge  Janus  Fregosi,  proscribed  by  the  French.  Ferdinand  the 
Catholic  conquered  Navarre,  where  the  house  of  Albret,  an  ally  of 
France,  reigned.     Julius  II.,  however,  did  not  enjoy  for  any  length. 

*  Gfuicciardini. 


338  THE   BATTLE   OP  THE   SPUES.  [Book  III.  Chap.  IV. 

of  time  the  disgrace  of  Louis.  He  died  in  1513 ;  and  the  cardinal 
de  Medici,  as  great  an  enemy  of  France,  succeeded  him,  under  the 
name  of  Leo  X.  Taught  by  experience,  Louis  XII.  at  last  became 
reconciled  with  Venice,  and  united  himself  with  that  republic  by 
the  treaty  of  Orthez,  while  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  Henry  VIII. 
king  of  England,  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  and  the  Pope  formed 
T  ,  the  coalition  called  the  League  of  Malines  against  him. 

League  of  a  o 

Maimes,  1513.  ^a  Tremouille  conducted  into  Lombardy  a  French  army, 
which  was  defeated  by  the  Swiss  at  ISTovara :  it  recrossed  the 
Alps,  abandoning  the  Venetians  to  themselves,  and  Italy  was  lost 
for  ever. 

The  English  army  then  gained  in  Artois  the  battle  of  Gruinegate, 
known  in  history  under  the  name  of'  the  Journee  des  ej>erons 
(Battle  of  the  spurs)  on  account  of  the  complete  rout  of  the  French 
Battle  of  Guine-  -^0Yal  troops.  The  most  illustrious  captains,  and 
gate,  1513.  among   others   La   Palisse,  Bussy   d'Amboise,    and   the 

Chevalier  Bayard,  were  taken  prisoners.  Pressed  at  the  same 
time  by  the  Swiss,  who  beseiged  Dijon,  by  the  Spaniards,  and  by 
the  English ;  deprived  of  his  ally  by  the  death  of  James  IV.  King 
of  Scotland,  killed  at  the  battle  of  Flodden ;  and  lastly,  tormented 
by  his  conscience,  Louis  XII.  renounced  the  schism,  abandoned 
the  Council  of  Pisa,  removed  to  Lyons,  and  signed,  in  1514,  a  truce 
at  Orleans  with  the  Pope  and  all  his  powerful  enemies. 
Hostilities  ^ke   cos*  an(^  ^e  misfortunes  of  so  many  wars  had    ■ 

truce  ofeo5eanse  comPened  the  King  to  increase  the  taxes,  to  reclaim 
1514,  his  gratuitous  gifts,    and  alienate   his    domain.     Queen 

Anne  was  no  more,  and  in  order  to  insure  peace  between  England 
and  France,  Louis  demanded  and  obtained  in  marriage  the  hand  of 
Mary,  sister  to  Henry  VIII.,  engaging  himself  to  pay  during  ten 
years  a  hundred  thousand  crowns  per  annum  to  the  English 
monarch.  This  marriage  between  a  young  princess  of  sixteen 
Death  of  Lo  xi  years  an^  a  man  of  fifty- three,  exhausted  and  sickly, 
xil,  1515.  wag  fatal   to   Louis  XII.     He   died,  without   leaving  a 

son,  on  January  1,  1515,  a  few  months  after  the  celebration  of  his 
marriage. 

Many  brilliant  sayings  and  traits  of  courage  are  narrated  of  this 
prince.     At  the  battle  of  Agnadel,  when  the  Venetian  artillery  was 


1498-1515]  CHARACTER   OF  LOUIS  XII.  339 

directed  towards  the  position  where  lie  was,  it  was  said  to  him  that  he 
exposed  himself  too  much.  "  Not  at  all,"  said  he,  "  I  have 
no  fear;  but  whosoever  is  afraid,  let  him  put  himself 
behind  me."*  Louis  XII.  loved  the  people,  and  sustained  without 
prodigality  the  dignity  of  his  crown.  He  was  economical ;  his  court 
accused  him  of  being  avaricious,  and  caused  him  to  be  represented 
as  such  on  the  stage.  He  heard  of  it  without  anger  :  "I  like  better," 
he  said,  "to  see  my  courtiers  laughing  at  my  avarice  than  to  see 
my  people  weeping  at  my  extravagance."  He  had  recourse  to  a 
dangerous  expedient  —  the  sale  of  the  public  posts  —  in  order  to 
increase  his  revenues  without  burdening  the  people  ;  still,  he  did 
not  extend  this  practice  to  the  offices  of  judicature.  The  importance 
of  the  parliament  of  Paris,  already  diminished  under  the  preceding 
reigns  by  the  creation  of  the  parliaments  of  Toulouse,  Grenoble, 
Bourdeaux,  and  Dijon,  was  again  weakened  under  Louis  XII.  by  the 
creation  of  the  parliaments  of  Rouen  and  Aix.  The  wise  regulations 
of  the  King  for  the  administration  of  justice  and  the  finances  ren- 
dered him  worthy  of  the  great  name  of  Father  of  the  People,  which 
the  States  of  Tours  had  bestowed  upon  him.  In  1510  he  had  lost 
his  minister  and  friend,  the  cardinal  Georges  d'Amboise, 

7  °  7        Georges 

who  had  the  rare  happiness,  for  a  prime  minister,  to  see  d'Amboise. 
his  name  blessed  by  the  people.  "  Let  no  one  interfere  with  Georges," 
said  they.  Archbishop  of  Rouen  and  friend  of  the  arts,  he  covered 
Normandy  with  elegant  structures,  the  first  attempts  of  the  Renais- 
sance, and  he  would  have  merited  a  place  in  the  rank  of  great 
citizens,  if  his  counsels  for  foreign  policy  had  not  drawn  France,  his 
king,  and  himself  into  a  fatal  course,  in  which  a  wise  and  good 
prince  and  a  devoted  minister  were  to  be  seen  abandoning  towards 
strangers  the  maxims  which  made  their  glory  in  the  interior  of  the 
kingdom. 

The  example  and  the  principles  of  Louis  XII.  had  made  a  school 
in  Europe,  and  diplomacy  was  born  before  the  science  of  the  rights 
of  the  peoples  was  known  and  respected.  Nations  believed  that 
they  had  no  moral  duty  to  fulfil  towards  one  another,  and  thought 
that  personal  interest  and  success  justified  fraud,  treachery,  and  the 
most  atrocious  violence.     The  celebrated  Florentine  Machiavelli  had 

*  Memoires  de  Brantome. 

z  2 


340  STATE   OF  EUROPE.  [Book  III.  Chap.  IV. 

made  a  science  of  this  frightful  policy,  of  which  the  most  famous 
disciples  were  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  Alexander  -VI.,  and  the 
execrable  Ca3sar  Borgia,  his  son,  the  hero  of  Machiavelli.  Louis  XIL 
Policy  of  Louis  was  their  Twal  in  violence  and  perfidy,  bnying,  betray- 
X1L  ing,  and  sacrificing  peoples  withont   scruple  according 

to  the  interest  of  the  moment.  He  only  gathered,  as  did  the  most 
part  of  these  sovereigns,  bitter  fruits  from  so  many  shameful  acts. 
It  was  still  necessary  that  Europe  and  its  kings  should  suffer  long- 
calamities  before  finding  out  that  nations,  like  individuals,  are  allied; 
between  themselves  by  sacred  obligations,  and  that  morality  alone,, 
in  strict  union  with  policy,  can  guarantee  to  them  peace  and  security. 
During  the  century  which  had  just  passed  away  the  world  had 
put  on  a  new  aspect.     Great,  wars   had   weakened  the 

General  consider- 
ations upon  aristocracv,  rallied   the    people   round  their  sovereigns-,. 

Europe  in  the  . 

15th  century.  an(j  giyen  a  prodigious  development  to  the  sentiment  of 
national  independence.  The  three  great  nations,  Spain,  England, 
and  France,  had  become  firmly  constituted,  and  all  authority  had 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  kings.  The  military  republic  of  the 
Swiss  was  elevated  for  a  short  time  by  the  fall  of  the  house  of  Bur- 
gundy, but  the  powerful  republican  states  of  the  North  and  of  the 
South  had  disappeared.  The  Hanseatic  League,  composed  of  eighty 
towns,  occupying  all  the  southern  borders  of  Germany,  had  lost  its 
commercial  preponderance,  which  had  passed  to  the  rival  towns  of 
the  Lower  Rhine  and  Belgium,  then  subject  to  the  house  of  Austria, 
of  which  Frederic  III.  and  Maximilian  founded  the  future  greatness. 
Venice  was  humiliated,  Florence  and  Genoa  were  enfeebled.  In  the 
midst  of  this  fusion  of  all  political  powers  into  one  only,  under  the 
triumph  of  the  monarchical  principle  in  Europe,  there  germinated  the 
seed,  of  the  greatest  revolution  which  has  shaken  the  Christian  world. 
This  event  was  the  emancipation  of  human  thought,  of  which  up  to 
that  time  spiritual  power  had  restrained  the  flight. 
.  The  Catholic  Church  was  the  only  authority  generally  recognized 
which  had  survived  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire.  She  alone  had 
been  able  to  subdue  the  barbarians,  to  struggle  effectually  against 
state  of  the  ^e  frightful  anarchy  of  that  period  by  the  principles 

Church.  0£  or(jer  an(j  0f  Christian  virtue  and  by  the  merit  of  a 

great  part  of  her  clergy  ;  she  alone  thus  preserved  a  power  of  social 


1498-1515]  ADVANCEMENT   OF   CIVILIZATION.  341 

organization  in  the  midst  of  the  general  upheaving,  and  founded  the 
governments  of  the  Middle  Ages  by  arrogating  to  herself  an  all- 
powerful  authority  over  human  reason  at  a  time  when  men  recog- 
nized no  other  law  between  them  than  that  of  brute  force.  It  was 
thus  that  the  Romish  Church  fulfilled  a  double  mission,  which  was 
that  of  constituting  modern  society  on  a  Christian  basis,  and  of  giving 
to  it  the  tie  of  a  common  faith,  powerful  enough  to  enable  Europe 
to  stem  the  flood  of  the  Mussulman  invasion,  the  destroyer  of  Chris- 
tianity in  Asia.  "When  this  double  aim  was  attained,  and  when  the 
Church  had  directed  the  reaction  of  the  crusades,  a  thousand  causes 
threatened  her  power  each  day,  while  a  rival  authority  grew  great 
at  her  side.  The  theological  disputes  raised  by  the  great  schism  of 
the  West  provoked  among  the  faithful  the  progress  of  the  spirit  of 
examination.  Already  the  clergy  were  no  longer  looked  upon  as  the 
only  dispensers  of  knowledge,  the  fall  of  Constantinople  had  dispersed 
the  writings  of  antiquity  over  the  whole  of  Europe.  The  expeditions 
into  Italy,  so  unfortunate  in  a  political  sense,  introduced  the  French 
nation  to  a  more  advanced  civilization,  to  an  acquaintance  with  the 
masterpieces  of  Raphael  and  of  Michael  Angelo,  and  to  the  treasures 
of  a  literature  created  by  Boccaccio,  Dante,  and  Petrarch,  and  recently 
enriched  by  Machiavelli  and  Ariosto.  The  admiration  excited  by 
ancient  literature  and  by  that  of  Italy  inspired  the  taste  for  philo- 
logical studies  ;  and  lastly,  printing,  newly  invented,  powerfully 
seconded  the  work  of  investigation,  of  research,  and  of  examination, 
and  spread,  with  an  unheard-of  rapidity,  all  the  new  opinions.  During 
this  period,  and  almost  without  interruption,  the  throne  of  Rome  was 
occupied  by  a  succession  of  pontiffs  whose  minds  were  little  conformed 
to  the  spirit  of  Christianity.  After  Alexander  VI.  appeared  Julius  II., 
the  warrior  pope,  whose  ambitious  pride  caused  streams  of  blood 
to  pour  forth  ;  the  magnificent  and  frivolous  Leo  X.  came  afterwards, 
and  added  to  the  afflictions  of  the  Church.  Meanwhile,  some  bold 
reformers,  Wycliffe  in  England,  John  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague  in 
Germany,  had  reproduced  some  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Waldenses, 
and  the  horror  excited  by  the  funeral  pile  of  John  Huss  prepared  the 
way  for  new  reformers,  when  the  odious  traffic  in  indulgences  com- 
menced. The  building  of  the  magnificent  structures  of  Leo  X.,  and 
above  all,  of  the  church  of  Saint  Peter  at  Rome,  required  immense 


342  ORIGIN   OF   THE   REFORMATION.  [Book  III.   Chap.  IV. 

sums.  The  Pope  sold  his  pardons  to  the  faithful ;  monks  by  his  order 
overran  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  sold  the  Roman  indulgences  in 
the  wine-houses  and  places  of  debauch.  Luther  then  appeared.  This 
Origin  of  the  famous  man,  a  monk  of  the  order  of  the  Augustins, 
Reformation.  thundered  against  the  culpable  traffic  of  the  pontifical 
court,  and  tried  to  reform  the  abuses  of  the  Church.  It  was  this 
circumstance  that  gave  the  name  JReforin  to  the  revolution  that  he 
worked.  It  required  nearly  two  centuries  to  accomplish  it,  and  its 
origin  dates  from  the  period  when  feudalism  expired  in  France,  and 
when  monarchical  power  obtained  its  highest  degree  of  influence 
in  the  great  states  constituted  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

This  epoch  is,  moreover,  that  of  the  greatest  enterprises  and  the 
most  celebrated  inventions.  The  Genoese  Christopher  Columbus 
ra.        .     .        had  discovered  America  in  1492,  and  had  afiven  a  new 

Discoveries,  tac-  '  & 

tics,  diplomacy.  WOrld  to  Spain;  and  soon  after,  in  1497,  the  Portuguese 
Vasco  di  Gama  found  the  route  to  India  by  doubling  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.  Maritime  commerce  quitted  the  Mediterranean  Sea  in 
order  to  cover  the  ocean  with  its  fleets ;  new  military  tactics  were 
created ;  the  use  of  gunpowder,  which  had  become  generally  spread, 
entirely  took  away  from  the  aristocracy  their  superiority  of  strength  ; 
diplomacy  had  sprung  into  existence  ;  the  sovereigns  began  to  com- 
prehend that  it  was  necessary  to  balance  mutually  their  influence  in 
order  to  prevent  the  most  powerful  from  aggrandizing  themselves  at 
the  expense  of  the  weakest ;  lastly,  printing  was  about  to  establish 
new  and  indestructible  bonds  between  men.  All  the  forces  created 
by  the  great  discoveries  of  the  fifteenth  century  were  to  be  tried  and 
developed  simultaneously  with  religious  reform  and  the  new  birth 
of  art  in  the  sixteenth  :  everything  announced  that  the  new  century 
would  be  an  age  of  intellectual  development,  of  movement,  and  of 
combat. 


THIRD     EPOCH. 

ABSOLUTE   MONARCHY. 


FEOM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  EBANCIS  I.  TO  THE  CONVOCA- 
TION OE  THE  STATES-GENEBAL  BY  LOUIS  XVI. 


1515-1789. 


BOOK    I. 

FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  FRANCIS  I.  TO  THE  FIRST  WARS 
OF  RELIGION  IN  FRANCE. 

RIVALRY   OF   FRANCIS    I.    AND    CHARLES    V. — PREACHING    OF    THE    REFORMA- 
TION.  CONTINUATION   AND    END    OF    THE    ITALIAN   WARS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

REIGN    OF     FRANCIS    I.    UNTIL    THE    SIGNATURE    OF    THE    TREATY   OF   MADRID. 

1515-1526. 

Under  Francis    I.    all  was    silence   around   the   throne:   the   States- 
General    were     no     more    convoked ;    the    parliaments   Accession  of 
proclaimed  the  doctrine  of  absolute  power  ;  the  submis-  "' 

sive  clergy  invoked  the  protection  of  the  sceptre,  and  the  expiring 
genius  of  the  old  armed  feudality  was  reduced  to  powerlessness  by 
the  irrevocable  union  of  Brittany  with  the  Crown.  Thenceforth 
from  the  Ocean  to  the  Alps,  from  the  Somme  to  the  Mediterranean 
and  the  Pyrenees,  was  to  be  under  the  hand  of  one  sole  master. 

This  Prince,  twenty  years  of  age  at  his  accession,  was  the  son  of 
Louisa  of  Savoy  and  Charles  of  Angouleme,  cousin-  Characterof 
german  to  Louis  XII.,  both  descendants  of  the  Duke  FranclsL 
of  Orleans,  brother  of  Charles  VI.  Brought  up  by  his  mother,  a 
violent,  covetous,  and  not  entirely  chaste  woman,  he  was  from  his 
infancy  absolute  master  of  his  own  actions.  The  romances  of 
chivalry  formed  his  only  study,  and  he  wished,  like  Charles  VIII., 
to  march  upon  the  tracks  of  Roland  and  of  Amadis.  He  derived 
from  the  same  books  his  notions  upon  the  prerogatives  of  the  Crown. 


346  FIEST  ITALIAN  CAMPAIGN.  [Book  I.  Chap.  I. 

He  maintained  that  every  order  that  emanated  from  his  month  was 
a  decree  of  destiny,  and  conld  not  conceive  that  the  Parliament, 
Princes,  Nobility,  or  States- General  conld  have  the  right  to  restrain 
his  anthority.  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  his  absolnte  character,  he 
abandoned  himself  without  reserve  to  Lonisa,  his  mother,  and  to  the 
Chancellor  Antoine  Dnprat,  a  venal  and  corrnpt  man :  these  two 
governed  France  for  a  long  period  in  his  name. 

Scarcely  had  Francis  I.  seized  the  sceptre,  than,  following  the 
example  of  Lonis  XII.,  he  tnrned  his  eyes  towards  Italy ;  he  wished 
to  conqner  Milan,  where  a  Sforza  still  reigned,  and  raised  a  for- 
midable army  of  two  thonsand  five  hundred  men-at-arms,  ten 
thonsand  Gascon  and  twenty-two  thonsand  German  foot- soldiers. 
Among  them  might  have  been  distingnished  Charles  de  Montpensier, 
Duke  of  Bonrbon,  the  Marshal  de  Chabannes,  J.  J.  Trivnlzio,  La 
Tremouille  and  his  son  Talmond,  Imberconrt,  Teligny,  Lautrec, 
Bnssy  d'Amboise,  and  Bayard,  the  "  knight  withont  fear  and  withont 
reproach." 

Francis  I.,  at  the  point  of  departure,  named  his  mother  Regent 
of  France  ;  then  he  took  the  command  of  his  army,  and  arrived  at 
the  foot  of  the  Alps,  of  which  the  Swiss,  allies  of  the  Dnke  of  Milan, 
guarded  all  the  defiles ;  but  under  the  leadership  of  the  celebrated 
engineer  Pedro  Novaro,  and  after  unheard-of  fatigues,  the  French 
passed  over  the  mountains  by  a  road  that  no  other  army  had 
taken  before  them.  On  descending  into  the  plains,  Chabannes 
and  Bayard,  as  a   first  exploit,  surprised  at  table    and 

First  campaign  .  _. 

of  Francis  i.  in     carried    ol    .Prosper    Oolonna,    general    01    Maximilian 

Italv  1515 

Sforza,  Duke  of  Milan.  This  important  capture  threw 
disorder  and  discouragement  amoug  the  enemy;  but  twenty  thousand 
Swiss  rushed  from  their  mountains  and  engaged  the  king  at  the 
^  . ,     *  ™   .      terrible    battle     of    Marignano,    under    the    walls     of 

Battle  of  Marig-  °  7 

nano;  conquest  of  Milan.     Without  other  arms   than   pikes   eighteen  feet 

the  Milanese,  r  ° 

1515-  long    and  heavy  two-handed  swords,  they  threw  them- 

selves in  serried  columns  upon  the  artillery,  in  spite  of  the  ravages 
it  made  in  their  ranks,  and  sustained  without  being  broken  many 
charges  of  the  French  royal  troops.  They  surrounded  Francis  I., 
who  had  fought  like  a  hero,  and  broke  up  the  different  corps  of  his 
army.     The  latter  rallied  during  the  night,  and  the  combat  recom- 


1515-1526]  CONQUEST   OF   THE    DUCHY   OF   MILAN.  347 

menced  with.  fury.  The  Swiss  then  heard  the  war-cry  of  the  Vene- 
tians, Marco  I  Marco !  They  believed  that  the  allies  of  the  French 
had  come  to  their  succour,  and  retired  in  good  order.  This  bloody 
battle  cost  the  lives  of  six  thousand  French  and  twelve  thousand 
Swiss ;  the  remains  of  the  conquered  army  abandoned  Italy. 
Francis  I.  asked,  on  the  morrow  of  the  battle,  to  receive  the 
order  of  chivalry  from  the  hand  of  Bayard,  who  was  the  most 
distinguished  among  his  most  valiant  captains  at  Marignano.  The 
rapid  conquest  of  the  duchy  of  Milan  was  the  result  of  this  de- 
cisive victory.  In  order  to  ensure  its  possession,  the  King  con- 
cluded an  alliance  with  the  Swiss,  which  for  a  long  Alliance  with  the 
period  protected  the  weakest  frontier  of  the  kingdom  ;  Swiss' 1515- 
in  like  manner  he  treated  with  Pope  Leo  X.,  engaging  himself 
to  maintain  at  Florence  the  authority  of  Lorenzo  and  Julian  de 
Medici,  near  relatives  of  the  Pontiff,  and  to  abolish  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction,  which  founded  the  liberties  of  the  Gallican  Church  upon 
the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Bale. 

Charles  VII.  had  constituted  these  decrees  a  law  of  the  State  ; 
they  proclaimed  the  superiority  of  the  Councils  over  the  Popes, 
refused  to  the  Pontifical  court  the  revenue  of  the  vacant  sees  and 
benefices,  and  entrusted  to  the  chapters  of  the  churches  and  monas- 
teries the  election  of  the  bishops  and  abbes.  Louis  XL  had  after- 
wards abandoned  that  doctrine,  but  it  was  always  recognized  by  the 
Parliament  and  the  University  of  Paris.  The  Court  of  Borne  had 
constantly  protested  against  these  decrees,  and  they  were  definitely 
suppressed  by  the  Concordat  which  Leo  X.  and  Francis  I. 

m  x  r  J  .  Concordat,  1516. 

signed  in  1516.  This  celebrated  treaty  admitted  the 
superiority  of  the  Popes  over  the  Councils,  and  restored  to  the 
Pontifical  court  the  immense  revenue  of  the  Annates*  It  took 
away  from  the  chapters  the  nomination  to  the  prelatures,  and  gave 
it  to  the  King,  reserving  the  third  of  the  vacant  benefices  for  the 
graduates  of  the  French  universities.  This  Concordat,  in  order  to 
bind  equally  the  Church  and  France,  ought  to  have  been  accepted 
by  the  fifth  council  of  Lateran,  then  sitting  at  Borne,  and  by  the 
Parliament  of  Paris.     The  Council  accepted  it  without  deliberation ; 

*  The  first  year's  revenue  of  the  benefices  which  happened  to  he  vacant,  was  called 
the  Annates. 


348  ABASEMENT    OP   THE    PARLIAMENT.  [Book  I.  CHAP.  I 

but  the  Parliament  and  the  University  resisted  the  orders  of  the 
King,  invoking  the  Pragmatic  of  Charles  VII.  Offended  at  any 
opposition  to  his  will,  as  an  outrage  against  royal  majesty,  Francis  I. 
commanded  absolute  obedience.  A  deputation  of  magistrates  came 
to  address  remonstrances  to  him.  He  was  furious,  and  threatened 
to  throw  them  into  an  underground  dungeon.  The  Parliament 
submitted,  and  registered  the  Concordat,  but  protested  against 
,,  L  , .      the  violence  which  compelled  them   to   do  it.     It  was 

Abasement  of  the  £ 

SerlRomailtunder  constrained  in  the  following  year  to  sanction  a  barbarous 
authority.  jaw^  ^^j^  punished  offences  connected  with  the  chase 

by  whippings,  confiscation,  or  death.  "  Obey,"  said  the  Chancellor 
Duprat  to  the  magistrates,  "  or  the  King  will  only  look  upon 
you  as  rebels,  and  will  chastise  you  as  the  lowest  of  his 
subjects."  Prom  that  moment"  all  yielded  in  silence,  and  the 
monarch  glorified  himself  in  having  made  kings  their  own  masters. 

The  young  rival  of  Francis  I.,  he  who  was  about,  for  so  many 
years,  to  dispute  with  him  the  first  rank  in  Christendom,  now 
commenced  to  show  himself  upon  the  scene  of  the  world.  Ferdinand 
the  Catholic  died  in  1516,  leaving  the  throne  to  his  daughter 
Joan  the  Simple,  naming  as  Regent  of  Castille,  Cardinal  Ximenes, 
who,  notwithstanding  his  great  age,  grasped  the  reins  of  the  State 
vigorously,  and  bowed  down  the  people  and  the  rebellious  nobility 
under  his  iron  will.  Charles  of  Austria,  sixteen  years  old,  son  of 
Joan  the  Simple,    was    associated    on   the    throne  with 

Inheritance  of 

Charles  of  his  mother,  by  the  Cortes  of  the  kingdom.     This  young 

prince,  known  in  after- time  under  the  name  of  Charles  V., 
was,  through  his  father  Philip  the  Handsome,  inheritor  of  the  Low 
Countries,  and  in  1516,  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  his  grandfather, 
left  him  his  hereditary  states.  Before  he  was  twenty,  Charles  found 
himself  master  of  Spain,  of  the  Low  Countries,  of  Austria,  of  the 
kingdom  of  ^Naples,  and  the  Spanish  possessions  in  America  ;  he  was 
already  the  most  powerful  monarch  in  Europe.  Ruled  at  this  period 
by  the  Seigneur  of  Chievres,  his  governor,  nothing  as  yet  indicated  the 
great  faculties  of  his  mind  ;  but  soon  his  prudence,  his  ambition, 
the  depth  and  perseverance  of  his  policy,  gave  to  his  name  as  much 
brilliancy  as  his  numerous  crowns.  The  King  of  France,  by  the 
geographical   situation    of  his   states,  their  compactness,  and   their 


1515-1526]  THE   HOLT  ROMAN   EMPIRE.  349 

resources,  more  than  by  their  extent,  was  the  only  one  able  to  rival 
him  in  power,  and  he  asserted  his  equality  often  with  more  audacity 
than  prudence  or  good  fortune.  His  long  and  bloody  rivalry  with 
Charles  of  Austria  occupied  a  great  part  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
relations  between  these  two  sovereigns  commenced,  however,  by  a 
treaty  of  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  signed  at  T  f  • 
Noyon  in  1516,  at  the  moment  when  Charles  inherited  1516- 
the  Crown  of  Spain.  This  Prince  promised  Francis  I.  to  marry 
his  daughter,  then  in  the  cradle ;  the  marriage  was  to  be  accomplished 
when  she  was  twelve  years  old ;  and  Francis  had  to  give  her  as  a 
dowry  all  his  rights  over  the  kingdom  of  Naples. 

The  death  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  caused  the  breaking  out 
between  the  two  monarchs  of  the  first  svmptoms  of  the 

J       r  Election  of 

struggle  that  was  only  to  finish  with  their  lives.     Both   9harles  of 

&°  J  Austria  to  the 

of  them  had  pretensions  to  the  Empire*.     Francis  was   ImPerial  throne 

*  The  Empire,  or  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  of  the  Germanic  nation,  founded  in  800 
"by  Charlemagne,  comprehended,  in  1518,  all  Germany  and  Bohemia.  After  the 
extinction  of  the  Carlovingian  family,  the  Imperial  throne  ceased  to  be  hereditary,  and 
election  carried  it  successively  to  princes  of  the  Houses  of  Franconia,  Saxony,  Suabia, 
Luxembourg,  Bavaria,  and  lastly  to  the  House  of  Hapshurg  or  Austria.  Until  the 
fourteenth  century,  the  numher  and  the  prerogatives  of  the  great  feudatories  having 
the  right  to  vote  for  the  election  of  emperor  was  undecided.  The  celebrated  golden  bull 
published  in  1357  by  the  Emperor  Charles,  regulated  the  political  rights  of  Gfermany  and 
founded  the  constitution,  which  existed  almost  without  change  for  foiir  hundred  and 
fifty  years.  From  that  time  there  were  seven  Electors ;  the  Archbishops  of  Treves, 
Mayence,  and  Cologne,  the  Dukes  of  the  Palatinate,  Brandenburg,  and  Saxony,  and  the 
King  of  Bohemia.  At  each  vacancy  of  the  throne  these  seven  Electors  united  together, 
and  decreed  the  Imperial  crown  either  to  a  compatriot  or  to  a  foreigner.  The  power  of 
the  emperors  thus  chosen  was  far  from  being  absolute,  for  they  could  neither  make 
laws,  nor  levy  taxes,  nor  declare  war,  without  the  concurrence  of  the  Diet  or  National 
Assembly.  This  Diet  was  divided  into  three  colleges  ;  the  Electoral  College  where  the 
prince-electors  sat ;  that  of  the  lay  and  ecclesiastical  princes  when  non-electors  ;  and  a 
third,  that  of  the  free  towns. 

Besides  this  central  government,  the  constitution  for  the  protection  of  local  interests 
had  created  in  the  midst  of  the  great  confederation  many  small  confederations,  called 
circles  of  the  Empire,  each  comprising  a  certain  number  of  agglomerated  states, 
electorates,  principalities  and  free  towns,  of  which  the  representatives  united  together  in 
circular  assembly  under  the  presidency  of  a  Director.  The  number  of  the  circles  varied 
for  a  long  time  ;  but  Maximilian,  in  1512,  divided  the  Empire  definitely  into  ten  circles  : 
Austria,  Bavaria,  Suabia,  Franconia,  upper  and  lower  Saxony,  the  upper  and  lower 
Rhine,  Westphalia,  and  Burgundy.     The  last  was  soon  only  nominal. 

We  have  said  that  the  Empire  was  elective.  Many  emperors,  in  order  to  maintain 
the  crown  in  their  families,  used  their  influence,  while  living,  to  cause  a  prince  of  their 
House  to  be  elected  as  successor.     The  heir  presumptive  thus  elected  bore,  until  his 


350  THE   EIVAL   MONAECHS.  [Book  I.  Chap.  I. 

prodigal  witli  his  gold  among  the  Electors ;  but  Germany,  threatened 
by  the  Turks,  had  need  of  an  Emperor  whose  states  would  serve  as 
a  barrier  to  the  Mussulman   invasion,  and  the  Elector  of   Saxony, 
Erederic   the   Wise,  having   refused   the   Imperial  crown,  caused   it 
to  be  given  to  the  young  Austrian  Prince,   so  celebrated  from  that 
time  under  the   name  of   Charles  V.*     Erancis    I.,  wounded  to  the 
heart   in   his    ambition,    forgot   the    treaty    of   ISToyon,    re- demanded 
Naples    taken   by   Eerdinand   the    Catholic   from   Louis    XII.,    and 
summoned    the   new  Emperor  to  do  him  homage  for  the  county  of 
Elanders,  while    Charles   V.  claimed   Milan    as   an  Imperial  mascu- 
line   fief,    and   the   Duchy   of  Burgundy    as   the   inheritance    of  his 
grandmother  Marie,  daughter  of  Charles  the  Bold.     The  two  rivals 
both  sought   the  support  of  Henry  VIII. ,  King   of  England.      The 
interview  between  Francis  I.   ancL  the  English  monarch  took  place 
at  Gruines,  near  Calais.     The  excessive  magnificence  which   was  dis- 
played on  both  sides  caused  the   name  of  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  oj 
Gold  to  be  given  to  the  place  of  conference.     After  three  weeks  of 
rejoicing  and   splendid  fetes,    the  two  kings  "signed   a 
of  Gold,  1520.       treaty  of  alliance,  which  became  illusory;  for  Charles  V., 
having    himself    first    visited    Henry   VIII.,    had    seduced    by    his 
largesses,  and  by  the  hope  of  the  Papacy,  Cardinal  TVolsey,  minister 
and  favourite  of  that  Prince.     So  much  eagerness,   on  the    part    of 
the  two  most  powerful  monarchs  in  Europe,  to  gain  Henry  to  their 
cause,  made  him  adopt  this  proud  motto  : — He  on  whose  side  I  am  is 
Master. 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  so  many  motives  of  discord  and  jealousy, 
neither  of  the  two  rivals  was  anxious  to  commence  the  war.  Erancis 
occupied  himself  with  his  pleasures,  and  Charles  with  the  care  of 
subjugating  his  people.  Spain  looked  upon  him  as  a  foreigner,  and 
rose  in  defence  of  its  political  rights ;  while  Germany,  indignant 
at  the  shameful  traffic  in  indulgences,  commenced  to  agitate  through 

accession,  the  title  of  King  of  the  Romans.  This  was  the  ancient  Caesar  of  the  Roman 
Empire. 

Napoleon,  in  1806,  destroyed  the  old  German  constitution,  and  suppressed  the  title  of 
Emperor  of  Germany,  which  since  1458  had  continued  in  the  family  of  Hapsburg, 
or  the  House  of  Austria. 

*  He  was  the  fifth  Emperor  of  the  name  of  Charles,  and  the  first  King  of  Spain  of 
the  same  name. 


1515-1526]  BUKNING  OF  THE   PAPAL   BULL.  351 

the  voice  of  Luther.     This  famous  monk  had  just  burned  in  public 
at  Wittenburg,   in   1517,  the  bull  of  excommunication 

•  Bc^innin^s  of 

issued  against  him  by  the  Pope.     An  act  so  audacious   Luther.   Diet  of 

.       ,    -r,  .  ,  .  ,  Worms,  1521. 

seized  Europe  with  astonishment,  and  Charles  V.  con- 
voked a  Diet  at  Worms,  in  order,  as  he  said,  to  repress  the  new 
opinions,  which  were  dangerous  to  the  peace  of  Germany.  Luther 
appeared  at  this  Diet  with  a  safe-conduct  from  the  Emperor,  and 
under  the  more  efficacious  protection  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
Frederic  the  Wise,  and  of  a  hundred  armed  knights.  He  energetically 
defended  his  doctrines,  in  which,  more  than  all,  he  attacked  auricular 
confession,  the  intercession  of  the  saints,  the  dogma  of  purgatory, 
that  of  transubstantiation,  the  celibacy  of  the  priests,  and  the 
authority  of  the  Church.  The  Diet  permitted  him  to  retire,  and 
soon  afterwards  outlawed  him.  The  Elector  of  Saxony  caused  him 
to  be  carried  away  by  men  in  masks,  and  conducted  to  the  fortress 
of  Wartburg,  where  he  lived  shut  up  for  nine  months,  concealed 
from  his  friends  and  enemies.  It  was  there  that  he  commenced  his 
translation  of  the  Bible,  and  composed  a  multitude  of  writings 
stamped  with  his  genius,  which  was  logical,  impetuous,  irascible,  and 
yet  perfectly  fitted,  even  by  its  triviality,  to  govern  the  still  coarse 
mind  of  his  age. 

While    these    great    interests   divided   Europe,    Leo    X.,    always 
frivolous  and  inconsiderate,  excited  the  French  to  the  conquest   of 
Naples,    promising   them   his    support ;   then   he  treated  almost   im- 
mediately  with    Charles   V.      At    last    hostilities    commenced.      A 
French  army  commanded  by  L'Espare  had  just  lost  Navarre  after 
having  invaded  it ;    and  the   captains   of  the   Emperor,  Nassau  and 
Sickingen,  had  violated  the  French  territory,  in  order  to    Firgt  hostmties 
attack  Robert  de  La  Marck,  au  ally  of  that  kingdom.   ^Sf^cSl, 
War   broke  out   in  the  North  and  in  the  South.     The     52L 
Imperial   troops  took   Mourzon,  and  besieged  Mezieres,   which   was 
saved  by  Anne  de  Montmorency  and  the  Chevalier  Bayard.     Lautrec, 
lieutenant-general  of  the  King,  failed  to  receive  money  for  the  pay  of 
his  army.     Four  hundred  thousand  crowns  had  been  promised  him 
for  this  purpose  by  Francis  I. ;  but  Louisa  of  Savoy  had  compelled  the 
superintendent-general,   Semblancay  to  deliver  up   to  her  that   sum, 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  King,  her  son.     The  Spaniards  then 


352  THE    FtfENCH   DEIVEN   FROM   ITALY.  [BOOK  I.  Chap.  I. 

attacked  Lautrec,   who,  badly  supported  by  the   mercenary   troops, 
was  beaten  at  Bicoque.     The  malcontent  Swiss  returned 

Battle  of  Bicoque,  .  .  A         , 

1522.  The  French   to  their  homes,  and  Milan  was  again  lost.     At  the  same 

driven  from  Italy. 

time  Henry  VIII.  united  with  the  Emperor  against 
Francis  I.,  and  both  declared  war  against  him,  while  Adrian  VI., 
former  preceptor  of  Charles  V.,  ascended  the  pontifical  throne.  His 
predecessor,  Leo  X.,  had  in  Italy  bequeathed  his  name  to  the  cen- 
tury. He  was  great  by  his  magnificence  and  the  enlightened  pro- 
tection that  he  accorded  to  art  and  literature  ;  no  monarch  was 
ever  surrounded  by  so  many  celebrated  artists,  or  knew  better 
how  to  animate  their  genius  ;  but  few  men  were  less  fit  than  he  to 
sustain  the  combat  against  Luther  or  to  represent  a  successor  of  the 
Apostles. 

Exhausted  by  the  prodigalities  of  the  King  and  the  thefts  of  the 
nobles  more  than  by  the  war,  the  treasury  was  empty,  and  money 
was  necessary.  Recourse  was,  in  the  first  place,  had  to  the  ordinary 
means,  in  raising  the  land  taxes  and  in  borrowing  money,  but  these 
were  not  sufficient.  Under  the  fatal  inspiration  of  the  minister  Du- 
prat,  the  offices  of  the  magistracy,  the  number  of  which 
offices  of e  was   doubled,  were  sold  for  money.     In  vain  the  Parlia- 

ments protested ;  the  new  magistrates  were  maintained, 
and  this  deplorable  custom  of  venality,  for  the  first  time  avowed  and 
recognized,  lasted  until  the  French  Revolution.  Two  parties  then 
divided  the  court ;  the  one,  that  of  Louisa  of  Savoy,  directed  by  the 
Chancellor  Duprat  and  Admiral  Bonnivet,  both  far  advanced  in  the 
favour  of  the  King ;  at  the  head  of  the  other  party  were  the  Duchess 
of  Chateaubriand,  mistress  of  Francis  I.,  and  her  brothers  Lescuns 
and  Lautrec,  sustained  by  the  Constable  Duke  of  Bourbon,  the  richest 
and  most  powerful  noble  of  the  kingdom.  Louisa  of  Savoy,  forty- 
seven  years  old,  proposed  to  the  Duke  to  marry  her.  Bourbon  rejected 
these  offers,  adding  irony  to  the  refusal.  The  Princess,  furious,  swore 
that  she  would  be  avenged,  and  her  resentment  was  fatal  to  France. 
She  brought  an  unjust  action  against  the  Duke  ;  the  Parliament  did 
not  dare  to  declare  its  opinion ;  but  Francis,  urged  on  by  his  mother, 
seized  and  united  to  the  Crown  the  immense  possessions 

Action  against 

the  Constable  of    of  the    Constable,    which   comprehended,    anion  a-    other 

Bourbon,  1523.  '  .......     ° 

seignories,    Bourbonnais,    Dauphine,    Auvergne,    Forez, 


/  1515-1526]  FRESH   CAMPAIGN   IN   ITALY.  353 

Marche,  and  Beaujolais.  He  immediately  treated  secretly  with. 
Henry  VIII.  and  Charles  V.,  and  invited  them  both  to  divide  the 
kingdom.  Informed  of  these  negotiations,  the  King  tried  to  seize 
his  person;  Bourbon  escaped  into  Germany,  and  re-appeared  soon 
afterwards  at  the  head  of  the  armies  of  the  Emperor. 

The  war  then  commenced,  with  advantages  to  France  on  all  the 
frontiers.  The  Germans  attacked  Champagne  and  Franche-Comte 
without  success  ;  the  Spaniards  were  repulsed  in  the  South,  while 
La  Tremouille  successfully  defended  Picardy  against  an  English  army. 

In  spite  of  so  many  perils,  Francis  I.  still  dreamed  of  conquest 
in  Italy ;    he    sent   a   brilliant   army   there,   under  the 

Second  and  third 

command   of    Admiral  Bonnivet.      This    favourite   was   campaign  in 

Italy,  1524,  1525. 

not  a  skilful  captain,  and  each  of  his  steps  was  marked 
by  a  fault  or  by  a  reverse.  Francesco  Colonna  compelled  him  to 
raise  the  blockade  of  Milan,  and  to  fall  back  on  Ticino.  In  a  few 
months  the  French  army  was  in  great  distress,  deprived  of  provisions 
and  decimated  by  the  plague.  Bonnivet  ordered  a  retreat,  and  got 
away,  actively  pursued  by  the  Imperial  troops,  commanded  by  the 
best  of  the  enemy's  captains,  Lannoy,  Pescaire,  and  the  Duke  of 
Bourbon.  Bayard  commanded  the  rearguard ;  a  shot  struck  him 
in  the  back,  and  he  was  carried  to  the  foot  of  a  tree,  his  face  turned 
towards  the    enemy.       Bourbon  ran   towards   him   and   ^     ,    , 

J  Death  of 

expressed  his  deep  compassion.     "It  is  not  I,"  answered   Bayard>  1524. 
Bayard,   "  but  you  who  ought  to  be  pitied,  you  who  fight    against 
your    king,    your    country,    and   your    oath."      Thus     perished    the 
knight    who    was   dearest  to   France,    and  the    most    accomplished 
among  all  those  of  whom  history  has  preserved  the  remembrance. 

Bourbon  and  the  Marquis  of  Pescaire  invaded  Provence,  and  a 
number  of  towns  submitted.  Marseilles  heroically  sustained  a  long 
siege  ;  it  was  defended  by  Renzo  de  Ceri,  chief  of  a  legion  of  patriotic 
Italians,  an  old  remnant  of  the  party  of  liberty  crushed  out  at 
Florence  and  Pisa.  After  forty  days  of  useless  attack,  the  Imperial 
troops  drew  off,  having  been  informed  of  the  approach  of  Francis  I., 
and  of  the  successes  of  Andrea  Doria,  a  celebrated  Genoese  Admiral 
in  the  service  of  that  monarch.  Francis  inarched  into  Italy  at  the 
head  of  a  third  army;  he  rapidly  recovered  the  whole. of  the  Milanese 
territory,  and  besieged  Pavia.    He  remained  for  a  long  time  before  this 

A  A 


354  BATTLE   OF  PAVIA.  [Book  I.  Chap.  L 

place,  when  the  Imperial  troops  approached,  under  the  orders  of 
Lannoy,  Pescaire,  and  Bourbon.  Francis  I.  waited  for  them  in  his 
lines,  and  the  armies  remained  in  presence  of  each  other  for  a  long- 
period  without  coming  to  blows.  At  length,  on  the  25th  of  February, 
Battle  of  Pa  'a  1^25,  they  engaged  in  battle,  and  the  imprudent  excite- 
1525>  ment  of  the  King  lost  it.    His  artillery  made  great  ravages 

in  the  Imperial  troops  :  obliged  to  pass  within  range,  the  latter  endea- 
voured to  gain,  in  open  order,  and  at  the  top  of  their  speed,  a  small 
valley  where  they  would  be  sheltered  from  this  murderous  fire.  Francis 
did  not  understand  this  movement:  "See  where  they  fly,"  said  he; 
"let  us  charge  !  let  us  charge  ! "  and  immediately  rushed,  at  the  head  of 
his  retinue,  between  the  guns  and  the  enemy.  The  artillery, 
masked,  ceased  its  fire ;  the  enemy  rallied  and  waited  with  firm 
composure.  At  that  instant  the  Swiss  of  the  French  army,  being 
attacked  in  flank,  lost  ground,  and  the  Duke  of  Alencon  took  flight 
with  the  rearguard.  The  Imperial  army  entirely  surrounded  the 
King.  In  vain  Francis  I.  and  his  knights  performed  heroic 
exploits ;  Bonnivet,  La  Palisse,  Lescuns,  old  La  Tremouille,  and 
Bussy  d'Amboise  were  killed  before  his  eyes  :  he  himself,  thrown 
from  his  horse,  covered  with  blood,  and  twice  wounded,  was  recog- 
nized by  Pomperan,  a  gentleman  of  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  and 
summoned  to  surrender.  Francis  refused  to  give  himself  up  to  a 
renegade ;  he  caused  the  Viceroy  Lannoy  to  be  called,  and  gave  up 
his  sword  to  him.  It  was  on  the  occasion  of  this  bloody  battle  of 
Pavia  that  the  King  wrote  a  letter  to  his  mother  in  which  he  used 
a  phrase  which  has  since  been  celebrated :  "  Madame,  all  is  lost, 
except  honour."  Young  Henry  II.  d'Albret,  King  of  Navarre, 
had  been  taken  prisoner  with  the  King  of  France.  He  was  im- 
Ca  tivit  of  prisoned  in  the  citadel  of  Pavia,  from  whence  he 
Francis  L,  1525.  contrived  to  escape.  Francis  was  concealed  from  ob- 
servation in  that  of  Pizzighettone,  and  from  there  transferred  to 
Madrid  by  order  of  Charles  V. 

The  interests  of  the  kingdom  were  then  confused  with  those-  of 
the  persons  of  the  kings.  France  had  learned  neither  from  the 
misfortunes  of  King  John  nor  from  the  madness  of  Charles  YI. 
the  importance  of  a  monarchy  protecting  itself  from  the  calamities 
which  might  befall  the  monarch.     The  state  seemed  to  be  mad  when 


1515-1526]  TREATY   OP  MADRID.  355 

tlie  King  was  mad,  and  it  appeared  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy 
when  the  King  was  captive.  Francis  I.,  before  his  departure,  had, 
it  is  true,  conferred  the  regency  of  the  kingdom  upon  his  mother, 
Louisa  of  Savoy,  so  that  a  legitimate  authority  was  recognized  in 
France  in  spite  of  his  captivity ;  but  the  sovereignty  remained 
entirely  in  his  person ;  he  alone  could  accept  or  reject  the  conditions 
imposed  on  his  deliverance ;  he  alone,  in  fact,  represented  the  will  of 
France,  when  danger,  fear,  or  weariness  no  longer  permitted  him 
the  free  use  of  his  own  will.  The  Emperor  saw  in  the  captivity  of 
Francis  I.  the  humiliation  and  ruin  of  France,  and  resolved  to  profit 
to  the  utmost  by  his  victory.  The  King  fell  ill  in  prison ;  Charles, 
who  had,  until  then,  refused  to  see  him,  visited  him  and  consoled  him 
by  affectionate  words ;  but  soon  after  his  recovery  he  set  him  at  liberty 
upon  sad  and  dishonourable  conditions  for  France.  Overcome  with 
*ief,  the  King  thought  of  abdicating,  but  had  not  strength  to 
>ersist  in  so  noble  a  resolution ;  he  protested  against  the  treaty  which 
'-as  imposed  on  him,  and  signed  it,  secretly  resolved  not  to 
observe  it.     By  this  treaty  of  Madrid  he  ceded  all  his   T  __ 

rights  upon  Italy;  renounced  the  sovereignty  of  the  drid' 1526- 
counties  of  Flanders  and  Artois ;  abandoned  to  the  Emperor,  as 
the  descendant  of  Charles  the  Bold,  the  duchy  of  {Burgundy 
and  the  county  of  Charolais,  with  other  seignories.  He  engaged 
to  marry  Eleanor,  Dowager  Queen  of  Portugal,  sister  of  the 
Emperor ;  he  pardoned  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  and  established  him 
in  his  rights  ;  finally,  he  concluded  an  offensive  and  defensive  league 
with  the  Emperor,  promising  to  accompany  him  in  person  when  he 
went  upon  a  crusade  against  the  Turks  or  against  heretics.  Charles  Y., 
on  his  side,  gave  up  the  towns  on  the  Somme  which  had  belonged 
to  Charles  the  Bold. 

After  the  signature  of  this  treaty  the  King  was  exchanged  at  the 
frontier  for  his  two  sons,  and  on  the  same  dav  reached  ^  ,. 

'  J  Deliverance  of 

Bayonne,  where  he  found  his  mother  and  all  his  court.  Francis  ?■> 1526- 
He  believed  that  in  escaping  from  his  enemies  he  was  equally  free 
from  the  obligations  which  he  had  contracted  with  them,  and 
replied  to  the  messengers  of  the  Emperor  that  he  could  not  ratify 
the  treaty  of  Madrid  without  the  consent  of  the  States  of  the 
kingdom  and  of  the  duchy  of  Burgundy. 

A  A  2 


356  THE    HOLY   LEAGUE.  [Book  I.   ChAP.  II. 


CHAPTER  II. 

COURSE  AND  END  OF  THE  EEIGN  OF  FRANCIS  I. 

1526-1550. 

Francis  I.  alleged  the  rights  and  wishes  of  his  kingdom  as  a  reason 
for  exempting  him  from  keeping  his  engagements ;  he  had,  however, 
no  intention  of  consulting  France ;  he  would  have  believed  that  he 
was  putting  himself  under  the  tutelage  of  the  States- General  if 
he  had  convoked  them.  Desiring  always  to  oppose  to  the  Emperor 
a  will  that  should  appear  national,  he  called  together  at  Cognac 
the  princes,  the  nobles,  and  bishops  who  then  formed  part  of  his 
court.  This  assembly  disengaged  him  from  his  word.  The  States  of 
Burgundy,  on  their  side,  declared  that  they  did  not  wish  to  separate 
from    France.      Being  informed    of   these  declarations, 

Rupture  of  the 

treaty  of  Madrid,    Charles  V.   answered: — "Let  not  Francis  I.   throw  his 

1526. 

want  of  faith  upon  his  subjects ;  in  order  to  keep  his 
word,  he  ought  to  die  in  Spain  ;  let  him  do  it." 

Italy,  however,  had  only  escaped  from  the  French  to  fall  into  the 
_,,   „  ,  „  avaricious  hands  of  the  Imperial  troops.     Francis  then, 

The  Holy  League,  -*-  <  x 

1527-  impatient  for  vengeance,  presented  himself  to  the  people 

of  Italy,  no  longer  as  master  but  as  an  ally ;  he  offered  the  sword  of 
France  in  order  to  free  them.  Venice,  Florence,  Francis  Sforza,  Duke 
of  Milan,  and  the  Pope  appealed  to  him  as  a  liberator,  and  the  King 
of  England  himself,  afraid  of  the  colossal  power  of  Charles  V.,  entered 
into  the  Holy  League.  In  the  name  of  the  independence  of  Italy,  the 
Duke  of  Urbino  raised  an  Italian  army ;  but  before  the  French  troops 
had  crossed  the  Alps,  fifteen  thousand  German  infantry,  soldiers  of 
the  Emperor,  descended  like  a  torrent  upon  Italy ;  crossing  Lombardy, 
Tuscany,  and  the  Romagna,  they  threw  themselves  upon  Rome,  the 
centre  of  the  Holy  League.  The  Constable  de  Bourbon,  the  idol  of 
these  adventurers,  and  the  Lutheran  George  Frondsberg,  who  carried 


1526-1550]  CAPTURE   AND   SACK   OF   ROME.  357 

round  his  neck  a  gold  chain,  destined,  he  said,  to  strangle  the  Pope, 
marched  at  their  head.  The  assault  was  made  on  the  6th  May,  1527. 
Bourbon  perished  while  placing  a  ladder  at  the  foot  of  the  ramparts  ; 
but  Rome  was  taken,  and  the  Imperial  troops  avenged 

A  *■  °  Capture  and  sack 

their    General   by   sacking   the   eternal   city   and   by   a   of  Rome,  1527. 
frightful  massacre.     Eight  thousand   Romans   perished    on   the  first 
day,  and  the  Pope  had  to  sustain  a  long  siege  in  the  Castle  of  Saint 
Angelo. 

Henry  VIII.  and  Francis  I.  resolved  to  set  free  the  Pontiff  and 
Italy.  Francis  was  to  furnish  the  troops,  and  Henry  a  subsidy  ;  this  sum 
was  far  from  sufficient,  and  the  King  convoked  in  a  "bed  of  justice" 
an  assembly  of  the  principal  personages  of  the  Parliament ;  he  explained 
to  them  his  conduct,  and  requested  money  and  their  approval.  He 
obtained  both,  and  raised  a  new  army,  which  he  entrusted  to  Lautrec. 
The  Kings  of  Prance  and  England  declared  war  against  the  Emperor, 
who  heaped  reproaches  on  Francis  I.,  and  received  a  challenge  in 
answer.  Lautrec  entered  Lombardy,  commenced  the  war  with 
success,  and  penetrated  into  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  Fourth  campaign 
There  he  remained  without  money ;  an  epidemic  cut  ln  Italy' 1528# 
down  his  army,  already  exhausted  by  fatigue  and  privations ;  he 
himself  was  attacked  and  died.  Another  French  army,  commanded  by 
Saint-Pol,  shared  the  same  fate.  Scarcely  had  it  entered  Milan  when 
it  was  defeated  and  dispersed  at  Landriano ;  Saint-Pol  was  taken 
prisoner.  France  also  lost,  about  the  same  time,  the  assistance  of  the 
celebrated  Genoese  Admiral  Andrea  Doria,  the  first  sailor  of  his 
age.  Discontented  with  the  imprudent  disdain  of  Francis  I.,  he  quitted 
his  service  for  that  of  Charles  V.,  and  replaced  Genoa,  his  country, 
under  the  protection  of  the  Emperor. 

Europe,  at  this  period,  was  in  fear  of  a  new  Mussulman  invasion. 
Rhodes,  looked  upon  as  the  bulwark  of  Christianity,  had  sustained,  in 
1523,  a  memorable  siege  against  two  hundred  thousand  Turks, 
commanded  by  Soliman  the  Magnificent.  The  heroic  valour  of  the 
Knights    of  Rhodes,  and  of   their  grand-master  L'lie-    „ .  .    .  ,  . 

°  °  Celebrated  siege 

Adam,  had  proved  powerless  against  their  numbers.  After   of  Rhodes> 1523- 
six   months'    siege,    Rhodes    surrendered,    and   the    Turks  advanced 
into  Europe.     Charles  V.,   pressed  by  them  and  threatened  by  the 
Reformers,  who  had  commenced  to  call  themselves  "  Protestants,"  on 


358  THE   IMPERIALISTS   IN  ITALY.  [Book  I.  Chap.  II. 

account  of  their  protestation  against  Rome,  modified  his  pretensions 
with  regard  to  France.  The  misery  of  the  peoples  was  frightful,  and 
the  resources  of  the  two  rival  sovereigns  seemed  exhausted.  New 
negotiations  were  opened  at  Cambrai,  by  the  conferences  between 
Louisa  of  Savoy,  in  the  name  of  her  son,  and  Marguerite  of  Austria, 
The  Ladies'  ruler  of  the  Low  Countries,  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor, 

Peace,  1529.  ^er  nephew.  A  treaty  was  concluded,  less  onerous,  but 
more  shameful  in  some  respects,  than  that  of  Madrid,  in  which  the 
clauses  in  regard  to  Artois  and  Flanders  were  maintained ;  the  King 
abandoned  the  sovereignty  of  those  countries ;  he  engaged,  besides, 
to  pay  two  millions  of  gold  crowns,  renounced  all  rights  upon  Italy, 
and  abandoned  all  his  allies  to  the  resentment  of  the  Emperor.  At 
this  price  his  two  sons  were  freed,  and  the  duchy  of  Burgundy  still 
remained  to  the  kingdom.  This  peace,  which  threw  discredit  on 
France  throughout  Europe,  was  signed  in  1529,  and  called  The  Ladies' 
JPeace. 

All  Italy  fell  again,  almost  without  resistance,  under  the  yoke  of 
Italy  ref alien        Charles   V.,  who    disposed  of  crowns   at   his   pleasure. 
ofnther imperial     Florence  alone  repulsed  the  Medici,  whom  the  Emperor 
roops.  wished  to  impose  on  them,  and  sustained  for  a  year  an 

heroic  siege.  The  illustrious  sculptor  Michael  Angelo  conducted  the 
defence,  and  immortalized  himself  as  much  by  his  patriotism  as  by 
his  genius  ;  but  at  last  the  Florentines  were  compelled  to  yield.  The 
glory  of  Michael  Angelo  alone  saved  his  head ;  all  the  best  citizens 
were  banished  or  put  to  death.  In  this  way  the  Florentine  Republic 
was  subdued. 

The  fatal  Ladies'  Peace  was  a  new  misfortune,  that  France  owed  to 
Louisa  of  Savoy  and  her  confidant  the  Chancellor  Duprat.  The 
The  Chanceii  r  la^er,  only  a  short  time  in  orders,  had  become  Arch- 
Duprat.  bishop  of  Sens  and  Cardinal ;  but  that  was  not  enough, 

and  he  almost  died  with  chagrin  when  he  was  not  raised  to  the 
Pontifical  throne;  his  cupidity,  too,  exceeded  his  ambition;  in  his 
hands  the  royal  treasury  was  pillaged,  and  he  made  himself  master  of 
the  richest  benefices.  The  Parliament,  which  he  tried  vainly  to 
corrupt  by  the  addition  of  members  devoted  to  himself,  dared  to 
raise  its  voice  against  him.  The  King  immediately  convoked  that 
body  in  a  bed  of  justice,  and  threateningly  forbade  it  to  interfere  in  the 


1526-1550]  SITUATION   OF  ETJKOPE.  359 

acts  of  tlie  chancellor  and  the  distribution  of  benefices.  At  the 
request  of  Duprat  he  prosecuted  the  financiers  pitilessly,  and  brought 
before  a  commission,  Poncher,  Treasurer-  General,  and  Semblancay,  the 
retired  superintendent  of  finances.  Poncher,  during  his  ministry,  had 
drawn  upon  himself  the  hatred  of  Duprat ;  Semblancay  had  excited 
that  of  Louisa  of  Savoy,  by  revealing  the  abstraction  by  her  of  four 
hundred  thousand  crowns  intended  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  war 
in    Italy.       Chosen   from   among    the   enemies    of    the   „  •    ..  ■' 

J  o  Execution  of 

accused,  the  judges  decreed  a  sentence  of  death.     The   gemwanS? 
two  old   men  were   hanged   in   1527,    at  the  gibbet   of  1527' 
Montfaucon,  and  their  property  was  confiscated. 

Duprat,   whose    administration    was    so    shameful,    promoted    one 
measure  of  high  utility.     Francis  I.  until  then  had  governed  Brittany 
only  in  the  quality  of  duke  of  that  province  ;  Duprat  counselled  him 
to  unite  this  duchy  in  an  indissoluble  manner  with  the  crown,  and  he 
prevailed   upon  the    States  of  Brittany   themselves   to  request   this 
reunion,  which  alone  was  capable  of  preventing  the  breaking  out  of 
civil  wars  at  the  death  of  the  King.     It  was  irrevocably 
voted  by  the  States  assembled  at  Yannes  in  1532.     The   Brittany  with 
King  swore  to  respect  the  rights  of  Brittany,  and  not   declared  indis- 
to  raise  any  subsidy  therein  without  the  consent  of  the 
States  Provincial. 

The  situation  of  Europe  was  then  almost  everywhere  threatening 
or  agitated.      The  greater  part  of  the  princes  and  the 

Political  and 

states     of    Germany    had   admitted   the    new    religious   religious  state  of 

.  &  Europe. 

opinions.  Many  of  these  princes  believed  that  in 
adopting  them  they  were  justified  in  seizing  for  their  own  profit  the 
property  of  the  Church,  and  were  suspected  of  having  embraced  the 
cause  more  on  account  of  embarrassed  finances  than  from  their 
hatred  for  the  abuses  of  the  Court  of  Rome.  Already  Frederic  I. 
had  accorded  freedom  of  conscience  to  Denmark,  while  Gustavus 
Yasa  adhered,  with  the  Church  of  Sweden,  to  the  confession  of  faith 
drawn  up  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg  by  Melancthon,  a  disciple  of 
Luther  and  the  most  gentle  of  the  Reformers.  The  German  princes, 
who  were  partisans  of  the  Reformation,  united  together  in  1531, 
against  the  Emperor,  by  the  celebrated  league  of  Smal-    T  e  a    . 

x  1      J  <=>  League  of  Smal- 

calde.      Lastly,    Henry   YIIL,    to   whom   the   Court  of  calde» 163L 


360  THE    ANABAPTISTS.  [Book  I.    Chap.  IL 

Rome  had  not  dared  to  grant  permission  for  his  divorce  from 
Catharine  of  Aragon,  aunt  of  the  Emperor,  repudiated  that  princess 
in  order  to  marry  Anne  Boleyn,  opposing  at  the  same  time  the  Pope 
and  Luther  by  executions,  and  causing  himself  to  be  proclaimed 
by  his  servile  Parliament  the  head  of  the  Auglican  Church.  The 
populace  of  a  great  number  of  countries  became  agitated,  renewing 
the  war  of  the  Jacquerie,  and  the  pretensions  of  the  Levellers;  a 
crowd  of  visionaries  took  up  arms ;  the  rallying  word  was  the 
necessity  of  a  second  baptism ;  the  aim,  a  terrible  war  against  property, 
which,  they  said,  constituted  a  perpetual  spoliation  with  regard  to 
the  poor,  and  against  science,  which  they  accused  of  destroying  the 
natural  equality  among  men.  According  to  them,  books,  pictures, 
and  statues  were  the  inventions  of  the  devil ;  they  ran  from  church 
to  church,  breaking  the  images"  and  overturning  the  altars.  The 
peasants  of  Suabia  and  Thuringia  rose  in  insurrection ;  the  latter, 
under  the  name  of  Anabaptists,  followed  the  fanatical  Muntzer,  and  next 
John  of  Ley  den.  They  tried  to  join  themselves  with  the  insurgents 
of  Franconia,  Alsatia,  Lorraine,  and  the  Tyrol ;  they  everywhere 
deposed  the  magistrates,  and  seized  the  property  of  the  nobles  and 
the  rich,  whom  they  subjected  to  frightful  treatment.  They  did  an 
immense  injury  to  the  cause  of  the  disciples  of  Luther,  who  united 
with  the  Catholics  in  order  to  fight  and  exterminate  them. 

Such  was  religious  state  of  Europe  when  Francis  I.  commenced 
his  violent  persecution  of  the  Lutherans  or  Protestants.  For  a  long 
time  his  court  and  his  family  were  divided  in  opinion.  His  sister, 
Marguerite  of  Valois,  and  Anne  de  Pisseleu,  Duchess  d'Etampes, 
his  mistress,  protected  the  new  belief;  Louisa  of  Savoy  had  con- 
demned it,  inflicting  great  severities  upon  its  disciples  ;  Francis  I. 
appeared  at  first  to  be  himself  undecided ;  but  his  eyes  were  always 
glancing  back  to  Italy,  the  conquest  of  which  the  Pope  could 
facilitate  for  him.  This  motive,  as  much  perhaps  as  religious 
feeling,  joined  to  his  antipathy  towards  the  spirit  of  independence, 
decided  his  conduct.  He  closely  united  his  cause  with  that  of  Rome 
by  causing  his  second  son,  Henry  IL,  to  marry  Catherine  de  Medici, 
niece  of  Pope  Clement  VII.  He  did  not,  however,  obtain  the  ad- 
vantages that  he  had  hoped  for  from  this  union.  The  pontiff  only 
survived  the  marriage  a  short  time,  and  had  as  successor  Alexander 


1526-1550]  SEVERITIES    OF    FRANCIS   I.  361 

Farnese,  who  became  Pope  under  the  name  of  Paul  III.*  Francis  I. 
persevered,  nevertheless,  in  the  rigorous  course  that  he  had  traced  out, 
and  proved  himself  in  France  a  cruel  persecutor  of  the  Protestants. 
Jean  Morin,  a  criminal  magistrate,  seized  a  great  number  in  the 
year  1535,  and  the  King,  who  found  a  violent  diatribe 
against   the   mass   affixed    to    his   door,    resolved   upon   Francis  i.  with 

.  regard  to  the 

appeasing  heaven  by  taking  vengeance  on  this  crime.  Protestants, 
A  procession  went  out  one  morning  from  the  church  of 
Saint- Germain,  preceded  by  the  relics  of  saints  preserved  in  Paris  ; 
the  King  followed  the  Holy  Sacrament,  his  head  bared,  and  a  torch 
in  his  hand ;  after  him  walked  the  queen,  the  princes,  two  hundred 
gentlemen,  the  parliament,  and  all  the  officers  of  justice ;  the  am- 
bassadors were  also  present.  The  procession  passed  through  all  the 
quarters  of  the  town.  In  each  of  the  six  principal  places  were  erected 
a  temporary  altar,  and  near,  a  scaffold  and  a  pile.  At  these  six 
places  six  unfortunates  perished,  burnt  alive  amidst  the  curses  of  the 
people ;  and  the  King  declared  that  if  his  own  children  were  to 
become  heretics,  he  would  immolate  them.  This  horrible  procession 
took  place  on  the  21st  of  January.  It  was  followed  by  an  edict  which 
proscribed  the  Reformers,  confiscated  their  goods  to  the  profit  of  their 
denunciators,  and  forbade  them  to  print  any  book  on  pain  of  death. 

In  spite  of  this  ardent  zeal  for  the  Catholic  faith,  Francis  main- 
tained active  relations  with  the  Lutherans  of  Germany  and  the 
Protestant  princes  of  the  league  of  Smalcalde.  They,  however, 
indignant  at  his  severities,  wished  to  break  with  him  ;  he  calmed 
them  by  giving  them  to  understand  that  those  whom  he  exterminated 
were  similar  to  the  fanatical  followers  of  Muntzer  and  John  of 
Leyden.  Calvin,  the  apostle  of  reform  in  France,  had  just  ap- 
peared ;  he  avenged  his  outraged  brethren  by  establishing,  through 
his  work  On  the  Christian  Institution,  dedicated  to  the  King,  that  if 
the  French  Reformers  passed  the  bounds  set  by  Luther,  they  at  least 
partook    of    the    same    principles,    and    that    their    doctrines    were 

*  This  Pope  promulgated  during  the  reign  of  Francis  I.  the  hull  which-  instituted  the 
order  of  the  Jesuits,  of  which  Ignatius  LSyola  was  the  founder.  The  aim  of  this  order 
was  to  struggle  against  the  progress  of  heresy,  to  convert  the  world  to  the  Romish 
faith,  and  to  subject  it  to  the  Pope,  of  whom  the  Jesuits  recognized  the  infallibility 
in  all  that  concerned  faith.  The  sovereign  pontiff  named  the  general  of  the  order,  and 
all  the  members  took  an  oath  of  obedience  towards  him. 


362  THE    BROTHERS   BARBAROSSA.  [Book  I.  Chap.  II. 

reconcilable  with  public  order  and  the  purest  morality.  The  King 
recognized  the  necessity  for  relaxing  these  persecutions,  and  during 
the  same  year  issued  an  edict  of  toleration,  attributed  in  part  to 
the  influence  of  Antoine  du  Bourg,  successor  to  Duprat  in  charge 
Of  the  chancellorship. 

Charles  Y.  always  persevered  in  his  intention  of  stifling  Protes- 
tantism, and  he  would,  perhaps,  have  anihilated  it  in  his  States,  if 
other  enemies  had  not  suspended  his  attacks  and  drawn  upon  them- 
selves the  efforts  of  his  arms. 

The  Mussulman  invasion  had  made  rapid  progress ;  an  innumerable 
Turkish  army,  conducted  across  Hungary  under  the  walls  of  Yienna, 
had  been  repulsed  in  1529  ;  but  the  treatment  of  the  Christians  by 
the  corsairs  of  Barbary,  a  pest,  until  then  unknown,  desolated  the 
banks  of  the  Mediterranean.  Two  brothers,  named  Barbarossa, 
famous  corsairs,  had  taken  possession  of  Algiers  and  Tunis,  and,  co- 
vered the  sea  with  their  vessels,  pillaging  the  coasts  of  Spain,  France, 
and  Italy,  and  carrying  off  into  slavery  a  multitude  of  Christians 
every  year.  One  of  the  brothers,  chief  admiral  of  Soliman,  alarmed 
the  whole    of  Europe.     Charles  "V".  armed  a  formidable 

Expedition  of 

Charles  v.  to        fleet    against   him,     commanded,    under  his   orders,    by 

Tunis.  .  . 

Andrea  Doria ;  he  conquered  Barbarossa,  took  Tunis, 
and  set  free  twenty  thousand  Christians.  In  the  meanwhile,  Sforza, 
Duke  of  Milan,  died  without  issue ;  Francis  claimed  the  inheritance 
for  his  second  son,  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  Already,  for  some 
time,  France,  without  plausible  motive,  had  declared  war  against 
Charles  III.,   Duke   of  Savoy,*  brother-in-law  of  Charles  Y.     Turin 

and   all   Piedmont   were   rapidlv    invaded   bv    Admiral 

Conquest  of  r       J  J 

Piedmont  by  the    Chabot  de  Briou,  and  the  French  and  Imperial  troops 

French,  1536.  L  x 

soon  found  themselves  in  each  other's  presence  upon 
the  frontiers  of  Milan.  Hostilities  broke  out ;  the  army  of  Chabot, 
very  inferior  in  number,  fell  back  upon  France,  leaving  garrisons  in 
the  conquered  places.  But  the  Emperor,  without  stopping  to  besiege 
them,  crossed  the  Yar  at  the  head  of  fifty  thousand  men,  announcing 
that  he  was  going  to  march  upon  Paris,  and  commenced  by  invading 
Provence ;    but    there  he  only  found   a  desert.      All  the  country  of 

*  Savoy  was  created  a  duchy  during  the  reign  of  Charles  V. 


1526-1550]  CHARLES  Y.   IN  FRANCE.  363 

Provence   had  been   laid  waste  by  the  French  armies  themselves ; 
everywhere  they  had  torn  down   the  vines,   destroyed   Invasionof 
the  wells,  and  burnt  the  [harvests.     The  towns  had  not  Ej^Jj^Jf 
been    more    fortunate ;     Even    Aix,    the    capital,    was   1536' 
sacked  and  abandoned.     The  Imperial   army,  exhausted   by  famine 
and  disease,  retraced  its  steps  without  having  fought. 

The  Dauphin  of  France  had  just  died,  and  although  his  death 
appeared  natural,  Montecuculli,  his  cup-bearer,  was  accused  of  poison- 
ing him  j  he  confessed  the  crime  in  the  midst  of  atrocious  tortures, 
named  the  Emperor  as  his  accomplice,  and  was  dismembered.  The 
war  redoubled  its  fury  in  the  Low  Countries  and  Piedmont ;  at  last, 
Pope  Paul  III.  arranged  that  a  truce  of  ten  years  should  be  signed 
between  the  rival    monarchs,  who    divided    the  estates   _ 

Treaty  of  Nice, 

of  the  unfortunate  Duke  of  Savoy,  and  agreed  to  see  1538> 
each  other  at  Aigues-Mortes.  These  two  sovereigns,  who  had  in- 
undated Europe  with  blood  on  account  of  their  quarrels,  and  one  of 
whom  accused  the  other  of  poisoning  his  son,  presented  the  strange 
spectacle  of  a  perfectly  friendly  conference,  approaching  each  other 
with  open  arms,  and  lavishing  on  each  other  every  evidence  of  esteem 
and  affection. 

A  revolt  of  Grhent  soon  called  Charles  V.  into  Flanders ;  he 
was  then  in  Spain,  and  his  shortest  route  was  through  France.  He 
requested  permission  to  cross  the  kingdom,  and  obtained  it,  after 
having  promised  the  Constable  Montmorency,  that  he  would  give 
the  investiture  of  Milan  to  the  second  son  of  the  King.  His  sojourn 
in  France  was  a  time  of  expensive  fetes,  and  cost 
the   treasury  four    millions;    yet,   in   the  midst- of   his   Charles  v.  in 

*;  .  .  .  France,  1539. 

pleasures,    the   Emperor    was  not   without    uneasiness. 
Kings,    authorized   by   the  customs    of   those  still  barbarous   times, 
rarely   sacrificed    their    interests    to    their     word.       The     Duchess 
d'Etampes  and  all  the  court  blamed  the  scruples  of  the  King :  his 
jester    Triboulet  *   said    one    day    that,    hearing   of   the   arrival    of 

*  The  King's  Jester  was  a  buffoon,  very  often  deformed  by  nature,  whose  office 
it  "was  to  amuse  the  monarch  by  his  sallies.  He  carried  upon  his  head  and  in  his  hands 
the  attributes  of  Folly,  and,  in  virtue  of  his  title  and  his  costume,  he  was  permitted 
to  say  to  the  king  truths  that  the  most  respected  and  the  wisest  men  dared  not  have 
uttered. 


364  RENEWAL   OF  HOSTILITIES.  [Book  I.  Chap.  II. 

Charles  in  France,  he  had  inscribed  his  name  in  his  tablets  in  the 
list  of  fools.  "Were  I  to  allow  him  to  pass  through,"  answered  the 
King,  "  what  would  yon  do  ?  "  "I  would  efface  his  name,"  replied 
Triboulet,  "  and  I  would  place  your  name  in  its  place."  Francis, 
however,  respected  the  rights  of  hospitality ;  but  Charles  did  not 
give  to  his  son  the  investiture  of  Milan.  The  King,  indignant,  exiled 
the  constable  for  having  trusted  the  word  of  the  Emperor  without 
exacting  his  signature,  and  avenged  himself  by  strengthening  his 
alliance  with  the   Turks,  the  most  formidable  enemies 

Alliance  of 

Francis  i.  with      of  the  empire.    Alreadv,  in  1536,  Francis  I.  had  opened 

the  Turks.  f  .  . 

up  negotiations,  the  first  in  Europe,  with  the  Sultan 
Ibrahim,  and  a  Turkish  fleet  had  been  directed  upon  Naples.  The 
treaty  of  Nice  had  put  an  end  to  the  alliance,  without  severing  the 
relations  between  the  courts  of  France  and  Constantinople,  and 
when  a  new  rupture  between  Charles  Y.  and  Francis  I.  had  become 
imminent,  the  Sultan  Soliman,  successor  to  Ibrahim,  was  the  first  ally 
to  whom  the  King  of  France  addressed  himself.  The  Turks  at  this 
period  caused  the  empire  to  tremble ;  they  entered  triumphantly 
into  Buda,  the  capital  of  Hungary,  and  their  fleets  covered  the 
Mediterranean.  A  formidable  expedition  undertaken  by  the  Emperor 
against  Algiers  had  just  failed,  and  the  terror  spread  by  the 
Ottoman  name  increased  still  more.  Francis  I.  then  turned  to 
the  Lutheran  princes  of  Germany ;  but  his  advances  were  coldly 
received  by  men  who  only  saw  in  him  a  cruel  persecutor  of  their 
brethren. 

The  hatred  of  the  two  rnonarchs  was  carried  to  its  height  by  these 
last  events  ;  they  mutually  outraged  each  other  by  injurious  libels, 
and  submitted  their  differences  to  the  Pope.  Paul  III.  refused  to 
decide  between  them,  and  they  again  took  up  arms.  The  King 
invaded  Luxembourg,  and  the  Dauphin  Rousillon  ;  and  while  a  third 

army  in  concert  with  the  Mussulmans  besieged  ISTice,  the 

Renewal  of  J  ° 

hostilities  be-        last    asylum    of    the    dukes    of    Savoy,    by   land,    the 

tween  Charles  Y.  J  d  J 

and  Francis  i.,  terrible  Barbarossa,  admiral  of  Soliman,  attacked  it 
by  sea.  The  town  was  taken,  the  castle  alone  resisted, 
and  the  siege  of  it  was  raised.  Barbarossa  consoled  himself  for  this 
check  by  ravaging  the  coasts  of  Italy,  where  he  made  ten  thousand 
captives.     The  horror  which  he  inspired  recoiled  on  Francis  I.,  his 


1526-1550]  TREATY   OF   CRESPY.  365 

ally,  whose  name  became  odious  in  Italy  and  Germany.  He  was 
declared  the  enemy  of  the  empire,  and  the  Diet  raised  against  him 
an  army  of  twenty-four  thousand  men,  at  the  head  of  which  Charles 
V.  penetrated  into  Champagne,  while  Henry  VIII.,  coalescing 
with  the  Emperor,  attacked  Picardy  with  ten  thousand  English. 
The  battle  of  Cerisoles,  a  complete  victory,  gained  during  the 
same  year,  in  Piedmont,  by  Francis  of  Bourbon,  Duke  Battle  of  Ceri. 
d'Enghien,  against  Gast,  general  of  the  Imperial  troops,  soles> 1544- 
did  not  stop  this  double  and  formidable  invasion.  Charles  V. 
advanced  almost  to  Chateau-Thierry.  But  discord  reigned  in  his 
army ;    he   ran   short    of    provisious,    and    could    easily 

J  x  New  invasion  of 

have  been  surrounded;    he  then  again  promised  Milan   France  by 

°  x  Charles  V.,  1544. 

to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  second  son  of  the  King. 
This  promise  irritated  the  Dauphin  Henry,  who  was  afraid  to  see 
his  brother  become  the  head  of  a  house  as  dangerous  for  France  as 
had  been  that  of  Burgundy ;  he  wished  to  reject  the  offer  of  the 
Emperor  and  to  cut  off  his  retreat.  A  rivalry  among  women, 
it  is  said,  saved  Charles  V.  The  Duchess  d'Etampes  was  the 
mortal  enemy  of  Diana  of  Poictiers,  mistress  of  the  Dauphin,  and 
desired,  in  case  the  King  should  die,  to  secure  the  powerful  protec- 
tion of  his  second  son.  It  is  declared  that  she  resisted  the  opinion 
of  the  Prince,  and  Charles  was  able  to  retire  in  safety  as  he  came. 

The  war  was  terminated  almost  immediately  afterwards  by  the 
treaty  of  Crespy  in  Valois.  The  Emperor  promised  his  T  f  _ 
daughter  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  with  the  Low  in  Yalois> 1544- 
Countries  and  Franche-Comte,  or  one  of  his  nieces  with  Milan. 
Francis  restored  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy  the  greater  part  of  the  places 
that  he  held  in  Piedmont ;  he  renounced  all  ulterior  pretensions 
to  the  kingdom  of  >Taples,  the  duchy  of  Milan,  and  likewise  to  the 
sovereignty  of  Flanders  and  Artois  ;  Charles,  on  his  part,  gave  up 
the  duchy  of  Burgundy.  This  treaty  put  an  end  to  the  rivalry 
of  the  two  sovereigns,  which  had  ensanguined  Europe  for  twenty-five 
years.  The  death  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  freed  the  Emperor  from 
dispossessing  himself  of  Milan  or  the  Low  Countries ;'  he  refused 
all  compensation  to  the  King,  but  the  peace  was  not  broken. 

Francis  I.  profited  by  it  to  redouble  his   severity  with  regard  to 
the  Protestants.     A  population    of   many  thousands   of  Waldenses, 


366  TREATY   OF   GUINES.  [Book  I.  Chap.  II. 

an  unfortunate  remnant  from  the  religious  persecutions  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  dwelt  upon  the  confines  of  Provence,  and  the 
County  Venaissin,  and  a  short  time  "back  had  entered  into  com- 
munion with  the  Calvinists.  The  King  permitted  John  Mesnier, 
Terribi  massa-  Baron  d'Oppede,  first  president  of  the  Parliament  of 
sian°popSionn"  ^X'  ^°  execil-te  a  sentence  delivered  against  them  five 
1546-  years    previously  "by  the  Parliament.      John  d'Oppede 

himself  directed  this  frightful  execution.  Twenty- two  towns  or 
villages  were  burned  and  sacked ;  the  inhabitants,  surprised  during 
the  night,  were  pursued  among  the  rocks  by  the  glare  of  the  flames 
which  devoured  their  houses.  The  men  perished  by  executions,  but 
the  women  were  delivered  over  to  terrible  violences.  At  Oabrieres, 
the  principal  town  of  the  canton,  seven  hundred  men  were  murdered 
in  cold  blood  and  all  the  women  were  burnt ;  lastly,  according  to 
the  tenor  of  the  sentence,  the  houses  were  rased,  the  woods  cut 
down,  the  trees  in  the  gardens  torn  up,  and  in  a  short  time  this 
country,  so  fertile  and  so  thickly  peopled,  became  a  desert  and  a 
waste.  This  dreadful  massacre  was  one  of  the  principal  causes  of 
the  religious  wars  which  desolated  France  for  so  long  a  time. 

Charles  V.  then  crushed  the  Lutherans  in  Germany,  and 
maintained  the  Catholic  faith  in  Spain  by  the  Inquisition,  while 
Henry  VIII.  struck  equally  at  both  Romish  and  Lutheran  sects. 
The  war  continued  between  him  and  Francis  I.  The  English  had 
taken  Boulogne,  and  a  French  fleet  ravaged  the  coasts  of  England, 
after  taking  possession  of  the  Isle  of  Wight.  Hostilities  were 
Treat  of  terminated    by  the   treaty  of    Guines,  which   the    two 

Gmnes,  1547.  kings  signed  on  the  edge  of  their  graves,  and  it  was 
arranged  that  Boulogne  should  be  restored  for  the  sum  of  two 
millions  of  gold  crowns.  Francis  I.  had  suffered  for  a  long  time 
in  consequence  of  a  shameful  disease,  brought  from  America  into 
Europe  by  Spaniards,  and  which  brought  him  to  his  tomb.  When 
he  felt  death  approaching,  he  addressed,  according  to  the  custom  of 
kings,  wise  advice  to  his  successor.  He  caused  the  only  son 
who  survived  him,  Henry,  then  twenty-nine  years  old,  to  draw  near 
to  his  bed.  He  recommended  him  to  free  his  people  from  the 
tributes  with  which  he  had  been  compelled  to  burden  them,  and 
to  profit  by  the  good  state  in  which  he  had  left  the  finances.     He 


1526-1550]  DEATH   OF   FKASTCIS   I.  367 

was  indebted,  lie  said,  to  the  wisdom  of  his  ministers  for  this  good 
administration,  above  all  to  Admiral  Annebaut  and  to  the  Cardinal 
de  Tournon,  and  recommended  Henry  always  to  follow  their  counsels, 
whilst  he  warned  him  against  the  pernicious  policy  of  the  Constable 
Montmorency,  against  the  ambition  of  the  Guises,  and  advised  him 
to  exclude  them  from  power.  Henry  wept  at  the  Death  of  F 
bedside  of  his  father,  but  avoided  giving  him  any  L' 1547- 
promise.  Henry  VIII.  and  Francis  I.  died  in  the  same  year  ;  the 
latter  had  reigned  for  thirty-three  years. 

The  chivalric  bravery  of  Francis  I.,  his  magnificence,  and  the 
protection  he  afforded  to  talent,  gave  popularity  to  his  name  ;  he 
was  called,  The  father  and  restorer  of  letters.     But  the   »     ..    t. 

u  u  Considerations 

brilliant  qualities  of  this  prince  were  tarnished  by  great  upon  this  reign- 
faults  and  an  odious  abuse  of  power.  His  cruelty  with  respect  to 
the  Protestants  ought  to  be  attributed,  in  part,  to  the  manners  and 
prejudices  of  his  age.  But  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  a  sincere 
faith  inspired  these  frightful  persecutions,  seeing  that  in  Germany 
he  energetically  supported  those  whom  he  struck  in  his  own  kingdom. 
He  sacrificed  the  blood  of  his  people  to  the  purposes  of  his  ambition, 
and  their  gold  to  his  pleasures.  In  order  to  defray  his  expenses  he 
multiplied  and  sold  the  offices  of  judicature,  alienated  the  royal 
domains,  instituted  the  lottery,  and  created  by  a  loan  of  two  hundred 
thousand  livres  the  first  perpetual  annuities  on  the  Hotel  de  Ville, 
the  origin  of  the  public  debt  in  France.  He  prosecuted  by  illegal 
means,  and  before  commissions  arbitrarily  chosen,  many 

•  Origin  of  the 

men  of  eminent  rank,  among  others  the  Chancellor  Poyet   public  debt  in 

France;  an- 

and  Admiral  Chabot,   and  in  the  judgment  against  the   cities  on  the 

*  .7  Hotel  de  Ville- 

latter  the  King  substituted  his  own  will  for  the  decision 

of  the  judges.     He  softened,  without    doubt,    the    rudeness    of  the 

national   character  by  encouraging  the  progress  of  the  arts ;  but  by 

abasing   the   magistracy,    placing   his    caprices    above   the  law,    and 

making  a  display  of  adultery,  he  corrupted  the  manners  of  his  court 

and  his  people,  and  this  corruption  increased  until  the  end  of  the 

reign   of  the   Valois.     The   long   struggle   between   Francis  I.    and 

Charles   V.    brought  no  lasting    advantage    to    the    kingdom.     His 

severities  against  the  Reformers  prepared  the  way  for  bloody  civil 

wars,  and,  in  fine,  his  reign  was  less  useful  than  fatal  to  France. 


368  THE   BOURBONS  AND  THE    GUISES.  [Book  I.  Chap.  II. 

France,    However,    had   been   increased   by   a  part   of   Savoy   and 

Piedmont,*  and  the  royal  domain  since  the  death  of  Louis  XII.  had 

acquired   Brittany,    which   was    completely   and  legally 

Increase  of  the  *-  J  '  r  */  o       j 

royal  domain.  united  to  France  under  Francis  I.  in  1532;  it  was 
augmented  on  the  accession  of  Louis  XII.  hy  the  apanage  of  Orleans 
and  of  Valois,  containing  the  county  of  Blois,  and  the  duchies  of 
Orleans  and  "Valois,  and  had  gained  the  county  of  Angouleme  at 
the  accession  of  Francis  I.  That  prince,  lastly,  confiscated  to  the 
profit  of  the  crown  the  great  possessions  of  the  eldest  branch  of  the 
House  of  Bourbon,  which  comprehended  the  duchies  of  Bourbon, 
Auvergne  and  Chatelleraut,  Forez,  the  county  of  Clermont,  the 
dauphine  of  Auvergne,  and  a  multitude  of  secondary  fiefs. 

France,  up  to  that  time,  had  been  divided  into  bailiwicks  in  the 
countries  of  the  north,  and  into  seneschalships  in  those  of  the  south, 
for  the  administration  of  justice.  In  the  fourteenth  century  Gene- 
ralites  were  established  for  the  collection  of  the  imposts ;  Francis  I. 
completed  this  organization  of  ancient  France  by  the  creation  of  nine 
great  military  governments,  formed  for  the  most  part  in  the  frontier 
provinces,  and  with  a  view  to  the  defence  of  the  kingdom.  These 
governments  were  those  of  Normandy,  Gruienne,  Languedoc,  Provence, 
Dauphine,  Burgundy,  Champagne,  Picardy,  and  He  de  France. f  The 
power  was  thus  centralized  more  and  more.  There  still  existed, 
The  Bourbons  however  some  great  feudal  houses.  The  first  among 
and  the  Guises.  a]|  wag  jfagj.  Qf  Bourbon,  the  issue  of  the  blood  royal, 
which  had  just  been  weakened  by  the  disgrace  of  the  celebrated 
Constable,  which  extinguished  the  eldest  branch ;  the  marriage  of 
Antoine  of  Vendome,  chief  of  the  younger  branch,  with  Jeanne 
d'Albret,  heiress  of  Beam,  of  Armagnac,  of  the  county  of  Foix,  and 
the  kingdom  of  Navarre,  raised  the  fortunes  of  the  family.  As  well 
as  the  Bourbons  another  princely  family  grew  great,  the  Cruises,  a 
branch  of  the  sovereign  House  of  Lorraine.  Claude,  fifth  son  of  Duke 
Bene    of  Lorraine,    had   made   himself  illustrious  in  the  service  of 

*  Savoy  and  Piedmont,  divided  between  France  and  Spain  in  virtue  of  the  treaty  of 
Nice,  were  restored  in  the  year  1562  to  the  princes  of  the  House  of  Savoy,  except  some 
towns  which  remained  annexed  to  France  until  1574. 

f  At  the  time  of  the  French  revolution  the  number  of  the  governments  in  the  pro- 
vinces was  thirty-two. 


1526-1550]  TRANSFORMATION   OF   FEUDALISM.  369 

France.  To  recompense  him,  Francis  I.  erected  the  lands  of  Guise 
into  a  Duchy  and  Peerage  in  his  favour.  He  soon  perceived  the 
error  he  had  committed  in  establishing  that  foreign  race  in  the 
kingdom,  and  we  have  seen  how,  on  his  death-bed,  he  advised  his  son 
to  separate  it  from  the  government;  but  it  was  too  late,  and  never 
were  vassals  more  formidable  to  the  Kings  of  France  than  the 
ambitious  Lorrains.  The  foreign  Houses  of  Cleves  and  Savoy  had, 
like  that  of  Lorraine,  possessions  in  France.     The  first     ■ 

'    L  Possession  of 

possessed  the  counties  of  Eu,  Nevers,  and  Bethel ;  the   foreisn  pnnces. 
second,  the  Duchy  of  Nemours,  in  Gatinais ;   and  the  third,  that  of 
Bar,  held  under  the  crown.     Calais  always  belonged  to  the  English  ; 
Avignon  and  the  county  Venaissin  belonged  to  the  Pope ;  and  the 
Principality  of  Orange  belonged  to  the  House  of  Nassau. 

There  were  still  considerable  fiefs  held  in  France  ;  but,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Bourbons  and  Guises,  the  great  Feudal   _ 

i  '  °  Transformation 

system,  rival  of  the  crown,  almost  always  in  a  struggle  of  Feudalism. 
with  it,  and  very  often  formidable,  existed  no  longer.  The  great 
French  barons  had  lost  the  most  part  of  their  regal  rights  which 
the  crown  had  nearly  everywhere  reserved ;  they  had  ceased  to  coin 
money,  to  exercise  legislative  power,  to  make  war  on  their  own 
account,  and  found  their  judicial  powers  restrained  by  the  royal 
judges.  All  political  power  was  taken  from  them,  but  a  brilliant 
bondage  was  offered  them  at  the  court,  and  Francis  L,  in  forcing  them 
to'  seek  his  favour  as  the  source  of  riches  and  power,  had  commenced 
the  work  of  Louis  XTY. 

Another  course   concurred  towards  the   same   end,  manners  were 
softened   and    minds    enlightened.      In   the    course    of  mi    „ 

°  The  Renaissance 

the  Italian  expeditions,  the  knights  of  Charles  VIII,  and  its  influence, 
of  Louis  XII. ,  and  Francis  I.,  had  brought  back  to  the  depths  of  their 
Feudal  keeps  the  remembrance  and  the  taste  for  the  elegant 
civilisation  which  flourished  beyond  the  Alps,  and  it  could  be  said 
of  conquered  Italy,  as  formerly  of  Athens,  that  she  ruled  her  con- 
querors. The  fall  of  Constantinople  had  spread  abroad  throughout 
Europe,  at  the  same  time,  the  chief  works  of  antiquity,  and  printing, 
scarcely  discovered,  soon  multiplied  them  to  infinity.  They  formed 
the  delight  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  a  new  world  was  revealed 
to   the   sons   of  men,   in   the  Middle  Ages.     With  the  treasures  or 

13   B 


370  CELEBRATED  MEN.  [Eook  I.  Chap.  II 

Greek  and  Latin  literature,  the  chief  works  of  antique  art  were 
drawn  from  the  dust  where  they  had  lain  forgotten,  and  before  these 
great  models,  a  young  school  of  painters,  of  sculptors,  and  ol 
architects  was  formed,  which  in  its  turn  produced  new  marvels.  It 
was  this  return  to  the  healthy  traditions  of  taste,  and  this  restoration 
of  the  beautiful,  after  so  many  centuries  of  darkness  and  barbarity, 
that  was  called  the  Renaissance. 

Francis  I.,  above  all  the  princes  of  Europe,  and  this  was  his 
greatest  glory,  encouraged  this  grand  movement  of  the  human  mind. 
His  mother,  Louisa  of  Savoy,  had  died,  leaving  the  prodigious  sum 
of  fifteen  hundred  thousand  gold  crowns,  the  fruit  of  her  exactions 
and  sordid  economy.  This  treasure  passed  almost  entirely  into  the 
hands  of  poets  and  artists ;  but  Francis  I.  had  too  exalted  a  soul  to 
believe  that  gold  was  sufficient  to  recompense  genius,  and  it  was  by 
his  respect  and  by  honours,  that  he  expressed  his  admiration  for  the 
great  men  whom  he  loved  to  have  around  him.  It  was  thus  that  he 
named  Leonardo  da  Yinci  his  father,  and  that  he  wished  to  close  his 
eyes.     Inspired  by  his  charming*  sister,   Marguerite   of 

Celebrated  men      JL  \  J  .  °.  '  .  & 

in  arts,  literature,    Navarre,  who  herself  cultivated  literature  with  success, 

and  science.  . 

he  drew  into  France  a  great  number  of  literary  and 
artistic  celebrities.  Some,  like  the  learned  Lascaris,  were  Greek ; 
Others,  like  the  poet  Alamanni,  and  the  historian  Michael  Bruto,  were 
illustrious  exiles  from  the  republics  of  Italy.  In  the  first  rank  of 
Italian  celebrities  called  into  France,  Leonardo  da  Yinci  might  be 
distinguished ;  William  Cop,  principal  physician  to  the  King,  was  a 
Swiss.  Among  the  number  of  Frenchmen  whose  works  he  encou- 
raged, must  be  cited  the  learned  William  Bude,  first  professor  of 
philology  in  France  ;  the  brothers  Bellay,  negotiators  and  historians ; 
the  poet  Clement  Masot,  and  the  great  printer,  Henry  Estienne. 
About  this  time  also,  the  celebrated  Rabelais,  Cure  of  Meudon,  wrote 
his  satirical  works.  Dumoulin,  Cujas,  great  jurisconsults,  might  then 
have  been  heard,  and  the  chief  works  of  the  sculptors  John  Goujon, 
Germain  Pilon,  and  John  Cousin,  sculptor  and  painter  on  glass,  might 
have  been  admired.  Pierre  Lescot  commenced  the  new  Louvre  and 
Philibert  Delorme  the  Tuileries.  Under  the  eyes  of  Francis  I.  arose, 
in  part,  the  Palaces  of  Fontainbleau  and  Chambord.  But  among  all 
his  creations  those  which  threw  most  brilliancy  on  his  reign  were  Vhq 


1526-1550]  THE   RENAISSANCE.  371 

foundation  of  the  royal  printing  office,  and  that  of  the  College  of  France, 
then  called  the  Royal  College.  Until  this  period  the  Sorbonne  and 
the  University  of  Paris  had  alone  the  right  of  spreading1 

J  m  o  ±  o     Foundation  of 

knowledge  abroad.     Chairs  of  Greek  and  Hebrew,  next  the  College  of 

°  France. 

of  Latin  eloquence,  and  of  the  Arabian  and  Chaldean 
languages  were  first  created ;  mathematics,  medicine,  and  Greek 
philosophy  had  their  professors  in  due  course.  The  King  desired  to 
place  at  the  head  of  this  college  the  celebrated  Erasmus,  the  finest 
mind,  and  the  most  learned  man  of  his  century,  but  he  could  not 
seduce  him  by  his  offers.  Francis  I.,  by  his  cultivated  tastes,  by  his 
laudable  efforts,  and  his  noble  aspirations,  associated  himself  with 
all  hie  strength  in  the  great  movement  of  the  Renaissance,  he  thus 
raised  himself  in  the  eyes  of  posterity,  who  without  that  perhaps, 
and  in  spite  of  all  the  interest  which  his  heroism,  his  bravery,  and  his 
misfortunes  inspired,  would  have  inclined  rather  to  look  upon  him  as  a 
despot,  without  scruple,  without  breeding,  and  without  pity.  Happy 
are  the  Kings  who  love  literature 


B  B  2 


372  ACCESSION  OF  HENRY  II.  [Book  I.    Chap  III. 


CHAPTER  III. 

EEIGN    OF    HENEY   II. 

1547-1559. 

Henry  II.,  son  of  Francis  I.,  was  twenty-nine  years  of  age  when  lie 
.         ascended  the  throne.     He  despised  the  counsels  of  his 

Accession  of  -1 

Henry  ii.,  1547.  father,  changed  the  counsellors  of  the  Crown,  and 
recalled  near  to  him  the  Constable  Montmorency,  whom  he  named 
his  gossip,  and  who  ruled  him'during  all  his  reign.  The  Duchess  of 
Etampes  was  exiled  and  sent  back  to  her  husband ;  her  partisans  only 
redeeming  themselves  from  death,  prison,  or  exile  by  ceding  their 
castles,  their  lands,  and  their  offices  to  the  new  favourites.  The 
Duke  of  Guise  and  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  his  brother ;  Mont- 
morency ;  Diana  of  Poitiers,  styled  the  Mistress  of  the  King ;  lastly, 
the  Queen,  Catherine  de  Medici,  endowed  with  a  supple  and  pro- 
foundly dissimulating  mind,  were  at  the  head  of  each  of  the  four 
factions  which  divided  the  court. 

One  of  the  first  edicts  of  the  new  king  condemned  blasphemers  to 
„       .     ..  A       have  the  tongue  pierced  with  a  red-hot  iron,  and  heretics 

Despotic  edicts.  °        r 

to  be  burnt  alive.  Another  edict  assigned  to  the 
prevots  of  the  marshals,  assisted  by  a  commission  of  judges  chosen  in 
the  tribunals,  the  trial  of  assassins,  smugglers,  poachers,  and  people 
who  were  not  known.  This  edict  despoiled  the  parliament  of  its 
special  attributes  and  delivered  over  the  lives  of  the  citizens  to 
arbitrary  judgment.  The  magistrates  made  ineffectual  remon- 
strances ;  but,  compelled  to  yield,  they  registered  it  with  this  clause  : 
in  consequence  of  the  malice  of  the  time.  A  serious  revolt  broke  out  in 
the  provinces  of  Outre- Loire,  where  the  tax  upon  salt  had  been 
recently  established   by  Francis   I.     Poitou   and   Guienne   rose ;    at 

Bordeaux,  above  all,  the  populace  committed  great  ex- 
Revolts  in  Poitou  '  5  r   r  o 

and  Guienne,        cesses.      They   repulsed   the   garrison   of   the    Chateau 
Trompette  and  massacred  its  commandant,  whose   body 


1547-1559]  BORDEAUX  PUNISHED.  373 

they  tore  into  pieces.  The  King  promised  justice  and  satisfaction  ; 
the  people  were  appeased,  and  the  parliament  punished  the  seditions. 
Montmorency  was  charged  by  the  King  to  render  the  justice  which 
he  had  promised,  or  rather  to  exercise  his  vengeance  upon  them. 
"Behold  my  keys"  said  he  to  the  Bordelais,  showing  them  his  guns; 
and  he  entered  Bordeaux  as  into  a  conquered  city.  All  the  bourgeois, 
tried  by  commission,  perished  by  executions ;  all  colonels  of  the 
communes  were  broken  on  the  wheel  alive,  with  a  crown  of  red-hot 
iron  upon  their  heads.  The  whole  town,  attainted  and  convicted  of 
felony,  lost  its  privileges ;  its  bells  were  taken  down,  and  the  fronts 
of  the  walls ;  a  hundred  and  twenty  of  the  principal  inhabitants  were 
condemned  to  dig  up  with  their  nails  the  body  of  the  slaughtered 
officer,  and  the  inhabitants  paid  two  hundred  thousand  livres  for  the 
expenses  of  the  expedition.  Montmorency  visited  the  district  more 
as  an  executioner  than  a  judge  of  the  provinces  which  had  revolted^ 
and  everywhere  his  passage  was  marked  by  gibbets.  Bordeaux  only 
recovered  its  privileges  in  the  following  year. 

France  had  hardly  taken  breath  for  a   year,   when  war   broke    out 
anew.     Henry  II.  supported   Ottavio   Farnese,  Duke  of        r 
Parma,  against  Pope  Julius  III.  and  the  Emperor.     The   declares  war 

7      o  tr  c  agam>t  the  Pope 

latter,  without  disquietude  on  the  part  of  France,  had  a^nhe  Emperor, 
gained,  in  1547,  the  famous  battle  of  Muhlberg  over  the 
confederates  of  Smalcalde.  The  venerable  Frederic,  Elector  of 
Saxony  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  had  fallen  into  his  power. 
Charles  V.  compelled  the  former  to  cede  his  Electorate,  which 
he  gave  to  Maurice  of  Saxony,  son-in-law  of  the  Landgrave.  Ger- 
many was  yielding,  and  the  Protestant  League  had  no  other  hope  than 
in  France ;  it  implored  the  support  of  Henry  II.,  who  granted  it  on 
condition  that  he  should  occupy  the  town  of  Cambrai  and  the  three 
bishoprics  of  Metz,  Toul,  and  Verdun,  to  guard  them  as   TT 

x  '  '  '  o  He  seizes  the 

vicar  of  the  Empire.  He  soon  seized  them;  then,  SS^TcSi'and 
placing  on  his  flag,  as  the  symbol  of  liberty,  a  red  cap  Verdun>  lo°2- 
between  two  daggers,  he  declared  himself  the  defender  of  German 
independence  and  protector  of  the  captive  princes ;  but,  following  the 
example  of  his  father,  condemning  at  home  that  which  he  encouraged 
among  foreigners,  he  caused  the  Edict  of  Chateaubriand  to  be  pub- 
lished, which  aggravated  all  the  punishments  of  heretics,  authorized 


374  MILITARY   OPERATIONS.  [Book  I.    ChAp.  III. 

secret  prosecutions  regarding  individual  opinions,  and  established  an 
inquisitor  of  the  faith. 

An  unexpected  success  rendered  the  support  of  Henry  II.  un- 
necessary to  the  Lutherans  of  Germany.  Young  Maurice  of  Saxony, 
cried  down  in  his  country  as  a  traitor  and  usurper,  preferred  the  role 
of  Chief  of  the  Protestants  to  that  of  a  creature  of  Charles  V. 
A  profound  dissimulation  covered  his  projects.  When  he  believed 
.  himself  strong  enough,  he  raised  the  mask  and  marched 

Reverses  of  o  ©    ' 

Charles  v.  jn  forced  journeys  upon  Inspruck,  where  the  emperor, 

ill  and  almost  alone,   was  nearly  taken   by  surprise.     Compelled  to 

'    .       yield,  Charles    signed,    with  the  Protestants,  the  Con- 

Convention  of  *>  7  °  ' 

Passau.  1552.  vention  of  Passau,  changed  three  years  later,  at  the 
Diet  of  Augsburg,  into  a  definite  peace.  The  era  of  religious  liberty 
in  Germany  dates  from  that  tiine. 

France  had  no  part  in  these  great  events ;  but  she  preserved  the 
price  of  her  alliance,  in  keeping  the  three  bishoprics,  in  spite  of  the 
efforts  of  the  emperor  to  take  them.  Hostilities  were  still  prolonged 
„    '.       .      ,     between  that  prince  and  Henry  II.  for  three  years,  with 

Continuation  of  r  J  J  ' 

Uw'n6*  varied    success,    in   Piedmont,    Italy,  Corsica,  upon  the 

France6  aud  frontiers  of  the  North  and  East,  and  on  the   sea.     The 

principal  events  of  the  war  were  : — the  immortal  defence 
of  Metz  by  the  Duke  of   Guise,  in    1552,   against  Charles  V.,  who 

besieged  that   place  with  a  hundred  thousand   soldiers 

Military  oppra-  ° 

tions,  1552-1555.  an(j  a  formidable  artillery ;  the  raising  of  that  siege 
when  the  emperor  lost  forty  thousand  men ;  the  invasion  of  Picardy 
by  the  imperial  army,  and  of  Hainault  by  the  French  army ;  the 
conquest  of  Hesdin  by  Henry  II.;  the  loss  of  Therouenne,  which 
Charles  V.  razed  to  the  ground;  the  battle  of  Renti,  in  Flanders, 
between  these  two  sovereigns — a  glorious  combat,  but  of  little  advan- 
tage to  the  French,  where  Guise,  Coligny,  and  Tavannes  distin- 
guished themselves ;  lastly,  the  defence  of  Sienna  by  Montluc,  the 
ravaging  of  the  coasts  of  Italy  by  Dragut,  an  Ottoman  admiral  allied 
with  the  French,  and  the  fine  campaign  made  in  Piedmont  against 
the  Duke  of  Alba  by  Marshal  Brissac,  the  most  humane  among  the 
generals  of  his  time. 

After  these  wars,  the  advantages  of  which  were  equally  balanced, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  great  troubles  in  Germany  caused  by  the  death 


ment  of  the 
religious  peace, 
1555. 


1547-1559]  DIET  OF  AUGSBURG.  375 

of  Maurice  of  Saxony,  and  the  rivalry  between  Charles  Y.  and  his 
brother  Ferdinand,  King*  of  the  Romans  and  hereditary  sovereign  of 
Bohemia,  there  was  opened  at  Augsburg  a  celebrated  D?  tof 
Diet,  which  ought  to  have  followed  immediately  after  Aussbur£>  1555. 
the  Convention  of  Passau.  The  emperor,  burdened  with  his  affairs 
and  maladies,  left  the  presidency  of  the  Diet  to  his  brother  Ferdinand, 
whose  language  on  that  occasion  was  very  different  from  that  which 
he  ordinarily  used.  "  They  could  no  longer  expect,"  said  he,  "  from 
a  General  Council  a  religious  peace  which  the  Council  of  Trent  had 
not  been  able  to  establish,  and  it  would  be  still  more  difficult  to  bring 
the  German  ecclesiastics  to  an  unanimity  of  feeling  in  a  national 
council ;  it  was,  then,  from  the  Diet  itself  that  it  was  necessary  to 
demand  this  work  of  prudence  and  of  charity."  The  Diet  then  took 
into  consideration  the  state  of  religion.  It  was  decreed  that  the 
Catholic  and  Protestant  States  should  exercise  their  Ce]ebrated 
worship  in  freedom;  that  the  Catholic  clergy  should  for^VstaSSt 
renounce  all  spiritual  jurisdiction  over  the  States 
professing  the  Confession  of  Augsburg ;  that  the 
ecclesiastical  goods  seized  before  the  Treaty  of  Passau  should  be  left 
to  their  actual  possessors  ;  that  the  civil  power  of  each  State  should 
regulate  its  doctrine  and  religion,  but  that  it  should  give  entire 
liberty  to  every  German  who  would  not  conform  to  the  regulations  to 
retire  in  peace  whither  he  pleased  with  his  fortune.  Such  was,  in 
great  part,  the  decree  of  tne  Diet  of  Augsburg  of  the  25th  of  September, 
1555,  and  upon  it,  for  a  long  time,  the  religious  peace  of  Germany 
reposed.  This  decree  struck  a  fatal  blow  at  the  policy  of  Charles  V. 
whose  object  was  always  to  maintain  the  unity  of  the  Church 
under  his  sole  dependence.  Tormented  by  his  disgraces  as  much  as 
by  his  infirmities,  incapable  of  work,  and  convinced  that  all  would 
perish  when  he  could  not  direct  everything  himself,  he  convoked  the 
Chiefs  of  the  Low  Countries  at  Brussels,  and  there,  on  the  25th  of 
October,  1555,  he  solemnly  abdicated  his  hereditary  crown,  and 
placed  it  in  the  hands  of  Philip  II.,  his  son.  He  still  AM;cation  of 
held  the  Imperial  crown  for  six  months ;  then  he  ^5rlesV'' 
retired  to  the  Convent  of  the  Hieronymites  of  Saint  Just, 
where  he  died,  after  having  caused  the  Office  for  the  Dead  to  be  sung 
around  his  coffin  while  he  was  still  living.     His  brother  Ferdinand, 


376  RENEWAL    OF    HOSTILITIES.  [Book  I.   Chap.  III. 

King  of  the  Romans,  was  his  successor  in  the  empire.  Philip  II.  had 
married,  in  the  preceding  year,  Mary,  Queen  of  England,  daughter  of 
Henry  VIII.  and  of  Catherine  of  Aragon.  Husband  and  wife  vied 
with  each  other  throughout  their  possessions  in  supporting  Catholicism 
by  the  Inquisition  and  by  funeral  piles. 

As  soon  as  Philip  had  ascended  the  throne,  Henry  II.  signed  a 
Contradictory  "treaty  with  him  at  Vaucelles,  of  which  the  principal 
SfeTand  Rome  c^aiise  was  a  truce  of  five  years.  The  people  received 
355d'  the  news  with  transport ;  but  their  joy  was  short.    It  was 

from  Rome  that  the  new  germs  of  discord  arose.  A  contradictory 
treaty  had  been  concluded  between  Henry  and  the  Pope,  some 
months  before  that  of  Vaucelles.  Paul  IV.,  whom  his  nephews,  the 
Caraffi,  urged  on  to  outrageous  severities,  in  order  to  provoke  to 
their  profit  confiscations,  and  to  stir  up  a  war  between  the  Empire 
and  France,  suspected  Charles  V.,  before  his  abdication,  with 
having  wished  to  kill  him ;  he  declared  him  a  poisoner  in  full  con- 
sistory, and  invited  Henry  II.  to  avenge  him,  promising  to  him,  by  a 
treaty  signed  at  Rome,  the  investiture  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples. 

Two  parties  then  divided  the  Court  of  France  ;  the  one,  stimulated 

by  the  Cardinal  Caraffa,  nephew  of  the  Pope,  demanded  the  carrying 

out  of  the  treaty   of  Rome ;    the    other,    the  maintenance  of  that  of 

Vaucelles.     All  the   young   nobility  wished  for  war ;  Montmorency 

was  inclined  for  peace,   and,   partaking  in  this  respect 

Re-commence-  .  .  .__. 

ment  of  iiostiii-     the  wishes  of  the  people,  he  wisely  advised  the  King  to 

ties,  1557.  ... 

maintain  it.     Hostilities  broke  out  suddenly  between  the 
Pope  and  the  Spaniards,  and  war  was  resolved  upon. 

A  French  army,  under  the  orders  of  the  Constable  and  his  nephew, 
Coligny,  entered  into  Artois,  and  another  into  Italy,  under  the  Duke 
of  Guise.  The  first  gave  battle  near  Saint  Quentin,  to  Philibert, 
Batti  of  Saint  ^u^e  of  Savoy,  chief  of  the  Spanish  and  English  forces  ; 
Qumtin,  1558.  ^  wag  completely  vanquished  through  the  fault  of  the 
Constable  Montmorency.  A  charge  of  cavalry  which  the  Counts 
of  Egmont  and  Horn  commanded,  decided  the  victory.  The  French 
lost  ten  thousand  men,  their  baggage,  and  the  convoys,  the  road 
to  Paris  was  open ;  the  indecision  of  the  conquerors  saved  France 
from  great  disasters.  Guise  was  soon  re-called  from  Italy,  and 
signalised  his  return  by  a  memorable  exploit ;  he  surprised  Calais  and 


1547-1559]       '  BATTLE    OF    GRAVEL1NES.  377 

took  possession  of  it.     This  town,  which  had  so  often 

.  The  Duke  of 

introduced  foreigners  into  the  kingdom,  had  remained   Guise  retakes 

.  Calais,  1558. 

for   two   hundred   and   ten   years  in  the  power  of  the 
English.     France  lost  in  the  same  year  the  battle  of  Gravelines,  when 
the   old  Marshal  Thermes  was  conquered  by  the  Count  of  Egmont. 
These  two  events  were  followed  by  the  peace  of  Cateau-    _  . .,     „  _ 

J  L  Battle  of  Grave- 

Cambresis,   signed  in  1559.     It  was   called  The    TJnfor-   rfCatiaSc^ 
tunate  Peace.     Henry  II.   gave  up  his   conquests  with   wars  inTtai?  th° 
the  exception  of  the  three  bishoprics ;  he  renounced  all   15°8' 
his  rights  upon  Genoa,    Corsica,   the  kingdom  of  Naples,  and  only 
retained  in  Piedmont  Pignerol,  and  some  fortresses.     This  treaty,  far 
from   glorious,  but  necessary,  terminated  the  wars  in  Italy.      Their 
principal  results  have  been  to  hold  in  check  the  House  of 
Austria,  and  to  prevent  it  from  subduing  Germany  by 
occupying  its   forces   in  Italy.      They  initiated    the    French   in   the 
progress  of  civilization  and  of  the  arts  in  that  country,  and  also  in  its 
corrupt  policy,  without  permitting  it  to  make  any  durable  establish- 
ment ;  they  increased  and  fortified  the  royal  authority,  and  rendered 
it  absolute  by  the  continual  employment  of  numerous  armies,   per- 
manent and  paid.     These  wars  were  prolonged  over  four  reigns,  and 
lasted  sixty-five  years. 

France  would  have  been  happy,  if  it  had  known  how  to  turn  to 
profit  this  peace  with  the  foreigner.  Its  finances  were  exhausted, 
and  Henry,  in  order  to  provide  for  the  expenses  of  the  war  and 
those  of  a  prodigal  aud  dissolute  court,  had  recourse  to  deplor- 
able expedients.  He  sold  by  auction  the  offices  of  the  presidials 
or  inferior  tribunals,  which  he  created  and  multiplied  in  the 
provinces.     He  established  with  the  same  aim  and   bv 

*  .  J      Sale  of  offices. 

the    same  means   a  Parliament  in  Brittany,  caused   an 

edict  of  inquisition  to  be  bought  by  the  clergy,  sold  a  multitude  of 

new   offices,   ordered  that  the  titles  or  provisions   of  a   -„  . 

*  Exactions  of 

crowd  of  public  officers  should  be  revised,  and  compelled  Hem'y  IL 
them  to  buy  them  anew ;  he  authorised  the  towns  extraordinarily 
taxed  to  create  annuities  upon  themselves  ;  lastly,  he  dared  to  give 
the  name  of  States- General  to  an  assembly  of  notable  persons,  chosen 
by  himself  aud  devoted  to  his  will,  and  he  disguised  under  the  name 
of  loans,  the  taxes  that  he  exacted  from  them. 


378  PEOGRESS   OP  PROTESTANTISM.  [Book  I.  Chap.  III. 

The  Edict  of  Inquisition  which  he  sold  to  the  clergy  was  not 
executed.  Already,  however,  the  Inquisitor,  Matthew  Ori,  had 
been  named  by  the  Pope;  but  the  Parliament  of  Paris  made  an 
energetic  resistance.  This  was  not  because  it  felt  any  pity  for 
the  Sectarians;  its  severities  against  them  were  excessive;  but  it 
Was  jealous  of  its  rights,  and  did  not  wish  that  another  tribunal 
should  have  the  privilege  of  prosecuting  heresy  and  punishing  it. 
Henry  did  not  support  his  edict  and  the  inquisition  did  not  take 
root  in  France. 

The  foreign  war  had,  towards  the  end  of  this  reign,  wrought  some 

relaxation  in  the  Catholic  persecutions.     The  Protestants  grew  bold, 

religious   zeal    served   as    a   mask  to   the    ambition    of 

Progress  of  Pro- 

testantismin  some  ;  many  princes  of  the  Blood  Royal,  and  with  them 
Francs. 

illustrious  warriors  and  magistrates  embraced  the   new 

belief.     Taking  confidence  in  their  forces,  they  assembled  openly  in 

Paris  itself.     The  promenade  of  the  Pre  aux  Clercs  was 

the  I'leuux  used  as  their  place  of  meeting  ;  there  they  would  be  met 

Clercs. 

singing  ma  loud  voice  the  Psalms,  translated  into  French 
by  Clement  Marot. 

The  court  and  the  clergy  feared  above  all  that  the  Parliament, 
Exhortation  of  charged  with  the  punishment  of  heresy,  would  not  allow 
SwrSinetoT10'  itself  to  be  forced.  The  powerful  Cardinal  of  Lorraine 
iienry  ii.  then  persuaded  the  King  that  it  was  necessary  that  he 

should  summon  the  Parliament  to  the  throne,  in  order  to  propose 
a  Mercuriale  for  the  purpose  of  censuring  many  magistrates  who 
adhered  to  the  doctrine  of  Luther,  and  allowed  those  convicted  of 
heresy  to  escape  without  condemning  a  single  one  to  death ;  which 
was  contrary  to  the  decree  of  the  late  King,  who  prescribed  them  to 
be  burnt  and  reduced  to  ashes.  "  Then  that  would  only  show,"  said 
the  Cardinal,  "  to  the  King  of  Spain  that  you  are  firm  in  the  faith  ; 
further,  you  ought  to  do  it  boldly  and  promptly,  for  the  purpose  of 
giving  pleasure  to  the  Princes  and  Lords  of  Spain  who  have  accom- 
panied the  Duke  of  Alba,  in  order  to  solemnize  and  give  honour  to  the 
marriage  of  their  King  with  madame  your  daughter.  I  recommend  the 
death  of  a  half-dozen  counsellors  at  least,  who  must  be  burnt  in 
public,  like  heretic  Lutherans,  as  they  are,  and  who  destroy  that 
excellent    body   the   Parliament.     But    if    you   do   not   adopt   these 


1547-1559]  AEREST   OF   ANNE    OP   BOURG.  379 

means,  all  the  court  will  soon  be  infected,  even  to  the  ushers,  proctors, 
and  clerks  of  the  palace."  The  King  listened  to  this  advice  and 
made  arrangements  to  call  together  the  Parliament  on  the  morrow ; 
but  having,  in  the  evening,  communicated  his  project  to  his  counsellor, 
Vieilleville,  the  latter  gave  advice  that  he  should  leave  the  matter  to 
the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  and  the  Bishop  of  Paris.  "  It  belongs  to 
the  priests,"  said  he,  "  to  do  that  which  belongs  to  the  office  of  the 
priest ;  if  you  go,  Sire,  to  perform  the  office  of  a  theologian  or 
inquisitor  of  the  faith,  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  must  come  -to  teach 
you  how  to  run  in  the  lists,  and  how  to  manage  weapons.  Further, 
Sire,  you  will  mingle  sadness  with  joy ;  for  to  cause  executions  of 
justice  so  sanguinary  and  cruel  in  the  midst  of  the  wedding  fes- 
tivities, would  be  a  bad  augury."  The  King  accepted  these  reasons, 
and  said  that  he  would  not  go  ;  but  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  hearing 
of  this  resolution,  entered  in  fury.  Vieilleville  relates  also,  in  his 
memoirs,  the  continuation  of  this  tragic  event.  "  At  the  rising  of  the 
King,"  he  says,  "the  Cardinals  of  Bourbon,  Lorraine,  of  Guise,  and 
of  Pelve,  the  Archbishops  of  Sens,  and  of  Bourges,  the  Bishops  of 
Senlis,  three  or  four  doctors  of  Sorbonne,  and  the  inquisitor  of  the 
faith,  who  threatened  him  so  strongly  with  the  anger  of  God,  that  he 
thought  himself  already  damned  if  he  did  not  go.    And  so  he  marched 

with  all  his  guards,  the  drum  beating,  without  forgetting   ~  ,  ,    t  ,  „ 

a  9  to'  to  to    Celebrated  Mcr- 

the  Swiss,  and  the  hundred  gentlemen  of  the  house,  in  cunale> 15a0- 
great  magnificence.  Having  gone  down  to  the  Augustincs,  where  the 
Parliament  was  assembled,  he  ascended  into  the  great  chamber  and 
sat  on  the  throne,  under  the  canopy,  and  commanded  his  attorney- 
general  to  propose  the  mercurialc.  The  latter  soon  attacked  five  or 
six  counsellors,  badly  disposed  to  the  faith,  among  whom  was  one 
Anne  of  Bonrg,  who  sustained  so  audaciously  before  the  King  his 
religion  to  the  disparagement  of  Catholicism,  that  His  Majesty  swore, 
in  great  anger,  that  he  would  see  him,  with  his  own  eyes,  burnt  alive 
before  six  days  were  over,  and  ordered  him  to  bo  taken  prisoner  to 
the   Bastille,    with   five    or    six   others ;    then   he   rose, 

Arrest  of  Anne 

ordering  the  assembly  to  proceed  with  the  rest.     Arrived   of&um-g,  ami  of 

°  J         *  t  LouU  of  Faur, 

at    Tournellcs,    he    repented    not    having    believed    M.    15^ 

Vieilleville;  for  in  the  streets  he  heard  many  who  murmured  at  this 

enterprise,  on  account  of  the  counsellors  who  had  been  made  prisoners, 


380  ARREST   OF  LOUIS   OF   FAUR.  [Book  I.   Chap.  III. 

and  who  were  of  the  better  families  of  Paris,  and  who  administered 
justice  to  all  parties,  very  conscientiously."  * 

The  counsellor,  Louis  of  Faur,  was  in  the  number  of  the  magistrates 
arrested  in  their  seats.  Henry  placed  them  all  in  the  hands  of  Mont- 
gommery,  captain  of  his  guards,  and  made  him  give  instructions  for 
their  trial. 

The  French  Calvinists  held  at  this  period  their  first  Synod,  and 
„.   .  „  ,     ...      regulated  the   constitutions  which   should   maintain   in 

First  Calvanistic  ° 

Synod,  1559.  union  their  scattered  societies,  and  rule  them  under  the 
same  discipline.  The  King  received  the  news  in  the  midst  of  the 
fetes  of  the  marriage  of  Elizabeth,  his  daughter,  with  Philip  II., 
widower  of  Queen  Mary  Tudor  of  England.  He  swore  that  he  would 
punish  those  whom  he  considered  as  rebels.  His  death  prevented  the 
Death  of  accomplishment  of  his  vow.     Wounded  in  the  eye,  at  a 

Henry  ii.,  1559.  joust,  by  the  lance  of  Montgommery,  he  died  of  the 
wound  after  a  reign  of  twelve  years.  He  left  four  sons,  of  whom 
three  wore  the  crown.  Francis,  the  eldest,  had  married  Mary  Stuart, 
Queen  of  Scotland,  celebrated  as  much  for  her  misfortunes  as  for  her 
beauty. 

Henry  II.  had  in  his  character  neither  grandeur  nor  virtue. 
Intimidated  by  the  Guises,  and  ruled  by  Montmorency,  the  slave  of 
his  mistress  and  his  favourites,  he  poured  out  on  them  the  treasures 
of  the  State,  introduced  an  unrestrained  licentiousness  into  his  court, 

*  Vieilleville  became  Marshal  of  France,  and  honoured  his  country  by  his  tolerance, 
and  the  nobility  of  his  character.  Receiving  one  day  a  brevet,  by  which  the  King 
granted  to  him  and  five  other  gentlemen,  among  whom  were  MM.  Aphem  and  de  Biron, 
the  confiscated  goods  of  all  the  Lutherans  of  the  countries  of  Guienne,  Limousin,  Quercy, 
Perigord,  Saintonge  and  Aunis,  of  which  the  product  would  be  at  least  20,000  crowns 
for  each,  he  answered,  "that  he  did  not  wish  to  enrich  himself  by  so  odious  and 
sinister  a  means,  that  he  found  in  it  no  trace  of  dignity,  and  still  less  of  charity  .  .  .  ." 
"  Behold  us,  then,  registered  in  the  Courts  of  Parliament  with  a  reputation  of  destroyers 
of  the  people,  besides  having,  for  20,000  crowns  each,  the  curses  of  an  infinity  ot 
married  women,  maidens,  and  little  children,  who  will  die  in  the  hospitals  through  the 
confiscation,  right  or  wrong,  of  the  persons  and  goods  of  their  husbands  and  father's  :  that 
would  be  to  plunge  into  the  abyss  of  hell  cheaply."  That  said,  he  drew  his  dagger,  and 
plunged  it  into  the  brevet  in  the  place  of  his  name.  M.  Aphem,  reddening  with  shame, 
drew  his  likewise,  and  across  his  own  appointment  ;  M.  de  Biron  did  not  do  less.  And 
all  three  went  away,  drawing  each  one  on  his  own  side  without  saying  a  word,  leaving 
the  brevet  to  any  one  who  wished  to  take  it,  for  it  had  fallen  to  the  ground.  (Memoirea 
de  Vieilleville.) 


1547-1559]  .      CHARACTEE   OF    HENRY   II.  381 

already  corrupted  by  his  father,  he  oppressed  the  people  without  pity, 
violated  the  rights  of  the  magistracy,  obtained  no  personal  military 
glory,  and  left  the  kingdom  forty  millions  in  debt.*  The  ignorance 
and  the  misery  of  the  people,  the  increasing  embarrassment  of  the 
finances,  the  scandals  of  the  court,  the  Protestant  proselytism  on  the 
one  part,  and  on  the  other  the  Catholic  intolerance,  prepared  the 
volcanic  field,  where  great  talents  and  great  ambitions  came  to  clash 
together  under  the  following  reigns  The  struggle  lasted  thirty-six 
years,  and  covered  France  with  ruins. 

*  This  sura   would  be  equivalent  to  160  millions  at  the  present  day,  specie  then 
having  a  quadruple  value  of  that  existing  at  the  present  time. 


BOOK    II. 

FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  FRANCIS  II.  TO  THE  DEATH 

OF  HENRY  IV. 

RELIGIOUS    WARS. THE   LEAGUE. — END   OF   THE    DYNASTY   OP   THE    YALOIS. 

ACCESSION    OP   THE    BOURBONS. — REIGN    OF    HENRY   IV. 

1559-1610. 


CHAPTER   I. 

REIGNS    OP    FRANCIS    II.    AND    CHARLES    IX. 

1559-1574. 

F  R  A  N  C  I  S    II. 

Francis  II.  ascended  the  throne  at  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  and  under 
this  reign  and  the  following  one  was  seen  anew  the  dangers  of  the 
law  formed  by  Charles  V.,  which  "fixed  the  majority  of  the  Kings  at 
their  adolescence.  The  reigns  of  Charles  VI.  and  Charles  VIII. , 
already  sufficiently  attested  that  the  power,  in  the  young  age  of  the 
Kings,  belonged,  in  spite  of  their  legal  majority,  to  any  one  who  knew 
how  to  seize  it.  Under  Francis  II.  there  were  the  Guises,  princes  of 
the  House  of  Lorraine,  and  uncles  of  the  young-  Queen 

Power  of  the  •>  o    ~c 

Guises,  1559.  Mary  Stuart,  who  divided  all  the  authority  with 
Catherine  de  Medici,  one  of  them,  the  Cardinal,  had  a  cruel  and 
haughty  spirit;  the  other  was  the  famous  Francis,  Duke  of  Gruise, 
whose  prudence  equalled  his  intrepidity,  already  illustrated  by  the 
fine  defence  of  Metz,  and  the  taking  of  Calais,  and  dear  to  the  French 
by  his  great  qualities.     The  two  brothers,  however,  showed  themselves 


1559-1574]  TRIUMPH  OF  THE   GUISES.  883 

equally  ungrateful  towards  Diana  of  Poitiers,  their  benefactress.  It 
was  by  sacrificing  her  that  they  bought  the  favour  of  Catherine  de 
Medici.  The  characteristic  trait  of  this  Queen,  who  played  so  great 
a  part  under  the  reigns  of  her  three  sons,  was  a  profound  dissimulation, 
united  with  an  intriguing  and  corrupt  spirit.*  Nurtured  in^  Italy  in 
the  school  of  Macchiavelli,  and  the  Borgias,  she  set  in  operation  from 
the  throne  their  fatal  policy,  of  which  the  misfortunes  of  France 
attested  the  impotence,  while  at  the  same  time  they  unveiled  its 
infamy.  The  party  opposed  to  Catherine  and  the  princes  of  Lorraine, 
was  that  of  Anthony  of  Bourbon,  King  of  Navarre,  and 

...  .  Political  parties 

of  Louis  of  Conde,  his  brother,  both  princes  of  the  Blood 

Royal,  issue   of  Bobert,   Count   of  Clermont,  youngest  son  of  Saint 

Louis ;  it  was  to  them  that  the  old  Constable  of  Mont- 

Ori.ain  of  the 

morency,  without  credit  at  the  court,  and  disgraced  by  House  of  bout- 
the  queen-mother,  came  and  rallied  against  the  Guises. 
A  great  number  of  French  nobles,  indignant  at  seeing  all  the  authority 
usurped  by  princes  of  the  foreign  House  of  Lorraine,  increased  the 
party  of  the  royal  princes  ;  secret  conferences  were  held  at  Yendome, 
between  all  the  Malcontents,  the  object  of  which  was  to  convoke  the 
States- General,  and  take  away  the  power  from  the  Guises.  The  latter, 
informed  concerning  these  hostile  projects,  and  knowing  the  weakness 
of  Anthony  of  Bourbon,  prevented  the  danger  by  intimidating  that 
prince.  Invited  by  Catherine  to  defend  her  government,  the  King  of 
Spain,  Philip  II.,  had  answered  that,  should  it  cost  him  forty  thousand 
men,  he  would  sustain,  in  Prance,  the  authority 'of  the  King  and  his 
ministers.  His  letter,  read  in  full  council  before  the  King  of  Navarre, 
frightened  that  feeble  prince,  who  accepted  the  mission  to  conduct  to 
the  frontier  the  sister  of  Francis  II.,  Elizabeth  of  France,  in  order  to 
place  her  in  the  hands  of  the  King  of  Spain,  her  husband,  and  was 
happy  so  to  escape  from  the  peril  of  his  own  resolutions. 

The  Guises  triumphed;  they  then  hastened  to  work  out  the 
destruction  of  Protestantism  in  France,  and  caused  the  trial  of  the 
counsellor  Anne  of  Bourg  to  be  proceeded  with.     This  great  cause 

*  She  appeared  indifferent  to  power  when  she  was  most  covetous  of  it ;  incapable 
of  a  sincere  affection,  she  deceived  equally  friends  and  foes.  There  was  for  her  neither 
security  nor  pleasure,  if  she  did  not  incite,  renew,  or  perpetuate  discords.  (Charles 
Lacratelle,  Eistoire  de  France  pendant  les  gucrres  de  religion.) 


384  THE   BURNING  CHAMBER.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

Trial  f  a  f  ^olcl  public  attention,  not  only  in  Paris,  but  in  Europe. 
Bourg,  1559.  rj\^Q  protestant  party  became  agitated  ;  the  queen- 
mother  received  alarming  warnings  ;  many  princes  of  Germany  also 
were  moved  in  favour  of  the  accused,  and  wrote  in  order  to  save 
him.  The  Guises,  aware  that  Bourg  would  be  more  formidable 
if  he  died  a  martyr  to  his  faith  than  if  he  lived  abjuring  it,  set  to 
work  so  that  he  should  consent  to  recant.  The  advocate  charged 
with  his  defence  confessed  in  his  name  that  he  had  offended  God  and 
the  Church,  and  that  he  was  ready  to  reconcile  himself  with  it ;  the 
judges  immediately,  and  without  wishing  to  hear  Bourg  himself,  held 
council  in  order  to  grant  his  pardon.  While  they  deliberated,  a  note 
from  his  hand  was  delivered  to  them.  Bourg  disavowed  the  conclu- 
sions of  his  advocate,  and  persisted  in  his  faith,  which  he  was  ready  to 
confirm  with  his  blood.  From  that  time  his  fate  was  sealed  ;  still,  he 
could  not  perish  without  being  avenged ;  it  was  unfortunately  by  an 
assassin.  The  President,  Minard,  his  enemy,  and  one  of  his  judges, 
was  killed  by  a  pistol-shot.     This  was  the  sinister  signal 

Assassination  of  i  i        i    "  j_-  a       ,  o    -i       n 

the  President        lor  a  bloody  persecution,     feentence  ot  death  was  soon 

Minard.  .  . 

pronounced  against  Bourg  ;  he  heard  it  read  with  heroic 
constancy,  and  answered  by  the  cry  of  the  martyrs,  "  I  am  a  Christian  ! 
I  am  a  Christian  !  "  His  eloquent  farewell  drew  tears  from  his  judges. 
„       ..      .         He  was  executed  on  the  next  day,  the  23rd  of  December ; 

Execution  of  >>  '  ' 

Auneof  Bourg.      they  spared  him  the  pain  of  the  fire,  having  the  grace  to 
strangle  him  before  throwing  him  into  the  flames. 

The  death  of  Bourg  seemed  to  give  a  new  activity  to  the  persecu- 
tion. The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  designed,  as  he  had  already  done  for 
Francis  I.,  a  particular  chamber,  charged  with  punishing  the 
mu   ,      .  reformers.       Fire   was   the   chastisement  which  it   pro- 

The  burning  r 

chamber.  nounced  against  them,  and  the  cruelty  of  its  judgments 

gave  to  it  the  frightful  nickname  of  the  Burning  Chamber. 

The  peace  of  Cateau-Cambresis  had  left  without  employment  a 
crowd  of  gentlemen  and  soldiers,  whose  only  resource  was  war.  A 
great  number  came  to  the  court  to  petition,  some  for  that  which 
was  due  to  them,  and  others  for  pensions  and  pardons.  Impor- 
tuned by  their  demands  and  their  misery,  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine 
caused  a  gibbet  to  be  erected,  at  the  entrance  to  the  Chateau  of 
Fontainbleau,  with  a  threat  that  he  would  hang  those  petitioners  who 


1559-1574]  THE   CHATILLONS.  385 

had  not  left  the  court  on  the  following  day.  They  moved  away,  but 
they  promised  to  present  to  the  Lorrains  *  complaints  of  another 
sort.  These  men,  among  whom  were  many  people  without  name, 
united  with  the  nobles  who  were  enemies  to  the  tyranny  of  the 
Guises,  and  formed  with  them  the  party  of  Malcontents,  which 
doubled  its  forces  by  allying  itself  with  the  Protestants.  The  .latter, 
counted  with  pride  in  their  ranks  the  Prince  of  Conde,  a  man  of  heart 
and  head,  brother  of  the  King  of  Navarre,  and  the  three 

°  .      _  ^  .      The  Chatillons. 

brothers  Chatillon,  of  whom  the  eldest,  Admiral  Coligni, 
of  austere  manners,  of  an  immovable  firmness,  skilful  in  repairing  his 
reverses  without  ever  despairing,  was  the  most  illustrious  among  the 
Protestant  chiefs  of  France ;  Audelot,  one  of  his  brothers,  celebrated 
for  his  bravery,  commanded  the  French  infantry ;  his  other  brother, 
Odet  Chatillon,  a  skilful  diplomatist,  had  secretly  embraced  the 
reformed  faith  and  was  married,  although  he  was  Bishop  of  Beauvais, 
and  Cardinal.  The  ability  of  the  three  brothers,  their  offices  and 
alliances,  soon  rendered  formidable  the  party  which  had  adopted 
them  as  chiefs,  and  who  reckoned  already  on  the  tacit  concurrence  of 
the  Prince  of  Conde. 

A  vast  plot,  known  in  history  under  the  name  of  the  Conspiracy  of 
Amboise,  was  then  formed  in  secret  by  the  enemies  of  the  government, 
Catholic  and  Protestant.     Both  one  and  the  other  bound   n 

Conspiracy  of 

themselves  by  an  oath  to  attempt  nothing  against  the  Amboise,  1560. 
King,  the  Queen,  or  the  authority  of  the  laws.  Their  object  was  to 
carry  off  the  King,  to  remove  him  from  the  influence  of  the  Guises,  to 
arrest  the  latter,  and  to  cause  them  to  be  tried  as  guilty  of  high 
treason.  An  adroit  and  bold  gentleman,  named  Benandi,  was  chosen 
as  the  apparent  chief  of  the  enterprise,  which  he  conducted  with  great 
skill.  The  real  chief,  known  only  under  the  name  of  the  Dumb 
Captain,  was  the  Prince  of  Conde.  From  all  parts  bands  of  armed 
men  were  set  in  movement,  without  being  in  the  secret  of  the  con- 
spirators. The  Guises,  under  vague  suspicion,  removed  the  court  from 
the  Chateau  of  Blois  to  that  of  Amboise.  The  conspirators  persevered 
in  their  project  with  an  incredible  audacity.  An  advocate,-  named 
Avenelles,  a  friend  of  Benandi,  revealed  their  design ;  and  while  this 

*  The  Guises,  Princes  of  the  House  of  Lorraine,  were  commonly  designated  by  this 
name. 

C  C 


386  VENGEANCE    OF   THE    GUISES.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

news  still  held  the  Guises  and  their  court  in  stupefaction,  the 
conspirators,  informed  of  the  treachery,  marched  forward  and  directed 
the  courses  of  the  different  bands  upon  the  Chateau  of  Amboise,  on 
the  16th  of  March,  1560.  Already  the  town  was  filled  with  troops 
called  together  in  haste  by  the  Guises.  Coligni  and  Conde  found 
themselves  both  one  and  the  exposed  to  an  extreme  defiance.  Conde, 
overlooking  closely,  received  the  order  to  defend  some  posts. 
Combats  then  took  place,  and  were  unfortunate  for  the  conspirators; 
Defeat  of  the  ^e  ^u^ses  rusned  upon  a  crowd  of  men,  who  ran 
conspirators.  according  to  the  order  of  their  chiefs  and  conspirators, 
without  knowing  the  reason  why;  the  party  was  dispersed  and  the 
executions  began. 

Whatever  name  is  given  to  this  enterprise,  whatever  motive  is 
supposed  for  it,  it  was  culpable,  since  it  tended  to  overthrow  by 
violence  a  government  legally  established.  However,  the  barbarities 
exercised  upon  the  captives,  and  the  constancy  with  which  they  held 
firm,  excited  interest  for  them  and  horror  for  their  executioners.  The 
vengeances  of  the  Guises  were  atrocious.  The  waters  of  the  Loire 
.      carried  away  a  multitude  of  corpses,  which  floated  fastened 

Vengeances  of  *  r        ' 

the  Guises.  together  with  long  poles ;    the  streets  of  Amboise  ran 

with  human  blood.  The  Conspirators  marched  boldly  to  death ;  some 
were  killed  without  even  having  heard  their  sentence.  One  of  the 
principal,  the  Lord  of  Castelneau,  gave  himself  up  to  the  Duke  of 
Nemours,  with  fifteen  of  his  companions,  on  condition  that  he  should 
do  them  no  harm ;  the  Guises  caused  them  to  be  condemned  like 
the  rest.  Nemours  interposed  vainly  to  save  them,  they  all  died. 
Castelneau  dipped  his  hands  on  the  scaffold  into  the  blood  of  his 
decapitated  companions,  and,  lifting  them  to  Heaven,  all  wet  with 
blood,  he  cried  to  God  for  vengeance  upon  those  who  had  betrayed 
him,  and  upon  the  Chancellor  Olivier  who  had  condemned  him.  The 
latter,  secretly  attached  to  the  conspirators,  had  been  compelled  to 
exercise  against  them  the  vengeance  of  the  Guises.  "  In  listening  to 
the  words  of  Castelneau,  whom  he  had  loved,  he  wept,  and,  siezed 
with  remorse,  he  fell  ill  of  an  extreme  melancholy,  which  made  him 
sigh  without  ceasing,  and  murmur  against  God,  afflicting  his  person 
in  a  strange  and  dreadful  manner.  While  he  was  in  this  furious 
despair,  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  came  to  visit  him,  but  he  would 


1559-1574]  DEATH   OF   FRANCIS   II.  387 

not  see  him,  and  turned  on  the  other  side,  without  saying  a  word; 
when  he  knew  that  he  was  far  off,"  he  cried  ont : — "Ah!  cursed 
Cardinal!  you  damn  yourself  and  us  along  with  you."  Two  days 
afterwards  he  died.*  For  a  month  they  did  nothing  but  behead, 
hang,  and  drown.  Conde  himself  was  in  peril ;  he  prayed  for  his 
audacity  by  justifying  himself  before  the  King ;  he  caused  his 
accusers  to  be  silent,  but  not  the  suspicions,  and  civil  war  appeared 
imminent. 

The  two  parties  met  together  in  arms  at  Fontainebleau,  where  the 
Guise  had  convoked  the  principal  magistrates  to  consult 
concerning  the  means  of  establishing  peace.     Coligni  in   Fontainebleau, 
this  assembly  presented  uselessly  a  petition  in  the  name 
of  fifty  thousand  Belisionaires^  who  supplicated  that  temples  should 
be  granted  to  them,  and  the  permission  to  pray  to  God  according  to 
their  hearts.     The  assembly  requested  the   States- General,   and  the 
Princes  of  Lorraine  acquiesced  in  this  wish.     On  both   sides  plots 
were  woven.     Orleans  had  been  fixed  upon  as  the  place  of  meeting 
for  the   States;  the  King  betook  himself  there  with  a  S(atesof Orleans 
threatening    display.      The  two  Bourbon   Princes  were  1560- 
drawn  there  by  the  Guises.     The  King  of  Navarre   ran  the  risk  of 
his  life  in  an  audience  which  Francis  II.  gave  him,  and 

C-i  /  -,  .  .      .  .     ,     -,  .,         Condemnation  of 

onde  was  made  prisoner.     A  commission,  appointed  by   the  Prince  of 

the  Guises,  and  presided  over  by  Christopher  of  Thou, 

father   of  the   historian,    condemned   Conde  to  lose  his  head.     The 

death   of   the    feeble    Francis    II.,    whom    a  disease   of 

Death  of  Fran- 

exhaustion  consumed  away,  prevented  the  execution   of  cisIL>i560. 
the  prince. 

This  reign  finished  under  the  most,  sinister  auspices.  If  one  man 
could  have  conjured  down  the  tempest  that  was  about  to  burst,  it 
would  have  been  the  wise  and  virtuous  Michael  of  the  Hospital, 
ancient  superintendent  of  the  finances,  and  successor  to  Olivier  in 
charge  of  the  chancellorship  of  the  kingdom;  he  belonged  to  those 
men  who  present  a  beautiful  type  in  the  moral  order,  and  who  seem 
born  to  soften  down  the  evils  of  humanity.  J     He  made  the  greatest 

*  De  Vieilleville,  Memoires. 

+  All  those  of  the  reformed  religion  were  designated  by  this  name.  ~ 

X  ''He  was,"  says  Brautome,  "another  Cato  the  Censor,  who  knew  very  well  hew 

c  c  2 


Accession  of 
Charles  IX.  15G0. 


388  ACCESSION  OF  CHAELES  IX.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

efforts  to  prevent  the  Guises  from  introducing  into  France  the 
execrable  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition,  but  he  could  only  succeed  in  it 
Edict  of  Rom  -  ^y  Polishing  the  Edict  of  Romorantin,  which  attributed 
rantm,  1560.  ^0  -j-j^  preiates  of  the  kingdom  the  knowledge   of  the 

crimes  of  heresy  (May,  1560).  The  Parliament  modified  this  Edict 
before  registering  it,  and  permitted  the  laity  to  have  recourse  to  the 
judge  royal. 

CHARLES    IX. 

Charles  IX.  was  only  ten  years  old  when  he  succeeded  his  brother, 
Francis  II.  The  States- General  were  still  assembled 
at  Orleans,  and  only  took  a  feeble  part  in  political 
affairs ;  however,  it  decreed  the  regency  to  Catherine  of  Medicis,  and 
recognised  the  King  of  Navarre  in  his  quality  as  Lieutenant- General 
of  the  Kingdom.  The  Chancellor  L'Hospital  exercised  a  wise 
influence  upon  the  States,  and  he  leant  upon  them  in  order  to  cause 
the  ordinance  called  that  of  Orleans  to  be  issued.  It  was  celebrated 
for  the  excellent  arrangements  touching  ecclesiastical  matters,  the 
administration  of  justice,  and  the  police  of  the  kingdom.  This 
ordinance  re-established  the  ordinances  proscribed  by  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction  for  the  election  of  the  bishops  ;  but  its  arrangements  in  this 
respect  were  not  observed  for  any  length  of  time.  L'Hospital  had 
refused  to  sign  the  arrest  which  condemned  to  death  the  prince  of 
Conde.  Medicis,  by  her  counsel,  declared  Conde  innocent  of  the 
crime  of  which  he  was  accused,  and  Montmorency  was  recalled  to 
the  court,  where,  nevertheless,  the  Guises  remained  powerful  and 
formidable. 

The  queen-mother  played  fast  and  loose  between  the  two  parties, 
at  one  time  relying  on  the  Guises  and  the  Catholics,  and  at  another 
attaching  herself  to  the  Protestants  and  the  Bourbons  against  the 
Guises.  The  latter  sought  the  support  of  the  gloomy  and  cruel 
Philip  II.,  King  of  Spain,  the  firmest  champion  of  Catholicism  in  the 

to  reprove  and  correct  the  corrupt  world.  He  showed  it  in  all  his  outward  appearance, 
with  his  great  white  beard,  his  pale  face,  and  his  grave  expression,  so  that  one  would 
have  said  that  to  see  him,  was  to  see  a  true  portrait  of  Saint  Hierosone  :  so  said  many 
at  the  Court." 


1659-1574]       -  CONFERENCE   OF    POISSY.  389 

whole  of  Europe,  and  who  already,  under  the  preceding  reign,  had 
declared  himself  protector  of  the  kingdom  of  France.  The  Guises 
felt  equally  the  want  of  again  attaching  to  themselves  the  Constable. 
They  knew  that  in  the  eyes  of  this  old  warrior,  all  interest  disappeared 
before  that  of  the  Catholic  religion.  They  showed  to  him  that  it  was 
in  peril,  and  he  entered  into  their  views.  The  Marshal  of  Saint 
Andre  was  also  gained  over  to  the  side  of  the  Lorraine  princes,  and 
formed,  with  the  Constable  and  Francis  of  Guise,  a  The  Triumvirate> 
league   which   received   the   name    of  the    Triumvirate. 

o 

Then  appeared  an  edict,  dated  in  the  month  of  July,  which  granted 
to  the  Protestants  an  amnesty  for  the  past,  and  ordered  them  to  live 
in  the  Catholic  religion,  nnder  pain  of  prison  and  exile  ;  Ef1ict  of  Jul 
death  would  no  longer  be  pronounced  against  them.  156  • 
This  edict  only  made  malcontents,  and  was  never  observed.  The 
Queen  endeavoured  to  bring  together  Francis  of  Guise  and  Conde ; 
they  embraced  each  other,  bnt  remained  mortal  enemies. 

The  States- General  assembled  in  the  course  of  the  year  at  Pontoise. 
The  electors  were  assembled  by  province,  and  not  by  states  f 
bailiwick,  and  each  of  the  thirteen  provinces  having  Pontolse' 156L 
only  named  one  deputy  from  each  order,  thirty-nine  members  alone 
sat  in  the  States.  They  voted  for  the  election  of  the  prelates  by  the 
chapters,  and  the  abolition  of  the  Annates,  and  caused  the  greater 
part  of  the  public  offices  to  fall  to  the  clergy.  That  order,  fearing  the 
most  severe  measures  with  regard  to  its  immense  wealth,  taxed  itself 
with  fifteen  millions,  which  it  offered  as  a  free  gift.  In  the  meantime, 
a  celebrated  assembly  was  held,  under  the  name  of  the    „    . 

J  '  Conference  of 

Conference  of  Poissy.  Anxious  to  cause  his  eloquence  Poissy> 1561- 
and  erudition  to  shine,  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  had  invited  the 
Protestant  ministers  and  Calvin  himself  to  open  with  him  and  the 
Catholic  bishops'  conferences,  where  the  principal  points  of  the  two 
religions  should  be  dilated.  Poissy  was  designated  as  the  scene  of 
this  theological  struggle.  Many  French  cardinals,  forty  bishops,  and 
a  great  number  of  doctors  appeared  there  ;  not  more  than  twelve 
Protestant  ministers  were  there.  Calvin  did  not  present  himself;  he 
sent  in  his  place  Theodore  of  Beza,  the  most  distinguished  of  his 
disciples.  The  discussion  finished  like  all  theological  disputes  ;  each 
pne  remained  more  firmly  fixed  than  ever  in  his  own  opinion. 


390  MASSACRE    OF  VASST.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

.  The  Edict  of  July  was  not  observed  in  any  part ;  the  Protestants 
braved  it  openly,  and  nnited  together  in  a  great  number  of  places. 
Catherine  of  Medicis  then  gave  an  order  to  all  the  parliaments  to 
appoint  deputies  who  should  assist  in  forming  an  edict  more  suitable 
to  the  circumstances.  This  new  assembly  was  presided  over  by 
Efforts  of  the  L'Hospital,  who  spoke  these  beautiful  words  : — "  Try 
l "Hospital  to  an(^  nn(^  ouV  sa^  ne?  "  if  a  man  can  be  a  good  subject 
secure  peace.         0f  ^e  ^ng  w£thout  being  a  Catholic,  and  if,  after  all,  it 

is  impossible  for  men  who  are  not  of  the  same  belief  to  live  in  peace 
with  each  other,  do  not  then  tire  yourselves  with  searching  as  to 
which  religion  is  the  best ;  we  are  here,  not  to  establish  the  faith,  but 
to  regulate  the  State." 

The  wise  Edict  of  January  was  the  result  of  the  efforts  of  the  chan- 
Edict  of  eel]  or.     It  was  therein  decreed  that  the  Calvinists  should 

January08!^        £^ve  UV  ^ne  usurped  churches,  the  crosses,  the  images  and 

^he  relics,  and  that  they  should  submit  to  the  collection 
of  tithes ;  it  ordered  them  to  keep  the  fete  days,  and  to  respect  the  ex- 
terior acts  of  the  Catholic  religion.  It  permitted  them,  nevertheless, 
to  meet  together,  in  order  to  exercise  their  religion  outside  the  towns, 
and  without  arms  ;  it  enjoined  upon  the  magistrates  to  watch  lest 
they  caused  any  disturbances.  The  parliaments  of  Rouen,  Toulouse, 
Bordeaux,  and  Grenoble,  with  little  difficulty  registered  the  Edict; 
that  of  Burgundy  resisted  it ;  those  of  Paris,  Landguedse,  and 
Dauphine  offered  a  long  resistance.  This  celebrated  Edict  was 
welcomed  by  the  Calvinists  with  an  enthusiasm  which  doubled  their 
confidence  ;  while  the  Catholics  received  it  in  a  stern  and  mournful 
silence.  The  peace  that  it  maintained  between  them  was  of  short 
duration ;  each  party  strengthened  and  prepared  itself  for  war.  The 
Guises  had  drawn  to  them  the  King  of  Navarre,  whom  Philip  II. 
flattered  by  promising  to  him  Sardinia ;  while  Conde,  his  brother, 
declared  himself  chief  of  the  Protestants,  towards  whom  the  queen- 
mother  appeared  then  to  incline.  The  Catholics,  alarmed  at  the 
favour  which  Conde  enjoyed,  called  Guise  to  Paris.  He  hastened 
from   Joinville,  and   passed   through   the   little   town   of  Yassy,  in 

Champagne,   at   the   time   when   the    Protestants  were 

Massacre  of  j.     o 

Vassy,  1562.  assembled  in  worship.     His  fanatical  troops  fell   upon 

them  sword  in  hand  j  the  Duke  of  Guise  was  wounded  in  the  cheek 


1559-1574]      •  ADMIRAL   COLIGNY.  391 

in  the  tumult,  and  sixty  Calvinists  were  slaughtered ;  this  massacre 
became  the  signal  for  war. 

Guise  entered  Paris  as  a  conqueror,  amid -the  cheers  of  the  people; 
Catherine,  jealous  and  troubled  concerning  her  influence,  drew  nearer 
to  the  Protestants,  without  giving  herself  opening  to  them.  The 
two  parties,  in  arms,  watched  each  other  for  many  days  in  Paris,  and 
the  Queen,  in  order  to  prevent  the  shedding  of  blood,  arranged  with 
their  chiefs,  Guise  and  Conde,  that  they  should  leave  the  capital ; 
they  obeyed,  but  this  was  in  order  to  unite  their  partisans  and  to 
prepare  themselves  for  war. 

However,  the  great  captain  who  was  then  in  France,  the  firmest 
supporter  of  reform,  the  Admiral  Coligny,  hesitated  to  take  up  arms ; 
his  brothers,  the  Cardinal  of  Chatillon  and  Audelot,  pressed  him 
to  join ;  but  he  himself  thought  over  all  the  evils  of  civil  war  ; 
he  thought  with  fear  of  the  number  of  his  adversaries,  and  the 
weakness  of  his  party  and  the  greatness  of  the  peril.  For  two  days 
he  resisted,  when  he  was  awakened  at  night  by  the  sobs  of  his  wife. 
It  was  not  on  account  of  herself  that  she  wept,  but  on  account  of  her 
husband's  wish  to  abandon  his  brothers  in  Jesus  Christ,  whom  she 
looked  upon  beforehand  as  men  condemned  to  die  by  executions. 
"  To  be  wise  for  men,"  said  she,  "is  not  to  be  wise  for  God,  who 
has  given  you  the  science  of  captain  for  the  service  of  his  children." 
Coligni  related  to  her  all  his  just  motives  and  fears,  and  added  : — 
"Place  your  hand  upon  your  heart,  sound  well  your  conscience,  and 
see  if  you  can  put  up  with  general  disasters,  the  outrages  of  your 
enemies,  the  treachery  of  your  own  side,  flight,  exile,  your  hunger, 
and  that  which  is  harder,  that  of  your  children,  perhaps,  even  your 
death  by  an  executioner,  after  having  seen  your  husband  dragged 
along  and  exposed  to  the  ignominy  of  the  vulgar  ****.! 
give  you  three  weeks  to  try  you."  "  These  three  weeks  are  passed," 
replied  that  heroic  women  ;  "  you  will  never  be  conquered  by  the 
virtue  of  your  enemies  ;  use  your  own,  and  do  not  have  upon  your 
head  the  deaths  of  three  weeks."*  Coligny  departed  on  the  following 
day  with  his  brothers  and  joined  Conde. 

The  prince  thought  of  making  himself  master  of  the  person  of 
Charles   IX.,    the    Triumvirate    prevented   him ;    they   removed   the 

*  Daubigne,  Notice  sur  Coligni. 


392  THE  HUGUENOTS.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

First  civil  war       young  king   to   Pontainebleau,  and  conducted   him   to 
1562,  Paris,  where   Catherine  herself  accompanied  him.     The. 

Constable  could  no  longer  restrain  his  fanatical  zeal ;  he  advanced 
into  the  Faubourgs  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  attacked  the  Protestant 
churches,  and  with  his  own  hand  set  fire  to  their  temples,  which  were 
consumed  amid  the  joyous  and  barbarous  criqs  of  the  populace.  It 
was  thus  that  the  first  war  was  declared.  Conde,  Admiral  Coligny, 
and  his  brother  Audelot,  hastened  immediately  to  Orleans,  and 
assembled  there  their  forces.  Both  sides  had  recourse  to  foreign 
aid ;  the  Guises  were  supported  by  the  King  of  Spain,  and  they 
Alliance  of  the  bought,  at  the  price  of  the  town  of  Turin,  the  support 
£SSfwM  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy;  the  Calvinists  negotiated  with 
Elizabeth;  they  wished  to  sell  to  her  Dieppe  and  Havre, 
and  called  into  Prance  a  body  of  German  knights,  known  by  the 
name  of  Beitres,  a  great  number  of  nobles,  besides  the  Chatillons, 
embraced  their  side ;  among  their  ranks  might  be  distinguished 
Anthony  of  Croi,  La  Rochefoucauld,  Rohan,  Montgommery,  Gramont, 
the  one  drawn  by  the  true  zeal  for  reform,  the  others  by  their  hate  of 
the  Guises,  and  by  the  chances  which  a  civil  war  offers  to  all  who 
are  ambitious.  The  army  of  the  Huguenots,*  or  Protestants,  was 
remarkable  for  its  fine  and  severe  discipline.  No  games  of  hazard, 
0.0  women  of  bad  reputation,  and  no  marauders  were  to  be  seen 
there ;  swearing  was  rigorously  forbidden  ;  ministers  went  amongst  the 
companies  and  conversed  there  with  religious  enthusiasm ;  but  under 
this  austere  exterior  fermented  a  fanatacism  as  gloomy  and  as  cruel 
as  that  of  the  Catholic  army.  Woe  to  the  vanquished  !  Woe  to  the 
towns  taken  by  either  one  or  the  other  army !  The  most  frightful 
atrocities  were  committed  by  them  in  cold  blood.  Beaugency  was 
carried  by  assault  by  the  Protestants ;  Blois,  Tours,  Poitiers,  and 
Rouen  experienced  first  all  the  fury  of  this  atrocious  war.  The 
town  of  Rouen,  defended  by  Montgommery,  the  involuntary  murderer 
of  Henry  II.,  had  been  besieged  by  the  King  of  Navarre,  Anthony  of 
Bourbon,  who  was  slain  under  its  walls.  The  only  glory  in  this 
prince  is  that  he  was  an  ancestor  of  Henry  IY.  of  Prance. 

*  They  began  then  in  France  to  give  'the  name  of  Huguenots  to  the  reformer,1?,  by 
which  name  they  distinguished  themselves.  This  word  comes  from  the  German  word 
cidgenossen,  which  signifies  confederates,  and  which  they  used  among  themselves. 


1559-1574]  DEATH   OF    FRANCIS    OF   GUISE.  393 

Of  all  the  great  towns  of  France  which,  he  had  taken,  Conde  only 
possessed  Lyons  and  Orleans,  when  the  two  armies,  the  one  com- 
manded by  that  prince,  and  the  other  by  the  Constable,  met  together 
near  to  Dreux.  They  engaged  in  battle,  which  was  sanguinary.  The 
Constable  charged  first  impetuously ;  his  squadrons  were  Battl  of  Dr 
broken  by  Coligny ;  -Montmorency,  surrounded  on  all  1562- 
sides,  remained  a  prisoner  ;  the  Marshal  of  Saint  Andre  was  killed  in 
going  to  his  assistance.  One  part  of  the  Catholic  army  took  to 
flight,  and  the  Protestants  dispersed  themselves  in  pursuit  of  the 
vanquished.  Then  Francis  of  Guise,  up  to  that  time  immovable 
with  his  cavalry,  ran  his  eyes  rapidly  over  the  field  of  battle.  "  They 
are  ours !  "  he  cried,  and  plunged  in'  a  gallop  upon  the  astonished 
Protestants.  This  unexpected  charge  decided  the  victory ;  Conde 
himself  was  made  prisoner.  This  new  triumph,  the  captivity  of  the 
Constable,  and  that  of  Conde,  the  death  of  Anthony  of  Bourbon,  and 
of  Marshal  Saint  Andre,  rendered  Francis  of  Guise  the  most 
powerful  man  in  the  kingdom.  He  was  appointed  Lieutenant- 
General,  and  hastened  to  march  upon  Orleans,  the  siege  of  which 
he  pressed.  This  was  the  end  of  his  success  and  of  his  life.  A 
Protestant,  John  Poltrot  of  Mere,  "assassinated  him  by   ~    .,    ,  „ 

'  '  J     Death  of  r  raucis 

shooting  him  with  a  pistol ;  his  death  was  the  safety  of  of  Gulse' 15G2- 
Orleans.  Guise  terminated  his  illustrious  career  by  pardoning  his 
murderer,  and  in  seeking  to  justify  himself  for  the  massacre  of  Vassy. 
The  assassin,  in  the  midst  of  the  most  frightful  tortures,  designated 
Coligni  as  his  accomplice  ;  but  he  varied  in  his  confessions,  and  the 
grand  character  of  Coligni  sufficed  to  shelter  him  from  the  suspicion 
of  being  an  assassin.*  Henry,  son  of  Francis  of  Guise,  however, 
received  this  accusing  evidence  as  a  proof,  and  vowed  an  implacable 
hatred  against  the  Admiral. 

o 

Desolation  weighed  heavily  upon  the  towns  and  the  country  of 
France  ;  bands  of  fierce  soldiers  covered  its  soil ;  the  finances  were 
pillaged  and  commerce  destroyed.  These  calamities,  and  above  all, 
the  ascendency  which  the  death  of   Francis  of   Guise  had  given  to 

*  M.  Charles  Lacratelle  has  perfectly  appreciated  the  value  of  the  denudation  of 
Poltrot,  in  his  Histoire  de  France  durant  les  guerres  de  religion  (Book  V.)  ;  the  opinion 
which  he  emits,  and  the  motives  on  which  he  supports  it,  do  not  appear  susceptible  of 
refutation. 


394  CONTENTION   OF   AMBOISE.  [BOOK  II.    Chap.    I. 

Conde,  led  Catherine  to  propose  peace.  The  Prince,  unknown  to 
Coligni,  and  without  sufficient  guarantee,  which  granted  to  the 
Protestant  seignors  and  nobles  the  right  to  exercise  their  religion  in 
their  seignories  or  houses.  The  bourgeois  obtained  the  liberty  of 
conscience ;  but  they  could  only  exercise  their  religion  in  one  town  of 
each  bailiwick  and  in  the  places  which  were  in  possession  of  the 
Protestants.  The  death  of  the  Duke  of  Gruise  had  placed  the  party 
of  Conde  in  a  position  to  dictate  peace,  and  this  treaty,  called  the 
«        «      .       Convention  of  Amboise,  was  received  with  indignation  by 

Convention  of  u  ?  o  «/ 

Amboise,  1563.  Coligni,  by  Calvin,  and  by  the  Protestant  chiefs.  "  Be- 
hold !  "  said  the  Admiral,  "  a  dash  of  the  pen  which  overthrows  more 
churches  than  the  enemy's  forces  could  have  destroyed  in  ten  years." 

The  Protestant  army  was  dissolved  and  the  Retires  had  returned  to 
Germany.  Catherine  gave  them  a  safe  conduct,  and  attempted  to 
cause  them  to  be  massacred  on  the  road.  This  period  only  presents 
a  course  of  prejudice  and  cruel  vengeances.  Montluc,  among  the 
Catholic  chiefs,  and  the  Baron  of  Adrets,  among  the  Protestants, 
distinguished  themselves  by  their  barbarity,  "  One  could  recognise ," 
says  the  former,  in  his  Memoirs,  "  by  which  way  he  had  passed ;  for  the 
signs  ivere  to  be  found  on  the  trees  by  the  road-side.''''  The  second 
compelled  his  prisoners  to  throw  themselves  from  the  summit  of 
towers  on  the  pikes  of  the  soldiers. 

Peace  was  taken  advantage  of,  in  order  to  attack  the  foreigners. 
The  Constable,  at  the  head  of  the  rest  of  the  royal  army,  drove  the 
English  from  Havre,  and  the  clergy  paid  the  expenses  of  the 
expedition.  Its  goods,  by  the  advice  of  L'  Hospital,  were  alienated 
to  the  value  of  a  hundred  thousand  crowns  per  annum.  This  was 
the  first  time  that  such  means  had  been  employed  in 

First  alienation 

of  the  -nods  of      or{jer  to  provide  for  the  resources  of  the  State.     The 

the  clergy.  * 

expenses  of  that  year  were  valued  at  eighteen  millions, 
the  receipts  promised  no  more  than  eight,  and  there  was  deficit  of 
forty-three  millions  in  the  Treasury.  Charles  IX.  entered  into  his 
fifteenth  year,  and  his  majority  was  declared.  Catherine  preserved 
the  power  ;  Conde  forgot  himself  at  the  court  among  pleasures,  while 
the  Constable,  little  sought  after  by  the  Queen,  strove  to  break  the 
peace  by  exciting  the  people  anew  to  massacre  the  Protestants. 
Three  hundred  death  judgments  were,  it  is  said,  signed  by  his  hand ; 


1559-1574]  END   OF  THE   COUNCIL   OF  TRENT.  395 

the  Queen  baffled  this  frightful  plot.  Danville,  son  of  the  Constable, 
Governor  of  Languedoc,  Tavannes,  Governor  of  Burgundy,  and 
many  other  commandants  of  provinces,  supported  the  projects  of 
Montmorency.  The  thunders  of  the  Vatican,  the  anathemas  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,  th.3  entreaties  of  foreign  princes,  all  excited  the 
passions  of  the  Catholics,  and  everything  presaged  that  peace  would 
be  of  short  duration.  Pope  Pius  IV.  summoned  before  him  many 
French  bishops  who  had  been  accused  of  having  embraced  reform ; 
among  this  number  was  Cardinal  Chatillon,  Saint  Bomain,  Arch- 
bishop of  Aix,  and  Montluc,  Bishop  of  Valence,  brother  of  the  redoub- 
table captain  of  that  name.  At  the  same  period  Jeanne  d'Albret, 
Queen  of  Navarre,  and  widow  of  Anthony  of  Bonrbon,  having 
been  suspected  and  convicted  of  heresy,  a  bull  declared  her  deprived 
of  her  royal  dignity,  and  delivered  up  the  States  to  the  first  occupant. 

The  Council  of  Trent  approached  its  end,  after  having  existed 
twenty-one  years  from  its  first  session.  Before  dissolv-  Last  acts  and 
ing,  it  issued  some  important  decisions  concerning  council  of  Trent, 
dogmas  and  discipline.  The  bishops  drew  up  clear  and  56  ' 
precise  canons,  which  defined,  in  an  invariable  manner,  the  articles 
of  faith  of  the  Catholics  ;  but  they  refused  all  concession  to  the 
spirit  of  the  times.  France  accepted  the  acts  of  the  council  relative 
to  dogmas  ;  it  was  not  the  same  with  regard  to  dicipline,  and  many 
articles  having  been  judged,  under  the  opinion  of  the  great  juris- 
consult Dumoulin,  contrary  to  the  principles  of  the  Gallican  Church, 
the  Parliament  of  Paris  refused  to  admit  them,  and  did  not  allow 
them  to  be  published  in  the  kingdom.  The  Council  was  dissolved  in 
December,  15G3. 

In  the  following  year  the  Queen  made  a  voyage  to  the  provinces  of 
the  east  and  south,  and  took  with  her  the  King  and  all  his  court.  State 
affairs  were  forgotten  during  this  journey,  and  they  passed  through 
ruined  towns,  and  devastated  country,  in  the  midst  of  rejoicings,  of 
festivals,  and  spectacles.  The  Duke  of  Alba  came  to  visit  the 
King  at  Bayonne,  and,  in  a  conversation  that  he  had  with  the  Queen 
on  the  means  of  destroying  the  Calvinists,  he  used  the  following 
words,  which  afterwards  became  famous  : — ■"  Ten  thousand  frogs  are 
not  worth  the  head  of  a  salmon."  It  was  in  this  mannei  that  ho 
spoke  of  the  principal  chiefs  of  the  Protestant  party. 


396  BATTLE    OF    ST.    DENIS.  [Book  II.   Chap.   I. 

Charles   IX.,   on    his  return,    assembled  at  Moulins    an  assembly 
of   the  principal  inhabitants,  to  which  were  summoned 

Assembly  of 

chief  inhabitants   for   the    purpose    of    conciliation,  the    Duke    of    Guise, 

at  Moulins,  1564.  . 

Admiral  Coligni,  and  a  great  number  of  princes  and 
seignors  ,  also  the  presidents  of  the  different  parliaments.  During 
the  session  of  this  assembly,  L'Hospital  caused  many  celebrated 
ordinances  to  be  passed,  known  under  the  name  of  the  Edicts  of 
~  ,.  .       Moulins.     One  of   them,   in   eighty-six   articles,   was    a 

Ordinances  of  '  &      J  ' 

Moulins,  1564.  code  of  reformation  for  justice,  based  on  principles  full 
of  moderation  and  equity ;  another  ordinance  recalled  the  ancient 
principles  of  the  monarchy,  in  so  far  as  it  touched  the  inalien- 
ability of  the  crown  domain ;  #  but  all  the  efforts  of  L'  Hospital 
failed  in  bringing  together  the  Guises  and  the  Chatillons.  The 
latter  had  only  too  much  cause  for  alarm ;  everywhere  the  Conven- 
tion of  Amboise  was  violated  by  the  Catholics,  and  the  infractions 
remained  unpunished.  Catherine  negotiated  with  Philip  II.  for  the 
destruction  of  the  Protestant  chiefs,  and  redoubled  the  injurious 
suspicions  with  regard  to  them.  The  creation  of  the  French  guards 
dates  from  this  period  ;  they  were  composed  of  ten  companies  of  fifty 
men ;  the  Swiss  guards,  created  by  Louis  XI.,  were  at  the  same  time 
strongly  augmented.  These  precautions  gave  umbrage  to  the 
Protestants ;  they  had  warning  of  the  project  of  their  enemies,  and 
sought  to  prevent  them.  Medicis  suspected  their  design,  and 
charged  some  of  her  trusty  followers  to  act  as  spies  over  the  Admiral. 
They  found  him,  on  the  26th  of  September,  in  his  working  dress, 
gathering  in  his  vintage  ;  and  on  the  28th,  fifty  places  were  in  his 
power.  The  King,  nearly  taken  by  surprise  at  Monceaux,  by  Conde, 
gained  Meaux  in  all  haste,  then  Paris,  under  the  protection  of  six 
second  civil  war  thousand  Swiss.  The  cavalry  of  Conde  hovered  con- 
1567,  stantly  round  the   escort,  and  the   second  civil  war  was 

declared. 

The  battle  of  Saint  Denis  followed  closely  these  first  hostilities. 
_  „.     ,  a  .  .       The    advantage  rested   with  the   Catholics,  but  it  cost 

Battle  of  Saint  & 

Denis,  1567.         them  dear;    the  old  Constable  there  lost  his  life.     He 

*  Etienne  Parquier  said  the  ordinances  of  L'Hospital  surpassed  everything  of  the 
kind  that  he  had  previously  seen,  and  the  Chancellor  Aguesseau,  made  this  eulogy,  that 
they  had  been  the  cause  of  all  the  ameliorations  obtained  in  French  legislation. 


1559-1574]  EEFOEM    OF   THE    CALENDAR.  397 

had  been  famous  under  four  reigns ;  no  illustrious  warrior  of  that 
period  had  shown  more  devotion  to  his  kings  ;  but  his  intolerant  and 
fierce  zeal  for  religion,  rendered  him  guilty  of  great  acts  of  violence. 
The  battle  of  Saint  Denis  had  no  decisive  result. 

The  Duke  of  Anjou,  brother  of  the  King,  was  proclaimed 
Lieutenant- General  of  the  kingdom,  although  he  was  only  sixteen 
years  old,  and  Prince  Casimir,  of  the  Palatine  House,  at  the  head  of  a 
numerous  body  of  Reitres,  joined  the  Protestants.  The  latter, 
animated  by  the  example  of  their  chiefs,  despoiled  themselves  of 
their  jewels  and  money  in  order  to  pay  these  useful  allies.  Catherine, 
seeing  them  in  force,  again  made  advances  for  peace,  offering 
permission  for  the  exercise  of  the  reformed  religion  by  replacing  the 
Convention  of  Amhoise  in  vigour,  and  to  pay  the  Germans,  if  the 
places  taken  were  restored.  These  conditions  were  accepted, 
contrary  to  the  advice  of  the  principal  chiefs,  and  the  two  parties 
signed  a  second  peace  at  Longjumeau.  The  people,  who  foresaw  the 
motives  and  results,  gave  to  it  the  name  of    the  badly 

77-7     7  '  -j  -i     -i  i        i'ti'  -jiT/m       i,         The  badly  estab- 

estab  Us  tied  peace  ;  it  suspended  hostilities  with,  dimcuity,   lished  peace, 
but  assassinations  multiplied. 

L'  Hospital  once  more  uttered  words  of  wisdom,  and  endeavoured 
to  struggle  against  passionate  feelings  ;  but  he  opposed  them  with  a 
powerless  rampart.  Crime  was  reigning  ;  it  was  necessary  to  get  rid 
of  L' Hospital,*  and  soon  the  seals  were  demanded  from  him.f  He 
retired  into  his  lands,  where  he  sought,  in  literature  and  in  the 
practice  of  domestic  virtues,  a  distraction  of  the  calamities  which 
afflicted  his  attention,  and  from  the  still  greater  evils  which  he 
foresaw.       Prance    owes   to    him    among    other    useful 

°  Reform  of  the 

reforms,   that    of   the  calendar ;    by  a    decree  of   1563,   calen(*ar,  1563. 
he  caused  it  to    be    decreed  that  the    year,  which,  until  then,  had 
commenced  at  Easter,  should  begin  on  the  1st  of  January.  % 

L'  Hospital  having  retired  from  public  affairs,  nothing  could  restrain 
the  rage  of  the  factions.     He  was  not  ignorant  of  it,  and  displayino* 

*  J.  Droz,  Notice  sur  Michel  de  V Hospital. 

f  He  nevertheless  preserved  to  his  death  the  dignity  of  Chancellor,  which  was 
immovable. 

X  This  reform,  of  which  the  advantages  were  only  properly  appreciated  a  little  later, 
was  not  definitely  carried  out  and  adopted  till  1587. 


398  DEATH    OF    LOUIS    OF    CONDE.  [BOOK  II.    Chap.  I. 

one  day  his  long  white  beard  to  those  whom  his  old  age  troubled  : — 
"When  this  snow  shall  be  melted,"  said  he,  "there  will  be  nothing 
remaining  but  mud."  Moderate  men,  like  himself,  received  the  derisive 
name  of  poliliques,  and  were  hated  by  all  parties.  Medicis  herself 
seemed  to  have  renounced  temporising  and  prudence.  She  endea- 
voured, but  vainly,  to  take  by  surprise  the  Protestant  chiefs.  Then 
there  appeared  edicts  thundering  against  the  Calvinists,  and  their 
religion  was  forbidden  throughout  the  kingdom.  They  took  up  arms 
T        .  .  in  all  parts ;  in  their  fury  they  profaned  the  altars,  they 

1568#  devastated,  burnt  the  churches  and  the  convents,  and 

committed  many  atrocities.  Briquemont,  one  of  their  chiefs,  excited 
them  to  murder,  carrying  himself,  hung  round  his  neck,  a  necklace 
composed  of  the  ears  of  priests  ;  but  Louis  of  Bourbon,  Duke  of 
Montpensier,  a  Catholic  general,  was  far  above  all  in  barbarity,  and 
history  refuses  to  repeat  the  frightful  executions,  of  which  he  gloried 
in  being  the  inventor. 

The  Catholic  army,  under  the  Duke  of  Anjou  and  of  Marshal 
Tavanne,  met  the  Protestant  army,  commanded  by  Conde,  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Charente,  near  to  Jarnac.  There  a  sanguinary  and 
Battle  of  Jarnac,  unequal  combat  took  place,  sustained  by  the  cavalry 
of  the  Prince  alone,  against  all  the  forces  of  the  Catholics, 
Conde,  wounded  in  the  evening,  wore  his  arm  in  a  sling  ;  at  the  moment 
of  action  an  impetuous  horse  broke  his  leg.  "  Go  on,  noble  French !" 
said  the  Prince  to  the  nobles  who  surrounded  him,  "behold  the  combat 
which  you  have  so  much  desired ;  remember  in  what  state  Louis  of 
Bourbon  entered  into  it  for  Christ  and  his  country."  Thrown  from 
his  horse,  Conde  defended  himself  like  a  hero ;  among  those  who 
made  a  rampart  of  their  bodies  might  have  been  seen  an  old  man, 
named  La  Vergne,  with  twenty-five  young  men,  his  sons,  his  grand- 
sons, and  his  nephews ;  all  fought  valiantly  until  La  Yergne  had 
perished  with  fifteen  of  his  relatives  ;  the  others  were  made  prisoners. 
Conde  then  gave  himself  up ;  but  soon  Montesquiou,  captain  of  the 
guards  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  rushed  in  and  assassinated  the  Prince 
Death  of  Louis  of  in  a  cowardly  manner  by  a  pistol-shot.  Thus  died  Louis 
of  Conde,  who  had  scarcely  attained  thirty- nine  years. 
The  Protestants  were  beaten,  and  the  Court  abandoned  itself  to  all 
the  intoxication  of  triumph,  when  the    Queen  of  Navarre,  Jeanne 


1559-1574]  BATTLE    OF   MONCONTCUR.  399 

d'Albret,*  a  woman  of  great  piety  and  of  noble  conrage,   Jeanne  d'Aibret 

presents  &s  chiefs 

reanimated  the  hopes   of  her  party.      She  repaired  to   to  the  Protestant 
Cognac,  in  Augonmois,  where  the  remains  of  the  Calvan-   Henry,  Prince  of 

i  Beam,  and  the 

istic  army  were  assembled,  and  took  with  her  Henry  her  young-  Prince  of 

J  .  Conde",  1569. 

son,  Prince  of  Beam,  and  Henry,  son  of  Prince  Lonis  of 
Conde,  both  sixteen  years  old.  Jeanne  presented  herself  to  the  sol- 
diers, holding  by  the  hand  the  two  young  men.  "  I  offer  to  you,"  said 
she,  "  my  son,  and  I  entrust  to  you  Henry,  son  of  the  Prince  whom 
we  regret.  May  Heaven  grant  that  they  both  show  themselves  worthy 
of  their  ancestors."  The  Prince  of  Beam  advanced  immediately,  and 
said :  "I  swear  to  defend  the  religion  and  to  persevere  in  the  common 
cause,  until  death  or  victory  has  restored  to  us  all  that  liberty  for 
which  we  fight."  Conde  signified  by  a  gesture  that  a  similar  resolu- 
tion animated  him,  and  immediately  the  Prince  of  Beam  was  pro- 
claimed General-in-Chief,  amid  the  applause  of  the  army  under  the 
direction  of  Coligni. 

The  Duke  of  Deux-Ponts,  at  the  head  of  a  considerable  body  of 
Germans,  came  to  join  the  Calvanists,  whose  forces  were  raised  to 
more  than  twenty -five  thousand  men.  The  combat  of  Roche- Abeille, 
the   first  where  Henry  of  Beam  distinguished  himself,    Combat  of  Roche- 

.A-beiUe. 

w^as  to  their  advantage.       Soon  the  two  armies  found 
themselves  in  presence  of  each  other,  near  Moncontour,  in  Poitou ;  a 
simple  defile  separated  them.     The  Calvanists  were  the  most  numerous, 
but  they  occupied  a  bad  position.       Coligni  wished  to   BattleofM 
change  it ;    the  soldiers  wished  to  fight.      The  action  tour'  157°- 
commenced ;    the  carnage  of  the  Protestants  was  frightful,  and,  in 
half  an  hour,  of  twenty- five  thousand  men  only  five  or  six  hundred 
rallied  round  Coligni.      That  warrior,  severely  wounded,  showed  him- 
self in  that  battle,  so  fatal  to  his  party,  above  himself  even.     He  had 
recently  lost  his  brother  and  saved  all  the  remnant  of  his  army.     He 
took    them  back  into  Languedoc  together  with  the  young  Princes, 
where  Montgomery  rejoined  them  with  his  troops.     The  Calvanists 
reappeared  once  more  in  an  imposing  attitude,  and  Coligni  conducted 
them  towards  Paris  by  forced  inarches.     On  both  sides  the  need  for 

*  A  queen  who  had  nothing  womanly  hut  her  sex  ;  her  soul  was  entirely  devoted  to 
manly  concerns,  her  mind  was  powerful  in  great  affairs,  and  her  heart  invincible  in  adver- 
sity.    (D'Aubigne,  Hint,  univ.,  t.  II.,  liv.  Ier,  Ch.  II.) 


400  .  DEATH  OF  JEANNE  D'ALBRET.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

Peace  of  St.  Ger-  rest  was  extreme,  and  peace  was  signed  at  Saint  Germain, 
where  the  Court  was  then  being  held. 

The  Calvanists,  besides  the  advantages  accorded  by  preceding 
treaties,  obtained  their  choice  of  four  places  of  safety ;  they  chose 
Hochelle,  Montauban,  Cognac ;  and  Charite,  which  they  engaged  to 
restore  at  the  end  of  two  years.  Charles  IX,  married  almost  imme- 
diately Elizabeth  of  Austria,  daughter  of  Maximilian  II.,  and  from 
that  time  he  profoundly  concealed  his  hatred  of  the  Reformers. 
The  gloomy  Philip,  at  the  same  period,  practised  the  most  atro- 
cious cruelties  on  his  subjects.  The  Moors  who  composed  the  most 
industrious  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  Spain,  had  been,  on 
account  of  their  religion,  reduced  to  the  most  miserable  condition 
Cruelties  of  under   Philip   II.    they   were   decimated  by   the  sword 

and  by  fire.  The  Spanish  monarch,  assured  against 
the  attacks  of  the  Mussulman  by  the  victory  of  Lepanto,  wished 
also  to  extirpate  heresy  in  his  states,  and  the  Duke  of  Alba  was  the 
worthy  minister  of  his  fury  in  Belgium.  Philip,  glorying  in  the 
frightful  triumphs  of  his  General,  did  not  cease  to  excite  Charles  to 
imitate  him ;  but  Charles  had  no  need  of  his  advice  in  order  to 
become  his  rival. 

Peace  called  back  into  France  order  and  security  ;  the  people 
hoped  that  they  had  seen  the  end  of  so  many  evils.  The  attentions 
and  benevolent  proceedings  of  the  Court  towards  the  Protestants,  in 
Perfidious  atten-   place  of  making   them  more  circumspect,  appeared  to 

tions  paid  by  the      .  .  „      ,  p  T 

Court  to  the  Pro-  them  to  be  so  many  guarantees  or  a  nappy  future.  J  eanne 
d'Albret,  the  young  Princes,  and  Coligni,  were  invited  to 
the  Court,  and  went  there.  The  King  lavished  upon  them  the  most  flat- 
tering words.  "  I  hold  you,"  said  he  graciously  to  the  Admiral,  "  and 
you  shall  not  quit  us  when  you  wish."  The  marriage  of  the  Prince  of 
Beam  with  Margaret  of  Valois,  sister  of  Charles,  was  projected.  The 
difference  of  religion  presented  an.  obstacle,  but  the  King  himself 
smoothed  away  all  difficulties.  Jeanne  d'Albret  died  in  the  middle  of 
Death  of  Jeanne  these  negotiations.  Some  persons  affirmed  that  she  had 
marriage  of  the      been  poisoned;  but  little  attention  was  given  to  such  an 

Prince  of  Beam, 

King  of  Navarre,    event  in  a  time  when  death  by  poison  or  by  the  poignard 

with  Margaret  of  .  m  • 

Vaiois.  was   almost  a  natural   kind   of  death.     The   projected 

marriage  was  conducted  between  Margaret  and  young  Henry,  who 


1559-1574]  ATTEMPT  TO   ASSASSINATE   COLIGNY.  401 

immediately  after  the  death  of  his  mother,  had  taken  the  title  of  the 
King  of  Navarre. 

The  Catholic,  troops  were  on  the  march  on  all  points  of  the  kingdom. 
The  Court  effected  loans  with  foreigners,  and  redoubled  its  attentions 
towards  the  Calvinists.  The  latter,  nevertheless,  remained  in  profound 
security.  Coligny,  consulted  by  Charles  IX.,  advised  him  to  stop  the 
progress  of  the  Spanish  power,  by  sustaining  insurgent  Flanders 
against  him.  The  King  appeared  to  approve  of  this  project,  and 
troops  took  the  road  for  Belgium.  Then  Medici  and  the  Duke  of 
Anjou — whether  they  were  surprised  at  the  hesitation  in  the  mind  of 
Charles,  and  wished  him  to  compromise  himself  altogether  with  the 
Calvinists,  or  whether  they  desired,  above  all,  to  get  rid  of  Coligny — 
posted  an  assassin,  named  Maurevel,  who  wounded  him  dangerously  by 
a  shot  from  an  arquebuse.     The  Admiral  was  brought  Attempted 

r~  .  •!!         assassination  of 

home  bleeding.     Charles  was  playing  at  tennis  when  he   Colony  by 

Maurevel. 

learnt  this   news.       "  Am    I   then  always  to   see   fresh 
troubles  ?"  cried  he,  throwing  away  his  racket  with  fury.     He  accom- 
panied his  mother  to  the  house  of  the  Admiral,  and  overwhelmed  him 
with   perfidious    caresses  and  false   evidences   of  regret  and  indigna- 
tion. 

Medeci  already  had  fixed  the  day  for  the  greatest  of  the  enormities. 
Supported  by  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  she  convinced  the  King  that  the 
moment  for  striking  had  arrived.  Charles  immediately  plunged  into 
a  gloomy  fit  of  anger.  "  Let  the  Protestants  perish,  then  !"  said  he, 
"  but  do  not  allow  any  one  to  remain  to  reproach  me." 

Every  means  was  taken  to  draw  to  Paris  the  greatest  number  of 
Protestants  possible.  Charles,  with  this  intention,  designedly  inspired 
some  inquietude,  and  made  them  understand  that  it  was  necessary  that 
they  should  be  in  force,  in  order  to  be  safe  from  all  surprise  and  all 
peril.  They  flocked  together  in  crowds,  and  soon  the  arrangements 
for  the  work  of  blood  were  finished.  A  council  was  held  at  the 
Tuileries  between  the  Queen,  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  the  Duke  of  Nevers, 
Henry  d'Angouleme,  Grand-Prior  of  France,  Rene  de  Birague,  Marshal 
Tavannes,  Albert  de  Gondi,  and  Baron  de  Retz.  The  distribution  of 
the  different  parts  was  accomplished,  and  it  was  settled  that  the  exe- 
cution would  commence  on  the  following  day,  at  dawn,  Saint  Bar- 
tholomew's day.     Tavannes  gave  the  order,  in  the  presence  of  the  King, 

D   D 


402  MASSACBE  OF  ST.   BARTHOLOMEW.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

to  tlie  prevot  of  tlie  merchants,  John  Charron,  to  cause  the  companies 
of  bourgeois  to  be  armed,  and  to  unite  at  midnight,  at  the  Hotel- de- 
Ville,  and  to  throw  themselves  upon  the  Calvinists  at  the  first  sound  of 
the  tocsin  bell.  The  murderers,  in  order  to  recognize  each  other,  were 
obliged  to  carry  a  scarf  on  the  left  arm  and  a  white  cross  in  the  hat. 
At  break  of  day,  Medici,  impatient,  caused  the  signal  to  be  given,  by 
the  clock  of  Saint  Germain  l'Auxerrois.  At  the  gloomy  sound  of  the 
Massacre  of  bell,  the  town  was  filled  with  assassins,  and  first  of  all  a 

mew,  24th  band  of  soldiers,  directed  by  Henry  of  Guise,  sought  out 

the  house  of  Coligny.  The  gates  were  opened  in  the  name 
of  the  King;  the  murderers  went  up  and  found  the  Admiral  at  prayers. 
"  Are  you  Coligny  ?"  asked  their  chief,  a  man  named  Berne,  threatening 
Murder  of  him  with  his  sword.      "Yes,  I   am  he;"  answered  the 

latter ;  "young  man,  you  ought  to  respect  my  gray  hairs ! " 
Instead  of  answering,  Berne  struck  him  with  repeated  blows,  mutilated 
him,  and  threw  his  corpse  into  the  street,  where  Henry  of  Guise  waited, 
and  trampled  it  under  his  feet.  Already  death  was  everywhere  in 
Paris ;  the  Huguenots  left  their  houses,  half  naked,  at  the  sound  of  the 
tocsin,  amid  the  cries  of  their  murdered  brethren,  and  perished  by 
thousands.  Tavannes,  the  Dukes  of  Angouleme  and  Anjou,  Henry  of 
Guise,  and  Montpensier,  stirred  up  the  executioners  to  the  carnage. 
*  Bleed,  bleed  !"  cried  Tavannes,  "the  doctors  say  that  bleeding  is  as 
good  in  the  month  of  August  as  in  May."  The  bourgeois  were  rivals 
in  ferocity  with  the  greatest  seignors.  The  goldsmith,  Cruce,  boasted 
of  having  killed  more  than  four  hundred  Huguenots  in  one  day.  He 
who  had  ordered  the  crime,  wished  to  partake  in  a  part  of  its  execu- 
tion. "The  King  might  be  seen,"  says  Brautome,  "firing  from  a 
window  in  the  Louvre,  on  the  fugitives."  He  afterwards  went,  with  a 
brilliant  cortege,  to  the  gibbets  of  Montfaucon,  where  were  suspended 
all  that  was  left  of  the  Admiral,  half  consumed.  He  appeared  to  enjoy 
the  spectacle,  and  repeated,  it  is  said,  the  frightful  saying  of  Vitellius : 
"The  body  of  a  slain  enemy  always  smells  well."  The  massacre  lasted 
three  days  in  Paris,  where  five  thousand  persons  lost  their  lives.  On 
the  third  day  Charles  summoned  the  Parliament ;  he  dared  to  justify 
his  conduct,  and  the  President,  Christopher  de  Thou,  had  the  shame- 
less weakness  to  approve  of  it.  Royal  orders  were  hurried  into  all  the 
provinces,  commanding  similar  massacres.      Meaux,  Angers,  Bourges, 


1559-1574]  -  FOURTH   CIVIL   WAR.  403 

Orleans,  Lyon,  Toulouse,  and  Rouen  became  the  theatres  of  horrible 
scenes  ;  many  governors,  however,  refused  to  obey.  The  Viscount 
d'Orthez,  commander  of  Bayonne,  wrote  the  King : — "  Sire,  I  have 
found  in  the  town  only  good  citizens  and  brave  soldiers,  but  no  execu- 
tioner." The  Count  of  Tendes,  in  Provence,  made  a  similar  answer: 
the  deaths  of  both  of  them  were  sudden  and  premature.  The  young 
King  of  Navarre  and  Henry  de  Conde  ran  the  risk  of  their  lives  during 
the  massacre ;  Charles  made  them  come  into  his  presence,  and  said  to 
them,  in  a  terrible  voice,  "  The  mass  or  death  !  "  Yielding  to  neces- 
sity, the  two  princes  apparently  recanted  and  remained  prisoners.  Such 
were  the  principal  scenes  of  that  frightful  day,  in  which  the  Roman 
court  thought  they  saw  a  triumph,  but  of  which  L'Hospital  said,  in 
causing  his  doors  to  be  opened  to  the  assassins,  "Perish  the  memory 
of  this  execrable  day  !  "  * 

Medici  and  Charles  IX.  had  hoped  for  a  peaceable  reign  as  the 
result  of  their  crimes  ;  they  deceived  themselves  ;  a  most  terrible  civil 
war  broke  out,  and  a  great  number  of  Catholics  embraced  the 
reformed   religion    on    account    of  the    horror   inspired   „     ..   .  .. 

&  a  Fourth  civil  war, 

in  them  by  Saint  Bartholomew.  The  party  of  the  lo72- 
JPolitigfues  raised  themselves  against  the  court,  and  soon  there  were  to 
be  reckoned  in  their  ranks  many  of  the  most  illustrious  seignors  of 
France,  to  whom  Damville  and  Thore,  sons  of  the  Constable  Mont- 
•morency,  added  their  names.  The  thirst  for  vengeance,  carried  to 
rage,  doubled  the  forces  of  the  Protestants.  The  weakest  places 
resisted  the  royal  troops,  whom  the  insurgents  insulted  from  the  top 
of  their  walls: — "Approach,  assassins,"  cried  they  to  them;  "come 
on,  murderers,  you  will  not  find  us  asleep  like  the  Admiral."  La 
Rochelle  was  the  principal  place  of  the  Protestants  ;  Charles  felt  the 
necessity  of  taking  it.     The   Duke    of  Anjou  departed  on  this  ex- 


*  That  day  struck  him  with  such  a  horror  that  it  could  only  be  called  death.  When 
he  was  informed  of  so  many  atrocities:  "I  recognise,"  cried  he,  "the  councils  that 
were  given  to  the  King  for  a  long  time  ;  it  is  necessary  to  die  when  one  cannot  prevent 
such  misfortunes."  The  assassins  of  Admiral  Coligny  approached  very  slowly  the  dwell- 
ing of  the  Chancellor  L'Hospital.  His  domestics  came  to  tell  him  that  an  armed  band 
directed  its  course  from  Etampes  towards  his  Chateau.  "  Open  the  doors  to'  them  "  said 
he,  "let  no  one  offer  any  resistance,  and  let  them  be  conducted  to  my  apartment !  If  the 
little  gate  is  not  sufficient,  open  the  great  one  ,  I  have  seen  enough  of  life." 

(C.  Lacretelle,  Histoire  dc  France  pendant  les  guerres  de  religion,  liv.  VII.) 

D   D   2 


404  DEATH   OP  CHARLES  IX.  [Book  II.  Chap.  I. 

pedition  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  army,  and  led  the  two  captive 
princes  to  the  siege.  The  defence  was  heroic,  it  lasted  six  months, 
and  cost,  uselessly,  immense  sums,  and  twenty  thousand  men  to  the 
Catholics.  Sancerre  also  sustained  a  memorable  siege  ;  Montauban, 
Nismes,  and  other  towns,  were  in  the  power  of  the  Protestants.  A 
Fourth  peace  fourth  peace  was  signed  ;  it  granted  to  the  reformers  in 
1572'  these  places  the  most  part  of  the  advantages  guaranteed 

by  the  preceding  treaties. 

The    Duke  of  Anjou  had  just  been  chosen   King   of  Poland,   and 

soon    he    left   the   kingdom.      An    enterprise    called    des  jours    gras, 

(Shrovetide,)   because  it  was  made  in  the  time  of  the 

The  enterprise 

des  jours  gras,  Carnival,  was  attempted  in  the  following  year,  in  order 
to  free  the  two  princes.  It  partly  miscarried,  and  cost 
the  lives  of  La  Mole  and  -  Coconnas ;  they  were  beheaded.  The 
Queen  of  Navarre  and  the  Duchess  of  ISTevers,  whose  lovers  they 
had  been,  caused  their  bleeding  heads  to  be  brought  to  them,  and 
abandoned  themselves  to  fierce  transports.  Conde  alone  was  able  to 
escape ;  Henry  of  Navarre  was  watched  still  more  closely  till  the 
death  of  the  King. 

Charles  IX.  pined  away  after  the  massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew. 
Often  he  appeared  to  be  the  prey  of  a  furious  delirium ;  he  then 
thought  that  the  spectres  of  his  victims  were  ranged  before  him.  In 
the  last  night  of  his  life,  says  L'Estoile,  when  there  only  remained* 
in  his  chamber  two  persons  besides  his  nurse,  whom  he  loved  much, 
she  heard  the  King  complaining,  weeping,  and  sighing.  She  softly 
approached  the  bed  and  drew  the  curtain,  and  the  King  said  to  her, 
with  a  great  sigh,  and  weeping  so  much  that  his  sobs  interrupted  his 
words  : — "  Ah  !  my  nurse,  my  nurse,  what  blood  !  what  murders  ! 
Ah  !  but  I  have  followed  an  evil  counsel !  O  my  God  !  pardon  me!" 
His  own  blood  came  out  from  his  skin  and  inundated 

Death  of 

Charles  ix.,  1574.  tjie  bed.  He  died  on  the  30th  of  May,  1574,  when  only 
twenty-four  years  of  age. 


1574-1589]  ACCESSION  OF    HENRY   Ul«  405 


CHAPTER  II. 

REIGN    OF    HENRY    III. 

1574-15S9. 

The  Duke  of  Anjou  succeeded  his  brother  under  the  name  of 
Henry  III.  He  was  in  Poland  when  Charles  IX.  died,  Access5on  of 
and  Catherine  de  Medici  again  siezed  the  regency.  Helliy  IILj J574- 
One  of  the  first  acts  of  her  authority  was  to  order  the  execution  of 
Montgommery,  made  prisoner  at  Domfront,  the  accidental  murderer  of 
Henry  II.,  and  one  of  the  most  illustrious  of  the  Protestant  chiefs. 
His  execution  provoked  new  acts  of  vengeance  on  the  part  of 
the  Protestants. 

Informed  of  the  death  of  his  brother,  Henry  deserted  his  kingdom 
of  Poland,  and  then  allowed  himself  to  sleep,  during  four  months,  in 
the  midst  of  the  fetes  given  to  him  by  the  monarchs  through  whose 
states  he  passed,  and  scattered  gold  and  diamonds  on  the  road.  On 
arriving  at  Turin,  he  had  nothing  more  to  give  ;  but  he  ceded  to  the 
Duke  of  Savoy,  the  towns  of  Pignerol,  Savigliano,  and  Perouse,  the 
only  fruit  that  France  had  gained  for  all  the  blood  poured  out  in 
Italy.  Henry  arrived  at  last,  and  showed  himself  in  public  for  the 
first  time  in  Avignon,  in  the  procession  called  the  Bat  I  us,  with 
Catherine  de  Medici  and  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  all 
three  dressed  in  sackcloth,  as  penitents.  The  king  and 
his  courtiers  walked  with  bare  feet,  a  crucifix  in  their  hands,  and 
scourged  themselves  as  they  inarched.  The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  was 
seized  with  fever  at  the  conclusion  of  this  ridiculous  ceremony,  and 
died  almost  immediately  afterwards.  No  person  had  fanned  the  fire 
of  the  civil  wars  more  than  he,  and  no  one  had  shown  himself  more 
cruel.  Medici  appeared  to  breathe  again  after  his  death;  but  on  the 
following  night  they  heard  her  crying  out  in  terror;  her  women  "mi 


Procession  of  the 

Battus. 


406  FIFTH  CIVIL  WAR.  [Book  II.  Chap.  II. 

to  her  and  found  her  delirious.  "Deliver  me  from  this  sight,"  cried 
she.    "  See  !  the  Cardinal  pursues  me  ;  he  drags  me  down  to  hell ! " 

A  new  war  was  announced  ;  the  Protestants  saw  with  horror  one  of 
The  Huguenots  ^e  Prmcipal  authors  of  Saint  Bartholomew  upon  the 
a2?nUi57Tfifth  "tnrone  5  one  wno  had  signalized  himself  the  most  on 
civil  war.  those  execrable  days.     Conde*  assembled  his  forces  and 

negotiated  with  the  Elector  Palatine,  in  order  to  obtain  considerable 
support.  Many  nobles  of  the  Moderate  party  were  united  with  the 
Protestants,  and  among  them,  in  the  front  rank,  the  two  sons  of  the 
Constable  Montmorency,  Damville,  and  Thore.  Suddenly  the  Duke 
of  Alencon,  brother  of  the  King,  suspected  by  the  Queen  since  the 
enterprise  of  the  jours  gras,  in  which  he  had  joined,  escaped  from  the 
court,  though  closely  guarded ;  joined  the  Confederates,  and  reappeared 
before  the  gates  of  Paris.  Soon  after,  the  King  of  Navarre,  baffling 
also  the  watchfulness  of  Medici,  and  snatching  himself  away  from 
the  voluptuous  snares  with  which  she  surrounded  him ;  succeeded 
in  concealing  his  flight ;  joined  the  princes,  and  abjured  Catholicism 
in  their  camp,  where  he  found  Prince  Casimir  at  the  head  of  a 
numerous  corps.  Henry  III.  had  already  signed  a  truce  with  the 
Confederates  ;  he  engaged  to  deliver  to  them  six  towns,  and  to  pay 
the  garrison  maintained  under  the  Duke  of  Alencon  and  the  Prince 
of  Conde. 

In  the  midst  of  so  many  agitations  and  dangers,  it  is  difficult  to 
h  r  in  nd  explain  the  contemptible  life  then  led  by  the  effeminate 
ins  court.  monarch.     He    divided   his   time  between   unrestrained 

debauchery  and  the  punctilious  practices  of  a  puerile  devotion.  Sur- 
rounded by  young  favourites,  whom  he  called  his  minions,  and  by 
dissolute  women,  at  one  time  he  caused  the  shrines  of  saints  to  be 
carried  before  him,  while  he  followed,  dressed  as  a  penitent,  mingling 
obscene  buffooneries  with  the  litanies  of  the  Church ;  at  another  he 
ran  into  the  places  of  debauch,  telling  over,  to  the  light  of  the  orgies, 
his  rosary  of  death's-head  beads.  Often  he  ran  through  the  streets, 
insulting  the  passers  by,  or  begged  for  the  Church  from  door  to  door, 
with  his  queen,  and  a  number  of  little  dogs,  monkeys  and  parroquets, 
in  which  they  both  took  delight.  Historians  say  that  Henry  III. 
followed  a  deeply-considered  plan  in  the  midst  of  these  shameful 
disorders ;  the  book  of  Macchiavelli  was  his  gospel,  as,  following  him 


1574-1589] 


PEACE   OF   MONSIEUR.  407 


he  wished  to  rule  the  great  by  all  the  allurements  of  vice.  However 
that  may  be,  his  mother  in  this  respect  gives  him  both  precept  and 
example,  surrounding  him  with  maids  of  honour,  skilful  in  seducing 
those  whose  ambition  or  resentment  she  wished  to  lull;  without 
religious  faith,  she  believed  in  witchcraft  and  sorcery;  astrologers, 
and  one  above  all — Cosmo  de  Ruggieri,  were  in  high  favour  at  the 
court.  To  these  imposters  was  attributed  the  power  of  giving  death, 
by  pricking  to  the  heart  figures  of  wax,  over  which  they  pronounced 
mysterious  words.  The  practices  of  a  superstitious  devotion  mingled 
itself  with  poisonings  and  debaucheries  in  this  infamous  court.  Sen- 
sual pleasures  were  the  price  of  crimes,  and  Marguerite  de  Valois, 
worthy  of  her  brother  and  her  mother,  thus  bought  the  death  of 
Dugasfc,  her  enemy,  and  one  of  the  favourites  of  the  King,  who  saw 
him  stabbed  at  his  feet,  and  forgot  to  punish  the  assassin. 

Catherine  de  Medici  alone  showed  some  resolution  in  the  party  of 
the  King.  She  repaired,  at  the  head  of  his  women,  whom  she  called 
her  "flying  squadron,"  to  the  camp  of  the  Confederates,  and  first 
seduced  her  son,  whose  apanage  she  tripled,  and  who  took  for  that 
time  the  title  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou.  The  submission  of  this  prince 
led  the  reformers  to  accept  peace,  which  borrowed  from  him  its  name, 
and  was  called  the  Peace  of  Monsieur*  The  Confederate  States 
separated,  going  into  quarters,  the  King  of  Navarre  into 
Ghiieime,  Conde  into  the  environs  of  Rochelle,  Damville   called  that  of 

Monsieur,  1576. 

into  Languedoc,  at  the  head  of  the  Moderates,  and  the 
Prince  Casimir  on  the  frontier  of  Champagne. 

The  shameful  conduct  of  the  King  rendered  him  an  object  of 
contempt  even  in  the  eyes  of  his  own  friends,  and  made  even  his  most 
zealous  friends  forget  his  exploits  on  Saint  Bartholomew.  For  a  long 
time  there  had  been  formed  in  the  princes  particular  leagues  for  the 
defence  of  the  Catholic  religion  ;  soon  they  joined  together  and  formed 
themselves  into  one  only,  which  had  for  its  apparent  aim  the 
maintenance  of  Catholicism,  the  safetv  of  the  King',  and   „  .  .       .   . 

'  J  °'  Origin  and  aim 

the  destruction  of  Protestants.     But  secretly  the  authors   of  the  Lea8'ue« 
intended   to    depose   the   unworthy   Henry   III.,    descendant    of  the 
usurper  Hugh  Capet,  and  to  shut  him  up  in  a  cloister ;  then  to  transmit 

*  The  brother  of  the  King,  and  first  prince  of  the  royal  house,  was  called  Monsieur. 


£08  FIRST    STATES     OF     BLOIS.  [BooKlI.CniP.il. 

the  crown  to  Henry  of  Guise,  snrnamed  the  Balafre  (on  account  of 
having  a  scar  on  his  face),  son  of  the  great  Francis  of  Guise,  who 
was  said  to  be  descended  from  Charlemagne.  Some  words  of  the 
formula  of  the  oath  of  the  Leaguers  were  as  follows : — "  we  bind 
Oath  of  the  ourselves  to  employ  our  wealth  and   our  lives  for  the 

Leaguers.  success  of  the  Holy  Union,  and  to  follow  even  to  the 

death  who  ever  wishes  to  hinder  it.  A  chief  will  soon  be  elected  to 
whom  all  the  Confederates  are  to  hold  themselves  in  submission. 
Those  who  will  not  join  the  Holy  Union  will  be  treated  as  enemies, 
and  pursued  sword  in  hand.  The  chief  alone  will  decide  the  disputes 
which  may  arise  between  the  Confederates,  and  they  will  only  have 
recourse  to  the  ordinary  magistrates,  by  his  permission."  The 
Leaguers  thus  transferred  all  the  royal  power  to  their  future  chief, 
who  was  to  be  the  Duke  of  Guise.  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  encouraged 
them,  and  Philip  II.  promised  to  support  them  both  with  men  and 
money. 

This  League  had  already  become  formidable  when  Henry  came  to 

know  of  it,  and  understand  the  aim  of  the  association.     He  assembled, 

in    1576,   the  States- General  at  Blois,   which  he  inaugurated  by  an 

-   ,._.  ,      ,       address  filled   with  dignity.     The  greater   part   of  the 

First  States  of  o        «/  o  I 

Biois,  1576.  deputies  were  attached  to  the  League.     The  King,  by 

the  advice  of  his  mother,  baffled  their  schemes  and  deceived  the  hopes 
of  Henry  of  Guise,  by  declaring  that  he  himself  was  the  chief  of  the 
Holy  Union.  They  drew  up  a  formulary ;  the  monarch  swore  to  it, 
caused  it  to  be  accepted  by  the  States,  and  ordered  that  it  be  signed 
in  Paris,  and  in  the  whole  of  France.  At  this  news  the  absent  Duke 
of  Guise  made  all  haste  to  push  on  the  war.  The  three  orders 
demanded  that  the  Roman  religion  should  be  the  only  one  tolerated 
in  France ;  but  the  Third  Estate  protested  against  the  employment  of 
violence  and  arms  in  order  to  gather  the  Protestants  into  the  heart  of 
the  Church.  This  wise  restriction  not  having  been  carried  by  the 
expressed  wishes  of  the  two  other  orders,  the  King  interpreted  their 
votes  according  to  his  own  desire,  as  an  adhesion  to  war,  for  which  he 
asked  subsidies  from  the  States.  The  nobility  offered  its  services  and 
nothing  more ;  the  clergy  promised  to  maintain  four  hundred  foot 
soldiers  and  a  thousand  cavalry,  on  condition  that  the  government 
granted  to  them  the  publication  of  the   decrees  of  the  Council  of 


1574-1589]  EDICT    OF   POITIERS.  409 

Trent,  and  the  election  to  the  prelacies.  The  Third  Estate  refused 
every  new  tax.  Nevertheless,  the  King  raised  by  letters  patent  the 
sum  of  one  million  two  hundred  thousand  livres  to  meet  the  expense, 
said  he,  for  the  war  resolved  upon  by  the  States ;  he  revoked  the 
edict  of  pacification  and  took  up  arms.  The  three  orders  were 
already  separated,  and  it  was  only  three  years  later  (1579),  that  the 
Ordinance  of  Blois  appeared,  drawn  up  according  to  the  instructions 
of  the  last  States.  This  edict  renewed  some  wise  Ordhianceof 
arrangements  of  the  Ordinance  of  Orleans,  and  in-  Bluls- 
trodnced  into  the  legislation,  administration  and  police,  some  new 
and  useful  reforms^  The  Ordinance  of  Blois  published  also,  under 
the  discipline  of  the  Church,  some  of  the  arrangements  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,  that  council  having  never  been  completely  admitted 
into  the  kingdom. 

New  hostilities  had  broken  out  between  the  parties  since  the 
dissolution  of  the  States  of  Blois,  and  two  Catholic  Sixfh  civil  war 
armies  entered  upon  a  campaign,  the  one  under  the  lo"* 
Duke  of  Anjou,  the  other  under  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  brother  of 
Henry  of  Guise.  Many  places  were  taken  from  the  "Confederates, 
and  intrigue  separated  from  them  Damville  and  his  partisans,  the 
JPoIiliques,  or  Moderate  party.  These  successes  and  this  defection 
were  followed  by  a  new  peace,  which  prepared  the  way  for  the 
celebrated  Edict  of  Poitiers  and  of  Bergerac.    Henrv  III.    „,.  t  .„  ... 

1:5  J  Edict  of  Poitiers, 

granted  to  the  Protestants  by  this  edict  the  public  U77' 
exercise  of  their  religion  in  each  chief  place  of  the  bailiwick,  and  in 
each  royal  jurisdiction  outside  of  Paris ;  he  re-established  them  in 
their  citizens'  privileges,  with  right  to  the  offices  and  dignities,  gave 
them  particular  judges  in  each  parliament,  and  granted  them  nine 
places  of  safety.  The  King  permitted  besides,  on  certain  conditions, 
the  marriage  of  priests,  repudiated  Saint  Bartholomew,  and  prescribed 
the  League. 

The  Edict  of  Poitiers,  soon  confirmed  by  the  treaty  of  ITerac,  could 
have   pacified   the  kingdom,    if  the  Kins:  had  watched   m  ,„. 

~  o  '  o  Trraty  of  ^crac, 

over  its  execution;  but,  freed  from  the  cares  of  war,  be   lo'7- 
plunged  again  into  his  shameful  pleasures.     All  his  liberality,  all  his 
dignities,  were  lavished  upon  his  minions,  from  whom  he   exacted 


410  SEVENTH    CIVIL    WAE.  [Book  II.  Chap.  II. 

tv    ,  .  infamous   compliances   and   acts    of  fierce   bravery.     A 

Dissolute  man-  r  J 

ners-  furious  infatuation    siezed   the   whole  court,  where  the 

time  seemed  to  be  divided  between  prostitution,  duelling  and  murder. 
The  King  bestowed  extravagant  honours  on  the  memory  of  two  of 
his  favourites,  Quelus  and  Maugiron,  killed  in  a  duel ;  another,  named 
Saint-Mesgrin,  was  assassinated  by  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  while  Bussy 
d'Amboise,  a  bold  and  sanguinary  man,  favourite  of  the  Duke  of 
Anjou,  and  mortal  enemy  of  the  minons  of  the  King,  was  drawn  into 
a  snare  and  slaughtered.  All  these  murders  remained  unpunished. 
The  King  sold  his  clemency ;  the  scaffold  was  only  erected  for  the 
people  and  the  Huguenots,  and  it  was  an  act  of  clumsiness  or 
absurdity  to  be  condemned  for  the  crime  of  assassination.  The  Duke 
of  Villequier  stabbed  his  wife,  who  had  repulsed  the  lawless  desires  of 
the  King :  he  was  named  Governor  of  Paris.  Licentiousness  had 
no  longer  a  curb,  and  debauchery  presided  at  the  banquets  of  the 
Queen-Mother,  where  Henry  III.,  himself  disguised  as  a  woman, 
affected  to  imitate  the  language  and  the  affectionate  manners  of  the 
sex  whose  costume  he  wore. 

Soon,  upon  frivolous  pretexts,  war  rekindled  in  all  parts.  The  love 
intrigues  which,  in  part,  occasioned  it,  caused  it  to  be  named  the  war 
of  tlie  Lovers.  Henry  III.  had  written  to  the  King  of  Navarre,  with 
Seventh  civil  ^e  intention  of  imbroiling  him  with  his  wife  Margaret. 
warof theLovers  ^  ^^  no^  Sliccee(^)  an(l  the  King  of  Navarre  answered 
1580,  him    by   the   heroic     taking  of    Cahors.      Conde    soon 

showed   himself  in  arms  in  Languedoc,  ready  to   sustain  him.     An 
advantageous  peace  for  the  reformers  was  signed  in  the   following 
f  year  at  Fleix,  through  the  intervention  of  the  Duke  of 

158L  Anjou,  whose  views  upon  Belgium,  Henry  III.  promised 

to  second.     Philip  II.  had  just  taken  Portugal,   and  all  his   forces 

were  then  employed  in  subduing  the  Low  Countries,  and 
United  Pro-      '   in  struggling  against  the  celebrated  Prince  of  Orange, 

William  the  Silent,  who  had  torn  away  the  Western 
Provinces  from  the  tyranny  of  the  Spaniards.  The  great  Captain, 
Alexander  Farnese,  succeeded  the  conqueror  of  Lepanto,  Don  John  of 
Austria,  in  the  post  of  governor  of  that  country.  The  Flemings  were 
reduced  to   extremities,   and   implored   the   support   of  the   French 


1574-1589]  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE,  411 

Protestants.  The  Duke  of  Anjou,  to  whom  Queen  Elizabeth  had 
given  hopes  of  her  hand,  could  assure  to  them  by  this  marriage  the 
support  of  England.  They  proclaimed  him  Count  of  Flanders,  and 
Duke  of  Brabant.  Profiting  by  the  Peace  of  Fleix,  and  furnished 
with  the  consent  of  the  King,  the  duke  recruited  an  army  among  the 
French  reformers.     With  it  he  freed  Cambray  and  took 

Campaign  of  the 

Ecluse:  then  he  exercised  in  Flanders  a  despotic  power,    Duke  of  Anjou  in 

'  m  .  .  ■  Flanders,  1581. 

chastised  the  towns  which  opposed  his  pretensions,  and 
covered   himself  with   blood   in  the  massacre  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Antwerp,  executed  by  his  orders.     Driven  away  by  those  who  jbad 
called  him,  he  retired  into  his  own  domains,  and  there  he  died.     A 
month  later,  the  illustrious  William  of  Orange  perished 

His  death  1583. 

at  Delft,  assassinated  by  the  hand  of  Balthazar  Gerard, 

a  fanatical  emissary  of  Philip  II.,  who,   after  having  paid  for   this 

murder,  applauded  it  highly. 

The  King  of  Navarre,  chief  of  the  House  of  Bourbon,  became,  by 
the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  the  nearest  heir  to  the    TT 

•J       '  Henry  of  Bour- 

throne  :  *  but   in  the  eves   of    the    people  his   religion   bon  becomes 

J  r       I  o  heir  presumptive 

rendered  him  incapable  of  holding  it.  This  circumstance  jy3he  Clwn» 
reanimated  the  boldness  and  efforts  of  the  League. 
Henry  III.,  although  in  the  vigour  of  his  life,  was  reputed  to  be  in- 
capable of  having  children ;  and  the  zealous  Catholics  turned  their 
regards  towards  the  old  cardinal,  Charles  de  Bourbon,  uncle  of  the 
King  of  Navarre?  they  depended  upon  his  name,  until  they  could 
throw  away  the  mask  and  declare  openly  for  the  Duke  of  Guise.  The 
latter  placed  himself  again  boldly  at  the  head  of  the  Leaguers  ; 
however,  he  hesitated  to  break  out ;  Philip  II.   decided   „     . 

7  L  Rousing  of  the 

him.  That  monarch  knew  that  the  revolted  Flemings  Leacue- 
had  offered  to  look  upon  themselves  as  subjects  of  Henry  III.,  and 
that  the  best  means  to  remove  from  them  the  support  of  France  was 
to  foment  the  interior  troubles  of  that  kingdom.  He  then  incited 
Henry  of  Guise  by  promises  and  threats.  Paris  became  the  focus  of 
the  League,  and,  from  that  centre,  the  leaders  stretched  out  their 
ramifications  over  the  whole  of  France.  They  made  the  preacher 
thunder  forth  from  the  pulpit  against  the  heresy  of  Henry  of  Navarre 

*  Henry  of  Bourbon,  King  of  Navarre,  was  descended  in  a  direct  line  from  Robert  de 
Clermont,  fifth  son  of  Saint  Louis. 


412  EIGHTH    CIVIL    WAR.  [Book  II.  Ciiap.  II. 

and  the  effeminacy  of  Henry  III.  ;  they  placarded  in  all  the  streets 
representations  of  the  frightful  tortures  to  which,  the  Catholics,  they 
said,  would  be  delivered  over  if  the  heretic  prince  ever  became  king-. 
The  people,  rendered  furious,  demanded  war  and  the  extermination  of 
the  Calvinists.  The  League  addressed  itself  to  Pope  Sixtus  V.,  who 
fulminated  a  bull  of  excommunication  against  the  King  of  Navarre,  and 
Sextus  v  de-  declared  him  unable  to  succeed  to  the  throne.  Terrified 
ofaNavarr?mi-  a*  ^s  popular  effervescence,  Henry  III.,  after  long  hesita- 
to'the°Uirone        ^on  believed  that  he  ought  to  draw  closer  to  him  Duke 

Henry  of  Guise  ;  he  had  the  weakness,  by  the  Treaty  of 
Nemours,  to  admit  all  his  pretensions.  He  forbade,  under  pain  of 
death,  the  exercise  of  all  religions'  except  the  Roman,  throughout  the 
kingdom  ;  delivered  the  places  of  safety  to  the  duke,  and  paid  his 
foreign  troops.  Almost  immediately  the  Calvinists  took  up  arms,  and 
this  eighth  war  was  called,  the  War  of  the  three  Henries. 

The  Princes  of  Conde  and  Conti,  La  Rochefoucauld,  Rohan,  the  four 
brothers  Laval,  the  intrepid,  La  Noue,  La  Tremouielle,  Roquelaure, 

and  Biron,  drew  their  swords  for  Henry  of  Navarre  ;  the 

Eighth  civil  war, 

caiiMitiH?!  war  of  faithful  Rosny  sold  his  woods,  and  in  the  face  of  a  thou- 

the  Henries,  158G. 

sand  perils,  laid  the  price  at  his  feet.  That  prince,  after 
having,  in  order  to  save  the  blood  of  the  people,  vainly  proposed  to 
his  enemies  the  assembly  of  the  States,  a  council  or  a  duel,  astonished 
them  by  his  adroit  manoeuvres,  and  caused  his  authority  to  be  re- 
cognized in  many  provinces  of  the  south.  But  Conde  was  less  skilful 
and  less  happy  ;  he  marched  rashly  to  meet  the  Catholics  who  met  him 
on  the  Loire  ;  he  could  not  cross  the  river,  and  his  army  was  dispersed 
without  having  fought.  The  brilliant  Duke  de  Joyeuse,  favourite  of 
Henry  III.,  commanded  the  Catholic  army  ;  he  met  the  Calvinistic 
troops  of  Henry  of  Bourbon  near  Courtras,  in  Perigord.  A  multitude 
of  young  courtiers  had  wished  to  follow  Joyeuse ;  gold  and  precious 
b  ttie  of  Co  r-  st°nes  sparkled  upon  their  arms,  while  Henry  had  only 
tras,  15S7.  £ron  ^0  0pp0Se  them.     Before  the  action,  a  minister  of 

the  Gospel  went  out  from  the  ranks,  and  represented  to  the  young  King 
of  Navarre  that  he  had  brought  trouble  into  an  honest  family  by 
a  criminal  liaison,  that  he  ought  to  make  public  reparation  for  this 
scandal  to  his  army,  and  a  humble  confession  of  his  fault  to  God, 
before  whom,  in  an  instant,  perhaps,  he  would  appear.     Henry  con- 


1574-15S9]  EXECUTION   OF  MARY  QUEEN    OP    SCOTS.  413 

fessed  himself  to  the  minister  Chaudieu,  and  said  to  the  nobles  of  his 
court,  who  wished  to  dissuade  him  : — "  We  cannot  humiliate  ourselves 
too  much  before  God,  nor  dare  too  much  among  men."  He  then  fell 
on  his  knees  with  his  protestant  soldiers  ;  the  pastor  offered  up  a 
prayer.  Joyeuse,  at  the  head  of  the  Catholic  army,  saw  them,  and 
cried  : — "  The  King  of  Navarre  is  afraid  !  " — ';  Do  not  take  it  so," 
answered  Lavardin  ;  "  they  never  pray  unless  they  are  resolved  to 
conquer  or  die."  Henry  rose ;  he  animated  his  troops  by  gesture  and 
voice,  and,  addressing  himself  to  Conde,  to  Conti  and  the  Duke  of 
Soissons,  his  cousins  :• — "  To  you,  I  have  nothing  else  to  say,  except 
that  you  are  of  Bourbon  blood,  and,  with  God's  help,  I  will  make  you 
see  that  I  am  the  eldest."  The  battle  took  place,  and  the  whole  of  the 
army  of  Joyeuse  was  destroyed  ;  he  himself  perished  fighting.  After 
the  victory,  Henry  showed  himself  as  humane  and  generous  as  he  had 
shown  himself  brave  during  the  action ;  but  he  did  not  know  how  to 
profit  by  his  triumph  and  forgot  himself  in  effeminacy.  A  German 
army  that  he  endeavoured  to  rejoin  was  repulsed  by  the  Duke  of 
Guise,  and  his  own  was  dispersed  through  want  of  pay.  The  Prince 
of  Conde  survived  this  victory  only  a  short  time  ;  he  died  poisoned. 

Elizabeth,   the  Protestant  Queen  of  England,   then   tarnished  her 
glory  bv  ordering;  the  execution  of  Mary  Stuart,  widow, 

&       J       J  f  m  .  Trial  and  execu- 

by  her  first  marriage,  of  Francis  II.,  and  Catholic  Queen   tion  of  the  Queen 

J  .  .  of  Scotland, 

of  Scotland,  who,  flying  from  her  revolted  subjects,  Mary  stuart, 
sought  a  refuge  in  the  states  of  her  rival.  Elizabeth 
never  pardoned  either  the  superiority  of  her  charms  nor  the  title  of 
Queen  of  England,  which  she  had  given  to  herself.  She  held  her 
captive  for  nineteen  years,  and  ended  by  sending  her  to  the  scaffold. 
The  tragical  death  of  this  Queen,  sister-in-law  of  the  King  of  France, 
contributed  as  much  as  the  defeat  of  Courtras  to  increase  the  fanatical 
zeal  of  the  Leaguers  and  their  contempt  for  Henry  III.  That  Prince 
had  given  to  his  favourite,  d'  Epernon — hated  by  the  people — the  spoils 
of  Joyeuse,  and  abandoned  himself  again  to  shameful  or  frivolous 
occupations,  studying  grammar,  and  learning  to  decline  nouns  amidst 
his  little  dogs,  parroquets  and  minions.  Henry  of  Guise,  however, 
as  prudent  as  he  was  brave  and  ambitious,  always  skilful  in  watching 
his  advantage,  increased  in  public  favour,  and  the  boldness  of  the 
League  was  doubled.     The  Faction  of  the  Sixteen  began  particularly 


414*  COUNCIL  OF    THE   SIXTEEN.  [Book  II.  Chap.  II. 

to  render  itself  formidable.  Paris  was  then  governed  by  a  nranicipal 
regime;  the  bourgeois  had  the  guardianship  of  the  walls  and  the 
principal  ports  ;  the  magistrates  held  the  keys  of  the  ports.  In  each 
of  the  sixteen  wards  of  the  town,  there  was  established  a  kind  of 
council,  where  they  considered  the  interests  of  the  Holy  Union. 
The  chief  of  the  assembly  then  sent  in  his  report  to  the  Council 
General  of  the  League.  All  these  chiefs  having  the  same  passions  and 
the  same  interests,  accustomed  themselves  to  unite  together  ;  thus  was 
..   .  iU        formed  the  celebrated  Council  of  the  Sixteen,  of  which 

Council  of  the 

sixteen.  Bussy  Le  Clerc,  an  old  master- of-arms,  was  one  of  the 

most  violent  members.  They  laid  a  great  number  of  plots  against  the 
liberty  of  Henry  III. ;  but,  constantly  betrayed  by  one  of  the  con- 
spirators, named  Nicholas  JPoulain,  they  failed  in  all  their  projects. 
The  King,  perfectly  informed  as  to  all  their  intentions  and  power,  and 
secretly  pressed  by  Henry  of  Navarre  to  join  with  him,  thought  of 
seeking  a  refuge  in  his  army ;  then  taking  suddenly  a  bold  resolution, 
he  forbade  Guise  to  approach  Paris.  But  such  was  the  poverty  of  the 
treasury,  that  it  could  not  furnish  twenty-five  crowns  to  send  a  courier- 
to  the  Duke.  The  letter  of  the  King  was  sent  by  the  post,  but  he 
denied  that  he  had  received  it. 

Called  by  the  Leaguers,  Guise  entered  Paris  amid  the  acclamations 
of  the  multitude  ;  his  feeble  escort  increased  to  an  idola- 
Guise  returns  to  trous  crowd,  eager  to  see  him  and  to  touch  his  person 
or  his  dress.  The  people  called  him  the  new  Gideon,  the 
new  Maccabeeus.  "France,"  says  an  historian  of  the  time,  "was 
foolish  about  that  man."  He  descended  at  the  house  of  Medici,  who 
conducted  him,  without  guards,  to  her  son  at  the  Louvre.  The 
King  deliberated  as  to  whether  he  would  stab  him  on  the  spot. 
Colonel  Alphonse  offered  his  arm,  and  Henry  hesitated.  "  Why  have 
you  come  here,  in  spite  of  my  orders?"  said  he  to  the  Duke  on 
perceiving  him ;  Guise  feigned  that  he  was  ignorant  of  them,  and 
answered  that  he  came  to  justify  himself  for  the  calumnies  of  which 
he  had  been  the  object ;  then  alarmed  at  the  fierce  looks  of  those 
around,  he  bowed  and  disappeared  ;  on  the  morrow  he  returned  to  the 
Louvre,  but  well  accompanied,  and  more  disposed  to  give  than  to 
receive  the  law.  He  requested  that  a  war  to  the  death  should  be  made 
against  the  Huguenots,  and  that  the  favourites  Epernon,  La  Yalette 


1574-1589]  BATTLE    OF   THE    BARRICADES.  415 

and  all  suspected  people,  should  be  driven  from  the  court.  The  feeble 
monarch  yielded,  on  condition  that  the  Duke  would  assist  in  purging 
Paris  of  foreigners  and  people  without  occupation.  Guise  promised 
it,  and  the  people  murmured  loudly.  The  King  ordered  the  nobles  to 
place  themselves  in  arms  round  him,  and  sent  for  four  thousand  Swiss 
to  come  to  Paris.  They  arrived,  carrying  their  arms  raised  and 
their  banners  unfolded.  The  sight  of  them  rendered  the  people 
furious,  and  excited  a  general  uprising  ;  the  streets  were 

Battle  of  the 

soon  unpaved,  and  the  windows  furnished  with  stones ;   Barricades, 

r  .  .  /12th  May,  1588. 

they  stretched  chains  across  and  behind  them  the  multi- 
tude improvised  a  thousand  barricades ;  the  royal  troops  saw  them- 
selves invested  and  attacked  on  all  sides,  without  hope -of  retreat  or 
safety.  The  King,  in  consternation,  entreated  the  Duke  of  Guise  to 
stop  the  disorders  and  effusion  of  blood.  "  They  are  escaped  bulls," 
coldly  replied  the  Duke  of  Guise  ;  "I  am  not  able  to  restrain  them," 
at  last,  when  he  thought  that  it  was  time  to  act,  he  left  his  hotel,  and 
showed  himself  to  the  people,  with  a  slight  cane  in  his  hand.  On 
seeing  him  the  crowd  gave  itself  up  to  frantic  transports  of  delight, 
and  the  barricades  fell  before  him.  Guise  thus  penetrated  almost  as 
far  as  the  posts  of  the  unfortunate  Swiss  ;  he  caused  the  fighting  to 
cease,  opened  up  a  road  for  them  and  saved  their  lives.  Medici 
hastened  to  meet  him  ;  they  carried  her  over  the  barricades,  almost 
close  to  Guise ;  she  negotiated  with  him.  He  asked  that  the  Bour- 
bons be  deprived  of  their  privileges,  for  places  of  safety,  for  money, 
and  for  war.  Medici  prolonged  the  interview,  in  the  midst  of  which  the 
Duke  learnt  that  the  King  had  fled  from  Paris.  At  this  unexpected 
news,  "  I  am  dead,  madam e,"  said  he  ;  "  the  King  is  going  to  destroy 
me."  Taking  advantage  of  the  tumult,  Henry  III.  had  left  Paris  at  a 
gallop,  and  did  not  believe  himself  in  safety  till  he  was  at  Chartres, 
when  he  was  rejoined  by  his  troops  and  court.  This  famous  day,  when 
the  people  delivered  Paris  to  the  Duke  of  Guise,  was  called  in  history 
the  Battle  of  the  Barricades. 

Guise  set  to  work  to  gain  profit  out  of  his  victory  by  exercising  the 
functions  of  the  King  before  taking  the  title.  He  assembled  the 
people,  caused  new  town  officers  to  be  created,  and  other  captains  ; 
then  he  prayed  the  first  President,  Achille  de  Harlay,  to  assemble  the 
Parliament,  in  order  to  undertake  measures  suitable  to  the  circum- 


416  EDICT  OF  UNION.  [Book  II.  CnAP.  IL 

tances.     But  that   magistrate    only  answered  his  requests    by  these 
bold  and  severe  remarks  : — "  It  is  a  great  pity,"  he  said, 

Excellent  re-       .  .  &  r    J  ' 

m.rxs  of  Achiiie   "  when  the  valet  drives  away  the  master  ;  but,  my  soul 

deilarlay.  .  •         .  .  . 

is  God's,  my  heart  is  the  King's,  and  my  body  is  with 
the  wicked."  Guise  insisted.  "  "When  the  Majesty  of  the  Prince  is 
violated,"  boldly  replied  Harlay,  "  the  magistrate  has  no  more 
authority."  President  Brisson  showed  himself  more  flexible,  and  lent 
himself  to  the  wishes  of  the  Duke  of  Guise.  The  latter,  however, 
having  failed  in  his  project  of  carrying  off  the  King,  endeavoured  to 
repel  every  suspicion  of  violence.  He  did  not  wish  to  be  reproached 
with  having  driven  away  his  master  before  he  was  able  to  crush  him. 
He  then  thought,  secretly  counselled  by  Medici,  to  appease  the  anger  of 
Henry,  and  he  inspired  the  same  desire  in  the  people.  The  Parisians, 
informed  of  the  taste  of  the  King  for  processions,  thought  of  leading 
one  almost  to  Chartres,  and  the  chiefs  of  the  League  lent  themselves 
to  this  caprice.  Their  impetous  friends,  monks  of  every  order,  the 
most  dissolute  women  dressed  in  sackcloth,  wished  to  join  this 
extravagant  procession.    Henry  de  Joyeuse,  a  courtier  who  had  become 

a  monk,  marched  at  the  head,  under  the  name  of  Frere 

Procession 

called  that  of  the   Anne  (brother  Angel).     Two  capuchins  were  on  either 

Beaten,  15S8.  .  .  . 

side,  representing  one  the  Virgin  the  other  the  Magdalen. 
Frere  Ange  carried  with  difficulty  an  enormous  cardboard  crucifix,  and 
four  vigorous  attendants  scourged  him  when  he  showed  signs  of 
weakness.  Trumpets  and  kettles  announced  the  march  of  the  pro- 
cession. The  frivolous  monarch,  contrary  to  general  expectation,  only 
regarded  it  with  disgust,  and  saw  in  the  pretended  penitents  none 
but  rebels.  Nevertheless,  the  negotiations  continued.  Henry  con- 
sented to  meet  with  the  Duke  of  Guise  ;  the  famous  Edict  of  Union 
appeared,  and  the  King  seemed  to  be  delivered  over  to  his  enemy. 
He  engaged  by  this  edict  to  destroy  the  heretics  even  to  the  last  man ; 
he  disinherited  Henry  of  Bourbon  from  the  throne,  named  Guise 
Generalissimo,  with  absolute  power,  and  gave  over  to  him,  for  many 
years,  several  places  of  safety. 

These  accessions  concealed  the  designs  of  the  King.  He  had 
already  taken,  without  consulting  his  mother,  an  extreme  resolution, 
and  to  accomplish  it,  the  States- General  were  convoked  again  at  Blois. 
Henry  of  Guise  and  the  Cardinal    his  brother,  presented  themselves 


1574-1589J  THE   DUKE  OF  GUISE.  417 

there  boldly.  The  deputies  were  numerous  ;  more  than  geC0Tld  state  of 
five  hundred  came,  and  amongst  them  might  be  dis-  Bl01s' 1588, 
tinguished  Guy-Coquille,  a  celebrated  jurisconsult  and  writer  on  the 
laws  of  foreign  nations ;  the  Advocate- General,  Etienne  Pasquier, 
author  of  JRecherches  sur  France,  and  Michael  Montaigne,  whose 
Essays  are  still  one  of  the  most  precious  monuments  of  the  French 
language.  The  election  had  been  made  under  the  influence  of  the 
Guises,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  deputies  belonged  to  the  League. 
The  King  opened  the  States  on  the  16th  of  October  in  the  great  saloon 
of  the  Chateau  of  Blois  ;  he  protested,  in  a  very  remarkable  discourse, 
his  ardent  desire  to  root  out  heresy  and  remedy  the  evils  of  the  coun- 
try, "  which  he  had  not  altogether  caused,"  said  he,  "  but  for  all  of 
which  he  was  not  going  to  excuse  himself."  He  deplored  the 
necessity  that  there  was  for  asking  from  the  States  new  subsidies,  and 
he  threw  back  the  fault  upon  those  who  had  wished  to  use  violence 
towards  himself,  and  who  stirred  up  troubles  in  the  State  by  means  of 
leagues  and  illegal  associations,  pointing  out  clearly  the  Duke  of 
Guise,  upon  whom  every  eye  was  turned.  The  latter  appeared  to  be 
the  king  of  that  imposing  assembly  of  which  he  was  the  soul.  An 
historian  of  the  time  has  depicted  him  "  piercing  with  his  eyes  the 
density  of  the  assembly,  in  order  to  recognize  and  distinguish  his 
followers,  and  with  one  glance  alone  to  strengthen  them  in  hope  of 
the  advancement  of  his  designs,  of  his  fortune,  and  his  greatness,  and 
to  say  to  them  without  speaking : — "  I  see  you."  *  After  the  meeting*, 
the  Duke  of  Guise  forced  from  the  King  a  humiliating  concession  ;  he 
enacted  and  obtained  that  Henry  should  cut  out  from  his  harangue, 
in  publishing  it,  the  passages  where  he  and  his  followers  were 
designated  as  factious.  His  project,  which  he  little  disguised,  was  to 
depose  the  feeble  monarch  and  to  cause  himself  to  be  proclaimed  in 
his  place.  His  pride  was  flattered  by  listening  to  his  imprudent 
friends,  who  compared  him  to  Pepin,  while  they  dishonoured  the 
monarch  by  the  name  of  the  Idler-King.  His  sister,  the  ardent 
Duchess  of  Montpensier,  transported  with  rage  against  Henry  III., 
carried  at  her  girdle  golden  scissors,  destined,  she  said,  to  make  a 
monk's  tonsure  for  the  new  Chilperic. 

*  Mathieu,  Histoire  de  France. 

E  E 


418  DEATH    OF  THE  DUKE   OF  GUISE.         [Book  II.  Chap.  IT. 

These  rash  speeches  were  reported  to  the  King,  and  confirmed  him 
in  the  violent  resolution  that  he  had  taken.  He  took  the  sacrament 
with  his  enemy,  and,  in  dividing  the  host  at  the  holy  table,  he  swore 
in  public  friendship  for  the  future  and  forgetfulness  of  the  past ;  he 
had  secretly  resolved  upon  his  death.  A  murderer  was  necessary  for 
Henry ;  he  sounded  the  brave  Crillon,  he  refused  nobly  ;  he  offered  to 
call  the  Duke  of  Guise  out  in  a  duel,  he  would  fight  at  the  peril  of  his 
life,  but  he  would  not  be  an  assassin.  Henry  ordered  him  to  keep  his 
secret.  Loignac,  chief  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  guard,  was  proposed ; 
the  King  reckoned  upon  his  arm.  The  hour  and  place  were  fixed ; 
but  rumours  were  circulated,  the  partisans  of  Guise  were  alarmed, 
and  threatening  notices  came  to  him  from  all  parts.  One  day  he  found 
under  his  napkin  a  note,  which  informed  him  of  the  designs  of  the 
King ;  without  troubling  himself  he  wrote  underneath,  He  dare  not, 
and  threw  the  note  beneath  the  table.  On  the  morrow,  the  23rd 
December,  he  presented  himself  to  the  council ;  the  doors  were  closed, 
he  guard  seized  their  arms,  and  an  officer  notified  to  him  that  he 
was  required  at  the  house  of  the  King.  He  directed  his  steps  towards 
the  cabinet  of  the  monarch  ;  just  as  he  entered,  Montlhery,  one  of  the 
Assassination  of  forty- five,  plunging  a  dagger  into  his  breast,  cried : — 
auct  <rf  the  Cardi-  "  Traitor,  you  shall  die  !"  others  threw  themselves  upon 
loss.  •  him  and  struck  him,  while  Loignac  thrust  his  sword  into 

his  back.  Feeling  himself  wounded  from  behind,  the  Duke  cried  out, 
Misericorde !  and,  although  he  had,  says  the  historian  of  the  time,  his 
sword  entangled  between  his  mantle  and  his  seized  limbs,  he  would 
not  allow  the  assassins  to  drag  him  from  one  end  of  the  chamber  to 
the  other.  He  walked  with  outstretched  arms,  blinded  eyes,  and  his 
mouth  open,  as  if  he  were  already  dead.  He  fell  upon  the  bed  of  the 
Kino-.  The  Cardinal  of  Guise,  seated  at  the  council  with  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Lyons,  heard  his  brother,  who  cried  for  mercy  to  God.  "  Ah! " 
said  he,  "  they  are  killing  my  brother  !"  And  as  he  rose,  the  Marshal 
d'Aumont,  with  his  hand  upon  his  sword,  said : — "  Do  not  stir, 
Monsieur ;  the  King  has  business  with  you."  The  Cardinal  and  the 
Archbishop  were  transferred  to  the  Tower  of  Moulins. 

After  the  event,  Henry  went  out  from  his  cabinet  to  see  the  body  of 
the  victim.  He  trampled  it  under  his  feet,  as  Guise  himself  had 
trampled  under  his  the  corpse  of  Coligny.     He  contemplated  it  for  a 


1574-1589]  STATES    OF    ELOIS    DISSOLVE.  419 

moment,  and  said  : — "  My  God !  what  a  great  man !  he  appears  still 
greater  dead  than  living !"  L'Esfcoile  relates  that  he  pushed  him  with 
his  foot  a  second  time,  and  said  to  Loignac  : — "  Does  it  appear  to  yon 
that  he  is  dead,  Loignac?"  The  latter,  taking  the  corpse  by  the  head, 
answered  to  Henry  of  Yalois,  "Yes,  Ib^lie^e  it,  Sire."  "And,"  con- 
tinues the  chronicler,  "I  think  that,  if  M.  de  Guise  had  only  breathed 
when  he  pushed  him  with  his  foot,  the  King  would  have  fallen  down 
beside  him  through  fear."  All  the  relations  and  friends  of  Guise  that 
could  be  seized  were  arrested,  and  on  the  morrow  the  Cardinal,  his 
brother,  perished  by  assassination  in  the  Tower  of  Moulins.  Seeing 
the  murderers  enter,  he  threw  himself  on  his  knees,  covered  his  head, 
and  said: — "  Do  your  ^commission."  He  was  killed  by  blows  from 
halberds. 

Such  was  the  bloody  catastrophe  of  the  States  of  Blois,  which 
separated,  a  month  later,  without  having  resolved  upon  or  granted  any- 
thing. Medici  only  survived  the  Lorraine  princes  a  few  days.  Faith- 
ful to  her  custom  of  seeking  for  force  when  she  believed  she  recognised 
it,  she  had  never  completely  broken  with  them,  and  perhaps  she 
betrayed  her  son  more  than  once  in  order  to  acquire  the  homage  and 
support  of  the  Guises.  Their  death  cast  trouble  into  her  mind  ;  on 
hearing  of  it  she  said  to  the  King : — "  It  is  well  cut,  my  son,  but  it 
is  necessary  to  join  again."  Henry  did  not  profit  by  the  counsel;  he 
remained  undecided,  did  not  march  upon  Paris,  where  the  storm  was 
brewing,  and  swear  anew  in  the  States,  to  the  Edict  of  Union,  before 
dissolving  them.  He  had  allowed  many  prisoners  of  high,  importance 
to  escape.  His  two -most  formidable  enemies,  the  Dukes  of  Mayenne 
and  Aumalc,  brothers  of  the  assassinated  Guises,  remained  at  large, 
although  closely  pursued,  and  they  hastened  to  raise  the  people  and 
the  army. 

The  rage  of  the  Parisians  had  no  need  for  being  excited.  The  news 
of  the  gloomy  events  of  Blois  provoked  the  explosion  of  their  hate  and 
of  their  fury.  Fanatical  propheciers,  at  the  head  of  whom  the  Cure 
Lincestre,  thundered  from  the  pulpit  against  the  assassin,  and  pro- 
nounced curses  on  his  head;  children,  women  and  men,  half  naked, 
ran  together  in  procession,  with  wrax  tapers  in  their  hands,  to  the 
cemetery  of  the  Innocents ;  there  extinguishing  their  lights,  they 
might  be  heard  crying,  "  So  may  the  detestable  race  of  the  Yalois  be 

e  e  2 


420  ASSASSINATION  OF  HENRY  III.  [Book  II.   Chap.  II. 

extinguished  ! "  They  proclaimed  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  Lieutenant- 
General  of  the  kingdom ;  the  powers  of  the  Sixteen  were  confirmed ; 
the  enthusiastic  Bussy  Le  Clerc,  Governor  of  the  Bastille,  enclosed  in 
it  the  greater  part  of  the  members  of  the  Parliament  who  were 
mimical  to  these  disorders,  and  a  new  Parliament  was  instituted. 
From  that  time  all  hopes  of  conciliation  with  the  Partisans  of  the 
Guises  faded  away  before  Henry  III. 

Pope  Sixtus  V.  redoubled  the  audacity  of  the  enemies  of  the 
monarch  by  refusing  to  absolve  him  for  the  murder  of  the  Cardinal, 
and  he  excommunicated  him  by  the  famous  bull  In  Coena  Domini.  On 
the  point  of  being  invested  by  Mayenne  in  the  town  of  Tours,  one 
resource  only  remained  to  Henry,  and  he  seized  it  by  joining  himself 
with  the  King  of  Navarre,  whom  he  had  just  disinherited.  "  Against 
the  thunderbolts  of  Rome,"  said  the  Navarrese  king  to  him,  "  there  is 
no  other  remedy  than  to  conquer."  The  interview  of  the  two  monarchs 
took  place  at  the  Chateau  of  Plessis-lez-Tours.  The  frankness  and 
loyalty  of  the  King  of  Navarre  soon  gained  the  confidence  of  Henry 
III.,  and  touched  his  heart.  After  a  glorious  success  at  La  Noue,  in 
Senlis,  the  kings  marched  together  upon  Paris  ;  Bourbon  pitched  his 
camp  at  Meudon,  and  Henry  arranged  his  upon  the  heights  of  Saint 
Cloud :  where,  contemplating  his  capital,  he  gave  vent  to  his  anger  in 
these  words  : — "  Paris,  head  of  the  kingdom,  but  too  big  and  too 
capricious  a  head,  you  have  need  of  bleeding,  in  order  to  cure  you ; 
also  the  whole  of  France,  from  the  frenzy  which  you  have  communi- 
cated to  her."  Time  and  force  failed  him  in  carrying  out  his  threat. 
The  Monks,  the  Jesuits,  and  the  priests  openly  preached  regicide 
in  Paris.  A  miserable  enthusiast,  named  Jacques  Clement,  rendered 
fanatical  by  them  and  also  by  the  Duchess  of  Montpensier,  who,  in 
her  mad  hatred,  drew  from  him  a  promise  of  murder,  made  a  vow  to 
assassinate  the  King.  This  wretch  repaired,  on  the  1st  of  August,  to 
the  camp  of  Henry  III.,  and  requested  to  speak  with  him  ;  introduced 
into  his  tent,  he  fell  on  his  knees,  delivering  a  petition  to  the  monarch, 
and  at  the  same  time  he  stabbed  him  in  the  pit  of  the  stomach  with  a 
.    x.      e    knife.     The  King  withdrew  the  weapon  from  the  wound 

Assassination  of  °  x 

Henry  in.,  arLCi  Wounded  on  the  forehead  the  assassin,  who  was  soon 

August,  lo89.  7 

killed  by  the  guards. 
Henry  of  Navarre,  when  informed  of  the  event,  hurried  from  his 


1574-1589]     ,  HENRY  OF  NAVAERE,   KING.  421 

quarters  at  Meudon.  The  life  of  the  King  was  not  yet  despaired 
of,  and  Bourbon  left  him  after  a  friendly  interview.  However  the 
doctors  soon  declared  the  wound  mortal,  and  Henry  III.  prepared 
himself  for  death ;  he  received  absolution,  and  then  caused  the  doors 
to  be  opened  and  the  nobles  to  enter.  He  exhorted  his  officers  to 
recognize  as  his  successor  the  King  of  Navarre,  the  legitimate  heir  to 
the  throne,  without  stopping  at  the  difference  of  religion  ;  then  he 
expired,  in  his  thirty-eighth  year,  after  reigning  fifteen  years.  Henry 
of  Bourbon  returned  with  all  haste  to  receive  the  farewell  of  the 
dying  King :  but  he  was-  too  late.  As  he  entered  into  Saint  Cloud 
with  twenty  five  gentleman-at-arms,  amongst  whom  were  Bosny, 
d'Aubigne  and  La  Force,  they  heard  in  the  street  this  cry;  "we  are 
lost ;  the  King  is  dead !  "  They  advanced  and  met  the  Scotch 
Guard,  who  fell  at  the  feet  of  Henry  of  Navarre,  saying  : — "  Ah  !  Sire, 
you  are  now  our  master."  Biron,  Bellegarde,  Dampierre,  and  many 
others,  soon  came  to  salute  Henry  IV.  ;  but  afterwards,  at  ten  paces 
from  him,  they  were  heard  to  say : — "  That  they  would  rather  give 
themselves  up  to  every  kind  of  enemy  than  suffer  a  Huguenot  King  !  "  * 
This  remark  alone  expresses  all  the  difficulties  of  the  new  reign. 

Never  had  France  been  seen  nearer  to  ruin  than  at  the  end  of  this 
situation  of  the  re%nj  when  it  was  divided  into  three  parties,  desperately 
kingdom.  bent    on    destroying    each    other ;    the    Royalists,     the 

Leaguers,  and  the  Calvinists  or  Huguenots.     Then  provinces,  cities,t 

*  Sully,  Economies  royalcs. — D'Aubigne,  liv.  II. 

f  Division  of  the  provinces  and  towns  between  the  League,  the  Royalists,  and  the 
Huguenots.  In  nearly  all  the  provinces  there  were  some  towns  belonging  to  each  of  the 
three  factions  which  divided  the  State.  The  League  ruled  in  the  North  in  Normandy, 
Picardy  and  Ile-de-France  ;  in  the  East  in  Burgundy,  in  the  West  in  Brittany,  and  in 
the  South  in  Provence;  it  possessed  in  the  other  provinces  among  various  important 
place?,  Mayenne,  Le  Mans,  Chartres,  Orleans,  Verdun,  Bourges,  Perigueux,  Cahors, 
Agen,  Narbonne,  Toulouse,  Montpelier,  Alby,  and  Valence.  The  Royalists  did  not 
possess  any  great  province,  but  they  were  disseminated  throughout  all.  Their  principal 
places  were  :  Dieppe,  Coutances,  Caen,  and  Saint-L6,  in  Normandy  ;  Calais,  Boulogne 
and  Compiegne,  in  Picardy  ;  in  the  centre  they  held  Charite,  Blois,  Tours,  Angers, 
Saumur,  Clermont-Ferrand  and  Limoges  ;  in  the  South,  Bordeaux,  Bayonne,  and 
Carcassonne  ;  lastly,  in  the  West,  Brest,  Vannes,  Rennes,  and  Saint- Malo.  The  Huguenots 
ra'eJ  in  half  of  Dauphine"  and  in  almost  all  Poitou  and  Gruienne,  of  which  the  great 
towns  belonged  to  the  Royalists.  In  the  North  they  only  had  Sedan  and' the  Prin- 
cipality of  Bouihon  ;  many  towns  in  Brittany,  Roche-Bernard,  Rieux  and  Rochefort,  were 
in  their  power,  also  the  important  place  of  Rochelle  in  Aunis,  and  that  of  Saumur  in 
Anjou.  They  also  possessed  Saint-Jean  d'Angely,  in  SaintODge,  Tulle,  and  some  other 
places. 


422  FAILURE    OF   THE    HOUSE    OF   VALOTS.      [Book  II.    Chap.  II. 

and  families,  which  were  often  divided,  might  be  seen  armed  against 
one  another.  War  was  everywhere  dragging  in  its  wake  misery  and 
anarchy.  The  great  nobles,  quartered  in  their  governments,  aspired, 
in  the  midst  of  the  general  confusion,  to  see  arise  again  to  their 
advantage  the  ancient  feudality  ;  they  coined  money,  levied  armies 
and  taxes,  braving  the  authority  of  the  monarch  and  the  laws,  and 
recognizing  no  power  but  their  own.  Such. was  the  nearly  desperate 
state  of  the  kingdom  in  1589,  at  the  death  of  the  last  Prince  of  the 
House  of  Valois  ;  but  Henry  IV.  was  about  to  reign  and  become  the 
deliverer  of  France.  With  him  the  branch  of  the  Bourbons  mounted 
the  throne;  that  of  the  Valois  had  reigned  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
one  years,  and  died  out  after  having  given  thirteen  Kings  to  France. 


1589-1598}  •  ACCESSION   OF  THE   BOURBONS.  423 


CHAPTER  III. 

FROM    THE    DEATH    OF    HENRY    II [.  TO    THE    PEACE    OF   VERYINS    AND   THE 
PROMULGATION    OF    THE    EDICT    OF   NANTES. 

1589-159S. 

HENRY   IV. 

This  history  has  often  saddened  the  reader  by  showing  in  it  the  lot 
of  people  abandoned  to  feeble,  unskilful  sanguinary  hands.  AcCfSSion  of 
To  the  cry  of  humanity — too  frequently  outraged  or  j^"8^^  Bour" 
misunderstood— is  now  to  succeed  love  for  the  most 
truly  French  King  who  had  ever  occupied  the  throne.  To  him  provi- 
dence had  reserved  the  double  task  of  pacifying  his  country  and 
healing  its  deep  wounds. 

This  prince  had  been  brought  up  by  his  pious  and  noble  mother, 
Jeanne  d'Albret,  in  the  fear  of  God  and  the  principles  of  virtue. 
Torn  away  by  her,  while  still  very  young,  from  the  corruption  of 
the  court  of  Charles  IX.,  he  passed  his  tender  years  in  the  plains  of 
Beam,  surrounded  by  companions  of  his  own  age.  He  knew  the 
men  by  living  from  his  infancy  among  them  ;  it  was  thus  that  he 
learned  to  love  them  and  compassionate  their  misfortunes.  Tried 
early  by  adversity,  Jie  knew  how  to  support  it  with  courage  and  to 
conquer  it.  No  prince  had  found  himself  in  a  more  difficult  position 
than  was  his  after  the  death  of  Henry  of  Valois ;  having  before 
him  the  League,  the  anathemas  of  the  Pope,  the  gold  of  Philip  II., 
and  the  half  of  his  own  army ;  and  while  his  predecessor  had  scarcely 
breathed  his  last  sigh,  he  was  exposed  to  a  hard  trial.  The  Catholic 
chiefs  held  council,  and  declared  to  the  King,  by  the  mouthpiece 
of  d'O,  superintendent  of  the  finances,  that  the  moment  had  now 
come    to   choose  between   the   misery    of   a   King    of   Navarre  and 


424  DEFECTION  OF  CATHOLICS.  [Book  II.  Chap.  III. 

Declaration  of  tne  high  condition  of  a  King  of  France ;  but  that,  if  he 
toetChaeKingCho?f  wished  to  reign  over  the  kingdom  he  must  become  a 
Catholic.  The  King  turned  pale  at  these  words ;  then, 
having  recovered  his  presence  of  mind,  he  pronounced  these  words : — 
"  Among  the  astonishments  which  God  has  brought  upon  us  during 
Excellent  answer  *wenty-four  hours,  I  receive  one  from  you,  Messieurs, 
of  Henry  iv.  which  I  had  not  expected.  Are  your  tears  already  dried 
up  ?  Have  the  memory  of  your  loss  and  the  prayers  of  your  King 
vanished  away  in  three  hours,  with  the  respect  which  we  owe  to  the 
words  of  a  dying  friend  ?  It  is  not  possible  that  all  you  who  are  here 
would  consent  to  all  the  points  that  I  have  just  heard.  And  from 
whom  could  you  expect  such  a  change  in  his  belief  except  from  one 
who  had  none  ?  Would  it  be  more  agreeable  to  have  a  King  without 
a  God  ?  Will  you  assure  yourselves  in  the  faith  of  an  atheist,  and,  in 
the  days  of  battle  will  you  follow  with  assurance  the  wishes  and  the 
auspices  of  a  perjurer  and  an  apostate  ?  Yes,  the  King  of  Navarre, 
as  you  say,  has  suffered  great  miseries,  and  is  not  astonished  at  it ; 
but  can  he  despoil  heart  and  soul  for  the  entry  of  royalty?  Those 
who  will  not  take  a  more  mature  deliberation,  those  whom  their  fear 
and  the  brief  prosperity  of  the  enemies  of  the  state  have  removed 
from  us,  to  them  I  freely  g'ive  leave  to  seek  salaries  under  insolvent 
masters.  I  will  have  among  the  Catholics  those  who  love  France  and 
honour."  In  spite  of  this  noble  answer,  eight  hundred  gentlemen-at- 
arms  and  nine  regiments  left  his  banners.  A  small  number  of 
devoted  friends,  with  the  Swiss,  and  some  companies  of  cavalry, 
formed  the  permanent  foundation  of  his  forces.  His  followers 
came  one  by  one  to  arrange  themselves  under  his  banner,  and,  in 
default  of  pay,  they  returned  to  their  own  homes,  to  remain  for  some 
months.  It  was  necessary  too,  to  run  from  town  to  town,  struggling 
and  negotiating  without  intermission. 

Fanaticism  and  delirium  were  carried  to  their  height  in  Paris  when 
,,  ,  .     .   „   .     thev    learnt    that   Henry   III.    was    assassinated.     The 

Mad  joy  in  Paris  «/  •> 

Henr* 'niealh  °f  Duchess  of  Montpensier  flung  herself  upon  the  neck 
of  the  first  man  who  bore  the  news  ;  then  she  entered  a 
carriage,  with  Anne  d'Este,  her  mother,  and  rode  through  the  streets, 
crying,  "  Good  news!"  and  inciting  the  people  to  rejoice.  They 
lighted  bonfires  ;  the  preachers  made  eulogies   on  Jacques  Clement 


1589-1598]  THE   LEAGUE.  425 

whom  they  called  a  martyr.  They  ran  in  crowds  to  see  his  mother,  a 
poor  villager,  welcomed  by  the  Duchess  of  Montpensier.  The 
portrait  of  the  regicide  was  placed  on  the  altar  while  the  people 
before  it,  on  their  knees,  cried: — Saint  Jacques  Clement,  pray  for  us! 
Blessed,  said  (in  the  language  of  the  Scripture,  the  haranguers  of  the 
Sixteen)  blessed  is  the  womb  that  bore  thee,  blessed  the  breasts  that  gave 
thee  suck  I  Then  they  insulted  the  memory  of  the  Yalois,  and  spread 
abroad  furious  invectives  against  Henry  of  Bourbon,  recalling  the 
Edict  of  Union,  the  bull  of  the  Pope,  and  the  decrees  of  the  Sorbonne, 
which  declared  him  deprived  of  the  throne.  They  sought  a  chief,  and 
their  regards  turned  towards  Mayenne,  brother  of  Henry  of  Guise, 
and  alone  in  his  family  capable  of  directing  affairs.  Mayenne  took 
the   title   of   Lieutenant- General    of   the   kingdom,  and    mi_   ^  , 

°  '  The  Duke  of 

caused   to   be    proclaimed     King,    under    the   name     of  eleJtedcli^ef of 
Charles  X.,  the  old  Cardinal  of  Bourbon,  whom  Henry  J{J|  cardinal  ofd 
IV.,  his  nephew,  held  a  prisoner  at  Tours.     He  went  out   ciahne^iSif"" 
from     Paris    afterwards     at   the    head    of    twenty-five   oiChVrkVxT 
thousand  men,  making  it  public  that  he  was  going  to 
take  the  Bearnais.     He  met,  near  Dieppe,   with   all   his   forces,    the 
feeble   army   of  the    King,    composed  altogether  of  seven  thousand 
soldiers.     Henry  sustained  many  attacks  in  his   camp,    and  won    a 
signal   advantage   in   a   bloody    combat   which   took   place  near  the 
village  of  Arq  lies.     Three  flags  fell  into  the  hands   of  „  L ,    c  A 

o       •  t.  o  Battle  of  Arques. 

Mayenne,  who  hastened  to  send  them  to  Paris  as  pledges 
of  a  victory,  announcing  that  he  was  going  to  lead  Henry  into  the 
capital  bound  and  tied.  The  intoxication  of  the  Parisians  lasted  until 
Henry  IV.,  strengthened  by  five  thousand  English  and  a  numerous 
nobility,  appeared  before  Paris,  attacked  the  faubourgs,  and  took  pos- 
session of  them,  driving  back  the  Parisians  into  the  interior  of  the 
town.  He  allowed  the  pillage  of  the  faubourgs,  in  order  that  the 
booty  might  serve  as  pay  to  his  soldiers  ;  but  he  prevented  murder, 
incendiarism,  and  extreme  licentiousness,  and  caused  the  churches  and 
monasteries  to  be  preserved.  In  vain  he  offered  battle  to  the  Duke 
of  Mayenne,  and  quitted  Paris  in  order  to  subdue  Lower  Normandy, 
of  which  he  made  himself  master.  The  ambassador  of  Venice  at 
this  time  presented  to  him  letters  of  credence.  This  republic  was  the 
6rst  Catholic  power  which  recognized  him  as  King  of  France. 


426  BATTLE   OP  IVRY.  [Book  II.  Chap.  III. 

Discord  reigned  in  France;  some  wished  to  crown  Mayenne  ;  others 
Compptitorsfor     declared  themselves  for  the   old   Cardinal  of  Bourbon, 

the  throne.  . 

prisoner  of  Henry  IV.,  his  nephew  ;  the  gold  of  Philip  II. 
intrigups  of  corrupted  the  Sixteen  and  the  population.     That  King 

claimed  the  throne  for  his  daughter,  Isabelle- Claire- 
Eugenie,  niece  of  the  four  last  Valois  by  her  mother  Elizabeth. 
Pope  Sixtus  V.,  struck  with  the  madness  of  the  Leaguers  and  with  the 
great  character  of  Henry  of  Navarre,  had  sent  into  France  a  legate 
named  Caetan,  with  an  order  not  to  pronounce  in  favour  of  one  of  the 
two  parties,  except  with  the  entire  knowledge  of  the  case.  Caetan, 
neglecting  his  instructions,  hastened  to  embrace  the  party  of  the 
League :  pursued  by  Henry  IV.,  he  entered  Paris  as  a  fugitive,  and 
was  received  as  a  martyr.  The  Sorbonne  thundered  against  the 
Soivcnceof  the  Bearnais,  declaring  that  he  was  in  a  state  of  mortal  sin, 
Hcmy  iv. b  and    excommunicated    all    those    who    should    think    of 

adopting  him.  for  King,  even  if  he  became  a  Catholic.  The  Parlia- 
Tiio.  two  pariia-     ment  of  Paris,  presided    over   by    Brisson,  ordered  the 

incuts. 

recognition  of  Charles  X.  ;  the  parliament  sitting  at 
Tours,  and  presided  over  by  Achille  de  Harlay,  recently  escaped  from 
the  Bastille,  annulled  the  arrests  of  that  of  Paris,  and  proclaimed 
Henry  IV.  King.  The  faction  of  the  Sixteen  added  to  these  many 
causes  of  disorder,  and  carried  the  distraction  to  such  a  pitch  that 
Mayenne  broke  it  up,  and  renewed  that  Council,  of  which  the  suc- 
ceeding members  continued  to  constitute  a  formidable  cabal. 

Henry  IV.  again  approached  the  capital,  and  Mayenne  closed  up  the 
Bnttie  <  f  ivry,      road.     The  two  armies  met  near  Dreux,  in  the  plain  ot 

Ivry.  On  the  morrow,  at  break  of  day,  arrangements 
were  made  for  the  battle  ;  Henry  made  none  for  retreat.  "  No  other 
retreat,"  said  he,  "  than  the  field  of  battle."  Both  sides  betook 
themselves  to  prayers.  Henry,  advancing  before  his  on  horseback, 
armed  at  all  points,  but  with  his  head  bare,  cried  : — "  Lord  !  you  know 
my  thoughts,  if  it  be  advantageous  to  my  people  that  I  reign,  favour 
my  cause  and  protect  my  army."  Then,  after  the  acclamations 
excited  by  these  words  had  ceased,  "  Children,"  said  he  to  the 
soldiers,  "if  the  ensigns  should  fail,  you  follow  my  white  plume  ;  you 
will  find  it  always  on  the  road  of  honour."  He  ordered  the  charge, 
and  the  army  of  Mayenne,  although  very  superior  in  numbers,  was 


1589-1598]  SIEGE   OF   PARIS.  427 

almost  destroyed.  *  The  conquerer  immediately  marched  upon  Paris, 
and  caused  the  town  to  be  blockaded  by  his  troops.  The  old  Cardinal 
Bourbon,  rival  and  prisoner  of  Henry  IV.,  whose  rights,    Death  of  Cardie 

,  .  ,..  nal  Bourbon. 

however,  he   recognized,   died  at  this  time  ;  but   Henry 
knew  his  weakness,  and  feared  that  he  would  only  serve  as  an  instru- 
ment for  the  Leaguers  if  he  fell  into  their  hands. 

The  blockade  of  the  capital  brought  famine  and  mortality  into  its 
walls  :  each  day  lightened  up  new  horrors.     The  people,   siege  and 

•1.1-11  in  •  n  /*n  -i     blockade  of 

without  bread,  sought  for  nourishment  among  the  onai  p>uu-,  famine, 
and  the  cemeteries  ;  a  mother  was  known  to  roast  her 
dead  child,  to  devour  it,  and  to  die  after  this  horrible  repast.  Henry 
suffered  greatly  wben  he  saw  the  extremity  to  which  these  unfor- 
tunate people  were  reduced ;  he  often  permitted  provisions  to  be  taken 
to  the  besieged.  Two  peasants  were  surprised  taking  a  waggon  of 
bread  through  a  postern  gate  ;  they  were  going  to  be  hanged  when 
Henry  met  them  ;  they  threw  themselves  at  his  feet,  pleading  misery 
as  their  excuse.  "  Go  in  peace,"  said  the  King  to  them,  giving  them 
all  the  money  he  had  about  him;  "the  Bearnais,  if  he  had  more 
would  give  it  to  you."  During  this  siege  the  monks,  in  order  to  reani- 
mate the  courage  of  the  besieged,  made  processions,  bearing  in  one 
hand  an  arquebuse  and  a  crucifix  in  the  other,  mingling  discharges 
of  musketry  with  the  chant  of  sacred  hymns.  At  last,  conferences 
were  opened  at  the  Abbey  of  Saint  Anthony-in-the-Fielcls,  between 
Henry  and  many  deputies  of  the  League.  Gondi,  bishop  of  Paris,  went 
there  with  the  design  of  conciliating  both  parties  ;  but  he  had  no 
power    to    treat,  and   these    conferences    were    useless.      Alexander 

*  After  the  Battle  of  Ivry,  Henry  IV.,  meeting  near  the  field  of  battle  the  illustrious 
and  faithful  Rosny,  covered  with  wounds,  addressed  to  him  these  words,  in  which  this 
good  and  generous  heart  depicts  itself  to  the  life  :—  "  Brave  soldier  and  valiant  knight, 
your  remarkable  actions  on  so  important  an  occasion  have  surpassed  my  expectation, 
and  therefore,  in  presence  of  these  princes  and  captains  who  are  here  around  me,  I 
wish  to  embrace  you  with  both  arms,  and  to  declare  you,  in  their  sight,  a  true  and  free 
knight,  not  so  much  from  the  accolade  which  I  have  just  given,  nor  of  the  Holy  Ghost  nor 
Saint  Michael,  but  from  my  whole  and  sincere  affection,  which,  united  to  the  long  years 
of  your  useful  and  faithful  services,  makes  me  promise  to  you,  as  I  do  to  all  these  brave 
and  valiant  men  who  listen  to  me,  that  I  shall  never  have  good  fortune  nor  increase  of 
grandeur  without  your  participating  in  it.  Fearing,  however,  that  speaking  too  much 
might  be  prejudicial  to  your  wounds,  I  return  to  Mantes  ;  therefore,  adieu.  My  friend, 
take  care  of  yourself,  and  be  assured  t«hat  you  have  a  good  master."  (31emoires  de 
Sully.) 


428  VIOLENCES    OF   THE    SIXTEEN.  [Book  II.    CnAP.   III. 

Farnese,  Duke  of  Parma,  celebrated  by  bis   exploits  in  Flanders,  and 
The  Duke  of         by  tbe  taking   of  Antwerp,   advanced  upon  Paris  with 

Parma  forces  the  _ 

Royal  lines  at       Mayenne,  and  penetrated  as  far  as  M_~iix.    He  compelled 

Lagny,  and 

revictuais  the        the  King-  to  raise  the  blockade,  forced  his  lines  at  Lag-ny, 

capital,  1590.  .  .  °    J 

and  revictualled  the  capital.  Incapable  of  coming  to  an 
understanding  with  the  Sixteen,  and  docile  to  the  injunctions  of  King 
Philip,  Farnese  retreated  and  returned  into  Artois,  harassed  in  his 
retreat  by  the  Royal  army.  Nearly  an  equal  number  of  English  and 
Spanish  troops  remained  in  the  kingdom. 

Henry  returned  to  establish  his  quarters  at  Saint  Denis,  and 
attempted  to  surprise  Paris  by  means  of  soldiers  concealed  under 
sacks  of  flour.  This  abortive  attempt  and  the  stratagem  to  which 
the  King  had  recourse,  gave  to  this  engagement  the  name  of 
The  Flour  battle    foe  joum&e    des    Farines    (the    Flour    battle).     Discord 

reigned  in  Paris ;  Mayenne  agitated  on  one  side 
for  his  house  ;  on  the  other  the  Sixteen  and  the  populace  agitated  for 
Spain,  who  paid  them.  A  new  chief  divided  the  members  of  the 
League ;  the  young  Duke  of  Guise,  son  of  the  Balafre,  recently 
escaped  from  prison,  was  received  with  transports  in  Paris,  and 
many  opposed  him  to  Mayenne.  Nevertheless,  he  played  no 
important  part.  The  new  Pope,  Gregory  XIV.,  eager  to  sustain 
the  League,  sent  him  a  reinforcement  of  soldiers,  who  only  sig- 
nalized themselves  by  the  most  horrible  brigandage.  The  most 
fanatical  chiefs  were  once  more  masters  of  Paris,  in  spite  of  the 
violences  of  the  purifying  effected  by  Mayenne  in  the  Conciul  of  the 
fui  excesses,3         Sixteen  ;  that  council  modified  and  rendered  more  numer- 

1591 

ous,  called  itself  the  Great  Council  of  the  Union  ;  a 
committee  of  ten  members,  elected  by  all,  directed  its  affairs.  These 
ten  had  been  chosen  out  of  the  most  violent  and  enthusiastic.  The 
cures  and  the  preachers  drove  the  fury  of  the  spirit  of  party  almost 
to  madness  ;  they  excited  the  people  to  massacre,  and  pointed  out 
openly  from  the  pulpit  the  men  suspected  of  moderation  as  wretches 
unworthy  of  pity.  The  president,  Brisson,  and  the  counsellors,  John 
Tardif  and  Claude  Larcher,  endeavoured  to  oppose  so  much  excess  ; 
they  were  assassinated;  the  Committee  of  Ten  pronounced  their 
sentence  ;  Bussy  Le  Clerc  executed  it.  The  three  magistrates  were 
taken  and  hanged  at  the  very  gates  of  the  palace  where  they  had 


1589   1598]  BATTLE    OF   AUMALE.  429 

administered  justice.  Tims  perished  the  chief  of  the  parliament  of  the 
League,  the  famous  president  who  had  pronounced  the  penalty  of  for- 
feiture on  Henry  III.,  but  whose  violent  acts  were  blotted  out  by  the 
new  violences  of  his  party.  His  death  was  the  signal  for  cruel  perse- 
cutions, and  the  power  passed  from  the  bourgeois  to  the  populace.  The 
magistracy  and  the  army  were  purified  by  the  Great  Council,  and  all 
moderate  men  trembled  for  their  lives.  Warned  by  them,  Mayenne 
hurried  from  Soissons,  aimed  his  cannon  upon  the  Bastille,  of  which 
Bussy  Le  Clerc  was  governor,  took  possession  of  that  place,  caused 
the  four  most  culpable  agitators  to  be  taken  in  their  beds,  and  ordered 
them  to  be  hanged  on  the  spot.  Bussy  Le  Clerc  escaped,  abandoning 
the  treasure  which  he  had  gained  by  his  peculations.  Mayenne 
re-established  in  their  posts  the  magistrates  and  officers  Chastisement  of 
dismissed  from  office  by  the  Sixteen ;  the  bourgeois 
recovered  their  ascendency,  and  the  parliament  acquired  in  the  League 
an  influence  that  it  had  not  before  obtained. 

The  war  continued  with  ferocity,  and  the  Duke  of  Parma  re-entered 
France  by   skilful  marches.      Henry  rashly  exposed  himself  in  the 
battle  of  Aumale,  where  he  was  wounded ;  Farnese  nearly  took  him 
prisoner,  and  compelled  him  to  raise  the  siege  of  Rouen.   Battle  of 
The  misunderstanding  between  Mayenne  and  the  Duke 
relaxed  the  efforts  of  the  Royal  army,  and  gave  them  time  to  breathe. 
Although  very  inferior  in  forces,  Henry  sustained  the  war  with  advan- 
tage, displaying  a  marvellous  activity,  and  the  resources  of  a  fertile  and 
indefatigable  genius,  escaping  from  the  enemy  when  the   skilful  manoeu- 
latter  thought  they  were  about  to  seize  them,  and  falling   and  Alexander 
upon  them  unexpectedly,  when  they  thought  that  he  was   Parma,  1592. 
far  off.    It  was  thus,  that  by  a  course  of  prudent  and  bold  manoeuvres, 
he   shut  up  Farnese  near  Dieppe,  between  the  sea,  the  Seine,  and 
the  three  main  bodies  of  his  army.     The  Duke  of  Parma,  suffering 
and  broken  down  with  fever,  under  these  circumstances  re-animated 
his  own  genius,  then  almost  extinguished.     Unknown  to  the  King,  he 
constructed  a  bridge  in  one  night,  deceived  his  vigilance,  crossed  the 
Seine,  and  covered  his  retreat. 

Marshal  Biron,  slain  in  the  same  campaign,  was  suspected  of 
favouring  this  bold  operation.  His  son  requested  from  him  two  thou- 
sand knights,  so  that  he  might  cut  in  pieces  the  Spanish  rear-guard. 


430  PRETENSIONS    OF    PHILIP   II.  [BOOK  II.    CHAP.  III. 

The  marshal  refused,  and  it  is  reported  that  he  afterwards  said : — "  If 
you  had  done  so,  the  wai  would  have  been  finished,  and  you  and  I 
would  have  nothiug  more  to  do  than  plant  cabbages  at  Biron."  This 
Dispositions  and  sentence  will  make  apparent  the  innumerable  obstacles 
chiefs  of  the         which  stopped  Henry  IV.  and  the  causes  of  the  prolonga- 

nobility.  . 

tion  of  the  war.  A  crowd  of  gentlemen-at-arms  joined 
in  it  for  their  own  advantage,  and  wo  have  already  seen  that  the  great 
nobles  indulged  in  the  hope  that  by  it  they  would  rebuild  to  their  own 
profit  the  edifice  of  feudalism.  They  flattered  themselves  that  they 
would  preserve  their  governments  with  the  title  of  sovereignty.  It  is 
thus  that  the  Duke  of  Mercosur  hoped  to  be  recognized  as  Duke  of 
Brittan}^,  and  that  the  Dukes  of  Nemours,  Guise,  Joyeuse,  and  Aumale 
thought  of  dividing  the  other  provinces  of  the  kingdom. 

Henry  again  approached   Paris,    when   the  States- General  of  the 
League,  convoked  by  Mayenne  at  the  request  of  Philip 
theL<;i2ueat       II.,  assembled  together  to  elect  a  King.     He  caused  him- 
self to  be  well  informed  in  the  Catholic  religion,  and 
Mayenne,  in  the   midst   of  the    factions    which    divided   the    States, 
remained  undecided  between  the  two  principal,  of  which  the  one  con- 
sented  to   proclaim  Henry  IV.  if  he  abjured,   while  the  other  was 
devoted  to  Spain.     The  Duke  of  Faria  and  the  jurisconsult  Mendoza 
audaciously  sustained,  in  the   midst  of  the  States,    the  interests  of 
Philip   II.     That  monarch   insisted,    together  with    the  Cardinal    de 
Plaisance,  legate  of  Clement  VIII.,  that  Henry,   being  infected  with 
heresv,  ouo-ht  to  be  excluded  from  the  throne  even  if  he 

Pretensions  of  J  7        ° 

Phihp  ii.  abjured,  and  that  by  the  fact  of  this  exclusion  the  Salic 

Law  was  abolished  in  France.  He  then  requested  that  his  daughter 
Isabella,  niece  of  the  three  last  Kings,  should  be  proclaimed  Queen  ; 
but  Farnese  had  just  died,  and  no  Spanish  army  could  sustain  the 
pretensions  of  Philip.  Mayenne  fought  against  them.  The  Catholic 
Seigneurs  of  the  Royal  army  had  been  invited  by  him  to  the  States. 
Conferences  were  held  at  Surenes,  and  afterwards  in  the  faubourg  of 
La  Villette,  between  them  and  many  deputies.  Henry  declared  to  the 
last  of  these  that  he  was  disposed  to  abjure  his  faith.  This  news 
crushed  all  ambitions  and  raised  a  tempest  in  the  assembly  of  the 
States- General.  The  Spaniards  hastened  to  point  out  that,  if  the 
Infanta  were  proclaimed  King,  he  would  fix  upon  a  French  Seigneur 


1589-1598]  THE   MENIPPEAN  SATIRE.  £31 

for  her  husband.     By  not  naming  any  one  before-hand,  the  ambitious 

hopes  of  many  were  roused.     Charles  of  Savoy,  the  Duke  of  JSTemours, 

half-brother  of  Mayenne,  and  the  Duke  of  Guise,  allowed  themselves 

to  spring  at  this  brilliant  bait,  and  the  States  hesitated.    It  would  have 

detracted  from  the  greatness  and  power  of  the  kingdom,  if  Spain 

had   obtained  the   coronation   of    the  Infanta.     Philip  consented  to 

everything  to  ensure  the  sceptre  to  himself,  and  France  would  have 

been  dismembered  among  the  most  powerful  Seigneurs. 

Henry  IV.,  in  this  critical  moment,  obtained  a  support  upon  which 

he  had  not  reckoned.     The  parliament  humiliated  by  the  Sixteen,  and 

intimidated  by  the  execution  of  many  of  its   members,  only   issued 

servile    decrees,   imprints    of  fanaticism,    and    dictated  by   a   furious 

populace  sustained  by  the  chiefs  of  the  Spanish  garrison.     All  of  a 

sudden  this  parliament  roused  itself  from  its  stupor,  and  displayed  a 

noble  energy  upon  the  advice  of  Edward  Mole,  Attorney- 

^J     r  m  .  Excellent  con- 

General  ;  it   ordered   the    President,  John  Lemaitre,    to   (l^ct  of  the  par- 
liament, 1593. 

present  himself  to  the  Lieutenant- General,  in  order  to 
recommend  him  to  watch  so  that  no  foreign  house,  under  the  pretext 
of  religion,  should  place  themselves  on  the  throne,  declaring  all  the 
treaties  made  with  this  aim  null  and  contrary  to  the  Salic  Law  and 
the  constitution  of  the  kingdom.  This  unexpected  declaration  sur- 
prised and  irritated  Mayenne,  but  John  Lemaitre  sustained  this  decree 
before  him  with  courage.  The  Spanish  faction  did  not  lose  all  hope, 
and  in  order  to  assure  itself  of  the  support  of  his  powerful  family,  it 
offered  the  hand  of  the  Infanta  to  the  young  Duke  of  Guise,  in  case  the 
latter  should  be  recognized  as  Queen.  Mayenne,  however,  only  feebly 
supported  the  proposition  of  Spain  and  the  pretensions  of  his  nephew. 
He  himself  aspired  to  the  crown  and  made  differences  in  the  election. 
The  Parisians  began  to  tire  of  so  many  struggles,  intrigues,  and 
sufferings.  They  read  greedily  a  book  where  the  follies  and  the 
selfishness  of  the  chiefs  of  the  League  were  brought  forward  in 
evidence  and  devoted  to .  redicule.  This  book,  entitled  Catliolisme 
iVEpagne,  or  the  la  Satire  Menippee,  struck  a  mortal  blow  Th  . 
at  the  Leaguers  and  the  Spanish  faction.  Mayenne  MtuiPPe'e- 
persisted  in  keeping  power,  and,  although  uncertain  which  side  he 
should  tak3,  he  united  his  efforts  with  those  of  the  legate  of  the  Pope 
to  prevent  the  abjuration  of  the  King,  declaring  that  his  conversion 


432  ABJURATION   OF   HENRY   IV.  [Book  II.   Chap.  III. 

did  not  open  the  road  to  the  throne.  A  trace  had  been  proposed  by 
Henry,  who  fixed  the  day  of  his  abjuration  on  the  2oth  of  July. 
Mayenne  forbade  the  Parisians  to  be  witnesses,  and  ordered  them  to 
close  their  doors ;  they  violated  his  order  and  assisted  in  a  crowd  at 
the  ceremony.  Henry  made  his  abjuration  at  St.  Denis,  under  the 
hands  of  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges.  He  promised  to  live  and  to  die 
in  the  heart  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  to  defend  it  against 
all ;  he  repeated  his  profession  of  faith  at  the  foot  of  the 

Abjuration  of 

Henry  iv,  25th     great  altar,  then  the  Te  Dev/m  burst  out,  while  the  people 

July,  1593.  &  f  '  y      r 

interrupted  with  cries  of  Vive  le  roi ! 
The  conversion  of  Henry  IV.  confounded  all  those  in  Paris  who 
only  lived  for  disturbances,  and  whose  strength  existed  only  in  their 
audacity ;  they  gave  themselves  #up  to  the  last  excesses  on  hearing  of 
his  abjuration.  The  cure  John  Boucher,  preached  during  nine 
consecutive  days  in  the  church  of  Saint  Merry,  seeking  to  persuade  the 
Parisians  that  this  act  was  the  work,  of  the  devil;  but  the  people 
sighed  for  rest.  It  remained  unmoved  by  these  fanatical  declarations, 
the  last  convulsions  of  an  expiring  faction.  A  truce  of  three  months, 
-oroposed  by  Henry  IV.,  was  accepted  by  both  parties.  The  Duke  of 
Mayenne  caused  the  oath  of  union  to  be  repeated  in  the  States,  and 
prorogued  them  till  September.  Determined  by  personal  motives  to 
prolong  the  war,  he  alienated  himself  from  the  Parliament  and  the 
people,  and  sought  his  support  among  the  Spaniards  and  the  Sixteen. 
He  quitted  Paris  in  the  following  year,  to  receive  new  troops  on  the 
frontiers  of  Champagne,  while  Henry  IV.  waited  at  St.  Denis  until 
the  gates  of  the  capital  should  be  opened  to  him ;  they  soon  were. 
Charles  de  Cosse,  Count  of  Brissac,  son  of  the  marshal  of  that  name, 
and  one  of  the  authors  of  the  famous  barricades  under  Henry  III., 
had  been  named  by  Mayenne  governor  of  the  town  ;  he  negotiated  in 
secret  with  the  King,  deceived  the  League  by  false  appearances  of  zeal, 
came  to  an  understanding  with  the  prevot  of  the  merchants,  and  on  the 
night  of  the  22nd  March  he  delivered  up  the  town  to  the  Royal  troops. 
The  soldiers  entered  in  silence,  passed  through  the  streets  in  order  of 
battle,  and  made  themselves  masters  of  the  open  spaces  and  cross 
roads.  One  corps  of  the  Spanish  guard  alone  resisted,  it  was  put  to 
the  sword.  Surprise  and  fear  held  back  the  factions.  At  length 
Henry  presented  himself.    The  prevot  of  the  merchants  and  the  Count 


1589-1598]  ENTRY   OF   HENRY   IV.    INTO   PARIS.  433 

of  Brissac  offered  him  the  keys  of  the  town ;  he  advanced 

Entry  of  Henry 

in  the  midst  of  a  corps  of    nobles  with  lowered  lances.    Iv-  »»to  Paris, 

1  22nd  March,  1594. 

His  march  was  a  triumph,  and  from  that  day  he  looked 
upon  himself  among  the  Parisians  as  in  the  middle  of  his  children. 
"  Leave  them  alone !  "  cried  he,  to  those  who  pushed  back  the  crowd, 
"  Leave  them  alone  !  they  are  famished  to  see  a  king."  His  clemency 
extended  itself  to  all  his  enemies,  and  he  permitted  the  legate  to  take 
away  under  his  safe-guard  the  Pere  Varade,  rector  of  the  Jesuits,  and 
the  cure  Aubry,  whose  fanatical  exhortations  had  driven  almost  to 
regicide  a  wild  enthusiast  named  Barriere.  The  Spanish  garrison  left 
Paris  on  the  same  day  with  the  honours  of  war  ;  the  Duke  of  Faria 
and  the  other  ministers  of  Philip  left  with  them.  The  King  placed 
himself  at  a  window  to  see  them  pass,  and,  when  they  departed, 
he  said  to  them,  laughing,  "  Gentlemen,  my  compliments  to  your 
master,  but  do  not  return  here  again."  He  received  the  Bastille 
on  terms  of  war,  welcomed  the  repentant  and  submissive  Sorbonne, 
and  united  to  the  parliament  of  Paris  the  magistrates  of  the  par- 
liaments which  he  had  established  at  Chalons  and  Tours. 

As  to  the  situation  of  the  King  between  the  Catholics  and  Protest- 
ants, the  former  had  seen  his  conversion  with  distrust, 

Difficult  situa- 

and  accused  him  of  hypocrisy.     He  could  only  gain  them   tionof  Henry 

J  r  J  J    &  IV.,  1594. 

over  by  lavishing  on  them  numerous  favours.  The  latter, 
irritated  at  his  abjuration,  looked  with  impatience  on  the  honours  and 
bribes  heaped  upon  the  Catholics,  which  they  considered  that  they 
alone  had  a  right  to  obtain,  and  they  accused  the  King  of  ingratitude. 
Paris,  however,  was  far  from  possessing  the  importance  which  it 
possesses  at  the  present  day ;  war,  in  spite  of  the  submission  of  the 
capital,  continued  in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom.  However,  Amiens, 
Beauvais,  Cambrai,  and  Chateau-Thierry  gave  themselves  up  sepa- 
rately after  the  taking  of  Laon  ;  soon,  Montmorency,  Epernon,  the 
Duke  of  Guise,  LaChatre,  and  Bois-Dauphin  submitted,  but  they  fixed 
their  submission  at  an  enormous  price.   It  was  necessary 

,,            , ,         -j-r.             1                                                      .  He  buys  the  sub- 
that   the   King  should   deposit  in  their  hands  immense   mission  of  many 

°  .  .  cniefa 

sums    and    an  authority   which   nearly  rendered   them 

sovereign  in  their   own  governments,    and  which,  later  on,  was  the 
cause  of  great  troubles. 

About  the  same  time  a  new  attempt  placed  the  life  of  the  monarch 

F  F 


434  EXILE   OF   THE   JESUITS.  [Book  II.  CllAP.  III. 

Attempted  *n  Per^  >  Jonn  Chatel,  a  pupil  of  the  Jesuits,  given  up  to 

fheaK?nngbyJo°hn   depraved  habits,  believed  that  he  could  save  himself  from 
Chatei,  1594.        ^RQ  pains  0f  keTj  -fay  assassinating  him.     Henry,  on  the 

27th  December,  received  in  pardon  two  gentlemen,  ancient  Leaguers. 
They  were  at  his  feet,  and  the  King  stooped  in  order  to  raise  them, 
when  he  found  himself  wounded  in  the  mouth  by  a  blow  from  a  knife. 
The  bloody  weapon  was  seized  upon  John  Chatel.  His  confession  in- 
culpated the  Jesuits,  his  masters,  and  revealed  a  fanaticism  which  was 
not  altered  by  the  atrocious  horrors  of  the  torture  and  execution  of 
regicides.  A  Jesuit,  the  Pere  Guignard,  was  hanged,  the  parliament, 
f  tii*  prosecuted  the  entire  order,  and  condemned  all  its 
Jesuits,  1595.  members  to  exile.  They  quitted  the  kingdom  with  the 
hope  of  a  speedy  return.  Philip  II.  would  then  have  consented 
to  a  peace  if  Henry  had  wished  to  leave  to  him  certain  possessions 
in  France  ;  the  French  nobles  of  his  party  were  equally  willing  on 
condition  that  they  were  allowed  to  keep  the  provinces  of  which  they 
were  masters,  at  the  charge  of  homage  to  the  crown.  The  King 
energetically  repulsed  these  pretensions,  and,  in  order  to  remove  all 
pretext  and  every  excuse  from  the  allies  of  Spain,  he  declared  war 
against  Philip,  whose  most  powerful  supporters  were  the  Duke  of 
Mercosur  in  Brittany,  of  Aumale  in  Picardy,  and  Mayenne  in  Bur- 
gundy. The  last  of  the  three,  not  long  ago  chief  of  the  League,  and 
an  aspirant  to  the  crown,  had  become  the  instrument  of  Spain  ;  he 
was  accompanied  by  Valasco,  Constable  of  Castille,  when  the  King 
bore  down  rapidly  to  receive  him  near  Dijon. 

The  glorious  battle  of  Fontaine- Francaise,  where  Henry,  with  only 

three  hundred  horse,  held  ground  against  two  thousand, 

taine-Francaise,     and  exposed  his  life  in  order  to  save  that  of  Biron,  con- 

1595. 

founded  the  hopes  of  Mayenne,  who  declared  himself 
ready  to  recognise  Henry  as  soon  as  that  prince  should  have  received 
the  absolution  of  the  Pope.  A  negotiation  on  this  subject  had  already 
commenced;  Clement  VIII.  seized  that  occasion  to  re-establish  the 
authority  of  the  Church  over  that  of  the  King's.     By  the  counsels  of  the 

Jesuit  Toredo,  who  already  entreated  the  recall  of  his 
recognition  of  order  into  France,  he  showed  himself  favourable  to  the 
Pope  Clement       Kins',  but  he  made  him  pay  dearly  for  his  absolution.     A 

VIII    1595 

vast  scaffolding  was  erected  in  the  basilica  of  St.  Peter ; 


1589-1598]  SUBMISSION   OF   MAYENNE.  435 

there,  tinder  a  magnificent  tent,  in  the  sight  of  an  immense  number  of 
people,  Clement  VIII.  struck  with  his  wand,  in  sign  of  chastisement 
the   abbes  Duperron  and  d'Ossat,   representatives    of  the   King,  and 
declared  null  the  absolution  given  to  Henry  by  a  French  prelate,  gave 
it  to  him  anew,  and  proclaimed  him  King  of  France  and  Navarre. 

This  solemn  act  took  away  all  motive  for  war  and  all  hope  for  the 
Leageurs.  Mayenne  obtained  from  the  King  that  his  family  should  be 
declared  absolved  from  the  crime  of  complicity  with  the  murder  of 
Henry  III. ;  he  placed  his  submission  at  this  price.  The  edict  was 
promulgated  ;  Mayenne  recognised  Henry  IV.,  and  from 
that     time     served    him    faithfullv.     The     King"     soon  the  Duke  of 

J  °  Mayenne,  1596. 

assembled  all  his  forces  against  the  Spaniards,  who  had 
just  taken  Calais  and  many  other  places.  The  Royal  army  was 
weakened  by  the  defection  of  a  large  number  of  Calvinists,  ashamed 
of  the  humiliation  imposed  on  the  King  by  the  Pope.  La  Tremouille, 
Bouillon,  and  Rohan,  encouraged  these  murmurs.  Henry,  under 
those  circumstances,  convoked  an  assembly  of  the  principal  inhabitants 
of  Rouen.  "  I  have  not  called  you  together,"  said  he  to  Assemb]y  of  the 
them,  "  as  my  predecessors  have  done,  in  order  to  make  fantsof^Eouen1" 
you  approve  my  will.  I  have  assembled  you  here  in  1598' 
order  to  receive  your  counsels,  to  believe  in  them,  to  follow  them  ; 
in  short,  to  place  myself  in  guardianship  into  your  hands — a  fancy 
which  does  not  often  take  possession  of  kings  with  grey  beards  who 
have  been  victorious.  But  the  violent  love  I  bear  towards  my 
subjects  makes  me  find  everything  easy  and  honourable."  The  acts 
of  this  assembly  answered  badly  to  these  noble  words.  Nothing  was 
requested  for  the  finances,  no  resources  were  provided  for  the 
war,  and  Henry  himself  appeared  to  forget  altogether  his  duties  when 
near  to  Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  whom  he  publicly  named  his  mistress,  and 
whose  children  he  brought  up  with  a  magnificence  altogether  royal. 
The  Spaniards  dragged  him  away  from  his  shameful  pleasures  by 
surprising  Amiens.  Henry,  without  money,  made  an  appeal  to  his 
people.  The  faithful  Rosny,  Duke  of  Sully,  assisted  him  in  raising 
some  millions  and  an  army.  Amiens  was  retaken  in  the  following 
year  ;  the  Duke  of  Mercosur  treated  then  with  the  King,  and  Brittany 
laid  down  its  arms.  These  happy  successes  prepared  the  way  for  a 
general  peace.     Philip  II.,  a  prey  to  a  frightful  malady,  that  of  Sulla, 

F  f  2 


436  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  [Book  II.  Chap.  Ill 

commenced  to  have  a  distaste  for  human  blood.  In  1598,  six  months 
before  his  death,  he  signed  the  Peace  of  Vervins,  delivering  over  to  the 
Peace  of  Vervins,  King  of  France  all  the  places  occupied  by  his  troops, 
1598'  with  the  exception  of  Cambrai. 

Henry,  freed  from  the  cares  of  foreign  wars,  issued  during  the  same 
Edict  of  Nantes,  year  tlie  celebrated  Edict  of  Nantes,  which  fixed  the 
1598,  rights  of  the  Protestants  in  France.    This  edict,  drawn  up 

by  Jeannin,  Schomberg,  Colignon,  and  the  historian  Jacques-Auguste 
de  Thou,  granted  to  the  Protestants  the  exercise  of  their  religion ;  it 
certified  to  them  admission  to  all  employment,  established  in  each 
parliament  a  chamber  composed  of  magistrates  of  each  religion, 
tolerated  the  general  assemblies  of  the  reformers,  authorising  them  to 
raise  taxes  among  themselves  for  the  wants  of  their  Church ;  lastly, 
it  indemnified  their  ministers  and  granted  them  places  of  safety,  the 
principal  of  which  was  La  Rochelle.  The  Protestants  were  compelled 
to  pay  tithes  and  to  observe  the  holy- days  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
The  Edict  of  Nantes,  registered  by  the  parliaments  after  long  re- 
sistance, put  an  end  to  the  disastrous  wars  which  for  thirty- six 
years  had  desolated  the  kingdom. 

Henry  IY.  then  left  the  part  of  warrior  for  that  of  peace-maker. 
The  last  twelve  years  of  his  life  belong  to  another  series  of  events,- to 
that  which  re-established  calm  in  the  interior,  strengthened  the  Royal 
authority,  and  gave  to  it  a  vigorous  impulse,  which  allowed  it  to 
absorb  all  the  other  powers  until  the  period  of  the  French  revolution. 
That  revolution  is  connected,  in  some  respects,  with  the  religious 
revolution  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  we  can  see  in  it  a  distant 
consequence  of  the  principles  taught  by  Luther. 

The  detailed  examination  of  the  immense  results  of  the  Reformation 
„     .,,     M.  does  not  enter  into  the  plan  of  this  work  ;  it  is  sufficient 

Considerations  x 

audtiT^ TT'  f  ^°  say  ^ia^  ^e  memorable  event,  in  spite  of  the  bloody 
Europe.  wars   which   were    among   its   immediate   consequences, 

communicated  a  great  movement  to  the  human  mind.  It  assisted 
almost  everywhere  to  separate  the  spiritual  from  the  temporal  power, 
broke  the  yoke  of  the  scholastic  spirit,  and  replaced  it  by  a  critical  and 
philosophical  spirit,  the  influence  of  which  finished  by  endowing  the 
people  with  civil  liberty,  and  prepared  the  way  for  their  political  eman- 
cipation.    This   revolution,  provoked  by  the  abuses  of  the   Church, 


1589-1598]  SPAIN   UNDER   PHILIP   II.  43? 

undertaken  by  Luther  and  other  eager  spirits,  and  continued  after- 
wards by  the  efforts  of  reason  and  by  the  letting  loose  of  all  the 
human  passions,  could  not  accomplish  itself  without  long  tortures  and 
frightful  convulsions.  The  principles  of  the  reformers  were  only 
imperfectly  naturalised  amongst  us  ;  however,  they  deposited  in  our 
soil  a  seed  which  bore  its  fruits  later,  under  the  favouring  warmth  of 
the  liberty  of  conscience,  that  the  Edict  of  Nantes  assured  to  France. 

The  internal  convulsions  to  which  France  was  a  prey  during  so 
many  years,  took  away  from  it  its  political  ascendency  in  the 
equilibrium  of  Europe,  and  Philip  II.  had,  for  some  time,  the  hope  of 
making  France  one  of  the  provinces  of  his  immense  monarchy.  Don 
Sebastian,  King  of  Portugal,  had  perished  with  the  flower  of  his 
nobility  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  his  grand-uncle,  who  succeeded 
him,  had  died  without  children  ;  Philip  violently  made  himself  master 
of  Portugal,  joined  it  to  his  vast  estates,  which  he  had  inherited 
from    Charles    V.    in    the    two    worlds.       Spain    then 

Grandeur  and 

attained  the  apogee  of  its  power.     Its  formidable  armies,   decadence  of  the 

Spanish  monav'- 

its  skilful  generals,  and  its  inexhaustible  treasures  chy  under  Philip 
from  America  appeared  to  prepare  for  Philip  the  views 
of  a  universal  monarchy ;  but  the  part  that  France  could  not 
sustain,  England  and  rising  Holland  divided.  The  first  of  these 
two  nations  fixed  in  this  century,  under  Queen  Elizabeth,  the 
foundations  of  its  maritime  greatness  and  future  grandeur  ;  its  fleets, 
aided  by  the  tempest,  destroyed  in  1588  and  dispersed  on  the  coasts 
of  the  British  Channel  the  formidable  armada,  or  the  invincible  fleet . 
of  Philip  II.  ;  eight  years  later  the  Earl  of  Essex  planted  the  British 
ensign  on  the  walls  of  Cadiz.  The  second  people  who  held  Spain  in 
check  were  the  people  of  Holland,  who  inscribed  in  that  fearful 
struggle,  for  the  first  time,  its  name  among  the  nations  of  Europe. 
Strong  in  its  love  of  independence,  in  its  religious  belief,  in  its 
geographical  situation,  it  separated  itself  violently  from  Belgium,  and, 
protected  by  the  genius  of  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  and  of  his 
son  Maurice,  a  very  great  general,  and  quite  as  great  a  citizen,  it 
formed  the  republic  of  Holland,  or  of  the  united  provinces,  a-nd 
met  without  yielding,  every  effort  of  the  Spanish  power. 

At  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Protestantism  and   „.  .  . 

J  '  Division  oi 

the  Roman  religion,  the  principle  of  the  liberty  of  exami-    catho'uds^S 
nation,  and  the  dogma  of  authority  in  matters  of  faith 


reform. 


Decline  of  the 
Ottoman 


438  SCIENCE,   ART,  AND  LITERATURE.  [Book  II.  Chap.  III. 

divided  Europe  into  two  nearly  equal  portions.  The  greater  part 
of  the  States  of  the  north,  England,  Scotland,  Holland,  Sweden 
and  Germany,  had  adopted  the  principles  of  the  reformation ;  the 
States  of  the  south,  Austria,  Italy,  France  and  Spain,  remained  faithful 
to  Catholicism.  The  religious  wars  added  much  to  the  military  force 
of  Christian  Europe.  Each  man  became  a  soldier  to  defend  his  belief, 
and  from  this  period  dates  the  decline  of  the  Ottoman  power.      It 

never  recovered  from  the  mortal  blow  which  Islamisim 
power,    received  in  1571  at  the  battle  of  Lepanto. 
Great    discoveries   marked   the   course    of    the    sixteenth   century. 

The  most  illustrious  is  that  of  the  true  system  of  the 

Discoveries,  J 

sciences  and  world,  made  by  Copernicus  in  1543.  It  was  followed  by 
the  definite  reform  of  the  calendar,  decreed  by  Pope 
Gergory  XIII.,  after  it  had  already  been  commenced  in  France, 
and  the  reformed  calendar  was  known  under  the  name  of  the 
Gregorian  Calendar.  Among  the  useful  inventions  which  enriched 
science  in  this  century  we  must  mention  telescopes,  thermometers,  and 
pendulum  clocks. 

Literature,  science,  and  the  arts  throw  little  brilliancy  on  France 
during*  the  long  torment  of  the  religious  wars.     However, 

Literature.  to  °  & 

the  Satire  Menippee  was  written  under  the  League, 
which  it  attacked  in  a  manner  quite  as  bitter  as  it  was  ingenious. 
It  had  for  its  principal  authors  the  Canon  Leroi,  the  learned 
Pithou,  and  the  poets  Hapin  and  Passerat.  But  among  all  the  poets 
of  the  period  none  was  more  celebrated  than  Ronsard,  who  was  a 
rich  genius,  but  whose  reputation  is  not  sustained  The  name  of 
the  Pleiades  was  given  to  a  group  of  poets  of  his  school  and  his 
contemporaries.  The  best  known  are  Joachim  Dubellay,  surnamed 
the  French  Ovid,  and  Jodelle,  whose  style  is  in  the  worst  taste,  to 
whom,  however,  and  to  his  successor  Gamier,  belongs  the  honour 
of  having  founded  the  tragic  art  in  France.  The  bishop  Amyot, 
teacher  of  the  children  of  Henry  II.,  rendered  himself  illustrious  by 
his  translation  of  the  works  of  Plutarch,  at  the  same  period  when 
Michael  Montaigne  caused  his  immortal  Philosophical  Essays  to  appear, 
the  finest  literary  monument  of  the  century. 


1593-1610]  PEACE  OP  VERVINS.  439 


CHAPTER    IY. 

FROM   THE    PEACE    OP   VERVINS   TO    THE    END    OP   THE    REIGN   OP   HENRY   IV. 

1598-1610. 

Henry  IY.  was  tlie  only  prince  who,  upon  the  death  of  Henry  of 
Yalois,  was  able  to  set  up  a  legal  claim  to  the  throne  of  France. 
One  section  of  the  French  nation  recognized  him  as  their  King 
immediately  after  that  event :  but  in  reality  his  reign  only  com- 
menced at  the  period  of  his  abjuration,  and  of  the  downfall  of  the 
League. 

The  treaty  of  Yervins  gave  peace  with  the  foreigners  ;  internal 
tranquillity  was  re-established  by  the  Edict  of  Nantes  :  it  became 
necessary  henceforth,  whilst  healing  the  deep  wounds  of  the  nation,  to 
recruit  its  wealth,  to  restore  its  strength  and  its  position  in  Europe. 
Henry  IY.  worthily  carried  out  this  noble  task,  and,  in  twelve  years, 
elevated  France  to  the  highest  degree  of  power  she  had  yet  attained  ; 
an  everlasting  subject  of  surprise  and  admiration  on  the  part  of 
those  who  are  not  acquainted  with  the  immense  resources  which  her 
soil  possesses,  and  which  require  only  a  skilful  and  prudent  hand  to 
render  productive. 

Two  causes  of  agitation  and  disorder  threatened,  however,  to 
arrest  the  course  of  this  reviving  prosperity :   one  was 

,-..._.  _  Causes  of  trouble. 

the  dissatisfaction  oi  a  large  number  of  Catholic  and 
Protestant  nobles,  former  enemies  of  the  King,  or  his  companions 
in  arms,  most  of  them  suffering  from  the  severe  and  economical 
measures  of  the  monarch,  and  affected  either  in  their  fortunes  or 
their  political  importance  by  the  diminution  which  peace  brought 
about.  They  all  cherished  the  dangerous  remembrance  of  the  feudal 
times,  and  still  clung  to  the  hope  of  dividing  France  among  them- 
selves.     Henry  energetically  contended  against  them,  and  neglected 


440 


CONSPIRACY  OF  BIRO¥.  [Book  II.  Chap.  IT. 


no  means  of  raining  or  enfeebling  their  pretensions.  The  second 
canse  of  disorder  in  the  State  sprang  from  the  personal  weaknesses 
of  the  monarch  himself.  Frequently,  during  the  war,  his  intrigues 
of  gallantry,  and  the  attractions  of  pleasure,  had  snatched  from  him 
the  advantages  derived  by  his  valour;  the  same  faults  afterwards 
disturbed  the  peace  of  his  reign ;  they  afforded  the  malcontent  nobles 
a  pretext  for  revolt,  and  for  embittering  the  course  of  his  latter  years. 
The  marriage  of  this  prince  with  Marguerite  de  Valois  proved  barren, 
Marguerite,  taking  no  pains  to  coneeal  the  scandals  of  her  conduct, 
lived  separate  from  her  husband  ;  and  the  austere  Rosny,  Duke  de 
Sully,  the  confidant  and  prime  minister  of  the  King,  would,  long  ago, 
have  pressed  her  divorce,  had  he  not  dreaded  the  King's  weakness 
towards  Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  Duchess  of  Beaufort.  Henry  had  already 
permitted  the  children,  the  fruits  of  this  intercourse,  to  be  baptized 
with  royal  pomp,  and  more  than  once  he  manifested  a  desire  to  raise 
their  mother  to  the  throne.  Gabrielle  died  suddenly  in  1599  ;  and 
from  that  time  the  King's  ministers  were  actively  employed  in 
Divorce  of  Henry  Dringing  about  the  rupture  of  his  marriage,  which  was 
rile devSoif Ue"  pronounced,  the  year  following,  by  the  Church  of  Rome. 

During  these  negotiations  the  King  commenced  a  new 
intrigue  with  Henrietta  d'Entragues,  who,  actuated  bj  an  ambitious 
father,  exacted  a  promise  of  marriage.  Henry  was  imprudent  enough 
to  sign  one,  engaging  himself  to  marry  her  if  she  brought  him  a  son 
within  the  year.  He  showed  this  document  to  Sully,  who  had  the 
courage  to  tear  it  up.  The  monarch  retired  to  his  closet,  wrote 
a  second  promise,  and  sent  it  to  Henrietta,  naming  her  Marquise  de 
Verneuil.  This  guilty  and  unfortunate  connection,  particularly  the 
fatal  engagement  that  sprang  from  it,  reanimated,  at  a  later  period, 
the  hopes  of  the  factions,  and  became  a  source  of  uneasiness  to  the 
State,  and  of  bitter  grief  for  the  sovereign. 

At  the  head  of  the  malcontent  nobles  there  were,  in  the  Pro- 
testant party,  the  Dukes  of  Bouillon  and  La  Tremouille  \  among  the 
Catholics,  the  Duke  d'Epernon,  Charles  de  Yalois,  Count  d'Auvergne, 
natural  son  of  Charles  IX.,  and  uterine  brother  of  the  Marquise  de 

Verneuil,  and  last,  but  not  least,  Charles  de  Gontaut, 

First  conspiracy 

of  the  Duke  de     Duke  de  Biron,  son  of  the  famous  marshal  of  that  name, 

Biron,  ' 

and  himself  one  of  the  most  illustrious  and  ible  generals 


159,3-1610.]  TREATY  OP   LYONS.  441 

of  Henry  IV.  He  had  been  loaded  with,  riches  and  honours  in  re- 
compense for  his  glorious  services,  and  named,  at  thirty-three  years 
of  age,  Marshal  of  France  and  Governor  of  Burgundy  ;  but  his  ambi- 
tion was  as  immoderate  as  his  pride,  and  it  was  upon  him,  in  parti- 
cular, that  the  enemies  of  France  counted.  Charles  Emmanuel,  Duke 
of  Savoy,  retained  possession  of  the  Marquisate  of  Saluces,  which  he 
had  usurped ;  summoned  by  the  King  to  make  restitution  of  it,  he 
came  to  the  court  of  France  to  hatch  plots,  and  to  this  end,  entered 
into  a  close  alliance  with  the  Count  de  Fuentes,  the  personal  enemy 
of  Henry  IV.,  and  Governor  of  the  Duchy  of  Milan  for  Philip  III., 
the  new  King  of  Spain.  One  of  the  daughters  of  Emmanuel  was 
offered  to  Biron,  with  the  full  sovereignty  of  Burgundy  as  a  dowry ; 
on  this  condition  the  Marshal  promised,  in  case  of  war,  to  arouse 
and  gather  to  his  standard  all  the  malcontents  against  the  King. 
Emboldened  by  these  assurances,  which  were  carried  to  him  by  Lafin, 
secretary  and  confidant  of  the  Marshal,  Emmanuel  refused  to  make 
restitution  of  the  Marquisate  of  Saluces,  and  Henry  declared  war 
against  him.  Sully,  recently  appointed  Grand  Master  of  artillery, 
disposed  everything,  so  that  the  war  might  be  glorious  Cam  ai(rn . 
and  rapid.  The  King  set  two  armies  in  motion,  he  took  Savu^  160a- 
the  command  of  one,  and  confided  the  other  to  the  Marshal  de  Biron. 
The  latter  was  forced  to  conquer  in  spite  of  himself,  in  vain  he  fore- 
warned the  enemy's  generals  of  his  marches  and  attacks,  their  troops 
were  beaten,  their  fortresses  taken.  Emmanuel  sued  for  peace,  and 
by  a  treaty,  concluded  at  Lyons,  was  permitted  to  T  0fL-ons 
retain  the  Marquisate  of  Saluces  in  exchange  for  Bresse,  1601- 
Bugey,  and  De  Gex,  which  were  ceded  to  France.  Henry  IV.  had 
received  intelligence  of  the  trafficking  of  Biron  with  his  enemies. 
In  a  conversation  he  had  with  him  at  Lyons  he  revealed  his  sus- 
picions :  the  Marshal  did  not  deny  his  crime,  and  was  generously 
pardoned.  The  King,  however,  had  been  but  imperfectly  informed, 
and  Biron  made  only  an  incomplete  avowal :  this  was  one  of  the 
causes  of  his  downfall.  He  renewed  his  guilty  correspondence  with 
the  Duke  of  Savoy,  Count  Fuentes,  and  drew  into  his  conspiracy 
the  Duke  de  Bouillon,  and  the  Count  d'Auvergne,  natural  son  of 
Charles  IX.  They  fomented  disturbances  throughout  the  western 
drovinces,  whilst  Limoges  and  many  towns  of  Guienne  rose  against 


442  NEW  PLOT  OF  BIRON.  [Book  II.  Chap.  IV- 

a  recently  imposed  tax  of  a  son  per  livre,  and  known  nnder  the  name 
of  the  "  Pancarte  Tax."  They  at  the  same  time  spread  the  rumour 
that  the  odious  tax  of  "  the  Gabelle  "  was  to  be  re-established  in 
Guienne,  and  in  the  other  districts  which  had  been  freed  from  it.  At 
last,  Biron  and  the  Duke  of  Savoy  flattered  themselves  with  the 
belief  that  an  approaching  insurrection  was  about  to  aid  their 
projects. 

Meanwhile,  the  King  had  become  acquainted  with  the  intrigues  of 

the  Marshal,  whilst  the  latter  believed  himself  in  profound  security. 

Lafin,  made  acquainted  with  the  suspicions  of  the  King, 

New  plot  of  the 

Marshal  <ie  fearful  for  himself,  and  wounded  by  the  coldness  of  his 

Biron,  1601.  . 

master,  resolved  to  betray  him.  He  had  preserved  the 
written  proofs  and  details  of  the  crime,  and  these  he  gave  up  to  the 
King.  Biron  was  immediately  summoned  to  Fontainebleau,  where  the 
court  was  held ;  he  repaired  there.  Lafin  was  there  before  him,  and 
on  his  arrival  said  to  him  : — "  Take  courage  ;  they  know  nothing !  " 
These  perfidious  words  emboldened  Biron.  Henry  received  him 
graciously :  during  a  long  walk  which  they  took  together  he  strove 
in  vain '  to  touch  his  heart,  and  induce  him  to  confess ;  he  offered 
him,  if  he  would  confess,  an  unconditional  pardon  and  his  favour ; 
but  Biron  remained  inflexible.  He  tried  the  influence  of  friends 
upon  him,  he  was  still  unsuccessful.  Taking  Sully  on  one  side, 
"My  friend,"  said  the  King  to  him,  "what  an  unfortunate  man  is 
the  Marshal ;  I  am  anxious  to  pardon  him,  and  to  forget  all  that 
is  past,  and  to  do  all  in  my  power  for  him,  I  pity  him."  He  made 
a  final  effort,  and,  towards  nightfall,  sent  for  him  to  his  chamber. 
There  he  entreated  him  to  speak  out  plainly.  "Confess  everything 
freely! "  said  lie  to  him,  "  and  I  will  cover  you  with  my  protection, 
and  I  will  forget  everything  for  ever."  The  Marshal  became  in- 
dignant at  these  entreaties,  as  though  they  were  insults.  "  Farewell, 
Baron  de  Biron,"  replied  the  King,  "you  know  what  I  have  said  to 
you."  He  then  left  him  alone  in  the  apartment,  where  immediately 
entered  Vitry,  Captain  of  the  Guard,  who  took  from  him  his  sword, 
and  made  him  prisoner.  .  "My  sword!"  cried  Biron,  "my  sword, 
which  has  done  such  good  service  !  "  He  desired  to  speak  to  the 
King,  but  the  time  was  past.  The  Count  d'Auvergne  was  arrested 
the   same  day :    both  were  conveyed  to  the  Bastille,  and  the  par- 


1598-1610]  EXECUTION   OF   BIRON.  443 

liament  received  orders  to  proceed  to  their  trial.  Biron  pro- 
tested Ms  innocence  up  to  the  moment  that  he  was  confronted 
with  Latin ;  then,  seeing  that  all  was  lost,  he  invoked  the  pardon 
which  he  had  obtained  from  the  King  at  Lyons,  declaring  that,  since 
that  time  he  had  never  conspired.  Every  presumption  was  contrary 
to  this   declaration  of  the  Marshal ;     but  there  existed  m  .  n     , 

'  Trial  and  con- 

no  proof   of   his   last   intrigues.       The   King  retracted   d,?rai1,atf °? of 

•-  o  o  Marshal  de 

the  pardon  he  had  granted  without  knowing  the  extent  Biron- 
of  his  crimes,  and  Biron  was  condemned  to  death.  On  hearing 
this,  he  became  furious,  then  implored  the  clemency  of  the  King ; 
all  in  vain  ;  his  head  was  cut  off  on  the  2nd  December,  in  the  Court 
of  the  Bastille.  Henry  pardoned  the  Count  d'Auvergne,  the  others 
escaped  justice. 

The  sentence  of  the  parliament,  and  the  merited  death  of  the 
Marshal  dealt  a  fatal  blow  to  the  hopes  which  the  old  feudal  spirit 
had  cherished  in  the  kingdom.  Elizabeth  sent  to  felicitate  Henry 
upon  this  subject.  Philip  III.  disavowed  all  participation  in  the 
intrigues  of  the  Count  de  Fuentes,  and  complimented  the  King 
upon  the  issue  of  the  conspiracy.  The  two  sovereigns  remained 
not  the  less  enemies.  Henry  constantly  afforded  succours  to  the 
Dutch  against  Spain,  and  Philip,  according  to  the  words  of  a  con- 
temporary, continued  to  irrigate  in  France  "  the  bad  roots  which 
were  not  yet  dead." 

Henry  was  then  at  the  height  of  his  fortune.  After  his  divorce  he 
had  espoused  Marie  de  Medici,  niece  of  Francis  II. ,  reigning  Henry  iv., 
Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany.  The  new  Queen  had  arrived  at  de  MedicCi600. 
Marseilles,  accompanied  by  a  magnificent  fleet,  and  escorted  by  a  bril- 
liant suite.  The  year  following  she  gave  to  her  husband  a  son,  who 
became  Louis  XIII.  *  The  kingdom  prospered  by  the  vigilant  atten- 
tions of  the  monarch,  by  his  economy,  and  above  all,  in  consequence  of 
the  cares  of   Sully.     It  is   an  immortal  honour  to  the   Administration 

n   tt  n         -i         t        t  -i  i  •  •  °f  Henry  IV.  and 

memory  of  Henry  that  he  should  have  given  all  his  con-    of  Sully. 
fidence  to  this  austere  minister,  who  had  so  little  indulgence  for  the 
frailties  of  his  master.     After  the  signature  of  the  treaty  of  Vervins, 

*  The  other  children  by  this  union  were  Gaston,  Duke  of  Orleans  ;  Elizabeth,  wife  of 
Philip  IV.,  King  of  Spain  ;  Christine,  married  to  Victor  Amadeus,  Duke  of  Savoy,  and 
Henrietta,  wife  of  Charles  I.,  King  of  England. 


444  BTATE    OF   PEANCJJ.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  IV. 

lie  found  in  his  kingdom  neither  an  organized  army,  nor  commerce 
nor  industry ;  forests  and  marshes  still  covered  immense  portions  of 
the  soil,  through  which  ran  neither  roads  nor  canals.  An  enormous 
debt  weighed  upon  the  treasury,  large  pensions  had,  besides,  been 
granted  to  the  leaders  of  the  League,  and  the  credit  of  France  was 
annihilated.  Sully,  grand-master  of  artillery,  and  superintendent  of 
the  finances,  created  in  a  few  years  an  imposing  war  materiel,  and 
placed  the  army  upon  a  formidable  footing  ;  he  exposed  the  frauds  of 
the  farmers  of  the  revenue,  who  scarcely  allowed  one-tenth  of  the 
public  revenue  to  find  its  way  into,  the  treasury ;  suppressed  the  system 
of  underletting,  together  with  a  multitude  of  offices  of  finance  ;  broke 
all  the  old  leases  and  drew  up  others  more  advantageous  for  the  Crown. 
Lastly,  he  established  order  and  the  strictest  economy  in  all  branches 
of  the  administration ;  revised  the  funds  of  the  state,  and  quickly 
abolished  many  vexatious  imposts.  Agriculture  became  the  object  of 
his  particular  care:  he  permitted  the  exportation  of  corn,  and,  inspired 
by  the  security  of  his  administration,  he  almost  doubled  the  price  of 
land  by  causing  the  fall  of  the  interest  of  money. 

"  Tillage  and  Pasturage,"  said  Sully — "  these  are  the  breasts  from 
which  France  is  nourished,  the  true  mines  and  treasures  of  Peru ! " 
Manufactures  not  the  less  attracted  Sully's  attention,  he  gave  them  a 
powerful  impulse  by  suppressing  the  tax  of  a  percentage  upon  all  mer- 
chandize sold ;  but  it  was  against  his  advice  that  the  King  encouraged 
the  fabrication  of  stuffs  made  for  the  luxurious.  Henry  established 
manufactories  for  high-piled  wool  and  for  silk  enriched  with  gold  ; 
he  introduced  into  France  a  great  number  of  mulberry  trees,  and  very 
soon  the  silks  of  Lyons  acquired  great  celebrity.  About  the  same 
time,  small  mirrors,  after  the  fashion  of  those  of  Venice,  began  to  be 
manufactured  in  France.  The  King  loved  the  luxury  of  palaces  and 
gardens,  without  neglecting  any  of  the  useful  labours  of  the  state.  By 
his  cares  and  those  of  Sully,  numerous  communications  were  estab- 
lished throughout  the  kingdom,  bridges  were  constructed,  the  roads 
were  repaired ;  Paris  was  enlarged  and  embellished ;  Henry  IV. 
joined  the  faubourg  Saint  Germain  to  the  city,  and  caused  it  to  be 
paved  ;  he  commenced  the  Place  Royale,  and  finished  the  Pont  Neuf, 
and  the  beautiful  facade  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  as  well  as  the  gallery 
which  unites  the  Louvre  to  the  Tuileries ;  he  excavated  the  canal  of 


1598-1610]  THE   KING  AND   SULLY.  445 

Briare,  which,  unites  the  Loire  to  the  Seine,  and  conceived  the  project 
of  uniting  the  two  seas.  The  people  were  not  long  in  tasting  the 
fruits  of  such  wise  administration ;  their  burthens  were  lightened  to 
the  extent  of  four  millions,  and  we  cannot  recall  without  emotion  the 
well-known  saying  of  the  good  King,  "  If  I  live,  there  shall  not  be  a 
peasant  who  cannot  put  a  fowl  into  his  pot  every  Sunday." 

So  many  useful  works  and  such  sage  reforms  were  not  carried  out 
without  a  violent  opposition  on  the  part  of  those  who  were  interested 
in  the  waste  of  the  public  money.  Numerous  combinations  were 
formed  at  court  against  Sully.  One  day,  at  Fontainebleau,  the  King's 
confidence  appeared  shaken  ;  before  setting  out  for  the  chase  he  took 
his  minister  aside  and  demanded  an  explanation  of  his  conduct.  In  a 
very  short  time  his  friendship  triumphed  over  his  suspicions  :  he  told 
Sully  who  his  enemies  were,  showed  him  their  written  denunciations, 
and  talked  with  him  with  all  the  effusion  of  his  heart.  Sully,  pro- 
foundly moved,  threw  himself  at  his  knees  to  embrace  them.  "  What 
are  you  doing,  my  friend  ?"  said  the  King,  pointing  to  the  courtiers  a 
little  distance  away — "  they  will  believe  I  am  pardoning  you."  Then, 
advancing  towards  them,  "Gentlemen,"  said  he  to  them,  "know  that  I 
love  Rosny*  more  than  ever,  and  that  between  him  and  me  it  is  for 
life  and  until  death ! " 

Sully  retained  to  the  end  the  confidence  and  friendship  of  Henry  IV., 
who  unfolded  to  him  his  grand  projects  for  the  establishment  of  a 
balance  of  political  power,  and  the  religious  pacification  of  Europe. 
The  King  was  desirous  of  allying  himself  with  Elizabeth,  Queen  of 
England,  who,  under  divers  circumstances,  had  afforded  him,  somewhat 
parsimoniously,  useful  succour.  Like  himself,  she  designed  to  strike  a 
blow  at  the  House  of  Austria,  her  irreconcilable  enemy,  and  her  projects 
for  assuring  the  peace  of  the  world  by  abasing  that  power  were  iden- 
tical with  those  of  Henry  IV.  This  prince  made  a  journey  to  Calais 
at  the  commencement  of  the  year  1601 ;  the  Queen  of  England  des- 
patched some  of  her  highest  ministers  to  invite  him  across  the  channel, 
and  in  order  to  facilitate  their  interview  she  herself  went  to  Dover ; 
but  the  King,  nevertheless,  was  unable  to  pay  her  the  expected  visit. 

*  Sully  bore  at  first  the  name  of  his  family  seat,  the  burgh  of  Rosny,  where  he  himself 
was  born,  and  was  long  known  in  history  as  Baron  de  Rosny, 


446  CONSPIRACY  OF  D'ENTRAGUES.  [Book.  II.  Chap.  IV. 

Mission  of  Sully  ^  ^s  P^ace?  ne.  seirt  ^is  minister  Sully,  who  received 
Convention  •  from  Elizabeth  the  warmest  reception.  It  was  arranged 
iv^and  Eifza^  between  them  that  the  two  sovereigns  should  use  all 
ing  th^poiitlcai  their  efforts  to  decide  the  protestant  succession  of  Kings 
power  in  Europe,  hi  Scotland,  Denmark,  and  Sweden,  and  to  join  them  in  a 
league  with  France,  England,  and  Holland ;  that  these 
six  states,  in  close  alliance,  should  work  in  common  to  complete  the 
independence  of  Holland  and  of  Switzerland  ;  that  they  should  enlarge 
these  two  republics  by  provinces  snatched  from  the  House  of  Austria, 
giving  to  Holland  the  ten  Belgian  provinces,  to  Switzerland,  Eranche- 
Comte,  Alsace,  and  the  Tyrol ;  that  the  confederation,  strengthened  by 
this  accession  of  territory,  should  cut  off  the  Empire  from  the  German 
branch  and  restore  the  elective  monarchies  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary. 
It  was  arranged,  moreover,  that  the  confederation  should  support  with 
all  its  power  the  progress  of  the  three  religions,  Catholicism,  Protes- 
tantism.;, and  Lutheranism,  subsisting  simultaneously  without  being 
antagonistic  to  each  other;  that  finally,  the  allies  should  labour  to 
form  among  the  principal  states  of  Europe  an  equality  of  power  which 
should  guarantee  the  independence  of  the  whole.  Such  was  the  cele- 
brated convention  which,  although  never  settled  by  regular  treaty,  was 
formally  agreed  upon  between  Henry  and  Elizabeth,  and  which  had 
spared  Europe  a  half-century  of  war  if  the  execution  of  it  had  not 
been  stayed  and  rendered  impossible  by  the  death  of  its  authors. 

Henry  IV.,  notwithstanding  his  advancing  years,  still  listened  to  his 
passions,  and  fresh  frailties  were  nearly  proving  fatal  to  him.  He 
became  smitten  with  the  youngest  daughter  of  the  Count  d'Entragues, 
sister  of  the  Marquise  de  Verneuil.  He  put  on  a  disguise  to  meet  her, 
and  went  by  night,  and  almost  alone,  through  woods  to  the  meetings 
she  appointed.  The  Count  d'Entragues  saw  in  this  new  passion  of 
the  King  a  means  of  rendering  valid  the  promise  which  the  Marquise 
de  Verneuil  had  formerly  obtained  from  Henry  IV.,  of  nullifying  his 
marriage  with  Marie  de  Medici,  and  thus  declaring  the  Dauphin  illegiti- 
mate. His  principal  accomplices  were  the  Count  d'Auvergne,  and  the 
Conspiracy  of  the  Duke  de  Bouillon ;  the  former  put  himself  in  communi- 
gucs  and  of  s'ove-   cation  with  the  court  of  Madrid,  and  they  all  counted 

ral  other  nobles,  .  _        _  .   ,  u-n    j 

1601.  upon  the  intervention  oi  a  bpanisn  army  ;  cl  Jcmtragues 


1598-1610]  RECALL   OF   THE    JESUITS.  447 

was  to  carry  off  the  King  during  one  of  his  love  adventures ;  the 
throne  was  promised  to  the  eldest  son  of  his  daughter  Henrietta.  The 
King  was,  in  fact,  attacked  in  the  heart  of  a  wood  by  a  number  of 
masked  men,  and  only  owed  his  safety  to  his  presence  of  mind  and  to 
his  courage.  The  conspirators  were  discovered  :  the  Counts  of  Entra- 
gues  and  Auvergne  were  arrested,  with  the  Marquise  de  Verneuil  and 
a  vast  number  of  subordinate  conspirators.  The  King  extended  his 
grace  to  the  two  counts,  who  had  been  condemned  to  death,  and 
granted  a  pardon  to  Henrietta.  The  penalties  of  the  law  fell  upon 
their  accomplices,  and  the  heads  of  the  minor  conspirators  paid  forfeit 
upon  this,  as  upon  so  many  other  occasions  for  the  crime  of  their 
chiefs.  The  Duke  de  Bouillon  soon  afterwards  made  his  submission ; 
and  Henry  had  now  reached  the  zenith  of  his  glory  and  of  his 
strength.  Master  of  a  flourishing  kingdom,  of  a  treasury  of  forty 
millions,  of  a  numerous  army  containing  the  finest  artillery  in  Europe, 
he  found  himself  possessed  of  the  respect  of  all  his  contemporary  sove- 
reigns. Henry  decided  between  them  as  an  arbitrator,  and  reconciled 
their  disputes.  During  the  five  previous  years,  he  had  enjoyed  the 
favour  of  the  Papal  court,  having  regained  it  by  the  Recall 
recall  of  the  Jesuits  at  the  pressing  solicitations  of  his  ^ance  i603 
confessor,  Father  Cotton. 

The  last  days  of  his  reign  were  less  happy.  Marie  de  Medici,  of  a 
haughty  and  jealous  temper,  incensed  at  her  husband's  infidelities, 
maintained  with  him  relations  which  were  ever  embittered  by  the 
remembrance  of  her  wrongs.  The  Italians  of  her  suite  possessed  her 
entire  confidence,  and  formed  a  powerful  faction  at  court ;  this  party 
was  headed  and  directed  by  the  celebrated  Galagai  and  Concini  her 
husband,  both  of  obscure  birth  and  owing  their  rise  to  their  intrigues 
and  the  favour  of  the  Queen,  whose  pride  they  flattered,  and  whose 
resentments  they  fostered  with  a  subtle  art.  Most  of  the  old  compan- 
ions of  Henry  IV.  had  disappeared  ;  some  were  dead,  others  had 
turned  rebels  ;  many  others,  again,  discontented  with  him,  kept  them- 
selves at  a  distance  from  the  court,  and  among  these  last,  the  King 
saw  with  regret  the  brave  Duplessis-Mornay,  who  had  just  compro- 
mised his  dignity  in  a  theological  dispute  with  the  Abbe  Duperron. 
The  King  had  also  lost  his  faithful  ally,  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  died  in 


448  THE   EVANGELICAL  UNION.  [Book  II.  Chap.  VI. 

1603,  and  the  feeble  James  I.,  her  successor,  did  not  replace  her  in  the 
esteem  of  either  his  own  subjects  or  of  those  of  Henry  IV.  But  he 
had  still  Sully,  who  daily  added  greater  lustre  to  his  reign.  The  King 
had,  moreover,  the  glory  of  acting,  in  1609,  as  mediator 
as  mediator  between  Spain  and  Holland.     The  new-born,  but  already 

between  Spain 

and  the  United      formidable  navy  of  that  republic,  attacked  the  Spanish 

Provinces. 

Twelve  years'       and  Portuguese  establishments  in  the  Indies,  whilst  her 

truce,  1609.  °  _     ' 

armies  triumphed  under  the  famous  Maurice  of  Nassau, 
son  of  William  of  Orange.  Henry  IV.  brought  about  a  truce  of  twelve 
years,  signed  in  1609,  between  the  two  nations. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  he  committed  the  greatest  fault  of  his 
reign,  that  which  most  troubled  his  peace  of  mind  and  stained  his 
glory.  Loving  to  infatuation  Charlotte  de  Montmorency,  whom  he 
himself  had  caused  to  be  married  to  the  young  Prince  de  Conde,  he 
could  not  master  his  fatal  passion.  Conde,  alarmed,  took  flight,  aban- 
doned the  kingdom  with  his  wife,  and  requested  the  protection  of  the 
Archduke  Albert,  governor  of  the  Low  Countries.  Upon  receiving  this 
unexpected  news,  Henry  burst  forth  into  menaces,  and  summoned  the 
Archduke  to  send  back  to  him  the  fugitives.  Conde  left  Flanders  and 
repaired  to  Germany,  whilst  the  Archduchess  Clairer  Eugenie,  took 
the  young  princess  under  her  safeguard  to  Brussels,  keeping  her  out 
of  the  reach  of  the  emissaries  of  the  King,  who  suddenly  declared  war 
against  Spain  and  Austria. 
Declaration  of  For  long  past,  he  had  been  desirous  of  lowering  the  power 


year  against 


Spain  and  of  the  two  kingdoms,  and  he  now  prepared  to  deal  against 

them  a  terrible  blow  ;  but  this  sudden  declaration  of  war, 
the  apparent  motive  of  which  was  personal  vengeance  and  the  desire 
to  gratify  a  guilty  passion,  evoked  a  general  outcry  against  him.  Henry, 
notwithstanding,  formed  some  useful  alliances.  John  William,  last 
Duke  of  Cleves,  was  just  dead,  without  children ;  several  pretenders 
disputed  his  heritage,  and  the  Emperor  Rudolph  II.  had  summoned  the 
decision  of  the  cause  to  his  tribunal.  The  Protestant  prince  would  not 
accept  of  him  as  judge,  and  formed  against  him,  at  Halle,  a  celebrated 
league,  known  under  the  name  of  the  "  Evangelical  Union."  They 
Evangelical  asked  for  the  support  of  France,  and  obtained  it.     Henry 

also   allied  himself  with  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  with  the 


1598-1610]  DEATH   OF   HENRY  IT.  449 

petty  sovereigns  of  Italy  and  with  the  Grisons.  Philip  III.,  justly 
alarmed,  talked  of  peace,  and  offered  his  daughter,  the  Infanta,  to  the 
Dauphin.  Henry  rejected  this  pacific  proposal ;  he  was  alive  to  his 
own  wrong- doings ;  but  though  he  suffered  he  could  neither  justify 
himself  nor  change  his  conduct.  Disquieted,  irritated,  his  sole 
thought  was  of  the  young  princess  whom  he  pursued,  and  he  hastened 
the  warlike  preparations,  impatient  to  command  his  army  and  to 
march  upon  the  frontier  of  Flanders. 

He  designed  that  the  Queen  should  assume  the  regency  during  this 
campaign,  and,  either  in  accordance  with  her  wishes,  or  because  he 
desired  to  render  her  authority  more  imposing,  he  ordered  that  she 
should  be  crowned.  This  ceremonial  took  place  on  the  13th  of  May. 
Throughout  the  whole  day  the  King  was  restless  and  melancholy. 
For  a  long  time  past,  the  estrangement  of  his  old  companions,  the 
plots  incessantly  springing  up  about  him,  and  the  wickedness  and 
ingratitude  of  those  whom  he  had  loaded  with  kindness,  crushed  his 
heart  with  sorrow.  Sometimes  he  thought  of  punishing  his  enemies  ; 
but  his  goodness  soon  inspired  other  ideas,  and  he  contented  himself 
with  saying : — "When  I  am  no  more,  they  will  see  what  I  am  worth." 
Upon  the  14th  of  May  his  melancholy  increased ;  he  was  agitated  with 
painful  presentiments,  which  his  friends  could  not  remove.  After 
dinner,  about  four  o'clock,  the  officer  of  his  guard,  whom  he  had 
summoned,  said  to  him : — "  Sire,  your  Majesty  is  quite  pensive ;  it 
would  be  better  to  take  a  little  air — it  would  revive  you."  "  That  is 
well  said,"  replied  the  King;  "order  my  carriage,  I  will  go  to  the 
arsenal  to  see  the  Duke  de  Sully,  who  is  unwell."  The  King  left  the 
Louvre,  followed  only  by  a  small  number  of  gentlemen,  and  footmen. 
The  carriage  was  open  on  both  sides,  the  weather  being  fine,  and  the 
King,  wishing  to  see  the  preparations  being  made  in  the  city  for  the 
solemn  entry  of  the  Queen.  On  entering  the  Rue  de  la  Ferronnerie, 
a  confusion,  occasioned  by  two  vehicles,  obliged  the  royal  carriage  to 
stop,  and  dispersed  the  royal  servants.  At  this  moment,  a  man 
named  Francis  Ravaillac  mounted  upon  the  wheel,  and  D  ,  of 
dealt  the  King  a  blow  with  a  knife,  between  the  second  Henry  IV-»  161°- 
and  third  ribs.  Henry  cried  out : — "  I  am  wounded  !  "  but  the  assassin, 
not  disconcerted,  dealt  the  King  a  second  blow  stabbing  him 
through  the  heart,   of  which  the  King,  heaving  a  deep   sigh,   died 

G  G 


450  STATE   OF  LETTERS  AND   OP  AETS.  [Book  II.  Chap.  IV. 

immediately.  The  monster  made  no  effort  to  escape,  but  remained 
immovable,  as  if  tie  desired  to  be  seen  by  every  one,  and  to  take  glory 
from  this,  the  foulest  of  assassinations.  Thus  perished  Henry  IV.,  at 
the  age  of  fifty-seven.  The  Emperor,  the  King  of  Spain,  the  Queen 
of  France,  the  Duke  d'Epernon,  the  Jesuits,  were  all  in  turn  sus- 
pected of  having  instigated  the  crime,  because  they  all  profited  by  it ; 
but  the  assassin  declared  that  he  had  no  accomplices.  The  idea  of 
murder  had  taken  possession  of  his  mind,  in  consequence  of  certain 
sermons  that  he  had  heard.  He  believed  that  the  King  was  at  heart 
a  Huguenot,  and  thought  that  in  ridding  France  of  this  monarch  he 
was  rendering  a  great  service  to  his  country.  Condemned  to  the 
usual  form  of  execution  of  regicides,  his  wonder  was  extreme  when  he 
saw  the  people  ready  to  tear  him  in  pieces  themselves,  and  offering 
their  horses  to  quarter  him.  Never  did  the  death  of  a  King  cause 
such  a  general  stupor,  or  cause  more  tears  to  flow.  France  was 
plunged  into  mourning,  trade  was  suspended  in  Paris,  work  of  all 
kind  ceased,  the  country-folks  everywhere  flocked  to  the  high  roads 
to  inquire  the  news,  and  when  assured  of  their  misfortune,  they  cried 
with  sobs  : — "  We  have  lost  our  father  !  "  Henry  was  worthy  of  the 
grand  and  endearing  title  of  "  father  of  the  people,"  for  the  happiness 
of  his  subjects  was  the  aspiration  of  his  heart,  and  the  end  of  his 
whole  life.  He  ameliorated  their  condition,  created  for  them  new 
sources  of  wealth,  and  rendered  his  kingdom,  whose  limits  he  enlarged, 
as  flourishing  as  it  was  possible  to  make  it  in  twelve  years  after  the 
horrible  calamities  of  the  wars  of  religion.  The  wise  administration 
of  this  good  King,  as  well  as  the  heroic  qualities  which  distinguished 
him,  well  merited  the  surname  of  "  Great,"  which  posterity  has 
bestowed  upon  him. 

Letters  and  the  arts  progressed  in  France  under  his  reign,  and  he 
f  l  tt         was  ^ne^r  Patron.     The  Presidents  De  Thou  and  Jeannin, 
and  of  arts.  fae  Cardinals  d'Ossat  and  Duperron,  were  members  of 

his  Council;  Pierre  Pithou,  one  of  the  authors  of  the  Menippean 
Satire,  wrote  a  treatise  upon  the  liberties  of  the  Grallican  Church; 
Jerome  Bignon  commenced  his  great  works  upon  jurisprudence ; 
Arnaud  and  Etienne  Pasquier  were  the  glory  of  the  bar;  Begnier 
distinguished  himself  by  his  wit  in  satire.  Henry  added  greatly  to 
the  riches  of  the  Royal  Library ;  he  gave  a  powerful  impulse  to  works 


1598-1610]  CHAEACTER  OF  HENRY  IV.  451 

of  architecture ;  lie  enlarged  and  embellished  the  royal  residences  of 
Saint-  Germain,  of  Monceaux,  of  Fontainebleau,  and,  above  all,  the 
Louvre,  in  which  palace  he  gave  apartments  to  artists  of  all  kinds ; 
Paris,  in  a  word,  owes  to  his  fostering  care  much  of  her  beauty. 
When  Don  Pedro  of  Toledo  was  sent  by  Philip  III.  as  ambassador  to 
the  court  of  Henry  IV.,  he  failed  to  recognize  once  more  the  city  he 
had  formerly  known  so  wretched  and  degraded.  "  That  was  because 
the  father  of  the  family  was  not  at  home,"  said  the  King  to  him,  "but 
now  that  he  takes  care  of  his  children,  they  prosper !  "  To  the  end  of 
his  days,  Henry  IV.  might  be  reproached  for  his  guilty  frailties,  for 
which  he  paid  the  bitter  penalty.  History  is  bound  to  record  that  he 
regretted  them,  and  that  sometimes  he  was  able  to  conquer  them. 
His  reproof  of  Gabrielle  d'Estrees  is  well  known: — "I  tell  you, 
madame,"  said  he  to  her,  in  presence  of  Sully,  whom  she  accused,  "  I 
tell  you  that  I  would  far  rather  consent  to  lose  ten  mistresses  like 
you,  than  a  single  servant  like  him !  " 

The  barbarous  practice  of  duelling  was  at  this  period  one  of  the 
pests  of  the  kingdom,  costing.  France,  it  is  said,  the  lives  of  four 
thousand  gentlemen  in  a  single  year.  Henry  IV.  promulgated  some 
severe  edicts  with  regard  to  this  practice ;  he  condemned  duellists  to 
the  penalty  of  death,  and  ordered  that  the  tribunal  of  the  Marshals  of 
France  should  arbitrate  upon  the  differences  between  gentlemen ;  he 
nevertheless,  succeeded  in  only  partially  overcoming  a  ferocious  pre- 
judice too  deeply  rooted  in  the  national  manners.  According  to  the 
evidence  of  his  minister,  he  meditated,  towards  the  end  of  his  reign, 
the  abasement  of  the  House  of  Austria,  and  formed  important  plans  for 
the  political  and  religious  balance  of  power  in  Europe.  "  Henry  IV.," 
says  a  contemporary  historian,  "  believed  himself  endowed  Character  of 
with  the  great  mission  of  the  religious  moderator  of  HenryIV- 
Europe.  The  principal  traits  of  his  character  were  firmness,  courage, 
active  energy,  and  the  dignity  which  springs  from  the  sentiment  of 
duty,  and  of  a  great  mission  to  fulfil."  *  This  prince  has  often  been 
reproached  with  having  made  an  insincere  abjuration  from  motives  of 
ambition  entirely  personal ;  and  it  has  been  averred,  without  a  plausible 
foundation,  that  he  might  have  reigned  without  changing  his  religion. 

*  Leopold  Ranke,  "  History  of  France  during  the  16th  century." 

GG  2 


452  RELIGIOUS   FACTIONS   IN   FRANCE.  [Book  II.  Chap.  IV. 

It  is  probable  that  if  Francis  I.  bad  adopted  tbe  Protestant  religion, 
he  might  have  continned  to  reign  over  France  ;  but  when  the  people 
were  persuaded  that  by  the  sole  fact  of  being  of  different  creeds,  men 
were  the  mortal  enemies  of  each  other — when  Catholics  and  Protes- 
tants threw  themselves  upon  one  another  like  wild  beasts,  tearing 
each  other  to  pieces,  during  nearly  forty  years,  the  fatal  mistrusts  and 
implacable  resentments  thus  given  birth  to,  rendered  all  reconcilia- 
tion for  a  long  time  impossible.     It  was  as  if  they  were  two  nations 
upon  one  soil ;  and  it  is  not  probable  that  the  weaker  would  ever  have 
been  able  to  impose  its  chief  upon  the  stronger ;  it  became  necessary, 
then,  that  after   the  death  of  Henry  III.  Henry  of  Bourbon  should 
pronounce  himself  a  Catholic,  or  that  the  civil  war  should  not  be 
ended.     "We  have  authority  for  our  belief  that  in  openly  embracing 
Catholicism,  he  was  actuated  by  sincere  affection  towards  his  people. 
His  abjuration  was,  doubtless,  regarded  as  a  frightful  act  by  those  who 
did  not  believe  in  its  sincerity,  and  who  saw  in  it  the  sacrifice  of 
convictions  to  interest ;  but  Henry  had  not  inherited  the  deep  piety  of 
his  mother  together  with  her  heroic  qualities.     Men  whose  profound 
convictions ;  like  Coligny,  Duplessis-Mornay,  La  Noue,  whose  faith  in 
Protestantism  was  as  invincible  as  their  courage,  were  not  numerous 
in  the  ranks  of  the  French  nobility.     The  princes  antagonistic  to  the 
Guises,  as  well  as  the  greater  portion  of  the  gentlemen  who  ranged 
themselves  under  their  banners,  from  the  outset  believed  that  Protes- 
tantism was  a  political  party  rather  than  a  creed;  many  adhered  to 
it — and  this  was  a  great  misfortune — from  the  force  of  circumstances, 
from  motives  of  interest,  or  of  ambition,  remaining  for  a  long  time 
faithful  rather  from  loyalty  than  from   religious  conviction.     Every- 
thing tends  to  assure  us  that  Henry  IY.  believed,  as  when  after  the 
death  of  Henry  of  Valois  he  spoke  the  beautiful  phrases  we  have 
already  read,  he  would  have  been  dishonoured  by  an  immediate  abjura- 
tion.    But  when  at  length  he  lost  all  hope  of  establishing  peace  in 
his  kingdom,  otherwise  than  by  a  public  adhesion  to  Catholicism,  after 
having  shared  during  four  years  the  fortunes  of  his  former  compan- 
ions in  arms,  he  doubtless  believed  that  having  satisfied  his  honour, 
he  was  now  enabled  to  listen  to  his  sentiments  of  compassion  for  his 
eople,  and  to  his  ardent  desire  to  assuage  the  troubles  of  France. 
If  there   was   anything  in  his  abjuration — which  we  have  detailed, 


1598-1610]  CHARACTER    OF   HENRY   IV.  453 

-without  pretending  to  have  explained,  if  Henry  did  violence  to  his 
sincere  convictions,  if  an  entirely  vulgar  and  personal  ambition  stifled 
in  his  breast  the  cries  of  conscience,  we  are  not  in  a  position  to  decide, 
and  it  belongs  only  to  God  to  pronounce  a  severe  judgment.  France, 
whom  he  loved,  and  whom  he  saved  from  the  horrors  of  civil  war,  will 
always  honour,  in  Henry  IV.,  one  of  the  best  princes  that  ever  reigned 
over  her,  and  the  greatest  King  of  his  age. 


INDEX. 


ABASSIDES  and  Ommiades,  the,  90 
Abbeville,  treaty  of,  188 
Abd-ul-Malak,  91 
Abeilard  and  St.  Bernard,  204 

„        history  of,  204 

„        Pierre,  203 
Abjuration  of  Henry  IV.,  432 
Absolute  monarchy,  345 
Accession  of  Hugues  Capet,  135 
Achille  de  Harlay,  celebrated  reply  of,  416 
Adalberon,  Archbishop  of  Kheims,  129 
Adalbert,  Count  of  Berigard,  143 
Adelaide,  Princess  of  Southern  Gaul,  127 
Administration,  reforms  in  the,  300 
Adolph  of  Nassau,  213 

„  „  death  of,  213 

Adrian  VI.,  352 

Adventurers,  companies  of,  253 
Agincourt,  battle  of,  280 

„  meeting  of  the  armies  near,  280 

Aguadel,  battle  of,  1509,  337 
Agnes  Sorel,  296 
Aides,  the  court  of,  300 
Aix,  founded  by  Romans,  6 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  92 
Aix,  sacking  of,  363 
Alain  Blaachard,  282 
Alaric  II.,  death  of,  40 
Alba,  Duke  of,  395 
Albigenses,  crusade  against  the,  173 
„  defeat  of  the,  176 

„  second  crusade  against  the,  179 

„  religious  doctrines  of  the,  174 

Alcuin,  97 

Alencon,  Duke  of,  302 
Alesia,  15 

„      siege  of,  15 
Allemania,  25 
Allodia  and  benefices,  51 
Alphonso  II.,  abdication  and  flight  of,  328 
Alp3  crossed  by  Franks,  53 
Amboise,  convention  of,  394 

,,        the  conspiracy  of,  385 

„        defeat  of  the  conspirators,  386 
Amiens  retaken,  1599,  435 
Anabaptists,  360 
Anarchy,  273 

Aneenis,  treaty  of,  1468,  310 
Andelot,  assembly  of,  62 
Andrea  Doria,  353 
Angelus,  invention  of  the,  315 
Angevin  party,  the,  326 
Anglo-Saxons,  origin  of  the,  25 
AnjoUj  house  of,  founded,  189 

„     states  of,  reunited  with  the  Crown,  315 
Annales  du  Metz,  79 
Annates,  revenue  of  the,  347 
Anne  de  Pisselen,  360 
Anne  of  Beaujeu,  319 

,,  France  governed  by,  321 

Anne  of  Bourg,  arrest  of,  379 


Anne  of  Bourg,  execution  of,  384 

„  trial  of,  384 

Anne  of  Brittany,  324 

,,  marriage  of,  324 

Antoine  du  Bourg,  362 
Antoine  Duprat,  chancellor,  346 
Antonines,  200 
Antrustions,  or  leudes,  46 
Apanages,  224 
Appanages,  date  of,  144 
Appeals  from  abuse  instituted,  232 
Aquitanians,  1 

„  and  Franks,  hatred  between,  86 

Aquitaine  and  Gaseony,  40 

„         annexed  to  the  Frank  monarchy,  87 
„         campaign  in,  40 
„         evacuated  by  Arabs,  79 
„         pestilence  in,  144 
„         restored  to  the  Frank  monarchy,  79 
Aragon,  war  with,  21 1 
„      treaty  of,  211 
Architecture,  199 

Archbishop  Hincmar  on   the   National  Assem- 
blies, 95 
Archbishops,  persecutions  of,  128 
Aristocracy,  power  of  the,  60 

,,  supremacy  and  weakening  of  the,  135 

Armagnac,  Count  of,  1418,  281 
Armagnac,  Count  of,  312 
Armagnacs  and  Burgundians,  277 
Armagnacs,  massacre  of  the,  281 
Armans,  or  rachimbourgs,  49 
Armoricans,  conquered  by  Clovis,  40 
Armorial  bearings,  198 
Arnauld,  Daniel,  199 
Arnold  of  Brescia,  203 
Arnolph,  Bishop  of  Metz,  66 
Arnoul  of  Kheims,  treason  of,  143 
Arques,  battle  of,  425 
Arras,  treaty  of,  279 
„      treaty  of,  296 
„      treaty  of,  314 
Arriere  fiefs,  169 
Arthur  of  Brittany,  170 

,,  ,,        murder  of,  170 

Artillery,  first  employed  in  warfare,  230 
Artois  and  Burgundy  reunited  with  the  Crown,  314 
Arts  and  sciences,  general  observations  on  the,  263 
Assembly  of  the  Druids,  4 

,,         of  the  States  at  Nimeguen,  106 
Astolph  conquered  by  Pepin,  86 
Attiguy,  battle  of,  118 
Attila,  29 

Augsburg,  diet  of,  375 
Aumale,  battle  of,  1592,  429 
Auray,  battle  of,  1365,  253 
Austrasia,  55 

Austrasia  and  Neustria,  struggle  between,  74 
Austrasians,  defeat  of  the,  63 
Austrasian  nobles,  59 
Austrasian3,  revolt  of,  69 


456 


INDEX. 


Austrasians,  triumph  of,  77 
Auvergne,  Limousin,  and  Berry  ravaged,  240 
Avarians,  the,  92 

Awful  carnage  at  Chalon-sur-Marne,  30 
„        „        at  Dormeille,  64 

BALE,  battle  of,  1444,  299 
Baldwin  V.,  Count  of  Flanders,  149 
Barbarians  impressed  by  Catholicism,  48 
Barbarity  of  royal  decrees,  62 
Barbarossa,  362 
Barbary,  the  corsairs  of,  362 
Barcelona,  treaty  of,  325 
Bards,  2 

Baron  of  Adrets,  barbarity  of,  394 
Baron  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  156 
Barony  of  Champagne,  fiefs  of,  158 

,,        of  Flanders,  fiefs  of,  158 
Barony  of  Toulouse,  fiefs  of,  158 
Barricades,  battle  of  the,  1588,  415 
Basilica  of  St.  Martin,  57 

,,      of  St.  Martin  of  Tours,  57 
Battle  of  Cocherel,  detail  of  the,  252 
„     of  Fontenoy,  109 
„     of  Tolbiac,  65 
Battus,  procession  of  the,  405 
Bauge,  victory  of  the  French  at,  283 
Bavarians,  nationality  of,  destroyed,  91       » 

,,  revolt  of  the,  91 

Bayard,  death  of,  1528,  353 
Beaten,  procession  of  the,  418 
Beauvais,  defence  of,  311 
Begums  or  Turlupins,  259 
Beigse,  mentioned  by  Csesar,  1 
Belgians,  10 

Bellovisus  and  Sigovisus,  5 
Benedict,  St.,  order  of,  48 
Benefices,  restitution  of,  67 
Benevent,  duchy  of,  91 
Beranger,  Kaimond,  199 
Bernard,  King  of  Italy,  104 

,,        second  crusade  preached  by,  164 
Berri  and  Auvergne  ravaged,  87 

„    Chartrain,  and  Belgium  conquered,  16 
Bertha  of  Blois,  145 
Berthair,  74 
Bertrand  de  Born,  199 
Beziers,  massacre  of,  175 
Bicoque,  battle  of,  352 
Biron  and  Bosny,  412 
Biron,  first  conspiracy  of,  440 

,,     new  plot  of  the  Marshal  de,  442 
„     trial  and  condemnation  of  the  Marshal  de, 
443 
Bishop  Artaud,  121 
„      Gregory,  57 

,,  „         defends  Merovic,  57 

,,      Pothinus,  19 
„      Pretextatus,  57 
Bishoprics,  seized  by  Henry  II,,  373 
Bishops,  council  of,  44 
Black  Prince,  the,  231 

„  chivalrous  conduct  of,  242 

,,  illness  of  the,  255 

Blaudina,  20 
Blois,  ordinance  of,  409 

„      second  state  at,  1588,  417 
,,      treaty  of,  1505,  335 
Boniface  VIII.,  arbiter  between  Edward  I.  and 
Philip  IV.,  213 
„  conduct  of,  215 

„  death  of,  217 

,,  outraged  by  Nogaret,  217 

,,  and  Philip  the  Fair,  struggle  be- 

tween, 215 
Bonnivet,  Admiral,  353 
Bordeaux,  burning  of,  78 
Bourbon,  the  Cardinal,  425 


Bourbon,  death  of  the  Cardinal,  427 

„         Henry  of,  411 

„         Houses  of,  accession  of  the,  423 

,,         origin  of  the  House  of,  383 
Bourbons  and  the  Guises,  the,  368 
Bourges,  14 

„         King  of,  288 
Bourgeoisie,  progress  of  the,  234 
Bouvines,  battle  of,  171 
Bretigny,  treaty  of,  249 
Bretons,  revolt  of  the,  260 
Briconnet,  the  Cardinal,  327 
Briquemont,  398 
Britain  conquered  by  Csesar,  12 

,,       invaded  by  Caesar,  11 
Brittany,  a  prey  to  anarchy,  321 

,,         and  France,  definite  union  of,  336 

„         and  France  united,  324 

„         civil  war  in,  229 

,,         confiscation  of  duchy  of,  260 

,,         different  parties  in,  323 

„         new  duchy  of,  177 

„         united  indissolubly  with  France,  359 

,,         war  in,  253 
Bructeri  and  Chamavi,  27 
Bruges,  truce  of,  257 
Brunhiida,  ambition  of,  59 

„  conduct  of,  65 

„  conquered,  66 

,,  conspiracy  against,  64 

„  exile  of,  57 

„  death  of,  66 

,,  imprisonment  of,  57 

,,  marriage  of,  56 

,,  plot  against,  66 

„  second  marriage  of,  57 

„  summary  of  life  of,  66 

,,  vengeance  of,  65 

Buch,  Captal  de,  252 
Bull,  Ausculta,  &c,  burned  by  Philip,  216 

„     Ausculta,  fili,  216 
Burgundy,  duchy  of,  147 

„  duchy  of,  seized  by  Louis,  314 

„  second  House  of,  founded,  250 

,,  Lorraine  and  Aquitaine,  limits  of,  115 

Bussey  d'Amboise,  338 

„     le  Clerc,  414 

pABOCHIENS,  278 

\J  Caesar's  account  of  Gaul,  8 

„  cruelty,  16 

,,  first  campaign  in  Gaul,  9 

Csesar  Borgia,  illness  of,  334 
Caetan,  426 

Cahors,  the  taking  of,  410 
Calais,  retaken  by  the  Duke  of  Guise,  377 

,,      siege  and  capture  of,  231 
Calendar,  reform  of  the,  1563,  397 
Calvin,  361 

Cambray,  league  of,  1509,  336 
Canonical  elections  established,  67 
Canon  Leroi  and  Pitnon,  438 
Capetian  race,  great  houses  of  the,  224 
Capitulars,  96 
Caponi,  Peter,  328 
Cardinal  de  Laon,  death  of,  271 
Caribert,  death  of,  56 
Carloman,  death  of,  88 

,,         king  of  the  east,  88 
„         at  Mont  Cassin,  80 
Carlovingian  dynasty,  Gaul  under  the,  85 

„  ,,        founded.  81 

Carlovingian s,  fall  of  the,  130 
Caroline  Books,  92 
Cassel,  battle  of,  1328,  227 
Castelneau,  the  Lord  of,  386 
Castile,  war  against  the  king  of,  254 
Castillon,  battle  of,  1553,  299 


INDEX. 


457 


Catherine  de  Medici,  360,  383 

,  ,  conduct    to     Guise     and 

Conde,  of,  391 
„  „  death  of,  419, 

„  „  flying  squadron  of,  407 

„  „  policy  of,  388 

Celebrated  decree  of  1372,  259 

„        royal  ordinance,  278 
Centenary  jubilee,  215 
Central  Germans,  25 
Cerda,  Charles  de  la,  appointed  constable,  236 

„  „         assassinated,  236 

Cerignoles,  battle  of,  334 
Cerisoles,  battle  of,  1544,  365 
Cession  of  Normandy,  116 
Chamber,  the  burning,  384 
Chalot  de  Brion,  362 
Champagne    and    .Normandy,    murder  of   the 

marshals  of,  247 
Chancellor  1' Hospital,  efforts  to  preserve  peace, 
of,  390 
„  Olivier,  the,  386 

Chandos,  242 
Charolais,  Count  of,  308 
Charlemagne,  89 

,,  buried  at  Aix,  94 

„  cities  founded  by,  99 

„  conquests  of,  89 

„  countries  subject  to,  98 

„  „        tributary  to,  98 

„  cruelty  of,  90 

„  crowned  emperor,  92 

„  empire  divided,  110 

„  domestic  sorrows  of,  93 

„  dream  of  unity,  130 

„  employment  of  leisure,  97 

„  government  of,  96 

,,  greatness  of  his  efforts,  101 

„  in  Spain,  90 

„  last  eight  years  of,  93 

,,  last  words  of,  94 

„  legislative  spirit  of,  94 

„  objects  and  wishes  of,  102 

,,  position  of  his  states,  93 

„  previsions  of,  103 

„  '  schools  established  by,  96 

,,  the  eagle  of,  126 

,,  and  Carloman,  quarrel  of,  88 

Charles  and  Pepin,  Charlemagne's  sons,  death 
of,  93 
„       of  Austria,  inheritance  of,  348 
(Quint),  335 
I.  the  Bald,  death  of,  113 
,,  „        celebrated  decree  of,  112 

,,       d'Anjou,  209 
„       II.  the  Fat,  114 
,,  „        cowardice  of,  114 

„  „       death  of,  114 

„  „        deposition  of,  114 

„        King  of  the  West,  88 
,,        of  Lorraine,  143 
,,        Martel,  church  estates  seized  by,  80 
,,  „        conquests  of,  79 

„  „        death  of,  80 

„  „        enemies  of,  80 

,,  „        government  of,  79 

,,  „        sons  of,  80 

„        of  if  avarre  arrested,  239 
„       the  Rash,  death  of,  313 
,,        son  of  Pepin,  76 

III.  the  Simple,  death  of,  118 
„  „         deposed,  118 

„  „         deposition  of,  confirmed, 118 

,,  „         most  celebrated  act  of,  116 

„  „         prisoner  at  Peronne,  118 

„  ,,         revolt  against,  117 

Charles  III.,  Duke  of  Savoy,  362 
Charles  IV.,  the  Fair,  accession  of,  1322,  223 


Charles  IV.,  death  of,  223 

„  wars  of,  223 

„  will  of,  223 

Charles  V.  (the  Wise),  character  and  conduct  of, 
251 

„        death  of,  1380,  262 

„         his  policy,  258 

„        ordinances  of,  264 

„        politics  of,  257 

„        principal  ministers  of,  258 

„        reverses  in  Brittany,  261 

,,        success  of,  257 
Charles  V.  (of  Germany),  abdication  of,  375 

„        and  Francis  I.,  first  hostilities   be- 
tween, 351 

„  „  renewal  of  hostilities 

between,  364 

„        death  of,  375 

,,        expedition  of,  to  Turin,  392 

,,        new  invasion  of  France  by,  365 

,,        reverses  of,  374 

„        sojourn  in  France,  363 

„        vengeance  of,  257 

„        visits  Henry  VIII.,  350 
Charles  VI.,  accession  of,  1380,  266 

„        celebrated  men  of  the  reign  of,  284 

„        death  of,  283 

„        government  of,  271 

„        journey  of,  through  Languedoe,  272 

,,        madness  of,  273 

„        nature  of,  266 

„        reflections  on  the  reign  of,  284 

„        situation    of   France     at     his    ac- 
cession, 265 

„        sufferings  of,  276 

„        uncles  of,  266 

„        useful  reforms  of,  272 
Charles  VII.,  accession  of,  1422,  286 

,,  awaking  of,  296 

„  character  of,  289 

„  conducted  to  Rheims  by  Joan,  292 

„  coronation  of,  293 

„  death  of,  302 

„  general  consideration  of  the  reign 

of,  304 

„  indolence  and  indifference  of,  295 

„  progress  of  commerce  and  industry 

under,  304 

,,  state  of  France  at  this  period,  286 

„  state  of  letters  under,  304 

„  situation  of,  288 

Charles  VIII.,  319 

„  at  Florence,  1494,  328 

,,  character  of,  331 

„  concessions  of,  325 

„  death  of,  1498,  330 

„  departure  of,  for  Italy,  327 

„  entry  into  Naples  of,  1495,  329 

,,  European    league   against,   1495, 

329 

„  ignorance  of,  319 

,,  marriage  of,  324 

Charles  IX.,  accession  of,  1560,  388 

„  death  of,  404 

„  during  the  massacre   of   St.    Bar- 

tholomew, 402 

„  marriage  oi',  400     ' 

,,  perfidy  of,  400 

Charlotte  de  Montmorency,  448 
Chateaubriand,  duchess  of,  352 
Chateaubriand,  edict  of,  373 
Chatillons,  the,  385 

Cherbourg  given  up  to  the  English,  261 
Chevalier  Bayard  taken  prisoner,  338 
Childebert  I.,  acts  of,  53 
Childebert  II.,  57 

Childebert  III.,  crowned  by  Pepin,  74 
Childeric  I.  proclaimed  king,  30 


45S 


INDEX. 


Childerie,  son  of  Clovis  II.,  71 
Childeric  II.,  character  of,  72 

„  murdered,  72 

Childeric  III.,  80 
Children  of  Clodomir  murdered,  52 
Chilperic  I.,  55 

„         ambition  of,  58 
„         and  Sigbert,  characters  of,  56 
„         death  of,  59 
Chilperic  II.,  76 
Chivalry,  birth  of,  138 
Chloderie  killed  by  Clovis,  41 
Chrammus,  death  of,  54 
„  revolt  of,  54 

Christian  army  defeated,  91 
Christianity  in  Gaul,  19 
Christopher  Columbus,  342 
Church,  authority  of  the,  263 
„        donations  to  the,  41 
„       endowments,  traffic  in,  152 
„       privileges,  confirmed  by  Clovis,  43 
„       situation  during  11th  century,  151 
„       revolution  in  the,  151 
„       state  of,  in  the  15th  century,  340 
Cisalpine  Gaul,  5 
Civil  troubles,  1355,  239 
„    war  between  Armagnac  and  Burgundy,  277 
„      „    1358,247 
„      „    the  second,  1567,  396 
„      „    the  third,  1568,  398 
„      „    the  fourth,  1572,  403 
„      „    the  fifth,  1574,406 
„      ,,    the  sixth,  1577,  409 
„      „    the  seventh,  1580,  410 
„      „    the  eighth,  called  the  war  of  the  Hen- 
ries, 1586,  412 
„      „    in  France,  1486,  322 
Clannish  feuds,  4 
Claude,  son  of  Duke  Kene\  368 
Clemence  of  Hungary,  220 
Clement  Marot,  378 

„        VII.,  360 
Clergy,  learning  of  the,  50 
„       power  of  the,  50 
„       the  secular,  200 
„       virtues  ot  the,  48 
Clermont,  council  at,  154 
Ciisson,  Oliver,  230 
Clodomir,  death  of  52 
„         defeat  of,  52 
Clothair  I.,  54 

„        and  Childebert,  crime  of,  52 
„        death  of,  54 
„        four  sons  of,  55 
Clothair  Ii.,  64 

„  conquered,  64 

„  and  Dagobert,  wars  between,  67 

„  son  of  Chilperic,  54 

Clothair  III.,  71 
Clothair  IV.,  76 

„  death  of,  77 

Clotilda  avenged  by  Childebert,  53 
„        daughter  of  Clovis,  53 
„        religion  of,  53 
„        revenge  of,  52 
„        veil  of,  53 
Clovis  1.,  33 

„     at  war  with  Visigoths,  39 

„      baptism  of,  38 

„      death  of,  44 

„      conversion  of,  38 

,,      crowned  by  Pepin,  74 

,,      cruelty  of,  42 

„      marriage  of,  38 

,,     murders  his  relatives,  42 

,,     proclaimed  King  of  the  Ripuarians,  42 

„      receives  consular  insignia,  40 

„     reign  of,  37 


Clovis,  religious  policy  of,  43 
„     remorse  of,  43 
„     repentance  of,  43 
„      sons  of,  44 

,,      summary  of  character  of,  45 
„      title  of,  45 
Clovis  II.,  70 

„        debauchery  of,  71 
„        condition  of  the  descendants  of,  60 
CochereL,  battle  of,  252 
Coinage,  falsification  of  the,  236 

„  reform  of  the,  186 
Cologne  taken  by  Clovis,  41 
Colonization  of  Britain,  5 

„  Spain,  5 

Colonna  Francesco,  353 
College  of  France,  foundation  of  the,  378 
Collinet  de  BreVille,  240 
Coligny,  376 

„        attempted  assassination  of,  401 
Coligny,  the  Admiral,  385 
Coligny,  murder  of,  402 
„       the  wile  of,  391 
Colours,  the  national,  246 
Columbanus  exiled,  65 
Combats  of  wild  beasts,  88 
Combat  of  the  Thirty,  229 
Comines,  Philip  de,  312 
Commerce  and  industry  in  1270,  201 
Comminges,  fortifications  of,  61 
Communes,  constituent  elements  of,  1 93 
„  enfranchisement  of  the,  194 

„  establishment  of,  196 

„  rights  and  privileges,  195 

,,  transformation  of  the,  185 

Coinpiegne,  Assembly  of,  129 
Comte  d'Harcourt,  execution  of  the,  240 
Concordat,  1516,  347 

Conde,  condemnation  of  the  Prince  de,  387 
Conde"  and  Conti,  412 
Conflans,  treaty  of,  309 

,,  „  annulled,  309 

Conquest  meditated  by  Clovis,  39 
„         of  Gaul  by  Caesar,  8 
„         of  Saxony  completed,  90 
Conrad,  defeat  of,  m  Lycaonia,  164 
Constable  d'Albret,  279 

„  of  Bourbon,  action  against  the,  352 

„  de  Ciisson,  attempted  assassination  of 

the,  273 
„  Montmorency,  policy  of  the,  395 

„  death  of  the,  1567,  396 

Constance  of  Toulouse,  146 
Constantinople  carried  by  assault,  172 
Consulate  inaugurated  by  Clovis,  40 
Consular  insignia  received  by  Clovis,  40 
Conspiracy  against  Childeric,  72 
Continuation  of  hostilities  between  the  Empire 

and  France,  374 
Corbeil,  treaty  of,  188 
Corporations,  202 
Cosmo  de  Ruggieri,  407 
Council  of  Nicaea,  the  Second,  91 
„       of  Orleans,  44 

„       of  Trent,  last  acts  and  end  of  the,  395 
„       the  Great,  of  Louis  XII.,  332 
Count  d'Eu,  execution  of,  235 

„      d'Entragues,  conspiracy  of  the,  446 
Courgeon's  Recits  de  1'Histoire  de  France,  7 
Courtras,  battle  of,  1587,  412 
Courtray,  battle  of,  214 
County,  the,  94 
Craon,  John  de,  237 
Crespy  in  Valois,  treaty  of,  1544,  335 
Cressy,  battle  of,  1346,  230 
Crevant-sur-Yonne,  battle  of,  289 
Crown,  conquests  of  the,  135 

„      conquests  under  the  feudal  system,  192 


INDEX. 


459 


Crown  offered  to  Childeric,  72 

„     of  Naples  ana  Sicily,  French  pretensions 
to  the,  326 
Crusade  of  the  Christian  shepherds,  184 

„  of  the  French  into  Aragon,  210 

Crusades,  precursors  of  the,  115 

„  the  first,  153 

„         fate  of  the  first,  155 

„  the  second,  163 

„  the  third,  168 

„  the  fourth,  172 

„  the  fifth,  182 

„  the  sixth,  190 

„         derivation  of  the  word,  154 

„  effect  on  the  sciences,  205 

„         impulse  given  to  commerce  by  the,  201 

„         influence  of  the,  197 
Customs,  regulation  of  the,  300 

DAGOBERT  I.,  67 
„  death  of,  69 

„  generosity  of,  69 

„  laws  revised  by,  68 

„  losses  in  war  of,  68 

„  possessions  of,  68 

„  power  of,  68 

„  splendour  of,  68 

,,  terror  inspired  bv,  69 

Dagobert  II.,  73 
Dagobert  III.,  74 
Dammartin,  Count  of,  309 
Dampierre,  172 

Danes,  and  Scandinavian  pirates,  101 
D'Artois,  Robert,  cause  of  war,  227 
Dauphin,  concessions  of  the,  1357,  244 
„         dissimulation  of  the,  246 
„        flight  of  the,  Louis,  301 
„         of  France,  death  of,  1536,  363 
„         surname  of,  233 
Danphine,  seized  by  Charles  VII.,  302 
Daventer,  church  of,  burnt,  89 
Defeat  of  Gontran,  63 
De  Rue  and  Du  Tertre,  arrest  of,  257 
Desmarets,  John,  execution  of,  269 
Descendants  of  Merovic,  reaction  against  the,  60 
Destruction  of  the  Western  Empire,  23 
De  Thou  and  Jeannin,  450 
Deux-Ponts,  Duke  of,  399 
Diabolical  Bargain,  the,  217 
Diana  of  Poictiers,  365 
Dictatus  Papae,  152 
Diet  of  Augsburg,  Edict  of  the,  375 
„    of  Worms,  839,  108 
„    of  Worms,  1521,351 
Discord  of  the  nobles,  1031,  146 
Discoveries  in  the  fifteenth  century,  342 
Divisions  into  provinces,  638,  81 
Dolmans,  3 
Dominicans,  200 

D'O,  superintendent  of  finance,  423 
D'Ossat  and  Duperron,  the  Cardinals,  450 
Dreux,  battle  of,  1562,  393 
Druids,  2 

„       books  and  precepts,  2 
„       Caesar's  account  of  the,  2 
„        doctrines  of  the,  2 
„       exempt  from  taxation,  2 
„       political  and  social  power  of  the,  4 
„       privileges  of  the,  2 
„       superstitions  of  the,  4 
Druidesses,  3 

„  endowments  of  the,  3 

Druidical  interdict,  effect  of,  4 

„        sacrifices,  3 
Druidic  monuments,  3 
„        sanctuaries,  3 
Duchess  d'Etampes,  365 

„       of  Montpensier,  scissors  of  the}>417 


Duchy  of  Burgundy,  fiefs  of,  158 

„      of  France,  fiefs  of,  158 

„      of  Guienne,  fiefs  of,  158 

„      of  Normandy,  fiefs  of,  158 
Duelling  in  France,  451 
Du  Guesclin,  Bertrand,  251 

„  generosity  of,  255 

,,  illness  and  death  of,  261 

,,  last  words  of,  261 

„  made  prisoner,  254 

„  ransom  of,  254 

Duke  of  Anjou,  campaign  of  the,  411 

„     Bernard,  105 

„  „         prime  minister,  105 

„     Boson,  113 

„     d'Enghien,  the,  1544,  365 

„     Eudes,  87 

„  ,,      sons  of,  87 

„     Francis  II.,  death  of,  1488,  323 

„     de  Nemours,  execution  of  the,  314 

„     of  Orleans,  administration  of,  1404,  275 

„  „  assassination  of  the,  276 

„  „  set  at  liberty,  324 

„     Wolf  II.,  1492,  90 
Dunois,  289,  322 
Duperron,  the  Abbe,  447 
Duplessi3-Mornay,  447 
Duprat,  Minister,  352 

„      the  Chancellor,  358 
Dynasty,  decay  of  the  Merovingian,  70 

EAST,  feudalism  organized  in  the,  156 
„     great  schism  of  the,  1379,  260 
Ebro,  90 
Ebrouin,  71 

„      death  of,  73 
„      despotism  of,  71 
„      and  Leger  conspirators,  72 
,,      historian's  account  of,  73 
„      obliged  to  become  a  monk,  72 
,,      personal  ambition  of,  71 
Eburones  annihilated,  13 
Ecclesiastical  divisions  of  Gaul,  82 

„  principalities,  origin  in  Germany 

of,  90 
„  provinces,  82 

Ecluse,  battle  of,  1340,  229 
Ecorcheurs,  296 
Edessa,  in  Palestine,  164 
Edict  of  Mersen,  112 
Edward  the  Confessor,  will  of,  150 
Edward  III.  of  England,  228 

,,         „     decision    of    the    Court  of   Peers 
against,  256 
Ega,  Mayor  in  Neustria,  70 
Eginhard,  97 

Egmont  and  Horn,  the  Counts,  376 
Eight  Campaigns  of  Caesar,  16 
Empire,  the,  349 

„      after  the  death  of  Louis  the  Debonnaire 

109 
,,      dismemberment  of  the,  877,  113 
„      of  the  Goths,  decline  of  the,  53 
,,      termination  of  the  Roman,  31 
Empress  Irene,  92 

,,  ,,        dethroned,  93 

England,  15th  century,  303 
„      conquest  of,  149 
„      conquered  by  the  Normans,  150 
„      offered  by  Innocent  III.  to  Philip,  170 
„      projected  descent  upon,  1386,  270 
,,      revolution  in,  1349,  275 
English  and  French,  truce  between,  1453,  299 
„      confined  to  Normandy,  1436,  296 
,,     expulsion  of  the,  1453,  299 
„     in  France,  progress  of  the,  1451,  282 
Erkinoald,  70 
Ermengarde,  105 


460 


INDEX. 


Etaples,  treaty  of,  325 
Etienne  Marcel,  conduct  of,  243 
Etienne  Pasquier,  450 

,,      Pasquine  on  Gaul,  6 
Etudes  sur  l'Epoque  Merovingienne,  29 
Eudes,  78 

„      oath  of,  79 

„      Count  de  Chartres,  143 

„      Count  of  Paris,  116 

„      elected  King,  116 

„      King  of  Aquitaine,  76 

„      wars  and  death  of,  116 
Europe,  division  of  religion  in,  437 

,,        in  the  15th  century,  340 

,,        political  and  religious  state  of,  1532,  359 

„        state  of,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  VL, 
266 
Evangelical  union,  1609,  448 
Exarchate  of  Ravenna,  86 
Exarchates,  86 
Excommunication,  145 

FALL  of  the  Carlovingians,  causes  of,  130 
Ealse  coiner,  the,  218 
Father  and  restorer  of  letters,  the,  367 

,,      of  the  people,  336 
Ferdinand  and.  Isabella,  324 
Ferdinand  II.,  329 

„         son  of  Alphonso  II.,  328 
Feudal  aids,  137 

,,      aristocracy,  a  blow  to,  177 

,,      concessions,  136 

,,      houses,  224 

, ,      system,  advantages  of  the,  140 

,,  „      condition  of  the  people    under 

the,  139 
,,  ,,      effects  of,  138 

,,  „      exposition  of  the,  135 

„  „      jurisprudence  during  the,  138 

„  „      misery  under  the,  131 

,,  „      relations  with  church  and  people, 

139 
Feudalism,  cessation  of,  336 
„  origin  of,  132,  135 

,,  transformation  of,  369 

Fiefs  of  the  Crown,  158 

„    the  seven  great,  158 
Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  1520,  350 

,,     of  March  and  May,  49 
Fifth  peace,  called  that  of  "  Monsieur,"  407 
First  Capetian  kings,  reign  of,  142 
„    civil  war,  1562,  392 
„    hostilities  (Hundred  Years'  War),   1338, 

229 
„    States-general  of  the  three  orders,  1302, 
217 
Flagellants,  232 
Flanders,  confiscation  of,  214 

j,        Dampierre,  Count  of,  213 
„  „        stabbed,  1384, 270 

„        towns  of,  pillaged,  269 
,,        transmitted  to  Burgundy,  270 
,,        war  in,  1311,  214 
„        war  with,  1382,  268 
Flemings,  revolt  of  the,  1301,  214;  1485,  321 
Fleix,  peace  of,  410 
Floral  games,  institution  of,  223 
Flour  battle,  the,  428 
Fontainebleau,  assembly  at,  387 
Fontaine-  Francaise,  battle  of,  434 
Foreign  princes  landowners  in  France,  224 
Formigny,  battle  of,  1550,  299 
Fornovo,  battle  of,  1495,  330 
Foulque3,  Count  of  Anjou,  143 
Foulquet,  Bishop  of  Toulouse,  176 

„         horrible  treachery  of,  176 
Four  capitals  in  France,  47 
France,  name,  110 


France  and  Brittany,  hostilities  suspended  be- 
tween, 1487,  323 
„      and  England,  war  between,  1113,  161 
„      and  Europe,  state  of,  1396,  274 
„      awakiDg  of,  1428,  292 
„      boundaries  under  Hugues  Capet,  142 
„      Duchy  of,  158 

„      during  Francis  I.'s  captivity,  354 
„      invaded  by  Henry  V.,  279 
„      possessions  of  foreign  princes  in,  368 
„      state  of,  ia  1226, 192 
Francis  I.,  accession  of,  1515,  345 

,,         alliance  with  the  Turks,  364 
„         captivity,  1525,  354 
„         celebrated  men  of  the  reign  of,  370 
,,         character  of,  345 
,,         considerations  upon  the  reign  of,  367 
„         death  of,  1547,  367 
„         deliverance  of,  355 
,,         first  campaign  in  Italy  of,  346 
„         increase  of  the  royal  domains  of,  368 
„         knights  of,  346 
„         last  words  of,  366 
„         severities  of,  361 
Francis  II.,  accession  of,  382 
„  death  of,  387 

„  Duke  of  Brittany,  321 

„  political  parties  in  the  reign  of,  383 

Franciscans,  200 
Frank  army  defeated,  90 
Franks  and  Gallo-Romans  distinct  by  law,  49 
„      customs  of  the,  46 
„      empire,  boundaries  of  the,  81 
,,  „         divisions  of,  81 

„      kings,  tributaries  of  the,  82 
,,      monarchy  of  the,  united,  68 
„      origin  of,  26 
„      power  of,  shaken,  69 
,,      royalty  among  the,  46 
,,      state  of,  before  Clovis'  reign,  47 
„      warriors  of  the,  baptized,  38 
Freemen,  assemblies  of  the,  216 
„  condition  of,  100 

„  colonists  and  serfs,  50 

„  or  villains,  140 

Fredegonde  and  Brunhilda,  rivalry  of,  55 

,,  death  of,  64 

Frederick  Barbarossa,  death  of,  168 

„  of  Naples,  1496,  334 

French  at  Palermo,  massacre  of,  210 
„       army  in  Italy,  1494,  327 
„  ,,        Scotland,  270 

„       driven  from  Italy,  1409,  277 
„      Guards,  creation  of  the,  396 
„      Government  in  Sicily  overthrown,  209 
„      language,  the,  199 
„      nation,  awaking  of  the,  286 
„  ,,        historic  existence  of  the,  116 

„      retreat  of  the,  1495,  329 
Frere  Ange,  416 
Froissart,  the  historian,  263 
From  the  death  of  Charles  the  Fat  to  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Carlovingian  dynasty,  115 
From  the  death  of  Clovis  tothatof  Dagobert  I.,46 
Fulk,  cure  of  Nouilly-sur-Marne,  172 
Fuentes,  Count,  441 

n  ALEAS,  Visconti  of  Milan,  249 

\J  Gabelle  and  aide  taxes  abolished,  239 

Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  435 

Gaels  and  Iberians,  1 

Galatians,  6 

Gallica  Narbonensis,  101 

Gallic  Caesars,  21 

„      martyrs,  19 

„      name,  terror  of  the,  6 

,,      nations  combined  against  Rome,  13 

„      poets  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  19 


INDEX. 


461 


Gallic  revolt,  E.G.  56, 13 

„      war,  B.C.  54,  12 
Gallo- Romans,  18 
Galswintha  murdered,  56 
Gascons,  rising  of  the,  1368,  255 
Gascony,  78 

„        independence  of,  82 
Gaston  de  Foix,  Due  de  Nemours,  337 
Gaul  and  Germany,  interests  of,  separated,  110 
Gaul,  a  scene  of  combats,  30 
„    before  the  Roman  Conquest,  1 
„   Caesar's  rule  in,  17 
„    divided  against  herself,  6 
„        „       between  the  race  of  Charlemagne 
and  that  of  Robert  the  Strong,  up 
to  the  accession  of  Louis  IV.,  115 
„   division  after  the  fall  of  the  empire,  481,  32 
„        „         of,  589, 55 
„        „  ,,      1200,193 

„   entered  by  Caesar,  7 
„  incited  to  revolt,  20 
„  invaded  by  Roman3,  6 
„    miserable  condition  of,  276,  21 
„  organized  by  Augustus,  17 
„    priesthood  in,  2 
„  protected  by  Caesar,  9 
„  „  „   C.  Chlorus,  22 

„  reduced  to  submission  by  Caesar,  11 
„  Roman  invasion  of,  7 
,,    ruled  four  centuries  by  the  Romans,  18 
„    state  of,  under  the  Merovingians,  46 
„  under  Clothair  I.'s  successors,  55 
,,        „      the  last  Carlovingians,  120 
„        ,,        ,,    Merovingian  Dynasty,  37 
„   under  the  Roman  domination,  17 
,,        „      „    sons  of  Clovis,  51 
Gauls,  character  of  the,  2 

„      chiefs  and  kings  of  the,  4 
„      divinities  of  the,  2 
„      emigration  among  the,  5 
„      levity  of  character,  10 
„      tribes  so  designated,  2 
Gaza,  battle  of,  1244,  181 
Gauthier  de  Brienne,  Duke  of  Athens,  237 
Genealogical  Table  of  the  Carlovingian  kings,  132 
,,  ,,  „      Merovingian    „        83 

Gene'ralite's,  368 
Genoa  chastised  by  Louis  XII.,  1507,  336 

„      revolt  of,  1511,  337 
Geoffroi  de  Preuilly,  200 
Georges  d'Amboise,  339 
George  Frondsberg,  356 
Gerberge,  Princess,  121 
German  and  Frank  League,  51 
„         people,  dignity  of,  24 
Germanus,  Bishop  of  Paris,  56 
Germany  overrun  by  Gauls,  5 

„        ravaged  by  Hungarians,  935,  119 
,,        and  Hungary,  303 
Gerson,  John,  284 
Ghent,  heroism  of  tbe  men  of,  1384,  270 

„      revolt  of,  1539,  363 
Gilbert  de  Montpensier,  330 

„  „  death  of,  330 

Godfrey  de  Bouillon,  155 

,,  ,,  crusade  under,  1098,  155 

Gondeband  converted  by  Clovis,  39 
Gondevald,  60 

„  betrayal  of,  62 

„  death  of,  62 

„  proclaimed  heir  of  Clothair  L,  61 

,,  reception  of,  61 

Gonsalvo  of  Cordova,  334 
Gontran,  55 

„       the  Good,  59 

„        Boson,  60 

„        alarmed  by  the  revolution,  61 

„  „     death  of,  62 


Good  King  Rene",  314 

Goods  of  the  clergy,  first  alienation  of  the,  394 

Gothic  nation,  the,  23 

Goths,  religion  of  the,  37 

Grandella,  battle  of,  1266,  189 

Gravelines,  battle  of,  1558,  377 

Granson  and  Morat,  battles  of,  1476,  313 

Great  days,  the,  324 

„      schism  of  the  East,  course  of  the,  274 

„  „  „  and     end      of, 

1422,  283 
Greek  and  Roman  churches,  union  of,  1274,  210 
"  Greek  fire,"  183 
Greek  empire  division  of  the,  1204,  173 

„  „      '  fall  of  the,  1453,  302 

Greffo,  80 

„       Pepin's  mother,  death  of,  87 
Gregorian  calendar,  the,  438 

„         chants  established,  97 
Gregory  of  Tours,  58 

„        VII.,  death  of,  1177, 153 
„        XL,  death  of,  1378,  259 
Grenada,  treaty  of,  1500,  334 
Grimoald,  son  of  Ega  the  Mayor,  71 

„  murdered,  71 

Guaifer  of  Aquitaine,  87 

,,        joined  by  Greffo,  87 
Gnelphs  and  Ghibellines,  descendants  of  the,  303 

„  „  wars  of  the,  1179, 166 

Guerande,  treaty  of,  253 
Guesclin,  valour  of  Du,  252 
Guines,  treaty  of,  1547,  366 
Guienne,  war  in,  213 
Guinnegate,  battle  of,  1513,  338 
„  battle  of,  1479,  314 

Guillaume  de  Champeaux,  203 
Guise,  death  of  Francis  of,  1562,  393 

„       return  of  the  Duke  to  Paris,  1 588,  414 

„       acts  of  the  Duke  of,  1588,  415 

,,       murder  of  the  Cardinal  of,  1588,  418 
Guises,  power  of  the,  1559,  382 

„       triumph  of  the,  1559,  383 

„       vengeance  of  the,  1560,  386 

,,       and  Condes,  alliances  of  the,  1562,  392 
Gustavo  s  Vasa,  359 
Guy  de  Dampierre,  213 

HAGANON,  league  against,  117 
Hanseatic  league,  the,  15th  century,  340 
Harfieur,  taking  of,  1415,  279 
Harold  of  England,  death  of,  1066,  150 

,,      shipwreck  of,  150 
Hastings,  battle  of,  150 

,,         the  pirate,  111 
Helvetians  conquered  by  Caesar,  9 
Hennebon,  defence  of,  229 
Heraldry,  198 

Henrietta  d'Entragues,  1600,  440 
Herrings,  battle  of  the,  1429,  290 
Henry  and  Thomas  a  Becket,  struggle  between, 

165 
Henry  of  Guise,  murder  of,  1588,  418 
„    Navarre,  King  of,  421 
„      of  Transtamare,  254 
Henry  I.,  marriage  of,  149 
„  reign  of,  147 

„  wars  of,  149 

Henry  II.,  accession  of,  1547,  372 
„  character  of,  380 

„  children  of,  380 

„  cruelty  to  the  Bordelais  of,  373 

„  death  of,  380 

„  despotic  edicts  of,  372 

„  exactions  of,  377 

„  marriage  of,  377 

„  state  of  France  at  the  death  of,  381 

„  war  declared  against  the  Pope  bv. 

1551,373 


462 


INDEX. 


Henry  II.   of  England    married   to   Eleanor, 
164 
„  penance  of,  166 

„  possessions  of,  in  Erance,  165 

„  revolt  against,  166 

Henry  III.  of  Valois,  accession  of,  1574,  405 
„  assassination  of,  1589,  420 

„  and  his  court,  406 

„  dissolute  manners  of,  410 

„  mad  joy  in  Paris  at  the  death  of,  424 

„  situation  of  the  kingdom  at  the  death 

of,  421 
„  supposed  policy  of,  406 

Henry  IV.  and  Elizabeth  of  England,  connexion 
between,  1601,  446 
„  and  Sully,  administration  of,  443 

„  as  peace-maker,  436 

„  attempted    assassination    of,    1595, 

434 
„  conversion  of,  1593,  432 

„  death  of,  1610,  449 

„  difficulties  of,  430 

„  discoveries,  sciences  and  arts  in  the 

reign  of,  438 
„  divorce  of,  440 

„  early  life  of,  423 

„  entry  into  Paris  of,  433 

„  frailties  of,  451 

„  improvements  in  Erance  under,  444 

„  literature  in  the  reign  of,  438 

„  manoeuvres  of,  1592,  429 

„  marriage  with  Marguerite  de  Valois, 

440 
„  mediator  between    Spain  and  Hol- 

land, 1609,  448 
„  Paris  entered  by,  425 

„  passion  for  the  Princess  de  Conde', 

of,  448 
„  presentiments  of,  449 

„  recognised  by  Pope  Clement  VIII., 

1595,  434 
„  religious  ministry  of,  452 

,,  second  marriage  of,  1600,  443 

„  sentence  of  the  Sorbonne  against,  426 

„  si  -uation  of,  1594,  433 

„  sorrow  in  France  at  the  death  of,  450 

„  state  of  letters  and  of  art  under,  450 

„  submission  of  chiefs  bought  by,  433 

Henry  IV.  of  Germany,    excommunication  of, 
153 
,,  humiliation  of,  153 

Henry  V.  of  England,  death  of,  1422,  283 

„         Kegent  of  Erance,  1420,  282 
Henry  VI.  of  England,  King  of  Erance,  1432, 

288 
Herv£,  Archbishop  of  Reims,  117 
Hesdin,  conquest  of,  1553,  374 
Hildebrand,  the  monk,  151 
Hincmar,  real  master  of  Gaul,  111 
History,  reflections  on,  287 
Holy  chapel  founded,  186 
Hospitallers  of  St.  John,  200 
Hostilities,  recommencement  of,  1557,  376 

„  with  England,  recommencement  of, 

1370,  256 
House  of  Tudor  in  England,  accession  of  the, 

1485,  322 
Hotel  de  Ville,  annuities  on  the,  367 
Hugues  Capet,  125 

„  accession  of,  135 

„  and    Lothaire,   reconciled,    979, 

127 
„  conduct  of,  126 

„  crowned,  129 

„  death  of,  144 

,,  events  of  the  reign  of,  143 

Huguenots,  the,  392 

„  arms  taken  up  again  by,  1574,  406 


Huguenots,  nobles  among  the,  392 
Hugues  the  Great,  excommunicated,  124 

,,  „       death  of,  124 

„  „       or  White,  118 

„  ,,       States  of,  119 

„        of  Beauvais,  murder  of,  146 

,,        of  Vermandois,  121 
Hunald,  87 

„        abdication  of,  768,  87 

„  betrayed  and  conquered,  88 
Hundreds  and  tithings  organized,  82 
Hundred    Years'   "War,    preliminaries    of   the? 

1331-1338,  227 
Hungarians,  formidable  invasion  of  the,  120 
Human  sacrifices,  3 

TDLER  KING,  the,  417 

A.  Imperial  crown  seized  by  Charles  the  Bold, 
875, 112 
„       house  of  Hapsburg,  foundation  of 

1273,  210 
„        unity,  the  fiction  of,  103 
"  In  Coena  Domini,"  the  famous  bull,  420 
Ingelheim,  council  of,  123 
Innocent  III.,  174 

„  vengeance  of,  174 

Inquisition,  the  edict  of,  378 
Insurrection  and  anarchy,  1380,  265 
„  in  Aquitaine,  768,  88 

Interdict,  laws  of,  145 

„  „      the  Druidical,  4 

Internal  state  of  Gaul  in  Caesar's  time,  9 
Intestine  contest  in  Gaul,  6 
Invasion  of  the  barbarians,  406,  23 

„        of  Burgundy  (Chilperic's),  85 
„        of  the  English,  1415,  279 
„        of  the  Mussulmans,  732,  76,  78 
Investiture  of  fiefs,  137 
Italy— 15th  century,  303 
,,    a  separate  kingdom,  888, 115 
„    first  campaign  in,  1522,  351 
„    fourth  campaign  in,  1528,  357 
,,    invaded  by  Gauls,  5 
,,    second  and  third  campaign  in,  1524-1525, 

353 
„   state  of,  at  the  end  of  the   fifteenth  cen- 
tury, 326 
„    the  French  driven  from,  1522,  352 
,,      under  the  Imperial  troops,  358 
Itius,  site  of,  12 
Ivry,  battle  of,  1590,  426 

"  TACQUES  BONHOMME,"  248 
0         „         Cceur,  301 
„         Molay,  218 
Jacquemart  Artevelt,  228 
Jacquerie,  the,  1358,  248 

„         war  of,  renewed,  360 
January,  1562,  edict  of  tolerance  of,  390 
Jarnac,  battle  of,  1569,  398 
Jean  d'Aire,  231 
Jeanne  d'Albret,  368 

,,  „        conduct,  399 

„  „        death  of,  400 

„  „        of  Navarre,  395 

„       la  Boiteuse,  229 
„       la  Flamande,  229 
„       Hachette,  311 
„       of  Navarre,  219 
Jerome  Bignon,  450 

„      of  Prague,  283,  341 
Jesuits,  exile  of  the,  1595,  434 

„        recall  to  France  of  the,  1663,  447 
Jews,  cruelty  of  Philip  IV.  to  the,  219 
Joan  of  Arc,  1429,  290 

„         at  Chinon,  290 

„         compelled  to  remain  with  the  army, 
293 


INDEX. 


463 


Joan  of  Arcj  courage  of,  291 

„  death  of,  1431,  294 

„  last  words  of,  295 

„  Orleans  delivered  by,  291 

„  taken  prisoner,  293 

„  trial  of,  294 

Joachim  Dubellay,  438 
Jodelle,  438 
John  Bureau,  301 

„    Boucher,  432 

„    Chatel,  434 

„    Cottier,  317 

„    Galeas,  Duke  of  Milan,  327 

„     Goffredi,  312 

„     Gutenburg,  317 

„     Huss,  283,  341 

„     Lackland,  usurpation  of,  1199,  169 

„    Lemaitre,  431 

„    Petit,  283 

„    Poltrot  of  Mere,  393 

„    ofProcida,  209 

„    Tardiff  and  Claude  Larcher,  death  of,  428 

„    the  Fearless,  279 

„  ,,  assassination  of,  282 

„     Wycliffe,  283 
John,  King  of  England,  234 

„    accession  of,  1350,  235 

„     captivity  of,  242 

„    citation  of,  before  the  Court  of  Peers,  170 

„    condemnation  of,  170 

„    death  of,  250 

„    made  prisoner,  242 

„    maxim  attributed  to,  250 

„    ransom  of,  249 

„    reunion  of  his  continental  possessions  with 
the  crown  of  France,  170 

„    release  of,  249 

„    submission  to  Pope  Innocent  III.,  170 

„    violence  of,  240 

„  „       and  despotism  of,  235 

„    of  Bohemia,  228 
Journal  des  Etats  G£neraux,  320 
Jours  Gras,  the  entreprise  des,  1573,  404 
Judicial  combat,  137 

„        offices,  irremovability  of  the,  316 
„        order,  establishment  of  the,  135 
July,  edict  of,  1561,  389 
Julius  II.,  341 

Justinian,  Emperor  of  the  East,  54 
Juvenal  des  Ursins,  284 

KING  Astolph,  85 
„     and    church,    alliance    of    the,  under 

Louis  VI.,  162 
„      Henry  of  Navarre  declared  to  be  ex- 
cluded from   the    throne, 
1585,  412 
„  „         declaration  of  the   Catholic 

chiefs  to  the,  424 
„  „         reply  of  the,  424 

„  „         set  at  liberty,  1358, 246 

„     Raoul,  death  of,  118 
Kings  of  the  Franks,  authority  of  the,  49 
"  King's  citizen,"  185 
"King's  Quarantine,"  the,  185 
Kingdom  of  France,  desolated  by  the  English,  243 
„        of  Jerusalem,  fall  of  the,  168 
„        of  Navarre,    lost   by    the    crown    of 
France,  227 
Konig,  derivation  of,  46 
Kymry  and  Cimbri,  1 
Kymrys  established,  on  the  Loire,  2 
„        identical  with  the  Belgse,  1 
„        irruption  of  the,  1 

LA  BALUE,  Cardinal,  312 
Lafin,  442 
La  Gabelle,  establishment  of,  232 


Lancaster,  Duke  of,  256 

Landais,  321 

death  of,  322 

Languedoc,  deplorable  state  of,  272 
„  new  Jacquerie  in,  268 

„  rising  of,  261 

Langue  d'Oil,  States-General  of  the,  237 

La  Mole  and  Coconnas,  deaths  of,  404 

La  Nome,  Senlis,  successes  at,  420 

Laon,  surrendered  and  retaken,  123 

La  Palisse,  338 

La  Riviere,  Lord  of,  262 

La  Rochelle,  siege  of,  403 

La  Rochefoucauld  and  Rohan,  412 

Last  slothful  kings,  the,  76 

Latin  empire  of  Constantinople  founded,  173 

Latafao,  73 

La  Tremouille,  295 

„  captivity  of,  334 

,,  Roquelaure,  412 

Laval  and  La  Nome,  412 

La  Vergne,  devotion  of,  398 

Lautrec,  352 

League  against  Abdul-Rahman,  78 

League,  origin  and  aim  of  the,  407 
„  Paris  the  focus  of  the,  411 
„        Rovalists  and  Huguenots,  division   of 

France  between  the,  421 
„        rousing  of  the,  411 
„        the  Holy,  1510-1527,  337,  356 

Leaguers,  oath  of  the,  408 

Legate,  Pierre  Castelnau  murdered,  174 

Legations  and  counties  of  the  French  empire,  98 

Legists,  the,  211 

Legga,  daughter  of  Pepin,  73 

Leo  X.,  338 

Leon  III.,  92 

,,  assisted  by  Charlemagne,  92 

Leonardo  da  Vinci,  respect  of  Francis  I.  for,  370 

Lepers  and  Jews,  persecution  of  the,  222 

Lescurjs,  352 

L'Espare,  351 

Letic  lands,  27 

Letters,  arts,  and  sciences  in  8th  century,  97 
„        of  nobility,  222 

"  L'envoulter,"  228 

L'Hospital,  retirement  of,  397 

Library  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  96 

Ligurians,  1 

L'lle,  Adam,  357 

Lille  and  Douai,  reunited  to  France,  215 

Lincestre,  the  cure,  419 

Literature  of  the  14th  century,  263 

Loi  Gombette,  the,  50 

Lollards,  the,  283 

Longjumeau,  peace  signed  at,  397 

Lombardy,  cities  of,  166 

„  ravaged  by  Theodebert,  54 

Lorraine,  campaign  in,  300 

,,        conquest  of,  by  Charles  the  Rash,  313 

Lorrainers,  revolt  of  the,  121 

Lorraine,  the  cardinal  of,  378 

Lothair  I.  and  Lorraine,  112 
,,  impiety  of,  106 

,,        pardoned,  107 

Lothair  II.,  death  of,  855,  112 
,,  marriages  of,  112 

Lothaire  III.  crowned  king,  124 
death  of,  127 

Louis  I.  le  Debonnaire,  character  of,  104 
„  „  death  of,  108 

,,  ,,  morality  of,  104 

,,  ,,  _  or  the  Pious,  102 

,,  „  second  marriage  of,  105 

„  ,,  weakness  of,  105 

„  ,,  defeated  by  Lothair,  106 

,,  „  first  insurrection  against, 

104 


464 


INDEX. 


Louis  I.  le  Debonnaire,  humiliation  of,  106 

,,  ,,  reinstated,  107 

Louis  II.,  the  Stammerer,  113 

„  „  sons  of,  113 

Louis  III.,  882, 113 
Louis  IV.,  of  Bavaria,  228 
Louis  IV.,  d'Outre-Mer,  character  of,  120 
„  „  crowned  king,  120 

„  „  death  of,  124 

„  „  made  prisoner,  122 

„  „  sons  of,  124 

Louis  V.,  128 

„        called  the  Slothful,  120 

,,        son  of  Lothaire,  127 

,,     _  life  and  death  of,  128 
Louis  Vl.,  accession  of,  1108, 160 

„  character  of,  160 

„  death  of,  1137, 162 

„  nicknames  of,  160 

„  Normandy  ravaged  by,  161 

,,  personal  estates  of,  160 

,,  sons  of,  161 

,,  struggle  of,  against  Henry  I.  of  Eng- 

land, 161 

,,  war  against  his  vassals,  161 

Louis  VII. ,  163 

„  accession  of,  163 

„  death  of,  1179,  166 

„  divorce  of,  164 

„  interdict  laid  on,  163 

Louis  VIII.,  accession  of,  179 

„  death  of,  1228, 179 

„  marriage  of,  179 

,,  reign  of,  179 

Louis  IX.,  anecdotes  of,  187 

„  arbitrator  between   Henry  III.   and 

his  barons,  188 

„  crown  disputed,  180 

„  death  of,  1270,  191 

,,  marriage  of,  181 

,,  piety  of,  187 

„  (St.  Louis)  reign  of,  180 

„  Damietta  taken  by,  182 

„  departure  of  for  the  Holy  Land,  1248, 

182 

,,  establishments  of,  185 

,,  last  words  of,  190 

,,  legislation  and  administration  of,  184 

,,  ransom  of,  183 

,,  religious  enthusiasm  of,  182 

, ,  sons  of,  189 

,,  taken  prisoner,  183 

,,  wars  of,  181 

,,  zeal  of  the  bishops  restrained  by,  186 

Louis  X.,  accession  of,  220 

„         death  of,  1316,  221 

„         events  of  the  reign  of ,  221 

„  (Le  Rutin),  220 

,,        accused   of    poisoning    his    brother, 
311 

,,         situation  of  France  under,  307 
Louis  XL,  abasement  of  the  nobles  under,  317 

„  accession  of,  1461,  306 

,,  acquisitions  of  the  crown  under,  315 

„  character  of,  316 

„  commerce  and  industry  in  the  reign 

of,  317 
death  of,  1483,  316 

,,  feudal  houses  under,  318 

„  first  acts  of,  307 

„  irritation  against,  308 

,,  jurisdiction  of,  320 

„  mercantile  truces  of,  312 

„  misery  of  the  people  under,  320 

„  new  dangers  to,  311 

,,  new  Parliaments  instituted  by,  316 

„  ordinances  of,  316 

„         porta  established  by,  316 


Louis  XL,  policy  of,  306 

,,  schools  established  by,  317 

,,  taken  prisoner,  310 

,,  taxes  raised  by,  317 

„  terrors  and  superstition  of,  315 

Louis  XII.,  accession  of,  1498,332 
„  character  of,  339 

,,  claims  upon  the  Milanese  of,  333 

„  death  of,  1516,  338 

„  first  acts  of,  332 

„  generosity  of,  332 

„  marriageof,withAnneofBrittany,333 

„  „  „   Mary  of  England,  338 

,,  policy  of,  340 

„  of  Bourbon,  cruelties  of,  398 
„  of  Conde,  death  of,  338 
Louis  of  Faur,  arrest  of,  379 

„      of  France  in  England,  Prince,  171 

„      the  German,  revolt  of,  109 

„      the  Moor,  326 

„  „         at  Milan,  situation  and  policy 

of,  327 
„      and  Pepin,  conduct  of,  107 
„      son  of  Charlemagne,  91 
„  „  „  crowned  his  success- 

sor,  93 
Louisa  of  Savoy,  death  of,  370 

,,  „  resentment  of,  352 

Lutetia,  22 

Luther,  commencement  of  the  career  of,  351 
„       Martin,  342 
,,      outlawed,  351 
Luxembourg,  invasion  of,  364 
Lyons,  treaty  of,  1601,  441 

MACHIAVELLI,  disciples  of,  340 
„  the  Florentine,  339 

Madrid,  rupture  of  the  treaty  of,  356 

„        treaty  of,  1526,  355 
Magna  Charta,  clauses  of,  1215, 171 

,,  signed,  171 

Magnavald  murdered,  63 
Maillard,  249 

Maire  du  Palais,  hereditary  office,  70 
"  Maillotins,"  insurrection  of  the,  1330,  267 
Mallum,  the,  74 
Malcontents,  the,  385 
Malines,  league  of,  1513,  338 
Mannes  stormed  by  Caesar,  10 
Mantes  taken  by  Bouoicaut,  252 
Mansourah,  battle  of,  1249,  1 83 
March,  assemblies  of  the  field  of,  49 
Marcel,  Etienne,  237 

,,         assassination,  1358,  249 
,,        Master  of  Paris,  247 
Marches,  99 
March  of  Gascony,  91 
,,  Gothia,  91 

Marguerite  of  Burgundy,  220 

„  Valois,  360 

Marie  de  Medici,  443 

„  coronation  of,  449 

,,  faction  of,  447 

Marius  at  Aix,  7 

Marmousets,  government  of  the,  1389,  272 
Marriage  of  Louis  the  Young  with  Eleanor  of 

Aquitaine,  162 
Marseilles,  or  Massalia,  1 

„  siege  of,  353 

Marshal  Biron,  429 
„        of  Gie.  335 
Marshals,  murder  of  the,  1358,  247 
Marignano,  battle  of,  1515,  346 
Marigny,  Enguerrand  de,  219 

„        trial  and  execution  of,  220 
Martin  IV.,  Pope,  210 
Mary  of  Burgundy,  314 

„    Stuart,  trial  and  execution  of,  1587,  314 


INDEX. 


465 


Matilda  of  Tuscany,  153 
Mayenne,  Duke  of,  429 

,  „         elected  chief  of  the  league, 

425 
„  „  submission  of,  435 

Mayor  of  the  Palace  of  the  Kings,  59 

„     Wulfoald,  71 
Mayors  of  the  Palace,  70 
Medici  (see  Catherine  de),  401 
Meeting  at  Bibracte,  14 
Melancthon,  359 

Memory  of  Clovis,  prestige  of  the,  75 
Mendicant  Orders,  struggle  of,  against  the  Uni- 
versity, 201 
Menippee  the  Satire,  431 
Mercuriale,  a,  378 

„  the  Celebrated,  1559,  379 

Merovic,  escape  of,  57 
„  death  of,  58 

„  made  priest,  57 

Merovig,  family  of,  46 
Merovingian  dynasty,  end  of  the,  70 
„  kings,  power  of  the,  81 

„  name  extinct,  88 

„  princes,  character  of  the,  58 

„  „         cities  founded  by,  99 

„  „         territory  of  the,  81 

„  territories,  duchies  and  counties  of, 

82 
„  ,,        government  of,  82 

Metz,  defence  of,  374 
M^zieres  besieged,  351 
Michael  of  the  Hospital,  387 
Middle  Ages,  state  of  Europe  at  the  end  of  the, 

302 
Milan,  blockade  of,  raised,  1524,  353 
,,      founded,  6th  century  B.C.,  5 
Milanese,  conquest  of  the,  1499,  333 
Military  colonists,  27 

„        equestrian  corps,  4 
,,        operations  (1552-1555),  374 
Minard,  assassination  of  the  president,  384 
Mistletoe,  virtues  attributed  to,  3 
Mohammed,  invasion  of,  77 
Mole,  Edward,  431 
Monasteries  founded  in  Gaul,  48 
Monastery  of  St.  Cloud  founded,  52 

the  Isle  of  Ke,  87 
Moncontour,  battle  of,  1570,  399 
Mongols,  invasion  of  the  East  by,  181 

,,        Jerusalem  conquered  by,  181 
Monks,  occupations  of  the,  49 
Mons-en-Puelle,  214 
Montaigne  Michael,  438 
Montauban,  siege  of,  404 
Montiel,  battle  of,  1369,  255 
Montlhery,  battle  of,  308 
Moatluc,  cruelties  of,  394 
Montmirail,  peace  of,  165 
Montmorency,  172 
Montpellier  and  Dauphine*  reunited  to  France, 

233 
Montpensier,  330 
Morat,  battle  of,  1496,  313 
Moulins,  assembly  of  chief  inhabitants  of,  396 

,,         ordinances  of,  1564,  396 
Mourzon  taken,  351 
Moving  forest,  a,  63 
Mummoles  murdered,  62 
avlunuza,  78 
Muret,  battle  of,  1213, 176 

NANTES,  edict  of,  1598,  436 
Naples  lost  by  the  French,  330 
„         lost  by  the  French  a  second  time, 
335 
Narbonne  founded,  7 
National  assemblies,  94 

VOL.   I. 


Navarette,  battle  of,  1367,  254 

Navarre,  the  King  of,  recognised  as  lieut.-gene- 

ral,  1560,  383 
Nerac,  treaty  of,  1544,  409 
Neustria,  55 

New  divisions  of  territory  substituted  for  im- 
perial, 81 

„    cities  founded  by  the  Gauls,  1380,  18 

„    taxes,  267 
Nicea,  Antioch,  and  Jerusalem  conquered,  156 
Nice,  treaty  of,  1538,  363 
Nicholas  Poulain,  414 
Nicopolis,  battle  of,  1396,  275 
Nominal  kings,  76 
Norman  knights,  conquest  of,  149 

„        treachery  to  Louis  IV.,  1066,  1.22 
Normans,  ravages  of  the,  9th  century,  110,  113 

„         valour  of  the,  150 
Northern  Italy  possessed  by  the  Lombards,  85 
Novem  populania,  82 
Noyon,  treaty  of,  1516,  349 

OFFICES,  sale  of,  by  Henry  II.,  377 
„  of  judicature,  sale  of  the,  1522,  352 

Olivier  le  Dain,  317 
Orders,  religious  military,  200 
Ordonnance  Cabocbienne,  278 
Oriflamme,  the,  163 

,,  unfurled  by  Charles  VI,,  279 

Orleans   and    Burgundy,    rivalry    between   the 
Dukes  of,  278 
„       delivery  of,  291 
„       Maid  of,  290 
„       threatened,  289 
„       truce  of  1514,  338 
Orthez,  treaty  of,  338 
Ostrogoths,  23 
Otho  the  Great,  123 
„  „         death  of,  973,  125 

,,  ,,  power  of,  125 

Otho  II.  surprised  at  Aix,  126 

„  revenge  of,  126 

Otho  III.,  983, 127 
Ottoman  power,  the  decline  of  the,  16th  century, 

438 
Oxford,  the  provisions  of,  188 

PALACE  of  the  Thermse,  41 
Paladin  Koland,  death  of,  90 
Palestine,  Christian  kingdom  founded  in,  156 

,,         or  the  Holy  Land,  153 
Pamiers,  Bishop  of,  216 
Pandolph,  Legate,  171 

Paper,  organs,  Turkey  carpets,  and  clocks  in- 
vented, 8th  century,  97 
Parliament  a  court  of  justice,  185 

„         abasement  of  the,  1519,  348 
„         conduct  of  the,  1593,  431 
Parliaments,  new,  under  Charles  VII.,  300 

„  the  two,  of  Paris  and  Tours,  426 

Parma,  the  Duke  of  Farnese,  429 
Partition  of  the  Empire,  108 
Paris,  famine  in,  1590,  427 

„     loBt  and  regained  by  Chilperic,  66 
„     parliament  of,  1302,  212 
,,     residence  of  Clovis,  41     - 
„     schools  of,  under  Louis  VI.,  203 
„     siege  and  blockade  of,  1590,  427 
„     siege  of,  under  Charles  the  Fat,  114         • 
„     siege  of,  1358,  248 
„     siege  of,  raised,  1590,  428 
„     submission  of  Charles  VI.,  269 
„     synod  of,  615,  67 

„     taken  from  the  Burgundians,  1418,  281 
„     treaty  of,  1229,  180 
Parisians,  chastisement  of  the,  269 
Passau,  convention  of,  1552,  374 
Pastoureaux,  222 

E  H 


466 


INDEX. 


Pastoureaux,  destrnction  of  the,  222 
«'Patarins,"167 

„  and  "  Catharins,"  173 

Patay,  defeat  of  the  English  at,  1429,  292 
Patrician  Mummoles,  58 
Patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  99 
Paul  III.  (Alexander  Earnese),  360 
Pavia,  battle  of,  1525,  354 
Peace,  "badly  established,"  the,  1568,  397 

„     of  Cateau  -  Cambresis,  the   unfortunate, 

377 
„     of  God,  the,  1035,  148 
„     the  Ladies',  1529,  358 
Peers,  lay  and  ecclesiastical,  138 
Pentvans  or  mencheis,  3 
Pepin  and  Carloman,  80 
,,      the  Short,  ancestors  of,  85 
„  „        death  of,  768, 88 

„  „        father  of,  85 

„  „       nine  years'  war  of,  87 

„  „        race  of,  85 

„  ,i        reign  of,  85 

„  „        wars  of,  86 

n  „        sons  of,  88 

„      Mayor  of  the  Palace,  80 
u     bravery  of,  88 
„      coronation  of,  86 
n      consecrated  again,  86 
„      conduct  of,  88 

„     king  of  Aquitaine,  death  of,  838,  107 
„      last  act  of,  714,  75 
,,      of  Landan,  66 

„  „         mayor  in  Austrasia,  70 

„      of  Heristal,  73 
„      sons  of,  75 
„     son  of  Charlemagne,  92 
Pepin  II.,  107 
P^quigny,  John  de,  246 
Perinet  le  Clerc,  281 

Permanent  army,  organization  of  a,  1439,  297 
Peronne,  treaty  of,  1468,  310 

„  „         annulled,  1470,  311 

Pescaire,  Marquis  of,  353 
Peter  the  Cruel,  King  of  Castile,  253 
M  ,,        abdication  of,  254 

„     the  Hermit,  preaching  of,  154 
Pharamond,  418,  29 
Philip  I.,    149 

„         death  of,  157 
„         marriages  of,  157 
„  possessions  of,  158 

„  events  of  reign  of,  156 

Philip  and  Eichard  of  England,  quarrels  of,  168 
Philip  Augustus  II.,  1179,  167 

„  conquests  of,  167  and  177 

„  death  of,  178 

„  excommunicated,  172 

•*  government  and  administration 

*  of,  177 

„  labours  of,  177 

„  marriage  of,  168 

„  power  of,  167 

„  reign  of,  167 

„  treachery  of,  169 

„  third  marriage  of,  172 

Philip  III.,  the  Bold,  207 

„  death  of,  1284,  210 

„  reign  of,  208 

Philip  IV.,  the  Fair,  accession  of,  1284,  210 
„  acquisitions  of  the  crown  under,  219 

.,  character  of,  211 

t,  coinage  altered  by,  218 

„  cruelty  of,  219 

„  death  of,  1314,  219 

„  extortions  and  exactions  of,  212 

„  policy  of,  219 

Philip  V.,  accession  of,  1316,  221 
„         death  of,  1322,  222 


Philip  V.,  ordinances  of,  222 

,,         useful  edicts  of,  223 
Philip  VI.,  accession  of,  1328,  226 
„  character  of,  227 

„  marriage  and  death  of,  1350,  233 

„  new  taxes  of,  232 

„  perfidy  and  cruelty  of,  229 

„  superstition  of,    28 

Philip  de  Rouvre,  death  of,  250 

,,       Count  d'Evreux,  227 
Philip  of  Spain,  cruelties  of,  400 
„         „        intrigues  of,  426 
„         „        pretensions  of,  430 
„      the  Bold,  duke  of  Burgundy,  1362,  250 
Phoceans,  1 

Picardy  defended  by  La  Tremouille,  353 
Piedmont,  conquered  by  the  French,  1536,  362 
Pierre  de  la  Brosse,  disgrace  and  execution  of, 
1278,  208 
„     de  la  Foret,  chancellor  of  France,  237 
,,     de  Luna,  275 
„      Pithou,  450 
Pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Land,  1077, 153 
Pisa,  Council  of,  1511,  337 

„     and  Constance,  councils  of,  1409-1483,  283 
Plague  of  Florence,  the,  1348,  232 
Plantagenet,  House  of,  founder  of  the,  162 
Playing-cards,  invention  of,  284 
Pleiades,  the,  438 
Poissy,  Conference  of,  1561,  3S9 
Poitiers,  Arabs  and  Franks  at,  732,  78 
„  „      defeat  of,  1356,  79 

„       battle  of,  241 
„        detail  of  battle  of,  241 
„        edict  of,  1577,  409 
Poitou  and  Guienne,  revolts  in,  1550,  372 

,,      province  of,  subdued,  1370,  256 
Poncher  and    Semblancay,  execution  of,   1527, 
359 
„         Treasurer,  General,  359 
Pontoise,  states  of,  1561,  389 
Pope  Afapete,  121 
„     Clement  V.,  election  of,  218 
„     Gregory  VII.,  152 
,,    John  VIII.  expelled  from  Italy,  113 
„     Julius  IL,  designs  of,  1510,  337 
„     Urban  II.,  154 
Popes,  power  of  the,  145 

„     universal  supremacy  of  the,  conceived  by 
Hildebrand,  151 
Portugal,  kingdom  of,  founded,  1070,  151 
Pragmatic  sanction,  1256,  185 ;  1438,  300 
,,  „        abolished,  1515,  347 

Praguerie,  insurrection  of  the,  1440,  298 
Pre  aux  Clercs,  promenade  of  the,  378 
President  of  the  Council,  1484,  320 
Pretextatus  assassinated,  58 
Priests,  courage  of  the,  600,  65 
„        in  Gaul,  habits  of,  2 
„        marriage  of,  forbidden,  1073, 152 
Priesthood,  novitiate  for,  among  the  Druids,  2 
Prince  of  Beam,  1560,  399 

„  „        and  Margaret  of  Valois,   mar- 

riage of  the,  400 
„  Cond6,    "the    dumb    captain,"    1560, 

385 
„  „       death  of  Henry  of,  1587,  413 

Princes,  faction  of  the,  1392,  273 

„        league  of  the,  1468,  310  ;  1485,  321 
Princess  Claude,  marriage  of,  1506,  336 
Princely  feudal  houses  in  the  14th  century,  224 
Principal  duchies,  origin  of,  99 

„       cities  of  Gaul,  17 
Printing,  indention  of,  317 
Progress  of  the  Franks,  causes  of  the,  481,  37 
Proper  names,  meaning  of,  481,  33 
"  Protestants,"  357 
Protestantism  in  France,  progress  of,  373 


INDEX. 


Provence  conquered  by  Charles  Martel,  732,  80 

,,         derivation  of,  7 

„         invaded  by  the  imperial  troops,  1536, 
363 
Public  debt  in  Franco,  origin  of,  1547,  367 
"Public  good,"  league  of  the,  1465,  308 

QUEEN  ANNE,  projected  flight  of,  1505,  335 
„       Blanche,  death  of,  1254,  184 
„  „        regency  of,  1226,  180 

„  ,,        jealousy  of,  181 

,,       Bertha  repudiated,  146 
„        Isabeau  of  Bavaria,  1418,  281 
„       Margaret,  courage  of,  1249,  183 
Quinze-vingts,  hospital  founded,  186 

RADEGONDE,  tomb  of,  589,  55 
„  wife  of  Clothair,  54 

Raoul,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  118 
„      elected  king,  923,  118 
„      death  of,  119 
„      wars  in  the  reign  of,  1 18 
„      de  Nesle,  1302,  214 
Eapin  and  Passerat,  poets,  438 
Kauking,  death  of,  63 
Eavaillac,  Francis,  1610,  449 
Ravenna,  battle  of,  1512,  337 
Kaymond,  Count  of  Toulouse,  1095,  155 
Eealists  and  Nominals,  schools  of  the,  203 
Rebellion  of  Austrasian  leudes,  65 
„         of  the  Gauls,  56  B.C.,  10 
Reformation,  origin  of  the,  342 
Reforms  ordered  by  the  States,  considerations 

upon,  1327,  245 
Reformers,  persecution  of  the,  1535,  361 
"  Reitres,"  392 

Religious  persecutions  of  the  Jews,  167 
Relisionaires,  387 

Renry,  execution  of  Pierre,  1327,  227 
Renandi,  385 

Renaissance,  and  its  influence,  the,  369 
,,  first  attempts  of  the,  339 

Revolt  of  the  Frisons,  785,  91 
Richard  of  England,  betrayed  by  Duke  Leopold, 

169 
Richard  Coeur  de  Lion,  captivity  of,  169 
„        killed  at  Chaluz-Chabrol,  1199, 169 
,,        ransom  of,  169 
Richemont,  violent  acts  of  the  Constable,  289 
Rhe.ms,  see  of,  disputed,  121 
Rhine  crossed  by  Caesar,  11 
Rhodes,  siege  of,  1523,  357 
Right  of  Asylum,  575,  57 
„     to  dispose  of  crowns  granted  to  Rome, 
85 
Rise  of  the  Christian  Church,  31 
Robert,  Count  of  Paris,  111 

„        Curt-Hose,   son   of  William  the   Con- 
queror, 155 
„        d'Estouteville,  prevot  of  Paris,  298 
,,        Duke  of  France,  10th  century,  117 
,,        of  Paris  crowned  king,  922,  118 
„        son  of  Capet,  144 
„  „  death  of,  147 

„  „  mildness  and  virtues,  144 

„  „  piety,  145 

„  „  superstition,  145 

„  „  marriage  of,  145 

„  „  religious   persecutions    of, 

146 
Roche-Abeille,  combat  of,  1570,  399 
Rodolph  of  Hapsburgh,  1273,  210 
Rois  faineants,  70 

Rollo,  first  Duke  of  Normandy,  912,  117 
Roman  empire,  destroyers  of  the,  406,  23 

„  in  Constantinople,  fall  of,  1201, 

189 
Roman  Gaul,  Clothair  King  of,  548,  54  • 


Romanic  language,  110  , 

Roman  names  retained  in  parts  of  France,  81 

„      Senate  open  to  the  Gauls,  17 
Romans  besieged  by  Gauls,  12 
Rome,  capture  and  sack  of,  1527,  357 
„      deluged  by  barbarians,  28 
„     invaded  by  Gauls,  5 
„      sacked  by  Visigoths,  424,  29 
Romorantin,  the  edict  of,  1560,  388 
Ronsard,  the  poet,  438 
Roscelin  de  Compiegne,  203 
Rosebecque,  battle  of,  1382,  268 
Roses,  wars  of  the,  in  England,  311 
Rosny,  Henry  IV.'s  speech  to,  1590,  427 
Rouen,  Bordeaux,  and  Nantes  burnt,  9th  century, 

110 
Rouen,  assembly    of  the  principal   inhabitants 

of,  1598,  435 
Ruy,  fortified  camp  of,  92 
"  Royal  cases,"  1256,  185 

„      council,  14th  century,  274 

„      decrees,  1444,  300 

„      domain,   aggrandizement  of  the,  1274, 

208 
„      domain,  recapitulation  of  couquests  of 
the,  in  1327,  224 
Royalty,  elective   and    hereditary,   among   the 

Franks,  46 
Royal  ordinances,  1380,  264 

„      power,  progress  of  the,  987, 135 
„  „        enfeeblement  of  the,  1315,  220 

"  Royal  right,"  the,  215 
Royalty,  progress  of,  under  the  feudal  system,  192 

SABINUS  and  Eponina,  21 
Salviusof  Ally,  58 
Sabl£,  treaty  of,  1487,  323 
Saint  Aubin  du  Cormier,  battle  of,  1487,  323 

„  „  peace  of,  1231,  181 

„      Bartholomew,  massacre  of,  1572,  402 

„     Bartholomew's  Day,  plans  for,  401 

„      Bernard,  Abbot  of  Clairvaux,  163 

„     Croix,  founded  by  Radegonde,  54 

„      Denis,  20 

„  „        battle  of,  1567, 396 

„     Didier,  death  of,  65 

„      Germain,  the  peace  of,  1570,  400 

„      Hilarius,  20 

„      IreDseus,  20 

„     Jacques  Clement,  425 

„     Jean  d'Acre,  siege  of,  168 

„      Martin  of  Tours,  20 

„      Owen  and  St.  Eloi,  69 

„      Pol,  the  constable,  311 

„      Quentin,  battle  of,  1558,  376 
Saladin,  prowess  and  conquests  of,  168 
Salic  law  in  the  6th  century,  49 

„  fhe,  1316,  221 

„  first  application  of  the,  221 

„      etymologies  for  the  word,  27 

„      Franks,  49 

„     law  fully  recognised,  226 
Sancerre,  Marshal  de.  1380,  260 

„         siege  of.  1572,  404 
Saracens  in  the  8th  century,  90 
Saragossa,  siege  of,  90 
Saxons,  the,  771,  89 
„        baptized,  89 

„        conquered  by  Charlemagne,  89 
Saxony  finally  subdued,  804,  92 

„      ravaged  by  Charlemagne,  92 
Saxons,  Franks,  andAUemanni,  26 
Savoy,  campaign  in,  1600,  441 
Schools  established  in  Gaul,  19 
Sciences  in  the  13th  century,  205 
Sctland,  troubles  in,  13th  century,  213 
Sculpture  and  painting  during  the  Crusades,  199 
**  Sea  kings,"  111 


468 


INDEX. 


Seigneur  de  Chievres,  348 

Semblancay,  1521,  351 

Senate,  causes  of  discord  in  the,  8 

„       in  Gaul,  the,  8 
Senlis,  treaty  of,  1493,  325 
Sentiment  of  nationality,  4 
Septimania,  82 

„  conquered  by  Pepin,  87 

Serfs,  the,  in  the  13th  century,  202 
„  condition  of,  under  the  feudal  system, 

139 
Sicilian  vespers,  1282,  209 
Siege  of  Aries  raised,  40 
Siege  of  Gergovia  raised,  14 

„       Paris,  1429,  293 
Sieur  Eustache  de  St.  Pierre,  the,  231 
Sigebert  I.,  55 

„        and  Bishop  Germanus,  56 
„        assassinated,  56 
Sigebert  III.,  accession  of,  70 
„  character  of,  71 

„  religious  practices  of,  71 

Sigismund,  murder  of,  52 

„  son  of  Gondeband,  52 

Simon  de  Montfort,  1202, 172 
Sire  de  Monthery,  161 
"  Six  Nations,"  the,  1484,  319 
Sixteen,  council  of  the,  1588,  414 
„        excesses  of  the,  1591,  428 
„        faction  of  the,  1587,  413 
Slothful  kings,  the  first,  638,  70 
Smalcalde,  League  of,  1531,  359 
Sons  of  Clovis,  51 

„        Louis  I.  make  war  against  him,  106 
Sorbonne  founded,  187 
Spain,  apogee  of  power  of,  437 

„      and  France,  war  between,  334 
„      and  Portugal,  1473,  303 
Spanish  monarchy,    grandeur    and   decadence 

under  Philip  II.,  437 
State  of  Europe,  considerations  upon,  436 
State  of  the  towns  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 

centuries,  193 
States-General,  the,  1350,  234 
„  of  1355,  237 

„  of  1356,  243 

„  of  1369,  256 

„  of  1420,  282 

„  of  1484,  319 

„  at  Orleans,  1439,  296 

„  celebrated,  1357,  244 

„  convoked  at  Blois,  1588,  416 

„  of  the  League  at  Paris,  1593,  430 

,,  of  Tours,  1468,  309 

States,  important  acts  of  the,  237 
States  of  Blois,  first,  1576,  408 
States  of  Orleans,  387 
Stephen  II.,  Pope,  86 
Suevi  and  Saxons,  24 
Suger,  Abbe"  of  St.  Denis,  163 
Sully,  combinations  against,  445 

„      mission  to  England  of,  1601,  446 
Surenes  and  Villette,  conferences  of,  1593,  430 
Suzerain,  the,  136 
Swiss,  alliance  with  the,  1515,  347 

„     bravery  of  the,  1444,  299 
Switzerland,  campaigns  of  the  French  in,  1444, 

299 
"Sword  of  the  wrath  of  God,"  the,  58 
Syagrius  attacked  by  Clovis,  38 
Synod,  first  Calvinistic,  1559,  380 
Synods  or  councils,  10th  century,  143 
Sylvester  II.,  147 

TABORITES,  303 
Tactics,  diplomacy  in    the    fifteenth    cen- 
tury, 342 
Taillebourg,  battle  of,  1242,  181 


Tamberlane,  302 

Tarascon,  treaty  of,  1289,  211 

Tassillon,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  91 

Tax,  perpetual,  1439,  297 

Taxation,  direct  and  indirect,  1439,  238 

Templars,  the,  200 

„  destruction  of  the  order  of  the,  1309, 

218 
Tentberga,  112 

Tenth  century,  disasters  of  the,  131 
Territorial  estates,  51 
Testry,  battle  of,  75 
Tetricus,  21 
Teutonic  people,  24 
Teutons,  invasion  of  the,  7 
"  The  Plain  of  Falsehood,"  106 
Theodobald,  53 

Theodebert,  son  of  Thierry  I.,  53 
„         death  of,  54 
„  the  First,  54 

„  treachery  of,  54 

Theodebert  II.,  596,  64 

„  murder  of,  65 

Theodoric  the  Great,  daugh'ers  of,  53 
„  extinction  of  race  of,  53 

„  King  of  the  Visigoths,  39 

„  summary  of  life  of,  53 

Thierry  I.,  534,  52 
Thierry  II.,  64 

„         imprisoned  by  Pepin,  74 
„  sons  of,  65 

Thierry  III.,  made  prisoner  by  his  brother,  72 

„  proclaimed  king,  72 

Third  Estate,  progress  of  the,  13th  century,  202 
Thirteenth  century,  inventions  of  the,  263 
„  „         literature  of  the,  263 

Thomas  a  Becket,  champion  of  the  Church,  165 
death  of,  1172,  166 
„      de  Maries,  161 
Throne  of  France,  candidates  for  the,  1328,  226 
„  „  competition  for  the,  ]  350,  236 

„  ,.  competitors  for  the,  1590, 426 

Thuringia  annexed  to  the  Frank  monarchy,  52 
Time  necessary  for  civilization,  100 
Tournaments,  199 
Tournay,  an  episcopal  see,  41 
Treaty  of  peace,  1304,  214 
Trial  by  ordeal,  50 

Tribes,  division  among  the  of  Gaul,  6 
Tristan  the  Hermit,  317 
Triumvirate,  the,  1561,  389 
Trivulzio,  the  Milanese,  329 
Troubadours,  most  celebrated  works  of  the,  199 
Trouveres  and  Troubadours,  199 
Troyes,  treaty  of,  1420,  282 
Truce  of  God,  the,  1040, 143 

„      ofl346tol385, 232 
Truccia,  battle  of,  63 
Tumuli,  3 

Turks,  invasion  of  the,  1396,  275 
Twelfth  century,  ecclesiastical  possessions  in  the, 
159 

UMBRIANS,  invasion  of  the,  14  B.C.,  5 
Underhand  peace,  the,  1409,  277 
Union,  edict  of,  1558,  416 
United  Provinces,  liberation  of,  1581,  410 
University  of  Paris  founded,  1260, 177 

„        rights  and  privileges  of  the, 
178 
Urban  II.,  effect  of  eloquence,  154 

„         Pontificate  of,  153 
Urban  VI.,  259 

VALENTINA  of  Milan,  276 
Valois,  accession  of  the,  1328,  226 
Valois,  Maine  and  Anjou  gained  by  the  crown  of 
France,  227 


INDEX. 


469 


Vaquerie,  John  de  la,  317 

Vasconia,  90 

Vasco  di  Gama,  discoveries  of,  342 

Vasconia,  or  Gascony,  82 

Vase  of  Soissons,  the,  46 

Vassals,  obligations  of,  137 

Vassy,  massacre  of,  390 

Vates,  or  Ovates,  2 

Vaucelles  and  Eome,  contradictory  treaties  of, 

1555,  376 
Venaissin  ceded  to  the  Pope,  1274,  208 
Vendome,  conferences  at,  1559,  383 
Venice  in  the  15th  century,  326 
„      ally  of  France,  1509,  336 
Verceil,  treaty  of,  1495,  330 
Verdun  besieged  and  captured,  127 
Vercingetorix,  13 

„  death  of,  16 

„  defeat  of,  16 

„  surrender  of,  16 

Verneuil,  battle  of,  1424,  289 
Vervam,  snakes'  eggs,  medical  virtues  of,  3 
Vervins,  effect  of  the  treaty  of,  439 

„      peace  of,  1598,  436 
"Very  Christian  king,"  the,  315 
Vesc,  Seneschal  of  Beaucaire,  327 
Vielleville,  Marshal  of  Prance,  380 
Vincy,  battle  of,  717,  76 
Virgin,  a  letter  from  the,  183 
Viscount  de  B^ziers  poisoned,  1209,  175 
Visible  hierarchy  of  clergy,  48 
Vitiges,  general  of  the  Ostrogoths,  53 
Vitry,  massacre  of,  164 

WALDENSES,  massacre  of,  1546,  366 
Waratho,  74 


War  against  the  Albigenses,  cessation  of  the, 

1229,  176 
"  War  of  Investitures,"  the,  153 
War  of  the  Lovers,  410 
Warnacharius,  66 

Wars  of  the  Albigenses,  events  in  the,  1213,  176 
„      in  Brittany,  end  of,  1365,  253 
„     in  Italy,  end  of  the,  1558,  377 
„  „        the  results,  377 

„     of  the  Roses,  end  of  the,  1485,  322 
Warfare,  new  system  of,  1375,  256 
William  the  Bastard,  1052,  150 
William  the  Conqueror,  burial  of,  157 

„  „  "churching"  of,  156 

„  „  death  of,  156 

„  „  sons  of,  157 

William  Longsword,  Duke  of  Normandy,  120 

„  „  murder  of,  121 

William  of  Orange,  death  of,  1583,  411 
William  the  Silent,  410 
William  Wallace,  2U 
William  IX.,  count  of  Poictiers,  199 
William  X.,  duke  of  Aquitaine,  162 
Wissart,  bouigeois,  231 
Wittikind  defeated  at  Detmold,  782,  90 

„  reappearance  of,  90 

Wycliffe  in  England,  341 

■yiMENES,  Cardinal,  348 

ZACHAEIAH,  Pope,  85 
Zara,  capital   of  Dalmatia,  seized    by  the 
Doge  Dandolo,  172 
Zeriksee,  victories  of  the  French  at,  1304,  214 


END   OF  VOL.  I. 


HISTORY   OF   FRANCE.   .« 


BY 


EMILE  DE  BONNECHOSE. 


TO 


THE   B'EVOLUTION   OF   1848. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 
VOL.  II. 


AUTHORIZED  TRANSLATION,  EDITED  BY  S.  O.  BEETON, 
FROM   THE  THIRTEENTH  EDITION. 


LONDON: 
WARD,   LOCK,   AND   TYLER, 

WARWICK    HOUSE,     PATERNOSTER    ROW. 

1868. 


LONDON : 

SAVILL,   EDWAEDS  AND  CO.,    PBINTEES,   CHANDOS   STEEET, 

COVENT   GARDEN. 


CONTENTS 

OF 

THE    SECOND    VOLUME. 


THIRD  EPOCH— continued. 

BOOK  III. 

FRANCE  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

REIGN  OP  LOUIS  XIII. — RICHELIEU'S  ADMINISTRATION — THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR 
— REIGN  OE  LOUIS  XIV. — MAZARIN's  ADMINISTRATION — WAR  OP  THE  PRONDE 
— GOVERNMENT  AND  CONQUESTS  OF  LOUIS  XIV. — SPLENDOUR  AND  POWER  OP 
THE  MONARCHY — REVOCATION  OP  THE  EDICT  OP  NANTES — PRENCH  REVERSES 
— ENORMOUS   DEBT — A   GREAT   LITERARY  AGE. 

PAGE 

CHAP.        I.    THE  EEIGN  OF  LOUIS  XIII.  TO  RICHELIEU'S   MINISTRY  ...         1 

—  II.    RICHELIEU'S  MINISTRY  .  . 15 

—  III.    MINORITY   OF  LOUIS  XIV. — MAZARIN's    MINISTRY — WAR  OF  THE  FRONDE      49 

—  IV.    THE   REIGN   OF   LOUIS   XIV.,  FROM  THE  DEATH  OF    MAZARIN   TO  THAT  OF 

COLBERT 68 

—  V.    CONTINUATION  AND  END  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  LOUIS  XIV.  .  .85 


BOOK   IV. 

FROM  THE  ACCESSION   OF   LOUIS   XV.  TO    THE   THRONE    TO  THE 
CONVOCATION  OF  THE  STATES- GENERAL  UNDER  LOUIS  XVI. 

ENPEEBLEMENT  OP  ALL  THE  POWERS — GAMBLING  IN  GOVERNMENT  SECURITIES — 
GENERAL  CORRUPTION  OF  MORALS — RUINOUS  WARS — DESTRUCTION  AND  RE- 
ESTABLISHMENT  OP  THE  PARLIAMENTS — DISSOLUTION  OP  THE  MONARCHY — 
INFLUENCE   EXERCISED   BY   THE   PHILOSOPHERS. 

CHAP.        I.    REGENCY  OF  THE  DUKE   OF   ORLEANS  AND   MINISTRY    OF   THE  DUKE  OF 

BOURBON        .  114 


VI  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 
CHAP.     II.    CONTINUATION  OF  THE  EEIGN  OP  LOUIS  XV.,    FROM    THE    COMMENCE- 
MENT    OF    THE     MINISTRY    OF     FLEURY    TO    THAT    OF  THE   SEVEN 
YEARS'  WAR 133 

—  III.    FROM  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  SEVEN  YEARS*  WAR  TO  THE  DEATH 

OF  LOUIS  XV. 154 

—  IV.    FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  LOUIS  XVI.  TO  THE  THRONE  TO  THE  CONVOCA- 

TION OF  THE  STATES-GENERAL 171 


FOURTH  PERIOD. 

THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  FROM  1789  TO  THE  PRESENT 

TIME. 

THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

BOOK  I. 

THE  STATES-GENERAL — THE  CONSTITUENT  ASSEMBLY — THE   LEGISLATIVE    ASSEMBLY 

— FALL  OF   THE    MONARCHY. 

CHAP.        I.    FROM  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  STATES- GENERAL  TO  THE  DISSOLUTION  OF 

THE   CONSTITUENT  ASSEMBLY 197 

—  II.    THE  LEGISLATIVE   ASSEMBLY 217 

book  n. 

THE  FKENCH  EEPUBLIC  TO  THE  CONSULATE. 

THE  NATIONAL  CONVENTION — THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR, — VICTORIES  OF  THE  FRENCH 
ARMIES — CONQUEST  OF  BELGIUM,  HOLLAND,  SWITZERLAND,  AND  ITALY — 
REACTION  OF  THE  MODERATE  AND  ROYALIST  PARTY  —  THE  DIRECTORIAL 
GOVERNMENT — ANARCHY — DEFEATS — EXPEDITION  TO  EGYPT — FALL  OF  THE 
DIRECTORY. 

CHAP.        I.    FROM  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  NATIONAL  CONVENTION  TO  THE  FALL  OF 

THE   GIRONDISTS 229 

—  II.   FROM   THE   FALL   OF   THE   GIRONDISTS   TO   THAT   OF   ROBESPIERRE.  .    245 

—  III.    FROM    THE     FALL    OF     ROBESPIERRE    TO    THE   ESTABLISHMENT  OF   THE 

EXECUTIVE   DIRECTORY 261 

—  IV.    FROM    THE    ESTABLISHMENT    OF    THE    DIRECTORY    TO    THE  PEACE  OF 

CAMPO-FORMIO 272 

—  V.    FROM    THE   PEACE   OF  CAMPO-FORMIO   TO   THE   ESTABLISHMENT   OF   THE 

CONSULATE .'•'""'.  .  •    294 


CONTENTS.  Vll 


BOOK  III. 
CONSULAR  AND  IMPERIAL  GOVERNMENT. 

ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  CONSULATE — COMPAIGNS  OP  1800  IN  ITALY  AND  GERMANY 
— VICTORIES — PEACE  OP  AMIENS — CONSPIRACIES — ELEVATION  OP  NAPOLEON 
BONAPARTE    TO    THE    IMPERIAL    CROWN — THIRD    AND    POURTH    COALITION — 

campaigns  pp  1805,  1806,  1807,  in  Austria,  Prussia,  and  Poland- 
military  TRIUMPHS  —  CONQUESTS  —  UNFORTUNATE  WAR  IN  SPAIN  —  FIFTH 
.  COALITION— CAMPAIGN. OP  1809  IN  AUSTRIA — FRESH  VICTORIES — CONTINENTAL 
SYSTEM — SIXTH  COALITION — WAR  IN  RUSSIA — DISASTERS — CAMPAIGNS  OF  1813 
AND  1814  IN  GERMANY  AND  FRANCE — NAPOLEON'S  ABDICATION — HIS  DE- 
PARTURE FOR  THE  ISLAND  OP  ELBA. 

PAGB 
CHAP.        I.   CONSULATE 307 

—  II.    FROM    T.HE    ACCESSION   OF   NAPOLEON   TO    THE   THRONE   TO  THE  SEIZURE 

OF    SPAIN 334 

—  III.  FROM  THE  CONFERENCE  AT  ERFURT  TO  NAPOLEON' S  ABDICATION  OF 

FONTAINEBLEAU 360 


BOOK  IV. 

FIRST  PERIOD  OF  THE    CONSTITUTIONAL   AND    PARLIAMENTARY 

MONARCHY. 

FIRST  RESTORATION — REIGN  OF  LOUIS  XVIII. — GRANT  OF  THE  CHARTER  OF  1814 — 
RETURN  OF  NAPOLEON — THE  HUNDRED  DAYS — THE  SECOND  RESTORATION — 
CONTINUANCE  AND  END  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  LOUIS  XVIII. — REIGN  OF  CHARLES  X. 
— REVOLUTION    OF   JULY — CHARTER   OF    1830 — ACCESSION  OF   LOUIS -PHILIPPE. 

CHAP.        I.    FIRST   RESTORATION — THE    HUNDRED    DAYS.  .  .  .  .  .412 

—  II.    FROM   THE   CAPITULATION   OF   PARIS   AND   THE  RETURN   OF    LOUIS  XVIII. 

TO   THE    CAPITAL,    TO    THE   FALL   OF   THE    MINISTER   DECAZES     .  .    437 

—  III.    FROM     THE     FALL     OF     THE     MINISTER    DECAZES     TO     THE    DEATH    OF 

LOUIS  XVIII. ,  .  .  .  .  458 

IV.    THE   REIGN   OF   CHARLES   X. — THE     REVOLUTION     OF     1830 — ACCESSION 

OF    LOUIS-PHILIPPE 482 


BOOK  V. 

SECOND  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  AND  PARLIAMENTARY 

MONARCHY. 

THE    REIGN     OF    LOUIS-PHILIPPE — THE    REVOLUTION   OF    FEBRUARY, 
1848 — THE     FALL    OF   THE   MONARCHY. 

CHAP.        I.    FROM      THE      ACCESSION       OF       LOUIS-PHILIPPE     TO      THE      DEATH      OF 

CASIMIR    PURLER 511 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

chap.  ii.  the  compte- rendu — conflicts  op  the  5th  and  6th  june — civil 
war — the  ministry  from  the  llth  october  to  the  general 
elections  op  1834 530 

iii.  ministerial  crisis — reconstruction  of  the  cabinet  of  the  llth 

october — the  laws  of  september — dissolution  of  the  cabinet  544 

iv.  first  ministry   of   m.  thiers — ministry    of   m.    molf    till    the 

coalition 554 

—  v.  the  coalition — ministry  of  the  third  party — second  ministry 

op  m.  thiers 568 

—  vi.  the  ministry   op  the  29th  october  till  the  general  elections 

op  1846 582 

vii.  the   general  election — the   spanish  marriages— the  position 

of  affairs  at   home   and  abroad — preludes  to  the  revolu- 
tion of  february 594 

—  viii.  legislative  session  of  1848 — revolution  of  february       .        .  608 

—  ix.  remarks   on   the  constitutional  and  parliamentary  monarchy 

IN  PRANCE  PROM   1814  TO   1'848 619 


HISTOKY   OF   FKANCE. 

[Continuation  of  the  Third  Epoch?) 


BOOK  III. 

FRANCE  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Reign  of  Louis  XIII. — Richelieu's  Administration. — The  Thirty  Years' 

War. — Reign  of   Louis  XIY. — Mazarin's    Administration. — War 

of  the  Fronde. — Government  and   Conquests   of  Louis  XIV. — 

Splendour    and   Power   of   the    Monarchy. — Revocation   of   the 

Edict  of  Nantes. — French  Reverses. — EnorxMOus  Debt. — A  great 

Literary  Age. 

1610-1715. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    REIGN    OF    LOUIS    XIII.    TO    RICHELIEU'S    MINISTRY. 

1610-1624. 

Henry  IV.  left  his  kingdom  in  a  nourishing  state — treasure  amounting 

to  fifteen  millions,  large  bodies  of  well-disciplined  troops, 

strong  places  abundantly  supplied  with  the  materials  of  war,    France  at  the 

secession  of 

firm  alliances   with  other  kingdoms,  and  a  well-composed   Louis  xin., 

lolO. 

council   of  state.      After  his  death,  the  feebleness    of  the 
Government,  the  quarrels  of  the  princes,  and  the  jealous  ambition  and 
caprices  of  the  Queen- mother,  had  speedily  scattered  all  these  elements  of 
prosperity.     The  great  nobles  had  acquired  during  the  intestine  dissen- 

VOL.    II.  '  B 


2  BEGENCY   OF    MAEIE   DE   MEDICI.       [BoOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

sions  habits  of  independence  and  sovereignty,  levied  on  their  own  account 
troops  and  imposts  in  the  provinces  and  cities  which  they  governed,  and 
subsidized  a  certain  number  of  gentlemen,  who  were  always  ready  to 
support  them,  sword  in  hand,  against  the  royal  authority.  The  greater 
number  of  the  nobility  had  lost  during  the  wars  of  religion  their  former 
inviolable  respect  for  the  person  of  the  Prince,  and  even  any  conscious- 
ness of  their  duties  towards  him.  There  had  thus  been  formed  a  powerful 
class  of  men  which  did  not  constitute — as  has  been  too  often  asserted — a 
new  feudalism,  since  it  possessed  no  power  which  did  not  emanate  from  the 
Crown,  and  which  was  not  revocable  at  will,  but  which  arose  from  the  cir- 
cumstance, that  those  who  possessed  the  more  important  posts,  and  whom 
Henry  IV.  had  known  how  to  keep  in  check,  had,  since  his  death,  abused 
their  trust.  Patriotism  had  died  out ;  every  thought,  every  effort  of  the 
princes  and  great  nobles  was  directed  towards  their  own  aggrandisement ; 
and  no  other  age  could  present  more  shameful  examples  of  unbridled 
ambition  and  insatiable  cupidity  amongst  the  first  persons  of  the  State. 
In  spite  of  so  many  elements  of  ruin  and  anarchy,  no  shock  was  felt  at 
the  first  announcement  of  a  change  in  the  monarchy.     Marie 

Marie  de  Me-  ...  .  .  °  ... 

<iici,  Regent,  de  Medici,  an  imperious,  violent,  and  vindictive  woman, 
at  once  claimed  the  right  to  assume  the  regency  of  the 
kingdom.  There  was  no  law,  however,  by  which  she  could  legally  claim 
this  office,  and  none  which  defined  its  attributes.  The  monarchy  had  no 
fundamental  constitution,  and  it  was  from  this  fact  that  arose  the  nume- 
rous plagues  which  afflicted  France  on  each  occurrence  of  a  minority. 
On  the  other  hand,  none  of  the  members  of  the  Bourbon  family  were  in 
a  position  to  dispute  her  authority.  Conde,  the  first  prince  of  the  blood, 
was  abroad ;  the  Prince  of  Conti  was  infirm  and  imbecile  ;  the  Count  de 
Soissons  lived  at  a  distance  from  the  Court.  The  Duke  d'Epernon, 
colonel-general  of  infantry,  had  the  hall  in  which  the  Parliament,  ex- 
ceptionally convoked,  was  already  debating,  surrounded  with  troops ;  and, 
three  hours  after  the  death  of  the  King,  his  widow  was  declared  to  be  the 
Eegent.  On  the  following  day,  at  a  bed  of  justice,  presided  over  by  the 
infant  King,  that  assembly  pronounced  its  decision. 

Marie  de  Medici  at  first  followed  the  advice  of  Villeroi,  who  had  been 
Minister  during  the  four  last  monarchies,  and  retained  the  council  of  the 
late  King ;  although  she,  at  the  same  time,  weakened  it  by  admitting  into 
it  many  ambitious  pretenders. 


1610-1624.]  TAKING  OF  JTJLIEKS.  3 

The  question  of  war  or  peace  was  the  first  which  had  to  be  decided. 
Sully  wished  to  persist  m  the  path  followed  by  Henry  IV.,  and  to 
maintain  to  the  death  the  war  with  the  House  of  Austria;  but  his 
advice  was  only  followed  in  part.  The  Duke  of  Savoy  was  abandoned 
to  the  resentment  of  Spain,  although  he  had  compromised  himself  on  behalf 
of  France ;  and  he  was  compelled  to  sue  for  pardon  to  Philip  III.  In 
Germany,  operations  were  confined  to  the  prosecution  of  the  siege  of 
Juliers,  a  city  which  had  been  seized  by  the  Archduke  Leopold,  and 
which  capitulated  to  Marshal  de  la  Chatre  and  Maurice,  TakinJ.of j  lier 
Prince  of  Orange,  who  placed  it  in  the  hands  of  the  two  161°* 
principal  competitors  for  its  possession,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  and 
the  Count  Palatine  of  Neubourg,  the  brother-in-law  of  the  last  Duke  of 
Cleves  and  Juliers.  This  campaign  had  no  other  results;  and  the 
Eegent  hastened  to  abandon  the  policy  of  Henry  IV. ;  the  deplorable 
state  into  which  France  had  fallen  in  the  space  of  a  few  months  offering, 
it  may  be  added,  serious  obstacles  to  the  accomplishment  of  those  vast 
projects  which  can  only  be  successfully  pursued  when  a  nation  is  calm 
and  prosperous  in  itself. 

Conde  had  re-entered  France,  and,  as  the  price  of  his  adhesion  to  the 
regency  of  Marie/de  Medici,  had  demanded  immense  pecuniary  compen- 
sation. All  the  courtiers,  following  his  example,  had  claimed  gold  or 
honours,  and  Medici  believed  that,  to  secure  the  peaceful  possession  of 
the  regency,  it  was  only  necessary  to  enrich  her  friends  and  her  enemies. 
Possessed  by  this  unfortunate  idea,  she  converted  into  gifts  and  pensions 
the  treasure  left  by  the  late  King,  and  when  it  was  exhausted,  found  her- 
self deprived  of  the  means  of  defence  against  those  whose  cupidity  or 
ambition  she  had  excited  without  possessing  the  means  of  satisfying  them. 
Never  had  the  highest  members  of  the  aristocracy  displayed  Exactions  f  th 
so  greedy  a  desire  for  wealth ;  and  in  fact  the  whole  of  France  nobles- 
appeared  to  be  delivered  over  to  the  mercy  of  a  number  of  plunderers 
whose  numbers  insured  them  immunity.  The  nobles  demanded  tolls  on 
roads  which  were  free,  and  taxes  in  cities  which  were  exempt  from  them. 
They  created  offices,  patents  of  nobility,  and  privileges  of  all  sorts  for 
money,  and  secretly  increased  the  amount  of  every  species  of  duty  and 
excise. 

Sully  left  a  council  which    connived  at  these  proceedings,  and  was 
forced  to  resign  the  superintendence  of  the  finances  and  the  government 

B  2 


4  RISE  OE   CONCINI.  [Book  III.  Chap.  I. 

of  the  Bastille,  although  he  still  remained  grand-voyer  of  France,  and 
Eetfrementof  grand-maitrise  of  artillery,  and  retained  the  governorships 
u  y'  of  Poitou  and  La  Eochelle.      From  this  time  he  seldom 

visited  the  Court,  remaining  in  retreat  at  his  estates,  where  he  lived 
respected  until  the  age  of  eighty-two.* 

The  Guises  and  the  Condes,  the  Bouillons  and  the  Epernons,  therefore, 
remained  the  sole  masters  of  the  kingdom,  and  vied  with  each  other  in 
Elevation  of  cupidity,  egotism,  and  violence.  But  in  the  midst  of  these 
disorders  Marie  de  Medici  had  raised  her  favourite  Concini 
to  the  highest  pinnacle  of  honour  and  fortune.  He  was  a  Marshal  of 
France  although  he  had  never  borne  arms,  was  first  gentleman  of  the 
chamber,  Governor  of  Amiens,  Peronne,  and  many  other  places ;  had  pur- 
chased the  marquisate  of  Ancre,  of  which  he  bore  the  title,  and  directed 
the  Queen's  counsels  as  he  chose. 

This  shameful  prosperity  excited  the  envy  of  the  great  nobles  rather 
than  their  indignation ;  and  at  this  time  the  court  consisted  of  three 
parties ;  those  of  the  Conde,  of  Guise,  and  of  Concini,  which  were  by 
turns  united  or  divided,  according  to  the  interests  or  caprices  of  their 
leaders.  Money  edicts  were  commonly  speculated  on ;  Signora  Galigai, 
the  wife  of  Concini,  openly  sold  the  decrees  of  the  Council ;  those  of  the 
Parliament  had  long  since  fallen  into  contempt,  and  crimes  remained 
generally  unpunished.  In  the  open  day,  in  the  street  Saint  Honore,  the 
Chevalier  Guise  assassinated  the  Baron  de  Luz,  suspected  of  having  be- 
trayed the  House  of  Lorraine  ;  and  the  son  of  the  victim,  having  attempted 
to  avenge  his  father's  death,  perished  by  the  same  hand,  without  a  single 
voice  being  raised  against  the  double  crime. 

A  revolt  burst  forth  at  length,  but  it  was  not  the  excess  of  the  public 
-.„.      e         misfortunes  which  lit  its  flame.     At  the  commencement  of 

Rebellion  01 

Conde,  1614.  1614)  tlie  prince  pf  Conde,  the  Dukes  of  Nevers,  Mayenne, 
Bouillon,  and  Longueville,  being  leagued  against  Concini,  seized  Mezieres 
in  the  Ardennes,  and  raised  the  standard  of  insurrection.  Conde  was  at 
the  head  of  the  movement,  and  published  a  manifesto  which  exposed  in 

*  Having  been  summoned  on  a  certain  occasion  by  Louis  XV.  to  an  audience,  he 
perceived  that  bis  old-fashioned  costume  excited  the  ridicule  of  the  young  courtiers. 
"Sire,"  said  he  to  the  King,  "I  am  too  old  to  change  my  habits.  When  the  late 
King,  your  father,  of  glorious  memory,  did  me  the  honour  to  summon  me  to  an 
audience  on  affairs  of  State,  he  used  first  to  dismiss  the  buffoons  and  mounte- 
banks." 


1610-1624.]  THE   PALTET  PEACE.  5 

bitter  terms  the  ill  administration  of  the  Queen.  It  reproached  it  with 
having  broken  off  the  projected  union  between  the  young  King  and  the 
House  of  Savoy,  for  the  purpose  of  concluding  two  unpopular  alliances 
with  the  House  of  Austria,  in  allusion  to  the  project  of  a  double  alliance, 
on  the  one  part  between  the  Infanta  of  Spain  and  Louis  XIII.,  and  on  the 
other  part  between  the  Princess  Elizabeth  of  France  and  the  Prince  of 
the  Asturias ;  reproached  it  with  having  failed  to  observe  the  Edict  of 
Nantes ;  with  having  overwhelmed  the  poor  with  taxes ;  and  openly 
attacked  the  insolent  foreigners  in  whose  hands  was  the  government  of  the 
kingdom. 

This  movement,  made  by  grandees  in  the  name  of  the  popular  interests, 
attracted,  however,  but  little  popular  sympathy.  The  mass  of  the 
people  and  the  Protestants,  enlightened  by  Duplessis-Mornay,  perceived 
beneath  this  mask  the  real  passions  and  aims  of  ambitious  and  discon- 
tented men,  and  remained  deaf  to  the  appeal.  Villeroi  advised  the  Queen 
to  make  an  immediate  attack  on  the  Confederates,  and  his  advice  was 
good ;  but  Concini  preferred  to  deliberate.  The  opinion  of  Malotrue  peace 
the  latter  was  followed,  and  the  treaty  of  Sainte-Menehould,  161  ' 
surnamed  the  "  Malotrue  Peace"  (Paltry  Peace),  was  concluded  in  1614. 
By  this  treaty  the  Queen  increased  the  dignities  and  pensions  of  the  rebel 
lords,  and  promised  a  prompt  assembly  of  the  States-General. 

Louis  XIII.  was  now  in  his  fourteenth  year,  and  was  recognised  as  of 
age,  but  it  was  long  after  this  ere  he  was  anything  save  King  in 
name;  and  at  the  bed  of  justice  at  which  his  majesty  was  proclaimed,  the 
young  Louis  said  to  his  mother — "  I  consent  and  wish  that  you  should  be 
obeyed  in  everything  and  everywhere,  and  that,  after  me,  you  should  be 
the  head  of  my  council."  Marie  de  Medici  still,  therefore,  retained  her 
power ;  and  for  the  purpose  of  executing  the  treaty  of  Sainte-Menehould, 
she  convoked  the  States-General  for  the  26th  October  of  that  year. 
These  States  were  the  last  which  assembled  before  those  ot  1789.  On 
this  occasion  it  consisted  of  nearly  five  hundred  deputies  of  sta{es. General 
the  three  orders.  The  Queen  and  her  Ministers  endea-  1614# 
voured  to  paralyse  their  influence  by  setting  them  against  each  other,  and 
in  this  they  were  successful.  Each  order  urged  its  own  claims.  The 
clergy,  in  whose  ranks  figured  an  orator  already  distinguished,  and  soon 
to  become  celebrated — Armand  du  Plessis,  Bishop  of  Lucon — demanded 
that  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent  should  be  recognised  in  France 


6  PEOCEEDINGS   OE   THE    STATES-GENERAL.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  L. 

in  their  entirety ;  the  nobility  asked  for  the  abolition  of  the  Droit  de 
paulette  ;*  and  the  Third  Estate  desired  the  suppression  or  diminution  of 
the  pensions  which  weighed  so  heavily  on  the  Treasury.  The  latter 
order  found  itself  cruelly  humiliated  by  the  two  others.  It  was  little  that, 
according  to  custom,  the  sheriff  of  the  merchants,  Miron,  who  was  its 
president,  was  only  allowed  to  address  the  President  on  his  knees ;  he  was 
reproached  for  having  compared  the  three  orders  of  the  Assembly  to  a 
great  family,  of  which  the  nobility  and  clergy  were  the  elder  branches,, 
and  the  Third  Estate  the  younger.  The  Queen  herself  treated  the 
deputies  of  this  order  with  rudeness  and  arrogance,  although  they  were 
the  most  zealous  defenders  of  the  royal  prerogatives ;  not  only  demanding- 
that  it  should  be  established  as  a  principle  that  sovereigns  should  not  be 
deposed  on  account  of  heresy,  but  'even  expressing  a  wish  that  the  Crown 
should  be  rendered,  by  a  formal  law,  independent  of  the  spiritual  power. 
The  clergy,  by  the  mouth  of  Cardinal  Duperron,  formerly  Minister  to 
Henry  IV.,  energetically  combated  those  propositions,  and  the  Assembly 
evaded  coming  to  any  decision  on  the  subject. 

The  Assembly  was  dissolved  in  the  course  of  the  following  year  without 
having  achieved  any  important  result ;  and  the  deputies  were  dismissed 
with  a  vague  promise  that  the  Government  would  examine  their 
memorials  and  take  into  consideration  their  demands.  The  memorials  of 
Memorials  of  ^ie  Third  Estate  contained  the  elements  of  a  portion  of  the 
the  Third  Estate.  reforms  accomplished,  at  the  close  of  the  following  century, 
by  a  more  celebrated  Assembly.  These  were,  an  uniform  system  of 
customs  and  weights  and  measures,  the  abolition  of  masterships  and 
warderships,  the  suppression  of  farmers-general  of  the  finances  and  of 
exceptional  tribunals,  and  the  diminution  of  the  excise  duties,  and  of  aids. 
But,  of  all  these  wise  and  legitimate  demands,  not  one  was  granted. 

The  States- General  were  unable  to  pacify  the  kingdom,  in  which  every 
kind  of  abuse  remained  unchecked ;  and  the  first  ebullition  of  discontent 
arose  in  the  bosom  of  the  Parliament  itself,  secretly  encouraged  by  the 
princes  who  had  signed  the  Malotrue  peace.     This  great  judicial  body,  of 

*  According  to  this  privilege  or  custom,  the  financial  and  judicial  offices  we  re- 
hereditary  on  condition  of  the  payment  of  an  annual  tax,  amounting  to  the  sixtieth 
part  of  the  price  at  which  they  had  been  purchased.  The  nobility  were  jealous  of  the- 
hereditary  nature  of  these  offices,  because  they  were  in  the  hands  of  members  of  the 
Third  Estate.  The  paulette  received  its  name  from  Charles  Paulet,  by  whom  it  was 
introduced. 


1610-1624]  BENEWED   CIVIL  TKOTJBLES.  t 

which  many  of  the  members  were  deputies  of  the  Third  Estate,  eagerly- 
laid  hold  of  an  opportunity  of  avenging  the  humiliations  to  which  that 
order  had  been  exposed,  and  of  increasing  its  own  importance,  and 
invited,  by  a  formal  decree,  princes,  dukes,  peers,  and  all  in  fact  who 
had  a  right  to  do  so,  to  assist  them  in  deliberating  on  the  state  of  public 
affairs.  As  many  of  the  Queen's  personal  enemies  were  contained  in  this 
class,  she  saw  in  this  hitherto  unheard-of  step  a  direct  attack  against 
her  person  and  authority,  and  prohibited  the  proposed  as- 

rr.1       —.  .  , .  t  t  n  i       T7-  •  Celebrated  re- 

sembly.    The  Parliament  immediately  addressed  to  the  King    monstrances  of 

J  .  ,  .  Parliament,  1615. 

energetic  remonstrances,  which  were  read  to  him  in  the 
presence  of  his  mother  and  his  Ministers.  It  represented  that  it  held  the 
place  of  the  Council  of  the  great  Barons  of  France,  and  that,  by  virtue  of 
this,  it  had  always  taken  a  part  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs.  It 
entreated  the  King  to  follow,  in  domestic  as  well  as  in  foreign  affairs,  the 
policy  of  his  father ;  to  provide  that  the  sovereignty  should  be  guaranteed 
against  Ultramontane  doctrines ;  and  that  the  Government  should  not  be 
influenced  by  foreign  counsels.  It  censured  the  Queen's  policy,  the  prodi- 
galities of  the  Court,  the  obstacles  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  due  execution 
of  justice  by  both  the  Court  and  nobles,  and  the  insatiable  avarice  of  the 
Eoyal  officers  and  Ministers.  It  demanded  that  all  abuses  should  be 
redressed,  that  no  edict  should  be  carried  into  execution  without  previous 
registration  and  verification  by  the  Sovereign  Courts,  and  that  the 
Parliament  should  be  at  liberty  to  convoke  the  peers  and  princes 
whenever  it  should  think  proper.  It  further  demanded  the  King's 
authority  to  name  to  him  the  authors  of  the  existing  disorders,  and 
to  expose  their  shameful  malversations.  These  famous  remonstrances, 
excited  the  anger  and  indignation  of  the  Queen,  the  Ministers,  and 
the  courtiers ;  and  on  the  following  day  there  appeared  a  decree  of  the 
Council  by  which  they  were  suppressed.  The  Parliament  resisted ;  but, 
having  received  Royal  letters  of  command,  was  compelled  to  give  way, 
and  left  its  decree  of  convocation  unexecuted,  without,  however, 
revoking  it. 

The  discontented  party,  and  Conde  especially,   offered   an   energetic 
opposition  to  the  marriage  of  Louis  XIII.  with  the  Infanta.    -presh  .  .j 
They  recapitulated  the  evils  with  which  France  had  been   troubles»  1615« 
overwhelmed  by  Spain,  and  urged  the  necessity  of  crushing  the  House 
of  Austria  rather  than  adding  to  its  strength.     The  Queen  treated  these 


8  MAEEIAGE    OF    LOUIS    XIII.  [BOOK  III.  CffAP.  I. 

representations  with  contempt,  and  the  marriage  was  resolved  on.  Conde 
immediately  withdrew  to  Clermont  in  Beauvoisis,  Bouillon  to  his  princi- 
pality of  Sedan,  Mayenne  to  Soissons,  Longueville  to  Picardy.  They  no 
longer  hoped  for  success  save  by  force  of  arms,  and  prepared  for  the 
conflict.  The  Protestants,  excited  to  action  by  the  Duke  de  Rohan, 
ranged  themselves  on  their  side,  and  began  to  levy  troops.  The  prin- 
cipal Ministers  of  the  King  were  at  that  time  the  aged  Villeroi,  the 
President  Jeannin,  and  the  Chancellor  de  Sillery.  They  treated  the  above- 
mentioned  hostile  demonstrations  with  indifference,  and  hastened  the  con- 
clusion of  the  marriage.  Louis  XIII.  went  to  meet  the  Infanta  as  far  as 
Bordeaux,  and  his  progress  was  at  once  festive  and  warlike.  Bois- 
Dauphin,  Marshal  de  Laval,  protected  it  by  an  army,  which  followed 
that  of  the  insurgent  nobles  and  Calvinists,  commanded  by  Bouillon 
under  the  orders  of  Conde.  The  people  took  no  part  in  the  war,  and  the 
armies  never  came  into  actual  collision.  The  Duke  of  Guise  conducted  to 
Spain  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  the  King's  sister,  intended  for  the  Infant, 
and  brought  back  with  him  the  future  spouse  of  Louis  XIII.,  celebrated 
_.     .        _         under  the  name  of  Anne  of  Austria.     This  marriage  was 

Marriage  of  ° 

L°th  Anne^of  n0^  a  fo^unate  one,  and  the  two  spouses,  who  speedily 
Austria,  16: 5.  acquired  a  dislike  for  each  other,  lived  almost  entirely 
apart.  Medici,  immediately  after  the  marriage  of  her  son,  entered  into 
negotiations  with  the  young  King's  enemies,  and  signed  the  treaty  of 
Treaty  of  Lou-  Loudun,  the  terms  of  which  were  entirely  to  their  advan- 
un,  1616.  tage.    The  Prince  and  his  adherents  were  declared  innocent 

and  good  servants  of  the  King ;  considerable  sums  of  money  were  be- 
stowed on  them ;  and  a  certain  measure  of  satisfaction  was  accorded  to 
the  Calvinists  and  the  Parliament.  The  article  of  this  treaty  which  was 
most  grievous  to  the  Queen-Mother  was  that  by  which  the  King  engaged 
himself  to  give  no  offices  or  dignities  to  strangers. 

The  old  Ministers,  whom  the  Court  nicknamed  the  dotards,  were 
immediately  dismissed.  Du  Plessis,*  Bishop  of  Lucon,  entered  the  new 
Council,  which  was  under  the  chief  direction  of  Conde,  who  speedily 
became  all  powerful,  and  made  his  power  felt  by  Medici  and  her 
favourites,  and  especially  so  by  Marshal  d'Ancre. 

*  Du  Plessis  entered  the  Council  as  Secretary  of  State  for  "War  and  Foreign  Affairs. 
He  had  for  some  time  been  the  Queen's  Almoner.  He  became  a  cardinal  in  1022,  and 
from  that  time  bore  the  name  of  Kichelieu. 


1610-1624]  AEEEST    OF    CONDE.  9 

The  partisans  of  the  prince  believed  they  were  at  liberty  to  do 
what  they  pleased,  and  the  Duke  de  Longueville  pushed  his  insolence 
so  far  as  even  to  seize  upon  Peronne,  of  which  Concini  was  governor. 
The  Queen  sent  troops  to  retake  it,  and  Longueville  defended  it  against 
her.  Marie  de  Medici  then  perceived  that  Conde"  intended  to  deprive  her  of 
any  influence  in  the  Government,  or  with  the  King.  Conde,  as  well  as 
the  chiefs  of  his  faction,  Vendome,  Bouillon,  and  Mayenne,  were  conscious 
of  the  peril  they  ran,  and  resolved  to  present  themselves  no  more  at 
the  Louvre,  where  the  Prince  was  arrested  in  the  name  of  the  Arrest  of  Conde, 
King,  on  the  1st  September,  as  he  was  entering  the  council 
chamber.  Orders  had  been  given  to  seize  his  partisans,  but  they  escaped 
and  flew  to  arms. 

The  King  held  a  bed  of  Justice  at  the  Parliament,  where  he  ex- 
plained the  reasons  for  his  cousin's  arrest,  alleging  his  criminal  hopes, 
so  incompatible  with  the  duty  of  a  subject ;  the  pretensions  of  his  par- 
tisans, so  subversive  of  the  Royal  authority;  and  their  audacious  rallying 
cry  of  Down  with  the  har*  which  intimated  that  the  throne  was  the  object 
of  the  Prince's  ambition.  The  Parliament  made  no  observations.  Conde 
was  shut  up  in  the  Bastille,  and  the  Queen  sent  into  the  field  three  armies 
against  the  insurgents,  who  had  fled  to  Soissons.  Concini  reappeared  at 
the  court  more  powerful  than  ever,  inflated  with  the  most  unbounded 
pride,  and  so  rich  that  he  was  able  to  maintain  an  army  of  five  or  six 
thousand  men  at  his  own  expense. 

The  young  King,  however,  whose  wishes  he  frequently  thwarted,  bore 
the  tyranny  of  the  Marshal  as  impatiently  as  that  of  the  Prince,  and  re- 
solved at  length  to  release  himself  from  his  state  of  pupilage.  He  might 
have  achieved  this  purpose  by  legal  methods,  but  his  dark,  vindictive 
spirit  preferred  assassination.  On  Monday,  April  26th,  as  the  Marshal 
was  entering  the  Louvre,  to  attend  the  council,  Vitry,  the  captain  of  the 
guards,  stopped  him,  and  demanded  his  sword.  Concini  made  M  ,  fC 
a  movement,  but  immediately  fell,  pierced  by  three  balls,  cml» 1617# 
and  expired  on  the  spot.  The  crowd  of  his  flatterers  disappeared,  and 
Louis  XIII.  showed  himself  at  a  window  of  his  palace,  as  though  to  take 
openly  upon  himself  the  responsibility  of  the  murder.     The  courtiers  ex- 

*  The  arms  of  Conde  were  only  distinguished  from  those  of  the  King  by  a  bar,  and 
to  ask  for  the  removal  of  this  bar  was  almost  to  demand  that  the  Prince  should  be 
King. 


10  THE    NEW   EAVOURITE.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

pressed  their  delight  with  acclamations,  and  hastened  to  offer  the  King 
their  congratulations.  From  that  moment  he  believed  himself  to  be  a 
monarch  in  reality,  and  having  disarmed  his  mother's  guards,  he  had 
the  door  which  gave  access  from  his  mother's  apartments  to  his  own 
fastened  up. 

The  people  detested  Concini  as  a  foreigner,  and  an  insolent  upstart, 
and  accused  him  of  being  the  author  of  all  their  misfortunes.  Their 
fury  on  the  occasion  arose  to  the  highest  pitch ;  they  tore  the  Marshal's 
remains  into  fragments,  put  the  gory  morsels  up  to  auction  and  devoured 
them.  He  was  further  pursued  with  hostility  in  the  persons  of  his  rela- 
tives. Signora  Galigai,  his  widow,  was  dragged  before  the  Parliament, 
and,  in  the  absence  of  any  other  great  crime,  was  accused  of  practising 
magic,  and  condemned  as  a  sorceress.  The  judgment  pronounced  against 
her  declared  that  she  should  have  her  head  cut  off,  and  that  her  remains 
should  be  consumed  by  fire.  She  bore  her  execution  with  fortitude. 
The  Marshal's  house  was  rased  to  the  ground,  his  immense  property 
confiscated,  and,  by  the  sentence  of  the  Parliament,  his  son  was  declared 
degraded  from  the  rank  ol  nobility,  and  incapable  of  holding  any  office 
or  dignity  in  the  kingdom. 

When  informed  of  the  great  catastrophe,  the  insurgents,  who  had  fled 
to  Soissons,  laid  down  their  arms  and  gave  themselves  up  to  the  King 
without  making  any  terms,  imputing  to  the  Italian  Tyrant  all  the  troubles 
and  misfortunes  of  France.  The  late  Ministers,  Villeroi,  Sillery,  Jeannin, 
and  Duvair,  returned  with  them.  The  Queen-mother  was  exiled  from 
the  Court,  and  selected  Blois  as  her  place  of  residence.  The  able  Du 
Plessis,  who  had  been  Minister  under  Concini,  demanded  permission  to 
follow  her,  apparently,  the  devoted  servant  of  a  protectress,  of  whom, 
at  a  later  period,  he  was  the  most  implacable  enemy. 

He  who  had  the  greatest  share  in  this  revolution,  and  who  profited 
by  it  the  most,  was  the  young  Charles  d'Albert  de  Luynes,  the  com- 
panion of  the  King's  pleasures,  who  had  risen  rapidly  in  the  Royal 
favour.  He  was  created  a  duke,  overwhelmed  with  honours  and  riches, 
and  became  the  possessor  of  all  the  possessions,  and  all  the  power  of  the 
late  Marshal. 

Conde,  in  the  depths  of  his  prison,  and  the  Queen,  in  the  place  of  her 
exile,  continued  to  brew  plots,  and  instigate  their  partisans ;  but  the  Duke 
de  Luynes  neutralized  their  influence  by  setting  them  one  against  the  other. 


1610-1624.]  A  NEW   CONSPIEACY.  11 

Now  he  menaced  Conde  with  the  recal  of  the  Queen  to  Court,  and  now 
he  threatened  the  Queen  that  Conde  should  be  set  at  liberty. 

A  skilfully-contrived  conspiracy  speedily  changed  the  whole  aspect  of 
affairs.  An  Italian,  named  Euccelai,  a  man  of  pleasure,  resolved  to 
assist  the  Queen,  and  to  rescue  her  from  the  chateau  of  Blois,  where  she 
was  kept  in  confinement,  and  he  succeeded  in  persuading  the  Duke 
d'Epernon  to  join  him  in  the  enterprise.  The  Duke  d'Epernon,  the 
possessor  of  an  immense  fortune,  Governor  of  Metz  and  several 
provinces,  colonel-general  of  infantry,  and  always  discontented,  was 
better  fitted  than  any  other  to  assist  in  such  a  project,  and  to  place 
the  Queen  in  a  position  in  which  she  might  defy  her  enemies.  He  set 
out  from  Metz  one  morning  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  well-mounted 
cavaliers,  after  having  asked  of  the  King  permission  to  proceed  to  his 
governments  of  Saint onge  and  Angouleme.  In  his  rapid  and  secret 
progress  he  met  with  no  hindrance ;  and  when  the  Queen  was  informed 
that  D'Epernon  was  at  hand,  she  escaped  from  one  of  the  windows  of  the 
chateau  by  means  of  a  rope-ladder,  entered  a  carriage,  and,  escorted  by 
Euccelai  and  fifteen  gentlemen,  at  Loches  met  the  Duke  d'Epernon,  who 
conducted  her  to  Angouleme.  When,  at  length,  the  Court  received 
information  of  the  Queen's  escape,  Luynes  was  for  immediately  pursuing 
her  with  an  armed  force ;  but  the  King  preferred  to  temporize,  and  an 
able  peace-maker  presented  himself  in  the  person  of  Du  Plessis,  who, 
after  having  secretly  obtained  the  King's  consent,  persuaded  the  Queen  to 
confide  in  him  by  the  aid  of  the  jealous  D'Epernon  himself,  and  a  peace 
was  in  due  course  arranged  by  his  exertions.  The  Queen  obtained  the 
government  of  Anjou,  with  regal  rights,  and  three  towns  which  were 
given  her  as  places  of  safety. 

France  was  desolated  by  ever  fresh  troubles,  and  to  remedy  them  the 
iron  hand  was  necessary,  which  at  a  later  period  bore  down  so  heavily 
upon  its  turbulent  and  corrupt  aristocracy ;  but  the  hour  of  Du  Plessis 
had  not  yet  sounded,  and  De  Luynes,  more  a  courtier  than  a  statesman  or 
soldier,  was  not  equal  to  the  work  required.  The  disturbance  had 
scarcely  subsided  before  it  again  arose ;  the  partisans  of  the  Queen,  or 
rather  the  enemies  of  the  favourite,  seized  a  number  of  places,  and  were 
speedily  in  possession  of  half  the  kingdom.  A  final  conflict  appeared 
imminent,  and  Mayenne  and  D'Epernon,  fearing  a  surprise  at  Angers, 
were  prudently  anxious  to  convey  the   Queen  to  Guienne,  where  they 


12  WAE   AGAINST   THE    HUGUENOTS.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

would  be  able  to  oppose  a  rampart  of  small  fortresses  to  the  progress  of 
the  Royal  army.  But  Du  Plessis,  who  was  secretly  in  the  King's  interest, 
resisted  this  measure,  and  the  Queen  remained  at  Angers. 

Louis  XIII.  set  out  at  the  head  of  his  army,  and  having  first  reduced 
Normandy,  arrived  before  Angers  with  all  his  forces.  An  engage- 
ment took  place  at  Pont-de-Ce  between  his  troops  and  those  of  the  Queen, 
in  which  the  latter  were  immediately  routed.  Peace  was  now  concluded 
by  the  King's  Ministers  and  Du  Plessis ;  and  a  reconciliation  took  place 
between  Marie  de  Medici  and  her  son,  which  appeared  to  be  cordial  and 
sincere.  The  Queen  returned  to  Paris,  and  Du  Plessis  received  the 
promise  of  a  cardinal's  hat  in  return  for  his  double  treason ;  whilst  a 
great  number  of  the  inferior  leaders  paid  for  their  rebellion  with  their 
heads.  The  King  led  his  army  into  Beam,*  where  the  revolt  had  found 
a  certain  number  of  partisans,  and  having  re-established  in  this  province, 
by  a  solemn  decree,  the  Catholic  religion,  which  had  been  abolished  by 
Jeanne  d'Albret,  he  restored  to  the  clergy  all  their  possessions.  Finally, 
he  bestowed  a  Parliament  on  Pau,  with  all  the  attributes  of  the  other 
sovereign  courts  of  the  kingdom.  He  then  returned  to  Paris,  where  he 
was  received  in  triumph. 

The  reformed  party  in  the  kingdom  became  more  and  more  disquieted 
by  the  manifest  Catholic  tendency  of  the  Government.  At  a  meeting 
held  by  them  at  Loudun  in  1619,  they  had  taken  up  the  cause  of  their 
threatened  brethren  in  Beam.  Their  remonstrances  were  in  vain,  and 
two  years  later,  at  the  General  Assembly  of  La  Rochelle,  they  distributed 
their  seven  hundred  churches  in  eight  circles,  and  drew  up  a  species  of 
constitution,  in  forty-seven  articles,  which  regulated,  under  the  King's 
authority,  the  levy  of  the  taxes  and  the  discipline  of  the  troops,  and  which 
was,  in  fact,  the  creation  of  a  distinct  government  in  the  bosom  of  the  State. 
Louis  XIII.  marched  against  them,  and  subdued  Saintonge  and  Poitou. 
Rochelle  was  invested,  and  Montauban,  defended  by  the  Marquis  de  la 
War  aeainst  the  Force,  resisted  a  siege  which  cost  the  Catholics  the  useless 
Huguenots,  1621.  logs  0f  eight  thousand  men  and  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  the 
son  of  the  famous  chief  of  the  League. 

There  was  a  universal  outcry  in  France  against  the  Duke  de  Luynes, 
to  whom  was  attributed  the  blame  of  this  reverse.     In  the  course  of  this 

*  Beam  had  formed  part  of  the  hereditary  domains  of  Henry  IV.,  but  was  not 
really  one  of  the  Royal  possessions  till  1630. 


1610-1624.]  DEATH   OF   DE   LT7YNES.  13 

expedition  the  favourite  had  still  further  aggrandised  his  position,  and  had 
added  to  his  numerous  offices  those  of  constable  and  keeper  of  the  seals. 
He  knew  that  if  he  would  retain  his  influence  with  the  King 

i  i  i  •  -i-iTi  i  i  •  Death  of  the 

he  must  be  everything;   but  he  did  not  long  enjoy  his  new   Constable  De 

.  Luynes,  1621. 

dignities,  for  a  fever  carried  him  off  in  four  days. 

The  Protestant  Lesdiguieres,  commander-in-chief  of  the  Royal  army, 
became  a  convert  to  Catholicism,  and  was  created  Constable.      His  con- 
version was  the  signal  for  numerous  defections  in  the  Protestant  party. 
The    Marquis  de   la  Force  and   the   Count  de  Chatillon, 
Coligny's  grandson,  surrendered,  the  one  Montauban  and  the    several  Pro- 

_  .  lir  .  _.  .  iii    testant  chiefs. 

other  Aigues-Mortes,  m  return  for  large  sums  and  marshals 
batons.  Rohan,  however,  remained  incorruptible  and  desired  peace.  It  was 
signed  at  Montpelier,  despite  Conde,  through  the  influence  of  Medici,  who 
was  jealous  of  a  prince  whose  power  diminished  when  affairs  were  tranquil, 
and  increased  in  the  time  of  national  troubles.  The  Edict  of  Nantes  was 
confirmed ;  the  King  at  the  same  time  allowing  the  Protestants  to  assemble 
for  the  purposes  of  their  worship,  but  prohibiting  them  to  meet  for  political 
objects.  Du  Plessis,  after  the  peace  of  Montpelier,  obtained  peaCeofMont- 
the  cardinal's  hat,  and  thenceforth  became  known  under  the  peher> 1622> 
celebrated  name  of  Cardinal  Richelieu,  and  was  soon  after  made  a 
member  of  the  council  by  the  Marquis  de  la  Vieuville.  La  Vieuville 
inherited  a  portion  of  the  favour  enjoyed  by  the  Duke  de  Luynes  ;  per- 
formed the  functions  of  Prime  Minister  without  possessing  the  name,  and 
maintained  his  credit  by  flattering  the  King's  tastes  and  cherishing  his 
dislike  for  his  mother  and  jealousy  of  Gaston  his  brother.  He  was  guilty 
of  a  great  crime  towards  the  latter,  with  the  complicity  of  the  King,  by 
depriving  him  of  an  excellent  governor  he  had,  and  whom  he  replaced  by 
the  Count  de  Lude,  a  man  of  pleasure,  extraordinarily  fitted  to  corrupt 
the  mind  and  heart  of  his  pupil.  But  this  infamous  action  turned  out  to 
the  profit  neither  of  the  King  nor  his  minister.  La  Vieuville  soon  re- 
pented of  having  opened  the  council  chamber  to  Richelieu,  who  obtained 
a  great  influence  over  the  young  King's  mind  by  pointing  out  to  him  the 
vices  of  his  Government,  the  immense  resources  of  France,  and  the  secret 
of  its  strength.  La  Vieuville  was  disgraced,  and  shut  up  in  the  chateau 
of  Amboise.  Richelieu  became  all-powerful,  and  possessed  the  great  art 
of  rendering  himself  indispensable  to  the  King,  although  the  latter  by  no 
means  liked  him.     Louis  XIII.  hated  any  manifestation  of  a  spirit  of 


14  EICHELTETj'S   E1SE.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

liberty  amongst  his  subjects;  refused  to  admit  that  they  possessed  any 
rights  independent  of  his  will ;  and  was  inspired,  in  fact,  with  a  passion 
for  arbitrary  power,  whilst  nature  had  only  rendered  him  capable  of  obey- 
ing. He  found  in  Eichelieu  the  strength  of  mind  in  which  he  was  defi- 
cient, and  believed  that,  with  his  aid,  he  was  an  absolute  monarch,  whilst 
in  reality  he  was  a  slave  all  his  life. 


1624-1643.]  FIBST    STEP  IN   FRENCH   DIPLOMACY.  15 


CHAPTER  II. 

Richelieu's   ministry. 

1624-1643. 

The  great  evils  which  oppressed  the  kingdom  were,  the  moral  weakness 

of  the  King ;    the  ambition  of  the  members  of  the  Royal 

family,  who  were  all  clamorous  for  a  share  in  the  Govern-   kingdom  before 

.  _  ..  .  .  the  Ministry  of 

ment ;  the  pride  and  avarice  oi  the  great  nobles,  who  were    De  Richelieu, 

.  .  1624. 

accustomed  to  sell  their  services  and  obedience,  and  who 
were  certain  to  increase  their  power  and  fortunes  if  they  could  render 
themselves  indispensable  to  some  powerful  prince  formidable  to  the 
monarch.  Under  these  circumstances  the  forces  of  France  were  incessantly 
divided,  the  government  uncertain,  the  treasury  pillaged,  and  the  kingdom 
a  prey  to  anarchy.  The  Spaniards,  assisted  by  Queen  Anne,  always 
a  foreigner  at  heart,  took  advantage  of  these  calamities  to  obtain  the  chief 
influence  in  the  council,  and  their  powerful  political  influence  held  the 
Protestant  party  in  a  constant  state  of  alarm,  although  unable  to  crush  it. 
The  result  was  that  the  latter  became  accustomed  to  regard  itself  as  a 
people  distinct  from  the  bulk  of  the  nation,  and  that  France  contained  one 
element  of  danger  the  more.  Many  strong  places  were"  in  the  hands  of 
the  Calvinists,  and  the  success  of  the  United  Provinces  had  inspired  them 
with  the  chimerical  desire  of  forming  themselves  into  a  Republic,  of  which 
Rochelie  should  be  the  bulwark  and  capital. 

All  became  changed  in  France  as  soon  as  Richelieu  seized  with  a  firm 
hand  the  direction  of  affairs.  The  resolutions  of  the  council,  which  the 
Spaniards  had  hitherto  always  known,  were  now  kept  secret.  The  am- 
bassadors were  instructed  to  speak  and  act  with  boldness.  The  ambas- 
sadors from  Rome  having  pointed  out  to  the  Cardinal  the  various  steps 
which  he  should  take  in  his  negotiations  with  that  Court,  Richelieu  replied, 
"  The  King  is  not  willing  to  be  trifled  with ;  you  will  tell  the  Pope 
that  an  army  will  be  sent  into  the  Valteline."  This  was  the  first  step  in 
the  new  path  of  French  diplomacy. 


16  SECOND    WAB    AGAINST   THE    HUGUENOTS.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

The  Valteline,  a  valley  of  the  Tyrolean  Alps,  serves  as  a  passage  between 
France,  Germany,  and  Italy.  The  two  branches  of  the  House  of  Austria 
well  understood  the  strategic  importance  of  this  pass  as  a  means  of  com- 
munication between  their  States  in  the  north  and  the  south,  the  Tyrol  and 
the  Milanese  territory.  The  people  of  this  valley,  who  were  Catholics,  had, 
therefore,  been  incited  to  revolt  against  the  Protestant  canton  of  the  Grisons, 
to  which  they  belonged  ;  and  the  Count  de  Fuentes,  the  Spanish  Governor 
of  Milan,  who  had  so  long  been  in  desperate  antagonism  with  Henry  IV. 
and  France,  had  raised  forts  so  as  to  command  the  passage  of  this  valley, 
and  the  Pope,  in  accordance  with  an  agreement  with  Spam,  kept  a  body 
of  troops  there  to  defend  it.  Without  interfering  openly,  as  yet,  in  the 
celebrated  struggle  known  as  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  which  already  shook 
Germany  to  its  centre,  France  observed  with  dissatisfaction  the  successive 
encroachments  of  her  old  enemy,  the  House  of  Austria.  The  Marquis  de 
Coeuvres,  in  pursuance  of  orders  from  Eichelieu,  arrived  suddenly  in  the 
Valteline  with  a  body  of  troops,  repulsed  those  of  the  pontiff,  and  rapidly 
took  possession  of  the  forts  and  all  the  strong  places.  The  Pope's  nuncio 
burst  into  loud  remonstrances  against  the  support  which  had  been  afforded 
to  the  Protestant  Grisons.  "  You  will  find  it  difficult,"  he  said,  "  to  defend 
the  course  you  have  taken  in  the  council." — "  Not  at  all,"  replied  the  Car- 
dinal ;  "  when  I  was  created  Minister,  the  Pope  authorized  me  to  say  and 
to  do,  with  a  safe  conscience,  anything  that  might  be  useful  to  the  State." 
— "  But,"  replied  the  nuncio,  "  suppose  it  be  a  case  of  assisting  heretics  ?" 
— "  I  believe,"  rejoined  Eichelieu,  "that  the  Pope's  authorization  extends 
even  to  a  case  of  that  kind." 

The  Spaniards  avenged  themselves  by  promising  their  support  to  the 
Calvinists,  who  complained  that  the  conditions  of  the  peace  of  Montpelier 
had  been  ill  observed;  and  that  new  forts  had  been  erected  around 
Eochelie.  On  this  occasion  they  were  the  aggressors.  Soubise,  with  a 
_  fleet,  made  a  descent  upon  and  seized  the  Isle  of  Ehe,  and 

Second  war  ot  '  r  7 

Louis  xiii.  Eohan  raised  a  revolt  in  Languedoc.    Eichelieu  sent  against 

against  the  °  ° 

Huguenots,  1625.  them  D'Epernon,  Themines,  and  Montmorency.  The  latter 
dispersed  their  fleet,  Toiras  wrested  from  them  the  Isle  of  Ehe,  which  was 
the  defence  of  the  port  of  Eochelie,  and  the  Minister  granted  a  fresh  peace 
to  the  vanquished.  Public  clamour  reproached  him  for  not  having 
taken  this  opportunity  to  crush  once  for  all  the  Calvinist  party,  which 
seemed  now  to  be  completely  broken,  and  he  was  spoken  of  as  the  Cardinal 


1624-1613.]  LEAGUE  AGAINST  EICHELIEU.  17 

of  Eochelle,  or  the  Protestant  Pope.  "  I  shall  have,"  said  Richelieu,  on 
this  occasion,  "  to  scandalize  the  world  once  more  first ;"  by  which  words 
he  alluded  to  the  marriage  which  he  concluded  between  Madame,  the 
King's  sister,  and  the  Protestant  heir  of  the  throne  of  England,  so  unfor- 
tunately famous  under  the  name  of  Charles  I. 

The  Valteline   war   was  terminated   by  the   treaty    of  Moncon,   in 
Aragon,  by  which  the  Valteline  was  restored  to  the  Grisons.    Treaty  of  Mon- 
Richelieu  hastened  to  put  an  end  to  it,  that  he  might  be   9°n'       * 
the  better  able  to  face  the  storm  which  was  brewing  against  himself  and 
the  Court  in  the  interior  of  the  kingdom.     The  two  queens,  Marie  de 
Medici  and  Anne  of  Austria,  were  in  the  highest  degree 

Powerful  league 

jealous  of  his  influence  over  the  King,  and  condemned  his   against  Kiche- 

lieu,1626. 

policy  of  hostility  towards  the  Pope  and  Spain.  Gaston, 
the  King's  brother,  hated  Richelieu  because  he  had  refused  him  any 
place  or  authority  in  the  council;  and  the  courtiers,  from  whom 
Richelieu  withheld  any  access  to  the  public  treasury,  overwhelmed  him 
with  insults  and  accusations.  It  was  against  this  formidable  league  that 
the  Cardinal  now  had  to  contend.  It  was  his  policy  to  heap  favours  and 
honours  on  the  nobles  of  high  birth  and  distinguished  merit ;  but  as  soon 
as  they  displayed  any  hostility  towards  him  they  found  no  mercy  at  his 
hands.  The  accomplices  in  the  conspiracy,  known  by  the  name  of  its 
principal  concocter,  the  young  and  imprudent  Chalais,  speedily  ex- 
perienced the  truth  of  this  fact.  As  a  passionate  admirer  of  the  Duchess 
of  Chevreuse,  one  of  the  Cardinal's  enemies,  Chalais  was  the  Con9p,-racy  of 
soul  of  this  conspiracy,  in  which  even  the  King's  brother  Cbalals* 
took  part  at  the  instigation  of  his  governor,  Ornano.  The  latter  had, 
nevertheless,  been  loaded  with  honours  by  Richelieu,  who,  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  some  influence  with  the  heir-presumptive  to  the  crown,  had 
bestowed  upon  Colonel  Ornano  a  marshal's  baton.  With  Gaston 
and  Chalais  were  joined  the  Duke  of  Vendome,  governor  of  Brittany, 
the  grand-prior  of  Vendome,  his  brother,  both  natural  sons  of 
Henry  IV.,  the  Queen  Anne,  of  Austria,  herself,  and  a  multitude  of 
inferior  accomplices,  amongst  whom  were  the  Abbe  Scaglia,  ambassador 
from  Savoy,  and  an  English  agent,  the  creature  of  the  frivolous  Duke  of 
Buckingham.  This  duke,  the  favourite  of  James  I.  and  of  Charles  his 
son,  had  been  sent  into  France  to  espouse  Henrietta,  the  King's  sister,  in 
the  name  of  Charles  I.,  who  had  succeeded  his  father.  He  displayed 
vol.  ii.  •  C 


18  ANNE   OF   AUSTRIA.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I- 

during  his  embassy  an  unheard-of  magnificence  and  an  audacious 
gallantry,  of  which  even  the  Queen  herself  became  the  object.  Richelieu, 
himself  suspected  of  having  a  tenderness  for  this  princess,  avenged  the 
King,  or  himself,  by  adopting  measures  which  were  humiliating  towards 
Buckingham ;  who,  in  his  turn,  entertained  a  deep  resentment  against 
the  Cardinal,  and  entered  into  the  cabal  which  had  been  formed  against 
him.  The  object  of  this  league  was  to  overthrow  the  minister ;  and 
those  of  whom  it  was  composed  were  even  accused  of  a  desire  to  depose 
the  King,  crown  Gaston  in  his  stead,  and  marry  the  latter  to  Anne  of 
Austria. 

Informed    of    this    vast   conspiracy,    Richelieu  made    the   King   ac- 
quainted with  its  existence,  and  cunningly  frightened  him  by  a  prospect 

of  dangers  which-  only  threatened  his  own  ministry.     He 
of  Richelieu,"       pointed  out  to  him  that  his  dignity  as  a  king  and  as  a 

husband  were  equally  outraged,  and  thus  rendered  him  the 
implacable  instrument  of  his  own  vengeance.  The  feeble  Gaston 
had  betrayed  his  accomplices,  and  Ornano  was,  in  the  first  placer 
thrown  into  the  prison  of  Vincennes.  The  brothers  Vendome  were 
arrested  and  sent  to  the  Chateau  of  Amboise.  Chalais,  discovered  to 
have  been  guilty,  by  his  letters  to  the  Duchess  of  Chevreuse,  of  having 
insulted  the  King,  and  given  seditious  advice  to  Gaston,  was  condemned 
to  death  by  a  commission,  and  executed.  Marshal  Ornano  died  at 
Vincennes,  and  the  grand-prior  at  Amboise;  whilst  the  Duke  of 
Vendome  was  only  released  from  prison  after  having  made  all  the  con- 
fessions required  of  him.  The  King  made  Anne  of  Austria  appear  in 
his  council  chamber,  and  severely  reproached  her  with  having  wished  to 
obtain  a  new  husband  in  Gaston  of  Orleans ;  upon  which  she  coolly  replied, 
"  I  should  not  have  gained  enough  by  the  change."  She  was  subjected 
to  the  observance  of  a  severe  system  of  etiquette  ;  and  the  entrance  of 
men  into  her  apartments  in  the  King's  absence  was  strictly  forbidden. 
A  great  number  of  nobles  were  disgraced ;  and  amongst  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  them  was  Baradas,  the  monarch's  favourite,  whose  eleva- 
tion had  been  as  sudden  as  was  his  fall.  The  keeper  of  the  seals, 
d'Aligre,  was  dismissed,  and  Madame  de  Chevreuse  was  banished  tor 
Lorraine.  A  guard  of  musqueteers  was  granted  to  the  Cardinal, 
together  with  the  town  of  Brouage  as  a  place  of  safety.  Finally,  Gaston 
in  return  for  the  confessions  which  he  made,  and  his  consent  to  espouse 


1624-1643.]  ASSEMBLY  OF   NOTABLES.  19 

Mdlle.  Bourbon  Montpensier,*  received  the  rich  Duchy  of  Orleans,  in 
exchange  for  the  Duchy  of  Anjou,  of  which  he  had  hitherto  borne  the 
title.  The  result  of  this  great  intrigue  was  to  increase  the  power  of 
the  Minister,  and  he  was  suspected  of  having  designedly  aroused  it 
against  himself  as  a  means  of  enabling  him  to  punish  and  crush  his 
enemies.  He  exercised  the  sovereign  authority  without  any  of  those 
who  possessed  the  great  offices  of  the  Crown  being  able  to  counter- 
balance his  authority.  There  was  no  longer  any  constable,  that  office 
having  been  abolished  after  the  death  of  Lesdiguieres,  and  that  of  grand 
admiral  had  been  converted  into  a  general  superintendence  of  commerce 
and  naval  affairs,  which  Richelieu  had  adjudged  to  himself. 

An  Assembly  of  Notables,  convoked  in  1626,  was  opened  at  the 
Tuileries  by  the  Chancellor  Marillac,  keeper  of  the  seals.f  It  Asgemi)1  f 
sanctioned  all  the  proceedings  of  the  Cardinal,  the  suppres-  Notable3»  1626« 
sion  of  the  great  offices,  the  repurchase  of  royal  domains,  which  had  been 
alienated  for  a  trifling  price,  and  the  reduction  of  the  pensions.  It  ex- 
pressed hopes  that  the  taxes  would  be  more  equitably  arranged  ;  that  the 
expenses  of  the  State  would  be  kept  down  to  a  level  with  its  income ; 
that  plebeians  would  be  permitted  to  obtain  commissions  in  the  army,  in 
order  that  the  military  spirit  might  be  spread  through  the  unennobled 
classes;  and  that  the  interior  fortresses  would  be  demolished.  The 
nobles  further  demanded  that  the  national  power  should  be  supported  by 
a  standing  army;  that  the  commercial  spirit  and  traffic  with  distant 
parts  should  be  encouraged  by  the  establishment  of  great  companies; 
and  that  the  classes  engaged  in  peaceful  pursuits  should  be  protected 
against  the  outrages  of  the  military.  They  finally  voted  with  enthusiasm 
the  equipment  of  two  fleets,  the  one  for  the  high  seas,  and  the  other  for 
the  Mediterranean — France  at  this  period  possessing  only  a  few  galleys. 
The  Assembly  only  showed  itself  stubborn  on  one  point,  and  even  on 
that  its  apparent  opposition  was  an  act  of  accordance  with  the  Cardinal's 

*  Mademoiselle  Montpensier,  whom  Gaston  long  refused  to  marry,  from  political 
motives,  was  one  of  the  richest  heiresses  of  Europe.  She  brought  to  him  as  her  dowry 
the  sovereign  principality  of  Dombes,  the  Earldom  of  Eu,  the  Duchy  of  Chatellerault, 
&c.    The  issue  of  this  marriage  was  an  only  daughter,  the  celebrated  Mademoiselle. 

f  All  the  Notables,  to  the  number  of  fifty-five,  were  nominated  by  the  Cardinal. 
There  were  twelve  members  of  the  clergy,  fourteen  of  the  nobility,  and  twenty-seven 
members  of  the  sovereign  courts.  Gaston,  the  King's  brother,  presided  over  the^ 
assembly,  the  vice-presidents  being  the  Marshals  de  la  Force  and  Bassompierre. 

c  2 


20  ORDOKffANCE  OP  1629.  [Book  III.  Chap.  II. 

wishes ;  for  when  Richelieu  affected  to  desire  the  abolition  of  capital 
punishment  for  political  offences,  the  Assembly  comprehended  his  real 
wishes,  and  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  exemplary  punishments. 

The  Notables  separated  in  February,  1627,  and  a  commission  was  im- 
mediately appointed  to  reduce  to  a  code  or  body  of  laws  the  reforms 
promised  either  to  the  last  Assembly  or  to  the  States  of  1614.  Two 
years  were  devoted  to  this  great  work,  and  at  length,  in  January,  1629,  an 
Ordonnance  of  ordonnance  was  promulgated,  consisting  of  46 1  articles,  which 
1629'  is  one  of  the  great  monuments  of  old  French  Legislation.      It 

referred  to  the  laws,  as  well  civil  as  criminal,  to  the  general  police,  to  affairs 
ecclesiastical,  to  the  management  of  the  law  courts,  to  the  finances,  to  in- 
struction, to  the  naval  and  military  armaments ;  and  gave  extensive 
encouragement  to  industry  and  commerce.  It  not  only  enabled  the 
nobles  to  traffic  without  loss  of  dignity,  but  afforded  the  privileges  of 
nobility  to  every  plebeian  who  should  maintain  upon  the  seas  during  five 
years,  a  vessel  of  at  least  200  tons  burden ;  and  rendered  military  com- 
missions accessible  to  all  private  soldiers  who  should  show  themselves 
worthy  of  them.  This  code  met  on  many  points  the  necessities  of 
the  period ;  but  afforded  no  relaxation  to  the  shackles  of  the  municipal 
regime,  which  it  subjected  to  one  uniform  rule  for  the  whole  kingdom ; 
and  we  here  see  that  tendency  to  centralisation  which  is  doubtless  useful 
when  its  action  is  limited  to  matters  which  properly  come  under  the 
notice  of  the  State,  but  which,  when  abused,  has  led  France  into  excesses, 
and  all  the  dangers  of  modern  civilization. 

Richelieu  was  tolerant  neither  of  contradiction  nor  obstacle ;  and  he 
had  especially  at  heart  to  make  it  thoroughly  understood  throughout 
France  that  no  one,  whatever  his  rank,  was  beyond  the  reach  of  the  law ; 
a  principle  which,  in  the  very  year  in  which  theAssembly  of  the  Notables 
was  dissolved,  received  a  striking  example,  hitherto  unheard-of  in  the 
.  annals  of  our  history.      Francois  de  Montmorency,  Count 

Counts  deBou-  de  Bouteville,  who  had  already  fought  twenty-two  duels, 
Chapelies,  1627.  having  slain  in  private  combat  the  Count  de  Bussy,  was  tried 
and  condemned  to  death,  together  with  Francois  de  Rosmadec,  Count  des 
Chapelies,  his  second,  by  virtue  of  an  edict  of  Henry  IV.  against  private 
combats,  which  were  so  murderous  to  the  nobility.  Their  execution 
afforded  an  example,  rare  in  France,  of  the  punishment  of  great  nobles 
for  having  offended,  not  the  prince,  but  the  laws. 


1621-1643.]  SIEGE   OE   EOCHELLE.  21 

Fresh  conspiracies  were  speedily  formed  against  Richelieu,  and  were,  infact, 
the  expression  of  the  proud  Duke  of  Buckingham's  hatred  for  the  Cardinal. 
Under  pretence  of  the  oppressions  suffered  by  the  Protestant  churches, 
a  rupture  took  place   between  France  and  England,  and   D       tofthe 
Buckingham  with  a  formidable  fleet  descended  upon  the   ^^isle  de  Ehe 
coasts  of  Aunis.   Many    Calvinist    leaders    supported   the   1627, 
invasion,  but  their  rising  cost  them  dear. 

The  English  had  disembarked  near  Rochelle,  in  the  Isle  of  Rh6,  where 
they  asserted  that  they  intended  to  found  a  colony.  The  Marquis 
de  Toiras  defended  with  distinguished  valour  the  Citadel  of  Saint- 
Martin,  and  afforded  the  Marshal  de  Schomberg  time  to  bring  up 
numerous  reinforcements.  Buckingham  set  sail  and  abandoned  his  im- 
prudent allies. 

The  moment  had  now  come  for  the  Cardinal  to  destroy  a  perpetual 
source  of  disturbance  and  the  Protestant  party  :  and  he  laid 

J  Memorable  Siege 

siege  to  Rochelle,  commanding  the  forces  in  person.       The    ofEochelie.1627- 
siege  was  a  remarkable    one,    for  the    courage   and   per- 
severance which  were  displayed  on  each  side. 

Rohan,  an  illustrious  soldier,  and  chief  of  the  party,  was  at  this  time 
absent  from  the  town.  His  mother  and  sister,  however,  encouraged  the 
inhabitants  by  their  words  and  their  example.  Full  of  enthusiasm  for 
their  religion  and  liberty,  they  had  chosen,  as  mayor  one  named 
Guiton,  who,  before  accepting  the  magistracy,  had  shown  them  a 
poniard,  and  said,  "  I  will  not  accept  this  office  save  on  condition  that  I 
shall  be  at  liberty  to  plunge  this  dagger  into  the  first  who  shall  speak  of 
surrendering,  and  that  I  shall  be  treated  in  the  same  way  if  I  dream  of 
surrendering."  Lines  of  circumvallation  three  leagues  in  extent  enclosed 
the  town  on  the  land  side  ;  but  on  the  side  fronting  the  sea,  the  Rochellois 
hoped  to  be  furnished  by  the  English  with  munitions  and  reinforcements. 
Richelieu,  however,  frustrated  the  fulfilment  of  this  hope  by  a  gigantic 
piece  of  engineering — a  mole  in  the  sea  four  thousand  seven  hundred  feet 
long.*  The  besieged  allowed  it  to  be  constructed  without  interruption, 
in  the  belief  that  the  waves  would  destroy  it ;  and,  in  fact,  they  did  so 
twice ;  but  the  Cardinal  had  the  work  commenced  a  third  time,  and  it 
was  at  length  successfully  accomplished.  Louis  XIII.  animated  the 
operations  by  his  presence. 

*  The  Engineers  under  whose  direction  it  was  constructed  were  Mdtezeau  and  Tiriot. 


22  FALL  OP  THE  PEOTESTANT  PAETY.    [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

An  English,  fleet,  commanded  by  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  was 
equipped  for  the  purpose  of  affording  succour  to  the  town ;  but  just  as 
the  Duke  was  about  to  embark,  he  was  assassinated  by  an  Englishman 
named  Felton.  The  fleet  nevertheless  set  sail,  and  after  having  cannon- 
aded the  mole  without  effecting  any  important  result,  withdrew.  The 
besieged  after  a  time  became  a  prey  to  the  horrors  of  famine,  but 
Guiton,  the  mayor,  replied  to  every  complaint,  "If  there  were  but  one 
man  left  in  the  town,  it  would  be  his  duty  to  shut  the  gates  against  the 
enemy."  At  length,  after  an  heroic  defence  of  a  year's  duration,  the 
FaiiofEochelle  R°chellois,  driven  to  despair,  consented  to  surrender.  The 
1628,  result  was,  that  their  town  lost  its  privileges,  but  that  they 

retained  the  right  of  worshipping  according  to  their  faith. 

The  Protestant  party  was  not  the  only  one  on  which  Richelieu  inflicted 
a  severe  blow  by  the  capture  of  Rochelle,  for  the  whole  of  the  factious 
princes  and  nobles  admitted  that  the  fall  of  this  city  had  crushed  them 
even  more  severely  than  it  had  the  Huguenots.  Richelieu  had  now  torn 
from  the  spirit  of  revolution,  under  whatever  flag  it  might  choose  to  rise, 
a  stronghold  which  was  reputed  to  be  impregnable,  and  which  possessed  a 
free1  communication  with  foreign  countries,  and  he  had  consequently  de- 
prived the  disaffected  of  the  resources  without  which  they  could  not 
hope  to  obtain  any  permanent  success. 

France,  delivered  at  length  from  the  apprehension  of  civil  war,  now 
ardently  desired  peace ;  but,  if  there  had  been  no  longer  any  national 
difficulties  and  perils,  there  would  have  been  an  end  of  Cardinal 
Richelieu's  administration.  Louis  XIII.  bore  his  yoke  with  impatience ; 
his  flatterers  urged  him  to  dismiss  his  Minister,  and  to  take  the  govern- 
ment into  his  own  hands ;  and  he  promised  to  be  a  king  in  reality,  but  at 
the  same  time  he  was  resolved  not  to  endure  the  fatigues  and  troubles  of 
actual  rule.  It  was  to  Richelieu's  interest,  therefore,  to  create  an  inces- 
sant series  of  fresh  embarrassments,  and  only  to  put  an  end  to  one  war 
for  the  purpose  of  commencing  another.  The  national  pride  was  in 
accordance  with  Richelieu's  views  for  his  personal  aggrandizement,  for  it 
inherited  the  projects  formed  by  Henry  IV.  against  the  house  of  Austria, 
and  desired  that  France  should  be  the  first  nation  in  Europe,  sincerely 
believing  that  not  only  its  safety  but  even  its  honour  demanded  that  all 
other  States  should  be  prostrate  at  its  feet.  A  pretext  for  war  was  not 
long  wanting. 


1624-1643.]  PEACE   OF   ALAIS.  23 

Vincent  de  Gonzaga,  Duke  of  Mantua  and  Montferrat,  died  in  1627, 
:and  his  cousin,  Charles  de  Gonzaga,  Duke  of  Never s,  whose 

n  i  ^  t^  -i'-it-i-       Succession  of  the 

familv  had  been  long  resident  m  France,  claimed  to  be  heir    Duke  of  Mantua, 

J  ....  1627. 

of  his  States.  But  the  Emperor,  the  Spaniards,  and  the 
Duke  of  Savoy  set  up  in  opposition  to  him  the  Duke  of  Guastalla,  a 
member  of  the  elder  branch  of  the  Gonzaga  family,  and  supported  his 
pretended  rights  by  the  invasion  of  the  two  principalities.  The  whole  of 
Montferrat  was  speedily  conquered,  with  the  exception  of  Casal,  its 
capital.  Eichelieu  pointed  out  to  the  King  how  much  it  was  to  the 
honour  and  interest  of  France  to  assist  a  prince  who  was  half  French,  and 
especially  to  counterbalance  the  influence  of  Austria  in  Upper  Italy. 

Louis  XIII.  arrived  with  his  army,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  at  the  foot 
of  the  Alps.  The  only  road  at  this  part  was  the  pass  or  The  of  Susa 
defile  of  Susa,  which  nature  and  art  seemed  to  have  °Pened»1628- 
combined  to  render  impracticable.  Redoubts  crowned  the  heights,  and 
the  pass  was  closed  by  three  entrenchments,  behind  which  were  ensconced 
a  Piedmontese  army.  The  Musqueteers  of  the  King's  household,  led  on 
by  three  marshals,  effected  a  passage  through  the  whole  of  these  defences, 
and  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  terrified,  abandoned  the  Spaniards,  and  signed  at 
Susa  a  treaty  which  secured  to  the  Duke  of  Nevers  the  Treaty  of  Susa 
peaceable  possession  of  Mantua  and  Montferrat.  1628' 

During  this  campaign  the  Calvinistic  party  attempted  a  final  effort. 
The  Duke  of  Rohan  maintained  his  position  in  the  South  by  the  aid  of  the 
^Spaniards.  The  Count  Duke  of  Olivarez,  faithful  to  the  policy  of  the 
time,  thought  it  well  to  protect  in  France  the  remains  of  this  unhappy 
party,  and  promised  Rohan  three  hundred  thousand  ducats;  but  this 
assistance  came  too  late.  Louis  XIII. ,  on  his  return  from  Piedmont,  fell 
rapidly  upon  the  small  number  of  strong  places  still  possessed  by  the 
Protestants,  and  burnt  or  destroyed  those  which  still  existed.  Rohan 
now  sent  in  his  submission,  and  peace  was  concluded,  on   0  ,    .  . 

7  -1  '  Submission  of 

the  27th  June,  at  Alais.     He  received  a  hundred  thousand   BeBohanand 

'  ruin  ot  tne  Jrro  ■ 

crowns  from  the  King  to  enable  him  to  pay  off  his  troops,   Saceofffi's, 
and  then  retired  to  Venice.  1629, 

From  this  moment  the  Protestants  no  longer  formed  a  State,  separated 
from  the  general  body  of  the  kingdom.  They  had  been  reduced  to  this 
necessity,  so  fatal  to  the  country,  by  the  odious  violence  of  the  sons  of 
-Henry  II. ;  but  France  could  not  without  peril  remain  thus  divided,  and 


24  TEACE   OE   EATISBON.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

the  ruin  of  the  Calvinists,  as  a  political  party,  justly  did  honour  to 
Cardinal  Richelieu.  They  ceased  to  possess  a  government  of  their  own, 
and  to  treat  with  that  of  the  King  as  one  power  treating  with  another. 
At  the  same  time,  they  preserved  the  right  of  worshipping  according  to 
their  own  tenets,  and  all  their  privileges,  as  established  by  the  Edict  of 
Nantes. 

The  flame  of  war  was  speedily  relighted  in  Italy.     The  Empire  and 
Spain  had  refused  to  recognise  the  Treaty  of  Susa:    the 

Tsew  War  against  o  j  > 

the  Empire  and     ambitious  Duke  of  Savoy  had  hastened  to  support  anew  his 

Spain,  1630.  .... 

former  allies  in  their  designs  upon  Mantua  and  Montferrat. 
His  son,  Victor -Amadeus,  husband  of  the  Princess  Christina,  sister  of 
Louis  XIII.,  succeeded  him  in  1630,  and  adopted  his  policy.  The 
presence  in  Piedmont  of  a  French  army,  and  the  conquest  of  many 
important  places — amongst  others,  of  Pignerol — could  not  prevent  the 
capture  of  Mantua,  defended  by  its  sovereign  himself  and  the  Marshal 
d'Estrees.  The  capitulation  of  Casal  speedily  followed  this  catastrophe, 
Toiras,  deprived  of  help,  surrendering  the  city  to  the  Imperialists,  and 
retaining  the  citadel.  The  signing  of  peace,  at  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon,  put 
an  end  to  this  war  of  succession.  The  Emperor  undertook  to  put  the 
Duke  of  Nevers  in  possession  of  Mantua  and  Montferrat ;  and  France 
f  Ea-  promised  to  restore  the  conquests  made  at  the  expense  of 
at  chenScormed  Victor- Amadeus,  and  to  form  no  alliance  with  the  enemies 
1631,  of  the  Empire.     Marshal  Schomberg,  who  was  ready  to  give 

battle  to  the  Spaniards  under  the  walls  of  Casal,  refused  at  first  to 
acknowledge  this  treaty,  when  a  young  man,  merely  secretary  to  the 
Pope's  nuncio,  threw  himself  between  the  two  armies  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  action,  in  the  midst  of  a  shower  of  balls,  and  stopped  the 
French  troops,  who,  eager  for  the  fray,  cried  out,  "No  peace!  no 
Mazarin  /"  This  young  man  was,  in  fact,  the  future  Cardinal  Mazarin. 
He  succeeded  in  persuading  the  leaders,  and  the  Treaty  of  Ratisbon  was 
confirmed  at  Cherasco  by  the  Marquis  of  Sainte-Croix  for  Spain,  and 
Marshal  Schomberg  for  France. 

Louis  XIII.,  who  had  rejoined  his  army  in  Piedmont,  on  the  signature 
of  peace  returned  to  France,  and  fell  dangerously  ill  at  Lyons.  Richelieu 
thought  himself  lost ;  but  the  King  recovered  and  returned  to  Paris 
where  his  Minister  was  threatened  by  an  equal  danger.  The  Queen- 
mother,  always  hostile  to  the  Cardinal,  and  enraged  at  the  results  of  the 


1624-1643.]  DISCOMFITUKE    OF    EICHELIEU.  25 

war  in  Piedmont,  undertaken  against  her  son-in-law,  Victor-Amadens, 
demanded  of  the  King,  with  indignant  tears,  that  he  should  disgrace  the 
Cardinal  in  her  presence,  and  overwhelmed  him  with  bitter  reproaches. 
Louis  XIII.,  to  put  an  end  to  this  painful  scene,  abruptly  ordered 
Richelieu  to  retire.  The  latter  considered  himself  disgraced,  and  the 
Queen  looked  upon  her  triumph  as  certain.  This  was  the  opinion  of  the 
whole  Court ;  and  whilst  the  Cardinal  was  burning  his  papers  and  secur- 
ing his  treasures,  the  courtiers  flocked  in  crowds  to  Marie  de  Medici  to 
congratulate  her,  and  express  their  delight  at  what  had  happened.  The 
King  had  retired  to  Versailles,*  and  Richelieu,  encouraged  by  his  friends, 
determined,  before  departing,  to  make  a  final  effort.  He  followed  the 
King,  obtained  an  interview,  justified  himself,  received  orders  to  remain 
at  the  helm  of  the  State  ;  and  whilst  his  enemies  were  already  triumphing 
over  his  fall,  reappeared  more  powerful  than  ever.  This  day  is  known 
by  the  name  of  The  Day  of  Dupes. 

The  first  act  by  which  Richelieu  attested  his  re-establishment  in  power 
was  the   arrest  of  the  two  brothers  Marillac — the  one  a 

Arrest  of  trie 

Marshal  of  France,  the  other  the  Keeper  ot  the  Seals — who   Brothers  Ma- 

rillac. 

owed  their  elevation  to  the  Cardinal,  and  had  shown  them- 
selves his  most  bitter  enemies.  Before  punishing  them,  however, 
Richelieu  sought  to  abate  or  put  an  end  to  the  hostility  of  his  powerful 
foes,  and  overwhelmed  with  favours  and  promises  the  friends  of  Gaston  of 
Orleans;  especially  distinguishing  Puy-Laurens  and  the  President,  Le 
Coigneux,  the  confidants  of  the  prince,  whose  favour  he  thus  sought  to 
gain.  But,  urged  on  by  the  two  queens,  Gaston  visited  the  Minister  at 
the  head  of  a  crowd  of  gentlemen,  insulted  him,  and  threatened  him  with 
the  full  weight  of  his  vengeance.  After  this  violent  and  ridiculous  scene, 
during  which  the  Cardinal  believed  himself  to  be  in  peril  of  his  life, 
Gaston  retired  to  his  appanage  of  Orleans  and  began  to 

,  ,  ,  .  _        .    ,       _  Gaston  of  Or- 

levy  troops;    but,  at  the  approach  of  the  Royal  army,  he   leans  takes  re- 

n    j         .  -,  a-     •  .  ^uSe  i^  Lorraine. 

lied   without    ottering    any   resistance,    and    passed    into 
Lorraine. 

It  was  not  yet  enough.  So  long  as  the  Queen-mother,  imbued  with 
the  intriguing,  jealous,  and  vindictive  spirit  of  the  Medicis,  remained  at 
the  Court,  Richelieu  could  never  be  sure  of  the  morrow.  Perceiving  that 
he  was  sufficiently  strong  to  make  a  daring  stroke,  he  told  the  King  that 

*  Versailles  was  at  that  time  a  mere  shooting-box. 


26  FLIGHT   OE    MAETE   DE   MEDICI.         [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

he  must  choose  between  his  mother  or  himself.  The  King,  cold  of  heart 
and  feeble  in  mind,  did  not  hesitate.  He  proceeded  to  Compiegne, 
accompanied  by  his  mother;  departed  from  it  without  her  knowledge, 
and  left  her  alone  with  her  women  in  that  residence,  where  she  was 
informed  of  his  will  respecting  her. 

Blinded  with  rage,  the  Queen-mother  committed  the  error  ofwithdraw- 
Fiieht  of  Marie  *nS  *nto  Spanish  Flanders,  whence  Eichelieu  prudently 
de  Medici,  1631.  anowed  ]ier  a  free  passage,  and  where,  to  the  Minister's 
great  satisfaction,  she  demanded  refuge  and  protection.  To  do  this, 
was  to  break  with  her  son  and  with  France.  The  King  replied  to  her 
complaints  by  the  following  letter.  "  The  course  which  you  have  taken, 
madame,  does  not  allow  me  to  doubt  what  have  been  your  intentions  during 
the  past,  and  what  I  have  to  expect  of  you  in  the  future.  The  respect 
which  I  owe  you,  permits  me  to  say  no  more."  Marie  de  Medici  never 
again  re-entered  France. 

Free  from  henceforth  to  listen  to  the  dictates  of  his  wrath,  and  to  satisfy 
his  vengeance,  Richelieu  gave  conciliatory  tactics  for  the  most  vigorous  mea- 
sures. All  those  who  had  hesitated  between  his  party  and  that  of  the  Queen- 
mother  were  forced  to  quit  the  Court  and  their  offices,  and  the  trial  of 
,        Marshal  de  Marillac  was  conducted  at  Verdun  by  a  com- 

Sentence  and  J 

Marshai'de*  mission,  which,  being  slow  to  find  him  guilty,  was  replaced 
Marillac,  1632.  ky  another,  hostile  to  the  Marshal,  and  presided  over  by 
the  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  Chateauneuf,  his  personal  enemy.  Chateauneuf 
was  a  sub-deacon,  and,  as  such,  incapable  of  sitting  as  a  judge  ;  but  he 
obtained  a  dispensation  from  Rome.  Marillac  was  transported  to  Ruel, 
to  the  Cardinal's  own  house,  where  he  was  tried,  and  condemned  to  death, 
as  having  been  guilty  of  peculation,  extortion,  and  tyranny,  in  the  exercise 
of  his  office.  His  real  crime  was  his  having  attempted  to  destroy 
Richelieu,  his  benefactor,  by  making  the  last  war  in  Piedmont  a  failure. 
He  was  beheaded,  and  his  brother,  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  died  in 
prison.  The  Cardinal's  vengeance  was  still  further  signalized  by 
numerous  proscriptions.  The  Count  de  Moret,  the  Marquis  de  la 
Vieuville,  the  Dukes  of  Elbeuf,  and  of  Bellegarde,  were  condemned  to 
lose  their  estates  and  their  heads,  for  having  joined  the  Duke  of  Orleans 
and  Marie  de  Medici  in  foreign  countries ;  the  possessions  of  the  Queen- 
mother  were  also  seized,  and  an  inventory  was  made  of  them  as  though 
she  had  been  dead. 


I624r-1643.]  BATTLE   OF    CASTELNATTDARY.  27 

Whilst  Richelieu  thus  executed  his  vengeance,  the  Queen-mother  and 
her  emigrant  son  continued  their  intrigues,  both  within  and  Bevolt  of  Gaston 
without  the  kingdom,  but  Gaston,  heir  to  the  Crown,  and  in  De  Mon?nw> 
that  respect  formidable,  seemed  only  bent  upon  compromis- 
ing his  friends  and  leaving  them  to  their  fate.  He  only  distinguished  him- 
self in  Lorraine  by  his  frivolous  gallantry  ;  and  having  become  a  widower, 
secretly  married  Princess  Marguerite,  sister  of  Duke  Charles  IV.  Finally, 
after  having  wandered  about  all  the  frontiers  of  the  kingdom,  he  entered 
France  at  the  head  of  a  band  of  deserters  and  adventurers,  and  joined 
Marshal  Duke  de  Montmorency,  in  Languedoc.  The  latter,  a  descendant 
of  the  Constables  Montmorency,  a  gallant  soldier,  and  a  brother-in-law 
of  Conde,  allowed  himself  to  be  seduced  by  the  prince,  and,  whether 
he  considered  it  his  duty  to  deliver  France  from  Richelieu's  domination,  or 
whether  he  wished  by  making  himself  feared,  to  be  able  to  sell  his  sub- 
mission at  the  price  of  a  constable's  sword,  he  resolved  to  raise  Languedoc, 
of  which  he  was  governor,  in  favour  of  Gaston.  But  Richelieu  anticipated 
his  enemies,  and  the  Marshals  de  la  Force  and  Schomberg  entered 
Languedoc  at  the  head  of  two  Royal  armies,  at  the  moment  when  Gaston 
was  effecting  his  junction  with  Montmorency. 

The   hostile   troops   met   near    Castelnaudary.       Montmorency,   very 
inferior  in  the  number  of  his  troops  to  the  enemy,  threw  him-   ^  ■  '    „.. 

r  J  '  Battle  of  Castel- 

self   upon    the    latter    with    a   feeble  detachment ;    was   naudary,  1632. 
surrounded,  captured,  and  carried  away  a  prisoner  under  the  very  eyes 
of  Gaston,  who  made  no  effort  to  rescue  him,  and  whose  whole  army  im- 
mediately disbanded  itself.      Those  loi  the  friends  and  partisans  of  the 
Prince  who  were  seized  with  arms  in  their  hands,  were  treated  without 
mercy,  but  terms  were  made  with  those  who  remained  with  him,  and 
amongst   others  with  Puy-Laurens.      Richelieu   never  failed  to  regard 
Gaston  as  the  heir-presumptive  to  the  crown,  and  he  permitted  him  to  re- 
tire to  Tours,  where  the  Prince  arrived  more  disgraced  by  his  cowardice 
than  by  his  rebellion.       Montmorency  was  taken  before  the  Parliament 
of  Toulouse,  condemned  to  death  and  executed,  and  died  as 
a  repentant  and  sincere  Christian.     A  crowd  of  others  lost   Montmorency, 
their  heads  on  the  scaffold,    and  Gaston,  terrified   at   the 
Cardinal's  rigour,  once  more  quitted  France. 

The  King,  who  had  hitherto  been  ignorant  of  his  brother's  second 
marriage  with  the  Princess  Marguerite  in  Lorraine,  on  being  informed 


28  INVASION    OF    LOEEAINE.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

of  it,  refused  to  sanction  it,  and  invaded  the  duchy  -with  a  demand  that 
Charles  IV.  should  give  his  sister  into  his  hands.       The 

Invasion  of  Lor- 
raine by  the        latter,  however,  escaped,  and  joined  her  husband  at  Brussels. 

French, 1632.  .... 

where  Marie  de  Medici  received  her  as  a  daughter.  The  whole 
of  Lorraine  was  overrun,  and  Nancy  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French.  The 
unfortunate  Duke  Charles*  abdicated  in  favour  of  Cardinal  Nicolas  Francis, 
his  brother,  who  hastened,  without  consulting  Rome,  to  lay  aside  the  hat, 
and  to  marry  his  cousin  Claude.  Soon  afterwards  he  retired  from 
Lorraine  with  his  wife,  abandoning  his  states  to  the  French  King,  who 
everywhere  established  garrisons,  pending  the  surrender  of  the  Princess 
Marguerite. 

Whilst  Louis  XIII.  thus  endeavoured  to  annul  this  alliance  by  force, 
the  Parliament  of  Paris,  to  whom  he  had  referred  the  matter, 

The  Parliament 

of  Paris  annuls      declared  Gaston's  marriage  void,  decreed  the  duke  guilty  of 

the  marriage  of 

the  Duke  of         violence  to  the  person  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  and   confis- 

Orlcans.  x  ' 

cated  his  inheritance.  A  year  later  the  Assembly  of  the 
Clergy  confirmed  the  judgment  in  opposition  to  the  Court  of  Rome, 
which  recognised  the  marriage  as  valid. 

The  King's  brother  had  now  returned  to  France,  having  abandoned 
his  mother  as  readily  as  he  had  abandoned  his  friends,  and  visited  the 
Court,  when  Richelieu,  in  the  midst  of  brilliant  fetes,  endeavoured,  but 
in  vain,  to  obtain  from  him  an  avowal  that  his  marriage  was  illegal. 
Monsieur  in  this  matter  displayed,  for  the  first  time,  some  firmness,  and 
retired  to  Blois  with  Puy-Laurens,  his  favourite,  on  whom  Richelieu  had 
lavished  favours  and  honours.  He  had  married  him  to  one  of  his  relatives, 
on  whom  he  bestowed  a  magnificent  dowry,  and  had  made  him  a  duke  and 
peer,  in  the  hope  that  he  would  induce  the  Prince  to  yield  to  the  King's 
wishes ;  but  as  Puy-Laurens  would  not  serve  the  Cardinal's  views,  he 
enticed  him  to  Paris,  and  had  him  seized  and  cast  into  the  Bastille,  where 
he  died. 

His  master  did  not  remain  the  less  obstinate  on  this  account,  but  an 
event  occurred  three  years  afterwards,  which  reduced  him  to  a  secondary 
position.  Anne  of  Austria  lived  apart  from  Louis  XIII.,  and  had  no 
children.  It  is  said  that  a  young  girl,  Mdlle.  de  la  Fayette,  who  was  be- 
loved by  the  monarch,  and  sought  in  the  Convent  of  the  Visitation  an 

*  Charles  IV.  was  the  twenty -fourth  duke  of  the  house  of  Lorraine,  issue  of  Gerard 
dJ  Alsace.  Besides  the  reigning  branch,  there  were  many  other  branches  of  this  illus- 
trious house,  as  those  of  Vaudemont,  De  Guise,  De  Mercceur,  De  Mayenne,  D Aumale,  &c. 


1624-1613.]  THE    THIRTY  TEARS     WAR.  29 

asylum  from  his  solicitations,  endeavoured  to  remove  the  King's  spirit  of 
hostility  towards  his  Queen,  and  in  time  brought  about  a  good  understand- 
ing between  them.    However  this  may  be,  Anne  of  Austria   Birfchofa  D 
after  twenty-two  years'  sterility,  presented  to  the  world  on   Phm» 1638- 
the  5th  September,  1638,  a  son,  who  became  Louis  XIV. 

At  the  period  when  the  reins  of  Government  passed  thus  under  a  king 
in  a  perpetual  state  of  pupillage,  from  the  hands  of  Concini  to  the  hands 
of  De  Luynes,  and  from  those  of  the  latter  to  those  of  Richelieu,  in  which 
they  remained,  great  events,  in  which  France  had  not  as  yet  interfered, 
were  taking  place  in  Germany. 

The  Emperor  Mathias,  having  no  children,  had  chosen  as  his  successor 
his  cousin- german,  Ferdinand,  of  Styria,  grandson  of  Ferdinand  I., 
brother  of  Charles  V.,  and  had  had  him  elected  King  of  Bohemia,  in  his 
own  life-time.  This  [Prince,  educated  by  the  Jesuits,  and  an  admirer  of 
Philip  II.,  wished  to  deprive  the  Protestant  Bohemians  of  liberty  of 
conscience.  The  latter,  greatly  irritated,  complained  to  the  Council  of 
Prague,  and  threw  four  officers  of  the  Government  out  of  the  windows. 

In  the  meantime,  Mathias  died,  and  Ferdinand,  besieged  in  Vienna  by 
the  victorious  Bohemians,  could  not  dispute  the  possession 

Origin  of  the 

of  the  Imperial  Crown.     The  Diet  was  divided  between  the    Thirty  Years' 

1  '.  War,  1618. 

Protestants  and  the  Catholics,  but  the  defection  of  the  Elector 

of  Saxony  made  the  balance  incline  in  favour  of  the  latter,  and  Ferdinand 

was  proclaimed  Emperor  at  Frankfort,  on  the  28th  August,    „.     *     ,    ' 

x  x  o        »     Election  to  the 

1619.  The  Bohemian  States  replied  to  this  election  bv  offer-   Empire  of  Fer- 

x  ■»  dinand  III., 

ing  their  Crown  to  the  Elector  Palatine*  Frederick  V.,  son-    1619# 

in-law  of  the  King  of  England,  and  nephew  of  the  Stadtholder  of  Holland. 

The  whole    Evangelical  Union    or  Confederation  of   the 

....  Frederick  V.  re- 

Protestant  states  of  Germany  recognised  him  as  their  head,    calves  the  crown 

.  .  .  .   .  t,  of  Bohemia. 

and  set  mm  up  in  opposition  to  the  Emperor,  who  supported 
the  Catholic  League. 

Frederick,  a  prince  without  talents  or  energy,  lost,  in  a  bloody  battle 
fought  on  the  White  Mountain,  near  Prague,  not  only  his  new  crown, 
but  also  his  hereditary  estates.  Emboldened  by  this  success,  the  Emperor, 
closely  allied  with  Spain,  carried  war  into  the  Palatinate,  and  threatened 
to  extirpate  Protestantism  throughout  the  whole  of  Germany. 

*  The  Palatinate,  one  of  the  Electorates  of  Germany  in  the  circle  of  the  Upper  Rhine, 
extended  along  the  two  shores  of  the  river,  and  had  Manheim  for  its  capital. 


30  DIET   OF    EATISBON.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

To  save  its  liberties,  the  Evangelical  Union,  which  had  been  without  a 
leader  since  the  fall  of  the  Palatine,  chose  in  that  capacity  Christian  IV., 
King  of  Denmark,  and  Duke  of  Holstein  (1625) ;  and  then  commenced 
the  second  period  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  called  the  Danish  Period. 
It  was  no  less  fatal  than  the  first  to  the  Protestant  cause ;  for  Christian, 
vanquished  by  the  celebrated  imperial  generals  Tilly  and  Wallenstein,  was 
driven  back  into  his  islands ;  saw  the  whole  of  Jutland,  Schleswig,  and 
Holstein  invaded  by  the  conquerors ;  and  to  save  the  remnant  of  his 
dominions,  was  compelled  to  sign  the  humiliating  peace  of  Lubeck,  in 
1629.  The  whole  of  Protestant  Germany  was  under  the  yoke,  and  the 
cause  of  liberty  of  conscience  seemed  desperate. 

Then  assembled  the  imperial  Diet  of  Eatisbon  (1630),  to  discuss  the 
Diet  of  Eatisbon  great  questions  which  for  twenty  years  had  agitated  the 
German  empire ;  and  now  there  came  a  check  to  the  fortunes 
of  the  House  of  Austria.  In  the  place  of  allies  Ferdinand  only  found  adver- 
saries amongst  the  Catholic  Electors,  who  were  alarmed  at  his  ambition 
and  his  despotism.  They  demanded  of  him  the  disbandment  of  his  army 
of  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men,  which  was  now  useless,  and  the 
dismissal  of  the  invincible  General  Wallenstein.  It  was  at  Eatisbon,  also, 
that  was  regulated  the  succession  of  Mantua,  which  the  Emperor  had 
pretended  to  dispose  of  as  an  imperial  fief.  This  was  the  second  step 
which  France  took  in  its  interference  with  the  affairs  of  the  empire ;  the 
first  being  the  occupation  of  the  Valteline. 

Eichelieu  saw  with  disquiet  the  progress  of  the  House  of  Austria ;  but 
the  time  was  not  yet  come  for  France  openly  to  interfere. 

Continuation  of  .  -i/».i  ••  -i     •  i 

the  Thirty  Years'   Eichelieu  contented  himself  with  promising  as  a  subsidy 

War,  1630-1635.  __. 

1,200,000  livres  a  year  to  the  young  King  of  Sweden, 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  already  famous  by  reason  of  his  victories  over  the 
Muscovites  and  the  Poles,  and  towards  whom  the  eyes  of  all  Protestant 
Europe  were  now  turned.  This  Snow  Xing — as  Ferdinand  called  him,  in 
his  profound  blindness — hurled  himself  upon  Germany.  Victorious  at 
Leipsic,  in  1631,  and  again  at  the  passage  of  the  Leek,  where  Tilly  lost  his 
lifej  he  retaliated  upon  the  Catholic  League  all  the  evils  they  had  inflicted 
on  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  and  prepared  to  strike  a  final  blow  by 
attacking  Ferdinand  in  his  capital.  The  Emperor,  in  terror,  then  recalled 
the  illustrious  Wallenstein,  whom  he  had  disgraced ;  and  the  two  rivals 
in  glory  encountered  each  other  at  Lutzen  in  1632.     Gustavus  was  the 


1624-1643.]  TBEATY    OF   WESTPHALIA.  31 

victor,  but  died  on  the  field  of  battle,  leaving  the  command  to  another 
hero,  Duke  Bernard  de  Saxe- Weimar.  The  latter,  however,  after  great 
successes,  lost  in  1634  the  decisive  battle  of  Nordlingen  against  the  Arch- 
duke Ferdinard,  the  Emperor's  eldest  son.  The  conquests  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  were  nullified,  and  the  House  of  Austria  became  once 
more  all-powerful.  Here  ends  the  Swedish  period  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
and  commences  the  fourth  and  last  epoch,  to  which  has  been  given  the 
name  of  the  French  period. 

At  the  moment  when  Eichelieu  was  engaging  France  in  this  sanguinary 
struggle,  which  terminated  only  with  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia,  in  1648, 
it  will  be  as  well  to  cast  a  glance  at  the  state  of  Europe  in  1635. 

Italy — occupied  in  the  north  and  south  by  the  Spaniards,  who  were 
masters  of  the  Milanese  territory  and  the  kingdom  of  Naples — was  destitute 
of  strength  or  will.  England,  on  the  eve  of  a  revolution,  took  no  part  in 
the  affairs  of  the  Continent.  Holland,  at  the  expiration  of  the  truce  of 
twelve  years,  had  renewed  against  Spain  her  glorious  war  of  inde- 
pendence. Queen  Christina  pursued  with  the  Swedes  the  work  of  her 
father,  Gustavus  Adolphus ;  whilst  Denmark,  exhausted  by  the  war  of 
1625,  held  aloof.  As  for  Germany,  she  was  more  than  ever  divided. 
The  Elector  of  Saxony  had,  by  the  Peace  of  Prague,  abandoned  the 
Protestant  cause;  but  the  four  circles  of  Upper  Germany,  Franconia, 
Swabia,  the  Palatinate,  the  Upper  Rhine,  and  the  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg, still  defended  it.  Bohemia  was  crushed,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
empire  was  in  the  interest  of  the  Catholic  League,  of  which  the  nominal 
chief  was  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  recently  invested  with  the  Palatinate,  but 
who  was  but  an  instrument  in  the  powerful  hands  of  the  Emperor  Fer- 
dinand. This  Prince,  in  whom  an  indomitable  ambition  was  united 
with  a  furious  fanaticism,  was  always,  in  spite  of  the  Swedish  invasion, 
the  master  of  Germany,  and  pursued  the  ruin  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance 
in  common  with  his  cousin,*  Philip  IV.,  King  of  Spain,  or  rather  with 
his  minister,  Olivarez. 

Spain,  at  this  period,  had  already  lost  much  of  the  power  it  had  pos- 
sessed under  Charles  V.,  but,  on  the  other  hand,   she  possessed  a  new 

*  We  have  seen  that  Charles  V.  divided  his  dominions  between  his  brother  Ferdi. 
nand,  his  successor  to  the  empire,  and  his  son,  Philip  II.  This  was  the  origin  of  the 
two  branches  of  the  House  of  Austria,  the  one  reigning  at  Vienna,  the  other  at  Madrid. 
Ferdinand  was  the  grandson  of  Ferdinand  I.,  and  Philip  IV.  the  s;reat-s;randson  of 
Charles  V. 


32  POLICY   OE    KICHELIET7.  L^00K  IIL  Ch^«  H. 

kingdom,  Portugal ;  and  Philip  IV.  still  reigned  beyond  the  Peninsula, 
over  Naples,  Sicily,  and  the  Milanese  territory  in  Italy ;  over  the  whole 
of  Belgium;  over  Roussillon,  Franche  Comte,  Flanders,  and  Artois, 
French  frontiers ;  over  a  portion  of  the  northern  coast  of  Africa ;  and 
over  the  whole  of  the  New  World.  Heir,  in  accordance  with  a  strict 
alliance  with  the  Emperor,  of  the  remainder  of  the  states  of  Charles  V., 
the  ancient  monarchy  of  the  House  of  Austria  found  itself  re-established, 
and  possessed  too  great  a  weight  in  the  destinies  of  Europe,  when 
Richelieu  threw  into  the  balance  the  sword  of  France.  Though  a 
Catholic,  and  the  vanquisher  of  the  Protestants  in  France,  he  took 
them  under  his  protection  in  Germany,  and  made  the  Evangelical 
Alliance  in  that  country  his  weapon  by  which  to  break  the  power 
of  the  House  of  Austria.  '  Continuer  as  he  was  of  the  policy  of 
Henry  IV.,  Richelieu,  as  was  the  case  with  that  great  King,  did  not 
live  long  enough  to  reap  all  its  fruits ;  but  before  his  death  he  at  least 
had  the  glory  of  adding  a  new  province  to  his  country.  We  find 
this  recorded  in  the  history  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  from  1635  to 
1642. 

Richelieu  made  the  greatest  efforts  to  secure  the  success  of  his  military 
plans.       He  formed   an    offensive    and    defensive    alliance 

Commencement      r 

of  the  French        -yyith    Holland   and    Sweden,    by   which    he    secured   the 

period  ot  the  7        J 

Wa?7  Mmtary  assistance  of  the  army  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  in  the  Low 
K?cSeiieuni635-  Countries,  and  of  that  which  Duke  Bernard  de  Saxe 
Weimar  commanded  on  the  Rhine.  He  signed,  at  the 
same  time,  fresh  treaties  with  the  Dukes  of  Savoy,  Mantua,  and  Parma, 
amongst  whom  he  promised  to  divide  the  Milanese  territory.  His  plans 
for  war  embraced  at  once  Flanders,  the  Rhine,  the  Valteline,  and  Italy ; 
and  he  formed  four  armies,  intended  to  act  simultaneously  on  all  those 
points.  He  thus  at  one  stroke  raised  the  military  force  of  the  kingdom 
to  a  point  greatly  superior  to  that  which  it  had  hitherto  obtained. 
Believing  himself  to  be  as  great  a  general  as  he  was  a  statesman,  the 
Cardinal  resolved  to  direct  from  his  cabinet  all  the  movements  of  the 
armies  in  the  field.  In  his  eyes  the  chief  quality  of  a  general  was 
obedience,  and  he  divided  the  command  of  each  army,  that  the  generals 
might  be  a  mutual  check  upon  each  other,  and  that  neither  of  them 
should  consider  himself  sufficiently  powerful  to  act  upon  his  own 
responsibility. 


1624-1643.]  CAMPAIGN   OP   1635.  33 

The  army  of  the  north,  under  Marshals  de  Chatillon  and  de  Breze,  was 
to  join  in  Luxembourg  that  of  the  States- General  of  Holland,    Campaign  of 
for  the  purpose  of  driving  out  of  Belgium  the  Spaniards,    163°* 
commanded    by   Prince    Thomas    of    Carignan,    who    had    enlisted    in 
the  cause  of  the  House  of  Austria ;  whilst  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  Victor- 
Amadeus,  his  brother,  was  compelled,  in  his  own  despite,  to 

.  *•./"••-  i  -1-11-11        Operations  of 

serve  France.     The  Prince  oi    Carignan   advanced  boldly   the  armies  in 

Belgium. 

with  fifteen  thousand  men  between  the  two  divisions  of  the 
army  of  the  north,  in  order  to  crush  them  separately.  But  his  temerity 
was  punished,  for  they  fell  upon  him  simultaneously  in  the  plain  of 
Avaine,  took  from  him  fifty  flags,  and  effected  their  junction  with  the 
Dutch,  commanded  by  the  Prince  of  Orange,  before  Maastricht.  The 
united  army  presented  a  force  of  fifty  thousand  combatants,  and  might 
have  effected  great  things,  but  it  gave  itself  up  to  the  most  frightful 
excesses.  The  sack  of  Tirlemont  roused  the  Belgians,  undecided  until 
then  whether  to  join  the  French  or  the  Spaniards ;  they  ran  to  arms,  and 
thus  gave  time  for  the  arrival  of  the  Imperial  army,  under  Piccolomini. 
This  army  forced  the  French  to  raise  the  siege  of  Louvain,  and  com- 
pelled them  to  remain  in  a  state  of  inaction  till  the  end  of  the 
campaign. 

The  French-Swedish  army  of  Germany  divided  into  several  corps, 
under  the  command  of  Marshal  de  la  Force  and  the  Duke  operations  in 
Bernard  of  Saxe- Weimar,  had  in  front  of  it,  on  the  one  side,  Germany- 
the  Duke  Charles  of  Lorraine,  whose  States,  since  the  marriage  of  the 
Princess  Marguerite,  continued  to  be  occupied  by  French  garrisons; 
and  on  the  other,  the  celebrated  Gallas,  who  blockaded  a  portion  of 
Bernard's  army  in  Mayence,  and  held  that  general  himself  in  check  at 
Sarrebruck.  Kichelieu  confided  a  second  army  of  fifteen  thousand  men 
to  the  Cardinal  la  Valette,  who  succeeded  in  effecting  a  junction  with 
Bernard,  and  relieving  him  from  his  position.  The  blockade  of 
Mayence  was  raised,  but  famine  and  disease  had  afflicted  this  army  with 
direful  force ;  and  when,  after  its  disastrous  retreat,  it  re-entered  Metz 
it  was  reduced  to  one  half.  The  Duke  of  Lorraine,  although  beaten  at 
Montbelliard  by  La  Force,  recovered  a  portion  of  his  duchy,  from  which 
he  was  immediately  afterwards  expelled  by  a  third  army,  which  Louis  XIIL 
commanded  in  person.  The  King  attempted  to  effect  no  great  move- 
ment on  the  Rhine ;  he  never  crossed  the  river ;  and  what  remained  of 

VOL.  II.  .  D 


34  INVASION   OF   FBANCE.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

the  three  armies  acting  upon  this  frontier  covered  Champagne  and 
Lorraine,  now  threatened  by  the  Imperialists. 

Italy  was  the  third  theatre  of  Richelieu's  strategical  operations.  The 
Operations  in  princes  allied  with  France,  the  Dukes  of  Savoy,  of  Parma, 
ta  y'  and  of  Mantua,  were  to  take  possession  of  the  Milanese  ter- 

ritory, and  Marshal  de  Crequi,  at  the  head  of  fifteen  thousand  men,  was 
to  assist  them.  Frequent  altercations,  however,  with  the  Duke  of 
Savoy  paralysed  every  movement ;  and  after  the  army,  having  failed  in  its 
attack  on  Frascorolo,  had  been  compelled  to  raise  the  siege  of  Valanza, 
Crequi  retreated  towards  France,  abandoning  the  allied  princes,  whose 
States  were  immediately  invaded. 

The  French  arms  were  only  successful  in  the  Valteline,  where  the  com- 
Operationsinthe  man(l  was  ^n  tne  hand  of  the  Duke  de  Rohan,  who  had 
acquired  a  great  military  reputation  in  the  civil  wars,  and 
who  succeeded  in  cutting  off  all  communication  between  the  imperial 
troops  of  Lombardy  and  Austria.  He  made  head  with  five  thousand  men, 
in  an  insurgent  country,  against  the  generals  Serbelloni  and  Fernamont, 
who  attacked  him  with  superior  numbers.  Victorious  at  Morbegno,  he 
repulsed  Fernamont  in  the  Tyrol,  and  then  drove  Serbelloni  and  the 
Spaniards  from  the  Valteline,  after  the  glorious  battle  of  the  Val  de  Presle. 
At  this  point  only  was  the  campaign  of  1635  honourable  for  France  ;  and 
it  was  at  this  point  that  the  command  had  not  been  divided,  and  that  the 
intelligence  which  had  conceived  a  plan  was  always  united  with  that  by 
which  it  was  to  be  carried  out. 

Richelieu  entered  upon  the  following  campaign  with  as  many  armies 
Campaign  of  as  ne  na(^  *n  *ne  preceding,  and  he  suffered  great  reverses. 
He  hoped  to  gain  possession  of  Franche-Comte,  a  Spanish 
province  against  which  he  had  directed  his  best  troops,  under  Prince 
Conde,  but  this  army  was  promptly  recalled  to  make  head  against 
the  Imperialists,  who  had  invaded  France.  The  Cardinal-Infant,  brother 
of  the  King  of  Spain,  Piccolomini,  and  John  der  "Werth,  a  Bavarian  general, 
had  entered  France  at  the  head  of  forty  thousand  men. 

The  line  of  the  Somme  was  forced ;  Corbie,  the  last  strong  place  on 
this  frontier,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Imperialists,  whose 

Invasion  of  7  *  ' 

imaneriaUrnfies  Croat  cavalry  appeared  on  the  banks  of  the  Oise,  whilst  a 
1636-  second  army,  under  Gallas  and  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  en- 

tered Burgundy.     Terror  reigned  in  Paris,  and  the  popular  fury  was 


1624-1643.]  VICTORY   OF   BRTNEFELD.  35 

directed  against  the  Cardinal,  who  was  accused  of  all  the  ills  of  France 
But  the  latter,  superior  to  fear,  traversed  the  masses  of  irritated  people 
unguarded,  and  proceeded  to  the  H6tel-de-Ville,  from  whence  he  called 
to  arms  the  noblesse  and  the  various  trading  bodies  for  the  defence  of  the 
kingdom. 

A  universal  enthusiasm,  such  as  was  witnessed  in  darker  days,  now 
seized  upon  the  nation.  Money,  provisions,  and  arms  poured  in  from  all 
directions ;  nobles,  citizens,  and  artisans  enrolled  themselves  as  volun- 
teers, and  at  the  end  of  a  month  an  army  of  forty  thousand  men  marched 
to  drive  the  enemy  from  the  kingdom. 

The  imperial  generals  did  not  await  the  onslaught.  Their  army,  bur- 
dened with  plunder,  was  weakened  by  indiscipline  and  desertion,  and  they 
hastened  to  recross  the  frontier ;  upon  which  all  the  fortresses  of  Picardy 
were  retaken  by  the  French;  the  valiant  defence  made  by  Saint -Jean  de 
Losne  having  already  checked  the  progress  of  the  invasion  in  Burgundy. 
A  third  attempt  made  by  the  Spaniards  on  the  side  of  the  Pyrenees  was 
not  more  fortunate,  and  French  soil  was  delivered  from  foreign  invaders. 
It  was  there,  however,  merely  a  defensive  war.  In  Italy,  a  bloody  victory 
obtained  by  Marshal  de  Crequi  and  the  Duke  of  Savoy  over  the  Im- 
perialists near  Lake  Maggiore  had  no  result. 

The  following  year  (1637)  was  distinguished  by  the  death  of  several  oi 
the  sovereigns  engaged  in  the  war.     The  Emperor  Ferdi- 

,  __     _.    .,      _        ,  .      ,      .        ,_.  „  __  .  .       Death  of  Ferdi- 

nand II.  died  after  having  had  the  King  ot  Hungary,  his   nand  ir.  and  of 

m  the  Dukea  of 

son,  elected  as  his  successor,  and  France  lost  its  two  Italian   Savoy  and 

Mantua,  1637. 

allies,  the  Dukes  of  Mantua  and  Savoy.     The  war  had  con- 
tinued on  all  the  frontiers  without  success  as  without  any  formidable  re- 
verses, and  the  only  important  military  fact  of  this  campaign  was  the  evacua- 
tion by  the  Duke  de  Rohan  of  the  Valteline,  from  whence  he  was  driven 
bj  the  old  allies  of  France,  the  Grisons,  who  had  now  turned  against  her. 
The  war  was  continued  in  1638  with  results  unfavourable  to  France. 
In  the  north  it  was  found  necessary  to  raise  the  siege  of  Cam  ai     of 
Saint-Omer,  and  on  the  Spanish  frontier,  despite  the  mari-    1638# 
time  successes  of  the  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux,  Sourdis,  the  French  were 
beaten  by  the  Admiral  of  Castille  and  forced  to  abandon  the  siege  ot 
Fontarabia.       The   victory  obtained   by  their   ally,  Duke   Victor     fth 
Bernard  of  Saxe-Weimar,  alone  compensated  them  on  the   Weimar  at**6" 
Rhine  for  so  many  disasters.    Duke  Bernard  besieged  Rhine-   lihinefeld> 1638- 

D  2 


36  THE    FLANDERS    CAMPAIGN".         [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

feld.  John  der  Werth  hurried  to  the  relief  of  this  town,  vanquished  the 
Weimarians,  and  forced  them  to  raise  the  siege,  when  suddenly  Bernard, 
who  was  looked  upon  as  vanquished,  reappeared  under  the  walls  of  Rhine- 
feld,  surprised  the  Imperialists  in  the  intoxication  of  triumph,  cut 
them  in  pieces,  and  made  prisoners  of  their  four  generals,  amongst  whom 
was  the  celebrated  John  der  Werth.  It  was  in  this  engagement  that 
perished  the  Duke  de  Rohan,  the  hero  who  had  been  the  leader  of  the 
French  Calvinists,  the  general  of  the  army  of  the  Valteline,  and  then  a 
simple  volunteer  in  the  army  of  Duke  Bernard. 

The  victory  of  Rhinefeld  was  the  last  achievement  of  Duke  Weimar, 
who  died  in  the  following  year  (1639)  of  typhus,  at  the  age  of  thirty-six 
years,  leaving  unaccomplished  all  the  vast  projects  which  he  had  con- 
ceived for  the  aggrandizement  of  his  house.  France  purchased  his  con- 
quests in  Germany,  and  his  army — the  command  of  which  was  given  to  the 
Duke  de  Longueville — crossed  the  Rhine,  in  concert  with  the  Count  de 
Guebriant,  and  carried  on  the  campaign  during  two  years  beyond 
the  river,  without  any  decided  success,  and  at  the  same  time  without  any 
disgrace. 

In  1639  the  King  desired  to  be  present  in  person  at  the  operations  of 
Operations  in  *ne  armv  m  Flanders  ;  but  the  success  on  the  side  of  the 
Flanders,  1639.  French  was  confined  to  the  capture  of  Hesdin,  which  La 
Meilleraye,  the  King's  grand-master  of  artillery,  carried  under  the 
Monarch's  own  eyes  (for  which  he  received  the  marshal's  baton  on  the 
breach) ;  whilst  Piccolomini  vanquished  near  Thionville  another  French 
army  under  Feuquieres.  Thus  ended  in  the  north  the  campaign  of  1639. 
It  was  somewhat  more  brilliant  in  Piedmont.  This  country  was  at  that 
time  a  very  nest  of  intrigues.  Cardinal  Maurice  and  Thomas,  Prince 
of  Carignan,  brother  of  the  late  duke,  disputed  the  regency  with  his 
widow,  Christine,  daughter  of  Henry  IV.  The  brothers-in-law  of  Christine 
obtained  the  support  of  the  King  of  Spain,  and  promised  to  deliver  the 
strong  places  of  Piedmont  into  his  hands.  The  regent  implored  the 
assistance  of  the  King  of  France  her  brother ;  and  Richelieu  placed  an 
army  under  the  command  of  Cardinal  Yalette,  who,  under  pretence  of 
protecting  the  son  of  Victor- Amadeus,  invaded  the  half  of  his  States,  and 
then  died  of  a  contagious  fever.  Richelieu  appointed  an  able  successor 
to  him  in  the  person  of  Henry  de  Lorraine,  Count  of  Harcourt,  who  re- 
victualled  Casal,  then  besieged  by  the  Spaniards,  and  effected  in  admirable 


1624-1643.]  BATTLE    OF   LA  BOTTA.  37 

order  a  difficult  retreat  from  Chiari  to  Carignan,  in  the  presence  of  the 
much  larger  armies  of  Prince  Thomas  and  De  Leganez,  the  Spanish 
governor  of  the  Milanese  territory,  whom  he  vanquished  at  the  glorious 
battle  of  La  Rotta. 

The  principal  belligerent  powers,  France,  the  Empire,  and  Spain,  in 
spite  of  some  partial  successes,  reaped  no  fruits  from  this  disastrous  war,  in 
which  the  ministers  of  Philip  IV.  and  Louis  XIIL,  Olivarez  and  Richelieu, 
so  desperately  contended.  The  two  kingdoms  were  exhausted,  and  in  each 
there  occurred  simultaneously  a  popular  outbreak  which  led  to  very  dif- 
ferent results. 

During  the  last  years  the  taxes  in  France  had  been  raised  to  a  hundred 
millions,  which  was  double  the  amount  levied  in  the  time  of  Misery  in  France 
Henry  IV.  The  inflexible  Cardinal  made  himself  equally  for-  durin° the  war' 
midable  to  all  classes  of  the  nation,  to  the  poor  and  the  rich,  to  the  weak 
and  the  powerful.  He  seized  the  rents  of  the  H6tel-de-Ville,  shut  up  in  the 
Bastille  the  renters  who  dared  to  complain,  and  prohibited  the  Parliament 
from  affording  them  protection.  But  it  was  the  people  above  all  who  were 
ruined  by  the  war,  and  the  taxes — of  which  the  heaviest  burden  fell  upon 
the  peasants — had  become  intolerable.  The  poll-tax,  especially,  was  levied 
upon  them  with  frightful  rigour.  They  were  held  to  be  bound  for  each 
other  in  their  villages,  and  frequently,  when  the  unhappy  wretches  had 
exhausted  their  resources  in  paying  their  own  share,  they  found  their 
crops,  their  goods,  and  even  their  persons  seized,  in  order  to  satisfy  what 
was  due  from  others  even  poorer  than  themselves.  Many  of  these  unfor- 
tunate persons,  thus  cruelly  thrown  into  prison,  were  protected  and  set  at 
liberty  by  the  Court  of  Aids  of  Rouen,  whose  judgments  were  cancelled 
by  the  King's  Council.  These  rigorous  measures  were  pursued  with 
increased  severity,  and  at  length,  driven  to  despair,  many  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Lower  Normandy,  who  were  contemptuously  denominated  Va-nu- 
pieds  (Go  naked-feet),  at  length  took  up  arms  and  entrenched  themselves 
on  the  slopes  of  Avranches. 

Foreign  troops,  under  Colonel  Gassion,  drowned  this  insurrection  in  the 
blood  of  the  insurgents.  After  the  soldiers  came  the  judges  and  execu- 
tioners. Richelieu  selected  the  Chancellor,  Seguier,  to  avenge  the  Royal 
authority.  The  parliament  of  Normandy  was  suspended,  all  franchises 
suppressed,  and  an  enormous  sum  levied  on  the  city  of  Rouen.  Seguier 
declared  that  the  whole  province  should  be  governed  by  the  absolute  will 


38       SEPABATION  OF  POETUGAL  FEOM  SPAIN.   [BOOK  III.  Chap.  II. 

of  the  King,  without  limit  and  without  control;  and  presided  over  a 
tribunal  chosen  by  himself,  which  delivered  a  multitude  of  judgments  of 
confiscation,  exile,  and  death.  Such  was  the  insurrection  of  Normandy, 
which  found  no  echo  in  the  other  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  was  promptly 
stifled  by  the  iron  hand  which  then  weighed  so  heavily  on  France. 

The  revolts  in  Spain  were  more  serious,  and  exercised  a  great  influence 
insurrection  in  on  tne  results  of  the  war.  Catalonia,  with  its  annexed 
oma,  .  districts  of  Eoussillon  and  Cerdagne,  by  reason  of  its  many 
franchises,  formed  a  province  almost  independent  of  the  Spanish 
monarchy.  Treated  harshly  by  Olivarez,  the  Catalans  rose  in  insurrec- 
tion, and  gave  themselves  to  the  Crown  of  France. 

Another  insurrection  burst  forth  at  the  same  time  at  the  other  ex- 
tremity of  the  Peninsula.      The  Portuguese,  enslaved  bv 

Portugal  re-  J  °  '  J 

covers  her  inde-    Spain  for  sixty  years,  threw  off  the  detested  yoke :  John  of 

pendence,  1641.         r  J    J  i  J  "> 

Braganza,  descendant  of  their  ancient  monarchs,  was  elected 
king,  and  he  hastened  to  ally  himself  with  France  and  Holland  against 
Spain. 

The  war  continued  to  rage  in  Germany,  where  Guebriant  maintained 
his  position  with  honour ;  but  the  two  principal  scenes  of  military  opera- 
Campai<m  of        tions  were  Artois  and  Piedmont.     A  numerous  army,  which 
640'  was  assembled  in  Picardy  under  the  three  marshals,  La 

Meilleraye,  Chatillon,  and  Chaulnes,  entered  Artois  and  invested  Arras7 
when  Louis  XIII.  and  Eichelieu  arrived  in  person,  to  encourage  the 
besiegers.  It  was  there  that,  by  a  noble  action,  the  illustrious  Fabert,  a 
soldier  of  fortune,  who  raised  himself  solely  by  his  own  merits  to  be  a 
marshal  of  France,  first  made  himself  known.  Eichelieu  having  asked 
him  if  he  knew  of  any  one  who  would  venture,  for  a  hundred  thousand 
crowns,  to  enter  and  reconnoitre  the  besieged  place,  Fabert  replied — "  I 
will  do  it  for  honour !"  and  he  kept  his  word.  After  the  Cardinal-Infant 
had  made  fruitless  attempts  to  force  the  French  lines  and  to  drive  back 
the  besieging  army,  Arras  capitulated.  A  young  hero,  the  Duke 
d'Enghien,  who  became  the  great  Conde,  made  his  first  essay  in  warfare 
in  this  campaign,  under  the  orders  of  Marshal  Meilleraye. 

The  campaign  of  Piedmont  was  still  more  glorious  to  our  arms. 
Success  in  Piea.  Count  d'Harcourt,  with  ten  thousand  men  against  twenty 
mont,  1640.  thousand,  forced  the  Marquis  de  Leganez  to  raise  the  siege 

of  Casal ;  and  then,  advancing  rapidly  and  boldly  upon  Turin,  which  was 


1624-1643.]  COINSPIKACY   OF   SEDAN.  39 

defended  by  Prince  Thomas,  he  invested  it.  Leganez  made  an  attempt 
to  relieve  it ;  and  the  French  besieging  army  found  itself  in  its  turn  be- 
sieged in  its  own  lines  by  an  army  very  superior  in  numbers,  and  closely 
pressed  between  it  and  the  garrison.  D'Harcourt,  however,  by  the 
rapidity  of  his  movements  deceived  the  two  generals,  vanquished  them  in 
turn,  and  forced  Prince  Thomas  to  capitulate.  He  had  been  worthily 
seconded  by  the  younger  brother  of  the  Duke  de  Bouillon,  the  Viscount  de 
Turenne,  who  was  one  day  to  be  reckoned  amongst  the  greatest  captains 
of  Europe. 

A  new  insurrection  broke  forth  in  France  at  the  commencement  of 
1641,  the  enemies  of  Richelieu  joining  the  national  enemies  conspiracy  of 
against  him.  From  the  heights  of  his  ramparts  at  Sedan  the  Sedan' 1641, 
Duke  de  Bouillon  awaited  a  favourable  moment  to  arouse  again  in  France 
the  flame  of  civil  war ;  the  Count  of  Soissons,  a  prince  of  the  blood,  and 
the  Duke  of  Guise,  a  grandson  of  Balafre,  joined  him  in  his  retreat ;  and 
all  three,  allying  themselves  with  the  Imperialists,  marched  upon  Paris  at 
the  head  of  a  small  army.  Lamboi,  the  Emperor's  general,  commanded 
their  troops,  which  encountered  at  Marfee,  on  the  Meuse,  the  army  of 
Marshal  de  Chatillon,  which  Richelieu  had  directed  towards  Sedan,  in 
anticipation  of  the  rebel  movements.  The  Royal  army  dispersed  without 
fighting,  and  the  road  to  Paris  lay  open  to  the  rebels.  But  they  had  no 
longer  any  flag   under  which  to  fight,   for  the  Count  of 

o    .  tii  -im-i-i'  •  i  •!  n   i  •       Death  of  the 

boissons  had  been  killed   in   action,  in  the  midst  of  his   count  of  Sois- 

~,  .  sons,  1641. 

officers,  by  a  pistol-shot,  by  some  hand  which  was  never 
discovered.  This  circumstance  rendered  the  power  of  the  Cardinal  and 
the  peace  of  the  kingdom  secure.  The  campaign  of  1641  had  not  been 
interrupted  by  this  event,  and  France  retained  the  advantages  ac- 
quired during  the  preceding  one  in  Artois  and  in  Piedmont.  Guebriant 
covered  himself  with  glory  in  Germany,  and  succeeded  in  effecting 
a  junction,  after  a  long  and  difficult  march,  at  Zwickau,  on  the  Mulda, 
with  the  illustrious  Swedish  general,  Bonner,  who,  already  grievously 
sick,  died  almost  immediately  after  this  junction,  which  saved  his 
army. 

The  active  Tarsterson,  who,  being  affected  by  paralysis,  was  borne  in  a 
litter  in  the  midst  of  his  army,  succeeded  Bonner  in  the  command  and  in 
the  career  of  victory.  The  two  armies  separated,  and  each  flew  to  new 
triumphs.       Guebriant   vanquished    Piccolomini    at   Wolfenbiittel   and 


40  YICTOET    OF    LERIDA.  [BoOE  III.  CHAP.  II. 

Lamboi  at  Kempen.  Their  armies  once  more  effected  a  junction,  and 
all  Saxony  was  reduced  to  subjection. 

In  spite  of  the  revolutions  of  Lisbon  and  Barcelona,  the  house  of 
Conquest  of  Austria    still    resolutely   maintained    the    struggle;    and 

Koussiiion,  1642.  Riciieiieu  resolved  to  strike  at  the  very  heart  of  its  power. 
The  invasion  of  Spain  was  decided  on,  and  the  Royal  army  poured 
towards  the  Pyrenees.  Before  crossing  the  mountains,  however,  it  was 
important  to  complete  the  conquest  of  Roussillon,  a  dependency  of  Cata- 
lonia, where  Philip  had  still  retained  some  important  strongholds. 

King  Louis  XIII.  went  in  person  to  conduct  the  siege  of  Perpignan. 

Spain  exhausted  herself  in  her  endeavours  to  save  this  place ;  but  she 
victory  of  was  vanquished  both  by  land  and  sea,  and  after  an  heroic 

Lenda,  1642.  resistance  of  four  months,  the  governor  capitulated  on  the 
9th  September,  1642;  and  the  battle  of  Lerida,  in  which  the  Spanish 
general  Leganez  was  beaten  by  Lamothe-Houdancourt,  completed  the 
conquest  of  Roussillon,  which  henceforth  formed  a  portion  of  the  kingdom 
of  France.  Louis  XIII.  and  his  Minister  survived  the  victory  but  a  short 
time. 

After  having  thus  rapidly  described  the  various  phases  of  the  struggle 

maintained  by  Richelieu  during  seven  years  against  the 

ties  respecting  house  of  Austria,  it  is  time  that  we  should  throw  a  retro- 
internal  affairs.  .  .  -  , 

spective   glance   on  the   interior  affairs    or   the   kingdom. 

When  the  French  period  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  began,  the  Queen- 
mother,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  and  the  other  princes  of  the  blood,  were 
exiled  or  submissive;  but  the  reverses  of  1636  reanimated  the  hopes  of 
the  discontented,  and  fresh  plots  were  formed  against  the  life  or  authority 
of  the  terrible  Cardinal,  who  responded  to  them  by  measures  of  increased 
rigour.     The  most  formidable  of  these  conspiracies  was  that  of  Sedan. 

The  prison,  the  scaffold,  exile — and  even,  it  has  been  said,  poison — 
were  employed  to  deliver  him  from  his  enemies.  He  had  England  and 
Holland  closed  against  the  Queen-mother,  now  poor  and  humble.  He 
drove  from  the  kingdom  the  Duke  of  Vendome,  the  natural  son  of 
Henry  IV.,  and  the  Duke  of  Guise ;  had  condemned  to  death  for  contu- 
macy the  Duke  de  la  Valette,  accused  of  having  been  guilty  of  treason 
during  the  siege  of  Fontarabia ;  and  extended  the  punishment  even  to  his 
father,  the  old  Epernon,  whom  he  deprived  of  his  government  of 
Guienne. 


I624r-1643.]  INTENDANTS    CREATED.  41 

Whilst  Richelieu  thus  inflicted  heavy  blows  on  the  high  aristocracy,  he 
multiplied  for  the  classes  beneath  them  offices  of  honour  and  public  em- 
ployments ;  and  one  of  the  most  noticeable  of  his  acts  is  the  creation  of 
Intendants  of  Finance,  whom  he  invested  with  very  extensive  administra- 
tive and  judicial  powers,  and  thereby  almost  completely  annihilated  the 
remains  of  feudal  power  possessed  by  the  provincial  gover-  Creation  of  In. 
nors.  These  Intendants  were  chosen  from  amongst  men  of  tendants>  163°- 
no  personal  importance,  and  were  the  mere  creatures  and  docile  instru- 
ments of  the  King's  Council,  which  incessantly  endeavoured,  either  by 
violating  or  misinterpreting  a  mass  of  privileges  and  acquired  rights,  to 
extend  its  authority  in  every  direction,  and  to  subject  all  the  forces  of  the 
State  to  its  sole  and  central  control.  After  having  thus  abased  the  aristo- 
cracy, Richelieu  urged  the  King  to  deprive  the  Parliaments  of  all  political 
power,  and  Louis  XIII.  ordered  them  forthwith  to  register  his  edicts 
without  any  preliminary  examination,  and  barely  permitted  them  to  make 
a  few  observations  on  questions  of  finance.  Many  magistrates,  having 
exclaimed  against  such  a  despotism  as  this,  their  offices  were  suppressed, 
in  order  that  the  whole  body  of  the  magistracy  might  understand  that  it 
merely  existed  by  the  King's  gracious  permission. 

The  Cardinal,  according  to  his  own  expression,  detested  the  shams  and 
delays  of  those  bodies  which  raised  difficulties  about  every-  The  cle 
thing.  He  opposed  also  the  pretensions  and  privileges  of  taxed- 
the  clergy,  who  up  to  this  period  had  never  paid  taxes ;  and,  at  the  same 
time  that  he  was  prohibiting,  in  the  name  of  the  liberties  of  the  French 
Church,  the  sending  of  Peter's-pence  to  Rome,  he  laid  an  enormous  impost 
upon  it,  and  enforced  payment  in  spite  of  the  anathemas  of  the  Holy  See. 
The  clergy,  the  nobility,  the  parliaments,  however,  dared  to  utter  no 
murmur,  for  France  and  its  King  had  been  enslaved  by  Richelieu.  The 
description  given  by  this  Minister  of  his  own  policy  has  a  terrible  signifi- 
cance. "  I  never  venture  to  undertake  anything,"  he  said,  "  without  having 
well  considered  it ;  but,  when  once  I  have  formed  a  resolution  I  advance 
straight  to  my  end ;  I  overthrow,  I  mow  down  everything  in  my  path, 
and  then  I  cover  all  with  my  red  robe." 

His  pride  would  allow  no  rival  either  in  power,  in  magnificence,  or  in 
talents.     A  friend,  as  is  every  truly  great  man,  to  literature,    p      ,    . 
and  desiring  to  fix  and  polish  the  language,  he  had  the  glory   Aceaderonchi635 
of  founding  with  this  view  the  French  Academy,  of  which 

\ 


42  CONSPIEACY   OE    CINQ-MAES.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

Balzac,  Voiture,  Vaugelas,  and  the  most  eminent  writers  of  the  period 
were  members.  He  embellished  the  Sorbonne,  and  encouraged  artists  by 
honours  and  pensions ;  but,  having  himself  composed  a  bad  tragedy  named 
"  Miramme,"  out  of  jealousy  he  compelled  the  French  Academy  to  criticise 
the  "  Cid,"  the  masterpiece  of  the  great  Corneille. 

He  had  an  instinctive  dislike  for  every  independent  and  proud  spirit, 
and  on  this  account  took  umbrage  at  the  celebrated  Duvergier  de  Hau- 
ranne,  Abbe  of  St.  Cyran,  whom  he  honoured  for  the  austerity  of  his 
character  and  his  morals.  St.  Cyran  had  been  the  fellow-pupil  and  re- 
mained the  friend  of  Jansenius,  Bishop  of  Ypres,  author  of  a  famous  work  on 
the  doctrine  of  St.  Augustine.  Some  of  the  propositions  contained  in  this 
book  were  attacked  by  the  Jesuits  at  the  instigation  of  the  Cardinal.  St. 
Cyran  had  approved  of  the  work,  and  was  firmly  resolved  to  support  it. 
He  ventured  to  defend  it  against  Richelieu  himself,  and  the  latter  avenged 
himself  by  shutting  him  up  in  1638  in  the  Bastille.  In  this  same  year 
the  Cardinal  lost  his  most  confidential  agent,  Father  Joseph, 

Father  Joseph.  ,  m  °        '  ~ 

a  simple  Capuchin  monk,  who  had  been  surnamed  "  His 
Grey  Eminence,"  and  who  knew,  better  than  any  one,  how  to  influence 
kings  and  discover  their  secrets.  "  I  have  lost  my  right  arm,"  said 
Richelieu,  when  he  was  informed  of  his  death.  From  henceforth,  without 
a  confidant,  the  Cardinal  carried  out  his  plans  alone. 

During  the  campaign  of  Roussillon  a  final  and  bloody  catastrophe  raised 
Richelieu's  power,  and  the  terror  inspired  by  his  name,  to  their  height. 
The  King's  favourites  were  such  as  he  selected  ;  and  the  Cardinal  selected 
such  as  would  inform  him  of  the  monarch's  secret  wishes,  and  crushed 
them  as  soon  as  they  ceased  to  be  useful  to  him,  or  manifested  any  desire 
to  aggrandize  themselves  without  his  support.  He  had  thus  placed 
Conspiracy  of  near  ^e  King  tne  JoxmS  Effiat,  Marquis  de  Cinq-Mars, 
Cmq-Mars,  1642.  twenty- one  years  of  age.  This  young  man,  appointed  master 
of  the  horse,  made  rapid  progress  in  the  good  graces  of  the  Sovereign,  and, 
discovering  the  King's  antipathy  for  the  Cardinal,  conceived  the  hope  of 
overthrowing  him.  With  this  object  he  allied  himself  with  the  Queen,  with 
Gaston  d'Orleans,  and  the  Duke  of  Bouillon,  who  always  flattered  himself 
that  he  should  one  day  replace  Richelieu.  The  Cardinal,  whom  the  King 
had  for  some  time  treated  with  coolness,  prudently  withdrew  for  a  time 
from  the  Court,  and,  whilst  he  resided  at  Tarascon,  allowed  the  imprudent 
Cinq-Mars  and  his  accomplices  to  implicate  themselves  with  Olivarez.    He 


1624-1643.]  DEATH   OF  KICHELIEIT.  4& 

became  possessed  at  length  of  the  copy  of  a  treaty  of  alliance  between  the 
Spaniards  and  the  conspirators,  and  sent  it  to  Louis. 

Cinq-Mars  was  immediately  seized,  together  with  the  yonng  De  Thou, 
a  son  of  the  celebrated  historian  of  that  name,  his  friend  and  confidant, 
but  not  his  accomplice.  The  Duke  de  Bouillon  was  made  prisoner  in  the 
midst  of  the  army  of  Italy,  to  the  command  of  which  he  had  been  ap- 
pointed. The  King  quitted  the  Perpignan  camp,  and  had  himself  trans- 
ported to  Tarascon,  where  lay  the  Cardinal,  as  afflicted  with  sickness  and 
infirmities  as  himself.  Richelieu  broke  forth  in  a  torrent  of  reproaches ; 
and  Louis,  after  excusing  and  justifying  himself,  ordered  his  subjects  to 
obey  his  Minister  as  himself.  The  Cardinal  proceeded  to  Lyons  by  the 
Ehone,  in  a  bark  which  towed  one  containing  his  two  young  prisoners.  A 
commission  was  opened  to  try  them.  The  crime  of  Cinq-Mars  was  not 
proved ;  but  the  cowardly  confessions  of  the  Duke  d'Orleans  destroyed 
him.     Cinq -Mars  was  condemned  to   death   and  executed   J     :  .;;  •';  ; 

1  Execution  of 

with  the  young  De  Thou,  who  was  guilty  of  not  having   £^5£rs  and 
denounced  his  friend.     The  Duke  of  Bouillon  lost  his  prin-    1642, 
cipality,  but  obtained  his  pardon  in  exchange.     Gaston  of  Orleans  ob- 
tained permission  to  live  at  Blois  in  private. 

Eichelieu,  satisfied  and  avenged,  set  out  for  Paris,  and  journeyed  in 
triumph.  His  guards  carried  him  on  their  shoulders  in  a  species  or 
furnished  chamber,  and  on  his  entrance  into  cities  he  had  the  gates  which 
were  too  narrow  to  receive  him  pulled  down.  It  was  thus  that  he- 
traversed  France  from  Lyons  to  his  own  palace,  where  he  displayed 
luxury  very  superior  to  that  of  the  monarch. 

The  Queen-mother  died  in  indigence  at  Cologne,  and  Richelieu 
followed  her  shortly  afterwards  to  the  tomb.     The  King 

Death  of  Marie 

was  seen  to  smile  during  the  Cardinal's  aeronv,  and  after   de  Medici  and  or 

°       JJ  Eichelieu,  16-12. 

his  Minister's  death   coldly  observed — "See,  how  politic 
is    death !"      Richelieu's    eyes    had    scarcely    been    closed,   when    the 
King  at  once   abandoned  the   course  pursued  by  the   Cardinal.      The 
prisons  were  thrown  open,  and  banishments  ceased.     Vendome,  Elboeuf, 
Bassompierre,  and  Guise  reappeared  at  Court,  and  preluded  by  empty 
quarrels  the  storms  which  were  to  disturb  the  reign  about  to  commence. 
Louis  XIII.,  in  fact,  only  survived  his  terrible  minister  six   Deatn0fLouig 
months,  and  died  at  Chateau-Neuf,  Saint  Germain,  at  forty-    XIIL» 1643- 
two  years  of  age.     A  few  days  before  expiring  he  had  nominated  Anne 


44  CHAEACTEE  OF  THE  KING  AND  EICHELIETJ.      [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II 

of  Austria  regent,  and  Gaston,  his  brother,  lieutenant-general  of  the 
kingdom ;  joining  with  them  a  Council  of  Regency,  under  the  presidency 
of  Conde.  On  the  following  day  he  had  the  Dauphin,  then  five  years  of 
age,  baptized,  and  having  had  him  brought  into  his  chamber,  asked 
him  how  he  would  be  named.  "I  call  myself  Louis  XIV.,"  replied 
the  child.  "Not  yet,  my  son — not  yet!"  said  the  expiring  monarch. 
This  word  alone  announced  a  king.  "People  were  so  weary," 
says  a  contemporary,  "  of  his  government,  that  all  the  world,  even 
including  those  who  were  under  obligations  to  him,  were  anxious  for 
his  death." 

This  king,  although  braver  than  his  brother,  was  as  destitute  as  he 
of  moral  strength  and  firmness.      He  loved  no  one,  and, 

The  characters 

of  Louis  xiii.      gloomy,  suspicious, 'jealous,  and  inconstant  as  he  was,  his 

and  Richelieu. 

favour  exposed  its  object  to  as  many  dangers  as  his  hatred. 
Too  feeble  to  reign  by  himself,  he  was  conscious  of  the  fact,  and  this  was 
the  secret  of  the  long  ascendancy  over  him  possessed  by  Cardinal 
Richelieu,  who  was  even  accused  of  having  excited  troubles  at  home  and 
abroad  in  order  to  render  himself  still  more  indispensable  to  the  feeble 
monarch,  the  accomplice  of  his  tyranny.  Among  the  acts  which 
emanated  from  the  actual  will  of  the  Prince,  whom  flatterers  have  sur- 
named  "  The  Just,"  history  cites  the  vow  by  which,  on  recovering  from 
an  illness,  he  placed  his  kingdom  under  the  protection  of  the  Virgin. 
Louis  XIIL,  in  the  eyes  of  posterity,  is  but  a  shadow  by  the  side  of 
Richelieu;  and  we  have  an  instructive  picture  in  this  feeble  monarch 
voluntarily  bowing  even  until  his  death  before  the  genius  of  a  haughty 
Minister  whom  he  hated,  and  without  whose  assistance  he  felt  that  he  was 
incapable  of  governing. 

In  the  character  and  acts  of  Cardinal  Richelieu  we  see  good  and  bad 
intimately  blended ;  light  and  shade  strikingly  contrasted.  To  support 
his  undertakings  and  his  luxury  he  pitilessly  ground  down  the  people ;  and 
the  expenses  of  his  household  alone  amounted  to  more  than  four  millions. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  increased  the  power  of  the  kingdom  by  organizing 
its  military  forces  on  a  formidable  scale,  by  creating  a  Royal  navy,  and  by 
crushing  the  French  Protestants  as  a  political  party  without  interfering 
with  their  religious  belief.  He  was  the  first  to  render  France  the  most 
influential  power  in  Europe ;  and  it  owed  to  him,  amongst  other  con- 
quests, that  of  Roussillon  in  the  south,  and  in  the  north  that  of  the  prin- 


1624-1643.]  EICHELIETJ'S   ADMINTSTKATION.  45 

cipality  of  Sedan,  which  had  been  a  perpetual  focus  of  intrigues,  and  the 
establishment  of  nourishing  colonies  in  Canada  and  the  Antilles.  It  was 
he  also  who,  by  supporting  the  Protestants  of  Germany  against  Austria, 
consolidated  the  famous  system  of  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe ;  but 
if,  in  many  respects,  his  foreign  policy  was  able  and  firm,  he  is  justly  re- 
proached with  having  neglected  the  opportunities  which  occurred  to  him 
of  lightening  the  intolerable  burden  borne  by  the  people  for  so  many  wars. 
Eichelieu  not  only  desired  that  the  balance  of  power  should  be  main- 
tained, but  that  all  the  nations  except  his  own  should  be  humiliated ;  and 
he  was  really  the  author  of  that  violent  and  aggressive  policy  which  was 
but  too  well  followed  by  his  successor,  Mazarin,  by  Louis  XIV.,  and,  in 
our  own  days,  by  a  conqueror  destined  for  ever  to  be  famous,  and 
which  made  the  glory  of  a  nation  consist  in  the  abasement  and  humilia- 
tion of  all  those  around  it — a  policy  always  fatal  in  the  long  run, 
and  a  source  of  terrible  reactions  and  perpetual  wars ;  for  the  love  of 
country,  independence,  and  national  honour  is  implanted  in  the  hearts 
of  all  peoples.  For  them,  as  for  individuals,  liberty  and  honour  are  the 
most  precious  possessions ;  and  when  a  nation,  humiliated  or  enslaved, 
signs  a  peace  or  accepts  a  truce,  it  does  but  adjourn  the  day  of  its 
vengeance. 

Richelieu,  by  the  enlightened  protection  which  he  aiforded  to  literature 
the  arts,  industry,  and  commerce,  contributed  much  to  the  emancipation 
of  the  Third  Estate,  and  to  the  progress  made  by  the  bulk  of  the  citizens 
in  importance  and  consideration.  Whilst  with  one  hand  he  humiliated 
the  proud,  with  the  other  he  elevated  personal  merit,  even  when  it 
existed  in  the  most  humble  ranks.  It  is  on  this  account  that  his  memory 
is  justly  honoured,  and  that  it  is  especially  dear  to  a  school  which  has  too 
often  confounded  liberty  with  equality.  This  school  has  given  him  un- 
bounded praise  for  having  established  the  Royal  power  on  the  ruins  of 
feudalism ;  but,  in  fact,  Louis  XL,  before  Richelieu,  had  humbled  the 
haughty  aristocracy,  and  amongst  the  successors  of  that  monarch  all  those 
who  knew  how  to  reign  were  absolute  kings.  Henry  IV.  himself,  from 
the  day  that  he  was  recognised  as  king,  acknowledged  no  limits  to  his 
authority ;  and  if  Louis  XIII.  had  possessed  a  soul  of  any  firmness,  he 
might  have  reigned  as  absolutely ;  but  it  was  seen  that  he  was  king  only 
in  name,  and  that  Richelieu  reigned  for  him.  It  was  against  the  Minister 
that  the  greater  number  of  the  conspirators  directed  their  machinations, 


46  EICHELTETJ'S   ADMINISTRATION.        [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

with  the  intention  of  hurling  him  from  power  and  succeeding  him. 
They  did  not  attack  the  throne,  but  disputed,  so  to  speak,  with 
Richelieu  the  possession  of  the  regency  under  a  king  whom  they  knew 
to  be  too  feeble  and  incapable  to  be  ever  able  to  escape  from  a 
state  of  pupilage.  Richelieu,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  inflicted  upon 
the  factions  terrible  blows,  and  deprived  them  for  a  time  of  the  means 
of  succeeding  in  their  projects ;  but  by  taking  away  from  them  also 
all  chance  of  pardon,  he  drove  them  into  extreme  and  desperate  enter- 
prises. He  had  to  struggle  against  revolts  all  his  life,  and  his  death 
was  followed  by  troubles  as  great  as  those  which  had  preceded  his 
ministry. 

It  was  not  Richelieu,  therefore,  who  fortified  the  Royal  authority  in  a 
durable  manner ;  and  it  was  not  he  who  forced  the  princes  and  haughty 
nobles  to  bow  before  the  majesty  of  the  throne,  whoever  might  be  its 
occupant.  This  end  could  not  be  attained  but  by  the  combined  influence 
of  a  great  renown  and  long  habit,  and  to  attain  it  nothing  less  was 
required  than  the  imposing  character  of  Louis  XIV.  and  the  long  dura- 
tion of  his  reign.  Carried  away  by  his  passion  for  power,  for  the  unity 
of  France,  and  for  magnificence,  Richelieu  overstepped  all  those  limits 
within  which  the  action  of  a  Government  should  be  restrained.  If  it  is 
of  importance,  on  the  one  hand,  that  the  central  power  should  be  strong 
and  factions  repressed,  it  is  not  the  less  necessary,  on  the  other  hand,  for 
the  preservation  of  vigour  in  the  social  body,  that  the  life  should  circulate 
freely  and  abundantly  through  all  its  members.  Richelieu  neglected  this 
principle,  and  contributed  more  than  any  one  to  introduce  in  France  that 
terrible  centralization,  which,  when  in  excess,  has  been  a  great  peril  for 
many  peoples  on  the  Continent.  His  political  testament  is  the  code  of 
despotism.  By  crushing  beneath  a  despotic  power  the  municipal  fran- 
chises of  the  cities,  and  violating  the  rights  of  the  provinces  annexed  to 
the  Crown,  Richelieu  overthrew  those  salutary  boundaries  which,  wisely 
maintained,  would  have  prevented  the  Royal  authority  from  abusing 
its  prerogative.  He  in  like  manner  trampled  under  foot  the  authority  of 
the  Parliaments,  and,  to  secure  the  peace  of  the  kingdom,  had  recourse 
only  to  arms  and  punishments.  He  thus  laboured  much  more  for  the 
present  than  the  future;  and  the  troubles  which  ensanguined  France 
during  almost  the  whole  of  his  Ministry,  and  more  especially  those  which 
burst  forth  so  violently  after  his  death,  prove  that  to  keep  a  nation  within 


1624-1643.]  GREAT  MEN.  47 

the  bounds  of  discipline,  terror  is  not  alone  sufficient ;  that  no  force  can 
be  a  substitute  for  wise  institutions,  the  protection  of  actual  rights,  and 
legitimate  interests.  That,  in  short,  kings,  as  the  rulers  of  empires, 
can  scarcely  ever  found,  by  the  aid  of  soldiers  and  executioners,  an 
order  of  things  which  will  remain  in  existence  after  them,  when 
they  have  neglected  to  lead  all  to  respect  the  laws  by  respecting  them 
themselves. 

Eeason  and  the  spirit  of  fitness  had  not,  so  early  as  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIII.,  regulated  the  distinct  attributes  of  each  pro-  social  state  of 
fession.  The  parliament,  deprived  of  its  natural  functions,  France* 
decided  on  matters  of  science  and  war.  In  1621,  it  passed  a  decree  of 
death  against  those  who  should  teach  anything  contrary  to  the  doctrines 
of  Aristotle ;  and  at  a  later  period  it  decided  on  the  means  which  should 
be  taken  for  the  defence  of  the  capital  against  the  enemy.  At  the  same 
time,  cardinals  were  seen  in  the  command  of  armies,  and  ambassadors  were 
found  serving  in  the  field  under  the  friendly  powers  to  whose  courts  they 
had  been  sent. 

The  nation  still  gave  itself  up  at  this  period  to  the  most  deplorable 
superstitions.  Richelieu  had  condemnation  of  death  passed  upon  Urbain 
Grandier,  Cure  of  Loudun,  as  a  magician;  and  the  wife  of  Marshal 
d'Ancre  had,  but  a  short  time  previously,  suffered  the  same  fate. 
Great  importance  was  always  ascribed  to  astrological  predic- 
tions; and  at  the  moment  of  the  birth  of  Louis  XIV.,  an   science,  and  the 

arts. 

astrologer  was  posted  in  the  chamber  of  Anne  of  Austria  to 
watch  the  heavens.  On  the  other  hand,  in  every  part  of  Europe,  modern 
genius  was  making  vigorous  flights  in  the  sciences,  literature,  and  the 
arts.  Shakespeare  and  Bacon  had  rendered  England  illustrious  in  this 
respect;  and  they  had  as  contemporaries  in  Spain,  Michel  Cervantes, 
Lope  de  Vega,  the  historians  Mariana  and  Herrera ;  in  Italy,  the  poets 
Marini,  Tassoni,  and  the  immortal  Tasso,  the  historian  Davila,  and  the 
learned  physicists  Galileo  and  Torricelli;  in  Holland,  the  great  philo- 
sopher Grotius ;  in  Denmark,  the  astronomer  Tycho  Brahe,  whose  pupil 
was  Kepler.  The  great  painters  Rubens,  Vandyke,  and  Teniers  were 
at  this  time  the  glory  of  the  Flemish  school ;  whilst  Guido,  Albano, 
Lanfranc,  and  Domenichino  added  lustre  to  the  Italian.  French 
manners,  as  yet  half  barbarous,  had  especial  need  of  the  softening 
influence    of  art  and   literature.       The   country  had   already  produced 


48  GKEAT    MEN.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

Descartes,  who  brought  about  a  revolution  in  philosophy  and  science 
by  following  the  experimental  method  introduced  by  Bacon  and 
Galileo.  Malherbe  and  Rotrou,  also,  had  acquired  a  well-deserved 
glory,  the  one  as  the  precursor  of  the  great  Corneille  in  tragedy,  and 
the  other  as  the  veritable  creator  of  our  poetical  language.  At 
length  Corneille  appeared,  and  with  him  commenced  the  great  literary 
age  of  France. 


1643-1661.]  THE    QUEEN    APPOINTED    KEGENT.  49 


CHAPTER  III. 

MINORITY    OF   LOUIS    XIV. — MAZARIN'S    MINISTRY WAR    OF   THE    FRONDE. 

1643-1661. 

The  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  may  be  divided  into  three  principal  periods : 
the  first  comprising  the  time  which  elapsed  between  the  accession  of  the 
King  and  the  death  of  Cardinal  Mazarin,  during  which  the  young  King 
took  no  direct  part  in  the  Government ;  the  second,  embracing  the 
most  glorious  years  of  his  reign,  from  1661  to  1685;  the  third,  com- 
mencing when  great  faults  threatened  danger  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
kingdom  and  the  glory  of  its  sovereign,  and  extending  from  the  death  of 
Colbert  to  that  of  Louis  XIV. 

Anne  of  Austria,  the  regent,  appointed  the  Duke  of  Beaufort,  second  son 
of  the  Duke  of  Vendome,  and  grandson  of  Henry  IV.,  governor  of  her 
two  children,*  and  selected  as  her  Minister  Augustin  Potier,  Bishop  of 
Beauvais,  a  man  of  small  talents,  and  totally  unacquainted  with  public 
affairs.  She  then  applied  to  the  Parliament  to  dissolve  the  Council  of 
Regency.     Glittering  promises  gained  over  the  followers  of 

.  .  -rt     t       f    Bed  of  Justice. 

Richelieu,  as  well  as  their  adversaries ;   and  at  a  Bed  of  The  Parliament 

recognises  Anne 

Justice,  held  on  the  18th  May  by  the  young  King,   who    of  Austria  as 

Regent,  1643. 

was  then  five  years  of  age,  the  Queen  was  recognised  as 

Regent,  and  acknowledged  to  be  at  liberty  to  compose  her  council  as  she 

chose.     This  was  the  second  time  that  the  Parliament  had  been  called 

*  The  early  education  of  the  young  Prince  was  much  neglected.  He  himself 
related  that,  when  a  child,  he  fell  into  a  basin  in  the  Palais  Royal  without  any  one 
having  noticed  it.  He  was  often  without  common  necessaries,  and  the  pages  of  his 
chamber  were  dismissed  because  there  were  no  means  of  supporting  them.  During  the 
troubles  of  the  Fronde,  the  Regent  deprived  the  Duke  of  Venddme  of  his  place  as 
Governor,  and  gave  it  to  Marshal  Villeroi.  The  latter  made  the  clever  Abbe*  Perefixe 
de  Beaumont  the  young  King's  preceptor;  but  civil  wars  are  not  conducive  to  the 
progress  of  education,  and  the  royal  pupil  learned  little  more  than  gymnastic  exercises, 
in  which  he  excelled.  "  He  was  delighted,  however,"  says  Voltaire,  "  with  verses  and 
romances  treating  of  gallantry  and  glory,  which,  without  his  knowing  it,  portrayed 
his  character." 

VOL.  II.  •  E 


50  PEACE  IN  EEANCE.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

upon  during  a  minority  to  decide  whose  hand  should  exercise  the  supreme 
power.  The  States-General,  however,  had  alone  inherited  the  political 
rights  of  the  old  Parliament,  or  general  assemblies  of  the  freemen  of  the 
nation,  held  under  the  kings  of  the  two  first  races.  The  Parliament  of 
Paris,  although  the  peers  sat  in  it,  was  but  a  simple  court  of  justice,  and 
possessed  no  functions  superior  to  those  of  the  provincial  parliament. 
Marie  de  Medici  and  Anne  of  Austria,  by  voluntarily  inviting  its  deci- 
sion, had  given  it  an  exaggerated  opinion  of  its  political  importance  ;  and 
from  this  resulted  great  troubles  and  serious  perils  to  the  State. 

Cardinal  Mazarin,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Council  of  Regency,  was  of 
opinion  that  it  ought  to  be  dissolved.  The  Queen  rewarded  his  devotion 
by  making  him  her  First  Minister ;  and  the  favour  with  which  she  re- 
garded him  was  made  the  pretext  for  fresh  intrigues.  The  persons  whom 
Richelieu  had  proscribed  returned  in  crowds  to  the  Court,  when  they 
complained  that  the  Regent,  who  had  been  persecuted  along  with  them- 
selves, treated  them  with  but  scant  favour.  Augustin  Potier,  jealous  of 
Mazarin,  joined  this  discontented  party,  which  was  called  the  Cabal  of  the 
Importants,  and  the  leaders  of  which  were  the  Guises,  the  Vendomes, 
the  Epernons,  the  famous  Duchess  of  Chevreuse,  and  her  mother-in-law, 
the  Duchess  of  Montbazon.  The  latter  having  offended  the  Duchess  of 
Longueville,  sister  of  the  Duke  d'Enghien,  already  celebrated,  was  dis- 
graced by  Anne  of  Austria,  and  made  the  Duke  of  Beaufort  sympa- 
thize in  her  desires  for  vengeance.  The  Regent  was  furious  against  them 
and  their  partisans ;  exiled  many  from  the  Court ;  imprisoned  Beaufort 
at  Vincennes ;  and  sent  the  Bishop  of  Beauvais  to  his  diocese.  She 
destroyed  the  Cabal  of  the  Importants  by  these  rigorous  measures,  and 
bestowed  all  her  confidence  on  Cardinal  Mazarin.  France  now  enjoyed 
some  peace,  as  far  as  domestic  affairs  were  concerned,  for  three  years. 

The  war  with  the  Empire  and  Spain  continued  to  the  glory  of  France  on 
,,.„  all  her  frontiers.     Louis  of  Bourbon,  Duke  d'Enghien,  so 

Military  opera-  "  °  ' 

tions,  1643— 1648.  ceie"brated  under  the  name  of  the  Great  Conde,  had  gained 
in  Flanders,  five  days  after  the  death  of  Louis  XIII.,  the  battle  of  Rocroi 
over  the  Spaniards,  who  were  commanded  by  Don  Francisco  de  Melos.  In 
this  engagement  the  famous  Count  de  Fuentes  was  slain,  and  the  brilliant 
Spanish  infantry,  which  had  been  invincible  since  the  days  of  Charles  V., 
Batti  f  e  i  was  destroyed.  The  victor  only  owed  his  success  to  his  own 
l6M*  genius,  and  he  was  but  twenty-two  years  of  age.     The  im- 


1643-1661.]  BATTLE   OF  LENS.  51 

portant  capture  of  Thionville  was  the  first  fruit  of  this  victory,  and  was 
quickly  followed  by  the  death  of  Marshal  de  Guebriant  and  the  defeat  of 
the  Count  de  Rantzau,  his  successor,  who  was  vanquished  at  Duttlingen  by 
the  Duke  of  Lorraine  and  the  two  illustrious  generals,  John  de  Werth  and 
Mercy.  There  now  remained  but  five  or  six  thousand  men  of  an  army 
which  had  long  made  the  Empire  tremble,  and  Marshal  Turenne  was  sent 
to  rally  what  remained  of  it. 

Brilliant    successes   atoned   for   this   reverse ;    and  in  the   first   place 
D'Enghien,    with   Turenne   under   his   orders,  vanquished 

_   ..  ml       ^   .  -  Battles  of  Fri- 

Mercy  at  Fnbourg.     The  Prince,  to  excite  the  courage  of  bourg  and  Nord- 

lingen,  1644. 

his  soldiers  in  this  great  battle,  threw  his  baton  of  command 
into  the  enemy's  entrenchments,  and  recovered  it  sword  in  hand.  In  the 
following  year  he  marched  to  the  assistance  of  Turenne,  who  had  been 
surprised  and  beaten  at  Mariendal,  and  gained  the  battle  of  Nordlingen, 
the  death  of  Mercy  deciding  the  victory.  The  great  talent  of  Conde  con- 
sisted in  forming  on  the  instant  the  boldest  resolutions,  and  executing  them 
with  prudence  and  rapidity.  The  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  King's  uncle,  and 
the  Count  d'Harcourt,  had  also  carried  on  the  war  with  fair  success,  the 
one  in  Flanders,  the  other  in  Catalonia.  The  first,  aided  by  Marshal  de 
Gassion,  had-  seized  Gravelines  and  Courtray,  and  taken  Mardick  in  the 
presence  of  an  enemy's  army.  On  the  sea,  also,  the  French  arms  had  been 
successful.  Twenty  of  their  galleys  had  vanquished  in  1646  the  Spanish 
fleet  on  the  coast  of  Italy,  and  in  the  same  year  the  Duke  d'Enghien, 
assisted  by  the  celebrated  Van  Tromp,  the  Dutch  admiral,  gave  Dunkirk 
to  France.  He  then  set  sail  for  Spain,  where  he  met  with  a  repulse  before 
Lerida,  the  siege  of  which  he  was  forced  to  raise.  Naples 
rose  in  insurrection  at  the  voice  of  the  fisherman  Masaniello ;  under 
and  the  Duke  of  Guise,  surrounded  by  the  Neapolitans,  threw 
himself  into  it.  But  France  failed  to  support  him  ;  he  was  made  prisoner 
by  Don  John  of  Austria,  the  natural  son  of  Philip  IV.,  and  Naples  fell  again 
beneath  the  Spanish  yoke. 

The  years  1647  and  1648  were  fatal  to  the  House  of  Austria.    Turenne, 
with  the  assistance  of  the  Swedes,  gained  the  battle  of  Som-    Battle  of  Lens 
merhausen  ;   General  Wrangel  took  Little  Prague  ;  and  the   1648' 
battle  of  Lens  terminated  the  war.     This  battle  was  fought  by  the  Duke 
d'Enghien,  now  Prince  of  Conde,  in  1648,  against  the  Archduke  Leopold, 
the  Emperor's  brother.    As  he  advanced  towards  the  enemy  he  uttered  only 

e  2 


52  ADMINISTRATION    OP   MAZAPIN.      [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

these  words — "  Soldiers  !  remember  Rocroi,  Fribourg,  and  Nordlingen." 
He  routed  the  Imperialists  and  the  Spaniards,  took  a  hundred  flags  and 
Ihirty- eight  pieces  of  cannon;  and  gained  so  complete  a  victory  that 
Leopold  was  left  without  an  army.  Broken  down  by  so  many  reverses, 
Ferdinand  III.  consented  to  negotiate,  and  peace  was  at  length  signed  at 
Peace  of  Munster  in  Westphalia.     By  this  peace  it  was  agreed  that 

Westphalia  France  should  retain  a  great  part  of  Alsace,  the  three  bishop- 

1648,  rics  and  the  two  fortresses  of  Philisbourg  and  Pignerol,  the 

keys  of  Germany  and  Piedmont.  The  principal  articles  of  the  treaty, 
relative  to  the  allies  of  France,  declared  the  sovereignty  of  the  various 
States  of  Germany  throughout  the  extent  of  their  territory,  defined  their 
rights  at  the  general  diets  of  the  Empire,  and  bestowed  upon  the  Calvinists 
the  same  privileges  that  were-  possessed  by  the  Lutherans.  Sweden  ob- 
tained a  portion  of  Pomerania,  many  strong  places,  and  five  millions  of 
crowns.  The  Swiss  cantons  were  declared  free  of  the  Germanic  Empire, 
and  the  independence  of  the  United  Provinces  in  respect  to  this  Empire 
and  to  Spain  was  formally  recognised.  The  Peace  of  Westphalia  put 
an  end  to  the  Thirty  Years'  War  in  Germany ;  but  Spain  refused  to  accede 
to  it,  and  the  war  continued  between  that  country  and  France. 

At  the  time  when  the  celebrated  peace  was  signed,  the  interior  of 
Administration  tne  kingdom  was  much  disturbed.  Mazarin,  having  be- 
ofMazann.  come  all  powerful,  had  roused  against  himself  an  almost 

universal  hatred  and  indignation.  In  the  character  of  this  Minister  much 
indolence  and  frivolity  were  joined  with  distinguished  talents.  Ridiculous 
by  his  accent  and  his  manners,  and  odious  as  a  stranger,  he  was  the  object 
of  numerous  cabals.  He  wished,  in  common  with  Richelieu,  that  the  Royal 
power  should  be  absolute,  and  his  despotism  excited  as  much  hatred  as 
did  that  of  his  predecessor.  But  whilst  Richelieu  by  his  cruelties  filled 
all  with  terror  and  frightened  many  into  obedience,  Mazarin,  on  the 
contrary,  by  his  perpetual  falsehoods,  and  his  tortuous  policy,  added  con- 
tempt to  the  hatred  which  already  filled  the  hearts  of  his  enemies,  and 
emboldened  them  to  attack  him.  The  regent  was  openly  accused  of 
having  given  all  her  confidence  to  an  Italian  who  was  acquainted  neither 
with  the  genius  nor  the  laws  oi  the  country,  and  had  composed  her 
council  less  in  accordance  with  the  necessities  of  the  State  than  with  the 
wishes  of  her  Minister.  A  Siennois,  Particelli  Emeri,  a  contemptible 
fellow,  to  whom  Mazarin  had  confided  the  management  of  the  finances, 


1643-1661.]  THE  EDICT  OF  TJNIOK.  53 

disgusted  the  French  by  his  luxury,  his  debaucheries,  and  his  hateful 
resources.  He  created  ridiculous  offices,  which  he  put  up  to  auction ; 
he  raised  the  tariff  of  the  rights  of  entrance,  and  exhumed  an  edict 
of  1548  which  prohibited  the  extension  of  Paris,  and  which  punished 
its  infractors  with  the  destruction  of  the  buildings  erected  within  the 
defined  limits,  and  the  confiscation  of  the  materials.  Many  persons  who 
had  disobeyed  this  edict,  long  since  forgotten,  had  now  to  pay  heavy  sums 
to  save  their  property.  The  operation  ordered  in  respect  to  this  matter 
by  the  Government  was  called  the  toise  (French  measure  of  a  fathom),  and 
excited  great  indignation.  The  Parliament  was  informed  of  it,  and  the 
edict  was  withdrawn. 

In  addition  to  all  this  Mazarin  desired  to  keep  back  four  years1  salaries 
from  the  members  of  all  the  sovereign  courts,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Parliament  of  Paris,  and  he  threatened  to  suppress  the  law  known  by  the 
name  of  the  Paulette,  which  secured  to  the  families  of  magistrates  the 
possession  of  their  offices  in  perpetuity.  This  arbitrary  proceeding 
aroused  a  universal  clamour ;  and  the  Grand  Council,  the  Court  of 
Accounts,  and  the  Court  of  Aids,  pointed  out  to  the  Parliament,  that  the 
decision  which  excepted  it  from  the  operation  of  this  measure  had  been 
only  taken  for  the  purpose  of  disuniting  them.  The  Parliament  assembled 
and  passed  the  celebrated  Edict  of  Union,  in  accordance  with 
which  two  councillors  chosen  from  each  of  its  chambers   and  important ' 

•  •  t  t  Totes  of  the 

were  to  confer  with  deputies  from  the  other  bodies  in  the   Chamber  of 

St.  .Louis. 

common  interest  of  all.  Mazarin  declared  that  such  a 
decree  was  an  attack  on  the  rights  of  the  Crown,  and  Anne  of  Austria 
wished  to  inflict  immediate  punishment  on  all  those  who  had  signed  it. 
This  Queen,  said  Mazarin,  was  as  brave  as  a  soldier,  who  knows  not  the 
reality  of  the  danger,  and  he  with  difficulty  restrained  her  wrath.  The 
Parliament,  whose  zeal  was  stimulated  by  the  young  magistrates  of 
enquetes,  devoted  all  its  time  to  the  affairs  of  the  State,  and  conciliated 
public  favour  by  calling  for  the  due  execution  of  the  laws  and  adopting 
many  popular  resolutions.  The  Chamber  of  St.  Louis  voted  twenty-seven 
articles,  which  were  to  be  submitted  for  the  approbation  of  the' Parliament 
and  the  sanction  of  the  regent.  In  many  of  the  articles  the  magistrates 
showed  their  jealousy  of  the  financiers,  and  their  ignorance  of  public  affairs 
and  all  the  principles  of  credit ;  but  the  principal  ones  were  devoted  to 
useful  reforms  or  wise  measures.     Some  secured  to  private  persons  the 


54  THE    RIVAL   FACTIONS.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

payment  of  their  bonds  on  the  H6tel-de-Ville,  relieved  commerce  of  odious 
monopolies,  and  reduced  by  one-fourth  the  odious  tax  of  the  taille,  which 
only  fell  on  the  humbler  classes.  Other  articles  prohibited,  on  pain  of 
death,  the  levying  of  any  tax  save  by  verified  edicts  sanctioned  by  the 
sovereign  courts;  and  declared  that  none  of  the  King's  subjects  should  be 
in  custody  more  than  twenty-four  hours  without  being  interrogated  and 
taken  before  his  proper  judge.  The  propositions  of  the  Chamber  of  Saint 
Louis  were  practically  the  bases  of  a  national  constitution,  and  the  citizen 
classes  received  them  with  enthusiasm.  The  people  saw  its  own  cause  in 
that  of  the  magistrates  who  had  adopted  them,  and  the  Parliament  delibe- 
rated upon  them,  in  spite  of  the  prohibition  of  the  regent,  who  called  these 
articles  so  many  attempts  at  assassination  of  the  Royal  authority.  The 
Court,  the  army,  and  the  multitude  were  now  divided  into  two  factions, 
that  of  the  Mazarins  and  that  of  the  Frondeurs,*  or  partisans 

TIig  IVXuzfiriDs 

and  the  Fron-       of  the  Parliament.     The  first  president,  Mathieu  Mole,  a 

deurs,  164S.  .  .  , 

man  of  high  character,  interposed  in  vain  between  the  two 
parties ;  his  moderation  and  love  of  peace  only  brought  upon  him  the 
insults  of  all.  Amongst  those  who  were  the  most  eager  in  urging  forward 
the  magistrates,  were  the  members  of  the  ancient  Cabal  of  the  Importants, 
the  ex-Keeper  of  the  Seal,  Chateauneuf,  with  Montresor  and  Saint-Ibal, 
who  had  both  formerly  offered  to  assassinate  Richelieu ;  Chavigny,  who 
was  the  author  of  the  favour  Mazarin  now  enjoyed,  and  who  had  been 
disgraced  by  him ;  Fontrailles,  and,  above  all,  the  famous  Paul  de  Gondi, 
coadjutor  of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  and  at  a  later  period  known  by 
the  name  of  Cardinal  de  Retz,  an  able  man,  possessed  of  a  just  and 
profound  intellect,  and  who  was  especially  ambitious  of  being  at  the  head 
of  a  party.  His  magnificent  charities  had  long  before  gained  him  the  heart 
of  the  people ;  at  the  commencement  of  the  political  disturbances  he  had 
offered  his  support  to  the  Regent,  who  had  the  imprudence  to  despise  it, 
and  he  immediately  passed  over  to  the  Parliamentary  side. 

Anne  of  Austria,  determined  though  she  was  to  repel  every  attack  on 
the  absolute  power  of  the  Crown,  restrained  herself  at  present,  awaiting 
with  concentrated  wrath  for  a  favourable  opportunity ;  and  the  Parliament 

*  The  magistrates  opposed  to  the  Court  were,  at  the  commencement  of  the  troubles, 
compared  to  the  schoolboys  who  fought  each  other  with  slings  in  the  moats  of  Paris, 
and  dispersed  as  soon  as  they  saw  the  Watch  coming.  The  word  took  the  public 
fancy,  and  remained  in  use,  although  its  application  soon  ceased  to  be  just. 


1643-1661.]  COMMENCEMENT   OE   CITIL  WAR.  55 

proceeded  boldly  to  discuss  the  articles  drawn  up  by  the  Chamber  of 
Saint  Louis,  when  news  arrived  of  the  celebrated  victory  of  Conde  at 
Lens.  The  Queen  thought  she  had  found  in  the  midst  of  the  enthusiasm 
excited  by  the  success  of  the  Royal  arms,  a  favourable  moment  for  strik- 
ing the  meditated  blow,  and  whilst  the  Te  Deum  was  being  sung  for  this 
victory,  she  gave  a  verbal  order  to  the  lieutenant  of  her  guards  to  seize  the 
three  most  factious  members  of  the  Parliament,  the  presidents  Charton  and 
Blancmenil,  and  the  councillor  Broussel.  The  first  escaped,  but  the  two 
others  were  arrested.     The  fact  soon  became  widely  known,     .  „ ._, 

J  1     Arrest  or  Blanc- 

and  the  people  rose.  Chains  were  thrown  across  the  streets,  j^j£&  popu. 
barricades  were  erected,  the  carriage  of  the  Cardinal  was  lar  tumult> 1Q48- 
pursued,  and  soldiers  were  massacred,  amidst  cries  of  Broussel  and  liberty  ! 
The  Parliament  proceeded  in  a  body  to  the  Palais-Royal,  energetically 
represented  to  the  Queen  the  danger  which  she  incurred,  .and,  supported  by 
Mazarin,  obtained  the  freedom  of  the  two  magistrates.  The  Treaty  of 
Westphalia  was  not  yet  signed,  the  treasury  was  empty,  and  the  Court 
found  itself  without  resources  to  support  at  once  a  war  abroad  and  a 
conflict  within.  Mazarin  saw  very  clearly  that  moderation  was  necessary, 
and,  guided  by  his  advice,  Anne  of  Austria  dissimulated,  and  sanctioned 
on  the  24th  October,  1648,  in  a  celebrated  declaration,  the  greater  number 
•of  the  articles  of  the  Chamber  of  Saint  Louis.  On  the  same  day  peace 
was  signed  with  the  Empire  at  Munster.  Spain  alone  remained  at  war 
with  France.  A  certain  number  of  regiments  were  immediately  recalled 
from  Flanders  to  the  environs  of  the  capital. 

In  consequence  of  a  quarrel  with  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  Prince  of 
Conde  had  joined  the  party  of  Mazarin,  whom  he  detested,    ^ 

u  x        J  7  '     Commencement 

and  promised  him  his  support;  and  Anne  of  Austria  now  °fcivil war,  1648. 
believed  herself  to  be  able  to  crush  her  enemies.  Accompanied  by  the 
Cardinal,  she  suddenly  quitted  Paris  for  Saint  Germains ;  where  she  de- 
nounced the  magistrates  of  the  Parliament  as  guilty  of  a  conspiracy 
against  the  Royal  authority,  and  of  being  in  league  with  the  enemies 
of  the  State,  and  moved  troops  upon  the  capital.  The  Parliament, 
on  its  side,  raised  money  and  soldiers,  and  published  a  decree,  which 
declared  Mazarin  to  be  a  disturber  of  the  public  peace,  and  ordered  him 
to  quit  the  kingdom  within  eight  days.  This  was  the  commencement  of 
the  civil  war. 

Conde  commanded  the  Royal  army.    The  greater  number  of  the  princes 


56  DIFFICULTIES    WITH    THE   MOBILITY.       [BOOK  III.  CHAr.  III. 

and  great  lords  of  the  kingdom,  as  Conti,  Longueville,  Nemours,  Beaufort, 
d'Elbceuf,  and  Bouillon,  embraced  the  cause  of  the  magistracy  and  liberty, 
but  neither  from  regard  for  the  laws,  nor  from  respect  for  the  rights  of 
the  citizens  ;  being  influenced,  rather  by  ambition,  or  the  caprices  of  mad 
love  for  some  woman  or  another  of  high  rank,  brilliant  beauty,  and 
loose  morals.  The  greater  number  affected  the  most  profound  contempt 
for  the  lower  orders,  and  had  no  concern  for  the  public  liberties.  But 
the  remembrance  of  the  independence  which  the  grandees  had  enjoyed  in 
the  feudal  times  was  always  present  to  their  thoughts,  and  they  detested 
a  despotism  which  pressed  upon  themselves.  They  devoted  their  wealth 
to  the  maintenance  of  a  multitude  of  gentlemen,  who  thus  became  their 
clients,  and  who  considered  it  their  duty  to  serve  them  even  against  the 
King  himself.  The  enthusiasm  for  royalty,  the  loyal  devotion  to  the 
Crown,  which  Louis  XIV.  at  a  later  period  made  a  sort  of  religion  for  the 
nobility,  were  then  almost  unknown,  and  the  best  proof  of  this  fact  may 
be  drawn  from  the  example  of  a  man  who  then  did  the  most  honour  to 
France.  Turenne  declared  himself  for  the  Parliament  against  the  Court, 
forgetting  everything  for  the  sake  of  pleasing  the  beautiful  Duchess  de 
Longueville,  Conde's  sister,  and  after  having  endeavoured,  without  success, 
to  raise  an  army  against  Anne  of  Austria,  he  fled  from  France  and 
joined  the  Spaniards. 

France  now  presented  a  deplorable  spectacle  ;  anarchy  was  everywhere 
rampant,  and  there  was  a  confusion  in  men's  minds,  equal  to  that  which 
prevailed  in  actual  events.  On  the  one  side  were  invoked  the  prerogatives 
of  the  Crown,  which  were  never  attempted  to  be  legally  and  clearly  defined, 
whilst,  on  the  other  side,  appeal  was  made  to  the  rights  of  the  citizens  and 
magistrates,  which  were  absolutely  established  by  no  positive  incontestable 
law.  The  course  pursued  by  the  most  famous  of  the  magistrates  who  then 
raised  their  voices  in  defence  of  their  privileges  and  the  public  liberties, 
testifies  to  their  uncertainty  with  respect  to  the  justice  of  their  cause.  The 
first  president,  Mathieu  Mole,  the  Advocate- General,  Omer  Talon,  noble 
and  eloquent  interpreters  of  the  national  will,  and  ardent  defenders  of  their 
order,  believed  that  laws  were  in  existence  which  the  Crown  could  not  in- 
fringe ;  but  at  the  same  time  they  carried  their  respect  for  the  Prince,  in 
whose  name  they  administered  justice,  to  a  much  higher  point  than  did 
the  noblesse.  They  saw  with  regret  the  people  arming  itself  for  the  Par- 
liamentary cause,  and  only  joined  with  extreme  reluctance  in  a  struggle 


1G43-1661  ]  WAR    OF    THE    EROKDE.  57 

against  the  Crown.  The  Parliament  of  Paris,  moreover,  did  not  represent 
the  nation,  as  was  the  case  in  England ;  the  self-love  of  the  members  and 
their  esprit  de  corps  did  not  prevent  them  from  perceiving  that  the  States- 
General  alone  possessed  a  legal  right  to  regulate  in  concert  with  the 
regent  the  important  aifairs  of  the  State,  and  that  to  substitute  themselves 
for  them,  would  be  a  very  bold  proceeding.  Thus,  they  desired  that 
which  was  impossible ;  for  they  desired  that  the  Royal  authority  should 
be  confined  within  certain  limits  without  being  themselves  firmly  resolved 
to  have  recourse  to  those  extreme  measures  which  alone  could  secure 
their  triumph.  They  were  destined,  therefore,  to  succumb  ;  and  their  weak- 
ness finally  deprived  the  people  of  any  guarantee  or  any  security  for  their 
property  or  liberty,  and  contributed  much  to  the  long  continuance  ot  an 
arbitrary  regime  in  France,  it  being  natural  to  power  continually  to  swell 
and  to  overstep  every  limit  after  each  fruitless  effort  to  restrain  or 
suppress  it. 

The  almost  total  absence  of  any  deep  conviction  in  men's  hearts  during 
the  troubles  of  the  Fronde,  gradually  influenced  the  conduct  Warofthe 
of  the  two  parties ;  the  frivolity  of  the  motives  which  induced  Froude- 
the  greater  number  of  the  leaders  to  take  up  arms,  frequently  betrayed 
itself  in  a  strange  lightness  of  language,  which  the  multitude  imitated. 
This  war  desolated  the  kingdom,  and  made  oceans  of  blood  to  flow,  and 
yet  the  most  serious  events  were  the  subject  of  songs,  and  turned  into 
ridicule.  The  Duke  of  Beaufort,  whose  familiar  manners  delighted  the 
populace,  was  surnamed  the  King  of  the  Halles ;  the  coadjutor  of  Paris, 
Bishop  of  Corinth,  in  partibus,  raised  a  regiment,  which  the  people  called 
the  regiment  of  Corinth,  and  when  it  was  routed  by  the  Queen's  troops, 
the  defeat  was  called  the  "  first  of  the  Corinthians."  The  coadjutor  carried 
a  dagger  at  his  waist,  and  this  was  spoken  of  as  "  our  Archbishop's  breviary." 
The  Parisians  sallied  gaily  from  their  walls,  decorated  with  scarfs  from 
the  hands  of  the  Duchesses  of  Longueville  and  Bouillon,  and  a  few 
Eoyalist  troops  were  sufficient  to  put  them  to  flight. 

A  first  compromise  took  place,  without  any  decisive  result  to  the  ad- 
vantage  of  the  Parliament.     The  Queen  and  the  Cardinal     ',   ,   „     * 

°  Blockade  of 

having   re-entered     Paris,     found    themselves   insulted   by    Paris- 
frightful  libels.     They  left  it  once  more,  with  the  young  King,  and  deter- 
mined to  blockade  it  and  to  reduce  it  by  famine.     Conde  directed  the 
military  operations  against  Paris,  and  Mazarin  sent  to  the  Parliament  a 


58  AEEEST   OF    THE    PRINCES.        [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

lettre  de  cachet  which  banished  it  to  Montargis.  The  Parliament  replied 
by  a  decree  which  declared  Mazarin  an  enemy  to  the  King  and  the  State, 
and  a  disturber  of  the  public  repose,  and  ordered  him  to  quit  the  kingdom 
within  eight  days.  Already,  however,  the  Parisians  were  weary  of  war 
and  hunger ;  the  civil  troubles  proved  advantageous  to  the  Spaniards,  who 
were  in  league  with  the  Fronde,  and  the  parties  made  a  peace  at  Eueil  on 
„  _,    .,    the  11th  March,  1649.  which  satisfied  no  one.     The  Parlia- 

Peace  of  Eueil,  ' 

1649#  ment  remained   at   liberty  to   assemble,    and    the    Queen 

retained  her  Minister. 

Conde,  presuming  on  his  great  services,  became  insupportable  to  the 
Queen  on  account  of  his  pride  and  exaggerated  pretensions.  He  imposed 
hateful  obligations  on  Mazarin,  demanding  that  the  Count  of  Alais,  his 
relation,  Governor  of  Provence,,  and  guilty  of  violent  atrocities,  should  be 
supported  against  the  Parliament  of  Aix,  and  that  the  Duke  of  Epernon, 
whom  he  hated,  should  be  condemned  by  that  of  Bordeaux.  The  Prince 
kept  around  him  a  number  of  gentlemen  adventurers,  attracted  to  him  by 
his  high  military  reputation,  and  scarcely  cared  to  hide  his  project  of 
rendering  himself  independent  in  France,  and  by  these  proceedings 
alienated  both  the  Regent  and  her  Minister.  The  Frondeurs  vainly 
sought  to  attach  him  to  themselves ;  he  despised  them,  and  commenced  a 
process  against  the  coadjutor,  the  Duke  of  Beaufort,  and  Broussel,  whom 
he  accused  of  having  attempted  to  murder  him.  Mazarin  effected  a  re- 
conciliation with  the  coadjutor,  and  chose  the  moment  when  Conde  had 
rendered  himself  as  hateful  to  the  Fronde  as  himself  to  crush  him.  An 
insult  from  him  to  the  Queen  determined  her  to  take  the  most  rigorous 
measures  against  him.  He  himself  unconsciously  signed  an  order  for  his 
f  arrest ;  and  having  been  enticed  to  the  Palais  Eoyal,  on  the 

Princes,  1650.  j  8th  January,  under  the  pretence  of  the  holding  of  a  council ; 
he  was  arrested  with  his  brother  the  Prince  of  Conti,  and  his  brother-in-law 
the  Duke  of  Longueville.  A  detachment  of  light  horse  conducted  them  to 
Vincennes,  from  whence  they  were  transferred  to  Marcoussi,  and  thence  to 
Havre. 

The  Duchess  of  Longueville  fled  to  Normandy,  hoping  to  arouse  that 
province,  of  which  the  Duke,  her  husband,  was  governor.  Mazarin,  how- 
ever, had  taken  precautionary  measures,  and  having  failed  in  this  project, 
she  proceeded  to  Stenay,  to  Turenne,  whom  she  once  more  roused  against 
the  Court.      This  great  man,  allied  with  the  Spaniards,  was  beaten  at 


1613-1661.]  THE   TWO   FRONDES.  59 

Bethel  by  Duplessis-Praslin.  The  young  Princess  of  Conde,  assisted  by 
the  Dukes  of  Bouillon  and  De  la  Eochefoucauld,  was  more  fortunate  at 
Guienne.  She  entered  Bordeaux,  which  she  induced  to  revolt,  and  raised 
the  whole  province.  Mazarin  persuaded  Anne  of  Austria  to  proceed 
thither  with  the  young  King.  The  rebellion  was  suppressed,  but  Bordeaux 
remained  attached  to  the  Princes.  Necessity  alone  had  reconciled  Mazarin 
with  the  coadjutor  and  his  friends,  who  detested  him  ;  and  in  his  absence 
fresh  plots  were  contrived  against  him.      The  party  of  the  0  Frondes 

Princess,  which  was  called  the  Little  Fronde,  was  united  with    ^f^^arm. 
the  Fronde  of  the  Parliament,  or  Great  Fronde,  through  the 
exertions  of  the  Princess  Palatine,  Anne  of  Gonzaga,  second  daughter  of 
the  Duke  of  Mantua,  a  woman  born  for  intrigues;  the  coadjutor,  who  was 
in  high  favour  with  Gaston  of  Orleans,  attached  him  to  the  Parliamentary 
party,  and  when  Mazarin  returned  to  Paris,  he  found  a  formidable  league 
armed  against  him.     The  people  received  him  with  murmurs ;  the  Parlia- 
ment, at  the  instigation  of  the  coadjutor,  demanded  the  freedom  of  the 
captive  Princes,  and  the  Duke  of  Orleans  demanded  the  banishment  of 
Mazarin.     Anne  of  Austria  was  ready  to  fight  in  the  Cardinal's  defence  ; 
but  he  bowed  before  the  storm,  and  quitting  Paris,  he  proceeded  to  Havre, 
where  he  set  free  the  Princes,  who  treated  him  with  contempt.  Banished  for 
ever  by  the  Parliament,  he  refused  the  asylum  offered  him  by   £etirement  of 
the  Spaniards,  and  sought  refuge  with  the  Elector  of  Cologne,    Mazarm>  1651« 
at  Bruhl,  whence  he  continued  to  govern  the  Queen  and  the  State. 

The  enemies  of  Mazarin  soon  ceased  to  be  friends  with  each  other. 
Conde  controlled  the  Parliament,  and  offended  the  Queen  by  his  pride 
and  suspicions.  He  accused  her  of  having  allowed  herself  to  be 
directed  by  Mazarin,  reproached  her  for  retaining  as  her  Ministers  Le 
Tellier,  Lyonne,  and  Fouquet,  creatures  of  the  Cardinal,  and  demanded  their 
dismissal.  Anne  of  Austria,  thoroughly  enraged,  sent  for  the  coadjutor, 
and  entreated  him  in  the  most  urgent  manner  to  employ  his  influence  in 
favour  of  Mazarin  against  the  Prince.  Gondi,  a  mortal  enemy  of  the  Car- 
dinal, resisted  all  the  Queen's  appeals,  and  refused  to  aid  her  to  recal 
her  favourite  ;  but  he  promised  to  remove  Conde,  raised  the  people  of  the 
capital  against  him,  and  succeeded  in  dividing  the  Great  and  Little  Fronde. 
The  two  rivals  for  power  presented  themselves  at  the  Parliament  on  the 
21st  August,  each  accompanied  by  a  numerous  troop  of  armed  partisans; 
threats  were  exchanged ;  thousands  of  swords  and  daggers  were  drawn  in 


GO  EETT7RN    OP    MAZAKIN.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

the  precincts  of  the  palace,  and  the  coadjutor  was  on  the  point  of  being 
assassinated.  The  Parliament  pronounced  in  his  favour,  and  Conde,  find- 
ing the  Queen,  the  Fronde,  and  the  people  all  against  him,  quitted  Paris 
and  proceeded  to  Guienne.  Pride  and  ambition  carried  him  into  criminal 
excesses,  and,  in  concert  with  Spain,  he  prepared  for  war.  Almost  all  the 
provinces  beyond  the  Loire,  Guienne,  Poitou,  Saintonge,  and  Angoumois, 
declared  in  his  favour.  Turenne,  and  the  Duke  de  Bouillon,  his  brother, 
yielded  to  the  urgent  entreaties  of  the  Queen,  and  were  faithful  to  her. 
Anne  of  Austria  now  once  more  quitted  Paris,  in  order  to  reduce  the 
revolted  provinces  to  obedience.  Having  reached  Bruges,  she  from  thence 
despatched  to  the  Parliament  an  edict,  which  declared  Conde  a  rebel  and 
traitor  to  the  King  and  France  ;  and  the  Parliament  registered  this  edict, 
for  although  it  was  hostile  to  jthe  regent,  it  held  it  a  point  of  honour  to 
repel  any  idea  that  they  were  in  league  with  the  enemies  of  the  State. 

Once  at  a  distance  from  the  Cardinal's  adversaries,  Anne  of  Austria  felt 
all  her  old  tenderness  for  him  return ;  she  kept  his  creatures  constantly 
Eetum  of  about  her,  and  exhorted  him  to  revisit  France.     He  accord- 

Mazann,  i6o2.  ingly  came  back,  accompanied  by  an  army  of  seven  or  eight 
thousand  men,  whose  officers  wore  his  colours,  and  who  were  commanded 
by  Marshal  d'Hocquincourt.  The  coadjutor  immediately  perceived  the 
fault  which  he  had  committed  in  permitting  the  Court  to  remove  from 
Paris ;  and  he  raised  the  people  against  the  partisans  of  Mazarin  and  the 
Queen.  The  mansion  of  Mathieu  Mole,  the  First  President  of  the  Parlia- 
ment, and  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  was  assailed  by  a  furious 
of  Mathieu  mob.    Mole  had  the  gates  opened  to  them,  advanced  towards 

Moie. 

them  alone  and  unarmed,  threatened  to  have  them  all 
hanged,  and  cowed  them  by  the  simple  influence  of  his  character  and 
language.  He  joined  the  Court  at  Poitiers,  and  the  Parliament  put  a  price 
on  Mazarin's  head.  The  latter  continued  his  march  upon  Poitiers,  and 
the  King,  with  his  brother,  advancing  to  meet  him,  received  him  with 
every  distinction.  Anne  of  Austria  eagerly  replaced  in  his  hands  the 
burden  of  public  affairs,  and  he  returned  to  be  more  powerful  than  ever. 
Gaston  of  Orleans,  the  most  feeble  of  men,  and  the  puppet  by  turns  of 
every  party  which  his  age  and  name  ought  to  have  restrained,  again 
declared  against  the  Regent,  effected  a  reconciliation  with  Conde,  then  in 
Guienne,  and  joined  to  the  troops  of  that  Prince,  which  were  commanded 
in  his  absence  by  the  Duke  de  Nemours,  all  those  at  his  own  disposal.  The 


1643-1661.]  BATTLE    OP   BLENEATT.  61 

Parliament  did  not  revoke  its  decree  against  Conde,  and  from  this  time 
this  assembly,  hostile  to  all  parties,  seemed  not  to  know  what  to  do  or 
what  it  wished,  and  only  displayed  irresolution  and  weakness. 

Nemours  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  twelve  thousand  French,  Germans, 
and  Spaniards,  marched  upon  Guienne,  which  Conde  at  that  time  de- 
fended against  D'Harcourt.  His  intention  was  to  place  the  Court  between 
two  armies,  whilst  Anne  of  Austria,  with  the  object  of  re-entering  Paris, 
approached  Orleans.  Mademoiselle  de  Montpensier,  sent  by  Gaston  of 
Orleans,  her  father,  to  defend  this  place,  entered  it  by  a  sewer,  presented 
herself  suddenly  before  the  citizens  engaged  in  deliberation,  gained  their 
votes,  and  had  the  gates  of  the  city  closed  against  the  King. 

The  Royal  army,  under  the  command  of  Turenne  and  D'Hocquincourt, 
ascended  the  Loire,  and  crossed  it  at  Gien,  in  the  environs  of  Bleneau, 
almost  in  the  face  of  the  rebels,  who  were  commanded  by  two  disunited 
princes,  Nemours  and  Beaufort.  Marshal  d'Hocquincourt,  contrary  to 
the  advice  of  Turenne,  divided  his  troops  amongst  several  villages  around 
Bleneau.  Turenne  took  up  his  quarters  and  entrenched  himself  at  Gien, 
where  were  the  Court  and  the  King.  He  perceived  with  uneasiness  the 
faults  committed  by  his  colleague,  but  was  somewhat  reassured  when  he 
remembered  the  want  of  union  and  experience  in  the  enemy's  army. 
Suddenly,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  a  furious  attack  was  Battle  of  Bien- 
made  upon  the  royal  army,  the  villages  were  set  on  fire,  and  eau' 16oi' 
five  of  Marshal  d'Hocquincourt's  positions  were  carried  in  succession. 
He  saw  his  troops  beaten  and  dispersed,  and  with  difficulty  rallied  them  at 
Bleneau.  Turenne,  informed  of  this  disaster,  mounted  his  horse  and  gal- 
loped to  a  neighbouring  eminence.  By  the  light  of  the  flames  he  was 
enabled  to  judge  of  the  enemy's  movements,  and  with  the  unfailing  instinct 
of  genius,  he  cried  "  The  Prince  has  arrived ;  it  is  he  who  commands  that 
army  ! "  Nor  did  he  deceive  himself,  for  the  Prince  of  Conde  had  marched 
with  incredible  rapidity  from  the  banks  of  the  Garonne  to  those  of  the 
Loire,  and,  when  he  was  believed  to  be  twenty  leagues  distant,  was  then 
face  to  face  with  Turenne.  He  carried  Bleneau  and  marched  upon  Gien ; 
but  his  formidable  adversary  awaited  him  there  so  skilfully  posted,  that 
Conde  found  his  progress  stopped.  Turenne  had  torn  from  him  the  prize 
of  his  victory,  and  had  saved  the  King  and  army.  The  Court  gained  Lens, 
and  established  itself  in  the  environs  of  the  capital. 

Conde  followed  the  Royal  army  and  drew  near  to  Paris.     Braving  the 


62  TEEEOE   IN   PAEIS.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  Ill, 

decree  of  the  Parliament  which  condemned  him  and  closed  the  gates  of  the 
city  against  his  troops,  he  entered  the  city  with  his  principal  officers, 
Beaufort,  Nemours,  and  La  Rochefoucauld.  He  then  transferred  his  head- 
quarters from  Etampes  to  Saint- Cloud.  After  this  he  re-entered  the 
capital,  and,  in  concert  with  Gaston,  had  recourse  to  violence  to  obtain 
money  and  troops.  They  both  kept  in  pay  a  band  of  ruffians,  whom  they 
ironically  called  the  Parliament  cut-throats,  and  whom  they 
princes  defend       employed  to  insult  and  beat  such  of  the  magistrates  as  re- 

Paria  against  the  r     j  o 

KlD2-  sisted  their  will.     Paris  was  desolated  by  famine,  and  the 

Royal  army  was  at  its  gates  ;  but  the  Princes  and  their  partisans  gave  up 
their  hours  to  balls  and  festivities.  Marshal  de  la  Ferte,  who  was  faithful 
to  the  King,  approached  the  city  with  his  troops,  with  the  intention  of 
effecting  a  junction  with  Turenne,  who  was  encamped  at  Saint-Denis. 
Conde,  fearing  to  be  surrounded,  wished  to  retreat  upon  Conflans  by 
skirting  the  Avails  of  Paris,  unobserved  by  the  Royal  army.  Turenne, 
however,  perceived  the  movement,  and  falling  with  his  forces  on  the 
Prince's  troops,  gave  him  battle  in  the  Faubourg  Saint- Antoine  ;  a  despe- 
rate conflict  ensued,  in  which  these  two  great  captains  displayed  equal 
bravery  and  skill.  Conde,  whose  troops  were  much  inferior  in  number, 
was  about  to  suffer  defeat,  when  the  populace,  harangued  by  Mademoiselle, 
the  daughter  of  Gaston,  rose  in  favour  of  the  Prince.  Mademoiselle  has- 
tened to  the  Council  at  the  Hotel- de-Ville  and  induced  it  to  grant  that 
Paris  should  serve  as  an  asylum  for  the  vanquished.  From  thence  she  went 
to  the  Bastille  and  had  the  cannon  directed  against  the  King's  troops.  The 
gates  of  the  city  were  opened,  and  the  Prince's  army  was  saved. 

Paris  now  became  the  scene  of  frightful  disorders.  Conde's  troops 
rendered  the  two  Princes  for  a  time  all-powerful ;  and  they  excited  the 
populace  against  the  council,  which  was  adverse  to  them.  The  people 
besieged  the  H6tel-de-Ville,  and  prepared  to  set  it  on  fire.  Many 
magistrates  issued  forth  in  terror,  and  were  slain.  The  accusation  of 
Mazarinism  was  sufficient  to  put  him  against  whom  it  was  brought  in 
peril  of  death.     Anarchy  and  terror  reached  their  height. 

The  Princes  took  advantage  of  the  general  trouble  and  consternation 
to  change  the  Council  of  Aldermen ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  they  made 
T  dp  ri  Broussel  provost  of  the  merchants,  and  the  Duke  of 
1652,  Beaufort  governor  of  Paris.     The  famous  coadjutor,  Paul 

de  Gondi,  always  hostile  to  the  Prince  of  Conde,  put  the  archbishopric 


1643-1661.]  MAZARIN  AGAIN  BETIBES.  63 

in  a  state  of  defence,  and  furnished  the  towers  of  the  cathedral  with  instru- 
ments of  war.  The  magistrates  scarcely  dared  to  proceed  to  the  Par- 
liament. Those  whom  self-interest  or  fear  made  submissive  to  the 
Princes  feigned  to  believe  that  the  King  was  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of 
Mazarin.  They  proclaimed  Gaston  lieutenant-general  of  the  kingdom, 
until  the  expulsion  of  the  Cardinal,  and  Conde  generalissimo  of  the 
forces.  The  King  annulled  this  decree,  and  ordered  the  Parliament  to 
transfer  itself  to  Poitiers.  Many  members  obeyed  this  order  and  went 
there,  where  they  were  presided  over  by  Mole.  Each  army,  therefore, 
was  now  supported  by  a  parliament,  as  in  the  time  of  the  League. 

The  two  parties  were  weary  of  this  disastrous  war ;  and  Mazarin 
seemed  to  be  the  only  obstacle  to  the  conclusion  of  a  peace.  Charles  de 
Lorraine  approached  with  an  army  to  the  assistance  of  the  Princes ;  and 
the  Regent  was  already  meditating  a  retreat  beyond  the  Loire.  The  wise 
men  who  were  about  her  dissuaded  her  from  putting  in  practice  this 
fatal  project,  and  urged  her  yet  once  more  to  do  violence  to  her  affec- 
tions. At  length  she  dismissed  Mazarin;  and  quitting  the 
Court   a   second   time,  he    retired   to    Sedan,    leaving  his   ment  of  Mazarin,. 

1652. 

creatures  about  the  Queen,  and  through  them  still  con- 
tinuing to  direct  her  counsels.  The  people  of  Paris  received  the 
news  of  the  Cardinal's  dismissal  with  enthusiastic  delight.  Conde,  whom 
it  accused  of  all  its  sufferings,  was  forced  to  quit  the  capital.  The 
Spaniards  made  overtures  to  him,  and  setting  out  with  the  Duke  of 
Lorraine,  he  threw  himself  into  their  arms.  The  coadjutor  visited  the 
King,  received  the  red  hat,  and  arranged  the  Royal  return  to  Paris,  which 
Louis  XIV.  re-entered  on  the  21st  October,  amidst  the  The  Kino- enters 
acclamations  of  the  people.  The  King  confined  his  Pans- 
vengeance  to  the  banishment  from  the  capital  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans 
and  the  leaders  of  the  revolt.  The  coadjutor,  henceforth  known  as 
Cardinal  de  Eetz,  almost  alone  opposed  the  return  of  Cardinal  Mazarin. 
He  desired  to  appear  formidable,  and  never  went  abroad  without  being 
surrounded  by  a  numerous  guard.  Discontented  with  the  Court,  in 
spite  of  the  brilliant  offers  which  were  made  him,  he  meditated  a 
fresh  attack  against  it ;  but  Anne  of  Austria  anticipated  him  by  having 
him  arrested  and  lodged  in  Vincennes. 

The    Spaniards  had   profited   by   the    civil  troubles  in   France;    for 
Casal,  in  Italy,  Gravelines,  Mardick,  and  Dunkirk,  had  fallen  into  their 


64  MAZARIN   AGAIN    RETURNS.        [BOOK  TIL  CHAP.  III. 

hands ;  and  Conde  advanced  at  the  head  of  an  army.  Turenne,  at  the 
head  of  a  smaller  number  of  troops,  checked  his  march,  and  protected 
France  in  a  campaign  which  the  talent  of  the  two  illustrious  adversaries 
Mazarin  again  rendered  celebrated.  Anne  of  Austria  then  recalled  Mazarin 
recalled,  1653.  to  paris?  where  she  received  him  with  transport ;  whilst  the 
city  gave  him  brilliant  fetes,  and  the  populace  received  him  with  joyous 
acclamations,  and  thus  added  to  the  profound  contempt  with  which  he 
always  regarded  them.  The  Cardinal  assumed  an  absolute  authority, 
and  subjected  the  revolted  provinces.  Bordeaux,  where  the  Prince  of 
Conti  and  the  Duchess  of  Longueville  were  in  command,  was  still,  with  a 
portion  of  Guienne,  in  open  rebellion.  The  Count  d'Harcourt  had  left 
his  army  before  this  city,  and  wishing  to  follow  the  example  given  by  the 
Princes,  and  render  himself  independent,  had  seized  upon  Brisach  and 
Philisbourg,  in  Alsace.  He  surrendered  them ;  and  Bordeaux,  after 
being  the  theatre  of  most  sanguinary  scenes,  was  compelled  to  submit. 
Mazarin  triumphed  over  all  his  enemies ;  had  Conde  condemned  to  death 
by  the  Parliament ;  and  gave  one  of  his  nieces  in  marriage  to  the  Prince 
of  Conti.  Monsieur  remained  at  Blois  in  retirement.  Mademoiselle  de 
Montpensier  wandered  about  obscurely  from  province  to  province,  and 
after  having  aspired  to  the  hand  of  a  king,  ended  by  marrying  a  simple 
gentleman.  The  Cardinal  de  Retz,  after  having  been  transferred  from 
Vincennes  to  the  castle  of  Nantes,  succeeded  in  escaping,  and  quitted 
the  kingdom.  The  Duke  of  Beaufort  bowed  to  circumstances  with  a 
good  grace  ;  and  the  famous  Duchess  of  Longueville,  reduced  to  poli- 
tical inaction,  embraced  the  quarrel  of  the  Jansenists  against  the  Jesuits, 
and  ended  by  giving  herself  up  to  the  austere  practices  of  the  most 
End  of  the  War    fervid  devotion.     Thus  terminated  the  war  of  the  Fronde, 

of  the  Fronde, 

1653.  unequalled  in  the  annals  of  history  by  the  incidents  which 

characterized  it,  and  presenting  a  strange  picture,  in  which  we  see 
amongst  the  combatants  in  the  foreground,  an  archbishop,  magistrates, 
and  the  most  brilliant  women,  side  by  side  with  the  two  greatest  captains 
of  Europe.  Conde  alone  still  kept  the  field ;  and  Louis  XIV.  made  his 
first  campaign  against  him  in  Picardy  under  the  guidance  of  Turenne. 
The  issue  was  successful,  for  Turenne  attacked  the  enemy's  lines  before 
Arras,  carried  them,  and  obliged  Conde  to  raise  the  siege  of  that  place. 

Hitherto  the  King's  youth  had  not  allowed  him  to  take  an  active  part 
in  affairs,  but  they  had,  nevertheless,  had  their   influence  on  the  re- 


1643-1661.]  ALLIANCE  WITH  ENGLAND.  63 

mainder  of  his   reign.      It   is   to   the   impressions  and   remembrances 

which  he  preserved  of  the  times  of  anarchy  above  described,  that  must 

be  attributed  that  passion  for  order,  which  he  pushed  even  to  despotism, 

and  his  dislike  for  Paris.     On  his  return  from  his  first  campaign,  he 

gave  some  indication  of  what  he  was  likely  to  be.     The  people  groaned 

under  the  weight  of  the  imposts  rendered  necessary  by  the  war,  and 

fresh  edicts  of  finance  appeared  in  1655.     The  Parliament,  which  had 

registered  them  in  a  bed  of  justice  before  the  King,   wished  to  revise 

them,  and  to  reverse  their  first  decision.     The  King,  informed   of  this, 

appeared  in  the  great  chamber,  in  a  hunting  costume,  with 

a  whip  in  his  hand,  and   said :     "  Gentlemen,  everv  one   the  Parliament, 

.  .  .     .  1657- 

knows  the  misfortunes  which  have  been  caused  by  sittings 

of  the  Parliament.  I  wish  to  prevent  their  recurrence.  I  order,  there- 
fore, that  an  end  should  be  put  to  those  which  have  commenced  to  dis- 
cuss the  edicts  which  I  have  had  registered  in  a  bed  of  justice.  I 
prohibit  you,  sir,  the  chief  president,  to  permit  these  sittings,  and  any 
one  else  to  demand  them."  These  haughty  words  overawed  the  Par- 
liament, and  the  murmurs  which  they  provoked  were  stifled  by  the 
prudence  of  Turenne.  That  great  captain  soon  commenced  a  fresh 
campaign  in  Flanders,  in  which  he  took  the  offensive,  and  was  com- 
pelled by  Conde  to  raise  the  siege  of  Valenciennes. 

France  and  Spain  at  this  time  contended  with  each  other  for  the 
alliance  of  England,  now  become  a  republic,  and  governed  by  Cromwell 
as  Lord  Protector.  Charles  I.  had  perished  on  the  scaffold  in  1649, 
for  having  endeavoured  to  render  his  authority  absolute,  and  sought 
to  abolish  the  Presbyterian  worship  in  Scotland.  Cromwell  had  very 
greatly  contributed  to  this  great  catastrophe,  and  exercised  all  that 
ascendency  which,  in  times  of  revolution,  is  sure  to  fall  to  the  lot  of  an 
intellect  at  once  deep  and  crafty,  enthusiastic  and  audacious.  In  a  few 
years  he  succeeded  in  making  England  a  flourishing  state,  and  highly 
influential  in  the  affairs  of  Europe.  He  put  a  price  on  its  alliance,  and 
Mazarin  carried  it  off  from  Philip  IV.  by  promising  to  MV 
deliver  Dunkirk  to  the  English,  if  this  place  should  be  re-  Cromwell>  1658. 
taken  by  France,  and  to  abandon  the  cause  of  the  two  sons  of  Charles  I. 
who  were  both,  through  their  mother,  grandchildren  of  Henry  IV.,  and 
who  passed  from  the  camp  of  Turenne  to  that  of  Conde.  On  these  con- 
ditions Cromwell  furnished  the  French  with  a  fleet  and  six  thousand 

VOL.  II.  ,  F 


<>6  MAERIAGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV.       [BOOK  III.  ClIAP.  III. 

troops.  Flanders  was  still  the  theatre  of  war;  and  the  battle  of  the 
Battle  of  the  Dunes,  in  which  Turenne  triumphed  over  his  illustrious 
Dunes,  1658.  jival,  caused  Dunkirk  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  victor, 
who  immediately  transferred  it  to  the  English.  This  victory,  followed  by 
the  capture  of  a  great  number  of  towns  and  fortresses,  decided  Philip  IV. 
in  favour  of  peace,  which  was  equally  necessary  to  the  two  kingdoms. 
Conferences  with  this  purpose  in  view  were  held  on  the  Isle  of  Pheasants, 
off  Bidassoa,  between  Mazarin  and  Don  Louis  de  Haro ;  and  they  are 
famous  on  account  of  the  diplomatic  talents  displayed  by  the  two  nego- 
tiators.    The  peace,  signed  on  the  7th  November,  1659,  and  known  as 

Peace  of  the  t^ie  ^eace  °f tne  Pyrenees,  was  the  most  useful  and  memorable 
Pyrenees,  1659.     ^  of  Mazarin>s  life#     By  it  Pllilip  Iv  COnfiraied  the  ces- 

sion  of  Pignerol,  and  a  great  portion  of  Artois  and  Alsace  to  France, 
which  restored  Lorraine,  but  retained  the  duchy  of  Bar,  Roussillon,  and 
Cerdagne,  up  to  the  foot  of  the  Pyrenees,  and  many  towns  in  Luxembourg. 
It  was  stipulated  that  Conde  should  submit  to  the  King,  with  the 
Marriage  of  assurance  of  a  pardon  and  the  government  of  Burgundy,  and 
Louisxiv.,1660.   that  Louig  Xly  should  espouse  Maria-Theresa  of  Austria, 

the  daughter  of  Philip  IV.  The  dowry  was  fixed  at  five  hundred 
thousand  crowns,  and  Philip  made  it  a  condition  that  his  daughter  should 
renounce  for  herself  and  her  descendants  every  right  she  might  have  to 
the  succession. 

Cromwell  died,  and  England  was  once  more  plunged  into  a  state  of 
anarchy.  Charles  Stuart,  who  on  this  occasion  had  in  vain  solicited  the 
support  of  Mazarin,  who  thought  his  cause  desperate,  was  recalled  to 
England  a  few  months  afterwards,  and  proclaimed  King  by  the  title  of 
Charles  II.  Leopold,  at  seventeen  years  of  age,  had  obtained  the 
Imperial  dignity  in  1657,  on  the  death  of  Ferdinand  III.,  his  father; 
and  Charles  G-ustavus  had  reigned  in  Sweden  since  1654 ;  Christina,  his 
relation,  and  daughter  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  having  abdicated  in  his 
favour,  in  order  to  devote  herself  exclusively  to  literature  and  science. 
Europe  was  at  peace,  and  France  had  arrived  at  the  moment  when 
I  uis  XIV.  was  to  take  the  reins  of  government  into  his  own  hands. 
Mazarin,  absolute  ruler  of  the  kingdom,  and  possessed  of  a  colossal 
fortune,  was  drawing  near  the  close  of  his  life.  Full  of  anxiety  on 
account  of  his  ill  acquired  riches,  which  some  authors  declare  to  have 
amounted  to  fifty  millions — equivalent  to  more  than  a  hundred  at  the 


1643-1661.]  DEATH  OP  MAZAKIN,  67 

present  day,  he  offered  them  to  the  King,  declaring  that  he  no  longer 
wished  to  possess  them.      What  he  foresaw   took  place :    Louis  XIV. 
returned  him  his  fortune;  and  Mazarin  died  1661,  after   Death0f 
having   secured  the   most  brilliant   positions   for  his  five      azarin»166i. 
nieces,  of   whom    one,  Marie   de   Mancini,    had  been  beloved    by   the 
young  monarch. 

France  was  partly  indebted  to  Mazarin  for  the  advantages  she  derived 
from  the  peace  of  Westphalia  and  that  of  the  Pyrenees  ;  and  it  is  impos- 
sible to  deny  the  possession  of  great  talents  to  him  who  signed  these 
treaties,  who  twice  governed  France  from  the  depths  of  his  exile,  and 
preserved  the  supreme  authority  to  the  close  of  his  life  under  such  a 
prince  as  Louis  XIV.,  and  with  such  men  as  Cardinal  de  Retz  and  the 
Great  Conde  for  his  opponents.  He  deserves,  however,  great  reproach  for 
having  frequently  made  the  interests  of  France  subordinate  to  his  own. 
A  better  diplomatist  than  administrator,  and  full  of  contempt  for  the 
people,  Mazarin  enriched  himself  without  scruple  at  its  expense,  did 
nothing  for  the  internal  prosperity  of  the  State,  and  left  France  without 
credit,  and  almost  ruined.  He  was  skilful  in  reading  men's  characters, 
and  this  was  in  great  part  the  secret  of  his  power.  He  gave  Colbert  to 
Louis  XIV.,  and  divined  the  proud  and  domineering  spirit  of  that 
monarch.  The  negligent  manner  in  which  he  had  been  educated  was  a 
crime  against  him  as  against  the  State ;  and  he  purposely  kept  his  Sove- 
reign in  ignorance,  that  he  might  himself  be  so  much  the  longer  necessary 
to  him.  He  taught  him  how  to  look  and  act  the  king ;  but  to  be  one  in 
reality  was,  for  Louis  XIV.,  the  work  of  Nature  alone.  "  There  is  stuff 
in  him,"  said  the  Cardinal,  one  day,  "  sufficient  for  four  kings ;"  and  the 
monarch  of  twenty  years  of  age  announced  on  the  day  following  the 
death  of  his  Minister,  in  whose  hands  was  henceforth  to  be  the  chief 
authority. 

Harlay  de  Chanvallon,  President  oi  the  Council  of  the  Clergy,  having 
asked  him  to  whom  he  was  now  to  apply  with  reference  to  affairs  of  State, 
Louis  XIV.  replied,  "  To  me"  From  this  moment  he  became  the  sole 
ruler  of  France,  and  continued  to  be  so  till  his  death. 


F  2 


68  LOUIS  XIV.  AS  STJPEEME  BULEB.      [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  IV. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   REIGN   OF  LOUIS   XIV.,  FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  MAZARIN  TO  THAT  OF  COLBERT. 

1661-1683. 

Louis  XIY.  was  endowed  by  nature  with  an  instinctive  love  of  glory,  order, 
and  power.  His  character  possessed  the  national  characteristic  of  an  in- 
satiable need  of  admiration,  and  at  the  moment  when  he  took  the 
government  into  his  own  hands,  there  was  a  fortunate  and  remarkable 
coincidence  between  his  own  inclinations  and  the  wishes  of  his  people. 
After  having  endured  the  scourges  of  intestine  and  foreign  war,  France — 
without  interior  administration,  finances,  or  credit — was  especially  in  need 
of  some  centralizing  power  which  should  subdue  all  factions,  and  make 
the  immense  resources  of  the  kingdom  promote,  not  the  interests  of  a  few, 
but  the  glory  and  prosperity  of  the  nation  at  large.  Louis  XIV.  founded 
this  power  on  fear  and  admiration.  He  re-established  order  in  the  State, 
and  as  long  as  the  demands  of  his  pride  were  in  accordance  with  the  in- 
terests of  his  kingdom,  his  reign  offered  an  uninterrupted  series  of  marvels 
and  triumphs.  He  raised  France  to  a  hitherto  unheard-of  degree  of 
power  and  splendour. 

The  first  acts  of  his  Government  revealed  the  jealousy  entertained  by 
the  Prince  with  respect  to  his  authority,  and  his  determination  to  retain 
it  exclusively  in  his  own  hands.  In  accordance  with  the  advice  given  him 
by  Mazarin,  he  declared,  in  the  first  place,  that  he  would  have  no  Prime 
Minister.  His  council,  formed  by  the  Cardinal,  consisted  of  the  Chan- 
cellor Seguier,  Keeper  of  the  Seals ;  de  Le  Tellier,  Minister  of  War ;  De 
Lyonne,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  ;  and  De  Fouquet,  Minister  of  Finance. 
The  King,  convinced  by  Colbert  of  the  criminal  exactions  of  the  latter, 
and  perhaps  more  indignant  at  his  luxury  and  magnificence  than  at  his 
want  of  honesty,  formed  the  resolution  to  have  him  seized  in  the  midst  of 
a  sumptuous  fete  which  he  gave  at  his  country  seat  at  Vaux,  on  the  day 
of  the  marriage  of  Henrietta  of  England,  sister  of  Charles  II.,  with  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,  the  King's  brother.     He  refrained  from  this,  however 


1661-1683.]  HIS  POLITICAL  PRIDE.  69 

and  Fouquet  was  shortly  afterwards  arrested,  by  his  orders,  at  Nantes,  and 
tried  before  a  tribunal  appointed  for  the  purpose.     The  punishment  to 
which  he  was  condemned  by  his  judges  was  banishment,  but  Louis  XVI. 
changed  it  to  one  of  perpetual  detention.     His  friend  Pelisson  distin- 
guished himself  by  the  courage  with  which  he  defended  him,  but  failed  to 
save  him.     The  finances  were  entrusted  to  Colbert,  with   Colbert  Com 
the  title   of  Comptroller-general;    and  from  this  moment   ^j^^^ieki 
order  took  the  place  of  chaos  in  all  the  branches  of  the 
public  administration. 

Louis  XIV.  displayed  an  excessive  jealousy  with  respect  to  the  honour 
of  his  crown,  and  a  great  impatience  to  give  to  France  the  politicai  priae  0f 
rank  which  she  ought  properly  to  occupy  amongst  European  om8 
nations.  The  ambassador  of  Spain  having,  at  a  public  ceremony  in 
London,  made  use  of  cunning  and  violence  for  the  purpose  of  taking  pre- 
cedence of  the  Count  d'Estrades,  the  French  ambassador,  Louis,  greatly 
irritated,  threatened  Philip  IV.  with  war,  and  forced  him  to  make  a 
public  reparation,  and  to  acknowledge  that  his  was  the  inferior  power. 
He  carried  his  vengeance  still  further  with  respect  to  the  Court  of  Eome. 
In  consequence  of  an  affront  given  to  his  ambassador  by  the  Pontiff's 
body  guard,  he  demanded  and  obtained  that  this  guard  should  be 
cashiered,  that  the  Pope's  nuncio  should  go  to  France  to  ask  his  pardon, 
and  that  a  pyramid  should  be  erected  at  Rome  in  remembrance  of  the 
affront,  and  the  atonement  for  it.  Certain  military  expeditions  abroad  at 
the  same  time  added  fresh  force  to  the  monarch's  words.  Brought  up  by 
Mazarin  in  the  principles  of  the  Italian  school,  imbued  with  that  prejudice 
which  is  so  fatal  to  the  happiness  of  humanity,  that  power  is  the  only  law 
in  politics,  Louis  successfully  supported  Portugal  against  Spain  ir.  defiance 
of  the  Treaty  of  the  Pyrenees.  He  afforded  a  more  honourable  assistance 
to  the  Emperor  Leopold  against  the  Turks.  A  French  corps,  under  the 
command  of  the  Counts  Coligni  and  La  Feuillade,  covered  itself  with 
glory  at  the  battle  of  Saint- Gothard,  where  Montecuculli  completely  de- 
feated the  Grand-Vizier,  and  by  this  victory  procured  a  truce  of  twenty 
years'  duration  between  Turkey  and  Austria. 

The  King,  by  the  advice  of  Colbert,  concluded  a  useful  commercial 
alliance  with  Holland,  and  supported  this  republic  against  England  untif 
the  peace  of  Breda,  in  1667.  He  entrusted,  at  the  same  period,  to  the 
Duke  of  Beaufort  a  fleet  which  freed  the  Mediterranean  of  pirates,  and 


70  ADMINISTEATION  OF  COLBEET.         [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  IV. 

carried  the  terror  of  the  French  arms  even  to  Algiers.  These  expeditions 
to  a  certain  extent  employed  and  removed  the  old  undisciplined  bands  of 
the  time  of  the  Fronde.  Louis  created  a  new  army,  and,  with  the  assis- 
tance of  his  minister,  Louvois,  son  and  successor  of  Le  Tellier,  gave  to  this 
army  an  organization  which  was  the  admiration  and  envy  of  Europe. 
The  governors  of  provinces  were  deprived  of  the  power  of  levying  troops, 
and  of  disposing  of  them  at  their  will ;  the  great  military  offices  were  sup- 
pressed, as  well  as  rank  as  distinct  from  employment.  The  bestowal  of 
commissions  and  all  promotions  were  made  the  special  attributes  of  the 
monarchy ;  the  troops  received  a  uniform ;  all  the  branches  of  the  service, 
and  especially  the  artillery  and  engineers,  the  commissariat,  and  the 
equipment  of  the  infantry,  received  a  regular  organization.  The  army 
ceased  to  be  an  instrument  in  tjie  hands  of  the  factious.  With  the  King 
for  its  sole  head,  it  contributed  powerfully  to  fortify  his  authority  at  a 
time  when  it  was  necessary  that  the  Eoyal  authority  should  be  strong,  in 
order  that  the  nation  might  be  great. 

France  thus  began  to  taste  the  fruits  of  Colbert's  vigilant  supervision  of 
,   ...   x.         every  branch  of  the  administration.    Brought  up  at  a  counter, 

Administration  J  o  j.  7 

of  Colbert.  an(j  the  son  of  a  wool  merchant  of  Rheims,  he  succeeded  in 

effecting  the  most  difficult  reforms  and  the  execution  of  all  his  plans  by  the  aid 
of  a  strong  will  and  indefatigable  industry.  He  established  a  Chamber  of 
Justice,  whose  duty  it  was  to  inquire  into  the  conduct  of  the  old  farmers  of 
the  revenues,  who  had  amassed  enormous  fortunes,  and  to  reduce  annuities 
acquired  at  an  exceedingly  low  price — a  measure  frequently  unjust,  but 
always  popular.  He  suppressed  a  multitude  of  useless  offices,  which  took 
away  so  many  contributions  to  the  taille,  and  reduced,  in  the  course  of  his 
ministry,  the  burdensome  amount  of  taxes  from  fifty-three  millions  to 
thirty-two  millions.  He  drew  up  the  first  statistical  tables  which  had  been 
seen  in  Europe,  reduced  the  legal  interest  to  five  per  cent.,  and  sub- 
jected the  accountants  to  a  rigid  supervision.  By  these  means  he  effected 
an  immense  financial  amelioration.  At  the  time  of  Mazarin's  death,  the- 
revenue  amounted  to  eighty-four  millions  and  the  salaries  to  fifty-two, 
leaving  only  a  surplus  of  thirty-two  millions  for  the  Royal  treasury ;  but 
at  Colbert's  death  the  revenue  amounted  to  a  hundred  and  sixteen  millions,, 
whilst  the  government  offices  absorbed  but  twenty-three,  and  the  Royal 
treasury  received  ninety-three.  Colbert  opened  to  France  new  sources  of 
wealth,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  its  prosperity  in  commerce  and  industry. 


1661-1683.]  THE  PBENCH  NAYT.  71 

He  established  manufactories  for  the  production  of  the  French  points,  the 
looking-glasses  of  Cherbourg,  the  fine  cloths  of  Louviers,  Abbeville,  and 
Sedan,  the  Gobelins  tapestries,  the  carpets  of  Savonnerie,  and  the  silks  of 
Tours  and  Lyons.  France  owes  to  his  care  the  perfection  it  has  attained 
in  watch-making,  the  improvement  of  its  breed  of  horses,  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  madder.  He  took  pains  to  secure  outlets  for  the  products  of  the 
various  manufactories;  founded  colonies;  and  established  chambers  or 
commerce  and  insurance,  storehouses,  means  of  transit,  and  a  new  system 
of  customs  favourable  to  commercial  transactions.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
has  been  justly  reproached  with  having  too  greatly  sacrificed  the  agricul- 
tural interests  to  those  of  commerce,  not  only  by  prohibiting  the  exporta- 
tion of  grain,  but  also  by  prohibiting  its  free  circulation  in  the  interior. 

A  navy  was  necessary  for  the  protection  of  commerce ;  and  Colbert  in  a 
short  time  displayed,  before  the  eyes  of  astonished  Europe,  a  hundred  ves- 
sels of  war,  and  an  army  of  sailors.  He  had  the  port  of  Rochefort,  on  the 
Charente,  dug  out,  and  those  of  Brest  and  Toulon,  which  were  fortified  by 
Vauban,  deepened.  It  was  he  who  devised  for  the  recruiting  of  the  navy, 
the  Maritime  Inscription,  or  system  of  classes,  which  is  still  in  force,  and 
which  subjected  the  maritime  population  of  the  coasts,  in  return  for  the 
many  advantages  afforded  them  by  the  State,  to  the  service  of  the  Royal 
navy  during  a  certain  number  of  years.*  Finally,  his  mode  of  administra- 
tion furnished  the  King  with  the  means  of  covering  our  frontiers  on  the 
north  and  east  with  a  line  of  fortresses,  and  of  regaining  Dunkirk,  that 
city  so  necessary  to  the  defence  of  the  kingdom,  which  was  shamefully  sold 
to  Louis  XIV.  by  Charles  II.,  in  defiance  of  all  the  interests  of  England. 

The  King  lost  Anne  of  Austria,  his  mother,  in  1669.  Philippe  IV.,  his 
father-in-law,  had  died  in  the  preceding  year,  and  Louis,  without  paying 
attention  to  the  formal  renunciation  made  by  Maria- Theresa,  immediately 
set  up  claims  in  her  name  to  Flanders,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  rights  of 
Charles  II.,  the  younger  son  of  Philippe  IV.  His  pretext  was  that  the 
dowry  of  the  Queen  not  having  been  paid,  her  renunciation  was  null  and 
void,  and  he  set  up  with  respect  to  this  country  a  right  of  devolution,  which 
resulted  from  a  custom  in  force  in  parts  of  the  Low  Countries,  which  gave 
the  paternal  heritage  to  children  of  the  first  marriage  in  preference  to  those 

*  This  population  is  divided,  according  to  each  man's  age  and  the  position  of  his 
family,  into  various  classes,  which  are  gradually  called  into  active  service,  as  they  may 
be  required. 


72  FRESH  CONQUESTS.        [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  IV. 

of  the  second.  Maria-Theresa,  his  wife,  was  a  child  of  her  father's  first 
marriage,  whilst  Charles  II.  was  a  child  of  the  second.  He  claimed  for  her 
that  portion  of  the  Low  Countries  in  which  this  custom  prevailed,  and 
failing  to  obtain  it,  had  recourse  to  arms.  He  gained  over  the  Emperor 
Leopold  to  his  side  by  making  him  hope  that  he  would  obtain  a  share  oi 
the  spoils  wrung  from  Charles  II.,  and  took  the  field  at  the  head  of  his 
army.  Turenne  commanded  under  him ;  and  he  was  accompanied  by 
War  for  the  pos-  "Vauban  and  Louvois.  Spain,  then  in  a  great  state  of  weak- 
Fkndersf  ness>  was  governed  by  a  Jesuit,  Father  Nithard,  the  Queen's 

confessor,  and  opposed  but  a  feeble  resistance  to  the  arms  of 
Louis  XIV.,  who,  in  the  space  of  three  weeks,  had  rendered  himself  master 

of  French  Flanders.  The  conquest  of  the  Franche-Comte,  a 
Flanders  and  of     province  ruled  by  3pain  under  a  Republican  form  of  govern- 

Franche-Comtd.  .  "  .         _.,. 

ment,  was  immediately  resolved  on,  and  achieved  within  a 
month.  Europe  became  alarmed  at  these  rapid  successes,  and  a  triple 
• :  t  _   ,-.;.         alliance  was  formed  against  Louis  between  Holland,  England, 

Fust  Coalition.  °  *         ° 

and  Sweden.  The  Grand-Pensioner  of  Holland,  John  de 
Witt,  became  the  soul  of  this  league,  and  it  forced  the  King  to  sign  the 
Treaty  of  Aix-la-    Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  (1668),  in  accordance  with  Avhich 

ape  e'  he  retained  Flanders,   but  was   compelled   to    restore    the 

Franche-Comte. 

During  the  continuance  of  the  peace,  Louis  XIV.  devoted  his  attention  to 
the  internal  administration  of  the  kingdom,  and  to  the  affairs  of  the  Church  of 
France,  which  was  then  disturbed  by  the  quarrels  respecting  Jansenism.* 
He  then  considered  how  to  avenge  himself  upon  Holland,  and  punish  her  for 
having  taken  part  in  the  Triple  Alliance.  He  cherished  a  profound  disdain 
for  every  other  government  except  his  own,  and  whilst  he  ought  to  have 
treated  with  every  consideration  a  number  of  industrious  citizens,  who  traded 
with  us  annually  to  the  extent  of  sixty  millions,  he  could  only  regard  them 
with  hatred  and  contempt.  This  was  one  of  the  great  faults  of  his  reign. 
Everywhere  and  always  he  found  in  his  path  this  population  of  merchants, 
heretics  and  republicans  whose  very  existence  filled  him  with  indigna- 
tion, and  whose  wealth  raised  up  against  him  enemies  in  the  two  hemi- 

*  Five  propositions  on  grace,  attributed  to  Jansenius,  Bishop  of  Ypres,  and  con- 
demned by  Innocent  X.  in  1653,  lighted  up  a  war  in  the  Church  of  France.  The 
subject  of  dispute  is  a  mystery  beyond  the  reach  of  human  reason.  The  Jesuits 
attacked  these  propositions ;  and  their  most  famous  adversaries  were  Arnauld,  and 
Pascal,  author  of  the  "  Provincial  Letters." 


1661-1683.]  BENEWED  WAES.  73 

spheres.  Offended  by  some  medals  which  represented  the  United  Provinces 
as  the  arbiters  of  Europe,  and  irritated  at  the  impertinence  of  certain 
gazetteers,  the  King  seized  upon  these  frivolous  pretexts  and  declared  war 
upon  the  Dutch :    at  the  same  time  detaching;  from  their   __         .    . 

1  °  War  against 

alliance  Charles  XL,  King  of  Sweden,  and  Charles  II.,  King   EmUtr^'and 
of  England,  always  ready  to  sell  his  support,  and  to  sacrifice    SjJJJgjg, 
the  interests  of  his  people  to  his  pleasures.* 

The  Dutch  fleets  covered  the  seas  and  secured  the  commercial  pros- 
perity of  Holland  by  protecting  its  magnificent  establish- 

Formidable 

ments  in  the  East  Indies.     Louis  XIV.  reinforced  his  own   preparations  of 

Louis  XIV. 

by  fifty  English  vessels,  and  entered  Holland  at  the  head  of 


*  Charles  II.,  a  Catholic  in  his  heart,  aspiring  to  absolute  power,  was  hostile  to  the 
United-Provinces  for  the  very  reasons  which  rendered  their  alliance  precious  to 
Cromwell.  He  hated  them  as  forming  a  Republican  and  Protestant  State ;  and  he 
was  irritated  against  the  States-General,  which  had  deprived  the  young  Prince  of 
Orange,  his  nephew,  of  the  dignity  of  Stadtholder,  borne  so  proudly  by  his  family. 
These  various  motives,  and  especially  the  hope  of  finding  in  the  interested  munificence 
of  Louis  XIV.  resources  which  would  enable  him  to  dispense  with  the  necessity  of 
asking  aid  from  his  Parliament,  drew  him  towards  France ;  and  he  had  scarcely 
ratified  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  when  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  and  the  Princess 
Henrietta  of  England,  Duchess  of  Orleans,  began  to  discuss  the  means  of  bringing  the 
two  Courts  into  a  strict  alliance.  A  more  secret  negotiation,  however,  and  one 
unknown  to  Buckingham  himself,  was  being  carried  on  in  London.  The  King  had 
already  confided  his  sentiments  respecting  religion  to  certain  Catholic  gentlemen  of 
high  position  in  his  kingdom :  to  Sir  Thomas  Clifford,  and  the  Lords  Arundel  and 
Arlington,  who  were  his  intimate  companions.  Charles  II.  informed  them,  in  the 
presence  of  his  brother,  of  his  intention  of  entering  into  negotiations  with  Louis  XIV., 
with  a  view  to  the  re-establishment  of  the  Catholic  religion  in  England,  and  soon  after- 
wards, at  the  commencement  of  the  year  1670,  the  two  kings  concluded  a  famous 
treaty,  which  remained  secret  during  half  a  century.  By  this  treaty  Charles  II.  bound 
himself:  1st,  to  establish  the  Catholic  religion  in  his  States;  2ndly,  to  unite  his  forces 
with  those  of  France  for  the  destruction  of  the  Republic  of  the  United-Provinces, 
immediately  after  the  work  of  conversion  should  have  been  effected  in  Great  Britain. 
The  conquests  to  be  made  were  divided  in  anticipation  between  the  two  powers,  with 
the  exception  of  a  principality  reserved  for  the  Prince  of  Orange.  Louis  XIV.  on  his 
side  undertook  to  give  to  the  King  of  England  200,000Z.,  payable  quarterly,  to  enable 
him  to  effect  the  conversion  of  his  subjects.  But  when  Charles  II.  thus  entered  into  an 
engagement  to  convert  his  people,  he  had  taken  counsel  of  his  zeal  for  his  new  religion 
rather  than  of  his  prudence.  He  was  soon  forced  to  recognise  the  extreme  difficulty  of 
commencing,  by  the  accomplishment  of  this  enterprise,  the  execution  of  his  -agreement, 
whilst  Louis  XlV.y  on  the  other  hand,  was  eager  to  gain  possession  of  Holland.  An 
important  change  was  made  in  the  secret  convention  between  the  two  kings,  through 
the  intervention  of  the  Princess  Henrietta  of  England,  who  went  to  Dover  to  confer 
with  the  King  Charles  II.,  her  brother.  It  was  agreed  that  the  conversion  of  England 
.Bhould  be  adjourned  to  a  more  favourable  opportunity,  when  the  conquest  of  Holland 
•should  have  placed  the  King  in  a  position  in  which  he  might  undertake  it  with  success. 


74  CONQUEST  OF  HOLLAND.     [BOOK  III.  CHAP-  IV. 

a  hundred  thousand  men,  accompanied  by  Turenne,  Vauban,  Luxem. 
bourg,  and  Louvois.  The  latter  provided  with  admirable  forethought  for 
the  equipment  and  subsistence  of  the  troops  by  the  establishment,  till  then 
unheard  of,  of  magazines  of  clothing  and  provisions.  Conde  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  army.  Never  had  such  formidable  preparations  been  made  for 
the  conquest  of  a  little  State,  and  nothing  is  more  to  the  honour  and  glory 
of  Holland  than  the  immensity  of  the  preparations  made  to  crush  it. 

To  a  hundred  thousand  troops,  supported  by  a  formidable  artillery,  and 
Situation  of  commanded  by  the  most  celebrated  generals,  the  United- 
lioiian  .  Provinces  had  but  to  oppose  a  young  Prince  of  a  feeble  con- 

stitution, who  had  seen  neither  sieges  nor  battles,  and  about  twenty-five 
thousand  troops  ill  accustomed  to  war.  Prince  William  of  Orange  at 
twenty-two  years  of  age  was  elected  by  the  voice  of  the  nation  Captain- 
General  of  the  land  forces,  and  the  Grand-Pensioner,  John  de  Witt,  who 
viewed  the  influence  of  the  House  of  Orange  with  suspicion,  had  found  it 
necessary  to  consent  to  this  choice.  William  nursed  beneath  an  appa- 
rently phlegmatic  temperament  an  ardent  ambition,  and  a  great  thirst  for 
glory.  His  intellect  was  active  and  penetrating ;  his  courage  intrepid  and 
undaunted  by  reverse.  He  could  not  check  the  torrent  which  flowed  down 
upon  his  country ;  and  all  the  places  on  the  Khine  and  the  Yssel  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  French. 

The  Prince  of  Orange,  in  default  of  sufficient  troops  to  support  the  cam- 
paign in  the  open  field,  hastily  formed  lines  beyond  the  Rhine,  which  he 
soon  saw  it  would  be  impossible  to  defend.     The  passage  of 

Passage  of  the  x  . 

Euestof  HoSand  *^s  riyer>  more  b°aste(l  of  than  really  glorious,  was  achieved 
1672-  without  peril  under  the  eyes  of  the  King,  in  the  presence 

of  the  Dutch,  who  were  too  inferior  in  numbers  to  make  any  resistance. 
An  imprudent  charge  cost  the  life  of  the  Duke  of  Longueville.  Conde 
received  a  wound  and  resigned  the  command  to  Turenne.  Within  a  few 
months  three  provinces  and  forty  strong  places  had  been  taken,  and  Am- 
sterdam itself  was  threatened.  In  addition  to  the  evils  of  war,  internal 
dissensions  racked  the  interior  of  Holland ;  for  whilst  the  party  of  the 
Grand-Pensioner  John  de  Witt  wished  for  peace,  William,  who  was  a 
candidate  for  the  Stadtholderate,  and  could  only  raise  himself  in  the  field, 
declared  for  war.  John  de  Witt  prevailed,  and  advances  were  made  to 
Louis  XIV.  by  a  deputation  which  reckoned  amongst  its  members  the 
sons  of  the  illustrious  Grotius.     Advantageous  propositions  were  made  to 


1661-1683. J  NAVAL  ENGAGEMENTS.  75 

the  King,  but  Louis  demanded  yet  more ;  demanding  the  re-establishment 
in  Holland  of  the  Catholic  religion,  the  devotion  of  a  portion  of  the 
churches  to  the  Romish  worship,  twenty  millions  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  the  war,  the  cession  of  all  that,  the  United  Provinces  possessed  on  the 
Wahal  and  the  Rhine,  and  finally,  the  presentation  to  him  every  year  of 
expiatory  medals  as  an  acknowledgment  that  the  seven  Provinces  retained 
their  existence  and  liberties  through  his  clemency  alone.  These  demands, 
for  the  most  part  exorbitant,  excited  the  Dutch  to  the  greatest  fury. 
They  turned  their  wrath  against  John  de  Witt  and  Admiral  Cornelius  de 
Witt,  his  brother ;  accused  them  of  being  in  league  with  Louis  XIV. ; 
massacred  them,  tore  them  in  pieces,  and  heaped  upon  their  remains  a 
thousand  insults.  Despair  lent  strength  to  the  vanquished.  They  opened 
their  dykes  and  laid  the  country  under  water,  for  the  purpose  of  compelling 
the  French  to  evacuate  it.  The  Dutch  Admiral  Ruyter  struggled  glori- 
ously against  the  combined  squadrons  of  France  and  England,  and  the 
battle  of  Saultsbay  secured  the  coasts  of  the  Republic  from  ^-aval  fi  ht  at 
any  chance  of  attack.  Saults  ay' 

Europe  rose  in  favour  of  Holland.  The  Emperor  Leopold,  the  Kings 
of  Spain  and  Denmark,  the  greater  number  of  the  Princes  of  the  Empire, 
the  Elector  of  Brandenbourg,  Frederic  William,  the  founder  of  the  high 
fortunes  of  his  House — all,  alarmed  at  the  ambition  of  Louis  XIV.,  leagued 
themselves  against  him,  whilst  Charles  II.  himself  was  compelled  by  his 
Parliament  to  break  off  his  French  alliance.  Louis  XIV.,  in  accordance 
with  the  advice  of  his  Minister  Louvois,  had  committed  the  fault  of  dis- 
tributing his  troops  amongst  a  number  of  the  places  taken,  the  fortifica- 
tions of  which  Turenne  and  Conde  very  prudently  wished  to  destroy. 
Threatened  by  so  many  enemies,  he  could  not  collect  together  sufficient 
troops  to  carry  on  the  campaign,  and  in  a  short  time  the  whole  of  Hol- 
land  was    evacuated   with   the    exception   of  Grave    and    Maestricht.* 

*  The  plan  of  the  campaign  of  1672  had  been  drawn  up  with  profound  skill,  and  yet 
the  issue  was  not  fortunate.  Faults  of  execution  caused  the  loss  of  the  fruits  of  the 
success  which  had  been  at  first  obtained.  An  irresistible  inclination  to  make  sieges 
caused  the  King  to  lose  the  opportunity  of  entering  Amsterdam.  Garrisons  were 
posted  in  a  crowd  of  places  which  should  have  been  destroyed  as  soon  as  taken.  The 
army,  like  the  Rhine  and  the  Meuse,  which  divide  and  spread  themselves  in  all  direc- 
tions on  their  entrance  into  Holland,  covered  a  portion  of  the  enemy's  territory,  and 
could  not  make  a  step  further  towards  the  conquest  of  the  rest.  Germany,  alarmed, 
interfered  in  favour  of  the  Provinces,  and  France  was  compelled  to  abandon  her  con* 
quests. 


76  EVACUATION  OF  HOLLAND.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  IV. 

The  Franche-Comte,  however,  indemnified  him  for  so  many  losses. 
Evacuation  of  ^ouis  marched  to  the  conquest  of  this  Austrian-Spanish 
pr°enac^bytbe  province,  Noailles  commanding  under  him.  Besancon  with- 
Franche^Comte     stood  the  genius  of  Vauban  no  more  than  nine  days,  and 

to  France,  1674.      ,-,  r    i  .  -,     .  .  ,  , 

the  whole  province  was  conquered  m  six  weeks,  and  a 
second  time  wrested  from  Spain,  never  to  return. 

The  Great  Conde,  having  the  Prince  of  Orange  in  front  of  him,  now 
fought  his  last  battle  near  Senef  in  Flanders.  The  French  gained  the 
victory,  but  William  rallied  his  troops  and  held  the  victors  in  check. 
Three  times  Conde  attacked  him  without  being  able  to  drive  him  from 
his  last  and  impenetrable  position.  The  loss  on  each  side  was  frightful ; 
twenty-seven  thousand  dead  were  left  on  the  field  of  battle ;  Conde  had 
three  horses  killed  under  him  ?  the  contest  lasted  fourteen  hours,  and  was 
a  drawn  battle. 

Turenne  had  then  to  defend  the  frontiers  on  the  side  of  the  Rhine,  and 
he  displayed  in  this  campaign  all  the  resources  of  art  and 

Skilful  cam- 
paigns of  genius.     After  a  rapid  and   skilful  march  he  crossed  the 

Turenne  in 

Alsace.   His         Rhine  at  Philisbourg,  fell  upon  Sintzheim,  forced  that  city, 

victories,  1674.  . 

and  at  the  same  time  encountered  and  put  to  flight  Caprara, 
the  Emperor's  general,  and  the  old  Duke  of  Lorraine  Charles  IV.  After 
having  vanquished  him,  Turenne  pursued  him  and  cut  up  his  cavalry  at 
Ludenburg ;  from  thence  he  prevented,  by  a  rapid  manoeuvre,  the  junction 
of  the  two  bodies  of  Imperial  troops.  He  attacked  near  the  city  of  Ensheim 
the  Prince  of  Bournonville,  who  commanded  one  of  these  corps,  and  forced 
him  to  retreat.  He  then  retreated  himself  before  superior  forces  com- 
manded by  the  Elector  of  Brandenbourg,  and  took  up  his  winter-quarters 
in  Lorraine.  The  enemy  believed  the  campaign  to  be  at  an  end ;  but  for 
Turenne  it  had  only  commenced.  He  resisted  Louvois  and  Louis  XIV., 
who,  alarmed  at  his  perilous  position,  urged  his  retreat.  Brisach  and 
Philisbourg  were  blockaded,  and  seventy  thousand  Germans  occupied 
Alsace ;  but  Turenne  had  formed  his  plans,  and  knew  how  to  surprise  and 
vanquish  them.  With  twenty  thousand  men  and  a  few  cavalry  sent  him 
by  Conde,  he  traversed  by  Thanus  and  Belfort  the  mountains  covered  with 
snow,  and  suddenly  appeared  in  Upper  Alsace  in  the  midst  of  the  enemy, 
who  believed  him  to  be  still  in  Lorraine.  He  vanquished  successively  at 
Mulhausen  and  at  Colmar  the  corps  which  offered  resistance.  A  for- 
midable body  of  German  infantry  remained  intact.     Turenne  awaited  it 


1661-1683.]  DEATH  OF  TTTKENltE.  77 

at  Turkheim  in  a  favourable  position  and  routed  it.  In  this  way  a  for- 
midable army  was  destroyed  in  a  few  months  with  little  effort.  Alsace 
remained  in  the  King's  possession,  and  the  generals  of  the  Empire  re- 
crossed  the  Rhine.  This  campaign  extorted  a  burst  of  admiration  from 
Europe ;  but  Turenne  stained  his  glory  by  permitting  the 
burning  of  the  Palatinate.     Two  cities  and  a  multitude  of  First  burning  of 

_         _  t  *k0  Palatinate, 

villages  became  a  prey  to  the  names,  and  no  attempt  was   1674. 
made  to  check  the  barbarities  of  the  soldiers. 

At  length  the  Emperor  sent  against  Turenne  Montecuculli,  the  first  of 
his  generals  and  the  vanquisher  of  the  Turks  at  Saint-Gothard.  The  two 
great  opponents  at  first  made  proof  of  each  other's  skill  by  a  multitude  of 
skilful  manoeuvres  which  are  still  the  admiration  of  military  tacticians. 
They  were  on  the  point,  at  length,  of  giving  battle  to  each  other  near  the 
village  of  Salzbach,  in  Baden,  and  Turenne  was  confident  of  victory,  when, 
on  visiting  a  battery,  he  fell  dead,  struck  by  a  cannon  ball.  The  same 
ball  carried  away  the  arm  of  M.  de  St.  Hilaire,  lieutenant-  Death  of 
general  of  infantry,  who  said  to  his  son,  weeping  by  his  side,  Turenne»  1685« 
"  It  is  not  for  me,  my  son,  but  for  that  great  man  you  should  weep." 
Turenne  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-four.  Born  a  Protestant,  he  had  adopted 
the  Catholic  faith,  and  was  buried  in  the  tomb  of  the  kings  at  Saint-Denis. 
Montecuculli,  informed  of  his  death,  compelled  his  two  successors, 
Generals  de  Lorges  and  Vaubrun,  to  repass  the  Rhine.  Vaubrun  was  killed 
whilst  crossing  the  stream,  and  Lorges  conducted  the  retreat.  The  free 
city  of  Strasbourg  immediately  offered  the  use  of  its  bridge  Last  cam  ft.  ng 
to  Montecuculli,  who  penetrated  into  Alsace.  Conde"  alone  ofCond^1675- 
could  encounter  this  great  captain  with  success,  and  was  sent  to  oppose 
him.  He  displayed  as  much  skill  as  Turenne,  and  by  two  encampments 
was  able  to  check  the  progress  of  the  Imperial  army,  and  to  force  Monte- 
cuculli to  raise  the  sieges  of  Haguenau  and  Saverne.  Alsace  was  evacu- 
ated, and  this  brilliant  campaign  was  the  last  conducted  by  the  two  illus- 
trious rivals.  The  Great  Conde  henceforth  lived  in  glorious  retirement  at 
Chantilly,  where  he  died  in  1688;  whilst  Montecuculli  withdrew  from 
the  Emperor's  service. 

The  Duke  de  Crequi  allowed  himself  to  be  beaten  in  this  same  year  at 
Consarbruck,  near  Treves,  by  the  Duke  of  Lorraine ;  but  excellent  suc- 
cesses followed  this  reverse.  Messina  had  shaken  off  the  yoke  of  Spain, 
and  had  placed  itself  under  the  protection  of  France.     Assisted  by  the 


78  CAMPAIGN"  IN  FLANDEES.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  IV. 

Dutch  fleet,  the  Spaniards  endeavoured  to  retake  it;  but  Duquesne, 
in  command  of  the  French  fleet,  defeated  their  project,  and  gained  the 
Victories  of  Du-  navai  victories  of  Stromboli  as  well  as  Agosta,  which  cost 
Srand^gostT;  the  life  of  Admiral  Ruyter.  Marshal  de  Vivonne  completed 
1676,  the   destruction   of  the   enemy's   fleet   as   it   issued  from 

Palermo.  These  glorious  operations  were  followed  by  two  brilliant  cam- 
Campaign  in  Paigns>  conducted  by  the  King  in  Flanders.  The  heroic 
Flanders,  1677.  captUre  of  Valenciennes,  made  in  the  open  day  by  the 
Musqueteers — those  of  Cambrai  and  St.  Omer — and  the  victory  of  Cassel, 
gained  by  the  King's  brother  over  the  Prince  of  Orange,  terminated  this 
war,  which  was  unjustly  commenced,  but  was  gloriously  concluded. 
Louis  now  found  himself  the  arbiter  of  Europe.  The  States- General  of 
Holland  were  weary  of  a  struggle  which  had  been  maintained  but  by  their 
subsidies ;  and  a  Congress  assembled  at  Nimeguen,  at  which  peace  was 
Peace  of  Nime-  signed  on  the  10th  August,  1678.  Holland  recovered  all 
guen,  1678.  tikart  had  been  taken  from  her  during  the  war ;  Spain  aban- 

doned the  Franche-Comte,  and  many  places  in  the  Low  Countries ;  the 
Emperor  gave  up  two  Imperial  cities  which  had  been  taken  by  Marshal 
La  Feuillade,  and  gave  Fribourg  in  exchange  for  Philisbourg ;  the  right 
of  France  to  the  possession  of  Alsace  was  confirmed.  The  young  Duke 
of  Lorraine,  nephew  to  Charles  IV.,  refused  to  be  subject  to  Louis  XIV., 
and  rejected  the  conditions  on  which  he  might  have  been  re-established 
in  his  States,  which  remained  in  the  occupation  of  the  French.  Sicily 
was  evacuated. 

To  the  advantages  secured  by  the  Peace  of  Nimeguen  Louis  added 
others,  not  less  important,  and  which  he  had  obtained  by  fraud  and 
violence.  It  was  said  in  the  Treaty  that  the  countries  ceded  should  be 
accompanied  by  all  their  dependencies.  The  negotiators  had  supposed  that 
these  cessions  would  be  settled  by  mutual  agreement ;  but  Louis  XIV. 
assumed  that  he  had  a  right  to  settle  them  in  his  own  way,  and  accord- 
ingly he  established  a  Sovereign  Chamber  at  Besancon,  and  two  equally 
Sovereign  Councils,  the  one  at  Brisach,  the  other  at  Metz,  which  were 
empowered  to  decide  without  appeal  respecting  all  cessions  to  his  Crown. 
By  this  arbitrary  measure  the  King  of  Sweden,  the  Duke  of  Wurtemburg, 
of  De  Deux-Ponts,  the  Elector  Palatine,  the  Elector  of  Treves,  and  a 
number  of  other  princes,  were  deprived  of  a  portion  of  their  domains  and 
summoned  to  render  homage  for  their  other  possessions.     Louis  seized 


1661-1683.]  EESTOKATION  OF  STBASBOTJRG  TO  FBANCB.  79 

upon  the  free  city  of  Strasbourg  in  a  manner  no  less  violent.  Louvois 
and  the  Marquis  de  Montclar  suddenly  appeared  before  it  at  gur  riseofst 
the  head  of  twenty  thousand  men.  Induced  to  capitulate  J^fh^pSce 
by  mingled  threats  and  intrigue,  it  was  united  to  France,  to  Prance» 1681- 
and  Vauban  fortified  it  so  as  to  make  it  the  rampart  of  the  kingdom 
against  Germany. 

Justly  irritated  at  these  usurpations,  the  powers  of  Europe  formed  a 
fresh  league  on  the  day  of  the  capture  of  Strasbourg.  But  three  hundred 
thousand  Turks  at  the  same  time  poured  down  upon  the  Empire ;  and 
Vienna,  reduced  by  them  to  the  last  extremity,  would  have  been  forced 
to  succumb  had  not  the  king  of  Poland,  John  Sobieski,  and  Prince 
Charles  of  Lorraine  come  to  its  assistance.  Leopold,  therefore,  and  the 
greater  number  of  the  powers,  being  too  feeble  to  recommence  the  war, 
protested,  without  taking  any  active  measures.  Spain  alone  dared  to  enter 
the  field,  and  lost  Courtray,  Dixmude,  and  Luxembourg.  Truce  of  Eatis- 
A  truce  of  twenty  years,  to  which  the  Emperor  and  Holland  bon' 1684# 
acceded,  was  concluded  at  Ratisbon,  according  to  which  the  King  was  to 
retain,  during  his  life,  Luxembourg,  Strasbourg,  and  all  the  annexations  pro- 
nounced legitimate  by  the  Sovereign  Courts.  It  was  thus  that  Louis  XIV., 
extending  his  conquests  by  illegitimate  means,  accumulated  the  enduring 
resentment  which  was  destined  to  burst  upon  him  in  the  day  of  adversity. 

Everywhere  the  terror  of  his  arms  prevailed.  The  ships  of  Spain 
lowered  their  flags  before  his ;  and  Duquesne  freed  the  Mediterranean  of 
the  pirates  which  infested  it,  and  twice  destroyed  the  city  of  Algiers  with 
the   then   newly-invented   bombs.       Algiers,    Tunis,    and   _     ,    ,      ,   „ 

J  g         7  i  Bombardment  of 

Tripoli  made  their  submission.  Genoa  was  accused,  falsely  gJjjUJJ  JJJgj, 
perhaps,  of  having  assisted  the  pirates.  Fourteen  thousand  1G8i* 
bomb-shells  crushed  its  marble  palaces,  and  its  Doge  was  forced  to  go  to 
Versailles  to  implore  the  compassion  of  Louis  XIV.  That  monarch  had 
now  reached  the  giddiest  height  of  his  power  and  glory,  and  his  name 
excited  throughout  Europe  mingled  sentiments  of  hatred,  terror,  and  ad- 
miration. The  Roman  Court,  already  deeply  humiliated  by  him,  was 
beaten  a  second  time  on  the  subject  of  the  Droit  de  regale.*     This  law,  up 

*  This  was  the  name  given  to  the  privilege  enjoyed  by  the  Kings  of  France,  and  by 
no  other  monarchs,  of  possessing  during  the  vacancy  of  episcopal  sees,  and  until  the 
registration  of  the  oaths  of  new  bishops,  the  revenues  attached  to  them,  and  also  of 
conferring  certain  benefices  as  belonging  to  these  sees. 


80  LOTJIS  XIV.  AN  ABSOLUTE  MONAltCH.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  IV. 

to  the  time  of  Louis  XIV.,  did  not  affect  the  churches  of  certain  provinces 
which  had  been  long  separate  from  the  kingdom,  such  as  Guienne, 
Provence,  and  Dauphine ;  but  by  a  Koyal  edict,  issued  in  1673,  they  were 
now  all  rendered  equally  subject  to  it.  The  Pope,  Innocent  XI., 
vigorously  opposed  this  innovation,  and  a  long-continued  struggle  ensued; 
but  at  length,  in  1682,  an  assembly  of  the  French  clergy  drew  up,  at  the 
instigation  of  Bossuet,  the  four  famous  Articles,  in  which  is 
the  Four  Articles    set  forth  the  doctrine  of  the  Gallican  Church.     They  are  to 

of  Clergy,  1682. 

the  effect — 1st,  That  the  ecclesiastical  power  has  no  autho- 
rity over  the  temporal  power  of  princes ;  2nd,  That  the  General  Council 
is  superior  to  the  Pope,  as  was  determined  by  the  Council  of  Constance ; 
3rd,  That  the  exercise  of  the  Apostolic  power  should  be  regulated  by  the 
canons  and  the  usages  in  vogue  in  particular  churches  ;  4thly,  That  the 
judgment  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  in  matters  of  faith  is  not  infallible  until 
sanctioned  by  the  Church.  The  King  immediately  had  these  four  articles 
registered  in  all  the  Parliaments,  and  the  professors  in  the  schools  of 
philosophy  were  bound  to  subscribe  to  them.  The  Pope  condemned 
them,  and  refused  bulls  to  all  those  who  had  been  members  of  the 
Assembly  of  1682.  The  bishops  nominated  by  the  King  continued,  how- 
ever, to  administer  their  dioceses,  by  virtue  of  the  powers  conferred  on 
them  by  the  chapters.  This  expedient,  suggested  by  Bossuet,  prevented 
perhaps  a  complete  schism  between  the  Church  of  France  and  the  Church 
of  Eome. 

Louis  XIV.,  feared  by  Europe,   was  an   absolute  king   in   his    own 

dominions,  and  could  say  with  truth,  "  The  State — it  is  I!" 

Power  and  gran-  '      "  .  . 

deur  of  Louis        He  had  destroyed  the  few  national  franchises  which  had 

XIV.,  1661-1633.  J 

hitherto  been  preserved  rather  by  custom  than  by  law. 
Every  body  and  everybody  in  the  State  rivalled  each  other  in  testifying 
their  devotion  and  obedience  to  him.  The  high  clergy,  to  whom  Louis 
closed  his  Council  and  refused  any  part  in  the  command  of  his  armies, 
had  lost  all  political  influence ;  and  this  body  considered  it  fortunate,  in 
fact,  that  they  had  preserved  a  shadow  of  independence  in  being  allowed 
to  pay,  under  the  title  of  "  gratuitous  gifts,"  the  sums  which  they  would 
have  considered  it  beneath  their  dignity  to  have  paid  as  taxes.  The  high 
nobility,  considerably  diminished  by  so  many  wars,  and  naturally  attracted 
to  the  Court,  was  kept  under  by  the  habit  of  a  brilliant  servitude  to  the 
monarch,  and  the  enticements  of  Court  pleasures  and  fetes.     The  nume- 


1661-1683.]  CREATION  OE  THE  POLICE.  81 

rous  provincial  nobility,  almost  wholly  employed  in  the  army,  learned 
that  it  could  only  preserve  any  authority  in  the  State  by  means  of  its 
commissions,  and  that  its  hereditary  privileges  would  no 
longer  afford  it  any  real  influence.     The  Parliament  found   Nobles  and  of 
its  functions  limited  to  the  administration  of  justice;    all 
political  power  was  taken  from  it,  and  the  King  only  allowed  to  it  the 
illusory  power  of  addressing  to  him  remonstrances  on  his  edicts  eight  days 
after  they  had  been  registered.     The  Third  Estate  lost  its  municipal 
liberties  by  the  definitive  establishment  of  intendants  and  the  sale  of  the 
perpetual  mayorships.      The  three   orders  were   finally  reduced   to   a 
political  nullity  by  the  King's  prejudice  against  the  States- General,  and 
his  invincible  resolution  never  to  convoke  them.     The  chains  of  a  central 
administration,  the  occult  power  of  the  police,  newly  esta-   creation  of  the 
blished,*  and  the  maintenance  of  a  numerous  standing  army,    Police» 1667* 
completed  the  reduction  of  the  kingdom  to  a  state  of  passive  obedience — 
a  state  in  which  the  King  kept  it  by  the  dazzling  glory  of  his  victories, 
and  the  marvellous  works  effected  during  his  reign.     Aspiring  himself  to 
every  species  of  renown,  he  had  in  the  midst  of  his  reign  obtained  that  of 
a  conqueror,  and  the  superior  glory  of  being  a  protector  of  literature, 
science,  and  commerce.     With  Colbert's  assistance  he  had   leei8lative 
issued  celebrated  decrees  with  respect  to  waters  and  forests,    works* 
naval  affairs,  and  all  branches  of  industry,  as  well  as  to  civil  and  criminal 
proceedings  in  the  courts  of  law.     The  various  Regulations  were  distorted 
by  the  errors  and  barbarous  prejudices  of  the  time,  but  they  grouped 
under  their  proper  heads  matters  which  had  hitherto  been  confounded 
together ;  and  it  is  especially  in  this  respect  that  they  were  admired,  and, 
in  great  part,  adopted  by  Europe. 

The  King  seconded  Colbert's  efforts  by  giving  an  impulse  to  industry, 
and  giving  the  first  place  of  honour  at  his  Court  to  French  fabrics.  At 
his  voice  manufactories  arose,  our  vessels  covered  the  ocean,  and  France 

*  The  King  appointed,  in  1667,  a  magistrate,  who,  under  the  name  of  Lieutenant  of 
Police,  was  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  watching  over  the  safety  of  Paris.  Nicolas  de 
la  Reynie  was  the  first  Lieutenant  of  Police,  and  he  was  succeeded  by  the  Marquis 
d'Argenson.  The  watch  and  the  fire-brigade  were  also  established.  The  police  scruti- 
nized all  writings,  and  multiplied  the  employment  of  lettres  de  cachet,  which,  by 
suppressing  the  forms  of  justice,  deprived  the  citizens  of  every  guarantee  for  their 
liberty.  A  lettre  de  cachet  was  a  letter  written  by  order  of  the  King,  and  counter- 
signed by  a  secretary  of  State,  by  virtue  of  which  the  police  seized  any  person  and 
conveyed  him  to  prison,  where  he  was  confined  as  long  as  the  Government  pleased. 
VOL.   II.  (J 


82  GEAtfDETTB,  OF  LOUIS  XIV.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  IV. 

took  the  first  rank  amongst  the  maritime  powers.  She  had  not  as  yet  any 
colonies ;  for  though  the  French  had,  it  is  true,  a  century  since,  founded 
many  colonies  in  the  New  World,  at  the  Floridas,  in  Canada,  at  the 
Antilles,  in  Guiana,  at  Senegal,  and  in  Africa,  they  had  remained  inde- 
pendent of  France.  Colbert  purchased  the  establishments  at  the  Autilles 
in  the  name  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  placed  under  the  protection  of  the  French 
Government  a  portion  of  the  great  isle  of  St.  Domingo,  which  had  been 
taken  by  French  filibusters  from  the  Spaniards.  A  West  Indian 
company,  established  by  his  efforts  in  1G64,  purchased  the  French  pos- 
sessions in  America,  from  Canada  to  the  Amazons,  and  in  Africa,  from 
Cape  Verde  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Another  company,  called  the 
East  Indian,  also  arose  at  this  period.  Founded  at  first  at  Madagascar,  it 
soon  quitted  that  isle  and  planted  itself  in  the  Indies.  It  established  a 
factory  at  Surat  and  founded  Pondicherry,  which  became  the  centre  of 
our  operations  in  India. 

The  genius  of  Louis  XIV.  associated  itself  with  every  grand  and  useful 
creation.  He  devoted  equal  care  to  our  fortresses,  our  roads,  our  ports, 
and  our  canals.  At  the  instigation  of  Colbert  and  Yauban,  he  defended 
our  frontiers  on  the  east  and  the  north  by  a  triple  line  of  fortresses.  He 
ordered  the  construction  of  important  works  at  Brest,  Toulon,  and  Eoche- 
fort.  He  adopted  the  plans  of  Riquet,  and  dug  the  Languedoc  Canal, 
which  unites  two  seas.  He  completed  the  pavement  of  the  capital,  and 
provided  it  with  a  police,  and  with  light  during  the  night.  He  enlarged 
and  enriched  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  traced  out  the  Boulevards,  built  the 
Hotel  des  Invalides  and  the  Observatory,  the  Gates  of  St.  Denis,  and  St. 
Martin,  and  the  admirable  facade  of  the  Louvre,  erected  after  the  plans  of 
Claude  Perrault.  He  surrounded  himself  with  the  elite  of  the  great  men 
of  his  day,  borrowed  from  them  a  part  of  their  glory,  and  did  honour  to 
himself  by  covering  them  with  favours.  His  benefactions  sought  out  foreign 
artists  and  men  of  learning,  many  of  whom  he  induced  to  take  up  their 
abode  in  France.  He  founded  at  Rome  a  school  for  painters,  and  in 
Paris  academies  of  sculpture,  painting,  and  architecture.  At  the  suggestion 
of  Colbert  he  founded  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  that  of  Inscriptions, 
placed  the  Eoyal  library  in  an  ample  building,  and  raised  the  number  of 
its  volumes  from  sixteen  thousand  to  forty  thousand.  Finally,  he  com- 
manded the  voyages  of  Tournefort,  and  caused  the  meridian  of  Paris  to 
be  measured.      His  renown  extended  to  the  extremities  of  Asia,  and  the 


1661-1683.]  GEE  AT  MEN  OF  THE  AGE.  83 

King  of  Siam  sent  a  solemn  embassy  to  offer  his  congratulations  to  the 
French  Monarch,  and  to  enter  into  an  alliance  with  him. 

The  works  executed  by  Colbert,  Louvois,  and  Vauban  ;  the  conquests 
of  Turenne  and  Conde  ;  the  halo  of  a  brilliant  literature :  the  >.     ,         ,.,, 

7  '  Ureat  men  oi  the 

eloquence  of  Bossuet,  Bourdaloue,  Fleshier,  and  Fenelon ;  Period- 
the  writings  of  Corneille,  Moliere,  Racine,  Boileau,  La  Fontaine,  and 
so  many  other  celebrated  men ;  the  profound  works  of  the  great  thinkers 
and  moralists,  such  as  Pascal,  Descartes,  Malebranche,  La  Bruyere,  and 
La  Rochefoucauld ;  the  marvellous  artistic  productions  of  the  sculptors 
Girardon,  Puget,  Coysevox,  and  Coustou ;  the  artists  Lesueur,  Nicolas 
Poussin,  Claude  Lorraine,  and  Le  Brun,  and  the  architects  Perrault,  the 
two  Mansards,*  and  Le  Nostre;|  the  scientific  discoveries  of  the  great 
mathematicians  of  this  period,!  *n  *ne  nrs^  ran^  OI*  whom  may  be  placed 
Pierre  Fermat ;  and  finally,  the  labours  undertaken  by  the  astronomers 
Picard  and  Cassini  for  the  purpose  of  measuring  the  globe — throw  an 
incomparable  lustre  upon  that  portion  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  which 
we  have  rapidly  sketched,  and  contributed  to  lead  posterity  to  apply  to 
the  Monarch  the  epithet  of  Great$  and  to  speak  of  the  age  in  which  he 
reigned  as  the  age  of  Louis  XIV. 

Beneath  so  much  grandeur,  however,  there  were  concealed  many  vices 
and  numerous  perils.  Louis  XIV.  believed  that  he  possessed  an  absolute 
right  over  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  his  subjects,  and  called  himself  God's 
lieutenant  upon  earth.  Dazzled  by  the  prodigies  effected  in  his  reign, 
intoxicated  by  incessant  praise,  victorious  over  all  opposition,  he  almost 

*  Francis  Mansard,  the  author  of  the  Val-de-Grace,  must  not  be  confounded  with 
his  nephew,  Jules  Hardouin  Mansard,  who  constructed  Versailles,  Marly,  the  Place 
Vendome,  &c. 

f  Le  Nostre  was  the  creator  of  French  landscape-gardening,  and  laid  out  the  gardens 
of  Versailles. 

%  Amongst  the  great  geometricians  who  have  rendered  themselves  illustrious  by  the 
importance  of  their  discoveries  in  the  mathematical  and  physical  sciences  are  Descartes 
and  Pascal.  A  mechanician,  whose  name  has  since  become  famous,  also  lived  at  this 
period.  It  was  he  who  first  devised  the  plan  of  employing  steam  as  a  motive  power, 
and  he  made  experiments,  on  a  river  in  Germany — the  Fulda — with  a  real  steamboat, 
which  ascended  the  current.  The  importance  of  this  discovery,  and  of  the  machine 
called  "  Papin's,"  have  only  been  appreciated  in  our  own  day,  when  the  results  are 
incalculable. 

§  At  the  Hotel-de-Ville  of  Paris,  in  1680,  it  was  solemnly  decreed  that  the  surname 
of  "Great"  should  be  applied  to  the  Monarch,  and  that  this  should  be  the  only  title  to 
be  in  future  inscribed  upon  any  public  monument. 

g2 


84  DEATH  OF  COLBERT.      [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  IV. 

reached  the  point  of  believing  that  he  was  of  a  nature  superior  to  that  of 
the  rest  of  humanity,  and  of  persuading  himself  that  his  glory  rendered 
lawful  on  his  part,  what,  in  the  case  of  other  men,  was  most  criminal  in 
the  sight  of  God.  He  was  to  be  seen,  in  the  midst  of  the  splendour  of  his 
fetes,  in  the  sight  of  the  people  and  the  army,  driving  about  with  his  wife 
— Maria-Theresa  and  two  of  his  mistresses,  and  the  prestige  which  covered 
his  adulterous  amours  with  Mademoiselles  la  Valliere  and  Fontanges,  and 
Madame  Montespan,  inflicted  almost  as  fatal  a  blow  on  the  national 
manners  as  the  shameful  dissoluteness  of  his  successor. 

He  prided  in  triumphing  over  difficulties,  and  in  undertaking  what 
seemed  impossible  things ;  and  Colbert,  who  encouraged  his  taste  for  build- 
ing, saw  with  terror  the  public  treasure  engulfed  at  Versailles  in  gigantic 
and  useless  works.  It  was  easy- to  foresee  all  the  miseries  with  which  France 
was  threatened,  if  the  will  of  the  Prince,  without  counterpoise,  should 
cease  to  be  guided  by  the  councils  of  genius,  and  should  yield  to  those  of 
ignorance  and  fanaticism  ;  if  his  indomitable  pride  should  listen  some  day 
to  the  suggestion  of  a  narrow  and  blind  devotion ;  and  if,  finally,  his  pre- 
judices, and  the  interests  of  his  power  and  those  of  his  family,  should  ever 
be  in  antagonism  with  the  interests  and  requirements  of  France.  These 
gloomy  forebodings  of  superior  minds  were  too  soon  justified.  Colbert 
died  in  1683,  in  the  same  year  as  Maria- There sa ;  and  from 
Theresa  and  of*  that  time  the  rising  prosperity  of  the  reign  received  a  check. 
The  prodigalities  of  the  King,  and  the  expenses  of  the  late 
war,  which  had  been  undertaken  against  the  advice  of  Colbert,  had  already 
obliged  the  latter  to  have  recourse  to  loans,  to  the  sale  of  a  multitude  of 
offices,  and  to  vexatious  taxes,  which  excited  the  murmurs  of  the  people. 
After  his  death,  the  finances  fell  into  a  frightful  state  of  confusion,  and  it 
almost  seemed  as  though  this  great  Minister  had  carried  with  him  into 
the  tomb  the  fairest  portion  of  his  Master's  glory  and  good  fortune. 


1683-1715.]  EEVO CATION  OF  THE  EDICT  OE  NANTES.  85 


CHAPTER  V. 

CONTINUATION   AND   END    OF   THE   REIGN   OF   LOUIS   XIV. 

1683-1715. 

The  health  of  Louis  XIV.  had  suffered  since  1682  an  alteration  which, 
whilst  it  soured  his  temper,  inclined  him  to  abandon  himself  without 
reserve  to  the  fatal  suggestions  of  Louvois  and  Madame  de  Maintenon. 
The  former,  an  egotistical,  proud,  and  cold-hearted  man,  had  been  the 
personal  enemy  of  Colbert,  and  the  latter,  by  her  ambition  and  a  certain 
stiffness,  made  the  French  almost  forget  the  rare  qualities  of  her  mind. 
A  Catholic  granddaughter  of  the  Protestant  leader  Agrippa   Preponderating 

-  influence  of 

d  Aubigne,  widow  of  the  poet  Scarron,  and  instructress  of  Louvois  and  of  < 

Madame  de 

the  children  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Madame  de  Montespan,  she  Maintenon. 
speedily  raised  herself  from  that  obscure  post  to  the  most  elevated  rank. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  King,  yielding  to  personal  scruples  as  much  as 
to  the  voice  of  public  morality,  thought  that  he  might  satisfy  at  once  his 
passion  and  the  claims  of  duty  by  secretly  marrying  her ;  and  the  year 
1685  is  that  in  which  this  clandestine  marriage  is  said  to  have  taken 
place.  From  that  moment  Louis  XIV.  appeared  to  have  survived  him- 
self. Great  talents  still  shone  around  him,  and  produced  brilliant  works ; 
glorious  victories  checked  the  current  of  his  adversities ;  but  his  resolu- 
tions were  ever  subject  to  pride  or  superstition ;  most  of  them  hurried  on 
the  ruin  of  the  monarchy,  and  none  of  them  really  tended  either  to  his 
greatness  or  prosperity. 

One  of  the  first  and  most  disastrous  acts  of  the  Third  Period  of  his 
reign  was  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.     The  Pro- 
testants, since  the  capture  of  La  Rochelle,  lived  peaceably   the  Edict  of 

,       .     .  ,         ~  ,  ,.         Nantes,  1685. 

and   submissive   to    the   Government,   and   were    as   dis- 
tinguished  for    the  purity  of   their  morals   as    their   active   industry. 
Louis  XIV.,  however,  had  always  regarded  them  with  anger  and  dislike. 
Far  from  being  well  informed  as  to  the  differences  between  the  two 
systems  of  worship,  he  was  nevertheless  offended  that  opinions  should 


86         PERSECUTIONS  OP  THE  PEOTESTANTS.   [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

be  publicly  professed  in  his  kingdom  which  were  not  his  own ;  and  he 
assumed  over  the  consciences  of  his  subjects  the  same  absolute  authority 
which  he  believed  he  possessed  over  their  lives  and  fortunes.  His  cruel 
persecutions  of  the  reformed  party  were  instigated  by  his  pride  rather 
than  by  his  devotion.  He  had  long  meditated  the  ruin  of  their  churches, 
and  numerous  conversions  had  been  obtained  by  threats,  violence,  or 
bribery.  The  unhappy  Protestants  found  themselves  successively 
deprived  of  all  their  rights  and  all  their  privileges.  Their  ministers 
were  prohibited  from  wearing  the  ecclesiastical  habit,  from  attending  the 
sick,  or  visiting  the  prisons.  Their  professors  were  allowed  to  teach 
neither  languages,  philosophy,  nor  theology ;  their  schools  were  broken 
up;  and  the  gifts  bestowed  on  the  consistories  were  transferred  to 
Catholic  hospitals ;  cunning  and  force  were  employed  to  prevent  them 
from  having  the  bringing  up  of  their  own  children. 

Eefused  admission  to  any  public  offices,  they  had  devoted  themselves  to 
industry,  which  owed  to  their  zeal  its  most  rapid  development.  Colbert 
protected  them ;  but  at  his  death,  Louvois,  his  envious  rival,  in  concert 
with  Michel  Le  Tellier,  his  father,  Chancellor  of  France,  and  with 
Madame  de  Maintenon,  urged  Louis  XIV.  to  destroy  them.  The 
numerous  blows  already  inflicted  upon  them  by  the  King  had  deprived 
them  of  the  means  of  making  any  effort  in  their  own  defence ;  when,  on 
the  22nd  October,  1685,  appeared  the  decree  which  suppressed  the  Edict 
of  Nantes.  It  interdicted  throughout  the  whole  kingdom  the  exercise  of 
the  Eeformed  religion,  ordered  all  its  ministers  to  leave  the  kingdom 
within  a  fortnight,  and  enjoined  parents  and  tutors  to  bring  up  the 
children  in  their  care  in  the  Catholic  religion.  Emigration  on  the  part 
of  the  Protestants  was  prohibited  under  pain  of  the  galleys  and  con- 
fiscation of  property  ;  Catholic  preachers  traversed  the  towns  peopled  by 
Protestants,  and  in  the  places  where  these  missionaries  were  unable  to 
effect  conversions,  the  secular  arm  was  called  in  to  effect  them  by  force. 
Frequently,  even  before  the  issue  of  this  decree,  dragoons  had  been  sent 
to  obstinate  Protestants  with  permission  to  act  towards  them  with  every 
imaginable  licence  until  they  had  become  converted.  Innumerable  and 
atrocious  acts  of  violence  were  committed  against  them,  those  who 
resisted  being  condemned  to  the  gibbet  or  the  gallows ;  whilst  their 
ministers  were  broken  alive.  A  hundred  thousand  industrious  families 
escaped  from  France ;  and  the  foreign  nations  which  received  them  with 


1683-1715.]  FRANCE  OPPOSED  BY  EUROPE.  87 

open  arms  became  enriched  by  their  industry  at  the  expense  of  their 
native  country.  This  odious  decree  intensified  the  hatred  of  the  Pro- 
testants for  their  King,  and  increased  their  resources  and  their  strength, 
whilst  it  enfeebled  those  of  the  kingdom ;  for  there  were  formed  many 
regiments  of  French  refugees  who  inflicted  more  than  one  severe  blow 
on  the  persecuting  Monarch. 

The  conduct  of  this  Prince  in  respect  to  strangers  was  neither  more 
just  nor  more  prudent.  He  had  found  in  medals  which  he  thought 
insulting  a  sufficient  motive  for  urging  war  against  Holland;  and  yet  he 
permitted  Marshal  la  Feuillade  to  erect  on  the  Place  des  Victoires,  in 
Paris,  a  monument,  on  which  a  light  burnt  before  his  statue,  at  the 
foot  of  which  all  the  nations  of  Europe  were  represented  as  vanquished 
and  enchained.  He  maintained  at  Rome,  in  spite  of  the  Pope,  a  right  of 
asylum  for  all  the  vagabonds  or  malefactors  who  sought  protection  at  the 
French  Embassy;  although  the  other  powers  possessed  of  the  same 
privilege  had  renounced  so  scandalous  a  right.  Pressed  by  the  nuncio 
to  follow  the  example  of  the  latter  on  this  point,  Louis  XIV.  haughtily 
replied,  that  "  He  never  followed  any  one's  example,  God  having,  on  the 
contrary,  appointed  him  to  be  an  example  to  others."  His  ambassador 
was  excommunicated  by  Pope  Innocent  XI.,  who,  at  the  same  time, 
refused  to  nominate  to  the  Electorate  of  Cologne,  Cardinal  Furstemberg, 
the  candidate  protected  by  the  French  Monarch ;  upon  which  Avignon, 
an  ancient  possession  of  the  Popes,  was  at  once  seized.  Louis  XIV. 
believed  that  he  atoned  for  his  offences  against  the  Court  of  Rome  by 
the  rigour  with  which  he  treated  the  Calvinists ;  but  his  recent  usurpa- 
tions, maintained  with  so  much  arrogance,  disgusted  all  Europe.  The 
Prince  of  Orange,  against  whose  consent  the  peace  of  Nimeguen  had  been 
concluded,  had  become  the  soul  of  a  new  league,  which  took  the  name 
of  the  League  of  Augsbourg,  from  the  name  of  the  city  in  which 
it  was  agreed  upon.  The  Emperor,  the  Empire,  Spain,  Holland, 
and  Savoy,  formed  a  coalition  against  France ;  and  Louis 

,  •    ,       y-t  i  i  i  /»      i         Second  Coalition 

sent  a  large  army  into  Germany  under  the  orders  of   the   League  of  Augs- 

t\         i  •  //Ti/r  •  t       i         -rr-  •  bourg.    War 

Dauphin.       "  My  son,      said    the    King    to   him,    on   his   against  Europe, 

.  .  1688-1698. 

departure,   "  in   sending   you    to    command  my  armies,  I 
afford  you  an  opportunity  of  making  your  merits  known.     Go,  and  so 
act  in  the  face  of  Europe  that  when  I  am  no  more  it  shall  not  perceive 
that  the  King  is  dead." 


88  THE  PALATINATE  BURNED.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

This  campaign  commenced  at  the  period  of  the  second  revolution  in 
Second  English  England.  James  II.,  brother  and  successor  of  the  immoral 
Revolution,  less.  c^astea  II.,  had  made  an  ostentatious  display  of  his  attach- 
ment for  the  Catholic  faith,  and  had  raised  his  subjects  in  revolt  against 
him  by  endeavouring  to  re-establish  it  in  his  kingdom.  The  Prince  of 
Orange,  his  son-in-law,  summoned  by  the  general  voice  of  the  English 
people,  crossed  the  sea  at  the  head  of  a  fleet,  and  accompanied  by  a  French 
army.  James  II.  abandoned  the  throne,  which  was  declared  vacant  by 
the  Peers  and  Commons  of  the  kingdom.  The  two  Chambers  then  drew 
up  an  act,  which  is  famous  in  history,  under  the  name  of  the  Declaration 
of  Eights,  by  which  the  ancient  political  rights  and  liberties  of  England 
were  denned,  and  solemnly  sanctioned.  They  then  proclaimed  William 
of  Orange  and  Mary,  the  daughter  of  James  II.,  King  and  Queen  of 
England.  Thus  was  accomplished  the  revolution  which  maintained  in 
England  the  union  between  the  State  and  the  Protestant  Church,  which 
consecrated  anew,  in  a  pacific  manner,  the  free  institutions  which  had 
existed  in  the  kingdom  for  ages,  and  which  prevented  in  that  country 
any  fresh  contests  between  the  Eoyal  authority  and  the  Parliamentary 
power,  by  establishing  in  a  formal  and  incontestible  manner  that  the  first 
derived  all  its  rights  and  all  its  prerogatives  from  the  Parliament  and  the 
nation. 

After  he  had  quitted  a  throne  which  he  could  no  longer  defend, 
James  II.  sought  an  asylum  in  France.  Louis  XIV.  received  him  with 
royal  magnificence,  and  immediately  took  up  his  cause,  in  spite  of  all  the 
enemies  who  on  the  north,  the  east,  and  the  south,  threatened  his 
frontiers.  The  Dauphin,  assisted  by  Henri  de  Durfort,  Marshal  Duras, 
and  Catinat  and  Vauban,  had  already  taken  Philisbourg,  and  before  the 
end  of  the  campaign  had  become  possessed  of  Mayence,  Treves,  Spire, 
Worms,  and  a  multitude  of  other  places,  which  Cardinal  Furstemberg 
gave  up  to  him  in  the  Electorate  of  Cologne.  Thus,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war,  Louis  XIV.  found  himself  master  of  the  three 
ecclesiastical  electorates,  and  a  portion  of  the  Palatinate.  This  unhappy 
province,  by  an  order  of  Louis  XIV.,  signed  by  Louvois,  was  a  second 
time  inhumanly  ravaged,  1689,  with  the  intention  of 
of  thePaiatinafe,   keeping  back  the  enemy.     Forty  cities  and  a  multitude  of 

1689. 

boroughs  and  villages  were  given  to  the  names,  the  cemeteries 


1683-1715.]  CAMPAIGN  IN  FLANDEES.  89 

themselves  were  profaned,  and  the  ashes  of  the  dead  given  to  the  winds. 
Germany  burst  into  a  cry  of  horror,  and  at  once  sent  into  the  field  three 
large    armies,  the  command  of  which  was   entrusted  to  the  Duke  of 
Lorraine,  Charles  V.,  a  sovereign  without  a  kingdom,  but 
endowed  with  great  talents,  the  Prince  of  Waldeck,  and  the   Luxembourg,  in 

Flanders. 

Elector  of  Brandenbourg.  Charles  V.  retook  Bonn  and 
Mayence,  drove  Marshal  Duras  back  into  France,  and  died  in  the  midst 
of  his  successes.  Waldeck  vanquished  Marshal  d'Humieres  in  Flanders. 
Luxembourg  was  then  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  grand  army  of 
the  north ;  and  this  great  general,  who,  by  his  fiery  genius  and 
keen  and  rapid  judgment,  recalled  the  memory  of  the  Great  Conde, 
whose  pupil  he  was,  justified  the  King's  choice  in  the  most  brilliant 
manner. 

Two  French  armies  protected  the  northern  frontier.  Luxembourg 
with  one  occupied  a  portion  of  the  valley  of  Sambre ;  whilst  the  other, 
under  Marshal  d'Humieres,  protected  that  of  the  Moselle.  The  Prince  of 
Waldeck,  at  the  head  of  superior  forces  on  the  Sambre,  near  Fleurus,  held 
Luxembourg  in  check,  and  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  Elector  of  Bran- 
denbourg to  attack  and  destroy  both  armies.  Luxembourg  divined  his 
plan,  and  prevented  it.  Strengthened  by  a  reinforcement,  secretly  drawn 
from  the  army  of  the  Moselle,  he  suddenly  offered  battle  to  the  Prince, 
and  then  marching  openly  with  a  front  of  equal  extent  to  that  of  the 
Germans,  he  transferred  the  whole  of  his  cavalry  to  one  of  his  wings,  on 
the  flank  of  the  enemy,  from  whom  this  manoeuvre  was  concealed  by 
a  slight  eminence.  Waldeck,  attacked  in  front  and  in  flank,  was  astonished 
at  finding  himself  outflanked  by  an  army  which  he  supposed  to  be  inferior 
in  number  to  his  own ;  and  the  disorder  occasioned  by  the  suddenness  of 
the  attack  became  a  rout.  Six  thousand  slain,  and  eleven  thousand 
prisoners,  were  the  result  of  this  victory,  which  seemed  to  be  a  decisive 
one,  but  which,  nevertheless,  had  no  decisive  result.  The  remains  of 
the  vanquished  army  joined  at  Brussels  the  army  of  the  Elector;  whilst 
Louvois,  jealous  of  the  victor,  deprived  him  of  a  portion  of  his  troops. 
The  enemy  was  thus  enabled  to  regain  his  supremacy ;  and  Luxembourg 
was  reduced  to  acting  on  the  defensive. 

Catinat  now  gained  in  Piedmont  the  battle  of  StafParde  against  Victor 
Amedee,  Duke  of  Savoy,  whose  States  were  lost  for  France  as  soon  as 


90  BATTLE  OP  THE  BOTNE.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

won.      The  Duke  of  Bavaria  and  Prince   Eugene,*   a   general   in  the 
service  of  the  Emperor,  compelled  Catinat  to  recross  the  Alps. 

James  II.  had  gone  in  the  preceding  year  to  Ireland,  where  the 
Catholic  population  remained  faithful  to  him,  and  still  hoped,  with  the 
aid  of  Louis  XIV.,  to  recover  his  Crown.  Chateau-Renaud  went  to  his 
aid  with  twelve  ships  of  the  line  and  eight  thousand  soldiers,  whom  the 
Duke  of  Schomberg,  a  Protestant  refugee,  held  in  check  till  the  arrival 
of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  who  had  already  been  recognised  and  pro- 
claimed as  King  of  England  by  the  title  of  William  III.  It  was  in  vain 
that  Admiral  Tourville,  with  eighty  ships  of  war,  vanquished  at  Beachy-head 
Battle  of  the  t^ie  English  and  Dutch  fleets  ;  for  on  the  following  day,  the 
oyne,  69  .  decisive  battle  of  the  Boyne  ruined  the  hopes  of  James  II. ; 
and  in  the  following  year,  the  result  of  the  battle  of  Aghrim  planted  the 
crown  firmly  on  the  head  of  William  III. 

Louis  XIV.,  with  Luxembourg  and  La  Feuillade,  made  a  campaign  in 
Flanders  in  1691,  the  only  important  results  of  which  were 

Campaign  of 

Louis  xiv.  in       the  capture  of  Mons  by  the  Kino;,  and  the  glorious  battle  of 

Flanders,  1691.  r#  J  &'  fe 

Leuze,  in  which  Luxembourg,  at  the  head  of  twenty-eight 
squadrons,  put  to  flight  fifty-five  squadrons  of  the  enemy,  under  the 
command  of  the  Prince  of  Waldeck.  This  success,  however,  was  of  no 
permanent  advantage  to  France. 

The  distress  which  prevailed  throughout  the  kingdom  was  now  extreme. 
Claude  le  Pelletier,  then  Phelipeux  de  Ponchartrain,  who  succeeded 
Colbert  in  the  general  management  of  the  finances,  endeavoured  in  vain 
to  fill  up  the  frightful  void  in  the  Treasury  occasioned  by  the  King's  pro- 
digalities, and  the  maintenance  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men 
in  the  field.  A  loan  was  opened  for  six  millions  of  funds ;  a  multitude  of 
offices  were  created,  which  financiers  were  compelled  to  purchase ;  con- 
siderable donations  were  demanded  of  the  cities ;  by  the  King's  order  the 
silver  articles  at  Versailles  were  coined  into  money;  he  redoubled  his 
efforts,  and  made  immense  preparations  for  carrying  on  the  war.  He 
marched  into  Flanders  himself  at  the  head  of  eighty  thousand  men,  with 
Luxembourg  and  the  Marquis  de  Boufflers  under  his  orders,  whilst 
Catinat  carried  on  the  war  in  Piedmont.     Louis  XIV.  now  had  before 

*  Prince  Eugene  was  the  son  of  the  Count  de  Soissons,  of  the  House  of  Savoy,  and 
of  a  niece  of  Mazarin.  Upon  being  refused,  by  Louis  XIV.,  first  an  abbacy,  and  next 
a  regiment,  he  entered  the  service  of  the  Emperor. 


1683-1715.]  BATTLE  OP  LA  HOGUE.  91 

him  his  illustrious  rival,  King  William,  who  had  returned  to  command 
his  army  in  Flanders  after  having  securely  fixed  the  crown  of  England  on 
his  head. 

The  King  in  person  took  the  important  fortress  of  Namur,  whilst 
Luxembourg,  on  the  banks  of  the  Mehaigne,  covered  the  yictories  of 
siege,  and  held  the  forces  of  William  in  check.  After  this  aSo?CaSt 
exploit  Louis  XIV.  quitted  the  army,  and  resigned  the  1692_1693* 
command  to  Luxembourg,  who  covered  himself  with  glory  at  the  battle 
of  Steinkerque.  A  spy  having  been  discovered  in  William's  camp,  he 
was  forced  to  write  a  false  despatch  to  Marshal  Luxembourg,  and  the 
latter  immediately  took  measures  which  placed  him  in  peril.  His  army, 
almost  buried  in  slumber,  was  attacked  at  the  break  of  day,  and  one 
brigade  was  put  to  flight.  Luxembourg  was  ill,  but  danger  revived  his 
strength ;  and,  rapidly  changing  his  ground,  he  three  times  rallied  his 
forces  and  charged  at  their  head.  Many  princes  of  the  blood  distin- 
guished themselves  on  this  occasion.  Philippe,  Duke  of  Orleans,  then  the 
Duke  de  Chartres,  and  afterwards  Eegent  of  the  kingdom,  was  foremost 
amongst  the  foremost.  Scarcely  fifteen  years  of  age,  he  charged  at  the 
head  of  the  Household  Brigade,  was  wounded,  and  returned  to  the  charge 
in  spite  of  his  wound.  At  length  King  William's  English  Guards  gave 
way ;  and  Boufflers,  coming  up  with  his  cavalry,  completed  the  victory. 
William,  however,  retired  in  good  order,  and  continued  the  campaign ; 
his  genius,  full  of  resources,  enabling  him  to  derive  greater  advantages 
from  a  defeat  than  the  French  frequently  obtained  from  a  victory.  In  the 
following  year  (1693),  at  Nerwinde,  Luxembourg  again  obtained  a  signal 
victory  over  this  prince,  but  again  failed  to  derive  any  particular  advan- 
tage from  it.  William  once  more  made  an  admirable  retreat,  and 
Louis  XIV.,  who  had  formerly  made  so  many  conquests  almost  without 
fighting,  could  now  scarcely  achieve  the  conquest  of  Flanders  after  so 
many  bloody  victories.  Catinat,  no  less  successful  than  Luxembourg, 
was  victorious  in  Piedmont.  But  all  these  glorious  successes  were  coun- 
terbalanced by  the  disastrous  invasion  made  by  Victor-  Naval  battle  f 
Amedee  into  Provence  and  the  fatal  battle  of  La  Hogue,  in  La  Hosue- 
which  T  our  ville,  in  obedience  to  the  King's  distinct  orders,  attacked  Admiral 
Russell  with  a  force  inferior  by  one-half  to  that  of  the  English.  After  making 
the  most  heroic  efforts  his  ships  were  dispersed  or  sunk,  and  Eussell  burnt 
thirteen  of  them  in  the  defenceless  ports  of  La  Hogue  and  Cherbourg. 


92  PEACE  OP  ETSWICK.         [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

This  ruinous  war  was  still  prolonged  during  three  years,  during  which 
Europe  hurled  back  on  Louis  XIV.  the  evils  he  had  made  her  suffer. 
The  Dutch  seized  Pondicherry,  a  colony  founded  at  a  great  expense  by 
Colbert,  and  ruined  French  commerce  in  the  Indies.  The  English 
destroyed  our  plantations  at  Saint  Domingo,  and  bombarded  Havre,  Saint 
Malo,  Calais,  and  Dunkirk,  and  reduced  Dieppe  to  ashes. 

Duguay-Trouin  and  Jean  Bart  avenged  these  disasters  at  the  expense 
of  the  enemy's  maritime  commerce,  and  Commodore  Pointis  surprised  the 
city  of  Carthagena,  the  depot  of  the  treasures  which  Spain  obtained  from 
Mexico.  These  successes,  however,  but  ill  repaired  the  great  losses 
suffered  by  France.  Louis  XIV.  ordered  the  re-melting  of  all  the  coin  in 
circulation,  and  raised  the  value  of  the  silver  mark  from  twenty-six  livres 
fifteen  sous  to  twenty-nine  livres  four  sous — an  operation  which  only 
resulted  in  a  gain  of  forty  millions  to  the  Treasury  in  four  years.  He 
imposed  a  capitation  tax  on  all  the  heads  of  families,  who  were  divided 
into  twenty-four  classes,  according  to  the  amount  of  their  fortunes,  and 
inscribed  his  own  name  amongst  those  liable  to  contribute.  At  length, 
after  the  ineffectual  campaigns  of  Boufflers  on  the  Rhine  and  of  Vendome 
in  Catalonia,  Louis  entered  into  negotiations  for  peace.  He  first  of  all 
succeeded,  in  1696,  in  detaching  from  the  League  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  Victor- 
Amedee,  who  gave  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  the  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
grandson  of  Louis  XIV.  Secure  on  the  side  of  Italy,  the  King  marched 
considerable  bodies  of  troops  into  Flanders,  under  Marshals  Catinat, 
Boufflers,  and  Villeroi,  and  carried  on  the  war  actively  in  Catalonia, 
where  Vendome,  after  many  successes,  achieved  the  important  conquest  of 
Peace  of  Barcelona.     These  last  events,  and  especially  the  defection 

Eyswick,  1697.  0f  ^Q  jjuke  0f  Savoy,  hastened  the  progress  of  the  negotia- 
tions for  peace,  and  at  length  it  was  signed  at  Ryswick  on  the  20th 
September,  1697.  By  this  treaty  the  King  of  Spain  resumed  possession 
of  many  places  in  the  Low  Countries ;  the  Piince  of  Orange  was  acknow- 
ledged as  King  of  England,  and  Louis  promised  to  disturb  him  no  more  in 
the  possession  of  his  kingdom.  The  possession  of  Strasbourg  was  con- 
firmed to  France,  but  she  gave  up  Kehl,  Philisbourg,  Fribourg,  and 
Brisach,  agreed  to  raze  the  fortifications  of  Huninguen  and  Neuf-Brisach, 
and  to  restore  all  the  annexations  with  the  exception  of  Alsace.  The 
Elector  Palatine  resumed  possession  of  his  domains,  and  the  Duke  of 
Lorraine  that  of  his  duchy,  now  diminished  by  Longwy  and  Sarrelouis, 


1683-1715.]  DEATH  OF  CHABLES  II.  OP  SPAIN.  93 

which  remained  in  the  hands  of  France.  Finally,  the  Dutch  restored 
Pondicherry,  and  signed  an  advantageous  treaty  with  France,  which 
kept  her  colonies  and  preserved  her  possessions  at  Saint  Domingo. 

The  power  of  Louis  XIV.  was  so  shaken  by  this  long  and  bloody  war 
that  he  could  no  longer  support  in  Poland  his  relation,  Prince  de 
Conti,  who  had  been  elected  King  of  that  kingdom  in  opposition  to 
Augustus,  the  Elector  of  Saxony.  Europe  now  at  length  enjoyed  a 
period  of  repose.  The  battle  of  Zenta,  gained  by  Prince  Eugene  at  the 
head  of  the  Imperial  troops  over  the  Turks  and  the  Grand  Vizier  in 
person,  was  followed  by  the  peace  of  Carlowitz,  which  was  humiliating 
for  Turkey.  Then  there  followed  two  years  of  general  tranquillity  for 
Europe.  The  King  of  Sweden,  Charles  XII. ,  and  Peter  I.,  Czar  of 
Eussia,  were  the  first  to  break  it  in  the  North ;  and  the  South  soon 
showed  signs  of  coming  troubles. 

Charles  II.,  King  of  Spain,  languished  in  expectation  of  approaching 
death.  He  had  no  children,  and  the  Kings  of  France,  will  of  Charles 
England,  and  the  Emperor  Leopold,  coveting  his  vast  II-»1698- 
domains,  had  entered  into  a  secret  agreement  to  divide  them ;  when 
Charles,  by  a  will  made  in  1698,  appointed  as  his  heir  the  Electoral 
Prince  of  Bavaria,  then  six  years  of  age,  who  died  in  the  following  year. 
The  dying  Monarch,  after  long  consulting  the  Pope,  the  Universities  of 
Spain,  and  his  own  Council,  then  nominated  as  his  successor  Philip, 
Duke  of  Anjou,  grandson  of  his  eldest  sister,  Maria-Theresa,  and  second 
son  of  the  Dauphin  of  France.  If  Philip  should  decline  to  renounce  his 
eventual  rights  to  the  throne  of  France,  then  the  Duke  de  Berry,  his 
younger  brother,  was  substituted  for  him,  and,  in  the  next  place,  the 
Archduke  Charles,  the  Emperor's  second  son.  In  no  case  did  the 
testator  permit  the  dismemberment  ot  the  Spanish  monarchy.  He  died 
in  1700. 

Louis  XIV.  knew  that  to  accept  this  testament  was  to  break  the 
agreement  which  he  had  previously  signed,  and  to  expose  France  to  a 
new  war  with  Europe,  which  was  always  ready  to  reproach  him  with 
aspiring  after  universal  monarchy.  He  could  not  resist,  however,  his 
desire  to  place  so  brilliant  a  crown  on  the  head  of  his  grandson;  and 
therefore,  after  some  hesitation,  he  accepted  the  will,  recognised  the 
Duke  of  Anjou  as  a  King  under  the  title  of  Philip  V.,  and  sent  him  to 
Spain  with  the  memorable  words — There  are  no   longer  any  Pyrenees. 


94  WAE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION  OP  SPAIN.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

The  Emperor  immediately  protested ;  and  a  year  had  scarcely  elapsed 
before  Holland,  England,  and  the  Empire  had  made  common 
cause  with  him   against  Louis  XIV.     This  Monarch  had 
committed  two  enormous   faults :  the  one  being   that  he  had  sent   to 
Philip  V.  letters  patent,  by  which  his  rights  to  the  throne  of  France  were 
preserved  to  him,  contrary  to  the  express  will  of  the  testator ;  and  the 
other,  that,  on  the   death  of  James  II.,  he  had  recognised  as  King  of 
England  the  Prince  of  Wales,  his  son,  in  spite  of  a  formal  clause  in  the 
treaty  of  Eyswick.     The  tears  of  the  widow  of  James  II.,  and  the  insti- 
gation of  Madame    de    Maintenon,    prevailed   in   this  matter  with   the 
King,  against  the  unanimous  advice  of  his  Council.     The  Confederate 
powers  immediately  made  preparations  for  the  terrible  war,  known  in 
history  as  the  War  of  Succession,  in  which  the  North  of 
cession  of  Spain,   Europe,    then    divided    between    Peter    the    Great    and 
Charles  XII.,  took  no  part.     Louis  XIV.  and  Philip  V.  had 
as  their  allies  against  this  formidable  league  only  the  King  of  Portugal, 
the  Duke  of  Savoy,  the  Electors  of  Bavaria  and  Cologne,  and  the  Dukes 
of  Parma,  Modena,  and  Mantua. 

"Within  the  kingdom  numerous  signs  of  decadence  were  already 
visible.  The  King,  now  a  sexagenarian,  and  living  somewhat  in  retire- 
ment saw  things  at  too  great  a  distance  with  eyes  which  were  not  only 
enfeebled  by  prolonged  prosperity,  but  which  time  had  somewhat  dulled. 
Madame  de  Maintenon  possessed  neither  the  strength  nor  greatness 
of  mind  necessary  to  sustain  the  glory  of  the  State.  The  great  Ministers 
and  many  illustrious  generals  were  dead ;  and  Luxembourg,  the  pupil  of 
Conde  and  whom  his  soldiers  believed  to  be  invincible,  had  followed  his 
master  to  the  tomb.  Barbezieux,  the  son  and  successor  of  Louvois,  had 
sunk  beneath  the  weight  of  his  duties  during  the  last  war,  and  had  died 
in  his  turn  ;  whereupon  Madame  de  Maintenon  had  united, 
Minister  of  War   jn  1701,  the  Ministry  of  Finance  with  that  of  War  in  the 

and  of  Finance,  * 

1701.  hands  of  Chamillart,  her  creature,  a  man  ot  very  moderate 

ability,  who  owed  his  fortune  to  the  most  frivolous  talents.  The  King, 
too  confident  in  his  own  intelligence  and  strength,  pretended  to  direct  his 
Ministers,  and  to  keep  the  reins  of  Government  strictly  in  his  own  hands. 
Together  with  Chamillart  he  directed  the  military  operations  from 
Madame  de  Maintenon's  cabinet,  and  thus  made  his  generals  miss  fortunate 
opportunities  more  than  ever. 


1683-1715.]  CAMPAIGN  IN  PIEDMONT.  95 

Chamillart,  unknown  to  the  armies,  which  he  had  never  seen,  en- 
feebled the  military  discipline,  so  rigidly  maintained  by  Louvois,  by 
blindly  and  prodigally  scattering  dignities  and  rewards.  A  great  number 
of  young  gentlemen  purchased  regiments  when  they  were  still  mere  boys ; 
and  the  cross  of  St.  Louis,  a  reward  devised  by  the  King  in  1693,  was  sold 
at  a  very  low  price  at  the  War  Office.  The  number  of  officers  and 
soldiers  in  the  various  corps  ceased  to  be  up  to  the  standard ;  the  pro- 
visions, carelessly  inspected,  ceased  to  be  of  good  quality ;  and  these 
faults,  committed  as  they  were  in  the  face  of  the  greatest  generals 
which  Europe  had  yet  opposed  to  the  fortunes  of  Louis  XIV., 
afforded  grounds  for  the  most  gloomy  anticipations.  The  King, 
however,  made  prodigious  efforts :  he  promptly  recruited  his  armies,, 
and  repaired  the  losses  suffered  by  his  navy;  whilst  many  illus- 
trious commanders,  such  as  Catinat,  Villars,  Berwick,  and  Vendome, 
showed  themselves  to  be  worthy  successors  of  Turenne,  Conde,  and 
Luxembourg.  This  disastrous  war,  commenced  in  Italy,  speedily  ex- 
tended itself  to  the  two  Continents,  to  the  isles,  and  to  every  point, 
in  fact,  at  which  the  French  and  Spaniards  had  establishments.  It 
lasted  eleven  years,  with  continual  alternations  of  successes  and  re- 
verses. 

Hostilities  first  commenced  in  Lombardy,  where  Prince  Eugene  com- 
manded the  Imperial  army  of  forty  thousand  men.     The    „  „  , 

r  J  J  Unfortunate 

Duke  of  Savoy,  generalissimo  of  the  French  troops,  was  JjJJjSEJ™1 
opposed  to  him,  and  had  as  his  seconds  in  command  the  1701# 
illustrious  Catinat  and  Villeroi,  the  latter  of  whom  was  a  courtier  rather 
than  a  general,  and  a  favourite  of  Louis  XIV.  The  defeat  of  the  French 
at  Chiari,  on  the  Oglio,  was  the  first  event  of  this  war,  and  was  caused  by 
the  imprudence  of  Villeroi,  who  rashly  gave  orders  for  the  attack  of 
impregnable  intrenchments,  when  success  itself  could  have  had  no 
decidedly  advantageous  results.  Catinat  paused  until  the  order  for  the 
attack  had  been  three  times  repeated ;  and  then  he  said  to  the  officers 
under  his  command:  "Let  us  go,  gentlemen!  we  must  obey."  The 
troops  rushed  to  the  intrenchments,  and  a  multitude  of  men  perished 
uselessly  in  this  rash  attack.  Catinat  was  wounded ;  but  seeing  that  the 
soldiers  were  disheartened,  and  Villeroi  thoroughly  discouraged,  he 
directed  a  retreat,  and  led  the  French  across  the  Adda.  Winter  sepa- 
rated the  two  armies. 


96  VTCTOEIES  AND  EEVEESES  OF  THE  FEENCH.    [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

In  the  following  year,  Eugene  surprised  Cremona,  where  Villeroi, 
Surprise  of  Cre-  commander-in-chief,  was  made  prisoner.  The  French 
monaby  Eugene.  Speedily  retook  this  city ;  and  the  King  appointed  Vendome, 
who  was  adored  by  the  soldiers,  to  the  command  of  the  army.  Vendome 
victory  of  Ven-  reanimated  the  courage  of  his  troops,  and  signalized 
dome  at  Luzara.   hig  arrivai  am0ngst  them  by  the  victory  of  Luzara. 

A  formidable  enemy  for  France  now  arose  in  England  in  the  person 
of  Churchill,  Duke  of  Marlborough,  the  favourite  of  Queen  Anne. 
William  III.  had  died  at  the  commencement  of  the  year ;  and  Anne,  his 
sister-in-law,  second  daughter  of  James  II.,  and  wife  of  the  Prince  of 
Denmark,  had  been  acknowledged  as  Queen  of  England.  Marlborough 
ruled  her,  but  less  by  the  superiority  of  his  talents  than  by  the 
ascendancy  acquired  over  the  Queen  by  his  Duchess.  France  had  no 
more  terrible  enemy.  In  the  campaign  of  1702,  he  vanquished  in 
Flanders  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  heir -presumptive  to  the  Crown,  and 
Marshal  Boufflers,  and  freed  the  course  of  the  Meuse  from  the  occupation 
Eeversesofthe  °^  Spanish  troops.  In  the  same  year,  the  French  and 
F[anders"ri702-n  Spanish  fleets  were  defeated  in  the  port  of  Vigo,  in  Galicia, 
1  by  Admiral  Rooke  and  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  who  seized 

the  rich  galleons  of  Havana.  Villars,  however,  who  commanded  as  a 
lieutenant-general  a  corps  in  Alsatia,  partly  counterbalanced  in  Germany 
these  reverses.  The  Prince  of  Baden,  at  the  head  of  the  Imperial  army, 
took  Landau,  and  made  successful  progress.  He  had  the  advantage  of 
numbers,  and  had  already  penetrated  the  mountains  of  Brisgau,  which  are 
contiguous  to  the  Black  Forest.  This  immense  forest  separated  the 
Imperial  troops  from  the  French.  Catinat  commanded  in  Strasbourg, 
but  dared  not  advance  to  encounter  the  Prince  of  Baden,  since  in  the 
midst  of  so  many  disadvantageous  circumstances  a  failure  of  success 
might  have  decided  the  campaign,  and  have  opened  Alsatia  to  the 
enemy. 

Villars  hazarded  that  which  Catinat  had  not  dared  to  do,  and  march- 
victories  of  mS  against  the  Imperialists  with  inferior  forces,  fought  the 
velars.  battle  of  Friedlingen.  Skilful  and  rapid  manoeuvres  made  the 
Prince  of  Baden  abandon  the  defence  of  the  Rhine ;  and  he  fell  back 
upon  the  mountains  in  his  rear.  The  French  rapidly  crossed  the  stream ; 
their  infantry  scaled  the  heights,  and  drove  the  Germans  into  the  plain. 
The  battle  was  already  gained,  when  a  voice  cried  out,  "We  are  cut  off!" 


1683-1715.]  DEFEAT  OF  TALLAED.  97 

and  the  French  troops,  hearing  it,  took  to  flight.  Villars  ran  through  the 
ranks  exclaiming,  "  The  victory  is  ours!  Vive  le  Eoi!"  and  succeeded  at 
length  in  rallying  the  victors.  A  gallant  cavalry  charge  completed  the 
victory ;  and  Villars  was  saluted  by  his  soldiers  as  Marshal  of  France  on 
the  field  of  battle.  The  King  awarded  him  this  high  recompense,  which 
Villars  justified  anew  by  the  victory  of  Donawerth,  which  he  gained  over 
the  Imperialists  in  the  plains  of  Hochstett,  in  concert  with  the  Elector  of 
Bavaria.  Tallard  was  almost  at  the  same  time  victorious  at  Spirbach ; 
and  the  road  to  Vienna  appeared  open  to  the  French,  but  there  their 
successes  ceased. 

The  Duke  of  Savoy  abandoned  France,  and  supported  against  Philip  V. 
and  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  his  two  sons-in-law,  the  cause  of  the  Emperor. 
Villars  seemed  to  be,  on  account  of  his  genius,  the  fittest  man  to  be  at 
the  head  of  the  armies,  but  the  want  of  concord  between  him  and  the 
Elector  of  Bavaria,  whose  troops  were  united  with  his  own,  occasioned 
his  recall.  The  Count  de  Marsin  succeeded  him,  and  Villars  was  sent  to 
put  down  the  Protestants  who  had  fled  to  the  Cevennes,  and  who  had  been 
driven  to  revolt  by  despair.  Portugal  then  broke  its  alliance  with  France 
for  the  purpose  of  forming  one  with  England,  and  from  this  period  dates 
the  famous  treaty  of  commerce  entered  into  between  the  two  nations,  by 
which  the  wines  of  the  one  and  the  wool  of  the  other  were  declared  to 
be  freely  exchangeable.  The  many  reverses  France  had  now  suffered 
were  speedily  followed  by  a  still  more  terrible  check.  Marshal  Tallard 
had  led  an  army  into  Germany,  and  had  effected  a  junction  with  the 
Elector  of  Bavaria  and  Count  de  Marsin.  The  three  commanders 
found  themselves  at  Hochstett,  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy's  army 
under  Eugene  and  Marlborough,  and  numbering,  as  did  their  own,  about 
eighty  thousand  men.  The  battle  between  them  took  place  almost  on  the 
anniversary  of  that  which  Villars  had  gained  at  the  same 
place  in  the  preceding  year ;  but  this  time  the  event  was  S^ochstetf181^ 
fatal  to  France.  Tallard  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  ■  °4" 
and  remained  their  prisoner.  The  Elector  and  Count  de  Marsin 
immediately  ordered  a  retreat,  carelessly  leaving  behind  them  in 
the  village  of  Blenheim  a  considerable  body  of  infantry  and  four 
regiments  of  cavalry,  who  were  compelled  to  lay  down  their  arms. 
The  retreat  soon  became  a  frightful  rout.  This  unfortunate  battle 
cost    the    French    fifty   thousand    men    and    a    hundred    leagues    of 

VOL.   II.  H 


OS  THE  CAMISABDS.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

country.      The  enemy  advanced  into  Alsatia,  and  took  Traerbach  and 
Landau. 

The  frontiers  had  been  crossed  by  the  enemy,  and  every  day  the  war 
of  the  Cevennes  became  more  formidable.      The  Calvinist 

~W&t  of  the 

Camisards,  mountaineers    had    formed    themselves  into  regular  regi- 

1 709—1 704 

ments,  under  the  name  of  Camisards.  Louis  XIV.  so  far 
bent  his  pride  as  to  treat,  as  one  power  treats  with  another,  with  their 
leaders  just  escaped  from  the  scaffold,  and  one  of  them  named  Cavalier, 
celebrated  for  his  invincible  courage,  who  had  formerly  been  a  butcher's 
boy,  received  from  the  King  a  pension  and  a  colonel's  commission. 
Villars  arranged  this  necessary  pacification. 

Spain  lost  at  this  period  the  important  fortress  of  Gibraltar,  which  the 
English  seized,  and  which  has  ever  since  remained  in  their  possession. 
Immediately  after  the  capture  of  this  place,  the  Anglo-Dutch  fleet,  now 
mistress  of  the  sea,  attacked,  within  sight  of  Malaga,  the  Count  of  Toulouse, 
a  natural  son  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  admiral  of  the  kingdom, 
Malaga,  1705-       who  was  in  command  of  fifty  vessels  of  the  line,  and  twenty- 
four  galleys.  This  battle  was  a  drawn  one  ;  but  in  the  follow- 
ing year  the  French  fleet  sent  under  Marshal  Tesse  to  retake  Gibraltar 
vifas  destroyed  by  the  English  and  by  tempests.      This  was  the  end  of  the 
naval  power  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  in  spite  of  the  exploits  of  some  valiant 
captains,  amongst  whom  Duguay-Trouin  was  the  most  illustrious,  the 
French  navy  fell  back  into  almost  as  bad  a  state  as  that  from  which  he 
had  rescued  it. 

In  the  following  year,  the  English,  led  by  Peterborough,  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  men  that  Great  Britain  has  ever  produced,  landed  in 
Catalonia,  and  in  concert  with  the  Prince  of  Darmstadt,  attacked  Barcelona. 
The  capitulation  of  this  place  was  marked  by  an  unheard-of  circumstance. 
Whilst  the  Governor  was  negotiating  at  the  gates  with  Peterborough,  a 
cry  was  heard  in  the  town,  "  You  are  betraying  us,  and  whilst  we  are 
capitulating  the  English  are  murdering  us !" — "  No !"  replied  Peter- 
borough, "they  must  be  the  Germans  of  the  Prince  of  Darmstadt.  Let  me 
enter  with  my  English,  and  I  will  return  to  treat  with  you."  The  truth- 
ful accent  with  which  Peterborough  spoke,  convinced  the  Governor  of  his 
sincerity,  and  he  opened  the  gates  to  the  English,  who  drove  the  Germans 
from  the  town.  When  this  had  been  accomplished,  Peterborough, 
already  master  of  the  place,  quietly  returned  to  sign  the  capitulation. 


1683-1715.]  MAELBOEOTTGH  VICTOBIOTTS.  99 

The  Archduke    Charles  was    proclaimed  King  of  Spain  in  Barcelona 

Vendome,   in   Piedmont,  victorious  over  Eugene    at   the 

bridge  of  Cassano  on  the    Adda,    alone    interrupted  the   victory  of  Ven- 

0  dome  at  Cassano, 

torrent  of  misfortune  which  now  swept  over  Louis  XIV.    i?05- 
and  Philip  V. 

The  year  1706  was  still  more  fatal  to  these  two  monarchs,  although 
the  campaign  opened  in  the  North  and  South  under  the  most  favourable 
auspices.  Vendome  having  gained,  in  the  absence  of  Eugene,  the  victory 
of  Calcinato  over  the  Imperials,  marched  upon  Turin,  the  only  important 
place  which  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  Villars  drove 
before  him  the  Duke  of  Baden  as  far  as  the  German  frontier,  and  Villeroi 
in  Flanders,  at  the  head  of  eighty  thousand  men,  nattered  himself  that  he 
would  be  able  to  wipe  out  the  memory  of  his  former  reverses ;  but  unfortu- 
nately these  reverses  had  not  diminished  his  self-confidence, 
and  his  opponent  was  Marlborough.  Villeroi  had  en-  roi  at  Eamilies, 
camped  his  army  near  the  Mehaine,  at  Eamilies,  in  an  unfa- 
vourable position,  and  was  resolved  to  risk  a  battle  in  spite  of  the  re- 
monstrances of  his  generals.  The  manner  in  which  he  posted  his  troops 
was  fatal,  for  he  placed  in  his  centre  the  raw  and  ill  disciplined  troops,  and 
posted  his  left  behind  an  impassable  morass.  Marlborough  perceived  this 
error,  and  immediately  carried  his  right,  which  was  in  no  danger  of  being 
attacked,  to  Eamilies,  to  overwhelm  the  centre  of  the  French  army  with 
superior  forces.  Lieutenant-General  Gassion  entreated  Villeroi  to 
change  his  order  of  battle  ;  but  the  latter  obstinately  refused,  and  Marl- 
borough speedily  forced  his  lines.  The  loss  on  the  side  of  the  French 
was  frightful;  twenty  thousand  were  slain  or  taken  prisoners.  The 
whole  of  Spanish  Flanders  was  lost;  Marlborough  entered  Brussels 
in  triumph,  and  Menin  surrendered.  "  Marshal,"  said  Louis  XIV.,  to 
the  vanquished  Marshal,  "  at  our  age  we  cannot  expect  to  be  fortunate." 
The  King  now  transferred  Vendome  from  Italy  to  Flanders,  as  the  only 
man  capable  of  maintaining  an  equal  struggle  with  Marlborough,  and 
this  measure,  by  depriving  the  army  of  the  South  of  a  good  general,  was 
the  cause  of  a  new  and  terrible  disaster.  Eugene  had  already  crossed 
the  Po,  in  spite  of  the  French  army  which  closed  against  him  the  road  to 
Turin,  and  he  marched  to  the  assistance  of  this  place  which  La  Feuillade 
was  besieging  with  a  considerable  body  of  troops  and  ample  artillery. 
Eugene  effected  at  Asti  his  junction  with  the  Duke  of  Savoy.      Marshal 

H  2 


100  EEENCH  EEVEESES.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

Marsin  had  succeeded  Vendome  in  the  command  of  the  army,  with  which 
was  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  and  being  unable  to  check  the  progress  of 
Eugene,  had  joined  La  Feuillade  before  Turin.  The  opinion  of  the 
generals  was,  that  it  would  be  advisable  to  march  to  meet  the  enemy ;  but 
the  Marshal  having  shown  an  order  to  the  contrary,  drawn  up  by 
Chamillart,  and  signed  by  the  King,  it  was  necessary  to  await  the  attack 
of  the  Imperialists  in  lines  which  were  difficult  to  defend.  Eugene 
assumed  the  offensive,  threw  himself  upon  the  French  entrenchments,  and 
Eontofthe  carried   them.     The   rout  became   general;  the   Duke  of 

Turinhi706Cre  Orleans  was  wounded ;  Marshal  Marsin  was  killed ;  sixty 
thousand  French  troops  were  dispersed ;  and  the  military 
chest,  together  with  a  hundred  and  forty  pieces  of  cannon,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy.  The  Milanese  territory,  Mantua,  and  consequently 
the  kingdom  of  Naples,  were  lost  for  Philip  V.  Eugene  marched  unopposed 
upon  France  ;  whilst  Lord  Galloway  took  possession  of  Madrid,  where  he 
proclaimed  the  Archduke. 

The  Emperor  Leopold  had  died  in  the  preceding  year ;  but  his  son 
and  successor,  Joseph  I.,  carried  on  the  war  with  vigour.  Proud, 
ambitious,  and  violent,  he  placed  of  his  own  mere  will  the  Electors  of 
Bavaria  and  Cologne  under  the  ban  of  the  Empire,  and  deprived  them  of 
their  electorates.  France,  without  allies,  lay  open  to  the  enemy ;  when 
Villars,  reappointed  to  the  command-in-chief  of  the  army,  took  the  lines 
of  Stalhoffen,  and  advanced  into  Germany ;  but  being  unsupported,  he  was 
compelled  to  retreat  and  re-enter  France.  Marshal  Berwick,  a  natural 
^.  .       _w         son   of  James  II.,  and  one  of  the  first  tacticians  of  the 

Victory  of  Ber-  ' 

wick  at  Aimanza,   agGj  gamed  in   Spain   the  battle   of   Almanza,   which  re- 
opened to  Philip  V.  the  road  to  his  capital ;  and  Marshal 
Tesse  forced   the   Duke  of  Savoy  and  Prince  Eugene  to  raise  the  siege 
of  Toulon. 

A  fresh  effort  was  made  in  1708  by  Louis  XIV.  in  favour  of  James  II. 
He  embarked  six  thousand  men  in  eight  vessels  of  war  and  seventy  trans- 
ports. The  Chevalier  Forbin-Janson  was  in  command  of  the  fleet  and 
Matignon  of  the  troops.  The  English  were  informed  of  the  projected 
descent.  The  Chevalier  de  Forbin  arrived  off  the  Scotch  coast,  but  failed 
to  see  the  signals  which  had  been  agreed  on,  and  very  skilfully  withdrew 
his  fleet  to  Dunkirk.  The  whole  expense  of  the  expedition  was  throw* 
away. 


1683-1715.]  DISTEESS  TS  EEANCE.  101 

The  army  of  Flanders,  under  the  orders  of  the  Duke  of  Vendome, 
amounting  to  a  hundred  thousand  men,  was  the  last  hope  of  France. 
Louis  XIV.  appointed  his  grandson,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  to  command 
it  jointly  with  Vendome.     An  unfortunate  misunderstand- 

t'-i-i-i  i  ti  i  -iir-  Defeat  at  Oude- 

ing  divided  the  two  generals,  and  the  result  was  the  defeat   narde.   Taking 

of  Lille,  1709. 

of  Oudenarde  and  the  capture  of  Lille,  in  spite  of  the  gal- 
lant defence  made  by  Boufflers.  The  army,  profoundly  discouraged, 
allowed  the  enemy  to  take  Ghent  and  Bruges,  and  all  its  military  posts  in 
succession.  The  road  to  Paris  was  now  unprotected,  and  a  Dutch  corps, 
advancing  as  far  as  Versailles,  took  prisoner  on  the  bridge  of  Sevres  the 
King's  master  of  the  horse,  whom  it  mistook  for  the  Dauphin. 

The  war  had  exhausted  all  the  resources  of  France.  Credit  was  de- 
stroyed; the  public  debt  amounted  to  two  milliards;  there  were  five 
hundred  millions  of  billets  e'chus,  the  annual  expenses  re-  stress  in 
quiring  two  hundred,  and  the  revenue  only  bringing  in  a  rance»  '  • 
hundred  and  twenty.  Desmarets,  the  successor  of  Chamillart  as  Comp- 
troller-General, in  vain  had  recourse  to  anticipations  of  revenue,  to  loans, 
to  tontines,  and  to  an  income-tax  of  ten  per  cent.,  to  supply  the  immense 
deficit  in  the  revenue.  Certain  merchants  brought  from  Peru  thirty 
millions,  which  they  lent  to  the  King  at  ten  per  cent.,  but  the  assistance 
was  of  no  avail;  and  the  severe  winter  of  1709  carried  the  general 
misery  to  its  greatest  depth.  Louis  XIV.  and  the  great  nobles  sent  their 
plate  to  the  mint.  Many  illustrious  families  at  Versailles  eat  nothing 
but  oaten  bread,  the  example  being  set  them  by  Madame  de  Maintenon. 
The  people  in  many  provinces  perished  of  famine  ;  revolts  broke  out  in 
every  direction ;  payment  of  the  taxes  was  refused ;  bands  ot  peasants 
took  the  town  of  Calais  by  assault ;  and  a  great  number  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Perigord  and  Quercy,  renouncing  all  allegiance  to  the  Government, 
which  taxed  even  marriages  and  baptisms,  fell  back  into  a  state  of  nature, 
marrying  without  formalities  and  baptizing  their  children  themselves. 
Louis  XIV.  sent  to  propose  peace  to  the  Dutch,  whom  he  had  formerly 
so  cruelly  humiliated,  but  his  envoy,  the  President  Rouille,  was  received 
in  Holland  with  haughtiness  and  contempt.  For  some  time  he  could  not 
even  obtain  an  audience,  but  at  length  it  was  intimated  that  the  King 
must  himself  force  his  grandson  to  abdicate  his  throne.  This  humiliating 
proposition  was  transmitted  to  the  King's  Council,  composed  of  the  Dauphin, 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  his  son,  the  Chancellor  Pontchar train,  the  Duke 


102  DEFEAT  OF  VILLABS.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

of  Beauvilliers,  the  Marquis  de  Torcy,  Cliamillart,  and  the  Comptroller- 
General,  Desmarets.  The  Chancellor  was  in  favour  of  peace  at  any  price ; 
the  Ministers  of  War  and  Finance  declared  that  they  were  without 
resources,  and  Beauvilliers  drew  tears  from  the  eyes  of  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy  by  describing  to  him  the  miseries  suffered  by  the  people  at 
large. 

Torcy,  an  able  negotiator,  offered  to  share  the  painful  task  entrusted 
to  the  President  Rouille,  and  set  out  for  Holland,  where  Heinsius  was  the 
Grand-Pensioner.  Formerly  Minister  to  William  in  France,  Heinsius 
had  been  insulted  more  than  once,  and  had  been  threatened  with  the 
Bastille  by  Louvois.  He  had  not  forgotten  it.  Prince  Eugene  and 
Marlborough,  who  were  only  powerful  in  time  of  war,  formed,  with 
Heinsius,  a  triumvirate  leagued  together  to  continue  it..  They  rejected 
the  propositions  of  Louis  XIV.,  who  offered  to  abandon  the  Monarchy  of 
Spain,  and  to  grant  to  the  Dutch  a  barrier  which  should  separate  them 
from  France  ;  and  demanded  that  Louis  XIV.  should  give  up  Alsatia  and 
a  part  of  Flanders,  and  insisted  that  he  should  assist  them  against  his 
grandson.  The  President  Rouille  was  ordered  to  convey  this  ultimatum  to 
Louis  XIV.,  and  to  quit  Holland  within  four-and-twenty  hours.  "  Since 
I  must  be  at  war,"  said  the  old  Monarch,  "  I  would  rather  that  it  were 
with  my  enemies  than  with  my  children."  By  his  orders  the  extravagant 
demands  of  the  enemy  were  published  throughout  the  kingdom ;  where- 
upon indignation  aroused  patriotism,  and  France  redoubled  its  efforts ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  Villars  lost  in  Flanders,  against  Eugene  and 
Marlborough  united,  the  sanguinary  battle  of  Malplaquet 

Defeat  of  Villars 

at  Malplaquet,  (1710),  although  the  enemy's  loss  was  twenty  thousand  men 
and  his  own  only  eight  thousand.  The  result  was  that 
many  strong  places  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  allies ;  whilst,  in  Spain,  the 
defeat  of  Saragossa  compelled  Philip  a  second  time  to  fly  from  his  capital 
and  to  traverse  his  kingdom  as  a  fugitive. 

Louis  humbled  himself  yet  again.  He  sent  as  his  envoys  into  Holland, 
the  Abbe  de  Polignac,  one  of  the  cleverest  men  of  the  age,  and  Marshal 
d'Uxelles,  and  offered  through  them  to  the  Congress  of  Gertruydenberg, 
to  refrain  from  affording  any  assistance  to  his  grandson,  to  give  up  Stras- 
bourg and  Brisach,  to  renounce  the  sovereignty  of  Alsace,  to  raze  all  the 
fortresses  from  Basle  to  Philisbourg,  to  fill  up  the  port  of  Dunkirk, 
and  to  allow  Holland  to  possess  Lille,  Tournay,  Ypres,  and  many  other 


1683-1715.]  CONQUESTS  OF  EUGENE.  103 

places  in  Flanders.  He  even  humbled  himself  so  much  as  to  offer 
a  million  a  month  to  assist  the  allies  to  dethrone  his  grandson.  But 
all  was  in  vain.  They  made  it  an  ultimatum  that  he  should  himself  en- 
gage to  drive  his  grandson  from  Spain. 

At  this  juncture  unexpected  events  occurred  to  save  France.  Vendome 
reappeared  in  Spain,  where  his  name  effected  prodigies.  His  victory  of 
Villaviciosa  destroyed  the  army  of  the  Archduke  Charles,  and  saved  the 
crown  of  Philip  V.  It  was  after  this  battle  that  Vendome  said  to  Philip, 
worn  out  with  fatigue  and  manifesting  every  desire  to 
sleep,  "Sire,  I  will  make  you  the  most  glorious  bed  on   ddme at vniavi- 

.  .  ,  ciosa,  1711. 

which  a  King  has  ever  slept ;"  and  beneath  the  shade  of  a 

tree  he  prepared  for  him  a  couch  composed  of  flags  taken   from  the 

enemy. 

A  revolution  which  took  place  in  the  English  Court  was  even  more 
serviceable  to  France.  The  Duchess  of  Marlborough  offended  Queen 
Anne,  and  her  disgrace  led  to  that  of  her  husband,  the  leader  of  the 
Whigs,*  then  all-powerful.  The  Tories  came  into  power,  and  for  the  pur- 
pose of  completing  the  ruin  of  Marlborough,  they  inclined  the  Queen 
towards  peace. 

The  death  of  the  Emperor  Joseph  assisted  them  in  their  designs.  The 
Archduke  Charles,  his  brother,  the  competitor  of  Philip  V.,  obtained  the 
Imperial  Crown,  and  incurred  in  his  turn  the  reproach  oi  aspiring  to 
universal  monarchy.  From  this  time  England  was  no  longer  interested 
in  supporting  his  claims  to  the  throne  of  Spain,  and  agreed  to  a  truce 
with  France.  Marlborough  was  recalled,  and  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  his 
successor,  received  orders  to  remain  neutral.  At  the  same  time, 
Duguay-Trouin,  who  was  at  the  head  of  a  small  fleet,  but  who  had  no 
commission  in  the  navy,  captured  Rio  Janeiro,  the  capital  of 

J  ,  .  r  Taking  of  Kio- 

Brazil.     Eugene,  however,  continued  his  career  of  conquest   Janeiro  by 

°         '  ?  ^  Duguay-Trouin. 

in    Flanders.      Although   deprived   of  the  support  of  the 
English,  he  was  at  the  head  of  an  army  which  exceeded  that  of  the 
French   by  twenty  thousand   men,  and   was  master    of  Bouchain   and 
Quesnoy ;    and   between  him  and  Paris   there  was  no    strong  fortress. 

*  English  politicians  were  divided  into  two  parties — that  of  the  Whigs  and  that  of 
the  Tories.  The  Whigs  were  less  devoted  than  the  Tories  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
prerogatives  of  the  Crown  and  the  privileges  of  the  Anglican  Church,  and  took  the 
chief  part  in  the  Kevolution  of  1688. 


104  BATTLE  OP  DENAIN.  [Book  III.  CHAP.  V. 

Louis  saw  his  capital  threatened,  and  the  more  completely  to  embarrass 
him,  domestic  troubles  were  added  to  those  which  afflicted  his  kingdom, 
for  in  the  space  of  a  year  he  lost  the  Dauphin,  his  son,  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Burgundy,  and  their  eldest  son.  The  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  the  pupil  of  Fenelon,  was  a  calamity  for  France.  Ven- 
dome  died  in  Spain.  The  Court  and  the  kingdom  were  paralysed 
with  fear ;  and  it  was  then  that  Louis  XIV.,  who  was  advised  to  retire 
behind  the  Loire,  spoke  of  putting  himself  at  the  head  of  his  nobility, 
leading  them  against  the  enemy  in  person,  in  spite  of  his  seventy- 
four  years,  and  perishing  in  their  midst.  Villars  was  the  saviour  of  France. 

This  general  maintained  the  campaign  in  Flanders  at  the  head  of  a 
hundred  and  forty  battalions  against  Eugene,  who  commanded  a  hundred 
and  sixty,  and  who,  after  having  taken  possession  of  Quesnoy,  besieged 
Landrecies.  The  Scheldt,  the  Sambre,  and  the  Seille  covered  Eugene's 
army,  and  he  had,  moreover,  an  entrenched  camp  at  Denain,  on  the 
Scheldt.  The  Duke  of  Albemarle,  the  Dutch  general,  guarded  the  lines 
which  joined  the  camp  to  the  stream.  Villars  determined  to  attack  them, 
with  the  object  of  afterwards  forcing  the  camp  of  Denain.  He  masked 
this  project  by  pretended  attacks  upon  the  Sambre,  whilst  the  rest  of  his 
army  crossed  the  Scheldt  between  Bouchain  and  Denain,  and  rapidly  car- 
ried the  lines  of  Albemarle.  He  then  immediately  advanced  against  the 
formidable  entrenchments  at  Denain,  and  was  hurrying  up  towards  them 
when  the  head  of  Prince  Eugene's  columns  was  seen  debouching  on  the 
other  bank  of  the  Scheldt.  Time  pressed,  and  Villars  overhearing  a 
voice  demanding  fascines  with  which  to  fill  up  the  trenches  at  Denain, 
exclaimed,  "  Our  fascines  will  be  the  bodies  of  those  of  us  who  shall  first 
Victory  of  Villars  ^e  s^ruck  down  into  the  trenches — forward !"  The  French 
at  Denam,  1712.  }nfantry  advanced  under  a  terrible  fire  without  wavering, 
threw  itself  upon  the  redoubts,  and  carried  them.  Having  entered 
Denain  as  a  victor,  Villars  immediately  sent  the  Count  de  Broglio  to 
Marchiennes,  whence  the  enemy  procured  his  provisions  and  munitions  of 
war,  whilst  he  himself  pursued  the  vanquished  along  the  Scheldt.  The 
bridges  broke  down  under  the  crowds  of  fugitives ;  all  were  taken  or 
slain;  and  Eugene  himself  could  not  cross  the  stream.  Marchiennes, 
Douai,  and  Quesnoy  successively  surrendered,  and  the  frontiers  were 
secured  against  attack. 

This  great  success  hastened  the  conclusion  of  peace,  Avhich  was  signed 


1683-1715.]  PEACE  OE  BADEN.  105 

at  Utrecht  in  1713.  Its  principal  provisions  were,  that  Philip  V. 
should  be  acknowledged  as  King  of  Spain,  but  that  his  peaCe  of  Utrecht 
monarchy  should  be  dismembered.  Sicily  was  given  to  the  -  ' 
Duke  of  Savoy,  with  the  title  of  King.  The  English  obtained  Minorca 
and  Gibraltar ;  France  also  ceding  to  them  Hudson's  Bay,  New- 
foundland, and  St.  Christopher.  Louis  XIV.  guaranteed  the  succession 
to  the  English  throne  to  the  Protestant  line,  promised  to  demolish  the 
port  of  Dunkirk,  the  construction  of  which  had  cost  him  immense 
sums ;  abandoned  a  portion  of  his  conquests  in  the  Low  Countries ;  and 
recovered  Lille,  Aire,  Bethune,  and  Saint- Venant.  The  Elector  of 
Brandenbourg  was  recognised  as  King  of  Prussia,  and  obtained  the  upper 
Guelderland,  the  principality  of  Neufchatel,  and  many  other  districts- 
The  Emperor  Charles  VI.  refused  at  first  to  join  in  this  peace;  but 
Villars  forced  him  to  do  so  by  crossing  the  Ehine ;  whilst  Eugene 
entrenched  himself  in  the  lines  of  Etlingen,  where  he  waited  to  be 
attacked.  A  forced  march  of  sixteen  leagues  in  twenty  hours  beyond 
the  stream  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  French  Spire,  Worms ;  and 
all  the  ferries  of  the  Rhine  above  Mayence,  Landau,  and  Fribourg  were 
invested,  and  were  also  taken  by  our  troops.  Eugene,  however,  had 
already  received  orders  to  negotiate,  and  a  preliminary  treaty  was 
signed  between  Villars  and  himself  at  Rastadt ;  peace  being  definitively 
concluded  on  the  7th  September  following  at  Baden,  between  France,  the 
Emperor,  and  the  Empire.  By  this  peace  the  Emperor  Peace  of  Baden 
obtained  the  Low  Countries,  the  Milanese,  and  the  kingdom  714* 
of  Naples,  dismembered  from  the  monarchy  of  Spain  ;  and  also  recovered 
Fribourg  and  all  the  forts  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine.  France  re- 
tained Landau  and  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  The  Elector  oi  Bavaria 
was  re-established  in  his  rights  and  dignities.  All  the  sovereign  Princes 
of  the  Empire  recovered  their  States.  Holland  obtained,  by  a  third  and 
final  treaty,  which  was  signed  in  1715,  the  right  of  garrisoning  many 
places  in  the  Low  Countries  which  France  restored  to  it ;  but  it  retained 
the  principality  of  Orange,  with  respect  to  which  the  House  of  Nassau 
had  ceded  its  rights  to  that  of  Brandenbourg.  Such  were  the  results  of 
this  disastrous  war  of  twelve  years'  duration.  France  preserved  its 
frontiers  by  the  peace  of  Utrecht ;  but  its  immense  sacrifices  had  opened 
an  abyss  in  which  the  Monarchy  was  finally  engulfed. 

The  reverses  he  had  suffered  in  the  war,  and  the  distress  suffered  by 


106  POET  EOTAL  SUPPRESSED.    [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V, 

his  people,  did  not  make  Louis  XIY.  discontinue  his  religious  persecu- 
tions. Many  of  those  persons  who  have  been  termed  Jansenists  refused 
to  admit  that  the  five  propositions  attributed  to  Jansenius,  and  condemned 
by  the  Pope,  were  to  be  found  in  the  works  of  that  bishop ;  and  of  this 
number  were  the  pious  hermits  ot  Port  Eoyal,  and  the  religious  women 
of  that  celebrated  house.  The  King,  irritated  at  finding  his  own  opinion 
on  this  point  controverted,  and  yielding  to  the  instigations  of  his  con- 
fessor, Father  La  Chaise,  and  the  influence  of  Madame  de  Maintenon,  drove 
the  peaceable  inhabitants  of  Port  Royal  from  their  retreat,  razed  their 
dwelling  from  its  foundations,  and  had  the  plough  drawn  over  its  site. 
KuinofPort  Fenelon,  the  illustrious  author  of  "  Telemachus,"  was 
oy  ' }   9'  looked  upon  by  him  with  no  favour.     Bossuet  reproached 

him  with  sharing  the  errors  of  Madame  Guyon,  whose  mystical  ideas  had 
given  birth  to  the  sect  of  the  Quietists,  and  had  condemned  at  Rome  his 
work  entitled  "  Maxims  of  the  Saints."  Fenelon  submitted  himself  to  the 
decision  of  the  Pope,  and  from  thenceforth  lived  in  disgrace  with  the 
King  in  his  diocese  of  Cambrai.  The  reign  of  Louis  died  out  in 
the  midst  of  theological  controversies.  Father  Quesnel  having  pub- 
lished a  book  of  moral  reflections  on  the  New  Testament,  his  work 
had  excited  the  wrath  and  hatred  of  Father  Tellier,  a  furious  theologian, 
who,  since  the  death  of  Father  La  Chaise,  ruled  the  conscience  of 
Louis  XIV.  At  his  instigation  the  King  demanded  of  Pope  Clement  the 
condemnation  of  Quesnel,  and  one  hundred  and  one  of  his  propositions 
were  condemned  in  1713  by  the  famous  bull  Unigenitus.  A  hundred 
and  ten  bishops,  in  obedience  to  the  King,  accepted  this  bull,  but  others 
resisted  it,  and  amongst  them  Cardinal  Noailles.  Louis  in  vain  combated 
their  resistance  by  "  lettres  de  Cachet,"  and  other  despotic  acts.  These 
wretched  disputes,  excited  by  himself,  continued  beyond  his  own  reign, 
and  disturbed  that  of  his  successor. 

Whilst  the  King  was  thus  displaying  his  intolerant  zeal  in  behalf  of 
religion,  he  was  setting,  for  the  sake  of  his  family,  his  own  personal  will 
above  the  laws  of  the  kingdom,  and  every  moral  consideration.  He  had 
already  married  several  of  his  natural  children  to  princes  and  princesses 
of  his  house,  and,  amongst  others,  Mademoiselle  de  Blois  to  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  his  nephew,  then  Duke  de  Chartres.  His  legitimated  sons, 
the  Duke  du  Maine  and  the  Count  de  Toulouse,  both  by  Madame  de 
Montespan,  and  the  children  of  a  double  adultery,  had  already,  by  his 


1683-1715.]  WILL  OP  LOUIS  XIY.  107 

command,  been  endowed  with  precedence  over  all  the  first  nobles  of  his 
kingdom ;  and  he  went  yet  further,  for  by  an  edict  issued  in  1714,  he 
gave  to  them  and  their  descendants  a  right  of  succession  to  the  Crown  of 
France,  in  default  of  legitimate  princes. 

The  King,  however,  was  now  growing  feebler  day  by  day.  His 
great-grandson,  who  was  to  succeed  him  on  the  throne,  was  only  five 
years  of  age,  and  the  Eegency  would  devolve  upon  his  nephew,  Philip  of 
Orleans.  Anxious  with  respect  to  the  future  prospects  of  the  two  Princes 
whom  she  had  brought  up,  Madame  de  Maintenon  persuaded  wm  of  Louia 
the  King  to  make  a  will  which  limited  the  power  of  the 
Regent  by  the  establishment  of  a  Council,  of  which  the  Duke  du  Maine  and 
the  Count  de  Toulouse  were  to  be  members.  Louis  XIV.  himself  had  little 
confidence  that  obedience  would  be  paid  to  this  testament,  which  he  confided 
to  the  Parliament,  with  orders  that  it  was  not  to  be  opened  before  his  death. 

Blinded  by  pride  and  the  habit  of  enjoying  absolute  power,  Louis 
gradually  drew  near  to  the  tomb  with  a  brain  filled  with  disastrous 
projects.  Death,  as  it  approached  him,  found  him  planning  the  assembly 
of  a  National  Council  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  one  portion  of  his 
clergy  to  proscribe  the  other,  engulfing  immense  sums  in  useless  build- 
ings at  Marly,  fomenting  a  revolt  in  England,  and  attempting,  in  despite 
of  his  solemn  promise,  a  final  effort  in  favour  of  the  son  oi  James  II. 
Towards  the  end  of  his  life,  however,  renouncing  terrestrial  interests,  he 
fell  into  a  better  frame  of  mind,  and  becoming  solely  occupied  by  a  sense 
of  his  mere  humanity,  was  often  heard  to  cry,  "  When  I  was  King  I" 
With  respect  to  his  death,  which  was  remarkable  for  the  resignation  and 
majesty  he  displayed  in  the  supreme  moment,  and  which  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  great  lesson,  we  shall  here  borrow  some  details  from  an  eye- 
witness :* — u  About  the  beginning  of  August,  1715,  the  King  com- 
plained of  a  sciatica  in  the  leg,  which  was  found  to  be  an  incurable 
wound.  On  the  14th,  the  malady  declared  itself;  but  he  nevertheless 
continued  to  work  in  his  bed,  rising  from  time  to  time.  On  the  24th 
August,  he  confessed  himself  to  Father  Tellier ;  and  on  the  following  day, 
feeling  very  ill,  he  received  extreme  unction  from  Cardinal '  Eohan. 
Then,  having  had  all  the  great  officers  of  his  household  gathered  about 
him,  he  said  to  them  :  "  Gentlemen,  I  ask  your  pardon  for  the  bad 
example  I  have  given  you.  I  have  to  thank  you  for  the  manner  in 
*  "Memoirs  of  the  Duke  de  St.  Simon." 


108  DEATH  OF  LOUIS  XIV.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

which  you  have  served  me,  and  for  the  attachment  and  fidelity  yon  have 
always  displayed  towards  me.     I  am  sorry  that  I  have  not  been  able  to 
do   for   you   what   I   should   have   wished;    but    unfortunate    circum- 
stances have  prevented  me.     I  beg  of  you  to  serve  my  grandson  with 
the  same  zeal  and  the  same  fidelity  with  which  you  have  served  myself. 
He  is  a  child  who  will  probably  have  to  endure  many  troubles ;  may  the 
kindness  you  will  show  him  be  an  example  followed  by  the  rest  of  the 
kingdom.     Obey  the  orders  of  my  nephew ;    it  is  he  who  will  have  to 
govern  the  kingdom  ;  and  I  trust  that  he  will  govern  it  well.  I  hope  that 
each  of  you  will  contribute,  as  far  as  in  him  lies,  to  a  general  unanimity 
of  purpose,  and  that  if  any  one  among  you  should  fall  away  from  his 
duty,  the  others  will  do  all  in  their  power  to  bring  him  back  to  it.     I 
feel  that  I  am  yielding  to  my 'feelings,  and  that  I  am  too  much  exciting 
yours.     I   beg  your  pardon.      Farewell,  gentlemen !    I  shall  hope  that 
you  will  sometimes  think  of  me."     He  then  received  the  Princes  and 
Princesses  of  the   blood,   and  had  a  private   interview   with   Marshal 
Villeroi,  whom  he  had  appointed  governor  of  the  young  Dauphin,  with 
the  Duke  du  Maine,  the  Count  de  Toulouse,  and  finally,  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  the  future  Eegent.     He  had  sent  for  the  Dauphin  some  time 
previously,  and  had  said  to  him :  "  My  child,  you  are  going  to  be  a 
great  King  ;  do  not  imitate  me  in  my  fondness  for  erecting  vast  palaces 
and  for  war;    endeavour,  on  the  contrary,  to  be  at  peace  with  your 
neighbours.     Render  to  God  that  which  is  due  to  Him ;    acknowledge 
how  much  you  owe  to  Him,  and  incline  your  subjects  to  honour  Him. 
■Follow   good   advice,   and   endeavour   to  assuage  the  miseries  of  your 
people — which  I,  unfortunately,  have  been  unable  to  do.     My  dear  child, 
I  give  you  my  benediction  with  all  my  heart."     When  the  little  child 
had  been  removed  from  the  Monarch's  bed,  the  latter  asked  for  him 
again,   embraced  him  once  more,  and,  raising  his  hands  to  heaven,  once 
more  blessed  him.     The  King  still  languished  some  days,  and  calmly 
contemplated  his  approaching  end.     He  said  to  his  attendants,  "  Why  do 
you  weep  ?    Did  you  think  that  I  was  immortal  ?"    And  to  Madame  de 
Maintenon :   "I  should  have  thought  that  it  was  a  more  difficult  thing  to 
die.     Before  I  depart,  I  have  no  restitution  to  make  to  any  individual ; 
but  for  all  that  I  owe  to  the  kingdom  I  hope  for  the  mercy  of  God." 
Death  of  Louis      ^e  ^e^  at' Versailles  on  the  1st  September,  1715,  in  his 
iv.,  1715.  seventy-seventh  year,  after  a  reign — the  longest  recorded 


1683-1715.]  EEELECTIONS  ON  HIS  EEICKff.  109 

in  history — of  seventy-two.  Madame  de  Maintenon,  eighty-two  years  of 
age,  retired  to  the  house  of  St.  Cyr,*  which  she  had  founded  for  the 
education  of  three  hundred  daughters  of  the  nobility  of  slender  fortune, 
and  she  remained  there  till  her  death. *f 

Much  more  anxious  to  inspire  fear  and  to  excite  admiration  than  to 
gain  the  affections  or  to  promote  the  happiness  of  his  sub-  _,  „  . 
jects,  Lotus  XIV.,  in  the  greater  number  of  his  enterprises,  thls  reign- 
had  only  sought  his  own  glory.  A  small  portion  only  of  the  edifice  he 
had  reared  survived  him.  He  himself  saw  during  the  second  part 
of  his  reign,  France  descend  from  the  height  to  which  he  had  raised  it 
during  the  first  part,  and  his  acts  brought  about  results  in  the  future 
directly  contrary  to  those  which  he  had  so  strenuously  striven  for.  Thus, 
being  anxious  to  confirm  the  Catholic  faith  in  his  kingdom,  he  really  in- 
flicted upon  it  a  serious  blow  by  the  violence  which  he  committed  in  its 
name,  and  by  the  favours  which  he  too  frequently  heaped  upon  hypocrites. 
Again,  he  had  endeavoured  by  enrolling  gentlemen  in  the  newly  disciplined 
regiments,  and  in  special  companies,  as  well  as  by  establishing  the  Order 
of  St.  Louis,  to  make  the  nobility  the  firmest  rampart  of  the  monarchy. 
But  he  really  injured  it  in  popular  estimation  by  the  brilliant  servitude 
which  he  imposed  on  the  great  nobles,  and  the  sale  of  ridiculous 
offices  which  gave  to  their  possessors  the  rank  of  nobility.  A  declared 
enemy  to  the  authority  of  the  Parliaments,   he  kept  them  silent  during 

*  This  celebrated  mansion  was  not  turned  into  a  military  school  till  after  the 
Eevolution. 

+  The  clandestine  union  between  Louis  XIV.  and  Madame  de  Maintenon  produced 
no  offspring.  The  Monarch  was  only  once  publicly  married,  aud  we  have  already  seen 
that  he  espoused  in  1660  Maria-Theresa,  the  daughter  of  Philip  IV.,  King  of  Spain, 
and  Elizabeth  of  France.  The  only  child  of  this  marriage  which  had  lived  was  Louis 
the  Dauphin,  who  married  a  Princess  of  the  House  of  Bavaria,  who  bore  him  Louis, 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy  (father  of  Louis  XV.),  and  two  other  children,  Philip,  Duke  of 
Anjou,  who  became  King  of  Spain,  and  Charles,  Duke  of  Berry.  Louis  XIV.  had 
numerous  bastards.  By  Mademoiselle  la  Valliere  he  had  three  children,  of  whom  the 
female,  known  by  the  name  of  Mademoiselle  de  Blois,  married  the  Prince  of  Conti. 
By  Francoise  de  Bochechouart  Mortemart,  wife  of  the  Marquis  de  Montespan,  he  had 
the  Duke  of  Maine,  the  Count  of  Toulouse,  Mademoiselle  de  Nantes,  who  married 
the  Duke  of  Bourbon-Conde*,  the  second  Mademoiselle  de  Blois,  who  married  Philip, 
Duke  of  Orleans,  Kegent  of  France.  Mademoiselle  de  Fontanges  bore  him  a  child 
which  died  in  the  cradle.  He  had  also  an  obscure  liaison  with  a  girl  whose  name  is 
not  known,  and  whom  he  married  to  a  gentleman  of  the  environs  of  Versailles,  named 
Le  Queue.  Finally,  it  was  suspected  with  much  show  of  reason,  that  a  nun  of  the 
Abbey  of  Moret  was  his  daughter. 


110  GBEAT  MEN  OF  THE  AGE.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

the  continuance  of  his  reign  ;  and  yet,  by  depositing  his  will  with  that  of 
Paris,  he  opened  to  them  the  road  by  which  they  regained  their  political 
importance.  He  expected  that  by  introducing  Spanish  etiquette  into  his 
Court,  he  would  fortify  the  Royal  authority  and  aggrandize  it  in  the  eyes 
of  the  multitude ;  but  the  contrary  was  the  result,  for  by  isolating  it 
he  enfeebled  it.  Finally,  contemptuous  as  he  was  of  the  Third  Estate,  he 
very  greatly  contributed  to  its  political  emancipation  by  the  encourage- 
ments which  he  gave  to  industry  and  to  literature.  It  was  by  these 
means  that  he  partly  displaced  the  source  of  the  wealth  and  power  of  the 
State,  by  assisting  to  create  moveable  property,  and  to  awake  public 
opinion ;  a  twofold  power  which  rapidly  raised  the  Third  Estate  to  a 
level  with  the  privileged  orders,  and  which  has  at  the  present  day  so  im- 
portant an  influence  over  the  -destinies  of  the  people. 

In  spite  of  the  egotism  which  inspired  Louis  XIV.  with  so  many  disas- 
trous resolutions,  and  notwithstanding  the  numerous  errors  of  his  reign, 
it  nevertheless  shines  with  a  lustre  which  no  other  surpasses.  This 
monarch,  a  celebrated  writer  has  said,  had  at  the  head  of  his  armies, 
Turenne,  Conde,  Luxembourg,  Catinat,  Crequi,  Boufflers,  Montesquion, 
Vendome,  and  Villars;  Chateau-Renaud,  Duquesne,  Tourville,  and 
Duguay-Trouin  commanded  his  fleets ;  Colbert,  Louvois,  and  Torcy 
were  his  ministers ;  Bossuet,  Bourdaloue  and  Massillon  were  his  preachers ; 
his  first  Parliament  was  presided  over  by  Mole  and  Lamoignon,  and  had 
Talon  and  Aguesseau  for  its  orators ;  Vauban  planned  the  defences  of  his 
fortresses;  Riquet  dug  his  canals;  Perrault  and  Mansard  reared  his 
palaces;  Puget,  Girardon,  Poussin,  Lesueur,  and  Le  Br  unadorned  them; 
Le  Nostre  laid  out  his  gardens ;  Corneille,  Racine,  Moliere,  Quinault,  La 
Fontaine,LaBruyere,  and Boileau enlightened  andamusedhim;  Montausier, 
Bossuet,  Beauvilliers,  Fenelon,  Huet,  Flechier,  and  the  Abbe  de  Fleury 
educated  his  children.  It  is  in  the  midst  of  this  brilliant  array  of  im- 
mortal genius  that  Louis  XIV.  presents  himself  to  the  notice  of  posterity.* 
So  many  advantages  were  doubtless  the  result  of  a  marvellous  concurrence 
of  circumstance  and  of  an  unheard-of  piece  of  good  fortune  which  rendered 
this  Prince  the  contemporary  of  so  many  eminent  men.  But  the  King  who 
knew  how  to  distinguish  them,  who  opened  his  palace  and  his  treasury  to 
genius  under  whatever  form  it  presented  itself,  and  whose  strong  will 

*  Abbe  Maury,  Discours  de  Becepiion  d>  VAcademie  Frangaise. 


1683-1715.]  CHARACTEB  OP  LOTJIS  XIV.  Ill 

inspired  so  many  great  things  during  sixty  years,  has  an  incontestable 
right,  if  not  to  the  love  of  France,  at  least  to  its  respect  and  its 
admiration.* 

Amongst  the  works  of  Louis  XIV.,  those  which  produced  the  results 
he  expected  oi  them,  which  survived  him  the  longest,  and  were  the  most 
useful  for  France,  almost  wholly  date  from  that  glorious  period  ot  his 
reign  in  which  Colbert  was  still  alive.  His  best  achievements  consisted 
in  his  vigorous  central  administration ;  his  legislation,  although  in  many 
respects  stained  by  barbarisms  ;  the  new  organization  he  gave  to  his  army; 
his  academical  foundations ;  his  canals ;  and  his  maritime  constructions. 
This  Monarch  established  by  himself  a  Government  which  he  alone  knew 
how  to  maintain.  Surrounded  by  great  men,  whom  he  knew  how  to 
interest  in  his  glory ;  the  protector  of  literature  and  the  sciences ;  of  the 
fine  arts  and  industry ;  long  a  fortunate  warrior,  and  magnificent  in 
his  fetes,  the  imposing  Louis  XIV.  seemed  to  have  been  born  to  be  obeyed. 
But  he  left  to  his  successors  a  burden  difficult  to  be  borne,  oi  which  he 
himself  felt  the  weight,  and  the  end  of  his  reign  was  deplorable.  His 
genius  became  feeble,  success  abandoned  his  arms,  his  treasury  became 
exhausted.  The  widow  01  Scarron  ruled  him,  a  vexatious  and  cruel 
bigotry  prevailed  in  his  councils  and  rendered  him  a  persecutor ;  a  huge 
wave  of  misery  inundated  France,  and  bore  masses  of  poverty-stricken 
wretches  to  the  very  gates  of  Versailles.  His  long  reign  resembles  a  day 
which  during  some  hours  is  brilliant  with  dazzling  light,  but  which  is  at 
length  lost  in  darkness."]" 

The  direction  given  to  the  national  morals  by  the  Court  of  Louis  XIV. 
has  been  wrongly  attributed  to  him  as  a  merit.  It  is  true  that  he  did 
much  towards  the  civilization  of  his  country  by  polishing  its  language 
and  its  manners ;  but  the  improvement  was  distinguished  rather  by  the 
elegance  of  exterior  forms  than  by  delicacy  of  sentiment.  The  writings  of 
Bruyere  and  Rochefoucauld,  of  Saint-Simon,  and  the  poets  of  the  period, 

*  A  work  of  great  interest,  entitled  "  The  Works  of  Louis  XIV.,"  was  published  for 
the  first  time  in  1806.  It  consisted  of  a  portion  of  his  correspondence  and  historical 
and  political  pieces,  some  extracted  from  his  words  and  his  writings,  and  the  others 
either  dictated  by  him  or  drawn  up  by  his  own  hand,  either  for  his  personal  use,  or  for 
the  instruction  of  the  Dauphin  and  the  King  of  Spain,  Philip  V.  This  collection  has 
been  appreciated  with  much  talent  and  intelligence  by  M.  Dreyss,  who  has  recently 
issued  a  new  edition  of  it. 

f  Joseph  Droz. 


112  BALANCE  OF  POWEB  IN  ETJKOPE.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  V. 

are  sufficient  proofs  of  this.  A  general  contempt  for  marriage ;  an  eagerness 
to  acquire  gold  at  a  time  when  almost  all  distinctions  were  to  be  purchased ; 
an  indifference  as  to  the  source  of  fortune,  however  shameful ;  a  rage  for 
gambling ;  indulgence  with  respect  to  vices ;  and  finally,  a  religious 
hypocrisy,  characterized  the  courtiers  at  the  close  of  this  reign.  These 
deplorable  examples,  rendered  still  more  dangerous  by  the  brilliant  hues 
with  which  they  were  coloured,  exercised  over  the  nation  a  most  disastrous 
influence.  These  times  were  rendered  illustrious,  however,  by  the 
brilliancy  of  high  virtues,  especially  in  those  directions  in  which  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Court  had  not  penetrated.  The  provincial  nobility,  the 
magistracy,  and  a  portion  of  the  clergy,  offered  an  example  of  purity  of 
morals,  integrity,  and  contempt  for  money.  But  it  was  in  vain  that  many 
respectable  men  resisted  the  general  torrent.  The  following  reign  aggra- 
vated the  wounds  which  had  been  opened  during  that  of  the  Great  King, 
and  the  corruption  of  the  Court  contributed  as  much  as  the  confusion  in 
the  finances  to  shake  the  monarchy  to  its  foundation. 

The  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  was  one  of  the  great  periods  of  the  system  of 
the  balance  of  power  in  Europe.  Two  States,  Prussia  and  Savoy,  attained 
in  the  course  of  it  a  double  portion  of  power.  The  first,  raised  to  the 
rank  of  a  kingdom,  was  fitted  to  counterbalance  in  the  north  of  Germany 
the  influence  exercised  by  Austria  in  the  south  of  that  country ;  and  the 
second,  augmented  by  Sicily,  was  destined  to  close  Italy  against  Austria 
and  France.  The  latter  took  possession,  under  Louis  XIV.,  of  the  part 
which  during  the  previous  period  had  been  played  by  Spain,  and  was 
long  the  dominant  power  in  Europe,  by  reason  of  its  extent,  the  strength 
of  its  government,  the  influence  of  its  civilization,  and  the  marvellous 
concourse  of  superior  intellects  which  rendered  it  illustrious. 

It  is  from  the  accession  of  William  III.  in  1688,  that  the  era  of  English 
liberty  really  dates.  Since  that  time  England  has  not  ceased  to  increase 
in  population  and  in  power.  Queen  Anne,  who  owed  all  her  glory  to  the 
celebrated  men  of  her  reign,  preceded  Louis  XIV.  by  a  few  days  to  the 
tomb,  and  the  Elector  of  Hanover  succeeded  her  by  the  name  of  George  I.* 
Russia,  which  had  been  raised  by  the  genius  of  Peter  the  Great  into  a 

*  This  Prince  was  descended  from  the  daughter  of  James  I.,  wife  of  the  Elector 
Palatine.  The  son  of  James  II.  being  excluded  from  the  throne  as  a  Catholic,  and 
his  sisters,  Mary  and  Anne,  having  left  no  children,  George  of  Hanover  was  the  next 
heir. 


1683-1715.]  STATE    OF   EUROPE    IN    1715.  113 

new  Empire,  was  firmly  rooted  in  the  north  at  the  expense  of  Sweden, 
now  deprived,  by  the  rash  wars  undertaken  by  Charles  XII.,  of  the  high 
rank  to  which  it  had  been  raised  by  Gustavus  Adolphus.  Austria 
languished  under  the  rule  of  Charles  VI.,  and  Germany  peaceably  obeyed 
its  numerous  sovereigns.  The  Spanish  monarchy,  which  had  been  de- 
prived by  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  of  many  of  its  possessions,  continued  to 
decline,  whilst  Holland,  rendered  illustrious  by  its  wars  against  Louis  XIV., 
and  sharing  with  England  the  empire  of  the  ocean,  attained  the  highest 
point  of  its  wealth  and  power.  Such  was  the  state  of  Europe  in  1715,  at 
the  death  of  Louis  XIV. 


VOL.   II. 


1H 


BOOK  IV. 

FROM    THE   ACCESSION    OF    LOUIS   XV.    TO    THE    THRONE 

TO  THE  CONVOCATION  OF  THE  STATES -GENERAL 

UNDER  LOUIS  XVI. 

Enfeeblement  of  all  the  Powers — Gambling  in  Government  Securi- 
ties— General  Corruption  of  Morals — Ruinous  Wars — Destruction 
and  Re -establishment  of  the  Parliaments — Dissolution  of  the 
Monarchy — Influence  Exercised  by  the  Philosophers. 

1715-1789. 


CHAPTER  I. 

REGENCY  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  ORLEANS  AND  MINISTRY  OF  THE  DUKE  OF 

BOURBON. 

1715-1726. 

Whilst  Louis  XIV.  was  still  living,  all  eyes  were  turned  towards  the  Duke 
of  Orleans,  his  nephew,  who,  by  his  birth  and  the  customs  of  the  kingdom, 
would  be  naturally  summoned  to  the  regency  during  the  minority  of  the 
Duke  of  Anjou.  Philip  of  Orleans,  endowed  with  military  talents,  which 
the  jealousy  of  Louis  XIV.  rarely  allowed  to  be  exercised,  distinguished 
for  his  wit,  his  agreeable  and  facile  manners,  and  his  varied  acquaintance 
with  languages  and  the  sciences,  affected  a  cynicism  with  respect  to  re- 
ligion and  morality  which  had  already  more  than  once  exposed  him  to 
odious  suspicions.  Heir  as  he  was  to  the  throne,  in  case  of  failure  of  the 
issue  of  Louis  XIV.,  public  opinion  held  him  responsible  for  the  mortality 
which  struck  down  the  Royal  family  during  the  last  years  of  the  preceding 
reign,  and  saw  an  additional  motive  for  accusing  him  in  the  then  unusual 


1715-1726.]  COUNCIL   OF  EEGENCT.  115 

chemical  studies  to  which  he  devoted  himself.  His  conduct  in  respect  to 
the  young  King  eventually  gave  the  most  decided  refutation  to  these 
calumnies.  Louis  XIV.  refused  to  believe  them,  but  being,  nevertheless, 
entirely  absorbed  by  anxiety  for  the  interests  of  his  legitimate  children, 
he  only  bestowed  upon  his  nephew,  by  his  will,  a  title,  without  any  real 
power.  He  separated  the  Eegency  from  the  tutorship  of  the  young  King, 
which,  together  with  the  command  of  the  Eoyal  household  troops,  was 
confided  to  the  Duke  du  Maine.  A  Council  of  Eegency,  formed  of 
courtiers  and  former  Ministers,  and  in  which  the  Duke  of  Orleans  was 
only  to  have  a  deliberative  voice,  was  to  exercise  the  real  sovereign 
authority. 

Whatever  egotism  there  might  be  in  the  motives  of  the  King's  fina 
resolutions,  men  of  serious  minds  and  austere  morals  could  not  but  have 
seen  with  anxiety  the  supreme  power  pass  without  control  into  the 
hands  of  a  man  who  was  regarded  with  so  much  suspicion  by  public 
opinion.  But  this  Prince  cherished  lofty  pretensions,  and  with  good 
reason  reckoned  that  he  would  be  enabled  to  sustain  them  by  the 
assistance  of  the  courtiers,  who  were  weary  of  the  mask  of  devotion 
imposed  on  them  by  the  old  King,  and  full  of  hope  in  the  regency  of  a 
man  of  pleasure ;  of  the  Parliaments,  which  were  impatient  to  throw 
off  the  state  of  political  nullity  in  which  they  had  remained  for  fifty 
years ;  and  finally,  of  that  crowd  of  the  sycophants  of  fortune,  who, 
without  principles  or  settled  opinions,  are  always  ready  to  veer  round 
with  it,  and  are  particularly  acute  in  perceiving  which  side  is  the 
stronger. 

On  the  day  following  the  death  of  Louis  XTV\,  after  a  night  passed  in 
intrigues  and  making  lavish  promises  on  every  side,  the  Duke  of  Orleans 
presented  himself  before  the  Parliament,  accompanied  by  the  Princes,  the 
peers  of  the  kingdom,  and  a  numerous  following  of  courtiers  and  officials, 
whom  he  had  gained  over  to  his  interests.  In  a  very  skilful  harangue 
the  Duke  displayed  his  anxiety  to  receive  from  the  Parliament  the  title 
to  which,  by  his  birth,  he  had  a  right ;  and  then,  after  having  given  this 
assembly  to  understand  that  he  would  attend  to  their  suggestions,  lie  read 
the  will.  The  greater  number  of  the  magistrates,  and,  amongst  others,  the 
advocates-general  William  de  Lamoignon,  Peter  Gilbert  des  Voisins, 
Henry-Francis  d'Aguesseau,  who  afterwards  became  Chancellor,  and 
Joly  de  Fleury,  procureur-general,  were  devoted  to  the  Duke ;  and  in 

i  2 


11G  FIEST    ACTS    OP    THE   EEGKENCY.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

spite   of  the   efforts   of  the  First  President   Mesme,  who  defended   the 

will  of  Louis     interests  of  the  legitimate  Princes,  the  testament  was  una- 

xiv.,  1715.        nimously   set   aside.      The   Parliament   acknowledged   the 

Duke  as  Regent  of  the  kingdom,  with  full  power  and  liberty  to  compose 

Council  of  Ee-    tne  Council  of  Regency  as  he  might  think  proper.      Orleans 

gency.  summoned  to  it  those  whom  Louis  XIV.  had  selected,  and 

constituted   it  of  the   Princes;   the   Chancellor   Voisins;   the    Marshals 

Villeroi,  D'Harcourt,  Tallard,  and  Besons ;  the  Duke  de  Saint- Siraon,  and 

de  Cheverny,  formerly  Bishop  of  Troyes ;  the  last  alone  being  the  new 

selections   made  by  the   Regent.      The   Duke   du   Maine   retained   the 

superintendence  of  the  education  of  Louis  XV.,  who  was  being  brought 

up  at  Vincennes ;  but  he  was  deprived  of  the  command  of  the  household 

troops. 

The  various  Ministries  were  suppressed,  the  Regent  substituting  for 
them  six  distinct  Councils;  that  of  conscience,  and  those  of  war,  finance, 
marine,  foreign,  and  home  affairs,  which  were  presided  over  by  Cardinal 
de  Noailles,  Marshal  Villars,  the  Duke  de  Noailles,  Marshal  d'Estrees, 
Marshal  Uxelles,  and  the  Duke  d'Antin.  It  was  soon  perceived  that  the 
commercial  interest  had  been  overlooked  in  the  formation  of  those  six 
Councils  ;  and  a  seventh  was  created,  entitled  the  Council  of  Commerce. 
It  was  remarked  that  these  Councils  were  composed  of  men  who  varied 
much  from  one  another  in  birth,  intelligence,  and  character.  In  the  first 
place,  there  were  the  great  nobles,  skilled  in  intrigues,  but  unused  to  the 
conduct  of  affairs ;  then  the  friends  of  the  Regent,  the  highest  among  the 
dissipated  courtiers,  who  were  at  once  ignorant,  witty,  and  perverse ;  and 
finally,  beneath  them,  the  State  Councillors  and  Members  of  Parliament, 
who  were  experienced  and  laborious,  and  upon  whom  devolved  the  duty 
of  repairing  the  errors  committed  by  their  colleagues.  The  Regent 
reserved  to  himself  personally  the  superintendence  of  the  Academy  of 
First  acts  of  the  Sciences.  His  first  measures  were  generally  approved  of: 
Eegency.  j^  restore(j  to  the  Parliament  the  right  of  remonstrating,  of 

which  he  subsequently,  however,  deprived  it.  He  had  the  whole  amount 
of  the  pay  due  to  the  soldiers  given  to  them ;  ordered  judicial  inquiries 
into  the  conduct  of  the  financiers ;  fixed  the  value,  which  had  hitherto 
been  vacillating,  of  the  various  gold  and  silver  coins;  inspected  the 
Royal  prisons;  exiled  Father  Tellier  and  some  other  Jesuits,  and  re- 
voked the  arbitrary  judgments  passed  by  the  late  King  against  their 


1715-1726.]  THE    QUADRUPLE    ALLIANCE.  117 

numerous  victims.  Many  bishops,  and  a  crowd  of  priests  and  laymen, 
who  had  been  proscribed  on  account  of  the  wretched  theological  dispute  s 
were  recalled ;  and  finally,  the  Eegent  ordered  the  publication  of  the 
"  Telemachus."  It  was  under  these  happy  auspices  that  his  government 
commenced. 

The  influential  men  were  divided  into  two  parties :  the  one,  having  at 
its  head  Marshal  Villeroi,  the  young  Monarch's  governor,  faithful  to  the 
policy  of  Louis  XIV.,  wished  to  maintain  a  strict  alliance  with  Spain, 
then  governed  by  the  famous  Cardinal  Alberoni,  who  from  being  a  simple 
country  cure  had  risen  to  be  the  First  Minister  of  Philip  V. ;  whilst  the 
other  inclined  to  an  alliance  with  England.  Dubois,  in  the  pay  of  this 
power,  a  cynic,  and  a  skilled  intriguer,  who,  after  being  the  Regent's 
tutor,  had  become  the  minister  of  his  debaucheries,  and  ruled  him 
through  the  triple  agency  of  an  energetic  will,  vice,  and  habit,  was  the 
soul  of  the  latter  party,  which  he  represented  as  being,  in  case  of  a 
vacancy  of  the  throne,  the  strongest  barrier  against  the  pretensions  of 
Philip  V.  to  the  throne  of  France ;  although  that  Prince  had  formally 
renounced  them  when  he  accepted  that  of  Spain.  Lord  Stair,  the 
English  ambassador,  a  companion  of  the  Regent's  pleasures,  drew  him 
into  this  alliance,  and  made  him  purchase  it  by  the  expulsion  of  the 
Pretender,  the  son  of  James  II.,  and  the  demolition  of  the  port  of 
Mardick,  which  Louis  XIV.  had  intended  to  be  a  substitute  for  that  of 
Dunkirk.  A  triple  alliance  was  formed  between  France, 
England,  and  Holland.     In  the  following  year,  these  three   England  and 

,  .    .      ,  .  ,       ,        ^  Holland,  1717. 

powers  signed  conjointly  with  the  Emperor  a  new  treaty, 

known    by    the    name    of    the   Treaty    of    the    Quadruple  Alliance; 

and   Spain   was  summoned  to   accede   to   it  within  three   Quadruple  Alli- 
ance, 1719. 
months. 

The  Regent,  always  anxious  on  the  subject  of  the  pretensions  of 
Philip  V.  and  the  intrigues  of  Alberoni,  had  in  the  heart  of  his 
kingdom  many  enemies,  some  of  whom  had  been  roused  against  him  by 
the  force  of  circumstances,  and  others  by  the  errors  of  his  Government 
and  his  personal  misconduct.  His  debaucheries  and  the  scandal  of  his 
orgies,  which  were  presided  over  by  his  daughter,  the  Duchess  de  Berri, 
as  well  as  the  shameful  rank  and  influence  acquired  by  Dubois,  had  dis- 
gusted every  honest  heart,  and  excited  against  the  Regent  the  general 
public  indignation.     His  partiality  for  England,  and  the  rigorous  measures 


118  PERSECUTIONS   OF   THE    RICH.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

taken  by  him  against  the  legitimated  Princes,  whom  he  had  deprived  of 
the  rank  of  Princes  of  the  Blood  at  the  request  of  the  dukes  and  peers, 
had  alienated  from  him  their  numerous  partisans,  as  well  as  those  who 
adhered  to  the  policy  of  Louis  XIV.  .  But  nothing  caused  so  wide- 
spread a  feeling  of  anger  against  the  Eegent  as  his  financial  operations. 

The  public  debt  left  by  Louis  XIV.  amounted  to  nearly  five  milliards 
-p..     ,      »  of  our  present  money ;  the  revenues  were  consumed  three 

Disorder  ot  *  J  ' 

D^ptorabieex-  Years  -n  advance,  and  all  credit  was  destroyed.  The 
pedients,  1718.  Regent  had,  therefore,  at  the  very  commencement  of  his 
government,  to  struggle  against  immense  difficulties.  The  only  means 
known  to,  and  habitually  followed  by  governments,  for  the  purpose  of 
releasing  themselves  from  their  liabilities,  were  bankruptcy,  alterations  in 
the  value  of  coin,  and  prosecutions  against  farmers-general.  The  Regent 
made  use  at  first  of  the  latter  means,  through  the  agency  of  a  Chamber  of 
Justice  appointed  to  search  out  and  prosecute  this  species  of  delinquents. 
This  Chamber,  at  first  regarded  with  favour,  speedily  made  itself  odious 
by  the  atrocity  of  the  measures  which  it  took  in  the  course  of  its 
inquiries.  Denunciations  were  encouraged  by  the  offer  of  a  portion  of 
the  confiscated  properties,  and  the  punishment  of  death  for  all  the  crimes 
of  the  justiciaries.  Domestics  were  allowed  to  accuse  their  masters  under 
feigned  names,  and  the  utmost  punishments  were  inflicted  upon  those  who 
ventured  to  decry  such  denouncers.  The  inquiry  extended  over  twenty- 
seven  years.  To  be  rich  was  to  render  a  man  liable  to  accusation ;  and 
four  thousand  four  hundred  and  seventy  heads  of  families  were  inscribed 
on  twenty  lists,  which  appeared  successively  as  so  many  tables  of  pro- 
scription. A  multitude  of  applications  flowed  in  from  all  directions ; 
petitioners  of  every  condition  of  life  and  every  rank  assailed  the  Eegent ; 
and,  as  has  been  observed  by  a  judicious  and  witty  writer* — "  Indulgence 
had  its  tariff,  just  as  vengeance  had  its  part  to  play ;  and  the  Court  of 
France  became  the  scandalous  market  of  the  spoils  of  a  kingdom."  Every 
one  concealed  his  fortune,  and  industry  disappeared  at  the  same  time  as 
luxury.  At  length  an  universal  disgust  was  felt  that  the  liberty  of  robbing 
should  have  been  merely  transferred  from  one  set  of  hands  to  another, 
and  the  Chamber  of  Justice  fell  into  universal  contempt. 

Eecourse  was  also  had  to  other  means  equally  arbitrary  and  violent. 
The  contracts  concluded  with  the  former  Government  were  annulled ; 
*  Lemontey,  "  History  of  the  Kegency." 


171 5-1726.]  FINANCIAL    OPERATIONS.  119 

the  rents,  as  well  as  all  pensions  amounting  to  more  than  six  hundred 
livres,  were  reduced  to  one-half;  and  a  multitude  of  offices  and  privileges 
created  and  sold  by  the  late  Government  were  pitilessly  suppressed  with- 
out any  return  of  the  price  which  had  been  paid  for  them.  This  reform 
(restored  to  the  communes  the  choice  of  their  administrators.  The  re- 
minting  of  the  coin  appeared  to  offer  to  the  Government  immense  advan- 
tages, and  it  was  ordered ;  but  this  proceeding,  which  only  deceived  the 
multitude  for  a  moment,  had  results  which  were  long  a  source  of  the  greatest 
troubles.  Confidence  was  destroyed,  the  circulation  of  specie  checked, 
.-and  the  foreigner  derived  immense  profit  from  his  own  reminting  of  the 
decried  coinage.  Such  was  the  result  of  the  reminting  undertaken  by  the 
Duke  de  Noailles.  He  had  calculated  on  the  recoinage  of  a  thousand 
millions,  but  only  three  hundred  and  sixty-eight  thousand  were  brought 
:in ;  the  consequence  being  that  instead  of  the  two  hundred  millions  of 
profit  which  he  had  hoped  for,  he  only  obtained  seventy-two,  whilst  the 
gold  coin  of  the  kingdom  became  rapidly  depreciated  abroad. 

A  third  financial  operation  had  for  its  object  a  general  review  of  the 
public  funded  property,  of  which  the  amount  was  unknown.  It  was  re- 
solved to  turn  it  all  into  a  single  species  of  State  bonds;  and  this  work  was 
entrusted  to  the  four  brothers  Paris,  who  in  such  matters  were  remarkably 
sagacious.  Six  hundred  millions  were  examined,  which  were  reduced  by 
law  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions,  bearing  interest  at  four  per  cent., 
-of  which  only  one  hundred  and  ninety-five  were  delivered  to  the  owners 
of  the  examined  public  funds.  After  these  violent  measures,  the  Duke 
de  Noailles  had  recourse  to  others  likely  to  corrupt  the  public  mind,  and 
resorted  to  lotteries.  The  crisis,  however,  was  by  no  means  less  imminent ; 
equitable  impost  of  a  tenth  upon  all  goods  was  suppressed ;  the  cash- 
boxes  of  the  collectors  were  empty  ;  and  the  pay  of  the  troops  could  no 
longer  be  liquidated.  In  the  midst  of  this  general  confusion  of  affairs  the 
Scotchman  Law  began  to  rise  into  notice.  This  adventurer,  who 
eventually  became  so  famous,  and  who  united  to  high  financial  conceptions 
errors  which  were  the  result  of  practical  inexperience,  enticed  the 
Regent  by  the  novelty  of  his  theories,  detailed  as  they  were  with  so  much 
clearness.  At  first,  however,  (in  1716,)  his  genius  was  limited  to  opera- 
tions with  a  bank  of  which  the  funds,  divided  into  twelve  hundred  shares, 
amounted  only  to  six  millions.  Law  obtained  the  monopoly  of  it  for 
twenty  years.      It  managed  the  financial  business  of  private  persons,  dis- 


120  FKESH   FINANCIAL    SCHEMES.  [Book  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

counted  bills  of  exchange,  received  deposits,  and  issued  notes  payable  at 
sight,  and  in  coin  of  a  fixed  amount.  It  had  a  prodigious  success,  and  in 
spite  of  the  reasonable  distrust  of  sensible  persons,  the  fixed  value  of  this 
new  species  of  money  caused  the  current  of  commerce  once  more  to  flow. 
The  Regent,  anxious  to  make  the  Government  share  in  the  profits  of  this 
bank,  ordered  that  its  notes  should  be  received  in  payment  of  taxes,  and 
wished  to  be  himself  one  of  its  directors.  A  fictitious  species  of  money 
issued  by  private  persons,  as  well  as  the  State  revenues,  was  then  seen 
confided  to  the  good  faith  of  an  independent  Company ;  and  Law  from 
thenceforth  was  entitled  to  be  regarded  as  the  founder  of  the  science  of 
public  credit  in  France. 

Law,  however,  encountered  a  lively  opposition,  and  especially  from  the 
Parliament.  His  most  formidable  adversaries,  the  Chancellor  d'Aguesseau 
and  the  Duke  de  Noailles,  had  been  dismissed,  and  the  former  Lieutenant 
of  Police,  D'Argenson,  and  Dubois,  were  at  the  head  of  affairs,  when  the 
Eegent  resolved  to  strike  a  decisive  blow  at  once  against  the  enemies  of 
Law,  and  the  legitimated  Princes.  Orders  were  given  for  the  sitting  of 
a  Bed  of  Justice  on  the  26th  August,  1718,  and  the  magis- 
of  Justice,  26th  trates  accordingly  proceeded  to  the  Tuileries  to  the  number 
of  a  hundred  and  seventy.  The  Eegent  desired  the  Duke 
du  Maine  and  his  brother  the  Count  de  Toulouse  to  retire ;  and  then 
read  letters  patent  which  annulled  the  last  decrees  of  the  Parliament,  and 
deprived  it  of  the  right  of  remonstrating  with  respect  to  matters  of  finance 
and  policy.  An  edict  was  then  read  which  reduced  the  legitimated 
Princes  to  the  simple  rank  of  their  peerage ;  and  the  Duke  du  Maine 
was  finally  deprived  by  a  decree  of  the  superintendence  of  the  education 
of  the  King,  which  was  given  to  his  nephew  and  enemy  the  Duke  de 
Bourbon,  a  prince  of  depraved  manners,  singularly  avaricious,  and  of  the 
most  limited  intellect.  The  First  President  having  requested  that  the 
Parliament  should  be  permitted  to  consider  the  edict  which  concerned 
itself,  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals  replied,  "  The  King  desires  to  be  obeyed, 
and  immediately."  Three  days  later  rigorous  measures  signalized  the 
Regent's  victory ;  three  magistrates  were  imprisoned,  whilst  several  Par- 
liaments, and  amongst  others  that  of  Brittany,  suffered  similar  outrages. 

The  Councils  established  by  the  Duke  of  Orleans  at  the  commencement 
of  the  Regency  were  suppressed,  and  replaced  by  Departments,  at  the  head 
of  which  he  placed  Secretaries  of  State,  who  were  more  directly  dependent 


1715-1726.]  CONSPIRACY    OP    CELLAHAEE.  121 

on  himself.  The  Duke  du  Maine  yielded  without  a  struggle  to  the 
storm,  but  the  Duchess,  his  wife,  burst  forth  into  complaints  and  threats, 
whilst  her  magnificent  residence  of  Sceaux  became  the  rendezvous  for  all 
persons  discontented  with  the  Government  and  the  focus  of  all  intrigues. 
An  intimate  union  had  long  existed  between  this  little  factious  court  and 
the  Spanish  Ambassador,  the  Prince  of  Cellamare.      The 

.,-,.  .  .,.,         Conspiracy  of 

latter,  m  accordance  with  the  instructions  given  mm   by    Cellamare, 

1718 

Alberoni,  conspired  against  the  Regent,  and  employed 
every  means  in  his  power  to  bring  about  a  revolution  against  his  Govern- 
ment. Deceived  himself,  he  exaggerated  in  his  reports  the  importance 
and  number  of  the  revolutionary  party,  and  the  audacious  Cardinal 
conceived  a  plan,  according  to  which  Philip  V.  should  prevail  upon 
Louis  XV.  to  renounce  the  Quadruple  Alliance,  deprive  the  Duke  of 
Orleans  of  the  Eegency,  and  convoke  the  States-General ;  and  at  the 
same  time  proposed  to  himself  a  war  against  England,  for  the  purpose  of 
reseating  the  Stuarts  upon  the  throne,  which  should  be  under  the  manage- 
ment of  the  warrior-king,  Charles  XII.  By  these  propositions  he  flattered 
the  ambition  of  Elizabeth  Farnese,  the  second  wife  of  Philip,  and 
maintained  himself  in  her  favour  by  encouraging  her  hopes  of  acquiring 
thrones  for  her  children.  He  had  cast  his  eyes  upon  many  States  which 
had  been  dissevered  from  the  Spanish  monarchy  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht, 
and  an  army  had  already  invaded  and  subjected  Sicily.  In  1718,  how- 
ever, an  English  fleet  of  twenty  sail,  commanded  by  Admiral  Byng, 
attacked  the  Spanish  fleet  of  twenty-seven  sail  in  the  Mediterranean,  and 
took  or  destroyed  twenty-three.  Alberoni,  much  disturbed  by  this  check, 
and  perceiving  that  his  power  was  tottering,  wrote  to  Cellamare  to  "  set 
fire  to  the  mines."  But  Dubois,  who  received  information  from  a  clerk 
in  the  Spanish  embassy,  held  all  the  threads  of  the  intrigue  in  his  hand ; 
and  having  allowed  the  conspirators  to  make  considerable  progress  in 
their  plans,  on  the  5th  December  he  ordered  the  arrest  of  the  Abbe" 
Portocarrero,  as  he  was  on  his  way  to  Alberoni  with  despatches  and 
papers  from  the  imprudent  Cellamare,  relative  to  this  absurd  intrigue. 
The  Ambassador  was  immediately  sent  to  the  Castle  of  Blois,  to  await 
the  orders  of  his  Court.  The  Duke  and  Duchess  du  Maine  were  arrested, 
and  sent  respectively  to  the  Castle  of  Dourlens  and  to  Dijon  ;  and  many 
of  their  accomplices  were  imprisoned.  After  having  had  the  letters  of 
the  King  of  Spain  printed,  the  Regent  showed  indulgence  towards  his 


122  DISTURBANCES    IN   BRITTANY.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

enemies.  He  demanded  of  them  an  acknowledgment  of  their  fault, 
made  the  Duchess  du  Maine  sign  an  elaborate  confession,  and  then  re- 
leased his  prisoners  without  taking  any  further  vengeance.  A  magnani- 
mous forgetfulness  of  injuries  was  the  noblest  quality  of  his  soul. 

An  intrigue  similar  to  that  of  Cellamare  was  at  the  same  time  being 
conducted   in  Spain  by  the    Duke   of  Saint-Aignan,    the 

Similar  con-  .—  ,  _         .  .^  «•,-.-•_  . 

spiracy  in  Spain,  Kegents  ambassador  in  Spam,  its  object  bemg  the  over- 
throw of  Alberoni,  and  to  prepare  for  the  House  of 
Orleans  the  succession  to  the  valetudinarian  Philip  V.  These  projects, 
however,  failed  without  any  publicity.  Saint-Aignan  quitted  Spain 
before  the  disgrace  of  Cellamare  was  known  there,  and  whilst  the  Regent 
was  reaping  all  the  fruits  he  could  expect  to  gain  from  the  rash  im- 
prudence of  that  ambassador. .  The  party  of  the  Old  Court  remained  in 
a  state  of  consternation.  There  was  but  one  feeling  throughout  France 
and  Europe  respecting  the  bad  faith  of  the  Spanish  Ambassador,  and 
war  with  Philip  V.  was  resolved  on. 

Disturbances  now  broke  out  in  Brittany,  which  was  still,  to  a  great 
Distitrbances  in  extent>  uncultivated,  and  where  there  languished  a  poor  and 
nttany,  i  .  ignorant  population  in  subjection  to  five  or  six  thousand 
gentlemen.  The  latter,  indignant  at  the  domineering  spirit  of  the 
governor  of  the  province,  Marshal  de  Montesquiou,  made  great  re- 
sistance to  the  payment  of  "  the  gratuitous  gift,"  and  in  the  following  year 
opposed  an  edict  of  the  Council  relative  to  the  droit  d'entree.  The  Par- 
liament registered  their  decision,  and  were  punished  by  some  lettres  de 
cachet  for  their  attempt  to  preserve  their  independence.  Alberoni  saw 
in  these  sparks  of  revolt  the  hope  of  a  powerful  diversion  in  favour  of 
Philip  V.,  and  supported  the  leaders  in  their  factious  projects.  The 
latter  signed  an  agreement  of  armed  confederacy,  and  called  the  Spanish 
troops  to  their  aid  ;  but  the  lower  classes,  indifferent  to  a  quarrel  which 
in  no  way  concerned  their  own  interests,  refused  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  it,  and  the  Government  had  no  difficulty  in  stifling  the  revolt.  A 
Chamber  of  Justice  was  established  at  Nantes ;  four  gentlemen,  con- 
demned to  death  by  it,  were  executed  at  night  by  torchlight  with  great 
ceremony;  and  when  the  Spanish  fleet,  commanded  by  the  Duke  of 
Ormond,  appeared  within  sight  of  the  coasts  of  Brittany,  it  found  them 
lined  with  troops,  and  defended  by  a  population  faithful  to  the  Govern- 
ment. 


1715-1726.]  EISE    OF    THE    KINGDOM   OF    SARDINIA.  123 

In   the    meantime    an   army  commanded   by   Marshal  Berwick  had 
entered    Spain,    where   Alberoni   was    only   prepared    to 

War  between 

intrigue,  and  not  only  took  a  great  number  of  places,  but   France  and 

Spain.    Disgrace 

destroyed  the  Spanish  navy  in  its  ports.  About  the  same  of  Alberoni, 
time,  sixteen  thousand  Imperial  troops,  led  into  Sicily  by 
General  Mercy,  drove  the  Spaniards  from  that  island.  Crushed  by  these 
numerous  reverses,  Alberoni  saw  that  he  was  lost.  The  Queen  turned 
against  him,  and  no  longer  saw  anything  in  this  Minister  but  the 
obscurity  of  his  birth.  In  vain  he  threatened  the  French  Government 
with  an  alliance  between  Spain,  England,  and  Austria.  His  disgrace 
was  resolved  on,   and  demanded,  by  the  Regent;    and  in  December, 

1719,  Philip  V.  signed  a  decree  which  ordered  him  to  quit  Madrid 
within  eight  days.  The  populace  celebrated  his  banishment  as  the 
deliverance  from  a  scourge ;  and  the  fall  of  the  Cardinal  was  the 
security  for  peace.  Philip  sent  in  his  adhesion  to  the  Treaty  of  the 
Quadruple  Alliance,  and   it  was  signed  by  his  Minister   in  February, 

1 720,  at  the  Hague.  By  this  treaty  the  Emperor  Charles  VI.    ^hesion  of 
renounced  the  Spanish  monarchy,  and  Philip  V.  abandoned   QuadrupieAM- 
all  the  States  which,  by  the  Peace  of  Rastadt,  had  been     n   ' 
severed  from  it.     The  Emperor  undertook  to  bestow  the  sovereignty  of 
Tuscany  on  Don   Carlos,  the   son  of  Philip  V.  and  Elizabeth  Farncse, 
after    the    death,  which  was  considered  imminent,   of  the  last  of   the 
Medici.     By  the  same  treaty,  Sicily  was  given  to  the  House  of  Austria, 
the  Duke  of  Savoy  receiving  in  exchange   for  it   Sardinia,  which    was 
raised  to  the  rank  of  a  kingdom.     The  Regent  now  acted  as 

a,  mediator  in  the  North.  He  had  assisted  Sweden,  kiDgdomof  Sar- 
exhausted  by  the  ruinous  rashness  of  Charles  Xn.,  and 
over  which  reigned  Ulrica,  that  monarch's  sister.  He  hastened  the  con- 
clusion of  a  peace  between  her  and  the  Czar  Peter,  who  offered  his 
daughter  in  marriage  to  the  Duke  de  Chartres,  the  Regent's  son,  with  the 
prospect  of  succession  to  the  throne  of  Poland,  at  that  time  occupied  by 
King  Augustus.  The  Duke  of  Orleans,  however,  rejected  this  alliance, 
.and  found  himself,  for  a  time,  the  arbiter  of  Europe.  This  powerful  in- 
fluence was  partly  due  to  the  ephemeral  and  prodigious  success  of  the 
system  established  by  Law,  which  having  been  adopted  by  the  Regent, 
enjoyed  the  highest  degree  of  public  favour,  and  placed  immense 
pecuniary  resources  in  the  hands  of  the  Government. 


124  FINANCIAL   KEVOLTJTION.  [BOOK  TV.  CHAP.  I. 

Law's  bank  had  been  declared  the  Royal  Bank  at  the  close  of  the  year 
1718.      It  had  acquired  the  privileges  belonging  to  the  old 

Law's  system  ;T1.^  ,...1. 

financial  revolu-    India  Company,  which,  in  addition  to  vast  possessions  m 

tion,  1719-1720.  .  .  .'       .  ..  .','*'«. 

Louisiana,  possessed  the  sole  right  of  trading  with  Africa 
and  Asia ;  and  the  Government  also  bestowed  on  it  the  monopoly  in 
tobacco,  the  excise  duties  of  Alsatia  and  Franche-Comte,  the  profit  derivable 
from  the  coinage  of  money,  and  lastly,  the  recettes  and  the  farms  general. 
Its  first  care  was  to  depreciate  the  current  coin  by  subjecting  it  to  fifty 
consecutive  variations,  whilst  its  own  notes  alone  appeared  to  be  invari- 
able in  value,  and  thus  superior  to  the  money  value  which  they  repre- 
sented. Led  away  by  Law's  first  successes,  a  credulous  multitude 
purchased  shares  in  his  Company,  and  exchanged  its  gold  for  his  bank- 
notes. This  gold  served  to  reimburse  the  creditors  of  the  State,  and 
they,  embarrassed  by  their  capital  and  full  of  a  blind  confidence,  readily 
exchanged  it  in  their  turn  for  shares  the  value  of  which  increased  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  purchasers.  The  public  credulity  soon 
reached  its  height,  and  eighteen  thousand  livres  were  given  for  a  share 
the  original  value  of  which  was  no  more  than  five  hundred.  The  street 
named  Quincampoix  now  acquired  a  shameful  celebrity  by  being  the 
ignoble  scene  of  the  dealings  in  these  bank  shares.  It  was 
there  that  scandalous  fortunes  were  amassed,  and  that 
those  which  seemed  the  most  solid  were  speedily  dissipated.  It  was  there 
that  from  the  very  cellars  to  the  garrets  of  the  houses,  were  massed  con- 
fusedly together  a  multitude  of  persons  of  each  sex,  of  every  age  and 
every  condition,  solely  occupied  in  trafficking  in  their  notes  and  shares. 
From  the  most  distant  provinces,  and  even  from  foreign  lands,  crowds  re- 
sorted thither,  and  the  whole  nation,  in  short,  appeared  to  have  become 
one  vast  army  of  speculators. 

This  excitement,  however,  scandalous  as  it  was,  had  some  favourable 
effects.  The  rehabilitation  of  so  much  decried  paper-money  gave  an  un- 
usual impulse  to  commerce  and  industry ;  the  amount  of  manufactures 
increased  by  three-fifths,  agriculture  and  the  treasury  were  enriched  by 
the  influx  of  strangers  and  the  increased  consumption  of  every  species  of 
produce.  Everything  was  easy  to  the  Government  when  it  had  the  gold 
of  the  kingdom  at  its  command.  French  diplomacy  became  dominant,  and 
its  navy,  which  till  lately  had  consisted  of  but  a  few  vessels,  and 
entrusted  to  the  Count  de  Maurepas,  who  was  only  eighteen  years  of 


1715-1726.]  FALL   OF    LAW'S    SYSTEM.  125 

age,  was  restored  to  a  state  in  which  it  would  be  able  to  protect  our 
commerce.  The  Regency  annexed  colonies  to  the  mother-country,  and 
joined  to  it  the  Isle  of  France,  which  was  coveted  by  the  English.  The 
foundation  of  New  Orleans,  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  dates  from  this 
period.  Useful  works  were  undertaken  in  France,  such  as  many  Royal 
roads  of  a  magnificence  until  then  unknown,  and  the  canal  of  Montargis  ; 
finally,  the  University  of  Paris  offered  a  course  of  gratuitous  instruction. 
Law,  at  the  period  in  which  he  was  most  in  favour,  received  the  homage 
of  all  Europe.  The  son  of  James  II.,  known  by  the  name  of  Chevalier 
de  Saint-George,  solicited  his  friendship,  and  Law  paid  him  out  of  his 
own  pocket  the  pension  which  France  had  ceased  to  bestow  upon  him. 

At  the  commencement  of  1720  Law  found  himself  at  the  height  of 
his  fortune,  and  after  having  abjured  the  Protestant  faith,  was  made 
Comptroller-General ;  but  from  this  time  dates  his  fall.  His  principal  error 
had  been,  that  he  looked  upon  paper-money  as  a  perfect  equivalent  for 
coin,  and  the  fatal  consequences  of  this  error  had  been 
aggravated  by  the  ignorance  and  cupidity  of  the  Govern-  Stemthe 
ment.  Law  was  not  allowed  to  regulate  the  movements 
of  his  system ;  a  frightful  mass  of  notes,  out  of  all  proportion  with  the 
coin  of  France,  was  fabricated  and  launched  into  circulation  in  spite  of 
his  remonstrances.  It  amounted  to  the  nominal  value  of  many  thousand 
millions,  and  it  was  soon  perceived  with  terror  that  it  would  be  impos- 
sible to  redeem  it  by  actual  coin.  The  confidence  which  had  been 
inspired  by  the  declaration  of  the  existence  of  gold-mines  in  the  plains  of 
Louisiana  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  was  dissipated  at  the  same 
time.  Law  then  had  recourse,  for  the  purpose  of  bolstering  up  his 
system,  to  violent  methods,  which  ended  in  its  destruction.  Private 
persons  were  prohibited  to  have  in  their  possession  more  than  five 
hundred  livres  in  ready  money,  or  to  convert  their  gold  into  pearls  or 
diamonds;  and  finally,  on  the  21st  of  May,  there  appeared  an  edict 
which  reduced  the  shares  in  the  Company  to  half  their  value.  From 
this  moment  all  illusion  with  respect  to  the  Company  was  at  an  end.  It 
was  in  vain  that  the  Duke  d'Antin,  the  Regent's  brother-in-law,  pro- 
cured the  revocation  of  the  decree ;  it  was  impossible  to  reinspire  con- 
fidence ;  and  Law  having  been  arrested,  was  summoned  to  give  in  his 
accounts,  which  he  did  with  an  admirable  clearness  which  confounded 
his  enemies.     The  direction   of  the  Bank   and   of  the  Company  was 


126  EXILE   OE    THE    PARLIAMENT.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

restored  to  him,  but  Law  refused  to  resume  it,  and  proposed  to  th 
Recent,  as  a  means  of  restoring  public  confidence,  the  recal  of  his  old 
opponent,  the  Chancellor  d'Aguesseau,  (1720.)     He  went 
d'Aguesseau,      himself  to  Fresne,  that  venerable  magistrate's  retreat,  and 

1720 

entreated  him  to  return.     D'Aguesseau  sacrificed  his  repose 

for  the  public  good,  and  the  day  on  which  he   did  so  was  the  most 

glorious  of  his  noble  life.     But  this  illustrious  man  possessed  neither 

genius  nor  power  sufficient  to  quell  the  storm,  and  misfortunes  succeeded 

each   other  in    rapid  succession.      The   pestilence  which  broke  out  in 

France   closed   almost   all   ports  to   our   vessels,   and   threw  upon  the 

Company  enormous  losses,  the  discredit  into  which  it  had  fallen  being  at 

the  same  time  even  more  injurious  to  it.     At  length  the  Parliament 

rejected  without  deliberation  the  last  edicts  which  afforded  any  prospects 

of  the  Bank's  solvency;    whereupon  Dubois,  although  hostile  to  Law, 

avenged  the  Government  for  this  bold  attack  by  exiling  the 

Parliament6     Parliament  in  a  body  to  Pontoise,  an  affront  to  which  that 

body  had  not  been  subjected  since  its  first  establishment. 

Stock-jobbing  was  prohibited,  but  it  was  furiously  carried  on  in  spite 
of  sabres  and  bayonets.  There  were  scenes  of  violence  and  murder,  and 
a  threatening  mob  proceeded  to  the  Palais-Eoyal,  the  gates  of  which 
were  opened  to  it  at  its  approach  by  the  Eegent's  orders.  The  scene  of 
this  odious  traffic  was  transferred  from  the  Eue  Quincampoix  to  the 
Place  Yendome,  and  from  thence  to  the  gardens  of  the  Hotel  de  Soissons. 
It  was  in  this  latter  place  that  the  bank-notes  lost  their  money  value, 
and  that  in  September,  nine  shares,  which  a  year  previously  had  been 
worth  sixty  thousand  livres,  were  purchased  for  a  gold  mark.  Greedy 
and  skilful  calculators  still  speculated  on  old  and  new  fortunes,  and  their 
frightful  stock-jobbing  came  to  be  called  the  Mississippi  renverse.  Law 
then  offered  to  the  Regent  to  quit  France,  abandoning  to  him  all  his 
fortune,  with  the  exception  of  five  hundred  thousand  crowns,  which  he 
had  brought  with  him.  The  Prince  did  not  detain  him,  and  this  cele- 
brated stranger,  after  having  been  adored  as  a  god,  disappeared  from  the 
kingdom  as  a  fugitive,  and  went  to  finish  his  days  in  obscurity  in  Venice, 
leaving  behind  him  nothing  but  a  diamond  ring  worth  some  forty 
thousand  livres,  which  had  often  been  in  pledge,  and  a  few  pictures. 

The  Government  endeavoured,  by  means  of  a  number  of  violent 
edicts,  to  restore  to  the  notes  of  the  Bank  a  value  which  nothing  but 


1715-1726.]  THEOLOGICAL   DISPUTES.  127 

credit  could  have  made  them  sustain ;    but  these  methods  were  of  no 
avail,  and  in  1721  the  Government  had  again  recourse  to  the  operation 
of  examination,  to  ascertain  the  real  amount  of  the  State 
debt,  and  the  titles  of  its  creditors.     This  work  was  again      ^|Y"vlsa" 
confided  to  the  Brothers  Paris.    Two  thousand  two  hundred 
millions  worth  of  paper  securities  were  deposited  at  their  offices,  one- 
third  of  which  was  declared  null,  whilst  the  remainder  were  reduced  to  a 
value  much  below  that  which  they  nominally  bore.    Those  capitalists  who 
obstinately  retained  their  notes  and  bills  in  their  desks  without  taking 
them  to  be  examined,  lost  the  whole  of  their  debts.     The  professional 
stockjobbers,  who  had  made  enormous  profits,  were  violently  deprived  of 
the  larger  portion  of  their  gains.     The  debts  which  had  to  be  liquidated 
amounted  to  seventeen  hundred  millions,  and  the  State  found  itself  much 
more  indebted  than  it  had  been  at  the  death  of  Louis  XTV. 

Such  was  the  end  of  this  famous  system,  the  fall  of  which  was 
hastened  much  more  by  the  ignorance  and  despotism  of  the  Government 
than  by  the  errors  of  its  inventor.  Its  results  were  to  change  the  public 
manners  and  the  distribution  of  wealth,  to  render  the  people  eager  after 
gain  and  bold  in  speculation,  to  initiate  the  general  use  of  banks,  and  to 
give  a  new  life  to  commerce,  whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  it  confirmed  the 
prejudices  of  the  Government  against  every  new  idea  and  every  project 
for  the  improvement  of  its  finances. 

The   pestilence   at  this  time  (1720-1721)   was   executing  frightful 
ravages  in  Provence.     The  number  of  its  victims  is  un- 
known ;  but  the  four  cities  of  Marseilles,  Aries,  Aix,  and   Provence,  1720- 

1721. 

Toulon  alone  lost  seventy-nine  thousand  five  hundred  of 
their   inhabitants.      Belzunce,  the  Bishop  of  Marseilles,   the    Chevalier 
Rose,  and  the  Aldermen  Estelle  and  Moustier,  immortalized  themselves 
by  the  heroism  they  displayed  in  the  midst  of  this  frightful  calamity. 

In  the  meantime  the  public  misfortunes  by  no  means  diminished  the 
bitterness  of  the  theological  disputes.     Cardinal  Noailles  was 
ever  the  foremost  of  the  opponents  of  the  bull  Unigenitus   p£t  °3lo8ical  dis" 
of  Pope  Clement  XI.,  which  he  regarded  as  an  attack  on 
the  liberties  of  the  Gallican  Church;    and  the  Parliament  refused  to 
register  it.      But  Dubois  broke  through   this    double  obstacle.      This 
cynical   intriguer,    who   had   already   had    himself    nominated   to   the 
Bishopric  of  Cambrai,  was  ambtious  of  the  purple,  and  hoped  to  gain 


128  DEATH    OF    THE    DUKE    OE    OELEAKS.        [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

the  Cardinal's  hat  by  procuring  the  recognition  of  the  Bull  in  France. 
He  surrounded  Cardinal  Noailles  with  adroit  theologians,  and  the  latter, 
by  captious  reasonings,  obtained  his  submission,  which  was  followed  by 
that  of  many  of  the  opposing  bishops.  It  remained  to  obtain  the  sub- 
mission of  the  Parliament,  which  was  then  exiled  to  Pontoise,  and  Dubois 
frightened  this  body  by  the  threat  of  a  fresh  exile  to  Blois,  whilst  Law, 
who  at  this  time  was  still  in  the  Ministry,  spoke  of  reimbursing  the  price 
of  the  magisterial  offices  with  his  depreciated  notes,  and  of  establishing  a 
fresh  body  of  magistrates  who  should  have  no  other  functions  but  that  of 
the  administration  of  justice.  The  Parliament  no  longer  resisted,  but 
registered  the  Bull,  without  prejudice,  however,  to  the  "  Maxims  of  the 
kingdom  upon  appeals  to  the  future  council."  It  was  recalled  to  Paris  in 
the  course  of  the  following  year. 

After  prolonged  intrigues,  the  Pope,  Innocent  XIII.,  made  Dubois  a 
Cardinal.  The  Regent,  who  despised  this  man  without  being  able  to  do 
without  him,  raised  him  to  the  pinnacle  of  fortune  by  appointing  him 
Prime  Minister  three  months  before  the  consecration  of  Louis  XV.,  who 

was  declared  of  age  by  the  Parliament  held  on  the  22nd 
Louisrxv0fi723    January>  1723.     The  young  Infanta  of  Spain,  four  years 

old,  then  arrived  at  the  Court,  being  destined  by  the  Regent 
for  the  King's  wife,  whilst  his  own  daughter  went  to  Spain  as  the  future 
wife  of  the  Prince  of  the  Asturias.  In  appointing  Dubois  as  First 
Minister  at  the  period  when  Louis  XV.  attained  his  majority,  the  Duke 
of  Orleans'  intention  was  to  retain  in  his  own  hands  the  entire  direction 
of  affairs;  but  death  frustrated  his  hopes,  for  Dubois,  after  having 
effected  some  wise  measures,  expired  in  the  course  of  the  year,  leaving 
an  immense  fortune.     The  Duke  of  Orleans  succeeded  him  in  his  office, 

but  died  himself  almost  immediately  afterwards,  from  an 
Duke  of  Orleans,    attack  of  apoplexy,  (1723.)     The  King,  although  naturally 

cold-hearted  and  insensible  to  emotion,  nevertheless  re- 
gretted his  tutor,  and  displayed  much  feeling  at  the  remembrance  of  the 
tender  and  respectful  testimonies  of  affection  which  he  had  never  ceased 
to  receive  from  him.*  Fleury,  Bishop  of  Frejus,  and  the  young  King's 
preceptor,  possessed  an  absolute  influence  over  him,  and,  having  an 
understanding  with  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  persuaded  his  pupil  to  make 

*  See  the  remarkable  portrait  of  the  Regent  in  the  "  History  of  the  Seventeenth 
Century,"  by  Charles  Lacretelle,  Book  IV. 


1715-1726.]  bourbon's  ministry.  129 

that  Prince  his  First  Minister.  Louis  XV.  assented  with  a  nod  of  the 
head.  Thus  the  Government  passed  from  the  House  of  Orleans  to  that  of 
Conde. 

Three  persons  only  constituted  the  King's  Council ;  and  these  were  the 
Duke  of  Bourbon,  the  Bishop  of  Freius,  and  Marshal  Yillars.      »  . 

'  r  J      '  Ministry  of  the 

A  woman  of  scandalous  manners,  the  Marchioness  de  Prie,    Pake n£f.Bour" 

'  7     bon, 1724. 

the  First  Minister's  mistress,  ruled  his  narrow  mind,  which 
was  stupefied  by  debauchery  and  an  insatiable  cupidity.  Duverney,  the 
youngest  of  the  brothers  Paris,  was  selected  by  her  to  administer  affairs, 
and  the  Duke,  of  Bourbon  accepted,  at  her  instigation,  this  Minister,  who 
was  the  author  of  some  wise  measures,  but  was  at  the  same  time  the  ac- 
complice in,  and  the  instrument  of,  odious  acts  of  violence. 

Odious  acts  of 

The  first  laws  made  under  the  authority  of  this  Ministry  were   tne  new  Ministry, 

j  j  172i. 

both  foolish  and  wicked.  The  legal  value  of  the  coin  was  re- 
duced to  one-half,  and  the  rate  of  interest  to  the  denier  trente.  Duverney 
was  determined  that  the  habits  of  the  nation  should  vary  as  speedily  as  the 
decrees  of  the  Council.  Troops  were  sent  to  slaughter  the  Parisian  work- 
men who  defended  their  wages ;  and  the  shops  of  those  tradesmen  who 
would  not  make  their  prices  accord  with  the  change  in  the  value  of 
money  were  walled  up.  After  a  time  the  disastrous  effects  of  this  measure 
were  perceived,  and  after  having  plunged  the  kingdom  into  confusion  it 
was  repealed.  France  also  suffered  at  this  period,  and  for  the  last  time, 
under  the  grievous  tax  of  the  joyous  event  of  the  King's  accession,  which 
the  Duke  of  Orleans  had  wisely  declined  to  levy,  and  which  was  farmed 
out  for  twenty-three  millions.  It  paid,  also,  besides  its  innumerable  other 
burdens,  two  per  cent,  on  all  the  productions  of  the  soil.  It  was  from 
the  midst  of  the  ruinous  fetes  of  Chantilly,  the  brilliant  residence  of 
the  Condes,  that  were  issued  these  edicts  of  spoliation ;  and  it  was  from 
thence  also  that  went  forth  barbarous  laws  against  the  Protestants. 
These  laws  assumed  as  true,  as  did  the  edicts  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  lying 
supposition  that  there  were  no  more  Protestants  in  France,  and  conse- 
quently treated  as  perverts  all  who  were  convicted  of  heresy.  They 
branded  marriages  between  Calvinists,  authorized  the  seizure  of  their 
children,  deprived  them  of  the  rights  of  succession,  and  with  respect  to 
them,  punished  with  death  and  the  galleys,  flight,  hospitality,  and 
the  most  generous  actions.  These  laws  surpassed  even,  in  cruelty,  those 
of  the  late  King ;  for  they  prohibited  the  intervention  of  the  officers  of 
VOL.   II.  .  K 


130  philip  Y.  OF  Spain.  [Book  IV.  Chap.  I. 

justice,  and  delivered  over  the  Calvinists  as  victims  to  the  discretion  of 
their  enemies. 

The  two  motives  of  the  actions  of  the  Duke  of  Bourbon  were  avarice 
and  ambition.  It  was  for  the  sake  of  his  own  fortune  that  he  supported 
the  India  Company,  which  had  been  severely  shaken  by  the  fall  of  Law, 
and  in  which  he  possessed  a  great  number  of  shares ;  and  it  was  from  a 
jealous  hatred  of  the  House  of  Orleans,  and  the  fear  that  it  might  succeed 
to  the  Crown,  if  the  King  should  die  without  a  direct  heir,  that  he  broke 
oiF  the  marriage  which  had  been  projected  between  the  King  and  a  Prin- 
_,    T  e  '  cess  of  tender  age.     He  sent  back  the  Infanta  to  Spain,  sub- 

The  Infanta  sent  . 

back.  Louis  xv.    gtitutinp;  for  her  Maria  Leczinski,  the  daughter  of  Stanislaus, 

espouses  Maria  °  jo  j 

Leczmsiri,  1725.     formerly  crowned  king  of  Poland  by  Charles  XH.,  and  who, 
stripped  of  his  royal  state,  lived  in  obscurity  at  Weissemberg. 

This  affront  was  keenly  felt  in  Spain.     The  weak  Philip  V.,  a  victim 
to  the  narrowest  scruples  of  conscience,  and  the  mere  tool  of  his  con- 
Phiiip  v.  abdi-      fessors,  had  abdicated  the  throne  in  the  preceding  year,  in 
wards  regains  his   accordance  with  the  instigations  of  his  confessor,  the  Jesuit 
Bermudez.     His  son,  sixteen  years  of  age,  succeeded  him 
by  the  name  of  Louis  I.,  and  died  of  the  small-pox  after  a  reign  which 
had  only  lasted  seven  months.     If  Philip  did  not  re-ascend  his  throne  his 
crown  would,  too,  now  devolve  upon  his  second  son,  Ferdinand,  who  was 
ten  years  of  age,  whilst  a  Eegency,  composed  of  grandees  of  Spain,  would 
govern  the  kingdom.     The  Court  of  France  regarded  such  an  arrangement 
with  no  favour,  and  instructed  its  ambassador,  Marshal  Tesse,  to  use  all 
his  influence  to  induce  the  King  to  revoke  his  abdication.     Theologians, 
who  were  called  in  to  combat  the  arguments  of  Bermudez,  decided  that 
the  King  ought  to  resume  the  sceptre  under  pain  of  committing  a  mortal 
sin.     Laura  Pescatori,  his  nurse,  gave  them  important  assistance  by  the 
boldness  of  her  language  ;  and  at  length  Philip,  on  the  5th  of  September, 
1724,  consented  to  resume  his  sceptre.    A  few  months  later,  he  learnt  the 
rupture  of  the  projected  marriage  between  his  daughter  and  Louis  XV. 
At  this  news  his  anger  was  extreme ;  and  he  immediately  sent  away  the 
two  daughters  of  the  Regent,  one  of  whom  was  the  widow  of  the  young 
King  Louis  I.,  whilst  the  other,  Mademoiselle  de   Beaujolais,  had  been 
intended  to  be  the  wife  of  the  Infant  Don  Carlos.     This  was  too  little  to 
satisfy  his  vengeance  ;  and  one  of  his  emissaries,  the  adventurer  Ripperda, 
concluded  in  his  name  a  treaty  with  the  Emperor  Charles  VI.,  who  was 


1715-1726.]  THE    PEAGMATIC    SANCTION.  131 

irritated  at  the  obstacles  thrown  in  his  way  by  the  Powers  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Compaprnie  d'Ostende,  and  to  his  pragmatic  sane-    Pragmatic  sanc- 

.      .   .  .  tionoftheEm- 

tion,  a  law  by  which,  in  default  of  leaving  male  children,    peror  Charles VI. 
he  appointed  his  daughter  Maria-Theresa  to  succeed  him.     Alarmed  at 
this    treaty,    France,    England,    and     Prussia    signed,   in 
1725,  that  of  Hanover,  the  basis  of  which  was  a  neutral    overtms.     **' 
guarantee  and  alliance. 

The  moment  was  drawing  near  when  Philip  would  be  able  to  avenge  the 
insult  to  his  family.  The  Duke  of  Bourbon  endeavoured  to  release  him- 
self from  the  importunate  censures  of  the  Bishop  of  Frejus,  and  had  pre- 
vailed upon  the  young  King  to  assist  him  in  this  design.  In  the  meantime 
the  misery  of  the  people  was  extreme :  in  every  direction  outcries  were 
heard  against  the  Government,  and  Fleury  was  entrusted  to  put  an  end 
to  the  public  misfortunes.  The  universal  clamour  was  heard,  and  a  minis- 
terial revolution  was  effected.  On  the  11th  June,  the  young  King,  as  he 
was  setting  out  for  the  chase,  said  to  the  Duke,  with  a  gracious  smile, 
"  Cousin,  do  not  make  me  wait  supper,"  and  a  few  minutes  afterwards  the 
Duke  of  Charost  delivered  to  him,  on  the  part  of  the  Monarch,  a  formal 
letter,  which  commanded  him  to  retire  to  Chantilly.    The 

J  Dismissal  of  the 

Prince  immediately  obeyed,  and  the  Parisians  received  the  Due  de  Bourbon, 
news  of  his  fall  with  inexpressible  transports.  The  brothers 
Paris  were  dismissed;  Duverney  was  shut  up  in  the  Bastile;  the  Marquise  de 
Prie  was  exiled.  The  King  declared  that  henceforth  he  would  have  no  First 
Minister,  and  would  hold  the  reins  of  government  in  his  own  hands ;  and 
thus  terminated  the  ten  years  during  which  was  prolonged  the  pupillage 
of  Louis  XV.  under  the  heads  of  the  two  collateral  branches  of  his  House. 
In  the  midst  of  the  violence,  the  scandals,  and  the  calamities  which 
distinguished  this  period,  a  few  wise  measures  were  adopted,  and  many 
useful  works  undertaken.  Duverney  was  the  real  founder  of  the  National 
Militia,  which  was  established  by  him  on  an  excellent  footing, 

'  J  °      National  Militia. 

and  raised  to  sixty  thousand  men,  who  were  selected  by 
lot.  The  people  also  were  relieved  from  the  burden  of  maintaining  the 
troops  in  their  own  houses,  nearly  five  hundred  barracks  being  constructed 
in  this  short  period.  The  Regency  planned  a  vast  and  splendid  system  of 
roads,  the  carrying  out  of  which  it  confided  to  a  special  commission; 
and  also  supported  the  philanthropic  aims  of  the  illustrious 

,  Christian  schools. 

Father  Delasalle,  the  founder  of  the  Christian  schools. 

k2 


132  FRANCE    UNDER    THE   REGENT.       [BOOK  IV.  Chap.  I. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  manners  of  the  Eegent's  Court  inflicted  a  serious 
blow  on  public  morality ;  and  the  infatuated  love  of  gaining  especially, 
the  fatal  example  of  which  was  given  by  the  Princes,  rapidly  spread 
through  the  kingdom,  and  carried  ruin  and  despair  into  the  bosoms  of  a 
multitude  of  families. 

The  Eegent,  who  was  a  well-educated  man,  did  honour  to  himself 
by  being  the  protector  of  literature  and  the  sciences.  The 
latter  threw  but  little  glory  on  his  period  of  government  by 
the  discoveries  of  their  professors;  but  under  the  head  of  the  former  may  be 
reckoned  some  illustrious  names  and  several  famous  works.  At  that  time 
Fontenelle  and  La  Motte  were  the  arbiters  of  literary  taste.  Rollin  wrote 
his  excellent  "  Traite"  des  Etudes;"  Vertot,  his  "  Roman  Revolutions ;" 
and  Gerard,  his  "  Synonymes.'1  Destouches,  Marivaux,  and  Boissy  were 
at  the  same  time  distinguishing  themselves  in  comedy.  Crebillon  and 
Jean-Baptiste  Rousseau  still  wrote;  and  Massillon  was  immortalizing 
himself  by  his  sermon  of  the  "Petit  Careme."  Voltaire  and  Montesquieu 
had  already  appeared  upon  the  scene ;  but  the  two  celebrated  works,  the 
"Henriade"  and  the  "Persian  Letters,"  had  given  the  world  but  a  slight 
idea  of  the  immense  talent^of  their  several  authors,  and  of  the  enormous 
influence  they  were  destined  to  exercise  over  their  age. 


1726-1757.]  CAEDINAL   FLETJEY.  133 


CHAPTER  II. 

CONTINUATION    OF    THE    REIGN    OF    LOUIS   XV.,    FROM    THE    COMMENCEMENT    OF 
THE    MINISTRY    OF    FLEURY    TO    THAT    OF   THE    SEVEN   YEARS'    WAR. 

1726-1757. 

Louis  XV.  had  been  born  with  a  strong  antipathy  for  pomp  and  sIioav, 
and  displayed  from  his  tenderest  years  an  exclusive  taste  for  the  details  of 
private  life.  Fleury,  his  preceptor,  took  pains  to  gain  his  confidence  by 
an  extreme  indulgence,  and  at  the  same  time  endeavoured  to  secure  for 
himself  a  long  ascendancy  over  him  by  keeping  him  apart  from  every 
influence  that  could  elevate  his  mind  and  soul.  The  young  King's 
studies,  as  well  as  his  amusements,*  were  calculated  to  harden  his  heart, 
and  contributed  as  much  as  the  natural  coldness  of  his  disposition  to 
render  him  an  ungracious  master.  The  Regent,  careful  to  retain  an 
absolute  influence  over  his  pupil  after  he  had  attained  his  majority,  had 
dismissed  his  governor,  Marshal  Villeroi,  who  wras  an  obstinate  and  vio- 
lent man.  The  Bishop  of  Frejus,  more  compliant  and  adroit,  inspired 
the  Prince  with  less  distrust,  and  retained  his  post  near  the  young 
Monarch,  whom  he  instructed  with  profound  dissimulation,  and  in 
whose  good  graces  he  insinuated  himself  more  deeply  day  by  day.  He  had 
brought  his  young  charge  at  last  to  see  only  with  his  eyes  and  to  do  only 
what  he  dictated;  and  when  therefore  Louis  XV.  declared,  after  the 
disgrace  of  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  that  he  would  have  no  First  Minister, 
and  Fleury  was  made  a  Cardinal,  it  might  easily  be  foreseen  that  the 
latter,  in  spite  of  his  seventy-three  years,  would  rule  the  c  ,.  ,1Fle 
State,  and  exercise  in  reality  the  Royal  power.  One  of  his  Mmister» 1726- 
first  acts  was  to  abolish  the  tax  of  the  fiftieth,  and  to  fix  the  value  of  the 
silver  mark  at  fifty-one  livres,  from  which  it  has  since  but  slightly  varied. 

*  The  favourite  amusements  of  Louis  XV.  were  games  of  cards,  and  cruel  hunting 
sports  in  large  halls,  where  birds  of  prey  launched  amidst  thousands  of  sparrows  made 
a  hideous  slaughter. — Lemontey,  History  of  the  Regency. 


134  THE    JASTSENIST    SCHISM.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

He  was  anxious  also  to  carry  out  some  wise  economical  plans,  but  being 
totally  ignorant  of  financial  affairs,  he  inflicted  a  dangerous  blow  on 
public  credit  by  arbitrarily  diminishing  the  life  annuities.  The  Cardinal- 
Minister  used  his  utmost  endeavours  to  maintain  peace.  A  general  con- 
gress was  opened  at  Soissons  in  1728,  but  was  dissolved  in  the  following 
year  without  having  achieved  any  practical  result.  Whilst  the  deputies 
France  <*uaran-  °f tne  several  Powers  were  discoursing  Fleury  was  negotiat- 
theSEmpCeror's  °  mg-  He  formed  an  alliance  between  Spain  and  France,  and, 
pragma  ic,  .  .^  173]^  fresh  treaties,  entered  into  at  Vienna  between 
France,  the  Emperor,  Spain,  and  Holland,  guaranteed  to  Charles  VI.  the 
execution  of  his  pragmatic  in  favour  of  his  daughter ;  to  Don  Carlos,  the 
possession  of  the  duchies  of  Parma  and  Piacenza,  and  the  succession  to 
Tuscany.  By  them  also  the  Emperor  promised  to  revoke  the  privileges 
accorded  to  the  Ostend  Company. 

Europe  was  at  peace,  but  the  miserable  quarrel  between  the  Jansenists 
t,  ..  .  and  Molinists  continued  to  scandalize  Paris,  and,  in  fact,  alL 

Rehgious  quar-  ;  7  ' 

rela,  1709-1732.  France.  Fleury  caused  the  meeting  of  a  Council  at  Embrun, 
before  which  was  cited  and  condemned  Jean  Soanen,  one  of  the  four  last 
bishops  who  continued  to  oppose  the  bull  Unigenitus.  Fresh  troubles 
were  excited  by  the  intolerant  zeal  of  M.  de  Vintimille,  who  succeeded 
Cardinal  Noailles  as  Archbishop  of  Paris.  A  dispute  arose  between  him 
and  the  corps  of  advocates,  who  then  assumed  the  title  of  Order,  and  sup- 
ported the  Parliament.  The  King  refused  to  hear  the  magistrates,  and 
many  of  them  were  exiled,  and  then  recalled,  without  any  decisive  result 
to  either  party.  The  Jansenists,  in  this  little  war  so  fatal  to  the  Church, 
endeavoured  to  support  their  cause  by  strange  scenes,  of  which  the 
cemetery  of  Saint  Medard  was  the  theatre.  A  Jansenist  deacon,  named  Paris, 
having  been  buried  there  in  1727,  was  pre-canonized  as  a  saint,  and  a 
report  was  spread  abroad  that  miracles  were  worked  at  his  tomb.  Crowds 
consequently  resorted  to  it,  and  a  vast  number  of  sick  persons  experienced 
at  it  extraordinary  sensations.  It  appears,  indeed,  pretty  certain  that  the 
contagion  of  sympathy  and  the  excitement  of  the  imagination  produced 
actual  effects.  "  It  is  the  work  of  G-od !"  cried  some.  "  It  is  the  work  of 
the  devil !"  exclaimed  others.  The  incredulous  drew  from  this  circum- 
stance fresh  weapons  against  the  faith,  and  at  length  the  Archbishop 
prohibited  any  public  homage  to  Deacon  Paris,  on  the  ground  that  he 
was  not  canonized.      The  advocates  appealed  from  this  decision  as  an 


1*726-1757.]  WAR   FOR   POLAND.  135 

abuse  of  power,  and  the  Parliament  admitted  the  justice  of  their  appeal. 
The  excitement  on  the  subject  now  rose  to  its  utmost  height;  the  ceme- 
tery became  the  general  rendezvous  of  the  multitude,  who  thronged  it  at 
all  hours  in  such  a  tumultuous  manner  that  at  length  the  Government  had 
to  close  it. 

In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Cardinal  Fleury  peace  was  broken  in  conse- 
quence of  the  death  of  Augustus  I.,  Elector  of  Saxony  and  Eupture  of 
King  of  Poland,  in  1703.  This  Prince,  famous  for  his  pro-  Peace> 1733' 
digious  debaucheries,  had  been  raised  to  the  throne  of  Poland  when 
Charles  XII.  had  ceased  to  maintain  on  it  Stanislaus  Leczinski.  The 
latter,  father-in-law  to  Louis  XV.,  now  conceived  the  hope  of  recovering 
the  sceptre  which  he  had  lost.  He  proceeded  in  disguise  to  Warsaw, 
and  was  immediately  proclaimed  king  there.  But  the  Count  de  Munich 
was  sent  into  Poland  by  the  Czarina  Anna  Ivanovna,  the  niece  of  Peter 
the  Great,  and  the  heiress  of  his  throne ;  and  the  Count  caused  the  elec- 
tion of  Frederick  Augustus,  the  son  of  Augustus  I.  This  Prince 
guaranteed  the  pragmatic  of  Charles  VI.,  who  assisted  him  with  troops ; 
whilst  France  could  only  assist  Stanislaus,  besieged  by  the  Eussians  at 
Dantzig,  with  fifteen  hundred  French  soldiers.  Their  support  proved  but 
useless ;  in  spite  of  the  heroism  of  Count  de  Plelo,  who  perished  at  their  head, 
Dantzig  capitulated,  and  Stanislaus,  upon  whose  head  a  price 

&       r  '  .  '     r  r   .        War  for  Poland. 

was  set,  escaped  through  the  midst  of  a  thousand  perils. 
Louis  XV.  avenged  himself  on  the  Emperor  by  seizing  Lorraine.  He 
also  formed  an  alliance  with  Spain  and  Savoy,  the  throne  of  which 
had  been  abdicated  by  Victor  Amadeus,  and  was  now  possessed  by  his  son 
Charles  Emmanuel  III.  Berwick  and  Villars  led  armies  into  Germany 
and  Italy.  Berwick  took  the  fortress  of  Kehl,  and  Milan  fell  before  the 
arms  of  Villars.  In  the  course  of  the  following  year  the  careers  of  these 
two  illustrious  generals  came  to  a  close. 

The  Duke  of  Noailles  and  the  Marquis  of  Asfeld  replaced  Berwick, 
whilst  Marshal  Coigny  and  the  Count  de  Broglie  succeeded  Villars  in  the 
command  of  the  army  of  Italy.  The  two  Belle  Isles,  grandsons  of  the 
famous  Fouquet,  and  the  Count  Maurice  of  Saxony,  a  natural  son  of 
Augustus  I.,  King  of  Poland,  served  in  the  army  of  the  Duke  of  Noailles, 
who  had  for  an  opponent  Prince  Eugene,  under  whom  served  the  Prince- 
royal  of  Prussia,  then  twenty-one  years  of  age,  who  afterwards  became 
Frederick  the  Great.    Don  Carlos,  the  son  of  Philip  V.  and  Elizabeth  Far- 


136  TREATY  OF  VIENNA.      [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

nese,  seized  Naples  and  Sicily ;  and  the  French  troops,  commanded  by 
Battles  f  P  rm  ^e  Marquis  of  Asfeld,  took  Philisbourg  in  the  very  face  of 
Trea^of**11*'  Prince  Eugene.  These  successes  were  followed  by  the  battle 
Vienna,  1738.  0£  parma?  m  which  Coigny  was  the  victor,  and  that  of 
Guastalla,  which  was  won  by  Marshal  Broglie.  The  peace  proposed  in 
_,  .       1735,  when  Prince  Eugene  died,  was  concluded  on  the  fol- 

France  acquires  '  °  ' 

Sedich  a  of  lowing  conditions.  Stanislaus  renounced  the  throne  of  Poland, 
Bar,  1738.  receiving  in  exchange  the   duchies  of  Lorraine  and  Bar, 

which  were  to  revert  to  France.  The  Duke  of  Lorraine,  Francis  Etienne, 
receiving  in  his  turn,  in  exchange  for  those  duchies,  that  of  Tuscany. 
Don  Carlos,  renouncing  his  claim  to  Naples  and  Sicily,  obtained  from  the 
Emperor  Naples  and  Sicily,  when  he  was  crowned  King.  Charles  VI. 
resumed  possession  of  Milan  and  Mantua,  and  France  formally  accepted 
his  pragmatic,  solemnly  engaging  to  defend  it  against  all.  This  treaty  was 
not  signed  until  1738,  and  was  not  agreed  to  by  Spain  until  1739. 
Troubles  in  During  these  negotiations  great  disturbances  broke  out  in 
Corsica.  tjie  jsian(j  0f  Corsica,  then  possessed  by  the  Genoese,  which 

led  to  its  annexation  to  France.  The  cruel  tyranny  of  the  Genoese 
raised  a  revolt  in  this  island,  and  a  German  adventurer,  Baron  von  Neuhoff, 
contrived  to  have  himself  proclaimed  king  there,  and  reigned  for  some 
months  under  the  title  of  King  Theodore  !  Driven,  however,  by  a  tempest 
into  the  Bay  of  Naples,  he  was  made  king  there ;  and  then  the  Corsicans 
appealed  for  assistance  to  the  French,  who  invaded  the  island,  and  soon 
afterwards  evacuated  it  without  having  derived  any  advantage  from  their 
expedition. 

The  Emperor  Charles  VI.  died  in  1740,  in  the  confident  hope  that  his  prag- 
-,  matic,  guaranteed  as  it  was  by  all  the  powers,  would  be  carried 

European  war  '  °  J  r  7 

succestionStrian  out> an{^ tnat  n*s  daughter,  Maria-Theresa,  Queen  of  Hungary, 
1740-1748.  would  inherit  his  State.     But  he  had  scarcely  closed  his  eyes 

when  a  crowd  of  princes  put  forward  pretensions  to  his  vast  possessions, 
and  verified  the  remark  made  by  Prince  Eugene  that  "  in  such  a  case  the 
best  guarantee  would  be  an  army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men." 

Pretenders. 

Amongst  these  princes  the  foremost  were  Charles  Albert,  the 
Elector  of  Bavaria,  and  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  Augustus  III.,  who 
claimed  the  whole  inheritance,  the  one  as  the  descendant  of  a  daughter  of 
Ferdinand  I.,  and  the  other  as  the  husband  of  the  eldest  daughter  of  the 
Emperor  Joseph.     The  King  of  Spain,  Philip  V.,  revived  absolute  claims 


1726-1757.]  wae  or  SUCCESSION.  137 

to  the  kingdoms  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  in  the  hope  of  thereby  being 
enabled  to  bargain  for  establishments  in  Italy  for  the  children  he  had  by 
his   second  wife,  Elizabeth  Farnese.      The  King   of   Sardinia,   Charles 
Emmanuel,  claimed  the    duchy  of  Milan  ;    and  finally,  Frederick  II., 
King  of  Prussia,  sought  to  obtain  Silesia,  which  belonged,  he  said,  by  the 
right  of  reversion,  to  the  Electors  of  Brandenbourg.     Possessed  of  a  full 
treasury,  the  captain  of  a  numerous  and  well-disciplined  army,  and  strong 
in  his  genius,  Frederick  first  of  all  launched  his  battalions    Erederick  n 
upon  this  province,  and   then    bade    Maria-Theresa  sur-    invades  Silesia, 
render  it  to  him,  promising  her,  in  case  she  complied,  to  afford  her  his 
support.     Maria-Theresa  refused,  and  Frederick  thereupon  took  Breslau, 
gained  in  1741  the  battle  of  Molwitz,  and  reduced  the  greater  part  of 
Silesia  to  subjection. 

France  had  not  yet  declared  itself.  It  was  solemnly  engaged  to  support 
the  pragmatic  of  Charles  VI.,  but  Louis  XV.,  entirely  occupied  with  his 
pleasures,  and  Cardinal  Fleury,  enfeebled  by  age,  and  having  very  few 
scruples  with  respect  to  the  faith  due  to  treaties,  had  allowed  the  ambitious 
Count  de  Belle  Isle  to  obtain  the  chief  influence  in  the  Council.  The 
latter  put  forward  the  old  fear  lest  the  House  of  Austria  should  become 
too  powerful,  and  the  King's  Council  devised  a  shameful  subterfuge  by 
which  it  might  reconcile  hostile  projects  with  its  engagements.  It  did  not 
declare  war  directly  against  the  daughter  of  Charles  VI.,  but  it  concluded 
a  treaty  with  the  Elector  of  Bavaria,  the  principal  claimant  to  the  succession 
of  Charles  and  the  Imperial  crown.  Spain,  which  coveted  the  Austrian 
possessions  in  Italy,  entered  into  this  alliance,  which  was  also  joined  suc- 
cessively by  the  Kings  of  Prussia,  Sardinia,  and  Poland.  The  partition 
to  be  made  was  thus  arranged.  Charles,  the  Elector  of  Bavaria,  was  to 
have  the  imperial  crown,  the  kingdom  of  Bohemia,  Upper  Austria,  and 
the  Tyrol ;  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  Moravia  and  Upper  Silesia — the  rest  of 
this  latter  province  was  to  be  given  to  the  King  of  Prussia  ;  and  finally,  the 
Austrian  possessions  in  Italy  were  to  be  given  to  the  King  of  Spain,  as  an 
establishment  for  the  Infant  Don  Philip.    To  Maria-Theresa, 

who   had   married   Francis  de    Lorraine,    Grand-Duke   of  with  France, 

1740. 
Tuscany,  were  left  Hungary,  the  Low  Countries,  and  Lower 

Austria.     This  Princess  had  no   other  ally  than  George  II.,  Elector  of 

Hanover  and  King  of  England.     Two  French  armies,  each  forty  thousand 

strong,  entered  Germany.  The  Count  de  Belle  Isle,  who  had  become  a  Mar- 


138  CAPITULATION   OF   PEAOUE.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

shal,  commanded  one ;  and  the  other  was  confided  to  Marshal  Maillebois, 
who  during  this  campaign  compelled  England  to  remain  inactive  by- 
threatening  Hanover.  The  war  commenced  by  great  successes  in  favour 
of  the  allied  powers.  The  Elector  of  Bavaria  and  the  French  threatened 
Vienna.  Maurice  of  Saxony,  then  a  lieutenant-general  in  the  service  of 
France,  and  the  celebrated  Chevert  took  possession  of  Prague,  where  the 
Elector  of  Bavaria  was  proclaimed  King  of  Bohemia.  A  month 
afterwards  he  was  elected  Emperor  at  Frankfort,  by  the  name  of 
Charles  VII. 

In  the  meantime,  Maria-Theresa,  although  deserted  by  all,  was  true  to 
herself.  She  convoked  the  States  of  Hungary,  presented 
arms  of  Maria-  herself  before  them,  holding  in  her  arms  her  son,  then  only  a 
few  months  old,  and  demanded  their  assistance.  "I  place 
in  your  hands,"  she  said,  "  the  daughter  and  the  son  of  your  Kings,  who 
hope  to  find  in  you  their  safety."  Her  address,  which  was  in  Latin, 
idiome  des  Etats,  electrified  all  hearts,  and  the  Hungarian  nobles,  drawing 
their  swords,  exclaimed,  "  We  will  die  for  our  Sovereign,  Maria-Theresa." 
Prompt  results  followed  these  words.  An  army  was  raised  for  her, 
which  retook  Austria,  invaded  Bavaria,  forced  the  Marquis  de  Segur  to 
capitulate  at  Lintz,  and  deprived  the  Elector  of  all  his  States.  The  King 
of  Sardinia  had  already  renounced  the  League,  and  declared  in  favour  of 
Maria-Theresa.  The  King  of  Prussia  in  his  turn  treated  with  her,  on 
obtaining  the  cession  of  Silesia,  and  the  French  found  themselves  reduced 
in  Bohemia  to  thirty  thousand  men,  shut  in  between  two  armies.  Prague 
was  blockaded  by  the  Austrians.  Marshal  de  Maillebois,  who  was  sent 
to  the  assistance  of  that  city,  could  not  reach  it,  and  was  replaced  by 
Marshal  Broglie,  who  escaped  alone  from  Prague  to  take  the  command. 
The  defence  of  this  capital  was  entrusted  to  Marshal  Belle  Isle,  and  the 
latter,  finding  it  impossible  to  hold  it,  evacuated  it  at  the  head  of  twelve 
thousand  infantry  and  three  thousand  cavalry,  and  effected  a  brilliant 
retreat  on  Egra  in  the  depth  of  a  rigorous  winter.  Chevert,  who  re- 
mained in  Prague  with  six  hundred  sick,  concealed  his  weakness  from  the 
enemy  and  obtained  an  honourable  capitulation. 

Marshal  Noailles  received  orders  to  watch  on  the  Main  the  English 
and  Hanoverian  armies,  commanded  by  Lord  Stair,  and  with  which  were 
also  the  English  Sovereign,  George  IL,  and  his  son  the  Duke  of  Cumber- 
land.    The  English   were  driven  as  far  as  Aschaffenbourg,  above  Hanau, 


1726-1757.]  BATTLE    OF   DETTINGEtf.  139 

between  the  mountains  of  Spessart  and  the  Main,  the  course  of  which,  both 
above  and  below,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  French.  Their  army,  already  tor- 
mented by  famine,and  on  the  point  of  being  enclosed  on  all  sides,  retraced  its 
steps;  Marshal  de  Noailles  watching  them  from  the  other  side  of  the  Maine, 
and  following  all  their  movements.  He  threw  numerous  corps  across  the 
river  in  front  of  the  village  of  Dettingen  and  a  narrow  defile  through  which 
the  enemy  would  have  to  pass.  There  the  Duke  de  Gramont,  the  Marshal's 
nephew,  concealed  with  all  the  maison  du  roi  in  a  deep  ravine,  into  which 
the  English  army  must  necessarily  descend,  was  to  await  it  and  check 
its  advance,  whilst  the  artillery  were  to  be  placed  on  the  other  bank  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  crush  them.  Had  this  plan  been  followed  out  the 
English  army  must  have  been  destroyed,  but  the  rashness  of  Gramont 
saved  it.  Before  it  was  fairly  enclosed,  and  before  the  Marshal  had  given 
the  order  for  the  attack,  Gramont  left  his  post  and  threw  himself  upon 
the  English,  who  crushed  his  troops  with  their  artillery,  which  was 
advantageously  posted  on  a  hill.  Gramont  endeavoured  to  take  it,  but 
in  vain,  and  by  throwing  his  troops  between  the  French  artillery  and  the 
English,  compelled  the  former  to  discontinue  its  fire.  So  Defeatof  Mar- 
many  faults  were  irreparable,  and  the  Marshal,  in  order  to  at  Dettingen, eS 
rescue  his  nephew,  had  to  employ  all  the  resources  with  which 
he  had  intended  to  crush  the  enemy,  and  had  to  throw  his  army  across 
the  river  into  a  narrow  plain,  which  was  incapable  of  holding  it.  At 
length,  after  a  sanguinary  engagement  which  had  no  decisive  results, 
he  ordered  the  retreat,  and  the  English  remained  masters  of  the  field  of 
battle. 

In  the  meantime  Marshal  Broglie  had  been  unable  to  maintain  his 
position  on  the  Danube  against  Prince  Charles  of  Lorraine,  brother  of  the 
Grand  Duke  Francis.  Bavaria  was  evacuated,  and  it  was  impossible  for 
Marshal  Noailles,  after  Broglie's  retreat,  to  maintain  his  position  in 
Franconia,  where  he  had,  during  two  months,  held  the  army  of  the  allies 
in  check.  Such  was  the  unfortunate  conclusion  of  the  campaign  of  1743, 
which  carried  the  war  to  the  frontiers  of  France.  The  Emperor  Charles 
VII.  no  longer  possessed  any  states,  and  this  unfortunate  Prince  signed  a 
treaty  by  which  he  renounced  all  his  pretensions  to  Austria,  engaging 
himself,  as  well  as  the  Empire,  to  remain  neutral  during  the  continuance 
of  the  war,  and  leaving  his  hereditary  possession,  Bavaria,  until  a  general 
peace,  in   the  hands  of  Maria-Theresa,  whom  he  had  endeavoured  to 


140  DEATH  OF  CARDINAL  ELEURY.   [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

despoil,  and  who,  by  the  Treaty  of  Worms,  strengthened  her  alliance  with 
England  and  the  King  of  Sardinia. 

France  in  this  struggle,  from  which  she  could  hope  to  gain  no  advantage, 
had  lost  all  her  allies.  Fleury,  who  now  died  more  than  ninety  years  old, 
had  been  opposed  to  this  burdensome  war,  but  had  had  the  weakness  to 
jremain  nominally  at  the  head  of  the  government  when  he  had  lost  the 
power  to  maintain  peace. 

The  year  1744  saw  the  whole  of  Europe  taking  part  in  the  war.  Spain, 
Cam  aien  of  wn^cn  was  already  contending  with  England  in  the  interests 
1744.  0f  ]ier  commerce,  united  her  navy  with  that  of  France,  and 

the  two  fleets,  numbering  thirty  vessels,  under  Admiral  Court  and  Joseph 
de  Novaro,  attacked  Admiral  Matthews,  who,  with  thirty-four  vessels, 
was  blockading  the  port  of  .Toulon.  The  result  was  a  drawn  battle. 
About  the  same  time  twenty-four  French  vessels  left  Brest  to  convey  to 
England  twenty-four  thousand  men  and  Prince  Charles,  the  heir  of  the 
Stuarts.  But  a  tempest  dispersed  the  fleet,  and  the  expedition  had  no 
success. 

Genoa,  despoiled  by  the  Treaty  of  Worms,  declared  itself  against  Austria, 
and  Frederic  II.,  anxious  with  respect  to  the  safety  of  Silesia,  promised  to 
retake  the  field.  According  to  the  plan  of  campaign  adopted  by  France, 
the  Prince  of  Conti  was  to  command  in  the  Alps,  and  to  assist  Don  Philip 
and  the  Spaniards,  whilst  Marshal  Coigny  remained  on  the  defensive  in 
Alsatia,  and  the  chief  effort  was  to  be  directed  against  the  Low  Countries, 
where  Marshal  Noailles  was  ordered  to  besiege  the  strong  places,  whilst 
his  operations  were  covered  by  Maurice  of  Saxony,  who  had  been  recently 
made  a  French  Marshal.  The  King  accompanied  the  army  in  person ; 
a  hundred  thousand  French  soldiers  threw  themselves  upon  the  Low 
Countries,  and  a  great  part  of  Flanders  had  already  been  taken,  when 
information  was  received  that  Prince  Charles,  at  the  head  of  eighty 
thousand  men,  had  crossed  the  Rhine  at  Spire,  that  he  had  taken  the 
lines  of  Wissembourg,  and  had  repulsed  Marshal  de  Coigny.  It  was  now 
necessary  to  change  the  plan  of  the  campaign,  to  direct  the  principal  part 
of  the  forces  upon  Alsatia,  and  in  Flanders  to  remain  on  the  defensive. 
Maurice  of  Saxony  only  retained  forty-five  thousand  men,  whilst  with 
the  rest  of  the  army  Marshal  Noailles  moved  upon  the  Rhine.  The  King 
wished  to  accompany  him ;  but  a  serious  illness  compelled  him  to  remain 
at  Metz. 


1726-1757.]  DEA.TH   OF    CHAELES  Til.  141 

Already  for  many  years  past  Louis  XV.,  giving  way  to  his  passions 
and  the  perfidious  instigations  of  those  who  speculated  in   Illnesg  of 
his  vices,  had  abandoned  himself  to  a  course  of  loose  plea-    Lou,s xv> 1745- 
sures.    Four  sisters  of  the  Baron  de  Nesle  were  successively  his  mistresses ; 
and  the  last  of  them,  who  had  received  from  him  the  title  of  Duchess  of 
Chateauroux,  had  accompanied  the  Court  to  Metz,  where  the  King  had 
fallen  seriously  ill.     Whilst  he  was  still  in  danger,  and  the   people,  who 
were  fond  of  him  and  called  him  the  well-beloved,  were  addressing  fervent 
prayers  to  heaven   in   all   the    churches  for  his  restoration  to  health, 
Bishop  Fitz-James,  in  the  proper   discharge  of  his  duty,  demanded  and 
obtained  the  dismissal  of  the  Duchess.     When  the  King  recovered,  how- 
ever, the  bishop  was  disgraced,  the  favourite  recalled,  and  Louis,  who  was 
more  surprised  than  moved  at  the  emotion  which  France  had  displayed 
during  his  illness,  not  unreasonably  inquired  what  he  had  done  to  deserve 
so    much   affection.      Nevertheless   they   were    noble    words   which   he 
addressed  during  his  illness  to   Marshal  Noailles,  who  was  at  that  time 
opposed    to   Prince   Charles — "Write   to  him,"    he    said,    "that  whilst 
Louis  XIII.  was  being  carried  to  the  tomb  the  Prince  of  Conde  won  a 
battle." 

Frederic  now  made  a  fresh  expedition  into  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  and 
within  twelve  days  had  forced  the  garrison  of  Prague,  consisting  of  eighteen 
thousand  men,  to  capitulate.  Prince  Charles  left  the  Ehine  in  all  haste, 
and  was  supported  by  a  diversion  which  the  King  of  Poland  made  in  the 
rear  of  the  Prussian  army ;  but  their  united  efforts  were  not  able  to 
prevent  the  evacuation  of  Bavaria  by  the  Austrians  and  the  invasion  of 
Piedmont  by  the  Prince  and  Don  Philip,  after  heroic  exploits  in  imprac- 
ticable defiles.  The  Emperor  Charles  VII.  for  a  third  time  entered 
Munich,  his  capital,  worn  out  by  chagrin  and  sickness,  and  died  there  in  the 
following  year,  forty-seven  years  of  age,  "  leaving,"  says  Voltaire,  "  this 
lesson  to  the  world,  that  the  height  of  human  greatness  is 

Death  of  the 

compatible  with  the    depth  of  human  misery."     His  son    Emperor  Charles 

VAX, j  J./^tot 

Maximilian- Joseph,  taught  by  the  misfortunes  of  his 
father,  deceived  the  hopes  of  those  who  flattered  themselves  that  they 
would  be  able  to  oppose  him  to  Maria-Theresa;  for  he  entered  into 
negotiation  with  her,  and  promised  his  support  to  the  Grand  Duke 
Francis,  her  husband,  whom  she  hoped  to  raise  to  the  Imperial  throne. 
Louis  XV.,  irritated  at  this  pretension,  continued  the  war. 


142  BATTLE  OE  EONTENOY.      [BoOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

He  resolved  to  conduct  the  campaign  with  the  greatest  activity  in  Italy 
„     and  Flanders,  and  to  keep  his  army  in  Germany  on  the 

Campaign  of  7  x  J  J 

1745.  defensive.     Marshal   Saxe  invested  Tournay,    which     was 

defended  by  a  Dutch  garrison ;  and  an  English  army,  under  the  com- 
mand of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  made  great  efforts  to  raise  the  siege. 
Marshal  Saxe  immediately  drew  up  his  troops  in  order  of  battle  beyond 
the  Scheldt ;  with  the  village  of  Fontenoy  in  front  of  his  centre,  that  of 
Antoigne*  on  his  right,  and  the  wood  of  Barri  on  his  left.  All  these 
positions  were  defended  by  formidable  batteries.  On  the  11th  May  the 
enemy  advanced  to  attack  the  French  in  this  strong  position ;  the  English 
occupying  the  centre,  the  Austrians  holding  the  right  under  Count 
Koenigsberg,  and  the  Dutch  forming  the  left  under  the  Prince  of  Waldeck. 
The  two  armies  were  each  about  forty-five  thousand  strong  ;  but  Marshal 
Saxe  was  sick,  and,  being  incapable  of  mounting  his  horse,  was  borne 
through  the  lines  in  a  litter.  Louis  XV.  and  the  Dauphin  were  present 
with  the  army,  and  his  head-quarters  were  established  at  the  village  of 
Antoigne*.  After  a  long  and  ineffectual  cannonade  the  English  advanced, 
and  rushed  forward  to  take  the  village  of  Fontenoy  under  the  protection 
of  a  terrible  fire.  HI  supported  by  their  auxiliaries,  they  changed  the 
direction  of  their  attack  and  advanced  alone  against  the  French  lines, 
which  extended  between  Fontenoy  and  the  wood  of  Barri.  They  closed 
up  into  a  formidable  column,  so  as  to  offer  a  less  frontage  to  the  artillery, 
and  overthrow  the  feeble  corps  opposed  to  them.  Two  lines  of  French 
infantry  were  pierced,  and  the  column,  now  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
batteries,  was  on  the  point  of  turning  the  French  left  and  taking  the 
village  of  Antoign6,  in  which  was  the  King,  who  was  urgently  entreated  to 
retreat ;  he  refused,  however,  and  the  Marshal  coming  up,  secured  the 
victory.  The  enemy's  column  suffered  enormous  loss ;  four  pieces  of 
artillery  in  reserve  were  directed  against  it,  and  made  a  frightful  gap  in 

its  ranks.  The  French  cavalry  threw  themselves  upon  it  at  a 
Victory  of  Mar-  -.•-..  •  -,  -,  i  i 

shaisaxe  at         gallop,  surrounded  it  on  every  side  and  swept  what  remained 

Eontenoy,  1745.     °        r"  J  _'  . 

of  it  before  them.  Nine  thousand  English,  wounded  or  slain, 
remained  on  the  field  of  battle.  A  few  days  later  Tournay  was  taken, 
whilst  almost  the  whole  of  Flanders  was  occupied,  and  its  principal 
towns  and  cities  became  the  prize  of  this  important  victory. 

The  French    arms  were  no   less    fortunate  in   Italy  under  Marshal 
Noailles  and  the  Infant  Don  Philip.     All  the  Austrian  possessions  in  Italy 


1726-1757.]  BATTLE   OF    CTLLODEN.  143 

fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  fortresses, 
and  the  King  of  Sardinia  found  himself  reduced  to  his  capital.  In  Ger- 
many, however,  the  Austrians  made  head  against  the  French,  and  recovered 
Frankfort,  where,  on  the  15th  September,  the  Grand  Duke  Francis  was 
proclaimed  Emperor.  The  King  of  Prussia  had,  three  months  previously, 
obtained  a  great  victory  at  Friedburg ;  and  the  cession  of  the  province  of 
Glatz,  which  was  annexed  to  Silesia,  rendered  this  Monarch  neutral. 

Charles  Edward  having  landed  in  Scotland,  after  having  been  declared 
Regent  by  his  father,  obtained  victories  at  Prestonpans  and 
Falkirk,  and  caused  at  this  time  (1745-1746)  much  anxiety  feat  of  the  Pre- 

~  ___-._.„  _     .       ._,  _  /-.-i-i-i,        tender,l745-l746. 

to  George  II.  The  defeat  of  the  Pretender  at  Culloden  by 
the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  however,  ruined  the  hopes  of  himself  and  of 
those  who  had  supported  his  cause.  After  enduring  great  perils  and 
sufferings,  he  succeeded  in  returning  to  France,  and  from  thenceforth  for 
ever  abandoned  England,  where  his  formidable  appearance  was  the  cause 
of  and  the  pretext  for  the  infliction  of  terrible  cruelties  on  his  fol- 
lowers. 

Germany,  Flanders,  and  Italy  continued  to  be  the  scenes  of  a  desperate 
war.  The  Austrians  drove  the  French  from  Piedmont,  seized  Genoa,  and 
invaded  Provence.  Genoa,  subjected  by  them  to  a  yoke  of  iron,  heroically 
threw  it  off;  and  when  it  was  again  besieged,  Boufflers  and  Richelieu 
flying  successively  to  its  assistance,  secured  its  safety.  Marshal  Belle  Isle 
forced  the  Austrians  to  evacuate  Provence,  and  Maurice  of  Saxony, 
victorious  over  Prince  Charles  at  Rocoux,  made  the  conquest  of 
Brabant  (1747). 

The  terrors  of  this  sanguinary  war  also  extended  to  the  East.     La 

Bourdonnais,  Governor  of  the  Isles  of  France  and  Bourbon,  _,.,„ 

1  '  Military  opera- 

entered  on  an  enterprise  which  was  calculated  to  inflict  a  andSf  LaBPleiX' 
terrible  blow  on  the  commercial  interests  of  England  in  donnais  in  India' 
the  East  Indies.  Having  armed,  without  any  assistance  from  his  govern- 
ment, nine  vessels,  he  vanquished  a  division  of  the  English  fleet,  and, 
keeping  the  rest  at  a  distance,  boldly  landed  some  thousands  of  troops 
in  the  very  face  of  Madras,  where  the  English  had  one  of  their  principal 
factories.  The  city  was  besieged  and  capitulated,  but  con-  „ 
tradictory  instructions  had  been  given  by  the  French  Minister  Madras- 
to  La  Bourdonnais  and  to  the  famous  Dupleix,  Governor-General  of  the  es- 
tablishments of  the  French  East  India  Company,  and  the  latter,  jealous  of 


144  occupation  or  madeas.      [Book  IV.  Chap.  II. 

his  brilliant  colleague,  and  relying  on  his  secret  orders,  refused  to  recognise 
the  capitulation  which  La  Bourdonnais  had  signed,  and  depriving  him  of 
his  conquest,  took  possession  of  it  himself.  Denounced  by  Dupleix,  La 
Bourdonnais  on  his  return  to  France  was  loaded  with  chains  in  return 
for  his  glorious  services,  and  was  thrown  into  the  Bastile.  Nevertheless, 
Dupleix,  in  spite  of  his  weaknesses  and  his  errors,  was  a  great  man,  and 
was  the  first  to  conceive  and  put  in  practice  the  system  afterwards  fol- 
lowed with  indefatigable  perseverance  by  the  English,  and  which  gave 
them  their  Indian  Empire.  This  system  was  analogous  to  that  which 
had  enabled  Cortez  and  Pizarro  to  achieve  the  conquests  of  Mexico  and 
Peru,  and  consisted  in  taking  advantage  of  the  rivalries  existing  between 
the  various  native  princes,  and  in  declaring  in  favour  of  those  who  seemed 
most  likely  to  subserve  the  interests  of  the  East  India  Company.  The 
political  state  of  India  at  this  period  was  very  propitious  to  the  success  of 
such  a  plan.  The  Empire  of  the  Mogul  was  but  a  phantom.  The  in- 
vasion of  Jhanso  Kouli-Khan  had  deprived  the  Court  of  Delhi  of  all  its 
prestige ;  and  a  species  of  feudality  had  been  established  in  India  which 
rendered  the  nabobs  or  governors  almost  as  independent  of  the  subahdars 
or  viceroys,  as  the  latter  were  of  the  Grand  Mogul  himself,  by  whom 
they  were  invested  with  their  sovereignties.  Success  had  crowned  the 
arms  of  a  crowd  of  usurpers,  and  from  them  arose  pretensions  without 
bounds,  and  conflicts  without  number.  Usurpation  was  to  be  found  in 
every  direction,  positive  right  nowhere  ;  and  it  was  on  the  basis  of  this 
state  of  things  that  Dupleix  formed  his  plans.  He  resolved  to  transform 
simple  factories,  a  few  weak  and  penurious  possessions,  into  a  vast  and 
powerful  kingdom,  and  did,  indeed,  lay  the  foundations  in  India  of  a 
French  Empire ;  but  he  was  supported  neither  by  the  Company  nor  his 
Government,  and  had  to  succumb  after  he  had  maintained  during  several 
years  a  most  heroic  struggle  in  a  most  unequal  conflict. 

The  continental  war  absorbed  all  the  attention  and  resources  of  the 
French  Government. 

The  unfortunate  engagement  of  the  Col  d'Exilles  in  Dauphine,  in 
which  the  Chevalier  Belle  Isle,  a  brother  of  the  Marshal  of  that  name, 
was  slain,  with  four  hundred  men,  whilst  attempting  to  force  an  impreg- 
nable position,  was  atoned  for  by  a  brilliant  victory  gained  at  Lawfeld 
by  Maurice  of  Saxony  over  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  which  opened  to 
that  great  general  the  road  to  Holland.     The  conquest  of  many  cities 


1726-1757.]  PEACE    OP    APX-LA-CHAPELEE.  145 

was  the  result  of  this  glorious  battle  ;   Bergen-op-Zoom,  which  had  resisted 
the  Duke  of  Parma  and  Spinola,  being,  amongst  others,  taken  Battle  o{  Law. 
by  General  Lowendahl.     The  English,  on  the  other  hand,  feld' 1747, 
inflicted  terrible  blows  on  our  navy,  the  French  fleet,  after  an  heroic  con- 
test, being  destroyed  off  Cape  Finisterre.     Some  months  later  a  second 
squadron,  the  last  which  France  possessed  on  the  ocean,  succumbed  in  its 
turn  in   an  unequal  struggle   near   Belle-Isle,  with   a  fleet  of  fourteen 
vessels  of  the  line  under  Admiral  Hawke,  every  one  of  the  French  ships 
being  captured.     France  now  sighed  for  peace,  and  Maurice  of  Saxony, 
as  the  best  means  of  bringing  it  about,  hastened  to  invest  the  city  of 
Maestricht ;  whereupon  the  preliminaries  of  the  much-desired  peace  were 
almost    immediately    signed    at    Aix-la-Chapelle.      By  the  Peaceof  Aix-ia- 
terms  of  this  peace  the  King  of  Prussia  retained  possession  chaPelle> 1748- 
of  his  conquests;  Don  Philip,  the  brother   of  Don  Carlos,  obtained  the 
duchies  of  Parma,  Piacenza,  and  Guastalla ;  and  finally,  the  English  the 
position  they  had  held  in  Asia  and  America  before  the  war.      They 
recovered  Madras  in  India,  and  in  the  New  World  gave  up  Louisburg  and 
Cape  Breton,  but  acquired  the  whole  of  Acadia.     France  restored  Savoy 
to  the  King  of   Sardinia,  the  Low   Countries  to  the  Empress   Maria- 
Theresa  ;  and  to  the  Dutch  all  the  places  she  had  taken  from  them.     By 
a  secret  article  she  undertook  not  to  afford  an  asylum  to  Charles  Edward, 
who  was  forthwith  expelled  by  an  order  of  the  Government ;  and  the  final 
result  of  this  sanguinary  and  unjust  war,  which  had  lasted  so  many  years, 
was  an  enormous  addition  to  the  French  debt  of  twelve  hundred  millions. 
Prussia  alone  gained  by  this  war  a  considerable  increase  of  territory  and 
influence,  and  suddenly  became  one  of  the  great  powers  of  the  Continent. 
Some  salutary  edicts  were  issued  during  the  years  which  immediately 
followed  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle ;  and  amongst  this 

Royal  edicts, 

number  may  be  mentioned  the  law  of  Mortmain,  the  last  1745-1748. 
sealed  by  the  illustrious  DAguesseau,  which  restrained  the  clergy  from 
accumulating  additional  wealth.  Argenson,  the  Minister  of  War,  son  of 
the  former  Keeper  of  the  Seals  of  that  name,  established  in  1751  a  mili- 
tary school  for  five  hundred  gentlemen  without  fortune,  and  Machault, 
the  Comptroller- General,  issued  the  famous  edict  authorizing  the  free 
commerce  within  the  kingdom  in  grain,  which  had  hitherto  been  subjected 
to  a  thousand  shackles  injurious  to  agriculture.  Machault,  an  honest 
man  and  an  able  administrator,  was  undoubtedly  the  greatest  of  the 
vol.  n.  L 


146  PROJECTS    OF    MACHATJLT.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

fourteen  comptrollers-general  who  succeeded  each  other  in  the  reign  of 
Louis  XV.  It  was  he  who  established  the  tax  of  five  per  cent.,  destined 
p  to  form  a  sinking  fund  ;  strongly  impressed  by  all  the  evils 

^ai^sfonof5  wni°n  resulted  from  the  unequal  distribution  of  the  taxes, 
taxation.  an(j  ^1Q  unfair  privileges  enjoyed  by  the  two  first  orders,  he 

proposed  to  render  the  tax  of  five  per  cent,  perpetual,  and  to  substitute 
it,  with  a  great  extension,  for  the  taille  and  other  unfair  and  burdensome 
imposts.  Machault  had  already  overcome  the  strenuous  resistance 
opposed  to  his  wise  plans  by  the  Parliaments,  the  pays  d'etats,  and  the 
clergy,  when  the  King's  mistress,  the  Marquise  de  Pompadour,  whose 
pride  Machault  had  not  sufficiently  conciliated  in  an  important  matter, 
procured  his  dismissal.  The  clergy  preserved  the  privilege  it  enjoyed 
of  determining  what  charges -it  would  bear,  and  maintained  its  right  of 
only  paying  its  share  of  the  taxes  under  the  name  of  "  free  gifts." 

Louis  XV.,  solely  occupied  by  his  scandalous  pleasures,  had  but  a  slight 
share  in  the  wise  measures  of  his  Council.  Madame  de  Pompadour 
exercised  over  him  the  most  complete  influence,  and  it  was  she  who, 
flattering  his  shameful  caprices,  had  a  great  share  in  forming  the  infamous 
seraglio  branded  by  the  name  of  the  Parc-aux-Cerfs,  the  expenses  of  which 
absorbed  enormous  sums.  Nevertheless,  Louis  XV.  was  extremely 
scrupulous  in  respect  to  the  outward  observances  of  religion,  and  took  an 
active  part  in  the  religious  quarrels  by  which  France  was  agitated.  They 
were  renewed  with  scandal  by  the  intolerance  of  M.  de  Beaumont, 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  who  pushed  his  hatred  of  Jansenism  so  far  as  even 
to  order  that  extreme  unction  should  be  refused  to  dying  persons  who 
should  be  not  only  not  convicted,  but  even  suspected  of  adhering  to  the 
opinions  condemned  by  the  bull  Unigenitus.  Confessional  tickets  were 
demanded  of  the  sick,  and  their  orthodoxy  was  esteemed  according  to  the 
names  of  their  spiritual  directors.  The  Parliament,  supported  by  public 
opinion,  protested  against  these  measures,  and  decided  that  the  cure  of 
Saint-Etienne  du  Mont  should  be  tried  for  having  refused  to  administer  the 
sacraments.  The  King's  Council,  however,  annulled  this  decree,  and  en- 
joined respect  to  the  bull  as  the  law  of  the  Church  and  the  State.  Violent 
discussions  followed  between  the  Parliament  and  the  Archbishop,  and,  on 
the  refusal  of  the  sacrament  to  a  nun,  the  temporalities  of  the  prelate  were 
seized,  he  himself  summoned  to  appear,  and  the  Court  of  Peers  convoked. 
The  King  prohibited  the  Peers  from  attending  to  this  summons,  ordered 


1726-1757.]         SUPPRESSION   OP   COURTS   OP   REQUESTS.  147 

the  Parliament  to  stay  its  proceedings,  refused  to  listen  to  its  remonstrances, 
and  exiled  it.  In  the  place  of  the  exiled  Parliament  a  Eoyal  Court  was 
established,  composed  of  Councillors  of  State  and  Masters  of  Requests ;  but 
the  Chatelet  refused  to  acknowledge  its  authority ;  the  advocates,  attorneys, 
and  registrars  refused  to  obey  it,  and  the  course  of  justice  was  thus 
interrupted  during  four  months. 

The  King  perceived  at  length  that  he  must  effect  a  compromise,  and, 
on  the  23rd  August,  1754,  amidst  the  rejoicings  on  the  occasion  of  the  birth 
of  the  Duke  of  Berri,  who  was  the  unfortunate  Louis  XVI.,  the  Parliament, 
recalled  to  Paris,  re-entered  it  amidst  the  acclamations  of  the  Jansenists, 
the  philosophers,  and  the  populace.  The  Archbishop  and  many  cures 
thereupon  displayed  with  additional  violence  their  inquisitorial  zeal. 
Being  admonished  by  the  Council  they  gloried  in  exposing 

i  -i  i  -itai-i'-i'-i'  Quarrels  between 

themselves  to  martyrdom,  and  the  Archbishop  m  his  turn    the  Clergy  of 

f  Paris  and  the 

was  exiled,  with  two  other  prelates  and  the  furious  cure  of   Parliament, 

1  r  1748-1756. 

Saint-Etienne  du  Mont.  The  Procureur- General  appealed 
against  the  bull  Unigenitus  itself  as  an  abuse,  and  the  King's  Council 
again  censured  the  Parliament.  The  latter  ventured  to  suppress  a  concilia- 
tory brief  of  Pope  Benedict  XIV. ;  and,  its  boldness  increasing  with  its 
irritation,  it  refused  to  register  the  edicts  for  fresh  taxes  on  the  breaking 
out  of  a  war  with  England.  It  then  leagued  itself  with  the  other  Parliaments 
of  the  kingdom  against  the  great  Council,  endeavouring  to  form  of  all  the 
superior  courts  of  the  French  magistracy  one  single  body,  which  should  be 
divided  into  different  classes,  and  which  should  be  sufficiently  strong  to 
resist  the  arbitrary  measures  of  the  Court.  The  Chancellor  Lamoignon 
insisted  in  the  King's  Council  on  the  danger  which  might  result  from 
these  bold  measures,  and  on  the  13th  December,  1756,  in  a  Bed  of 
Justice,  the  King  had  three  edicts  registered,  the  principal  purport  of 
which  was  to  renew  the  injunction  of  respect  to  the  bull,  to  deprive 
every  magistrate  of  less  than  ten  years'  standing  of  a  deliberative  voice, 
to  enforce  the  registration  of  edicts  after  the  permitted  remonstrances,  to 
prohibit  any  interruption  to  the  course  of  justice  under  the  penalties  of 
disobedience,  and  to  suppress  the  major  portion  of  the  Courts  of  Inquests 
and  Requests,  the  usual  sources  of  the  most  violent  measures. 

These  acts  of  Royal  power,  and  especially  the  last,  struck  the  Parliament 
with  dismay.  The  people,  whom  the  remonstrances  against  the  fresh 
taxes  strongly  interested  in  the  resistance  of  the  magistrates  to  the  Court, 

l  2 


14S  THE    KING    STABBED.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

encouraged  them  in  their  opposition  by  the  most  noisy  testimonies  in  its 
favour.  It  became  enthusiastic  in  the  cause  of  the  Parliament,  launched 
invectives  against  the  prodigalities  and  scandalous  life  of  the  King,  and 
became  exasperated  to  the  highest  pitch  when  it  found  that  all  the 
magistrates,  with  the  exception  of  thirty-one  members  of  the  great 
chamber,  had  given  in  their  resignation.  Such  was  the  state  of  popular 
feeling  in  the  capital  when,  on  5th  January,  1757,  an  unhappy  wretch, 
named  Damiens,  stabbed  the  King  at  the  gates  of  the 
assassinate  the     palace  of  Versailles.     The  wound  was  only  slight,  but  it 

King,  1757.  .     ._ 

was  feared  that  the  weapon  was  poisoned,  and  the  King 
himself  believed  that  he  had  reached  his  last  moments.  The  opinion  of 
the  Court  attributed  this  crime  to  the  popular  excitement  caused  by  the 
violent  opposition  of  the  Parliament ;  and  the  magistrates  trembled  at  the 
extent  of  their  peril.  Most  of  those  who  had  sent  in  their  resignations 
hastened  to  offer  their  services  at  Versailles  and  to  protest  their  devotion. 
In  the  course  of  the  assassin's  trial  there  appeared  good  reason  to  suppose 
that  he  had  no  accomplices.  The  Court  of  Peers,  formed  of  the  peers  of 
the  kingdom,  and  the  magistrates  who  had  retained  their  seats,  tried  the 
criminal,  and  condemned  him  to  the  frightful  punishment  inflicted  on 
regicides.  He  had  his  right  hand  burnt  in  a  fire  cf  sulphur,  his  flesh  was 
torn  with  red-hot  pincers,  and  molten  lead  was  poured  on  his  wounds ; 
he  was  then,  whilst  still  living,  torn  asunder  by  four  horses ;  when  the 
fragments  of  his  body  were  burnt  to  ashes  and  their  cinders  thrown  to 
the  winds. 

After  this  frightful  proceeding  Louis  XV.  endeavoured  to  conciliate 
the  popular  feeling ;  the  greater  number  of  the  magistrates  were  recalled, 
and  the  Parliament  resumed  its  habitual  functions. 

The  Marquise  de  Pompadour,  who  was  dismissed  from  the  palace  whilst 

.  the  King  considered  himself  in  danger,  returned  in  triumph, 

de  Poh^oadour     an(j  tfce    Minister   Machault,  who  had  contributed  to  her 

restored  to  7 

favour.  temporary  disgrace,  and  Argenson,  who  had  openly  exulted 

in  it,  were  sacrificed  to  her  anger.  These  two  Ministers  were  the  most 
able  members  of  the  Council,  which,  now  that  it  was  deprived  of  all 
its  talent  and  strength,  remained  under  the  direct  influence  of  the 
Marquise. 

At  this  period  a  general  war  had  already  broken  out  in  the  two  worlds. 
The  governments  of  France  and  England  had  long  since  ceased  to  ex- 


1726-1757.]  DTJPLEIX   AND    CLITE.  149 

change  pacific  assurances,  whilst  their  agents  were  disputing  in  Asia  and 
America  for  the  possession  of  immense  territories.    Dupleix 

War  in  India 

had  filled  the  whole  of  India  with  his  name,  and  France,  by  his    between  the 

'  7    \  English  and 

talents  and  courage,  had  been  rendered  the  ruler  over  thirty   Erench  Com- 

°  ^      pames. 

millions  of  men  occupying  the  Deccan  from  the  river  Kristna 
to  Cape  Comorin.  The  English,  through  the  whole  extent  of  that  magnifi- 
cent territory,  only  possessed  at  that  time  the  city  of  Madras  with  its  environs, 
and  a  few  fortresses,  of  which  the  principal  was  Fort  Saint  David.  Chunda- 
Sahib,  a  creature  of  Dupleix's,  was,  under  the  latter's  authority,  recognised 
as  Nabob  of  the  Carnatic ;  a  single  city,  Trichinopoly,  alone  DUpieix  an^ 
still  declared  for  his  rival,  Mahomet  Ali,  who  was  protected  c  lve' 
by  the  English,  and  had  taken  refuge  within  its  walls.  Chunda-Sahib 
advanced  to  besiege  it  with  his  army ;  it  resisted ;  and  from  that  time 
declined  the  fortune  of  Dupleix  and  French  Empire  in  India.  They 
fell  before  the  genius  of  a  single  man,  who  had  been  born  to  give  an 
empire  to  England,  and  whose  name  was  Robert  Clive.  This  extraordi- 
nary man,  after  some  brilliant  preliminary  exploits,  marched  to  the  relief 
of  Trichinopoly,  which  was  besieged  by  an  army  composed  of  Indian  and 
French  troops,  and  by  his  skilful  tactics  drove  the  besiegers  into  a 
position  in  the  island  of  Seringham,  on  the  river  Cauvery,  in  which  they 
found  themselves  besieged,  and  were  forced  to  lay  down  their  arms.  The 
Nabob  Chunda-Sahib  surrendered  himself  to  a  Hindoo  chief,  and  was 
poniarded;  his  rival,  Mahomet  Ali,  was  presented  with  his  head,  and 
Trichinopoly  was  saved. 

At  this  point  there  is  a  pause  in  Clive's  brilliant  career.  Fatigue  had 
seriously  affected  his  health  ;  and  after  some  other  operations,  which 
were  equally  successful,  he  returned  to  England  (1753),  where  he  met 
with  the  reception  he  deserved.  Very  different  was  the  conduct  of  the 
Government  and  the  Company  towards  Dupleix,  who,  in  spite  of  the 
severe  blow  inflicted  on  French  interests  in  the  Carnatic,  had  courageously 
pursued  his  skilful  policy,  and  begun  to  repair  his  losses.  He  took 
advantage  of  a  struggle  which  had  arisen  between  Mahomet  Ali  and  the 
Mahratta  and  Mysorian  chiefs,  and  with  indefatigable  activity  and  bound- 
less generosity  made  prodigious  efforts.  His  object  was  not  wealth,  but 
renown ;  he  desired  to  obtain  for  his  country  power  and  glory,  and  with 
this  aim  in  view  he  lavished  the  remains  of  his  fortune.  He  formed  and 
disciplined  a  new  army ;  nominated  and  supported  a  new  Nabob  of  the 


150  DUPLEIX  DISGBACED.      [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

Carnatic ;  again  invested  Trichinopoly,  and  besieged  Arcot,  whilst 
the  most  illustrious  companion  of  his  labours,  the  heroic  Bussy,  continued 
to  fight  and  to  conquer  for  France. 

If,  under  these  circumstances,  the  French  Government  and  the  India 
Company  had  afforded  Dupleix  some  effectual  assistance,  France  might 
at  this  day  have  been  reigning  from  the  coast  of  Malabar  to  that  of 
Coromandel.  But  Dupleix  was  abandoned.  The  Company,  finding  its 
dividends  diminished  by  reason  of  the  troubles  in  the  Carnatic  and  Clive's 
victories,  no  longer  received  his  reports  with  confidence,  and  showed  but 
little  disposition  to  support  him ;  whilst  at  the  same  time  public  opinion, 
which  had  been  intoxicated  by  the  news  of  his  first  successes,  suffered  an 
instantaneous  reaction  when  it  was  informed  of  his  first  reverses,  lent 
a  ready  ear  to  the  eloquent  complaints  of  La  Bourdonnais,  a  prisoner  in 
Disgrace  of  ^ne  Bastile,  and  saw  in  Dupleix,  who  had  contributed  to 
upeix.  liig  ruin,  nothing  but  a  jealous  and  cruel  tyrant.     At  length 

the  feeble  Government  of  Louis  XV.  began  to  fear  that  the  rivalry  in 
India  between  the  two  Companies  might  lead  to  hostilities  between  the 
two  nations,  and  that  France  might  thus,  in  spite  of  herself,  be  dragged 
into  a  war  with  England.  France  wished  for  peace,  and  flattered 
herself  that  this  might  be  preserved  by  timid  concessions ;  but  these 
delusions  were  dispelled  by  England.  Dupleix  disquieted  it  by  his 
ambition,  his  genius,  and  his  successes.  It  feared  the  marvellous  power 
of  this  man ;  and  the  terror  with  which  he  inspired  the  English,  who  saw 
in  him  the  chief  obstacle  to  their  progress  in  India,  induced  them  to 
demand  of  France  that  he  should  be  sacrificed.  An  understanding  Was 
come  to  between  the  two  Governments,  in  spite  of  the  earnest  remon- 
strances of  the  French  East  India  Company,  that  everything  in  the  East 
should  be  placed  on  the  same  footing  on  which  it  stood  before  the  late 
struggles,  and  that  the  acquisitions  of  territory  made  on  either  side  since 
the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  should  be  exchanged,  although  the  English 
had  acquired  scarcely  anything,  and  the  conquests  of  the  French,  and 
especially  the  concessions  they  had  obtained,  were  very  considerable. 
At  this  price  England  led  the  French  Government  to  believe  that  peace 
would  be  maintained,  although  it  had  already  fitted  out  and  sent  to 
India  a  squadron  of  ships  of  war. 

The  French  Government  still  had  time  to  render  Dupleix's  position  in 
India  tenable ;  all  that  was  required  for  this  being  that  the  Government 


1726-1757.]  FBANCE    LOSES    HER   CONQUESTS.  151 

should  permit  the  Company  to  support  its  Governor  at  its  own  expense ; 
in  which  case  nothing  would  have  been  definitely  compromised  or  lost. 
Clive  had  returned  to  London,  and  we  have  already  seen  that  Dupleix 
lavished  his  own  resources  with  incomparable  generosity,  and  made  the 
most  tremendous  exertions  to  repair  the  reverses  which  had  been 
sustained.  Trichinopoly,  again  besieged,  was  on  the  point  of  falling  into 
his  power,  and  to  take  it  he  only  awaited  a  reinforcement  of  twelve 
hundred  men,  enlisted  and  paid  by  the  Company,  which  had  long  been 
promised.  They  arrived  at  length,  but  accompanied  by  a  Government 
commissioner  named  Godeheu,  who  had  been  sent  to  treat  with  the 
English,  to  supersede  Dupleix,  and  to  send  him  to  France.  Dupleix,  who 
had  long  foreseen  his  fall,  at  once  obeyed,  and  surrendering  his  authority, 
quitted  for  ever  the  scene  of  a  prosperity  which  was  extraordinary  as  his 
disgrace.  After  having  been  the  possessor  of  immense  treasures,  extended 
his  sway  over  thirty  millions  of  men  and  vast  territories,  he  returned  to 
France,  stripped  by  his  own  hands,  because  he  had  wished  to  bestow  an 
empire  on  his  country.  He  appealed  in  vain  to  his  glorious  services,  his 
rights,  and  his  immense  sacrifices,  and  after  a  few  years  died  in  poverty 
and  neglect,  as  did  his  rival  and  victim,  La  Bourdonnais. 

Dupleix  had  scarcely  quitted  the  soil  of  India  when  an  ignominious 
treaty,  which  was  afterwards  ratified  in  Europe,  was  con- 
cluded at  Madras  by  the  commissioners  of  the  two  MaS^LoL 
Governments  (October,  1754) ;  the  principal  clauses  of  which  Cf  Dupieix,Ui754. 
stipulated  :  1st,  that  neither  of  the  Companies  should  inter- 
fere in  the  internal  politics  of  India ;  2nd,  that  the  agents  of  neither 
Company  should  accept  from  the  native  governments  either  dignities, 
offices,  or  honours ;  3rd,  that  all  places  and  territories  occupied  by  them 
should  be  restored  to  the  Grand  Mogul,  with  the  exception  of  those  which 
they  had  severally  possessed  before  the  late  war ;  4th,  that  the  two 
Companies  should  divide  between  them  the  important  district  of  Masuli- 
patam,  and  that  all  their  possessions  should  be  placed  on  a  footing  of 
perfect  equality — and  thus  were  lost  in  a  few  days  the  fruits  of  so  many 
remarkable  exploits,  of  the  profound  policy  and  of  the  astonishing  efforts 
of  a  great  man.  England  inherited  in  the  Indies  all  the  influence  of  which 
France  deprived  herself,  and  she  could  now  freely  and  fearlessly  lay  in 
the  East  the  foundation  of  her  future  empire  there. 

The  state  of  things    was  not  more  propitious    to  the    maintenance 


152  HOSTILITIES    IN    AMEEICA.         [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

of   peace   in   North   America,    where,    during   the    preceding   hundred 

and  fifty  years,   England    and   France   had    founded   con- 

of  the  English  and  siderable    colonies.     On    the  one    hand,    the    boundaries 

French  in  North  at  at  o 

America,  of  Acadia  or  Nova  Scotia,  which  was  ceded  to  England  by  the 

1753-1754.  .  °  J 

Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  were  ill  denned,  and  on  the  other, 
French,  who  were  the  possessors  of  Canada,  had  ascended  the  St.  Law- 
rence as  far  as  the  lakes  Erie  and  Ontario,  and  now  wished,  by  means  of  a 
ehain  of  strong  forts  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  to 
connect  their  establishments  in  Canada  with  those  which  they  had  in 
Louisiana,  whilst  the  colonists  of  Virginia  or  New  England  demanded 
as  a  dependency  of  their  territory  the  vast  district  to  the  south  of 
the  St.  Lawrence,  from  the  Alleghany  or  Blue  Mountains  to  the  banks 
of  the  Ohio.  From  these  rival  pretensions  arose  perpetual  quarrels 
_.  ,  tT  .  between  the  colonists  of  the  two  nations ;  and  already,  in 
1753-1754.  1753,  a  Virginian  major,  ordered  to  dislodge  the  French  from 

Fort  Duquesne,  on  the  Ohio,  had  been  surrounded  by  a  superior  force  in  a 
place  named  Great  Meadows,  and  had  been  forced  to  capitulate.  This 
major  was  George  Washington,  and  the  affair  in  which  he  makes  his  first 
appearance  in  history,  was  to  be  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  the  war 
which  was  soon  to  set  the  world  in  flames. 

In  the  following  year  a  French  officer,  M.  de  Jumonville,  sent  to 
demand  the  surrender  of  a  fort  in  the  occupation  of  the  English,  perished, 
together  with  thirty  of  the  men  under  his  command,  and  this  catastrophe 
was  regarded  in  France  as  an  odious  violation  of  the  rules  of  war  and  the 
law  of  nations. 

The  French  colonists,  in  alliance  with  the  native  tribes,  speedily  exacted 
a  bloody  revenge  on  a  body  of  twelve  hundred  troops  sent  by  the  English 
Government,  under  the  command  of  General  Braddock,  to  the  assistance 
of  Virginia.  Braddock,  a  rash  and  haughty  man,  disdaining  the  pre- 
cautions necessary  in  a  war  of  skirmishes,  to  which  he  was  unaccustomed, 
was  assailed  whilst  on  his  way  to  attack  Fort  Duquesne,  in  the  midst  of 
a  defile  clothed  in  the  wood,  by  a  troop  of  French  and  Indians,  who, 
invisible  themselves,  fired  on  his  own  exposed  men  from 

Defeat  and  death 

of  General  Brad-  every  direction.     Braddock  himself,  and  seven  hundred  of 

dock,  1755.  J 

his  soldiers,  perished  in  this  ambush. 
The   sea  was  less  propitious  to  the  French  arms.     The  squadron  of 
Admiral  Boscawen  attacked  a  French   division  off  Newfoundland,  and 


1726-1757.]  THE    EALSE   PEACE    BEOKEtf.  153 

took  two  vessels ;  and  shortly  afterwards,  by  an  order  of  the  English 
Admiralty  and  in  accordance  with  an  odious  system,  the  English  ships 
of  war  fell  upon  the  French  mercantile  marine,  and  took  three  hundred 
merchant  vessels  without  any  previous  declaration  of  war. 

Thus  the  pacific  hopes  of  the  French  Court  were  frustrated  in  every 
direction  ;  and  at  length  the  scales  fell  from  the  eyes  of  the  King,  as  he 
witnessed  the  disappearance  one  by  one  of  the  illusions  to  which  he  had 
sacrificed  in  the  Indies  the  prospect  of  an  empire,  by  recalling  Dupleix, 
and  abandoning  that  great  man's  undertaking.  His  Government  de- 
manded an  explanation  of  the  English  Government  of  the  acts  of  violence 
of  which  the  English  navy  had  been  guilty  by  the  seizure  of  our  mer- 
chant ships ;  its  complaints  were  treated  with  contempt ;  and  war  was 
soon  afterwards  declared. 


154  THE    SEVEN   YEARS'    WAB.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 


CHAPTER  HI. 

FROM   THE    COMMENCEMENT    OF    THE    SEVEN   YEARS'    WAR   TO    THE    DEATH    OF 

LOUIS   XV. 

The  war  which  broke  out  in  1756  between  England  and  France  speedily- 
embraced  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  its  ravages  extended  over  the  entire 
world.  Maria-Theresa,  regretting  the  loss  of  Silesia,  which  had  been 
ceded  to  Prussia,  and  hoping  to  recover  that  province,  had  formed  an 
alliance  with  Elizabeth  Petrowna,  the  Empress  of  Russia,  Augustus  HI., 
the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  King  of  Poland,  and  the  King  of  Sweden, 
Frederic  Adolphus.  Louis  XV.,  who  had  been  long  in  alliance  with 
the  King  of  Prussia  against  Maria-Theresa,  had  no  feeling  of  resentment 
against  that  Prince,  but  the  support  of  France  was  especially  desired  by 
the  Queen  of  Hungary,  and  as  she  knew  how  to  natter  Madame  de 
Pompadour,  who  was  much  incensed  at  some  ridicule  directed  against 
her  by  Frederic,  she  contrived  to  procure  an  alliance  between  the  two 
crowns.  They  reciprocally  undertook  to  furnish  a  contingent  of  twenty- 
four  thousand  men  to  aid  in  repelling  the  attacks  by  which  either  might 
be  threatened ;  and  soon  all  the  forces  of  the  kingdom  were  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  Austria. 

This  terrible  and  deplorable  war,  known  under  the  name  of  the  Seven 
The  SevenYears'  Years'  War,  commenced  with  circumstances  favourable  to 
War,  1756-1773.  France>  The  Duke  of  Richelieu,  who  had  hitherto  been 
only  known  for  his  gallantries,  at  once  made  the  scandal  of  his  vices 
forgotten  by  the  conquest  of  Minorca,  an  island  in  the  Mediterranean, 
which  the  English  had  taken  possession  of  during  the  war  of  the  succes- 
sion in  Spain.  The  French  Government  equipped  at  Toulon  a  formid- 
able expedition,  destined  apparently  for  America,  but  in  reality  intended 
for  Minorca.  At  the  commencement  of  April  everything  was  ready; 
the  Duke  of  Richelieu  was  entrusted  with  the  command  of  the  expedi- 
tion, whilst  Admiral  Galissoniere  with  twelve  ships  of  war,  was  to  escort  the 


1756-1774]  FLIQHT   OF   BYNG.  155 

transports,  protect  the  disembarkation,  and  cover  the  attack.  The  English 
Ministry  had  received  numerous  intimations  of  what  was  intended  without 
paying  any  attention  to  them,  and  at  length,  only  when  it  was  too  late, 
made  hasty  and  insufficient  preparations  of  defence,  and  sent  Admiral 
Byng  to  the  assistance  of  the  threatened  island.  When  Byng  arrived  off 
Minorca  the  French  were  besieging  the  formidable  citadel  of  St.  Philip, 
which  commands  Mahon,  the  capital  of  the  island,  and  its  magnificent 
port.  The  garrison  numbered  about  three  thousand  men,  and  in  the 
absence  of  its  Governor,  his  lieutenant,  old  General  Blakeney,  in  spite  of 
his  age  and  infirmities,  made  an  obstinate  defence.  The  hopes  of  the 
besieged  lay  in  Byng's  fleet,  which  was  almost  equal  in  number  and 
strength  to  that  of  the  French ;  and  on  the  20th  of  May 

Naval  victory  of 

they  fought.     The  left  wing  of  the  English,  under  Admiral   the  French  be- 

J  °  &  °         '  fore  Minorca. 

West,  had  at  first  the  advantage,  but  was  badly  supported. 
The  French  line  of  battle,  which  had  been  temporarily  broken,  was 
speedily  reformed,  and  by  superior  tactics  was  victorious  over  all  the 
efforts  made  by  Admiral  Byng,  who,  losing  all  hope  of  being  able  to 
relieve  it,  abandoned  Minorca  to  its  fate,  and  sailed  with  his  squadron  for 
Gibraltar.*  The  French  now  redoubled  their  efforts.  Richelieu  ordered 
an  assault,  and,  encouraging  the  besiegers  by  his  own  example  under  a 
most  murderous  fire,  carried  all  the  outer  works,  sword  in  hand,  forced 
the  fortress  to  capitulate,  and  won  Minorca  for  France.  The  victory 
obtained  by  the  French  fleet  off  Mahon  subsequently  cost 

.  .  .  Taking  of  Port 

Admiral  Byng  his  life  :  for  his  defeat  was  imputed  to  trea-   Mahon  by 

J    °  \  r  Eichelieu. 

son,  and  having  been  tried  and  found  guilty,  he  was  shot. 

Frederic  II.  did  not  wait  to  be  attacked  by  his  enemies,  but  in  reply 
to  the  new  league  formed  against  him,  hastened  to  invade  skiifuioperations 
Saxony,  and  took  Dresden,  from  which  the  King  of  Poland  ofFredericI  • 
was  forced  to  fly.  He  then  encountered,  at  Lowositz,  Marshal  Brown, 
at  the  head  of  fifty  thousand  Austrians,  and  with  only  half  that  number 
of  troops  compelled  him  to  repass  the  Eger.  He  next  hastened  to 
Pima,    where    the    Saxon   army  was   blockaded,   and   compelled  it  to 

*  The  French  Admiral  followed  the  English  fleet  as  far  as  the  island  of  Ivica.  On 
the  21st  he  returned  to  resume  his  post  at  the  entrance  of  the  port,  to  bar  the  passage 
to  the  reliefs  which  might  have  entered  in  his  absence.  He  wrote  to  Marshal  Eiche- 
lieu:— "I  have  preferred  your  glory  to  my  own,  and  the  principal  object  of  our  expe- 
dition to  any  honour  I  might  myself  have  acquired  by  the  pursuit  of  a  few  of  the 
enemy's  vessels,  which  appear  to  be  in  a  very  distressed  condition." 


156  PEENCH    TICTOEIES.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 

capitulate.  Besides  the  twenty-four  thousand  men  promised  to  Austria, 
and  commanded  by  the  Prince  of  Soubise,  sixty  thousand  French  troops 
entered  Germany  under  Marshal  d'Estrees,  and  threatened  the  Electorate 
of  Hanover,  a  possession  of  the  King  of  England.  D'Estrees  vanquished 
Cumberland  at  Hastemberg,  at  the  moment  when  a  Court  intrigue  re- 
placed him  by  Marshal  Kichelieu,  who  followed  his  plans  for  the  cam- 
paign, drove  the  Hanoverians  into  a  corner  near  Stade  on  the  Elbe,  and 
forced  Cumberland  to  sign  the  capitulation  of  Closterseven 
Closterseven,0      (1757)  ;  which  sent  one  portion  of  his  army  to  its  homes, 

1757 

condemned  another  portion  to  inaction,  and  placed  the 
Electorate  of  Hanover  at  the  mercy  of  France. 

Frederic,  victorious  over  Prince  Charles  of  Lorraine  at  the  sanguinary 
battle  of  Prague,  was  afterwards  himself  vanquished  by  Marshal  Daun 
at  Chotzemitz,  and  lost  twenty-five  thousand  men,  when  he  learned  the 
successive  defeats  of  his  generals  and  the  disastrous  capitulation  of 
Closterseven.  A  check  for  Frederic,  however,  was  only  the  prelude 
to  a  victory  ;  he  multiplied  his  troops,  so  to  speak,  by  carrying  them  with 
the  utmost  rapidity  from  one  portion  of  his  states  to  another ;  and  when 
vanquished  and  pursued,  he  always  showed  himself  in  force  where  least 
expected.  This  memorable  war  put  the  crowning  touch  to  his  glory  :  he 
had  to  contend  with,  simultaneously  and  alone,  the  French,  Austrians, 
and  Eussians,  commanded  by  able  generals ;  he  saw  armies  twice  as 
strong  as  his  own  invade  his  states ;  he  lost  his  capital,  and  was  himself 
frequently  surrounded ;  but,  displaying  in  the  midst  of  all  his  perils 
the  most  astonishing  skill,  he  issued  victorious  from  every  trial,  and 
found  his  power  only  the  more  firmly  established  after  a  struggle 
in  which,  according  to  all  human  foresight,  it  was  destined  to  be 
destroyed. 

Overwhelmed  by  the  reverses  of  his  generals  in  this  terrible  campaign 
of  1757,  and  still  more  by  the  capitulation  of  the  English  at  Closterseven, 
surrounded  by  several  armies  in  Saxony,  and  held  in  check  by  Marshal 
Daun,  Frederic  appeared  to  be  without  any  resource,  and  for  a  moment 
believed  himself  lost,  but  his  genius  still  contrived  to  win  fortune  to  his 
side.  He  escaped  the  Marshal  with  admirable  skill,  and  boldly  went  to 
reconnoitre  the  French  army  commanded  by  Soubise,  and  that  of  the 
Imperialists,  which,  united,  were  advancing  to  surround  him.  By  a 
series  of  able  manoeuvres  before  them  he  induced  them  to  believe  that 


1756-1774.]  THE    BATTLE   OE   LISSA.  157 

he  was  anxious  to  avoid  them,  and  at  length  encamped  in  an  advantageous 
position  at  Rosbach.  Soubise  endeavoured  to  surprise  him  and 

,  .  i  t  i  i  •  n  Victory  of 

strove  to  turn  his  camp  ;    but  all  his  movements  were  fore-  Frederic  at 

T-i-i-i  -ii-r.  •  i  it  Eosbach,  1757. 

seen.  Frederic  changed  his  front  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  enemy,  whom  he  allowed  to  approach  his  columns,  and  when  the 
French  and  Imperialists  arrived  within  reach  of  his  cannon,  Fredericks 
tents  dropped  to  the  ground,  and  the  Prussian  army  appeared  between 
two  hills,  from  which  volleyed  a  murderous  fire.  The  assailants  were 
struck  with  stupor,  and  the  Imperial  troops  fled  without  fighting.  Their 
example  was  followed  by  the  French  infantry,  which  retired  in  disorder 
before  six  Prussian  battalions,  and  left  behind  them  three  thousand  dead 
and  seven  thousand  prisoners.  The  Marquis  de  Castries,  at  the  head  of 
the  cavalry  and  two  Swiss  regiments,  alone  did  his  duty  in  this  battle, 
which  is  almost  unexampled  in  the  military  annals  of  France. 

Frederic  took  no  repose  after  this  unhoped-for  victory,  but  flying  into 
Silesia,  which  was  almost  lost,  won,  against  Prince  Charles  and  Daun,  the 
bloody  battle  of  Lissa,  near  Breslau.  The  English  then  broke  the  capitu- 
lation of  Closterseven,  and  the  Hanoverian  army  reappeared  under 
Ferdinand  of  Brunswick,  its  new  commander,  who  asserted  that  he  had 
nothing  to  do  with  this  military  convention.  Such  were  on  the  Continent 
the  principal  results  of  this  first  campaign,  during  which  the  master  of  a 
kingdom  which  had  been  scarcely  half  a  century  in  existence,  overcame 
almost  unaided  the  power  of  France  and  Austria,  and  deserved  the 
surname  of  Great  by  vanquishing  the  armies  of  the  two  most  formidable 
powers  on  the  Continent. 

The  Count  of  Clermont  lost  in  the  following  year  the  battle  of 
Crevelt,  against  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick,  and  was  super-  Battle  of  Crevelt 
seded  by  the  Marquis  de  Contades  :  Soubise,  and,  under  him,  58' 
the  Duke  de  Broglie,  partly  repaired,  however,  at  Sondershausen  and  at 
Lutzelberg,  the  disasters  of  this  bloody  battle,  and  the  French  re-entered 
Hanover;  but  in  1759,  Brunswick,  vanquished  by  the  Duke  de  Broglie 
at  Berghen,  vanquished  in  his  turn  the  Marshal  de  Contades  at  Minden  in 
Westphalia.  Frederic  then  fought  with  varied  success  against  the  Aus- 
trians  and  Russians;  and  the  most  murderous  battle  of  this  campaign 
was  that  of  Zorndorf,  where  thirty-three  thousand  men,  of  whom  twenty- 
two  thousand  were  Russians  and  eleven  thousand  Prussians,  remained  on 
the  field  of  battle. 


158  EEFORMS   IN   THE   ADMINISTRATION.    [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 

Pitt,  afterwards  Lord  Chatham,  the  Minister  of  George  II.,  was  at  this 
time  at  the  head  of  the  English  Cabinet.     He  directed  his 

IjOSSPS  of  *Fl*flTlCG 

in  America  and     attention  to  the  colonies,  and  gave  fresh  vigour  to  maritime 

Asia,  1757-1759.  .  .  .  -•.**•■»» 

operations.  Acadia,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  Marquis 
de  Montcalm,  remained  in  the  power  of  the  English  ;  Quebec  was  taken 
after  a  battle  fought  under  its  walls,  in  which  perished  the  two  comman- 
ders-in-chief, Wolfe  and  Montcalm,  and  in  1760  the  English  snatched  from 
the  grasp  of  France  the  whole  of  Canada.  Our  arms  had  not  been 
more  fortunate  in  Africa,  where  we  lost  Senegal ;  or  in  Asia,  where 
the  English  became  masters  in  1757  of  the  French  establishment  of 
Chandernagore  on  the  Ganges.  Count  de  Lally,  who  was  of  Irish  origin, 
but  of  a  violent  and  despotic  character,  was  entrusted  by  Louis  XV. 
with  the  duty  of  avenging  our  defeats  in  the  East.  His  first  exploit 
was  to  seize  Fort  Saint  David,  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel,  and  to  raze 
its  defences ;  but  differences  which  arose  between  him  and  the  commander 
of  the  naval  squadron,  Count  d'Ache,  were  fatal  to  the  interests  of 
France. 

England  was  at  this  time  threatened  by  the  descent  upon  her  coasts  of 
two  French  armies,  under  Chevert  and  the  Duke  d'Aiguillon,  which 
NaTai  disasters,  were  to  be  protected  by  two  French  squadrons.  The  first  of 
these,  however,  which  was  commanded  by  M.  de  la  Clue,  was  destroyed 
by  Admiral  Boscawen  off  Cape  Saint  Vincent,  whilst  two  months  later 
the  second,  under  Marshal  de  Conflans,  underwent  the  same  fate  within 
sight  of  the  coast  of  Brittany.  A  division  of  this  fleet  entered  the  river 
Vilaine  and  was  obliged  to  remain  there.  This  defeat  was  regarded  as 
ignominious,  and  the  defeat  was  disgracefully  known  as  the  Battle  of  M, 
de  Conflans. 

The  Duke  de  Choiseul,  a  friend  of  men  of  letters  and  philosophers, 
whom  he  protected,  supported  by  Madame  de  Pompadour,, 

Ministry  of  the       ._  -,,-,,/,        Mn  .  -»«■••  r       -n 

Duke  de  Choi-      had  succeeded  the  Abbe  de  Bernis  as  Minister  tor  1  oreign 

seul. 

Affairs;  the  general  direction  of  affairs  being  under  M. 
de  Silhouette,  who  commenced  his  duties  by  some  useful  measures,  by  one 
of  which  he  reduced  the  enormous  profits  of  the  Farmers  General  to  one 
half;  creating  seventy-two  thousand  shares  of  a  thousand  livres  each, 
amongst  which  he  divided  the  other  half.  The  whole  of  them  were  taken 
up  immediately,  and  within  four-and-twenty  hours  the  Comptroller- 
General  had  obtained  seventy-two  millions.     Overwhelmed  with  praises 


1756-1774.]  LALLT   EXECUTED.  159 

on  this  occasion  by  every  mouth,  he  was  equally  decried  when,  in  1759, 
his  reforms  attacked  the  rights  of  the  upper  classes.  On  the  22nd  Sep- 
tember he  had  registered  at  a  Bed  of  Justice  an  edict  of  Territorial  Sub- 
vention, which  subjected  to  taxation  without  exception  all  the  classes 
which  had  previously  been  exempt  from  it.  The  outcry  was  general,  and 
the  Magistracy  was  the  first  to  exclaim  against  the  wise  measure  with  so 
much  violence  that  it  was  never  carried  out.  M.  de  Silhouette  then 
suspended  a  portion  of  the  payments  due  from  the  Treasury,  and  invited 
the  citizens  to  take  their  silver  plate  to  the  Mint  to  be  coined.  England, 
informed  of  this  penury,  believed  that  France  was  without  resources,  and 
refused  to  treat  with  her. 

The  campaign  of  1760  was  glorious  in  Germany  for  Marshal  Broglie, 
who  vanquished  the  Hereditary  Prince  of  Brunswick  at  Campatenof 
Corbach,  near  Cassel,  for  the  capture  of  which  he  was  pre-  176°* 
paring.  One  of  the  corps  of  his  army,  commanded  by  the  Marquis  de 
Castries,  took  up  its  position  near  to  Rhumberg,  on  the  river  bank, and  being 
attacked  by  the  Prince,  gained  a  brilliant  victory  which  delivered  WeseL 
A  sublime  instance  of  self-devotion  immortalized  this  battle.  The  Cheva- 
lier d'Assas,  a  captain  in  the  regiment  Auvergne,  having  been  sent  out 
during  the  night  to  reconnoitre,  was  surprised  by  the  Hanoverians  within 
ear-shot  of  the  French  camp,  and  twenty  bayonets  directed  against  his  breast 
To  speak  he  knew  was  to  die,  but  "  Help,  Auvergne!"  he  cried;  "it  is 
the  enemy  !"  He  fell,  pierced  through  and  through  by  the  bayonets  of  the 
enemy,  but  the  French  camp  was  not  surprised.  Frederic  now  escaped 
in  Saxony  from  the  numerous  armies  which  surrounded  him,  and  van- 
quishing successively  Laudhon  at  Lignitz,  and  Daun  at  Torgau,  retook 
Silesia. 

Pondicherry,  which  numbered  eighty  thousand  inhabitants,  whom  the 
governor,  Lally,  had  alienated  by  his  pride  and  despotism,  Taking  of  Pondi- 
fell  in  the  course  of  this  year  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  c  erry* 
Count  d'Ache,  who  was  called  upon  to  relieve  this  place,  did  not  appear, 
and  seven  hundred  soldiers  were  all  that  remained  for  its  defence.  The 
town  was  taken,  and  its  fortifications  razed;  and  Lally,  returning  to 
France,  was  accused  of  treason,  and  paid  for  his  defeat  with  his  life.  The 
Parliament  condemned  him,  and  he  was  even   insulted  bv 

J      Trial  and  execu- 

being  conveyed  to  the  scaffold  gagged.     He  left  behind  him   *j°j  °L?onera2 
a  son  who  was  a  worthy  avenger  of  his  memory. 


160  DUKE    DE   BROGLIE    DISGRACED.     [Book  IV.  CHAP.  I1T. 

Choiseul,  who  became  Minister  of  War  after  the  death  of  Marshal 
Belle  Isle,  offered  to  make  peace  with  George  III.,  who  now  suc- 
ceeded George  II.  on  the  English  throne.  Lord  Bute,  who  was 
Prime  Minister,  was  willing  to  accede  to  his  wishes,  but  Pitt  opposed 
his  views,  and  his  counsels  prevailed.  The  Duke  de  Choiseul,  after 
having  in  vain  attempted  to  reanimate  the  national  enthusiasm, 
endeavoured  to  secure  the  support  of  Spain,  where  Charles  III. 
now  reigned;  and  on  the  16th  of  August,  1761,  his  exertions  were 
crowned  by  the  signature  of  the  celebrated  Family  Treaty.  This  treaty, 
which  was  arranged  in  secret,  stipulated  that  the  various  branches  of 
the  House  of  Bourbon  should  reciprocally  assist  each  other,  and  declared 
that  the  enemies  of  any  one  branch  should  be  regarded  as  the  enemies  of 
the  others.  France  had  lost  in  the  course  of  the  last  war  thirty-seven 
ships  of  the  line,  and  fifty-six  frigates,  and  the  assistance  of  the  Spanish 
fleet  was  but  a  feeble  balance  to  a  loss  so  enormous. 

On  the  16th  of  July,  some  days  before  the  signature  of  the  Family 
Treaty,  Marshals  de  Broglie  and  Soubise,  having  effected  a  junction, 
threatened  the  Prince  of  Brunswick,  whose  army  they  encountered  at 
Filingshausen,  near  the  Lippe,  when  the  want  of  concert  between  these 
two  generals  deprived  them  of  the  victory.  They  then  had  a  serious 
quarrel,  and  the  Prince's  mistress  constituted  herself  the  judge  between 
them.  Those  who  most  sedulously  courted  Madame  de  Pompadour  were, 
in  her  eyes,  the  best  generals  ;  and  we  may  judge  by  this  example  how 
far  the  deplorable  weakness  of  Louis  XV.  weakened  the  power  of  his 
throne.  Soubise  paid  great  court  to  the  favourite,  and  gained  the  day. 
The  vanquished  general  of   Rosbach    triumphed  in  the  Royal  boudoir 

over  the  victor  of  Berghen  ;  and  the  Duke  de  Broglie,  who 
the^Duke  de      was  dear  to  France  for  his  talents  and  his  successes,  was 

banished  and  superseded  by  old  Marshal  d'Estrees. 
In  the  meantime,  pressed  close  by  the  Imperial  army  and  the  Russians, 
Frederic  was  driven  to  bay,  when  the  death  of  the  Empress  Petrowna, 
which  took  place  on  the  2nd  of  January,  1762,  released  him  from  his 
perilous  position.  Elizabeth  left  her  throne  to  Peter  III.,  her  nephew, 
who  was  a  passionate  admirer  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  and  of  whom  he 
declared  himself  the  friend  and  protector ;  but  yielding  unreservedly  to 
his  passion  for  innovations  he  wounded  the  prejudices  of  his  people,  and 
was  dethroned,  after  a  reign  of  six  months,  by  his  own  wife,  Catherine  of 


1756-1774.]  ABOLITION    OF    THE    JESUITS.  161 

Anhalt-Zerbst,  who  assumed  the  crown  by  the  name  of  Catharine  II., 
and  some  days  afterwards  the  unfortunate  Peter  III.  was  assassinated.  The 
Empress  declared  herself  neutral ;  and  the  results  of  the  campaign  of  1762, 
the  last  of  this  bloody  war,  left  each  party  in  the  same  state  as  before. 
England,  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal  then  signed  preliminary  conven- 
tions, which  were  converted  into  a  definitive  peace  on  the  10th  of 
February,  1763,  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  which  was  disgraceful  to 
France.  This  power  ceded  to  England  a  portion  of  Louisiana,*  Canada 
and  its  dependencies,  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  and  all  the  other 
islands  in  the  Gulf,  and  the  river  St.  Lawrence.     England 

Peace  of  Paris. 

retained  Senegal,  in  Africa :   and  in  the  East  Indies,  each    Surrender  of 

077  7  nearly  all  the 

nation  resumed  possession  of  the  territories  they  had  held   French  Colonic 

1  J  in  America,  1763. 

previous  to  the  commencement  of  the  war,  on  condition  that 
France  should  not  send  troops  there.  The  island  of  Minorca  and  Port  St. 
Philip  were  restored  to  England,  and  France  gave  up  to  King  George  his 
Electorate  of  Hanover.  The  English  who,  a  century  before,  had  only  pos- 
sessed, beyond  the  British  Isles,  the  islands  of  Jersey  and  Guernsey,  now 
found  themselves  masters  of  a  multitude  of  islands  and  strong  naval 
stations  in  every  sea ;  whilst  the  French  navy  was  almost  annihilated,  and 
the  empire  of  the  ocean  was  given  over  to  England.  Peace  was  at  the 
same  time  signed  between  the  Empress  Maria-Theresa,  the  Elector  of 
Saxony,  and  the  King  of  Prussia  ;  and  after  seven  sanguinary  campaigns  the 
three  powers  stood  on  the  same  footing  as  before  the  war.  Frederic  re- 
tained Silesia  and  Glatz,  by  promising  his  support  to  the  son  of  Maria- 
Theresa,  the  Archduke  Joseph,  who  was  selected  as  King  of  the  Romans, 
and  succeeded  to  the  Empire  on  the  18th  of  August,  1765. 

The  last  years  of  this  war  were  signalized  by  the  abolition  of  the  Order 
of  the  Jesuits  in  the  kingdom  of  France.     The  philosophers 

.      t-,      ,.  ,     .  .  ,  ,      f.  Abolition  of  the 

and  the  Parliaments  were  their  enemies,  and  sought  ior  an  Order  of  Jesuits 

in  France,  1764. 

opportunity  of  striking  them  a  mortal  blow,  which  they  found 
in  the  failure  of  the  Jesuit  Lavalette  for  many  millions.  The  Society,  for- 
mally summoned  to  be  answerable  for  him,  refused  to  do  so ;  whereupon  the 
Procureur- General,  and  especially  La  Chalotais,  the  Procureur- General  of 
the  Parliament  of  Brittany,  launched  against  the  members  of  the  Order  an 
immense  number  of  suits.     The  Jesuits  defended  themselves  but  feebly ; 


*  The  remainder  of  Louisiana  was  ceded  by  France  to  Spain,  to  recompense  her  for 
3  cession  of  Florida  to  England. 
VOL.  II.  >  M 


162  DEATH    OF   MADAME    DE    POMPADOUB.     [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 

numerous  sequestrations  were  made,  and  their  constitution,  examined  in 
detail,  was  vehemently  attacked  at  every  point.  An  assembly  of  Bishops, 
convoked  by  the  King's  command,  pronounced  in  favour  of  the  maintenance 
of  this  Order,  which  was  secularized  by  the  Parliaments  in  1762.  The  Duke 
de  Choiseul  vigorously  supported  the  magistracy,  and  the  King  sacrificed 
the  Jesuits  to  his  repose.  Their  Order  was  suppressed  throughout  the 
kingdom  by  an  edict  of  1764,  which  gave  them  permission  to  reside  *  in 
France  as  simple  private  persons.  All  the  Bourbon  Courts  declared  them- 
selves at  the  same  time  against  this  famous  society ;  the  Jesuits  were  suc- 
cessively driven  from  Portugal,  Spain,  Naples,  and  Parma;  and 

Total  destruction     ,       ,    ,    -.  .  „  ,,       ~    ,  ,,  ,.   .      - 

of  the  Order  of  the  total  suppression  oi  the  Order  was  earnestly  solicited  at 
Rome  by  the  Duke  de  Choiseul,  who,  on  this  condition,  pro- 
mised the  restoration  to  the  Holy  See  of  the  Venetian  province.  Refused 
by  Clement  XIII.,  this  request  was  complied  with  by  the  celebrated  Ganga- 
nelli,  who  was  Pope  by  the  name  of  Clement  XIV.,  and  who  thus 
destroyed  the  firmest  support  of  the  rights  of  the  Court  of  Rome.  Two 
sovereigns  who  were  not  Catholics,  Frederic  II.  in  Prussia,  and  Catharine 
in  Russia,  were  the  only  ones  who  gave  to  the  Jesuits  an  asylum  and 
protection  in  their  states. 

Madame  de  Pompadour,  who  was  the  cause  of  the  unfortunate  part 
which  France  bore  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  died  in  the  year  following 
the  conclusion  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  and  was  soon  after  succeeded  as 
mistress  to  Louis  XV.  by  a  woman  of  low  origin,  whom  an  infamous 
alliance  decorated  with  the  name  of  the  Countess  du  Barri,  and  whom 
the  King  introduced  with  the  greatest  effrontery  into  his  Court  and  the 
bosom  of  his  family.  In  the  course  of  the  next  four  years  he  lost  the 
Dauphin,  the  Dauphiness,  his  father-in-law,  Stanislaus-Leczinski,  who 
perished  by  an  accident  at  an  advanced  age;  and  the  Queen,  Maria 
Leczinski,  who  only  survived  her  father  two  years. 

By  the  death  of  Stanislaus-Leczinski,  Lorraine  had  become  incorporated 

with  France,  and   Corsica  was  also  added  to  the  French 

Lorraine  with       Crown  two   years   later.      Gafforio,    who   had   driven   the 

France,  1766.  .  . 

Genoese  from  the  isle,  died  by  assassination  in  17 bo.  The 
intrepid  Pascal  Paoli  succeeded  him  as  the  head  of  the  party  of  Inde- 
pendence. The  French,  who  had  descended  upon  Corsica  in  1756  under 
pretext  of  foiling  the  designs  of  England  upon  this  island,  obtained  the 


1756-1774.]        DISSENSIONS    OF   THE    COURT   AND   PARLIAMENT.  163 

delivery  into  their  hands  of  the  maritime  places  as  protectors.     In  1768 
Genoa  surrendered  all  its  rights  over  Corsica  to  France,  and 

Acquisition  of 

M.  de  Chauvelin  immediately  proclaimed  Louis  XV.  King  Corsica  by 

•    r  °    France,  1768. 

there.     The  indignant  inhabitants,  aroused  by  the  voice  of 
Paoli,  immediately  ran  to  arms  ;  but  their  courage  was  powerless  against 
a  French  army  commanded  by  the  Count  de  Vaux.     Paoli  was  exiled,  and 
Corsica  submitted ;   but  it  obtained  its  elevation  into  a  pays  d'etat,  and 
preserved  the  right  to  regulate  its  own  taxes. 

The  Seven  Years'  War  added  thirty-four  millions  of  annual  interest  to 
the  national  debt.      In  each  year  the  expenses  exceeded  the  receipts  by 
thirty-eight  millions,   and  the    taxes  which    had    enormously  increased 
during  the  war  were  not  lessened  at  the  peace.     The  Parlia- 
ment of  Paris  endeavoured  to  procure  some  relief  to  the  SeCcrart iSd*11 
public  burdens,  that  of  Besancon  refused  to  register  the  vjQ^>jim6uis" 
Eoyal    edicts;    and    many    of    the    opposing    magistrates 
were  exiled.     Speedily,  however,  all  the  Parliaments  took  up  the  cause 
of    Besancon,   and   the   Parliament    of  Paris   energetically   maintained, 
to  the  great  displeasure  of  the  Court,  that  the  whole  magistracy  of  the 
kingdom  formed  but  a  single  body,  divided  into  various  classes.    Louis  XV., 
at  a  Royal  sitting  held  in  1766,  denied  to  the  Parliaments  that  association 
to  which  they  made  pretensions,  and  laid  down  the  following  maxims : — 
"  We  hold  our  crown  directly  from  the  hands  of  God ;  and  the  King  pos- 
sesses solely,  and  without  dependence  on  any  other  authority,  the  legisla- 
tive power."     It  will  be  seen  from  these  facts,  that  the  King  wished  to 
establish  an  absolute  monarchy,  and  that  the  great  judicial  bodies,  although 
possessed  with  ideas  more  or  less  vague  as  to  the  object  of  their  efforts, 
were  endeavouring  to  form  a  parliamentary  monarchy  which  should  hold 
the  King  and  nation  in  subjection. 

Disturbances  broke  out  in  various  provinces,  and  especially  in  Brit- 
tany, where  the  Duke  d'Aiguillon,  governor  of  the  province,  rendered 
himself  odious  by  his  stern  and  despotic  administration.  The  Parliament 
of  Eennes  took  cognizance  of  the  complaints  which  were  brought  against 
him,  and  as  they  could  obtain  no  satisfaction  from  the  Court,  the  greater 
number  of  the  members  gave  in  their  resignation.  The  procureur-general, 
La  Chalotais,  who  had  vehemently  denounced  the  governor,  was  arrested 
and  taken  with  his  son  and  three  councillors  to  the  citadel  of  St.  Malo. 

m  2 


164  CHANCELLOESHIP    OF    MATJPEOT7.      [BoOZ  IV.  Chap.  1TI. 

A  commission  was  appointed  to  try  the  prisoners,  who  were  accused  of 
having  held  illegal  assemblies,  spread  abroad  defamatory  libels  against  the 
Government,  and  carried  their  audacity  so  far  as  even  to  send  to  the 
King  himself  anonymous  letters  filled  with  insults.  It  was  urged  upon 
Louis  XV.  that  the  Bretons  were  a  turbulent  and  rebellious  race,  and 
that  it  was  necessary  to  make  an  example  of  them.  In  the  meantime  the 
Parliament  of  Paris  took  energetic  measures  in  favour  of  the  accused, 
and  the  Duke  de  Choiseul,  who  declared  himself  the  protector  of  the 
magistrates,  hastened  to  suspend  the  powers  of  the  commission  of  St. 
Malo,  and  to  have  the  matter  brought  before  the  regular  judges.  The 
accused  protested  against  being  tried  by  the  Parliament  of  Brittany,  on 
the  pretext  that  it  was  not  sufficiently  numerous,  and  were  transferred  to 
the  Bastile.  At  length,  in  December,  1766,  all  prosecution  of  them  was 
stopped,  and  they  were  declared  innocent,  but  were  nevertheless  exiled. 
The  Parliament  exclaimed  against  this  arbitrary  punishment,  which  was 
a  triumph  for  the  Duke  d'Aiguillon,  who  now  acted  with  redoubled 
violence.  He  now  even  had  the  boldness  to  present  for  acceptance  by 
the  States  of  Brittany  a  regulation  which  would  have  deprived  them  of 
the  right  of  fixing  and  levying  their  own  taxes.  This  produced  a  general 
outcry,  and  an  address  presented  to  the  King  produced  the  recal  of  the 
Duke  d'Aiguillon,  and  the  re-establishment  of  the  Parliament  of  Brittany 
in  its  integrity,  with  the  exception  of  Chalotais,  who  was  not  restored  to 
his  office. 

The  first  act  of  the  restored  Parliament  was  to  commence  a  prosecu- 
Cbaracter  and       ^on  °^  tne  Duke  d'Aiguillon,  whom  it  accused  of  abuse  of 
chancCeUo°rfthe      power  and  of  enormous  crimes.     The  King  had  recently 
Maupeou.  raised  to  the    dignity  of  Chancellor,  Maupeou,   the  chief 

president  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris.  This  man,  at  once  bold  and  supple, 
was  capable  of  adopting  hazardous  resolutions,  and  of  securing  their  suc- 
cess by  the  most  immovable  firmness,  united  to  great  powers  of  intrigue. 
After  having  displayed  some  character  in  an  exile  from  his  assembly,  he  soon 
preferred  the  road  to  fortune  to  every  other,  and  drew  upon  himself  the 
contempt  of  the  magistrates,  who  regarded  him  as  sold  to  the  Court. 
Devoured  at  once  by  ambition  and  a  desire  for  vengeance,  he  was  resolved 
to  humiliate  the  magistrates,  and  circumstances  favoured  his  design. 
The  King,  in  accordance  with  his  suggestions,  ordered  that  the  Duke 
d'Aiguillon  should  be  tried  by  the  Court  of  Peers,  and  that  the  sittings  at 


1756-1774]  DISGEACE    OF   BE   CHOISEUL.  165 

which  he  wished  to  be  present  should  take  place  at  Versailles.  He  then 
converted  the  Court  of  Peers  into  a  Bed  of  Justice,  and  justifying  the 
Duke  d'Aiguillon,  ordered  that  the  whole  process  against  him  should  be 
annulled.  The  Parliament  then  issued  a  decree  which  attacked  the  Duke's 
honour.  The  King  annulled  it ;  had  the  whole  process  struck  off  the  rolls  ; 
and  at  another  Bed  of  Justice,  held  on  the  7th  of  December,  prohibited 
the  Parliament  to  make  use  of  the  name  of  class  when  speaking  of  the 
other  bodies  of  the  magistracy ;  to  suspend  all  its  proceedings,  and  to 
give  in  its  resignation.  The  remonstrances  with  reference  to  this  rigo- 
rous edict  were  treated  with  contempt,  and  the  Parliament  ceased  to 
exercise  its  functions.  A  Court  revolution  deprived  it  also  of  its  most 
powerful  protector.  The  Duke  de  Choiseul  had  never  paid  any  court  to 
the  favourite,  Madame  du  Barri,  and  she,  irritated  at  his  manifest  con- 
tempt, did  all  she  could  to  bring  him  into  discredit  with  the  King,  espe- 
cially accusing  him  of  having  endeavoured  to  lead  France  into  a  war  with 
England  in  favour  of  the  American  colonies,  then  disposed  to  rebel. 
The  King,  enamoured  of  a  scandalous  ease,  yielded  to  the  demands  of  the 
favourite,  and  the  Duke  de  Choiseul,  together  with  his  relative,  M.  de 
Praslin,  was  disgraced  and  banished  to  his  estate  at  Chanteloup.  It  was 
then,  for  the  first  time  since  the  Fronde,  that  a  portion  of  the  Court 
and  the  highest  classes  of  society,  displayed  a  formidable   D.  .  M 

spirit  of  opposition  to  the  Government.  All  that  was  most  de  Choiaeni,i77i. 
distinguished  in  France  did  itself  honour  by  paying  court  to  the  Duke 
de  Choiseul  in  his  retreat,  and  by  giving  an  air  of  triumph  to  his 
disgrace.  The  dismissal  of  the  Duke  de  Choiseul  was  followed  by  the 
appointment  of  the  Duke  d'Aiguillon  to  the  Ministry  for  Foreign  Affairs, 
and  shortly  afterwards  of  the  Abbe  Terray  as  Comptroller- General  of  the 
Finances.  These  two  men  formed,  together  with  the  Chancellor  Maupeou, 
a  triumvirate  celebrated  for  the  revolution  which  it  effected  in  the  judi- 
cial order. 

On  the  19th  January,  1771,  each  of  the  members  of  the  Parliament 
were  awaked  by  two  musketeers,  who  presented  to  him  an  order  to  resume 
his  functions  and  to  sign  an  agreement  or  refusal  to  do  so  by  a  simple 
"  Yes"  or  "  No."  The  greater  number  of  them  refused,  and  the  small  number 
who,  either  from  fear  or  astonishment,  gave  in  their  consent,  retracted  on 
the  following  day.  On  the  following  day  they  received  an  intimation 
that  their  offices  were  confiscated ;  and  each  was  exiled  by  a   lettre  de 


166  ABOLITION   OF    THE    OLD    PABLIAMENTS.    [BOOK  TV.  CHAP.  III. 

cachet  to  some  different  place.  Maupeou  nominated  in  their  place  Coun- 
cillors of  State  and  Masters  of  Requests,  whom  he  himself  installed  in  the 
midst  of  an  irritated  crowd.  The  Chancellor  then  employed  himself  in 
the  formation  of  an  assembly  which  had  less  resemblance  to  a  judicial 
body,  composed  of  the  members  of  the  great  council,  and  men  taken 
from  the  various  bodies  in  different  classes,  who  henceforth  composed  the 
Parliament.  Maupeou  assembled  them  on  the  13th  April,  1771,  at  a  Bed 
of  Justice,  which  had  been  secretly  prepared,  and  there  registered  two 
edicts  which  abolished  the  old  Parliament  and  established  the  new.  The 
public  wrath  burst  forth  against  a  minister  who  tore  from  France,  in  the 
persons  of  her  independent  magistrates,  the  last  guarantees  against 
despotic  power.     Lambert,  the   senior  of  the  great  council, 

Destruction  of  •       .  ...  n     i       i  •  r\ 

the  ancient  Par-   distinguished   himself  amongst  all   by  his   courage.     Con- 

liaments,  1771.  .  . 

strained  by  a  lettre  de  cachet  to  take  his  seat  in  the  new 
Parliament,  he  did  so,  but  said — "  I  can  perform  here  no  act  of  magistracy  ; 
I  abandon  to  the  King  my  fortune,  my  liberty,  and  my  life ;  but  I  will 
keep  my  conscience  pure,  and  will  not  appear  again  in  this  place."  On  the 
same  evening  he  was  exiled.  All  the  princes  of  the  blood,  with  a  single 
exception,  and  thirteen  peers  of  the  kingdom,  lodged  a  protest  against  acts 
in  which  they  saw  the  overthrow  of  the  laws  of  the  State.  The 
provincial  Parliaments  made  courageous  remonstrances ;  and  a  large 
number  of  bailliages  who  had  no  other  means  of  subsistence  but  what  they 
derived  from  their  offices,  refused  obedience  to  those  who  were  substi- 
tuted for  the  former  magistrates.  When  the  Council  of  State  sat  in  the 
Parliament  hall,  the  advocates  ceased  to  appear  at  the  bar,  and  the 
greater  number  of  the  suitors  refused  to  plead.  The  most  distinguished 
remonstrances  were  made  by  the  Court  of  Aids,  and  that  assembly  was 
dissolved.  The  Chatelet  of  Paris  was  reorganized ;  the  provincial  Par- 
liaments and  the  noblesse,^and  especially  those  of  Normandy  and  Brittany, 
raised  complaints  to  which  Maupeou  replied  by  lettres  de  cachet,  which 
sent  the  murmurers  either  into  exile  or  to  the  Bastile.  Then  there 
arose  a  loud  demand  for  the  convocation  of  the  States- General.  Maupeou, 
however,  overcame  all  resistance.  The  old  magistrates  had  alienated  the 
philosophers  by  many  judgments  which  bore  the  stamp  of  barbarity  and 
fanaticism,  such  as  those  upon  Calas  and  the  Chevalier  de  Barre. 
Maupeou  took  care  to  remind  the  public  of  these  judgments,  and  endea- 
voured to  allay  the  popular  indignation  by  promising  the  reduction  of  the 


1756-1774. J  terray' s  maladministration.  167 

immense  authority  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  the  gratuitous  administra- 
tion of  justice,  the  abolition  of  the  sale  of  offices,  and  the  revisal  of  the 
criminal  laws.  He  thus  secured  the  execution  of  his  vast  projects,  and 
induced  many  of  the  members  of  the  provincial  Parliaments  to  register 
edicts  which  suppressed  them,  the  prices  they  had  paid  for  their  offices  being 
repaid,  and  to  register  others  which  reclothed  them  with  their  functions, 
with  wages  and  appointments.  At  the  close  of  1771,  in  the  space  of  less 
than  a  year,  the  new  judicial  arrangements  were  in  force  over  the  whole 
surface  of  the  kingdom,  and  Maupeou  boasted  that  he  had  withrawn  the 
Crown  from  the  registrar's  office. 

Whilst  Maupeou  thus  violently  altered  the  French  magisterial  system, 
Abbe  Terray  dealt  with  the  finances  in  a  rnanner  no  less  arbitrary  and 
despotic.  He  formed  no  financial  system,  but  endeavoured  only  to  avoid 
making  payments  and  to  procure  resources,   and  to  effect    „.  M 

these   objects  he  had  recourse  only  to  rapacity  and  bad    o^^^g011 
faith.     No  retrenchment  was  made  in  the  luxuries  of  the    Terray- 
Court,  and  Louis  XV.  never  ceased  to  exhaust  the  country  by  his  prodiga- 
lities.    The  only  attempt  at  reform  consisted  in  an  arbitrary  reduction  of 
the  dividends  payable  by  the  State,   and  was  in  fact  a  shameful  act  of 
bankruptcy.     The  taxes  were  at  the  sanfe  time  raised  to  an  exorbitant 
amount,  and  Terray  destroyed  the  most  glorious  achievement  of  Marchault 
— the  law  which  authorized  the  free   circulation  of  corn  throughout  the 
kingdom,  in  order  that  he  might  engage  in  infamous  speculations,  the 
success  of   which  was  secured  by  the  fears  and  wretchedness   of  the 
people.* 

The  Duke  d'Aiguillon,  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  and  the  third  member 
of  this  triumvirate,  at  the  same  time  allowed  three  Powers  to 
make  a  serious  attack  on  the  rights  of  peoples  and  the  balance 
of  power  in  Europe.  The  last  Elector  of  Saxony,  King  of  Poland,  died 
in  1763.  The  dissensions  amongst  the  Poles  gave  to  Catharine  II.  and 
the  King  of  Prussia  a  great  influence  over  the  following  election.  The 
religious  quarrels  amongst  the  Catholics  and  the  Nonconformists  were 
added  to  the  political  discords  to  hasten  the  ruin  of  this  unfortunate 
country,  and  Stanislaus  Augustus  Poniatowski,  one  of  the  Empress's  old 

*  Terray  prohibited  the  exportation  of  corn  from  a  certain  province,  and  when  its 
price  had  fallen  there,  he  purchased  it  and  sold  it  in  some  other  province  which  he  had 
famished  by  exciting  the  exportation  of  corn  from  it  to  the  utmost. 


168  YICES    Or    LOUIS'    COITKT.       [BOOK  IV.    CHAP.  III. 

favourites,  was  elected  King  through  the  influence  of  Eussian  bayonets. 
The  two  foreign  sovereigns  had  concerted  to  remove  all  the  most  formida- 
ble and  independent  competitors,  and  some  senators,  opposed  to  Catharine's 
views,  were  seized  and  transported  to  Siberia.  Indignant  at  this  violence, 
_    ,  ,     , .       e  a  Polish  party  seized  Cracow  and  Bar :  and  in  this  latter  city 

Confederation  of  r       J  '  J 

Bar,  176S.  a  confederacy  was  formed  in  1768  for  the  purpose  of  deli- 

vering the  country  from  its  foreign  yoke.  The  confederates  implored 
the  assistance  of  France,  which  only  sent  them  an  insignificant  contingent 
of  fifteen  hundred  men,  commanded  by  Dumouriez,  who  subsequently 
became  so  famous.  At  the  same  time,  at  the  instigation  of  the  French 
ambassador,  Count  de  Vergennes,  the  Ottoman  Porte  entered  upon  an 
unfortunate  war  with  Russia,  uie  results  of  which  were  the  destruction 
of  the  Turkish  fleet,  the  capture  of  Bender,  and  the  conquest  of  the 
-,.,,...      ,    Crimea  by  the  Russian  arms.     Strong  in  this  success,   in 

First  division  of  J  °  ' 

Poland,  1772.  her  amity  with  Frederic  II.  and  Maria-Theresa,  and  the 
supine  indolence  of  Louis  XV.,  Catharine  II.  signed  in  1772,  with  the 
Courts  of  Prussia  and  Vienna,  a  treaty  for  the  dismemberment  of  Poland. 
This  preliminary  division  deprived  the  country  of  a  third  of  its  territory, 
and  led  to  other  treaties  which  effaced  Poland  from  the  number  of 
independent  nations.  In  the  same  year  Gustavus  III.  effected  in  Sweden 
a  revolution  which  substituted  the  monarch's  will  for  the  sovereign 
authority  of  the  States. 

Louis  XV.,  utterly  apathetic  in  the  midst  of  these  serious  events, 
continued  to  present  to  the  world  an  example  of  shameful  debauchery,  and 
an  even  more  disgraceful  example  of  a  complete  indifference  to  scandal. 
Nevertheless,  when  he  heard  of  the  partition  of  Poland  he  was  in- 
dignant at  being  considered  as  of  no  account  in  Europe.  "  Ah  !"  he 
said,  "  if  Choiseul  had  been  here  things  would  have  been  different !"  and 
then  he  went  to  forget  his  anger  and  his  shame  in  fresh  and  unexampled 
orgies.  He  had  Madame  du  Barri  publicly  presented  at  Court,  and  gave 
her  a  distinguished  place  at  the  table  at  which  were  present,  for  the  first 
time  after  their  marriage,  his  grandson,  the  Dauphin,  and  his  young 
Death  of  Louis  spouse,  Marie- Antoinette  of  Austria.  In  the  composition 
XV.,  1774.  o£  j£s  character  a  sordid  avarice  was  joined  to  depraved 

tastes,  and  he  formed  a  private  treasury  which  he  increased  by  the  most 
culpable  means.  At  length,  worn  out  by  ennui,  weary  of  pleasure,  and 
disgusted  with  all  things,  he  died  of  the  small-pox  in  the  sixty-fourth  year 


1756-1774.]  KISE   OF    THE    ATHEISTIC    SCHOOL.  169 

of  his  life,  and  after  a  reign  of  fifty-nine  years,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
deplorable  recorded  in  history. 

The  old  order  of  things  crumbled  in  every  direction  around  a  throne 
disgraced  by  scandals  which  were  unredeemed  by  any  gleam  of  either 
virtue  or  glory.  The  great  bodies  which  had  so  long  formed  the  strength 
and  contributed  to  the  splendour  of  the  monarchy  faded  General  reflec 
away  and  perished.  The  clergy  aroused  against  them- 
selves the  murmurs  of  all  enlightened  persons  and  the  indignation  of 
the  middle  class,  by  their  violence  towards  the  Jansenists,  their  cruel 
proceedings  on  the  subject  of  the  bull  Unigenitus,  and  the  vices  of  many 
of  their  number.  The  high  nobility  lost  day  by  day  more  and  more 
of  its  prestige  in  the  eyes  of  the  nation,  through  its  state  of  servitude 
in  a  Court  which  was  disgraced  in  public  opinion,  whilst  the  shameful 
traffic  which  was  carried  on  in  patents  of  nobility  contributed  to  deprive 
the  provincial  noblesse  of  all  estimation.  Finally,  the  old  Parliaments, 
which  had  so  long  and  so  happily  defended  the  rights  of  the  Crown,  and 
which  had  formerly  strengthened  the  throne  when  even  they  for  a  time 
opposed  the  Government,  had  been  destroyed  by  the  Eoyal  authority. 
The  finances  of  the  kingdom  were  in  a  deplorable  state,  and  the  treasury 
showed  a  deficit  of  forty  millions.  The  wretchedness  of  the  people, 
overwhelmed  with  taxes  and  vexatious  burdens,  was  excessive ;  many 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  districts  abandoned  agriculture  for 
contraband  trade ;  and  France  seemed,  in  short,  to  have  sunk  back  into 
that  state  of  spoliation  and  ruin  from  which  it  had  been  rescued  by 
Henry  IV.  and  his  ministers. 

In  the  midst  of  so  many  calamities  and  signs  of  dissolution  there  grew 
up  a  spirit  of  inquiry  and  analysis,  which  was  not  unattended  with  danger. 
Montesquieu,  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau,  and  Voltaire,  the  leaders  of  a 
powerful  school,  attacked  with  the  magic  strength  of  genius  the  excesses 
of  arbitrary  power,  and  summoned  the  people  of  France  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  their  political  rights.  A  crowd  of  distinguished  men  suddenly 
arose  from  the  ranks  of  the  people  and  fought  under  the  same  flag. 
D'Alembert,  Diderot,  Helvetius,  Condillac,  Mably,  and  many  others, 
overthrew  the  existing  order  of  things.  The  greater  number,  following 
the  example  of  Voltaire,  too  often  confounded  the  good  with  the  evil  in 
their  violent  attacks,  and  thus,  after  having  denounced  the  abuse  of  the 
clerical  power,  endeavoured  to  shake  Christianity  to  its  deepest  foundations. 


170  THE   ENCYCLOPEDIA.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 

Criticism  was  in  the  ascendant  at  this  period,  and  was  found  in  the 
most  widely  different  species  of  literature,  in  the  works  of  the  poets  as  in 
those  of  the  philosophers,  and  even  in  the  best  theatrical  pieces,  amongst 
which  those  by  Voltaire  were  the  most  prominent.  In  the  arts  we  can 
reckon  at  this  time  but  few  illustrious  names;  amongst  the  most  cele- 
brated are  the  composers  Gretry  and  Monsigny  ;  the  painters,  Watteau, 
Boucher,  and  Joseph  Vernet,  and  the  architect  Soufflot,  who  erected  the 
Hotel-Dieu  and  the  Pantheon.  But  this  age  was  fruitful  in  scientific  dis- 
coveries ;  Buffon  and  Saussure  immortalized  themselves  by  their  studies 
in  natural  science ;  the  first  being  as  great  as  a  writer  as  he  was  great  as 
a  naturalist.  Lavoisier  created  a  new  system  of  chemistry ;  and  Hatiy 
propounded  the  true  theory  of  the  composition  of  crystals.  Many 
learned  men  and  philosophers  'undertook  to  collect  all  human  knowledge 
into  one  vast  publication,  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  "  Encyclopaedia ;" 
and  Diderot  and  the  mathematician  D'Alembert  took  the  largest  share 
in  the  immense  undertaking,  which  was  conceived  in  a  spirit  of  hostility 
for  the  old  faith.  Since  several  ages  France  had  witnessed  no  more 
deplorable  reign  than  that  of  Louis  XV.,  and  yet  the  vices  of  its  Govern- 
ment had  never  been  more  clearly  brought  into  view.  A  social  and 
political  revolution  was  imminent,  and  was  announced  by  several  infallible 
foreshadowings. 


1774-1789.]  accession  or  louis  xyi.  171 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PROM    THE    ACCESSION    OF    LOUIS    XVI.    TO     THE    THRONE    TO    THE    CONVOCATION 

OF   THE    STATES-GENERAL. 

1774-1789. 

Louis  XVI.  ascended  the  throne  on  the  11th  of  May,  1774,  at  the  age  of 
twenty.  His  morals  were  pure,  his  intentions  upright  and  generous ;  but 
to  complete  inexperience  he  added  a  great  want  of  decision  of  character ; 
and,  unfortunately,  no  Prince  had  more  need  of  strength  of  will  and  per- 
severance. He  found  on  his  accession  the  finances  in  disorder,  the 
Government  regarded  with  contempt,  public  opinion  excited  and  irritated, 
and  the  privileged  bodies  leagued  together  against  every  species  of  reform. 
The  King  still  further  increased  the  difficulties  of  his  position  by  choosing 
as  his  mentor  old  Maurepas,  who  had  been  the  object  in  the  preceding 
reign  of  the  hatred  of  Madame  de  Pompadour,  whom  he  had  offended. 
Louis  XVI.  hoped  that  he  had  selected  a  sage,  but  in  fact  had  obtained  only 
a  frivolous  courtier.  This  Minister  thought  that  he  would  render  himself 
popular  by  recalling  the  old  Parliaments,  but  knew  not  how  to  make 
them  submit  to  useful  and  efficient  reforms.  They  were  reinstalled  on  the 
12th  of  November,  and  Maurepas,  for  the  sake  of  procuring  for  the  Royal 
authority  a  fleeting  popularity,  raised  up  against  it  serious  dangers  in  the 
future. 

Maupeou  and  Abbe*  Terray  had  fallen  before  the  clamours  of  the 
people,  and  Maurepas,  who  at  that  time  was  anxious  for  the  support  of 
public  opinion,  replaced  them  by  men  who  possessed  its  confidence.  His 
choice  fell  upon  Turgot,  a  man  of  a  firm  and  judicious  character,  already 
famous  for  his  large  political  views,  who  had  recently  obtained  a  place  in 
the  King's  Council  as  Minister  of  Marine,  and  whom  Maurepas  now  made 
Comptroller-General  of  the  Finances.  In  the  following  year  the  Council 
was  opened  to  Lamoignon  de  Malesherbes,  a  magistrate  of  the  highest  merit 


172  ttjegot's  mischievous  policy.     [Book  IV.  Chap.  IV. 

and  a  friend  of  Turgot,  whom  he  assisted  in  his  vast  operations.  His 
department  was  the  King's  household,  and  the  disposal  of  the  lettres  de 
cachet,  no  abuse  of  which  was  to  be  feared  whilst  they  remained  in  his 
hands.  The  other  influential  members  of  the  Council  were  Htie  de 
Miromesnil,  Keeper  of  the  Seals  ;  the  Count  of  Saint  Germain,  Minister  of 
War,  and  Vergennes,  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs. 

Louis  XVI.  on  ascending  the  throne  had  suppressed  the  impost  of  the 

joyous  occasion,  and  yielding  as  much  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  heart  as 

to  the  advice  of  wise  ministers,  abolished  tortures,  and  the  law  which 

rendered  the  taillables  alone  liable  to  pay  duties.     But  Turgot  planned 

more  extensive  reforms,  and  devoting  all  his  care  to  the 

Operations  of  .  _  .  ■  •_ •■      ■ ;.  _     _  . 

Turgot,  1774-  promotion  oi  the  happiness  of  the  people,  undertook  the 
suppression  of  a  vast  number  of  servitudes  and  burdensome 
privileges,  and  it  was  of  him  that  Malesherbes  said,  "  He  has  the  head  of 
Bacon  and  the  heart  of  L'Hopital."  He  wished  to  make  the  noblesse 
contribute  to  the  taxes  in  the  same  proportion  as  the  Third  Estate ;  and 
desired  also  by  means  of  provincial  assemblies,  to  accustom  the  nation 
to  the  discussion  of  matters  relating  to  the  public  welfare.  He 
planned  with  Malesherbes  a  system  of  administration  which  would  have 
spread  a  spirit  of  calm  throughout  France,  by  destroying  all  abuses,  and 
towards  this  end  he  procured  the  issue  of  edicts  which  replaced  the 
corvees  by  a  rate  equally  levied  upon  all  classes,  re-established  free-trade 
in  grain  throughout  the  whole  interior  of  the  kingdom,  and  abolished 
wardenships  and  corporations.  The  privileged  classes  immediately  burst 
forth  into  complaints  and  murmurs,  the  Parliaments  refused  to  register 
these  wise  edicts,  and  it  was  necessary  to  make  use  of  the  powers  of  a  Bed 
of  Justice.  The  philosophers  and  the  economists  triumphed ;  but  a 
powerful  league  was  formed  at  the  Court  against  the  ministers  of  reform. 
Placed  between  a  young  King  of  no  experience,  and  an  old  courtier- 
minister,  Turgot  found  himself  in  a  difficult  position.  If  he  had  hastened 
to  explain  his  projects,  he  would  not  have  been  understood,  and  would 
have  uselessly  compromised  his  credit.  He  never  ventured  to  reveal  his 
vast  plan  for  the  reform  of  the  general  administration,  but  confined  him- 
self to  preparing  Louis  XVI.  to  listen  to  it  at  some  future  period,  to  the 
reform  of  the  most  serious  abuses,  and  to  pointing  out  to  the  King  the 
storms  which  threatened  his  reign  should  not  the  throne  be  strengthened 
by  salutary  institutions.      The  fault  of  Turgot's  plan  was  that  it  required 


1774-1789.]  neckee's  administbation.  173 

for  its  execution  that  Turgot  himself  should  live  twenty  years,  and  that 
the  Prince  should  possess  sufficient  firmness  of  will  to  retain  its  author  in 
his  counsels,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  his  family,  his  Court,  and  the 
privileged  classes.  Its  success  was  impossible  under  a  monarch  so  readily 
accessible  as  was  Louis  XVI.  to  diverse  and  contrary  interests.  Males- 
herbes  himself,  although  inspired  with  the  best  intentions,  had  not  suc- 
ceeded in  abolishing  lettres  de  cachet,  which  deprived  citizens  of  their 
liberty  without  any  trial,  or  in  suppressing  the  monstrous  abuse  of  letters 
of  respite  which  were  granted  to  debtors  in  favour  at  Court,  to  enable 
them  to  delay  or  defeat  their  creditors.  He  was  scarcely  able  to  make 
some  slight  reduction  in  the  ruinous  luxury  of  the  King's  household, 
and  his  most  just  proceedings  had  already  given  rise  to  a  thousand 
clamours. 

Soon,  jealous  of  the  popularity  enjoyed  by  Turgot,  and  of  his  influence 
over  the  King,  Maurepas  himself  aroused  enemies  against  the  Fall  of  the 
two  ministers,  and  alarmed  the  King  with  respect  to  the  mis  ry* 
dangers  that  might  arise  from  the  spirit  of  the  new  system.  Malesherbes 
perceived  the  workings  of  the  Prince's  feeble  mind,  and  sent  in  his  resig- 
nation, whilst  Turgot  awaited  to  be  disgraced.  Louis  XVI.  had  said  of 
him,  "  It  is  only  M.  Turgot  and  I  who  love  the  people,"  and  he  dismissed 
him.  To  the  popular  ministers  succeeded  courtier  ministers  ;  the  system 
of  government  was  altered  and  the  reforms  were  abandoned.  Clugny, 
formerly  governor  of  St.  Domingo,  and  then  Taboureau,  replaced  suc- 
cessively, and  without  success,  this  great  minister ;  and  after  them  the 
general  management  of  the  Government  again  fell  into  the  hands  of  an 
upright  man  who  was  endowed  with  great  financial  abilities.  Necker,  a 
Genevese  banker,  the  envoy  of  his  republic,  was  made  the  colleague  of 
Taboureau,  and  succeeded  him  in  1777.  Louis  XVI.  had  according  to 
ancient  custom  taken  the  oath  to  exterminate  heretics,  and  Necker  was 
a  Protestant;  but  such  were  his  reputation  and  the  imminence  of  the 
peril,  that  he  was  placed  by  Maurepas  himself  at  the  head  of  the  finances 
with  the  title  of  Director- General.  Necker  made  good  faith  and  probity 
the  basis  of  his  system,  which  consisted  in  the  reduction  of  0  erat;ong  f 
the  expenditure  to  a  level  with  the  receipts,  to  make  the  Necker> 1777- 
national  taxes  serve  to  defray  the  national  expense  in  ordinary  times,  to 
have  recourse  to  loans  only  when  circumstances  imperiously  required  them, 
and  to  have  the  taxes  assessed  by  the  provincial  assemblies.    These  plans 


174  THE   AMERICAN   REVOLUTION.     [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

were  wise ;  and  capitalists  had  conceived  so  high  an  opinion  of  the  talents- 
and  honesty  of  Necker,  that  his  name  alone  was  a  sufficient  guarantee  in 
their  eyes,  and  re-established  confidence  amongst  those  to  whom  the 
Government  applied  for  loans. 

Necker  placed  France  in  a  financial  position  which  enabled  her  to 
support  a  war  which  had  a  great  influence  on  her  destinies  by  accelerating 
the  current  of  its  intellect  and  the  progress  of  liberal  ideas.  This  war  was 
that  occasioned  by  the  revolt  of  the  English  colonies  of  North  America 
against  their  mother  country.  England,  overburdened  by  debt  after 
the  peace  of  1763,  had  endeavoured  to  make  its  American  colonies  con- 
tribute to  its  taxes ;  and  the  latter,  having  been  in  the  habit 

Rebellion  of  the         /,.,  ,  -i      r»  •  i  -i      •    i  i     • 

American  Colo-  oi  taxing  themselves,  and  oi  seeing  the  sums  levied  on  their 
soil  expended  to,  defray  the  expenses  of  their  Government,, 
made  an  energetic  resistance  to  the  new  pretensions  of  the  mother  country. 
The  struggle  commenced  in  1773  on  the  imposition  by  the  English 
Government  of  a  considerable  tax  on  tea,  which  was  consumed  in  enor- 
mous quantities  in  America.  The  inhabitants  of  Boston,  the  capital  of 
Massachusetts,  refused  to  give  admittance  into  their  ports  to  cargoes  bur- 
dened with  this  tax,  and  the  populace,  roused  to  a  state  of  irritation,  threw 
them  into  the  sea ;  whereupon  the  English  Government  immediately 
ordered  General  Gage  to  keep  that  port  in  a  state  of  blockade.  But  the 
spirit  of  resistance  had  been  aroused,  and  deputies  from  all  the  principal 
districts  of  the  colonies  assembled  at  Philadelphia  at  a  general  Congress,  at 
which  was  drawn  up  and  accepted  in  September,  1774,  the  famous  Declara- 
tion of  Rights,  which  was  the  type  of  all  those  which  were  soon  after- 
wards made  in  Europe.  The  Congress  annulled  the  powers  of  all  the 
English  officials,  ordered  a  levy  of  the  national  militia,  and  proclaimed 
George  Washington  generalissimo  of  the  forces.  Some  first  successes  of 
the  American  militia  excited  the  enthusiasm  of  the  colonists ;  the  insurrec- 
tion became  general,  and  the  capture  of  Boston  by  the  insurgents  raised 
the  popular  excitement  to  its  height.  At  length  the  Congress  published, 
in  1776,  the  Act  of  Independence,  by  which  it  constituted  itself  a  free 
power,  and  independent  of  the  English  power.  Diplomatic  agents  were 
immediately  despatched  to  the  various  courts  of  Europe,  to  obtain  the 
recognition  of  the  independence  of  the  American  Colonies,  and  Benjamin 
Franklin,  as  celebrated  for  his  discoveries  in  science  as  for  the  services  he 
rendered  to  his  country,  was  selected  by  his  country  to  plead  the  national 


1774-1789.]  LAFAYETTE   IN   AMEBICA.  175 

cause  at  the  court  of  Versailles,  and  to  solicit  the  support  of  France 
against  England.  The  simplicity  of  his  costume  and  his  manners  created 
a  great  sensation  in  Paris,  and  the  general  feeling  in  his  own  favour  has- 
tened the  conclusion  of  the  negotiations  between  France  and  the  insurgent 
colonies. 

The  youth  of  France,  eager  for  glory,  burnt  to  repair  on  the 
American  soil  the  losses  suffered  in  the  late  war,  and  Lafayette,  then 
twenty  years  of  age,  distinguished  himself  by  his  generous,  although 
frequently  belied,  devotion  for  the  cause  of  the  freedom  of  peoples. 
Renouncing  the  pleasures  of  a  most  brilliant  and  enviable 

.  ,  .  ,  ,  ,  .  ,     Devotion  of  La- 

existence,  he  equipped  a  vessel  at  his  own  expense,  and   fayettetothe 

re        t     i  •  i  •  ii  •  i         cause  of  Ameri- 

oirered  the  assistance  of  his  sword  to  the  American  colo-   can  indepen- 
dence, 
nists  just  when  they  were  crushed  by  many  reverses.     He 

was  willing  to  serve  as  a  simple  private  in  the  ranks,  but  received  a  com- 
mission as  Major-General  and  the  friendship  of  Washington.  Many 
Frenchmen  of  the  most  distinguished  families  followed  his  example. 
The  English  Government,  of  which  Lord  North  was  then  the  head,  com- 
plained of  this,  and  avenged  itself  by  some  acts  of  aggression  against 
France.  Louis  XVI.  hesitated  for  some  time  to  enter  upon  hostilities ; 
but  at  length,  in  1778,  after  the  memorable  battle  of  Saratoga,  in  which 
General  Burgoyne,  at  the  head  of  six  thousand  men,  was  compelled  to 
lay  down  his  arms,  France  concluded  a  treaty  of  alliance  and  commerce 
with  the  Americans;  whereupon  England  recalled  her  ambassador,  and 
war  was  resolved  on. 

A  fleet  of  twelve  ships  of  the  line,  commanded  by  the  Count  d'Estaing, 
set  sail  from  Toulon  for  America,  and  made  a  vain  attempt,  . 

in  concert  with  Washington's  army,  to  take  Newport,  in  dence»  1778-1783. 
Rhode  Island,  one  of  the  English  arsenals.  On  the  27th  July,  in  the 
same  year,  the  French  Admiral  d'Qrvilliers  encountered  Admiral 
Keppel  at  the  entrance  of  the  Channel.  The  two  fleets  consisted  seve- 
rally of  thirty  vessels,  and  after  having  fought  for  a  whole  day  parted  to 
refit  without  having  lost  a  single  vessel  on  either  side.  This  battle  was 
at  first  celebrated  in  France  as  a  brilliant  victory.  The  conduct  of  the 
Duke  de  Chartres,  subsequently  famous  by  the  name  of  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  who  commanded  the  rear  guard  of  the  fleet,  after  having  been 
extravagantly  praised,  was  afterwards  unjustly  decried,  and  the  King 
removed  him  from  the  navy  by  making  him  a  colonel  general  of  hussars* 


176  ALLIANCE   AGAINST   ENGLAND.     [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

This  appointment,  under  the  circumstances,  was  an  insult,  and  the  Duke 
had  still  more  bitter  affronts  to  suffer,  and  thenceforth  appeared  devoted 
by  a  species  of  cruel  fatality  to  an  unfortunate  celebrity. 

France  concluded  with  Spain,  in  the  folloAving  year,  an  alliance  which 
doubled  its  naval  strength.     Admirals  d'Orvilliers  and  Don 

Alliance  with 

Spain.   Military    Louis  Cordova  united  their  fleets,  and  threatened,  without 

Operations,177U. 

result,  a  descent  upon  England,  whilst  Count  d'Estaing, 
supported  by  Count  de  Grasse  and  La  Motte-Piquet,  seized  in  the 
Antilles  the  islands  of  St.  Vincent  and  Granada.  This  success  retarded 
his  arrival  in  the  United  States,  and  the  unfortunate  Georgian  expedition 
ended  the  campaign.  Count  d'Estaing,  in  concert  with  General  Lincoln, 
made  a  rash  attack  upon  Savannah,  the  capital  of  the  province  of  that 
name,  and  was  repulsed  with  loss,  in  spite  of  prodigies  of  valour.  He 
raised  the  siege  and  returned  to  France,  to  be  succeeded  by  Count  de 
Guichen,  who  honourably  maintained  the  struggle  against  the  English 
Admiral,  George  Rodney. 

The  war  ensanguined  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe.     The  French 
ch    n.  troops  under  Vaudreuil  and  Lauzun,  seized  upon  Senegal, 

quests  m  Africa.  Qami)ia)  and  Sierra  Leone,  but  suffered,  on  the  other  hand, 
fresh  disasters  in  India.  Its  establishments  in  Bengal  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  English,  and  Pondicherryhad  to  yield  forty  days  after  the  trenches 
had  been  opened  against  it.  Such  were,  during  two  years  (1778-1779), 
in  the  two  hemispheres,  the  principal  events  of  this  great  struggle,  which 
had  hitherto  been  prolonged  without  decisive  results,  but  which  was  as 
disastrous,  through  its  expense  and  its  duration,  for  England  as  for  its 
late  colonies. 

In  the  following  year  (1780),  England  found  the  number  of  its  enemies 

still  further  increased.     The  Northern  powers,  the  Empress 

Declaration  of  _  _         .         .  . 

armed  neutrality,   ot  Kussia,  the  Kings   of  oweden  and  Denmark,  formed   a 

1780.  .        .  .  .,'.-.- 

league  to  resist  its  pretensions  respecting  the  dominion  of 
the  seas,  and  signed  a  declaration  of  armed  neutrality,  by  which  it  was 
agreed  that  the  neutral  powers  should  be  at  liberty  to  sail  from  port  to 
port  of,  and  to  sail  on  the  coasts  of,  the  belligerent  nations ;  that  mer- 
chandize belonging  to  the  latter  should  be  free  from  capture,  if  not 
contraband  or  intended  for  admission  into  a  port  actually  'blockaded. 
The  Northern  powers  announced  that  they  would  enforce  respect  for  their 
declaration  by  warfare  if  necessary,  and  England,  after  having  made  a 


1774-1789.]  EEYEESES    OF    THE    AMERICANS.  177 

futile  attempt. to  obtain  the  alliance  of  Holland,  where  the  Republican  party- 
was  more  powerful  than  that  of  the  Stadtholder  which  was  favourable  to 
England,  had  to  struggle  against  the  combined  fleets  of  France,  the  United 
States,  and  Spain. 

The  majority  of  the  French  Ministry  was  at  this  time  composed  of  men 
of  merit  and  talent.  Vergennes  made  the  kingdom  respected  Min;sterial  A  t 
abroad;  Segur  and  Castries,  soldiers  worthy  of  high  esteem,  l78i- 
carried  on  the  war  with  energy;  and  Necker  afforded  the  King  the  means 
of  continuing  it.  His  celebrated  compte  rendu  of  January,  1781,  showed 
for  the  first  time  an  excess  of  ten  millions  of  receipts  over  the  ex- 
penditure, and  produced  a  sensation  and  favourable  public  opinion, 
which  inspired  Maurepas  with  a  great  degree  of  jealousy. 

Deeply  offended  by  the  unanimous  praises  lavished  on  a  Minister  whom 
he  regarded  as  his  creature,  Maurepas  persuaded  the  King  that  danger 
might  arise  from  the  public  discussion  of  the  proceedings  of  his  Govern- 
ment which  would  naturally  arise  from  the  publication  of  Necker's  compte 
rendu,  and  from  that  moment  all  the  plans  of  that  statesman  were  received 
with  disfavour.  The  Council  opposed  them,  and  the  privileged  classes 
struggled  against  the  carrying  out  of  his  judicious  reforms.  He  never- 
theless succeeded,  by  the  simple  credit  attached  to  his  own  name,  in 
effecting  two  loans  which  amounted  to  ninety  millions ;  but  perceiving 
that  he  no  longer  possessed  his  Sovereign's  confidence,  he  sent  in  his 
resignation,  which  was  accepted  on  the  23rd  May.  He  left  in  hand  suffi- 
cient funds  to  complete  the  decisive  campaign  of  1781,  and  his  retirement 
was  regarded  as  a  public  calamity. 

The  assistance  which  France  had  hitherto  accorded  to  the  United 
States  had  only  been  by  sea,  but  on  the  11th  July,  1780,  a  first  French 
division,  numbering  six  thousand  men,  disembarked  at  Rhode  Island  under 
Count  de  Rochambeau.*  The  arrival  of  this  powerful  reinforcement, 
which  had  been  long  expected,  re-animated  the  courage  and  enthusiasm 
of  the  Americans ;  the  English,  however,  succeeded  in  blockading  the 
port  at  which  the  French  had  disembarked,   and  thus,  till 

•  ProorGSs  of  tht? 

the  close  of  the  year,  rendered  their  assistance  almost  useless.    English  in  South 

r™  •  n  t      -i  -i  i       n   i  •        Carolina,  17S0. 

This  campaign,  m  fact,  only  brought  to  the  Colonists  vain 

hopes  or  reverses.    The  conqueror  of  Saratoga,  General  Gates,  was  beaten 

*  In  order  that  the  military  operations  might  have  uniformity  of  plan,  Louis  XVL 
made  Rochambeau  subordinate  in  command  to  Washington. 

VOL.  II.  .  N 


178  WASHING-TON    AND    EOCHAMBEATJ.        [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

at  Camden,  in  Southern  Carolina,  by  Lord  Cornwallis,  and  the  whole  of 
this  province  was  consequently  lost.  In  the  North  treason  deprived  the 
Americans  of  one  of  their  most  able  generals,  Benedict  Arnold,  who  was 
led  into  crime  by  the  necessities  arising  from  a  dissolute  life. 

France  now  came  to  the  aid  of  the  Colonists  with  a  generosity  more 
magnanimous  than  prudent,  considering  the  condition  of  her  own  finances, 
and  advanced  to  the  United  States  on  the  simple  word  of  Congress,  the 
large  sum  of  sixteen  million  francs.  About  the  same  time  a  new  French 
fleet  of  22  vessels,  under  Admiral  de  Grasse,  set  sail  for  the  Antilles 
(March,  1781).  Washington  was  then  rendered  by  the  severity  of  the 
season  almost  inactive  in  the  North,  where  he  had  been  joined  by  Rocham- 
beau,  whilst  the  English  pursued  their  advantages  in  the  South,  in  the 
two  Carolinas.  The  powerful  assistance  rendered  by  France  enabled 
Washington  to  determine  upon  a  plan  which  decided  the  campaign  and 
the  war. 

General  Greene,  one  of  the  ablest  generals  the  Americans  possessed, 
continually  harassed  the  victorious  army  of  Lord  Cornwallis. 

Able  manoeuvres 

of  GeDerai  Ine  Lnglisn  had  the  advantage  m  most  oi  the  engagements 

Greene,  1781.  ,".-,,  . 

which  took  place  between  the  two  armies,  without,  however, 
being  able  to  obtain  any  decided  results  in  their  favour,  and  were  at 
length  so  enfeebled  by  these  incessant  and  futile  conflicts,  that  Greene 
was  enabled  to  cut  off  their  communications  with  North  Carolina. 
Cornwallis  then  resolved  to  abandon  Carolina,  and,  in  concert  with 
the  traitor  Arnold,  to  subdue  Virginia.  He  marched  to  the  Northr 
effected  a  junction  with  Arnold's  corps,  and  then  consolidating  his  forces 
at  York  Town,  a  little  town  at  the  entrance  of  the  river  York,  entrenched 
himself  there  with  the  purpose  of  awaiting  a  favourable  opportunity. 
This  proved  his  ruin. 

Washington  from  his  camp  before  New  York  followed  all  the  move- 
ments of  the  various  hostile  corps,  and  on  learning  the  situation  of  Corn- 
wallis and  his  army  at  York  Town,  immediately  conceived  the  hope  of 
performing  a  brilliant  feat  by  effecting  their  capture.  He  put  himself  into 
communication  with  Rochambeau  and  Admiral  de  Grasse,  and,  in 
order  the  better  to  deceive  the  enemy  with  respect  to  his  plans,  invested 
New  York,  and  began  to  besiege  it ;  then  suddenly  withdrawing  with  the 
bulk  of  his  army,  and  only  leaving  behind  him  one  division  to  hold  the 
enemy  in  check,  he  traversed  Philadelphia  at  the  head  of  the   combined 


1774-1*789.]  CAPITULATION    OE    CORNWALLIS.  179 

French  and  American  forces,  embarked  at  Cape  Elk,  and  arrived  at 
Williamsburg,  where  he  joined  Lafayette  and  his  army.  Washington 
now  had  sixteen  thousand  men  under  his  command,  including  Eocham- 
beau's  corps,  and  on  the  28th  September,  1780,  the  allied  armies 
appeared  under  the  ramparts  of  York  Town,  and  invested  it  Avhilst  the 
sea  was  shut  against  the  English  by  the  fleet  under  Admiral  de  Grasse. 
The  British  troops  made  a  desperate  defence,  but  there  was  , 

a  generous  emulation  between  the  French  and  Americans    Town.by the 

°  Americans  and 

which  made  them  perform  prodigies.  The  murderous  fire  :French> 1781- 
from  two  redoubts  checked  the  attack,  and  it  was  necessary  that  they 
should  be  taken.  An  American  column  under  Generals  Lafayette  and 
Lincoln  took,  at  the  sword's  point,  one  of  these  redoubts,  into  which 
Colonel  Hamilton  was  the  first  to  throw  himself ;  whilst  the  French,  led  by 
Viomenil  and  the  Chevalier  de  Lameth,  carried  the  second.  The  capture 
of  these  redoubts  involved  the  fall  of  the.  place.  Cornwallis  driven  to 
bay,  made  an  attempt  to  save  his  army  by  the  river  York,  but  a 
tempest  destroyed  or  scattered  his  frail  vessels,  and  on  the  Ca  itulation  of 
19th  October  Cornwallis  found  it  necessary  to  capitulate,  ^Yo^kiwnf 
and  surrendered  with  eight  thousand  men  between  the  two  c  °  ei' 
French  and  American  armies,  the  one  distinguished  by  its  splendid  drill 
and  glittering  uniforms,  whilst  the  other,  no  less  martial  in  bearing, 
inured  to  trials  and  dangers,  was  justly  proud  of  its  ragged  garments, 
the  glorious  traces  of  the  sufferings  it  had  endured  for  its  country. 
Washington  ordered  that  a  solemn  service  should  be  performed  on  the 
following  day  in  every  brigade  and  division  of  his  army  to  thank  Provi- 
dence for  his  victory,  which  was  a  decisive  one.  Hostilities  still  continued 
for  some  time  between  the  belligerent  powers  and  ensanguined  other  parts 
of  the  globe,  but  the  American  war  might  be  considered  at  an  end,  and 
Lord  Cornwallis,  when  he  signed  the  capitulation  of  York  Town,  may  really 
be  considered  to  have  then  signed  the  independence  of  the  United  States. 

The  Duke  de  Crillon  having  captured  the  island  of  Minorca  and  the 
town  of  Mahon,  in  1781,   undertook  in  the  following  vear 

'  °    J  Taking  of  Mahon, 

the   siege   of  Gibraltar,   which  was  closed  against  Admiral    lj781' 

Howe  by  the  fleets  of  France  and  Spain,  united  under  Don  Louis  Cordova. 

Floating   batteries,   invented   by    Chevalier   d'Arcon,  were     . 

J  5       7  Siege  of  Gibral- 

constructed   for   the  purpose  of  bombarding  this   fortress,    tar»1782- 
which  was  defended  by  the  brave  General  Eliott ;  but  they  were  set  on 

n2 


180  SIEGE    OE    GIBRALTAR.  [l3oOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

fire  by  a  storm  of  shells  and  red-hot  shot,  and  the  flames  produced 
a  frightful  amount  of  damage.  A  few  days  after,  Admiral  Howe,  taking 
advantage  of  the  dispersion  of  the  French  fleet  by  a  gale,  by  skilful  manoeu- 
vres succeeded  in  entering  the  port  and  revictualled  the  fortress,  the  siege 
of  which  was  abandoned.  In  the  same  year  a  naval  engagement,  which 
ended  disastrously  for  France,  took  place  on  the  open  sea.  There  remained 
in  the  possession  of  the  English,  in  the  Little  Antilles,  but  two  islands ; 
Jamaica  itself  was  threatened,  and  would  have  been  compelled  to  yield, 
if  Kodney,  with  twelve  vessels,  had  not  hastened  to  those  latitudes.  He 
succeeded,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  French  admiral,  De  Grasse,  in 
effecting  a  junction  with  Hood  in  the  sea  of  the  Antilles ;  and  the  two 
English  squadrons  together  formed  a  formidable  fleet  of  thirty-six  sail. 
De  Grasse,  who  had  but  thirty-three,  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  Spanish 
fleet  to  meet  the  enemy  with  sixty.  Eodney  skilfully  prevented  the  junc- 
tion of  the  two  fleets,  encountered  De  Grasse  on  his  way  to  St.  Domingo, 
near  the  island  of  St.  Lucia,  and  forced  him  to  fight.  Hood  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  English  vanguard,  and  Drake  of  the  rear-guard ;  Admiral 
de  Grasse  having  for  his  seconds  in  command,  Bougainville  and  Vaudreuil. 
The  battle  took  place  on  the  12th  April,  1782,  and  lasted  ten  hours. 
Eodney,  favoured  by  the  wind,  boldly  broke  through  the  French  line, 
and  by  this  able  manoeuvre  secured  the  victory.  The  French  fleet,  how- 
ever, continued  to  fight  long  after  it  was  thrown  into  disorder  with  the 
utmost  heroism,  and  several  vessels  sank  rather  than  surrender.  Seven 
English  ships  simultaneously  attacked  the  magnificent  vessel  of  the  French 
Admiral,  la  Ville  de  Paris,  of  120  guns,  and  when  at  length,  after  a 
desperate  conflict,  there  remained  on  board  only  three  men  unwounded, 
De  Grasse  struck  his  flag.  He  lost  six  vessels  in  the  course  of  the  action, 
two  others  foundered  on  the  following  day,  and  those  which  were  captured 
by  the  enemy  had  suffered  so  greatly  that  they  sank  before  reaching  the 
British  ports  ;  amongst  these  was  the  Ville  de  Paris. 

India  had  been  during  four  years  the  scene  of  a  sanguinary  war.     The 
English,  in  1778,  had  taken  Pondicherry  from  the  French 

Campaigns  m  °         '  '  J 

India,  1778-1783.  an(j  inflicted  severe  injury  on  the  Dutch,  their  allies. 
Haider  Ali  Khan,  Sultan  of  Mysore,  and  his  son  Tippoo  Sahib,  supported 
the  French  in  these  regions;  and  these  famous  chiefs  had  marched  too 
late  to  the  relief  of  Pondicherry ;  although,  at  the  head  of  eighty-six 
thousand  men,  partly  disciplined  in  the  European  manner,   they  had 


1774-1789.]  ACCESSION    OP    TIPPOO    SAHIB.  181 

obtained  numerous  successes.  Having  been  four  times  vanquished,  bow- 
ever,  by  Sir  Eyre  Coote,  they  beat  a  retreat,  and  evacuated  the  Carnatic 
after  having  plundered  all  the  English  possessions. 

The  British  power  in  the  East  had  never  been  in  greater  peril  than  at 
this  period.  The  French  fleet,  the  arrival  of  which  had  been  long 
announced,  appeared  at  length  at  the  commencement  of  1782  on  the  coast 
of  Coromandel.  It  was  commanded  by  Suffren,  the  bailli  of  the  Order 
of  Malta,  one  of  the  greatest  seamen  of  whom  France  can  boast.  SufFren 
had  already  rapidly  provided  for  the  defence  of  the  Dutch  colony  of  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  three  glorious  although  indecisive  battles  which 
he  fought  with  his  worthy  rival,  Sir  Edward  Hughes,  had  made  his  name 
famous.  His  presence  reanimated  the  hopes  of  Haider  Ali,  who  still 
meditated,  by  means  of  a  league  between  all  the  native  princes,  the 
expulsion  of  the  English  from  Hindustan.  His  death  put  a  sudden  end 
to  these  projects;  the  formidable  Sultan  of  Mysore  expired  at  the  close  of 
the  year  (1782),  leaving  to  his  son,  Tippoo  Sahib,  his  throne,  his  army, 
his  courage — everything  except  his  genius. 

SufFren,  in  the  meantime,  pursued  his  glorious  career  on  the  coast  of 
Coromandel ;  Tippoo  Sahib  seconding  his  operations  by  land.  He  van- 
quished the  English  general,  Matthews,  famous  for  his  atrocities,  and  who 
had  massacred,  in  the  city  of  Omanpore,  the  whole  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  the  four  hundred  wives  of  Haider  and  Tippoo.  Gondelour,  being 
besieged  by  the  English,  Suffiren  hastened  to  its  relief,  and  encountered, 
within  sight  of  this  city,  the  fleet  of  Sir  Edward  Hughes.  Although  the 
former  had  but  fifteen  vessels  against  eighteen,  he  gained  the  advantage, 
and  Gondelour  was  saved. 

The  preliminaries  of  peace  were  now  signed  in  Europe.  The  Whigs 
succeeded  the  Tories  in  the  English  Ministry.  Lord  North,  who  had 
displayed  the  utmost  ardour  in  carrying  on  this  bloody  war,  had  been 
succeeded  by  Rockingham,  Charles  Fox,  and  Burke  ;  and  a  few  months 
afterwards,  the  son  of  Lord  Chatham,  William  Pitt,  was  entrusted  with 
the  care  of  the  finances.  The  new  administration  urged  George  III.  to 
make  a  peace,  which  was  signed  at  Versailles  on  the  3rd  Peace  si  ned  at 
September,  1783,  between  England  on  the  one  part,  and  Ver3ailles» 1783- 
France,  Spain,  and  the  United  States,  whose  independence  was  recog- 
nised by  it,  on  the  other.  France  derived  little  profit  for  herself 
from  the  immense   sacrifices  she  had  made.    England  restored  to  her, 


182  MINISTRY  OP  CALOKNE.     [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

in  America,  the  isles  of  St.  Lucia  and  Tobago  ;  and  in  India,  Pondicherry ; 
and  guaranteed  to  her,  in  Africa,  the  possession  of  the  river  Senegal  and 
its  dependencies  ;  and  on  the  coast  of  Malabar,  Mahe  and  an  establish- 
ment at  Surat.  The  two  nations  signed,  moreover,  a  treaty  of  commerce. 
England  did  not  conclude  peace  with  Tippoo  Sahib  and  Holland  until  the 
following  year.  France  was  indebted  for  important  assistance  to  the 
latter  power,  and  especially  to  its  Eepublican  party;  and  rewarded  its 
services  by  a  shameful  abandonment  when,  in  1788,  the  ardent  Frederic 
"William  II.,  King  of  Prussia,  Frederic  the  Great's  nephew,  and  brother- 
in-law  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  supported  the  Orange  party,  and  restored 
the  Stadtholder  by  force  of  arms.  From  that  time  the  influence  of 
Prussia  and  England  was  substituted  in  Holland  for  that  of  France.    « 

Maurepas  died  shortly  after  the  disgrace  of  Necker ;  and  France  and 
her  Government  then  presented  a  strange  spectacle  of  extraordinary  con- 
tradictions, and  of  the  most  complete  disagreement  between  its  laws  and 
its  actions.  Thus,  when  the  French  army  went  to  the  assistance  of  a 
Republic,  the  constitution  of  which  was  founded  on  the  principle  of 
equality,  a  rule  was  made  that  none  should  be  allowed  to  obtain  the  rank 
of  officer  but  those  who  could  prove  four  degrees  of  nobility  (1781)  ; 
and  thus,  when  public  opinion  was  running  strongly  in  favour  of  the 
philosopher  whose  irreligious  writings  contributed  for  the  most  part  to 
the  destruction  of  Christianity,  the  Government  maintained  the  rigour 
of  a  Draconian  code  against  the  Protestants,  and  the  latter  could  not  even 
obtain  from  the  Parliament,  in  1778,  a  legal  means  of  establishing  their 
marriages  and  securing  the  social  position  of  their  children.  The  deficit 
of  the  Treasury  had  increased  during  the  war  ;  and  it  was  in  vain  that, 
for  the  purpose  of  decreasing  it,  Louis  XVI.  gave  an  example  by  relin- 
quishing a  portion  of  his  household  and  his  guard ;  for  no  one  followed 
it.  Joly  de  Fleury  and  D'Ormesson  succeeded  Necker  in  turn  without 
Mini  tr  of  being  able  to  discover  a  remedy  for  this  ;  and  Calonne  suc- 

Calonne,  1783.  ceeded  them  in  the  management  of  the  finances.  This  man, 
who  was  brilliant  and  eloquent,  and  whose  character  was  a  combination 
of  frivolity  and  audacity,  adopted  a  system  directly  opposed  to  that  of 
Necker ;  endeavouring  to  keep  himself  in  power  by  the  favour  of  the 
courtiers,  and  to  strengthen  the  Government  credit  by  prodigalities.  A 
lavish  expenditure  of  money  at  first  supported  his  system,  and  punc- 
tuality  in  payments  for  a  certain  time   deceived  capitalists;  but   after 


1774-1789.]  FIRST   ASSEMBLY   OF   NOTABLES.  183 

the  peace  he  made  numerous  loans,  and  exhausted  credit ;  and  then, 
when  forced  to  allow  the  enormous  difference  which  existed  between 
the  expenditure  and  receipts,  he  insinuated  that  the  fault  was  due  to 
the  proceedings  of  his  predecessor,  Necker.  The  latter  published  an 
energetic  reply  to  these  indirect  attacks ;  and  Calonne  avenged  himself 
by  having  him  exiled.  When  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  obtain  loans, 
it  was  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  new  taxes,  and  these  the  Parliament 
refused  to  register.  Upon  this  Calonne,  to  enforce  its  sub-  FirstAssembl  of 
mission,  convoked  an  Assembly  of  Notables  (1787),  hoping  Rotables,  1787. 
that,  as  it  would  be  selected  from  the  higher  classes  by  the  Govern- 
ment, from  whom  it  would  hold  its  powers,  it  would  be  more  docile 
than  the  Parliaments  and  the  States-General.  Pie  laid  before  this 
Assembly  a  proposition  to  increase  the  duty  upon  stamps,  and  to  convert 
that  of  the  Vingtieme  into  a  territorial  tax,  which  should  be  levied  equally 
upon  all  landed  property  without  excepting  even  that  of  the  clergy.  The 
Minister  also  submitted  to  the  Notables  a  plan  already  presented  to  them 
by,  and  which  tended  to  realize  a  grand  idea  of,  Fenelon  and  Turgot. 
According  to  this  plan,  throughout  the  whole  kingdom,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  some  ancient  pays  cFetats,  provincial  assemblies  were  to  be  con- 
voked, consisting  of  members  elected  from  amongst  the  three  Orders, 
whose  particular  duty  it  was  to  superintend  taxation,  and  to  discover  and 
express  the  wishes  of  their  several  provinces.  Calonne  could  not  conceal 
from  the  Notables  the  fact  that  the  loans  had  amounted  within  a  few 
years  to  an  enormous  sum,  and  that  there  was  a  deficit  of  a  hundred 
and  fifteen  millions  in  the  revenue.  This  startling  revelation  excited 
a  general  burst  of  indignation,  and  Calonne  resigned. 

He  Avas  succeeded  by  Lomenie  de  Brienne,  Archbishop  of  Sens,  who 
adopted  most  of  the  measures  proposed  by  Calonne  to  the  M.  . 
Notables.  This  Assembly  rejected  the  edicts  respecting  the  Brienne> 1787- 
stamp  duty  and  the  land-tax,  which  was  to  be  paid  by  all  the  orders  in- 
discriminately ;  and  separated  after  having  approved  the  creation  of  pro- 
vincial assemblies.  On  establishing  the  latter,  the  King  abolished  the 
system  of  forced  labour  for  the  roads.  The  provincial  assemblies,  elected 
by  the  three  Orders,  but  containing  a  double  number  of  representatives 
of  the  Third  Estate,  devoted  their  attention  to  the  reform  of  the  taxes, 
public  works,  and  the  improvement  of  agriculture.  They  carried  on 
their  functions  successfully  from  1787  to  1790,  when  the  new  division  of 


1S4  THE  ENFORCED  LOANS.      [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

France  into  departments  took  place  ;  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  they 
were  not  continued.  The  two  edicts  rejected  by  the  Notables,  with 
respect  to  the  stamp  duty  and  the  land-tax,  were  presented  by  Brienne 
to  the  Parliament,  which  refused  to  register  them,  and  declared  the 
States- General  alone  competent  to  decide  in  the  matter  of  taxes.  Their 
registration  was  enforced  at  a  Bed  of  Justice  held  at  Versailles ;  and  at 
the  same  time  Louis  XVI.  promised  the  annual  publication  of  an  account 
of  the  state  of  the  finances,  and  the  convocation  of  the  States-General 
before  five  years.  The  magistrates  protested  against  the  violence  to 
which  they  had  been  subjected,  and  the  edicts  were  not  executed.  The 
Parliament  was  exiled  to  Troyes  on  the  15th  August,  and  recalled  on 
the  20th  September,  on  the  tacit  understanding  that  it  would  consent 
to  edicts  creating  a  series  of  gradual  and  successive  loans  up  to  the 
amount  of  four  hundred  millions. 

A  Royal  sitting  was  appointed  for  the  19th  November.  The  King 
Eoyai  sittiog.  opened  it  with  a  conciliatory  speech.  The  votes  were 
tration  of  edicts  taken,  and  the  oldest  magistrates  were  in  favour  of  the 
registration  of  the  last  edicts.  Abbe  Sabatier  was  of  a 
different  opinion,  and  proposed  the  registration  of  only  the  first  loan,  and 
that  the  King  should  be  requested  to  name  an  earlier  date  for  the 
convocation  of  the  States-General.  Freteau  supported  this  view,  and 
D'Epremesnil  appealed  to  the  Monarch's  heart.  He  supported  the  re- 
gistration of  the  edicts,  and  entreated  Louis  XVI.  to  promise  the  con- 
vocation of  the  States-General.  It  appeared  certain  that  there  would 
be  a  majority  in  favour  of  the  edicts,  when  the  new  Keeper  of  the  Seals, 
Lamoignon,  faithful  to  the  principle  that  when  the  King  was  in  his 
Parliament  his  will  should  be  laAv,  approached  the  throne.  Louis  XVI., 
after  having  heard  him,  ordered  that  the  edicts  should  be  registered  with 
the  form  only  used  in  the  Beds  of  Justice.  A  murmur  of  surprise  arose 
from  every  side,  and  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  rising,  said,  in  a  hesitating 
manner  : — "  Sire,  such  a  registration  appears  illegal ;  it  must  be  recorded 
that  the  registration  is  by  the  express  command  of  your  Majesty."  The 
Prince  spoke  with  much  emotion.  Louis  XVI.,  equally  moved  and 
agitated,  replied,  after  muttering  some  broken  words — "  Yes,  it  is 
legal,  because  it  is  my  will."  He  then  had  another  edict  registered, 
which  bestowed  upon  non- Catholics  the  power  of  properly  registering 
their  births,  marriages,  and  deaths. 


1774-1789.]  SCHEME   TO    SUPPRESS   PARLIAMENT.  185 

When  the  King  had  departed,  the  agitation  of  the  Assembly  became 
extreme.  Malesherbes  and  the  Duke  of  Nivernois  in  vain  attempted  to 
restore  calm,  and  the  sitting  was  terminated  by  a  decision  that  the  Par- 
liament would  take  no  part  in  the  illegal  registration  of  the  edicts  relative 
to  the  loans.  The  King  ordered  that  this  decision  should  be  erased  from 
the  registers  ;  the  Duke  of  Orleans  was  exiled  to  one  of  his  estates  ;  the 
Abbe  Sabatier  and  Freteau  were  arrested  and  lodged  in  the  State  prisons. 
The  Parliament  protested  against  the  lettres  de  cachet,  and  demanded  the 
recal  of  its  members  and  the  Prince.  This  protest  was  rejected  by  the 
King,  and  reiterated  by  the  Parliament,  which  was  supported  by  public 
opinion  and  the  whole  of  the  French  magistracy  in  its  imprudent  struggle 
with  the  Government. 

Brienne  perceived  that  it  was  only  possible  to  overcome  the  resistance 
of  the  Parliament  by  suppressing  it ;  and  in  conjunction  with  M.  de 
Lamoignon,  the  new  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  he  persuaded  the  King  to  agree 
to  a  plan  which  destroyed  the  political  authority  of  the  magistracy.  The 
most  profound  secrecy  was  necessary  to  secure  the  success  of  this  plan ; 
but  it  oozed  out  before  it  was  ripe.  One  of  the  most  energetic  members 
of  the  parliamentary  Opposition,  by  means  of  a  lavish  expenditure,  ob- 
tained proofs  of  the  Ministerial  project,  and  immediately  communicated  it 
to  the  Chamber.  It  appeared  that,  in  accordance  with  this  plan,  edicts 
were  to  be  issued  creating  an  Assembly  composed  of  the  princes,  peers, 
and  marshals  of  France,  and  of  a  certain  number  of  distinguished  persons, 
chosen  from  amongst  the  clergy,  the  nobility,  and  the  magistracy,  which 
was  to  be  endowed  with  all  the  authority  enjoyed  by  the  plenary  courts 
in  the  time  of  Charlemagne.  This  Court  was  to  regulate  the  general 
police  laws,  and  the  edicts,  which  were  no  longer  to  be  submitted  to  the 
Parliaments,  the  judicial  functions  of  which  were  henceforth  to  be  limited. 
The  Parliament  of  Paris  would  thus  be  deprived  of  its  title  of  a  Court  of 
Peers,  and  four  Sovereign  Councils,  named  grand  bailliages,  were  to  be 
established  within  the  district  under  its  authority,  and  to  confine  its  juris- 
diction within  very  narrow  limits.  The  magistrates  heard  of  this  threat- 
ening project  with  the  greatest  indignation;  invoked  the  fundamental 
although  unwritten  laws  of  the  kingdom,  demanded  the  regular  convoca- 
tion of  the  States-General,  protested  against  arbitrary  imprisonments,  and 
decreed  their  own  inviolability.  Brienne  immediately  obtained  from  the 
King  an  order  for  the  arrest  of  two   of  the  magistrates  who  were  most 


186  EIOTS    IN    THE    PROVINCES.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

prominent  in  their  opposition,  Duval  d'Epremesnil  and  Montsabert.  On 
the  5th  August  the  captain  of  the  guards  appeared  before  the  Parliament, 
and  demanded  the  delivery  of  these  two  gentlemen  in  the  name  of  the 
King.  "  We  are  all  of  us  Montsabert  and  d'Epremesnil,"  replied  the  in- 
dignant magistrates.  But  then,  in  order  to  prevent  their  colleagues  from 
being  compromised,  the  two  Councillors  in  question  arose  and  surrendered 
themselves,  and  were  conveyed  the  one  to  Pierre-en-Cise,  near  Lyons,  and 
the  other  to  the  isles  Ste.  Marguerite.  The  fact  of  their  arrest  was  soon 
spread  abroad  and  excited  an  universal  indignation ;  the  populace  crowding 
to  the  place  of  sitting  and  overwhelming  the  magistrates  with  acclamations. 
On  the  8th  May,  however,  the  edicts  in  question  were  registered,  and  a 
■court  possessed  of  plenary  powers  was  established.  But  the  excitement 
of  public  opinion  continued  to  increase,  the  Chatelet  protested,  and  the 
populace  was  in  a  state  of  commotion.  It  was  declared  that  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  new  court  were  connected  with  the  Court,  and  that  to  bestow 
upon  it  the  right  of  registration  was  equivalent  to  placing  the  public  for- 
tunes solely  at  the  mercy  of  the  Ministers. 

The  provinces  of  Brittany,  Beam,  and  Dauphiny  distinguished  them- 
selves amongst  all  by  the  energy  of  their  resistance.     The 

Disturbances  in 

theprovinces,  Parliament  of  Rennes  protested,  and  was  threatened  with 
a  forced  dissolution.  A  crowd  of  gentlemen,  followed  by 
the  populace,  hastened  to  its  defence,  and  most  of  the  noblemen  residing 
at  Rennes  signed  a  declaration  in  these  terms : — u  We,  members  of  the 
nobility  of  Brittany,  denounce  as  infamous  all  those  who  should  accept 
of  any  place  under  any  new  form  of  judicial  administration  or  new  form 
of  government  which  should  not  be  in  accordance  with  the  laws  and  the 
provincial  constitutions."  A  denunciation  of  the  Ministers  was  also  drawn 
up,  and  the  deputies  who  were  charged  with  its  presentation  to  the  King- 
were  thrown  into  the  Bastile.  Civil  war  now  appeared  imminent  in 
Brittany,  and  the  disturbances  in  Beam  were  no  less  serious.  The  Moun- 
taineers descended  armed  into  the  town  of  Pau,  forced  the  gates  of  the 
Palace  of  Justice,  which  had  been  closed  by  the  King's  orders,  and, 
terrified  by  their  threatening  cries,  the  governor  himself  entreated  the 
Parliament  to  assemble.  The  nobility  and  the  magistracy  made  vehement 
protests.  In  Dauphiny  the  disorders  were  even  greater.  The  Parliament 
resisted  the  new  edicts,  and  the  Duke  of  Clermont-Tonnerre,  the  governor 
of  the  province,  exiled  the  magistrates  by  the  authority  of  lettres  de  cachet 


1774-1789.]  CONCILIATOBT    POLICY    OF   BKIENKE.  187 

which  had  been  previously  placed  in  his  hands.  A  furious  mob  filled  the 
streets  of  Grenoble,  detained  the  exiled  magistrates,  rushed  to  the  go- 
vernor's house  at  the  sound  of  the  tocsin,  and  holding  an  axe  over  his 
head,  forced  him  to  convoke  the  Parliament.  A  great  number  of  members 
of  the  Nobility,  the  Clergy,  and  the  Third  Estate  fixed  the  21st  July  for  the 
meeting  of  the  etats  particuliers  of  Dauphiny.  Marshal  de  Vaux,  the 
governor  of  the  province,  although  he  had  twenty  thousand  men  under 
his  command,  did  not  venture  to  oppose  the  popular  will,  and  the  States 
assembled  at  the  Chateau  de  Vizille,  the  ancient  residence  of  the  Dauphins. 
There  the  three  Orders  unanimously  denounced  all  who  should  aid  in  the 
execution  of  the  new  edicts  ;  determined  that  the  tax  substituted  for  the 
corvee  should  be  paid  in  Dauphiny  by  the  three  Orders  indiscriminately, 
and  gave  a  double  re  presentation  to  the  Third  Estate.  Before  separating, 
they  entreated  the  King  to  withdraw  his  edicts,  to  abolish  the  lettres  de 
cachet,  and  to  convoke  the  States-General.  All  the  provinces  were  in  a 
state  of  agitation,  and  almost  everywhere  the  privileged  classes,  for  the 
sake  of  preserving  their  own  privileges,  gave  to  the  masses  of  the  people 
a  dangerous  example  of  resistance  and  insurrection.  It  was  in  this  way 
that  through  the  accumulated  faults  of  the  Government  the  nation  became 
familiarized  with  inquiring  into  and  resisting  the  acts  of  the  Government, 
and  became  practised,  as  it  were,  in  civil  war.  Brienne,  not  knowing 
what  measures  to  adopt,  convoked  an  assembly  of  the  clergy,  and  asked 
of  it  a  pecuniary  assistance,  which  was  refused,  with  a  .  ,,  y,v 
strongly- worded  declaration  against  the  plenary  court.  clersy> l788- 
Then,  perceiving  that  the  deficit  in  the  Treasury  increased  day  by  day, 
and  that  there  were  no  means  of  replenishing  it,  he  endeavoured  to  seduce 
the  nation  by  promises,  and  to  acquire  a  right  to  their  gratitude  by 
issuing  a  decree  (8th  August,  1788,)  directing  the  assembly  of  the  States- 
General  on  the  1st  May,  1789,  and  suspending  until  then  the  action  of 
the  plenary  court. 

Brienne  obtained  no  advantage  for  himself  by  this  decree ;  for,  as  is 
almost  always  the  case  when  the  Government,  instead  of  seizing  the  op- 
portune moment  for  reform  and  popular  measures,  only  consents  to  them 
in  an  incomplete  manner,  under  extreme  pressure,  his  concessions  were 
received  without  thanks,  and  only  increased  the  determination  with  which 
what  he  refused  was  demanded.  The  Minister,  to  strengthen  his  position, 
now  condescended  to  the  lowest  expedients.     He  seized  the  funds  of  the 


1S8  EECALL  OE  KECKEK.      [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

InvalideSy  and  the  money  produced  by  a  charitable  lottery  set  on  foot 
for  the  benefit  of  the  sufferers  by  a  terrible  storm,  issued  paper  money  for 
the  State  payments,  and  vainly  endeavoured  to  conceal  a  bankruptcy  by 
this  disastrous  measure.  Brienne  was  resolved,  at  any  price,  to  remain 
in  power  ;  the  public  burdens,  if  so  greatly  increased  by  his  want  of  skill, 
had  not  as  yet  destroyed  his  credit ;  but  a  Court  intrigue  overthrew  him. 
Jealous  of  his  influence  with  the  Queen,  Madame  de  Polignac  declared 
herself  his  enemy,  and  the  Count  d'Artois,  the  King's  second  brother,  de- 
rail of  Erienne  nianded  his  dismissal.  Brienne  resigned,  at  the  same  time 
1'88,  advising  Louis  XVI.  to  recal    Necker,   as   the  only   man 

capable  of  restoring  the  finances  to  a  satisfactory  state.  His  retirement 
was  received  by  the  public  with  enthusiastic  delight ;  but  when  it  was 
known  that  it  had  been  accompanied,  on  the  part  of  the  Crown,  with  the 
demand  for  a  cardinal's  hat  for  him,  and  that  he  had  left  the  Court  over- 
whelmed with  favours,  no  credit  was  given  to  the  feeble  Monarch  for  the 
sacrifice  he  had  made,  and  public  opinion  was  only  irritated  by  the  honours 
which  had  been  granted  to  a  man  who  was  the  object  of  almost  universal 
reprobation.     Louis  XVI.,  in   accordance  with    Brienne's 

Eecal  and 

second  Ministry    advice,  recalled  Necker :  the  Parliaments  resumed  the  ex- 

oi  Necker,  1788.  '  ' 

ercise  of  their  functions,  and  the  edicts  were  annulled. 
"When  informed  of  these  measures  the  people  became  wild  with  joy.  A 
number  of  young  persons  burnt  the  cardinal  in  effigy  in  the  Place 
Dauphine,  seized  the  Pont-Neuf,  and  compelled  all  the  passers-by  to  bow 
before  the  statue  of  Henry  IV.  The  multitude  then  proceeded  to  the 
house  of  the  Archbishop's  brother,  with  the  intention  of  burning  it ;  and 
having  been  repulsed  by  the  military,  turned  their  fury  against  the 
captain  of  the  watch,  and  marched  towards  his  dwelling  with  the  inten- 
tion of  plundering  it  and  burning  it  to  the  ground.  A  desperate  conflict 
took  place ;  and  instead  of  expressing  itself  with  severity,  as  it  should 
have  done,  against  the  promoters  of  these  outrages,  the  Parliament  passed 
resolutions  condemnatory  of  the  troops  which  had  repressed  them. 

Necker,  having  resumed  the  direction  of  affairs,  was  enabled,  through 
the  confidence  he  enjoyed  with  capitalists,  to  procure  sufficient  funds  for 
the  opening  of  the  States- General.  But,  skilful  as  he  was  as  a  financier, 
this  Minister  was  not  equal,  as  a  politician,  to  the  task  of  grappling  with 
the  perilous  circumstances  by  which  France  was  now  surrounded.  He 
did  not  know  how  to  convoke  the  delegates  of  the  French  nation  in  a  way 


1774-1789.]       CONVOCATION    OE   THE    STATES-GENERAL.  189 

suited  to  the  existing  state  of  manners  and  to  public  opinion ;  neither  did 
he  know  how  to  conceive  and  announce  a  plan  of  indispensable  and  suffi- 
cient reforms.  He  long  hesitated  to  grant  to  the  Third  Estate  a  double 
representation — that  is  to  say,  a  number  of  deputies  equal  to  those  of 
the  two  privileged  Orders  together ;  and  this  vast  question,  being  unde- 
cided, became  in  every  portion  of  the  kingdom  the  subject  of  the  most 
vehement  discussions.  The  mass  of  the  citizens,  who  had  taken  but 
a  slight  interest  in  the  quarrels  between  the  magistracy  and  the  Court, 
understood  on  this  occasion  that  the  matter  in  dispute  referred  to  their 
own  particular  interests,  and  all  reforms  would  be  merely  illusory  if 
the  Third  Estate,  of  which  they  were  a  portion,  did  not  have  a  number 
of  deputies  equal  to  those  of  the  two  first  Orders.  This  desire  found 
an  echo  in  the  ranks  of  the  noblesse  ;  and  thus  the  question  became  trans- 
formed, not  without  peril,  into  a  question  of  figures.  It  was  asked  in 
every  direction  if  twenty-four  millions  of  Frenchmen  made  exaggerated 
pretensions  when  they  demanded  a  number  of  representatives  equal  to 
those  of  four  or  five  hundred  thousand  of  their  compatriots.  The  un- 
certainty on  this  subject  became  every  day  more  dangerous.  It  excited 
universal  agitation,  inflamed  the  passions  of  the  middle  classes,  and 
enabled  those  who  had  the  greatest  interest  in  obtaining  the  double 
representation  of  the  Third  Estate  to  obtain  the  greatest  influence  over 
public  opinion. 

Such  was  the  state  of  things  in  France  when,  on  the  27th  September, 
1788,  the  Parliament  registered  the  edict  which  convoked 

_        0  _.  .        _,  'itt  •       Edict  of  Convo- 

the    states-General.     But   as    soon  as  it  had  done  so,  it    cation  of  the 

.  ,  States-General, 

appeared  terrified  at  its  own  work,  and  to  recoil  before   27th  September, 

.  .  .  l788. 

a  measure  which  it  had  itself  energetically  demanded.     It 

seemed  to   see  the  ancient  monarchy  tottering  on  its  foundations,  and 

thought   itself  called  upon  to  lend  it  its  support.     With  this  object  it 

decided  that  the  States- General  should  be  convoked  according  to  the 

form  used  at  the  time  of  their  first  Assembly  in  1614.     The  deputies 

at  that  period  were  equal  in  number  for  each  Order ;   and  as  they  gave 

their  votes,  not  individually,  but  by  order,  the  result  of  the  divisions 

was   necessarily  always  in  favour   of  the  privileged  classes.     Necker's 

system  was  to  make  the  latter  contribute,  in  proportion  to  their  fortunes, 

to   the   expenses  of  the    State ;    and  to  procure   the    adoption  of  this 

system,  it  was  necessary  that  the  deputies  of  the  Third  Estate  should 


190  SECOND    ASSEMBLY    OF    THE    NOTABLES.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

be  double  in  number  to  those  of  the  representatives  of  the  two  other 
Orders,  and  that  the  votes  should  be  taken  individually.  The  public 
had  declared  almost  universally  in  favour  of  this  opinion ;  and  the  clause 
added  by  the  Parliament  to  the  edict  of  the  27th  September  deprived  it 
at  once  of  almost  all  its  popularity.  The  Parliament  now,  it  was  said, 
egotistically  resisted  the  wishes  of  the  people,  after  having  at  first  resisted 
the  Court  only  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  power,  or  retaining  that 
which  it  had  usurped.  It  was  soon  deserted  by  the  lawyers  who  had 
been  its  success  and  had  achieved  its  successes. 

The  Noblesse  itself  became  divided  into  two  parties,  of  which  one 
energetically  supported  the  cause  of  the  Third  Estate.  The  latter, 
which  numbered  in  its  ranks  the  Duke  of  Orleans  and  most  of  the 
gentlemen  who  had  fought  in  America,  formed  in  all  the  principal  towns 
associations  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  triumph  of  this  cause ;  an 
immense  number  of  incendiary  pamphlets  were  circulated  in  the  pro- 
vinces ;  paid  brigands  overran  the  provinces ;  disorderly  mobs  were 
guilty  of  the  greatest  excesses  in  Paris  ;  and  some  months  later  filled 
the  capital  with  terror  by  the  burning  and  pillaging  the  Eeveillon 
manufactory.  Whilst  the  secret  leaders  of  a  violent  and  democratic 
faction  endeavoured  to  arouse  the  populace,  and  to  subdue  the  Court 
by  means  of  threats,  the  bourgeoisie  and  a  -large  portion  of  the 
young  nobility  seized  every  opportunity  of  applauding  the  most 
popular  maxims.  Many  writers,  following  the  example  of  Condorcet, 
proposed  in  their  works  a  state  of  social  order  based  on  an  equality  of 
rights  and  on  liberty.  A  multitude  of  pamphlets,  and  amongst  them  a  cele- 
brated one  by  Abbe  Sieyes,  entitled  "  What  is  the  Third  Estate  ?"  added 
to  the  general  excitement.     The  moment  of  the  crisis  drew 

Second  Assembly  ° 

of  Notables,i788.  near  when  the  King  convoked  the  Second  Assembly  of  the 
Notables,  to  which  was  submitted  the  question  as  to  how  the  States- 
General  should  be  convoked.  It  commenced  its  sittings  on  the  9th 
November,  1788,  and,  as  had  been  the  case  with  the  preceding  one, 
divided  itself  into  six  committees,  one  of  which  alone  —  that  jDresided 
over  by  Monsieur  the  King's  brother  —  declared  in  favour  of  the  double 
representation  of  the  Third  Estate.  Necker  did  not  follow  the  advice 
of  the  Notables.  He  hoped,  by  exciting  a  struggle  between  the  pri- 
vileged classes  and  the  Third  Estate,  to  remain  master  of  the  position ; 
and  he  submitted  a  report  to   the  Sovereign  in  accordance  with  which 


1774-1789.]  PHILOSOPHERS    OE   THE   AGE.  191 

there  appeared  on  the  27th  December,  1788,  a  Royal  declaration,  entitled 
the  Resultat  de  Conseil,  in  which  the  long-vexed  question  Avas  but  partly 
solved.  Louis  XVI.  decided  that  the  deputies  of  the  Third  Estate 
should  be  equal  in  number  to  those  of  the  other  two  Orders  together, 
but  left  the  question  of  the  general  method  of  deliberation  in  abeyance. 
This  declaration  was  received  with  favour,  although  it  left  the  question 
of  the  greatest  importance  undecided.  The  Third  Estate  now  perceived 
its  strength  ;  it  reckoned  with  good  reason  on  the  support  of  a  portion  of 
the  Noblesse  and  the  Clergy,  and  foresaw  that  it  would  be  able  to  control 
the  method  of  deliberation.  From  this  moment  the  Revolution  was 
inevitable. 

The  philosophers  of  the  age  had  a  great   share  in  bringing  about  this 
result.     The  most  famous  of  them,  Voltaire,   Jean  Jacques 

r»  t>w-i  -i-oA-ii  i     •       Philosophy,  lite- 

Kousseau,  Diderot,   D  Alembert,  were  no  more,  but  their    rature,  arts, 

it-  •  ry  •  an<^  sciences. 

school  still  flourished.  It  effected  the  suppression  of  abuses 
and  privileges,  but  at  the  same  time  destroyed,  indiscriminately,  the  most 
respectable  institutions  as  well  as  those  which  were  the  most  justly  decried. 
At  this  period  literature  was  cultivated  with  success.  The  Abbe  Barthe- 
lemy  published  his  learned  "  Journey  of  Anacharsis,"  and  Bernardin  de  St. 
Pierre  his  charming  "  Studies  of  Nature  ;"  whilst  Lebrun,  Roucher,  Andre 
Chenier  (then  scarcely  known),  and  Delille  maintained  the  honour  of  the 
French  school  of  poetry.  Ducis,  still  more  remarkable  for  his  noble 
character  than  for  his  talents,  rendered  himself  famous  on  the  stage,  now 
enriched  by  the  works  of  Voltaire,  on  which  Marie- Joseph  Chenier  was 
already  known,  and  to  which  Beaumarchais  had  given  his  "  Mariage  de 
Figaro,"  a  work  which  gave  a  powerful  and  dangerous  impulse  to  the 
revolutionary  tendency  of  men's  minds.  The  genius  of  the  arts,  after 
having  slumbered  during  the  last  reign,  reawoke  under  the  chisels  of 
Houdon  and  Chaudet,  and  the  forcible  pencils  of  Vien,  of  David,  and  his 
vigorous  school.  A  greater  number  of  distinguished  men  had  never  ap- 
peared on  the  theatrical  boards,  on  which  Talma  now  first  made  his  ap- 
pearance, and  on  which  Contat,  Fleury,  Mole,  and  Brizard  carried  the  art 
of  dramatic  diction  to  its  highest  point.  The  ranks  of  scientific  men  were 
adorned  by  many  illustrious  names  ;  and  foremost  amongst  them  appear 
those  of  the  mathematicians  Monge,  Lagrange,  and  Laplace  ;  the  chemists 
Lavoisier,  Fourcroy,  Vauquelin,  Berthollet,  and  Guy  ton  de  Morveau,  who 
rendered    himself    one    of    the    benefactors    of    the    human   race    by 


192  EISING    DISCOKTE^T.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

liis  discovery  of  methods  for  disinfecting  air  ;  of  the  physicist 
Coulomb,  who  immortalized  himself  by  his  researches  into  the  qualities 
of  the  loadstone  ;  of  the  naturalist  Daubenton.  the  fellow-labourer  and 
successor  of  BufFon  ;  of  the  learned  doctor  Vicq  d'Azyr ;  and  finally,  of 
the  astronomer  Delambre — one  of  the  men  to  whom  France  owes  the 
adoption  of  the  metrical  system — and  of  Silvain  Bailly,  the  author  of  the 
"  History  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Astronomy."  The  public  attention  was 
attracted  at  this  period  by  the  voyages  and  discoveries  of  the  Count  de 
Choiseul  in  Greece,  as  well  as  by  those  of  Bougainville  and  the  unfor- 
tunate La  Perouse,  and  indulged  in  dreams  of  important  advantages  to  be 
derived  by  the  human  race  through  the  theories  of  Mesmer  with  respect 
to  magnetism,  and  the  invention  of  balloons  by  Mongolfier.  Literary 
men,  learned  men,  and  philosophers,  were  admitted  to  intimacy  with  men 
of  the  highest  birth,  and  the  latter  displayed  a  great  eagerness  for  general 
information.  The  manners  of  the  upper  and  more  enlightened  classes 
had  never  been  more  refined  than  at  this  period,  when  French  politeness, 
celebrated  throughout  Europe,  formed  the  greatest  charm  of  social  life, 
and  had  acquired  a  noble  and  gracious  perfection,  of  which  the  remem- 
brance only  was  soon  to  remain.  But  a  deep  gulf  was  being  opened  by 
the  deficit  in  the  finances  and  the  faults  of  the  Government  beneath  the 
feet  of  this  brilliant  society.  There  was  behind  it  a  discontented  middle 
class,  whose  voice  scarcely  concealed  the  sullen  murmurs  of  an  ignorant 
and  wretched  multitude.  From  the  latter  quarter  the  storm  speedily 
burst  forth  to  overthrow  an  edifice  already  mined  to  its  foundations,  and 
which  disappeared  before  the  breath  of  the  popular  fury. 


FOURTH   PERIOD. 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  FROM  1789  TO 
THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


VOL.  II. 


FOUBTH  PEEIOD. 

THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION. 

The  history  of  the  French  Revolution  is  the  history  of  France  in  a  state 
of  revolt  against  a  material  and  traditional  system,  and  endeavouring  to 
establish  in  the  midst  of  ruins  an  ideal  and  rational  order  of  things,  a 
new  civil  and  political  system  founded  on  the  principles  of  humanity, 
liberty,  common  right,  and  natural  equity.* 

In  the  first  we  see  the  struggle  maintained  by  the  Third  Estate  for  the 
abolition  of  feudal  servitudes  and  the  privileges  of  the  two  first  Orders — 
an  imposing  and  terrible  struggle,  the  object  of  which  was  far  more  than 
attained,  and  which  ended  in  the  triumph  of  the  multitude  and  the  fall  of 
the  throne.  The  second  presents  to  us  France  under  the  scourge  of  a 
foreign  Avar,  and  the  reign  of  a  mob  headed  by  bloodthirsty  leaders,  to 
which  succeeded  a  violent  and  incapable  government.  It  is  the  period 
during  which  France  was  a  prey  to  terror  and  anarchy  ;  that  of  the  Con- 
vention and  the  Directorate  up  to  the  18th  Brumaire.  The  Revolution, 
in  its  third  stage,  shows  us  the  nation,  exhausted  by  so  many  sufferings, 
weary  of  so  many  excesses,  seeking,  at  the  feet  of  a  Great  Captain, 
refuge  in  a  military  despotism.  It  seemed  then  to  be  transformed  into 
one  vast  camp,  and  during  twelve  years  signalized  its  reaction  against 
Europe  by  an  uninterrupted  series  of  triumphs.  This  is  the  period  of  the 
Consulate  and  Empire.  Finally,  when  the  application  of  some  of  the 
principles  in  the  name  of  which  the  Revolution  was  effected  had  received 
from  time  a  species' of  consecration,  when  so  many  men,  agitated  by  so 
many  contrary  ideas,  had  learned  to  live  together  in  peace  under  the  iron 
hand  of  the  conqueror,  the  latter  fell  in  his  turn,  and  the  Bourbons  were 
restored,  on  the  condition  that  they  would  endow  France  with  political 
liberty,  and  respect  the  interests  inherent  to  the  new  order  of  things.  There 

*  France  presents  herself  to  our  view,  therefore,  during  half  a  century,  under  four 
principal  and  very  diverse  phases. 

o  2 


196  IsEW    ORDER    Or    AFFAIRS.  [BOOK  I. 

was  ground  for  the  hope  that  this  last  period  would  have  resulted  in  the 
establishment  of  a  new  government,  more  fitted  than  any  other  to  secure 
to  France  the  lasting  possession  of  all  the  fruits  she  had  gathered  after  so 
many  storms. 

If,  at  the  commencement  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XVI.,  the  counsels  of 
Turgot,  of  Malesherbes,  and  of  men  equally  distinguished  for  their 
patriotism  and  enlightenment,  had  been  followed,  France  would  probably 
have  enjoyed  from  that  time  all  the  advantages  for  which  she  subse- 
quently paid  so  much  treasure,  so  much  blood,  so  many  tears.  But  it  is, 
alas !  with  nations  as  with  individuals ;  their  experience  is  always  dearly 
bought,  and  it  is  not  until  they  have  suffered  grievous  trials  that  they  will 
consent  to  follow  the  advice  of  the  wise.  Each  party  in  France  was 
willing  to  listen  only  to  its  own  egotistical  passions,  and  each  perished  in 
succession,  a  victim  to  its  own  fury  and  excesses.  In  the  blood-stained 
period  of  which  we  are  about  to  give  a  rapid  sketch,  the  French  nation, 
by  its  frightful  Saturnalia  and  astonishing  victories,  by  its  increase  in 
population  and  wealth  in  the  midst  of  terrible  convulsions,  and  also  by 
the  definitive  adoption  of  a  portion  of  the  great  principles  introduced  by 
the  Eevolution,  was  by  turns  an  object  of  horror,  envy,  terror,  and  ad- 
miration to  the  universe. 


BOOK  I. 

The    States-General. — The    Constituent   Assembly. — The 
Legislative  Assembly. — Fall  of  the  Monarchy. 

5th  May,  1789,  to  1st  September,  1792. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FROM    THE     OPENING     OF    THE    STATES-GENERAL    TO    THE    DISSOLUTION    OF 
THE    CONSTITUENT    ASSEMBLY. 

6th  May,  1789,  to  20th  October,  1791. 

The  States- General  commenced  their  sittings   on  the   5th  May,  1789,  in 
the  hall  of  the  Menus  Plaisirs  at  Versailles.    The  deputies 

i  i        t^         i    r<s  t   •  Ti  Opening  of  the 

were   summoned  to   the   Koyal  beance,  and  introduced  ac-    states-General, 

.  5th  May,  1789. 

cording  to  the  form  established  in  1614;  but  the  time  had 
passed  when  the  Third  Estate,  speaking  on  its  knees  and  uncovered,  ac- 
knowledged its  humiliating  inferiority  in  the  presence  of  the  other  Orders. 
It  hastened,  on  the  contrary,  to  assert  its  equality,  and  when,  following  the 
King's  example,  the  two  other  Orders  had  covered,  the  deputies  of  the 
Third,  contrary  to  custom,  immediately  did  the  same.  This  action  was  a 
sufficient  indication  of  the  change  which  had  taken  place  in  public  feeling 
and  manner.  The  deputies  of  the  Third  Estate  would  have  gained  but 
little,  however,  by  proclaiming  their  equality  with  the  other  Orders,  if 
they  had  not  established  it  by  facts.  The  first  and  most  important  ques- 
tion to  be  decided  was,  whether  the  votes  should  be  received  by  Orders  or 
individually.  By  the  adoption  of  the  first  method,  the  deputies  of  the 
Third  Estate  would  have  lost  the  advantage  of  their  numbers,  which  were 
double  those  of  each  of  the  privileged  Orders.  The  Court,  the 
majority  of  the  nobility,  and  a  great  number  of  the  clergy  considered  it 
of  the  highest  importance  that  each  Order  should  vote  separately  on  all 
political  questions ;   but  amongst  the  nobility  there  were  a  certain  number 


198  POPULAR    EXCITEMENT.  [BOOK  I.  CHAr.  I. 

who  adopted  the  popular  view ;  the  opinions  of  the  cures,  who  formed  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  deputies  of  the  Clergy,  were  very  similar  to 
those  of  the  Third  Estate ;  and  the  unanimity  of  opinion  and  nume- 
rical strength  of  the  latter  gave  it  an  immense  advantage.  The  latter 
proceeded  to  verify  their  powers,  after  having  invited  the  Noblesse  and 
Clergy  to  verify  theirs  in  common  with  them  ;  and  then,  at  the  instigation 
of  Sieyes,  they  constituted  themselves,  on  the  17th  June,  a 

Formation  of  the  .  .  ,      .  . 

National  Ass  em-    JNational  Assembly.      This  important  decision  was  lmme- 

bly,  17th  June.  ,.,„,,  . 

diately  folloAved  by  acts  of  authority.  The  Assembly,  con- 
sisting of  the  deputies  of  the  Third  Estate  and  the  dissenting  portion  of 
the  Nobility  and  Clergy,  sanctioned  the  temporary  levy  of  the  existing 
taxes,  but  declared  all  those  which  it  should  not  have  sanctioned  before 
its  dissolution  to  be  null  and  void.  It  consolidated  the  public  debt,  nomi- 
nated a  committee  of  "  subsistences,"  and  proclaimed  the  inviolability  of 
its  members. 

The  general  excitement  was  extreme  when  a  Eoyal  sitting  was  an- 
nounced, and  when,  under  pretence  of  the  necessary  preparations,  an 
order  was  given  to  close  the  hall  in  which  the  States  held  their  sittings. 
Bailly,  the  president  of  the  Assembly,  famous  for  his  literary  and  scientific 
works,  and  esteemed  for  the  honesty  and  firmness  of  his  character,  pre- 
sented himself  on  the  20th  June,  1789,  accompanied  by  a  great  number 
of  his  colleagues,  at  the  door  of  the  hall  of  meeting,  and  found  it  closed. 
The  violent  measures  proposed  by  the  Court  were  now  evident,  and  the 
deputies  resolved  to  prevent  their  being  carried  into  execution.  They 
followed  their  president  to  a  neighbouring  tennis  court,  and 

The  oath  of  the  ,  .  .  ,  .       , 

Tennis  Court,        there,  with  one  exception,  unanimously  swore,  with  raised 

June  20th,  1789.  J      .        . ,      . 

hands,  that  they  would  not  separate  until  they  had  bestowed 
a  constitution  upon  France.  Two  days  afterwards  the  majority  of  the 
Clergy  joined  the  deputies  of  the  Commons  in  the  church  of  St.  Louis, 
where  they  had  provisionally  assembled.  Necker  had  conceived  a  plan 
which  would  tend  to  bring  the  several  Orders  to  amicable  terms  with 
each  other,  and  to  calm  the  public  excitement.  The  King  had  consented 
to  adopt  it,  and  to  mention  it  in  his  address  to  the  Assembly ;  but  the 
influence  of  the  Court  prevailed  over  the  counsels  of  Necker.  Terrified 
at  the  immense  power  over  public  opinion  acquired  by  the  Third  Estate 
by  its  first  proceedings,  the  party  opposed  to  Necker,  which  was  that  of 
the  Princes,  inspired  Louis  XVI.  with  its  own  terrors,  and  persuaded  him 


1789-1791.]  RESISTANCE   OE    THE   NOBILITY.  199 

to  annul  the  decrees  of  the  Assembly,  to  command  the  separation  of  the 
Orders,  and  to  decide  alone  upon  all  the  reforms  which  were  to  be 
eifected  by  the  States-General. 

Such  were  the  preludes  to  the  Royal  sitting  which  took  place  on  the 
23rd  June.  The  King  proceeded  to  it  with  all  the  outward  Ro  al  sitfcin 
pomp  of  majesty,  and  was  received  by  a  portion  of  the  deputies  23rd  June* 
with  an  icy  silence*  He  only  recognised  the  Assembly  as  the  Order  of  the 
Third  Estate,  and  commanded  its  dissolution.  The  members  of  the  Nobi- 
lity and  Clergy  who  were  present  immediately  obeyed  after  the  departure 
of  the  King ;  but  those  of  the  Commons  retained  their  seats.  The  Grand 
Master  of  the  Ceremonies  reminded  them  of  the  King's  order,  when  Mira- 
beau  exclaimed,  "  Go  and  tell  your  master  that  we  are  here  by  the  order 
of  the  people,  and  we  shall  not  depart  unless  driven  away  by  bayonets." 
Sieyes  then  addressed  his  colleagues,  and  calmly  said  to  them,  "  You  are 
to-day  what  you  were  yesterday ;  let  us  deliberate."  The  Assembly  per- 
sisted in  maintaining  all  its  resolutions,  and,  on  the  motion  of  Mirabeau, 
decreed  the  inviolability  of  all  its  members.  From  thenceforth  the  Eoyal 
authority  was  at  an  end.  The  greater  number  of  the  deputies  of  the 
Clergy  resumed  their  seats  in  the  Assembly.  The  No-  Eesistance  of 
bility  persisted  in  their  refusal  to  do  so,  in  spite  of* the  the  Nobllity- 
remonstrances  of  Count  Clermont  de  Tonnerre  and  the  more  vigorous 
exhortations  of  Lally-Tollendal,  the  son  of  the  unfortunate  General  Lally, 
and  already  celebrated  for  the  talents  he  had  displayed  in  vindicating  the 
memory  of  his  father.  "  Consider,  gentlemen,"  he  said,  "  that  in  the 
progress  of  revolutions  there  is  a  force  of  circumstances  which  is  superior 
to  that  of  men.  There  has  been  a  period  when  it  has  been  necessary  that 
servitude  should  be  abolished,  and  it  has  been  ;  another  when  it  has  been 
necessary  that  the  Third  Estate  should  form  a  portion  of  the  National 
Assembly,  and  it  has  formed  a  portion  of  it.  In  these  facts  we  per- 
ceive the  progress  of  reason,  which  enforces  the  rights  of  man,  too  long 
neglected,  which  enforces  the  respect  which  an  imposing  mass  of  twenty- 
four  millions  of  men  ought  to  give  to  the  Third  Estate,  and  which  demands 
for  them  the  proportion  of  rights  which  justly  belongs  to  them.  'This  third 
Revolution  has  commenced,  and  nothing  can  prevent  its  accomplishment. 
I  firmly  believe  that  it  now  only  depends  upon  the  Nobility  to  clothe 
itself  with  honour,  and  to  invest  itself  with  a  glory  more  brilliant  than 
any  which   it  has  yet  acquired,  by  now  becoming   for  ever  the  bene- 


200  EXILE    OF    NECKEB.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  I. 

factors  of  the  nation.  It  is  for  this  reason,  gentlemen,  it  is  for  the  sake 
of  your  own  best  interests,  that  I  entreat  you  to  acquiesce  in  the  motion 
of  M.  Clermont  de  Tonnerre."  These  remarks  of  Lally  were  energeti- 
cally replied  to  by  d'Epremesnil  and  Cazales,  and  the  motion  was  rejected. 
„  ....        But  on  the  following  day  47  members  of  the  Noblesse, 

.Reunion  of  the  °         J  7 

ci0er^Swithdthe  with  tlie  I)uke  of  Orleans  at  their  head,  joined  the  Third 
Third  Estate.  Estate,  and  the  majority  of  the  Clergy,  and  were  received 
with  enthusiasm. 

The  fusion  of  the  several  Orders,  however,  in  a  single  assembly  was  not  yet 
complete,  and  as  this  circumstance  produced  an  extreme  state  of  agitation, 
Necker  again  advised  the  union  of  the  three  Orders,  and  as  the  Queen  and 
many  influential  persons  supported  his  views,  Louis  XVI.  yielded,  and 
annulled  his  declaration  of  the  23rd  June  as  readily  as  he  had  formerly 
abandoned  the  counsels  of  Necker  for  those  of  the  courtiers.  He  sent  for 
the  Duke  of  Luxembourg,  president  of  the  Order  of  the  Noblesse,  and  com- 
municated to  him  his  new  wishes.  Luxembourg  opposed  the  proposed 
measure  ;  and  pointed  out  to  the  Monarch  that  the  disunion  between  the 
several  Orders  was  the  sole  means  which  remained  of  preserving  the 
authority  of  the  Crown.  "  Your  faithful  nobility,"  said  the  Duke  in  con- 
clusion, "  has  now  the  alternative  of  sharing,  as  your  Majesty  invites  them 
to  do,  with  their  co-deputies  the  legislative  power,  or  of  dying  in  defence 
of  the  prerogatives  of  the  Crown.  There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  its  deci- 
sion." "  M.  de  Luxembourg,"  the  King  firmly  replied,  "  my  determination 
is  made.  I  am  resolved  to  submit  to  every  sacrifice.  I  am  unwilling 
that  a  single  man  should  perish  for  my  sake.  Tell  the  Order  of  Noblesse, 
therefore,  that  I  pray  them  to  join  the  other  two  Orders.  If  this  be  not 
sufficient,  I  will  command  them  to  do  so  as  their  King.  I  will  it  to  be 
so."  The  King  was  obeyed,  and  after  the  27th  June  the  Clergy,  the 
Noblesse,  and  the  Third  Estate  only  formed  one  assembly,  which  was 
indiscriminately  named  the  National  and  Constituent  Assembly.  The 
deliberations  were  henceforth  general,  and  the  distinction  between  the 
Orders  became  extinct. 

All  moral  authority  having  passed  from  the  Monarch  to  the  Assembly, 
the  advisers  of  Louis  XVI.  imprudently  persuaded  him  to  have  recourse, 
too  late,  to  force.     Troops  were  assembled  in  large  bodies  around  Ver- 
sailles ;    Necker  was  exiled  ;  Marshal  de  Broglie,  Galisson- 
niere,  the  Duke  of  La  Vauguyon,  Baron  de  Breteuil,  and 


1789-1791.]  THE    COMMITTEE    OE   ELECTORS.  201 

the  Intendant  Foulon  were  appointed  Ministers;  and  all  of  them 
were  imbued  more  or  less  with  the  views  of  the  Court.  The  approach  of 
the  troops  and  the  exile  of  Necker  produced  a  great  feeling  of  excitement 
in  Paris.  Camille  Desmoulins,  a  young  and  ardent  demagogue,  harangued 
the  populace  in  the  garden  of  the  Palais  Royal,  and  exhorted 

,  t«*        i   •      i         i  i       i  t  i  i        Camille  Desmou- 

tnem  to  run  to  arms.    Pistol  in  hand  he  jumped  upon  a  table   Hns  at  the  Palais 

,  .  .  Royal. 

and  denounced  the  designs  of  the  Court  against  the  patriots. 
"  This  very  evening,"  he  said,  "  Swiss  and  G-erman  battalions  are  issuing 
from  the  Champ  de  Mars  to  destroy  us.  One  resource  alone  remains  to 
us.  Let  us  arm !"  The  crowd  replied  with  acclamations  ;  and  he  then 
proposed  that  a  patriotic  colour  should  be  adopted — green,  the  symbol  ot 
hope.  The  orator  tore  a  leaf  from  a  tree  and  attached  it  to  his  hat ;  every 
one  followed  his  example,  and  the  trees  of  the  garden  were  almost  entirely 
denuded  of  their  foliage.  From  thence  the  mob  ran  to  a  sculptor's  studio 
to  obtain  the  busts  of  Necker  and  the  Duke  of  Orleans,*  which  were  veiled 
with  crape  and  borne  through  the  streets  of  Paris.  The  Prince  of  Lam- 
besc,  Colonel  of  the  Royal  Allemand,  interrupted  this  oration  by  charging 
the  mob  with  his  troops  ;  but  the  French  Guards  took  the  part  of  the 
people,  and  the  Prince's  troops,  refusing  to  fire  upon  their  companions 
in  arms,  retreated.  In  the  meantime  the  tumult  and  disorder  in  the 
capital  grew  greater  and  greater ;  the  barriers  were  set  on  fire,  and  many 
houses  were  pillaged.  The  populace  was  without  bread,  and  there  was 
every  prospect  of  the  occurrence  of  the  greatest  calamities. 

m  i  o  iiii       tta     i    i       Formation  of  the 

lo  prevent  them,  a  few  electors  assembled  at  the  Hotel  de    Committee  of 

_.  1  Electors. 

Ville,  assumed  authority,  and  rendered  great  services  m  these 
first  moments  of  the  Revolution  by  their  firmness,  activity,  and  prudence. 
The  National  Assembly,  after  having  in  vain  attempted  to  bring  about  an 
understanding  between  itself  and  the  Court,  unanimously  decreed  the 
responsibility  of  the  Ministers  and  all  the  King's  councillors,  of  whatever 
rank  they  might  be  ;  voted  expressions  of  sympathy  with  Necker  and 
the  other  disgraced  Ministers ;  placed  the  public  debt  under  the  protection 
of  French  honour,  and  constituted  itself  a  permanent  assembly.  The 
Archbishop  of  Vienne  was  its  president,  and  Lafayette  was  elected  its 
vice-president. 

The  populace  of  Paris,  excited  by  the  hostile  attitude  of  the   Court, 
was  eager  to  follow  up  its  first  successes,   and   demanded  arms.     The 

*  At  this  time  it  was  supposed  that  the  Duke  of  Orleans  had  been  exiled. 


202  TAKING    OP    THE    BASTILE.  [BoOK  I.  CHAP.  I. 

Committee    of  Electors    sitting   at   the   Hotel   de   Ville    organized   the 

National  Guard,  which  it  raised  to  the  number  of  forty-eight  thousand 

men,  and  to  which,  on  the  proposal  of  Lafayette,  it  gave  the  tricolored 

cockade.*     Each  district   had  its  battalion.     Fifty  thousand  pikes  were 

manufactured,   and  the   arsenal  of  the  Invalides  was  pillaged.     "  To  the 

Bastile ! — to  the  Bastile  !'"  became  the  cry  of  the  excited  populace  ;  and 

the   siege    of   the   Bastile  was   immediately  commenced.      The    French 

Guards  revolted,  aided  the  mob  with  cannon,  and  secured  the  capture  of 

the  citadel,  the  feeble  garrison  of  which  surrendered.     The  people,  raising 

in  their  hands  the  bleedino;  trophies  of  their  triumph,  re- 
Taking  of  the  o        i  ^  x 
Bastile,  14th         turned  with  immense  uproar  to  the  Hotel   de  Ville,   and 

July,  1789.  ... 

speedily  signalized  their  victory  by  many  assassinations. 
The  unfortunate  Delaunay,  Governor  of  the  Bastile,  the  prisoner  of  the 
multitude,  was  slain  by  them.  A  letter  found  upon  him  caused  Flesselles, 
the  provost  of  the  merchants,  to  be  accused  of  treason,  and,  after  having 
been  brought  up  to  trial  before  the  mob,  he  was  killed  by  a  pistol-shot. 
The  excitement  was  noAV  at  its  height.  The  regularly-constituted  autho- 
rities were  everywhere  insulted,  the  law  was  despised,  blood  flowed  in  all 
directions,  and  a  civil  war  was  imminent. 

The  Court  only  regarded  the  insurrection  in  Paris  as  a  riot.  The  King 
proposed  to  dissolve  the  Assembly,  and  gave  to  Marshal  Broglie,  the  com- 
mander of  the  arm}^  unlimited  power.  Informed  in  the  middle  of  the 
night,  by  the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,  of  the  capture  of  the 
Bastile  and  the  other  events  of  the  14th  July,  the  King  exclaimed — "  It 
is  a  revolt."  "  It  is  a  Eevolution,"  replied  the  Duke.  The  King's  resolu- 
tion gave  way  before  the  serious  aspect  of  affairs,  and  on  the  following 
day  he  proceeded  in  person  to  the  Assembly.  "  The  silence  of  the  people 
is  a  lesson  to  the  King,"  Mirabeau  had  said,  and  the  deputies  at  first  re- 
mained perfectly  mute  in  the  Monarch's  presence  ;  but  when  he  had  said 
that  he  was  but  one  with  the  nation,  that  the  troops  should  be  withdrawn, 
and  added  in  a  firm  voice,  "It  is  to  you  that  I  trust  myself,"  loud 
applauses  burst  forth,  and  the  Assembly  rising,  reconducted  the  King  to 
his  palace. 

Louis  XVI.,  perceiving  the  necessity  of  appeasing  the  capital  himself, 
announced  that  Necker  should  be  recalled,  and  that  he  would  proceed  on 

*  This  cockade  united  white,  the  ancient  colour  of  the  city  of  France,  with  red  and 
blue,  the  colour  of  the  city  of  Paris. 


1789-1791.]  ABOLITION    OF    PRIVILEGES.  203 

the  following  day  to  Paris,  where  Bailly  had  been  appointed  mayor,  and 
Lafayette  commander  of  the  Civic  Guard.  It  was  by  them  that  the 
Monarch  was  received.  "  Sire,"  said  the  first,  as  he  presented  him  with 
the  keys  of  the  city,  "  Henry  IY.  recovered  his  people ;  here  the  people 
have  recovered  their  King."  Louis  entered  the  Hotel  cle  Ville  unaccom- 
panied by  guards,  received  the  tricolored  cockade  amidst  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  multitude,  and  did  not  return  to  Versailles  until  he  had 
sanctioned  the  acts  of  the  people.  But  to  sanction  such  acts,  and  to 
recognise,  as  he  did,  authorities  elected  without  any  Eoyal  warrant, 
whose  avowed  office  it  was  to  limit  his  own  power,  was  in  itself  to 
abdicate. 

And  now  commenced   the  first  emigration.     The   Count  d'Artois,  the 
Ivinor's  second  brother,  the  Prince  of  Conde,  the  Prince   of  ~ 

°  '  '  First  emigra- 

Conti,  and  the  Polignac  family  gave  the  example  and  quitted  tlon'  July' 1789- 
France.  The  return  of  Necker  to  Paris  was  a  triumph  for  him,  but  it 
was  also  the  last  day  of  his  prosperity.  He  believed  himself  to  be  the 
ruler  of  a  party  which  only  looked  upon  him  as  an  instrument,  and 
endeavoured  to  save  Bezenval,  the  second  in  command  of  the  troops,  and 
a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  people.  The  Intendant  Foulon  and  his 
nephew  Berthier  had  already  perished,  victims  of  the  popular  fury. 
Bezenval  was  more  compromised  than  they,  and  Necker,  by  proposing  an 
amnesty,  at  once  lost  all  his  popularity.  From  thenceforth  he  endea- 
voured, but  in  vain,  to  struggle  against  the  Revolution.  The  insurrec- 
tionary movements  in  Paris  extended  to  the  provinces.  Everywhere  the 
people  formed  themselves  into  municipalities  and  national  guards.  Troops 
of  armed  men  traversed  the  country,  pillaging  and  burning  the  chateaux, 
and  giving  to  the  flames  the  title-deeds  of  the  seigneurs.  The  Assemblv 
hoped  to  calm  this  fury,  and  in  part  to  remove  its  cause  by  abolishing 
the  most  detested  privileges,  and  proceeded  to  effect  this  reform  on  the 
celebrated  night  of  the  4th  of  August.  Vicomte  de  Noailles  gave  the 
signal  for  sacrifices  by  proposing  the  redemption  of  the 
feudal  rights,  and  the  suppression  of  villein  services.  The  Privileges,  4th 
privileged  classes  rivalled  each  other  in  making  liberal  pro- 
posals, and  apparently  also  in  patriotism.  But  many  of  the  deputies  of 
these  Orders,  members  of  the  right  side  of  the  Assembly,  only  contributed 
to  destroy  everything  in  the  ancient  social  system  in  the  hope  of  over- 
throwing  everything,  and  thus  bringing  about  a   reaction  which  they 


204  NATIONAL    DIVISIONS.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  I. 

believed  to  be  inevitable.  Abuses  and  privileges  were  suppressed;  votes 
were  passed  for  the  redemption  of  the  tithes  and  their  conversion  into  a 
pecuniary  tax,  for  the  suppression  of  exclusive  hunting  rights,  the  aboli- 
tion of  seigneurial  justices,  the  sale  of  magisterial  offices,  the  inequality 
of  taxation,  the  annates  of  the  Court  of  Rome,  and  of  the  plurality  of 
benefices.  Finally,  the  wardenships  and  masterships  were  suppressed, 
and  the  Assembly  bestowed  upon  Louis  XVI.  the  title  of  the  Restorer  of 
French  Liberty.  On  this  memorable  night  all  Frenchmen  were  rendered 
equal  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  and  were  all  declared  equally  admissible  to 
all  offices  and  employments,  without  any  other  distinction  than  that 
which  might  be  bestowed  by  virtue  or  talent.  But  whilst  the  Assembly 
thus  swept  away  many  unreasonable  shackles  and  unjustifiable  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  private  advancement,  it  at  the  same  time  lighted  an  unex- 
tinguishable  flame  of  ambition  in  every  heart,  by  setting  no  bounds  to 
men's  hopes  but  those  which  they  themselves  could  perceive  in  the  limits 
of  their  own  merits. 

The  Assembly  was  divided  at  this  period  into  three  principal  parties; 
Parties  in  the  ^ia^  °^  ^e  Court  and  the  privileged  Orders,  consisting 
Assembly.  chiefly  of  the  Clergy  and  the  Noblesse,  of  which  the  most 

prominent  orators  were  the  Abbe  Maury  and  Cazales,  a  cavalry  officer, 
and  which  desired  a  Constitution  modelled  on  that  of  England.  Necker, 
Mounier,  Lally-Tollendal,  and  Malouet  were  at  the  head  of  the  second 
party,  which  consisted  chiefly  of  the  minority  of  the  Noblesse ;  and  the 
remainder  of  the  Assembly  formed  a  third  party,  which  was  opposed  to 
the  existence  of  any  aristocratic  distinction  between  the  various  classes  of 
the  nation.  This  last  party  was  divided  within  itself  into  various  fac- 
tions, between  which  there  was  little  harmony.  In  one  of  them  Bailly 
and  Lafayette  were  prominent ;  in  another  the  most  noticeable  were 
the  members  of  a  famous  triumvirate,  which  was  always  ardent  in  the 
support  of  the  most  popular  propositions,  and  which  consisted  of  Duport, 
a  councillor  of  Parliament,  of  Colonel  Alexander  de  Lameth,  and  of 
the  eloquent  Barnave.  Finally,  some  few  of  this  third  party  dis- 
tinguished themselves  by  their  revolutionary  violence,  but  their  influence 
was  still  weak ;  and  amongst  these  was  one  whose  name,  then  obscure, 
has  since  become  but  too  famous — Robespierre.  A  fourth  party  might 
be  reckoned  as  existing  in  the  Assembly,  that  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans. 
But  it  was  vague  and  undecided  in  its  views,  and  if  it  really  existed,  only 


1789-1791.]  DECLAEATTOK    OF    RIGHTS.  205 

consisted  of  some  individuals  greatly  attached  to  the  Prince,  and  who 
were  supposed  to  wish  to  transfer  the  crown  to  his  head.  The  principal 
leaders  of  the  Assembly  were  two  men  who  did  not  belong  to  the  Third 
Estate,  but  were  adopted  by  it,  Abbe  Sieyes  and  the  Marquis  de  Mirabeau. 
The  first  ruled  it  by  means  of  his  philosophical  intellect,  The  Abh6  Sieyes 
abounding  in  new  and  seducing  but  abstract  ideas,  which 
were  difficult  of  practical  application,  sometimes  chimerical,  and  too  often 
suggested  by  an  implacable  hatred  for  the  privileged  Orders.  He  was 
all-influential  in  the  committees.  The  second  was  predominant  at  the 
tribune.  Abandoning  himself  in  early  youth  to  the  most  unbridled 
passions,  a  victim  to  his  own  excesses,  accustomed  to  struggle  against  all 
restraints,  devoured  by  a  constant  need  for  a  sphere  of  activity  commen- 
surate with  his  vast  powers,  and  as  bold  as  he  was  eloquent,  the  revolu- 
tions were  his  element.  Disowned  by  the  noblesse  of  Provence,  he 
threw  himself  into  the  arms  of  the  people,  who  received  him  with  trans- 
port. For  some  time  his  influence  was  felt  by  every  party,  and  he 
exercised  over  the  Assembly  the  sovereignty  of  genius. 

Royal  power,  practically  suspended,  was  at  this  time  exercised  by  the 
National  Assembly,  which  appointed  various  committees  to  provide  for  all 
the  branches  of  the  public  service.  It  in  the  next  place  adopted,  on  the 
motion  of  Lafayette,   a  declaration  of  the  rights  of  man.    \  •:  i  ;-_     ;. 

J  °  '     Acts  of  Consh'u- 

drawn  up  in  the  spirit  of  the  celebrated  declaration  of  the  Declaration of3' 
American  Congress,  which  served  as  the  basis  of  the  consti-  Ptl8hts- 
tution.  Louis  XVI.  hesitated  to  accept  it,  and  only  did  so  with  regret. 
The  Assembly  decreed  the  permanence  of  the  legislative  body,  and  after 
a  very  animated  discussion,  in  which  Necker,  Mounier,  and  Lally- 
Tollendal  insisted  upon  the  division  of  this  body  into  a  Senate  and  a 
Chamber  of  Representatives,  it  was  resolved  that  it  should  be  indivisible 
and  composed  of  a  single  chamber. 

It  then  remained  to  be  determined  what  part  in  the  legislature  should 
be  possessed  by  the  King.  Some  wished  that  the  Monarch  should  have 
the  power  of  actually  rejecting  the  resolutions  of  the  Assembly,  whilst 
others  were  willing  that  he  should  have  only  a  suspensive  veto.'  This 
question  was  the  subject  of  the  most  violent  debates.  Paris  was  still  in 
a  state  of  great  agitation,  the  natural  consequence  of  the  victory  of  the 
14th  July.  The  Assembly  of  Electors,  which  had  formed  a  provisional 
municipality,  had  been  superseded.    A  hundred  and  eighty  members,  nomi- 


2C6  EISING    OP    THE    POPULACE.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  I. 

nated  by  the  districts,  had  constituted  themselves  legislators  and  repre- 

Comnrnneof   sentatives  of  the  commune,   whilst  the  committees  of  the 

Pans.  sixty  districts  of  Paris,   from  whom   they  received  their 

authority,   also   assumed  a  legislative  power  and  one   superior  to  that  of 

their  proxies.     The  mania  for  public  discussions  had  become  general; 

clubs  of  every  description  were  formed  throughout  the  city ;  soldiers, 

tailors,  hairdressers,  domestics,  had  all  their  special  places  of  assembly. 

The  most  animated  debates  took  place  on  the  Palais  Royal,   where  the 

populace  controlled  those  of  the  National  Assembly,  and  it  was  there  that 

t,.       .  the  discussion  on  the  Royal  veto  created  the  most  violent  ex- 

Discussion  on  J 

the  Eoyai  veto.  citement.  The  middle  class,  which  composed  the  National 
Guard,  did  not  as  yet  possess  complete  control  over  Paris,  and  the 
Ministry,  terrified  at  the  menacing  demonstration  of  the  multitude,  advised 
the  King  to  abandon  the  unlimited  veto  for  the  suspensive  veto.  The 
Assembly  then  decided  that  the  refusal  of  the  Monarch's  sanction  should 
have  no  effect  beyond  two  sessions,  and  then  despoiled  the  throne  of  the 
little  that  remained  of  its  former  prestige.  Those  who  saw  that  this  was 
the  case  wished  the  King  to  seek  a  refuge  in  the  midst  of  his  army  ;  a 
suggestion  to  which  Louis  XVI.  refused  to  listen.  Troops,  however, 
were  brought  up  to  Versailles  ;  and  when  the  dragoons  and  the  Flanders 
regiment  had  arrived  there,  the  adversaries  of  the  new  regime  felt  some 
return  of  confidence. 

The  oificers  of  the  newly-arrived  regiments  were  feted  by  their 
comrades  in  the  Salle  de  Spectacle  of  the  chateau,  reserved  for  great 
solemnities ;  the  King  and  Queen,  the  latter  holding  the  Dauphin  in 
her  arms,  appeared  in  the  midst  of  this  noisy  party,  and  their  presence 
excited  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  White  cockades  were  distributed,  and 
the  tricolored  emblems  were  trampled  under  foot.  Such  was  the 
Ban  uetofth  fam01is  banquent  of  the  1st  October,  the  consequences  of 
1st  October.  which  were  to  be  so  fatal  to  the  Royal  family.  What  had 
occurred  at  it  was  speedily  known  in  Paris  and  created  the  greatest 
excitement.  The  arrival  of  the  regiments,  their  hostile  demonstrations, 
the  dread  of  conspiracies,  and  especially  famine,  created  the  most  for- 
midable rising  of  the  masses.  A  girl  of  the  town  gave  the  signal,  on 
the  5th  October,  by  traversing  the  streets  with  a  drum.  A  mob  of 
women  followed  her,  demanding  bread  and  uttering  the  most  frightful 
vociferations.      A  furious  multitude    soon   collected   around  them  from 


1789-1791.J  THE    PEOPLE    MAECH    TO   YEBSAILLES.  207 

every  direction ;  it  was  resolved  to  march  to  "Versailles,  and  a  man  named 
Maillard  offered  to  conduct  them.  Withheld  from  its  purpose  by  La- 
fayette during  seven  hours,  it  set  out  at  length,  and  filled  Versailles  with 
terror.  A  conflict  had  already  taken  place  between  it  and 
the  Royal  Body  Guard,  when  Lafayette  arrived  at  the  head  Versailles,  5th 
of  the  National  Guard  of  Paris,  and  by  his  presence  restored 
order.  Whilst  every  one  was  asleep,  however,  some  of  the  populace 
found  one  of  the  gates  of  the  palace  open,  and  entered,  calling  to  their 
comrades  to  follow.  The  alarm  was  given,  and  a  fight  took  place  between 
the  people  and  the  Life  Guards,  many  of  whom  heroically  died  at  their 
post,  crying,  "  Save  the  Queen  !"  Marie  Antoinette,  informed  of  the 
danger,  fled  half-dressed  to  the  King.  Lafayette  hurried  to  the  scene  of 
action.  The  French  Guards  had  already  gone  to  the  assistance  of  the 
Life  Guards ;  and  Lafayette  succeeded,  at  the  peril  of  his  life,  in  removing 
the  mob  from  the  palace  apartments.  The  multitude  demanded  with 
loud  cries  that  the  King  should  appear,  and  Louis  XVI.  showed  himself 
on  the  grand  balcony  of  the  chateau.  But  it  was  the  Queen  especially 
who  was  the  object  of  the  popular  excitement ;  and  Lafayette,  appearing 
with  her  beside  the  King,  kissed  her  hand  with  respect.  The  crowd 
applauded,  but  vehemently  demanded  that  the  King  should  set  out  for 
Paris.  Louis  XVI.  yielded  to  this  demand  also,  and  on  the  very  same 
day  proceeded  thither  with  his  family,  escorted  by  his  Guards,  and 
accompanied  by  a  hideous  and  blood-stained  mob.  The  principal  result 
of  this  event  was  to  place  the  Court  at  the  mercy  of  the  multitude ;  and  it 
filled  with  horror  and  affright  all  those  who  dreaded,  with  good  reason, 
a  mob  government,  and  it  made  many  members  of  the  National  Assembly 
resolve  to  abandon  it.  Lally-Tollendal  and  Mounier  were  of  this 
number,  and  the  latter  endeavoured,  without  success,  to  raise  Dauphiny, 
his  province,  against  the  National  Assembly. 

This  attempt  by  Mounier,  although  unsuccessful,  excited  fears  of  the 
dangers  that  might  arise  from  provincial  organizations.  Several  provinces, 
irritated  at  having  lost,  with  their  privileges,  the  guarantees  which  they 
had  possessed,  since  their  union,  against  the  arbitrary  power  of  the 
Crown  and  the  Central  Government,  formed,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Assembly,  states  too  vast  and  independent,  and  it  desired  to  reduce 
their  extent  and  to  subject  them  to  an  uniform  mode  of  administration. 
With   this   object   it   adopted,    in   December,    1789,    a    project   which, 


208  NEW  ELECTORAL  SYSTEMS.      [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  I. 

although  serviceable  as  a  preventive  of  civil  war,  had  very  unfortunate 
results. 

This  plan,  which  was  devised  by  the  metaphysician  Sieyes,  divided 

France  into  eighty-three  departments,  each  of  almost  equal 

France  into  De-   extent.     Each  department  was  divided  into  districts,  and 

partments  and  .        .  . 

New  Electoral       each  district  into  cantons.     They  were  to  be  governed  in  a 

Systems.  . 

hierarchical  and  uniform  manner.  Each  department  and 
district  had  an  administrative  council,  and  an  executive  directory,  those 
of  the  district  being  subservient  to  those  of  the  department.  The  canton, 
composed  of  five  or  six  communes,  was  a  simple  electoral  division.  The 
administration  of  the  commune  was  confided  to  a  municipality  consisting  of 
a  number  of  members  proportioned  to  the  population.  Everything  in  this 
plan  had  an  electoral  basis,  but  it  had  many  degrees.  The  citizens  who 
paid  taxes  equal  in  value  to  three  days'  labour  were  considered  active 
citizens,  and  formed  preliminary  assemblies  to  select  the  electors ;  the 
latter,  who  were  selected  from  amongst  the  citizens  who  paid  taxes  of  the 
value  often  days' labour,  selected  the  deputies  for  the  National  Assembly, 
the  administration  of  the  department  those  of  the  district.  The 
municipal  elections  were  conducted  on  the  same  principle.  This  division 
„  of  France  into  small  portions  named   departments,   contri- 

Grave  conse-  *■  -1  7 

ifew  Territorial  "°uted  eventually  more  than  any  acts  of  the  most  absolute 
Divisions.  Kings  or  Ministers  to  increase  the  power  which,  under  the 

name  of  central  administration,  threatens  at  the  present  day  to  subject  to 
itself  all  rights  and  to  lead  the  State  to  interfere  in  all  private  matters.* 
It  was  this  division  which  broke  in  France  the  chain  of  traditions, 
which  by  destroying  throughout  the  kingdom  the  prestige  of  a  past 
history  and  the  influences  possessed  by  localities,  rendered  Paris  the 
burning  focus  of  all  ambitions  and  all  intrigues,  as  it  was  that  of  all 
power.  There  was  no  longer  any  centre  of  action  left  to  counterpoise  the 
despotism  of  the  capital ;  the  life  of  the  nation  was  drawn  more  and  more 
from  its  extremities,  and  Paris  absorbed  France. 

Some  large  provinces  attempted  to  repel  an  organization  so  opposed  to 
their  interests  and  destructive  of  their  privileges ;  but  the  provincial 
States  and  Parliaments  protested  in  vain,  and  were  suppressed.  To  the 
resistance  of  these  was  also  added  that  of  the  clergy,  whom  the  Assembly 

*  The  result  was  especially  manifest  after  the  establishment  of  the  prefectures 
under  the  Consulate. 


1789-4791.]        THE    CLERGY   DEPRIVED    OE    ITS    PROPERTY.  209 

deprived  of  their  property  by  a  measure  no  less  violent  and  spoliative. 
To  the  adoption  of  this  latter  measure,  however,  the  Assembly  was 
urged  by  a  necessity  which,  in  times  of  Revolution,  is  often  considered, 
in  defiance  of  all  moral  right,  as  the  supreme  law  of  peoples.  The 
deficit,  in  fact,  was  immense,  the  taxes  produced  scarcely  anything,  and 
it  was  almost  impossible  to  obtain  loans.  Necker,  after  many  expe- 
dients which  were  merely  unproductive,  had  suggested  to  the  Assembly 
an  extraordinary  tax  of  a  fourth  part  of  every  one's  income,  the  amount 
of  which  was  to  be  estimated  by  each  person  for  himself;  and  Mirabeau, 
influencing  his  colleagues  by  the  picture  of  the  frightful  bankruptcy 
by  which  France  was  about  to  be  devoured,  it  was  resolved  to 
sanction  this  useful  measure ;  but  this  was  far  from  being  sufficient  to 
fill  the  void  in  the  Treasury,  and  from  this  time  covetous  eyes  were 
thrown  upon  the  immense  possessions  of  the  clergy  as  the  only  resource 
which  could  supply  the  existing  necessities.  Already  the  tithes,  which 
had  at  first  been  rendered  redeemable,  had  been  suppressed,  when 
Talleyrand,  Bishop  of  Autun,  proposed  to  the  clergy  to  give  up  its  pos- 
sessions, valued  at  many  hundreds  of  millions,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
nation,  which  would  employ  them  in  the  payment  of  its  debt  and  the 
support  of  religion.  The  clergy  refused,  and  thereupon  the  Assembly 
declared   that  the    clergy  were  not   proprietors,  but  only 

The  clergy  de- 

trustees  of  the  property  consecrated  to  the  service  of  reli-    prived  of  its 

property. 

gion,  and  that  the  nation  on  taking  on  itself  the  mainte- 
nance of  public  worship,  might  repossess  itself  of  what  was  really  its 
own  property.  The  public  expenses  required  in  this  first  year  four 
hundred  millions,  State  votes  were  rated  to  the  amount  of  this  sum, 
the  currency  of  which  was  enforced  by  law,  and  which  were  mortgages 
on  the  gross  property  of  the  clergy.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  assignats, 
which,  issued  at  first  with  prudence,  facilitated  the  accom- 

, .  ,  „  .  ,  First  assignats. 

plisnment  of  many  important  matters  at  the  commencement 

of  the  Revolution,  but  afterwards  became  discredited  by  the  odious  abuse 

which  now  was  made  of  them. 

This  violent  spoliation  of  the  clergy,  contrary  to  all  justice,  and  speedily 
followed  by  the  suppression  of  the  religious  orders,  filled  this  important 
body  with  profound  irritation,  and  the  Assembly  rendered  its  opposition 
more  vigorous  and  inflexible  by  imprudently  attacking  its  discipline  and 
the  conscience  of  its  members  by  the  fatal  vote  determining  the  civil 

VOL.  II.  p 


210  fete  of  the  federation.  [Book  I.  Chap.  I. 

constitution  of  the    clergy.     This  vote  established  a  bishopric  in  each 
department,  gave  to  the  people  the  right  of  electing  bishops 

CitiI  Constitu-  o  i 

tion  of  the  Clergy,   an(j  curates,  and  allotted  to  ecclesiastics  salaries  in  the  room 

12th  July,  1790. 

of  the  property  which  they  had  formerly  possessed,  and 
which  the  nation  had  seized.  A  schism  now  took  place  in  this  Order ; 
many  of  its  deputies  immediately  abandoning  the  Assembly,  and  joining 
the  dissenting  noblemen. 

The  Assembly  continued  incessantly  to  effect  changes,  and  to  reor- 
ganize the  social  and  political  constitution  of  the  kingdom.  It  drew  over 
the  army  to  the  cause  of  the  Eevolution  by  declaring  that  military  rank 
and  promotion  should  be  independent  of  titles  of  nobility.  It  abolished 
all  these  titles  at  the  instigation  of  the  popular  members  of  the  nobility, 
and  organized  the  judicial  -body  on  a  new  basis.  It  established  a 
Criminal  Tribunal  for  each  department,  a  Civil  Tribunal 
the  Judicial  for  each  district,  and  a  "  Tribunal  de  Paix"  for  each  canton ; 

Body. 

and,  following  the  English  example,  it  introduced  juries  in 
the  criminal  trials.  It  rendered  all  magisterial  offices  temporary  and 
conferable  by  election,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  political  and  adminis- 
trative ones ;  and  based  its  whole  legislation,  in  short,  on  the  principle  of 
the  sovereignty  of  the  people.  The  King  was  allowed  to  retain  the 
initiative  in  respect  to  questions  of  peace  or  war ;  but  the  final  decision 
upon  them  was  reserved  for  the  Legislative  Council. 

As  the  anniversary  of  the  capture  of  the  Bastile  approached,  it  was 

resolved    to    celebrate    it   with    extraordinary   brilliancy, 
ration,  14th  July.   DepUties  sent  from  the  eighty-three  departments  assembled 
on  the  Champ  de  Mars,   and  there,  in   their   presence,  in  that  of  the 
National  Assembly,  the  Parisian  Guard,  the    deputies  from  the  army, 
and  an  immense  multitude,  Talleyrand,  the  Bishop  of  Autun,  celebrated 
a  solemn  mass  on  a  vast  altar,  decorated  according  to  ancient  usage,  and 
of  which  the  extremities  were  occupied  by  four  hundred  priests  clothed 
in   white   albs  with  tricolored   girdles.      Lafayette,  as    Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  National  Guards  of  the  kingdom,  advanced  first  of  all  to  take 
the  civil  oath,  and  was  followed  by  all  the   deputies,  amidst  the  roar  of 
artillery,  and  prolonged  cries  of"  Vive  le  Roi !  Vive  la  Nation !"  Louis  XVI. 
then  arose,  and  said,  "  I,  King  of  the  French,  swear  to  use  all  the  power 
which  is  delegated  to  me  by  the  Act  of  the  Constitution  of  the  State,  to 
maintain  the  Constitution  decreed  by  the  National  Assembly  and  accepted 


1789-1791.]  FOUNDATION   OF   THE    CLUBS.  211 

by  me."  "  Behold  my  son  !"  said  the  Queen  with  much  emotion,  as  she 
raised  the  Dauphin  in  her  arms  and  showed  him  to  the  people,  "  Behold 
my  son !  He  joins  with  me  in  the  same  sentiments."  The  populace 
again  burst  forth  into  enthusiastic  acclamations,  and  a  canticle  of  actions 
de  graces  terminated  this  fete,  which  was  the  last  day  of  hope  for 
Louis  XVI.  and  his  family,  if  indeed  the  King  could  still  hope  when  all 
his  power  was  reduced  to  a  shadow. 

Party  intrigues  were  renewed  on  the  following  day.  Necker,  whose 
methodical  ideas  were  in  incessant  collision  with  the  violent  and  precipi- 
tate measures  of  the  Assembly,  sent  in  his  resignation  on  the  4th  of 
September.  A  great  number  of  the  nobility  emigrated  at  this  period, 
and  the  spirit  of  insurrection  made  each  day  further  progress  amongst  the 
people  and  in  the  army.  Three  regiments  in  garrison  at  Nancy  muti- 
nied, and  were  with  difficulty  reduced  to  submission  by  General 
Bouille,  who  wished  the  King  to  join  the  army  under  his  command  on  the 
northern  frontier. 

The  King  had  sanctioned,  after  making  a  violent  effort  over  himself, 
the  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy ;  but  the  Pope  refused  to  acknowledge 
it ;  and  from  this  time  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  formed  a  league 
which  the  Assembly  imprudently  strengthened  by  demanding  that  all  the 
priests  in  office  should  take  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  Nation,  the  Law, 
the  King,  and  the  Civil  Constitution.  Those  who  refused  were  to  be 
immediately  degraded.  This  fatal  measure  attacked  consciences  and 
created  a  schism.  There  were  now  two  classes  of  clergy  in  the  kingdom, 
the  constitutional  and  sworn,  and  the  refractory  and  unsworn.  The 
members  of  this  latter  class  refused  to  desist  from  the  performance  of 
their  functions,  and  thundered  against  those  appointed  to  succeed  them. 
They  employed  all  their  influence  with  the  population,  who  obeyed  them 
as  well  from  habit  as  from  faith,  to  attach  them  to  their  cause,  and  thus 
a  violent  struggle  was  being  prepared  in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
and  every  hope  of  order  and  conciliation  was  vanishing  under  an  appa- 
rent calm. 

The  creation  of  clubs  multiplied  the  seeds  of  agitation,  and  precipitated 
France  towards  anarchy.     The  clubs  at  first  were  private 
assemblies,  without  any  political  authority,  in   which  the   clubs,  12th  July 

1790. 

members    discussed  the    affairs  of   the  nation.     The  first 
formed  with  this  object  was  that  of  the  Breton  deputies,   which  was 

p2 


212  BETUBN   OP    MIBABEATT.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  I. 

held  at  the  ancient  convent  of  the  Jacobins,  from  whence  it  received  its 
name ;  but  this  club  soon  extended  its  views,  and  desired  to  exercise  an 
influence  over  the  Assembly,  the  municipality,  and  the  populace.  Its 
first  members  abandoned  it,  and  were  replaced  by  violent  and  ambitious 
men,  the  friends  of  disorder,  members  of  the  commune,  or  simple 
citizens.  They  formed  alliances  with  similar  associations  in  the  pro- 
vinces, and  raised  side  by  side  with  the  legal  power,  one  which  was  still 
more  powerful,  and  which  successively  overruled  and  destroyed  the 
other. 

The  emigration  continued.  The  King's  aunts  left  France ;  and  Louis 
XVI.,  who  was  suspected  of  wishing  to  join  them,  was  arrested  by  the 
people,  and  detained  in  Paris  at  the  moment  when  he  was  preparing  to 
quit  the  capital  for  Saint  Cloud.  The  Assembly,  whilst  proclaiming  the 
inviolability  of  the  Monarch,  declared  that  his  flight  from  the  kingdom 
would  lead  to  the  forfeiture  of  his  throne.  And  now  the  deputies,  having 
destroyed  all  privileges  and  completed  the  Constitution  according  to  their 
own  idea,  became  terrified  at  the  immense  void  which  they  had  created 
around  the  throne,  and  manifested  a  more  monarchical  tendency. 

This  reaction  in  favour  of  a  chief  authority  was  due  in  a  great  measure 
M'  abeau's  re-  *°  Mirabeau,  whose  support  had  been  purchased  by  the 
turn  to  Court.  Court,  and  who  desired  at  the  same  time  to  strengthen  the 
throne  and  to  secure  all  the  valuable  results  of  the  Revolution.  But  in 
order  that  his  words  should  be  respected,  it  was  necessary  that  his  cha- 
racter should  be  respectable.  The  guilty  gold  which  he  had  received 
wherewith  to  supply  his  dissolute  expenses,  deprived  him  of  that  respect 
without  which  politicians  are  in  most  cases  rendered  incapable  of  exer- 
cising any  influence.  The  confidence  which  was  due  to  his  genius  was 
refused  to  him  on  account  of  his  character  ;  and  the  King  himself,  whilst 
acknowledging  the  value  of  his  advice,  followed  it  with  terror.  No  one 
deplored  more  than  Mirabeau  the  fatal  situation  which  he  had  himself 
created.  "I pay  very  dearly,"  he  often  said,  "for  the  faults  of  my 
youth  !  And  you,  poor  Prince,  will  have  to  pay  dearly  for  them  also!" 
11  Look  around  you,"  he  one  day  said  to  one  of  the  Crillons,  in  a  tone  of 
profound  conviction ;  "  it  is  I,  I  alone,  who  am  capable  of  holding  in 
check  the  anarchy  which  is  about  to  devour  you,  your  friends,  the  throne, 
the  Prince.  I  must  be  listened  to,  I  must  be  followed,  or  we  shall  all 
perish."     Discoursing  on  another  occasion  with  Cabanis,  he  threw  a  sad 


1789-1791.]  DECLABATTON   OE   MANTUA.  213 

and  prophetic  glance  on  the  future  of  the  country,  and  broke  a  solemn 
silence  with  these  words,  "  Oh,  if  I  could  have  brought  into  the  Revolu- 
tion  such  a  character  as  that  of  Malesherbes,  what  a  destiny  might  I  have 
secured  for  my  country  !  How  glorious  might  I  have  made  my  name  !" 
In  spite  of  his  faults  his  genius  still  made  him  a  predominant  member  of 
the  National  Assembly,  and  he  succeeded  in  procuring  the  rejection — on 
the  ground  that  it  was  an  infringement  of  individual  liberty — of  a  violent 
decree  proposed  against  the  emigrants.  This,  however,  was  his  last  triumph. 
Although  he  was  only  forty  years  of  age  his  constitution  had  been  de- 
stroyed by  every  species  of  excess,  and  he  awaited  and  expected  death  in 
the  midst  of  the  most  frightful  sufferings.  In  his  agony  he  still  thought 
and  spoke  of  France,  and  of  the  state  in  which  he  left  her.  "  I  bear  within 
my  heart,"  he  said,  "the  mourning  weeds  of  the  monarchy,  ^  th  f  M- 
the  remnants  of  which  are  about  to  be  destroyed  by  the  beau' 179L 
factions."  A  few  minutes  after  uttering  these  words  he  died.  The  Na- 
tional Assembly  attended  his  funeral  in  a  body,  and  had  his  remains 
conveyed  to  the  new  church  of  St.  Genevieve,  which  was  destined,  under 
the  name  of  the  Pantheon,  to  receive  the  remains  of  many  great  men. 
Mirabeau,  after  having  made  the  greatest  efforts  to  set  in  motion  the 
revolutionary  torrent,  had  alone  been  capable  of  temporarily  moderating 
its  violence,  and  his  death  was  in  this  respect  a  public  calamity,  and  the 
nation  went  in  mourning  for  him. 

The  sullen  murmurs  of  the  storm  already  began  to  be  heard  on  the 
frontier.  The  emigrants  petitioned  all  Europe  to  assist  them  against 
France,  and  formed  two  bodies,  the  one  under  Condi  at  Worms,  and 
the  other  under  the  Count  d'Artois  at  Coblentz.  This  Prince  went 
with  Calonne,  his  Minister,  to  the  Emperor  Leopold,  and  the  secret  de- 
claration of  Mantua,  signed  on  the  20th  Mav,    1791,  was    _ 

°  **■•■»  Declaration  of 

the  result  of  their  deliberations.  It  promised  to  Louis  XVI.  Mantua»  WM- 
the  assistance  of  a  coalition  of  which  Austria,  the  circles  of  Germany  y 
Switzerland,  and  the  Kings  of  Sardinia,  Spain,  and  Prussia  were  to  be 
members.  But  Louis  was  anxious  to  restore  the  monarchy  by  his  own 
exertions,  and  for  this  purpose  he  endeavoured  to  reach  Montmedy,  to 
join  this  army  under  the  command  of  Bouille.  He  formed  his  plan  of 
escape  in  concert  with  the  general,  who  posted  detachments  at  intervals 
along  the  road  which  the  King  was  to  proceed  by.  On  the  20th  June,  at 
night  time,  the  Royal  family  issued  forth  disguised  from  the  Tuileries, 


214  PLIGHT    AND    ARREST   OP   THE    KING.     [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  I. 

escaped  the  notice  of  the  guards,  passed  the  barriers  of  Paris  without 

interruption,  and  immediately  proceeded  by  the  road  leading 

Royal  family,        to  Chalons  and  Montmedy.  On  first  receiving  information  of 

20th  June,  1791.      .  .  -r>      •  -i    i        *  i  ,  r.     -,       , 

this  event,  raris  and  the  Assembly  were  stupefied ;    but  the 

latter  immediately  assumed  the  executive  power,  assured  the  various  powers 

of  its  pacific  intentions,  and  sent  commissioners  to  the  troops  to  receive  their 

oaths  of  fidelity  in  its  own  name.     After  a  short  interval  news  arrived  of 

the  King's  arrest.     The  unfortunate  Monarch  had  been  recognised  and 

arrested  at  Varennes.  All  the  National  Guards  of  the  neigh- 
Arrest  of  the  ° 

Kmg  at  Va-  bourhood  ran  to  arms:  the  detachments  of  troops  stationed 

rennes,  and  his  '  £ 

return  to  Pans.  on  the  road  were  repulsed  or  were  afraid  to  act.  Bouille" 
himself  hastened  up  at  the  head  of  a  regiment,  but  he  was  too  late, 
the  King  having  already,  many  hours  since,  been  on  his  way  back  to 
Paris.  The  Assembly  had  sent  forward  three  of  its  members  to  secure 
his- return.  These  were  the  Count  de  Latour-Maubourg,  Petion,  and 
the  younger  Barnave.  From  this  time  the  latter,  touched  by  the  gracious- 
ness  and  the  sad  fate  of  the  Royal  family,  resolved  to  give  it  his  best 
advice  and  support. 

The  King  was  received  in  Paris  with  a  sinister  silence.  The  Assembly 
provisionally  suspended  its  functions ;  appointed  a  committee  to  interro- 
gate him,  and  subjected  him  to  a  rigorous  surveillance  in  his  palace.  The 
question  then  was,  whether  Louis  XVI.  should  continue  to  reign  or  should 
be  declared  dethroned.  Lameth  and  Barnave,  with  the  object  of  defending 
the  Monarch,  joined  the  Moderate  party,  and  established  the  Club  of  the 
Feuillants,  for  the  purpose  of  counteracting  the  Jacobin  Club,  which  was 
under  the  control  of  Petion  and  Robespierre,  the  leaders  of  the  Repub- 
lican party.  The  Assembly,  at  the  instigation  of  Barnave,  declared  that 
it  was  not  competent  to  try  Louis  XVI.  or  to  pronounce  his  dethronement ; 
but  at  the  same  time,  for  the  sake  of  calming  the  popular  excitement,  it 
decreed  that  the  King  would  have  abdicated  de  facto,  and  have  ceased  to 
be  inviolable  if  he  should  wage  war  against  the  nation  or  suffer  it  to  be 
done  in  his  name.  This  decree  of  the  Assembly  irritated  the  populace. 
The  agitators  prepared  a  petition  in  which  they  appealed  to  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people,  and  spoke  of  Louis  XVI.  as  having  ceased  to  reign  since 

his  flight.     It  was  drawn  up  by  Brissot,  and  was  carried 
Champfo Mars,    on  the  17th  July  to  the  Champ  de  Mars,  to   the  "  altar  of 

the  country,"  where  the  demagogues  Danton    and    Camille 


1789-1791.]  TREATY    OE    PILKETZ.  215 

Desmoulins  harangued  an  immense  crowd,  and  excited  them  to  insur- 
rection. The  peril  now  became  imminent,  and  the  Assembly  directed  the 
municipality  to  watch  over  the  public  safety.  Lafayette  and  Bailly 
proceeded  to  the  Champ  de  Mars  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  body  of 
National  Guards.  Bailly  pronounced  the  legal  summons,  and  had  the 
red  flag  displayed.  The  multitude  responded  by  a  shower  of  stones  ;  and 
then,  as  all  means  of  conciliation  were  at  an  end,  and  it  became  necessary 
to  have  recourse  to  force,  Lafayette  gave  orders  to  the  troops  to 
fire.  The  second  discharge  was  of  murderous  effect,  and  dissipated  the 
crowd.  The  multitude  fled,  and  never  forgave  either  Lafayette  or  Bailly 
for  having  performed  their  duty  on  this  fatal  day. 

These  deplorable  dissensions  led  the  adversaries  of  the  Revolution  to 
the  committal  of  imprudent  acts,  and  the  only  thought  of  the    F   t    aiition 
emigrants  was  how  to   stifle    it   by   the    united  aid  of  all   1791- 
Europe.     Monsieur  assumed  at  Brussels  the  title  of  Eegent ;  Bouille  sent 
a  fierce  letter  to  the  Assembly.    The  Emperor,  the  King  of 

.  .      .  Treaty  of  Pil- 

Prussia,     and    Count    d'Artois     met  together    at    Pilnitz,   nitz,  27th July, 

•  .  1791. 

where  they  signed,  at  the  risk  of  compromising  the   King 

whom  they  wished  to  defend,  the  treaty  of  the  27th  July.  In  the  docu- 
ment they  treated  the  cause  of  Louis  XVI.  as  their  own,  demanded  that 
he  should  be  replaced  upon  the  throne,  and  that  the  Assembly  should  be 
dissolved ;  threatening  that  if  this  were  not  done,  they  would  inflict  the 
most  terrible  calamities  upon  France.  The  Assembly,  greatly  irritated, 
replied  to  these  threats  by  levying  a  hundred  thousand  National  Guards, 
and  putting  its  frontiers  in  a  state  of  defence.  In  the  meantime  the  end 
of  its  term  of  office  drew  near,  and  the  convocation  of  the  electoral 
colleges  was  fixed  by  it  for  the  5th  August.  A  fatal  decree,  which  had 
been  passed  before  the  departure  of  the  King  for  Yarennes,  had  inter- 
dicted any  of  the  members  from  forming  a  portion  of  the  next  Assembly. 
In  vain  had  Duport  exclaimed,  "  Since  we  are  establishing  principles, 
how  is  it  that  we  do  not  recognise  the  fact  that  stability  is  also  a  principle 
of  government  ?"  The  decree  was  passed,  and  the  mania  of  disinterested- 
ness becoming  contagious,  Bailly  resigned  the  mayoralty,  and  Lafayette 
the  command  of  the  National  Guards.  It  was  in  this  way  that  the 
guidance  of  the  Revolution  was  given  over  to  new  men  who  commenced 
another  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  for  themselves  notoriety  and  fortune. 
Before  dissolving,  the  Assembly  condensed  its  constitutional  decrees 


216  CLOSING   OE   THE    CONSTITUENT    ASSEMBLY.     [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  I. 

into  a  single  code,  declaring  that  France  had  a  right  to  review  its  consti- 
tution, but  that  it  would  be  prudent  not  to  put  it  in  force  before  thirty 
years.  The  King  accepted  the  Constitutional  Act  without  reserve  ;  and  on 
the  29th  September  he  closed  the  Assembly  with  some 
Assembient29th  toucnmg  words,  which  were  received  by  it  with  accla- 
September,i79i.  mati0ns,  and  every  testimony  of  respect  and  love.  Then, 
Thouret,  addressing  the  people,  pronounced  these  words,  "  The  Consti- 
tuent Assembly  declares  that  its  mission  is  accomplished,  and  that  at  this 
moment  it  terminates  its  sittings." 

Thus  came  to  an  end  this  celebrated  Assembly,  after  it  had  accomplished 
in  two  years  the  most  important  things  both  for  good  and  evil.  It  brought 
to  its  work  the  most  praiseworthy  intentions,  but  many  illusions,  and 
was  not  guided  by  the  light  of  experience  or  a  sufficiently  pure  moral 
sense.  Led  away  by  the  passion  of  reducing  everything  to  an  equality, 
and  for  effecting  reforms,  rather  than  by  a  due  sense  of  what  was 
just,  it  too  often  confounded  rights  which  were  worthy  of  respect  with 
privileges  which  were  abuses,  and  necessary  guarantees  of  order  with 
oppressive  institutions ;  it  overthrew  a  traditional  and  secular  past  with 
blind  precipitation,  and  when  building  on  its  ruins,  had  the  misfortune 
to  forget  or  misconceive  what  was  necessary  to  give  vitality  and  duration 
to  its  work.  The  greatest  faults  of  the  constitution  which  it  drew  up 
were  the  assembly  of  the  members  of  the  Legislative  Corps  in  a  single 
chamber,  and  the  complete  subordination  of  the  Royal  authority  to  the 
popular  power.  At  the  same  time,  whilst  recognising  the  people  as  the 
source  of  power,  the  Assembly  had  hoped  to  save  France  from  the  dan- 
gerous consequences  of  this  principle  by  preserving  two  degrees  in  the 
elections,  and  its  work  perished  less  by  reason  of  its  defects,  which  were 
great  and  numerous,  than  through  the  rage  of  factions,  which  raised  up 
the  whole  of  Europe  against  the  Revolution,  and  admitted  the  intervention 
of  the  multitude  in  the  government  of  the  State. 


1791— 1792.J  THE  LEGISLATIVE    ASSEMBLY.  217 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Legislative  Assembly. 

From  the  1st  October,  1791,  to  the  20th  September,  1792. 

The  Court,  the  Noblesse,  and  the  Clergy,  had  no  influence  over  the  new 
elections,  which  were  conducted  simply  in  accordance  with    _      .      „     ' 

r  J  Opening  of  the 

the  popular  will,  and  the  Assembly  opened  its  sittings  on  JjjJS^jJj: ^c- 
the  1st  October,  1791.  It  declared  itself  as  soon  as  it  was  toheT>l™[- 
assembled  the  Legislative  Assembly,  and  took  in  accordance  with  the 
provisions  of  the  Constitutional  Act,  amidst  the  applause  of  composition  of 
the  spectators,  the  oath  either  to  live  free  or  to  die.  The  e  ssem  7' 
minority  of  the  last  Assembly  was  the  majority  of  this,  and  the  parties 
into  which  it  was  divided  did  not  fail  to  be  speedily  apparent.  The 
Right,  composed  of  men  firmly  attached  to  the  Constitution,  formed  the 
Feuillant  party,  which  was  supported  by  the  club  of  that  name,  the 
National  Guard,  and  the  army ;  but  it  was  no  longer  dominant  in  the 
Assembly,  and  it  speedily  yielded  the  important  affairs  of  the  munici- 
pality to  its  adversaries  of  the  Left,  which  composed  the  Girondist  party, 
at  the  head  of  which  shone  the  celebrated  orators  of  the  Gironde,  from 
which  it  took  its  name,  Vergniaud,  Guadet,  Gensonne,  Brissot,  Condor- 
cet,  and  the  furious  Isnard.  This  party  was  disposed  to  have  recourse 
to  the  most  violent  measures,  and  to  appeal  to  the  multitude  to  aid  it  in 
carrying  forward  the  Revolution.  The  Centre  of  the  Legislative  Assembly 
was  attached  to  the  new  order  of  things ;  but  the  want  of  concert 
amongst  its  members  and  their  fears  rendered  them  submissive  to  the 
violent  decisions  of  the  Left.  Without  the  doors  of  the  Assembly  the 
Democratic  faction  supported  the  Girondists,  and  led  the  clubs  and  the 
multitude.  Robespierre  ruled  at  the  Jacobins ;  Danton,  Camille  Desmou- 
lins,  Fabre  d'Eglantine,  were  the  leaders  at  the  Cordeliers,  which  was  still 


218  SCHISM   AMONG   THE    CLEBGY.      [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  II. 

more  violent  than  the  preceding,  and  the  brewer  Santerre  was  the  popular 
chief  in  the  faubourgs.  Such  were  the  principal  chiefs  of  the  popular 
party,  and  their  power  was  rapidly  increased  by  the  audacious  and  cul- 
pable proceedings  of  the  leaders  of  the  Revolution. 

The  emigration  increased  day  by  day.  The  King's  two  brothers  had 
protested  against  the  acceptance  of  the  Constitutional  Act  by  Louis  XVI., 
and  at  their  summons  nobles  had  quitted  their  chateaux,  and  officers 
their  regiments;  distaffs  were  sent  to  those  who  hung  back.  Hostile 
gatherings  took  place  in  the  Austrian  Low  Countries,  and  in  the  neigh- 
bouring Electorates.  Preparations  for  the  counter  revolution  were 
made  at  Brussels,  Worms,  and  Coblentz,  under  the  protection  of  foreign 
Courts.  Whilst  the  emigrant  nobility  were  making  every  preparation 
for  war  without  the  kingdom,  $he  clergy  were  doing  all  they  could  to 
Schiam  among  influence  the  people  in  favour  of  the  Royal  cause  within 
ergy,  •  ^  The  Bishops  prohibited  the  people  from  receiving  the 
sacrament  from  the  Constitutional  priests,  termed  intruders.  Thundering 
circulars  against  them  were  spread  throughout  the  country,  and  meetings 
took  place  in  Calvados,  Gevaudan,  and  La  Vendee.  The  Assembly,  greatly 
irritated,  adopted  on  the  30th  October  a  decree  which  declared  Louis 
Stanislaus  Xavier,  the  King's  brother,  deprived  of  all  right  to  the  Regency 
unless  he  should  return  to  France  within  two  months ;  it  next  declared 
that  the  Frenchmen  assembled  beyond  the  frontiers  were  suspected  of 
conspiring  against  their  country,  and  that  if  on  the  1st  of  January,  1792, 
they  were  still  assembled  in  that  hostile  manner  they  would  be  treated  as 
conspirators,  and  punished  with  death.  Finally,  it  declared  that  the 
-  i,         refractory  ecclesiastics  should  be  deprived  of  their  salaries 

Decree  on  the  •>  x 

ciriFoShzott*  ^  e^  refused  to  take  the  civil  oath,  and  should  be  sub- 
October,  1791.  jected  to  confinement  in  case  religious  troubles  should 
arise  in  their  communes.  The  King  sanctioned  the  first  decree,  but  placed 
his  veto  on  the  two  others.  At  the  same  time  he  expressed  himself  ener- 
getically against  the  emigration ;  but  the  Court  placed  all  its  hope  in  Europe, 
and  was  the  focus  of  all  the  plots  contrived  against  the  Assembly. 
Unfortunately,  inspired  by  its  hatred  for  the  Constitution  and  its  prin- 
cipal authors,  it  committed  the  fault  of  withdrawing  all  its  confidence 
from  the  Constitutionals  when  they  alone  devoted  themselves  to  its  defence  ; 
and  thus  it  placed  the  Girondist  Pltion  in  the  mayoralty  in  preference 


1791-1792.]  FORMATION    OE    THEEE    ARMIES.  219 

to   Lafayette,    and    opened   the    Commune   of    Paris    to    men    of    the 
multitude. 

The  national  irritation  was  at  this  time  greatly  excited  by  the  conduct 
of  the  Princes  of  the  neighbouring  States,  who  received  the  emigrants 
with   favour    and    countenanced    their   military   preparations.       It   was 
desired  that  Louis  XVI.  should  make  a  solemn  declaration  against  them, 
and  Isnard  terminated  a  speech  delivered  on  this  subject  at  the  tribune 
with  these  emphatic  and  fiery  words  : — "  Let  us  tell  Europe  that  if  the 
monarchs  are  engaged  in  a  war  against  the  peoples  by  their  ministers,  we 
will  engage  the  peoples  in  a  war  to  the  death  against  the  monarchs.    Let  us 
tell  them  that  all  the  conflicts  which  take  place  between  the  peoples  by  the 
orders  of  despots  only  resemble  the  blows  which  are  exchanged  between 
two  friends  in  the  dark,  at  the  instigation  of  some  perfidious  adviser.     As 
soon  as  the  light  appears  they  throw  down  their  arms,  and  chastise  him 
who  has  deceived  them ;   and  so,  if  at  the  moment  when  the  arms  of  the 
enemy  were  struggling  with  ours,  the  light  of  philosophy  should   strike 
their  eyes,  the  people  would  embrace  in  the  sight  of  dethroned  tyrants  of 
a  happy  world,  a  satisfied  heaven."     The  proposed  measure  was  decreed, 
unanimously   and   enthusiastically ;  and  Louis  XVI.  approved  it.     "  If 
my  representations  are  not  listened  to,"  he  said,   "  it  will  only  remain  for 
me   to  declare  war."     The    Assembly   voted    twenty   millions   for   this 
object.     A  hundred  and   fifty  thousand   men  were  raised ;    preparation  for 
three  armies  were  formed,  which  were  posted  on  the  north-   tion  ofthree"1*" 
era  and  eastern  frontiers,  under  the  command  of  Eocham- 
beau,    Luckner,    and   Lafayette.      The   emigrant   Princes   were  at  the 
same   time   impeached,    and  Monsieur    deprived   of  his    rights    to    the 
Eegency.     Austria,   then  ruled  by  the    Prince  Kaunitz,  the    principal 
Minister,  replied  to  this  decree  by  ordering  Marshal  Bender  to   support 
the  Elector  of  Treves  if  he  were  attacked,  and  demanded  the  reintegra- 
tion of  the  German  Princes  who  were  formerly  possessors  in  Alsatia. 
It  demanded  the  re-establishment  of  the  feudality  of  this  province  or 
war. 

The  Legislative  Assembly  now  accused  the  Ministry  of  weakness  and 
bad  faith,  and  an  intrigue  having  sacrificed  Bertrand  de  Moleville,  the 
Minister  for  Naval  Affairs,  who  was  justly  suspected,  and  Narbonne, 
the  Minister  for  War,  who  was  sincerely  attached  to  the  Constitution, 


220  THE    GIKONDIN    MINTSTKY.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  II. 

there  followed  a  total  dissolution  of  the  Council.     The  King,  yielding  to 

pressure   of  circumstances,  now  formed  a  Girondist  Ministry,  the  most 

remarkable    members  of  which  were    General  Dumouriez 

Girondist 

Ministry,  March,    and   Roland.     The   first,   accustomed   from   his   youth  to 

1792.  _       '  J 

intrigue,  was  determined  to  succeed  at  every  cost.  He 
was  audacious,  fickle,  and  without  any  political  convictions,  but  endowed 
with  powers  of  keen  observation,  and  an  intellect  which  was  as  active  as 
it  was  fertile  in  resources.  The  second  joined  to  austere  morals  a 
great  simplicity  of  manners ;  but  his  mind  was  somewhat  narrow,  and  he 
allowed  himself  to  be  controlled  by  his  wife,  who  herself  yielded  to  the 
control  of  a  dangerous  enthusiasm,  and  was  the  life  and  soul  of  the 
Girondist  party. 

The  first  measure  of  the  new  Ministry  had  reference  to  war.  The 
Emperor  Leopold  was  dead ;  Francis  II.,  King  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary, 
succeeded  him  in  the  Empire,  and  his  elevation  made  no  change  in  the 
Austrian  policy  in  respect  to  France.  The  Prince  de  Kaunitz  demanded 
in  the  name  of  his  Court,  the  restoration  of  the  Church  property  to  the 
clergy,  the  lands  of  Alsatia  to  the  German  Princes,  and  Venetia  to  the 
Pope.  Such  was  the  Austrian  ultimatum.  Louis  XVI.  replied  by  pro- 
posing war,  and  the  Assembly  so  determined.     The  invasion  of  Brussels, 

which  was  in  the  occupation  of  the  Prussians,  was  resolved 
against  Austria,     on,  and   Rochambeau  was  ordered  to  undertake  it.     The 

April,  1792.  ,  .  . 

two  first  invading  columns,  however,  were  seized  with 
terror  at  the  sight  of  the  Prussian  army,  and  took  flight.  Rochambeau 
resigned  the  command,  and  the  war  assumed  a  defensive 
character.  Two  armies  covered  the  French  frontiers  on  the 
north  and  the  east,  under  Lafayette  and  Luckner.  The  army  of 
Lafayette  extended  from  the  sea  to  Longwy,  and  that  of  Luckner  from 
the  Moselle  to  the  Jura. 

The  first  reverse  suffered  by  our  troops  excited  great  anxiety  and 
violent  discontent.  The  Court  was  accused  of  being  in  complicity  with 
the  enemy,  and  the  Assembly  declared  its  sitting  permanent.  It  ordered 
the  dismissal  of  the  King's  constitutional  guard,  which  had  been  raised  by 
him  from  eighteen  hundred  men  to  six  thousand,  and  passed  two  decrees 
contrary  to  the  King's  wishes.  The  one  exiled  the  priests  who  refused 
the  oath,  the  other  established  a  camp  of  twenty  thousand  men  under  the 
walls  of  Paris.     The  Ministers  entreated  the  King  to  deprive  the  refrac- 


1791-1792.]  THE    FETJILLANT    MLNTSTKY.  221 

tory  priests  of  all  hope  by  receiving  himself  the  sworn  priests ;  but  their 
efforts  were  useless,  and  a  split  took  place  in  the  Ministry  on  the  subject. 
Roland  wrote  to  the  King  a  severe  letter  on  the  subject  of  his  constitu- 
tional duties,  and  exhorted  him  to  make  himself  frankly  the  Letter  of  R0ian(i 
King  of  the  Revolution.  This  letter  wounded  the  King,  and  to  the  King* 
determined  him  to  dissolve  the  Cabinet.  The  Girondist  Ministers  were 
accordingly  dismissed ;  and  a  few  days  afterwards  the  two  decrees  were 
rejected  by  the  King.  The  Assembly  immediately  declared  that  the 
three  late  Ministers,  Roland,  Servan,  and  Claviere,  had  the  sympathy  of 
the  nation. 

The  new  Ministry  was  chosen  from  amongst  the  "  Feuillants,"  who  only 
reckoned  in  their  ranks  men  who  were  suspected  by  the 

,.,  „     ,  ,.  „,...,  "Feuillant" 

multitude  on  account  of  the  moderation  of  their  principles,    Ministry,  June, 

1792. 

and  who  were  odious  to  the  Court  on  account  of  their 
attachment  to  the  Constitution.  They  were  wanting  in  strength,  and  the 
King,  who  knew  their  weakness,  and  who  had  no  hope  but  in  the  inter- 
vention of  Europe,  sent  Mallet-Dupan  on  a  secret  mission  to  the  allied 
Princes.  The  partisans  of  the  Constitutional  Monarchy,  at  the  head  of 
which  were  Lally  and  Malouet,  made  a  final  effort  to  check  the  tide  of 
revolution.  Duport,  Lameth,  Barnave,  and  Lafayette  endeavoured  to  re- 
establish the  King's  authority.  Lafayette  wrote  to  the  Assembly  denounc- 
ing the  Jacobins  as  the  fomenters  of  all  kinds  of  disorders,  and  conjuring 
it  to  adopt  only  legal  measures  ;  but  the  only  effect  of  this  letter  was  to 
shake  the  general's  own  credit.  The  various  parties  became  more  and 
more  divided ;  every  hope  of  reconciliation  vanished ;  and  each  sought 
to  be  victorious  by  the  most  discreditable  means.  The  Court  reckoned 
upon  Europe  for  the  restoration  of  its  power,  and  the  Girondists  relied 
upon  the  populace  to  enable  them  to  secure  theirs.  Chabot,  Santerre, 
and  the  Marquis  de  Sainte-Hurugue  kept  the  faubourgs  in  a  state  of  com- 
motion ;  and  as  the  anniversary  of  the  "  Jeu  de  Paume"  drew  near,  pre- 
parations were  made  for  a  formidable  insurrection.  On  that  day,  the 
20th   June,    thirty  thousand   men,  armed  with  pikes,  de- 

.         The  people  at  the 

scended   from   the  faubourgs,    and  marched  towards   the   Tuiieries,  20th 

.  June,  1792. 

meeting  place  of  the  Assembly,  where  their  leader  made  a 
threatening  speech.     His  hideous  troop  then  denied  into  the  hall,  singing 
the  sanguinary  refrain  of  "  qa  2*ra,"  and  crying   "  Long  life  to  the  Sans- 
culottes !     Down  with  the  veto  !"     Santerre  and  Sainte-Hurugue  then  led 


222  ARRIVAL   OF    THE    MARSEILLATS    IN   PARIS.    [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  IT, 

it  to  the  Tuileries,  the  gates  of  which  it  shook.  The  King  had  them 
opened,  and  presented  himself  alone  before  the  insurgents.  Summoned  by 
the  mob  to  sanction  the  two  decrees,  he  refused  with  admirable  courage ; 
but  he  dared  not  decline  the  red  cap  which  was  presented  to  him  at  the 
end  of  a  pike,  and  he  placed  it  on  his  head  amidst  the  applause  of  the 
populace.  Petion,  the  Mayor  of  Paris,  had  taken  no  steps  to  prevent  the 
insurrection ;  and  during  several  hours  he  feigned  to  be  ignorant  that 
Louis  XVI.  and  his  family  were  exposed  in  their  own  palace  to  the 
greatest  insults.  He  arrived  at  length,  and  harangued  the  multitude, 
which  readily  dispersed,  satisfied  for  the  time  with  having  outraged 
majesty  with  impunity. 

The  Constitutionalists,  indignant  at  this  occurrence,  entreated  the  King 
to  grant  them  his  confidence,  and  to  accept  their  support.  The  Duke  de  la 
Eochefoucauld-Liancourt  proposed  to  escort  him  to  Rouen,  where  he  was 
in  command,  and  Lafayette  besought  him  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of 
his  army.  But  a  fatality  blinded  the  unfortunate  Monarch,  and  he  re- 
fused. Lafayette  hastened  to  Paris  and  demanded  of  the  Assembly  the 
destruction  of  the  Jacobin  sect,  and  the  punishment  of  the  leaders  in  the 
affair  of  the  20th  June.  But  the  Assembly  did  not  even  invite  him  to 
attend  their  deliberations  until  they  had  debated  whether  they  should  not 
try  him  as  a  deserter  from  his  post.  Lafayette  relied  upon  being  able 
to  close  the  Club  by  the  aid  of  the  National  Guards,  but  the  National 
Guards  did  not  respond  to  his  appeal ;  and  he  then  returned  to  his  army,, 
having  lost  all  his  influence  and  popularity. 

The  foreign  sovereigns  continued  to  concentrate  formidable  masses  of 
troops  on  the  French  frontiers  ;  and  the  divisions  in  the  interior  of  the 
kingdom  rendered  its  position  more  and  more  alarming.  The  King  was 
the  object,  in  the  debates  of  the  Assembly,  of  the  most  violent  invectives, 
and  the  question  of  his  dethronement  was  already  discussed,  when,  on  the 
5th  July,  the  Assembly  declared  the  country  in  danger.  All  the  citizens 
capable  of  bearing  arms  were  summoned  to  enrol  themselves  ;  pikes  were 
distributed ;  a  camp  was  formed  at  Soissons ;  the  revolutionary  excite- 
ment was  at  its  height,  and  was  still  further  increased  by  the  arrival  of 
the  F6der6s  Marseillais  in  Paris.  Potion  became  the  object  of  the  people's 
adoration,  and  on  the  anniversary  of  the  14th  July  the  only  cry  of  the 
Federation  was  "  Potion   or  death  !"     The  Club   of  the   Feuillants  was 


1791-1792.]  ATTACK    ON   THE   TTJILEBIES.  223 

closed;  the  companies  of  grenadiers  and  chasseurs  of  the  National 
Guard,  which  formed  the  strength  of  the  bourgeoisie,  were  dissolved; 
the  troops  of  the  line  and  the  Swiss  were  removed  from  the  capital,  and 
everything  betokened  some  catastrophe. 

The  Duke  of  Brunswick,  preceded   by  a   fiery  manifesto,  was  now 
advancing  at  the  head  of  seventy  thousand  Prussians  and 

Manifesto  of  the 

sixty-eight  thousand  Austrians,  Hessians,  and  emigrants.  Vuke  of  Bruns- 
The  manifesto  contained  the  most  terrible  threats  against 
Paris,  and  against  all  the  cities  which  should  venture  to  defend  them- 
selves, and  its  effect  was  to  produce  a  general  rising  of  the  whole 
French  people.  In  Paris  the  popular  party  wished  to  annul  the  King's 
authority  at  once.  Eobespierre,  Danton,  Camille  Desmoulins,  Fabre 
d'Eglantine,  and  the  infamous  Marat  harangued  the  people  and  excited 
them  to  a  state  of  delirium.  On  the  3rd  August,  Petion  appeared  before 
the  Assembly  and  demanded  the  dethronement  of  the  King  in  the  name 
of  the  commune  and  the  sections.  This  petition  was  referred  to  a  com- 
mittee of  twelve  members.  A  few  days  afterwards  a  discussion  took 
place  as  to  whether  Lafayette  should  be  put  upon  his  trial.  It  was 
decided  in  the  negative  by  a  small  majority.  The  people  insulted  those 
who  had  voted  in  his  favour ;  the  scenes  of  disorder  grew  more  frequent 
day  by  day,  and  the  insurgents  fixed  the  morning  of  the  10th  August 
for  the  attack  on  the  Tuileries. 

The  Faubourg  Saint- Antoine,  whither  the  Jacobins  proceeded  in  pro- 
cession, was  the  centre  of  the  insurrection ;  and  it  was  there 
determined  that  Petion  and  the  Council  of  the  Commune   Jopular+4.  aPfca* 

tion.    Attack  on 

should  be  relieved  of  all  responsibility  by  being  replaced  by   j^of  the63' 
an  insurrectional  municipality.     The  agitators  at  the  same    ^ngSt,  1792?* 
time  proceeded  to  the  barracks  of  the  Federes  Marseillais 
and   the  Bretons.     Informed   of  these   threatening   demonstrations,  the 
Court  had  put  the  Tuileries  in  a   state  of  defence ;  the   interior  was 
guarded  by  from  eight  to  nine  hundred  Swiss,  and  a  body  of  gentlemen 
armed  with  swords  and  pistols.     Several  battalions  of  National  Guards, 
and  amongst   others,  those    of  the  quarter   of  Filles   Saint  Thomas  and 
Petits-Peres,  which  were   distinguished   for  their    Eoyalist    sentiments, 
occupied  the  court-yard  and  the  exterior  posts,  but  an  unfortunate  blow 
shook  their  resolution.  Mandat,  their  commander-in-chief,  was  summoned 


224  MASSACBE    OF    THE    SWISS.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  II 

before  the  new  Council  of  the  Commune  to  render  an  account  of  his 
conduct,  and  the  mob  murdered  him  on  the  steps  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville. 
Santerre,  the  brewer,  immediately  succeeded  him  in  his  command,  and 
the  Court  thus  found  itself  deprived  of  one  of  its  most  reliable  defences. 
The  insurgents,  aroused  in  every  direction  by  the  terrible  Danton, 
advanced  in  several  columns,  and  pointed  their  guns  against  the  Tuileries. 
The  King,  with  grief  imprinted  on  his  countenance,  reviewed  the  troops, 
but  in  the  ranks  of  the  National  Guard  the  cries  of  "  Long  live  the  King" 
were  drowned  by  those  of  "  Long  live  Petion  !  Down  with  the  veto ! 
Down  with  the  traitor !"  The  procureur  syndic,  Roederer,  then  went 
to  meet  the  insurgents,  and  read  to  them  the  article  of  the  law  which 
enjoins  that  force  should  be  repelled  by  force.  The  National  Guards 
supported  him  but  feebly,  and  the  insurgents  became  inspired  with  fresh 
audacity.  Roederer  returned  to  the  palace  and  declared  to  the  Royal 
family  that  its  only  place  of  safety  was  in  the  bosom  of  the  Legislative 
Assembly.  "  Let  us  go,  sir,"  said  the  Queen  to  the  King,  as  she  offered 
him  a  pistol ;  "  this  is  the  moment  for  us  to  show  ourselves."  Louis  XVI. 
remained  silent  for  a  few  moments,  and  then  gave  the  signal  for  departure, 
and  proceeded  to  the  hall  of  the  Assembly  amidst  the  vociferations  of  the 
populace.  Vergniaud  presided,  and  the  King  took  his  seat  beside  him ; 
but  Chabot  having  reminded  the  Assembly  that  it  could  not  deliberate 
in  the  presence  of  the  King,  Louis  XVI.  and  all  his  family  passed  behind 
the  president  into  the  dark  box  of  the  Logographe. 

After  the  departure  of  the  King  for  the  Assembly  there  was  no  cause 
for  a  conflict,  but  a  furious  one  nevertheless  took  place  between  the 
Swiss  and  the  assailants,  of  whom  the  Marseillais  and  the  Bretons  formed 
the  advanced  guard.  A  desperate  man  named  Westermann,  who  had 
formerly  been  an  officer  in  the  army,  directed  the  attack,  and  the  Swiss, 
whom  a  first  volley  had  made  master  of  the  Carrousel,  were  driven  back 
by  the  multitude,  dispersed,  and  exterminated.  This  was  the  last  day  of 
the  Monarchy.  The  new  municipality  proceeded  to  the  Assembly 
to  obtain  a  recognition  of  its  powers,  and  terminated  its  address 
to  that  body  by  demanding  the  dethronement  of  the  King  and  the 
establishment  of  a  National  Convention.  Vergniaud  replied  by  pro- 
posing the  convention  of  an  Extraordinary  Assembly,  the  dismissal  of 
the  Ministers,  and  the  suspension  of  the  King's  authority.  These 
measures  were  approved  of,  and  the  Girondist  Ministers  were  re-estab- 


1791-1792.]  IMPRISONMENT    OE    LAFAYETTE.  225 

lished  in  power.     The  unfortunate  Louis  XVI.  was  taken  to  the  Temple 
with  his  family,  and  the  20th  September  was  appointed  as 
the  day  for  the  opening  of   the  Assembly  which  was  to   T™lylemthe 
decide  the  destinies  of  the  nation. 

The  enemy's  army  continued  to  approach,  and  there  was  reason  to  fear 
a  civil  war.  Lafayette,  preferring  to  resign  his  command  to  engaging  in 
such  a  war,  left  his  army  and  crossed  the  frontier  with  Bureau  de  Pusy, 
Latour-Maubourg,  and  Alexander  de  Lameth.  Being  recognised  by  the 
Austrian  outposts,  he  was  arrested,  and  the  Emperor  had  him  first 
confined  at  Magdeburg,  and  then  at  Olmutz,  in  defiance  of  the  law  of 
nations.    During  four  years  of  a  cruel  captivity  he  displayed 

i  ■.  TT  m        .  ,  ,     ...  Captivity  of 

the  most  noble  courage.     He  was  offered  his  liberty  on  the    Lafayette  at 

t  •  •  •  •  Olmutz. 

condition  of  making  certain  retractations  ;   but  he  remained 

in  chains  rather  than  deny  the  principles  to  the  triumph  of  which  he  had 

devoted  his  fortune  and  his  life. 

On  the  10th  of  August  the  victorious  party  proceeded  to  establish  its 
power  in  Paris  by  the  most  violent  methods.  It  had  all  the  statues  of 
Kings  pulled  down,  abolished  the  departmental  directory,  and  abolished 
the  conditions  demanded  by  the  law  to  render  a  man  an  active  citizen. 
Finally,  it  demanded  of  the  Assembly  the  establishment  of  an  extra- 
ordinary tribunal  for  the  trial  of  those  whom  it  termed  the  conspirators 
of  the  10th  of  August.  This  tribunal  was  established,  but  its  pro- 
ceedings appeared  too  dilatory  to  the  terrible  Commune,  which  was 
under  the  influence  of  Marat,  Panis,  Sergent,  Jourdeuil,  Collot-d'Herbois, 
Billaud-Varennes,  and  Tallien,  and  especially  under  the  control  of  the 
fiery  and  formidable  Danton,  who  had  been  recently  appointed  Minister 
of  Justice,  and  was  surnamed  the  Mirabeau  of  the  populace. 

The  Prussians,  supported  by  thirty-six  thousand  Austrians  and  ten 
thousand   Hessians,  threatened  the  frontier  of  the  north, 

.Foreign  inva- 

and   six  thousand  French  emigrants,  under  the  command    Bion»  August, 

°  1792. 

of  the  Prince  of  Conde,  marched  against  France  in  concert 
with  them.  The  army  of  Sedan  was  without  a  chief,  and  the  advance  of 
the  enemy  was  rapid.  Longwy,  being  invested  by  them,  capitulated; 
Verdun  was  bombarded ;  and  thenceforth  the  road  to  Paris  was  open. 
Terror  reigned  throughout  Paris,  and  it  was  already  a  question  with  the 
Executive  Council  whether  it  should  not  retire  behind  the  Loire ;  Danton 
maintained  with  good  reason  that  Paris  is  France,  and  that  the  Govern- 

VOL.  II.  •  Q 


226  MASSACBE   IN    THE   PEISOKS.  [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  II. 

ment  must  maintain  its  position  there  at  any  price,  and  he  ended  his  speech 
with  these  sinister  words  : — "  My  opinion  is,  that  to  confound  the  agitators 
and  to  check  the  progress  of  the  enemy,  we  must  terrify  the  Eoyalists." 

Numerous  arrests  were  immediately  made  by  order  of  the  Commune. 
The  prisoners  were  selected  from  the  ranks  of  the  dissenting  noblesse 
and  the  clergy.  Troops  marched  towards  the  frontier.  Ill-omened 
rumours  chilled  every  soul ;  the  Commune  exerted  itself,  and  measures 
were  taken  for  a  general  levy  of  the  citizens.  Vergniaud  appeared 
before  the  Commune  and  made  the  following  speech  : — "  It  appears  that 
it  is  the  plan  of  the  enemy  to  march  directly  upon  the  capital,  leaving 
the  strong  places  behind  him.  Well !  this  plan  will  lead  to  our  safety 
and  his  own  destruction.  He  will  find  the  Parisian  army  in  order  of 
battle  under  the  walls  of  the  .capital,  and  then,  surrounded  in  every 
direction,  he  will  be  devoured  by  this  land  which  he  has  profaned. 
Parisians,  it  is  to-day  that  you  must  display  all  your  energy  I  Why 
are  not  the  entrenchments  in  a  more  forward  state  ?  Where  are  the 
spade  and  the  pick  which  raised  the  altar  of  the  Federation  and  levelled 
the  Champ  de  Mars  ?  You  have  sung  and  celebrated  liberty,  and  now 
it  is  necessary  to  defend  it.  We  have  not  now  to  overthrow  kings  of 
bronze,  but  living  Monarchs  armed  with  all  their  power.  I  demand, 
then,  that  the  National  Assembly  should  give  the  first  example,  and  send 
twelve  deputies,  not  to  make  addresses,  but  to  work  with  their  own 
hands  in  the  sight  of  all."  This  proposition  was  unanimously  adopted. 
Danton  followed  Vergniaud,  and  proposed  fresh  measures ;  whilst  he  was 
speaking  the  generate  was  heard,  and  the  firing  of  cannon.  "  That 
cannon  which  you  hear,"  exclaimed  the  fiery  orator,  "  is  not  the  cannon 
of  alarm  ;  it  is  the  signal  to  charge  the  enemy  !  and  what  is  necessary  to 
enable  us  to  vanquish  and  to  crush  them  ?  Courage !  still  courage !  always 
courage  ! " 

The  news  of  the  capture  of  Verdun  reached  Paris  on  the  night  of  the 
1st  September,  and  filled  it  with  a  species  of  stupefaction.  The  Commune 
seized  that  moment  to  execute  its  execrable  projects.  The  tocsin  was 
sounded,  the  barriers  were  closed,  and  the  massacres  of  the  prisons 
commenced.  During  three  days  the  nobles  and  the  priests  who  had 
>/r  .  i,       been  imprisoned  at  l'Abbaye,  the  Conciergerie,  Carmes,  and 

Massacre  in  the  r  J    '  °  ' 

tember' i792Sep"    ^aforce,    were   murdered    by   a  band    of  three   hundred 
ruffians  in  the  midst  of  a  hideous  parody  of  judicial  forms. 


1791—1792.]  DEATH   OP    THE   PEINCESS   LAMBALLE.  227 

On  the  part  of  the  victims  there  were  displayed  almost  innumerable 
instances  of  noble  resignation  and  heroic  devotion,  and  on  the  part  of  the 
executioners  the  most  atrocious  acts  of  delirious  cruelty.  Skilful  in  the 
invention  of  moral  tortures  for  those  whom  their  hands  could  not  reach, 
they  made  horrible  saturnalia  around  the  Temple,  and  displayed  under 
the  windows  of  that  Royal  prison,  in  the  sight  of  the  Queen,  the  head  of 
her  friend,  the  unfortunate  Princess  Lambaile.  The  Assembly  wished  to 
check  the  massacres,  but  found  itself  unable  to  do  so.  The  mayor, 
Petion,  was  suspended  from  his  functions ;  the  better  class  of  citizens 
groaned  in  terror;  and  the  Commune  reigned  alone  in  Paris.  These 
horrible  scenes  did  immense  injury  to  the  cause  of  the  Revolution ;  the 
chastisement  of  them  fell  after  a  time  upon  their  ferocious  authors,  and 
amongst  them  was  perceived  with  horror  the  special  guardian  of  justice 
and  the  laws,  the  demagogue  Danton. 

The  Prussians  continued  to  advance.     Dumouriez,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  the  command  of  the  army  of  the  Moselle,  threw 

.../»..  -in  n    Dumouriez 

his  troops,  by  an  inspiration  of  genius,  into  the  forest  of   cheeks  the  Prus- 

.  ,  ,  ...,.,,  niii         siansatArgonne. 

Argonne,  the  only  position  in  which  he  could  check  the 
progress  of  the  enemy,  posted  his  principal  forces  at  Grand-Pre  and 
Islettes,  and  wrote  to  the  Assembly : — "  I  await  the  Prussians ;  the  camp  of 
Grand-Pre*  and  that  of  Islettes  are  the  Thermopyles  of  France ;  but  I  shall 
be  more  fortunate  than  Leonidas."     The  Prussians  were,  in  fact,  com- 
pelled to  halt ;  but  an  error  committed  by  Dumouriez  forced  him  to 
abandon  his  position,  and  to  fall  back  upon  the  camp  of  Sainte-Mene- 
hould,  where  he   concentrated  his  forces,  and   received  reinforcements 
under  the  command  of  Beurnonville  and  Kellermann,  which  raised  his 
army  to  seventy  thousand  men.     On  the  20th  September  the  Prussian 
army  attacked  Kellermann  at  Valmy,  with  the  intention  of 
cutting  off  the  retreat   of  the  French  army,  the  warlike   20th  September^ 
aspect  of  which  terrified  the  Duke   of  Brunswick.     The 
action  consisted  only  in  a  lively  cannonade  which  lasted  till  the  evening, 
and  the  honour  of  the  day  remained  with  the  French.     This  first  success, 
although  of  little  real  importance,  encouraged  the  French  army,  and  gave 
it  confidence  in  itself ;  whilst  it  astonished  the  enemy,  to  whom  the  French 
emigrants  had  declared  that  the  campaign  would  be   a  mere    military 
promenade.       The  Duke  of   Brunswick   was    without   magazines,    the 
season  was    beginning    bad,  and  he  offered  to  withdraw  from   France 

q2 


228  EETEEAT    OF   THE   PETTSSIAN   ABMY.    [BOOK  I.  CHAP.  II. 

if  the  French  would  replace  the  constitutional   King  upon   the  throne. 

The  Executive  Council  replied  that  it  could  not  listen  to  any  proposals 

before  the  Prussian  troops  had  withdrawn  from  French    soil,  and  the 

Duke  of  Brunswick  then  ordered  a  retreat,  which  was  begun 

Eetreat  of  the  '  ° 

3othSentember  on  t^ie  30th  September.  The  French  resumed  possession  of 
1792#  Verdun  and  Longwy,  and  the  enemy  repassed  the  Rhine 

at  Coblentz.  Other  successes  attended  the  French  arms  in  the  course 
of  this  campaign.  Custine,  on  the  Rhine,  took  possession  of  Treves,  Spire, 
and  Mayence  ;  Montesquiou  invaded  Savoy,  and  Anselme  the  county  of 
Nice.    Our  armies  everywhere  assumed  the  offensive,  and  were  victorious. 


229 


BOOK  II. 

THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  TO  THE  CONSULATE. 

The  National  Convention — The  Reign  of  Terror — Victories  of  the 
French  Armies — Conquest  of  Belgium,  Holland,  Switzerland, 
and  Italy — Reaction  of  the  Moderate  and  Royalist  Party — 
The  Directorial  Government  —  Anarchy — Defeats — Expedition 
to  Egypt — Fall  of  the  Directory. 

20th September,  1792,  to  10th  November,  1799  (19*7*  Brumaire,  Year  VIII.) 


CHAPTER  I. 

from  the  opening  of   the  national  convention  to  the   fall   of   the 

girondists. 

20*7*  September,  1792,  to  2nd  June,  1793. 

The  Legislative  Assembly  had  dissolved  itself,  and  that  which  succeeded 
it  commenced  its  sittings  on  the  20th  September,  1792,  and   0pen;ngoftlie 
took  the  name  of  the  National  Convention.  Its  first  act  was  to   JJjjjgJJf  Con~ 
abolish  Royalty,  and  to  proclaim  a  Republic ;    and  it   then 
declared    that  it    Avould  date    its    proceedings  from  ^the     first  year    of 
the  French  Republic.    These  measures  were  decreed  unani- 

,        ,  i  •  •  i  •   i        i        1-       •  i      •  Tne  Republic 

mously,  but  the  two   sections  into  which  the  Legislative   proclaimed,  20th 

September, 

Assembly  was  divided  at  its  close,  speedily  commenced  a   1792.    Factions 

in  the  Assembly. 

desperate  war  against  each  other,  the  issue  of  which  was 
fatal  to  both  of  them.  These  parties  were  that  of  the  Girondists,  which 
sat  on  the  right  in  the  Assembly,  and  that  of  the  Mountain,  which  occu- 
pied the  upper  benches  on  the  left,  from  whence  they  derived  their  name. 
The  first  party  desired  a  legal  and  constitutional  form  of  government  in  the 
Republic,  which  was  the  object  of  their  wishes,    and  which  they   had 


230  THE    THREE    PARTIES    IN    THE    CONTENTION.    [BOOK  IT.  CHAP.  I. 

themselves  assisted  to  establish.  They  looked  with  anxiety  on  the  abyss 
which  was  open  before  them,  and  after  having  themselves  unloosed  the 
populace  against  the  throne,  they  endeavoured  to  hold  it  in  check.  They 
wished  in  vain  that  it  should  disarm  and  resign  its  power  into  their 
hands.  The  Mountain,  less  enlightened  and  less  eloquent  than  the  Gi- 
rondists, were  more  audacious  and  less  scrupulous  as  to  the  means 
by  which  they  attained  their  ends.  The  most  extreme  democracy 
seemed  to  them  to  be  the  best  form  of  government,  and  they  had  for  their 
principal  leaders,  Danton,  Robespierre,  and  Marat.  The  two  latter  were, 
with  good  reason,  held  in  especial  horror  by  the  Girondists.  Robespierre, 
a  man  of  moderate  talents  but  full  of  envy  and  ambition,  had  until  now 
held  aloof,  pronouncing,  whether  it  were  in  the  Constituent  Assembly  or 
in  the  Jacobin  Club,  where  he  was  supreme,  or  in  the  Convention,  against 
all  who  by  turns  were  in  the  ascendant.  He  aspired  to  the  first  rank,  and 
associating  the  cause  of  his  personal  vanity  with  the  popular  passions,  he 
triumphed  over  all  superiority  by  branding  it  with  the  th  en  odious  name  of 
aristocracy.  He  distinguished  himself  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude  by  a 
show  of  austere  patriotism,  and  captivated  it  by  lavishing  upon  it  the  pro- 
perty and  blood  of  the  vanquished.  Marat,  a  furious  fanatic,  had  rendered 
himself  the  apostle  of  murder  by  his  discourses,  and  in  his  infamous 
journal— the  FriencVof  the  People — he  advocated  recourse  to  a  dictatorship 
for  the  purpose  of  subduing  the  enemies  of  the  people,  and  exterminating 
them  in  a  body.  These  two  leaders,  worthy  of  each  other,  had  already  left  far 
behind  them  Danton  and  his  partisans,  who  would  have  preferred  in  the  ca- 
reer of  murder  to  have  stopped  short  at  the  massacres  of  September.  The 
Girondists  were  stronger  in  the  Assembly  than  their  rivals,  and  the  depart- 
ments were  favourable  to  them,  but  the  Commune  of  Paris  was  devoted  to 
the  Mountain,  which  ruled  by  its  aid  and  that  of  the  Jacobins  the  sections 
and  the  faubourgs.  A  third  party,  with  no  decided  opinions  and  no  sys- 
tematic action,  hesitated  between  the  two  others.  This  party  was  that  of 
the  plain  or  the  marsh,  and  was  composed  of  men  who  were  for  the  most  part 
well-intentioned,  but  had  no  strengthof  character.  They  voted  for  the  Giron- 
dists, and  gave  them  the  majority  as  long  as  they  were  without  fears  for 
themselves ;  but  fear  at  length  threw  them  into  the  opposite  ranks. 

The  Girondists,  and  amongst  others  the  Marseillais  Barbaroux,  accused 
Robespierre  of  seeking  to  establish  a  tyranny.  This  accusation,  ill  sup- 
ported, fell  also  upon  Marat,  who  every  day  advocated  fresh  massacres. 


1792-1793.]  BATTLE    OE  JEMAPPES.  23.1 

He  attempted  to  justify  himself.  His  appearance  at  the  tribune  excited 
a  feeling  of  horror ;  and  when  this  atrocious  man,  remaining  perfectly 
unmoved,  said,  "  I  have  a  great  number  of  personal  enemies  in  this 
Assembly,"  there  was  a  general  cry  of  "All !  all !"  and  yet  this  attack  upon 
him  had  no  result.  It  was  resumed  some  days  later  against  Eobespierre. 
"  No  one,"  he  said,  "  will  dare  to  accuse  me  to  my  face."  "  Yes  ;  I  do !'" 
cried  Louvet ;  and  running  to  the  tribune,  he  overwhelmed  Robespierre 
by  a  most  eloquent  and  improvised  denunciation,  prefacing  each  new 
series  of  accusations  by  the  terrible  formula,  "  Robespierre,  I  accuse  you  1" 
The  future  tyrant  would  have  been  crushed  on  this  occasion,  but  he 
demanded  and  obtained  a  week  for  the  preparation  of  his  defence,  and  the 
order  of  the  day  put  an  end  to  the  struggle.  It  was  thus  that  the  Giron- 
dists, by  their  attacks,  themselves  increased  the  importance  of  their 
adversaries ;  failing  to  perceive  that  they  must  vanquish  and  crush  them, 
or  perish  themselves.  Powerless  against  the  Commune,  they  yielded  also 
to  their  enemies  the  Club  of  the  Jacobins,  and  irritated  the  populace  of 
Paris  by  demanding  that  the  protection  of  the]  Assembly  should  be  confided 
to  troops  drawn  from  the  departments.  From  thence  they  obtained  the 
name  of  Federalists,  and  were  accused  of  wishing  to  excite  the  provinces 
against  the  capital,  whilst  the  Mountain  had  proclaimed  the  unity  and 
indivisibility  of  the  Republic. 

The  French  arms  triumphed   in   Belgium.       General    Clairfait   had 
joined  the  Archduke  Albert  before  Mons,  and  their  united 
armies  covered    the  heights    on  which  are  situated   the    mounez,  at  Je- 

o  mappes,  otn 

villages  of  Jemappes,  Cuesmes,  and  Berlaimont.  The  November»  im- 
position of  the  Austrians,  defended  by  numerous  abatis,  steep  slopes, 
woods,  fourteen  redoubts,  and  a  powerful  artillery,  seemed  impregnable. 
Their  cavalry,  posted  in  the  hollow  between  the  hills,  especially  between 
Jemappes  and  Cuesmes,  held  itself  in  readiness  to  sweep  away  our  columns 
as  soon  as  the  artillery  should  have  broken  them.  Dumouriez  drew  up 
his  army  in  a  semicircle  parallel  to  that  of  the  enemy ;  and  the  Generals 
Ferrand  and  Beurnonville  commenced  the  attack  at  the  wings.  The 
French  left  drove  back  the  enemy,  and  Dumouriez  then  immediately 
carried  the  centre  against  Jemappes.  His  infantry  advanced  in  close 
columns  under  a  murderous  fire  ;  but  then  the  Austrian  cavalry  advanced, 
and  at  this  movement  a  French  brigade  gave  way,  and  laid  open  the 
flank  of  our  columns  on  the  right.     The  attack  was  on  the  point  of  fail- 


232  CONQUEST    OF   BELGIUM.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  I. 

ing  when  young  Baptiste  Renard,  simply  a  servant  to  Dumouriez, 
hastened  to  point  out  the  danger,  and  led  back  the  brigade  against  the 
enemy.  The  alarm  had  already  spread  to  the  attacking  battalion  of  the 
centre,  and  they  were  shaken  by  the  fire  from  the  batteries.  But  the 
Duke  de  Chartres,  the  eldest  son  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  rallied  them, 
gathered  a  body  of  picked  troops  around  him,  and  resumed  the  conflict. 
Dumouriez  hastened  to  the  right  at  the  moment  when  the  intrepid  Dam- 
pierre  was  leaping  into  an  enemy's  redoubt.  He  assembled  some  scattered 
battalions,  repulsed  the  enemy's  cavalry,  and  chanting  the  "  Marseillaise  " 
at  the  head  of  his  battalions,  threw  himself  upon  the  Austrian  entrench- 

Con  uest  of     men^s>  forced  them,  and  took  the  village  of  Cuesmes.     The 

Belgium.  battle  was  now  won;  the  Austrian  s  were  driven  beyond  the 
Roer,  and  the  victorious  general  entered  Brussels  on  the  14th,  whilst  his 
lieutenants  took  Namur  and  Antwerp.    The  whole  of  Belgium  was  subdued. 

From  this  time  began  the  dissensions  between  the  victorious  Dumouriez 
and  the  Jacobins.  The  latter  threw  themselves  upon  the  conquered 
provinces  as  their  prey.  The  Flemings,  weary  of  the  Austrian  yoke, 
had  received  the  French  with  enthusiasm,  and  as  liberators.  But  the 
Jacobins  speedily  alienated  them  by  demanding  heavy  contributions, 
and  gave  them  up  to  a  frightful  anarchy.  Dumouriez,  indignant, 
returned  to  Paris  with  the  double  object  of  repressing  their  violence 
and  saving  Louis  XVI. ;  but  his  efforts  were  vain. 

The  unfortunate  Monarch  languished  during  four  months  in  the  Tower 
of  the  Temple,  with  the  Queen,  his  two  children,  and  his  virtuous 
sister  Elizabeth ;  passing  his  time  in  reading  and  the  education  of  the 
young  Dauphin.  The  Commune  exercised  a  cruel  surveillance  over  its 
captives,  and  made  them  drink  deep  of  bitterness.  The  debate  on  the 
King's  trial  commenced  on  the  23rd  November.  The  principal  charges 
against  him  were  founded  on  the  documents  found  in  the  Tuileries,  in 
an  iron  chest,  the  secret  of  which  had  been  pointed  out  to  the  Minister 
Roland.  By  means  of  these  were  discovered  the  counter-plots  of  the 
Court  against  the  Revolution,  as  well  as  the  arrangements  made  with 
Mirabeau  and  General  Bouille.  Other  papers  found  in  the  offices 
of  the  civil  list,  seemed  to  prove  that  Louis  had  not  always  been  a 
stranger  to  the  efforts  made  by  Europe  in  his  favour.  But,  as  King,  the 
Constitution  declared  him  inviolable ;  moreover,  he  was  dethroned,  and 
could  not  be  condemned,  save  in  defiance  of  all  the  principles  of  law,  for 


1792-1793.]  TRIAL   OF   LOUIS   XVI.  233 

acts  committed  before  his  dethronement.  The  Mountain  themselves  per- 
ceived the  illegality  of  the  proceedings  directed  against  him.  Robespierre, 
in  demanding  his  death,  rejected  all  forms  of  law  as  illusions,  and  with 
St.  Just,  relied  solely  on  reasons  of  policy.  "  What  would  not  the  good 
citizens,  the  friends  of  liberty,"  said  the  latter,  "have  to  fear,  if  they 
saw  the  axe  trembling  in  your  hands,  and  a  people,  on  the  first  day  of  its 
liberty,  respecting  the  memory  of  its  chains !" 

The  Mountain,  urging  with  the  utmost  energy  the  condemnation  of  the 
King,  wished  to  crush  the  Girondists,  who  had  openly  expressed  their 
desire  to  save  him.  The  great  majority  of  the  Assembly  persisted  in 
conducting  this  great  trial  according  to  judicial  forms;  and  Louis  XVI., 
already  separated  from  his  family,  appeared  as  a  prisoner  before  the 
Convention,  whose  jurisdiction  he  did  not  deny.  His  bear-  TrialofLouig 
ing  was  firm  and  noble,  his  replies  precise,  touching,  and  XVI- 
almost  always  victorious.  On  being  reconducted  to  the  Temple,  he 
requested  to  be  allowed  counsel,  and  named  Target  and  Tronchet.  The 
first  declined  to  act,  but  the  venerable  Malesherbes  offered  to  take  his 
place,  and  wrote  to  the  Convention  these  memorable  words :  "  I  have 
been  twice  summoned  to  the  councils  of  him  who  was  my  master  in  the 
times  when  to  be  so  was  an  object  of  ambition  to  all  the  world ;  and  I 
owe  him  the  same  service  when  it  is  an  office  which  most  persons  would 
consider  dangerous."  The  Convention  granted  his  request,  by  which 
Louis  XVI.  was  deeply  touched ;  when  he  saw  him  he  pressed  him  in 
his  arms,  and  said  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  "  You  are  risking  your  own 
life  and  will  not  save  mine."  Malesherbes,  holding  the  King's  hand 
pressed  to  his  lips,  said  that  he  was  happy  thus  to  bestow  the  remainder 
of  his  days.  He  then  endeavoured  to  inspire  the  august  captive  with 
hope  in  the  justice  of  his  judges  and  the  confusion  of  his  persecutors ; 
"  No !  no  !"  replied  the  King,  "  they  will  kill  me,  I  am  sure  ;  they  have 
both  the  power  and  the  will;  but  never  mind,  let  us  consider  the  subject 
of  my  defence  as  though  it  were  certain  to  be  successful — and  in  fact  it 
will  be  successful,  since  it  will  leave  my  character  without  a  stain." 

Tronchet  and  Malesherbes  immediately  commenced  the  preparation  of 
the  King's  defence,  and  took  counsel  with  Deseze,  an  advocate  of  Bordeaux, 
established  in  Paris. 

Since  the  commencement  of  his  trial,  Louis  XVI.,  separated  from  his 
family  by  the  orders  of  the  Convention,  and  kept  a  close  prisoner,  was 


234  DEFENCE    OE    LOUIS   BY   DESEZE.       [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  I. 

not  able  to  communicate  with  any  of  those  who  were  so  dear  to  him. 
Their  sufferings,  their  perils,  and  their  love  were  ever  present  to  his. 
thoughts.  On  the  19th  December  he  said,  at  breakfast  time,  to  Clery, 
his  single  servant,  in  the  presence  of  the  four  municipal  guards,  "  Fourteen 
years  ago  you  were  earlier  than  you  are  to-day."  A  sad  smile  revealed 
to  Clery  the  meaning  of  these  words.  "  It  is  the  day,"  continued  the 
King,  "  on  which  my  daughter  was  born.  And  to  think  that  I  should 
not  be  able  to  see  her  !"  Tears  filled  his  eyes.  The  municipal  guards 
seemed  silently  to  respect  this  remembrance  of  happy  days  which  entered 
his  prison  but  to  render  it  more  sombre. 

On  the  following  day  Louis  XVI.  wrote  his  will,  the  sublime  testament 
of  a  Christian  soul  ready  to  appear  before  its  God.  He  left  his  grateful 
remembrances  to  his  attendants,  his  pardon  to  his  enemies.  "  I  pardon," 
he  said  in  it,  "  with  all  my  heart  those  who  have  become  my  enemies 
without  my  having  given  any  cause  to  be  so,  and  I  pray  God  to  pardon 
them,  as  well  as  those  who  from  a  mistaken  zeal  have  done  me  so  much 
harm.  I  beseech  Him  to  look  with  compassionate  eyes  on  my  wife,  my 
children,  and  my  sister,  who  have  so  long  suffered  with  me,  and  to  sup- 
port them  by  His  grace  if  they  should  lose  me,  so  long  as  they  shall 
remain  in  this  perishable  world.  I  recommend  to  my  son,  if  he  should 
ever  have  the  misfortune  to  become  a  King,  to  remember  that  he  ought 
to  devote  himself  entirely  to  the  welfare  of  his  co-citizens,  that  he  ought 
to  banish  from  his  mind  every  feeling  of  hatred  or  resentment,  and 
especially  to  do  so  with  respect  to  any  miseries  I  may  myself  have 
suffered.  I  conclude  by  declaring  before  God,  and  as  ready  to  appear 
before  Him,  that  I  do  not  reproach  myself  with  any  of  the  crimes  laid 
to  my  charge." 

The  King  was  taken  a  second  time  before  the  Convention,  and  appeared 
at  the  bar  accompanied  by  his  counsel.  Deseze  read  the  defence,  and 
concluded  his  pathetic  address  with  these  solemn  and  true  words  :  "  Louis, 
ascending  a  throne  at  the  age  of  twenty  years,  sat  there  an  example  ot 
morals,  justice,  and  economy.  He  carried  to  it  no  weakness,  no  corrupt 
passion,  and  was  the  constant  friend  of  the  people.  The  people  wished 
that  a  disastrous  tax  should  be  abolished,  and  Louis  abolished  it ;  the 
people  desired  the  abolition  of  servitude,  and  Louis  abolished  it;  the 
people  solicited  reforms,  and  he  made  them  ;  the  people  wished  to  change 
its  laws,  and  he  consented  to  the  change ;  the  people  wished  that  millions 


1792-1793.]  DIVISIONS    IN   THE   ASSEMBLY.  235 

of  Frenchmen  should  recover  their  rights,  and  he  restored  them ;  the 
people  wished  for  liberty,  and  he  bestowed  it  on  them.  It  is  impossible  to 
deny  to  Louis  the  glory  of  having  anticipated  the  wishes  of  the  people  by 

his  sacrifices ;  and  it  is  he  that  it  is  proposed  to  you  to But,  citizens, 

I  will  not  complete  what  I  was  about  to  say.  I  pause  in  the  presence  of 
history.  Eemember  that  it  will  judge  your  judgment,  and  that  its  ver- 
dict will  be  that  of  all  ages  to  come." 

Louis  XVI.  left  the  hall  with  his  counsel,  and  a  violent  storm  imme- 
diately arose  in  the  Assembly.  Lanjuinais,  in  a  state  of  great  indignation, 
rushed  to  the  tribune,  and  demanded  that  the  whole  proceedings  should 
be  annulled.  He  exclaimed  that  the  time  for  ferocious  men  had  gone  by ; 
that  to  make  the  Assembly  try  Louis  XVI.  was  to  dishonour  it ;  that  no 
one  in  France  had  the  right  to  do  so ;  that  if  the  Assembly  desired  to  act 
as  a  political  body  it  should  only  take  measures  of  precaution  against  the 
late  King ;  and  that  if  it  were  to  act  as  his  tribunal  it  would  do  so  in 
disregard  of  all  principles,  for  in  that  case  the  vanquished  would  be 
judged  by  the  vanquisher,  since  most  of  the  members  present  were  the 
declared  conspirators  of  the  10th  August.  These  words  were  followed 
by  a  terrible  tumult,  and  from  all  sides  arose  the  cry,  "  Order  !  To  the 
Abbaye  with  him !"  Lanjuinais,  calm  and  intrepid,  added,  "  I  would 
rather  die  a  thousand  deaths  than  condemn,  contrary  to  law,  the  most 
abominable  tyrant."  A  crowd  of  speakers  succeeded  Lanjuinais.  Saint- 
Just  influenced  the  hatred  of  the  unfortunate  Prince's  enemies  by  re- 
presenting him,  with  an  air  of  hypocritical  gentleness,  under  the  most 
abominable  colours.  Rabaud-Saint-Etienne,  a  Protestant  minister  who 
had  already  honourably  distinguished  himself  as  a  member  of  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly,  expressed  himself,  on  the  other  hand,  as  indignant  at 
the  accumulation  of  powers  exercised  by  the  Convention.  "  As  for 
myself,"  he  said,  "  I  am  weary  of  my  share  in  despotism;  I  am  tormented 
at  the  idea  of  the  tyranny  of  which  I  form  a  portion,  and  I  sigh  for  the 
moment  when  you  shall  have  established  a  tribunal  which  shall  relieve 
me  of  the  appearance  of  being  a  tyrant.  If  you  seek  for  political  rea- 
sons, they  are  to  be  found  in  history.  The  citizens  of  London,  after 
having  so  earnestly  sought  for  the  punishment  of  their  King,  were  the 
first  to  curse  his  judges  and  to  prostrate  themselves  before  his  suc- 
cessor. People  of  Paris,  Parliament  of  Paris,  have  you  heard  what  I 
have  said  ?"     Sullen  Eobespierre  then  arose  and  said,  with  an  accent  of 


236  SPEECH    OE   VERGNIAUD.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  I. 

the  deepest  wrath  and  malice,  "  The  chief  proof  of  devotion  which  we 
owe  to  our  country  is,  to  stifle  in  our  hearts  every  sentiment  of  com- 
passion." He  then  broke  forth  into  invectives  and  perfidious  insinuations 
against  the  deputies  of  the  Gironde,  who  at  this  critical  moment  pre- 
served a  prudent  silence,  whilst  Robespierre  expressed  himself  without 
reserve,  demanded  that  Louis  XVI.  should  be  condemned,  and  did  not 
conceal  his  desire  that  his  blood  should  be  shed. 

These  stormy  debates  were  prolonged  during  three  days,  and  at  length 
Vergniaud,  the  greatest  orator  of  the  Girondist  party,  arose  to  speak,  and 
was  listened  to  in  profound  silence.  He  declared  in  favour  of  an  appeal 
to  the  people,  repelled  the  perfidious  insinuations  of  Robespierre,  and 
predicted  all  the  dangers  which  must  result  to  France  from  a  precipitate 
condemnation.  a  The  European  powers,"  he  said,  "  but  await  this 
pretext  to  throw  themselves  in  a  body  upon  France ;  we  should  doubt- 
less be  able  to  vanquish  them,  but  victory  itself  would  demand  an 
increase  of  efforts  and  expenses.  What  gratitude  would  the  country  owe 
to  you  should  you  cause  its  blood  to  flow  in  torrents  on  the  Continent  and 
on  the  ocean,  and  should  exact  an  act  of  vengeance  in  its  name  which 
should  overwhelm  it  with  calamities  ?  The  social  system,  wearied  by  the 
assaults  of  enemies  from  without  and  factions  within,  will  fall  into  a 
mortal  languor.  Beware  lest  in  the  midst  of  her  triumph  France  should 
come  to  resemble  those  famed  Egyptian  monuments  which  have  subdued 
time ;  the  passing  stranger  is  astounded  by  their  grandeur,  but  if  he 
penetrate  within  them,  what  does  he  find  ? — lifeless  ashes  and  the 
silence  of  the  tomb."  Vergniaud  then  demanded  whether  "  it  were  not 
to  be  feared  that  the  people  would  attribute  all  its  miseries  to  the  Con- 
vention. Who  will  guarantee,"  he  said,  "  that  at  the  sound  of  the  seditious 
cries  of  a  turbulent  anarchy,  the  aristocracy  eager  for  vengeance, 
wretchedness  eager  for  change,  and  the  compassion  which  indomitable 
prejudices  will  have  excited  for  the  fate  of  Louis  XVI.,  will  not  be  banded 
together  against  us  ?  Who  will  guarantee  that,  in  the  midst  of  this 
coming  storm,  we  shall  not  see  the  murderers  of  the  2nd  September 
emerging  from  their  haunts,  to  present  to  you  that  protector,  that  chief, 
who  is  said  to  be  so  necessary?  A  chief!  Ah  !  if  their  audacity  were 
so  great,  he  would  appear  only  to  be  pierced  on  the  instant  by  a  thousand 
swords.  But  to  what  horrors  would  not  Paris  be  surrendered  ?  Who 
could  dwell  in  a  city  in  which  terror  and  death  should  be  kings  ?     What 


1792-1793.]  THE    KING   SENTENCED    TO    DEATH.  237 

hands  could  wipe  away  our  tears  and  succour  our  despairing  families  ? 
Would  you  then  go  to  those  false  friends,  those  perfidious  flatterers  who 
had  cast  you  into  the  abyss?  And  if  you  did,  what  would  be  their 
reply  ?  If  you  asked  of  them  bread  they  would  say,  '  Go  to  the  quarries 
to  dispute  with  the  earth  some  gay  fragments  of  the  victims  whom  you 
have  slain !'  Or  will  you  have  blood  ?  See  here,  take  it.  Blood  and 
dead  bodies  ;  we  have  no  other  nourishment  to  offer  you  !'  " 

The  impression  produced  by  this  discourse  was  profound,  and  the 
Assembly,  divided  into  two  parties,  hesitated.  Brissot,  Gensonne,  Petion, 
advised  an  appeal  to  the  people  ;  Barrere  opposed  this  course,  and  his 
cat-like  cunning,  his  cold  and  cruel  logic,  triumphed  over  the  eloquence 
of  Vergniaud.  The  conclusion  of  the  discussion  was  declared,  and  a 
decree  fixed  the  nominal  vote  for  the  14th  of  January.  Three  questions 
were  then  submitted  to  the  decision  of  the  Assembly  : — "  Was  the  King 
guilty  ?  Should  there  be  an  appeal  to  the  people  ?  And  if  guilty, 
what  should  be  the  King's  punishment  ? "  The  Assembly  was  blinded 
by  passion,  and  implacable,  and  Louis  was  unanimously  declared  guilty. 
The  appeal  to  the  people  was  rejected,  and  it  remained  to  determine 
what  punishment  Louis  should  suffer.  The  excitement  was  at  its  height 
in  Paris,  and  a  furious  multitude,  collected  at  the  doors  of  the  Assembly, 
hurled  terrible  menaces  against  those  who  were  inclined  to  clemency.  A 
large  number  of  the  deputies  appeared  to  be  intimidated,  and  Vergniaud 
himself,  who  presided,  lost  the  courage  which  he  had  displayed  during 
the  preceding  days,  and  in  a  cowardly  manner  declared  for  death.  At 
length,  after  forty  hours  of  a  nominal  collection  of  votes,  he  declared 
the  result  of  the  division.  Of  seven  hundred  and  one  voters,  the  sen- 
tence of  death  was  pronounced  by  a  majority  of  twenty-six.  The 
counsel  of  Louis  XVI.,  Deseze  and  Tronchet,  protested  against  the 
decree ;  Malesherbes  endeavoured  to  speak,  but  sobs  choked  his  voice. 
A  motion  for  reprieval  and  delay  was  negatived  two  days  later  by  a 
majority  of  three  hundred  and  ninety  against  three  hundred  and  ten, 
and  the  execution  was  fixed  for  the  21st  of  January. 

Louis  had  requested  the  services  of  a  priest,  and  had  named  the  Abbe 
Edgeworth  de  Firmont.  The  request  was  granted.  M.  Edgeworth  pro- 
ceeded to  the  Temple,  and  as  soon  as  he  saw  the  King,  threw  himself  at 
his  feet.  Louis  raised  him  and  clasped  him  in  his  arms.  A  last  inter- 
view with  his  family  had  been  permitted  to  the  unfortunate  Prince  ;  and 


238  DEATH    OP    LOT7IS    XVI.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  I. 

the  municipal  officers,  unwilling  to  lose  sight  of  him  for  an  instant, 
determined  that  the  interview  should  take  place  in  a  room  to  which 
was  a  glass  door,  through  which  everything  could  be  seen  that  took 
place    within.      At   eight   o'clock   Louis    entered   this   room,    and   for 

some  time  walked  up  and  down,  anxiously  expecting  the 
of  Louis  xvi.      arrival  of  those  who  were  so  dear  to  him.     At  half-past 

eight  the  door  opened,  and  the  Queen  appeared,  leading  the 
Dauphin  by  the  hand ;  his  daughter  and  Madame  Elizabeth  followed ; 
and  all  four  threw  themselves  simultaneously  into  the  King's  arms,  with 
the  most  bitter  sobs.  After  a  long  and  painful  interview,  the  King 
rose  and  put  an  end  to  this  cruel  scene  by  promising  to  see  his  family 
on  the  morrow.  In  spite  of  this  promise,  which  could  not  be  fulfilled, 
the  farewells  consisted  only  of  sobs  and  lamentations.  Louis  XVI.  tore 
himself  at  length  from  these  agonizing  emotions,  and  in  the  company  of 
Abbe  Edgeworth  found  resignation  and  calm.  His  only  thought  now 
was  how  best  to  prepare  himself  for  death.  About  midnight  he  went  to 
bed  and  slept.  Clery,  his  sole  and  faithful  servitor,  remained  by  him, 
watching  the  peaceful  slumbers  of  his  master  on  the  eve  of  his  execu- 
tion. At  five  in  the  morning  the  King  awoke.  Clery  lit  a  fire  and 
made  an  altar  of  a  chest  of  drawers.  The  Abbe*  Edgeworth  said  mass. 
Louis  XVI.  received  the  communion  on  his  knees  from  the  priest's 
hands,  and  rose  with  the  courage  of  the  Christian  and  the  just  man. 

The  drums  were  already  beating  in  the  streets  of  Paris,  and  the 
sections  were  assuming  their  arms.  At  eight  o'clock  Santerre,  accom- 
panied by  a  deputation  from  the  commune,  the  department,  and  the 
criminal  tribunal,  proceeded  to  the  Temple.  The  King  prepared 
to  depart.  He  spared  himself  and  his  family  a  fresh  separation, 
which  would  have  been  more  painful  than  that  of  the  previous  day,  and 
charged  Clery  to  give  his  last  farewell  to  his  wife,  his  sister,  and  his 
children.  He  sent  to  them  some  locks  of  his  hair  and  a  few  jewels,  and 
handed  his  will  to  a  municipal  officer.  He  then  gave  the  signal  for  depar- 
ture. Two  rows  of  armed  men  lined  the  road  as  far  as  the  Place  de  la 
Revolution,  and  a  profound  silence  accompanied  the  passage  of  the  fatal 
carriage.  At  half-past  ten  Louis  XVI.  arrived  at  the  Place  de  la  Revolu- 
Death  of  Loui  ^on  *  a  vast  sPace  na(^  Deen  kept  vacant  round  the  scaffold, 
5Sy  1793 Ja"      cannon  were  planted  in  every  direction,  and  armed  troops 

kept  back  the  populace  which,  at  the  sight  of  their  victim, 


1792-1793. J  EESULTS    OF   THE    KING'S   EXECUTION.  239 

uttered  the  most  ferocious  cries.  The  King  undressed  himself,  and  when 
lie  refused  to  allow  the  executioner  to  bind  his  hands,  the  Abbe  Edge- 
worth  said  to  him,  "  Suffer  this  outrage,  which  is  but  a  final  point  of 
resemblance  between  your  fate  and  that  of  the  God  who  will  be  your 
recompense."  Louis  submitted,  and  allowed  himself  to  be  bound  and 
led  upon  the  scaffold.  When  there,  he  suddenly  stepped  aside  from  the 
executioners,  and,    addressing   the  multitude,  said,  "I   die  innocent;  I 

pardon  my  enemies,  and  you,  unhappy  people "     The  rolling  of 

drums  then  drowned  his  voice,  and  the  executioner  seized  him.  "  Son  of 
Saint  Louis,  ascend  to  heaven  !"  said  Abbe"  Edgeworth  ;  and  Louis  XVI. 
had  already  ceased  to  live. 

Thus  perished,  on  the  21st  of  January,  after  a  reign  of  eighteen  years' 
duration,  one  of  the  Monarchs  who  have  most  honoured  the    General  ueflec. 
throne   by   their    virtues.     He   had    every   disposition  to   aeTtltfthe 
introduce  useful  reforms,  but  he  had  not  sufficient  strength      mg' 
of  character  to  maintain  them,  to  direct  the  course  of  the  Revolution,  and 
to  lead  it  into  a  safe  haven.     His  execution  was  a  great  crime,  of  which 
Erance  was  not  guilty,  but  of  which  she  bore  the  punishment.     It  ren- 
dered the  perils  of  the  Eevolution  manifold,  excited  the  mutual  hatred  of 
parties,  and  the  first  punishment  fell  upon  its  principal  authors.     The 
Girondists,  on  the  10th  of  August,  had  hurled  the  King  from  the  throne ; 
they  would  have  been  glad   to    save   his  life,  but  the  greater  number 
did  not  venture  to  undertake  his  defence ;   they  feared  to  be  accused  of 
being  counter-revolutionists  and  the  accomplices  of  tyrants ;  and  many, 
even,  among  whom  was  Vergniaud,  in  spite  of  themselves,  gave  a  pledge 
of  their  devotion  to  the  Revolution  by  voting  for  the  death  of  the  King. 
Eventually    they  became   the   victims   of   their    own   cowardice.     The 
iniquity  of  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI.,  whilst  it  multiplied  the  dangers 
which  surrounded  the  Convention,  also  had  the  effect  of  leading  it  into  a 
course  of  violence  in  which  it  at  length  found  it  impossible  to  check  its 
own  progress.     We   shall  see  that  each  fresh  crime  committed  by  this 
famous  Assembly  created  fresh  enemies  around  it,  and  forced  it  to  have 
recourse  to  cruel  and  tyrannical  measures  to  hold  them  in  check.     It  is 
only  in  this  way  that  can  be  understood  the  fatal  narrative  of  the  events 
of  the  Revolution.      If,  after  the  battle  of  Jemappes,  the  life   of  Louis 
XVI.    had  been   the    pledge    of  peace    between    France    and   Europe, 
who   would   venture   to    say   that    the   atrocious    dictatorship    of   the 


240  THE    EEYOLUTIONARY    TRIBUNAL .         [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  I. 

Committee  of  Public  Safety  would  have   become   indispensable  for  the 
public  safety  ? 

After  what  occurred  on  the  21st  January,  indignant  Europe  flew  to 
„        ,  .  .  arms  with  one  accord.      Thenceforth  the  Revolution  had  for 

General  rising 

agafnsTiYance,  *ts  declared  enemies  England,  Holland,  Spain,  the  whole 
1793,  German  Confederation,  Naples,  the  Holy  See,  and  Eussia; 

whilst  almost  at  the  same  time  La  Vendee  arose  in  formidable  revolt. 
The  French  Government  had  now  to  contend  with,  beside  the  domestic 
enemy,  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of  the  best  troops  in  Europe, 
who  were  moving  upon  the  frontiers  in  every  direction.  To  meet  such 
a  combination  of  perils,  Danton  and  the  Mountain,  who  had  chosen  him 
for  their  leader,  at  first  made  every  effort  to  excite  the  enthusiasm  and 
fanaticism  of  the  people  in  the.  name  of  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity; 
and  strove  to  keep  them  in  a  state  of  violent  agitation,  so  as  to  be  the 
better  able  to  turn  their  unbridled  passions  to  the  furtherance  of  their 
own  ends.  It  was  Danton  who  established  the  despotism  of  the  multi- 
tude under  the  name  of  a  Revolutionary  Government.  A  levy  of  300,000 
men  was  ordered,  and  an  extraordinary  and  revolutionary  tribunal 
Creationofa  of  nine  members,  whose  decrees  were  to  be  without  appeal, 
trib°unai°20tn  was  established  for  the  purpose  of  punishing  the  members 
arc  •  of  the  Counter-Revolution.     The  Girondists  resisted  the 

establishment  of  a  tribunal  so  arbitrary  and  formidable,  but  their  re- 
sistance was  useless.  Branded  by  the  name  of  intriguers  and  enemies  of 
the  people,  their  destruction  was  already  resolved  on.  Marat  and  Robes- 
pierre made  the  greatest  efforts  to  direct  the  popular  feeling  against  them, 
and  a  plan  for  assassinating  the  whole  of  them  by  night  was  formed  at 
the  Jacobin  and  Cordelier  Clubs,  but  was  never  carried  into  execution. 
On  the  following  day  Vergniaud  ascended  the  tribune  and  denounced 
such  murderous  projects.  "We  advance,"  he  said,  "from  amnesties  to 
crimes,  and  from  crimes  to  amnesties.  Many  citizens  have  come  at  length 
to  confound  seditious  insurrections  with  the  great  insurrection  in  favour 
of  liberty,  to  regard  the  provocations  of  brigands  as  the  generous  expres- 
sions of  energetic  souls  !  Citizens,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  Revolution 
will,  even  as  Saturn  did,  devour  successively  all  its  children,  and  will 
finally  produce  despotism  with  all  its  customary  calamities."  Prophetic 
but  useless  words  ! 

The  insurrection  in  La  Vendue  redoubled  the  fury  of  the  Jacobins. 


1792-1793.]  WAR    IN   LA   VENDEE.  241 

Partial  disturbances  had  already  burst  forth  in  that  portion  of  Brittany, 
Anjou,    and   Poitou,    which,    being    densely  wooded,  and 

War  in  La 

almost  without  roads  or  commerce,  possessed  a  middle  class   Vendee,  1792- 

7  l  1794. 

only  partially  developed,  and  without  access  to  new  ideas. 
There  the  manners  of  old  times  were  maintained  together  with  the  feudal 
customs ;  there  the  country  populations  remained  submissive  to  the 
priests  and  nobles,  the  latter  of  whom  had  not  emigrated.  The  call  for 
three  hundred  thousand  men  excited  a  general  insurrection  in  Vendue, 
the  chief  leaders  being  a  waggoner  named  Cathelineau,  a  naval  officer 
named  Charette,  and  Stofflet,  a  gamekeeper.  Nine  hundred  communes 
rose  at  the  sound  of  the  tocsin,  and  the  nobles  Bonchamps,  Lescure,  La 
Rochejaquelin,  d'Elbee,  and  Talmont  joined  and  supported  the  movement 
with  the  utmost  energy.  They  vanquished  the  troops  of  the  line,  and 
the  battalions  of  the  National  Guard  which  were  sent  against  them. 
Everything  gave  way  before  the  fiery  courage  of  the  Vendean  peasants ;; 
and,  unarmed,  they  even  seized  artillery,  by  throwing  themselves  upon 
the  cannon  which  were  mowing  down  their  ranks.  The  Republican 
Generals  Marce,  Gauvilliers,  Quetineau,  and  Ligonnier  were  beaten  by 
them  one  after  the  other.  The  Yendeans,  victorious  and  masters  of 
many  strong  places,  formed  three  corps  of  from  ten  to  twelve  thousand 
men  each.  The  first,  under  Bonchamps,  occupied  the  banks  of  the  Loire^ 
and  was  called  the  army  of  Anjou ;  the  second,  commanded  by  Elbeej. 
being  in  the  centre,  was  named  the  grand  army ;  and  the  third,  called  the 
Marais,  was  under  Charette,  and  occupied  Lower  Vendee.  A  council 
was  appointed  to  direct  the  operations  of  the  war,  and  Cathelineau  was 
made  generalissimo.  This  formidable  insurrection  provoked  the  Con- 
vention to  still  more  cruel  measures  against  the  priests  and  nobles ;  every 
one  who  took  part  in  any  riot  was  put  beyond  the  pale  of  the  law  ;  the 
property  of  the  emigrants  was  confiscated,  and  the  Revolutionary  tribunal 
commenced  its  frightful  functions. 

Another  enemy  now  appeared.     Dumouriez,  after  an  unsuccessful  inva- 
sion of  Holland,  had  been  vanquished  at  the  battle  of  Ner- 
winde  by  the  Prince  of  Coburg,  the  Austrian  commander-    winde,  18th 

V    1      1  •  March,  1794- 

in-chief,   and   had   been  compelled    to  evacuate  Belgium. 
Long  since  at  open  war  with  the  Jacobins,  he  had  meditated  their  over> 
throw,  and  the  re-establishment  of  the  constitutional  monarchy.     When, 
after  the  defeat  of  Nerwinde,  he  had  become  more  than  ever  the object/of 

VOL.  II.  K 


242  DEFECTION    OE   DTTMOTJKIEZ.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  I. 

their  furious  animadversions,  he  resolved  to  desert  from  the  existing 
government,  and  to  march  upon  Paris  in  concert  with  the  Austrians, 
with  the  intention,  it  was  supposed,  of  crowning  in  the  capital  the  young- 
Duke  de  Chartres,  who  was  then  in  his  camp,  and  had  distinguished 
himself  in  the  battles  of  Valmy  and  Jemappes.  He  promised  the 
Austrians  the  possession  of  many  fortified  places  as  a  guarantee  of  his  good 
faith ;  but  he  failed  in  his  attempts  to  gain  possession  of  them,  and  at 
length  made  his  projects  visible  to  the  Convention.  The  latter  imme- 
diately summoned  him  to  appear  at  its  bar,  and  on  his  refusal  to  do  so, 
sent  the  Minister  for  War,  Beurnonville,  and  four  deputies,  Camus, 
Quinette,  Lamarque  and  Bancal,  to  bring  him  before  it,  or  to  arrest  him 
in  the  midst  of  his  army.  When  they  arrived  Dumouriez  gave  them  up 
to  the  Austrians ;  but  he  had  relied  too  much  on  the  affection  of  his  sol- 
diers ;  for  they  had  caught  the  Revolutionary  fever,  and 
mouriez,  April,     Dumouriez,  abandoned   bv  them,  found  himself  compelled 

1793.  , 

to  pass  over  to  the  enemy's  camp. 

The  Girondists  made  as  severe  animadversions  on  his  conduct  as  did  the 
Mountain,  but  they  were  nevertheless  accused  of  being  in  complicity 
with  him.  Vergniaud,  Brissot,  Guadet,  Gensonne*e,  and  Pe*tion  were 
more  especially  denounced  by  Robespierre  and  Marat.  For  a  moment 
they  displayed  some  vigour,  and  brought  Marat  before  the  Revolutionary 
tribunal ;  but  he  was  acquitted  and  borne  in  triumph  to  the  Assembly. 
From  this  time  the  Sans-culottes  took  possession  of  the  avenues  leading 
to  the  Chamber  and  the  Tribunes.  Guadet,  with  the  object  of  freeing 
the  Assembly  from  the  tyranny  of  the  Jacobins  and  the  Commune, 
proposed  bold  measures,  such  as  the  dissolution  of  the  municipality, 
and  the  assembling  of  the  Convention  at  Bourges.  Barrere,  however,  pro- 
cured the  adoption  of  another  measure,  according  to  which  the  Assembly 
established  a  committee  of  twelve  members,  entrusted  with  the  duty  of 
watching  over  the  safety  of  the  Commune,  and  arresting  all  who  should 
form  any  plots  against  the  national  representatives. 

A  war  to  the  death,  fatal  to  the  Gironde,  soon  took  place  between  itself 
and  the  municipality.  The  Committee  of  Twelve  terrified  its  enemies  at 
once  by  arresting  the  infamous  Hubert,  the  deputy  of  the  procureur- 
general  of  the  Commune,  and  the  editor  of  the  execrable  paper,  Pere 
Duchesne.  The  Jacobin  and  Cordelier  Clubs  and  the  sections  declared 
.their  sittings  permanent,  and  organized  a  formidable  insurrection  under 


1792-1793.]  FALL    OE    THE    GIBONDINS.  243 

the  direction  of  Danton.  The  Girondists  resisted,  but  the  Mountain  and 
the  Sans-culottes  burst  forth  into  vociferations  and  menaces  against 
them.  The  sitting  was  continued  in  a  state  of  the  most  frightful  disorder  »' 
and  at  length  toward  midnight,  the  petitioners,  mixed  on  the  same 
benches  with  the  Mountain,  voted  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Committee 
of  Twelve,  and  the  freedom  of  the  prisoners. 

This  decree  was  revoked  on  the  following  day.  The  Commune,  the 
Jacobins,  the  sections,  again  began  to  agitate ;  Eobespierre,  insnrrectiOIl 
Marat,  Danton,  Chaumette,  and  Pache,  the  Mayor  of  Paris,  ^on^S5  sist 
leagued  themselves  together  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  May' 1793# 
a  second  insurrection  more  formidable  than  the  previous  one.  Henriot 
was  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  armed  force.  Forty  sous  per  day 
were  promised  to  the  Sans-culottes  as  long  as  they  should  be  under 
arms.  The  alarm  gun  was  fired,  the  tocsin  was  sounded,  and  the  armed 
mob  was  led  towards  the  Convention.  The  Tuileries,  where  it  sat,  was 
besieged,  and  its  deliberations  were  interrupted.  Barrere  and  the  Com- 
mittee of  Public  Safety  then  demanded  the  suppression  of  the  Committee 
of  Twelve,  and  it  was  definitely  resolved  on.  This  was  sufficient  for 
Danton,  but  it  did  not  satisfy  Eobespierre,  Marat,  and  the  Commune. 
"  We  must  not,7'  said  a  deputy  of  the  Jacobin  Club,  "  allow  the  people  to 
grow  lukewarm."  Henriot  placed  the  armed  force  at  the  disposal  of  the 
club,  and  the  arrest  of  the  Girondist  deputies  was  resolved  f *h  Gi 

on.  Marat  himself  sounded  the  tocsin,  and  Henriot  took  dists» 2nd  June- 
the  general  direction  of  the  movement.  On  the  2nd  June,  sixty  thou- 
sand armed  men  surrounded  the  Convention.  The  intrepid  Lanjuinais 
ran  to  the  tribune,  and  there,  in  the  midst  of  the  most  furious  denuncia- 
tions, he  denounced  the  projects  of  the  factions.  "  Paris  is  pure,"  he 
said;  " Paris  is  good,  but  Paris  is  oppressed  by  tyrants  who  thirst  after 
blood  and  power."  He  concluded  by  moving  that  all  the  Eevolutionary 
authorities  in  the  capital  should  be  deposed.  The  insurgent  petitioners 
entered  at  that  moment,  and  demanded  his  arrest  and  that  of  his  col- 
leagues in  the  Committee  of  Twelve.  A  violent  debate  took  place,  in  the 
midst  of  which  Lacroix  rushed  into  the  hall,  complaining  of  outrages  to 
which  he  had  been  subjected  by  the  mob,  and  declaring  that  the  Con- 
vention was  not  free.  The  Mountain  itself  was  indignant;  Danton 
exclaimed  that  the  national  majesty  must  be  avenged.  The  whole  of 
the  Convention  arose,  and  set  forth  with  the  president  at  its  head.     On 

b  2 


244  WEAKNESS    OE    THE    CONTENTION.       [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  I. 

the  Place  du  Carrousel  it  met  Henriot  on  horseback,  sword  in  hand. 
"  What  does  the  people  require  ?"  said  to  him  the  President  Herault 
de  Sechelles ;  "  the  Convention  only  desires  to  promote  its  happiness." 
"  The  people  has  not  arisen  to  listen  to  mere  phrases,"  replied  Henriot. 
u  It  demands  that  twenty-four  criminals  should  be  delivered  up  to  it." 
"  We  will  all  be  delivered  up,  rather  !"  cried  the  deputies.  Henriot  had 
his  cannon  pointed  against  them,  and  the  Convention  fell  back.  Sur- 
rounded on  every  side,  it  re-entered  the  Hall  of  Assembly  in  a  state  of 
profound  discouragement,  where  it  no  longer  opposed  the  arrest  of  the 
proscribed  deputies,  and  Marat  constituted  himself  dictator  as  to  the  fate 
of  its  members.  Twenty-four  Girondists  were  arrested  in  the  midst  of 
the  Assembly,  and  the  satisfied  multitude  dispersed.  From  this  day  the 
Girondist  party  was  crushed,  and  the  Convention  was  no  longer  free. 


1793-1794.]  DEATH    OF    MARAT.  245 


CHAPTER  II. 

FROM    THE    FALL    OF    THE    GIRONDISTS    TO    THAT    OF    ROBESPIERRE. 

2nd  June,  1793,  to  27th  July,  1794  (9  th  Thermidor,  Year  III.) 

The  Girondists  Petion,  Barbaroux,  Guadet,  Louvet,  Buzot,  and  Lan- 
juinais  succeeded  in  escaping,  and  tock  advantage  of  the  indignation 
excited  throughout  France  by  the  events  of  the  31st  May  and  the  2nd 
June  to  arouse  the  departments  to  arms.  Brittany  took  part  in  the 
movement,  and  the  insurgents,  under  the  name  of  the  Assembly  of  the 
Departments,  assembled  at  Caen,  formed  an  army  commanded  by  General 
Wimpfen,  and  made  preparations  for  marching  upon  Paris.  It  is  from 
thence  that  set  out  the  heroic  Charlotte  Corday,  a  young  girl  endowed 
with  an  ardent  soul,  as  courageous  as  it  was  enthusiastic.  Indignant  at 
the  misfortunes  inflicted  by  a  few  monsters  on  France  and  the  cause  of 
liberty,  she  had  conceived  the  idea  that  she  would  render  an  immense 
service  to  her  country  by  delivering  it  from  Marat,  the  most  atrocious  of 
all;  she  killed  hiin  with  a  dagger  in  his  bath,  and  died  DeathofMarat 
on  the  scaffold  with  exemplary  courage.  But  the  horrible  July  13th>  1793, 
system  introduced  by  Marat  did  not  perish  with  him  ;  the  violent  situation 
of  the  Republic  had  set  the  sanguinary  passions  of  the  multitude  in  a 
ferment ;  Marat,  slain,  became  their  idol ;  his  remains  were  borne  in 
triumph  to  the  Pantheon,  and  in  every  popular  assembly  his  bust  was 
placed  side  by  side  with  that  of  the  Deputy  Lepelletier  Saint-Fargeau, 
whom  a  soldier  of  the  Guard,  named  Paris,  had  punished  for  his  regicide 
vote  by  assassinating  him. 

In  the  meantime  the  dangers  by  which  the  Convention  was  surrounded 
become  greater  every  day  ;  the  principal  cities  of  the  king- 
dom and  more  than  sixty  departments  were  in  a  state  of  Lyons  and  the 
revolt.     A    wretched  fanatic,    named    Charier,  emulous  of  of  the  interior, 

•      •  June,  1793. 

Marat,  endeavoured  to  renew  at  Lyons  the  proscription  of 

the  Commune  of  Paris  ;  a  conflict  took  place  ;  the  municipality  was  taken 


Success  of  the 
Allies. 


246  CONSTITUTION    OE    THE    TEAK    II.        [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  II. 

by  assault  by  the  sections,  and  Chalier  was  beheaded.  Lyons,  however, 
still  acknowledged  the  authority  of  the  Convention,  till  the  2nd  June, 
when  it  declared  itself  against  it,  and  twenty  thousand  men  took  up  arms 
within  its  walls.  Marseilles  rose  at  the  same  time  ;  Toulon,  Nimes,  and 
Montauban  followed  this  example,  and  in  all  those  cities  the  Eoyalists 
headed  the  movement.  They  summoned  the  English  to  Toulon  to 
their  aid,  and  Admiral  Hood  entered  that  place  to  proclaim  the  young 
Dauphin,  son  of  Louis  XVI.,  King,  by  the  name  of  Louis  XVII. 
Bordeaux,  equally  in  a  state  of  revolt,  declared  in  favour  of  the 
deputies  proscribed  on  the  2nd  June.  The  insurrection  extended  to 
the  West;  the  Vendeans  became  masters  of  Bressuire,  Argenton, 
and  Thouars  ;  forty  thousand  men  under  Cathelineaur 
revolt  in  La  Lescure,  Stomet,  and  La  Rochejaquelin,  took  Saumur  and 

Vendee. 

Angers,  and  threw  themselves  upon  Nantes.  The  position 
of  the  Republic  was  no  more  happy  abroad.  There  was  a  complete 
want  of  harmony  between  the  generals,  who  were  for  the  most  part 
Girondists,  and  the  Mountain  which  was  victorious  in  the 
Convention.  It  was  in  vain  that  Custine  was  appointed  to 
the  command  of  the  army  of  the  North  ;  Mayence  capitulated  after  a 
splendid  resistance,  which  obtained  for  its  defenders  the  title  of  the 
Mayencais ;  the  enemy  took  Valenciennes  and  Conde  ;  the 
French  army  frontier  was  entered,  and  the  French  army,  greatly  dis- 
couraged, retired  behind  the  Scarpe,  the  last  defensive 
position  between  the  enemy  and  Paris. 

The  Convention  resolved  boldly  to  face  all  these  perils  which  it  had 
itself  excited.     It  voted  within  the  space  of  a  few  hours  the 

Constitution  of  iti  r  ••  -i-i-iti  /*■ 

the  Year  II.,         establishment  ot  a   constitution  which  placed  the  power  01 

1793 

the  State  in  the  hands  of  the  multitude,  but  which,  as  its 
impracticability  was  evident  even  to  its  own  concoctors,  in  a  time  of 
general  war  was  suspended  till  the  resumption  of  peace.  It  renewed  at 
the  same  time  a  formidable  committee,  of  recent  creation,  the  aim  of 
whose  members  was  power,  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  moment.  This 
committee,  exclusively  composed,  since  the  2nd  June,  of  the  most  vio- 
lent members  of  the  Mountain,  is  famous  in  history  by  the  name  of  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety.  Its  principal  members  were  Robespierre, 
Saint-Just,  Couthon,  Collot-d'Herbois,  Billaud-Varennes,  Carnot, 
Cambon,  and  Barrere.     The  latter   was  the  official  mouthpiece  of  the 


1793-1794.]    laws  or  maximum  and  or  the  suspected.  247 

committee ;  Cambon  watched  over  the  finances,  and  Carnot  was  Minister 
for  "War. 

The  excitement  of  the  people  was  now  extreme.  The  deputies  of  the 
municipalities  demanded  at  the  bar  of  the  Convention  the  arrest  of  al 
suspected  persons,  and  a  levy-en-masse  of  the  whole  nation.  "  Let  us 
grant  what  they  desire !"  exclaimed  Danton  ;  "  it  is  by  the  cannon's  roar 
that  we  must  proclaim  our  constitution  to  our  enemies.  This,  this  is 
the  moment  when  we  should  swear  to  devote  the  last  drop  of  our 
blood  to  the  annihilation  of  tyrants!"  The  oath  was  taken,  and  Barrere 
then,  in  the  name  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  proposed  urgent 
measures  which  were  to  be  carried  into  execution  by  the  most  odious 
methods.  All  the  young  men  of  from  eighteen  to  twenty  years  of  age 
were  summoned  to  join  the  army,  and  France  speedily  had  at  her  com- 
mand fourteen  armies  and  twelve  hundred  thousand  soldiers.  But  terror 
was  employed  to  obtain  means  for  their  support.  Violent  and  incessant 
requisitions  were  made  upon  the  middle  classes ;  and  two  The  odious  law3 
abominable  laws  were  passed,  the  law  of  the  maximum,  jSjSJj^ and 
which  compelled,  on  pain  of  death,  all  proprietors  and  mer-  Persons* 
chants  to  furnish  at  a  certain  price  all  the  provisions  which  the  Government 
might  require,  and  the  law  of  suspected  persons,  which  authorized  the 
preliminary  and  unlimited  imprisonment  of  every  person  suspected  of 
conspiracy  against  the  Eevolution.  France,  transformed  into  a  camp  for 
one  portion  of  its  population,  became  a  prison  for  another.  The  men  of 
commercial  pursuits  and  the  bourgeoisie  furnished  the  prisoners,  and 
were  placed,  as  well  as  the  authorities,  under  the  surveil- 

Revolutionary 

lance  of  the  mob,  as  represented  by  the   Club,  which  the    organization  of 

the  country. 

Convention  desired  at  any  price  to  attach  to  itself.      Every 
poor  person  received  forty  sous  a  day  to  be  present  at  the  Assemblies  of 
his  section ;   certificates  of  citizenship  were  given  out,  and  each  section 
had  its  Revolutionary  committee. 

By  these  violent  methods  the  Convention  obtained  temporary  resources 
sufficient  to  enable  it  to  triumph  over  its  enemies.     The    MiiitarySucceg3 
army  under  Calvados  was  put  to  flight   at  Vernon,  and  a   tfo^ioth^611" 
solemn  retractation  was  made  by  the  insurgents  at  Caen.    in  enor" 
Bordeaux  submitted ;  and  Toulon  and  Lyons,  after  a  desperate  struggle, 
fell  in  succession  before  the  Republican  arms.     La  Vendee    War  .q  Vend(5(? 
alone,  long  continued,   in  the  name  of  the  altar   and   the    1793' 


248  DEFEATS    OF    THE    VENDEANS.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  II. 

throne,  an  heroic  and  terrible  contest.  Repulsed  in  an  attack  on  Nantes, 
in  which  they  lost  the  intrepid  Cathelineau,  the  Vendeans  fell  back 
behind  the  Loire,  and  vanquished  in  succession  the  Republican  Generals 
Biron,  Rossignol,  and  Canclaux.  At  length,  seventeen  thousand  men 
of  the  old  garrison  of  Mayence,  reputed  the  best  troops  in  France,  were 
sent  into  Vendee,  commanded  by  Kleber,  under  the  nominal  command 
of  the  incapable  Lechelle,  who  had  been  made  generalissimo  of  the 
Republican  armies.  The  Royalists  vanquished  Kleber  and  the  Mayencais 
in  one  battle,  but  suffered  four  consecutive  defeats  at  Chatillon  and 
Chollet,  in  which  their  leaders  Lescure,  Bonchamps,  and  Elbee  received 
mortal  wounds.  Surrounded  on  every  side  in  La  Vendee,  the  insurgents 
now  demanded  aid  of  England,  which,  before  acceding  to  their  request, 
„.  made    it  a  condition    that  they   should    first    seize   some 

Disastrous  en-  -  •> 

Vendeans fthe  sea "  Port-  Eighty  thousand  Vendeans  marched  from 
against  Granville.  their  devastated  country  upon  Granville;  but  they  were 
repulsed  from  before  this  place  from  the  want  of  artillery,  were  routed 
at  Mans,  and  destroyed  as  they  attempted  to  cross  the 
Mans  and  Save-     Loire  at  Savenay.  Charette  continued  the  war,  but  lost  the 

nay,  1793. 

island  of  Noirmoutiers.  The  Achilles  of  La  Vendee,  the 
heroic  Henri  De  la  Rochejacquelin,  was  killed  by  a  soldier  whom  he  had 
spared.  His  death  had  the  result  of  rendering  the  Republicans  masters  of  the 
country,  and  the  latter  immediately  commenced  there  a  frightful  system 
of  extermination.  La  Vendee  vanquished,  was  surrounded  by  General 
Thureau  by  sixteen  entrenched  camps,  and  twelve  flying  columns, 
known  by  the  name  of  the  infernal  columns,  traversed  this  unfortunate 
land,  carrying  everywhere  death  and  fire. 

The  Republic    was   at  the  same  time  victorious    on   the   frontiers. 

That  of  the  North  was  the  most  seriously  threatened.     The 

Oampaign  of  J 

1793,  Duke  of  York  besieged  Dunkirk  with  thirty-three  thousand 

men  ;  Freytag  covered  the  siege  with  another  army  posted  on  the  Yser  ; 
the  Prince  of  Orange  commanded  fifteen  thousand  Dutch  at  Menin;  and 
a  hundred  thousand  soldiers  of  the  allied  armies,  extending  from  Quesnoy 
to  the   Moselle,  besieged   the  strong  places  which  defended  the  passes. 

To  prevent  the  invasion  of  France,  it  was  necessary  to  cut 
th^lraay  of  the   this  formidable  line  and  to  raise  the   siege  of  Dunkirk. 

Houchard,  in  command  of  the  army  of  the  North,  suddenly 


1793-1794.]  SIEGE    OF    DUNKIBK   EAISED.  249 

marched  from  this  place  with  very  inferior  forces,  and  after  a  sanguinary 
attack  on  Menin,  advanced  in  the  first  place  against  the  corps  of  observation 
under  Freytag.  At  the  first  encounter  Freytag  gave  way,  and  his  centre 
repassed  the  Yser ;  after  which  he  returned  to  the  charge  for  the  purpose 
of  disengaging  his  right  wing.  A  second  and  desperate  conflict  took 
place,  and  the  enemy  retired  in  a  body  upon  the  Furnes  road,  where 
were  the  head  quarters  of  the  Duke  of  York,  and  halted  at  the  village 
of  Hondschoote,   where  he  occupied  a  formidable  position. 

"Victory  of 

Houchard  followed  him,  and  on  the  following  day  an  attack    Houchard  at 

Hondschoote. 

took   place    along  the    whole  line.     Some    dense    thickets 

which  covered  the  enemy  became  the  central  point  of  the  action,  and  at 

length,    the  enemy's  positions  being  taken,  Freytag  fell  back  in  disorder 

upon  Furnes.       The    raising  of  the  siege  of  Dunkirk  was 

one  01  the  fruits  of  this  victory,  the  news  of  which  was    Dunkirk  raised, 

J  September,  1793. 

received  with  enthusiasm. 

In  the  meantime  the  allies  had  fallen  back  upon  their  line  of  opera- 
tions, and  were  posted  in  imposing  masses  on  the  Scheldt  and  the  Meuse. 
Valenciennes,  Conde,  and  Le  Quesnoy  having  fallen  into  their  power, 
gave  them  an  important  position  on  the  Scheldt ;  and  they  desired  to 
obtain  one  also  on  the  Sambre,  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  them  to 
advance  with  safety.  The  capture  of  Maubeuge  would  render  them 
masters  not  only  of  the  basin  of  the  Sambre,  but  also  of  all  the  space 
between  that  river  and  the  Meuse ;  and  they  accordingly  invested  that 
place.  The  Prince  of  Coburg,  Commander-in-Chief,  divided  his  army 
into  two  corps ;  the  one,  consisting  of  thirty-five  thousand  men,  sur- 
rounded Maubeuge,  whilst  with  the  other  corps,  of  almost 

i  i  t  .  Maubeuge  in- 

equal    strength,    Coburg  covered  the    siege  by  occupying   vested  by  the 

.  Till         Austrians. 

the  positions  of  Dourlens  and  Wattignies.     Houchard,  the 

victor  at  Hondschoote,  had  been  superseded  in  command  of  the  army 

of  the  North  by  Jourdan  ;  and  Carnot,  in  concert  with  that 

general,  directed  the  operations.     An  attack  on  Wattignies   Jourdan  at 

Wattigniea. 

was   resolved    on,     and    after   a    vigorous   resistance   that 

village    was    carried.       This    success    led   to    the    raising  of  the  siege 

of  Maubeuge,   concentrated  the  allied  army  between  the 

Scheldt  and  the  Sambre,  and   enabled  Jourdan  to  resume    Maubeuge  raised, 

October,  1793. 

the  offensive.     Kellermann  at  the  same  time  drove  the  Pied- 


250  THE  REIGN  OE  TEEEOE.     [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  II. 

montese  beyond  the  Alps.     France  lost  on  the  Pyrenees  the  lines  of 
the  Tech,  and  its  army  was  forced  to  fall  back  in  front  of 

j?rs*iGG  Iosps  flip 

lines  of  the  Tech    Perpignan.     The  lines  of  Weissemburg  were  also  forced 

in  the  south,  and 

of  Weissemburg    by  the  Prussians,  in  conjunction  with  the  Austrians  under 

in  the  east. 

Brunswick  and  Wurmser.     But  the  young  and  intrepid 

Hoche,  at  the  head  of  the  army  of  the  Moselle,  arrived  by  a  skilful 

march  on  Wurmser's  flank,  and  having  driven  him  back, 

Junction  of  the  .     .  .  •'■*,-,  r»-i-i-*i-  -^ 

armies  of  the        effected  his  junction  with  the  army  of  the  Rhine.     Bruns- 

Rhine  and  Mo- 
selle. Retreat  of   wick  followed  Wurmser's  retrograde  movement ;  and  from 
the  allies,  1793.  ° 

thenceforth  the  two  French  armies,  combined,  advanced 
and  encamped  in  the  Palatinate.  France,  in  its  struggle  with  Europe, 
recovered  all  that  it  had  lost,  with  the  exception  of  Conde,  Valenciennes,, 
and  a  few  strong  places  in  Jloussillon.  The  allied  princes  obtained 
nothing,  and  reciprocally  accused  each  other  of  being  the  cause  of  their 
mutual  defeats. 

The  glory  of  France  at  this  time  consisted  entirely  in  its  armies ; 
which  seemed  to  rival  each   other  in  their  efforts  to  efface  the  oppro- 
brium with  which  an  atrocious  government  had  branded  the  Republic 
in  the  eyes  of  Europe.     The  Committee  of  Public  Safety 

The  Committee        /.,,....,  „  t  „  T      .  „ 

of  Public  Safety,    followed  its  pitiless  career  of  murder.     "It  is  necessary, 

March,  1793.  .  ,  . 

said  the  execrable  Saint-Just,  when  procuring  a  decree  for 
the  continuance  of  the  decemviral  power  until  the  conclusion  of  peace — 
"it  is  necessary  that  the  sword  of  the  law  should  fall  in  every  direction 
as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  that  the  weight  of  your  arm  should  be  every- 
where felt."  And  thus  was  created  that  terrible  power  which  ended  by 
destroying  itself.  The  executive  authority  was  concentrated  in  the  hands 
of  this  committee,  which  held  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  every  one  in  its 
power ;  and  which  was  supported  by  the  populace,  whom  it  bribed  by 
means  of  the  maximum,  and  who  governed  its  action  by  means  of  the 

Revolutionary  committees.  After  each  victory  obtained 
ror,  1793-1794.  over  ^s  enemies  within  by  the  Republic,  it  ordered 
frightful  executions  or  horrible  massacres.    Barrere  announced  a  frightful 

anathema  against  the  city  of  Lyons,  the  very  name  of  which 
geanceofthe        he  declared  should  be  annihilated,  and  replaced  by  that  of 

the  Commune  Affranchie.  Collot  d'Herbois,  Fouche",  and 
Couthon  were  the  barbarous  executors  of  the  decrees  of  the  committee 
against  this  unfortunate   city.     The  scaffold  was  too  slow  an  instrument 


1793—1794.]  THE    REPUBLICAN    CALENDAR.  251 

for  their  vengeance,  and  the  vanquished  insurgents  were  mowed  down  by 
musquetry  in  the  public  places. 

Toulon,  Caen,  Marseilles,  and  Bordeaux  became  the  theatre  of  horrible 
scenes.    At  Paris  the  most  illustrious  men  and  the  leaders  of  all  parties  were 
dragged  to  the  scaffold ;  the  Queen,  the  noble  Marie- Antoi- 
nette, and  Bailly,  perished  thus  within  a  few  days  of  each   Queen  Marie- 

,,.,,.  it     ,  ,         Antoinette, 

other ;    and  abominable  circumstances  were  added  to  the   loth  October, 

1793. 

horror  of  their  condemnation  and  punishment.     The  Giron- 
dists who  were  proscribed  on  the  2nd  June  soon  followed  them,  and  walked 
to  their  death  with  the  most  stoical  courage.     The  Duke  of  p^g^^t  0f 
Orleans  was  not  spared ;  Barnave  and  Duport-Dutertre  were   the  Girondists- 
immolated,  and  with  them  the  Generals  Houchard,  Custine,  Biron,  Beau- 
harnais,  and  many  others.     Petion  and  Buzot  destroyed  themselves,  and 
their  dead  bodies  were  found  half  eaten  by  wolves.      Madame  Roland 
died  on  the  scaffold,  and  when  her  husband  heard  of  it  he  killed  himself 
on  the  highway.     All  the  fugitive  Girondists  were  put  beyond  the  pale 
of  the  law.     Two  hundred  thousand  suspected  persons  were  imprisoned ; 
blood  flowed  in  all  the  cities ;  country  mansions,  convents,  and  churches 
were  destroyed  ;  monuments  of  art  were  broken  in  pieces ;  there  were  no 
hands  left  to  cultivate  the  earth,  and  famine  was  added  to  the  scourges 
which  desolated  France.     The  public  credit  was  annihilated ;  and  the 
expenses  of  the  Government  were  supplied  by  the  sale  of  the  property  of 
the  proscribed  persons,  and  by  despotic  measures  which  were  enforced  by 
threats.     It  was  desired  to  consecrate,  by  the  establishment  of  a  new  era, 
a  revolution  unexampled  in  history,  and  the  divisions  of  the  year,  the 
names  of  the  months  and  days,  were  changed,  and  the  Christian  calendar 
was  replaced  by  a  Republican  calendar.      The  new  era  was   The  Re  ublican 
dated  from  the  22nd  September,  1792,  the  period  at  which    calendar- 
the  Republic  was  founded.     According  to  this  new  arrangement  the  year 
was  divided   into  twelve    months    of   thirty  days    each — Vendemiaire, 
brumaire,  and  frimaire,  for  the  autumn;    nivose,  pluviose,  ventose,  for 
the   winter ;    germinal,    floreal,    prairial,    for   the   spring  ;    and   finally, 
messidor,  thermidor,  and  fructidor,  for  the  summer.     The  five  supple- 
mentary days  of  the  year  received  the  odious  name  of  the  Sans-culottides. 
But  this  was  not  enough  for   the  Commune  of  Paris,  then  under  the 
direction  of  the  infamous  Chaumette,  of  his  still  more  infamous  substi- 
tute Hebert,  of  Ronsin,  a  general  of  the  Revolutionary  army,  and  of  the 


252 


FALL    OF    THE    COMMUNE.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  II. 


atheist,  Anacharsis  Clootz.    It  demanded  that  the  Constitutional  bishop  of 

Paris  and  his  vicar-general  should  abjure  Christianity  at  the  bar  of  the 

Convention,  decreed  the  worship  of  Eeason,  and  established  fetes  which 

.]     :     became  scandalous  scenes  of   debauchery  and  atheism.     It 

The  worship  of  •> 

Eeason.   im-        was  only  when  its  career  of  crime  and  folly  had  reached  its 

pious  festivals.  J  J 

height  that  the  Eevolutionary  movement  of  the  Commune 
received  a  check.  When  its  madness  had  reached  a  certain  point  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  declared  itself  against  it,  and  Robespierre  was 
prohibited  by  the  Convention  from  taking  any  measures  against  freedom 
of  worship. 

Danton  and  his  friends,  Camille  Desmoulins,  Philippeaux,  Lacroix, 
Fabre  d'Eglantine,  and  Westermann  demanded  much  more.  They 
wished  to  establish  a  legal  system  of  order,  and  for  the  better  accom- 
plishment of  this  purpose  desired  to  suspend  the  functions  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary tribunal,  to  empty  the  prisons  of  the  suspected  persons,  and  to 
dissolve  the  committees.  Camille  Desmoulins  published,  with  a  view  to 
this  end,  a  journal  which  bore  the  name  of  the  Old  Cordelier,  devoted 
to  denunciations  of  the  despotism  of  the  dictators.  Robespierre  was  the 
most  formidable  amongst  them,  and  Camille  and  his  friends  endeavoured 
to  gain  him  over  to  their  views ;  but  Robespierre  played  with  them,  and 
whilst  affecting  to  be  neutral  towards  the  various  antagonistic  parties, 
really  plotted  the  destruction  of  their  chiefs  one  after  the  other.  His 
colleagues  in  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  were  furious  against 
Camille  and  the  Dantonists.  He  delivered  the  latter  into  their  power, 
and  obtained  in  return  the  heads  of  Hebert,  Clootz,  Chaumette,  Ronsin, 
and  the  principal  anarchists  of  the  Commune.  When  this  compact  had 
been  concluded,  he  ascended  the  tribune  and  denounced  to  the  Conven- 
tion as  enemies  of  the  Republic,  in  the  first  place  the  ultra-Revolutionists, 
and  in  the  second  the  Dantonists,  whom  he  called  the  Moderates.  Saint- 
Just  supported  him,  thundering  against  those  whom  he  styled  the 
enemies  of  virtue  and  terror,  and  demanding  that  the  Government  should 
be  endowed  with  the  most  extensive  powers  for  the  purpose  of  punishing 
them.  The  anarchists  of  the  Commune,  Hebert,  Clootz,  Ronsin,  and 
their  accomplices,  were  the  first  of  all  seized  and  con- 
mune,  March  24,    demned ;  and  most  of  them   died  as  cowards  (24th  March, 

1794. 

1794.)     The  Revolutionary  army  was  dissolved  ;  and  the 


1793-1794.  ATEOCITIES   IN   THE    PEOYISTCES.  253 

Convention  compelled  the  Commune  to  appear  at  its  bar  to  thank  it  for 
the  very  acts  which  destroyed  its  power. 

The  turn  of  Danton  and  his  friends  had  now  come.     As  famous  repre- 
sentatives of  the  old  Mountain,  their  names,  and  especially  that  of  the 
leader,    appeared     to    be    all-powerful.      Informed    of    the    projected 
attacks  of  his  enemies,  Danton  replied,  as  the  Duke  of  Guise  had  for- 
merly done,   "  They  will  not  dare!"     But  the  Committee  reckoned  with 
good  reason  on  the  fears  of  the  Assembly.     The  Dantonists  were  arrested 
on   the    10th  Germinal,  and   Robespierre   prevented   their   Arrest  of  the 
being  heard  in  the  Assembly.     "We  shall  see  to-day,"  he      an  oms  s' 
said,  "  whether  the  Convention  will  know  how  to  break  a  pretended  idol 
which  has  too  long  been  in  a  state  of  decay,  or  whether  this  idol  will 
crush  the  Convention  and  the  people  in  its  fall."     Saint-Just  read  the 
accusation  against  the  accused,  and  the  Assembly,  a  prey  to  a  stupor  of 
fear,  decreed  their  trial.     On  being  brought  before  the  Revolutionary 
tribunal,    they    distinguished     themselves   by    their    openly    expressed 
contempt  for  their   judges.     When  they  had  been   condemned,  Danton 
exclaimed,     "  They   immolate    us   to  the    ambition    of  a   few  villanous 
brigands,  but  they  will   not   long    enjoy  their   success.     ...     I    drag 

Robespierre  along  with  me.   .  .  .    Robespierre  follows  me "    They 

walked  boldly  to  their  punishment  through  the  midst  of  a    Their  execution 
silent  crowd.     From  that  time  no  voice  was  raised  for  some     pr    ■'     . 
time  against  the  Decemvirs,  and  the  Convention  decreed  that  "Terror 
and  all  the  virtues  were  the  order  of  the  day." 

During  four  months  the  power  of  the  two  formidable  Committees,  that 
of  the  Public  Safety,  and  that  of  the  General  Security,  continued  to  be 
unlimited,  and  death  became  the  only  instrument  of  Government.  The 
agents  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  were  substituted  for  those  of 
the  Mountain  in  the  departments ;  and  it  was  then  that  the  proconsuls 
Carrier,  in  the  city  of  Nantes,  Joseph  Lebon,  in  that  of  Arras,  and 
Maignet,  at  Orange,  distinguished  themselves  by  their 
atrocities.  At  Orleans,  the  principal  inhabitants  were  slain ;  frenzy  of  the 
at  Verdun,  seventeen  young  girls,  accused  of  having  danced    Committee  of 

t       «  •        '  •  i"i  i  «•  Public  Safety  in 

at  a  ball  given  by  the  Prussians,  perished  on  the  scaffold  on   the  departments, 

the  same  day ;  at  Paris,  amongst  the  most  illustrious  victims 

of  this  period  may  be  mentioned  the  octogenarian  Marshals  Noailles  and 


254  TRIUMPH   OF    BOBESPIEBRE.         [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  II. 

Maill6,  the  ministers  Machault  and  Laverdi,  the  learned  Lavoisier,  the 
venerable  Lamoignon  de  Malesherbes,  three  members  of  the  Constituent 
Assembly,  D'Epremesnil,  Thouret,  and  Chapelier  ;  and  finally,  the 
angelic  Princess  Elizabeth,  whose  blood  was  demanded  by  Billaud- 
Varennes.  "  It  is  only  the  dead  who  never  come  back,"  said  Barrere. 
"  The  more  the  social  body  perspires,"  added  Collot-d'Herbois,  "  the 
better  is  its  health."  It  was  by  means  of  this  system  that  the  infernal 
Robespierre  and  the  fanatic  Saint-Just  declared  that  they  desired  to 
establish  the  reign  of  virtue.  They  associated  with  themselves  the 
paralytic  and  pitiless  Couthon,  and  formed  together,  even  within  the 
committee  itself,  a  formidable  triumvirate,  which,  by  isolating,  destroyed 
itself.  But  before  they  became  disunited,  the  Decemvirs  endeavoured 
to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  new  code  of  morals  and  new  institu- 
tions. Eobespierre,  whilst  reigning  by  means  of  murder,  neverthe- 
less perceived  that  it  was  necessary  to  the  existence  of  society  that  it 
should  have  a  religious  basis ;  and  he  consequently  caused  the  Con- 
vention to  decree,  that  the  French  people  acknowledged  the  existence  of 
a  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  He  then  had  fetes  dedicated  to 
the  Supreme  Being,  to  truth,  justice,  virtue,  friendship,  frugality,  good 
faith,  and  misery.  Regarded  by  his  fanatical  admirers  as  the  chief 
founder  of  a  moral  democracy  and  as  the  new  pontiff  of  the  Eternal,  he 
now  attained  the  height  of  his  power. 

The  20th  Prairial,  the  day  consecrated  to  the  f£te  of  the  Supreme 
Being,  was  the  culminating  point  of  Robespierre's  triumph. 

The  fete  of 

the  Supreme        As  president  of  the  Convention  he  walked  at  its  head  alone, 

Being,  the  20th  . 

Prairial  (June       and  twenty  paces  in  advance  of  the  other  members.     He 

8th,  1794.)  . 

was  the  object  of  general  attention,  his  countenance  was 
radiant  with  pride  and  delight;  he  bore  flowers  and  ears  of  corn  in 
his  hands,  and  advanced  to  the  altar,  from  whence  he  addressed  the 
people  in  the  character  of  their  high-priest.  It  was  hoped  that  from 
thenceforth  the  Government  would  be  of  a  gentle  character,  but  he 
concluded  his  address  with  these  words  :  "  People,  let  us  surrender 
ourselves  to-day  to  the  transports  of  an  unmixed  joy ;  to-morrow  we 
will  renew  our  conflict  with  vices  and  tyrants."  On  the  following  day, 
the  21st  Prairial,  the  executions  were  recommenced,  and  Robespierre 
caused  Couthon  to  propose  an  execrable  law,  the  sanguinary  purport  of 


1793-1^94]  THE  WAE  IN  ELAffDERS.  255 

which  might  be  applied  at  pleasure  to  every  French  subject.  Accord- 
ing to  this  law,  accused  persons  were  to  be  refused  the  advice  of 
counsel,  and  to  be  tried  in  batches,  while  the  juries  were  to  be 
bound  by  no  other  rule  than  that  of  their  own  consciences.  It  was 
adopted;  and  now  Fouquier-Tinville,  the  public  accuser,  and  the 
judges,  his  accomplices,  members  of  the  Revolutionary  tribunal, 
scarcely  sufficed  for  the  condemnation  of  those  who  were  proscribed. 
In  Paris  alone  fifty  victims  a  day  were  dragged  off  to  punishment. 
The  scaffold  was  transferred  to  the  Faubourg  Saint- Antoine,  and  an 
aqueduct  was  constructed  to  receive  and  carry  off  the  blood  that  was 
shed  on  it. 

The  immortal  campaign  of  1794  was  commenced  under  this  execrable 
Government;  and  the  northern  frontier  was  still,  in  this   „, 

'  The  campaign 

year,  the  chief  theatre  of  the  war.     The  principal  positions   ofl794- 
occupied  by  the  French  were  Lille,  Guise,  and  Maubeuge ;  and  they 
were  under  the  command  of  Pichegru,  Jourdan  having  left   Q .      .      ^ 
the  command  in  chief  of  the  army  of  the  North  for  that  of  Flanders- 
the  army  of  the  Moselle.     The  Prince  of  Coburg,  the   Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  allied  armies,  commenced  operations  by  the   Th  bl  ck, 
blockade  of  Landrecies  with  an  army  of  about  a  hundred   Landrecies- 
thousand  men.     The   English,  under   the   Duke  of  York,    covered   the 
l)lockade  on  the  side  of  Cambrai,  and  Coburg  himself,  with  a  numerous 
corps,  posted  himself  on  the  side  of  Guise,  whilst  the  Austrian  general, 
Clairfait,  extended  his  forces  in  front  of  Menin  and  Courtray.     Such  were 
the  positions  of  the  two  armies  when  the  invasion  of  Flanders  by  the 
left  wing  of  the  French  army  was  resolved  on.     General 
Souham  and  Moreau  marched  rapidly  from  Lille  towards    Souham  and 

Moreau  at 

the  enemy's  right,  and  obtained  at  Mouscron  a  first  victory  Mouscron  and 
over  Clairfait.  Jourdan  then  received  orders  to  detach 
forty-five  thousand  men  from  the  army  of  the  Moselle,  and  to  advance 
by  forced  marches  on  the  Sambre  and  the  Meuse,  for  the  purpose 
of  crushing  the  allied  left.  The  adoption  of  this  plan  secured  the 
success  of  the  campaign.  The  allies  in  vain  endeavoured  to  cut  the 
French  forces  in  twain  by  a  bold  march  upon  Turcoing,  which  lies 
between  Lille  and  Courtray,  General  Souham  obtaining  a  complete 
victory   over   the   Duke  of    York    at    Turcoing.      The    enemy,    how- 


256  BATTLE    OF    FLEUBT7S.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  II. 

ever,  rallied  before  Tournay,  and  held  our  victorious  army  in  check, 
T     ..      „  whereupon  Landrecies  fell.     Jourdan  now  came  up  with 

Junction  of  a  r  * 

arav9?f  th?e       ^e  army  °f  tne  Moselle  and  effected  a  junction  with  the 
SyUoefTheh  the   army    of   tne    North-     The    victory    of    Turcoing   was    a 
presage    of    others,    and    our    two    wings   threatened    to 
envelope  the    enemy.       Pichegru    advanced    upon    the  Austrian    left, 
and     besieged     Ypres,     with     the     design     of     inducing 
triumphant  at        Clairfait    to   advance    to    its     succour ;     the     plan    suc- 
ceeded,    and     he    vanquished    the     latter     at    Hooglede, 
whilst   Jourdan    invested    Charleroi    and    occupied   the   banks   of  the 
Sambre. 

The  Prince  of  Orange  and  Coburg  marched  successively  to  the  relief 
of  this  important  place.  Jourdan,  after  having  been  frequently  repulsed, 
again  crossed  the  river,  and  seized  the  heights  bordering  the  plains  of 
Fleurus,  which  had  already  become  associated  with  the 
SUof  Jourdan  S^0YJ  °^  tne  French  arms  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  In 
16th  June,  1794.  ^-g  p0Siti0n  a  battle  took  place  between  the  opposed  forces 
on  the  16th  June,  1794.  The  two  armies  were  almost  equal,  and  eighty 
thousand  men  on  either  side  took  part  in  the  action.  Charleroi  fell  into  the 
power  of  the  French,  and  the  enemy,  ignorant  of  this  reverse,  threw  the 
combined  forces  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  and  Coburg  upon  those  of 
Jourdan,  with  the  object  of  delivering  it.  Kleber,  Championnet,  Le- 
febvre,  and  Marceau  commanded  our  divisions.  Kleber,  by  a  vigorous 
charge,  repulsed  the  allies'  right,  and  Jourdan  drove  back  their  centre 
and  left.  The  enemy,  already  broken,  having  discovered  at  length  that 
Charleroi,  which  it  was  endeavouring  to  save,  had  fallen,  hesitated,  and 
then  gave  way,  and  the  victory  was  won.  Coburg  ordered  a  retreat, 
and  determined  to  concentrate  all  his  forces  in  the  direction  of  Brussels 
for  the  purpose  of  covering  that  capital,  but  Pichegru  ad- 
invasjon  o^Bel-  vanced  more  quickly  than  he,  and  Brussels  was  speedily 
jourdan  occupied  by  the  army  of  the  North  under  himself,  and  the 

en^myf  of  *  e      army  under  Jourdan,  which  received  the  name  of  the  army 
of  the  Sambre  and   Meuse.       The   enemy,   dispersed,  fell 
back  towards  the  Meuse  and  the  Rhine ;  and  France  not  only  recovered 
all  the  places  she  had  lost,  but  made  new  conquests. 

Our  armies  in  Belgium  had  never  been  more  numerous  or  formidable. 
Pichegru  had   seventy  thousand  men  under  his  command,  and  Jourdj 


1793-1794.]  FBENCH    VICTORIES    ON   THE    RHINE.  257 

a  hundred  and  sixteen  thousand.  The  administration,  exhausted  by  such 
efforts,  could  neither  properly  support  the  troops,  nor  supply  them  with 
sufficient  equipments ;  but  the  soldiers  managed  to  dispense  with  what 
are  generally  considered  the  greatest  necessaries.  They  no  longer  en- 
camped in  tents,  but  bivouacked  beneath  the  branches  of  trees.  The 
officers,  left  without  pay,  lived  as  did  the  private  soldiers,  ate  the  same 
kind  of  bread,  and  marched  on  foot  as  they  did,  with  their  knapsacks  on 
their  backs.  The  enthusiasm  of  victory  was  the  support  of  these 
immortal  armies. 

Pichegru  continued  his  march  towards  the  mouth  of  the  Scheldt  and  the 
Meuse,  driving  back  the  English  towards  the  sea,  whilst  Jourdan  occu- 
pied the  Meuse  between  Liege  and  Maastricht,  in  front  of  Clairfait  and 
the  Austrians.  To  enable  Jourdan  to  reach  the  bank  of  the  Rhine,  it 
was  necessary  that  he  should  cross  the  Meuse,  and  before  he  could  do 
this  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  force  the  enemy's  lines  on  the  Ourthe 
and  the  Roer,  tributaries  of  the  Meuse.  He  fought  two 
battles  in  succession  on  these  two  streams,  and  was  victo-    J10*0™58  of 

'  Jourdan  on  the 

rious  in  each,  pursued  Clairfait  as  far  as  the  Rhine,  took    Ro6rh Conquest 
Cologne,  and  besieged  Maastricht.     The  army  of  the  North    ^Rhin^  °f 
thus  obtained  possession  of  the  line  of  that  river,  and  Bois-le- 
Duc  and  Venloo  fell  before  it.     The  Duke  of  York,  unskilful  and  unsuc- 
cessful in  all  his  tactics,  evacuated  the  district  between  the  Meuse  and  the 
Wahal,  one  of  the  branches  of  the   Rhine,  and  fell  back  towards  Nime- 
guen  on  the  Wahal,   where  Pichegru   speedily  arrived  to 
engage  him.     On  the  8th  November,  this  place  fell  into  the   1EIauuaiion^ 

°   °  ■•-  left  bank  of  the 

hands  of  the  French  ;   and  with  this  last  and  brilliant  sue-    fjukeo?Yo?k 
cess  terminated  this  glorious  campaign  in  the  north.     The   Sre^Nkneguen 
army  went  into   cantonments,   and  the  overflowing   of  the 
waters  at  the  approach  of  winter  compelled  the  suspension  of  the  invasion 
of  Holland  till  the  spring. 

The  effect  of  these  successes  was  felt  by  the  armies  of  the  Moselle  and 
the  Upper  Rhine,   commanded  by  General  Michaud.     The 
Prussians,  whom   they  faced,  being  no  longer  supported  by    ^ec|ss  of .JMK- 
the  Austrians  on  the  north,  did  not  venture  to   make  head    east'- of  -0  *" 

7  gomier  and 

against  these  armies  in  the  Vosges,  and  recrossed  the  Rhine  ;    2oSt£fy  m  the 
where  there  only  remained  in  the  possession  of  the  allies  on 
the  left  bank  of  that  river,  Luxemburg  and  Mayence,  the  blockade  of 
VOL.  it.  s 


258  REACTION    AGAINST    ROBESPIERRE.       [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  II. 

which  was  immediately  ordered  by  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety.  The 
French  arms  triumphed  simultaneously  in  the  north,  the  east,  and  the 
south.  Dugommier  and  Moncey  promptly  repaired  the  first  reverses  on  the 
frontiers  of  Spain,  and  having  driven  the  Spaniards  out  of  France,  invaded 
the  peninsula,  where  Moncey  took  Saint  Sebastian  and  Fontarabia. 

Such  was  the  prosperous  state  of  France  abroad,  when,  weary  and  dis- 
gusted at  the  atrocities  which   disgraced  the  country  at  home,    a  certain 
number  of  members  of  the  Mountain  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  them,  and 
to  avenge    Danton,   Camille  Desmoulins,   and  their  other 
against  murdered  friends.        At  the  head  of  this  party  were  the 

Robespierre. 

Conventionalists  Tallien,  Bourdon  de  l'Oise,  and  Legendre  ; 
and  they  were  supported,  in  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  by  Billaud- 
Varennes,  and  Collot-d'Herbois,  who  were  both  jealous  of  the  power  of 
the  triumvirate,  and  in  that  of  the  General  Security  by  Vadier,  Voulant, 
and  Amar,  who  belonged  to  the  overthrown  faction  of  the  Commune. 
Eobespierre,  irritated  at  their  sullen  resistance  to  his  views,  was  resolved 
to  crush  and  destroy  them,  and  they  perceived  that  they  must  either  anti- 
cipate his  designs  or  be  his  victims.  They  first  accused  him  of  tyranny 
in  the  committees,  and  spoke  of  him  under  the  name  of  Pisistratus  ;  they 
then  reproached  him  with  intending  to  make  himself  pass  as  an  apostle  sent 
by  God  by  favouring  the  meetings  held  by  the  old  Chartreuse  dom  Guerle 
and  a  ridiculous  fanatic  named  Catherine  Theot,  whom  they  sent  to  the 
scaffold  in  spite  of  him.  From  this  time  Eobespierre  appeared  but  rarely  in 
the  Committees,  and  making  the  Jacobin  Club  the  central  point  of  his  sway, 
denounced  there  those  whom  he  termed  the  Dantonists.  All-powerful  in 
this  club,  master  of  the  mob,  and  supported  by  the  Mayor  Fleuriot,  by 
Henriot,  the  commander  of  the  armed  force,  and  by  the  Revolutionary 
tribunal,  all  the  members  of  which  were  his  creatures,  he  believed  himself 
to  be  powerful  enough  to  attack  his  enemies  in  the  very  midst  of  the  Con- 
vention, and  on  the  18th  Thermidor  denounced  there  the  committees. 
He  was  listened  to  in  silence,  and  then  received  a  first  repulse ;  his  ad- 
dress being  referred  for  examination  to  the  very  committees  whom  he 
accused.  He  went  on  the  same  evening  to  the  Jacobin  Club,  where  he 
gave  way  to  his  rage,  and  where  he  was  received  with  enthusiasm.  Every 
preparation  was  made  at  this  club  during  the  night  for  an  insurrection ; 
and  at  the  same  time  a  league  was  formed  between  the  Conventionalists, 
the  Dantonists,  the  Right,  and  the  Marais. 


1793-1794.]  EOBESPIEEEE    AEEESTED.  259 

The  sitting  of  the  9th  Thermidor  (27th  July,  1794)  opened  under  the 
most  threatening  auspices.  Saint- Just  ascended  the  tri-  pan0fR0bes- 
bune,  and  opposite  him  was  seated  Eobespierre ;  Tallien  and  Thermidor  (July 
Billaud  interrupted  Saint-Just  and  commenced  the  attack.  ' 
Eobespierre  jumped  forward  to  reply  to  them,  when  a  cry  arose 
from  every  side  of  "  Down  with  the  tyrant !"  Tallien  brandished  a 
dagger,  and  threatened  to  plunge  it  into  the  heart  of  him  whom  he  desig- 
nated as  the  modern  Cromwell,  and  persuaded  the  Assembly  to  order  the 
arrest  of  Henriot,  and  to  declare  its  sitting  a  permanent  one.  "  Let  us 
now  consider  the  conduct  of  the  tyrant,"  continued  Tallien.  A  thousand 
threatening  cries  prevented  Robespierre  from  being  heard,  when  he  made 
a  final  effort,  and  exclaimed,  "  President  of  assassins  !  For  the  last 
time,  will  you  obtain  me  a  hearing  ?"  Finding  that  he  could  not  obtain 
it,  he  ran  amidst  the  benches  of  the  Assembly  like  a  madman,  addressing 
supplications  to  the  members  of  the  Right,  who  repulsed  him  with  horror, 
till  at  length  he  fell  back  into  his  seat  exhausted  and  speechless. 
"  Miserable  wretch !"  said  a  member,  w  it  is  the  blood  of  Danton  that 
stifles  you  !"  His  arrest  was  immediately  proposed.  His  brother  and 
Lebas  requested  to  be  allowed  to  share  his  fate,  and  the  Assembly  unani- 
mously ordered  that  they  should  be  arrested  along  with  Robespierre, 
Couthon,  and  Saint- Just.  "  The  Republic  is  lost,"  said  Robespierre  ; 
"  the  brigands  are  triumphant." 

The  victory,  however,  was  still  uncertain.  The  Jacobins  had  also 
declared  their  sitting  permanent,  and  had  sworn  to  die,  according  to  their 
own  expression,  rather  than  live  under  a  criminal  government.  The 
municipal  deputies  proceeded  to  their  club,  and  Henriot  ran  through 
the  streets  with  a  drawn  sabre  in  his  hand,  crying  "  To  arms !"  Bu\ 
he  was  arrested,  together  with  the  national  agent  Payan,  and  loaded  with 
chains.  The  sections  took  up  arms,  and  the  Convention  summoned  them 
to  its  defence.  During  the  day  they  were  successful,  and  during  the 
hours  of  darkness  the  insurgents  obtained  the  advantage.  The  latter 
marched  in  a  body  to  the  prisons,  and  set  free  Robespierre,  Henriot,  and 
their  accomplices.  Henriot  immediately  had  the  Convention  surrounded, 
and  cannon  pointed  against  it.  Terror  reigned  in  the  Assembly,  but  the 
imminence  of  the  danger  gave  it  courage ;  Henriot  was  put  beyond  the 
pale  of  the  law ;  his  gunners  refused  to  fire,  and  retreated  with  him  to 
the  Hotel  de  Ville.     This  refusal  decided  the  fate  of  the  contest.     The 

s  2 


260  END    OF    THE    KEIGN   OE    TEEEOE.       [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  II. 

Convention,  in  its  turn,  assumed  the  offensive,  attacked  the  Commune,  and 
put  its  members  beyond  the  pale  of  the  law.  Barre  was  appointed  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  armed  force  ;  the  battalions  of  the  sections  swore 
to  defend  the  Assembly,  and  marched  through  its  midst,  whilst  they  were 
addressed  by  the  President,  who  said  to  them,  "  Go ;  and  take  care 
that  the  day  does  not  break  before  the  head  of  the  conspiracy  has  fallen  !" 
It  was  midnight  when  the  sections  marched  upon  the  Commune,  to  which 
Eobespierre  had  been  carried  in  triumph,  and  where  he  now  sat  motion- 
less, and  as  though  paralysed  by  terror.  The  proclamation  of  the 
Assembly,  which  placed  the  Commune  beyond  the  pale  of  the  law,  was 
posted  up  in  the  Place  de  Greve,  and  the  groups  collected  there  imme- 
diately dispersed  and  left  it  empty.  The  Hotel  de  Ville  was  surrounded 
by  cries  of  "  Long  live  the  Convention !"  Despair  and  rage  took  posses- 
sion of  those  who  had  been  proscribed.  Lebas  killed  himself;  young 
Eobespierre  threw  himself  from  a  third  floor  window  and  survived  his 
fall ;  Couthon  struck  himself  with  a  trembling  hand ;  Cofnnhal  over- 
whelmed Henriot  with  execrations,  and  threw  him  from  a  window  into  a 
sewer ;  and  Robespierre  remained  motionless,  and  as  though  petrified  by 
irresolution  and  terror.  The  assailants  forced  the  doors  and  rapidly 
ascended  the  stairs.  A  gendarme  fired  a  pistol  at  Eobespierre  and  broke 
nis  jaw-bone.*  He  was  seized,  together  with  his  colleagues  and  the 
principal  members  of  the  Commune  ;  and  on  the  following  day  they  were 
tried  by  the  same  Eevolutionary  tribunal  which  they  had  so  long  fed 
with  victims,  and  which  now  sent  them  in  their  turn  to  the  scaffold.  An 
immense  crowd  collected  round  the  car  in  which  Eobespierre,  his  head 
enveloped  in  a  bloody  cloth,  sat,  between  Henriot  and  Couthon,  who 
were  as  mutilated  as  himself.  The  spectators  cursed  him,  and  con- 
gratulated each  other  at  the  approaching  end  of  the  tyrant  before  his 
eyes  ;  and  at  the  moment  when  his  head  fell  beneath  the  knife,  prolonged 
shouts  of  applause  filled  the  air.  France  once  more  breathed  freely,  and 
the  Eeign  of  Terror  was  at  an  end. 

*  It  has  been  very  generally  believed  that  Robespierre  made  an  attempt  to  commit 
suicide  ;  this,  however,  is  an  error  which  M.  de  Lamartine  ("Hist,  of  the  Girondists") 
has  done  much  to  dissipate. 


1794-1795.]  KEACTION    AGAINST    THE    TEREOBISTS.  261 


CHAPTER  III. 

FROM  THE  FALL  OF  ROBESPIERRE  TO  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  EXECUTIVE 

DIRECTORY. 

21th  July,  1794  (9th  Thermidor,  Year  III.),  to  26th  October,  1795 
(Ath  Brumaire,  Year  IV.). 

The  Revolutionary  movement  attained  its  greatest  power  on  the  9th 
Thermidor,  and  on  the  same  day  the  reaction  against  it  set  Reaction  a  ainst 
in.  The  committees  had  overcome  themselves  when  they  the  Terronsts- 
overcame  Robespierre.  Two  new  parties  were  now  formed  :  that  of  the 
Committees,  and  that  of  the  Mountain,  which  had  contributed  with  Tallien 
to  the  victory  of  the  19th  Thermidor,  and  which  hence  was  called  the 
Thermidorians.  The  first  party  relied  on  the  Jacobin  Club  and  the 
faubourgs,  and  the  second  on  the  majority  of  the  Convention  and  the 
National  Guard,  or  armed  sections. 

A  great  number  of  prisoners  were  set  free  during  the  days  which 
followed  the  9  th  Thermidor,  and  seventy- two  members  of  the  Commune 
perished  on  the  scaffold.  The  members  of  the  Revolutionary  tribunal 
were  replaced,  and  the  powers  of  the  committees  were  diminished.  The 
odious  law  of  the  22nd  Prairiai,  relative  to  the  criminal  procedure,  was 
abolished.  Only  three  assemblies  of  the  sections  were  allowed  a  month, 
and  the  gratuity  of  forty  sous  a  day  given  to  the  poor  citizens  who 
attended  them  was  suppressed.  Finally,  the  affiliation  of  the  parent- 
society  of  the  Jacobins  with  all  the  other  Jacobin  Clubs  in  France  was 
prohibited.  At  the  same  time  Fr6ron  summoned  the  young  men  to  arms 
against  the  Terrorists  in  the  columns  of  his  journal,  The  Orator  of  the 
People ;  and  in  answer  to  his  appeal  a  crowd  of  young  men  belonging  to 
the  wealthier  and  middle  classes,  who  received  the  name  of  the  "  Gilded 
Youth,"  traversed  the  streets  in  numerous  bands,  armed  with  loaded 
clubs,  and  waging  desperate  war  against  the  Jacobins.  The  club  of  the 
latter  was  attacked  and  taken  after  an  energetic  resistance,  and  all  Paris 


262  BENEWED    INSTTKEECTIONS.         [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  III. 

became  but  one  field  of  battle.  The  Convention  supported  all  these 
reactionary  proceedings,  and  sent  for  trial  the  atrocious  Fouquier- 
Tinville,  the  public  accuser,  as  well  as  Joseph  Lebon  and  Carrier,  who 
had  fulfilled  their  missions,  the  one  at  Arras  and  the  other  at  Nantes,  as 
demoniacal  exterminators.  All  three  paid  the  penalty  of  their  crimes  on  the 
scaffold,  and  their  atrocities  being  publicly  revealed,  added  still  more  to 
the  horror  inspired  by  their  late  accomplices.  The  Convention  recalled 
to  its  Assembly  seventy-three  deputies  who  had  been  proscribed  for 
having  protested  against  the   condemnation  of  the  Giron- 

Kecall  of  the 

proscribed         dists  ;   revoked  the  decrees  of  expulsion  issued  against  the 

Girondists. 

priests  and  nobles ;  re-established  public  worship ;  sup- 
pressed the  maximum ;  and  had  the  bust  of  Marat  in  its  own  hall  broken. 
A  new  crop  of  evils,  however,  was  produced  by  the  sudden  reaction. 
Eight  millions  of  assignats  had  been  sent  into  circulation,  and  when  there 
Bankruptcy  of  were  no  longer  any  violent  laws  to  enforce  their  currency, 
the  assignats.  Qmj  immediately  fell  fifteen  times  below  their  first  value ; 
cash  disappeared  from  circulation,  and  the  prodigious  fall  in  the  value 

,*...,  of  the  assignats  was  followed  by  a  wild  system  of  specula- 

stock-jobbing.  °  . 

tion  which  ruined  a  multitude  of  families.  Monopoly 
succeeded  the  terrible  law  of  the  maximum,  and  the  farmers  avenged 
themselves   for   their  long   and   cruel   oppression  by   holding   back   all 

species  of  provisions.     Famine  now  made  its  appearance, 

Famine.  Jr  r  rr 

and  the  lower  orders  of  the  faubourgs  regretted  the  time 
when  the  system  of  government  gave  them  bread  and  power,  and  once 
more  had  recourse  to  tumults. 

Several  of  the  most  .famous  Terrorists,  Billaud-Varennes,  Collot- 
d'Herbois,  Barrere,  and  Yadier,  were  condemned  to  transportation,  and 
were  taken  to  the  fortress  of  Ham,  together  with  seventeen  members  of 
the  Crete,  who  had  supported  a  first  insurrection,  the  object  of  which  was 
to  save  them.  A  second  insurrection,  which  took  place  on  the  12th 
Germinal,  had  no  better  success;  but  at  length  on  the  1st  Prairial,  a 
The  people  and  ttiird  was  organized  on  a  very  formidable  plan.  On  that 
StfiffiSr^'  day  tne  conspirators  declared  that  "In  the  name  of  the 
p  '  '}.  insurgent  people  they  would  obtain  bread  and  resume  their 
rights — the  re- establishment  of  the  Constitution  of  '93  ;  the  release  of  the 
patriots ;  and  the  suspension  of  all  authority  which  did  not  emanate  from 
the  people."     They  resolved  to  create  a  new  municipality^  to  seize   the 


1794-1795.]  THE    CONSTITUTION  ABOLISHED.  263 

barriers,  the  telegraph,  and  the  tocsin ;  and  never  to  pause  in  their 
work  until  they  should  have  procured  for  every  inhabitant  of  France 
food,  security,  and  happiness.  They  invited  all  the  troops  to  join  their 
ranks,  and  marched  rapidly  upon  the  Convention,  which,  taken  by  sur- 
prise, called  the  sections  to  arms.  The  doors  of  the  Hall  of  Assembly 
were  broken  through,  and  the  multitude,  accompanied  by  a  furious  mob 
of  women,  invaded  the  tribunes,  crying  out,  "  Bread  !  and  the  Constitu- 
tion of  '93  !"  The  hall  of  the  Assembly  speedily  became  a  field  of 
battle.  The  deputy  Auguis,  sword  in  hand,  at  the  head  of  the  veterans 
and  the  gendarmes,  at  first  repulsed  the  assailants,  but  they  returned  to 
the  charge.  The  president,  Boissy  d'Anglas,  was  aimed  at,  and  deputy 
Feraud,  who  rushed  forward  to  protect  him,  was  himself  wounded, 
dragged  away  by  the  crowd  and  beheaded.  The  greater  number  of  the 
deputies  took  to  flight,  but  Boissy  d'Anglas  remained  calmly  seated,  pro- 
testing against  the  outrages  committed  by  the  mob.     The    mL 

00  °  J  The  courage  or 

insurgents  thrust  their  weapons  against  his  breast  and  Boissy  d'Anglas. 
demanded  that  he  should  put  their  propositions  to  the  vote.  When  he 
refused,  they  presented  to  him  on  a  pike  the  bleeding  head  of  Feraud, 
and  he  uncovered  and  bowed  before  it.  The  deputies  of  the  Crete,  who 
were  favourable  to  the  insurrectionary  movement,  put  an  end  to  this 
terrible  scene  by  seizing  the  bureaux,  and  decreeing  by  themselves  alone 
the  articles  contained  in  the  insurgents'  manifesto.  But  the  battalions  of 
the  sections  now  arrived,  possessed  themselves  of  the  Carrousel,  entered 
the  Hall  of  Assembly  with  fixed  bayonets,  and  drove  the  crowd  before 
them.  The  members  returned  in  a  body,  annulled  the  votes  which  had 
been  passed  during  the  tumult,  and  ordered  the  arrest  of  fourteen  of 
their  number  who  had  been  accomplices  of  the  insurgents.  On  the  fol- 
lowing day  the  armed  faubourgs  made  a  vain  attempt  at  a  fresh  attack, 
and  at  length,  on  the  4th  Prairial,  after  a  tumult  of  which  the  object  was 
to  set  free  the  murderer  of  the  deputy  Feraud,  the  faubourgs  were  sur- 
rounded and  disarmed.  The  Convention  then  suppressed  the  Eevolu- 
tionary  Committee,  and  abolished  the  Constitution  of  '93. 
Thus  ended  the  rule  of  the  People,  and  from  this  time  the    Constitution  of 

1793 

Girondist  party  became  predominant  in  the  Assembly. 

The  reaction  which  commenced  in  Thermidor  did  not  check  the  success 
of  our  troops,  whose  audacity  was  seconded  by  a  severe    campaigns  of 
winter.      During  the  last  days  of  1794  the  cold  became   1794andl795- 


264  TEEKCH  successes.  [Book  II.  Chap.  III. 

excessive,  and  the  ice  rendered  the  Meuse  and  the  Wahal,  which  were 
the  enemy's  defences,  passable  at  several  points.  The  French  troops, 
destitute  of  clothes  and  shoes,  and  worn  out  by  the  fatigues  attendant  on 
their  brilliant  feats  of  arms,  had  scarcely  been  a  month  in  their  winter 
cantonments,  when,  at  the  sight  of  the  rivers  enchained  in  ice,  their 
ardour,  excited  as  much  by  the  consternation  of  the  enemy  as  by  the 
wishes  of  the  Dutch  patriots,  acknowledged  no  obstacles.  Under  Pichegru's 
c     uestof  command   they  entered   Holland  at  several   points,    upon 

p£hegrab  Ja-  which  the  Duke  of  York  and  his  army  retreated  in  disorder 
nuary,  i79o.  upon  Deventer  ;  whilst  the  Prince  of  Orange,  stupified  by 

dismay,  remained  immovable  at  Gorcum.  The  patriots  who  were 
hostile  to  the  Stadtholder  supported  the  efforts  of  the  French  army,  and 
within  a  short  time  the  whole  of  Holland  was  conquered.  The  Stadt- 
holder fled  to  England,  and  the  States- General  governed  the  Republic, 
which  formed  a  close  alliance  with  France.  Prussia,  being  now  threatened, 
Peace  of  Basle  concluded  a  peace  at  Basle,  and  Spain,  in  which  country  the 
pn  '  6*  French  were  in  possession  of  many  places,  speedily  followed 
the  example  of  Prussia  by  signing  a  treaty,  the  principal  condition  of 
which  was  that  the  French  conquests  in  the  Peninsula  should  be  exchanged 
for  the  Spanish  portion  of  St.  Domingo. 

France  was  less  fortunate  in  the  course  of  this  year  on  her  eastern 
frontier.  Pichegru  had  resigned  the  command  of  the  army  of  the  North 
to  take  that  of  the  army  of  the  Ehine  ;  he  occupied  the  left  bank  of 
that  river  from  Mayence  to  Strasburg ;  whilst  Jourdan,  with  the  army 
of  Sambre  and  Meuse,  was  cantoned  on  the  Rhine,  in  the  direction 
of  Cologne.  The  allies  had  lost  the  whole  of  the  left  bank,,  with  the 
exception  of  Luxemburg  and  Mayence.  The  first  of  these  places  was 
reduced  by  famine  on  the  24th  June,  and  thenceforth  it  was  the  object 
of  the  French  to  cross  the  river,  the  right  bank  of  which  was  defended 
by  the  Austrians,  under  Clairfait  and  Wurmser.     But  their  armies  were 

not  only  in  want  of  absolute  necessaries,  but  of  war  mate- 
Passage  of  the  rie\  an(j  ^he  means  of  constructing  bridges.  It  was  necessary, 
sSreand  therefore,   to   delay  this   operation  many  months,   and  at 

JoTdan^and  by  length,  on  the  6th  September,  Jourdan  effected  the  pas- 
Khiae^nder  e  sage  at  three  points,  in  the  environs  of  Dusseldorf ;  whilst 
tember™795.P"      Pichegru  crossed  it  almost  at  the   same    time  above  the 

strong   fortress  of    Manheim,  which   immediately  surren- 


1794-1795.]  EBENCH   SUCCESSES.  265 

dered.  Had  the  two  armies  now  acted  in  concert  and  effected  a  junc- 
tion in  the  valley  of  the  Main,  they  would  have  been  able  to  repulse 
Clairfait  and  Wurmser,  and  to  have  vanquished  them  in  succession ;  but 
this  plan  was  not  followed.  Pichegru  had  an  understanding  with  the 
Prince  of  Cond6,  the  leader  of  the  emigrant  party ;  he  already  plotted 
the  betrayal  of  the  Republic,  and  compromised  his  own  army  and  that 
of  Jourdan  by  the  weakness  of  his  movements.  He  allowed  Clairfait 
time  to  concentrate  superior  forces  against  him,  to  allow  himself  to  be 
beaten  disgracefully,  and  then  shut  himself  up  in  Man- 
heim.     Clairfait  now  marched  against  Jourdan,  who,  sepa-    Pichegru  at 

j,  .  ,  Heidelberg. 

rated  from  Pichegru,  shut  in  between  the  Rhine  and  the 

neutral  ground  of  Prussia,   and  in  want  of  the  means  of  supporting  his 

troops,  was  forced  to  retreat  and  recross  the  river.     Thirty  thousand 

French  troops  continued  to  invest  Mayence ;  but  Clairfait 

by  a  skilful  manoeuvre   forced  their  lines  and  drove  them    armies  of  the 

Rhine  an^  °f 

to  the  foot  of  the   Vosges,  on  the  left  bank  of  the   Rhine.    Sambre  and 

Meuse.    Loss  of 

Manheim,  Dusseldorf,  and  Neuwied   now  alone  remained   the  lines  of 

77  Mayence,  1795. 

in   the  possession    of  the  French  on  the   right  bank,  and 
after  the  conclusion  of   an  armistice,  which  was  the    necessary  conse- 
quence of  this  reverse,  the  French  troops  went  into  cantonments. 

Brilliant  successes  counterbalanced  this  check  suffered  by  the  armies 
of  the  Rhine.     The  important  treaty  concluded  with  Spain    x     ,.      '   , 

i-  J  r  Junction  of  the 

enabled  the  armies  of  the  Pyrenees  and  of  the  Maritime   armiesofthe 

J  Pyrenees  and 

Alps  commanded  by  Kellerman  to  effect  a  junction;  and  Maritime ^P3* 
when  these  forces  were  united  they  were  enabled  to  assume  the  offensive. 
The  object  now  was  by  a  decisive  victory  to  force  the  passes  of  the 
Apennines  aod  to  force  Piedmont  to  be  neutral.  Kellerman  was 
superseded  by  Scherer,  whose  army,  shut  in  between  the  sea  and  the 
chain  of  the  Apennines,  was  faced  by  the  Piedmontese  army  under 
Colli,  and  the  Austrian  army.  The  former  extended  from  the  crest  of  the 
Apennines  to  the  basin  of  Loano,  as  far  as  the  sea,  whilst  the  latter 
occupied  the  opposite  side  of  the  mountains  towards  the  Po,  and  was 
strongly  entrenched  in  the  camp  of  the  Ceva.  Scherer  now  attempted  a 
bold  stroke.  Massena,  by  his  orders,  crossed  the  crest  of  the  Apennines 
and  divided  the  two  hostile  armies,  whilst  Serrurier  deceived   _  . 

;  Victory  of 

Colli  by  a  feigned  attack  and  drove  the  Austrians  into  the    Scherer  at 

J  °  Loano,  Novem- 

basin  of  the   Loano.     A   complete  victory  was  the  result   ber>1795- 


266  DEFEAT  OF  THE  BOYALISTS.   [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  IIT. 

of  this  skilful  manoeuvre ;  and  although  a  tempest  accompanied  by 
a  dense  fall  of  snow  covered  their  precipitate  retreat,  twenty  pieces  of 
cannon  and  immense  magazines  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors,  and 
Italy  lay  open  before  them. 

The  Republican  arms  were  no  less  successful  in  Vendee,  where  the 
want  of  harmony  between  the  two  principal  leaders,  Charette  and  Stofflet, 
enfeebled  the  insurgent  forces.  The  Marquis  de  Puisaye,  the  active  agent 
of  the  Royalist  party  in  Brittany,  requested  and  obtained  the  aid  of 
England,  and  Admiral  Bridport  set  sail  with  the  two  first  divisions  of 
emigrants,  commanded  by  Count  d'Hervilly  and  M.  de  Sombreuil ;  a 
third  following  under  the  orders  of  Count   d'Artois.     An 

The  Quiberon  _,.  _    . .     _  .  in  o 

Expedition.  engagement  took  place  on  Belle-Isle  between  the  fleet  ot 

Destruction  of 

the  Koyaiist  Admiral  Bridport  and  that  of  the  Republican  Admiral  Villa- 

army,  June,  1795. 

ret-Joyeuse.     Bridport  having  gained  the  victory,  effected 

the  disembarkation  of  the  two  divisions  in  the  Bay  of  Quiberon,  near 
Vannes.  One  of  them  immediately  took  possession  of  Fort  Penthievre, 
which  commanded  the  narrow  peninsula,  almost  island,  of  Quiberon,  on 
which  the  disembarkation  had  taken  place.  The  emigrants  immediately 
marched  against  the  Republican  army,  in  the  absence  of  Hoche  who  com- 
manded it.  On  being  informed  of  this  sudden  attack  he  immediately 
hastened  up,  and  the  Royalists  were  repulsed,  and  mowed  down  by 
artillery.  Sombreuil  arrived  too  late  with  his  division  to  support  so 
unequal  a  fight ;  a  storm  had  driven  away  the  fleet,  and  retreat  was 
impossible.  The  Republican  troops  had  obtained  possession  of  Fort 
Penthievre  by  the  aid  of  treason  ;  the  night  came  on,  and  a  frightful 
massacre  took  place.  D'Hervilly  was  slain,  and  Sombreuil  and  eight 
hundred  of  his  troops  were  compelled,  after  an  heroic  resistance,  to  capi- 
tulate. But  the  representative,  Tallien,  having  arrived  on  the  field  of 
battle  and  assumed  the  chief  command,  would  not  recognise  capitulation, 
and  the  vanquished  emigrants,  after  having  been  thrown  into  prison,  in 
defiance  of  all  the  engagements  entered  into  with  them,  were  tried  by 
military  law,  and  shot. 

England  made  a  fresh  effort  to  support  the  civil  war  in  the  west,  and 
an  English  fleet  carried  thither  a  French  prince,  the  Count  d'Artois,  and 
several  regiments.  At  the  summons  of  the  intrepid  Charette  all  the  coast 
line  of  Brittany  took  up  arms  in  the  expectation  of  the  Prince's  disem- 
barkation, and  it  seemed  probable  that  this  great  movement  might  change 


1794-1795.]  REACTION   AGAINST    THE    CONVENTION".  267 

in  that  part  of  the  kingdom  the  fate  of  the  war.  But  after  having  re- 
mained for  some  weeks  at  Isle-Dieu,  Count  d'Artois  returned  to  England 
without  having  set  foofc  on  the   Continent.     The  English 

°  °  The  Count 

fleet,    driven   about   by  contrary  winds,    could  afford  no    d'Artois  at  isle- 

J  J  Dieu,  1795. 

assistance  to  the  Chouans,*  and  none  of  the  hopes  inspired 
by  this  expedition  were  realized. 

Thus,  then,  with  the  exception  of  the  check  suffered  by  our  arms  in  the 
East,  the  Republican  armies  were  everywhere  successful  in  the  course  of 
1795.  They  had  conquered,  in  the  north,  the  whole  of  Holland,  and  in 
the  south  the  passage  of  the  Apennines,  the  Gate  of  Italy.  The  hopes 
which  Brittany  and  La  Vendee  had  founded  on  the  assistance  of  England 
had  vanished  at  Quiberon ;  and  three  powers  had  laid  down  their  arms — 
Prussia,  Holland,  and  Spain.  The  Royal  cause  seemed  desperate,  and  in 
this  year  it  had  also  lost  the  Dauphin,  the  son  of  Louis  XVI.,  who  had 
been  proclaimed  King  of  France  by  the  Royalists  after  the 

J  %  J  .  Death  of  Louis 

21st  of  January,  by  the  title  of  Louis  XVII.  This  Prince,  xvn.,  June, 
aged  only  eight  years  at  the  death  of  his  father,  had  been 
torn  from  the  arms  of  his  mother,  his  aunt,  and  his  sister,  and  confided 
to  the  care  of  a  wretch  named  Simon,  a  shoemaker  by  trade,  and  an 
outrageous  Republican,  who,  under  the  pretext  of  giving  the  Royal 
child  a  Republican  education,  treated  him  with  outrageous  and  brutal 
violence.  The  early  death  of  this  young  prince  was  attributed  to  the 
cruel  treatment  he  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  this  frightful  man,  and 
took  place  in  June,  1795.  His  right  to  the  throne  passed  to  his  uncle, 
Louis-Stanislas-Xavier,  Count  de  Provence,  whom  the  emigrants  and 
foreign  powers  thenceforth  recognised  as  King  of  France,  under  the  title 
of  Louis  XVIII. 

After  the  failure  at  Quiberon  all  the  hopes  of  the  Royalists  depended 
on  the  reactionary  movement  taking  place  in  the  interior  Keaetion  against 
of  the  kingdom.  This  movement,  at  first  guided  by  the  <*e  Contention, 
moderate  Republicans,  soon  became  so  violent  as  to  bear  comparison 
with  the  Revolutionary  fury.  Too  many  crimes  had  been  committed  in 
the  name  of  the  Convention  for  that  body,  in  spite  of  its  late  proceedings, 

*  The  name  of  Chouans  was  given  to  those  peasants  who  formed  the  principal 
Royalist  forces  in  Anjou  and  Lower  Brittany.  The  origin  of  this  name  has  given 
rise  to  various  suppositions,  but  the  most  probable  is  that  it  is  derived  from  a  family  of 
that  name  which  was  the  first  to  rise  in  Anjou. 


268  THE    CONSTITUTION    OF    THE    TEAR    III.       [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  III. 

not  to  be  the  object  of  the  indignation  and  hatred  of  a  multitude  of 
generous  spirits.  This  feeling  was  warmly  cherished  by  the  journalists, 
who  formed  a  powerful  confederacy  against  it,  and  whose  principal  mem- 
bers were  Charles  Lacretelle,  La  Harpe,  Richer  de  Serisy,  and  Troncon 
du  Coudray.  The  Gilded  Youth  abandoned  the  Convention,  and  the 
bourgeoisie  displayed  an  equally  hostile  spirit ;  crowds  collected  on  the 
Boulevards,  singing  the  "  Reveil  du  Peuple,"  and  pursued  the  Jacobins  with 
furious  cries  of  "Hunt  the  Terrorists!"  and  great  excesses  were  com- 
mitted. The  Convention  put  a  stop  to  this  vengeance  in  the  capital,  but 
in  the  provinces  its  authority  was  powerless  to  prevent  its  being  exacted. 
In  the  South,  especially,  its  enemies  committed  frightful  acts  of  violence. 
Associations  were  formed  under  the  names  of  Jesus  and  The  Sun,  which 
devoted  themselves  to  the  most  sanguinary  reprisals.  The  prisons 
were  filled  with  men  accused  of  having  taken  an  active  part  in  the 
Reign  of  Terror,  and  at  Lyons,  at  Aix,  at  Tarascon,  and  Marseilles, 
such  were  pitilessly  destroyed.  This  Revolutionary  movement  pro- 
duced serious  disturbances,  and  placed  the  Convention  in  peril 
within  the  kingdom,  whilst  it  was  so  triumphant  abroad.  The  Emi- 
grant party,  having  lost  all  hope  of  being  able  to  overthrow  it  by 
force,  now  had  recourse  to  the  sections  of  Paris,  and  endeavoured 
to  bring  about  a  counter-revolution  by  means  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  Year  III. 

This  Constitution  was  less  defective  than  those  which  had  been  esta- 
blished or  projected  in  1789.  It  placed  the  Legislative  power 
the  Year  in.        in  two  councils,  that  of  the  Five  Hundred,  and  that  of  the 

(1795.) 

Ancients ;  whilst  the  executive  power  was  entrusted  to  a 
Directory  of  five  members.  It  re-established  the  two  degrees  of  election, 
and  made  it  necessary  for  a  man  to  possess  a  certain  amount  of  property 
before  he  could  become  a  member  either  of  the  primary  or  electoral 
Assemblies.  The  initiative  in  the  proposal  of  laws  was  given  to  the  Five 
Hundred ;  and  the  power  of  either  passing  or  rejecting  them  resided  in 
the  Council  of  the  Ancients.  The  first  consisted  of  five  hundred  members, 
who  were  thirty  years  old  at  least,  and  the  second  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty,  who  were  over  forty  years  of  age.  The  five  Directors  were  chosen 
by  the  two  Councils.  Each  of  the  directors  was  President  for  three 
months,  during  which  he  possessed  the  seals.     Each  year  the  Directory 


1794-1795.]  EETOLT    OE    THE    PAEIS    SECTIONS.  269 

was  renewed  "by  a  new  member.  It  had  a  guard,  and  was  lodged  in  the 
Palace  of  the  Luxembourg.  The  frightful  memories  of  the  Reign  of 
Terror,  which  inflamed  the  reactionary  feelings  of  the  middle  classes,  and 
drove  the  Convention  to  the  necessity  of  defending  itself,  became  fatal  to 
the  new  Constitution,  which  perished  chiefly  through  the  hatred  and  detes- 
tation felt  for  those  by  whom  it  had  been  drawn  up.  The  latter  perceived 
the  danger  of  their  position  if  the  new  Councils  should  be  chosen  in  accor- 
dance with  the  prevailing  opinions,  and  in  order  therefore  to  secure  for 
themselves  a  majority  in  the  choice  of  the  Directors,  they  determined, 
by  the  decrees  of  the  5th  and  13th  Fructidor,  that  two-  decree- of  th 
thirds  of  the  members  of  the  Convention  should  be  members  f^JS<LJ.3th 
of  the  new  Councils.  (Aug,lst'  i795-> 

These  decrees,  as  well  as  the  scheme  of  the  Constitution,  were  sub- 
mitted to  the  primary  Assemblies,  and  were  approved  by  the  departments. 
Paris,  however,  being  under  the  direct  influence  of  the  Journalists, 
accepted  the  new  Constitution,  but  rejected  the  decrees,  the  adoption  of 
which  by  the  majority  of  the  primary  Assemblies  of  the  Republic  was 
proclaimed  on  the  1st  Vendemiaire.  This  was  the  signal  for  Bevoitofthe 
a  serious  commotion.  The  Journalists  and  the  Royalist  ans  ectlons* 
chiefs  of  the  sections  loudly  exclaimed  against  the  Convention's  tyranny  ; 
the  burgesses  composing  the  National  Guard  nominated  a  College  of 
Electors,  and  swore  to  defend  it  to  the  death.  The  Convention,  justly 
alarmed,  declared  its  sitting  permanent,  summoned  the  troops  encamped 
on  the  plain  of  Sablons  to  its  aid,  armed  eighteen  hundred  patriots,  and 
dissolved  the  College  of  Electors.  The  section  Lepelletier  was  the  first 
to  declare  itself  opposed  to  these  measures,  and  to  excite  the  other 
sections  against  the  Convention  by  inspiring  them  with  fears  of  a  return 
of  the  Reign  of  Terror  ;  a  first  attack  upon  them  was  ill  managed  by  the 
Convention's  officer,  General  Menou,  and  the  insurgents  regarded  them- 
selves as  victors,  and  forty  thousand  burgesses  were  soon  under  arms, 
ready  to  march  against  the  Convention.  The  latter  made  Barras  Com- 
mander-in-Chief, and  Barras  requested  and  obtained  the  assistance  of 
a  young  general  who  had  particularly  distinguished  himself  at  the  siege 
of  Toulon — Napoleon  Bonaparte.  It  was  he  who  in  Vendemiaire 
(October)  made  all  the  preparations  for  the  defence  of.  the  Convention. 
He  extended  his  line  of  defence  from  the  Pont  Louis  XV.  to  the  Pont 


270  THE    CONTENTION    CLOSED.         [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  III. 

Neuf,  and  posted  cannon  at  all  the  principal  points  of  attack.  The  in- 
surgents advanced  in  several  columns,  under  the  command  of  Generals 
Danican,  Duhoux,  and  the  ex-guardsman  Lafon.  General  Danican  sum- 
moned the  Convention  to  make  its  troops  retire,  and  to  disarm  the 
Terrorists.  It  was  still  deliberating  on  this  demand  when  the  sound  of 
musketry  and  cannon  was  heard,  and  the  Convention,  putting  an  end  to 
its  debate,  had  seven  hundred  muskets  brought,  and  formed  themselves 
into  a  corps  of  reserve.  The  most  murderous  conflict  took  place  at  the 
Pont  Koyal  and  in  the  Eue  St.  Honore  ;  the  artillery  at  these  two 
principal  points  broke    the  lines    of  the    insurgents,    and 

The  Convention  . 

victorious  over      put   them    to   night.     At   seven    o  clock   m    the    evening 

the  Sections, 

13th  Vendemiaire,  the    troops    of    the    Convention    assumed    the    offensive, 

October  5, 1795.  ... 

and  were  victorious  in  every  direction.  On  the  follow- 
ing day  they  disarmed  the  section  Lepelletier,  and  reduced  the  rest  to 
order. 

Such  was  the  conflict  of  the  13th  Vendemiaire,  the  whole  success  of 
which,  on  the  part  of  the  Convention,  was  attributed  to  Bonaparte.  This 
victory  enabled  the  Convention  immediately  to  devote  its  attention  to  the 
formation  of  the  Councils  proposed  by  it,  two-thirds  of  which  were  to 
™  „ ,,        consist    of  its   own  members.     The  first  third,  which  was 

Election  of  the  ' 

Directory.  freely  elected,  had  already  been  nominated  by  the  Reac- 

tionary party.  The  members  of  the  Directory  were  chosen,  and  the  de- 
puties of  the  Convention,  believing  that  for  their  own  interests  the  regicides 
should  be  at  the  head  of  the  Government,  nominated  La  ReVeillere- 
Lepeaux,  Sieyes,  Rewbel,  Le  Tourneur,  and  Barras.     Sieyes  refused  to 

act,  and  Carnot  was  elected  in  his  place.  Immediately  after 
Co°nveIt?on,  Oc     this,  the  Convention  declared  its  session  at  an  end,    after  it 

had  had  three  years  of  existence,  from  the  21st  September, 
1792,  to  the  28th  October,  1795  (4th  Brumaire,  Year  IV.).  Those  who 
endeavour  to  justify  this  Assembly,  allege  in  its  defence  the  dangers  to 
which  the  country  was  exposed  and  the  stern  necessities  of  the  moment ; 
but  when  it  commenced  its  sittings  the  campaign  of  Argonne  and  the 
cannonade  of  Valmy  had  saved  the  Republic ;  the  Prussians  had  been 
put  to  flight,  and  the  French  arms  were  victorious  on  all  the  frontiers  ; 
and  the  battle  of  Jemappes  preceded  by  two  months  the  21st  January. 
The  Convention  was  the  most  cruel  and  tyrannical  of  all  the  governments 


1794-1795.]  THE  ACTS    OE   THE    CONTENTION.  27l 

which  had  crushed  France.  It  had,  no  doubt,  to  contend  with  innume- 
rable enemies,  but  it  had  aroused  them  against  itself  by  its  misgovern- 
ment,  and  if  it  found  itself  compelled  to  have  recourse  to  terrorism  for 
the  purpose  of  holding  their  enemies  in  check,  it  was  only  because  the 
criminal  deeds  which  it  had  permitted  had  excited  universal  indignation, 
and  compromised  the  cause  of  the  Revolution  even  in  the  eyes  of  its  most 
enthusiastic  partisans. 


272  INSTALLATION  OF  THE  DIRECTORY.   [BOOK.  II.  CHAP.  IV. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FROM  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  DIRECTORY  TO  THE  PEACE  OF  CAMPO- 

FORMIO. 

27th  October,  1795   (4th  Brumaire,   Year  IV.),   to   11th  October,  1797 
(26^  Vendemiaire,  Year  VI.). 

« 

The   Directors   were    all,    with   the   exception   of  Carnot,  of  moderate 
capacity,  and  concurred  in  rendering  their  own  position  the 

Installation  of  ^.  .  •'-,•, 

the  Directory,       more  dimcult.  At  this  period  there  was  no  element  of  order 

October  27, 1795.  .    x 

Distress  of  the      or  good  government  in  the  Republic  ;   anarchy  and  uneasi- 

G-overnment. 

ness  everywhere  prevailed,  famine  had  become  chronic, 
the  troops  were  without  clothes,  provisions,  or  horses;  the  Convention 
had  spent  an  immense  capital  represented  by  assignats,  and  had  sold  almost 
half  of  the  Republican  territory,  belonging  to  the  proscribed  classes,  for 
the  purpose  of  providing  for  the  support  of  the  people  and  the  armies ; 
the  excessive  degree  of  discredit  to  which  paper  money  had  fallen,  after 
the  issue  of  thirty-eight  thousand  millions,  had  destroyed  all  confi- 
dence and  all  legitimate  commerce  ;  the  treasury  was  empty,  the 
Government  couriers  were  frequently  unable  to  go  on  their  missions  for 
want  of  money,  and  finally,  such  was  the  general  poverty,  that  when  the 
Directors  entered  the  palace  which  had  been  assigned  to  them  as  a 
dwelling,  they  found  no  furniture  there,  and  were  compelled  to  borrow  of 
the  porter  a  few  straw  chairs  and  a  wooden  table,  on  the  latter  of  which 
they  drew  up  the  decree  by  which  they  were  appointed  to  office. 

Their  first  care  was  to  establish  their   power,  and  they  succeeded  in 
„.  A         „,.       doing  this  by  frankly  following  at  first  the  rules  laid  down 

First  acts  of  the  °  J  J  ° 

Directors.  -fay  fae  Constitution.     In  a  short  time  industry  and  com- 

merce began  to  raise  their  heads,  the  supply  of  provisions  became  tole- 
rably abundant,  and  the  clubs  were  abandoned  for  the  workshops  and 
the  fields.     The  Directory  exerted  itself  to  revive  agriculture,  industry, 


1795-1797.]  second  war  or  la  vendee.  273 

and  the  arts,  re-established  the  public  exhibitions,  and  founded  primary, 
central,  and  normal  schools.  One  of  its  members,  Reveillere-Lepaux, 
entrusted  with  that  portion  of  the  government  of  the  nation  which 
related  to  morality,  attempted  to  found  a  distinct  worship  Theo  M 
under  the  name  of  "  Theophilanthropy,"  but  his  efforts  in  thr°py- 
this  direction  were  ridiculed  and  fell  to  the  ground.  This  period  was 
distinguished  by  a  great  licentiousness  in  manners.  The  wealthy  classes 
who  had  been  so  long  forced  into  retirement  by  the  Reign  of  Terror,  now 
gave  themselves  up  to  the  pursuit  of  pleasure  without  stint,  and  indulged 
in  a  course  of  unbridled  luxury,  which  was  outwardly  displayed  in  balls, 
festivities,  rich  costumes,  and  sumptuous  equipages.  Barras,  who  was  a 
man  of  pleasure,  favoured  this  dangerous  sign  of  the  reaction,  and  his 
palace  soon  became  the  rendezvous  of  the  most  frivolous  and  corrupt 
society.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  the  wealthy  classes  were  still  the 
victims,  under  the  government  of  the  Directory,  of  violent  and  spoliative 
measures.  The  necessities  of  the  Republic  were  so  vast  and  imperious, 
that  to   meet  them  the  Government  had  recourse  to  forced 

...  Forced  loans. 

loans,  and  to  Territorial  edicts,  the  latter  of  which  were 
to  be  employed  for  the  purpose  of  withdrawing  the  assignats  from  circu- 
lation on  the  scale  of  thirty  to  one,  and  to  bring  cash  into  circulation. 
They  possessed  the  advantage  of  being  immediately  exchangeable  for  the 
national  domains  which  they  represented,  and  furnished  the  Government 
with  a  temporary  resource.  But  they  subsequently  fell  into  discredit, 
and  conduced  to  a  prodigious  bankruptcy  of  thirty-three  thousand 
millions. 

The  war  in  the  West  was  now  only  carried  on  by  a  few  leaders,  the 
chief  of  whom,  Charette  and  Stofflet,  were  weakened  by 

J      The  second  war 

their  want    of  harmony.     In    this  new    campaign    Hoche    of  La  Vendee, 

t      i  /•       ->  •!•  «  •  i         1795,1796. 

displayed    a    great   amount    of    ability,     separating    the 
Royalist  from  the  religious  cause,   he  neutralized  the  influence  of  the 
priests,  and  the  masses  of  the  population  no  longer  responded  to  the 
appeals  of  their  military  chiefs.     Hoche  vanquished  Charette,  and  took 
him  prisoner ;   and  Stofflet^  was  soon  after  given  up  to  the   guCgess  of 
Republicans  by  treachery.     The  heroism  of  each  of  them    charette'wfd  °f 
was  maintained  at  the  hour  of  death,  which  took  place  in 
the  case  of  Charette  at  Nantes,  and  in  that  of  Stofflet  at  Angers.    Georges 
Cadoudal  still  kept  the  field  in  Morbihan,  but  Hoche   soon  crushed  this 
VOL.  II.  T 


274  caenot's  campaigns.  [Book  II.  Chap.  IV. 

new  focus  of  insurrection  by  directing  against  it  all  his  forces ;  and  after 
this  most  of  the  insurrectionary  leaders  laid  down  their  arms  and  sought 
a  refuge  in  England. 

The  Directory  in  Paris  was  now  the  object  of  the  most  violent  demo- 
cratic androyalist  attacks.  Its  members,  who  had  taken  a  part  in  all  the 
excesses  of  the  Convention  and  the  events  of  the  month  of  Thermidor, 
were  held  in  equal  horror  by  the  two  opposed  parties,  and  by  all  those 
who  shared  in  the  reactionary  sentiments  which  were  now  everywhere 
becoming  predominant.  The  Directory  in  the  first  place  took  proceedings 
against  the  Democrats,  who  had   opened  a   club  in  the  Pantheon.     A 

fanatic,  emulous  of  Eobespierre,  named  Gracchus  Babeuf, 
Babeuf.  an(j  ^q  proclaimed  himself  tribune  of  the  people,  endea- 

voured to  excite  the  populace  by  demanding  an  agrarian  law,  and  pro- 
mising to  establish  universal  happiness  by  means  of  liberty,  equality,  and 
the  Constitution  of  1793.  The  conspirators  gained  over  to  their  side  the 
police,  tampered  with  the  troops  in  the  camp  of  Grenelle,  and  were  on 
the  point  of  marching  against  the  Councils  and  the  Directory,  when  they 
were  betrayed  and  seized  in  their  place  of  meeting ;  Gracchus  Babeuf 
paying  the  penalty  of  his  life  for  this  desperate  enterprise.  A  distur- 
bance took  place  at  the  same  time  in  the  camp  of  Grenelle,  which  was 
checked  by  Malo,  the  officer  in  command.  His  dragoons  sabred  the 
insurgents,  and  the  Directory  had  the  ringleaders  tried  by  a  military 

commission.     A  Royalist  conspiracy  was  at  the  same  time 

Royalist  con-  •> 

spiraey.  formed  by  the  Abbe  Brothier  and  Lavilleheurnois ;  but  that 

likewise  failed,  and  its  authors,  on  being  found  guilty,  were  leniently 
dealt  with  by  their  judges,  who  had  been  elected  under  the  influence  of 
the  insurrectionary  movement  of  Vendemiaire.  A  struggle  then  took 
place  between  the  Directory  and  the  authorities  who  had  been  freely 
nominated  by  the  sections ;  and  the  former,  finding  themselves 
overcome  by  the  electoral  power,  had  recourse  to  military  force, 
and  gave  the  dangerous  example  of  allowing  it  to  interfere  in  State 
politics. 

In  this  year,  again,  the  glory  of  France  was  solely  supported  by  its 
armies  :   Carnot  had  formed  a  plan  of  campaign  in  accor- 

The  immortal 

campaigns  of        dance  with  which  the  armies  of  the  Ehine,  of  the  Sambre 

1796  and  1797  : 

Camot's  plan.  an(j  Meusej  and  of  Italy,  might  march  upon  Vienna  in 
concert,   and   afford  each  other    mutual  support.      The  two  first  were 


1795-1797.]  BONAPABTE   AT   NICE.  275 

commanded  by  generals  who  were  already  celebrated  —  Moreau  and 
Jourdan.  The  third  was  entrusted  to  the  young  hero  of  Toulon  and 
defender  of  the  Convention  in  Vendemiaire — Napoleon  Bonaparte.  This 
latter  army,  devoid  as  it  was  of  materiel  of  war,  food,  and  raiment,  had 
not  been  able  to  take  advantage  of  its  victory  of  Loano,  and  found  itself, 
in  the  spring  of  1796,  in  front  of  the  Austrians  under  Beaulieu,  and  the 
Piedmontese  under  Colli,  in  a  situation  similar  to  that  which  it  had 
occupied  in  the  previous  year  before  its  victory.  Colli  occupied,  in  the 
entrenched  camp  of  Ceva,  the  side  of  the  Apennines  in  the  direction 
of  the  Po  ;  and  Beaulieu's  troops,  extended  from  the  valley  of  the 
Bormida  and  the  hill  of  Montenotte  to  the  sea,  intercepted  the  road 
to  Genoa. 

Bonaparte  arrived  on  the  27th  March  at  his  head-quarters  at  Nice, 
where  he  found  the  army  destitute  of  every  necessary,  but 

.       Arrival  of 

strong  m  its  courage  and  experience.     The  soldiers  oi  this    Bonaparte  at 

the  Italian  army, 

army  had  become  hardened  in  the  gigantic  conflicts  which    27th  March, 
J  p  &  &  1796. 

had  taken  place  in  the  Alps  and  Pyrenees,  and  they  were 
commanded  by  Massena,  Augereau,  La  Harpe,  Serrurier,  Murat,  and 
Joubert.  The  first  words  which  the  young  general  addressed  to  them 
were  a  presage  of  victory.  "Soldiers,"  he  said,  "you  are  ill  fed  and 
almost  naked.  The  Government  owes  you  much,  but  can  do  nothing  for 
you.  Your  patience  and  courage  do  you  honour,  but  obtain  for  you 
neither  advantage  nor  glory.  I  will  now  lead  you  to  the  most  fertile 
fields  in  the  world ;  where  you  will  find  great  cities,  rich  provinces, 
honour,  glory,  and  riches.  Soldiers  of  Italy  !  have  you  the  courage 
to  follow  me  ?"  Bonaparte,  who  had  but  thirty-six  thousand  men  with 
which  to  meet  sixty  thousand,  perceived,  as  his  predecessor  had,  that  it 
was  first  of  all  necessary  to  separate  the  Piedmontese  from  the  Austrians, 
and  to  crush  them  one  after  the  other.  He  carried  his  head-quarters  to 
Savona,  and  threw  the  division  La  Harpe  upon  the  sea-coast,  for  the 
purpose  of  directing  the  enemy's  efforts  on  that  side ;  but  whilst  the 
Austrian  left  advanced  against  La  Harpe,  their  centre  advanced  against 
the  French  army  by  the  hill  of  Montenotte.  Twelve  hundred  men  only, 
under  Colonel  Rampon,  occupied  the  pass  there ;  Rampon  saw  the  peril 
to  which  the  army  would  be  exposed  if  that  position  were  forced,  and, 
throwing  himself  with  his  brave  comrades  into  an  old  redoubt,  made 
them  swear  that  they  would  die  rather  than  surrender,  and  thrice  re- 

T  2 


276  BONAPARTE' S    EARLY    VICTORIES.       [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  IV. 

pulsed  the  whole  force  of  the  Austrian  infantry ;  thus  affording  time  to 

the  French   divisions  to  arrive.      Bonaparte   immediately 

victories  at  Mon-   threw  back  his  right,  which  he  marched  upon  Montenotte 

tenotte,  Dego,  p  ,.,,,... 

MiUesimo,  and      in  front  of  the    enemy,   whilst  the  division  Massena,  by 

Mondovi,  1796.  .  ,  .  . 

turning  the  crest  of  the  Apennines,  might  surprise  them 
in  the  rear.  His  orders  were  executed ;  the  Austrians,  attacked  and 
surprised,  fell  back  in  disorder,  and  Bonaparte,  master  of  the  pass  and 
the  crest  of  the  Apennines,  now  had  in  front  of  him  the  Austrians,  who 
rallied  at  Dego  and  guarded  the  road  to  Lombardy,  and  on  his  left  the 
Piedmontese,  who  occupied  the  formidable  gorges  of  MiUesimo,  the  valley 
of  the  Bormida,  and  intercepted  the  road  to  Piedmont.  Unless  some 
decisive  blow  could  be  inflicted  on  the  two  armies  the  fruits  of  the 
victory  of  Montenotte  would  be  lost,  and  on  the  morrow  the  conflict 
was  resumed.  La  Harpe  and  Massena  attacked  the  Austrians  at  Dego, 
whilst  Augereau  impetuously  penetrated  the  gorges  of  Millesimo.  The 
latter  separated  Provera,  who  defended  them,  from  the  Piedmontese 
army,  and  drove  him  back  into  a  fort,  in  which  after  a  desperate 
conflict  of  two  days,  he  and  fifteen  hundred  men  were  forced  to  lay 
down  their  arms.  The  defile  was  now  carried,  the  Austrian  army 
was  in  flight  on  the  road  to  Milan,  and  the  Piedmontese  retreated  upon 
Mondovi. 

Bonaparte,  victorious  at  every  point,  had  gained  three  victories  in  three 
days,  and  filled  his  army  with  astonishment  and  admiration.  From  the 
heights  of  the  Apennines  he  contemplated  with  emotion  the  rich  plains  of 
Piedmont  and  Italy,  watered  by  so  many  beautiful  rivers.  He  pointed 
them  out  to  his  soldiers  as  another  promised  land,  and  cried  "  Hannibal 
crossed  the  Alps  ;  and  we,  we  have  turned  them  !"  The  whole  plan  of  the 
campaign  is  compressed  in  these  words.  The  victor  now  went  in  pursuit 
of  the  Piedmontese,  and  was  again  victorious  at  Mondovi,  after  which  he 
reached  Cherasia,  an  important  position  at  the  confluence  of  the  Tanaro 
and  the  Stura,  and  threatened  Turin,  from  which  he  was  only  distant  ten 
leagues.  King  Victor  Amadeus,  in  fear  for  his  capital  and  his  crown,  now 
...  „  made  offers  of  peace,  and  Bonaparte  signed  an  armistice  by 
Sy  of  pSdmont  wni°n  ne  was  Put  m  possession  of  Coni,  Tortona,  and  Alex- 
1796,  andria,  with  the  immense  magazines  which  they  contained, 

whilst  he  preserved  his  communications  with  France.     Numerous  flags, 
fifty-five  pieces  of  artillery,  five  victories,  fifteen  thousand  prisoners,  ten 


1795-1797.]  THE    BRIDGE    OE   LODI.  277 

thousand  of  the  enemy  killed  or  wounded,  and  peace  with  Piedmont, 
were  the  results  of  a  campaign  of  fifteen  days.  Paris  was  enthusiastic  at 
the  news,  and  the  two  Councils  voted  that  the  army  of  Italy  had  deserved 
well  of  its  country. 

Bonaparte  followed  up  his  success.  He  deceived  Beaulieu  by  feigned 
manoeuvres,  crossed  the  Po,  and  laid  the  Duke  of  Parma  under  contribu- 
tion. Lombardy  was  before  him  and  could  not  but  submit,  but  it  was 
first  necessary  to  complete  the  defeat  of  Beaulieu,  and  for  this  purpose 
he  endeavoured  to  cut  in  two  his  army,  a  portion  of  which  occupied  Lodi 
on  the  Adda.     He  marched  rapidly  against  this  place  and 

Bonaparte  vie- 

took  it.  Tne  Austnans  fell  back  upon  the  opposite  bank,  and    tor  at  the 

,    _  .  bridge  of  Lodi 

defended  the    bridge  which  they  had  crossed,  with  twelve 
thousand  infantry,  four  thousand    cavalry,   and  a   formidable  artillery. 
Such  an  obstacle  as  this  appeared  to  be  insurmountable,  but  the  young 
General  inspired  with  his  own   ardour  six  thousand  grenadiers  whom 
he  formed  into  a  column  and  threw  upon  the  bridge,  through  a  storm  of 
round  shot  and  musketry,  whilst  the  cavalry  forded  the  river  above  Lodi 
and  attacked  the  Austrians  in  the  rear.     The  latter  fled  in  disorder,  and 
thenceforth  the    army  of   Italy   was   invincible.      Beaulieu    retreated, 
leaving   behind  him  Cremona,    Milan,   Pavia,  Como,    and    Conquestof 
Cassano,  which  the  French  entered.  Bonaparte  immediately    tfiSSj %  the 
seized  the  important  line  of  the  Adige,  a  river  which  issues        ge' 
from  the  Rhetian  Alps,  falls  into  the   Adriatic,  and  protects  Lombardy 
against  Austria  ;  and  then  retraced  his  steps  to  receive  submission  of 
Genoa    and  of  Hercules   d'Este,  Duke    of    Modena,    who 

Submission  of 

gave  him  ten  millions,    and  withdrew  to  Venice.     General   Genoa,  Modena, 

. .  .  m  JNaples,  and 

vaubois  took  Leghorn,  in  which  were  six  hundred  Corsican    Rome.  Revolt  in 

Corsica. 

fugitives,  whom  Bonaparte  sent  to  their  own  island  to  make 

it  revolt  against  the  English.     They  did  so,  and  the  English  were  driven 

away. 

The  Court  of  Naples,  ruled  by  Queen  Caroline,  the  sister  of  the 
Unfortunate  Marie  Antoinette,  and  inspired  with  the  most  bitter  hatred 
against  France,  had  commenced  formidable  preparations  for  war,  but  it 
trembled  at  the  news  of  Bonaparte's  victories,  and  resigned  itself  to  neu- 
trality. The  Pope  himself  was  compelled  to  submit,  and  Bonaparte 
levied  upon  him,  as  a  contribution  of  peace,  twenty-one  millions,  and  a 
hundred  of  the  most  famous  works  of  art  in  his  museums. 


278  VICTORY    OF    RADSTADT.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  IV. 

In  the  meantime  the  Austrians  had  made  a  fresh  effort,  and  the  Archduke 
Charles,  the  Emperor's  brother,  marched  towards  the  Rhine  at 
the^rm^8  °^  the  head  of  seventy  thousand  men.  Upon  this,  in  accordance 
the  siXeanand  witn  Carnot's  plan,  the  armies  of  the  Rhine  and  Sambre  and 
Germany,  1796.  Meuse,  commanded  by  Moreau  and  Jourdan,  moved  forward 
in  concert,  and  crossed  the  river  with  the  object  of  sur- 
rounding the  enemy,  and  then  marching  in  concert  with  the  army  of 
Italy  upon  the  centre  of  the  Austrian  monarchy.  The  enormous  dis- 
tance which  separated  the  two  armies,  of  which  the  one  effected  the  pas- 
sage of  the  river  at  Dusseldorf,  and  the  other  at  Strasburg,  the  immense 
space  which  would  separate  each  of  them  from  its  basis  of  operations,  and 
the  obstacles  which  they  could  not  fail  to  encounter  in  a  difficult  and  hostile 
country,  rendered  this  plan  an  extremely  hazardous  one,  and  yet  at 
victo  ofM  ^rs^  *■*  aPPearec'-  to-  succeed.  Moreau  gave  battle  to  the 
reauatBastadt.  Archduke  Charles  at  Rastadt,  between  the  Rhine  and  the 
Black  Mountains.  The  victory  was  staunchly  disputed  on  either  side, 
but  at  length  the  French  having  obtained  possession  of  the  heights  and 
the  passes  into  the  valley  of  the  Necker,  the  Archduke  feared  lest  he 
should  be  separated  from  the  hereditary  States  of  the  Austrian  monarchy, 
and  for  the  purpose  of  covering  them  fell  back  hastily  upon  the  Danube 
„  ,  „       between    Ulm   and  Ratisbon,    allowing  Moreau  to  march 

Re-entry  of  the  '  ° 

ch^i^t  th  against  him  by  the  valley  of  the  Necker,  and  Jourdan  by 

Danube*116  ^na*  °^  ^he  Main,   and  then,  towards  the  middle  of  the  year 

1796,  the  French  armies,  masters  of  Italy,  and  of  half  of 
Germany  as  far  as  the  Danube,  threatened  to  invade  the  rest. 

The  old  Austrian  General  Wurmser  now  re-entered  the  Tyrol  at  the 
head  of  a  new  and  formidable  army  of  sixty  thousand  men, 

Re-entry  of  the  . 

Austrians  under    and  prepared  to  force  the  lines  of  the   Adige,  to  raise  the 

Wurmser  into 

the  Tyrol  and        blockade  of  Mantua,  and  to  crush  the  French  army  of  Italy? 

Lombardy,  1796.  '    '  j  J 

which  was  only  half  as  strong  as  his  own,  and  which  was 
shut  up  in  a  narrow  space  between  the  Lake  of  Garda  on  the  north,  the 
Adige  on  the  east,  and  the  Po  on  the  south.  Wurmser  had  the  choice  of 
three  routes.  The  first  crossed  the  Adige  at  Roveredo,  above  the  Lake  of 
Garda,  and  turning  behind  that  lake  followed  its  western  shore,  where 
the  only  obstacle  he  would  have  to  overcome  would  be  the  military  posi- 
tion of  Salo.  The  second  route  passed  between  the  lake  and  the  Adige, 
along  the   heights  of  Montebaldo,  which   separated  them  and  defended 


1795-1797.]  victoet  or  lonato.  279 

the  important  positions  of  Corona  and  Kivoli  ;  and  the  third,  following  the 
left  bank  of  the  Adige,  ran  into  the  plain  in  the  direction  of  Verona,  and 
led  to  our  line  of  defences.  The  army  of  Italy  had  never  found  itself  in 
such  imminent  peril,  and  the  partisans  and  subjects  of  Venetia  and  Austria, 
who  had  been  so  deeply  grieved  at  the  sight  of  our  national  flag  in  Lombardy, 
repeated  the  old  and  formidable  proverb — Italy  is  the  tomb  of  the  French. 
Wurmser  sent  twenty  thousand  men,  under  Quasdanovitch,  to  operate  in 
the  rear  of  the  Lake  of  Garda,  whilst  he  himself  advanced 

Wurmser  divides 

with  forty  thousand  men  between  the  lake   and  the  Adige.    his  army  into  two 

columns  of  at- 

Bonaparte,    whose    head-quarters   were   at   Castel-Nuovo,    tack :  their  re- 

x  x  spective  routes. 

at  the  southern  end  of  the  lake,  soon  learned  that  the 
positions  of  Salo,  Corona,  and  Eivoli,  which  defend  its  two  shores, 
had  been  taken,  and  that  he  was  on  the  point  of  being  surrounded. 
All  the  generals,  with  the  exception  of  Augereau,  were  in  favour  of  a 
prompt  retreat,  but  Bonaparte  resisted  this  advice,  and,  inspired  by  his 
genius,  saw  that  it  would  be  possible  to  strike  a  decisive  blow  before  the 
two  hostile  columns  had  had  time  to  effect  a  junction.  To  do  this,  how- 
ever, it  was  necessary  that  he  should  act  without  delay,  and  with  all  his 
strength.  He  gave  up,  therefore,  the  siege  of  Mantua,  which  was  on 
the  point  of  surrendering  under  the  compulsion  of  famine,  and  recalled 
in  all  haste  the  division  Serrurier,  which  was  employed  in  its  blockade. 
It  was  first  of  all  important  to  check  the  progress  of  Quasdanovitch,  who 
was  on  the  point  of  entering  the  plain  to  the  west  of  the  lake,  for  the 
purpose  of  closing  against  us  the  road  to  Milan.  Bonaparte,  therefore, 
proceeded  in  this  direction,  crossed  the  Mincio,  and  marched  with  the 
bulk  of  his  forces  to  Lonato,  where  were  gathered  the  yictory  of  Bona. 
Austrian  columns.  A  sanguinary  conflict  ensued;  the  SndalCastS*0 
enemy  was  repulsed,  and  the  French  resumed  possession 
of  the  important  position  of  Salo  on  the  west  of  the  lake.  Quasdanovitch 
halted,  and  a  division  sufficed  to  hold  him  in  check.  Bonaparte  imme- 
diately changed  the  front  of  his  army,  and,  falling  back  upon  the  divisions 
which  had  turned  the  lake  by  the  other  shore,  fell  upon  them  like 
lightning  and  dispersed  them.  But,  although  victorious,  his  task  was 
not  yet  accomplished.  Wurmser,  who  with  twenty  thousand  men  had 
raised  the  blockade  of  Mantua,  rallied  his  soldiers  and  prepared  to  crush 
us.  Each  of  the  two  armies  rested,  one  wing  on  the  Lake  of  Garda,  and 
another   on    the   heights  of   Castiglione ;    and  it  was  on  the  celebrated 


280  RETREAT    OF    THE    AUSTRIAN.       [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  IV. 

plains  of  the  latter  name  that  was  now  to  be  decided  the  fate  of  Italy. 
Bonaparte  guessed  that  Wurmser,  whose  right  rested  on  the  lake,  would 
endeavour  to  effect  a  junction  on  this  side  with  Quasdanovitch,  who  was 
still  held  in  check  at  Salo,  and  he  ordered,  therefore,  the  division  Serrurier 
to  make  a  detour  and  attack  the  enemy  in  the  rear.  The  action  commenced 
at  daybreak  on  the  4th  August.  Bonaparte  allowed  Wurmser  to  enfeeble  his 
line  by  extending  his  right,  and  as  soon  as  he  heard  Serrurier's  cannon  in  the 
rear  of  the  Austrians  he  launched  the  divisions  Augereau  and  Massena 
against  their  centre.  The  enemy,  caught  between  two  fires,  recoiled,  and 
Retreat  of  the       Wurmser  having  ordered  a  retreat,  re-entered  the  Tyrol, 

after  having  lost  twenty  thousand  men  and  Italy. 

Not  satisfied  with  having  vanquished  Wurmser,  Bonaparte  resolved  to 

destroy  him.     Twenty  days'  repose  were  sufficient  for  his  army,  and  it 

then  entered  the  mountains  of  the  Tyrol.     But  Wurmser  had  received 

reinforcements,  and  resumed    the    offensive.     The  two  armies   met  at 

Eoveredo,    and   Bonaparte    was    again    victorious,    taking 

Bonaparte  vic- 
torious at  Rove-     the    whole    of    the    Austrian      artillery    and     four    thou- 
redoandBassano. 

sand  prisoners.  Wurmser  stole  away  with  thirty  thou- 
sand men,  and  descended  the  Valley  of  the  Brenta  to  force  the 
Adige,  and  throw  himself  between  the  French  army  in  the  Tyrol  and 
Mantua,  which  had  been  again  blockaded.  Bonaparte  saw  through  his 
plan,  and  leaving  ten  thousand  men  under  Vaubois  to  guard  the  Tyrol, 
he  went  with  twenty  thousand  men  in  pursuit  of  the  enemy,  followed 
him  into  the  basin  of  the  Brenta,  attacked  him  unexpectedly,  and  obtained 
another  victory  at  Bassano  with  the  divisions  Augereau  and  Massena. 
Wurmser,  whom  he  hoped  to  reduce  to  extremities  between  the  Brenta 
and   Adige,    crossed   that   river    at   Legnago,    forced   the   lines    of  the 

blockading  division  in  front  of  Mantua,  and  shut  himself  up 

Wurmser  shuts 

himself  up  in        in  that  city  with   fifteen    thousand    men.     Bonaparte   had 

Mantua. 

now  again  taken  or  slain  twenty  thousand  Austrian  troops 
within  a  few  days,  and  destroyed  a  third  army.  Colli,  Beaulieu,  and 
Wurmser  had  one  after  the  other  been  vanquished  by  him  within  four 
months.  An  immense  amount  of  baggage  had  fallen  into  his  hands,  and 
his  name  was  everywhere  repeated  with  admiration  and  terror. 

Bonaparte,  inspired  with  a  presentiment  of  the  extraordinary  prosperity 
Political  conduct  wni°n  awaited  him,  neglected  no  means  by  which  he 
of  Bonaparte.        might  achieve  success  and  renown.     In  the  intervals  which 


1795-1797.]  EBENCH   BEVERSES    IN    GERMANY.  281 

elapsed  between  his  battles  he  discoursed  with  men  celebrated  in  litera- 
ture and  the  arts,  devoted  his  attention  to  the  details  of  politics  and 
government,  developed  profound  views  on  all  subjects,  and  already  gave 
promise  of  his  future  power.  Affable  with  his  subordinate  officers  and  his 
soldiers,  he  treated  the  Directory  with  haughty  reserve,  and  triumphed 
over  their  jealousy  by  rendering  himself  indispensable  to  them,  at  the 
head  of  his  victorious  army.  Relying  upon  the  popular  hatred  for 
despotic  governments,  he  imposed  a  Republican  form  of  government  on 
all  his  conquests.  He  declared  the  Duke  of  Modena,  who  had  allied 
himself  with  Austria,  deprived  of  his  sovereignty ;  and  uniting  his  States 
with  the  territories  of  Reggio  and  the  legations  of  Bologna  and  Ferrara, 
formed  with  them  on  the  south  of  the  Po  a  Cispadane  Republic,  whilst  on 
the   north  of  that  river  he  made  of  Lombardv  a  Trans-    _      ,  ..       „ 

J  Foundation  ox 

padane  Republic.  These  two  Republics  formed  in  the  fol-  ?3spadanend 
lowing  year  but  one  Republic,  under  the  name  of  the  EePubUc3- 
Cisalpine  Republic.  All  Italy  trembled  before  the  vanquisher  of 
Austria.  Its  princes,  despite  their  just  grounds  of  complaint,  scrupulously 
observed  the  treaties  which  they  had  made  with  the  French  Republic, 
and  at  the  conclusion  of  the  last  campaign  the  Court  of  Naples 
tremblingly  signed  a  treaty  which  was  too  soon  to  be  broken  (October, 
1796). 

Germany  was  at  this  time  the  scene  of  events  which  were  almost  as 
important  as  those  above  narrated,  but  which  were  adverse  to  our 
arms,  and  there  seemed  reason  to  fear  that  the  reverses  suffered  by 
the  armies  of  the  Sambre  and  Meuse  would  make  France  lose  all 
the  unexpected  advantages  which  she  had  derived  from  the  campaign 
in  Italy. 

Moreau  reached  the  banks  of  the  Danube  at  the  beginning  of  August, 
and  Jourdan  followed  the  course  of  the  Naab,   one  of  its  tributaries. 
The  Archduke   Charles,  after  having    been   vanquished  by   Moreau  at 
Neresheim,  concentrated  all  his  forces  on  the  Danube,  and 
formed  a  plan  which  ended  the  campaign  in  his  favour.    He   manoeuvre  of  the 

Archduke 

resolved  to  prevent  the  junction  of  Jourdan  and  Moreau,    Charles.    Check 

ot  the  armies  of 

and   to    defeat   them    one   after    the    other  with   superior   the  Rhine  an(* 

x  Sambre  and 

forces.     The  army  of  Sambre  and  Meuse,  under  Jourdan,    Meuse  in  Ger- 

■'  '  '     many,  1796. 

being    the     feeblest,     the    Archduke     advanced     against 

that.      He  first  repulsed  its  advanced  guard,  commanded  by  Bernadotte, 


282  EETREAT    OF    MOEEATJ.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  IV. 

and  compelled  him  to  retreat.      Jourdan  halted  to  give  battle  at  Wurtz- 
burg,  but  he  was  vanquished,  and  driven  in  disorder  upon 

Defeat  of  .... 

Jourdan  at        the  Rhine,  his  point  of  departure.    In  the  meantime  Moreau 

Wurtzburg. 

had  skilfully  conducted  his  troops  towards  the  Danube,  and 
was  approaching  Munich,  when  he  heard  of  the  reverses  suffered  by  Jour- 
dan, by  whose  aid  alone  he  could  have  maintained  his  position  there. 
The  Archduke  returned  against  him  by  forced  marches,  and  the  army 
of  the  Rhine,  put  in  peril  in  its  turn,  had  to  fall  back.  Moreau  ordered 
the  retreat,  and  gained  great  glory  to  himself  by  the  manner  in  which  he 
Celebrated  -  ^ad  exec"llted  it.  He  traversed  more  than  a  hundred  leagues 
treat  of  Moreau.  0£  groun(j  jn  the  presence  of  a  formidable  army,  in  the 
midst  of  a  hostile  population,  and  re-entered  France,  after  having  gained 
in  the  Black  Mountains  the  battle  of  Biberach,  and  without  having 
allowed  himself  to  be  once  outmanoeuvred. 

This  retreat  left  the  army  of  Italy  exposed  alone  to  the  attacks  of  the 
Austrian s,  and  consequently  to  great  danger.  Davidovitch  had  assembled 
about  twenty  thousand  men  in  the  Tyrol,  and  Alvinzi  was  advancing 
with  forty  thousand  on  the  Piave.  To  resist  their  sixty  thousand  troops, 
Bonaparte  had  only  thirty- six  thousand,  of  which  twelve  thousand  were 
in  the  Tyrol,  under  Vaubois,  ten  thousand  on  the  Brenta  and  Adige, 
under  Massena  and  Augereau,  and  the  rest  around  Mantua.  All  these 
corps,  overwhelmed  with  the  fatigues  of  so  laborious  a  campaign,  were  to 
a  certain  extent  exhausted  by  their  own  victories.  The  reinforcements 
promised  by  the  Directory,  and  eagerly  expected,  did  not  arrive,  and 
Alvinzi  was  approaching. 

The  plan  of  the  Austrians  was  to  attack  simultaneously  the  mountains 
of  the  Tyrol  and  the  plain.     Davidovitch  was  ordered  to 

New  plan  of 

campaign  of  the     drive  Vaubois  from  his  position,  and  to  descend  along  the 

Austrians,  1796.  r  D# 

two  banks  of  the  Adige  as  far  as  Verona,  whilst  Alvinzi  on 
his  side  was  to  cross  the  Piave  and  the  Brenta,  and  then  effect  a  junc- 
tion at  Yerona  with  Davidovitch,  that  they  might  march  in  concert  to  the 
deliverance  of  Wurmser  and  Mantua.  This  plan  was  at  first  successful ; 
for  Yaubois,  vanquished  by  Davidovitch,  fell  back  as  far  as  Corona  and 
Rivoli,  and  this  reverse  forced  Bonaparte,  although  victorious  over  Alvinzi 
on  the  Brenta,  to  retreat  to  Yerona.  Alvinzi  hastened  to  occupy  a  formi- 
dable position  in  front  of  Caldiero,  which  Bonaparte  endeavoured  in 
vain  to  carry  by  fighting  the  unfortunate  battle  of  Caldiero,  after  which, 


1795-1797.]  CHECK   OF    THE   FRENCH   AT    CALDIERO.  283 

his  army    being   now  only    fourteen  thousand    against  forty  thousand, 
he  was  again   compelled  to  retreat  to  Verona.     His  brave 

Check  of  the 

soldiers  now  began  to  murmur,  and  to  ask  what  advantage    French  at 

Caldiero. 

they  had  derived  from  all  their  victories — what  prospects 
they  had  but  to  be  driven  as  fugitives  upon  the  Alps  ?  Bonaparte  shared 
in  their  disappointment,  and  wrote  to  the  Directory  : — "  All  our  superior 
officers,  all  our  best  generals,  are  disabled  ;  the  army  of  Italy,  reduced  to  a 
handful  of  men,  is  exhausted.  The  heroes  of  Millesimo,  of  Lodi,  of 
Castiglione,  and  Bassano,  have  died  for  their  country,  or  are  in  hospital. 
All  that  still  belongs  to  it  is  its  reputation  and  its  pride.  Joubert, 
Lannes,  Victor,  Murat,  and  Rampon,  are  wounded.  We  are  abandoned 
in  the  heart  of  Italy ;  and  for  the  brave  remnant  of  our  army  in  its  pre- 
sent weakened  state  there  is  no  prospect  but  death.  Perhaps  the  hour 
of  the  courageous  Augereau,  of  the  intrepid  Massena,  is  on  the  point  of 
striking ;  and  then,  what  will  become  of  these  brave  people  ?  This  idea 
renders  me  reserved;  I  do  not  venture  to  speak. of  death,  lest  it  should 
discourage  those  who  are  the  objects  of  my  solicitude.  .  .  ."  Bonaparte 
again  demanded  reinforcements,  and  finished  with  these  words,  "  To-day 
let  our  troops  repose  ;  to-morrow  we  "shall  act !" 

Whilst  he  was  looking  upon  his  position  as  desperate,  a  sudden  inspi- 
ration of  genius  suggested  to  him  one  of  the  great  ideas  which  govern  the 
results  of  campaigns  and  the  fate  of  kingdoms.  Marshes  surround  the 
district  of  Verona  beyond  the  Adige,  and  they  are  traversed  by  two 
causeways  which  lead  from  Ronco,  some  leagues  south  of  Verona,  to  the 
positions  then  occupied  by  the  enemy.  In  the  case  of  a  conflict  taking 
place  on  these  causeways,  numbers  could  be  of  no  avail,  whilst  courage 
and  audacity  would  be  everything ;  such  a  field  of  battle  is  the  only  one 
on  which  a  handful  of  brave  men  can  vanquish  an  army,  and  it  was 
chosen  by  Bonaparte.  He  issued  forth  from  Verona  on  the  14th  of 
November  by  the  southern  gate,  crossed  the  Adige  at  Ronco,  returned  to 
the  north  by  the  causeways,  and  was  on  the  point  of  making  his  troops 
defile  by  the  enemy's  rear,  when  they  were  checked  at  the  bridge  of 
Arcole,  on  the  Alpone,  and  Bonaparte  perceived  with  terror  that  a  portion 
of  the  results  of  his  skilful  manoeuvre  had  escaped  him.  The  enemy, 
aroused  by  the  sound  of  sharp  firing,  had  hastened  up  from  Caldiero,  and 
a  formidable  array  of  artillery  defended  the  opposite  bank.  Augereau 
seized  a  flag,  and  rushed  with  it  on  to  the  bridge  at  the  head  of  his  brave 


284  ARCOLE.  [Book  IT.  Chap.  IV. 

troops,  but  a  storm  of  shots  drove  them  back.     Bonaparte  saw  that  the 

whole  of  the  enemy's  line  was  on  the  move,  and  that  now  or  never  the 

passage  must  be  effected.     Galloping  up  to  the  front  he 

victory  at  threw  himself  from  his  horse,  and  addressing  the  soldiers 

Arcole. 

crouched  on  the  edge  of  the  causeway,  he  cried,  "  Are  you 
still  the  victors  of  Lodi  ? "  Then  seizing  a  flag  he  exclaimed,  "  Follow 
your  general !"  and  threw  himself  upon  the  bridge  in  the  midst  of  a 
shower  of  balls  and  bullets.  His  generals  surrounded  him.  Lannes 
received  his  third  wound  whilst  covering  him  with  his  body,  and 
Muiron,  Bonaparte's  aide-de-camp,  fell  dead  at  his  feet.  A  fresh 
discharge  swept  the  bridge ;  the  soldiers  carried  back  their  general  in 
their  arms,  and  it  was  hopeless  to  endeavour  to  surprise  the  enemy 
before  they  should  be  entirely  drawn  up  in  line  on  the  plain.  In  the 
meantime,  however,  General  Guyeux  had  found  a  ford  below  Arcole, 
and  having  crossed  the  Alpone  took  the  village  on  the  opposite  bank. 
The  bridge  was  now  carried,  and  a  terrible  battle  commenced,  which 
lasted  two  days.  Massena,  Augereau,  and  the  immortal  thirty-second 
demi-brigade,  rivalled  each  other  in  courage  and  energy;  and  the 
Austrians,  half  destroyed,  were  put  to  flight.  Bonaparte  then  re-entered 
Verona  in  triumph,  and  immediately  marched  against  Quasdanovitch, 
who  had  taken  the  positions  of  Corona  and  Eivoli,  and  had  driven 
Yaubois  as  far  as  Castel-Nuovo.  He  attacked  him  on  all  sides,  and  com- 
pelled him  to  retreat  in  disorder  into  the  gorges  of  the  Tyrol.  France 
and  Italy  were  again  filled  with  admiration  at  these  almost  fabulous 
exploits,  and  the  two  Councils,  on  declaring,  according  to  custom,  that 
the  army  of  Italy  had  deserved  well  of  its  country,  decreed  to  Bonaparte 
and  Augereau  a  reward  worthy  of  an  heroic  age,  bestowing  upon  them  as 
heirlooms  the  flags  which  they  had  carried  at  the  bridge  of  Arcole. 

This  wonderful  campaign,  which  in  fact  comprised  four,  if  we  reckon 
the  number  of  armies  destroyed  in  it,  was  not  yet  ended.  Austria  knew 
that  Wurmser  was  without  resources  in  Mantua,  and  that  to  lose  this 
city  was  to  give  up  Lombardy  to  France.  Emboldened  by  the  success 
achieved  by  Prince  Charles  against  the  armies  of  the  Ehine  and  Sambre 
and  Meuse,  she  resolved  yet  once  more  to  dispute  with  Bonaparte  the 
possession  of  Italy.  With  this  object  she  entrusted  another  army  to 
Alvinzi,  and  urged  the  Pope  to  send  his  own  to  the  aid  of  Mantua,  with 
Colli  for  its  general.     Bonaparte  had,  therefore,  towards  the  end  of  1796 


1795-1797.]       VICTOBIES   AT    EIYOLI   AND    SAINT    GEOKGE.  285 

to  defend  himself  at  once  against  the  army  of  the  Pope,  the  ill-will  of 
Venetia,  which  was  only  neutral  perforce,  and  sixty-five  thousand  men 
under  Alvinzi  and  Provera.  In  the  meantime,  however,  he  had  himself 
received  the  reinforcements  which  he  had  so  long  expected,  and  had 
about  forty-five  thousand  men  at  his  command.  He  marched  in  the 
first  place  in  person  to  Bologna,  and  took  measures  for  holding  the 
troops  of  the  Roman  States  in  check.  He  then  hastened  towards  the 
Adige,  and  re-entered  that  theatre  of  a  desperate  struggle  which  he  was 
soon  about  to  terminate  by  the  most  decisive  measures.  Twenty  thou- 
sand men  advanced  under  Provera  by  the  Lower  Adige,  with  the  purpose 
of  forming  communications  with  the  army  of  the  Pope  and  with  Mantua  ; 
whilst  Alvinzi,  with  forty-five  thousand  troops  descended  from  the  Tyrol 
by  the  route  which  runs  along  the  foot  of  Montebaldo, 
which  separates  the  Lake  of  Garda  from  the  Adige,   and    ^aTclx. of... 

1  o    '  Alvinzi  with  a 

a  small  body  of  troops  marched  along  the  opposite  shore.    S^AdSe  °ihe 
The  famous  military  position   of  Rivoli  was  the   only  one    Eiyon.011  at 
at  which   the  enemy  could  be  held  in  check  between  the 
lake  and  the  river.     This  position,  consisting  of  a  semi-circular  plateau 
which  commanded  the   road,  was  itself  commanded  by  the  heights  of 
Montebaldo,  which  spread  around  it  in  the  form  of  an  amphitheatre,  but 
were  inaccessible  to  artillery.      The  Adige  re-entered  the  foot  of  the 
plateau,    and  the  road  traversed  it,  rising   and    turning  frequently    on 
itself. 

Bonaparte  perceiving  the  importance  of  this  position,  posted  Joubert 
there,  who  bore  the  first  shock  of  the  Austrian  army,  and  made  an  heroic 
resistance  with  ten  thousand  men  against  forty-five  thousand.     Swarms 
of  enemies  climbed  the  heights  of  Montebaldo,  which  com- 
mands the  plateau  in  a  semicircle,    and  descended    from   vicTonesat8 
this  amphitheatre  in  close  columns.     A  formidable  mass  of  George, January, 

1797 

cavalry  and  artillery  advanced  by  the  road  on  the  plateau ; 
another  corps,  under  the  orders  of  Lusignan,  turned  it  for  the  purpose 
of  falling  upon  the  rear  of  the  French  army ;  and  Vukassovitch  poured 
upon  it  a  stream  of  fire.  But  this  plateau  was  the  only  point 'at  which 
Bonaparte  could  prevent  the  junction  of  the  various  corps  of  the  enemy's 
army.  He  re-animated  therefore,  by  his  own  presence,  Joubert's  soldiers, 
who  were  exhausted  by  forty-eight  hours'  fighting,  and  directed  his 
cannon   against  the  columns  which  from  the  Montebaldo  heights  over- 


286  CAPITULATION    OF    MANTUA.       [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  IV. 

threw  them.  Our  left  gave  way,  but  the  14th  demi-brigade  and  the 
invincible  32nd,  with  Massena  at  their  head,  drove  back  the  enemy  in 
their  turn.  Leclerc  and  Lasalle  threw  themselves  with  their  squadrons 
upon  the  formidable  column  of  artillery  and  cavalry  which  was  already 
defiling  by  the  road  on  the  right  of  the  plateau ;  a  brigade  of  light 
artillery  directed  against  it  a  shower  of  grape,  which  speedily  covered 
the  slope  with  wounded  men  and  horses.  Bonaparte  and  Joubert  then 
fell  upon  the  semicircle  of  Austrian  infantry,  the  gathered  masses  of 
which  were  rushing  on  to  the  invaded  plateau,  and  after  a  fierce  conflict 
forced  it  to  fly  into  the  mountains.  The  Austrian  corps  under  Lusignan, 
which  was  intended  to  cut  the  French  in  two,  was  itself  treated  in 
this  way,  and  was  compelled  to  lay  down  its  arms.  The  victory  was 
now  won  ;  and  Bonaparte  and  Massena  immediately  hastened  towards 
Provera,  who  with  his  twenty  thousand  men  had  crossed  the  Adige  and 
marched  to  the  relief  of  Mantua.  A  second  battle  took  place  opposite  the 
Faubourg  Saint- George,  whilst  Serrurier  repulsed  a  furious  attempt  made 
by  Wurmser  to  force  his  lines,  and  drove  him  back  into  Mantua.  Provera, 
surrounded  by  Victor  and  Massena,  surrendered  with  six  thousand  men. 
These  prodigious  battles,  together  with  the  prodigies  already  performed  by 
.  .     the  French,  decided  the  fate  of  Italy,  and  Wurmser,  reduced 

Mantua,  1797.       to  extremities  in  Mantua,  gave  up  the  city  and  his  sword 
to  the  young  victor.* 

In  the  meantime  the  Pope  had  broken  the  armistice  concluded  in  the 
previous  year  with  France,  and  had  sent  a  division  of  his  army  to  Mantua. 
Bonaparte  marched  against  it,  encountered  it  near  Imla,  at  Castel-Bolog- 
nese,  and,  after  a  brief  conflict,  put  it  to  flight.  The  remainder  of  the 
small  pontifical  army,  commanded  by  the  Austrian  General  Colli,  de- 
fended, but  immediately  surrendered  on  the  approach  of  a  French  division 
under  General  Victor.  Ancona  opened  its  gates,  and  the  capital  and 
its  arsenal  fell  into  the  power  of  the  French.  Bonaparte  and  his  army 
marched  against  Rome,  and  had  already  reached  Tolentino, 

Treaty  of  To-  &  '  J 

^ntino  between     when  the  Pope  offered  to  negotiate,  and   a  treaty  of  peace 
Pope,  1797.  was  signed  in  that  city  between  the   Holy  Father  and   the 

French  Republic.     By  this  treaty,  the  Pope  surrendered  to  France  Avig- 

*  Bonaparte  would  not  take  Wurmser' s  sword,  and  in  drawing  up  the  articles  of 
capitulation  of  Mantua  showed  every  courtesy  towards  that  officer. 


1795-1797.]  THE    CISALPINE    BEPUBLIC.  287 

non,  the  Comitat  Venaissin,  and  the  territory  known  by  the  name  of  the 
legations  of  Bologna,  Ferrara,  and  Eomagna.  He  also  engaged  to  pay  a 
fresh  war-contribution  of  fifteen  millions,  and  to  abstain  from  entering 
into  any  alliance  with  the  enemies  of  the  Republic. 

Bonaparte  now  proceeded  to  form  the  conquests  which  he  had  made 
in  the  South  and  the  North,  and  of  which  he  had  already  made  the  Cispa- 
dane  and  Transpadane  Eepublics  into  one  State,  consisting  of  Lombardy 
and  the  territories  of  Modena,  Rep-gio,  and  the  Legations.   He 

-       .  .  .  Formation  of  the 

called  this  new   State   the    Cisalpine  Republic,  and  made    Cisalpine 

r  r  '  Republic,  1797. 

Milan  its  capital.  Relieved  from  other  cares,  he  now  pro- 
jected the  subjection  of  Archduke  Charles,  the  generalissimo  of  the  impe- 
rial armies.  He  had  received  numerous  reinforcements  from  France,  and 
marched  against  the  Austrian  capital,  having  the  Archduke  in  front  of 
him.  Massena  was  in  command  of  his  vanguard,  and  immortalized 
himself  by  his  victories  on  the  Piave  and  Tagliamento.  Carinthia,  Styria, 
and  Friuli  were  rapidly  subdued,  terror  reigned  at  Vienna,  and  Bona- 
parte only  awaited  the  movements  of  the  other  armies  to  march  directly 
against  it.  Hoche  was  in  command  of  the  army  of  the  Sambre  and  Meuse, 
Moreau  in  that  of  the  army  of  the  Rhine,  and  their  advance  was  tardy ; 
whilst  Joubert,  left  in  the  rear  by  Bonaparte  for  the  purpose  of  defending 
the  Tyrol,  was  vanquished  by  Prince  Charles  and  compelled  to  retreat. 
Bonaparte,  upon  being  informed  of  this  reverse,  sent  to  Vienna  to 
make  offers  of  peace,  and  an  armistice  was  concluded 
at   Leoben.       The    French     General   restored   to    Austria   Leoben,  April, 

1797. 

Mantua  and  a  portion  of  Venetian   Lombardy  which  he 

had  conquered,  in  exchange  for  the  Cisalpine  Republic  which   he  had 

founded. 

The  Directory  refused  to  sanction  these  arrangements,  and  Bonaparte 
pointed  out  Venice  to  Austria  as  a  recompense  for  Mantua.  The  fate 
of  that  Republic  was  decided.  French  emissaries  aroused  the  people 
against  the  Venetian  senate.  But  at  Verona,  a  town  independent  ot 
Venice,  the  French  garrison  was  slain  in  a  popular  revolt.  Bonaparte, 
who  only  sought  a  pretext  for  an  act  of  spoliation,  burst  upon  the  Venetian 
Republic  with  fury,  and  demanded  vengeance  for  the  massacre  of  Verona. 
General  Baraguay  d'Hilliers  was  deputed  to  march  upon  Venice ;  the 
Senate,  terrified  at  his  approach,  voted  a  constitution  for  the  purpose  of 


288  PEACE    OE    CAMPO-EOEMIO.         [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  IV. 

pacifying  France,  and  then  dissolved,  whereupon  the  French  took  pos- 
session of  this  famous  city,  to   deliver  it  to  Austria  in  exchange  for  the 
Belgian   and  Lombard  States.  Bonaparte  signed,  at  length, 

Fall  of  Venice  :  &  ^  fo         '  °      ' 

ceded  to  Austria,  with  that  power  (17th  October,  1797),  at  Campo  Formio, 
an  advantageous  and  famous  peace,  of  which  he  dictated 
the  principal  conditions.  In  accordance  with  this  treaty,  the  Emperor 
Peace  of  Cam  o-  surrendered  to  France  Belgium  and  Mayence,  and  con- 
Pormio,  1797.  sented  that  she  should  take  possession  of  the  Ionian  Islands, 
ancient  dependencies  of  Venice.  It  also  recognised  the  Cisalpine 
Eepublic,  to  which  were  added  the  Valteline  in  the  North,  and  a  part  of 
the  Lombardo-Venetian  territory  in  the  East.  France,  in  return,  gave  up 
to  Austria,  on  the  east  of  the  Adige,  Venice,  with  several  of  the  Venetian 
possessions,  Istria,  Dalmatia,  and  the  mouths  of  the  Cattaro.  The  release 
of  General  Lafayette  and  his  three  companions  in  misfortune  was  also 
demanded  by  Bonaparte  as  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  peace  of  Campo- 
Formio.  All  the  allied  powers,  with  the  exception  of  England,  had  now 
laid  down  their  arms,  France  had  extended  its  own  system  of  government 
over  a  large  portion  of  Europe,  and  a  large  extent  of  its  frontiers,  from 
the  North  Sea  to  the  Gulf  of  Genoa,  was  bordered  by  Republican  States. 
Immediately  after  the  signature  of  the  peace  with  Austria,  a  Con- 
gress was  opened  at  Rastadt,  to  negotiate  another  with  the  German 
Empire. 

France  received  with  enthusiasm  the  news  of  the  glorious  treaty  of 
Campo-Formio ;  but  the  inevitable  dissension  between  the  executive 
power  and  the  electoral  power  had  already  displayed  itself  at  the  con- 
l_.    ,.       fli,        elusion  of  the  elections  of  the  Year  V.     The  elections  were 

Elections  of  the 

rear  v.  (1797.)  made  for  the  most  part  under  the  influence  of  the  reac- 
tionary party,  which,  whilst  it  refrained  from  conspiring  for  the  over- 
throw of  the  new  Constitution,  saw  with  terror  that  the  executive  power 
was  in  the  hands  of  men  who  had  taken  part  in  the  excesses  and  crimes 
of  the  Convention.  Pichegru,  whose  intrigues  with  the  princes  of  the 
House  of  Bourbon  were  not  yet  known,  was  enthusiastically  made  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  and  Barbe-Marbois  was  made 
president  of  the  Ancients.  Le  Tourneur  having  become,  by  lot,  the 
retiring  member  of  the  Directory,  Barthelemy,  an  upright  and  moderate 
man,  was  chosen  in  his  place.     He,  as  well  as  his  colleague,  Carnot,  were 


1795-1797.]  THE    DIEECTOEY    AND    THE    COUNCILS.  289 

opposed  to  violent  measures ;  but  they  only  formed  in  the  Directorate  a 
minority   which    was    powerless   against     the     Triumvirs 

.  1  ,     Struggle  of  the 

Barras,    Rewbel,    and    La   Reveillere,    who    soon    entered    Councils  and 

the  Directory. 

upon  a  struggle  with  the  two  Councils.  The  latter 
voted  pardons  for  many  classes  of  proscribed  persons ;  and  a  deputy  of 
Lyons,  named  Camille  Jordan,  pleaded  with  great  eloquence  in  the 
Council  of  Five  Hundred  for  freedom  of  worship,  and  its  re-establish- 
ment in  the  Republic.  His  proposal  was  entertained,  and  a  vote  was 
passed  in  its  favour  in  spite  of  the  energetic  opposition  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary party.  The  same  deputy  demanded  the  abolition  of  the  Civic 
Oath,  which  a  fatal  law  had  demanded  from  the  priests ;  and  although 
his  motion  was  lost,  it  was  by  a  very  small  majority.  This  latter  ques- 
tion was,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Directorate,  of  very  great  importance,  and  it 
saw  that  the  new  elections  would  inevitably  give  the  majority  to  their 
opponents.  There  were,  doubtless,  amongst  the  latter,  in  the  two 
Councils,  some  Royalists,  and  ardent  reactionists,  who  desired  with 
all  their  hearts  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons ;  but  according  to  the 
very  best  testimony,  the  majority  of  the  names  which  were  drawn  from 
the  electoral  urn  since  the  promulgation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  Year 
HI.,  were  strangers  to  the  Royalist  party.  "  They  did  not  desire,"  to  use 
the  words  of  an  eminent  and  impartial  historian  of  our  own  day,  "  a 
counter-revolution,  but  the  abolition  of  the  revolutionary  laws  which 
were  still  in  force.  They  wished  for  peace  and  true  liberty,  and  the 
successive  purification  of  a  Directorate  which  was  the  direct  heir  of  the 
Convention.  ,  .  .  .  But  the  Directorate  was  as  much  opposed  to  the 
Moderates  as  to  the  Royalists."*  It  pretended  to  regard  these  two  par- 
ties as  one,  and  falsely  represented  them  as  conspiring  in  common  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  Republic  and  the  re-establishment  of  monarchy.  It 
represented  itself  as  the  defender  and  avenger  of  the  principles  of  1789, 
and  the  interests  born  of  the  Revolution,  whilst  it  was  in  reality  only 
anxious  to  defend  itself  in  defiance  of  all  law  and  justice,  and  to  retain 
the  chief  power  in  the  hands  of  the  members  of  the  Convention  and  the 
heirs  of  their  violent  and  revolutionary  policy. 

If  there  were  few  Royalists  in  the  two  Councils,  there  were  also  few 
men  determined  to  provoke  on  the  part  of  the  Directors  a  recourse  to 
violence   against  their   colleagues.     But  as    a   great   number    of    their 

*  De  Barante,  "Life  of  Royer-Collard." 
VOL.    II.  U 


290  THE    ARMY    INTERFERES.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  IV. 

members  had  sat  in  the  Convention,  they  naturally  feared  a  too  complete 

reaction,  and,  affecting  a  great  zeal  for  the   Constitution,  they  founded 

at  the  Hotel  Salm,  under  the  name  of  the    Constitutional 

Club  of  Salm. 

Association  of  Club,  an  association  which  was  widely  opposed  in  its  spirit 
and  tendency  to  that  of  the  Hotel  Clichy,  in  which  were 
assembled  the  most  ardent  members  of  the  reactionary  party.  The  latter 
were  the  proposers  of  a  few  bold  resolutions  which  were  as  displeasing 
to  the  Directors  as  to  the  generals  of  the  armies,  and  especially  so  to  the 
young  conqueror  of  Italy. 

The  Councils  saw  with  anxiety  their  generals  revolutionizing  Europe, 
exciting  in  the  neighbouring  kingdoms  the  democratic  class  against  the 
upper  classes,  founding  Republics,  and  creating  abroad  a  state  of  things 
incompatible  with  the  spirit  of  the  old  monarchies,  and  which  threatened 
to  lead  to  a  perpetual  state  of  war  between  the  Republic  and  the  other 
European  Powers.  The  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  on  the  motion  of  a 
member  of  the  Clichy  Club,  energetically  demanded  that  the  Legislative 
power  should  have  a  share  in  determining  questions  of  peace  or  war.  No 
general  had  exercised,  in   this  respect,   a   more   arbitrary 

Interference  of  1  .     .       .  . 

the  army  in  Do-     power  than  had  Bonaparte,  who  had  negotiated  of  his  own 

mestie  Politics. 

mere  authority  several  treaties,  and  the  preliminaries  of 
the  peace  of  Campo-Formio.  He  was  offended  at  these  pretensions  on 
the  part  of  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  and  entreated  the  Government 
to  look  to  the  army  for  support  against  the  Councils  and  the  reactionary 
press.  He  even  sent  to  Paris,  as  a  support  to  the  policy  of  the  Directors, 
General  Augereau,  one  of  the  bravest  men  of  his  army,  but  by  no  means 
scrupulous  as  to  the  employment  of  violent  means,  and  disposed  to  regard 
the  sword  as  the  supreme  argument  in  politics,  whether  at  home  or 
abroad.  The  Directory  gave  him  the  command  of  the  military  division 
of  Paris.  The  crisis  was  now  approaching.  A  few  influential  members 
of  the  two  Councils,  Portalis,  Simeon,  and  Matthieu  Dumas,  endeavoured 
to  obtain  some  changes  in  the  Ministry,  as  a  guarantee  that  the  Directory 
would  pursue  a  line  of  conduct  more  in  conformity  with  the  wishes  of 
the  majority;  but  the  Directory,  on  the  contrary,  summoned  to  the 
Ministry  men  who  were  hostile  to  the  Moderate  party ;  and  henceforth  a 
coup  d'etat  appeared  inevitable. 

The    Directors    now  marched    some   regiments    upon    the  capital,  in 
defiance  of  a  clause  of  the  Constitution  which  prohibited  the  presence  of 


1795-1797.]  coup  d'etat.  291 

troops  within  a  distance  of  twelve  leagues  of  Paris,  unless  in  accordance 
with  a  special  law  passed  in  or  near  Paris  itself.  The  Councils  burst 
forth  into  reproaches  and  threats  against  the  Directors,  to  which  the 
latter  replied  by  fiery  addresses  to  the  armies,  and  to  the  Councils  them- 
selves. It  was  in  vain  that  the  Directors  Carnot  and  Barthelemy 
endeavoured  to  quell  the  rising  storm  ;  their  three  colleagues  refused  to 
listen  to  them,  and  fixed  the  18th  Fructidor  for  the  execu-  coup  d'etat  of 
tion  of  their  criminal  projects.     During  the  night  preced-    tl&r/TearvT) 

(1797  \ 

ing  that  day  Augereau  marched  twelve  thousand  men  into 
Paris,  and  in  the  morning  these  troops,  under  his  own  command,  sup- 
ported by  forty  pieces  of  cannon,  surrounded  the  Tuileries,  in  which 
the  Councils  held  their  sittings.  The  grenadiers  of  the  Councils'  guard 
joined  Augereau,  who  arrested  with  his  own  hand  the  brave  Ramel,  who 
commanded  that  guard,  and  General  Pichegru,  the  President  of  the 
Council  of  Five  Hundred.  Many  of  the  members  of  the  Councils  were 
driven  away  or  taken  prisoners  just  as  they  were  on  their  way  to  the 
Tuileries.  The  Directors  appointed  the  Odeon  and  the  School  of 
Medicine  as  the  places  of  meeting  for  the  now  mutilated  Councils ;  pub- 
lished a  letter  written  by  Moreau,  which  revealed  Pichegru's  treason  ; 
and  at  the  same  time  nominated  a  Committee  for  the  purpose  of  watching 
over  the  public  safety.  In  accordance  with  this  law,  which  was  declared 
to  be  one  of  public  necessity,  forty-two  members   of  the 

Proscriptions. 

Council  of  Five  Hundred,  eleven  members  of  that  of  the 
Ancients,  and  two  of  the  Directors,  Carnot  and  Barthelemy,  were  con- 
demned to  be  transported  to  the  fatal  district  of  Sinnamari.  Amongst 
those  who  were  the  victims  of  this  cruel  measure,  were  Pichegru,  Boissy 
d'Anglas,  Camille  Jordan,  Pastoret,  Simeon,  Barbe-Marbois,  Lafon- 
Ladebat,  Portalis,  and  Troncon  du  Coudray.*  The  Directors  also  made 
the  editors  of  thirty-five  journals  the  victims  of  their  resentment.  They 
had  the  laws  passed  in  favour  of  the  priests  and  emigrants  reversed,  and 
annulled  the  elections  of  forty-eight  departments.  Merlin  de  Douai  and 
Francois  de  Neufchateau  were  chosen  as  successors  to  Carnot  and 
Barthelemy,  who  had  been  banished  and  proscribed  by  their  col- 
leagues. 

*  It  was  evident,  from  the  instructions  which  the  Directors  gave  to  the  officers  who 
arrested  these  prisoners,  or  to  those  who  received  them,  that  when  they  transported 
them  they  intended  to  destroy  them.     See  De  Barante,  "  History  of  the  Directory.'' 

u  2 


292  RATIFICATION    OF    TREATY    OF    CAMPO-FORMIO.  [_BoOK  II.  CHAP.  IV. 

That  which  took  place  on  the  18th  Fructidor  ruined  the  Constitutional 

and  Moderate  party,  whilst  it  resuscitated  that  of  the  Revo- 

on  the  isth  lution.       It   long    frustrated   the   hopes   which   had  been 

Fructidor.  *  ,  u'  j, 

formed  of  a  return  to  the  regular  forms  of  a  representative 
government ;  it  re-established  a  dictatorship,  and  armed  the  dictators 
with  absolute  power,  and  at  the  same  time  made  them  rely  on  brute 
force,  and  deprived  them  of  the  moral  authority  of  right  and  justice.  This 
odious  proceeding  was  in  reality  a  revolution  ;  it  led  the  army  to  interfere 
with  violence  in  the  internal  affairs  of  the  kingdom,  and  it  established 
a  formidable  precedent  against  the  Directors  by  preparing  public  opinion 
to  sanction  at  a  future  period  the  employment  against  themselves  of  the 
violent  measures  to  which  they  had  now  had  recourse  to  strengthen  their 
authority.     The  18th  Fructidor  was  pregnant  with  the  18th  Brumaire. 

This  revolution  preceded  by  a  few  days  only  the  treaty  of  Campo- 
Formio,  which  had  been  signed  by  Bonaparte  against  the  wishes  of  the 
Directors.  The  latter  could  not  see  without  alarm  a  young  General 
raised  to  the  highest  rank  by  a  single  campaign,  arbitrarily  deciding 
questions  of  peace  and  war  ;  but  public  opinion  exulted  in  his  triumphs, 
and  the  Directory,  as  they  did  not  dare  to  disavow  him,  wished  to  appear 
to  share  his  glory  by  bestowing  upon  him  in  Paris  the  honours  which 
no  General  had  hitherto  received. 

A  triumphal  fete  was  prepared   for  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  of 

Campo-Formio.     This  imposing  ceremony  took  place  in  the 

the  Luxem-  court-vard  of  the  Palace  of  the  Luxembourg.  The  Directors, 

bourg,  in  the  J  °  ' 

Year  VI.  clothed  in  Roman  costumes,  sat  at  the  end  of  the  court  on 

a  dais  at  the  foot  of  the  altar  of  the  country.  Around  them  were  the 
Ministers,  the  Ambassadors,  the  members  of  the  two  Councils,  and  the  heads 
of  the  public  offices,  and  over  them  floated  innumerable  flags  taken  from 
the  enemy.  Expectation  was  at  its  height,  when  to  the  sound  of  warlike 
music,  of  the  roar  of  cannon,  and  the  acclamations  of  the  populace,  there 
appeared  the  man  who  had  signed  so  glorious  a  peace,  after  having  en- 
forced it  by  hi3  skill  and  valour.  Bonaparte  appeared,  accompanied  by 
Talleyrand,  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs.  The  slight  and  delicate 
figure  of  the  young  hero  strikingly  contrasted  with  the  idea  which  his 
gigantic  exploits  had  caused  to  be  formed  of  his  person  ;  but  his  spark- 
ling eye,  his  pale  and  heroic  countenance,  exhibiting  genius  and  determi- 
nation in  every  trait,   produced  an  indefinable    effect    on  the  spectators. 


1795-1797.]  BONAPARTE    ENTERS    PARIS.  293 

As  soon  as  he  appeared  there  was  a  great  shout  of  "  Long  live  the  Republic ! 
Long  live  Bonaparte !"  Talleyrand,  in  a  brief  address,  praised  the  modesty 
of  the  hero  who  attributed  all  his  glory,  not  to  himself,  but  to  the  Revo- 
lution, the  valour  of  his  troops,  and  to  France.  Then  Bonaparte  spoke  : 
"  Citizens,"  he  said,  "  you  have  organized  a  great  nation  which  is  only 
circumscribed  by  the  limits  which  nature  herself  has  established.  I  have 
the  honour  to  present  to  you  the  treaty  signed  at  Campo-Formio,  and 
ratified  by  the  Emperor.  This  peace  secures  the  liberty,  the  prosperity, 
and  the  glory  of  the  Republic.  When  the  happiness  of  the  French 
people  shall  be  based  on  the  best  possible  system  of  laws,  the  whole  of 
Europe  will  become  free."  Enthusiastic  applause  greeted  this  address, 
and  Barras  replied  to  it,  pointing  out  England  to  the  young  hero  as 
a  fertile  field  in  which  he  might  reap  new  laurels.  A  patriotic  hymn 
by  the  poet  Chenier  was  then  chanted  with  the  accompaniment  of  a 
magnificent  orchestra  and  the  roar  of  cannon.  After  this  Joubert  and 
Andreossy  advanced,  bearing  a  flag,  the  homage  paid  by  the  Republic 
to  the  army  of  Italy.  Its  exploits  and  its  conquests  were  inscribed  upon 
it  in  letters  of  gold,  which  told  that  it  had  taken  fifty  thousand  prisoners, 
sixty-six  flags,  eleven  hundred  pieces  of  artillery,  forced  numerous 
treaties  on  the  Italian  sovereigns,  exacted  a  tribute  of  the  most  splendid 
works  of  art,  fought  sixty-seven  glorious  battles,  and  obtained  eighteen 
decisive  victories. 


294  EXPEDITION    TO    EGYPT.  [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  V. 


CHAPTER  V. 

FROM    THE    PEACE    OF    CAMPO-FORMIO    TO    THE    ESTABLISHMENT    OF   THE 

CONSULATE. 

17th   Oct.,  .1797    (26th   Vendemiaire,    Year    VII.),  to   10th  Nov.,   1799 
(10th  Brumaire,   Year   VIII.) 

The  treaty  of  Campo-Formio  and  the  coup  d'etat  of  the  month  of 
Fructidor  raised  for  a  short  time  the  power  of  the  dictators,  amongst 
whom  Treilhard  succeeded  Francois  de  Neufchateau,  to  a  great  height ; 
but  its  strength,  which  was  more  apparent  than  real,  rested  entirely  on 
the  army,  and  this  false  and  dangerous  position  compelled  the  Directors 
to  keep  troops  in  the  field  and  continue  the  war.  Barras,  in  his  address 
to  Bonaparte,  had  pointed  out  England  as  a  field  for  new  conquests, 
and  an  invasion  of  that  kingdom  was  projected,  but  speedily  abandoned 
for  an  invasion  of  Egypt,  which  was  resolved  on  in  spite  of  the  neutrality 
which  had  been  observed  by  the  Ottoman  Porte.  Bonaparte  was 
entrusted  with  the  command  of  this  adventurous  expedi- 
receivesthe  tion,  which  gratified  the  Directors  because  it  removed  a 

command  of  the  11.1  -i-ii  i 

Expedition  to        man  whom  they  feared,  and  which  was  desirable  to  the 
Egypt.  .«•■,. 

young  conqueror  because  it  offered  him  an  opportunity  of 

still  further  impressing  France  with  the  idea  it  had  conceived  of  his 

immense    talents.      He    set    forth    from    Toulon   with  a  fleet  of  four 

hundred  vessels  and  a  portion  of  the  army  of  Italy.     Many  celebrated 

^  „        and  learned  men  accompanied  the  expedition.     The  fleet 

Departure  of  x  x 

the  fleet,  1798.       set   sa^  on  the   19^  jy^   1793^  under  the  command  of 

Admiral  Brueys,  and  first  of  all  took  possession,  in  defiance  of  the  law 

of  nations,  of  the  island  of  Malta,  which  then    belonged 

Capture  of  7  " 

Malta-  to  the  order  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John. 

The  island  of  Malta  was  the  third  kingdom  which  had  been 
violently  invaded  by  the  French  armies  since  the  peace  of  Campo- 
Formio.      The     policy    of    the     Directors,    which    was    tyrannical   in 


1797-1799.]  FBANCE   AND    SWITZERLAND.  295 

France  and  aggressive  abroad,  could  not  but  tend  to  a  state  of  per- 
petual war,  whilst  anarchy,  civil  disturbances,  successive  oressiveand 
bankruptcies,  forced  loans,  the  stagnation  of  commerce,  and  polw  of  the7 
the  ruin  of  the  public  credit,  had  exhausted  all  the  resources  Directory- 
of  France.  The  Government  was  in  a  condition  of  extreme  difficulty, 
and  as  it  could  provide  neither  for  the  support  of  the  army  or  the 
expenses  of  the  state  by  legitimate  means,  it  had  recourse  to  those  which 
were  violent  and  illegal,  and  to  unjust  and  rapacious  proceedings  towards 
other  nations.  It  coveted  the  treasure  of  the  city  of  Berne,  valued  at 
more  than  thirty  millions,  and  the  riches  existing  in  Eome,  and  all  the 
resources,  whether  in  money  or  material  of  war,  possessed  by  Piedmont. 
These  three  states  were  allies  of  France,  and  the  Directory  formed  a 
pretext  for  laying  hands  upon  their  possessions.  It  had 
long  since  aroused  the  revolutionary  spirit  in  Switzerland,  ditkm  of  Swit- 
"  Liberty  was  not  absent  from  Switzerland,"  says  an  author 
already  quoted,  "  but  in  most  of  the  Cantons  the  superior  authority  and 
the  offices  of  government  were  confided  to  the  aristocracy ;  but  in  spite 
of  this  unequal  division  of  political  rights,  Switzerland  had  always  pre- 
served the  love  of  true  liberty,  that  is  to  say,  of  justice,  of  respect  for 
religion,  of  family  authority  and  the  rights  of  property,  of  humanity  and 
good  morals,  and  especially  a  love  of  their  own  country,  a  proud  remem- 
brance of  their  ancient  glory  and  the  battles  they  had  fought  for  their 
independence.  The  aristocracy  had  lost  its  old  feudal  character,  even  in 
those  Cantons  where  it  was  most  powerful,  and  only  exercised  authority 
by  means  of  the  magisterial  offices  in  its  possession."  The  French 
Revolution,  nevertheless,  aroused  in  Switzerland  a  desire  for  equality  not 
only  in  the  Cantons  where  the  aristocratic  element  was  dominant,  but 
especially  amongst  those  populations  which  had  been  conquered  or 
obtained  in  other  ways  at  various  periods,  and  who  on  that  account  were 
looked  upon  as  subject  populations,  and  did  not  enjoy  the  same  rights 
as  the  Cantons  with  which  they  were  incorporated.  In  this  way  the 
district  of  Vaud  was  subject  to  the  Canton  of  Berne,  and  the  Vaudois, 
like  the  population  subject  to  the  other  Cantons,  were  indignant  at  their 
political  inferiority. 

The  Directory  openly  offered  (January,  1798,)  its  protection  to  the 
democratic  party  in  Switzerland  against  the  aristocracy,  to  the  partisans 
of  a  central  government  against   those  who  were  in  favour  of  a  federal 


296  INVASION    OE    SWITZERLAND.         [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  V. 

government,  and  to  the  subject  populations  against  the  Cantons  to  which 

they  belonged.     By  its  intrigues  and  incendiary  proclamations  it  threw 

the   country  into   a  state  of  disorder,  then   marched  troops   into   it,  and 

under  pretence  of  freeing  Switzerland  from  every  kind  of 

Violence  of  the  .  v-i       i        •  •       -i       -i  t        •  n  -i  • 

Directory  in  oppression,  and  bestowing  upon  it  the  blessings  of  equality 

Switzerland,  1798.  .  .  . 

and  liberty,  it  took  possession  01  the  whole  country,  seized 
the  treasury  at  Berne,  crushed  the  inhabitants  beneath  the  burden  of 
forced  contributions,  and  gave  up  the  whole  country  to  pillage.  Several 
portions  of  Switzerland  and  the  free  town  of  Geneva  were  violently 
annexed  to  the  French  Republic,  as  the  Yalteline,  taken  from  the 
Grisons,  had  already  been  annexed  to  the  Cisalpine  Republic.  All  the 
subject  populations  were  declared  independent  and  placed  on  a  footing 
of  complete  equality  with  the  paramount  Cantons.,  The  town  of  Aarau 
TT  .,  was  selected  as  the   meeting;  place  of  an  Assemblv,  which 

Unitarian  con-  or  j  i 

posed  on  Swit-  v°ted  for  the  whole  of  Switzerland  a  constitution  (April, 
zeriand,  1798.  1793^  modelled  after  that  of  France,  and  placed  the  exe- 
cutive power  in  the  hands  of  a  Helvetian  Directory,  which  was  installed 
in  office  under  the  protection  of  French  bayonets.  This  constitution  was 
rejected  by  the  small  Cantons,  and  threw  all  Switzerland  into  a  state  of 
disturbance.  The  French  army  was  directed  to  re-establish  order,  and 
to  enforce  obedience  to  the  new  Constitution,  and  entered  upon  a  course  of 
the  most  frightful  tyranny. 

This  Directory  at   the   same  time  brought  about  a   revolution  in  the 
Roman  States.      It  had  been  without   any  pretext   since 

Revolution  in.  _ 

the  Roman  the   treaty   01   Tolentmo  for  the   overthrow  01   the  Ponti- 

States,  1798. 

ncal  Government,  but  it  speedily  found  one.  It  directed 
its  Ambassador  at  Rome  to  display,  contrary  to  usual  custom,  the  flag  of 
the  Republic  in  front  of  his  mansion.  This  demonstration,  which  was 
exceedingly  offensive  to  the  Romans,  provoked  a  popular  demonstration 
against  the  Ambassador ;  and  the  French  General,  Duphot,  perished  on 
the  very  threshold  of  the  embassy  in  the  tumult  which  he  was  endea- 
vouring to  quell.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  Pontifical  Government  made 
the  most  humble  offers  of  atonement  for  this  murder ;  the  Direc- 
tory resolved  to  exact  vengeance  at  the  point  of  the  sword,  and  General 
Berthier  was  ordered  to  march  upon  Rome.  A  French  corps  entered 
the  city  unresisted ;  the  temporal  authority  of  the  Pope  was  declared 
abolished,    and    replaced   by    a    Republican    Government,    the    public 


1797-1799.]  SECOND    ETTEOPEAN    COALITION.  297 

treasury  was  seized,  the  churches  and  convents  were  despoiled  of  their 
wealth,  the  city  of  Rome  was  laid  under  a  fresh  contribution,  and  the 
Pope,  Pius  VI.,  was  made  prisoner.  This  venerable  Pontiff,  po  epiugVI 
who  was  more  than  eighty  years  old,  ill  and  feeble,  was  jJJJJJ directory 
violently  torn  from  his  palace  by  the  French  troops,  sub-  at  Valence> im 
jected  to  the  greatest  insults,  and  dragged  into  exile  to  Valence,  where 
he  died  (August  20,  1799,)  imploring  pardon  for  his  enemies,  and  blessing 
France,  from  which  he  had  suffered  so  many  injuries. 

The  invasion  of  Switzerland  and  the  Roman  States  at  a  period  of 
complete  peace,  excited  the  indignation  and  just  alarm  of  the  European 
powers,  and  made  them  perceive  that  there  was  no  durable  peace  to  be 
hoped  for  with  the  Directorial  Government.  They  again  formed  an 
alliance  against  France,  and  the  celebrated  English  Minister,  William 
Pitt,  induced  Austria  and  Russia  to  become  members  of  mi 

'  The  second 

the  new  coalition.     The  uniust  attack  on  Egypt  caused  the    Coalition  of 

J  c  x  .Europe  against 

Ottoman  Porte  to  join  this  league,  and  the  Court  of  Naples   France> 1798- 
did  so    also.       The  latter,    governed    by  Queen    Caroline,  the    wife  of 
King  Ferdinand,  ventured  to  risk  incurring  the  fate  with  which  it  was 
threatened,  and  declared  war  against  France  (November,  1798). 

The  Directors  immediately  marched  upon  the  Peninsula  the  army 
of  Italy ;  but  before  invading  the  south,  they  were  anxious  to  con- 
firm their  power  in  the  North  of  Italy,  and  resolved  to  take  Pied- 
mont from  an  inoffensive  Prince,  Charles  Emmanuel  IV.,  the  son  and 
successor  of  Victor  Amadeus  III.,  who  had  faithfully  observed  the  treaties 
concluded  by  his  father  with  France.  The  Directors  did  all  that 
could  be  suggested  by  the  spirit  of  violence  and  cunning  to  reduce  this 
prince  to  despair.  They  had  already  excited  at  the  gates  of  Piedmont, 
in  the  city  of  Genoa,  a  revolutionary  movement,  which  surrendered  it 
into  the  hands  of  the  Democrats,  and  the  Genoese  State  had  become, 
under  the  protection  of  France,  the  Ligurian  Republic.  A  similar 
revolution  was  set  on  foot  in  Piedmont  by  French  agents ;  and  the 
Directors  everywhere  fomented  rebellion,  supported  revolts,  prohibited 
the  King  from  suppressing  and  punishing  them,  forced  him 

Invasion  of 

to  ffive  up  the  city  of  Turin,  the  citadel  and  the  arsenals,    Piedmont  and 

&  r  J  m  the  Two  Sicilies 

and    then    under    various   pretexts,  seized    his   fortresses    by  the  French, 

x  1797-1799. 

(December,  1798).     At  length  Charles  Emmanuel,  already 

deprived  of  all  his  power,  was  compelled  to  abdicate  the  throne  of  Pied- 


298  DIFFICULTIES    OE    THE    DIKECTOKY.     [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  V. 

mont.     He  abandoned  his  States  on  the  Continent  to  the  French  army 
commanded  by  Joubert,  and  retired  with  his  family  to  the 

Abdication  of 

the  King  of  island  of  Sardinia,  the  last  remnant  of  his  possessions,  where 

Piedmont,  who 

retires  to  Sar-       he  protested  against  the  shameful  violence  to  which  he  had 

dinia,  1798. 

been  subjected. 
A   French  army,   commanded    by  Championnet,    now  marched    upon 
Naples,  and  entered  that  capital  after  a  desperate  conflict  with  the  lazza- 
roni,     of     whom    it    slew    great   numbers.     Championnet 

Expulsion  of  the 

King  of  the  Two     declared  the  Bourbons  deprived  of  the  throne,  and  com- 

Sicilies.  ... 

pelled  the  King  to  retire  to  Sicily.  The  kingdom  of 
Naples  became  a  Republic,  as  had  the  other  States  of  the  Peninsula, 
under  the  name  of  the  Parthenopean  Republic ;  and  the  whole  of  Italy 
was  for  some  time  in  the  power  of  the  French  armies. 

The  Directorial  Government,  although  victorious  abroad,  and  possessed 
apparently  of  arbitrary  power,  had  in  reality  but  a  doubtful  tenure  of 
office  in  France.  The  coup  d'etat  of  Fructidor  had  suppressed  for  a 
time  the  reaction  supported  by  the  Royalists  and  Moderates,  and  given 
fresh  life  to  the  hopes  of  the  demagogues  and  Jacobins.  The  elections  of 
the  Year  VI.  were  made  under  the   influence  of  the  latter,  in  a   spirit 

directly  opposite  to  that  which  had  ruled  the  elections  of  the 

Elections  of  the 

Demagogues  for    previous  year,  and  were  nevertheless  no  less  hostile  to  the 

the  Year  VI..  r  J         ' 

Directors.  The  latter  annulled  a  great  portion  of  them,  in 
the  hope  of  procuring  a  state  of  equilibrium  between  the  various  factions, 
and,  employing  the  most  despotic  measures,  arbitrarily  selected  in  many 
departments  the  candidates  who  had  received  the  minority  of  votes.  This, 
however,  could  not  prevent  many  violent  Democrats  from  joining  the 
Council  of  Five  Hundred,  and  rendering  their  party  predominant.  As 
the  Directors  had  defied  all  law  by  their  proceedings  on  the  18th 
Fructidor,  they  could  now  only  suppress  violence  by  violence,  and  at 
length  roused  public  opinion  against  them.  They  had  already  alienated 
the  numerous  class  of  public  creditors  by  the  late  bankruptcy,  which 
reduced  the  interest  of  the  national  debt  to  the  tiers  consolide,  and  soon, 
as  always  happens  in  the  case  of  a  feeble  Government,  they  were  held 
responsible    for    all    the    disgraces    and    misfortunes   of  the    kingdom. 

Their  situation  became  more  and  more  perilous,  and  if  the 

Difficulties  and 

perils  of  the  resources  of  the  Government  appeared  immense,  the  obsta- 

Directory.  x  x 

cles  against  which  they  had  to  struggle  were  still  greater. 


1797— 1799.J  MILITARY   ARRANGEMENTS.  299 

They  had  to  govern,  not  only  France,  but  Holland,*  Switzerland,  and 
the  many  Bepublics  into  which  Italy  was  now  divided  ;  whilst  for  want  of  a 
proper  organization,  they  conld  obtain  neither  men  nor  money.  It  was, 
nevertheless,  necessary  to  defend  these  various  kingdoms,  and  for  that 
purpose  to  carry  on  war  upon  a  line  which  extended  from  the  Texel  to 
the  Adriatic,  and  which,  attacked  in  front  by  Austria  and  Russia,  was 
exposed  on  the  other  side  to  the  English  fleets.  It  was  from  France 
alone  that  forces  could  be  drawn  for  the  defence  of  so  vast  a  territory. 
Forty  thousand  of  her  best  soldiers  and  her  greatest  captain  were  in 
Egypt ;  the  other  armies  were  diminished  to  one-half  by  sickness  and 
desertions ;  the  conscription,  now  first  put  in  use,  had  failed  to  supply 
the  vacancies  in  the  ranks ;  the  deficiency  in  the  treasury  incessantly 
increased ;  the  disputes  which  continually  took  place  between  the  civil 
and  military  authorities  of  the  conquered  countries  rendered  the  execu- 
tion of  the  orders  of  the  Government  very  difficult ;  whilst  the  insubordi- 
nation of  the  troops,  who  saw  that  their  services  were  necessary,  the 
rapacity  of  a  multitude  of  agents,  and  the  incendiary  principles  which  a 
crowd  of  Democrats  disseminated  through  the  new  Republics,  gave  the 
greatest  reason  to  fear  that,  in  the  case  of  any  reverse,  insurrections 
would  take  place  amongst  their  several  populations.  Nevertheless  the 
re-establishment  of  peace  was  impossible,  for  Austria  and  England  were 
more  terrified  at  the  revolutionary  doctrines  of  France  than  at  its  arms, 
and  there  could  be  no  doubt  that  the  Russian  and  Austrian  armies  would 
speedily  march  against  Holland,  Switzerland,  and  Italy. 

The  Directory  resolved  to  anticipate  them,  and  with  this  object  distri- 
buted the  French  armies  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine  to  the    ,!*#. 

Military 

gulf  of  Tarentum.     But  instead  of  concentrating  formidable    arrangements- 
masses   on  any  one  point,    it  endeavoured  to    act  on  the  offensive,  on 
many  points  at  once,  with  two  hundred  thousand  against 
three   hundred  thousand,   and  naturally  failed  to  achieve   the  campaign, 

1799. 

success.     Ten  thousand  men  defended  Holland  under  Ge- 
neral Brune ;   the  army  of  the  Rhine  was  confided  to  Bernadotte ;   that 
of  the  Danube,  consisting  of  forty  thousand  men,  to  Jourdan  ;  Massena 
occupied  Switzerland  with  thirty  thousand  troops ;   Scherer  commanded 

*  A  revolution  had  been  effected  in  Holland  by  the  democratic  or  patriotic  party. 
The  Stadtholdership  had  been  abolished,  and  the  United  Provinces,  now  called  the 
Batavian  Republic,  had  a  Government  closely  resembling  that  of  the  French  Republic. 


300  EEYEBSES    IN   ITALY.  [BOOK  IT.  CHAP.  V. 

the  army  of  Italy,  which  now  amounted  to  fifty  thousand  men  ;  and  Mac- 
donald  was  at  the  head  of  that  of  Naples.  It  was  on  the  Danube  and 
the  Adige  that  the  Austrians  were  about  to  make  their  principal  efforts, 
for  they  wished  first  of  all  to  dispossess  the  French  of  the  chain  of  the 
Alps.  The  Directory,  in  their  anxiety  to  anticipate  the  enemy,  ordered 
Jourdan  to  advance ;  and  to  advance  by  the  Black  Forest  as  far  back  as 
the  sources  of  the  Danube.  At  the  same  time  they  ordered  Scherer  to  cross 
the  Adige  and  to  traverse  the  defiles  of  the  Tyrol.  Their  Generals  obeyed 
these  orders  in  the  presence  of  very  superior  numbers,  and  the  disasters 
suffered  by  the  armies  speedily  made  manifest  the  faults  in  the  plan  of 
the  campaign.  The  Archduke  Charles,  with  sixty  thousand  men,  checked 
Jourdan  at  the  moment  when  he  was  about  to  advance  between  the  Danube 
and  the  Lake  of  Constance,  and  defeated  him.  A  few  days 
dan  at  stockach,    afterwards   Jourdan  engaged  the  enemy  at   Stockach,  near 

March,  1799.  . 

the  river  of  that  name,  and  at  the  strategical  point  at  which  the 
Swabian  and  Swiss  routes  meet.  Prince  Charles  was  the  conqueror;  and  the 
French  army  fell  back  upon  the  Rhine  in  the  direction  of  the  Black  Forest. 
Scherer  now  marched  upon  the  Adige  with  fifty  thousand  men  against 
sixty  thousand  Austrians.  Twenty  thousand  troops  were  about  to  rein- 
force the  enemy,  and  the  famous  General  Suwarrow  was  approaching  with 
sixty  thousand  Russians.  Baron  De  Kray,  an  excellent  General,  com- 
manded the  Austrian  army  in  Upper  Italy  ;  whilst  Scherer, 

Eeverse  of  the  . 

army  of  Italy,        who  had  succeeded  the  victor  of  Arcole  and  Rivoli,  had  a 

1799. 

doubly  difficult  task  to  perform,  and  conducted  his  com- 
mand in  a  manner  which  contrasted  most  unfavourably  with  the  brilliant 
qualities  of  his  predecessor.  He  was  incapable  of  winning  either  the 
affections  or  the  confidence  of  his  soldiers,  and  his  own  knowledge  of  his 
unpopularity  rendered  his  natural  want  of  firmness  still  greater.  After 
much  hesitation  he  endeavoured  to  cross  the  Adige,  but  was  vanquished 

on  the  plains  of  Magnano  ;  and  after  having  been  beaten  in  a 

JJ6lG&t3  01 

Scherer  at  number    of  combats,  which    resulted  in  the   loss  of    the 

Magnano,   April,  ' 

1799-  Adige,  the  Mincio,  and  the  Adda,  and  the  reduction  of  his 

army  to  twenty  thousand  men,  he  resigned  the  command  to  Moreau. 

This  illustrious  General,  who  was  in  disgrace  with  the  Directors,  and 
who  had  been  made  a  simple  General  of  Division  under  Scherer,  had  fre- 
quently, by  his  own  skill,  saved  the  army  from  total  destruction  in  the 
course  of  this  terrible  campaign.  He  showed  his  devotion  and  patriotism 
by  accepting  the  command  when  the  army  was  reduced  to  a  handful 


1797— 1799.]  THE    TRENCH    DEFEATED    BY    STTWARROW.  301 

of  men,  and  when  the  Russians  united  with  the  Austrians  appeared  to  be 
able  to  annihilate  that  army  by  a  single  blow.  Moreau  never  displayed 
more  talent,  coolness,  presence  of  mind,  and  force  of  character,  than  in 
the  terrible  position  in  which  Scherer's  rashness  had  placed  the  army. 
Moreau  first  of  all  covered  Milan,  and  then  marched  to  cross  the  Po. 
Maintaining  a  formidable  position  at  every  halt,  he  concentrated  his  forces 
below  Alexandria,  at  the  confluence  of  the  Po  and  the  Tanaro,  and  halted 
in  an  admirable  position  at  the  foot  of  the  Genoese  mountains.  He  took 
possession  of  the  fortresses  of  Casal,  Valencia,  and  Alexandria,  and 
planted  a  chain  of  military  posts  on  the  two  rivers ;  on  the  one 
side  he  kept  his  communications  open  with  France,  whilst  on  the 
other  he  rested  on  Tuscany,  by  which  the  army  which  Macdonald 
was  bringing  by  forced  marches  towards  the  Alps  would  be  able 
to  defile  from  Rome  and  Naples.  The  junction  of  the  two  armies 
under  two  such  Generals  as  Macdonald  and  Moreau  would  permit 
of  offensive  operations  against  the  enemy — most  probably  alter  the  issue 
of  the  campaign. 

The  very  day  on  which  Moreau  commenced  his  splendid  retreat  was 
marked  by  a  shameful  violation  of  the  law  of  nations  in  Assassination  of 
respect  to  the  French  Plenipotentiaries  at  Rastadt.  The  plenipotentiaries 
Congress  assembled  at  this  city  was  not  dissolved,  for 
France,  which  was  then  at  war  with  the  Emperor,  was  still  at  peace 
with  the  Princes  of  the  German  empire.  Many  of  the  latter,  however, 
had  already  yielded  to  the  influence  of  Austria,  and  had  recalled  their 
envoys  ;  upon  which  the  Directory  had  thought  right  to  recall  its  own, 
and  ordered  the  Plenipotentiaries,  Roberjot,  Bonnier,  and  Jean  Debry  to 
leave  Rastadt.  As  they  were  leaving  that  city,  they  were  pursued  by 
Austrian  hussars  and  massacred.  Jean  Debry  alone,  although  terribly 
wounded,  escaped  death.  The  Directory  loudly  declared  its  determina- 
tion to  avenge  this  outrage  ;  but  it  had  yet  long  to  wait,  and  the  Italian 
campaign  concluded  for  France,  as  it  had  commenced,  by  heavy  reverses. 
Macdonald,  so  long  impatiently  expected,  at  length,  on  the  18th  of  June, 
met  Suwarrow  face  to  face  in  the  Valley  of  the  Trebbia,  and  unfortunately 
gave  him  battle  before  he  had  completely  effected  his  junction  with 
Moreau.  The  banks  of  that  river  were  the  scene  of  a  terrible  Defeat  of  the 
battle,  which  was  maintained  during  three  successive  days  Tre  ia' 1799' 
by  the  forces  of  Macdonald  alone  against  Suwarrow's  army.  The  French, 
after   performing  prodigies    of   valour,    were    driven   back  beyond  the 


302  DISSOLUTION    OP    THE    DIRECTORY.       [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  V. 

Apennines  upon  the  Nova,  at  the  moment  when  Moreau,  forcing  his  way- 
through  all  obstacles,  denied  from  Novi.     He  hastened  up  to  the  support 
of  his  unfortunate  colleague,  but  could  only  cover  his  retreat.     The  two 
L  s    fitai       battles    of  Magnano  lost   Italy  for   the  French,  as  that  of 
1799,  Stockach    had    deprived    them    of  Germany.       The    con- 

federates, commanded  by  the  Archduke  Charles,  now  attempted  to  cross 
the  barrier  of  Switzerland,  defended  by  Massena,  whilst  the  Duke  of 
York  landed  in  Holland  with  forty  thousand  men. 

Such  was,  at  the  period  of  the  elections  of  Floreal,  in  the  Year  VII., 
the  position  of  France  abroad.  These  elections  were  in  favour  of  the 
Democrats,  whilst  at  the  same  time  Sieyes,  the  chief  opponent  of  the 
Directory,  succeeded  Rewbel.  The  Councils  declared  their  sittings  per- 
manent, and  demanded  of  the  Directors  an  account  of  the  state  of  the 
Republic ;  displaying  especial  animosity  towards  Treilhard,  Merlin  de 
Douai,  and  La  Reveillere.  Treilhard  was  deprived  of  his  office  on  a 
frivolous  pretext,  and  was  succeeded  by  Gohier,  ex-Minister  of  Justice. 
The  Councils  continued  to  attack  Merlin  and  La  Reveillere. 

Forcible  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Diree-    Barras  abandoned  them,  and  on  the  30th  Prairial  they  were 
tory,  30th  Prai-        *  ...  . 

rial, Year  vii.        compelled  to    resign  the    Directorial  authority,  and  were 

(June  18,  1799.)  x  ■  . 

succeeded  by  General  Moulins  and  Roger -Ducos.  This 
completed  the  disorganization  of  the  Year  III. ;  and  Sieyes  henceforth 
laboured  to  destroy  what  remained  of  it,  being  supported  in  the  Directory 
by  Roger-Ducos,  in  the  Legislature  by  the  Council  of  Ancients,  and  by 
the  army  and  middle  classes  without.  The  Constitutional  party  was 
supported  by  the  Directors  Moulins  and  Gohier,  by  the  Council  of  Five 
Hundred,  and  the  Manege  Club,  formed  of  the  wrecks  of  the  Salm,  the 
Pantheon,  and  the  Jacobin  Clubs.  -  It  was  by  the  aid  of  the  army  and 
of  some  great  military  leader  that  Sieyes  was  enabled  to  succeed ;  and 
Bonaparte  opportunely  presented  himself. 

The  Egyptian  expedition  had  been  brilliant.     At  the  period  when  it 
took   place  Egypt   was    oppressed    by  the  Mamelukes,    a 

Campaign  of 

Egypt,  1798-  cavalry  militia  independent  of  the  Porte,  and  all-powerful 
there.     They  alone  made  an  intrepid  resistance.     The  first 

struggle  took  place  at  the  village  of  Chebreiss  ;  the  French  were  vic- 
torious, and  this  first  victory  was  speedily  followed  by  another 

Battles  of  Cheb- 
reiss and  of  the       at  the  foot  of  the  Pyramids,  which    Bonaparte  pointed  out 
Pyramids,  1798.  <  J 

to    his    troops  with   these  magnificent  words — "  Soldiers ! 


1797-1799.]  THE   BATTLE    OE    THE    NILE.  303 

from  the  heights  of  those  monuments  forty  ages  loook  down  upon  you]" 
He  continued  to  conquer.  Cairo  opened  its  gates ;  Rosetta  and  Dami- 
etta  submitted ;  and  Mourad-Bey,  the  Mameluke  chief,  retired  into 
Upper  Egypt,  where  Desaix,  who  was  sent  in  pursuit  of  him,  displayed 
the  greatest  talents,  and  caused  his  justice  and  moderation  to  be  blessed. 
In  the  meantime  the  English  Admiral  Nelson  inflicted  a  mortal  blow  on 
the  French  maritime  power.     Admiral  Brueys  having  im- 

ii  -i-i-ni  •  t  t       n    Destruction  of 

prudently  posted   the    French   navy  m   the   roadstead  of   the  French  fleet 

.  in  the  Bay  of 

Aboukir,  Nelson  bore  down  upon  it  and  almost  entirely   Aboukir,  July, 

r  J      1798. 

destroyed  it 

In  spite  of  this  great  disaster,  Bonaparte  completed  the  subjugation  of 
Egypt,  and  took  great  pains  to  gain  the  affections  of  the  inhabitants  by  con- 
forming to  their  customs,  and  citing  the  Koran  in  support  of  his  decrees.  At 
the  same  time  he  raised  the  Christians  named  Copts,  and  regarded  as  the  de- 
scendants of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  from  a  state  of  hereditary  oppression. 
When  the  fighting  was  at  an  end  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  sciences, 
and  founded  an  Institute  at  Cairo.  Then,  after  having  suppressed  a  for- 
midable revolt  excited  in  that  city  against  his  army,  he  withdrew  from 
his  conquest,  and  entered  upon  that  of  Syria,  in  the  hope  of  penetrating 
as  far  as  India,  and  striking  the  English  at   the  source  of  ^ 

'  &  b  Expedition  to 

their  power.     His  army  traversed  sixty  leagues  of  arid  de-    gt1  Jean^Fr^ 

sert  and  marched  upon  Gaza,  which  opened  its  gates.    Jaffa 

and  Ca'ifa  were  carried,  and  Saint  Jean  d'Acre  invested.     As  Bonaparte, 

however,  was  without  siege  artillery,  he  made  seventeen  desperate  assaults 

in  vain  upon  the  latter  place,  which  was  defended  by  the  talents  of  the 

French    engineer    Phelippeaux     and   by    the    English    commodore    Sir 

Sidney  Smith.     Junot  vanquished  the  Turks  at  Nazareth, 

and  Bonaparte,  supported  by  Kleber  and  Murat,  obtained    not  at  Nazareth, 

-,  />Ti/r  mi  »  •  an<*  °f  Bonaparl  e 

the    celebrated  victory   of  Mount    Tabor  ;  after  which  he    at  Mount  Tabor, 

April,  1799. 

raised  the  siege  of  Saint    Jean   d'Acre,    and  returned  to 

Cairo,  where  he  learned,  through  the  journals,  the  unfortunate  position 

of  the  Republic,  and  the  events  of  the  30th  Prairial. 

Anarchy  reigned  in  France  ;  another  forced  loan  had  excited  the  in- 
dignation of  the  classes  in  good  circumstances,  whilst  the  odious  law  of 
hostages,  which  rendered  the  relatives  of  the  emigrants  responsible  for 
the  acts  of  violence  committed  by  the  Chouans,  once  more  armed  the 
Royalists  of  the  West  and  the  South  against  the  Directors.      Italy,  with 


304  CONSPIRACY    AGAINST    NAPOLEON.        [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  V. 

the  exception  of  Genoa,  was  lost  5   Joubert  had  been  killed  at  the  bloody- 
battle  of  Novi,  which  had  been  gained  by  Suwarrow ;    and 
French  at  Novi.     the  allies  marched  towards  our  frontiers  through  Holland 
Suwarrow.  Au-     and     Switzerland,    where    they   were    stopped   by   Brune 

gust  15  1799. 

and  Massena.  Bonaparte  having  learned  the  condition  of 
affairs  and  the  state  of  public  feeling,  resolved  to  return  to  France 
immediately,  and  to  overthrow  the  Directorial  government.  He  was 
preceded  thither  by  the  report  of  a  fresh  and  brilliant  victory.  Eighteen 
-d  ,  thousand  Turks  having  made  an  attack  in  the  roadstead  of 

Bonaparte  con-  •  ° 

atTboukirTurks  Aboukir,  Bonaparte,  supported  by  Murat,  Lannes,  and 
Return?  t'o17"'  Bessieres,  routed  and  annihilated  them.  Directly  after 
9th,  1799.  this  ne  set  out,  leaving  Kleber  in  command  of  the  army  in 

1        -Egypt?  traversed  the  Mediterranean  in.  the  frigate  Muiron, 
escaped   the  English  fleet    as  by  a  miracle,  and  disembarked  in  the  gulf 
of  Frejus  on  the  9th  October,   1799,  a  few  days  after  the 

"Vict on ps  of  IVTsS" 

sena  at  Zurich,      celebrated  victories  of  Zurich    and    Berghem,  the  first  of 

and  of  Brune  at 

Berghem,  Sep-       which  had  been   obtained  by  Massena  over    the  Russians, 

tember,  1799.  _  J 

whilst  the  second  had  been  won  in  Holland  by  General 
Brune  over  the  Duke  of  York. 

Bonaparte  passed  through  France  in  the  character  of  a  hero,  and  was  re- 
ceived by  the  Moderate  party  with  enthusiasm.  He  would  not  declare  him- 
self the  adherent  of  any  particular  party,  but,  affecting  a  great  simplicity, 
took  a  modest  lodging  in  the  Rue  Chantereine,  to  which  he  invited  the 
chiefs  of  each  party,  and  where  he  deceived  them  all  in  turn  with  respect  to 
his  projects.  Sieyes  feared  him  ;  but  the  aid  of  a  distinguished  general 
was  necessary  to  the  success  of  his  projects,  and  as  Bonaparte  was  the 
sort  of  man  he  required,  he  formed  an  alliance  with  him.     The  object 

was  to  overthrow  the  existing  constitution ;  all  the  generals, 
Sieye^and"  °  with  the  exception  of  Bernadotte,  were  gained  over,  and  on 
agSfthe  the  18th  Brumaire,  on  the  demand  of  Regnier,  one  of  the 

conspirators,  the  Council  of  the  Ancients  determined  that, 
by  virtue  of  the  powers  which  it  possessed  under  the  constitution,  it  would 
transfer  the  Legislative  body  to  Saint  Cloud,  in  order,  it  said,  that  the 
deliberations  might  be  more  free.  Bonaparte  was  charged  with  the 
execution  of  this  measure,  and  obtained  the  military  command  of  the 
division  of  Paris.  He  then  immediately  attacked  the  Directors  by  his 
proclamations  and  by  word  of  mouth.     "  What  have  you  made,"  he  said, 


1797-1799.]        DISSOLUTION   OE   THE    LEGISLATIVE    BODY.  305 

"  of  this  France  which  I  left  so  brilliant  ?  I  left  you  at  peace,  and  I 
have  come  back  to  find  the  country  involved  in  war.  I  left  you  vic- 
torious, and  on  my  return  I  find  the  reverse.  What  have  you  done  with 
the  hundred  thousand  French  soldiers  whom  I  knew  so  well ;  who 
were  my  companions  in  glory?  They  are  dead!"  It  was  thus  that 
he  aggrandized  himself  whilst  accusing  his  adversaries.  Sieyes  and 
Koger-Ducos  proceeded  to  the  Tuileries  on  the  same  day  and  laid  down 
their  authority.  Their  three  colleagues  attempted  to  resist,  but  the 
guard  refused  to  obey  them.  Barras,  in  despair,  sent  in  his  resignation  ; 
whilst  Moulins  and  Gohier  were  made  prisoners  ;  and  now  there  com- 
menced a  struggle  between  Bonaparte  and  the  Council  of  the  Five 
Hundred. 

On  the  19th  Brumaire  the  Legislative  Corps  proceeded  to  Saint-Cloud, 
accompanied  by  a  strong  military  force.     Bonaparte  presented  himself 
first  of  all  to  the  Council  of  the  Ancients ;   and  then,  when  summoned  to 
take  the  oath   of  allegiance   to  the   Constitution,   declared  that   it  was 
vicious,  that  the  Directory  was  incapable,  and  appealed  to  his  companions 
in  arms.     He  afterwards  proceeded  to  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  who 
sat  in  the  Orangery,  where  the  excitement  was  already  at  its  height.     His 
presence  there  created  a  furious  storm,  and  from  all  sides  were  heard 
threatening   cries  of  "  Beyond  the  pale  of  the  law !      Down   with  the 
Dictator  !"     Bonaparte,  more  accustomed  to  brave  the  enemy's  fire  than 
the  threats  of  a  deliberative  assembly,  grew  pale,  and  trembled,  and  was 
carried  off  by  the  grenadiers  who  accompanied  him.     Lucien,  Bona- 
parte's brother,  who  presided   over    the  Assembly,  was   on    every   side 
ordered    to   put  it   to   the   vote  whether  his  brother  should  not  be  put 
beyond  the  pale  of  the  law.     Lucien  attempted  to  defend  his  brother, 
but  finding  his  efforts  useless,  quitted  his  seat  of  office  and  laid  down  his 
magisterial  insignia.     Bonaparte  had  them  brought  forth  from  the  hall ; 
and  then  both  having  mounted  horses,  they  harangued  the  soldiers,  the 
one    as  the  conqueror    of  Italy  and  Egypt,  and  the  other  as  the    pre- 
sident of  a  factious  assembly.     The  troops  became  enthusiastic.     "  Sol- 
diers!     can   I  rely    on   you?"     cried   Bonaparte.       "Yes!    yes!"    they 
unanimously   replied.       Bonaparte    immediately   gave    orders    for     the 
clearance  of  the  hall  in  which   sat  the   Council  of  Five  Hundred.     A 
troop  of  grenadiers  entered  the  hall  under  the  command  of  Murat,  who 
said,   "In  the  name  of  General  Bonaparte,  the  Legislative  Body  is  dis- 

VOL.    II.  x 


306  VIETUAL   FALL    OF    THE    EEPTJBLIC.       [BOOK  II.  CHAP.  II. 

solved.  Let  all  good  citizens,  therefore,  retire.  Grenadiers,  forward !" 
The  drums  stifled  the  cries  of  just  indignation  which  arose  on  every 
side.  The  grenadiers  advanced,  and  the  deputies  escaped  from  before 
them  by  the  windows,  to  the  cry  of  u  Long  live  the  Republic !"  There 
was  no  longer  any  free  representative  system  in  France,  and  the  Republic 
existed  only  in  name. 


307 


BOOK  III. 

CONSULAR  AND  IMPERIAL  GOVERNMENT. 

Establishment  of  the  Consulate — Campaigns  of  1800  in  Italy  and 
Germany — Victories — Peace  of  Amiens — Conspiracies — Elevation 
of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  to  the  Imperial  Crown — Third  and 
Fourth  Coalition — Campaigns  of  1805,  1806,  1807,  in  Austria, 
Prussia,  and  Poland — Military  Triumphs — Conquests — Unfortu- 
nate War  in  Spain — Fifth  Coalition — Campaign  of  1809  in 
Austria — Fresh  Victories — Continental  System — Sixth  Coali- 
tion— War  in  Russia — Disasters — Campaigns  of  1813  and  1814 
in  Germany  and  France — Napoleon's  Abdication — His  Departure 
for  the  Island  of  Elba. 

(10th  November,  1799—20^  April,  1814.) 


CHAPTER  I. 

CONSULATE. 

(10th  November,  1799— 18tk  May,  1804.) 

The  Revolution  of  Brumaire  was  an  offence  against  law;  but  after 
having  experienced  so  many  violent  shocks  and  struggles,  Eatablishment 
France,  exhausted,  without  credit,  and  a  prey  to  anarchy,  jfoJSSS" lit**' 
perceived  the  necessity  of  some  strong  central  power  ex-  l799' 
ercised  by  an  able  hand,  and  forgave  much  to  him  from  whom  she 
expected  everything.  Every  party,  moreover,  hoped  to  find  in  Bona- 
parte a  supporter.  The  Royalists  looked  upon  him  as  a  new  Monk,  the 
future  restorer  of  the  monarchy ;  and  the  Moderate  Republicans  loved 
him  as  a  hero  born  of  the  Revolution,  and  flattered  themselves  that  by 

i2 


.308  CONSTITUTION    OE    SIEYES.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

his  means  liberty  would  be  established  upon  solid  and  durable  founda- 
tions. All  these  causes  tended  to  blind  the  public  eye,  and  although 
Bonaparte  had  shown  what  his  ambition  might  lead  him  to  undertake, 
there  was,  in  general,  but  little  suspicion  of  him.  People  were  more 
frightened  of  anarchy  than  of  despotism,  and  no  one  had  calculated  as  yet 
how  far  he  might  trample  liberty  under  foot  for  the  sake  of  his  own 
aggrandizement.     This  illusion,  however,  was  but  of  short  duration. 

Those  of  the  members  of  the  two  councils  who  had  been  Bonaparte's 
accomplices,  or  were  favourable  to  the  Revolution  of  Brumaire,  hastened 
to  establish  the  new  government.  Three  Consuls  were  provisionally  ap- 
pointed, Bonaparte,  Sieves,  and  Roger-Ducos,  and  at  the  same  time  two 
Legislative  Committees  were  selected  to  prepare  a  Constitution.  The 
first  act  of  the  provisional  government  was  the  abolition  of  the  odious 
law  of  hostages,  and  that  of  forced  loans.  The  first  rendered  the  relatives 
of  the  Vendeans  and  Chouans  responsible  for  the  deeds  committed  in 
the  revolted  provinces,  subjecting  some  to  imprisonment  and  others  to 
transportation.  Bonaparte  went  in  person  to  the  prison  of  the  Temple, 
where  many  were  confined,  and  restored  them  to  liberty.  The  priests 
and  a  great  number  of  emigrants  were  allowed  to  return  to  France,  and 
at  the  same  time  arbitrary  and  rigorous  measures  were  taken  with  respect 
to  fifty-eight  ardent  Republicans.  These,  however,  were  soon  mitigated, 
and  subsequently  revoked. 

The  absolute  character  of  Bonaparte's  mind  became  very  manifest  during 
the  discussion  relative  to  the  new  Constitution,  the  plan 
tution  drawn  up  of  which  had  been  drawn  up  by  Sieves.  The  principle 
which  Sieves  had  followed  was,  that  confidence  comes  from 
below,  and  power  from  above.  He  recognised,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
serious  inconveniences  and  dangers  of  universal  suffrage,  and  on  the 
other  hand  he  perceived  the  necessity  of  giving  a  wide  basis  to  the  hier- 
archy of  the  great  public  authorities;  and,  whilst  permitting  all  respectable 
citizens  to  concur  in  a  certain  measure  in  the  selection  of  those  who  should 
be  invested  with  them,  he  had  recourse  to  the  system  of  election  by 
several  stages  for  the  formation  of  the  final  lists  of  candidates  and  the 
choice  of  the  upper  officers  of  state.  There  were  three  lists  of  candida- 
ture. The  first,  called  the  list  of  communal  notability,  consisted  of  a  tenth 
of  the  active  citizens,  and  this  tenth  was  elected  by  universal  suffrage. 
The  second  list,  entitled  the  list  of  departmental  notables,  was  formed  by 


1799-1804.]  SCHEME   OE    GOYEENMENT.  309 

the  vote  of  all  the  members  of  the  preceding  list,  of  which  it  only  com- 
prised a  tenth ;  finally,  the  candidates  on  the  departmental  list  selected 
from  this  list  a  final  tenth,  which  became  the  list  of  the  first  notables  of 
the  people. 

The  great  authorities  entrusted  with  the  drawing  up  of  and  the  main- 
tenance of  the  laws  of  the  state  were,  the  Council  of  State,  Th  reat  ublic 
the  Tribunate,  and  the  Legislative  Body.  The  Council  Powem 
of  State,  the  original  of  that  which  still  exists,  drew  up  the  laws,  pre- 
sented them  to  the  Legislative  Body,  and  sent  three  of  its  members  to 
discuss  them  with  it.  The  Tribunate,  consisting  of  a  hundred  members, 
publicly  discussed  the  laws  which  were  proposed,  and  voted  their  accep- 
tance or  rejection  ;  and  in  this  latter  case  it  sent  three  of  its  members  to 
discuss  the  matter  with  the  three  members  of  the  Council  of  State  in  the 
presence  of  the  Legislative  Body.  The  Legislative  Body,  after  having 
heard  this  discussion  in  silence,  voted  on  the  one  side  or  the  other. 
Finally,  there  was  the  Senate,  consisting  of  a  hundred  members,  of  a 
certain  age,  and  endowed  with  large  salaries,  who  took  no  part  in  the 
preparation  of  the  laws,  but  who  were  empowered  to  annul,  either  of 
their  own  accord  or  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Tribunate,  every  law  or  act 
of  the  Government  which  might  appear  to  them  to  be  an  infringement  of 
the  principles  of  the  Constitution.  The  Senate  was  a  self-elected  body, 
choosing  its  members  from  the  list  of  the  national  notables.  It  also 
selected  from  this  same  list  the  members  of  the  Legislative  Body,  the 
Tribunate,  and  the  Tribunal  of  Cassation. 

At  the  head  of  the  executive  power,  according  to  Sieyes'  scheme, 
there  was  a  grand- elector,  a  magistrate  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  repre- 
senting the  country  in  its  intercourse  with  foreign  nations,  and  whose 
only  real  power  consisted  in  the  appointment  of  two  consuls  who  were  to 
select  the  ministers,  whilst  these,  in  their  turn,  were  to  select  all  the 
government  officials  from  the  three  lists  of  notables. 

Sieyes  had  endeavoured,  by  means  of  the  institution  of  the  almost 
passive  grand-elector,  to  introduce  into  this  carefully  elaborated  con- 
stitution a  certain  balance  of  power,  without  which  political:  liberty  is 
impossible.  But  Bonaparte's  ambition  would  allow  him  to  be  content 
neither  with  the  magnificent  but  inactive  position  of  grand-elector,  nor 
with  the  subordinate  position  of  one  of  the  two  Consuls.  He  accepted 
most  parts  of  the   scheme,  but  placed  at  the  head  of  the   Executive 


310  CONSTITUTION    OE    THE    TEAR    VIII.        [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

power,  three  Consuls,  the  first  of  whom,  himself,  was  to  have  the  initiative 
in,  and  the  supreme  direction  of,  all  public  affairs.  The  Constitution  of 
c  nsf  t  t"  f  t^ie  Year  "VIII*  was  then  adopted,  and  its  principal  arrange- 
the  Year  viii.  ments,  with  the  exception  of  those  which  established  the 
Tribunate  and  the  Consuls,  were  the  basis  of  the  Constitution  in  existence 
from  that  time  to  the  end  of  the  Empire.  "  If,  at  the  commencement  of 
the  Consulate,  when  so  many  things  had  to  be  done,"  says  an  illustrious 
historian,  "  Bonaparte  was  right  in  refusing  to  allow  his  talents  to  be 
shackled,  he  also  had  reason,  when  sublimely  unfortunate  at  Saint- 
Helena,  to  regret  the  liberty  he  had  enjoyed  of  exercising  them  unre- 
strictedly. Had  he  been  limited  in  the  exercise  of  his  faculties  he  could 
not  have  done  such  great  things  as  he  did ;  but  neither  could  he  have 
attempted  such  extravagant  things,  and  his  sceptre  and  sword  would 
probably  have  remained  in  his  glorious  hands  till  his  death." 

When  Bonaparte  had  been  proclaimed  chief  Consul,  he  selected  as 
second  and  third  Consuls,  Cambaceres,  formerly  a  member  of  the  Plain, 
in  the  Convention,  and  Le  Brun,  formerly  a  coadjutor  of  the  Chancellor 
Maupeou.  An  article  of  the  Constitution  permitted  the  nomination  of 
the  chief  public  functionaries  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  without  waiting 
for  the  drawing  up  of  the  election  lists.  The  Consuls  having  been  thus 
appointed,  they  nominated  thirty  senators,  who  elected  sixty  more.  The 
.  .       Senate  then  chose  a  hundred  tribunes  and  three  hundred 

Acceptance  of 

ofethenYearti0n  legislators.  The  Constitution  of  the  Year  VIII.  was  sub- 
viii.  (1799.)  mitted  for  the  approval  of  the  people,  and  received  more 
than  three  millions  of  votes  in  its -favour. 

Bonaparte,  in  compliance  with  the  general  wish  of  the  nation,  offered 
to  make  peace  with  England,  but  that  power  refused  this  offer  chiefly 
and  almost  solely  for  the  sake  of  her  commerce.  It  desired  a  mono- 
poly for  its  products  over  the  whole  world ;  it  saw  with  fear  and 
jealousy  that  France  was  mistress  of  Belgium,  and  dreaded  lest  that 
country  should  rival  it  in  industry  and  trade.     Abusing 

France  and  Eng- 
land on  the  the  power  given  it  by  its  fleets,  England  exercised  a  gross 

tyranny  on  every  sea,  and  violated  with  impunity  all  the 

principles  of  the  law  of  nations.     It  refused  to  admit   that  a  neutral 

flag  could  cover  merchandize  which  had  come  from  an  enemy's  port,  and 

seized  it   by  main  force,  exercising  even  against  neutrals  an  unlimited 

right  of  blockade  and  confiscation.     It  believed  that  ruling  the  sea  as  it 


1799-1804. J         MAEITIME   ALLIANCE   AGAINST   ENGLAND.  311 

did  by  the  right  of  the  strongest,  and  keeping  down  the  commerce  of 
powerful  rivals,  it  might  extend  its  own  so  far  as  to  recompense  it  for  the 
immense  cost  of  an  European  war  borne  by  its  Government.  England's 
Prime  Minister  was  at  this  time  the  celebrated  William  Pitt,  Policyof  William 
who,  infusing  all  the  energy  of  an  inflexible  will  into  his  Pltt" 
animosity  against  France,  persevered  unflinchingly  in  this  desperate 
policy.  He  skilfully  kept  alive  the  fear  and  dislike  which  the  conti- 
nental monarchs  felt  for  the  First  Consul,  pointed  out  to  them  how  much 
danger  there  was  to  their  crowns  in  a  Eepublic  which  every  day 
increased  in  strength  and  extent  of  frontier,  and  finally  seduced  them 
into  an  adherence  to  a  system  of  extermination  against  France  by  the 
payment  of  enormous  subsidies. 

In  this  way  he  long  secured  the  support  of  Russia  and  Austria.  The 
first  of  these  powers,  however,  indignant  at  finding  England  obedient  to 
no  law  on  the  ocean  but  that  of  force,  abandoned  it  in  the  campaign  of 
1800,  and  towards  the  end  of  the-  same  year,  the  Czar,  touched  by  a 
generous  proceeding  on  the  part  of  Bonaparte,  who  sent  back  his  pri- 
soners to  him  without  ransom,  and  influenced,  moreover,  by  admiration 
for  the  military  skill  of  the  First  Consul,  declared  himself  his  ally  against 
England.  Deeply  irritated  by  the  numerous  acts  of  piracy  committed 
by  the  English  fleets,  he  made  himself  the  head  of  a  mart-   „,    L_   ... 

J  °  '  The  Maritime 

time  alliance,  which  was  joined  by  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Alliance>  180°. 
Prussia.  These  powers  acted  in  concert  with  France  and  the  United 
States,  and  renewed  the  celebrated  declaration  of  an  armed  neutrality, 
signed  in  1780,  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  freedom  of  commerce, 
and  freeing  the  ocean  from  the  tyranny  of  the  English.  Austria  alone 
persevered  on  the  Continent  in  the  struggle  aganst  France,  and  English 
gold  supported  her  armies. 

Bonaparte  threw  the  whole  military  strength  of  the  Republic  upon  the 
Rhine  and  the  Alps.     Moreau  had  the  army  of  the  Rhine,    „,. 

x  J  7     New  plan  of 

and  the  First  Consul  reserved  to  himself  the  army  of  Italy.  ?JI?paig?(|n 
The  object  of  the  campaign  was  to  gain  possession  of  the  maDy»  1800« 
two  valleys  of  the  Danube  and  the  Po,  and  instead  of  endeavouring  to 
outflank  the  enemy  by  attacking  him  at  all  points  at  once,  Bonaparte 
concentrated  the  movements  of  his  armies.  His  efforts  had  for  their 
object  the  separation  of  Baron  Kray,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Austrian  army  in  Germany,  from  Field-Marshal  Melas,  who  commanded 


312  PASSAGE  OF  THE  ALPS.      [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

in  Italy  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men,  against  whom  the  intrepid 
Massena  defended  Genoa  and  the  Maritime  Alps  with  a  handful  of  brave 
troops.  Moreau  being  ordered  to  invade  the  defiles  of  the  Black  Forest, 
took  the  important  position  of  Stockach,  which  had  been  recently  lost  by 
Jourdan,  and  gained  several  victories  in  succession.  Baron  Kray, 
deceived  by  his  vigour  and  tactics,  believed  that  the  principal  point  of 
the  French  attack  would  be  on  the  Danube,  and  concentrating  his  forces, 
therefore,  rendered  himself  unable  to  aid  the  Austrian  army  in  Italy. 
Upon  this  Bonaparte,  who  had  taken  means  to  deceive  the  enemy  by 
making  Dijon  the  rallying  point  for  an  army  of  reserve,  executed  a 
gigantic  project.  Hastening  from  Paris  to  take  the  command  of  the 
troops  assembled  at  Geneva,  he  proceeded  to  carry  the  war  suddenly 
upon  the  Po,  between  Milan,  Genoa,  and  Turin.  IJe  intended  to  make 
the  further  sides  of  the  Simplon  and  Saint-Gothard  the  bases  of  operations, 
and  to  seize  the  defiles  of  the  Alps,  so  as  to  be  able  to  fall  upon  the  rear  of 
Melas'  forces,  which  were   distributed  from   Genoa  to  the 

Passage  of  the 

Alps  by  the  banks  of  the  Var.     The  passage  of  the  army  and  its  for- 

Frencn  Army.  x  °  J 

midable  artillery  was  effected  over  the  crest  of  the  Alps,  at 
an  elevation  of  upwards  of  seven  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea.  The  baggage  was  placed  on  the  backs  of  mules,  whilst  the  cannon 
were  taken  off  their  carriages  and  placed  on  the  trunks  of  trees,  a 
hundred  men  being  harnessed  to  each.  On  the  17th  of  May  thirty 
thousand  men  were  led  by  Bonaparte  up  the  Saint-Bernard.  Moncey 
marched  with  fifteen  thousand  men  towards  the  Saint-Gothard,  with  the 
purpose  of  descending  at  Bellinzona,  and  two  other  corps  were  directed 
upon  the  Simplon  and  Mount  Cenis  respectively.  Lannes  commanded 
the  advanced  guard.  The  French  troops  displayed  on  the  edge  of 
precipices,  in  the  midst  of  glaciers  and  eternal  snows,  the  most  heroic 
courage.  They  animated  each  other  by  warlike  songs,  and  when  any 
almost  insurmountable  obstacle  presented  itself,  the  charge  was  beaten, 
and  it  was  immediately  overcome.  At  length,  after  unheard-of  efforts,  the 
infantry,  cavalry,  baggage,  and  artillery  reached  the  summit  of  the  Alps,  and 
the  army  speedily  found  itself  at  the  foot  of  the  further  side  of  the  Saint- 
Bernard,  whilst  Melas,  without  any  fear,  occupied  with  a  portion  of  his 
forces  the  line  of  the  Po.  Seventeen  thousand  Austrian  troops  were  on 
the  Var,  in  France,  and  General  Ott,  at  the  head  of  twenty-five  thousand 
men,  was  pressing  forward  the  siege  of  Genoa,  which  still  held  out,  in- 


1799-1804.]  BATTLE    OE    MAKENGO.  313 

trepidly  defended  by  the  feeble  army  of  the  Maritime   Alps,  under  Mas- 
sena,  Soult,  and  Suchet. 

The  pass  of  Susa  was  speedily  traversed  by  the  French  army,  and 
Bonaparte  rapidly  moved  upon  the  Po,  between  the  mouth  of  the  Tessin 
and  the  confluence  of  the  Tanaro  and  the  Bormida.  He  dispersed  several 
corps  of  the  enemy  whom  he  encountered  on  his  passage,  took  possession 
of  Bergamo,  and  crossed  the  Adda.  Made  conscious  at  length,  by  the 
reverses  suffered  by  his  generals,  of  the  storm  impending  over  him, 
Melas  hastened  to  summon  his  lieutenants  to  the  Tanaro,  at  the  very 
moment  when  famine  compelled  G-enoa  to  surrender.  But  Bonaparte 
continued  his  marchr  and  without  waiting  until  all  his  army  should  have 
crossed  the  Po,  attacked  General  Ott  at  Montebello  before  he  had  had 
time  to  effect  his  junction  with  Melas,  and  obtained  a  first  victory. 
Lannes  had  the  greatest  share  in  this  success,  and  its  glorious  name  was 
subsequently  to  become  his  own. 

On  the  13th  of  June  the  French  traversed  the  plains  of  San  Giuliano, 
and  took  up  a  position  between  Bormida  and  the  village  of  B  na  a  t » 
Marengo,  which  they  rendered  so  famous.  On  the  follow-  Saremjo* 
ing  day,  at  dawn,  the  Austrians  defiled  by  the  bridge  across  June  18' 1800' 
the  Bormida,  and  fell  upon  the  two  wings  of  the  French  army,  which 
were  commanded  by  Lannes  and  Victor.  They  were  already  giving  way 
before  the  assault  of  forty  thousand  men,  when  the  First  Consul  dashed 
into  the  plain,  towards  the  right,  eight  hundred  grenadiers  of  the  consular 
guard.  These  formed  square,  checked  unaided  the  enemy's  columns, 
which  broke  against  them,  and  well  earned  the  glorious  name  of  the 
"  Granite  Redoubt "  which  the  conqueror  bestowed  upon  them.  Their 
magnificent  resistance  afforded  time  to  the  other  divisions  to  come  up. 
Desaix,  who  had  recently  returned  from  Egypt,  and  sent  on  the  previous 
evening  to  another  point,  was  hastily  summoned  to  the  field  of  battle, 
and  at  length  appeared  with  his  division  and  fifteen  pieces  of  cannon, 
when  the  conflict  was  renewed  with  fresh  fury.  In  the  meantime  five 
thousand  Austrians  were  detached  in  close  column  to  crush  the  French 
left  and  to  cut  off  its  retreat.  Desaix  rushed  forward  to  prevent  them, 
and  fell  struck  by  a  ball.  His  soldiers,  eager  to  avenge  him,  threw 
themselves  upon  the  formidable  column  and  broke  it,  whilst  General 
Kellerman  attacked  it  in  the  rear  with  his  cavalry  and  dispersed  it. 
Electrified  by  this  success,  the  whole  French  line  advanced  and  drove  the 


314  DEFEAT    OE    THE   AUSTBIANS.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

enemy  beyond  the  Bormida.  Melas  in  vain  attempted  to  defend  Ma- 
rengo, which  was  taken,  and  gave  its  name  to  this  celebrated  victory, 
Convention  of  which  rendered  the  French  masters  of  Italy.  Melas,  in  a 
Alexandria.  state  of  consternation,  asked  to  negotiate,  and  the  Conven- 

tion of  Alexandria  speedily  restored  to  France  all  that  had  been  lost 
within  the  preceding  fifteen  months,  with  the  exception  of  Mantua. 

As  this  treaty  was  only  a  military  convention,  it  was  necessary  that  the 

army  of  the  Danube  should  force  Austria  to  ratify  it.     Mo- 
Victories  Of  fell  T 

Moreau  at  reau  forced  the  passage  01  Lech,  took  Augsburg,   re-estab- 

Hochstadt, 

Neuburg,  and       lished,  after  a  century's  interval,  the  glory  of  the  French 

Hohenlinden, 

November  and       arms  on  the    plains  of  Hochstadt,  and  obtained  another 

December,  1800.  * 

victory  at  Neuburg.  Austria  now  summoned  its  whole 
virile  population  to  arms,  whilst  England  still  subsidized  it,  and  would 
not  permit  it  to  ratify  the  Convention  of  Alexandria.  Several  armies 
were  now  in  the  field.  The  Archduke  John  advanced  with  a  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  men  to  meet  the  triumphant  army  under  Moreau, 
and  encountered  it  between  the  Irun  and  the  Iser.  He  advanced  upon 
Hohenlinden,  and  endeavoured  to  check  the  French  on  the  vast  plains  of 
Anzing,  where  his  army,  very  superior  in  strength,  would  be  able  to 
surround  them.  Moreau  perceived  his  object,  and  by  a  series  of  skilful 
manoeuvres  confined  the  enemy  to  a  narrower  space  between  the  defiles  of 
the  Tyrol,  the  village  and  the  forest  of  Hohenlinden.  He  then  rendered  his 
victory  secure  by  sending  the  division  Richepanse  to  turn  the  Austrians,  so 
as  to  take  them  between  two  fires  in  the  defiles,  where  they  could  not  derive 
advantage  from  their  superiority  in  numbers.  On  the  6th  of  December 
the  battle  commenced.  When  the  action  was  at  its  height,  Richepanse 
threw  himself  into  the  forest  With  the  forty-eighth  demi-brigade,  and 
carried  disorder  and  terror  into  the  enemy's  rear.  Three  Hungarian 
battalions,  however,  rallied,  and  attempted  to  hold  them  in  check. 
"  Grenadiers  of  the  forty-eighth,"  said  Richepanse,  pointing  to  the  Hun- 
garians, "  what  say  you  of  those  fellows  there  ?  "  "  That  they  are  dead 
men,"  replied  the  grenadiers,  and  they  overthrew  them,  whilst  they 
defeated  the  Austrians  in  Hohenlinden.  The  enemy's  centre  and  a 
portion  of  his  left  was  destroyed,  and  eleven  thousand  prisoners  and  a 
hundred  pieces  of  cannon  fell  into  the  power  of  the  French. 

This  brilliant  victory  and  the  capture  of  Salzburg  opened  to  Moreau 


1799-1804.]  PEACE   OE   LUNEVILLE.  315 

the  road  to  Vienna.     The  victor  pursued  his  march  and  obtained  a  fresh 
victory  at  Schwanstadt.     The  lines  of  the  Irun,  the  Salza, 

Fresh  successes 

and  the  Fraun  were  crossed.     The  fortress  of  Linz  was   ofMoreauin 

Germany,  1800. 

taken,  and  the  French  were  now  only  a  few  marches 
distant  from  Vienna.  In  this  extreme  peril  the  Archduke  Charles,  who 
had  been  in  disgrace  since  the  victory  of  Campo-Formio,  was  recalled  to 
the  command-in-chief  of  the  Imperial  armies ;  but  it  was  too  late,  for 
the  line  of  the  Ems,  the  last  defence  of  the  capital,  was  threatened.  The 
Prince  demanded  a  truce,  and  only  obtained  it  on  condition  that  Austria 
should  renounce  its  alliance  with  England.  Such  was  this  memorable 
campaign  of  1800,  in  which  the  glory  of  Moreau  almost  paled  that  of  the 
hero  of  Marengo.  Within  twenty-five  days  he  had  conquered  ninety 
leagues  of  ground,  forced  four  formidable  lines,  twice  vanquished  a 
hundred  thousand  men,  taken  a  hundred  pieces  of  cannon,  and  made 
twenty-five  thousand  prisoners.  He  had  reduced  the  Emperor  to  sue 
for  peace,  and  compelled  Austria  to  renounce  her  alliance  with 
England.  Peace  was  the  result  of  the  battles  of  Marengo  and  Hohen- 
linden. 

This  peace,  signed  at  Luneville  on  the  9th  of  February,  1801,  between 
France,  Austria,   and  the  Empire,   secured  to  France  the 

.  Peace  of  Lune- 

possession  oi  Belgium  and  the  German  provinces  on  the  wile,  February, 
left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  The  valley  of  this  river,  from  its 
source  in  the  Helvetian  territory  to  its  mouth  in  the  Batavian  territory,  now 
formed  the  boundary  line  between  France  and  Germany,  and  it  was  said 
that  the  hereditary  Princes  who  had  lost  territory  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Rhine  should  be  ultimately  compensated.  The  Emperor  abandoned  the 
Milanese  to  the  Cisalpine  Republic,  retained  the  Venetian  States  as  far 
as  the  Adige,  and  lost  Tuscany,  now  made  into  the  kingdom  of  Etruria 
for  the  Spanish  branch  of  the  House  of  Parma.  Separate  treaties  were 
signed  by  France  with  the  courts  of  Spain  and  Naples,  by  which  the 
latter  powers  engaged  to  close  their  ports  against  English  vessels.  In 
that  with  Spain,  moreover,  that  power  undertook  to  keep  off  such 
vessels  from  the  coasts  of  Portugal,  and  received  for  this  purpose  a 
French  army,  which  the  First  Consul  placed  under  the  orders  of  the 
Spanish  Government. 

England  now  found  itself  alone  in  arms  against  the  whole  of  the 


316  KLEBEE  IN"  EGYPT.        [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

maritime  powers,  but  whilst   Italy  and   Germany  had  again   been  the 

theatre  of  glorious  victories  for  France,  her  influence  in 

the  French  in       Egypt  had  been  severely  shaken.     Kleber  and  Desaix  had 

Egypt,  1800.  V.  .''.,,     . 

at  first  maintained  their  ground,  and  the  second,  as  much 
esteemed  for  his  justice  as  for  his  courage,  had  completed  the  conquest 
of  Upper  Egypt ;  but  his  army,  which  was  decimated  by  disease,  received 
from  France  neither  supplies  nor  reinforcements.  Kleber  addressed 
energetic  remonstrances  to  the  Government,  described  his  position  and 
that  of  his  troops  in  the  most  gloomy  colours,  and  at  length  declared  his 
intention  of  evacuating  Egypt.  This  letter  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
English,  who  believed  from  it  that  the  condition  of  the  French  army  was 
desperate.  A  treaty  was  then  concluded  between  Kleber  and  the  Grand 
Vizier.     The  negotiator  on  the  side  of  France  was  Desaix,  surnamed  in 

Egypt  the  Just  Sultan,  and  he  agreed,  by  the  Convention 

Convention  of 

Ei-Arisch,  of  El-Arisch,  that  the  French  army  should  evacuate  Egypt, 

January,  1800.  "'      a  l 

on  terms  honourable  to  itself;  that  it  should  return  to 
France  with  its  arms,  baggage,  and  eifects ;  and  that  the  fortresses  and 
positions  occupied  by  the  French  troops  should  be  successively  given 
up  at  certain  intervals.  The  army  was  reluctant  to  abandon  its  con- 
quests, but  Kleber,  faithful  to  his  promise,  enforced  the  execution  of  the 
Convention. 

A  rumour  now  grew  current  that  an  English  fleet  was  blockading  the 
ports  of  Egypt,  and  soon  afterwards  Admiral  Keith  wrote  to  Kleber  to 
inform  him  that  England  refused  to  recognise  the  Convention  of  El-Arisch, 
and  that  it  would  consent  to  no  capitulation  unless  the  French  troops 
laid  down  their  arms  and  surrendered  themselves  prisoners.  Upon  thi^ 
Kleber  recovered  all  his  burning  energy,  and  was  once  more  a  hero. 
His  order  of  the  day  consisted  of  the  Admiral's  letter,  with  this  addition — 
"  Soldiers  !  such  insolence  can  only  be  replied  to  by  victories  !  Prepare  for 
battle  !"  The  Grand  Vizier,  Joussef  Pasha,  advanced,  in  defiance  of  the 
treaty,  at  the  head  of  eighty  thousand  troops,  whilst  Kleber  only  had  ten 

thousand :  but  these  were  sufficient,  for  he  knew  how  to 

K liber's  victory 

at  Heiiopolis,        conquer.     He  encountered  the  enemy  at  the  ruins  of  Helio- 

March20.  ^  J 

polis ;  the  battle  lasted  twenty-four  hours ;  the  Turkish 
army  was  destroyed,  and  pursued  to  the  edge  of  the  desert.  Cairo  was 
in  a  state  of  revolt,  a  numerous  body  of  Mamelukes  having  excited  the 
fanaticism  of  a    furious   populace.       That   city  became,   therefore,  the 


1799-1804.]  BATTLE    OF    COPENHAGEN.  3l7 

theatre  of  new  exploits,  and  Kleber  took  it  after  a  frightful  carnage. 
He  speedily  recovered  in  Egypt  all  the  ground  and  all  the  influence 
which  he  had  lost,  and  displayed  marvellous  energy  in  organizing  the 
reconquered  territory  and  creating  fresh  resources.  Mourad  Bey, 
admiring  his  conqueror,  entered  into  a  treaty  with  him,  and  Kleber 
caused  his  government  and  his  justice  to  be  universally  loved.  If  he 
had  lived  Egypt  would  have  become  securely  annexed  to  France,  but  his 
death  caused  her  to  lose  all  the  fruits  of  the  victory  of  Heliopolis. 
Kleber  fell  beneath  the  dagger  of  a  fanatic  on  the  very  day  on  which 
Desaix,  his  rival  in  glory,  expired  at  Marengo.  General  Menou  suc- 
ceeded him  as  Commander-in-Chief,  but  being  equally  devoid  of  talent 
or  energy,  he  only  committed  faults  without  knowing  how  to  retrieve 
them,  and  allowed  himself  to  be  surrounded  by  an  English 

J  °  The  battle  of 

army.     After  the  unfortunate  battle  of  Canopa,  Cairo  capi-    Canopa,  April, 

tulated ;  Alexandria,  in  which  Menou  had  shut  himself  up, 

speedily  shared  the  same  fate,  and  the  whole  of  Egypt  was  lost.     The 

French  army,  however,  obtained  free  liberty  to  return  to    Evacuation  of 

France  with  its  arms  and  baggage ;   and  the  learned  men    EsyPt- 

who  had  accompanied  Bonaparte   to  Egypt  preserved,  in  spite  of  the 

English,  their  manuscripts  and  precious  collections. 

England  had  obtained  other  victories  in  Asia,  where  it  had  completed 
the  conquest  of  India.  Its  fleets  had  taken  possession  of  the  fine  Dutch 
colonies  of  Sinnamari,  Guiana,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  Ceylon, 
together  with  the  French  colonies ;  and  Malta  had  fallen  into  its  power. 
Nelson  had  inflicted  a  terrible  blow  on  the  maritime  league  of  the  neutral 
powers  by  forcing  the  passage  of  the  Sound  for  the  purpose 

x  HSS^f^G  Of  toO 

of  attacking  Copenhagen,  and  burning  with  prodigious  bold-    Sound,  and 
ness  the   floating  batteries  of  the  Danes,  whom  he  forced   Jagen  by  NdBon, 
to  lay  down  their  arms.     An  event  as  tragic  as  unexpected 
completed  the  ruin  of  the  league    of  the  neutral  powers.     The   Czar, 
Paul  I.,  its  most  powerful  supporter,  perished  by  assassina- 

Assassination  of 

tion,    and    his   young     successor,   Alexander,     adopted    a   the  Czar  Paul, 
different  policy.     The  league  was  then  dissolved   by  the 
force  of  circumstances,   and  England   remained  sovereign  of  the  seas, 
although    the    French    navy   began   to   recover   its    strength,   and   was 
enabled    to  make  its  flag  respected  in  the  Mediterranean,    Battle  of  Alge- 
where  Admiral  Lenoir,  with  three  vessels  only,  had  beaten 


318  PEACE    OF   AMIENS.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  1. 

six  English  vessels  at  the  glorious  battle  of  Algesiras  (1801).  In  the 
meantime  powerful  motives  rendered  England  desirous  of  peace.  It 
had  suffered  during  two  years  from  famine  ;  it  was  crushed  beneath  the 
weight  of  taxes ;  its  debt  already  amounted  to  more  than  twelve 
thousand  millions    of  francs ;    and  it  found  itself,  to  its  great   dismay, 

threatened  with  a  formidable  invasion.  The  First  Consul 
potions  at pre"  na(i  collected  at  Boulogne  for  this  purpose  an  immense 
invasion  oi  Eng-    flotilla  of  gun  boats,  which  Nelson  had  attacked  without 

being  able  either  to  destroy  or  disperse,  and  a  French 
army  was  ready  to  cross  the  Channel.  All  these  causes  rendered  peace 
as  desirable  for  England  as  it  was  for  France,  and  the  dismissal  of 
William  Pitt,  who  was  replaced  in  the  Cabinet  by  Addington,  rendered 
negotiations  feasible.  England  offered  to  treat,  and  the  First  Consul 
accepted  the  offer. 

The  preliminaries  of  peace  were  signed  by  the  two  Governments  in 
September,  1801.  It  was  agreed  that  England  should  recognise  the 
Continental  limits  of  France  as  being  those  which  were  recognised  by  the 
treaties  of  Luneville,  and  that  it  should  also  restore  all  the  territories 
which  it  had  taken  from  France,  or  her  allies,  Spain  and  Holland,  with 
the  exception  of  the  islands  of  Ceylon  and  Trinidad.  It  was  agreed, 
also,  that  Egypt  should  be  evacuated  by  the  troops  of  both  nations, 
and  restored  to  the  Porte,  and  the  independence  of  Portugal  was 
guaranteed. 

Peace  of  Amiens  This  peace,  which  was  so  glorious  for  France,  was  defini- 
March,  1802.         tiyely  sjgne(j  on  the  25th  of  March,  1802,  at  Amiens,  by  the 

plenipotentiaries  of  France  and  England,  Joseph  Bonaparte,  a  brother  of 
the  First  Consul,  and  Lord  Cornwallis.  Separate  treaties,  the  natural  con- 
sequences of  the  peace  of  Amiens,  were  signed  by  France  with  Portugal, 
Bavaria,  Eussia,  the  Ottoman  Porte,  Algiers,  and  Tunis ;  and  thus  the 
world  was  for  a  time — alas  !  too  short — at  peace. 

Being  now  freed  from  all  cares  abroad,  Bonaparte  endeavoured  to 
Ex  edition  to  st  subjugate  tne  island  of  St.  Domingo,  which  had  revolted 
Domingo,  1802.  against  the  whites,  and  was  governed  by  blacks,  at  the  head 
of  whom  was  the  famous  Toussaint-Louverture.  Forty  thousand  men, 
under  General  Leclerc,  were  sent  to  effect  this  object ;  but  after  some 
first  successes  they  were  decimated  by  yellow  fever,  and  St.  Domingo  was 
lost  for  ever. 


1799-1804.]  AMNESTY   TO   EMIGRANTS.  319 

The  First  Consul  had  striven  with  all  his  energy  to  suppress  factions 
at  home.     He  revoked  by  a  decree  of  amnesty  the  law 

"  J  Amnesty,  1800. 

which  prevented  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  emigrants 
from  returning  to  France.  He  gained  over  many  royalist  leaders,  and 
confided  important  offices  to  several  proscribed  persons  of  Fructidor — to 
Simeon,  Portalis,  and  Barbe-Marbois.  Some  Vendean  chiefs, — Chatillon, 
d'Autichamp,  Suzannet,  and  the  famous  Abbe  Bernier,  cure  of  St.  Lo — 
had  already  signed  their  submission  by  the  treaty  of  Montlucon.  La 
Prevalaye  and  Bourmont  followed  their  example ;  Frotte  was  taken  and 
shot,  Georges  Cadoudal  capitulated,  and  the  war  in  the  West  was  at  an 
end. 

The  war,  however,  was  succeeded  by  conspiracies.  Bonaparte  had 
rallied  to  his  government  the  moderate  members  of  all  parties;  but 
these  parties  were  chiefly  made  up  of  violent  and  implacable  men,  who, 
as  they  could  no  longer  hope  to  overthrow  the  First  Consul  by  open 
violence,  had  recourse  to  the  most  secret  and  formidable  means  for  that 
purpose. 

Some  violent  Eepublicans  formed  a  plot,  of  which  the  Corsican,  Arena, 
was  the  principal  author,  according  to  which  the  First  conspiracy  of 
Consul  was  to  be  assassinated  in  his  box  at  the  theatre.  This 
plot  was  discovered  before  it  could  be  carried  out,  and  the  conspirators 
were  executed.  Another  conspiracy,  more  dangerous  still,  was  formed 
hy  the  Royalist  party,  and  Bonaparte  escaped  the  assassins  as  by  a  miracle. 
On  the  third  Nivose  (24th  December,  1800)  they  placed  a  barrel  of 
powder  on  a  cart,  which  they  stationed  in  the  Rue  Saint  Nicaise  at  the 
moment  when  the  Consul  was  passing  through  it  on  his  way  to  the  opera. 
He  owed  his  life  to  the  skill  of  his  coachman  and  the  speed  of  his  horses, 
and  had  only  just  passed  the  fatal  spot  when  the  barrel  exploded.  Many 
persons  perished,  but  Bonaparte  suffered  no  harm.  This  plot  is  known 
by  the  name  of  the  Infernal  Machine,  and  caused  a  great  feeling  of  indig- 
nation against  the  extreme  men  of  all  parties.  It  was  at  first  attributed 
to  the  Republicans,  and  the  Government  proposed  to  transport  a  hundred 
and  thirty-two  persons  in  an  arbitrary  manner,  and  to  authorize  this  mea- 
sure had  recourse  to  a  dangerous  expedient,  borrowed  from  the  Roman 
Senate  at  the  period  of  the  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire  ;  and  a  simple 
Senatus  Consultum  decreed,  without  any  parliamentary  trial, 

Arbitrary  aets. 

the  transportation  of  a  hundred  and  thirty-two  suspected 


320  THE    CIVIL    CODE.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

persons.*  After  this  act  of  violence,  several  of  the  real  conspirators  were 
discovered,  and  were  recognised  as  emissaries  of  the  Royalist  party,  and 
agents  of  Georges  Cadoudal.  Fouche,  Minister  of  Police,  had  suspected 
the  truth,  but  nevertheless  he  had  offered  no  opposition  to  the  violent 
measures  taken  against  the  Republicans,  and  the  decree  which  condemned 
the  latter  was  not  revoked  after  the  discovery  of  the  really  guilty  parties. 
Such  a  fact  sufficiently  characterises  a  period  in  which  a  government,  for 
the  purpose  of  reestablishing  order  and  security,  did  not  scruple  to  have 
recourse  to  means  as  little  consistent  with  justice  as  with  law.  Bonaparte 
from  this  time  forth  displayed  on  many  occasions  a  violent  and  despotic 
character  ;  and  a  party  hostile  to  his  government  was  formed  in  the  great 
bodies  of  the  State,  which  had  at  its  head,  in  the  Senate,  Lanjuinais, 
Gregoire,  Garat,  Cabanis,  and  in  the  Tribunate,  Isnard,  Daunou,  Andrieux, 
Chenier,  Benjamin  Constant.  This  party  committed  the  fault  of  syste- 
matically opposing  the  First  Consul,  of  closing  its  eyes  to  some  of  the 
best  conceptions  of  his  genius,  and  of  failing  to  recognise 
government  of      m    him    ^he  only  man  whom  France  could   not  do  with- 

Bonaparte,  J 

First  Consul.  \ynt 

The  difficult  circumstances  in  the  midst  of  which  his  authority  had 
come  into  existence  rendered  it  almost  indispensable  that  the  dictatorship, 
of  which  at  this  period  he  generally  made  a  salutary  and  glorious  use, 
should  remain  for  some  time  in  his  hands.  Anarchy  prevailed  in  every 
direction,  and  he  everywhere  restored  order,  applying  to  every  subject 
his  strong  will,  his  active  and  fertile  intelligence.  He  established  regu- 
larity in  the  civil  and  military  administration,  and  the  Civil 

Civil  Code. 

Code  which  he  now  projected  was  a  monument  of  genius, 
and  became  a  model  of  legislation  for  Europe.  Bonaparte  reconstructed 
judicial  order  on  a  new  basis ;  he  replaced  the  four  hundred  and 
seventeen  correctional  tribunals,  and  the  ninety-eight  civil  tribunals,  by  a 
tribunal  of  first  instance  for  each  arrondissement,  which  was  to  take  cog- 
nizance of  both  civil  and  police  affairs,  and  which  would  render  the 
access  to  justice  easier  to  all  classes  of  the  citizens.  Besides  these  there 
were  created  twenty-nine  courts  of  appeal,  and  each  department  had  a 
criminal  court,  whilst  the  Court  of  Cassation  received  some  new  powers. 

*  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  violation  of  law  by  a  Senatus  Consultum  to  which 
Bonaparte  had  recourse  on  this  occasion  to  strengthen  his  power,  was  used  fourteen 
years  later  to  decree  his  fall. 


1799-1804.]  LEGION   OF   HONOUR   FOUNDED.  321 

France  was  now  governed  after  an  improved  method.     A  prefect,  who 

had  under  him  sub-prefects,  advantageously  replaced  the  administrators 

of  the  departments.     The  subjects  of  public  instruction,  the    Public  ingtruc- 

Institnte,  commerce,  industry,  the  roads,  the  ports,  and  the     10n# 

arsenals,  also  attracted  the  notice  and  the  thoughtfulness   of  the  First 

Consul.     With  the  assistance  of  Monge  and  Berthollet  he  gave  a  better 

organization  to  the  Polytechnic  School,  which  had  been  established  during 

the  government  of  the  Convention.     He  divided  the   French  Prytanee 

into  four  colleges,  one  of  which  he  retained  in  Paris,  whilst  he  transferred 

the  others  to  Fontainebleau,  Saint  Germain,  and  Versailles.     In   each  of 

them  he  determined  that  there  should  be  a  hundred  gratuitous  admissions 

for  the  children  of  men  who  had  deserved  well  of  their  country  either  in 

the  career  of  arms,  or  in  the  performance  of  civil  functions.     Assisted 

by  the  able  Minister  Gaudin,  he  reestablished  order  in  the  finances,  and 

created  a  caisse  d1  amortissement  and  cautionnements,  the  mar- 
Finances, 
nagement  of  which  he  confided  to  M.  Mollien,  and  which  had 

an  excellent  influence  on  the  public  credit.     Regarding  the  clergy  as  an 

indispensable  auxiliary  of  the  chief  power,  Bonaparte  made  great  efforts 

to  gain  them  over  to  his  side  ;  and  being  convinced  that  religion  is  the 

surest  support  of  morality,  he  reestablished  public  worship  in  France, 

and  signed  with  Pope  Pius  VII.  a  concordat,  by  which  the 

Concordat. 

Catholic  religion  was  recognised  as  that  of  the  majority  of 
the  French.     The  hundred  and  fifty- eight  episcopal  seats  which  existed 
before  the  Revolution  were  reduced  to  sixty,  of  which  ten  were  arch- 
bishoprics.    Those  who  were  to  fill  these  seats  were  to  be  appointed  by 
the  First  Consul,  and  confirmed  by  the  Pope.     After  this  great  act  of 
reparation  Bonaparte  established  a  similar  mode  of  reward-    The  Legion  oi 
ing  merit  in  whatever  rank  he  might  find  it,  and  for  this    Honour- 
purpose  established  the  Order  of  the  Legion  of  Honour,  of  which  he  de- 
clared himself  the  head.     This  creation,  as  being  opposed  to  the  principle 
of  equality,  was  violently  opposed  in  the  Legislative  Body  and  the  Tri- 
bunate, but  was  ultimately  adopted  by  them. 

The  First  Consul,  whilst,  so  active  in  promoting  the  national  interests, 
neglected  nothing  which  might  confirm  his  authority.  We  have  already 
seen  by  what  arbitrary  acts  he  either  put  down  or  prevented  conspiracies  ; 
and  he  did  more ;  for  after  causing  the  Senate  to  eliminate  the  most  ener- 
getic tribunes,   and  after  having   obtained  for  his  Consulate  ten  years' 

VOL.  II.  t 


322  FBANCE    UtfDEB    THE    CONSULATE.    [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

prolongation,   he   caused  himself  to  be  appointed    Consul  for  life,  and 

obtained   the   privilege  of  appointing  his  successor.      Two    days   later 

the  Constitution  of  the  Year  X.  was  decreed  by  a  Senatus 

S^S&SS!1         Consultum.     The  electors  were  for  life:  the  First  Consul 

the  16tn  Tner-  ' 

Yearr'xn  ^on-  ^ad  tne  Power  of  augmenting  their  number ;  the  Senate 
August,  1802.6'  was  able  to  change  the  institution,  to  suspend  the  func- 
tions of  the  jury,  to  place  the  departments  beyond  the 
pale  of  the  Constitution,  to  annul  the  decisions  of  the  Tribunals,  and  to 
dissolve  the  Legislative  Corps  and  the  tribunate.  The  number  of  the 
Tribunes,  which  had  been  already  diminished,  was  reduced  to  fifty,  and 
Bonaparte  selected  for  himself,  in  addition  to  the  Council  of  State,  a  privy 
council,  small  in  numbers,  whose  principal  duty  was  to  deliberate  on 
affairs  which  required  secrecy.  All  the  citizens  had  been  invited  to  give 
their  opinions  with  respect  to  the  establishment  of  the  Consulship  for  life, 
and  out  of  3,577,299  votes  on  the  registers,  only  8000  were  given 
against  it. 

France  now  presented  an  hitherto  unseen  spectacle  of  power  and  glory, 

and  if  England  had  acquired  in  the  preceding  ten  years  the  empire  of 

India,  France  had  changed  the  face  of  Europe  to  her  own 

Boundaries  of 

France  under        advantage.     She  had  acquired  the  whole  left  bank  of  the 

the  Consulate. 

Rhine,  from  its  source  to  its  entrance  into  Holland,  and 
the  line  of  the  Alps,  including  Piedmont.  She  had  considerably  reduced 
the  power  of  Austria  by  taking  from  her,  besides  the  Low  Countries,  many 
fine  provinces  in  the  north  of  Italy,  out  of  which  were  formed  the  Cisalpine 
Republic  ;  and  her  influence  was  dominant  in  Holland,  Spain,  Switzerland, 
Germany,  and  in  the  whole  of  Northern  Italy,  and  was  rendered  too  pro- 
minent, perhaps,  at  this  period  by  several  political  acts  of  the  highest 
importance. 

In  January,  1802,  the  First  Consul  convoked  the  deputies  of  the  Cis- 
alpine Republic,  which  had  been  formed  of  Lombardy  so  far  as  the  Adige, 
the  Legations,  and  the  State  of  Modena ;  and  having  assembled  them  at 
Lyons  in  a  constituent  assembly,  named  a  Consultum,  he  presented  to  it  a 
new  constitution,  which  was  adopted,  while  he  received  for  himself  from 
this  assembly  the  title  of  President  of  the  Italian  Republic,  a  new  name 

which  he  had  substituted  for  that  of  the  Cisalpine  Republic. 
First  Consul  in      In  the  course  of  the  same  year,  1802,  Bonaparte  interfered 

in  the  character  of  mediator  in  the  affairs  of  Switzerland, 


1799-1804.]  THE   ACT   OF   MEDIATION.  323 

which  was  torn  to  pieces  by  factions,  and  where  the  Unitarian  party  and 
that  of  the  Oligarchy  obtained  supreme  power  by  turns.*  He  compelled 
the  cantons  to  accept  the  celebrated  Act  of  Mediation,  which  was  based 
on  the  principles  of  1789  with  respect  to  the  equality  of  rights  not  only 
between  the  various  classes  of  citizens,  but  also  between  the  different 
portions  of  the  Helvetian  territory. \  The  Act  of  Mediation  preserved 
the  sovereignty  of  the  Cantons,  whilst  it  established  a  national  Biet  for 
the  purpose  of  superintending  the  general  interests  of  the  Confederacy ,. 
and  this  has  remained  almost  the  same  to  the  present  day.  It  was  unfor- 
tunately necessary  that  a  French  army  of  thirty  thousand  men  should'  be 
sent  to  Switzerland  for  the  purpose  of  compelling  it  to.  accept  the  advan- 
tages which  it  derived  from  this  celebrated  Act,  and  the  First  Consul 
gave  himself  the  appearance  in  the  eyes  of  terrified  Europe  of  a  victor 
disposing  of  Switzerland  as  a  conquered  country.  But  it  was.  more 
especially  by  the  skilful  manner  in  which  he  interfered  in  the  affairs  of 
Germany  that  the  First  Consul  showed  to  what  a  lofty  place  he  had 
elevated  France  in  Europe. 

As  a  consequence  of  the  conquest  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  of 
many  States  the  possession  of  which  had  been  secured  to  the  French  Re- 
public by  the  peace  of  Amiens,  a  crowd  of  princes  had  found  themselves 
deprived  of  their  states,  and  amongst  them  three  ecclesiastical  electors — 
the  Archbishops  of  Mayence,  Cologne,  and  Treves.  The  principle  that 
some  indemnity  should  be  made  in  their  case  had  been  admitted  by  the 
contracting  powers,  and  it  was  not  possible  to  give  any  except  by  secula- 
rizing a  great  number  of  ecclesiastical  states. 

The  latter  formed  about  a  sixth  part  of  the  surface  ^of  Germany.  The 
French    conquests   had  naturally  resulted   in  secularizing 

.  .  Secularization 

some  important  territories,  and  it  now  remained  to  secula-    of  the  German 

States. 

rize  many  others,  and  to  divide  them  between  the  sovereigns, 

small  or  great,  who  had  been  dispossessed  of  their  states  during  the  war, 

*  The  Unitarian  or  Democratic  party  was  inclined  to  suppress  all  the  separate  con- 
stitutions of  the  Swiss  cantons,  and  to  form  them  into  a  single  State.  The  Oligarchic 
party,  on  the  contrary,  was  the  federal  party. 

f  The  Swiss  territory  was  formerly  divided  into  sovereign  cantons  and  subordinate 
or  subject  states,  and  the  latter  were  formed  by  the  Act  of  Mediation  into  new  cantons. 
The  number  of  cantons,  which  was  only  thirteen  in  1789,  was  raised  to  nineteen  by  the 
Act  of  Mediation.  Since  that  period  the  powers  of  the  Diet  have  been  much  extended, 
and  three  new  cantons,  including  that  of  Geneva,  have  been  added  to  the  Confedera- 
tion. 

y2 


324  DIET    OF    RATISBOtf.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

whether  in  Germany  or  Italy.  It  remained,  however,  to  remodel  the 
whole  constitution  of  the  German  empire,  which  rested  entirely  on 
the  old  geographical  divisions  of  Germany,  which  had  now  been  for  the 
most  part  destroyed  or  seriously  altered.  This  double  work  presented 
innumerable  difficulties,  either  in  respect  to  the  difficulty  of  satisfying 
the  many  claims,  or  of  maintaining  a  state  of  equilibrium  between  Prussia 
and  Austria  when  satisfying  these  numerous  claims,  or  finally  of  preserv- 
ing the  interests  of  France  herself  uninjured.  The  First  Consul  was 
the  only  man  capable  of  effecting  this  laborious  task,  and  of  intervening 
with  sufficient  authority  between  the  various  claimants.  For  the  purpose 
of  effecting  these  great  objects  he  induced  the  Diet  at  Ratisbon  to  accept 
the  mediation  of  France  and  Russia,  and  he  succeeded,  after  a  long  series 
of  difficult  negotiations,  in  inducing  the  Diet  there  assembled  to  vote 
the  act  or  recez  of  January,  1803,  which,  whilst  regulating  the  indemnities 
to  be  granted  to  the  several  princes,  gave  a  new  constitution  to  the  Ger- 
man empire,  and  modified  in  a  manner  favourable  to  the  interests  of 
France  the  composition  of  the  Diet  and  that  of  the  imperial  body  of 
electors.  The  chief  result  of  this  celebrated  recez  was  to  make  the 
balance,  which  had  hitherto  inclined  too  strongly  to  the  side  of  Austria 
and  the  Catholic  party,  turn  in  favour  of  Prussia  and  the  Protestant  party. 
The  policy  of  the  First  Consul  already  embraced  the  whole  world,  and 
he  considered  himself  sufficiently  strong  to  take  a  step  in  respect  to  the 
„    .      „  most  important  of  the  colonies  which  France  still  retained 

Cession  of  r 

uSd'stateJ116    *n  America — Louisiana— of  which  no  preceding    Govern- 
1803.  ment  had  been  willing  to  accept  the  responsibility.  Judging, 

with  good  reason,  that  her  possession  was  too  burdensome  to  France,  and 
fearing  that  it  might  soon  fall  into  the  hands  of  England,  he  sold  it  to  the 
Republic  of  the  United  States  for  eighty  millions.  Bonaparte  thus  in- 
terfered in  the  two  hemispheres  as  powerfully  in  matters  of  peace  as  in 
those  of  war,  and  he  now  seemed  to  the  jealous  eyes  of  foreign  nations, 
as  well  as  to  the  dazzled  eyes  of  France,  to  have  attained  the  height  of 
his  power.  At  this  period,  says  the  historian  of  his  reign,  he  could  still 
deceive  France  and  the  world.  Some  of  his  councillors  only,  who  were 
constantly  with  him,  and  who  were  capable  of  seeing  the  future  in  the 
present,  were  seized  with  affright  as  much  as-  with  admiration  at  his  inde- 
fatigable activity  of  mind  and  body,  the  energy  of  his  will,  and  the  im- 
petuosity  of  his   desires.       They  trembled  even  when  they  saw  good 


1799-1804.]  GENIUS   OE   BONAEABTE.  325 

effected  in  the  way  he  effected  it,  he  was  so  eager  to  have  it  done  quickly 
and  on  an  immense  scale.  The  wise  Tronchet,  who  both  admired  and 
loved  him,  and  who  regarded  him  as  the  saviour  of  France,  nevertheless 
said  sadly  one  day  to  Cambaceres,  "  That  young  man  has  commenced 
like  Cassar,  and  I  fear  that  he  will  finish  as  he  did."  * 

He  already  cherished  in  his  heart,  perhaps  unconsciously,  the  germs 
of  a  most  immoderate  ambition.  His  pride  had  increased  in  proportion 
to  the  humiliations  to  which  he  had  subjected  Europe,  and  the  very 
facility  with  which  it  had  yielded  to  his  designs  had  given  him  an  im- 
mense confidence  in  his  own  strength,  and  was  the  primary  cause  of  the 
misfortunes  endured  by  the  world  during  ten  years,  and  of  his  own  ruin. 
To  induce  England  to  accept  with  resignation  the  immense  changes  which 
had  been  made  on  the  Continent  since  the  signature  of  the  preliminaries 
of  the  peace  of  Amiens,  and  which  would  very  possibly  prove  seriously 
injurious  to  the  interests  of  British  commerce,  it  was  important  that  the 
First  Consul  should  display  much  moderation  in  his  dealings  with  the 
English  Government,  and  take  care  not  to  hurt  the  jealous  susceptibility  ot 
that  nation.  He  did  not  act  in  this  way,  however,  but  complained,  haughtily 
and  with  threats,  of  the  attacks  upon  his  Government  in  the  English 
press.  The  latter,  free  and  bold  as  usual  in  its  language,  in  the  habit  of 
pandering  to  the  popular  passions,  and  exaggerating  the  acts  which  it 
denounced,  indulged  not  unreasonably  in  bitter  recriminations  against 
the  aggressive  policy  of  France  in  Europe,  while  the  journals  edited  in 
London  by  the  French  emigrants  were  equally  virulent  against  the  First 
Consul.  The  Opposition,  finally,  vehemently  attacked  in  Parliament  the 
conduct  of  the  minister,  who,  it  said,  had  negotiated  peace  during  many 
months  at  Amiens  without  having  made  a  single  serious  remonstrance 
either  against  the  principles  of  the  policy  of  France,  or  against  its  invasions 
of  Switzerland,  of  Italy,  as  well  as  in  Germany. 

In  the  meantime  England  had  observed  all  the  clauses  of  the  treaty 
with  one  exception.  The  island  of  Malta  was  not  yet  evacuated,  and 
this  fatal  delay  was  caused  by  the  omission  on  the  part  of  the  French 
Government  of  a  necessary  formality,!  and  not  by  a  premeditated  want 

*  Thiers'  "  History  of  the  Consulate  and  Empire." 
f  In  the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  it  was  said  that  Russia  and  Prussia  should  be  invited  to 
guarantee  its  execution  before  the  island  of  Malta  should  be  evacuated  by  the  English, 
and  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  had  forgotten  to  request  this  guarantee. — Thiers' 
'  History  of  the  Consulate  and  Empire.'' 


32$        THE  PEESS  IN  FEANCE  AND  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

of  good  faith  on  the  part  of  the  English  Government.  To  all  these 
causes  of  jealousy  and  irritation  which  the  First  Consul  had  recently 
given  to  England  by  his  almost  despotic  interference  in  the  affairs  of 
the  Continent,  was  now  added  another  by  the  sudden  annexation  to 
France  of  Piedmont,    which  had    been  occupied  by    our 

Eeunion  of  .,  n 

Piedmont  to     troops   during  more  than  two   years,    without   any    corn- 
France,  1803. 

pensation   to   the   king,    Charles   Emmanuel,    the    ally    of 

England,  and  who  was  now  despoiled  for  having  desired  to  remain  faithful 

to  that  alliance.      So   arbitrary  an  act  raised  the  exasperation  of  the 

English  people  to  its  height,  and  the  outcries  of  the  public  press  and  of 

the  members  of  the  Opposition  in  Parliament,  who  were  led  by  Grenville 

and  Canning,   would  not  permit  the  English  Government  to  evacuate 

Malta  before  it  had  obtained  from  the  First  Consul  ex- 

Eespective  * 

F™anee  and°f    planati°ns  with  respect  to  these  aggressive  acts,  and  of  his 
England.  encroachments  in  Europe.      But   Bonaparte   had   already 

reached  the  height  at  which  an  attack  of  vertigo  is  to  be  feared,  and 
where  the  obstacles  which  passion  encounters  are  so  far  from  repressing, 
that  they  increase  and  inflame  it.  After  having  completely  stifled  the 
liberty  of  the  press  in  France,  Bonaparte  could  not  understand  how  it 
could  still  exist  in  a  free  and  neighbouring  country.  He  could  not  under- 
stand that  a  government  which,  by  its  very  nature,  is  the  object  of 
attacks  in  the  journals,  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  their  attacks  on 
foreign  governments,  whilst  that,  in  countries  where  the  press  is  enslaved 
or  controlled,  the  administration  is  always  an  accomplice  in  the  violence 
which  it  tolerates.  He  keenly  wounded  the  just  susceptibilities  of  the 
English  people  by  causing  the  insertion  in  the  Moniteur  of  articles  filled 
with  invectives  and  threats  against  England,  whilst  he  demanded  that 
the  British  Government  should  chastise  the  pamphleteers,  withdraw  the 
pensions  granted  to  the  Chouans  and  emigrants  living  in  England,  -and 
expel  the  Bourbons  from  a  soil  the  inhabitants  of  which  had  considered 
it  an  honour  for  ages  to  grant  an  asylum  to  exiles.  He  had  in  his  own 
palace  a  violent  scene  with  the  English  Ambassador,  Lord  Whitworth, 
and  at  length  dictated  to  his  minister  in  London  notes  couched  in  the 
most  imperious  style,  calculated  to  envenom  the  relations  between  the 
two  countries,  and  to  render  extremely  difficult  the  fulfilment  of  the 
clause  in  the  treaty  respecting  the  island  of  Malta.  Too  weak  to  resist 
the  popular   clamour   so  imprudently    provoked,    the   English   minister 


1799-1804.]  RUPTURE    OF   THE    PEACE    OE    AMIENS.  327 

attempted  to  temporize,  and  endeavoured  to  obtain  the  concession  of  Malta 
in  exchange  for  other  advantages  to  be  granted  to  France.  "  The  treaty ; 
nothing  but  the  treaty!"  replied  the  First  Consul ;  to  which  the  English 
Government  rejoined,  "  The  state  of  Europe  before  the  treaty ;  nothing 
more  and  nothing  less !"  It  made,  however,  a  final  effort,  and  proposed, 
for  the  purpose  of  soothing  public  opinion,  to  accept  in  exchange  for  Malta 
a  small  island  in  the  Mediterranean,  at  the  same  time  demanding  by  a 
secret  article  that  it  should  be  allowed  to  retain  Malta  for  two  years  pro- 
visionally, after  which  it  would  surrender  it.  But  Bonaparte  remained 
inflexible.  The  honour  of  France,  which  he  already  too  frequently  con- 
founded with  the  demands  of  his  own  pride,  would  not  allow,  he  said,  of 
such  a  concession.  He  chose  rather,  for  the  sake  of  the  immediate 
possession  of  a  rock  in  the  Mediterranean,  to  tear  in  pieces 

i  -,      .  ,  .  ,     -n  i      -,  ■•      Rupture  of  the 

the  most  glorious  treaty  which  France  had  ever  signed,   peace  of  Amiens, 

1803. 

and  Europe  was  plunged  into  the  horrors  of  an   endless 
war. 

Thus  was  broken,  in  June,  1803,  the  peace  of  Amiens,  a  disastrous 
event  which  was  productive  during  twelve  years  of  many  frightful 
troubles,  the  responsibility  of  which  rests  equally  upon  the  two  peoples. 
If  England  has  to  bear  her  share  for  not  having  executed  one  of  the 
clauses  of  the  treaty,  it  must  be  admitted  that  France  by  her  own  acts 
rendered  the  immediate  execution  of  the  treaty  almost  impossible.  It  is 
not,  however,  upon  France,  then  prostrated  at  the  feet  of  a  master,  that 
must  fall  the  greatest  weight  of  this  terrible  responsibility ;  but  upon  that 
master  himself,  who,  inebriated  with  power,  born  for  war,  and  incapable, 
as  Louis  XIV.  had  been,  of  treating  scurrilous  pamphlets  with  disdain, 
already  dreamt  of  a  resurrection  for  himself  and  his  race  of  the  Empire 
of  the  Gauls  and  Charlemagne.* 

The  war  commenced  on  either  side  by  savage  acts  unworthy  of  civilized 
nations.  The  English  fleet,  on  the  one  hand,  fired  on  ships  of  merchandize 
in  various  seas  before  hostilities  had  been  openly  declared,  and  the  French 
Consul,  on  the  other  hand,  ordered,  as  a  reprisal,  the  arrest  of  all  the 

*  The  opinion  which  I  express  with  respect  to  the  rupture  of  the  peace  of  Amiens  is 
not  in  conformity  with  the  conclusions  of  M.  Thiers  on  the  subject,  except  in  the 
retrospect  which  he  makes  of  the  Consular  and  Imperial  Government  at  the  end  of 
vol.  xvii.  of  his  splendid  work.  In  that  rapid  sketch  the  later  and  calm  reflections 
of  the  celebrated  historian  differ  on  many  essential  points  from  the  judgments  wtiich  he 
delivers  in  the  volumes  written  at  an  earlier  date. 


328  DEATH    OF    THE    DTJKE    d'e^GHTEN.    [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

English  travelling  on  the  Continent,  many  of  whom  remained  prisoners 
until  the  close  of  this  long  and  frightful  war. 

It  was  on  the  English  soil  that  Bonaparte  had  resolved  to  subdue  Eng- 
land, and  he  once  more  planned  a  descent  upon  its  coasts,  collecting  for 
this  purpose  a  formidable  armament  at  Boulogne. 

At  the  same  time  a  dangerous  plot  was  formed  against  the  life  of  the 
Conspiracy  of  First  Consul,  and  for  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons,  by  the 
Georges'1  *"  Chouan  and  Royalist  chiefs.  Pichegru  and  Georges  Cadoudal 

were  at  their  head,  and  Moreau  was  their  confidant,  but 
not  their  accomplice.  The  conspiracy  was  discovered  in  February,  1804, 
and  Moreau,  Pichegru,  and  Cadoudal  were  arrested.  This  event  had 
caused  a  great  excitement,  when  suddenly  there  spread  through  Paris  a 
sinister  rumour  that  the  blood  of  a  Bourbon  had  flowed,  that  a  French 
prince,  the  Duke   d'Enghien,  had   been  immolated  to  the 

Arrest  and  exe- 
cution of  the         vengeance  of  the  First  Consul.     Deceived  by  false  reports 

Due  d'Enghien.  °  .  . 

with  respect  to  the  intentions  of  the  Prince,  and  informed, 
moreover,  that  a  gathering  of  emigrants  was  taking  place  on  the  Rhine 
frontier,  in  the  country  of  Baden,  Napoleon  resolved  to  terrify  his  enemies 
by  one  terrible  blow.  Violating,  in  defiance  of  the  law  of  nations,  the 
Baden  territory,  by  sending  thither  two  detachments  of  cavalry,  he  de- 
sired them  by  orders  drawn  up  with  his  own  hand  to  advance  rapidly 
upon  Ettenheim,  where  the  Prince  resided,  to  seize  him,  and  to  convey 
him  to  France.  The  Duke  d'Enghien  reached  Paris  on  the  20th  March, 
and  was  then  taken  to  Vincennes,  where  he  was  tried  at  night  by  a  mili- 
tary commission,  and  condemned  to  death.  The  sentence  was  immediately 
executed,  and  Bonaparte  had  the  tomb  of  the  last  of  the  Condes  dug  in 
the  moat  of  Vincennes.*  All  Bonaparte's  glory  has  not  served  to 
obliterate  the  remembrance  of  this  bloody  catastrophe,  which  was  the 
principal  cause  of  the  third  general  war. 

*  Europe,  at  once  offended  and  emboldened,  now  looked  with  new  eyes  on  France 
and  her  chief.  At  the  sound  of  the  fusillade  at  Vincennes,  Prussia,  which  was  about 
to  form  with  France  a  formal  alliance,  drew  back,  and  renounced  an  alliance  which 
could  be  no  longer  honourable.  Austria,  more  calculating,  profited  by  the  occasion,  by 
no  longer  observing  any  reserve  in  the  execution  of  the  recez  of  1803.  The  young 
Emperor  of  Russia,  honest  and  full  of  honour,  alone  dared,  as  a  guarantor  of  the  Ger- 
manic Constitution,  to  demand  an  explanation  of  the  violation  of  the  Baden  territory. 
Napoleon  replied  by  an  offensive  allusion  to  the  death  of  Paul  I.  The  Czar  made  no 
rejoinder,  but  resolved  to  avenge  this  outrage. 


1799-1804.]  DEATH   OE   PICHEGKRU.  329 

Paris,  France,  and  Europe  were  still  deeply  moved  by  so  gross  an 
outrage,  when  the  trial  of  Pichegru  and  Moreau  commenced.  .  l  f  eon_ 
The  conqueror  of  Holland,  faithless  to  his  own  renown,  had  sPu"ators» 1804- 
condescended  to  play  the  part  of  a  conspirator  :  the  proofs  were  over- 
whelming, and  he  foresaw  his  fate.  His  brave  soul,  said  Bonaparte  him- 
self, could  not  face  the  infamy  of  punishment.  Pichegru,  despairing  of 
pardon  from  the  First  Consul,  or  disdaining  it,  strangled  _  b  f 
himself  in  prison.  Georges  Cadoudal  bore  a  brave  front  in  Pichegru. 
the  presence  of  his  judges,  and  astonished  them  by  the  energetic  concise- 
ness of  his  replies.  "  Where  did  he  lodge  ?"  M  Nowhere."  "  What  was 
his  object  in  coming  to  Paris  ?"  "  To  attack  Bonaparte."  "  By  what 
means  ?"  "  By  open  force."  "  With  the  dagger  ?"  "  No  ;  with  a  force 
equal  to  the  Consul's  escort."  But  he  who  attracted  the  attention  of  all 
was  the  victor  of  Hohenlinden.  The  illustrious  Moreau,  either  through 
jealousy  or  through  ambition,  had  lent  his  ear  to  the  conspirators.  He 
nattered  himself  that  he  would  succeed  the  First  Consul,  and,  if  he  had 
conspired,  he  had  done  it  for  himself,  and  not  for  the  Bourbons.  He  con- 
fessed that  he  had  known  the  conspirators ;  but  honour,  he  said,  did  not 
permit  him  to  name  them,  and  he  displayed  before  the  tribunal  the 
strength  of  mind  which  had  never  failed  him  on  the  field  of  battle.  Bona- 
parte, there  can  be  no  doubt,  desired  that  he  should  be  condemned  to 
capital  punishment,  that  he  might  afterwards  overwhelm  him  with  his 
clemency ;  and  a  hint  was  given  to  the  judges  that  they  might  safely 
aggravate  the  sentence  without  risk  to  the  accused,  as  the  First  Consul 
intended  to  pardon  him.  "  And  who  will  pardon  us  ?"  answered  one  of 
the  judges.  This  fine  rejoinder  was  made  by  the  learned  Clavier. 
Moreau  was  condemned  to  two  years'  imprisonment,  which  Bonaparte 
commuted  to  exile  to  the  United  States.  Out  of  forty-seven  persons  tried, 
seventeen  were  condemned  to  death,  and  amongst  these  were  Georges 
Cadoudal,  Charles  de  Riviere,  and  Armand  de  Polignac.  The  punish- 
ment of  the  two  latter  was  commuted ;  but  the  first  died,  as  he  had  lived, 
without  giving  a  sign  of  weakness. 

The  war  against  Great  Britain  and  Pichegru's  conspiracy  assisted 
Bonaparte  to  raise  himself  from  the  Consulate  to  the  Imperial  Crown ; 
but  first  of  all  he  added  to  the  powers  of  the  Senate,  which  had  already 
been  so  greatly  extended.     This  body  was  but  a  docile  instrument  in  his 


330  EOUNDATIOtf    OF    THE    EMPIEE.    [BOOK  III.  CHAP,   ll 

hands,  and  all  the  authority  which  it  gained  in  appearance  was  in  reality 
,     ,  , .  an  addition   to  the  power   of  the  First  Consul.      At  this. 

Laudable  acts  r 

oflheConsuiar8  Peri0(i,  however,  as  at  the  commencement  of  his  power, 
Government.  Bonaparte  made  every  effort  to  lighten  his  yoke  by  doing 
all  he  could  to  supply  the  necessities  and  forward  the  interests  of  the 
nation.  He  recompensed  every  useful  discovery,  every  service,  every 
talent.  His  vast  mind  embraced  at  once  the  most  various  objects.  On 
the  very  day  on  which  he  bestowed  pensions  on  some  old  workmen, 
he  established  decennial  prizes  as  encouragement  for  all  the  branches  of 
knowledge,  for  all  the  arts  which  embellish  and  enrich  the  nation.  He 
favoured  as  much  as  possible  the  system  of  vaccination,  which  had  been 
recently  introduced  into  France  by  the  worthy  Duke  of  La  Rochefoucauld- 
Liancourt,  one  of  the  benefactors  of  humanity ;  and  there  was  scarcely 
any  branch  of  the  civil  or  military  administration  in  which  his  genius 
did  not  develop  some  happy  germ  of  amelioration.  France  opposed  no 
resistance  to  Bonaparte,  because  his  personal  ambition  had  long  been 
identified  with  the  interest,  the  glory,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  nation ; 
and  he  obtained  the  good  will  of  his  fellow-citizens  as  much  by  his 
pacific  achievements  as  by  his  military  exploits. 

When  he  had  thus  triumphed  over  all  resistance,  he  caused  the 
Establishment  of  Senate  to  request  him  to  govern  the  Republic  under  the 
cinSSSioiTSf  name  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  and  with  the  title  of  heredi- 
ditary  Emperor.  Carnot,  faithful  to  the  Republican  cause, 
vainly  opposed  in  the  Tribunate  the  wishes  of  most  of  his  colleagues ; 
and  the  empire  was  proclaimed  on  the  2nd  Floreal,  Year  XTI.  The  Con- 
stitution now  underwent  fresh  modifications,  and  whilst  the  throne  was 
raised  aloft,  some  guarantees  were  granted  to  the  citizens  in  recompense 
for  the  loss  which  many  of  them  believed  they  had  suffered  of  the 
remains  of  public  liberty  by  the  fall  of  the  Republican  Government. 
The  Senate  was  constituted  guardian  of  individual  liberty,  of  the  liberty 
of  that  part  of  the  press  which  was  not  periodical.*  The  freedom  of 
debate  was  restored  to  the  Legislative  Corps :  in  the  secret  committees 
were  six  members  who  were  authorized  to  discuss  every  proposed  law. 
At  the  same  time  the  powers  of  the  members  of  the  Tribunate  were  pro- 

*  The  guarantees  which  were  thus  given  to  these  liberties  would  have  been  of  value 
at  any  other  time,  but  they  were  absolutely  worthless  under  a  despotism  universally 
accepted. 


1^99-1804.]  CORONATION  OF  BONAPAKTE.  331 

longed  from  five  to  ten  years  ;  but  this  latter  body  was  divided  into 
three  sections,  and  it  was  forbidden  to  debate  in  a  general  ffi  .  r  rial 
assembly.  Finally,  a  High  Imperial  Court  was  created,  Court* 
with  the  object  of  adding  as  much  to  the  safety  of  the  Court  as  to  that 
of  the  Government.  This  Court  was  endowed  with  most  of  the  judicial 
attributes  which  were  subsequently  possessed  by  the  Court  of  Peers,  and 
protected  the  Government  against  the  authors  of  conspiracies,  whilst  it 
protected  the  citizens  against  the  Government  officials.  It  consisted  of 
a  hundred  and  twenty  members,  princes,  great  dignitaries,  senators, 
magistrates,  and  councillors  of  state.  The  new  Constitution  recognised 
the  Emperor's  two  brothers,  Louis  and  Joseph,  as  French  princes,  and 
capable  of  being  his  successors.     Six  great  dignitaries  were  ;   nitari 

created;  the  Grand-Elector,  the  Arch- Chancellor  of  the  of  the  Empire. 
Empire,  the  Arch- Chancellor  of  State,  the  Arch- Treasurer,  the  Con- 
stable, and  the  Grand- Admiral,  who  were  empowered  to  represent  the 
Emperor  in  his  absence,  either  in  the  Senate,  the  Councils,  or  the 
armies,  and  formed  with  him  the  great  Council  of  the  Empire.  Finally, 
in  case  of  failure  of  heirs  to  the  Emperor,  these  dignitaries  would  have 
the  power  of  electing  an  Emperor ;  and  if  the  Sovereign  were  a  minor, 
would  form  the  Council  of  Eegency.  The  brothers  of  Napoleon,  Joseph 
and  Louis,  were  nominated  respectively  Grand-Elector  and  Constable. 
The  posts  of  Arch-Chancellor  of  the  Empire,  and  of  Arch-Treasurer, 
were  given  to  the  second  and  third  Consuls,  Cambaceres  and  Lebrun. 
Beneath  these  six  great  dignitaries  were  fifty  grand  officers,  partly  civil 
and  partly  military,  at  the  head  of  whom  were  eighteen 

Marshals. 

Marshals  of  the  Empire,  who  were  Berthier,  Murat,  Moncey, 

Jourdan,     Massena,     Augereau,    Bernadotte,     Soult,    Broune,    Lannes, 

Mortier,   Ney,  Davoust,   Bessieres,  Kellerman,  Lefebvre,  Perignon,  and 

Serrurier. 

Napoleon  desired  that  his  reign  should  be  sanctioned  as  well  by  the 
clergy  as  the  people,  and  he  obtained  the  approval  of  each. 
The  new  Emperor  was  accepted  by  an  immense  majority   pJPJ^Jjfcfer 
of  the  French  people,  and  at  his  earnest  request  Pope  Pius   Dec' 1804, 
VII.  went  to   Paris  to  bestow  upon  his  unheard-of  success  the  seal  of 
religious  consecration.     On  the  2nd  of  December,  1804,  in  the  Church 
of  Notre  Dame,  Napoleon,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  and  surrounded  by 
the  great  bodies  of  the  State  and  the  great  dignitaries  of  the  Church,  was 


332  PROTEST    OP    LOUIS    XVIII.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I. 

consecrated  Emperor  of  the  French  by  the  Sovereign  Pontiff;  but 
instead  of  receiving  the  crown  from  the  Pope's  hands,  he  took  it  from  the 
altar  himself  and  placed  it  on  his  own  head,  whilst  he  pronounced  this 
solemn  oath  : — "  I  swear  to  maintain  intact  the  territory  of  the  Republic  ; 
to  respect  and  to  enforce  respect  for  the  laws  of  the  Concordat  and  the 
liberty  of  worship ;  to  respect  and  to  enforce  respect  for  the  equality 
of  rights,  political  and  civil  liberty,  and  the  irrevocability  of  sales  of  the 
national  property ;  to  levy  no  tax  or  duty  save  in  accordance  with  the 
law ;  to  maintain  the  Order  of  the  Legion  of  Honour,  and  to  govern 
solely  with  a  view  to  the  interests,  the  happiness,  and  the  glory  of  the 
French  people." 

Whilst  a  new  prince  was  erecting,  as  he  thought,  an  imperishable 
P  t  t  d  tb  *nrone  f°r  n^s  dynasty,  a  fugitive  prince,  heir  to  the  ancient 
theHotsfof  kings,  neglected  by  the  sovereigns  of  Europe,  and  forgotten 
Bourbon.  by  the  servants  of  his  house,  protested,  in  the  face  of  Heaven 

and  the  world,  against  the  decrees  of  fortune.  The  following  is  the  oath 
which  was  at  this  time  pronounced  in  an  obscure  town  of  Sweden  by  him 
who  was  subsequently  to  reign  by  the  name  of  Louis  XVIII. : — "In  the 
bosom  of  the  Baltic,  in  the  face  and  under  the  protection  of  Heaven, 
strong  in  the  presence  of  our  brother  and  that  of  the  Duke  d'Angou- 
leme  our  nephew,  and  in  the  assent  of  the  other  princes  of  our  blood, 
bringing  to  witness  the  royal  victims  and  those  whom  fidelity,  honour, 
piety,  innocence,  patriotism,  and  self-devotion  have  rendered  victims  to 
revolutionary  madness  or  the  jealousy  of  tyrants;  invoking  the  manes  of 
the  young  hero  whom  impious  hands  have  torn  from  his  country  and 
from  glory ;  offering  to  our  people,  as  a  pledge  of  reconciliation,  the 
consoling  angel  to  whom  Providence,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  us  a  great 
example,  has  thought  proper  to  assign  fresh  adversities  by  bearing 
her  to  chains  and  the  scaffold :  We  swear,  Frenchmen,  that  we  will  never 
break  the  sacred  knot  which  inseparably  unites  our  destinies  with  your 
own,  which  allies  us  to  your  families,  your  hearts,  and  your  consciences. 
We  will  never  resign  the  heritage  of  our  fathers,  never  abandon  our 
rights.  Frenchmen,  we  call  upon  the  Judge  of  judges,  the  God  of  St. 
Louis,  to  witness  this  oath." 

This  oath  of  a  soul  truly  loyal  was  at  the  time  scarcely  heard,  and  the 
feeble  echo  which  it  excited  in  France  expired  in  the  midst  of  the  noisy 
pomp  of  the  coronation  and  of  a  thousand  adulatory  shouts.     Not  only 


1799-1804.]  POLICY    OP   NAPOLEON.  333 

was  the  throne,  which  had  been  empty  for  twelve  years,  now  filled,  but 
he  who  occupied  it  desired  that  the  interval  which  separated  the  new 
times  from  the  old  monarchy  should  be  apparently  annihilated.  He  de- 
sired to  resuscitate  in  France  the  old  customs  of  the  other  Courts  of 
Europe.  He  surrounded  himself  with  pomp,  with  chamberlains  and 
pages.  But  whilst  endeavouring  to  revivify  around  the  throne  the  forms 
of  the  ancient  regime  and  to  suspend  the  public  liberties,  he  respected  the 
genuine  results  of  the  Revolution ;  which  were,  the  division  of  property, 
the  equal  payment  of  taxes  by  all  classes,  the  equality  of  all  in  the  eyes  of 
the  law,  the  equal  right  of  all  to  fill  public  offices,  the  freedom  of  public  wor- 
ship and  the  separation  of  the  civil  state  from  the  clergy.  He  also  enforced 
in  several  States  which  he  had  subdued,  the  recognition  of  many  of  the 
principles  which  are  the  basis  on  which  rest  at  the  present  day  our  political 
constitutions,  and  from  which  will  eventually  spring  the  liberal  institu- 
tions of  the  French  people,  at  a  period  when  it  will  no  longer  be  possible 
to  impose  despotism  upon  it  in  the  name  of  glory. 


COMMENCEMENT    OF    HOSTILITIES.    [BOOK  III  Chap.  II. 


CHAPTER  II. 

PROM   THE   ACCESSION    OF    NAPOLEON   TO    THE    THRONE    TO    THE    SEIZURE    OF 

SPAIN. 

1804-1808. 

■If  Napoleon  after  the  peace  of  Amiens  had  preferred  the  interests  of 
France  to  his  own  ambition,  he  would  have  been  able  to  secure  the  fruits 
of  twelve  years  of  anarchy  and  war,  and  to  become  the  moderator  of 
Europe  ;  but  he  preferred  to  be  its  master,  and  keeping  his  eyes  fixed  on 
the  great  image  of  Charlemagne,  believed  that  he  was  called  to  the  same 
destinies.  He  first  of  all  desired  to  add  to  the  title  of  the  Emperor  of  the 
French  that  of  the  King  of  Italy,  and  the  representatives  of  the  Italian 
republic  decided  that  that  country  should  be  made  a  separate  kingdom. 
Napoleon  immediately  repaired  to  Milan,  and  girding  his  brows  with  the 
iron  crown  of  the  Lombard  Kings,  declared  that  he  only  temporarily 
added  it  to  his  own,  and  appointed  Eugene  de  Beauharnais,  his  stepson, 
Viceroy  of  Italy.  The  establishment  of  this  kingdom,  the  sudden  and 
violent  annexation  of  the  city  of  Genoa  and  the  principality  of  Lucca  to 
the  empire,  at  the  moment  when  he  solemnly  protested  against  having 
any  design  of  adding  to  the  French  territories,  together  with  the  immense 
exertions  of  the  English  Government,  now  again  directed  by  Pitt — all 
these  things  aroused  Austria,  revealed  the  intensity  of  the  indignation 
Tbi  d  lit"  excited  in  Europe  by  the  death  of  the  Duke  d'Enghien,  and 
1804,  resulted  in  the  formation  of  a  third  coalition  against  France 

by  England,  Austria,  and  Russia.  Bavaria  made  common  cause  with 
France  ;  Prussia  remained  neutral ;  and  Spain  also  was  unwilling  to  join 
the  enemies  of  France.  England  declared  that  the  latter  power  had 
committed  an  infraction  of  its  neutrality  by  affording  a  refuge  to  some 
French  vessels  blockaded  in  the  ports  of  Ferrol  and  Cadiz,  and  demanded 
that  the  Spanish  Government  should  expel  them.  Upon  its  refusing  to 
do  so,  England  declared  war  against  it,   and  commenced 

Commencement 

of  hostilities.        hostilities  by  the  capture  of  the  rich  galleons  laden  with 


1804-1808.]  PROPOSED    INVASION    OF    ENGLAND.  335 

the  piastres  of  Mexico.  It  thus  drove  Spain  into  an  alliance  with 
France,  and  the  union  of  the  Spanish  fleet  with  that  of  France 
increased  the  Emperor's  confidence  in  the  success  of  a  descent  upon 
England. 

Napoleon  had  caused  the  formation  of  the  new  coalition  not  only  by- 
exciting  an  universal  sentiment  of  horror  by  the  seizure  and  execution  of 
the  Duke  d'Enghien,  but  more  especially  by  the  rash  usurpation  of  the 
crown  of  Italy  and  the  violent  annexation  of  Genoa  and  Lucca  to  his 
empire,  at  the  time  when  he  meditated  the  execution  of  his  gigantic  en- 
terprise against  England.  He  again  proceeded  with  this  „  f 
object  to  the  camp  of  Boulogne,  and  completed  his  for-  Boul°gne> 1803- 
midable  preparations.  He  had  assembled  on  this  coast  a  hundred  thou- 
sand of  the  best  infantry  in  Europe,  fifteen  thousand  cavalry,  and  fifty 
thousand  sailors ;  two  thousand  light  boats  had  been  constructed  and 
armed  with  an  enormous  quantity  of  cannon,  for  the  pur-    _.      „. 

*  J  r  Plan  of  invasion 

pose  of  conveying  the  army  of  invasion  across  the  Channel  of  England' 
and  landing  it  on  the  opposite  coast.  But  an  English  fleet  defended  the 
passage,  and  several  of  its  divisions  blockaded  our  squadrons  in  the 
ports  of  Brest  and  Ferrol.  A  second  English  fleet,  under  Nelson,  cruised 
in  the  Mediterranean,  and  watched  the  French  fleet  shut  up  in  the  port 
of  Toulon.  For  the  flotilla  to  attempt  the  passage  without  the  certainty 
of  incurring  some  disaster,  it  was  indispensable  that  it  should  do  so  under 
the  protection  of  a  French  fleet ;  but  that  at  Brest,  commanded  by  Ad- 
miral Ganteaume,  was  blockaded  by  the  English,  and  too  weak  to  defend 
the  passage  by  itself.  Napoleon  conceived  the  idea  of  transferring  to  the 
Channel  the  fleet  of  Toulon,  which  a  favourable  wind  might  then  enable 
that  of  Brest  to  join.  The  first  was  ordered,  after  it  should  have  passed 
the  straits  of  Gibraltar,  to  rally  the  French  and  Spanish  vessels  shut  up 
in  the  port  of  Cadiz,  and  then  to  sail  towards  Martinique,  so  as  to  deceive 
the  enemy  as  to  its  real  direction.  It  was  then  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  fleet 
of  Admiral  Ganteaume,  return  with  it  to  Europe,  raise  the  blockade  of 
Ferrol  and  the  coast  of  Spain,  and  finally  return  to  the  Channel,  where 
the  united  fleets,  consisting  of  sixty  vessels,  would  be  superior  to  that  of 
the  English.  Napoleon  believed  that  this  plan  would  render  him  master 
of  the  Channel  for  four-and-twenty  hours,  which  would  be  sufficient  time 
to  enable  him  to  land  his  army  on  the  opposite  coast,  when  England 
would  be  already  conquered. 


336  THE    TRENCH    FLEET    UNDEE   VILLENEUVE.     [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

This  plan,  whatever  might  have  been  its  results,  was  a  conception  of 
Extraordinary  genius ;  but  an  astonishing  concurrence  of  circumstances, 
circumstance?  m  which  we  may  recognise  the  hand  of  Providence,  made 
faiiur/ofthe  *  °  i*  ^a^-  To  carry  it  out  required  an  admiral  at  once  firm, 
active,  and  bold,  and  Napoleon  had  found  such  a  man  in 
La  Touche-Treville,  whom  he  intended  to  command  the  Toulon  fleet  and 
to  lead  it  into  the  Mediterranean.  This  admiral,  however,  died  on  the 
eve  of  setting  sail,  as  did  also,  soon  afterwards,  Admiral  Brueys,  to  whom 
was  entrusted  the  direction  of  our  operations  in  the  Channel.  By  a 
strange  fatality  La  Touche-Treville  was  replaced  by  Admiral  Villeneuve, 
an  honourable,  scientific,  and  brave  man,  but  devoid  of  the  qualities  most 
indispensable  for  such  an  enterprise — coolness,  resolution,  and  confidence 
in  himself.  He  was  fortunate,  however,  in  the  execution  of  the  first  and 
most  difficult  portion  of  his  task ;  for  he  escaped  Nelson  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  joined  Admiral  Gravina  and  the  Spanish  squadron  in  Cadiz. 
The  combined  fleets  sailed  to  the  Antilles,  and  after  having  waited  in 
vain  for  Admiral  Ganteaume,  sailed  together  to  Europe,  and  fought  a 
glorious  battle  off  Ferrol  with  the  English  fleet  commanded  by  Admiral 
Calder,  after  which  they  formed  a  junction  with  two  fresh  divisions,  the 
one  French  and  the  other  Spanish.  But  at  this  point  the  good  fortune  of 
Villeneuve  left  him,  and  he  seemed  to  be  struck  by  a  species  of  stupor  at  the 
moment  which  was  the  most  important  of  all,  and  which  had  been  so 
eagerly  expected  by  Napoleon.  An  unexpected,  and  indeed  an  unheard- 
of  circumstance  had  detained  the  fleet  of  Admiral  Ganteaume  at  Brest ;  he 
had  confidently  expected  that  an  equinoctial  gale  would  have  compelled 
the  English  fleet  to  leave  those  waters,  but  the  weather,  for  the  first  time 
in  the  memory  of  man,  was  continually  calm  and  fine.  This  being  the 
case,  Villeneuve  was  ordered  to  sail  to  Brest,  to  raise  the  blockade  of  that 
port  and  release  the  fleet  there.  Failing  the  success  of  this  manoeuvre, 
all  those  which  had  preceded  it  would  be  useless,  and  its  success  would 
alone,  in  Napoleon's  opinion,  secure  the  success  of  his  gigantic  enterprise, 
since  it  would  give  to  the  French,  for  some  days  at  least,  a  superiority  of 
force  in  the  Channel.  "  Sail  with  all  your  forces  into  the  Channel,"  said 
Napoleon  to  Villeneuve ;  "  engage  the  enemy,  lose  half  your  fleet  if  neces- 
sary, and  with  the  rest  protect  my  passage."  Villeneuve  could  not  under- 
stand that  these  orders  were  to  be  obeyed  at  any  hazard ;  and  disquieted 
by  the  bad  state  of  the  Spanish  fleet,  disturbed  by  the  conviction  that  the 


1804-1808.]  SECRET    TREATIES.  337 

French  sailors  were  inferior  from  want  of  practice  to  the  English,  persuaded 
that  the  enemy's  squadrons  were  united  in  the  Channel,  and  firmly 
believing  that  the  result  of  a  battle  was  much  more  likely  to  be  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  French  navy  than  the  conquest  of  England,  he  lost  all  confi- 
dence, and  instead  of  sailing  towards  Brest,  and  from  thence  to  the 
English  Channel,  he  made  for  the  high  seas,  and  whilst  the  eager  eye 
of  Napoleon  longed  to  discover  his  fleet  on  the  horizon,  Villeneuve  was 
taking  it  to  Cadiz.  When  informed  of  this  fact,  which  frustrated  the 
most  formidable,  as  well  as  ~  perhaps  the  rashest  of  his  conceptions,  the 
anger  of  Napoleon  was  equal  to  his  grief,  and  it  burst  forth  against 
Villeneuve  in  the  most  vehement  and  terrible  expressions.  No  enterprise 
had  ever  been  planned  with  more  complete  care  and  on  a  more  complete 
scale,  and  in  respect  to  none  had  destiny  ever  been  pleased  so  completely 
to  baffle  the  vain  projects  of  man. 

It  was  in  London  that  Napoleon  had  hoped  to  defeat  the  new  coalition 
of  Russia  and  Austria  subsidized  by  England,  of  which  Prussia  shortly 
afterwards  became   a  member  by  a  secret  treaty  signed  at    secret  treaty 
Potsdam  between   Alexander   and    Frederick    William;*    andT^si^ 
and  now  that  the  road  to  London  was  closed,  it  became 
necessary  to  march  against  the  Russians  and  Austrians.     A  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  Austrians  were  marching  in  three  corps    Campaio.n  of 
under  the  Archdukes  Ferdinand,  John,  and  Charles  towards   180°- 
the  Rhine  and  the  Adige,  and  two  Russian  armies  were  advancing  to  join 
them.     Napoleon,  who  was  still  at  the  camp  of  Boulogne,  divined  the 
combined  movements  of  the  enemy;  his  genius  suggested  to  him  the 
strategy  necessary  to  enable  him  to  vanquish  them,  and  he  immediately 
dictated  the  plan  of  an  immortal  campaign.  Within  twenty  days  the  French 
armv  passed  from  the  edge  of  the  ocean  to  the  shores  of  the  Rhine.  Napo- 
leon crossed  that  river  in  October,  1805,  with  a  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
men,  divided  into  six  corps,  and  advanced  by  the  Alps  and  Suabia  across 
Germany.  The  Danube  was  crossed  in  its  turn,  and  Napoleon's  lieutenants 
fought  a  series  of  glorious  conflicts.  Murat  was  victorious  at  Wertingen  and 

*  By  this  treaty  it  was  stipulated  between  the  two  sovereigns  that  Prussia  should 
offer  in  December  her  mediation  to  the  two  belligerent  parties  on  conditions  which  it 
was  known  that  Napoleon  would  not  accept,  and  that,  if  he  did  not  accept  this  offer, 
Prussia  should  join  the  Allied  Powers,  alleging  as  an  excuse  the  violation  of  her  terri- 
tory by  the  French  army.  The  able  Prussian  minister  set  out  with  regret  with  these 
instructions  for  Napoleon's  head-quarters. 

VOL.  II.  Z 


338  THE   EEENCH    ENTEE   VIENNA.        [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

at  Giinzburg;  General  Dupont,  subsequently  so  unfortunate,  with 
five  thousand  men  vanquished  twenty-five  thousand  Austrians  at 
the  battle  of  Hasslach,  and  made  five  thousand  prisoners ;  Ney 
was  victorious  at  Elchingen,  and  the  Austrian  army  under  General 
Mack  was  driven  back  to  the  city  of  Ulm,  which  Napoleon  in- 
Capitulation  of  vested,  and  where,  on  the  20th  October,  Mack  capitu- 
IJlm'  lated     with     three     thousand    men.       This     capitulation 

opened  to  Napoleon  the  road  to  Vienna,  which  was  occupied  by  forces 
too  inferior  long  to  hold  him  in  check.    Another  Austrian  army,  however, 
then  occupied  Lombardy,  and  might  attack  the  French  with  success  by  in- 
tercepting them  on  their  road  to  the  capital.    Prince  Charles  had  in  front 
Battle  of     °^  n^m    Massena,  who,  to    stop    him,    fought  the  bloody 
Caidiero.     battle  of  Caldiero.  The  victory  was  doubtful,  but  the  Arch- 
duke was   checked,   compelled   to  fall   back   southwards,  and  could  no 
longer    hope    to    arrest  Napoleon's   hasty   march    upon   Vienna.       The 
Grand  Army,  after  the  surrender  of  Ulm,  passed  across  Bavaria,  passed 
the    Inn    and    the    Tann,  driving    before  it    the     feeble 

Entry  of  the  . 

French  into      Austrian    corps    which  opposed  it,    and    at  length,    after 

Vienna. 

having  taken  the  bridges    of  the  Danube,    made   its    en- 
trance into  Vienna. 

The  Russians  now  entered  Moravia,  where  they  rallied  the  ranks  of 
the  Austrian  army.  Napoleon  marched  towards  them  and  encountered 
them  in  the  environs  of  Brunn,  on  the  plain  of  Austerlitz,  where  he 
awaited  a  new  triumph.  On  the  1st  December  he  formed  his  line  of 
battle  between  Austerlitz  and  Brunn ;  resting  his  right  on  the  lake  of 
Menitz,  and  his  left  on  the  mountains  between  the  basins  of  the  Schwartza 
and  the  Marche.  In  front  of  this  line  is  the  Santon  Hill,  and  from  this 
Napoleon  watched  all  the  movements  of  his  army.  The  Russians  and 
Austrians  debouched  by  Wischnaw  and  posted  themselves  between  the 
French  line  and  the  village  of  Austerlitz.  Napoleon  rejoiced  to  see  them 
strip  their  right  which  crowned  the  mountains,  and  concentrate  all  their 
strength  on  the  left,  so  as  to  cover  the  plain  and  overlap  his  right  flank. 
He  had  made  every  preparation  for  crushing  them  should  they  abandon 
the  heights  on  which  each  of  the  two  armies  rested  one  of  its  wings,  and 
when  he  saw  their  first  movements  towards  the  left  he  cried,  "  Before  to- 
morrow evening  that  army  will  be  at  my  mercy  !"  Towards  nightfall  the 
Emperor  visited,  without  being  announced,  the  bivouacs  of  his  soldiers ; 


1804-1808.]  THE   BATTLE    OF    AUSTEKLITZ.  339 

they  recognised  him,  and  saluted  him  with  acclamation.  The  whole  line 
sparkled  with  fires,  for  his  troops  were  celebrating  the  anniversary  of  his 
coronation,  and  that  great  day  brought  with  it  a  presage  of  victory. 
Napoleon  returned  to  his  tent  and  made  his  final  arrangements  for  the 
morrow.  "Bernadotte  will  command  the  centre,  and  Soult  the  right; 
where  must  be  made  the  decisive  effort ;  Lannes  will  defend  the  left  and 
the  strong  position  of  Santon,  armed  with  a  battery  of  sixteen  guns ; 
and  finally,  Davoust  will  hold  in  check  the  enemy's  left  wing.  All  the 
cavalry  is  under  the  orders  of  Murat ;  and  twenty  of  the  best  battalions 
will  form  the  reserve." 

On  the  2nd  of  December,  1805,  at  the  moment  when  the  sun  was 
rising   upon  this  famous  plain,   on  which  three  hundred   B    ,    f 
thousand  men  were  about  to  enter  upon  a  death  struggle,   lltz- 
and  on  which  was  to  be  decided  the  fate  of  the  Austrian  monarchy, 
Napoleon  passed  along  the  front  of  his  regiments,  and  said — "  Soldiers ! 
We  must  finish  this  campaign  with  a  thunderclap  !"     Enthusiastic  shouts 
replied  to  him,  and  the  battle  commenced.     The  enemy,  still  resolved  to 
turn  the  right  of  the  French  army,  abandoned,  in  the  centre  of  their  new 
line,  the  heights  of  Pratzen.     Soult  received  orders  to  occupy  them,  and 
immediately  carried  them.     Kutusoff,  the  general  of  the  Eussian  army, 
immediately  perceived  his  error,  and  endeavoured  to  repair  it,  but  all  his 
efforts  were  fruitless,  and  the  French  continued  to  occupy  these  heights, 
which  divided  the  enemy's  line,  whilst  Davoust  held  him  in  check  on  the 
right  on  the  plain,  and  Murat,  Lannes,  and  Bernadotte  carried  his  prin- 
cipal positions  on  the  left.     But  now  the  cavalry  of  the  Eussian  Imperial 
Guard  rushed  upon  the  field  of  battle,  dispersed  many  of  the  bravest  of 
the  French  battalions,  and  turned  the  tide  of  conquest.     Napoleon  saw 
the  danger,  and  sent  forward  Eapp  at  the  head  of  the  cavalry  of  his 
guard.     After  a  terrible  shock  the  Eussians  were  broken  and  dispersed, 
and  Eapp,  with   a  broken  sabre  and  a  horse  covered  with  blood,  galloped 
back  to  report  his  victory.     The*  rest  of  the  enemy's  army  was  driven 
back  upon  the  lake  on  to  a  fhp,  and  surrounded  by  a   circle  of  fire. 
Crushed  by  case-shot  they  attempted  to  escape  over  the  ice,  which  broke 
beneath  them,    and  engulfed  them.     Fifteen  thousand  Austrians    and 
Eussians   perished,    twenty   thousand  were   taken   prisoners,  and  forty 
flags  with  two  hundred  pieces  of  cannon  were  the  trophies  of  this  memo- 
rable victory. 

z2 


340  BATTLE  OF  TBAIALGAB.     [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

Triumphant  on  the  Continent,  France  suffered  terrible  disasters  at 
Battle  of  Tra-  sea-  Her  fleet,  united  with  the  Spanish  fleet  under  the 
command  of  Admiral  Villeneuve,  after  having  been  beaten 
at  Cape  Finisterre,  lost,  on  the  21st  of  October,  the  celebrated  battle  of 
Trafalgar.  Thirty-three  French  and  Spanish  ships  and  seven  frigates, 
were  beaten  by  twenty-seven  English  ships  of  the  line  and  four  frigates ; 
and  thirteen  vessels  only  of  the  combined  fleets  escaped.  This  great 
victory,  which  cost  the  life  of  the  English  Admiral,  secured  to  England 
the  sovereignty  of  the  seas,  and  Napoleon  no  longer  attempted  to 
vanquish  her  on  that  element. 

The  victory  of  the  English  at  Trafalgar  was  productive  of  the  most 
serious  consequences  to  the  Court  of  Naples,  which  was  under  the  control 
of  the  violent  and  vindictive  Queen  Caroline,  the  wife,  of  Ferdinand  I.  This 
Court,  intimidated  by  Napoleon,  had  recently  bound  itself  by  treaty  to 
neutrality ;  but  before  it  could  learn  the  news  either  of  the  battle  of 
Austerlitz,  or  of  the  capitulation  of  Ulm,  it  received  information,  unfor- 
tunately for  itself,  that  Prussia  was  about  to  join  the  coalition,  and  that 
the  French  fleet  had  been  destroyed  at  Trafalgar.  It  concluded  from 
this  that  Napoleon  was  lost,  and  immediately  received  into  the  kingdom 
twelve  thousand  English  and  six  thousand  Russians,  with  whom  were 
joined  forty  thousand  Neapolitans,  for  the  purpose  of  exciting  Italy  to 
revolt  in  the  rear  of  the  French  army  in  Austria.  This  provocative  and 
rash  conduct  caused  the  fall  of  the  Bourbons  of  Naples,  who  were  aban- 
doned by  Prussia,  by  Russia,  and  by  Austria  in  the  negotiations  for  peace 
which  the  Emperor  Francis  went  in  person  to  demand  of  his  vanquisher 
after  the  battle  of  Austerlitz. 

Napoleon  granted  an  armistice  to  the  Austrians  and  Russians,  and  first 
of  all  negotiated  peace  with  Prussia.  He  had  received  information  of  the 
treaty  concluded  by  that  power  with  Alexander  at  the  commencement  of 
the  campaign,  and  to  punish  it  by  embroiling  it  with  England,  he 
Treaty  of  Schon-  resolved  to  humiliate  its  pride  by  forcing  it  to  accept  part 
/ranee  andeen  °f  the  spoils  of  its  old  ally.  Thus,  on  the  14th  December, 
1805,  was  signed  at  Schonbrunn  an  alliance  offensive  and 
defensive,  by  which  France,  regarding  Hanover  as  its  conquest,  ceded  it 
to  Prussia  in  exchange  for  the  Duchy  of  Cleves,  the  Principality  of 
Neufchatel,  and  the  Marquisate  of  Anspach,  which  Napoleon  soon 
exchanged  with  Bavaria  for  the  Duchy  of  Berg. 


1804-1808.]  NAPOLEON   EETUENS    TO   PAEIS.  341 

Ten  days  later,  the  25th  December,  Napoleon  forced  on  the  Emperor 
Joseph  the  hard  treaty  of  Presburg,  by  which  Austria  lost   peace     Preg 
Venetia,  Frinli,  Istria,  Damiatia,  territories  in  which  were    prance^n!*11 
comprehended    Trieste   and   the    mouths    of  the    Cattaro,    Austria> 1805- 
so   important  for  navigation  and   commerce.     It  was  stipulated  that  all 
these  States  should  be  annexed  to  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  of  which  Napo- 
leon wore  the  crown,  and  which  was  to  be  subsequently  separated  from 
the  Crown  of  France ;  but  no  period  for  this  separation  was  fixed. 

Austria  ceded  the  Tyrol  to  Bavaria,  and  received  in  exchange,  for  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand,  the  ecclesiastical  principality  of  Wurzburg.  It  ob- 
tained also  for  the  advantage  of  another  Grand-Duke  the  secularization  of 
the  profits  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  valued  at  one  hundred  and 

„ ,,        ,  -in-  n  r>  Tlie  Electorates 

iifty  thousand  florins  a  year.    The  two  electorates  of  Bavaria   of  Bavaria  and 

Wurtemburg 

and  Wurtemburer  were  raised  to  the  rank  of  kingdoms,  and    erected  into 

°    _  °  kingdoms,  1805. 

the  Emperor  Francis  gave  up  to  the  Sovereigns  of  these  States 
and  to  the  Grand-Duke  of  Baden  the  ancient  rights  of  the  Germanic  Empire 
over  the  nobility  contiguous  to  their  territories.     Finally,  Austria  had  to 
pay  for  the  expenses  of  the  war  a  contribution  of  a  hundred  millions, 
which  was  subsequently  reduced  to  one  half. 

The  treaty  of  Presburg,  so  glorious  in  many  respects  for  France,  was 
nevertheless,  as  were  most  of  the  treaties  signed  by  Napoleon,  only  a 
pause  in  the  war.  It  was  impossible  that  the  state  of  things  which  he  had 
created  upon  the  Continent  should  ever  be  regarded  as  final  by  Prussia, 
which  was  far  more  humiliated  than  gratified  at  having  received  Hanover 
in  exchange  for  one  of  its  own  provinces ;  by  Austria,  which  it  exaspe- 
rated by  forcing  it  to  make  immense  sacrifices  ;  or  finally,  by  England, 
which,  as  well  as  Eussia,  remained  armed,  and  which  had  lost  in  Hanover 
the  patrimony  of  its  kings.  Napoleon  believed  himself  at  this  time  to  be 
the  master  of  Europe,  and  as  he  saw  no  limit  to  his  power,  he  set  none  to 
his  ambition. 

On  returning  to  Paris  after  a  brilliant  campaign  of  three  months'  dura- 
tion, Napoleon  excited  there  universal  enthusiasm.  Intoxicated  with  his 
good  fortune,  he  now  set  to  work  to  remove  the  last  vestige  of  ■  the  Revo- 
lutionary institutions.  The  Republican  Calendar  was  replaced  by  the 
Gregorian  Calendar,  which  was  endowed  with  a  new  saint  by  a  decree 
which  ordered  that  on  the  15th  of  August  the  fete  of  Saint  Napoleon 
should  be  celebrated  throughout  the  empire.     Another  decree  directed 


342  REPUBLICAN   INSTITUTIONS    DESTROYED.        [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

that  the  Basilica  of  St.  Denis  should  bethe  burial-place  of  the  Emperors ; 
whilst  the  Pantheon  was  restored  to  the  Catholic  worship,  and  the  Tribu- 
nate ceased  to  exist.  Napoleon,  who  had  created  by  the  peace  of  Presburg 
the  kingdoms  of  Bavaria  and  Wurtemburg,  declared  that 
claims  the  down-   the  House  of  Naples  had  lost  its   crown  as  punishment  for 

fall  of  the  Bour-  . 

bons  in  Naples,     the  part  it  had  taken  in  the  late  coalition,  and  transferred 

He  crowns  his 

brothers.  the  Neapolitan  sceptre  to  his  brother  Joseph.     He  made  the 

Joseph  is  made  x  r   A  *■ 

King  of  Naples,     republic  of  the  United  Provinces  a  kino;dom  for  his  brother 

and  Louis  King  x  ° 

i806Olland'  Louis,  and  made  Prince  Murat,  his  brother-in-law,  Grand- 

Duke  of  Cleves  and  Berg.  Only  one  republic  now  remained 
of  all  those  which,  in  the  time  of  the  Directory,  had  surrounded  France ; 
and  this  was  Switzerland,  of  which  Napoleon  declared  himself  the 
Mediator.  He  endeavoured  to  establish  the  military  hierarchic  regime 
Great  fiefa  of  °^  ^eu^al  times,  and  transformed  various  provinces  and 
the  Empire.  principalities  into  grand  fiefs  of  the  empire,  which  he  be- 
stowed as  rewards  upon  his  ministers  and  most  illustrious  generals.  In 
this  way  were  erected  into  duchies — Dalmatia,  Istria,  Friuli,  Cadore, 
Belluno,  Conegliano,  Treviso,  Feltre,  Bassano,  Vicenza,  Padua,  Rovigo ; 
whilst  Neufchatel,  Benevento,  and  G-uastalla  were  made  principalities. 
Two  years  later  Napoleon  struck  the  final  blow  at  Republican  institutions 
„     ,      ...         by  creating  a  new  series  of  hereditary  nobility,  in  which 

New  hereditary         J  °  J  J 1 

nobility.  those  who  were  illustrious  of  old  took  rank  for  the  most 

part  after  the  celebrities  of  the  day.  This  was  setting  himself  up  as  the 
principle  and  source  of  a  new  social  order,  which  was,  nevertheless, 
clothed  with  ancient  forms  ;  no  account  being  taken  of  the  consecration 
which  illustrious  names  have  received  from  time  and  history.  But  at 
that  time  there  was  no  such  thing  as  censure,  for  all  liberty  of  the  press 
was  stifled ;  Napoleon  had  only  his  flatterers  to  fear,  and  as  his  faults 
were  covered  with  laurels  they  were  pardoned. 

Great  works  were  executed  or  commenced  at  this  period,  during  which 
the  Emperor  also  made  some  important  additions  to,  and  useful  changes 
in,  the  various  branches  of  the  general  administration  and  public  service. 
He  gave  a  new  organization  to  the  bank  and  the  treasury ;  he  modified 
the  duties  of  the  Council  of  State,  and  rendered  it  more  complete  by  the 
useful  addition  of  the  masters  of  requests.     He  established, 

Foundation  of  .       ,  v    . .      ,    *  ,      , 

the  imperial      under  the  name  of  the  Imperial  University,  a   body  en- 

University.  .       , 

trusted   with   the    superintendence    of   public   instruction 


1804-1808.]  NEW    CIVIL    CODE.  343 

throughout  the  empire ;  finally,  he  caused  the  legislative  power  to  intro- 
duce  a   code    of    civil   procedure   replete   with    excellent   New  code  of 
arrangements,  in  accordance  with  the  simplification  of  the    cml  Procedure- 
law  and  with  the  new  form  of  the  tribunals. 

In  the  year  1806  everything  seemed  to  meet  the  Emperor's  wishes. 
Pitt,  his  irreconcilable  enemy,  was  dead,  and  Fox,  the  leader  of  the 
parliamentary  opposition,  had  succeeded  him.  Pacific  negotiations  were 
immediately  commenced  between  the  two  powers,  and  actively  pursued 
by  the  minister  Talleyrand.  But  pride  had  already  blinded  Napoleon, 
and  he  was  resolved  to  complete  the  ruin  of  the  Bourbons,  who,  although 
driven  from  the  Continent,  still  reigned  in  Sicily.  He  demanded  that 
that  island  should  be  annexed  to  his  brother's  State,  and  to  induce 
England  not  to  oppose  this  fresh  conquest,  he  offered  in  exchange  the 
restoration  of  Hanover,  which  had  already  been  ceded  to  Prussia.  This 
demand,  which  nothing  could  justify,  was  too  much  opposed  to  the 
honour  and  the  commercial  interests  of  England  to  be  accepted.  Fox 
himself,  in  spite  of  his  inclination  for  peace,  could  not  depend,  if  he 
signed  it  at  such  a  price,  upon  the  support  of  Parliament,  and  the  nego- 
tiations were  broken  off. 

In  the  meantime  Napoleon,  pursuing  his  project  of  obtaining  unlimited 
rule  in  Europe,  completed  the  organization  of  his  military  empire  by  ren- 
dering the  old  Germanic  confederation  dependent  on  him.  On  the  12th 
of  July,  1806,  fourteen  princes  of  the  south  and  the  west  of  Confederation  of 
Germany  formed  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  and  recog-  the  Ehlne» 1806- 
nised  Napoleon  as  their  protector.  The  Act  of  Confederation  established 
that  there  should  be  between  the  French  empire  and  the  Confederated 
States  an  alliance  by  virtue  of  which  either  of  the  contracting  parties 
which  might  have  to  engage  in  a  continental  war  was  to  be  supported  by 
the  other ;  and  it  conferred  upon  the  princes  who  signed  it  rights  of 
sovereignty  over  the  multitude  of  princes  and  counts  supported  by  the 
German  territory,  and  who,  as  members  of  the  noblesse  immediate,  had 
formerly  only  been  subservient  to  the  Emperor  or  Germany.  This  con- 
federation enfeebled  Prussia  and  Austria  as  much  as  it  added -apparently 
to  the  power  of  Napoleon.  He  thought  that  he  should  strengthen  his 
empire  by  covering  it  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine  with  a  circle  of 
states,  the  chiefs  of  which  would  be  so  much  the  more  devoted  to  his 
interests  that  he  alone  could  guarantee  the  continued  possession  of  that 


344  THE    EOTJKTH    COALITION.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

which  he  alone  had  given,  and  he  forgot  that  he  deeply  wounded  and 
excited  against  him  the  national  feeling  of  their  peoples,  who  were  Ger- 
mans at  heart,  by  forcing  them,  in  spite  of  themselves,  to  join  a  con- 
federation which  was  wholly  French.  The  Emperor  Francis  II.  was, 
amongst  the  sovereigns  of  Germany,  the  one  whose  rights  were  most 
infringed  upon  by  the  formation  of  the  Confederation  of  the  Ehine,  but 
he  was  too  weak  to  make  any  opposition  to  it,  and,  submitting  to  the 
decree  which  had  been  declared  at  Austerlitz,  he  abdicated 

Fall  of  the  Ger-  ' 

man  Empire,  the  title  of  Emperor  of  Germany,  and  retained  only,  under 
the  name  of  Francis  L,  the  title  of  Emperor  of  Austria, 
which  he  had  assumed  in  1804,  and  thus  ended  the  Germanic  Em- 
pire, after  it  had  existed  for  a  thousand  years.  Napoleon  now  saw  the 
fairest  portion  of  Europe  either  incorporated  with  France  or  its  vassal. 
He  believed  that  he  had  realized  his  dream,  and  was,  in  his  own  eyes, 
the  Emperor  of  the  West,  and  the  genuine  successor  to  Charlemagne. 

In  the  meantime  the  King  of  Prussia,  Frederick  William — greatly  irri- 
tated against  Napoleon,  who,  after  having  guaranteed  him  the  possession 
of  Hanover,  had  offered  it  to  England,  and  moreover,  with  good  reason, 
alarmed  at  the  encroachments  of  France  and  its  ever-increasing  influence 

in    Europe — had    resolved    to    form  in    Germany    a    Con- 
Confederation  of 
the  States  of  the    federation  of  the  States  of  the  North,  in  opposition  to  the 

North.  _  _  '  rr 

Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  and  he  sent  an  ultimatum  to 
the  Emperor  in  which  he  demanded,  as  a  first  condition  of  the  main- 
tenance of  peace,  the  retreat  of  all  the  French  troops  in  Germany  to  the 
further  side  of  the  Ehine.  Napoleon,  indignant  at  a  coalition  which  he 
regarded  as  an  insult,  would  not  allow  Saxony  and  the  Hanseatic  towns  to 
join  the  Northern  League,  and  rejected  the  Prussian  ultimatum,  upon 
which  Frederick  William  determined  upon  war.  This  prince  invaded 
Saxony  ;  the  French  ambassador  was  insulted  in  Berlin,  and  the  young 
and  beautiful  Queen  of  Prussia  rode  through  the  streets  of  that  city  in 
military  costume,  to  excite  the  warlike  enthusiasm  of  the  populace. 
"  She  resembles,"  said  Napoleon  in  reference  to  her,  "  Armide  setting 
The  fourth  ^re    to   ^~eT   Pa^ace-"      These   words   were   prophetic,    for 

coalition,  1806.  France  was  destined  to  crush  this  fourth  coalition,  which 
was  formed  by  Eussia,  Prussia,  Sweden,  and  England.  The  death  of 
Fox,  which  occurred  soon  after  that  of  Pitt,  had  destroyed  all  hope  of 
reconciliation  between  the  latter  power  and  France. 


1804-1808.]  TKESH    CAMPAIGN   IN    GKEEMANY.  345 

Napoleon  entered  upon  the  campaign  on  the  28th  of  September,  at  the 
head  of  a  hundred  and  ninety  thousand  men,  and  marched  to  meet  the 
Prussian  army,  which  had  already  invaded  Saxony,  and  which,  including 
twenty  thousand  Saxon  troops  which  had  joined  it,  consisted  of  a  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  soldiers,  who  considered  themselves  invincible,  as 
being  the  heirs  of  the  tactics  and  the  glory  of  the  Great  Frederick.  Its 
Commander-in-Chief  was  the  old  Duke  of  Brunswick,  who  had  been  cele- 
brated in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  but  a  great  number  of  the  troops  were 
under  the  immediate  command  of  the  young  Prince  of  Hohenlohe,  whom 
the  King  had  rendered  almost  independent  of  the  Commander-in-Chief. 

Napoleon  manoeuvred  with  extreme  celerity  so  as  to  surround  the 
enemy,  cut  off  his  communications,  and  close  against  him  his    „        .       „ 

J  1  '  °  Campaign  oi 

line  of  retreat.  The  enemy  was  successively  driven  back  18U8, 
to  Schleitz  and  to  Saalfeld.  The  last  of  these  two  conflicts  cost  the  life 
of  the  young  Prince  Louis  of  Prussia,  one  of  the  most  eager  instigators 
of  this  war,  which  was  so  disastrous  for  his  country.  A  feAV  days 
afterwards  the  French  army,  as  it  was  preparing  to  cross  the  Saale  at 
three  points,  encountered  at  Jena  a  great  portion  of  the  Prussian  army 
under  Prince  Hohenlohe,  whom  Brunswick  had  ordered  to  avoid  a 
general  action,  and  to  retreat  upon  the  Elbe.  It  was  too  late  to  obey 
this  order ;  Napoleon  ordered  the  attack  and  a  general 
engagement  ensued.  His  victory  was  as  complete  as  it  was  and  Averstadc- 
rapid ;  the  Prussians  lost  in  a  few  hours  twelve  thousand  men  killed  or 
wounded,  fifteen  thousand  prisoners,  a  multitude  of  flags,  and  two 
hundred  pieces  of  cannon.  On  the  same  day,  four  hours  later,  Marshal 
Davoust,  who  occupied  a  strong  position  at  Averstadt,  had  to  sustain, 
with  twenty-five  thousand  men  and  a  few  batteries,  the  assault  of  sixty 
thousand  Prussians  commanded  by  Brunswick.  He  made  an  heroic 
defence,  beat  off  the  enemy,  took  almost  all  his  artillery,  and  put  ten 
thousand  men  hors  de  combat.  These  two  great  battles  decided  the  cam- 
paign. A  portion  of  the  victorious  army  marched  rapidly  upon  Erfurt, 
which  capitulated ;  and  a  reserve  corps  of  the  enemy,  under  the  Prince 
of  Wurtemberg,  was  surprised  and  completely  vanquished  at  -Halle  by 
General  Dupont.  The  disorganization  of  the  Prussian  army  was  already 
complete ;  its  various  corps  marched  as  though  at  hazard  and  in  different 
directions,  under  their  several  generals,  the  Duke  of  Weimar,  Blucher, 
and  Kalkreuth.     The  King,  after  the  battle  of  Averstadt,  in  which  the 


346  COMPLETE    CONQUEST    OF    PBTJSSIA.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

Duke  of  Brunswick  was  mortally  wounded,  had  bestowed  the  chief  com- 
mand upon  the  Prince  of  Hohenlohe,  but  the  latter  had  seen  his  troops 
dispersed  or  destroyed,  and  with  the  force  that  remained  proceeded  to 
Magdeburg. 

Nothing  now  prevented  Napoleon  from  marching  victoriously  onward. 

He    occupied    in    succession    Leipzig,   Wittemberg,    and 

leon  into  Berlin,    Dessau ;   crossed  the  Elbe  at  three  points,  and  on  the  28th 

Oct.,  1806. 

of  October,   1806,   at  the  head  of  an  army,  and  accom- 
panied by  Marshals  Berthier,  Duroc,  Augereau,  and  Davoust,  entered 
Berlin  in  triumph.*     The  line  of  the  Oder  was  promptly 

Conquest  of  all  r  _  x  x     J 

Southern  and        occupied.     Murat   with    his  cavalry,  Soult,    Lannes,    and 

WesternPrussia.  x  ^ '  / 

Bernadotte,  with  their  invincible  infantry,  completed  the 
conquest  of  Western  and  Southern  Prussia  as  far,  as  the  shores  of  the 
Baltic.  The  Prince  of  Hohenlohe  capitulated,  and  surrendered  with 
sixteen  thousand  men  at  Prenzlow.  Blucher  fled  for  refuge  into  the  free 
town  of  Lubeck,  which  was  carried  by  assault,  and  surrendered  to  Murat 
with  his  corps.  The  fortresses  of  Stettin,  Custrin,  and  Magdeburg  opened 
their  gates  to  the  French  troops.  What  remained  of  the  great  Prussian 
army  was  taken,  together  with  an  immense  materiel  of  war ;  and  of  the 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  men  who  formed  that  army  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war,  not  one  repassed  the  Oder.  The  unfortunate 
Frederick  William  retreated  to  Konigsberg,  where  he  concentrated  his  last 
reserves,  and  the  despotic  and  military  monarchy  of  Frederick  the  Great 
appeared  to  have  been  within  a  month  almost  annihilated. 

Napoleon,  everywhere  victorious,  traversed  the  field  of  the  battle  of 
Eosbach,  where  his  presence  effaced  the  affront  to  which  the  French 
arms  had  been  subjected  in  the  last  century.  He  visited  at  Potsdam 
the  tomb  of  Frederick  the   Great,  and  took  possession  of  his  glorious 

*  Napoleon  respected  the  city  of  Berlin,  and  showed  the  greatest  regard  for  the 
inhabitants  of  that  city,  which  he  honoured  by  a  great  act  of  clemency.  He  left  the 
municipal  authority  in  the  hands  of  the  Prussian  magistrates,  at  the  head  of  whom  was 
the  Prince  of  Hazfeld,  the  civil  governor  of  Berlin.  The  latter  wrote  to  Blucher  some 
information  with  respect  to  the  situation  of  the  French  troops.  His  letter  was  inter- 
cepted, and  the  prince,  by  Napoleon's  orders,  was  tried  by  a  court-martial  as  a  spy  and 
a  traitor.  His  execution  appeared  certain,  when  his  wife,  the  Princess  of  Hazfeld, 
threw  herself  at  the  Emperor's  feet.  "Do  you  recognise  your  husband's  handwrit- 
ing ? "  said  the  Emperor,  showing  her  his  letter.  She  remained  silent,  and  seemed 
overwhelmed  with  despair.  "  Throw  the  letter  into  the  fire,"  said  the  Emperor,  hand- 
ing it  to  her,  "  and  the  court-martial  will  be  compelled  to  acquit  him." 


1804-1808.]  THE    CONTINENTAL    BLOCKADE.  347 

sword.  He  then  used  the  rights  conferred  upon  him  by  victory,  and 
disposed  of  crowns  by  his  decrees.  The  Elector  of  Hesse  before  the  war 
had  refused  to  disarm  at  his  demand,  and,  without  openly  declaring 
against  Napoleon,  had  only  awaited  until  some  reverse  should  overtake 
the  Imperial  arms  to  unite  his  troops  with  those  of  Prussia;  and  Napo- 
leon now  punished  him  by  depriving  him  of  his  States.  The  Elector  of 
Saxony,  an  estimable  Prince,  whose  States  were  to  a  certain  extent 
dependent  on  Prussia,  had  been  compelled  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  that 
monarchy.  It  was  with  regret  that  he  had  taken  up  arms  against 
France,  and  after  the  war  he  became  a  member  of  the  Con-    „  ,  , 

'  Saxony  created 

federation  of  the  Ehine.     The  Emperor  declared  his  States   a  MDgdom' 
independent  of  Prussia,  and  raised  them  to  the  rank  of  a  kingdom. 

Victorious,  however,  as  he  was  on  the  Continent,  his  victories  could 
have  no  durable  result  until  England  should  be  forced  to  make  peace. 
That  power  would  have  accepted  it  if  Napoleon  had  been  willing  to  im- 
pose some  sacrifices  on  himself  or  the  members  of  his  family,  and  give  up 
those  territories  which,  without  bestowing  any  real  advantages  on  France, 
were  in  his  hands  a  perpetual  source  of  humiliation  to  the  sovereigns  of 
Europe.  But  Napoleon  preferred  to  have  recourse  to  a  fresh  despotism, 
to  an  unheard-of  plan,  to  force  England  to  submit.  On  the  21st  Novem- 
ber, 1806,  there  appeared  at  Berlin  the  famous  decree  for 

Decree  of  the 

the  blockade  of  the  British  isles.     This  decree  stated  the    Continental 

blockade,  1806. 

violations  of  the  law  of  nations  committed  by  England, 
the  abuse   of  the  right  of  conquest  committed  by  her  on  the  seas  in 
respect  to  ships  of  commerce,  and  her  abuse  of  the  law  of  blockade,  in 
preventing  at  her  will  international  maritime  communications.     It  then 
proceeded  to  declare  the  British  isles  themselves  in  a  state  of  blockade  ; 
interdicted  any  commerce  or  communication  with  them  ;  and  ordered  the 
seizure  of  all  English  persons  and  English  merchandize  which  should  be 
found  on  the  territories  of  France,   or  on  those  of  her  allies.     Every 
nation  which  did  not  submit  to  the  system  set  forth  in  this  decree  was 
declared  by  it  to  be  an  enemy  of  France.     Thus  was   established  the 
Continental  System,  so  called  because  the  obligations  which   Reflections  0n 
it  imposed  must  affect  the  whole  Continent.     It  was  in- 
jurious to  the  interests  of  every  nation,  and  was  pregnant  with  one  great 
evil  which  Napoleon  failed  to  take  sufficiently  into  account.     To  attempt, 
in  fact,  to  prevent  the  merchandize  of  England  from  entering  any  Euro- 


348  THE  FRENCH  ENTEE,  POLAND.   [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

pean  port,  was  to  compel  the  English,  in  self-defence,  to  close  the  seas  of 
which  they  were  the  masters  against  the  vessels  of  every  nation.  This 
was,  in  its  turn,  to  inflict  the  greatest  misery  upon  the  populations  of  the 
north  and  the  south,  to  whom  commerce  with  England  was  a  vital  neces- 
sity, and  to  sow  the  seeds  of  an  obstinate  resistance  and  implacable  hatred. 
This  system  doubtless  inflicted  immense  loss  upon  England,  and  forced 
upon  her  expenses  which  prodigiously  increased  her  already  enormous 
debt ;  but  it  did  not  place  that  power  at  her  rival's  discretion,  as  Napoleon 
had  hoped,  but  led  her,  on  the  contrary,  to  adopt  a  series  of  violent  and 
gigantic  measures  which  precipitated  his  fall. 

Frederick  William,  although  vanquished  and  almost  entirely  dispossessed, 
had  not  lost  all  hope.  Pie  had  collected,  between  Thorn  and  Konigsberg, 
under  General  Lestocq,  about  thirty  thousand  men,  his  last  resource, 
and  Eussian  troops  under  old  General  Kraminski  advanced  to  his  aid 
across  Poland.  Divided  into  two  corps  under  Generals  Benningzen  and 
Buntofden,  they  approached  the  Vistula,  and  wrould  have  attacked  the 
French  in  concert  with  the  Prussians  if  they  had  not  been  prevented  by 
their  rapid  movements.  Victorious  on  the  fields  of  Jena  and  Averstadt, 
Napoleon  enters  Napoleon  had  resolved  to  march  to  fight  the  Eussians  on  the 
Poland.  plains  of  Poland.     Eeceived  with  enthusiasm  by  the  Poles, 

and  especially  in  the  Duchy  of  Posen,  he  proposed  to  repair  the  great 
wrong  committed  in  the  last  century,  and  to  re-establish  theancient  king- 
dom of  Poland.  Nevertheless,  he  did  not  ignore  the  numerous  perils 
attending  such  an  enterprise ;  three  powers,  Eussia,  Prussia,  and  Austria, 
being  interested  in  the  division  of  that  kingdom,  and  the  maintenance  of 
the  existing  order  of  things.  The  Poles  themselves  appeared  to  be  divided 
on  the  subject.  The  great  nobles  of  Warsaw  seemed  to  be  but  little  in 
unison  with  the  nobles  of  the  provinces,  and  to  distrust  both  the  sincerity 
of  Napoleon's  intentions  and  his  powers  of  achieving  success.  Before 
exciting  and  taking  part  in  a  popular  movement,  it  desired  that  Napoleon 
should  proclaim  the  freedom  of  Poland,  and  give  it  a  king  from  his  own 
family  ;  whilst  the  Emperor,  on  the  other  hand,  demanded  that  a  simul- 
taneous rising  of  the  whole  population  should  precede  his  declaration  of 
its  independence.  Being  unable  to  obtain  this,  he  thought  it  prudent  to 
defer  to  a  future  period  his  designs  with  respect  to  this  ancient  kingdom. 

Two  French  armies,  each  consisting  of  about  eighty  thousand  men,  and 


1804r-1808.]  THE   FRENCH    IS  POLAND.  349 

divided  into  nine  corps,  marched  upon  the  Vistula  at  the  commencement 
of  November.  Murat,  Davoust,  Augereau,  and  Lannes  commanded  the 
first ;  and  Napoleon  in  person  commanded  the  second,  which  consisted  of 
Ney's,  Soult's,  and  Bernadotte's  corps,  the  guard,  and  the  reserves.  On 
the  2nd  December,  the  anniversary  of  his  coronation,  he  addressed  these 
words  to  his  army :  "Soldiers !  It  is  a  year  to-day,  and  this  very  hour,  that 
you  were  on  the  memorable  field  of  Austerlitz.  The  Kussian  battalions 
either  fled  in  terror  before  you,  or,  unable  to  fly,  laid  their  arms  at  the 
feet  of  their  vanquishers.  On  the  following  day  they  begged  for  peace. 
But  they  were  treacherous.  They  had  scarcely  escaped  from  the  dangers 
to  which  the  third  coalition  had  exposed  them  when  they  formed  a  fourth. 
But  the  ally  on  whose  tactics  they  founded  their  principal  hopes  is  no  more. 
His  fortresses,  his  capitals,  his  magazines,  his  arsenals,  two  hundred  and 
eighty  flags,  seven  hundred  cannon,  and  five  great  fortresses,  are  in  our 
possession.  Everything  has  given  way  before  you.  It  is  in  vain  that  the 
Russians  have  attempted  to  defend  the  capitals    of  old  and  illustrious 

Poland;   the  French  eagle  hovers  over  the  Vistula On  the  banks 

of  the  Elbe  and  the  Oder,  we  have  conquered  the  Indian  colonies 
belonging  to  the  English,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  the  Spanish 
colonies.  What  will  enable  the  Russians  to  reverse  so  great  a  destiny  as 
ours  ?  Are  we  not  the  soldiers  of  Austerlitz  ?"  This  haughty  address 
sufficiently  manifested  that  peace  between  England  and  Napoleon  was 
impossible. 

A  great  number  of  indecisive  conflicts,  in  which  the  French  generally- 
had  the  advantage,  took  place  at  the  commencement  of  this  campaign  ; 
and  on  the  6th  of  December  the  French  obtained  a  decisive  victory  atPul- 
tusk,  where  Marshal  Lannes,  with  twenty-three  thousand  men  and  a  few 
pieces  of  artillery,  vanquished  and  repulsed  Benningzen's  division,  which 
was  much  more  numerous.  The  inclemency  of  the  season  and  the  marshy 
nature  of  the  soil,  which  was  rendered  impassable  by  rain 

i  n     i  tvt         i  i     i     •       -n.   t       t        t  -,         Cantonment  cf 

and  snow,  compelled  JNapoleon  to  halt  m  Poland,  where  he   the  French  ar.^iy 

in  Poland. 

passed  the  winter.     He  posted  his  various  corps  in  front  of 
the  Vistula,  between  Elbing,   near  the  Baltic,  up  to  Warsaw.     At  the 
same  time  he  attacked  the  principal  fortresses  in  Silesia,  which  fell  suc- 
cessively into  his  hands,  whilst  a  tenth  corps,  under  Marshal  Lefebvre 
was  detached  to  invest  Dantzic. 


350  THE    BATTLE    OE    EYLATT.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

The  Russian  general,  Benningzen,  however,  deceived  the  Emperor's 
expectations ;  he  ventured  to  carry  on  the  campaign  during 
1807 pa,March  of  *^e  winter>  anc*  endeavoured  to  surprise  the  French  army 
turiftheposi-0  ^n  ^s  cantonments  by  turning  its  positions  on  the  shore  of 
Erenclfarmy.  tne  Baltic,  and  crossing  the  Vistula  with  the  Prussian 
corps  of  General  Lestocq,  between  Thorn  and  Marien- 
burg.  But  his  plan  was  divined  and  frustrated.  Ney  discovered  the 
Russians,  and  Bernadotte  stopped  their  advance  at  Mohrungen.  Then 
Benningzen  hesitated,  and  he  concentrated  his  forces  at  Lubstadt, 
from  whence  he  marched  to  the  strong  position  of  Jonkorvo,  in  the 
rear  of  Allenstein,  where  he  entrenched  himself,  whilst  Napoleon  broke 
Na  oieon  renews  nP  ^s  camPs  an<^  resumed  the  offensive  with  a  hundred 
the  offensive.  thousand  men.  The  Emperor  ascended  the  Narew,  and 
then  proceeded  across  the  frightful  marshes  of  Poland  towards  Allen- 
stein, in  order  to  turn,  in  his  turn,  the  left  of  the  Prussians  and  Rus- 
sians, and  drive  them  into  the  sea.  He  attacked  the  enemy  in  his 
formidable  entrenchments  at  Jonkorvo.  But  Benningzen  dared  not  await 
his  approach,  and  fell  back  before  the  French,  who  descended  the  course 
of  the  Alle  in  pursuit  of  him,  and  had  several  desperate  engagements 
with  the  Russian  and  Prussian  armies.  Benningzen  halted  beyond 
Eylau  and  took  up  a  position,  resolved  to  give  battle  as  soon  as  General 
Lestocq  and  the  Prussians  should  arrive. 

The  action  commenced  by  a  frightful  cannonade  on  both  sides,  and 
Tn  b  ttl  f  ^e  -French  artillery  especially  made  frightful  ravages  in 
Eylau.  ^q  Russian  army,   which  presented  in  front  of  Eylau  a 

compact  and  formidable  front.  Napoleon,  having  Soult's  corps  on  his 
left,  in  the  city  of  Eylau  itself,  and  Davoust  on  his  right,  occupied  the 
centre  of  the  position  with  his  right,  and  placed  himself  in  a  ceme- 
tery defended  by  a  few  battalions.  Davoust  had  already  turned  the 
enemy's  left,  when  an  enormous  mass  of  Russian  infantry  was  thrown 
against  the  French  centre.  Napoleon  ordered  Saint-Hilaire  and  Auge- 
reau  to  meet  this  formidable  column  with  their  divisions.  But  the  snow 
fell  in  masses  and  blinded  Augereau's  soldiers,  so  that  they  lost  their  way, 
and  misled  the  divisions  which  were  to  support  them.  The  Russians 
threw  themselves  into  the  intervals,  and  suddenly  unmasked  ninety 
pieces  of  artillery  which  mowed  down  half  Augereau's  corps  with  grape. 
The  enemy's  column  advanced  in  masses,  and  a  short  distance  only  inter- 


1804-1808.]  FALL   OE   DANTZIC.  351 

vened  between  it  and  the  cemetery  in  which  Napoleon  had  taken  up  his 
position.  The  Emperor,  perfectly  tranquil  at  this  critical  moment, 
launched  against  the  Russians  the  whole  of  his  cavalry,  which  was  com- 
manded by  Murat,  and  under  him  by  Grouchy,  d'Hautpoul  and  Lepic. 
Murat,  at  the  head  of  eighty  squadrons,  fell  upon  the  enemy  with  a 
tremendous  dash  and  broke  his  foremost  regiments,  driving  those  which 
followed  back  upon  the  main  body  and  into  the  neighbouring  woods  with 
frightful  carnage. 

This  peril  having  been  thus  removed,  the  French  left  wing  under 
Davoust  succeeded  in  turning  the  Russians,  when  the  Prussians  appeared 
and  held  it  in  check.  The  night  came  on ;  Benningzen,  who  had  lost  the 
third  part  of  his  army,  hesitated  to  retire ;  but  Ney,  who  had  followed 
the  Prussians,  appeared  in  his  turn  in  the  rear  of  the  Russian  army,  and 
the  latter  immediately  began  to  retreat.  It  carried  away  with  it  fifteen 
thousand  wounded,  leaving  more  than  twelve  thousand  men  on  the 
ground,  and  many  thousand  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  victors.  The 
loss  of  the  French,  without  counting  their  wounded,  was  about  ten 
thousand  men. 

The  plains  of  Eylau,  over  which  the  flames  of  burning  hamlets  and 
villages  threw  a  lurid  glare,  was  strewn  with  a  multitude  of  arms,  projec- 
tiles, and  military  debris  of  all  kinds,  as  well  as  with  an  immense  multi-  > 
tude  of  men  and  horses  dead  or  dying  in  the  midst  of  the  blood-stained 
snow ;  and  when  on  the  morrow  the  day  broke  on  this  plain  of  death,  it 
lighted  up  a  scene  of  incomparable  horror,  such  as  even  moved  the 
soul  of  the  victor  himself. 

Napoleon  pursued  the  Russians  as  far  as  Kbnigsberg,  and  beyond  the 
Pregel ;  after  which  he  returned  to  take  up  his  winter  quarters  beyond 
the  Lower  Vistula,  between  Elbing  and  Thorn,  in  order  to  cover  the 
siege    of    Dantzic,   which   he   pressed   forward   with   the 

Siege  and  capi- 

utmost  vigour.     This  fortress,  the  most  important  belong-   tuiation  of 
ing  to  the  Prussian  monarchy,  was  besieged  during  four 
months,  and  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  made  by  Benningzen  to  relieve  it, 
surrendered  on  the  24th  May,  1807,  to  Marshal  Lefebvre,  whom  Napo- 
leon created  Duke  of  Dantzic. 

Turkey  was  at  this  time  the  scene  of  serious  events.  The  French 
ambassador  at  Constantinople,  General  Sebastiani,  was  making  great 
efforts    to    induce    the    Sultan   Selim   to    ally  himself   with    France, 


352  "WAR   IN    POLAND    CONTINUED.       [BOOK  III,  CHAP.  II. 

when    forty    thousand  Russians  suddenly    crossed     the    Dniester,    the 
Turkish   frontier,  under  pretence  of  securing   the  execu- 

Peril  of  the  .  „  .  _       ■  ,,  .  ,       .  .  . 

Turkish  empire,    tion  oi  treaties,   but  really  with  the  intention  of  assisting 

Menaced  by  the  .  .  .  _ 

Russians  and        the  Servians  who  had  revolted  against  the  Porte.     This  sud- 

English,  1807. 

den  invasion  of  Turkey  had  been  concerted  with  the  English 
Government,  who  proposed  to  send  its  own  fleet  through  the  strait  of  the 
Dardanelles ;  and  when  the  Sultan  ordered  the  Russian  envoy  to  leave 
Constantinople,  the  English  ambassador  threatened  to  have  that  city 
bombarded  by  the  English  fleet  if  this  order  were  not  revoked ;  and  if 
the  Sultan  did  not  immediately,  by  sending  away  the  French  ambassador, 
ally  himself  with  England  and  Prussia  against  France.  This  threat 
rendered  the  Sultan   extremely  indignant,  but  he  hesitated  to  incur  the 

threatened  peril,  when  Sebastiani  revived  his  couraare  and 

Defence  of  Con-  x  '  ° 

stantmopieby  displayed  immense  energy  in  arming  Constantinople  with 
bassador,  1807.  formidable  batteries;  so  that  when,  in  March,  1807,  the 
English  fleet  appeared  before  Constantinople,  a  terrible  fire  compelled  it 
to  repass  the  Dardanelles  considerably  damaged.  France,  nevertheless, 
derived  but  little  advantage  from  this  success  and  the  favourable  dispo- 
sition of  the  Sultan  towards  her,  for  a  revolt  of  the  Janissaries  soon  after- 
wards took  place  at  Constantinople,  and  SeHm  was  deposed. 

The  war  continued  in  Poland  and  Eastern  Prussia,  where  the  Russians, 

under  Generals  Benningzen  and  Bagration,  reopened  the  campaign  in  the 

spring  with  thirty  thousand  men,  and  Napoleon,  after  the  fall  of  Dantzic, 

resumed  the  offensive.     He  marched  upon  Konigsberg ;  his 

March  of  the 

French  on  generals  defeated  the  enemy  in  the  battles  of  Gudstadt  and 

Konigsberg. 

Spanden ;  and  at  Heilsburg,  on  the  Alle,  thirty  thousand 
French  troops,  commanded  by  Murat  and  Soult,  maintained  their  position 
against  ninety  thousand  Prussians.  Benningzen  having  retreated  for  the 
purpose  of  covering  Konigsberg,  Napoleon  followed  him,  and  on  the  14th  of 
.  fE  : '  June,  the  anniversary  of  Marengo,  the  Russian  army  defiled 
land,  June,  1807.  ^y  j^e  Friedland  bridge  over  the  Alle  and  offered  battle. 
Napoleon  accepted  the  challenge,  and  assigned  to  his  generals  and  his 
various  corps  their  several  places.  On  the  right  was  Marshal  Ney,  sup- 
ported by  the  cavalry  under  Latour-Maubourg ;  in  the  centre  Marshal 
Lannes,  and  on  the  left  Mortier  and  Grouchy's  cavalry.  The  imperial 
guard  and  Victor's  corps  formed  the  reserve.  The  Russians  rested 
their  left   on  Friedland,  and  their  right  extended  far    into   the  plain. 


1804-1808.J  NAPOLEON   AND    ALEXANDER.  35$ 

Napoleon  ordered  that  the  city  should  be  taken,  since  its  capture  would 
enable  him  to  crush  the  Prussians  both  in  front  and  flank,  and  would 
secure  the  victory.  Ney's  corps  on  the  right  wing  was  the  first  in 
motion,  and  after  having  vanquished  the  enemy's  cavalry,  it  followed  the 
Prussians  into  Friedland,  where  flames  announced  his  success.  Lannes, 
M  or  tier,  and  Victor  then  made  a  vigorous  charge ;  and  the  enemy, 
attacked  by  them  in  front,  was  enveloped  on  its  left  by  the  victorious 
division  of  Marshal  Ney.  It  fled  in  disorder,  and  a  multitude  of  Prussian 
troops,  driven  into  the  Alle,  perished  in  its  stream.  The  Prussian  army 
lost  at  Friedland  eighty  pieces  of  cannon  and  twenty-five  thousand  men, 
killed,  wounded,  or  drowned.  Konigsberg,  after  this  bloody  battle,  opened 
its  gates,  and  there  remained  nothing  more  of  the  Prussian  monarchy. 

Napoleon  now  marched  towards  the  Niemen  in  pursuit  of  the  Russians, 
and  on  the  19th  of  June  came  up  with  them  on  the  banks  of  that  river,, 
which  flowed  between  the  two  armies.  But  there  his  victorious  march 
came  to  a  halt;  for  Alexander,  vanquished,  asked  for  peace,  and  expressed 
a  desire  to  see  his  conqueror.     A  raft  was  constructed  near    T  ,     .     , 

*  Interview  be- 

Tilsit,  on  the  Niemen,  for  the  solemn  interview  between  the  and  Aie^ande^at 
Czar  and  the  Emperor,  and  this  interview  took  place  in  the  Tllsifc' 1807' 
sight  of  the  two  armies  assembled  on  the  river's  banks.  The  two  sove- 
reigns approached  each  other  with  marks  of  mutual  esteem,  and  agreed 
to  remain  together  for  some  time  at  Tilsit  for  the  purpose  of  determining 
upon  the  bases  of  a  treaty  of  peace.  The  King  and  Queen  of  Prussia 
were  requested  to  attend,  but  Napoleon  displayed  but  little  pity  for  their 
misfortunes.  The  French  emperor  employed  every  effort  to  induce  the 
young  Alexander  to  coincide  with  his  views,  exciting  his  ambition,  and 
fascinating  him  by  the  influence  of  his  own  genius  and  glory,  as  well 
as  by  the  bait  of  certain  long  -  coveted  provinces.  Alexander,  be- 
guiled, sacrificed  every  other  interest  to  the  desire  to  have  Napoleon 
some  day  sanction  the  annexation  to  Russia  of  Finland,  a  Swedish 
province,  and  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  provinces  of  the  Turkish 
empire.*  He  but  feebly  defended  the  cause  of  his  unfortunate  ally, 
King  Frederick  William,  and  Napoleon  was  extremely  harsh  towards  this 
prince,  whom  he  regarded  as  the  provoker  of  the  recent  sanguinary  war. 

*  Napoleon  received  information  on  the  24tli  of  June  at  Tilsit  of  the  revolt  of  the 
Janissaries  and  the  deposition  of  his  ally,  Sultan  Selim,  and  then  thought  himself  at 
liberty  to  dispose  of  a  portion  of  the  provinces  of  the  German  empire. 

VOL.  II.  A  A 


354  THE    TREATY    OE    TILSIT.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 


Peace  of  Tilsit, 
1807. 


He  restored  to  Mm  only  half  his  states,  and  burdened  those  which  he  left 
to  him  with  an  enormous  war  contribution.  Peace  was  at 
length  concluded  at  Tilsit  by  treaties  signed  by  France, 
Russia,  and  Prussia.  The  principal  clauses  of  this  treaty  were — the 
restoration  to  Prussia,  out  of  consideration  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  of 
Old  Prussia,  of  Pomerania,  of  Brandenburg,  and  of  Silesia  ;  the  cession  to 
Prance  of  all  the  provinces  on  the  left  of  the  Elbe,  for  the  purpose  of  incorpo- 
rating them  with  the  grand  duchy  of  Hesse,  and  making  of  the  whole  a 
kingdom  of  Westphalia ;  the  conversion  of  Posen  and  "Warsaw  into  a 
Polish  state,  which,  under  the  title  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw, 
should  be  given  to  the  King  of  Saxony,  and  should  form  part  of  the 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine ;  the  recognition  of  this  Confederation  by 
Russia  and  Prussia ;  and  the  recognition  of  Napoleon's  brothers,  Louis, 
Joseph,  and  Jerome,  as  the  Kings  of  Holland,  Naples,  and  Westphalia. 
Some  secret  clauses  were  added  to  the   treaty   concluded 

Secret  clauses. 

with  Russia,  which  stijoulated,  amongst  other  things,  the 
restoration  of  the  mouths  of  the  Cattaro  to  the  French  empire, 
and  a  formal  engagement  on  the  part  of  Russia  and  France  that .  they 
would  make  common  cause  against  the  Porte,  if  the  latter  would  not 
accept  the  mediation  of  France,  and  in  that  case  to  reduce  the  Ottoman 
empire  in  Europe  to  Constantinople  and  Roumelia ;  and  finally,  to  call 
upon  the  European  powers  to  adhere  to  the  continental  blockade,  or,  in 
other  words,  to  close  their  ports  against  England,  and  declare  war  against  it. 
Such  were  the  celebrated  treaties  of  Tilsit,  which  created  in  Europe, 
for  the   sake  of   the    Bonaparte    family,    three  kingdoms, 

Considerations  . 

on  the  treaty  of  vassals  of  the  empire,  and  extended  the  Confederation  of 

Tilsit.  t  f         . 

the  Rhine  as  far  as  the  Vistula,  at  the  expense  of  Prussia 
and  Austria.  Napoleon,  by  persisting  in  thus  creating  a  new  Germany 
with  which  neither  of  the  two  great  German  powers  should  have  any 
connexion,  and  which  should  be  subordinate  to  his  own  empire,  aban- 
doned the  Avise  policy  of  the  consulate,  which  had  consisted  in  preserving 
an  equality  between  the  influence  of  Austria  and  that  of  Prussia,  and  in 
respecting  the  interests  of  the  peoples  and  the  secular  princes ;  and  he  so 
deeplv  wounded  the  national  feeling  of  the  whole  German  population, 
that  he  inspired  them  with  an  unanimous  and  irreconcilable  hatred. 
The  edifice  which  he  had  raised  only  rested  on  the  alliance  of  Russia  and 
a  good  understanding  between  himself  and  its  young  sovereign.     But  it 


1804-1808.]  PARTITION   OF    POETTJGAL.  355 

could  hardly  be  durable,  since  its  only  basis  was  a  state  of  things  which 
excited  the  ambition  of  Alexander  without  satisfying  it.  The  two  great 
contracting  parties  only  partially  explained  to  each  other  their  ulti- 
mate intentions,  and  each  was  inwardly  resolved  not  to  permit  the 
accomplishment  of  that  which  the  other  intended — viz.,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  fall  of  Constantinople,  and  on  the  other,  the  re-establishment  of  the 
kingdom  of  Poland.  But  these  dangerous  rocks  ahead  of  the  alliance 
formed  at  Tilsit  were  then  scarcely  seen.  Alexander,  on  taking  leave  of 
Napoleon,  appeared  to  have  been  completely  fascinated  by  his  genius  and 
testimonies  of  regard,  and  the  Emperor  returned  to  Paris  intoxicated 
with  his  immense  glory  and  prodigious  good  fortune. 

England  was  much  dismayed  when  she  found  Eussia  withdrawn  from 
her  influence.  Wishing  to  retain  at  any  price  a  footing  in  the  Baltic,  she 
demanded  that  Denmark  should  form  with  her  an  alliance  offensive  and 
defensive,  and  that,  as  a  guarantee  of  good  faith,  she  should  surrender  her 
fleet  and  her  capital  into  her  hands.  The  King  refused,  and  Bombardment  of 
on  the  2nd  September,  1807,  Copenhagen  was  subjected  to  SlngK* by 
a  frightful  bombardment,  which  laid  three  hundred  houses 
in  ashes.  The  Danish  fleet  also,  consisting  of  fifty-three  sail,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  English.  Denmark  avenged  herself  for  this  iniquitous  and 
barbarous  act  by  immediately  adhering  to  the  continental  system. 
Sweden  alone  in  the  north  had  remained  armed  after  the  peace  of  Tilsit, 
its  weak  King,  Gustavus  IV.,  having  declared  himself  the  avenger  of 
Europe  against  Napoleon ;  but  he  now  saw  Eussia,  lately  his  ally, 
snatch  from  under  his  eyes  Stralsund  and  the  Isle  of  Eugen,  and  by  his 
foolish  pride  he  alienated  the  affections  of  his  subjects.  All  the  shore  of 
the  Baltic  was  now  subject  to  the  yoke  of  France. 

There  only  remained  on  the  Continent  at  the  end  of  1807  a  single 
state  which  was  under  the  direct  influence  of  Great  Britain ;  this  was 
Portugal,  and  Napoleon,  who  by  the  decree  of  the  conti-  Treaty  of  Fon- 
nental  blockade  had  arrogated  to  himself  the  right  of  dis-  tSion.  i^Portu^"" 
posing  at  his  will  of  every  nation,  signed  on  the  27th  Sep-  g  '  ep  * 
tember,  1807,  at  Fontainebleau,  an  iniquitous  treaty  with  Spain,  in  accord- 
ance with  which  Portugal,  as  a  punishment,  for  her  alliance  with  England, 
was  to  be  divided  almost  entirely  between  the  King  of  Etruria  and 
Godoy,  the  Prince  of  Peace,  who  governed  the  Spanish  monarchy.  This 
treaty  declared  Charles  IV.,  King  of  Spain,  suzerain  of  the  two  states 

a  a  2 


356  INSTJREECTIOK   IN    SPAIN.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II.. 

thus  to  be  formed  out  of  Portugal.  A  proclamation  announced  on  the  13th 

December,    1807,    that    the  house    of   Braganza   had    ceased   to  reign. 

Twenty-eight  thousand  French  troops,  under  the  orders  of 

Embarcation  of  __.•'. 

the  Prince  Junot,  were  charged  with  the  execution  of  this  sentence, 

Regent  of  Por- 
tugal.   The  a,nd  before  their  arrival  at  Lisbon  the  Prince  Recent  of 

Prenchiu  Lisbon.  ° 

Portugal  embarked  for  the  Brazils,  abandoning  to  the  in- 
vading army  his  capital  and  fleet. 

This  rapid  success,  and  the  scandalous  divisions  in  the  Spanish  Royal 
family,  inflamed  Napoleon's  ambition,  and  he  accustomed 

Dissensions  in 

the  Royal  family   himself  to  look  upon  the  Peninsula  as  his  conquest.     The 

of  Spain. 

weak  Charles  IV.,  who  was  entirely  under  the  influence  of 
Godoy,  Prince  of  Peace,  the  Queen's  favourite,  had  rendered  himself  con- 
temptible in  the  eyes  of  all  his  subjects,  whilst  his  son,  Ferdinand,  Prince 
of  the  Asturias,  had  become  their  idol  by  declaring  himself  the  opponent 
of  the  odious  favourite.  Napoleon,  now  at  the  height  of  his  prosperity, 
had  already  acted  as  the  arbiter  of  their  differences,  and  the  Prince  of  the 
Asturias  had  solicited  the  honour  of  an  alliance  with  his  family.  The 
Emperor  might  have  exercised  over  Spain  by  pacific  means  a  sovereign 
influence,  and  have  turned  the  hatred  with  which  the  Spaniards  regarded 
the  English  on  account  of  numerous  maritime  disasters,  to  the  profit  of 
his  system.  But  he  wished  more ;  and  whilst  all  the  members  of  the 
French  entry  Royal  family  were  looking  towards  him  with  hope,  a  French 
into  Spain,  1808.  armyr  under  Murat>  G<rana-duke  of  Berg,  passed  the  Pyre- 
nees, and  the  news  speedily  reached  Madrid  that  the  fortresses  of  Barce- 
lona, Figueras,  Pampeluna,  and  Saint-Sebastian,  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
French.  Immediately  afterwards  Napoleon,  forgetting  the  Treaty  of 
Fontainebleau,  demanded  the  surrender  to  the  French  empire  of  the 
provinces  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Ebro.  Charles  IV.  and  the  Queen  were 
struck  with  consternation.  Godoy  advised  them  to  follow  the  example 
of  the  Prince  Regent  of  Portugal,  and  to  go  to  their  possessions  in 
America.  They  agreed;  and  every  preparation  had  been  made  for 
their  departure,  when  Ferdinand  opposed  its  execution,  and  calling  the 

population    of  Aranjuez  to   arms,    denounced   the  advice 

Popular  insur-  #  . 

rection  in  given  by  Godoy  as  a  fresh  treachery.  An  insurrection  took 

Aranjuez. 

place,  the  troops  took  part  in  it,  and  Ferdinand  placed  him- 
self at  its  head.  He  arrested  Godoy,  made  his  father  prisoner,  and  forced 
him  to  abdicate,  and  then  made  a  triumphal  entry  into  Madrid  as  King, 


1804-1808.]  THE    SPANIARDS    EISE.  357 

•of  Spain.  But  on  the  following  clay,  23rd  March,  Murat,  without  waiting 
for  the  Emperor's  orders,  entered  that  capital  with  his  army.  Charles  IV. 
protested  against  his  forced  abdication,  and  Murat  refused  to  recognise 
Ferdinand  as  King.  Napoleon  alone  should  decide  between  them.  The 
Emperor  went  to  Bayonne,  where  he  invited  King  Charles 

.  .  .  Napoleon  arbi- 

and  his  son  to  meet  him,  m  order  that  as  supreme  arbiter   trating  between 

Charles  IV.  and 

he  might  decide  upon  their  differences  and  their  destinies,    his  son,  seizes 

the  Spanish 

When  they  had  arrived,  Napoleon,  master  of  their  persons,    crown  for  him- 
decided  in  favour    of  the  King,  forced  Ferdinand  to  re- 
nounce the  throne  and  restore  the  crown  to  his  father,  and  then  obtained 
it  from  the  latter  for   himself.     Charles    IV.  was  sent  to  live  at  Com- 
piegne,  and  his  son  was  detained  a  prisoner  in  the  Chateau  of  Valencay. 
Thus  was  consummated  by  means  of  a  piece  of  perfidy,  an  odious  act  of 
usurpation,  the  results   of  which  were  fatal  to  its  author,  and  struck  the 
first  blow  at  his  prosperity.     In  the  meantime  Murat  kept  possession   of 
Madrid,  and  the  Council  of  Castile,  under  the  pressure  of  French  in- 
fluence, requested  that  Joseph,  Napoleon's  eldest  brother,  would  become 
King  of  Spain. 

An  assembly  of  Spanish  notables  was  immediately  convoked  at 
Bayonne,  where  the  Emperor  organized  a  Junta  to  carry  on  a  provisional 
government.     Joseph  gave  up  to  Joachim  Murat  the  crown 

Joseph  Bona- 

of  Naples,   and  immediately  quitting  that  capital,   reached   parte  becomes 

King  of  Spain, 

Bayonne  on  the  7th  of  June,  when  he  was  declared  King  of  and  Murat  King 

\  '  °  of  Naples,  1808. 

Spain  by  the  Duke  of  Infantado  and  a  deputation  of  gran- 
dees and  various  state  bodies.     The  Assembly  at  Bayonne  voted  a  con- 
stitution, which  Joseph  swore  to  observe,  and  on  the  9th  of  July  he  was 
on  his  way  to  Spain.     But  already  the  Spaniards,  indignant  and  furious, 
had  flown   to  arms.     The  clergy  led  the  revolt,   declaring   that  Heaven 
itself  was  interested  in  the  cause  of  Ferdinand,  and  denouncing  Napoleon 
as  Antichrist ;  the  whole   army  joined  it,   and  a  provisional  government 
assembled  at  Seville  annulled  all  the  acts  of  the  Junta  at  Bayonne.     On 
Saint  Ferdinand's  day  a  new  Sicilian  vespers  sounded  against 
the   French  throughout  Spain.     Their  squadron  at  Cadiz    pSSm^CTdl. 
was  seized,  and  its  sailors  slain.     The   Spaniards  signalized    nand  vn- 
their  vengeance  in  many  places  by  massacres  and  atrocities,  declaring  Avar 
to    the  death  against  the  French  ;    and  the  Portuguese  followed  their 
example.     In  the  meantime  Bessieres  was  victorious  at  Medina  de  Rio- 


358  EISItfG    OP    PORTUGAL.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  II. 

Secco,  and  his  victory  opened  the  gates  of  Madrid  to  King  Joseph,  who 
made  his  entrance  into  that  capital  on  the  20th   of  July.     But  imme- 
diately afterwards    General    Dupont    made    a    disgraceful 

Capitulation  of  .    '  ,     .. 

General  Dupont    capitulation  at  Baylen,  and  surrendered  with  twenty-six 

at  Baylen.  J 

thousand  troops.  This  terrible  check  shook  the  power  of 
the  French  in  the  Peninsula,  and  reanimated  the  Spaniards,  the  result 
being  that  Joseph  had  to  quit  Madrid  eight  days  after  he  had  entered  it 
in  solemn  state. 

Portugal  also  rose,  and  an  English  army  disembarked  there  under  the 
orders  of  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley,  afterwards  Lord  Welling- 

Eising  of  Portu- 
gal.  Landing  of  ton.     Junot,  with  ten  thousand  men  only,  ventured  to  fight 

an  English  army. 

the  battle  of  Vimeira  against  twenty-six  thousand  English 
and  Portuguese.  He  was  vanquished,  and  soon  after,  signed  the  capitu- 
„...,..      e     lation  of  Cintra,  which  at  least   allowed  him  to  retreat  to 

Capitulation  of  ' 

Junot  at  Cintra.  i?rarLCe  with  honour.  Portugal  was  now  evacuated  by  the 
French.  Joseph's  only  possessions  in  Spain  were  Barcelona,  Navarre, 
and  Biscay,  and  the  English,  who  had  lately  been  the  Spaniards' 
enemy,  were  now  received  by  them  with  open  arms.  Napoleon  chafed 
when  he  learnt  the  reverses  suffered  by  his  arms  in  the  Peninsula,  and 
experienced  a  feeling  of  mingled  grief  and  rage  at  this  first  affront  suffered 
by  his  eagles.  He  resolved  that  his  best  generals  and  his  German  and 
Italian  armies  should  cross  the  Pyrenees  to  efface  the  disgrace  suffered  at 
Baylen,  and  stifle  at  its  birth  an  insurrection  so  threatening  and  unex- 
pected. He  recalled  them  from  the  banks  of  the  Niemen,  the  Spree,  the 
Elbe,  and  the  Danube,  and  in  a  proclamation  addressed  to  his  warriors 
uttered  this  cry  of  war  and  vengeance  : — "  Soldiers  !  I  have  need  of  you. 

Let  us    carry  our    eagles  in  triumph    to    the    columns    of 

Hercules,  for  we  have  insults  to  avenge  there.  You  have  surpassed  the 
renown  of  modern  armies ;  but  have  you  equalled  the  armies  of  Eome, 
which  in  a  single  campaign  triumphed  on  the  Rhine  and  the  Euphrates, 
in  Illyria  and  on  the  Tagus  ?  A  long  peace,  a  durable  prosperity  will  be 
the  fruit  of  your  toils.  A  true  Frenchman  should  not,  cannot  take 
repose  until  the  seas  are  open  and  free.  Soldiers!  all  that  you  have  done, 
all  that  you  shall  yet  do  for  the  French  people  and  for  my  glory,  will  be 
eternally  treasured  in  my  heart !" 

Although  only  general  interests  were  referred  to  in  these  proud  words 
as  the  sole  object  of  the  war,  it  was  too  evident  that  it  had  another  cause, 


1804-1808.]  THE    SPANISH   INVASION.  359 

and  that  was  personal  ambition.  If  Napoleon,  in  fact,  had  only  desired 
to  close  Spain  against  English  commerce,  he  could  have  effected  that 
object  by  allowing  Ferdinand  to  reign  tinder  his  influence,  or  by  strength- 
ening the  sceptre  in  the  hands  of  Charles  IV.  By  despoiling  both  the 
one  and  the  other,  he  aroused  against  himself  the  ardent  passions  of  an 
enthusiastic  people,  and  revived  the  animosity  of  the  European  cabinets, 
which  were  with  good  reason  alarmed  at  so  unexpected  an  usurpation,  and 
saw  no  limit  to  his  invasions.  Napoleon  entered  at  hazard  upon  a  bound- 
less path,  where  he  lost  himself  and  encountered  a  precipice.  Already,  at 
the  point  of  his  history  at  which  we  have  now  arrived,  his  star  began  to 
pale,  and  the  prestige  of  the  invincibility  of  his  arms  was  destroyed. 


360  CONEERENCE    AT    EEEUET.         [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  TIT. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FROM   THE    CONFERENCE    AT    ERFURT   TO   NAPOLEON'S   ABDICATION   AT 

FONTAINEBLEAU. 

1808-1814. 

Napoleon  being  resolved  to  subdue  Spain,  confirmed  at  Erfurt  in  Sep- 
„     ,  .  .  tember  and  October,  1808,  bis  alliance  with  Alexander,  and 

Treaty  between  »  ' 

AlSande^at1  ^ie  ^w0  emPerors  appeared  at  this  celebrated  interview  so 
Erfurt,  1808.  much  the  more  inclined  to  come  to  a  good  understanding, 
because  they  wished  to  obtain  from  each  other  a  mutual  guarantee  for 
their  recent  usurpations,  which  had  been  but  impatiently  borne  by  the 
rest  of  Europe.  The  Russian  troops  had  taken  possession  of  Finland  in 
the  North,  and  in  the  South  had  invaded  the  provinces  of  Moldavia  and 
Wallachia,  whilst  the  French  troops  invaded  Spain.  The  two  sovereigns 
signed  a  treaty  by  which  Napoleon  recognised  the  three  provinces 
invaded  by  Russia  as  an  integral  portion  of  that  empire ;  and  Alexander, 
in  return,  recognised  the  Napoleonic  dynasty  in  Spain,  and,  in  case 
France  should  be  at  war  with  Austria,  engaged  to  assist  her  against  the 
latter  power.  This  treaty,  which  was  drawn  up  without  any  regard  to 
moral  principles,  was  only  founded  on  the  ambition  of  the  monarchs  who 
signed  it,  and  naturally  could  only  last  as  long  as  those  interests  should  be 
identical.  This  being  the  case,  it  was  almost  impossible  that  it  could  be 
of  long  duration.  Nevertheless,  being  satisfied  that  Alexander's  inten- 
tions were  pacific,  Napoleon  joined  his  legions  in  Spain. 

Palafox,  Castanos,   and  Blake  commanded  the  enemy's  army,  which 

consisted  of  a  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  men,  and  extended  from  the 

coast  of  Biscay  to  Saragossa ;  but  Napoleon  marched  accom- 

The  war  in  Spain. 

First  successes,     panied  by  his  great  captains  and  at  the  head  of  his  veterans, 
and  victory,  therefore,  was   certain.     Soult  obtained  a  vie- 


1808-1814.]  FIFTH    COALITION.  361 

tory  on  the  1 0th  of  November,  at  Burgos,  where  he  routed  the  enemy's 
centre ;  and  on  the  following  day  Victor  crushed  their  left  at  Espinosa, 
whilst  their  right  was  put  to  flight  by  Marshal  Lannes  at  Tudela.  The 
narrow  pass  of  the  Sommo-Sierra  was  henceforth  the  only  obstacle 
between  the  French  army  and  Madrid.  Sixteen  pieces  of  artillery  swept 
this  defile,  which  seemed  impregnable ;  Napoleon  sent  forward  his  Polish 
lancers  to  the  charge,  and  it  was  taken  with  a  rush.  On  the  3rd  of 
December  the  French  army  entered  Madrid.  A  division  of  the  English 
army  in  Portugal,  under  the  orders  of  Sir  John  Moore,  was  on  its  march 
to  cover  this  capital,  but  at  the  news  of  the  disasters  suffered  by  the 
Spanish  armies,  it  retreated  before  Napoleon  upon  Astorga  and  Corunna. 
Marshal  Soult  was  ordered  to  pursue  it  to  its  place  of  embarcation,  and, 
to  use  Napoleon's  expression,  "  to  drive  it  into  the  sea — the  sword  in  its 
loins."  He  drove  it  before  him  as  far  as  Corunna,  but  when  he  had 
reached  that  place,  Sir  John  Moore,  occupying  a  strong  position,  gave 
battle  to  the  enemy,  was  vanquished,  and  died  as  a  hero.  On  the  fol- 
lowing day  his  army  embarked.  Spain,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
cities,  now  appeared  to  be  submissive.  Napoleon  had  brought  back  his 
brother  Joseph  to  Madrid,  and  believed  that  he  would  gain  the  affections 
of  the  Spaniards  by  abolishing  the  Inquisition,  promising  them  franchises, 
and  abolishing  the  feudal  system.  But  he  addressed  a  people  who 
scarcely  understood  him,  who  only  listened  to  their  priests,  and  whose 
heroism  chafed  under  the  yoke  of  the  stranger.  It  soon  replied  to  the 
liberal  promises  of  the  usurper  by  cries  of  rage  and  a  new  and  more 
formidable  insurrection. 

In  the  meantime  Austria  was  emboldened  by  the  absence  of  Napoleon, 
by  the  removal  of  his  veterans,  and  by  the  revolt  of  the  Tyroleans 
against  the  Bavarians,  the  new  masters  to  whom  France  had  given 
them,  and  she  formed  a  fifth  coalition  with  England.     The 

Fifth  coalition 

Archduke  Charles  accepted  the  command  of  the  troops,  against  France, 
which  amounted  to  five  hundred  thousand  men,  divided  into 
eight  corps.  Two,  under  the  Archduke  Ferdinand,  were  to  invade 
Poland  ;  three  others,  under  the  Archduke  John,  were  to  march  into  Italy 
and  the  Tyrol ;  whilst  the  other  corps,  assembled  on  the  Bohemian  frontier, 
were  to  march  upon  the  Ehine,  arousing  on  their  way  the  whole  of 
Germany,  in  which  many  secret  societies,  the  most  famous  of  which  was 
the  Tungenbuncl,  in  Prussia,  only  awaited  the  signal  to  run  to  arms  and 


362  CAMPAIGN   Itf    GEKMANY.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

free  their  country.  The  French  troops  in  these  countries  did  not 
amount  at  this  time  to  more  than  a  hundred  and  thirty  thousand 
men,  who  were  dispersed  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Danube,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Bernadotte,  Davoust,  and  Oudinot.  Eugene  occupied  Piedmont 
and  Italy  with  a  few  divisions. 

At  the  first  rumour  of  the  intention  of  Austria,  and  the  movement  of  her 
armies,  Napoleon  quitted  Spain  for  Paris,  from  whence  he  directed  the 
tactics  of  his  numerous  troops  in  Italy  and  Germany.  The  vast  theatre 
of  his  operations  extended  from  Poland,  where  Poniatowsky  was  in 
command,  to  Italy,  where  Eugene  was  at  the  head  of  sixty  thousand 
troops.  Napoleon  quitted  Paris  on  the  10th  of  April,  and  was  on  the 
Danube  on  the  17th ;  but  his  orders  for  the  concentration  of  his  troops 
having  been  misunderstood  by  Berthier,  the  Major-jG-eneral,  they  had  not 
been  executed.  The  Emperor,  on  arriving,  found  his  army  divided  into 
many  masses,  the  two  principal  of  which  were  thirty  leagues  from  each 
n       •      ,,M(1    other.     The  first,  under  Davoust,  being  at  Eatisbonne,  and 

Campaign  of  1809  "  '  ° 

m  Germany.  ^Q  second?  under  Massena,  at  Augsburg.  At  a  central 
point  between  these  two  armies  were  the  allies  of  France,  the  Bavarians, 
the  Wurtemberg  troops,  and  the  rest  of  the  army  of  the  Confederation  of 
the  Rhine.  But  these  auxiliary  troops  were  small  in  number,  and  incapable 
of  resisting  the  shock  of  the  enemy,  who  was  preparing  to  attack  them 
as  soon  as  he  should  have  defiled  by  Landstadt,  on  the  right  of  the 
Danube.  The  intention  of  the  Archduke  was  to  force  the  centre  of  the 
French  army  by  passing  between  the  corps  of  Davoust  and  Massena. 
Napoleon  saw  the  peril,  and  displayed  all  the  resources  of  his  genius. 
He  took  advantage  of  the  hesitation  shown  by  the  enemy  on  his  arrival, 
and  kept  him  for  two  days  almost  motionless,  concealing  from  him  the 
weakness  of  the  forces  at  his  disposal  in  the  centre  in  front  of  him.  He 
ordered  Davoust  and  Massena  to  approach  each  other  as  fast  as  possible, 
and  to  join  the  army  of  the  Confederation  in  the  environs  of  Neustadt,  so  as 
to  threaten  the  front  and  left  flank  of  the  Archduke  Charles,  who,  astonished 
at  these  rapid  and  skilful  manoeuvres,  dared  not  risk  a  forward  movement, 
and  marched  towards  the  right  bank  of  the  Danube,  in  the  direction  of 
Ratisbonne,  which  Davoust  was  quitting,  and  of  which  the  enemy  took 
possession.  Victorious  at  the  battle  of  Thann,  Davoust  effected  a  junc- 
tion with  the  centre,  and  on  the  19th  of  April  Napoleon  saw  the  whole 


1808-1814.]  NAPOLEON"   AT   DXRSTEIM.  363 

of  his  army  concentrated  under  his  hand.     The  four  following  days  were 

marked  by  four  fresh  victories.    At  the  battle  of  Abensberg 

the  Emperor  broke  the  Archduke's  line  at  Landshut,  took   berg,  Landshut, 

and  Eckmuhl. 

possession   of  his  base  of  operations,  routed  his  left,  and 
took  its  artillery  and  magazines ;   at  Eckmuhl,  on  the  22nd  of  April,  he 
vanquished  the  whole  of  the  enemy's  army,  and  drove  it  back  between 
the  Iser  and  the  Danube.     The  Austrians  escaped  by  Ratisbonne,  which 
Napoleon  took  on  the  following  day  after  a  bloody  battle,  in   B         „ 
which  he  received  a  slight  wound   on  the   heel.     Prince    bonne- 
Charles  retreated  upon  the  frontier  of  Bohemia,  and  the  French  marched 
upon  Vienna. 

One  day,  during  this  rapid  march,  whilst  Napoleon  was  talking  with 
Lannes  and  Berthier,  a  guide  pointed  out  to  them  the  Castle  of  Dirsteim, 
in  which  Richard  Coaur-de-Lion  had  been  imprisoned  on  his  return  from 
the  Holy  Land.  The  Emperor  halted,  and  after  having  gazed  for  some 
time  at  these  celebrated  ruins,  said,  as  he  continued  on  his  way,  "  He 
also  made  war  in  Palestine  and  Syria;  he  was  more  fortunate  than  we 
were  at  Saint  Jean  d'Acre,  but  not  more  valiant  than  you,  my  brave 
Lannes.  He  vanquished  the  brave  Saladin,  and  yet  he  had  scarcely 
touched  the  shores  of  Europe  before  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  those  who 
were  nothing  in  comparison  to  him.  He  was  sold  by  a  duke  of  Austria 
to  an  Emperor  of  Germany.  .  .  .  The  last  of  his  courtiers,  Blondel, 
alone  remained  faithful  to  him,  but  his  nation  made  many  sacrifices  to 
effect  his  deliverance."*  Napoleon  once  more  turned  his  eyes  towards 
those  celebrated  ruins,  and,  referring  to  the  generous  course  he  had 
pursued  towards  the  kings  whom  he  had  conquered,  said  that  a  sove- 
reign in  modern  times  would  escape  the  fate  which  had  befallen  Richard ; 
and  then  fell  suddenly  into  a  deep  and  melancholy  silence.  Reflecting, 
perchance,  on  the  hatred  of  his  enemies,  he  in  his  own  mind  anticipated 
that  which  actually  took  place.  He  had  a  presentiment,  perhaps,  that  that 
which  had  befallen  Richard  would  some  day  befall  himself,  and  that 
there  would  be  no  new  Blondel  to  release  him.  But  such  a  time  was 
yet  far  off,  and  before  it  should  arrive  fresh  triumphs  awaited  him.  On 
the  1 3th  May,  a  month  after  the  commencement  of  the  brilliant  campaign, 

*  "Recollections  of  the  War  of  1809,"  by  General  Pelet. 


364  BATTLE    OE   ESSLING.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

he  entered  for  the  second  time  the  Austrian  capital.     The  war,  however, 
0       ,  was  not  at  an  end :  for  the  Emperor  Francis  had  retreated  to 

Second  entry  '  x 

of  Napoleon       Znaim  with  lame  forces,  and  the  Archduke  Charles  inarched 

into  Vienna,  o  J 

1S09,  towards    the  capital    by    the  left  bank   of    the    Danube, 

and  soon  took  up  a  position  opposite  Vienna  on  the  famous  plains  of 
Wag-ram.  To  terminate  the  war  and  be  able  to  dictate  terms  of  peace, 
Napoleon  had  to  crush  this  army ;  but  the  bridges  of  the  Danube  had 
been  destroyed,  the  river,  divided  into  many  arms,  rolled  its  broad 
waves  between  the  two  armies,  and  the  enemy  could  only  be  reached  by 
means  of  immense  works  and  great  and  perilous  efforts. 

Numerous  islets  divide  the  waters  of  the  Danube  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Vienna.  The  largest  is  the  island  of  Lobau,  four  leagues  in  circum- 
ference, almost  opposite  the  city,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  two 
branches  of  the  stream,  the  first  of  which  is  three  hundred  metres  broad, 
and  the  second  about  five  hundred.  Opposite  this  island,  on  the  further 
bank,  are  the  villages  of  Aspern  and  Essling,  between  which  and  the 
island  of  Lobau  the  Danube  is  not  more  than  about  a  hundred  metres 
broad.  It  was  across  this  island  that  Napoleon  resolved  to  march  his 
army.  Nineteen  bridges  were  thrown  across  the  stream  at  Ebersdorf, 
and  on  the  20th  the  island  was  carried.  Napoleon  gathered  his  troops 
together  and  watched  the  completion  of  the  bridges.  Scarcely  thirty 
thousand  men,  under  Lannes  and  Massena,  had  passed  over  to  the  left 
bank  of  the  stream,  when  they  took  the  villages  of  Essling  and  Aspern, 
where  they  sustained  during  two  days  the  assault  of  a  hundred  thousand 
Austrians.  The  villages  were  five  times  taken  and  retaken,  and  gave 
their  names  to  these  terrible  battles.  At  length  another  portion  of  the 
army  effected  the  passage,  and  joined  the  intrepid  divisions  of  Lannes  and 
Massena.  That  under  Davoust  followed,  but  Napoleon,  without  awaiting 
his  arrival,  in  his  impetuosity  attacked  an  enemy  twice  as  strong,  nume- 
B  .  „  rically,  as  himself.  His  words  and  his  example  electrified 
Essimg.  ^-g  ]3rave  soldiers.     He  threw  himself,  as  he  had  done  at 

the  battles  of  Areola  and  Lodi,  upon  the  Austrians,  who  broke  and 
fled  before  him.  The  intrepid  Lannes  pierced  their  centre ;  the  Arch- 
duke was  in  full  retreat,  and  Napoleon  followed  up  his  victory.  All 
at  once  he  heard  that  Davoust's  corps,  on  which  he  had  implicitly 
relied,  had  been  unable  to  effect  the  passage  of  the  Danube,  and  that 
the  bridges  over  that  river  had  been  broken.     He  now  found  himself 


1808-1814.]  THE   EKENCH    CEOSS    THE   DANUBE.  365 

placed  in  a  position  of  difficulty  by  his  victory,  since  it  had  led  him 
too  far  and  separated  him  from  the  bulk  of  his  army.  He  halted  and 
ordered  a  retreat,  upon  which  the  Austrians  rallied  and  returned  against 
the  French  in  formidable  masses,  with  the  intention  of  surrounding  the 
latter  and  driving  them  into  the  river.  But  the  communications  of  the 
French  with  the  isle  of  Lobau  had  not  been  cut  off,  and  it  was  to  this 
island  that  Napoleon  now  led  back  his  troops.  He  saw  thousands  of  his 
veterans  fall  around  him  ;  he  lost  the  heroic  d'Espagne,  the  brave  Saint- 
Hilaire,  and  Lannes,  who  had  both  legs  crushed  by  a  cannon  ball,  and 
expired  in  his  arms.  In  the  meantime  Massena,  firm  as  a  rock,  presented 
an  undaunted  front  to  the  Archduke,  held  him  in  check,  and  covered  this 
perilous  retreat.  Napoleon,  and  all  the  corps  which  had  crossed  the  stream, 
re-entered  the  island  of  Lobau,  and  it  became  the  French  head-quarters, 
Eugene,  who  was  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army  of  Italy,  was  at 
this  time  marching  at  its  head  to  join  Napoleon  on  the 

March  of  the 

Danube.     Macdonald,  Grenier  and  Baraguay  d'Hilliers,  were    army  of  Italy 

under  Eugene. 

his  companions  in  glory,  and  his  army  had  not  only  been 
victorious  at  the  battles  of  Piave,  Tarwitz,  and  G-oritz,  but  had  driven 
before  it  in  these  various  encounters  eighty  thousand  Austrians,  under 
the  Archduke  John,  whom  it  prevented  from  effecting  a  junction  with  the 
army  of  Prince  Charles.  And  finally,  on  the  14th  June,  the  anniversary 
of  the  battles  of  Marengo  and  Friedland,  it  succeeded  in  vanquishing 
them  at  the  battle  of  Eaab,  took  the  fortress  of  that  name, 

Junction  of  the 

and  ioined  the  Emperor   in  the  island   of  Lobau.     This   army  of  Eugene 

J  with  Napoleon. 

victory  enabled  Napoleon  to  resume  the  offensive. 

After  forty  days'  labour,  three  immense  bridges  spanned  the  Danube 
and  united  the  islands,  to  which  the  Emperor  had  given  the  names  of 
Lannes,  d'Espagne,  and  Saint-Hilaire,  who  had  been  killed  at  Essiing, 
and  opened  a  passage  for  fifty  thousand  troops  and  five  hundred  pieces  of 
cannon.  The  army  crossed  the  river  on  a  stormy  night,  on  the  4th  July, 
exposed  to  a  terrific  cannonade,  and  on  the  following  day  was  in  battle 
array  on  the  enemy's  left,  and  carried  the  formidable  entrenchments  which 
had  been  erected  opposite  the  island,  between  Ebersdorf,  Essiing,  and 
Aspern.  A  vast  plain  extended  beyond  these  positions  in  front  of  the 
French  army;  the  hills  which  surround  it  on  the  west  and  the  east 
were  in  possession  of  the  Austrian  army,  which  defended  a  formidable 
position  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Russbach.     Wagram  was  in  the  centre  of 


366  THE    BATTLE   OE   WAGRAM.         [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

the  enemy's  arm}'-.  On  the  first  day  of  the  battle  Davoust,  Laniarque, 
and  Oudinot,  made  a  fruitless  attack  on  the  heights  in  the  occupation  of 
the  enemy.  The  two  armies  encamped  on  the  field,  and  on  the  morrow 
the  destinies  of  Europe  were  to  be  decided  there. 

At  the  break  of  day  three  hundred  thousand  men  were  face  to  face  on  a 
line  of  some  three  leagues  in  extent.  Napoleon  galloped  through  the  ranks 
of  his  battalions,  and  pointed  out  to  them  the  hills  of  Wagram  and  the 
„  JX1     „  tower  of  Neusiedel  on  the  steep  banks  of  the  Eussbach.     It 

Battle  of  x 

Wagram,  1809.  was  jn  ^hat  direction  that  was  the  chief  danger,  and  it  was 
there  that  the  battle  was  to  be  decided.  Davoust  and  Oudinot  on  the 
right  were  ordered  to  carry  these  positions.  Eugene  and  the  army  of 
Italy,  Bernadotte  and  the  Saxons  were  in  the  centre,  and  Massena  was 
in  command  of  the  left,  towards  the  Danube.  The  Archduke's  right, 
preceded  by  sixty  pieces  of  artillery,  advanced  against  the  rear  of  the 
Erench  army,  and  the  Saxons  under  Bernadotte  were  put  to  flight. 
Napoleon  ordered  a  change  from  the  front  to  the  left,  and  launched 
against  the  enemy's  column  the  divisions  of  Massena,  Macdonald,  and 
the  cavalry  of  the  Imperial  Guard,  under  the  valiant  Bessieres.  But 
these  troops,  supported  by  the  fire  of  a  hundred  cannon,  were  unable 
to  check  the  advance  of  the  enemy's  column,  and  an  aide-de-camp 
informed  Napoleon  that  the  enemy  was  already  in  the  rear  of  his  army. 
The  latter,  however,  remained  unmoved,  and  kept  his  eagle  glance  turned 
towards  the  right,  in  the  direction  of  the  heights  of  Eussbach.  All  at 
once  the  firing  of  Davoust's  troops,  in  front  of  the  tower  of  Neusiedel, 
announced  the  success  of  his  right  wing,  and  the  dangerous  position  o± 
the  enemy.  "  Go  as  fast  as  possible,"  said  Napoleon  to  an  aide-de-camp, 
"  and  tell  Massena  that  he  has  only  to  attack  with  energy  to  secure  the 
victory."  He  then  gave  orders  to  Macdonald  to  throw  himself  upon  the 
Austrian  centre,  to  Oudinot  to  take  the  Eussbach  position,  and  to  Davoust 
to  continue  his  attacks  as  hotly  as  possible.  The  heroic  Macdonald  fell 
like  a  thunderbolt  in  the  midst  of  the  enemy's  line  and  broke  it,  whilst 
Massena,  whose  troops  occupied  the  bank  of  the  river,  held  the  Austrian 
column  in  check  and  drove  it  back.  The  Austrians  were  now  in  flight 
along  their  whole  line.  Davoust  took  Wagram,  and  Macdonald  then 
advanced  to  Brunn,  and  Napoleon  had  his  victorious  tents  pitched  on  the 
field  of  battle.  He  embraced  Macdonald  and  made  him  a  marshal,  as 
well  as  Oudinot  and  Marmont.     The  victory  had  been  hotly  disputed, 


1808-1814.]  PEACE    OE   VIENNA.  367 

and   twenty-five  thousand   men    on    the   two    sides   had   been    slain  or 
disabled. 

This  sanguinary,  battle  decided  the  fate  of  Austria.  The  Archdukes 
John  and  Ferdinand  had  been  beaten  in  Lombardy  and  Poland  respectively, 
and  Francis  I.  had  to  obtain  peace  by  means  of  the  most  serious  sacrifices. 
He  ceded  on  the  various  frontiers  of  his  states,  to  Italy,  Bavaria,  and 
Eussia,  several  circles  and  provinces,  and  three  millions  of  subjects;  he 
promised,  moreover,  to  pay  a  heavy  war  contribution,  and  to  adhere  to 
the  continental  blockade.  This  treaty,  which  was  so  in-  peace  of  Vienna 
jurious  to  Austria,  was  signed  at  Vienna  on  the  12th 
October,  1809,  and  whilst  its  conditions  were  still  being  discussed, 
Napoleon  ran  a  narrow  risk  of  being  assassinated  by  a  j^oung  fanatic 
named  Staps.  This  young  man  was  seized,  armed  with  a  dagger,  at  the 
moment  when  he  demanded  an  interview  with  Napoleon,  and  asserted  that 
he  had  received  a  commission  from  God  to  deliver  Germany,  and  to  execute 
vengeance  on  the  person  of  the  oppressor  of  his  country  and  the  world. 

The  English,  in  the  course  of  this  campaign,  had  sent  out  immense 
fleets,  and  a  hundred  ships  of  war  had  landed  in  Holland,  in  the  island  of 
Walcheren  and  of  South  Beveland,  fortv-five  thousand  men.    m,    „r , . 

'  J  The  Walcheren 

Flushing  had  fallen  into  their  hands  after  a  desperate  re-  thTE^neKsh^7 
sistance,  and  they  already  threatened  Antwerp.  A  levy  of  the  1809, 
National  Guards  of  the  Department  of  the  North  and  the  approach  of 
Bernadotte's  corps  covered  this  important  place,  whilst  fever  mowed 
down  the  English  by  thousands  in  the  island  of  Walcheren,  and  they 
were  compelled  at  length  to  evacuate  Zealand,  where  the  town  of  Flushing 
alone  remained  in  their  power.  Napoleon  heard  of  the  failure  of  this 
formidable  expedition  a  few  days  after  the  signature  of  the  Treaty  of 
Vienna ;  fortune  was  still  faithful  to  him,  and  he  returned  in  triumph  to 
Paris,  where  he  found  that  there  were  serious  misunderstandings  with  the 
Court  of  Rome. 

Pope  Pius  VII.  had  not  closed  his  ports  against  the  English,  and  justly 
displeased  at  Napoleon's  encroachments  on  his  territory,  had  resolved  to 
refuse  the  Pontifical  Bulls  to  the  new  French  bishops.  The  Emperor, 
irritated  at  this,  forthwith  deprived  the  Pope  of  his  temporal  power,  and 
was  excommunicated.  The  excitement  of  the  Roman  populace  at  this 
proceeding,  kept  alive  as  it  was  by  the  presence  of  the  Pope,  placed  the 
French  troops  in  Rome  in  a  position  of  great  peril.     General  Miollis, 


368  MASSENA    IN   POETTJGAL.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

the  Governor  of  the  city,  considered  that  the  removal  of  the  Pope  was 
necessary ;  and  Pius  VII.,  after  having  been  violently  torn 

Arrest  and  im- 
prisonment of     from  the  Pontifical  Palace,   was  first  removed  to   Savona 

Pope  Pius  VII. 

and  then  to  Fontainebleau.  At  the  latter  place  he  bore  with 
admirable  Christian  fortitude  an  imprisonment  of  four  years'  duration, 
and  the  ancient  capital  of  the  world  was  transformed  into  the  chief  town 
of  a  French  department. 

The  Spanish  insurrection  had  become  much  more  general  immediately 

after  the  Emperor's  departure ;   and  a  rumour  which  was 

Course  of  the 

war  in  Spain,      spread  abroad  that  Napoleon  demanded  the  annexation  of 

1809-1810.  r  r 

the  left  bank  of  the  Ebro  to  France,  redoubled  the  popular 
indignation  and  rage.  The  insurgents  organized  themselves  into  bands  of 
guerillas,  and  made  the  French  soldiers  experience *a  second  Vendee  in 
Spain.  The  populace  arose  in  every  direction,  and  the  desire  for  national 
independence  was  a  bond  which  united  all  parties  against  France.  It  was 
in  vain  that  Napoleon's  generals  obtained  numerous  victories  ;  that  Sebas- 
tiani  triumphed  at  Ciudad-Real,  Victor  at  Medelin,  and  Soult  at  Oporto, 
where  thousands  of  Portuguese  remained  on  the  field  of  battle ;  for  the 
example  of  Palafox,  the  defender  of  Saragossa,  and  the  heroism  of  its  inha- 
bitants, who  allowed  themselves  to  be  buried  under  its  ruins  rather  than 
submit,  excited  the  enthusiasm  and  patriotism  of  the  Spaniards,  whilst  the 
English  successfully  seconded  their  efforts.  On  the  28th  July,  Joseph 
fought  with  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  the  indecisive  battle  of  Talavera,  which 
the  English  claimed  as  a  victory;  Sebastiani  was  victorious  on  the  21st 
August  at  Almonacid,  and  Mortier,  with  twenty-five  thousand  men,  de- 
feated fifty  thousand  at  Ocana,  and  Andalucia  fell  into  the  power  of  the 
French. 

Spain,  however,  was  not  yet  conquered,  and  in  1810  was  commenced 
a  fresh  campaign  as  murderous  as  the  preceding.  It  was  conducted  in 
the  north  by  Marshal  Suchet,  who  invested  the  fortresses  of  Aragon,  and 
held  that  province  in  check  whilst  Marshal  Soult  completed  the  subjec- 
tion of  Andalucia.  The  latter  took  in  succession  Granada,  Seville,  and 
Malaga,  and  compelled  the  provisional  Junta  of  Seville  to  retire  to  Cadiz, 
which  French  troops  besieged.  A  third  army,  under  the 
sena  on  Portugal,   orders  of  Massena,  Prince  of  Essling,  was  at  the  same  time 

and  retreat  of  tit  i 

the  English  marched  against  Portugal,  and  had  to  struggle  against  the 

army« 

Anglo-Portuguese    army  of  Wellington,  which   was  very 


1808-1814.]  THE   LINES   OE   TOEKES   VEDEAS.  369 

superior  in  numbers,  and  which  nevertheless  retreated  before  it  towards 
Lisbon.  Massena  sustained  defeat  at  the  bloody  battle  of  Busaco,  and 
was  stopped  by  Wellington  before  the  lines  of  Torres  Vedras, 

Check  before 

which  protected  the  capital,  and  received,  on  the  10th  of  Torres  Vedras, 
October,  the  whole  British  army.     The  plan  of  these  lines 
had  been  designed  by  Wellington,  and  during  more  than  a  year  thousands 
of  men  had  been  raising  these  formidable  defences.*    Massena,  considering 
them  impregnable,  posted  his  army  in  observation  on  the  Tagus,  between 
Alhandra,  Santarem,  and  Abrantes,  and  awaited  the  Emperor's  orders. 

Whilst  the  Peninsula  devoured  the  best  troops  of  the  French  army, 
Napoleon  attained  the  highest  point  of  his  prodigious  destiny.  Equally 
influenced  by  his  desire  to  have  an  heir,  and  by  his  ambition  to  be  allied 
with  the  old  dynasties  of  Europe,  he  repudiated  Josephine 

....  .  ...  ,  Divorce  of  Na- 

de  BeauharnaisjT  his  first  wife,  and  married,  on  the  30th   poieon.   He 

marries  an 

of  March,  1810,  Maria-Louisa,  Archduchess  of  Austria,  the   Austrian  Arch- 

'    >  '  duchess,  1810. 

daughter  of  the  Emperor  Francis. 

In  the  course  of   this  year    Holland  was    annexed    to 

Annexation  of 

France  ;    Napoleon    dethroning  his  brother   Louis,  whose    Holland  to 

'  r  s  '  France,  1810. 

kingdom  had  become  a  depot  for  English  merchandize.    The 
Moniteur  declared  on  this  occasion  the  Emperor's  policy  in  respect  of 
those  on  whom  he  bestowed   crowns.     "  Understand,"  he   said,  to  the 
kings  his  brothers,  "  that  your  first  duty  is  towards  me  and  France  J' 
This  policy  being  thus  proclaimed  to  Europe,  powerfully  contributed  to 
arouse  it.     One  of  his  generals  was  at  the  same  time  called  to  the  suc- 
cession to  the  crown    of    Sweden.        The    imprudent    and   hot-headed 
Gustavus  had  been  driven  from  the  throne,  to  which,  in  1809,  his  uncle, 
the  Duke  of  Sudermania,  had  succeeded  by  the  title  of  Charles  XIIL,  and 
this  latter  prince,  having  no  children,  adopted  as  his  son,  in  1810,  Berna- 
dotte,  Prince  of  Ponte-Corvo,  who  was  elected  by  the  States    B       . 
General  Prince-Eoyal  of  Sweden.     Napoleon  looked  upon    fKjS^tf TmCS' 
this  election  as  an  event  which  would  complete  the  subjec-    SwedeD»1810- 

*  They  extended  in  three  lines  over  a  space  of  several  leagues  between  the  Tagus 
and  the  sea,  and  consisted  of  a  hundred  and  fifty-two  redoubts,  which  supported  each 
other,  and  were  defended  by  nine  hundred  pieces  of  cannon  and  a  hundred  thousand 
men,  of  whom  ninety  thousand  were  English. 

f  "Josephine,"  says  Charles  Lacretelle,  "had  long  had  a  presentiment  of  her  fate, 
and  the  clause  referring  to  divorce  which  had  been  inserted  in  the  Code  by  Napoleon's 
direct  desire,  had  been  a  perpetual  subject  of  anxiety  to  her." 

VOL.    II.  B    B 


370  napoleon's  labotjes.  [Book  III.  Chap,  III. 

tion  of  the  north  to  his  system,  for  he  never  supposed  that  his  general, 
formerly  his  enemy,  would  one  day  prefer  the  interests  of  his  people  to 
those  of  his  first  country,  and  he  permitted  him  to  accept  the  proffered 
crown.  Sweden,  since  the  accession  of  Charles  XIII.,  had  adhered  to 
the  continental  system,  and  for  a  moment  the  blockade  was  observed  over 
the  whole  of  Europe. 

At  this  point  of  our  narrative  it  may  be  as  well  to  pause  for  a  moment 
to    cast    a   glance   over   the  immense  works  achieved  by 

General  remarks 

on  Napoleon         Napoleon,  and  to  examine  some  of  the  causes  of  his  eleva- 

and  his  reign. 

tion  and  his  fall.  He  was  raised  to  the  pinnacle  of  glory 
by  his  genius,  his  victories,  and  the  will  of  a  people  who  Avere 
dazzled  by  the  prestige  of  a  new  name  surrounded  by  a  glorious 
aureole,  and  which  sighed  for  order  and  repose  after  having  suffered 
so  many  troubles;  but  he  was  raised  in  reality  by  that  hidden 
Providence  which  produces  on  the  theatre  of  the  world  the  necessary 
men  when  their  time  is  come,  and  which,  too  often  misunderstood 
by  themselves,  directs  and  supports  them  till  their  work  is  accomplished. 
France  applauded  the  great  good  fortune  of  Napoleon  because  she  had  need 
of  him,  and  because,  after  having  secured  her  power  abroad,  and  done 
much  for  her  glory,  he  had  perceived  what  she  required  for  her  internal 
prosperity.  We  have  recounted  his  exploits,  his  conquests,  his  adminis- 
.trative  and  legislative  works,  and  space  would  fail  us  were  we  to  attempt 
to  enumerate  those  which  he  effected  of  particular  and  special  interest. 
His  vast  intellect  embraced  everything.     He  passed  without  effort,  and 

with  marvellous  facility,  from  one  subject  to  another,  and 

Home  affairs.  J1  J 

no  detail  was  too   small  for  his  vigilant  attention.     Now 
combining  the  interests  of  a  large  youthful  population  with  the  military 
interests  of  his  empire,  he  founded  schools  for  the  army  and  navy,  gave  a 
military  organization  to  the  prytanees  and  lyceums,  opened  these  estab- 
lishments gratuitously  to  the  sons  of  the  brave  men  who 
Schools.  &  J 

fell  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  founded  several  special 
establishments  for  their  daughters ;  and  now  devoting  his  attention  to 
the  commercial  and  industrial  interests  of  the  country,  he  established  the 
Trade  and  Council  General  of  Fabrics  and  Manufactures,  bestowed 
industry.  honours  and  rewards  on  the  authors  of  useful  inventions, 
gave  a  hundred  thousand  francs  to  the  chemist  Proust  for  his  discovery  of 
grape  sugar,  decorated  Ternaux  with  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honour 


1808-1814.]  GREAT   PUBLIC   WORKS.  371 

for  improvements  in  the  manufacture  of  cloths,  and  offered  a  million  to 
any  one  who  should  invent  a  machine  for  spinning  flax.  The  woollen 
and  silk  manufactures  were  immensely  encouraged  by  him,  and  the  culti- 
vation of  cotton  was  attempted  by  his  orders  in  Corsica  and  Italy.  To 
such  matters  as  the  provisioning  of  towns  and  armies,  the  clothing  of  his 
troops,  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  capital,  and  the  abolition  of  men- 
dicity, he  by  turns  directed  his  attention. 

Napoleon's  thoughts  were  not  wholly  absorbed  by  material  matters, 
but  found  time  to  dwell  on  subjects  of  a  higher  species  of  interest,  and 
France  owes  to  him  the  erection  or  first  suggestion  of  as  &reat  ubU 
many  imperishable  monuments  as  useful  establishments.  works- 
Wherever  there  appeared  a  necessity  for  them  he  constructed  roads,  dug 
canals,  built  bridges,  and  this  not  only  in  France,  but  in  the  foreign 
lands  which  had  been  annexed  to  his  vast  empire.  The  famous  Simplon 
road,  the  canal  of  Saint-Quentin,  and  the  harbours  of  Antwerp  and 
Cherbourg,  show  what  he  was  able  to  do  in  matters  of  the  kind.  The 
Bourse,  the  Madeleine,  the  column  of  the  Place  Vendome,  the  Etoile 
triumphal  arch,  and  the  bridges  of  Austerlitz  and  Jena  were  built  or 
planned  during  his  reign.  Napoleon  enriched  the  national  library,  had 
the  works  of  the  Pantheon  continued,  ordered  the  Pont  de  la  Concorde 
to  be  decorated  with  statues  of  those  of  his  principal  generals  who  had 
died  on  the  field  of  honour,  and  formed  the  idea  of  consecrating  at  Saint 
Denis  three  principal  expiatory  altars  for  the  three  royal  races  which  had 
succeeded  each  other  on  the  French  throne. 

Although  he  was  his  own  Foreign  Minister,  Home  Secretary,  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  and  Minister  for  War,  he  found  time  for  every  detail, 
and  had  an  exact  account  of  everything  sent  in  to  him.  He  possessed  in 
an  eminent  degree  the  faculty  of  judging  of  the  characters  and  capacities 
of  those  who  served  him,  and  it  was  to  this  precious  faculty  that  he  owed 
the  fact  that  he  almost  always  found  his  ideas  well  understood  and  well 
carried  out,  and  that  he  rarely  had  to  change  his  Ministers,  Millisterg  and 
administrators,  or  councillors.  The  men  who,  out  of  the  officials- 
ranks  of  the  army,  had  the  chief  share  in  the  great  things  accomplished 
by  his  orders,  were — in  respect  to  foreign  affairs,  Talleyrand  and  Cham- 
pagny,  Duke  of  Cadore ;  in  financial  matters,  Gaudin,  Duke  of  Gaeta, 
Mollien,  and  Barbe-Marbois,  whose  integrity  equalled  their  intelligence  ; 
in  home  affairs,  the  Count  de  Montalivet,  who,  at  first  director- 
is  b  2 


372  napoleon's  coadjutoes.       [Book  III.  Chap.  III. 

general  of  roads  and  bridges,  was  made  a  Minister,  and  performed  his 
duties  with  integrity  and  high-mindedness ;  and  finally,  the  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction  was  Fontanes,  the  Grand  Master  of  the  University,  a 
distinguished  poet,  who  had  been  brought  up  in  the  old  school  of  litera- 
ture and  manners,  and  who  lavished  upon  the  representative  of  the  new 
times  ingenuous  homage  which  too  often  resembled  servile  flattery. 
Besides  these,  there  were  in  possession  of  high  dignities  or  great  employ- 
ments, Lebrun,  the  Duke  of  Piacenza;  Eeynier,  Duke  of  Massa;  Maret, 
Duke  of  Bassano ;  and  Daru,  who  united  to  a  marvellous  aptitude  for 
The  c  until  of  wor^  a  courage  which  was  proof  against  any  assault.  The 
state.  Council  of  State  which  Napoleon  had  organized  in  a  manner 

justly  admired,  was  rendered  illustrious  during  his  reign  by  great  talents, 
being  adorned  by  the  high  qualities  of  the  lawyers  Portalis  and  Tronchet, 
the  compilers  of  the  civil  code,  and  of  Joubert,  Allent,  Eegnault  de  Saint- 
Jean  d'Angely,  and  the  immortal  Cuvier.  Most  of  these  men  have  left 
lasting  memorials  of  their  labours.  Napoleon,  by  the  vigour  of  his 
genius  and  the  combination  of  eminent  qualities,  contrived  to  be  superior 
to  them  all,  and  it  was  by  making  use  of  their  talents,  by  surrounding 
himself  with  all  the  illustrious  men  of  France,  that  he  had  reached,  in 
1810,  the  highest  degree  of  power  and  glory  ever  attained  by  any  sove- 
reign in  Europe.  His  empire  after  the  last  annexations  contained  a 
population  of  fifty  millions,  who  were  distributed  amidst  a  hundred  and 
thirty  departments. 

In  the  meantime,  beneath  all  this  grandeur  and  prosperity  a  great  evil 
Cause3ofhis  was  gra(^uany  digging  an  abyss,  and  this  evil  was  the  Em- 
peror's  own  unbounded  ambition.  If  he  had  never  sepa- 
rated his  personal  interests  from  those  of  France,  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  he  might  have  finally  triumphed  over  all  resistance  ;  but  during 
these  later  days  his  perpetual  invasions,  undertaken  either  for  his  own 
sake  or  that  of  his  family,  had  redoubled  the  fears  and  jealousy  of  foreign 
princes,  without  producing  any  other  result  to  France  than  a  perpetual 
sacrifice  of  men  and  money.  Party  hatred  then  reawoke  with  renewed 
hatred  in  the  interior  of  the  kingdom,  and  found  an  echo  amidst  the 
classes  who  had  assisted  to  raise  and  maintain  the  imperial  throne.  The 
resentment,  moreover,  of  the  aristocracy  and  the  friends  of  liberty  did 
not  want  for  pretexts  and  genuine  causes.     The  old  aristocracy  ever 


1808-1814.]  NAPOLEON'S  AMBITION.  373 

regarded  Napoleon  as  a  parvenu,  born  of  a  revolution  which  it  held  in 

horror,  forgetting  that  he  had  been  a  chief  agent  in  its  sup-       ... 

'         °  °  o     .  i  At  home. 

pression  ;  and  the  democrats  cursed  in  him  the  man  who  had 
renounced  all  their  principles  after  having  obtained  his  power  under  the 
order  of  things  which  they  had  established.  The  creation  of  a  new 
nobility  was  equally  offensive  to  the  old  nobles  and  to  the  patriots.  The 
complete  suppression  of  the  liberty  of  the  press  rendered  the  irritation 
stronger  by  keeping  it  confined  in  men's  hearts,  and  although  Napoleon 
had  not  ceased  to  conquer,  he  was  not  able  to  silence  his  enemies  by  his 
victories,  the  very  number  of  which  enfeebled  their  prestige.  The 
frightful  void  caused  by  the  war  in  the  ranks  of  the  younger  generation 
became  day  by  day  more  visible ;  the  consumption  of  men  was  frightful, 
and  after  each  victory  public  attention  was  directed  less  to  the  territory 
conquered  than  to  the  blood  spilt ;  and  the  despairing  cries  of  mothers 
were  heard  above  the  triumphal  shouts. 

Abroad  the  power  of  Napoleon,  more  apparent  than  real,  rested  on  no 
solid  foundation.     His  brothers  even,  who  had  been  crowned 

7  Abroad. 

by  his  own  hand,  were  indignant  at  being  only  regarded  by 
him  as  his  lieutenants,  and  perceived  that  when  he  granted  them  the 
title  of  king  without  allowing  them  royal  power,  he  had  rendered  it 
impossible  for  them  to  reign.  One  of  them  abdicated,  and  the  others 
hesitated  between  abdication  and  revolt.  The  populations  of  the  annexed 
countries  were  overwhelmed  with  the  burden  of  conscription,  war  taxes, 
and  the  maintenance  of  troops.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  Emperor  num- 
bered great  sovereigns  amongst  his  allies.  The  latter  could  not  forget 
that  his  alliance  had  been  forced  upon  them  by  victories,  and  their 
wounded  honour  demanded  some  revenge.  Austria  and  Prussia  had 
cruel  affronts  to  efface  and  numerous  provinces  to  regain.  Great  excite- 
ment prevailed  throughout  all  the  universities  and  secret  societies  in 
Germany,  and  Napoleon  had  already,  in  1809,  whilst  residing  at  Schon- 
brunn,  been  on  the  point  of  perishing,  as  has  been  mentioned  above, 
under  the  dagger  of  a  young  fanatic.  Spain,  from  which  he  sought  to 
tear  the  left  bank  of  the  Ebro  for  the  purpose  of  annexing  it  to  France, 
and  Portugal,  which  he  had  assumed  the  power  of  dividing  at  his  will, 
rejected  his  yoke,  and,  supported  by  England,  opposed  an  invincible  resis- 
tance to  Napoleon,  who  exhausted  himself  in  his  efforts  to  maintain  three 


374  LEAGUE    AGAINST   NAPOLEON.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  Ill, 

armies  on  a  formidable  footing.  The  fatal  continental  system  finally 
aroused  against  him  every  commercial  interest,  and  blinded  himself  by 
giving  him  an  apparent  pretext  for  his  continual  usurpations.  He  per- 
ceived that  this  system  imposed  so  heavy  a  burden,  so  direct  an  inconve- 
nience, upon  both  sovereigns  and  peoples,  that  he  could  nowhere  entrust  its 
execution  to  any  one  but  himself.  After  having,  with  this  object,  annexed 
Holland  and  the  Eoman  States  to  France,  and  made  irreconcilable  enemies 
SenatusCon-  of  the  Pope  and  the  clergy,  he  ventured  still  further,  and 
cemwis?6"  on  tne  13tn  of  December,  1810,  without  any  preliminary 
Annexation  of  announcement,  annexed  to  his  empire,  by  a  Senatus  Con- 
Towns  and  the  sultum,  the  Valois,  the  Hanseatic  Towns,  and  the  coasts  of 
Baltic  to  the  the  Baltic  from  the  Ems  to  the  Elbe.  Circumstances,  said  the 
Emperor,  demanded  such  a  measure,  and  he  made  vague  pro- 
mises of  indemnity  to  the  princes  despoiled  by  this  fresh  usurpation.  During 
the  prevalence  of  such  a  policy  as  this  there  was  no  longer  security  for 
any  sovereign  or  guarantee  for  the  observance  of  any  treaty,  and  it  was 
evident  that  either  France  must  be  vanquished  by  Europe,  or  that  the 
whole  of  Europe  must  become  France.  An  immoderate  ambition  com- 
pelled the  Emperor  incessantly  to  fight  against  the  league  of  dynasties, 
peoples,  the  priesthood,  and  commerce,  and  when  he  believed  that  all 
were  gained  over  to  his  views  because  all  were  submissive  to  him,  he 
found  that  he  had  sown  in  every  direction  the  germs  of  an  opposition 
which  was  destined  to  explode  in  a  terrible  manner  on  the  very  first  day 
on  which  he  should  suffer  a  reverse. 

Amongst  all  the  Sovereigns  of  Europe,  it  was  Alexander  who  at  this 
period  was  capable  of  causing  Napoleon  the  most  anxiety.  This  prince,  in 
fact,  was  at  once  the  most  powerful  on  account  of  his  armies,  and  the  most 
difficult  to  subdue  on  account  of  the  geographical  position  of  his  empire. 
For  some  time  past,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  a  good  understanding 
with  Napoleon,  he  had  to  resist  the  solicitations  of  the  English  Govern- 
ment and  his  old  allies  on  the  Continent,  and  to  struggle  against  the 
remonstrances  of  the  Russian  aristocracy,  which,  since  the  Czar's  adhesion 
to  the  continental  system  had  been  unable  to  find  outlets  for  the  pro- 
ducts of  their  estates.  Alexander  had  obtained  Finland,  Moldavia,  and 
Wallachia,  so  long  coveted,  and  was  anxious  that  the  French  Emperor 
should  declare  in  a  formal  manner  against  the  future  re- establishment  of 
the  kingdom  of  Poland.     He  was   already  complaining  of  Napoleon's 


1808-1814.]  BATTLE    OE    EUENTES    d'ONOEO,  375 

refusal  to  do  this,  when  the  Senatus  Consultuni  of  the  13th  December, 
1810,  added  a  serious  item  to  his  causes  of  complaint.     Amongst  the 
princes  who  had  been  deprived  of  their  possessions  was  his  uncle,  the 
Grand-Duke  of  Oldenburg,   and  Alexander  regarded  this 
decree,  which  forcibly  dispossessed  a  member  of  his  family,   Alexander  to- 

,"','.  wards  Napoleon. 

as  a  personal  insult  to  nimseii.  He  now  listened  to  those 
about  him  who  were  most  eager  that  he  should  break  with  France  ;  and 
on  the  31st  December  replied  to  the  Senatus  Consultum  by  a  commercial 
ukase  which  closed  Russia  against  a  large  number  of  French  products, 
and  opened  its  ports  to  the  products  of  the  English  colonies  when  con- 
veyed in  neutral  bottoms.  Fresh  levies  of  troops  were  ordered  throughout 
his  dominions,  his  armies  marched  upon  the  Niemen,  and  Europe  awaited 
fresh  and  sinister  events. 

Whilst  Napoleon,  deaf  to  the  counsels    of  prudence,  thus   provoked 
fresh  war  with  Eussia  by  successive  and  rash  invasions,  the    _.    ,. 

J  7  Continuation  of 

Peninsula,  at  the  other  extremity  of  Europe,  devoured  the  anjportu  afam 
armies  and  resources  of  France.  Suchet  retained  the  1811, 
upper  hand  in  Aragon  and  Catalonia ;  but  in  Estremadura,  Andalucia,  and 
Portugal,  the  armies  of  Soult  and  Massena  endured  great  hardships 
and  struggled  against  immense  difficulties.  Soult,  after  a  long  and  mur- 
derous conflict,  had  captured  Badajoz,  and  from  thence  had  marched  to 
Cadiz,  to  hasten  the  reduction  of  that  important  place,  which  was 
invested  by  Victor ;  but  the  English  speedily  besieged  Badajoz  in  their 
turn,  and  compelled  Soult  to  return  to  Estremadura.  Massena  having 
failed  to  force  the  formidable  lines  of  Torres  Vedras,  after 

Retreat  of  Mas* 

having    remained   encamped  many  months    on  the    right    sena  before  the 

English. 

bank  of  the  Tagus,  in  front  of  the  English  army,  had  found 
himself  compelled  to  return  to  Spain,  and  had  retreated  to  Salamanca, 
closely  pursued  by  Wellington.  At  the  end  of  April,  1811,  he  received 
a  reinforcement  of  some  thousands  of  the  Imperial  Guard,  under  Marshal 
Bessieres,  the  Duke  of  Istria,  and  then,  resolving  to  resume  the  offensive, 
made  an  effort  to  relieve  Almada,  an  important  city  on  the  Portuguese 
frontier  which  the  English  were  besieging.  He  marched  to  the  assistance 
of  this  place  with  forty  thousand  v  erans,  the  heroic  remnant  of  several 
armies,  and  encountered  the  enemy  on  the  3rd  of  May  at  BattieofFuente3 
the  village  of  Fuentes  d'Onoro,  half  way  between  Almada  d'0noro> 1811- 
and  Ciudad-Rodrigo.     There  Massena  engaged  Wellington,  and  a  terrible 


376  PIUS    VIT.    AND    NAPOLEON.        [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

battle  took  place,  which  at  the  end  of  three  days  was  still  undecided,  and 
which  he  would  have  gained,  apparently,  if  his  supply  of  ammunition 
had  not  failed,  and  if  the  generals  under  him  had  better  obeyed  his 
orders.  The  English  retained  their  positions,  and  Massena,  who  was 
much  weakened,  having  retained  possession  of  the  field  of  battle  for  some 
days,  ordered  a  retreat,  and  then  fell  back  upon  Salamanca.  Napoleon 
reproached  him  for  not  having  been  victorious,  and  replaced  him  in  his 
command  by  Marshal  Marmont. 

The  Empire  was  in  a  state  of  decline  ;  but  fate  still  granted  to  the 
Birth  of  the  Emperor  a  great  and  much  longed  for  favour.     He  had  a 

King  of  Eome.  son  ^orn  to  him  in  March,  1811 ;  and  the  birth  of  this  child, 
who  was  proclaimed  King  of  Eome  in  the  cradle,  appeared,  by  assuring 
him  of  a  successor,  to  have  consolidated  his  fortunes.  Napoleon  nowr 
desired  to  terminate  his  protracted  differences  with  the  Court  of  Rome, 
and  wished  to  assemble  a  General  Council  in  Paris  on  the  day  on 
which  his  son  should  be  baptized,  for  the  purpose  of  regtilating,  with  the 
assistance  of  that  assembly,  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  his  empire. 

The  Sovereign  Pontiff,  deprived  of  his  temporalities,  was  still  detained 
,.      .        in  his  old  captivity,  in  which  he   persisted  in  refusing  to 

Contentions  be- 

ti^Po^and*  institute  the  French  bishops  appointed  by  the  Emperor, 
the  Emperor.  ^q  number  of  which  had  been  raised  to  twenty-seven.* 
Napoleon  desired  that  the  Pope  should  accept  at  the  expense  of  France 
a  sumptuous  but  dependent  establishment  at  Rome,  at  Paris,  or  at 
Avignon,f  and  should  thus  renounce  his  temporal  power.  He  demanded, 
moreover,  on  the  ground  of  the  necessities  of  the  several  dioceses,  that 
the  bishops  should  be  canonically  instituted,  and  sought  some  legal 
method  of  providing  for  their  institution  should  the  Pope  refuse  to 
bestow  it. 

Pius  VII.  thought  that  by  agreeing  to  the  Emperor's  first  proposition 
he  would  be  failing  in  his  duty,  and  betraying  the  sacred  rights  of  the 
Holy  See,  which  he  had  sworn  to  maintain,  and  nobly  refused  to  submit 

*  Napoleon  had  ordered  the  Chapter  to  bestow  the  quality  of  vicars  capitular  upon 
the  nominated  bishops,  which  enabled  the  latter  to  govern  their  dioceses,  at  least  as 
administrators.  Cardinal  Manz,  who  had  been  nominated  Archbishop  of  Paris, 
governed  his  diocese  in  this  way. 

t  At  Avignon,  however,  Napoleon  was  willing  that  the  Pope  should  be  independent, 
if  he  would  accept  the  famous  declaration  of  1682,  which  declared  the  liberties  of  the 
Gallican  church. 


1808-1814.]  COUNCIL    OF   EBENCH   PKELATES.  377 

to  his  own  deposal  at  the  expense  of  a  magnificent  establishment.  "It  is 
not,"  he  said,  "the  Vatican  that  I  demand,  but  the  catacombs.  Let 
me  but  return  with  a  few  old  priests  to  enlighten  me  with  their  counsels, 
and  I  will  continue  my  Pontifical  functions  whilst  submitting  to  Cassar, 
as  did  the  first  apostles."  He  was  more  yielding  on  the  second  point, 
the  institution  of  the  bishops,  and  appeared,  in  words  at  least,  to  have  no 
desire  to  oppose  the  institution  of  the  nominated  bishops  by  a  metropo- 
litan, after  a  delay  of  six  months. 

Such  was  the  serious  question  which  the  Emperor  intended  to  regulate 
in  a  definitive  manner  by  convoking  in  Paris,  in  a  National  Co  u,  ., 
Council,  all  the  French  prelates.  The  Council  commenced  Paris» 1811, 
its  sittings  in  Paris  on  the  19th  of  June,*  and  wishing  to  commence  by  an 
act  of  deference  towards  the  Emperor,  appointed  as  its  president  Cardinal 
Fesch,  Napoleon's  uncle,  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons  and  Primate  of  the 
Gauls.  Violent  debates,  however,  speedily  arose  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Council  with  respect  to  its  competence  to  decide  with  respect  to  the 
great  question  which  had  been  submitted  to  its  consideration.  A  com- 
mittee, nominated  by  the  Assembly,  sent  in  a  report  opposed  to  the 
wishes  of  the  Emperor,  and  the  reading  of  the  report  aroused  a  violent 
storm ;  some  members  protesting  with  indignation  against  the  shameful 
treatment  to  which  the  Pope  had  been  subjected,  and  alluding  to  the 
Bull  by  which  Napoleon  had  been  excommunicated.  At  this  unex- 
pected news  the  Emperor,  yielding  to  his  rage,  dissolved  the  Coun- 
cil, and  had  three  prelates,  the  Bishops  of  Troyes,  Tour  nay,  and 
Ghent,  imprisoned  in  Vincennes.  Then,  by  the  advice  of  Cardinal 
Maury,  he  had  them  all  summoned  separately,  and  had  their  individual 
adhesion  demanded  to  the  declaration  formerly  approved  of,  by  word  of 
mouth,  by  the  Pope,  and  which  authorized  the  metropolitan  to  grant 
institution  to  the  bishops  nominated  by  the  Emperor,  if,  after  an  interval 
of  six  months,  they  had  not  obtained  it  from  the  Court  of  Rome. 
Eighty-five  bishops  out  of  a  hundred  and  fifteen  having  approved  this 
plan,  the  Emperor  again  assembled  the  Council,  and  now  obtained  from 
it  an  almost  unanimous  vote  in  favour  of  his  wishes.  The  Council,  how- 
ever, without  reviving  the  question  of  competence,  expressed  a  wish  that 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff  should  be  requested  to  approve  of  this  decree.     A 

*  The  Council  had  not  been  able  to  meet,  as  Napoleon  bad  wisbed,  on  his  son's 
baptismal  day,  but  assembled  in  the  following  week. 


378  STTFEEKINGS    OP    ETJEOPE.         [BoOE  III.  CHAP.  III. 

Commission  consisting  of  cardinals  and  bishops  took  it  accordingly  to  the 
Pope  at  Savona,  and  begged  him  to  sanction  it.     The  Pope,  fearing  to 
place  the  Church  in  a  position  of  still  greater  danger  if  he  refused,  pro- 
mised to  institute  the  twenty-seven  bishops,  and  accepted  the  decree  by 
a  brief,  which  he  supported,  however,  by  considerations  contrary  to  the 
recognised  principles  of  the  Gallican  Church.     Napoleon  published  the 
purport  of  the  Pontifical  brief,  without  the  reasons  given  by  the  Pope  for 
issuing  it ;   and  having  submitted  the  latter  to  the  Council  of  State  for 
examination,  he  procured  in  all  haste  the  execution  of  the  last  formalities 
necessary  for  the  completion  of  the  institution  of  the  nominated  prelates 
Dissolution  of    Promised  by  the  Pope.    The  assembly  of  prelates  was  then 
the  Council.      dissolved ;  and  other  cares  forthwith  absorbed  the  thoughts  of 
the  Emperor,  who  once  more  seized  his  formidable  sword  for  a  gigantic 
struggle,  and  marched  with  blind  confidence  to  meet  the  storm  which  his 
mad  ambition  had  raised  in  the  East. 

Whilst  insisting  with  offensive  haughtiness  that  Alexander  should 
withdraw  the  ukase  of  the  31st  December,  Napoleon  chose  to  ignore  the 
much  more  serious  wrong  which  he  had  done  to  the  Czar  by  annexing 
the  Grand  Duchy  of  Oldenburg  to  his  empire  without  according  any 
indemnity  to  the  Duke.  His  pride  made  him  see  an  insult  to  France 
and  himself  in  Alexander's  refusal  to  withdraw  the  ukase  in  question ; 
he  believed  that  this  work  would  not  be  accomplished  until  he  should 
have  rendered  all  the  sovereigns  of  Europe,  even  the  greatest,  dependent 
on  his  will;  and  to  effect  this  object  he  drew  down  innumerable 
calamities  upon  France  and  himself. 

Before  declaring  war,  however,  he  wished  to  put  his  vast  kingdom  in  a 
state  of  defence  at  every  point.  He  visited  Belgium,  where  he  ordered  the 
Journe  of  the  excution  of  magnificent  works,  and  Holland,  which  had 
island  been  recently  annexed  to  his  empire,  where  he  put  many 
Holland.  important  places  in  a  state  to  sustain  a  long  siege,  and 

made  immense  preparations  in  every  direction.  France  suffered  at  this 
time  from  a  scarcity  of  grain,  and  the  excessive  dearness 
ings  of  France  of  many  objects  of  consumption  which  she  had  formerly 
obtained  from  the  colonies — there  was  no  maritime  com- 
merce ;  and  to  these  causes  of  disaffection  were  added  the  most  cruel  of 
all,  the  tax  of  blood,  and  immense,  unlimited,  endless  sacrifices  of  human 


1808-1814.]  IMPERIAL   TYRANNY.  379 

life.     Deaf  to  every  remonstrance  Napoleon  aggravated  the  famine  by 

laying  a  tax  upon  grain  ;    and,  entirely  absorbed  by  his 

warlike  projects,  he  formed  the  few  men  who  had  escaped   the  imperial 

rule, 

the  conscriptions  of  the  last  years,  into  a  national  mobile 
guard,  and  pitilessly  pursued,  by  means  in  use  during  the  Eeign  of 
Terror,  sixty  thousand  refractory  conscripts  who  had  not  joined  their  regi- 
ments. Their  unhappy  families,  thoughout  France,  were  rendered  re- 
sponsible for  their  absence  or  their  flight,  subjected  to  cruel  exactions, 
and  compelled  to  support  at  their  own  expense  troops  who  were  the 
objects  of  the  public  hate  under  the  name  of  garnisaires.  The  conse- 
quences of  these  proceedings  were  revolts,  which  were  severely  repressed 
at  several  points.  Paris,  even,  made  complaints,  and  the  Emperor 
retired  to  Saint  Cloud  so  as  to  be  out  of  hearing  of  the  murmurs  which 
arose  from  the  people  as  he  passed  amidst  them.  And  if  such  evils  were 
intolerable  in  France,  they  were  much  more  so  in  the  unhappy  countries 
which  Napoleon  had  conquered,  which  were  crushed  by  taxes  and 
devastated  by  the  continual  passage  of  armies ;  and  the  French  name 
became  odious  to  the  peoples  who  submitted  in  despair  to  the  rule  of 
France  or  its  oppressive  ascendancy.  It  was  on  these  peoples,  however, 
and  their  sovereigns,  that  Napoleon  thought  he  could  rely  in  his  enter- 
prise against  Russia,  and  it  was  in  this  belief  that  he  had  imposed  his 
alliance  upon  Austria  and  Prussia,  with  whom  he  had  concluded  fresh 
treaties.  He  then  assembled  his  army  behind  the  Vistula,  and,  for  the 
purpose  of  increasing  it,  withdrew  from  Spain  a  portion  of  the  troops 
which  were  already  scarcely  sufficient  to  support  his  brother  on  the 
throne.  From  every  point  of  Europe,  from  the  shores  of  the  Ocean 
and  the  Mediterranean  to  those  of  the  Baltic,  innumerable  troops  were 
marched  upon  Poland,  and  the  Emperor  resolved  to  superintend  their 
movements  himself.  He  confided  his  royal  powers  to  the  Arch- Chancellor 
Cambaceres,  and,  on  the  invitation  of  the  King  of  Saxony,  he  set  out 
from  Paris  in  May,  1812,  and  established  himself  with  his  Court  at 
Dresden,  under  pretext  of  assembling  the  other  sovereigns  congress  of 
at  a  Congress,  but  in  reality  with  the  purpose  of  drawing  res  eD' 
near  to  his  army  and  being  in  a  position  to  surprise  the  enemy  by  a 
sudden  attack  at  the  commencement  of  the  campaign.  The  Emperor  of 
Austria,  the  King  of  Prussia,  and  many  of  the  Sovereigns  of  Europe  went 


380  NORTHERN   ALLIANCES.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  I1T. 

to  Dresden  to  meet  Napoleon ;  and  then,  at  the  height  of  his  power,  he 
tasted  once  more  the  triumph  so  sweet  to  his  pride,  for  he  saw  himself 
surrounded  by  kings  as  his  courtiers,  and  many  crowned  heads  bowing 
before  his  own. 

Napoleon  had  resolved  not  to  commence  the  campaign  until  the  month 
of  June,  since  he  required  the  interval  for  the  purpose  of  deceiving 
Alexander,  and  being  able  to  cross  the  Niemen  before  he  could  be  pre- 
pared to  resist  him.  He  sent  to  that  monarch,  through  his  ambassador, 
M.  de  Narbonne,  continual  assurances  of  his  amicable  feelings  towards 
him,  whilst  he  was  constantly  making  the  most  enormous  preparations 
for  waging  war  against  him.  He  at  length  succeeded  in  assembling 
behind  the  Vistula  his  immense  army,  consisting  of  four  hundred  and 
t,  {..  twenty- three    thousand    men,    of    whom    three    hundred 

Reassembling  J  ' 

armyeinPoiand  thousand  were  infantry,  seventy  thousand  horse,  and 
1812"  thirty  thousand  artillerymen,  accompanied  by  a  thousand 

pieces  of  artillery,  six  pontoon  equipages,  and  a  month's  provisions. 
This  army,  composed  of  men  of  almost  all  the  nations  of  Europe, 
French,  Austrian,  Prussian,  "Wurtembergian,  Bavarian,  Dutch,  Polish, 
and  Italian,  was  divided  into  eight  great  corps,  and  supported  by  two 
hundred  thousand  reserve  troops  who  were  distributed  between  the  Elbe 
and  the  Vistula.  This  formidable  assembling  of  troops  had  already  justly 
aroused  the  alarm  of  the  Emperor  Alexander,  and  now,  foreseeing  the 
danger  which  threatened  him,  in  spite  of  all  Napoleon's  efforts  to  lull 
him  into  a  deceitful  sense  of  security,  he  formed  an  alliance  with  England, 
in  order  to  resist  the  storm  ready  to  burst  upon  his  country.  He  formed 
with  England,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  a  new  coalition,  into 

Sixth  coalition  .  .  ,       .  -i    i      •  i  •  a        -i  i  •   i 

against  France,     which    he    succeeded    m    drawing     Sweden,    which    was 

1812 

governed  in  the  name  of  Charles  XIII.  by  the  new  Prince 
Royal,  Bernadotte.  The  latter,  who  had  long  since  been  jealous  and  the 
secret  enemy  of  Napoleon,  coveted  Norway,  which  was  possessed  by 
Denmark,  an  old  ally  of  France.  Napoleon  had  refused  to  accede  to 
Bernadotte's  views  on  this  point,  and  provoked  his  resentment  not  only 
by  this  refusal,   but  by  treatment   which   was   imprudently  disdainful, 

and  by  permitting  Marshal  Davoust  to  enter  with  his  army 
Russia  with  Swedish   Pomerania.      Alexander    obtained    the    Swedish 

alliance  by  the  sacrifice   of  Norway,  and  concluded  with 


1808-1814.]  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN.  3bl 

Sweden  an   alliance    offensive  and   defensive,  which  Napoleon   at   first 
despised,  and  which  was  in  reality  fatal  to  him. 

Napoleon  now  no  longer  concealed  his  hostile  designs,  and  setting  forth 
from  Dresden  in  the  month  of  June,  1812,  he  proceeded  to  his  head 
quarters  at  Thorn,  from  whence  he  directed  the  march  of  his  armies 
upon  the  Niemen.  Before  crossing  that  river  he  alleged,  as  a  reason  for 
his  aggression,  a  recent  and  formal  demand  which  he  had  received  from 
Alexander  to  remove  the  French  troops  from  Western  Prussia.  He 
spoke  of  this  demand  as  an  insult  to  his  crown,  and  it  was  for  this 
frivolous  motive  and  for  Alexander's  infraction  of  the  continental 
blockade,  that  he  plunged  France  into  a  distant  and  frightful  war.  "  The 
Russians,"  he  said,  "  the  Russians  whom  we  have  always  vanquished 
have  assumed  the  tone  of  conquerors,  and  provoke  us  to  the  conflict  .  .  . 
let  us  accept  this  impertinence  as  a  favour  and  cross  the  Niemen."  On 
the  22nd  June,  in  a  proclamation  to  his  army,  he  spoke  of  a  state  which 
had  been  blotted  from  the  map  of  Europe,  for  he  had  proved  the  courage 
of  the  people  Of  that  country,  and  he  required  them  as  an  advanced 
guard  and  a  barrier  against  colossal  Russia.  "  Soldiers  !"  he  said, 
"  the  second  Polish  war  has  commenced.  The  first  was  brought  to  a 
close  at  Friedland  and  Tilsit.  Russia  has  sworn  an  eternal  alliance  with 
France  and  war  to  the  death  against  England ;  and  now  she  has  violated 
both  those  oaths.  .  .  .  Russia  is  in  the  toils  of  some  fatality,  and  her  destiny 
must  be  accomplished."  It  was  to  Napoleon  rather  than  to  the  Russians 
that  these  words  were  applicable ;  he  was  blinded  by  some  fatality,  and  he 
was  led  by  it  to  the  fulfilment  of  his  destiny. 

On  the  25th  June,  the  Emperor  commenced  the  campaign  at  the 
head  of  four  hundred  thousand  soldiers.  He  crossed  the  Campaign  of 
Niemen  with  the  larger  portion  of  his  forces,  and  on  the  1812  m  Ku9sia- 
28th  he  entered  Wilna,  where  he  received  a  final  letter  from  Alexander 
suggesting  peace,  and  promising  to  continue  his  alliance  with  France  if 
Napoleon  would  evacuate  the  Russian  territories.  But  to  have  retreated 
a  step  would  have  been  a  humiliation  in  the  eyes  of  Napoleon.-  He  sent 
a  reply  in  the  negative  and  halted  seventeen  days  at  Wilna — a  delay 
which  was  fatal. 

In  the  meantime  the  Diet  of  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw  proclaimed  the  re- 
establishment  and  freedom  of  Poland  as  a  nation.     A  deputation  sent  to 


382  BATTLE    OF    THE    MOSKYA.         [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

the  Emperor  entreated  him  to  declare  that  Poland  existed ;  and  Napoleon 
hesitated  to  accede  to  the  request,  for  a  portion  of  the  old  Polish  pro- 
vinces was  incorporated  with  Austria  and  Prussia,  and  at  this  time 
Austria  and  Prussia  were  the  allies  of  Prance.  To  recognise  the  existence 
and  independence  of  the  Polish  nation  would  be  to  spread  the  fire  of  in- 
surrection throughout  the  incorporated  provinces.  At  a  later  period, 
perhaps,  he  might  accede  to  the  wishes  of  the  Diet,  but  at  present  it  was 
his  duty  to  decline  to  do  so,  and  he  gave  his  answer  in  such  a  manner  as 
not  to  offend  his  allies. 

The  Emperor  continued  his  march,  and  arrived  at  Witepsk  after  a 
series  of  glorious  conflicts.  The  enemy's  army  retired  before  him,  under 
the  command  of  Bagration  and  Barclay  de  Tolly ;  the  Dnieper  was 
speedily  crossed,  and  a  bloody  battle  took  place-  at  Krasnoe,  before 
Smolensk,  which  was  carried  after  a  murderous  conflict,  and  delivered  to 
the  flames.  The  Eussians  still  fell  back,  and  Napoleon  followed  them  in 
the  direction  of  Moscow.  The  plains  of  Valoutina,  Gorodrezna,  and 
Polotzk  were  the  scenes  of  desperate  combats,  in  which  the  French 
arms  were  triumphant ;  but  the  Eussians  declined  any  decisive  battle, 
and,  retreating  after  each  defeat,  led  the  French  troops,  who  pursued  them, 
into  the  heart  of  old  Eussia. 

The  army  arrived  at  length,  on  the  5th  September,  on  the  plains  of 
Borodino,  some   leagues  distant  from  Moscow,  near  the  banks  of  the 
Moskva,   and  found  itself  face  to   face  with  the   whole  Eussian  army, 
which  was  under  the  command  of  the  old  general  Kutusof.     A  general 
Battle  of  the      engagement  was  resolved  on  for  the  day  after  the  morrow, 
Moskva.  an(j  on  ^   m0rning  of  that  memorable   day,    Napoleon, 

issuing  from  his  tent,  said  to  his  officers — "  See  what  a  fine  sun  we  have  ! 
It  is  the  sun  of  Austerlitz !"  Then,  in  an  address  to  his  soldiers,  he  said 
to  them — "  At  length  you  will  fight  the  battle  you  have  so  longed  for  ! 
Behave  as  you  did  at  Austerlitz,  at  Friedland,  at  Witepsk,  Smolensk,  and 
the  most  distant  ages  will  speak  with  admiration  of  your  conduct  in  this 
battle.  Let  it  be  said  with  pride  of  each  of  you — '  He  was  at  that  great 
battle  on  the  plains  of  Moscow !' "  The  action  commenced  almost  imme- 
diately, and  was  terrific.  Ney,  Murat,  Eugene,  Davoust,  Gerard,  and 
Poniatowski  did  deeds  of  the  utmost  heroism.  Auguste  Caulaincourt  was 
struck  down  whilst  charging  a  redoubt  at  the  head  of  his  cuirassiers.     The 


1808-1814.]  ENTRY   OF   FRENCH   INTO    MOSCOW.  383 

Russians  yielded  at  length,  after  a  desperate  conflict.    Napoleon  held  back 
his  guard,  and  allowed  the  Russians,  whom   he  might  have  crushed,  to 
escape.     Twenty-two  thousand  French  and  fifty  thousand  Russians  were 
killed  or  wounded  in  this  battle,  and  a  great  number  of  generals  perished 
on  the  field.     But  the  victory  was  on  the  side  of  the  French,  and  Marshal 
Ney  was   created  Prince  of  Moskva   on  the  field   of   battle.     Another 
battle  took  place  at  Mojaisk,  half  a  league  from  Moscow,  in  which  the 
Russians  were  again  vanquished,  and  their  army  only  entered  that  ancient 
capital  immediately  to  evacuate  it.     From  the  heights  of  Mount  Salut, 
which  command  Moscow,  the  French  beheld  that  famous  city,  half  Asiatic, 
half  European,  with  its  eight  hundred  churches,  its  thousand  bell-towers, 
and  its  gilded  cupolas  glittering  in  the  sun.     At  this  spectacle  the  French 
troops  were  filled  with  astonishment  and  admiration.     Moscow !  Moscow ! 
they  cried,   and  for  a  moment  Napoleon  joined  in  this  enthusiasm;  a 
gleam  of  joy  illumined  his  countenance,  and  a  cry  of  happiness  escaped 
his  lips.     Moscow !  the  reward  for   so  many  glorious  efforts,  the  end  of 
so  many  toils.     After  a  time  the  French  entered  the  silent   _.      f  . 
streets  of  this  vast  city,  and  were  astonished  to  find  them   ^ffmSSS 
utterly  deserted.     The  inhabitants  had  quitted  it  in  a  body.    1812, 
Napoleon  entered  the  citadel  of  the  Kremlin  unresisted.     He  had  believed 
that  Moscow  would  be  the  term  of  his  labours,  and  of  the  sufferings  of  his 
army.     It  contained  great  stores,  and  he  resolved  to  establish  his  winter 
quarters  there,  and  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  victory.     But  during  the  night 
a   frightful   conflagration    burst    forth.       Rostopchin,    the      B     . 
governor  of  the  city,  had  determined,  when  he  evacuated      Moscow, 
it,  to  make  a  great  sacrifice  for  the  purpose  of  saving  his  country.    Russia 
must  be  lost  if  the  French  could  find  a  refuge  in  Moscow,  and  at  a  given 
signal,  therefore,  convicts  were  sent  throughout  the  city,  torch  in  hand, 
to  fire  it  in  a  thousand  places.    Moscow  crumbled  beneath  the  flames,  and 
was  speedily  nothing  but  a  heap  of  ashes. 

The  winter  approached,  and  the  French  had  no  asylum  against  its 
rigours.  Napoleon  still  flattered  himself  with  hopes  of  peace.  Alex- 
ander designedly  prolonged  the  negotiations  which  were  entered  upon 
with  this  object,  and  in  the  meantime  signed  a  treaty  with  Sultan 
Mahmoud,  the  successor  of  Selim,  who  had  been  slain  by  the  Janissaries, 
which  assured  him  the  support  of  the  whole  Russian  army  against  Napo- 


384  RETREAT  EROM  MOSCOW.    [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

leon.  The  negotiations  were  at  length  broke  off,  and  Napoleon  ordered 
a   retreat,   quitting  the  city  at    the  head   of    a   hundred 

from  Moscow,  thousand  troops,  after  a  useless  delay  of  forty  days.  "  Your 
attack  is  at  an  end,"  said  old  General  Kutusof  to  the  French,  "  and  now 
ours  will  begin."  His  army  intercepted  the  old  Kalouga  route,  towards 
which  Napoleon  directed  his  march,  and  five  days  after  the  evacuation  of 
Moscow,  on  the  25th  of  October,  he  fought  with  the  French  at  Maloja- 
roslawetz  a  battle  which  was  very  bloody  and  very  indecisive,  and  at  the 
close  of  which  the  Emperor  was  nearly  taken  by  a  band  of  Cos- 
sacks in  the  midst  of  his  staff.*  A  second  battle  would  have  been 
necessary  to  open  the  road  to  Kalouga,  and  Napoleon  was  inclined  to 
fight  it ;  but,  yielding  to  the  advice  of  his  generals,  he  directed  the  retreat 
towards  Smolensk.  The  winter  suddenly  came  on  wiih  a  rigour  which 
was  very  uncommon  even  in  the  heart  of  Eussia  ;  and  the  French  troops, 
paralysed  with  cold,  were  pursued  and  harassed  in  their  retreat  by  innu- 
merable enemies,  and  covered  the  line  of  march  with  their  frozen 
corpses. 

However,  the  army  continued  its  march  in  tolerably  good  order  as 
far  as  the  Beresina,  which  it  had  to  cross  in  the  face  of 

Passage  of  the 

Beresina.  Kutusof,  Wittgenstein,  and  Tchitchagof,  and   their   three 

armies,  which  occupied  and  barred  all  the  fords.  The  river  was  only 
partly  frozen,  and  was  filled  with  large  masses  of  drifting  ice ;  and  it  was 
necessary  to  build  bridges  under  the  enemy's  fire  and  to  fight  inces- 
santly. Victor  and  Oudinot  protected  the  passage  of  the  army,  and  still 
performed  prodigies  of  valour  ;  but  the  French  troops,  too  inferior  in 
number,  gave  way  on  the  right  bank  before  the  army  commanded  by 
Wittgenstein,  whilst  a  Eussian  battery  played  upon  the  bridges  and 
opened  a  chasm  in  the  compact  mass  of  stragglers  and  unarmed  wretches 
who  blocked  up  the  way.  Victor  succeeded,  at  length,  in  driving  this 
terrible  battery  back,  but  was  himself  surrounded  on  every  side  and 
almost  crushed,  when  Fournier  and  Latour-Maubourg  advanced  at  the 
head  of  the  cavalry,  and  breaking  through  the  enemy's  centre,  set  Victor 
free.  The  bridges,  however,  were  obstructed  by  an  innumerable 
number  of  soldiers  of  every  arm,  and  an  immense  quantity  of  baggage, 

*  After  this  incident,  in  order  to  escape  the  misfortune  of  falling  alive  into  the  hands 
of  the  Russians,  Napoleon  constantly  carried  about  with  him  an  active  poison  enclosed 
in  a  ring. 


1808-1814.]  PROPOSED    CONGBESS    AT    PEAGUE.  385 

and,  breaking  down,  plunged  thousands  of  men  into  the  Beresina.  At 
length,  after  incredible  efforts,  the  army  crossed  this  formidable  barrier  ; 
but  the  moral  energy  of  the  greater  number  of  the  French  troops  was 
destroyed,  and  the  retreat  became  one  vast  and  fearful  rout. 

Paris  had  now  been  one-and-twenty  days  without  news  of  the  Emperor 
and  the  Grand    Army,  and  a   political  prisoner,    General    _       .         „ 

J '  *  -1-  Conspiracy  of 

Mallet,  supposing  that  Napoleon  was  dead,  had  nearly  Mallet> m  Pans- 
succeeded  in  superseding  his  Government  by  a  conp-de-main.  The 
Emperor  perceived  that  his  presence  was  necessary  in  Paris,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  defeating  such  plots  and  procuring  fresh  military  resources. 
On  the  8th  December  he  left  his  unfortunate  army,  which  he  had  placed 
under  the  command  of  the  King  of  Naples,  and  which  Marshal  Ney 
endeavoured  to  reanimate  by  his  heroic  example,  exposing  his  life  on 
every  occasion,  now  as  a  private  soldier,  and  now  as  a  general. 

The  reverses  suffered  by  the  French  army  were  followed  by  desertions. 
The  Prussians,  who  covered  the  right  of  the  French  army,    _. 

1  °  V  '     Desertion  of 

abandoned  Macdonald  at  Tilsit ;   and  the  Austrians,   com-    France  by  th| 

7  7  Jrrussians  and 

manded  by  Schwartzenberg,  followed  this  example,  leaving  Austrians- 
open  our  left,  whilst  Murat,  the  Commander-in-Chief,  abandoned  his  post 
and  deserted.  Eugene  took  the  command  and  reestablished  order. 
France  made  a  supreme  effort,  and,  anticipating  by  a  year  the  legal  age 
for  the  conscription,  gave  a  new  army  to  Napoleon,  who  marched  with  it 
to  meet  Eugene.  Austria,  seized  with  fear,  renewed  its  protestations  of 
fidelity,  whilst  Prussia  negotiated  with  Russia  at  Kalisch ;  and  EDgland 
promising  Norway  to  Sweden,  obtained  the  active  co-operation  of 
Bernadotte  against  France.  Napoleon,  now  threatened  in 
every  direction,  rejoined  at  Lutzen,  on  the  30th  April,  1813,  in  Germany. 

_i  -..  •r>i/"ii»  -i-i    First  successes. 

Eugene  and  the  remains  of   the  Grand  Army,  and  gained 
with  conscripts  against  the  veteran  troops  of  Europe  the  brilliant  victories 
of  Lutzen,  Bautzen,  and  Wurschen.     He  then  renewed  his  negotiations  for 
peace.     It  was  arranged  that  a  Congress  should  meet  at  Prague  on  the  4th 
of  June,  and  Napoleon  accepted  the  mediation  of  Austria,  who  demanded 
as  the  price  of  her  alliance  that  Napoleon  should  cede  to  her 
the  Illyrian  provinces ;  that  the  duchy  of  Warsaw  should    Congress  at 
be  broken  up  and  divided  between  Russia,  Austria,  and 
Prussia ;  that  the  kingdom  of  Prussia  should  be  reconstructed  with  a 
tenable  frontier  on  the  Elbe ;  that  the  independence  of  Germany  should 
VOL.  II.  c   c 


386  THE    BATTLE    OE   LEIPSIC.         [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

be  restored  by  the  abolition  of  the  Confederation  of  the  Khine,  and  that 

the  cities  of  Hamburg    and  Lubeck    should    be    reestablished  as   free 

Hanseatic  towns.     These  conditions  were  proposed  by  M.  Metternich  to 

the  Emperor  in    a  celebrated  interview ;    and  although   they  deprived 

,       France  of  scarcely  anything,  Napoleon's  pride  made    him 

hesitation,      hesitate  to  accept  them,  and  this  hesitation  was  fatal.     The 

Congress  was  suddenly  dissolved  without  any  result,  and  Austria  declared 

_.    .  ..      „    war  against  France.     The  allies  had  five  hundred  thousand 

Dissolution  of  ° 

the  Congress.  men  un(jer  Schwartzenberg,  Blucher,  and  Bernadotte,  the 
Prince  Eoyal  of  Sweden,  whilst  Napoleon  had  only  three  hundred  thousand 
divided  into  eleven  corps  under  Vandamme,. Victor,  Bertrand,  Ney,  Lauri- 
ston,  Marmont,  Eeynier,  Poniatowski,  Macdonald,  Oudinot,  and  Saint- 
Cyr ;  the  cavalry  was  commanded  by  the  King  of  Naples,  Latour- 
Maubourg,  Sebastiani,  and  Kellerman;  and  Mortier  and  Nausouty  led 
the  guard.  These  forces  were  the  last  hope  of  France.  Wherever 
Napoleon  fought  in  person  he  was  victorious.  He  fought  the  enemy 
under  the  walls  of  Dresden,  and  was  victorious;  but  Vandamme 
Battle  of  sustained  a  terrible  check  at  Kulem,  where  he  was 
esden.  made  prisoner  and  lost  ten  thousand  men.  The  three 
sovereigns,  Alexander,  Francis,  and  Frederick  William,  negotiated  at 
Toeplitz  a  triple  alliance.  The  allied  armies  grew  larger  day  by  day, 
and  many  conflicts  took  place  between  unequal  forces.  Oudinot  was 
Keversesofthe  vanquished  at  Grosberen,  Ney  at  Dennewitz,  Macdonald  at 
French  armies.  Katzbach.  The  King  of  Bavaria  declared  war  against 
Napoleon,  and  the  French  troops,  surrounded  on  all  sides,  retreated  to 
Leipsic.  The  Emperor  now  suffered  the  consequences  of  his  system  of 
oppression.  Europe,  which  for  some  time  had  been  bowed  in  the  dust 
before  him,  now  rose  en  masse  and  prepared  to  crush  him.  A  terrible 
battle,  which  lasted  two  days,  and  was  the  greatest  and  most 

The  battle  of  _  _   ,  ,      •  ,  .      . 

Leipsic.   Terri-     murderous  of  the  age,  took  place  under  the  walls  of  Leipsic. 

hie  disaster. 

A  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  French  struggled  against 
three  hundred  thousand  enemies,  and  they  were  abandoned  by  the 
Saxons,  whose  old  King  alone  remained  faithful  to  France.  This  defec- 
tion compromised  the  safety  of  the  army,  and  Napoleon  ordered  a 
retreat,  which  was  effected  by  the  only  bridge  over  the  Elster.  Sud- 
denly, in  accordance  with  an  order  which  was  ill  understood  and  too 
promptly  executed,  the  bridge  was  blown  up  before  the  army  had  wholly 


1808-1814.]  THE    EEENCH  DEIVEN   EEOM   SPAIN.  887 

passed  over,  and  this  disaster  decided  the  fate  of  the  campaign.  Fifty 
thousand  men  had  perished  on  either  side  in  its  frightful  battles.  Twenty 
thousand  French  were  taken  prisoners  in  consequence  of  the  destruction 
of  the  Elster  bridge,  two  hundred  pieces  of  artillery  and  an  immense 
amount  of  baggage  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  allies,  and  a  multitude  of 
brave  men,  including  the  heroic  Poniatowsky,  were  drowned. 

Napoleon  retreated  upon  the  Rhine,  close  pressed  by  the  allied  armies.  A 
corps  of  sixty  thousand  Austrians  and  Bavarians,  under  General  Wrede, 
endeavoured  near  Hanau  to  intercept  the  French  retreat,  but    „,    .      ,  , . 

1  '  Glorious  battle 

Napoleon  obtained  a  glorious  victory,  dispersed  the  enemy,    at  Hanau- 
and  encamped  his  army  on  the  Rhine,*  whilst  the  allies  took  up  a  position 
opposite  to  him,  and  selected  Frankfort  as  their  head-quarters. 

Spain  shook  off  the  rule  of  France.  Two  great  battles  lost  there 
by  the  latter,  Arapiles  (Salamanca)  by  Marmont,  in  1812,  and  Vittoria 
by  King  Joseph,    in  1813,  enabled  "Wellington    to  march    _    „ 

J  °  r    '  '  °  Continuous  mis- 

at  the  head  of  a  hundred  thousand  English,  Portuguese,  ^TTs  Sntlie 
and  Spaniards  to  the  Western  Pyrenees,  where  Soult,  after  1812' 1813- 
having  struggled  gloriously  in  the  Peninsula  with  very  unequal  forces, 
could  now  only  oppose  to  the  enemy  fifty  thousand  troops,  who  were  tried 
veterans  indeed,  but  worn  out  by  continued  reverses.  Suchet,  with 
twenty-five  thousand  men  of  the  army  of  Aragon,  defended  the  Eastern 
Pyrenees  against  forces  three  times  superior. 

At  the  end  of  1813  the  whole  of  Spain  was  lost  to  France,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  places  which  were  still  held  by  French  garrisons,  and 
Joseph  Bonaparte  was  a  King  only  in  name.  In  this  extremity  Napoleon 
did  not  hesitate  to  sacrifice  his  brother's  crown,  which  had  been  acquired 
by  so  much  injustice  and  bloodshed,  and  in  the  faint  hopef  of  arresting 
the  progress  of  the  Anglo-Spanish  army  at  the  Pyrenees,  he  Treat  „ 
engaged,  by  a  treaty  signed  at  Valencay,  where  he  still  kept  vaieneay. 
King  Ferdinand  captive,  to  acknowledge  him  as  King  of  Spain  and  the 

*  Napoleon  retreated  upon  the  Rhine  with  forty  thousand  armed  and  sixty  thousand 
unarmed  men,  leaving  on  the  Vistula,  the  Oder,  and  the  Elbe,  a  hundred  and  sixty  thou- 
sand Frenchmen,  who  were  condemned  to  defend  foreign  walls  whilst  the  walls  of  their 
country  were  no  longer  defended  but  by  the  weak  arms  of  youth  and  old  age. 

f  Spain  and  England  being  allied  to  each  other  could  only  treat  in  concert,  and  it 
was  very  improbable  that  the  English  Government  and  the  Spanish  Regency  would  re- 
nounce the  advantages  they  had  gained  on  account  of  a  treaty  extorted  from  a  captive 
prince. 

c  c  2 


388  DEPLOBABLE    CONDITION   OF    SPAIN.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

Indies,  and  to  open  the  doors  of  his  prison  as  soon  as  the  treaty  should  be 
accepted  by  the  Regency  at  Cadiz  and  the  Cortes. 

Prince  Eugene,  faithful  to  France  and  to  misfortune,*  still  struggled  at 
.„     [ ,        this  period  in  Italy,  and  heroically  defended  the  course  of 

Magnificent  de-  x  -    •/  *  ./ 

f?the  Ad^i"8  *^e  Adige  5  but  n*s  army  was  reduced  to  thirty- six  thousand 
Prince  Eugene.  menj  whilst  a  hundred  thousand  Austrians  and  Germans 
poured  down  upon  Italy,  and  the  weak  Murat,  to  save  his  crown,  declared 
against  Napoleon. 

France  now  found  itself  threatened  on  the  north  and  the  east  with  in- 
vasion of  its  ancient  boundaries,  just  as  it  had  been  in  1789. 

Deplorable  con-  ,         .  ... 

dition  of  the  But  its  population  was  no  longer  inspired  by  that  enthusiastic 
spirit  which  enabled  it  to  keep  its  territories  sacred,  and 
already  those  who  had  applauded  or  consented  to  the-Emperor's  elevation 
held  aloof  from  him.  The  celebrated  historian  so  often  quoted,  describes 
in  the  following  terms  the  situation  of  the  country  at  this  unfortunate 
period.  "  France,"  he  says,  "  which  had  been  disgusted  with  liberty  by 
ten  years  of  revolution,  was  now  disgusted  with  despotism  by  fifteen  years 
of  a  military  government,  and  the  effusion  of  blood  from  one  end  of  Europe 
to  another.  The  violence  of  the  prefects  tearing  away  the  children  of  the 
people  for  the  conscription,  and  those  of  the  higher  classes  for  the  guards 
of  honour,  torturing,  by  means  of  the  garnisaires,  the  families  whose  sons 
did  not  join  their  regiments,  employing  moveable  columns  against  the 
refractory  conscripts,  often  treating  the  French  provinces  as  though  they 
had  been  conquered  provinces,  converting  pretended  voluntary  gifts  into 
compulsory  imposts,  and  seizing  by  means  of  requisitions,  forage,  horses, 
and  cattle ;  a  suspicious  police,  catching  up  the  slightest  words  uttered 
against  the  Government,  arbitrarily  imprisoning  those  who  were  accused 
of  having  uttered  such,  and  always  assuming  the  guilt  of  the  accused ; 
a  frightful  state  of  misery  in  the  ports,  the  result  of  the  closing 
of  the  seas ;  and  on  the  land  frontiers,  where  tens  of  thousands  of  foreign 
bayonets  prevented  the  passage  of  a  single  bale  of  merchandize ;  finally, 
an  indescribable  and  universal  dread  of  invasion — all  these  evils,  resulting 

*  Eugene  had  married  a  daughter  of  the  King  of  Bavaria.  Being  entreated  to 
abandon  Napoleon's  cause  by  his  father-in-law,  who  guaranteed  him  a  principality  in 
Italy,  he  nobly  replied  that  it  was  possible  he  might  soon  have  to  seek  an  asylum 
at  Munich,  and  that  he  was  sure  the  King  of  Bavaria  would  rather  receive  a  son- 
in-law  without  a  crown  than  one  without  honour. 


1808-1814.]  THE   FRANKFOBT   PROPOSITIONS.  389 

from  the  arbitrary  will  of  one  man,  were  a  cruel  lesson,  which  Aveakened 
the  remembrance  of  that  which  had  been  taught  by  the  misfortunes  of  the 
Revolution,  and  which,  without  rendering  France  republican,  rendered  it 
desirous  of  a  liberally  constituted  Government.  All  the  parties  which 
had  been  so  long  forgotten  now  reappeared,  and  the  Royalists,  the  partisans 
of  the  House  of  Bourbon,  reanimated  by  hope,  excited  by  the  priests,  and 
much  more  numerous  and  bold  at  this  period  than  the  Revolutionists, 
began  to  speak  aloud  and  to  be  listened  to."* 

The  functionaries  of  high  position,  finding  their  fortunes  threatened, 
ventured  to  display  a  certain  degree  of  independence  ;  whilst  the  courtiers 
and  old  generals,  including  even  Ney,  Marmont,  and  Macdonald,  openly 
spoke  of  peace  as  indispensable,  and  pressed  the  Emperor  to  conclude  it. 
A  final  opportunity  presented  itself  for  concluding  it  advantageously.  The 
Ministers  of  England,  Russia,  and  Austria — Lord  Aberdeen,  Nesselrode, 
and  Metternich — assembled  at  Frankfort,  proposed  in  concert 

Proposition  of 

to  Napoleon,  on  the  13th  November,  the  immediate  convoca-   the  Powers  at 

r         _  '  Frankfort. 

tion  at  Mannheim  of  a  congress,  for  the  purpose  of  nego- 
tiating  peace    on   the  basis  of  the  reestablishment   of  the  kingdom   of 
France   within   its   ancient   limits — the    Pyrenees,    the    Alps,    and    the 
Rhine — as  they  had  been  guaranteed   in   1801  by  the  glorious   peace 
of  Luneville. 

These  conditions  were  more  advantageous  than  Napoleon,  after  so  many 
disasters,  had  a  right  to  expect  at  the  hands  of  irritated  and  victorious 
Europe,  but  his  pride  would  not  consent  to  give  way  at  the  proper  time. 
He  gave  an  ambiguous  reply  to  the  propositions  of  the  foreign  Ministers, 
and  after  three  weeks'  delay,  when,  being  better  informed    .       , '  ', 

J  7  '  °  Accepted  by 

with  respect  to  the  distress  and  state  of  public  feeling  in  £np°ae°a  att6He 
France,  he  sent  in  his  assent  to  the  proposal  made  at  Frank-  1S  t0° late" 
fort,  it  was  too  late.  The  cry  of  the  neighbouring  populations  which  had 
been  so  long  oppressed  rose  against  him,  and  was  followed  by  violent 
measures.  Holland  arose  in  insurrection,  and  chose  the  head  of  the  House 
of  Orange  for  its  King ;  Murat  separated  his  fortunes  from  those  of 
Napoleon  ;  and  Count  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  the  Emperor's  most  formidable  and 
determined  personal  enemy,  had  enlightened  the  Sovereigns  and  their 
Ministers  with  respect  to  the  actual  state  of  affairs  and  public  feeling  in 

*  Thiers'  "History  of  the  Consulate  and  Empire,"  Vol.  xvii.  p.  39,  40. 


390  DISTRESS    THROUGHOUT   FRANCE.       [BoOE  III.  CHAP.  III. 

the  exhausted  empire,  and  had  promulgated  an  opinion  that  Europe  could 
have  no  repose  till  Napoleon  had  been  torn  from  his  throne.  At  the  same 
time  England,  perceiving  how  readily  Holland  had  freed  herself,  conceived 
the  hope  of  depriving  Napoleon  of  Antwerp  and  Belgium.  Thus  the  op- 
portunity of  signing  an  honourable  peace  at  Mannheim  was  lost,  as  it  had 
been  six  months  before  at  Prague,  before  the  disaster  at  Leipsic,  and  by 
the  same  causes — the  mad  obstinacy  of  an  indomitable  pride,  and  an 
ambitious  hope  of  regaining  at  once  and  by  a  single  blow  what  had  been 
lost  by  so  many  faults  and  reverses. 

Immense  resources  were  now  required  for  the  defence  of  France,  which 
Distress  of  was  exnauste(i  both  as  regarded  men  and  money.  The  de- 
France,  ficiency  in  the  finances  amounted  to  two  hundred  and  forty 
millions,  there  was  no  credit  to  be  obtained,  and  the  Treasury  notes, 
which  had  been  issued  in  large  numbers,  were  already  at  a  discount  of 
twenty  per  cent. ;  and  it  was  necessary  to  demand  many  hundred  millions, 
of  property  which  was  already  overburdened,  and  six  hundred  thousand 
soldiers,  of  a  population  which  had  been  mowed  down  on  so  many  fields 
New  demands  for  °^  battle.  ^n  ^ne  15th  November,  Napoleon  demanded  the 
men  and  money.  a^  0f  ^  genate  alone,  which,  was  as  servile  to  him  as  ever, 
and  granted  it  without  discussion.  The  Emperor  had  not  ventured  to 
submit  his  demands  to  the  Legislative  Body,  not  because  it  was  wanting  in 
docility,  but  because  Napoleon  perceived  that  in  the  existing  state  of 
public  feeling  the  members  of  an  elective  assembly  could  not  entirely 
ignore  it.  He  had  suspended  the  elections  for  the  retiring  series,*  and 
adjourned  the  meeting  of  the  assembly.  He  neglected  to  conciliate  it, 
and  behaved  so  arbitrarily  towards  it  as  even  to  impose  upon  it  a  presi- 
dent who  was  not  one  of  its  own  members,  in  contravention  of  all 
propriety  and  law.f  This  violent  and  untimely  measure  was  exceedingly 
obnoxious  to  the  legislators;  who  had  just  arrived  from  their  departments 
deeply  impressed  with  the  spectacle  of  the  public  misery,  the  exhausted 
state  of  the  country,  and  the  universal  discontent ;  and  when  Napoleon  per- 
ceived the  necessity  of  seeking  the  support  of  public  opinion,  he  reaped  the 
bitter  fruits  of  so  many  arbitrary  and  violent  acts.    Having  assembled  the 

*  The  Legislative  Body,  which  was  elected  for  five  years,  had  been  divided  into  five 
series,  of  which  one  was  renewed  each  year. 

+  Having  made  Count  Mole  Minister  of  Justice  in  the  place  of  Keynier,  Duke  of 
Massa,  he  appointed  the  latter  to  the  presidency  of  the  Legislative  Corps,  of  which  he 
was  not  a  member. 


1808-1814.]  MAECH   OP   THE   ALLIES.  391 

Senate  and  Legislative  Corps  on  the  19th  December,  he  explained  to  them 
the  necessities  and  perils  of  the  country,  and  desired  their   gllbmigsi  n  f 
assistance.     The  reply  of  the  Senate  was  moderate  and  sub-    the  Senate- 
missive ;  but  the  Legislative  Corps  resolved  to  make  the  Emperor  hear 
the  just  complaints  which  had  been  too  long  repressed,  and, 

Resistance  of 

on  the  report  of  M.  Lame,  an  advocate  of  Bordeaux,  an  up-   the  Legislative 

•  it      Body. 

right  and  eloquent  man,  it  voted,  m  answer  to  the  speech 
from  the  throne,  an  address  in  which  it  demanded,  in  respectful  but  firm 
and  distinct  terms,  the  abandonment  of  conquests  and  the  restoration  of  a 
legal  form  of  government. 

This   opposition,  which  was  moderate  though  unexpected,  was  deno- 
minated treason  by  the  Emperor,  and  provoked  his  wrath.     By  his  orders 
all  the  copies  of  the  address  were  seized ;   he  prorogued 
the  Legislative  assembly,  and    on   the  following  day,   the   anger  of  the 
1st  January,  received  a  deputation  from  that  body  with  a 
storm  of  reproaches.     From  this  time  parties  hostile  to  the  Emperor 
were  formed  throughout  the  empire,  and  Europe  understood  from  this 
imprudent  outbreak  on  the  part  of  Napoleon  that  France  no  longer  sup- 
ported him  as  one  man. 

The  whole  virile  population  of  the  State  was  summoned  to  arms  ; 
thirty  thousand  national  guards  of  Paris  were  mobilised  and  incorpo- 
rated with  the  active  army  ;  and  the  last  resources  of  the  nation  were 
called  into  requisition.  Napoleon  declared  Maria  Louisa  Maria  Louisa 
Regent,  confided  his  wife  and  child,  whom  he  was  destined  declared  Regent, 
to  see  no  more,  to  the  national  guard,  and  took  the  field,  after  having 
given  the  command  of  the  capital  to  his  brother  Joseph. 

The  English  and  Spaniards  advanced  on  the  south,  and  were  already 
at  the  Pyrenees;  whilst  the  two  great  armies  of  the  stTengthofthe 
coalition  invaded  the  eastern  frontiers.  One  of  the  latter,  aUied  armies- 
called  the  army  of  Bohemia,  consisting  of  sixty  thousand  men  under 
Schwartzenberg,  marched  upon  France  by  Switzerland  and  inundated  the 
Franche-Comte ;  whilst  sixty  thousand  Russians  and  Prussians,  forming 
under  Blucher  the  army  of  Silesia,  penetrated  into  Lorraine  and  Alsatia 
after  having  crossed  the  Rhine  at  three  points,  Mannheim,  Mayence, 
and  Coblentz.  The  northern  frontier  was  also  broken  into,  a  hundred 
thousand  Swiss  and  Germans  having  already  invaded  Belgium  under 
Bernadotte.     The  united  strength  of  these  three  invading  armies  on  the 


392  DEEEAT    OE    ELTJCHEE.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

north  and  the  east,  was  three  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men,  and 
within  a  few  months  they  were  raised  to  six  hundred  thousand  by  the 
addition  of  fresh  German  and  Russian  corps. 

The  plan  of  campaign  formed  by  Schwartzenberg  and  Blucher  was 
Campain-nof  ^°  "un^e  their  armies  between  Chaumont  and  Langres, 
France,  1814.  an(j  ^hen  to  advance  upon  Paris  from  the  angle  formed  by 
the  Seine  and  the  Marne.  It  was  in  the  space  comprised  between  these 
two  rivers  that  Napoleon  hoped  to  stop  and  vanquish  them.  He  confided 
to  General  Maison  the  defence  of  the  frontier  of  the  north,  and  that 
of  Lyons  to  Augereau,  and  whilst  Soult  and  Suchet  still  faced  the 
enemy  at  the  Pyrenees,  he  ordered  Marshals  Ney,  Victor,  Marmont, 
Macdonald,  and  Mortier  to  fall  back  with  the  feeble  remnants  of 
their  various  corps  to  the  environs  of  Chalons,  where  he  arrived  him- 
self on  the  25th  January.  With  all  his  efforts  he  could  only  gather 
together  fifty  thousand  men,  consisting  of  the  veteran  remains  of  his  old 
armies  and  inexperienced  conscripts,  with  which  to  meet  forces  three 
times  as  numerous.  When  fortune  seemed  already  to  have  abandoned 
him  he  showed  himself  superior  even  to  himself.  His  boldness  and  activity 
increased ;  and  to  meet  so  many  perils,  he  still  conceived  some  of  those 
brilliant  ideas  which  were  the  first  cause  of  his  glory,  as  of  his  faults  and 
misfortunes. 

Blucher  was  hastening  with  his  army  to  meet  that  of  Schwartzenberg, 
and  quitting  the  course  of  the  Marne  for  that  of  the  Aube,  had  advanced 
on  that  river  as  far  as  Brienne.  Napoleon  perceived  that  it  was  neces- 
sary at  any  price  to  prevent  the  junction  of  the  two  armies  by  occupying 
himself  the  line  of  the  Aube,  and  driving  back  Blucher  upon  the  Marne. 
With  thirty-two  thousand  men,  commanded  by  Marmont,  Ney,  Victor, 
and  Lefebvre-Desnouettes,  he  marched  rapidly  from  Chalons  to  Saint- 
Dizier ;  from  thence  he  pursued  Blucher  and  encountered  him  under  the 
Battle  of  walls  of  Brienne,*  where  he  gave  him  battle  and  gained  a 
Bnenne.  glorious  victory.  Blucher  was  dislodged  from  Brienne 
with  great  loss  and  driven  back  upon  the  Eothiere,  from  whence  he 
retreated  as  far  as  Tranne.  Informed  of  Blucher's  defeat  and  perilous 
position,  Schwartzenberg    turned   his   columns,    which   were   marching 

*  Blucher  had  already  passed  Brienne,  and  was  marching  upon  Arcis,  when,  upon 
being  informed  of  Napoleon's  march,  he  retraced  his  steps  for  the  purpose  of  stopping 
him  at  Brienne. 


1808-1814.]  EEESH  DISASTEBS.  393 

towards  Troyes,  to  the  right,  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  a  junction  with 
Blucher  opposite  the  plateau  of  the  Rothiere,  where  the  Emperor  had 
halted.  At  this  spot  there  took  place  on  the  1st  February,  1814,  a 
desperate  conflict  between  one  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  Austrians, 
Prussians,  Eussians,  and  Bavarians,  and  thirty-two  thousand  French 
only,  commanded  in  chief  by  Napoleon,  and  under  him  by  Oudinot, 
Marmont,  Victor,  and  Gerard.  The  battle  lasted  eight  hours  and  ended 
without  any  decided  result ;  the  enemy  being  unable  to  carry  the  posi- 
tions of  the  French,  but  retaining  their  own.  It  was  necessary  to  fall 
back  before  such  formidable  masses,  and  during  the  night  Napoleon 
effected  in  good  order  a  retreat  upon  Troyes. 

He  received  from  various  directions,  and  especially  from  Paris  and  the 
armies  in  Spain,  important  reinforcements,  which  raised  the  number  of 
troops  at  his  disposal  to  eighty  thousand  men ;  but  the  enemy  now  had 
three  hundred  and  twenty  thousand,  and  from  all   sides  came  news  of 
fresh  disasters.     Murat  declared  openly  against  Napoleon, 
and  was  marching  to  crush  Prince  Eugene ;   the  Spanish    against  Napo- 
Regency   of    Cadiz    refused   to   recognise    the    treaty    of 
Valencay,    as  Ferdinand   would   remain   in   captivity,   and  the  Anglo- 
Spanish  arms  retained  a  large  portion  of  the  French  troops  on  the  Adour 
and  Pyrenees.     Schwartzenberg  and  Blucher  continued  their  march,  and 
hostile  forces  already  made  their  appearance  at  a  few  leagues'  distance 
only  from  the  capital.     Paris  was  in  consternation,  and  Maria  Louisa, 
affrighted  in  the  midst  of  her  terrified  councillors,  had  prayers  continually 
offered  up  in  all  the  churches  during  forty  hours.     Napoleon  saw  around 
him  his  generals  beaten  continually,  and  the  populations  of  the  provinces 
a  prey  to  the  most  extreme  sufferings ;  he  foresaw  at  length  the  fate 
which  awaited  him  should  the  allies  gain  a  decisive  victory,  and  he 
already  suffered  the  cruel  strokes  of  the  avenging  goad  at  the  reflection 
of  the   evils  which  he  had  brought  upon  himself  and  upon  his  country. 
Nothing,  however,  could  crush  him.     He  opposed  an  indo- 
mitable energy  to  the  rigours  of  fortune,  and  the  anguish   sures  taken  by" 
of  his  heart  could  not  obscure  his  thoughts,  which  were 
as  ready  and  lucid  as  in  his  happiest  days.     He  made  his  preparations 
with  marvellous  activity ;  directed  his  brother  Joseph  to  fortify  Paris,  to 
defend  it  to  the  last  extremity,  and  to  place  in  safety,  if  necessary,  his 
wife,  his  son,  and  his  treasure,  behind  the  Loire;   ordered  Suchet  to 


394  NAPOLEON   DEFEATS   BLTTCHEB.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

withdraw  the  French  troops  from  Barcelona,  and  from  all  the  places 
which  they  still  occupied  in  Catalonia,  and  to  send  them  to  him  without 
delay ;  recalled  Eugene,  ordering  him  to  evacute  Italy  and  to  unite  his 
forces  with  those  which  Augereau  had  assembled  at  Lyons;  had  the 
Pope  conducted  back  to  Italy,*  and  set  at  liberty  Ferdinand  VII., 
after  having  obtained  his  promise  that  he  would  execute  the  treaty  of 
Valencay ;  sent  Caulaincourt,  Duke  of  Vicenza,  to  represent  France  and 
to  negotiate  peace  at  the  Congress  of  Chatillon ;  "f  and  at  the  same  time 
formed  an  admirable  plan  of  campaign  for  the  purpose  of  crushing  the 
two  great  hostile  armies.  He  believed  that  they  would  separate,  and 
that  he  would  be  able  to  beat  them  in  turn  and  drive  them  back  upon 
the  Rhine. 

These  armies  did  in  fact  separate — Blucher  taking  his  own  to  the  right 
and  marching  upon  Paris  by  the  Valley  of  the  Marne ;  whilst  Schwart- 
zenberg  followed  the  course  of  the  Seine.  Napoleon  followed  them  with 
his  eagle  glance,  and  seized  the  decisive  moment  for  victory.  Leaving  a 
portion  of  his  forces  in  the  basin  of  the  Seine,  in  the  environs  of  Nogent 
and  Montereau,  under  Victor,  Oudinot,  and  Gerard,  to  watch  and  hold  in 
check  Schwartzenberg,  he  threw  himself  with  thirty  thousand  men,  com- 
manded under  himself  by  Ney,  Marmont,  Mortier,  and  Lefebvre,  upon 
the  army  under  Blucher.  The  latter,  whilst  driving  back  Macdonald  as 
far  as  Meaux,  marched  at  an  equal  distance  from  the  Aube  and  the 
Marne,  and  followed  the  road  which  joins  Chalons  and  Ferte-sous- 
Jouarre,  passing  by  Champ- Aubert  and  Montmirail.  Four  days  sufficed 
Napoleon  to  overtake  and  vanquish  the  four  corps  of  this  army  one  after 
Napoleon  crushes  t]ie  otlier-  0n  tne  10tn  of  February  he  engaged  and  de- 
tTeefourreaonrpshof  stroye<l  the  Russian  corps  of  Olsouvieff  at  the  glorious 
siieslaTcom-  battle  of  Champ- Aubert ;  on  the  following  day  he  fought 
Blucher,  Feb-  General  Sacken,  at  Montmirail,  where  he  gained  a  brilliant 
victory,  slaying  and  taking  eight  thousand  of  the  enemy; 
and  then,  without  pausing,  he  marched  upon  Chateau-Thierry,  the  ap- 
proaches to  which  were  defended  by  General  Yorck  and  Prince  "William  of 

*  Napoleon  sent  back  the  Pope  to  Italy  that  he  might  be  a  powerful  obstacle  there 
to  the  pretensions  of  Murat. 

f  A  Congress  had  been  assembled  at  Chatillon  on  the  demand  of  England  and 
Austria,  for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  conditions  of  peace.  It  was  the  last  time 
that  the  allied  powers  would  consent  to  treat  with  Napoleon.  Their  demands  were 
not  known,  but  sinister  rumours  on  the  subject  were  abroad. 


1808-1814.]  NAPOLEOK   DEFEATS    SCHWARTZENBEEG.  395 

Prussia  with  twenty  thousand  men.  Napoleon  defeated  them,  slew  a 
great  number  of  them,  made  five  thousand  prisoners,  and  entered  the 
town,  victorious,  in  pursuit  of  the  enemy,  whose  retreat  was  covered  by 
the  Marne.  Three  of  Blucher's  generals  had  thus  been  put  to  flight,  with 
an  immense  loss  in  men,  horses,  and  artillery.  It  remained  to  vanquish 
Blucher  himself,  who  was  now  advancing  with  the  rest  of  his  army  by 
the  Montmirail  road.  Napoleon,  indefatigable,  retraced  his  steps,  en- 
countered Blucher  at  Vauchamps,  and  there,  on  the  14th  of  February, 
fought  with  him  a  desperate  battle,  vanquished  him,  took  or  slew  twelve 
thousand  of  his  troops,  and  drove  him  at  the  sword's  point  beyond  Etoges, 
six  leagues  from  Chalons. 

The  army  of  Silesia  was  thus  completely  disorganized  and  half  de- 
stroyed, having  lost  thirty  thousand  men  and  a  great  portion  of  its 
artillery.  Napoleon  thus  victorious,  resolved  to  advance  without  delay 
from  the  Marne  to  the  Seine,  the  passage  of  which  had  been  forced  at 
Bray  by  the  Grand  Army  of  Bohemia,  under  Schwartzenberg,  who 
already  occupied  its  two  banks  from  Nogent  to  Fontainebleau.  It  marched 
divided  into  several  corps,  of  which  two  held  the  right  bank  of  the  river, 
the  one,  under  Wittgenstein,  at  Provins,  the  other,  under  De  Wrede,  at 
Nangis.  The  other  corps  of  Schwartzenberg's  army  occupied  Montereau, 
Bray,  and  Nogent.  Napoleon,  with  his  victorious  army,  now  increased 
by  Macdonald's  corps  and  numerous  reinforcoments,  arrived  on  the  15th 
of  February  at  Guignes.  On  the  17th  it  assumed  the  offensive,  attacked 
the  enemy,  and  put  him  to  flight  with  considerable  loss  at 
the  battles  of  Mormont,  Nangis,  and  Villenenve.     It  then   He  repeatedly 

'  o     7  overcomes  tne 

marched  rapidly  upon  Montereau,  where  the  hill  which  Set°lch£S 
commands  the  Seine  was  occupied  by  a  numerous  corps  JebrXry,  1814. 
under  the  Prince  of  Wurtemberg.  There  then  took  place, 
on  the  18th,  a  furious  conflict ;  the  hill  was  several  times  taken  and  re- 
taken, under  a  terrible  fire ;  at  length  Generals  Gerard  and  Pajol  suc- 
ceeded in  carrying  it ;  the  Wurtembergians  were  precipitated  from  the 
plateau  into  the  river,  which  they  repassed  after  having  lost  seven  thou- 
sand men  in  killed,  wounded,  or  prisoners.  Napoleon  then  threw  his 
cavalry  beyond  the  bridge  of  Montereau,  in  search  of  the  Austrian  corps 
under  Colloredo,  which  it  was  on  the  point  of  capturing,  but  which  was 
protected  in  its  retreat  by  the  Yonne.  The  Grand  Army  of  Bohemia 
was  thus  in  its  turn  completely  beaten.  Schwartzenberg  ordered  a  retreat 


396  schwaetzenbeeg's  plans.      [Book  III.  Chap.  III. 

upon  Troyes,  which  he  only  passed  through,  and  which  Napoleon  re- 
entered as  a  victor  on  the  24th  of  February.  In  fifteen  days  he  had 
vanquished  two  great  armies,  killed  or  wounded  twenty  thousand  of 
the  enemy,  taken  five-and-twenty  thousand  prisoners,  an  immense  num- 
ber of  cannon,  and  a  multitude  of  flags. 

The  representatives  of  the  powers  at  the  Congress  of  Chatillon  had  by 
this  time  drawn  up  definitive  conditions,  which  might  serve 

Proposals  of  the 

Congress  of  as  the  basis  of  a  treaty  of  peace,  and  the  Duke  of  Vicenza 

Chatillon.  m  J  r  ' 

immediately  transmitted  them  to  the  Emperor.     According 
to  these  France  was  to  re-enter  the  boundaries  within  which  she  had 
been  confined  in  1790,  and  should  take  no  part  in  the  arrangement  of 
the  other  states  of  Europe.     This  was  to  deprive  her  of  the  Ehine  and 
Alp   boundary   lines,   which  had  been  left  her  by  Jhe    Frankfort  pro- 
positions, and  of  her  rank  as  an  European  power.     Napoleon  received 
these    offensive  propositions   at   Montereau  in  the  exultant  moment  of 
Napoleon  re-      victory,  and,  rejecting  them  with  anger  and  contempt,  re- 
jec  s    em.         plied  that  he  would  be  signing  his  own  disgrace  should  he 
sign  a  treaty  which  would  leave  France  less  great  than  she  was  when  he 
received  her.    It  is  possible  that  he  might  have  obtained  better  conditions 
if  his  recent  victories  had  not  deceived  him  with  respect  to  his  real  con- 
dition.   He  was  determined  to  have  the  Ehine  boundary,  which  had  been 
offered  at  Frankfort,  and  demanded  that  which  his  enemies  had  already 
resolved  not  to  grant  him. 

It  was  in  vain  that  he  mowed  down  his  enemies  by  thousands,  for 
Europe,  thoroughly  aroused  and  enraged,  vomited  forth  against  him  ever 
fresh  and  inexhaustible  floods  of  battalions,  whilst  he  was  being  exhausted 
by  his  very  victories.  The  grim  problem  which  now  had  to  be  resolved 
could  only  have  two  solutions;  either  the  Emperor's  sword  must  be 
broken  in  his  hands,  or  he  must,  by  winning  some  great  battle,  be 
enabled  to  drive  back  the  armies  of  the  coalition  upon  the  Ehine.     It 

Schwartzen-  was  suc^  a  ^att^e  tnat  ne  ardently  desired  to  fight,  and 
berg's  plan.  whicn  Schwartzenberg  offered  him.  This  prudent  general 
preferred  the  postponement  of  success  to  the  incurring  of  any  risk  with 
so  terrible  an  enemy.  He  retreated  beyond  Troyes  towards  Chaumont 
and  Langres,  in  order  to  give  time  to  the  armies  of  Bohemia  and  Silesia 
to  fill  up  the  vacancies  in  their  ranks  and  to  double  their  strength,  and 


1808-1814.]  TREATY    BETWEEN    THE   ALLIES.  397 

resolved  when  this  should  have  been  accomplished  to  fall  upon  the  com- 
mon enemy  in  concert  with  these  armies,  and  stifle  him  in  one  final  and 
invincible  grasp. 

Such  was  the  position  of  the  belligerent  parties,  when,  on  the  proposi- 
tion of  Lord  Castlereagh,  the  allied  powers  signed  at  Chau- 

T-i  i         c  Treaty  signed  at 

mont  a  new  treaty  of  alliance,  by  which  each  of  them  en-    Chaumont  by  the 

.  allied  powers. 

gaged  to  furnish  a  contingent  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand men  until  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  independently  of  the  troops  to 
be  furnished  by  the  minor  powers,  which  would  raise  the  general  force 
of  the  coalition  to  eight  hundred  thousand  men.  England  engaged  to 
furnish  her  contingent  in  the  shape  of  troops  in  her  pay,  and,  moreover, 
offered  an  annual  subsidy  of  six  millions  sterling,  to  be  divided  between 
Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria.  She  desired,  in  fact,  by  the  greatness  of 
her  sacrifices  and  her  efforts,  to  secure  to  herself  the  preponderance  in 
the  arrangement  of  the  terms  of  peace,  and  to  ensure  the  fulfilment  of 
her  favourite  idea  of  the  establishment  of  an  important  kingdom 
on  the  northern  frontier  of  France  by  the  union  of  Holland  and 
Belgium. 

The  powers  mutually  agreed,  moreover,  that  they  would  severally 
keep  up,  during  twenty  years  after  the  signature  of  peace,  an  army  of 
sixty  thousand  men,  to  be  at  the  disposal  of  that  of  them  whom  France 
should  attack.  This  treaty,  so  fatal  to  France,  served  as  the  basis  of  the 
famous  treaty  subsequently  known  by  the  name  of  the  Holy  Alliance. 
With  reference  to  the  proposals  made  at  the  Congress  of  Chatillon,  a  term 
was  fixed  after  which,  it  was  declared,  the  negotiations  with  Napoleon 
would  be  broken  off  and  never  renewed.  The  latter,  whilst  rejecting  the 
proposals  of  the  Congress  with  anger,  nevertheless  endeavoured  to  deceive 
the  enemy  as  to  his  real  intentions,  and  to  gain  time  by  ordering  Cau- 
laincourt  to  continue  the  negotiations,  whilst  he  himself  proceeded  once 
more  to  try  the  fortune  of  war. 

Blucher,  half  destroyed,  but  rivalling  the    Emperor  in  energy  and 
activity,  had  already  almost  repaired  his  disasters.     He  had  approached 
Schwartzenberg  and  occupied  the  right  bank  of  the  Seine  at  Mery,  when 
he  learned  that  two  numerous  corps,  numbering  together 
fifty  thousand  men,  under  Bulow  and  Witzingerood,  had   ^rBuiow and" 
been  detached  from  Bernadotte's  army  to  reinforce  his  own,    Wltzmgerood- 


398  JUNCTION"    OE    THE    ALLIES.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

and  that  these  troops  would  arrive  by  way  of  Soissons  and  Eeims.     To 

join  them  the  more  promptly  Blucher  again  left  the  army 

marches  towards    0f  Bohemia,  and  marched  rapidly  from  the  Seine  to  the 

Soissons  to  join  '  r       J 

them.  Marne,  which  he  crossed,  when  he  was  stopped  by  Marshals 

Marmont  and  Mortier,  who  were  strongly  entrenched  behind  the  Ourcq 
canal.  Napoleon  perceived  with  delight  that  Blucher  had  again  isolated 
himself,  for  he  hoped  to  destroy  him  before  he  could  effect  a  junction 
with  the  corps  of  Witzingerood  and  Bulow,  and  leaving  before  Troyes, 
for  the  purpose  of  masking  his  movements,  half  his  army,  under  the 
^T     ,  command  of  Macdonald,  Oudinot,  and  Gerard,  he  hastened 

Napoleon  pur-  '  '  ' 

rounds^  S"r"  with  thirty-five  thousand  men,  commanded  by  Ney,  Victor, 
Blucher.  an(j  Dronot;  in  pursuit  of  a  sure  prey.     He  crossed  the 

Marne  in  his  turn,  and  Blucher  found  himself  enclosed  in  a  perilous 
position,  between  the  Aisne  and  the  Marne,  having  on  one  side  the  corps 
of  Mortier  and  Marmont,  and  on  the  other  Napoleon  with  the  bulk  of  his 
army. 

The  bridge  of  Soissons  over  the  Aisne  was  the  only  outlet  by  which 
Blucher  could  escape,  and  that  city,  which  was  carefully  provisioned, 
was  also  the  only  point  at  which  a  junction  could  be  effected  between 
Blucher's  army  and  that  of  Witzingerood  and  Bulow,  who  marched  to 
and  invested  it.  Napoleon  believed  himself  certain  of  victory,  when 
suddenly  a  calamity  as  unexpected  as  fatal  overthrew  all  his  hopes. 
.  Soissons  capitulated,   and  opened  its  gates  to  the  enemy.. 

juncS  of  the  Blucher  escaped,  effected  a  junction  with  Witzingerood  and 
hostile  armies.  Bulow,  and  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  thou- 
sand men  in  safety  behind  the  Aisne,  which  had  been  an  obstacle  in  his 
path,  and  was  now  his  protection.  Napoleon,  in  spite  of  this  cruel 
reverse,  did  not  yet  renounce  all  hopes  of  victory.  He  followed  Blucher 
on  the  right  bank,  entered  Soissons,  and  attacked  the  enemy,  who  was 
strongly  entrenched  on  the  plateau  of  Craonne,  which  extends  ever  a 
space    of  several    leagues    between    Soissons    and   Laon, 

Craonne.  an(j  wnicn  Blucher  defended  with  all  his  army.  The 
French  army  was  but  half  as  numerous  as  that  of  the  enemy,  but 
Napoleon  nevertheless  ordered  the  attack,  and  after  the  most  heroic 
efforts  and  a  frightful  carnage,  he  gained  possession  of  the  heights  of 
Craonne,  compelled  Bulcher  to  retreat,  and  hotly  pursued  him.     But  a 


1808-1814.]  BATTLE   OF  AECIS-STJB-AUBE.  399 

more  formidable  obstacle  now  presented  itself.     Blucher,  after  having 
rallied  his  various  corps,  occupied  the   country  round  Laon,  and  that 
city  itself,  which  is  situated  on  a  rock  from  whence  the  eye  commands 
a  vast  plain.     This  was  a  formidable  position,  and  one  which  it  was 
necessary  that  the  French  should  carry  for  the  purpose  of  B.,j    f  L 
closing  against  the  enemy  the  road  to  Paris ;  and  then  there   March> 1814- 
took  place  during  two  days  a  fresh  battle  more  bloody  even  than  the 
preceding.     But  it  was  in  vain  that  Ney,  Drouot,  Charpentier,  Mortier, 
and  Friand  rivalled  each  other  in  courage ;  in  vain  that  the  heroic  guard, 
formed  for  the  most  part  of  young  recruits,  seized  the  faubourgs,  and 
made  five  desperate  assaults  on  the  place  under  the  most  terrific  fire.     An 
unfortunate  manoeuvre  of  Marmont's  deprived  the  French  of  all  chance  of 
success ;  it  was  necessary  to  yield  to  numbers ;  and  Blucher  retained  his 
position.     JNapoleon  now  ordered  a  retreat,  and  the  man  who  aspired  to 
renew  the  old  Carlovingian  empire  thus  saw  his  fortunes  perish  beneath 
the  walls  of  the  ancient  city  where  had  expired  that  of  the  last  descendant 
of  Charlemagne.     This  forced  retreat,  after  two  murderous  battles,  de- 
cided the  fate  of  the  campaign,  in  which  Napoleon,  with  only  seventy 
thousand  men,  had  so    long  made  head  against  and  vanquished  three 
hundred  thousand.     He  had  not  been  able  to  destroy  Blucher  at  Craonne 
and  Laon,   and  now  Schwartzenberg  was  approaching.     The  Emperor 
saw  that  he  was  powerless  either  to  prevent  the  junction  of  the  enemy's 
immense   armies,   or    to   prevent    their   combined    march  upon   Paris, 
and   that  he    was    in    danger  of  being  stifled    in   the   gigantic    arms 
of  the    coalition.     His    genius    then  conceived    a    fresh  combination,, 
and  for   the  purpose  of  carrying   it   out,   he  ordered  his   generals  to 
make  for  the  town  of  Arcis,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Aube,  where  he 
arrived  the  first,  and  where  he  suddenly  encountered  the  whole  army  of 
Bohemia  on  its  march  to  join  that  of  Silesia.     He  had  only  a  portion  of 
his  forces  at  hand,  but  did  not  hesitate  with  twenty  thou- 

n  ,  .  T        ,  .      Battle  of  Arcis- 

sand  men  to  engage  the  enemy  s  ninety  thousand.     In  this   sur-Aube, 

°  J  J  ^       March,  1814. 

extreme  peril  he  displayed  indomitable  resolution ;  held  in 
check  the  enemy's  immense  army  by  the  marvellous  exploits  of  his  guard 
and  his  generals,  slew  nine  thousand  of  them,  losing  three  thousand  him- 
self, and  established  the  fact  of  his  victory  by  retaining  his  position  till 
the  night.     But  these  were  useless  laurels,  and  all  these  prodigies  of 


400  THE    ENGLISH    IN   BOEDEAUX.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

valour  had  not  rendered  Napoleon's  position  less  perilous  between  the 

great  coalition  armies,  which  were  speedily  united.     Napoleon  withdrew 

with  his  thirty  thousand  men  by  a  secret  and  rapid  march 

New  plan  of  r  *  1 

Napoleon.  ^o  Saint-Dizier,  and  proceeded  to   carry  out  a  new  plan 

Kapid  march  on  x  j  y 

Saint-Dizier.  which  he  had  conceived,  and  which  was,  to  gather  to  his 
own  army  the  garrisons  which  occupied  many  places  in  Alsatia  and  Lor- 
raine ;  to  cut  off  the  communication  of  Blucher  and  Schwartzenberg  with 
Germany  and  the  Rhine,  from  whence  they  received  their  supplies  and 
reinforcements ;  to  entice  them  in  pursuit  of  himself,  or  to  allow  them  to 
march  upon  Paris ;  and,  whilst  they  should  be  seated  before  the  capital,  to 
return  against  them  with  a  hundred  thousand  men  and  annihilate  them. 

But  Napoleon  deceived  himself.  Led  away  by  flatterers,  the  corrupting 
influence  of  absolute  power,  and  the  complete  silence  of  the  press,  he  did 
not  know  to  what  a  degree  Paris  and  France  were  weary  of  despotism, 
and  how  little  probability  there  was  that  the  Parisians  would  make  an 
energetic  resistance  for  the  purpose  of  defending  a  detested  government. 
He  had,  besides,  allowed  the  fatal  period  to  expire  without  replying  to 
the  proposals  of  the  Congress  of  Chatillon ;  the  Congress  was  now  dis- 
solved, and  the  allied  Sovereigns  had  loudly  declared  that  they  would 
treat  no  more  with  Napoleon.  They  were  not  at  war  with  France,  they 
said,  but  only  with  Napoleon,  whom  they  regarded  as  an  insuperable 
obstacle  to  the  re-establishment  of  peace  in  Europe.  They  had  already 
been  invited   to   Paris  by  many   persons   of   distinction,* 

Secret  negotia- 
tions of  Talley-      and  especially  by  the  former  Bishop  of  Autun,  Talleyrand 
rand  with  the  . 

allied  Sove-  Prince  of  Benevento,  and  a  dignitary  of  the  empire,  and  it 

was  to  Paris  that  they  resolved  to  march  without  delay  for 
the  purpose  of  dethroning  the  Emperor. 

France  was  equally  invaded  on  the  south,  and  the  Anglo-Spanish 
army,    consisting    of    eighty   thousand   men,    had   already    crossed   the 

The  battle  of    Pyrenees>  "under  Wellington.     Soult,  at  the  head  of  a  very 

Orthez.  inferior  force,  gave  them  battle  at  Orthez,  and  the  result  was 

doubtful ;  but  Soult,  nevertheless,  was  compelled  to  order  a  retreat,  and 

to  fall  back  upon  Toulouse,  leaving  Bordeaux  uncovered.     The  latter 

city  opened  its  gates  to  the  English,  and  on  the  12th  March 

eiaresforthe      declared    for   the    Bourbons    with   the   most    enthusiastic 

Bourbons. 

manifestations. 
*  They  were  transmitted  through  the  Baron  de  Vitrolles. 


1808-1814.]  THE    ALLIES   BEEOEE    PAEIS.  401 

Consternation  reigned  in  Paris,  which  now  had  only  between  itself  and 
the  two  great  armies  of  the  coalition  the  feeble  corps  of  Marmont  and 
Mortier,  consisting  of  no  more  than  fifteen  thousand  men  altogether,  and 
which  had  fallen  back  upon  Paris,  after  having  sustained  a  sanguinary 
defeat  at  the  unfortunate  battle  of  Fere  Champenoise.  No  obstacle  now 
hindered  the  march  of  the  allies,  and  on  the  29th  March 

.  ,  ,  ,  .  .  The  allied  armies 

their  immense    columns  deployed,  and   took   up    positions    encamp  around 

Paris. 

around  the  great  capital,  in  which  they  hoped  to  avenge  the 
humiliations  and  defeats  of  twenty  years. 

No  preparations  had  been  made  for  the  defence  of  the  city ;  no  works 
protected  its  approaches.  The  regular  troops  under  Marmont  and  Mortierr 
including  the  depots  of  the  various  corps,  did  not  exceed  in  number 
twenty-two  thousand.  The  National  G-uard,  which  the  suspicious  policy 
of  the  Emperor  had  reduced  to  twelve  thousand  men,  possessed  only 
three  thousand  muskets,  and  the  people  of  the  faubourgs  were  completely 
without  arms.  Consternation  reigned  in  the  immense  city,  and  the 
Government  itself  was  in  a  state  of  profound  stupor.  The  Council  of 
Regency  assembled  under  the  presidency  of  Maria-Louisa,  and  there  King 
Joseph  read  the  secret  orders  of  the  Emperor,  which  directed  the  Empress, 
in  case  of  extreme  peril,  to  retire  with  her  son  behind  the 

Ketreat  of  the 

Loire.     Maria-Louisa  obeyed,  and  set  out  for  Blois,  carry-    Regent,  Maria- 
Louisa,  to  Blcis. 
ing  with  her  the  King  of  Rome,  then  three  years  old,  who 

asked  where  he  was  being  taken  to,  and  who,  in  giving  way  on  this  occa- 
sion to  his  infantine  grief,  seemed  to  foretell  the  sad  destiny  which 
awaited  him. 

The  flight  of  Maria-Louisa  completely  paralysed  the  defence.  Paris 
was  already  invested  on  every  side,  and  on  the  following 
day,  the  30th  March,  the  attack  commenced.  The  army  of  Paris,  March  30, 
the  allies  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  seventy  thousand 
men,  to  which  Paris  could  only  oppose  twenty-five  thousand,  under  Mar- 
shals Marmont  and  Mortier,  who,  strangely  and  fatally,  engaged  the  enemy 
outside  the  walls  in  a  most  disadvantageous  position,  if  we  consider  the  dis- 
parity in  point  of  numbers.  The  attack  was  made  at  two  principal  points 
— on  the  one  side,  in  front  of  La  Villette,  La  Chapelle,  and  Montmartrer 
and  on  the  other,  between  Yincennes,  Charonne,  and  the  heights  of  Belle- 
ville. It  was  in  the  centre  of  these  positions  that  the  contest  was  the  most 
desperate  and  sanguinary. 

VOL.  II.  D  D 


402  AREIVAL    OP    NAPOLEOK.  [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

A  few  battalions  of  the  National  Guard  of  Paris,  under  Marshal  Moncey, 
and  the  valiant  Polytechnic  school,  vied  in  courage  with  the  regular 
troops,  and  several  times  repulsed  the  enemy's  columns  ;  but  what  could 
a  few  thousands  of  men  do  against  two  hundred  thousand,  before  a  place 
which  was  on  every  side  open  ?  The  enemy  suffered  enormous  loss,  but 
continued  to  advance,  and  the  French  battalions  had  to  fall  back,  till 
Joseph,  considering  that  a  longer  defence  would  be  impossible,  and  fearing 
to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  allies,  authorized  Marmont  to  capitulate,  and 
set  out  for  Blois,  with  all  the  Ministers  of  the  Imperial  Government.  The 
l,  ••   '  x.      „      battle  lasted  till  the  evening,  when  at  length,  to  stop  the 

Capitulation  of  ° 7  °      '  x 

Paris,  which  is      effusion  of  blood  and  to  spare  the  capital  the  horrors  of 

evacuated  by  the  r  * 

French  army.  capture  by  assault,  the  Marshals  capitulated,  having  ob- 
tained a  free  retreat  for  their  troops,  and  quitted  Paris  during  the 
night. 

Napoleon  now  hurried  up,  in  advance  of  his  troops,  and  on  this  fatal 
,    .   ,  i       night  of  the  30th  he  arrived  at  Fromenteau,  near  Essone, 

Arrival  of  &  7 

Napoleon.  -where  he  met  the  advanced  guard  of  the  army  which  had 
defended  the  capital,  and  which  had  retreated  upon  Fontainebleau,  and 
where  also  he  was,  as  it  were,  thunderstruck  at  hearing  simultaneously  of 
the  flight  of  his  Empress  and  Government  to  the  Loire,  of  the  sanguinary 
battle  which  had  taken  place  on  the  previous  evening,  the  capitulation  of 
Paris,  and  the  retreat  of  the  army.  He  did  not,  however,  even  yet 
despair  of  escaping  from  all  his  perils,  for  his  sword  and  his  genius 
remained  to  him.  He  formed  a  new  plan.  The  heroic  army  which  he 
had  preceded  would  have  rejoined  him  in  three  days,  and  he  would  then 
have  seventy  thousand  soldiers  at  his  command,  with  whom  he  might 
attack  the  coalition  troops  dispersed  around  Paris  and  in  its  neighbour- 
hood. The  Parisians,  he  thought,  would  arise  at  his  summons,  and  he 
might  not  only  annihilate  his  enemies,  but  recover  by  one  blow  all  that 
he  had  lost  during  the  campaign.  He  made  his  arrangements  accordingly, 
and  whilst,  to  gain  time,  he  ordered  Caulaincourt  to  enter  upon  negotia- 
tions with  the  allied  Sovereigns,  he  posted  on  the  Essone 
5mseif  at  Fon-  ^e  corPs  which  had  evacuated  Paris  under  the  orders  of 
statSnshisSmy  Marmont,  Duke  of  Ragusa,  and  then  proceeded  to  Fon- 
Essone*  e  tainebleau,  which  he  made  his  head- quarters,  and  where  he 

awaited  his  army. 


1808-1814.]  THE   ALLIES   IN   PARIS.  403 

Paris  now  received  within  its  walls  the  Allied  Sovereigns,  at  the  head  of 
their  armies.*  Alexander  behaved  as  a  generous  victor ; 
satisfied  with  his  triumph  he  endeavoured  to  please  the  position  of 
French  and  acquire  their  esteem.  Peace  was  his  object,  he 
said,  and  he  had  come  to  obtain  it  in  Paris  by  overthrowing  the  man  with 
whom  any  durable  peace  was  impossible.  He  desired  that  France  should 
be  powerful  and  free  within  her  ancient  limits,  and  that  she  should  herself 
choose  her  new  form  of  government.  He  promised  to  ratify  her  choice, 
and  that  it  should  be  ratified  by  his  allies,  who  were  much  less  well  dis- 
posed towards  France,  but  who  were  not  powerful  enough  to  oppose  him. 
As  a  pledge  of  his  favourable  disposition  towards  France,  Alexander, 
when  he  received,  at  the  Chateau  of  Bondy,  the  Municipal  Council  of 
Paris,  acceded  to  the  wish  it  expressed  that  it  might  continue  to  superin- 
tend the  city  police,  and  that  the  inhabitants  might  be  released  from  the 
burden  of  lodging  the  allied  troops.  The  day  following  the  capitulation  of 
Paris,  the  31st  March,  he  entered  the  capital,  together  with  f 

the  King  of  Prussia,  at  the  head  of  the  allied  armies.     He   ^P^TSS 
appeared  to  listen  with  favour  to  some  noisy  demonstrations   31» 1814" 
in  favour  of  the  House  of  Bourbon,  and  alighted  at  the  hotel  of  Prince 
Talleyrand,  the   most   active  as  well  as  the  most  powerful  of  all  who 
endeavoured  to  restore  the  crown  to  that  ancient  dynasty. 

A  single  constituted  body,  the  Senate,  alone  seemed  at  this  time,  in 
spite  of  the  discredit  into  which  it  had  fallen,  to  express  a  will  in  the 
name  of  the  nation ;  but  the  Senate,  habituated  to  tremble  in  the  presence 
of  an  absolute  master,  did  not  consider  that  he  was  yet  sufficiently  low  to 
be  safely  abandoned.  Alexander  perceived  that  it  was  necessary  to 
dissipate  any  idea  that  Napoleon's  fortunes  would  revive,  and  with  this 
intention  he  published,  in  the  name  of  the  Allied  Sovereigns,  a  celebrated 
declaration  that  they  would  never  negotiate  with  Napoleon  Bonaparte  or 
with  any  member  of  his  family,  that  those  Sovereigns  would  recognise  and 
guarantee  the  constitution  which  France  should  choose  for  herself,  and 
that  the  Senate  was  invited  to  form  a  provisional  government  to  provide 
for  the  government   of  the  country  and  to  prepare  the  new  constitution. 

*  These  sovereigns  were  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  Alexander,  and  the  King  of  Prussia, 
Frederick  William.  The  position  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria  iu  his  son-in-law's  capital 
would  have  heen  too  difficult ;  he  had  halted,  therefore,  at  Dijon. 

D   D   2 


404  PROVISIONAL    GOVERNMENT.        [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

The  Senate  ventured,  upon  this,  to  respond  to  the  invitation  which  had 
Nomination  of  thus  been  made  to  it.  It  appointed  a  provisional  govern- 
go^emmentby  ment  of  five  members,  who  were — the  Prince  de  Talley- 
rand, the  Duke  de  Dalberg,  General  Beurnonville,  the 
Abbe  de  Montesquiou,  and  M.  de  Jancourt.  The  new  govern- 
ment immediately  formed  a  ministry  by  appointing,  with  the  title  of 
Commissaries  General,  for  the  finances,  Baron  Louis,  a  man  of  vigorous 
mind,  more  fit  than  any  one  to  establish  public  credit;  for  war, 
General  Dupont,  an  excellent  officer,  who  was  unfortunately  celebrated  in 
connexion  with  the  capitulation  of  Baylen  ;  for  the  interior,  M.  Beugnot, 
an  old  imperial  official ;  for  foreign  affairs,  a  distinguished  diplomatist, 
M.  de  la  Forest ;  for  justice,  M.  Henrion  de  Pansey,  an  upright  magis- 
trate ;  and,  as  minister  for  naval  affairs,  one  of  the  wisest  and  most  en- 
lightened members  of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  M.  Malouet.  An  old 
staff-officer,  General  Dessolles,  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  the 
National  Guard  of  Paris. 

On  the  following  day,  the  2nd  April,  the  Senate  proceeded  to  declare 
The  Senate  Napoleon's  dethronement.      It  had  been  the  servile  accom- 

dethrOTement^f   plice  of  all  the   arbitrary  and  violent  acts  which  it  now 
apo  eon.  attributed  as  crimes  to  the  man  whose  fall  it  decreed ;  and 

the  better  to  make  this  fact  forgotten  it  appeared  to  forget  it  itself.  Napo- 
leon, it  said,  had  oppressed  private  and  public  liberty,  had  arbitrarily 
imprisoned  citizens,  suppressed  the  public  press,  levied  men  and  taxes  in 
a  manner  contrary  to  the  law,  spilt  the  blood  of  France  in  foolish  and 
useless  wars,  covered  Europe  with  dead  bodies,  and  violated  all  the  laws 
by  virtue  of  which  he  had  been  called  to  the  throne.  For  these  reasons 
the  Senate  declared  Napoleon  deprived  of  the  throne,  and  released  all 
French  subjects  from  their  oaths  of  fidelity  to  him  and  his  family. 

Napoleon,  however,  still  had  powerful  resources  at  his  command — the 
army  under  Auger eau  at  Lyons,  the  armies  of  Soult  and  Suchet  in  the 
south,  that  of  Eugene  in  Italy,  and  seventy  thousand  men,  under  his  own 
direct  command  at  Fontainebleau.  On  learning  that  Paris  was  in  the 
power  of  the  coalition,  and  that  his  dethronement  had  been  decreed  by 
the  body  whose  adulation  towards  him  had  hitherto  been  unbounded,  his 
genius  became  stimulated  by  despair  and  gloomy  rage.  He  felt  sufficiently 
strong  to  recover  his  sceptre  by  some  wondrous  victory,  or  to  bury  his 
enemies  with  himself  beneath  the  ruins  of  Paris  ;  and  he  determined  upon 


1808-1814.]  DEFECTION    OF   THE    GENERALS.  405 

one  of  those  supreme  actions  which  send  thunderous  echoes  through  the 
ages.  But  an  obstacle  which  he  had  not  foreseen  completed  the  destruction 
of  his  fortunes,  and  struck  from  his  hand  his  hitherto  invincible  sword. 

In  the  midst  of  his  reverses,  as  in  the  midst  of  his  triumphs,  Napoleon 
was  loved  and  worshipped  by  his  soldiers.     The  latter  im-    Spiritofthe 
puted  all  his  misfortunes  to  treason,  and  could  not  under-    filers "at  Fon- 
stand  that  it  was  possible  he  could  be  vanquished  at  their     ame  eau' 
head.     When  the  Emperor  reviewed  the  various  corps  as  they  arrived 
at  Fontainebleau,    the    private    soldiers   and   non-commissioned    officers 
saluted  him  with  enthusiastic  acclamations,  waving  their  weapons,  and 
demanding  to  be  led  on  to  Paris.     Their  enthusiasm,  however,  was  not 
shared  by  the  superior  officers,  who,  having  grown  old  in  the  midst  of  in- 
numerable battles,  satiated  with  glory  and  honours,  and  weary  of  follow- 
ing during  so  many  years  across  the  whole  of  Europe,  from  the  Tagus  to 
the  Baltic,  from  the  Nile    to  Moscow,  an  imperious  master   whose  in- 
satiable ambition  had  ever  rendered  it  impossible  to  enjoy  the  rewards  he 
had  showered  upon  them,  now  saw  all  that  they  had  won  slipping  from 
their  grasp.     They  feared  to  risk  the  remnant   of  their   fortunes  by  a 
useless  and  desperate  resistance ;  and  feared   even  to   obtain  a  victory, 
which  could  but  be  the  prelude  of  a  fresh  series  of  adventures,  and  which 
could  but  be  obtained  at  the  risk  of  seeing  their  houses,  their  families, 
and  their  dearest  interests  buried  beneath  the  ruins  of  the  capital  in 
flames.      Summoned  to  a  council  of  war  by  the  Emperor,  at  the  moment 
when  the  whole    of  the   army  had   been  assembled    and  was   ready  to 
march,  they  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  to  Napoleon,  that  if  he  persisted 
in  his  desperate  enterprise  he  must  not  reckon  upon  their 
assistance.     He  understood  them,  and  could  no  longer  in-   refuse  the  Em- 
dulge  in  any  illusion.     Finding  himself  alone,   surrounded   in  marching  on 

.  Paris. 

by  Europe  m  arms,  and  on  the  point  of  being  abandoned 
by  the  illustrious  companions  with  whom  he  had  so  often  been  victorious, 
his  resolution  gave  way.     He  offered  to  abdicate  in  favour  of  his  son,  who 
would  reign  under  the  regency  of  his  mother,  and  sent  Caulaincourt, 
Ney,  Macdonald,  and  Marmont*  to  Paris,  to  negotiate  on  this  new  basis.f 

*  "His  real  object,"  says  M.  Thiers,  "was  to  gain  two  or  three  days,  and  then  to 
break  off  these  negotiations  with  the  sword." 

+  The  former  was  then  at  Essone,  but  Napoleon  authorized  Ney  and  Macdonald  to 
take  him  with  them  if  they  should  think  it  necessary. 


406  MAKMONT   BETRAYS   NAPOLEON.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

Napoleon  did  not  as  yet  know  all  the  peril  of  his  position,  and  whilst 

he  believed  that  he  was  only  threatened  by  the  refusal  of  his  marshals  to 

assist  him,  one  of  them  had  already  betrayed  him.     Faithless  to  his  duty 

and  the  honour  of  a  soldier,  Marmont,    seduced   by  the 

Treason  of  Mar- 
mont, Duke  of      pressing  solicitations  of   Talleyrand,    and    the    offer    of   a 

splendid  fortune  under  the  Bourbons,  had  secretly  arranged 
with  Schwartzenberg  to  surrender  to  him  the  important  position  which  he 
occupied  at  Essone,  and  which  covered  Fontainebleau,  the  Emperor,  and 
the  army.  Without  absolutely  revoking  this  promise,  he  suspended  its 
execution  whilst  he  went  with  his  colleagues  to  defend  at  Paris  the  cause 
of  Maria  Louisa  and  the  King  of  Rome,  and  reserved  to  himself  the  right 
of  acting  according  to  circumstances.  But  whilst  he  was  negotiating  in 
Paris  his  generals  hastened  to  execute  the  first  orders  which  he  had  given 
Defection  of  the  tnem>  quitted  their  positions,  and  marched  the  sixth  corps, 
ix    corps.  -which  was  composed  of  their  troops,  to  Versailles.*     This 

sudden  defection  of  a  third  part  of  the  army  put  an  end  to  all  debate 
with  respect  to  the  abdication  of  Napoleon  in  favour  of  his  son  and  the 
Regency  of  Maria  Louisa.  Alexander  told  Caulaincourt  and  the  mar- 
shals that  Napoleon  must  make  an  unconditional  abdication,  and  that,  in 
return,  he  should  be  treated  with  all  due  consideration.  The  negotiators 
were  consequently  sent  back  to  Fontainebleau  to  demand  and  obtain  such 
an  abdication. 

When  informed  of  the  treason  of  Marmont,  and  the  defection  of  the 
sixth  corps,  Napoleon  gave  no  outward  sign  of  the  poignant  emotions 
which  tore  his  iron  soul.  Pride  enabled  him  to  conceal  his  grief  and 
anger.  Marmont,  his  old  fellow-pupil,  upon  whom  he  had  showered  the 
greatest  favours,  whom  he  had  called  his  child,  and  whom  he  had  brought 
up  under  his  own  tent,  was  the  only  man,  said  the  Emperor,  whom  he 
could  not  have  believed  capable  of  betraying  him.  He  did  not  deceive 
himself  with  respect  to  the  consequences  of  this  defection.  With  the 
forces  which  still  remained  under  his  command,  he  could,  doubtless,  by 
retiring  upon  the  Loire,  prolong  a  sanguinary  conflict ;  but  it  could  only 

*  The  troops  of  the  sixth  corps  discovered  at  Versailles  that  tbe  Emperor  was  be- 
trayed, and,  rising  against  their  generals,  demanded  to  be  led  back  to  Fontainebleau  ; 
Marmont,  however,  at  the  request  of  the  allied  sovereigns,  hastened  to  quell  this  revolt, 
and  the  defection  of  the  sixth  corps  was  complete.  "  By  his  conduct  at  Versailles," 
says  M.  Thiers,  "  Marmont  took  upon  himself  the  whole  responsibility  of  this  unfortu- 
nate occurrence,  and  must  bear  the  burden  of  it  in  the  eyes  of  posterity. 


1808-1814.]  NAPOLEON  ABDICATES.  407 

be  at  the  price  of  the  greatest  evils,  and  with  little  hope  of  saving  his 
crown,  Or  of  recovering  for  France  her  frontiers.  He  resigned  himsalf 
to  his  fate,  therefore,  and  signed  his  abdication.  Then,  sum-  Napoleon  signs 
moning  around  hiin  his  marshals,  who  had  been  impatient 
to  obtain  it,  he  addressed  to  them  a  few  sad  and  serious  words,  and  read 
to  them  his  deed  of  abdication,  which  he  had  drawn  up  in  this  form— 
"  The  allied  powers  having  declared  that  Napoleon  is  the  only  obstacle  to 
the  re-establishment  of  peace  in  Europe,  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  faithful 
to  his  oaths,  renounces  for  himself  and  his  heirs,  the  thrones  of  France 
and  Italy,  because  there  is  no  personal  sacrifice,  even  to  that  of  his  life, 
which  he  would  not  be  ready  to  make  in  the  interests  of  France."  Napo- 
leon gave  this  document  to  Caulaincourt  to  exchange  it  in  Paris  for  one 
in  which  should  be  set  forth  the  fate  reserved  for  himself  and  his  family. 

The  Senate  had  already,  in  anticipation  of  Napoleon's  abdication,  voted 
for  France  a  Constitution  by  which  it  voluntarily  recalled  to 
the  throne,  under  the    title  of  the  King  of  the  French,    Senatorial  Con- 

'  o  )     stitution  sum- 

Louis-Stanislas  Xavier,  the  brother  of  Louis  XVI.,  and  Sro^thechief 
conferred  upon  him  the  hereditary  royalty,  with  the  reser-  Bourbon?1"6  ot 
vation  that  he  was  not  to  be  possessed  of  it  until  he  should 
have  taken  an  oath  faithfully  to  observe  the  new  Constitution.  The  latter, 
styled  the  Senatorial  Constitution,  established  on  the  throne  an  inviolable 
King,  the  sole  depository  of  the  executive  power,  which  he  was  to  exercise 
by  means  of  responsible  ministers,  and  who  was  to  share  the  legislative 
with  two  chambers ;  an  hereditary  one,  consisting  for  the  most  part  of 
the  members  of  the  Senate,  and  an  elective  one.  It  also  provided  for  an 
irremovable  magistracy,  liberty  of  worship,  individual  liberty,  and  the 
liberty  of  the  press.  These  main  articles,  which,  with  many  others, 
were  repeated  in  the  Constitutional  Charter  granted  by  Louis  XVIII., 
were  in  accordance  with  the  necessities  of  the  times,  and  consecrated  the 
principles  of  1789,  which  had  been  generally  admitted  by  the  wisest 
members  of  the  Constituent  Assembly.  Immediately  after  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Senatorial  Act,  the  Provisional  Government  drew  tip,  at  the 
urgent  request  of  Alexander,  a  treaty  which  assigned  the  Thet  at  ofthe 
island  of  Elba  to  Napoleon  in  full  sovereignty,  gave  Parma  llthof  APnl- 
and  Piacenza  to  the  Empress  and  the  King  of  Borne,  promised  a  prin- 
cipality to  Eugene,  and  finally  bestowed  incomes  on  Napoleon  and  his 
family.     This  treaty,   which  was  signed  on  the   11th  of  April  by  the 


403  THE    BATTLE    OE    TOTTLOTTSE.       [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

ministers  of  the  allied  sovereigns,  and  by  Talleyrand  in  the  name  of  the 
Royal  Government,  was  immediately  exchanged  for  the  Emperor's  deed 
Entr  of  the  °^  abdication ;  and  on  the  following  day  Count  d'Artois, 
SrPa^Aprii  tne  brother  of  Louis  XVIII. ,  entered  Paris,  when  the  white 
12th,  1814.  flag  wag  su"bstituted  for  the  tricolour.     The  Prince  received 

a  cordial  welcome  from  the  National  Guard,  and  large  groups  of  royalists 
greeted  him  with  the  most  enthusiastic  shouts.  The  news  of  Napoleon's 
abdication  had  not  yet  reached  the  armies  of  the  West  and  South,  when, 
on  the  10th  of  April,  the  very  day  before  that  on  which  was  signed  the 
treaty  which  declared  the  lot  awarded  to  the  Emperor  and 

Battle  of  Tou- 

louse,  April  ioth,  the  Imperial  family,  a  sanguinary  battle  took  place  under 
the  walls  of  Toulouse,  between  the  French  army  of  Marshal 
Soult,  consisting  of  only  thirty-six  thousand  men,  and  sixty  thousand 
English,  Spaniards,  and  Portuguese  commanded  by  Wellington.  Fifteen 
days  sufficed  our  soldiers  for  the  formation  of  a  vast  entrenched  camp 
around  the  city,  and  in  the  very  face  of  the  enemy.  Wellington  ordered 
an  attack,  and  his  troops,  which  were  at  first  repulsed,  only  regained  the 
advantage  by  means  of  their  superior  numbers,  and  at  length  succeeded 
in  forcing  the  positions  of  the  French  army ;  when  the  latter  fell  back 
upon  Villa-Franca  for  the  purpose  of  joining  the  army  of  Marshal 
Suchet,  having  lost  about  three  thousand  five  hundred  men  before 
Toulouse,  and  inflicted  a  still  greater  loss  on  the  enemy. 

What  could  avail  the  heroic  efforts  of  a  few  thousands  of  men  isolated 

at  the  extremity   of  the    kingdom,  when  destiny  had  already    declared 

against  their  Emperor.     The  treaty  of  the  11th  of  April  had  already 

been  executed  by  all  the  allied  powers,  one   signature  alone,  that  of  the 

Na    leon  hesi     Emperor,  being  yet  wanting ;   and  on  the  evening  of  that 

trettY0o?Apriie   verJ  ^J  **  was  demanded.     But  Napoleon  hesitated.     In 

llth#  the  course  of  the  night  he  had  had  with  Caulaincourt  a 

final  interview,  in  which,  regarding  his  career  as  finished,  he  seemed  to 

have  freed  his  soul  from  all  the  veils  of  passion,  and  to  be 

view  with  Cau-    enabled  to  judge  of  new   circumstances,  and  himself,  with 

laincourt.  . 

the  most  perfect  lucidity.     His  vast  mind  passed  in  review 

the  whole  course  of  his    existence.     After   having  cast  a  retrospective 

glance  on  his  greatness  and  his  glory,  he  fathomed  the  depth  to  which  he 

0         „ ,        had  fallen :   perceived  that  he  himself  had  been  the  chief 

Sorrowful  re-  '    r 

flections.  cause  of  his  fall,  and  acknowledged  his  faults,  the  melan- 


1808-1814.]  NAPOLEON"    ATTEMPTS    HIS    OWN    LIFE.  409 

choly  result  of  an  ambition  which  the  whole  world  could  not  have 
satisfied,  and  of  an  unbounded  pride  which  now  found  itself  compelled  to 
accept  a  barren  rock  in  the  Mediterranean  in  exchange  for  the  noblest 
empire  in  the  universe.  And  this  was  not  all;  for  he  left  France 
diminished  in  size  and  exhausted,  and  had  not  even  been  able  to  pre- 
serve its  glorious  flag.  Was  it  for  this,  then,  that  he  had  been  victo- 
rious in  all  the  capitals  of  Europe,  that  he  had  humiliated  so  many  kings, 
broken  up  so  many  empires,  gained  so  many  bloody  victories,  decimated 
several  generations,  spilt  the  blood  of  three  millions  of  men,  and  assumed 
the  responsibility  of  innumerable  calamities?  To  these  poignant  recol- 
lections were  added  gloomy  anticipations  of  shameful  outrages  at  the 
hands  of  the  exasperated  populations  of  the  Southern  provinces  which  he 
would  have  to  traverse  on  his  way  to  exile ;  and  his  stoicism  abandoned 
him,  life  appeared  to  him  insupportable.  He  bade  adieu  to  Caulain- 
court,  thanked  that  faithful  friend  for  the  unalterable  devotion  he  had 
displayed  towards  him  when  so  many  others  had  abandoned  him ;  gently 
dismissed  him  ;  and  then,  remaining  alone,  resolved  to  preserve  himself 
by  suicide  from  his  frightful  fate,  and  the  humiliating  necessity  of  signing 
his  own  dethronement  and  that  of  his  descendants. 

Napoleon  had  now  recourse  to  the  poison  with  which  he  had  provided 
himself  during  the  Moscow  campaign  as  a  security  against  falling  alive 
into  the  hands  of  the  Russians,  and  which  he  had  carefully   T7  .     u 

7  J     Vain  attempts 

preserved  as  a  last  resource.  He  prepared  it  with  his  own  °o  commTtPei°r 
hands,  drank  it,  and  threw  himself  upon  a  couch  in  the  belief  smcide- 
that  he  should  never  rise  again.  But  his  attempt  was  in  vain,  for  the 
lapse  of  time  had  diminished  the  virulence  of  the  poison,  and,  after  a 
violent  crisis  he  fell  into  a  deep  lethargy  which  calmed  his  despair  and 
dissipated  the  symptoms  of  approaching  death.  It  is  said  that,  when 
the  Emperor  awoke,  astonished  at  finding  himself  alive,  he  remained  for 
some  moments  pensive,  and  then  exclaiming  "  God  does  not  will  it," 
resigned  himself  to  his  new  destiny.*  He  placed  without  further  resis- 
tance his  signature  to  the  treaty,  and  some  days  later,  on  the  20th  of 
April,  at  Fontainebleau,  in  the  presence  of  the  Foreign  Commissioner 
charged  with  the  care  of  his  person,  took  leave  of  his  brave  army. 
Having  traversed  his  apartments,  followed  by  the  Dukes  of  Vicenza  and 
Bassano,  his  faithful  Generals,  Drouot,  Bertrand,  and  Belliard,  Baron 
*  A  manuscript  of  1814,  by  Baron  Fain,  Napoleon's  private  secretary. 


410  NAPOLEON  DEPAKTS  EOB  ELBA.   [BOOK  III.  CHAP.  III. 

Fain,  his  secretary,  and  a  few  superior  officers,  the  last  remains  of  a 
Court  which  had  been  the  most  brilliant  in  Europe,  he  hastily  descended 
the  staircase,  and  advancing  into  the  midst  of  his  guard,  which  were 
Na  oieon's  fare-  ranSe^  m  a  circle  round  the  palace  courtyard,  he  gazed 
well  to  im  guard,  ^j^  emotion  0n  those  veteran  warriors,  and  said  to  them, 
"  Soldiers,  my  old  companions  in  arms,  whom  I  have  always  found  on  the 
road  to  glory,  we  must  at  length  part.  I  could  have  remained  longer  in 
the  midst  of  you,  but  it  must  have  been  at  the  price  of  a  crue]  struggle, 
of  the  addition,  probably,  of  a  civil  war  to  a  foreign  war,  and  I  could 
not  resolve  to  distract  any  longer  the  bosom  of  France.  Enjoy  the 
repose  which  you  have  so  justly  earned,  and  be  happy.  As  for  me,  do 
not  pity  me.  I  have  a  mission  still  to  perform,  and  to  fulfil  it  I  consent 
to  live.  This  mission  is  to  recount  to  posterity  the  great  things  which 
we  have  done  together.  Adieu,  my  children !  I  would  willingly 
press  each  of  you  to  my  heart,  but  I  can  at  least  embrace  your  flag." 
At  these  words,  General  Petit,  who  carried  the  flag,  advanced,  and  pre- 
sented the  eagle.  Napoleon  pressed  the  General  and  the  flag  against  his 
breast,  and  the  troops  burst  into  tears  and  sobs.  Napoleon,  deeply 
moved,  made  an  effort  over  himself,  and  in  a  firmer  voice  said,  "  Yet 
TT.   ,  „      once  more,  my  old  companions,  adieu  !     Let  this  kiss  pass 

His  departure  for  '       J  r  '  r 

Elba '  April  20th  *nto  vour  Hearts !"  He  then  threw  himself  into  his  car- 
1814,#  riage,  and  set  out  for  the  island  of  Elba,  which  was  be- 

stowed upon  him  in  full  sovereignty,  and  whither  he  was  preceded  by  a 
battalion  of  his  guard.  He  arrived  at  his  destination  on  the  4th  of  May, 
after  a  painful  journey  through  the  departments  of  the  South,  through  the 
midst  of  populations  whom  long  and  cruel  wars  had  exasperated,  and 
who  did  not  spare  the  illustrious  exile  the  insults  he  had  too  truly 
anticipated. 

Thus  fell,  a  first  time,  the  colossus  of  power  and  of  glory  which  had 
governed  France  fourteen  years,  and  had  for  some  time  seen  almost  the 
whole  Continent  submissive  to  his  laws.  It  had  been  given  to  no  man 
to  attain  a  more  brilliant  destiny,  and  no  one  ever  had  greater  influence 
over  Europe.  Great  as  a  general,  and  great  as  a  statesman,  he  had  raised 
France  to  an  extraordinary  position  in  the  eyes  of  foreigners  by  means  of 
his  victories ;  but  he  had  done  more  for  her  by  means  of  his  pacific  works 
than  by  his  conquests,  for  he  had  restored  order  to  her  society ;  and  it 
is  the  re-establishment  by  him  of  public  worship,  the  civil  code,  the 


1808-1814.]  BEELECTIONS    TTPOK   ffAPOLEOtf.  411 

reorganization  of  the  judicial  and  administrative  powers,  and  the  favour 
which  he  showed  towards  merit  and  talent,  which  are  his  most  glorious 
titles  to  the  admiration  of  posterity.  Napoleon  was  endowed  with  an 
astonishing  strength  of  will,  and,  as  was  the  case  with  Louis  XI V.,  when 
his  genius  sought  for  its  inspirations  in  the  necessities  and  wishes  of  the 
nation,  it  produced  only  fortunate  and  durable  results.  But  his  activity, 
fertile  in  great  achievements,  was  stimulated  by  a  devouring  ambition, 
which  was  as  unscrupulous  as  it  was  boundless ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  remark 
that,  whenever  his  actions  were  not  in  accordance  with  morality  or  the- 
true  interests  of  France,  they  were  disastrous  to  himself,  and  paved  the 
way  to  his  fall.  Too  confident,  however,  in  his  genius  and  his  power,  he 
isolated  himself  from  public  opinion  by  repressing  its  expression  with 
unheard-of  violence,  and  thus  deceived  himself  with  respect  to  the 
resources  which  the  nation  could  afford  him  in  the  time  of  his  adversity. 
At  the  point  at  which  this  history  has  now  arrived  Napoleon  had  fallen, 
but  his  part  was  not  yet  played  out.  The  giant  was  to  rise  once  more, 
and  by  his  second  fall  once  more  shake  the  world. 


412 


BOOK  IV. 


FIRST   PERIOD   OF    THE    CONSTITUTIONAL   AND    PARLIA- 
MENTARY  MONARCHY. 

First  Restoration — Reign  of  Louis  XYHI. — Grant  of  the  Charter 
of  1814 — Return  of  Napoleon — The  Hundred  Days — The 
Second  Restoration — Continuance  and  End  of  the  Reign  of 
Louis  XVIII. — Reign  of  Charles  X. — Revolution  of  July — 
Charter  of  1830 — Accession  of  Louis  Philippe. 

1814-1830. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FIRST    RESTORATION. THE    HUNDRED    DAYS. 

April,  lSU—Juhj,  1815. 

When  a  political  restoration  is  effected  after  a  very  long  period,  the  princes 
in  whose  favour  it  is  accomplished  have  too  frequently  become  strangers 
to  the  new  ideas  and  manners  of  the  nation  which  they  are  called  upon  to 
govern.  Their  affections  and  preferences  are  for  the  persons  and  circum- 
stances of  a  period  the  remembrance  of  which  is  intimately  bound  up  in 
their  minds  with  that  of  their  old  grandeur  and  prosperity,  and  it  is  very 
difficult  for  them  not  to  regard  with  distrust  or  aversion  everything  which  is 
the  fruit  of  the  ideas  to  which  they  attribute  their  misfortunes.  The  new 
generation,  whose  interests  are  allied  with  the  new  order  of  things,  regard 
these  natural  sentiments  and  prejudices  as  a  crime,  whilst  the  party 
whose  wishes  have  led  to  the  re-establishment  of  the  fallen  dynasty  is 
filled  with  the    idea  that  there  must  necessarily  be  a  strict  uniformity  be- 


1814-1815.]  THE   BOTTKBON    EOTAL    FAMILY.  413 

tween  its  own  desires  and  those  of  the  princes  whose  restoration  it  has 
hailed.  From  thence  there  arise,  on  the  one  side,  foolish  hopes,  impru- 
dent threats,  rash  projects,  and  on  the  other,  gloomy  anxiety,  disaffec- 
tion, and  conspiracies.  When  to  these  sources  of  civil  disturbances  there 
are  added,  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  the  feeling  of  humiliation  inseparable 
from  the  restoration  which  has  been  accomplished,  and  when  the  restora- 
tion is  preceded  by  great  national  disasters,  and  is  supported  by  foreign 
bayonets,  then,  before  a  word  has  been  uttered,  or  a  single  fault  been 
committed,  it  may  be  considered  certain  that  formidable  resistance  and 
peril  are  imminent.  Such  were  the  unfortunate  circumstances  that,  in 
1814,  accompanied  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons,  and  before  any  of 
the  members  of  that  family  had  set  foot  on  the  soil  of  France,  it  was  possible 
to  foresee  the  obstacles  which  they  would  have  to  overcome  and  the  storm 
which  was  ready  to  burst  over  their  heads. 

The  head  of  the  Royal  house,  Louis  Stanislas  Xavier,    whom    the 
Senate    called  upon  to    reign    under   the    name  of  Louis 

Royal  family. 

XVIII. ,  was  endowed  with  a  judicious  mind,  and  was  quite 
capable  of  appreciating  the  spirit  of  his  age.  He  had  acquired  in  his 
youth,  as  Count  de  Provence,  a  certain  popularity  by  voting,  in  the  second 
assembly  of  the  Notables,  for  the  double  representation  of  the  third  estate ; 
and  he  had,  moreover,  whilst  in  exile,  nobly  resisted  the  republic,  and 
protested  against  Napoleon  by  claiming  his  rights  to  the  crown.  Driven 
from  the  Continent,  he  had  found  an  honourable  asylum  in  England, 
where  he  had  long  since  lived  at  Hartwell  with  a  few  friends,  when 
the  disasters  suffered  by  the  French  army  opened  to  him  the  path  to  the 
throne.  Most  of  the  members  of  his  family,  Monsieur,  the  Count  d'Artois, 
his  brother,  the  Dukes  d'Angouleme  and  de  Berry,  sons  of  Monsieur, 
and  finally,  the  two  princes  of  the  house  of  Conde,  the  father  and  grand- 
father of  the  unfortunate  Duke  d'Enghien,  had  only  made  themselves 
known  by  their  vain  efforts  to  triumph  over  the  Revolution  by  means  of 
civil  war  and  foreign  arms.  Alone  of  all  the  princes  of  the  House  of 
Bourbon,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  first  prince  of  the  blood,,  had  borne 
the  national  colours  and  fought  the  enemies  of  France.  Amongst  the 
members  of  the  Royal  family  specially  to  be  distinguished  was  the  daughter 
of  Louis  XVI.  and  Marie-Antoinette,  married  to  her  cousin  the  Duke 
d'Angouleme,  a  princess  worthy,  by  reason  of  the  greatness  of  her  soul 
and  of  her  misfortunes,  of  deep  and  universal  interest,  but  who  had  too 


414  BTJBBENSOME    CONVENTION.         [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

much  to  forget  and  to  pardon  to  enable  a  large  portion  of  the  nation  to 
regard  her  return  to  French  territory  without  anxiety. 

The  Count  d'Artois  had  preceded,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  King, 
his  brother,  and  had  entered  Paris  on  the  12th  April  with  the  title  of 
Lieutenant- General  of  the  Kingdom.  Some  happy  sayings  which  fell 
from  his  lips  disposed  public  opinion  in  his  favour ;  "  there  is  nothing 
changed  in  France,"  he  said  on  disembarking  at  Calais.  "  There  is  only 
one  Frenchman  the  more."  And  this  mot  had  received  an  immense  and 
most  favourable  echo.  The  Prince  invited  the  provisional  government  to 
form  his  council,  to  which  were  added  three  fresh  members, 

Nomination  of 

the  superior         wno  were  Marshals  Oudinot   and   Moncey,  and  General 

royal  Council.  * 

Dessoles,  who  had  formerly  been  General  Moreau's  chief  of 
the  staff.  This  council,  which  was  named  the  Upper  Eoyal  Council,  set 
to  work  as  soon  as  it  was  constituted,  and  the  government  of  the  Bour- 
bons commenced. 

The  first  care  of  the  Prince  and  his  councillors  was  to  afford  some  im- 
mediate relief  to  the  provinces  devastated  by  war,  and  still  occupied  by 
the  enemy.  The  prompt  evacuation  of  the  French  territory  by  the 
enemy  was,  in  their  eyes,  the  first  measure  to  be  effected  towards  this 
end ;  but  it  was  evident  the  allies  would  not  evacuate  the  soil  of  France 
until  the  French  troops  had  evacuated  the  numerous  places  which  they 
occupied  on  their  own  territories. 

These  fortresses,  fifty-three  in  number,  contained,  besides  their  gar- 
risons, an  immense  amount  of  materiel,  and  some  of  them,  such  as  Ant- 
werp, Flushing,  Mayence,  Magdeburg,  Mantua,  Alexandria,  Venice,  and 
Hamburg,  were  accounted  the  best  in  Europe.  The  Eoyal  Council, 
however,  did  not  hesitate  to  hasten  the  abandonment  of  these  places  for 
the  purpose  of  obtainiug  the  prompt  liberation  of  the  French  soil  from 
foreign  occupation ;  and  with  this  praiseworthy  object  it  signed  a  burden- 
some convention,  by  which  France  undertook  to  surrender 

Burdensome 

Convention  of       to  the  allied  powers,  within  the  briefest  possible  space  of 

April  23.  .  ... 

time,  all  the  places  which  her  troops  still  occupied  on  their 
several  territories,  with  all  the  materiel  of  war  which  they  contained, 
in  return  for  the  immediate  release  of  the  soil  of  France  from  foreign 
troops. 

This  convention,  which  had  been  dictated  by  an  irresistible  necessity, 
but  which  unfortunately  deprived  France  of  so  many  precious  pledges 


1814-1815.]  LOUIS    XYIII.    ENTEKS   PAEIS.  415 

"before  the  concession  of  a  general  peace,  was  signed  on  the  23rd  of  April. 
On  the  following  day  Louis  XVIII.  arrived  in  his  kingdom, 

&        J  .  Landing  of 

and  was  received  by  General  Maison  at  Calais,  which  he    L°,ui.s  xviii.  at 

J  7  Calais. 

entered  amidst  the  enthusiastic  acclamations   of  the  popu- 
lace, and  from  whence  he  set  out  for  Paris. 

Jealous  of  his  hereditary  privileges,  the  King  would  not  acknowledge 
that  the  Senate  had  a  right  to  impose  a  constitution  upon  him;  but  never- 
theless, yielding  to  the  earnest  representations  of  the  Emperor  Alexander 
and  the  advice  of  Talleyrand,  he  preceded  his  entry  into  his 

capital  by  a  celebrated  declaration,  dated  at  Saint-Ouen,  by   dated  Saint- 

Ouen. 
which  he  guaranteed  to  France  the  liberties  promised  by  the 

Senatorial  Constitution.     On  the  following  day,  the  3rd  May,  the  King, 

the  Duchess  d'Angouleme,  and  most  of  the  Princes  of  the    a  ,  ,      „ 

°  '  Solemn  entry  ot 

family  of  the  Bourbons  entered  Paris  in  solemn  procession.  ^to^Pa^May 
No  foreign  soldier  appeared  in  the  royal  cortege,  which  was  3' 1814# 
escorted  by  the  old  guard,  on  whom  much  of  the  public  interest  centred, 
and  whose  air  of  deep  melancholy  contrasted  strongly  with  the  popular 
joy.  The  cry  of  "  Vive  la  garde  IV  was  often  mingled  with  that  of 
"Vive  le  Roi !"  Louis  XVIIL,  however,  received  everywhere  a  warm 
reception,  for  the  declaration  of  Saint-Ouen  began  a  new  era  for  France ; 
reliance  was  placed  on  the  royal  promises,  and  the  hearts  of  the  people 
were  open  to  hope. 

The  King  confirmed  in  its  attributes  the  consultative  superior  council 
established  by  his  brother  under  the  name  of  the  Royal  Council,  and  in 
subordination  to  which  another  council,  that  of  the  Ministers,  exercised 
the  executive  power.  Two  very  different  and  opposite  tendencies  speedily 
became  visible,  and  it  was  perceived  with  anxiety  that,  together  with 
many  very  eminent  men  sincerely  attached  to  the  Constitution,  there  sat 
some  who  were  very  opposed  to  the  liberal  spirit,  and  who  had  been  selected 
by  the  monarch  on  account  of  personal  liking  or  of  services  rendered 
before  the  Revolution.    Of  this  latter  number  were  Dambray,    „,,    „ 

J '     The  first 

who  had  been  made  Chancellor  of  France  and  Keeper  of  Ministers  of  the 

r  Kestoration, 

the  Seals,  the  Abbe  Montesquiou,  Minister  of  the  Interior,    1814, 

and  the  Count  de  Blacas,  Minister  of  the  King's  Household.     General 

Dupont  was  Minister  for  War  ;  Talleyrand,  for  Foreign  Affairs ;  Malouet, 

for  the  Naval  Department ;  Baron  Louis,  of  Finance ;  and  Beugnot,  of 

Police. 


416  THE    CONSTITUTIONAL    CHAETEE.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

Active  negotiations  for  the  establishment  of  peace  were  immediately 
„n   .       commenced,  and  it  was  concluded  on  the  30th  May,  1814, 

Treaty  of  Paris,  '  j  i  i 

1814-  by  a  treaty  signed  at  Paris,  by  which  France  was  restricted 

to  the  limits  within  which  she  had  been  confined  in  1790.  A  slight 
extension  of  territory  was  given  her  on  the  northern  frontier,  which  was 
increased  by  the  addition  of  three  places — Philippeville,  Marienburg,  and 
Sarrelouis  ;  she  retained  the  boundaries  of  Avignon  and  Montbelliard,  and, 
in  the  east,  obtained  a  portion  of  the  Pays  de  Gex,  near  Geneva,  and  half 
Savoy,  including  Auncey  and  Chambery.  She  had  to  surrender  three  of 
her  colonies — Santa-Lucia,  Tobago,  and  the  most  important  of  her 
possessions  in  the  Indian  Sea — the  Isle  of  France.  The  firm  resistance  of 
the  King  and  his  Council  relieved  the  kingdom  from  any  war  contribu- 
tion, and  Paris  retained  in  its  museums  the  works  of  art  which  had  been 
exacted  from  all  the  countries  of  Europe  by  her  victories.  It  was  agreed 
that  France  should  pay  twenty-five  millions  to  the  allies  as  an  indemnity 
for  them,  and  finally,  that  the  vessels  constructed  by  order  of  her  Govern- 
ment in  foreign  parts  should  be  divided  between  herself  and  the  Allied 
Powers.  Shortly  after  the  signature  of  the  treaty  of  Paris,  the  French 
soil  was  freed  from  the  presence  of  foreign  troops. 

On  the  4th  June  the  King  convoked  the  Senate  and  the  legislative  body, 
which  had  been  violently  dissolved  by  Napoleon,  and  on  the  same  day,  in 
their  presence  solemnly  bestowed  upon  the  French  a  constitutional 
charter,  which  was  in  the  main  a  repetition  of  the  Senatorial  Constitution 
and  the  declaration  of  Saint-Ouen,  and  which  established  a  representative 
government  composed  of  a  King  and  two  Chambers,  one  of  which  con- 
sisted of  peers  nominated  by  the  monarch,  whilst  the  other  consisted  of 
the  deputies  of  departments.*  It  abolished  confiscation  and  the  odious 
conscription  law,  secured  individual  liberty,  the  freedom  of  the  press  and 

*  It  was  understood  that  the  King  would  choose  from  amongst  the  senators  for  the 
composition  of  the  Chamber  of  Peers  such  as  could  make  a  suitable  appearance  there, 
and  that  those  of  the  senators  who  should  not  be  made  members  of  that  Chamber 
should  retain  their  incomes.  The  peers  were  to  be  nominated  for  life  or  rendered  here- 
ditary as  the  King  pleased.  The  second  chamber,  or  Chamber  of  Deputies,  consisted 
of  the  whole  legislative  body,  and  was  to  be  renewed  annually  by  a  fifth  part  of  its 
members.  It  was  determined,  moreover,  that  the  latter  should  be  chosen  by  the 
electoral  colleges  by  electors  paying  direct  taxes  to  the  amount  of  three  hundred 
francs,  and  should  be  selected  from  amongst  persons  paying  direct  taxes  to  the  amount 
of  a  thousand  francs.  The  two  chambers  were  to  be  convoked  every  year.  The  King 
might  dissolve  that  of  the  Deputies,  but  in  this  case  he  was  bound  to  convoke  a  new 
one  within  the  space  of  three  months. 


1814-1815.]  RENEWED    DANGERS.  417 

of  public  worship,  the  inviolability  of  property,  the  irrevocability  of  the 
sales  of  the  national  property,  the  responsibility  of  the  ministers,  the 
annual  voting  of  taxes,  and  the  payment  of  the  interest  on  the  national 
debt,  and  re-established  the  old  nobility  in  their  rights  whilst  it  maintained 
those  of  the  new.  This  charter,  which  was  to  be  sworn  to  by  the  Kings 
of  the  French  at  the  period  of  their  consecration,  fulfilled  in  general  the 
wishes  expressed  during  the  preceding  twenty-five  years  by  the  most 
enlightened  men  in  France.  Immediately  after  it  had  been  read  the 
Chancellor  produced  the  decree  which  established  the  Chamber  of  Peers, 
which  was  composed  of  most  of  the  old  Senators,  of  the  Marshals,  and  a 
great  number  of  dignitaries  of  the  old  court  and  noblesse. 

The  promulgation  of  this  charter  was  accompanied  by  one  serious  fault. 
The  King  had  refused  to  accept  it  as  a  condition  of  his  elevation  to  the 
throne,  and  had  granted  it  simply  as  an  act  of  his  sovereign  will,  and  had 
dated  it  the  nineteenth  year  of  his  reign.  This  was  to  ignore  all  that 
had  taken  place  in  France  during  twenty-five  years,  and  to  expose  the 
charter  to  peril  by  placing  it  at  the  mercy  of  the  supreme  power.  In 
fact,  if  the  prince  who  granted  this  constitution  only  regarded  it  himself 
as  a  benevolent  act  emanating  from  his  own  good  pleasure  and  sole 
authority,  it  was  to  be  feared  that  an  ill-advised  king  might  some  day 
think  himself  at  liberty  to  revoke  it  by  virtue  of  the  same  hereditary  and 
inalienable  authority.  The  first  results  of  this  fault  were,  to  exaggerate 
the  premature  anxiety  of  some,  and  to  inflame  the  audacious  hopes  of 
others,  and  it  is  to  it  that  are  to  be  attributed  the  misfortunes  by  which 
the  revolution  was  accompanied. 

The  dangerous  nature  of  the  ground  on  which  the  monarch  rested  his 
power  soon  became  manifest.     A  number  of  persons  who    Dangers  of  the 
had   been   dissatisfied  with  the  return  of  the    Bourbons,    Sltuatl0n- 
were   persuaded   that    the   latter,  whilst  accepting,   in  spite   of   them- 
selves, the  state  of  things  created  by  the  Eevolution,  did  not  regard  it 
as   an  irrevocable  fact.     They  received  the  new  order   of  things  with 
distrust,   and   the  press,    implacable    and   violent,    spread  abroad   their 
alarms  and  threats.     But  whilst  the  authorities,  arbitrarily  interpreting 
one  of  the  articles  of  the  constitution,  subjected  the  journals  which  did 
this  to  a  censorship,  the  partisans  of  the  old  order  of  things  indulged  in 
their  own  journals  in  violent   enunciations  of  their  own  views,  and,  as 
always  happens  when  the  liberty  of  the  press  is  suspended,  the  intem- 
vol.  n.  E  E 


418  REACTIONARY    MEASURES.  [BOOK  IV.  Chap.  I. 

perate  articles  which  it  did  not  suppress  were  attributed  to  the  instiga- 
tion of  the  Government.     Imprudent  expression  frequently  escaped  the 
lips  of  the  ministers  and  government  officials,  and  those  who  assumed  as 
exclusively  their  own  the  name  of  Royalists  exploded  in  bitter  invectives 
not  only  against  the  charter  and  its  guarantees,  but  also  against  its  royal 
author,  whom  they  accused  of  having  behaved  unjustly  and  ungratefully 
towards  the   emigrants  by  declaring  the  sale  of  the  national  property 
irrevocable.     It  was,  in  other  respects,  almost  impossible  that  the  King, 
in  spite  of  his  experience  and  intelligence,  should  not  sometimes  yield  to 
old  prejudices,  and  submit  to  the  influence  of  less  enlightened  and  less 
prudent  members  of  his  family,  as  well  as  to  that   of    the  men  who 
had  returned  with  him  from  exile,  and  who   possessed  his  confidence. 
The  latter,  through  the  King's  partiality  or  by  virtue  of  their  ancient 
titles,  obtained  most  of  the  great  offices  of  the  crown,  and  surrounded 
the  monarch  in  a  close  circle.     Louis  XVIII.  committed  the  fault  of  re- 
establishing at  a  great  expense  the  old  military  appendages  to  the  Eoyal 
Household,  the  companies  of  household  troops    and   the    musqueteers, 
which  were  composed  of  young  men  of  family,  who  were  all  recognised 
as  officers  at  the   commencement  of  their  career,  in  the  presence  of  an 
army  in  which  during  twenty  years  military  rank  had  only  been  obtained 
at  the  price  of  blood  and  glorious  services. 

Many  decrees  were  issued  which  were  either  offensive  to  the  army 
Reactionary  an(*  tne  People>  or  peddling  and  vexatious.  Expiatory 
decrees.  mourning  was  ordered  for  the  Royal  victims  of  the  revo- 

lutionary storms,  and  in  the  language  of  official  proclamations  as  well 
as  in  that  of  the  pulpit,  the  whole  of  France  seemed  to  be  incessantly 
accused  of  the  atrocities  committed  during  the  reign  of  terror.  The 
clerical  party  ordered  the  police  to  prevent  any  commercial  transactions 
or  labour  on  Sundays  and  fete  days ;  a  measure  which  was  praiseworthy 
in  principle,  but  rendered  untimely  and  unpopular  by  the  manner  in 
which  it  was  carried  into  effect.  The  suppression  of  the  Concordat  was 
negotiated  at  Rome,  and  there  seemed  reason  to  fear  that  the  clergy 
would  be  reinstated  in  their  old  privileges.  Many  priests  expressed 
hopes  of  recovering  their  titles  and  domains,  and  thundered  against  the 
present  proprietors  of  the  national  property ;  and  finally,  many  bishops 
openly  expressed  their  adherence  to  the  bull  of  Pope  Pius  VII.  which  re- 
established the  order  of  the  Jesuits.     The  army,  stationed  in  obscure 


1814r-1815.]  INTBIGTTES  AND    POLITICAL   PAETIES.  419 

garrisons,  bemoaned  its  old  eagles,  which  were  now  replaced  by  the 
fleurs  de  lis,  and  wrathfully  hid  the  tricolour  under  the  white  cockade. 
It  found  itself  deprived  by  General  Dupont  of  a  multitude  of  officers 
who  had  grown  old  in  its  ranks,  and  who  were  succeeded  by  men  whose 
only  title  to  honours  of  command  was  their  birth  or  services  in  foreign 
ranks.  The  new  comers,  full  of  memories  of  the  old  monarchy,  spoke 
of  the  white  plume  of  Henry  IV.  and  the  Christian  virtues  of  Saint 
Louis  to  men  who  had  followed  Napoleon  to  all  the  capitals  of  Europe, 
but  who  were  for  the  most  part  ignorant  even  of  the  names  of  Saint 
Louis  and  Henry  IV. 

Irritation  and  anxiety  filled  the  breasts  of  all  whose  interests  allied 
them  virtually  with  the  Eevolution,  and  they  formed  two 

~  i  ..  .,        T  •   l  •   j  ,  i«i  Political  parties. 

powerful  parties ;  the  Imperialist  party,  which  was  sup- 
ported by  almost  the  whole  of  the  army,  and  whose  leaders  intrigued  in 
Paris  under  the  auspices  of  Queen  Hortense,  the  daughter  of  the 
Empress  Josephine  and  the  wife  of  Louis  Bonaparte  ;  and  the  Revo- 
lutionary  or  Eepublican  party,  filled  with  ardent  men,  and  sympathized 
with  by  most  of  those  who  were  now  in  possession  of  the  national 
property.  Opposite  to  these  parties  was  a  third,  not  the  least  dangerous 
of  the  three,  and  which  was  entitled  the  Ultra-Royalist  party,  and 
was  led  by  Monsieur,  the  King's  brother.  The  Counts  Blacas  and 
Vaublanc  were  its  most  active  members,  and,  together  with  Monsieur, 
never  ceased  to  urge  Louis  XVni.  to  unpopular  acts,  which  were  as 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  charter  as  to  the  monarch's  personal  inclina- 
tions. This  party,  supported  by  the  most  of  the  old  noblesse  and  the 
clergy,  had  ramifications  in  La  Vendee,  Brittany,  and  Anjou,  and  was 
strongly  sympathized  with  in  some  cities  of  the  south,  such  as  Lyons, 
Toulouse,  Nimes,  and  Avignon,  and  especially  in  the  maritime  cities  of 
Bordeaux  and  Marseilles,  whose  commerce  had  been  ruined  by  the 
Revolution  and  the  Empire.  Finally,  a  fourth  party,  named  the  Con- 
stitutional party,  consisted  of  all  the  men  whose  wishes  and  necessities 
were  satisfied  by  the  charter,  and  who,  sufficiently  enlightened  to  perceive 
the  difficulties  inseparable  from  the  existing  state  of  affairs,  believed  that 
they  would  be  triumphed  over  in  the  course  of  time  by  the  firmness  of 
the  people  and  the  wisdom  of  the  King.  This  party,  at  the  head  of 
which  were  La  Fayette,  Royer-Collard,  Lanjuinais,  Carnot,  Benjamin 
Constant,  Madame  de  Stael,  the  Duke  de  Broglie,  Boissy  d'Anglas,   &c, 

E  E  2 


420  new  laws.  [Book  IV.  Chap.  I. 

and  which  was  supported  by  the  National  Guard  of  Paris,  was  powerful 
L    .  j  ,.  amongst  the  citizens  of  the  chief  cities  and  had  the  majority 

Session  of  1814.  |n  foe  two  cnambers.  The  latter  assembled  on  the  4th 
June,  Chancellor  Dambray  being  the  president  of  the  first,  that  of  the 
Peers,  and  M.  Laine  that  of  the  second,  and  proceeded  with  their  labours, 
in  the  midst  of  many  obstacles,  with  resolution  and  perseverance.  Public 
ojoinion  in  Paris  acknowledged  their  persevering  efforts  to  keep  in  a  con- 
stitutional course  a  Government  which  had  been  composed,  as  we  have 
seen,  of  so  many  different  elements. 

Amongst  the  men  who,  in  the  King's  Council,  rendered  the  greatest 
services  to  the  country,  Baron  Louis,  the  Minister  of  Finance,  occupied 
the  foremost  place.  His  system  was  based  on  the  principle  of  paying  the 
Financial  scheme  debts  of  the  kingdom,  and  even  those  of  the  empire,  in  full, 
of  Baron  Louis.  an(^  on  ^q  maintenance  of  the  existing  taxes,  including  the 
droits  reuntSj  the  most  objected  to  of  all  the  taxes,  and  which  Count  d'Artois 
had  given  reason  to  hope  would  be  suppressed  when  he  landed  on  the 
French  coast.  The  Minister  supported  this  system  with  as  much  talent 
as  energy,  and  presented  to  the  two  Chambers  the  budget  for  the  present 
year,  which  amounted  to  six  hundred  millions.  He  created  resources  by 
means  of  numerous  economies  and  financial  combinations  of  great  skill, 
and  had  the  honour  of  being,  in  France,  the  true  founder  of  public  credit. 
The  two  Chambers  adopted  the  Minister's  measures,  which  were  demanded 
by  an  imperious  necessity  ;  but  their  execution  was  accompanied  by  much 
suffering,  for  it  was  necessary,  for  economy's  sake,  to  suppress  a  multitude 
of  offices,  and  to  reduce  to  half-pay  a  number  of  good  officers  who  over- 
flowed Paris  and  moved  its  inhabitants  by  their  complaints  and  their 
wretchedness,  whilst  extreme  irritation  was  caused  by  the  continuation  of 
all,  even  the  most  vexatious  taxes,  the  suppression  of  which  had  been 
either  promised  or  hoped. 

The  censorship  of  books  and  journals  was  one    of  the  most   serious 

questions  discussed  in  the  Chamber.      The  charter  promised   that   the 

press  should  be  free,  whilst  reserving  to   the  Government  the  right  to 

suppress    abuses    of    this  freedom    by    legal    methods;    a 

press.  royal  decree  had  nevertheless  previously  placed  the  press 

under  the  laws  in  force  with  respect  to  it  during  the  Empire ;  and  now, 
yielding  to  the  demands  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  it  submitted  a  law 
on  the  subject,  according  to  which  only  books  in  octavo,  and  of  at  least 


1814-1815.]  UNPOPULAR  MEASURES.  421 

thirty  sheets,  should  be  exempted  from  the  censorship.     This  law  under- 
went, in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  great  modifications,  which  were  all  in 
favour  of  the  principle  of  a  free  press ;   and  it  was,  moreover,  declared 
that  the  censorship  was  only  to   be  maintained  as  a  temporary  measure 
till  the  end  of  1816.     In  this  shape  the  law  was  voted  by  a  considerable 
majority.      Another   proposed    law  presented   to    the    Chamber   by    M. 
Ferrand,  Minister  of  State,  for  the  restoration  to  the  emigrants  of  a  por- 
tion of  the  property  taken  possession   of  by  the  State,  raised  a  violent 
storm,  not  so  much  on  account  of  itself  as  on  account  of  what  it  seemed 
to  foreshadow.     The  Minister  was  so  imprudent  as  to  present  this  law  as 
the  precursor  of  still  more  complete  measures  of  reparation,  described  the 
King  as  doing  great  violence  to  his   own  feelings  by  confining  himself 
within  the  limits  of  the  charter,   and  spoke  of  the  emigrants  as  the  only 
Frenchmen  who   during  the  past  twenty-five  years  had  never  deviated 
from  the  straight  path  of  the  road  of  honour.     The  Chamber  did  not  pass 
this  measure  until  it  had  undergone  considerable  modifications,  but  the 
ill-judged  expressions  of  the  Minister  were  regarded  as  the  expressions  of 
the  King  and  his  Government,  and,  spreading  rapidly  through  France, 
gave  a  fresh  and  unfortunate  activity  to  the  dangerous  hopes  of  some  and 
the  sullen  rage  of  others. 

The  public  excitement  was  great,  and  was  increased  by  many  alarms. 
There  was  no  end  of  rumours  of  conspiracies,  either  to  drive  away  the 
Bourbons  and  to  replace  them  by  a  Republic,  or  to  restore  the  Emperor ; 
and  a  plot  for  this  latter  purpose  was  actually  formed  by  some  imprudent 
generals  without  Napoleon's  connivance  or  even  knowledge.  The  army 
was  the  most  formidable  focus  of  discontent,  and  instead  of  doing  all  in 
its  power  to  attach  it  to  itself,  the  Government  was  constantly  putting 
measures  into  execution  which  could  not  fail  to  alienate  it.  Peace 
having  succeeded  to  war,  it  was  necessary,  as  the  only  pos-  u  , 
sible  means  of  effecting  any  considerable  economy,  to  reduce  measures- 
the  army,  to  put  large  numbers  of  officers  on  half-pay,  and  to  discharge 
many  of  the  troops.  There  was  considerable  peril  in  the  adoption 
of  this  measure,  and  the  peril  was  still  further  increased.  The  Minister 
proposed  to  the  Chambers  to  suppress  many  branches  of  the  Hotel  des 
Invalides,  and  to  compensate  the  veterans  who  should  be  expelled  by  an 
annual  dotation  quite  insufficient  to  meet  their  wants  ;  a  similar  measure 
was  proposed  with  respect  to  some  establishments  for  the  education  of  the 


422  DISTURBED    STATE    OE    PUBLIC    EEELING.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

children  of  members  of  the  Legion  of  Honour ;  and  the  Government  at  the 
same  time  created  a  pension  list  for  the  Yendeans  and  Chonans,  and  the 
officers  who  had  served  in  Conde's  army  against  France.  Public  indig- 
nation was  excited  by  these  projects.  The  economical  measures  relative 
to  the  Invalides  and  the  orphans  of  the  Legion  of  Honour  were  rejected, 
and  raised  a  storm  of  unpopularity  against  General  Dupont,  the  Minister 
for  War,  which  he  could  not  withstand.  He  was  succeeded  by  Marshal 
Soult,  and  the  latter  behaved  even  still  more  imprudently  and  harshly 
towards  his  old  companions  in  arms.  Amongst  the  latter,  General 
Exelmans  was  one  of  the  most  esteemed  and  the  most  popular. 
Devoted  to  King  Murat,  at  whose  hands  he  had  received  many  favours, 
and  who,  by  virtue  of  his  desertion  of  the  Emperor,  still  occupied  the 
throne  of  Naples,  he  knew  that  this  prince  was  threatened  with  the  loss 
of  his  crown,  and  offered  him  the  services  of  his  sword.  The  letter  in 
which  he  made  this  offer  was  intercepted,  and  it  was  regarded  as  an  act 
of  treason,  although  Murat  was  then  at  peace  with  France.  Exelmans 
was  tried  by  a  court  martial,  and  acquitted  amidst  the  public  applause, 
but  the  circumstance  caused  a  deep  and  dangerous  feeling  in  the  ranks  of 
the  army.  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  so  many  imprudences,  there  was  no 
reason  to  despair  of  the  future,  for  these  faults  were  much  more  the 
results  of  the  unfortunate  circumstances  in  which  the  King  was  placed 
than  of  his  own  will,  and  he  was  capable  not  only  of  recognising,  but  of 
repairing  them.  The  army,  moreover,  although  to  a  great  extent 
alienated,  was  kept  to  its  duty  by  the  bridle  of  discipline  as  well  as  by 
the  habit  of  obedience,  and  the  dangerous  influence  of  old  recollections 
would  naturally  diminish  in  its  ranks  as  they  became  filled  by  fresh  con- 
tingents. The  Elective  Chamber  had  rejected  or  blamed  the  most 
unpopular  measures  of  the  Council ;  it  was  the  power  which  had  the  most 
to  gain  by  the  lapse  of  time  ;  it  had  gained  the  popular  confidence,  and 
had  judiciously  and  moderately  pursued  a  constitutional  and  liberal 
course,  which  was  grateful  to  the  middle  classes,  the  friends  of  peace, 
who  were  terrified  at  the  idea  of  anarchy,  and  were  disgusted  with 
the  Empire.  No  irrevocable  harm  had  been  done  at  the  commencement 
of  1815,  and  it  would  not  have  been  impossible  for  the  Bourbons  to 
retain  their  position,  had  they  only  had  to  contend  with  a  distrust  which 
was  only  too  natural,  or  with  the  resentment  provoked  by  their  first 
acts. 


1814-1815.]  THE    CONGRESS    OE    VIENNA.  423 

The  sittings  having  been  closed  and  adjourned  to  the   15th  May,  the 
Minister  continued  to  act  without  any  well-conceived  plan,  and  without 
either  unity  or  strength  of  purpose.     Talleyrand  no  longer  sat  in  the 
Council,  as  he  at  this  time  represented  France  in  the  Con-      Con   egs  f 
gress   of  Sovereigns,  which   had   been   assembled    several      Vienna, 
months  at  Vienna,  for  the  purpose  of  dividing*  the  immense  spoils  col- 
lected by  Napoleon.     This    Congress,   presided  over   by   the   Emperor 
Alexander,  and  in  which  M.  de  Metternich  for  Austria,  Castlereagh,  and 
after  him  "Wellington,  for  England,  and  Iiardenberg  for  Prussia,  exercised 
the  most  influence,  had  already  excited  wide-spread  and  deep  discontent. 
It  was  not  the   extent  of  territory,  but  the  number  of  souls    in    each 
city  and  each  country,  which  was  to  form  the  basis  of  the   division ;  no 
account  was  taken   of  the  distinctions  established  between  populations 
by  differences  in  their  manners,  their  national  characteristics,  their  reli- 
gions, or  species  of  commerce ;   and  the  interests  of  the  States    of  the 
second  order  were  constantly  sacrificed  to    those  of  the  great  powers. 
The  unfortunate  King  of  Saxony,  whose  crime  was  his  fidelity  to  Napo- 
leon, was  despoiled  for  the  profit  of  Prussia  and  Russia,  the  first  of  whom 
obtained,  beside  the  Electorate  of  Saxony,    Swedish  Pomerania,   and  a 
great  portion  of  the  territory  between  the  Rhine  and  the  Meuse.     Russia 
acquired  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  under  the  name  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Poland,  and  on  condition  of  ruling  it  only  by  means  of  a  special  and 
constitutional  government.     Austria  recovered  Lombardy  and  all  its  old 
possessions  on  the  two  shores  of  the  Adriatic.     Tuscany  was  given  to  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand,    Genoa  to   the  King  of  Sardinia,   and  Parma   to 
the    ex-Empress  Maria  Louisa,    but  only   for   her   life.*     The   foreign 
policy  of  all  the  States  of  Germany  was  rendered  subject  to  the  decisions 
of  a  Federal  Diet,  of  which  Austria  was  to  have  the  perpetual  presi- 
dency.     Sweden  obtained  Norway    at  the   expense   of  Denmark,  from 
whom  also  Heligoland  had  been  taken  by  England.     This  latter  power, 
enriched  by  the  colonies  it  had  seized  during  the  war,  also  retained  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  the  Isle  of  France,  Malta,  and  the  Ionian  Islands. 
It   devoted  great  care    to    the  formation  of  the  kingdom   of  the    Low 
Countries,  which  was  composed  of  Holland  and  Belgium,  under  the  rule 
of  the  House  of  Orange,  and  which  seemed  to  it  to  offer"  a  formidable  bar- 
rier against  France.     In  Italy  the  Legations  were  secured  to  the  Pope ; 
*  The  reversion  of  the  Duchy  of  Parma  was  given  to  the  Queen  of  Etruria. 


424  HAPOLECXN"    ESCAPES    EEOM    ELBA.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

and  in  Switzerland  the  Congress  maintained  the  state  of  things  which 
had  been  established  by  the  Act  of  Mediation  of  1803,  in  spite  of  all 
the  efforts  of  the  Cantons  whom  this  celebrated  Act  had  deprived  of 
their  rights  and  privileges.  Three  new  Cantons,  those  of  Neivfchatel, 
Glaris,  and  Valais,  were  formed  of  some  fragments  of  Napoleon's  empire, 
and  raised  the  total  number  of  Cantons  to  twenty-two.  At  the  same 
time  declaration  was  made  of  the  neutrality  of  Switzerland,  and  of  some 
great  principles  of  international  law  relative  to  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade  and  the  free  navigation  of  navigable  rivers ;  principles  which  are 
still  in  force,  to  the  advantage  of  the  cause  of  humanity,  of  all  the  peoples 
of  Europe,  and  the  recognition  of  which  was  the  best  thing  effected  by 
this  celebrated  Congress. 

The  boundaries  of  France  having  been  established  by  the  peace  of 
Paris,  that  power  had  but  a  very  secondary  influence  over  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  Congress  ;  nevertheless,  Talleyrand  opposed  the  encroach- 
ments of  Russia,  and  in  accordance  with  the  instructions  of  Louis  XVIII., 
pointed  out  that  the  island  of  Elba  was  too  close  to  Italy  and  France,  and 
insisted  that  Napoleon  should  be  removed  to  a  greater  distance.  He 
also  demanded  that  Murat  should  be  dethroned,  and  that  the  House  of 
Bourbon  should  be  replaced  in  possession  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples  and 
of  the  Duchy  of  Parma.  His  efforts  had  at  first  but  little  success ;  but 
Murat  was  informed  of  them,  and  being  justly  alarmed  with  respect  to 
the  retention  of  his  possessions,  he  became  reconciled  with  the  great  man 
whom  he  had  abandoned,  invited  him  to  Italy,  and  promised  him  powerful 
support.  Such  was  in  February,  1815,  the  general  position  of  Europe, 
when  an  astounding  event  suddenly  startled  it  throughout  its  length  and 
breadth. 

On  the  27th  of  February  a  brig  of  war  was  sailing  cautiously  up  the 
Ketum  of  Napo-  Mediterranean,  followed  by  six  light  barks.  Quiet  reigned 
eon  rom  a.  Qn  ^g  ^QQ^  on  ^ki^  could  be  seen  the  glitter  of  arms,  and 
it  contained  a  few  hundred  men  with  bronzed  faces,  and  of  a  most  martial 
bearing.  Anxiously  and  attentively  they  scanned  with  their  eyes  every 
sail  which  appeared  on  the  horizon.  Many  of  their  heroic  countenances 
paled  as  they  discovered  in  the  distance  some  ships  of  war,  and  already 
the  words  Elba  and  return  passed  mournfully  from  mouth  to  mouth.  But 
in  the  midst  of  them  there  was  one  man  who  was  apparently  unmoved, 


1814-1815.]  NAPOLEON   LANDS    IN  FKANCE.  425 

upon  whom  all  intently  gazed,  who  rejected  every  proposal  for  the  delay 
of  an  immense  and  fatal  enterprise,  and  who,  pointing  to  France,  said, 
"  Forward !"  It  was  Napoleon,  who  was  once  more  about  to  appeal 
to  fortune.  On  this  occasion,  as  on  his  return  from  Egypt,  but  on 
this  occasion  to  the  misfortune  of  France,  he  escaped  the  enemy's 
cruisers,  and  on  the  1st  of  March  he  disembarked  in  the  Gulf  of  Juan, 
between  Cannes  and  Antibes,  with  eleven  hundred  men,  four  pieces 
of  cannon,  and  his  three  brave  generals,  Bertrand,  Drouot,  and  Cam- 
bronne. 

Napoleon,  there  is  no  doubt,  had  serious  causes  of  complaint  against 
the  Bourbon  Government,  which  had  not  paid  him  the  annual  subsidy 
of  two  millions  stipulated  for  in  the  Treaty  of  the  11th  of  April,  and 
which  was  necessary  to  him  for  the  support  of  his  household  and  the 
officers  and  soldiers  who  had  followed  him  to  Elba.  He  was  not  ignorant 
that  the  transfer  of  his  person  to  the  Azores,  and  the  deposition  of  Murat, 
which  had  been  eagerly  urged  by  the  representatives  of  Louis  XVIII., 
had  been  discussed  in  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  and  his  anxiety  respecting 
the  future  fate  intended  for  him  by  the  allies  had  been  excited.  Nothing, 
however,  contrary  to  his  interests  had  as  yet  been  resolved  on,  and 
if  Napoleon  had  listened  to  the  dictates  of  humanity,  the  voice  of 
France,  and  his  duty  towards  her,  he  would  doubtless  have  re- 
coiled from  the  frightful  idea  of  precipitating  her,  all  exhausted  as 
she  was,  and  still  bleeding  from  the  wounds  of  twenty-five  years' 
warfare,  into  the  horrors  of  a  new  strife  in  which  she  must  struggle 
alone  against  all.  But  still  again  his  personal  ambition  and  interests 
hardened  his  heart  and  blinded  his  eyes  and  his  conscience.  He  heard, 
he  said,  an  appeal  in  the  complaints  and  clamours  of  those  whom  a  re- 
actionary government  had  disquieted  or  injured ;  and  he  failed  to  say  to 
himself  that  his  return  was,  with  few  exceptions,  only  desired  by  the 
army,  and  that,  in  fact,  whatever  might  be  the  sufferings  of  France,  his 
present  proceeding  could  only  plunge  her  into  a  sea  of  calamities,  and 
bring  upon  her  troubles  infinitely  greater  than  those  which  now  excited 
her  complaints.  By  tearing  up  the  Convention  of  April  1 1th,  he  annulled 
all  the  obligations  of  Europe  towards  him,  and  whilst  he  was  about  to 
involve  France  in  a  criminal  enterprise,  and  drag  her  to  her  ruin,  he 
declared  that  he  was  about  to  deliver  and  avenge  her  ! 


426  napoleon's  mabch.  [Book  IV.  Chap.  I. 

The  news  of  his  landing  spread  around  Louis  XVIII.  terror  and  con- 
sternation. The  King  convoked  the  two  Chambers;  and 
JfThe^?aiGo-  t^ie  Count  d'Artois,  with  the  Duke  d' Orleans,  was  ordered 
hearS^oTtSe  to  advance  with  troops  upon  Lyons  in  concert  with  Marshal 
turn.ei°r  8  re"  Macdonald.  Ney  accepted  the  command  of  the  troops 
spread  over  Franche-Comte,  and  took  an  oath  of  fidelity 
to  the  King.  The  Duke  de  Feltre  replaced  Marshal  Soult  as  minister 
of  war ;  and  a  royal  decree  declared  Napoleon  Bonaparte  a  traitor  and 
a  rebel,  and  enj  oined  all  Frenchmen  to  treat  him  as  such. 

In  the  meantime  Napoleon  advanced  by  forced  marches,  and  after 
having  feigned  to  follow  the  Toulon  and  Marseilles  road, 

Napoleon's 

march  on  Paris,     had  taken  that  of  Grenoble,  through  the  midst  of  popula- 

March,1815.  _  1  °  1    r 

tions  amongst  whom  he  hoped  to  find  the  most  sympathy  for 
himself  and  his  cause  ;  and  he  captivated  them  by  the  magical  charm  of  his 
name,  by  the  tricoloured  flag  which  he  displayed,  and  by  the  eloquence 
of  his  proclamations.  He  said  to  the  people,  "  Citizens !  I  owe  all  to  the 
people  ;  as  soldier,  general,  consul,  Emperor,  I  am  nothing  but  by  the 
grace  of  the  people.     Eaised  to  the  throne  by  your  choice,  all  that  has 

been  done  without  your  consent  is  illegitimate Your  wishes  shall 

be  satisfied,  and  the  cause  of  the  nation  shall  even  yet  triumph.  My 
return  guarantees  to  you  the  possession  of  all  the  rights  which  you  have 
enjoyed  during  the  past  five-and-twenty  years."  To  the  army  he  said, 
"  Soldiers  !  In  my  exile  I  have  heard  your  voice,  and  at  its  summons  I 
have  passed  through  all  obstacles,  all  dangers.  Tear  down  the  colours 
which  the  nation  has  proscribed,  and  hoist  this  tricoloured  cockade  which 
you  have  borne  in  our  great  battles.  The  veterans  of  the  armies  of 
Sambre  and  Meuse,  of  the  Ehine,  of  Italy,  of  Egypt,  and  of  the  West, 
are  humiliated,  their  honourable  wounds  are  disgraced.  Soldiers! 
hasten  to  range  yourselves  beneath  the  banners  of  your  chief;  victory 
will  march  with  us ;  side  by  side  the  eagle  and  the  national  colours 
shall  fly  from  turret  to  turret  till  they  rest  on  the  towers  of  Notre- 
Dame."  .... 

All  Napoleon's  hopes  rested  on  the  affection  of  the  soldiers  for  his 
person,  or  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  had  inspired  them,  and  it  was 
on  their  return  to  him  that  depended  the  success  of  his  enterprise.  A 
first  attempt  made  on  the  garrison  of  Antibes  had  failed,  and  for  some 
days  Bonaparte  marched  without  encountering  any  troops  either  friendly 


1814-1815.]  NET   JOINS   NAPOLEON.  427 

or  hostile.  On  the  3rd  March  he  crossed  the  Durance  by  the  Sisteron 
bridge,  through  a  narrow  defile,  which  a  very  feeble  garrison  in  the 
fortress  might  have  held  against  considerable  forces ;  but  the  fort  was 
undefended,  and  Napoleon  passed  through  unopposed.  In  all  the  cities 
of  the  South  the  authorities,  struck  with  stupor  at  the  news  of  the 
Emperor's  landing  and  of  his  approach,  knew  not  what  to  resolve  on, 
being  equally  incapable  of  acting  in  concert  or  of  making  themselves 
obeyed.  It  seemed  to  them  as  dangerous  to  oppose  Napoleon  as  to  allow 
him  to  advance  unopposed.  It  was  resolved,  however,  that  Grenoble 
should  be  defended,  and  all  the  disposable  troops  in  Dauphine  were  con- 
centrated there.  A  detachment  formed  of  various  species  of  troops,  and 
commanded  by  a  resolute  officer,  named  Lessard,  was  sent  some  leagues 
beyond  Grenoble  to  destroy  the  bridge  of  Ponthaut.  This  order  had  not 
been  executed  when,  on  the  7th  March,  the  Imperial  advanced  guard, 
under  General  Cambronne,  reached  the  Mure,  and  took  up  a  position 
there.  Commander  Lessard  fell  back  with  his  detachment  into  a  strong 
position,  closed  the  road  against  Cambronne's  soldiers,  refused  to  hold 
any  communication  with  him,  and  threatened  to  fire  if  he  advanced. 
Napoleon  soon  afterwards  reached  the  spot,  saw  the  danger  _  leon 
of  the  situation,  and  perceived  that  the  decisive  moment  Mure- 
had  come.  He  ordered  his  grenadiers  to  reverse  their  arms,  and  advancing 
alone  to  within  hearing  distance  of  the  battalion  which  blocked  his  path, 
he  opened  his  overcoat  and  said,  "  Soldiers,  it  is  I !  do  you  recognise 
me  ?  If  there  be  one  amongst  you  who  wishes  to  kill  his  Emperor,  here 
he  is.  He  comes  with  bare  breast  to  offer  himself  to  your  weapons." 
Admiration  and  enthusiasm  took  possession  of  every  heart.  The  cry  of 
u  Vive  l'Empereur !"  arose,  and  was  a  thousand  times  repeated.  The  two 
bodies  of  troops  fraternized,  hoisted  the  same  flag,  and  H 
marched  together  to  Grenoble.  Soon  afterwards,  in  the  Grenoble, 
neighbourhood  of  Vizille,  Colonel  la  Bedoyere  hastened  up  with  his 
regiment  to  join  Bonaparte,  whom  the  unfortunate  young  man  almost 
worshipped.  Grenoble  and  Lyons  opened  their  gates  in  succession,  and 
in  the  latter  city  Count  d'Artois  was  so  utterly  deserted  that  he  had  to 
leave  it  with  a  single  attendant.  The  soldiers  everywhere  responded  to 
the  appeal  of  their  old  general;  Ney's  corps  followed  the  Is-oinedb 
example  ;  Ney  himself  was  induced  to  do  the  same ;  Napo-  Marshal  Ney- 
leon  embraced  him,  and  continued  his  march  towards  Paris.     Monsieur 


428  NAPOLEON    MAECHES    Ols    PAEIS.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

now  took,  in  the  presence  of  the  two  Chambers,  an  oath  to  keep  inviolate 
the  charter  of  the  Constitution  ;  but  it  was  in  vain  that  Marshal  Mortier 
and  the  garrison  of  La  Fere  repressed  in  the  east  a  revolt  excited  by 
Generals  Lallemand  and  Lefebvre-Desnouettes ;  in  vain  that  Marseilles 
energetically  declared  in  favour  of  the  Bourbons  ;  in  vain  that  the  Duke 
d'Angouleme  in  Languedoc  and  Madame  at  Bordeaux,  the  city  in  which 
the  Bourbons  were  first  proclaimed,  gathered  a  few  troops  in  support  of 
the  royal  cause — Napoleon  was  already  only  a  few  marches  distant  from 
the  Tuileries. 

Louis  XVIII.  held  a  review  in  Paris,  but  the  troops  would  not  respond 

to  the  cry  of  "  Yive  le  Eoi!"     The  Monarch  understood  this  silence,  and, 

yielding   to  the  force  of  necessity,  he  precipitately  quitted 

flies  from  Paris      his  palace  on  the  night  of  the  19th  March,  and  hastened  to 

to  Ghent. 

Ghent,  where  Talleyrand  soon  afterwards  joined  him,  and 
whither  he  was  also  followed  by  a  few  politicians  who  perceived  all  the 
rashness  of  Napoleon's  enterprise,  and  in  whose  eyes  the  interests  of 
France  were  identical  with  the  House  of  Bourbon. 

On  the  evening   of  the  20th  March  Napoleon  re-entered  his  capital, 

without  having  fired  a  single   shot.     His  rapid   march  had 

Napoleon  re- 
enters Paris,  been  one  continued  triumph,  and  yet,  perhaps,  a  sovereign 

March  20,  1815.  l     '  J      '  r  L    '  ° 

resuming  possession  of  his  crown  had  never  found  himself 
in  a  more  critical  position  than  the  Emperor  on  his  return  from  the  Island 
of  Elba,  during  that  period  which  is  so  unfortunately  celebrated  as  the 
_,.__    .^      .        Hundred  Days.     France  was  exhausted  and  divided  by  fac- 

Difficulties  of  J  J 

the  situation.  tions ;  the  immense  majority  of  enlightened  Frenchmen, 
satisfied  with  the  promises  of  the  charter  of  Louis  XVIII.,  which  they 
hoped  to  see  faithfully  carried  out,  remembered  with  terror  the  Imperial 
despotism  ;  civil  war  threatened  the  South ;  the  formidable  Vendee  arose 
in  insurrection ;  the  La  Eochejacquelins,  the  Sapinauds,  the  Autichamps, 
raised  the  Bocage ;  the  working  classes  in  Paris,  Lyons,  and  other  cities 
began  to  utter  sinister  cries  which  recalled  the  worst  times  of  the  Revolu- 
tion ;  and  the  whole  of  Europe  was  still  in  arms.  Napoleon  had  accepted 
the  Treaty  of  Paris,  and  had  protested  his  intention  of  keeping  the  peace ; 
but  his  couriers  were  arrested  on  the  frontiers,  the  Allied  Sovereigns 
placed  no  reliance  on  his  assurances,  and  by  a  fresh  treaty,  signed  on  the 
25th  March,  renewed  amongst  themselves  the  alliance  of  Chaumont.  The 
Congress  of  Vienna  declared  Napoleon  to  be  out  of  the  pale  of  public  and 


1814-1815.]  ERESH   IMPERIAL    DECREES.  429 

social  law,  and  a  million  troops  were  preparing  once  more  to  pour  down 
upon  France.  It  was  necessary,  therefore,  that  Napoleon,  if  he  were  to 
reign,  should  receive  from  the  hands  of  victory  fresh  and  bloody 
consecration. 

In  such  circumstances  an  almost  unlimited  authority  was  necessary  to 
the  head  of  the  Government ;  but,  constrained  as  he  was  to  conciliate 
public  opinion,  Napoleon  sought  for  the  support  of  the  constitutional 
party,  many  of  whose  members  cherished  republican  sentiments,  and  would 
not  have  cared  to  entrust  even  a  momentary  dictatorship  to  the  hero  of 
the  18th  Brumaire.  The  Emperor  nattered  its  leaders,  selected  from 
amongst  them  most  of  his  Ministers,  and  used  the  language  of  a 
friend  towards  the  national  liberties.  But  such  language  in  his  mouth 
was  but  a  feeble  means  of  success,  for  public  opinion  is  only  influ- 
enced by  language  which,  if  it  be  not  sincere,  may  at  least  be  accepted 
as  such. 

The  first  imperial  decrees,  dated  at  Lyons,  were  energetic.  They 
declared  the  Chambers  of  Louis  XVIII.  dissolved ;  convoked  the  Elec- 
toral Colleges  in  an  extraordinary  assembly  for  the  purpose  of  modifying 
the  constitution  of  the  empire  in  the  interests  of  the  people  ;  abolished 
the  old  noblesse ;  declared  all  the  property  of  the  Bourbons  seques- 
trated ;  and  proscribed  eleven  persons,  amongst  whom  were  Talleyrand 
and  Marmont.  Resigning  himself  to  an  alliance  forced  upon  him  by 
necessity,  Napoleon  admitted  into  his  council  the  celebrated  Conven- 
tionalist, Carnot,  as  Minister  of  the  Interior,  and  appointed  Minister  of 
Police,  Fouche,  Duke  of  Otranto,  a  man  then  influential  with  the  Consti- 
tutionalists, and  the  only  one  capable,  it  was  said,  of  directing  the  police 
in  times  of  such  difficulty.  Finally  he  requested  the  celebrated  Publi- 
cist, Benjamin  Constant,  to  draw  up  an  "  act  Additional  to  the  Constitu- 
tions of  the  Empire."  This  act  created,  in  the  first  place,  two  legislative 
Chambers,  those  of  the  Peers  and  the  Representatives,  the  first  hereditary, 
nominated  by  the  Emperor,  and  the  second  elective.  The  other  clauses 
of  this  act  were  transcripts  of  the  principal  portions  of  the  charter  of 
Louis  XVIII.  Napoleon  submitted  it  to  the  people  for  acceptance,  and 
a  million  consented  to  it,  whilst  four  thousand  ventured  to  reject  it.  The 
Emperor  swore  to  keep  inviolate  this  new  constitution  in  a  solemn 
assembly  of  the  Electoral  Colleges  on  the  Champ  de  Mai, 
where  the  eagles  were  distributed  amongst  the  regiments,       Mai# 


430  THE    ALLIES    A.GA1S    ASSEMBLED.        [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

and  where  Napoleon  appeared  with  all  the  pomp  of  the  Empire.     The 
L..     .  elections,  which  were  almost  entirely  in  favour  of  the  con- 

elections,  stitutional  party,  were  concluded,  and  the  Chamber  of 
Eepresentatives  assembled  on  the  3rd  of  June  under  unfavourable 
auspices  for  the  Emperor.  La  Fayette  reappeared  there  on  the  political 
stage,  after  twenty  years  of  honourable  retreat.  The  votes  for  the  presi- 
dency were  divided  between  him  and  Lanjuinais,  and  it  was  Lanjuinais,  who 
was  most  hostile  to  the  imperial  government,  who  obtained  the  majority. 
Military  measures  now  occupied  Napoleon's  whole  attention.  The 
South  seemed  quiet,  for  Madame,  after  having  for  some  time  offered  a 
courageous  resistance  in  Bordeaux,  had  been  compelled  by  General 
Clausel  to  abandon  that  city  and  quit  the  kingdom.  The  Duke  d'An- 
gouleme  had  been  to  some  degree  successful,  and  had  made  a  rapid  and 
perilous  campaign  on  the  Rhone  ;  but  soon,  abandoned  by  his  troops,  he 
had  found  himself  surrounded  and  made  a  prisoner,  and  having  been  set 
at  liberty  by  the  Emperor's  orders,  he  had  left  France.  But  La  Vendee 
was  still  in  a  state  of  insurrection,  and,  although  kept  in  check  by  General 
Lamarque,  it  compelled  Napoleon  to  detach  twenty  thousand  men  to 
occupy  and  reduce  it.  In  the  meantime  his  fortunes  had  already  suffered 
a  terrible  blow  in  Italy,  for  the  imprudent  Murat,  in  spite  of  his  advice, 
had  attacked  the  Austrians  at  Tolentino,  lost  his  army  and 

Murat  defeated 

at  Tolentino.         his  crown,  and  now  wandered  about  a  fugitive,  whilst  his 

1815.  '  °  ' 

vannquishers  replaced  the  Bourbons  on  the  throne  of  the 
Two  Sicilies.  These  preliminary  events,  so  disastrous  to  the  imperial 
cause,  compelled  Napoleon  to  assemble  an  army  on  the  southern  frontier 
for  the  purpose  of  stopping  the  progress  of  the  enemies  whom  Murat 
could  alone  have  held  in  check,  had  he  not  by  his  foolish  rashness  pre- 
cipitated his  ruin.  All  Europe  was  now  advancing  with  menacing  front ; 
„,     ,    ;■„         the  English  under  Wellington,  and  the    Prussians  under 

March  of  the  °  9        ' 

enemy's  forces.  Blucher,  occupied  Belgium  ;  a  frantic  enthusiasm  for  liberty 
excited  the  German  Universities  against  Bonaparte ;  the  whole  of  Ger- 
many rose  against  him  at  their  summons,  and  behind  it  the  Eussian 
columns  and  Tartar  hordes  were  already  in  motion. 

Napoleon  again  collected  within  a  few  days  a  formidable  army  from 
the  soil  of  France.     According  to  his  own  calculations,  he 

operations,       required  six  hundred  thousand  men  for  the  purpose  of  van- 
June,  1815. 

quishing  Europe,  and  he  had  already  gathered  together  by 


1814-1815.]  THE    BATTLE   OE    LIGNY.  431 

prodigious  efforts  an  army  of  three  hundred  thousand.  Of  this  number 
a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  were  marched  upon  Belgium.  On  the 
12th  of  June  he  set  out  in  person  for  his  army,  to  give  battle  to  Welling- 
ton and  Blucher,  who  were  each  at  the  head  of  ninety  thousand  men. 
He  hoped  to  be  able  to  vanquish  them  separately,  by  throwing  himself 
suddenly  between  them,  after  which  he  would  be  free  to  meet  the  Aus- 
trians  and  Eussians.  On  the  16th  he  succeeded,  by  means  of  a  rapid  and 
secret  march,  in  surprising  the  Prussians  isolated  from  the  English,  and  a 
sanguinary  battle  took  place  round  the  village  of  Ligny,  on  T]ie  b  tl  f 
the  plains  of  Fleurus,  always  glorious  for  the  French  arms,  ^sw* 
The  Prussians  were  vanquished  by  Napoleon,  and  lost  a  third  of  their 
army,  about  thirty  thousand  men,  of  whom  eighteen  thousand  were 
killed  or  wounded ;  ten  thousand  French  troops  also  fell  on  this  fatal 
field.  On  the  same  day,  at  a  few  leagues'  distance,  another  Battle  of 
battle  took  place  at  the  farm  of  Quatre-Bras,  on  the  road  Quatre*  ras- 
from  Charleroi  to  Brussels,  between  a  portion  of  the  English  forces  and 
the  French  troops  under  Ney.  This  position  was  a  very  important  one 
as  a  rallying  point  for  the  various  corps  of  the  English  army ;  Ney  could 
not  take  it  until  after  heroic  efforts  which  succeeded  fatal  hesitations,. 
and  the  battle  remained  a  drawn  one.  Nevertheless,  Napoleon's  principal 
object  had  been  obtained  by  the  results  of  the  battle  of  the  16th  of  June, 
for  he  had  separated  the  enemy's  two  armies.  The  Prussians  were 
beaten,  and  the  English  might  also  be  so  before  it  could  be  possible  for 
their  routed  allies  to  advance  to  their  assistance. 

The  Emperor  detached  on  his  right  Grouchy  with  thirty-five  thousand 
men,  commanded  under  him  by  Gerard  and  Vandamme,  and  ordered  him 
to  keep  himself  in  constant  communication  with  himself  by  his  left, 
whilst  at  the  same  time  he  vigorously  pursued  the  Prussians.  The  Em- 
peror then  marched  in  person  with  the  rest  of  his  forces,  by  Quatre-Bras, 
to  meet  the  English,  who  fell  back  and  occupied  the  position  of  Mont 
Saint- Jean  in  front  of  the  forest  of  Soignies,  which  was  several  leagues  in 
extent,  and  covered  the  city  of  Brussels.  On  the  17th  a  frightful  storm 
broke  up  the  roads,  delaying  the  march  of  the  French  troops  for  many 
hours,  so  that  it  was  only  at  the  close  of  the  day,  and  after  great  fatigue, 
that  they  could  reach  the  foot  of  Mont  Saint- Jean,  which  was  occupied 
by  the  troops  under  Lord  Wellington.  The  English  army  was  partly  hidden 
from  the  French  by  the  undulations  of  the  ground  on  the  other  side  of 


432  THE    BATTLE    OE    WATERLOO.         [BOOK.  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

the  hill,  but  at  night  the  bivouac  fires  showed  the  whole  extent  of  its 
position,  and  gave  Napoleon  reason  to  hope  that  he  might  fight  it  on  the 
morrow  before  the  Prussians,  whom  he  believed  to  be  held  in  check  by 
Grouchy,  should  have  time  to  join  it. 

The  high  road  of  Charleroi,  traversing  the  forest  of  Charleroi,  divided 
the  plateau  of  Mont  Saint- Jean  and  the  valley  which  separated  the  two 
armies.  A  little  in  the  rear  of  the  English,  and  at  the  very  extreme  of  the 
forest,  stood  the  village  of  Waterloo,  which  was  to  give  its  name  to  the 
disastrous  battle  of  the  morrow.  Wellington  had  very  skilfully  posted 
Position  of  the  n^s  army  on  *ne  plateau  on  each  side  of  the  Brussels  road. 
piam8of°Mont  Trusting  in  the  speedy  arrival  of  the  Prussians  on  his  left, 
he  had  concentrated  the  bulk  of  his  forces  on  his  right  and 
centre,  and  had  occupied  with  a  few  battalions  the  Chateau  d'Hougoumont 
and  the  farms  of  La  Haye-Sainteand  Papelotte,  which  were  in  front  of  his 
position,  and  which,  being  surrounded  by  orchards  and  woods,  formed 
excellent  natural  defences.  His  arrangements  having  been  completed,  he 
held  himself  on  the  defensive,  whilst  Napoleon,  drawing  up  his  army  at 
the  foot  of  the  hill,  prepared  to  attack  him. 

The  Emperor's  plan  was  to  take  in  the  first  place  the  advanced  works, 
Napoleon's  plan  then  to  throw  his  right  wing  against  the  weak  side  of  the 
English  army,  their  left  wing,  to  drive  it  back  upon  their 
centre,  and  to  take  possession  of  the  Brussels  road  by  driving  the  British 
army  into  the  forest  of  Soignies.  Napoleon  reckoned  that  the  arrival  of 
Grouchy  on  his  right,  with  at  least  a  portion  of  his  troops,  would  secure 
the  victory.  This  plan  of  attack,  says  the  historian  of  the  Consulate  and 
Empire,  was  worthy  of  the  genius  which  conceived  it,  and  would  have 
been  crowned  with  success  if  the  Emperor's  lieutenants  had  understood 
and  executed  his  orders.  The  whole  French  army  was  deployed  in  a 
fan-shape,  in  three  lines,  in  front  of  the  English  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  of 
Mont  Saint- Jean.  Ney  commanded  the  first  line,  of  which  Reille's  corps 
occupied  the  left,  supported  by  Kellerman's  cuirassiers,  whilst  D'Erlon 
was  on  the  right,  having  behind  him  the  magnificent  division  of  the 
cuirassiers  under  Milhaud.  Lobau's  corps,  on  the  second  line,  formed 
a  reserve  at  the  centre.  The  infantry  and  all  the  cavalry  of  the  guard, 
posted  on  each  side  of  the  Brussels  road,  formed  the  third  line,  which 
was  less  in  extent,  but  deeper  than  the  two  others.  Seventy  thousand 
French  were  thus  opposed  to  seventy-five  thousand  English,  Dutch,  and 


1814-1815.]  BATTLE    Or    WATERLOO.  433 

Germans.  Wellington  had  his  head- quarters  at  Waterloo,  and  Napoleon 
at  the  farm  of  La  Belle -Alliance,  which  commanded  the  whole  of  the 
position,  and  whence  he  could  conveniently  direct  the  attack. 

It  commenced  by  impetuous  assaults   on  the   advanced  works  which 
covered  the  enemy's  position.     The  wood  of  Hougoumont, 

J       r  m  .  Battle  of  Water- 

On  the  left,  was  first  of  all  carried  by  General  Reille,  and   loo,  June  isth, 

7  J  \  1815. 

desperate  conflicts  took  place  around  La  Haye-Sainte, 
which  was  many  times  taken  and  retaken,  whilst  Count  d'Erlon's  infantry 
attacked  the  English  left.  A  formidable  charge  of  the  English,  Scotch,  and 
Irish  dragoons — the  celebrated  Union  Brigade — penetrated  the  serried 
masses  of  infantry,  took  two  flags,  and  mowed  down  whole  regiments  with 
their  sabres.  The  dragoons,  however,  were  charged  in  their  turn  and 
cut  down  by  the  French  cuirassiers  and  lancers.  Meanwhile,  Ney 
had  taken  La  Haye-Sainte,  and,  excited  by  this  success,  had  asked  of  the 
Emperor  reinforcements,  to  enable  him  to  make  a  decisive  assault  on  the 
plateau  itself,  in  the  centre  of  the  English  army.  But  already,  an  hour 
since,  Napoleon  had  perceived  a  moving  shadow  on  the  edge  of  the  forest 
of  Soignies,  which  he  had  hoped  in  vain  to  be  the  eagerly  longed-for 
troops  of  Marshal  Grouchy.  The  latter,  fatally  misled  in  his  pursuit  of 
the  Prussians,  had  sought  them  on  the  right,  in  the  direction  of  Wavre, 
whilst  they  were  marching  on  the  left  to  join  the  English  at  Mont  Saint- 
Jean.  In  the  meantime  the  sombre  mass  approached,  vomiting  fire  upon 
the  French  troops,  and  turned  out  to  be  a  portion  of  the  Prussian  army, 
the  corps  under  Bulow.  Napoleon  instead  of  one  army  had  now  two  to 
combat,  and,  before  he  could  assist  Ney  on  his  left,  it  was  necessary  that 
he  should  cover  and  fortify  his  right.  Lobau's  corps,  which  was  very 
inferior  in  numbers,  was  ordered  to  check  the  advance  of  the  Prussians. 
The  Emperor,  however,  granted  to  Ney  the  eight  regiments  of  Milhaud's 
cuirassiers,  although  at  the  same  time  he  ordered  him  to  await  his  own 
directions  before  risking  an  attack.  These  fine  regiments  advanced  to 
occupy  the  new  position  which  had  been  assigned  to  them  between  the 
corps  of  Reille  and  d'Erlon,  and  drew  along  with  them,  in  consequence 
of  an  unfortunate  error,  the  whole  of  the  cavalry  of  the  guard.  Ney, 
on  perceiving  this  enormous  and  splendid  mass  of  cavalry  at  his  disposal, 
and  seeing  sixty  pieces  of  English  artillery  ill  protected  before  him, 
anticipated  the  Emperor's  orders,  took  the  cannon,  fell  like  a  tempest 
on  many  squares  of  English  infantry,  and  destroyed  them.     Then,  taking 

VOL.    II.  F    F 


434  BATTLE    OP   WATERLOO,  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  I. 

with  him,  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  their  commander,  Kellerman's 
cuirassiers  and  the  last  squadrons  of  reserve,  he  commanded  and  led 
eleven  furious  charges  against  the  new  squares  of  the  enemy.  He  found 
before  him  living  walls,  which  fell,  half- destroyed,  but  which  he  could 
not  drive  back.  Already  a  multitude  of  servants  and  persons  in  charge 
of  the  baggage  covered  the  road  to  Brussels,  and  cried  out  that  the  battle 
was  lost,  but  Wellington  remained  firm  at  the  head  of  the  third  line, 
and  opposed  a  calm  and  admirable  tenacity  to  Ney's  feverish  impetuosity. 
Infantry  was  necessary  to  Ney  to  enable  him  to  be  victorious,  and  he 
urgently  demanded  it ;  but  the  Prussian  corps  of  Bulow  employed  on  the 
right  all  the  infantry  which  Napoleon  still  possessed,  with  the  exception 
of  some  battalions  of  his  guard.  Napoleon  deplored  the  rashness  of  Ney 
as  much  as  the  absence  of  Grouchy-;  but  as  the  audacity  of  despair  was 
now  prudence,  he  himself  threw  these  heroic  battalions,  his  sole  reserve, 
on  to  the  plateau  on  which  Ney  was  in  peril,  and  thus  made  a  final 
effort  to  obtain  the  victory. 

At  this  moment  fresh  Prussian  columns  debouched  on  the  right. 
Blucher,  who  had  concealed  his  movements  from  Grouchy,  led  them  in 
person.  His  innumerable  cavalry  overflowed  the  plain  and  the  sides  of 
the  hill,  the  theatre  of  this  frightful  struggle,  and,  enveloping  our  last 
battalions,  which  it  isolated  from  each  other,  rendered  the  Emperor's 
charge  impossible.  Wellington  now  took  the  offensive  in  his  turn. 
His  third  line,  which  was  intact,  was  set  in  motion,  and  charged  and  over- 
threw the  remains  of  the  corps  of  Eeille  and  d'Erlon,  and  of  the  French 
cavalry,  which  was  now  but  an  unformed  and  confused  mass.  The  guard 
alone,  formed  in  square,  still  fought  in  the  midst  of  this  moving  sea  of 
men,  horses,  cannon,  and  wreck  of  all  kinds.  Crushed  by  a  storm  of  iron 
and  fire,  riddled  with  shot,  and  summoned  to  surrender,  it  closed  its 
ranks  at  the  very  mouths  of  the  cannon  turned  against  it,  and  hurled 
back  upon  the  English  the  heroic  cry,  "  The  guard  dies,  but  does  not 
surrender !"  And  thus  ended  this  frightful  battle,  which  was  the  funeral 
of  the  First  Empire,  and  in  which  sixty  thousand  men,  killed  or  wounded, 
were  stretched  upon  the  field.  Napoleon,  after  having  vainly  invoked 
death,  and  exposed  himself  as  much  as  the  humblest  soldier  to  shot  and 
ball,  was  borne  away  in  the  general  rout.  He  named  the  city  of  Laon  as 
the  rallying  point  of  the  remains  of  the  army,  and  then  quitted  it, 
returning  to  Paris  to  inform  the  two  Chambers  himself  of  the  disaster 


1814-1815.]  TREASON   OF   FOUCHE.  435 

of  Waterloo,  and  to  concert  with  them  the  means  of  defending  the  French 
territory. 

Already  sinister  rumours  of  the  battle  of  the  18th  of  June  had  circu- 
lated through  the  capital  when  Napoleon  arrived  at    the   Returnof^a  0. 
Palace  of  the  Elysee,  and,  whilst  he  was  consulting  with   leontoI>ans' 
his    brothers    and  his  Ministers,   the  Elective  Chamber  commenced    its 

sittings.     The  bearing  of  the  representatives,  already  ill- 
Resolutions  of 
disposed  towards  Napoleon,  was   sombre  and  threatening,   the  chamber  of 

Representatives. 

Secretly  instigated  by  Fouche,   who,    whilst  he  was   the 
Emperor's  Minister,  betrayed  him  and  treated  with  Louis  XVIII.,  the 
representatives   persuaded  themselves    that   Napoleon  was  ,. 

about  to  dissolve  them.  Lafayette  shared  in  this  fear,  Fouche. 
and,  ascending  the  tribune,  he  laid  before  the  Chamber  a  plan  which 
would  secure  to  the  Chamber  freedom  of  debate,  and  concentrate  in 
them  the  sovereign  power.  This  plan  was  accepted,  and  the  Chamber 
decided,  on  the  demand  of  Lafayette,  that  every  attempt  to  dissolve  it 
should  be  treated  as  a  crime  of  high  treason,  and  invited  the  Ministers  to 
join  it.  These  resolutions  were  also  adopted  by  the  Chamber  of  Peers. 
Seeing,  in  the  next  place,  that  Napoleon  was  the  only  obstacle  to  peace 
with  the  Allied  Powers,  who  were  ready  to  march  upon  Paris,  the  re- 
presentatives, secretly  instigated  by  Fouche,  expressed  a  wish  that 
the  Emperor  should  abdicate,  and  threatened,  in  case  he  should  refuse, 
to  decree  his  dethronement.  Napoleon  saw  his  friends  themselves  in  a 
state  of  consternation.  The  population  of  the  faubourgs  alone  still 
greeted  his  ears  with  the  cry  of  "  Vive  1'Empereur  !"  mingled  with 
furious  outcries  against  foreigners  and  traitors ;  but  Napoleon  could  not 
resolve  to  summon  them  to  his  aid,  and  to  sully  his  glory  by  letting  them 
loose  against  the  representatives  of  the  nation.  He  rejected,  to  his 
great  honour,  the  advice  of  those  who  urged  him  to  attempt  another  1 8th 
Brumaire,  and  signed  a  second  abdication  in  favour  of  his 
son.  He  did  not  deceive  himself,  however,  with  respect  to  second  abdica- 
the  efficacy  of  this  act,  and  perceived  that  the  crown  which 
he  could  not  retain  on  his  own  powerful  brow  would  not  pass  to  his  son, 
a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  Austria,  a  feeble  infant  who  seemed  to  have 
only  lived  to  render  his  father's  fall  more  inevitable  and  rapid,  by 
offering  to  all  a  spurious  pretext  for  deserting  the  Emperor  without 
betraying  the  cause  of  the  Empire.     The  Chamber  accepted  the  Act  of 

f  f  2 


436  NAPOLEON    SURRENDERS    TO    ENGLAND.        [BOOK  IV.  Chap.  I. 

Abdication,  but  nevertheless  avoided  declaring  themselves  in  any  abso- 
lute manner  for  Napoleon  II.,  and  formed  a  Government  composed  of  the 
Ministers  Carnot  and  Fouche,  Duke  of  Otranto,  Generals  Caulaincourt 
and  Grenier,  and  the  old  Conventionalist  Quinette.  Fouche,  who  had 
betrayed  the  Emperor,  was  appointed  President  of  this  Provisional 
Government. 

Napoleon  quitted  Paris,  and  from  Malmaison,  to  which  he  retired,  he 
turned  his  eyes  towards  America.  Behind  him  innumerable  enemies  pre- 
cipitated themselves  upon  France ;  the  roads  to  Paris  were  open,  and  the 
English  and  Prussians  entered  them,  leaving  a  dangerous  interval  between 
their  columns.  Napoleon  followed  on  the  map  their  rash  course.  He  knew 
that  Grouchy's  corps,  which  had  lost  itself  in  pursuit  of  the  Prussians  on 
the  occasion  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  had  remained  intact,  that  it  had 
returned,  and  that  in  a  few  days  a  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  men 
might  be  assembled  under  his  command,  and  cut  oif  the  enemy's  retreat. 
His  warlike  genius  was  once  more  aroused  ;  he  wrote  to  the  Provisional 
Government  that  he  had  conceived  an  infallible  plan  for  the  defeat  and 
annihilation  of  the  enemy,  and  asked  to  be  allowed  to  fight  them  as  a 
simple  general  only.  This  offer,  however,  was  rejected,  and  the  Emperor 
resigning  himself  to  the  necessity  of  quitting  France,  proceeded  towards 
Rochefort,  under  the  protection  of  General  Becker.  But  the  English 
cruisers  blockaded  the  port,  and  there  appeared  no  chance  that  Napoleon 
would  be  able  to  escape  them.  And  now,  giving  way  to  a  strange  illu- 
sion, he  flattered  himself  that  a  noble  confidence  on  his  part  would 
triumph  over  political  exigencies,  and  he  wrote  to  the  Prince  Regent  to 
demand  of  him  to  be  allowed  to  sit,  like  another  Themistocles,  at  the 
hearth  of  the  British  people,  under  the  protection  of  their  laws ;  and  then 
.embarked  with  his  suite  on  board  the  English  vessel,  the 
renders  to  the       Bellerophon,,     His  letter  was  left  unanswered ;  but   orders 

English.    He  is  . 

conveyed  to  were  sent   to   conduct   the   illustrious  suppliant   to    oaint 

Saint  Helena. 

Helena,  and  he  was  almost  immediately  conveyed,  for  the 
repose  of  the  world,  to  the  rock  which  was  to  be  his  prison  and  his  tomb. 
And  thus  disappeared  this  wonderful  man,  for  the  last  time,  from  the 
political  stage  ;  leaving  behind  him  a  great  void,  in  which  soon  clashed 
together  various  and  irreconcilable  interests,  the  shock  of  which  was 
long  productive  of  a  frightful  turmoil,  even  as  the  sinking  of  a  great 
vessel  causes  the  waters  to  surge  from  their  very  depths. 


1815-1820.]  PROCLAMATION    OT?    LOTUS    XYTII.  43* 


CHAPTER  II. 

FROM    THE    CAPITULATION    OF    PARIS    AND    THE    RETURN    OF   LOUTS    XVIII.    TO 
THE  CAPITAL,    TO    THE    FALL    OF    THE    MINISTER    DECAZES. 

3rd  July,   1815— 20th  February,  1820. 

The  Allies  a  second  time  opened    France  to    the    Bourbons.       Louis 
XVIII.,  in  a  proclamation  of  the  28th    of   June,    dated    „    , 

x  '  Proclamation  ot 

from  Cambrai,  said,  "  I  come  a  second  time  to  recall  my  Loui8  xvni. 
misled  subjects  to  their  duty,  to  assuage  the  evils  which  I  could 
have  wished  to  prevent,  and  to  place  myself  a  second  time  between 
the  allied  armies  and  the  French,  in  the  hope  that  the  regard  which 
I  believe  to  be  felt  for  me  may  turn  to  their  profit.  I,  who  have 
never  promised  falsely,  promise  to  forgive  my  misled  subjects  all  that 
has  taken  place  since  the  day  when  I  quitted  Lille,  in  the  midst  of  so 
many  tears,  to  the  day  when  I  re-entered  Cambrai  in  the  midst  of  so 
many  acclamations.  But  the  blood  of  my  children  has  been  made  to 
flow  by  means  of  a  treason  such  as  the  world  has  never  yet  witnessed, 
and  the  authors  of  this  horrible  plot  will  be  pointed  out  to  the  Chambers 
as  fit  objects  for  the  vengeance  of  the  law." 

Louis  XVIIL,  however,  had  not  yet  been  proclaimed  in  the  capital. 
The  French  army,  consisting  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men  and 
five  hundred  pieces  of  cannon,  encamped  under  the  walls  of  Paris,  and 
the  Chamber  of  Representatives  continued,  amidst  the  clamour  of  arms,  to 
discuss  abstract  constitutional  theories,  and  to  establish  guarantees  for 
the  freedom  of  the  nation.  The  English  and  the  Prussians  had,  as  we 
have  seen,  rashly  advanced,  leaving  behind  them  a  triple  line  of  for- 
tresses, and  the  victory  might  still  have  been  disputed.  Filled  with  the  idea 
however,  of  the  horrible  fate  to  which  a  fresh  reverse  might  subject  the 
capital  of  France,  the   Chambers  and  the  head  of  the  Government  judged 


438  PRUSSIAN    BRUTALITIES    IN   PARIS.      [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

it  more  prudent  to  negotiate   than  to  fight,  and  on  the  3rd   of  July  a 

capitulation  or  military  convention  was   signed  at   Saint- 
Surrender  of  .    .  .  . 
Paris,  July  3,      Cloud  by  three   commissioners,  m  the  name  of  the  Jrrovi- 

1815. 

sional  Government,  and  by  Wellington  and  Blucher,  the 
generals  in  command  of  the  English  and  Prussian  forces.  By  this  con- 
vention it  was  agreed  "  that  the  French  army  should  evacuate  Paris,  and 
retire  behind  the  Loire,  that  private  property  should  be  respected,  and 
public  property  also,  with  the  exception  of  such  as  was  connected  with 
war,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  at  the  time  of  its  capitulation  should 
be  in  no  way  disturbed  or  annoyed  in  respect  to  their  affairs,  their  con- 
duct, or  their  political  opinions." 

On  the  8th  July  the  King  once  more  entered  Paris.  Talleyrand  was 
made  president  of  the  new  ministry,  and  the  regicide  Fouche,  who,  by 
betraying  Napoleon,  had  greatly  conduced  to  the  return  of  Louis  XVIII., 
was  rewarded  by  a  place  in   the  Council   and  the  portfolio   of    police. 

Lists  of  Two  lists   of  proscribed  persons  were  immediately  drawn 

proscription.-  Up  anj  published  in  a  celebrated  decree  dated  the  24th  of 
July.  By  one  of  them  seventeen  generals  and  officers  were  summoned 
before  a  military  tribunal ;  whilst  the  other  contained  the  names  of  thirty- 
nine  persons  who  were  to  be  under  the  surveillance  of  the  police  until 
the  Chambers  should  have  come  to  a  decision  respecting  them.  Carnot 
was  amongst  them,  and  Fouche,  his  colleague  in  the  ministry  of  the 
Hundred  Days,  signed  the  lists  of  proscription. 

The  allied  troops  had  entered  the  capital  before  the  King,  and  their 
angry  bearing  gave   reason  to  believe  that  they  imagined 

Return  of  the 

allied  troops  to  that,  this  time,  they  had  entered  it  less  by  virtue  of  a 
treaty  than  by  right  of  conquest,  and  from  the  first  day 
every  one  could  understand  how  great  were  the  evils  which  this  second 
invasion  had  drawn  upon  France.  The  Prussians,  especially,  regarded 
with  ferocious  looks  the  monuments  which  were  the  trophies  of  the 
French  victories,  and  it  required  a  noble  resistance  on  the  part  of  Louis 
XVIII.  to  preserve  the  bridge  of  Jena  from  their  brutal  violence.  In- 
sulting at  once  the  public  mourning  and  braving  its  resentment,  an 
insolent  order  of  the  day  issued  by  General  Muffling,  the  governor  of 
Paris,  directed  the  sentinels  to  fire  upon  any  who  should  offend  them  by 
word,  gesture,  or  look.     M.  Decazes,  prefect  of  police,  had  this  barbarous 


1815-1820.]  THE    ARMY   DISBANDED.  439 

order  torn  down,  and  this  act  of  courage  became  the  source  of  his  high 
elevation.     In  spite  of  the  capitulation  the  museums  were    piUageoftlie 
pillaged ;  every  State,  every  city  in  Europe  demanded  the   museums- 
restoration  of  the  pictures  and  statues  of  which  they  had  been  despoiled, 
and  Paris  beheld  with  stupefaction  the  works  of  art  which  had  been  paid 
for  by  French  blood  seized  and  carried  off. 

The  army  of  the  Loire  being  at  this  time  a  source  of  continual  terror 
to  the  invaders,  the  latter  demanded  its   disbandment.     It 

,  ...  ,  n.1-I  .  1  Disbandment  of 

lowered  its  eagles  and  laid   down  its  arms  at  the  order  of  the  army  of  the 
Marshal  Macdonald,  and  no  disorders  accompanied  its  re- 
turn to   its  hearths.     Gouvion  Saint-Cyr,    the  Minister  for   War,  then 
planned  the  creation  of  a  new  army,  and  it  was  at  this  period  that  took 
place  the  organization  of  the  Royal  Guard. 

The  composition  of  the  Chambers  underwent  important  modifications. 
The  peerage,   which  in    1814  was  hereditary  or  for  life, 

New  composition 

according  to  the  will  of  the  monarch,  was  rendered,  in  Au-    of  the  two 

„  .       ■  .  Chambers. 

gust,  1815,  entirely  hereditary.  Many  peers  of  the  first 
restoration  who  had  sat  during  the  Hundred  Days  were  deprived  of  their 
positions,  and  the  King  nominated  ninety-two  new  ones.  A  decree  dated 
the  13th  of  July  submitted  many  articles  of  the  charter  to  the  revision  of 
the  legislative  power,  and  convoked  the  electors  on  the  following  14th  of 
August  for  the  purpose  of  electing  a  new  Chamber  of  Deputies.  The 
elections  were  to  be  made  in  two  stages,  by  Cantonal  Colleges  and  De- 
partmental Colleges.  The  old  electoral  lists  were  filled  up  at  the  will  of 
the  prefects  ;  a  great  number  of  old  Knights  of  Saint  Louis    TT1,  ... 

U  1l1"3»"  xCCVV&AlSt 

were  arbitrarily  appointed  electors,  and  transmitted  to  the  electlons°t*i8i5. 
new  Chamber  the  violent  reactionary  spirit  by  which  thev  were  them- 
selves animated.  Most  of  the  elected  members  belonged,  in  fact,  to  the 
class  called  Ultra-Royalist,  and  joined  the  Chamber  not  only  with  ideas 
most  hostile  to  the  Revolution,  but  also  with  a  desire  for  vengeance,  and 
with  the  confidence,  too  often  rash,  inspired  by  victory  after  a  cruel 
defeat. 

It  was  now  that  became  manifest  the  inextricable  difficulties  in  which 
the  Government  of  the  Restoration  was  involved.  Whilst  blaming  the 
reactionary  Chamber  of  1815,  we  must  not  confound  with  the  mass  of 
passionate  men  who  formed  its  majority  the  superior   minds  which  en- 


440  duke  of  richeliett's  ministry.      [Book  IV.  Chap.  II. 

deavoured,  by  inspiring  it  with  their  own  ideas,  to  bestow  upon  Prance 
an  organization  founded  on  elevated  principles,  but  which  had  ceased  to 
be  in  harmony  with  the  manners  and  interests  of  the  greater  number. 
_  Vi.   ,       .».       Men   of  talent   and  of  high   character,   such  as  Messieurs 

Political  parties.  °  ' 

whoSandthe  Bonald,  Bergasse,  and  Montlosier,  figured  at  the  head  of  the 
Liberal  school.  loyalist  school,  the  doctrines  of  which  they  formulated  in 
their  writings.  This  school  based  its  political  system  less  on  the  rights  of 
the  people  than  on  tradition  and  facts  consecrated  by  time.  The  Liberal 
school,  on  the  contrary,  regarded  liberty  as  the  natural  possession  of 
human  nature,  and  based  its  theories  on  logic  and  the  general  will.  The 
especial  object  of  the  first  of  these  schools  was  to  extend  the  influence  of 
the  aristocracy  and  the  clergy  ;  whilst  the  second,  as  regarded  in  its  best 
aspect,  had  for  its  aim  to  bestow  upon  the  greatest  possible  number  of  men 
the  social  advantages  and  rights  which  had  formerly  only  belonged  to  a 
limited  number  of  privileged  individuals.  There  was,  therefore,  a  re- 
ciprocal and  invincible  opposition  between  the  fundamental  opinions  of 
the  Royalists  and  those  of  the  Liberals,  and,  at  a  period  when  there  were 
so  many  bitter  memories  in  men's  minds,  it  was  very  difficult  to  establish 
a  stable  order  of  things  in  France,  under  a  dynasty  connected  by  its  past, 
its  affections,  and  even  by  gratitude,  to  the  men  whose  principles  were 
rejected  by  the  new  generation.  The  struggle  between  the  two  parties 
lasted  fifteen  years,  and  commenced  in  1815.  Each  appealed  to  what  was 
obscure  and  ill-defined  in  the  charter,  either  with  the  object  of  destroying 
it  or  of  exacting  from  it  more  than  it  really  promised.  The  Royalists  at 
first  had  the  advantage.  It  was  difficult  for  Talleyrand  to  maintain  his 
position  in  a  Chamber  fraught  with  the  resentments  of  the  Hundred  Days, 
and  the  Duke  de  Richelieu  was  ordered  to  form  a  new  Cabinet. 

This  statesman,  a  friend  of  the  Emperor  Alexander,  whose  life  had 
been  passed  almost  entirely  abroad,  had  acquired  in  his  government  of 
Odessa  a  great  administrative  reputation ;  he  was  but  slightly  acquainted 
with  France  and  the  mode  of  action  proper  in  a  representative  govern- 
ment, but  he  often  supplied  what  he  wanted  in  this  respect  by  the  inspira- 
tion of  an  upright  and  generous  heart.  President  of  the  Council  and 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  he  selected  as  his  colleagues — 

Composition  of  °  '  °'  ' 

the  Ministry  of      M  Barbe-Marbois  as  Minister  of  Justice ;   M.  de  Vaublanc 

the  Duke  de  7 

Richelieu.  an{}  subsequently  M.  Laine,  as  Minister  of  the  Interior  ;   M. 

Dubouchage  as  Minister  of  Marine ;  and  M.  de   Corvetto   as  Minister  of 


1815-1820.]        EEANCE    AT    THE    MEECT    OF   THE    ALLIES.  441 

Finance.  The  direction  of  the  police  was  entrusted  to  M.  Decazes  ;  and 
Clarke,  Duke  de  Feltre,  was  for  some  time  Minister  for  War,  being  suc- 
ceeded by  the  illustrious  Gcuvion  Saint-Cyr.  In  May,  1816,  M.  Barbe- 
Marbois  retired,  when  the  Ministry  of  Justice  was  temporarily  given  to 
M.  Dambray,  Chancellor  of  France,  who  was  succeeded  by  Baron  Pasquier, 
a  member  of  the  preceding  Cabinet  under  the  presidency  of  M.  de  Talley- 
rand. About  the  same  time  M.  Mole  succeeded  M.  Dubouchage  as 
Minister  of  Marine.  The  position  of  affairs  was  deplorable  and  difficult. 
France,  entirely  disarmed,  seemed  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  European 
powers,  and  the  latter  only  sought  how  to  turn  their  victory  to  its  ruin. 
The  division  of  our  territory  was  the  subject  of  the  secret  deliberations  of 
their  Ministers,  and  the  draught  of  a  treaty  on  the  subject  was  drawn  up. 
Louis  XVIII.  was  informed  of  the  fact,  and  a  copy  of  the  proposed  treaty 
was  clandestinely  obtained  and  submitted  to  his  inspection.  The  Monarch, 
who  was  wanting  neither  in  dignity  nor  patriotism,  was  exceedingly  in- 
dignant, and  demanded  an  interview  with  the  Emperor  Alexander  and 
Wellington.  "  My  lord,"  he  said  to  the  latter,  "  I  believed  when  I  re- 
entered France  that  I  was  to  reign  over  the  kingdom  of  my  ancestors  ;  it 
appears  that  I  was  deceived,  and  I  cannot  remain  here  under  any  other 
conditions.  Will  your  Government  consent  to  receive  me  if  I  seek  an 
asylum  in  England  V  There  was  greatness  of  soul  in  these  words  of  the 
old  King,  and  Alexander,  deeply  moved,  exclaimed,  "  No !  no !  your 
Majesty  shall  not  lose  your  provinces;  I  will  not  allow  it!" 

The  powers  renounced  the  project  of  partition,  and   M.  de  Richelieu 
hastened  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  which  finally  defined 
the  burdens  and  sacrifices  which  they  imposed  on  France.    20th  of  Novem- 
Their  demands  were  reduced  to  five  heads — 1st.  The  cession 
of  the  territory  comprising  the  fortresses  of  Philippeville,  Marienburg, 
Sarrelouis,  and  Landau;   2nd.  The    demolition   of  the    fortifications    of 
Hunningen ;    3rd.    The   payment   of    an   indemnity   of  seven   hundred 
millions,  without  prejudice  to  the  debts  due  from  the  French  Government 
to  the  private  persons  of  all  the  States  of  Europe ;   4th.  The  restoration 
of  the  department  of  Mont   Blanc  to  the  King  of  Sardinia ;   5th.  The 
occupation  between  three  and  five  years,  if  the  allies  should  think  fit,  of 
a  line  along  the  French  frontiers  by  an  army   of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  men,  to  be  supported  by  France.     This  sad  treaty  was  signed 
on  the  20th  November,  1815. 


442  civil  waes.  [Book  TV.  Chap.  II. 

The  insolent  tyranny  and  cruel  demands,   supported  by  a  million  of 
„.  .,  foreign  troops,  were  not  the  only  evils  which  France  had  to 

Civil  wars.  or?  j 

Massacres  in  the  suffer  m  consequence  of  the  disastrous  events  of  the  Hun- 
Assassinations.  ^re(j  j)ayS  Several  departments  of  the  south  were  long  a 
prey  to  civil  war  and  a  bloody  anarchy ;  and  this  fatal  period  was  also 
distinguished  by  some  horrible  assassinations.  After  the  battle  of  Water- 
loo free  companies  assailed  Marseilles,  gave  themselves  up  to  the  most 
furious  excesses,  and  massacred  a  corps  of  Mamelukes  who  were  in  garri- 
son within  its  walls.  A  ferocious  mob  murdered  Marshal  JBrune  at 
Avignon ;  and  the  brave  General  Ramel  was  assassinated  at  Toulouse. 
In  the  department  of  Gard  the  reaction  manifested  itself  under  an  appear- 
ance of  religious  fanaticism ;  and  at  Nimes,  at  Uzes,  and  other  places, 
assassins  ran  through  the  streets  in  the  open  day,  crying  out,  "  Death  to 
the  Protestants  !"  Monsters  led  on  by  a  Trestaillon,  a  Trupheme,  and  a 
GrafTan,  renewed  the  massacres  of  the  2nd  September,  massacred  the  Cal- 
vinists  even  in  the  prisons,  outraged  their  wives,  and  burned  their  houses ; 
and  all  these  atrocities  remained  unpunished,  although  committed  before 
the  very  eyes  of  the  local  authorities.  The  Government,  powerless  to 
repress  them,  long  remained  silent  on  the  subject,  and  the  Chamber  of 
1815  called  to  order  deputy  d'Argenson,  who  demanded  an  enquiry  into 
them.  The  voice  of  justice  and  humanity  arose  from  a  foreign  House  of 
Assembly.  Lord  Brougham  invoked  the  intervention  of  the  English 
Government  in  favour  of  the  Protestants  in  France,  and  the  English 
Parliament  was  moved  by  his  indignant  accents.  In  many  places  intended 
victims  were  only  saved  from  the  butchers  by  Austrian  bayonets.  At 
Nimes  General  Lagarde  was  assassinated  by  the  ruffians  whom  he  en- 
deavoured to  restrain,  and  a  prince  of  the  royal  family,  the  Duke 
d'Angouleme  had  twice  to  hasten  to  this  desolated  city  before  he  could 
succeed,  by  firmness  and  prudence,  in  stopping  the  effusion  of  blood.  The 
session  was  opened  on  the  7th  October,  and  the  Chamber  of 

The  Legislative 

session,  1815—  Deputies,  which  received  the  name  of  introuvable,  gave  a 
free  vent  to  its  violent  and  reactionary  passions.  Opposed 
to  the  immense  majority  in  this  Chamber,  at  the  head  of  which  were 
Messieurs  Villele,  Corbiere,  and  La  Bourdonnaye,  was  a  minority  of  sixty 
members,  led  by  Messieurs  Serre,  Eoyer-Collard,  and  Pasquier,  who 
eloquently,  though  vainly,  opposed  most  of  the  acts  of  this  too  famous 
session.     The  Chamber  demanded  exceptional  laws,  which  were  adopted 


1815-1820.]  EXECUTION    OE   NEY.  443 

as  soon  as  presented.     One  of  these  suspended  individual  liberty,  another 
punished  seditious  cries  with  transportation,  and  a  third  sub- 
jected periodical  publications  to  the  censorship ;  Provostal   actionary 

,,.,,,,  1#1.  ,       measures  of  the 

Courts  were  established  from  which  there  was  no  appeal ;    chamber  of 

Deputies. 

and  finally,  on  the  discussion  of  a  law  of  amnesty,  Messieurs 
La  Bourdonnaye  and  Duplessis-Gr6nedin  proposed  to  form  various  cate- 
gories of  criminals  which  might  be  arbitrarily  made  to  include  many 
thousands  of  Frenchmen.  The  committee  directed  to  make  a  report 
respecting  this  law  sanctioned  the  plan  of  categories,  as  well  as  that  by 
which  it  was  proposed  that  the  war  contribution  imposed  by  the  allies 
should  be  defrayed  by  confiscations.  It  proposed,  moreover,  through  its 
speaker,  M.  de  Corbiere,  that  the  regicides  should  be  excluded  from  the 
amnesty.  The  two  first  projects  were  rejected  by  very  small  majorities, 
but  the  Chamber  adopted  the  last,  and  condemned  to  perpetual  banish- 
ment the  regicides  who  had  signed  the  "  Acte  Additionnel,"  or  who  had 
been  employed  by  the  Government  of  the  Hundred  Days.  This  measure 
touched  Fouche  himself,  who  was  then  the  French  Ambassador  at  Dresden' 
and  who  died  in  exile. 

Bloody  executions  preceded  the  passing  of  this  vote  of  amnesty.     The 
young  La  Bedoyere  was  the  first  victim  ;  and  after  him  Ney, 

Execution  of  La 

the  bravest  of  the  brave,  invoked  in  vain  before  the  Chamber    Bedoyere  and  of 

Marshal  Ney. 

of  Peers  the  benefit  of  the  capitulation  of  Saint-Cloud ;  he 
was  condemned  to  death  and  executed. 

Lavalette,  Director- General  of  the  Posts  during  the  Hundred  Days,  only 
escaped    capital   punishment    through  the  devotion  of  his      Escape  of 
wife    and   the    aid    of    three    generous    Englishmen    who      Lavalette- 
favoured  his  escape.     When  the  Chamber   of  Deputies  learned  that  he 
had  eluded  its  grasp  it  burst  out   into  menaces  against  the  ministers, 
whom  it  held  responsible  for  the  event. 

In  the  course  of  the  year  1816  many  persons  who  had  been  mentioned 
in  the  decree  of  the  24th  of  July  were  arrested  and  tried.    Numeroug  eon. 
The  brothers  Faucher,  of  La  Reole,  both  generals,  insepa-    iSfSS* 10 
rable  in  death  as  in  life,  were  shot  at  Bordeaux ;   Generals     or  ure' 
Mouton-Duvernet  and  Chartrand  suffered   the  same  punishment ;    and 
General  Bonnaire,  still  more  unfortunate,  had  to  bear  a  gross  degrada- 
tion.    Some  others,  Lefebvre-Desnouette,  the   two  brothers  Lallemand, 
Rigaud  and  Savary,  were  condemned  to  death  par  contumace.     About  the 


444  PEOPOSED    ELECTOEAL    LAW.        [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

same  time  a  vast  conspiracy  was  the  cause  of  much  bloodshed  at  Gre- 
noble.    A  practised  intriguer,  named  PaulDidier,  hoisted  the  tricoloured 
Didier's  plot  at   flag  ostensibly  in  the  name  of  Napoleon  II.,  but  really  with 

Grenoble 

the  object  of  substituting  the  Duke  of  Orleans  for  Louis 
XVIII.  He  got  together  a  band  of  peasants  and  endeavoured  to  raise 
Grenoble,  which  was  under  the  command  of  General  Donnadieu,  who 
speedily  put  down  this  mad  attempt.  Under  his  orders  moveable  columns 
spread  terror  through  the  country,  and  made  numerous  prisoners, 
twenty-five  of  whom,  after  having  been  tried  by  a  provostal  court,  were 
put  to  death.  In  several  departments  the  reactionary  spirit  manifested 
itself  in  disgraceful  acts  of  violence  and  odious  scandals.  In  the  Gard, 
for  instance,  the  court  of  assizes  acquitted  the  assassin  of  General  Lagarde, 
Trestaillon,  and  his  accomplices,  whilst  the  councils  ^  of  war  passed  sen- 
tence of  death  against  many  Protestants  suspected  of  Bonapartism. 

The  Chamber,  amidst  all  this  bloodshed,  continued  to  advance  towards 
the  achievement  of  its  objects,  which  were,  first,  the  reestablishment  of 
legitimate  royalty  on  its  old  basis ;  second,  the  formation  of  local  inde- 
pendent administrations,  so  organized  as  to  give  great  influence  to  the 
territorial  and  ecclesiastical  interests ;  third,  the  creation  by  law  of  a 
powerful  territorial  aristocracy ;  fourth,  the  reestablishment,  financially 
and  politically,  of  the  French  clergy. 

If  this  Chamber  had  proposed  to  itself  to  diminish  the  excess  of  ad- 
ministrative centralization  by  establishing  a  new  order  of  things  in  har- 
mony with  the  new  and  legitimate  interests  created  by  the  Revolution 
and  the  progress  of  time,  its  object  would  have  been  worthy  of  praise. 
But  it  was  not  so.  It  desired  to  build  up  a  political  and  social  system 
which  should  be  entirely  in  favour  of  the  old  aristocracy  and  the  influence 
of  the  clergy  ;  and  hence  it  resulted  that  its  aims  could  only  be  produc- 
tive of  struggles  which  had  no  useful  or  durable  result. 

Amongst  the  laws  submitted  to  the  Chambers  by  the  Government  none 
Proposed  elec-  seemed,  an(^  with  good  reason,  more  important  than  the  elec- 
toral law.  toral  law.  The  law  proposed  by  the  ministers  retained  the 
indirect  system  of  election,  and  the  cantonal  and  departmental  colleges 
gave  votes  to  a  multitude  of  officials,  and  renewed  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  by  fifths.  If  this  plan  were  adopted  the  Government  would 
have  the  supreme  influence  over  the  elections.  A  committee  appointed 
by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  of  which  M.   de  Villele  was  the  mouth- 


1815-1820.]  THE   REACTIONARY   PARTY.  M5 

piece,  made  important  modifications  in  this  plan  proposed  by  the  Govern- 
ment, and,  subject  to  these  modifications,  the  Chamber  adopted  it;  but 
the  Chamber  of  Peers  rejected  it,  and  the  electoral  law  was 

Its  rejection. 

therefore  lost.     The  reactionary  tendencies  of  the  majority 
reappeared  in  the  discussion  on  the  budget. 

The  elective  chamber,  in  spite  of  a  formal  engagement  entered  into 
by  the  King  in  the  previous  year,  deprived  the  State  creditors  of  the  best 
guarantee  for  the  payment  of  their  debts,  by  declaring  that  the  State 
forests  should  not  be  alienated,  and  that  the  church  should  recover  pos- 
session of  the  property  not  yet  sold  which  had  belonged  to  the  old  clergy 
of  France. 

A  series  of  measures  tinged  with  the  same  spirit  was  voted  or  pro- 
posed by  the  majority.  The  law  of  divorce  was  abolished ;  the  clergy 
were  authorized  to  accept  every  species  of  gift ;  and  finally,  it  was  pro- 
posed to  place  the  university  under  the  superintendence  of  the  bishops, 
and  to  bestow  the  civil  registrarships  upon  the  parish  priests. 

The  prudent  resistance  which  the  King  opposed  to  the  hastiness  of  the 
elective  chamber  was  odious  to  the  members  of  the  majority.  Louis  was 
suspected  by  them  ;  they  openly  accused  him  of  revolutionary  tendencies  ; 
boasted  that  they  were  more  royalist  than  himself,  and  leagued  themselves 
with  the  members  of  his  own  family  for  the  purpose  of  opposing  and 
frustrating  his  wishes.  It  was  this  chamber  which  first  appealed  to  the 
example  of  England  when  claiming  a  species  of  omnipotence  for  the 
legislative  power,  and  attempting  to  reduce  the  monarch  to  a  position 
which  was  afterwards  described  in  the  celebrated  maxim — "  The  King 
reigns,  but  does  not  govern." 

The   King  had  announced,  on  his  return  from  Ghent,  that  thirteen 
articles  of  the  charter  would  be  submitted  for  revision,  and  it  was  evident 
that  the  chamber  intended   to  make  this  a  pretext  for   annihilating  the 
charter  altogether.     The  Count  d'Artois  and  his  friends  of  Influetlce  of the 
the  Pavilion  Marsan,  who  accused  the  King's  government    cSofthfre-' 
of  being  too  Liberal  in  1814,  and  who  imputed  to  this  cause    ac  lonary  Party- 
the  catastrophe  of  the  Hundred  Days,  shaped  the  course  pursued  by  the 
Chamber  in  1815.     The  Prince  already  exercised  a   great  influence  by 
means  of  a  society  which  was  at  the  same  time  political  and  religious,  the 
ramifications    of  which    extended   from  the    court    to  the  depth   of  the 
provinces.     To  this  first  and  skilful  organization  he  added  the  no  less 


446  MABEIAGKE    OF    THE   DUKE    DE    BEEEI.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II, 

powerful  one  of  the  National  Guard ;  all  the  inspectors  and  all  the 
officers  of  which  immense  body  were  selected  by  himself  from  amongst 
the  extreme  royalists.  France  now  found  herself  pursuing  a  course  con- 
trary to  her  new  institutions,  and  the  representative  monarchy  was  itself 
in  peril. 

Listening,  therefore,  to  the  suggestions  of  his  own  reason,  and  the 
earnest  advice  of  the  ministers,  Richelieu,  Decazes,  and  Laine,  Louis 
Decree  of  Sep-  XVIII.  issued  the  famous  decree  of  the  5th  September, 
tember  5, 1816.  ^^h  dissolved  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  fixed,  according 
to  the  text  of  the  Constitution,  the  number  of  deputies  at  two  hundred 
and  sixty,  and  declared  that  no  article  of  the  charter  should  be  revised. 
This  decree  was  a  thunderbolt  for  the  violent  portion  of  the  reactionary 
party,  who  received  it  with  indignation  and  rage.  M.  de  Chateaubriand, 
the  most  eloquent  and  enlightened  member  of  this  party,  and  the  only 
member  of  it,  perhaps,  who,  relying  upon  legitimacy  as  the  foundation 
of  the  social  order,  sincerely  desired  the  maintenance  of  the  Constitution, 
replied  to  the  decree  of  September  by  "  The  Monarchy  according  to  the 
Charter,"  a  work  which  created  a  great  sensation  in  Europe,  and  caused 
its  author's  disgrace.*  The  command  of  the  National  Guard  was  taken 
from  Count  d'Artois,  and  the  result  of  the  new  election  was  such  as 
answered  the  hopes  of  the  ministry. 

Shortly  before  he   confirmed  his  authority  by  the  decree  of  the  5th 

Marria  e  of  the    September,  the  king  had  endeavoured  as  far  as  possible  to 

Duke  de  Bern.     secure  khe  perpetuity  of  his  race,  and  had  demanded  for  his 

nephew,  Charles  Ferdinand,  Duke  de  Berri,  the  hand  of  the  Princess 

Marie  Caroline  de  Bourbon,  daughter  of  the  King  of  the  Two  Sicilies. 

The  marriage  was  celebrated  in  the  month  of  June,  1816. 

In  the  meantime  the  miseries  of  the  country  were  at  their  height. 
Oppressed  by  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  foreign  troops,  who,  distributed 
amongst  her  fortresses,  overburthened  it  with  ruinous  charges,  and  torn  by 
domestic  factions,  France  had,  in  addition,  to  bear  the  horrors  of  famine. 
The  continual  rains  of  1816  inundated  the  plains,  destroyed  the  hopes  of 
the  farmers,  and  spread  contagious  diseases  amongst  the  cattle.    All  these 

*  "  In  this  celebrated  work,"  says  the  author  of  a  recent  and  excellent  history  of  this 
period,  "  the  most  advanced  principles  of  modern  Liberalism  were  strangely  allied 
with  ideas  the  most  repugnant  to  new  France," — Viel-Castel,  "  History  of  the 
Restoration." 


1815-1820.]  NEW   ELECTORAL    LAW.  447' 

calamities  failed  to  stifle  the  explosions  of  political  hate,  and  in  the  year 
1817  the  late  tragic  scenes  of  Grenoble  were  reproduced  at 

T  n  _,  .  .    _  ..  .  1  Disturbances  at 

.Lyons,  where  General  Ganuei  was  m  command,  and  where    Lyons.    More 
a  conspiracy  was  discovered.       The   voice    of  vengeance, 
rather  than  of  justice,  was  heard  at  the  trial  of  the  accused,  and  the 
political  scaffold  was  inundated  with  blood. 

A  new  concordat  had  been  signed  at  Eome,  through  the 
exertions  of  M.  de  Blacas,  the  French  ambassador  to  the    seEk^m***' 

•  •  1818 

sovereign  pontiff.     This  treaty  considerably  extended  the 
number  of  bishoprics,   which  had  been  fixed  at  fifty  by  the  concordat 
made  with  Napoleon ;  but  a  law  on  the  subject  being  presented  to  the 
Chambers,  was  rejected,  and  the  king  limited  the  number  of  bishops  to 
that  of  the  departments. 

Some  political  laws  were  adopted  in  the  course  of  this  session,  and 
one  of  them  fixed  certain  prudent  limits  to  the  law  passed  in  the  previous 
session,  which  suspended  individual  liberty.  But  the  most  Eleetoral  Law 
important  legislative  act  of  this  session  was  the  electoral  1817' 
law,  which,  for  the  first  time  since  the  restoration,  sanctioned  a  legal 
course  in  the  nomination  of  deputies.  It  established  direct  elections,  and 
fixed  the  qualifications  of  electors  at  three  hundred  francs,  and  of  those 
eligible  for  election  at  a  thousand  francs.  The  Chamber  was  to  be 
renewed  by  fifths,  and  there  was  to  be  but  one  college  for  each  depart- 
ment. This  law,  proposed  by  the  Government,  was  adopted ;  it  was  the 
greatest  concession  which  had  yet  been  made  to  the  constitutional  spirit, 
and  its  results  proved  the  extreme  nature  of  the  difficulties  by  which  the 
reigning  dynasty  was  surrounded.  The  discussion  of  the  budget  was 
stormy,  and  the  Government,  which  was  vehemently  opposed  on  this 
point  by  MM.  Villele  and  Bonald,  proposed  to  give,  as  a  dotation  to  the 
caisse  d'amortissement,  the  150,000  hectares  of  woods  which  a  previous 
majority  had  given  to  the  clergy.  Four  millions  of  rents,  only,  secured 
by  the  old  property  of  the  church,  which  still  remained  unsold,  were 
voted  for  the  clergy  as  an  indemnity  for  what  they  had  lost.  The 
Chamber  of  Peers  ratified  this  plan;  and  two  days  later,  on  the  26th 
March,  the  session  was  closed. 

Laws  of  great  importance  were  introduced  in  the  following  year. 
France  possessed  at  this  period  an  army  only  in  name ;  volunteers 
but  ill  supplied  the  voids  in  our  legions,  and  there  was  an  urgent  necessity 


448  THE    ARMY    KEOKGANTZED.         [BOOK  IV.  Chap.  II. 

for  reestablishing  the  military  forces  of  the  kingdom  on  a  respectable 

footing.       Marshal   Gouvion   Saint- Cyr,    Minister     for    War,    proposed 

for  this  object  the  law  of  recruits.     Its  principal  objects 

Law  on  the  or- 
ganization of  the    were  to  restore  the  law  of  conscription  as  it  prevailed  under 

army.  L  x 

the  empire,  to  deprive  the  King  of  the  unlimited  power  of 
granting  commissions,  of  which  a  third  were  to  be  given  to  non-com- 
missioned officers,  and  to  render  promotion  very  greatly  dependent  on 
seniority.  This  law  was  contrary  to  the  article  of  the  charter  which 
abolished  the  conscription  throughout  the  kingdom ;  but  it  nevertheless 
greatly  softened  for  young  soldiers,  as  well  as  their  families,  the  odious 
rigours  of  the  Imperial  conscription,  and  its  necessity  being  generally 
felt,  it  was  adopted.  Individual  liberty  ceased  to  be  suspended,  but  the 
periodical  press  remained  subject  to  the  censorship.  By  means  of  an 
artifice,  however,  which  took  from  many  journ'als  their  periodical 
character,  men  of  talent  were  enabled  to  express  their  party  views  almost 
unshackled.        The    Liberal    and     Eoyalist     opinions     had     for    their 

principal  organs,  respectively,  La  Minerve  and  La  Conser- 
and  the  Con-     vateur.      The    spirited    pens  of  Benjamin    Constant,  Jay, 

servateur.  .  . 

Etienne,  and  de  Jony,  secured  the  immense  success  of 
the  first  of  these  publications,  and  the  second  owed  its  popularity  to 
the  talents  of  MM.  Chateaubriand,  de  Lamennais,  and  Fievee. 

The  two  sets  of  opinions  by  which  France  was  now  so  unequally 
divided,  seemed  to  become  from  day  to  day  more  irreconcilable.  The 
Ultra-Royalist  party  testified  the  most  bitter  resentment  against  the 
decree  of  the  5th  September,  and  its  irritation  increased  when  the  King, 
on  the  urgent  representation  of  M.  Decazes,  deprived  the  Count  d'Artois 
of  all  real  authority  over  the  National  Guard,  of  which  he  was  only 
allowed  to  retain  the  honorary  command.  This  measure  raised  a  fresh 
storm  against  its  author,  and  the  Ultra-Royalists  unanimously  demanded 
either  the  dismissal  of  the  ministry  or  serious  alterations  in  its 
composition. 

The  illustrious  head  of  the  cabinet,  the  Duke  de  Richelieu,  deserved 
ftte  well  of  his  country  at  this  time,  by  successfully  employing 
fqktoSSrte  n^s  influence  with  Alexander  and  his  allies  for  the  purpose 
French  territory.  0f  obtaining  the  prompt  withdrawal  of  the  foreign  troops 
from  the  French  soil.  This  measure,  moreover,  was  nearly  being 
adjourned  in   consequence  of  an  imprudent  and  unfortunate  step,  which 


1815-1820.]  THE    ALLIES    QUIT    FRANCE.  449 

was  disavowed  by  all  the  prudent  men  of  the  Royalist  party,  and  the 
author  of  which  was  one  of  the  confidants  of  the  Count  d'Artois,  M.  de 
Vitrolles,  a  Minister  of  State,  and  a  zealous  conductor  of  the  first  nego- 
tiations which  led  in  1814  to  the  return  of  the  Bourbons.  At  the  insti- 
gation of  the  Prince,  M.  de  Vitrolles  wrote  a  memoir  addressed  to  the 
allied  sovereigns  and  their  ministers,  in  which  he  expressed  the  most 
serious  anxiety  with  respect  to  the  internal  state  of  the  kingdom. 
"  Everything  was  to  be  feared,"  he  said,  "  from  the  explosion  of  revolu- 
tionary passions  as  soon  as  the  allied  armies  should  have  been  withdrawn, 
if  their  retreat  should  not  be  accompanied  by  a  change  in  the  ministry, 
and  the  dismissal  of  those  of  its  members  who  had  exacted  from  the 
King  the  decree  of  the  5th  of  September,  and  the  dissolution  of  the 
Chamber  of  1815."  This  memoir,  entitled  "  A  Secret  Note,"  came  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  Minister  of  Police,  M.  Decazes,  who  published  it  in  the 
Government  journals,  invoking  the  condemnation  of  France  upon  the 
party  by  which  it  had  been  dictated,  and  showing  that  that  party  was  in 
favour  of  the  occupation  of  France  by  foreign  troops.  Nothing  contri- 
buted more  than  this  Secret  Note  to  increase  the  distance  which  separated 
the  independents  or  Liberals  from  the  Royalists,  and  to  render  the 
Bourbons  unpopular  by  representing  them  as  possessing  their  crown 
at  the  will  of  foreigners,  and  only  retaining  it  by  the  aid  of  their 
support. 

The  useful  influence  of  M.  de  Eichelieu  combated  the  evil  effects  pro- 
duced on  the  minds  of  the  allied  sovereigns  by  the  memoir  of  M.  de 
Vitrolles.  Thanks  to  him,  the  Emperor  Alexander  and  his  allies, 
assembled  in  conference  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  consented  to 

Evacuation  of 

evacuate  the  French  fortresses  and  to  recall  their  armies,    France  by  the 

foreign  armies. 

and  fifteen  millions  of  stocks  inscribed  in  the  great  book  of 

the   public    debt    sufficed   to    liquidate    the    debt   which    France    owed 

abroad.     Shortly  after  this  great  event,  which  distinguished 

n  .  .  Resignation  of 

the  year  1818,  and  to  which  M.  de  Richelieu  had  the  glory   the  Luke  de 

•■"''.".  .  .'.'-.«'  Kichelieu.     Hia 

of  attaching  his  name,  that  Minister  gave  in  his  resigna-    disinterested  - 

ness. 

tion,  believing  as  he  did  that  he  ought  to  retire  in  favour 
of  the  popular   names  of  Manuel   and  Lafayette,  which    had   recently 
issued  from  the  electoral  urn.     In  return  for  the  services  which  he  had 
rendered  to  his  country,  the  Chambers  voted  him  a  gift  of  fifty  thousand 
livres  of  stocks ;   but   although'  Richelieu  had  no  fortune  he  declined  to 

VOL.    II.  6S 


450       BESIGOTATION  OF  THE  DUKE  DE  EICHEL1EU.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

accept  for  himself  this  magnificent  reward.*  He  was  at  the  head  of  the 
Government  at  a  very  difficult  period,  and  the  imperious  force  of  circum- 
stances frequently  compelled  him  to  be  deaf  to  his  own  generous 
impulses.  On  quitting  the  head  of  affairs  he  left  behind  him  the  repu- 
tation of  a  man  of  honour,  whose  character  was  superior  to  all  the  dig- 
nities and  lofty  functions  which  he  had  filled.  Alarmed  at  the  result  of 
the  last  elections,  which  were  for  the  most  part  in  favour  of  the  Liberals, 
he  had  expressed  a  desire  that  the  Ministry  should  form  an  alliance  with 
the  Right  of  the  Chamber, j"  and  that  the  law  of  elections  should  be 
modified.  His  wishes  in  this  respect  were  not  shared  either  by  M. 
Decazes,  who  was  then  in  high  favour  with  Louis  XVIH.,  or  by  some 
others  of  his  colleagues.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  new  session,  having  declared  itself'  energetically  in  its 
address  to  the  King  against  any  modification  of  the  electoral  law,  the 
retirement  of  the  President  of  the  Council  was  decided.  The  Chamber  of 
Peers,  however,  on  the  proposition  of  one  of  its  members,  M.  Barthe- 
lemy,  one  of  the  proscribed  directors  of  the  18th  Fructidor,  voted  a 
resolution  in  favour  of  a  change  in  the  electoral  law.  This  resolution, 
which  was  vehemently  opposed  by  the  ministers  and  Eoyer-Collard,  was 
rejected  by   the  deputies.      The   conflict   between  the    two    Chambers 

*  The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  nohle  letter  sent  by  Richelieu  on  this  occa- 
sion to  the  President  of  each  of  the  two  Chambers  : — 

"Monsieur  le  President, — 

"  I  am  too  proud  of  the  testimony  of  good-will  bestowed  upon  me  by  the 
King,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  two  Chambers,  to  think  of  declining  to  accept  it ; 
but  I  learn  from  the  journals  that  it  is  intended  to  bestow  upon  me,  at  the  expense  of 
the  State,  a  national  recompense.  I  cannot  prevail  upon  myself  to  allow  the  burdens 
by  which  the  kingdom  is  already  oppressed  to  be  increased  on  my  account.  If,  during 
my  ministry,  I  have  been  able  to  do  any  service  to  France,  and  to  contribute  to  the 
release  of  its  territory  from  foreign  occupation,  I  am  not  the  less  distressed  at  the 
knowledge  that  my  country  is  oppressed  by  enormous  debts.  Too  many  calamities 
have  fallen  upon  it,  too  many  of  its  citizens  have  suffered  misfortunes,  and  it  has  still 
too  many  wounds  to  heal,  for  me  to  suffer  my  own  fortunes  to  be  increased  at  its 
expense.  The  esteem  of  my  country,  the  good-will  of  the  King,  and  the  testimony  of 
my  own  conscience,  are  sufficient  recompense  for  M.  Richelieu." 

In  spite  of  this  letter  the  Chambers  voted  M.  de  Richelieu  a  dotation  of  fifty  thousand 
livres  of  stocks,  which  he  accepted  as  a  national  reward,  and  then  transferred  as  an 
endowment  to  the  hospitals  of  Bordeaux. 

f  The  Right  side  of  the  Chamber  was  that  on  which  sat  the  extreme  members  of  the 
Royalist  party.  The  extreme  members  of  the  Liberal  party  sat  opposite  them  on  the 
left.  The  moderate  members  of  each  party  formed  two  great  factions,  which  were 
named  the  Right  and  Left  Centre. 


1815-1820.]  DISSOLUTION   OF    THE    CABINET.  45i 

became  day  by  day  more  virulent,  and  it  appeared  urgently  necessary 
for  the  purpose  of  reestablishing  quietude  in  the  bosom  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, to  dissolve  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  or  to  modify  the  votes  of  the 
Chamber  of  Peers. 

Several   members  of    the  Cabinet,   MM.  Laine,  Mole,   Pasquier,  and 
Roy,*   withdrew  with  the   Duke   of    Richelieu ;    and  the 
King,  at  the   suggestion  of  M.  Decazes,  appointed  General    £e  CabinS  °afnd 
Dessolle   President   of    the    Council.      M.   Serre    received   SjfiS^' 
the    seals,  and  Marshal  Gouvion    Saint-Cyr  retained   the   SeBBoiiefis'is. 
portfolio  for  war.     M.  Louis  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
finances,  and  M.  Portal  at  the  head  of  the  marine.     M.  Decazes  obtained 
the  portfolio  of  the  Interior,  and  was  in  reality  the   head  of  the  new 
Ministry.     The  result  of  the  elections  of  1817  and  1818  was  to  give  a 
majority  to  the  moderate  Libera]  party,  and  it  was  to  be  feared  that 
there  would  no  longer  be  any  species  of  harmony  between  it  and  the 
Chamber  of  Peers. 

Relying  on  the  support,  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  of  the  Left,  which 
gave  it  a  Liberal  and  constitutional  majority,  the  Ministry    Legislative  Ses- 
presented  in  the  course  of  the  session  several  laws  favour-    S10n' 
able  to  the  public  liberties ;    the  most  important  of   which  were  those 
referring;  to  the  press  and  the  journals,  the  independence  of  T 

or  j  7  r  Law  respecting 

which  had  been  hitherto  provisionally  suspended.  They  thePress- 
were  proposed  by  M.  Serre,  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  and  tended  to  secure  the 
liberty  of  the  press,  whilst  at  the  same  time  guaranteeing  the  mainte- 
nance of  order  and  the  public  peace.  The  first  of  these  proposed  laws 
authorized  the  free  publication  of  all  non-periodical  writings,  whilst  at  the 
same  time  it  declared  every  attack  on  good  morals  to  be  punishable.  Two 
others  contained  the  regulations  to  be  enforced  in  the  case  of  periodical 
publications  and  journals,  in  respect  to  which  M.  Serre  was  content  to 
demand  the  registration  of  the  names  of  the  proprietors  and  responsible 
editors,  and  the  deposit  of  a  moderate  security.  The  principal  articles 
of  those  proposed  laws  prohibited  the  anticipatory  seizure  of  journals  and 
periodicals,  and  referred  to  the  judgment  of  a  jury  all  crimes  committed 
through  the  press,  with  the  exception  of  libels  against  private  persons, 
which  remained  subjects  of  inquiry  by  the  correctional  police.  No  one, 
finally,  was  to  be   allowed  to  prove  the  truth  of  defamatory  allegations, 

*  M.  Koy  had  shortly  before  replaced  M.  Corvetto  as  Minister  of  Finance. 

G   G   2 


452  FACTIONS    OE    THE    LIBERALS.        [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

except  in  cases  in  which  they  were  made  against  persons  acting  in  a 
public  character.  This  latter  article,  which  rendered  persons  in  autho- 
rity responsible  to  all  for  the  manner  in  which  they  performed  their 
duties,  was  supported  by  Royer-Collard,  especially,  with  the  most  vehe- 
ment eloquence.  ...  "  If  you  determine,"  he  said,  "  that  it  is  not  to  be 
permitted  to  tell  the  truth  with  respect  to  the  acts  of  the  public  autho- 
rities, you  will  consequently  decide  that  society  does  not  belong  to  itself, 
that  it  is  the  property  of  officials,  and  that  they  possess  it  as  they  might 
possess  a  feudal  territory.  .  .  .  If  you  reject  this  article,  you  must  either 
resolve  that  for  the  future  you  will  have  no  history,  or  at  least  must  fix 
a  certain  number  of  years  after  which  it  will  be  lawful  to  speak  the  truth 
with  respect  to  the  actions  and  the  words  of  public  men.  But  to-day  the 
nature  of  our  Government  and  the  necessities  of  the  nation  demand  that 
our  history  should  every  day  commence  for  us,  and  that  posterity  should 
be  our  public."  The  three  laws  proposed  by  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals 
were  adopted,  after  an  animated  discussion,  by  a  large  majority  in  each 
Chamber. 

The  state  of  the  nation  now  began  to  be  tranquil ;  foreign  troops  no 
longer  encumbered  its  soil ;  commerce,  industry,  and  agriculture  flou- 
rished, and  public  credit  began  to  revive;  everything,  in  fact,  gave 
promise  of  a  happy  future.  But  party  spirit  was  still  ardent  and  im- 
placable. The  Royalists  refused  any  species  of  alliance  with  the  sincere 
Constitutionalists,  and  were  unwilling  to  make  the  slightest  liberal  con- 
cession ;  whilst  the  Liberals,  for  their  part,  knew  not  how  to  be  patient, 
and  compromised  the  future  for  the  sake  of  obtaining  a  temporary 
triumph.     There  were  many  distinct  factions  in  the  bosom 

Different  factions       r>1T-ii  i  •  *»      i  • 

of  the  Liberal        of  the  Liberal  party,  the  most  violent  of  which  was  the  revo- 

party. 

lutionary  party,  which,  looking  upon  the  Bourbons  as  the 
irreconcilable  enemies  of  the  Revolution,  hoped  to  overthrow  them. 
The  deputies  belonging  to  this  party  sat  at  the  extreme  Left  in  the  Cham- 
ber, whilst  at  the  Left  Centre  were  the  Constitutionalists,  who  holding 
above  all  things  to  the  guarantees  given  by  the  charter,  believed  that  in 
its  rigorous  observance  alone  lay  the  safety  of  France.  In  the  bosom  of 
the  latter  party  there  existed  a  small  group  of  men  whose  political 
opinions  were  based  on  certain  theories  of  an  elevated  and  abstract 
nature,  and  who  allied  themselves  with  the  wiser  members  of  the  Right, 
refusing  to  regard  the  rights  of  the  crown  as  distinct  from  those  of  the 


1815-1820.]  ELECTION   OE    LIBEBALS.  453 

country,  and  considering  them  as  equally  inviolable.  The  members  of  this 
party  were  named  the  Doctrinaires,  and  the  most  prominent  The  D 
of  them  were  MM.  Eoyer- Collar d,  de  Broglie,  Camille  Jor-  trmaires. 
dan,  and  de  Barante,  in  the  Chambers,  and  M.  Guizot  in  the  press.  The 
Ministry,  during  the  legislative  session  of  1818  and  1819,  was  constantly 
in  harmony  with  this  party.  Towards  the  end  of  that  session,  however, 
a  violent  rupture  took  place  between  the  Cabinet  and  the  extreme  portion 
of  the  Liberal  party.  Many  petitions  had  been  presented  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  the  formal  revocation  of  all  the  exceptions  made  in  the  last 
law  of  amnesty.  The  object  of  these  petitions  was  to  obtain  the  recall  of 
all  who  had  been  banished,  not  by  means  of  individual  pardons  such  as 
were  frequently  solicited  and  obtained,  but  by  a  general  act  of  the 
legislature.     M.  Serre  rejected  those  petitions  which  sought 

T-i  n  •!  Eejectionofa 

to    open  France  to    all  who  had  been  proscribed  without   petition  in  favour 

-!•••  i  •  -ri  r>i  ••!  °^  *ke  exiles. 

distinction,  and  exclaimed,    "  In  the  case  of  the  regicides, 
never  !"      This  expression  deeply  irritated  the  Left  of  the  Assembly,  and 
was  the  first  sign  of  the  complete  rupture  which  soon  took  place  between 
M.  Decazes  and  the  independent  or  Liberal  party.     In  the  same  session 
the  budget  was  first  divided  into  two  distinct  laws,  that  of  ^ 

°  '  Expenses  and 

expenses,   and  that  of  receipts.      The  first  were  fixed  at   receiPts- 
a  sum  of  eight  hundred  and  sixty-nine  million  four  hundred  and  sixteen 
thousand   francs,   and  the  latter  were  estimated  at   eight  hundred  and 
ninety-one  million  four  hundred  and  thirty -five  thousand  francs.     The 
legislative  session  was  closed  on  the  17th  of  July,  1819. 

The  elections  which  took  place  in  this  year  for  the  renewal  of  the  third 
series  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  were  chiefly  made  under    T.,     .  ,    .. 

1  '  J  Liberal  elections, 

the  ever-increasing  influence  of  the  Liberal  party.     The    1819, 
electors  yielded,  as  too  often  happens,  to  the  suggestions  of  violent  and 
passionate  men.     Many  of  the  members  chosen  were  openly  hostile  to  the 
Bourbons,  and  the  name  of  the   Conventionalist  Gregoire    ^,    ,.      „ 

7  °  Election  of 

was   one   of   those    drawn  from  the   urn.*     The  Koyalist   Gr^»oire>  1819« 
party    uttered    a    cry   of    horror,    and    repulsed    Gregoire    from    the 
Chamber. 

Seriously  alarmed  at  the  result  of  the  elections  and  at  the  imperious 
demands  of  the  Liberals,  Louis  XVIII.  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  his 

*  The  Abbe  Gregoire  was  an  old  Conventionalist  bishop  of  Blois,  who  in  the  first 
sitting  of  the  Convention  had  demanded  the  abolition  of  royalty. 


454  ASSASSINATION   OF   THE    DUKE   DE    BEERI.       [EOOK  IV.  CHAP.  II. 

brother  and  family,  and  resolved  to  modify  the  electoral  law ;   and  M. 
M  D         ,  Decazes,  now  considering  as  necessary  what  he  had  some 

opSn°and  months  before  looked  upon  as  useless  and  dangerous, 
thTsfiht WardS  thought  he  should  best  forward  the  monarch's  views  by 
withdrawing  from  the  Left  and  allying  himself  with  the 
Right  Centre.  This  frequent  oscillation  according  to  the  necessities  of 
the  moment,  to  which  was  given  the  name  of  "  see-sawing,"  although  often 
useful  on  the  part  of  a  king,  could  not  but  compromise  the  character  of 
a  Minister  under  a  constitutional  government.  Several  of  the  colleagues 
of  M.  Decazes  understood  that,  if  they  could  no  longer  persevere  in  the 
line  of  conduct  on  which  they  had  entered,  they  should  give  in  their 
resignations ;  they  did  so,  and  retired  with  the  public  esteem.  These 
were  Messieurs  Dessolle,  Louis,  and  Gouvion  Saint-Cyr,  who  were  re- 
placed by  MM.  Pasquier  for  foreign'  affairs,  Roy  for  the 

Modification  of  _    ,       _  _  _ 

the  Cabinet.  management  of  the  finances,  and  Latour-Maubourg  for  war. 

M.  Decazes  , 

President  of  the    M.  Decazes  formed  the  new  Cabinet,  and  received  the  title 

Council. 

of  President  of  the  Council.  His  course  of  conduct,  which 
had  become  undecided  and  wavering,  irritated  the  Liberals  without  con- 
ciliating the  Royalists ;  and  the  latter  never  relaxed  in  their  attacks  until 
a  frightful  event  enabled  them  to  overthrow  him,  and  transferred  the 
government  to  their  hands. 

The  Duke  de  Berri,  second  son  of  Count  d'Artois,  was  assassinated  on 

the  evening  of  the  13th  of  February,  1820,  as  he  was  leaving 
the  Duke  de         the  opera,  by  a  wretch  named  Louvel.     He  lived  but  a 

Berri,  1820.  .    . 

few  hours  after  receiving  the  fatal  wound,  and  expired  in 
the  arms  of  the  royal  family,  pardoning  his  murderer.  This  prince,  who 
was  endowed  with  noble  qualities,  and  had  been  married  but  a  few  years  to 
a  young  princess,  the  grand- daughter  of  the  King  of  Naples,  had  been  looked 
on  as  the  last  hope  of  the  eldest  branch  of  the  Bourbons.*  His  death, 
the  results  of  which  were  at  once  foreseen,  spread  terror  throughout  Paris 
and  all  France.  The  Royalists  held  M.  Decazes  responsible  for  it,  and  one 
deputy,  M.  Clausel  de  Coussergues,  even  carried  party  passion  so  far  as  to 
accuse  him  of  the  crime  at  the  tribune.  In  vain  did  the  Minister,  for  the 
purpose  of  appeasing  his  enemies,  hasten  to  submit  to  the  Chambers  ex- 
ceptional laws  directed  against  individual  liberty,  and  against  the  press, 

*  Louis  XVIII.  had  no  children,  and  the  marriage  of  the  eldest  of  his  nephews,  the 
Duke  d'Angouleme,  with  the  daughter  of  Louis  XVI.  was  sterile. 


1815-1820.]  EICHELIETJ   AGAIN   MINISTER.  455 

as  well  as  a  new  law  for  the  regulation  of  elections.  He  was  unable  to 
quell  by  these  means  the  storm  on  the  Eight,  whilst  he  raised  another 
tempest  against  him  on  the  Left.  Royalists  and  Liberals  combined  to 
bring  about  his  fall.  He  still  resisted,  for  his  power  was  rooted  in  the 
affection  felt  for  him  by  the  monarch ;  but  the  Count  d'Artois  and  the 
Duchess  d'Angouleme  so   earnestly  demanded  of  the  latter 

.  FallofM.De- 

the  dismissal  of  his  favourite,  that  their  wishes  were  at  last   cazee,  and  second 

Ministry  of  the 

granted.      M.  Decazes  received  a  dukedom,  and  the   em-    DukedeRiehe- 

°  .       lieu,  1820. 

bassy  to  London,  and  M.  de  Richelieu  accepted  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Cabinet,  which  retained  all  its  members  with  the  exception 
of  its  head,  and  in  which  M.  Simeon  replaced  M.  Decazes  as  Minister  of 
the  Interior. 

The  greater  portion  of  Europe  was  at  this  time  in  a  state  of  violent 
effervescence,  and  the  prediction  expressed  by  the  celebrated 
saying,  "The  French  Revolution  will  make  the  tour  of  the    effervescence  in 

Europe. 

world,"  seemed  about  to  be  verified.  The  convulsive  move- 
ments which  had  so  long  agitated  France  extended  far  and  wide,  and  its 
volcanic  shocks  made  themselves  felt  from  the  shores  of  the  ocean  to 
those  of  the  Adriatic.  The  European  sovereigns  had  induced  their 
peoples  to  share  their  own  hatred  for  Napoleon  by  flattering  their  love  of 
independence,  and  promising  them  liberal  institutions  as  a  reward  for  a 
vigorous  resistance  to  the  encroachments  of  the  French  Emperor.  But 
when  the  struggle  was  over,  when  the  common  enemy  had  been  crushed, 
they  saw  danger  in  those  very  sentiments  by  means  of  which  they  had 
lately  obtained  such  powerful  support ;  forgot  their  promises ;  refused  to 
their  subjects  the  concessions  demanded  by  the  progress  of  time  and 
the  advance  of  the  popular  intelligence ;  and  exerted  themselves  to  the 
utmost  to  stifle  or  to  punish  their  subjects'  liberal  tendencies.  Thus, 
Ferdinand  VII.  appeared  to  have  only  returned  to  Spain  for 
the  purpose  of  chastising  a  portion  of  those  who  had 
defended  his  throne.  He  had  promised,  not  the  maintenance  of  the  Con- 
stitution drawn  up  by  the  Cortes  of  Cadiz  in  1812,  and  studded  with  the 
defects  of  the  French  Constitution  of  1791,  but  the  gift  of  institutions  in 
accordance  with  the  enlightenment  of  the  people,  and  favourable  to  the 
public  liberties.  He  had  scarcely,  however,  resumed  the  crown  after 
having  escaped  from  the  prison  of  Valencay,  when  he  reestablished  the 
Inquisition,  reigned  without  constitutional  control,  and  behaved  like  t 


456  DISTURBED    STATE    OE    EUEOPE.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IT. 

despot  towards  the  most  distinguished  men  of  his  kingdom — the  Martinez 

de  la  Rosas,  the  Torrenos,  and  the  Arguelles — whom  he   exiled  to  the 

burning  rocks  of  Africa  ;  whilst  his  defenders  found  themselves  mixed  up 

in  the  same  prisons  with  the  partisans  of  King  Joseph,  against  whom  they 

had  fought.     The  army,  deprived  of  its  best  officers,  revolted,  and  the 

Isle  of  Leon  was  the  first  scene  of  the  insurrection  which  burst  forth,  in 

January,  1820,  amongst  the  troops  intended  to  subdue  the  Spanish  colonies 

of  South  America.     Catalonia  arose  almost  at  the  same  time  at  the  voice 

of  Mina  ;  Galicia  had  already  proclaimed  the  Constitution  of  the  Cortes ; 

and  the  insurrection  spread  in  succession  to  every  city.     Finally,  Count 

d'Abisbal,  who  was  sent   to  fight  the  rebel  army  of  the   Isle  of  Leon, 

hoisted  the  same  flag  as  it  at  Ocana.     Madrid  received  the  news  of  this 

event  with  enthusiasm,  and  Ferdinand,  having  no  other  alternative  but  to 

abdicate  or  to  swear  to  maintain  the   Constitution,  swore  to  maintain  it. 

Arguelles,  Torreno,  and  Martinez  de  la  Eosas  passed  suddenly  from  the 

prisons  of  Africa  to  the  Council  Chamber  of  the  monarch,  and  inaugurated 

their  Government  by  abolishing  the  Inquisition  and  suppressing  the  order 

of  Jesuits  in  Spain.     The  Government  was  without  resources,  and  decreed 

the  sale  of  the  immense  possessions  of  the  monks,  the  result  of  which  was 

that  sixty  thousand  religious  persons  actively  excited  the  populace  against 

it.     The  contre-coup  of  this  vast  movement  made  itself  felt 

in  Portugal.     This  kingdom,  since  the  flight  of  the  family 

of  Braganza,  and  during  the  war,  had  been   subjected  to  an   English 

Regency,  which  governed  it  as  though  it  had  been  a  colony  of  the  British 

isles.     The  Portuguese,  aroused  by  a  feeling  of  nationality,  drove  away 

the  English  authorities,  and  recalled  their  old  sovereign,  John  IV.,  who 

left  the  Regency  of  the   Brazils  to  his  son,   Don  Pedro,  and  returned  to 

reign  over  his  old  subjects,  at  the  price  of  accepting  a  liberal  charter  drawn 

up  on  the  model  of  the  Spanish  Constitution. 

Italy,  groaning  under  the  Austrian  sceptre,  was  equally  agitated.  In 
every  portion  of  that  kingdom  there  were  formed  societies  of  Freemasons 
and  Carbonari,  linked  together  by  the  determination  sooner  or  later  to 
free  their  country  from  foreign  domination,  and  to  form  the  various  States 
of  the  peninsula  into  a  federal  Republic.  The  kingdom  of 
Naples  was  in  a  state  of  the  greatest  excitement.  Ferdinand 
IV.  had  recovered  in  1815  the  sceptre  of  that  country,  where  Murat,  after 
the  battle  of  Waterloo,   had  been  taken  and  shot.     There,  also,  secret 


1815-1820.]  DISTURBED    STATE    OE    ETTBOPE.  457 

societies  plotted  a  political  revolution,  and  the  signal  for  it  appeared  at  the 
town  of  Nola.  The  Bourbon  regiment  sallied  forth  from  the  barracks  of 
that  town  on  the  2nd  July,  1820,  with  flying  ensigns,  and  with  cries  of 
"  Vive  la  Constitution  !"  Two  other  regiments  joined  it,  the  Carbonari 
gathered  in  masses,  and  General  Pepe  raised  the  capital.  At  his  summons 
the  people  invested  the  palace,  and  proclaimed  the  Constitution  of  the 
Spanish  Cortes.  Ferdinand  IV.  and  his  son  adopted  it,  and  swore  to 
maintain  it.  This  revolution  in  Sicily  was  accompanied  by  frightful 
massacres. 

Whilst  Europe  thus  .burst  forth  in  revolution  in  the  south,  there  was 
great  agitation  in  Prussia  and  the  Northern  States  of  Ger- 

Germany. 

many,  which  in  vain  awaited  the  liberal  institutions  which 
had  been  promised  by  their  respective  sovereigns.  No  satisfaction  being 
granted  to  actual  necessity  and  legitimate  desires,  guilty  passions  were 
aroused,  and  stirred  society  to  its  depths.  Everywhere,  in  fact,  where 
princes  refused  to  their  peoples  political  liberties  and  a  national  represen- 
tation, conspirators  formed  plots  and  secret  assassinations.  It  was  in  the 
name  of  liberty  and  equality  that  their  members  banded  together,  and 
what  they  demanded  was  a  political  and  social  revolution.  A  violent 
demagoguism  inflamed  the  universities.  The  poet  Kotzebue,  the  defender, 
in  his  writings,  of  the  rights  of  monarchs,  fell  at  this  period  beneath  the 
dagger  of  the  young  Charles  Sand,  who  had  distinguished  himself  in  the 
war  of  German  independence.  Tens  of  thousands  of  voices  enthusias- 
tically repeated  the  name  of  the  assassin,  and  tens  of  thousands  of  hearts 
vowed  to  worship  his  memory.  The  revolutionary  fever  which  overran 
the  Continent  threatened  England  also,  and  spread  rapidly  in  the  East, 
where  it  aroused  from  their  long  lethargy  the  descendants  of 
the  Greek  heroes.  There,  at  least,  the  insurrection  was 
really  a  movement  in  favour  of  freedom.  Its  object  was  the  deliverance 
of  Christian  Greece  from  the  foreign  yoke  of  the  Mussulmans  ;  the  genius 
of  Miltiades  and  Themistocles  reawoke  in  its  ruined  cities  after  a  slumber 
of  two  thousand  years,  and  the  cry  of  patriotism  and  liberty,  springing 
from  the  walls  of  Souli  and  the  rocks  of  Epirus,  already  awoke  the  echoes 
of  Marathon  and  Salamis. 


458  THE    HOLT   ALLIANCE.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FROM    THE    FALL    OF    THE    MINISTER    DECAZES   TO    THE    DEATH    OF    LOUIS   XVIII. 

IWi  February,   1820— 16th  September,  1824. 

Three  absolute  monarchs,  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  the  Czar,  and  the 
The  Holy  Alii-      King  of  Prussia,  had  signed  in  1815  a  treaty  famous  under 

the  name  of  the  Holy  Alliance,  by  which  they  undertook 
to  base  their  mutual  relations  on  the  most  sacred  'principles  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  to  have  no  other  objects  in  their  policy  but  the  interests  of 
their  subjects,  the  maintenance  of  religion,  peace,  and  justice.  This 
treaty  had  appeared  after  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  and  its  real  object  was 
the  repression  of  the  revolutionary  spirit,  which  had  displayed  itself  in 
every  direction  in  a  manner  very  threatening  to  social  order.  M.  de 
Metternich,  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  his  master,  convoked 

with  this  object,  at  Carlsbad,  a  congress  at  which  were  pre- 
Carifbadandof  sent  all  the  members  of  the  Germanic  Confederation,  and 
Powers  given  to     at  which  he  himself  exercised  a  sovereign  influence.     This 

the  Germanic  ..  .  _  1         1  _ 

Diet.  1820, 1821.    congress  took  energetic   measures  ior  the  destruction   ot 
secret  societies,  and  armed  the  Diet  with  formidable  powers 
for   the  exercise    of  an   active    surveillance    and   the   establishment   of 
rigorous  police  regulations  in  the  various  States  which  were  members  of 
the  Germanic  body,  without  reference  to  their  particular  constitutions. 
A  few  months  afterwards  the  sovereigns  of  Eussia,  Austria,  and  Prussia 
consulted  together  at  Troppau  in  Silesia,  on  the  means  of  stifling  the 
Congress  of       revolution  in  Spain,  Portugal,  and  the  kingdom  of  Naples. 
Laybach,  1820.    j>euig  assembled  at  a  later  period  at  a  new  Congress  at 
Laybach,  they  invited  the  old  King  of  Naples,  Ferdinand  IV.,  to  pro- 
ceed thither  to  join  them. 

Whilst  the  three  allied  sovereigns  thus  set  themselves  in  direct  opposi- 

Legislative        ^on  to  tne  revolutionary  spirit,  France  was  enduring  the 

ession,  1820.     unfortunate  consequences  of  some  of  the  elections  of  1819, 


1820-1824.]  NEW   ELECTOEAL   LAW.  459 

and  the  fatal  catastrophe  of  February,  1820.  M.  de  Richelieu  supported 
in  the  Chamber  the  exceptional  laws  presented  by  M.  Decazes,  the 
first  of  which  suspended  individual  liberty.  In  speaking  against  this  law 
General  Foy  uttered  these  eloquent  words — "Let  us  act," 
he  said,  "  so  that  the  profit  of  a  sublime  death  be  not  lost  £S?SJL^W 
to  the  royal  house  and  the  public  morality ;  and  so  that  uber°y  and'cenf 
posterity  may  not  be  able  to  cast  upon  us  the  reproach,  ^Laf  ° 
that  at  the  funeral  obsequies  of  a  Bourbon  the  liberty 
of  the  citizens  was  immolated  to  serve  as  a  hecatomb."  His  efforts,  and 
those  of  the  whole  Left  of  the  Chamber,  were  powerless,  and  individual 
liberty  was  again  suspended.  The  second  exceptional  law  presented  by 
the  Minister  reestablished  for  a  year  the  censorship  of  the  journals. 
Eoyer- Collar d,  in  the  course  of  the  discussion  of  this  law,  poured  forth 
the  grief  and  terror  which  he  felt  at  seeing  the  Government  depart  from 
the  course  on  which  it  had  entered  by  the  decree  of  the  5th  of  September, 
and  abandon  the  moderate  Liberals  for  their  opponents.  He  could  expect 
nothing  but  disorder  and  confusion  from  this  change  of  tactics  on  the 
part  of  the  Government.  "  Anarchy,"  he  said,  <"  which  had  been  driven 
from  society  by  the  universally  felt  necessity  for  order  and  repose,  had 
found  refuge  in  the  very  heart  of  the  State.  It  seemed  as  though  the 
Government  ignored  it,  and  had  no  consciousness  of  its  strength.  .  .  no 
enduring  will,  no  well-defined  object.  The  royal  standard  which  the 
decree  of  the  5th  of  September  had  planted  in  the  midst  of  the  nation 
seemed  to  wander  about  inconstant  and  uncertain.  Where  it  was  seen 
yesterday,  it  could  not  be  found  to-day.  In  the  meantime  the  minds  of 
men  became  desponding  or  irritated,  and  filled  with  gloomy  presenti- 
ments. An  irrepressible  anxiety  oppressed  them.  Whilst  still  full  of  life 
the  citizens  of  France  were  present,  as  it  were,  at  their  own  obsequies, 
without  power  or  courage  to  interrupt  them,  and  time  was  flowing  on 
and  each  day  was  devouring  them.  ..."  The  law  was  adopted,  and 
the  discussion  respecting  it  was  succeeded  by  still  more  angry  debates  on 
the  new  electoral  law. 

This  last  law  was,  in  fact,  of  decisive  importance  to  the  destinies  of  the 
Eestoration  ;  for  it  was  evident  that  its  result  would  be  to 

.   ,     ,  Electoral  law. 

deprive  the  middle  and  industrial  classes  of  almost  all  their 

political  influence,  to  the  profit  of  the  great  landed  proprietors.     M.   de 

Richelieu  and  his  colleagues  flattered  themselves   that  by  supporting  it 


460  KIOTS    IN"   PAEIS.  [Book  IV.  Chap.  III. 

they  secured  the  preponderance  of  the  Right  Centre  or  Royalist  party,  on 
which  they  now  relied ;  but  eventually  it  was  seen  that  all  the  influence 
lost  by  the  Left  speedily  passed  from  the  Right  Centre  to  the  extreme  Right 
or  counter-revolutionary  and  Ultra- Royalist  party,  which  was  no  less 
dangerous  to  the  Crown  than  the  Ultra-Liberal  party.  The  project  drawn 
up  by  M.  Serre,  which  was  afflicted  by  an  incurable  disease,  was  greatly 
modified  by  a  committee  of  the  elective  Chamber,  and  .still  more  so  by 
the  Chamber  itself.  The  law,  as  it  was  adopted,  raised  the  number  of 
deputies  to  four  hundred  and  thirty,  of  which  two  hundred  and  fifty- 
eight  were  to  be  nominated  by  the  district  colleges)  consisting  of  electors 
paying  taxes  to  the  amount  of  three  hundred  francs ;  whilst  a  hundred 
and  seventy-two  were  to  be  elected  by  the  colleges  of  departments,  which 
were  to  consist  of  a  fourth  part  of  the  most  heavily-taxed  electors  of  the 
department.  The  latter  voted  in  the  two  colleges,  and  thus  possessed  a 
privilege  over  the  others  which  was  considered  as  a  deviation  from  the 
charter,  and  which  caused  this  new  electoral  law  to  receive  the  unpopular 
name  of  the  law  of  the  double  vote.  It  was  eloquently  defended  by  the 
Ministry,  and  the  most  eminent  members  of  the  Right  and  Right- Centre, 
MM.  de  Villele,  de  la  Bourdonnaye,  Laine,  &c.     All  the 

Stormy  discus- 
sions.  Kiots         factions   into  which  the  Liberal  party  was  divided,  united 

in  Paris. 

for  the  purpose  of  opposing  it,  and  were  represented  at  the 
tribune  by  General  Foy,  Benjamin  Constant,  Casimir  Perier,  Royer- 
Collard,  Camille  Jordan,  Lafayette,  and  Manuel.  During  the  three 
weeks  occupied  by  this  memorable  debate,  the  Chamber  was  a  field  of 
battle  in  which  the  opposed  parties  fought  with  each  other  to  the  death. 
The  excitement  of  these  debates  spread  beyond  the  walls  of  the 
Chamber ;  and  violent  conflicts  took  place  between  the  troops  and  the 
pupils  of  the  schools,  who  were  supported  by  a  portion  of  the  Parisian 
populace.  The  law  was  eventually  passed  by  a  small  majority  in  the 
midst  of  sanguinary  emeutes,  and  the  session  was  closed  on  the  22nd  of 
July. 

The  stormy  debates  on  the  electoral  law  caused  a  most  disastrous 
feeling  of  excitement  throughout  the  whole  of  France.  The  Liberal 
party  found  itself  disarmed  by  it,  and  appeared  to  believe  that  all  the 
fruits  of  the  Revolution  were  threatened  with  destruction.  It  lost  all 
hope  of  obtaining  any  preponderance  in  the  State  by  legal  methods,  and, 
as  too  frequently  happens  Jn  the  case  of  those  who  despair  of  obtaining 


1820-1824.]  ROYALIST    ELECTIONS.  461 

the  victory  by  legitimate  means,  it  had  recourse  to  dark  and  guilty 
tactics,  to  conspiracies  and  plots.  The  army,  influenced  by  the  same 
motives  which  had  alienated  it  from  the  Bourbons  in  1814,  was  still 
filled,  in  spite  of  much  necessary  weeding,  with  discontented  men,  full  of 
anxiety  with  respect  to  their  future  fortunes,  ready  to  second  any  move- 
ment hostile  to  the  Government,  and  connected  with  many  secret  socie- 
ties.    A  vast  military  conspiracy,  which  had  ramifications 

t       t  .        -,  t  t    .       -r»  Military  conspi- 

m  every  part  of  the  kingdom,  was  discovered  in  Paris  on    racy  m  Paris, 

August,  1820. 

the  20th  of  August,  1820.  The  leaders  of  the  plot  in  the 
garrison  of  Paris  were  Major  Bernard  and  Captain  Nantil ;  the  first 
made  revelations,  the  second  fled,  and  the  conspiracy  was  crushed.  A 
great  number  of  their  accomplices  in  every  rank  of  life  were  arrested  and 
taken  before  the  Court  of  Peers.  In  the  midst  of  the  profound  excite- 
ment caused  by  the  discovery  of  this  plot  and  the  debates  of  the  pre- 
ceding Session,  the  Duchess  de  Berri  gave  birth  to  a  son  who  received 
the  title  of  the  Duke  de  Bordeaux,  and  whose  birth,  hailed  with 
enthusiasm  by  the  Royalists,  seemed  to  promise  a  prolonged  possession  of 
the  throne  of  France  to  the  eldest  branch  of  the  Bourbons. 

The  elections  which  now  took  place,  in  which  the  colleges  of  depart- 
ments for  the  first  time   made   their  numerous   selections,    *,     ,.  ,  , 

7     Key  ah  st  elee- 

were  almost  all  favourable  to  the  Royalists.     The  majority   tlons'  182°- 
of  the    deputies   thus   elected  belonged  to   the    extreme    Right   of  the 
assembly,    and   the    chief  political  influence   speedily  passed    from  the 
moderate  members  of  the  Royalist  party  to  be   possessed  a  second  time 
by  the  men   of  1815  and  the  reactionists.     Disappointed  in  his  hopes, 
M.  de  Richetieu  felt  compelled  to  give  a  new  pledge  to  the  Royalists  by 
admitting   to    the    council  M.   Laine,   as  well    as   MM.   de  Villele  and 
Corbiere,  who  exercised  great  influence  over  the  Right  side  of  the  elec- 
tive chamber.     They  all  three  entered  the  chamber  as  ministers  without 
portfolios,  and  the  general  direction  of  public  instruction  was  given  to 
M.  Corbiere.     The  following  legislative  session   showed  how  vain  were 
the  hopes  in  which  the  Ministry  still  indulged  that  they  would  be  able 
to  carry  on  the  government  by  the  aid  of  the  moderate  men  of  the  two 
parties,  or,  in  other  words,  of  the   two  Centres   of  the  Assembly.     The 
members  of  the  Left  Centre  who  remained  faithful  to  them  formed  a  very 
insignificant  portion  of  the  Assembly,  the  whole  Left  having  been  reduced 
by  the  late  elections  to  a  hundred  deputies,  who  were  all  deeply  irritated 


462  PABTY.    ANIMOSITY.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 

at  the  conduct  of  the  moderate  ministers,  and  who,  after  having  taken 
part  in  the  compilation  of  the  decree  of  the  5th  of  September,  had,  by- 
means  of  the  electoral  law,  paved  the  way  for  the  victory  of  the  party 
against  which  that  decree  had  been  directed.  But  although  deprived  of 
the  power  given  by  numbers  the  deputies  of  the  Left  possessed  the  strength 
which  is  given  by  passion  when  united  with  talent.  They  numbered 
amongst  them  men  devoted  to  the  principles  of  1789,  which  they 
eloquently  defended.  All  the  factions  of  the  Liberal  party,  from  the 
Doctrinaires  to  the  irreconcilable  enemies  of  the  Bourbons,  were  repre- 
sented amongst  them  by  their  leaders.  Opposite  to  them  were  con- 
founded, under  the  name  of  Royalists,  the  men  attached  to  the  legitimate 
monarchy  as  it  had  been  made  by  the  charter,  and  the  much  larger 
number  who,  looking  upon  the  charter  as  an  unfortunate  legacy  of  the 
Eevolution,  hoped,  as  they  could  not  destroy  it,  at  least  to  be  able  greatly 
to  modify,  by  the  aid  of  fresh  laws,  the  effects  of  its  principal  clauses. 
It  is  impossible  for  us  to  understand  the  difficulties  of  the  situation,  and 
the  impossibility  of  procuring  the  acceptance  of  a  reasonable 

Party  animosity.  . 

and  moderate  policy,  if  we  do  not  transport  ourselves  in 
imagination  to  the  midst  of  this  stormy  period,  and  if  we  do  not  remem- 
ber that  the  opinions  of  the  immense  majority  of  men  are  formed  by 
their  recollections,  their  habits,  their  private  interests,  and  their  passions. 
The  whole  of  the  generation  which  had  been  in  existence  at  the  close  of 
the  last  century  was  not  yet  in  the  tomb.  Many  of  those  who  had  lost 
everything  by  the  Revolution  were  now  opposed  face  to  face  to  those 
who  had  gained  everything  by  it,  and  for  these  two  classes  of  men  ideas 
had  a  vastly  different  mode  of  expression,  and  words  themselves,  even, 
had  a  different  meaning.  The  former  saw  in  every  deliberative  assembly 
a  National  Convention,  in  every  Liberal  a  Jacobin,  and  in  the  charter  the 
written  and  odious  sanction  of  the  outrages  of  which  they  had  been  the 
victims.  In  the  eyes  of  the  latter  the  Bourbons  were  but  the  repre- 
sentatives of  a  detestable  system  of  government,  and  the  old  emigrant 
royalists,  the  enemies  of  France,  men  whose  influence  could  not  but  be 
the  source  of  continual  danger.  The  very  same  actions  were  lauded,  or 
branded  as  infamous,  according  as  they  were  accomplished  under  the 
white  flag  or  the  tricolour  ;  and  religion,  invoked  by  the  one  party  as  a 
main  support  of  their  cause,  was  hated  by  the  other  as  the  inseparable 
auxiliary  of  privileges  and  absolutism.      The  former  closed  their  eyes  to 


1820-1824.]  LEGISLATIVE  MEASUBES.  463 

the  necessities  of  the  present  times,  and  the  latter  could  not  comprehend 
the  teachings  of  the  past,  or  the  influence  of  tradition  on  political  and 
social  order.  Each  party  was  equally  inspired  by  blind  hatred,  fury,  and 
illusions,  so  much  the  more  profound,  because  neither  party  could 
perceive  the  dangerous  consequences  which  must  result  from  the  reali- 
zation of  their  extreme  and  opposite  views. 

What  could  be  done,  in  such  a  state  of  things,  by  the  upright,  ex- 
perienced, and  wise  men  who  sat  in  the  Cabinet,  the  Richelieus,  Pasquiers, 
and  Serres,  incessantly  beaten  as  they  were  by  the  waves  of  conflicting 
passions,  and  almost  equally  hated  by  the  Ultra-Royalist  and  Ultra- 
Liberal  parties,  each  of  whom  regarded  as  a  crime  any  concession  granted 
to  the  other  ?  The  three  Ministers  who  were  members  of  the  Right,  and 
whom  M.  de  Richelieu  had  admitted  to  the  Council  at  the  close  of  the 
late  elections,  and  especially  MM.  de  Villele  and  Corbiere,  remained 
immovable  and  silent  in  the  midst  of  the  most  irritating  debates,  and 
systematically  refrained  from  giving  any  support  to  the  Ministry,  which 
had  solicited  their  aid,  but  was  not  sufficiently  in  accordance  with  their 
genuine  opinions.  During  the  previous  session,  and  the  first  months  of 
the  new  session  (1820-1821),  however,  the  troubled  state  of  many  por- 
tions of  Europe  bordering  on  France,  where  the  cause  of  the  foreign 
revolutionists  received  the  deepest  sympathy,  was  a  salutary  check  to  the 
Ultra-Royalists.  The  spirit  of  insurrection  might  triumph  in  Spain,  at 
Naples,  and  in  Piedmont,  and  then  cause  an  explosion  in  France,  and  the 
Right  of  the  Elective  Chamber  did  not  as  yet  venture  to  treat  as  entirely 
vanquished  the  Revolution,  with  which  it  was  possible  that  they  might 
have  to  deal  on  the  morrow.  But  in  the  spring  of  1821,  when  all  the 
insurrections  of  the  populations  of  Italy  were  crushed,  and  the  Austrians, 
after  an  easy  triumph,  were  masters  of  the  whole  Peninsula,  the  Royalist 
party  in  France  regarded  itself  as  victorious  along  with  them,  and  the 
majority  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  again  openly  displayed  the 
ardent  passions  which  had  animated  the  Chamber  of  1815. 

The  new  intentions  of   the  Royalist   party  manifested   Le  islative 
themselves  in  May,  1821,  during  the  debate  on  a  proposed   Session> 1821- 
law,  which  was  one  of  the  great  events  of  the  session,  and  the  only  object 
of  which  was  to  apply  the  amount  of  extinct  ecclesiastical 
pensions  to  the  endowment  of  twelve  new  bishoprics,  the    dowment  for  the 

i  .  .  clergy. 

improvement  of  vicarages  and'  curacies,  and  the  repair  of 


464  STOEMT    DEBATES.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 

churches.  This  project,  although  dictated  by  the  most  benevolent  inten- 
tions with  respect  to  the  interests  of  religion,  was  nevertheless  violently 
opposed  by  the  members  of  the  Right,  as  insufficient  and  too  restrictive 
of  the  rights  of  the  church  and  the  monarch.  These  deputies,  in  fact, 
cherished  a  secret  hope  of  obtaining  the  execution  of  the  concordat  con- 
cluded in  1817  between  the  Holy  See  and  France,  but  which  had  not 
become  a  law  of  the  State.  The  opposition  attempted,  through  the  lips 
of  M.  de  Bonald,  the  speaker  of  the  committee,  to  completely  change 
the  character  of  the  ministerial  plan,  but  the  eloquent  efforts  of 
M.  Pasquier  succeeded  in  preserving  its  principal  clauses.  The  number 
of  new  bishoprics,  which  the  Government  had  proposed  should  be  twelve, 
was,  in  principle,  raised  to  thirty,  and  the  choice  of  the  places  where 
these  sees  should  be  founded  was  left  to  the  King.  The  proposed  law,  as 
thus  modified  by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  was  adopted  by  that  of  the 
Peers,  and  the  condition  of  the  clergy  was  then  made  pretty  much  what 
it  remains  at  the  present  day. 

The  Royalist  opposition  in  the  Elective  Chamber  burst  forth  in  the 

most  furious  manner  on  the  occasion  of  the  proposal  of  a  law  relative 

to  the  hereditary  grants  bestowed  by  the  Imperial  Govern  - 

Lawonthegrants  .  . 

of  the  imperial     ment,  as  rewards   tor  glorious  military  and  civil  services. 

Government. 

These  grants  had  been  secured  on  the  property,  in  conquered 
territories,  which  formed  part  of  the  Emperor's  "  extraordinary  domain," 
and  the  remains  of  which,  valued  after  the  peace  of  1812  at  four  millions 
of  "  rentes,"  had  been  incorporated  with  the  State  property  by  a  financial 
law  of  1818.  The  State  had  thus  become  the  debtor,  although  in  a  very 
diminished  proportion,*  of  all  those  on  whom  grants  had  been  bestowed 
under  the  Empire.  The  law  proposed  by  the  Government  in  March, 
1821,  granted  rentes  inscribed  on  the  great  book  of  the  public  debt  to  all 
the  surviving  grantees,  divided  into  six  classes  ;  those  coming  under  the 
first  class  to  receive  a  thousand  francs  of  rente,  and  those  of  the  latter  a 
hundred.  This  proposed  law  was  an  act  of  reparation  which  gave  some 
slight  recompense  for  enormous  losses,  and  offered  some  slight  alleviation 
to  great  sufferings,  especially  in  the  case  of  a  multitude  of  poor  invalided 
soldiers,  widows,  and  orphans.  The  Right  of  the  Chamber, 
however,  vehemently  opposed  it,  and  demanded  that  the 

*  The  "  extraordinary  domain  "  produced,  before  the  peace  of  Paris,  forty  millions  of 
rentes. 


1820-1824.]  TEIAL    OF    CONSPIBATOES.  465 

soldiers  of  Conde's  army,  the  Vendeans  and  the  Chouans,  should  be 
allowed,  as  well  as  the  old  grantees  of  the  Empire,  to  become  sharers  in 
what  remained  of  the  Imperial  "  extraordinary  domain."  In  the  course  of 
the  debate  the  most  outrageous  expressions  were  made  use  of  on  either 
side  of  the  Chamber.  The  Emigrants  and  Vendean  heroes  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  glorious  veterans  of  the  Eevolution  and  the  Empire  on  the 
other,  were  alternately  stigmatized  as  traitors  and  rebels.  It  was  an 
unfortunate  period,  in  fact,  in  which  the  dominant  party  regarded 
patriotism  as  treason  against  the  sovereign.  General  Foy  eloquently 
replied  to  the  bitter  invectives  of  the  Ultra-Eoyalists,  and  each  of  his 
words  found  an  echo  in  new  France. 

The  Ministry,  blamed  and  insulted  even  by  both  parties,  was  unable 
to  preserve  to  the  new  law  its  original  character,  and,  as  passed,  it  recog- 
nised the  possession  of  no  absolute  rights  by  the  grantees,  and  only 
bestowed  life  pensions  on  those  and  the  children  of  those  who  were  still 
living,  whilst  it  also  equally  rewarded  out  of  what  remained  of  the  Im- 
perial domain  the  services  rendered  by  the  armies  of  the  Vendeans 
and  that  of  Conde.  These  violent  debates  were  brought  to  a  close  at  the 
moment  when  the  trial  of  the  persons  concerned  in  the  con-   m  .  .     '■".  , 

1  Trial  and  judg- 

spiracies  of  the  20th  of  August  was  about  to  commence  in  ^toatOTs^Au-™" 
the  Court  of  Peers.  The  latter  reckoned  amongst  its  sast2°- 
members  many  of  the  most  illustrious  men  of  the  Empire.  A  large  por- 
tion of  its  members  bitterly  resented  the  insults  which  had  been  heaped 
on  the  old  army  in  the  other  Chamber,  and  were  thus  inclined,  perhaps, 
to  look  less  harshly  on  the  military  conspirators  brought  before  them  for 
judgment.  Most  of  the  conspirators  were  acquitted,  and  the  indulgent 
tendencies  of  the  judges  displayed  in  the  sentences  passed  on  those  who 
were  found  guilty,  one  of  whom  only,  Captain  Nantil,  who  had  fled,  was 
condemned  to  death.  The  Chamber  of  Peers,  however,  had  accepted  the 
laws  passed  by  that  of  the  Deputies,  whilst  nevertheless  displaying  a 
great  desire  to  struggle  against  the  encroachments  of  the  Ultra-Eoyalists. 
This  germ  of  resistance  was  developed  at  a  later  period,  when  the  latter 
had  become  possessed  of  the  supreme  power,  and  the  Chamber  of  Peers 
became  the  focus  of  a  serious  and  popular  opposition. 

The  revolutionary  spirit,  which  had  but  recently  worn  so  serious  an 
aspect  throughout  Europe,  was  now  everywhere  crushed.  As  has  already 
been    stated,  it   had   had    to   succumb  in  every  portion  of  the  Italian 

VOL.  II.  H    H 


466  DEATH    OF    NAPOLEON.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 

Peninsula.  It  had  been  resolved,  in  the  preceding  year,  at  the  Congress 
of  Laybach,  by  the  three  allied  sovereigns  and  the  King  of  the  Two 
Sicilies,  that  an  Austrian  army  should  be  sent  to  Naples.  This  army,  in 
.     .  .        ,        the  spring  of  1821,  had  entered  the  Abruzzi.     The  Pied- 

Auatna  crushes  r        °  ' 

the  Revolution  in    montese,  ill  advised,  had  chosen  this  moment  for  an  insur- 

Naples  and  Pied-  '  ' 

m  rection,    and,  a    military  revolt    having    burst   forth    at 

Alexandria,  the  constitution  of  the  Cortes  of  Spain  was  proclaimed  at 
Turin.  The  King  of  Sardinia,  Victor-Emmanuel,  immediately  abdicated 
in  favour  of  his  brother,  Charles-Felix,  who,  instead  of  joining  the 
insurgents,  hastened  from  Modena  at  the  head  of  the  Austrian  troops 
to  combat  them.  Austria  triumphed  in  Piedmont  as  at  Naples ;  the 
Neapolitan  army,  commanded  by  General  Pepe,  was  shamefully  defeated 
at  the  very  first  onset,  and  the  whole  of  Italy,  at  the  end  of  May,  1821, 
was  in  the  power  of  the  foreigner. 

The  Emperor  Alexander  was  then  informed  of  the  insurrection  of  the 
Greeks.     This  revolution  had  no  connexion  with  the   one 

Continuation  of 

the Greek  revo-     which  had  just  been  suppressed  in  Italy;  but  he  saw  in  it 

only  a  new  conspiracy  of  Carbonarism,  and  abandoned  his 

unfortunate  co-religionists.     The  heroic  city  of  Souli  succumbed  before 

the  ferocious  Ali  Pasha ;   and  England,  by  an  odious  treaty,  sold  to  the 

barbarian  the   city  of  Parga,  in  which,  to  satisfy  the  vengeance  of  the 

Massacre  of      Sultan  Mahmoud,  eighty  priests,  together  with  the   vene- 

Parga.  rable    Patriarch    of  Constantinople,    and    a    multitude    of 

Greeks,  perished  in  that  capital  by  the  most  ignominious  punishments. 

The  Klephtes  of  the  Mountains,  the  Greeks  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia, 

relied  on  the  support  of  the  Czar,  and  ran  to  arms  at  the  instigation  of 

Botzaris,  Mavrocordato,  and  Ypsilanti.     Overwhelmed  by  numbers,  they 

were  almost  all  destroyed.     The  brave  Ypsilanti,  after  having  performed 

the  most  heroic  actions  for  the  faith  of  the  cross  and  liberty,  was  taken 

prisoner  by  the  Austrians,  and  languished  for  four  years  in  chains,  from 

which  he  only  escaped  to  die. 

A  great  event,  the  news  of  which  had  only  recently  reached  Europe, 
caused  a  powerful  sensation  there.     Napoleon  had  ceased  to 

Death  of  Napo-  r  A 

leon  at  Saint         exist.    The  man  who  had  been  victorious  in  fifty-two  battles, 

Helena,  1821.  _  . 

and  disposed  of  the  sceptres  of  the  universe,  had  expired 
at  Saint  Helena- on  the  5th  of  May,  1821,  in  the  midst  of  a  few  faithful 
friends,  after  several  months  of  frightful  agony,  and  after  a  captivity  of 


1820-1824.]  THE   JESUITS   EETTJEN.  4C7 

six  years.  Napoleon  had  been  sent  to  the  grave  by  a  liver  complaint, 
the  progress  of  which  had  been  accelerated  by  an  unhealthy  climate,  by 
the  cruelty  of  his  gaoler,  Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  the  governor  of  the  island, 
and,  more  especially  by  the  devouring  activity  of  a  genius  which,  after 
having  had  the  whole  world  for  its  sphere  of  action,  could  now  only  feed 
on  bitter  regrets.  The  reestablishment  of  order  in  France,  and  the  great 
creations  of  Napoleon,  are  his  best  titles  to  renown,  although  his  mar- 
vellous victories  have  carried  the  glories  of  the  French  arms  to  the 
highest  point  they  have  ever  attained.  But  his  unbounded  ambition 
brought  great  disasters  on  the  country  which  he  had  saved  by  his 
wisdom,  and  twice  laid  it  open  to  the  inroads  of  foreign  armies.  The 
calamities  which  followed  these  invasions,  and  the  blood  of  two  millions 
of  men  spilt  during  his  reign  in  innumerable  battles,  show  at  what  price 
a  victor  acquires  his  glory.  Such  was  the  prestige  attaching  to  this 
wonderful  man,  that  when  eighteen  hundred  leagues  distant  from  Europe, 
he  still  filled  it  with  his  name,  whilst  his  mighty  image  seen  from  afar  on 
its  solitary  rock  in  the  midst  of  the  ocean,  was  a  perpetual  object  of  terror 
for  some,  and  of  hope  for  others.  His  death  hurried  many  of  the  latter 
into  culpable  and  desperate  enterprises,  whilst  by  delivering  their  adver- 
saries from  a  salutary  fear,  it  allowed  them  to  abandon  themselves  with 
less  reserve  to  imprudent  or  rash  reactionary  projects. 

At  the  same  time  a  secret  power  invaded  the  court,  the  Chambers,  and 
all  the  branches  of  the  public  administration.  During  the  _  .  .  „ ., 
last  ten  years  men  of  sincere  piety,  such  as  the  Viscount  de  Congregation. 
Montmorency  and  the  Abbe  Legris-Duval,  had  formed  in  France  an 
influential  society,  which  was  generally  named  "  the  Congregation,"  the 
object  of  which,  at  first,  was  simply  the  performance  of  good  works  and 
the  duties  prescribed  by  a  fervent  spirit  of  devotion.  It  had  affiliated 
itself  to  the  Jesuits ;  and  the  latter,  who  were  not  permitted  to  reside  in 
France  as  members  of  the  order,   had  founded  many  reli-  „ ,     . 

J  Entry  of  Jesuits 

gious  houses  there  under  the  name  of  "Fathers  of  the  into France> 
Faith."  They  had  powerful  supporters  amongst  the  members  of  the 
Royal  Family  itself,  and  Louis  XVIII.  having  been  earnestly  entreated 
in  their  behalf,  consented  to  tolerate  them,  without,  however,  recognising 
their  legal  existence.  The  Congregation,  being  imbued  as  they  were 
with  the  most  reactionary  principles,  became,  under  the  patronage  of 
MM.  de  Polignac  and   de  Riviere,   a   most  formidable  obstacle  to  the 

H  h  2 


468  POLITICAL    COALITIONS.        [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.   III. 

Ministers  Decazes  and  Kichelieu.  The  Restoration  had  opened  to  it  the 
field  of  politics,  and  from  thenceforth  religion,  which  is  so  holy  and 
respected  when  its  aims  are  but  spiritual  and  moral,  was  mixed  up 
with  the  intrigues  of  ambition.  Hypocrisy,  which  had  been  so  fatal  to 
morals  at  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  reappeared  in  that  of 
Louis  XVIII.  and  his  successor.  Outward  acts  of  devotion  performed  by 
disbelievers,  became  for  many  a  means  of  obtaining  honours  and  fortune  ; 
the  Government  thereby  lost  much  of  its  moral  authority  in  the  eyes  of 
the  people,  and  the  French  had  the  misfortune  to  blame  religion  for  the 
scandalous  acts  of  those  who  outraged  it  by  pretending  to  invoke  it. 

The  elections  of  1821  still  further  increased,  in  the  Chamber  of  De- 
Elections  of  Pities,  the  Right  side  at  the  expense  of  the  Liberal  Left,  and 
1821>  the    Ministers  without  portfolios,   MM.  LainS,   de  Villele, 

and  Corbiere,  now  quitted  the  Cabinet,  to  which  they  were  no  longer 
willing  to  lend  the  support  of  their  names,  and  which  they  left,  at  the 
commencement  of  the  new  session,  face  to  face  with  an  ardent  Royalist 
c   ...  majority  resolved  to   overthrow  it.        The  Liberals,    still 

uitra-Ro^Hsts  more  irritated  against  the  Government,  whom  they  accused 
Ssdon!6^81^1™  °f  having  given  up  the  elections  into  the  hands  of  their 
adversaries,  openly  leagued  themselves  with  the  latter  for 
the  purpose  of  procuring  its  fall.  They  combined  to  insert  in  the  ad- 
dress, in  answer  to  the  speech  from  the  throne,  a  phrase  which  attacked 
the  policy  of  the  Crown  in  its  relations  with  the  European  powers  at  the 
Congresses  of  Troppau  and  Laybach,  and  this  phrase,  although  vehe- 
mently opposed  by  the  Cabinet,  was  retained  by  a  majority  of  a  hundred 
votes. 

Louis  XVIIL,  when  the  address  was  presented  to  him  by  a  deputation 
of  the  Chamber,  refused  to  receive  it,  and  uttered  some  words  which 
showed  the  offended  dignity  of  the  monarch.  The  Count  d'Artois,  the 
recognised  leader  of  the  Ultra-Royalists,  would  have  been  much  better 
able  than  his  brother  to  defend  the  Cabinet  against  his  too  ardent  friends, 
and  he  had  promised  M.  de  Richelieu  to  moderate  their  zeal  and  their 
demands,  but  he  forgot  his  promise,  and  abandoned  the  Minister  to  their 
resentment.  M.  de  Richelieu  and  his  colleagues,  strong  in  the  favour  of 
the  monarch,  endeavoured  in  vain  to  carry  on  the  struggle,  and  presented 
to  the  elective  Chamber  two  laws  for  the  prolongation  of  the  censorship 
and  the  increased  stringency  of  the  law  repressive  of  the  abuses  of  the 


1820-1824.]  BEACTIOtfAKY    MEASURES.  469 

press.  The  extreme  Royalists,  whose  new  object  was  to  overthrow  the 
Cabinet,  affected  an  ardent  love  for  the  liberty  which  they  wished  to 
restrict,  and  a  horror  of  the  censorship,  greatly  resembling  in  this  a 
certain  number  of  their  colleagues  of  the  Left,  who,  after  having  been  but 
recently  the  humble  servitors  of  imperial  despotism,  disguised  themselves 
as  champions  of  the  public  liberties.  A  fresh  vote  of  the  Chamber  ren- 
dered the  resignation  of  the  Government  indispensable.  M.  de  Richelieu 
surrendered  his  portfolio  into  the  hands  of  the   King  ;  his 

Resignation  of 

colleagues  followed  his  example,  and  a  new  Cabinet  was   m.  de  Kicheiieu. 

Dissolution  of 

formed  in  December,  1821,  by  the  exclusive  influence  of  the  Ministry. 

'  '      J  December,  1821. 

the  extreme  Right.     The  supreme  power  thus  returned  to 
the  hands  of  the  Ultra-Royalists,  and  constitutional  France  entered  upon 
a  new  crisis  from  which  she  was  destined  only  to  issue  when  the  throne 
should  have  been  overturned  upon  the  charter  torn  to  shreds. 

The  most  influential  members  of  the   new  Cabinet  were  M.  de  Pey- 
ronnet,  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  M.  de  Villele,  Minister  of  ultra_Ro  alist 
Finance,  and  M.  de   Corbiere,    Minister  of    the   Interior.    Ministry- 
Viscount  Matthieu  de  Montmorency  obtained  the  portfolio  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  and  the  Duke  de  Belluno  that  for  War.     M.  de 

M.  de  Villele. 

Villele  already  possessed  great  influence  in  the  Council,  and 
was  not  long  before  he  became  its  head.  His  rise  had  been  rapid,  and 
he  united  to  remarkable  talents  a  great  knowledge  of  public  affairs  ;  but 
he  had  not  strength  sufficient  to  check  the  fury  of  those  whose  blindness 
he  deplored.  He  attempted  to  struggle  against  them  in  vain,  and  was 
hurried  away  by  the  dangerous  passions  which  he  did  not  share.  The 
Congregation,  satisfied  that  it  would  be  able  to  control  him  in  spite  of 
himself,  aided  him  to  power,  with  the  intention  of  exercising  it  itself. 
The  appointment  of  the  pious  Viscount  de  Montmorency  as  one  of  the 
Ministers  gave  it  a  place  in  the  very  bosom  of  the  Cabinet,  and  its  mem- 
bers obtained  the  principal  employments  and  offices  under  every  Ministry. 
Thenceforth  the  Government  and  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  followed 
unanimously  a  reactionary  course.  It  is  not  probable  that  they  proposed  to 
themselves  to  provoke  a  counter  revolution,  and  to  suppress  the-  constitution ; 
but  their  fatal  policy  tended  to  limit,  to  sap,  and  to  a  certain  extent  to 
annul,  most  of  the  guarantees  given  by  the  charter  to  the  public  liberties 
and   the  interests  born  of  the  Revolution.     One  of  the  first    ^  ,. .   , , 

Political  laws  of 

acts  of  the  Ministry  was  to  take  from  juries  the  right  of  de-    1822- 


470  plots.  [Book  IV.  Chap.  III. 

ciding  respecting  crimes  committed  by  the  press,  and  to  pass  two  mea- 
sures respecting  it  of  a  very  serious  nature.  According  to  the  first,  the 
political  tendency  of  a  series  of  articles  might  constitute  an  offence  against 
the  laws,  although  no  one  of  them  taken  by  itself  could  be  so  construed; 
and  according  to  the  second,  the  censorship,  in  certain  serious  circum- 
stances, might  be  reestablished.  This  law,  which  was  presented  in 
1822,  was  passed  by  a  great  majority. 

In  the  meantime  secret  societies  were  organized  in  every  direction,  and 
■  hJ_,        Carbonarism  extended  its  vast  ramifications  throughout  the 

Progress  of  the  ° 

Carbonari.  kingdom  in   every  direction.     Its   dangerous  spirit  rapidly 

penetrated  the  schools  and  the  army,  and  the  military  conspiracy  suppressed 
Conspiracies  of  a^  Paris  m  August,  1820,  was  followed,  during  the  two  ensu- 
ing years,  by  many  military  plots,  excited  by  the  Carbonari  in 
various  corps  and  various  parts  of  the  kingdom.  Seditious  outbreaks  took 
place  in  the  cavalry  school  of  Saumur,  which,  although  they  were  sup- 
pressed, attracted  the  hopes  of  rash  conspirators  in  this  direction.  General 
Berton  assembled  a  troop  of  voung  men,  soldiers  and  half- 

The  Bonapartist  r  J  °  ' 

plot  of  General  armed  peasants,  and  marched  at  their  head  beneath  the  tri- 
colour. He  seized  the  city  of  Thouars  in  the  name  of 
Napoleon  III.,  and  marched  upon  Saumur,  which  he  could  not  carry. 
Being  now  abandoned  by  most  of  his  followers,  he  took  to  flight  and  was 
Mii'ta  v  it  arrested.  About  the  same  time  there  burst  forth  a  military 
at  Beitort.  revolt  at  Belfort,  to  which  the  illustrious  General  Lafayette 

himself  was  not  a  stranger.  The  Government  speedily  crushed  this 
revolt,  and  at  the  same  time  most  culpably  laid  a  snare,  of  which  the  ex- 
Colonel  Caron  was,  at  Colmar,  the  imprudent  victim.  Two  squadrons, 
with  the  intention  of  discovering  his  accomplices  and  compromising  him, 
set  forth  one  evening  from  Colmar  and  Neuf-Brisach,  under  the  command 
of  quartermasters,  the  officers  being  disguised  in  the  ranks.  This  troop, 
Plot  of  Caron  traversing  the  neighbouring  country,  induced  Caron  and  a 
a     Eoger.  friend  of  his,  a  riding-master  named  Eoger,  to  join  it.     It 

marched  under  their  orders,  and  drank  with  them,  and  when  the  latter, 
deceived  by  these  perfidious  demonstrations,  uttered  the  cry  of  "  Vive 
l'Empereur  !"  the  soldiers  threw  themselves  upon  them,  bound  them,  and 
handed  them  over  to  the  authorities.  A  few  days  afterwards  Caron  was 
shot.     No  circumstance  did  more  than  this  at  this  period  to  compromise 


1820-1824.]  PLOTS.  47l 

the  Government  and  to  dispose  men  to  regard  the  Ministers  and  the  police 
as  the  sources  and  originators  of  all  disturbances. 

The  year  1822  witnessed  still  more  executions  for  political  crimes. 
Berton  was  taken  before  the  Court  of  Assizes  at  Poictiers,  Trial  of  General 
and  the  Attorney-General  Mangin  pointed  out,  without  ert0D* 
actually  naming  them,  the  most  influential  deputies  of  the  Left  as  the 
General's  accomplices.  His  words  excited  in  the  Chamber  stormy  dis- 
cussions, which,  whilst  failing  to  throw  any  light  upon  the  subject,  still 
further  envenomed  the  party  animosities.  Berton  and  two  of  his  accom- 
plices lost  their  heads  upon  the  scaffold  ;  a  third  committed  suicide.  Paris 
was  soon  afterwards  the  theatre  of  an  afflicting  scene.    Four    „       .         „ 

°  Conspiracy  of 

young  sub-officers  in  garrison  at  Rochelle,  having  been  con-    J^j garrSoof 
victed  of  Carbonarism  and  accused  of  having  been  engaged   La  Rochelle- 
in  a  revolutionary  plot,  excited  the  sympathy  of  the  public  by  their  youth 
and  their  firmness.     Their  guilty  project  had  not  been  carried  into  execu- 
tion, but  they  were  nevertheless  condemned  to  death,  and 

^  Their  execution. 

marched  to  the   scaffold  through  the  midst  of  a  populace 
inspired  at  once  by  pity  and  resentment.     It  was  thus  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  Eestoration  thought  that  it  might  once  more  obtain  protection 
against  criminal  plots  and  too  real  perils  by  means  of  rigorous  chastise- 
ments. 

A  new  Congress  of  Sovereigns  now  assembled  at  Verona,  at  which  was 
discussed  the  important  question  of  the  Spanish  revolution.  Critical  gtate  ot 
Great  disturbances,  rendered  inevitable  by  the  weakness  and  sPam- 
the  perfidy  of  Ferdinand  VII.,  had  broken  forth  in  the  capital  of  that 
country,  and  atrocious  crimes — the  assassination  of  the  Canon  Vinuesa, 
amongst  others — had  been  committed,  and  compromised  the  revolutionary 
cause.  It  was  in  vain  that  Morella  and  Ballesteros  endeavoured  to  restrain 
the  men  of  violence,  and  to  reestablish  calm.  Sanguinary  combats  took 
place  between  the  populace  and  the  Royal  Guards,  and  recalled  the 
frightful  scenes  which  had  taken  place  in  Paris  on  the  10th  of  August. 
Ferdinand,  whose  life  was  in  danger,  carried  his  dissimulation  so  far,  it 
was  said,  as  even  to  sign  decrees  of  death  against  his  too- faithful  but 
powerless  defenders.  In  the  meantime  the  monks,  who  had  been  partially 
despoiled  of  their  possessions,  roused  the  inhabitants  of  the  provinces, 
organized  guerillas,  and  directed  a  vast  counter-revolutionary  movement 


472  CONQKESS    OF    VEEONA.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  ITI. 

in  Catalonia.    A  famous  Trappist,  Don  Antonio  Maragnon,  had  formed  a 

formidable  band  of  guerillas  and  marched  at  their  head,  crucifix  in  hand. 

He  had  taken  by  assault  the  fortress  of  Seu  d'Urgel,  and  a 

Kegency  esta- 
blished at  the     Regency  was  established  there,  consisting;  of  the  Marquis  de 
Seu  d'Urgel.  .  . 

Mataflorida,  Baron  d'Eroles,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Tarra- 
gona, which  borrowed  loans,  and  issued  proclamations  in  the  name  of  the 
King,  whom  it  supposed  to  be  in  captivity.  In  a  short  time  it  found 
Army  of  the  itself  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  twenty-five  thousand  men, 
who  assumed  the  name  of  the  Army  of  the  Faith,  took  pos- 
session of  many  places  in  Navarre  and  Catalonia,  and  penetrated  into 
Aragon.  The  Constitutional  General  Mina  put  this  army  to  rout,  retook 
the  places  which  it  had  seized,  and  left  no  hope  to  the  Royalists  save  in 
French  intervention.  The  yellow  fever,  which  desolated  Barcelona,  had  some 
time  since  made  Louis  XVIII.  resolve  to  post  a  cordon  of  troops  on  the  Pyre- 
nees frontier  under  pretext  of  sanitary  precautions,  and  these  troops  might 
at  any  moment  be  converted  into  an  army  of  invasion.  Such  was  the  state 
of  things  in  Spain  when  the  Congress  commenced  its  sittings  at  Verona. 
MM.  de  Chateaubriand  and  Matthieu  de  Montmorency  represented 
Con  ress  of  France  at  Verona,  whilst  M.  de  Villele  obtained  at  Paris  the 
Verona,  1822.  presiaeiicy  of  the  Council.  Lord  Wellington  was  the  re- 
presentative of  England  at  the  Congress.  The  suicide  of  Lord  Castlereagh 
and  the  elevation  of  Mr.  Canning  to  the  Premiership  of  the  English 
Ministry  were  grounds  for  expectation  that  the  foreign  policy  of  that 
power  would  undergo  great  modifications.  When,  accordingly,  French 
intervention  in  Spain  was  proposed,  Lord  Wellington  opposed  it,  and  M. 
de  Villele  hoped  that  it  might  even  yet  be  avoided  or  adjourned.  But 
the  Congregation  and  the  majority  in  the  Chamber  of  the  Deputies  were 
eager  for  war  ;  M.  de  Chateaubriand  was  inclined  for  it,  and  the  efforts  of 
M.  de  Montmorency  rendered  it  inevitable.  The  contagion  of  the  Spanish 
revolution  appeared  dangerous  to  France,  and  more  especially  to  Italy,  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Royalists,  of  M.  de  Metternich,  and  the  three  Allied 
Sovereigns,  and  they  unanimously  resolved  to  suppress  it.  The  Ambas- 
sadors of  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia  immediately  quitted  Madrid.  The 
Ambassador  of  France,  General  Lagarde,  was  not  yet  recalled ;  M.  de 
Chateaubriand  succeeded  M.  de  Montmorency  at  the  head  of  Foreign 
Affairs. 

The  movement  which  carried  the  French  Government  into  a  counter  re- 


1820-1824.]  THE   FRENCH    ENTER    SPAIN.  473 

volutionary  course  triumphed  over  the  pacific  inclinations  of  M.  de  Villele. 
Louis  XVIII.,  bowed  down  by  infirmities  and  age,  no  longer  reigned  save 
in  name.  Monsieur  really  wielded  the  sceptre,  and  wished  for  war ;  and 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  which  was  completely  in  accord    T    .'J  ' 

x  '  i.  j  Legislative 

with  him  on  this  point,  displayed  its  zeal  by  the  violence  of  Ex^uSion""^!3' 
the  debates  which  took  place  on  the  vote  of  supplies  for  the  chamber*?™  tbe 
expedition.  It  expelled  Manuel,  the  deputy  of  La  Vendee,  DePuties- 
a  man  very  hostile  to  the  Bourbons,  who  had  made  a  speech  which  the 
majority  of  the  Chamber  considered  to  be  a  justification  of  regicide.  The 
Chamber  interrupted  him  and  voted  his  expulsion.  Manuel  declared  that 
he  would  only  yield  to  actual  force,  upon  which  the  President  Ravez 
called  upon  the  National  Guards  on  duty  to  remove  him,  and  Sergeant 
Mercier,  their  commander,  having  refused  to  exercise  the  will  of  the 
Assembly,  Manuel  was  seized  by  gendarmes  on  his  bench  and  dragged  out 
of  the  Assembly.  The  whole  of  the  members  of  the  Left  followed  him, 
and  declared  that  they  all  considered  themselves  assaulted  and  expelled  in 
the  person  of  Manuel. 

The  extraordinary  credits  asked  for  the  Spanish  campaign  were  granted, 
and  from  thenceforth  war  appeared  inevitable.  A  numerous  army  was 
already  assembled  on  the  Pyrenees  frontier,  the  command  of  which  was 
taken  at  the  end  of  March  by  the  Duke  d'Angouleme,  who  had  under 
him,  as  chief  of  his  staff,  G-eneral  Guilleminot.  The  duke  found  the  army 
on  his  arrival  unprovided  either  with  sufficient  means  of  transport  or  pro- 
visions, and  entered  into  onerous  obligations  to  a  wealthy  banker,  who 
offered  to  provide  what  was  wanting,  and  who  imposed  upon  the  prince 
most  grossly.  The  army  entered  the  field  on  the  6th  April,  The  Spanish 
and  on  the  frontier,  at  the  pass  of  Bidassoa,  encountered  a  war' 1823, 
battalion  of  insurgents  bearing  the  tricolour  flag.  Frenchmen  who  had 
been  engaged  in  the  military  conspiracies,  and  amongst  others  Captain 
Nantil  and  Colonel  Fabvier,  marched  at  their  head,  and  advanced  towards 
the  troops  to  fraternize  with  them,  crying  "Vive  l'Empereur  !"  "Vive  la 
France  !"  General  Valin,  however,  dispersed  the  insurgent  battalion  with 
his  artillery,  and  the  success  of  the  campaign  was  secured.  The'  army,  in 
fact,  was  under  the  orders  of  the  Oudinots,  Monceys,  and  Molitors,  old 
heroes  of  the  empire,  and  the  Spanish  guerillas,  so  fatal  formerly  to  the 
French  veterans,  this  time  fought  with  France.  The  victory  could  not 
be  doubtful. 


474?  END    OP    THE    SPANISH    WAR.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 

The  French  army  speedily  arrived  at  Madrid,  which  the  Cortes  had 
quitted,  carrying  with  them  Ferdinand  VII.,  first  to  Seville  and  then  to 
Madrid,  after  having  declared  him  dethroned  on  account  of  imbecility. 
This  audacious  and  guilty  measure  was  very  likely  to  prolong  the  war. 
Negotiations  were  entered  into  with  the  moderate  constitutional  generals, 
such  as  Ballesteros,  Morillo,  and  d'Abisbal,  and  about  the  same  time  the 
prince  generalissimo  formed,  in  a  spirit  of  conciliation,  a  Spanish  Regency 
at  Madrid,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Duke  of  Infantado,  with  the  inten- 
tion of  keeping  in  check  the  members  of  the  old  Junta  of  Seu  d'Urgel,  whose 
blind  violence,  excited  by  the  fanaticism  of  the  Army  of  the  Faith, 
threatened  Spain  with  a  murderous  reaction.  This  army  and  the 
populace  only  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  French  troops  to  give  themselves 
up  to  acts  of  cruel  and  base  vengeance.  The  French  soldiers  interfered 
between  them  and  their  victims,  and  were  speedily  looked  upon  with 
hatred  and  distrust  by  the  very  persons  they  had  come  to  assist.  It  was 
with  the  intention  of  preventing  these  scenes  of  brigandage  and  murder 
that  the  Duke  d'Angouleme  issued  the  celebrated  decree  of 

Decree  of  at-  i-i  -i  • 

.Andujtr,  Andujar,  which   prohibited    the    Spanish  authorities  from 

August,  1823. 

arresting  any  one  without  the  sanction  of  the  French  officers, 
and  placed  the  editors  of  the  journals  under  the  direct  protection  of  these 
officers.  This  decree  was  full  of  wisdom,  and  in  conformity  with  the 
prince's  whole  course  of  conduct  during  this  campaign;  but  it  deeply 
offended  the  Regency  at  Madrid,  and  by  no  means  tended  to  render  the 
Cortes  at  Cadiz  more  tractable.  The  latter,  thoroughly  acquainted  as  they 
were  with  the  character  of  Ferdinand,  had  no  faith  in  the  effect  of  the 
promises  of  the  Duke  d'Angouleme,  who  pledged  himself  to  obtain  liberal 
institutions  for  them  from  their  King.     They  rejected  all  the  propositions 

which  their  weakness  should  have  induced  them  to  accept, 

Capture  of  the 

Trocadero.   End   and  the  French  troops  then  performed  some  gallant  feats  of 

of  the  Spanish 

war.  October,      arms.     They  attacked  the  formidable  batteries  of  the  Isle  of 

1823.  J 

Leon ;  the  Trocadero  was  taken  in  the  prince's  presence  ; 
Cadiz  submitted ;  and  Ferdinand  VII.  was  immediately  set  free. 

The  war  was  at  an  end,  and  punishments  began.  Ferdinand  chose 
as  his  Ministers  men  inspired  with  the  most  violent  party  spirit.  The 
execution  of  Riego  signalized  his  return  to  the  throne,  and  the  inter- 
vention of  the  French  in  favour  of  other  victims  was  unavailing.  No 
precautions  had  been  taken,  in  fact,  at  the  Congress  of  Verona  to  pre- 


1820-1824.]  GOVEBNMENTAL    INTIMIDATION.  475 

serve  Spain  from  the  misfortunes  of  a  sanguinary  reaction.  The  im- 
mense expenses  of  the  war  remained  a  burden  on  France,  and  the  only 
fruit  she  gathered  from  this  brilliant  and  onerous  campaign  was  the  in- 
gratitude of  those  for  whom  she  had  made  so  many  sacrifices.  Such  is 
the  prestige,  however,  which  in  France  always  attaches  to  victory,  that, 
during  the  first  moments  which  followed  the  success  of  the  French  arms 
in  Spain,  the  impression  caused  by  that  success  was  very  favourable  to 
the  Ultra-Royalist  party,  the  sole  authors  of  the  war.  It  enabled  them 
to  carry  most  of  the  partial  elections  which  followed  the  campaign,  and 
M.  de  Villele  conceived  the  idea  of  establishing  his  power  on  a  mutual 
good  understanding  between  the  Government  and  a  septennial  Chamber, 
or  one  elected  for  seven  years. 

Besides  the  opposition  of  the  Left,  there  was  now  formed  in  the  Cham- 
ber another,  which  was  no  less  hostile  to  the  Ministers,  whom  it  accused 
of  being  lukewarm  in  the  Royalist  cause.  MM.  de  la  Bourdonnaye  and 
Delalot  were  its  energetic  leaders.  Each  of  these  men  was  imbued  with 
ideas  which  were  rather  aristocratic  than  monarchical,  and  demanded 
that  the  landed  interest  should  have  a  great  share  in  the  direction  of 
affairs.  They  violently  accused  M.  de  Villele  of  having  failed  to  fulfil  his 
pledges  with  respect  to  this  matter,  and  the  latter  hoped  that,  by  con- 
voking a  new  Chamber  whilst  the  impression  produced  by  the  Spanish 
campaign  was  still  recent,  he  might  procure  one  entirely  devoted  to  his 
views,  and  thus  be  enabled  to  crush  a  double  and  fatiguing  opposition. 
The  King  and  his  Council  shared  the  opinions  of  the  Minister  ;  the  Cham- 
ber was  dissolved,  and  every  preparation  was  made  for  a  general  elec- 
tion. 

Nothing  could  be  more  scandalous  or  more  fatal  to  the  moral  authority 
of  the  Government  than  the  manner  in  which  were  con- 
ducted the  elections  of  1824,  which  took  place  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  year.  Circulars  threatened  the  officials  who  had  the 
superintendence  of  the  elections  with  dismissal  if  they  did  not  support  the 
ministerial  candidates,  and  many  of  them  responded  to  the  wishes  of  the 
Council  by  having  recourse  to  fraud  and  displaying  the  most  base  ser- 
vility. Cavillings  of  every  kind  with  respect  to  the  Liberal  electors, 
arbitrary  erasures  and  insertions  in  the  electoral  lists,  and  the  issue  of 
false  polling  tickets,  were  abuses  which  were  permitted,  encouraged,  and 
even  rewarded  by  the  Ministers,  who,  obstinately  persisting  in  governing 


Elections  of 
1824. 


476  EESTJLTS    OF    BAD    GOVEBNHENT.      [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 

in  a  spirit  opposed  to  the  general  feeling  of  the  nation,  could  only  main- 
tain their  position  by  calling  to  their  aid  trickery,  bribery,  and  violence. 
Some  eminent  men  took  an  active  part  in  these  deplorable  manoeuvres, 
and  a  mandate  issued  by  Clermont  Tonnerre,  Archbishop 

Mandate  of  the  /»  m      i  i  i  -i  •   i      i 

Archbishop  of       oi  Toulouse,  showed  the  end  to  which  they  tended,  and  be- 

Toulouse.  m  . 

trayed  the  secret  hopes  and  intentions  of  the  victorious 
party.  The  Archbishop  demanded  the  restoration  of  the  ancient  privi- 
leges of  the  Church  of  France,  the  reestablishment  of  all  the  solemn 
fetes,  of  the  rights  of  the  clergy  as  they  formerly  existed,  and  of  many 
religious  orders  which  at  this  period  were  not  allowed  to  reside  in 
France.  Finally,  he  expressed  a  hope  that  the  civil  power  would  be- 
come lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy.  This  rash  manifesto  was  sup- 
pressed by  the  Council  of  State,  at  the  suggestion  of  M.  Portalis  ;  but  it 
revived  the  old  disputes  between  the  clergy  and  the  magistracy,  and 
aroused  the  opposition  of  the  Royal  Courts  to  the  encroachments  of  a  too 
violent  party  and  the  demands  of  the  Cabinet. 

The  result  of  the  elections  surpassed  the  hopes  of  the  Royalists,  and 

nineteen  Liberal  deputies  only  were  elected.  This  mon- 
abuseofadminia-  strous  abuse  of  the  influence  of  the  Government  over  elec- 
during  the  tions  had  always  been  in  France,  since  the  fall  of  the  old 

system  of  things,  one  of  the  most  fatal  effects  of  an  excess  of 
administrative  centralization,  and  the  successive  governments  who  have 
momentarily  obtained  a  factitious  support  in  the  suffrages  exacted  by 
themselves  have  always  ultimately  found  in  them  one  of  the  decisive 
causes  of  their  fall.  It  is  in  this  that  consists,  perhaps,  the  greatest 
danger  of  such  parliamentary  and  representative  governments  as  that  of 
the  Restoration  in  France.  Under  these  forms  of  government,  in  fact,  it 
is  understood  that  the  nation  is  to  take  part  in  the  conduct  of  its  own 
affairs,  and  it  is  by  means  of  the  elections  that  it  exerts  its  influence  ;  but 
if  those  elections  are  not  the  genuine  expression  of  public  opinion,  they 
represent  only  the  party  which  is  in  power ;  and  then  the  latter,  intoxi- 
cated with  its  own  apparent  strength,  and  released  from  every  salutary 
check,  no  longer  holds  public  opinion  in  any  account,  but  crushes  and 
represses  it  until,  like  steam,  it  explodes,  overthrows  everything  in  its 
way,  and  threatens  destruction  not  only  to  the  monarchy,  but  to  social 
order.  Such  is  the  spectacle  presented  to  us  by  the  history  of  the  Re- 
storation during  its  last  years. 


1820-1834.]  LEGISLATIVE    SESSION.  477 

The  electoral  law  of  the  double  vote  had  already  given  far  too  large  a 
proportion  of  the  seats  in  the  elective  Chamber  to  that  class  of  rich  landed 
proprietors  amongst  whom  were  many  men  belonging  to  the  old  families 
which  had  been  victims  of  the  Eevolution,  and  who  regarded  the  charter 
either  as  a  fatal  legacy  of  a  detested  period  or  a  temporary  necessity. 
The  Government  had  fallen  once  more  into  the  hands  of  their  friends, 
and  the  general  elections  of  1824,  conducted,  as  they  were,  under  the 
immediate  influence  of  the  Government,  had  given  to  their  party  an  im- 
mense majority  in  the  elective  Chamber,  from  which  the  Liberal  opposi- 
tion had  almost  disappeared.  But  the  ground  which  the  latter  had  lost 
in  the  Chamber  it  had  gained  beyond  its  walls  in  public  opinion,  which 
had  become  disquieted  and  irritated  by  the  reactionary  tendencies  of  the 
Government,  by  its  subservience  to  the  clerical  party,  by  many  of  its 
past  acts,  and  by  all  those  which  it  was  proposing  to  accomplish. 

As  the  court  and  the  ministry  refused  to  take  into  any  account  the 
general  opinion  or  the  wishes  of  the  country,  the  problem  which  remained 
to  be  solved  was,  how  to  reduce  public  opinion  to  silence  by  a  series  of 
counter-revolutionary  measures,  by  the  aid  of  which  the  Congregation 
and  the  Ultra- Royalists  flattered  themselves  that  they  might  increase  the 
authority  of  the  territorial  aristocracy  and  the  clergy,  and  render  their 
influence  in  the  kingdom  dominant  and  enduring.  Time  was  an  indis- 
pensable element  in  the  solution  which  was  to  be  effected  of  this  difficult 
problem  by  the  aid  of  a  devoted  majority.  The  period  of  five  years 
assigned  by  the  constitution  as  that  during  which  the  deputies  were 
to  sit  was,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Government,  too  small  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  great  purpose,  and  at  the  opening  of  the  legislative 
session,  in  March,  1824,  the  king,  in  his  speech  to  the  Chamber, 
announced  that  two  laws  of  great  importance  would  be  Legislative 
submitted  to  them.  The  object  of  one  of  these  laws  was  to  session- 
substitute  for  the  quinquennial  and  partial  renewal  of  the  elective  chamber 
directed  by  the  charter,  its  entire  and  septennial  renewal ;  and  the  other 
referred  to  the  conversion  of  the  rents  inscribed  on  the  great  book  of 
the  public  debt.  The  adoption  of  this  latter  law,  the  monarch  asserted, 
would  allow  of  a  great  diminution  in  the  taxes,  and  close  the  last  wounds 
left  by  the  Revolution. 

These  two  proposed  laws  were  simultaneously  presented  by  the 
ministry,  the  first  to  the  Chamber  of  Peers,  and  the  second  to  that  of  the 


478  THE    CONVERSION    OF    RENTES.      [BOOK  IV.  CRAP.  III. 

Deputies.  To  the  objections  that  the  entire  and  septennial  renewal  of 
the  charter  would  be  contrary  to  certain  articles  of  the  charter,  it  was 
replied  that  those  articles  were  not  fundamental  ones,  and  the  law,  after 
The  septennial  having  been  accepted  by  the  peers,  was  submitted  to  the 
laws.  Elective  Chamber,  in  which  it  was  energetically  opposed  by 

the  Liberal  opposition,  and  especially  by  Eoyer-  Collard,  who  carefully  set 
Speech  of  Rover-  ^or^n  a^  the  advantages  of  the  partial  renewal  prescribed  by 
the  charter  and  the  danger  of  violating  it  by  the  suspension 
of  the  elections  during  seven  years.  He  pointed  out  that  the  entire  and 
simultaneous  renewal,  if  effected  freely,  would  be  too  rude  a  shock  for 
any  government,  and  that  if  it  were  not  effected  freely  it  would  throw 
the  whole  of  France  into  the  hands  of  the  Ministers  by  means  of  the 
administrative  centralization  at  their  disposal.  "  It  is  to  centralization," 
said  the  orator,  "  to  that  monstrous  power  which  has  been  raised  on  the 
ruins  of  all  our  institutions,  that  is  confided  the  guardianship  of  all 
our  political  rights.  ...  In  the  absence  of  freedom  of  elections  all 
ministerial  responsibility  disappears,  and  it  is  thus  that  the  representative 
government  has  been  disgracefully  perverted ;  instead  of  elevating  it 
degrades  us ;  instead  of  encouraging  the  common  energy  and  cherishing 
the  principle  of  honour  which  is  our  public  spirit  and  the  dignity  of  the 
nation,  it  stifles  and  proscribes  it."  Royer-Collard  demonstrated  with  all 
the  eloquence  of  conviction  and  of  talent  the  urgent  necessity  which 
there  existed,  for  the  purpose  of  holding  in  check  an  oppressive  and  un- 
limited centralization,  institutions  which  should  be  the  guardians  of  the 
rights  of  all,  and  which  would  be  capable  of  sounding  the  alarm  when- 
ever society  should  find  itself  attacked.  Without  such  institutions,  he 
said,  representative  government  was  but  a  phantom  and  a  name.  All  his 
efforts,  however,  were  fruitless,  and  the  law  was  passed  by  a  large  majority. 
The  second  project  met  with  a  very  different  fate.  It  was  connected, 
in  the  minds  of  its  authors,  with  a  plan  for  the  reimburse- 
tor  the  conver-   ment  of  the  losses  suffered  by  the  old  emigrants  or  their 

sion  of  rentes.      „       .  .  .,  ,.,.  ,. 

families  by  means  of  the  resources  which  its  adoption 
would  give  to  the  treasury.  Its  object  was  the  conversion  of  the  five 
per  cent,  rentes,  which  amounted  to  a  hundred  and  forty  millions,  into 
three  per  cents.,  at  the  price  of  seventy-five  per  cent.  ;  and  bankers 
were  engaged  to  furnish  the  necessary  funds  for  the  repayment  at  par  of 
those  holders  of  five  per  cent,  rentes  who  might  decline  to  accede  to  the 


1820-1824.]  JOURNALISTS    BEOUGHT    TO   TRIAL.  4*79 

proposed  exchange.  This  plan,  useful  as  it  would  be  to  the  Government, 
appearing  in  some  respects  opposed  to  the  engagements  entered  into  by 
them,  and  adverse  to  the  interests  of  the  numerous  class  of  "  rentiers," 
excited  much  angry  feeling.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies  adopted  it; 
but  it  was  rejected  by  the  Chamber  of  Peers ;  a  fact  which 

Its  rejection  by 

was  in  some  degree  due  to  the  tacit  opposition  of  M.  de    the  chamber  of 
Chateaubriand.     M.  de  Villele  immediately  demanded  the 
dismissal  of  his  colleague,  which  he   obtained,  and  by  this  violent  pro- 
ceeding hastened  his  own  fall.     Chateaubriand,  extremely    dismissal  of 
irritated  at  his  dismissal,  at  once  commenced  a  conflict  with    chateaubnand' 
his  late  friends  and  colleagues,  the  motives  of  which  were  by  no    means 
justifiable,  but  which  was  not  the  less  implacable  and  to  the  death.     He 
attracted  to  his  side  many  deputies   of  the  Eight,  and  the  nucleus   of  a 
new  party  was  formed,  which  was  styled  by  their  adversaries  the  party  of 
defection,   and  of  which  the    Journal    des  Debats  became    Part  of  def 
the  active  and  formidable  organ.  tlon' 

M.  Hyde  de  Neuville,  the  French  ambassador  at  Lisbon,  adopted  at  this 
period  an  extremely  bold  line  of  conduct.  On  the  30th  of  April  the 
Infant  Don  Miguel,  who  was  the  representative  of  the  abso-  Disturbances  in 
lute  party,  and  supported  by  the  queen  mother,  had  put  Portusal- 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  troops  in  that  capital,  and  kept  King  John  VI., 
his  father,  a  prisoner  in  his  own  palace  ;  at  the  same  time  throwing  several 
ministers  and  many  eminent  persons  into  prison,  and  loudly  announcing 
his  intention  of  restoring  to  the  royal  authority  its  ancient  prerogatives. 
M.  Hyde  de  Neuville,  together  with  the  English  Ambassador,  assisted  John 
VI.  to  recover  his  sceptre,  and  Don  Miguel  was  driven  from  Portugal.  The 
French  Ambassador  incurred  the  blame  of  the  Ultra-Royalists  for  having 
declared  against  the  prince,  who  appeared,  although  a  rebel,  to  be  the  in- 
carnation of  the  principles  of  absolute  power ;  and  whilst  the  Liberal  press 
reproached  the  French  Government  with  its  retrograde  tendencies,  the 
journals  of  the  opposite  party  bitterly  accused  it  of  dilatoriness  in  satisfy- 
ing the  demands  of  the  extreme  Royalists. 

The  Government  now  put  into  force  those  articles  of  the  law  which 
permitted  it  to  prosecute  journals  on  account  of  the  general  tendency  of 
their  articles.      It  brought  several   editors  to   trial  in  the 

Prosecution  and 

Royal   Courts,   and  in  almost  every  case    the    magistrates  acquittal  of  nume. 

J  #  rous  journalists. 

made  common  cause  with  the  press  against  the  Court  and 


480  DEATH    OF    LOUIS    XVIII.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  III. 

Cabinet.     The  Government  rendered  the  opposition  of  the  judges  still 

more  determined  by  censuring  their  judgments.     The  law  of  1822  enabled 

it  to  reestablish  the  censorship  in  case  serious  circumstances 

Reestablishment        tit  -i        ,-i  •  t  ,i       -»«-•    •   , 

of  the  censor-  should  render  this  measure  necessary,  and,  as  the  Ministers 
saw  a  serious  danger  in  the  acquittals  pronounced  by  the 
Royal  Courts,  they  reestablished  the  censorship  on  this  ground  alone,  and 
thus  declared  themselves  in  direct  opposition  to  the  magistracy.  The 
clergy  obtained  at  this  period  the  appointment  of  a  Minister  for  eccle- 
siastical affairs.  The  first  appointed  was  a  bishop,  M.  de  Frayssinous,  and 
the  direction  of  public  instruction  was  made  one  of  his  functions. 

The  King  was  now  at  the  edge  of  the  tomb.     On  Sunday,  September 
10th,  he  could  not  hold  an  audience,  and  a  few  days  later  he 

Last  moments  of 

Louis  xvni.        was  stretched  on  his  death-bed,  surrounded  by  the  members 

September,  1824..  '  _  * 

of  the  royal  family.  He  directed  his  Ministers  to  act  in 
concert  with  his  brother  ;  and  in  the  last  interview  which  he  had  with 
Monsieur,  he  said  to  him,  "  I  have  been  as  Henry  IV.  was,  and  I  have  the 
advantage  over  him,  in  that  I  am  dying  in  my  bed  at  the  Tuileries  ;  do  as 
I  have  done,  and  you  will  also  have  as  peaceful  and  tranquil  an  end. 
I  forgive  you  any  annoyances  you  may  have  caused  me,  by  reason  of  the 
hopes  I  have  formed  of  what  will  be  your  conduct  as  king."  The  old 
monarch  then  called  down  upon  all  his  relations  the  benediction  of  heaven, 
and  laying  his  hand  on  the  Duke  de  Bordeaux,  the  last  and  feeble  offspring 
of  his  race,  he  said  with  a  voice  full  of  emotion,  as  he  looked  at  his 

brother,  "  Let  Charles  X.  preserve  the  crown  for  this  child." 

He  gave  his  last  sigh,  after  a  protracted  agony,  and  Charles 
X.  was  King. 

During   many  years  past  Louis   XVIII.    had   been   unable  to  walk. 

Suffering  from  incurable  disease  in  his  legs,  and  tormented 

His  character. 

by  the  gout,  he  had  perceived,  long  before  his  death,  that 
his  intellectual  faculties  were  failing  him,  and  was  compelled  to  abandon 
the  direction  of  public  affairs  to  his  brother.  It  was  at  the  close  of  the 
Spanish  war  that  the  King's  health  was  most  seriously  affected,  and  it  is 
not  to  him  that  is  to  be  attributed  the  course  pursued  by  the  Government 
after  the  elections  of  1824. 

Louis  XVIII.  was  not  exempt  from  a  strong  and  natural  predilection 
for  the  system  of  things  under  which  he  had  been  born,  but  he  could 
appreciate  the  necessities  of  France,  and  the  charter  to  which  he  affixed 


1820-1824.]  CHARACTER    OE    LOUTS    XYIII.  481 

his  name  was  the  foundation  in  France  of  political  liberty.  Endowed  with 
a  judicious  and  cultivated  mind,  he  sought  the  society  of  men  acquainted 
with  ancient  and  modern  literature  ;  he  was  ready  of  speech,  and  many 
happy  sayings  fell  from  his  lips.  When  he  had  appointed  a  certain  time 
for  an  audience  or  a  ceremony,  he  was  always  present  at  the  exact  time 
named.  "For  punctuality,"  he  said,  u  is  the  politeness  of  kings."  He  was 
almost  always  present,  even  to  the  close  of  his  life,  at  the  grand  court 
receptions,  and  when  he  was  urged  to  spare  himself  this  fatigue,  he  said, 
"  A  King  of  France  ought  to  die  openly."  He  is  reproached  with  having 
been  cold-hearted,  and  the  blood  of  some  of  the  victims  of  the  dissensions 
in  France  is  a  burden  upon  his  memory ;  but  when  he  permitted  those 
persons  to  be  executed  he  regarded  their  death  less  as  an  act  of  vengeance 
than  as  one  of  political  necessity.  Sincerely  attached  to  the  Constitution 
which  he  had  adopted,  it  is  only  just  to  take  into  account  the  strong  family 
influences  against  which  he  had  to  struggle.  The  charter  was,  in  his  eyes, 
the  anchor  of  safety ;  relying  upon  it,  he  braved  many  storms  and  escaped 
numerous  rocks.  Overwhelmed  at  length,  however,  by  many  infirmities, 
and  a  naturally  indolent  nature,  which  was  more  ready  to  be  influenced 
than  to  influence  others,  he  displayed  in  his  latter  years  more  solicitude 
for  repose  than  for  the  possession  of  power.  He  resigned  his  sceptre,  to  a 
certain  extent,  and  unhappily  for  France,  into  the  hands  of  his  relatives 
and  those  of  his  favourite  Minister,  in  the  presence  of  a  factious  and  re- 
actionary majority,  and  thus  abandoned  himself,  as  much  through  weakness 
as  conviction,  to  the  dangerous  current  which  in  his  best  days  he  had 
known  how  to  direct  and  govern. 


VOL.  II.  -  II 


482  ACCESSION    Of    CHABLES    X.         [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  REIGN  OF  CHARLES  X. THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1830 ACCESSION  OF 

LOUIS-PHILIPPE. 

16th  September,  1824 — 9th  August,  1830. 

The  nearer  this  history  approaches  its  conclusion  the  greater  are  the  diffi- 
culties with  which  the  writer  has  to  contend.  When  under  the  impression 
of  facts  caused  by  passions  which  are  not  yet  extinct,  and  in  the  presence 
of  men  who  have  survived  them,  and  who  have  the  right  to  appeal  to 
posterity  from  the  precipitate  judgments  of  their  contemporaries,  it  is 
necessary  to  remember  that  the  first  duty  of  an  historian  is  to  be  true,  not 
for  the  sake  of  any  one  set  of  opinions  or  any  one  party,  but  solely  for  the 
sake  of  morality  and  the  interests  of  all.  It  is,  therefore,  of  the  highest 
importance  that  the  narrator  of  facts  should  never  lose  sight  of  the  source 
from  which  they  have  risen ;  that  he  should  acknowledge,  on  the  one 
hand,  that  popular  views  have  not  always  been  inspired  by  disinterested, 
generous,  and  sincerely  patriotic  motives  ;  and,  on  the  other,  that  many 
acts,  the  results  of  error  or  prejudice,  and  justly  condemned  by  public 
opinion,  were  free  from  any  criminal  intention. 

Some  of  these  considerations  are  applicable  to  Charles  X.     Attached  by 
all  his  feelings  to  the  ancient  system  of  things  whilst  reign- 
opinions  of      ing  under  the  new,  and  a  Catholic  monarch  and  devoted  to 

Charles  ^K 

Catholicism  at  a  period  when  the  most  influential  portion  of 
the  nation  regarded  it  with  much  more  distrust  than  favour,  he  looked 
upon  all  who  had  defended  the  principles  of  the  Revolution  as  indiscrimi- 
nately guilty  of  the  prolonged  calamities  of  France,  always  suspected 
them  in  spite  of  the  devotion  which  many  of  them  had  displayed  for  the 
monarchical  cause,  and  constantly  refused  to  enter  into  relations  with 
them.  Averse  to  all  violent  reaction,  and  naturally  benevolent,  he  loved 
popularity,  and  protested  his  respect  for  the  charter ;  but  at  the  same 
time,  whilst  accepting  and  swearing  to  maintain  it,  he  would  not  admit 


1824-1830.]  HIS    POLITICAL   THEOEIES.  483 

that  it  had  established  in  France  powers  which  were  rivals  of  his  own,  or 
a  government  which  did  not  spring  from  his  own  sole  authority.  He 
only  regarded  the  two  Chambers  as  bodies  in  possession  of  political  powers 
more  extensive,  doubtless,  than  those  of  the  Parliaments  and  the  ancient 
States  of  the  kingdom,  but  which  did  not  possess  more  extensive  rights 
than  those  assemblies.  "In  France,"  he  said,  uthe  King  consults  the 
Chambers,  and  pays  great  attention  to  their  advice  and  remonstrances ; 
but  when  he  does  not  think  fit  to  accept  their  advice,  his  own  will  must 
be  accomplished."  From  this  false  idea  which  he  had  formed  of  the 
representative  government  founded  on  the  charter,  arose  all  the  distur- 
bances which  took  place  during  his  reign,  and  the  ruin  of  the  monarchy. 
Finally,  Charles  X.  regarded  as  dangerous  and  humiliating  to  his  crown 
any  concession  to  public  opinion  ;  and  whilst  the  latter  clung  with  ever- 
increasing  eagerness  to  the  articles  of  the  charter  respecting  civil  equality, 
the  balance  of  power,  and  the  public  liberties,  and  angrily  protested 
against  the  interference  of  the  Church  in  the  affairs  of  the  State,  the 
King  was  full  of  anxiety  to  reconstruct  upon  their  old  foundations,  as  far 
as  possible,  the  authority  of  the  throne,  the  aristocracy,  and  the  clergy. 
He  believed  that  this  was  the  only  means  of  securing  the  safety  of  the 
monarchy  and  of  France ;  and  that  he  was  fulfilling  a  holy  duty  by  ad- 
vancing towards  this  end,  whilst  he  failed  to  observe  the  abyss  which 
opened  before  him. 

This  prince,  in  the  course  of  a  long  career,  had  been  one  of  the  small 
number  of  men  whose  political  career  had  never  varied,  and  who  had  but 
very  seldom  had  reason  to  reproach  themselves  with  having  made  con- 
cessions to  opinions  which  they  did  not  share.  The  French  had  long 
foreseen  the  storms  of  the  new  reign ;  and  yet  such  is  the  power  of 
gracious  words  and  pleasant  manners,  and  such  the  facility  with  which 
the  French,  forgetting  first  impressions,  frequently  pass  from  a  feeling  of 
prejudice  to  one  of  hope,  that  the  accession  of  the  new  King  at  first  ap- 
peared popular.  "  No  more  halberds !  "  he  had  said  to  the  guards  who 
had  prevented  the  crowd  from  approaching  him.  This  saying,  and  others 
equally  happy,  together  with  the  suppression  of  the  censorship,  were  re- 
garded as  favourable  omens  at  the  commencement  of  the  reign.  But 
whilst  releasing  the  press  from  the  censorship,  Charles  X.  did  not  repu- 
diate the  acts  of  a  Minister  whom  it  condemned,  but  on  the  contrary, 
accepted  them,  by  maintaining  him  in  power.     Then  those  of  the  mode- 

ii  2 


484  INDEMNITY    TO    THE    EMIGRANTS.    [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

rate  Liberals  who  had  been  too  ready  to  hope,  were  disabused,  and  public 
opinion,  which  had  every  day  become  more  irritable  and 

Legislative  ,    ,  .  „  , 

session  of  more  exacting,  was  exasperated   by  a  series  01  unpopular 

projects  presented  in  succession  to  the  Chambers  during 
the  sessions  of  1825  and  1826.  We  will  only  here  refer  to  the  most  im- 
portant of  them. 

The  first  of  these  plans,  already  announced  by  the  late  King  in  his  last 

speech  to  the  Chamber,  proposed  to  grant  to  the  emigrants 

an  indemnity  to      or  their  heirs  a  milliard  of  francs,  as  an  indemnity  for  the 

the  exiles.  m  #  , 

possessions  of  which  they  had  been  dispossessed  during  the 
Revolution.     This   plan,   equitable  though  it  was  in  itself,  was  never- 
theless rejected  by  the  Liberal  party  and  the  citizens  as  anti-national, 
because,  of  all  the  victims  of  the  Eevolution,  it  only  indemnified  those 
who  had  passed  over  to  the  side   of  the  foreigner,   or  taken  up  arms 
against  France.     It   was  vehemently  attacked  in  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties, and,  from  very  different  motives,  by  members  of  the  extreme  Right 
as  well  as  by  those  of  the  Left.     The  first,  and  amongst  them  were  MM. 
de   la   Bourdonnaye  and  de   Beaumont,  did  not  consider  that  the  plan 
offered  the  emigrants   sufficient  reparation.     The  King,  they   said,  had 
not  the  right  to   declare  them  dispossessed  of  their  confiscated  estates,  by 
bestowing  upon  them  a  totally  inadequate  remedy.     General  Foy,  on  the 
other  hand,  attacked  the  plan  bitterly  and  passionately;  reminded  the 
Assembly  that  the  immense  majority  of  its  members  were  at  once  judges 
of  and  interested  in  the  proposed  plan  of  indemnity ;  and  presented  a 
petition  from  the  members  of  the   Legion  of  Honour  who  had  been  de- 
prived of  their  allowances  from  1814  to  1821.     "  At  the  time,"  he  said, 
"  when  you  are  preparing  to  serve  up  so  sumptuous  a  banquet  to  the  emi- 
grants, it  would  be  as  well  to  give  a  few  morsels  of  bread  at  least  to  the 
old  mutilated  and  distressed  soldiers  who  had  carried  the  glory  of  the 
French  name  to  the  end  of  the  world."     The  two  Chambers 

Th©  lnw  is  votsd 

passed  to  the  order  of  the  day,  and  adopted  the  law  which 
gave  an  indemnity  to  the  emigrants  or  their  heirs. 

While  this  law  was  being  discussed  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  that 
of  the  Peers  was  deliberating  with  respect  to  a  project  re- 
Chamber  of  Peers   latinor  to  the  female  religious  communities.     The  principal 

of  a  project  re-  °  o  jt  x 

reHgfous  commu-    °tyect  °f tne  proposed  law,  which  legalized  the  communities 
n,tie8,  already  established,  was  to  render  a  simple  royal   decree 


1824-1830.]  session  oe  1828.  485 

sufficient  for  the  establishment  of  new  ones.  An  analogous  proposition 
had  been  discussed  in  the  previous  year  in  the  same  Chamber,  and  it  was 
sufficient  evidence  of  the  pressure  exercised  on  the  Government  by  the 
religious  party,  the  real  object  of  which  was  to  establish  a  precedent 
which  would  subsequently  allow  the  authorization,  by  a  simple  decree,  of 
communities  of  men,  and  sanction  the  existence  of  the  Society  of  the 
Jesuits,  and  of  the  numerous  establishments  which  they  already  pos- 
sessed in  numerous  parts  of  France  in  despite  of  the  laws  to  the  contrary. 
No  law  on  this  subject  could  be  more  unpopular  than  that  presented  by 
the  Keeper  of  the  Seals.  M.  Pasquier  pointed  out  its  dangers  in  several 
remarkable  speeches,  and  succeeded  in  defeating  it  by  means  of  an  amend- 
ment which  forbade  the  establishment  of  any  new  female  community 
without  the  sanction  of  the  law,  and  which  was  adopted.  To  this  pro- 
posal succeeded  one  on  the  law  of  sacrilege,  which  punished 
with  death  the  theft  of  sacred  vessels  from   churches,  and   the  punishment 

.  •  f°r  sacrilege. 

the  profanation  of  the  consecrated  host  with  the  punishment 
inflicted  on  parricides.  This  law,  the  proposal  of  which  had  been  exacted 
from  the  Government  by  the  Congregation,  and  which  was  even  more 
unpopular  than  the  previous  one,  was  supported  by  M.  de  Bonald  with  all 
the  violence  of  theological  passion,  and  encountered  in  each  Chamber 
numerous  and  eloquent  adversaries,  and,  amongst  others,  MM.  de  Broglier 
Lanjuinais,  Pasquier,  and  Portalis,  in  that  of  the  Peers,  and  Koyer-Col- 
lard  in  that  of  the  Commons.  It  was  denounced  as  a  return  to  the  bar- 
barities of  another  period,  as  mixing  up  theology  with  legislation,  and 
especially  as  being  contrary  to  the  equal  liberty  of  worship  established 
by  the  charter.  The  two  Chambers,  however,  passed  the  law ;  that  of  the 
Peers  simply  cutting  out  the  clause  which  inflicted  the  aggravated  punish- 
ment suffered  by  parricides,  mutilation  before  death. 

In  the  following  session  (1826)  the  Government  proposed  a  law,  accord- 
ing to  which,  in  default  of  the  formal  expression  of  any  wish 

,  „     ,  -iii        Session,  of  1926. 

on  the  subject  on  the  part  01  the  testator,  a  considerable 
privilege  would  be  created  in  favour  of  primogeniture  in  the  case  of  all 
estates  paying  land  taxes  of  three  hundred  francs  or  up- 
wards.    If  the  authors  of  this  scheme  had  confined  them-    therfght  ofS  ° 
selves  to  the  prevention  of  an  indefinite  division,  which,    pr" 
by  reducing  patrimonial  possessions  to  dust,  as  it  were,  is  destructive  to 
the   existence  of  families   of   influence ;    if  they  had,  with  this   object, 


486  COEONATION    OP    C SABLES    X.        [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

confirmed  the  paternal  authority,  and  allowed  to  fathers  a  greater  free- 
dom in  the  disposal  of  their  property,  the  plan  would  have  satisfied  a 
necessity  which  was  more  and  more  felt  every  day.  But  the  endeavour 
to  substitute  the  power  of  the  law  for  the  will  of  the  head  of  the 
family,  for  the  purpose  of  re-establishing  in  France  a  territorial  aristo- 
cracy, wounded  one  of  the  most  nervous  fibres  of  a  democratic  people, 
and  betrayed  a  design  to  drive  France  back  towards  the  social  order  of 
the  old  system.  On  this  account,  especially,  it  excited  a  great  feeling  of 
animosity  against  its  authors ;  few  acts  of  the  Restoration 

Debate  thereon  .    . 

in  the  Chamber     were  more  strongly  opposed  to  public  opinion,  and  how 

of  Peers. 

violently  can  scarcely  be  understood   but  by  those  who 
lived  in  those  agitated  times.      Presented  to  the  Chamber  of  Peers  by 
the  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  it  was  strongly  opposed,  and  none  of  its  oppo- 
nents displayed  more  skill  and  talent  than  Baron  Pasquier. 

Speech  of  M.  r     J  .... 

Pasquier.  He  set  forth  the  absurdity  of  a  project  which,  in  case  of  its 

adoption,  would  bestow  upon  the  Government  the  unheard-of  power  of 
making  or  unmaking  eldest  sons  by  raising  or  lowering  by  a  centime  only 
the  taxes  on  land,  and  thus  giving  it  a  new  and  most  formidable  influence 
over  families.  He  showed  that  all  the  efforts  that  might  be  made  to  re- 
establish an  aristocracy  in  France  must  fail,  if  they  were  not  the  genuine 
offspring  of  the  social  system  and  of  public  opinion ;  and  he  pointed  out 
that  the  best  means  of  attaining  this  end  would  be  the  extension  of  the 
paternal  power,  and  the  enlargement  of  the  functions  and  independence 
R  .  .  „  ,  of  the  general  and  municipal  councils  and  the  royal  courts, 
proposed  law.  rp^g  Chafer  0f  Peers  rejected  the  law,  with  the  exception 
of  the  clause  which  extended  the  rights  of  a  testator  as  to  the  disposal 
of  a  portion  of  his  property.  This  decision  made  a  great  sensation 
throughout  the  kingdom ;  Paris  illuminated,  and  the  Chamber  of  Peers 
shared  for  a  time  with  the  chief  magistracy  the  popular  favour. 

This  long  series  of  reactionary  measures,  which  were  so  fatal  to  the 
Coronation  of  moral  authority  of  the  Government,  was  interrupted  in 
'*  '  1825  by  the  solemnities  of  the  consecration.  Charles  X. 
appeared  at  Reims,  surrounded  by  all  the  old  pomp  of  the  royal  majesty, 
took  there  an  oath  to  preserve  the  charter  inviolate,  and  received  the 
crown  at  the  hands  of  the  archbishop,  in  the  midst  of  an  ancient  cere- 
monial, which   was  little   in  harmony  with   the  ideas  of  the  age,  and  in 


1824-1830.]  ATTEMPT    TO    CHANGE    ELECTORAL    LAW.  487 

which  the  new  generation,  unfortunately,  could  only  see  an  inopportune 
act  of  deference  towards  the  clergy. 

The  Liberal  party  in  France  had  soon  afterwards  to  deplore  a  great  loss 
in  the  death  of  Foy.     A  hundred  thousand  citizens,  includ- 

<  '  Funeral  of 

ing  the  most  distinguished  merchants,  lawyers,  soldiers,  and    General  Foy, 

1825. 

men  of  letters,  attended  his  funeral,  and  adopted  his  chil- 
dren in  the  name  of  the  country,  at  the  open  tomb  of  their  father,  the 
most  eloquent  opponent  of  the  Government.  The  Court  regarded  this 
manifestation  of  feeling  as  a  seditious  movement,  and  continued  to  follow 
the  dangerous  path  along  which  it  was  urged  by  the  impatient  wishes  of 
those  by  whom  it  was  surrounded,  when  a  formidable  adversary  of  the 
Congregation  and  the  Jesuits  suddenly  appeared  to  contend  with  them. 
M.  de  Montlosier,  an  old  defender  of  the   ancient   feudal 

M.  de  Montlosier 

liberties   and     the     prerogatives    of   the    aristocracy,    de-    denounces  the 

J  6SU1XS, 

nounced  the  vast  organization  of  the  Congregation  as 
dangerous  to  the  existence  of  religion  in  France  and  to  the  safety 
of  the  State  ;  and  M.  de  Frayssinous  having  let  fall  at  the  tribune 
an  avowal  of  the  existence  of  Jesuits  in  the  kingdom,  M.  de 
Montlosier  appealed  to  the  laws  against  their  re- establishment  in  France 
in  the  Royal  Court  of  Paris.  The  latter  having  declared  itself  incompe- 
tent to  proceed  against  them,  M.  de  Montlosier  immediately  applied  to  the 
Chamber  of  Peers,  which,  at  the  suggestion  of  M.  de  Portalis,  received 
the  petition,  as  far  as  it  referred  to  the  existence  in  the  kingdom  of  a 
society  not  legally  authorized,  and  referred  it  to  the  president  of  the 
council.  Upon  this  the  Government  resolved  to  shackle  the  press,  which 
denounced  the  Jesuits  to  the  country,  and  to  stirle  the  opposition  in  the 
Chamber  of  Peers,  which  invoked  against  it  the  rigours  of  the  law. 

To  effect  its  objects,  it  was  now  necessary  for  the  Government  to 
reduce  the  number  of  electors  who  were  most  lightly  taxed,  Proposed  cbange 
and  who  belonged  to  the  classes  most  attached  to  the  liberal  in  eiectoral  law- 
cause ;  and  it  accordingly  presented  a  proposition  for  the  reduction  of 
the  land-tax,  which  was  most  vehemently  opposed  by  Royer-Collard. 
"This  reduction,"  he  said,  "would  diminish  by  many  ^ ^ecii^of korei- 
thousands  the  number  of  electors,  and  especially  of  those  CoUard- 
who,  being  most  in  contact  with  the  working  classes,  place  the  Elective 
Chamber   in    relation   and   harmony   with   the    masses    of  the   people. 


488  POLITICAL    TENDENCIES.  [BOOK  IV.  Chap.  IV. 

Should  such  relations  continue,  and  the  elective  power  be  more  and  more 
absorbed  by  the  upper  classes,  the  representative  character  of  the  Govern- 
ment would  be  destroyed,  and  the  Chamber  would  no  longer  be  anything 
but  a  senate,  which  would  not  know  France,  and  which  France  would 
not  recognise." 

The  session  of  1826  was  closed  in  July.  Public  opinion,  irritated  by 
so  many  measures  dictated  by  a  policy  contrary  to  the  national  feeling 
state  of  the  anc^  su^servient  to  tne  Congregation  and  the  Jesuits,  burst 
pubhe  feeling.  fortn  mt0  complaints  and  menaces.  From  this  profound 
discontent,  which  was  in  itself  a  great  evil,  there  sprang  also,  as  the 
consequence  of  a  natural  reaction  of  the  public  mind,  an  unfortunate  ten- 
dency to  confound  Royalty  and  the  Government  in  one  common  blame ; 
a  fatal  disposition  which  is  but  too  readily  recognisable  in  many  publica- 
tions of  the  period.  The  great  philosophical  and  literary  movement  which 
commenced  under  the  Empire,  on  the  one  hand,  in  the  first  works  of  Maine 
de  Biran  and  Royer-Collard,  and  on  the  other  in  those  of  Chateaubriand 
and  Madame  de  Stael,  had  received  from  the  shock  of  political  opinions 
in  the  following  period  a  powerful  impulse ;  and  the  brilliancy  of  the 
literature  of  the  Restoration  would  alone  attach  to  it  a  sufficient  share  of 
glory.  But  as  time  went  on  the  productions  of  the  traditional  Royalist 
and  Catholic  school  became  rarer  and  rarer,  whilst  those  of  the  Liberal 
school  multiplied  and  inundated  France.  In  all  the  speeches,  in  all  the 
writings  of  the  Liberal  Constitutionalists,  a  tribute  of  praise  was  paid  to 
the  charter  and  to  the  free  institutions  of  England,  and  to  the  respect  due 
to  national  rights.  There  was  thus  formed  a  public  feeling  which 
powerfully  inspired  the  eminent  professors  of  the  Sorbonne,  the  great 
publicists,  the  romance  writers,  and  the  poets,  and  which 

Political  ten- 
dencies of  the       was  the  life-blood  of  many  works  and  periodical  publica- 

univcrsities, 

literature, and       tions,  amongst  which  were   distinguished    "The    Encyclo- 

Tjiig  press. 

psedia  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  "  The  Censor,"  and  "  The 
Globe."  The  latter  especially  attracted  attention,  and  counted  the  Doc- 
trinaires amongst  its  most  eminent  contributors.  These  journals  inserted 
in  their  columns  brilliant  articles,  very  liberal  in  tone,  and  containing 
very  elevated  views  with  respect  to  political  matters,  administrative  and 
financial,  and  did  not  then  foresee  that  they  would  so  soon  have  to  apply 
their  own  theories  to  practice,  and  to  answer  to  France  for  their  acts. 
But  whilst  in  these  productions,  some  of  which  were  justly  celebrated, 


1824-1830.]  THE    EEVOLUTION   UPHELD.  489 

whilst  others  were  worthy  of  respect  for  various  reasons,  elevated,  bold, 
and  more  or  less  adventurous  doctrines  were  associated  with  a  sentiment 
of  respect  for  the  monarchy,  the  latter  was  attacked  at  its  foundations  by 
other  works  which  were  very  popular,  and  which  were  fraught  with  pro- 
found irony,  systematic  bitterness,  and  all  the  prestige  of  talent.  Amongst 
these  writings,  some  of  which  had  the  importance  of  political  facts,  the 
most  spoken  of  and  widely  read  were  the  famous  pamphlets  of  Paul- 
Louis  Courier,  and  some  of  the  songs  of  the  national  poet  Beranger. 
About  the  same  time  two  men  of  rare  intellect,  MM.  Thiers  and  Mignet, 
appeared  in  the  literary  world,  and  founded  in  France  a  new  literary 
school.  They  had  devoted  themselves  to  the  mission  of  elevating  the 
character  of  the  French  Eevolution  by  excusing  the  faults  of  that  period, 
by  the  aid  of  a  doctrine  as  false  as  it  was  dangerous,  that  of  fatalism. 
Their  works,  which  they  have  themselves  subsequently  judiciously  modi- 
fied, were  received  at  first  with  enthusiasm  by  a  public  animated  by  a 
thousand  various  passions.  They  overstepped  their  own  object,  and 
powerfully  assisted  to  revive  in  France  the  Republican  party ;  a  formi- 
dable phantom  which  was  soon  to  stand  face  to  face  in  the  political  arena 
with  those  who,  without  intending .  to  do  so,  had  invoked  it.  Some 
Utopians,  in  the  first  rank  of  whom  were  Saint  Simon  and  Charles 
Fourrier,  dreamt  at  this  period  of  the  reconstruction  of  the  social  edifice 
on  principles  as  remote  from  the  genuine  principles  of  Christianity  as 
from  the  laws  sanctioned  by  the  study  of  human  nature  and  the  experience 
of  ages.  Their  doctrines  slowly  penetrated  the  masses,  and  found  favour 
with  minds  which  in  other  times  would  only  have  treated  them  with 
indifference  or  disdain.  It  would  be  unjust  to  hold  the  Government  of 
the  Restoration  responsible  for  the  manifestation  of  these  ideas ;  but  it 
may  fairly  be  said  that  the  extreme  irritation  caused  amongst  almost  all 
classes  by  a  long  series  of  imprudent  and  unpopular  acts,  disposed  an 
over-excited  and  passionate  public  to  accept  blindly  too  many  writings 
whose  only  title  to  favour  consisted  in  an  ardent  and  irritated  opposition 
to  the  ministerial  policy. 

In  the  meantime  M.  de  Villele,  in  spite  of  his  increasing  unpopularity, 
persisted  in  clinging  to  power,  and  his  ambition  became  day  by  day  more 
violent  and  jealous.  Determined  to  be  the  sole  master  of  the  position, 
he  had  successively  removed  from  power  the  most  eminent  men,  MM. 
Decazes,  Laine,  Richelieu,  and  Chateaubriand,  all  of  whom  had  powerful 


490  LAW    AGAINST    THE    PRESS.  [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

friends  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.    He  at  the  same  time  stood  aloof  from 

the  extreme  members  of  the  old  Right,  and  by  this  exclusive  and  personal 

policy  the  number  of  his   opponents  increased.     Finally,  he  had  lost  the 

majority  in  the  Chamber  of  Peers,  and  already  found  himself  very  weak 

in  that  of  the  Deputies.     He  resolved  to  strike  in  the  person  of  the  press 

the  most  formidable  opponent  of  his  power,  and  at  the  commencement  of 

the  following  session,  Peyronnet,  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  presented  to  the 

Deputies  a  law,  the  object  of  which  was  to  restrain  the  liberty  of  the 

press  within  the  narrowest  limits  in  respect  to  pamphlets  and  books,  and 

Proposed  law     *°  s^e  ^  altogether  in  respect  to  journals  and  periodicals. 

Srtyofthe      "^e  Proposed  law  excited  an  almost  universal  feeling  of 

pres  indignation,  and,  at  the   suggestion  of  Charles  Lacretelle, 

who  was  zealously  supported  by  Chateaubriand,  Lemercier,  Jouy,Michaud, 

Joseph     Droz,    Alexander    Duval,    and  Villemain,   it    ap- 

Protestofthe  .  .  . 

Freuch  pointed  a  committee  of  its  members  to  draw  up  a  petition 

Academy. 

to  the  King  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  project.  This  peti- 
tion Charles  X.  refused  to  receive,  and  replied  to  it  by  the  infliction  of 
punishments ;  depriving  MM.  Villemain,  Lacretelle,  and  Michaud  of  their 
offices.  The  law,  which  was  adopted  by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  was 
vehemently  opposed  in  that  of  the  Peers.  The  Cabinet  foresaw  that,  even 
if  this  Chamber  accepted  it,  it  would  at  least  reject  its  most  rigorous 
clauses,  and  saved  it  from  so  dangerous  an  operation  by  withdraw- 
ing it. 

This  news  was  received  with  acclamations  by  the  populace  of  Paris, 

already  a  prey  to  a  formidable  excitement,  the  symptoms  of 
bectm^general.  which  were  displayed  in  the  midst  of  feux  de  joie  and 
symptoms  e  popular  cries.     Fresh  and  irrefragable  signs  of  the  general 

Mmistersfi827.     feeling  were  manifested  every  day ;  and  it  was  impossible 

to  doubt  the  sincerity  or  the  power  of  a  public  opinion 
which  was  supported  by  all  the  greatest  and  most  esteemed  bodies  in  the 
State,  the  peerage,  the  high  magistracy,  the  Institute,  the  ministry,  and 
even  the  wisest  and  most  eminent  men  of  the  Royalist  party.  There  was 
a  species  of  insanity  in  the  refusal  to  recognise  all  the  dangers  of  the 
course  on  which  the  Government  had  entered,  when  there  were  seen  in 
the  ranks  of  the  Opposition  all  the  great  incorporated  bodies,  which  are 
the  Conservative  elements  of  states,  that  fact  being  in  itself  an  infallible 
sign  that  a  revolution  was  imminent.     And  yet  the  Cabinet  persevered, 


1824-1830.]  THE   NATIONAL    GUARD    DISBANDED.  491 

determined  to  brave  everything,  as  though  struck  by  blindness  and 
fascinated  by  the  deceptive  prestige  of  a  factitious  parliamentary  majority, 
the  result  of  the  double  vote,  and  torn  from  France  by  an  unlimited 
administrative  centralization. 

Charles  X.,  whilst  thus  opposing  every  liberal  feeling,  was  never- 
theless anxious  that  the  French  should  be  personally  attached  to  him. 
He  had  long  been  hurt  at  the  silence  of  the  people  when  he  passed 
amongst  them,  and  after  having  witnessed  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Pari- 
sians on  the  occasion  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  law  respecting  the  press, 
he  ordered  a  general  review  of  the  National  Guard  for  the 

Review  and  dis- 

following  Sunday.      On  that  day  the  whole   of  Paris  pro-    bandmeut  of  the 

°  J  J  r  National  Guard. 

ceeded  to  the  Champ  de  Mars,  where  sixty  thousand  men 
were  under  arms.  The  King  passed  through  the  ranks  and  appeared 
satisfied  with  the  manner  in  which  he  was  received,  but  in  almost  every 
instance  the  cry  of  "  Vive  le  roi !"  was  mingled  with  a  shout  of  hostility 
against  the  ministers.  Some  voices  even  insulted  the  princesses  present 
at  the  review,  and  whilst  defiling  before  the  Minister  of  Finance,  a 
battalion  uttered  threatening  imprecations.  The  King  had  already  uttered 
some  gracious  words  when,  at  the  instigation  of  the  princesses  and  MM. 
de  Villele  and  Corbiere,  he  felt  bound  to  avenge  the  offended  members 
of  his  family  and  his  Council ;  but  he  did  not  distinguish  the  innocent 
from  the  guilty,  and  confounded  them  in  the  same  punishment.  Paris 
learnt  on  the  following  day  that  its  National  Guard  was  dissolved.  The 
Liberal  press  and  the  Opposition  journals  vehemently  reproached  the 
President  of  the  Council  with  being  the  author  of  this  inconsiderate  act 
of  vengeance,  and  immediately  after  the  session  the  censorship  was  arbi- 
trarily re-established.  A  strong  opposition  against  the  decree  which  so 
abruptly  dissolved  the  National  Guard  arose  in  the  Chamber  of  Peers, 
and  appeared  also  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  where  the  minority  hostile 
to  the  Ministers  increased  every  day  in  strength.  Already  many  mem- 
bers belonging  to  every  party  had  declared  that  although  a  recent  law 
had  sanctioned  the  septenniality  of  the  legislature,  the  trust  they  had  re- 
ceived at  the  hands  of  the  electors  was  only  for  five  years-,  and  that, 
consequently,  they  could  not  retain  their  seats  for  any  longer  time  in 
the  chamber.  M.  de  Villele  now,  therefore,  resolved  to  secure  the 
duration  of  his  power  and  the  execution  of  his  plans  by  the  election  of 
a   new  septennial   parliament  which    should   be  more  docile    than   the 


492  CHAMBER    OP    DEPUTIES    DISSOLYED.    [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

existing  one.  He  consulted  the  prefects  with  respect  to  the  state  of 
public  feeling  in  their  departments,  and  received  from  them  complaisant 
answers  which  were  in  many  cases  inexact,  but  which  in  most  cases 
assured  him  that  the  results  of  the  elections  would  be  favourable  to  his 
plans.  Relying  on  these  assurances,  he  no  longer  hesitated,  and  in 
v.        .  November,  1827,  appeared  the  decree  by  which  the  Cham- 

Dissolution  of  7  '     rr  J 

the  Chamber  of     ber  of  Deputies  was  dissolved.  The  Electoral  Colleges  were 

Deputies.    Crea-  x  ° 

is°27°f  PeerS>        convoked,  and  seventy-six  peers  created,  most  of  the  latter 
being  members  of  the  majority  of  the  old  Chamber  and 
large  landed  proprietors  whose  great  fortunes  recommended  them  to  the 
Royal  favour. 

The  Cabinet  had  overstepped  the  mark,  and  the  hour  had  arrived  in 
which  it  would  have  to  come  to  a  serious  account  with  public  opinion. 
There  had  already  been  formed,  since  some  time;  with  a  view  to  the 
approaching  general  elections,  a  society  which  became  celebrated  under 
the  name  of  the  society  Help  Yourself  and  Heaven  will  Help  You,  of 
which  many  eminent  members  of  the  Liberal  party,  and  amongst  others 
M.  Guizot,  were  the  most  active  founders.  Its  object  was  to  prevent 
electoral  frauds,  to  watch  the  electoral  lists,  and  to  stimulate  the  zeal  of 
those  electors  who  belonged  to  the  Liberal  party.  Its  efforts  were  power- 
fully supported  by  the  periodical  press,  which,  according  to  law,  became 
released  from  all  its  shackles  as  soon  as  the  elective  Chamber  was  dis- 
solved. Three  influential  journals — the  Debats,  the  Constitutionnel,  and 
the  Courier  Franqais* —  waged  a  desperate  war  against  the  Cabinet, 
whilst  a  multitude  of  other  publications  at  Paris  and  in  the  departments 
Outburst  of  were  the  passionate  organs  of  the  general  feeling.  Public 
L^beraf  eiec-n*  opinion,  so  long  misconstrued,  crushed,  and  braved,  now 
tions,  1827.  exploded  simultaneously  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom.     Its 

force  was  irresistible,  and  it  triumphed,  this  time,  over  the  administrative 
centralization.  All  the  members  of  the  Left  who  had  been  rejected  in 
the  preceding  election  reappeared,  and  were  sent  back  to  the  Chamber  by 
the  arrondissement  colleges.  Many  of  them  returned  to  it  deeply  irritated, 
disposed  to  make  the  most  violent  resistance  to  the  policy  of  the  Cabinet, 


*  The  Debats  was  conducted  at  this  period  by  its  proprietors,  the  brothers  Bertin, 
with  the  assistance  of  Bequet,  Hoffman,  Salvandy,  and  Chateaubriand.  The  principal 
writers  on  the  Constitutionnel  were  Jouy,  Arnaud,  &c.  A  distinguished  publicist 
named  Chatelain  edited  the  Courier  Francais. 


1824-1830.]  FALL    OF    THE   VILLeLE    MINISTRY.  493 

and  with  this  object  to  adopt  measures  little  compatible  with  the  necessi- 
ties of  the  moment  and  the  dictates  of  wisdom.  The  choice  of  the  de- 
partmental colleges  was  in  general  favourable  to  the  Royalist  party,  which 
had  recently  become  dominant  in  the  bosom  of  the  Chamber ;  but,  never- 
theless, an  imposing  constitutional  majority  had  issued  from  the  electoral 
urn.  It  was  in  vain  that  M.  de  "Villele  still  endeavoured  to  retain  office 
by  sacrificing  those  of  his  colleagues  who  were  the  most  compromised ; 
and  in  vain  that  he  exhausted  every  species  of  combination  for  the 
formation  of  a  Council  in  harmony  with  the  new  Chamber,  and  in 
which,  at  the  same  time,  he  might  himself  have  a  place.    He 

x  Fall  of  the  Villele 

was  compelled  at  length  to   confess  his  powerlessness,  and   Ministry, 

1  ....  .         December,  1827. 

fell  before  that  public  opinion  which  he  had  too  haughtily 
disdained. 

The  Council  of  which  he  was  a  member  had,  during  the  administration 
of  five  years'  duration,  injured  numerous  interests  dear  to  the  middle  classes  ; 
and,  whilst  it  day  by  day  aroused  fresh  and  formidable  hatreds  against  the 
Government,  it  also  day  by  day  deprived  the  people  of  some  of  their 
natural  strength  and  means  of  resisting  authority.  By  transforming  the 
Government  officials  into  blind  instruments  of  electoral  manoeuvres,  it 
lowered  them  in  public  estimation.  It  offended  the  army  by  the  favour 
it  displayed  towards  those  who  speculated  on  religious  conversions  in  the 
regiments  ;  and  alienated  the  Eoyal  Courts  by  condemning  their  judgments, 
whilst  it  disgusted  the  University  by  closing  the  normal  schools,  and 
suspending  the  course  of  lectures  delivered  by  the  two  illustrious  pro- 
fessors, MM.  Guizot  and  Cousin,  whose  learned  teachings  at  that  time 
shared  with  the  eloquent  lessons  of  M.  Villemain  the  attention  of  studious 
youth.  Finally  the  Government,  by  dissolving  the  National  Guard  of 
Paris  at  a  time  when  the  institution  was  still  very  popular,  aroused  an 
enemy  to  itself  in  every  family  in  the  capital. 

A  few  more  satisfactory  measures,  however,  were  effected  by  the 
Ministry  in  its  financial  operations  and  its  foreign  policy.  M.  de  Villele 
favoured  the  increasing  credit  which  France  now  began  to  enjoy,  the 
efforts  of  its  manufacturing  industry,  and  its  trade  with  other  nations.  It 
was  not  able,  as  it  desired,  to  follow  the  example  of  England,  by  causing 
the  recognition  bv  France  of  the  independence  of  the  Spanish    _' 

c  J  l  x  Independence  of 

colonies,  but  it  at  least  emancipated  the  old  colony  of  Saint   j^*^™*!)80 
Domingo,  on  condition  of  the  payment  of  a  considerable  in-    •France« 


494  THE  BATTLE  OE  NAVAEJNO.    [Book  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

demnity  to  the  dispossessed  colonists;  and  by  the  treaty  of  the  6th  July 
the  French  Government  ioined  with  those  of  England  and 

Treaty  of  Eng-  J  ° 

land,  France,  and  RUSsia  for  the  purpose  of  putting  a  stop  to  hostilities 
SrMcePjSn6°f  Detween  Turkey  and  Greece.  The  son  of  Mehemet-Ali, 
1827#  Ibrahim   Pacha,  having   been  summoned   to    his    aid    by 

the  Sultan,  arrived  in  the  Morea  with  a  formidable  fleet,  in  which  was 
embarked  a  great  portion  of  the  military  strength  of  Egypt,  and  had 
it  not  been  for  the  intervention  of  the  powers,  the  Greeks,  who  were 
utterly  exhausted,  must  have  been  lost.     Ibrahim  refused  to  observe  the 

armistice  prescribed  by  the  powers,  and  this  refusal  led  to 
Favarino,  the  celebrated  battle  in  which  the  French  squadron,  under 

Admiral  de  Rigny,  together  with  the  English  and  Russian 
squadrons,  attacked  and  destroyed  the  Egyptian  fleet  in  the  port  of 
Navarino.  This  victory  saved  the  Greeks  and  raised  them  to  the  rank 
of  a  nation.  France  learned  the  news  with  joy,  and  hailed  it  as  a  bril- 
liant dawn  for  resuscitated  Greece.  Its  enthusiasm  was  shared  by 
the  English  people,  who  were  pleased  to  attribute  the  honour  of  this 
triumph  to  the  great  Minister  whose  loss  it  deplored.  Canning  was  no 
more. 

Signs  of  storm  now  began  to  appear  at  the  two  extremities  of  Europe. 

The  Emperor  Alexander  had  died  in  1825,  and  the  Emperor  Nicholas, 

raised  to  the  throne  by  the  renunciation  of  his  elder  brother  Constantine, 

had  not  ascended  it  till  after  terrible  conflicts,  which  gave  every  expecta- 

, .    .   _,        tion  of  an  agitated  reign.    About  the  same  time,  in  Portugal, 

Troubles  in  Por-  o  o  o 

tugai.  Abdication   after  t^e  fe^  Qf  £ing  j^  yj    Tjon  Pedro,  the  eldest  of 

of  Don  Pedro  in  °  "  ' 

daughter  Donna  ^is  sons>  renouncing  the  crown  of  that  kingdom  in  favour  of 
tSof  DonUrpa"  nis  daughter  Donna  Maria,  had  bestowed  a  Constitution  on 
igue ,  1826.  ^at  kingdom  under  the  auspices  of  England.  The  friends 
of  Don  Miguel,  the  partisans  of  absolute  power,  prepared  to  run 
to  arms,  and  civil  war  had  already  burst  forth  amongst  the  Portu- 
guese, whilst  in  the  neighbouring  kingdom  of  Spain  the  people 
hovered  between  anarchy  and  despotism.  The  other  parts  of  Europe 
were  peaceful.  France  then  entered,  but  too  late,  upon  a  more  con- 
stitutional course  ;  the  Government  which  it  had  now  obtained  appeared 
to  understand  the  situation,  and  took  pains  to  satisfy  the  wishes  of  the 
country. 


1824-1830.]  GKBEECE    MADE    EEEE.  495 

The  new  council  was  formed  on  the  4th  January,  1828,  and  consisted 
of  MM.  de  Martiffnac,  Portalis,  De  la  Ferronnays,  De  Caux, 

°         '  '  «f '  ■'  *     Accession  ot  the 

De  Saint- Cricq,  and  Hyde  de  Neuville,  to  whom  the  King   ^Jf™^1"8' 
added  M.  de  Yatimesnil  and  Feutrier,  Bishop  of  Beauvais.    1828- 
There  was  no  president  of  the  council,  but  M.  de  Martignac,  a  talented 
and  judicious  man,  who  was  very  ready  of  speech  and  full 

Legislative 

of  tact,  gave  his  name  to  the  new  Cabinet.  The  Chamber  session,  1828,1829 
of  Deputies,  presided  over  by  M.  Koyer-Collard,  who  had  been  elected 
by  seven  colleges,  blamed  in  the  first  place,  in  its  address  to  the  King, 
the  acts  of  the  late  Government,  and  was  on  the  point  of  bringing 
against  it  a  formal  accusation.  The  position  of  the  new  Cabinet  was 
doubly  difficult ;  most  of  its  members  had  hitherto  given  too  few  pledges 
of  devotion  to  the  liberal  cause  to  be  able  completely  to  reassure  public 
opinion,  and  did  not  offer  sufficient  to  the  extreme  Eoyalist  party  to 
satisfy  the  Court.  From  thence  arose  distrust  on  the  part  of  the  Court, 
and  impatient  demands  on  the  part  of  a  twofold  opposition.  The 
Government,  however,  being  loyal,  skilful,  and  prudent,  and  supported 
by  the  right  Centre,  made  great  and  honourable  efforts  to  surmount  the 
difficulties  of  the  position,  and  the  Chambers,  at  its  suggestion,  adopted 
some  important  laws  conceived  in  a  liberal  spirit.     One  of 

-,  .  Legislative 

these  abolished  the  censorship,  and  others  sanctioned  the  enactments, 
system  of  speciality  in  the  great  divisions  of  the  budget,  and  the  per- 
manence of  the  electoral  lists,  and  controlled  the  action  of  Government 
officials  in  respect  to  elections.  Finally,  the  right  of  interpreting  the 
laws  was  recognised  as  belonging  to  the  three  branches  of  the  Legislature. 
In  respect  to  foreign  affairs,  the  Government  responded  to  the  wishes 
of    France   for    the    safety  of    Greece  by  sending  fifteen 

J  jo  Expedition  to  the 

thousand    men    to    the   Morea,     under     General   Maison.    Morea.   Enfran- 
chisement of 

Ibrahim  fell  back  before  them,  Greece  was  freed,  and  Greece« 
Capo  d'Istria  established  a  regular  Government  there.  In  respect  to 
domestic  affairs,  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  Government  became 
more  numerous  day  by  day,  but  they  nevertheless  courageously  worked 
at  their  painful  task.  Their  most  difficult  achievement  was  the  issuing 
of  two  decrees,  which  prohibited  the  Jesuits  to  take  part  in  the  instruc- 
tion of  youth.  By  one  of  these  decrees  the  secondary  ecclesiastical 
schools   were    placed    under  the   common  law,   and  by  another  it  was 


496  THE    MINISTET    AND    MONAECH.       [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

ordained  that  no  one  should  either  teach  in,  or  direct  them  who  belonged 
_.  ,.       to  any  society  not  authorized  by  law.     These  decrees  were 

Decrees  touching  j  j  j 

the  Jesuits.  foe  most  painful  concession  which  Charles  X.  made  to  the 

demands  of  the  age,  and  no  sacrifice  could  have  cost  him  more.  The 
Congregation  felt  itself  wounded  by  them  to  the  heart,  and  the  King  was 
surrounded  by  cries  of  anger  and  indignation.  The  remembrance  of  the 
forced  concessions  which  the  monarch  had  made  to  his  ministers  speedily 
changed  to  aversion  the  distrust  with  which  they  had  inspired  him,  and 
from  thenceforth  he  watched  with  secret  satisfaction  the  imprudent  con- 
duct of  the  Left,  which,  alarmed  at  the  presence  in  the  Chamber  of  a 
numerous  minority  imbued  with  principles  irreconcilable  with  the  wishes 
of  the  middle  classes,  and  conscious  of  the  indissoluble  links  which  con- 
nected this  minority  with  the  reigning  dynasty,  was  more  eager  in  its 
demands  for  strong  guarantees  against  the  return'  of  its  adversaries  to 
power,  than  for  the  passing  of  laws  for  the  good  of  France.  It  was  this 
feeling  which  principally  tended,  in  1828  and  1829,  to  give  an  unfortu- 
nate character  of  impatience  and  irritation  to  that  party  in  the  Elective 
Chamber.  The  Ministry  eagerly  desired  to  increase  its  strength  by 
„  .  ,.  associating  with  itself  some  of  the  eminent  men  of  the  left 

Grievous  dissen-  ° 

sionsbetweenthe    Centre:  but  all  its  attempts  in  this  direction  were  frustrated 

King  and  the  '  r 

Ministry.  ^y  the  King's  invincible  dislike  for  every  portion  of  the 

Liberal  party.*  Charles  X.  regarded  the  prerogatives  of  his  crown  as 
superior  to  the  charter  ;  he  was  indignant  at  the  very  idea  that  his  right 
to  select  his  ministers  was  shackled  and  limited  by  circumstances ;  and 
to  yield  on  this  point  was,  in  his  opinion,  equivalent  to  abdicating.  He 
had  already  done  violence  to  his  feelings  by  taking  from  the  extreme 
Eight  a  minister  whose  opinions  were  not  the  pure  expression  of  his  own 
sentiments,  and  he  was  resolved  not  to  take  another  step  towards  the 
Left.  In  his  eyes,  in  fact,  a  cabinet  belonging  to  the  right  Centre,  and 
composed  of  men  who  were  equally  devoted  to  the  King  and  attached  to 
the  charter,  was  the  veritable  representative  of  the  Constitutional  party ; 
he  was  astonished,  therefore,  at  the  opposition  which  his  Government  still 

*  The  Ministers  submitted  to  the  King  a  note  in  which  they  described  their  posi- 
tion and  the  necessity  there  was  of  securing  the  support  of  the  majority  by  conciliating 
the  moderate  Liberals  and  the  Koyalists,  and  presenting  laws  which  would  obtain  their 
votes.  This  note  concluded  with  some  sad  and  prophetic  words  respecting  the  dangers 
which  threatened  the  crown  of  Saint  Louis,  were  any  different  policy  adopted. 
Charles  X.  left  it  unanswered. — Barante's  "Life  of  Koyer-Collard." 


1824-1830.]  THE   POLIGtfAC   MINISTRY.  497 

encountered,  and  he  was  fond  of  repeating  that  no  concession  which  the 
crown  could  make  would  satisfy  the  liberals.  He  hoped  that  the  moment 
would  come  when  the  ministers  who,  he  considered,  had  been  forced 
upon  him  by  public  opinion,  would  be  condemned  by  it,  and  he  trusted 
to  be  able  to  find  in  their  dismissal  by  the  popular  voice  a  reason  or  a 
pretext  for  returning  to  the  men  of  his  choice. 

Charles  X.  made  at  this  period  a  journey  in  the  Eastern  departments 
where  the  favourable  reception  bestowed  upon  him  by  the  populace, 
at  all  times  eager  to  see  a  king,  deceived  him  with  respect  to  the  state  of 
public  feeling,  and  a  check  suffered  about  the  same  period  by  the  Ministry 
made  him  resolve  to  carry  into  execution  his  fatal  designs.  Two  impor- 
tant laws,  one  of  which  related  to  the  organization  of  the  municipal 
councils,  whilst  the  other  regulated  those  of  the  departments  and  the 
arrondissements,  were  submitted  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  The 
extreme  Right  refused  to  support  them,  forgetful  of  the  doc-    „    lVt. 

°  rr  °  Coalition  to  over- 

trines  entertained  by  it  in  1815  with  respect  to  local  fran-  tumtheMmistry. 
chises ;  and  a  portion  of  the  moderate  Liberals,  on  the  other  hand,  made 
common  cause  on  this  occasion  with  the  revolutionary  Liberals,  who  were 
not  less  dangerous  than  the  Ultra-Royalists  to  the  constitutional  monarchy. 
In  acting  thus  they  committed  a  great  fault,  and  did  not  sufficiently  take 
into  account  the  difficult  position  of,  and  the  praiseworthy  efforts  made 
by,  a  Ministry  in  every  respect  worthy  of  esteem,  and  even  more  liberal 
than  it  had  ventured  to  appear.  The  latter,  bound  to  conform  to  the 
formal  orders  of  the  King,  had  announced  that  no  modification  of  the 
proposed  laws  would  be  permitted;  and  a  small  majority  having  declared 
in  favour  of  an  amendment,  they  were  immediately  with-    _  .   ._..  „ 

7  J  J  EefeatoftheMar- 

drawn.     The  Court  rejoiced  in  the  defeat  thus  suffered  by    tigaac  Ministry. 
the   Cabinet,  Charles  X.  resolved  to  dismiss  his  Council,  and  on  the  8th 
August,  1829,  after  the  vote  for  the  budget  of  1830,  and  the  close  of  the 
session,  appeared  the  decree  which  created  a  new  cabinet. 

Three  noteworthy  men,  the  Prince  de  Polignac,  and  MM.  de  la  Bour- 
donnaye  and  De  Bourmont,  were  made  members  of  the  new 

Formation  of 

cabinet,  as  a  species  of  defiance  to  public  opinion.    The  first,    the-Poi.gnac 

x  .  ministry,  1S29. 

who  was  endowed  with  some  most  estimable  qualities,  was 
the   living  expression  of  the   Congregationist  party ;  the  second  repre- 
sented all  that  was  most  violent  in  the  unpopular  chamber  of  1815  ;  and 
the  third,  an  old  leader  of  the  Chouans,  was  only  known  to   the  people 

TOL.  II.  -  K  K 


498  THE    ADDBESS    TO    THE    KING.       [fioOZ  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

and  the  army  as  a  deserter  from  the  French  camp  at  Waterloo.  MM.  de 
Blacas  and  de  Damas  had  had  the  chief  share  in  the  formation  of  the 
new  cabinet ;  and  the  latter,  known  for  his  anti-constitutional  opinions, 
was  made  governor  to  the  Duke  de  Bordeaux.  The  counter-revolution 
.  was  thus  openly  announced ;  but  the  classes  most  attached  to  the  consti- 
tution had  acquired  strength,  for  they  had  obtained  from  the  Martignac 
ministry,  by  means  of  the  law  relating  to  the  press  and  the  electoral  law, 
two  powerful  arms,  and,  being  now  capable  of  resisting,  they  resisted. 
On  the  8th  of  August  the  monarchy  was  launched  on  a  rapid  slope,  and 
hurled  into  the  abyss. 

As  soon  as  the  names  of  the  new  ministers  were  announced  the  press 
passed  by  turns  from  expressions  of  rage  to  those  of  insulting  pity,  from 
disdain  to  threats.  The  society  of  "  Help  yourself  and  Heaven  will  help 
you"  prepared,  in  case  of  a  dissolution,  to  make  a  vigorous  resistance  to  the 
Court  by  means  of  the  elections ;  and  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom  a  vast 
association  was  formed  for  the  prevention  of  the  dreaded  imposition  of 
illegal  taxes.  The  Court  only  saw  in  these  great  and  formidable  move- 
ments a  conspiracy,  of  which  the  object  was  the  overthrow  of  the  throne; 
when  the  truth  was,  that  if  there  were  any  conspiracy,  it  was  a  con- 
spiracy on  the  part  of  a  great  part  of  France  to  save  the  charter  which  it 
believed  to  be  in  danger.  The  object,  as  it  was,  of  so  much  distrust  and 
such  violent  attacks,  the  Council  continued  to  protest  its  respect  for  the 
institutions  of  France,  and  M.  de  la  Bourdonnaye  was  even  sacrificed  by 
his  colleagues  to  public  opinion.  M.  de  Montbel  succeeded  him,  and  the 
ministers,  presided  over  by  M.  de  Polignac,  appeared  at  length  before  the 
Chambers. 

On  the  2nd  of  March,  Charles  X.,  displaying  for  the  last  time  all  the 
pomp  of  royalty,  declared,  in  the  presence  of  the  assembled  deputies  and 
peers,  his  firm  intention  to  maintain  equally  intact  the  institutions  of  the 
country  and  the  prerogatives  of  the  crown.     The  composition   of   the 
Address  of  the     address  from  the  deputies  in  answer  to  the  speech  from  the 
221, 1830.  throne  gave  rise  to  a  very  animated  debate,  in  which  two 

already  famous  men,  MM.  Guizot  and  Berryer,  made  their  entrance,  on 
opposite  sides,  into  parliamentary  life.  The  address  which  was  proposed 
pointed  out  to  the  King  that  the  composition  of  his  new  cabinet  was 
dangerous  and  threatening  to  the  public  liberties;  explained  that  the 
necessary  harmony  between  the  political  views  of  the  Government  and 


1824-1830.]  THE    CHAMBEBS   DISSOLVED.  499 

the  views  of  the  nation  did  not  exist,  and  entreated  him  to  re-establish  it. 
An  amendment  tending  to  soften  this  phrase,  which  was  considered  as 
irritating,  was  proposed,  and  M.  Guizot  rose  to  combat  it.  "  By  the 
frankness  of  our  words,  gentlemen,"  he  said,  "  by  the  frankness  of  our 
words,  we  can  alone  inform  the  Government  of  the  truth,  gain  its  atten- 
tion, and  dissipate  its  illusions.  Let  us  beware,  then,  of  diminishing 
their  force;  the  truth  has  already  sufficient  difficulty  in  gaining  ad- 
mittance into  the  council  chamber  ©f  kings;  let  us  not  send  it  thither 
pale  and  enfeebled."  The  amendment  was  rejected,  and  two  hundred  and 
twenty-one  members,  against  a  hundred  and  eighty-one,  voted  for  the 
memorable  address.  Charles  X.,  after  having  heard  it,  displayed  much 
irritation,  and  declared  that  his  resolutions  were  known  and  would  re- 
main immutable.  The  Chamber  was  prorogued  and  then  dissolved.  The 
King  issued  a  decree  which  again  convoked  the  electoral 

Dissolution  of 

colleges ;  the  two  hundred  and  twenty-one  signers  of  the   the  chambers. 

General  election. 

address  were  almost  all  re-elected,  and  the  Opposition  was 
reinforced  by  many  new  members. 

In  the  meantime  the  Cabinet  had  endeavoured  to  obtain  some  popularity 
by  means  of  a  great  military  success,  and  an  affront  offered  to  the  French 
consul  gave  the  ministry  a  fortunate  opportunity  of  purging  the  sea  of 
the  Barbary  pirates.  An  expedition  against  Algiers  was  determined 
on,  the  command  of  the  army  being  given  to  M.  de  Bourmont,  and  that 
of  the  naval  forces  to  Admiral  Duperre.  The  city  was  taken,  and  the 
Cabinet  and  Court  received  with  delight  the  news  of  this  capture  of 
brilliant  conquest ;  but  Paris  shared  but  very  slightly  in  giers'  183°" 
their  joy,  for  it  understood  that  this  victory  would  render  them  still 
more  rash,  and  feared  that  it  would  take  more  from  the  liberties  of  the 
nation  than  it  would  add  to  its  glory. 

The  political  struggle  at  length  approached  its  termination ;  the  general 
result  of  the  elections  was  known,  and  the  Ministry  found  itself  in  front 
of  a  majority  still  more  compact,  impatient,  and  hostile.  Most  of  the 
members  of  the  majority,  however,  did  not  wish  for  the  overthrow  of 
the  throne,  and  were  sincerely  attached  to  the  constitution ;  but  at  this 
period,  as  in  1791,  the  Court,  to  its  misfortune,  could  not  distinguish 
between  the  Constitutionalists  and  the  Revolutionists,  and  was  obstinately 
resolved  to  look  upon  the  charter,  which  was  the  buckler  of  the  dynasty, 
as  the  scourge  of  France.     To  be  devoted  to  the  Constitution  was,  in  the 

kk2 


500  MANIFESTATIONS    OF    DISORDER.        [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

eyes  of  the  Court,  to  be  the  enemy  of  the  Court ;  and  thus,  by  refusing 
its  support  to  the  men  who  wished  for  the  charter  with  the  Bourbons,  it  in- 
clined them  to  join  those  who  wished  for  the  charter  without  the  Bourbons. 
The  dynasty  now  hung  on  the  edge  of  the  abyss,  and  had  reached  that 
fatal  point  at  which  the  fall  of  a  government  is  foreshadowed 

Alarming  omens. 

by  the  most  infallible  symptoms.  Almost  all  the  men  eminent 
for  knowledge  and  talent  had  passed  over  to  the  ranks  of  the  Opposition,  and 
those  even  who  had  originally  been  the  most  energetic  in  the  support  of  this 
dynasty,  and  who  had  the  greatest  personal  interest  in  keeping  it  on  the 
constitutional  path  they  had  traced  out  for  it,  had  for  the  most  part 
become  the  chiefs  of  the  Opposition.  Finally,  inspiring  the  citizens,  as 
it  did,  with  an  invincible  feeling  of  distrust  by  means  of  the  very  success 
which  in  other  times  would  have  confirmed  its  authority,  it  saw  the 
country  reject  the  glory  which  it  offered  it,  and  found  that  many  imputed 
to  it  as  crimes,  not  only  the  faults  which  it  had  really  committed,  but 
even  the  calamities  which  it  endeavoured  to  prevent.  Many  departments, 
in  fact,  were  at  this  period  desolated  by  numerous  fires,  and  public  rumours 
went  so  far  as  even  to  accuse  the  Government  of  being  the  author  of  them. 

The  period  for  the  assembling  of  the  Chambers  drew  near,  and  that 
_..  ,,         .',       species  of  madness  which  is  the  sure  forerunner  of  the  ruin 

Blindness  of  the        r 

CoLirt*  of  empires  filled  the  palace  of  the  King  of  France.    Strange 

reports  circulated  at  Saint- Cloud,  the  residence  of  the  Court,  where  the 
manifestations  of  public  feeling  were  attributed  only  to  the  pernicious 
influence  of  a  Committee  which  really  existed,  but  to  which  the  Royalists 
attributed  an  exaggerated  power.  It  was  that  alone,  they  said,  which 
alienated  France  from  its  King.  Had  the  public  funds  fallen  in  value 
since  the  appointment  of  the  new  Ministry  ?  It  was  the  work  of  the 
Committee.  Did  the  inhabitants  of  the  South  give  a  brilliant  reception 
to  General  Lafayette  on  his  return  from  the  United  States  ?  It  was  the 
Committee  which  had  ordered  their  acclamations.  Did  the  people,  on 
the  contrary,  remain  cold  and  almost  indifferent  at  the  news  of  the  con- 
quest  of  Algiers?  u  It  was,"  said  the  Eoyalists,  "because  the  Committee 
had  commanded  them  to  be  silent."  The  discovery  of  the  members  of  this 
Committee,  and  the  punishment  of  some  of  them,  was  all  that  was 
wanting,  according  to  the  Eoyalists,  for  the  restoration  of  order  and  the 
suppression  of  the  Eevolutionists.  The  name  of  Napoleon  was  in  every 
mouth,  and    those  who  had   formerly  overwhelmed  it  with  insults  now 


1824-1830.]  CONVOCATION  OF    THE   CHAMBEES.  501 

could  not  sufficiently  laud  it.  "  There  must  be  another  18th  Brumaire," 
said  the  courtiers;  "force  and  boldness  must  be  employed,  and  the  sup- 
port of  the  populace  might  be  relied  on."  A  few  charcoal  burners  and 
market  porters  had  gone  in  procession  to  Saint-Cloud,  and  had  made  use 
of  an  expression  which  was  repeated  by  the  Court  with  much  com- 
placency. Maitre  charbonnier  est  maitre  ckez  luu  After  that,  was  it 
possible  to  doubt  that  the  people  were  Royalist  at  heart,  and  would  sup- 
port the  cause  of  the  crown  ? 

Such  were  the  expressions  of  most  of  those  whom  the  King  admitted 
to  his  intimacy.  The  only  person  who  might  have  been  able  successfully 
to  oppose  a  rash  resolution  which  it  is  not  probable  she  would  have 
approved,  Madame  the  Dauphiness,  was  absent,  and  everything  contri- 
buted to  deceive  the  unfortunate  Prince,  who  was  only  too  inclined 
to    deceive    himself.      His    spirit    obeyed    a    higher   and 

•n  •  •     -i  i       •  <nrt       i '      -wr  •  Personal  dispo. 

still  more  irresistible  influence.      Charles  X.,  and  in  this    sit  ion  of  the 

.    .  .  .  Khig. 

his  minister  resembled  him,  believed  that  he  had  a  great 
mission  to  fulfil,  and  that  a  great  duty  had  devolved  upon  him  to  stifle 
Liberalism,  to  establish  his  government  on  exclusively  religious  and 
monarchical  bases.  He  had  persuaded  himself  that  the  fourteenth  article 
of  the  charter,  which  authorized  the  King  to  issue  decrees  for  the  safety 
of  the  State,  also  authorized  him  to  leave  the  path  of  legality  if  the  State, 
being  in  peril,  could  not  be  saved  by  legal  measures.  In  his  eyes  the 
safety  of  the  monarchy  depended  on  the  continuance  in  office  of  the 
ministers  he  had  appointed,  and  the  triumph  of  the  throne  over  a 
Chamber  which  he  accused  of  wishing  to  overthrow  it.  At  the  same 
time  he  was  not  conscious  that  he  was  tearing  the  charter  or  perjuring 
himself  when  he  made  the  article  above  named  an  excuse  for  violating  it. 
The  blood-stained  form  of  his  brother  was  incessantly  before  him. 
"  Louis  XVI.,"  he  said,  "  was  taken  to  the  scaffold  because  he  always 
yielded ;"  and  Charles  X.,  forgetting  that  the  great  art  of  governing  con- 
sists in  knowing  when  to  yield  and  when  to  resist,  thought  that  he  should 
save  his  crown  and  his  head  by  never  yielding. 

During  the  last  days  of  July  the  King  remained  inflexible-;    but  his 
Ministry  still  deliberated,  and  either  because  it  hesitated  or  because  it 
wished  to  change  public  opinion,  sealed  letters  were   sent    Convocation  f 
to  the  members  of  the  two  Chambers  convoking  them  for   §jSSSrf 
the  3rd  of  August.    Five  members  of  the  Council  spoke  of  Ausu8t» 


502  REVOLUTION  of  1830.  [Book  IV.  Chap.  IV*. 

the  danger  of  having  recourse  to  violent  and  illegal  measures  ;  but  as  the 
King,  by  interpreting  every  refusal  as  a  sign  of  weakness  and  an  aban- 
donment of  himself  at  the  moment  of  danger,  had  thus  transformed  the 
question  of  State  into  one  of  honour,  a  blind  feeling  of  devotion  was  alone 
attended  to.  On  the  28th  of  July  the  Moniteur  published  an  explanation 
Dec  ees  an  drawn  up  by  M.  de  Chantelauze,  and  followed  by  the  famous 

Charter*  July  26  decrees  signed  on  the  previous  evening,  which  suppressed 
the  liberty  of  the  press,  annulled  the  late  elections,  and 
arbitrarily  created  a  new  electoral  system.  All  the  members  present  in 
Paris  were  willing  to  share  the  responsibility  of  these  decrees,  and  they 
were  countersigned  by  the  Prince  de  Polignac,  Chantelauze,  the  Count  de 
Peyronnet,  de  Montbel,  de  Guernon-Eanville,  Baron  Capelle,  and  Baron 
d'Haussez.  The  member  of  the  Council  most  capable  of  making  the 
military  arrangements  necessary  to  the  carrying 'out  of  these  decrees, 
Bourmont,  the  Minister  of  War,  was  still  in  Africa;  the  Prince  de  Polignac 
took  his  place,  and  was  so  certain  of  success  that  he  took  no  extraordinary 
means  to  secure  it. 

A  prolonged  and  sullen  murmur  spread  through  Paris  at  the  publica- 
tion of  these  decrees,  and  on  the  following  day  there  appeared  in  the 
Protest  of  th  opposition  journals  an  energetic  protest,  signed  by  forty- 
Joumahsts.  three  of  their  principal  contributors  or  editors,  amongst 

whom  were  MM.  Charles  de  Remusat,  Thiers,  Mignet,  Armand  Carrel, 
Bande,   and  Chatelain.     They  declared  that  they  could  not  submit  to 
illegal  decrees,  and  urged  the  deputies  to  resist  them ;   to  regard  them- 
selves as  legally  elected,  and  to  protest  with  themselves.     Orders  were 
given  for  the  destruction  of  their  presses,  and  a   struggle  took  place  in 
the   printing    offices,    which  was   speedily  transferred  to  the  streets,  in 
which  the  multitude  on  the   same  evening  broke  down  the 
insignia  of  monarchy,  with  the  cry  of  "  The  Charter  for 
ever  !"  and  improvised  numerous  barricades.     Paris  was  declared  in  a 
.  -   f        state  of  siege,  and  Marshal  Marmont,  Duke  of  Ragusa,  was 
three  da^of        placed  in  command  of  the  King's  household  troops,  of  the 
July*  guards,  and  of  the  troops  of  the  line,  the  total  number  of 

which  in  Paris  did  not  exceed  twelve  thousand.  He  led  them  against  the 
insurgent  populace,  occupied  all  the  strategical  points,  and  summoned 
additional  regiments  from  the  neighbouring  garrisons.  But  already  the 
Hotel  de  Ville,  abandoned  by  the  two  prefects,  had  fallen  into  the  hands 


1824-1830.]  BEVOLTJTION   OF   1830.  503 

of  the  insurrectionists ;  new  men,  without  any  regular  authority,  com- 
manded there  in  the  name  of  the  people  j  the  tricolour  was  raised  there, 
and  the  word  "  Republic  "  was  echoed  again  and  again  by  the  excited 
crowd.  A  portion  of  the  Opposition  deputies  who  were  in  Paris,  having 
assembled  at  the  house  of  one  of  them  on  the  morning  of  the  28th,  recog- 
nised the  necessity  of  determining  on  some  common  plan,  and  of  seizing 
the  reins  of  authority  for  the  purpose  of  saving  France  from  despotism 
and  anarchy.  Of  this  number  were  MM.  Casimir  Perier,  Lafitte, 
Lafayette,  the  elder  Dupin,  Charles  Dupin,  Guizot,  Villemain,  Sebastiani, 
Benjamin  Constant,  Salverte,  Audrey  de  Puiraveau,  Maugin,  &c.  They 
voted,  with  some  modifications,  a  declaration   drawn  up  by    -    ,     ,. 

'  '  e      J      Declaration  of 

M.  Guizot,  in  which  they  forcibly  protested  against  the  ^e^feP081tlon 
decrees  of  the  26th,  and  declared  themselves  legally  elected,  July28- 
and  incapable  of  being  replaced  save  by  virtue  of  elections  conducted 
according  to  the  forms  ordained  by  the  law.  Sixty-three  signatures  were 
appended  to  this  protest,  being  those  of  the  deputies  actually  present,  and 
of  those  of  their  absent  colleagues  whom  the  first  supposed  willing  to  join 
with  them. 

On  the  28th  almost  the  whole  of  Paris  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  in- 
surgents. Numerous  uniforms  of  the  recently  dissolved  national  guard 
had  appeared,  adorned  with  the  tricoloured  cockade,  in  the  midst  of  the 
populace,  and  the  pupils  of  the  Polytechnic  and  the  other  great  schools, 
forcing  the  gates  of  their  establishments,  had  everywhere  become  leaders 
of  the  insurrection.  No  military  precaution  had  been  taken  by  the 
Government  before  the  conflict ;  the  soldiers  were  left  without  food,  and 
murmured;  and  some  companies  of  the  line  laid  down  their  arms  and 
fraternized  with  the  people.  The  royal  guard  and  the  rest  of  the  troops, 
assailed  in  every  direction,  and  overwhelmed  with  projectiles  hurled 
from  the  house-tops,  and  with  musket  balls  fired  from  behind  walls  by 
invisible  enemies,  fought  valiantly,  and  fell  back  upon  the  quarter  of  the 
Louvre  and  the  Tuileries,  to  which,  on  the  evening  of  the  28th,  the 
defence  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  was  already  limited. 

On  the  morning  of  the  29th  the  deputies  who  had  drawn  up  the  pro- 
test signed  on  the  previous  evening,  in  compliance  with  the  wishes  of  the 
chief  citizens,  made  Lafayette  commander-in-chief  of  the  national  guard, 
and  nominated  a  municipal  committee  charged  with  the       Munici  ai 
duty  of  providing  for  the  safety  of  life  and  property,  and  of      communion. 


504  BEVOLT7TION  or   1830.  [book  IV.  ChAp.  IV. 

providing  for  the  government  of  the  city.  This  committee,  with 
Lafayette  and  his  staff,  immediately  took  possession  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville, 
where  it  installed  itself  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd  excited  by  victory,  but 
which  knew  how  to  respect  itself  by  prohibiting  on  pain  of  death  devasta- 
tion and  pillage. 

Beside  the  spectacle  of  a  capital  rebelling  in  the  name  of  the  charter 
and  of  the  violated  laws,  that  which  was  presented  at  Saint- 

Tbe  Court  and  .        ■       .  .  M  . 

the  King  during     Cloud  in  the  interior  oi  the  royal  residence  was  not  less  in- 

the  thred  days, 

teresting.  Some  courtiers  of  high  rank,  whose  intelligence  was 
quickened  by  the  imminence  of  the  danger  and  the  experience  of  misfor- 
tune, had  been  terrified  when  they  saw  the  decrees  of  July,  and  confined 
their  secret  apprehensions  beneath  an  uneasy  silence,  whilst  the  men 
who  at  every  moment  had  access  to  the  ear  of  the  prince,  and  those  of  an 
inferior  rank  who  peopled  his  court,  had  for  the  most  part  abandoned 
themselves  to  a  mad  delight.  Charles  X.,  in  their  opinion,  began  at  length 
to  act  as  a  monarch,  and  at  this  time  only  was  a  king.  This  rash  crowd 
passed  swiftly  to  a  state  of  despair  as  blind  as  had  been  its  exultation. 
But  he  who  almost  alone  of  all  in  the  palace  attracted  any  real  interest  was 
the  King,  the  author  and  first  victim  of  the  prodigious  catastrophe  which 
was  now  enacting.  He  hid  from  every  eye,  under  a  calm,  unmoved 
countenance,  the  secret  of  his  distracting  emotions.  Filled  with  the  ideas 
with  which  the  heart  is  affected  when  it  is  about  to  perform  a  solemn  and 
painful  duty,  inspired  with  a  confidence  in  the  celestial  protection,  and 
deaf  apparently  to  the  mournful  sound  of  the  tocsin  which  sounded  afar 
the  last  hour  of  the  monarchy,  Charles  X.  sought  at  the  foot  of  the  altar 
for  the  confidence  which  he  could  no  longer  derive  from  those  around 
him.  He  would  doubtless  have  reproached  himself  writh  destroying  the 
slight  remains  of  confidence  which  still  lingered  in  the  breasts  of 
his  followers  had  he  himself  shown  any  signs  of  despair.  There 
was  a  strange  rashness  in  his  conduct  during  the  latter  part  of  his 
reign,  but  there  was  also  majesty  in  the  serene  glances  of  the  old 
monarch  as  he  stood,  still  firm  and  resigned,  on  the  crumbling  ruins  of 
his  throne. 

On  the  morning  of  the  29th  the  struggle  still  continued  in  the  capital 
with  all  that  increasing  audacity  with  which  the  multitude  had  been 
inspired  by  the  success  of  the  previous  evening.     The  country  around 


1824-1830.]  THE   KING  EETIRES.  505 

Paris  had  risen,  and  cut  off  communication  with  the  city.  The  royal 
army  was  devoid  of  the  necessary  supplies,  and  as  it  received  neither 
provisions  nor  reinforcements,  was  much  discouraged ;  and,  reduced  in 
numbers  by  wounds,  death,  and  desertion,  it  was  unable  to  maintain  its 
position  in  Paris.  The  Louvre,  which  was  ill  defended,  was  ,. 
taken  by  the  people,  and  Marmont  ordered  a  retreat  upon  ^on  oiTpwS011*" 
Saint- Cloud.  The  King,  however,  remained  inflexible  in  July29- 
the  midst  of  those  who  entreated  him  to  revoke  his  fatal  decrees.  Men  of 
great  weight — M.  de  Semonville,  grand  referendary  of  the  Chamber  of 
Peers,  and  M.  d'Argout — hastened  to  him  in  the  hope  of  overcoming  his 
resistance.  Their  efforts  were  seconded  by  those  of  M.  de  Vitrolles,  an 
old  servant  and  friend  of  Charles  X.,  who  in  1814  had  taken  a  very  active 
part  in  the  negotiations  for  the  recall  of  that  prince  and  his  family.  They 
united  in  entreating  the  monarch  to  pronounce  the  only  word  which,  they 
said,  could  save  the  crown,  whilst  the  conflict  in  the  capital  still  lasted. 
The  King  refused  to  believe  in  the  extent  of  the  peril,  but  at  length, 
when  Marmont  had  evacuated  Paris,  and  had  reappeared  at  Saint-Cloud 
with  the  remains  of  his  battalions,  Charles  X.   yielded,  re-    Th   ,  » 

voked  his  decrees,  and  ordered  the  Duke  de  Montemart  to  July26  revoked- 
form  a  Ministry.  But  it  was  too  late ;  too  much  blood  had  been  spilt, 
and  the  Municipal  Committee  of  Paris  rejected  the  Court's  overtures. 
The  danger  of  the  latter  grew  greater  every  hour  ;  whole  regiments 
appeared  in  the  ranks  of  the  insurgents,  and  Paris  was  preparing  to 
march  upon   Saint-Cloud.     During  the  night  of  the  29th 

Eetreat  of  tbe 

Julv  Charles  X.   retreated  to  Versailles.     When,  at  day-    KingtoVer- 

J  «*        sailles. 

break,  he  traversed,  for  the  last  time,  the  palace  which  had 
so  long  witnessed  the  royal  pomp  and  splendour ;  when,  surrounded  by 
his  family,  he  gazed  at  the  infant  whose  glorious  destinies  had  been 
hailed  by  so  many  thousands  of  voices ;  when  he  saw  him  prepared 
to  go  with  him  to  the  land  of  exile,  tears  ran  down  the  cheeks  of  the 
old  discrowned  man,  and  a  painful  anguish  stifled  his  words.  A  few 
hours  later  Charles  X.  was  at  Trianon,  and  the  Parisian  victors  at  Saint- 
Cloud. 

There  was,  however,  much  reason  to  fear  that  the  union  maintained 
amongst  the  citizens  of  the  immense  capital  during  the  conflict  would  be 
broken  at  the  moment  of  selecting  a  new  Government.     Some  wished  to 


506  DUKE    Or    OBLEASTS    IN    PAEI8.        [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  IV. 

establish  a  republic ;  and  others,  who  were  the  immense  majority  of  the 
citizens,  desired  to  retain  a  monarchical  and  constitutional  government. 
But  to  effect  this  it  was  necessary  to  find  a  man  already  elevated  above, 
all  by  his  private  position,  and  who  had  given  incontestable  pledges  of 
_,  his  devotion  to  the  public  liberties.     Such  a  man  existed, 

moned^toParis      anc^    France    possessed  him  in  the    person  of    the    Duke 
SenSaU^e       ^'Orleans.  Still  young  at  the  period  of  the  Revolution,  this 
Dg  om.  prince  had  adopted  the  national  colours,  and  fought  in  the 

first  great  battles  in  which  the  French  arms  distinguished  themselves. 
When  proscribed  he  had  known  how  to  preserve,  by  the  aid  of  his  talents, 
an  honourable  independence.  When  re-established  in  his  titles  and  digni- 
ties, he  gave  his  sons  a  popular  education.  He  had  been  the  intimate 
friend  of  General  Foy,  and  was  still  the  friend  of  the  men  most  eminent 
in  literature,  science,  and  of  the  tribune;  and  he  alone,  after  the  three 
days'  struggle,  appeared  capable  of  rallying  France  by  the  influence  of  his 
name,  and  restraining  the  revolutionary  flood  which  was  ready  to  burst 
all  bounds.  This  opinion  was  that  of  the  deputies  who  had  spontaneously 
assembled  at  the  Palais  Bourbon,  and,  at  the  suggestion  of  Benjamin 
Constant,  they  voted  a  declaration  to  the  effect  that  his  Royal  Highness 
the  Duke  of  Orleans  should  be  requested  to  proceed  immediately  to  the 
capital  for  the  purpose  of  exercising  there  the  functions  of  Lieutenant- 
General  of  the  kingdom.*  The  declaration  at  the  same  time  expressed  a 
wish  that  the  colours  raised  by  the  insurrectionists  should  be  retained  as 
those  of  the  nation. 

A  deputation  which  was  appointed  to  carry  this  declaration  to  the 
prince  found  him  at  the  Chateau  de  Neuilly,  his  usual  summer  residence, 
and  succeeded  in  overcoming  his  hesitation.  He.  promised  to  go  to  Paris, 
and  had  his  appearance  there  preceded  by  a  proclamation  addressed  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  capital,  in  which  he  repeated  the  wish  expressed  by  the 
deputies.     "  I  will  do  all  I  can,"  he  said,  "  to  preserve  you 

Proclamation  of  r  7  7  l  J 

the  Duke  from  civil  war  and  anarchy.  .  .  .  The  Chambers  are  about 

d  Orleans.  J 

to  reassemble,  and  they  will  consider  the  means  of  making 
the  laws  respected  and  maintaining  the  rights  of  the  nation.  The  charter 
will  henceforth  be  a  truth."  On  the  following  day  the  prince  entered 
Paris.     Time  pressed,  for  the  insurrectional  movement  in  defence  of  the 

*  M.  Villemain  abstained  from  voting,  as  he  did  not  consider,  he  said,  that  he  was 
furnished  with  any  authority  to  change  a  dynasty. 


1824-1830.  LAFAYETTE   AND    ORLEANS.  507 

charter  threatened  every  moment  to  become  a  republican  movement. 
The  royal  insignia  were  trampled  under  foot,  and  everywhere  were  written 
on  the  walls  in  great  letters  these  too-significant  words,  "  No  more  Bour- 
bons ;  France  chooses  to  have  a  Republic !"  The  Place  de  Greve  and  its 
neighbourhood  were  filled  with  numerous  groups  heated  and  excited  by 
demagogic  orators,  whilst  the  busts  of  democrats  of  sinister  memory — 
Robespierre,  Marat,  and  Saint- Just — were  carried  through  the  streets.  At 
the  same  time  the  Hotel  de  Ville  was  occupied  by  men  in  blouses  or  with 
naked  arms,  brandishing  their  guns  and  sabres,  and  who  had  seen  with  much 
anger  the  installation  of  the  Municipal  Committee.  The  latter  exercised 
their  functions  with  difficulty,  and  ran  great  risk  of  being  overpowered. 
Lafayette  alone,  through  the  prestige  attached  to  his  name,  preserved 
some  authority  over  the  tumultuous  and  threatening  mob  ;  but,  surrounded 
and  even  overpowered  as  he  was  by  Republicans,  he  appeared  a  prey  to 
a  fatal  irresolution.  The  cause  of  monarchical  government  seemed  only 
capable  of  being  saved  by  the  immediate  presence  of  the  Lieutenant- 
General ;  for  it  was  certain  that  otherwise  a  Republic  would  be  proclaimed. 
The  deputies,  informed  of  the  real  state  of  affairs,  proceeded  in  a  body 
to  the  Palais  Royal,  where  they  read  to  the  prince  a  declaration,  which 
he   approved,  respecting  the  new  guarantees  claimed  for 

The  deputies 

France :   and  from  thence  went  in  procession  to  the  Hotel   accompany  the 

1  Duke  d' Orleans 

de  Ville,  opening  with  some  difficulty  a  passage  through  an   *° the  H6tel  de 
armed  and  wrathful  multitude.     The  Duke  d'Orleans  then 
visited  the  Municipal  Committee,  which  resigned  its  powers  into  his  hands 
after  which  Lafayette  handed  to  the  duke  a  tricoloured  flag,  conducted 
him  to  a  balcony,  and  presented  to  the  assembled  people  the  Lieutenant- 
General  of  the  kingdom.     The  prince  displayed  the  flag  and  embraced 
the  old  general  amidst  the  acclamations  of  the  moved  and  appeased  crowd. 
From  this  moment  the  Duke  d'Orleans  was  recognised  without  opposi- 
tion in  Paris   and  the  departments  as    the   head   of  the  new  Govern- 
ment.* 

The  3rd  of  August  had  been  appointed  by  the  fallen  Government  as 
the  day  for  the  opening  of  the  Chambers ;   this  day  had  already  come, 

*  If  we  may  quote  a  very  well-known  saying,  the  genuineness  of  which,  however,  has 
been  often  contested,  Lafayette,  on  presenting  the  Duke  d'Orleans  to  the  people, 
said— "  Behold  the  best  of  Republics." 


508  new  laws.  [Book  IV.  chap.  IV. 

and  a  great  number  of  peers  and  the  majority  of  the  deputies  were  in 
Paris.  They  commenced  their  sittings,  and  the  first  care  of  the  deputies 
was  to  render  the  charter  harmonious  with  the  new  position  of  the  country 
by  introducing  into  it  certain  modifications,  some  of  which  had  been  long 
desired,  whilst  the  others  were  now  demanded  by  public  opinion  or  public 
clamour. 

The  Chamber,  at  the  suggestion  of  one  of  its  members,  M.  Berard, 
Modification  of  y°ted  the  following  resolutions  : — The  too-famous  article 
the  charter.  fourteen  disappeared  from  the  charter ;  the  Catholic  religion 
ceased  to  be  recognised  as  the  religion  of  the  State ;  the  liberty  of  the 
press  was  irrevocably  established  by  the  abolition  of  the  censorship  ;  the 
Chambers  were  endowed,  equally  with  the  monarch,  with  the  initiative  in 
the  presentation  of  proposed  laws ;  it  was  decreed  that  no  more  com- 
missions and  extraordinary  tribunals  should  be  created,  and  that  France 
should  resume  the  tricoloured  standard ;  the  age  of  Deputies  was  fixed  at 
thirty,  and  the  duration  of  their  office  to  five  years.  It  was  agreed  that 
the  constitution  of  the  Chamber  of  Peers  should  be  settled  at  a  later 
period,  and  the  effect  of  this  decision  was  the  abolition  of  the  hereditary 
peerage.  Finally,  the  preamble  by  which  Louis  XVIII.  declared  that  he 
granted  the  charter  to  his  subjects  was  suppressed  as  injurious  to  the 
.,,.,.     ,  national  dio-nitv.     The  charter,  thus  modified,  was  followed 

Additional  enact-  o       j  '  ' 

ments.  -j^  particular  enactments,  by  which  the  Deputies  abolished 

all  the  peerages  established  by  Charles  X.,  and  declared  that  it  was  neces- 
sary that  France  should  obtain  by  separate  laws : — 1.  That  all  crimes  of 
the  press,  and  political  crimes,  should  be  submitted  to  the  judgment  of  a 
jury;  2.  The  responsibility  of  ministers  and  other  Government  officials; 
3.  The  re-election  of  Deputies  promoted  to  salaried  offices;  4.  The 
annual  voting  of  the  contingent  for  the  army;  5.  The  organization  of  the 
National  Guard,  and  their  right  to  take  part  in  the  appointment  of  their 
own  officers;  6.  The  legal  confirmation  by  the  State  of  officers  in  the 
army;  7.  Departmental  and  municipal  institutions  founded  on  the 
elective  system;  8.  The  freedom  of  education;  9.  The  abolition  of 
the  double  vote  in  the  election  of  Deputies.  The  acceptance  of  the 
charter  thus  drawn  up  was  made  the  formal  condition  of  the  elevation 
of  the  prince  to  the  throne. 

In  the  meantime  the  fugitive  royal  family,  which  had  retired  from 


1824-1830.]  CHARLES    X.    LEAVES    FRANCE.  509 

Versailles  to  Rambouillet,  and  which  was  threatened  in  this  last  retreat 
by  twenty  thousand  Parisians,  who  had  run  to  arms  to  force  them  to 
fly,  abandoned  this  plan,  and  went  slowly  and  for  the  last 

•ijuz-x  ,         -  n  ,         ,,  .  iti     Retreat  and  em- 

time  into  exile.*     On   the    16th  of  August   it    embarked   barkation  of  the 

..  >*iii  ■'     i  royal  family  at 

at  Cherbourg  for  England.     Before  quitting  France  Charles    Cherbourg 

Abdication  of 

sent  to  the  Chambers  his  abdication,  and  that  of  the  Dau-    Charles  x.  and  of 

the  Dauphin. 

phin,  his  son,  in  favour  of  the  Duke  de  Bordeaux ;  but 
whatever  may  be  the  advantage  in  a  regular  government  of  the  principle 
of  hereditary  right  in  the  transmission  of  the  sceptre,  it  only  has  absolute 
control  over  those  who  admit  the  divine  right  of  kings,  and  in  order  that 
this  principle   should  be  practically  applied  at  the  close  of  a  successful 
revolution,  it  must  be  admitted  and  recognised  by  the  victors  themselves. 
On  this  occasion  it  was  not  so,  and  what  other  power  was  at  the  disposal  of 
the  partisans  of  the  hereditary  succession  ?     The  Royal  Guard  no  longer 
existed  ;  a  portion  of  the  troops  of  the  line  had  fraternized  during  the  con- 
flict with  the  National  Guard  and  the  people  ;   many  regiments  had  driven 
away  their   officers,  and  all  had  spontaneously  adopted  the  tricolour,  and 
given  in  their   adhesion   to  the   Revolution.     In  this  state   of  complete 
disorganization,  in  the  midst  of  a  blood-stained  capital,  in  which  raged  so 
many  furious  passions  hostile  to  the  eldest  branch  of  the  Bourbons,  and 
even  to  monarchy  itself,  the  accession  of  the   Duke  de  Bordeaux  was  a 
chimera,  whilst  the  proclamation  of  the  royal  infant  would  have  provoked 
an  irresistible  explosion  which  would  have  led  to  the  proclamation  of  a 
republic  and  a  civil  war.     The  Deputies  thought  thus,  and,  rejecting  the 
clause  to  which  Charles  X.  and  the  Dauphin  had  attached  their  abdica- 
tion, called  to  the  throne  his  Royal  Highness  Louis  Philippe  d'Orleans 
and  his  male  descendants  in  perpetuity.     The  Peers  immediately  assented 
to   the  views  and  acts  of  the  other  Chamber,   and  salvos  of  artillery  an- 
nounced the  royal  sitting  of  the  morrow.     On  that  day,  the 
9th  of  August,  1830,  the  Duke  d'Orleans,  accompanied  by    Accession'of' 
his  eldest  sons,  the  Dukes   de  Chartres  and  de  Nemours,    August  9th, 

.  1830. 

went  in   solemn  procession  to   the  Palais  Bourbon,  where 

were  assembled  the  Peers,  the  Deputies,  the  diplomatic  corps,  and  nume- 

*  The  Prince  de  Conde*,  who  was  in  ore  than  seventy  yearsof  age,  did  not  accompany 
his  family  from  Prance.  He  recognised  the  new  Government,  and  a  few  days  after- 
wards was  found  dead,  hanging  to  ihe  fastening  of  one  of  the  windows  of  his  bed-room. 
This  death  has  been  attributed  to  suicide,  the  cause  of  which  is  unknown. 


510  THE    KING   OF    THE   FBENCH.        [BOOK  IV.  CHAP.  1V» 

rous  other  persons.  He  took  his  place  on  a  seat  placed  before  the  vacant 
throne,  and  after  the  reading  of  the  declaration  of  the  two  Chambers,  he 
uncovered,  and  raising  his  hand,  said,  "  Before  God,  I  swear  faithfully  to 
observe  the  constitutional  charter  with  the  modifications  expressed  in  the 
declaration ;  to  govern  only  in  accordance  with  the  laws,  to  give  good  and 
exact  justice  to  every  one  according  to  his  deserts,  and  in  every  action 
to  have  in  view  only  the  interest,  the  happiness,  and  the  glory  of  the 
French  nation." 

The  prince,  after  having  formally  signed  this  oath,  ascended  the  throne, 
and  from  this  moment  was  recognised  as  King  of  the  French,  under  the 
name  of  Louis  Philippe  I. 


611 


BOOK  Y. 


SECOND  PERIOD    OF    THE     CONSTITUTIONAL    AND    PARLIA- 
MENTARY MONARCHY. 

The  Reign  of  Louis  Philippe — The  Revolution  of  February,  1848 — 
The  Fall  of  the  Monarchy. 

1830—1848. 


CHAPTER   I. 

FROM    THE    ACCESSION  OF    LOUIS   PHILIPPE  TO    THE    DEATH    OF    CASIMIR  PERIER. 

August,  1830— May,  1832. 

It  is  less  a  history  than  a  simple  sketch  of  the  last  reign  which  I  here 
propose  to  present  to  the  reader.  These  times  are  too  close  to  us  to  be 
seen  in  a  sufficiently  clear  light,  and  for  impartial  hands  to  be  able  to 
remove  the  veils  which  have  been  thrown  over  facts  by  enthusiasm,  in- 
terested feelings,  or  the  prejudices  and  implacable  hatreds  of  another  age. 
Having  arrived,  however,  at  the  close  of  my  task,  I  should  be  afraid  of 
leaving  it  too  incomplete  if,  after  having  shown  the  vicissitudes  which 
had  preceded  the  establishment  of  the  Constitutional  and  Parliamentary 
government  in  France  in  1830,  I  did  not  attempt  to  give  a  brief  descrip- 
tion of  the  immense  difficulties  which  it  encountered  in  the  second  period 
of  its  existence,  the  great  things  which  it  accomplished,  and  the  circum- 
stances and  faults  which  caused  its  fall.  I  will  confine  myself  to  narrat- 
ing the  principal  facts,  and  will  only  enter  into  details  when  they  are 
indispensable  to  a  comprehension  of  the  general  course  of  events. 

The  Revolution  of  July  is  amongst  those  of  which  the  reason  will  be 
recognised   bv    the    wise    spirits   of  posterity ;  but    every    „   ..   . 

o  j  i  i  J   i  J      Preliminary  re- 

political  or  social  revolution,  whatever  may  be  its  causes,    mark8« 


512  NEW    ORDER    OE    AEEAIRS.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  I. 

and  within  whatever  limits  it  may  be  confined,  contains  within  itself 
dangerous  germs  of  agitation,  discord,  and  anarchy ;  excites  an  infinitely 
greater  number  of  even  legitimate  desires  than  it  is  able  to  satisfy  ;  places 
in  the  rank  of  the  victors,  side  by  side  with  those  whose  only  desire  is  to 
make  the  right  prevail,  all  those  who  are  inspired  with  a  feeling  of  ani- 
mosity for  the  system  of  social  order,  either  by  misery,  a  spirit  of  pride, 
hatred,  or  envy, — the  crowd  of  men,  in  fact,  who  esteem  their  rights  com- 
mensurate with  their  pretensions,  and  who  consider  it  so  much  the  easier 
to  overthrow  a  new  government  because  it  has  only  cost  a  few  efforts 
to  destroy  that  which  seemed  firmly  established  by  a  long  existence. 

The  Revolution  of  1830  did  not  escape  the  perils  which  are  more  or 
less  incident  to  all  revolutions ;  but  whilst  the  object  of  the  latter  is 
generally  the  overthrow  of  established  institutions,  the  purpose  of  the 
Revolution  of  July  was,  on  the  contrary,  the  defence  of  the  constitution 
and  the  violated  laws.  This  was,  doubtless,  a  great  advantage,  but  it 
nevertheless  concealed  a  danger,  for  it  disposed  many  eminent  men  who 
had  assisted  or  sanctioned  the  work  of  July  to  misconceive  the  nature  of 
that  great  event,  and  to  persuade  themselves  that  it  only  remained  to 
keep  the  victors  within  proper  bounds,  and  to  resume  on  the  morrow  the 
conduct  of  affairs  at  the  precise  point  at  which  the  previous  Government 
had  left  them.  A  great  and  fatal  error !  Society  had  been  too  deeply 
shaken  by  this  prodigious  revulsion  to  allow  it  to  pass  over  without  the 
creation  of  new  necessities  and  interests,  and  together  with  many  illusions 
some  legitimate  and  great  hopes.  The  Revolution  of  1830,  although  it 
had  for  its  principal  object  the  maintenance  of  the  charter,  was  neverthe- 
less, when  we  consider  its  first  causes  and  its  general  bearing,  a  powerful 
and  almost  unanimous  reaction  of  the  country  against  the  acts  which  the 
last  Government  had  accomplished  by  the  aid  of  the  electoral  and  aristo- 
cratic law  of  the  double  vote.  This  great  movement  was  favoured  and 
accelerated  by  all  the  liberal  and  popular  theories  extolled  during  fifteen 
years  by  the  men  of  the  left  Centre  and  of  the  Left,  now  in  power.  Its 
principle  was  eminently  democratic,  in  the  best  acceptation  of  the  word;* 
and  this  fact  it  was  necessary  to  take  into  account,  and  perilous  to  forget. 

*  I  have  already  said  that,  in  my  eyes,  the  principle  of  democratic  government  rests 
on  the  obligation  to  elevate  the  moral  status  of  the  peoples,  to  increase  the  general 
comfort,  and  to  make  the  greatest  possible  number  of  persons  sharers  in  the  benefits 
of  civilization. 


1830-1832.]  tactions  m  1830.  513 

The  new  Government  thus  found  itself  placed — more  completely,  perhaps, 
than  any  other  Government — between  the  danger  of  exaggerating  its 
principle  and  that  of  deserting  it — of  losing  its  friends  without  gaining 
over  its  adversaries. 

Cruel  deceptions  towards  the  working  classes  followed  the  Revolution 
of  1830.     They  were  seriously  injured  by  the  commercial  perturbations, 
the  interruption  to  labour,  and  the  stagnation  of  affairs,  which   are  the 
inevitable  results  of  all  revolutions,  and   they  were  irritated  at  having 
obtained  only  an  increase  "of  suffering  and  wretchedness  from   an  event 
which  was  the  result  of  their   own  victory.     The   new  Government  was 
thus  condemned,  at  its  birth,  to  defend  itself  against   the   hostility  of  a 
portion  of  the  masses,  without  being  able   to  rally  to  its   side  the  most 
conservative  forces  of  human  society.     It  was  supported  neither  by  the 
territorial  aristocracy,  which  was  almost  wholly  attached  to   the  fallen 
Government,  nor  by  the  clergy,  whose  secret  distrust  or  open  hostility  it 
had  almost  incessantly  to  contend  with.    It  had  to  struggle,  even  amongst 
the  middle  classes,  with  many  parties  equally  hostile,  with  the  partisans 
of  legitimacy  or  hereditary  succession,  with  the  Republicans,  with  whom 
were  confounded  the  Bonapartists,  at  that  time  few  in  numbers,  and  with 
the  members  of  secret  societies,  in  which  were  elaborated   communism 
and   socialism,  and  which,   after  having  assisted  to  destroy  one  Govern- 
ment, sought  to  destroy  all.     It  appeared  before  a  multitude  of  enemies, 
in  the  midst  of  a  population  over  excited  by  a  victorious  insurrection, 
without  the  prestige  either  of  traditional  right   or  legitimacy,  or  of  the 
authority  of  a  great  affirmative   and  national  vote,  which  it  unwisely  did 
not  seek  to  obtain.     Its  error  in  this  latter  respect  was  so  much   the 
greater  because  it  would   certainly  have  obtained  such  a  vote  if  it  had 
demanded  it,  and  because  many  of  those  who  had   concurred  with  the 
Elective   Chamber  in   placing   the    dynasty  of   Orleans   on  the  throne, 
denied  that  that  Chamber  possessed  the  absolute  right   of  disposing   of 
the  crown  without  first  appealing  to  the  country.* 

*  I  am  very  far  from  sharing  the  opinion  of  Rousseau  with  respect  to  the  power  of 
universal  suffrage,  and  I  know  all  that  can  be  said  with  respect  to  the  abuses  and 
dangers  which  would  result  from  its  daily  application  either  to  foreign  or  domestic 
affairs.  I  believe,  however,  that  it  would  have  been  wise  to  have  had  recourse  to  it  in 
1830,  on  the  occasion  of  the  accession  of  a  new  dynasty  to  the  throne.  Louis 
Philippe  had,  doubtless,  been  accepted  as  its  sovereign  by  France,  but  in  not  having 
this  acceptance  sanctioned  by  a  popular  vote,  his  Government  was  led  astray,  in  my 

VOL.  II.  '  L    L 


514j  the  great  citizen  class.  [Book  V.  Chap.  I. 

The  Government  of  July,  threatened  as  it  was  by  so  many  enemies 
within,  had  also  declared  and  secret  enemies  in  most  of  the  foreign 
Governments,  which  looked  upon  its  establishment  as  a  danger  to  all 
thrones.  Amongst  the  European  Powers  it  had  but  one  ally,  Great 
Britain,  which  was  then  engaged  in  the  great  question  of  its  Parliamen- 
tary Reform,  and  whose  sympathies  were  enlisted  in  favour  of  a  revolution 
in  some  respects  analogous  to  that  which  had  confirmed  its  own  liberties 
and  power. 

The  new  Monarchy  necessarily  derived  its  chief  strength  from  the 
middle  or  citizen  class,  for  whom,  in  our  own  days,  there  has  been  so 
much  affectation  of  contempt.  This  citizen  class,  it  must  be  admitted, 
possessed  but  little  breadth  of  view,  and  but  a  very  moderate  practical 
experience  in  free  government ;  it  was  easily  led  away  by  party  feelings, 
and  accessible,  as  much  by  reason  of  its  pretensions  as  its  necessities,  to 
the  seductions  of  power,  without  the  salutary  restraint  of  religious  belief, 
which,  by  purifying  and  moderating  our  desires,  leads  us  to  follow  the 
paths  of  duty,  resignation,  and  sacrifice.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was 
the  offspring  of  those  men  of  ardent  and  liberal  convictions  who  were  the 
chief  agents  of  the  prodigious  movement  of  '89;  it  was  anxious  to  con- 
tinue their  work,  and  it  found  in  the  Charter  and  the  principles 
avowed  by  the  new  Government  the  faithful  expression  of  its  wishes. 
Enlightened  by  its  interests,  it  had  recognised  order  and  security  as  the 
very  conditions  of  its  existence.  A  stranger  to  every  spirit  of  caste,  it 
had  no  defined  limit,  but  was  everywhere,  being  connected  by  more  than 
one  link  with  the  aristocracy,  and  having  profound  ramifications  amongst 
the  whole  of  the  labouring  classes.  All-powerful  in  the  cities  and  towns 
of  any  importance,  it  possessed  the  larger  portion  of  the  moveable  pro- 
perty of  the  nation,  and  reckoned  amongst  its  ranks  the  most  enlightened, 
intelligent,  and  influential  men  of  the  country.     It  loved  itself  in  the  man 

opinion,  by  the  example  of  England  in  1688.  This  was  a  great  error.  In  the  neigh- 
bouring country  the  Houses  of  Parliament  have  always,  and  at  various  periods,  dis- 
posed of  the  crown.  But  in  France,  where,  since  the  accession  of  the  Third  Bace,  we 
find  no  analogous  precedent,  an  opinion  has  become  established  that  the  nation  alone, 
consulted  in  a  body,  has  the  right  to  dispose  of  the  sceptre,  and  substitute  one  dynasty 
for  another.  During  the  first  moments  which  succeeded  the  days  of  July,  whilst  the 
Royalist  party  was,  as  it  were,  stupefied  by  its  defeat,  and  Austria  held  Napoleon's 
heir  in  its  power,  Louis  Philippe  might  certainly,  had  he  wished,  have  derived  powerful 
support  from  universal  suffrage.  Though  we  may  safely  decline  the  use  of  a  useful 
weapon  for  ourselves,  it  is  dangerous  to  leave  it  in  the  hands  of  our  enemies. 


1830-1832.]  POLICY    OF    THE   MONARCHY.  515 

of  its  choice,  in  the  able  and  experienced  Prince  whom  it  had  raised  to 
the  throne ;  and  the  new  Government,  which  took  for  its  motto  Order, 
Liberty,  and  Peace,  was  accepted  by  it  as  the  best  guarantee  against  the 
spirit  of  revolution  and  of  conquest.  It  rested  upon  all  the  threatened 
interests  of  society,  and  prepared  to  strengthen  itself  by  means  of  admi- 
nistrative centralization,  the  inheritance  of  two  centuries,  a  power  very 
dangerous  to  the  hand  which  makes  a  bad  use  of  it,  although  capable,  it 
is  true,  of  struggling  for  some  time  against  public  opinion  and  keeping  it 
under,  but  invincible  and  irresistible  when  supported  by  it. 

This  Government  was  bound,  more  than  any  other,  to  rest  upon  a 
basis  which  might  vary  according  to  circumstances,  but  which  should 
always  be  at  an  equal  distance  from  extremes  ;  and  the  policy  indicated 
by  circumstances  demanded  that  the  members  of  the  Government  should 
be  endowed  with  qualities  which  are  rarely  united.  It  was  necessary  that 
the  Government  should  be,  with  respect  to  domestic  affairs,  very  firm, 
and  decidedly  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  disorder  and  anarchy  ;  prompt  to 
prevent  as  well  as  to  restrain  the  acts  of  demagogues,  and  nevertheless  the 
friend  of  free  institutions  and  of  progress;  very  sympathetic  with  respect  to 
the  lot  of  the  labouring  classes,  and  deeply  anxious  to  ameliorate  their 
moral  and  physical  condition.  Its  task  with  respect  to  foreign  nations 
was  equally  complex,  for  it  was  requisite  that  it  should  be  at  once  proud 
and  moderate,  liberal  and  yet  non-revolutionary,  patriotic,  bold  and 
yet  pacific.  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  new  Government  were 
immense ;  but  according  as  the  dykes  which  could  be  opposed  to  the 
agitated  waves  and  the  rage  of  parties  were  the  less  strong,  by  so  much 
was  it  more  important  that  the  new  order  of  things  should  have  bases  as 
large  as  possible  amongst  the  classes  more  particularly  interested  in  main- 
taining it — namely,  those  which  1830  had  placed  in  possession  of  power, 
and  in  whom  was  the  real  focus  of  public  opinion.  The  latter,  which 
must  not  be  confounded  with  mere  popular  favour,  had  doubtless  need  of 
being  enlightened ;  but  it  was,  nevertheless,  necessary  to  take  it  into 
account,  and  at  any  cost  to  rally  it  to  the  side  of  the  Government.  The 
Charter,  finally,  could  not  become  a  reality  if  the  country  did  not  take  a 
genuine  share  in  the  conduct  of  its  own  affairs,  and  if  the  Government 
did  not  remain  faithful  to  its  principle  and  mission. 

Such  were  the  problems  which  the  Monarchy  founded  in  1830  had  to 
solve,  and  such  the  conditions  on  which  alone  it  could  endure  and  last. 

ll2 


516  divisions  m  the  new  keGime.     [Book  V.  Chap.  I. 

Its  task,  as  we  see,  was  very  difficult  and  complicated,  and  few  even  of 
those  who  were  sincerely  attached  to  the  new  order  of  things,  and  who, 
after  having  taken  part  in  establishing  it,  wished  to  defend  it,  understood 
its  full  extent.  Although  unanimous  with  respect  to  the  end  to  be 
attained,  they  were  not  so  with  respect  to  the  means.  Some,  who  had 
perceived  the  greatness  of  the  peril,  considered  that,  in  the  midst  of  the 
effervescence  of  a  victory  which  had  excited  the  most  foolish  hopes  and 
the  most  subversive  ambitions,  the  first  thing  to  be  done  by  a  society 
whose  foundations  trembled  beneath  itself  was  to  strengthen  them,  to  keep 
down  the  revolutionary  spirit,  and  to  oppose  to  demagogism  a  resistance 
as  courageous  as  obstinate.  Many  others  saw  more  danger  in  resisting 
the  current  than  in  following  it.  Being  too  much  inclined,  moreover,  to 
confound  the  multitude  with  the  people  properly  so  understood,  they 
were  disposed  to  regard  all  its  demands  as  expressions  of  the  national  will, 
and,  being  too  jealous  of  their  popularity,  displayed  a  greater  desire  to 
increase  the  liberties  acquired  in  July  than  to  confirm  them.  The  policy 
of  the  members  of  the  two  parties  was  also  very  different  with  respect  to 
the  relations  with  foreign  nations.  Those  of  the  former  party,  seeing 
Europe  disturbed  at  what  had  taken  place,  were  anxious  to  re-assure  it 
to  conciliate  its  various  Governments  ;  they  joined  with  the  King  in  desir- 
ing the  maintenance  of  treaties  and  of  peace,  and  dreaded  a  revolutionary 
propagandism,  the  inevitable  consequence  of  which  would  have  been  a 
general  conflagration  and  calamities  without  number.  The  latter,  on  the 
other  hand,  thought  that  the  France  of  July  was  called  upon  to  support 
insurrection  everywhere,  and  that  the  hour  had  come  when,  relying  upon 
the  sympathies  of  peoples,  a  striking  revenge  should  be  taken  for  the 
affronts  of  1815.  These  two  tendencies,  in  many  respects  so  opposite, 
caused  the  partisans  of  the  new  regime  to  be  classified  as  the  men  of 
resistance  and  the  men  of  movement.  The  opinions  of  the  first  were 
dominant  in  the  two  Chambers  ;  were  those  of  many  eminent  and  wise 
men  who  had  made  a  name  in  politics,  in  the  magistracy,  in  letters,  and 
at  the  bar  ;  and  were  those  also  of  the  doctrinaires  who,  especially  at  this 
period,  added  to  the  great  party  of  Order  a  strength  as  considerable  as  it 
was  incontestable.  In  the  number  of  the  second  were  some  of  the  prin- 
cipal leaders  of  the  old  Left — Dupont  de  1'Bure,  Jacques  Laffitte,  Salverte, 
Benjamin  Constant,  &c.  In  the  minds  of  most  of  the  members  of  this 
party  many   illusions  were  mingled  with   genuine  convictions,   and  an 


1830-1832.]  THE    BELGIAN   BE  VOLUTION.  51 7 

ambition  for  popularity  with  a  very  sincere  liberalism ;  but  they  were 
deficient,  in  general,  in  that  practical  sense  and  that  spirit  of  order  and 
discipline  which  are  only  acquired  by  experience  in  the  conduct  of  affairs 
and  by  habits  either  of  command  or  obedience.  One  of  the  most  distin- 
guished of  them  was  M.  Odillon  Barrot,  a  brilliant  orator,  who  was  as  yet 
new  to  the  political  arena,  and  destined  to  become  the  chief  of  a  powerful 
party  in  the  parliamentary  opposition.  At  their  head,  finally,  was  the 
illustrious  citizen  in  whom  were,  in  a  certain  sense,  incarnated  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  American  Revolution — General  Lafayette,  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  National  Guards. 

Louis  Philippe,  at  the  commencement  of  his  reign,  displayed  much 
ability  in  selecting  the  most  influential  members  of  these  two  parties  to 
form  his  Council.  The  men  of  resistance  were  the  more  numerous  in 
the  first  Council  presided  over  by  the  King,  in  which,  by 
the  side  of  Dupont  de  i'Eure,  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  sat 
M.  Mole  as  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  M.  Guizot,  Minister  of  the 
Interior,  and  M.  de  Broglie,  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  and 
Worship.* 

The  existence  of  this  Ministry  was  brief  and  agitated,  but  it  provided 
with  intelligence  and  courage  for  the  necessities  of  the  moment,  and  it 
took  the  steps  imperiously  demanded  by  the  confusion  and  stagnation  in 
the  state  of  affairs.  At  its  suggestion  five  millions  of  francs  were  voted 
by  the  Chambers  to  be  distributed  amongst  workmen,  and  they  voted 
a  credit  of  thirty  millions  as  a  guarantee  for  loans  and  advances  to  persons 
engaged  in  commerce.  Other  urgent  laws  were  prepared,  and  the 
Cabinet  at  the  same  time  carried  on  active  negotiations  with  foreign 
powers.  Success  crowned  its  efforts,  and  the  new  Monarchy  was  recog- 
nised by  all  the  powers. 

A  very   serious  event,  however,   occurred  to  place  the 
peace  of  Europe  in  peril.     Belgium,  which  had  been  united   Eevoiution, 

^  •  -.n  •  n    -.oik      i      -,  i  September,  1830 

to  the  Dutch  territory  by  the   treaties   01   1815,   had  long 
since  been  in  a  state  of  discontent.     Driven  to  revolt  by  the  imprudent 
and  oppressive   conduct  of  King  William,  it  severed  its  connexion  with 
Holland.     The  object   of  the  Allied  Powers  in  establishing  the  kingdom 

*  In  this  Ministry,  General  Ge'rard  had  the  portfolio  of  War,  General  Sebastiani 
of  Marine,  and  the  Baron  Louis  of  Finance.  There  were  four  ministers  without  port- 
folio— Messieurs  Jacques  Laffitte,  Casimir  Perier,  Dupin  the  elder,  and  Bignon. 


518  CONFERENCE    IN    LONDON.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  I. 

of  the  Low  Countries  had  been  to  create  in  Europe  a  barrier  against 
France ;  one  of  the  principal  achievements  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna  had 
been  annihilated  by  this  Eevolution,  and  the  news  of  the  latter,  therefore, 
was  received  by  France  with  enthusiasm.  The  French  Government 
followed  at  that  time  the  only  path  indicated  by  circumstances  and  public 
opinion,  and  King  William  having  demanded  the  assistance  of  the 
Prussian  troops,  M.  Mole  put  forward  the  doctrine  of  non-intervention, 
and  checked  the  advance  of  the  Prussian  army  by  declaring  that  if  it 
set  foot  on  the  Belgian  territory  the  French  army  would  enter  it  also. 
To  prevent  an  European  war  the  Great  Powers  thereupon  agreed  to 
_    ,  „  decide  between  Holland  and  Belgium.     A  Conference  took 

Conference  of  ° 

London.  place  for  this  purpose  in  London,  and  Louis  Philippe  sent 

Prince  Talleyrand  to  represent  France. 

Whilst  the  position  of  affairs  was  thus  disturbed  abroad,  it  was  still 
more  alarming  at  home.  The  necessity  for  the  re-establishment  of  order 
had  led  to  the  creation  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom  of  battalions  of  the 
National  Guard.  The  latter  were  continually  kept  on  the  alert  by^  the 
clubs,  emeutes,  and  popular  manifestations,  one  of  which  in  Paris  was 
the  signal  for  the  most  lamentable  disorders.  At  the  conclusion  of  an 
expiatory  ceremony  celebrated  on  the  Place  de  Greve  in  honour  of 
the  memory  of  the  four  unfortunate  sergents  of  Eochelle,  a  petition 
for  the  abolition  of  capital  punishment  was  circulated  through  the 
crowd ;  it  was  covered  with  signatures,  and  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties sanctioned  the  wish  which  it  expressed.  A  rumour  spread  abroad 
that  this  petition  had  been  issued  at  the  instigation  of  the  Government 
for  the  purpose  of  saving  the  Ministers  of  Charles  X.  who  had  signed  the 
decrees  of  July.  Four  of  these  Ministers — MM.  de  Polignac,  de  Chante- 
lauze,  de  Peyronnet,  and  Guernon  de  Ranville — had  been  arrested  and 
imprisoned  in  Vincennes,  and  the  Court  of  Peers  was  about  to  try  them. 
The  suspicion  of  this  manoeuvre  on  the  part  of  the  Government  excited 
Tumults  in  *^e  faubourgs  and  produced  formidable  emeutes,  in  which 
Paris.  were  hear(j  cries  0f  «  Death  to  Polignac !  "    "  Death  to  the 

Ministers !  "  The  prefect  of  the  Seine,  M.  Odillon  Barrot,  censured  the  vote 
of  the  Deputies  in  favour  of  the  abolition  of  capital  punishment  as  injudi- 
cious, and,  when  threatened  with  deprivation  of  his  office,  was  supported  by 
several  of  the  Ministers  in  opposition  to  their  colleagues.  There  was 
discord,  therefore,  in  the  highest  regions  of  power  ;  the  Elective  Chamber, 


1830-1832.]  TEIAL    OF   THE   MTNISTEES.  519 

presided  over  by  Casimir  Perier,  was  wavering,  and  Paris  was  in  a  state 
of  partial  insurrection  when  the  trial  of  the  Ministers  was  about  to  com- 
mence. The  King,  in  these  critical  circumstances,  thought  it  prudent  to 
form  his  Council  of  men  whose  opinions  were  those  of  the  masses,  and 
resembled  those  of  each  other.  He  perceived  the  necessity  of  having 
recourse  to  men  possessed  of  great  popularity  for  the  purpose  of  resisting 
the  popular  torrent,  and  accepting  therefore  the  resignation 
of  MM.  de  Broglie,  Guizot,  and  Louis,  he  made  M.  Jacques  Ministry. 
Laffitte  Minister  of  Finance  and  President  of  the  Council.* 

The  head  of  the  new  Ministry,  a  banker  celebrated  for  his  devotion  to, 
and  expenditure  in  favour  of,  the  liberal  cause,  was  in  great  favour  both 
with  the  King  and  the  citizen  classes.  A  Conservative  by  instinct  and 
position,  M.  Laffitte  was  nevertheless  closely  connected  with  the  party  of 
movement  by  his  immense  craving  for  popularity.  He  was  well-informed, 
facile  of  speech,  and  most  affable  in  manner ;  but  he  was  deficient  in 
firmness,  moderation,  and  experience.  The  trial  of  the 
Ministers  was  at  this  period  the  most,  serious  affair  on  hand,      Ministers  of 

Charles  X. 

and  whilst  it  lasted  disturbances  in  Paris  continued  to 
rage  with  a  ferocity  which  called  to  mind  the  most  fatal  days  of  the 
Revolution.  Calm  in  the  midst  of  this  frightful  crisis,  and  unanimously 
refusing  to  pass  a  capital  sentence,  the  Court  of  Peers  condemned  M.  de 
Polignac  to  transportation,  and  his  three  colleagues  to  perpetual  imprison- 
ment, j*  But  a  savage  mob  demanded  their  heads,  and  threatened  to 
inflict  the  most  desperate  outrages  on  the  prisoners  and  their  judges,  and 
its  rage  was  with  difficulty  held  in  check  by  the  National  _regli  dig_ 
Guard  and  the  youths  of  the  schools,  who  rallied  round  the  trances, 
municipal  authorities.  The  Minister  of  the  Interior  and  General  Lafayette 
were  foremost  in  striving  to  defend  the  condemned  men,  and  for  this 
purpose  nobly  risked  their  lives.  When  told  that  he  would  probably 
lose  his  popularity  if  he  attempted  to  save  the  ministers,  Lafayette 
replied — "  Popularity  is  a  precious  possession,  which,  like  all  other 
possessions,  we  should  be  ready  to  expend  in  the  public  service."  Their 
efforts  were  successful ;   Paris  was  preserved  from  the  horrors  of  a  new 

*  M.  de  Montalivet  replaced  M.  Guizot  as  Minister  of  the  Interior ;  M.  Mold  was 
succeeded  as  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  by  Marshal  Maison  ;  and  General  Gerard 
resigned  the  portfolio  for  War  to  Marshal  Soult. 

•J-  In  this  memorable  trial  the  Prince  de  Polignac  was  defended,  at  his  own  request, 
by  the  minister  whom  he  had  replaced,  M.  de  Martignac. 


520  INSURRECTION    IN   POLAND    AND    ITALY.       [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  I. 

2nd  September ;    and  the    condemned    Ministers   were    conveyed   from 
Vincennes  to  the  castle  of  Ham  to  undergo  their  punishment. 
T    . .  ..  Durinar  the  short  existence  of  this  Ministry  the  Chambers 

Legislative  °  J 

enactments.  pasSed  the  most  liberal  and  popular  laws  of  the  new  reign. 
One  law  decorated  the  citizens  who  had  particularly  distinguished  them- 
selves in  the  days  of  July  ;  and  others  submitted  oiFences  committed  by 
the  press  to  the  judgment  of  a  jury,  rendered  the  municipal  councils 
elective,  and  gave  a  new  organization  to  the  National  Guard.  This  latter 
law  confided  arms  to  every  one  without  distinction,  and  rendered  the 
appointment  of  most  of  the  officers  a  mere  matter  of  election,  without  any 
interference  on  the  part  of  the  Crown,  and  created  therefore  a  great 
danger  to  the  Crown.  The  democrats  of  the  Opposition  and  the  popular 
societies  desired  much  more  than  this.  Bringing  forward  a  so-called 
Programme  de  l'Hotel  de  Ville,  which  had  been  accepted,  they  said,  by  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,  but  the  existence  of  which  the  latter  denied,  they 
demanded  that  Republican  institutions  should  be  the  foundations  of  the 
throne.  They  wished  that  the  people  should  directly  appoint  all  the 
magistrates,  and  that  the  budget  should  be  diminished  by  the  reduction  of 
official  salaries,  and  that  many  taxes  should  be  immediately  suppressed. 
They  also  insisted  upon  the  propagandism  of  revolutionary  ideas  and 
an  European  war. 
T  , .      ,.  Italy  fell  into  a  state  of  insurrection,  and  a  vast  move- 

lnsurrection  01  J  ' 

Italy  and  Poland.  men^  which  rapidly  spread  through  the  minor  states 
of  the  Peninsula,  tended  to  convert  them  all  into  one  great  Eepublic ; 
a  Provisional  G-overnment  was  formed,  and  the  Pope  had  already  lost  a 
great  portion  of  his  provinces  when,  being  threatened  themselves  with  the 
loss  of  their  Lombard  and  Venetian  possessions,  the  Austrians  hastened 
to  interfere,  stifled  the  insurrection,  and  re-established  the  shaken  throne. 
About  the  same  time  an  insurrection  burst  forth  in  Poland.  The  Constitu- 
tion bestowed  in  1815  by  the  Emperor  Alexander  on  this  unhappy  country 
had  ceased  to  be  observed,  and  was  now  only  a  dead  letter.  In  no  direction 
was  the  influence  of  the  days  of  July  felt  more  than  in  Warsaw,  where  it 
produced,  in  the  course  of  December,  a  sudden  and  irresistible  explosion, 
and  almost  the  whole  of  the  kingdom  of  Poland  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
insurgent  nation.  The  Polish  regiments  made  common  cause  with  the 
people ;  the  Russian  garrisons  were  taken  prisoners  or  massacred  ;  the 
Grand-Duke  Constantine,  the  viceroy  of  Poland,  took  flight ;  the  duchy  of 


1830-1832.]  LEGITIMIST   DISTURBANCES.  521 

Warsaw  and  its  capital  believed  that  they  were  freed  ;  and  the  dethrone- 
ment of  the  KomanofFs  was  shortly  afterwards  declared  by  the  Diet. 

In  France  these  great  events  were  sympathized  with  by  almost  all 
classes  of  the  population.  They  excited,  especially  amongst  the  men  of 
movement,  ardent  and  enthusiastic  ideas,  and  provoked  bellicose  mani- 
festations on  the  part  of  those  who  assumed  that  they  alone  were 
entitled  to  the  honourable  appellation  of  patriots.  The  latter  wished 
that  France  should  simultaneously  oppose  Eussia  (now  preparing  to 
fall  upon  Poland);  Austria,  the  Conference  in  London,  and  the 
Pope;  and  loudly  demanded  war  at  a  time  when  France  had 
only  a  disorganized  army,  when  its  finances  were  in  the  worst  possible 
state,  and  when  its  credit  was  at  the  lowest  ebb.  It  is  to  the  honour  of 
Louis  Philippe  that  he  energetically  opposed  this  dangerous  course,  and 
that  universal  spirit  of  propagandism  with  which  some  members  of  his 
Cabinet  were  inspired,  and  in  which  rash  inclinations  were  mingled  with 
the  purest  sentiments  and  noble  wishes  in  the  cause  of  the  oppressed 
and  feeble.  He  did  his  duty  by  negotiating  in  their  favour,  and  by 
abstaining  from  threatening  demonstrations,  which,  to  have  been 
effectual,  must  have  been  followed  by  the  revolutionary  measures  of  a 
sinister  epoch. 

The  existence  of  a  state  of  war  on  all  the  French  frontiers  had  given 
a  fresh  impulse  to  the  volcano  which  was  burning  in  the  interior,  and 
which  was  continually  throwing  around  it  sombre  gleams  and  burning 
lava.  It  burst  forth  with  renewed  violence  in  Paris  on  the 
13th  February,  1831,  on  the  celebration  of  a  funeral  service  p'Sage  of  Saint- 
for  the  Duke  de  Berry  at  Saint- Germain  l'Auxerrois  by  a   errois  and  the 

,    .  i  Archbishop's 

great  number  of  the  partisans  of  the  late  regime,  who  now  Paiace,February, 
began  to  be  commonly  called  Carlists  or  Legitimists.  Some 
of  the  persons  who  took  part  in  the  ceremony  wished  to  render  it  a 
political  and  counter-revolutionary  demonstration,  and  the  picture  of  the 
young  heir  of  the  eldest  branch,  represented  as  Henry  V.,  was  impru- 
dently displayed  in  the  church  before  the  crowd  assembled  there.  The 
report  of  this  circumstance  speedily  spread,  and  was  the  signal  for  a 
fierce  riot,  which  the  authorities  might,  in  all  probability,  have 
been  able  to  prevent,  and  which  they  were  slow  to  suppress.  The 
church  and  the  sacristy  were  shamefully  pillaged.  On  the  following 
morning  the  crowd  rushed  to  the  archbishop's  palace,  which  they  destroyed 


522  ANAECHY  IN  PAEIS.         [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  I. 

from  top  to  bottom,  and  thence  hurried  to  the  churches  and  palaces  to 
tear  down  the  crosses  from  the  towers,  mutilate  the  royal  insignia,  and 
compel  the  Monarch  himself  to  repudiate  his  glorious  blazon. 

The  Chambers,  justly  indignant,  held  the  Government  and  the 
municipal  authorities  responsible  for  these  odious  and  barbarous  acts,  and 
at  the  conclusion  of  debates  which  were  as  stormy  as  they  were 
disgraceful,  the  two  prefects  of  Paris,  MM.  Baude  and  Odillon  Barrot, 
were  deprived  of  their  offices.  At  the  same  time  the  Deputies  them- 
selves, finding  that  they  were  accused  of  immoderately  prolonging  their 
possession  of  office,  and  were  the  object  of  violent  recriminations,  acknow- 
ledged that  the  end  of  their  mission  had  arrived,  and  opened  the  way  for 
the  formation  of  a  new  Chamber  by  remodelling  the  electoral 
law.  This  law  abolished  the  double  vote,  reduced  the 
amount  of  taxes  the  payment  of  which  qualified  a  man  to  be  eligible 
as  a  member  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  to  five  hundred  francs,  and 
gave  the  electoral  vote  to  all  who  paid  two  hundred. 

The  frightful  scenes  which  had  taken  place  in  Paris  were  repeated  in 
many  of  the  departments ;  they  were  re-echoed  in  the  most  deplorable 
manner  in  several  parts  of  Europe,  and  to  many  causes  of  discontent, 
trouble,  and  disquietude  were  added  those  arising  from  the  alarming  state 
of  the  finances.  Already,  in  the  budget  presented  by  M.  Laffitte  before 
the  last-recounted  events,  the  expenses  for  1832  were  set  forth  as 
amounting  to  ten  thousand  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  millions, 
figures  which  exceeded  by  about  three  hundred  millions  the  last  budget 
of  the  Eestoration ;  and  this  in  itself  was  an  irrefutable  and  sad  proof 
of  the  expense  of  revolutions,  even  when  they  are  legitimate  and  neces- 
sary. At  a  later  period,  on  the  eve  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Chamber 
and  the  Cabinet,  M.  Laffitte  demanded  a  supplementary  credit  of  two  hun- 
dred millions  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  the  extraordinary  necessities  of 
the  State ;  and  this  supply  he  only  obtained  with  much  difficulty  at  the 
hands  of  an  uneasy  and  angry  majority.  This  Minister,  who  had  so 
lately  been  rich,  magnificent,  and  popular,  but  who  was  now  seriously 
injured  in  his  private  fortune,  and  had  lost  his  favour  with  the  people  as 
well  as  with  the  King,  perceived  that  power  was  escaping  from  his  grasp, 
but  could  not  persuade  himself  to  resign  it.  The  state  of  anarchy,  how- 
ever, made  frightful  progress  ;  the  emeute  which  was  now  permanent  in 


1830-1832.]  THE   PeEIEK   MINISTBY.  523 

Paris   disturbed   the   principal  cities   in    the   kingdom,    and   paralysed 
commerce  and  industry.    The  evil,  in  fact,  was  at  its  height,    Fall  f  th 
and  the  very  existence  of  the  monarchy  seemed  in  peril,  when    LaffifcteMmistoy. 
the  King  entrusted  to  Casimir  Perier  the  formation  of  a  new  Ministry. 
In  the  new  Cabinet,  which  was  presided  over  by  Casimir    Tl,  .     __.  .  , 

7  *-  J  Perier  Ministry, 

Perier  as  Minister  of  the  Interior,  the  principal  portfolios —  March  13, 1831. 
those  of  Justice,  Foreign  Affairs,  War,  and  Finance — were  confided  to 
MM.  Barthe,  Sebastiani,  Soult,  and  Baron  Louis.*  The  head  of  the 
Cabinet  had  been  for  fifteen  years  one  of  the  most  eminent  members  of 
the  liberal  party.  Strongly  opposed  to  arbitrary  power,  Court  influences, 
and  the  old  system  of  things,  he  was  equally  averse  to  disorder  and 
anarchy ;  he  wished  for  a  strong  Government  supported  by  just  laws ;  he 
was  resolved  to  make  this  principle  triumph,  and  to  this  task  he  brought 
a  mind  which  was  rather  just  than  extensive,  a  will  of  iron,  and  a 
burning  courage  which  inspired  an  honest  and  resolute  heart  with  a  sense 
of  duty  and  a  contempt  for  popularity.  Perier  laid  before  the  Chambers 
a  statement  of  the  policy  he  intended  to  pursue ;  demanded  a  vote  of 
confidence  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  him  to  pass  the  provisional 
clauses  of  the  budget ;  and  with  their  concurrence  took  energetic 
measures  for  the  re- establishment  of  equilibrium  in  the  finances  and  peace 
in  the  streets.     The  Elective  Chamber  was  soon  afterwards    ~     , 

Dissolution  of 

adjourned,  and  then  dissolved  (30th  April),  whereupon  the  <ge  chamber  of 
King  convoked  the  electoral  colleges  for  the  following  APri130- 
month  of  July.  Casimir  Perier  wished  that  the  new  Chamber  should 
faithfully  represent  the  opinions  of  the  country.  He  agreed  that  the 
Government  might  legitimately  employ  a  certain  amount  of  influence  for 
the  purpose  of  assisting  the  electors  to  make  a  wise  use  of  their  suffrage, 
but  in  his  electoral  instructions  he  guaranteed  that  they  should  be  "at 
perfect  liberty  to  vote  as  they  pleased,  and  that  the  rights  of  conscience 
should  be  held  inviolate.  His  conduct  in  this  respect  did  not  give  a 
scandalous  and  dangerous  lie  to  his  words. 

The  dangers  which  existed  within  the  kingdom  were 
complicated  with   others   which  threatened  it  abroad,  and   principles  of 
the  President  of  the  Council  had  already  presented  the 

*  M.  de  Montalivet  passed  from  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior  to  that  of  Public 
Instruction  and  Worship. 


524  FEENCH    DIPLOMACY.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  I. 

Chamber  of  Deputies  with  an  outline  of  the  course  he  intended  to  pursue 
with  respect  to  irritated  Europe,  in  these  remarkable  words  : — "  We  desire 
peace,  which  is  so  necessary  to  France ;  but  we  would  wage  war  if  the 
honour  or  safety  of  France  were  to  be  threatened,  for  then  liberty  itselt 
would  be  threatened,  and  we  should  appeal  with  patriotic  confidence  to 
the  courage  of  the  nation.  We  adopt  the  principle  of  non-intervention 
— that  is  to  say,  we  maintain  that  foreigners  have  no  right  to  interfere  by 
force  in  a  nation's  internal  affairs.  We  will  on  all  occasions  support  this 
principle  by  means  of  negotiations,  and  in  support  of  the  interests  or 
dignity  of  France  alone  will  we  take  up  arms.  We  will  not  allow  that 
any  nation  has  a  right  to  drag  us  into  a  war  for  its  sake,  for  the  blood  of 
Frenchmen  only  belongs  to  France."  This  policy,  which  was  also  that  of 
the  King,  was  followed  with  firmness  and  not  without  success  in  respect 
to  Central  Italy  after  the  failure  of  the  insurrection,  which  was  sup- 
. ,  pressed  bv  the   presence    of  the    Austrian  army.     French 

Advantages  r  J  r  j 

obtained.  diplomacy,  adding  its  efforts  to  those  of  the  other  powers, 

obtained  from  the  new  pope,  Gregory  XVI.,  a  formal  engagement  to  intro- 
duce into  his  States  many  necessary  reforms  which  had  been  long  ardently 
desired,  and  persuaded  the  Austrian  Government  to  withdraw  its  troops 
from  Italian  territory. 

France,  in  spite  of  the  sombre  jealousy  of  England,  made  its  power  felt 
in  Portugal,  where  the  usurper  Don  Miguel  had  inflicted  the  most  dis- 
graceful ill-treatment  on  French  subjects.  All  satisfaction  having  been 
t,  ....    ,     .  refused  to   the  French  consul,  Admiral  Roussin,  under  the 

Brilliant  action  ' 

fleet'before011  nre  °^  tfle  Portuguese  cannon,  forced  the  mouth  of  the 
Lis  on,  1831.  Tagus,  which  had  been  hitherto  regarded  as  impregnable, 
destroyed  the  batteries  of  the  forts,  and  by  this  brilliant  feat  obtained  for 
the  French  arms  a  complete  reparation  for  their  reverses. 

The  great  question  pending  between  Holland  and  Belgium  kept  a 
portion  of  Western  Europe  in  continual  disquiet  and  in  arms,  and  the 
enmity  created  between  the  two  countries  by  the  decisions  of  the 
-r,    .  .      „.,        London  Conference  might  at  any  moment  give  rise  to  a 

Decision  ol  the  a  j  o 

London  relative  general  conflict.  The  Conference  imposed  upon  Belgium 
ofBdS'aff  tne  abandonment  to  Holland  of  a  portion  of  Limburg 
and  the  surrender  of  Luxemburg,  which  was  an  here- 
ditary possession  of  the  House  of  Nassau,  and  which  formed,  more- 
over, a  portion  of  the  Germanic   Confederation.     It   also   divided  the 


1830-1832.]  LEOPOLD,    KING   OF   THE    BELGIANS.  525 

national  debt  equally  between  the  two  countries ;  and  on  these  conditions, 
which  were  for  a  long  time  rejected,  it  undertook  to  procure  the  recog- 
nition of  the  independence  of  the  new  country  by  the  five  powers.  Bel- 
gium yielded  at  length,  and  offered  the  crown  to  the  Duke  de  Nemours, 
the  second  son  of  the  King  of  the  French.  As  Louis  Philippe,  however, 
rejected  this  offer  out  of  respect  for  engagements  which  he  had  previously 
entered  into  with  Great   Britain,  the  Belgians   elected  as    T       .,  „  . 

°  Leopold,  Prince 

their    king    Leopold    Prince  of   Coburg,  widower  of  the    2e§ed2iLjof 
Princess  Charlotte,  who  had  been  heir-presumptive  to  the         Belgians. 
English  throne  ;  and  the  marriage  of  that  monarch  in  the  course   of  the 
following  year  with  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  King  of  the  French  doubly 
strengthened  the  alliance  between  France  and  Belgium. 

Leopold  had   scarcely  accepted  the  crown  when  King    jja  ^  ma  cii  of 
William,  refusing  to  acknowledge  the  armistice,  advanced   into^pTeiSum™7 
with  his  troops,  put  to  flight  the  Belgian  army,  which  was   the  French  army^ 
chiefly  composed  of  volunteers,  and  marched  upon  Louvain, 
where  he  took  up  his  position.     Leopold  in  this  extremity  demanded  the 
aid  of  France,  and  Marshal  Gerard  immediately  entered  Belgium  at  the 
head  of  an  army  of  fifty  thousand  men,  before  whom  the  Dutch  army  fell 
back  without  fighting,   to    resume  the  position  which  it  had   occupied 
before  its   rapid   and  brilliant  campaign,  which   was  called  "  The   Ten 
Days'  Campaign."     Belgium  was  thus  a  second  time  saved  by  France, 
and  three  months  later  (on  the   15th   November),  a  treaty  consisting  of 
twenty-four   articles,  regulating   in  a  definitive  and  irre- 

.         r-  Treaty  of  the 

vocable  manner  the  separation  of  the  two  kingdoms,   was   Twenty-four 

_  ■  .  *»,*•'.«.  -i  i         Articles,  1831. 

signed  by  Belgium,  and  the  Conference  guaranteed  to  the 
King  of  the  Belgians  the  execution  of  its  clauses.  At  the  same  time 
France  obtained  from  the  four  other  great  powers,  at  whose  expense 
several  Belgian  fortresses  had  been  constructed  and  maintained  since 
1815  as  a  rampart  on  our  frontiers,  that  the  defences  of  those  places 
should  be  demolished.*  The  Treaty  of  the  Twenty-four  Articles,  how- 
ever, was  not  accepted  by  the  King  of  Holland,  whose  troops  occupied 
Antwerp,  and  peace  was  not  as  yet  re-established. 

The  Legislative  Session  had  been  open  in  Paris  from  the    r 

°  x  Legislative 

commencement  of    hostilities.     Two  hundred  new  Depu-    Session>  1831« 
ties  had  been  elected ;  and  the  majority,  at  first  in  a  state  of  indecision, 
*  These  fortresses  were  Menin,  Ath,  Philippe ville,  Moris,  and  Marienbourg. 


526  FALL    OF    WAESAW.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  I. 

was,  by  the  firm  and  prudent  conduct  of  the  Government,  rallied  to  its 
side.  The  Chamber  passed,  amongst  other  financial  laws,  one  which 
fixed  the  civil  list  for  the  reign  at  twelve  millions,  an  amount  less  by 
more  than  one-half  than  that  of  the  previous  civil  list.  Nevertheless 
it  was  regarded  as  enormous,  and  was  the  object  in  some  too-celebrated 
pamphlets*  of  the  most  outrageous  allegations.  But  the  chief  business 
of  the  session  was  the  revision  of  the  article  of  the  charter 

Law  on  the  orga-  .  .      .  . 

nization  of  the      relating  to  the  peerage.     Casimir  Perier  perceived  the  lrre- 

peerage.  . 

sistible  power  of  that  public  opinion  which  had  declared 
against  hereditary  rank,  and  on  this  point  he  did  violence  to  his  personal 
convictions.  The  peerage  was  changed  from  an  hereditary  one  into  one 
for  life ;  and  although  the  Crown  preserved  the  right  of  nominating  its 
members,  it  could  only  select  them  from  certain  classes. f 

The  Chamber  had  sat  for  some  weeks  only  when  a  great  catastrophe 
awoke  throughout  France  sympathies  as  noble  as  they  were  painful,  and 
-c  „    ,  ^  filled  all  generous  hearts  with  sorrow.     Warsaw  had  fallen 

Fall  of  Warsaw,  & 

183L  before    the   Eussian    troops    commanded  by    Paskiewitch. 

Unhappy  Poland,  after  heroic  exploits  and  prodigious  but  fruitless  efforts, 
had  once  again  been  overcome.  She  had  rendered  reconciliation  with 
her  vanquishers  impossible  by  imprudently  proclaiming  the  dethronement 
of  the  Romanoffs,  and  now  the  vengeance  of  the  Czar  was  about  to  fall 
upon  her.  A  general  cry  in  favour  of  assisting  her  arose  in  Paris,  and 
the  public  wish  became  manifested  in  noisy  demonstrations  which  soon 
became  seditious,  and  which  had  to  be  suppressed  by  force.  But  at  six  . 
hundred  leagues'  distance  France  could  only  offer  the  good  offices  of  her 
diplomacy  and  an  asylum  and  assistance  to  the  vanquished  fugitives.  She 
nobly  acquitted  herself  of  this  double  duty  ;  the  exiles  received  in  France 
an  enthusiastic  welcome,  and  the  Government,  with  the  aid  of  the 
Chamber,  provided  for  their  necessities. 

The  great  excitement  produced  by  the  affairs  of  Poland  was  not  calmed 

when  a  formidable  insurrection  burst  forth  in  Lyons,  the 

cause  of  which  was  not  any  political  motive,  but  misery. 

Trade  in  articles  of  luxury  generally,  and  especially  in  the  article  of  silk, 

had  suffered  much  from  the  shock  communicated  to   all  Europe  by  the 

*  "  Letters  on  the  Civil  List,"  by  M.  de  Cormenin. 
f  In  order  to  obtain  the  consent  of  the  Peers  to  this  important  point,  the  Govern- 
ment was  compelled  to  create  thirty-six  new  ones. 


1830-1832.]  THE   FKENCH    IN    ITALY.  527 

Revolution  of  1830,  and  in  the  city  of  Lyons  alone  eighty  thousand 
operatives  employed  in  silk  manufacture  were  out  of  work  and  in 
want  of  the  means  of  subsistence.  They  arose  to  the  sound  End  f  h 
of  that  distressing  and  terrible  cry,  "  Work  or  bread !  "  ^^rection. 
drove  away  the  authorities  and  the  garrison,  and  for  some  time,  during 
which  they  abstained  from  injuring  either  persons  or  property,  remained 
masters  of  that  great  city.  An  army  of  twenty  thousand  men,  under  the 
orders  of  Marshal  Soult  and  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  heir-presumptive  to 
the  throne,  marched  upon  Lyons,  retook  it,  and  re-established  order  there  ; 
but  no  important  relief  was  afforded  to  the  distress  of  an  immense  popu- 
lation ;  and  when  we  read  the  language  either  of  the  Government  organs 
or  of  the  Chambers  with  reference  to  this  fratricidal  struggle,  we  cannot 
but  regret  to  find  in  it  no  expression  of  a  wish  to  relieve,  by  the  aid  of 
the  law,  the  misery  which  had  been  its  cause. 

The  victory  thus  gained  by  the  army  strengthened  the  Ministry,  and 
in  Paris  the  emeutes  having  been  suppressed  were  succeeded  by  con- 
spiracies. Conspiracies  were  formed  for  the  restoration  of  the  Republic, 
of  the  Empire,  and  of  the  eldest  branch  of  the  Bourbons  ;  but  the  energy 
of  the  Government  enabled  it  to  triumph  over  all  these  plots,  and  its 
attention  was  speedily  called  to  foreign  affairs  in  respect  to  Italy. 

The  promises  exacted  from  the  Pontifical  Government  by  the  interven 
tion  of  the  great  powers  had  not  been  kept,  and  no  reform  had  been 
made  in  an  administration  which  was  arbitrary,  oppressive,  and  absolute. 
The  irritated  people   again  rose  in  the  Pontifical  States,  and  the  papal 
army,  recruited  by  mercenaries  from  every  country,   and 

The  Aus- 

several  times  victorious,   committed  at  Cesena  and  Forli      trians  in  Bo- 

-r»  •  logna. 

horrible    excesses.     Bologna  arose   in   its   turn,    and   the 
Austrians,  having  been  called  to  his  aid  by  Gregory  XVI.,  took  possession 
of  it.     The  French  Government,   indignant  at  finding   its  intervention 
despised  and  the  most  formal  engagements  ignored,  resolved  to  enforce  by 
arms  in  Central  Italy  the  principle  of  non-intervention.    A  naval  division 
carrying  troops,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Combes,  was  ordered  to 
proceed  to  and  take  possession  of  Ancona.     This  order  was    _ 
rapidly  executed,   and  on  the  22nd  February  the   city  of  j£ench  %? ° 
Ancona,  with  its  citadel,  were  in  the  hands  of  the  French.       1832, 

By  this  bold  and  violent  act  of  aggression  Casimir  Perier  left  the  path 
followed  by  his  predecessors,  and  thus  provoked  not  only  the  anger  of  the 


528  DEATH  OF  CASIMIR  PERIER.     [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  I. 

Court  of  Rome  but  the  loud  remonstrances  of  the  other  European 
powers.  He  wished  to  show  that  engagements  entered  into  with  France 
could  not  remain  a  dead  letter,  and  that  he  did  not  intend  to  abandon 
Italy  to  the  all-powerful  protectorate  of  Austria.  Under  this  twofold 
aspect  the  occupation  of  Ancona  was  popular  in  France ;  the  Chambers 
approved  the  act  of  the  Minister,  and  the  bitter  complaints  made  against 
the  Government  abroad  strengthened  it  at  home. 

La  Vendee,  where  Madame  the  Duchess  de  Berry  announced  that  she 
would  soon  arrive,  was  at  this  time  the  scene  of  sanguinary 

Political  troubles  ....  ^  ,,     .         ,         ,, 

in  La  Vendee  and    disturbances,   and   some   heroic   victims   fell   m  the   first 

Marseilles.  .  . 

conflicts  which  were  the  precursors  of  a  civil  war. 
The  Legitimists  were  thus  agitating  in  the  south  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  the  Duke  de  Bordeaux  to  the  throne,  and  an  attempt  at  insurrec- 
tion had  been    suppressed   at   Marseilles  (April, '1832),  when   a   fresh 

scourge  fell  upon  France.  After  having  desolated  many 
c^imir^rier^  countries  in  Europe,  the  cholera  appeared  in  Paris,  where 
May,  1832.  «t  made  great  ravages.     It  carried  off  Casimir  Perier,  and 

to  all  the  private  causes  for  mourning  there  was  thus  added  a  great 
public  one. 

Perier  had  appeared  at  his  right  hour ;  he   displayed  great  and  rare 

qualities   in  the  accomplishment  of  his  task,  and  he  was 

Remarks  on  his         .,,..  i        i  ■  -in  i  i  i  i 

character  and       aided  m  it  even   by  his  very  detects,  by   the    rude  and 

actions. 

impetuous  vehemence  of  an  obstinate  will  and  an  ardent 
and  inflexible  character.  He  did  not,  however,  complete  his  work  ;  for, 
though  he  successfully  combated  emeutes  and  seditions,  he  vanquished 
without  extirpating  the  evil,  and  after  his  departure  the  spirit  of  insurrec- 
tion reappeared  menacing  and  formidable.  But  he  had  replaced  the 
Government  at  the  head  of  society,  and  had  shown  that,  in  hands  at  once 
firm  and  just,  the  power  of  the  law  is  superior  to  all  the  efforts  of 
conspirators  and  insurrectionists.  This  great  task  was  the  one  he  had  to 
perform,  and  he  devoted  himself  to  its  accomplishment  even  to  the  time 
of  his  death.  In  other  respects  he  was  not  perhaps  sufficiently  strong 
for  the  situation.  Casimir  Perier  was  one  of  those  who  had  seen  in  the 
revolution  of  July  only  a  disastrous  although  necessary  event,  the  sole 
object  of  which  was  a  change  of  government  and  not  extensive  reforms  in 
the  institutions  of  the  country.  He  expressed  no  desire  to  place  these  in 
closer  relation  with  the  ideas  and  necessities  produced  by  so  new  a  pos- 


1830-1832.]  END   OE   LEGISLATIVE   SESSION".  529 

ture  of  affairs,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  modifications  introduced 
into  the  composition  of  the  peerage,  he  made  no  preparation  even  for  the 
carrying  out  of  the  resolutions  passed  after  the  acceptance  of  the  charter. 
The  latter  were  equally  forgotten  or  neglected  by  the  Chambers,  and  the 
legislative  session,  which  closed  a  few  days  before  the  death  of  Casimir 
Perier  (April,  1831),  left  France  in  a  precarious  and  disturbed  state,  a 
prey  to  the  same  divisions,  to  the  same  agitations,  but  at  least  inspired 
with  the  salutary  conviction  that  a  general  war  might  be  avoided,  and 
that  the  demon  of  civil  war,  revolt,  and  anarchy  was  not  invincible. 


vol.  ii.  -  MM 


530  THE    COMPTE-BENDTJ.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  II. 


CHAPTER  II, 

THE    COMPTE-RENDU— CONFLICTS    OF  THE    5TH  AND   6TH  JUNE CIVIL    WAR 

THE    MINISTRY  FROM   THE  llTH    OCTOBER  TO    THE    GENERAL  ELECTIONS    OF 

1834. 

May,  1832— June,  1834. 

The  death  of  Casimir  Perier  altered  but  very  slightly  the  composition  of 
the  Cabinet,  in  which  M.  de  Montalivet,  who  gave  up  the  portfolio  of 
Public  Instruction  to  M.  Girard,  became  Minister  of  the  Interior.  But 
the  great  Minister  whom  France  had  lost  was  one  of  those  who  are  suc- 
ceeded but  cannot  be  replaced.  The  situation  of  the  country  was  serious, 
and  its  perils,  as  well  as  the  faults  which  had  been  committed,  were 
pointed  out  with  much  bitterness  in  a  document  celebrated  under  the 
name  of  the  Compte-rendu,  which  was  signed  by  the  Deputies  of  the 
Opposition.  The  latter,  almost  entirely  composed  of  men  of  movement, 
was  divided  into  two  distinct  portions — the  extreme  Left,  and  the  Left 
properly  so   called.       The  first,   some  of  the  members  of 

The  extreme  Left        .  .   ,  ,       .        n  p  .,.  „  „ 

and  the  dynastic    which   were    openly  m   favour    of  a   republican   form   of 

Left. 

government,  had  as  its  leaders  in  the  Elective  Chamber, 
amongst  others,  Dupont  de  l'Eure,  Yoyer  d'Argenson,  Cormenin,  Gamier 
Pages ;  and  as  its  principal  organs  in  the  press  Armand  Carrel,  director 
of  the  National,  and  Armand  Marrast  and  Godefroi  Cavaignac,  editors  of 
the  Tribune.  The  second  portion  of  the  Opposition  had  frankly  accepted 
the  Monarchical  Government  together  with  the  youngest  branch  of  the 
Bourbons,  and  called  themselves  for  a  time  "  The  Dynastic  Left." 
M.  Odillon  Barrot  was  its  principal  orator  and  recognised  leader.  Most 
of  its  members,  perfectly  understanding  the  position,  recognised  those 
important  phases  of  it  which  were  too  much  neglected  by  the  Conserva- 
tives, and  generous  sentiments  were  allied  in  them  with  a  sincere  devotion. 
They  inspired,  however,  but  little  confidence  amongst  the  partisans  of 
order  ;  for  they  were  too  closely  connected  by  their  antecedents  and  their 


1832-1834.]  INSURRECTION   OP   THE    REPUBLICANS.  531 

friendships  with  the  extreme  Left — the  republican  Left — whose  illusions, 
bitter  resentments,  and  rash  impatience  they  shared.  This  mixture  of 
good  and  evil,  of  truth  and  exaggeration,  was  visible  in  the  Com  te_rendu  of 
Compte-rendu,  which  was  drawn  up  by  MM.  Odillon  Barrat  the  Opposition, 
and  Cormenin,  and  signed  by  the  members  of  each  portion 'of  the  Left. 
To  arrive  at  this  result  the  dynastic  Opposition  had  to  make  disgraceful 
concessions  to  the  republican  Opposition,  which  greatly  increased  the 
distance  between  the  former  and  the  Conservatives.  The  just  views 
expressed  in  this  document  were  regarded  as  dangerous  utopianisms  when 
they  were  seen  mingled  with  violent  recriminations,  disrespectful  expres- 
sions towards  the  monarch,  and  exaggerated  reproaches  that  the  principles 
of '89  and  1830  had  been  completely  abandoned;  the  whole  being  signed 
by  the  declared  enemies  not  only  of  the  Government  but  of  the  monarchy. 
This  was  a  great  evil  as  well  for  the  present  as  the  future  ;  and  M. 
Odillon  Barrot,  who,  by  confining  himself  within  just  limits,  might  have 
been  able  to  exercise  a  great  and  useful  influence,  lost  all  power  of  serious 
action  with  the  majority  of  the  members  of  the  two  Chambers.  What 
was  true  in  this  document  was  misconstrued  and  did  not  bear  fruit, 
and  what  was  false  and  dangerous  in  it  did  much  harm.  The  Compte- 
rendu  inflamed  the  popular  passions  to  the  highest  point,  and  hastened, 
perhaps,  the  explosion  of  a  republican  insurrection  which  placed  the 
monarchy  in  the  greatest  peril. 

After  the  death  of  Casimir  Perier  hope  returned  to  the  parties  which 
had  been  held  in  check  by  his  vigorous  hand ;  they  became  eager  to  try 
their  strength  once  more ;  and  they  found  an  opportunity  of  doing  so  at 
the  funeral  ceremony  of  General  Lamarque,  an  able  and   Puneral  of  G 
valiant  soldier,  in  whom  despotic  instincts  were  concealed   ral  Lamar<iue- 
beneath  a  cloak  of  democracy,  and  whose  obsequies  attracted,  on  the  5th 
June,  1832,  an  immense  concourse  of  persons.     All  the  popular  societies, 
including  those  of  "  The  Rights  of  Man,"   "  The  Friends  of  the  People," 
u  The  Union  of  July,"  &c,  were  gathered  together,  and  all  came  armed. 
An   insurrection    suddenly    burst    forth   to     the    cries    of 
"  Down  with  Louis  Philippe !  "    "  Long  live  the  Eepub-    surfection.  July 

5  and  6,  1832. 

lie  !"*     Some  detachments  of  troops  were  taken  and  others 

*  General  La  Fayette  was  in  the  funeral  procession,  and  the  mob,  taking  the  horses 
from  his  carriage,  took  possession  of  his  person,  and  wished  to  inflict  upon  him  the 
honour  of  being  their  leader.     He  had  much  trouble  in  escaping  from  the  grievous 

M  M  2 


532  PAEIS    IN    A    STATE    OP    SIEGE.        [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  II. 

massacred ;  the  conflict  raged  at  several  points,  and  a  portion  of  the  city- 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  insurgents.  The  King  quitted  Saint  Cloud  at 
nightfall  to  hasten  to  the  scene  of  danger.  He  reviewed,  amidst  the 
crash  of  musketry  and  by  the  light  of  torches,  the  troops  and  the  National 
Guard.  The  latter,  rallying  at  the  sight  of  the  red  flag,  under  their 
heroic  commander  General  Lobau,  fought  valiantly,  and  spilt  their  blood 
as  freely  as  the  regular  troops  in  support  of  the  cause  of  order.  The 
struggle  lasted  two  days,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  6th  June  the  insur- 
gents, shut  in  in  the  quarter  of  the  Cloitre  Saint-Mery,  and  enclosed 
behind  some  loopholed  barricades,  defended  themselves  with  prodigious 
courage  and  with  all  the  fury  of  despair. 

Civil  war  had  at  the  same  time  burst  forth  in  the  west,  whither  the 
„.  .,  Duchess  de  Berry  had  proceeded  in  spite  of  the  advice  of 

Civil  war  in  j  r  k 

the  west.  ^g  m0S£  illustrious  partisans  of  the  cause  of  Henry  V.    The 

castle  of  Pennissiere  fell  a  prey  to  the  flames,  and  its  defenders  died 
beneath  its  embers  on  the  very  day  on  which  the  republicans  yielded,  in 
the  capital,  behind  the  barricades  of  Saint-Mery. 

The  Government,  after  its  victory,  indulged  in  some  violent  and 
much-to-be-regretted  acts.  A  royal  decree  placed  Paris  in  a  state  of 
siege,  and  took  the  prisoners  from  their  natural  judges  to  subject  them  to 
the  decisions  of  military  tribunals.  A  second  decree  was  couched  in  the 
spirit  of  another  age,  and  ordered  the  surgeons  and  physicians  to 
denounce  the  wounded  whom  they  had  attended.  The  Court  of  Cassa- 
tion declared  that,  under  the  circumstances  in  which  it  was  issued,  the 
decree  which  placed  Paris  in  a  state  of  siege  was  illegal,  and  this  first 
decree  was  immediately  revoked,  whilst  the  second  was  suppressed  by 
the  unanimous  condemnation  of  public  opinion. 

To  all  these  causes  of  agitation  and  alarm  were  added  great  anxiety 
with  respect  to  the  opposition  made  by  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  to 
the  Treaty  of  the  Twenty-four  Articles,  which  settled  the  separation 
between  Holland  and  Belgium.  It  was  proposed  to  deprive  the  Dutch  of 
the  citadel  of  Antwerp  and  some  fortresses  which  were  still  occupied  by 
their  troops,  and  three  of  the  powers  represented  at  the  Conference  ot 
London — Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria — refused  to  take  coercive  measures 

persecution.  He  died  two  years  later  at  his  chateau,  La  Grange,  leaving  a  great  and 
respected  name,  and  a  remarkable  example  of  the  power  exercised  over  the  public  mind 
by  an  honest  heait  sincerely  devoted  to  the  popular  cause. 


1832-1834.]  SOTJLT'S   MINISTRY.  533 

against  King  William  for  this  purpose.  France  and  England,  however, 
agreed  to  overcome  his  resistance  by  force,  and  the  siege  of  Antwerp  was 
resolved  on. 

In  the  presence  of  so  many  perils  the  new  monarchy  had  more  than 
ever  need  of  the  strength  derived  from  unity,  and  it  sought  more  especially 
the  support  of  all  to  whom  public  opinion  and  themselves  gave  the  name 
of  Conservatives.  The  common  danger  overcame,  in  the  case  of  the 
principal  leaders,  the  rivalries  of  ambition  and  personal  enmities;  it  over- 
ruled differences  of  opinion  as  well  as  incompatibilities  of  temper,  and 
there  was  formed  the  Ministry  of  October,  1832. 

In  this  Ministry,  the  nominal  head  of  which  was  Marshal  Soult,  the 
most  eminent  of  the  doctrinaires,  MM.  de  Broglie  and  M-nigl  of 
Guizot,  were  united  with  some  very  important  members  of  0ctober> 1832- 
the  Left  Centre,  MM.  Thiers,  Barthe,  and  Humann.  The  new  Ministry 
pursued  the  same  policy  as  Casimir  Perier,  and  the  particular  character- 
istic of  their  administration  was  the  resistance  made  to  the  Legitimist 
party  and  the  revolutionary  demagogues  by  the  various  fractions  of  the 
Conservative  party.  The  general  spirit  and  political  tendency  of  this 
Cabinet,  which  was  several  times  broken  up  and  reformed,  continued 
to  hold  power  with  little  interruption  and  alteration  so  long  as  there 
was  no  rupture  or  important  disagreement  between  the  important  men  by 
the  concurrence  of  whom  it  had  been  formed ;  and  this  period  lasted 
about  four  years  and  a  half  from  the  death  of  Casimir  Perier. 

The  general  position  of  affairs  was  as  difficult  as  towards  the  close  of 
1832.  In  the  west  there  was  civil  war,  and  in  Paris  as  well  as  in  many 
of  the  great  cities  of  the  kingdom  there  were  republican  conspiracies  and 
a  furious  prevalence  of  demagogic  passions.  It  was  the  period  in  which 
Saint- Simonism  loudly  proclaimed,  even  in  the  sanctuaries 
of  justice,  its  doctrines,  subversive  alike  of  religion,  morality, 
and  family  ties  ;*  when  Charles  Fourier,  conscientiously  rejecting  the 
restraints  of  moral  law,  made  pleasure  the  basis  and  fittest  object  of 
worship  of  the  whole  of  society  in  a  system  which  was  named  after  him 
and  was  called  Fourierism ;  when  Lamennais,  destroying  that  which  he 
had  adored,  set  forth  with  fiery  eloquence  the  new  dogma  of  the  infalli- 
bility of  the  sovereign  people  ;   and  when,  finally,  the  programmes  of  the 

*  The  leaders  of  the  sect  were  sentenced  to  fine  and  imprisonment  in  August,  1832, 
by  the  Court  of  Assize  in  Paris ;  and  shortly  afterwards  the  sect  broke  up. 


534  AEEEST  OF  DUCHESS  DE  BERET.   [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  II. 

terrorists  and  communists  were  set  forth  in  the  order  of  the  day  in 
innumerable  secret  societies.  In  the  presence  of  this  general  unloosing 
of  foolish  or  criminal  doctrines  or  subversive  passions,  the  Government 
fulfilled  its  duty  by  taking  energetic  measures  for  the  purpose  of  defeating 
the  plots  formed  by  demagogues  and  anarchists  and  pacifying  Brittany, 
where  the  Duchess  de  Berry  kept  up  a  state  of  civil  war,  and  where  six 
departments  were  placed  in  a  state  of  siege. 

The  princess,  soon  betrayed  and  given  up  by  a  wretch  named  Deutz, 

was  taken  prisoner  at  Nantes  and  shut  up  in  the  citadel  ot 

Duchess  de  Blaye,   whence    she    issued   after   having   given  birth   to 

Berry  at  Nantes. 

Her  captivity  at    a   child,  the   fruit  of  a   second  marriage  with  the   Count 

Blaye.  .        -     .  . 

Luchesi  Palli.  The  civil  war  which  her  presence  had 
aroused  in  the  bosom  of  the  west  died  out  during  the  first  days  of  her 
captivity. 

The  foreign  policy  of  France,  although  accused  of  weakness  by  some, 
Eorei  n  li  was  nevertheless  wanting  neither  in  force  nor  dignity. 
1832-1834-  rp^g  Qovernment  everywhere  showed  itself,  in  a  just  and 

moderate  manner,  favourable  to  the  constitutional  cause,  whilst  it  avoided 
putting  the  peace  of  Europe  in  peril,  and  with  this  object  strengthened 
its  alliance  with  England.     It  had,  as  we  have  seen,  under- 

Belgium. 

taken,  in  concert  with  that  power,  to  enforce  the  execution  of 
the  clauses  of  the  Twenty-four  Articles  relating  to  the  separation  of  Bel- 
gium and  Holland.  Consequently,  a  French  army  of  seventy  thousand 
men,  having  at  its  head  Marshal  Gerard,  and  under  him  the  King's  two 
eldest  sons,  the  Dukes  of  Orleans  and  Nemours,  crossed  the  Belgian 
f.ontier  on  the  15th  November,  1832;  after  which  it  invested  and 
besieged  the  citadel  of  Antwerp,  which  was  most  bravely  defended  by  the 
Dutch  general  Chasse.  This  important  fortress,  the  key  of  the  Scheldt, 
was  compelled  to  capitulate  towards  the  close  of  December,  and  given 
over  by  France  to  the  Belgian  Government. 

The  conduct  of  the  cabinet  was  no  less  firm  and  liberal  in  respect  to 
the  affairs  of  Spain,  where  Ferdinand  VII.,  abolishing  the 

Spain. 

Salic  law  introduced  by  Philip  V.,  had  reestablished  the  old 
traditional  usage  in  favour  of  the  succession  of  women.     On  the  death  of 
Ferdinand,  his  widow,  the  Queen-mother  Regent,  Maria- Christina,  relied 
upon  the  liberal  party  for  the  defence  of  the  rights  of  the  Infanta  Isabella, 
then  two  years  old,  against  Don  Carlos,  her  uncle  and  rival  to  the  throne, 


1832-1834.]  THE    QTJADBTTPLE    ALLIANCE.  535 

whose  triumph  would  have  been  also  that  of  the  retrograde,  absolute,  and 
monarchical  party.  She  solicited  the  support  of  King  Louis  Philippe, 
who  upon  this  occasion  sacrificed  the  private  interests  of  his  dynasty  to 
the  constitutional  cause,  by  recognising  the  young  Queen  in  prejudice  to 
the  eventual  rights  of  his  own  house.  He  promised  his  assistance  to  the 
Queen-regent,  and  by  his  orders  an  army  of  observation  assembled  at  the 
foot  of  the  Pyrenees,  ready  to  cross  the  frontier  in  case  an  armed  demon- 
stration should  be  made  in  favour  of  Don  Carlos  either  by  the  French 
Legitimist  party  or  by  one  "of  the  great  powers. 

The  Government  acted  in  the  same  spirit  in  its  relations  with  Portugal, 
where  Don  Miguel,  who   had  been   already  chastised  by 

.  .  ,  .  .  Portugal. 

France,  had  seized  the  throne  in  defiance  of  the  legitimate 
rights  of  his  niece,  the  young  Queen  Donna  Maria,  daughter  of  the  Emperor 
of  Brazil,  Don  Pedro,  eldest  brother  of  Don  Miguel.  Don  Pedro  abdicated 
the  throne  of  Brazil  for  the  purpose  of  proceeding  to  defend  the  rights  of 
his  daughter  in  Portugal ;  he  offered  a  charter  to  the  Portuguese  and 
appealed  to  the  liberal  party,  whilst  the  absolutist  party  supported  his 
brother.  The  army  of  Don  Miguel,  commanded  by  Marshal  de  Bour- 
mont,  was  vanquished  under  the  walls  of  Oporto,  whilst  the  constitutional 
army  took  possession  of  Lisbon,  with  the  concurrence  of  France 
and  England.  These  events  were  followed  by  a  treaty  negotiated  in 
London  by  Prince  Talleyrand  between  England,  France, 
Spain,  and  Portugal,  by  which  the  Eegent  of  Portugal  and    Quadruple 

.        _  „    _.      .  .  .  .     .  _,  Alliance,  1834. 

the  Queen-regent  of  opam  undertook  to  unite  their  efforts 
for  the  expulsion  of  the  Infants  Don  Carlos  and  Don  Miguel.  The  King 
of  Great  Britain  and  the  King  of  the  French  promised  to  assist  towards 
this  end  in  a  defined  and  limited  manner.  Such  was  the  famous  treaty  of 
the  Quadruple  Alliance,  which  was  signed  in  April,  1834,  between  the 
four  constitutional  Courts  of  the  West. 

The  East  also  attracted  the  attention  of  Europe,  which  looked  on  with 
anxiety  at  the  unequal  struggle  maintained  by  the  Sultan 
Mahmoud  against  the  Pasha  of  Egypt,  Meh'emet  Ali,  his    gle  between  the 
revolted  vassal.     Almost  the  whole  of  Syria  had  already    Pasha  of  Egypt, 

1832-1833. 

fallen  into   the  hands  of  Ibrahim,   the  son  of  Mehemet, 
when  the  European  powers,  at  the  Sultan's  request,  interfered  in  his 
favour.     Ibrahim,  however,  continued  his  career  of  conquest,  crossed  the 
Taurus,  and  in  December,  1832,  obtained  a  decisive  victory  at  Konieh. 


536  PBENCH  policy.  [Book  V.  Chap.  II. 

The  whole  Turkish  army  was  annihilated  ;  and  Mahmoud,  in  his  distress, 

implored  of  Russia  some  immediate  and  efficacious  assistance.     The  Czar 

replied  favourably  to  this  appeal,  and  a  Russian  fleet  speedily  entered  the 

Bosphorus.     France   and  England   made    great  efforts   to 

kiar-skeiessi,      render  the  assistance  afforded  her  by  Russia  useless  to  the 

July,  1833. 

Porte,  and  France  especially  eagerly  insisted  that  the  Sultan 
should  make  large  concessions  of  territory  to  his  powerful  vassal.     She 

obtained  for  Mehemet  the  whole  of  Syria  and  the  important 
the  European        district  of  Adana  beyond  the   Taurus.     A  French  envoy 

then  proceeded  to  Ibrahim's  camp  to  invite  him  to  agree  to 
a  suspension  of  arms  ;  and  the  latter,  satisfied  with  the  concessions  which 
had  been  obtained  for  him  chiefly  by  the  powerful  intervention  of 
France,  checked  the  progress  of  his  army  and  recrossed  the  Taurus 
(May,  1833),  whilst,  by  the  Sultan's  orders,  the  Russian  fleet  left  the 
Bosphorus.  Such  was  the  position  of  affairs  in  the  East  when  it  became 
known  that  a  secret  treaty  had  been  concluded  at  Unkiar-Skelessi  (July, 
1833,)  between  the  Ottoman  Porte  and  Russia,  by  which  the  Sultan 
undertook,  in  return  for  the  Czar's  perpetual  protection,  to  close  the  Dar- 
danelles against  all  foreign  ships  of  war.  Europe  was  much  disturbed  by 
this  treaty,  which  placed  Constantinople  and  the  whole  of  the  Turkish 
empire  under  the  exclusive  protection  of  Russia ;  England  and  France 
vehemently  protested  against  it,  and  being  supported  by  Austria,  forced 
the  Czar  to  refrain  from  availing  himself  of  the  advantages  exacted  by 
this  convention  from  the  weakness  of  the  Sultan. 

Whatever  opinion  may  be  formed  of  the  conduct  of  France  in  the  first 
phase  of  the  great  Eastern  question,  it  must  be  admitted  that  she  obtained 
for  the  Pasha  of  Egypt  more  than  England  could  have  wished,  and  that 
she  disputed  with  Russia  courageously  and  firmly.  It  was  not  with 
truth  that  the  Opposition,  at  this  period,  accused  the  French  Government 
of  weakness  in  its  relations  with  Europe ;  for,  mindful  of  its  origin,  it 
took  into  account  the  influence  appertaining  to  ideas  as  to  the  relations 
of  modern  peoples  towards !!  each  other.  It  maintained  in  respect  to  the 
absolute  powers  a  noble  and  proud  attitude,  which  was  as  free  from 
weakness  as  from  provocation ;  it  offered  the  hand  of  friendship  to  the 
free  peoples  and  those  who  wished  to  be  free ;  and  it  formed  a  strict 
alliance  with  the  only  great  European  power  which  had  not  viewed  with 
terror  or  displeasure  the  popular  movement  from  which  it  had  resulted. 


1832-1834.]  ENLABGED    SYSTEM    OE  EDUCATION.  537 

Such  was,  with  respect  to  foreign  affairs,  the  conduct  of  the  Ministry  of 
the  11th  October  ;  it  persevered  in  this  conduct  until  its  dissolution,  and, 
towards  the  close  of  1833,  the  Courts  of  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria, 
having  communicated  to  the  French  Government  a  threatening  note,  in 
which  they  declared  that  they  held  it  responsible  for  the  progress  of 
revolutionary  propagandism  in  their  own  and  the  neighbouring  states, 
the  Duke  de  Broglie,  who  was  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  vehemently 
protested  against  this  note,  declaring  that  France  would  not  suffer,  under 
any  pretext,  any  armed  intervention  in  Switzerland,  Belgium,  or  Pied- 
mont ;  and  that,  moreover,  the  only  advice  as  to  her  course  of  action 
which  she  could  follow  would  be  such  as  might  be  dictated  by  circum- 
stances and  a  regard  to  her  own  interests. 

The  Cabinet  of  the  11th  of  October  in  its  home  policy  during  the 
years  1833  and  1834,  exposed  itself  to  criticism  less  Home  policy  of 
perhaps  by  what  it  accomplished  than  by  its  forgetfulness  ^»ber"et 
of  certain  important  measures,  and  its  neglect  to  carry  out  enactments 
others  which  it  had  itself  proposed.  Supported  by  a 
majority  in  each  of  the  two  Chambers,  it  procured  the  adoption  of  some 
useful  and  important  laws.  The  finances  were  restored  to  a  regular 
state  by  means  of  the  almost  simultaneous  vote  of  the  budgets  of  1833 
and  1834.  This  vote  put  an  end  to  the  continual  demands  for  supple- 
mentary credits,  and  M.  Humann  at  the  same  time  strengthened  the 
bases  of  public  credit  by  a  judicious  law  respecting  the  amortissement. 
The  Ministers  of  War  and  the  Navy  presented  laws  which  had  long  been 
desired,  and  which,  by  making  rank  independent  of  actual  service, 
improved  the  position  of  the  officers  of  each  service.  The  statutes  in 
force  respecting  the  exercise  of  civil  and  political  rights  by  the  colonists 
were  also  modified  in  a  liberal  spirit.  The  Councils  of  Departments  and 
Arrondissements  were  reorganized,  and  their  members  made  elective ; 
but  the  functions  of  these  councils  were  left  unchanged,  and  remained 
much  too  restricted.  The  principal  law  passed  at  this  period  was  that 
regarding  primary  instruction,  the  excellent  work  of  M.  G-uizot,  which 
opened  in  all  the  communes  in  France  schools  for  male  children,  and  at 
the  same  time  created  a  nursery  of  well-informed  and  capable  masters 
by  means  of  the  admirable  organization  of  the  normal  primary  schools 
in  the  chief  places  of  the  departments.  But  this  law,  which  was  to  have 
so  beneficial  an  influence  on  public  morality  when  the  generation  which 


538  SECRET  societies.  [Book  V.  Chap.  II. 

was  then  in  a  state  of  childhood'  should  have  arrived  at  a  mature  age, 
could  not  for  the  moment  ameliorate  the  state  of  things,  and  as  it 
slightly  increased  the  communal  taxes,  the  poor  country  population 
looked  upon  it  at  first  rather  as  a  new  charge  than  a  benefit. 

The  working  classes  still  suffered  from  the  great  disorder  in  indus- 
trial and  commercial  affairs  caused  by  the  Eevolution  of  1830 ;  and  the 
Government,  for  the  purpose  of  alleviating  their  wretchedness,  demanded 
and  obtained  of  the  Chamber  a  hundred  millions  to  be  employed  on 
works  of  public  utility  ;  thus  contributing,  very  involuntarily,  and  under 
the  pressure  of  an  imperious  necessity,  to  the  propagation  amongst  those 
classes  of  the  principle  of  the  rights  of  labour,  the  very  corner-stone  of 
socialism ;  whilst  it  failed  to  take  pains  to  attach  them  to  the  new  order 
of  things,  either  by  lightening  those  taxes  which  pressed  most  heavily 
on  them,  or  by  introducing  legislative  measures  which  would  have 
lowered  the  price  of  raw  materials  and  the  necessaries  of  life.*  It 
entirely  neglected,  also,  the  means  which  were  placed  at  its  disposal  by 
an  exaggerated  system  of  centralization  for  exerting  a  moral  and 
powerful  influence  over  the  working  classes  by  means  of  the  periodical 
press,  and  thus  enlightening  them  with  respect  to  their  own  true 
interests.  "With  singular  blindness  it  left  this  powerful  instrument 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  its  adversaries,  and  the  latter  made  use  of  it 
With  all  the  ardour  which  in  some  was  inspired  by  ardent  convictions 
and  chimerical  hopes,  in  others  by  disappointed  ambition  and  injured 
vanity,  and  in  all  by  implacable  hatred. 

The  most  formidable  haunts  of  insurrection  were  the  innumerable 
Secret  societies  secret  societies,  which  were  for  the  most  part  born  of  the 
&sStyoftE  devolution  of  1830.  A  decree  of  the  Court  of  Assize  of 
Eights  of  Man.      Parig  had  ia  lg32  dissolved  tlie  Society  of  the  Friends  of 

the  People ;  but  it  speedily  reappeared  under  the  name  of  the  Society  of 
the  Rights  of  Man,  which  was  organized  in  sections  consisting  of  twenty 
members  each,  the  number  of  which  in  Paris  alone  was  one  hundred  and 
sixty-two.  A  multitude  of  other  associations,  called  the  Union,  the 
Eights  of  the  People,  the  Protesters  of  July,  &c.  &c,  had  established  in- 
timate relations  with  the  Society  of  the  Rights  of  Man,  and  acted  in  unison 
with  it.    The  object  of  the  latter  was  to  reestablish  the  Republic  of  1792. 

*  M.  Duchatel,  however,  had  entered,  although  very  timidly,  upon  the  path  of  free 
trade,  by  slightly  modifying,  in  June  and  July,  1834,  the  duties  on  raw  materials. 


1832-1834.]  PREVENTIVE   LAWS.  539 

It  had  openly  adopted  as  its  programme  the  declaration  of  the  rights  of 
man  made  by  Eobespierre  at  the  National  Convention  ;  and  some  of  the 
sections,  in  order  to  render  the  object  at  which  they  aimed  the  more 
manifest,  took  names  which  awoke  frightful  remembrances,  such  as  Marat, 
Couthon,  Saint-Just,  and  others  no  less  significant.  These  societies  were 
closely  connected  with  the  editorial  committees  of  the  democratic  journals, 
and  their  principal  organ  was  The  Tribune,  which  every  day  exploded  in 
outrageous  and  furious  declamations  against  the  new  Government  and  the 
established  authorities.  The  Government  brought  against  Trialofthe 
these  journals  a  multitude  of  actions,  in  which  it  was  not  Penodlcal  Press- 
always  successful,  and  they  seemed  to  derive  an  increased  boldness,  as 
well  from  the  judgments  which  condemned  their  conductors  as  from  those 
which  acquitted  them. 

The  most  celebrated  of  these  trials  was  that  which  the  Elective 
Chamber,  which  had  been  shamefully  abused  by  The  Tribune,  and  called 
a  the  prostituted  Chamber,"  brought  in  1833  against  the  conductor  of 
that  paper,  whom  it  cited  before  it  for  defamation.  The  conductor  was 
condemned,  but  his  defenders,  Godefroi  Cavaignac  and  Armand  Marrast, 
were  much  raised  in  public  estimation  by  this  struggle  in  which  one  of 
the  great  powers  of  the  State  had  engaged  with  them,  and  the  Chamber 
was  more  injured  by  the  insulting  audacity  of  the  defence  than  it  had 
been  by  the  virulence  of  the  incriminated  article.  The  popular  passions 
were  influenced  by  the  expression  of  hatred  and  fury  of  parties,  not  only 
in  the  journals,  but  also  in  a  multitude  of  frightfully  cynical  pamphlets, 
which  were  cried  in  the  public  streets  and  distributed  by  tens  of 
thousands  under  the  protection  of  the  law.    It  was  necessary   T 

1  J      Law  on  public 

to  modify  the  existing  state  of  the  law  on  this  point,*  and  criers- 
the  Chambers  passed  a  law  which  submitted  the  profession  of  crier  and 
seller  of  writings  on  the  public  ways  to  the  surveillance  of  the  municipal 
authorities.  The  Government  also  submitted  to  the  Chambers  another 
preventive  law,  which  was  much  to  be  regretted,  especially  as  a  permanent 
measure,  for  its  ulterior  effects.     The  law  forbade  the  exis- 

7  Law  on 

tence  of  any  association  for  religious,   political,   or  other      association, 
purposes  unless  sanctioned  by  a  Government  licence,  which  was  always 
revocable.     This  law  could  not  touch  secret  societies,  whilst  it  over- 

*  The  tribunals,  on  being  applied  to  on  the  subject,  had  declared  that  the  law  im- 
posed no  restraint  upon  criers  in  the  exercise  of  their  calling. 


540  EEANCE    AND    THE    UNITED    STATES.       [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  II. 

stepped  its  object  by  depriving  peaceable  citizens  of  natural  and  vital 
liberty,  and  seriously  attacked  the  liberty  of  worship  granted  by  the 
charter.  The  presentation  of  this  law  was  received  with  legitimate  dis- 
quiet by  many  of  those  in  whose  breasts  the  attachment  to  the  new  order 
of  things  had  not  enfeebled  the  love  of  public  liberty ;  it  carried  the  irri- 
tation of  parties  to  its  height,  and  probably  precipitated  the  crisis  which 
it  was  its  object  to  prevent.  Having  been  adopted  on  the  25th  March  by 
the  Deputies,  it  passed  the  Chamber  of  Peers  on  the  9th  April  (1834). 
But  during  this  short  interval  an  unexpected  vote  of  the  Deputies  had  led 
to  important  modifications  in  the  composition  of  the  Cabinet,  without 
altering  either  its  tendency  or  course  of  action.  This  vote  was  caused  by 
the  presentation  of  a  proposal  for  the  payment  of  an  indemnity  demanded 
by  the  United  States  for  American  vessels  captured  by  French  ships 
during  the  Empire.  The  amount  of  this  indemnity,  which  was  acknow- 
ledged to  be  justly  due  by  Napoleon  himself,  had  been  reduced  in  1831 
to  twenty -five  millions  by  a  treaty  executed  between  France  and  America. 
A  portion  of  the   Opposition,  nevertheless,  denounced  the 

Refusal  of  the  in-  r  rr 

demnity  due  to      proposal  as  an  act  of  weakness,   and   it  was  rejected  by  a 

the  United  r      r  >  J  J 

states  changes  majority  of  six.  M.  de  Broglie,  the  Minister  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  would  not  submit  to  this  rebuff,  and  resigned  his 
portfolio.  The  Ministerial  crisis,  considering  the  troubled  state  of  the 
Government  and  of  France  at  that  time,  was  of  short  duration.  Admiral 
de  Rigny  succeeded  the  Duke  de  Broglie  ;  M.  Thiers,  whilst  retaining 
the  portfolio  of  Public  Works,  became  Minister  of  the  Interior ;  M.  Du- 
chatel  had  the  portfolio  of  Trade ;  and  M.  Persil  replaced  M.  Barthe  as 
Minister  of  Justice. 

Everything  now  conspired  to  bring  about  a  final  struggle  with  the  Re- 
publicans.  One  is  astonished  at  the  present  time  at  the  indomitable 
audacity  of  these  men,  almost  all  of  whom  were  neither  demagogues  nor 
mad  disciples  of  Babceuf  and  Robespierre,  and  many  of  whom  were  dis- 
tinguished for  their  talents  and  their  private  virtues.  To  understand  it 
we  must  take  into  consideration  the  influence  of  enthusiastic  hearts, 
thoroughly  convinced  of  their  truth.  The  theories  of  the  Republicans 
were  doubtless  dangerous  and  inapplicable,  but  they  dreamt  of  a  com- 
plete social  regeneration,  thought  that  they  had  solved  the  greatest  pro- 
blems of  the  organization  of  modern  times,  and  many  of  the  best  of  them 
displayed  the  devotion  of  heroes  and  martyrs  in  their  endeavours  to 


1832-1834.]  EEPTJBLICAN    TNSUKEECTIONS.  541 

realize  their  ideas.  They  were  indignant  at  the  indefinite  and  fatal 
adjournment  of  many  popular  measures  which  had  been  promised  in 
principle  by  the  charter  of  1830,  and  at  the  neglect  of  many  others  which 
had  been  extolled  by  the  men  now  in  power.  They  had  not  taken  into 
account  the  imperious  necessity  of  reestablishing  order  before  giving  fresh 
guarantees  to  liberty,  and  they  saw  treason  in  every  delay.  They  were, 
moreover,  disgusted  at  the  sudden  elevation  of  those  advocates — those 
professors  or  writers  with  whom  they  had  been  associated  for  fifteen  years, 
either  in  the  journalistic  committees  or  in  political  clubs,  and  who,  now 
that  they  had  attained  power  and  honours,  had,  they  said,  deserted  the 
cause  of  the  people,  whilst  they  were  themselves  persecuted  and  pro- 
scribed for  having  remained  faithful  to  it.  Finally,  imbued  as  they  were 
with  the  principle  that  the  sovereignty  properly  resided  in  the  people, 
they  regarded  the  new  power  as  an  usurped  power,  which  the  people  had 
not  been  called  upon  to  sanction,  and,  as  has  been  very  truthfully  ob- 
served, nothing  appears  more  intolerable  to  a  man  than  to  have  to  obey 
those  who  appear  to  him  to  have  no  right  to  command  his  obedience. 

The  struggle  commenced  in  the  departments.  Lyons  and  many  other 
cities,  such  as  Saint  Etienne,  Clermont  Ferrand,  Vienne,  Republican  in- 
Chalons,  Artois,  Luneville,  Grenoble,  and  Marseilles,  were  surrec  10n* 
almost  simultaneously  the  theatres  of  insurrections  or  serious  distur- 
bances. In  every  direction  the  branches  of  the  secret  societies  gave  the 
signal  for  revolution,  calling  all  the  enemies  of  the  Government  to  arms, 
rallying  under  the  Republican  flag  a  multitude  of  strangers  and  political 
refugees,  and  instigating  to  revolt  the  sub-officers  and  soldiers  of  the 
army.  The  Society  of  the  Rights  of  Man  had  an  affiliated  association, 
known  under  the  name  of  The  Mutual,  which  had  been  founded  for  the 
purpose  of  mutual  aid  and  assistance,  and  without  any  political  object. 
The  latter  made  the  law  respecting  associations  the  occasion  for  inflaming 
the  popular  passions ;  and  the  wages  of  the  workmen  engaged  in  the  rug 
manufactory  having  been  slightly  reduced  by  the  master  manufacturers, 
the  Mutuallists  ordered  a  general  strike.  Some  of  the  ringleaders  were 
arrested  and  brought  to  trial,  and  the  commencement  of  proceedings 
against  them  was  a  signal  for  the  Republicans  to  make  an  attack. 
Divided  into  three  great  bodies,  they  rapidly  covered  the  Republican  in- 
city  with  barricades.     General  Aymar,  commander  of  the    Lyons  and  in  the 

,     _   "U,  .  .         ,     .  departments, 

division,  and  the  Prefect,  M.  de  Gasparm,  resisted  the  msur-    1834. 


542  INSTJREECTION   IN   PAEIS.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  II. 

gents  with  as  much  firmness  as  prudence;  and  after  Lyons  had  been  a 
prey  to  the  horrors  of  civil  war  for  five  days,  the  insurrection  was  put 
down,  April,  1834,  It  had  been  vanquished  in  all  the  departments, 
when  it  appeared  in  Paris,  where  it  had  already  lost  its  principal  leaders. 
M.  Thiers,  Minister  of  the  Interior,  in  order  to  stifle  it  at 

Insurrection  in.  ...  1  ,7 

Paris,  April,  its  very  source,  had  sealed  up  the  presses  of  the  Iribune 
journal,  whence  there  issued  every  day  incendiary  mani- 
festoes ;  and  by  his  orders,  at  the  commencement  of  April,  the  prin- 
cipal members  of  the  Society  of  the  Rights  of  Man  and  the  affiliated 
societies  were  seized  and  imprisoned.*  The  Republican  army  thus  found 
itself  disorganized  and  much  enfeebled ;  but  nevertheless,  on  the  13th 
April  the  signal  was  given  for  the  attack,  and  the  Republicans  opened 
fire  on  the  military.  The  struggle  was  intrepidly  maintained  by  the 
National  Guard  and  the  troops  of  the  line,  who  were  brigaded  together 
under  the  orders  of  Marshal  Lobau.  His  stringent  movements,  which 
were  as  skilful  as  they  were  rapidly  executed,  speedily  thrust  back  and 
enclosed  the  insurrection  in  the  same  quarter  of  Saint-Mery  in  which  it 
had  already  been  enclosed  in  the  days  of  June,  1832.  On  this  occasion 
the  insurgents  made  a  desperate  defence.  The  troops,  assailed  with 
musketry  from  the  windows  in  this  labyrinth  of  narrow  and  sombre 
streets,  and  rendered  furious  by  the  fire  of  an  invisible  enemy,  only 
listened  to  their  rage,  and  the  Rue  Transnonain  became  the  scene  of  a 
frightful  massacre,  which  is  a  lamentable  episode  in  our  civil  wars.  The 
conflict  lasted  two  days,  and  on  the  14th  April  the  insurrection  was  put 
down  in  Paris, 

Many  prisoners  had  been  made  in  all  the  cities  in  which  it  had  burst 
forth,  and  as  their  guilty  attempts  all  referred  to  one  vast  conspiracy, 
their  trial  was  referred  to  the  Court  of  Peers.  To  prevent  the  recur- 
Eepression  laws  rence  of  similar  attempts,  the  Government  presented  to  the 
Chambers  the  projects  of  two  laws,  which  were  passed  in  the 
following  session,  one  of  which  increased  the  strength  of  the  army,  whilst 
the  other  prohibited  the  possession  of  arms  and  munitions  of  war.  A  few 
days  afterwards  the  budget  for  1835  was  voted,  and  the 

Close  of  the  legis-  .  .  . 

lative  session,        session  was  brought  to  a  close.     The  Elective  Chamber  now 

1834.  ° 

approached  the  end  of  its  term  of  office ;  its  dissolution  was 

*  Two  only  escaped — Godefroi  Cavaignac  and  Kersausie  ;  but  the  latter,  the  most 
formidable  of  all,  was  arrested  a  few  days  later. 


1832-1834.]  GENEBAL  ELECTIONS,  543 

announced,  and  the  Government  appointed  the  21st  of  June  as  the  day 
for  the  general  elections.  A  very  small  number  of  the  members  who 
were  publicly  known  to  be  Republicans  were  reelected ;  General  eleo. 
but  the  combined  efforts  of  the  Republicans  and  the  par-  tion8' 1834' 
tisans  of  the  late  Government  introduced  twenty  Legitimists  into  the  new 
Chamber,  and  in  the  first  rank  of  those  was  one  of  the  most  eminent  mem- 
bers of  the  French  bar,  M.  Berry er.  Many  new  members  swelled  the 
Conservative  majority,  but  what  it  gained  in  numbers  it  lost  in  unanimity. 
The  opinions  of  its  members  were  more  diverse,  and  many  deputies 
wished  that  the  victories  of  April,  which  had  been  simultaneously  gained 
by  the  party  of  order,  should  serve  as  a  starting  point  for  a  conciliatory 
and  more  popular  policy. 


544  THE    ALGERIAN    QUESTION.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  III. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

MINISTERIAL    CRISIS RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE    CABINET   OF  THE  llTH  OCTOBER 

THE    LAWS    OF    SEPTEMBER DISSOLUTION    OF    THE    CABINET. 

April,  1834 — February,  1836. 

The  state  of  Algeria  gave  rise,  immediately  after  the  elections  of  1834, 
to  a  fresh  ministerial  modification,  the  real  cause  of  which 

Ministerial  crisis 

on  the  Algerian     was  the  incompatibility  of  character  and  want  of  a  good 

question. 

understanding  between  Marshal  Soult,  the  President  of  the 
Council,  and  its  most  influential  and  eloquent  members,  MM.  Guizot  and 
Thiers.  Too  long  absorbed  by  the  difficulties  attending  their  home  and 
foreign  policy,  the  Government  had  given  but  very  insufficient  attention 
to  Algeria  during  the  first  years  which  had  followed  the  Revolution. 
The  French  power  in  that  country  was  disputed  by  the  Arabs  and  the 
Turks  with  alternate  success  and  defeat  over  the  whole  territory  of  the 
old  Government  between  Bona  and  Oran ;  and  as  the  retention  of  this 
possession  demanded  considerable  sacrifices  without  offering  any  imme- 
diate return,  many  voices  were  in  favour  of  its  abandonment.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  retention  of  Algeria  was,  with  respect  to  Europe  and 
posterity,  a  point  of  honour  for  France  and  of  general  interest  to 
Christianity.  Regarded  from  this  twofold  point  of  view,  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  conquered  province  was  impossible,  and  it  was  determined 
that  France  should  not  only  retain  its  conquest,  but  increase  and  confirm 
it.  But  the  entirely  military  nature  of  the  Government  of  the  French 
possessions  in  Africa,  which  was  obstinately  defended  by  Marshal  Soult, 
the  Minister  for  War  and  President  of  the  Cabinet,  had  given  rise  to 
numerous  abuses,  and  in  the  eyes  of  many  the  moment  seemed  to  have 
come  when  it  ought  to  be  replaced  by  a  civil  administration.  This 
opinion  was  that  of  MM.  Thiers  and  Guizot,  as  well  as  of  the  majority  of 
the  members  of  the   Council.     The   Marshal,   persisting  in  his   views 


1834-1836.]  THE   THIED   PARTY.  545 

tendered  his  resignation.     The  King  accepted  it,  and  appointed  as  his 

successor  Marshal  Gerard,  one  of  the  most  eminent  mem- 
Marshal  Gerard 
bers    of  a  party  which  began  to    be    openly    constituted    replaces  Marshal 

oOU.lt  £IS  Xa  6S1~ 

at     this    period,    and    which    it    is    now    time    to    make    dentoftheCoun- 

* ■         '  r  '  cii,  1834. 

known. 

Many  Conservative  Deputies,  at  the  commencement  of  the  new 
session,  began  to  believe  that  if  the  so-called  policy  of  resistance  had 
at  first  saved  the  country  from  anarchy  and  the  fury  of 

J  J  J  The  Third  Party. 

political  factions,  that  same  policy  might  eventually  become 
insufficient  and  irritating,  and  therefore  dangerous.  Their  ideas  respect- 
ing the  necessary  results  of  the  Eevolution  of  1830,  in  many  respects 
resembled  those  of  the  dynastic  Left,  from  whom,  however,  they  held 
aloof,  fearing  the  illusions  and  aggressive  language  of  that  portion  of  the 
Chamber,  and  especially  regarding  with  aversion  the  links  which  con- 
nected them  with  the  extreme  Left.  Their  number,  imperceptible  at 
first,  increased  day  by  day,  and  they  gradually  formed  out  of  the  several 
minor  parties  in  the  Elective  Chamber  a  Third  Party,  which  was  not 
without  a  certain  analogy  with  the  political  groups  to  which  the  same 
name  was  given  at  various  portions  of  the  history  of  France  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  in  the  Constituent  Assembly, — moderate  parties 
standing  between  the  absolute  and  exclusive  parties,  and  for  this  reason 
decried  and  censured  by  all ;  and  which,  although  chiefly  consisting  of 
mere  waverers  and  persons  skilful  in  spying  out  opportunities  of 
furthering  their  own  views  without  risking  anything,  nevertheless 
reckoned  in  their  ranks  and  at  their  head  some  of  the  best  and  most 
enlightened  men  of  their  several  periods.  The  Third  Party,  under  the 
Government  of  July  as  at  former  periods,  advocated  conciliatory 
measures,  and  sought  to  effect  a  compromise  between  ardent  and  irre- 
concilable opinions. 

The  elections  of  1834  raised  the  numerical  strength  of  the  Third 
Party  to  eighty  deputies.  One  of  its  most  eminent  members, 
M.  Dupin,  senior,  was,  at  the  commencement  of  the  legislative 
session  (August,  1834),  summoned  to  the  presidential  chair;  and 
in  his  thanks  to  the  Chamber  for  having  elected  hint,  as  in  the 
address  voted  by  the  latter  in  answer  to  the  speech  from  the  throne, 
there   was   a   strain   of  blame,  only  partially  concealed  beneath  equi- 

VOL.  II.  N  N 


546  MINISTERIAL    CRISIS.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  Ill 

vocal  language.  The  session  was  prorogued  to  December,  and  in 
the  interval  a  great  question,  that  of  an  amnesty,  was  debated  in  the 
Council. 

Marshal  Gerard  thought  that  the  time  had  come  for  the  declaration  of 
a  general  amnesty.  He  had  already  expressed  a  wish  that  it  might  be 
granted ;  and,  now  that  he  had  become  the  head  of  the  Cabinet,  he 
insisted  upon  obtaining  it,  being  in  this  supported  by  the  Third  Party, 
but  opposed  by  the  majority  in  the  Council  and  the  two  Chambers.  The 
marshal's  wish,  in  fact,  appeared  to  be  premature ;  for  any  amnesty 
granted  by  a  prince  fails  to  effect  its  object  and  is  dangerous  if,  instead 
of  proving  his  generosity  or  strength,  it  is  only  regarded  as  a  sign  of  his 
weakness.  Such  was  the  light  in  which  an  amnesty  would  have  been 
regarded  at  the  period  we  treat  of  by  the  persons  amnestied.  Dema- 
gogism,  although  defeated  in  the  streets,  was  still'  entrenched  in  secret 
societies,  and  had  lost  none  of  its  illusions  or  audacity.  Its  rage,  driven 
to  the  last  paroxysm,  exploded  in  furious  menaces.  The  two  thousand 
accused  persons  who  had  been  taken  with  arms  in  their  hands,  relying  on 
their  numbers,  and  encouraged  from  without,  for  the  most  part  protested 
in  advance  against  any  pardon,  and  defied  the  Government  to  try  them. 
Under  these  circumstances  an  amnesty  was  impossible,  and  the  King  was 
right  in  refusing  it.  This  refusal  caused  the  retirement  of  Marshal 
Dismissal  of  Gerard,  which  was  speedily  followed  by  the  resignation 
ftSongedE^  °f  amiost  tne  whole  Cabinet;  and  then  began  one  of 
those  crises  in  which  the  reins  of  power  pass  rapidly  from 
hand  to  hand,  and  are  tossed  about  at  hazard,  the  men  capable  of  holding 
them  being  unwilling  to  do  so,  and  at  the  same  time  unwilling  that  they 
should  be  held  by  others;  and  in  which  there  is  a  display  of  the  most 
pitiful  and  jealous  passions,  and  the  gravest  interests  are  subordinated 
to  miserable  and  selfish  calculations.  This  state  of  things  is  to  be  found, 
unfortunately,  more  especially  in  representative  governments,  and,  in  the 
eyes  of  superficial  observers,  throws  discredit  upon  them  ;  not;  however, 
that  these  same  passions  are  not  to  be  found  elsewhere,  but  because  in  re- 
presentative governments  there  are  more  opportunities  for  and  more 
stimulants  to  their  growth. 

The  crisis  lasted  eight  months,   during  which  we  find  a  Ministry  of 
three  days'  duration,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Duke  de  Bassano,  and 


1834-1836.]  TEIAL    OF    THE    RIOTERS.  547 

then  the   old  Cabinet,  reconstructed  under  the  Duke  de  Treviso,  which 
lasted  three  months.     At  length,  on  the  12th  March,  1835,    Eeconstruetion 
the  policy   of  the   11th  October  still  prevailing,  the  Duke    uctobe/under0 
de  Broglie  accepted  the  presidency  of  the  Council,  and  was   ot  the  Duke°ie 
joined  by  MM.  Thiers  and  G-uizot.* 

This  Ministry,  containing  as  it  did  the  most  eloquent  and  influential 
members  of  the  Conservative  party,  seemed  to  possess  within  itself  all 
the  elements  of  strength  and  longevity;  but  nevertheless  it  survived  but 
a  short  time,  and  its  brief  existence  was  almost  wholly  taken  up  with  the 
trial  of  the  April  insurrectionists  and  the  discussion  of  the  serious 
measures  which  were  soon  demanded  by  the  commission  of  one  of  the 
greatest  outrages. 

The  persons  inculpated  in  the  great  trial  now  to  be  carried  on  before 
the  Court  of  Peers,  numbering  about  two  thousand,  were   m  .  .  .^         :, 

7  °  Trial  of  the  April 

divided  into  classes  according  to  the  cities  in  which  the  in-  rioters- 
surrection  had  broken  out.  With  respect  to  the  greater  number  it  was 
declared  that  there  was  no  evidence  against  them,  and  they  were  set  at 
liberty.  The  Court,  admirably  presided  over  by  Chancellor  Pasquier, 
now  more  than  seventy  years  of  age,  summoned  before  it  a  hundred 
and  sixty-four  accused  persons,  only  forty-three  of  whom  were  con- 
tumacious. No  other  Court  in  the  kingdom  could  have  fitly  conducted 
this  memorable  trial,  in  which  the  accused,  who  indulged  in  out- 
bursts of  incredible  rage,  were  supported  by  twenty  journals  be- 
longing to  various  sections  of  the  Opposition,  and  the  openly  avowed 
sympathy  of  many  members  sitting  on  the  extreme  Left  in  the  Elective 
Chamber. 

The  whole  of  the  Republican  party  had  unanimously  agreed  to 
render  the  debates  stormy  if  not  impossible.  Enthusiastic  men,  some 
of  them  very  obscure  and  others  of  them  already  known,  all  declared 
enemies  of  the  new  monarchy,  made  themselves  officious  defenders  of  the  • 
accused,  fully  resolved  to  spare  the  peers  neither  invective  nor  insult, 
and  to  hurl  back  the  accusations  from  the  bench  of  the  accused  to  that  of 

*  The  Duke  de  Broglie  had  very  reasonably  made  the  passing  of  a  vote  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  indemnity  due  to  the  United  States  a  condition  of  his  return  to  the  Council. 
The  question  had  become  much  envenomed,  but  nevertheless  the  law  relative  to  this 
debt  was  presented  to  the  Chamber  in  1835  and  passed. 

N    N    2 


548  ATTEMPT   or   fieschi.  [Book  V.  Chap.  III. 

the  judges.*  For  the  purpose  of  preventing  this  intolerable  scandal,  the 
President  of  the  Court,  the  Chancellor  Pasquier,  decided  that  the  accused 
could  only  be  defended  by  regular  advocates,  whom  they  were  at  liberty 
to  select  from  the  whole  of  the  French  bar.  The  accused  protested 
unanimously  against  this  decision,  and,  declaring  that  they  were  not 
permitted  to  defend  themselves,  refused  to  plead.  Then,  bursting  forth 
into  vociferations  and  violent  gestures,  they  practically  rendered  all  dis- 
cussion impossible.  It  was  necessary  to  suspend  the  sitting,  and  the 
Court  declared  that  in  future  the  trial  would  be  carried  on  in  the  absence 
of  those  who  interrupted  the  proceedings  by  their  violence."]"  Another 
decision  of  the  Court,  issued  in  July,  declared  that  the  causes  should  be 
disjoined,  and  that  each  category  of  the  accused  should  be  tried 
separately.  This  decision  gave  rise  to  scenes  the  violence  of  which 
passed  all  bounds,  but  which  failed  to  weary  either  the  patience  or  the 
firmness  of  the  judges.  A  few  days  afterwards  twenty-eight  of  the 
principal  prisoners  in  the  Paris  class  contrived  to  escape,  and  then  the 
trial  proceeded  without  any  fresh  incidents.  A  hundred  and  six  accused 
persons,  including  many  who  were  tried  in  their  absence,  were  found 
guilty  and  sentenced  to  various  punishments,  the  severest  of  which  was 
transportation.  The  Court  of  Peers  displayed,  in  the  conduct  of  this 
difficult  matter,  as  much  moderation  as  courage,  and  was  really  the 
rampart  of  threatened  society. 

The  trials  lasted  nine  months,  and  long  before  their  conclusion  public 
attention  was  diverted  from  it  by  an  execrable  crime. 

Louis  Philippe  had  already  escaped  several  attempts  at  assassination, 
...  f        and  other  plots,  formed  with  the  same  object,  had  been 

Fieschi,  1835.  discovered,  when,  on  the  28th  July,  1835,  the  King,  in 
spite  of  some  vague  warnings,  resolved  to  hold  a  grand  review  of  the 
National  Guards  on  the  Boulevards,  according  to  his  custom,  on  the 
anniversary  of  the  Eevolution  of  1830.  The  royal  cortege  had  already 
arrived  as  far  as  the  Boulevard  du  Temple,  when  suddenly  a  jet  of 
name,  followed  by  a  loud  report,  issued  from  a  neighbouring  house.     On 

*  Amongst  these  defenders  were  Armand  Carrel,  de  Cormenin,  Andre  de  Puygraveau, 
Voyer  d'Argenson,  the  abbe'  de  Lamennais,  and  others  whom  subsequent  events  bave 
rendered  well  known,  such  a3  August©  Blanqui,  Ledru-RDllin,  Kaspail,  Trelat,  Flocon, 
Hyppolite  Fortoul,  and  Pierre  Leronx. 

f  It  was  said,  however,  that  the  accused  would  be  brought  into  Court,  either  together 
or  separately,  to  hear  the  witnesses  and  be  heard  in  their  defence. 


1834-1836.]  NEW   ENACTMENTS.  549 

every  side  of  the  King  there  arose  frightful  cries.  The  monarch  and  his 
sons  were  spared  ;  but  the  ground  around  them  was  covered  with  killed 
and  wounded.  Forty  persons  were  struck,  and  eighteen  mortally  injured  ; 
Marshal  Mortier,  Duke  of  Treviso,  General  Lachasse  de  Verigny,  two 
colonels,  several  National  Guards,  and  a  young  girl,  being  amongst  the 
latter.  A  ball  had  grazed  the  King's  forehead ;  another  had  penetrated 
the  coat  of  the  Duke  de  Broglie ;  and  five  generals  were  amongst  the 
wounded.  Louis  Philippe  preserved  on  this  field  of  carnage  all  his 
usual  calmness,  and  continued  on  his  way  amidst  the  acclamations  of  the 
indignant  crowd.  The  instrument  of  the  crime  was  an  infernal  machine 
armed  with  twenty-five  barrels  directed  towards  the  boulevard,  and  had 
been  invented  by  a  Corsican  named  Fieschi,  the  principal  author  of  the 
plot.  He  was  seized,  together  with  his  accomplices  Marcy  and  Pepin,  and 
tried  by  the  Court  of  Peers.  All  three  were  condemned  to  death,  and 
died  upon  the  scaffold. 

This  great  crime  excited  throughout  Paris  and  the  whole  of  France  a 
feeling  of  horror  mingled  with  stupefaction,  and  if  the  Government  had 
then  confined  itself  to  the  proposal  of  laws  for  guaranteeing  the  persons 
of  the  King  and  the  members  of  the  royal  family  from  similar  attacks  in 
the  future,  they  would  have  been  received  with  general  approbation.  But 
it  was  not  so.  A  few  days  after  the  solemn  funeral  of  the  victims  the 
Chambers    were    convoked    (4th    August),   and    after    the    ,        ca 

x  o        /'  Laws  of  Septem- 

delivery  of  a  luminous  and  conscientious  explanation  of  ber' 1835, 
their  objects  by  the  Duke  de  Broglie,  the  President  of  the  Council,  the 
Keeper  of  the  Seals  presented  to  the  deputies  the  drafts  of  three  laws 
relative  to  the  courts  of  assize,  to  juries,  and  to  the  press.  These  laws, 
in  the  opinion  of  their  authors,  were  all  intended  to  protect  the  King,  his 
family,  and  the  new  monarchy  against  the  hatred  and  fury  of  their 
enemies,  and  some  of  their  clauses  tended  directly  to  this  end.  The 
latter  abridged  the  proceedings  before  the  courts  of  assize  ;  gave  greater 
independence  to  juries  by  means  of  the  introduction  of  the  system  of 
secret  voting;  rendered  the  representation  of  dramatic  works  or  the 
sale  of  drawings  and  engravings  unlawful  without  a  Government  licence  ; 
prohibited  the  journals  from  making  any  attack  upon  the  persons  of  the 
King  and  the  members  of  his  family,  or  the  principle  even  of  the  esta- 
blished government,  and  increased  the  responsibility  of  the  conductors  of 
them.     But  to  these  measures,  which  circumstances  rendered  reasonable, 


550  DEBATE    ON    THE    NEW    LAWS.       [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  III. 

the  Government  had  added  others  in  which  could  be  perceived  a  spirit 
of  extreme  irritation  against  the  periodical  press  and  much  distrust  of 
the  popular  institution  of  trial  by  jury.  They  diminished  in  the  courts 
of  assize  the  chance  of  acquittal  hitherto  possessed  by  the  accused, 
demanded  enormous  securities  from  the  journals,  and  subjected  them 
to  exorbitant  fines,  which  recalled  in  some  degree  the  odious  system 
of  confiscation  abolished  by  the  charter ;  and  finally,  in  certain  cases,  in 
direct  opposition  with  the  sixty-ninth  article  of  the  charter,  removed  the 
consideration  of  crimes  of  the  press  from  the  consideration  of  juries 
by  enabling  the  Government  at  its  will  to  declare  them  to  be  outrages 
against  the  Crown,  and  thus  cause  them  to  be  tried  by  the  Court  of 
Peers. 

It  was  difficult  to  regard  these  latter  clauses  as  logical  consequences 
of  the  crime  committed  by  Fieschi,  and  they  were  regarded  rather  as 
projects  which  had  been  long  conceived,  and  for  the  production  of  which 
this  outrage  was  far  less  a  cause  than  an  opportunity  and  a  pretext. 
Defended  with  all  the  warmth  of  conviction  and  eloquence  by  MM.  de 
Broglie,  Guizot,  and  Thiers,  these  three  projects  encountered  in  the 
Chambers  a  vehement  opposition,  the  most  illustrious  inter- 
laws  of  Septem-     preter  of  which  was  the  old  and  venerable  chief  of  the 

ber. 

doctrinaires,  Royer-Collard,  who,  sad  and  discouraged  and 
even  soured  by  great  deceptions,  had  shut  himself  up  for  many  years  in 
a  much-to-be-regretted  retirement.  His  noble  language  was,  as  it  always 
was,  inspired  by  a  high  moral  tone,  although  blaming  too  bitterly,  perhaps, 
the  acts  of  the  Cabinet,  and  speaking  too  slightingly  of  the  evils  which 
had  suggested  them.  Profound  regrets  thus  mingled  themselves  with 
legitimate  wishes,  and  this  was  the  true  expression  of  the  feeling  which 
began  to  prevail.  The  orator  reminded  his  hearers  that  the  reference  of 
offences  committed  by  the  press  to  the  judgment  of  a  jury  had  been 
regarded  as  a  great  national  conquest  and  recognised  as  established  for 
ever  after  July,  1830,  and  he  feared  that,  by  removing  them  from  their 
natural  judges  to  try  them  before  the  Peers,  the  authority  of  that  Cham- 
ber would  be  much  diminished ;  then,  arriving  by  degrees  at  the  moral 
situation,  at  the  state  of  public  feeling,  he  said: — "  The  evil  is  great,  I 
Speech  of  Ko  er-  know,  an^  ^  shall  not  attempt  to  describe  it;  but  is  it  of 
Cuiiard.  yesterday  only,  and  is  it  entirely  due  to  the  licence  of  the 

press  ?     A  great  school  has  been  opened  during  the  last  fifty  years,  and 


1834-1836.]  THE   LAWS    OE    SEPTEMBER.  551 

this  school  consists  of  the  events  which  have  during  that  time  almost 
incessantly  taken  place  before  our  eyes.  Let  us  review  them  :  the  6th 
October,  the  10th  August,  the  21st  January,  the  31st  May,  the  18th 
Fructidor,  the  18th  Brumaire;  and  there  I  pause.  What  do  we  see  in 
this  series  of  revolutions  ?  Victory  gained  by  force  over  the  established 
order  of  things,  whatever  it  might  be,  and  doctrines  always  ready  to 
defend  this.  We  have  obeyed  the  governments  imposed  by  force ;  we 
have  received  and  celebrated  in  turn  the  contrary  doctrines  on  which 

they  were  based And  it  is  thus  that  authority — the   creation  of 

Providence,  which  has  formed  society — has  been  plucked  up  by  its  roots 

and  has  been  pursued  as  a  prey  to  be  devoured  by  force The 

remedies  on  which  the  President  of  the  Council  relies  are  the  illusions  of 
a  good  man  under  irritation,  are  the  acts  of  despair,  and  will  inflict  a  mortal 
wound  on  that  liberty  which  has  been  purchased  at  the  expense  of  so 
much  misery,  toil,  and  blood.  I  reject  these  fatal  remedies,  these  legisla- 
tive measures,  which  are  redolent  of  cunning,  the  sister  of  violence,  and 
of  another  school  of  immorality.  Let  us  have  more  confidence  in  the 
country  ;  let  us  give  it  due  honour ;  let  us  remember  that  it  abounds  in 
honest  sentiments ;  let  us  address  ourselves  to  those  sentiments,  and  they 
will  respond  to  us.  Let  us  be  candid  and  upright,  strictly  just  and 
judiciously  merciful.  If  that  be  a  revolution  the  country  will  be  grateful 
to  us  for  it,  and  Providence  will  bless  our  eiforts." 

These  words  of  Royer-Collard  produced  a  profound  sensation,  and  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior  endeavoured  to  refute  them  by  arguing  that  the 
public  liberties  would  be  protected  and  ;not  threatened  by  laws  which 
would  prevent  them  from  degenerating  into  licentiousness.  M.  Thiers 
was  energetically  replied  to  by  the  president  of  the  Chamber,  M.  Dupin, 
senior,  and  MM.  Dufaure  and  Odillon  Barrot.  Nevertheless,  the  three 
projects  having  been  adopted  by  the  Deputies  and  then  voted  by  the 
Peers,  in  spite  of  the  eloquent  efforts  of  MM.  Villemain  and  de 
Montalembert,  were  converted  into  laws  which  have  remained  famous 
under  the  name  of  the  Laws  of  September. 

As  regarded  from  the  present  day  the  fury  of  the  controversy  produced 
by  these  laws  appears  astonishing ;  but  to  appreciate  them  properly, 
as  in  the  case  of  all  laws  considered  from  a  distance,  we  ought  to 
view  them  in  all  their  bearings,  and  when  we  form  our  judgment 
of  them  to  take   care    not  to  separate    them    either    from    the    effects 


552  FALL    OF    THE    CABINET.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  III. 

which  they  produced  or  the  circumstances  in  which  they  were  esta- 
blished. 

In   the   laws  of  September  there  were    joined   with    some  wise  and 
necessary  enactments  others  in  which,  in  spite  of  indignant 

Remarks  on  the        1       .    1       ..  n  . 

laws  of  Septem-    denials  that  it  was  the  case,  there  could  be  seen  as  much 

ber. 

resentment  against  as  distrust  of  a  free  press  and  trial 
by  jury,  both  of  them  institutions  which  had  been  long  vaunted  by 
the  authors  of  these  very  laws  as  the  best  constitutional  guarantees  of 
modern  society.  We  may  safely  say  that  in  this  respect  they  over- 
stepped their  object,  and  the  event  proved  that  it  was  not  concentrating 
in  a  few  powerful  journals,  by  means  of  securities  and  fines,  all  the 
strength  of  the  periodical  press,  that  its  explosive  force  could  be 
moderated.  The  laws  of  September,  in  fact,  announced  a  determination 
on  the  part  of  the  Government  to  persevere  in  a  course  of  severity,  and 
to  render  permanent  a  policy  of  intimidation  which,  in  the  opinion  of 
many  men  devoted  to  the  Monarchy,  could  not  but  be  transitory.  The 
irritation  which  they  caused  was  manifested  in  the  votes  of  many  of  the 
councils-general  of  the  departments ;  it  strengthened  the  disastrous  links 
which  connected  the  dynastic  Left  with  the  extreme  Left,  and  increased 
the  want  of  harmony  amongst  the  Conservatives ;  and  at  the  same  time 
these  rigorous  legislative  measures  did  not  strengthen  the  Ministry. 
France  was,  it  is  true,  peaceable  during  the  four  months  which  followed 
their  promulgation,  but  this  calm  was  only  the  natural  result  of  the 
depression  felt  by  the  republican  party  after  so  many  defeats,  and  the 
Cabinet  was  overthrown  at  the  commencement  of  the  following  session 
(1836). 

Whilst  the  Elective  Chamber  was  discussing  the  address  in  reply  to 
the  speech  from  the  throne,  the  Finance  Minister,  M.  Humann,  introduced 
into  the  discussion  the  inflammatory  question  of  the  conversion  of  the 
Rentes  without  having  consulted  his  colleagues.  The  latter  declared 
Fall  of  the  Cab*  agams^  the  advisability  of  this  conversion,  and  imprudently 
net, Feb.,  1836.  ma(je  the  decision  of  the  Chamber  on  this  serious  subject 
a  question  as  to  their  Ministerial  existence.  A  majority  of  two  was 
against  them,  and  they  gave  in  their  resignation. 

'  This  vote  was  generally  regarded  as  a  mistake.  The  Cabinet  which 
retired  had  doubtless  on  many  points  failed  to  satisfy  the  necessities  and 
legitimate  demands  of  the  country.     A  desperate  struggle  with  impla- 


1834-1836.]  EEMAEKS    ON   THE   CABINET.  553 

cable  enemies  had  absorbed  the  greater  portion  of  its  time  and  strength ; 
and  yet,  by  its  courageous  energy,  its  unanimity,  and  the  talents  of  its 
principal  members,  it  had  inspired  confidence,  and  on  the  arrival  of  a 
calmer  period  might  have  been  able  to  render  other  services.  The  weak 
majority  which  overthrew  it  without  being  itself  capable  of  forming  a 
Cabinet,  showed  that  it  had  not  sufficiently  calculated  the  consequences 
of  its  vote  ;  and  thus,  from  an  incident  of  very  small  significance  in 
itself,  arose  serious  and  unexpected  consequences,  and  the  fall  of  the 
Cabinet  marked  the  close  of  that  policy  of  union  and  mutual  support 
which  was  inaugurated  on  the  11th  October,  1832,  by  the  combination 
of  the  various  portions  of  the  great  Conservative  party  against  the 
adversaries  either  of  the  monarchical  institutions  or  of  the  monarchy 
itself. 


554  MINISTRY    OF    M.    THIERS.         [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  IV. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FIRST    MINISTRY    OF    M.    THIERS MINISTRY    OF    M.    MOLE   TILL    THE 

COALITION. 

February,  1836— December,  1838. 

The  principal  fact  which  marked  the  formation  of  the  new  Ministry  was 
the  separation  of  M.  Thiers  from  M.  Guizot  and  the  doctrinaires. 
None  of  the  latter  had  places  in  the  Cabinet  formed  by  M.  Thiers,  in 
which  he  was  himself  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  and  in  which  sat  three 
members  of  the  Third  Party,  who  were  all  Vice-Presidents  of  the 
Elective  Chamber,  MM.  Sauzet,  Pelet  (of  La  Lozere),  and  Passy,  who 
were  respectively  Ministers  of  Justice,  Public  Instruction,  and  Com- 
merce.* There  was  not,  as  far  as  home  policy  was  concerned,  any 
serious  difference  of  opinion  between  M.  Guizot  and  M. 
M.  Guizot  from     Thiers  ;  for  if  there  Avere  more  flexibility  about  the  latter, 

M.  Thiers.  .  „  ,  .       „  .  . 

if  his  form  of  action  were  less  dogmatic,  and  if  he  had 
less  repugnance  to  recur,  should  occasion  demand  it,  to  revolutionary 
methods,  and  to  ally  himself  with  the  Left,  with  which  he  was  connected 
by  his  antecedents  and  ancieDt  sympathies,  than  was  the  case  with  M. 
Guizot,  he  detested,  as  much  as  the  first,  demagogy  and  anarchy ;  he  was 
as  much  as  M.  Guizot  in  favour  of  a  very  decided  system  of  centraliza- 
tion, or  of  the  substitution  of  the  action  of  the  State  for  individual 
action  in  matters  of  worship,  education,  and  administration,  and  both  as 
Minister  and  simple  Deputy  he  had  supported  during  six  years  the  policy 
of  resistance ;  but  there  was  an  incompatibility  of  temperament  and 
ambition  between  these  talented  men,  and  the  perils  of  the  situation  no 
longer  appeared  sufficiently  great  to  constrain  them  to  walk  side  by  side. 
Whilst  withdrawing,  however,  from  the  doctrinaires,  M.  Thiers  did  not 

*  The  other  members  of  the  Cabinet  were — M.  Montalivet  for  the  Interior, 
M.d'Argout  as  Minister  of  Finance,  and  Marshal  Maison  and  Admiral  Duperre  as 
Ministers  for  Military  and  Naval  Affairs. 


1836-1838.]  FKESH   ATTEMPT    OK   THE    KING'S    LIFE.  555 

abandon  their  principles,  and  at  this  price  only  could  he  secure  that 
support  from  them  which  he  considered  indispensable  to  his  maintenance 
of  power.  At  the  commencement  of  their  functions  by  the  new  Cabinet, 
the  President,  in  the  course  of  a  debate  on  the  secret  service  money,  made 
an  explicit  declaration  that  there  could  be  no  alteration  in  the  conduct  of 
the  Government,  and  that  it  still  adhered  to  the  policy  of  resistance.  No 
concession  was  made  by  him  to  the  more  conciliatory  views  of  his 
colleagues  of  the  Third  Party,  whose  influence  in  the  Cabinet  was  con- 
fined to  procuring  for  it  the  support  of  the  votes  of  their  friends  or 
partisans. 

This  Ministry  lasted  a  still  shorter  time  than  the  preceding  one,  and, 
amongst  the  small  number  of  measures  carried  into  execution  during  its 
administration,  we  should  mention  one  useful  law  for  facilitating  the 
construction  of  chemins  vicinaux,  and  a  praiseworthy  sacrifice  made  to 
public  morality  of  a  revenue  of  about  six  millions  by  the  suppression  of 
gaming   houses.*      A    fresh   project  of   a  law  relating  to 

Legislative 

Ministerial  responsibility  was  presented  by  the  Cabinet  to      enactments, 

r  ■  J  r  J  1836. 

the  Chamber  of  Peers ;  j  but  it  suffered  the  fate  of  the  pre- 
ceding projects  on  this  subject  and  failed  to  leave  the  archives  of  the 
Chamber.     The  session  was  brought  to  a  close  in  June,  1836,  and  a  few 
days    afterwards  the  King  providentially  escaped   another   The  attempt  of 
attack  made  against  his  person.     The  author  of  this  crime   Allbau  • 
was  a  young  fanatic  named  Alibaud,  who,  being  tried  and  condemned  by 
the  Court  of  Peers,  lost  his  head  upon  the  scaffold. 

Tranquillity  now  began  to  be  re-established  in  the  interior,  but  the 
political  horizon  was  gloomy  abroad.  The  last  remains  of  the  ancient 
independence    of    Poland   perished    with    the    republic   of 

Fall  of  Cracow. 

Cracow.     The  two  powers  of  the  North  and  Austria,  under 
the  pretence  of  stifling  and  destroying  a  focus  of  political  troubles,  took 
possession   of  Cracow,  and  France  protested  feebly  against  this  infraction 
of  the   clause   of  the  treaties  of  1815,   by  which    the   independence  of 
Cracow  was  guaranteed  by  all  Europe. 

Switzerland  at  this  time  appeared  an  asylum  to  the  revolutionists  and 

*  Lotteries  had  already  been  abolished  under  the  preceding  Ministry. 
t  Drafts  of  laws  relating  to    the    responsibility  of    Ministers    had    already   been 
presented   to  the  Deputies  in   1832,   1833,  and  1835,  but  none  of  them  had  been 
accepted. 


556  FOREIGN    POLICY    OE    ERANCE.       [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  IV. 

conspirators  of  all  the  countries  in  Europe,  and  maintained  upon  our 
„     .        ..         frontiers  as  well  as  upon  those  of  other  countries  a  dange- 

Foreign  policy  r  ° 

in  shainaandet  roils  focus  of  agitation.  M.  Thiers  in  demanding  their  ex- 
Switzeriand.  pulsion  yielded  to  the  fears  of  the  Conservative  party,  as 
well  as  to  the  wishes  of  Austria  and  the  Northern  Powers,  and  the 
conclusion  or  decree  which  he  exacted  by  threats  from  the  Federal  Diet 
for  the  purpose  of  forcing  the  cantonal  governments,  excited  in  Swit- 
zerland an  unfortunate  feeling  of  resentment  against  the  French 
Government. 

In  Spain,  to  look  in  another  direction,  were  seen  the  horrors  of  civil 
war,  added  to  the  hideous  spectacle  of  anarchy  and  a  demagogic  revolu- 
tion. The  counter-revolutionary  party  made  every  day,  by  the  aid  of 
stormy  condi-  skilful  generals,  fresh  progress  ;  whilst  Don  Carlos  held  his 
tion  of  Spam.  COurt  in  Spain,  master  of  all  the  mountainous  portion  of 
the  country  comprised  between  the  Pyrenees,  the  Ebro,  and  the  ocean. 
Armed  bands  traversed  the  provinces  in  his  name,  committing  every- 
where frightful  ravages.  Carlists  and  Christinos  rivalled  each  other  in 
fury  and  cruelty.  The  Liberal  and  progressionist  party  formed  in  all  the 
cities  independent  juntas,  which  demanded  that  the  Cortes  should  be 
convoked  in  a  Constituent  Assembly,  for  the  purpose  of  revising  the 
Statut  Royal,  and  the  Prime  Minister,  Mendizabel,  supported  their 
threatening  demands.  The  Queen-mother  replaced  him  by  Isturitz, 
who  attempted  to  restrain  the  demagogic  torrent,  and  invoked,  in  July, 
1836,  the  clauses  of  the  treaty  of  the  quadruple  alliance  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  the  aid  of  the  powers  who  had  signed  it  against  Don  Carlos. 
The  only  foreign  auxiliaries  of  the  constitutional  cause  at  that  time  in 
the  Queen's  armies  consisted  of  a  legion  of  about  three  thousand  men 
of  various  nations,  called  the  Foreign  Legion,  and  a  small  body  of 
English  volunteers,  under  General  Evans.  King  Louis  Philippe,  con- 
sidering the  deplorable  position  in  which  Spain  was  now  placed,  was 
reluctant  to  engage  the  French  Government  in  the  sanguinary  struggle 
now  going  on  between  the  Revolutionists  and  the  Carlists.  M.  Thiers 
adopted  a  middle  course,  which  consisted  in  permitting  the  Spanish 
Government  to  recruit  from  the  army  of  observation  of  the  Pyrenees  a 
sufficient  number  of  volunteers  to  raise  the  Foreign  Legion  to  ten 
thousand  men,  who  were  to  be  placed  under  the  orders  of  a  French 
general,  and  who,  acting  in  concert  with  the  corps  under  General  Evans 


1836-1838.]  DISMISSAL   OF    M.    THIEES.  557 

and  some  Spanish  and  Portuguese  regiments,  would  form  the  nucleus  of 
an  imposing  corps  oVarmee.  Louis  Philippe  sanctioned  this  project,  but 
before  it  was  carried  into  execution,  a  military  insurrection  burst  forth,  in 
the  month  of  August,  in  Spain.  The  Queen-Regent,  besieged  with  her 
daughter,  the  Queen  Isabella,  in  the  palace  of  La  Granja  by  a  furious 
soldiery,  was  compelled  to  subscribe  to  the  constitution  of  1812,  in  which 
royalty  was  a  mere  phantom.  Madrid  rose  in  its  turn,  and  was  the 
theatre  of  horrible  scenes.  General  Quesada  perished,  torn  in  pieces  by 
that  populace,  and  Isturitz  was  pushed  from  power.  In  this  new  crisis, 
Louis  Philippe  refused  to  aid  a  government  which  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  a  revolutionary  demagogism,  and  wished  the  volunteers 
incorporated  in  the  Foreign  Legion  to  be  dismissed ;  whilst  M.  Thiers 
insisted  that  they  should  be  retained  at  their  flags,  to  be  DjsmiS3ai  of  M. 
ready  to  act  when  order  should  be  re-established.  As  his  coiieaguea, 
views  were  directly  opposed  by  the  King  he  resigned  his  ugu  ' 
portfolio  ;  all  his  colleagues,  with  the  exception  of  M.  Montalivet,  followed 
his  example,  and  the  Ministry  was  dissolved. 

The  formation  of  a  new  Ministry  was  now  entrusted  to  an  eminent 
member  of  the  peerage,  M.  Mole.  Formerly  a  high  functionary  of  the 
Empire,  a  statesman  and  a  courtier,  M.  Mole  was  one  of  the  small 
number    of   the    new    monarchy    who    were    superior    to 

J  r  Ministry  of  M. 

high  offices ;  if  not  always  by  reason  of  their  personal  Mo;e,  Septem- 
character,  at  least  by  their  rank  and  fortune.  He  was  a 
friend  of  the  King,  but  nevertheless  he  did  not  carry  his  deference  for 
the  royal  wishes  so  far  as  to  sacrifice  to  them  his  personal  convictions  or 
the  interests  of  the  country.  As  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  in  1830,  at 
the  period  of  the  Belgian  revolution,  he  preserved  Belgium  from  a 
Prussian  invasion  ;  and,  by  being  the  first  to  proclaim  the  principle  of 
non-intervention,  had  displayed  a  clear  sense  of  what  circumstances 
demanded,  and  of  the  national  will.  M.  Mole  joined  to  skill  in  the 
conduct  of  important  affairs  the  art  of  managing  men;  and,  without 
possessing  great  parliamentary  eloquence,  was  in  his  manner  clear,  facile, 
insinuating,  and  sometimes  cutting.  A  Conservative  by  position  and 
by  principle,  he  had  hitherto  remained  attached  to  the  policy  of  resis- 
tance, without,  however,  having  formed  any  violent  resolution  to  remain 
so.  He  thought  that  the  best  species  of  policy  was  to  watch  the  times, 
and  to  regulate  his  conduct  according  to  circumstances.     He  did  not 


558  conspiracy  or  lottis  kapoleon.      [Book  V.  Chap.  IV. 

consider  that  the  moment  was  come  as  yet  for  making  any  change  in  the 
system  when  he  resumed  in  1836  the  Ministry  for  Foreign  Affairs,  with 
the  title  of  President  of  the  Council ;  and  as,  although  he  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  doctrinaires,  their  support  appeared  to  him  to  be 
indispensable,  he  made  three  of  them  members  of  his  Cabinet;  M. 
Guizot  had  the  portfolio  of  Public  Instruction,  M.  de  Gasparin  that  of 
the  Interior,  and  M.  Duchatel  that  of  Finance.* 

The  existence  of  this  Cabinet  was  a  very  agitated  one.  The  relations 
between  France  and  Switzerland  became  embittered  ;  and  the  irritation 
_       .;'  ,  of  the  cantons  was  increased,  not  without  cause,   by  the 

Case  of  the  spy  7  7       J 

Conseii.  discovery  of  a  French  spy,  named  Conseil,  a  secret  agent  of 

the  late  Cabinet,  who  was  discovered  and  bitterly  denounced  by  the 
Diet,  as  the  abettor  of  disturbances  and  the  promoter  of  demagogic 
excesses,  at  the  very  moment  when  it  was  receiving  from  the  French 
Government  imperious  injunctions  to  expel  all  demagogues  and  anarchists. 
The  serious  discontents  caused  in  Switzerland  and  the  contiguous 
French  departments  by  those  irritating  negotiations,  precipitated,  pro- 
bably, the  execution  of  a  plot,  the  author  of  which  was  Prince  Louis 
Napoleon  Bonaparte,  son  of  the  ex-King  of  Holland,  and  subsequently 
summoned  to  such  high  destinies.  This  prince,  who  had  been  brought 
up  in  Switzerland  at  the  castle  of  Arenenberg  by  the  Queen  Hortense,  his 
mother,  had  associated  himself  in  1831,  whilst  still  very  young,  with  the 

disastrous  enterprise  of  the  Italian  patriots,  and  had  after - 
PrKLouis  wards  made  himself  known  by  some  works  on  politics  and 
strasburg,  the  art  of  war.     Since  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Reichstadt 

(Napoleon  II.),  which  took  place  in  1832,  Louis  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  considered  himself  heir  to  his  uncle's  imperial  throne,  and  did 
not  doubt  that  he  should  some  day  sit  on  it.  Deceived  by  the  perpetual 
risings  of  the  Republican  party,  and  the  virulent  declamations  of  the 
Opposition  journals,  and  seduced  also  by  the  secret  encouragements 
of  various  influential  persons,  he  believed  that  France  was  ready  to 
substitute  an  imperial  government  for  that  of  July,  and  that  he  would 
only  have  to  appear,  to  secure  a  fortress  and  a  few  regiments,  and  to  march 
to  Paris,  to  be  saluted  Emperor  by  the  whole  of  France.     He  cast  his 

*  M.  Persil  had  the  Seals.  The  Ministry  of  Naval  Affairs  was  given  to  Admiral 
Rosamel,  and  that  of  War  to  General  Bernard.  M.  Martin  ^of  the  North)  was  Minister 
for  Commerce  and  Public  Works. 


1836-1838.]  EEYERSES    IN  AFBICA.  559 

eyes  upon  Strasburg,  and  gained  over  Colonel  Vaudrey,  commander  of 
the  Fourth  Regiment  of  Artillery,  and  some  subaltern  officers  of  the 
garrison.  During  the  night  of  the  30th  October  the  prince  secretly 
entered  the  city,  gathered  together  his  accomplices,  was  received  as 
Emperor  by  Colonel  Vaudrey's  regiment,  by  order  of  its  commander,  and 
endeavoured  to  raise  all  the  troops  and  the  inhabitants  to  the  cry  of 
u  Long  live  Napoleon!  Long  live  liberty!'1''  The  attempt,  however, 
proved  a  failure,  for  the  garrison  and  the  inhabitants  proved  faithful  to 
the  King,  and,  after  a  short  struggle,  the  prince  and  the  principal  con- 
spirators were  made  prisoners.  The  latter  were  given  over  to  the  hands 
of  justice  ;  but  Louis  Napoleon,  the  author  and  whole  soul  of  the  plot, 
was  set  at  liberty,  as  had  formerly  been  the  Duchess  de  Berri,  to  the 
great  discontent  of  all  those  to  whom  equality  before  the  law  appears  of 
the  highest  importance.  Thus  ended  this  rash  enterprise ;  but  never- 
theless it  was  not  without  some  important  results  for  its  author,  for  it 
seized  hold  of  men's  imaginations,  and  by  its  23ry  rashness  drew  upon 
the  prince  and  his  pretensions  the  attention  of  France. 

The  French  arms  at  this  period  experienced  a  great  disaster  in 
Africa,  where  Marshal  Clausel  had  recently  succeeded  Count  d'Erlon  as 
Governor-General  of   Algeria.     The  war  was  carried  on  ,,•.'•.. 

°  Algeria. 

with  the  utmost  vigour  during  the  whole  of  the  old 
Regency ;  and  whilst  Abd-el-Kader,  the  Emir  of  Maskara,  who  was 
considered  by  the  Arabs  as  the  leader  of  the  Holy  War,  held  our  troops 
in  check  in  the  province  of  Oran,  they  had  to  repulse  in  the  east,  in  the 
province  of  Bona,  the  continual  and  murderous  attacks  of  the  Bey  of 
Constantine.  The  capture  of  this  latter  place,  which  was  especially 
formidable  from  the  strength  of  its  position,  which  was  almost  on  the 
edge  of  a  rock,  was  considered  by  Marshal  Clausel  as  indispensable  to 
the  security  as  well  as  to  the  development  of  the  French  possessions  in 
Africa.  A  considerable  reinforcement  of  troops  had  been  promised  for 
this  expedition  by  the  previous  Ministry,  but  was  refused  by  the  new 
one.  The  Marshal,  however,  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded  that  the 
tyranny  of  Achmet  Bey  of  Constantine,  had  wearied  the  inhabitants, 
and  that  at  the  approach  of  the  French  army  the  city  would  be  delivered 
up  by  the  Arabs  themselves.     He  considered,  therefore,  that 

r      J  _  \  First  Constan- 

the  troops   which  he  had  at  his  disposal  were   sufficient,    tine  expedition, 
and  prepared  to  march  upon   Constantine  with   8000  in- 


560  ACQUITTAL  OP  CONSPIKATOKS.   [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  IV. 

fantry,  1500  horse,  two  batteries  of  howitzers,  and  eight  field  pieces. 
This  weak  corps  commenced  the  campaign  on  the  13th  November,  under 
the  command  of  Marshal  Clausel,  whom  the  Duke  de  Nemours,  the 
King's  second  son,  accompanied  as  a  volunteer.  The  march  from  Bona 
to  Constantine,  across  a  hostile  and  insurgent  country,  was  a  very 
painful  one ;  fever,  fatigue,  and  Arab  weapons  decimated  the  little 
French  army,  and  Constantine  did  not  open  its  gates.  To  capture  it,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  besiege  it,  and  as  a  regular  attack  without  siege 
pieces  was  impossible,  the  Marshal  attempted  unsuccessfully  the  bold  plan 
of  an  assault.  A  retreat  had  already  become  difficult  from  the  want  of 
provisions  and  ammunition ;  the  Marshal  ordered  one,  and  it  was  dis- 
astrous.* At  length  the  army,  after  having  endured  great  sufferings, 
reentered  Bona,  thoroughly  exhausted,  and  diminished  by  one-third, 
having  lost  three  thousand  men  and  a  great  portion,  of  its  war  material. 

The  Legislative  Session  opened  in  December,  1836,  under  the  painful 

impression  caused  by  this  reverse,  and  by  a  fresh  attempt  against  the 

King's  life.  "J"     The  address  of  the  two  Chambers  in  reply  to 

Se^sion,1]^-        the  speech  from  the  throne  had  scarcely  been  voted,  when 

1837 

there  arrived  news  of  the  strange  result  of  the  trial  of 
Colonel  Yaudrey  and  the  other  accomplices  of  Prince  Louis  Napoleon  at 
Strasburg.  They  were  acquitted  on  the  pretext  that  the  principal  person 
accused  had  been  withdrawn  from  his  judges  and  the  verdict  of  the  jury. 
To  this  unexpected  result  the  Ministry  replied  by  an  act  of  rage  and  fresh 

rigours.  It  presented  a  law,  called  the  law  of  disjunctions, 
produced  in  the     the  effect  of  which  was  to  disjoin  for  the  future  the  trials 

Chambers.    Law  .       .  „  ,  ...    .         -      ,. 

of  disjunction,       of  civilian  prisoners  trom  the  trials  or  military  prisoners 

1837 

who  should  be  accused  of  having  been  concerned  in  the 
same  crime,  the  latter  being  handed  over  to  military  tribunals.  Two  other 
laws  were  presented,  the  one  for  punishing  with  solitary  confinement  the 
non-revelation  of  plots  against  the  safety  of  the  State,  and  the  other  for 
increasing  the  punishment  of  transportation  by  changing  it,  at  the  will  of 
the  Government,  into  that  of  solitary  confinement ;  and  at  the  same  time, 
by  an  unfortunate  coincidence,  the  Ministers  demanded  of  the  Chambers 

*  Commandant  Chansrarmer  covered  himself  with  glory  in  the  course  of  this 
retreat,  which  he  protected  at  the  head  of  an  heroic  battalion  of  the»  2nd  light 
infantry,  which  formed  the  rear-guard. 

f  The  assassin's  name  was  Meunier.     The  King  forgave  him. 


1836-1838.]  FEW   MINISTRY.  561 

a  sum  of  a  million  for  the  dowry  of  the  Queen  of  the  Belgians,  and  an 
allowance  for  the  Duke  de  Nemours — relying  on  the  law  relating  to  the 
civil  list,  which,  in  case  the  private  possessions  should  be  insufficient, 
authorized  an  appeal  to  the  country  for  a  provision  for  the  princes  and 
princesses  of  the  royal  family. 

The  public  mind  was  excited  by  all  these  projects,  at  which  the 
Opposition  displayed  both  surprise  and  irritation,  and  the  enemies  of  the 
dynasty  seized  the  opportunity  for  again  pouring  calumny  and  insult 
upon  the  Eoyal  person  in  -a  too  famous  series  of  pamphlets.  To  these 
more  or  less  legitimate  causes  of  agitation  and  discontent  were  added 
dissensions  in  the  bosom  of  the  Cabinet  itself,  where  the  doctrinaires 
complained  of  not  possessing  an  influence  either  equal  to  their  political 
importance  or  to  the  share  which  they  had  to  bear  in  unpopular 
acts.* 

The  difficulties  of  the  position  were  still  further  increased  by  the  rejec- 
tion   of  the    law   of  disjunction,   which   the    Chamber    of 

Its  rejection. 

Deputies  threw  out  on  the  9th  March  by  a  majority  of 
two.  M.  Mole  perceived  that  the  moment  had  come  for  moderating  the 
rigorous  system  which  had  hitherto  been  in  force.  A  ministerial  crisis 
ensued,  during  which  the  King  applied  successively  to  M.  Guizot  and 
to  M.  Thiers,  the  leaders  of  the  Right  and  Left  Centre,  inviting  them  to 
form  a  cabinet  which  would  have  the  support  of  a  majority ;  but  each  of 
them,  after  fruitless  efforts,  had  to  give  up  the  task.  The  King  then 
returned  to  M.  Mole,  who,  resolved  to  adopt  a  conciliatory    „, 

7  *■  J      Changes  in  the 

policy,  eliminated  from  the  Cabinet  the  doctrinaire  element,    Mol°  Cal>inet- 
in  which  was  more  particularly  personified  the  policy  of  resistance.     He 
took  four  new  colleagues,  MM.  Barthe,   Montalivet,   Salvandy,  Lacave- 
Laplagne,  and  they  held  respectively  the  portfolios  of  Justice,  the  Interior 
Public  Instruction,   and  Finance.     Thus  was  formed    the    Ministry   of 
the   15th   April,   1837,  under  the  presidency  of  M.  Mole,    ,,.  . 

r      '  r  j  j     Ministry  of  April 

who  committed  the  fault  of  not  opening  the  new  Cabinet    15' 1837> 

to  any  of  the  members  of  the  Third  Party,  whilst  he  began  to  adopt  their 

views  and  many  points  of  their  programme. 

This  party,  which  then  formed  the  most  considerable   element  of  the 

*  M.  de  Gasparin  having  expressed  an  intention  of  resigning  the  portfolio  of  the 
Interior,  M.  Guizot  thought,  not  unreasonably,  that  he  had  a  claim  to  it  from  M.  Mole" 
■who  was  already  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  a  change  of  system. 

VOL.    II  -  0    0 


562  GOVERNMENTAL    OPPOSITION.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  IV. 

Left  Centre,  had  been  represented,  as  we  have   already  seen,  in  several 
cabinets,  withont    having    possessed  sufficient    strength  to 
character  of  the     maintain  itself  in  power,  or  to  give  its  own  peculiar  impulse 
to  the  conduct  of  affairs.     It  reckoned  in  its  ranks  some 
important   and  celebrated   men — MM.    Dupin,  senior,   Dufaure,   Sauzet, 
Hyppolite   Passy,   and,   somewhat    later,   Alexis   de    Tocqueville.     The 
essential  object  in  their  eyes  was  to  judge,  in  a  revolutionary  and  demo- 
gogic  spirit,  of  the  true  source  of  the  Revolution  of  1830,  considered  in 
its  best  tendencies,  and  to   grant   a  just  satisfaction  to  the  healthy  ideas 
and  new  necessities  which   this   great  event  had  stimulated  or  produced. 
The    Government,   said   the    Third    Party,   had   neglected  many  of  the 
engagements   entered  into  at  this   period,  and  had   only  partially  fulfilled 
others.     For  the  success  of  their  views  it  was  necessary  in  the  opinion  of 
the  Third  Party  that  great  modifications  should  be  made  in  the  electoral 
law,  which,  after  having  suppressed  the  double  vote,  had  merely  reduced 
from  three  hundred  francs  to  two  hundred  the  amount  of  taxes  payable 
to  qualify  a  man  to  be  an  elector.     The  most  prominent  men  of  the  Third 
Party  were  of  opinion  that  the   smaller  tradesmen,  and  even  the  better 
class  of  the  working  men,  could  not,  without  danger,  be   debarred  from 
all  personal   intervention  in  the  affairs  of  the  country;  and  many,  and 
these  were  the  most  far-sighted,  were  in  favour  of  a  method  of  election 
which  would  enable  the  people  generally  to  share  in  a  certain  measure 
in  the   election  of  deputies,  whilst  at  the  same  time  giving  a  large  share 
of  influence  over  these  elections  to  intelligence  and  property.     With  this 
object  they  would  gladly  have  substituted  direct  election  for  the  method 
of  electing  by  two  degrees. 

The  opponents  of  the  Third  Party  reproached  it  with  being  chiefly 
composed  of  uneducated  and  jealous  men,  who,  incapable  of  wielding 
power  themselves,  were  skilful  only  in  decrying  and  weakening  it.  Its 
leaders,  they  said,  were  inspired  with  honest  intentions  and  vague  aspira- 
tions instead  of  good  common  sense  and  practical  ideas,  and  were  the 
heads  of  a  coterie  rather  than  of  a  party. 

These  reproaches,  however,  although  more  or  less  true  with  respect  to 
most  of  the  members  of  the  Third  Party,  did  not  sufficiently  explain  its 
want  of  power,  and  to  discover  its  cause  it  was  necessary  to  look  elsewhere. 
What  was  wanting  in  these   eminent  men  was  not  oratorical  talent,  but 


1836-1838.]  DIFFICULTIES    OF    THE    MINISTRY.  563 

the  all-powerful  influence   of  Parliamentary  eloquence,  which  fascinates, 
subjugates,  and  entrances,  and  which  was  possessed  in  such  high  perfec- 
tion by  the  leaders   of  the  Party   of  Eesistance ;  that   determined  and 
ardent  ambition  which  is  less  careful  of  the  means  than  the  end ;   that 
consummate  ability  to  create,  govern,  and  discipline  a  party,  to  influence 
men  as  well  through  their  bad  as  their  good  instincts,  and  to  inspire  them 
with  confidence  by  means  of  the  confidence  which  one  has  in  one's  self. 
The  chiefs  of  the  Third  Party  were  intellectual,  but  timid  ;  they  were 
almost    always    inspired    by    a   genuine    desire   to    further  the   popular 
interests,  but  were  at  the   same   time  constantly  held  in  check  by  their 
devotion  to  the  new  Monarchy.     To  have  enabled  them  to  form  a  power- 
ful homogeneous  party,  capable  of  carrying  out  bold  measures,  a  close 
alliance  must  have  been  necessary  between  them  and  the  dynastic  Left, 
whose  views  in  many  respects  resembled  their  own,  but  whose  ante- 
cedents,   adventurous    tendencies,    and    dangerous   connexions  with    the 
Radical   or  Republican  Left  were  not  unreasonably  held  by  the   Third 
Party  in   considerable   suspicion.     The   Third  Party,  moreover,  did  not 
dissimulate  its  intention  of  modifying  the  electoral  law  in  such  a  manner 
as  to   effect  very  great  alterations  in  the   composition   of   the   Elective 
Chamber ;  and  this  alone  was  sufficient  to  deprive  them  of  many  votes 
in  a  Chamber  in  which  selfish  personal  views  became  more  and  more  pre- 
dominant, and  in  which  too  many  of  the  subordinate  members  had  already 
begun  to  disregard  the  general  interests  in  favour  of  their  personal  ones.- 
The    Ministry    of    M.   Mole    did    not    reckon    amongst  its    members 
anv  of  the  great  orators  of  the  Elective  Chamber,  but  it  was    Au         .■-''■. 

■J  °  '  Abnormal  posi- 

composed  of  capable  and  enlightened  men,  who  were  ani-  tlonof>M-  Molfe- 
mated  by  a  desire  for  the  general  welfare.  Its  head  no  doubt  departed 
from  Parliamentary  usage  by  remaining  in  power  to  support  a  policy  in 
some  respects  different  from  that  which  he  had  hitherto  defended  or 
maintained ;  and,  to  be  enabled  to  govern,  he  was  reduced  to  seek  sup- 
port in  every  direction,  and  to  form  a  majority  by  bringing  over  to  his 
new  policy  men  sitting  on  different  and  even  opposite  benches.  But  this 
course  was  naturally  justified  by  the  loudly  avowed  inability  of  his 
adversaries  or  rivals  to  carry  on  the  Government  themselves  with  a  suffi- 
cient majority,  an  important  fact  which  was  ignored  or  unknown  by  the 
Conservative  members,  who  in  this  and  the  following  session  attributed 

o  o  2 


564  GENERAL    ELECTIONS.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  IV. 

to:  the  Minister  his  abnormal  position  as  a  crime.*  A  more  conciliatory 
policy  was  inaugurated  by  the  first  acts  of  the  Ministry  of  the  1 5th  April. 
The  irritating  projects  recently  presented  to  the  Chamber  relative  to  a 
settlement  on  the  Duke  de  Nemours,  the  punishment  of  persons  who 
wthd  i  f  snonld  fail  to  reveal  conspiracies,  and  the  substitution  of 
pana&r and  other  son^ary  confinement  for  transportation,  were  withdrawn, 
projects,  1827.  an(^  ^Q  jQng  gTanted  an  amnesty  to  all  persons  accused  of 
political  offences.  No  important  change,  however,  was  made  in  the 
general  conduct  either  of  home   or  foreign  affairs.     After 

General  amnesty. 

the  session  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  was  dissolved,  and  the 

month  of  October   appointed  for  the  general  elections.      The   Radical 

party,  abandoning  at  length  the  hope  of  carrying  its  theories' 

Dissolution  of.  .  i'  ■      «       ••.  i  -i  •  i  -it-it 

the  chamber  of     into   execution    by  forcibly  overthrowing  the   established 

Deputies,  1837.  *       . 

order  of  things,  resolved  to  attain  its  object  gradually,  and 
by  means  of  the  established  institutions.  It  loudly  declared,  in  defiance 
of  the  laws  of  September,  its  Republican  principles,  and  concentrated  all 
its  forces  for  the  electoral  struggle  which  was  about  to  commence.  The 
dynastic  Left  separated  on  this  occasion,  but  too  late,  from  the  extreme 
Left,  the  latter  being  alone  represented  in  the  Electoral  Committee  of  the 
Opposition,  in  which  figured,  by  the  side  of  the  most  zealous  adversaries 
of  Louis  Philippe  and  his  monarchy,  two  former  Ministers,  Jacques 
Laffitte  and  Dupont  de  l'Eure.  The  Ministry,  thus  threatened,  violently 
„        .  ,    ..        stretched,  for  the  purpose  of  combating  its  avowed  or  dis- 

General  elections  1  r      r  o 

November,  1837.  gUised  enemies,  all  the  resources  of  administrative  centraliza- 
tion, and  many  of  its  agents  overstepped  the  necessary  or  permitted 
limits.  In  committing  this  serious  fault  it  followed  the  example  of  many 
other  Cabinets;  but  it  must  be  remembered,  in  extenuation,  that  the 
struggle  in  which  it  was  now  engaged  with  the  Revolutionary  or  Repub- 
lican party  was  a  conflict  of  principles  and  of  the  future,  in  which  the 
general  interests  were  at  stake,  and  that  it  might  not  unreasonably  suppose 

*  M.  de  Nouvion,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Reign  of  Louis  Philippe,"  vol.  iv.  p.  259, 
has  not  taken  this  fact  into  account,  but  severely  reproaches  M.  Mole'  for  having 
endeavoured  to  draw  to  his  side  men  of  all  parties.  ...  "A  party  worthy  of  the 
name,"  he  says,  "  no  more  abandons  its  leader  to  support  a  ministry,  than  a  regiment 
deserts  its  flag  to  join  the  enemy."  This  doctrine,  taken  absolutely,  is  as  false  as  it  is 
dangerous ;  for  there  are  times  when  no  party  has  sufficient  strength  in  itself  to  carry 
on  the  government,  and  the  obstinacy  of  a  few  ambitious  leaders  would  render  all 
government  impossible.  We  must  not  lay  down  as  an  absolute  law,  "  Perish  the  State 
leather  than  a  principle." 


1836-1838.]  LEGISLATIVE    ENACTMENTS.  565 

that  the  fate  of  the  Monarch  and  of  society  itself  was  dependent  on  the 
issue. 

All  the  efforts  of  the  Republican  Opposition  only  resulted  in  the  return 
of  a  few  more  Republican  deputies.  The  Third  Party  also  gained  many- 
new  members,  and  the  various  parties  in  the  Chamber  remained,  in 
spite  of  the  introduction  of  many  fresh  members,  almost  of  the  same 
respective  strength  as  formerly. 

The  Ministry  of  M.  Mole  did  not  make  much  greater  efforts  than  pre- 
ceding ministries  to  carry  out  in  a  liberal  spirit  the  promises  of  the 
charter,  and  it  failed  to  pay  any  more  attention  than  they  had  paid  to 
the  social  questions,  properly  so  called,  which  had  for  their  especial 
object  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  working  classes,  and  which 
now  began  to  occupy  public  attention.  Whatever  reproaches,  how- 
ever, the  Ministry  of  M.  Mole  may  have  justly  incurred,  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  the  period  which  elapsed  from  the  15th  April,  1837, 
the  date  of  the  rupture  of  its  head  with  the  doctrinaires,  to  its  fall,  was  a 
prosperous  period,  the  most  fruitful  in  useful  laws  in  proportion  to  its 
duration,  and  the  most  tranquil  of  all  the  reign. 

After  the  amnesty,   the   laws  which,   of  those  presented  or  adopted 
during   this    short   period,    deserve  the  most  praise,  are    those    which 
improved    the  Bankruptcy  law,   increased    the  guarantees 
given  by  the  Tribunals  of  Commerce,  improved  the  regu-    Legislative 

.  .  ,  enactments. 

lations  in  force   respecting   lunatics,  enlarged  the  powers 
of    justices,    and   regulated   the  functions    of  the  Councils   of  depart- 
ments, arrondissements,   and  communes.     These  latter  laws    especially 
were  impatiently  expected,  and  although  even  now  very  insufficient,  were 
a  first  and  happy  effort  against  the  excess  of  administrative  power.     The 
rise  in  the  public  funds  now  announced  that  public  confidence,  as  well  as 
the  material  and  financial  condition  of  the  kingdom,  were  improving.* 
The  industry  of  the  country  had  been  immensely  developed,  and  the  con- 
struction of  some  of  the  great  French  railways  commenced  at  this  period. 
France,  in  the  meantime,  maintained   its  rank  and  influence  abroad. 
Ancona,  indeed,  was  evacuated  before  the  accomplishment 
of  the  reform  promised  by  the  Roman  Government ;  but 
this  evacuation,  which  was  advanced  against  the  Cabinet  by  its  adver- 
saries as  a  crime,  was  in  strict  conformity  with  diplomatic  conventions, 
*  The  Five  per  Cents  were  at  111,  and  the  Three  per  Cents  over  81. 


566  FBENCH    TRIUMPHS.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  TV. 

and  only  took  place  after  the  evacuation  of  the  Pontifical  territory  by 
the  Austrians  themselves  *  The  Dutch-Belgian  question  was  finally 
settled  at  this  period  by  the  acquiescence  of  the  King  of  the  Netherlands 
in  the  Treaty  of  the  Twenty-four  Articles.  By  virtue  of  this  treaty 
Belgium  had  to  consent  to  the  painful  sacrifice  of  some  portions  of  its 
territory,  but  it  obtained,  through  the  intervention  and  the  influence  of 
France  at  the  Conference  of  London,  the  reduction  to  one  half  of  the 
sum  payable  by  her  to  Holland.f  The  Cabinet  displayed  at  first  some 
Algeria,  1837-38.  weakness  in  its  conduct  with  respect  to  Algeria.  It  com- 
rea  y  o  a  a.  mitte(j  ^  fauj_t  0f  ratifying  the  Treaty  of  Tafna,  concluded 
between  Abd-el-Kader  and  General  Bugeaud,  May,  1837,  a  convention 
by  which  the  Emir  acknowledged  indeed  the  sovereignty  of  France  in 
Algeria,  but  by  which  also  a  considerable  portion  of  the  old  territory 
occupied  by  the  French  troops  was  ceded  to  the  Arabs.  This  unfortu- 
nate treaty,  however,  was  gloriously  atoned  for  by  the  brilliant  success 
of  a  new  expedition  made  bv  the  French   army  against 

Capture  of  Con-  L  J  J       & 

stantine,  Constantine.     The  town  was  carried  by  assault,   October, 

Ocrober,  1837.  J  '  ' 

1837,  and  its  possession  extended  and  confirmed  the  power 
of  France  over  all  the  tribes  of  that  province.^ 

France  had  at  this  time  just  demands  to  make  or  offences  to  punish 
in  various  countries  of  the  new  world ;  at  Haiti,  in  the  Argentine 
Republic,  now  tyrannized  over  by  the  President  Eosas,  and  in  Mexico ; 
and  she  everywhere  made  her  power  respected.  The  French  navy  in 
particular  covered  itself  with  glory  in  the  expedition  directed  against 
„     .  .        Mexico  by  Admiral  Baudin,   who  was  valiantly  seconded 

JN  aval  campaign  J  '  •> 

BgrniiantMattack     ^7 tne  Prmce  de  Joinville,  the  third  son  of  the  King  of  the 

SaiuWeln1  °f'    French.      This    rapid  campaign  was    terminated  by    the 

attack  on,  and  glorious  capture  of,  the   Fort  Saint  Jean 

*  The  convention  of  the  month  of  April,  1832,  specified  that  the  evacuation  of 
Ancona  should  take  place  immediately  after  the  evacuation  by  the  Austrians  of  the  States 
of  the  Holy  See. 

f  Head  the  pages  of  M.  de  Nouvion's  work  relative  to  the  evacuation  of  Ancona  and 
the  settlement  of  the  Dutch-Belgian  question.  "History  of  the  Reign  of  Louis 
Philippe,"  vol.  iv.  p.  248. 

X  The  Commander-in-Chief,  Damremont,  was  killed  by  a  ball  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  siege,  and  replaced  by  General  Valee.  The  expeditionary  corps  consisted 
of  four  brigades,  under  the  command  of  the  Duke  de  Nemours,  Generals  Ruhliere  and 
Trezel,  and  Colonel  Combes.  The  first  column  of  attack  was  led  by  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Lamoriciere,  and  the  second  by  Colonel  Combes,  who  received  a  mortal  wound 
at  the  breach,  and  died  like  a  hero  of  antiquity. 


1836-1838.]  CULMINATION    OE    THE    KING'S    POWEB.  567 

d'Ulloa,  the  principal  defence  of  Vera  Cruz.  That  place  capitulated, 
and  the  victory  obtained  by  the  French  squadron  was  subsequently  fol- 
lowed by  a  treaty  the  conditions  of  which  were  dictated  by  France. 

Louis  Philippe  was  at  this  time  at  the  height  of  his  greatness.  He 
celebrated  at  Fontainebleau  the  marriage  fetes  of  his  eldest  son,  the 
Duke  d' Orleans,  who  espoused  Princess  Helen  of  Mecklenburg  Schwerin, 
the  rare  qualities  of  whose  mind  and  heart  rendered  her  worthy  of  the 
throne.  The  same  year  witnessed  the  splendid  inauguration  of  the  historical 
galleries  of  Versailles,  the  "happy  realization  of  a  truly  royal  idea,  and  a 
work  of  conciliation  and  justice  by  which  Louis  Philippe  presented  for 
the  homage  of  posterity  all  the  glories  of  the  country.  Fortune  con- 
tinued to  smile  upon  him  ;  a  grandson  was  born  to  him,  and  no  mourn- 
ing had  yet  fallen  upon  his  brilliant  family ;  no  sombre  cloud,  in  spite 
of  the  existence  in  the  country  of  so  much  implacable  hatred,  hung 
between  the  King  and  his  people.  At  the  first  signal  Paris  arose  in 
arms,  its  magnificent  legions  pressed  around  the  Monarch,  and  his  reviews 
were  fetes.  Insurrectionary  mobs  were  no  longer  heard  of;  the  assas- 
sins even  seemed  to  be  vanquished  or  tired  out.  Astonished  at  so  rare 
and  constant  a  happiness,  Europe,-  which  had  long  been  distrustful 
and  hostile,  began  to  believe  that  it  saw  in  Louis  Philippe  the  man  of 
Providence  or  destiny.  Europe,  no  less  than  the  irritated  and  discouraged 
adverse  parties  in  the  kingdom  itself,  seemed  to  think  that  political 
disturbances  were  adjourned  to  the  close  of  the  King's  life,  and  that 
the  safety  of  France  and  the  peace  of  the  world  depended  on  its  pro- 
longation. 

When  we  glance  in  thought  at  the  rapid  and  complete  ruin  which 
followed  so  much  prosperity  and  greatness,  we  tremble,  and  ask  with 
affright  why  there  was  so  terrible  a  fall  from  so  astonishing  an 
elevation. 


568  COALITION  AGAINST   M.    MOLE.        [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  V. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   COALITION MINISTRY    OF    THE    THIRD    PARTY SECOND    MINISTRY    OF 

M.    THIERS. 

1839—1840. 
There  was,  in  a  parliamentary  point  of  view,  as  we  have  already 
acknowledged,  something  abnormal  in  the  position  of  M.  Mole  and  his 
Cabinet  after  his  rupture  with  the  doctrinaires.  The  most  eminent 
Deputies  of  the  Conservative  party  found  themselves  deprived  of  any 
share  of  power  unless  the  general  policy  should  be  greatly  modified; 
n   ,.:.     '        ,    and  it  was,  therefore,  on  the  members  of  the  two  Centres, 

Coalition  formed  '  ' 

against  M.  Mote.  wj10  were  more  particularly  under  the  influence  of  MM. 
Guizot  and  Thiers,  that  the  President  of  the  Council  found  himself  forced 
to  rely.  But  the  motive  spirit  of  the  Government  no  longer  came  from 
them,  and  appeared,  too  openly,  to  emanate  beyond  the  walls  of  the 
Chambers  from  the  Royal  will,  which  was  obeyed  by  the  officers  of  the 
Crown  and  the  crowd  of  functionaries  who  sat  on  the  Conservative 
benches.  The  leaders  of  the  old  majority,  although  far  from  satisfied 
with  the  secondary  position  in  which  they  were  placed,  appeared  at  first 
to  be  resigned  to  it,  and  the  Ministry  held  power  so  long  as  they 
afforded  it  their  support. 

They  became  weary,  at  length,  of  this  state  of  affairs,  and  being  too 
weak  to  govern  by  themselves,  formed  a  league  against  the  Cabinet  with 
the  Third  Party  and  their  old  adversaries  of  the  dynastic  Left.  It  was 
difficult  to  find  a  common  cry  for  men  of  such  different  opinions ;  but  at 
length  they  adopted  as  a  general  device  a  principle  which,  in  France 
especially,  cannot  be  accepted  save  with  numerous  restrictions,  and 
which  they  formularized  in  these  words,  "  The  King  reigns  but  does  not 
govern."  Thus  was  formed,  of  factions  astonished  at  finding  themselves 
united,  a  too  famous  coalition,  which  was  as  natural  and  as  easy  to  com- 
prehend as  to  justify,  on  the  part  of  the  various  portions  of  the  Left,  but 
which  was  less  so  with  respect  to  the  Right  Centre  and  the  doctrinaire 


1839-1840.]  DEBATES    Itf   THE    CHAMBERS.  569 

Deputies,  hitherto  so  monarchical  and  so  docile  themselves  to  the  pressure 
of  the  Royal  hand  which  weighed  on  the  Cabinet. 

The  struggle  openly  commenced  in  the  journals  in  the  interest  of  the 
now  united  parties.  M.  Duvergier  de  Hauranne,  a  zealous  spokesman  of 
the  doctrinaire  party,  accused  the  administration  of  M.  Mole  in  the 
Revue  Franqaise  of  incapacity  and  weakness ;  whilst  the  Conservative 
journals,  with  the  exception  of  the  Presse  and  the  Debats)  rivalled  the 
violence,  in  this  intestine  war,  of  the  papers  most  hostile  to  the 
monarchy.  All  imputed  it  as  a  crime  to  the  Government  that  it  had 
abandoned  the  foreign  policy  of  1830,  and  sacrificed  to  the  preservation 
of  peace  the  interests  and  dignity  of  France  in  Italy,  Switzerland,  and 
Belgium  ;  whilst  both  the  one  set  of  journals  and  the  other  denounced, 
although  in  very  different  terms,  the  encroachments  of  the  Crown  in  the 
conduct  of  affairs.*  The  Cabinet,  said  the  latter,  was  too  feeble  or  too 
servile  to  resist  these  encroachments;  whilst  the  former  declared  that 
its  inefficiency  rendered  this  violation  of  constitutional  forms  too 
apparent.  The  King,  according  to  them,  was  not  sufficiently  covered  by 
his  Cabinet,  and  yet  they  themselves  showed  him  holding  the  reins  of 
power  behind  his  Ministers ;  they  declared  him  irresponsible,  and  yet 
dragged  him  into  the  arena  of  furious  party  warfare. 

From  the   very  commencement  of  the  Session  the  virulent  attacks  of 
the    press   were   reproduced   in   the    debates   in   the    two 
Chambers  on  the   discussion  of  the  address  to  the  King,    Session,  1838- 
and  were  almost  entirely  concentrated  on  these  two   chief 
points :  the  inefficiency  or  cowardice  of  the  Cabinet  in  its  relations  with 
the  Crown,  its  bad  management  of  foreign  affairs,  its  forgetfulness   of 
French   interests  and  of  the  Liberal  cause  in  Italy,  where 
Ancona  had  been  evacuated  without  any  guarantee,  and  in    2k£e!w0nthe 
Belgium,  which  had  been  compelled  to  sacrifice  two  pro- 
vinces ;  and  finally,  the  abuse  of  the  name  of   France  in   Switzerland, 
where  the   Government  had  offended  the  Diet  by  forcing  upon  it  the  ex- 
pulsion of  Prince  Napoleon  in  most  imperious  and  insulting  terms. f     M. 

*  The  sacrifice  of  a  portion  of  Luxemburg  and  Limburg  had  been  im- 
posed upon  Belgium  by  the  Conference  of  London,  by  the  Treaty  of  the  Twenty, 
four  Articles.  It  did  not,  however,  become  obligatory  until,  in  1838,  the  King  of 
Holland  had  subscribed  to  this  treaty,  which  had  been  previously  accepted  by  Belgium. 

+  Prince  Louis  Napoleon,  after  having  gone  to  America  at  the  termination  of  his 
rash  enterprise  at  Strasburg,  had  returned  to  live  in  Switzerland  where  he  had  been 


570  ^r.   gttizot  osjromrCBfl  ~sl.  :mole.      [Booe  V.  Chap.  V 

Mole  had  to  reply  on  all  these  points  in  the  Chamber  of  Peers,  where  his 
policy  encountered,  amongst  other  opponents,  MM.  de  Broglie,*  de  Monta- 
lernbert,  Yillemain,  and  Cousin :  the  latter  adding  to  the  number  of  his 
charges  against  the  Cabinet,  the  dangerous  concessions  it  had  made  to  the 
clergy,  whose  unreasonable  pretensions,  he  said,  it  encouraged  by  its 
weakness. 

The  struggle  was  most  violent  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  which 
appointed  to  draw  up  the  address  to  the  King  a  committee  chiefly  con- 
sisting of  members  of  the  lately  united  parties.  The  latter  drew  up  the 
address  in  terms  very  hostile  to  the  Ministry,  whose  responsibility  it 
declared  not  to  be  sufficiently  genuine,  and  its  language  was  somewhat 
insulting  to  the  King  himself,  whom  it  invited,  in  an  indirect  manner  and 
Stonnv  debate  "^ith  a  show  of  respect,  to  confine  himself,  with  the  other 
CabSe^andthe  P°^ers  of  the  State,  within  constitutional  limits.  Xo  orator 
was  more  zealous  in  supporting  all  the  points  of  this  address 
than  the  illustrious  leader  of  the  doctrinaires,  who  was  the  first  to 
ascend  the  tribune  for  the  purpose  of  denouncing  the  administration  of 
M.  Mole  as  essentially  fatal  to  the  country  and  the  throne.  u  With  you 
at  the  head  of  affairs,"  said  M.  Guizot,  "there  is  anarchy  everywhere; 
it  is  by  you  that  it  has  been  introduced  into  the  Chamber,  and  through 
your  acts  that  it  has  grown  to  such  dimensions.  .  .  .  The  proper  condition 
of  representative  governments  is,  that  the  country  and  the  Government 
should  be  in  harmony  with  each  other,  and  have  the  same  objects 
in  view  ;  but  through  the  manner  in  which  aifairs  have  been  managed, 
the  Government  and  the  country  together  have  fallen  lower  d 
bv  day.  and  this  is  an  immense  evil,  a  frightful  danger.  .  .  .  There 
are  times  when  public  opinion  appears  to  slumber:  but  it  ever  awakes 
sooner  or  later,  and  sometimes  it  awakes  powerful  and  menacing."  The 
orator  concluded  bv  applving  to  M.  Mole  and  some  of  his  colleagues  this 
sentence  from  Tacitus,  "  The  courtiers  do  anything  that  is  servile  for  the 
sake  of  attaining  power"  (omnia  serviliter  faciunt pra  dominatione).  M. 
Mole  replied :  "  It  was  not  to  the  courtiers,  but  to  the  men  of  ambition 

legally  made  a  citizen  of  the  country.  This  circumstance  rendered  the  demand  of  the 
French  Government  that  he  should  be  expelled  all  the  more  insulting  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Diet. 

*  The  speech  of  M.  de  Broglie  was  remarkable  for  its  moderation  ;  and  his  blame 
of  the  Government  was  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  subject  of  the  evacuation  of 
Aneona. 


1839-1840.J  M.    MOLE    EEPLIES    TO    M.    GETZOT.  571 

that  Tacitus  applied  these  words.  You  have  been  told,  gentlemen,  that 
the  Cabinet,  its  existence  and  its  conduct,  are  regarded  as  fatal.  TTe  have 
been  accused  of  rendering  representative  government  a  sham,  and  of 
establishing  anarchy  within  the  Chamber.  .  .  .  But  after  a  revolution  in 
which  the  whole  society  has  been  shaken,  there  is  a  period  when  re- 
sistance is  the  truest  policy,  and  a  period  also  when  conflicting  parties, 
being  thoroughly  wearied,  are  glad  of  a  pretext  for  disarming.  It  is  for 
you  to  say  whether,  in  granting  the  amnesty,  we  have  recognised  this 
growing  spirit.  ...  As  for  me,  I  attribute  to  the  orator  who  has  just 
preceded  me  all  the  evils  which  he  details.  .  .  .  Yes!  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  attribute  to  you.  to  you  who  accuse  me,  all  the  catalogue  of  ills  which 
is  contained  in  the  draft  of  the  address,  and  of  which  it  will  always 
remain  an  irremovable  portion.  How  is  it  possible  that  anarchy  should 
not  enter  this  very  Chamber  when  men  such  as  you  are  seen  holding  out 
the  hand  to  their  eternal  adversaries.  .  .  .  when  they  are  seen  marshal- 
ling their  flags  side  by  side,  leaguing  together,  and  with  one  voice 
crying  out  to  the  country  that  all  the  prosperity  which  it  enjoys  is  in 
danger  ?  And  what  are  you  doing,  then  ?  What  efforts  are  you  making 
to  preserve  it  ?  You  only  wish  to  destroy,  and  you  do  not  see  that  you 
are  commencing  the  operation  on  yourselves!" 

The  most  prominent  men  of  the  Coalition.  MM.  Thiers,  Odillon  Barrot, 
Dufaure,  Passy,  and  some  others  ascended  the  tribune  for  the  purpose  of 
attacking    the   Cabinet.     M.   Duvergier   de  Hauranne    drew  a  frightful 

CO  o 

picture  of  electoral  corruption ;  M.  G-arnier  Pages  in  his  turn  ap- 
plauded in  the  name  of  the  Eadical  party  the  draft  of  the  address,  the 
accusations  in  which,  he  said,  were  facsimiles  of  those  which  had  been 
brought  by  the  Left  against  its  authors  when  they  were  in  power. 

The  Ministry  had  an  eloquent  and  warm  defender  in  M.  de  Lamartine, 
who  denounced  as  unconstitutional  the  draft  of  the  address  drawn  up  by 
the  Coalition,  which  had  outstepped  all  legal  limits.  "  The  charter," 
said  the  orator,  "  has  established  three  powers,  but  to  follow  the  system 
indicated  by  the  address,  one  of  these  powers,  that  of  royalty,  would  be 
destroyed — would  become  an  inert,  crowned  abstraction.  .  .  .  The  King 
would  no  longer  be  anything  but  a  wooden  idol,  and  the  Ministers  would 
batten  on  the  holocausts  immolated  before  him.  .  .  .-  The  preceding 
Cabinets  fell,"  added  the  orator,  "  because  the  majority  withdrew  from 
them  to  rally  on  the  side  of  conciliatory  measures.  ...  It  is  now  said 


5^2  STRUGGLE    IN    THE    CHAMBERS.         [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  V. 

that  this  majority  totters.  .  .  .  Yes,  I  admit  that  it  totters,  since  so  many- 
eminent  men  have  withdrawn  their  support  from  the  Government ;  but  I 
ask  them  themselves,  should  they  triumph  by  the  aid  of  the  heterogenous 
elements  which  compose  the  Coalition,  what  they  will  do  ?  They  will 
create  a  chaos,  and  rule  it  with  a  whirlwind."  Two  orators,  MM. 
Berryer  and  Bechard,  were  the  ,  interpreters  at  the  tribune  of  the 
Legitimist  party.  The  first  supported  the  address  with  all  the  eclat  of 
his  brilliant  eloquence.  The  second  saw  in  the  attacks  of  the  Coalition 
the  best  proof  of  the  incapability  of  the  Government  of  July  to  fulfil 
its  promises.  He  showed  it  to  be  feeble  and  precarious,  evading  or 
adjourning  by  necessity  every  plan  of  reform,  every  genuinely  liberal 
measure,  compelled  to  rest  for  support  upon  an  odious  electoral  and 
administrative  monopoly,  the  true  sources  of  that  anarchical  corruption 
which  invaded  the  electoral  colleges,  the  various  branches  of  the  admi- 
nistration, and  even  the  army ;  and  which  threatened  at  once  the  liberty, 
the  power,  and  the  dignity  of  the  country. 

M.  Mole  displayed  in  this  memorable    struggle   the    most   admirable 
qualities.     Deriving   strength    from    his    consciousness  of  being  in  the 
right,  and  from  a  too  legitimate  resentment,  and  indefatigable  in  replying 
to   every  attack,  he  rose  fully  up  to  the  level  of  those    who  called  him 
weak  and  incapable.     Ascending  the  tribune  for  a  last  time  and  address- 
ing his  adversaries,  he  said :   "  According  to  you,  we  are  not  capable  of 
governing ;  but  are  you  who  accuse  us  any  more  capable  ?     If  so,  come 
up  here  ;   come  and  tell  us  at  this  tribune  what  is  the  future  which  you 
are  prepared  to  bestow  upon  us.     When  I  see  bound  up   in  a  Coalition 
so  many  men  of  such  various  opinions,  when  I  see  those  who  have  fought 
so  vehemently  against  each  other  uniting  for  the  purpose  of  overthrow- 
ing the  Ministry,  I  demand  of  them  that  they  should  frankly  tell  us  what 
they  wish,  what  is  the  system  which  they  are  bent  on  introducing.     To 
affirm,  as  they  do,  that  the  Ministry  does  not  suffice  to  cover  the  Crown, 
is  to  say  that  the  Crown  shares  its  responsibility.  .  .  .  Such  insinuations 
are  fatal,  and  these  debates  are  disastrous  for  you  who  have  provoked 
them ;  it  is  you  who  have  introduced  in  your  address  the  question  of  the 
responsibility  of  the  Crown,  and  France  has  understood  you." 

M.  Mole,  with  the  assistance  of  MM.  de  Salvandy,  Marthe,  and  Monta- 
livet,    the   Ministers    of  Public    Instruction,    Justice,   and  the  Interior, 


1839-1840.]  GENERAL   ELECTIONS.  573 

succeeded  in  procuring  some  modification  of  the  hostile  paragraphs  of  the 
address  drawn  up  by  the  committee,  but  he  could  only  obtain  a  majority 
of  eight  votes  in  favour  of  the  modification;  and  as  this  majority  did  not 
appear  to  him  sufficiently  strong  to  enable  him  to  carry  on  the  govern- 
ment, he  procured  from  the  King  the  dissolution  of  the  D. 
Chambers,  and  appealed  to  the  country  by  means  of  a  the  Chamljer3 
general  election. 

The  electoral  struggle  now  descended  from  the  high  ground  of  the 
general  interests  to  angry  and  personal  debates  between  the 
members  of  the  old  Conservative  party.  The  Coalition  tl0ns>  1839- 
formed  as  many  managing  committees  as  there  were  political  parties 
within  it,  and  these  committees  were  agreed  to  give  the  preference  to  the 
candidates  of  the  most  extreme  Opposition  over  those  of  the  Ministry. 
There  now  appeared  to  a  greater  extent  than  generally  appears  in  these 
crises  a  deplorable  unloosing  of  egoistical  passions ;  and  in  this 
sad  conflict  of  vulgar  interests,  a  serious  and  indignant  voice — that  of 
Royer-Collard — was  heard  for  the  last  time  : — "  The  spirit  of  agitation," 
he  said  to  his  college  of  electors,  "  after  having  been  driven  from  the 
streets,  has  found  refuge  and  is  entrenched  in  the  heart  of  the  State. 
There,  as  in  a  place  of  safety,  it  debases  and  paralyses  the  Government. 
.  .  .  The  institutions  of  the  country,  wearied  out  and  betrayed  by  the 
ideas  of  the  age,  are  ill  prepared  to  resist  such  attacks.  Impoverished 
society  is  no  longer  defended   by  strong  fortresses  or  positions   reputed 

impregnable See  how  our  faith  is  decried  in  the  face  of  Europe. 

....  See  how  the  throne  of  July  is  attacked — I  should  be  sorry  to  say 
shaken ;  that  throne  which  my  hands  have  not  raised,  but  which  is  to-day, 
I  am  convinced,  our  only  safeguard  against  the  most  shameful  enter- 
prises." The  Cabinet,  driven  to  bay,  made  a  supreme  effort,  em- 
ployed without  stint  against  its  adversaries  all  the  dangerous  weapons 
which  centralization  placed  in  its  hands,  and  made  use  of  its  whole 
administrative  strength  to  influence  the  elections.  But  it  was  no  longer 
in  a  position  in  which  it  was  capable  of  controlling  them.  The  Govern- 
ment officials,  intimidated,  and  irresolute  between  the  danger  of  disobey- 
ing the  Ministers  of  the  day  and  those  who  might  be  the  Ministers  of 
the  morrow,  were  too  doubtful  as  to  the  position  of  the  first  to  be  induced 
to  give  them  a  hearty  support ;    and  the  Cabinet,  already  weak,  came  out 


574  EESTJLTS    OE    THE    COALITION.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  V. 

of  the   struggle  much  enfeebled.     The   consequence  was,  therefore,  that 
M.  Mole  was  vanquished  by  numbers,  although  the  public 

Resignation  of  ..  n  t  •         -i  •  -i        -i  i  •       i         tt 

the  Mole  Minis-     opinion  or  his  talents  was  considerably  raised.     He  sent  in 

try,  March,  1839.        7  .  .  . 

his  resignation,  and  it  was  accepted. 
To  enable  the  reader  to  understand  the  decay  and  fall  of  the  Government 
of  July,  I  have  been  compelled  to  extend  beyond  the  limits  suitable  to  a 
work  such  as  this  the  history  of  the  Coalition  which  was  in  many  respects 

so  fatal  to  it.     The   accusations  brought  by  it   against   the 

Remarks  on  the     _         .  r>  i      • 

Coalition  and  its   Ministry  of  M.  Mole  were  not  entirely  without  foundation, 

results.  m  i 

and  the  Cabinet  could  not  have  complained  if  it  had  not 
found  its  recent  allies,  its  old  colleagues,  who  had  themselves  incurred 
similar  reproaches,  uniting  with  their  natural  enemies  to  destroy  them. 
The  Coalition  did  not  succeed  in  rallying  the  majority  to  its  side  after  its 
victory ;  and  was  so  far  from  establishing  its  policy  on  a  firm  basis  and 
advancing  along  a  broad  path  towards  a  certain  end,  that  it  only  suc- 
ceeded in  throwing  everything  into  confusion  and  thrusting  the  Govern- 
ment into  that  abyss  of  anarchy  from  which  it  had  pretended  to  release 
it.  In  a  moral  point  of  view  it  had  also  consequences  equally  deplorable, 
for  it  shook  to  the  centre  all  respect  for  the  constitutional  and  represen- 
tative system,  and  led  the  electoral  body  into  forgetting  more  and  more 
the  great  interests  of  the  country,  and  regarding  the  right  to  elect  and 
be  elected  as  mere  privileges  to  be  used  for  their  own  advantage.  The 
public  refused  to  believe  in  the  really  perilous  nature  of  a  political  posi- 
tion relatively  calm  and  prosperous ;  for  it  was  not  sufficiently  initiated 
in  certain  parliamentary  theories  which  have  been  too  generally  considered 
as  consecrated  by  constant  occurrence  in  the  history  of  a  neighbouring 
country.  It  did  not  understand  what  different  and  better  policy  the 
doctrinaires  would  be  able  to  substitute  for  that  of  the  Cabinet  which 
they  overthrew,  and  it  understood  it  still  less  when  it  saw  them  subse- 
quently attempting  the  work.  The  confidence  of  honest  men  was  thus 
shaken,  and  the  feeling  of  doubt  which  already  began  to  spread  abroad 
with  respect  to  the  disinterested  patriotism  of  parties  and  their  leaders 
in  parliamentary  struggles,  took  more  and  more  a  fatal  possession  of  men's 
minds. 

The  weakness  of  the  three  principal  leaders  of  the  Coalition,  after  a 
doubtful  victory,  showed  the  rashness  of  their  enterprise.  Incapable  of 
uniting  for  the  purpose  of  governing,  they  were  severally  powerless  to 


1839-1840.]  MINISTEY    OF    MAESHAL    SOTJLT.  575 

govern  alone.  By  none  of  the  numerous  combinations  attempted  by  the 
King  could  MM.  Guizot,  Thiers,  and  Odillon  Barrot  be  so  associated  as 
to  give  to  each  that  share  of  influence  or  authority  which  he  had  a  right 
to  claim.  They  all  failed,  one  after  the  other,  and  as  it  was  found 
absolutely  impossible  to  form  at  this  juncture  a  durable  administration, 
recourse  was  had  to  an  intermediate  or  transition  Cabinet,  which  died 
only  a  few  weeks  after  its  creation,  without  leaving  any  trace. 

In  proportion  as  the  friends  of  the  constitutional  Monarchy  became 
discouraged,  the  hopes  of  the  demagogues  became  raised  ; 
and  from  all  this  chaos  there  resulted,  on  the  12th  May,  a  insurrection, 
furious  emeute,  which  was  set  on  foot  by  the  members  of  the 
secret  society  of  the  Seasons.*  The  latter,  which  was  very  skilfully 
organized,  had  succeeded  that  of  the  Families,  which  was  itself  the  suc- 
cessor of  the  Society  of  the  Eights  of  Man,  and  was  formed  with  the 
object  of  promoting  the  pure  communism  of  Gracchus  Baboeuf — that  is, 
the  equal  division  of  property  and  the  abolition  of  all  laws  which 
guaranteed  its  possession.  The  King  and  his  children  were  the  first 
victims  devoted  to  death  by  its  incendiary  publications.  The  principal 
leaders  of  the  Society  of  the  Seasons  were  Blanqui,  Barbes,  and  Martin 
Bernard  ;  and  these  men,  forced  to  act  with  rash  premeditation  by  those 
whose  hopes  they  had  cherished,  ordered  a  general  rising  for  the 
12th  May,  1839.  The  insurgents  hoisted  the  red  flag,  thronged  the  city 
on  the  two  banks  of  the  Seine,  and  surprised  the  Hotel  de  Ville  and 
several  other  important  positions.  The  National  Guards  and  the  regu- 
lar troops,  however,  repressed  the  outbreak,  and  order  was  speedily 
reestablished. 

This  audacious  attempt  hastened  the  conclusion  of  the  Ministerial 
crisis :  and  on  the  very  day  on  which  the  insurrection  burst   ,„..., 

'  J         J  Ministry  of  the 

forth,  a  Ministry  consisting  of  members  of  the  two  Centres   ™re^irt.yh 
was  formed  under  the  presidency  of  Marshal  Soult.      The    Soult'  May> 1839* 
dynastic  Left  remained  excluded  from  any  share  in  the  Government ;  but 
the  doctrinaires  were  represented  in  the  new  Cabinet  by  MM.  Duchatel 
and  Cunin-Gridaine,  who  were  respectively  Ministers  of  the  Interior  and 

*  In  this  society,  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  secrecy  the  more  secure,  seven 
members  formed  a  so-called  week,  four  weeks  a  superior  group  called  a  month,  three 
months  formed  a  season,  and  four  seasons  a  year,  consisting  of  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  members,  under  the  orders  of  a  revolutionary  agent.  The  men  composing  a  week 
only  knew  their  immediate  chief,  who  was  called  Sunday. 


576  RENEWED    DIFEICTTLTIES.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  V. 

of  Commerce,  and  the  Third  Party  by  M.  Hyppolite  Passy,  whom  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  had  recently  elected  as  its  president,  and  MM. 
Teste  and  Dufaure.*  The  principal  leaders  of  the  Coalition  had,  there- 
fore, no  share  in  the  new  Ministry ;  and  the  Elective  Chamber  made  M. 
Sauzet  its  president  in  the  room  of  M.  Passy. 

The  new  Cabinet  lasted  but  nine  months,  and  its  short  career  was 
marked  by  few  incidents ;  the  principal  one  being  the  trial  of  the  insur- 
gents of  the  12th  May  before  the  Court  of  Peers.  Sentence  of  death  was 
passed  on  Barbes  and  Blanqui ;  but  the  King  commuted  this  punishment, 
against  the  advice  of  his  Ministers,  into  that  of  solitary  confinement. 

Some  useful  laws  were  passed  under  the  auspices  of  this  Ministry  for 
_    ,  v;.  the  better  organization  of  the  staff  of  the  army,  the  im- 

Legislative  en-  °  J  ' 

actments,  1839.  provement  of  the  ports,  and  the  increase  of  the  strength  of 
the  navy.  The  interesting  establishment  of  Mettray  for  young  criminals 
was  also  established  by  this  Government ;  and  during  its  possession  of 
office  the  Chambers  discussed  important  laws  relating  to  literary  property, 
railways,  and  parliamentary  reform,  which  were  incessantly  adjourned 
and  became  every  day  more  desirable. 

To  turn  to  foreign  affairs,  the  Government  made  peace  with  Mexico, 
from  which  country  it  obtained  a  war  indemnity,  and  hostilities  continued 
in  La  Plata  without  any  decisive  result.  In  Africa  Marshal  Valee  made 
a  reconnaissance,  with  the  Duke  d'Orleans,  of  the  celebrated  wall  or 
chain  of  rocks  called  the  Gates  of  Fire,  between  Algiers  and  Constantine, 
and  in  spite  of  the  devastating  incursions  of  Abd-el-Kader  in  the  plain  of 
the  Metidja,  French  dominion  in  Algeria  made  peaceful  progress. 

The  Cabinet  appeared  to  have  gained  the  support  of  a  strong  majority 
„     ,        when  it  struck  against  an  unforeseen  rock  on  the  occasion 

Law  of  endow-  ° 

Duke  de  the      $  ^e  marriage  of  the  Duke  de  Nemours.     A  draft  of  a  law 
Nemours.  wag  presented  to  the  Deputies  the  object  of  which  was  to 

settle  on  the  prince  an  annual  income  of  five  hundred  thousand  francs, 
and  to  secure  to  his  wife,  in  case  she  should  survive  him,  an  annuity  of 
three  hundred  thousand  francs.  This  proposal  aroused  in  the  press  a 
furious  outburst  of  odious  insinuations  directed  even  against  the  person 

*  Marshal  Soult  was  President  of  the  Council  and  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  M. 
Passy  was  Minister  of  Finance,  M.  Teste  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  and  M.  Dufaure  Minister 
of  Public  Works  ;  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet  being  General  Schneider,  Admiral 
Duperre',  and  M.  Villemain,  who  were  respectively  Ministers  of  War,  Naval  Affairs,  and 
Public  Instruction. 


1839-1840.]  THIEES'    SECOND    MINISTRY.  577 

of  the  monarch ;  and  on  such  questions  a  deplorable  credulity  always 
comes  to  the  aid  of  malevolence.  The  proposed  law  was  perfectly  consis- 
tent with  the  conditions  of  the  charter  ;  nevertheless  it  would  have 
been  wise  to  have  abstained  from  presenting  it.  The  Opposition,  whilst 
rejecting  the  project,  refused  to  discuss  it ;  and  the  Ministry  which  had 
presented  it  committed  the  fault  of  not  supporting  it  at  the 

mi  -t  •  rm  •  Fall  of  the  Minis- 

tnbune.     The  law  was  silently  rejected.     This  defeat  led  to    try  of  the  Third 

,  .    .  .  Party,  Feb.,1840. 

the  fall  of  the  Cabinet,  and  all  the  Ministers  gave  in  their 
resignation  (Feb.  1840). 

The  moment  appeared  to  have  come  for  the  formation  of  a  new  admi- 
nistration under  M.  Thiers.  The  principal  reason  which  had  kept  him 
aloof  from  the  preceding  Ministerial  combinations  no  longer  existed.  The 
assistance  of  a  French  army  was  no  longer  required  to  support  the 
constitutional  cause  in  Spain.     The  pretender  Don  Carlos     ^  ,   „  , 

x  x  *     End  of  the  civil 

having  been  expelled  from  that  country  by  the  Queen's  warm  Spain,  and 
armies,  had  taken  refuge  in  France,  where  the  Government  Carlos> 1839- 
kept  him  confined  in  Bourges.  M.  Thiers,  faithful  to  his  convictions, 
had  hitherto  made  the  intervention  of  a  French  army  in  Spain  the 
condition  of  his  resumption  of  office.  As  this  eventuality  appeared 
indefinitely  adjourned,  there  was  no  longer  any  serious  cause  of  disagree- 
ment between  the  King  and  M.  Thiers,  who  accepted  the  portfolio  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  and  was  entrusted  with  the  formation  of  a  new  Ministry. 
He  selected  all  his  colleagues  from  the  Left  Centre.     The 

IST.    TliiGrs* 

portfolios  of  Justice  and  Worship  were  given  to  M.  Vivien,    second  Ministry. 

i  n     t        t  a«-      i      -r.  o  -n.  ,»-      March  1,  1840. 

that  oi  the  Interior  to  M.  de  Kemusat,  of  finance  to  M. 
Pelet  (of  La  Lozere),  and  of  Public  Instruction  to  M.  Cousin.  General 
Despans-Cubieres  was  made  Minister  of  War,  and  Admiral  Duperre 
retained  the  portfolio  of  Naval  Affairs  and  the  Colonies.  M.  Guizot,  who 
had  lately  become  the  French  ambassador  in  London,  promised  the 
Cabinet  the  support  of  himself  and  his  friends,  on  condition  that  M. 
Thiers  would  resign  any  idea  of  electoral  reform  or  of  the  dissolution  of 
the  Chamber.  The  natural  tendencies  of  the  new  Ministers  led  them 
towards  the  Left,  whilst  the  most  imperious  necessity  forced  them  to  be 
leagued  with  the  Right,  and  the  result  was  that  the  Cabinet  was  driven 
into  a  state  of  utter  inertness. 

Amongst  the  useful  laws  which  it  presented  to  the  Chambers  may  be 
mentioned  the  one  for  regulating  and  diminishing  the  number  of  the 

VOL.  II.  p   p 

. 


578  ESPARTEBO    REGENT   OP    SPAIK.       [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  V. 

hours  of  labour  of  children  in  manufactories,  which  was  passed  in  the  fol- 
lowing year.  A  fresh  project  for  the  conversion  of  the  Five  per  Cents 
was  accepted  by  the  Deputies,  but  rejected  by  the  Peers.  In  the  same 
session  M.  Thiers  presented  a  law  the  object  of  which  was  the  transfer 
_ '■  .       from  St.  Helena  to  France  of  Napoleon's  remains.     The 

Law  for  transfer-  ■*- 

ofN^oieoTto18  Chambers  received  this  proposal  with  enthusiasm,  which 
France,  1840.  wag  doubtless  gratifying  to  the  national  pride,  but  which 
was  more  generous  than  prudent  on  the  part  of  the  new  Sovereign,  and 
the  dangers  of  which  were  eloquently  and  prophetically  pointed  out  by 
M.  Lamartine.* 

The  English  Government  did  not  offer  any  obstacle  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  this  great  national  act,  the  execution  of  which  the  King  entrusted 
to  one  of  his  sons,  the  Prince  de  Joinville,  who  worthily  fulfilled  his 
mission.  The  remains  of  the  Emperor,  which  were  brought  to  Paris  in 
December,  1840,  in  the  midst  of  an  immense  concourse  of  people,  were 
deposited  with  great  pomp  at  the  Hotel  des  Invalides.  Three  months  after 
the  passing  of  this  law  Prince  Louis  Napoleon  made  a  fresh  attempt  to 
gain  possession  of  the  throne,  which  he  considered  to  be  his  by  inheri- 
tance.    The  town  of  Boulogne-sur-Mer  was  the  theatre  of 

Expedition  of  ..  i  •   i  t  -it 

Louis  Napoleon  this  expedition,  which  was  even  more  adventurous  than  that 
Bouiogne-sur-       which  failed  at  Strasburg,  and  was  equally  unsuccessful. 

Mer.    His  trial 

and  captivity,       The  prince,  now  once  more  a  prisoner,  was  on  this  occasion 
tried  by  the  Court  of  Peers,  condemned  to  perpetual  im- 
prisonment, and  shut  up  in  the  fortress  of  Ham,  where  he  awaited  with 
imperturbable  confidence  the  fulfilment  of  his  prodigious  destinies. 

Very  serious  events  had  taken  place  in  the  course  of  this  year  in  Spain, 
where  the  authority  of  the  Queen-Kegent,  Maria  Christina,  was  overthrown 
Events  in  Spain  by  the  Progressionist  party.  The  Queen-Kegent  was  forced 
Eege^tf  Ma°riibe  to  abdicate,  and  fled  to  France,  whilst  a  new  Government 
vernment  of  Es-  was  established  in  Madrid,  under  the  presidency  of  General 
par  ero,       .        Espartero,  Duke  of  Vittoria,  who  was  soon  afterwards  him- 

*  "  Our  Ministers,"  said  the  orator,  "  assure  us  that  the  throne  of  our  new  constitu- 
tional monarchy  has  nothing  to  fear  from  the  presence  of  such  a  tomb,  from  this  impulse 
given  by  themselves  to  the  feelings  of  the  masses,  from  these  orations,  these  processions, 
and  from  these  posthumous  crownings  of  what  they  call  a  legitimacy.  .  .  .  But,  for  my 
part,  I  am  not  without  anxiety,  for  I  fear  that  all  this  will  make  the  people  too  inclined  to 
say,  ''  Behold,  there  is  nothing  popular  but  glory,  there  is  no  morality  but  in  success. 
Only  win  battles,  and  you  may  make  a  plaything  of  the  institutions  of  the  country.'  * 


1839-1840.]  MEHEMET    ALI    AND    THE    SULTAN.  579 

self  proclaimed  Regent  of  the  kingdom.  But  the  chief  question  which 
at  this  period  absorbed  the  attention  of  the  politicians,  not  only  of 
France  but  of  all  Europe,  was  that  of  the  East.  It  put  the  peace  of 
Europe  in  peril,  and  left  in  men's  minds  the  unhappy  traces  of  a  feeling 
of  irritation  against  England,  then  governed  by  the  Whigs,  and  where 
the  young  Queen  Victoria  had  lately  succeeded  her  uncle,  William  IV. 
Hostilities  had  again  broken  out  between  the  Sultan  and  his  powerful 
vassal,  Mehemet  Ali,  the  Pasha  of  Egypt.  Ibrahim,  Mehemet's  son, 
having  crossed  the  Euphrates,  gained  in  Syria  the  victory 
of  Nezib,  June,  1839.     The  Turkish  army  was  destroyed,    question  again, 

J  J       '     1839-1840. 

and  a  few  days  afterwards  the  whole  of  the  Sultan's  fleet, 
under  the  Capitan  Pacha,  surrendered  to  the  Egyptians,  and  was  carried 
into  the  port  of  Alexandria.  The  Sultan  now  had  neither  ships  nor 
troops,  and  his  whole  empire  appeared  to  be  on  the  eve  of  dissolution. 
Europe  was  disquieted  by  the  state  of  affairs,  the  effect  of  which  was  to 
place  the  Turkish  empire  at  the  discretion  of  Russia  ;  and,  at  the  earnest 
request  of  the  Prussian  and  Austrian  Governments,  French  diplomacy 
checked  Ibrahim's  victorious  march.  The  question  now  was  as  to  what 
share  of  the  Sultan's  spoils  the  Pasha  of  Egypt  should  be  allowed  to 
retain.*  England,  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria,  having  proposed  to 
France  that  she  should  enter  with  them  into  a  Convention  for  the  pur- 
pose of  depriving  Mehemet  of  Syria,  which  he  had  acquired  by  the  valour 
of  his  arms,  the  French  Government  refused,  on  the  ground  that,  as  she 
had  herself  stopped  the  advance  of  Ibrahim's  army  and  promised  its 
good  offices  to  Mehemet,  its  ally,  the  honour  and  interests  of  France  alike 
demanded  that  she  should  afford  the  Pasha  her  protection,  and  not  allow 
his  kingdom  to  be  curtailed.  The  four  powers  then  negotiated  without 
the  concurrence  of  France,  and  entered  into  a  treaty  with 

,.,,.      .      n  ,.  Treaty  concluded 

the  Sultan,  15th  July,  1840,  which  limited  Mehemet  Ah  to   between  the 

powers,  July  15, 

the  hereditary  possessions  of  Egypt,  deprived  him  of  a  portion   i840,to  the  exclu- 
of  Syria,  and  only  left  him  a  life  interest  in  the  remainder ; 
and  made  it  incumbent  on  the  Pasha  to  withdraw  his  troops  from  that 
country  within  a  certain  time,  under  pain  of  dethronement.     This  treaty, 
which  was  concluded  at  the  instigation  of  Lord  Palmerston,  the  Eng- 

*  Abdul-Medjid,  who  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  had  recently  succeeded  his  father,  the 
Sultan  Mahmoud.  One  of  his  first  acts  was  the  issue  of  a  decree  or  Hatti  Scherif, 
published  at  Gulhane',  which  gave  important  guarantees  with  respect  to  taxation,  the 
administration  of  justice,  &c. 

p  p  2 


580  FALL    OP    THE    THTEBS    MINISTRY.      [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  V. 

lish  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  left  France  in  the  state  of  isolation  in 

which   she  found   herself  in    1830 ;    and   she  was,  with    good   reason, 

seriously  offended.       The   French   Cabinet  protested,   added  threats  to 

complaints,    and  made   formidable   preparations   for   war, 

French  arma-  #  x      ± 

ments.  whilst,  pending  the  assembly  of  the  Chambers,  which  were 

prematurely  convoked  for  the  month  of  October,  royal  ordinances  created 
a  number  of  fresh  regiments,  and  decreed  that  Paris  should  be  fortified  by 
a  continuous  wall  and  a  series  of  detached  forts.* 

In  the  meantime,  the  period  fixed  for  the  evacuation  of  Syria  by 
Mehemet  having  elapsed  without  Ibrahim's  withdrawal,  an  English 
squadron  bombarded  the  city  of  Beyrout,  which  was  in  the  possession 
i  of  the  Egyptians,  and  the  dethronement  of  Mehemet  Ali  was  declared  by 
the  Sultan.  Upon  this  the  French  Government  immediately  declared 
that  any  attempt  to  deprive  the  Pasha  of  Egypt  would  be  regarded  by  it 
as  a  signal  for  war,  and  the  fleet  was  ordered  to  prepare  for  sailing. 
The  session  opened  in  the  midst  of  these  serious  events,  and  the  excite- 
ment caused  by  a  fresh  attempt  on  the  King's  life.j"  The  Cabinet  had 
inserted  in  the  speech  to  be  delivered  by  the  King  from  the  throne  some 
expressions  which  were  a  species  of  threat  or  defiance  to  Europe ;  but 
Louis  Philippe,  although  firmly  resolved  to  go  to  war  in  case  Mehemet 
should  be  attacked  in  Egypt,  thought  it  better  to  assume  a  less  provoking 
attitude   in    respect  to    the   other    powers.      He    refused 

Dismissal  of  the  i-i»-ii«     ■»*■•'• 

Thiers  Ministry,    to  use  the  language  suggested  to  him  by  his  Ministers,  and 

October,  1840.  *      n  .  . 

recalled  his  fleet,  which  was  already  sailing  for  Syria,  upon 
which  the  Cabinet  resigned. 

It  was  the  wisest  course,  whilst  effectually  protecting  Mehemet,  and 
making  every  war  preparation  for  the  purpose  of  defending  him,  not  to 
renounce  the  hope  of  an  honourable  peace.  Whatever  ground  the 
French  Government  might  have  to  complain  of  the  treaty  of  July,  which 
had  been  signed  without  its  participation,  and  which  deprived  the  Pasha 
of  Syria,  it  would  have  been  madness  for  France  to  have  plunged  herself, 
for  the  sake  of  preserving  it  to  him,  into  a  general  war,  in  which  she 
would  have  been  alone  against  all.     The  national  pride  of  England  had 


*  The  construction  of  these  forts  in  the  environs  of  Paris  had  been  long  proposed, 
but  had  hitherto  encountered  amongst  the  people  of  Paris  and  in  the  Chambers  the  most 
determined  opposition. 

+  The  King  was  not  touched.     The  assassin's  name  was  Darmes. 


1839-1840.]  FEW   MINISTET.  581 

been,  in  its  turn,  deeply  wounded  by  the  threatening  language  of  the 
President  of  the  Council  and  his  bellicose  demonstrations,  and  M.  Thiers 
would  have  found  it  difficult  to  retract  or  soften  his  too  irritating  speech. 
It  was  necessary,  however,  as  a  first  condition  of  the  maintenance  of 
peace,  in  order  that  France  should  lose  nothing  of  her  dignity,  that  a 
new  treaty  should  be  drawn  up,  in  which  she  should  be  associated  with 
the  other  powers.  This  was  the  opinion  of  M.  Guizot,  the  French 
ambassador  in  London,  and  he  was  naturally  entrusted  with  the  nego- 
tiation of  such  a  treaty.  The  King  accepted  the  resignation  of  M.  Thiers 
and  his  colleagues,  and  transferred  the  portfolio  of  Foreign  Affairs  to  M. 
Guizot,  whom  he  requested  to  compose,  in  concert  with  the  Duke  of 
Dalmatia,  a  new  Ministry.      Thus  was  formed  under  the 

•i  n  -»*-       i     t   n       i  t       n      i    t  *  t      />  Formation  of  the 

presidency  oi  Marshal  feoult,  who  had  the  portfolio  for  War,    Ministry  of  Oct. 
the   Cabinet  of  the    29th    October.*     M.   Guizot  was  its 
most  influential  member.     He  ultimately  became  its  President,  and  the 
chief  power  did  not  leave  his  hands  until  the  end  of  the  reign. 

*  The  other  members  of  the  Cabinet  were  M.  Martin,  who  was  Minister  of  Justice 
and  Worship  ;  the  Count  Duchatel,  Minister  of  the  Interior ;  M.  Humann,  Finance  ; 
M.  Villemain,  who  had  the  portfolio  of  Public  Instruction ;  Admiral  Duperre-  was  the 
Naval  Minister,  M.  Cunin-Gridaine  that  of  Agriculture  and  Commerce,  and  M.  Teste 
that  of  Public  Works. 


582  TREATY   ON    EASTERN    AFFAIRS.       [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VI. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

TEE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    29th    OCTOBER    TILL    THE    GENERAL    ELECTIONS 

OF    1846. 

October,  1840— July,  1846. 

Men  of  talent  and  of  great  personal  value  were  members  of  the  new 
Ministry,  the  last  of  the  reign ;  and  although  belonging  to  various 
political  groups,  they  nevertheless  worked  harmoniously  together,  because 
they  were  unanimous  in  supporting  a  peace  policy  abroad,  and  in  offering 
an  obstinate  resistance  to  all  plans  of  reform  at  home.  They  had  to  bear 
the  consequences  of  Parliamentary  intrigues,  and  the  negotiations  of  the 
previous  years,  as  well  as  the  burden  of  the  enormous  expediture  of  the 
late  Cabinet  when  it  was  preparing  for  war.  They  found  in  the  deeply 
prejudiced  public  opinion  but  little  respect  or  sympathy  for  authority,  a 
very  feeble  confidence  in  the  majority  on  which  they  rested  for  support, 
and  an  excessive  susceptibility  in  respect  to  everything  which  affected 
the  national  honour,  or  the  relations  of  France  with  other  powers.  This 
disposition  of  the  public  mind  caused  the  Cabinet  to  make  common  cause 
with  those  of  the  Conservatives,  who,  whilst  desiring  the  maintenance  of 
peace,  nevertheless  desired  that  it  should  be  an  armed  peace.  It  brought 
European  treaty  France  once  more  into  combined  action  with  the  European 
Affairs,  July™  powers,  by  signing  with  them  and  Turkey  the  treaty  of  the 
184°-  13th  July,  1841,  which  reestablished  Mehemet  Ali  in  the 

hereditary  possession  of  Egypt,  without  restoring  to  him  Syria,  and 
which  closed  against  the  fleets  of  all  nations  the  Dardanelles  and  the 
Bosphorus.  The  grand  project  relative  to  the  fortifications  was 
resumed  by  the  Cabinet  in  the  session  of  1841,  and  sanctioned  by 
the  Chambers. 

The   first   expenses  caused  by  these  immense  works,  as  well  as  the 
decrees   of    the   preceding    year,    which    created    new   regiments*    and 

*  M.  Thiers  wished  the  strength  of  the  army  to  be  raised  from  three  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  men  to  five  hundred  thousand ;    and  according  to  his  view  it  was 


1840-1846.]  DEATH    OF    THE    DUKE    OE    ORLEANS.  583 

largely  augmented  the  material  of  the  army,  raised  the  amount  of  the 
budget  by  more  than  one  hundred  and  seventy-two  millions,  and  raised 
the  ordinary  and  extraordinary  expenses  to  one  thousand  two  hundred 
and  eighty-eight  millions.  To  meet  these  heavy  charges  the  Minister  of 
Finance,  M.  Humann,  demanded  and  obtained  authority  to 

J  Enormous 

negotiate  at  various  periods  a  loan  representing  a  capital  of  charges  in  the 
four  hundred  and  fifty  millions,  and  it  was  found  necessary 
to  abandon  for  some  time  the  hope  of  effecting  an  equilibrium  between 
expenses  and  receipts.     The  Ministry  neglected  or  rejected  all  projects 
relative    to   the   internal   policy  of  the  kingdom,    but   it   presented    in 
this  and  the  following  session  (1841,  1842)  several  useful 

i  -t  -t'it  it         Legislative 

laws  respecting  literary  property,   judicial  sales,   and  the    enactments, 

1841-1842. 

great  lines  of  railway.       Amongst  all  the  laws  passed  in 
1842,  the  most  important  in  its  results  was  that  which  ceded  to  private 
enterprise  the  principal  railways  over  the  whole  surface  of  the  kingdom, 
and  divided  the  expenses  between  the  State  and  the  various  companies 
formed  to  work  them.     The   Cabinet  failed,  however,   to 

i        ',  .   .  .  .   .  .  Great  distur- 

calm  the  spirit  of  agitation  ;  many  important  cities,  such  as   baneesinthe 

Departments. 

Lille,  Clermont,  Macon,  and  Toulouse  were  the  scenes  of 
serious  disorders,  and  publications  of  great  virulence  provoked  during 
two  years  numerous  prosecutions  of  the  editors  of  journals  and 
writers  of  pamphlets.  An  odious  attempt  to  assassinate  one  of  the 
King's  sons,  the  Duke  d'Aumale,  on  his  return  from  a  glorious  expedition 
in  Algeria,  failed  in  its  object,  and  gave  rise  to  a  criminal  prosecution  before 
the  Chamber  of  Peers,  which  resulted  in  the  condemnation  of  the  would-be 
assassin  and  his  accomplices.* 

The  Elective  Chamber  was  dissolved  in  June,  1842,  and  the  general 
elections,  greatly  influenced  by  the  Cabinet,  returned  a  new  Chamber, 
which  consisted  of  almost  precisely  the  same  elements  as 

,  t  t  .  mi  •  ill  •  Dissolution  of 

the  preceding.     This  year  was  marked  by  a  circumstance    the  Chambers. 
as  fatal  as  unforeseen.     The  Duke  d'Orleans,  Prince  Eoyal,    tions,  June, " 
being  run  away  with  by  his  horses,  fell  whilst  throwing 
himself  out  of  his   carriage,  had  his  head   fractured   in   the  '  fall,   and 

necessary  to  have  eight  hundred  thousand  on  the  roll  for  the  purpose  of  having  five 
hundred  thousand  ready  to  take  the  field. 

f  The  assassin's  name  was  Qudnisset.  An  unfortunate  circumstance  in  respect  of 
this  trial  was  the  condemnation  of  a  journalist  by  the  Court  of  Peers,  for  complicity  in 
a  crime  of  which  he  was  entirely  ignorant. 


584  VISIT    OF    THE    QUEEN    OF    ENGLAND.        [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VI. 

expired  a  few  hours  afterwards  (13th  July,  1842).   The  sudden  death  of  this 
^  prince,  who  was  heir  presumptive  to  the  crown,  so  much 

Duke  d'Orieans,    esteemed  by  the  people  and  the  army,  and  of  age  to  reign, 

-L  rices  rvoy&l, 

July,  1842.  was  an  immense  public  misfortune  and  a  fatal  blow  to  the 

dynasty  of  Orleans,  which  had  already  been  beaten  by  so  many  storms. 
He  left  behind  him  two  very  young  children,  the  Count  de  Paris  and  the 
Duke  de  Chartres,  and  in  anticipation  of  a  minority,  which  the  advanced 
age  of  the  King  rendered  probable,  the  Chambers  were  convoked  for  the" 
purpose    of   passing    a   regency   law.      They    decided,    in 

Extraordinary 

PessioD.    Law  of   concert  with  the  Government,  that  in  case  the   Sovereign 

Regency,  1842. 

should  be  a  minor  the  regency  should  belong  to  his  nearest 
relation  in  the  paternal  line,  and  the  royal  majority  was  fixed  at  eighteen 
years. 

Few  years  were  so  sterile  in  legislative  measures  of  great  interest  as' 
the  following  year  (1843),  during  which  Louis  Philippe  received  at  the 
Chateau  d'Eu  a  friendly  visit  from  the  young  Queen  of  England,  an 
event  which  was  regarded  as  of  good  augury  to  the  maintenance  of 
amicable  relations  between  the  two  countries.* 

The  Government  of  July  found  open  adversaries  declaring  themselves 
at  this  period  in  a  considerable  portion  of  the  clergy  and  the  clerical 
party.t  It  had  at  all  times  displayed  an  extreme  deference  for  the 
wishes  of  the  clergy.  It  had  especially  favoured  the  presence,  in 
the  primary  schools  of  both  sexes,  of  the  brothers  and  sisters* 
of  the  various  religious  societies,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  instruc- 
tion in  the  Christian  doctrines ;  whilst  it  had  strictly  prohibited  in  the 
university  establishments  for  secondary  and  classical  instruction  all 
teaching  at  which  the  clergy  might  take  umbrage.  It  had  taken  pains  to 
raise  to  the  episcopate  only  priests  of  merit  and  such  as  would  be 
agreeable  to  the  Eoman  Court ;  and  out  of  consideration  for  this  same 
Court,  for  a  great  number  of  prelates  and  the  clerical  party  generally,  it 
had  allowed  the  laws  prohibiting  the  presence  of  the  Jesuits  in  France  as 

*  Some  ministerial  modifications  took  place  in  1843.  M.  Dumont  replaced  M.  Teste 
as  Minister  of  Public  Works,  and  Admiral  Duperre'  was  succeeded  as  Naval  Minister  by 
Vice-Admiral  Roussin,  and  after  him  by  M.  de  Mackau.  In  the  preceding  year,  M. 
Lacave-Laplagne  had  already  succeeded  M.  Humann,  who  had  died  suddenly,  as 
Minister  of  Finance. 

t  The  men  who  were  most  ardent,  either  in  the  two  Chambers  or  elsewhere,  in  the 
support  of  the  Romish  Church,  were  improperly  designated  by  this  name. 


1840-1846.]  LAWS    AS    TO    EDUCATION.  585 

a  religious  society  to  slumber.  But  on  one  capital  point  it  resisted  the 
ardent  and  legitimate  wishes  of  the  clergy  and  a  number  of  pious 
families,  and  without  taking  into  account  the  formal  engage-    .  .,  ,. 

'  o  oo  Agitation  on 

ment  contained  in  the  charter  of  1830,  it  maintained  the  S»erSrbjo7educa- 
university  monopoly,  with  the  tacit  assent  of  a  very  tlOD' 184  " 
influential  portion  of  the  Liberal  party,  which  dreaded  lest  the  priests 
should  gain  possession  of  the  education  of  the  youth.  M.  G-uizot, 
however,  had  already  (in  1836)  presented  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
the  draft  of  a  law,  which,  Whilst  preserving  the  university  establishment, 
would  have  taken  away  its  monopoly,  and  carried  out,  so  far  as  was  then 
possible,  the  promises  of  the  charter.  Coldly  received,  however,  by  the 
deputies,  who  only  passed  it  after  it  had  undergone  many  modifications, 
this  project,  which  was  conceived  in  a  liberal  spirit,  failed  to  reach  the 
Chamber  of  Peers,  fell  with  the  Cabinet,  and  was  forgotten. 

This  important  question  remained  in  abeyance  for  several  years,  but  it 
was  revived  with  much  vigour  in  1843,  and  freedom  of  education  was 
imperiously  demanded  both  in  the  press  and  at  the  tribune  by  the  power- 
ful and  passionate  party  of  which  M.  de  Montalembert  was,  in  the 
Chamber  of  Peers,  the  most  eloquent  organ.  A  fresh  project  with  respect 
to  secondary  instruction,  accompanied  by  a  luminous  expo-    „         , , 

J  '  i.  J  r  Proposed  law  on 

sition  of  the  reasons  on  which  it  was  founded,  was  presented  ^^^  £* 
to  this  Chamber  in  1844  by  M.  Villemain,  the  Minister  st™ction> 1844- 
of  Public  Instruction.  His  project,  conceived  in  a  spirit  of  wisdom,  and 
answering,  apparently,  the  necessities  of  the  moment,  granted  to  every 
individual  furnished  with  a  certificate  of  fitness  the  right  of  opening  a 
pension,  maintained  the  right  of  the  State  to  the  general  surveillance  and 
the  collation  des  grades,  and  rendered  it  necessary  for  every  person  pro- 
posing to  open  an  educational  establishment  that  he  should  make  a  preli- 
minary declaration  that  he  did  not  belong  to  any  religious  society  not 
legally  authorized.  The  proposed  law  exempted,  as  did  that  of  1836,  eccle- 
siastical schools  or  small  seminaries  from  some  of  the  conditions  imposed 
on  lay  educational  establishments.  It  underwent,  at  the  hands  of  the 
committee,  of  which  the  Duke  de  Broglie  was  chairman,  great  'modifica- 
tions, the  most  serious  of  which  was  the  suppression  of  the  immunities 
granted  to  the  ecclesiastical  schools  already  existing,  and  being  passed  in 
this  altered  state  by  the  Peers,  its  effect  was  to  cause  fresh  anxiety  to  the 
Liberal  party.    At  the  same  time  it  was  far  from  satisfying  the  clergy  and 


586  LEGITIMIST    MANIFESTATIONS.        [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VI. 

the  clerical  party ;  and  when  carried  down  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  it 
was  the  subject  of  a  learned  disquisition  by  M.  Thiers,  who  was  the 
reporter  of  the  committee  appointed  to  examine  it.  Before  the  subject 
was  discussed,  however,  a  serious  illness  compelled  M.  Villemain  to  quit 
the  Ministry,  in  which  he  was  succeeded  by  M.  de  Salvandy,  and  the  law 
of  free  education  was  indefinitely  adjourned. 

A  serious  incident,  brought  about  by  some  important  men  of  the 
Legitimist  party,  occupied  the  attention  of  the  Chamber  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  session.  In  this  party,  as  in  others,  there  were  distinct 
shades.  Some  of  its  members  were  openly  allied  with  the  Republicans 
for  the  purpose  of  opposing  the  new  dynasty;  the  greater  number 
awaited  the  progress  of  events  in  a  reserved  and  dignified  attitude,  and 
refrained  from  taking  any  active  part  in  the  politics  of  the  day ;  and  a 
few  eagerly  sought  in  the  institutions  of  the  country  the  means  of  over- 
throwing the  Government. 

The  hopes  of  this  party  had  been  revived  after  the  death  of  the  Duke 
d'Orleans  ;  and  the  Count  de  Chambord,*  having  visited  London  in 
_!■  ...  •.  .        .     1843,  there  became,  in  his  residence  in  Belgrave-square, 

Legitimist  mam-  '  '  o  ~x 

festation  m  Bel-   ^e  ofy"^  0f  an  enthusiastic  demonstration  on  the  part  of  a 

grave-square,  J  ^ 

1843,  crowd  of  Legitimists  who  had  hastened  from  France  to  pay 

homage  to  him  whom  they  regarded  and  honoured  as  the  true  heir  to  the 
erown  of  Charles  X.  A  French  peer,  M.  de  Richelieu,  and  several  Depu- 
ties, amongst  whom  was  M.  Berryer,  were  of  this  number,  in  spite  of  the 
oath  they  had  taken  to  King  Louis  Philippe,  and  associated  themselves 
with  this  noisy  and  significant  demonstration. 

The  Government  thought  it  their  duty  to  censure  their  conduct 
in  a  sentence  of  the  speech  from  the  throne  at  the  commencement  of  the 
new  session.  This  sentence  excited  an  animated  debate  in  the  two 
Chambers,  and  especially  in  the  Elective  Chamber,  where 
Chamber^?16  ^  Berryer  alleged  as  an  excuse,  in  respect  to  the  oath 
Deputies,  ism.      taken  by  ^m  to  t}ie  King  and  the  charter  of  1830,  certain 

reservations  in  his  own  mind  which  too   much  resembled  the  mental 

reservations  which  have  been  so  much  blamed  in  the  case  of  the  members 

eech    „       of  a  famous  order.     M.  Guizot,  whilst  strongly  censuring 

M.  Guizot.      m  kjg  eloquent  reply,  what  had  been   done,  set  forth  the 

*  The  Duke  de  Bordeaux,  the  son  of  the  Duke  de  Berry,  assassinated  in  1820,  and 
grandson  of  the  late  King,  had  assumed  the  title  of  the  Count  de  Chambord. 


1840-1846.]  M.  GUIZOT  AND  THE  LEGITIMISTS.  587 

principle  which  distinguished  the  Government  of  July  from  that  of  Legi- 
timacy. "  Our  government,"  said  the  orator,  "  is  founded  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  a  contract  between  the  prince  and  the  country,  and  on  a 
reciprocity  of  rights ;  whilst  the  principle  of  Legitimacy,  of  which  you  are 
so  fond,  and  in  the  name  of  which  you  have  spoken  and  acted  in  Belgrave- 
square,  is  the  principle  that  there  is  a  right  superior  to  all  rights, — that 
there  is  a  power  which  can  never  be  destroyed,  however  foolishly  it  may 
be  exercised,  and  which  the  peoples  are  compelled  to  respect,  whatever 
it  may  do.  .  .  .  For  my  part,  I  consider  such  maxims  to  be  shameful, 
absurd,  and  degrading  to  humanity ;  and  that  when  any  attempt  is  made 
to  put  them  in  practice  and  to  push  them  to  their  extreme  consequences, 
a  nation  does  well  to  reestablish  at  any  risk  and  peril,  by  some  heroic  and 
powerful  act,  its  forgotten  rights  and  offended  honour.  This  is  what  we 
did  in  1830,  and  this  is  what  you  wish  us  to  undo  to-day.  What  took 
place  the  other  day  in  Belgrave- square  could  have  no  other  object." 
The  paragraph  which  in  the  Chambers'  address  to  the  King  censured 
the  conduct  of  the  inculpated  Deputies,  was  adopted;  and  the  latter 
immediately  resigned  their  seats,  but  were  reelected. 

The  new  hopes  of  the  Legitimists,  so  openly  manifested  by  this  incident, 
aroused  the  apprehensions  of  the  Liberals,  and  had  something  to  do, 
probably,  with  the  cold  reception  given  by  the  latter  to  the  law  presented 
to  the  Chamber  on  the  subject  of  secondary  instruction,  the  adoption  of 
which  would  have  given  over  the  instruction  of  a  portion  of  the  young 
people  of  the  kingdom  to  the  enemies  of  the  Government  of  July.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  vehemence  with  which  the  great  subject  of  freedom  in 
the  matter  of  education  had  been  pleaded  by  its  warmest  partisans,  in 
the  number  of  whom  were  many  members  of  the  episcopacy  and  many 
priests  and  laymen  openly  favourable  to  the  Jesuits,  provoked  an  inevi- 
table reaction  against  this  society  in  the  constitutional  party,  and  rendered 
it  extremely  anxious  respecting  the  neglect  into  which  Debate  on  the 
the  laws  relative  to  the  Jesuits  had  been  allowed  to  fall.  f^Sngto 
In  the  following  session  (May,  1843),  M.  Thiers,  who  had  the  Jesuits' 1843- 
become  the  leader  of  the  Opposition  in  the  Left  Centre,  demanded  that  all 
enactments  in  existence  against  the  Jesuits  should  be  put  inforce;  and  named 
twenty-seven  houses  which  were  in  their  possession  in  defiance  of  the 
laws  of  the  kingdom.  MM.  Hebert  and  Dupin,  senior,  strenuously  sup- 
ported the  arguments  of  M.  Thiers,  and  M.  de  Lamartine  carried  the  subject 


588  LAMAETI^E    ON    THE    JESUITS.  [BOOK  V.  CflAP.  VI. 

to  the  higher  ground  of  the  existence  of  real  liberty.  He  reminded  his 
hearers  of  the  immemorial  right  to  liberty  of  conscience,  and  added  that 
the  only  possible  guarantee  of  this  liberty  was  the  neutrality  of  the  State 
in  matters  of  religion.  He  concluded  with  these  words,  which  are  worthy 
Speech  of  m  de  °^  attenti°n  : — "You  cannot  prevent  the  Jesuits  from 
Lamartine.  praying  and  living  in  common ;  but  if  they  persist  in  living 

as  a  society  unauthorized  by  law  and  in  holding  possession  of  property 
in  mortmain  in  defiance  of  the  law,  put  the  law  in  force  against  them  as 
you  would  against  any  other  society.  On  the  other  hand,  do.  not  refuse 
to  them  the  rights  common  to  all;  do  not  put  in  force  against  them 
any  exceptional  measures."  M.  Thiers  then  submitted  a  proposition 
that  the  Chamber  relied  upon  the  Government  for  the  execution  of  the 
laws,  and  it  was  carried  by  an  immense  majority.  Two  months  later, 
and  whilst  the  same  question  was  being  discussed  in  the  Chamber  of 
Peers,  M.  Guizot  cut  short  the  discussion  by  declaring  that  the  result  of 
negotiations  between  the  Pontifical  Government  and  M.  Rossi,  the 
French  ambassador  at  Rome,  had  been  that  the  Pope  himself  had  per- 
suaded the  Jesuits  in  France  to  conform  to  the  laws  of  the  kingdom. 

The  satisfaction  thus  given  by  the  Government  to  the  opposition  of  the 

Left  was  far  from  appeasing  the  irritation  caused  by  the  policy  of  the 

Government  at  this  period  with  regard  to  England  on  the 

The  affair  of 

Tahiti  and  ex-      subject  of  Tahiti  or  the  Society  Islands,  in  the  Pacific. 

pulsion  of  the 

missionary  Prit-    Louis  Philippe  had  been  in  the  habit   during  several  years 

chard,  1842-1843.  rr  °  J 

past  of  sending  a  squadron  into  these  latitudes  for  the  pur- 
pose of  protecting  the  Catholic  missionaries  and  the  French  residents. 
The  admiral  of  this  squadron,  Dupetit-Thouars,  had  taken  possession,  in 
1842,  in  the  name  of  France,  of  the  Marquesas  Islands,  where  the  French 
vessels  found  a  port  and  a  convenient  station;  and  he  subsequently 
thought  proper,  for  the  sake  of  effectually  protecting  his  compatriots, 
to  establish  the  protectorate  of  France  over  the  Society  Islands,  where  the 
English  and  Protestant  missionaries  had  long  since  exercised  over  Pomare, 
the  Queen  of  Tahiti,  and  the  principal  native  chiefs,  a  civilizing  in- 
fluence. The  latter  shortly  afterwards,  at  the  instigation  of  the  English 
missionaries,  arose  in  defence  of  their  national  independence.  The  insur- 
rection was  promptly  put  down  ;  but  Admiral  Dupetit-Thouars,  consider- 
ing the  protectorate  of  the  French  flag  insufficient,  took  complete  possession 
of  these  islands  in  the  name  of  France,  and  hoisted  there  the  French  flag,in 


1840-1846.]  DIFFICULTY   WITH   ENGLAND.  589 

spite  of  the  vehement  remonstrances  of  the  Protestant  missionaries  and  a 
merchant  named  Pritchard,  who  was  the  English  consul.  The  latter 
resigned  his  office,  but  continued  his  intrigues  with  the  chiefs  and  endea- 
voured to  raise  the  country.  He  was  arrested  and  put  into  solitary 
confinement  by  the  French  authorities,  and  ultimately  sent  back  to 
England,  where  he  gave  vent  to  loud  and  bitter  complaints,  and  demanded 
of  France  an  indemnity  for  his  commercial  losses,  as  well  as  for  the 
treatment  he  had  undergone  at  the  hands  of  her  officers. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  French  Government,  considering  that 
the  possession  of  the  Society  Islands  would  be  much  more  burdensome  than 
advantageous  to  France,  had  disavowed  the  conduct  of  its  admiral  in 
respect  to  this  matter,  and  had  rehoisted  its  flag  at  Tahiti  as  simply  that 
of  a  protecting  power.  As,  moreover,  the  English  press  and  the  British 
Parliament  reechoed  the  complaints  of  the  ex-Consul  Pritchard,  the 
French  Cabinet,  while  allowing  that  their  officers  had  had  a  right  to  expel 
him,  nevertheless  censured  the  violence  with  which  his  expulsion  had 
been  accomplished,  and  decided  that  an  indemnity  was  due  to  him.  This 
concession  on  the  part  of  the  Government  aroused  a  violent  storm  against 
it,  the  whole  of  the  Opposition  uniting  in  accusing  it  of  sacrificing  the 
honour  of  France  to  the  English  alliance.  The  question  was  reopened 
during  the  discussion  of  the  address,  at  the  commencement    ^  ,  , 

°  '  Debate  on  the 

of  the  following  session,  1844-1845,  and  gave  rise  to  the    p^^mm^ 
most  stormy   debates,  the  Government  only  obtaining   in    18i5, 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  on  the  subject  of  the  indemnity  to  Pritchard,  a 
majority  of  eight  votes. 

The  general  irritation,  now  much  envenomed  by  political  passion  and 
national  susceptibility,  rendered  impossible  the  maintenance  of  the 
right  of  search,  which  had  been  reciprocally  exercised  by  virtue  of  old 
treaties,  by  the  navies  of  France  and  England,  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade.*  M.  Guizot  had  perceived  in  1841  the  necessity  of  giving  a 
greater  extension  to  this  right,  and  had  negotiated  a  new  treaty  on  the 
subject  with  all  the  great  powers.  The  complaints,  however,  which 
were  raised  in  France  on  this  occasion  were  so  loud  that  the  Government 
did  not  venture  to  give  to  this  treaty  the  ratification  so  eagerly  desired 
by  England.  The  Opposition  was  still  more  vehement  on  this  point 
in   1845,  after  the  unfortunate   occurrences  in  Tahiti,   and  the  English 

*  These  treaties  were  signed  in  1831  and  1833. 


590  TEENCH    BOMBAED    TANGJEBS.       [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VI. 

Cabinet  had  to  give  way  in  its  turn.  It  abandoned  the  right  of 
Abandonment  of  searcn?  an(^  a  treaty  negotiated  on  other  bases,  and 
searcnghtNew  ^ess  efficacious  f°r  the  repression  of  the  slave  trade,  was 
prefJonrofetneP'  signed  by  the  two  powers  on  the  29th  May,  1845. 
s  ave  tra  e,  1845.  England  thus  made  a  painful  sacrifice  for  the  sake  of 
friendly  relations  with  France,  and  her  regrets  on  this  subject  were  mingled 
with  the  dissatisfaction  which  she  felt  at  the  progress  made  by  the  French 
power  in  Africa,  under  the  energetic  and  able  administration  of  Marshal 
Bugeaud,*  who  was  worthily  seconded  by  Lamoriciere,  d'Aumale,  Bedeau, 

Changarnier,  Cavaignac,  and  many  others,  at  the  head  of 
under  Bugeaud,     the  young  and  valiant  French  army.     The  numerous  Arab 

tribes  raised  in  revolt  by  Abd-el-Kader  were  chastised,  and 
made  their  submission ;  the  enemy  was  everywhere  driven  to  extremities ; 
and  in    1843  the  Duke   d'Aumale,  at  the   head  of  a  handful  of   men 

against  forces  ten  times  as  numerous,  took  the  Smala  of  the 
Smaiarof°Abd^el-    Emir."]"     Abd-el-Kader  when  vanquished  fled  into  Morocco, 

where  he  preached  a  holy  war,  and  persuaded  the  Em- 
peror Muley-Abder-Rhaman  to  take  up  his  cause.  The  Morocco  cavalry 
commenced  hostilities,  had  many  conflicts  with  the  French  troops,  and, 
whilst  its  leader  was  having  an  interview  with  General  Bugeaud  on 
the  Oued-Mouilah  treacherously  attacked  the  French  troops,  and  were 
. .  Mo_  repulsed  with  loss.  As  the  Emperor  refused  to  give  any 
rocco,  1844.  satisfaction  for  this  perfidious  attack,  Marshal  Bugeaud,  after 

a  certain  fixed  period,  crossed  the  frontier  with  his  army,  whilst  the 
naval  division,  under  the  orders  of  Prince  de  Joinville,  spread  terror  along 
dment  tne  coast  0I>  Morocco  in  spite  of  the  vehement  remonstrance 
MoTadoreAug.^  of  tne  English  Government.  The  prince  attacked  Tangiers, 
18M-  the  granary  of  Gibraltar,  ruined  the  defences  of  that  place, 

then  took  possession  of  the  island  of  Mogador,  and  bombarded  the 
city  of  that  name,  which  was  the  personal  property  of  the  Emperor,  and 
the  central  point  of  the  Morocco  commerce. 

On  the  same  day  (the  14th  August)  Marshal  Bugeaud,  with  only  12,000 

f  theisi      men  an<^  sixteen  pieces  of  cannon,  encountered  on  the  banks 

August,  1844.        Q£  ^e  Isly  the  Morocco  army,  which  was  three  times  as 

*  Appointed  in  1840  Governor-General  of  Algeria, 
f  The  Arabs  gave  the  name  of  "  smala"  to  the  assemblage  of  tents  containing  their 
families  and  flocks. 


1840-1846.]  BEJECTED   MEASURES.  591 

numerous  as  his  own,  and  commanded  by  one   of  the  Emperor's  sons. 
He  at  once  crossed  the  Isly  and  gave  battle,  and  gained  a  complete  vic- 
tory, the  Morocco  army  losing  three  thousand  men  in  killed  or  wounded, 
eighteen   flags,   eleven    cannon,   and   the    whole    of  its    materiel.     This 
glorious  battle  was  followed  in  September  by  the  treaty  of  Treaty  of  Tan- 
Tangiers,  which  gave  to  France  all  the  satisfaction  she  de-    giers'    ep  ' 
manded,  and    put    Abd-el-Kader    out    of  the    pale    of  the    law  in  the 
Empire     of     Morocco.        No     indemnity,     however,      was     demanded 
for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  so  unjustly  provoked  by  Morocco,  France 
being,  said  the  Cabinet,  rich  enough  to  pay  for  her  glory.     This  treaty 
was  the  subject  of  vehement  attacks  on  the  part  of  the  Opposition  in 
the  following  session,  and  the  satisfaction  caused  by  the  victory  of  Isly 
was  drowned  by  the  serious  discontent  produced  by  the  affairs  of  Tahiti 
and  the  persistent  refusal,  on  the  part  of  the   Government, 
to   make    any  real  reforms.      The    legislative    sessions   of  measures  of  re- 

n ,  -  ,  .  ,        ,  .,         form,  1844-1845. 

1844  and  184o  were  in  this  respect  completely  sterile. 
A  few  laws  of  general  utility  were  passed,  but  almost  all  those  pro- 
posed which  bore  the  impress  of  a  really  liberal  spirit  were  rejected, 
or  at  least  deferred.  Some  of  them  were  adopted  by  one  of  the  two 
Chambers  and  rejected  by  the  other,  and  the  greater  number  of  them 
were  entire  failures.  Of  this  number  were  the  projects  relative  to  the 
penitentiary  system,  freedom  in  respect  to  secondary  instruction,  the 
responsibility  of  officials,  and  the  proposal  presented  by  M.  Saint- Marc 
Girardin  for  the  purpose  of  restraining  the  ever  increasing  abuse  of 
Parliamentary  influence,  by  fixing  certain  rules  for  the  promotion  of 
officials.  Amongst  them,  also,  was  one  repeatedly  proposed  by  M. 
Eoger,  for  the  purposs  of  giving  the  necessary  guarantees  to  individual 
liberty ;  some  wise  measures  for  the  reduction  of  the  duty  on  salt  ;*  the  con- 
version of  the  Five  per  Cents  ;  a  law  for  the  reform  of  the  postal  system, 
on  the  basis  of  an  uniform  and  infinitely  reduced  charge ;  and  a  plan 
for  reform  which  became  every  day  more  necessary,  andwhich  was 
reintroduced  every  year  with  much  distinction  to  himself,  but  without 
success,  by  M.  de  Remusat,  with  respect  to  the  inconvenience  attending 
the  possession  of  Government  offices  by  deputies  to  the  Elective 
Chamber. 

*  The  measures  for  the  reduction  of  the  duty  on  salt  and  the  conversion  of  the  Five 
per  Cents,  were  passed  hy  the  Elective  Chamber  hut  rejected  by  the  Peers. 


592  EREFCH    REVERSES    Bf    ALGERIA.        [BOOK  V.CHAP.  VI. 

Various  circumstances  concurred  to  aggravate  the  serious  aspect  of 
affairs  at  the  commencement  of  the  following  year.     There 

Serious  aspect  of 

affairs.  Financial    was  a  state  of  almost  famine  in   the  country  districts,  pro- 
catastrophes.  t  J  i. 
Reverses  in  Al-     duced  by  a  failure  of  the  potato  crop  and  a  very  bad  corn 

harvest;  and  great  disturbances  had  been  caused  in  the 
industrial  world  by  extravagant  speculations  in  railway  property.  To 
these  causes  of  anxiety  were  added  the  discontent  caused  by  the  ever 
increasing  charges  of  the  Treasury,  and  some  reverses  suffered  by  our 
arms  in  Algeria,  where  General  Lamoriciere  had  replaced  for  a  time 
Marshal  Bugeaud.  Many  tribes  had  risen  in  revolt  at  the  summons  of  the 
Cherif  Bou-Maza ;  the  Kabyles  had  again  taken  up  arms  ;  Abd-el-Kader 
had  reappeared  in  Algerian  territory,  and  raised  the  province  of  Oran ; 
and  a  French  column  of  five  hundred  men,  commanded  by  Colonel 
Montagnac,  had  fallen  into  an  ambush  on  the  Morocco  frontier,  and  had 
been  almost  entirely  destroyed.  The  insurrection  made  rapid  progress, 
and  extended  even  as  far  as  the  environs  of  Tlemcen  and  Mascara. 
Lamoriciere,  at  the  head  of  very  insufficient  forces,  vanquished  the 
Kabyles,  and  drove  the  Emir  back  toward  Morocco ;  but  this  was  only  a 
feigned  flight,  and  the  Emir  soon  afterwards  reentered  the  province  of 
Oran,  and  threatened  that  of  Algiers.  These  events  recalled  the  Governor- 
General  to  Algiers,  and  Marshal  Bugeaud  took  the  field  with  all  the 
forces  at  his  disposal.  At  his  approach  the  insurrection  began  at  once  to 
subside,  and  numerous  tribes  made  their  submission.  Fresh  sacrifices, 
however,  were  demanded  of  France  for  the  purpose  of  securing  its  con- 
quests in  Africa,  and  the  great  efforts  she  had  made,  and  still  had  to  make, 
appeared  to  her  people  to  be  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  results  hoped 
for  or  obtained. 

All   these    subjects    united    occupied  public    attention  at    the    com- 

_     .      i-Lia      mencement   of  the  new  session,  1846,  which  was  only  re- 
Session  of  1846.  '  7  J 

CentrewiSi6 Sw*  markable  for  the  union  effected  between  the  dynastic  Left 
dynastic  Left.  an(j  tke  j^fl.  centre,  the  result  of  which  was  the  formation 
of  a  powerful  Opposition,  under  the  leadership  of  MM.  Thiers  and 
Odillon  Barrot.  The  first,  in  reply  to  M.  Ledru-Rollin,  in  the  course  of 
Declaration  of  the  debate  on  the  address  to  the  King,  detailed  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  this  union  was  based.  He  had  joined,  said 
the  orator,  the  dynastic  Left  when  he  had  found  it  openly  separated 
from  the  Radical  Left,  after  which   such  an  union  became  natural  and 


1840-4846.]  THIERS    ON   FRENCH    POLICY,  593 

beneficial,  and  was  necessary  for  the  salvation  of  the  future.  He  spoke 
forcibly  against  a  foreign  policy  which  subordinated  every  other  interest 
to  the  English  alliance  ;  and  the  French  Government  having  recently 
protested,  in  conjunction  with  England,  against  the  annexation  of  Texas 
by  the  United  States,  M.  Thiers  censured  this  protest  as  untimely,  and 
contrary  to  the  true  interests  of  France,  whose  liberty  of  action  in  the 
world  and  power  on  the  seas  were,  he  declared,  inseparably  connected  with 
the  increasing  greatness  of  the  United  States  and  the  pacific  progress  of 
revolution  in  Europe. 

The  most  important  law  passed  in  this  session  gave  the  Government 
an  extraordinary  credit  of  ninety-three  millions,  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
creasing the  strength  of  the  navy,  both  in  men  and  ships.  Many  projects 
of  local  or  private  interest  were  clothed  with  legal  sanction,  and  some 
others  of  great  political  or  social  interest  were  voted  by  the  one  or  the 
other  Chamber  in  the  course  of  this  session,  but  did  not  become  law. 
The  Cabinet  met  the  repeated  attacks  to  which  it  was  subjected  with  a 
devoted  majority,  which  was  chiefly  composed  of  men  dependent  upon  it, 
either  by  reason  of  holding  office  under  it,  or  by  reason  of  the  support 
they  hoped  to  obtain  from  the  Government  in  their  financial  or  industrial 
enterprises.  Thus  became  day  by  day  more  apparent  the  chain  which, 
according  to  the  expression  of  M.  Thiers,  united  the  height  of  power  with 
the  most  vulgar  interests,  and  connected  the  deputy  with  the  Minister 
and  the  elector  with  the  deputy.  Absorbed  in  the  difficult  operation  of 
consolidating  its  power,  the  Ministry  rejected  or  adjourned  every  pro- 
posal the  adoption  of  which  might  have  had  the  effect  of  weakening  its 
majority  in  the  next  Elective  Chamber.  It  was  under  these  circum- 
stances that  the  elections  of  1846  took  place. 


VOL.  II.  Q  Q 


594  GENERAL  ELECTION.       [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VII. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  GENERAL  ELECTION THE  SPANISH  MARRIAGES THE  POSITION  OF  AF- 
FAIRS AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD — PRELUDES  TO  THE  REVOLUTION  OF 
FEBRUARY. 

July,  1846 — December ■,  1847. 

The  influence  of  the  administrative  power  over  the  electoral  body  had 
General  elec-  never  been  more  marked  since  1830  than  at  the  general 
tions,  July,  1846.    elections  of  1846<     ^11  moral  influence  having  been  lost  by 

the  Cabinet  of  the  29th  October,  it  could  only  regain  the  ground  it  had 

lost  in  public  opinion  by  appealing  to  individual  interests  ;  and  we  have 

to  look  as  far  back  as  the  elections  conducted  in  1824,  under  the  Ministry 

of  MM.  de  Villele  and  Corbiere,*  to  find  in  the  constitutional  history  of 

France  administrative  practices  similar  to  those  of  1846. 

The  consequence    of  these   manoeuvres  was  that   the    elections  were 

not    only   not   the    faithful    expression   of  the  opinion  of  the  country, 

but   were   in  direct    opposition    to    the    general    feeling  ;     and    there 

now  reappeared  an  alarming  phenomenon,  the  presage  of  the  greatest 

misfortunes,    which   was,  that    in    proportion    as    the  Cabinet    became 

more  unpopular  in  the  country,  its  majority  became  greater  and  greater 

in   the   Elective  Chamber — a  great  danger  both  for  the  state  and  the 

throne. 

In   the    midst    of    these   serious    internal    affairs,    grave    dissensions 

arose  between  France   and  England,  the   only  great   power  which  the 

Government   of  July  had  had  for   an   ally  since   1830.      This   alliance 

was  much  weakened  and  almost  annihilated  by  the  important  and  unfor- 

*  It  would  be  a  strange  mistake  to  judge  of  the  administrative  practices  of  this 
period  by  the  official  circular,  sent  by  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  to  the  prefects, 
with  respect  to  the  elections.  All  the  means  employed  to  influence  electors  in  1824 
were  again  set  in  motion ;  but  it  must  be  added  that  the  law  was  not  violated 
by  the  introduction  of  false  electors  into  the  electoral  colleges. 


1846-1847.]  THE    SPANISH    MARRIAGES.  595 

tunate  affair  known  as  the  Spanish  marriages.  The  Regent  Espartero 
had  fallen  after  three  years'  military  despotism,  and  in  g  ^^mar- 
1844  had  fled  from  Spain,  whither  the  Queen-mother  had  ria§es>  1846» 
been  recalled,  and  where,  in  1845,  the  Cortes  had  declared  her  daughter, 
Queen  Isabella,  of  age.  There  were  numerous  aspirants  for  the  hand  of 
this  princess,  when  suddenly,  in  August,  1846,  Europe  heard  simultane- 
ously of  the  marriage  of  Queen  Isabella  II.  with  her  cousin,  Francis 
d' Assise  de  Bourbon,  and  the  union  of  her  sister,  the  Infanta  Donna 
Luisa,  with  the  Duke  de  Montpensier,  the  fifth  son  of  the  King  of  the 
French.  These  two  marriages,  which  were  a  double  guarantee  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  Crown  of  Spain  in  the  House  of  Bourbon,  had  been 
the  subject  of  protracted  negotiations  between  the  courts  of  France, 
Spain,  and  England  whilst  the  head  of  the  English  Cabinet  was  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  and  Lord  Aberdeen  was  its  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs. 
This  Cabinet  had  seen  with  much  dissatisfaction  the  candidature  of  the 
Duke  de  Montpensier  for  the  hand  of  the  heiress  presumptive  of  the 
Spanish  throne.  The  French  court,  on  the  other  hand,  had  feared  that 
Queen  Isabella  might  marry  a  prince  of  the  House  of  Coburg,  and  the 
English  Government  had  undertaken,  through  Lord  Aberdeen,  to  prevent 
such  an  occurrence,  on  condition  that  the  marriage  of  the  French 
prince  with  the  Infanta  should  be  delayed  until  the  Queen  should  have 
a  child.  The  negotiations  on  this  subject  were  still  proceeding  when  the 
Tory  Cabinet  was  succeeded  by  a  Whig  Cabinet,  in  which  the  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs  was  Lord  Palmerston,  who  did  not  adhere  to  the 
engagement  entered  into  by  his  predecessor,  hut  sanctioned  the  candida- 
ture of  the  Prince  of  Coburg  for  the  Queen's  hand.  The  King  of  the 
French  then,  not  unreasonably,  considered  that  he  was  relieved  from 
his  promise,  and  authorized  the  simultaneous  publication  of  the  two 
marriages. 

On  receiving  this  unexpected  news  the  English  Cabinet  burst  forth  into 
reproaches  and  threats,  and  the  marriage  of  the  Duke  de  Montpensier 
was  openly  denounced  in  Parliament  as  a  dishonourable  act  and  a  direct 
violation  of  one  of  the  clauses  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  which  declared 
that  the  crowns  of  France  and  Spain  should  never  rest  on  the  same 
head.  These  accusations  were  evidently  ill-founded,  but  nevertheless 
found  an  echo  in  the  two  French  Chambers,  the  Cabinet  of  October 
29th   having  sunk   to  a  degree    of  unpopularity  which  disposed  public 

Q  q  2 


596  ANNEXATION    OF    CRACOW.         [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VII. 

opinion  to  involve  all  its  acts  in  an  indiscriminate  and  blind  condemna- 
tion. At  the  same  time  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  Government 
rashly  imperilled,  for  the  sake  of  a  very  remote  advantage,  an  alliance 
on  which  depended,  according  to  its  own  idea,  the  safety  of  France  and 
the  peace  of  Europe.  This  was  a  serious  fault,  and  it  was  severely 
reproached  for  it  by  the  very  persons  who  had  recently  accused  it  of 
striving  to  maintain  peace  at  any  price  for  the  sake  of  preserving  this 
alliance.  The  Government,  it  was  said,  after  having  recently,  in  the 
Pritchard  affair,  sacrificed  the  honour  of  the  country  for  the  sake  of 
remaining  on  cordial  terms  with  England,  had  now  sacrificed  this  alliance 
for  the  sake  of  dynastic  advantages,  or,  in  other  words,  for  mere  family 
interests. 

This  unfortunate  misunderstanding  between    the  tiwo    countries  ren- 
dered the  Northern  powers  less  apprehensive  of  offending 

Sad  eonsequen- 

ces  of  the  Spanish   the  French  Government,  and  compelled  the  latter  to  enter 

marriages. 

into  closer  relations  with  them  and  to  close  its  eyes  to 
proceedings  the  policy  of  which  was  in  direct  opposition  to  the  liberal 
tendencies  and  sympathies  of  the  nation.  This  perilous  state  of  things 
was  almost  immediately  afterwards  aggravated  by  the  ruin  of  the  last 
remnants  of  Polish  nationality.  At  the  close  of  the  insurrection  which 
had  burst  forth  some  years  previously  in  Galicia,  and  led  to  the  occupa- 
tion in  common  of  the  city  of  Cracow  by  the  three  Northern  powers,  the 

latter  did  what  they  had  not  hitherto  ventured  to  do,  and 

Annexation  of  .  1     _  .  . 

Cracow  to  Austria   annexed  Cracow  with    the  assent  of  Russia  and 

A  list  1*3  ft 

Prussia.  France  and  England  protested  against  this  pro- 
ceeding, but  separately ;  and  by  refusing  to  act  in  concert  in  this  matter 
they  rendered  their  dissensions  more  apparent,  and  protested  in  vain. 
The  Opposition  made  this  circumstance  a  ground  for  redoubling  its 
violence,  and  public  opinion  as  well  as  the  most  influential  journals  were 
unanimous  in  condemning  the  Government  for  having  isolated  France 
in  Europe  by  its  errors,  and  for  having  been  as  imbecile  in  its  manage- 
ment of  foreign  as  home  affairs. 

In  the  meantime  the  necessity  for  certain  reforms  was  so  generally 
felt,  and  the  public  feeling  on  the  matter  was  so  loudly  expressed,  that 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  Conservative  deputies  who  were  devoted  to 
the  Government  of  July  perceived  that  the  moment  had  come  for  making 
certain   concessions,   and  were   thenceforth   designated   as    Conservative 


1846-1847.]  STJPISTEKESS    OF   THE    GOVERNMENT.  597 

Progressionists.  M.  G-uizot  himself  at  length,  in  a  celebrated  speech 
delivered  at  Lisieux  after  his  re-election,  showed  himself  extremely 
favourable  to  a  wisely  progressive  policy.  After  this  solemn  declaration 
made  by  the  moral  head  of  the  Cabinet,  France  had  reason  to  hope 
that  the  Ministry  would  support,  in  1847,  the  liberal  measures  and 
reforms  acknowledged  to  be  the  most  urgent;  but  it  was  not  so, 
and  this  session  surpassed  the  preceding  in  insignificance,  and  the  majo- 
rity of  the  new  Chamber,  following  the  example  of  all  majorities  which 
are  their  own  judges,  ignored  the  numerous  remonstrances  excited  by  the 
manoeuvres  of  the  Government  agents  in  the  course  of  the  elections  from 
which  it  had  issued. 

Two  attempts  against  the  King's  life,  and  the  escape  of  Prince  Napoleon 
from    the    fortress    of    Ham,    had   recently  caused   fresh    Legislative  se8. 
anxiety  in  the  public  mind,  and  the   session  opened  in  the   Slonof1847- 
midst  of   the  general   dismay  caused  by  fearful  inundations,  a  partial 
famine  caused  by  bad  harvests,  and  a  financial  crisis.     It  was  necessary 
to  provide  for  these  disasters  at  a  time  when   the  treasury  was  empty ; 
every  resource  had  been    exhausted  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  the 
deficiencies  of  preceding  budgets  5  new  credits  were  demanded,  and  the  last 
budget  of  the  reign,  voted   in  July,  1847,  raised  the  expenses  to   one 
thousand  four  hundred  and  forty-four  millions.     It  was  difficult,  doubt- 
less, under  the  pressure  of  the  financial  necessities  of  the  moment,  to  make 
any  serious  and  immediate  reforms  in  the  taxation  of  the  country,  and 
the  Cabinet  made  this  circumstance  a  pretext  for  rejecting  all  that  were 
proposed.     At  the  same  time  it  refused  to  listen  to  all  the  other  reforms, 
all  the  great  measures  which  were   considered  urgent  even  by  its   own 
more  enlightened  supporters ;   and  the  public,  now  thoroughly  impatient 
and  irritated,  almost  unanimously  re-echoed  the  eloquent  declaration  of 
M.  de  Montalembert  when  he  summed  up  the  results  of  the    g  eech  f  M  de 
session  in  the   three  celebrated  words,  "  Nothing,  nothing,    Montalembert« 
nothing  !   and  that,   too,"  said  the   orator,   "  at  a   most  critical  period — 
at  the  period  of  a  financial  crisis,  of  a  year  of  famine,  and  of  an  increasing 
deficit.  .  .  The  great  evil,"  he  said,   "  is  in  the  want  of  any  moral  feeling 
in  the  Government,  in  its  corruption,  and  in  its  abuse  of  its  influence.     Is 
it  not  deplorable  to  see  how  electoral  considerations  have  invaded  every 
branch  of  the  administration?     Every  office,  every  employment  in  the 
hands  of  the  Government  is  sought  for  and  given  for  considerations  con- 


598  LIBERAL    MOVEMENT    IN    EUROPE.        [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VII. 

nected  with  the  elections.  The  time  has  come,  however,  for  the  nation 
to  shake  off  the  double  yoke  which  renders  the  deputies  subservient  to 
the  Ministers  and  the  Ministers  subservient  to  the  deputies."  He  con- 
cluded with  these  words  : — "  I  say  to  the  Ministry,  enter  resolutely  on 
the  path  of  wise  reforms.  You  may  fall  from  power,  perhaps,  as  did  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  but  by  entering  on  such  a  path  in  a  large  and  liberal  spirit, 
and  by  rendering  it  necessary  for  your  successors  to  follow  you  upon  it, 
you  will  be  securing  your  own  triumphant  return  to  office.  This  is  a 
glorious  mission,  worthy  of  all  who  represent  the  Revolution  of  July, 
which  created  you,  and  a  system  of  policy  from  which  there  would  result 
to  France  two  great  things — peace  and  order."* 

This  immorality  on  the  part  of  the  French  Government  was   so  much 

the  more  astonishing  because  it  was   in   strange  contrast  with  the  liberal 

movement  which  was  at  this   time  taking  place  in  all  the 

Liberal  move-  .  .  _ 

ment  in  Europe,    countries  oi  Europe.    Germany  was  m  a  state  of  movement ; 

1844-46. 

its  people  were  again  demanding  the  fulfilment  of  the 
promises  made  in  1813,  and  most  of  its  states  were  engaged  in  establish- 
ing new  constitutions.  Holland  had  introduced  great  modifications  into 
its  own ;  Spain,  at  length  purified,  was  attempting,  under  its  young 
Queen,  to  enter  upon  a  constitutional  and  parliamentary  course ;  in  Italy 
the  venerable  Pius  IX.,  who  had  been  recently  elevated  to  the  pontifical 
throne,  was  inaugurating  a  new  era  of  liberty,  after  having  commenced 
his  reign  by  a  general  amnesty ;  similar  reforms  were  being  made  in 
Piedmont  by  King  Charles- Albert ;  and  Great  Britain  now  began  to  reap 
the  fruits  of  her  great  parliamentary  reform.  In  the  latter  country  a 
large  portion  of  the  aristocracy  gave  a  noble  example  by  making  the 
amelioration  of  the  material  and  moral  condition  of  the  working  classes 
the  object  of  their  strenuous   efforts,  and  a  distinguished  Minister,  Sir 

*  To  avoid  repetitions  in  the  text,  I  will  mention  in  a  note  the  principal  propositions 
which  were  adjourned,  resisted,  or  rejected  in  the  course  of  this  session.  The  objects 
of  these  propositions  and  projects  were  :  the  reform  of  prisons  and  the  penitentiary 
system  ;  freedom  in  matters  of  education,  which  had  been  so  often  promised  and 
adjourned ;  amelioration  of  the  conscript  law,  or  blood  tax,  so  burdensome  to  the 
poor ;  useful  measures  for  regulating  the  relations  between  employers  and  their 
workmen ;  postal  reform ;  reduction  of  the  tax  on  salt ;  reduction  of  the  stamp 
duties  on  journals  ;  the  establishment  of  indispensable  guarantees  for  personal  liberty ; 
the  substitution  of  a  legal  for  an  arbitrary  system  of  forming  jury  lists  ;  the  declaration 
of  the  responsibility  of  the  Ministers  of  the  Crown ;  and  finally,  electoral  and  parlia- 
mentary reform. 


1846-1847.]  GOYEENMENTAL    EEEOES.  599 

Robert  Peel,  withdrawing  from  the  Tory  or  Conservative  party,  had 
secured  the  triumph  of  the  celebrated  league  formed  by  Richard  Cobden 
for  the  repeal  of  the  laws  which  forbade  free  trade  in  cereals  and  other 
of  the  more  important  articles  of  food.  The  general  necessity  for  reform 
was  felt  even  in  the  Turkish  empire,  and  the  Sultan  Abdul-Medjid  had  of 
his  own  accord  granted  a  charter  to  his  subjects. 

The  state  of  Europe,  however,  presented  serious  dangers ;  for  behind 
the  men  who  wished  for  useful  reforms  and  indispensable  ameliorations  in 
the  laws  there  were  others  who  declared  that  there  could  be  no  liberal 
progress  without  the  systematic  and  complete  remodelling  of  the  whole  of 
the  institutions  of  society.  Such  were,  in  England,  the  Chartists;  in 
Germany,  the  revolutionary  Radicals ;  in  Italy,  the  Mazzinians,  or  dis- 
ciples of  Mazzini ;  and  contemporaneously  with  these  the  members  of 
secret  societies  were  busy  in  France,  in  Switzerland,  and  everywhere 
else ;  demagogism,  powerfully  aided  by  universal  suffrage,  being  already 
rampant  in  Vaud,  Berne,  Geneva,  and  several  other  Swiss  cantons. 

Louis  Philippe's  Government  at  this  time  followed  the  policy  which  had 
been  fatal  to  that  of  the  Restoration  by  confounding  in  an  _,  .  istake  of 
almost  equal  condemnation  all  the  opponents  of  the  Cabinet  the  Government- 
with  the  enemies  of  the  monarchy.  It  feared  that  if  it  made  concessions 
to  the  former  it  might  be  hurried  by  the  latter  into  a  revolutionary 
course,  and  forgot  that  pernicious  and  false  doctrines  derive  their  force 
from  the  mixture  of  good  and  of  truth  which  is  to  be  found  in  them  ; 
that  demagogues  and  anarchists  only  become  formidable  when  the  parti- 
sans of  necessary  reforms  are  forced  into  union  with  them  ;  and  that  the 
surest  way  of  provoking  wild  and  culpable  wishes  is  to  refuse  any  satis- 
faction to  serious  interests  and  legitimate  desires.  This  perseverance  in 
a  policy  of  statu  quo  at  a  time  when  Europe  generally  was  in  a  state  of 
movement  and  in  the  presence  of  numerous  questions  which  urgently 
demanded  solution — this  dangerous  obstinacy,  against  which  not  only  a 
great  portion  of  the  Conservative  party  protested,  but  even  the  principal 
organ  of  the  Government,  and  the  moral  head  of  the  Government — at 
length  led  the  disquieted  and  anxious  nation  to  look  for  its  cause  in  a 
quarter  which  was  higher  than  the  Ministry.  The  protecting  veil  which 
the  constitution  had  drawn  around  the  crown  had  long  been  in  rags,  and 
at  no  period  had  the  sovereign  been  less  shielded  by  his  Ministers 
than  now. 


600  CONDUCT    OP    THE    XING:.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VII, 

The  King  was  now  growing  old,  and  had  attained  that  age  at  which  a 
man's   opinions  become  permanently  fixed,   and  at  which 

The  political  .     ,  .  t,t  i  imi 

conduct  of  the  his  impressions  are  no  longer  liable  to  change,  whilst  tne 
remembrances  of  his  early  years  return  to  his  heart  with 
increased  force.  The  memories  of  Louis  Philippe  kept  him  constantly 
in  mind  of  the  bloody  episodes  of  the  revolutionary  period,  and  showed 
to  him,  as  was  also  the  case  with  Charles  X.,  a  virtuous  but  feeble  King, 
led  through  one  concession  after  another  to  the  scaffold,  his  family 
slaughtered  or  in  exile,  and  France  ruined  and  twice  invaded.  Then 
he  remembered  that  in  former  stormy  days  he  had  heard  himself 
called  the  man  of  Providence  and  of  destiny;  and  that  when  he  had 
received  the  crown  he  had  calmed  the  tempest,  reintroduced  order  and 
prosperity  within  the  kingdom,  and  maintained  peace  abroad.  He 
remembered  that  France  and  all  Europe  had  attributed  these  great 
results  to  his  wisdom  and  to  the  inflexible  resistance  made  by  his 
Government  to  factious  attempts  as  well  as  to  the  exaggerated  demands 
of  parties,  and  he  believed  that  it  was  now  necessary  to  continue  this 
policy,  and  to  adhere  to  it  irrevocably  and  constantly. 

In  the  elevated  sphere    in  which    he    lived,   and   whither  the  truth 

found  it  difficult  to  ascend,  Louis  Philippe  had  failed,  in  common  with 

so  many  others,  to  take  sufficiently  into  account  the  new  necessities  and 

interests  created  in  France   by  the  prodigious  shock  of  1830 ;  he  had 

found  it  difficult  to   comprehend  that,   in  the  case  of  modern  society, 

the  law  of  progress  is  inexorable  in  its  demands  ;  and  he  was  too  much 

disposed  by  his  character,  his  remembrances,  and  his  royal  position  to 

confound  legitimate  wishes  born   of  real  necessities  with  the  illusions  of 

parties  and  demagogic  declamation.     Faithful,  at  the  same  time,  to  his 

word  and  the  charter,  and  attentive  to  and  scrupulous  in  the  performance 

of  his  duties  as  a  sovereign,  he  was  too  much  inclined  to  regard  France  as 

consisting  solely  of  what  was  then  called  "  the  loyal  country,"  of  that  limited 

portion  of  the  country  which  was  alone  in  possession  of  political  rights ; 

he  was  too  much  inclined,  also,  to  regard  the  limits  especially  marked  out  by 

the  constitution  as  the  only  limits  to  his  personal  authority.     The  truths 

which  he  refused  to  comprehend  or  to  listen  to,  which  fell  from  the  lips  of 

his  most  devoted  partisans  and  from  those  of  his  sister  and  the  princes  of 

his  family,  might  perhaps  have  found  acceptance  with  him  if  the  men  who 

were  officially  honoured  with  his  confidence  and  invested  with  authority 


1846-1847.]  ACTS    OF    THE   MINTSTEBS.  601 

had  resolved  either  to  make  him  listen  to  them  or  to  resign.  Whatever 
resolution  the  King  might  then  have  come  to,  he  would  never  have 
opposed  his  sovereign  will  to  truths  thus  constitutionally  expressed.  But 
he  had  recently  appealed  to  the  loyal  country,  and  it  had  replied  by  giving 
to  his  Cabinet  the  strongest  majority  it  had  as  yet  obtained.  In  the  eyes  of 
the  King  this  was  sufficient,  and  he  did  not  inquire  whether  this  majority 
was  a  genuine  expression  of  public  feeling,  nor  how  it  had  issued  from  the 
electoral  urn ;  for  it  supported  a  Ministry  which  was  according  to  his 
heart,  and  it  seemed  to  have  been  obtained  by  his  own  unflinching  policy. 
Louis  Philippe  continued  to  follow  the  policy  which  he  considered  infal- 
lible, and  advanced  towards  the  abyss. 

As  this  prince  nevertheless  observed,  under   every  circumstance,  the 
strict  letter  of  the  constitution,  the  honour  of  having  done 

.  .  The  Minister 

so   remains   his  in  history,  although  it  was  powerless  to   alone  responsible 

for  events. 

preserve  his  throne  against  the  course  of  events.  The  legal 
responsibility  belonged  entirely  to  his  councillors,  to  the  Cabinet  of  the 
29th  October,  and  especially  to  the  doctrinaires  who,  during  the  last  seven 
years,  had  had  the  direction  of  the  home  and  foreign  affairs  of  France. 
God  alone  sounds  human  hearts,  and  He  alone  knows  by  what  strange 
infatuation  for  the  possession  of  power,  or  by  what  just  and  formidable 
apprehensions,  the  King's  councillors  were  induced  to  abstain  from  having 
recourse  to  the  only  means  of  enlightening  him  indicated  by  the  charter. 
They  refused  to  do  so,  although  various  warnings  were  no  more  wanting 
to  them  than  there  had  been  to  the  men  whom,  twenty  years  before,  they 
had  hurled  from  power.  They  themselves  being  at  that  period  zealous 
champions  of  Liberalism,  and  at  the  head  of  the  constitutional  opposition, 
had  vehemently  lauded  in  numerous  publications  the  institutions  which 
they  now  seemed  to  dread.  At  that  time  they,  in  common  with  all  the 
friends  of  the  constitutional  cause,  regarded  the  verdict  of  a  jury  as  the 
utterance  of  the  public  conscience,  a  free  press  as  the  nation's  grand  voice, 
Paris  as  the  heart  and  head  of  France,  and  the  National  Guard  as  France 
itself ;  and  now  they  had  come  to  fear,  in  political  causes,  the  verdicts  of 
juries — to  see  all  the  organs  of  public  opinion,  all  the  great  journals,  with 
one  exception,  opposed  to  them — to  reckon  amongst  their  adversaries  the 
whole  of  the  deputies  sent  to  the  Elective  Chamber  by  Paris,  and  to  be 
afraid  to  assemble  that  National  Guard  to  which  they  had  themselves 
confided  the  national  institutions.     They  had  aroused  against  their  system, 


602  TRENCH  INTERVENTION.     [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VII. 

in  the  Elective  Chamber,  the  Left  Centre  and  the  Third  Party,  the  Left 
Dynastic,  and  those  of  the  old  and  new  Conservatives,  who  perceived  the 
necessity  of  founding  the  policy  of  the  Government  on  larger  and  more 
liberal  bases ;  whilst  at  the  same  time  they  had  to  encounter,  besides  the 
extreme  and  irreconcilable  parties,  the  majority  of  the  clergy  as  well  as 
most  of  the  celebrated  men  who  had  sincerely  served  or  accepted  the 
new  monarchy,  and  saw,  in  the  front  rank  of  the  parliamentary 
Opposition,  M.  Thiers,  who  had  been  so  long  immovable  in  the  policy 
of  resistance. 

Whilst  the  action  of  the  Government  seemed  thus  paralysed,  as  it 
were,  within  the  country,  it  was  also  powerless  abroad  in  consequence 
of  its  fatal  dissension  with  England  on  the  subject  of  the  Spanish  mar- 
riages. The  two  powers  were,  however,  agreed  in  supporting  in  Portugal 
the  throne  of  the  young  Queen  Donna  Maria,  which  had  been  shaken  by 
the  twofold  insurrection  of  the  Miguelists  and  the  Ultra-Radical  party. 
The  Queen  in  this  extremity  invoked  the  aid  of  the  powers  who  had 
signed  with  her   the  Treaty  of  the   Quadruple    Alliance. 

Armed  interven-  ,    ~       .       .  n  n11  „ 

tion  in  Portugal,  England,  France,  and  Spam  interfered,  and  the  throne  ot 
Donna  Maria  was  saved.  But  the  French  Government 
was  powerless  in  Switzerland,  where  Radicalism  had  overthrown  the  con- 
stitutions of  many  cantons,  and  had  obtained  the  ascendancy  in  the  Diet 
assembled  at  Berne.  The  latter  having  sent  to  the  canton  of  Lucerne  a 
formal  order  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,  a  league  called  the 
Sunderbund  was  then  formed  between  the  seven  Catholic 

The  Sunderbund  .  . 

league  in  Swit-      cantons  for  the  purpose  or  preserving;  their  cantonal  autno- 

zerland,  184,7. 

rity  against  the  usurpers  of  the  federal  power,  and  the  Diet, 
at  the  instigation  of  the  revolutionary  and  Radical  party,  threatened  to 
have  recourse  to  force  for  the  purpose  of  dissolving  it.  France  and  the 
other  powers  interposed  between  the  two  parties  and  offered  their  media- 
tion ;  but  difficulties  put  forward  by  Lord  Palmerston,  who  was  always 
eager  to  neutralize  French  influence,  caused  this  mediation  to  fail  in  its 
object,  and  rendered  fruitless  all  the  efforts  of  France  to  prevent  a 
fratricidal  struggle  on  its  frontiers.  The  Diet  sent  a  formidable  army 
into  the  field  under  the  command  of  General  Dufour,  and  the  league  of 
the  Sunderbund  was  in  a  few  weeks  broken  and  dissolved. 

A  circumstance  still  more  injurious  to  the  influence  of  France  had 


1846-1847.]  M.    GUIZOT    MADE    PRESIDENT.  603 

recently  taken  place  in  Italy.  Astonished  and  disturbed  by  the  liberal 
reforms  of  Pius  IX.  in  the  Papal  States,  and  emboldened  also  by  the 
rupture  between  England  and  France,  Austria  had  entered  the  possessions 
of  the  Holy  See  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  her  Italian  possessions  from 
the    contagion    of  Liberalism.      Her    troops    had    entered 

-p,  „     ,  .  />     t  t      i     Occupation  of 

Jb  errara,  in  spite  oi  the  energetic  protests   ot  the   cardinal   Ferrara  by  the 

i  /*  n  •  r>  Austrians,  1847. 

legate   (August,  1847),  and  the  occupation  of  that  fortress 

by  the  Austrians  had  thus  all  the  characteristics  of  an  armed  invasion.* 

Irritated  public  opinion  associated  this  fact  with  the  deplorable  act  by 
which  the  republic  of  Cracow  had  been,  in  the  course  of  the  preceding 
year,  annexed  to  Austria,  with  the  consent  of  Russia  and  Prussia ;  and  it 
bitterly  reproached  the  Cabinet  with  its  abandonment  of  the  liberal 
cause  in  Europe,  with  its  ill  will  towards  Italy,  and  its  weakness  and 
powerlessness  in  its  relations  with  Austria  and  the  other  great  powers  of 
Europe. 

Such  was  the  position  of  home  and  foreign  affairs  when,  in  consequence 
of  the  retirement  of  Marshal  Soult,j"  M.  G-uizot  became  President  of  the 
Council,   September,    1847.      The  eminent  man  who  had 

Guizot  made 

hitherto  been  only  the  moral  head  of  the  Cabinet  now  became    President  of  the 

J  Cabinet. 

so  ostensibly  and  really  ;  and  this  event  was  very  fairly  re- 
garded as  a  proof  of  a  determination  to  persist  indefinitely  in  a  policy  the 
unpopularity  of  which  had  now   reached  its  height.^     The  Opposition 
then  did  what  had  been  done  often  and   successfully  in  a  neighbouring 
country.     It  organized  an   agitation  throughout  France ;  its  forces,  con- 

*  A  clause  in  the  treaties  of  Vienna  authorized  Austria  to  retain  a  garrison  in 
Ferrara,  but  not  to  seize  it  by  force  and  establish  herself  there  in  spite  of  the  pontifical 
authority. 

t  Marshal  Soult,  Duke  of  Dalmatia,  was  promoted  to  the  dignity  of  marshal 
general. 

X  The  Ministry  had  already  been  entirely  remodelled.  The  King  had  summoned  to 
his  Council  some  men  of  merit,  who  were  all  in  possession  of  the  public  esteem,  and  for 
various  reasons  deserved  it.  M.  Hubert  had  recently  succeeded  M.  Martin  as  Minister 
of  Justice,  General  Trezel  was  made  Minister  of  War  in  1847,  the  Duke  of  Montebello 
Minister  for  Naval  Affairs,  and  M.  Jayr  replaced  as  Minister  of  Public  Works  M. 
Dumon,  who  himself  succeeded  M.  Lacave-Laplagne  as  Minister  of  Finance.  Of  all 
the  members  of  the  Cabinet  of  October,  1840,  there  only  remained  three,  M.  Cunin- 
Gridain,  Minister  of  Agriculture  and  Commerce  (who  confined  himself  exclusively  to 
the  details  of  his  department),  MM.  Guizot  and  Duchatel,  in  whom  were  personified 
during  seven  years  the  political  tendencies  of  the  Cabinet. 


60-4  BEFOKM   BANQUETS.  [BOOE  V.  CHAP.  VII. 

centrated  in  consequence  of  imprudent  legal  and  fiscal  measures,  in  a  small 
number  of  powerful  journals,  formidable  instruments  of  warfare,*  all  ex- 
ploded at  the  same  moment.  It  had  recourse  also  to  other  means  for  rousing 
Agitation  of  the     and  agitating  the  people.     To  this  end,  for  two  months  past, 

reform  banquets.    n  j.      i      i    i  i     •        -r»  i,i  •       •       i 

banquets  had  been  organized  in  Fans  and  the  principal 
towns  in  the  kingdom,  at  which  those  who  wished  to  strike  the  dynasty 
at  its  roots  had  unhappily  mixed  with  many  who  desired,  by  reforming, 
to  strengthen  it.  In  the  first  rank  of  these  political  agitators  was  M.  de 
Lamar  tine,  whose  work  on  the  G-irondins  was  at  this  period  creating  an 
immense  and  fatal  noise.f  The  author  had  three  years  previously 
openly  separated  himself  from  the  political  measures  of  the  Cabinet, 
preserving  an  independent  position  in  the  midst  of  the  Opposition.  The 
celebrated  banquet  over  which  he  presided  at  Macon,  where  he 
threatened  the  Government  with  a  new  revolution,  which  would  be 
that  of  public  conscience,  the  revolution  of  contempt,  was  a  frightful 
symptom  of  the  general  state  of  public  opinion,  and  had  all  the  character 
of  a  veritable  political  event.  But  the  principal  and  most  ardent 
organizer  of  the  agitation  and  the  banquets  was  M.  Duvergier  de  Hauranne, 
an  old  and  zealous  partisan  of  the  doctrinaires,  and  first  instigator  of  the 
coalition  of  1838,  and  who  now,  in  his  impassioned  and  indignant 
polemics,  both  in  the  tribune  and  the  press,  overwhelmed  his  old  political 
allies,  the  Ministers  of  the  29th  October,  with  the  same  reproaches  which 
he  had  formerly  hurled  at  the  Mole  Cabinet,  his  heaviest  charge  being 
that  it  was  only  by  means  of  bribery  and  corruption  they  maintained 
themselves  in  power  and  carried  on  the  Government.  The  prejudiced 
opinion  of  the  public  led  them  to  receive  and  to  credit  the  most  absurd 
and  often  the  most  unfounded  charges,  and  a  fatal  concurrence  of  cir- 
cumstances during  the  year  1847  gave  dangerous  food  to  the  popular  ill 


*  It  is  a  political  axiom  in  many  free  countries  that  the  power  of  the  periodical 
press  is  weakened  by  being  disseminated  among  a  large  number  of  journals.  These 
are,  instead  of  being  the  guides  of  the  public,  nothing  more  than  its  echoes  ;  they 
must  follow  the  popular  opinion,  but  are  powerless  to  direct  it. 

*f*  This  book,  in  throwing  a  poetical  gloss  over  sinister  characters,  and  over  some  of 
the  darkest  days  of  the  Eevolution,  produced  in  the  public  mind  a  sensation  analogous 
to  that  which  had  been  attained  by  different  means  in  1830  by  other  works  still  cele- 
brated. It  familiarized  minds  with  the  thought  of  a  new  revolution,  and  weakened  the 
horror  of  crimes  committed  in  the  first. 


1846-1847.]  PEE  SAGES    OE   EYIL.  605 

will  and  irritation.     The  votes  of  the  majority  of  the  Elective  Chamber 
had  dismissed  a  lame  number    of  complaints   respecting    „       ,  •  , 

°  Eemarkable  con- 

the    electioneering  manceuvres,  the   abuse    of   ministerial    <!urrence  of  un- 

°  7  fortunate  events, 

favour  and  of  parliamentary  influence,  but  they  had  not  1847' 
carried  conviction  to  the  public  mind.  Many  facts  were  made  manifest, 
whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  various  inquiries,  forced  on  by  the  public 
outcry,  unveiled,  in  some  of  the  offices  under  the  Ministers  of  War  and 
Marine,  considerable  frauds  committed,  to  the  great  injury  of  the  state, 
by  subaltern  agents  of  those  in  power.*  These  revelations,  grave  enough 
in  themselves,  proved  but  the  prelude  to  still  greater  scandals.  Two 
peers  of  France,  M.  Teste  and  M.  Despans  de  Cubieres,  both  of  them 
formerly  Ministers,  and  till  recently  members  of  the  Cabinet, j"  were  de- 
nounced, with  their  accomplices,  and  sent  to  trial,  the  former  for  receiving 
bribes  in  the  exercise  of  his  duties,  the  second  for  having  facilitated  the 
concession  of  a  mine  by  means  of  corruption  exercised  on  a  Minister  of 
State.  The  Court  of  Peers  did  not  shrink  from  their  duty,  and  pronounced 
them  both  guilty.  M.  Teste,  before  judgment  was  given,  attempted  to 
commit  suicide.  Another  suicide,  the  cause  of  which  was  unknown,  that 
of  Count  Bresson,  our  ambassador  at  Naples,  was  the  object  of  strange 
and  mysterious  commentaries ;  when,  in  the  highest  grade  of  society,  a 
crime,  unheard  of  and  frightful,  froze  the  public  with  stupefaction  and 
horror.  The  Duchess  de  Praslin,  daughter  of  Marshal  Sebastiani,  was 
found  dead,  murdered  in  the  most  barbarous  manner.  The  murderer 
was  her  husband,  who  prevented  his  arrest  by  poisoning  himself.  Never 
in  the  days  of  pagan  antiquity  were  the  fall  and  obsequies  of  empires 
presaged  by  more  numerous  and  more  sinister  omens  than  appeared  in 
France  at  the  approach  of  the  year  1848.  All  these  facts  made  a  deep 
and  remarkable  impression  en  the  labouring  classes.  These,  too  much 
neglected  by  the  great  public  powers,!  an(*  deceived,  after  1830,  in  their 

*  The  Ministers  of  War  and  of  Marine  were  then  M.  Moline  de  Saint- Yon  and  M. 
Mackau.  Their  high  probity  sheltered  them  from  all  suspicion,  but  their  confidence 
had  been  abused  and  they  were  responsible.  They  considered  it  their  duty  to  send  in 
their  resignations,  and  they  were  succeeded  by  M.  Trezel  and  M.  de  Montebello. 

t  M.  Teste  had  been  Minister  of  Public  Works  and  of  Justice,  and  M.  Despans  de 
Cubiere  Minister  of  War. 

X  If  any  one  doubts  this  let  him  see  all  that  has  been  done  in  England  to  ameliorate 
the  condition  of  the  numerous  classes  during  the  last  half-generation,  and  without 


606  PUBLIC    CALAMITIES.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VII. 

legitimate  hopes,  received  with  avidity  innumerable  productions,  literary, 
economic,  and  historical,  in  which  society  at  large  was  held  up  in  the 
most  ludicrous  colours  to  their  hatred  and  contempt.  These  suffering 
classes,  irritated  and  deprived  of  all  instruction,  offered  also  in  almost  all 
cases  a  too  easy  prize  to  the  new  theorists,  successors  of  Saint  Simon,  of 
Fourier,  of  Babceuf.  They  intoxicated  themselves  with  the  poison  of 
the  socialists,  with  paradoxical  doctrines  subversive  of  religion,  of  family 
ties,  of  property,  destructive  at  length  of  liberty  itself;  and  in  their 
unknown  haunts  the  secret  societies,  compressed  and  conquered  but  not 
destroyed,  still  counted  numerous  recruits  quivering  with  passion,  with 
vengeance,  and  with  lust. 

To  great  scandals  were  then  added  great  misfortunes ;  the  perturba- 
tions brought  into  commercial  affairs  ,in  the  train  of  the 

Public  calamities. 

troubles  of  the  two  preceding  years,  and  still  more  the  un- 
bridled abuse  of  speculation  and  the  fever  of  stockjobbing,  had  caused 
in  all  ranks  numberless  failures.  The  very  elements  seemed  now  to  be 
charged  with  human  passions,  to  increase  the  public  miseries.  Very 
frequent  conflagrations  at  the  end  of  the  preceding  reign  desolated  our 
fields,  and  never  had  so  many  shipwrecks  shattered  the  trade  and  the 
shipping  of  France  as  in  that  fatal  year  1847.  The  Ministry,  as  often 
happens  after  a  long  and  unpopular  possession  of  power,  was  made  re- 
sponsible for  its  own  powerlessness  and  the  miscarriage  of  its  best  inten- 
tions, and  the  very  weapons  it  had  called  into  existence  were  now  used 
against  itself;  and  in  spite  of  the  majority  they  had  created,  the 
Ministers,  particularly  those  who  personified  the  politics  of  the  Cabinet, 
encountered  an  opposition  so  much  the  more  violent  and  pitiless  that 
they,  when  in  opposition,  were  exacting  and  implacable,  and  had  now 
shown  themselves  incapable  of  doing  other  or  better  than  their  opponents. 
In  vain  our  valiant  army  in  Africa  threw  a  last  lustre  upon  the  reign ;  it 
_  .    .  .       „       had  subdued  the  Kabyles  and  driven  the   Emir  to  his  last 

Submission  of  J 

Abd-ei-Kader.  retreat.  Abd-el-Kader  surrendered  to  Lamoriciere,  thus 
brilliantly  inaugurating  the  Duke  d'Aumale's  government  of  Algeria. 
But  at  this  epoch,  alas!  as  under  Charles  X.,  after  the  conquest  of 
Algeria,  the  country  showed  itself  but  little  touched  by  a  glory  of  which 

going  as  far  as  this,  and  without  leaving  France,  let  him  learn  all  the  legislative 
measures  adopted  by  us  during  the  past  fifteen  years  in  the  interest  of  the  working 
population. 


1846-1847-]  SUBMISSION   OP   ABD-EL-KADEB.  607 

some  part  redounded  on  an  unpopular  Ministry,  which,  by  holding 
on  to  power  after  the  opinion  of  the  country  was  against  it,  had  in- 
flamed, strengthened,  and  rallied  against  itself  the  entire  opposition  united 
at  the  numerous  banquets  which  agitated  France  in  the  name  of  parlia- 
mentary and  electoral  reform.  Such  were  the  events  forerunning  the 
legislative  session  of  1848,  the  last  of  the  reign. 


60S  MINISTERIAL    POLICY.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VIII. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

LEGISLATIVE    SESSION    OF    1848 REVOLUTION    OF    FEBRUARY. 

January  and  February,  1848. 

At  the  end  of  the  year  1847  nothing  was  irrevocably  lost.  Matters, 
„   ..   .  it  is  true,  weie  pushed  to   an  extreme  both  from  within 

Preliminary  re-  r  , 

marks-  and    from    without;     but    the    elasticity   of  constitutional 

institutions  is  great,  and  the  throne  of  July,  although  tottering  and 
threatened,  might  still  have  recovered  itself.  The  Ministry,  while  alto- 
gether slighting  the  spirit  of  the  charter,  to  retain  their  own  power  by 
the  aid  of  a  factitious  majority,  had  still  scrupulously  observed  in  its  acts 
all  legal  forms,  and  had  taken  none  of  those  irreparable  steps  which  place 
an  abyss  between  a  people  and  a  dynasty,  and  against  which  there  is  no 
possible  resource  but  in  a  revolution.  If  at  this  period,  and  before  the 
assembling  of  the  Chambers,  the  Ministry  had  retired  without  violent 
pressure,  if  it  had  constitutionally  given  way  to  an  administration  of  a 
very  moderate  character,  and  one  prepared  to  make  some  indispensable 
concessions  to  public  opinion  in  the  path  of  reform,  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  the  year  1848  would  never  have  had  its  three  days,  and  that 
the  dynasty  of  July  might  have  remained  on  the  throne.  Sixteen  years 
before  this  period  England  had  passed  through  one  of  her  great  crises. 
She  had  energetically  pronounced  for  a  fundamental  and  complete  reform 
in  the  electoral  law.  The  Duke  of  Wellington,  the  Prime  Minister  of  the 
Tory  Cabinet,  believed  it  prudent  not  to  prolong  a  resistance  which  he 
considered  dangerous,  and  retired  before  the  national  vote.  The  chief  of 
the  French  Government  in  1848  did  not  consider  it  his  duty  to  act  thus 
under  analogous  circumstances.  That  which  the  illustrious  warrior  in 
possession  of  the  most  popular  renown  had  not  dared  to  do  with  our 
neighbour,  M.  Guizot  dared  with  us  under  the  weight  of  an  immense 
unpopularity.     He  resisted  the  wishes  universally  expressed  for  modify- 


Jan.  and  Feb.  1848.]  STORMY  DEBATES.  609 

ing  the  electoral  law  and  the  qualification  for  candidates  for  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies.*  Impotent  to  gain  the  public  vote  for  himself,  he  disdained 
it,  he  braved  it ;  and  while  the  storm  was  growling  from  every 
point  of  the  political  horizon,  the  Cabinet  presented  itself  before  the 
re-assembled  Chambers  with  its  head  erect  and  bold,  and  with  death  at 
its  roots. 

It  accelerated  the  tempest  by  inserting  at  the  commencement  of  the 
session  in  the  address  to  the  throne,  after  some  promises  of  progressive 
ameliorations,  an  imprudent  phrase,  by  which  the  Opposition  considered 
that  all  the  opponents  of  the  administration  were  accused  of  cherish- 
ing blind  or  guilty  passions,  and  were  stigmatized  as  enemies  to  the 
monarchy.  The  drawing  up  of  the  address  in  answer  to  this  speech  gave 
rise  to  a  discussion  in  the  two  Chambers  which  was  rendered  solemn  by 
the  serious  position  of  affairs.  The  principal  interest  of  the  debate  in 
the  Chamber  of  Peers  was  centred  in  the  foreign  policy  of 

Foreign  policy. 

the  Cabinet,  which  was  accused  of  having  displayed,  in  the 
speech  from  the  throne,  too  much  deference  for  Austria,  by  remaining 
silent  with  respect  to  the  reforms  promised  by  Pope  Pius  IX.  and  some 
other  of  the  Italian  princes.  M.  Guizot  replied  to  this  reproach  by 
paying  homage  to  the  efforts  of  the  Holy  Father,  whilst  at  the  same  time 
he  pointed  out  the  danger  of  exciting  the  revolutionary  passions  already 
too  much  inflamed  in  Italy,  where  demagogism,  rallied  under  Mazzini's 
flag,  threatened,  as  usual,  to  compromise,  by  lamentable  excesses,  the 
reforms  already  effected  or  projected. 

The  Duke  de  Broglie  defended  the  policy  of  the  Ministry  on  the  Swiss 
question.  He  drew  a  gloomy  picture  of  the  progress  of  Radicalism  in 
many  of  the  Swiss  cantons,  in  which  it  had  been  rendered  triumphant  by 
violent  revolutions  and  the  recent  victory  obtained  by  the  arms  of  the 

*  Of  these  two  reforms,  the  second,  relative  to  the  incompatibility  between  the 
duties  of  deputy  and  many  public  and  salaried  offices,  seemed  to  all  the  most  urgent. 
On  electoral  reform  opinions  were  very  divided.  According  to  the  most  general 
expression  of  opinion  this  should  have  consisted  in  admitting  as  electors  all  citizens 
whose  names  appeared  on  the  jury  lists,  and  by  consequence  all  those  who  held  any 
public  employment,  or  who  had  taken  their  grades  in  the  liberal  professions,  and  those 
designated  under  the  name  of  capacites.  On  the  other  hand,  by  the  Legitimist  Party 
and  the  Third  Party,  it  was  suggested  to  give  the  right  of  the  suffrage  to  all  citizens 
inscribed  on  the  roll  of  direct  taxation,  combining  this  mode  of  election  with 
V election  a  deux  degres.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  if  some  such  reform  had  been 
effected  under  King  Louis  Philippe,  Prance  would  have  been  spared  the  catastrophe  of 
1848. 

VOL.  II.  *  E  R 


610  AMENDMENT    IN    THE    ADDRESS.        [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VIII. 

Diet  over  the  league  of  the  Sunderbund.  He  spoke  of  this  war,  under- 
taken on  the  pretext  of  expelling  the  Jesuits  from  the  Catholic  cantons, 
as  an  impious  war,  subversive  of  the  cantonal  rights  and  independence, 
and  as  contrary  to  liberty  as  to  justice.  He  extolled  the  efforts  made  by 
the  Cabinet  to  prevent  it,  and  expressed  vehement  regrets  that  it  had  not 
been  prevented  by  the  mediation  of  France  and  the  other  European 
powers. 

These  great  questions  were  discussed  with  even  more  force  and  vehe- 
mence in  the  debate  on  the  address  which  took  place  in  the  Elective 
Chamber.  Many  of  the  most  eminent  orators,  including  MM.  de  Lamar- 
tine,  Odillon  Barrot,  and  Thiers,  denounced  the  Cabinet  to  the  country 
as  guilty  of  having  sacrificed  to  Austria  the  liberal  cause  in  Poland,  Italy, 
and  Switzerland.  M.  Gruizot  had  recourse,  in  his  defence,  to  the  principal 
arguments  already  produced  in  the  Chamber  of  Peers,  and  produced 
proofs  that,  in  respect  to  Poland,  his  wishes  had  been  overruled  by  the 
force  of  circumstances,  and  that  in  Italy  and  Switzerland  he  had  defended 
really  liberal  interests;  but  added  that  he  could  not  blame  Austria 
for  opposing  the  rash  and  dangerous  attempts  of  the  revolutionary  Radi- 
cals. Finally,  he  very  skilfully  put  M.  Thiers  in  antagonism  with  himself, 
by  reminding  the  Chamber  of  the  acts  of  his  Ministry  in  1836,  and  his 
formal  orders  for  the  expulsion  of  those  whom  he  now  protected.  He 
was  less  happy,  however,  when  he  contended  that  the  Spanish  marriages 
had  compelled  France  to  strengthen  her  alliance  with  the  powers  of  the 
North,  and  to  allow  them  to  assume  a  wider  influence  in  the  policy  of 
Europe. 

The  Ministry  displayed  still  greater  weakness  when  it  attempted  to 
rebut  the  reproach  of  electoral  corruption  hurled  against  it 

Home  policy.  .  •  .  . 

by  eminent  orators  on  every  bench  of  the  Opposition,  and, 
amongst  others,  by  M.  Billault,  who  put  himself  forward  as  the  avenger  of 
outraged  public  morality,  and  who  submitted  the  following  amendment  to 

the  draft  of  the  address: — "  We  associate   ourselves,  Sire, 

Amendment  ot 

M,  Billault  to  ^th  the  wishes  of  your  Majesty  by  demanding  of  your 
address.  Government  that  it  should  before  all  things  exert  itself  to 

the  utmost  to  develop  the  morality  of  the  people,  and  no  longer  to  enfeeble 
it  by  fatal  examples."  M.  Billault  then  appealed  to  the  conscience  of  the 
Chamber,  by  showing  that  the  electors  sold  their  votes  for  offices ;  that  the 
deputies  looked  to  the  Ministers  to  reimburse  them  for  the   expenses  of 


Jan.  and  Feb.  1848.]       de  tocqtteville's  speech.  611 

their  election  ;  and  that  the  Ministers,  although,  doubtless,  honest  them- 
selves, governed  by  these  detestable  means.  The  orator  also  reproached 
the  doctrinaires  in  the  Cabinet,  MINI.  Guizot  and  Duchatel,  with  having 
abandoned  their  principles  on  various  occasions  for  the  sake  of  retaining 
power.  In  support  of  these  accusations  he  enumerated  a  long  series  of 
facts  which  were  already  known,  and  the  fatal  consequences  of  which  to 
the  morality  of  the  country  he  forcibly  set  forth.  But  M.  de  Tocqueville 
had  already,  in  a  prophetical  discourse,  branded  with 
emotion  and  indignation  these  corrupting  examples.  "lam  lo^ue °iief' de 
dismayed,"  he  said,  "  at  the  conclusions  deduced  by 
Europe  against  our  principles  by  the  circumstances  which  are  going  on 
under  our  eyes ;  and  if  such  conclusions  are  deduced  by  Europe,  what 
will  not  be  deduced  by  the  population  which  watches  us  as  we  act  in  the 
political  theatre  ?  What  effect  will  such  a  spectacle  have  upon  them  ? 
Do  you  not  see  that  social  passions  are  already  being  substituted  for 
political  passions,  and  that  every  day  gives  greater  strength  to  the 
doctrines  whose  whole  tendency  is  the  destruction  of  all  the  foundations  of 
society  ?  My  profound  conviction  is  that  we  are  sleeping  on  a  volcano. 
It  would  be  wrong  to  assert  that  the  Government  has  produced  all  this 
evil,  but  it  has  certainly  had  some  share  in  producing  it,  and  has  very 
greatly  contributed  to  produce  profound  disturbance  in  public  morals, 
which  has  reacted  on  private  morals.  I  do  not  accuse  the  members  of 
the  Cabinet  of  bad  intentions,  but  I  assert  that  they  have  effected  a 
revolution  by  immoral  means,  by  influencing  men  through  their  passions 
and  their  interests,  and  even  their  vices,  and  they  have  thus  drawn 
around  them  a  circle  of  dishonest  men.  .  .  .  Ministers  have  never  be- 
fore possessed  such  means  of  corruption,  as  none  have  ever  before  been 
in  the  presence  of  a  class  so  open  to  corruption.  I  know  that  they  have 
been  drawn  by  a  species  of  fatality  to  the  edge  of  a  dangerous  precipice, 
but  it  is  their  own  fault  that  they  have  allowed  themselves  to  be  so 
drawn.  It  is  a  fatality  by  which  they  have  been  induced  to  create  so 
many  new  offices,  a  fatality  which  has  led  them  to  divide  already  existing 
offices,  and  a  fatality  which  has  caused  them  arbitrarily  to  create  new 
ones."  The  orator  cited  many  recent  facts  which  showed  that  function- 
aries had  not  only  been  deprived  of  their  offices,  for  having  voted 
according  to  their  consciences,  but  that  notorious  agents  of  Government 
corruption   had  been  scandalously  well  rewarded ;    and  then  added : — 

R  r  2 


612 


DEBATE    ON    BEEOBM.  [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VIII. 


"  It  is  by  such  acts  as  these  that  great  catastrophes  are  brought  about. 
Search  through  history  for  the  causes  which  have  deprived  the  governing 
classes  of  power,  and  you  will  find  that  the  latter  have  only  lost  it  when 
they  have  rendered  themselves,  by  their  egotism,  unworthy  of  retaining 
it.  .  .  .  The  evils  which  I  point  out  have  already  produced  the  most 
serious  revolutions;  and  do  you  not  now  perceive  that  the  soil  of 
Europe  is  trembling  beneath  your  feet?  Do  you  not  feel  the  breath 
of  revolution  in  the  air  ?  My  firm  conviction  is  that  public  morals 
have  come  to  that  point  of  degradation  at  which  fresh  disturbances 
are  inevitable.  Do  you  know  what  will  probably  come  to  pass 
within  the  next  two  years,  within  the  next  year,  and  even,  perhaps, 
to-morrow  ?  What  you  know  only  is  that  a  tempest  is  brooding 
over  the  horizon,  that  it  is  advancing  towards  and  will  soon  be  upon 
you.  .  .  .  Retain  your  laws  if  you  choose,  but,  for  God's  sake,  change 
the  spirit  of  your  government — that  spirit  which  is  plunging  you  into 
the  abyss." 

A  still  more  violent  debate  took  place  respecting  the  answer  to  that 
,,  phrase  of  the  speech  from  the  throne,  by  which  many 
reform  banquets.  peers  an(j  a  hundred  deputies,  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
banquets  by  which  France  had  been  agitated,  considered  themselves  to 
be  particularly  attacked ;  and  the  legality  of  those  banquets  was  at  the 
same  time  discussed  with  extreme  violence.  The  Keeper  of  the  Seals, 
M.  Hebert,  in  an  eloquent  and  sensible  speech,  enumerated  the  grounds 
on  which  the  Government  would  have  the  right  to  prevent  such 
assemblies  when  they  tended  to  disturb  the  public  peace,  and  declared 
that  it  would  not  give  way  before  any  seditious  manifestation.  To  this 
defiance  M.   Duvergier   de  Hauranne  replied  by  another. 

Defiance  of  M. 

Duvergier  de        He  would  not  yield,  he  said,  to  the  ukase  of  a  Minister,  and 

Hauranne. 

he  was  ready  to  join  all  who,  by  some  decided  act  of  resis- 
tance, would  prove  that  the  rights  of  Frenchmen  might  not  be  destroyed 
by  a  mere  decree  of  the  police.  This  proof  was  to  consist  in  the  assembly 
of  the  principal  deputies  of  the  opposition  at  a  reform  banquet  which  had 
been  already  arranged  to  take  place  in  the  12th  Arrondissement  of  Paris, 
and  which  had  been  interdicted  by  the  authorities.  This  formidable 
defiance,  which  had  the  effect  of  transferring  the  debate  from  the  floors 
of  the  Chambers  to  the  public  thoroughfares,  was  followed  by  the  vote 


Jan.  and  Feb.  1848.]         agitation  IK  erance.  613 

of  the  address,  in  which  the  Opposition  had  not  succeeded  in  procuring 
a  single  amendment,  or  the  insertion  of  any  decided  promise  of  reform  on 
the  part  of  the  Ministry. 

The  day  for  the  announced  demonstration  drew  near.  Paris,  anxious 
and  agitated,  without  foreseeing  any  great  catastrophe,  was  nevertheless 
in  expectation  of  the  occurrence  of  serious  events,  and  of  one  of  those 
blows  the  shock  of  which,  says  Bossuet,  is  felt  so  far  around.  The 
stormy  debates  on  the  address  had  caused  the  greatest  excitement 
amongst  the  numerous  classes  of  the  population  which  were  Agitation  inParis 
already  disturbed  and  inflamed  by  the  speeches  delivered 
at  the  seventy  reform  banquets  which  had  taken  place  in  the  principal 
cities  of  the  kingdom.  The  Eepublican  and  Legitimist  enemies  of  the 
dynasty,  so  long  held  in  check  by  a  citizenship  so  long  devoted 
to  the  maintenance  of  the  existing  state  of  affairs,  at  the  present 
time  found  its  citizenship  discontented  and  divided.  The  hope  of  obtain- 
ing the  revenge  so  long  adjourned  had  returned  to  them ;  and  the  secret 
societies,  the  anarchists,  and  the  political  refugees,  recruited  by  the 
demagogues,  resumed  their  courage,  silently  armed  themselves,  and  pre- 
pared for  the  final  struggle  with  the  Monarchy. 

Intimidated,  with  too  much  reason,  by  these  terrifying  symptoms,  the 
deputies  of  the  dynastic  Opposition  and  the  Cabinet  itself  hesitated  to 
provoke  a  dangerous  explosion,  and  they  agreed  that  the  banquet  demon- 
stration should  be  reduced  to  a  simple  meeting,  and  such  formal  proceed- 
ings as  would  be  sufficient  to  enable  the  legal  authorities  of  the  country 
to  decide  the  question  of  the  right  of  holding  public  meetings.  The 
Radical  Opposition,  however,  which  desired  to  struggle  at  any  price, 
would  not  rest  contented  with  so  peaceable  an  arrangement.  Its  jour- 
nalists, its  deputies,  and  its  orators,  amongst  whom,  unfortunately,  was 
numbered  M.  de  Lamartine,  resolved  to  call  upon  the  schools,  the 
National  Guard,  and  all  Paris,  in  fact,  to  take  part  in  a  decided,  although 

pacific   demonstration,  which  was  announced   on   the   21st    _  ;;..    ,  „ 
-t  7  Political  Demon- 

February   for   the   morrow  in  the  Radical  journals,    The   ^Ju^d^r 
National  and  The  Reform.     On  the  unexpected  appearance  '  February  22« 
of  this  programme,  M.  Odillon  Barrot  and  his  friends  of  the  Dynastic 
Opposition  determined  not  to  take  part  in  the  banquet.     Being  divided, 
however,  between  the  honest  sentiment  which  led  them  to  abstain  from 


614  OTTTBTJEST    OP    THE    EETOLUTIOK.       [BoOK  V.  ChAP.  VIII. 

what  they  thought  might  cause  public  misfortunes  and  a  dread  of  losing 
their  popularity  by  appearing  to  shrink  from  danger,  and  being  at  the 
T  same    time  controlled    by    their    antecedents  and   a  fatal 

Impeachment  of  J 

the  Cabinet.  position,  they  deposited  in  the  bureau  of  the  Chamber  a 
formal  accusation  against  the  Cabinet,  which,  without  proving  of  any  ad- 
vantage to  themselves,  added  fresh  fuel  to  the  popular  excitement.  The 
dreaded  Kevolution  burst  forth  on  the  22nd  February,  amidst  shouts  of 
"  Long  live  Eeform  !"     "  Down  with  Guizot !" 

I  shall  give  but  few  details  of  these  sad  days,  and  I  shall  not  describe 

at  length  the  mournful  fall  of  the  dynasty  which  had  been 

1848,  February      for  eighteen  years  triumphant,  and  which  now,  abandoned 

22,  23,  and  24.  ,  ...  . 

by  all  those  who  had  received  it  with  acclamations,  was 
destroyed  by  an  insurrection.  A  few  days  sooner  a  Ministry  which,  had 
been  long  in  power,  and  which  had  not  retained  office  until  driven  from 
it  by  a  violent  revolutionary  pressure,  might  have  succeeded  another 
Cabinet  less  compromised  in  public  opinion.  But  it  was  now  too  late ; 
the  hour  for  regular  concessions  had  gone  by.  Feeble  at  first,  and  un- 
certain, the  insurrection  appeared,  on  the  first  day,  at  several  points  at 
once ;  at  the  Champs  Elysees,  on  the  Place  de  la  Concorde,  and  in  cer- 
tain faubourgs,  where  barricades  were  erected  and  abandoned.  The 
flames  which  were  everywhere  sullenly  brooding,  were  slow  to  burst 
forth,  but,  being  only  timidly  suppressed,  they  speedily  grew  fierce,  and 
on  the  second  day  had  involved  all  Paris.  All  hope,  however,  was  not 
yet  lost ;  the  resources  of  the  Government  were  great,  the  garrison  did 
its  duty,  and  various  regiments  hastened  to  march  upon  the  capital. 
But  the  National  Guard  answered  badly  to  the  Government  summons, 
and  the  few  weak  battalions  which  took  up  arms  manifested  too  evident 
sympathies  for  an  insurrection  the  apparent  object  of  which  was  electoral 
reform,  and  appeared  much  more  disposed  to  interfere  between  the 
regular  troops  and  the  insurgents  than  to  oppose  the  latter.  The 
adoption  of  this  attitude  by  the  National  Guard  at  length  made  the  King 
resolve  to  yield  to  necessity,  and  on  the   evening  of  the  22nd  February 

it    became    known    that    he    had    invited     M.    Mole    to 

M.  Mole  invited 

to  form  a  new       form  a  new  Cabinet.     Paris   now  immediately  illuminated, 
and  this  news  was   everywhere  received  with  tremendous 
acclamations  as  a  happy  omen  of  conciliation   and  peace.     But  on  this 
same  evening  a  fatality  caused  everything  to  be  lost. 


Jan-,  and  Feb.  1848.J       .   spread  oe  insurrection.  615 

A  column  of  the  populace  descended  by  the  Boulevards,  the  Faubourgs 
Saint  Martin  and  the  Temple,  and,  preceded  by  the  red  flag,  encountered 
a  battalion  of  infantry  of  the  line,  stationed  in  front  of  the  Foreign  Office, 
in  the  Boulevard  des  Capucines,  and  there  a  detestable  pistol-shot  fired 
against  the  troops  provoked  them  ;  without  awaiting  the  orders  of  their 
officers,  they  fired  upon  the  mob  which  crowded  the  Boulevard  and  the 
adjacent  streets,  and  in  an  instant  the  ground  was  strewn 

Bloody  episode 

with  victims  of  every  age   and  either  sex.     At  this  sight   on  the  Boulevard 

des  Capucines. 

the  fury  of  the  people  was  once  more  aroused  to  its  utmost 

pitch ;  the  dead  were  lifted  up  before  the  soldiers,  who  were  themselves 

seized  with  horror ;    placed,   bleeding  and  half  naked,   on  dead  carts, 

which    seem    to    have    been   present   in    anticipation,   and   promenaded 

through  the  Boulevards  and  the  most  remote   quarters  of  the  city   by 

torchlight,  to  the  cry  of  "  Vengeance  !  Vengeance  !"  and  the  sound  of  the 

tocsin,  which  spread  its  funeral  reverberations  through  the  horrors  of 

this  frightful  night.     The   fatal  news  flew  from  mouth  to  mouth  ;  the 

Faubourgs  arose;    Paris   became   covered  with   an  inter- 
Rapid  progress 
minable  network  of  barricades :  and  bv  the   morning  the    of  the  insurrec- 

quarter  of  the  Tuileries  was  almost  entirely  covered  with 
them.     Before  such  perils  as  these  M.  Mole  was  powerless,  and  withdrew; 
whilst  the  Court  perceived  that  a  vigorous  and  desperate  resistance  had 
become  absolutely  necessary. 

The  victor  of  the  Isly,  Marshal  Bugeaud,  was  appointed  before  day- 
break to  the  command-in-chief  of  the  troops.  He  had  under  his  orders 
Bedeau,  Lamoriciere,  and  other  tried  generals,  and  every  preparation 
was  made  for  a  bloody  and  decisive  struggle.  In  the  meantime  the 
King  entrusted  the  conduct  of  affairs  to  the  leaders  of  the 

MM.  Thiers  and 

Parliamentary  Opposition,  MM.  Thiers  and  Odillon  Barrot,    Barrot  invested 

with  power. 

who,  trusting  too  implicitly  to  their  popularity,  believed 
that  they  could  appease  the  Revolution  by  their  mere  words  and 
presence.  They  put  a  stop  to  the  firing  of  the  troops,  and  recalled 
Bugeaud,  who,  with  grief  and  rage,  saw  his  sword  broken  in  his  hands. 
Distracted  by  contrary  orders,  the  soldiers  remained  some  time  in  a  state 
of  indecision  and  inaction,  then  abandoned  the  barricades  to  the  insur- 
gents, and  to  a  great  extent  fraternized  with  them.  After  this  the 
latter  became  innumerable,  and  advanced  in  a  dense  mass  towards  the 
Tuileries. 


616  CEISIS    OF    THE    INSUEEECTIOIS'.       [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VIII. 

Louis  Philippe,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Queen,  mounted  his  horse, 
The  Kine's  last  anc^  reviewed  a^  the  Carrousel  several  regiments  and  a  few 
review.  weak  battalions  of  the   National    Guards.      The   regular 

troops  received  him  with  cries  of  ■"  Vive  le  Roil"  But  the  National 
Guards  replied  with  the  cry  of  "  Eeform  !  Eeform  !"  the  password  of  the 
Revolutionists,  and  the  discouraged  Monarch  re-entered  his  palace. 

The  conflict  had  already  ceased  everywhere  except  at  the  Palais 
Eoyal,  at  the  Chateau  d'Eau,  where  a  handful  of  brave  men,  well 
commanded,  listened  only  to  the  voice  of  honour  and  duty.  The 
post  was  ultimately  set  on  fire,  and  most  of  its  brave  defenders  were 
slain. 

I  abridge  the  recital  of  those  lamentable  scenes  in  which  are  seen  a 
monarch  so  horrified  at  bloodshed  as  to  refuse  to  alj.ow  it  for  his  own 
safety  and  that  of  the  monarchy ;  generals  prohibited  to  act ;  hitherto 
popular  statesmen,  such  as  MM.  Thiers  and  Barrot,  attempting  in  vain 
to  save  the  throne,  and  everywhere  ignored  and  insulted ;  regular  troops 
giving  way  without  fighting ;  and  the  citizen  militia,  0  !  madness !  so 
blinded  as  not  to  perceive  that  the  cause  which  was  falling  was  their 
own,  and  so  far  forgetful  of  their  duty  as  not  only  to  fail  to  respond  to  the 
summons  of  the  Government,  but  even  to  permit  some  of  their  own 
members,  in  their  own  uniform,  to  appear  amongst  the  insurgents.*  There 
was  madness  everywhere,  and  an  unfortunate  chance  kept  at  a  distance 
from  France  two  valiant  and  popular  princes,  the  Dukes  d'Aumale  and 
de  Joinville,  who  alone  were  capable,  at  this  period,  of  checking  and 
vanquishing  sedition.  The  insurrection  incessantly  increased,  filled  all 
the  approaches  to  the  Palace,  knocked  at  its  doors,  and  was  at  the  point 
of  bursting  throughvthem."j"  What  a  spectacle  then  was  presented  by 
the  ancient  home  of  the  French  sovereigns  !  Louis  Philippe  still  de- 
liberated. Beside  him  was  the  Queen,  filled  with  inexpressible  grief,  but 
resigned.  Around  him  were  the  princesses  in  tears,  stupefied  courtiers, 
mute  generals,  powerless  and  terrified  ministers.     The  word  abdication 

*  Scarcely  a  tenth  part  of  trie  citizen  militia  assumed  their  arms  in  the  days  of 
February,  and  of  this  number  a  very  small  portion  made  common  cause  with  the  insur- 
rectionists. It  is  untrue,  therefore,  that  the  National  Guard  overthrew  the  Government 
of  July,  the  defence  of  which  was  confided  to  it ;  but  it  is  too  true  that  it  allowed  it  to 
perish,  and  this  was  an. immense  fault  which  has  not  been  yet  forgotten. 
+  Apparet  domus  intus  et  atria  longa  patescunt ; 
Apparent  Priami  et  veterum  penetralia  regum. 


JAN.  AND  FEB.  1848.]       ABDICATION    OF    LOUIS    PHILIPPE.  6l7 

was  uttered ;  many  voices  repeated  it,  and  urged  the  King  to  consent 

to    and    sign   it.      Louis    Philippe,    apparently    calm   and    emotionless, 

took  his  pen  and  wrote  these  words,  "  I  abdicate,  in  favour 

of  the   Count  de  Paris,  my  grandson  ;  and  I  hope  that  he   Louis  Philippe, 

may  be  happier  than  I  have  been."     After  he  had  signed 

this  act  of  abdication  the  King  retired  by  the  only  means  of  exit  which 

remained  free,  and  the  mob  forthwith  burst  into  the  Palace. 

A  woman  clothed  in  mourning — the  Duchess  d'Orleans — was  the  last 
to  leave  the  Tuileries  with  her  two  children,  and  in  this  extremity  many 
voices  expressed  a  wish  that  the  regency,  which  the  law  gave  to  the  Duke 
de  Nemours,  could  be  conferred  on  the  Duchess.  Courageous,  and 
resolved  to  brave  death  in  the  fulfilment  of  a  great  duty, 

.  .  The  Duchess 

she  passed  though  the  threatening  crowd  m  order  to  pre-    d'Orleans  andher 

children  at  the 

sent  her  son  to  the  two  Chambers.     She  proceeded,  under   chamber  of 

Deputies. 

the  escort  of  the  Duke  de  Nemours  and  the  protection  of 
a  few  friends,  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  where  M.  Dupin  introduced 
her  as  the  Regent  of  the  kingdom ;  and  when  the  Duchess  took  a  seat  in 
front  of  the  tribune  with  her  brother-in-law  Nemours  and  her  two 
sons,  M.  Dupin  and  M.  Odillon  Barrot  endeavoured  to  procure  such  an 
enthusiastic  reception  for  the  new  King  by  the  deputies  as  had  been 
accorded,  after  the  Revolution  of  July,  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans. 
But  in  1830  the  majority  of  the  Elective  Chamber  really  represented 
the  nation,  which  had  elected  it  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  for  this  reason  was  respected  by  the  victorious  multitude  ;  but 
in  1848  it  was  not  so,  for  the  majority  of  the  deputies  having  been 
elected  by  means  of  the  abuse  of  Government  influence,  in  spite  of 
a  national  and  almost  universal  opposition,  only  represented  an  authority 
which  was  near  the  end  of  its  existence.  For  this  reason  it  not  only 
had  no  influence  with  the  public,  but  was  also  penetrated  with  a  sense  of 
its  own  weakness.  Its  place  of  assembly  was  violated,  whilst  it  was 
actually  sitting,  by  armed  bands,  and  its  president,  M.  Sauzet,  himself 
abandoned  it.  Four  deputies — MM.  Cremieux,  Marie,  Ledru-Rollin,  and 
de  Lamartine — demanded  the  nomination  of  a  Provisional  '•„...      „ 

.Nomination  of 

Government,    the  members    of   which    were    immediately    Qo^nmeM 
pointed  out  with  acclamations  by  the  voices  of  the  insur-      e  * 24' 
gents,  and  those  of  a  few  deputies  mingled  together.     Chambers,  regency, 
royalty,  all,  disappeared  in  the  tempest. 


618  .    THE    BEPUBLIC THE    EMPIEE.         [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  VIII* 

On  the  following  day  (the  25th  February)  the  Provisional  Government 
proclaimed  the  Republic  ;  and  France  was  thus  once  more 

Proclamation  of        .  •  r»    n  m 

the  Republic,        given  up  to  every   species   of  danger  until,  in  accordance 

Eeb.  25,  1848.  &  .  .  . 

with  the  inflexible  law  of  history,  anarchy  produced  a 
master,  and  Louis  Napoleon  Bonaparte  obtained,  by  universal  suffrage, 
the  presidency  of  the  Republic,  and,  at  a  subsequent  period  (December, 
1853)  the  Imperial  throne. 


1814-1848.]  THE    CONSTITUTIONAL    MONARCHY.  619 


CHAPTER  IX. 

REMARKS    ON   THE    CONSTITUTIONAL   AND    PARLIAMENTARY   MONARCHY    IN 
FRANCE    FROM    1814    TO    1848. 

Conclusion. 

It  is  fit,  at  the  conclusion  of  this  work,  that  we  should  throw  a  simulta- 
neous glance  at  the  constitutional  government  of  the  two  branches  of  the 
House  of  Bourbon,  as  well  as  at  the  principal  causes  which  led  to  its  fall. 
During  the  first  part  of  this  period  the  sun  of  prosperity  shone  on  the 
Restoration,  and  the  dark   clouds  thrown  by  violent  passions  over  the 
agitated  period  began  to  separate  as  soon  as  the  Restoration  took  place. 
France  owes  to  it,  let  us  remember,  its  constitutional  charter  of  1814, 
its  first  essays  in  the  path  of  political  liberty,  its  deliverance  from  the 
scourge  of  foreign  invasion,  and  the  enjoyment  of  a  long  peace,  after  a 
quarter  of  a  century  of  frightful  warfare.     It  owes  also  to  the  Restora- 
tion the  establishment  of  its  public   credit,   the  re-establishment  of  its 
maritime   commerce,  and  the  development   of  its  industry  and  internal 
prosperity — benefits  too  frequently  unappreciated  or  ignored.     It  owes  to 
it  also  the  foundation  of  an   empire  in  Africa  which  will  doubtless  be 
some  day   called  to  great  destinies.     And  finally,   it  must  be  acknow- 
ledged,  to  the  honour   of  the  Restoration,  that  it  was  a  period  fertile 
in  all  the  fields   of  human    activity — in  the  sciences,  the  fine  arts,  in 
oratory,  and  in  literature,  including  those  branches  for  which  the  French 
intellect  had  hitherto  shown  no  great  aptitude,  lyrical  poetry  and  history. 
The  genius  of  the  country  appeared  at  the  period  of  the  Restoration  to 
awake  from  a  long  sleep,  it  received  fresh  life  from  the  electric  shock  of 
ideas,  and  produced  numerous   chefs  cVoeuvre — a  brilliant  proof  of  that 
well-known  truth,  that  the  arts   of  peace  may  flourish  in  very  agitated 
times,  provided  that  the   agitation  be  accompanied  by  circumstances  of 
grandeur,  and  that  it  be   caused  by  powerful  convictions  and  generous 
passions. 


620  EEMAEKS  ON  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL       [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  IX. 

The  following  period — that  of  the  Government  of  July — was  doubtless 
as  fruitful  in  parliamentary  eloquence  as  that  of  the  Eestoration ;  but 
most  of  the  men  who  had  then  acquired  a  name  in  literature  had  become 
politicians  or  officials.  On  this  account,  and  on  others  which  I  will  not 
mention  here,  French  literature  was  less  fertile  in  this  second  period  than 
in  the  first,*  producing  few  remarkable  works,  except  a  celebrated  one  by 
Alexis  de  Tocqueville,  out  of  the  regions  of  criticism  and  romance ;  this 
latter  species  of  writing  especially  being  cultivated  with  much  success  by 
men  of  various  talents,  but  too  often,  it  must  be  added,  to  the  prejudice 
of  good  morals.  This  period  also  saw  industry  flourish  in  various 
branches,  the  public  credit  established,  the  public  wealth  developed  to 
the  highest  point,  and  the  efforts  of  the  Government  united  with  those  of 
private  individuals  to  endow  the  country  with  its  principal  railways.  A 
great  extension  was  also  given  during  this  reign  to  French  conquests 
in  Africa,  which,  however,  it  must  be  admitted,  were  always  less  produc- 
tive than  costly ;  and  although  Louis  Philippe,  to  his  honour  be  it  said, 
had  preserved  the  general  peace  of  Europe,  everywhere  where  France 
showed  her  flag,  under  this  prince  as  under  the  Bourbons  of  the  elder 
branch,  it  acquired  honour. 

These  two  monarchies  have  fallen,  and  have  one  after  the  other  been 
engulphed  before  our  eyes.  The  mind  grows  giddy  in  the  contemplation 
of  their  fall,  and  is  strongly  inclined  to  attribute  it  to  ill-fortune  and 
fatality.  But  the  world  is  not  governed  by  fortune.  "  There  are  general 
causes,"  says  Montesquieu,  "both  moral  and  physical,  which  act  upon 
every  monarchy,  and  either  elevate  and  preserve  it  or  hurl  it  to  destruc- 
tion." This  great  truth  becomes  manifest  to  those  who  examine  atten- 
tively the  catastrophes  which  have  overtaken  our  monarchical  and 
parliamentary  governments.  There  were  in  each,  from  the  moment  of 
their  origin,  as  we  have  already  said,  fatal  causes  of  ruin  inherent  to  the 
position  in  which  they  were  placed  and  inseparable  to  the  nature  of 
things.  It  was  a  great  misfortune  for  the  first  of  these  Governments  that 
it  appeared  to  issue  from  foreign  invasion  and  the  humiliation  of  France, 
and  it  was  a  danger  for  the  other  that  it  had  been  born  of  a  successful 
Revolution.  The  Liberals,  Bonapartists,  Republicans,  &c,  closing  their 
eyes  to  the  immense  services  rendered  to  the  country,  decried  the  first  as 

*  Amongst  the  causes  which  contributed  to  this  result,  political  debasement  holds 
the  first  place. 


1814-1848.]  AND   PARLIAMENTARY   MONARCHY.  621 

the  natural  ally  of  foreigners  and  the  enemies  of  France  ;  whilst  the 
cause  of  the  second  was  identified  by  them  with  those  of  all  revolutions, 
and  too  many  of  them  believed  that  they  were  in  permanent  possession  of 
the  right  to  resort,  for  the  purpose  of  overthrowing  it,  to  the  means  by 
which  it  had  been  established. 

There  was  a  danger  to  the  Restoration  in  the  very  principle  from  which 
it  derived  its  force,  the  hereditary  and  traditional  principle,  which  is 
doubtless  very  well  calculated  to  consolidate  a  Government  and  to  gain 
for  it  the  respect  of  peoples,  but  which,  when  ill  understood  and  regarded 
as  a  species  of  divine  principle,  superior  to  all  others,  is  almost  certain  to 
plunge  a  monarchy  into  the  abyss.  The  contrary  principle — that  of  a 
national  sovereignty — has  also  its  fictions  and  its  dangers ;  but,  in  the 
case  of  the  failure  of  traditional  right,  it  is  nevertheless  the  only  basis  on 
which  new  governments  can  be  established.  The  Government  of  July 
invoked  in  its  favour  the  national  will,  but  it  neglected  to  consult  it  by 
means  of  an  universal  vote,  and  to  establish  it  by  the  only  forms  which 
were  formerly  and  are  now  in  use.  It  thus  remained,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
masses,  in  an  equivocal  and  false  position,  deprived,  on  the  one  hand,  of 
the  strength  which  is  transmitted  with  the  legal  and  traditional  principle, 
and  on  the  other  of  the  power  afforded  by  a  decided  demonstration  of  the 
popular  will ;  and  this  was  one  of  the  rocks  on  which  it  struck.  But  the 
most  dangerous  rock  for  each  of  the  two  Governments  existed  in  the  very 
state  of  society,  in  the  composition  of  the  classes  whose  duty  it  more 
particularly  was  to  support  and  defend  them.  The  Restoration  brought 
into  the  political  arena  men  whom  the  events  of  a  quarter  of  a  century 
had  rendered  hostile  to  each  other,  and  whom  the  iron  hand  of  Napoleon 
had  held  in  check  and  disarmed,  some  still  bleeding  from  their  wounds 
and  eager  to  repair  and  avenge  their  losses,  and  others  determined  to 
defend  their  conquests  ;  whilst  all  were  equally  intractable  and  implacable, 
and  much  more  occupied  in  forging  for  themselves,  by  means  of  legislation, 
arms  which  would  enable  them  to  acquire  power,  than  in  supporting  the 
constitution  and  the  crown  by  developing  the  resources  of  the  country. 

Victorious  at  length,  in  1830,  by  the  aid  of  the  mob,  the  bourgeoisie  who 
disposed  of  the  sceptre  in  the  name  of  France,  and  on  a  too  small  portion 
of  whom  the  Government  relied  in  the  elections,  were  constantly  held  in 
check  between  the  representatives  of  the  old  privileged  classes  who  had 
been  vanquished  with   the  traditional  monarchy,  and  a  portion  of  the 


622  EEMAEKS    ON    THE    CONSTITUTIONAL        [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  IX. 

popular  classes  who  had  been  deceived  in  their  hopes  and  were  excited 
by  their  three  days'  victory.  They  thus  found  themselves  beset  with 
equal  fury  both  from  above  and  from  below,  whilst  they  were  deprived 
within  their  own  body  of  most  of  the  conservative  elements  of  empires, 
and  had  no  other  strength  than  that  afforded  by  an  union  which  was  the 
result  of  common  interest  and  common  danger — a  variable  and  pre- 
carious strength,  which  is  enfeebled  in  proportion  as  the  community  of 
interest  and  the  imminence  of  danger  themselves  decrease. 

Such  were  the  obstacles  and  the  principal  difficulties  which  were 
encountered  in  1814  and  1830  by  the  Governments  of  the  elder  and  the 
younger  branch  of  the  House  of  the  Bourbons — difficulties  inherent  to  the 
state  of  things  which  existed  before  any  fault  had  been  committed,  and 
which  were  even  independent  of  any  vice  in  the  constitution.  They 
were  great  without  being  insurmountable,  and  imposed  upon  the  Minis- 
ters of  the  two  Governments  the  absolute  necessity  of  being  prudent,  of 
seeking  the  support  of  the  body  of  the  nation,  and  of  displaying  great 
attention  to  the  real  wishes  of  the  nation ;  this  necessity  being  so  much 
the  greater  because  the  very  characteristic  principle  of  constitutional  and 
free  states  is  that  the  Government  should  be  the  faithful  expression  of  the 
interests,  the  necessities,  and  the  morals  of  the  society  over  which  it 
presides. 

The  scrupulous  observance  of  these  conditions  of  existence  would  have 
probably  prevented  the  events  of  1830  and  1848  ;  but  these  conditions 
were  not  observed.  Ambitious  or  too  confident,  Ministers  disdained 
public  opinion,  some  of  them  attempting  to  displace  the  centre  of  gravity 
of  the  social  body,  whilst  the  others  sought  for  a  foundation  for  the 
Government  where  there  was  none.  They  were  kept  in  possession  of 
their  offices  by  means  of  that  unlimited  administrative  power  of  which 
they  had  equally  made  a  long  and  continual  use  to  crush  down  public 
opinion  to  the  point  at  which  it  becomes  furious  and  ungovernable. 

Do  not  let  us  attempt  to  darken  the  picture  by  showing  men  to  be 
more  guilty  than  they  are.  There  are  fatal  circumstances  which,  com- 
bined with  certain  opinions,  frequently  hurry  along,  in  spite  of  them- 
selves, the  best  as  well  as  the  ablest  men.  When  a  prince,  in  fact,  who 
has  been  brought  up  in  the  doctrine  of  the  policy  consecrated  to  Bossuet 
and  the  divine  right  of  kings,  occupies  a  constitutional  throne,  the  moment 
must  come  sooner  or  later  when  he  will  consider  himself  bound  both  by 


1814-1848.]  AKU    PAELIAMENTARY    MONAECHY.  623 

honour  and  conscience  to  override  botli  the  constitution  and  the  laws  of 
his  country.  Charles  L,  James  II.,  and  Charles  X.  did  this,  and  I  might 
cite  a  great  and  living  example  on  the  banks  of  the  Ehine.  In  like 
manner,  when  the  central  administration  possesses  an  almost  uncontrolled 
and  unlimited  power,  there  will  always  be  some  man  amongst  those  who 
direct  it  who  will  believe  that  the  safety  of  his  country  depends  on  the 
maintenance  of  his  own  policy,  and  who  will  put  in  motion  all  the  wheels 
of  this  great  power  for  the  purpose  of  perpetuating  it.  The  more 
personal  ability  such  a  man  possesses  the  more  inclined  he  will  be  to  assist 
himself  by  this  formidable  machine.  Richelieu,  Mazarin,  Colbert, 
Louvois,  Turgot  himself,  all  made  use  of  it,  and  no  one  can  affirm 
that  the  adversaries  of  MM.  de  Villele  and  Guizot  would,  in  their  place, 
have  resisted  the  temptations  of  power  any  more  strenuously  than  they 
did.  It  is  the  instrument,  therefore,  that  should  be  blamed  rather  than 
those  who  make  use  of  it,  and  who  did  not  abuse  it  for  the  purpose  of 
consolidating  their  power  until  they  had  shaken  the  latter  by  their  faults. 

If  the  dangers  which  presented  themselves  in  these  difficult  times  could 
have  been  surmounted  by  high  intelligence,  great  talents,  good  intentions, 
untarnished  integrity,  devotion  to  country,  few  governments  would  have 
been  more  prosperous  than  those  of  the  last  three  reigns.  The  most 
eminent  men  of  the  Restoration  and  the  following  period  were  dis 
tinguished  for  these  qualities  ;  but  what  was  most  rarely  found  amongst 
them  was  a  genuine  and  serious  love  of  political  liberties  considered  as 
guarantees  of  individual,  religious,  and  civil  liberty ;  they  had  not 
an  intuitive  sense  of  the  influence  of  moral  forces  in  the  affairs 
of  this  world;  and  finally,  they  knew  not  that  compassion  for 
every  species  of  distress  which,  in  England,  upwards  of  twenty 
years  since,  after  the  suppression  of  the  corn  laws,  inspired  the  great 
Minister  who  was  overthrown  by  his  own  victory,  with  these  touching 
words — "I -shall  leave  a  name,"  he  said,  "which  will  be  held  in  horror  by 
those  who  only  regard  their  own  interests,  but  which  will  be,  perhaps, 
mentioned  affectionately  in  the  humble  dwellings  in  which  live  those 
whose  lot  is  labour,  and  who  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow." 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  egotism  of  party  spirit  and  cold 
political  calculations  too  often  stifled  that  benevolent  sympathy  for 
suffering  humanity,  that  profound  respect  for  the  human  conscience  and 
dignity  in  others,  and  that  love  of  truth,  which  are  the  fruitful  sources  of 


624  EEMABKS  ON  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL       [BOOK  V.  CHAP.  IX. 

the  best  resolutions  in  our  modern  democracies.  And  yet  these  elevated 
moral  dispositions,  these  virtues  which  are  always  so  rare,  although  so 
necessary,  in  the  heads  of  empires,  were  not  more  frequent  during  the 
late  reign  in  the  ranks  of  the  Opposition  than  on  the  Ministerial  benches. 
This  was  a  great  misfortune.  There  were,  doubtless,  amongst  the  mem- 
bers of  either  party  very  honourable  exceptions  ;  but  in  general  we  find 
the  Opposition  much  more  eager  to  defend  the  institutions  and  laws  by 
means  of  which  it  hoped  ultimately  to  arrive  at  power  itself,  than  eager 
in  unanimously  demanding  those  which  would  allow  mankind  freely  to 
develop  their  moral  and  physical  faculties.  It  was  thus  that  the  liberty  of 
the  press  and  electoral  reform  had  their  champions  not  less  numerous  than 
devoted  ;  yet  the  extension  of  communal  and  departmental  liberty  was  but 
faintly  demanded ;  fewer  voices  were  raised  with  persevering  energy  in 
favour  of  that  religious  freedom  guaranteed  by  the  charter  than  sufficed 
to  give  it  a  practical  existence,  to  break  the  shackles  which  crippled  the 
right  of  association,  or  to  render  education  liberal  and  commerce  free. 
Too  few  men,  in  fact,  pleaded  with  generous  constancy  for  the  numerous 
and  suffering  classes  to  obtain  for  them  a  remission  of  their  burdens,  or 
any  amelioration  either  of  their  moral  condition  or  of  their  general 
welfare. 

If,  however,  an  Opposition  representing  a  great  majority  had  thus 
comprehended  the  principles  of  liberty  and  progress,  it  might  have 
restored  strength  and  courage  to  a  multitude  of  men  sunk  in  dangerous 
indifference ;  it  might  have  rallied  all  generous  hearts  not  selfishly  de- 
voted to  their  own  interests,  or  to  a  base  and  personal  cause,  but  to  a 
cause  which  was  really  popular,  great,  and  Christian.  But  alas !  a  de- 
plorable political  school,  which  was  completely  a  stranger  to  the  true 
principles  of  modern  liberty — the  school  of  Rousseau — had  left  too  many 
germs  in  men's  minds.  Liberty  was  only  understood  in  France  on  the 
surface,  as  has  been  said  by  an  eminent  publicist  of  our  own  day.  Its 
inhabitants  were  determined,  in  fact,  to  see  liberty  only  in  political 
liberty,  which  never  exists  long  if  it  be  not  supported,  through  the  whole 
extent  of  the  country,  by  a  series  of  strong  and  liberal  institutions. 

Political  liberty  is  not  an  object  in  itself,  but  a  means  of  protecting 
those  other  liberties,  the  possession  of  which  is  indispensable  to  the  expan- 
sion of  the  faculties  and  forces  of  men.  These  other  liberties  themselves 
would  be  but   useless   and   inert   instruments    without   the   ideas,    the 


1814-1848.]  AND   JPARLIAMENTABY    MONABCHY.  625 

sentiments,  and  the  beliefs  which  require  them  as  the  conditions  of  their 
existence  ;  and,  amongst  all  these  great  influences  on  human  actions,  the 
most  powerful  and  indispensable  in  the  midst  of  a  free  people  are  the 
Christian  beliefs,  which  elevate,  fortify,  and  purify  souls,  and  inspire 
self-abnegation,  self-respect,  and  respect  for  others.  Without  these 
beliefs  there  has  never  been,  from  the  times  of  pagan  antiquity  to  our 
own,  any  true  or  durable  liberty  for  any  people  ;  and  wherever  they  have 
been  seriously  entertained,  they  have  rendered  men  capable  of  accom- 
plishing prodigies,  and  of  obtaining  for  themselves  a  liberty  which  has 
been  the  mother  and  the  guardian  of  all  the  others. 

What  a  far  distance  still  separates  us  from  the  end  to  which  tend  all 
our  aspirations,  and  how  many  are  the  obstacles  which  still  separate  us 
from  it !  A  grievous  truth  to  utter,  but  one  which  is  not  only  manifest 
to-day,  but  was  manifest  even  at  a  time  when  the  country  was  in  com- 
plete possession  of  political  liberties. 

May  an  evil  from  which  France  has  suffered  during  the  last  sixty 
years  be  promptly  remedied ;  may  a  salutary  equilibrium  be  established 
between  the  central  and  individual  forces ;  may  the  life  blood  which  now 
flows  in  excess  to  the  heart  of  the  country  be  distributed  fairly  amongst 
all  its  members ;  may  the  Constitution  be  so  established  as  to  guarantee 
the  genuineness  as  well  as  the  freedom  of  votes  ;  may  the  latter  become 
the  faithful  expression  of  the  moral  interests  as  well  as  the  physical 
necessities  of  the  country  ;  and  may  those  who  give  them  be  raised  to  a 
proper  sense  of  the  moral  responsibility  of  their  acts!  Finally,  may 
France  bear  her  thoughts  aloft,  and  remember  that  man  does  not  live 
by  bread  alone,  but  by  the  words  of  justice  and  of  life.  .Then  liberty, 
a  plant  of  rare  and  difficult  growth,  will  become  acclimatized  on 
a  soil  which  has  been  shaken  by  many  tempests,  and  will  be,  to  use 
words  which  have  fallen  from  august  lips,  the  promised  crown  of  the 
political  edifice.  More  fortunate  than  their  fathers,  our  sons  will  reap 
the  benefits  which  ever  result  from  liberty,  and  will  bear  upon  their 
banner,  with  legitimate  pride,  to  the  ends  of  the  world,  our  immortal 
and  glorious  device,  "  Dieu  protege  la  France  ! " 


VOL.  II.  <  S   S 


INDEX. 


ABD-EL-EADEK  in  Algiers,  559 
„  retires  to  Morocco,  590 

„  submission  of,  1847,  606 

Abdication  of  Bonaparte,  1814,-407 
Academy,  French,  protest  of  the,  against  the 

censorship  of  press,  1826,  490 
Act  of  Mediation,  1802,  323 
Address  to  the  king,  debate  on  the,  1839,  569 
Afiica,  French  conquests  in,  176 

„      losse 3  of  the  French  in,  1757,  1760,  158 
„      war  in,  1843-4,  590 
Agosta,  victory  at,  78 

Agricultural  interests  disregarded  by  Colbert,  71 
Aguesseau,  recall  of  d',  1720,  126 
Aignan,  St.,  Duke,  conspiracy  of,  in  Spain,  1718, 

122 
Aiguillon,  Duke  d',  trial  of,  165 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  conference  at,  449 
„  peace  of,  1748,  145 

„  treaty  of,  1668,  72 

Alais,  peace  of,  1629,  23 
Alberoni,  Cardinal,  disgrace  of,  1719, 123 
Alexander,  benevolence  of,  403 

„  coolness  to  Bonaparte,  375 

„  interview  with  Bonaparte,  1807,  353 

„  proposes  peace,  1812,  381 

Alexandria,  convention  of,  314 
Algeria,  progress  of,  576 
„        the  war  in,  559 
,,        reverses  in,  1845,  592 
Algerian  question,  crisis  on  the,  1834,  544 
Algiers  bombarded,  1683,  79 

„      captured, 1830, 499 
Algesiras,  battle  of,  1801,  318 
Alibaud,    attempt    of,    to     assassinate     Louis 

Philippe,  1836,  555 
Aligre,  dismissal  of  d',  18 
Allied  armies,  advance  of,  1814,  391 

„  encamp  around'  Paris,  1814,  401 

„  in  Paris,  1815,  438 

Allied  sovereigns  in  Paris,  1814,  403 
Allies,  advance  of,  1815,  430 
Almansa,  victory  at,  1707,  100 
Alps,  passage  of  the,  1800,  312 
America,   indemnity  for   vessels    captured,  de- 
manded by,  540 
„  loan  to,  178 

„         losses  of  the  French  in  1757, 1760, 158 
„  operations  in,  1780,  177 

„  treaty  with,  175 

American  colonies,  revolt  of,  1773, 174 
Amiens,  peace  of,  1802, 318 

„        rupture  of  the  peace  of,  1803,  327 
Amnesty  of,' 1800,  319 

„        proposed,  1834,  546 
„        for  political  offenders    granted,  1837, 
664 
Ancona,  capture  of,  1832,  527 
Andalucia  in  the  power  of  the  French,  1810,  368 
Andujar,  decree  of,  1823,474 
Anjou,  Duke  of,  recognised  as  King  of  Spain,  93 


Anne  of  Austria,  8 

„  death  of,  1669,  71 

,,  insulted  by  libels,  57 

„  proceeds  to  revolted  provinces, 

60 
„  regent,  44 

„  recognised  as  regent,  49 

„  reproached     in      the     council 

chamber,  18 
Anne,  Queen  of  England,  96 
Antwerp,  occupied  by  the  Dutch,  1831,  525 
„         siege  of,  resolved  on,  1832,  533 
„  siege  of,  1832,  534 

April  rioters,  trial  of  the,  547 
Archbishop's  Palace,  pillage  of  the,  1831,  521 
Arcis-sur-Aube,  battle  of,  1814,  399 
Arcole,  victory  at,  1796,  283 
"  Arena,  conspiracy  of  the,"  1800,  319 
Argomme,  Prussians  checked  at,  227 
Aristocracy  abased  by  Richelieu,  41 
"Armed  neutrality,"  1780,  176 
Armies,  junction  of  the  hostile,  1814,  398 
Arms  of  France,  success  of  the,  250 
Army,  dissatisfaction  of  the,  1814,  419 
„      enteeblement  of  the,  95 
„      interference  of  the,  in  domestic  politics,290 
„      law  on  the  organization  of  the,  448 
"  Army  of  the  faith,"  472 
Army  and  na^y,  laws  regarding  the,  537 
Arras  invested,  1640,  38 

„     siege  of,  raised,  64 
Arrondissements,  new  law  relating  to,  1829,497 
Art,  works  of,  returned,  439 
Arts,  the,  during  the  ministry  of  Eichelieu,  47 
Artois,  Count  d',  enters  Paris,  1814,  408 
„  „         influence  of,  445 

„  „         at  Isle  Dieu,  1795,  267 

Asia,  losses  of  the  French  in,  1757 — 1760,  158 
Assas.  Chevalier  d',  gallantry  of,  159 
Assassinations  of  Protestants,  1815,  442 
Assembly,  parties  in  the,  204 
Assignats,  issue  of,  209 
Association,  law  on,  539 
Atheistic  school,  rise  of  the,  169 
Atrocities  of  Committee  of  Public  Safety  in  the 

Departments,  1794,  253 
Augereau,  valour  of,  at  Arcole,  283 
Augsbourg,  League  of,  87 
Austerlitz,  battle  of,  1805,  339 
Aumale,  Duke  d',    attempt  to  assassinate  the, 
1841,  583 
„  „  takes   the  Smala  of  Abd-el- 

Kader,  1843,  590 
Austria  declares  war  against  France,  1813,  386 

,,       war  declared  against,  1792,  220 
Austrian  army  defeated  by  Bonaparte,  276 

„        succession,  war  for  the,  1740 — 1748,  136 
Austrians  re-enter  Italy,  278 

„         withdraw  from  Italy,  1831,  524 
Averstadt,  battle  of,  1806,  345 
Avignon  seized,  87 


INDEX. 


627 


BABEUF,  plot  of,  274 
Badajos,  capture  of,  1811,  375 
Baden,  peace  of,  1714,  105 
Bankruptcy  law  improved,  1838,  565 
Banquet  of  1st  October,  206 
Bar,  confederation  of,  1768,  168 
Baradas  disgraced,  18 
Barbary  pirates  destroyed,  1830,  499 
Barcelona,  conquest  of,  92 
Barracks  erected,  131 
Barri,  Countess  du,  favourite,  162 
Barricades  formed,  1848,  615 
Basle,  peace  of,  1795,  264 
Bassano,  de,  Duke,  ministry  of,  546 
Bastile,  taking  of  the,  1789,  202 
"  Battle  of  M.  de  Conflans,"  158 
Baude,M., deprived  of  prefectureof  Paris,1831, 522 
Bavaria  erected  into  a  kingdom,  1805,  341 

„        evacuation  of,  1743,  139 
Baylen,  capitulation  of  General  Dupont  at,  358  ' 
Be'lfort,  military  revolt  at,  1822,  470 
Belgian  crown  offered  to  Duke    de  Nemours, 

1831,  525 
Belgians,  queen  of  the,  dowry  for  the,  1837,  561 
Belgium,  operations  in,  1635,  33 
„        conquest  of,  1792,  232 
„        invasion  of,  1794,  256 
„        visit  of  Bonaparte  to,  1812,  378 
,,        march  upon,  1815,  431 
„        revolution  in  1830,  517 
„        Dutch  attack  on,  1831,  525 
„        French  army  in,  1832,  534 
Bellegarde,  Duke  of,  executed,  26 
Belle  Isle,  battle  of,  1747,  145 
„  battle  of,  1795,  266 

Beranger  the  national  poet,  489 
Beresina,  passage  of,  1812,  384 
Bergen-op-Zoom,  taking  of,  145 
Berghem,  victory  at,  304 

battle  of,  1759,  157 
Berlin,  entry  of  Bonaparte  into,  1806,  346 
Bernadotte,  Prince  Royal  of  Sweden,  1810,  369 
Berri,  Duke  de,  birth  of,  Louis  XVI.,  1754,  147 
„  marriage  of,  1816,  446 

„  assassination  of,  1820,  454 

Berry,  Duchess  de,  rising  under  the,  1832,  532 

„  arrest  of,  534 

Berryer,  entrance  into  public  life  of,  1830,  498 
Berton,  General,  plot  of,  1822,  470 
„  trial  of,  1822,  471 

Beyrout,  bombardment  of,  1840,  580 
Bil'lault,  M.  de.  speech  of,  1848,  610 
Blancm^nil  arrested,  1648,  55 
Blaye,  captivity  of  Duchess  de  Berry  at,  1832, 534 
Blaneau,  battle  of,  1652,  61 
Blockade  of  Paris,  57 

Blois,  retreat  of  Maria  Louisa  to,  1814,  401 
Blucher  defeated  at  Brienne,  1814,  392 

„        on  the  Marne,  1814,  394 
„  „         at  Ligny,  1815, 431 

Boissy  d'Anglas,  courage  of,  263 
Bologna,  Bonaparte  marches  to,  285 

„  in  possession  of  the  Austrians,  1831,  527 

Bonaparte,  Joseph,  King  of  Naples,  1806,  342 
„        King  of  Spain,  1808,  357 
Louis,  King  of  Holland,  1806,  342 
„  „  deposed,  1810,  369 

„  „      Napoleon,  conspiracy  of,  1836, 

558 
ti  „  „         expulsion  of,  from 

Switzerland,  1839 
569 
„  „         expedition  of,  1840, 

578 
„        imprisoned  atHam, 

1840,  578 

„        escape  from  Ham, 

1847,  597 


Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  at  defence  of  Convention 

at  Paris,  1795,  269 
,,  „  in  command  of  army  in 

Italy,  1796,  275 
,,  „  behaviour    to    Directory, 

281 
„  ,,  at  Arcole,  284 

„  „  returns  from  Egypt,  1799, 

304 
„  ,,  conspiracy    with     Sieyes 

against  Directory,  304 
„  „  proclaimed   chief  consul, 

310 
,,  „  plots  against,  319 

„  „  public  works  of,  321 

„  „  consul  for  life,  1802, 323 

„  „  President   of   Italian  Re- 

public, 1802,  322 
,,  „  genius  of,  325 

„  „  and  English  press,  326 

„  „  useful  acts  of",  330 

,,  „  Emperor,  coronation   of, 

1804,  331 
„  „  policy  of,  333 

„  „  enters  Berlin,  1806, 346 

„  „  enters  Poland,  348 

,,  „  interview  with  Alexander, 

1807,  353 
„  „  arbitrates  between  Charles 

IV.   of  Spain   and  his 

son, 357 
„  „  seizes  crown  of  Spain,  357 

„  ,,  at  Dirstein,  363 

„  „  second  entry  into  Vienna, 

1809,  364 
,,  „  attempted     assassination 

of,  by  Staps,  1809,  367 
„  „  divorce  of,  1810, 369 

„  ,,  second  marriage  of,  1810, 

369 
„  „  character    and  works  of, 

370 
„  „  and  Pope  Pius  VII.,  1811, 

376 
,,  ,,  haughtiness  to  Alexander, 

378 
j,  ,,  rule  of,  tyranny  of,  379 

„  „  leaves  the  army,  1812, 385 

,,  ,,  assents  to  propositions  of 

powers  at  Frankfort,389 
,i  3,  Fresh  demands   for   men 

and  money  by,  390 
j,  »  energetic  measures  taken 

by,  1814,  393 
jj  »         arrives    at    Fromenteau, 

1814,  402 
jj  „  dethronement     of,    pro- 

nounced, 1814,  404 
,,  „  offers  to  abdicate,1814, 405 

„  j,  abdication  of,  1814, 407 

j,  j,  hesitates  to  sign  treaty  of 

11th  April,  1814, 408 
>»  jj  last    interview    of,    with 

Caulaincourt,  408 
jj  j  j  sorrowful   reflections    of, 

409 
ji  5j  attempts  suicide,  1814, 409 

jj  jj  farewell  of,  to  the  guard, 

1814,  410 
>j  u  departure   of,   for    Elba, 

1814,  410 
,,  „  reflections  on,  411 

jj  u         returns  from  Elba,  1815, 

424 
jj  „  landing  of,  1815, 425 

j»  jj         march  of,  on  Paris,  1815, 

426 
jj  jj  enters  Grenoble,  1815,427 

s  s  2 


628 


INDEX. 


Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  re-enters  Paris,  1815,  428 
„  „  difficult  position  of,  1815, 

428 
„  „         return  of,  to  Paris  after 

Waterloo,  435 
„  „  second  abdication  of,  1815, 

435 
„  „  proceeds     to     Roehforte, 

1815,  436 
„  ,  surrenders  to  the  English, 

1815,  436 
„  „  senttoSt.Helena,1815,436 

„  „  death  of,  at   St.  Helena, 

1821,  466 
„  „  removal  of  remains  of,  to 

Paris,  1840,  578 
Bordeaux,  revolt  of,  59 

„  submission  of,  64 

„  English  in,  1814,  400 

„  declares  for  the  Bourbons,  1814,  400 

Bordeaux,  Duke  de,  birth  of,  1820,  461 

„  nominated  to  throne,  by  Charles  X., 

509 
Bonfflers,  defence  of  Lille  by,  1709, 101 
Bouillon,  Duke  of,  rebels,  1614,  4 
Boulevard  des  Capucines,  episode  on  the,1843, 615 
Boulogne-sur-Mer,  preparations  at,  for  invasion 
of  England,  1801,  318 
„  camp  at,  1803,  335 

,,  Louis  Napoleon  at,  1840,  578 

Bourbon,  Duke  de,  Ministry  of,  1724,  129 
„  dismissal  of,  1726,  131 

Bourbon  royal  family,  413 
Bourdonnais,  imprisonment  of  La,  144 
Bouteville,  Count  de,  executed,  1627,  20 
Boyne,  battle  of  the,  1691,  90 
Brabant,  conquest  of,  1747,  143 
Braddock,  G-eneral,  defeat  of,  1755,  152 
Brandenburg,  Elector  of,  3 
Bresson,  Count,  suicide  of,  1847,  605 
Brest  improved,  71 

,,      blockade  of,  335 
Brienne,  battle  of,  1814,  392 

„       Lomenie  de,  ministry  of,  1787,  183 
„  fall  of,  1788,  188 

Brittany,  disturbances  in,  1719, 122 

,,        disturbances  in,  164 
Broglie,  Duke  de,  disgrace  of,  160 
„  ministry  of,  547 

„  ministry,  fall  of,  1836,  552 

Brouage  granted  to  Richelieu,  18 
Brunswick,  Duke  of,  manifesto  of,  223 
Broussel,  de,  arrested,  1648,  55 
Buckingham,  Duke  of,  in  France,  17 

„  gallantry  of  the,  to   the 

Queen,  17 
„  death  of  the,  22 

Budget  for  1832  presented,  522 

,,      of  1833-34,  537 
Bugeaud,  Marshal,  in  Algiers,  590 

„  in  command  of  troops,  1848, 

615 
Burgundy,Duke  andDachessof,death  of  the,104 
Busaco,  battle  of,  1810,  369 
Byng,  Admiral,  defeat  of,  155 
,,  shot,  155 

"  /1ABAL  of  the  Importants,  the,"  50 

\J    Cabinet,  impeachment  of  the,  1848,  614 
Cadiz,  siege  of,  1810,  368 
Caldiero,  battle  of,  1796,  282 

„        battle  of,  1805,  338 
Calonne,  ministry  of,  1783,  182 
Calvinistic  party  make  a  final  effort,  23 
Calvinists  promised  support  by  Spaniards,  16 

,,        retain  right  of  form  of  worship,  24 
Cambrai,  capture  of,  78 
Camisards,  war  of  the,  1702-1704,  98 


Campaign  of  1635,  33 
„  of  1636,  34 

„  of  1638,35 

„  of  1640,  38 

„  in  Piedmont,  1701,  95 

„  of  1794,  255 

„  of  1796-97,  274 

„  of  1807,  350 

Campo  Formio,  Peace  of,  1797,  288 

,,  ratification  of  the  treaty  of,  292 

Canning,  death  of,  1827,  494 
Canopa,  battle  of,  1801,  317 
Capital  Punishment,  petition  for   abolition  of, 

1830,  518 
Carbonarism,  progress  of,  470 
"  Cardinel  of  Roehelle"  Richelieu,  17 
"  Carlists,"  521 
Carlowitz,  peace  of,  93 
Carlsbad,  congress  of,  1820,  458 
Caron  and  Eoger,  plot  of,  1822,  470 
Carthagena  surprised,  92 
Casal,  siege  of,  raised,  1640,  38 
Casimir  Perier,  president  of  elective  chamber, 
1830,  519 
„  ministry  of,  1831,  523 

„  death  of,  1832,  528 

,,  character  and  actions  of,  528 

Cassano,  victory  at,  1705,  99 
Cassell,  victory  of,  78 
Castelnaudary,  battle  of,  1632,  27 
Castiglione,  victory  at,  279 
Catherine  II.,  Empress,  161 
Catalonia,  insurrection  in,  1644,  38 

„  war  in,  92 

Catholic  religion  restored  in  Beam,  12 
Catinat  in  Piedmont,  89 

„      victories  of  1692-1693,  91 
Cellamare,  conspiracy  of,  1718,  121 
Cevennes,  revolt  in,  97 
Chalais,  conspiracy  of,  17 

,,       executed,  18 
Chalons,  Bonaparte  at,  1814,  392 
Chambers  convoked,  1830,  501 
Chamber  of  Deputies  dissolved,  1827,  492 
„  dissolved,  1830,  499 

„  dissolved,  1831,  523 

„  dissolved,  1837,  564 

„  dissolved,  1839,  573 

„  entered  by  mob,  1848,  617 

Chamber  of  St.  Louis,  important  votes  of  the,  53 
Chambord,  Legitimist  manifestation  to  Count  de, 

in  London,  1843,  586 
Chamillart,  minister  of  war  and  finance,  1701,  94 
Champ  deMai,  assembly  at,  1815,  429 
Chapelles,  Count  des,  executed,  1627,  20 
Charles  I.  of  England,  marriage  with  the  King's 
sister,  17 
„  death  of,  1649,  65 

Charles  IT.  of  England,  proceedings  of  (note)  73 
Charles  II.  of  Spain,  will  of,  1698,  93 
Charles  V.,  successes  of,  89 
Charles  VII.,  death  of,  1745, 141 
Charles  X.,  political  opinions  of,  482 
,,  coronation  of,  1825,  486 

,,  disagrees  with  ministry,  1828,  496 

„  personal  character  of,  501 

„  during  "  the  three  days,"  504 

„  movements  of,  in  retreat,  505 

„  abdicates  and  leaves  Erance,  1830,  o09 

,,  trial  of  ministers  of,  5 19 

Charles  Edward,  defeat  of,  1745-6,  143 
Charles  Kmmanuel  of  Piedmont,  abdication  of, 

1798,  298 
Charlotte  Cord  ay  kills  Marat,  1793,  245 
Charter,  modification  of  the,  1830,  508 
Chartists  in  England,  599 
Chatillon,  congress  of,  1814,  394—396 
Chateaubriand,  dismissal  of,  479 


INDEX. 


629 


Chateauneuf,  keeper  of  the  seals,  26 

Chafceau-Renaud  aids  James  II.,  90 

Chateauroux,  Duchess  of,  141 

Chatre,  Marshal  de  la,  takes  Juliers,  1610,  3 

Chartres,  Duke  de,  gallantry  of  the,  91 

Chaumont,  Treaty  of,  1814,  397 

Cuiari,  retreat  from,  37 

„      defeat  at,  95 
Cholera  in  Paris,  183  i,  528 
Chouan  and  Royalist  conspiracy,  1804,  328 
Christian  IV.,  King  of  Denmark,  chosen  leader 

by  the  Evangelical  Union,  1625,  30 
Christian  schools,  131 
Cboiseul,  Duke  of,  Ministry  of  the,  158 

„  „         disgrace  of,  1771,  165 

Cinq-Mars,  conspiracy  of,  1642,  42 

„  executed,  1612,  43 

Cintra,  capitulation  of,  1808,  358 
Cisalpine  Republic,  1797,  287 
Cispadane  Republic,  281 
Civil  code  projected  by  Bonaparte,  320 
„    list,  law  regarding  the,  1831, 526 
,,    war  commenced,  1648,  55 
Clausel,  Marshal,  in  Algiers,  559 
Clergy,  assembly  of,  1788,  187 

„       civil  constitution  of,  1790,  210 

„      deprived  of  its  property,  209 

,,      law  for  endowment  of,  1821,  463 

„      schism  among  the,  1791,  218 

„      the,  taxed  by  Richelieu,  41 

„      and  Parliament   quarrels   of  the,  1748 — 
1756,  147 
Clichy,  association  of,  290 
Clive,  Robert,  149 
Closterseven,  capitulation  of,  1757, 156 

,,  capitulation  of,brok  en  byEnglish,157 

Clubs,  foundation  of,  1790,  211 
Cobden,  Richard,  and  corn  laws,  599 
Coin,  reminting  of,  119 
Colbert,  legislative  works  under,  81 

„        Comptroller-General  of  Finance,  1661,69 

„        administration  of,  70 

„        death  of,  1683,  84 
Col  d'Exilles,  engagement  at,  144 
Colonies,  125 
Commercial  loans,  1830,  517 

„  protection  demanded  by  nobles,  19 

Committee  of  electors,  201 

„  of  public  safety,  246 

„  of  public  safety,  1793,  250 

Commune,  fall  of  the,  ]  794,  252 
Compiegne,  Marie  de  Medici,  at,  26 
"  Compte-rendu,"  the,  530 
Concini  raised  to  honour,  4 

„       reappearance  of,  9 

„       murder  of,  9 

„       fury  of  people  against,  10 
Cond6,  manifesto  by,  4 

,,      rebellion  of,  1614,  4 

„      arrest  of,  1616, 9 

,,      success  of,  in  Flanders,  50 

,,      talent  of,  51 

,,      joins  Mazarin,  55 

,,      presumption  of,  58 

,,      arrested  1650, 58 

,,      controlling  Parliament,  59 

,,      proceeds  to  Guienne,  60 

„      declared  a  rebel  and  traitor,  60 

,,      enters  Paris,  62 

,,      joins  the  Spaniards,  63 

,,      proclaimed  generalissimo  of  forces,  63 

,,       condemned  to  death,  64 

,,      in  command  of  army  in  Holland,  74 

,,      wounded,  74 

„      last  battle  of,  76 

,,        „    campaign  of,  1675,77 

,,       death  of,  1688,  77 

„      Princess,  at  Guienne,  59 


Condition   of  the  kingdom  before    Richelieu's 

ministry,  1624,  15 
"  The  Congregation,"  origin  of,  467 
Conscription  put  in  force,  299 
Conseil,  case  of  the  spy,  1836,  558 
Conspiracies  of  1822, 470 

in  Paris,  1831, 527 
Conspirators  of  20th  August,  trial  of  the,  465 
Constautine  expedition,  the  first,  1836,  559 

„  capture  of,  1837,  566 

Constantinople,  defence  of,  by  General  Sebastian, 

1807, 352 
Constituent  assembly,  closing  of  the,  1791, 216 
Constitution  of  the  year  II.,  1793,246 
„  of  1793  abolished,  263 

„  of  the  year  III.,  1795, 268 

„  plan  of,  drawn  up  by  Sieyes,  308 

„  of  the  year  VIII.,  310 

Constitutional  charter  granted,  1814,  416 
Consulate,  establishment;  of,  1799,  307 
Conti,  Prince,  arrested,  1650, 58 

„      Prince  of,  married  to  Mazarin's  niece,  64 
Continental  blockade,  the,  1806,  347 
Contracts  annulled,  118 
Convention,  reaction  against  the,  268 
„  closing  of  the,  1795,  270 

„  of  April  23, 1814, 414 

„  and  the  people,  1795, 262 

Copenhagen,  attack  on,  1801, 317 

„  bombardment  of,  1807, 355 

Corbach,  battle  of,  1760,  159 
Corbie,  fall  of,  34 
Corn  laws  in  England,  599 
Corn,  tax  levied  on,  1812,  379 
Corneille,  appearance  of,  48 
Cornwailis,  Lord,  capitulation  of,  1781, 179 
Corsica,  acquisition  of,  1768,  163 
,,        revolt  in,  277 
„        troubles  in,  136 
Corunna,  battle  of,  361 
Coup  d'etat,  1797, 291 
Council,  resolutions  of,  kept  secret,  15 
„        of  Regency,  44 

„        of   Trent,    recognition    of  decrees  of, 
demanded,  1614,  5 
Councils,  arrest  of  members  of,  1797,  291 

„  in  lieu  of  ministries,  116 

Court,  blindness  of,  1830, 500 
Cracow,  fall  of,  1836, 555 

,,       annexed  to  Austria,  596 
Craonne,  battle  of,  1814,  398 
Cremona  surprised  by  Eugene, 96 
Cx-oveit,  baltle  of,  1758, 157 
Crimea,  conquest  of,  168 
Cromwell,  success  of,  in  England,  65 

,,  alliance  with,  1668,  65 

Cross  of  St.  Louis  sold,  95 
Cubieres,  M.  Despans  de,  tried  for  corruption, 

1847,  605 
Culloden,  battle  of,  1745, 143 
Cumberland,  Duke  of,  in  Germany,  138 

DAMPENS  stabs  Louis  XV.,  1757, 148 
"  Danish  period"  of  thirty  years'  war,  30 
Danton,  minister  of  justice,  225 
Dantonists,  arrest  and  execution  of,  1795,  253 
Dantzic,  siege  and  capitulation  of,  1807,  351 
Danube  crossed  by  the  Frepch,  1809,  364 
Dardanelles  closed  to  foreign  ships  of  war,  536 
Dauphin,  birth  of,  1638,  29 

„        successes  of  the,  88 

,,        death  of  the,  104 

„        proclaimed  Louis  XVII.  at  Toulon,  246 
"Day  of  Dupes," "25 
Decazes,  M.,  president  of  council,  1819,  454 

„         fall  of,  1820,  455 
Declaration  of  rights,  1774,  174 

„  of  rights  of  man,  205 


630 


INDEX. 


Decrees  of  the  council  openly  sold,  4 
„      of  July  26, 1830,  502 
„      of  July  26,  1830,  revoked,  505 
Delaunay,  Governor,  death  of,  202 
Denain,  victory  at,  1712,  104 
Departments,  France  divided  into,  208 
Deputies,  declaration  of   opposition,  July    28, 

1830,  503 
Desmoulins,  Canaille,  at  the  Palais  Boyal,  201 
Dessolle,  General,  ministry  of,  1818,  451 
Dettingen,  hattle  of,  1743,  139 
Didier's  plot  at  Grenoble,  444 
Directory,  election  of  the,  1795,  270 
„  first  acts  of  the,  272 

„  employ  military  force  in  State  politics, 

274 
„  principles  of  the,  289 

„  perils  and  difficulties  of  the,  298 

„  dissolution  of  the,  1799,  302 

Dirsteim,  Bonaparte  at,  363 
Distress  of  the  government,  1795,  272 
Disturbances  in  the  departments,  1841,  583 

,,  in  the  provinces,  1788,  186 

St.  Dizier,  march  on,  1814,  400 
St.  Domingo,  expedition  to,  1802,  318 

„  emancipated,  493 

"Down  with  the  bar,"  rallying  cry,  9 
Dresden,  Congress  of,  1812,  379 

battle  of,  1813, 386 
"  Droit  de  paulette,"  abolition  of  the,  demanded, 

1614,  6 
"Droit  de  regale,"  79 
Dubois,  Cardinal,  128 

„  death  of,  128 

Duelling  punished,  1627,  20 
Dumouriez,  defection  of,  1793, 242 
Dunes,  battle  of  the,  1658, 66 
Dunkirk  taken,  1646, 51 

„        siege  of,  raised,  1793,  249 
Dupleix  in  India,  149 

,,      disgrace  and  death  of,  151 
Duquesne,  victories  of,  1676,  78 
Dutch,  peace  proposed  to  tbe,  101 

„      the,  driven  back  in  Belgium  by  French 

army,  1831,  525 
„      the,  march  into  Belgium,  1831,  525 
Dykes  opened  in  Holland,  75 

EAST  India  Company,  82 
Eastern  affairs,  European  treaty  on,  582 
„  departments,  Charles  X.  visits  the, 

1829,  497 
„  question,  the,  1839-1840,  579 

Eckmuhl,  battle  of,  1809,  363 
Edict  of  .Nantes  confirmed,  13 

,,  revoked,  1685,  85 

Edict  of  union,  53 

Edicts,  registration  of,  enforced,  1787,  184 
Education,  agitation  regarding,  1843-1844,  585 

„         law  respecting,  537 
Egra,  retreat  on,  138 
Egypt,  expedition  to,  1798,  294 
„      campaign  in,  1798-1799,  302 
„      condition  of  French  army  in,  1800, 316 
„     evacuation  of,  3l7 
.  „      and  Turkey, struggle  between,  1832-3,  535 
El-Arisch,  convention  of,  1800,  316 
Elba  given  to  Bonaparte,  1814,  407 
,,    Bonaparte's  departure  for,  1814,  410 
,,    return  of  Bonaparte  from,  1815,  424 
Elbceuf,  Duke  of,  executed,  26 
Elections  of  the  year  V,  1797,  288 
„         of  1821,  468 
„         liberal,  1827,  492 
„        general,  1830,  499 
„         annulled,  1830,  502 
Electoral  law,  1817,  447 

„  remodelled,  1831,  522 


Emigration  of  nobles,  1790,  211 

„  increase  of,  218 

Emigrants,  law  for  reparation  to,  421 
Empire,  establishment  of  the,  1804,  330 
Encyclopaedia,  the,  170 
Enghien,  Duke  d'  (Cond£),  38 

„  arrest  and  execution  of,  1804, 

328 
England,  second  revolution  in,  1688,  88 

„        truce  with,  103 

„        alliance  with,  1717,  117 

,,       war  declared  with,  1756,  153 

„       war  with,  1778,  175 

,,        treaty  of  commerce  with,  182 

,,       imasion  of,  projected,  294 

,,       power  of,  at  sea,  310 

,,        declines  peace,  310 

„       invasion  of,  prepared  for,  1801,  318 

„        peace  with,  1801,  318 

,,        declares  war  against  Spain,  334 

„       proposed  invasion  of,  335 

,.      .  negotiations  lor  peace  with,  1806,  343 

,,       interferes  to  protect  Protestants,  1815, 
442 

„        alliance  with,  strengthened,  1832, 534 

,,        disagreement  with,  1846,  595 
English  disembark  in  isle  of  Khe,  16i7,  21 
Enthusiasm  of  the  nation,  3*5 
Epernon,  Duke  d',  assists  Marie  de  Medici,  11 
Erfurt,  capitulation  of,  1806,  345 

„      treaty  of,  1808,  360 
Espartero,  General,  government  of,   in  Spain, 

i840,  578 
Essling,  battle  of,  1809,364 
Eugene,  army  of,  joins  Bonaparte,  365 
Eugene,  Prince,  in  Italy,  388 
Europe,  state  of,  in  1635,  31 

„      at  peace,  66 

„      rises  iu  favour  of  Holland,  75 

„      war  against,  1688-1698,  87 

,,      in  repose,  93 

„      state  of,  1715, 112 

,,      general  rising  of,  against  France,  1793, 
240 

,,      second  coalition  of,against  France,1798, 
297 

„      sufferings  of,  1812,  378 

„      liberal  movement  in,  1844-1846, 598 
European  league  against  Louis  XIV.,  79 
Evangelical  union,  30 
Exactions  of  nobles,  3 
Exiles,  indemnity  to,  1825,  484 
Eylau,  battle  of,  1807,  350 

FAB  ERT,  bravery  of,  at  Arras,  38 
Factory  law,  1840,  578 
"  Family  Treaty  "  signed,  1761,  160 
Famine  in  Paris,  262 

Farmers-general,  prosecutions  against,  1718, 118 
"  Feuillant"  Ministry,  1792,  221 
Fayette,  De  la,  Mdlle.,  28 
Fayette,  La,  reappearance  of,  1815,  430 
Federation,  Fete  of  the,  210 
Feder6s  Marseiliais  in  Paris,  222 
Fenelon,  106 

Ferdinand,  King  of  Bohemia,  29 
Ferdinand  II.,  death  of,  1637,  35 
Ferdinand  III.  proclaimed  Emperor,  1619,  29 
Ferdinand  VII.  proclaimed  King  of  Spain,  1808, 
357 
„  liberated,  1814,  394 

Fere  Champenoise,  battle  of,  1 814,  401 
Ferrara  occupied  by  the  Austrians,  1847,  603 
Fieschi,  attempt  of,  to  assassinate  Louis  Philippe, 

1835,  548 
Fifth  coalition  against  France,  1809,  361 
Finances,  disorder  of,  1716,  118 
Fire  Brigade  established  in  Paris,  16G7, 81 


INDEX. 


631 


First  Emigration,  1789,  203 
Flanders,  operations  in,  1639,  36 

campaign  commenced  in,  65 
war  for  possession  of,  1667,  1668,  72 
conquest  of,  72 
campaign  in,  1677,  78 
reverses    of   French    army   in,   1702, 
1703,  96 
„  operations  in,  1794,  255 

Fleets  voted  for  by  nobles,  1626, 19 
Fieurus,  battle  of,  1794,  256 
Fleury,  Cardinal,  Minister,  1726,  133 
Flight  of  the  royal  family,  1791,  214 
Fontaine bleau,  treaty  of,  1807,  355 

„  Bonaparte  at,  1814,  402 

Fontarabia,  siege  of,  abandoned,  35 
Fontenoy,  victory  of,  1745,  142 
Foreign  .foliey,  183:4-1834,  534 " 
„  „        1838,  565 

,,  „        of  France.    Note  from  Eussia, 

Prussia,  and  Austria  concern- 
ing the,  1833,  537 
j}  „       ofGovernmentdiscussed,1848,609 

>>  ,,        of  Perier  Ministry,  523 

Fouche,  treason  of,  435 

„        death  of,  443 
Fouquet,  De,   condemned   to    perpetual  deten- 
tion, 69 
Four  articles  of  clergy  drawn  up,  1682,  80 
"  Fourierism,"  533 
Fourth  coalition,  1806,  341 
Foy,  General,  death  and  funeral  of,  1825,  487 
France,  condition  of,  at  death  of  Henry  IV., 
1610,  1 
„        in  miserable  condition,  56 
„        distress  in,  90 
„        signs  of  decadence  in,  94 
„        distress  in,  1709,  101 
„        under  the  Eegent,  132 
„        commences  hostilities,  1740,  137 
„         invaded,  1792,  225 
„        boundaries  of,  under  Consulate,  322 
„        deplorable  condition  of,  1813,  388 
„         evacuated  by  Allies,  1818,  449 
„         distress  in,  1845,  592 
Franche-Comte,  restored  to  France,  1674,  76 
Francis,  Duke,  proclaimed  Emperor  at  Frank- 
fort, 143 
Frankfort,  proposition  of  powers  at,  389 
Frauklm,  Benjamin,  minister  at  Paris,  174 
Frascorolo,  attack  on,  34 
Frauds  in  the  offices  of  the  Ministers  of  War  and 

Marine,  1847,  605 
Frederick  II.  invades  Silesia,  137 
„  operations  of,  155 

,,  •victor}'  at  Bosbach,  1757,  157 

Frederick  V.  receives  the  Crown  of  Bohemia,  29 
French  Academy  founded,  1635,  41 
„       armaments,  1840,  580 
„      arms,  successes  of,  35 
„      army,  successes  of,  228 
„      colonies,  82 
„      fleet  in  Mediterranean,  69 
„      in  Spain,  success  of,  1808,  361 
„      period  of  thirty  years'  war,  31 
„      prelates,  council  of,  1811,  377 
,,      troops  engaged  against  Turkey,  69 
Fribourg,  battle  of,  1644,  51 
Friedlaud,  battle  of,  1807,  352 
Friediingen,  battle  of,  96 
Fronde,  war  of  ttie,  57 
Frondes,  union  of  the  two,  59 
"  Fronueurs,  the,"  1648,  54 
*'  Frondeurs,"  origin  of  the  term  {note),  54 
Fuentes  d'Onoro,  battle  of,  1811,  375 

GALIGAI,  Signora,  wife  of  Concini,  4 
„  „        executed  as  a  sorceress,  10 


Gaming  houses  suppressed,  1836,  555 
Gaston,  of  Orleans,  betrays  his  accomplices,  18 
„  „  marries  Mdlle.  Montpensier, 

19 
„  „  insults  Richelieu,  25 

„  „  flies  to  Lorraine,  25 

„  „  revolt  of,  27 

„  „  at  Tours,  27 

„  „  married    to   Princess   Mar- 

guerite, 27 
„  „  returns  to  France,  28 

„  „  proclaimed    Lieutenant- Ge- 

neral of  Kingdom,  63 
General  elections,  1846,  594 
Generals  refuse  to  march  on  Paris,  1814,  405 
Genoa  bombarded,  1684,  79 

„       surrender  of,  313 
George  II.  of  England  on  the  Maine,  138 
George  III.  of  England,  160 
George,  St.,  battle  of,  1797,  286 
Georges  Cadoudal,  trial  of,  1804,  329 
Gerard,  Marshal,  in  Belgium,  1831,  525 

„  „         president  of  council,  1834, 545 

„  „         dismissal  of,  546 

Germain,  Si.,  l'Auxerrois,  pillage  of,  1831,  521 
German  Lmpire,  fall  of  the,  18u6,  344 

„        States,  secularization  of  the,  323 
Germany,  events  in,  29 

„  operations  in,  33 

„  campaign  in,  1800,  311 

„  successes  in,  1805,  338 

„  campaign  in,  1809,  362 

„  successes  in,  1813,  385 

„  disturbances  in,  1820,  457 

Gertruydenberg,  congress  of,  102 
Gibraltar,  French  fleet  destroyed  at,  1706,  98 

„  siege  of,  1782,  179 

"  Gilded  Youth,  the,"  261 
Girondist  Ministry,  1792,  220 
Girondists,  insurrection  against  and  fall  of  the, 
1793,  243 
„  punishment  of  the,  251 

„  recall  of  the,  262 

Gondi,  De,  Paul  (Cardinal  de  Betz),  54 

M  „        arranges  return  of  the  King  to 

Paris,  63 
Governmental  intimidation,  1824,  475 
Grants  of  Imperial  Government,  law  on,  464 
"  Gratuitous  Gift,  the/'  122, 
Gravelines  seized,  51 

Great  men  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIIL,  47 
Greece,  insurrection  in,  1820,  457 

„        enfranchised,  1828,  495 
Greek  revolution,  continuance  of,  466 
Greene,  General,  manoeuvres  of,  1781,  178 
Gregoire,  election  of,  1819,  453 
Gregory  XVI.,  Pope,  introduces  reforms,  1831,524 
„  „      promises  of,    not  carried 

out,  1831,  527 
Grenoble,  Bonaparte  enters,  1815,  427 
Guastalla,  battle  of,  1738,  136 
Guebriant,  success  of,  in  Germany,  39 
Guise,  Chevalier,  4 

Guizot,  entrance  of,  into  public  life,  1830, 498 
„       obtains  a  law  respecting  education,  537 
„       attack  on  the  Ministry  of  Mole,   1839, 

570 
„       Ambassador  in  London,  1840,  577 
„       President  of  Cabinet,  1840, 581 
1847,603 
Gustavus,  Adolphus,  victories  ot,  30 
„  „         death  of,  1632, 31 

HAGUENATJ,  siege  of,  raised,  77 
Haider  Ali,  death  of,  1782,  181 
Hall  of  Assembly,  attack  on  the,  263 
Ham,  Louis  JMapoieon  imprisoned  at,  1840,  578 
Hanau,  battle  ot,  1813,  3»7 


632 


INDEX. 


Hanover,  treaty  of,  1725, 131 

Hanseatic  towns  annexed,  1810, 374 

Hauranne,  M. Duvergier  de, agitation  by,  1847, 604 

Havre  bombarded  by  English,  92 

Heidelberg,  defeat  of  Pichegru  at,  265 

Helena,  St.,  Bonaparte  sent  to,  1815,  436 

„  death  of  Bonaparte  at,  1821,  466 

Heliopolis,  Kleber's  victory  at,  316 
"Help  yourself    and  Heaven  will   help    you" 

Society,  objects  of  the,  1 827, 492 
Helvetian  Directory,  1798,  296 
Hesdin,  capture  of,  1639,  36 
Hoche,  success  of,  273 
Hochstadt,  victory  at,  314 
Hochstett,  defeat  at,  1704,  97 
Hogue,  La,  battle  of,  91 
Hohenlinden,  victory  at,  314 
Hohenlohe,  Prince  of,  surrender  of,  346 
Holland,  commercial  alliance  with,  69 

,,        war  against,  1672,  73 

„        situation  of,  74 

„        conquest  of,  1672,  74 

„        evacuated,  75 

,,        alliance  with,  1717, 117 

,,        treatment  of,  by  France,  182 

„        conquest  of,  1795, 264 

„        annexed  to  France,  1810,  369 

„        visit  of  Bonaparte  to,  1812,  378 

,,        rises  against  France,  389 
Holy  alliance,  397, 458 
Home  policy  of  Cabinet,  1833,  537 

„  of  Government  discussed,  1848, 610 

Huguenots,  war  against,  1621,  12 
„  „  1625,  16 

Hundred  days,  the,  412 

„  „        1815, 428 

T  BRAHIM  PASHA,  rising  of,  1832-3,  535 
JL         „  „  concessions  to,  1833,  536 

Illustrious  men  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV., 83 
Imperial  decrees,  first,  1815, 429 

„       University,  foundation  of  the,  342 
Hidia,  operations  in,  143 

„      war  with  England  in,  149 

„      campaigns  in,  1778-1783,  180 
Individual  liberty,  law  for  suspension  of,  1820, 459 
Infanta,  the,  returns  to  Spain,  1725,  130 
"  Infernal  Machine,"  plot  of  the,  1800,  319 
Inquisition,  the,  abolished  in  Spain,  361 
Insurgents  give  themselves  up,  10 

„  trial  of,  1839,  576 

Intendants,  creation  of,  1635,  41 
Inundations,  1847,597 
Invasion  of  England,  failure  of  the,  337 

„         of  France,  1636,34 
Isabella  recognised  Queen  of  Spain  by  Louis 

Philippe,  535 
Isle  of  Rhe'  seized  by  Soubise,  16 

„  retaken,  16 

Isly,  battle  of  the,  1844,590 
Italy,  war  in,  1630, 24 

„     operations  in,  34 

„     Bonaparte's  success  in,  277 

„     state  of  French  army  in,  282 

„     lost  to  the  French,  1 799, 302 
■  „     campaign  in,  1800, 311 

„     state  of,  1820, 456 

„     disturbed  state  of,  1821,  466 

,,     insurrection  of,  1830,  520 

JAMES  II.  of  England  in  France,  88 
,,  in  Ireland,  90 

„  assisted,  1708, 100 

Jean,  St.,  position  of  English  at  Mont,  1815,  432 
Jean,  St.,  d'  4  ere,  siege  of,  303 
Jean,  St.,  d'Ulloa,  fall  of,  1838,  566 
Jena,  battle  of,  1806,  345 
Jemappes,  battle  of,  1792, 231 


Jesuits,  abolition  of  the  ord9r  of,  in  France,  1764, 
161 

„       total  extinction  of  the  order,  1773, 162 

„       re-entry  of,  in  France,  467 

„        denounced  by  M.de  Montlosier,  1825,487 

„       forbidden  to  teach,  1828,  495 

„        debate  on  laws  concerning  the,  1843, 587 
John  der  Werth,  capture  of,  36 
Joinville,  Prince  de,  attacks  Tangiers,  1844,  590 
Joseph,  Father,  42 
Josephine,  divorce  of,  1810, 369 
Journalists,  trials  of,  1824,  479 

„  protest  of,  1830,502 

Judicial  arrangements,  reorganization  of,1771,167 

,,  ,,  organization  of,  210 

Juliers,  capitulation  of,  1610, 3 
Junction  of  orders  in  Assembly,  200 
Just,  St.,  arrest  of,  1794,  25£ 
Justice,  bed  of,  1718,  120 

KING  of  the  Halles  (Duke  of  Beaufort),  57 
King  of  Rome,  birth  of  the,  1811, 376 
"The  king  reigns  but  does  not  govern,"  445,  568 
Kleber,  position  of,  in  Egypt,  1800,316 

„        death  of,  317 
Konigsberg,  march  of  the  French  on,  352 
Konieh,  battle  of,  535 

LAFAYETTE  in  America,  175 
„  restores  order,  5th  October,1789, 

207 
„  captivity  of,  at  Olmutz,  225 

„  general,  release  of,  288 

„  made     Commander-in-Chief    of 

_  National  Guard,  1830,  503 
„  influence  of  over  mob,  507 

„  General,  death  of,  1831(note), 531 

Laflfitte  Ministry,  519 

fall  of,  1831,  523 
Lally,  General,  execution  of,  1760, 159 
Lally-Tollendal,  address  to  the  nobility  by,  199 
Lamarque,  General,  funeral  of,  1832,  531 
Lamartine,  De,  M.,  defence  of  Ministry  of  Mole" 
by,  1839,  571 
„  „        speech  of,  concerning  Jesuits, 

1843,  588 
„  „        threatens  a  revolution,  1847, 

604 
Land-tax,  proposed  reduction  of  the,  1825,  487 
Landrecies,  blockade  of,  1794,  255 
Languedoc,  revolt  in,  16 
,,  rising  in,  27 

,,  Canal  constructed,  82 

Lannes  at  Montebello,  313 
Xaon,  battle  of,  1814,  399 
Lavalette,  escape  of,  443 
Law,  appearance  of,  1716,  119 
„      opposition  to,  120 
„      made  Comptroller- General,  125 
„      system,  fall  of,  125 
„     arrest  of,  125 
„     retirement  of,  to  Venice,  126 
„      system,  result  of,  127 
"  Law  of  Disjunction,"  1837,  560 
„       of  hostages  abolished,  308 
„      of  maximum  and  suspected  persons,  247 
„       of  September,  1835,  549 
Lawfeld,  victory  at,  1747,  144 
Laybaeh,  congress  of,  1821,  458 
La  Bedoyere,  execution  of,  443 
Leek,  the  passage  of  the,  30 
Legion  of  Honour  established,  321 
Legislative  acts,  1817,  1818,  447 

,,  assembly,  opening  of  the,  1791,  217 

„  assembly,  1815,  1816,  442 

,,  body,  dissolution  of  the,  1 799,  305 

„  Corps,  resistance  of  the, to  Bonaparte, 

391 


INDEX. 


633 


Legislative  enactments  of  1828  and  1829,  495 
„  „  1832-1834,537 

,,  session,  1831,  525 

„  „        end  of,  1832, 529 

„  „        close  of,  1834,  542 

„  „         1836-1837, 560 

„  „        1848, 608 

"Legitimists,"  521 

„  disturbances  in  Paris,  1831,  521 

„  agitation  by  the,  1832,  528 

„  demonstration,  debate  concern- 

ing, 1844,  586 
Leipsic,  battle  of,  1631,  30 
„         1813, 386 
Lens,  battle  of,  1648,  51 
Leoben,  armistice  of,  1797,  287 
Leopold,  Emperor,  death  of,  100 

King  of  the  Belgians,  1831,  525 
Lerida,  battle  of,  1642,  40 
„      siege  of,  raised,  51 
Lesdiguieres  created  constable,  13 
Leuze,  battle  of,  1691,  90 
Liberal  elections,  1819,  453 
„       laws  passed,  1831,  520 
„       literature,  increase  of,  1826,  488 
„       party,  factions  of,  452 
Ligny,  battle  of,  1815,  431 
Ligurian  Eepublic,  297 
Lille,  taking  of,  1709,  101 
Lisbon,  the  French  in,  356 

_  „      French  fleet  at,  1831,  524 
Literature  during  Ministry  of  Eichelieu,  47 

„  state  of,  during  the  Eegency,  132 

Loano,  'victory  of  Scherer  at,  1795,  265 
Lobau,  Marshal,  movements  of,  1834,  542 
Lodi,  Bonaparte  at  Bridge  of,  277 
Lonato,  victory  at,  279 
London,  conference  of,  1830,  518 

„        decision  of  conference  of,  1831,  524    ■ 
Longueville,  Duchess  of,  at  Stenay,  58 
„  Duke  of,  rebels,  161 4,  4 

„  „        seizes  Peronne,  9 

„  „        arrested,  1650, 58 

„  ,,        death  of,  74 

Loire,  army  of  the,  disbanded,  1815,  439 
Lorraine,  invasion  of,  1632,  28 

„         incorporated  with  France,  1766,  162 
Lotteries  abolished  (note),  555 
Loudun,  treaty  of,  1616,  8 

,,  meeting  at,  1619,  12 

Louis  XIII.  of  age,  1614,  5 

„  marriage  of,  with  the  Infanta  op- 

posed, 7 
,,  marriage  of,  1615,  8 

„  reasons  for  arrest  of  Cond£,  9 

,,  before  Angers,  12 

„  reconciled  with  Marie  de  Medici, 

12 
„  urged  to  dismiss  Eichelieu,  22 

„  ill  at  Lyons,  24 

„  letter  to  his  mother  in  Flanders,  26 

,,  in  Lorraine,  33 

„  at  siege  of  Perpignan,  40 

„  visits  Eichelieu  at  Tarascon,  43 

„  death  of,  1643,  43 

,,  character  of,  44 

Louis  XIV.,  accession  of,  49 
„  early  days  of,  49 

,,  bed  of  justice,  1643,  49     . 

,,  minority  of,  49 

„  first  campaign  of,  64 

„  at  the  Parliament,  1657, 65 

,,  marriage  of,  1660,  66 

,,  sole  ruler  of  France,  67 

„  his  character  and  success,  68 

„  political  pride  of,  69 

„  threatens  Pnilip  IV.  of  Spain  with 

war,  69 


Louis  XIV.,  disagreement  with  the  Pope,  69 
„  vigorous  reforms  by,  70 

„  claims  Flanders,  71 

„  hatred  of  the  Dutch,  72 

„  formidable  preparations  of,  73 

„  his  demands  on  Holland,  75 

„  fraud  of,  78 

„  arbiter  of  Europe,  78 

„  at  the  height  of  his  power,  79 

„  power  and  grandeur  of,  80 

„  arts  and  sciences  encouraged  by,  82 

„  "  The  Great,"  83 

„  character  of,  84 

„  marriage  with  Madame  de  Mainte- 

non,  85 
„  hatred  of  Protestants,  85 

„  conduct  to  other  nations,  87 

„  in  Flanders,  1691,90 

,,  propositions  of,  rejected,  102 

„  further  propositions  by,  102 

,,  religious  persecutions  by,  106 

„  last  days  of,  106 

„  will  of,  107 

„  death  of,  1715, 108 

„  reflections  on  reign  of,  109 

„  character  of,  110 

„  will  of,  1715, 116 

Louis  XV.,  majority  of,  1723, 128 
„  marriage  of,  1725, 130 

„  taste  for  private  life,  133 

„  illness  of,  at  Metz,  1745, 141 

,,  at  Fontenoy,  142 

„  edicts  of  1745, 1748, 145 

„  attempt  to  assassinate,  1757, 148 

„  disagreement  with  Parliament,  163 

,,  prodigality  of,  167 

„  death  of,  1774, 168 

Louis  XVI.,  accession  of,  1774, 171 

,,  has  recourse  to  force,  200 

,,  conducted    to    his    palace    by    the 

Assembly,  202 
,,  at  Versailles,  206 

„  with  his  family  proceeds  to  Paris,207 

„  detained  in  Paris,  2 12 

,,  arrest  of,  at  Varennes,  214 

,,  dethronement  of,  discussed,  222 

,,  at  the  Assembly,  224 

„  and  his  family  iu  the  Temple,1792,225 

„  trial  of,  1792, 232 

„  will  of,  234 

„  last  interview  with  his  family,  238 

„  death  of,  1793, 238 

Louis  XVLL,  death  of,  1795,  267 
Louis  XVIII,  267 

protest  of,  332 

recalled  to  the  throne,  1814,  407 
landing  at  Calais  of,  1814,415 
entry  into  Paris,  1814,415 
dangerous  position  of  power  of, 

lai4,417 
injudicious  decrees  of,  1814,418 
unpopular  measures  under,  4ii2 
measures  of,  on  return  of  Bona- 
parte, 1815, 426 
leaves  Paris  for  Ghent,  1815,  428 
proclamation  of,  1815,437 
patriotism  of,  441 

decree  of,  5th  September,  1816,  446 
death  of  1824,  480 
character  of,  480 
Louis  Philippe,  declaration  of,  on  accession,  510 
policy  of  Monarchy  under,  515 
first  Miuisiry  of,  517 
recognises    Isabella,    Queen   of 

Spain,  535 
attempted  assassination  of,  1835, 

548 
attempt  to  assassinate,  1836, 555 


634 


INDEX. 


Louis  Philippe,  at  the  height  of  his  greatness, 
1838, 567 
„  receives  Queen  Victoria,   1843, 

584 
„  attempts  on  the  life  of,  1847, 597 

„  pol  tical  conduct  of,  600 

„  last  review  of,  616 

„  abdication  of,  1848,617 

Louis,  Baron,  financial  schemes  of,  4:20 
Louisiana  ceded  to  United  States,  1803,  324 
Louvain,  siege  of,  raised,  33 
Louvel  murders  DuUe  de  Bern,  1820, 454 
Louvois,  influence  of,  85 

„       establishes  commissariat  in  Dutch  cam- 
paign, 74 
Lubeck,  peace  of,  1629,  30 
Lude,  Count  de,  made  governor  to  G-aston,  13 
Lunatics,  laws  regarding,  improved,  1838, 565 
Luneville,  peace  of,  1801,  315 
Lutzen,  battle  of,  1632,  3a 

„       Bonaparte  joins  the  army  at,  1813,  385 
Luxembourg,  campaign  of,  89 

„  Marshal,  victories  of,  1692, 1693,  91 

Luynes,  Charles  D' Albert  de,  created  duke,  10 

death  of,  1621,  12 
Luz,  Baron  de,  assassinated,  4 
Luzara,  victory  of,  96 
Lyons,  insurrection  in,  1793,  245 
„       disturbances  at,  1817,  447 
„      rising  in,  1831, 523 
„      insurrection  in,  1834,  541 

MACHATJLT,  financial  projects  of,  146 
Madras,  taking  of,  143 

,,         convention  of,  1754, 151 
Madrid  taken  by  the  Preoch,  1808,  361 
Maastricht,  junction  of  armies  before,  33 
Magnano,  defeat  or  Scherer  at,  1799,  300 
Maine,  Duke  du,  tutor  to  Louis  XV.,  115 
Maintenon,  Madame  de,  influence  of,  85 
„  example  of  economy  by,  101 

„  retirement  of,  to  St.  Cyr,  109 

Malaga,  naval  battle  off',  1705,  98 
Malesherbes,  De,  member  of  council,  171 

„  devotion  of,  "Z33 

Mallet,  conspiracy  of,  in  Paris,  1812,  385 
Malojaroslawetz,  battle  of,  1812,  584 
"  Malotrue  Peace,"  1614,  5 
Malplaquet,  defeat  at,  17 10,  102 
Malta,  capture  of,  1798,  294 

,,     taken  by  the  English,  317 
Mans,  defeat  of  Vendeans  at,  1793, 248 
Mantua,  capture  of,  24 

„       declaration  of,  1791,  213 
„       capitulation  of,  1797,  286 
„       Duke  of,  succession  of,  1627,  23 
,,  ,,      death  of,  1637,  35 

Manuel    expelled  from    Chamber  of  Deputies, 

1823,  473 
Manufactures  encouraged  under  Colbert,  71 
Marat,  leader  of  the  Mountain,  230 

„      death  of,  1793,  245 
Marengo,  battle  of,  1800,  313 
Marie  Antoinette,  execution  of,  1793,  251 
Maria  Christina  of  Spain,  abdication  of,  1840,  578 
Maria  Leczinski,  marriage  of,  with  Louis  XV., 

1725,  130 
Maria  Louisa,  marriage  of,  1810,  369 

„  declared  Eegent,  1814,  391 

„  retreat  of,  to  Blois,  1814, 401 

Maria  Theresa,  marriage  of,  16(50,  66 
„  death  of,  1683,  84 

,,  success  of,  138 

Mariendal,  Turenne  defeated  at,  51 
Manllac,  the  brothers,  arrest  ot,  25 

,,        Marshal,  executiou  of,  1632,  26 
Maritime  alliance,  18U0,  311 
Marlborough,  Duke  of,  96 


Marlborough,  at  Eamilies,  99 

,,  recall  of,  103 

Marmont,  treason  of,  1814,  406 
Marquesas  Islands,  possession  taken  of,  1842,  588 
Marseilles,  troubles  in,  1832,  528 
Martignac  ministry  formed,  1828,  495 

„  dismissed,  1829,  497 

Martin,  St.,  defended  by  de  To;ras,  21 
Masaniello  revolting  at  Naples,  51 
Massacre  in  the  prisons,  1792,  226 
Massena  superseded  by  Marshal  Marmont,  376 
Maubeuge,  siege  of,  raised,  1793,  249 
Maudat,  murder  of,  223 
Maurepas,  administration  of,  171 
Maupeou,  Chancellor,  character  of,  164 
Mayenee,  blockade  of,  raised,  33 
Mayenne,  Duke  of,  rebels,  1614,  4 

„  „        death  of,  12 

Mazarin  at  Casal,  24 
„      ministry  of,  49 
,,      made  first  minister,  50 
,,      administration  of,  52 
„      character  and  policy  of,  52 
,,      insulted  by  libels,  57 
,,      retirement  of,  1651,  59 
,,      banishment  of,  demanded,  59 
,,      price  set  on  his  hpad  by  parliament,  60 
„      return  of,  1652,  60 
„      second  retirement  of,  1652,  63 
,,      recalled,  1653,  64 
„      death  of,  1661,  67 
,,      character  of,  67 
"  Mazarins,"  the,  1648,  54 
Mazzinians  in  Italy,  599 
Mecklenburg- Sehwerin,    marriage    of   Princess 

Helen  of,  1838,  567 
Medici,  Marie,  de  declared  Eegent,  1610,  2 
,,  retains  power,  5 

,,  exiled  from  court,  10 

„  assisted  by  Euccelai  and  Duke 

d'Epernon,  11 
,,  obtains  government  of  Anjou,  11 

„  reconciled  with  Louis  XIII.,  12 

,,  hostility  of,  to  Eicheiieu,  25 

,,  at  Compiegne,  26 

„  flies  to  Flanders,  1631,  26 

„  possessions  of,  seized,  26 

death  of;  1642,  43 
Mehemet  Ah,  dethronement  of,  1840,  580 
Menehould,  Sainte,  treaty  of,  5 
Messina  seeks  protection  of  France,  77 
Mettray,  establishment  of,  founded,  576 
Metz,  army  re-enters,  33 
Meunier,  attempt  on  the  fife  of  Louis-Philippe 

by, 1836,  560 
Mexico,  campaign  against,  1838,  566 
Mezierei  seized,  1614,  4 
Mignet,  early  writings  of,  1826,  489 
Miguel,  Don.usurps  Portuguese  throne,! 826, 491 
Military  arrangements  for  campaigns  of  1799,299 
„        conspiracy  in  Paris,  1820, 461 
„        expenditure,  1841,582 
„        operations,  1643-1648,  50 
„        preparations  of  assembly,  219 
Minden,  battle  of,  1759,  157 
Ministers  at  the  Eestoration,  1814,  415 
Ministry,  changes  in  the,  540 
„        of  29th  Oct.,  1840,  581 
,,        responsibility  of  the,  601 
Minorca,  capture  of,  154 

„        defeat  of  Admiral  Byng  at,  155 
Mirabeau,  Marquis  de,  leader  in  assembly,  205 
„  return  of,  to  court,  212 

„  deataof,  1791,  213 

Miracles  at  cemetery  of  St.  Medard,  134 
Mogador,  bombardment  of,  J 844,  590 
Mole,  Mathieu,  president  of  parliament,  54 
„  firmness  of,  60 


INDEX. 


635 


M0I6,  Mathieu,  ministry  of,  1836,  557 

„  cabinet,  changes  in  and  difficult 

position  of,  561 
„  coalition  against  ministry  of,l  839, 

568 
„  reply  to  coalition  by,  1839,  570 

„  ministry,  resignation  of,  1839,574 

„  invited  to  form  a  new  ministry, 

1848,  614 
Monarchy,  fall  of  the,  1792,  224 

,.  of  France,  remarks  on  the,  619 

"  Monarchy  according  to  the  charter,  the,"  446 
Moncon,  treaty  of,  1625,  17 
Mons,  capture  of,  1691,  90 
Montecuculli  sent  against  Turenne,  77 
Montalembert,Ue,spet-ch  of,  on  retorms,  1847,597 
Montalivet,  De,  minister  of  interior,  1832,  530 
Montauban,  siege  of,  12 
Montemart  ministry  formed,  1830,  505 
Montferrat  conquered  by  Spaniards,  23 
Montmorency,  De,  revolt  of,  27 

„  execution  of,  1632,  27 

Montpelier,  peace  of,  1622,  13 
Montpensier,  Duke  de,  marriage  of,  1846,  595 

„  Mdlie.,  enters  Orleans,  61 

Moore,  Sir  John,  death  of,  361 
Morbegno,  victory  at,  34 
Morea,  expedition  to  the,  1828,  495 
Moreau,  celebrated  retreat  of,  282 

j,         takes  command  of  army  in  Italy,  300 
}>         further  success  of,  in  Germany,  1800, 315 
.  „         trial  of,  1804,  329 
Moret,  Count  de,  executed,  26 
Morocco,  war  with,  1844,  590 
Mortmain,  law  of,  145 

Moscow,  entry  of  French  army  into,  1812,  383 
„         burning  of,  1812,  383 
„         retreat  from,  1812,  384 
Moskva,  battle  of  the,  18 12,  382 
Municipal  commission,  18i0,  503 

„  committee  resign,  1830,  507 

Munster,  peace  of,  1648,  52 
Murat,  King  of  Naples,  1808,  357 
„       deserts  Bonaparte,  389 
„       declares  against  Bonaparte,  1814,  393 
„       fall  of,  1815,  430 
Murder  of  Concini,  1617,  9 
Mure,  Bonaparte  at,  18l5,  427 
Mutuallists,    strike    of    workmen    ordered  by 
society  of,  1834,  541 

NAMUK,  capture  of,  91 
JN hncy  taken  by  the  French,  28 
Nantes,  arrest  of  Duchess  de  Berry  at,  1832,  534 
Naples,  rising  at,  51 

,,       treaty  with,  1801,  315 
Napoleon,  St.,  fete  of,  instituted  1805,  341 
National  Assembly,  formation  of,  1789,  198 
„        Convention,  1792,  229 
„        debt,  increase  of,  163 
„       guard  organized,  202 
„  „      disbanded,  1826, 491 

„  ,,      reorganized,  1830,  508 

>,  ,,      increased,  1830,  518 

„  „      disaffection  of,  1848,  614,  616 

„       militia,  131 
Navarino,  battle  of,  1827,  494 
Havy  formed  under  Colbert,  71 
„     French,  decadence  of  the,  98 
„    increase  of  the,  124 
,,     extraordinary  credit  for,  1846,  593 
Necker,  operations  of,  1777, 173 
„        resignation  of,  1781,  177 
„        second  ministry  of,  17t>8,  188 
„        exile  of,  200 
„        recall  of,  202 
Nelson  in  Egypt,  1798,  303 

„      at  Copenhagen,  1801,  317 


Nemours  marches  against  Guienne,  61 

„        Duke  de,  Belgian    crown    offered   to-, 

1831,  525 
„  „  in  Belgium,  1832,  534 

„  „  allowance  for,  1837,  561 

„  ,,  law  of  endowment  for  the,  576 

Nerwinde,  battle  of,  1794,  241 
Netherlands,  King  of  the,  difficulties  with  the, 

1832,  532 
Neubourg,  Count  Palatine  of,  3 
Neuburg,  victory  at,  314 
Nevers,  Duke  of,  revolts,  1614,  4 

„  „         supported  by  Kichelieu,  23 

„  „         in  possession  of  Mantua  and 

Montferrat,  23 
Ney,  Marshal,  devotion  of,  1812,  385 
,,  ,,        joins  Bonaparte,  1815, 427 

„  ,,        executi  .n  of,  443 

Nile,  battle  of  the,  1798,  303 
Nimeguen,  peace  of,  1678,  78 

,,  capture  of,  257 

Nobles  abased,  81 
Nordlingen,  battle  of,  1634,  31 
1644,  51 
Normandy,  insurrection  in,  37 
North  America,  hostilities  in,  152 
Notables,  assembly  of,  1626,  19 
„  „  1787,183 

,,  second  assembly  of,  1788,  190 
Novi,  defeat  of  the  French  at,  1799,  304 
Nuncio,  remonstrances  of  Pope's,  16 

OATH  of  the  Tennis-court,"  1789, 198 
Odillon-Barrot,  deprived  of  prefecture  of 
Paris,  1831,  522 
„  „        leader  of  the  opposition, 

1834,  530 
Omer,  St.,  siege  of,  raised  1638,  35 

„  capture  of,  78 

Opposition,  the,  strengthened,  1830,  500 
Orange,  Maurice,  Prime  of,  takes  Juliers,  1610,  3 

„        assistance  of  Prince  of,  secured,  32 
Ordonnance  of,  1629,  20 

Orleans,Duchesse  d',  and  children  at  theChamber 
of  Deputies,  1848,617 
„         marriage  of  the  Duke  of,  annulled,  28 
„        Duke  or,  character  of  the,  114 
„  „        before  Parliament,  115 

„  ,,        public  indignation  against,  117 

„  „        death  of,  1723,  128 

„  „        summoned  to  Paris,  1830,  506 

„  „        his  chat  acter,  506 

„  „        elected  Lieuienant-General  of 

Ki>  gdom,  1830,  506 
„  „         proclamation  of,  1830,  506 

„  „         in  Belgium,  1832,  534 

„  ,,         marriage  of,  1838,  567 

„  ,,         death  of,  1842,  583 

Ornano,  Marshal,  governor  to  Gaston,  17 

„  ,,         death  of,  18 

Orthez,  battle  of,  1814,  400 
Oudenarde,  defeat  at,  1709,  101 
Ouen,  St.,  declaration  of,  1814,  415 
Outbreak  of  the  Queen's  partisans,  11 

PALATINATE  burned,  1674,  77 
„  ravaged, 1689, 88 

Parga,  massacre  of,  466 
Paris,  the  brothers,  119 
Paris,  terror  in,  34 

,,      edict  against  extension  of,  1548, 53 

,,      defended  by  tne  Princes  against  the  King, 

62 
,,      terror  and  anarchy  in,  62 
„      blockaded,  57 
„      treaty  of,  1763, 161 
„      military  preparations  in,  226 
,,      allied  armies  encamp  around,  1814, 401 


636 


INDEX. 


Paris,  battle  of,  1814, 401 

„      capitulation  of,  1814, 402 
„      entry  of  Louis  XVIII.  into,  1814, 415 
„      treaty  of,  1814,  416 
,,    .  Bonaparte's  march  on,  1815, 426 
„      Bonaparte  re-enters,  1815, 428 
,,      surrender  of,  18 15,  438 
„      riots  in,  1820,  460 
,,      declared  in  state  of  siege,  1830,  502 
,,      in  hands  of  insurgents,  1830,  503 
,,      evacuation  of,  by  Royalists,  1830, 505 
„      tumults  in,  1830,  518 
„      cholera  in  1832,  528 
,,      placed  in  a  state  of  siege,  1832, 532 
„      insurrection  in,  1834,  542 
,,      Bepublican  insurrection  in,  1839, 575 
„      agitation  in,  184S,  613 
Parliament,  remonstrances  of,  1615, 7 
„  of  Paris,  weakness  of,  57 

„  banished  to  Montargis,  58 

,,  powers  of,  limited,  81 

„  exile  of,  126 

„  recalled,  128 

exile  of,  1771, 165 
,,  destruction  of  the  old,  1771, 166 

,,  threatened  suppression  of,  185 

Parthenopean  Republic,  298 
Particelli,  Emeri,  52 
Party  animosity,  1820,  462 
Pasquier,  Chancellor,  at  trial  of  rioters,  547 
Pau,  Parliament  bestowed  on,  12 
Paul,  Czar,  assassination  of,  1801,  317 
FauLette,  threatened  suppression  of,  53 
Parma,  battle  of,  1738, 136 
Peace  of  Alais,  16a9,  23 
Peel,  Sir  Robert,  and  corn  laws,  599 
Peerage,  hereditary,  abolished,  1830,  508 
„        law  on  organization  of  the,  526 
Peers,  creation  of  new,  1827,492 
Pennissiere,    destruction     of    castle    of,    1832, 

532 
Pensions,  diminution  of,  demanded,  6 
People,  the,  at  Versailles,  5th    October,  1789, 

207 
Peronne,  seizure  of,  9 
Perpignan,  capitulation  of,  1642, 40 
Pestilence,  outbreak  of,  126 

in  Provence,  1720, 1721, 127 
Peter  III.,  assassination  of,  161 
"  Peter's  pence  "  impounded  for  French  church, 

41 
Peterborough,    magnanimous    conduct    of,    at 

Barcelona,  98 
Potion,  Mavor  of  Paris,  suspended,  227 
Petition  of  "the  Cbamp  de  Mars,  1791,  214 
Petrowna,  EmDress,  death  of,  1762,160 
Philippe  IV.,  death  of,  1668,  71 
Philip  V.  of  Spain,  anger  of,  1725, 130 
Pichegru,  death  of,  1804,  329 
Piccolomiui,  arrival  of,  33 
Piedmont,  success  in,  1640,  38 
„         neutrality  of,  1796,  276 
„         invasion  of  1797—1799, 297 
„         annexation  of,  1803,  326 
Pilnitz,  treaty  of,  1791,  215 
Pitt,  William,  policy  of,  311 
Pius  VI.  made  prisoner,  1799,  297 

„        death  of,  1799,  297 
Pius  VII.,  concordat  with,  321 

„  imprisonment  of,  1809, 368 

„  and  Bonaparte,  1811,376 

,    „  return  to  Italy  of,  1814, 394 

Plata,  La,  hostilities  in,  576 
Plenary  Court,  established,  185 
Plessis,  Armand  du,  Bishop  of  Lucon,  5 

„  „         arranges   a  peace   between 

Louis  XIII.  and  Marie  de 
Medici,  11 


Plessis,  Armand  du, promised  Cardinal's  hat,  12 
„  „  obtains  Cardinal's  hat,  1622, 

13 

„  „         now   known    as    Richelieu, 

1622,  13 
Poland,  war  on  behalf  of,  1733, 135 
„       first  division  of,  1772, 168 
„       French  army  in  cantonments  in,  349 
„  „  in, 1812, 380 

„        insurrection  of,  1830,  520 
„        conquest  of,  1831,526 
Police  established,  1687,  81 
Policy  of  Henry  IV.  abandoned,  3 
Polignac  Ministry  formed,  1829,497 
Political    demonstration    announced   for    22nd 

February,  1848,  613 
Political  parties,  1814, 419 
„  „        1815, 440 ' 

Poll  tax  in  France,  37 
Pomare,  Queen  of  Tahiti,  588 
Pompadour,  Madame  de,  influence  of,  146, 148 

_  „  „  death  of,  1764, 162 

Ponticherry  seized  by  Dutch,  92 

,,  taking  of,  159 

Poniatowsky,  death  of,  1813,  387 
Ponchartrain,  Philipeux  de,  90 
Pont  de  Ce,  engagement  at,  12 
Pope  deprived  of  temporal  power,  1809,  367 
Port  Royal,  ruin  of,  1709, 106 
Portocarrero,  Abbe,  arrest  of,  121 
Portugal  recovers  her  independence,  1641, 38 
„        supported  against  Spain,  69 
„        partition  of,  1807,  355 
„        rising  in,  1808,  358 
,,        rising  in,  1820,  456 
,,        disturbances  in,  1824,  479 
,,         French  action  in,  1831,524 
,,        throne  of,  seized  by  Don  Miguel,  535 
,,        French  interference  in,  535 
„         armed  intervention  in,  1847,  602 
"  Pragmatic  Sanction,"  131 
Prague,  capitulation  of,  141 

,,        propositions  for  a  congress  at,  1813,  385 
Praslin,  Duchess  de,  murder  of  the,  1847,605 
Presburg,  peace  of,  1805,341 
Press,  law  as  to  the,  1814,  420 
„      censorship  of  the,  448 
„      law  respecting  the,  451 
„      law  for  censorship  of  the,  1820,  459 
„      censorship  of  the,  re-established,  1824,  480 
„      liberty  of  the,  proposed  law  against,  1826, 

490 
„      censorship  of  the,  abolished,  1828,  495 
„      liberty  of  the,  suppressed,  1830,  502 
„      liberty  of  the,  established,  1830,  508 
„       actions  against  the,  1833,  539 
„       law  regarding  the,  1835,  550 
„      attacks  of  the,  on  the  administration,  1839, 
569 
Pretender,  expulsion  of  the,  117 
Prie,  Marchioness  de,  129 

Primogeniture,  proposed  law  relating  to,  1826,485 
Printing  presses  ordered  to  be  destroyed,1830,502 
Pritchard,  expulsion  of,  from  Society  Islands, 589 
Privileges,  abolition  of,  1789,  203 
Proscription,  lists  of,  prepared,  1815, 438 
Protestant  chiefs,  defection  of,  13 
„         party,  ruin  of,  1629,  23 
"  Protestant  Pope"  Richelieu,  17 
Protestants,  persecution  of,  129 

„  unhappy  condition  of,  86 

Provera,  surrender  of,  1797,  286 
Provincial  assemblies,  183 
Provisional  government  nominated,  1814,  404 
,,  nominated,  1843,  617 

Prussia,  conquest  of,  1806,  346 
Prussian  army,  retreat  of,  1792,  228 
Public  calamities,  1847,  606 


IEDEX. 


637 


Public  criers,  law  on,  539 

,,     works,  125 

,,     works,  grant  for,  538 
Pultusk,  victory  at,  349 
Puy-Laurens,  death  o?,  23 
Pyramids,  battle  of  the,  1798,302 
Pyrenees,  peace  of  the,  1659,  66 

^UADEUPLE  Alliance,  1719, 117 

1720,  123 

1834,  535 
Quatre-Bras,  battle  of,  1815,  431 
Quiberon  expedition,  1795,  266 
Quincampoix,  Kue,  124 

EAILWAYS    commenced   in   France,    1838, 
565 

,,  law  respecting,  1841,  583 

Eamilies,  defeat  of  Villerois  at,  1706,  99 
Eastadt,   assassination    of   French    plenipoten- 
tiaries at,  1799,  301 
,,         victory  at,  278 
Eatisbon,  peace  of,  1631,  24 

„         peace  of,  confirmed  at  Cherasco,  24 
„         Diet  of,  1630,  30 
„         truce  of,  1684,  79 
Diet  of,  1803,  324 
„         battle  of,  1809,  363 
Eeactionary  measures,  418 

,,         measures,  1815,  443 
Eebellion  of  Conde,  1614,  4 
Eeform  banquets,  agitation  of  the,  1847,  604 

,,  debate  on,  1848,  612 

Eeform,  miscarriage  of  measures    of,  1841-1845, 

591 
Eeformed  party  disquieted,  1619,  12 
Eegency,  council  of,  formed,  115 
„       first  acts  of,  116 
„       law  of,  1842,  584 
Eeign  of  Terror,  the,  1793-1794, 250 

end  of  the,  260 
Eeims,  Charle3  X.  crowned  at,  1825,  483 
Eeligious  communities,  proposed  law  relating  to, 
1825,  484 
„        quarrels,  1709-1732,  134 
Eentes,  proposed  law  for  conversion  of,  478 
Eepresentatives,  resolutions  of  chamber  of,  1815, 

435 
Eepressive  laws,  1834,  542 
Eepublic  proclaimed,  1792,  229 
„        proclaimed,  1848,  618 
Eepublican  calendar  instituted,  251 
„  institutions  destroyed,  342 

,,  insurrection,  1832,  531 

,,  insurrection,  1834,  541 

Eestoration,  the  first,  412 
"  Eestorer  of  French  liberty,"  Louis  XVI.,  204 
Eesultat  de  Conseil,  1788, 191 
Eetz,  Cardinal  de,  arrested,  63 
,,  escapes,  64 

Eeverses  of  French  army,  1792,  220 
Eevolution  inevitable,  191 

„         of  1789,  commencement  of,  201 

„  of  1830,  502 

„  of  1830,  observations  on,  511 

of  February,  1848,  614 

Eevolutionary  organization  of  the  country,  247 

,,  state  of  Europe,  1820,  456 

Ehine,  confederation  of  the,  1806,  343 
„      operations  on  the,  105 
„     passage  of  the,  74 
„      passage  of  the,  1795,  264 
Ehinefeld,  victory  at,  1638,  35 
Eichelieu  enters  council,  1616,  8 

„        formerly  Du  Plessis,  1622,  13 

„        gains  influence  over  the  King,  13 

„        ministry,  1624,  15 

,,        reply  to  ambassadors  from  Eome,  15 


Eichelieu  reproached  by  the  public,  16 

„        spoken  of  as  "  Cardinal  of  Rochelle'> 

and  "Protestant  Pope,"  17 
„        powerful  league  against,  1626, 17 
„        guard  granted  to,  18 
„        and  Buckingham,  disagreement  of,  18 
,,        severe  revenge  of,  1626,  18 
,,        power  increased,  19 
,,        besieges  Rochelle,  1627,  21 
,,        insulted  by  Gaston,  25 
„         disgraced,  25 
,,        reinstated  in  favour,  25 
„        military  dispositions  of,  32 
„        popular  fury  against,  34 
„        conduct  under  reverses,  35 
,,        internal  policy,  40 
„        desire  to  advance  literature,  41 
„        description  of  his  policy,  41 
„        progress  to  Paris  from  Lyons,  43 
„        death  of,  1642,  43 
,,        character  of,  44 
Eichelieu,  Duke  of,  ministry  of,  1815,  440 

„  efforts  of,  to  liberate  French. 

territory,  448 
„  resignation  of,  449 

„  second    ministry    of,    1820, 

455 
„  resignation  of,  1821,  469 

Right  of  search  abandoned,  1845,  590 
Eights  of  man,  society  of  the,  538 
Rio  Janeiro,  capture  of,  103 
Eivoli,  victory  at,  1797,  285 
Eobespierre,  leader  of  the  "  Mountain,"  230 

„  demands  the  death  of  Louis  XVI., 

233 
„  at  height  of  his  power,  254 

„  conspiracy  against,  258 

„  fall  and  arrest  of,  1794,  259 

„  death  of,  260 

Eochelle  invested,  12 

„        siege  of,  1627-1628,  21 
,,       fall  of,  1628,  and  its  consequences,  22 
,,        conspiracy  at,  1822,  471 
Eochefort  constructed,  71 
Eochejacquelin,  Henri  de  la,  death  of,  248 
Eocroi,  battle  of,  1644,  50 
Eodney,  Admiral,  victory  of,  1782, 180 
Eohan,  Duke  de,  obtains  a  peace,  13 

„  submission  of,  1629,  23 

„  successes  of,  34 

,,  death  of,  36 

Roland,  letter  to  the  King,  221 
Roman  States,  revolution  in,  1798,  296 
Rosbach,  victoi'y  of  Frederick  II.  at,  1757,  157 
Rotta,  La,  battle  of,  37 
Rousillon,  conquest  of,  1642,  40 
Eoussin,  Admiral,  forces  the  Tagus,  1831,  524 
Eoyal  Bank,  1718,  124 
Eoyal  sitting,  1789,  199 
Eoyal  veto,  discussion  of,  206 
Boyalist  conspiracy,  274 
„        elections,  1820,  461 
„        literature,  decadence  of,  1826,  488 
Eoyer-Collard  on  electoral  law,  1825,  487 

„  address  to  electors,  1839,  573 

,,  speech  of,  1835,  550 

Euccelai  assists  Marie  de  Medici,  11 
Eueil,  peace  of,  1649,  58 
Eupture  between  France  .and  England,  1627, 

21 
Eussia  and  Prussia,  secret  treaty  between,  1805, 

337 
Eussia,  war  with,  provoked,  375 
„      campaign  against,  1812,  381 
„      advance  of  French  army  into,  1812,  382 
„      assists  Turkey,  536 
Euyter,  Admiral,  death  of,  1676,  78 
Eyswick,  peace  of,  1697,  92 


638 


INDEX. 


SACKILEGE,  new  law  relating  to,  1825,  485 
Salamanca,  battle  of,  1812,  387 

„  retreat  of  Massena  to,  375 

Salic  law  abolished  in  Spain,  534 
Salm,  club  of,  290 
Saragossa,  defeat  of,  102 
Saratoga,  battle  of,  1778, 175 
Sardinia,  kingdom  of,  created,  123 
Saultsbay,  battle  of,  75 
Savannah,  attack  upon,  176 
Saverne,  siege  of,  raised,  77 
Savoy,  Duke  of,  abandoned,  1610,  3 

„  sues  Philip  III.  for  pardon,  3 

„  death  of,  ]  637,  35 

Saxe- Weimar,  Duke  Bernard  de,  assistance  of, 

secured,  32 
Saxe,  Marshal,  at  Fontenoy,  1745,  142 
Saxony  created  a  kingdom,  347 
Schonbrunn,  treaty  of,  1805,  340 
Schomberg,  Marshal,  at  Casal,  24 
Schwartzenberg,  defeat  of,  oo  the  Seine,1814,  395 
Science  during  ministry  of  Eichelieu,  47 
Science  and  Art  at  death  of  Louis  XV.,  169 
Scierce,  art,  and  literature,  191 
Scotland,  descent  on,  1708  100 
Seasons,  secret  society  of the,  1839,  575 
Sebastiani,    General,   defends     Constantinople, 

1807,  352 
Savenay,  defeat  of  Vendeans  at,  1793,  248 
"  Secret  note,  a"  449 
Secret  societies,  1833,  538 

,,  members  of,  arrested,  1834,  542 

Sedan,  conspiracy  of,  1641,  39 
Senatorial  constitution,  1814,  407 
Senef,  battle  of,  76 
Septennial  laws,  478 
Session  of  1846,  592 
Seven  years'  war,  1756-1773,  154 
Sicily  evacuated,  1678,  78 
Sieves,  Abbe,  leader  in  assembly,  205 
Sieyes'  conspiracy  with  Bonaparte  against  direc- 
tory, 304 
Silver  mark,  value  raised,  92 
"  St.  Sirnonism,"  533 
Sixth  coalition  against  France,  1812,  380 
Slave  trade,  treaty  lor  suppression  of,  1845,  590 
Smala,  the,  of  Abd-el-Kader,  capture  of,  1843,  590 
"  Snow  King,"  the,  30 
Social  condition  of  France,  47 
Soissons,  Count  de,  death  of,  1641,  39 
Soissons,  capitulation  of,  1814,  398 
Soldiers  flock  to  Bonaparte,  1815,  427 
Somme,  line  of  the,  forced,  34 
Sommerhausen,  battle  of,  51 
Soubise  seizes  Isle  of  Bhe,  16 
Soult,  Marshal,  movements  of,  in  Spain,  1811,  375 
„  ministry  of,  1832,  533 

„  resignation  of,  1834,  545 

ministry  of,  1839,  575 
„  ministry  of,  fall  of,  1840,  577 

Spain,  war  against,  1630,  24 

„     invasion  of,  40 

„     refuses  to  accede  to  terms  of  peace  of 
Westphalia,  52 

„     weak  state  of,  1667,  72 

„     war  with,  1719,  123 

„     alliance  with,  1731, 134 

„     alliance  with,  1779,  176 

„     treaty  with,  1801,  315 

„     French  enter,  1808,  356 

„     insurrection  in,  1808,  356 
invasion  of,  1808,  358 

„     war  in,  1808,  360 

„     course  of  the  war  in  1809,  368 

„     lost  to  France,  1813,  387 

„     disturbed  state  of,  1820,  456 

„     critical  state  of,  1822,  471 

„     Salic  law  abolished  in,  534 


Spain,  civil  war  in,  1836,  556 
„       end  of  the  civil  war  in,  1839,  577 
„        and  Portugal,  war  continued  in,  1811,  375 
Spaniards,  successes  of,  63 
Spanish  Foreign  Legion,  556 
„         marriages,  the,  1846,  595 
„         war,  1823,  473 
Speculation,  wild,  124 
Staffarde,  battle  of,  89 
Stair,  Lord,  English  Ambassador,  117 
Standing  army  demanded  by  nobles,  19 
Staps'  attempt  to  assassinate  Bonaparte,1809, 367 
States  General,  convoked,  1614,  5 

„  „         assembly  of,  dissolved,  1615, 6 

„  ,,         convoked, 1788,  189 

„  ,,  opening  of,  1789,  197 

States  of  the  North,  Confederation  of  the,  344 
Steinkerque,  battle  of,  91 
Stock  jobbing,  126 

Stockach,  defeat  of  Jourdan  at,  1799,  300 
Strasbourg  seized  and  united  to  France,  1681,  79 
„  fortified  by  Vauban,  79 

„  conspiracy   of   Louis   Napoleon    at, 

1836,  558 
Stromboli,  battle  of,  78 
Subsidy  to  Gustavus  Adolphus,  30 
Sully,  retirement  of,  3      ' 
,,      anecdote  of  (note),  4 
Sunderbund  league,  1847,  602 
Superstitious  state  of  the  people,  47 
Suppression  of  religious  orders,  209 
"  Supreme  Being,  Fete  of  the,"  1794,  254 
Susa,  pass  of,  opened,  1628,  23 

„      treaty  of,  1628,  23 
Swedish  period  of  thirty  years'  war,  31 
Switzerland,  internal  condition  of,  295 

„  violence  of  Directory  in,  1798,  296 

„  Bonaparte  mediates  in,  1802,  322 

„  a  refuge  for  conspirators,  556 

„  policy  regarding,  1836,  556 

„  disturbances  in,  1847,  602 

TAFNA,  treaty  of,  1837,  566 
Tahiti,  the  affair  of,  1842-1843,  588 

Talavera,  battle  of,  1809,  368 

Tallard,  Marshal,  made  prisoner,  97 

Talleyrand,  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  292 

„  negotiations  of,  with  Allies,  1814,  400 

„  President  of  New  Ministry,  1815,  438 

„  at  conference  of  London,  1830,  518 

Tangiers,  bombardment  of,  1841,  590 
„         treaty  of,  1844,  591 

Tarsterson,  Swedish  General,  39 

Taxes  increased  in  France,  37 
„      reduced  under  Colbert,  70 

"  Telemachus"  published,  117 

Tellier,  Father,  and  Jesuits  exiled,  116 

"The  Ten  Days'  Campaign,"  1831,  525 

Terray,  Abbe,  maladministration  of  finances  by, 
167 

Territorial  subvention,  edict  of,  159 

Terrorists,  reaction  against  the,  261 

Teste,  M.,  tried  for  bribery,  1847,  605 

Thann,  battle  of,  362 

Theological  disputes,  127 

"  Thermidorians,  the,"  261 

Thiers,  M.,  early  writings  of,  1826,  489 
„  Minister  of  Interior,  540 

„  withdrawal    of,    from    Doctrinaires, 

1836,  554 
„  Ministry  of,  1836,  554 

„  Ministry  dissolved,  1836,  557 

„  second  Ministry  of,  1840,  577 

„  Ministry,  dismissal  of,  1840,  580 

„  French  policy,  592 

Thiers  and  Barrot  invested  with  power,  1848, 615 

Thionville,  battle  near,  1639,  36 
„  capture  of,  51 


INDEX. 


639 


Third  coalition  of  Eui'opean  powers,  94 

„  „        1804, 334 

"The  Third  Estate,"  190 

,,  „  memorials  of,  6 

„  „  treated  with  indignity,  6 

Third  party,  the,  1834,  545 
Thirty  years'  war,  origin  of,  1618,  29 

„  „  ended  in  Germany,  52 

Thou,  De,  executed,  1642,  43 
Three  days  of  July,  the,  1830,  502 
Tilly,  death  of,  30 
Tilsit,  Alexander,  and  Bonaparte  at,  1807,  353 

„      peace  of,  1807,  354 
Tippoo  Sahib,  181 
Tirlemont,  sack  of,  33 
Tocquevilie,  M.  de,  speech  of,  1848,  611 
Toiras,  De,  defends  St.  Martin,  21 
Tolentine,  battle  of,  1815,  430 

„  treaty  of,  1797,  286 

Torres  Vedras,  lines  of,  1810,  369 
Toulon  improved,  71 

„       siege  of.  raised,  100 
„       battle  of,  1741,  140 
,,      blockade  of,  by  Nelson,  335 
,,       escape  of  French  fleet  from,  336 
Toulouse,  battle  of,  18 1 4,  408 

„  Mandate  of  Archbishop  of,  476 

Tourville,  Admiral,  succ-ss  of,  90 
Trafalgar,  battle  of,  1805,  340 
Transnonain,  Rue,  massacre  in,  542 
Transpadaue  Republic,  281 
Treaty  of  11th  April,  1814,  407 

„         20th  November,  1815,  441 

„         6th  July,  1827,  494 

„         1840  on  Eastern  Question,  579 
Trebia,  defeat  at  the,  1799,  301 
Treves,  reverses  near,  77 
Treviso,  Duke  de,  ministry  of,  547 
"  Tribune,  The,"  trial  of  conductor  of,  1833,  539 

„  presses  of,  sealed,  542 

Trieoloured  cockade  adopted,  202 
Triple  alliance  against  Louis,  72 
Trocadero,  capture  of,  1823,  474 
Tronchet  counsel  for  Louis  XVI.,  233 
Troppau,  Congress  of,  1821,  458 
Troyes,  retreat  upon,  1814,  393 
Tuiieries,  attack  on  the,  1792,  223 

„        the  mob  at  the,  1848,  617 

,,        the  people  at  the,  1792,  221 
Tumult,  popular,  1648,  55 
Turcnng,  victory  at,  255 
Turenne,  Marshal,  51 

„        declares  himself  for  Frondeurs,  56 

,,        defeated  at  Retht-1, 59 

,,        in  command  of  army,  74 

„        victories  of,  76 

,,        in  Alsace,  76 

„        death  of,  1685,77 
Turgot,  operations  of,  1774—1776,  172 

,,      dismissal  of,  173 
Turin,  capitulation  of,  1640,  38 
,,      siege  of,  100 

„     rout  of  the  French  before,  1706,  100 
„     armistice  of  1796,  276 
Turkey  invaded  by  Russia,  1807,  352 
Turkey  and  Egypt,  struggle  between,  1832-3,  535 
Turks  attack  Austria,  79 

"Twenty-four  Articles,"  treaty  of  the,  1831,  525 
Two  hundred  and  twenty-one,  address  of  the, 
1830,  498 

ULM,  capitulation  of,  338 
Unkier-Skelessi,  treaty  of,  1833, 536 
Upper  Royal  Council  nominated,  414 
Utrecht,  peace  of,  1713,  105 

VALENCAY,  treaty  of,  1813,  387 
Valanza,  siege  of,  raised,  34 


Val  de  Presle,  battle  of,  34 
Valenciennes,  capture  of,  78 

,,  siege  of,  raised,  65 

Valette,  army  under  Cardinal  la,  33 
Valmy,  battle  of,  1792,  227 
Valtehne,  The,  possession  taken  of,  16 
„         restored  to  the  Grisons,  17 
„         operations  in  the,  34 
,,         evacuation  of  the,  35 
Van  Tromp  acting  with  Conde,51 
Varennes,  arrest  of  Louis  XVI.  at,  214 
Vauban  attached  to  army  in  Holland,  74 
Vendee,  La,  war  in,  1792, 1794,  241 
„  progress  of  revolt  in,  246 

„  second  war  in,  1795,  1796,  273 

„  troubles  in,  1832,  528 

Vendome,  the  brothers,  arrested,  18 
„         in  command  of  army,  96 
„         death  of,  104 
Venetia,  attack  upon,  287 
Venice  ceded  to  Austria,  1797,  288 
Verdun,  capture  of,  226 
Verona,  slaughter  of  garrison  at,  287 

„         Con-ress  of,  1822,  472 
Versailles,  Dutch  corps  at,  101 
„         peace  of,  1783,  181 
„         openiug  of  historical  galleries  at,  1838, 
567 
Victor  Emmanuel,  abdication  of,  1821,  466 
Victoria,  Queen  of  England,  579 

„  „      visits  France.  1843,  584 

Vienna,  French  army  enters,  338 
„  „        march  on,  1809,  363 

„        peace  of,  1809,  367 
j,        congress  of,  423 
Vieuville,  Marquis  de  la,  in  favour,  13 
„  „  disgraced,  13 

„  „  executed,  26 

Vigo,  defeat  at,  96 
Viliars,  General,  victories  of,  96 

j»  „         defeated  at  Malplaquet,   1710, 

102 
„  „         victory  at  Denaiu,  1712, 104 

,,  „         death  of,  135 

Villaviciosa,  victory  of  Vendome  at,  1711, 103 
Villele,  M.  de,  Ministry  of,  1821,  469 

„  „         dissolved,  1827, 493 

Villemain,  M.,  educational  project  by,  1844,  585 
Villeneuve,  Admiral,  in  command  of  French  fleet, 

336 
Villeroi  retained  in  office,  1610,  2 

„        defeated  at  Ramifies,  1706,  99 
Vimiera,  battle  of,  1808,  358 
Vincent,  battle  off  Cape  tit.,  158 
"  Visa"  in  1721,  127 
Vittoria,  battle  of,  1813,  387 

WAGR  4M,  battle  of,  1809,  366 
Walcheren  expedition,  1809,  367 
Waldeck,  Prince  of,  on  toe  Samire,  89 
Wallenstein,  General,  dismissal  of,  demanded, 30 

„  „  recalled,  30 

War  of  the  Fronde,  57 

„  „         end  of  the,  1653, 64 

War  of  independence,  1778—1783,  175 
War  of  succession,  1701 — 1713,  94 
Warsaw,  fall  of,  1831,  526 
Washington,  George,  1753,  152 

„  Commander-in-Chief  of   American 

forces,  175 
Waterloo,  battle  of,  1815,  433 
Wattignies,  victory  at,  249 
Weimar,  Duke,  death  of,  1639,  36 
Wellesley,  Sir  Arthur,  in  Portugal,  358 
Wellington  crosses  the  Pyrenees,  1814,  400 
Westphalia,  peace  of,  1648,  52 
West  Indian  Company  established,  1664,  82 
Whigs  and  Tories,  103 


640 


INDEX. 


William  III.  of  England  in  Flanders,  91 

„  ,,  death  of,  96 

William  of  Orange  elected  Captain-General,  74 
Wilna,  halt  of  French  army  at,  1812, 381 
Witts,  De,  massacre  of  the,  75 
Worms,  treaty  of,  140 
Worship  of  Reason,  252 

Wounded  to  be  denounced  by  surgeons,  1832,  532 
Wurmser  in  Mantua,  280 


Wurtemburg  erected  into  a  kingdom,  1803,  311 
Wurtzburg,  battle  of,  282 

YORK  TOWN,  siege  of,  1781, 179 


ZENTA,  battle  of,  93 
Zorndorf,  battle  of,  1759,  157 
Zurich,  victory  at,  304 


THE    END. 


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