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ALLYN   AND    BACON'S   SERIES  OF   SCHOOL   HISTORIES 

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THE 

MODERN  WORLD. 

FROM   CHARLEMAGNE   TO   THE    PRESENT  TIME 

WITH  A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY  OF  ANCIENT  PROGRESS 


BY 
WILLIS    MASON   WEST 


BASED  UPON  THE  AUTHOR'S  "  MODERN  HISTORY 


ALLYN    AND    BACON 

i80gt0n  Nefo  gtorfc  Chicago 


ALLYN    AND    BACON'S   SERIES   OF 

SCHOOL    HISTORIES 
12mo,  half  leather,  numerous  maps,  plans,  and  illustrations 


THE  ANCIENT  WORLD.     Revised.     By  Willis  M.  West. 
Also  in  two  volumes  :  PART   I.   GREECE  AND  THE  EAST. 
PART  II.   ROME  AND  THE  WEST. 

THE   MODERN   WORLD.     By  Willis  M.  West. 

SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.     By  Charles  M.  Andrews  of 
Yale  University. 

HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.     Revised.     By  Charles 
K.  Adams  and  William  P.  Trent  of  Columbia  University. 

•    « 

ANCIENT  HISTORY.  By  Willis  M.  West. 
MODERN  HISTORY.  By  Willis  M.  West. 
HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  By  Charles  M.  Andrews. 

AMERICAN     HISTORY    AND    GOVERNMENT,    By    Willis    M. 
West. 


COPYRIGHT,   1915. 
BY  WILLIS   MASON  WEST. 


Xmtoooti 

J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  P.fi-wic'k  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


FOREWORD 

THIS  book  was  planned  as  a  revision  of  my  Modern  History; 
but  it  has  grown  into  a  distinct  work,  and  it  has  seemed  best 
to  give  it  a  name  of  its  own.  The  Modern  History  was  the 
first  high  school  textbook  to  place  emphasis  on  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  especially  011  the  work  of  the  most  recent  genera- 
tion. In  the  present  volume,  even  more  space  is  devoted  to 
recent  history ;  more  attention  is  given  to  social  and  industrial 
development  and  to  the  biographical  element ;  some  topics 
and  much  detail  are  omitted,  in  the  interest  of  simplicity ;  a 
more  connected,  and,  I  think,  a  more  vivid  narrative  is  secured ; 
the  developments  of  the  last  decade  are  woven  into  the  story 
in  appropriate  places ;  and,  as  a  review,  or  as  a  preliminary 
survey,  the  Introduction  (pages  1-80)  summarizes  human  prog- 
ress down  to  Charlemagne's  day.  This  last  feature,  with  the 
many  additional  maps  and  illustrations,  accounts  for  the 
greater  size  of  the  Modem  World.  The  Introduction  may  be 
omitted  at  the  teacher's  discretion. 

The  high  school  course  in  history,  long  or  short,  fails  of  its 
purpose  if  it  leaves  a  chasm  'between  past  and  present.  It 
must  put  the  student  into  touch  with  the  movements  of  to- 
day,—  must  interest  him  in  the  spread  of  democracy,  in  the 
"  war  011  poverty,"  in  the  progress  of  socialism  and  the  labor 
movements,  in  the  "  woman  question." 

It  must  give  also  a  certain  amount  of  technical  detail,  espe- 
cially for  recent  years.  The  boy  or  girl  may  or  may  not  find 
it  important  to  know  the  workings  of  the  Roman  Senate  or  of 
the  Athenian  Assembly ;  but  he  cannot  read  the  morning 
paper  intelligently,  even  for  the  surface  of  things,  unless  he 
understands  something  of  the  workings  of  the  English  Cabinet 
and  Parliament,  of  the  French  Chambers,  of  the  German 
Reichstag.  These  considerations  account  for  distinctive  fea- 
tures of  the  book. 


iv  FOREWORD 

Throughout,  too,  an  unusual  amount  of  space  is  given  to 
English  history.  F<>r  . \merican  students.  ;i  knowledge  of  Eng- 
lish history  is  essential.  That  history  gains,  however,  by  being 
presented  in  its  setting  in  tin-  history  of  tin-  continent  of 
Europe;  and  time  con>iderations  make  tliis  arrangement  more 
and  more  imperative.  Various  desperate  attempts  are  being 
made  to  condense  tin-  liigh  school  course  in  history  into  three 
years.  The  most  tea>il>le  condensation  is  to  devote  one  year 
to  ancient  history,  a  see., i id  to  modern,  and  a  third  to  Ameri- 
can history  and  government.  I'.iit  of  course  no  such  plan  will 
meet  the  desired  end  unless,  in  the  second  year,  particular 
stress  is  placed  on  Knglisli  development. 

In  any  course.  . \merican  liistorv  is  now  sure  of  a  place  1'y 
itself.  That  i*  reason  enough  for  omitting  it  in  this  volume, 
excrpt  where  tin-  coimeet  ion  of  events  calls  for  its  introduc- 
tion. \Yhen  touched  at  all  here,  it  is  treated  from  the  view- 
point of  world-development,  rather  than  from  a  restricted 
American  position.  The  eoloni/ation  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury is  presented  as  an  expansion  of  Kurope  into  New  Worlds: 
the  "  Intercolonial  Wars"  of  the  eighteenth  century  are  seen 
as  part  of  the  hundred-year  struggle  between  France  and 
England  for  world-empire  and  exclusive  market>:  American 
industrial  invention  appears  as  part  of  the  general  Industrial 
Revolution;  the  recent  advance  of  America  into  world  politics 
is  presented  as  part  of  the  new  international  relations  and 
new  trade  relations  that  followed  the  partition  of  Africa  and 
the  opening  of  the  Orient  in  the  closing  decades  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

While  these  pages  were  in  preparation,  the  huge  calamity 
of  the  present  European  war  broke  out.  The  volume  closes 
on  the  brink  of  important  changes.  If  it  helps  students  to 
understand  those  changes,  as  they  appear  in  coming  months, 
it  will  achieve  much  of  its  purpose. 

WILLIS  MASON   WEST. 
May  1,  1915. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

PAGE 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS     .........        xi 

LIST  OF  MAPS xvii 

LIST  OF  TABLES xviii 

INTRODUCTION:     A   SUMMARY   OF   ANCIENT 
PROGRESS 

PERIOD 

I.     From  the  earliest  times  to  the  Roman  Empire       ...  1 

II.     The  Roman  World 11 

The  two  prosperous  centuries  —  the  two  centuries  of 
decline  —  Christianity  and  the  Empire. 

III.  The  Teutonic  Conquest 35 

IV.  Fusion  of  Roman  and  Teuton         ......  42 

V.     Rise  of  the  Franks  and  of  the  Papacy 53 

The  Franks  to  the  Mohammedan  invasion  —  the  Mo- 
hammedan   peril  —  rise    of    the    papacy — alliance    of 
Franks  and  papacy. 
VI      The  Empire  of  Charlemagne 71 

PART   I  — THE   AGE   OF   FEUDALISM 

CHAPTER 

I.  What  Modern  History  began  with 82 

II.  Disruption  of  Charlemagne's  Empire     .         .         .  85 

III.  The  New  Barbarian  Attack 87 

IV.  Britain  becomes  England 91 

V.  Feudalism .        .  98 

VI.     Life  in  the  Feudal  Age 115 

VII.     The  Church    ....  131 

VIII      England  in  the  Feudal  Age,  to  1327 143 

From  Edgar  the  Peaceful  to  William  the  Conqueror 
—  the  Norman  Conquest  —  under  Plantagenet  kings. 

IX.     France  in  the  Feudal  Age,  to  1314 179 

X.     Germany  and  Italy  in  the  Feudal  Age,  to  1273      .         .         .187 

From  Verdun  to  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  —  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire  —  the  Hohenstauf en. 
v 


Vi  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

XI.     The  Crusades,  1100-1300 214 

Causes  and  conditions  —  the  story  —  results. 

XII.     Rise  of  the  Towns 234 

XIII.  Learning  and  Art  in  the  Feudal  Age        ....  251 

Schools  and  universities  —  the  Schoolmen  —  Lit- 
erature and  the  fine  arts. 

PART  II  — FROM  THE  AGE  OF  FEUDALISM 
TO  THE  REFORMATION 

XIV.  England  and  France  in  the  Age  of  the  Renaissance         .     268 

First  period  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War — English 
development  during  the  war  —  France  and  the  close 
of  the  war  —  England  and  the  Wars  of  the  Roses. 
XV.     The  Papacy  in  the  Age  of  the  Renaissance       .         .         .290 

XVI.     Germany  from  1273  to  1520 295 

XVII.     The  Small  States 2; '7 

XVIII.     Political  Europe  at  the  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages     .        .  305 

XIX.     The  Renaissance 310 

PART  III  — THE  AGE  OF  THE  PROTESTANT 
REFORMATION 

X  X.     The  Reformation  on  the  Continent 325 

Lutheranism  in  Germany  —  Calvinism  in  Switzer- 
land and  France  —  Catholicism  holds  the  South  of 
Europe. 
XXI.     England  and  the  Protestant  Movement    ....     339 

XXII.     A  Century  of  Religious  Wars 351 

Spain  and  the  Netherlands  —  Wars  of  the  French 
Huguenots  —  the  Thirty  Years'  War  in  Germany. 

PART  IV  — ENGLAND  IN  THE  SEVEN- 
TEENTH CENTURY 

XXIII.  Review  of  Changes,  1450-1600 364 

XXIV.  Under  the  First  Two  Stuarts 

XXV.     The  Great  Rebellion  and  the  Commonwealth  .        .         .     383 

XXVI.     The  Restoration  and  the  Revolution         ....     389 

XXVII.     The  Expansion  of  Europe 399 

Beginnings :     Spain    and     Portugal  —  France    in 
America  —  England  in  America. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


Vll 


PART   V  — THE   AGE   OF   LOUIS   XIV   AND 
FREDERICK   THE   GREAT 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXVIII.     French  Leadership 405 

XXIX.     The  Rise  of  Russia  .    411 


XXX.     Prussia  in  Europe  —  England  in  New  Worlds 


415 


PART   VI  — THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION 

XXXI.     On  the  Eve 426 

XXXII.     The  Revolution  in  Time  of  Peace 443 

The  Constituent  Assembly  at  Versailles — the 
Assembly  in  Paris  —  Constitution  of  1791  —  Legis- 
lative Assembly  to  the  War. 

XXXIII.     The  Revolution  in  War 461 

France  threatened  by  kings  —  the  Girondists  — 
Jacobin  rule. 

XXXIV..    The  Revolution  in  Decline 475 

XXXV.     The  Rise  of  Napoleon 479 

XXXVI.     The  Consulate,  1799-1804 484 

XXXVII.     The  French  Empire,  1804-1814 489 


PART   VII  — THE   PERIOD   OF   REACTION 
1814-1848 

XXXVIII.     Congress  of  Vienna  :  Rearrangement    ....  501 

XXXIX.     Central  Europe,  to  1820 506 

XL.     The  South  of  Europe  — Revolutions  of  1820          .         .  512 

XLI.     France,  1815-1830 519 

Divine-Right  monarchy — Revolution  of  1830  — 
results  over  Europe. 


PART   VIII  — ENGLAND   AND   THE 
INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION 

XLII.     The  Revolution  in  the  Methods  of  Work       .  .  .525 

Agricultural  changes  —  factory  system. 

XLIII.     The  Revolution  in  the  Workers'  Lives  .        .  .  .536 

XLIV.     The  Revolution  in  Ideas  about  Government .  .  .     547 


Vlll 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XLV. 

XLVI. 

XLVII. 

XLVIII. 
XL1X. 


PAET  IX  — CONTINENTAL   EUKOPE 
1848-1871 

The  Revolution  of  1848  in  France     . 

The  Second  French  Empire 

Central  Europe  in  1848 

Austrian  Empire  —  Germany  —  Italy. 

The  Making  of  Italy 

The  Making  of  Germany 


PAOB 

652 
660 
566 

575 

682 


PART   X  — ENGLAND   SINCE   1815 
REFORM 

L.  Political  Conditions  in  1816      .... 

LI.  The  First  Reform  Bill,  1832      . 

LII.  Political  Reform  in  the  Victorian  Age 

LIII.  Reform  in  Local  Government  .... 

LIV.     Social  Reform 

LV.     England  and  Ireland 

LVI.  English  Colonies  and  Dependencies  . 


692 
596 
606 
613 
616 
624 
629 


PART   XI  — WESTERN   EUROPE   AFTER 
1871 

LVII.     France  :  The  Third  Republic 

Close  of  the  Franco- Prussian  War  —  Paris  Com- 
mune —  to  the  secure  establishment  of  the  Republic 
—  France  to-day. 

LVIII.     Germany  since  1871 

Gove'rnment  —  recent  movements  —  Socialism. 

LIX.     Italy  since  1870 

LX.     Austria-Hungary— A  Dual  Monarchy      . 
LXI.     The  Small  States  of  Western  Europe        .... 
Spain  —  Portugal  —  Belgium  —  Holland  —  Swiss 
Republic  —  Denmark  —  Norway  —  Sweden. 


654 


673 
677 


LXII. 
LXIII. 


PART   XII  — SLAV  EUROPE 

Russia 

The  Balkan  States    , 


714 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


IX 


PAET   XIII  — THE   NEW   AGE 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

LXIV.     Expansion  of  Europe  into  Africa  and  Asia  .         .        .        ,     720 

LXV.     Reform  in  the  Twentieth  Century 728. 

England's  "War  upon  Poverty"  —  Despotism  van- 
ishing —  moral  and  scientific  progress  —  International 
Relations  since  1871 :  arbitration  and  war. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

1.  Stages  in  Fire-making 1 

2.  Sphinx  and  Pyramids 2 

3.  Cretan  Cooking  Utensils  4400  years  old 3 

4.  Cretan  Writing  of  2400  B.C 4 

5.  Assyrian  Relief  —  Colossal  Man-beast 5 

6.  The  Hermes  of  Praxiteles 7 

7.  Ruins  of  the  Parthenon 8 

8.  Julius  Caesar 10 

9.  Court  of  a  Roman  House  —  painting  by  Boulanger    .         .         .11 

10.  Roman  Aqueduct  near  Nimes 12 

11.  Shoemaker  in  Roman  Times        • 14 

12.  Lyons  in  Roman  Times       .         .         .         .         .    •    .         .         .15 

13.  The  Appian  Way,  showing  original  pavement    ....       16 

14.  The  Coliseum 17 

15.  Augustus  —  the  Vatican  statue 18 

16.  Roman  Chariot  Race 19 

17.  Marcus  Aurelius  —  equestrian  statue  .         .....       20 

18.  Roman  Baths  at  Bath 21 

19.  Baths  of  Diocletian 24 

20.  Breadmaking  by  Roman  Serfs 26 

21.  Serfs  mowing,  in  Roman  Gaul    . 28 

22.  Arch  of  Constantino 30 

23.  Jerusalem  To-day 31 

24.  Frankish  Chieftain 36 

25.  Silver  Coin  of  Justinian 42 

26.  St.  Sophia,  Constantinople 43 

27.  Religious  Preliminary  to  a  Judicial  Combat        .        .        .         .45 

28.  A  Trial  by  Combat .46 

29.  Seventh  Century  Villa  in  North  Gaul 48 

30.  Abbey  of  Citeaux 50 

31.  Monks  busied  in  Field  Labor 51 

32.  Repast  in  the  Hall  of  a  Frankish  Noble 56 

33.  Arabian  Battle-ax,  Sword,  and  Helmet       .         .         .         .        .59 

xi 


xii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAOK 

34.  Mosque  of  Omar 60 

35.  Walls  of  Constantinople      .                 61 

36.  Arabian  Table  of  Bronze  inlaid  with  Silver        ....  63 

37.  Church  of  St.  John  Lateran 64 

38.  Cloisters  pf  St.  John  Lateran 66 

39.  Seal  of  Charlemagne 71 

40.  Serving-man  with  Lamp  —  time  of  Charlemagne        .        .        .  7<» 

41.  Silver  Coin  of  Charlemagne 7n 

42.  Remains  of  Viking  Ship 88 

43.  St.  Martin's  Church  near  Canterbury «.»;; 

44.  Conway  Castle ....  98 

45.  Drawbridge  and  Portcullis .         .         .         .         .         .         .    •    .  99 

46.  Medieval  Castle  —  restoration  showing  general  plan  .         .         .  100 

47.  Castle  of  Pierrefonds  —  restoration     ....  .101 

48.  German  Knight  of  Twelfth  Century 103 

49.  Knight  in  Plate  Armor 103 

50.  An  Act  of  Homage 108 

51.  A  Baron's  Court 109 

62.  Villeins  receiving  Directions  for  Work        .....  113 

63.  Jugglers  in  the  Thirteenth  Century 115 

64.  Ancient  Manor  House,  Melichope 1 16 

66.   Window  in  Melichope  Manor  House 116 

66.  Sixteenth   Century  Map  of  an   "Open  Field,"  showing  the 

"  strips  "  of  arable  land 118 

67.  A  Reaper's  Cart,  Fourteenth  Century 119 

68.  Peasants'  May  Dance .120 

69.  Jugglers  in  the  Sword  Dance,  Thirteenth  (Yntuiy      .         .         .121 

60.  Victor  in  a  Tournament  (Diirer's  drawing)        .        .         .         .122 

61.  Falconry 123 

62.  Stoke  Castle 124 

63.  Hall  of  Stoke  Castle 125 

64.  A  Court  Fool 126 

65.  The  Quintain .     127 

66.  Anglo-Saxon  Plowing 143 

67.  Battle  of  Hastings  (Bayeux  Tapestry) 147 

68.  A  Norman  Ship ...     151 

69.  Norman  Doorway,  St.  Peter's,  Northampton      .         .        .         .153 

70.  "  Here  is  Duke  William  "  (Bayeux  Tapestry)    .        .        .        .154 

71.  William  the  Conqueror  (the  Falaise  statue)        .        .  .     154 

72.  King  Stephen 

73.  Funeral  Effigy  of  Henry  II  163 

74.  Magna  Carta  (reduced  facsimile  of  opening  lines)      .        .        .     166 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

PAGE 

75.  Magna  Carta,  Sections  39  and  40,  with  translation   .        .        .166 

76.  Stirling  Castle .168 

77.  Dancers,  Thirteenth  Century 171 

78.  Family  Dinner,  Fourteenth  Century 177 

79.  A  Gold  Florin  of  Louis  IX 185 

80.  The  Temporal  and  the  Spiritual  Power  (tenth  century  mosaic)     192 

81.  A  Baptismal  Font  from  Cluny  .         .         .         .         .         .         .194 

82.  Castle  of  Barbarossa  at  Kaiserswerth 206 

83.  Seal  of  Emperor  Frederick  II .210 

84.  Court  of  Lions,  Alhambra 215 

85.  A  Moorish  Vase 216 

86.  "Window  of  the  Favorite,"  Alhambra 218 

87.  A  Crusader,  from  a  thirteenth  century  manuscript   .         .         .     220 

88.  Crusaders  on  the  March 222 

89.  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher,  Jerusalem          ....     223 

90.  Effigies  of  Knights  Templar 226 

91.  Siege  of  a  Medieval  Town 234 

92.  Ruins  of  a  Rhine  Castle 235 

93.  Gate  at  Aigues  Mortes 237 

94.  Old  Street  in  Rouen 239 

95.  Medieval  Town  Hall,  Oudenarde 242 

96.  Torture  by  Water 243 

97.  The  Ducal  Palace,  Venice 245 

98.  St.  Mark's,  Venice 246 

99.  Hall  of  Merchant  Princes  at  Dantzig 247 

100.  Ca  d'Oro,  a  Venetian  Palace 248 

101.  Seal  of  the  Picardy  Nation  of  the  University  of  Paris        .         .  253 

102.  Seal  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology  at  Paris 255 

103.  Church  of  Saint-Maclou,  Rouen 262 

104.  Rheims  Cathedral 263 

105.  Salisbury  Cathedral 264 

106.  Flying  Buttresses  from  Norwich  Cathedral        ....  265 

107.  Salisbury  Cloisters 266 

108.  Seals  of  Edward  in  of  England 268 

109.  English  Lady  on  Horseback,  Fourteenth  Century     .         .         .  269 

110.  French  Dress  in  Fourteenth  Century 269 

111.  A  Bombard 272 

112.  John  Wyclif 274 

113.  English  Carriage,  Fourteenth  Century 275 

114.  Funeral  Effigy  of  the  Black  Prince    .         .         .  ,         .277 

115.  A  Fourteenth  Century  Bridge  in  Rural  England       .         .         .  278 

116.  Parliament  of  1399  280 


xiv  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

117.  Joan  of  Arc  at  Orleans 283 

118.  Guy's  Tower 286 

119.  A  Medieval  Battle 287 

120.  Hall  of  the  Clothmakere'  Gild  at  Ypres 303 

121.  Illustration   from   a  Fifteenth    Century   Manuscript  showing 

Maximilian  of  Austria,  etc 307 

122.  Gold  Coin  of  Francis  I 300 

123.  Petrarch 31:> 

124.  Erasmus 317 

125.  Sir  Thomas  More 318 

126.  Monk  teaching  the  Globe,  from  a  Thirteenth  Century  Manu- 

script    320 

127.  St.  Peter's,  Rome :;-jt; 

128.  A  Village  Merrymaking 335 

129.  Tintern  Abbey 341 

130.  Whitby  Abbey  .        . Ml 

131.  Kenilworth  Castle,  from  a  fresco  of  1620 346 

132.  Kenilworth  Castle  To-day 347 

133.  Queen  Elizabeth 

134.  Gold  Coin  of  Henry  IV  of  France 359 

136.  Cromwell 384 

136.  Charles  I 385 

137.  Harry  Vane 386 

138.  Louis  XIV 409 

139.  Church  of  St.  Basil,  Moscow             412 

140.  Peter  the  Great 4i:-J 

141.  Frederick  the  Great 423 

142.  Chateau  of  Chenonceau 429 

143.  Voltaire 436 

144.  Marie  Antoinette 438 

145.  Fall  of  the  Bastille -117 

146.  Lafayette 452 

147.  Robespierre 459 

148.  Chateau  at  Blois 4t»9 

149.  Napoleon  at  Arcola    .........  480 

150.  The  Venddme  Column 486 

151.  Napoleon's  Arch  of  Triumph 4*7 

152.  Napoleon,  toward  the  close  of  his  rule 493 

153.  Napoleon  leaving  Moscow 498 

154.  Wellington 503 

156.  Wartburg  Castle 510 

166.  Metternich  518 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 


157. 
158. 
159. 
160. 
161 

Farm  Tools  in  1800    
Fulton's  Clermont     
First  Steam  Passenger  Train  in  America  . 
Whitney's  Cotton  Gin        ...... 
Karl  Marx          .        .         ... 

PAGE 

.     526 
.     532 
.     533 
.     542 
.     549 

162. 
163. 
164. 
165 

Louis  Blanc        
"  France  is  Tranquil  "       ...... 
Napoleon  III      ........ 

Mazzini      .         .         .        .        .         . 

.     555 
.     562 
.     563 

572 

166 

Cavour       ...                 .... 

577 

167 

Garibaldi    . 

580 

168. 
169. 
170 

Victor  Emmanuel  II  
Proclamation  of  the  German  Empire 
Bismarck  ..... 

.     581 

.     582 
589 

171. 
172. 
173. 
174. 
175. 
176 

William  IV  of  England      
Queen  Victoria  ........ 
Disraeli      ......... 
The  First  Adhesive  Postage  Stamp    .... 
Sir  Robert  Peel  
Gladstone  ......... 

.     599 
.    607 
.     610 
.     619 
.619 
623 

177 

Gibraltar    ......... 

.     630 

178. 
179 

The  Parliament  Building  at  Ottawa  .... 
Thiers         

.     634 
.     641 

180 

Chamber  of  Deputies,  Paris       ..... 

.     647 

181 

Emperor  William  I  of  Germany        .... 

.    654 

182. 
183. 
184. 
185. 
186. 
187. 
188 

The  Goose-Step  of  the  German  Army  on  Parade 
The  Victor  Emmanuel  Monument,  Rome 
A  Typical  Swiss  Town  —  Meran        .... 
A  Fjord  in  Norway  —  Sogudal  
Cathedral  of  the  Archangel,  Moscow         . 
Constantinople  ........ 
Asquith      ......... 

.     662 
.     671 
.     687 
.     694 
.     701 
.     718 
.     729 

189. 
190. 
191. 
192. 

Winston  Churchill     ....... 
Lloyd  George     
Electric  Engine  
The  Peace  Palace  at  the  Hague          .... 

.     731 
.     735 
.     740 
.     744 

MAPS 


PAGE 

1.  First  Homes  of  Civilization ;  Colored          .         .         .          after        2 

2.  Persian  Empire  and  Greece ;  Colored          ...  8 

3.  The  Roman  Empire  at  its  Greatest  Extent,  with  Leading  Roman 

Roads;  Colored after  12 

4.  Roman  Empire  by  Prefectures  and  Dioceses  ;  Colored  "  24 

5.  Rhine-Danube  Frontier  before  the  Teutonic  Migrations  .        .  34 

6.  Germanic  Kingdoms  on  German  Soil ;  Colored  .         .  after  38 

7.  The  World  at  the  Death  of  Justinian  ;  Colored  .  "42 

8.  Kingdom  of  the  Merovingians  ;  Colored      ...  54 

9.  Europe  at  the  End  of  the  Seventh  Century ;  Colored  "  60 

10.  Europe  in  the  Time  of  Charlemagne  ;  Colored    .         .  "72 

11.  The  Field  of  Ancient  History 82 

12.  Europe  after  the  Division  of  Verdun  ;  Colored  .         .          after      84 

13.  European  Peoples  about  900  A. D.  ;  Colored         .  "88 

14.  England  and  the  Danelagh,  about  900 95 

15.  Europe  about  900 ;  Colored after      98 

16.  Ecclesiastical  Map  of  Medieval  England 137 

17.  The  Empire  of  Knut,  1014-1035 144 

18.  England  and  France,  1154-1453;  four  maps;  Colored         after    182 

19.  German  Colonization  in  the  East,  800-1400;  Colored  "       188 

20.  The  Holy  Roman  Empire,  962-1000  ;  Colored    .        .  "192 

21.  The  Holy  Roman  Empire,  Eleventh  Century;  Colored  "       198 

22.  Italy  in  the  Time  of  the  Hohenstaufen ;  Colored        .  "       210 

23.  Europe  and  the  Mediterranean  Lands  by  Religions  about  1100  ; 

Colored after    214 

24.  The  Eastern  Empire  in  the  Tenth  and  Eleventh  Centuries          .     217 

25.  Crusading  Latin  States  in  Syria 225 

26.  The  World  during  the  Crusades  ;  Colored  .        .         .  after    226 

27.  The  Latin  Empire  at  Constantinople..  1204-1260         .         .         .228 

28.  Dominions  of  the  Hansa  and  of  the  Teutonic  Knights ;  Colored 

after    248 

29.  Germany  from  1254  to  1273  ;  Colored          .         .         .       facing    295 

30.  Spain  in  the  Middle  Ages;  three  maps;  Colored.        .  "         297 

31.  Southeastern  Europe  at  the  Entrance  of  the  Turk  •,  Colored  after    298 

xvii 


xviii  MAPS 

PAGE 

32.  The  Ottoman  Dominions  at  their  Greatest  Extent      .        .        .     299 

33.  The  Swiss  Confederacy,  1291-1500 301 

34.  Europe  about  1400  ;  Colored after    302 

35.  Germany  about  1650  ;  Colored "304 

36.  Europe  in  the  Time  of  Charles  V  ;  Colored        .         .  "308 

37.  The  Netherlands  at  the  Truce  of  1609 354 

38.  Territorial  Changes  effected  by  the  Thirty  Years'  War ;  Col- 

ored   after    302 

39.  Europe,  1740-1789;  Colored facing    415 

40.  Prussia  at  the  Death  of  Frederick  the  Great       .        .        .        .417 

41.  Europe  in  1802  ;  Colored <///«T    484 

42.  Europe  in  1810  ;  Colored "404 

43.  Europe  in  1815  ;  Colored "602 

44.  The  Germanic  Confederation,  from  1815  to  1867  ;  Colored     "       608 
46.  Austria- Hungary  :  Race  Distribution  ;  Colored  .        .       facing    667 

46.  Growth  of  Italian  Unity 578 

47.  Prussia,  1816-1807 687 

48.  The  German  Empire  of  1871 ;  Colored        ...                r  654 

49.  The  Balkan  States,  1878-1881 ;  Colored      ...             "  716 

50.  The  Balkan  States,  1912-1913 718 

61.  Africa  in  1914  ;  Colored facing  721 

52.  The  World  Powers ;  Colored <ift,  r  724 

63.  Europe  in  1914  ;  Colored "742 


REFERENCE   TABLES 

1.  The  Roman  Empire  ;  Prefectures  and  Dioceses  ....  24 

2.  Norman  and  Plantagenet  Kings  of  England        ....  178 

3.  Capetian  Kings  of  France,  to  1314      ..'....  180 

4.  German  Kings  and  Roman  Emperors,  to  1254     ....  195 

5.  Capetian  Kings,  1314-1547  .        . 269 

6.  English  Kings,  1327-1485 276 

7.  English  Sovereigns,  1483-1625    .... 

8.  English  Sovereigns,  1625-1915 395 

9.  English  Administrations,  1830-1915 608 


THE   MODERN   WORLD 


THE  MODERN   WORLD 

The  chief  interest  in  history  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  not  yet  finished. 

—  ASHLEY 

INTRODUCTION 

A   SUMMAKY   OF  EAELIER  PKOGEESS1 


FIRST   PERIOD 

FROM  THE  EARLIEST   TIMES  TO    THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE 

1.    Men  have  lived  on  this  earth  some  100,000  years,  but  we 
know  their  story  for  only  the  last  7000  years.     We  do  know, 


SOME  STAGES  IN  FIRE-MAKING.  —  From  Ty lor. 

however,  a  few  disconnected  facts  about  the  vast  dim  stretch 
of  time  preceding  real  history. 


1  This  summary  of  ancient  progress  is  condensed  from  the  author's  sum- 
maries of  successive  periods  in  his  Ancient  World,  the  preceding  volume  of 
this  historical  series.  Concrete  illustrations  of  general  statements  made  here, 
and  definitions  of  terms,  may  be  found  in  that  volume.  Classes  that  have 
used  the  Ancient  World  may  prefer  to  omit  this  Introduction. 

1 


2  PREHISTORIC    MAN  [§  1 

Hie  first  men  were  brute-like,- — lower  and  more  helpless  than 
the  lowest  savages  in  the  world  to-day.  They  had  not  even 
fire  or  knife  or  bow  and  arrows.  Thousands  on  thousands  of 
years  passed  uncounted  while  our  forefathers  were  learning  to 
take  the  first  stumbling  steps  up  from  this  savagery  toward 
civilized  life. 

By  slow  degrees  they  learned  to  live  together  in  families  and 
tribes.  They  invented  simple  weapons  of  wood  and  of  stone, 


SPHINX  AND  PYRAMIDS.       Egyptian   sculpture  ami  structures  of  5000 
years  ago.  —  From  a  recent  photograph. 

and,  long  afterward,  of  bronze  and  iron.  They  found  out  how 
to  spin  thread  and  weave  cloth,  and  how  to  bake  clay  pots  in 
which  to  cook  food.  Five  gains,  in  particular,  during  those 
slow  ages  were  beyond  price:  the  use  of  fire  ;  the  beginning  of 
languages  ;  the  taming  of  the  dog,  cow,  sheep,  and  other  of  our 
familiar  barn-yard  assistants  ;  th<>  rfisi'overy  and  ruUii'titiun  »f 
wheat,  barley,  rice,  and  most  of  our  other  Old-World  food- i)l«nt*  ; 
and  the  invention  of  picture  writing  and  the  rebus  stage  of  writing. 


ORIENTAL   PEOPLES 


After  this  last  invention,  history,  which  is  the  record  of  man's  life, 
could  begin. 

2.  The  earliest  men  of  whom  we  have  records  lived  in  the 
valleys  of  the  Nile  and  Euphrates  about  seven  thousand  years 
ago.  These  Egyptians  and  Babylonians  practised  many  arts 
and  crafts  with  a  skill  of  hand  that  has  never  been  surpassed. 
They  built  great  cities,  with  pleasant  homes  for  the  wealthy 
and  with  splendid  palaces  for  their  princes.  They  built, 
too,  roads  and  canals.  With  ships  and  caravans,  they  sought 
out  the  treasures  of  distant  regions;  and  the  wealth  they 
heaped  up  was  spent  by  their  rulers  in  gorgeous  pomp  and 
splendor.  They  learned 
the  need  of  law,  to  regu- 
late their  relations  with 
one  another.  Their 
thinkers  found  in  their 
own  consciences  some  of 
the  highest  moral  truths, 
and  taught  the  duty  of 
truthfulness,  justice,  and 
mercy. 

They  also  wrote  books 
on  agriculture,  and  made 


COOKING   UTENSILS  found  in  one  Cretan 
tomb  4400  years  old. 


beginnings  in  some  sciences,  especially  in  astronomy  and 
mathematics.  Our  "year,"  of  365  days  and  a  quarter,  with 
the  divisions  into  months,  comes  to  us  from  the  Egyptians 
through  the  Romans.  Through  the  Hebrews,  the  Babylonians 
gave  us  the  week,  with  its  "  seventh  day  of  rest  for  the  soul," 
and  the  subdivisions  of  the  day  into  hours  and  minutes. 

The  Babylonians,  indeed,  invented  our  sundial  and  water- 
clock,  and  an  excellent  system  of  weights,  and  measures  based 
on  the  length  of  the  hand  and  foot.  They  used  a  duodeci- 
mal system  of  counting.  The  face  of  a  watch  to-day,  with  its 
divisions  by  twelve  and  by  sixties,  recalls  their  work,  —  as  do 
also  the  curious  figures  on  our  star  maps ;  the  signs  of  the 
zodiac  in  our  almanacs;  the  symbols  of  our  "apothecaries' 


ANCIENT    PROGRESS 


LS* 


^T- 


table,"  still  used  by  physicians;  some  of  our  fairy  stories, 
like  that  of  Cinderella;  many  of  our  carpenters'  tools;  and 
much  of  our  common  kitchen  ware. 

War  and  trade  spread  this  culture  .sVof/7//  <tr<nmtl  tl<e  eastern 
coasts  of  the  M<'<l!t<<rr<un.'<ut  ;  and,  before  1500  B.<  ..  Cretan  and 
Phoenician  merchants  scattered  its  seeds  widely  in  more  distant 

regions.  The  commerce 
of  these  peoples,  too,  made 
it  needful  for  them  to  keep 
complicated  accounts,  and 
to  communicate  with 
auxins  in  distant  places. 
And  so,  out  of  the  crude 
rarlier  systems  of  writing, 

'•'V<//  <d  alpha- 

bets. 

About  630  B.C.  all  these 
precious  beginnings  of  civ- 
il i/at  ion  were  imperiled 
by  hordes  of  savages  that 
poured  forth  from  the  fro- 

CRETAN  WRITINQ  OF  mm  B.C.     Son i     /t.n  plaingof  Scythia  in  the 

these   characters   are  numerals.     Others  , 

hare  a  strong  IfkeneM  to  ee.-tain  <;.vek  Persia    repulsed 

letters.  This  tablet  was  found  in  a  royal  the  ravagers,  and  saved 
treasury,  and  probably  it  was  an  a, vomit  tjl(>  slow  gains  of  the  ^^ 
of  payments.  Our  scholars  have  not  vet  A  -, 

learned  to  read  Cretan  script.  Alld  at  the  Same  time>  she 

conquered  all  the  civilized 

East,  and  united  it  under  an  effective  system  of  government. 

When  Persia  was  at  the  height  of  her  power  (about  525  B.C.), 
the  Oriental  peoples  had  possessed  a  complex  civilization  for  more 
than  4000  years.  This  ivas  a  much  longer  period  than  has  passed 
since.  To  appreciate  tin'  vorli  of  tlnw  pioneers  of  ciril ization.  ve 
must  remember  that  for  another  thousand  years  our  own  ancestors 
were  meandering  savages,  clad  in  xAv'/j.<,  among  the  swamps  and 
forests  of  northern  Europe. 


§3] 


ORIENTAL   PEOPLES 


3.   Oriental   culture,  however,  was   marred   by  serious   faults. 
Its  benefits  were  for  a  few  only. 

Government  was  despotic,  and  the  people  worshiped  the  mon- 
arch with  slavish  submission. 


COLOSSAL  MAN-BEAST  IN  ALABASTER.  —  From  an  Assyrian  palace;   nowfc 
in  the  Louvre. 

Art  ivas  unnatural.  Sculpture  delighted  in  placing  a  man's 
head  on  the  body  of  a  beast,  mingling  the  monstrous  and  gro- 
tesque with  the  human.  Architecture  sought  to  rouse  admira- 
tion by  colossal  size  rather  than  by  beauty  and  proportion. 

Men  followed  slavishly  the  customs  and  traditions  of  their 
fathers.  The  mysterious  forces  of  nature  filled  them  with 
fear.  There  was  little  learning,  except  among  the  priests  ;  and 
theirs  was  mingled  with  gross  superstitions. 


6  ANCIENT  PROGRESS  [§  4 

Toward  the  close  of  the  period,  it  is  true,  there  had  grown 
up  among  the  Hebrews  a  pure  worship,  whose  truth  and  grandeur 
were  to  influence  profoundly  the  later  world.  But,  for  cen- 
turies more,  this  religion  was  the  possession  of  one  small  people. 

There  was  little  variety  in  the  civilizations  of  the  Orient. 
They  lacked  rivalry  to  stimulate  them  to  continued  progress. 
Each  civilization  reached  its  best  stage  early,  and  then 
threatened  to  become  stagnant. 

4.  Now,  happily,  appeared  the  Greeks,  —  new  actors  on  a  new 
stage.  About  600  B.C.,  the  center  of  interest  shifted  westward 
from  Asia  to  southeastern  Europe.  For  two  thousand  years  a 
European  culture  had  been  rising  slowly  along  the  coasts  and 
islands  of  the  Mediterranean.  It  had  drawn  from  the  East  in 
many  ways,  especially  in  matters  of  handicraft;  but  it  had 
moral  and  intellectual  traits  of  its  own.  The  difference  in 
character  was  due,  in  large  part,  to  differences  between  Euro- 
pean and  Oriental  geography.1 

Oriental  states  had  begun  in  supremely  fertile  districts 
where  food  was  almost  the  free  bounty  of  nature,  and  where 
the  tropical  climate  disinclined  most  men  to  unnecessary  exer- 
tion. The  few  with  spirit  and  energy  easily  made  slaves  of 
the  multitude.  But  the  sterile  soil  of  Greece  demanded  more 
work  from  all  the  people ;  and  its  temperate  climate  encouraged 
more  general  enterprise.  Men  lived  more  on  a  level  with  one 
another  than*  in  the  East. 

When  an  Oriental  state  had  grown  by  conquest  into  an 
empire,  it  spread  over  vast  plains  and  was  bounded  by  terrible 
immensities  of  desolate  deserts.  Greece  was  a  land  of  i/ifiT- 
mingled  sea  and  mountain,  with  everything  on  a  moderate  scale. 
There  were  no  deserts.  No  mountains  were  so  astounding  as  to 
awe  man.  There  were  no  destructive  earthquakes,  no  tremen- 
dous storms,  no  overwhelming  floods.  Oriental  man  had  bowed 
in  dread  and  superstition  before  the  mysteries  of  nature ;  but 
in  Greece,  nature  was  not  terrible.  There  men  began  early  to 

1  A  discussion  of  these  differences  is  given  in  the  Ancient  World,  §§  82-8<i. 


§5] 


THE   GREEKS 


search  into  her  secrets.  In  thought,  the  Greeks  replaced  Oriental 
submission  to  tradition  by  fearless  originality.  In  government, 
they  replaced  Oriental  despotism  by  democracy. 

Greece  was  broken  up  into  many  small  districts.  Each 
division  was  protected  from  conquest  by  its  sea  moats  and 
mountain  walls ;  and  each,  therefore,  became  the  home  of 
a  distinct  political  state. 
Some  of  these  were  busied 
in  agriculture ;  others, 
mainly,  in  trade.  Some 
were  monarchic  in  govern- 
ment ;  others,  democratic. 
This  variety  of  societies, 
side  by  side,  reacted 
wholesomely  upon  one  an- 
other. Oriental  uniform- 
ity gave  ivay  to  European 
diversity. 

No  doubt,  too,  the 
moderation  and  variety 
and  wondrous  beauty  of 
hill  and  dale  and  sun-lit 
sea  had  something  to  do 
with  the  many-sided  gen- 
ius of  the  Greek  people, 
and  with  their  lively  but 
well-controlled  imagina- 


THE  HERMES  OF  PRAXITELES.  Praxiteles 
was  the  pupil  of  Phidias,  the  architect  of 
the  Parthenon,  and  he  ranks,  with  his 
master,  among  the  greatest  of  sculptors. 
The  arms  and  legs  of  this  Hermes  are 
sadly  mutilated. 


tion.     Above  all  peoples, 

before  or  since,  the  Greeks  developed  a  love  for  harmony  and 

proportion. 

5.  These  qualities  found  expression  in  sculpture,  architec- 
ture, drama,  oratory,  poetry,  and  philosophy,  in  all  of  which 
the  Greeks  rank  still  among  the  world's  masters.  The 
Onental  contributions  to  the  future  had  been  mainly  material : 
the  Greek  contributions  were  intellectual  and  spiritual.  This 
makes  it  harder  to  count  and  name  them  in  a  brief  summary. 


8 


ANCIENT  PROGRESS 


[§« 


Says  a  great  English  thinker  (Henry  Sumner  Maine),  —  "Ex- 
cept the  blind  forces  of  nature,  there  is  nothing  that  moves  in 
the  world  to-day  that  is  not  Greek  in  origin."  One  supreme 
thing  must  be  named  :  the  Greeks  gave  us  the  ideal  of  freedom 
regulated  by  self-control,  —  freedom  in  politics,  in  religion,  and 
in  thought. 

6.  Moreover,  this  Greek  civilization  is  essentially  one  with  our 
own.  The  remains  of  Egyptian  or  Babylonian  sculpture  and 
architecture  arouse  our  interest  as  curiosities ;  but  they  are 


RUINS  OF  THE  PARTHKNON  (Temple  of  AthenS)  AT  ATHKNS:  THI:  \\  rear 

FRONT. 

foreign  to  us.  With  a  Greek  temple  or  a  Greek  poem  we  feel 
at  home.  It  might  have  been  built  or  written  by  an  Ameri- 
can. Many  of  our  most  beautiful  buildings  use  the  Greek 
columns  and  capitals.  Some,  in  spite  of  our  different  climate, 
are  copied  almost  wholly  from  Greek  models.  Our  children 
still  delight  in  the  stories  that  the  blind  Greek  Homer  chanted ; 
and  older  students  find  his  poems  a  necessary  part  of  our  liter- 
ary culture.  The  historian  still  goes  to  the  Greek  Thucydides 
or  Herodotus  ("  the  father  of  history  ")  for  his  model. 


-1 1 


§  9]  ROME  9 

7.  Four  weak  points  remained  in  this  dazzling  Greek  civiliza- 
tion.    (1)  It  rested  on  slavery, — a  slavery  less  extensive  and 
less  hateful  than  that  of  the  Oriental  world,  but  still  involving 
large  classes  of  people.     (2)   It  teas  for  males  only.     At  best, 
the  wife  was  only  a  higher  domestic  servant.     (3)   The  moral 
side  fell  far  below  the  intellectual  side.     Religion  had  little  to  do 
with  conduct  toward  men.     Some  Greek  philosophers  taught 
lofty  morality,  and  a  few  individual  lives  towered  to  sublime 
heights ;  but,  on  the  whole,  while  no  other  society  ever  pro- 
duced so  large  a  proportion  of  great  men,  many  societies  have 
produced  more  good  men.     (4)    Brilliant   as  was   the   Greek 
mind,  it  did  not  discover  the  modern  method  of  finding  out  the 
secrets  of  nature  by  experiment.     Consequently  it  did  little  to  in- 
crease man's  power  over  natural  forces. 

8.  About  500  B.C.,  the  rising  Greek  culture  was  threatened 
with  conquest  by  Persia.      The   little  Greek  states  heroically 
repelled  the  huge  Asiatic  empire,  and  saved  Western  civiliza- 
tion.     Then,    two    centuries    later,   through    the    genius    of 
Alexander  the  Great,  they  welded  East  and  West  into  a  Graeco- 
Oriental  world. 

But  in  the  end  the  vast,  sluggish  East  would  have  ab- 
sorbed the  small  Greek  creative  element,  had  not  the  latter 
found  reinforcement  from  another  European  land.  Now  the 
historical  "  center  of  gravity"  shifts  westward  once  more. 

9.  Rome  was  the  central  city  of  Italy,  the  central  Mediter- 
ranean land.     It  began  as  a  village  of  shepherds  and  farmers. 
Partly  through  geographical  advantages,  more  through  genius 
in  war,  most  of  all  through  a  marvelous  power  of  organization, 
it  had   grown   step   by  step  into  the  headship  of  Italy,  and 
was   ready  now  to   march   on   to  the  lordship  of  the  world. 
First,  it  gave  a  Latin  civilization  to  the  western  Mediterranean 
coasts ;    and   then,   a   century  before   the  birth  of   Christ,  it 
unified  New  West  and  Old  East  into  a  Graeco-Roman  world. 

As  Greece  stands  for  art  and  intellectual  culture,  so  Rome 
stands  for  law  and  government.  The  Greeks,  aside  from  their 
own  contributions  to  civilization,  had  collected  the  arts  and 


10 


ANCIENT   PROGRESS 


[§10 


sciences  of  the  older  peoples  of  the  Orient.  Rome  preserved 
this  common  treasure  of  mankind,  and  (as  we  shall  see  in  the 
next  chapter)  she  herself  added  legal  and  political  institutions 
that  have  influenced  all  later  time. 

10.  Still,  with  all  her  genius  for  government,  Rome  did  not 
hit  upon  our  modern  plan  of  representative  government.  1'ntil 

this  plan  was  disco\vn-<l, 
government  had  to  be 
exercised,  at  best,  by  those 
who  could  meet  at  <>nr 
spot.  A  large  state,  then, 
could  not  remain  a  free 
state.  While  Rome  was 
uniting  Italy,  she  was  a 
free  city-republic.  She 
succeeded  in  expanding 
this  form  of  government 
so  that  it  met  fairly  well 
the  needs  of  united  Italy ; 
but  it  broke  down  before 
the  needs  of  a  subject 
world.  For  a  century  the 
government  of  the  ruling 
city  became  merely  the 
agent  of  a  selfish  moneyed 
aristocracy  which  looted  the  dependent  provinces.  Then  Julius 
Caesar,  and  his  successors,  swept  away  the  outgrown  "  Republic," 
and  introduced  the  "  Empire,"  with  the  emperor  as  the  despotic 
but  beneficent  father  of  the  whole  Graeco-Roman  world. 

The  Roman  Empire  is  so  immediately  the  basis  of  the 
modern  world  that  it  demands  a  somewhat  more  extended 
survey. 


JULIUS  CAESAR,  the  British  Museum  bust. 


THE  COURT  (§  27)  OF  A  ROMAN  HOUSE,  an  imaginative  painting  by 
Boulanger,  based  upon  a  study  of  ancient  remains. 


SECOND   PERIOD 

THE   ROMAN  WORLD 

I.   TWO   CENTURIES   OF   PROSPERITY 

11.  "  The  Roman  Empire,"  says  the  famous  English  historian, 
Freeman,  "  is  the  central  lake  in  which  all  the  streams  of  ancient 
history  lose  themselves,  and  which  all  the  streams  of  modern  his- 
tory flow  out  of."  Its  territory,  about  as  large  as  the  United 
States,  embraced  the  Mediterranean  fringe  of  the  three  Old- 
World  continents,  —  a  broad  belt  stretching  from  the  Euphrates 
to  Britain,  between  southern  deserts  and  the  northern  waters 
of  the  Rhine,  the  Danube,  and  the  Black  Sea. 

In  language,  and  somewhat  in  culture,  the  West  remained 
Latin,  and  the  East,1  Greek  ;  but  trade,  travel,  and  the  mild 
and  just  Roman  law  made  the  world  one  in  feeling.  Briton, 
African,  Asiatic,  knew  one  another  only  as  Romans.  An 

1  The  Adriatic  may  be  taken  as  a  convenient  line  of  division. 
11 


12 


THE    ROMAN    I.  \1IMKK 


Egyptian  dln3ek  of  the  period  expressed  tliis  \vorld-wide  patri- 
otism in  a  noble  ode,  closing,  —  5 

4  Though  we  tread  Rhone's  or  Orontes'  1  shore, 
Yet  are  we  all  one  nation  evermore." 

12.    A  population  of  perhaps  75,000,000  people  was  gathered 
in  myriads  of  cities,  great  and  small,  each  throbbing  with  var 


AQUKIM  i  T  M  \i:  NIMK.S,  Ki:  \N.I:.  built  about  l.r><>  A.I>.  by  tin-  Kmporor  An- 
toninus I'ius  ti>  supply  the  city  with  water  from  distant  mountain  springs; 
present  condition  of  the  long  gray  structure,  where  it  crosses  a  deep  valley. 
The  water  pipes  were  carried  across  streams  and  valleys  on  arches  like 
these,  and  through  hills  hy  tunnels.  Some  of  these  Koman  aqueducts 
remained  in  use  till  very  recent  days. 

industry  and  with  intellectual  life.  Everywhere  rude  stock- 
aded villages  had  changed  into  stately  marts  of  trade,  huts  into 
palaces,  footpaths  into  paved  roads.  Koman  irrigation  made 
part  of  the  African  desert  the  garden  of  the  world  —  where, 
from  drifting  sands,  desolate  ruins  mock  the  traveler  of  to- 
day. The  regular  symbol  of  Africa  in  art  was  a  stately  virgin 

1  A  river  of  Syria,  in  Asia. 


EXPLANATION 
The  Roman  Empii 
Additions  up  to  the  Death  of  Augustus,  14  A.D. 


Additions  up  to  the  Death  of  Trajan,  117  A.D.    Roman'Roada 


Longitude  West       0 


10        Longitude        15  East  20 


25  30  35  40 


25         Greenwich        0 


50 


§  13]  PEACE   AND   PROSPERITY  13 

with  arms  filled  with  sheaves  of  golden  grain.  Gaul  (France) 
was  Romanized  late;  but  in  the  third  century  A.D.  that  province 
had  116  nourishing  cities,  with  baths,  temples,  amphitheaters, 
works  of  art,  roads,  aqueducts,  and  schools  of  eloquence  and 
rhetoric. 

13.  These  towns  were  called  municipia.  They  had  once 
managed  most  of  their  own  affairs;  and,  under  the  Empire, 
"  municipal  institutions,"  for  local  self-government,  survived  in 
hundreds  of  them.  True,  the  local  government  of  Koine  itself, 
along  with  that  of  Alexandria  and  other  large  cities  with  dan- 
gerous street  mobs,  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  officers  ap- 
pointed by  the  emperors.  But  long  after  such  places  had 
ceased  to  have  popular  assemblies  and  elected  officers,  the 
cities  of  Gaul  and  of  Dacia l  continued  to  elect  each  year  their 
consuls  (a  sort  of  twin  mayors),  aediles  to  oversee  the  police 
and  public  works,  and  quaestors,  to  care  for  the. city  nuances. 
Election  placards,  painted  on  the  walls  of  the  houses  in 
Pompeii,  show  that  the  contests  for  office  were  very  real  and 
quite  modern  in  method. 

Pompeii,  on  the  bay  of  Naples,  was  buried  by  an  eruption  of  ashes 
from  Mt.  Vesuvius  in  80  A.D.  When  it  was  excavated,  in  recent  times, 
some  1500  political  posters  were  found  painted  on  the  walls  along  its 
streets.  Probably  these  posters  all  concerned  some  election  just  about  to 
take  place  when  the  city  was  overtaken  by  destruction  ;  for  when  their 
purpose  was  served,  the  space  would  be  whitewashed  over,  and  used  for 
new  notices. 

These  notices  are  painted  in  red  letters  from  two  to  ten  inches  high, 
on  a  white  background.  Each  man,  apparently,  could  use  his  own  wall  to 
recommend  his  favorite  candidates  ;  but  hired  and  zealous  "  bill-posters  " 
blazoned  their  placards  upon  private  buildings  and  even  upon  funeral 
monuments.  A  baker  is  nominated  for  quaestor  (city  treasurer)  on  the 
ground  that  he  sells  u  good  bread  ";  and,  near  by,  a  leading  aristocrat  is 
supported  as  one  of  whom  it  is  known  that  "  he  will  guard  the  treasury." 
Trade  unions  make  some  of  these  nominations,  and  even  women  take 
part  in  them,  — though  of  course  not  in  the  voting.  One  "  wide-open  " 

1  If  the  student  has  not  studied  Ancient  history,  he  should  note  all  these 
geographical  names  carefully  on  the  maps  after  pp.  12  and  24. 


14 


THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE 


[§14 


candidate  for  "police  commissioner"  is  attacked  by  an  ironical  wag  in 
several  posters  —  as  in  one  that  reads,  "All  the  late-drinkers  ask  your 
support  for  Valia  for  the  aedileship." 

In  each  town  of  this  sort,  the  ex-magistrates  made  up  a  town  council 
(senate),  which  voted  local  taxes,  expended  them  for  town  purposes,  and 
looked  after  town  matters  in  general.  The  council's  ordinances  were 
submitted,  in  some  towns,  to  an  Assembly  of  citizens  for  ratification. 

14.  Most  towns  were  places  of  20,000  people  or  less  ;  but  there 
were  also  a  few  great  centers  of  trade,  —  Rome,  with  perhaps  two 
million  people ;   Alexandria  (in  Egypt)  and  Antioch  (in  Asia) 
with  half  a  million  each ;  and  Corinth,  Carthage,  Ephesus,  and 
Lyons,  with  some  250,000  apiece. 

These  commercial  cities  were  likewise  centers  of  manufac- 
tures. The  Emperor  Hadrian  visited  Alexandria  (about  1  25 

A.D.)  and  wrote  in  a  letter:  "No 
one  is  idle;  some  work  glass;  some 
make  paper  (papyrus);  some  weave 
linen.  Money  is  the  only  god/' 
The  looms  of  Sidon  and  the  other 
old  Phoenician  cities  turned  forth 
ceaselessly  their  precious  purple 
cloths.  Miletus,  Rhodes,  and  other 
Greek  cities  of  the  Asiatic  coast 
were  famous  for  their  woolen  manu- 
factures. Syrian  factories  poured 
silks,  costly  tapestries,  and  fine 
leather  into  western  Europe.  The 

silversmiths  of  Ephesus  were  numerous  enough,  as  we  learn 
from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  (xix,  23-41),  to  stir  up  a  formi- 
dable riot. 

15.  The  roads  were  safe.     Piracy  ceased  from  the  seas,  and 
trade  flourished  as  it  was  not  to  flourish  again  until  the  days 
of  Columbus.     The  ports  were  crowded  with  shipping,  and  the 
Mediterranean   was  spread   with   happy   sails.     One   Roman 
writer  exclaims  that  there  are  as  many  men  upon  the  waves  as 
upon  land. 


SHOEMAKER    in    his    shop    in 
Roman    times.  —  From    Par- 

iiu-ntier. 


§  16]  TRAVEL   AND   TRADE  15 

From  end  to  end  of  the  empire,  travel  was  safe  and  rapid. 
The  grand  military  roads  ran  in  trunk-lines  —  a  thousand  miles 
at  a  stretch  —  from  every  frontier  toward  the  central  heart  of 
the  empire,  with  a  dense  network  of  branches  in  every  prov- 
ince. Guidebooks  described  routes  and  distances.  Inns 
abounded.  The  imperial  couriers  that  hurried  along  the  great 


LYONS  IN  ROMAN  TIMBS. 

highways  passed  a  hundred  and  fifty  milestones  a  day.  Pri- 
vate travel,  from  the  Thames  to  the  Euphrates,  was  swifter, 
safer,  and  more  comfortable  than  ever  again  until  the  days  of 
railroads  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  products  of  one  region  of  the  empire  were  known  in  every 
other  part.  Jewelry  made  in  Asia  Minor  was  worn  by  women 
in  the  Swiss  mountains;  and  Italian  wines  were  drunk  in 
Britain  and  Cilicia.  The  gravestones  of  ancient  Syrian  trad- 
ers are  found  to-day  scattered  from  Roumania  to  France,  and 
in  Asia  the  monuments  of  Gallic  merchants  witness  to  this 
ancient  intercourse.  One  merchant  of  Phrygia  (a  district  in 
Asia  Minor)  asserts  on  his  gravestone  that  he  had  sailed 
"  around  Greece  to  Italy  seventy-two  times  !  " 

16.  There  was  also  a  vast  commerce  with  regions  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  the  empire.  As  English  and  Dutch  traders, 
three  hundred  years  ago,  journeyed  far  into  the  savage  interior 
of  America  for  better  bargains  in  furs,  so  the  indomitable 
Roman  traders  pressed  on  into  regions  where  the  Roman 
legions  never  camped.  They  visited  Ireland ;  and  from  the 


16 


THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE 


[§17 


Baltic  shores  they  brought  back  amber,  furs,  and  flaxen  Ger- 
man hair  with  which  the  dark  Roman  ladies  liked  to  adorn 
their  heads.  Such  goods  the  trader  paid  for  in  toys  and 
trinkets  and  wine,  and  sometimes  in  Roman  arms,  such  as 
have  been  found  on  the  Jutland  coast.  In  the  East,  the 
trader  ventured  even  more  distant  voyages.  A  Latin  poet  of 


THE  APPIAN  WAY,  the  first  "  Roman  road."  —  From  a  photograph.  (Tin-  cut 
shows  the  original  pavement.  For  the  method  of  making  these  roads,  see 
Ancient  World,  §  395.) 

the  time  speaks  of  "many  merchants"  who  reaped  "immense 
riches "  by  daring  voyages  over  the  Indian  Ocean  "  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Ganges."  India,  Ceylon,  and  Malasia  sent  to 
Europe  indigo,  spices,  pearls,  sapphires,  drawing  away?  in 
return,  vast  sums  of  Roman  gold  and  silver  coin.  And 
from  shadowy  realms  beyond  India  came  the  silk  yarn  that 
kept  the  Syrian  looms  busy.  Chinese  annals  tell  of  Roman 
traders  bringing  to  Canton  glass  and  metal  wares,  amber,  and 
drugs. 

17.   And  men  traveled  for  pleasure  as  well  as  for  business. 


§18] 


SCHOOLS  AND   UNIVERSITIES 


17 


There  was  a  keen  desire  in  each  great  quarter  of  the  empire  to 
see  the  other  regions  which  Rome  had  molded  into  one  world. 
It  seems  to  have  been  at  least  as  common  a  thing  for  the  gen- 
tleman of  Gaul  or  Britain  to  visit  the  wonders  of  Rome  and  of 
the  Nile  as  for  the  modern  American  to  spend  a  summer  in 
England  or  France.  One  language  answered  all  needs  from 
London  to  Babylon.  Families  took  these  pleasure  trips  in  a 
body  ;  and,  quite  in  modern  fashion,  they  sometimes  defaced 
priceless  monuments  of  the  past  with  their  scrawls.  One  of 


THE  ACROPOLIS  AT  ATHENS.     As  "restored"  by  Lambert. 

the  most  famous  statues  in  Egypt  still  bears  a  scratched  in- 
scription that  it  has  been  visited  by  a  certain  Roman  gentle- 
man, "  Gernullus,"  with  "  his  dear  wife,  Rufilla,"  and  their 
children. 

18.  Literature  and  learning  flourished.  It  is  impossible  here 
even  to  mention  the  great  numbers  of  poets,  historians',  essay- 
ists, philosophers,  and  other  writers,  who  made  the  age  glori- 
ous. The  three  great  centers  of  learning  were  Rome,  Alexandria, 
and  Athens.  In  these  cities  there  were  universities,  as  we 
would  call  them  now,  with  vast  libraries  (of  manuscripts,  of 


18 


THE    ROMAN   EMPIRE 


[§18 


course,  since  printing  was  not  yet  invented)  and  numerous  pro- 
fessorships. These  institutions  were  endowed  by  the  govern- 
ment. The  professors  had 
the  rank  of  Roman  nobles, 
with  good  salaries,  and 
assured  pensions  after 
twenty  years  of  service. 
Language,  rhetoric,  phi- 
losophy, made  up  a  group 
of  literary  studies  called 
the  trivium.  Besides  these, 
all  schools  taught  also  four 
sciences  (the  quadrivium), 
—  music,  arithmetic,  ge- 
ometry, and  astronomy. 
In  some  universities,  other 
special  studies  flourished. 
Law  was  a  specialty  at 
Rome,  and  medicine  at 
Alexandria. 

Below  the  universities, 
in  all  large  provincial 
towns,  there  were  "gr< mi- 
mar  schools."  These  were 
endowed  by  the  emperors, 
and  corresponded  in  some 
measure  to  our  small  col- 
leges. 

Those  in  Gaul  and  Spain 
were    especially    famous ; 
AUGUSTUS,  a  statue   now  in  the  Vatican.    jn     particular,     the     ones 
Augustus  was  a  nephew  and  adopted  son      t    Magsili       Autun     Nar. 
of  Julius  Caesar.    His  rule  (31B.C.-14A.D.)  ' 

is  usually  taken  to  mark  the  beginning  of    bonne,    Lyons,    Bordeaux, 
the  Empire.  Toulouse.    The  reputation 

of  the  instructors  in  the  best  schools  drew  students  from  all 
the  empire.     The  walls  of  the  classrooms  were  painted  with 


§  19]  MORALS  AND   LAW  19 

maps,  dates,  and  lists  of  facts.  The  masters  were  appointed 
by  local  magistrates,  with  life  tenure  and  good  pay.  Like  the 
professors  in  the  universities,  they  were  exempt  from  taxation 
and  had  many  privileges. 

In  the  small  towns  were  many  schools  of  a  lower  grade.  But 
all  this  education  was  for  the  upper  and  middle  classes,  and 
for  occasional  bright  boys  from  the  lower  classes  who  found 
some  wealthy  patron.  Little  was  done  toward  dispelling  the 
dense  ignorance  of  the  masses.  Rich  mefi  and  women,  how- 
ever, sometimes  bequeathed  money  to  schools  in  their  home 


A  ROMAN  CHARIOT  RACE,  a  modern  imaginative  painting. 

cities  for  the  education  of  poor  children.  And  the  poet  Hor- 
ace tells  us  a  charming  story  of  how  his  father,  a  poor  peasant 
farmer,  managed  to  give  him  an  education  which  enabled  him 
to  become  the  companion  and  friend  of  emperors. 

19.  The  morals  of  the  empire  are  sometimes  supposed  to 
make  a  black  picture.  Records  give  prominence  to  the  court 
and  the  capital ;  and  there  the  truth  is  dark  enough.  During 
some  reigns,  the  atmosphere  of  the  court  was  rank  with  hideous 
debauchery.  At  all  times,  many  of  the  great  nobles  were  sunk 
in  coarse  orgies ;  and  the  rabble  of  Rome,  made  up  of  the  off- 
scourings of  all  nations,  was  ignorant,  cruel,  and  wicked. 

Particular  evil  customs  shock  the  modern  reader.  To  avoid 
the  cost  and  trouble  of  rearing  children,  the  lower  classes,  with 


20 


THE   ROMAN  EMPIRE 


[§20 


horrible  frequency  and  indifference,  exposed  their  infants  to 
die.  Satirists,  as  in  our  own  day,  railed  at  the  growth  of 
divorce  among  the  rich.  Slavery  threw  its  shadow  across  the 
Roman  world.  At  the  gladiatorial  sports,  delicate  ladies 
thronged  the  benches  of  the  amphitheater,  without  shrinking 
at  the  agonies  of  the  dying. 

But  there  is  danger  of  exaggeration  in  such  a  picture.  The 
good  made  less  noise,  as  always,  than  the  evil;  but  the  great 

middle  class  all  over  the 
empire  remained  whole- 
some in  morals.  The  Let- 
ters of  the  author  Pliny 
reveal  even  in  the  court 
circle  a  society  high- 
minded,  refined,  and  vir- 
tuous. Pliny  himself  is  a 
type  of  the  finest  gentle- 
man of  to-day  in  drliracy 
of  feeling,  sensitive  honor, 
and  genial  courtesy.  The 
Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius 
shows  like  qualities  on  the 
throne.  The  slave-philos- 
opher Epictetus  shows 
them  in  the  lowest  class 
of  society.  And  all  these 
people  were  surrounded  by  friends  whom  they  thought  good 
and  happy.  Thousands  of  tombstones  testify  to  the  tenderest 
family  affection.  Thus  on  the  memorial  -tablet  of  a  little  girl 
there  is  inscribed :  — 

*'  She  rests  here  in  the  soft  cradle  of  the  Earth  .  .  .  comely,  charming, 
keen  of  mind,  gay  in  her  talk  and  play.  If  there  be  aught  of  compas- 
sion in  the  gods,  bear  her  aloft  to  the  stars  and  the  light." 

20.  Against  each  evil,  we  can  set  a  moral  gain.  Woman 
secured  more  freedom  and  more  intellectual  culture  than  she  was 
to  find  again  until  the  nineteenth  century.  The  profession  of 


MAHCTS  AruKLirs. 


§21] 


MORALS   AND   LAW 


21 


medicine  was  open  to  her.  She  became  the  equal  of  man  be- 
fore the  law,  and  his  companion,  not  his  servant,  in  the  home. 
Beautiful  pictures  of  domestic  happiness  abound. 

There  teas  a  vast  amount  of  private  and  public  charity,  with 
homes  for  orphans  and  hospitals  for  the  poor. 

Kindness  to  animals  became  a  mark  of  the  times.  Appar- 
ently they  were  treated  better  than  they  are  in  southern 
Europe  to-day.  The  his- 
torian Plutarch  could  not 
bring  himself  to  sell  an 
ox  in  its  old  age.  Severe 
punishments  restricted 
cruelty. 

Slavery  grew  milder  th&n 
under  the  "Republic." 

Sympathies  broadened. 
The  unity  of  the  vast 
Roman  world  prepared 
the  \vay  for  the  thought 
that  all  men  are  brothers. 
Writers  were  fond  of 
dwelling  on  that  idea. 
Said  Marcus  Aurelius, 
"As  emperor  I  am  a 
Roman ;  but  as  a  man  my 
city  is  the  world."  Even 
the  rabble  in  the  Roman 
theater  was  wont  to 

applaud  the  line  of   the  poet  Terence :    "  I  am   a  man 
event  that  can  affect  men  is  without  meaning  to  me." 

The  age  prided  itself,  justly,  upon  its  progress  and  its 
humanity,  much  as  our  own  does.  The  Emperor  Trajan  in- 
structed a  provincial  governor  not  to  act  upon  anonymous 
accusations,  because  such  conduct  "  does  not  belong  to  our  age." 

21.  This  broad  humanity  was  reflected  in  imperial  law. 
The  harsh  law  of  the  Republic  became  humane.  Women  and 


BATHS  AT  BATH,  ENGLAND,  on  the  site  of 
ancient  Roman  baths.  The  buildings  in 
the  background  are  modern. 


no 


22  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  [§22 

children  shared  its  protection.  Torture  was  limited.  The 
rights  of  the  accused  were  better  recognized.  From  this  time 
dates  the  maxim,  "  Better  to  let  the  guilty  escape  than  to 
punish  the  innocent."  "All  men  by  the  law  of  nature  are 
equal"  became  a  law  maxim,  through  the  great  jurist  Ulpian. 
Slavery,  he  argued,  had  been  created  only  by  the  lower  law, 
enacted  not  by  nature  but  by  man.  Therefore,  if  one  man 
claimed  another  as  his  slave,  the  benefit  of  any  possible  doubt 
was  to  be  given  to  the  one  so  claimed.1 

22.  This  wide-spread,  happy  society  rested  in  "the  good 
Roman  peace "  for  more  than  two  hundred  years,  —  from  the 
reign  of  Augustus  Caesar  through  that  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  or 
from  31  B.C.  to  192  A.D.  No  other  part  of  the  world  so  large 
has  ever  known  such  unbroken  prosperity  and  such  freedom 
from  the  waste  and  horror  of  war  for  so  long  a  time.  Few 
troops  were  seen  within  the  empire,  and  "  the  distant  clash  of 
arms  [with  barbarians]  on  the  Euphrates  or  the  Danube 
scarcely  disturbed  the  tranquillity  of  the  Mediterranean  lands." 
Toward  the  close  of  the  period,  one  of  the  Christian  fathers 
(Tertulliau)  wrote :  — 

"Each  day  the  world  becomes  more  beautiful,  more  wealthy,  more 
splendid.  No  corner  remains  inaccessible.  .  .  .  Recent  deserts  bloom. 
.  .  .  Forests  give  way  to  tilled  acres.  .  .  .  Everywhere  are  houses, 
people,  cities.  Everywhere  there  is  life." 

A  few  of  the  emperors  at  Rome,  like  Nero  and  Caligula, 
even  in  this  "  golden  age  of  the  empire,"  were  weak  or  wicked ; 
but  their  follies  and  vices  concerned  only  the  nobles  of  the 
capital  city.  The  government  of  the  empire  as  a  whole  went 
on  with  little  change  during  their  short  reigns.  To  the  vast 
body  of  the  people  of  the  Roman  world,  the  crimes  of  an 
occasional  tyrant  were  unknown.  To  them  he  seemed  (like 
the  good  emperors)  merely  the  symbol  of  the  peace  and  pros- 
perity which  enfolded  them. 

1  It  is  curious  to  remember  that  the  rule  was  just  the  other  way  in  nearly 
all  Christian  countries  through  the  Middle  Ages,  and  in  the  United  States 
under  the  Fugitive  Slave  laws  from  1793  to  the  Civil  War. 


§  24]  THE  BARRACK-EMPERORS  23 

II.    TWO   CENTURIES   OF   DECLINE 

23.  The  tjiird  century  began  a  period  of  swift  decline.    For 

a  time  despotism  had  served  as  a  medicine  for  anarchy  (§  10), 
but  now  its  poison  began  to  .show.  Weak  or  vicious  rulers 
followed  one  another  in  ruinous  succession.  The  throne  be- 
came the  sport  of  the  soldiery.  Ninety-two  years  (193-284  A.D.) 
saw  twenty-seven  "  barrack  "  emperors  set  up  by  the  army.  All 
but  four  of  these  were  slain  in  some  revolt ;  and  two  of  the  four 
fell  in  battle  against  the  barbarians,  who,  in  those  dismal  years, 
began  to  break  through  the  frontiers. 

Population  ceased  to  advance,  and  even  fell  away.  A  series 
of  terrible  Asiatic  plagues  swept  off  vast  numbers ;  but  the 
causes  of  permanent  decay  were  within  Roman  society.  The 
main  cause,  probably,  was  the  widespread  slave  system.  The 
wealthy  classes  of  society  do  not  have  large  families.  Our 
population  to-day  grows  mainly  from  the  families  of  the  work- 
ing class.  But  in  the  Roman  empire  the  place  of  free  working- 
men  was  taken  mainly  by  slaves.  Slaves  rarely  had  families. 
If  they  had  children  at  all,  the  master  commonly  "  exposed  " 
them  to  die,  since  it  was  easier  and  cheaper  to  buy  a  new  slave, 
from  captive  barbarians,  than  to  rear  one.  Besides,  the  com- 
petition of  slave  labor  ground  into  the  dust  what  free  labor 
there  was ;  so  that  working  people  could  not  afford  to  raise 
large  families,  but  were  driven  also  to  the  cruel  practice  of 
exposing  their  infants,  —  a  custom  which  ancient  morality 
permitted.  Year  after  year,  "  the  human  harvest  was  bad." 

24.  The  only  measure  that  helped  Jill  up  the  gaps  in  population 
was  the  introduction    of  barbarians  from   without.     This   took 
place  peacefully  on  a  large  scale  ;  but,  to  the  Empire  politically, 
it  was  a  source  of  weakness  rather  than  of  strength. 

The  Roman  army  had  long  been  mostly  made  up  of  Germans ; 
and  whole  provinces  were  settled  by  them,  before  their  kinsmen 
from  without,  in  the  fifth  century,  began  in  earnest  to  break 
over  the  Rhine.  Conquered  barbarians  had  been  settled, 
hundreds  of  thousands  at  a  time,  in  frontier  provinces;  and 


THE    KOMAN   EMPIRE  — THIRD   CENTURY 


[§25 


friendly  tribes  had  been  admitted,  to  make  their  homes  in 
depopulated  districts.  As  slaves,  soldiers,  colonists,  subjects, 
the  German  world  had  been  filtering  into  the  Roman  world, 
until  a  large  part  of  the  empire  was  Germanized.  The  barrier 
between  the  empire  and  its  assailants  was  melting  aivay. 

25.  Toward  the  close  of  the  third  century,  however,  there  arose 
a  great  ruler  to  save  the  empire  for  two  hundred  years  more.  The 

stern    soldier,    Diocl> 
(284-305),  the  grandson  of 
an  Illyrian  slave,  was  the 
greatest  and  last  of   the 
"barrack"  emperors.     1  It- 
made  such  emperors  im- 
possible thereafter.     Seiz- 
ing the  scepter  with  a  firm 
hand,    he    first    restored 
peace  on  all  frontiers,  and 
THE  BATHS  OF  DIOCLETIAN  TO-DAY.    Parts    then  gave  his  energies  to 
of  the  extensive  ruins  form  the  walls  of 
modern  buildings.  reshapingthegoveriini.Mit. 

The  Roinnn   ii/ijH'riul 
tern,  as  it  affected  the  after-world,  was  mainly  ///*  Creation. 

Diocletian*  divided  the  empire  into  its  two  great  parts,  E>i*t 
and  West,  with  the  Adriatic  for  the  dividing  line  (§  11).  Each 
part  contained  toro prefectures.  The  four  prefectures  comprised 
in  all  some  thirteen  dioceses,  made  up  of  numerous  prort 

1  The  following  table  and  map  show  these  divisions. 

Prefectures      Dioceses  Provinces 


THE  EAST 


THE  WEST 


East 

Asia  (11);  Pontus  (11)    .     . 
Thrace  ....         ... 

.     .    89 

Illyricum 

j   Macedonia  and  Greece    .     . 
1   Dacia    .... 

.     .       6 

Countless 

Italy 

;    Italy  (17);  Africa  (6)       .     . 
\   Illyria   .     . 

7 

munici- 
palities 

Gaul 

f   Spain  (7);  The  Gauls  (17)  . 
1    Britain 

.      .     1'4 
B 

10  15 


40 


THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE 

DIVIDED  INTO 
PREFECTURES  AND  DIOCESES. 

SCALE  OF  MILES 
0  100          200         300~ 400 


Longitude  West       0 


15 


10          Longitude          15  East 


60 


fi6 


from  25  Greenwich 


§  26]  DIOCLETIAN :    ORGANIZATION  25 

Every  division,  large  or  small,  was  placed  under  a  special 
officer.  Thus  Diocletian  created  a  series  of  officials  in  regular 
grades,  as  in  an  army.  Each  was  placed  under  the  immediate 
direction  of  the  one  just  above  him,  and  the  lines  all  converged 
from  below  to  the  emperor.  Each  official  sifted  all  business 
that  came  to  him  from  his  subordinates,  and  sent  on  to  his 
superior  the  more  important  matters.  This  arrangement  fixed 
responsibility  precisely,  and  distributed  duties  in  a  workable 
way. 

The  earlier,  loosely  organized  despotism  had  become  a  vast  centralized  des- 
potism,1 a  highly  complex  machine.  For  a  time,  its  new  strength  warded 
off  invasion  ;  but  its  own  weight  pressed  crushingly  upon  society.  The 
century  that  followed  the  changes  by  Diocletian  was  marked  by  a  fair 
degree  of  outward  prosperity.  But  early  in  the  next  century  (the  fifth) 
the  empire  began  to  crumble  before  the  barbarians.  Those  barbarian 
attacks  were  no  more  formidable  than  many  which  had  been  rebuffed  in 
earlier  centuries.  To  understand  why  the  empire  now  fell  before  them, 
we  must  note  more  fully  its  inner  weakness,  and  the  secret  forces  that 
were  sapping  its  strength  (§§  26  ff.). 

26.  The  classes  of  society  were  becoming  fixed.  At  the  top 
was  the  emperor.  At  the  bottom  were  peasantry  and  artisans 
to  produce  food  and  wealth  wherewith  to  pay  taxes.  Between 
were  two  aristocracies,  —  a  small  imperial  nobility,  and  a  local 
aristocracy  in  each  city. 

1  It  is  desirable  for  students  to  discuss  in  class  more  fully  some  of  these 
forms  of  government  of  which  the  text  treats.  Absolutism  refers  to  the 
source  of  supreme  power :  in  a  system  of  absolutism,  supreme  power  is  in  the 
hands  of  one  person.  "Centralization"  refers  to  the  kind  of  administra- 
tion. A  centralized  administration  is  one  carried  on  by  a  body  of  officials  of 
many  grades,  all  appointed  from  above.  Absolutism  and  centralization  do  not 
necessarily  go  together.  A  government  may  come  from  the  people,  and  yet 
rule  through  a  centralized  administration,  as  in  France  to-day.  It  may  be 
absolute,  and  yet  allow  much  freedom  to  local  agencies,  as  in  Turkey,  or  in 
Russia  in  past  centuries.  But  absolutism  is  likely  to  develop  centralized 
agencies,  as  Russia  has  been  doing  rapidly  of  late. 

Under  a  great  genius,  like  Napoleon  the  First,  a  centralized  government 
may  for  a  time  produce  rapid  benefits.  But  the  system  always  decays.  It 
does  nothing  to  educate  the  people  politically.  Local  self-government  is  often 
provokingly  slow  and  faulty,  but  it  is  surer  in  the  long  run. 


26 


THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  — THIRD   CENTURY 


[§27 


27.  The  imperial  nobility  were  great  landed  proprietors.  They 
had  many  special  privileges.  Through  their  influence  upon 
the  government,  they  escaped  most  of  the  burden  of  taxation  — 
which  they  were  better  able  to  meet  than  any  other  class. 

The  homes  of  the  nobles,  and  of  the  wealthy  men  of  the 
middle  class,  were  places  of  comfort  and  luxury.  The  rooms 
were  usually  built  around  one  or  more  "  courts  "  open  to  the 
sky.  The  court  admitted  light  and  air.  In  its  center,  orna- 

mental fountains  played, 
surrounded  by  flowering 
shrubs,  with  marble  statues 
gleaming  through  the  foli- 
age. Fashionable  houses 
had  bathrooms  and  libra- 
ries. The  pavement  of  the 
courts  and  the  floors  of  the 
principal  rooms  were  orna- 
mented with  artistic  mosaic. 
Walls  were  hung  with 
costly,  brilliantly  colored 
tapestries;  and  ceilings  were 
richly  gilded.  Sideboards 


BREADMAKING  BY  SERFS. 


beautiful  vases,  with 
gold  and  silver  plate;  and 
in  various  recesses  stood 
glorious  statues. 

Besides  his  town  house, 
each  wealthy  citizen  had  one  or  more  country  houses,  with 
all  the  comforts  of  the  city,  —  baths,  museums,  libraries,  — 
and  also  with  extensive,  park-like  grounds  containing  fish- 
ponds, vineyards,  and  orchards.  Such  establishments  were 
called  villas.  Commonly,  indeed,  a  vitta  was  the  center  of  a 
large  farm.  The  troops  of  slaves  that  tilled  the  soil  had 
their  huts  leaning  against  the  wall  of  the  villa  grounds  ;  and 
the  more  skilled  artisans  —  carpenters,  smiths,  bakers,  and 
so  on  —  lived  near  them  in  somewhat  better  quarters,  while 


§29J  RICH   AND   POOR  27 

troops  of  household  slaves  slept  on  the  floors  of  the  large  halls 
or  in  the  open  courts  of  the  central  mansion.  For  most  pur- 
poses a  villa  was  self-sufficient.  It  raised  its  own  food  and 
prepared  it  for  the  table,  and  carried  on  most  of  the  other 
industries  necessary  for  the  ordinary  life  of  its  inhabitants. 

28.  The  local  nobility  (curials)  were  the  families  of  the  senate 
class  in  their  respective  cities.     They,  too,  had  some  special 
privileges.     They  could  not  be  drafted  into  the  army  or  sub- 
jected to  bodily  punishment.     They  were  compelled,  however, 
to  undergo  great  expenses  in  connection  with  the  offices  they 
had  to  fill.     And,  in  particular,  they  were  made  responsible, 
personally,  for  the  collection  of  the  imperial  taxes  in  their 
districts. 

This  burden  finally  became  so  crushing  that  many  curials 
tried  desperately  to  evade  it,  —  even  by  sinking  into  a  lower 
class,  or  by  flight  to  the  barbarians.  Then,  to  secure  the  reve- 
nue, law  made  them  a  hereditary  class.  They  were  forbidden 
to  become  clergy,  soldiers,  or  lawyers ;  they  were  not  allowed 
to  move  from  one  city  to  another,  or  even  to  travel  without 
permission. 

Between  these  local  nobles  and  the  artisan  class,  there  had  been, 
in  the  day  of  the  early  empire,  a  much  larger  middle  class  of 
small  landowners,  merchants,  bankers,  and  professional  men. 
This  class  had  now  almost  disappeared.  Some  were  compelled 
by  law  to  take  up  the  duties  of  the  vanishing  curials.  More, 
in  the  financial  ruin  of  the  period,  sank  into  the  working  class. 

29.  The  artisans  had  long  been  grouped  in  gilds.     A  gild 
was  an  association  of  all  the  skilled  workmen  of  one  sort  in  a 
given  place.     All  the  bakers  in  a  city  belonged  to  the  bakers' 
gild ;  all  the  masons  to  the  masons'  gild ;  and  so  on.     A  gild 
regulated  methods  of  work   and   had   great  control  over  its 
members. 

Each  artisan  was  now  bound  to  his  gild,  by  law,  as  the  curial 
was  bound  to  his  office.  The  condition  of  artisans  had  become 
desperate.  An  edict  of  Diocletian's  regarding  prices  and  wages 
shows  that  a  workman  received  not  more  than  one-tenth  the 


28  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  — THIRD   CENTURY  [§30 

wages  of  an  American  workman  of  like  grade,  while  food  and 
clothing  cost  at  least  one-third  as  much  as  now.  His  family 
rarely  knew  the  taste  of  eggs  or  fresh  meat. 

30.  The  peasantry  had  become  serfs.  That  is,  they  were 
bound  to  their  labor  on  the  soil,  and  changed  masters  with 
the  land  they  tilled. 

When  the  Empire  began,  free  small-farmers  were  growing 
fewer,  over  much  of  the  realm,  while  great  estates,  managed 
by  stewards  and  tilled  by  slaves,  were  growing  more  numerous. 
Grain  culture  decreased,  and  large  areas  of  land  ceased  to  be 
tilled.  To  help  remedy  this  state  of  affairs,  the  empt-mrs  in- 
troduced a  new  system.  After  successful  wars,  they  gave  large 

numbers  of  barbarian  captives  to 
great  landlords,  —  thousands  in  a 
batch,  —  not  as  slaves,  but  as  colon  >, 
or  serfs.  The  purpose  was  to  secure 
a  hereditary  class  of  farm  laborers, 
and  so  keep  up  the  food  supply. 
The  coloni  were  really  given  not  to 
the  landlord,  but  to  the  land. 


SERFS  IN  ROMAN  GAUL.-From        Th       were  not  personal  property, 
Lacroix,  after  an  old  manu- 
script, as  slaves  were.     They  were  part  <>f 

the  real  estate.  They,  and  their 

children  after  them,  were  attached  to  the  soil,  and  could  not  be 
sold  off  it.  They  had  some  rights  which  slaves  did  not  have. 
They  could  contract  a  legal  marriage,  and  each  had  his  own 
plot  of  ground,  of  which  he  could  not  be  dispossessed 
so  long  as  he  paid  to  the  landlord  a  fixed  rent  in  labor  and 
in  produce. 

This  growth  of  serfdom  made  it  still  more  difficult  for  the 
free  small-farmer  to  hold  his  place.  That  class,  more  and 
more,  sank  into  serfs.  On  the  other  hand,  many  slaves  rose 
into  serfdom,  until  the  great  majority  of  laborers  on  the  soil 
were  of  this  order. 

31.  Lack  of  money  was  one  of  the  great  evils.  The  empire 
did  not  have  sufficient  supplies  of  precious  metals  for  the 


§  32]  RICH   AND   POOR  29 

demands  of  business ;  and  what  money  there  was  was  steadily 
drained  away  to  India  and  the  distant  Orient  (§  16).  By 
the  fourth  century  this  movement  had  carried  away  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  dollars  of  coined  money.  Even  the  im- 
perial officers  were  forced  to  take  part  of  their  salaries  in 
produce,  —  robes,  horses,  grain.  Trade  began  to  go  back  to  the 
primitive  form  of  barter ;  and  it  became  harder  and  harder  to 
collect  taxes. 

But  the  empire  demanded  more  and  more  taxes.  It  was  "  a 
great  tax-gathering  and  barbarian-fighting  machine."  It  col- 
lected taxes  in  order  to  fight  barbarians.  Bat  the  time  came 
when  the  provincials  began  to  dread  the  tax-collector  more  than 
they  feared  the  barbarians.  This  was  partly  because  of  the  de- 
crease in  ability  to  pay,  and  partly  because  the  complex  organ- 
ization of  government  cost  more  and  more.  Says  one  his- 
torian :  "  The  earth  swarmed  with  the  consuming  hierarchy 
of  extortion,  so  that  it  was  said  that  they  who  received  taxes 
were  more  than  they  who  paid  them." 

32.  Summary.  —  There  were  no  more  great  poets  or  men  of 
letters  in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries.  Learning  and  patriot- 
ism both  declined.  Society  began  to  fall  into  rigid  castes,  — 
the  serf  bound  to  his  spot  of  land,  the  artisan  to  his  gild,  the 
curial  to  his  office.  Freedom  of  movement  was  lost.  Above 
all,  there  was  dearth  of  money  and  dearth  of  men.  The  empire 
had  become  a  shell. 

For  five  hundred  years,  outside  barbarians  had  been  tossing 
wildly  about  the  great  natural  walls  of  the  civilized  world. 
Commonly  they  had  shrunk  in  dread  from  any  conflict  with 
the  mighty  Roman  legions,  always  on  sleepless  ward  at  the 
weaker  gaps  —  along  the  Rhine,  the  Danube,  the  Euphrates. 
Sometimes,  it  is  true,  the  barbarians  had  broken  through 
for  a  moment,  but  always  to  be  destroyed  promptly  by  some 
Roman  Marius,  or  Caesar,  or  Julian.  Now  they  broke  in  to 
stay — at  first,  seemingly,  to  overwhelm  civilization,  but 
eventually  to  revive  it  and  to  add  to  it  priceless  elements  of 
their  own. 


30 


THE    ROMAN   EMPIRE —  FOURTH   CENTriiY 


III.   CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    EMPIRE 

33.  Meanwhile,  Christianity  had  come  into  the  world,  and  had 
already  become  the  greatest  force  for  good  within  it.  Before 
we  turn  to  the  barbarian  conquerors  of  the  empire,  we  must 
notice  one  supreme  service  of  that  empire  in  its  last  century. 
It  had  helped  to  foster  this  chief  force  in  human  progress. 

Christianity  appeared  almost  at  the  beginning  of  the 
empire.  For  three  centuries  its  followers  were  despised  and 


THE  ARCH  OF  CONSTANTINE,  commemorating  victories  that  made  him 
master  of  the  Roman  world. 

sometimes  persecuted,  but  still  the  unity  of  the  Roman  world 
made  it  far  easier  for  the  new  moral  and  spiritual  teachings  to 
spread  than  if  the  world  had  been  broken  up  into  a  multitude 
of  petty,  disconnected,  hostile  states,  with  little  communica- 
tion and  with  unintelligible  dialects.  Finally  the  new  religion 
grew  so  strong  that  candidates  for  the  throne  began  to  bid  for 
its  support.  Early  in  the  fourth  century  (313  A.D.),  under  the 
Emperor  Constantine,  Christianity  became  a  tolerated  and  even 


§  34]  CHRISTIANITY  31 

a  favored  religion  ;  and  shortly  before  the  close  of  that  century 
it  became  the  state  religion  of  the  empire. 

Its  victory  just  at  this  time  enabled  it  to  conquer  also  the  bar- 
barians who  were  soon  to  conquer  the  empire.  If  they  had  not 
been  converted  before  they  became  conquerors,  it  would  have 
been  almost  impossible  to  convert  them  at  all.  They  would 
have  despised  the  religion  of  a  people  whom  they  had  con- 
quered. Therefore  the  historian  Freeman  calls,  the  conversion 
ofr  the 'Roman  empire  at  that  moment  "the  leading  fact  in  all 
history,"  because  then  "  where  Rome  led,  all  must  follow." 

34.    The  church  modeled  its  marvelously  efficient  government, 


A  PHOTOGRAPH  OF  JERUSALEM  TO-DAY. 

in  some  respects,  upon  the  territorial  divisions  and  the  political 
organization  of  the  empire. 

As  the  first  missionaries  spread  out  beyond  Judea  and  came 
to  a  new  province,  they  naturally  went  first  to  the  chief  city 
there.  Thus  the  capital  of  the  province  became  the  seat  of  the 
first  church  in  the  district.  From  this  mother  society,  churches 
spread  to  the  other  cities  of  the  province,  and  from  each  city 
there  sprouted  outlying  parishes. 


32  THE    ROMAN   EMPIRE  —  FOURTH    CENTURY          [§35 

At  the  head  of  each  parish  was  a  priest,  assisted  usually  by 
deacons  and  subdeacons  to  care  for  the  poor.  The  head  of  a 
city  church  was  a  bishop  (overseer),  with  supervision  over  the 
rural  churches  of  the  neighborhood.  The  bishop  of  the  mother 
church  in  the  capital  city  exercised  great  authority  over  the  other 
bishops  of  the  province.  He  became  known  as  archiiitihop  or 
metropolitan;  and  it  became  customary  for  him  to  summon  the 
other  bishops  to  a  central  council. 

Commonly,  one  of  these  metropolitans  in  a  civil  diocese 
(§  25  and  note)  came  to  have  leadership  over  the  others.  This 
lot  fell  usually  to  the  metropolitan  of  the  chief  city  of  the 
diocese,  who  became  known  as  a  patriarch. 

The  process  toward  a  centralized  government  was  soon 
carried  farther.  The  patriarchs  of  a  few  great  centers  were 
exalted  above  the  others.  Finally  all  the  East  became  <l/i-;<i<  d 
among  the  four  patriarchates  of  Antioch,  Jerusalem,  ^4/«w//////-/«/. 
and  Constantinople,  while  all  the  West  came  under  the  «ntli<>rit>i 
of  the  bishop  of  Rome. 

35.  The  Nicene  Creed.  —  By  degrees  the  church  came  to  con- 
tain the  educated  classes,  trained  in  the  schools  of  <  • 
philosophy.  These  scholars  brought  with  them  into  the  church 
their  philosophical  thought;  and  they  expanded  the  simple 
teachings  of  Christ  into  an  elaborate  system  of  theology. 
When  they  tried  to  state  just  what  they  believed  about  difficult 
points,  some  violent  disputes  arose.  In  such  cases  the  views 
of  the  majority  finally  prevailed  as  the  orthodox  doctrine,  and 
the  views  of  the  minority  became  heresy. 

Most  of  the  early  heresies  arose  from  different  opinions 
about  the  exact  nature  of  Christ.  Thus  Arius,  a  priest  of 
Alexandria,  taught  that,  while  Christ  was  the  divine  Son  of 
God,  He  was  not  equal  to  the  Father.  Athanasius,  of  the 
same  city,  asserted  that  Christ  was  not  only  divine  and  the 
Son  of  God,  but  that  He  and  the  Father  were  absolutely  equal 
in  all  respects,  —  "of  the  same  substance"  and  "co-eternal." 
The  struggle  waxed  fierce  and  divided  Christendom  into  oppos- 
ing camps. 


§35] 


CHRISTIANITY 


33 


But  the  Emperor  Constantine  desired  union  in  the  church. 
If  it  split  into  hostile  fragments,  his  political  reasons  for 
favoring  it  would  be  gone.  Accordingly,  in  325,  he  summoned 
all  the  principal  clergy  of  the  empire  to  the  first  great  council 
of  the  whole  church,  at  Nicaea,  in  Asia  Minor,  and  ordered 
them  to  come  to  agreement.  Arius  and  Athanasius  in  person 
led  the  fierce  debate.  In  the  end  the  majority  sided  with 
Athanasius.  His  doctrine,  summed  up  in  the  Nicene  Creed, 
became  the  orthodox  creed  of  Christendom.  Arianism  was 
condemned  as  a  heresy,  and  Arius  and  his  followers  were  ex- 
cluded from  the  church  and  persecuted. 

It  was  the  fugitives  from  this  persecution  who  converted  most  of 
the  Teutonic  barbarians  to  Christianity  (§  37). 


THE  COLISEUM  TO-DAY.  This  vast  stone  amphitheater  (two  theaters,  face  to 
face)  was  used  for  gladiatorial  games  and  shows  at  Rome.  It  covers  six 
acres,  and  the  walls  are  150  feet  high.  It  is  said  to  have  seated  45,000 
spectators.  For  centuries,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  its  ruins  were  a  quarry  for 
the  palaces  of  Roman  nobles,  but  its  huge  size  prevented  complete  destruc- 
tion. The  traveler  always  feels  that  the  Coliseum  symbolizes  the  undying 
power  of  Rome. 


34 


THE  TEUTONS 


THIRD    PERIOD 


THE   TEUTONIC   CONQUEST 

(FIFTH  AND  SIXTH  CENTURIES) 

36.  East  of  the  Rhine  there  had  long  roamed  many  "  forest 
peoples,"  whom  the  Romans  called  Germans,  or  Teutons.  The 
important  groups  in  the  fifth  century  were  the  Goths,  Bur- 
gundians,  Vandals,  Alemanni,  Lombards, 
Franks,  and  Saxons.  All  these  barbarians 
were  tall,  huge  of  limb,  white-skinned, 
flaxen-haired,  with  fierce,  blue  eyes.  To  the 
short,  dark-skinned  races  of  Roman  Europe, 
their  tawny  forms  seemed  those  of  terrible 
giants.  Skins  or  rude  cloths  formed  their 
clothing ;  but  the  nobler  warriors  wore  chain 
mail,  and  helmets  crested  with  plumes  or 
dragons. 

The  tribes  nearest  the  Empire  had  taken 
on  a  little  civilization,  and  had  begun  to 
form  large  combinations  under  the  rule  of 
kings.  The  more  distant  tribes  were  still 
savage  and  unorganized.  In  general,  they 
were  not  far  above  the  level  of  the  better  North 
American  Indians  in  our  colonial  period. 
Their  only  trade  was  barter ;  and  what  little 
agriculture  they  practised  was  carried  on  by 
women  and  slaves. 

The  usual  marks  of  savagery  were  found  among  them.  They 
were  fierce,  quarrelsome,  hospitable.  Their  cold,  damp  forests 
helped  to  make  them  drunkards  and  gluttonous  eaters.  They 

35 


FBANKISH  CHIEF- 
TAIN. 


36  THE   TEUTONS  [§37 

were  desperate  gamblers,  too,  and  when  other  wealth  was  'lost, 
they  would  stake  even  their  liberty  on  the  throw  of  the  dice. 

At  the  same  time  they  possessed  some  noble  traits  not  common 
in  savage  races.  TJiey  revered  women.  The  Roman  historian 
Tacitus  dwells  upon  the  affection  and  purity  of  their  family 
life.  TJiey  reverenced  truth  and  fidelity  to  the  pledged  word. 
Their  grim,  joy  in  battle  rose  sometimes  to  fierce  delight  or  even 
to  a  "  Baersark "  rage  that  made  a  warrior  throw  off  armor 
and  fight  "  bare,"  in  his  shirt,  insensible  to  wounds.  Above 
all,  they  possessed  a  proud  spirit  of  individual  liberty,  "a 
high,  stern  sense  of  manhood  and  the  worth  of  in 

37.  The  old  German  religion  was  a  rude  polytheism.     Woden, 
the  war  god,  held  the  first  place  in  their  worship.     From  him 
the  noble  families  all  claimed  descent.     Thor,  or  !)»,,, t<-r,  whose 
hurling  hammer  caused  the  thunder,  was  the  god  of  storms 
and  of  the  air.     Freya  was  the  deity  of  joy  and  fruitfulness. 

The  Franks  and  Saxons  when  they  broke  into  the  Empire 
were  still  heathen.  All  the  other  tribes  that  settled  in  tin-. 
Empire  in  the  fifth  century  had  just  become  converts  to  Ar>'<m 
Christianity  (§  35). 

38.  Government.  —  A  tribe  lived  in  villages  scattered  in  the 
forest.     The  village  and  the  tribe  each  had  its  Aswnilil'i  and  its 
hereditary  chief.     The  tribal  chief,  or  king,  was  ,^»r  rounded  by 
his  council  of  village  chiefs.     To  quote  Tacitus :  — 

"  In  the  election  of  kings  they  have  regard  to  birth  ;  in  that  of  generals 
to  valor.  Their  kings  have  not  an  absolute  or  unlimited  power ;  and  their 
generals  command  less  through  the  force  of  authority  than  of  example. 

"  On  affairs  of  smaller  moment,  the  chiefs  consult ;  on  those  of  greater 
importance,  the  whole  community.  .  .  .  They  assemble,  unless  upon  some 
sudden  emergency,  on  stated  days,  either  at  the  new  or  full  moon.  Wlu-n 
they  all  think  fit,  they  sit  down  armed.  .  .  .  Then  the  king,  or  chief, 
and  such  others  as  are  conspicuous  for  age,  birth,  military  renown,  or 
eloquence,  are  heard,  and  gain  attention  rather  from  their  ability  to  per- 
suade than  their  authority  to  command.  If  a  proposal  displease,  the 
assembly  reject  it  by  an  inarticulate  murmur.  If  it  prove  agreeable, 
they  clash  their  javelins;  for  the  most  honorable  expression  of  assent 
among  them  is  the  sound  of  arms." 


§40]  THE   WEST   GOTHS  37 

39.  Every  great  chief  was  surrounded  by  a  band  of  "  companions" 
who   lived   in   his  household,   ate   at   his   table,   and   fought 
at   his   side.     To   them    the   chief   gave   food,  weapons,  and 
plunder.     For   the  safety  of   their  "lord"  they   were  ready 
to  give  their  lives.     To  survive  his  death,  leaving  his  body 
to  a  victorious  foe,  was   life-long  disgrace.     This   "personal 
loyalty  "  among  the  Teutons  corresponded  to  the  Eoman  loyalty 
to  the  state. 

40.  Story  of  the  West  Goths.  —  The  first  step  in  the  Teutonic 
Conquest  seemed  at  the  moment  only  a  continuation  of  an  old 
and  successful  policy  of  the  Empire.     For  five  hundred  years, 
the  Roman  legions,  invincible  in  their  magnificent  discipline, 
had  proven  themselves  over  and  over  again   superior  to  the 
terrible  Teutonic  warriors.     And  during  this  period,  especially 
toward  the  close,   many  Teutonic  tribes  had  been  admitted 
within  the  boundaries  peaceably  (§  24),  as  "allies"  of  Rome. 
Hitherto,  such  tribes  had  always  proven  faithful  defenders  of 
the  frontiers  against  their  kinsmen  without.     But  in  376  A.D., 
such  a  measure  was  repeated  on  a  larger  scale  than  ever  before, 

—  and  with  different  results. 

The  whole  people  of  the  West  Goths  ( Visigoths)  appeared 
on  the  Danube,  with  their  flocks  and  herds,  and  with  their  goods 
and  women  and  children  in  long  lines  of  wooden  carts.  They 
were  fleeing  from  the  more  terrible  Huns,  —  wild,  nomadic 
horsemen  from  Tartary,  —  and  they  begged  to  be  allowed  to 
cross  the  Danube  into  the  protection  of  the  Empire.  The 
Emperor  Valens  granted  the  prayers  of  the  fugitive  nation, 
and  gave  them  lands  south  of  the  river. 

They  were  to  surrender  their  arms,  while  Roman  agents 
were  to  supply  them  food  until  the  harvest.  These  agents 
embezzled  the  funds  and  furnished  only  vile  and  insufficient 
food,  while,  for  bribes,  they  allowed  the  barbarians  to  keep 
their  arms,  —  in  much  the  same  way  that  corrupt  American 
"  Indian  agents "  have  provoked  many  Indian  wars.  The 
Goths  rose  and  marched  on  Constantinople,  which  was  now 
the  capital  of  the  Empire.  Valens  met  them,  with  hastily  gath- 


38  THE   TEUTONS  [§41 

ered  forces,  at  Adrianople,  but  was  defeated  and  slain  (378  A.D.). 
Tltis  battle  marks  the  beginning  of  the  Teutonic  confjitrst. 

The  Goths  established  themselves  in  fertile  provinces,  rising 
now  and  then  to  ravage  neighboring  districts.  In  410,  under 
their  young  king  Alaric,  they  sacked  Rome  itself,  which  for 
centuries  had  stood  unassailable  in  men's  minds  as  "the  Eter- 
nal City."  Soon  afterward,  a  new  king  led  them  into  .v/ »*/'//. 
There  they  found  the  Vandals,  who  had  entered  by  a  shorter 
route  across  the  Rhine.  Driving  the  Vandals  into  Africa,  the 
West  Goths  set  up  in  Spain  a  firm  Teutonic  kingdom,  which 
lasted  three  centuries,  until  overwhelmed  by  the  resistless  flood 
of  Mohammedan  conquest  (§  60).  Indeed  the  fragments  of  the 
Gothic  state  afterward  grew  together  again  into  the  Spain  of 
to-day. 

41.  Meanwhile,    other    Teutons   began   to   swarm    across    the 
Rhine.     Finally,  after  unspeakable  disorder  and  frightful  de- 
struction, the  East  Goths  established  themselves  in  Italy:  the 
Burgundians,  in  the  valley  of  the  Rhone;  the  Angles  and  Sax- 
ons, in   Britain;   the  Franks,  in  northern  Gaul.     This  "wan- 
dering of  the  peoples"  rilled  the  fifth  century  and  part  of  the 
sixth.     In  all  cases  (except  in  Britain,  wliieli  will  be  treated 
later)  the  invaders  settled  down  as  rulers  among  a  much  larger 
native  Roman  population. 

42.  A  New  Force  in  History. —  TJiese  two  terrible  cent' 
brought  on  the  stage  not  only  the  Teutons,  but  also  another  new 
race,  —  the  Slavs;  and  the  opening  of  the  following  century 
brought  another  new  force,  Mohammedanism.     But  of   these 
three  forces,  we  are  concerned  almost  alone  with  the  Teutons. 
Mohammedanism,  as  we  shall  see,  seized  swiftly  upon  all  the 
old  historic   ground  in  Asia  and   Africa;  but  these  con 
liave  had  little  touch  since  with  our  Western  civilization.     South 
of   the   Danube,  Slavic  tribes  —  Bulgars  and  Serbs  —  settled 
up  almost  to  the  walls  of  Constantinople,  where  the  Roman 
Empire  still  maintained  itself.     Southeastern  Europe  became 
Skicic-Greek,  just  as  Western    Europe  had  become   Teutonic- 
Roman.     But,  until  very  recently,  Southeastern  Europe,  in  its 


15       Longitude        10  West  5 


After  507  the  Kingdom  of  the  West  Goths  i 


East          15  from          20      Greenwich 


GERMANIC  KINGDOMS 

established  on 

ROMAN  SOIL 

Close  of  Fifth  Century 
(Britain  in  Sixth  Century) 

SCALE  OF  MILES 


t  limited  to  a  .small  southern  strip  (Septimania) 


THE    INVASIONS  39 

later  history,  has  had  little  bearing  upon  the  Western  World. 
The  two  halves  of  Europe  fell  apart,  with  the  Adriatic  for  the 
dividing  line,  —  along  the  old  cleavage  between  Latin  and 
Greek  civilizations  (§  11). 

The  Teutons,  however,  rank,  alongside  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
as  one  of  the  three  great  historic  peoples.  Since  their  invasions, 
no  other  element  in  any  degree  so  important  has  been  added  to 
the  world's  development.  In  all  the  centuries  since,  human 
progress  has  come  almost  wholly  from  this  Western  Teutonic- 
Romano  Europe  —  and  from  its  recent  offshoots  in  other  conti- 
nents. Says  an  American  historian  (George  Burton  Adams):  — 

u  The  settlement  of  the  Teutonic  tribes  was  not  merely  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  new  set  of  ideas  and  institutions,  ...  it  was  also  the  introduc- 
tion of  fresh  blood  and  youthful  mind  —  the  muscle  and  brain  which  in 
the  future  were  to  do  the  larger  share  of  the  world's  work." 

43.  Conditions  after  the  Year  600.  —  The  invasions  brought 
overwhelming  destruction  upon  the  Roman  world,  —  the  most 
complete  catastrophe  that  ever  befell  a  great  civilized  society. 
Civilization,  it  is  true,  had  been  declining  before  they  began 
(§§  23-32)  ;  but  they  tremendously  accelerated  the  movement,  and 
prevented  a  revival  of  the  Roman  world  in  the  West. 

When  the  invaders  had  entered  into  possession,  and  so  ceased 
to  destroy,  two  new  causes  of  decline  appeared :  — 

The  new  ruling  classes  were  densely  ignorant.  They  cared 
nothing  for  the  survivals  of  the  old  literature  and  science. 
Few  of  them  could  read,  or  write  even  their  names.  Much  of 
the  old  civilization  was  allowed  to  decay  because  they  could  not 
understand  its  use. 

The  language  of  everyday  speech  was  growing  away  from 
the  literary  language  in  which  all  the  remains  of  the  old 
knowledge  were  preserved.  Until  the  coming  of  the  Teutons, 
a  man  who  spoke  the  common  language  in  Gaul  or  Spain 
could  also  understand  the  Latin  when  he  heard  it.  But  the 
barbarian  conquerors  widened  the  gap  between  the  spoken 
and  the  written  languages.  They  disregarded  inflections,  when 


40  WESTERN  EUROPE  [§44 

they  spoke  the  speech  of  their  subjects.  They  also  corrupted 
words,  by  mispronunciation,  and  added  a  mass  of  new  Teutonic 
words.  The  language  of  learning  became  "dead."  It  was 
known  only  to  the  clergy,  and  to  most  of  them  at  this  period 
very  imperfectly. 

Thus  for  two  hundred  years  after  the  invasions  themselves 
ceased,  Europe  remained  a  dreary  scene  of  violence,  lawlessness, 
and  ignorance.  The  old  Roman  schools  disappeared,  and 
classical  literature  seemed  to  be  extinct.  There  was  no  tran- 
quil leisure,  and  therefore  no  study.  There  was  little  security, 
and  therefore  little  work.  The  Franks  and  Goths  were  learn- 
ing the  rudiments  of  civilized  life ;  but  the  Latins  were  losing 
all  but  the  rudiments  —  and  they  seemed  to  lose  faster  than 
the  Teutons  gained. 

44.  But  after  all,  the  invasions  did  not  uproot  civilization. 
The  conquests  were,  made  by  small  numbers,  and,  outside  Britain, 
they  did  not  greatly  change  the  character  of  the  population. 
The  conquerors  settled  among  ten  or  fifty  times  their  own 
numbers.  At  first  they  were  the  rulers,  and  almost  the  only 
large  landowners.  In  the  country  districts  they  remained 
long  the  only  class  that  seemed  to  count.  But  the  towns,  so 
far  as  they  survived,  remained  Roman.  Almost  unnoticed  by 
the  ruling  classes,  they  preserved  some  parts  of  the  old  culture 
and  the  old  handicrafts.  They  kept,  too,  in  the  south  of  Europe, 
the  municipal  institutions  of  the  old  Empire.  Tlie  old  pojmlnri,,,, , 
too,  for  a  long  time  furnished  all  the  clergy.  From  this  class  — 
the  sole  possessors  of  the  art  of  writing  and  keeping  records  — 
the  Teutonic  lords  had  to  draw  secretaries  and  confidential 
officers ;  and  by  these  advisers  they  were  gradually  persuaded 
to  adopt  many  customs  of  the  old  civilization. 

Most  important  of  all,  the  church  itself  lived  on  much  in  the 
old  way.  Necessarily  it  suffered  somewhat  in  the  general 
degradation  of  the  age ;  but,  on  the  whole,  it  protected  the 
weak,  and  stood  for  peace,  industry,  and  right  living.  In  the 
darkest  of  those  dark  centuries  there  were  great  numbers  of 


§44]  THE    "DARK   AGES"  41 

priests,  monks,  and  bishops,  inspired  with  zeal  for  righteousness 
and  with  love  for  men.  The  church,  too,  had  its  separate  system 
of  government,  with  which  the  new  rulers  of  the  land  did  not 
much  interfere.  Therefore  it  kept  up  the  old  forms  and  principles 
of  the  Roman  law  more  than  any  other  part  of  society.  It  was 
the  chief  force  that  made  life  tolerable  for  myriads  of  men  and 
women  in  that  dark  age ;  it  was  also  the  one  means  of  saving 
civilization  for  the  future. 

Through  these  different  agencies,  much  of  the  old  civiliza- 
tion which  at  the  time  seemed  ruined,  was  sooner  or  later  to 
be  recovered  by  the  Teutons,  —  so  that  "nearly  every  achieve- 
ment of  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans  in  thought,  science,  law, 
and  the  practical  arts,  is  now  a  part  of  our  civilization." 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  — Tacitus  in  his  Germania  treats  the  Teutons 
at  length.  Davis'  Readings,  II,  No.  121,  gives  a  four-page  extract.  A 
like  extract  is  found  in  Ogg's  Source  Book,  No.  2.  The  most  valuable 
modern  accounts  likely  to  be  found  in  a  high-school  library  are  the  open- 
ing pages  of  Green's  English  People.,  of  Taine's  English  Literature,  and 
of  Henderson's  Short  History  of  Germany. 


FOURTH   PERIOD 

FUSION   OF   TEUTON   AND   ROMAN 

(SEVENTH  AND  EIGHTH  CENTURIES  WITH  PAKT  or   rin.  SIXTH) 

Roughly  speaking,  the  two  centuries  from  400  to  600  brought  the 
Teuton  into  the  Roman  world,  and  the  next  two  centuries,  from  600  to 
800.  fused  the  Teutonic  and  Roman  elements,  so  as  to  prepare  for  new 
advance.  In  strict  accuracy,  the  two  periods  overlapped  somewhat. 

The  story  of  the  fusion  of  the  two  groups  of  forces  is  the  subject  of  this 
and  the  next  two  chapters.  The  present  chapter  treats  a  few  important 
but  disconnected  events,  as  an  introduction  to  the  more  connected  story  of 
the  two  following. 

45.  Codification  of  the  Roman  Law.  — We  have  said  that  the 
Roman  empire  continued  in  part  of  eastern  Europe  and  in  Asia, 
with  its  capital  at  Constantinople  (the  "city  of  Const  untine"). 
Separated  now  from  the  Latin  part  of  Europe,  the  Empire 
became  more  and  more  Greek  and  Oriental.  It  still  called 
itself  Roman ;  but  we  usually  speak  of  it,  after  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, as  "  the  Greek  empire." 

In  the  sixth  century,  after  long  decline,  this  Empire  fell  for 
a  time  to  a  capable  ruler,  ,/>/*//// m,, 
the  Great  (527-565).  We  remember 
him  chiefly  because  he  brought 
about  a  codification  of  the  Roman 
law.  In  the  course  of  centuries,  that 

law  had  become  an  intolerable  maze. 
SILVER  COIN  OF  JUSTINIAN.       ,,- 

.Now  a  commission  of  able  lawyers 

put  the  whole  mass  into  a  new  form,  marvelously  compact, 
clear,  and  orderly. 

Justinian  also  reconquered  Italy  for  the  Empire  and  establi*ln-d 
the  code  in  that  land.  Thence,  later  on,  it  spread  over  the  West 

42 


§46] 


BREAK-UP   OF   ITALY 


43 


to  become  the  basis  of  nearly  all  modern  European  legal  codes, 
and  (through  France)  the  basis  even  of  the  legal  system  of  the 
American  state,  Louisiana.  Roman  law,  says  Woodrow  Wilson 
(The  State,  158),  "has  furnished  Europe  with  many,  if  not 
most,  of  her  principles  of  private  right."  It  was  the  chief 
means  by  which  Rome  has  influenced  the  modern  world. 


CHURCH  OF  ST.  SOPHTA,  CONSTANTINOPLE,  built  by  Justinian  upon  the  site 
of  an  earlier  church  of  the  same  name  by  Constantino.  The  whole  interior 
is  lined  with  costly,  many-colored  marbles.  This  view  shows  only  a  part 
of  the  vast  dome,  with  eighteen  of  the  forty  windows  which  run  about  its 
circumference  of  some  340  feet.  In  1453  the  building  became  a  Moham- 
medan mosque  (§  320). 

46.  The  Break-up  of  Italy. —  Justinian's  generals  had  de- 
stroyed a  promising  kingdom  of  the  East  Goths  in  Italy. 
Then  (568),  immediately  after  the  great  emperor's  death,  a 
new  German  people,  the  Lombards,  swarmed  into  the  peninsula, 
and  soon  conquered  much  of  it.  Their  chief  kingdom  was  in 
the  Po  valley,  which  we  still  call  Lombardy ;  but  various  Lom- 
bard "  dukedoms  "  were  scattered  also  in  other  parts.  The  Em- 
pire kept  (1)  the  "Exarchate  of  Ravenna"  on  the  Adriatic; 


44  FUSION  OF  TEUTON  AND   ROMAN  [§47 

(2)    Rome,  with  a  little  neighboring  territory ;    and  (3)    the 
extreme  south. 

Thus  Italy,  the  middle  land  for  which  Roman  and  Teuton  had 
struggled  for  centuries,  was  at  last  divided  between  them,  and 
shattered  into  fragments  in  the  process.  No  other  country  suf- 
fered so  terribly  in  the  centuries  of  invasion  as  this  lovely 
peninsula  which  had  so  long  been  mistress  of  the  world.  Italy 
was  not  again  united  until  1870. 

47.  Men  continued  to  think  of  the  Roman  Empire  as  the  one 
legitimate  universal  government  in  the  world,  supreme  over  all 
local  governments.     The  survival    of   the  imperial    power  in 
parts  of  Italy,  for  several  centuries  more,  helped  to  maintain 
this  idea  in   the  rest  of   the  West.      We  can  see  now  that, 
except  for  these  slight  survivals,  the  Empire  had  ceased  in  the 
West  before  the  year  500.     But  men  of  tl«tt  tint/  d'nl  /<"' 
They  could   not   believe  that  the  dominion  of   the  "Eternal 
City"  was  dead,  —  and  therefore  it   did   not   altogether   die. 
For  three  hundred  years  it  lived  on,  in  the  minds  of  men,  until 
Charlemagne  made  it  again  external  fact  (§  83). 

"Teutonic  kin.irs  ruled  in  the  West,  but  nowhere  (except  in  England) 
li;ul  they  become  national  sovereigns  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  of  the  land. 
They  were  simply  the  chiefs  of  their  own  peoples  (Goths  <>r  Franks), 
reigning  in  the  midst  of  a  Roman  population  who  looked  to  the  Caesar 
of  \,  in  Rome  [Constantinople]  as  their  lawful  sovereign."  —  Condensed 
from  FIJI-:  KM  AN. 

48.  When  the  barbarians  came  into  the  Empire,  their  lav  wot 
only  unwritten  custom.     Much  of  it  remained  so,  especially  in 
Britain.     But,  under   Roman  influence,  the  conquerors  soon  put 
parts  of  their  law  into  written  codes.1     Two  common  features  of 
these  codes  throw  interesting  sidelights  on  the  times. 

a.  Offenses  ivere.  atoned  for  by  money-payments,  varying  from 
a  small  amount  for  cutting  off  the  first  joint  of  the  little  finger, 
to  the  wergeld  (man-money),  or  payment  for  taking  a  man's 
life.     The  wergeld  varied,  too,  with  the  rank  of  the  injured. 

b.  In  a  trial,  when  a  man  wished  to  prove  himself  innocent, 

i  Davis'  Readings,  II,  337  ff.,    gives  extracts  from  one  of  them. 


TRIAL  BY  ORDEAL  AND  COMBAT 


45 


or  another  man  guilty,  he  did  not  try  to  bring  evidence,  as  we 
do.  Proof  consisted  in  an  appeal  to  God  to  show  the  right. 
Three  kinds  of  appeal  were  in  use  :  — 

The  accuser  and  accused  swore  solemnly  to  their  statements. 
Each  was  backed  by  compunjators,  —  not  witnesses,  but  per- 
sons who  swore  they  be- 
lieved their  man  was  tell- 
ing the  truth.  To  swear 
falsely  was  to  invite  the 
divine  vengeance;1  and 
stories  are  told  of  men  who 
fell  dead  with  the  judicial 
lie  on  their  lips.  This  form 
of  trial  was  compurgation. 
The  value  of  a  compurgator 
depended  upon  his  rank.  A 
noble  was  worth  several 
common  freemen. 

A  second  kind  of  trial 
was  by  ordeal.  The  accused 
tried  to  clear  himself  by 
being  thrown  bound  into 


RELIGIOUS  PRELIMINARY  TO  A  JUDICIAL 
COMBAT:  Each  party  is  making  oath, 
on  Bible  and  ci'oss,  to  the  justice  of  his 
cause.  — From  a  fifteenth  century  manu- 
script. 


water.  If  he  sank,  he  was 
innocent :  the  pure  element,  it  was  believed,  would  not  receive 
a  criminal.  Or  he  plunged  his  arm  into  boiling  water,  or  carried 
red-hot  iron  a  certain  distance,  or  walked  over  burning  plow- 
shares ;  and  if  his  flesh  was  uninjured,  when  examined  some  days 
later,  he  was  declared  innocent.  All  these  ordeals  were  under 
the  charge  of  the  clergy,  and  were  preceded  by  sacred  exercises.2 

Such  tests  were  sometimes  made  by  deputy  ;  hence  our  phrase,  "to 
go  through  fire  and  water  "for  a  friend.  The  byword,  "he  is  in  hot 
water,"  comes  also  from  these  trials  ;  and  so,  too,  the  later  test  of  witch- 
craft by  throwing  suspected  old  women  into  a  pond,  to  sink  or  float. 

1  The  idea,  and  probably  the  practice,  survives  in  the  boy's  incantation 
to  support  his  word,  "  Cross  my  heart  and  hope  to  die." 

2  Davis'  Readings,  II,  355  ff.,  gives  these  forms  of  the  ordeal  in  detail. 


46 


ROMAN   AND   TEUTON 


Among  the  nobles,  the  favorite  trial  came  to  be  the  trial  by 
combat,  —  a  judicial  duel  which  was  prefaced  by  religious  cere- 
monies, and  in  which  God  was  expected  to  "  show  the  right." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Teutons  introduced  once  more  a 
system  of  growing  law.  Codification  preserved  the  Roman  law.  but 
crystallized  it.  Teutonic  law,  despite  its  codes,  remained  for  a  long 

time  crude  and  unsystematic  ; 
but  it  contained  possibilities 
of  further  growth.  The  im- 
portance of  this  fact  has  been 
felt  mainly  in  the  English 
"  Common  Law,"  which  is 
the  basis  of  our  American  legal 
system. 

49.  The  conquest  modified 
the  political  institutions  of 
the  conquerors  in  many 
ways.  Tliree  changes  call 
for  attention. 

<(.  TJie  Teutonic  A:I/^/N 
became  more  absolute.  At 
first  they  were  little  more 
than  especially  honored 
military  chiefs,  at  the  head 
of  rude  democracies.  In  the  conquests,  they  secured  large  shares 
of  confiscated  land,  so  that  they  could  reward  their  supporters 
and  build  up  a  strong  personal  following.  Their  authority  grew 
by  custom,  since,  in  the  confusion  of  the  times,  all  sorts  of 
matters  were  necessarily  left  to  their  decision.  The  Roman 
idea  of  absolute  power  in  the  head  of  the  state  had  its  in- 
fluence.1 Thus  the  former  war  chiefs  became  real  sovereigns. 

At  his  accession,  each  king  was  still  lifted  upon  a  shield, 
just  as  in  the  old  Teutonic  ceremony ;  and  a  spear  in  his  hand 


'1  HI  TRIAL  BY  COMBAT.     A  companion 
to  the  foregoing  illustration. 


1  With  all  its  excellencies,  the  Roman  law  was  imbued  with  the  principle  of 
despotism.  A  favorite  maxim  was,  —  "  What  the  prince  wills  has  the  force  of 
law." 


§50]  LIFE   IN  THE   SEVENTH  CENTURY  47 

remained  the  symbol  of  royal  power.  But  he  also  adopted 
many  Roman  forms.  Coins  represent  the  kings  in  the  Roman 
toga  and  with  the  imperial  diadem. 

6.  A  new  nobility  of  service  appeared.  The  king  rewarded  his 
most  faithful  and  trusted  followers  with  grants  of  lands,  and 
gave  them  important  powers  of  government,  as  rulers  (counts 
and  dukes). 

c.  The  Assemblies  of  freemen  decreased  in  importance,  after 
the  conquest,  as  the  powers  of  the  kings  and  nobles  grew.  In 
the  German  forests  the  most  important  element  in  the  govern- 
ment of  a  tribe  had  been  these  assemblies.  They  survived  in 
form,  in  England  as  occasional  "  Folkmoots,"  and  in  the  Frank- 
ish  kingdom  as  "  Mayfields  "  ;  but  they  shrank  into  gatherings 
of  nobles  and  officials  assembled  to  hear  the  king's  will. 

At  the  same  time,  while  these  assemblies  of  the  whole  nation  died 
out  or  lost  their  democratic  elements,  they  kept  much  of  their  old  char- 
acter for  various  local  units,  as  in  the  counties  of  the  Teutonic  kingdoms 
of  England.  Thus  the  Teutons  did  carry  into  the  Roman  world  a  new 
chance  for  democracy.  It  is  not  correct  to  say  that  they  gave  us  repre- 
sentative government  ;  but  they  did  give  the  world  another  chance  to  de- 
velop it  The  earlier  peoples  had  lost  their  chances  ;  but  in  England, 
as  we  shall  see  (§  185),  representative  institutions  grew  out  of  these  local 
assemblies. 

50.  Everyday  Life  in  the  Seventh  Century.  —  The  Teutonic 
conquerors  disliked  the  close  streets  of  a  Roman  town;  but 
the  villa,  the  residence  of  a  Roman  country  gentleman,  was 
the  Roman  institution  which  they  could  most  nearly  appre- 
ciate. The  new  Teutonic  kings  lived  not  in  town  palaces,  but 
on  extensive  farmsteads  in  the  midst  of  forests.  The  new  nobil- 
ity, too,  and  other  important  men,  were  great  landlords  and 
lived  in  the  open  country,  much  as  their  kings  did.  Their 
"villas  "  were  built  of  wood,  not  of  brick  and  marble  like  the 
old  Roman  villas  ;  but,  like  those,  each  Teutonic  villa  (or 
farmstead)  contained,  besides  the  central  establishment  of  the 
master  and  his  family,  many  other  buildings,  —  storehouses, 
stables,  cowsheds,  and  rough  lodgings  for  slaves  and  serfs. 


48 


WESTERN   EUROPE 


[§50 


SEVENTH  CENTURY  VILLA  IN  NORTHERN 
GAUL.  —  A  "restoration,"  from  1'ar- 
meiitit-r. 


These  quarters,  and  sometimes  a  garden,  were  inclosed  within 
a  moat,  if  possible,  and  were  protected  by  a  wall  of  stakes 
driven  into  the  ground  (palisades).  At  suitable  points,  the 
wall  was  strengthened,  perhaps,  by  towers.  Each  "villa" 

,^— — — .    raised  its  own   food,  and 

manufactured  nearly  all 
its  clothing,  furniture,  and 
tools.  (Cf.  §  L'7. . 

All  the  noble  class  were 
busied  in  looking  after 
their  farms.  Their  other 
leading  occupations  were 
war  and  hunting  and  prac- 
tice in  the  use  of  arms. 
They  were  desperately 
fond  of  gaming  with  dice, 
and  spent  much  time  in  such  sports  as  tennis,  and  still  more  in 
hard  drinking  after  meals. 

Population  hml  shrunken  terribly,  since  the  times  of  the  early 
Roman  Empire.  In  the  north,  during  the  invasions  and  the 
following  disorder,  most  towns  had  been  destroyed.  If  they 
were  rebuilt  at  all,  it  was  upon  a  smaller  scale,  and  from  wood 
or  from  the  ruins  of  the  old  dwellings.  The  occupations  of 
town-dwellers  had  mostly  vanished.  The  town,  surrounded 
by  a  rude  palisade,  was  valued  chiefly  for  a  refuge,  and  I'm-  its 
convenient  nearness  to  the  church  or  cathedral  which  made  its 
center. 

In  the  south,  it  is  true,  the  old  cities  lived  on,  with  a  con- 
siderable degree  of  the  old  Roman  city  life.  They  kept  up, 
too,  some  commerce  with  the  East ;  and  sometimes  colonies  of 
Greek  merchants  dwelt  in  them.  In  the  south,  also,  the  old 
Romano-Gallic  landlords  remained  in  power,  with  only  slight 
sprinklings  of  Teutonic  nobles.  They  made  more  use  of  towns 
than  did  the  Teutonic  lords  of  the  North ;  but  they  too  lived 
mainly  on  their  villas  in  the  country.  Their  estates  were 
much  finer  and  better  cultivated  than  those  of  the  north ;  and 


§51]  MONASTICISM  49 

the  life  of  the  owners  was  marked  by  more  refinement,  with 
some  survivals  of  literature. 

Everyivhere,  the  great  majority  of  the  people  were  the  poor  folk 
who  tilled  the  land  for  neighboring  masters.  Most  of  these  toilers 
lived  in  mud  hovels,  or  in  cabins  of  rough  boards,  without  floors 
and  with  roofs  covered  with  reeds  or  straw.  At  the  best,  little 
more  of  their  produce  remained  to  them  than  barely  sufficient 
to  support  life ;  and  they  were  constantly  subject  to  the  arbi- 
trary will  of  masters  who  were  practically  beyond  the  check  of 
law  and  who  were  often  brutal  and  greedy.  At  frequent  inter- 
vals, too,  they  suffered  terribly  from  pestilence  and  famine. 

This  picture  of  ordinary  seventh-century  life  prepares  us  to 
understand  another  sort  of  life  which  became  exceedingly  popular 
in  that  day  (§  51). 

51.  Monasticism.  —  In  the  old  East,  holiness  was  believed  to 
be  related  to  withdrawal  from  the  world,  to  contempt  for 
human  pleasures,  and  to  disregard  for  natural  instincts,  even 
love  for  mother,  wife,  and  child.  This  unnatural,  ascetic  tend- 
ency invaded  Eastern  Christianity.  Thus  there  arose  a  class 
of  hermits,  who  strove  each  to  save  his  own  soul  by  tormenting 
his  body.1  The  persecutions  of  the  third  century  augmented 
the  numbers  of  these  fugitives  from  society,  and  the  oases  of 
the  Egyptian  and  Syrian  deserts  swarmed  with  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  them.  In  some  cases  they  united  into  small  bodies 
with  common  rules  of  life. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century  this  idea  of  religious 
communities  was  transplanted  to  the  West,  and  the  long  anarchy 
following  the  invasions  made  such  a  life  peculiarly  inviting. 
Thus  arose  monasticism,  one  of  the  most  powerful  medieval2 

1  Davis'  Readings  in  Ancient  History,  II,  136,  has  an  account  of  an  extreme 
and  famous  instance. 

2  The  in-pouring  of  thfe  Teutons  between  378  and  476  is  sometimes  said  to 
close  Ancient  history.    Those  who   speak  in  this  way  divide  history  into 
Ancient,  Medieval,  and  Modern,  and  give  the  name  Medieval  to  the  period 
from  about  400  to  about  1500  A.D.    This  book  follows  a  different  classification. 
We  call  all  history  Ancient  down  to  the  fusion  of  Roman  and  Teuton  (about 


50 


WESTERN   EUROPE 


[§51 


• 


institutions.  The  fundamental  causes  were :  (1)  the  longing 
for  a  life  of  quiet  religious  devotion,  and  (2)  the  conditions 
which  made  quiet  living  impossible  except  through  some  such 
withdrawal  from  society. 

European  monasticism,  however,  differed  widely  from  its 
model  in  the  East.  The  monks  of  the  West,  within  their  quiet 
walls,  wisely  sought  escape  from  temptation,  not  in  idleness 

but  in  active  and  incessant  work. 
Their  motto  was,  "To  work  is  to 
pray." 

The  growth  of  many  a  rich  monas- 
tery was  a  romantic  story  of  humble 
and  heroic  beginnings  and  of  noble 
service  to  men.     A  body  of  devoted 
enthusiasts,  uniting  themselves  for 
mutual  religious  aid,  would  raise  a 
few  rude  buildings  in  a  pestilential 
swamp  or  in  a  wilderness.     Gradu- 
ally their  numbers  grew.     By  their 
toil,  the  marsh  was  drained,  or  the 
desert  became  a  garden.     The  first 
simple  structures  gave  way  to  mas- 
AMP.KY  OF  CITEAUX.  -  From  a    sive  and  stately  towers.    Lords  gave 
miniature  in  a  twelfth  cen-   lands ;    fugitive  serfs  tilled   them  ; 
tury  manuscript.  villages,  and  perhaps  wealthy  towns, 

sprang  up  upon  them  under  the  rule  of  the  abbot.1  Similar  in- 
stitutions for  women  offered  a  much-needed  refuge  for  that 
sex  in  that  rough  age.  During  the  seventh  century,  the 
majority  of  cultivated  and  refined  men  and  women  in  Western 
Europe  lived  within  monastic  walls.  More  than  one  king 


800  A.D.)  ,  and  we  use  the  term  Modern  for  all  history  since  800  A.D.  But  we 
sometimes  use  the  expressions  Medieval  and  Middle  Age,  as  descriptive  terms, 
for  the  period  to  which  they  are  commonly  applied. 

1  A  large  monastery  was  an  abbey,  and  its  elected  head  was  an  abbot 
(from  a  Syrian  word,  abba,  meaning  father).  An  ordinary  monastery  called 
its  head  a  prior,  —  "  theirs*  in  place." 


§  51]  MONASTICISM  51 

voluntarily  laid  aside  his  crown  to  seek  peace  there  from  the 
horrible  confusion  of  the  world. 

At  first  each  monastery  was  a  rule  to  itself.  But  in  the 
sixth  century,  St.  Benedict,  an  Italian  monk  of  noble  family, 
published  and  preached  rules  for  a  monastic  life  which  were 
widely  adopted  —  and  which  still  control  large  numbers  of 
Catholic  institutions.  Two  hundred  years  later,  nearly  all 
monks  in  Western  Europe  were  Benedictines,  and  the  brother- 
hood is  said  to  have  counted  40,000  monasteries. 

Benedict  cautioned  his  disciples  against  over-asceticisrn. 
They  were  not  to  starve  themselves  by  unreasonable  fasts, 
nor  to  torment  the  body  overmuch  with  cruel  floggings  and 
tortures.  Each  Benedictine,  however,  was  to  spend  a  consid- 
erable part  of  every  day  in  private  prayer  and  in  the  public 
services  of  the  community ;  and  in  particular  he  was  to  take 
the  three  vows  of  poverty, 
chastity,  and  obedience. 
(1)  He  renounced  all 
wealth  for  himself  (though 
the  monastery  might  be- 
come wealthy).  (2)  He  re- 
nounced marriage.  (3)  He 
renounced  his  own  will  in 
all  things  in  favor  of  that 
of  his  superior,  the  abbot 
or  prior.  To  all  this  was 
added  the  obligation  of  MONKS  BUSY  IN  FIELD  LABOR.  —  From 
work  1  Lacroix,  after  a  thirteenth  century  manu- 

During  all   the  Middle 

Ages,  the  monks  were  the  most  skillful  and  industrious  tillers 
of  the  soil.  They  copied  and  illustrated  manuscripts  with 
loving  care ;  and  they  themselves  produced  whatever  new 
literature  Europe  had  for  many  centuries.  They  taught  gladly 

1  Davis'  Readings,  II,  137,  gives  extracts  from  the  "Rule  of  St.  Benedict." 
Munro  and  Sellery's  Medieval  Civilization  gives  an  excellent  treatment 
(ch.  ix)  on  the  "  Economic  Services  of  the  Monasteries." 


52  WESTERN  EUROPE  [§51 

all  that  they  themselves  knew  to  any  youth  of  the  countryside 
who  would  come  to  their  instruction,  so  equipping  many  a  poor 
peasant  boy  to  become  a  powerful  churchman,  the  master  of 
lords  and  kings.  In  particular  they  cared  for  the  poor  and 
suffering.  Their  lives  of  quiet  industry  and  devotion,  their 
abstinence  and  self-sacrifice,  seemed  more  than  human  to  other 
men  during  those  evil  ages  of  violence  and  brutality.  For 
centuries  the  thousands  of  monasteries  that  dotted  Western 
Europe  were  its  only  almshouses,  inns,  asylums,  hospitals,  and 
schools,  and  the  sole  refuge  of  learning.1 

At  first,  a  monastery  was  a  religious  association  of  /»//////<</<  : 
but  gradually  the  monks  became  the  most  zealous  of  mission- 
aries and  the  most  devoted  of  preachers.  As  they  took  up  the 
duties  of  the  clergy,  there  arose  a  long  struggle  between  them 
and  the  bishops.  The  bishops  desired  to  exercise  authority 
over  them  as  over  other  clergy.  The  monks  insisted  upon  in- 
dependence under  their  own  abbots,  and  finally,  won  it  by 
grants  from  the  popes.  Because  subject  to  rule,  the  monks  be- 
came known  as  regular  clergy,  while  the  ordinary  clergy  were 
styled  secular  ("  belonging  to  the  world  "). 

1  Special  report  :  the  monasteries  and  learning.  See  especially  Putnam's 
Books  and  their  Makers,  ch.  i,  if  available. 


FIFTH   PERIOD 

RISE   OP   THE  FRANKS   AND   THE   PAPACY 
I.     THE   FRANKS,    TO   THE   MOHAMMEDAN   INVASION 

52.  Clovis.  —  For  a  long  human  lifetime  after  East  Goths, 
West  Goths,  Vandals,  and  Burgundians  had  built  up  new 
kingdoms  within  the  old  Empire,  the  Franks  had  remained 
rude  pagans,  in  their  native  homes  along  the  lower  Rhine. 
Nor  were  they  as  yet  a  nation.  They  were  split  into  petty 
tribes  without  a  common  king.  This  people,  however,  were 
to  become  the  leading  race  among  the  Teutonic  conquerors,  and, 
along  with  the  church,  the  chief  organizing  force  in  Western 
Europe  for  many  centuries.  We  must  now  survey  their  story 
from  the  days  of  the  invasions. 

The  founder  of  Frankish  greatness  was  Clovis,  a  brutal 
savage  with  a  shrewd  intellect.  In  481,  at  the  age  of  fifteen, 
he  became  king  of  a  little  tribe.  Five  years  later,  having 
collected  a  few  thousand  warriors,  he  attacked  the  Roman 
possessions  in  north  Gaul,  and  through  a  great  victory  at 
Soissons  added  them  to  his  possessions.  Ten  years  later  he 
conquered  the  Alemanni,  a  new  German  people  who  had 
invaded  Gaul,  and  made  tributary  their  territory  beyond  the 
Rhine  (map  after  page  54). 

The  decisive  victory  over  the  Alemanni  was  won  at  the 
battle  of  Strassburg.  This  battle  was  the  occasion  for  the 
conversion  of  Clovis.  His  wife,  Clothilda,  was  a  devout 
Christian.  In  a  crisis  in  the  battle,  thinking  that  his  old 
gods  had  abandoned  him,  Clovis  vowed  to  serve  the  God  of 
Clothilda,  if  He  would  grant  victory.  In  consequence,  the 
king  and  his  three  thousand  warriors  were  baptized  immedi- 
ately afterward. 

63 


54  RISE   OF   THE   FRANKS  [§  63 

Burgundians  and  Goths  had  long  been  Christians  ;  but  they 
had  adopted  the  Arian  doctrine  (§  35),  which  was  detested  as 
a  heresy  by  the  orthodox  Roman  world.  Clovis  adopted  the 
orthodox  (Catholic)  Christianity.  In  this  he  was  influenced, 
no  doubt,  by  keen  political  insight.  In  the  coining  struggles 
with  the  A-rian  Goths  and  Burgundians,  it  was  to  be  of  im- 
'mense  advantage  to  have  the  subject  Roman  populations  on 
his  side,  as  an  orthodox  sovereign,  against  their  own  hated 
heretic  rulers.  This  conversion  was  a  chief  agency,  therefore, 
in  building  up  the  great  Frankish  state. 

The  Gothic  kingdom  in  Spain  included  rich  districts  in  south 
Gaul,  and  the  Burgundians  held  southeastern  Gaul.  Clovis 
now  declared  it  intolerable  that  those  "Arian  dogs"  should 
possess  the  fairest  parts  of  Gaul,  and  he  at  once  attacked 
them  both.  The  Goths  he  drove  across  the  Pyrenees,  and  his 
sons  completed  his  conquest  of  the  Rhone  district.  During 
the  last  of  his  reign,  by  a  horrible  series  of  bloody  treacheries, 
he  got  rid  of  the  kings  of  the  other  Frankish  tribes,1  and  con- 
solidated all  that  people  into  one  nation  under  his  sole  rule. 
"Thus,"  says  the  pious  chronicler,  Gregory  of  Tours,  -did 
God  daily  deliver  the  enemies  of  Clovis  into  his  hand  Ix-causc 
he  walked  before  His  face  with  an  upright  heart  and  did  what 
was  pleasing  in  His  sight." 

The  sons  of  Clovis  added  Bavaria  and  Thuringia,  as  tribu- 
taries, to  the  Frankish  state.     These  districts  lay  on  the 
man  side  of  the  Rhine,  ivell  beyond  the  borders  of  the  old  Roman 


53.  Empire  in  the  Seventh  Century.  —  In  fifty  years,  mainly 
through  the  cool  intellect  and  ferocious  energy  of  one  ruth- 
less savage,  a  little  Teutonic  tribe  had  grown  into  the  great 
Frankish  state.  That  state  included  nearly  the  whole  of 
modern  France,  the  Netherlands,  Switzerland,  and  Germany 
almost  to  the  Elbe. 

1  See  one  instance  in  Davis'  Readings,  II,  335-337.  Others  are  given  in 
Ojltf's  Source  Book,  No.  6  (extract  from  the  "  Deeds  of  Clovis  "by  Gregory  of 

Tours). 


§  55]  THE   SEVENTH   CENTURY  55 

Such  territory  to-day  would  make  the  greatest  power  in 
Europe.  In  the  sixth  and  seventh'  centuries  its  preeminence 
was  even  more  marked.  Gothic  Spain  was  weakened  by  quar- 
rels between  Arian^ and  Catholic ;  Italy  was  torn  to  shreds; 
Britain  was  in  chaos  (§  105) ;  non-Frankish  Germany  was 
filled  with  savage,  unorganized  tribes.  TJie  only  real  rivals  of 
the  Prankish  state  were  the  Greek  Empire  and  the  new  Moham- 
medan power  which  was  soon  to  contest  Europe  with  both 
Greek  and  Frank. 

54.  The  family  of  Clovis  is  known,   from  his  grandfather 
Merovig,  as  Merovingian.     It  kept  the  throne  for  two  centuries 
after  Clovis'  death,  but  its  story  is  a  dismal  record  of  greed, 
family  hate,  treachery,  and  murder.     The  empire  was  divided 
among  the  four  sons  of  Clovis,  as  though  it  had  been  a  private 
estate,  according  to  Frankish  custom.     The  fragments  were 
reunited  by  one  of  these  sons,  through  methods  as  horrible  as 
those  of  Clovis  himself.     Then  it  was  again  divided,  and  so  on 
for  long  periods.     The  Franks  themselves  spread  very  little 
south  of  the  Loire.     North  and  south  Gaul  remained  distinct 
in  blood  and  character;  but  Frankish  rule  preserved  a  sort  of 
political  unity. 

55.  The   Do-nothing   Kings   and   their    Mayors.  —  The   later 
Merovingian  kings  earned  the  name  of  "  Do-nothings."     They 
were  mere  phantom  rulers.     Real  power  was  exercised  by  a 
mayor  of  the  palace.      Originally   this    officer   was    a    chief 
domestic,  the  head  of  the  royal  household;  but,  one  by  one, 
he  had   withdrawn  all  the  powers   of  government  from  the 
indolent  kings.     Once  a  year,  the  long-haired  king  himself 
was  carried  forth  in  stately  procession  on  his  ox-cart,  to  be 
shown  to  the  Assembly  of  the  Mayfield.     The  rest  of  the  time 
he  lived,  on   some  obscure  estate,  in  indolence  and  swinish 
pleasures  that  brought  him  to  an  early  grave. 

At  first  the  office  of  mayor  was  filled  by  the  king's  appoint- 
ment. As  it  grew  more  important,  the  nobles  sometimes 
claimed  the  right  to  elect  the  holder.  Finally,  the  mayors 
grew  strong  enough  to  pass  their  office  on  to  their  sons. 


56 


RISE    OF   THE   FRANKS 


[§56 


56.  Pippin  of  Heristal.  —  In  the  middle  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury, the  empire  of  the  Franks  seemed  ready  to  dissolve  in 
anarchy  and  civil  war.  The  northern  and  more  purely 
Frankish  portion  was  divided  into  two  kingdoms.  Austrasia, 
the  kingdom  of  the  East  Franks,  contained  the  original  home 
of  the  race,  and  had  always  remained  essentially  German  in 
character.  Neustria,  the  kingdom  of  the  West  Franks,  was  a 
state  of  greater  dignity,  because  it  contained  the  Roman  con- 
quests of  Clovis  and  the  imperial  capital.  While  tin-  two 
divisions  struggled  for  supremacy,  the  other  parts  of  the  em- 


A  REPAST  IN  THE  HALL  OF  A  PRANKISH  NOBLE.— After  a  tenth 
century  manuscript. 

pire  almost  fell  away.  Bavaria  and  Thuringia  (purely  German) 
and  Aquitaine  (an  almost  purely  Roman  province  in  the  south- 
west) did  become  practically  independent  under  native  dnki's. 

Finally,  at  the  battle  of  Testify  (687),  the  Austrasians,  under 
their  mayor,  Pippin  of  Heristal,  established  their  supremacy 
over  the  West  Franks.  Testry  stands  for  a  second  Teutonic 
conquest  of  the  more  Romanized  part  of  the  Frankish  state 
a.nd  for  a  new  infusion  of  ruling  Teutonic  blood.  Pippin  is 
the  second  founder  of  the  empire  of  the  Franks^ 

57.  Pippin's  son,  Charles,  completed  his  father's  work.  He 
brought  back  to  subjection  the  great  dukedoms  of  Bavaria  and 


§  59]  THE   MOHAMMEDAN   PERIL  57 

Thuringia,  and  established  firm  order  among  all  the  unruly 
chiefs  of  the  German  frontier.  The  crushing  blows  he  dealt 
his  rivals  in  these  contests  won  him  the  name,  Charles  Martel 
("the  Hammer"),  —  a  title  he  was  soon  to  justify  in  a  more 
critical  conflict. 

For  the  Mohammedans  now  attacked  Europe.  Except  for 
Testry  and  the  long  pounding  by  "  the  Hammer  of  the  Franks," 
there  would  have  been  no  Christian  power  able  to  withstand 
their  onset  —  and  Englishmen  and  Americans  to-day  might  be 
readers  of  the  Mohammedan  Koran  instead  of  the  Christian 
Bible.  To  understand  how  Martel  saved  us,  we. must  turn  to 
the  story  of  Mohammedanism. 

II.     THE    MOHAMMEDAN   PERIL 

58.  Arabia  before  Mohammed.  —  A  century  after  Clovis  built 
up  the  empire  of  the  Franks,  a  better  man,  out  of  less  promis- 
ing material,   built  a  mighty  power  in  Arabia.     Until  that 
time,  Arabia  had  had  little  to  do  with  human  progress.     It 
was   mainly    desert,   with   occasional    small   oases,   and   with 
strips  of  tillable  land  near  the  Red  Sea.     In  this  last  district, 
the  tribes  had  gained  some  mechanical  skill  and  possessed  a 
few  small  cities.     The    rest   of   the   Arabs   were    wandering 
shepherds,  —  poor   and  ignorant,   dwelling  in   black  earn  el 's- 
hair  tents  and  living  from  their  sheep  and  by  robbing  their 
neighbors. 

Man  by  man,  they  were  brave  and  active  in  mind  and  body ; 
but  their  tribes  were  weak  and  without  union  among  themselves. 
They  were  among  the  lowest  of  idolaters,  too,  —  worshiping 
even  certain  sticks  and  stories  which  they  thought  possessed 
magic  power;  but,  possibly  from  association  with  Christians 
and  Jews,  they  had  learned  also  to  think  dimly  of  a  shadowy 
higher  God  (Allah)  in  the  heavens.  The  inspiring  force  that 
was  to  lift  them  to  a  higher  life,  and  fuse  them  into  a  world- 
conquering  nation,  was  the  fiery  enthusiasm  of  Mohammed. 

59.  Mohammed  was  born  at  Mecca,  the  largest  city  of  Arabia, 
about  570.     He  never  learned  to  read ;    but  his  speech  was 


58  THE   MOHAMMEDAN   PERIL  [§  60 

ready  and  forceful,  and  his  manner  pleasing  and  stately.  As 
a  youth,  he  was  modest,  serious,  and  truthful,  —  so  that  as  a 
hired  camel-driver,  he  earned  the  surname  "the  Faithful." 
At  twenty-five,  he  became  wealthy,  by  marriage  with  his  em- 
ployer, the  good  widow  Kadijah ;  and  until  forty  he  lived  as  a 
respected  merchant. 

He  had  always  been  given  to  occasional  periods  of  religious 
enthusiasm  and  ecstasy,  watching  and  praying  alone  in  the 
desert  for  days  at  a  time,  as  indeed  many  Arabs  did.  In 
such  a  lonely  vigil,  in  611,  Allah  appeared  to  him  (he  said) 
in  a  wondrous  vision,  revealing  to  him  a  higher  religion  and 
ordering  him  to  preach  it  to  his  countrymen.  At  first,  Moham- 
med seems  to  have  doubted  whether  this  vision  were  not  a 
subtle  temptation  by  the  devil;  but  Kadijah  convinced  him 
that  it  came  truly  from  heaven,  and  he  entered  upon  his 
mighty  task.  He  really  drew  the  best  features  of  his  new 
religion  from  Jewish  and  Christian  teachings,  with  which  he 
had  become  somewhat  acquainted  in  his  travels  as  a  merchant. 
Indeed,  he  recognized  Abraham,  Moses,  and  Jesus  as  true 
prophets,  but  claimed  that  he  was  to  supersede  them  with  a 
higher  revelation. 

60.  Scribes  collected  the  teachings  of  Mohammed  into  the 
Koran,  the  sacred  book  of  Mohammedanism.  The  two  central 
requirements  of  the  new  religion  were  faith  and  obedience.  A 
"  true  believer "  must  accept  only  the  one  God,  Allah,  and 
must  offer  complete  submission  (Islam)  to  his  will  as  taught 
in  the  Koran. 

TJie  Koran1  taught  a  higher  morality  than  the  Arabs  had 
known,  —  not  so  very  unlike  that  of  the  Ten  Commandments; 
but  it  accepted  also  certain  evil  customs  of  the  time,  such  as 
slavery  and  polygamy,  and  it  attracted  converts  by  its  sensuous 
appeals  to  future  pleasures  or  pains.  At  the  "  Last  Day,"  all 
souls  would  be  gathered  to  judgment.  Then  all  sinful  Moham- 
medans, together  with  all  "Unbelievers"  (all  Christians  and 

1  See  extracts  in  Ogg's  Source  Book,  No.  13. 


62] 


MOHAMMED    AND   HIS   TEACHINGS 


59 


the  rest  of  the  outside  world)  would  be  cast  into  an  everlast- 
ing hell  of  scalding  water  covered  with  thick  clouds  of  smoke. 
True  believers,  on  the  other  hand,  were  to  enter  the  joys  of  an 
eternal  Paradise,  to  recline,  in  the  midst  of  lovely  gardens,  on 
couches  of  gold  and  jewels,  where  they  would  be  served  constantly 
by  beautiful  maidens  (houris)  with  delicious  foods  and  wines. 

61.  For  twelve  years   the   new  faith   grew  slowly.     A   few 
friends  accepted  Mohammed  at  once  as  a  prophet;   but  the 
bulk  of  his  fellow  townsfolk  jeered  at  the  claim,  and  when  he 
continued  to  order  them  to  put  away  their  stone  idols,  they 
drove  him  from  Mecca. 

Mohammed  barely  escaped  from  his  home  with  his  life. 
This  flight  is  the  Hegira,  the  point  from  which  the  Moham- 
medan world  still  reckons  time,  as  Christendom  does  from 
the  birth  of  Christ.  The  first  year  of  the  Mohammedan  era 
corresponds  to  our  year  622  A.D. 

62.  Now  Mohammed  took  up  the  sword.     He  turned  to  the 
tribes  of  the  desert,  made  converts  rapidly,  and  soon  captured 
Mecca,  which  became  the 

sacred  city  of  the  faith. 
His  fierce  warriors  proved 
themselves  almost  irre- 
sistible, conquering  many 
a  time  against  overwhelm- 
ing odds.  They  felt  sure 
that  to  every  man  there 
was  an  appointed  time  of 
death,  which  he  could 
neither  delay  nor  hasten ; 

and  this  high  fatalism  conquered  fear.  Indeed  they  rejoiced  in 
death  in  battle,  as  the  surest  admission  to  the  joys  of  Paradise. 

"The  sword,"  said  Mohammed,  "is  the  key  of  heaven.  A  drop  of 
blood  shed  in  the  cause  of  God  is  of  more  avail  than  two  months  of  fasting 
and  prayer.  Whoso  falls  in  battle,  all  his  sins  are  forgiven  ;  at  the  day  of 
judgment  his  wounds  shall  be  resplendent  as  vermilion  and  odoriferous  as 
musk." 


ARABIAN  BATTLE-AX,  SWORD,  AND 
HELMET. 


60 


THE   MOHAMMEDAN   PERIL 


[§63 


At  the  same  time,  the  Mohammedans  were  comparatively 
mild  in  victory.  Pagans,  it  is  true,  had  to  choose  between  the 
new  teaching  and  death  ;  but  Jews  and  Christians  were  allowed 
to  keep  their  faith  on  payment  of  tribute. 

63.  Ninety  Years  of  Conquest.  —  Mohammed  lived  only  ten 
years  after  the  Hegira.  He  became  master  of  Arabia,  and,  at 
his  death,  in  632,  he  was  planning  expeditions  against  the 


THE  MOSQUK  OF  OMAR,  a  famous  Mohammedan  temple  at  Jerusalem  ou 
tin1  site  of  Solomon's  Temple.  —  From  a  photograph. 

Greek  Empire.  Eighty  years  later,  his  followers  stood  vic- 
torious upon  the  Oxns,  the  Indus,  the  Black  Sea,  the  Atlantic, 
—  rulers  of  a  realm  more  extensive  than  that  of  Rome  at  its 
height.  (Most  of  that  wide  realm,  with  much  later  conquest, 
belongs  still  to  the  Mohammedan  religion,  which  counts  at  least  a 
seventh  of  the  present  population  of  the  globe  as  its  adherents.) 
Within  the  span  of  one  human  life,  the  Mohammedans  had  won 
all  the  old  Asiatic  empire  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  all 
North  Africa  besides ;  and  drawing  together  the  sweeping  horns 


04] 


ATTACKS    ON   THE    GREEK    EMPIRE 


61 


of  their  mighty  crescent,  they  were  already  trying  to  enter 
Europe  from  both  east  and  west,  by  the  narrow  straits  of 
Gibraltar  and  the  Hellespont. 

64.  The  preservation  of  Europe  from  the  first  attack  lay  with 
the  Greek  empire.  After  Justinian  (§  45),  that  state  had  fallen 
again  to  decay,  threatened  with  annihilation  by  the  Slavs  in 
Europe  and  the  Persians  in  Asia.  The  Arabs  now  conquered 
Persia,  taking  its  ancient  place  as  the  champion  of  the  Orient  (§  8). 
They  overran  Syria  and  Asia  Minor,  also ;  and.  in  672,  they 
besieged  Constantinople 
itself.  Their  victory  at 
this  time  (before  the  battle 
of  Testry)  would  have  left 
all  Europe  open  to  their 
triumphal  inarch  ;  but  the 
hero  Constantine  IV  re- 
pulsed them,  and  saved 
the  Western  world. 

Happily,  in  the  twenty 
years  of  anarchy  that 
followed  this  emperor's 
death,  the  Saracens  made 
no  determined  effort.  In  717  they  returned  to  the  attack; 
but  a  new  and  vigorous  ruler  had  just  seized  the  throne  at 
Constantinople.  This  was  Leo  the  Isaurian,  who  was  to  begin 
another  glorious  line  of  Greek  emperors.  Leo  had  only  five 
months  in  which  to  restore  order  and  to  prepare  for  the  terrific 
onset  of  the  Mohammedans ;  but  once  more  the  Asiatics  were 
beaten  back  —  after  a  twelve  months'  siege.  TJie  most  formi- 
dable menace  to  Europe  wore  itself  aivay  on  the  walls  of  the  City 
of  Constantine. 

Arabian  chroniclers  themselves  say  that  only  thirty  thousand  survived 
of  a  host  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  well-appointed  warriors 
who  began  the  siege.  The  Greek  authorities  made  the  Saracen  numbers 
some  three  hundred  thousand,  and  "  by  the  time  the  story  reached  West- 
ern Europe  these  numbers  had  grown  beyond  all  recognition." 


THE  WALLS  OF  COXSTANTINOPLI 
—  From  a  photograph. 


62  THE   MOHAMMEDAN  PERIL  [§  65 

A  chief  weapon  of  the  defense  was  the  newly  invented  Greek  fire,  — 
a  combustible  made,  probably,  by  mixing  naphtha,  sulphur,  and  pitch.  It 
could  not  be  extinguished  by  water,  and  it  was  the  most  terrible  weapon 
of  warfare  until  the  invention  of  gunpowder.  It  was  to  be  used,  later, 
with  terrible  effect  by  the  Mohammedans  themselves.  As  late  as  1250, 
Western  Europe  was  still  ignorant  of  its  secret,  and  an  old  crusader  who 
first  saw  it  in  a  night  battle  described  it  as  follows:  "Its  nature  was  in 
this  wise,  that  it  rushed  forward  as  large  round  as  a  cask  of  verjuice, 
and  the  tail  of  the  fire  which  issued  from  it  was  as  big  as  a  large-sized 
spear.  It  made  such  a  noise  in  coming  that  it  seemed  as  if  it  were  a 
thunderbolt  from  heaven,  and  it  looked  like  a  dragon  flying  through  tin- 
air.  It  cast  such  a  brilliant  light  that  in  the  camp  we  could  see  as  clearly 
as  if  it  were  noonday." 

65.  Spain,   however,   did  become  Mohammedan.     In   711  the 
Arabs  entered  that  country,  and  were  soon  masters  of  the  king- 
dom, except  for  a  few  remote  mountain   fastnesses.     Then, 
pouring  across  the  Pyrenees,  the  Mohammedan  flood  spread 
over  Gaul,  even  to  the  Loire.     Now,  indeed,  it  "  seemed  that 
the  crescent  was  about  to  round  to  the  full."     But  the  danger 
completed  the  reunion  of  the  Prankish  state.     This  brings  us 
back  to  the  story  of  the  Franks  and  Martel,  which  we  left  in 
§57. 

66.  Battle  of  Tours.  —  The  duke  of  Aquitaine  had  long  led  a 
revolt  against  Frankish  rule  (§  56).     Now,  however,  he  fled  to 
the  camp  of  Charles  Martel  for  aid  against  the  Mohammedan 
peril;  and,  In  732,  in  the  plains  near  Tours,  the  "  Hammer  of 
the  Franks  "  with  his  close  array  of  mailed  Austrasian  infantry 
met  the  Arab  host.     From  dawn  to  dark,  on  a  Saturday  in 
October,  the  gallant,  turbaned  horsemen  of  the  Saracens  hurled 
themselves  in  vain  against  the  Franks'  stern  wall  of  iron.     At 
night  the  surviving  Arabs  stole  silently  from  their  camp  and 
fled  back  to  the  shelter  of  the  Pyrenees. 

The  battle  of  Tours,  just  one  hundred  years  after  Moham- 
med's death,  is  the  high-water  mark  of  the  Saracen  invasion. 
A  few  years  later,  the  Mohammedan  world,  like  Christendom, 
split  into  rival  empires.  The  Caliph1  of  the  East  built,  for 

i  Caliph  ("  successor  ")  became  the  title  of  the  successors  of  Mohammed. 


§67] 


REPULSE   OF   THE   SARACENS 


63 


his  capital,  the  wonderful  city  of  Bagdad  on  the  Tigris.  The 
Caliphate  of  the  West  fixed  its  capital  at  Cordova  in  Spain. 
The  two  Caliphates  were  more  or  less  hostile  to  each  other,  and 
the  critical  danger  to  Western  civilization  for  the  time  passed 
away.  TJie  repulses  at  Constantinople  and  at  Tours  rank  with 
Marathon  and  Salamis}  in  the  long  struggle  between  Asia  and 
Europe. 

67.  Later  Mohammedanism  will  be  described  at  the  point 
(§  236)  when  Europe  again  came  into  conflict  with  it,  some 
four  centuries  after  Tours.  Here  we  will  note  only  that  the 
Arabs  quickly  adopted  the  Greek  culture  of  the  Empire  at 
Constantinople,  and,  in  some  ways,  extended  it,  so  that  for 
centuries  they  infinitely  surpassed  Wes- 
tern Europe  in  civilization.  On  the  whole, 
however,  the  Arabs  showed  little  original 
or  creative  power ;  and,  after  a  time,  politi- 
cal mastery  in  the  Mohammedan  world 
fell  to  the  Turks,  who  were  much  less 
capable  of  culture  than  the  Arabs. 

Moreover,  Mohammedanism  expressly 
sanctioned  slavery  and  polygamy.  That 
is,  it  left  no  chance  for  the  rise  of  woman 
or  of  the  working  masses.  It  accepted 
Mohammed's  teachings  as  final,  and  so  it 
crystallized  into  a  changeless  system,  hos- 
tile to  all  progress.  Its  civilization  took 
on,  more  and  more,  an  Oriental  character 
(§  3).  It  was  despotic,  uniform,  stagnant, 
—  sure  to  be  outrun  finally  by  the  ruder  but  progressive 
Western  world. 

The  term  Saracen  is  sometimes  applied  to  any  Mohammedan  power, 
but  strictly  it  belongs  only  to  the  Arabs.  In  North  Africa,  the  Arabs 
mixed  with  the  native  Mauritanians,  and  the  race  became  known  as 
Moors.  These  were  the  Mohammedans  who  were  to  rule  Spain  for  eight 
hundred  years.  The  Turks  came  into  the  Mohammedan  world  first  as 
invaders  from  Northern  Asia.  They  were  allied  to  the  Tartars. 


ARABIAN  TABLE  OF 
BRONZE  INLAID 
WITH  SILVER. 


64 


THE  FRANKS  AND  THE  PAPACY 


[§68 


III.     RISE   OF  THE   PAPACY 

The  Franks  had  repulsed  the  Mohammedans  from  Western  Europe. 
Next  they  were  to  form  a  firm  alliance  with  the  Papacy. 

68.  The  Pope's  Claim  to  Headship.  —  We  have  seen  (§  34)  that, 
in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  leadership  in  the  Christian 
world  was  divided  among  the  great  bishops  of  Jerusalem. 


CHURCH  OF  ST.  JOHN  LATKRAN  AT  ROME,  upon  the  site  of  the  lirst  papal 
church.  The  popes  used  the  adjoining  Lateran  Palace  (the  home  of  an 
ancient  Roman  noble)  as  their  official  residence  until  they  removed  to  the 
Vatican  in  1377. 

Antioch,  Alexandria,  Constantinople,  and  Rome.  The  last  of 
these  had  put  forth  a  vigorous  claim  to  supremacy  over  all 
the  Christian  church. 

The  claim  took  this  form :  Christ  had  especially  intrusted 
the  government  of  his  church  to  Peter;  Peter  had  founded 
the  church  at  Rome ;  hence  the  bishops  of  Rome,  as  successors 
of  Peter,  held  spiritual  sway  over  Christendom. 

The  Roman  Catholic  view,  indeed,  holds  that  the  headship 


§70]  RISE   OF  THE   PAPACY  65 

of  Rome,  in  actual  practice,  dates  from  Peter.1  Early  in  the 
fifth  century,  a  Roman  emperor2  had  expressly  commanded 
that  all  the  church  should  recognize  the  headship  of  the  pope  ;3 
but  in  the  East  this  decree  was  not  obeyed.  The  bishop  of 
Constantinople,  especially,  claimed  an  equal  place. 

69.  Rome  had  many  advantages  that  helped  to  make  good  her 
bishops'  claim.     (1)  Men  inevitably  thought  of  Rome  as  the  world- 
capital.     (2)   The  Latin  half  of  the  Empire,  which  would  most 
naturally  turn  to  Rome,  had  no  other  church  founded  by  an 
apostle;  nor  did  it  contain  any  other  great  city.     The  possible 
rivals  of  Rome  were  all  east  of  the  Adriatic.     (3)  A  long  line 
of  remarkable  popes,  by  their  moderation  and  statesmanship, 
confirmed  the  place  of  Rome  as  the  ecclesiastical  head  of  all 
the  West.     Several  times,  indeed,  they  were  accepted  as  arbi- 
trators in  disputes  between  leading  Eastern  churches.    (4)  The 
decline  of  the  Empire  in  the  West,  after  the  barbarian  invasions, 
left  the  bishops  of  Rome  less  liable  to  imperial  interference 
than  were  the  Eastern  churches.     (5)  Rome's  missionary  labors 
extended  her  power.     She  brought  the  Arian  Teutons  finally 
to  the  orthodox  doctrine  ;  and  she  converted  the  pagan  Teutons 
in  Britain   and   Germany.      To  these  converts,    in  a  special 
sense  she  was  a  mother  church,  to  be  obeyed  implicitly. 

70.  Gregory  the  Great,  who  was  pope  from  590  to  604,  did 
much  to  make  good  the  papal  claim.     His  rule  came  in  the 
period  of  the  decay  of  the  Eastern  empire,  after  Justinian 
(§  64).     Thus  he  was  really  called  upon  to  take  up  the  tem- 
poral government  of  Rome,  to  save  that  city  from  ruin ;  and 


1  Scholarly  presentations  of  the  Catholic  argument,  together  with  collec- 
tions of  some  of  the  historical  evidence  upon  which  it  is  based,  are  given  in 
Kenrick's  Primacy  of  the  Apostolic  See  and  in  Rivington's  Roman  Primacy. 
Robinson's  Readings,  I,  62-73,  has  a  good  statement  with  valuable  extracts 
from  several  of  the  early  Fathers ;  see  especially  the  argument  of  Pope  Leo. 

2  Valentinian  III ;  Ancient  World,  §726. 

8  The  name  pope  ("papa  ")  was  originally  only  a  term  of  affectionate  respect 
("  father  ")  applied  to  any  bishop.  It  did  not  become  the  official  name  of  the 
bishops  of  Rome  until  1085.  Special  reports:  Leo  the  Great  and  Gregory  the 
Great. 


66          THE  FRANKS  AND  THE  PAPACY         [§  71 

he  waged  wars  and  made  treaties,  like  other  princes.  He  cor- 
responded with  rulers  and  great  churchmen  all  over  the  world. 
And  missionaries  sent  out  by  him  won  the  Saxon  conquerors 
of  Britain  to  Christianity. 

71.  Even  in  the  West,  however,  until  about  700  A.D.,  most 
men  looked  upon  the  bishop  of  Rome  only  as  one  among  five 
great  patriarchs  —  though  the  most  loved  and  trusted  one. 
But  the  eighth  century  eliminated  the  other  four  patriarchs,  so 
far  as  Western  Christendom  was  concerned.  In  quick  succession, 
Alexandria,  Jerusalem,  and  Antioch  fell  to  the  Saracens  ;  and, 
soon  afterward,  remaining  Christendom  split  into  rival  Latin 
and  Greek  churches,  grouped  respectively  around  Rome  and 
Constantinople. 

Tlrix  "  Great  Schism''  fnllmrcd  the  ancient  lines  of  jmrtitinn 
Ix'tn-ccn  the  Latin  »///</  Uwk  Cultures  (§§  11,  25);  but  the  occa- 
sion for  actual  separation  was  a  dispute  over  the  use  of  images 
in  worship.  This  is  known  as  the  "iconoclast"  (image-break- 
ing) question.  A  small  but  influential  party  in  the  Greek 
Kmpire  desired  to  abolish  the  use  of  images,  which,  they  f«-lt, 
the  ignorant  were  apt  to  degrade  from  symbols  into  idols. 
The  great  reforming  emperor,  Leo  the  Isanrian  i  £  <H),  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  the  movement,  with  all  his  despotic  power. 
Finally,  he  ordered  all  images  removed  from  the  churches. 
The  West  believed  in  their  use  as  valuable  aids  to  worship; 
and  the  pope  forbade  obedience  to  the  order  of  the  emperor. 
The  result,  was  the  separation  of  Christendom  into  two  halves, 
never  since  united. 

In  the  East,  Leo  and  his  successors  were  temporarily  successful.  Be- 
fore the  year  800,  however,  the  image-users  regained  the  throne  in  the 
person  of  tlu>  Kmprcss  Irene.  Meantime  the  question  had  divided  Chris- 
tendom. The  churches  of  Greece  and  Russia  and  the  other  Slav  states 
of  Southeastern  Europe  still  belong  to  the  Greek  communion. 


Thus,  Rome  was  left  the  unquestioned  head  of  the  Latin 
Other  conditions,  which  we  are  now  to  trace,  raised  this  head- 
ship into  a  real  monarchy,  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual,  such  as 


§  72]  POPES   AND  THE   GREEK  EMPIRE  67 

was  never  attained  in  the  Greek  church,  where  the  patriarchs 
of  Constantinople  were  overshadowed  by  the  imperial  will. 

72.  While  the  popes  were  thus  extending  their  spiritual 
rule  over  all  the  West,  they  were  also  growing  into  temporal l 
sovereigns  over  a  small  state  in  Italy.  This  latter  character 
appeared  plainly  with  Gregory  the  Great  (§  TO).  We  will 
trace  the  growth  a  little  further. 

In  the  break-up  of  Italy  (§  46),  the  imperial  governor,  with 
his  capital  at  Ravenna,  was  cut  off  from  Rome  and  the  neigh- 


ISTERS   IN   THE   CHURCH   OF   ST.    JOHN    LATBRAN. 


boring  territory  still  belonging  to  the  Empire.  Bishops  pre- 
viously had  held  considerable  civil  authority.  This  new  con- 
dition left  the  bishop  of  Rome  the  chief  lieutenant  of  the 
Empire  in  his  isolated  district;  and  the  difficulty  of  commu- 
nication with  Constantinople  (and  the  weakness  of  the  emper- 

1  Temporal,  in  this  sense,  is  used  to  apply  to  matters  of  this  world,  in  con- 
trast to  the  spiritual  matters  of  the  world  eternal. 


68          THE  FRANKS  AND  THE  PAPACY         [§  73 

ors)  made  him,  in  practice,  an  independent  ruler.  At  the 
same  time,  as  spiritual  head  of  Christendom,  the  pope  called, 
in  some  matters,  for  obedience  from  the  emperor  himself. 

The  emperors  did  not  permit  this  papal  independence  with- 
out a  sharp  struggle.  One  pope  was  dragged  from  the  altar  to 
a  dungeon ;  another  died  in  lonely  exile  in  the  Crimea.  But 
the  Roman  population  of  Italy  rallied  round  its  great  bishops 
against  the  disliked  Greek  power.  They  even  discussed  plans 
for  setting  up  a  confederation  of  the  many  Italian  states  under 
papal  leadership.  Thus,  the  popes  more  and  more  boldly  defied 
the  emperors.  When  Leo  the  Isaurian  tried  to  collect  imperial 
taxes  in  Italy,  the  pope  sanctioned  resistance.  The  imperial 
decree  regarding  images,  we  have  already  noted,  met  with  a 
like  reception.  As  this  last  dispute  grew  bitter,  Popes  Gregory 
1 1  and  III  called  church  councils  which  excommunicated1  the 
emperor.  Leo  sent  an  army  to  seize  the  pope  and  subdue  Italy  ; 
but  a  storm  wrecked  the  expedition. 

The  popes  were  elected  at  this  early  time  by  the  clergy  and 
people  of  Home ;  but,  until  these  events,  they  always  asked  or 
accepted  confirmation  from  the  emperor,  like  other  bishops  of 
the  day.  Henceforward,  hoivever,  Itidinjis  <>f  l\»,n>'  assumed 
office  without  sanction  from  Constantinople.  Fifty  years  later, 
Pope  Hadrian  made  the  political  separation  more  apparent  by 
ceasing  to  date  events  by  the  reigns  of  the  emperors.  Instead,  lie 
called  a  certain  day  "  December  1,  of  the  year  781  in  the 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  our  God  and  Redeemer,"  —  and  so 
introduced  our  method  of  counting  time.2  . 

73.  Popes  and  Lombards.  —  The  popes  had  made  themselves 
independent  of  the  distant  Greek  Empire,  but  they  were  at 

1  Excommunication  was  a  terrible  weapon  of  the  church.     If  such  a  decree 
was  obeyed  by  the  community,  it  put  the  condemned  man  absolutely  out  of 
communication  with  his  fellows  and  practically  made  him  an  outlaw.    No 
one  might  speak  to  him,  or  give  him  food  or  shelter,  under  danger  of  similar 
penalty ;  and  his  very  presence  was  shunned  like  a  pestilence. 

2  The  Ancient  World  (§  652)  explains  the  error  in  computing  the  true  date 
for  the  birth  of  Christ.    Pope  Hadrian  should  have  called  this  year  785  or 
possibly  788. 


§  74]  STEPHEN   CONSECRATES   PIPPIN  69 

once  threatened  with  conquest  .by  the  neighboring  Lombards. 
King  Aistulf  of  Lorabardy  seized  the  Exarchate  of  Ravenna, 
and  prepared  to  seize  Rome.  Had  he  succeeded,  Italy  would 
have  become  a  united  nation  in  the  eighth  century,  instead  of 
waiting  till  late  in  the  nineteenth.  The  popes  appealed  to  the 
Franks  for  aid  against  Lombard  attack.  The  Frankish  mayors 
needed  papal  sanction  for  their  own  plans  just  then,  and  so  a 
bargain  was  struck  (§§  74,  75). 

In  the  confusion  of  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  two  organizing 
forces  had  appeared  in  Western  Europe, — the  papacy  and  the  empire 
of  the  Franks.  Now  they  began  to  work  together. 


IV.     ALLIANCE    OF   FRANKS   AND   PAPACY 
(FROM  CHARLES  THE  HAMMER  TO  CHARLES  THE  GREAT) 

74.  The  Frankish  Mayors  and  the  Popes.  —  Shortly  after  the 
victory  at  Tours,  the  "  Do-nothing  "  king  died.  Charles  Martel 
did  not  venture  to  take  the  title  of  king,  but  neither  did  he  place 
any  Merovingian  upon  the  throne.  He  continued  to  rule,  as 
Mayor  of  the  Palace,  without  any  king  at  all.  Before  his 
death  he  secured  the  consent  of  the  nobles  to  the  division  of 
his  office  between  his  sons  Karlmann  and  Pippin  the  Short. 

These  young  Mayors,  less  secure  at  first  than  their  victori- 
ous father,  crowned  a  Merovingian  prince,  in  whose  name  they 
governed  like  their  predecessors.  But  soon  Karlmann  re- 
tired to  a  monastery, — as  various  other  princes,  English  and 
Lombard,  did  in  this  age,  —  and  Pippin  then  began  to  think 
of  taking  to  himself  the  name  and  dignity,  as  well  as  the 
labors,  of  royalty. 

He  felt,  however,  the  need  of  powerful  sanction;  and  in 
750,  he  sent  an  embassy  to  the  pope  to  ask  whether  this  was 
"  a  good  state  of  things  in  regard  to  the  kings  of  the  Franks." 
The  pope,  who  needed  Pippin's  aid  against  the  Lombards, 
replied,  "  It  seems  better  that  he  who  has  the  power  should  be 
king  rather  than  he  who  is  falsely  called  so." 


70          THE  FRANKS  AND  THE  PAPACY        [§  75 

75.  Thereupon  Pippin  sent  the  last  Merovingian  to  a  monastery 
and  assumed  the  crown  (Davis'  Headings,  II,  No.  145).     AVlu'ii 
the    Lombards   again    attacked    Rome    (soon   after    Pippin's 
coronation)  Pope  Stephen  set  out  in  person  to  ask  aid  at  the 
Frankish.  court.      During  this  visit,  he  reconsecrated  Pippin 
as    king    of  the    Franks.      On    his    part,    Pippin    conquered 
Lombardy,   and   gave   to  the   pope   the  territory   which    the 
Lombards  had  recently  seized  from  the  Exarchate  of  Ravenna. 

Previous  Teutonic  kings  had  held  their  kingship  by  the  will 
of  their  people.  Stephen  anointed  Pippin  as  the  Jewish  proph- 
ets did  the  ancient  Hebrew  kings.  This  began  for  European 
kini^s  the  sacred  character  of  "the  Lord's  anointed." 

76.  The   "  Donation  of   Pippin  "  created  the  principality  of 
the  Papal  States,  —  a  strip  of  territory  reaching  across  Italy 
from  Rome  to  Ravenna  (map  after  page  60).     This  temporal 
kingdom  endured   until  1870,  when   its   last  fragments  wen* 
united  to  the  new-born  kingdom  of  Italy* 

The  exact  terms  of  Pippin's  grant  are  not  known.  Some 
writers  hold  that  the  pope  was  intended  to  be  wholly  sovereign 
in  this  territory.  Others  maintain  that  Pippin  stfpprd  into 
the  place  of  the  Greek  emperor,  and  simply  intrusted  to  his 
lieutenant,  the  pope,  somewhat  larger  domains.  In  practice, 
the  Frankish  kings  and  the  popes  long  remained  close  friends, 
and  it  was  not  until  much  later  (when  disputes  arose)  that  a 
theory  was  needed.  When  that  time  came,  however,  tin- 
ambiguous  character  of  this  grant  was  to  entangle  well-mean- 
ing men  in  hopeless  quarrels  for  centuries. 


SIXTH   PERIOD 


THE   EMPIRE   OF    CHARLEMAGNE 

77.  The  Greatest  Medieval  Man.  —  In  768  Pippin,  King  of 
the  Franks,  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Karl.     This  prince  was 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  that  ever  lived.     He  stamped 
himself  deeply  on  his  own  age,  and  his 

masterful  mind  even  cast  its  shadow  for- 
ward over  many  centuries  to  follow.  He 
is  known  in  history  as  Charles  the  Great, 
or,  more  commonly,  by  the  French  form  of 
that  name,  Charlemagne  (from  Carolus 
Magnus).  We  must  not  think  of  him,  how- 
ever, as  a  Frenchman.  He  was  a  full- 
blooded  German ;  and  the  forerunner  of 
the  later  German  kings  rather  than  of 
French  kings. 

Charlemagne's  secretary  (and  intimate 
friend),  Einhard,  has  left  us  a  vivid  pen- 
portrait  of  him.1  He  was  "large  and  ro- 
bust, and  of  commanding  stature  .  .  .  His 
eyes  were  large  and  animated ;  his  nose, 
somewhat  long.  He  had  a  fine  head  of 
gray  hair,  and  his  face  was  bright  and 
pleasant  .  .  .  Whether  standing  or  sitting,  he  showed  great 
dignity."  He  dressed  simply,  ate  and  drank  temperately,  and 
delighted  in  riding  and  hunting.  "  He  was  ready  of  speech, 
and  expressed  himself  with  great  clearness." 

78.  Character  of   Charlemagne's   Wars. — The  realm    of   the 
Franks  was  still  in  danger  from  barbarism   on  the  east  and 

1  Quoted  from  Einhard's  Life  of  Charlemagne  in  Davis'  Readings,  II. 

71 


SEAL  OF  CHARLE- 
MAGNE. (This  is  the 
nearest  approach  we 
have  to  a  likeness  of 
Charlemagne.  The 
so-called  "pictures" 
of  Charlemagne  in 
many  books  are 
purely  imaginative, 
by  artists  of  later 
centuries.) 


72  THE   EMPIRE   OF   CHARLEMAGNE  [§70 

Mohammedanism  on  the  south.  Charlemagne  took  the  ag- 
gressive and  rolled  the  danger  far  back  on  both  sides.  His 
reign  of  nearly  fifty  years  was  filled  with  ceaseless  bor<l<'r 
warfare,  oftentimes  two  or  three  great  campaigns  to  one 
season. 

At  first  glimpse,  therefore,  he  stands  forth  a  warlike  figure, 
like  Alexander  or  Caesar.  Like  them,  he  did  ext<'n<1  />//  «/•///. s 
the  area  of  civilized  life.  But  his  wars  were  not  romantic  or 
spectacular.  They  were  extremely  businesslike.  He  never 
had  a  really  great  antagonist.  A  campaign  consisted  com- 
monly in  sending  overwhelming  forces,  under  some  trusted 
general,  into  the  enemy's  country  to  beseige  its  strongholds 
and  waste  its  fields.  Charlemagne  did  not  war  for  glory  or 
for  gain,  but  to  crush  threatening  perils  before  they  grew  too 
strong.  He  was  not  chiefly  fighter  or  general,  but  statesman 
and  ruler. 

79.  Expansion  to  the  Elbe.  —  The  most  desperate  struggle 
was  with  the  heathen  Saxons,  who  were  threatening  to  treat 
the  Frankish  state  as  small  bands  of  them  had  treated  I'.rit- 
ain  some  three  centuries  before.  The  Saxons  still  held  the 
wilderness  between  the  Rhine  and  the  Elbe,  near  the  North 
Sea.  Protected  by  their  marshes  and  trackless  forests,  they 
kept  up  the  contest  against  all  the  power  of  Charlemagne  for 
more  than  thirty  years.  Repeatedly  they  were  vanquished  and 
baptized,  —  for  Charles  forced  the  conquered  tribes  to  accept 
Christianity  on  pain  of  death;  but  nine  times,  after  such  snl>- 
mission,  they  rebelled,  massacring  Frankish  garrisons  and 
returning  to  heathen  freedom,  —  to  their  human  sacrifices  and 
the  eating  of  the  bodies  of  witches. 

The  great  king's  methods  grew  stern  and  cruel.  The  black- 
est blot  on  his  fame  is  the  "massacre  at  Verden,"  where  /o/-f//- 
five  hundred  leaders  of  rebellion,  who  had  been  given  up  at 
his  demand,  were  put  to  death.  The  embers  of  revolt  still 
flamed  out,  however,  and  finally  Charlemagne  transported 
whole  Saxon  tribes  into  Gaul,  giving  their  homes  to  Frankish 
pioneers  and  garrisons. 


l.-.  10  5  o  5  10 


CHARLES  THE  GREAT 

814 

ROMAN  EMPIRE  OF  THE  WEST  ROMAN  EMPIRE  OF  THE  EAST    £_ 


Prankish  State  before  Charlemagn 
Charlemagne's  Additions 


MOHAMMEDANS: 
Emirate  of  Cordova 
Caliphate  of  Bagdad 


6    50  100      200       300       400      600 


Longitude  5  West  0 


10        Longitude       10  K;t.-t 


30  35  40  45  50  55 


from  85         Greenwich 


§  81]  A   TEUTONIC   STATE  73 

Whatever  we  think  of  the  methods,  these  wars  were  the 
most  fruitful  of  the  century.  The  long  pounding  of  thirty  years 
laid  the  foundation  for  modern  Germany.  Civilization  and 
Christianity  were,  extended  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Elbe.  The 
district  was  planted  with  churches  and  monasteries,  and  these 
foundations  proved  more  powerful  than  any  army  in  holding 
the  Saxon  lands  to  the  Frankish  state.  The  Saxon  campaigns 
of  Charlemagne  began  the  armed  colonization  of  the  heathen  East 
by  the  civilized  Germans. 

80.  Spain,  Italy,  Bavaria.  —  Other  foes  engaged  the  attention 
the  great  king  would  have  preferred  to  give  to  reconstruction. 
(1)  The  Saracens  were  easily  thrust  back  to  the  Ebro,  so  that  a 
strip  of  north  Spain  became  Frankish.1    (2)  The  vassal  Lombard 
king,  Desiderius,    quarreled  with  the  pope.      After   fruitless 
negotiation,  Charlemagne  marched  into  Italy,   confirmed  Pip- 
phi's  grant  to  the  pope,  sent  Desiderius  to  a  monastery,  and 
crowned   himself  king  of  the   Lombards,   at   Pavia,   with  the 
ancient  iron  crown  of  Lombardy.     (3)  Bavaria,  always  uncer- 
tain in  its  allegiance,  rebelled.     Charlemagne  subdued  it  thor- 
oughly, sending  its  duke  into  a  monastery. 

81.  Union  of  the  German  Peoples.  —  Thus,  Visigoth,  Lombard, 
Burgund,  Frank,  Bavarian,  Allemand,  Saxon, —  all  the  surviving 
Germanic  peoples,  except  those  in  the  Scandinavian  peninsula 
and  in  Britain,  —  were  united  into  one  Christian  Romano-Teu- 
tonic state*     This  seems  to  have  been  the  aim  of  Charlemagne. 
More  than  this  he  did  not  wish.     He  might  easily  have  seized 
more  of  Spain  or  some  of  the  rich  provinces  of  the  Greek 
empire  in  southern  Italy ;  but,  with  rare  moderation  he  re- 

1  The  defeat  of  Charlemagne's  rearguard,  on  the  return,  by  the  wild  tribes- 
men of  the  Pyrenees,  in  the  pass  of  Roncesvalles,  gave  rise  to  the  legend  of  the 
death  of  the  hero  Roland  in  battle  with  Saracens  there.    The  details  are  fable, 
but  the  Song  of  Roland  was  the  most  famous  poem  of  the  early  Middle  Ages. 
Students  should  know  Baldwin's  Story  of  Roland. 

2  The  population  was  largely  Roman  still ;  but,  —  in  Italy  and  south  Gaul, 
as  in  Saxon-land,  —  the  rule,  for  the  most  part,  wias  in  Teutonic  hands. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  the  small  Teutonic  states  in  Britain  and  Denmark, 
outside  Charlemagne's  government,  recognized  vaguely  his  overlordship. 


74  THE    EMPIRE   OF  CHARLEMAGNE  [§  82 

turned  freely  to  that  empire  some  of  its  provinces  which  had 
voluntarily  submitted  to  him.  To  a  mere  conqueror,  such 
realms  would  have  been  more  attractive  than  the  bleak  Saxon 
land ;  but  it  seems  plain  that  Charlemagne  did  not  choose  to 
take  inharmonious  elements  into  his  Teutonic  state. 

82.  Wars  against  the  Slavs.  —  The  Germans  had  now  become 
the  chief  champions  of  civilization.     Beyond  their  lands  there 
stretched  away  the  savage  Slavs  and  Avars  (map  after  p.  72), 
who  from  time  to  time  hurled  themselves  against  the  barriers 

,.of  civilization,  as  in  old  Roman  days.  In  the  closing  part  of 
his  reign,  Charlemagne  attacked  barbarism  in  these  strongholds 

—  as  the  best  way  to  defend  the  civilized  world.     Gradually 
the  first  line  of  peoples  beyond  the  Elbe  and  Danube  were  re- 
duced  to  tributary  kingdoms.     Charlemagne  made  no  attempt, 
however,  to  incorporate  them  into  his  German  state,  or  to  force 
Christianity  upon  them.     He  meant  them   merely  to  serve  as 
liHjl'i'i'x  itijiu'ittit  tln'ir  untamed  brethren  farther  east. 

83.  Revival  of  the  "Roman"  Empire  in  the  West.  —  Clovis 
and  Pippin  had  ruled  over  many  sub-states  and  diverse  peoples, 

—  over   an  empire  *   rather   than  a   mere  kingdom.      Charle- 
magne's conquests  had  added  to  this  imperial  character.     Now 
he  strengthened  his  authority  over  his  wide  realms  by  revirimj 
the  dignity  and  magic  name  of  the  Roman  empire.     He  knew 
that  a  mere  "  King  of  the  Franks  "  could  never  sway  the  minds 
of  Visigoth,  Lombard,  Bavarian,  Saxon,  and  especially  of  the 
Roman  populations  they  dwelt  among,  as  could  an  "  Emperor 
of  the  Romans  "  ruling  from  the  old  world-capital. 

There  was  already  a  "  Roman  Emperor,"  of  course,  at  Con- 
stantinople, whose  authority,  in  theory,  extended  over  all 
Christendom.  Just  at  this  time,  however,  Irene,  the  empress- 
mother,  put  out  the  eyes  of  her  son,  Constantine  VI,  and  seized 
the  imperial  power.  To  most  minds,  East  and  West,  it  seemed 

1  An  "  empire,"  strictly  speaking,  is  a  political  state  containing  many  sub- 
states.  A  "  state,"  in  this  sense,  does  not  mean  such  a  unit  as  Massachusetts 
or  New  York,  but  rather  England  or  the  United  States.  That  is,  it  means  a 
people  living  in  a  definite  territory,  under  one  government. 


§85]  POVERTY   AND   MISERY  75 

monstrous  that  a  woman  should  pretend  to  sway  the  scepter  of 
the  world,  and  Charlemagne  decided  to  restore  the  throne  to  its 
ancient  capital  in  the  West.  On  Christmas  Day,  SOO^A.D.,  he 
was  at  Rome,  whither  he  had  been  called  once  more  to  protect 
the  pope  from  turbulent  Italian  enemies.  During  the  Christ- 
mas service,  while  the  king  knelt  in  prayer  at  the  altar,  Pope 
Leo  III  placed  upon  his  head  a  gold  crown  and  saluted  him  as 
Charles  Augustus,  Emperor  of  the  Romans.  The  act  was  rati- 
fied by  the  enthusiastic  acclaim  of  the  multitude. 

84.  Character  of  the  Revived  Empire.  —  In  theory,  Kome  had 
chosen  a  successor  to  Constantino  VI,  just  deposed  at  Constan- 
tinople by  his  mother.     In  actual  fact,  however,  the  deed  of 
Leo  and  Charlemagne  divided  the  Christian  world  into  two 
rival  empires,  each  calling  itself  the  Roman  Empire.     After  a 
time  men  had  to  recognize  this  fact,  —  as  they  had  to  recog- 
nize that  there  were  two  branches  of  the  Christian  church ;  but 
to  the  men  of  the  West,  their  empire,  like  their  church,  re- 
mained the  only  legitimate  one.     Two  things  regarding  this 
restored  empire  must  be  borne  in  mind. 

Neither  empire  was  really  Roman.  As  the  Eastern  grew 
more  and  more  Oriental,  the  Western  grew  more  and  more  Teu- 
tonic. Charlemagne  and  his  successors  had  to  be  crowned  at 
Rome.  But  the  German  Rhine,  not  the  Italian  Tiber,  was  the 
real  center  of  their  state ;  and  Aachen,  not  Rome,  was  their  real 
capital.  Roman  ideas,  so  far  as  they  remained  vital,  were 
worked  out  by  rulers  of  Teutonic  blood. 

The  new  Empire  arose  out  of  a  union  of  the  papacy  and  the 
Prankish  power.  In  later  times  the  union  was  expressed  in 
the  name,  The  Holy  Roman  Empire.  The  Empire  had  its 
spiritual  as  well  as  its  temporal  head.  The  limits  of  authority 
between  the  two  heads  were  not  well  defined,  and  dissensions 
were  afterward  to  arise  between  them. 

85.  Poverty  and  Misery.  —  We  must  not  think  that  the  glory 
and  prosperity  of  the  old  Empire  had  been  restored  with  its 
name.     To  accomplish  that  was  to  be  the  work  of  centuries 
more.     In  800  the  West  was  ignorant  and  poor.     There  was 


r§ 


76  THE   EMPIRE   OF  CHARLEMAGNE  _^XS 

IT 

much  barbarism  in  the  most  civilized  society.  Roads  had 
fallen  into  neglect ;  brigands  infested  them ;  and  there  was 
little  communication  between  one  district  and  another.  Money 
was  little  heard  of.  Trade  hardly  existed.  Almost  the  only 
industry  was  a  primitive  kind  of  agriculture. 

Perhaps  we  can  see  this  condition  best  by  looking  at  the 
revenues  of  Charlemagne  himself.  Great  and  powerful  as  he 
was,  he  was  always  pinched  for  money. 
There  were  no  taxes,  as  we  understand  the 
word,  —  partly  because  there  was  no  money 
to  pay  them  with,  and  little  produce.  Pay- 
ment was  made  by  service  in  jn'rsnn.  The 
common  freemen  paid  by  serving  in  the 
ranks  in  war;  the  nobles  paid  by  serving 
there,  with  their  followers,  and  also  by 
serving,  without  salary,  as  officers  in  the 
government.  The  treasury  received  some 
fines,  and  it  was  enriched  somewhat  by  the 
"  gifts "  which  were  expected  from  the 
wealthy  men  of  the  realm;  but  its  chief 
support  came  from  the  produce  of  the  royal  farms  scattered 
through  the  kingdom. 

To  make  sure  of  this  revenue  in  the  cheapest  way,  the  king 
and  court  constantly  traveled  from  farm  to  farm  to  consume 
the  produce  upon  the  spot.  Charlemagne  took  the  most 
minute  care  that  his  farms  should  be  well  tilled,  and  that  e;i< -h 
one  should  pay  him  every  egg  and  vegetable  due.  For  the 
management  of  his  estates  he  drew  up  regulations,  from  which 
we  learn  much  about  the  conditions  of  the  times.  (Davis' 
Readings,  II,  No.  149;  or  Ogg's  Source  Book,  No.  18.) 

86.  The  Government.  —  The  complex  and  efficient  system  of 
government  of  the  old  Roman  Empire  had  vanished  even  more 
completely  than  the  old  roads  and  commerce  and  taxing  sys- 
tem. The  new  government  of  Charlemagne's  Empire  was  rude 
and  simple,  but  suited  to  the  conditions  of  the  age. 

Five  features  deserve  attention,  —  the  counts;  the  watching 


SKRVING  MAN  WITH 
I.  A  MI-:  time  of 
Charlemagne. 


§86]  THE    GOVERNMENT  77 

of  the  counts  by  the  missi  dominici;  the  king's  own  marvelous 
activity ;  the  capitularies  ;  and  Mayfields. 

Under  the  Merovingians,  large  fragments  of  the  king- 
dom had  fallen  under  the  rule  of  dukes,  who  became  almost 
independent  sovereigns  and  who  usually  passed  on  their 
authority  to  their  sons.  Pippin  began  to  replace  these  heredi- 
tary dukes  with  appointed  counts,  more  closely  dependent  upon 
the  royal  will.  This  practice  was  extended  by  Charlemagne. 

Except  on  the  frontier,  no  one  count  was  given  a  large  dis- 
trict; so  these  officers  were  numerous.  On  the  frontiers,  to 
watch  the  outside  barbarians,  the  imperial  officers  were  given 
large  territories  (''marks"),  and  were  called  margraves.  To 
counts  and  margraves  the  king  intrusted  all  ordinary  business 
of  government  for  their  districts.  They  maintained  order,  ad- 
ministered justice,  levied  troops,  and  in  all  ways  represented 
the  king  to  the  people. 

To  keep  the  counts  in  order,  Charlemagne  introduced  a  new 
set  of  officers  known  as  missi  dominici  ("king's  messengers"). 
The  empire  was  divided  into  districts,  each  containing  the  gov- 
ernments of  several  counts,  and  to  each  such  district  each  year 
there  was  sent  a  pair  of  these  commissioners,  to  examine  the 
administration  and  to  act,  for  the  year,  as  the  king's  self,  — 
overseeing  the  work  of  local  counts,  correcting  injustice,  hold- 
ing popular  assemblies,  and  reporting  all  to  the  king.1 

This  simple  system  worked  wonderfully  well  in  Charlemagne's 
lifetime,  largely  because  of  his  own  marvelous  activity.  Despite 
the  terrible  conditions  of  the  roads,  and  the  other  hardships  of 
travel  in  those  times,  the  king  was  constantly  on  the  move, 
journeying  from  end  to  end  of  his  vast  dominions  and  attend- 
ing unweariedty  to  its  wants.  No  commercial  traveler  of 
to-day  travels  more  faithfully,  and  none  dreams  of  meeting 
such  hardships. 

With  the  help  of  his  advisors,  the  king  drew  up  collections  of 
laws  to  suit  the  needs  of  his  people.  These  collections  are  known 
as  capitularies.  (Davis'  Headings,  II,  377  ff.,  gives  extracts.) 

1  See  instructions  to  the  missi,  in  Robiusoi/s  Readings,  I,  139-143. 


78  THE    EMPIRE   OF   CHARLEMAGNE  [§87 

To  keep  in  closer  touch  with  popular  feeling  in  all  parts  of 
the  kingdom,  Charlemagne  made  use  of  the  old  Teutonic 
assemblies  in  fall  and  spring.  All  freemen  could  attend. 
Sometimes,  especially  when  war  was  to  be  decided  upon,  this 
"Mayfield"  gathering  comprised  the  bulk  of  the  men  of  the 
Frankish  nation.  At  other  times  it  was  made  up  only  of  the 
great  nobles  and  churchmen.  (Cf.  §  49.) 

To  these  assemblies  the  capitularies  were  read;  but  the 
assembly  was  not  itself  a  legislature.  Lawmdking  icu*  in  the 
hands  of  the  king.  At  the  most,  the  assemblies  could  only 
bring  to  bear  upon  him  mildly  the  force  of  public  opinion. 

A  modern  French  historian  (Coulanges)  pictures  a  Mayfield  thus : 
••  An  immense  multitude  is  gathered  in  a  plain,  under  tents.  It  is 
divided  into  separate  groups.  The  chiefs  of  these  groups  assemble  about 
the  king,  to  deliberate  with  him.  Then  each  of  them  tells  his  own  group 
what  has  been  decided,  perhaps  consults  them,  but  at  any  rate  obtains 
their  consent  as  easily  as  the  king  had  obtained  his ;  for  these  men  are 
dependent  on  him,  just  as  he  is  on  the  king.  .  .  .  The  king's  will  de- 
cided everything  ;  the  nobles  only  advised." 

.  87.  Attempts  to  revive  Learning.  —  Charlemagne  never  learned 
to  write.  But  he  spoke  and  read  Latin,  as  well  as  his  native 
German,  and  he  understood  Greek.  For  the  age,  he  was  an 
educated  man,  and  he  tried  earnestly  to  encourage  learning. 
The  difficulties  in  building  up  a  better  education  were  almost 
beyond  our  comprehension.  There  seemed  no  place  to  bf<th/. 
Not  only  the  nobles,  but  even  many  of  the  clergy  were  densely 
ignorant.  The  only  tools  to  work  with  were  poor. 

Charlemagne  did  much.  He  secured  more  learned  men  for 
the  clergy.  He  brought  about  the  opening  of  schools  in  many 
of  the  monasteries  and  at  the  seats  of  some  of  the  bishops ; 
and  he  urged  that  these  schools  should  not  only  train  the 
clergy,  but  that  they  should  teach  all  children  to  read,  even 
those  of  serfs.  Some  of  the  schools,  established  or  revived  at 
this  time,  as  at  Tours  and  Orleans,  acquired  much  fame.  For 
teachers,  learned  men  were  brought  from  Italy,  where  the 
Roman,  culture  best  survived.  Charlemagne  also  established 


88] 


SCHOOLS   AND   LEARNING 


79 


SILVER  COIN  OF  CHARLEMAGNE.  The  obverse 
side  shows  the  Latin  form  of  his  name.  Note 
the  rudeness  of  the  engraving  compared  with 
that  of  Justinian's  coin  on  page  42. 


a  famous  "  School  of  the  Palace  "  for  the  nobles  of  the  court ; 
and  the  scholar  Alcuin  was  induced  to  come  from  England  to 
direct  it.  The  emperor  himself,  when  time  permitted,  studied 
at  the  tasks  of  the  youths,  and  delighted  in  taking  part  in  the 
discussions  of  the  scholars  whom  he  had  gathered  about  him. 

With  great  zeal,  too, 
he  strove  to  secure  a 
true  copying  of  valu- 
able manuscripts,  and 
especialty  a  correction 
of  errors  that  had 
crept  into  the  services 
of  the  church  through 
careless  copying. 
"Often,"  says  one 
capitulary,  "  men  de- 
sire to  pray  to  God, 

but  they  pray  badly  because  of  incorrect  books.  Do  not  per- 
mit boys  to  corrupt  them.  If  there  is  need  of  writing  the 
Gospel  .  .  .  ,  let  men  of  mature  age  do  the  writing  diligently." 

88.  The  Place  of  Charlemagne  in  History.  —  In  the  early  part 
of  the  eighth  century  there  were  four  great  forces  contending 
for  Western  Europe,  —  the  Greek  Empire,  the  Saracens,  the 
Franks,  and  the  Papacy.  By  the  year  800,  Charles  Martel)and 
,  Charles  the  Great  had  excluded  the  first  two  and  had  fused  the 
other  two  into  the  revived  Roman  Empire. 

For  centuries  more,  this  Roman  Empire  was  to  be  one  of 
the  most  important  institutions  in  Europe.  Barbarism  and 
anarchy  were  again  to  break  in,  after  the  death  of  the  great 
Charles ;  but  the  imperial  idea,  to  which  he  had  given  new  life, 
was  to  be  for  ages  the  inspiration  of  the  best  minds  as  they 
strove  against  anarchy  in  behalf  of  order  and  progress. 

True,  Charlemagne  was  ahead  of  his  age ;  and,  after  his 
death,  his  great  design  broke  down.  Still,  his  work  was  to  be 
revived  again  by  other  men,  as  it  could  never  have  been  except 
for  his  temporary  success. 


80  THE    EMPIRE   OF   CHARLEMA(iM.  [§88 

True,  too,  Charlemagne  built  upon  the  work  of  Pippin  and 
Martel ;  but  he  towers  above  them,  and  above  all  other  men 
from  the  fifth  century  to  the  fifteenth,  —  easily  the  greatest 
figure  of  a  thousand  years. 

He  stands  for  five  mighty  movements.  He  widened  the  area 
of  civilization,  created  one  great  Romano-Teutonic  state,  revived 
the  Roman  Empire  in  the  West  for  the  outward  form  of  this 
state,  reorganized  church  and  society,  and  began  a  revival  of 
learning.  He  wrought  wisely  to  combine  the  best  elements 
of  Roman  and  of  Teutonic  society  into  a  new  civilization.  In 
his  Empire  were  fused  the  various  streams  of  influence  which 
the  Ancient  World  had  contributed  to  our  Modern  World. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. — Students  who  have  not  studied  this  intro- 
ductory period  (from  400  to  800)  in  a  course  in  ancient  history  \vill 
tind  a  good  brief  account  in  Emerton's  Introduction  to  the  Middle  Ages  or 
in  Masterman's  Dawn  of  Medieval  Europe.  Einhard's  contemporary  Lift- 
of  Charlemagne  is  published  in  Harper's  Half-Hour  series  (30  cents), 
and  Hodgkin's  Charles  the  Great  is  a  readable  and  valuable  little  book. 
Davis'  Charlemagne  is  a  good  longer  account. 

EXERCISES  on  Part  I  are  not  given,  because  this  part  of  the  book  is 
often  covered  by  classes  in  Ancient  history,  and  teachers  may  wish  to 
pass  over  it  rapidly. 


PART   I 

THE  AGE   OF  FEUDALISM 

Real  history  is  that  of  the  manners,  the  laws,  the  arts  of  men,  and  oj 
the  progress  of  the  human  spirit.  —  VOLTAIRE. 


CHAPTER   I 

WHAT   MODERN   HISTORY    BEGAN   WITH 

89.  The  world  at  the  close  of  Ancient  history  was  divided 
among  four  great  powers,  —  two  Christian  "  Roman  "  Em- 
pires and  two  Mohammedan  Caliphates  (map  after  page  72). 
Each  Christian  state  was  jealous  of  the  other,  and  therefore  /^  4 
more  or  less  friendly  with  that  Mohammedan  power  which 
bordered  upon  that  other,  while  it  was  bitterly  hostile  to  its 
own  Mohammedan  neighbor.1 

For  centuries  the  Western  Empire  was  the  least  polished, 
the  least  wealthy,  and,  indeed,  the  least  civilized,  of  the  four 
states.  Mohammedan  culture  has  been  briefly  referred  to 
(§  67).  To  an  even  greater  degree  the  Greek  Empire  kept 
the  old  civilization.  Constantinople  was  the  most  splendid 
city  in  the  world.  It  possessed  beautiful  parks  and  was 
guarded  by  an  efficient  police  system.  Its  streets  were  paved 
and  lighted.  Hospitals  and  orphan  asylums  cared  for  its 
poor.  It  was  also  the  greatest  center  of  trade  and  manu- 
facturing. Its  silks,  jewelry,  glazed  pottery,  weapons,  vand 
mosaics  found  their  way  sometimes,  as  rare  possessions,  into 
even  the  rude  West.  The  population  numbered  about  a  million. 
The  people  were  keen-witted  and  intellectual,  and  they  looked 

1  The  Caliph  Haroun  al  Raschid  at  Bagdad,  who  figures  in  the  Arabian 
Nights,  was  Charlemagne's  contemporary.  In  an  exchange  of  courtesies,  the 
Saracen  sent  to  the  Frank  a  white  elephant  and  a  curious  waterclock  that 
struck  the  hours,  —  objects  of  infinite  amazement  to  the  Frankish  court. 

81 


82 


MODERN   HISTORY   BEGINS 


[§90 


with  contempt,  mingled  with  some  dread,  upon  the  warlike 
Franks,  whom  they  still  styled  barbarians. 

And  yet  the  rude  Western  Empire  of  the  Franks,  with  its 
fringes  in  the  Teutonic  states  of  England  and  Scandinavia, 
was  the  only  one  of  the  four  great  powers  which  was  to  stand  for 
further  progress,  the  only  one  with  which  Modern  history. is 
much  concerned.  » 

90.  The  scene  of  history  had  shifted  to  the  West  once  more 
(cf.  §§4,  8),  and  this  time  it  had  shrn.nki'n  in  xize.  Some  Teu- 
tonic districts  outside  the  old  Roman  world  had  been  ad  tied 
(§§  52,  79);  but  vast  areas  of  the  Roman  territory  itself  had 


£      ™ 

/      ' 

•r«v. 


To  600  B.C.,  inside  the  dathed  line. 
At  800  A.D.  (Romano- Teutonic  Europe) 
intiOe  the  dotted  lint. 

SCALE  OF  MILES 


)         1000        1500 
Longitude  Kut 


THE  FIELD  OF  ANCIENT  HISTORY,  TO  800  A.D. 

been  abandoned.  The  Euphrates,  the  Nile,  the  Eastern  Medi- 
terranean, all  Asia  with  Eastern  Europe  to  the  Adriatic,  and 
Africa  with  Western  Europe  to  the  Pyrenees,  were  gone. 
The  Mediterranean  —  the  center  of  the  old  Roman  world  — 
had  become  an  ill-defended  moat  between  Christian  Europe 
and  Mohammedan  Africa ;  and  its  ancient  place  as  the  great 


§91]  THE   HERITAGE  83 

highway  of  civilization  was  taken  over,  as  well  as  might  be, 
by  the  Rhine  and  the  North  Sea. 

91.  We  can  now  sum  up  the  inheritance  with  which  the  Modern 
World  began. 

Through  Rome  the  Western  peoples  were  the  heirs  of  Greek 
mind  and  Oriental  hand,  including  most  of  those  mechanical 
arts  which  had  been  built  up  in  dim  centuries  by  Egyptian, 
Babylonian,  and  Phoenician.  Much  of  this  inheritance,  both 
intellectual  and  material,  was  forgotten  or  neglected  for  hun- 
dreds of  years ;  but  most  of  it  was  to  be  finally  recovered. 

Rome  herself  had  contributed  (1)  a  universal  language,  which 
was  to  serve  as  a  common  medium  of  learning  and  inter- 
course for  all  the  peoples  of  Western  Europe ;  (2)  Roman  law ; 
(3)  municipal  institutions,  in  southern  Europe;  (4). the  im- 
perial idea,  —  the  conception  of  one,  lasting,  universal,  su- 
preme authority,  to  which  the  world  owed  obedience. 

The  fresh  blood  of  the  Teutons  reinvigorated  the  old  races, 
and  so  provided  the  men  who  for  centuries  were  te  do  the 
world's  work.  The  Teutons  contributed,  too,  certain  definite 
ideas  and  institutions,  —  (1)  a  new  sense  of  personal  inde- 
pendence;  (2)  a  bond  of  personal  loyalty  between  chieftain 
and  follower,  in  contrast  with  the  old  Roman  loyalty  to  the 
state ;  (3)  a  new  chance  for  democracy,  in  the  popular  assem- 
blies of  different  grades. 

Out  of  Roman  and  Teutonic  elements  there  had  already  de- 
veloped a  new  serf  organization  of  labor  (§  30);  a  new  no- 
bility ;  and  a  new  Romano-Teutonic  kingship. 

Most  important  of  all,  there  was  Christianity,  with  its  institu- 
tions of  monasticism  and  the  papacy. 


CHAPTER   II 

DISRUPTION    OF  CHARLEMAGNE'S   EMPIRE 

92.  Charlemagne  died  in  814,  and  his  Empire  did  not  long 
outlive  him.       His  brilliant  attempt  to  bring  Western  Europe 
into  union  and  order  was  followed  by  a  dismal  period  of  reaction 
toward  ignorance  and  turmoil.     His  son  and  successor,  Loni*  fh<- 
Pious,   was  a  weak  pi-inn1,  whose  reign  was  filled  with  quarrels 
among  his  sons  as  to  how  the  realm  should  be  divided  among 
them.     In  twenty-seven  years — from  817  to  843  —  seven  'af- 
ferent plans  of  partition  were  tried,  and  most  of  them  were  ac- 
companied by  bloody  civil  war. 

93.  The  greatest  of  these  struggles  closed  with  the  Treaty  of 
Verdun,  in  843.     This  treaty  began  the  map  of  Modem  Europe. 
Lothair,  the  eldest  grandson  of  Charlemagne,  held  the  title  of 
emperor,  and  wished  to  hold  the  two  imperial  capitals,  Rome 
and  Aachen.     Accordingly  he  was  given  North  Italy  and  a 
narrow  strip  of  land  from  Italy  to  the  North  Sea.     The  rest 
of  the  empire  was  made  into  two  kingdoms  —  that   of   the 
East  Franks  and  that  of  the  West  Franks  —  for  Lothair's  two 
brothers. 

The  eastern  kingdom  lay  beyond  the  Rhine  and  was  purely 
German.  It  was  to  grow  into  the  kingdom  of  the  Germans. 
In  the  western  state  the  Teutonic  elements  were  being  ab- 
sorbed rapidly  into  the  old  Gallic  population,  and  its  territory 
corresponded  fairly  well  with  the  extent  of  the  new  French 
language  then  rising  into  use.1  It  was  finally  to  take  the 

1  During  the  war,  the  two  younger  brothers  allied  themselves  against 
Lothair.  To  confirm  this  league,  they  took  an  oath  in  the  presence  of  their 
armies.  This  famous  "Oath  of  Strassburg  "  shows  the  growing  dinVn-Mf*1 
between  the  languages  spoken  in  the  eastern  and  western  parts  of  the  Empire. 

94 


§  95  J  TREATY   OF    VERDUN  85 

name  of  France.  Lothair's  un wieldly  middle  kingdom  proved 
the  weakest  of  the  three  states.  It  lacked  unity  both  in  geog- 
raphy and  race.  Italy  fell  away  from  the  rest  almost  at 
once.  Then  the  northern  district  (part  French,  part  German) 
crumbled  into  fragments,  most  of  which  were  finally  absorbed 
by  one  of  the  two  larger  neighbors. 

94.  On  the  whole,  the  Middleland  was  more  German  than  French,  and 

most  of  it  soon  became  attached  to  the  eastern  kingdom.  Some  centuries 
later,  France  began  to  seize  parts  of  it,  and,  ever  since,  it  has  been  a  de- 
batable land.  From  it  came  the  many  "Little  Kingdoms  "  that  were  to 
confuse  the  map  and  the  politics  of  Europe  for  centuries.  Three  of  these 
small  states  survive,  —  in  modern  Holland,  Belgium,  and  Switzerland, 
and  others  lie  at  the  root  of  the  Alsace-Lorraine  trouble  of  to-day. 

95.  For  a  century  after  Verdun,  political  history  remained  a 
tangle  of  ferocious  and  treacherous  family  quarrels.     The  founders 
of   the    Carolingian1   line   had  won   such    surnames   as    "  the 
Hammer "   and   "  the    Great " ;    but   their    descendants   were 
known  as  "the  Bald,"  "the  Simple,"  "the  Fat,"  "the  Stam- 
merer," "  the  Child,"  "  the  Lazy."     A  series  of  accidents  united 
all  the  dominions  of  Charlemagne  once  more  —  for  three  years 
(884-887)  —under  Charles  the  Fat.     Then  the  nobles  deposed 
that  sluggish  prince,  and  the  realm  fell  apart  again,  along  the 

-\ 

Charles,  the  kiug  of  the  West  Franks,  swore  in  the  language  of  his  brother's 
German  army,  and  Lewis,  king  of  Bavaria  (East  Franks),  swore  in  the  West 
Franks'  tongue,  so  that  each  army  might  know  what  was  promised  by  the 
other  party.    The  double  oath  begins :  — 

"Pro  Deo  amur  et  pro  Christian  poblo  et  nostro  commun  salva- 

"  In  Godes  minna  ind  in  thes  ehristianes  folches  ind  unser  bedhero  gehalt- 
(In  God's  love  and  for  this  Christian  .people  and  our  common  salva- 

ment        dist  di          in        avant          in        quant        Deus  savir,"  etc. 

nissi  fon  thesemo  dage  frammordes  so  fram  so  mir  God  gewizci,"  etc. 
tion,  from  this  day  forward,  so  far  as  God  gives  me  knowledge) 

These  are  the  earliest  records  in  the  French  and  German  tongues.  The 
French  is  half  way  between  Latin  (Roman)  and  modern  French.  This 
shows  why  the  name  Romance  Languages  is  given  to  modern  French,  —  and 
also  to  Spanish  and  Italian,  which  grew  up  in  a  similar  way. 

1  The  name  Carolingian,  from  Carolus,  the  Latin  form  of  Charles,  is 
applied  to  all  the  rulers  of  Charlemagne's  line. 


86  THE   CAROLINGIANS  [§  95 

lines  of  the  Verdun  treaty,  never  to  be  reunited.  The  many 
branches  of  the  degenerate  Carolingians  died  out  one  by  one ; 
and  in  911  in  Germany,  and  in  987  in  France,  the  nobles  elected 
native  kings  from  among  themselves.  These  stories  will  be 
told  when  we  take  up  the  separate  histories  of  France  and 
Germany. 

EXERCISE.  —  Draw  the  Division  of  Verdun  from  memory,  preferably 
upon  "  outline  maps,"  with  as  much  detail  as  in  the  map  facing  page  84. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Students  may  profitably  consult  Emerton's 
Medieval  Europe,  14-35,  or  Church's  Beginnings  of  the  Middle  Afjes,  140- 
156.  Adams'  Civilization,  ch.  viii,  gives  an  admirable  discussion. 


CHAPTER   III 

,-^- 

THE   NEW   BARBARIAN    ATTACK 

"  From  the  fury  of  the  Northmen,  O  Lord,  deliver  MS." — Prayer  in 
church  service  of  the  tenth  century. 

96.  Europe  of  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  we  have  just 
seen,  was  distracted  by  quarrels  within.     We  are  now  to  note 
that  it  was  imperiled  also  by  a  new  danger  from  without.     Once 
more  barbarian  invasions  threatened  the  civilized  world.     Instead 
of  combining  against  the  invaders,  the  Carolingian  princes 
strove  only  to  take  base  advantage  of  one  another's  misfortunes. 
Even  within  one  kingdom,  the  people  of  different  sections  felt 
no  common  interest  in  repelling  the  attack,  but  allowed  their 
neighbors  to  suffer,  until  the  evil  reached  themselves.     More- 
over, the  roads  were  so  poor  that  troops  could  hardly  be  col- 
lected quickly  enough  to  meet  the  scattered  and  swift  attacks. 

Europe  seemed  at  the  mercy  of  the  invaders.  On  the  east, 
hordes  of  wild  Slavs  and  of  wilder  Hungarians  broke  across 
the  frontiers,  ravaged  Germany,  and  penetrated  sometimes 
even  to  Borne  or  to  Toulouse  in  southern  France.  The  Mo- 
hammedan Moors  from  Africa  attacked  Italy,  Sicily,  and 
southern  France,  establishing  themselves  firmly  in  many  dis- 
tricts and  turning  the  Mediterranean  into  a  Mohammedan  lake. 
Fierce  Norse  pirates  harried  every  coast,  and,  swarming  up  the 
rivers,  pierced  the  heart  of  the  land. 

The  Slavs  and  Moors  had  appeared  earlier  in  history  (§§  42, 
67),  but  two  of  the  invaders  were  fresh  forces  in  European 
development  (§§  97,  98). 

97.  The  Hungarians  were  a  Tartar  people,  like  the  Huns 
(§  40)  in  customs  and  character.     Advancing  westward  from 
their  old  homes  in  the  Ural- Volga  country,  they  reached  the 

87 


88 


THE    FEUDAL   AGE 


upper  Danube  in  889,  and  for  the  next  sixty  years  they  proved 
the  most  terrible  scourge  that  Europe  had  ever  known.  They 
were  small,  active  nomads,  moving  swiftly  on  scraggy  ponies,— 
slaying,  burning,  carrying  off  captives  and  all  movable  plunder, 
and  laying  waste  the  laud. 

98.  The  Norsemen  were  a  new  branch  of  the  Teutons,  and 
the  fiercest  and  wildest  of  that  race.1  They  dwelt  in  the 
Scandinavian  peninsulas,  and  were  still  heathen.  They  had 
taken  no  part  in  the  earlier  Teutonic  invasions;  but,  in  the 
ninth  century,  population  was  becoming  too  crowded  for  their 
bleak  lands,  and  they  were  driven  to  seek  new  homes.  Some 

of  them  colonized  dis- 
tant Iceland,  and  set  up 
a  free  republic  there ; 
but  the  greater  mi  in  her 
resorted  to  a  life  of  war- 
fare at  the  expense  of 
richer  countries.  The 
Swedes  expanded  to 
the  east,  conquering  the 


KI:M  MNS  «>F  YIKIM;  SHIP,  found  buried  in 
sand  at  Gokstad,  Norway.  It  is  of  oak, 
impaintfd ;  length  over  all,  79  feet  4 
inches,  from  stem  to  stern ;  breadth  of 
beam,  IfiJ'  feet;  perpendicular  depth,  6 
feet  in  the  middle,  8}  feet  at  the  extn-m- 
ities. 


Finns    and    Slavs,   while 
Danish    and     Norwegian 
••  Vikings"  ("sons  of  the 
fiords")   set    forth    upon 
"the    pathway   of   the 
swans  "  to  plunder  West- 
ern Europe,  in  fleets  counting  sometimes  hundreds  of  boats, 
sometimes  only  two  or  three. 

The  Norse  ships  were  long,  open  boats,  seventy-five  feet  by 
twelve  or  fifteen,  carrying  a  single  square  sail,  but  driven  for 
the  most  part  by  thirty  or  forty  long  oars.  A  boat  bore  per- 
haps eighty  warriors ;  and  each  man  was  perfectly  clad  in  ring 

1  There  is  a  fine  description  of  the  Northmen  in  Green's  Conquest  of 
England,  50-69.  See  also  some  of  the  following :  Boyesen's  Story  of  Norway, 
Du  Chaillu's  Viking  Age,  Keary's  Vikings,  Mabie's  Norse  Stories  Retold, 
Jiriczek's  Northern  Hero  Legends,  or  the  Story  of  the  Burnt-Njal. 


'its 


V 


§  99]  THE   NORSE   INVASIONS  89 

mail  and  steel  helmet,  and  armed  with  lance,  knife,  bow,  and 
the  terrible  Danish  axe.  Daring,  indeed,  were  the  long  voyages 
of  the  Northmen  in  these  frail  craft.  They  laughed  at  the  fierce 
storms  of  the  northern  seas.  "The  blast,"  they  sang,  "aids 
our  oars;  the  hurricane  is  our  servant  and  drives  us  whither 
we  wish  to  go." 

Charlemagne  maintained  fleets  to  prevent  pirate  attacks; 
but  in  the  quarrels  of  his  weak  successors  the  Norsemen 
found  their  opportunity.  Every  part  of  the  Empire  felt 
their  raids.  They  drove  their  light  vessels  far  up  a  river,  into 
the  heart  of  the  land,  and  then,  seizing  horses,  harried  at  will. 
They  not  only  plundered  the  open  country,  but  they  sacked 
cities  like  Hamburg,  Rouen,  Paris,  Nantes,  Bordeaux,  Tours, 
Cologne.  Within  one  period  of  a  few  years,  they  ravaged 
every  town  in  old  Austrasia,  and  finally  stabled  their  horses 
in  the  cathedral  of  Aachen,  about  the  tomb  of  Charlemagne. 
A  characteristic  sport  of  the  raiders,  according  to  popular 
stories,  was  to  toss  babes  upon  their  spears,  from  point  to 
point. 

Especially  did  they  plunder  and  burn  the  churches  and 
monasteries.  There  they  found  the  most  desirable  booty,— 
richly  woven  and  splendidly  decorated  altar  cloths,  vessels  of 
gold  and  silver  used  in  the  services,  and  sometimes  deposits 
of  treasure.  The  boldest  outlaws  of  Christendom  trembled  at 
the  thought  of  violating  these  sacred  sanctuaries ;  but  the 
scornful  worshipers  of  Thor  delighted  in  ravaging  the  de- 
fenseless temples  of  "  the  White  Christ."  When  a  band  was 
defeated,  the  enraged  people,  on  their  part,  flayed  captives 
alive  and  nailed  their  skins  to  the  church  doors. 

99.  At  last,  like  the  earlier  Teutons,  the  Norsemen  ceased  to  be 
mere  plunderers,  and  became  conquerors.  They  settled  the  Ork- 
neys, Shetland s,  Hebrides,  little  patches  on  the  north  of 
Scotland,  and  the  whole  west  of  Ireland,  and  finally  estab- 
lished themselves  in  the  east  of  Britain  and  in  the  north  of 
France.  These  two  latter  colonies  were  the  last  important  in- 
fusions of  Teutonic  blood  into  the  old  Roman  world. 


90  THE  FEUDAL  AGE  [§  100 

100.  Rolf  and  "  Normandy."  —  In  911  Charles  the  Simple, 
king  of  France,  stopped  the  Norse  raids  in  his  country  by 
planting  some  of  the  invaders  on  the  northern  coast  to  defend 
it,  under  their  leader  Rolf  the  Dane.  Rolf  was  known  also  as 
the  Walker,  because,  it  was  said,  he  was  too  gigantic  for  any 
horse  to  bear.  He  and  his  followers  accepted  Christianity  as 
part  of  the  bargain  with  the  French  king,  and  agreed  to  ac- 
knowledge Charles  as  their  overlord  for  the  new  Dukedom  of 
Normandy,  as  their  district  came  to  be  called. 

Custom  required  that  Rolf  should  do  homage  to  Charles  for  this 
"grant"  of  a  dukedom  by  kneeling  before  the  king  and  kissing  his  foot. 
Rolf  refused  haughtily,  but  finally  commanded  one  of  his  followers  to 
perform  the  humiliating  act  for  him.  The  disgusted  Norse  warrior  pre- 
tended to  obey,  but,  according  to  the  story,  in  lifting  the  king's  foot  to 
his  lips,  he  raised  it  so  high  as  to  topple  the  king  over  on  his  back! 

To  understand  the  Norse  invasions  of  England,  and  tJ»  it- 
results,  we  must  know  something  more  of  the  earlier  history  of 
that  island.  And  that  story  will  bring  us  back  to  Normandy. 


CHAPTER   IV 

BRITAIN   BECOMES   ENGLAND 

101.  The  Saxon  Conquest.  —  In  408  the  Roman  legions  were 
withdrawn  from  Britain  to  defend  Italy  against  a  threatened 
invasion  by  the  Goths.     The  imperial  government  had  aban- 
doned the  island,  and  left  the  dismayed  Romanized  Britons  to 
defend  themselves  as  best  they  could  against  Teutonic  ravagers 
on  the  coasts  and  the  wild  Celts l  of  the  Scottish  mountains. 
The  Britons  called  in  the  Teutons  to  beat  off  the  other  foe, 
and  soon  these  dangerous  protectors  began  to  take  the  land  for 
their  own. 

The  chief  invading  Teutons  were  the  Jutes  from  the  Danish 
peninsula  (Jutland)  and  the  Saxons  and  Angles  (English)  from 
its  base.  The  Jutes  made  the  first  permanent  settlement, 
about  the  middle  of  the  century  (449  A.D.),  in  southeastern 
Britain.  The  Saxons  occupied  the  southern  shore,  and  the 
Angles  the  eastern,  carving  out  numerous  petty  states  in  a 
long  series  of  cruel  campaigns.  Gradually  these  little  units 
were  welded  into  larger  kingdoms,  until  there  appeared  seven 
prominent  Teutonic  states :  Kent,  the  kingdom  of  the  Jutes ; 
Sussex,  Essex,  and  Wessex  (kingdoms  of  the  South  Saxons, 
East  Saxons,  and  West  Saxons) ;  and  the  English  kingdoms 
of  East  Anglia,  Northumbria,  and  Mercia. 

102.  This  conquest,  unlike  that  of  Gaul  and  Spain,  was  very 
slow.     It  took  the  Teutons  a  century  and  a  half  (till  about 
600)  to  master  the  eastern  half  of  the  island.     Causes  for  this 
delay  are  to  be  found  both  in  the  nature  of  the  invasion  and 
in  the  condition  of  Britain. 

1  Celt  is  a  name  applied  to  the  Highland  Scots,  the  Irish,  the  Gauls  of 
France,  and  the  native  Britons  of  Britain,  before  the  Teutonic  conquest. 

91 


92  BRITAIN    BECOMES    ENGLAND  [§  lOb 

a.  The  Saxons  at  home  were  living  in  petty  tribes,  n mi- 
common  government,  and  therefore  could  make  no  great  organ- 
ized attack.     Coming  by  sea,  too,  they  came  necessarily  in  small 
bands.     Moreover,  they  were   still  pagans,   and,   unlike   the 
Franks,  they  wore  untouched  by  Roman  civilization.     There- 
fore they  spread  ruthless  destruction  and  provoked  a  more 
desperate  resistance. 

b.  Britain  had  been  less  completely  Romanized  than  the  con- 
tinental provinces  were.     There  was  more  of  fore *t  ami  //m /•*//. 
and  a  less  extensive  network  of  Roman  roads.     Hence  the  natives 
found  it  easier  to  make  repeated  stands. 

103.  Because   the   conquest    was   so   slow,    it   was   thorough. 
On  the  continent  the  invaders  of  the  fifth  rentnrv  were  soon 
absorbed  by  the  larger  native  populations  ;  hut  Emjlaml  taxMM 
strictly  a  Teutonic  land.     In  the  eastern  half  of  the  island,  in 
particular,  Roman  institutions,  the   Roman  language,  Chris- 
tianity, even   names,  for   the   most   part,  vanished,  and  the 
Romanized  natives  were  slain,  driven  out,  or  enslaved. 

104.  About  the  year  600,  Christianity  began  to  win  its  way 
among  these  heathen  conquerors.     In  the  north  of  Kn^land,  the 
early  missionaries  came  mainly  from  the  old  (Celtic)  Christian 
church  which  was   still   surviving  in   western    Britain  and  in 
Ireland,  though  cutoff  from  connection  with  the  rest  of  Chris- 
tendom.    The  south,  on   the  other  hand,  was   converted  by 
missionaries  sent   out  directly  by  Pope   Gregory  the   Great 
(§  70)  ;  and  the  rulers  of  the  north  were  soon  brought  to  accept 
this  better  organized  form  of  Christianity. 

105.  Political  Union.  —  The    Teutonic   states   farthest    east 
were  soon  shut   off  from   Celtic   territory,  and   so  ceased  to 
grow;  but  Wessex,  Mercia,  and  Northumbria  continued  to  ex- 
pand at  the  expense  of  bordering  British  tribes.     It  was  plain 
that  leadership  must  fall  to  one  of  these  three  ;  and  about  the 
middle  of  the  ninth  century  Egbert,1  king  of  the  West  Saxons, 
brought   all   the    Teutonic    parts    of    the   island   under    his 

1  Egbert  had  spent  some  years  at  the  court  of  Charlemagne  and  may  have 
been  influenced  by  the  work  of  that  ruler. 


106] 


CHRISTIANITY 


93 


authority.  Egbert,  however,  was  merely  a  head-king  sur- 
rounded by  jealous  tributary  kings  who  might  break  away  at 
any  mqinent  from  a  weak  ruler. 

This  was  the  situation  at  the  beginning  of  the  Danish  in- 
vasions whose  story  we  left  in  §  100.  These  at  first  shattered 
the  new  union,  but  in  the  end  they  helped  it  to  grow  more  per^ 
feet.  The  story  tills  a  century,  and  falls  into  two  parts.  V 


ST.  MARTIN'S  CHURCH,  NKAR  CANTERBURY. —  From  a  photograph.  Parts/oi' 
the  building  are  very  old,  and  may  have  belonged  to  a  church  of  the  Ro- 
man period.  At  all  events,  on  this  site  was  the  first  Christian  church  in 
Britain  used  by  Augustine  and  his  fellow  missionaries,  sent  out  by  Pope 
Gregory.  They  secured  the  right  to  use  it  through  the  favor  of  Queen 
Bertha,  a  Prankish  princess,  who  had  married  the  King  of  Kent.  A  tomb, 
said  to  be  Queen  Bertha's,  is  shown  in  th.e  church. 

106.  First  Period  of  Danish  Invasions  (850-885).  —  The 
Danes  began  their  raids  in  the  time  of  Egbert,  and  made  their 
first  attempt  at  permanent  settlement  in  850,  when  a  band 
wintered  on  the  southeastern  coast.  From  that  time  their  at- 
tempts grew  more  and  more  eager,  until  in  871,  after  a  series 
of  great  battles,  in  the  last  of  which  the  king  of  Wessex  was 
slain,  they  became  for  a  time  masters  of  Saxon  England. 

The  power  of  Wessex  soon  revived,  however,  under  Alfred 


94  BRITAIN  BECOMES   ENGLAND  [§  107 

the  Great  (871-901),  brother  of  the  slain  king.  Just  after  the 
Danish  victory,  Alfred  had  been  driven  into  hiding  in  moors 
and  fens.  But  from  his  secret  retreats  he  made  many  a  daring 
sally,1  and  finally  he  succeeded  in  reorganizing  the  Saxons  and 
defeating  the  Danes.  The  Danes  accepted  Christianity,  and, 
by  the  Treaty  of  Wedmore  (885),  received  for  their  own  the 
territory  north  of  the  old  Roman  road  (Watling  Street)  from 
London  to  Chester.  (Map  on  page  95.) 

The  several  kingdoms  in  the  south  now  allowed  themselves 
to  be  absorbed  in  Wessex,  which  plainly  was  their  chief  de- 
fense against  the  invaders,  and  Alfred's  half  of  the  island 
became  one  Saxon  state.  The  first  period  of  Danish  warfare 
dosed  with  this  division  of  the  island  into  a  Danish  North  and  a 
Saxon  South. 

107.  Alfred's  Reforms.  —  When  the  young  king  had  won  back 
his  land,  the  difficulties  before  him  were  still  enormous.  The 
country  was  burned  and  wasted ;  government  was  at  a  stand- 
still, with  its  whole  machinery  demoralized;  schools  and 
learning  had  vanished.  "  When  I  began  to  reign,"  wrote 
Alfred  himself  later,  "  I  cannot  remember  one  priest  south  of 
the  Thames  who  could  render  his  service-book  [from  the  Latin 
in  which  it  was  written]  into  English."  North  of  the  Thames, 
the  king  explains,  conditions  were  still  worse.  In  other  words, 
no  priest  in  England  understood  the  church  services  which  he 
mumbled. 

Alfred  gave  the  rest  of  his  life  to  heal  these  terrible  wounds 
of  his  kingdom.  To  strengthen  England  against  future  danger, 
he  reorganized  the  army,  created  the  first  English  navy,  and 
reared  many  a  strong  fort  on  commanding  heights.  But  an- 
other side  of  his  work  was  infinitely  more  important.  He 
rebuilt  the  wasted  towns,  restored  churches  and  abbeys,  codi- 
fied the  laws,  reformed  the  government,  and  ardently  encour- 
aged the  revival  of  learning,  eagerly  seeking  out  teachers  at 
home  and  abroad.  In  the  absence  of  proper  text-books  in 

1  Special  report :   anecdotes  of  Alfred  during  this  period  of  his  life. 


107] 


ALFRED   THE   TRUTHTELLER 


ENGLAND 

AND 
THE  DANELAGH 

about  900 


96  BRITAIN   BECOMES   ENGLAND  [§  108 

English  for  his  new  schools,  he  himself  laboriously  translated 
four  standard  Latin  works  into  English,  with  much  comment 
of  his  own,  —  so  adding  to  his  other  titles  the  well-deserved 
one  of  "  the  father  of  English  prose."  l  His  own  day  knew 
him  by  the  honorable  name  of  "  Alfred  the  Truthteller."  Later 
generations  looked  back  at  him  as  "  England's  Darling  " ;  and 
few  kings  have  so  well  earned  his  title  of  "  the  Great." 

Alfred's  activity  was  many-sided.  A  great  historian  has  written  of 
him,  — 

"  To  the  scholars  he  gathered  round  him  he  seemed  the  very  type  of  a 
scholar,  snatching  every  hour  he  could  find  to  read  or  listen  to  books. 
The  singers  of  the  court  found  in  him  a  brother  singer,  gathering  the  old 
songs  of  his  people  to  teach  them  to  his  children  .  .  .  and  solacing  him- 
self, in  hours  of  depression,  with  the  music  of  the  Psalms.  He  passed 
from  court  and  study  to  plan  buildings  and  instruct  craftsmen  in  gold- 
work,  or  even  to  teach  falconers  and  dog-keepers  their  business.  .  .  . 
Each  hour  of  the  day  had  its  appointed  task.  .  .  .  Scholar  and  soldier, 
artist  and  man  of  business,  poet  and  saint,  his  character  kept  that  perfect 
balance  which  charms  us  in  no  other  Englishman  save  Shakspere.  *  So 
long  as  I  have  lived,'  said  he  as  life  was  closing,  *  I  have  striven  to  live 
worthily '  :  and  again,  '  I  desire  to  leave  to  men  who  come  after  me  a 
remembrance  of  me  in  good  works.'  "  2 

108.  Second  Period  of  Danish  Warfare.  —  According  to  the 
treaty  with  Alfred,  the  Danish  king  in  the -north  of  Britain 
was  supposed  to  pay  some  vague  obedience  to  the  Saxon  king ; 
but,  in  fact,  the  Danelaw  (land  of  the  Danes'  law)  was  an  inde- 
pendent state.  A  second  period  of  warfare  (900-950)  went  to 
the  reconquest  of  this  Danelaw  by  the  great  successors  of 
Alfred,  —  Edward  the  Unconquered,  Athelstane  the  Glorious, 
and  Edmund  the  Doer  of  Deeds.  These  heroes  of  the  house 

1  There  were  a  few  ballads  and  one  long  poem  (Song  of  Beowulf)  in  the  Eng- 
lish tongue,  but  no  prose  literature  until  these  translations  by  Alfred. 

2  An  admirable  brief  account  of  Alfred's  work  is  in  Green's  History  of  the 
English  People,!,  74-80  (from  one  passage  of  which  the  last  paragraph  in  the 
text  above  is  condensed),  and  much  the  same  one  in  Green's  Short  History, 
47-52.    One  of  these  works  should  be  accessible.    Many  students  will  enjoy 
also  one  of  the  longer  Lives  of  Alfred,  by  Hughes,  York-Powell,  Bowker,  or 
Plummer.    Hughes'  is  the  shortest  and  most  entertaining. 


§  10HJ  ALFRED   TUP:   TRUTHTELLKR  97 

of  Alfred  completed  that  great  king's  work,  and  under  Edgar 
the  Peaceful  (957-975),  his  great-grandson,  the  island  rested 
in  union  and  prosperity.  Even  the  kings  of  the  Celtic  tribes 
in  the  far  west  and  north  came  to  Edgar's  court  to  acknowl- 
edge his  overlordship. 

We  can  now  see  the  significance  of  the  barbarian  invasions  of  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  whose  story  we  began  in  §  96.  Unlike  the 
invasions  of  the  fifth  century,  they  did  not  create  a  new  society.  But 
( i )  they  brought  in  new  Teutonic  stock  to  invigorate  northern  France 
and  eastern  England  ;  (2)  they  helped  along  the  political  union  of 
England  ;  (3)  they  helped  to  break  up  the  Empire  of  Charlemagne  ; 
and  (4)  they  forced  Europe  to  take  on  a  new  military  organization  for  de- 
fense. This  organization  we  call  feudalism,  and  we  shall  study  it  in  the 
next  chapter. 

SPECIAL  REPORTS.  —  1.  Ruric  and  the  Norse  kingdom  in  Russia. 
2.  The  Varangians  at  Constantinople.  3.  The  Norse  in  Ireland. 
4.  Norse  voyages  to  "  Vinland  the  Good  "  in  America.  5.  Alfred 
the  Great's  life  and  work.  Material  will  be  found  in  the  footnote  refer- 
ences to  §§  97,  107.  Students  should  search  for  other  material. 


CONWAY  CASTLK.  — From  Old  England. 


CHAPTER   V 

FEUDALISM 
A  protest  of  barbarism  against  barbarism.  —  HEGEL. 

| 

109.  The    Successor   of   the   Empire   of  Charlemagne.  —  The 
ninth  century,  as  we  have  noticed,  saw  the  territorial  begin- 
nings of  Germany,  France,  and  Italy,  and  (outside  the  old 
realm  of  Charlemagne)  of  England,  Norway,  Denmark,  and 
Sweden.     But  the  nations  to  occupy  these  territories  were  not  yet 
made,  and  the  new  governments  proved,  as  yet,  unequal  to  the 
needs  of  the  age.     Everywhere,  so  far  as  maintaining  political 
order  was  concerned,  the  immediate  successor  of  the  Empire  of 
Charlemagne  ivas  the  feudal  organization.     This  new  form  of 
government  dominated  Europe  for  four  hundred  years,  and 
played  a  leading  part  in  many  countries  up  to  the  nineteenth 
century.    Indeed,  it  has  left  important  traces  in  Europe  to-day. 

110.  The  Product  of  Anarchy.  —  After  Charlemagne,  through 
the  renewal  of  barbarian  invasions  from  without  and  the  col- 
lapse of  government  within,  the  ninth  century  became  an  age 
of  indescribable  horror.     The  strong  robbed  the  weak ;    and 
brigands  -  swept  over  the  land,  to  kill,  torture,  and  plunder. 

98 


§110] 


CASTLES  AND  MEN-AT-ARMS 


99 


But  man  must  seek  some  government  that  can  protect  life 
and  property ;  and  out  of  this  anarchy  there  emerged  a  new 
social  order  resting  on  force.  Here  and  there,  and  finally  in 
greater  and  greater  numbers,  some  petty  chief  planted  himself 
strongly  on  a  small  domain.  Perhaps  he  was  a  retired  bandit 
or  a  rude  huntsman;  perhaps  xhe  was  one  of  the  old  nobles  and 
had  held  his  domain  formerly  as  an  officer  of  the  king.  In 
any  case,  he  kept  it  henceforth  for  himself,  warding  off  all 
attack. 

By  so  doing,  he  became  a  protector  of  others.  The  bene- 
factor in  that  age  was  the  man  who  could  fight,  and  who  could 
gather  a  troop  of  fighters  under  him.  He  was  the  noble,  the 
soldier  (miles).  He  laid 
anew  the  foundation  for 
modern  society,  and  be- 
came the  ancestor  of  the 
later  European  aristoc- 
racy.1 "  In  those  days," 
says  an  old  chronicle, 
kings,  nobles,  and  knights, 
to  be  always  ready,  kept 
their  horses  in  the  rooms 
in  which  they  slept  with 
their  wives."  Finally, 
each  district  was  provided 
with  its  settled  body  of 
soldiers  and  with  its  circle 
of  frowning  castles ;  and 
then  the  invasions  ceased. 
The  whole  nature  of  feu- 
dalism was  typified  in 
these  two  military  fea- 
tures, the  castle  and  the  DRAWBBIDGE  AND  PoBTCULLI8. 
mailed  horseman.  Gautier's  La  Chevalerie. 


From 


1  Taine,   Ancient  Regime,  6.     Taine's  fine  passage,  pp.  5-8,  is  largely 
quoted  or  adapted  in  this  and  the  following  section. 


100 


FEUDALISM 


111.  Castles  rose  at  every  ford  and  above  each  mountain  pass 
and  on  every  hill  commanding  a  fertile  plain.  At  first  they 
were  merely  wooden  blockhouses,  surrounded  by  palisades  and 
ditches;  but  they  grew  into  enormous  buildings  of  massive 
stone,  crowned  by  frowning  battlements  whence  boiling  pitch 

and  masses  of  rock  could 
be  hurled  down  upon  as- 
sailants. Usually  the  ap- 
proach was  across  a  moat 
(a  ditch  filled  with  water), 
by  a  narrow  <lran-bi-' 
to  a  massive  iron  gate  with 
a  portcullis  (a  heavy  iron 
grating)  which  could  be 
dropped  from  above.  Usu- 
ally, too,  the  bridge  was 
protected  by  flanking 
towers,  from  whose  slit- 
like  windows  bowmen 
could  command  the  road. 
Sometimes  the  walls  in- 
closed several  acres,  with 
a  variety  of  buildings  and 
with  room  to  gather  cattle 
and  supplies,  and  to  shelter 
the  neighboring  villa 
during  an  enemy's  raid; 
but  there  was  always  an 
inner  keep  (an  especially  strong  tower),  with  its  own  series  of 
fortifications,  and,  if  possible,  with  its  own  well.  The  keep  was 
the  especial  residence  of  the  lord's  family,1  and  the  stronghold 
where  the  last  stand  was  made  if  the  foe  captured  the  outer 
defenses  of  the  castle.  Its  walls  were  often  enormously  thick, 

1  Some  two  centuries  later,  the  noble  families  began  to  escape  from  these 
damp  and  gloomy  quarters  by  building  a  new  "  hall  "  for  residence  in  time  of 
peace.  . 


Mr.niKv  \i.  CAS  ri, i  .>f  the  larger  sort,  with 
moat  ami  drawbridge.  —  A  "restora- 
tion," from  Gautier's  La 


§112] 


CASTLES   AND   MEN-AT-ARMS 


101 


so  that  a  man  crawling  out  of  a  window  would  have  to  creep 
three  times  his  length.  The  secret  winding  stairway  to  the 
upper  floors  was  sometimes  concealed  within  these  walls ;  and 
near  the  keep  there  was  usually  a  small  "  postern  "  gate  in  the 
outer  walls  for  the  private  use  of  the  lord  and  his  family. 

Until  the  days  of  gun- 
powder, feudal  castles 
were  virtually  impregna- 
ble to  ordinary  attack. 
They  could  be  captured 
only  by  surprise,  by 
treachery,  or  by  famine. 
Upon  such  walls  the  Norse 
invaders  spent  their  force 
in  vain.  In  later  times, 
secure  of  such  retreat,  a 
petty  lord  could  some- 
times defy  even  his  own 
sovereign  with  impunity ; 
and  too  often  the  castles 
became  themselves  the 
seats  of  robber-barons 
who  oppressed  the  country 
around  them.  To-day  their 
gray  ruins  all  over  Europe 
give  a  peculiar  pictur- 
esqueness  to  the  landscape, 
mocking,  even  in  decay, 
the  slighter  structures  of 
modern  times. 

112.  "  Men-at-Arms."  -  -  The  castles  afforded  a  refuge  for  man 
and  treasure.  But  during  the  invasions,  the  problem  in  the 
field  had  been  to  bring  to  bay  the  swiftly  moving  assailants,  — 
the  light  horsemen  of  the  Hungarians,  or  the  Danes  with  their 
swift  boats  for  refuge.  The  Frankish  infantry  had  proved 
too  slow. 


THE  CASTLE  OF  PIERREFONDS  in  the  four- 
teenth century. — A  "  restoration  "  by 
Viollet  le  Due. 


102 


FEUDALISM 


[§113 


Feudalism  met  this  need  also.  Each  castle  was  always 
ready  to  pour  forth  its  band  of  trained  and  faithful  men-at- 
arms  (horsemen  in  mail)  under  the  command  of  the  knight, 
either  to  gather  quickly  with  other  bands 
into  an  army  under  a  higher  lord,  or  by 
themselves  to  cut  off  stragglers  and  hold 
the  fords  and  passes.  The  raider's  day  was 
over ;  but  meantime  the  old  Teutonic  foot 
militia,  in  which  every  freeman  had  held 
a  place,  had  given  way  to  an  iron-clad 
cavalry,  —  the  resistless  weapon  of  the  new 
feudal  aristoc- 


racy. 

113.  Armor.— 
In  the  early 
A  GERMAN  KNIGHT  feudal  period, 
of  the  twelfth  cen-  down  to  1100,^6 
tury .  -  From  a  con-  defensive  -  armor 
temporary  manu- 
script. was  an  lron  caP 

and   a   leather 

garment  for  the  body,  covered  with 
iron  scales.1  Then  came  in  coats  of 
"  chain-mail,"  reaching  from  neck  to 
feet,  with  a  hood  of  like  material  for 
the  head.  About  1300  appeared  the 
heavy  "  plate  armor,"  and  the  helmet 
with  visor,  which  we  usually  associ- 
ate with  feudal  warfare.  A  suit  of 
this  armor  weighed  fifty  pounds  or 
more ;  and  in  battle  the  warrior  bore 
also  a  weighty  shield,  besides  his  long 
two-handled  sword  and  his  lance.2 


KNIGHT  IN  PLATE  AIOH»K, 
visor  up.  —  From  Lacroix, 
Vie  Militaire. 


1  The  warriors  in  the  illustration  on  pp.  147,  154  wear  this  kind  of  armor. 

2  The  student  will  enjoy  "  Mark  Twain's  "  humorous  conceit  in  A  Yankee 
at  King  Arthur's  Court  as  to  the  discomforts  of  medieval  armor,  and  the 
difficulty  of  getting  at  a  handkerchief! 


§  114]  ARMOR  108 

Necessarily  the  war  horse  that  carried  a  heavy  man  so  equipped 
was  a  powerful  animal ;  and  he  too  had  parts  of  his  body  pro- 
tected by  iron  plates. 

The  supremacy  of  the  noble  over  common  men  during  the 
middle  ages  (before  the  invention  of  gunpowder)  lay  mainly  in 
this  equipment.  He  could  ride  down  a  mob  of  unarmed  footmen 
at  will.  The  peasants  and  serfs  who  sometimes  followed  the 
feudal  army  to  the  field,  to  slay  the  wounded  and  plunder  the 
dead,  wore  no  armor  and  wielded  only  pikes  or  clubs  and 
pitchforks.  Naturally  they  came  to  be  called  infantry ;  that 
is,  boys  ("enfants"). 

114.  Origin  of  Feudal  Classes.  —  While  the  disorders  of  the 
ninth  century  were  at  their  worst,  any  man  of  courage  who 
could  get  together  an  armed  force  and  fortify  a  dwelling 
found  the  neighborhood  ready  to  turn  to  him  as  its  master. 
Other  weaker  landlords  gladly  surrendered  to  him  their  lands,1 
to  receive  them  back  as  "  fiefs,"  while  they  themselves  be- 
came his  vassals,  acknowledging  him  as  their  lord  (or  suzerain) 
and  fighting  under  his  banner. 

This  soldiery  afforded  protection  to  other  classes.  The 
peasants  saw  that  they  were  no  longer  to  be  slain  or  driven 
captive  by  chance  marauders.  They  ventured  to  plow  and 
sow.  In  case  of  danger  they  found  asylum  in  the  circle  of 
palisades  at  the  foot  of  the  castle.  In  return  they  cultivated 
the  lord's  crop,  acknowledged  him  as  their  landlord,  and  paid 
him  dues  for  house,  for  cattle,  and  for  each  sale  or  inheritance. 
The  village  became  his  village ;  the  inhabitants,  his  villeins. 

Besides  these  resident  laborers,  who  had  some  claim  to  con- 
sideration, fugitive  wretches  gathered  on  the  lord's  lands,  to 
receive  such  measure  of  mercy  as  he  might  choose  to  grant. 
These  sank  into  the  class  of  "  ser/s,"  2  of  whom  already  there 
were  many  on  all  large  estates  (§  30). 

1  This  practice  was  known  as  "commendation."    It  went  on  until  prac- 
tically all  the  land  of  Western  Europe  was  held  by  its  possessor  from  some 
higher  lord. 

2  The  terms  "  serf  "  and  "  villein  "  are  explained  in  §  129. 


104  FEUDALISM  [§  115 

115.  Origin  of  Feudal  Privileges.  — Both  villeins  and   serfs 
were   largely  at  the   lord's  mercy;   but  one  master,  however 
tyrannical,  could  not  be  so  great  an  evil  as  constant  anarchy. 
In  return  for  the  protection  he  gave,  the  lord  assumed  many 
privileges.     In  later  times,  these  came  to  be  unspeakably  ob- 
noxious, but  in  their  origin  they  were  usually  connected  with 
some  benefit  conferred  by  the  lord. 

The  lord's  services  did  not  stop  with  defense  against  robbers. 
He  slew  the  wild  beast,  and  so  came  finally  to  have  the  sole  rhjltt 
to  hunt.  He  was  also  the  sole  organizer  of  labor.  He  forced 
the  villeins  to  build  the  mill,  the  oven,  the  ferry,  the  bridge, 
the  highway.  Then  he  took  toll  for  tin*  //.*-  nf  nil  these  con- 
veniences ;  and  later  he  demolished  the  mill  that  the  villeins 
would  have  built  for  themselves. 

11  Later  the  masters  of  these  castles  were  the  terror  of  the  country,  but 
they  saved  it  first.     Power  always  establishes  itself  through  ft 
perishes  through  abuse. "  —  DCRUY,  Middle  Ages,  201. 

14  Disastrous  as  were  most  of  the  effects  of  the  system,  it  at  least  justi- 
fied its  existence  by  saving  Christendom  from  the  foe  without.  .  .  .  Any 
ransom  was  worth  paying,  if  thereby  Rome  was  saved  from  the  Sara  mi. 
Mainz  from  the  Magyar  [Hungarian],  Paris  from  the  heathen  of  the 
North."  —OMAN,  Dark  Ages,  512. 

116.  Each   petty  district   became   practically   independent   of 
every  other  district.     The  king  had  been  expected  to  protect 
every  corner  of  his  realm,  and  as  a  fact  he  had  protected  none ; 
but  each  little  chieftain  proved  able  to  care  for  his  own  small 
corner  when  he  was   left   to   himself.     Feudalism   meant   (he 
replacing   one   ineffective  central  authority  in   each  country  by 
countless  disconnected  but  effective  local  authorities.     The  noble 
took  even  the  courts  of  his  district  under  his  care.    His  territory 
became  a  little  state  of  itself.     The  great  nobles  coined  money, 
and  made  war  and  treaties,  like  very  kings.    Out  of  some  70,000 
feudal  lords  in  France  in  the  tenth' century,  two  hundred  or  more 
held  these  sovereign  powers  of  coinage  and  of  war  and  peace. 

117.  Feudalism  seems  to  us  a  bad  system,  but  it  had  a  good 
side.     The  fief,  large  or  small,  became  an  object  of  love  and 


§119]  ECONOMIC   CAUSES  105 

devotion  to  its  inhabitants.  The  lord  was  admired  and  almost 
worshiped  by  his  people ;  and  in  return,  however  harsh  him- 
self, he  permitted  no  one  else  to  injure  or  insult  one  of  his 
dependents.  An  honorable  noble,  indeed,  lived  always  under 
a  stern  sense  of  obligation  to  all  the  people  subject  to  him. 
A  rough  paternalism  ruled  in  society.  Perhaps  the  system 
was  more  rough  than  paternal ;  but  it  was  better  than  anarchy, 
and  it  nourished  some  virtues  peculiar  to  its  own  day. 

A  passage  from  Joinville's  Memoir  of  St.  Louis  illustrates  this  better 
side  of  the  feudal  relation.  Joinville  was  a  great  French  noble  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  about  to  set  out  on  a  crusade.  At  Eastertide  he  sum- 
moned his  vassals  to  his  castle  for  a  week  of  feasting  and  dancing  in 
honor  of  his  approaching  departure.  "  And  on  the  Friday  I  said  to 
them  :  '  Sirs,  I  am  going  beyond  sea  and  know  not  whether  I  shall  ever 
return  ;  so  draw  near  to  me.  If  I  have  ever  done  you  any  wrong,  I  will 
redress  it  to  one  after  another,  as  is  my  practice  with  all  who  have  any- 
thing to  ask  of  me.'  And  I  made  amends  to  them,  according  to  the  deci- 
sions of  those  dwelling  on  my  lands ;  and,  that  I  might  not  influence  them, 
I  withdrew  from  their  deliberations  and  carried  out  without  dispute  what- 
ever they  decided." 

118.  So  far,  we  have  been  looking  at  feudalism  as  the  prod- 
uct of  military  necessity.      Many  of  its  features,  however,  were 
the  result  of  economic 1  necessity,  —  of  the  lack  of  money  and 
of  roads.     Economically,  as  well  as  politically,  each  locality 
had  been  thrown  upon  its  own  resources  and  had  been  com- 
pelled to  provide  for  its  own  needs.     The  rich  man's  wealth 
was  in  land ;  but  he  could  make  land  pay  only  by  renting  it 
for  services  or  for  produce.     He  rented  part  of  it  to  smaller 
"nobles,"  who   paid   him   by  fighting   for   him,  and   part   to 
workers,  who  raised  and  harvested  his  crops,  and  gave  him 
part  of  their  own.     The  man  who  had  no  land  was  glad  to  ex- 
change his  services  for  the  use  of  land  in  one  way  or  the  other. 

119.  There  were  three  elements  of  feudalism.      The  first  was  the 
personal  relation  between  lord  and  vassal.     This  is  summed  up  in  the 
word  vassalage.     It  seems  to  have  been  due  in  large  measure  to  the 

1  Economics  refers  to  wealth,  as  politics  does  to  government. 


106  FEUDALISM  [§  120 

peculiar  personal  relation  between  chieftain  and  ''companion"  among 
the  old  Teutonic  barbarians  (§39).  Vassalage  will  be  explained  in  de- 
tail in  §  122  ff. 

The  second  element  concerned  landholding.  Each  vassal  held  a  fief 
from  his  liege  lord,  in  return  for  •'  honorable  "  service.  This  practice 
was  copied  from  a  common  usage  among  the  Romans. 

The  third  element  was  the  jurisdiction  (right  of  government)  which 
each  master  of  a  fief  held  over  the  dwellers  and  subvassals  upon  it. 
This  connection  of  political  authority  with  landholding  dates  in  some 
degree  from  the  early  Teutonic  conquests. 

The  union  of  these  three  things,  in  the  period  of  disorder  that  followed 
Charlemagne,  produced  European  feudalism. 

120.  Feudal  Theory  and  Practice.  —  Rising  out  of  anarchy, 
feudalism  kept  some  anarchic  traits.  At  first  the  relations  of 
lord,  vassal,  and  villein  differed  widely  in  different  localities, 
and  each  district  fixed  its  own  customs  and  law.  To  a  great 
degree  this  remained  true  as  long  as  feudalism  lived  at  all ; 
but  gradually  the  kings'  lawyers  built  up  a  theory  of  beauti- 
ful simplicity,  to  which  facts,  in  some  measure,  came  to 
conform. 

In  this  feudal  theory,  the  holder  of  any  piece  of  land  was  only 
a  tenant  of  some  higher  landlord;  and,  besides  the  clergy,  there 
were  two  mam  classes  of  society,  —  the  fighters,  who  were 
"  noble,"  and  the  workers,  who  were  ignoble. 

The  king  belonged  to  the  fighting  class  and  was  the  supreme 
landlord.  He  let  out  most  of  the  land  of  the  kingdom,  on 
terms  of  military  service,  to  great  vassals  who  swore  fealty  to 
him.  Each  of  these  parceled  out  most  of  what  he  received, 
on  like  terms,  to  smaller  vassals ;  and  so  on,  perhaps  through 
six  or  seven  steps,  until  the  smallest  division  was  reached  tin  it 
could  support  a  mailed  horseman  for  the  noble' 's  life  of  fight  in  //. 

In  practice  there  was  no  such  regularity.  The  various  grades 
were  interlocked  in  the  most  confusing  way.  Many  of  the 
smallest  vassals  held  their  land  directly  of  the  king  or  of  the 
greatest  lords,  —  not  of  a  lord  just  above  them  in  importance, 
—  and  the  holdings  and  obligations  differed  in  all  conceivable 
ways.  Often  great  lords  held  part  of  their  lands  from  smaller 


§  122]  THE   FIGHTERS  107 

ones,  and  even  kings  were  vassals  for  part  of  their  kingdoms, 
—  perhaps  to  vassals  of  their  own. 

Thus  the  Count  of  Champagne  in  the  thirteenth  century  was  lord  of 
twenty-six  castles,  scattered  over  north-central  France,  each  the  center  of 
a  separate  fief.  Most  of  these  he  held  from  the  King  of  France,  but  others 
of  them  he  held  from  seven  other  suzerains,  —  among  them  the  Em- 
peror and  the  Duke  of  Burgundy.  Some  of  these  lords  of  the  count  were 
now  and  then  at  war  with  one  another.  The  count  had  sublet  his  land 
among  2000  vassals,  but  many  of  these  held  lands  also  from  other  suzerains, 
—  sometimes  from  suzerains  of  the  count. 

121.  Suzerain  and  Vassal.  —  Except  for  the  smallest  knights, 
all  landlords  of  the  fighting  class  were  "  suzerains "   (liege 
lords) ;  and,  except  perhaps  the  king,  all  were  vassals.     There 
was  no  great  social  distinction  between  the  lord  and  his  vassals. 
They  lived  on  terms  of  familiarity  and  mutual  respect.     The 
"  vassal "  was  always  a  "  noble,"  and  his  service  was  always 
"  honorable."     It  must  never  be  confounded  with  the  "  ignoble  " 
service  paid  by  serfs  and  villeins. 

At  first,  fiefs  were  granted  only  for  the  lifetimes  of  the  vassals  ;  but,  in 
the  ninth  century,  they  became  hereditary.  For  three  hundred  years 
more,  a  man  from  the  lower  ranks  sometimes  received  a  fief  as  a  reward 
for  special  service,  and  so  became  a  noble  ;  but  in  the  twelfth  century 
nobility  itself  became  strictly  hereditary. 

In  order  the  more  easily  to  secure  the  services  due  them,  the  lords 
objected  to  a  vassal's  dividing  a  fief  among  his  sons,  and  thus  established 
the  practice  of  "primogeniture"  (inheritance  of  landed  property  by  the 
eldest  son  only).  On  the  continent  all  the  sons  of  a  noble  kept  their 
nobility,  even  if  they  were  landless  ;  and  (unless  they  entered  the  clergy) 
it  became  their  aim  to  win  lands,  by  serving  some  great  lord  who  might 
have  fiefs  to  bestow. 

In  England  the  term  "noble"  had  a  much  narrower  meaning:  it 
applied  only  to  the  greatest  lords,  and  to  their  eldest  sons  after  them. 
That  is,  the  principle  of  primogeniture  was  applied  to  nobility  as  well  as 
to  property.  Tlie  whole  "  gentry  "  class  in  England  would  have  been 
nobles  on  the  continent. 

122.  The  receiving  of  a  fief  was  accompanied  by  the  solemn 
ceremony  of  homage.     This  had  somewhat  the  character  of  a 
"  bargain  "  for  mutual  advantage  between  lord  and  vassal.     The 


108 


FEUDALISM 


[§  123 


future  vassal,  with  head  uncovered  and  sword  ungirt,  knelt 
before  the  lord,  placed  his  folded  hands  between  the  lord's 
hands,  and  swore  to  be  the  lord's  "  man  "  (Latin,  homo).  He 
took  also  an  oath  of  fealty,  promising  to  perform  many  specific 
obligations.  The  lord  raised  the  vassal  from  his  knees,  gave 
him  the  "kiss  of  peace,"  invested  him  with  the  fief,  —  usually 
by  presenting  him  with  a  sword  or  a  clod  of  earth  as  a  symbol, 
—  and  promised  to  defend  him  in  it. 


AN  ACT  OF  HOMAGE.  — From  a  twelfth  c< 


Tfie  important  duties  of  the  vassals  may  be  classed  under 

military  service,  court  wi-rice,  and  financial  payments. 

123.  The  vassal  was  to  present  himself,  at  the  call  of  his  lord,1 
to  serve  in  war,  —  perhaps  alone,  or  perhaps  followed  by  an  army 
of  knights  and  men-at-arms,  according  to  the  size  of  his  fief. 
He  could  be  compelled  to  serve  only  a  fixed  time  each  year, 
commonly  forty  days,  but  for  that  time  he  was  to  maintain 
himself  and  his  men. 


Pennsylvania  Reprints,  IV,  No.  3,  gives  forms  of  summons. 


125] 


CEREMONIES  AND   OBLIGATIONS 


109 


The  short  term  of  service  made  the  feudal  army  of  little  use  for  distant 
expeditions ;  and  indeed  vassals  were  sometimes  not  under  obligation  to 
follow  their  lord  out  of  the  realm.  The  jealousies  between  the  vassals, 
and  the  absence  of  organization,  and  of  all  discipline  except  that  of  a  lord 
over  his  immediate  followers,  made  the  feudal  array  an  unwieldy  instru- 
ment for  offensive  warfare. 

124.  The  vassal  was  bound  to  serve  also  in  the  lord's  "  court," 

usually  at  three  periods  each  year.  The  court  had  two  distinct 
functions.  (1)  As  a  judicial  body,  it  gave  judgment  in  legal 
disputes  between  vassals; 
and  (2)  as  a  council,  it  ad- 
vised the  lord  in  all  im- 
portant matters. 

A  vassal,  accused  even 
by  his  lord,  could  be  con- 
demned only  by  this  judg- 
ment of  his  peers  (pares), 
or  equals.  The  lord  was 
only  the  presiding  officer, 
not  the  judge.  The  second 
office  of  the  court  was  even  more  important :  the  lord  could  not 
count  upon  support  in  any  serious  undertaking  unless  he  first 
secured  the  approval  of  his  council.  In  feudal  language,  the 
council  "advised  and  consented."  This  expression,  through 
English  practice,  has  come  down  into  our  constitution:  our 
President  is  empowered  to  do  certain  things  "  with  the  advice 
and  consent "  of  the  Senate. 

125.  The  vassal  did  not  pay  the  lord  "taxes,"  in  the  usual 
sense  of  that  word,  but  on  certain  special  occasions  he  did  have 
to  make  four  kinds  of  financial  contributions.     (1)  Upon  receiv- 
ing a  fief,  either  as  a  gift  or  as  an  inheritance,  he  paid  the 
lord  a  sum  of  money.1     It  was  called  a  relief,  and  commonly  it 
amounted  to  a  year's  revenue.    (2)  If  the  vassal  wished  to  sell 

1  The  payment  of  this  sum  by  the  son  of  a  deceased  vassal  was  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  fact  that  in  theory  the  fief  had  been  granted  only  for  the  life  of 
the  previous  holder  and  that  it  had  reverted  to  the  higher  lord.  Cf .  §  121. 


A  BARON'S  COURT.  —  From  a  sixteenth 
century  woodcut. 


110  FKIDALISM  [§126 

his  fief,  or  to  sublet  part  of  it,  he  was  obliged  to  pay  for  the 
lord's  consent.  (3)  Upon  other  occasions  he  made  payments 
known  as  aids.  The  three  most  common  purposes  were  to  ran- 
som the  lord,  if  a  prisoner,  and  to  help  meet  the  expense  of 
ing  the  lord?  s  eldest  son  and  of  the  marriage  of  his  el  It  *t 
(4)  Similar  to  such  payments,  but  more  oppressive,  was  the 
obligation  to  entertain  the  lord  and  all  his  following  upon  a  visit. 

The  lord  had  other  claims  upon  the  fief,  which  under  certain  circum- 
stances might  produce  revenue.  (1)  He  assumed  the  </unr<li<ni»}> 
>iiin»r  l«'ir,  and  took  to  himself  the  revenues  of  the  fief  at  such  times,  on 
the  ground  that  there  was  no  holder  to  render  the  service  for  which  it 
had  been  granted.  (2)  He  claimed  the  right  t<>  ilitjuw  <>f  <i  fcmai> 
in  marriage,  —  so  as  to  secure  for  her  a  husband  who  should  be  a  satis- 
factory vassal,  —  and  then  commonly  he  sold  to  the  woman  the  right  to 
marry  without  interference.  Sometimes  to  extort  a  huge  sum  he  pre- 
sented a  hateful  suitor.  Thus  the  English  royal  accounts  contain  various 
entries  similar  to  the  following  one  :  "  Hawissa,  who  was  wife  t<>  William 
Fitx-Uoberts,  renders  [to  the  king]  130  marks  and  4  palfreys,  that  sin- 
may  have  peace  from  Peter  of  Borough,  to  whom  the  king  has  given  per- 
mission to  marry  her,  and  that  she  may  not  be  compelled  to  many.'1 
(3)  In  the  absence  of  heirs,  the  fief  returned  (escli,  >if«-,l)  to  the  lord: 
and  (4)  if  the  vassal's  duties  were  not  performed,  it  might  come  back  to 
him  by  forfeiture,  through  a  decision  of  his  court. 

126.  The  lord  was  bound  to  defend  his  vassal  against  attack,  to 
treat  him  justly,  and  to  see  that  he  obtained  justice  from  his- 
co-vassals.  The  lord  could  not  withdraw  a  tief,  so  long  as  the 
vassal  was  true  to  his  bargain ;  and  the  vassal  could  hold 
the  lord  to  the  performance  of  his  duties,  or  at  least  could  try 
to  do  so,  by  appealing  to  the  court  of  the  lord's  lord. 

Now  we  can  understand  why  feudalism  is  called  a  decentralized  system 
nf  government.  Every  citizen  of  the  United  States  owes  allegiance 
directly  to  the  central  government.  Such  had  been  the  case,  too.  in  the 
old  Roman  Empire.  But  there  was  nothing  of  this  sort  under  feudal- 
ism. A  vassal,  C,  owes  obedience  directly  only  to  his  lord,  to  B,  and 
will  follow  him  to  war  against  B's  lord.  A,  or  even  against  the  king. 
C  owes  obedience  to  A  only  through  B,  and  the  obligation  to  A,  if 
thought  of  at  all,  is  infinitely  weaker  than  that  which  binds  him 
toB. 


§128]  PRIVATE    WAR  111 

127.  Feudalism  came  to  dominate  all  the  relations  of  man  with 
man.     Other  things  than  land  were  given  and  held  as  heredi- 
tary fiefs,  —  the  great  offices  of  the  kingdom,  the  right  to  fish 
in  a  stream,  or  to  cut  wood  in  a  forest.     A  monastery  or  a 
cathedral  drew  its  revenues  largely  from  its  serfs  and  villeins 
and  from  the  church  lands  cultivated  by  them  ;  and  it  provided 
for  its  defense  by  giving  other  lands  to  nobles  on   terms  of 
military  service.     Thus  bishops  and  abbots  became  suzerains, 
and  they  were  also  vassals,  for  their  lands,  to  some  other  lord. 

So,  too,  the  towns,  when  they  grew  up  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. A  town  was  sometimes  a  vassal  of  a  lord  or  of  another 
town,  and  perhaps  at  the  same  time  a  suzerain  of  smaller 
towns.  Both  towns  and  church  were  fundamentally  hostile  to 
the  feudal  spirit ;  but  for  a  time  they  had  to  accept  the  feudal 
form. 

128.  Private  Wars  and  the  Truce   of   God. — Feudal  theory 
paid  elaborate  regard  to  rights,  but  feudal  practice  was  mainly 
a  matter  of  force.     There  was  no  adequate  machinery  for  ob- 
taining justice;  it  was  not  easy  to  enforce  the  decisions  of  the 
crude  courts  against  an  offender  who  chose  to  resist.     The 
whole  noble  class,  too,  thought  war  the  most  honorable  and 
perhaps  the  most  religious  way  to  settle  disputes.     Like  the 
trial  by  combat  (§  48),  it  was  considered  an  appeal  to  the 
judgment  of  God. 

For  the  slightest  causes,  great  or  petty  lords  went  to  war 
with  each  other;  and  these  "private  wars"  became  a  chief 
evil  of  the  age.  They  hindered  the  growth  of  industry,  and 
commonly  they  hurt  neutral  parties  quite  as  much  as  they  hurt 
participants.  There  was  little  actual  suffering  by  the  warring 
nobles,  and  very  little  heroism.  Indeed,  there  was  little  actual 
fighting.  The  weaker  party  usually  shut  itself  up  in  its  castle. 
The  stronger  side  ravaged  the  villages  in  the  neighborhood, 
driving  off  the  cattle  and  perhaps  torturing  the  peasants  for 
their  small  hidden  treasures. 

In  the  eleventh  century  the  church,  unable  to  stop  such 
strife,  tried  to  regulate  it  by  proclaiming  the  "  Truce  of  God," 


112  FEUDALISM  [§  129 

forbidding  private  war  between  Wednesday  evening  and  the 
following  Monday  morning  of  each  week  and  during  the  church 
festivals.1  It  was  long,  however,  before  this  truce  was  gen- 
erally observed. 

129.  Workers  in  the  Feudal  Age.2  — The  "upper  classes" 
comprised  the  clergy  and  the  nobles,  —  the  "praying  class" 
and  the  "  lighting  class."  Tfiese  made  up  feudal  &»-j,-t;i  j>roper ; 
but  they  were  fed  and  clothed  by  an  immensely  larger  number  of 
"  ignoble  "  workers.  The  workers,  whether  legally  free  or  ser- 
vile, did  not  count  in  politics  and  not  much  in  war,  and  they 
are  hardly  referred  to  in  the  records  of  the  time  except  as  cattle 
might  be  mentioned.  They  had  few  rights  and  many  duties. 
Labor  was  almost  wholly  agricultural,  and  was  performed, 
mainly,  by  serfs  and  villeins. 

As  in  the  last  Roman  days  (§  30),  the  serf  was  bound  to  the 
soil  by  law :  he  could  not  leave  it,  but  neither  could  he  be  sold 
apart  from  it.  He  had  his  own  bit  of  ground  to  cultivate,  at 
such  times  as  the  lord's  bailiff  did  not  call  him  to  labor  on  the 
lord's  land.  Usually  the  bailiff  summoned  the  serfs  in  turn, 
each  for  two  or  for  three  days  each  week;  but  in  harvest  or 
haying  he  might  keep  them  all  busy,  to  the  ruin  of  their  own 
little  crops.  Then,  if  the  serf  had  a  crop,  he  had  to  pay  a 
large  part  of  it  for  the  the  use  of  his  land,  and  he  was  com- 
pelled to  pay  a  multitude  of  other  dues  and  fines.  Sometimes 
he  paid  money,  but  almost  always,  especially  in  the  early 
period  of  feudalism,  he  paid  "in  kind,"  —  eggs,  a  goose,  a  cock, 
a  calf,  a  portion  of  grain  at  the  mill  where  the  rest  had  to  be 
ground.  So,  too,  he  paid  part  of  his  bread  baked  at  the  lord's 
oven  and  part  of  his  cider  made  at  the  lord's  press. 

In  theory,  all  that  the  serf  had  was  his  lord's,  and  most  of 
the  class  were  left  only  a  bare  living.  Still  some  masters 
allowed  their  better  serfs  to  accumulate  a  little  property  — 

1  See  Pennsylvania  Reprints,  I,  No.  2,'  for  such  a  proclamation,  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Cologne  in  1083. 

2  Cf.  §  30,  note.    The  best  short  treatments  are  Emerton's  Medieval  Europe, 
509-620,- and  Adams'  Growth  of  the  French  Nation,  64-68. 


130] 


THE   WORKERS 


113 


just  as  some  slaves  in  the  United  States  before  the  Civil  War 
were  permitted  to  possess  property. 

A  step  above  the  serf  was  the  villein.1  The  villein  was  free 
in  person.  That  is,  he  could  leave  his  land  and  go  from  one 
lord  to  another.  Such  changes  were  not  very  common ;  and 
in  any  case  the  villein 
must  have  some  lord. 
The  landless  and  mas- 
terless  man  was  an  out- 
law, at  the  mercy  of  any 
lord. 

Practically,  the  most 
important  distinction 
between  villein  and  serf 
was  that  the  villein's 
land  was  subject  only 
to  fixed  and  certain 
charges,  not  to  arbi- 
trary exactions.  These 
charges,  however,  were 
usually  so  fixed  as  to 
leave  the  villein  only 
the  bare  necessities  of 
life.2  The  way  in  which  the  higher  classes  thought  of  the  vil- 
lein is  shown  by  the  fact  that  his  name  became  a  term  of 
reproach  ("  villain  "). 

130-   Cautions  for  the  Student. — To  avoid  common  misconceptions 
regarding  feudalism,  it  is  well  to  fix  in  mind  the  following  points  :  — 

(1)  The  kings  kept  their  old  authority  in  theory,  and  therefore  were 

always  something  more  than  great  feudal  lords,  though  the  dif- 
ference was  vague. 

(2)  "  Vassal"  never  means  serf  :  a  vassal  was  free  and  noble,  though 

he  was,  by  bargain,  the  •'  man"  of  some  "  lord." 

1  Serfdom  and  villeinage  ran  into  each  other  in  a  most  confusing  manner, 
so  that  the  two  are  often  referred  to  under  either  name. 

2  Cf .  §  114.    There  is  an  excellent  account  in  Emerton's  Medieval  Europe, 
517-518,  and  a  longer  one  in  Cheyney's  Industrial  and  Social  History,  39-44. 


VILLEINS  RECEIVING  DIRECTIONS.  —  From  a 
miniature  in  a  fifteenth  century  manuscript. 


J 


114  FEUDALISM  [§  130 

(3)  Strictly  speaking,  feudal  society  contained  only  suzerains  and  vas- 

sals, though  these  classes  made  up  but  a  small  part  of  the  popu- 
lation. 

(4)  Serfs  and  villeins  were  not  part  of  the  feudal  system.     That  is, 

their  relations  to  their  masters  were  not  feudal  relations,  in 
strict  language.  But  some  such  classes  were  necessary  to  the 
existence  of  the  feudal  classes  above  them. 

(5)  Feudalism  did  not  create  serfs,  to  begin  with,  bu't  it  did  thrust 

down  into  the  position  of  serfs  and  villeins  many  men  who  had 
formerly  been  free. 

(6)  In  feudal  times,  society  was  always  more  complex  and  less  sym- 

metrical than  would  seem  from  any  single  account. 

FURTHER  READING  on  this  chapter,  apart  from  the  footnote  references, 
is  best  suggested  at  the  close  of  the  following  one,  pp.  129,  130. 


JUGGLERS.  —  From  a  thirteenth  century  manuscript. 

CHAPTER   VI 

LIFE   IN   THE   FEUDAL    AGE 

131.  There  were  few  towns  in  Western  Europe  until  the  twelfth 
century,  and  the   new  town  life  of  that  period  will  be  discussed  in  its 
place  (§§  259  ff.).     From  goo  to  1200  society  was  mainly  rural.     It  is  the 
work  and  the  home  life  of  this  rural  society  with  which  this  chapter 
deals. 

132.  The  Manor. —  Besides  the  land  he  let  out  to  military 
vassals  (§  120),  each  noble  had  to  keep  some  of  his  land  for  the 
support  of  his  own  household  and  for  other  revenue.     This 
was  "  domain  "  land.     It  was  cultivated  by  the  lord's  serfs  and 
villeins,  under  direction  of  a  bailiff,  or  steward.     The  peasant 
workers  did  not  live  in  scattered  farmhouses,  each  on  its  own 
field :  they  were  grouped  in  little  villages  of  twenty  or  fifty 
dwellings,  as  in  Europe  to-day.     Each  such  village,  with  its  ad- 
joining "fields,"  was  a  "manor"    Great  lords  held  many  manors, 
usually  widely   scattered   throughout   the   kingdom,   and  the 
smallest  noble  necessarily  held  at  least  one. 

Each  village  or  manor  had  its  church,  usually  at  a  little  dis- 
tance, with  grounds  about  it,  part  of  which  were  used  for  the 
graveyard.  Usually  the  village  had  also  its  manor  house. 
This  might  be  the  lord's  castle,  on  a  hill  above  the  other  dwell- 
ings, or  it  might  be  a  house  only  a  trifle  better  than  the  homes 
of  the  villeins,  to  be  used  by  the  lord's  steward.  At  one  end 
of  the  village  street  stood  the  lord's  smithy ;  and  near  by,  on 
some  convenient  stream,  was  the  lord's  mill.  The  smith  and 

115 


116 


FEUDALISM 


[§133 


miller  were  usually  serfs 
or  villeins,  and  spent  most 
of  their  labor  on  the  land, 
but  they  were  somewhat 
better  housed  and  more 
favored  than  the  rest  of 
their  class. 

133.    Peasant  Homes.1  — 
The  other  dwellings  were 
low,  filthy,  one-room  hov- 
ANCIENT  MANOR  HOUSE,  Melichope,  Bug-     els     of     rough     wood     or 
land;    in   its  present  condition. -From     sticks,    plastered   together 

with  mud.     They  had  no 

chimney  or  floor,  and  usually  no  opening  (no  window)  except 
the  door,  and  they  were  thatched  with  straw.  These  homes 
straggled  along  either  side  of 
an  irregular  lane,  where  poul- 
try, pigs,  and  children  played 
in  the  dirt.  Behind  each  house 
was  its  weedy  garden  patch 
and  its  low  stable  and  barn. 
These  last  were  often  under  the 
same  roof  as  the  living  room  of 
the  family,  —  as  is  still  true 
sometimes  in  parts  of  Germany. 
The  house,  small  as  it  was, 
was  not  cluttered  with  furni- 
ture. A  handmill  for  grind- 
ing meal,  or  at  least  a  stone 
mortar  in  which  to  crush  grain, 
a  pot  and  kettle,  possibly  a 
feather  bed,  one  or  two  rude 


INTERIOR  VIEW  OF  THE  UPPER 
WINDOW  SHOWN  IN  MELICHOPE 
MANOR  HOUSE.  This  view  shows 
the  depth  of  the  wall,  —  into  which, 
indeed,  the  stairway  is  cut. 


!The  most  graphic  treatments  of  peasant  life  are  in  Jessopp's  Fri<trs, 
87-112;  Jenks'  Edward  Plantagenet,  40-52;  and  in  Cheyney's  Industrial  and 
Social  History,  31-52.  Of  the  last,  read  especially  31-40  and  50-52.  There  is 
also  a  good  treatment  in  Ashley's  Economic  History,  I,  HM3. 


§  134]  FARMING  117 

benches,  and  a  few  tools  for  the  peasant's  work,  made  up  the 
contents  of  even  the  well-to-do  homes. 

134.  Farming.  —  The  plowland  was  divided  into  three  great 
"  fields "  or  three  groups  of  fields.  These  were  unf enced, 
and  lay  about  the  village  at  any  convenient  spots.  One 
field  was  sown  to  wheat  (in  the  fall)  ;  one  to  rye  or  barley  (in 
the  spring) ;  and  the  third  lay  fallow,  to  recuperate.  The 
next  year  this  third  field  would  be  the  wheat  land,  while  the 
old  wheat  field  would  raise  the  barley,  and  so  on.  This  primi- 
tive "  rotation  of  crops  "  kept  a  third  of  the  land  idle. 

Every  "  field  "  was  divided  into  a  great  number  of  narrow 
strips,  each  as  nearly  as  possible  a  "  furrow-long," x  and  one,  two, 
or  four  rods  wide,  so  that  each  contained  from  a  quarter  of  an 
acre  to  an  acre.  Usually  the  strips  were  separated  by  "  balks," 
or  ridges  of  turf.  A  peasant's  holding  was  about  thirty  acres, 
ten  acres  in  each  "  field  "  ;  and  his  share  in  each  lay  not  in  one 
piece,  but  in  fifteen  or  thirty  scattered  strips.  The  lord's  land, 
probably  half  the  whole,  lay  in  strips  like  the  rest,  and  was 
managed  by  his  steward. 

Of  course  this  kind  of  holding  compelled  a  "  common  "  cul- 
tivation. That  is,  each  man  must  sow  what  his  neighbor 
sowed ;  and  as  a  rule,  each  could  sow,  till,  and  harvest  only 
when  his  neighbors  did.  Agriculture  was  extremely  cmde. 
Serfs  were  not  intelligent  or  willing  workers,  and  even  the  lord's 
stewards  did  not  know  how  to  get  good  returns  from  the  land. 
They  expected  only  six  or  eight  bushels  of  wheat  or  rye  from  an 
acre.  Walter  of  Henley,  a  thirteenth  century  writer  on  agri- 
culture, says  that  threefold  the  seed  was  an  average  harvest, 
and  that  often  a  man  was  lucky  to  get  back  his  seed  grain  and 
as  much  again. 

The  breed  of  all  farm  animals,  too,  was  small.  The  wooden 
plow  required  eight  oxen,  and  then  it  did  hardly  more  than 
scratch  the  surface  of  the  ground.  Carts  were  few  and  cum- 
brous. The  distance  to  the  outlying  parts  of  the  fields  added 
to  the  labor  of  the  villagers.  There  was  little  or  no  cultivation 
1  This  expression  is  the  origin  of  our  "  furlong." 


118 


FEUDALISM 


[§134 


-r 


:-..** 


H 


§134] 


FARMING 


119. 


of  root  foods.  Potatoes,  of  course,  were  unknown.  Sometimes 
a  few  turnips  and  cabbages  and  carrots,  rather  uneatable  vari- 
eties probably,  were  grown  in  garden  plots  behind  the  houses. 
The  wheat  and  rye  in  the  "  fields  "  were-  raised  for  breadstuffs, 
and  the  barley  for  brewing  beer.  Sometimes  a  few  peas  and 
beans  were  grown  for  fodder. 

The   most   important  crop  was  the  wild  hay,  upon  which 
the  cattle  had  to  be  fed  during  the  winter.     Meadowland  was 


A  REAPER'S  CART  GOING  UPHILL.  —  After  Jusserand's  English  Wayfaring 
Life ;  from  a  fourteenth  century  manuscript.  The  force  of  men  and  horses 
indicates  the  nature  of  the  roads.  The  steepness  of  the  hill  is,  of  course, 
exaggerated,  so  as  to  fit  the  picture  to  the  space  in  the  manuscript. 

twice  as  valuable  as  plowland.  The  meadow  was  fenced  for 
the  hay  harvest,  but  was  afterward  thrown  open  for  pasture. 
Usually  there  were  other  extensive  pasture  and  wood  lands, 
where  lord  and  villagers  fattened  their  cattle  and  swine. 

It  was  difficult  to  carry  enough  animals  through  the  winter  for 
the  necessary  farm  work  and  breeding;  so  those  to  be  used  for 
food  were  killed  in  the  fall  and  salted  down.  The  large  use 
of  salt  meat  and  the  little  variety  in  food  caused  loathsome 
diseases  among  the  people.  The  chief  luxury  among  the  poor 
was  honey,  and  well-to-do  peasants  often  had  a  hive  of  bees 
in  their  garden  plot.  Honey  took  the  place  of  sugar,  and  the 
wax  was  made  into  the  candles  which  lighted  the  churches 
and  were  kept  burning  before  the  shrines  of  saints. 


120 


LIFE   IN  FEUDAL   TIMES 


[§135 


135.  Each  village  was  a  world  by  itself.  Even  the  different 
villages  of  the  same  lord  had  little  intercourse  with  one  another. 
The  lord's  bailiff  secured  from  some  distant  market  the  three 
outside  products  needed,  —  salt,  millstones,  and  iron  for  the 
plowshares  and  for  other  tools.  Except  for  this,  a  village  was 
hardly  touched  by  the  great  outside  world  —  unless  a  war 

desolated  it,  or  a  royal 
procession  chanced  to 
pass  through  it.  Com- 
monly in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury it  had  not  even  a 
shop.  The  women  of 
each  household  wove 
rough  cloth  for  the 
single  garment  that 
covered  them  ;  and  the 
men  prepared  leather 
for  their  own  heavier 
clothing. 

This  shut-in  life  was 
stupefying  and  degrad- 
ing. Measured  by  our 
standards,  it  was  often 
indescribably  ferocious, 

PEASANTS'  MAY  DANCE. -From  a  miniature     indecent>  and  cheerless, 
iii  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  in  Paris.  Pictures  in  manuscripts 

of  the  time,  how- 
ever, show  that  it  had  occasional  festivities;  and  it  was 
a  great  step  up  from  the  slavery  of  laborers  in  earlier 
times. 

136.  One  feature  of  this  manorial  life  had  promise  in  it. 
This  was  the  court  of  the  manor,  composed  of  all  heads  of 
families  and  meeting  every  three  or  four  weeks.  The  lord's 
steward  presided,  and  exercised  very  great  power ;  but  all  took 
part,  and  the  older  men  had  an  important  voice  in  declaring 
"  the  custom  of  the  manor  "  —  a  thing  which  differed  in  every 


138] 


TOURNAMENTS 


121 


two   manors   and   which  took  the  place  of   town  legislation 
among  us. 

The  assembly  settled  disputes  between  villagers,  imposed 
penalties  upon  any  who  had  broken  "the  customs  of  the 
manor,"  and,  from  time  to  time,  redistributed  the  strips  of 
plow  land  among  the  village  families.  In  England  such 
gatherings  sent  their  presiding  officer  and  their  "four  best 
men"  to  the  larger  local  assemblies  (§  161),  and  so  kept  alive 
a  chance  for  representative  government  to  grow  up. 

137.  Life  in  the  Castle.  —  The  noble  classes  dwelt  in  gloomy 
fortresses  over  dark  dungeons  where  prisoners  rotted.     They 
had  fighting  for  business,  and  hunting  with  hound  and  hawk, 
and  playing  at  fighting,  for  pleasures.     The  ladies  busied  them- 
selves over  tapestries  and  embroideries,  in  the  chambers.     Gay 
pages  flitted  through  the  halls,  or  played  at  chess  in  the  deep 
windows.     And  in  the  courtyard  lounged  gruff   men-at-arms, 
ready  with  blind  obedience  to  follow 

the  lord  of  the  castle  on  any  foray 
or  even  in  an  attack  upon  their  king. 

138.  The    favorite    sport    of    this 
fighting  age  was  a  sort  of  mock  battle 
called    a    tournament.      Kings    and 
great    lords    gave    such    entertain- 
ments, to  win  popular  applause,  on 
all  joyous  occasions,  —  the  marriage 
of  a  daughter,  the  knighting    of  a 
son,   the   celebration   of   a  victory. 

The  tournament  during  the  middle    JUGGLERS 
ages  took  the  place  of  gladiatorial 
games  among  the  Romans. 

Every  student  should  know  the  splendid  story  of  the  com- 
bats in  "the  lists  at  Ashby"  in  Scott's  Ivanhoe,  and  any  mere 
description  is  tame  in  comparison.  As  there  portrayed,  the 
news  of  the  coming  event  was  carried  far  and  near  for  weeks 
in  advance.  Knights  began  to  journey  to  the  appointed 
place,  perhaps  from  all  parts  of  a  kingdom,  in  groups  that 


IN  THE  SWORD 
DANCE.  —  From  a  thirteenth 
century  manuscript. 


122 


LIFE    IN   FEUDAL   TIMES 


[§139 


grew  ever  larger  as  the  roads  converged.  Some  came  to  win 
fame;  some  to  repair  their  fortunes,  —  since  the  knight  who 
overthrew  an  opponent  possessed  his  horse  and  armor  and  the 
ransom  of  his  person,  as  in  real  war.  The  knightly  cavalcade 
might  be  joined  or  followed  by  a  motley  throng  journeying  to 
the  same  destination  ;  among  them,  jugglers  to  win  small  coins 

by  amusing  the  crowds,  and 
traveling  merchants  with 
their  wares  on  the  backs  of 
donkeys.  There  were  few 
inns,  but  the  mixed  group 
of  travelers  found  ready 
welcome  for  meals  and 
lodging  at  any  castle  or 
manor  house. 

The  contests  took  place 
in  a  space  (the  "lists") 
shut  off  from  interference 
by  palisades.  The  balco- 
nies above,  gay  with  stream- 
ers and  floating  scarfs,  were 
crowded  with  ladies  and 
nobles  and  perhaps  with 
rich  townsmen.  Below,  a  mass  of  peasants  and  other  common 
men  jostled  one  another  for  the  better  chances  to  see  the  con- 
testants. Sometimes  two  or  more  days  were  given  to  the  com- 
bats. Part  of  the  time,  one  group  of  knights  "held  the  lists " 
against  all  comers,  affording  a  series  of  single  combats  on 
horseback  and  on  foot.  Again,  two  mimic  armies  met  in  the 
mglee.  Perhaps  even  the  yeomen  were  allowed  to  show  their 
skill  with  bow  and  in  wrestling. 

139.  Chase  and  Falconry.  —  The  population  was  thinly  scat- 
tered, and  large  districts  everywhere  were  waste  or  forest. 
This  gave  admirable  opportunity  for  hunting  to  the  inhabit- 
ants of  every  castle.  Hunting  was  the  second  most  important 
sport  of-  the  nobles,  and  it  was  a  monopoly  possessed  by  that 


A  VICTOR  IN  A  TOURNAMENT. — After  a 
drawing  by  Diirer. 


§139]  THE   CHASE   AND   FALCONRY  123 

class,  protected  by  cruel  and  bloody  custom.  For  a  common 
man  to  be  found  with  a  haunch  of  venison,  or  even  with  a 
hare,  meant  the  loss  of  eyes  or  hands. 

Indeed,  hunting  was  more  than  sport.  The  table  of  every 
castle  depended  in  large  measure  upon  a  steady  supply  of 
game.  The  larger  wild  animals,  —  bear,  deer,  wild  boars,  — 
were  brought  to  bay  with  dogs,  and  slain  by  the  hunter  with 


M~, 


FALCONRY.  —  From  a  medieval  manuscript  reproduced  by  Lacroix. 

spear  or  short  sword.  (This  was  the  "  chase.")  Smaller  game, 
—  herons,  wild  ducks,  rabbits,  —  were  hunted  with  trained 
hawks.  (This  was  "  falconry.")  Each  castle  counted  among 
its  most  trusted  servants  a  falconer,  who  saw  to  the  capture  of 
young  hawks  (falcons)  and  trained  them  to  fly  at  game  and  to 
bring  it  back  to  the  master.  Falconry  was  the  peculiar  medie- 
val form  of  hunting,  and  lords  and  ladies  were  madly  devoted 
to  the  sport.  Many  a  noble  lady,  even  on  a  long  journey  of 
many  days,  rode,  falcon  on  wrist,  ready  at  any  moment,  to 
"cast  oft0 "  if  a  game-bird  rose  beside  the  road,  —  somewhat  as 


124 


LIFE   IN   FEUDAL   TIMES 


[§140 


the  backwoodsman  carries  his  rifle  on  a  journey,  always  ready 
for  a  stray  deer. 

140.  Feasting  filled  a  large  part  of  the  noble's  life.  Meals 
were  served  in  the  great  hall  of  the  castle,  and  were  the  social 
hours  of  the  day.  Tables  were  set  out  on  movable  trestles, 
and  the  household,  visitors,  and  dependants  gathered  about 
them  on  seats  and  benches,  with  nice  respect  for  precedence  in 
rank,  —  the  master  and  his  noblest  guests  at  the  head,  and  the 


STOKE  CASTLE.    A  modest  manor  house  of  the  thirteenth  century,  called 
a  castle  because  of  its  tower. 

lowest  servants  toward  the  bottom  of  the  long  line.  A  profu- 
sion of  food  in  many  courses,  especially  at  the  midday  "  din- 
ner," was  carried  in  from  the  kitchen  across  the  open  court- 
yard. Peacocks,  swans,  whole  boars,  or  at  least  boar  heads, 
were  among  the  favorite  roasts;  and  huge  venison  "pies" 
were  a  common  dish.  Mother  Goose's  "  four  and  twenty 
blackbirds  "  had  real  models  in  many  a  medieval  pasty,  which, 
when  opened,  let  live  birds  escape,  to  be  hunted  down  among 
the  rafters  of  the  hall  by  falcons. 

At  each  guest's  place  was  a  knife,  to  cut  slices  from  the 
roasts  within  his  reach,  and  a  spoon  for  broths,  but  no  fork  or 
napkin  or  plate.  Each  one  dipped  his  hand  intp  the  pasties, 


§141] 


CHIVALRY 


125 


carrying  the  dripping  food  directly  to  his  mouth.  Loaves  of 
bread  were  crumbed  up  and  rolled  between  the  hand  to  wipe 
off  the  surplus  gravy,  and  then  thrown  to  the  dogs  under  the 
tables ;  and  between  courses,  servants  passed  basins  of  water 
and  towels.  The  food  was  washed  down  with  huge  draughts 
of  wine,  usually  diluted  with  water.  A  prudent  steward  of 
King  Louis  IX  of  France  (Joinville,  §  143)  tells  us  how  he 
"  caused  the  wine  of  the 
varlets  (at  the  bottom  of 
the  tables)  to  be  well  wa- 
tered, but  less  water  to  be 
put  in  the  wine  of  the 
squires,  and  before  each 
knight  [he]  caused  to  be 
placed  a  huge  goblet  of 
wine  and  a  goblet  of  wa- 
ter," —  a  judicious  hint 
which  it  is  to  be  hoped 
some  knights  accepted. 

During  the  midday  and. 
evening  meals,  there  was 
much  opportunity  for  con- 
versation, especially  with 
strange  guests,  who  re- 
paid the  hospitality  by  the 
news  of  the  districts  from 
which  they  came.  Intervals  between  courses,  too,  were  some- 
times filled  with  story-telling  and  song,  and  with  rude  jokes  by 
the  lord's  "jester"  or  "fool." 

141.  Chivalry.1  —  This  grim  life  had  its  romantic  and  gentle 
side,  indicated  to  us  by  the  name  chivalry.  The  term  at  first 
meant  the  nobles  on  horseback  (from  the  French  cheval,  horse), 
but  it  came  to  stand  for  the  whole  institution  of  "  knighthood." 

1  There  is  a  good  treatment  in  Henderson's  Short  History  of  Germany, 
112-121.  Longer  accounts  may  be  found  in  Cutts'  Scenes  and  Characters  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  or  in  the  histories  of  chivalry  by  James  or  by  Cornish. 


THE  HALL  OF  STOKE  CASTLE. 


126 


LIFE   IN   FEUDAL   TIMES 


[§141 


Chivalry  grew  up  slowly  between  1000  and  1200  A.D.  We 
will  look  at  it  in  its  fully  developed  form.  There  were  two 
stages  in  the  training  of  a  young  noble  for  knighthood. 

a.  At  about  the  age  of  seven  he  was  sent  from  his  own 
home  into  the  household  of  his  father's  suzerain,  or  of  some 
other  noble  friend,  to  become  a  page.  Here,  for  seven  or  eight 
years,  with  other  boys,  he  waited  on  the  lord  and  lady  of  the 
castle,  serving  them  at  table  and  running 
their  errands.  As  soon  as  he  was  strong 
enough,  he  was  trained  daily,  by  some  old 
man-at-arms,  in  riding  and  in  the  use  of  light 
arms.  But  his  attendance  was  paid  chiefly 
to  some  lady  of  the  castle,  and  by  her,  in 
return,  he  was  taught  obedience,  courtesy, 
and  a  knight's  duty  to  religion  and  to  ladies. 
b.  At  fourteen  or  fifteen  the  page  becaim 
a  & JH ire  to  the  lord.  Now  he  oversaw  the 
care  of  his  lord's  horse  and  the  cleaning  of 
his  shining  armor  ;  he  went  with  his  lord  to 
the  hunt,  armed  him  for  battle,  carried  his 

shield,  and  accompanied  him  in  the  field, 
A  COURT  FOOL. - 

After  a  medieval   with  special  care  for  his  safety. 
miniature  in  hrii-       After  five  or  six  years  of  such  service,  at 
liant  colors.  Many   fae  age  of  twenty  or  twenty-one,  the  squire's 

-rrat    lords    kept 

such  jesters  education  was  completed.     He  was  now  ready 

to  become  a  knight.  Admission  to  the  order 
of  knighthood  was  a  matter  of  imposing  ceremonial.  The  youth 
bathed  (a  symbol  of  purification),  fasted,  confessed  his  sins  to 
a  holy  priest,  and  then  spent  the  night  in  the  chapel  in  prayer, 
"watching"  his  arms.  The  next  morning  came  solemn  church 
services  and  a  sermon  upon  the  duties  of  a  blameless  knight. 
Then  the  household  gathered  in  the  castle  yard,  along  with 
many  visiting  knights  and  ladies  and  their  attendants.  In  the 
background  of  this  gay  scene,  a  servant  held  a  noble  horse, 
soon  to  be  the  charger  of  the  new  knight.  The  candidate 
knelt  before  the  lord  of  the  castle,  and  there  took  the  vows  to 


§141] 


CHIVALRY 


127 


be  a  brave  and  gentle  knight,  to  defend  the  church,  to  protect 
ladies,  to  succor  the  distressed,  especially  widows  and  orphans. 
The  ladies  of  the  castle  put  his  new  armor  upon  him,  gave  him 
his  sword,  and  buckled  on  a  knight's  golden  spurs.  Then  the 
lord  struck  him  lightly  over  the  shoulder  with  the  flat  of  the 
sword,  exclaiming,  "  In  the  name  of  God,  of  St.  Michael,  and 


THE  EXERCISE  OF  THE  QUINTAIN.  The  boys  ride,  by  turns,  at  the  wooden 
figure.  If  the  rider  strikes  the  shield  squarely  in  the  center,  it  is  well.  If 
he  hits  only  a  glancing  blow,  the  wooden  figure  swings  on  its  foot  and 
whacks  him  with  its  club  as  he  passes. 

of  St.  George,  I  dub  you  knight."  (This  blow  was  the 
"accolade.")  Eising  to  his  feet,  the  new-made  knight  vaulted 
upon  his  horse  and  gave  some  exhibition  of  his  skill  in  arms 
and  in  horsemanship ;  and  the  festival  closed  with  games  and 
feasting  and  the  exchange  of  gifts. 

More  honored  still  was  the  noble  who  had  been  dubbed 
knight  by  some  famous  leader  on  the  field  of  victory,  as  the 
reward  for  distinguished  bravery.  In  such  case,  there  was  no 
ceremony  except  the  accolade. 


128  LIFE   IN  FEUDAL   TIMES  [§142 

Chivalry  was  an  attempt  to  fuse  the  ideals  of  the  Teutonic 
warrior  and  of  the  Christian.  It  has  been  called  "  the  flower 
of  feudalism."  Its  faults  were  twofold.  (1)  It  was  exclusive. 
Its  spirit  was  altogether  a  class  spirit.  It  recognized  no 
obligations  except  to  nobles.  Even  the  vow  to  protect 
women  did  not  apply  to  any  women  but  those  of  gentle  birth. 
(2)  It  carried  some  of  its  virtues  (bravery  and  devotion  to 
ladies)  to  such  extremes  as  to  make  them  fantastic,  if  i«>t  n'cious. 

The  ideals,  too,  were  not  always  reached,  and  a  perfect 
knight  may  have  been  no  more  common  than  is  a  peifVrt 
gentleman  to-day.  But  chivalry  did  help  to  soften  manners 
and  to  humanize  society.  Along  with  other  feudal  institutions, 
it  developed  a  high  sense  of  personal  honor  and  of  personal 
independence,  and,  at  the  same  time,  of  personal  loyalty  to  a 
lord.  It  elevated  women,  and  it  had  much  to  do  with  creating 
the  modern  home  and  our  idea  of  a  gentleman. 

142.  Ideals  of  Knighthood  in  Literature.  —  Toward  the  year  1400, 
the  English  poet  Chaucer  gives  this  picture  of  his  typical  knight  :  — 

44  A  knight  there  was,  and  that  a  worthy  man, 
That  fro  the  time  that  he  first  began 
To  riden  out,  he  love"d  chivalry, 
Truth  and  honor,  freedom  and  courtesy.   .  .  . 
And  tho  that  he  was  worthy,  he  was  wise, 
And  of  his  port  as  meek  as  is  a  maid. 
And  never  yet  no  villainy  he  said 
In  all  his  life,  unto  no  manner  wight. 
He  was  a  very  perfect,  gentle  knight." 

143.  Moral  Ideals  of  Feudal  Nobles  about  1300. — Joinville  was  a 
great  noble  of  Champagne,  in  what  we  now  call  France,  who  has  already 
been  quoted  (§§  64,  140).     He  followed  King  Louis  IX  (St.  Louis)  on  one 
of  the  crusades  (§  241),  and  for  a  time  served  in  the  king's  household  on 
terms  of  mutual  friendship.     Many  years  later,  when  ninety  years  old, 
Joinville  dictated  to  a  scribe  his  recollections  of  the  great  king,  dedicating 
the  book  to  the  great-grandson  of  St.  Louis,  then  the  heir  to  the  throne. 
The  following  extracts  show  something  of  the  morality  of  the  best  feudal 
society. 

"And  because  I  see  no  one  who  ought  to  have  [the  book]  so  rightly  as 
you  who  are  his  heir,  I  send  it  to  you,  that  you  and  your  brothers  and 


§143]  MORALS   AND   IDEALS  129 

others  who  may  hear  it  read,  may  take  good  example  from  it  and  put 
these  examples  in  practice,  that  God  may  be  pleased  with  you.  .  .  . 
The  King  loved  truth  to  such  a  degree  that  even  with  the  Saracens  he 
would  not  draw  back  from  what  he  had  promised.  As  to  his  palate  he 
was  so  indifferent  that  never  did  I  hear  him  ask  for  any  particular  dish, 
as  many  men  do,  but  he  ate  contentedly  of  whatever  was  served  up  to 
him.  He  was  measured  in  his  speech.  Never  in  my  life  did  I  hear  him 
speak  ill  of  any  one ;  nor  did  I  ever  hear  him  name  the  Devil,  —  a  name 
widely  spread  in  this  realm  (and  it  is  a  great  disgrace  to  the  kingdom  of 
France,  and  to  the  king  when  he  suffers  it,  that  one  can  hardly  speak  without 
saying  '  the  Devil  take  it,'  and  it  is  a  great  sin  to  devote  to  the  Devil  a 
man  given  to  God  from  the  moment  that  he  is  baptized.  In  the  Join- 
ville  household,  whoso  utters  such  a  word  receives  a  box  on  the  ears  or  a 
slap  on  the  mouth,  and  bad  language  is  almost  wholly  suppressed) .... 
He  asked  me  once  whether  I  wished  to  be  honored  and  to  enter  Paradise 
through  death  ?  Keep  yourself  then  from  doing  or  saying  aught  which, 
if  all  the  world  knew,  you  could  not  avow  and  say,  'I  did  this,'  '  I  said 
that.'  He  told  me  to  refrain  from  contradicting  anything  said  in  my 
presence,  providing  there  was  no  sin  in  remaining  silent,  because  hard 
words  engender  strife.  ...  He  used  to  say  that  a  man  should  so  equip 
his  person  that  the  grey-beards  of  the  day  should  not  be  able  to  say  that 
it  was  over  done  ;  nor  the  young  men  that  there  was  anything  wanting. 
After  the  king's  return  from  over  the  sea,  he  lived  so  devoutly  that  he 
never  wore  furs  of  different  colors,  or  scarlet  cloth,  or  gilt  stirrups  or 
spurs.  I  was  reminded  of  this  by  the  father  of  the  king  who  now  reigns 
[Philip  the  Hardy]  alluding  once  to  the  embroidered  coats  of  arms  fash- 
ionable now-a-days.  I  made  answer  to  him  that  never  in  the  voyage 
over  the  sea  did  I  see  embroidered  coats  .  .  .  and  that  he  would  have 
done  better  to  have  given  the  money  to  the  poor  and  to  have  worn  plain 
clothes  as  his  father  used  to  do." 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  — Excellent  "source"  material  will  be  found 
in  Pennsylvania  Beprints,  IV,  No.  3;  in  Robinson's  Beadings,  I,  170- 
196;  and  in  Ogg's  Source  Book.  The  student  should  know  Froissart 
(fourteenth  century),  — at  least  in  Lanier's  charming  volume,  The  Boys^ 
Froissart, — and  Joinville's  Memoir  of  St.  Louis  (thirteenth  century). 
For  modern  accounts,  the  best  statements  are  those  in  Adams'  Civiliza- 
tion and  his  Growth  of  the  French  Nation,  and  in  Emerton's  Medieval 
Europe.  The  older  accounts,  such  as  those  of  Hallain,  Robertson,  and 
Guizot,  are  more  or  less  untrustworthy,  especially  regarding  the  rise  of 
the  institution. 

For  special  features,  —  chivalry,  village  life,  etc., — see  footnote  ref- 


130  LIFE   IN   FEUDAL   TIMES  [§143 

erences  to  §§  129,  133,  141.  Historical  fiction  upon  the  feudal  period  is 
particularly  valuable.  Scott's  novels,  of  course,  must  not  be  overlooked, 
although  they  give  a  false  glamor  to  the  age,  and  perhaps  they  should  be 
corrected  by  "  Mark  Twain's"  scathing  treatment  in  his  Connecticut 
Yankee  at  King  Arthur's  Court.  Other  excellent  portraits  are  given  in 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson's  Black  Arrow  and  Conan  Doyle's  White  Com- 
pany. Charlotte  Yonge's  Little  Duke  and  Stockton's  Story  of  ! 
are  good  for  younger  students  and  will  be  enjoyed  by  older  ones. 
Martineau's  Prince  and  Peasant  pictures  the  abuses  of  feudalism  at  a 
later  period.  Students  may  be  called  upon  to  find  incidents  in  such 
literature  illustrating  various  paragraphs  in  this  chapter. 

EXERCISE  :  Explain  the  terms,  —  vassal,  fief,  commendation,  homage, 
fealty.  Let  the  class  prepare  lists  of  such  terms  for  rapid  and  brief  ex- 
planation, and  select  some  thirty,  from  this  volume  so  far,  for  future 
reviews. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE   CHURCH 

144.  The  Universal  Church  a  Political  State.  —  Every  topic 
since  the  disappearance  of  the  old  Roman  Empire  has  called 
for  constant  reference  to  the  church.  For  centuries  to  follow, 
also,  that  institution  pervaded  all  the  life  of  Europe.  No- 
where in  the  world  to-day  does  any  church  fill  so  large  a  place, 
or  wield  so  great  authority,  as  the  Catholic  church  did  from 
the  sixth  to  the  fifteenth  century.  To  understand  the  Middle 
Ages,  it  is  even  more  necessary  to  know  about  the  church  than  to 
know  about  feudalism. 

Christianity  was  not  only  a  religion :  it  was  also  a  govern- 
ment. Its  officers  exercised  many  powers  that  have  now  been 
handed  over  to  civil1  officers.  Public  order  depended  on  the 
church  almost  as  completely  as  did  private  morals.  Over  wide 
regions,  with  its  spiritual  thunders  and  the  threat  of  its  curse, 
it  protected  the  widow  and  orphan,  and  others  in  danger  of 
oppression,  from  the  brutal  barons  who  had  respect  for  no 
earthly  power. 

But,  farther  than  all  this,  the  church  was  a  sort  of  vast  politi- 
cal state.  For  seven  hundred  years  after  Charlemagne's 
empire  broke  up,  the  church  was  the  only  bond  that  -  held  the 
Western  world  together  in  a  sense  of  unity.  The  one  name 
for  that  Western  world  during  those  ages  was  "  Latin  Chris- 
tendom." Nations  were  not  yet  made.  Not  Britain  or  France 
or  Germany,  but  Christendom,  was  the  true  fatherland  to 
which  men  gave  their  love  and  patriotism. 

The  church  was  universal.  Membership  was  not  a  matter 
of  free  choice.  All  the  people  of  Western  Europe,  except  the 

1  Civil  is  used  very  commonly  in  contrast  to  ecclesiastical. 
131 


132  THE   MEDIEVAL  CHURCH  [§145 

Jews,  were  baptized  into  it  almost  as  soon  as  they  were  born. 
To  attempt  to  leave  it,  or  to  deny  its  authority,  was  to  invite 
the  punishment  of  death  as  a  heretic.  It  was  as  impossible  to 
think  of  any  one  between  the  Adriatic  and  the  Atlantic  outside 
the  church,  as  it  is  now  to  think  of  a  Frenchman  in  France 
outside  the  French  nation. 

We  have  called  feudalism  the  successor  of  the  Empire  of  Charlemagne  : 
but,  in  its  claim  upon  men's  allegiance,  the  church  was  the  true  successor 
of  the  old  Roman  Empire.  That  Empire,  in  its  time  the  one  home  of 
civilized  man,  had  made  possible  the  expansion  of  the  church  throughout 
its  realms,  with  a  government  similar  to  that  of  the  Empire  itself  (§34). 
Then,  as  the  Empire  fell  to  pieces,  and  disappeared  from  the  West,  the 
church  remained,  —  dressed  in  the  old  forms  and  working  through  the  old 
territorial  divisions,  —  the  sole  representative  of  the  old  imperial  unity. 

145.  From  a  very  early  date,  there  was  a  line  drawn  between 
laity  and  clergy.  —  After  the  fourth  century,  the  distinction 
had  ontn-nril  marks.     Lay  society  ceased  to  use  the  old  Roman 
robes  after  the  barbarian  invasions;   but  the  clergy  retained 
them.     Thus  churchmen  came  to  have  a  peculiar  garb.     They 
also  adopted  the  custom  of  tonsure, — shaving  a  large  part  of 
the  head. 

So  far  as  religion  was  concerned,  the  laity  were  merely 
called  upon  to  support  the  church  and  to  obey  scrupulously 
the  teachings  and  directions  of  their  spiritual  guides,  the 
clergy.  The  clergy  had  for  their  charge  "  the  cure  (care)  of 
souls."  They  were  the  mediators  between  man  and  God ;  and 
they  alone  could  administer  the  holy  sacraments,  which  were 
indispensable  to  salvation. 

146.  The  sacraments  were  seven.     (1)  Baptism  purified  the  infant 
from  the  sin  of  Adam  and  took  him   into  the  Christian  community. 

(2)  Confirmation    admitted    the    youth    into    full  church  fellowship. 

(3)  Extreme  unction,  in  a  dangerous  illness,  gave  the  soul  strength  to 
meet  death.     (4)    The   Mass   (the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper) 
helped  to  purify  from   the  ordinary  sins  and  temptations  of  daily  life. 
(5)  Penance  (after  confession   of  sin  and  repentance)  restored  to  the 
Christian  life  those  who  had  fallen  away  into  deadly  sin.     (6)  Marriage 


§148]  THE   SEVEN  SACRAMENTS  133 

made  holy  the  life  of  husband  and  wife.  (7)  Ordination  handed  down 
(from  Christ)  to  the  clergy  their  exalted  authority  and  their  power  to 
administer  these  sacraments. 

147.  Penance  played  an  especially  important  part  in  human 
life.     In  ordaining  a  priest,  the  bishop  said  to  him,  "  Whose- 
soever sins  ye  forgive,  they  are  forgiven  him;   whosesoever 
sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained."    A  man  who  had  fallen  into 
sin,   then,   could   escape   only   through  a   priest's  absolution. 
And,  before  the  priest  could  absolve  from  sin  he  must  hear 
the  confession  of  the  sinner,  and  be  convinced  of  his  sincere 
repentance.     Then  he  might  pronounce  the  solemn  "  I  absolve 
you  from  your  sins." 

This  absolution  freed  the  soul  from  danger  of  punishment 
in  hell,  but  not  from  some  punishment  hereafter  in  purgatory. 
To  escape  the  fires  of  purgatory,  it  was  still  needful  for  the 
offender  to  do  penance  —  to  accept  some  punishment  imposed 
by  the  priest.  This  punishment  varied  with  the  sin.  The 
priest  might  order  the  offender  to  repeat  many  prayers,  or  to 
keep  fasts,  short  or  long,  or  to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  the 
shrine  of  some  saint,  or  even  to  the  Holy  Land.  In  place  of 
these  temporal  penalties,  the  absolved  sinner  might  be  per- 
mitted to  give  money  to  the  church  for  its  work. 

148.  The   worship   of    the    church    remained    generally   in 
Latin, —  the  language  in  universal   use   in   Western   Europe 
when  the  services  took  their  form.     Sermons,  of  course,  were 
preached  in  the  language  of  the  people.     The  chief  place  in 
the  service  was  held  by  the  Mass.     All  men  believed  that  the 
bread  and  wine,  when  consecrated  by  the  priest,  were  trans- 
formed into  the  very  substance  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ. 
Hence  the  term  Transubstantiation,  which  came  later  into  use 
to  signify  this  miraculous  change. 

The  mass  could  purify  not  only  those  who  were  present  at 
the  sacrament  but  even  those  who  were  suffering  in  purgatory. 
And  so  rich  men  often  left  large  sums  to  the  church  to  pay  for 
masses  for  their  souls  after  death,  and  many  gifts  were  made 
in  like  manner  for  masses  for  the  souls  of  departed  friends. 


134  THE    MEDIEVAL   CHURCH  [§  149 

The  early  church  had  delighted  in  honoring  its  martyrs,  and 
it  came  to  venerate  them  as  saints  and  to  pray  to  them  to  inter- 
cede with  Heaven  for  the  living.  A  church  building  which 
possessed  the  tomb  of  a  saint  became  the  goal  of  many  pil- 
grimages, and  worshipers  offered  both  prayers  and  gifts  be- 
fore the  saint's  shrine.  Chief  of  all  saints  was  the  Virgin 
Mary,  the  Mother  of  God.  And  the  universal  inclination  to 
offer  prayer  to  a  sainted  woman  helped  to  introduce  an  ele- 
ment of  gentleness  and  tenderness  into  worship  which  cannot 
be  overvalued  for  that  rough  age. 

As  early  as  the  fourth  century,  most  of  the  great  religious 
festivals,  such  as  Christmas  and  Easter,  had.  come  to  be  cele- 
brated much  as  in  the  present  day.  The  splendor  of  the  reli- 
gious celebration,  and  the  joyousness  of  the  social  side  of  such 
festivals,  were  high  lights  amid  the  gloom  and  savagery  of  the 
dark  centuries. 

149.  Preaching  played  a  smaller  part  in  the  church's  work 
than  to-day,  but  there  was  no  time  when  it  was  not  a  mighty 
instrument  for  good.  The  following  extract  from  a  sermon  by 
the  good  Bishop,  St.  Eloy,  in  the  seventh  century,  is  typical  in 
the  force  with  which  it  insists  on  man's  duties  to  his  fellow- 
men  as  well  as  to  God. 

"  It  is  not  enough,  most  dearly  beloved,  for  you  to  have  received  the 
name  of  Christians  if  you  do  not  do  Christian  works.  .  .  .  ('miif,  there- 
fore, frequently  to  church  ;  humbly  seek  the  patronage  of  the  saints; 
keep  the  Lord's  day  in  reverence  of  the, resurrection,  without  any  servile 
work ;  celebrate  the  festivals  of  the  saints  with  devout  feeling  ;  love  your 
neighbors  as  yourselves  ;  what  you  would  desire  to  be  done  to  you  by 
others,  that  do  you  to  others  ;  what  you  would  not  have  done  to  you,  do 
to  no  one  ;  before  all  things  have  charity,  for  charity  covereth  a  multi- 
tude of  sins  ;  be  hospitable,  humble,  casting  your  care  upon  God,  for  he 
careth  for  you  ;  visit  the  sick  ;  seek  out  the  captives ;  receive  strangers  ; 
feed  the  hungry  ;  clothe  the  naked  ;  set  at  naught  soothsayers  and  magi- 
cians ;  let  your  weights  and  measures  be  fair,  your  balance  just,  your 
bushel  and  your  pint  honest.  .  .  ." 

And  Joinville  (§  143)  tells  how  a  barefoot  monk  preached 
before  the  mighty  monarch,  Louis  IX :  — 


§  150]  ORGANIZATION  135 

"  He  said  he  had  read  carefully  in  the  Bible  and  other  holy  books,  and 
had  always  found  that  no  kingdom  had  ever  risen  in  war  against  its  lord 
except  when  the  ruler  failed  in  justice  to  the  people.  Let  the  king,  then, 
see  that  justice  is  done  equally,  to  every  one  of  his  people,  that  God  may 
not  take  his  kingdom  from  him  with  shame." 

150.  The  growth  of  the  church  organization  has  been  described 
in  section  34.  We  are  now  to  survey  the  organization  as  it  stood 
when  the  church  had  won  Western  Europe. 

a.  All  Christendom  was  made  up  of  parishes, —  the  smallest 
church  units.     Commonly,  a  parish  was  a  farming  village  (a 
manor)  or  a  part  of  a  town.     At  its  head  was  a  priest,  who,  in 
large  city  parishes,  was  assisted  by  deacons  to  look  after  the 
poor. 

b.  A  group  of  parishes  made  up  the  diocese  of  a  bishop ;  and 
every  parish  had  to  belong  to  some  diocese.     The  bishop  usu- 
ally established  his  headquarters  in  the  largest  town  of  his 
diocese,  where  there  would  be  several  parishes  close  to  his 
own  cathedral  church,  and  where  he  could  most  easily  keep  in 
touch  with  the  outlying  parishes.     Nearly  every  town  of  any 
consequence  in  the  twelfth  century  was  a  bishop's  seat  (Latin, 
cite),  and  so  gained  the  name  city  ;  and  its  cathedral  was  far 
larger  and  more  magnificent  than  the  other  churches  of  the 
diocese. 

The  bishop  was  the  mainspring  in  church  government.  He 
was  regarded  as  the  successor  of  the  apostles,  and  was  subject 
only  to  the  guidance  of  the  pope,  who  was  successor  to  the  chief 
of  the  apostles.  Originally,  his  special  duty  had  been  to  oversee 
the  parish  priests.  (The  Greek  word  episcopus,  from  which  we 
get  the  word  bishop,  meant  simply  overseer.)  This  duty  con- 
tinued, and  involved  much  difficult  travel.  But,  with  the 
development  of  the  power  of  the  church,  other  functions  had 
been  added  to  the  bishop's  office. 

He  looked  after  the  enforcement  of  the  laics  of  the  church.  This 
"  canon  law  "  had  grown  into  a  complex  system.  To  administer 
justice  under  it,  each  bishop  held  a  court,  made  up  of  trained 
churchmen,  over  which  he  presided.  This  court  had  jurisdic- 


136  THE   MEDIEVAL   CHURCH  [§  160 

tion  not  merely  over  ecclesiastical  matters:  it  tried  any  case 
that  involved  a  clergyman,  or  any  one  else  who  was  under  the 
special  protection  of  the  church,  —  as  were  all  widows,  orphans, 
students,  and  the  families  of  those  who  were  absent  on  pil- 
grimages or  crusades'  (§  243).  Other  laymen  could  claim  the 
privilege  of  trial  in  church  courts  when  the  case  involved 
religious  or  moral  questions  of  many  sorts;  as,  for  instance, 
cases  depending  on  laws  of  marriage  and  inheritance,  the 
keeping  of  contracts  which  had  been  sanctioned  with  oaths, 
the  taking  of  interest  (usury),  which  was  regarded  as  unlaw- 
ful, and  all  matters  connected  with  the  revenues  of  the  church. 
The  bishop  also  had  charge  of  the  extensive  property  of  the 
church  in  the  diocese,  —  a  task  calling  for  the  assistance  of  a 
considerable  body  of  clerks  and  accountants.  His  agents,  too, 
collected  the  tithes  due  the  church  throughout  the  diocese  (the 
tenth  of  all  produce),  and  distributed  its  proper  share  to  each 
parish  church. 

The  bishop  was  himself  a  priest,  in  charge  of  the  services  of 
his  cathedral  church;  and  he  had  some  religious  powers  that 
did  not  belong  to  ordinary  priests.  Only  a  bishop  could  admit 
to  full  church  fellowship  by  confirmation,  or  ordain  new  clergy, 
or  consecrate  new  church  buildings. 

He  was  likewise  an  important  officer  of  the  civil  government. 
The  Roman  emperors,  after  Constantine,  had  begun  to  make 
bishops  their  lieutenants  for  many  matters  of  government. 
And  the  Teutonic  conquerors  of  the  Empire  had  carried  the 
practice  further,  because  they  knew  that  the  bishops  had  the 
necessary  knowledge  to  deal  with  the  difficulties  that  arose, 
and  that  bishops  were  not  dangerous  to  their  rule,  —  as  other 
Roman  officials  might  be  if  intrusted  with  authority. 

With  the  growth  of  feudalism,  this  temporal  power  extended 
itself  still  more  widely.  A  bishop  tvas  a  great  feudal  lord,  owing 
military  service  possibly  to  several  different  suzerains,  holding 
much  power  over  vassals,  and  possessing  power  of  life  and  death 
over  hundreds  of  serfs. 

About  the  bishop  was  a  body  of  assistant  clergy,  called  canons. 


150] 


ORGANIZATION 


137 


ENGLISH  MONASTERIES 

BISHOPRICS 
AND  ARCHBISHOPRICS 
IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

Monasteries  + 

Sees  of  nishopt          O 
'  Axchbishopta 


Taken  in  a  body,  the  canons  were  the  "cathedral  chapter." 
They  aided  in  the  services  of  the  cathedral  and  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  diocese ;  and,  on  the  death  of  the  bishop,  they 
appointed  his  successor,  —  subject  perhaps  to  the  approval  of 
some  temporal  ruler. 

c.  A  number  of  dioceses  made  up  a  province,  —  which  was  usu- 
ally one  of  the  old  divisions  of  that  name  under  the  Roman 
Empire.    Over  each  province,  seated  in  its  most  important  city, 
was  an  archbishop,  or  metro-    ^ __^_ 
politan.      The    archbishop 

was  a  bishop  also  of  one 
diocese,  and  he  had  a 
general  supervision,  but 
not  a  very  definite  one,  over 
the  other  bishops  of  the 
province.  His  court,  too, 
heard  appeals  from  theirs ; 
but  he  did  not  excel  a 
bishop  in  power  or  dignity 
in  any  such  degree  as  a 
bishop  excelled  a  priest. 
In  each  country,  one  arch- 
bishop usually  secured  a 
primacy  over  the  others, 
and  became  known  as 
primate.  Thus,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  was 
primate  of  England,  with  influence  superior  to  that  of  the 
Archbishop  of  York. 

d.  At  the  head  of  all  this  church  hierarchy  stood  the  pope,  the 
spiritual  monarch  of  Christendom.     He  was  supreme  lawgiver, 
supreme  judge,  supreme  executive.     He  issued  new  laws  in  the 
form  of   bulls  (so-called  from  the  gold   seal,  or  bulla,  on  the 
documents),  and  he  set  aside  old  laws  by  his  dispensations, — 
as  when  it  seemed  best  to  him  to  permit  cousins  to  marry,  a 
thing  forbidden  by  the  canon  law.     His  court  heard  appeals 


138  THE    MEDIEVAL   CHURCH  [§150 

from  the  courts  of  bishop  and  archbishop,  and  likewise  from 
many  of  the  temporal  courts  of  Christendom.  Now  and  then 
he  set  aside  appointments  of  bishops  and  other  clergy,  and 
himself  rilled  the  vacancies. 

After  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century,  he  appointed 
legates,  to  represent  his  authority  directly  in  different^  ountries, 
serving  him  somewhat  as  the  missi  dominici  servm  Charle- 
magne. A  legate  could  revoke  the  judgment  of  a  bishop's 
court,  remove  bishops,  and  haughtily  command  obedience  from 
kings,  —  quite  as  Shakspere  pictures  in  his  King  John. 

That  the  pope  was  a  temporal  prince  over  a  group  of  prov- 
inces in  Italy  has  been  explained.  Above  all  else,  he  was  the 
spiritual  guide  and  guardian  of  Christendom,  compelling  even 
kings,  on  occasion,  to  cease  to  do  evil  and  to  begin  to  do  justice. 
Sometimes  the  papacy  fell  into  weak  or  improper  hands,  but 
on  the  whole,  no  line  of  kings  in  Europe  began  to  equal  the 
mighty  bishops  of  Rome  either  in  devotion  to  their  work  or  in 
ability. 

For  aid  in  his  high  office,  the  pope  gathered  about  him  a 
"  college  *  of  cardinals."  At  first  this  body  comprised  only  seven 
bishops  of  Rome  and  its  vicinity  ;  but  it  grew  finally  to  include 
great  churchmen  in  all  countries.  After  the  middle  of  the 
eleventh  century,  this  college  elected  the  popes,  as  will  be  ex- 
plained more  fully  in  its  place. 

e.  Bishop,  archbishop,  and  pope  could  each  call  councils  of 
inferior  clergy.  The  local  councils  dealt,  of  course,  with  local 
concerns.  A  general  council,  made  up  of  all  bishops  in  Latin 
Christendom,  settled  supreme  matters  of  faith  and  of  church 
policy.  Such  an  assembly  was  believed  to  be  divinely  inspired 
in  its  decisions.  The  first  general  council  was  the  one  Constan- 
tine  called  at  Nicea  (§  35) ;  and  at  some  other  times  emperors 
as  well  as  popes  summoned  these  gatherings. 

In  this  organization  of  councils,  the  church  was  far  ahead  of 
the  temporal  government  of  Europe.  England  had  a  national 

1  "  College,"  in  this  common  use,  means  merely  a  collection  of  people. 


§  152]  THE   POPE   AND   COUNCILS  139 

convocation  of  clergy,  to  legislate  in  church  matters,  centuries 
before  it  had  a  parliament ;  and  until  the  recent  creation  of 
the  Hague  Congress,  Europe  had  no  general  political  assembly 
to  compare  in  any  way  with  the  general  councils  of  Christen- 
dom in  the  Middle  Ages. 

Three  matters  which  have  been  referred  to  in  the  paragraphs  above 
call  for  more  extended  notice,  —  benefit  of  clergy,  the  weapons  of  the 
church,  and  its  revenues. 

151.  The  right  of  the  clergy  to  be  tried  in  clerical  courts  was 
known  as  "  benefit  of  clergy."     The  practice  had  its  good  side. 
Ordinary  courts  and  ordinary  law  partook  of  the  violent  and 
ferocious   life   of   the   age.      Trials  were  rude;    and   ghastly 
punishments  were   inflicted   for   trivial    offenses,  —  often,  no 
doubt,  upon  the  innocent.     It  was  a  gain  when  the  peaceful 
and  moral  part  of  society  secured  the  right  to  trial  in  inore 
intelligent  courts  and  by  more  civilized  codes.     Moreover,  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  all  corporations,  even  trade  gilds,  very  com- 
monly had  courts  with  considerable  power  of  jurisdiction  over 
their  own  members.     The  demand  of  the  church  was  not  out  of 
keeping  with  the  ideas  and  practice  of  the  age,  as  such  a  claim 
would  be  now. 

But  the  church  law  was  too  mild  to  deal  with  serious  crimes. 
It  did  not  use  force  in  its  punishments,  but  only  required  the 
offender  to  punish  himself  by  penances  of  various  kinds  or  by 
fines,  or  payments  to  the  church.  This  mildness  was  seriously 
abused.  Its  advantages  tempted  men  to  "  take  Holy  Orders  " 
(enter  the  clergy)  until,  besides  the  preaching  clergy  and  the 
monks,  the  land  swarmed  with  "  clerics  "  who  were  really  only 
lawyers,  secretaries,  scholars,  teachers,  or  mere  adventurers. 
Some  of  these,  by  their  crimes,  brought  disgrace  upon  the 
church  and  danger  to  the  state. 

152.  The  church  had  two  mighty  weapons  to  compel  obedience 
to  its  commands,  —  excommunication   and  interdict.     A  bishop 
could  excommunicate  any  man  in  his  diocese,  and  a  pope  could 
excommunicate  any  man  in  Christendom.     Excommunication 


140  THE    MEDIEVAL   CHURCH  [§163 

shut  the  offender  out  from  all  religious  communion.  He  could 
attend  no  church  service, -receive  no  sacrament,  and  at  death, 
if  still  unforgiven,  his  body  could  not  receive  Christian  burial. 
But  excommunication  was  even  more  than  this.  In  modern 
language,  it  was  a  universal  boycott  for  all  social  and  business 
relations  also.  If  it  was  obeyed  by  the  community,  it  cut  a 
man  off  absolutely  from  all  communication  with  his  fellows, 
and  practically  made  him  an  outlaw.  No  one  might  speak  to 
him  or  give  him  food  or  shelter,  under  danger  of  similar  pen- 
alty, and  his  very  presence  was  shunned  like  the  pestilence. 

One  decree  of  excommunication  reads :  "  By  virtue  of  the  divine 
authority  given  to  bishops  by  St.  Peter,  we  cast  him  out  from  the  bosom 
of  our  Holy  Mother  Church.  Let  him  be  accursed  in  his  town,  accursed 
in  liis  field,  accursed  in  his  home.  Let  no  Christian  speak  to  him  or  eat 
with  him.  Let  no  priest  say  mass  for  him,  or  give  him  the  communion. 
Let  him  be  buried  like  the  ass." 

What  excommunication  was  to  the  individual,  the  interdict 
was  to  a  district  or  a  nation.  Churches  were  closed,  and  no 
religious  ceremonies  were  permitted,  except  the  rites  of  baptism 
and  of  extreme  unction.  No  marriage  could  be  performed,  and 
there  could  be  no  burial  in  consecrated  ground.1  "  The  dead 
were  left  unburied,  and  the  living  were  unblessed." 

153.  Revenues.  —  All  churches  and  ecclesiastical  lords  had 
their  revenues,  of  course,  from  rents  and  landed  properties. 
Pious  men  and  women,  at  their  death,  often  left  property  to 
the  church,  and  it  came  finally  to  own  over  a  third  of  the  land 
in  many  countries.  There  were  also  many  dues  and  fees  paid 
to  the  clergy,  such  as  the  tithe  (§  150). 

But  besides  all  this,  —  which  corresponded  fairly  well  to 
the  income  of  the  lay  lords  of  the  time,  —  there  was  also  a 

1  In  this  extreme  form,  the  interdict  was  rarely  proclaimed ;  and,  of 
course,  a  decree  of  excommunication  against  a  king  was  always  disregarded 
by  many  of  his  followers,  But,  on  the  other  hand,  few  kings  or  peoples  could 
hold  out  against  the  mere  threat  of  these  terrors  in  an  age  when  religious 
practices  were  so  interwoven  with  the  fiber  of  daily  life.  The  Pennsylvania 
Reprints,  IV,  No.  4,  give  several  decrees  of  interdict.  Notice  especially  the 
reply  to  one  by  the  Doge  of  Venice  in  1606. 


§  155]  THE   VILLAGE   PRIEST  141 

papal  system  of  taxation  extending  over  all  Christendom,  long 
before  any  king  had  so  effective  a  revenue  system  for  his 
particular  country.  The  most  famous  element  in  this  taxation 
was  Peter's  Pence,  or  a  penny  for  each  hearth  each  year,  col- 
lected over  Western  Europe  by  an  organized  body  of  papal 
officers.  Much  more  important,  however,  were  the  many  enor- 
mous payments  made  by  the  clergy,  —  such  as  the  payment  by 
each  bishop,  at  his  accession,  of  half  the  first  year's  revenue  of 
his  office,  —  a  payment  corresponding  to  a  feudal  relief  (§  125). 

154.  Thus  Christendom  was  divided  into  provinces,  dioceses,  and  parishes, 
ruled  by  pope,  archbishops,   bishops,  and  priests.     Besides  these,  there 
were  the  thousands  of  monasteries  (§51)  that  dotted  Europe,  with  their 
multitudes  of  monks,  ruled  by  priors  and  abbots,  subject  to  the  final  au- 
thority of  the  pope.     This  vast  centralized  monarchy  of  the  church  had 
its  laws  and  legislatures  and  judges,  its  taxes,  its  terrible  punishments, 
and  its  promise  of  eternal  happiness. 

155.  Of  all  this  mighty  organization,  the  village  priest  brought 
the  church  closest  home  to  the  mass  of  the  people.     The  great 
ecclesiastics  — bishops,  archbishops,  and  abbots  —  were  often 
from  the  noble  class  by  birth,  and  in  any  case  they  always 
became  part  of  the  aristocracy.     But  the  rural  priest  was  com- 
monly a  peasant  in  origin,  and  he  often  remained  essentially  a 
peasant   in    his   life,  —  marrying    in    the    village    (until   the 
eleventh  century)  and  working  in  the  fields  with  his  neighbors. 
He  was  a  peasant  with  a  somewhat  better  income   than  his 
fellows,  with  a  little  learning,  a   revered   position,  and  with 
great  power  for  good.     He  christened,  absolved,  married,  and 
buried  his  parishioners,  worked  for  them  daily  the  purifying 
miracle  of  the  Mass,  comforted  the  heart-sore  and  wretched,  and 
taught  all,  by  word  and  example,  to  hold  fast  to  right  living. 
He  looked,  too,  to  their  physical  welfare.      It  was  as  much 
his  duty  to  guard  the  village  against  the  visit  of  a  leper  as 
against  that  of  a  heretic. 

The  church  building  was  also  the  social  center  of  the  parish. 
In  it  took  place  the  most  solemn  events  of  every  life, — 
christening,  confirmation,  marriage,  burial.  Near  it,  on  Sun- 


142  THE   MEDIEVAL   CHURCH  [§  lotf 

day,  between  the  sacred  services,  the  people  found  their  chief 
recreation  in  sports  and  games.  And  from  its  steps  the  priest 
gave  to  them  what  news  they  received  from  the  outside  world, 
reading  aloud  there,  too,  any  rare  letter  that  some  adventurous 
wanderer  might  be  able  to  get  written  to  his  home. 

156  Democracy.  —  One  other  fact  about  the  church  govern- 
ment must  be  kept  in  mind.  The  government  was  a  central- 
ized monarchy,  but  it  was  infinitely  more  democratic-  ///  */<//// 
than  feudal  society  was.  Long  after  the  gulf  between  nobles 
and  non-nobles  became  impassable  (§  121),  men  of  humblest 
birth  rose  sometimes  to  the  loftiest  offices  of  the  church. 
Pope  Gregory  VII,  who  set  his  foot  upon  the  neck  of  the 
mightiest  king  in  Europe  (§  221)  was  the  son  of  a  poor  peasant. 
Another  pope  was  a  shepherd's  son;  another,  a  baker's;  and 
many  a  great  bishop  had  even  a  lowlier  origin.  T/ie  r// ///•«•/*  in 
the  Middle  Ages  was  the  only  part  of  society  where  talfnf  nml 
study  conl'l  lift  a  poor  boy  to  power.  This  was  one  explanation 
of  its  tremendous  authority.  It  was  recruited  by  the  bext  minds 
from  all  classes. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Cutts'  Parish  Priests  and  their  People 
(ch.  ix)  and  Gasquet's  Parish  Life  in  Medieval  England  (ch.  iv)  give 
admirable  descriptions  of  the  way  in  which  the  medieval  church  affected 
the  life  of  the  common  people. 


PLOWING.  —  From  an  Anglo-Saxon  manuscript 
in  the  British  Museum. 

CHAPTER   VIII 

ENGLAND1   IN   THE   FEUDAL  AGE,    TO   1327 
I.     FROM   EDGAR   TO   WILLIAM  THE   CONQUEROR 

157.  Part  of  a  Danish  Empire. — In  §  108  we  left  England 
united  under  Edgar  the  Peaceful  (959-975).  In  the  long  right 
against  the  Norse  invader,  under  the  great  Alfred  and  his  sons 
and  grandsons,  Angle  and  Saxon  and  Northumbrian  and 
Mercian  had  learned  to  look  upon  themselves  as  Englishmen, 
—  citizens  of  one  country.  The  many  Teutonic  states  in 
Britain  had  at  last  been  fused  into  a  true  "  England,"  —  though 
bitter  feuds  did  sometimes  still  break  forth  between  English- 
men of  the  north  and  Englishmen  of  the  south. 

During  the  first  years  of  the  next  century,  the  ruler  was  a 
weak  man,  Ethelred  the  Eedeless ; 2  and  the  island  was  con- 
quered by  Swegn,  king  of  Denmark,  and  his  son  Knut.  This 
Danish  attack  was  wholly  unlike  the  invasions  in  the  time  of 
Alfred.  Denmark  had  now  become  a  Christian  kingdom  ;  and 
Knut,  who  was  master  also  of  much  of  Norway,  made  England 
part  of  a  great  Scandinavian  empire  (1016-1035). 

1  It  is  desirable  for  students  to  read  more  widely  on  English  history,  from 
this  period,  than  on  that  of  other  European    countries.      Green's  English 
People  remains  the  most  attractive  general  account.    Either  Gardiner's  or 
Andrews'  History  of  England  makes  a  good  one-volume  text. 

2  Ethelred  means  "noble  counsel."    This  nickname  meant  "Ethelred  the 
man  without  counsel." 

143 


144 


FEUDAL   ENGLAND 


[§158 


At  the  same  time  he  showed  himself  an  English  king  in 
feeling.  He  lived  mainly  in  England,  and  dismissing  his 
Danish  army,  he  rested  his  power  upon  the  good  government 
he  gave  to  the  realm.  After  twelve  years  of  his  rule,  while 
absent  for  a  time,  he  wrote  a  noble  letter  to  his  English  sub- 
jects: "I  have  vowed  ...  to  rule  justly  and  piously.  If  I 


Empire  of 
KNUT  THE  GREAT 

1014-1035 


heretofore  have  done  anything  unjustly,  through  the  headiness 
or  carelessness  of  youth,  I  am  ready,  with  God's  help,  to 
amend  it  utterly." 

158.  The  First  Norman  Influence.  —  Knut's  sons  and  suc- 
cessors, however,  proved  lawless  and  ruthless  young  savages, 
and  in  1042  the  Witan  *  of  the  English  kingdom  restored  the 

1  This  was  the  meeting  of  the  "  wise  "  men,  the  National  Assembly  of  givat 
lords  and  ecclesiastics  (§  49)  which  with  the  king  ruled  the  land  and  made 
laws,  and  which  sometimes  elected  a  king. 


§  158]  NORMAN  INFLUENCE  145 

Saxon  line  of  kings  by  electing  Edward,  son  of  Ethelred  and 
Norman  princess. 

The  story  of  the  Norse  settlement  (911)  in  the  north  ol 
France  (Normandy)  has  been  told  in  §  100.  Normandy  was  a 
fief  of  the  French  kings,  but  practically  it  long  remained  an 
independent  state.  Rolf  and  his  fierce  Norse  warriors  were 
pagan  barbarians ;  but  a  century  later  their  "  Norman " 1 
descendants  were  the  foremost  champions  of  Western  civiliza- 
tion. A  long  line  of  able  dukes  maintained  stern  order ;  and 
this  security  quickly  drew  immigrants  from  the  troubled  neigh- 
boring provinces,  so  that  it  became  one  of  the  most  populous 
and  prosperous  parts  of  Europe.  The  rulers  were  patrons  of 
learning  and  architecture.  Churches  and  rich  abbeys  rose  on 
every  side;  agriculture  flourished;  and  the  native  serfs  grew 
into  free  peasants.  The  mixture  of  Norse  blood  gave  to  the 
population  a  robust  vigor  which  was  notable  for  centuries, 
especially  in  the  daring  of  the  Norman  sailors.  With  peculiar 
adaptability,  the  Normans  took  on  French  customs,  adopted 
French  ideas  and  the  French  language,  and  were  now  to  spread 
this  culture  into  other  lauds,  especially  into  England. 

King  Edward  of  England,  as  has  been  said,  was  half  Norman 
by  birth,  and  he  had  spent  much  of  his  life  at  the  Norman  court. 
He  brought  swarms  of  Norman  favorites  with  him  to  England, 
and  began  to  introduce  Norman  customs,  much  to  the  disgust 
of  his  English  subjects.  Edward's  piety,  and  his  constant 
dependence  upon  monks  and  priests,  won  him  the  surname 
the  Confessor ;  but  he  was  a  weak  man,  without  ability  or 
decision,  and  his  reign  was  a  series  of  internal  squabbles. 

He  left  no  son ;  and  at  his  death,  the  English  Witan  chose 
Harold,  the  most  powerful  Saxon  nobleman,  for  their  king. 
But  William,  Duke  of  Normandy,  claimed  the  throne  on  the 
ground  of  distant  relationship  and  of  a  promise  from  Edward. 
The  claim  was  flimsy,  but  William  prepared  to  make  it  good 
by  arms. 

1  Norman  is  a  softened  form  of  Norsemen  (Northmen). 


146  FEUDAL   ENGLAND  [§  159 

II.     THE   NORMAN  PERIOD,  1066-1154 

159.  The  Norman  Conquest.  —  "Harold,  the  Last  of  the 
Saxons,"  l  is  a  gallant  figure,  whose  tragic  reign  of  a  few  months 
adds  a  touching  interest  to  the  close  of  Saxon  independence. 
England  was  threatened  from  two  sides.  Harold's  turbulent 
and  tyrannical  brother,  Tostig,  Earl  of  Northumbria,  had  been 
driven  into  exile  by  a  popular  rising.  Harold,  standing  firm 
for  justice,  had  refused  to  restore  him.  So  Tostig  had  stirred 
up  Harold  Hardrada,  the  adventurous  king  of  Norway  and  one 
of  the  most  romantic  heroes  in  history,  to  attack  Knglaml  on 
the  west,  while  William  of  Normandy  prepared  to  invade  from 
the  south. 

For  months,  Harold  of  England  watched  anxiously  the  two 
storm  clouds,  holding  fleet  and  army  ready  to  meet  either 
onset.  England  as  yet  had  no  real  feudal  system,  and  Harold's 
army,  aside  from  his  large  body  of  household  troops,  was  made 
up  mainly  of  a  militia  of  farmers.  In  September  the  king  had 
to  let  this  array  disperse  for  the  harvest,  and  at  once  the  two 
storms  burst. 

The  Norwegian  host,  a  fleet  of  three  hundred  ships,  landed 
first,  on  the  coast  of  Yorkshire.  Harold  was  in  the  south,  to 
meet  the  even  more  formidable  force  from  across  the  Channel. 
Hurrying  northward  with  his  trusted  household  troops,  English 
Harold  overthrew  and  slew  Norwegian  Harold,  in  a  desperate 
and  brilliant  battle  at  Stamford  Bridge. 

lint  meantime  William  had  made  his  landing  on  the  south 
coast  near  Hastings.  Back  hastened  Harold,  by  forced  marches, 
with  his  exhausted  and  depleted  troops,  while  the  jealous 
nobles  of  the  old  Danelaw  foolishly  and  treacherously  held 
aloof.  The  gentlemen  and  husbandmen  of  Kent  and  Wessex 
rallied  nobly  to  his  banner ;  but,  on  the  whole,  they  seemed  a 
poorly  armed,  rustic  force,  with  which  to  meet  the  steel-clad 
Norman  knights.  William  was  ravaging  cruelly,  to  support 

1  This  is  the  title  of  Bulwer's  novel,  which  all  students  should  know. 
Charles  Kingsley's  Hereward  describes  another  side  of  the  conquest. 


§  159]  THE   NORMAN   CONQUEST  147 

his  host  and  to  draw  Harold  to  an  attack.  But  the  English 
king  wisely  seized  the  hill  of  Senlac,  commanding  William's 
position,  and  entrenched  his  troops  there  by  palisades  ;  so  that 
the  invader,  unable  to  forage  further,  was  forced  to  risk  an 
attack  on  Harold's  terms.  This  brought  on  the  battle  of  Hast- 
ings, or  Senlac,  one  of  the  world's  decisive  struggles. 

A  long  day  the  battle  raged  between  two  civilizations.     The 
English  strength  lay  in  the  mail-clad  family  guards   of  the 


BATTLE  OF  HASTINGS.  —  From  the  Bayeux  Tapestry.  The  Bayeux  Tapestry  is 
a  linen  band  230  feet  long  and  20  inches  wide,  embroidered  in  colored 
worsteds,  with  72  scenes  illustrating  the  Norman  Conquest.  It  was  a  con- 
temporary work.  The  scene  given  here  pertains  to  the  close  of  the  battle. 

King  massed  about  his  standard,  the  Golden  Dragon  of 
Wessex.  They  wielded  huge,  two-handed  battle  axes,  and 
fought  on  foot,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  the  King  among  them, 
behind  a  wall  of  overlapping  long  shields.  This  was  a  splen- 
did force  to  resist  attack.  The  Norman  strength  lay  in  their 
mounted  knights  and  rnen-at-arms,  assisted  by  bowmen,  — 
magnificent  troops  to  make  an  onset.  Eor  the  last  time  for  cen- 
turies, footmen  met  knights  on  equal  terms. 

Charge  after  charge  of  Norman  horse  failed  to  break  the 
Saxon  shield-wall.  William's  furious  valor  and  personal 
strength,  which  had  already  won  him  fame  on  many  a  bloody 
field  as  the  most  terrible  knight  in  Christendom,  showed  as 
never  before,  mingled  with  cool  generalship  and  quick  re- 
sourcefulness. Three  times  a  horse  was  killed  under  him. 
Once  his  troops  broke,  and  the  cry  went  up,  —  "  The  Duke  is 
slain."  William  tore  off  his  helmet,  to  show  his  face,  shout- 
ing with  mighty  voice,  —  "I  live ;  and  by  God's  help  I  shall 


148  FEUDAL  ENGLAND  [§  160 

conquer ! "     And  a  blow  from  his  mace  struck  down  one  of 
Harold's  brothers  at  the  foot  of  the  English  standard. 

Finally,  at  three  in  the  afternoon,  by  feigning  flight, 
William  drew  part  of  the  English  troops  from  their  impreg- 
nable position,  in  spite  of  Harold's  orders,  and  then  turning 
savagely  upon  their  disordered  ranks,  he  rode  them  down  in 
masses.  Still  the  household  troops  stood  firm  about  the  King, 
and  at  six  the  fight  swayed  back  and  forth  as  stubbornly  as 
ever  about  the  Dragon  standard.  But  the  Duke  brought  his 
archers  to  the  front,  to  pour  their  deadly  shafts  into  the 
massed  English  array ;  and,  as  the  sun  went  down,  an  arrow 
pierced  Harold's  eye.  The  combat  closed,  in  the  gathering 
dusk,  with  the  slaughter  of  his  followers  over  his  corpse. 
William  was  left  master  of  the  kingdom. 

The  Norman  conquest  was  one  of  the  chief  turning  points  in  English 
(and  American)  history.  Never  since  has  a  conquering  people  estab- 
lished itself  in  England.  Britons,  Romans,  Saxons,  Danes,  had  held  the 
island  in  turn.  Each  had  brought  his  peculiar  contribution  to  its  devel- 
opment. Now  the  Normans  had  conquered,  because  they  were  better 
equipped  for  warfare  than  the  old  English,  and  better  disciplined. 
This  same  superiority  they  were  to  show  in  government. 

160.  The  Normans  found  some  institutions  in  Saxon  England 
which  had  lasting  influence  on  English  and  American  life.  These 
had  to  do  with  the  local  divisions  of  Saxon  England,  and  with 
the  Saxon  machinery  for  justice  and  local  government.  The 
local  divisions  were  of  three  orders,  —  shires,  hundreds,  and 
townships. 

As  Wessex  had  extended  her  sway  over  the  island  (§  105), 
the  early  tribal  kingdoms  (Kent,  Essex,  and  so  on)  had  sunk 
into  shires;  and  in  the  end  all  England  came  to  be  divided 
into  about  forty  such  units.  Each  had  its  shire-reeve  (sheriff). 
In  the  Saxon  period  this  officer,  appointed  by  the  king,  had 
little  power;  but  under  the  Norman  kings  he  became  much 
more  important.  The  church,  too,  had  adopted  the  shires  as 
units  for  church  government.  Each  shire  (or  county,  as  the 
Normans  called  the  divisions)  was  the  diocese  of  a  bishop. 


§  161]  WHAT   THE    NORMANS   FOUND  149 

Before  the  tribal  kingdoms  sank  into  shires,  they  had  pos- 
sessed their  own  local  subdivisions.  These,  or  others  formed 
in  imitation  of  them,  remained  as  subdivisions  of  the  shires, 
and  were  known  as  hundreds  (a  name  that  survives  for  local 
divisions  in  Maryland  and  Delaware). 

Each  hundred  was  made  up  of  townships,  or  villages.  The 
chief  village  of  each  shire  had  usually  grown  into  a  fortified 
"  borough,"  a  trading  town,  with  some  special  privileges 
granted  by  the  kings.  Trade  had  raised  some  other  villages 
into  boroughs. 

161.  Local  Government. —  The  ordinary  township  had  come  to 
have  little  self-government.  Such  powers  as  it  had  once  pos- 
sessed had  passed  mainly  into  the  hands  of  some  neighboring 
noble,  to  whom  the  village  was  coming  to  stand  much  like  a 
"  manor  "  on  the  continent.  Boroughs  had  greater  privileges. 
They  were  practically  compressed  hundreds,  so  far  as  govern- 
ment was  concerned. 

The  hundred  was  the  busiest  unit  for  carrying  on  government. 
It  did  its  work  in  a  "  court "  which  met  once  a  month.  The 
hundred  court  was  made  up  of  the  landlords,  or  their  stewards, 
and  the  "reeve"  (headman),  priest,  and  "four  best  men,"  of 
each  village.  The  sheriff  of  the  shire,  or  more  commonly  one 
of  his  subordinates,  and  some  representative  of  the  bishop, 
presided.  The  court  dealt  with  a  great  variety  of  matters. 
In  particular,  it  settled  disputes  about  land  and  other  property, 
and  tried  criminal  cases. 

There  was  also  a  shire  court,  which  met  twice  a  year.  This 
body  was  composed  much  as  the  courts  of  the  various  hundreds 
were.  It  tried  appeals  from  the  hundred  courts,  and  decided 
many  matters  of  local  government.1  It  was  in  these  self-govern- 
ing courts  of  the  shire  and  hundred  that  the  old  Teutonic  freedom 
best  survived.  It  was  these  institutions,  too,  'which  were  to  prove 
the  cradle  of  later  English  liberty. 

1  Students  should  note  that  "court"  in  medieval  history  has  a  more 
extended  meaning  than  in  recent  times.  A  "court"  was  concerned  with 
any  or  all  matters  of  government,  —  not  merely  with  judicial  business. 


150  FEUDAL  ENGLAND  [§  KV2 

162.  Saxon  Feudalism.  — Neither  feudalism  nor  serfdom  had 
developed  in  Saxon  England  in  any  such  degree  as  on  the  con- 
tinent.   Still,  even  the  larger  units  (shire  and  hundred),  as  well 
as  the  little  townships,  were  coming  under  the  influence  of  local 
nobles.     Sometimes  a  lord  secured  from  the  king  the  right  to 
hold  a  private  court  alongside  the  people's  court  of  the  hun- 
dred.    Moreover,  the  freemen  of  the  villages  had  been  sinking 
in  condition.     After  Alfred's  time,  it  became  necessary  for 
each  free  villager  to  attach  himself  to  some  lord.     At  first,  the 
purpose  was  merely  to  hold  the  lord  responsible  for  the  vil- 
lager's obedience  to  the  laws ;  but,  in  return  for  his  responsi- 
bility, the  lord  began  to  exact  small  payments  of  various  sorts 
from  the  villagers,  and  that  class  had  begun  to  pass  into  the 
condition  of  villeins  on  the  continent.     This  last  change  was 
greatly  hastened  by  the  Norman  conquest. 

163.  Norman  Centralization.  —  The  Normans  did  not  meddle 
much  with  the  local  institutions  they  found.    Their  genius  for 
organization  did  build  up  a  more  effective  central  government, 
as  we  shall  see  shortly,  and  they  checked  certain  weaknesses 
of  the  old  local  organization.     There  had  been  no  good  machin- 
ery  to   secure  uniformity  of  government  and    custom  in   the 
different  shires,  or  to  compel  obedience  to  the  national  laws. 
The  Normans  increased  the  authority  of  the  sheriff,  the  king's 
especial  representative,  so  as  to  meet  these  needs.     But  tln> 
most  important  political  change  of  the  Norman  period  lay  in  a 
new  sort  of  feudalism  irhfch    Willinui  the  Conqueror  in  (rat  I  need. 

164.  English  Feudalism  after  the  Conquest.  —  Feudalism  was 
already  fully  developed  in  Normandy.     William  introduced  it 
into  England  as  a  complete  system,  but  with  certain  changes 
which  freed  it  from  the  worst  evils  of  feudalism  upon   the 
continent. 

He  first  confiscated  all  the  land  of  the  kingdom,  with  legal 
formalities,  on  the  ground  that  the  landowners  had  forfeited 
their  holdings  as  traitors,  —  since  they  had  not  willingly  rec- 
ognized him  as -king.  Much  of  this  land,  especially  that  of 
Englishmen  who  had  fallen  in  battle  against  him,  he  used  to 


165] 


UNDER   NORMAN  KINGS 


151 


pay  his  followers ;  but  most  of  it  he  granted  back  to  the  old 
holders  on  the  payment  of  small  fines.  In  any  case  he  intro- 
duced feudal  tenure.  That  is,  the  land  was  to  be  held  of  the 
king  on  condition  of  feudal  service,  with  the  usual  "feudal 
incidents  "  of  reliefs,  aids,  and  so  on.  But  with  the  grant  of 
land,  the  king  did  not  grant  authority  to  the  lord  over  his  vassals 
to  the  extent  that  was  customary  on  the  continent. 

Instead,  he  introduced  many  checks  to  keep  the  lords  from 
usurping  feudal  independence.  (1)  No  one  lord  was  permitted 
to  accumulate  such  vast  possessions  as  were  often  held  by 
single  barons  in  France  and  Germany.  (2)  The  properties 
that  the  great  lords  did  hold  were  scattered  in  different  coun- 
ties. Thus  each  piece  really  became  a  surety  for  the  lord's 
fidelity ;  and  a  great  vassal  could  not  easily  gather  his  forces 
for  any  treasonable  attack.1  (3)  The  chief  authority  in  a  shire 
was  now  exercised,  not  by  an  hereditary  nobleman,  but  by  the 
king's  sheriff.  (4)  Vassals  of  every  degree  were  required  to  swear 
fidelity  directly  to  the  Icing, 
so  that  they  owed  him  al- 
legiance even  against  their 
own  immediate  lords. 

(5)  William  also  pre- 
served the  old  national 
militia  of  shire  and  hun- 
dred, putting  it  under  the 
command  of  the  royal 
sheriffs.  Thus  the  Eng- 
lish king  was  not  wholly 
dependent  upon  the  feudal 
array.  He  even  had  a  force  to  confront  disloyal  nobles. 

165.  General  Result.  —  Until  1066,  England  had  counted  for 
little  in  the  life  of  Europe.  Its  church  had  become  almost  in- 
dependent of  Home,  and  in  politics  its  foreign  relations  had 

1  This  fortunate  arrangement  came  about  probably  not  so  much  from 
design  as  from  the  fact  that  William  really  became  master  of  the  country 
only  by  degrees,  and  so  had  to  reward  his  followers  a  little  at  a  time. 


A  NORMAN  SHIP.  — From  the  Bayeux 
Tapestry. 


152  FEUDAL  ENGLAND  [§  165 

been  mainly  with  the  Scandinavian  countries  of  the  north. 
At  home,  from  the  time  of  Alfred  the  Great,  the  two  chief 
dangers  had  been  the  growth  of  feudal  anarchy  and  the 
splitting  apart  of  Danish  England  and  Saxon  England. 

The  Norman  Conquest  changed  these  conditions.  It  brought 
the  church  again  into  dependence  on  Rome,1  and  drew  Eng- 
land into  the  thick  of  European  politics.2  Within  the  island, 
it  crushed  together  north  and  south,  so  that  the  two  parts 
never  again  dreamed  of  separation,  and  it  built  up  a  strong  cen- 
tral government.  The  kings  were  strong  enough  to  keep  down 
feudal  tyrants,  but  not  quite  strong  enough  to  become  royal 
tyrants  themselves.  Through  dread  of  royal  power,  Norman 
nobles  and  Saxon  people  were  drawn  together3  and  became 
fused  into  an  English  nation,  which  in  centuries  of  slow, 
quiet,  determined  progress,  won  constitutional  liberty.  To  flic 
old  spirit  of  Saxon  freedom,  the  Normnnx  t«l>l«l  a  new  (/»'/////* 
for  oi'ffiinfzntfon.  The  local  institutions  to  a  considerable 
degree  remained  Saxon,  but  the  central  government  owed 
its  efficiency  to  Norman  influences.  England  was  the  first 
country  in  the  world  to  work  out  for  a  large  territory  the  < 
of  a  strong  central  government  and  of  free  institutions. 


iThe  ecclesiastical  condition  was  a  factor  in  the  conquest.  The 
blessed  the  enterprise  and  sent  Duke  William  a  consecrated  banner.  (This 
is  the  banner  in  the  stern  of  William's  ship,  in  the  illu>tration  on  page 
151.)  Afterward,  Pope  Gregory  VII  demanded  that  William  do  homage 
to  him  for  his  realm.  William  haughtily  refused  (see  his  letter  to  Gregory 
in  Lee,  Source  Book,  No.  50).  Refilled  the  high  places  in  the  church  with 
Normans  in  sympathy  with  Rome,  and  he  developed  separate  ecclesiastical 
courts  (§  150),  which  had  not  existed  before  in  England;  but  he  guarded  jeal- 
ously against  papal  interference  in  his  government.  He  forbade  the  clergy 
to  place  any  of  his  knights  under  excommunication  without  consulting  him  : 
he  declared  any  one  an  outlaw  who  should  carry  an  appeal  to  Rome  without 
royal  permission  ;  and  no  papal  letter  could  be  received  in  England  without 
his  sanction. 

2  For  some  generations  the  rulers  of  England  were  also  dukes  of  Nor- 
mandy, and  so  great  vassals  of  the  French  crown. 

8  The  sharp  distinction  between  the  Norman  and  the  Saxon  had  disappeared 
before  the  close  of  the  Norman  reigns  (§  166)  .  Scott's  Ivanhoe  pictures  a  state 
of  affairs  in  this  respect  which  had  passed  away  at  least  two  generations 
before  the  time  dealt  with  in  the  story. 


166] 


UNDER   NORMAN  KINGS 


153 


The  conquest  also  brought  in  new  blood,  a  higher  culture, 
and  new  elements  in  language.  Norman  lords  and  clergy,  and 
likewise  Norman  merchants  and  artisans,  flocked  into  England. 
All  these  people  spoke  their  own  Norman-French  tongue,  and 
for  a  time  only  the  lowest  classes  spoke  English.  Gradually, 
the  English  gained  its  place  as  the  language  of  the  whole 
people ;  but  meantime  it  lost  its  more  complicated  grammatical 
forms  and  was  enriched 
by  a  multitude  of  Norman 
words. 

166.  The  Four  Norman 
Kings.  —  William  the  Con- 
queror (1066-1087)  was 
king  by  right  of  the  sword  ; 
but  he  went  through  the 
form  of  an  election  by  an 
English  Witan,  and  he 
ruled  with  much  regard 
for  English  custom.  Some 
of  his  chief  work  has  been 
described.  Among  his 
other  wise  deeds  was  the 
taking  of  a  great  census 
to  find  out  the  resources 
of  the  kingdom  and  the 
dues-  payable  to  the  king.  This  survey  is  recorded  in  Domesday 
Book,  which  gives  us  more  exact  knowledge  about  England 
than  we  have  of  any  other  country  in  that  century.  The 
population  numbered  some  1,200,000.  One-tenth  of  these  are 
called  "burgesses"  (inhabitants  of  "boroughs"),  though  half 
of  them  dwelt  in  what  we  should  call  mere  villages.  The 
king's  feudal  army  contained  about  5000  knights  (not  60,000,  as 
some  old  English  historians  understood  and  taught). 

William  the  Conqueror  stamped  himself  on  the  world's 
history,  making  it  a  far  different  thing  from  what  it  would 
have  been  without  him.  In  his  makeup  there  mingled  strangely 


NORMAN  DOORWAY,  ST.  PETER'S,  NORTH- 
AMPTON. Note  the  massive  round  arch 
and  the  simple  but  effective  ornament. 


154 


FEUDAL   ENGLAND 


[§166 


Hi:i;i:    is  DTK  i     Wn.i.iAM."- 
Bayeux  Tapestry. 


From  the 


the  wild  passions  of  his 
barbaric  Norse  ancestors 
and  the  cool  caution  and 
shrewdness  of  a  modern 
statesman.  His  person  was 
gigantic,  his  strength  enor- 
mous, his  will  knew  no  pity, 
and  his  outbursts  of  anger 
made  his  closest  counselors 
tremble.  "  Starkman  he 
was,  and  great  awe  men 
had  of  him,"  says  the  Eng- 
lish chronicler  of  the  period, 

"so  harsh  and  cruel,  that  no  man  dared  withstand  his  will." 

But  the  same  conquered  English  writer  fails  not  to  praise  the 

"  good  peace"  William's  stern  pitilessness  made,  "  so  that  a  man 

might  fare  over  his  realm 

with  a  bosom  full  of  gold." 

And  he  gives  a  suggestion 

how  the  lonely  and  grim 

king  grew  gentle  in  the 

outdoor  woods  :  "  He  loved 

the  red  deer  as  though  he 

were  their  father." 
.William,  by   will,   left 

Normandy   to   his   eldest 

son  Eobert,  and  England 

to  his  second  son  William 

Rufm   (the   Red).     This 

prince     (1087-1100),     to 

strengthen  his  claim,  pro- 
cured an  election  from  an 

English    Assembly ;     but 

he   proved   unscrupulous, 

though  able,  and  is  remem-     WlLLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR,  the  statue  at 

bered  aS  a  tyrant.  Falaise,  his  birthplace. 


166] 


UNDER   NORMAN   KINGS 


155 


He  was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  Henry  I,  the  youngest  son 
of  the  conqueror.  Henry  (1100-1135)  had  been  born  in  Eng- 
land and  he  married  an  English  princess.  He,  also,  secured 
an  election ;  and  in  return  he  granted  to  the  people  of  England 
a  Charter  of  Liberties,1  which  a  hundred  years  later  was  to  be- 
come the  model  for  a  more  important  grant.  Henry  also  began 
many  important  reforms 
in  the  government,  and  the 
English  of  his  own  day 
gave  him  the  honorable 
title,  "The  Lion  of  Jus- 
tice." 

The  English  nobles 
promised  Henry  to  make 
his  daughter  Matilda  his 
successor;  but,  after  his 
death,  his  nephew  Stephen 
secured  an  election.  Ste- 
phen (1135-1154)  was 
weak  by  nature,  and  his 
rule  was  distracted  by 
civil  war  with  the  sup- 
porters of  Matilda.  His 
reign  is  the  darkest  period 
in  English  history  after 
the  Conquest.  The  work 
of  Henry  was  undone. 
Feudal  anarchy  seemed  at 
last  to  have  seized  upon  the  land.  The  contemporary  chroni- 
clers exclaim  upon  the  misery  of  the  age  with  bitter  phrases  :  — 

"  Every  powerful  man  made  his  castles,  and  when  they  were  built  they 
filled  them  with  devils  and  evil  men  ;  they  put  men  in  their  dungeons  for 
their  gold  and  silver,  and  tortured  them  with  pains  unspeakable  .  .  .  men 
died  of  hunger,  for  the  earth  bare  no  corn  .  .  .  and  it  was  commonly  said 
that  Christ  and  his  saints  slept.  ...  In  those  days,  if  three  or  four  men 


STEPHEN,  from  an  engraving  based  on  coin 
portraits. 


1  Pennsylvania  Reprints,  I. 


156  FEUDAL   ENGLAND  [§167 

came  riding  towards  a  township,  all  the  township  fled  hastily,  belifvini: 
them  to  be  robbers.  .  .  .  That  lasted  the  nineteen  winters  Stephen  was 
king." 

The  four  Norman  reigns  may  be  summed  up  briefly,  thus :  William  I, 
conquest,  consolidation,  provision  against  feudal  disintegration  ;  William 
II,  tyranny;  Henry  I,  the  charter,  and  beginnings  of  judicial  organization ; 
Stephen,  anarchy  and  civil  war. 

Observe  that  the  three  successors  of  William  I  all  had  rivals  for  the 
throne,  and  so  were  kept  in  some  measure  in  dependence  upon  the  nation. 

SPECIAL  REPORTS.  —  The  Danegeld  ;  Domesday  Book ;  a  fuller  story 
of  the  Norman  Conquest,  with  the  harrying  of  the  North  ;  the  making  of 
the  New  Forest. 


III.     UNDER    PLANTACI.NKT    KINGS 

167.  Henry  II,  1154-1189. —  Matilda  had  married  Geoffrey, 
Count  of  Anjou,  a  province  of  France.  Geoffrey  cominm.lv 
wore  in  his  cap  a  sprig  of  the  broom  plant  (planta  genesta),  and 
this  pleasing  habit  gave  to  his  family  the  surname,  Plantwjt  <»t. 
The  son  of  this  marriage  became  Henry  II  of  England,  the 
first  of  a  long  line  of-Plantagenet  kings. 

At  twenty,  Henry  had  landed  in  England,  to  make  good  his 
claim  to  the  throne  against  Stephen.  An  English  army  gath- 
ered round  him;  but  all  parties  were  wearied  of  strife,  and 
Theobald,  the  aged  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  brought  the  rivals 
to  terms.  By  the  treaty  of  Wallingford  it  was  agreed  that 
Stephen  should  keep  the  crown  during  his  life,  but  that  he 
should  recognize  Henry  as  his  heir,  excluding  his  own  son. 
This  bargain  was  kept.  Stephen  died  the  same  year,  and 
Henry  quietly  succeeded. 

Henry's  stout  body  and  broad  shoulders  rose  from  bowed 
legs,  and  were  topped  by  a  bull  neck  and  a  round  head  with 
fiery  face  and  bulging  eyes.  He  wore  his  hair  cropped  close, 
among  the  long-haired  nobles  of  the  court,  and  was  careless  in 
dress,  rough  and  hurried  in  manner,  and  exceedingly  sparing  in 
food  and  drink.  He  had  a  memory  that  forgot  no  detail  of 
business,  a  strong  will  that  held  steadfastly  to  his  plans,  and 


§169]  HENRY   THE    SECOND  157 

great  physical  strength  which  enabled  him  to  keep  tirelessly  at 
his  tasks  while  servants  and  attendants  dropped  with  weariness. 
He  was  the  hardest  worker  of  his  day.  Said  one  observer,  — 
"He  never  sits  down";  and  it  was  remarked  that  in  travel 
(on  horseback,  over  the  bad  roads  of  the  time),  he  was  fond 
of  crowding  two  days'  journey  into  one. 

168.  Henry  was  the  most  powerful  ruler  in  Europe.     England 
was  only  a  part  of  his  territories.     Through  his  mother  he  had 
inherited  the  dukedoms  of  Normandy  and  Maine  (map  after 
page  182),  as  well  as  a  shadowy  claim  upon  Brittany,  which  he 
converted   into  real   lordship.     Through   his   father,    he   was 
Count   of   Anjou  and  Touraine.     By  marriage  with  Eleanor, 
divorced  wife  of  Louis  VII  of  France,  he  had  obtained  Aqui- 
taine,  which  then  included  also  Poitou  and  Gascony.     Thus 
he  ruled  more  than  half  of  what  is  now  France  —  and  six  times 
as  much  French  territory  as  was  then  held  directly  by  the  French 
king. 

True,  Henry  held  these  French  provinces,  in  name,  as  a 
vassal  of  the  king  of  France.  This  fact  kept  him  constantly 
entangled  in  warfare  with  his  suzerain.  Out  of  his  thirty-five 
years  of  kingship,  only  about  a  third  were  spent  in  England ; 
and  these,  a  few  months  at  a  time.  He  thought  of  himself, 
indeed,  chiefly  as  a  French  prince  with  important  possessions 
in  the  neighboring  island.  So,  too,  others  thought  of  him  in 
that  day.  None  the  less,  he  proved  one  of  the  greatest  and 
most  beneficent  of  all  the  English  kings. 

Before  his  death,  Henry  had  still  other  possessions.  He  began  the 
English  conquest  of  Ireland.  For  a  time,  he  held  Scotland  in  imperfect 
subjection,  her  king  his  imprisoned  vassal.  And  the  conquest  of  Wales 
went  on  slowly  but  steadily,  as  in  eveiy  strong  English  reign. 

169.  Henry  and  Feudal  Disorder.  —  The    first   task    of   the 
new  king  was  to  restore  order.     During  the  long  civil  wars, 
both  sides   had  brought  swarms  of   foreign  mercenaries  into 
England.     These  bands   paid   themselves   by  plundering   the 
country,  and  they  were  still  ravaging  at  will.     Henry  drove 


158  FEUDAL    ENGLAND  [§170 

them  out  or  hunted  them  down.  Then  the  new  castles  which 
had  risen  in  Stephen's  time,  and  which  had  so  often  become 
strongholds  for  the  oppression  of  the  people,  were  demolished 
ruthlessly,—  in  spite  of  the  grumbling  and  black  looks  of  the 
great  nobles,  and  some  trifling  rebellions. 

Henry  also  took  two  measures  to  decrease  permanently  the 
military  importance  of  the  feudal  lords. 

A  law  known  as  the  Assize  of  Arms  revived  the  old  national 
militia.  Every  freeman  below  the  rank  of  the  vassals  who  held 
their  land  by  military  service  was  ordered  to  provide  himself 
with  weapons  and  armor.  Those  who  held  land  of  their  own 
were  to  be  arrayed  in  coat  of  mail  and  helmet,  and  armed  with 
lance  and  shield.  Poorer  men  must  have  at  least  the  helmet 
and  lance.  All  had  to  hold  themselves  always  ready  for 
service  at  the  summons  of  the  royal  sheriffs. 

The  subvassals  of  the  great  lords  were  excused  from  /// ///'////•// 
service,  on  condition  of  a  money  payment  to  tin-  /,-/////.  This  sum 
was  called  scuta(/e  ("shield  money").  With  this  fund  the 
kinur  could  hire  trained  professional  soldiers,  more  reliable  and 
effective  than  the  unwieldy  feudal  armies  (§  123).  Thus  the 
king  became  more  independent  of  the  great  nobles,  who  were 
no  longer  followed  to  the  field  by  such  numerous  bodies  of 
knights  as  formerly.  The  knights,  too,  turned  their  attention 
in  part  away  from  fighting,  and  became  more  and  more  inter- 
ested in  farming  their  lands  and  especially  in  the  business 
of  the  shire  courts,  —  so  that  we  begin  soon  to  speak  of  them 
as  "  knights  of  the  shire." 

170.  Henry  II  and  the  Church.  —  The  king  had  checked 
feudal  independence  :  next  he  sought  to  check  the  independence 
of  the  church.  All  "  clerics,"  or  "  clerks,"  were  exempt  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  ordinary  courts  (§  151).  Henry  was  reso- 
lute to  make  all  men,  lay  or  cleric,  equal  before  the  law ;  but 
the  church  clung  firmly  to  its  privileges. 

As  a  step  to  his  purpose,  Henry  secured  the  archbishopric 
of  Canterbury  (the  highest  ecclesiastical  office  in  England, 
which  just  then  fell  vacant)  for  his  trusted  counselor,  Thomas 


§170]  HENRY  THE   SECOND  159 

Becket.  This  appointment  proved  the  greatest  error  in  Henry's 
life.  Thomas  had  been  the  king's  friend  as  well  as  his  chief 
minister, —  a  gay  companion  at  the  feast  or  in  the  hunt,  and  a 
gallant  follower  in  the  French  campaigns.  Henry  had  heaped 
riches  and  offices  upon  him.  But  in  this  new  position,  Thomas 
became  a  changed  man.  He  renounced  all  luxury  and  gayety, 
and  wore  at  all  times  next  his  body  a  coarse  hair  shirt,  like 
the  meanest  penitent;  and  he  took  up  enthusiastically  the 
cause  of  the  church  against  the  king. 

Henry  was  willing  that  clerks  should  be  tried  in  the  church 
courts,  but  he  demanded  that,  when  convicted  there,  a  criminal 
should  be  turned  over  to  the  ordinary  courts  to  be  punished 
like  other  men.  Thomas  would  consent  only  that  the  extreme 
penalty  for  any  crime  by  a  clerk  should  be  degradation  from 
his  order,  to  be  imposed  by  the  church  courts ;  and  that  then, 
for  future  offenses,  the  ex-clerk  might  be  tried  and  punished 
like  other  laymen.  To  settle  this  dispute,  a  "  Great  Council  v 
of  lords  and  bishops  was  gathered  at  Clarendon. 

This  Assembly  drew  up  a  long  code  to  regulate  the  relations 
of  church  and  state.  This  body  of  laws  is  known  as  "  the  Con- 
stitutions of  Clarendon,"  and  it  claimed  to  be  a  recital  of  the 
customs  of  the  realm.  Priests  were  to  elect  a  bishop,  and  monks 
their  abbots,  only  in  the  presence  of  royal  officers  subject  to  the 
king's  approval ;  and  the  church  officers  so  elected  were  to  do 
homage  to  the  king,  and  hold  their  lands  of  him  as  his  vassals, 
with  all  the  ordinary  feudal  obligations.  No  appeal  was  to  be 
made  in  any  case  to  the  pope  without  the  ling's  permission  ; 
and  no  bishop  could  leave  England  without  royal  authority. 

All  this  was  only  a  reenactment  of  rules  proclaimed  by 
William  the  Conqueror,  which  had  fallen  into  disuse ;  but 
the  "  Constitutions  "went  on  to  make  good  the  claim  of  Henry 
as  to  jurisdiction.  The  royal  courts  were  to  decide,  in  the  first 
place,  whether  a  suit  belonged  in  the  church  courts  or  not ; 
church  courts  were  to  hold  trials  only  in  the  presence  of  royal 
officers;  and  a  convicted  clerk  was  to  pass  to  the  ordinary 
courts  for  punishment. 


160  FEUDAL   ENGLAND  [§  171 

Thomas  refused  assent.  His  personal  enemies  took  advan- 
tage of  the  king's  wrath  against  him  to  try  to  ruin  him  by 
trumped-up  suits  in  the  king's  court.  Thomas  appeared  there, 
cross  in  hand,  haughtily  refused  to  plead,  and  appealed  to  the 
pope  for  judgment,  —  in  defiance  of  the  Constitutions  of 
Clarendon.  Shouts  of  "Traitor!"  drove  him  from  the  room; 
and  that  night  he  fled  from  the  realm  in  disguise,  leaving 
Henry  free,  for  a  time,  for  further  organization. 

171.  Excursus.  —  The  great  need  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  a  better 
means  of  administering  justice.  In  theory  the  king  could  always  do 
justice  even  by  setting  aside  the  decision  of  other  courts.  A  favorite 
name  for  the  royal  power  was  "the  fountain  of  justice."  But  the  diffi- 
culty was  for  the  man  who  suffered  from  injustice  to  get  at  the  king. 
The  kings  of  France  and  Germany  depended  more  upon  their  personal 
efforts,  and  less  upon  organization,  than  was  to  be  the  case  in  Kngland. 
They  were  marvels  of  energy,  and  they  toiled  ceaselessly;  but  they 
worked  at  an  impossible  task.  When  Conrad  II  of  Germany  §  -'!•">)  was 
passing  in  the  royal  procession  to  his  coronation  (1025),  three  low-born 
persons  —  a  peasant,  a  widow,  and  a  child  —  pressed  throu-h  the  crowd 
and  called  to  him  for  justice.  Conrad  kept  the  procession  waiting  while 
he  heard  their  troubles  and  righted  their  wrongs,  saying  to  the  bishop 
who  wished  him  to  pass  on,  "  Since  I  have  been  chosen  as  a  ruler,  it  is 
better  to  do  my  duty  at  once  ;  you  have  often  said  to  me  that  it  was  not 
the  hearer,  but  the  doer  of  the  law  that  was  blessed."  A  moment  later 
another  man  stopped  the  procession  with  his  cries  for  justice,  and  washrard 
upon  the  spot.  This  was  the  way  the  German  and  French  kings  ad- 
ministered justice.  Herbert  Fisher  (Medieval  Empire,  168)  says  of  the 
(Jennan  king,  "Instead  of  organizing  labor  on  the  great  highway  that 
was  to  lead  from  chaos  to  order,  he  takes  up  the  pick  and  works  devotedly, 
with  face  to  the  ground."  For  centuries,  royal  justice  was  simply  what 
justice  the  king  in  person  could  get  through  with  in  the  day,  with  all  the 
interruptions  of  war,  travel,  and  other  business.  There  was  no 
court,  and  there  were  no  regular  sessions  at  different  places.  To  render 
justice  was  a  hard  task  for  the  king,  and  to  secure  it  was  impossible  for 
most  of  his  subjects.1 

i  This  condition  made  possible  the  growth  of  irregular  secret  tribunals, 
with  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the  modern  frontier  "vigilance  com- 
mittee." The  most  famous  of  such  medieval  institutions  was  the  Holy  Vehme, 
which  appears  in  Scott's  Anne  of  Geierstein.  There  is  a  good  account  in 
Henderson's  Short  History  of  German//,  I,  1GU-170. 


§  172]  COURTS   OF  JUSTICE  161 

172.  The  most  important  of  Henry's  reforms  had  to  do  with 
the  administration  of  justice.  The  work  of  his  grandfather, 
Henry  I,  had  gone  to  ruin  in  the  anarchy  under  Stephen.  The 
king's  court  remained  practically  a  feudal  court  for  the  king 
and  his  great  vassals;  while  the  majority  of  Englishmen 
sought  justice  still  in  the  courts  of  hundred  and  shire,  or 
in  the  local  feudal  courts  that  were  rising  alongside  these 
popular  courts. 

If  this  condition  had  continued  longer,  each  district  in  Eng- 
land would  have  developed  its  own  local  customs,  and  national 
uniformity  would  have  become  almost  impossible.  Henry  saw 
the  need  of  one  law  for  all  England.  He  opened  the  doors  of 
the  royal  courts  to  all.  In  particular,  he  undermined  the 
feudal  courts,  and  widened  the  usefulness  of  the  royal  court, 
by  ordering  that  if  any  free  landholder  was  in  danger  of  being 
dispossessed  of  his  land  by  his  lord  unjustly,  the  man  might 
find  protection  in  the  king's  courts. 

But  Henry  did  more  than  issue  an  empty  invitation  for  all 
Englishmen  to  come  to  the  king's  justice.  He  sent  the  king's 
justice  out  through  the  realm  to  the  doors  of  all  Englishmen. 
Early  in  his  reign,  he  had  sent  out  judges  from  his  court,  from 
time  to  time,  to  visit  different  shires.  The  primary  duty  of 
these  visiting  judges  had  been  to  watch  the  sheriffs,  and  see 
to  the  just  collection  of  royal  dues.  But,  incidentally,  they 
were  empowered  to  represent  the  king  by  doing  justice  wher- 
ever any  man  appealed  to  them,  —  even  from  the  local  court 
of  a  great  lord. 

Before  his  death,  Henry  extended  and  systematized  this 
method.  England  was  divided  into  six  districts,  and  three 
judges  from  the  king's  court  were  sent  to  journey  through 
each  district,  to  hold  court  in  every  shire  each  year  at  a  stated 
time.  These  were  circuit  or  itinerant  judges. 

Thus  the  customs  of  the  king's  court  became  common  law  for  all  England, 
—  the  "  Common  Law,"  which  is  to-day  the  basis  of  English  and  Ameri- 
can justice.  Moreover,  the  bringing  impartial  justice  to  every  man's 
door  was  a  gift  beyond  price  in  the  twelfth  century.  It  created  a  rever- 


162  FEUDAL  ENGLAND  [§  173 

ence  for  the  law  and  for  courts  which  has  always  remained  a  marked 
trait  of  English  and  American  thought  and  feeling. 

173.  Henry's  laws  also  introduced  a  better  method  of  trial. 
Alongside  the  old  forms,  —  trial  by  ordeal  and  by  combat,  — 
he  began  a  system  of  jury  trial.     It  had  been  a  custom  of  the 
Frankish  kings  sometimes  to  bring  together  a  number  of  old 
men  in  a  given  district,  to  give  witness  in  disputes  that  con- 
cerned  the   ancient   customs   of  the   region.     The   Normans 
brought  this  form  of  "  inquest"  to  England.     The  Conqueror's 
officers  used  it  in  compiling  Domesday  Book ;  and  the  igno- 
rance of  the  Norman  rulers  as  to  the  customs  of  the  land  gave 
frequent  occasion  to  employ  it. 

So  far,  however,  the  sworn 1  body  of  witnesses  had  been  used 
only  to  settle  matters  in  which  the  king  was  interested  in  per- 
son. Henry  II  extended  the  same  method  to  questions  of 
property  ("  civil "  cases)  in  which  private  persons  were  con- 
cerned, to  replace  the  judicial  combut. 

174.  Henry  also  gave  us  the  beginning  of  our  "grand  jury." 
Many  offenders  were  too  powerful  for  any  one  person  to  dare 
accuse.     Henry  provided  that  in  each  county,  at  regular  inter- 
vals, a  jury  should  be  called  together  to  "  present "  suspected 
criminals  to  the  king's  circuit  judges  for  trial. 

For  some  time  longer,  suspects  presented  by  such  a  grand 
jury  were  tried  by  ordeal  or  by  combat.  But  in  1215  a  great 
Church  Council,  representing  all  Western  Christendom,  con- 
demned the  ordeal  as  a  method  of  trial ;  and  then  it  became 
the  custom  in  England  to  summon  another  smaller  jury  (petit 
jury)  to  try  the  man  whom  the  larger  jury  (grand  jury)  had 
accused.  That  is,  jury  trial,  which  Henry  II  had  introduced 
for  civil  cases,  became  the  custom  for  criminal  cases  also. 

The  accused  still  had  the  right  to  claim  trial  by  combat.  The  noble 
classes  commonly  did  so,  for  some  generations,  and  the  practice  was  not 
legally  abolished  until  1819,  shortly  after  an  attempt  had  been  made  to 
take  advantage  of  the  obsolete  right. 

1  "Juror"  means  a  man  who  has  been  "sworn." 


§175] 


ORIGIN   OF   JURIES 


163 


For  a  long  time  the  trial  jury  were  witnesses  as  well  as  judges  of  the 
testimony.  They  were  allowed,  however,  to  call  in  other  witnesses  ;  and 
gradually  a  line  was  drawn  between  them  and  these  others,  until  finally 
it  became  the  rule  that  the  "jurymen"  should  come  without  any  knowl- 
edge of  their  own  regarding  the  case,  so  as  to  hear  and  judge  impartially 
the  evidence  submitted  by  the  witnesses.  For  many  centuries,  jury  trial, 
which  we  owe  to  Henry  II,  has  been  looked  upon,  justly,  as  a  main  ele- 
ment in  English  and  American  freedom. 

175.  Closing  Years.  —  Part  of  his  work  Henry  had  already 
seen  undone.  Thomas  Becket,  from  his  refuge  abroad,  did  not 
cease  to  thunder  against  the  king  and  all  his  officers;  and 
finally  the  pope  took  up  Becket's  cause  in  earnest.  Henry  was 
forced  to  receive  Thomas  back  to  his  archbishopric,  in  a  pre- 
tended reconciliation.  But  the  quarrel  soon  broke  out  as  bitter 
as  ever;  and,  stirred  by  angry  words  of  the  king,  four  of  his 
knights  brutally  murdered  the  archbishop. 

This  foul  deed  made  Becket  a  holy  martyr  for  the  church  in 
the  eyes  of  the  people.  For  a  time  Henry  was  deserted  on  all 
sides ;  and  he  was  compelled  to  make  his 
peace  with  the  pope  by  surrendering  the 
most  important  of  the  Constitutions  of 
Clarendon. 

Then  the  feudal  lords  tried  to  cast  off 
royal  control  as  the  church  had  done, 
They  found  a  leader  in  Henry's  oldest  son, 
a  younger  Henry;  and  a  powerful  coali- 
tion was  formed  between  this  English 
feudal  force,  the  king  of  Scotland,  and  the 
king  of  France.  Henry's  splendid  general- 
ship crushed  his  foes  in  detail ;  and  Eng- 
land had  seen  Us  last  great  uprising  of 
feudalism  against  the  national  government. 

But  these  troubles  only  foreshadowed 
the  deeper  sorrows  and  humiliation  of  the  king's  closing  days. 
Two  sons,  both  rebels  against  him  repeatedly,  had  died  before 
him.  But  Philip  II  of  France,  who  had  stirred  them  to  treason, 


EFFIGY  OF  HENRY  II, 
from  his  tomb. 


164  FEUDAL  ENGLAND  [§  176 

now  intrigued  ceaselessly  with  the  remaining  sons,  Richard  and 
John.  Broken  in  health,  Henry  was  vainly  seeking  recon- 
ciliation, when  Richard  and  the  French  king  suddenly  appeared 
in  battle  array,  driving  him  in  headlong  flight  from  his  favor- 
ite French  capital,  which  they  laid  in  ashes.  Hunted  from 
town  to  town,  the  dying  king  was  driven  to  beg  for  mercy. 
As  a  condition  of  peace,  a  list  of  conspirators  against  him, 
whom  he  was  required  to  pardon,  was  handed  him.  At  the 
head  stood  the  name  of  John,  his  favorite  son.  Indeed,  it  had 
been  Henry's  partiality  for  John  that  had  driven  Richard  into 
arms  against  him.  Thus,  John's  name  in  the  list  of  traitors 
was  the  last  blow.  "  Now,"  said  Henry,  turning  his  face  to 
the  wall,  "  I  care  no  more  for  myself  or  the  world."  And  he 
passed  away,  muttering  to  himself,  "  Shame !  shame !  on  a 
conquered  king." 

176.  Henry's- reign   ''introduced  the  rule  of  law."     William   the 
Conqueror's  laws  had  been,  in  comparison,  the  edicts  of  an  absolute 
ruler.     All  Henry's  reforms,  like  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  were 
contained  in  a  series  of  "assizes,"  or  codes,  issued  --with  the  advice 
and  consent  "  of  the  Great  Councils  of  lords  and  bishops,  which  he  called 
together  year  after  year,  when  foreign  affairs  permitted  him  to  be  in 
England.    Back  of  all  his  other  reforms,  looms  up  this  foreshadowing  of  a 
national  legislature. 

177.  Richard   I,    1189-1199.  —  The   great  officers  who  had 
been  trained  under  Henry  II  carried  on  his  system  of  govern- 
ment with  little  change  through  the  reigns  of  his  two  tyran- 
nical sons.     Richard   "the  Lion  Hearted"  cared  mainly   for 
military  glory.     He  was  a  valiant,  impetuous  knight,  but  a 
weak  statesman  and  a  bad  ruler.     Of  the  eleven  years  of  his 
reign,  he  spent  only  seven  months  in  England,  and  these  solely 
to  get  money  for  foreign  wars.     Happily  he  was  as  careless  as 
he  was  tyrannical ;  and,  in  his  need  of  money,  he  sold  many 
charters  of  liberties  to  the  rising  towns.     He  is  remembered  as 
the  leader  of  the  Third  Crusade  (§  249). 

178.  John  (1199-1216)  was  an  abler  man  than  his  brother, 
but   a   more   despicable   character.     Three   events    mark   his 


§  179]  THE    GREAT   CHARTER  165 

reign,  —  defeats  bv  France,  bv  the  pope,  and  bv  his  subjects. 

(1)  Abroad,  he  lost  Normandy  and  all  northern  France  to  the 
French  king.     This  seemed  a  deep  humiliation  to  Englishmen 
at  the  moment ;  but  it  proved  a  good  thing.     From  this  time, 
English  kings  and  barons  gave  their  attention  more  exclusively 
to  English  affairs,  instead  of  trying  to  secure  domain  abroad. 

(2)  After  a  long  quarrel  with  Pope  Innocent  III,  John  was 
compelled  to  surrender  his  crown,  to  receive  it  back  as  a  vassal 
of  the  papacy.     (3)  England  wrested  from  his  hands  a  charter 
of  liberties,  known  as  Magnet  Carta  (the  Great  Charter).     This 
third  event  demands  fuller  notice  (§  179). 

179.  Magna  Carta. — Toward  the  close  of 'his  reign,  John's 
oppression  and  harsh  exactions  brought  all  classes  of  English- 
men to  unite  against  him.  In  1213,  while  he  was  warring  in 


_ 


•B        H&3  ?:ijj 


FACSIMILE  (REDUCED)  OF  THE  OPENING  LINES  OF  MAGNA  CARTA.  The 
characters  in  the  margin  are  supposed  to  be  the  coats  of  arms  of  barons 
who  signed  as  witnesses,  but  they  are  a  later  embellishment  to  the 
document. 

France,  two  mass  meetings  of  English  barons  and  knights  and 
townsmen  gathered,  to  discuss  redress  of  grievances.  Amid 
stern  enthusiasm,  Stephen  Langton,  whom  the  pope  had  made 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  brought  before  one  of  these  gather- 
ings the  long-forgotten  charter  of  Henry  I.  On  this  basis, 


166 


FF.rDAL   ENGLAND 


Langton  and  the  leaders  of  the  nobles  then  drew  up  the  de- 
mands of  the  meeting.  John  at  first  refused  even  to  look  at 
the  document.  But  a  mighty  army  of  two  thousand  knights, 
supported  by  the  townsmen  of  London  arrayed  in  their  "  train 
bands,"  marched  against  him  ("the  Army  of  God  and  Holy 
Church  ").  John  was  deserted  by  all  but  a  few  foreign  mer- 
cenaries; and,  June  15,  1215,  at  a  meadow  of  the  Thames 


Nullus  liber  Imi.n,  rapiaiur,  vel  imprisonetur,  aut  dissaisiatur.  aut  utlagetur, 
No  free  man  xlmll  !><>   tnk<n,  <>/•  imprisoned,   or  dfatpOMMMd,  <>r  outlawed, 


?,ur<1 

aut  exuletur,  aut  aliquo  mode  destruatur,  nee  super  eum  ibimus  nee  super 
or  banis/itit,  <>/•  in  «'////  //••'//  destroyed,  nor  will  we  yo   nji"/t  him  nor 


eum  mittenuis.  nisi  per  legale  judieium  pariuin  suoruni  \el  per  legem  terrae. 
him  send,  except  by  (he  ler/a/  ji/</</,,i>  /it  of  liix  pt'crs  or  !>>/  the  law  of  the  land. 


Nulli  veii(,lennis.  nnlli  ne^aliinius.  aut  ditTrrenius,  rectum  aut  justiciam. 
To  no  one  will  we  sell,  to  no  one  will  we  deny  or  delay.  ri<//i(  or  jits' 

SECTIONS  39  AND  40  OFMAGNA  CARTA.  Tlie  bars  are  facsimiles  of  the  writing 
in  the  charter,  with  the  curious  abbreviations  of  the  medieval  Latin.  Be- 
low each  line  is  given  the  Latin  in  full  with  a  translation. 

called  Runnymede,  he  was  forced  to  sign  the  Great  Charter,  — 
the  "  first  great  document  in  the  Bible  of  English  Liberties." 

The  Charter  claimed  only  to  state  the  old  liberties  of  Eng- 
glishmerl,  not  to  establish  new  ones.  But  it  had  been  won  by 
the  nation  from  the  king,  and  the  closing  provision  expressly 
sanctioned  rebellion  against  a  king  who  should  refuse  to  obey 
it.  That  is,  it  set  the  law  of  the  land  above  the  kiity's  fill. 
True,  in  some  other  countries,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
great  vassals  extorted  charters  of  liberties  for  themselves  from 
their  kings.  But  the  peculiar  features  of  this  Charter  are: 
(1)  the  barons  promised  to  ^ir^dejgejjudentsjiifl.aaiiic'  rights 


§  180]  THE   GREAT   CHARTER  167 

they  demanded  for  themselves  from  the  king ;  and  (2)  special 
provisions  looked  after  the  welfare  of  townsmen  and  even  of 
villeins.  The  wording,  necessarily,  belongs  to  a  feudal  age  ; 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  document  is  concerned  with  the 
privileges  of  feudal  vassals.  But,  as  time  passed,  and  as  a 
new  society  and  new  needs  grew  up,  men  read  new  meanings 
into  the  old  language  and  made  it  fit  the  new  age. 

The  Charter  became  at  once  the  standard  of  freedom  for  the 
whole  nation.  In  the  next  two  centuries,  English  kings  were 
obliged  to  "confirm"  it  thirty-eight  times;  and  its  principles, 
and  some  of  its  wording,  have  passed  into  the  constitution  and 
laws  of  every  American  state. 

The  Charter  defined  precisely  the  "  aids  "  to  which  suzerains  were  en- 
titled, —  and  so  put  an  end  to  extortion.  It  declared  that  the  king  could 
raise  no  scutage  (§  169)  or  other  unusual  "aid"  without  the  consent  of 
the  Great  Council  of  England.  All  vassals  of  the  king  had  a  right  to 
attend  this  Council ;  and  so  this  provision  established  the  principle,  —  No 
taxation  without  the  consent  of  the  taxed.  It  declared  an  accused  man 
entitled  to  speedy  trial,  —  and  so  laid  the  foundation  for  later  laws  of 
"habeas  corpus."  It  affirmed  that  no  villein,  by  any  fine,  should  lose 
his  oxen  or  plow,  his  means  of  livelihood,  and  so  foreshadowed  our 
very  modern  laws  providing  that  legal  suits  shall  not  take  from  a  man 
his  home  or  his  tools.  Two  notable  provisions  are  given  in  the  cut  above. 1 

180.  Henry  III,  1217-1272. — John  had  no  intention  of 
keeping  his  word;  and  in  a  few  months,  as  soon  as  he  could 
make  preparations,  he  began  war  to  overthrow  the  Charter. 
His  sudden  death,  however,  left  the  crown  to  his  nine-year-old 
son,  Henry  III.  In  the  name  of  the  boy-king,  the  great  officers 
of  the  kingdom  gave  the  Charter  the  first  of  its  many  solemn 
confirmations ;  and  for  some  years  England  enjoyed  peace  and 
prosperity. 

After  Henry  reached  manhood,  his  long  reign  was  marked 
by  misgovernment  and  disorder ;  but  it  witnessed  also  much 

1  Every  high  school  student  should  study  the  document  itself.  It  is  printed 
in  all  collections  of  documents  on  English  history ;  and  five-cent  copies  can 
be  secured  in  the  Old  South  Leaflets. 


168 


FEUDAL   ENGLAND 


[§181 


progress  toward  political  freedom  for  which  the  king  deserves 
no  credit.  Henry  was  a  pious,  weak,  frivolous,  extravagant, 
tyrant.  In  the  second  half  of  his  misrule,  the  English  people 
found  a  champion  in  Earl  Simon  de  Mont  fort,  the  most  power- 
ful of  the  English  nobles,  and  a  brother-in-law  of  the  king. 
The  straggle  became  open  war,  and  Earl  Simon  won  at  the 
Battle  of  Lewes  (1264).  For  a  year  he  was  master  of  England, 

acting  through  the  captive 
king.  That  year,  as  we 
shall  see  (§  185),  was 
notable  in  the  history  of 
English  freedom.  Then 
Prince  Kdward,  once 
Simon's  loved  disciple, 
rallied  the  royal  party, 
took  the  great  Earl  by 
surprise  at  Kvesham,  and 
defeated  and  slew  him 
(1265).  For  the  rest  of 
Henry's  lifetime,  author- 
ity remained  really  in  the 
hands  of  his  capable  son, 
who  satisfied  the  people 
by  promising  to  rule  accord- 
in  a  to  the  system  of  Siiunn. 
Soon  after,  the  prince 
succeeded  to  the  throne 
as  Edward  I- 

181.  Edward  I,  1272- 
1307.  —  For  the  two  cen- 
turies since  the  Conquest,  every  king  had  been  a  foreigner,  — 
Norman  or  Angevin  (from  Anjou)  in  tastes  and  training. 
Edward  icas  English  to  the  core.  He  had  even  the  golden  hair 
of  the  old  Saxon  kings,  and  a  favorite  Saxon  name,  as  well  as  a 
thoroughly  English  character.  In  his  campaigns  in  France, 
Wales',  and  Scotland,  he  proved  himself  a  great  general;  but, 


STIRLING  CASTLE,  a  stronghold  captured 
by  Wallace  early  in  the  Scotch  rising. 


§  182]  EDWARD   I   AND  JUSTICE  169 

tall,  deep-chested,  long-limbed,  skilled  in  arms,  he  was  prouder 
of  his  fame  as  a  knight,  earned  by  desperate  fighting  in  person 
on  many  a  field  against  heavy  odds.  In  his  younger  days,  his 
passionate  temper  hurried  him  sometimes  into  the  cruel  sack 
of  conquered  towns.  But  he  was  quick  to  repent,  —  at  times 
in  a  burst  of  tears ;  and  in  his  old  age  he  once  said,  "  No 
man  ever  asked  mercy  of  me  and  was  refused."  His  shield 
bore  for  its  device  the  motto,  "  Keep  troth."  He  was  a  good 
son,  a  tender  and  wise  father,  a  faithful  and  devoted  husband, 
and  one  of  England's  noblest  kings. 

Edward  wished  ardently  to  unite  the  whole  island  of  Britain 
into  one  kingdom.  In  this  he  won  only  a  partial  success. 
The  conquest  of  Wales  he  did  complete;  and,  to  conciliate 
the  Welsh  people,  he  gave  to  his  oldest  son  the  title  Prince 
of  Wales,  which  has  been  borne  ever  since  in  England  by  the 
heir  to  the  crown.  For  a  time,  too,  Scotland  seemed  to  submit 
to  Edward's  arms  and  statesmanship ;  but  the  hero,  William 
Wallace,  and  the  patriot  king,  Robert  Bruce,  roused  the  Scotch 
people  again  to  a  stubborn  and  splendid  struggle  for  national 
independence ;  and  the  two  halves  of  the  island  remained 
separate  kingdoms  for  some  centuries  more. 

The  true  fame  of  Edward  rests  upon  his  work  as  a  lawgiver 
and  as  an  organizer  of  the  courts  of  justice.  In  both  respects, 
he  extended  and  rounded  out  the  work  of  Henry  II. 

The  following  section  (§  182)  deals  with  a  topic  "  hard  "  to  recite  upon 
but  too  important  to  omit  wholly.  It  may  be  well  for  a  class  merely  to 
read  it  with  the  teacher. 

182.  The  Judicial  System. — Every  high-school  student  knows 
something  of  the  "  evolution  "  of  plant  and  animal  life,  and 
has  learned  that  the  complex  "  organisms  "  that  we  see  about 
us  have  "  evolved,"  through  long  periods  of  time,  out  of  simpler 
forms.  A  like  development  can  be  traced  in  many  human 
institutions,  and  can  be  studied  in  the  growth  of  the  English 
judicial  system. 

The  feudal  "  court "  of  the  Norman  kings  resembled  that  of 


170  FEUDAL  ENGLAND  [§  182 

any  great  lord  except  in  size.  Any  vassal  who  held  land 
directly  of  the  king  (any  "  tenant-in-chief ")  had  the  right  to 
attend.  In  practice,  the  smaller  "  tenants-in-chief "  were  not 
often  present ;  and  the  composition  of  the  court  varied  with 
the  localities  where  it  chanced  to  be  called.  Under  these  con- 
ditions, there  grew  up  a  smaller,  more  permanent  body,  com- 
posed partly  of  officers  of  the  king,  steadily  in  attendance  upon 
his  person.  This  inner  body  kept  the  name  "  the  king's  court " 
(curia  regis),  while  the  larger  and  less  frequent  gatherings  came 
to  be  called  "  the  Great  Council." 

The  smaller  "  court "  still  aided  the  king  in  any  matter  of 
government,  and  its  work  was  still  mainly  "  executive ";  but, 
more  and  more,  the  king  called  upon  it  to  decide  the  appeals 
for  justice  which  were  made  to  him.  Thus,  by  the  time  of 
Henry  I,  the  "court"  began  to  have  considerable  jm-' 
business.  It  began  also  to  have  different  names  when  meeting 
for  different  purposes.  When  it  met  to  look  after  the  king's 
revenues,  it  assembled  in  a  treasury  room,  around  a  "  chequered" 
table  (marked  off  into  small  squares,  for  the  convenient  count- 
ing of  the  little  piles  of  money  which  were  laid  upon  it  by  the 
sheriffs).  In  such  meetings,  the  court  was  called  "the  Ex- 
i-finjHi'i'"  while  at  other  times  it  was  still  called  merely  u  the 
kimfs  court." 

Henry  I  began  to  send  out  members  of  the  court,  now  and 
then,  to  collect  revenues  and  to  oversee  the  administration  of 
justice  in  the  shire  courts.  Henry  II  renewed  this  practice,  and 
extended  it  into  a  system  of  circuit  •"  judges."  Matters  of  law 
called  for  special  knowledge.  Trained  lawyers  began  to  have 
greater  weight  in  all  the  work  of  the  "court,"  and  such  men 
began.to  be  used  almost  exclusively  for  these  "judges."  The 
circuit  judges  had  become  a  distinct  body  of  men  icithin  the 
"  court,"  but  they  might  still,  at  times,  meet  with  the  larger 
body  for  its  other  work. 

Appeals  from  the  circuit  judges  might  still  be  made  to  the 
king.  To  hear  such  appeals,  another  distinct  body  of  judges 
were  set  apart  by  Henry.  It  was  called  the  Court  of  Common 


^5^^RI'--::'^S^^J!ft^ft 
•  1\/  ;AjT  ^£/^v 


§  183]  EDWARD   I   AND   JUSTICE  171 

Pleas,  because,  like  the  circuit  judges,  it  dealt  mainly  with 
questions  of  property  (civil  cases)  between  man  and  man.  To 
decide  important  criminal  cases,  especially  those  which  in  any 
way  concerned  the  king's 
power  or  revenue,  another 
body  of  judges  was  set 
aside,  upon  a  particular 
"  bench "  in  the  room 
where  the  king's  court 
gathered.  This  group 
came  to  be  known  as 
"the  Court  Of  the  King's  ^NCEBS  -From  an  English  manuscript 

of  the  thirteenth  century. 

Bench." 

Edward  I  now  completed  this  growth.  He  made  the  three 
courts,  —  the  Exchequer,  the  King's  Bench,  and  the  Common 
Pleas,  —  into  wholly  separate  bodies,  sitting  each  in  its  own  fixed 
place,  and  each  with  its  permanent  body  of  trained  judges  devoted 
exclusively  to  its  work.  This  has  remained  the  English  judicial 
system  down  to  modern  times.1 

183.  Lawyers.  —  In  the  time  of  Henry  II,  the  lawyers,  of 
whom  mention  is  made  so  often,  were  still  all  great  churchmen 
with  some  knowledge  of  the  Eoman  law.  But  by  the  time  of 
Edward,  legal  business  had  increased  so  much  that  law  had 
become  a  profession  apart  from  the  church,  and  large  numbers 
of  trained  "  lay  "  lawyers  practised  in  the  courts  much  in 
the  same  way  as  at  present.  If  a  man  of  Edward's  day  could 
have  stepped  from  the  room  in  which  one  of  the  great  courts 
was  doing  business  into  a  modern  English  court  of  justice,  he 
would  have  felt  quite  at  home,  —  as  he  would  not  feel  any- 
where else  in  the  England  of  to-day.  Even  the  gowns,  the 
wigs,  and  the  forms  of  procedure  remain. 

1  Appeals  could  still  be  made  to  the  king ;  and  so  grew  up  the  later  supreme 
jurisdiction  of  "the  King  in  Council."  Under  Edward,  too,  the  Chancellor 
was  authorized  to  hold  a  court  for  the  purpose  of  doing  justice  in  cases  where 
it  would  not  be  done  if  the  usual  forms  of  law  were  followed  strictly.  Thus 
began  the  "equity  jurisdiction  "  of  the  "  Court  of  Chancery." 


172  FEUDAL   ENGLAND  [§  184 

184.    Like  Henry  II,  Edward  struck  vigorously  at  feudalism  — 

in  four  distinct  ways. 

He  widened  the  j'irix<li<-ti»n  nf  hi*  cmirts  at  the  expense  of 
the  feudal  courts.  A  famous  "  writ  of  quo  warranto  "  called 
upon  every  great  noble  to  show  "  by  what  warrant"  he 
exercised  judicial  authority.  Commonly,  such  authority  had 
been  seized  in  some  time  of  disorder  in  preceding  centuries, 
and  had  Ix-come  established  by  custom  merely.  Even  when  a 
definite  grant  of  jurisdiction  had  been  made,  along  with  the 
grant  of  lands,  it  was  often  hard  to  produce  a  record  of  it. 
But  Edward  and  his  courts  held  that  unless  an  I'SJHWS  grant  of 
such  power  from  some  king  could  be  proven,  the  authority 
must  revert  to  the  king's  courts.  This  was  the  heaviest  blow 
that  feudalism  had  ever  received.  It  went  far  to  overthrow 
it,  so  far  as  government  was  concerned,  in  favor  of  a  national 
government. 

One  of  Edward's  greatest  laws  was  called  (jm',1  A'//</*/O/VN. 
from  the  two  Latin  words  with  which  it  opened.  It  provided 
that  if  thereafter  a  lord  sold  any  of  his  land  (or  let  it  out  in  any 
way),  then  the  new  holder  should  not  be  his  vassal,  as  formerly, 
but  a  vassal  only  of  the  next  higher  lord.  In  effect,  this  soon 
made  the  great  mass  of  landowners  into  vassals  only  of  the 
highest  landlord, — tenants-in-chief  of  the  king.  The  lm<l- 
Inrtl  x/'tl<'  <>f j'i'intn/ism  had  lost  its  <•//><'/  tnijun-tance. 

Another  great  statute  compelled  all  gentlemen  who  had  an 
income  of  £20  a  year  from  land  to  become  "  knights."  This 
multiplied  immensely  the  number  of  people  in  this  proud 
order.  Or  rather,  the  feudal  class  lost  itself  in  a  much  larger 
class.  Its  social  exclusiveness  had  gone. 

Ed  ward1  s  laws  also  revived  Henry  IPs  "assize  of  arm*." 
and  extended  it,  ordering  that  all  men  who  could  not  provide 
themselves  with  armor  for  the  national  army  should  at  least  be 
ready  to  come  with  bow  and  arrows.  The  English  long-bow 
had  been  becoming  famous  in  the  hands  of  forest  outlaws 
(whose  story  is  told  in  popular  ballads,  like  the  ones  about 
Robin  Hood)  ;  but  Edward  was  the  first  English  king  to  see  the 


§  185]  BEGINNING   OF   PARLIAMENT  173 

value  of  that  weapon  in  regular  war.  Soon  afterward,  his 
archers  won  for  him  the  pitched  battle  of  Falkirk  over  the 
most  gallant  of  Scottish  chivalry.  Unarmored  infantry  re- 
pelled armored  horsemen.  The  military  supremacy .  of  the 
feudal  noble  had  received  a  fatal  blow  —  though  even  then  few 
people  really  understood  the  fact  until  the  victory  of  English 
archers  was  repeated  on  a  larger  scale  in  France  somewhat 
later  (§  290). 

We  have  been  speaking  of  Edward's  "  laws."  As  Henry  II  carried  his 
reforms  through  extending  the  influence  of  the  Great  Council,  which 
stated  the  "customs  of  the  realm"  in  a  series  of  codes,  or  assizes,  so 
Edward  carried  his  reforms  in  a  long  series  of  "  statutes,"  enacted  by  a 
new  national  legislature  which  we  call  Parliament  (§  185  ff.). 

185.  The  Beginning  of  Parliament. — Some  sort  of  an 
"Assembly"  has  always  made  part  of  the  English  govern- 
ment. Under  the  Saxon  kings,  the  Witan  (or  meeting  of 
Wisernen)  at  times  exercised  great  power,  sanctioning  codes 
of  laws,  and  even  deposing  and  electing  kings.  It  consisted 
of  large  landowners  and  officials  and  the  higher  clergy,  with 
now  and  then  some  infusion  of  more  democratic  elements. 

After  the  Conquest,  the  Witan  gave  way  to  the  Great  Council 
of  the  Norman  kings.  This  was  a  feudal  gathering, — made 
up  of  lords  and  bishops,  resembling  the  Witan,  but  somewhat 
more  aristocratic.  A  king  was  supposed  to  rule  "  with  the 
advice  and  consent "  of  his  Council ;  but  in  practice  that  body 
was  merely  the  king's  mouthpiece  in  ordinary  times,. until 
Henry  II  raised  it  to  real  importance. 

Magna  Carta  gave  it  additional  weight  by  providing  that 
no  new  "  tax  " l  should  be  imposed  without  the  Council's  con- 
sent. At  the  same  time,  the  Charter  prescribed  just  how  the 
Council  should  be  called  together.  As  has  been  said  (§  182), 
all  who  held  land  directly  of  the  king  ("  tenants-in-chief."  or 

1  The  charter  did  not  say  "  tax."  Taxation  proper  had  hardly  begun.  It 
did  say  that  no  "  scutage,"  a  sort  of  war  tax,  should  be  imposed  without  the 
Council's  consent.  Then,  when  a  system  of  real  taxation  grew  up,  the  prin- 
ciple was  applied  to  all  taxes. 


174  FEUDAL   ENGLAND  [§  185 

"  barons ")  were  entitled  to  be  present,  but  only  the  "  great 
barons  "  ever  came.  According  to  the  Charter,  thereafter  the 
great  barons  were  to  be  summoned  individually  by  letter,  and 
the  numerous  smaller  barons  by  a  general  notice  read  by  the 
sheriffs  in  the  court  of  each  county. 

Still  the  smaller  barons  failed  to  assemble ;  and  in  the  trou- 
bles of  the  reign  of  Henry  III,  on  two  or  three  occasions,  the 
sheriffs  had  been  directed  to  see  to  it  that  each  county  sent 
knights  to  the  gathering.  Thus  a  representative  element  was 
introduced  into  the  National  Assembly. 

This  was  a  thoroughly  natural  step  for  Englishmen  to  take.  The 
principle  of  representative  government  was  no  way  new  to  them.  It 
had  taken  root  long  before  in  local  institutions.  The  "four  men"  of 
each  township  present  in  court  of  hundred  or  shire  (§  161)  spoke  for 
all  their  township.  The  sworn  "  jurors  "  of  a  shire  who  gave  testimony 
in  compiling  Domesday  Book  under  William  I.  or  who  "presented"' 
offenders  for  trial  under  Henry  II,  spoke  for  the  whole  shire.  England 
was  familiar  with  the  practice  of  selecting  certain  men  from  a  community  to 
speak  for  the  community  as  a  whole.  The  same  principle  was  now  applied 
in  a  larger,  central  gathering,  for  all  England. 

So  far,  indeed,  only  the  land-holding  aristocracy  were  in  the 
Great  Council,  either  in  person  or  through  the  representative 
knights,  and  the  representative  portion  of  the  meeting  had  no 
influence  except  to  "consent"  to  taxes  to  be  collected  from 
those  of  their  class  who  were  not  present.  The  arrangement 
arose  from  the  king's  extravagance  and  need  of  money.  But 
after  the  Battle  of  Lewes,  Earl  Simon  seized  upon  this  system 
of  representation  for  wider  usefulness.  The  writs  for  the 
famous  Parliament1  of  1265,  issued  by  Simon's  direction  while 
the  king  was  in  his  power,  called  for  the  attendance  of  two 
knights  from  each  shire  and  also  of  two  burgesses  from  each 
borough,  to  sit  with  the  lords  and  clergy.  Simon  wanted  more 
than  money.  He  wanted  the  moral  support  of  the  nation,  to 

1  This  name  for  the  National  Assembly  had  come  into  use  shortly  earlier. 
We  use  it  now  to  distinguish  the  Assembly  after  the  introduction  of  repr.  s,  n- 
tation,  from  the  earlier  "  Councils." 


§  187]  THE   MODEL   PARLIAMENT  175 

be  given  by  a  body  representing  all  classes.  He  had  taken  a 
great  step  toward  changing  the  Great  Council  of  royal  vassals 
into  a  "  Parliament "  representing  the  people  of  England. 

186.  The  Model  Parliament,  1295.  —  In  the  years  that  imme- 
diately followed  this  deed  of  Simon,  several  national  assemblies 
met,  wherein  towns  and  counties  had  some  representation ;  but 
the  exact  form  varied  from  time  to  time,  and  the  powers  of 
the  representatives  were  slight  and  indefinite.     In  the  "Model 
Parliament "  of  1295,  however,  Edward  I  adopted  Simon's  plan 
of  thirty   years  before.     Each   shire  and   each  borough  was 
called    upon    to    send    its    two    representatives, —  since,    as 
Edward's  writ  read,  "  that  which  touches  all  should  be  approved 
by  all." 1   From  that  time,  the  regular  representation  of  counties 
and  boroughs  became  a  fixed  principle  in  the  English  national 
assembly.     For  the  first  time  in  the  ivorld's  history,  representa- 
tive government  was  put  upon  a  good  working  basis. 

Once  more  Edward  had  been  the  disciple  of  his  old  in- 
structor, Simon  de  Montfort.  When  the  great  Earl,  on  the 
fatal  morning  of  Evesham,  beheld  the  sun  glancing  through 
the  mists  upon  the  glittering  arms  of  Edward's  advancing 
host,  and  recognized  that  the  Prince  had  caught  him  in  the 
toils  and  that  defeat  was  certain,  he  exclaimed  proudly,  as  he 
sought  death  in  headlong  charge  upon  the  spears,  "  It  was 
from  me  that  he  learned  it."  And  so,  thirty  years  later,  as 
John  Richard  Green  well  says,  Simon's  spirit,  looking  down 
upon  the  Model  Parliament,  might  well  say,  "  It  was  from  me 
that  he  learned  it." 

187.  After  a  half  century  or  so,  parliament  began  to  sit  in  two 
"Houses."     The  nature  of  this  division  was  not  the  result  of 
any   deliberate    plan,    but    it   was   of    immense    importance. 
Edward  summoned  to  his   Model  Parliament  the  "three  es- 
tates,"2—  the   clergy,   the    nobles,    and    the  burgesses.     The 


1  Hill's  Liberty  Documents  gives  the  Summons  and  critical  comment. 

2  "  Estate,"  used  in  this  way,  means  a  "class"  of  people  with  distinct 
privileges  and  duties  of  their  own. 


176  FEUDAL   ENGLAND  [§  187 

greater  nobles  and  the  greater  clergy  had  personal  summons ; 
the  other  classes  were  represented  by  delegates,  —  the  smaller 
landholders  by  the  elected  "  knights  of  the  shire,"  the  towns 
by  their  chosen  burgesses,  and  the  lower  clergy  by  elected 
representatives,  one  for  each  district. 

At  first  all  sat  together.  Had  this  continued,  the  townsmen 
would  never  have  secured  much  voice  :  they  would  have  been 
frightened  and  overawed  by  the  nobles.  The  result  would 
have  been  about  as  bad  if  the  three  estates  had  come  to 
sit  separately,  as  they  did  in  France  and  Spain.  With  so 
many  distinct  orders,  an  able  king  could  easily  have  played  off 
one  against  the  other.  England  followed  a  course  of  its  own. 
The  inferior  clergy,  very  happily,  soon  refused  to  attend  par- 
liament. The  great  spiritual  lords  (bishops  and  abbots\  with 
personal  summons,  were  not  numerous  enough  by  themselves 
to  make  an  "estate,"  and  so  they  sat  with  the  great  lay  lords. 
Thus,  when  the  different  orders  began  to  sit  apart,  the  great 
peers,  lay  and  spiritual,  who  were  summoned  by  individual 
letters,  made  a  "  House  of  Lords,"  while  the  representative 
elements  —  knights  of  the  shire  and  burgesses,  who  had  been 
accustomed  to  act  together  in  shire  courts  —  came  together,  in 
the  national  assembly,  as  the  "  House  of  Commons." 

Thus  the  three  estates  faded  into  two;  and  even  these  ?»•» 
were  not  distinct.  For  in  England,  unlike  the  case  upon  the 
continent,  only  the  oldest  son  of  a  lord  succeeded  to  his 
father's  title  and  nobility  (§  121),  and  to  the  right  to  a  personal 
summons  to  the  House  of  Lords.  The  younger  sons — and 
even  the  oldest  son  during  his  fathers  life  —  belonged  in  the 
gentry  (gentleman)  class,  and  at  most  were  "  knights  of  the 
shire."  As  such,  oftentimes,  the  son  or  the  brother  of  an  earl 
sat  for  his  county  in  the  House  of  Commons  beside  the  shop- 
keeper from  the  town.  Tlie  gentry  in  the  Commons  formed  a 
link  to  bind  Lords  and  Commons  together.  This  preserved  good 
understanding  between  the  two  Houses,  so  that  upon  occasion 
they  could  act  in  unison  in  behalf  of  English  liberty.  The 
House  'of  Commons,  from  the  first,  was  much  more  than  an 


188] 


GROWTH   OF   PARLIAMENT 


177 


"  estate,"  and  it  was  to  widen,  in  time,  into  the  representative 
of  the  nation. 

188.  Parliament  deposes  a  King. — Even  before  this  two- 
House  form  was  established,  parliament  gave  one  striking 
demonstration  of  its  power.  Edward  II  (1307-1327),  son  of 
the  great  Edward,  was  a  weak  and  unworthy  successor. 


A  FAMILY  DINNER.  —  From  an  English  manuscript  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
Notice  the  dogs,  the  musicians,  and  the  bare-footed  monk  at  whom  the 
fool  is  directing  some  jest. 

Selfish  and  greedy  favorites  ruled  through  him,  to  the  discon- 
tent and  injury  of  the  people.  Finally,  the  nation  rose  against 
him,  and  parliament  deposed  him  with  much  legal  formality. 
With  the  long  reign  of  his  son,  Edward  III,  England  emerges 
from  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  authority  of  parliament  for  ordinary  times  was  yet  to  grow;  but, 
by  1340  (in  the  time  of  Edward  III)  the  division  into  two  Houses  was 
effected.  The  framework  of  the  national  legislature  was  complete,  like 
the  framework  of  the  judicial  system  a  little  earlier.  In  studying  this 


178 


FEUDAL   ENGLAND 


[§189 


growth,  we  have  been  studying  more  than  English  history  merely. 
England  has  been  the  "  Mother  of  Parliaments  "  for  all  countries  which 
to-day  have  free  governments. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Besides  the  general  references  in  footnote 
on  page  143,  it  would  be  well  for  a  student  who  likes  books  to  read 
Button's  Simon  deMontfort  and  His  Cause  (sources)  and  Tout's  Edward 
/,  at  least  chapters  iv  and  viii.  On  Magna  Carta,  good  source  material 
will  be  found  in  Robinson's  Readings,  I,  231-238,  arid  in  Ogg's  Source 
Book,  297-310.  Pollard's  History  of  England  (in  the  fifty-cent  Home 
University  Library)  is  a  brilliant  outline  in  very  brief  form.  Mrs. 
Green's  Henry  II  and  Jenks'  Edward  Plantagenet  are  excellent. 

189.     TABLE   OF  NORMAN    AM)    I'LANTAliFAK  T    KINGS1 

(1)    Wii.i.ioi  I 
1066-1087 


Robert,  Duke 
of  Normandy 
d.  1106 

(2)  WILLIAM  II 
(Rufus) 
1087-1100 

(3)   HKXRV  I       Adela  =  Stephen 
1100-1135            |      Count  of  Blois 

(4)     Si  1    I'HKN 

1  186-1  1M 

William 
d.  1120 

Richard 
d.  1120 

Matilda  =  Geoffrey,  Count 
|          of  Anjou 
(5)   HENRY  II 
1054-1189 
1 

Henry      (6) 

RICHARD  I 
1189-1199 

Geoffrey         (7)  JOHN 
1199-1216 

Arthur,  d.  1203 

(8)  HENRY  III 

1216-1272 

(9)  EDWARD  I 

1272-1307 

(10)  EDWARD  II 

1307-1327 

(11)  EDWARD  III 

1327-1377 


!The  kings  are  numbered.    The  symbol  =  means  "  married." 


CHAPTER   IX 

FRANCE   IN    THE   FEUDAL    AGE,    TO    1314 

190.  Rise  of  the  Capets.  —  During  the  Norse  raids  in  the  north 
of  France  (§  100),  the  only  successful  leadership  for  the  French 
had  come,  not  from  the  degenerate  Carolingian  kings,  but  from 
a  hero  of  obscure  birth,  known  as  Robert  the  Strong.  Accord- 
ing to  one  story,  he  was  the  son  of  a  butcher  of  Paris.  At  all 
events,  he  saved  Paris  from  destruction.  Paris  was  then  a 
little  town  on  a  marshy  island  in  the  Seine.  By  holding  it 
against  the  Northmen,  Robert,  and  his  son  Odo  after  him,  kept 
the  pirates  from  extending  their  conquests  into  central  France. 

In  return,  Odo  extended  his  own  lands  from  the  Seine  to 
Orleans,  on  the  Loire.  This  territory  was  called  the  Dukedom 
of  Francia ;  and  Duke  Odo  was  the  most  powerful  noble  in  all 
the  land  that  we  now  call  France.  All  about  him  in  that  land 
were  similar  great  lordships,  —  Flanders,  Brittany,  Poitou, 
Anjou,  Gascony,  Aquitaine,  Toulouse,  Burgundy,  Champagne, 
Blois,  —  each  ruled  by  its  hereditary  duke  or  count. 

In  name,  all  these  rulers,  like  Odo,  were  vassals  of  the  French 
Carolingian  king.  But,  in  887,  when  they  deposed  Charles  the 
Fat  (§  95),  they  chose  Odo  for  their  king.  Odo  was  the  first 
French  king  of  France.  For  the  next  hundred  years,  the  crown 
passed  back  and  forth  between  the  family  of  Odo  and  the 
Carolingian s.  Then,  in  987,  the  Carolingian  line  died  out,  and 
Hugh  Capet,  a  grand  nephew  of  Odo,  was  made  king  by  the 
great  council  of  nobles.  The  surname  Capet  came  from  Hugh's 
habit  of  wearing  an  abbot's  cape  or  cope. 

It  had  been  the  custom  for  a  king  to  name  a  successor  dur- 
ing his  own  lifetime,  and  then  to  have  the  nomination  approved 

179 


180 


FEUDAL   FRANCE 


[§191 


by  the  nobles.  For  three  hundred  years,  however,  each  Cape- 
tian  king  was  happy  enough  to  have  a  son  old  enough  and 
capable  enough  to  receive  the  scepter  directly  from  his  hands, 
and,  indeed,  to  be  associated  with  him  in  the  government 
during  his  lifetime.  So,  in  the  absence  of  conflicting  claims, 
even  the  form  of  election  vanished.  French  kingship  became 
strictly  hereditary,  and  the  Capetian  /<>///////  ruled  France  until 
very  recent  days,  when  France  ceased  to  have  kings  at  all. 


191.   Reference  Table  :  Capetian  Kings  to  1314,  with  Accession  Dates. 


H  uyh  Capet 987 

Robert  II     .......  996 

Henry  I 1031 

Philip  I 1060 

Louis  VI 1108 

Louis  VII                                  .  1137 


Philip  II  (Augustus) 

L.-uis  VIII 

Louis  IX  (tlu-  Saint) 

Philip  III 

Philip  IV  (the  Fair)  . 


1180 


l±Ji{ 


1165-181  \ 


192.  A  "  Feudal  Kingship." '  -  111  987  there  was  as  yet  no 
"  kingdom  of  France."  Hugh  Capet  was  crowned  "  King  of 
the  Gauls,  Bretons,  Danes,  Normans,  Aquitanians,  Goths, 
Spaniards,  and  Gascons."  This  title  shows  something  of  the 
composite  nature  of  "  France"  at  that  date. 

The  election  of  Hugh  did  not  increase  his  actual  power.  It 
did  increase  his  duties,  but  his  resources  rested  on  his  posses- 
sions as  Duke  of  Francia.  Several  of  the  great  princes  ruling 
over  the  rest  of  France  were  each  nearly  as  powerful  as  the 
king,  and  so  far  as  they  obeyed  him  at  all,  they  obeyed  him  as 
their  feudal  suzerain  rather  than  as  a  national  king.  He  had 
no  hold  upon  the  subvassals  —  as  English  kings  always  had, 
thanks  to  the  wise  changes  that  William  the  Norman  made  in 
feudalism  ;  nor  did  he  have  a  national  militia  such  as  England 
always  possessed.  When  he  needed  an  army,  his  forces  came 
(1)  from  his  own  immediate  feudal  followers  in  his  hereditary 
duchy,  and  (2)  from  such  of  his  great  vassals  elsewhere  as 
friendship  might  bring  to  his  aid. 


1  Read  the  admirable  treatment  in  Adams'  Growth  of  the  French  Nation, 
55-59,  from  which  this  and  the  two  following  sections  are  condensed. 


§  194]  THE   CAPETIANS  181 

193.  The  Work  of  the  Capetians.  —  Hugh  Capet  found  France 
broken  into  feudal  fragments,  with  varying  laws  and  tongues. 
From  these  unpromising  fragments,  the  Capetian  kings  in  the 
next  three  centuries  made  a  new  French  nation,  with  a  common 
language,  common  customs,  and  a  common  patriotism. 

Two  outside  forces  helped  the  Capetians  in  this  great  work, 
the  church  and  the  lawyers.  (1)  The  church  felt  the  need  of 
a  strong  king  to  protect  society  against  the  violence  of  greedy 
nobles.  And  in  that  day  when  bishops  and  abbots  were  them- 
selves mighty  feudal  lords,  the  church  could  give  not  only  moral 
support  but  important  material  aid.  (2)  In  the  eleventh  century 
the  lawyer  class  rose  into  importance,  especially  as  the  advisers 
and  clerical  assistants  of  the  nobles  and  kings.  They  were 
trained  in  the  Roman  law  with  its  imperial  traditions  (§  49, 
note),  and  they  built  up  a  theory  of  absolute  kingship  which 
gave  the  kings  moral  support  in  every  new  claim  for  authority. 

In  the  main,  however,  France  was  made  through  the  shrewd, 
tireless,  persistent  policy  of  a  long  line  of  able  kings  who  never 
lost  sight  of  their  goal.  Says  George  Burton  Adams,  the 
leading  American  historian  of  France :  — 

"  There  is  no  other  modern  nation  which  owes  so  heavy  a  debt  of  grati- 
tude to  its  ancient  line  of  kings  as  the  French.  France,  as  it  exists  to-day, 
and  has  existed  through  all  modern  history,  with  all  its  glorious  achieve- 
ments, is  their  creation  and  that  of  no  one  else." 

194.  "  France "    grows.  —  The    first    great    advances    were 
achieved  by  Philip  II,  whom  admirers  styled  Philip  Augustus, 
because,  like   the   Roman   Augustus,  he   had   "  enlarged   the 
boundaries  of  the  state."     His  reign  covered  the  last  ten  years 
of  Henry  II  of  England,  all  of  Richard's  and  John's  reigns, 
and  the  early  years  of  Henry  III.     When  Philip  came  to  the 
throne,  Henry  II  was  still  working  vigorously  and  wisely  to 
strengthen  the  national  unity  of  England  against  feudal  "  de- 
centralization."    Bat  in  France  Henry  was  the  chief  obstacle 
to  national  unity,  —  not  because  he  was  king  of  England,  but  be- 
cause, as  a  great  vassal,  he  held  directly  six  times  as  much  of 
France  (§  168)  as  Philip  held  directly.     On  all  occasions,  in 


182  FEUDAL  FRANCE  [§194 

France,  Henry  upheld  the  feudal  privileges  of  the  vassals 
against  the  crown. 

It  was  natural  that  a  French  king  should  strive  to  stir  up 
enemies,  even  from  within  his  own  household,  against  this  too 
powerful  vassal.  Philip  set  Richard  on  to  make  war  against 
his  father;  and  when  Richard  had  become  king,  Philip  in- 
trigued with  his  brother  John.  Finally,  when  John  suc- 
ceeded to  the  English  crown,  and  so  to  the  French  fiefs,  his 
follies  and  crimes  gave  Philip  his  long-sought  opportunity. 
Philip's  "court"  of  great  vassals  summoned  John  to  answer 
for  his  abuses;  and,  on  his  failure  to  appear,  declared  his  fiefs 
forfeited  to  the  crown.  Philip  enforced  this  judgment  by 
anus,  so  far  as  concerned  Normandy,  Maine,  Anjou,  Touraine, 
and  IN  .it  on.  T7ie  northwest  quarter  of  "  France"  was  so  added 
to  the  French  crown,  and  the  immediate  territory  of  the  French 
kings  was  quadrupled.  At  last,  too,  "France"  reached  the 
sea,  with  ports  both  on  the  Atlantic  and  the  Channel.  (Maps 
following.) 

The  king  of  England,  as  duke  of  Aquitaine,  ranked  still 
among  the  most  powerful  French  vassals,  —  along  with  tin* 
duke  of  Burgundy,  the  duke  of  Flanders,  the  duke  of 
P.riitany,  and  the  count  of  Champagne.  There  had  been  an- 
other of  the  group,  the  great  Count  of  Toulouse,  most  formi- 
dable of  them  all;  but  Philip  had  broken  his  power  just  before 
he  finally  attained  success  against  John. 

In  this  case  the  success  of  the  French  king  earne  through 
the  accident  of  a  religious  war.  In  the  twelfth  century  there 
had  been  a  period  of  decline  in  the  church  (§§  211  ff.).  This 
resulted  in  much  religious  discontent,  and  in  the  rise  of  several 
sects  of  heretics.  The  most  important  of  these  heretical  sects 
were  the  Albigenses,  who  had  their  home  in  southeastern 
France.  They  rejected  some  doctrines  of  the  church,  and 
they  rebelled  especially  against  its  system  of  government. 
Indeed,  their  dislike  for  the  clergy  became  so  intense  that  they 
changed  an  old  by-word,  —  "I  had  rather  be  a  Jew,"  into  "  I 
had  rather  be  a  priest." 


K  'OF'    ^--; 
CASTILE    NAVAWARAGO>- 


v  ««Vji*m°<V 

^.".^<% 

CHANNEL  isf*  \    L_I^m«n  ' 

SNORMAND/\VParli 

vC\ 

^ALENCON—       N^-^S 

kfrf^ 
L«^*&^™>\?f  \ 

III      %N?-oeJ0%v'! 
OntheeTeofthe^D/^      ''- 
45  Hundred  Years'  War    f^porfem™^8" 
1840 

/       y.oui 

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,-i'ea 


ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE, 
1154-1453. 

^ SCALE  OF  MILES 

0      60    100         200  300         400  600          600 


Limit  of  the  French  Kingdom.. 
Potsetsion*  of  Plantagmet  Kingt 

Land*  of  the  French  Kingt 

Independent  Fieft  in  France. 


Territory  of  Chdrlet  tht  Bold  t/Sttryundy 


§195]  GROWTH  OF  TERRITORY  183 

The  church  had  made  many  attempts  to  reclaim  these  here- 
tics, in  vain.  Finally,  the  great  reforming  pope,  Innocent  III, 
proclaimed  a  "  holy  war  "  against  them,  declaring  them  "  more 
wicked  than  the  Saracens,"  against  whom  Christian  Europe  had 
been  pouring  forth  her  crusaders  for  a  hundred  years.  The 
feudal  nobles  of  northern  France  rallied  gladly  to  this  war. 
Aside  from  religious  motives,  they  hated  the  democracy  which 
was  beginning  to  appear  in  the  rising  towns  of  the  South,  and 
they  hungered  greedily  for  the  rich  plunder  of  that  more  civil- 
ized region.  A  twenty-years'  struggle,  marked  by  ferocious 
massacres,  exterminated  the  heretics,  along  with  the  prosperity 
of  what  had  been  the  richest  province  of  France. 

From  the  days  of  Clovis  and  Pippin,  southern,  Roman  Gaul 
had  remained  practically  independent  of  northern,  Teutonic 
Gaul.  At  last  the  feudal  North  had  conquered  the  city  South, 
—  but  the  fruits  of  victory  fell  to  the  French  monarchy.  Ray- 
mond, Count  of  Toulouse,  had  tried  to  protect  his  Albigensian 
subjects,  and  his  power  had  been  ruined  by  the  conflict.  Philip 
at  once  seized  the  larger  part  of  his  realm,  and  the  rest  fell  to 
the  crown  piecemeal,  in  after  years.  "  France-"  had  acquired 
southeastern  France,  and  had  won  its  way  to  the  Mediterranean. 
At  the  opening  of  his  reign,  Philip  had  ruled  directly  a  twelfth 
of  modern  France.  At  the  dose,  he  ruled  more  than  two-thirds 
of  it. 

195.  Growth  of  the  Absolute  Monarchy.  —  As  the  kings  acquired 
the  soil  of  France,  piece  by  piece,  their  realm  outgrew  the  crude 
feudal  system,  and  they  had  to  create  new  machinery  of  govern- 
ment. And  as  they  added  territory  to  territory,  so  too  they 
added  authority  to  authority,  until  by  1300  they  became  the 
most  absolute  sovereigns  in  Europe.  Here,  too,  Philip  Augus- 
tus made  a  beginning.  He  divided  the  royal  territory  into 
great  districts,  and  over  these  he  set  royal  officers,  usually  of 
humble  origin,  so  that  they  could  not  aspire  to  independent 
power. 

This  work  of  organization  was  completed  before  the  year 
1300  by  Philip's  grandson,  Louis  IX  (St.  Louis),  and  by  Louis' 


184  FEUDAL   FRANCE  [§196 

grandson,  Philip  IV,  surnamed  the  "Fair"  for  his  handsome 
face.  In  each  district  the  royal  officer  was  given  vast  authority 
as  a  representative  of  the  king.  He  appointed  inferior  officers, 
collected  royal  revenues,  —  including  new  taxes  of  a  modern 
sort  which  Philip  IV  introduced,  —  and  oversaw  every  detail 
of  local  administration.  The  feudal  lords  lost  all  power  in 
government,  except  over  their  serfs  and  villeins.  These 
classes  found  no  gain  in  the  changes  in  France,  except  in  the 
greater  quiet  and  freedom  from  war.  But  the  small  vassals 
and  the  townsmen  did  find  escape  from  the  rapacity  and 
capriciousness  of  their  old  feudal  lords. 

In  England  this  escape  had  come  through  the  courts,  the 
itinerant  justices,  and  the  free  principles  of  the  common  law; 
and  KiiLclislimen  grew  to  have  an  instinctive  reverence  for 
courts  and  law  as  the  protectors  of  liberty.  In  France  the 
like  security  came  (a  little  later  than  in  England)  through  the 
despotic  power  intrusted  to  their  officers  by  the  absolute 
French  kings;  and  for  centuries  Frenchmen  came  to  trust 
absolutism  as  Englishmen  trusted  law. 

196.  The  Estates  General.  —  This  contrast  is  shown,  in  part, 
in  the  history  of  the  French  institution  which  most  resembled 
the  English  parliament.  Philip  the  Fair  had  completed  his 
reforms  by  adding  representatives  of  the  towns  to  the  nobles 
and  clergy  in  the  Great  Council  of  France.  This  brought  to- 
gether all  three  "estates";  and  the  gathering  was  called  the 
Estates  General,  to  distinguish  it  from  smaller  gatherings  in 
the  separate  provinces.  The  first  meeting  in  this  form  was 
held  in  1302,  only  a  few  years  after  the  "  Model  Parliament " 
in  England.  But  Philip  and  his  successors  used  the  Estates 
General  only  as  a  convenient  taxing  machine.  It  never  be- 
came a  governing  body,  as  the  English  parliament  did.  Nor 
did  the  French  people  know  how  to  value  it,  as  the  English 
quickly  learned  to  value  parliament.  The  kings  assembled  the 
Estates  General  only  when  they  chose,  and  easily  controlled  it. 
When  they  no  longer  needed  it,  the  meetings  grew  rarer,  and 
finally  ceased. 


§197] 


SAINT  LOUIS 


185 


197,  Louis  IX  has  been  spoken  of  several  times  in  preceding  sections 
(§§  143,  149).  He  is  one  of  the  noblest  figures  in  medieval  history.  In 
particular  he  did  much  to  extend  justice  through  widening  of  the  power  of 
the  royal  courts.  Still,  his  personal  administration  of  justice  was  of  a  very 
primitive  sort,  such  as  has  been  described  in  §  171.  Joinville's  Memoir 
(§  143)  gives  many  illustrations.  "  Sometimes  I  have  seen  him,  in  order 
to  administer  justice  to  his  people,  come  into  the  gardens  of  Paris  dressed 
in  a  green  coat,  a  surcoat  of  woolen  stuff  without  sleeves,  his  hair  well 
combed,  and  a  hat,  with  white  peacock  feathers,  on  his  head  ;  carpets  were 
spread,  and  all  people  who  had  business  to  be  disposed  of  stood  before 
him.  .  .  .  Many  a  time  it  happened  in  summer  that  he  would  go  sit  in 
the  wood  of  Vincennes  with  his  back  to  an  oak,  and  make  us  take  our 
seats  around  him.  And  all  who  had  complaints  to  make  came  to  him 
without  hindrance  of  ushers.  Then  he 
would  call  a  certain  noble  and  say,  '  Dis- 
pose of  this  case  for  me ' ;  and  when  he 
saw  anything  to  amend  in  the  words  of 
those  who  spoke  he  would  correct  it  with 
his  own  lips." 

Elsewhere,  Louis  recommends  his  peo- 
ple to  put  up  with  any  bearable  in- 
justice ;  and,  with  unconscious  pathos, 

he  admits  his  inability  to  secure  full  justice  for  his  subjects,  even  from 
his  own  officers.  This,  as  well  as  the  king's  deep  religious  nature,  is 
shown  in  this  following  extract  from  his  deathbed  testament  to  his 
son  :  — 

"Fair  son,  the  first  thing  that  I  teach  thee  is  to  mould  thy  heart  to  love 
God.  If  God  send  thee  adversity,  accept  it  patiently,  and  render  thanks, 
and  know  that  thou  hast  deserved  it.  If  he  send  thee  prosperity,  thank 
him  humbly,  that  thou  be  not  worse  through  pride.  Bear  thyself  so  that 
thy  confessor  and  friends  may  venture  to  reprove  thee  for  thy  misdeeds. 
Attend  devoutly  to  the  service  of  Holy  Church  both  with  mouth  and  mind. 
Let  thy  heart  be  gentle  and  compassionate  toward  the  poor  and  the. 
afflicted,  and  comfort  them  so  far  as  in  thee  lies.  Help  the  right,  and  up* 
hold  the  poor  man  until  the  truth  be  made  manifest  [i.e.  while  the  case  is 
undecided].  Bestow  the  benefices  of  the  church  upon  men  of  unspotted 
lives.  Wage  no  war  with  any  Christian  prince,  except  it  be  necessary 
after  grave  deliberation.  Be  careful  to  have  good  provosts  and  bailiffs, 
and  make  frequent  inquiries  about  them,  and  about  all  thy  servants  as  to 
how  they  conduct  themselves,  and  whether  they  are  guilty  of  overmuch 
greed  and  deceit.  .  .  .  Fair  dear  son,  I  bestow  upon  thee  all  the  bene- 
diction a  good  father  can  give  a  good  son.  And  may  the  blessed  Trinity 


A  GOLD  FLORIN  OF  Louis  IX. 


186  FEUDAL   FRANCE  [§197 

preserve  and  defend  thee  from  all  evil,  and  give  thee  grace  to  do  the  will 
of  God." 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  — Adams'  Growth  of  the  French  Nation  is  the 
best  brief  account,  and  quite  as  full  as  can  be  used  with  profit  at  this 
point.  The  same  author  has  a  shorter  survey  in  his  Civilization,  ch.  xiii. 
Excellent  treatments  of  certain  phases  are  given  in  Perry's  St.  L'mi*. 
Hutton's  Philip  Augustus,  and  Smith's  The  Troubadours.  Kale's  In  7//x 
Name  is  a  story  of  the  Albigenses,  no  doubt  idealizing  that  sect. 


CHAPTER   X 

GERMANY   AND    ITALY   IN   THE  FEUDAL   AGE 
I.    GERMANY,   TO   THE    HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 

198.  There  were  five  great  branches  of  the  Germans  in  the  ninth 
century,  —  Saxons,  Franconians   (the  old   East  Franks),  Sua- 
bians  (Alemanni),  Bavarians,  and  Lotharingians —  whose  land, 
from  its  frequent  connection  with  France,  is  best  known  by 
its  French  name,  Lorraine.     The  location  of  these  five  "  stem 
duchies  "  can  be  seen  on  the  map  after  page  192.     Each  was 
ruled  by  a  native  duke,  and,  at  times,  was  on  the  point   of 
growing  into  a  distinct  nation. 

The  great  tasks  before  the  rulers  of  Germany  were  (1)  to 
free  the  land  from  barbarian  invasions  (§  97),  and  (2)  to  unite 
these  five  German  peoples. 

199.  The  Franconians    and    Saxons    were    the   two   leading 
peoples.     From  the  time  of  Clovis,  the  Franconians  had  held 
supremacy ;  but  leadership  was  now  slipping  from  them  to  the 
Saxons,  whom  Charlemagne  had  conquered  and  Christianized. 
They  were  less  touched  by  Roman  culture  than    any  of  the 
other   divisions   of    Germany.      They    kept   many    primitive 
Teutonic  customs  ;  and  even  the  old  paganism  lingered  among 
the  wild  moors  of  their  northern  borders. 

When  the  German  branch  of  the  Carolingian  family  died  out 
in  911  (§  95),  the  German  nobles  chose  as  their  king  Conrad, 
Duke  of  Franconia.  But  Conrad  could  not  keep  the  other  great 
dukes  in  order;  and  at  his  death  he  patriotically  recommended 
for  his  successor  his  strongest  rival,  Henry  of  Saxony.  The 
messenger  to  inform  Henry  of  his  election  found  him,  falcon 
on  wrist,  at  his  favorite  sport  of  hunting  in  the  Harz  moun- 

187 


188  FEUDAL   GERMANY  [§200 

tains;  and  this  incident  has  given  him  the  surname,    // 
the  Fowler. 

200.  Henry    (919-936)    kept    the   great   dukes   in   close   and 
friendly   dependence,  and,  for  his   day,  beat   off  the   Hungarian 
raiders.       First,  it  is  true,  he  was  forced  to  buy  a  humiliating 
truce  by  paying  a  yearly  tribute  to  the  barbarians.     But  he 
used  the  interval  in  wise  preparation.     He  hnxti'ned  the  <t<i<>i>- 
tion   of  armored  horsemen  in  Germany,  —  where   the   feudal 
movement  was  only  then  beginning.     He  built  numerous  strong- 
holds at  exposed  points  along  the  frontier ;  and  to  make  them 
centers  for  the  life  of  the  people,  he  ordered  that  all  markets l 
and  festivals  should  be  held  within  such  walled  places.     Ger- 
many had  then  almost  no  towns,  except  a  few  ancient  Roman 
foundations  along  the  Rhine,  like  Cologne ;  and  many  of  the 
oldest   German    cities    of    to-day,   such   as   Nordhausen   and 
Goslar,   grew   out   of  these  fortresses,   giving  to   Henry  his 
noblest  surname,  "  the  Builder." 

Henry  also  organized  a  militia  along  the  eastern  frontier, 
arranging  that  one  man  out  of  each  nine  should  always  be 
on  guard  in  his  new  forts,  in  due  turns,  while  the  otli«-r  ri^lit. 
tilled  the  land  of  their  absent  comrade.  Then,  when  fully 
ready,  Henry  refused  further  tribute.  At  once,  the  Hunga- 
rians poured  across  the  border ;  but  they  were  defeated,  and 
cut  to  pieces  by  the  garrisons  of  the  new  towns. 

201.  Otto  I  (930-973),  son  of  Henry,  completed  this  work 
and  put  an  end  forever  to  barbarian  invasions  into  Germany.     In 
955,  after  long  quiet,  the  Hungarians  appeared  once  more,  in 
greater  force  than  ever   before.     Terrified  chroniclers  of  the 
time  estimated  the  raiders  at  a  hundred  thousand  horsemen. 
Augsburg,  on  the  Lech  river,  detained  them  by  holding  out, 
under  its  warrior  bishop,  through  a  terrible  siege,  while  Otto 


1  In  earlier  times,  the  Teutonic  peoples  held  their  "  markets  " — meetings 
for  exchanging  goods  —  in  open  spaces  on  the  borders  between  the  two  tribes 
that  were  trading.  These  border  spaces  were  called  "  marks  "  ("  marches  ")• 
Hence  comes  our  word  market,  and  also  the  word  march  (mark  state)  for  a 
border  stale. 


GERMAN  COLONIZATION 

ON  THE  EAST  AT  THE 

EXPENSE  OF  SLAVS,  LETTS, 

AND  MAGYARS,  800-1400. 


German        *  Monastery 
Slav  {,  Seat  of  a  Bishop 

Lett  ©  Seat  of  an  A  rchbishop 

Boundary  between  Germans 
anaSlavs,SOOA.D. 


Wismar    . 
urg  Erode  5 


.1177  Stettin 


Stendal,,   A        BerliaV 


*X7i 


Landsberg 

kfort     1 


oBriinn 
o  Znaim 


r  i  a 


BiBtrit* 


§203]  EXPANSION   ON   THE    EAST  189 

gathered  troops.  Volunteers  from  all  Germany  joined  him  on 
his  march;  and  Saxons,  Franconians,  Suabians,  and  Bava- 
rians all  had  a  part  in  the  final  deliverance  of  Germany  at 
the  Battle  of  Lechfeld. 

No  quarter  was  given  in  the  long  chase  across  the  borders ; 
and  the  Hungarians  never  attacked  Christendom  again.  Soon 
they  themselves  adopted  Christianity  and  settled  down,  in 
modern  Hungary,  as  one  of  the  family  of  European  nations.1 

202.  Then  Germany  invaded  Slavic  barbarism.     Otto  followed 
up  his  success  firmly.     Year  by  year,  he  forced  farther  back 
the  Slavic  peoples  along  his  eastern  borders,  and  established' 
"  marks  "  along  that  whole  frontier.     On  the  extreme  south- 
east was  the  Eastmark,  against  the  Hungarians,  which  was  to 
grow    into    modern    Austria ;  while    another  mark    made   the 
beginning  of  modern  Prussia.     Henry's  campaigns,  too,  com- 
pelled the  heathen  Slavs  to  receive  missionaries,  and  to  permit 
monasteries  to  be  built  among  them. 

Then  private  enterprise  took  a  hand.  German  nobles,  eager 
for  more  land,  began  a  colonizing  movement  which  soon  ex- 
tended Germany  from  the  Elbe  to  the  Oder,  and  carried  Ger- 
man civilization  and  swarms  of  German  settlers  among  even 
the  Slavs  of  the  heathen  Baltic  coasts.  This  was  the  most 
important  expansion  of  the  area  of  civilization  for  the  thousand 
years  between  Greek  and  Roman  times  and  the  discovery  of 
America.  It  continued  for  some  centuries,  and  finally  doubled 
the  area  of  Germany.2 

203.  Besides  freeing  Germany  from  invasion,  and  starting  it  on 
the  road  to  a  vast  expansion,  Otto  also  did  much  to  unite  its  various 
peoples  into  one.     To  balance  the  power  of  the  great  dukes,  he 
built  up  especially  the  authority  and  the  dominions  of  bishops 
and  abbots  ;  and  these  great  churchmen,  as  in  France  a  little 

iThis  second  period  of  barbarian  invasions  had  closed  a  little  earlier  in 
France  and  England.  This  is  a  good  point  for  the  student  to  review  the 
whole  movement  as  one  topic. 

2  Can  the  class  see  an  important  distinction  between  this  eastward  ex- 
pansion and  that  under  Charlemagne  into  Saxon  lands  ? 


190  THE    HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE  [§204 

later  (§  193),  supported  the  royal  authority  loyally.  At  this 
time  Germany  seemed  much  more  consolidated  than  France  — 
where  the  Capetians  had  not  yet  come  to  the  throne  —  and 
more  even  than  England,  where  the  House  of  Alfred  was  still 
busied  in  reducing  the  Danelaw  to  submission. 

204.  Thus,  in  several  ways,  Otto  I  proved  himself  one  of  those 
rare  rulers  who  really  set  their  mark  on  the  world's  history. 
He  had  become  a  popular  hero;  and  song  and  story  loved  to 
picture  his  long,  wavy  beard  and  his  "hawk's  eyes,"  which 
kept  moving  restlessly  from  side  to  side,  "as  if  seeking  piw." 
His  romantic  and  ambitious  temper  was  as  restless  as  his  eyes, 
and  his  strength  in  Germany  now  tempted  him  to  a  wider  en- 
terprise—  on  which  his  fame  especially  rests.  This  was  the 
restoration  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  West. 

Fou  FrimiKK  K I:\MVG. — Tout,  Empire  and  Papacy,  12-27;  or 
Emerton,  90-114. 


II.   THE   HOLY   ROMAN    EMPIRE    OF  THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

205.  For  more  than  half  a  century  (ever  since  the  death  of 
the  last  German  Carolingian),  the  Empire  in  the  West  had  lapsed. 
The  idea,  however,  was  sti1!  a  living  force.     Otto's  father,  the 
cool  and  practical  Henry,  pondered  grandly  on  a  restoration; 
and  Otto's  own  ardent  soul  had  long  been  fired  with  the  vision 
of  taking  up  the  imperial  task  of  Charlemagne.     The  masses 
of  the  German  people,  too,  dreamed  of  it.     When  Otto  stood 
victor  amidst  the  carnage  of  Lechfeld,  his  host,  with  common 
impulse,  hailed  him  "Emperor  of  the  Romans."     In  the  near 
past,  German  kings  had  been  Roman  emperors,  and  any  strong 
German  ruler  could  not  but  feel  it  his  supreme  duty  to  restore 
the  Empire,  the  symbol  of  universal  order  and  peace. 

206.  The  condition  of  Italy,  too,  furnished  excuse  for  German 
intervention.     Even    more   than    other   countries   of  the  time, 
Italy  had  been  shattered  into  fragments,  so  that  if  lm<l  n<>  wntml 
kingship    whatever.     Colonies   of    Saracens    from    Africa   had 
established  themselves  in   the  south,  contesting  that  district 


§208]  RESTORATION   IN  962   A.D.  191 

with  the  Greek  Empire  and  the  Lombard  dukedoms  ;  and  the 
rest  of  the  peninsula  was  devastated  by  famine  and  by  ferocious 
wars  between  petty  states.  Finally  an  imprisoned  princess 
called  for  help  to  Otto,  the  hero  of  the  North. 

207.  Otto  gladly  caught  at  the  opportunity.     In  his  first  ex- 
pedition, at  Pavia,  he  crowned  himself  king  of  Italy,  with  the 
Iron  Crown  of  the  Lombards  (§  80),  and  married  the  lovely 
suppliant  Adelheid,  whose   beauty  and   adventures  had  shed 
romance  on  the  dark  pages  of  Italian  history.     In  a  second 
expedition,  at  Home,  in  962,  he  was  consecrated  emperor  by  the 
pope. 

208.  For  the  next  three  centuries,  the  history  of  Italy  is  bound 
up  with  that  of  Germany,  and  every  German  king,  as  soon  as 
he  could  march  to  Rome,  was  crowned  emperor.      This  connec- 
tion brought  to  Germany  the  culture  and  art  of  the  ancient  world; 
but  on  the  political  side  it  was   disastrous.     Otto's   remaining 
years  were  spent  in  restoring  brief  order  in  Italy,  and  he  lost 
the  chance  really  to  make  Germany  a  nation.     Otto,  too,  was 
merely  the  first  of  a  long  line  of  German  kings,  who  led  splen- 
did German  armies  across  the  Alps,  to  melt  away  in  fever  and 
disease  beneath  the  Italian  sun.     German  strength  was  frittered 
away  in  foreign  squabbles. 

Quite  as  bad  were  the  results  to  Italy.  A  German  king,  how- 
ever much  a  "Roman  emperor,"  could  not  enter  Italy  without 
a  German  army  at  his  back.  The  southern  land  became  a 
conquered  province,  ruled  by  foreigners  whom  the  natives 
looked  upon  as  uncouth  northern  barbarians. 

Yet,  even  in  Italy,  many  of  the  noblest  and  most  generous  spirits 
were  passionate  supporters  of  the  German  emperors,  because  they  be- 
lieved devoutly  in  the  ideal  of  universal  peace  and  justice  under  the  wise 
providence  of  one  supreme  ruler.  Some  centuries  after  Otto,  a  great 
Italian  thinker  *  declared  one  imperial  government  for  all  the  world  as 
necessary  as  one  head  for  the  human  body,  —  comparing  the  various 
different  states  of  Europe  to  "  the  hideous  portent  of  a  monster  of  many 
heads,  biting  and  snapping  at  one  another." 

i  Petrarch,  §  331. 


192 


TIIK    HOLY   ROMAN   EM  TIKE 


[§209 


209.  The  restored  empire  took  the  name  "the  Holy  Roman 
Empire  of  the  German  people."  Two  terms  in  this  title  suggest 
two  ways  in  which  this  new  empire  differed  from  that  of 
Charlemagne. 

Charlemagne's  empire  had  included  practically  all  Latin 
Christendom.  But  new  Christian  states  had  now  grown  up, 

north,  east,  and  west,— 
in  England,  Scandinavia, 
Poland,  Hungary,  —  all 
beyond  imperial  control. 
T7ie  new  empire  was  far 
less  universal  than  Charle- 
magne's. It  did  not  even 
include  the  French  realm 
of  Charlemagne;  and  Italy 
was  held  only  in  part,  and 
that  part  only  by  arms. 
The  empire  was  (Uxtim'tbj 
German. 

And  it  //v/.s  Holy.  In 
some  rather  indefinite 
way,  it  claimed  to  par- 
take of  the  nature  of 
the  universal  church,  and 
to  share  the  headship 
of  the  world  with  the 
papacy. 


THE  TEMPORAL  AND  THK  SPIRITUAL 
POWER:  a  mosaic  of  the  tenth  century 
in  the  Church  of  St.  John,  Rome,  repre- 
senting God  giving  the  keys  to  St.  Peter 
and  the  banner  to  Constantine. —  From 
Lacroix,  Vie  Milltaire. 


210.  Three  theories  arose  as  to  this  relation  between  popes  and 
emperors. 

First:  the  pope  and  emperor  were  equal  and  independent 
heads  of  Christendom, — one  of  the.  spiritual  power,  the  other 
of  the  temporal  power, —  bound,  however,  to  act  in  harmony. 
The  trouble  with  this  theory  was  that  it  would  not  work. 
The  two  heads  did  not  act  in  harmony ;  and  when  disputes 
arose  between  them,  they  had  no  umpire. 

Second  :  the  pope  was  independent  in  spiritual  concerns;  but, 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN 
EMPIRE 

962  to  1000 

SCALE   OF  MILES 


»^sy&ey 

.         ^*.Toil<.,        i  a> 


ffir*iMON7r"  °*>;     "•ip 


§212]  EMPIRE    AND    CHURCH  193 

in  purely  political  matters,  as  a  prince  of  the  empire,  he  was  a  vas- 
sal of  the  emperor.  This  was  the  theory  of  the  imperial  party. 
Third:  as  the  more  direct  representative  of  God,  the  pope 
was  the  emperor's  superior,  even  in  temporal  matters.  This  view 
was  adopted  by  the  greatest  of  the  popes. 

211.  The  church,  at  the  moment,  however,  was  unfit  to  assert 
this  high  claim.     It,  too,  had  suffered  in  the  general  decline 
of  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  that  followed  the  second  series 
of  barbarian  invasions.     Learning  and  morals  both  fell  away 
from  the  standard  of  Charlemagne's  day.     Monasteries  let  the 
rules  of  St.  Benedict  fall  into  disuse.     The  ferocious  greed  of 
feudalism   had  begun   to  infect  even   religion.     Bishops  and 
abbots,  we  have  noticed,  had  been  obliged  to  take  up  political 
and  even  military  duties,  and  they  possessed  vast  revenues. 
Sometimes  they  paid  more  attention  to  these  matters  than  to 
their  spiritual  duties.     Often,  indeed,  they  bought  their  offices 
from  a  king  just  as  great  lay  officers  bought  their  places,  and 
then  sold  the  lower  church  offices  under  their  control. 

Even  the  headship  of  the  church  had  suffered.  The  popes 
had  become  again  little  more  than  the  bishops  of  Rome ;  and 
greedy  rings  of  Roman  nobles  set  up  and  deposed  popes  at 
will,  as  tools  in  their  furious  feudal  quarrels.  In  nine  years 
(896-904)  there  were  nine  popes,  and  each  change  resulted 
from  some  discreditable  conflict.  The  papacy  lost  public 
reverence ;  Christendom  seemed  to  have  lost  its  head. 

These  evils  were  now  to  be  reformed,  partly  through  the 
intervention  of  great  emperors,  and  partly  through  a  glorious 
revival  within  the  church. 

212.  This  fruitful  reform  originated  in  the  monastery  of  Cluny, 
which  had  been  founded  in  977,  in  Burgundy.     Here  the  abbot 
restored  the  rules  of  St.  Benedict,  —  with  such  success   that 
soon  good  men    everywhere,  as   they  struggled   against  evil, 
turned  to  Cluny  for  advice  and  leadership. 

Indeed  Cluny  went  further  than  Benedict.  The  Benedictine 
rules  had  left  each  monastery  a  separate  unit.  Now,  a  more 
effective  organization  was  adopted.  New  monasteries,  and  old 


194 


THE    HOLY    ROMAN   EMPIRE 


[§213 


ones  reformed  under  the  influence  of  missionaries  from  Cluny, 
were  joined  as  daughter  societies  to  the  mother  monastery. 
The  abbot  of  Cluny  appointed  the  heads  of  the  daughter 
abbeys,  and  kept  great  influence  over  them,  and  from  time  to 
time  called  assemblies  of  delegates  from  all  the  monasteries  of 
the  order.  The  holy  lives  of  the  wide-spread  brotherhood  made 
them  a  tremendous  instrument  for  good  about  them ;  and,  be- 
fore the  year  1000,  their  admirable  or- 
ganization made  them  a  dominant  force 
in  the  government  of  the  church  at  large. 
213.  For  the  reform  of  church  govern- 
ment, the  men  of  Cluny  had  three  especial 
aims. 

They  warreil  "/"///  N////O////.  That  is, 
they  insisted  that  the  buying  and  sell- 
in  LC  of  church  offices  should  stop.  As  a 
iiu-aiis  thereto,  they  urged  that  every 
bishop  should  be  elected  by  lower  clergy 
of  his  diocese,  and  every  abbot  by  the  monks  of  his  monastery, 
instead  of  being  appointed  by  lords  and  kings. 

They  insisted  that  not  only  monks,  but  all  clergy,  should  live  a 
life,  of  celibacy.  Outside  the  monasteries,  in  the  ninth  century, 
the  lower  clergy  usually  married.  Sometimes  they  tried  to 
secure  the  wealth  and  offices  of  the  church  for  their  children. 
There  has  always  been  a  tendency,  however,  to  think  of  holiness 
as  connected  with  celibacy;  and  now  it  was  urged  strongly 
that  the  clergy  could  riot  do  their  proper  work  unless  they  were 
set  apart  from  all  family  cares  and  responsibilities. 

Both  these  reforms  were  finally  accomplished,  mainly  by 
great  reforming  popes,  who  adopted  the  Cluny  program.  And 
these  popes  themselves  were  in  great  measure  the  product  of 
the  third  aim  of  the  men  of  Cluny,  who  sought,  above  all  else, 
to  i»in'f>/  the  papacy  and  to  restore  it  to  the  real  headship  of  the 
Christian  ivorld.1 


A  BAPTISM  \i.  Fo\ 
CLUNY. 


1  Adams'  Civilization,  •_':'•!  1-244,  and  Tout's  Empire  and  Papacy,   97-101, 
give  good  accounts  of  Cluny. 


§  213]  CLUNY   AND   REFORM  195 

In  this  effort,  their  work  came  into  touch  with  that  of  the  reforming 
emperors.  And  so  we  take  up  again  the  story  of  the  emperors,  which 
we  left  in  §  207.  The  footnote 1  on  this  page  shows  the  succession  of 
rulers. 

1  Reference  Table  of  German  Kings 
Election 

(1)  Conrad  I  (Franconian),  911-918 

Election  of  a  new  line 

(2)  Henry  I  (Saxon),  919-936 

(3)  Otto  I,  936-973  (Emperor,  962-973) 

(All  later  kings  in  this  table 
were  also  "Emperors.") 

(4)  Otto  II,  973-983 

(5)  Otto  III,  983-1002 

Election  of  a  new  line 

(6)  Henry  II  (Saxon),  1002-1024 

•     Election  of  a  new  line 

(7)  Conrad  II  (Franconian),  1024-1039 

(8)  Henry  III,  1039-1056 

f  Rudolph,  Hermann,  Conrad,  ] 

(9)  Henry  IV,  1054-1106  \  set  up  as  claimants  against  \ 

[  Henry  IV,  from  1077  to  1093  J 

(10)  Henry  V,  1106-1125 

Election  of  a  new  line 

(11)  Lothair  (Saxon),  1125-1137 

Election  of  a  new  line 

(12)  Conrad  III  (Hohenstaufen),  1138-1152 

Election  of  a  new  line 
I        • 

(13)  Frederick  I  (Hohenstaufen),  1152-1190 

(14)  Henry  VI,  1190-1197          (15)  Philip,  1198-1203 

(deposed) 

Election  of  a  new  line 

(16)  Otto  IV,  1198-1214  (deposed) 

(17)  Frederick  II,  1214-1250 

(18)  Conrad  IV,  1250-1254 

"  The  Great  Interregnum  " 


196  THE    HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE  [§214 

214.  When  Otto  I  restored  the  Empire,  he   confirmed  the 
donations  of  Pippin  and  Charlemagne  (§§  76,  83) ;  but  he  also 
decreed  that  no  pope  should  be  consecrated  until  he  took  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  emperor.     The  pope   resisted  this  attempt  to 
make  him  a  vassal.     To  carry  his  point,  Otto  deposed  one  pope 
and  set  up  another,  by  force  of  amis.     He  had  rescued  the  papacy 
from  domination  by  disorderly  Roman  nobles  ;  and,  in  appoint- 
ing a  pope,  he  sought  out  a  man  of  pure  and  noble  life.     Thus 
he  began  the  reform  of  the  papacy  which  was  soon  to  lift  it  to 
a  pinnacle  of  glory  ;  but  he  had  also  begun  a  struggle  between 
emperors  and  popes  which  was  to  last  three  hundred  years  and 
to  destroy  the  real  power  of  the  empire. 

215.  Four  unimportant  reigns  filled  the  sixty-seven  years  after 
Otto  I  (973-1039).     Otto  //spent  his  ten-years'  rule  in  Italy. 
The  danger  to  Germany  from  her  king's  imperial  ambition  be- 
came even  plainer  in  the  next  reign.     Otto  III  was  half  Italian 
by  blood  and  wholly  so  by  training.     lie  was  an  enthusiastic 
but  exceedingly  unpractical  boy,  who  became  "  king  "  at  three, 
took  the  work  of  government  into  his  own  hands  at  sixteen, 
planned  grandiosely  to  unite  Latin  and  Greek  Christendoms 
by  arms,  lived  his  few  brief  years  at  Rome  in  a  court  of 
Oriental  pomp,  and  died  at  twenty -two,  wandering  helplessly 
about  Italy  as  a  fugitive  from  a  petty  uprising  of  the  Roman 
populace. 

During  his  rule,  however,  Otto  III  appointed  two  remarkable  popes. 
The  first.  Gregory  V.  was  a  German  —  the  first  pope  from  outside  Italy. 
The  second,  Gerbert,  took  the  name  Sylvester  II.  He  was  the  first  French 
pope.  Aside  from  the  great  abilities  of  these  two  men.  their  appoint- 
ment marks  a  step  in  the  development  of  the  papacy.  If  the  popes  were 
to  be  the  spiritual  head  of  all  Western  Europe,  it  was  best  they  should 
not  continue  to  come  all  from  Italy. 

Another  fact  about  Gerbert  throws  a  curious  sidelight  on  the  time. 
He  had  been  a  champion  of  Hugh  Capet ;  and,  just  before  the  accession 
of  that  king,  his  enemies  had  driven  Gerbert  into  exile  in  Spain.  There 
he  had  gained  a  smattering  of  Saracenic  knowledge  ;  and,  on  his  return 
to  Europe,  this  unusual  learning  brought  him  under  serious  suspicion  as 
a  wizard,  —  a  practicer  of  magic,  aided  by  the  devil ! 


§216]  HENRY   III   AND   THE   CHURCH  197 

Otto  III,  like  Conrad  I,  died  without  an  heir.  The  German 
nobles  chose  another  Saxon  lord  (Henry  II)  for  their  king. 
And  when  he  also  died  without  leaving  a  son,  they  elected  a 
Franconian  (Conrad  II).  A  glance  at  the  table  on  page  195 
will  show  that  there  were  six  such  changes  for  the  first  twelve 
kings.  We  have  noted  the  unbroken  family  succession  among 
the  Capetians  as  a  chief  reason  for  the  growth  of  French  unity. 
This  different  fate  of  the  German  kingly  families  was  one 
reason  for  their  failure  to  achieve  German  unity. 

These  last  two  kings,  however,  gave  their  energies  to  Ger- 
many, which  hdd  fallen  into  feudal  anarchy.  The  five  great 
duchies  had  broken  up  into  many  smaller  units,  —  counties, 
marks,  and  new  duchies  ;  and  the  steady  expansion  on  the  east 
had  added  numerous  other  such  districts.  Henry  II  and  Con- 
rad began  to  bring  these  back  from  their  feudal  anarchy  into 
dependence  on  the  crown. 

216.  Thus  Henry  III  (1039-1056),  the  third  king  after  the 
Ottos,  came  to  the  throne  under  favorable  auspices.  He  raised 
the  German  monarchy  to  its  highest  point.  Abroad,  by  a 
series  of  great  victories,  he  added  Slavic  Bohemia  to  the  empire 
permanently — as  well  as  Poland  and  Hungar}^  for  a  time.  At 
home  he  reformed  both  state  and  church.  He  enforced  the 
"  Truce  of  God  "  (§  128),  which  had  not  before  been  introduced 
into  Germany  ;  and,  for  a  time,  even  widened  it  into  a  "  Peace 
of  the  Land,"  compelling  all  nobles  to  swear  solemnly  to  give 
up  private  warfare.  All  this  was  before  the  Normans  had 
conquered  England,  and  before  the  Capetians  had  made  any 
real  advance  in  France. 

Henry  also  encouraged  the  rising  towns  by  many  grants  of 
privileges ;  and  he  allied  himself  to  the  party  of  Cluny  in  the 
church,  putting  down  simony  in  Germany.  True,  he  kept  the 
appointment  of  the  higher  clergy  in  his  own  hands,  but  only 
for  the  public  good.  He  never  sold  such  offices. 

While  Henry's  two  predecessors  were  busy  in  Germany, 
Italy  had  again  fallen  into  extreme  disorder.  Three  men 
claimed  to  be  pope  at  one  time.  Henry  compelled  all  these 


198  THE    HOLY    ROMAN   EMPIRE  [§217 

contestants  to  submit  their  claims  to  a  gathering  of  bishops 
which  he  assembled.  All  three  were  deposed,  and  Henry 
appointed  a  new  pope.  Three  times  more  he  tilled  the  papal 
throne  by  fresh  appointments,  so  that  he  has  been  called 
"the  Pope-maker,"  and  at  his  death  he  left  his  infant  son  to 
the  pope's  guardianship.  That  son,  Henry  IV,  spent  his  life  in 
fierce  conflict  with  the  papacy,  which  in  his  day  fell  to  the 
hands  of  Hildebrand. 

217.  Hildebrand  was  the  son  of  a  Tuscan  peasant  of  Germ:ui 
descent.     He  was   brought  up  at  Rome  in  a  rich  monastery 
where   his  uncle  was  abbot.     Then  the  young  monk  became 
deeply  interested  in  the  ideas  of  the  Cluny  reformers,  and  lie 
spent  a  year  in  the  monastery  of  Cluny.     His  body  was  frail, 
but  he  had  a  fiery  soul,  indomitable  energy,  and  great  practical 
sagacity.     His  ability  soon  attracted  attention,  and  in  1045,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one,  he  became  chaplain  to  the  pope.     Then, 
for  more  than  twenty  years,  under  five  successive  popes,  he 
was  the  power  behind  the  throne,  shaping  a  growing  and  con- 
sistent papal  policy. 

218.  As   papal   counselor,    Hildebrand  accomplished   three  im- 
portant steps  in  the  development  of  the  papacy. 

a.  He  formed  a  close  alliance  with  a  popular  reform  party  that 
had  appeared  in  Lombardy.     This  party  was  made  up  largely 
of  the  lower  classes,  and  was  led  by  popular  agitators.     Its 
opponents  styled  it  "  the  party  of  the  ragamuffins."     Its  pur- 
poses were  social,   religious,   and   patriotic.     It   opposed   the 
wealth  and  corruption  of  the  higher  clergy,  the  dependence  of 
the  church  upon  lay  lords,  and  the  dominance  of  Ger/n<i>i>/  in 
Italy.     This  last  position  made  this  party  a  natural  ally  of  the 
popes  against  the  emperors. 

b.  At  the  other  end  of  the  peninsula  Hildebrand  found  other 
allies.     Early  in  the  eleventh  century,  bands  of  Norman  adven- 
turers began  to  seize  the  territory  of  the  Saracens  and  of  the 
Greek  Empire  in  South  Italy,  and  finally  their  leader,  Robert 
Guiscard  ("the  Crafty"),  had  built  up  a  powerful   Norman 
state  there.     In  1059   Hildebrand   negotiated   a  treaty    with 


§219]  HENRY   IV   AND    HILDEBRAND  199 

him  which  secured  stout  aid  for  the  papacy.  The  pope  con- 
ferred upon  Robert  the  title  of  Duke  of  Apulia,  and  in  return, 
Robert  became  a  vassal  of  the  papacy  for  this  fief. 

c.  Hildebrand  persuaded  a  council  of  the  church  to  adopt  a 
decree  regulating  the  method  of  electing  popes  (1059).  .There- 
after the  election  was  to  be  made,  not  by  a  gathering  of  the 
nobles  and  people  of  Rome,  controlled  by  the  emperors  or  by 
some  noble  just  then  in  power,  bat  by  the  seven  "cardinal 
bishops  "  of  Rome  and  its  vicinity.  These  "  cardinals  "  made 
up  an  advisory  council  about  the  popes.  And  so  this  method 
of  election  corresponded  to  that  which  the  reformers  wished 
for  bishops  and  abbots  (§  213).  This  decree  is  the  origin  of 
the  "  College  of  Cardinals  "  (§  150  d). 

219.  Hildebrand  as  Gregory  VII.  —  Hildebrand  might  have 
been  made  pope  on  more  than  one  occasion  'before  he  finally 
accepted  the  place.  At  last,  in  1073,  the  people  of  Rome 
forced  the  election  upon  him.  The  crowds  assembled  at  the 
funeral  of  the  late  pope  raised  the  shout,  "  Let  Hildebrand  be 
our  bishop  " ;  and  "  St.  Peter  crowns  Hildebrand  as  pope." 
The  cardinals  approved  the  movement,  and  Hildebrand  re- 
luctantly yielded.  He  took  the  name  Gregory  VII,  and,  with 
fresh  vigor,  began  to  make  real  his  dream  of  a  universal  papal 
monarchy.  The  empire,  he  held,  was  subject  to  the  papacy, 
as  the  body  to  the  soul.  The  pope,  the  immediate  representa- 
tive of  God,  was  to  be  the  final  arbiter  between  kings. 

Gregory's  own  statement  runs  :  "  Human  power  invented  the  power 
of  kings ;  divine  pity  established  that  of  bishops.  .  '.  .  He  [the  pope] 
may  depose  emperors.  ...  He  may  absolve  subjects  from  their  allegiance 
to  wicked  men.  ...  He  himself  may  be  judged  by  no  one." 

Gregory's  life  proved  that  his  convictions  were  sincere  and 
unselfish.  They  were  shared,  too,  by  the  purest  and  ablest 
churchmen  of  the  age.  Nor  was  there  anything  new  in  them. 
The  new  thing  was  for  a  man  to  be  found  with  the  noble  dar- 
ing to  try  to  live  up  to  these  ideas  when  they  brought  him 
into  conflict  with  the  sovereigns  of  the  earth. 


200  THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE  [§220 

220.  The  strife  between  pope  and  emperor  came  to  a  head  upon 
the  question  of  "  investitures."     The    emperor   had   appointed 
all    bishops  and  abbots  in  his  realms,  and  "invested"  them 
with  the  staff  and  ring,  the  symbols  of  their  spiritual  office,  as 
well  as. with  the  lands  connected  with  those  offices.     This  prac- 
tice was  not  always  connected  with  simony ;  but  it  made  that 
evil  much  more  common,  and  the  reform  party  in  the  church 
regarded  the  two  things  as  practically  the  same. 

The  real  cause  of  the  trouble  was  the  twofold  nature  of 
bishops  and  abbots.  They  were  spiritual  officers,  and,  as  such, 
it  was  not  fit  that  they  should  be  appointed  by  lay  rulers.  Put 
they  were  at  the  same  time  temporal  lords,  and,  as  such,  the 
emperors  needed  to  keep  control  over  them.  Nearly  half  the 
land  and  resources  of  Germany  were  in  the  hands  of  great 
ecclesiastics.  Plainly,  no  king  could  consent  to  yield  their 
appointment  to  any  power  but  himself.  Just  as  plainly,  no 
great  and  good  pope,  with  the  interests  of  religion  at  heart, 
could  willingly  see  these  clerical  officers  appointed  by  any  lay 
power,  with  the  disregard  of  spiritual  interests  that  would  often 
follow. 

221.  Story  of  the  Struggle,  to  the  Deaths  of  Gregory  and  of 
Henry  IV.  —  In  1075  Gregory  threatened  to  excommunicate  all 
bishops  and  abbots  who  should  thereafter  receive  their  investi- 
ture from  a  lay  ruler,  and,  likewise,  every  lay  ruler  who  should 
venture  to  invest  an  ecclesiastic  with  his  office.     This  was  a 
declaration  of  war  on  the  emperor,  Henry  IV,  who  was  not 
likely  to  surrender  willingly  a  power  that  all  his  great  prede- 
cessors had  exercised. 

Henry  was  an  able  ruler,  but  with  headstrong  temper.  At 
fifteen  he  had  assumed  the  management  of  the  kingdom  (1065), 
and  he  had  just  come  out  victorious  from  a  desperate  contest 
with  a  feudal  rebellion  when  the  decree  of  Gregory  regarding 
investitures  summoned  him  to  a  mightier  conflict. 

The  opening  of  the  strife  was  sharp  and  rude.  Henry  con- 
tinued to  invest  clerical  lords  and  also  to  show  favor  to  some 
whom-  Gregory  had  condemned  for  simony.  Gregory  sum- 


§221]  THE   INVESTITURE   STRIFE  201 

moned  him  to  Rome,  and  threatened  excommunication  unless 
he  gave  up  this  policy.  Henry  replied,  through  a  council  of 
German  bishops,  by  declaring  Gregory  guilty  of  infamous  crimes 
and  by  pronouncing  his  deposition.  Gregory's  response  was 
to  declare  the  German  bishops  excommunicated,  and  Henry 
deposed. 

Henry's  letter  to  Gregory  had  been  addressed,  "  Hildebrand,  not  pope 
but  false  monk"  ;  and  it  had  closed,  "Descend  and  surrender  the  apos- 
tolic chair,  which  thou  hast  usurped.  ...  I,  Henry,  king  by  the  grace 
of  God,  together  with  all  my  bishops,  do  call  to  thee,  '  Get  thee  down, 
get  down  to  everlasting  damnation.'  " 

Gregory's  reply  ran  :  "  0  St.  Peter,  chief  of  the  apostles,  .  .  .  for  the 
honor  and  security  of  thy  church,  in  the  name  of  Almighty  God,  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  I  withdraw,  through  thy  power  and  authority,  from 
Henry,  the  king,  who  has  risen  against  thy  church  with  unheard  of  insolence, 
the  rule  over  the  whole  kingdom  of  the  Germans  and  over  Italy.  And  I 
absolve  all  Christians  from  the  bonds  of  the  oaths  which  they  have  taken 
and  shall  take  to  him  ;  and  I  forbid  any  one  to  serve  him  as  king." 

Now  Henry's  enemies  in  Germany  again  took  arms.  The 
clergy  fell  away,  —  unable  to  stand  before  the  terrors  of  the 
papal  bull, — and  in  a  few  months  Henry  was  helpless.  A 
council  of  nobles  was  called,  over  which  the  pope  was  to  pre- 
side, to  decide  the  question  of  Henry's  deposition.  By  swift 
submission,  Henry  saved  his  crown.  He  hurried  into  Italy, 
and,  at  Canossa,  met  the  pope,  already  on  his  way  across  the 
Alps.  The  stern  Gregory  refused  to  see  the  suppliant,  who 
stood  barefoot,  in  a  penitent's  garb,  through  three  days  of  ex- 
treme cold,  amid  the  snow  and  rocks  before  the  castle  gate. 
Admitted  finally  to  the  pope's  presence,  after  promising  abject 
submission  to  his  will,  whatever  it  might  be,  Henry  threw  him- 
self in  tears  at  the  feet  of  his  conqueror,  crying,  "  Spare  me, 
Holy  Father,  spare  me  ! "  Gregory  also  was  moved  to  tears. 
He  raised  Henry  to  his  feet,  gave  him  the  kiss  of  peace,  and 
promised  him  absolution. 

But  Gregory  had  pushed  his  victory  too  far,  or  else  not  far 
enough.  The  foes  of  Henry  in  Germany  felt  that  the  pope 
had  deserted  them,  and  the  mass  of  the  nation  were  angered 


202  THE    HOLY    ROMAN  EMPIRE  [§  i^J 

by  the  humiliation  of  their  king.1  The  hostile  nobles  did  try 
to  set  up  another  king ;  but  German  patriotism  rallied  around 
Henry,  and  he  easily  kept  the  upper  hand. 

After  some  delay,  since  there  was  no  change  in  the  matter 
of  investitures,  Gregory  issued  another  decree  of  deposition 
against  Henry.  But  the  opportunity  was  gone.  The  German 
bishops,  returning  to  Henry's  side,  again  declared  Gregory 
deposed,  and  went  through  the  form  of  electing  another  pope 
in  his  place.  There  followed  a  distressing  tangle  of  wars. 
Finally,  Gregory  was  driven  from  Rome,  and  soon  after  he  died 
in  the  south  of  Italy  (1085),  among  his  Norman  allies,  exclaim- 
ing sadly,  "I  have  loved  righteousness  and  hated  iniquity; 
therefore  I  die  in  exile."  Still,  Gregory  was  in  large  part 
victorious.  He  lives  in  history  as  one  of  the  world's  greatest 
men,  — one  who  built  an  empire  not  by  sword  or  cannon,  but 
by  intellect  and  moral  earnestness. 

The  quarrel  was  soon  renewed  with  the  new  pope,  Urban  II. 
Henry's  sons  were  stirred  up  to  rebel  against  their  father ;  wars 
were  waged  incessantly;  and  in  his  old  age  the  emperor  met 
many  reverse*.  For  years  he  was  a  prisoner;  and  he  died  in 
1106,  broken-hearted,  in  the  midst  of  defeat  and  shaine.  For 
five  years  his  body  lay  in  unconsecrated  ground,  before  the 
church  would  remove  the  curse  from  his  ashes. 

222.  The  "  Concordat  of  Worms."  —  Henry  V  had  been  an  ally 
of  the  popes  against  his  father,  but  as  emperor  he  felt  obliged 
to  resist  their  claims  as  his  father  had  done.  Finally,  at  the  city 
of  Worms  (1122),  the  long  quarrel  was  settled  by  a  reasonable 
compromise.  Bishops  were  to  be  elected  by  the  clergy  and 
consecrated  by  the  pope ;  but  the  emperor  was  to  have  a  pos- 
sible veto  upon  any  election,  inasmuch  as  the  candidate  was  to 
receive  from  him  the  investiture  of  the  episcopal  lands,  which  \ 
were  to  be  held  as  by  a  faithful  vassal. 

1  Germany  has  never  altogether  ceased  to  resent  the  disgrace.  In  187- .  in 
a  conflict  between  the  new  German  Empire  and  the  papal  party,  Bismarck 
rallied  the  national  feeling  to  the  side  of  the  government  by  his  exclamation 
"Be  sure  we  shall  not  go  to  Canossa!  "  (§  819).  This  sentence  is  engraved 
upon  Bismarck's  monument  at  Harzburg. 


§224]  THE    HOHENSTAUFEN  203 

This  compromise  seems  to  have  been  modeled  upon  one  which  had  been 
made  just  before  in  England  between  Henry  I  (§  166)  and  Anselm,  his 
great  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  The  investiture  struggle  had  been 
waged  in  all  great  Christian  countries ;  but  nowhere  else  had  it  been  so 
bitter  or  so  long  as  in  Germany. 

223.  Results.  —  The   struggle  between    empire   and  papacy 
was  not  over,  by  any  means,  with  the  Concordat  of  Worms. 
But  one  chapter  was  closed,  and  it  is  well  to  see  what  had  been 
accomplished.     Henry  IV  had  outlived  Gregory  by  a  score  of 
years,  and,  though  conquered  and  humiliated,  he  had  prevented 
the  complete  victory  of  Gregory's  ideas.     His  son  had  forced  the 
papacy  to  a  compromise.     Still,  no  emperor  could  ever  again 
make  and  unmake  popes  as  the  Ottos  and  Henry  III  had  done. 
The  popes,  on  the  other  hand,  did  retain  a  powerful  influence 
in  making  emperors,  and  their  right  even  to  depose  kings  had 
been  powerfully  asserted.     To  all  men  the  papacy  had  become 
the  final  court  of  appeal  and  the  chief  source  of  justice,  righteous- 
ness, and  mercy. 

Germany  had  been  the  chief  loser.  During  the  fifty  years  of  inces- 
sant conflict  between  emperors  and  popes,  in  the  long  absence  of  the 
emperors  from  Germany,  the  German  nobles  had  been  growing  more  and 
more  independent  of  royal  authority. 

Another  political  result  was  more  wholesome.  The  pope  turned  to  the 
city  democracies  of  Italy  for  help  against  the  emperor  and  the  Italian 
nobles;  and  the  emperor  called  upon  the  German  towns  for  aid  against 
the  pope  and  the  German  nobles.  In  both  countries,  the  towns  gained 
strength  rapidly.  Out  of  the  conflict  between  the  two  great  monarchies 
came  aid  to  the  beginnings  of  popular  liberty. 

III.     THE    HOHENSTAUFEN    EMPERORS 

224.  Frederick   I    (1152-1190). — The    Franconiari    Henrys 
were  soon  followed  (note  on  page  195)  by  the  Hohenstaufen 
Fredericks,  —  still  more  brilliant  men.     The  first  important 
ruler  of  this  line  was  Frederick  Barbarossa  (Red  Beard),  who 
has  been  called  "the  noblest  embodiment  of  medieval  king- 
ship."    He  was  foremost  a  German  king,  and  the  restoration 


204  THE    HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE  [§225 

of  order  in  his  northern  realm  was  the  most  successful  part  of 
his  work.  But  he  was  also  a  Roman  emperor,  and  he  strove 
mightily  to  save  the  waning  empire. 

This  effort  brought  on  a  new  period  of  struggle  between  popes 
and  emperors,  to  last  another  century.  This  time,  the  im- 
mediate occasion  of  conflict  was  a  difference  of  policy  regarding 
Italy.  The  emperors  were  bent  on  consolidating  the  peninsula 
into  one  state  with  a  strong  central  government.  The  popes 
feared  that  this  would  put  an  end  to  their  independence. 

225.  Both  parties  now  defined  clearly  their  claims  to  headship. 
An  artist  of  the  time  had  painted  a  famous  picture  represent- 
ing a  preceding  emperor,  Lothair  II,  kneeling  before  Pope  In- 
nocent II  for  his  coronation.     The  popes  placed  this  painting 
in  the  great  audience  hall  of  their  palace  and  inscribed  beneath 
it:  — 

"The  king  comes  before  the  gates,  first  swearing  due  honor  to  the 
city.  He  is  then  made  the  vassal  of  the  pope,  and  takes  the  crown  which 
the  latter  bestows." 

During  the  negotiations  with  one  of  the  popes  (Adrian), 
Frederick  objected  vehemently  to  this  humiliating  inscription. 
The  pope  at  length  removed  the  picture,  but  he  maintained 
the  papal  claim.  "  What  were  the  Franks,"  he  wrote  to  the 
emperor,  "till  [the  pope]  welcomed  Pippin?  What  is  the 
German  king  now  till  consecrated  at  Rome  by  Holy  Hands  ? 
The  chair  of  Peter  has  given  and  can  withdraw  its  gift*." 

Frederick's  written  reply  ran:  "The  empire  is  held  by  us, 
through  the  election  of  the  princes,  from  God  alone." 

226.  Frederick's  imperial  plans  brought  him  also  into  conflict 
with  the  rising  towns  of  northern  Italy.     To  those  cities  the 
imperial  ideas  of  the  new  king  meant  tyranny.     To  Frederick, 
the  incessant  and  remorseless  private  wars  of  town  with  town, 
and  the  bloody  faction-fights  within  the  leading  cities,  seemed 
anarchy.     He  determined  to  reduce  these  turbulent  communi- 
ties to  order,  and  to  rule  them  through  imperial  lieutenants 
stationed  in  each  city. 


§227]  THE    HOHENSTAUFEN  205 

Time  after  time,  Frederick  led  German  armies  across  the 
Alps.  Milan,  the  greatest  city  in  the  Po  valley,  was  razed  to 
the  ground,  and  its  inhabitants  were  scattered  in  unwalled 
villages.  Some  years  afterward,  however,  while  Frederick 
was  at  Rome,  a  sudden  pestilence  of  the  Italian  summer  swept 
away  his  army.  Twenty-five  thousand  men  perished  in  a 
week,  — "  slain  by  the  angel  of  the  Lord,"  like  the  host  of 
Sennacherib  before  Jerusalem,  said  the  papal  party.  The 
cities  seized  their  chance  and  flew  to  arms.  They  bound  them- 
selves together  in  "the  Lombard  League"  (the  first  city- 
federation  since  Greek  days),  and  allied  themselves  with  the 
pope.  At  the  battle  of  Legnano,  1176,  the  emperor  was  com- 
pletely defeated,  barely  escaping  with  life. 

Legnano  is  one  of  a  few  battles  in  almost  four  hundred  years  of 
incessant  fighting  that  deserve  commemoration.  In  two  respects,  it 
stands  for  the  victory  of  a  new  age.  (i)  It  was  won  by  a  citizen 
infantry  against  the  feudal  horsemen  who  had  so  long  been  irresistible 
in  the  field.  (2)  It  secured  the  recognition  of  the  freedom  of  the 
Lombard  towns. 

The  Peace  of  Constance,  signed  soon  after,  was  substantially 
dictated  by  the  free  cities.  The  towns,  in  words,  acknowledged 
the  imperial  overlordship,  and  bound  themselves  to  pay  certain 
tribute;  but  they  secured  the  recognition  of  their  rights  to 
fortify  themselves,  to  raise  their  own  troops,  to  wage  war  on 
their  own  account,  even  against  each  other,  to  coin  money,  and 
to  regulate  all  their  internal  concerns.  Practically,  they  had 
become  free  republics. 

227.  Frederick's  Place  in  History.  —  Despite  the  defeat  of 
Legnano,  Frederick  remained  the  greatest  and  most  honored 
monarch  in  Europe.  His  court  was  one  of  pomp  and  splendor. 
He  looked  upon  France  and  England  as  fiefs  of  the  empire; 
and  the  sovereigns  of  those  lands  regarded  the  emperor  with 
profound  respect,  if  not  quite  as  their  overlord.  In  Germany 
itself,  his  long  reign  was  a  period  of  remarkable  prosperity. 
Forests  were  cleared  to  make  farming  villages,  and  villages 
grew  into  trading  towns.  Agriculture  improved  its  methods, 


206 


THE    HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE 


[§228 


and  land  rose  in  value.  The  rougher  side  of  feudal  life  in  the 
castles  began  to  give  way  to  more  refined  manners,  and  a 
charming  German  literature  appeared  in  the  lays  of  the 
Minnesingers  (§  283). 

When  an  old  man,  Frederick  set  out  upon  the  Third  Crusade 
(§  249),  and  was  drowned  while  bathing,  after  a  hot  day's 
march,  in  a  little  stream  in  Asia  Minor.  Of  all  the  German 
kings,  Barbarossa,  even  more  than  Charlemagne,  is  the  popular 

hero  with  the  German  people ;  and 
legends  long  told  how  he  was  not 
dead,  but  sleeping  a  magic  sleep, 
upright  upon  a  golden  throne  in  the 
heart  of  the  Kyffhauser  Mountain, 
crown  on  head  and  scepter  in  hand. 
At  the  appointed  time,  in  his  coun- 
try's need,  the  ravens  would  cease 
circling  about  the  mountain  top; 
and,  at  this  signal,  Barbarossa 
would  awake,  to  bring  again  the 
reign  of  peace  and  justice. 

228.  Guelf  and  GhibeUine.  —  The 
contest  in  Italy  at  this  period  gave 
rise  to  new  party  names.  The 
Hohenstaufen  family  took  their 

name  from  their  ancestral  castle  perched  on  a  crag  in  the  Alps. 
But  near  this  first  seat  of  the  family  was  their  village  of  W«H>- 
lingen,  by  which  name  also  they  were  sometimes  known.  The 
chief  rival  of  the  first  Hohenstaufen  emperor  had  been  Henry 
the  Lion,  of  Saxony,  who  was  surnamed  Welf.  In  German 
struggles  these  names  became  war  cries,  —  Hi  Welfen!  Hi 
Waiblingen  ! 

In  Italy  the  German  words  were  softened  into  Guelf  and 
Ghibettme,  and  in  this  form  they  became  real  party  names.  A 
GhibeUine  was  of  the  imperial  party  :  a  Guelf  was  an  adherent 
of  the  papacy.  Long  after  this  original  significance  had  passed 
away,,  the  names  were  still  used  by  contending  factions  in 


A  CASTLE  OF  BARBAROSSA  AT 
KAISERSWERTH. 


§229]  INNOCENT   III  207 

Italian  towns.  In  general,  the  democratic  factions  were 
Guelfs ;  but  often  the  terms  had  no  meaning  beyond  that  of 
family  interest,  —  so  that  "as  meaningless  as  the  squabbles  of 
Guelfs  and  Ghibellines  "  has  become  a  byword. 

229.  Innocent  III.  —  Barbarossa's  son,  Henry  VI,  married 
the  heiress  of  the  Xorman  kingdom  in  Sicily,  and  so  brought 
South  Italy  for  the  first  time  into  union  with  the  Empire.  At 
Henry's  death,  his  son  (afterward  Frederick  II)  was  a  child 
of  three  years ;  arid  for  almost  a  generation  Guelf  and  Ghib- 
elline  claimants  struggled  for  the  crown.  During  this  period 
of  decadence  for  the  Empire,  more  plainly  than  ever  before, 
the  sovereign  power  in  Europe  was  the  papacy,  under  the  stern 
morality,  tremendous  energy,  imperious  character,  and  able  ad- 
ministration of  Innocent  III. 

Within  the  Empire,  Innocent  was  favored  by  the  political 
situation.  He  became  feudal  overlord  and  protector  of  the 
Tuscan  towns,  and  he  was  guardian  of  Frederick,  the  child-king 
of  Sicily.  Thus  he  was  safe  from  attack  by  Italy,  north  or 
south.  At  the  same  time,  the  conditions  in  Germany  enabled 
him  to  make  and  unmake  emperors.  The  election  of  the  Em- 
peror Philip  (note  on  page  195)  was  disputed  by  a  rival,  Otto. 
Innocent  claimed  the  right  to  decide  the  matter.  He  rejected 
Philip  as  "  an  obstinate  persecutor  of  the  church,"  and  gave 
his  award  to  Otto,  because  that  prince  was  declared  to  be  "  de- 
voted to  the  church."  "Him,  therefore,  we  .  .  .  summon  to 
take  the  imperial  crown."  Then,  when  Otto  took  up  the  imperial 
claims  against  the  papacy,  Innocent  declared  him  deposed, 
and  secured  the  election  of  the  young  Frederick,  grandson  of 
Barbarossa. 

In  France  and  England,  it  is  true,  there  now  ruled  mightier 
kings  than  any  previous  pope  had  had  to  deal  with  outside  the 
Empire ;  but  even  these  sovereigns  were  forced  to  obey  the 
commands  of  Innocent's  legates.  Philip  Augustus,  the  haughty 
and  successful  sovereign  of  France,  was  compelled  to  take  back 
an  innocent  wife  whom  he  had  just  put  away ;  and  John  of 
England  even  surrendered  his  kingdom  and  received  it  back  as 


208  THE   HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE  [§230 

a  fief  of  the  Holy  See,  promising  annual  tribute  to  Rome 
(§  178).  The  kings  of  Portugal  and  Aragon,  rising  Christian 
states1  in  the  Spanish  peninsula,  were  Innocent's  vassals;  and 
he  interfered  at  will  in  the  government  of  the  other  kingdoms 
there,  —  Navarre,  Castile,  and  Leon,  —  as  well  as  in  the  new 
Slavonic  kingdoms  on  the  eastern  frontier  of  Humpr. 

Innocent  was  also  a  moral  reformer,  and  he  led  a  successful 
movement  for  a  revival  within  the  church.  He  crushed  the 
Albigensian  movement,  which  rejected  the  church  (§  194) ;  and 
he  adopted  and  advanced  the  Friar  reform  (§  230). 

230.  The  Begging  Friars.  —  The  growing  towns  of  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries  did  not  at  first  fit  into  the  older  organi- 
zation of  the  church.  Neither  the  rural  parish  priests  nor  the 
monks  took  care  of  the  religious  needs  of  the  crowded  popula- 
tions. The  poorer  inhabitants  were  miserable  in  body,  too, 
beyond  all  words,  —  fever  and  plague  stricken,  perishing  of 
want  and  filth  and  wretchedness  such  as  no  modern  city 
knows.2  Early  in  the  thirteenth  century,  these  conditions,  to- 
gether with  the  spread  of  heretical  movements,  called  forth  a 
general  religious  revival,  with  the  rise  of  two  new  orders 
of  religious  workers,  —  the  Franciscan  and  the  Dominican 
brotherhoods. 

TJie  Franciscans  (1209)  took  their  name  from  their  founder, 
Francis  of  Assist,  known  later  as  Saint  Francis.  He  was 
moved  by  a  passionate  pity  for  the  ignorant,  dying,  despairing 
dregs  of  the  population  in  the  medieval  Italian  towns  about 
him.  A  little  group  of  eleven  youths  caught  the  inspiration 
of  his  lofty  enthusiasm  and  self-renunciation.  Francis  walked 
to  Rome  and  secured  sanction  for  his  plans  from  Innocent  III, 
and  at  once  the  little  band  of  "  brothers  "  (  frnino  began  their 
mission. 

They  went  forth,  two  and  two,  to  the  poor  and  the  outcasts, 
living  from  day  to  day  in  the  midst  of  noisome  wretchedness, 
to  act  as  healers  and  preachers.  They  nursed  lepers,  nnnis- 

1  These  states  were  being  formed  by  warfare  against  the  Moors  in  Spain. 

2  The  best  brief  account  is  given  in  Jessopp's  Coming  of  the  Friars,  1 


§231]  FREDERICK   II  209 

tered  to  the  poor,  and,  with  short,  homely,  fervent  speech, 
preached  to  all  the  love  of  Christ  and  the  call  to  turn  from  sin. 
They  gave  themselves  utterly  to  serve  their  suffering  fellows. 
Money  they  would  not  touch.  Literally,  they  ^ere  barefooted 
beggars,  with  one  garment,  living  from  day  to  day  upon  chance 
alms.1 

They  were  not  monks.  The  monk  lived  in  a  quiet  cloister, 
and,  however  beneficial  his  services  were  to  the  world,  his  first 
care  was  for  his  own  soul.  The  friar  sought  instead  to  save 
the  souls  and  heal  the  bodies  of  others,  and  he  went  out  into 
the  world  wherever  he  could  find  most  suffering  and  sin. 

TJie  Dominicans  (1215)  grew  out  of  the  zeal  of  St.  Dominic 
to  convert  the  Albigenses  from  their  heresy.  Dominic  was  a 
powerful  and  fiery  preacher,  learned  in  all  the  theology  of  the 
age.  Thus,  while  the  Franciscans  in  origin  were  missionaries, 
to  lighten  the  sufferings  of  the  poor,  the  Dominicans  were 
preachers  to  the  more  intellectual  classes.  The  Franciscans 
(Grey  Friars)  were  the  gentler,  the  Dominicans  (Black  Friars) 
the  sterner,  in  character. 

The  "begging  friars"  spread  swiftly  over  all  Europe.  In 
1221,  only  six  years  after  the  founding  of  the  order,  Domini- 
cans reached  England,  passing  at  once  to  London  and  Oxford 
and  other  towns. 

231.  Frederick  II.  — The  death  of  Innocent,  in  1216,  left  the 
field  clear,  for  the  moment,  for  the  young  emperor,  Frederick 
II,  who  was  just  coming  to  manhood.  Frederick  II  has  been 
called  the  last  of  the  great  medieval  emperors  and  the  first  of  the 
great  modern  kings  —  "the  most  gifted  of  the  sons  of  men,  .  .  . 
a  wonderful  man  in  a  wonderful  age"  Unlike  his  grandfather, 
Barbarossa,  he  was  an  Italian  by  birth  and  nature.  In  person, 
he  was  slight,  bald,  nearsighted.  A  Mohammedan  historian 
wrote  that  as  a  slave  he  would  not  have  brought  a  hundred 
drachmas.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  patron  of  literature,  a 
founder  of  one  of  the  early  universities  (§  276).  and  himself 


1  Cf.  the  precept  of  Christ  to  his  disciples,  Matthew  x.  9,  10. 


210  THE    HOLY    ROMAN   EMPIRE  [§232 

a  scholar  and  an  author,  of  no  mean  ability,  in  prose  and  in  verse. 
He  wrote  charming  songs,  not  in  Latin,  but  in  the  new  Italian 
tongue  of  everyday  life,  and  was  truly  called  the  father  of 
Italian  poetry.  9  He  was  deeply  interested  in  the  science  of  the 
Arabs.  He  ridiculed  trial  by  ordeal  and  other  medieval  super- 
stitions, and  his  own  codes  of  law  were  far  in  advance  of  the 
barbarous  ideas  of  the  age.  He  was  a  modern,  rather  than  a 
medieval,  man,  —  a  many-sided  man,  warrior,  statesman,  law- 
giver, scholar,  poet. 

At  the  same  time,  in  his  private  life  he  was  immoral,  and 
sometimes  in  his  public  policy  cruel  and  unscrupulous.  With 
all  his  wonderful  genius,  he  gave  his  life's 
energies  to  buttressing  the  hopelessly  out- 
grown and  tottering  system  of  a  universal 
empire.  He  left  no  positive  result,  but 
was  only  "the  most  dazzling  of  a  long  line 
of  imperial  failures." 

232.  Frederick  and  the  Popes.  —  As  CHI- 
SEAL  OF  FREDERICK  II.  Peror>  Fre<ieri<*  was  master  of  North 
Italy  ;  and  as  king  of  Sicily,  he  was  mas- 
ter of  the  South.  Of  course  he  wished  to  join  the  two  parts 
of  his  realm.  The  chief  obstacle  to  his  complete  success  was 
the  existence  of  the  Papal  States,  stretching  across  Italy  from 
sea  to  sea.  The  popes  feared  lest  their  temporal  principality 
should  be  crushed  between  the  two  arms  of  the  Hohenstaufen 
power,  and  the  danger  made  them  Frederick's  relentless  foes. 
During  much  of  his  reign,  the  emperor  was  under  sentence 
of  excommunication  and  deposition.  On  one  occasion  during 
the  struggle,  when  the  papal  throne  became  vacant,  it  was 
filled  by  the  election  of  a  man  who  had  always  been  favor- 
able to  the  imperial  side.  But  Frederick  did  not  deceive 
himself  with  false  hopes.  When  he  was  congratulated,  he  re- 
plied, "  I  have  only  lost  a  friend ;  no  pope  can  be  a  Ghibel- 
line."  Innocent  IV,  the  new  pope,  proved,  indeed,  one  of 
the  most  formidable  opponents  any  emperor  had  encountered. 
Frederick  maintained  the  war  during  his  life,  but  towards 


§234]  STRIFE    WITH   THE   PAPACY  211 

the  close  with  lessening  chances  of  success.  He  spent  his  last 
years  like  a  lion  at  bay,  amid  the  fierce  onslaughts  of  open 
enemies  and  the  cruel  treacheries  of  trusted  friends ;  and  his 
death  (1250)  was  followed  by  quick  and  final  ruin  for  his  plans, 
and  by  the  extinction  of  his  family. 

The  death  of  Frederick's  son,  Conrad  IV  (1254),  ushered  in 
a  long  interregnum  for  the  Empire,  and  marked  the  separation  of 
Germany  from  Italy.  To  crush  another  of  Frederick's  sons, 
Manfred,  in  Sicily,  the  pope  called  in  Charles  of  Anjou,  brother 
of  Louis  IX  of  France,  and  gave  him  the  Sicilian  crown. 

233.  Results  to  Italy.  —  The  popes  had  won.     They  had  pre- 
served their  own  predominance  as  princes  in  central  Italy,  and 
they  had  excluded  the  Germans.     It  is  true  they  had  not  saved 
Italy  from  foreign  domination.     They  had  only  called  in  one 
foreigner  against  another,  l  and  as  a  result  of  their  policy,  Italy, 
for  centuries  to  come,  was  to  remain  disunited  and  to  be  the 
battle   ground   of   France,  Spain,  and   Germany.      They  had 
assisted  the  rising  Italian  towns,  however,  in  the  revolt  against 
despotism,  and  so  had  helped  to  prepare  for  the  rich  civic  life 
of  northern  Italy  in  the  next  two  centuries. 

234.  Results  to  the  Empire  and  to  Germany.  —  The  emperors 
had  failed    utterly.     Two    hundred    years    later,    an    English 
chronicler  wrote  of  the  period  following  the  death  of  Frederick 
II,   "  TJie  Empire   in   a  manner  ceased  here."     Certainly   its 
character  changed  radically :  (1)  Italy  was  lost,  as  France  had 
been  four  centuries  earlier ;  and  (2)  even  in  theory  the  union 
between  the  spiritual  and  temporal  headships  of  Christendom 
was  dissolved.     The  Empire  really  was  no  longer  either  "  Holy  " 
or  "  Roman  "  :  it  remained  only  "  German." 

From  the  thirteenth  century  the  Empire  is  often  spoken  of  as  the 
"German  Empire."  The  term  is  good  as  a  description, — just  as  we 
speak  of  the  "Greek  Empire"  at  Constantinople,  —  but  it  is  not  a 
proper  title  in  a  strict  sense.  The  only  empire  in  history  with  the  title 

JThe  calling  in  of  the  Angevins  (house  of  Anjou)  against  the  Hohen- 
staufen  will  remind  the  student  of  the  calling  in  of  the  Franks  five  centuries 
before  against  the  Lombards. 


212  THE    HOLY   ROMAN   EMPIRE  [§234 

"German  Empire,"  is  the  one  created  by  Bismarck  and  King  William 
in  1871. 

In  Germany  also  there  was  a  striking  change.  The  idea  that 
had  made  the  soul  of  the  Empire  was  gone;  but  so,  too,  was 
the  physical  body  of  it,  the  German  kingdom.  The  title 
King  of  Germany  had  long  since  disappeared  in  the  scramble 
for  the  higher  dignity  of  the  imperial  title.1  As  Freeman  puts 
it,  the  kingly  crown  of  Germany  had  been  "crushed  beneath 
the  loftier  imperial  diadem."  Or  as  another  English  historian 
says  (Mr.  Bryce),  "The  kingdom  of  Germany  broke  down 
beneath  the  weight  of  the  Roman  Empire." 

For  twenty  years  after  the  last  Hohenstaufen  (1251  1273  . 
there  was  no  emperor  in  Germany,2  and  no  king.  These  years 
were  the  "Great  Interregnum,"  the  period  of  "/'/*/-/•//'•.' 
During  this  time  there  was  no  pretense  of  central  government. 
The  old  kingdom  had  dissolved  into  a  mass  of  petty  fragments, 
some  three  hundred  in  number,  —  free  cities,  duchies,  marks, 
counties,  —  each  virtually  an  independent  monarchy  or  city- 
republic.  The  chance  to  make  a  German  nation  was  postponed 
six  hundred  years.  In  1273  the  name  of  Emperor  was  revived 
by  the  election  of  Count  Ii>nl,>lt>Jt  of  Hapsburg  :  but  little 
more  than  the  name  remained  (§§  315  ff.). 

REVIEW   EXERCISES 

1.    Fact  drills  (cf.  Ancient  World,  162,  295,  for  suggestions). 

a.   Dates  :  843,  962,  987,  1066;    (class  fill  in  the  events).     1076-1254 
(struggle  between  empire  and  papacy),    1122    (Concordat  of 

1  The  German  nobles,  in  the  many  elections  that  have  been  referred  to,  as 
in  §  L»15,  chose  a  "  King  of  the  Germans."    But  the  successful  candidate  valued 
the  election  chiefly  as  a  step  toward  the  higher  dignity,  Emperor  of  the 
Romans.    So,  before  1200,  men  ceased  to  choose  a  "  King  of  the  Germans"  at 
Aachen,  and  named  instead  a  "King  of  the  Romans,"  — a  title  that  more 
directly  suggested  the  higher  office  to  follow. 

2  Two  emperors  were  elected  during  this  period,  — a  Spaniard  and  an  Eng- 
lishman (the  brother  of  Henry  III),  —  but  neither  of  them  actually  appeared 
in  Germany  to  enter  upon  the  government. 


§234]  THE    "FIST-LAW"    ERA  ^13 

Worms,  which  divides  struggle  of  Empire  and  papacy  into  two 
chapters),  1176  (Legnano),  1215,  1265,  1295. 

b.  Fix  other  events  in  connection  with  the  dates  given  above  ;  such 

as  Lechfeld,    Lombard    League,    Peace   of   Constance,    French 
Estates  General. 

c.  Extend  list  of  terms  for  brief  explanation :   Hugh  Capet,  Guelf, 

Canossa,  mark  states,  etc. 

2.  Review  questions  by  the  class.  For  example  :  give  the  two  divisions 
of  the  struggle  between  empire  and  papacy  ;  characterize  each ;  and 
name  leaders  and  chief  events  of  each. 

4.  Catch- word  reviews  (cf.  Ancient  World,  183). 

a.  Germany  from  Charles  the  Fat  to  962. 

b.  The  Holy  Roman  Empire,  to  1273. 

5.  Map  review.     Compare  the  maps  on  the  Empire  (including  the  one 
on  the  Partition  of  Verdun)  for  varying  boundaries  and  for  increase 
in  number  of  political  divisions. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. — Bryce's  Holy  Homan  Empire  and  Tout's 
Empire  and  Papacy  are  the  two  best  one-volume  accounts  of  this  subject. 
Bright  students  may  be  encouraged  to  read  in  one  or  the  other  of  them, 
and  to  bring  to  the  class  contributions  from  such  reading.  Henderson's 
Short  History  of  Germany  is  excellent.  The  best  biographies  on  the 
period  are  Sabatier's  St.  Francis  (rather  long),  Morison's  Life  and  Times 
of  St.  Bernard,  and  Vincent's  Age  of  Hildebrand.  Ogg's  Source  Book 
has  some  good  material.  For  required  class  reading,  the  medieval  em- 
pire is  not  a  good  topic. 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE  CRUSADES,   1100-1300 
I.    CAUSES  AND  CONDITIONS 

235.  In  the  last  three  chapters,  we  have  followed  the  separate  develop- 
ment of  the  leading  countries  of  Europe  for  some  four  centuries,  to  about 
the  year  1300,  —  pretty  well  through  the  active  age  of  feudalism.     During 
the  last  half  of  these  four  centuries,  or. from  1100  to  1300,  all  Europe  had 
been  pr<>  fniuitll;/  inh-rcsted  in  a  religious  and  military  movement  to  >•• 

the  Holy  Land  from  the  Mohammedans.  This  mmmnH  movement  of  the 
various  countries  —  the  crusades  — is  the  subject  of  the  present  chapter. 
First  we  need  to  note  the  conditions  in  the  Oriental  world  when  the 
crusades  began. 

236.  The    Mohammedans   (§§  58-67)    still    ruled   from    the 
Pyrenees  to  the  Gauges.     This   wide  dominion,  it  was  true, 
was  now  broken  up  into  many  states,  but  the  civilization  of  the 
Saracens  had  not  yet  begun  to  decline.     They  had  utilized  the 
old  culture  of  Persia  and  of  Greece.     Their  governments  were 
as  good  as  the  Oriental  world  had  ever  known.     Their  roads 
and  canals  encouraged  commerce  and  bound  together  distant 
regions.     Their  magnificent  cities  were  built  with  a  peculiar 
and  beautiful  architecture,  characterized  by  the  horseshoe  arch, 
the  dome,  the  turret,  the  graceful  minaret,  and  a  rich  ornament 
of  "  arabesque."  l     Their  manufactures  were  the  finest  in  the 
world,  both  for  beautiful  design  and  for  delicate  workmanship. 
Their  glass  and  pottery  and  metal  work,  their  dyestuffs,  their 
paper,  their  cloth  manufactures,  their  preparations  of  leather, 
all  represented  industries  almost  or  wholly  unknown  to  the 
West.     We  still  speak  of  "Toledo"  blades,  and  "Morocco" 
leather,  while  "muslins"  and  "damasks"  recall  their  superior 

i  Note  the  illustrations  on  pages  60,  215,  218. 
214 


I II 


111 


I  si 


236] 


THE   EASTERN   WORLD 


215 


manufacturing  processes  at  Mosul  and  Damascus.  Their  agri- 
culture was  scientific,  with  the  use  of  irrigation  and  fertilizers  ; 
and  by  grafting  they  had  produced  many  new  varieties  of  fruit 
and  flowers  which  adorned  the  lovely  gardens  in  which  they 


THE  COURT  OF  LIONS,  ALHAMBRA. 

especially  delighted.     Europe  owed  to  them  its  first  knowledge 
of  oranges,  lemons,  rice,  sugar  cane,  and  asparagus. 

In  intellectual  lines  their  superiority  was  no  less  marked. 
While  Europe  had  only  a  few  monastic  schools  to  light  its 
"  Dark  Ages,"  the  Arabs  had  great  universities,  with  libraries 
containing  hundreds  of  thousands  of  manuscripts.  In  Persia 
and  in  Spain  they  had  created  a  noble  literature,  both  prose 
and  poetry.  Philosophy,  theology,  law,  rhetoric,  were  subjects 
for  special  study.  Much  progress  had  been  made  in  astronomy. 
The  heavens  still  keep  proof  of  their  studies  in  its  thick 
sprinkling  of  Arabic  names,  like  Aldebaran,  while  many  terms 
in  our  texts  on  astronomy  (azimuth,  zenith,  nadir)  bear  like 


216 


THE   CRUSADES 


testimony.  From  India  they  brought  the  "  Arabic  "  notation, 
while  Europe  was  still  struggling  with  clumsy  Roman  numer- 
als. Algebra  and  alchemy  (chemistry)  are  Arabic  in  origin 
as  in  name,  and  spherical  trigonometry 
was  their  creation.  And  while  Europe 
still  treated  disease  from  the  viewpoint  of 
an  Indian  "  Medicine  Man,"  the  Saracens 
had  established,  on  Greek  foundations,  a 
real  science  of  medicine. 

237.  The  Byzantine  Empire.  —  Midway 
in  character,  as  in  geography,  between 
Latin  Europe  and  Mohammedan  Asia,  lav 
the  Greek  Empire,  living  on  for  centuries 
a  quiet,  orderly  life.  In  material  pros- 
perity it  was  unexcelled  anywhere  in  the 
world,  and  in  intellectual  activity  it  was 
surpassed  only  by  the  Saracens.  Freeman, 
the  English  historian,  spoke  of  it  as :  — 


A  MOORISH  VASE. 


"a  government  which  with  all  its  faults,  for  many  centuries  discharged 
its  functions  better  than  any  contemporary  government  in  the  \mrhl.  .  .  . 
Wisr  legislators,  able  administrators,  valiant  generals,  profound  scholars, 
acute  theologians,  were  the  natural  product  of  the  soil,  century  after 
century."  l 

The  Empire  was  a  civilized  state,  standing  on  the  defensive 
against  barbarian  attack,  and  waging  its  wars  mainly  with 
Norse  mercenaries.  The  emperors  were  often  devoted 
scholars  and  able  authors,  as  well  as  great  rulers.  Constanti- 
nople in  magnificence  and  extent  and  comfort  was  uuapproached 
by  the  rude  towns  of  France  and  Germany ;  and  its  wealth, 
splendor,  and  comforts,  —  its  paved  and  lighted  streets,  its 
schools  and  theaters,  its  orderly  police  system,  its  hospitals 
and  parks, —  were  all  amazing  to  the  few  visitors  from  the 
West.  Such  little  trade  as  Western  Europe  possessed  was 


1  There  are  good  statements  in  Tout's  Empire  and  Papacy,  151,  Io2:  for 
detail,  see  152-175.    Students  may  consult  also  Oman's  Byzantine  Empire. 


!!H 

Is  IN 


21T 


218 


THE   CRUSADES 


[§  238 


mainly  in  Greek  hands  ;  and  the  "  Byzant,"  the  coin  of  Con- 
stantinople, was  the  standard  of  coinage  over  Europe. 

During  most  of  its  history,  the  Empire  comprised  the 
greater  part  of  Asia  Minor,  many  islands,  and  at  least  the 
coast  regions  of  the  Balkan  peninsula  in  Europe.  The  inland 


"\\i\now  OF  THE  FAVORITE"  IN  THK  PALACK  OF  ALHAMBRA. 

parts  of  that  peninsula  were  divided  between  two  Slav  peoples, 
the  Servians  and  the  Bulgarians,  who,  like  the  Russians,  had 
drawn  their  Christianity  and  civilization  from  Constantinople. 
238.  In  the  eleventh  century,  the  <-/v//o//,Vm  of  the  Saracens 
received  a  fatal  blow,  and  the  existence  of  tin-  (,'wk  Empire 
was  endangered.  Political  supremacy  in  the  Mohammedan  world 
fell  to  the  Turks,  a  new  Tartar  people  from  beyond  the  Jax- 
artes.  The  Turks  were  to  play  somewhat  the  same  part  in 
the  Saracenic  world  that  the  Teutons  had  played  in  the  old 
Eoman  world,  —  with  this  tremendous  difference,  that  even 
to  the  present  day  they  have  not  assimilated  civilization.  The 
Arab  culture  survived  long  enough  to  be  transplanted  into 


§240]  THE   EASTERN    WORLD  219 

Europe   during   the   crusades,   but   in   its   own   home  it  was 
doomed  thereafter  to  swift  decay. 

The  Turks  were  at  least  mighty  soldiers,  and  they  began  a 
new  era  of  Mohammedan  conquest.  Almost  at  once  the  greater 
part  of  the  Greek  Empire  fell  into  their  hands.  They  overran 
Asia  Minor,  and  established  a  number  of  principalities  there. 
One  of  them,  called  the  Empire  of  "  Bourn  "  (Rome),  placed  its 
capital  at  Nicea,  only  seventy  miles  from  Constantinople.  In 
terror,  the '  Greek  emperor  turned  to  Western  Christendom 
for  aid;  and  his  appeal  was  the  signal  for  two  centuries  of 
war,  Cross  against  Crescent. 

239-  The  crusades  were  one  more  chapter  in  the  age-long  struggle 
between  East  and  West,  in  which  Marathon  and  Tours  had  been  earlier 
episodes.  And  the  appearance  of  the  Turks  had  given  a  new  aspect  to  the 
strife.  It  was  no  longer  a  conflict  between  two  types  of  civilization  — 
as  the  wars  between  Greek  and  Persian  had  been.  It  was  a  conflict 
between  the  only  possible  civilization l  and  a  brutal  barbarism. 

240.  The  Abuse  of  Pilgrims  by  the  Turks.  —  The  Greek  call 
for  aid  against  the  infidel  would  have  produced  little  effect 
if  Western  Europe  had  not  had  deep  grievances  of  its  own 
against  the  Turk.  TJie  crusades  icere  a  new  form  of  pilgrimage 
to  the  Holy  Land,  and  the  only  kind  any  longer  possible. 

Pilgrimages  to  holy  shrines  (§  148)  were  a  leading  feature  of 
medieval  life.2  Good  men  made  them  to  satisfy  religious  enthu- 
siasm ;  evil  men,  to  secure  forgiveness  for  crime ;  sick  men, 
to  heal  bodily  ills.  A  pilgrimage  was  an  act  of  worship.  Chief 
of  all  pilgrimages,  of  course,  was  that  to  the  land  where  Christ 
had  lived  and  to  the  tomb  where  His  body  had  been  laid.  In 
particular,  after  the  religious  revival  early  in  the  eleventh 
century  (§  212),  a  steady  stream  of  pilgrims  from  Europe 
visited  Palestine,  sometimes  in  bands  of  hundreds.  In  1064 

1  In  1100  Western  Europe  was  excelled  in  civilization  by  some  of  the  lands 
which  had  just  fallen  to  the  Turk ;  but  there  was  no  longer  any  hope  from 
those  lands,  —  nor  from  Eastern  Europe,  about  to  fall. 

2  Read  Jusserand's  English  Wayfaring  Life,  338-403,  if  accessible,  on  pil- 
grimages.   And  see  also  Robinson's  Readings  I,  312-340, 


220 


THE   CRUSADES 


[§241 


the  Archbishop  of  Mainz  led  one  company  of  seven  thousand 
to  the  Holy  Land.  Only  two  thousand  of  this  expedition  ever 
found  their  way  home  again,  —  a  fact  that  shows  how  danger- 
ous these  long  pilgrimages  were  in  that  day,  even  before  the 
Turks  added  to  the  peril. 

The  Saracens  had  permitted  Christian  pilgrimages,  and  even 
encouraged  them,  as  a  means  of  revenue.  But  in  1076  the 
Turks  captured  Jerusalem  from  the  Arabs,  and  at  once  began 
to  persecute  all  Christians  there.  Tales  of  suffering  and  of 
wrongs  filled  Europe  with  shame  and  wrath,  and  prepared 
Latin  Christendom  to  respond  to  the  Greek 
emperor's  appeal  for  aid.  Each  crusader 
marched  to  avenge  pilgrims  and  at  the 
same  time  to  make  a  pilgrimage  himself. 
He  was  "  an  armed  pilgrim  "  to  the  holiest 
of  shrines. 

241.    "  God  Wills  It."  —  The  messengers 
from  Constantinople  came  to  Pope  Urban, 
as   the    head   of    Christendom,    in    1095. 
Urban  at  once  assumed  the  leadership,  and 
at  a  great  gathering  of  French  nobles  at 
Clermont    preached   a   war   of    the   Cross 
against  the  infidel.    His  eloquence 1  thrilled 
the  multitude  to  a  frenzy  of  enthusiasm, 
and  they  caught  up  his  cry,  "  God  wills  it ! 
God  wills  it !  "     A  great  expedition  was  ar- 
ranged for  the  following  spring,  and  all  over  Europe  men  were 
called  upon  to  "  take  the   cross " ;    that    is,  to  pledge  them- 
selves to  the  expedition  by  fastening  a  red  cross  on  the  breast. 
This  gave  us  the  name  for  the  movement.     These  warriors  of 
the  cross  (cross-bearers)  are  called  crusaders ;  and  the  move- 
ment,   the    crusades.     The   political   motive,    to    relieve    the 
Greek    Empire,   sank    almost    out   of    mind.     The   crusaders 
seemed  to  think  only  of  recovering  the  Holy  Sepulcher. 


A  CRUSADER.  —  From 
a  thirteenth  century 
manuscript  now  in 
the  British  Museum. 


1  See  Pennsylvania  Reprints,  I,  No.  2;  or  Ogg's  Source  Book,  No.  51. 


§  243]  CAUSES  221 

242.  There  were,  however,  other  motives,  less  noble,  and  less 
prominent  in  records.  Multitudes  of  nobles  were  influenced 
largely  by  greedy  hopes  of  winning  new  principalities  in  Asia. 
Indeed,  the  Greek  emperor,  in  his  letters  to  Western  leaders, 
laid  chief  emphasis  on  this  inducement,  and  even  Pope  Urban 
did  not  neglect  it  at  Clermont.  "  Wrest  the  land  from  that 
wicked  race,"  said  he,  "  and  possess  it  for  yourselves." 

France,  in  particular,  felt  this  motive,  because  her  population  had 
been  growing  rapidly.  She  had  just  sent  the  Normans  into  England  and 
Italy.  In  like  manner  she  now  poured  her  swarming  military  popula- 
tion into  the  East.  The  crusading  armies  were  so  dominEtntly  French 
that  the  Greeks  and  Mohammedans  came  to  use  the  name  "  Frank"  for 
any  inhabitant  of  Western  Europe. 

Many  men,  too,  were  moved  in  great  measure  by  military 
ardor  and  by  the  mere  spirit  of  adventure,  —  the  desire  to  see 
the  world ;  while  others  found  in  the  crusades  a  chance  to 
escape  punishment  for  crime.  Urban  dwelt  upon  this  induce- 
ment also,  and  urged  those  "who  have  been  robbers"  to 
"  become  soldiers  of  Christ."  From  the  moment  a  man  took 
the  cross,  the  church  promised  him  forgiveness  for  all  past 
sins,  and  forbade  all  attacks,  even  by  the  law,  upon  his  per- 
son or  his  property.1 

None  the  less,  the  real  cause  of  the  crusades  was  religious 
zeal.  The  war  was  truly  a  "  War  of  the  Cross."  These 
grosser  motives  only  helped  to  rally  recruits  about  a  banner 
which  a  high  enthusiasm  had  set  up. 

II.    THE    STORY 

243.  The  crusades  opened  with  a  pathetic  movement  which 
shows  the  enthusiasm  and  the  credulity  of  the  age.2  Hordes 
of  peasantry,  impatient  of  delay,  without  waiting  for  the  army 
of  nobles,  set  off  to  rescue  the  Holy  Land,  under  a  preaching 
monk  and  a  beggar  knight,  Peter  the  Hermit  and  Walter  the 

1  For  curious  illustrations  of  these  points,  see  Pennsylvania  Reprints,  I,  2. 

2  Special  report,  to  show  a  like  lesson :  the  Children's  crusade,  if  Gray's 
volume,  The  Children's  Crusade,  is  accessible. 


222  THE   CRUSADES  [§  244 

Penniless.  These  multitudes  —  ignorant,  unorganized,  almost 
unarmed  —  expected  divine  aid.  Most  of  them  perished  mis- 
erably in  the  terrible  journey  through  the  Danube  valley,  by 
starvation  and  disease,  and  by  the  attacks  of  the  Christian  na- 
tives whose  lands  they  were  pillaging  for  food.  The  remnants, 
as  soon  as  they  reached  Asia,  were  annihilated  by  the  Turks. 

244.  The  First  Crusade.  —  In  the  spring  of  1096  swarms  of 
the  real  crusaders  began  to  make  their  way  through  Europe  to 

Constantinople,  the  appointed  place 
of  meeting.  There  they  gathered, 
some  three  hundred  thousand  strong, 
according  to  the  chroniclers,  —  one 
hundred  thousand  of  them  mailed 
horsemen,  —  the  most  formidable 
army  Europe  has  ever  sent  against 
Asia.  The  Greek  emperor,  fearful 
lest  these  fierce  allies  mijjht  turn 
upon  his  own  realm,  hastened  their 
departure  into  Asia,  There  they 

CRU8AI>KK8   OX   THE    M.VHCH.         endured  terrible  suffpriMj,'    all(1   losg> 

in  march,  skirmish,  battle,  and  siege.  The  leaders  quarreled 
savagely  among  themselves ;  but  fortunately,  the  Mohamme- 
dans at  this  time  were  even  more  broken  up  into  hostile  camps. 
In  July,  1099,  the  Christians  stormed  Jerusalem,  amid  hid- 
eous butchery  and  wild  transports  of  religious  enthusiasm. 

245.  Some  letters  from  the  crusaders  give  curious  and  inter- 
esting side  lights  on  their  motives  and  feelings.     One  of  the 
leaders  was    Stephen,   Count   of   Blois,   who   had   married   a 
daughter  of  William  the  Conqueror  and  was  the  father  of  the 
young  prince  afterward  known  as  King  Stephen  of  England 
(§  166).     In  1098,  from  before  Antioch,  Stephen    sent   to  his 
"  sweetest  and  most  amiable  wife,"  the  following  letter :  — 

"  You  may  be  sure,  dearest,  that  my  messenger  leaves  me  before 
Antioch  safe  and  unharmed,  through  God's  grace.  .  .  .  We  have  been 
advancing  continuously  for  twenty-three  weeks  toward  the  home  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  [since  leaving  Constantinople].  You  may  know  for  certain, 


§245] 


LETTERS    HOME 


223 


my  beloved,  that  I  have  now  twice  as  much  of  gold  and  silver  and  of 
many  other  kinds  of  riches  as  when  I  left  you.  .  .  .  You  must  have 
heard  that,  after  the  capture  of  Nicea,  we  fought  a  great  battle  with  the 
perfidious  Turks,  and  by  God's  aid,  conquered  them.  .  .  .  Thence,  con- 
tinually pursuing  the  wicked  Turks,  we  drove  them  as  far  as  the  great 
river  Euphrates.  .  .  .  The  bolder  of  them  hastened  by  forced  marches, 
night  and  day,  in  order  to  be  able  to  enter  the  royal  city  of  Antioch 
before  our  approach.  The 
whole  army  of  God,  learning 
this,  gave  due  praise  and 
thanks  to  the  omnipotent 
Lord.  Hastening  with  great 
joy  to  Antioch,  we  besieged 
it,  and  very  often  had  many 
conflicts  with  the  Turks,  and 
seven  times  with  the  citizens 
of  Antioch,  and  with  the  in- 
numerable troops  coming  to 
its  aid.  In  all  these  seven 
battles,  by  the  aid  of  the  Lord 
God,  we  conquered,  and  most 
assuredly  killed  a  vast  host  of 
them.  Many  of  our  brethren 
and  followers  were  killed  also, 
and  their  souls  were  borne  to 
the  joys  of  Paradise. 

"By  God's  grace  we  here 
endured  many  sufferings  and 
countless  evils  up  to  the  pres- 
ent time.  Many  have  already 


CHURCH  OF  THE  HOLY  SEPULCHER  AT 
JERUSALEM,  present  condition.  This 
church  was  built  by  Constantine  about 
the  year  325  and  was  restored  by  the 
Crusaders  in  1099.  It  is  supposed  to  con- 
tain the  place  of  the  burial  of  Christ. 


exhausted  all  their  resources 
in  this  very  holy  passion. 
Before  the  city  of  Antioch, 
throughout  the  whole  winter,  we  suffered  for  our  Lord  Christ  from  exces- 
sive cold  and  from  enormous  torrents  of  rain.  What  some  say  about  the 
impossibility  of  bearing  the  heat  of  the  sun  throughout  Syria  is  untrue, 
for  the  winter  there  is  very  like  our  winter  in  the  West. 

"  When  the  ernir  of  Antioch  —  that  is,  its  prince  and  lord  —  perceived 
that  he  was  hard  pressed  by  us,  he  sent  his  son  to  the  prince  who  holds 
Jerusalem,  and  to  the  prince  of  Damascus,  and  to  three  other  princes. 
These  five  emirs,  with  12,000  picked  Turkish  horsemen,  suddenly  came 
to  aid  the  inhabitants  of  Antioch.  We,  ignorant  of  all  this,  had  sent 


224  THE   CRUSADES  [§  246 

many  of  our  soldiers  away  to  the  cities  and  fortresses  ;  for  there  are  1(55 
cities  and  fortresses  throughout  Syria  which  are  in  our  power.  But  a 
little  before  they  reached  the  city,  we  attacked  them  at  three  leagues' 
distance  with  700  soldiers.  God  fought  for  us,  His  faithful.  On  that 
day  we  conquered  them  and  killed  an  innumerable  multitude ;  and  we 
carried  back  to  the  army  more  than  two  hundred  of  their  heads,  in  order, 
that  the  people  might  rejoice  on  that  account. 

"These  which  I  write  you  are  only  a  few  things,  dearest,  of  the  many 
which  we  have  done.  And  because  I  am  not  able  to  tell  you,  dean -st, 
what  is  in  my  mind,  I  charge  you  to  do  right,  to  watch  over  your  land 
carefully,  to  do  your  duty  as  you  ought  to  your  children  and  your 
vassals.  ..." 

246.  The  Latin  States  in    Syria. — Two  important  polit ''•••!/ 
results  were  accomplished.     (1)  The  Greek  Empire  recovered 
much  of  Asia  Minor.     (2)   The  greater  nobles  among  the  «•/•»- 
saders  divided  the  conquered  Syrian  districts  among  thi'mxelrctt 
and  set  up  there  four  "  Latin  states,"  of  which  the  chief  was  the 
"  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem."     The  crusaders  knew  of  no  system 
of  government  except  feudalism,  and  so  each  ruler  divided  his 
realm  in  feudal  fashion  among  his  retainers.     On  the  soil  of 
Asia,  a  complete  feudal  society  sprang  up,  to  continue  the  war 
against  the  Crescent. 

247.  Fighting  Monks.  —  These  Latin  states  found  the  core 
of  their  fighting  force  in  a  new  institution,  which  combined 
the  two  opposite  ideals  of  the  age,  —  that  of  the  monk  and 
that  of  the  knight.     Three  orders  of  figlitiuy  ///'>///,  x  l  arose. 

The  Knights  of  St.  John,  or  of  the  Hospital,  grew  out  of  an 
organization  to  care  for  the  sick  and  wounded.  Soon  the 
nurses  became  themselves  warriors  and  knights.  They  took 
the  monk's  threefold  vow  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience, 
and  added  a  fourth,  binding  themselves  to  perpetual  warfare 
against  the  infidel.  The  Templars  arose  in  like  manner  out  of 
a  society  to  succor  distressed  pilgrims,  and  the  name  came 

1  Monasticism  was  so  vital  a  part  of  medieval  life  that  it  gave  birth  to  new 
forms  to  meet  new  needs.  To  meet  the  needs  of  the  new  towns,  there  urc\\ 
up  the  Friar  movement  (§230),  —  a  development  of  missionary  monk*: 
and  the  .crusades  produced  these  orders  ot  fighting  monks. 


§247] 


"FIGHTING   MONKS 


225 


OF         ATABEKS 

(Mohammedan  s) 


F  A  TIM  IT  E 


0  A  t  I  P  II  A  T  E 

.L.  POATE8,  EN6R  ,N.Y. 


Montreal  /       THE  CRUSADING  LATIN  STATES 


IN  SYRIA 

DURING  THE 

TWELFTH  CENTURY 

(AT  THEIR  GREATEST  SXTKNT) 


22G 


THE   CRUSADES 


[§248 


from  the  fact  that  the  eight  or  nine  knights  who  originally 
composed  the  organization  dwelt  in  a  house  near  Solomon's 
Temple.  The  Teutonic  Order  grew  out  of  the  hospitality  of  a 

German  merchant  toward 
his  needy  countrymen  in 
Jerusalem. 

248.  The  crusades  were 
a  continuous  movement. 
From  about  1100  to  about 
1300  there  was  constant 
righting  between  Christian 
and  Mohammedan  in  the 
Fast,  and  during  all  this 
time  bands  of  nobles  from 
various  quarters  kept  go- 
\\\^  off  to  join  the  war. 
I  hiring  the  four  years  of 
the  "  First  Crusade  "  the 
chroniclers  estimated  that 
the  original  army  of 
300,000  received  reinforce- 
ments  amounting  in  all  to 
over  a  million  men. 

No  doubt  these  figures 
were  exaggerations.  But 
the  fact  remains  that  Europe,  which  in  the  ninth  century  had 
been  so  defenseless  against  plundering  bands  of  Norse  or 
Saracens,  had  now  grown  strong  enough  to  pour  a  ceaseless 
stream  of  mailed  knights  into  Asia  for  two  hundred  years. 

At  eight  particular  times  there  were  especially  important 
movements  of  mighty  armies  into  Asia.  These  expeditions 
are  known  as  the  eight  crusades.  But  this  numbering  of  a 
few  great  expeditions  must  not  make  us  forget  the  continuous 
character  of  the  movement  as  a  whole. 

249.  The  Second  and  Third  Crusades.  —  For  nearly  fifty  years 
the  new  Latin  states,  reinforced  by  the  annual  streams  of 


KIKK.IIS  <>K  KM<;HTS  TKMI'I.AI:.  from 
funeral  slabs  in  the  Temple  Church, 
London.  The  crossing  of  the  legs  in  a 
funeral  sculpture  indicated  a  crusader. 


§  250]  LATIN   EMPIRE   IN   THE   EAST  227 

pilgrim-crusaders,  kept  the  Mohammedan  from  the  Holy  Land. 
Finally,  however,  the  enemy  began  to  gain  ground  again,  and 
in  1147  Europe  was  alarmed  by  the  fall  of  Edessa,  the  fore- 
most outpost  of  the  Christian  power  in  Syria.  St.  Bernard,  a 
famous  French  abbot  (§  278),  at  once  preached  another  great 
crusade.  The  Emperor  Conrad  III  and  King  Louis  VII  of 
France  were  persuaded  to  lead  the  expedition.  This  Second 
Crusade  failed  miserably,  from  bad  generalship  and  igno- 
rance ;  but  the  crusaders  left  by  it  in  Palestine  enabled  the 
Christian  states  there  to  make  head,  for  a  time,  against  the 
enemy. 

Forty  years  later,  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Saladin l 
called  Europe  again  to  arms.  The  Christian  states  in  Pales- 
tine had  been  reduced  to  a  mere  strip  of  coast ;  but  now  the 
great  sovereigns  of  Western  Europe  —  Frederick  Barbarossa  of 
Germany,  Philip  II  of  France,  and  Richard  of  England  — 
united  in  a  mighty  effort  for  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Land. 
This  Third  Crusade  is  the  best  known  and  the  most  romantic 
of  the  whole  series ;  but  it  failed,  because  of  the  death  of 
Barbarossa  (§  227)  and  the  jealousies  between  the  French  and 
English  kings. 

250.  The  Latin  Empire  at  Constantinople.  —  The  true  crusad- 
ing era  closed  with  the  Third  Crusade.  The  failure  of  that 
movement,  it  is  true,  at  once  called  forth  another  effort,  but 
the  Fourth  Crusade  was  diverted  from  its  purpose  into  a  commer- 
cial war  upon  a  Christian  state.  Venice  furnished  the  ships  for 
the  expedition;  and  her  rulers,  jealous  of  Constantinople's 
monopoly  of  the  eastern  trade,  persuaded  the  crusaders  to 
attack  the  Greek  Empire. 

For  a  time  that  venerable  empire  disappeared,  and  the 
crusaders  shared  the  booty  among  themselves.  Venice  took 
half  the  old  imperial  territory,  mostly  islands  and  coast 
regions.  Various  petty  fragments  were  made  into  Fraiikish 


1  Special   report:   character  and   work  of  Saladin.    Lane-Poole's  Saladin 
is  a  readable  account. 


228 


THE    CRUSADES 


[$261 


principalities,  like  the  "Duchy  of  Athens."1     And  a  u 
Empire  "  was  set  up  at  Constantinople  (1204)- 

Long  wars  followed  between  this  Frank,  or  "  Latin,"  state 
and  the  remnants  of  the  Greek  power.  This,  of  course,  still 
called  itself  "Roman,"  —  so  that  we  read  for  a  time  of  the 
wars  of  the  "  Latins  "  against  the  "  Romans."  Fifty  years 
later,  in  1261,  the  Greek  Empire  at  Constantinople  was 


Latin  Empire  and  its  dependencies 

latin'States  in  Syria  I 

restored.  It  was  to  endure  two  centuries  more,  but  it  never 
recovered  its  former  vigor.  The  Fourth  Crusade,  in  its  greedy 
attack  upon  this  ancient  champion  of  Christendom  in  the  East, 
was  a  crime  against  the  cause  of  the  crusades. 

251.  The  later  crusades  are  of  minor  consequence.  Their 
military  operations  were  carried  on  largely  in  Egypt,  which 
had  become  a  chief  center  of  Mohammedan  power.  After 

lit  was  the  brilliant  court  of  these  medieval  "Dukes  of  Athens"  that 
Chaucer  and  Shakspere  had  in  mind  in  their  references  to  ancient  Athenian 
history.'  Cf.  "Duke  Theseus,"  in  a  A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream. 


§  252]  GENGHIS    KHAN  229 

a  terrible  loss  of  life  in  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  Crusades,  the 
Emperor  Frederick  II  recovered  Jerusalem  by  peaceful  nego- 
tiation (1230),  but  it  was  soon  lost  again  to  the  Turks.  Then, 
in  1249,  Louis  IX  of  France  organized  the  Seventh  Crusade. 
This  attempt  came  to  nothing;  and  the  crusading  spirit 
expired  with  another  expedition,  twenty  years  later,  in  which 
Louis  died  at  Tunis. 

Before  1300,  the  last  territory  of  the  Latins  in  Syria  had 
fallen  finally  to  the  Turks,  and  thereafter  men  who  still 
wished  to  fight  for  the  Cross  went  to  aid  the  Christian  princes 
in  Spain  against  the  Moors,  or  warred  against  the  heathen  on 
the  northeast  of  Europe.  The  Teutonic  Order  took  up  the  con- 
quest and  settlement  of  heathen  Prussia,  so  laying  the  foun- 
dation for  the  greatness  of  a  future  German  state  (map  after  page 
248).  The  Knights  of  St.  John  withdrew  to  Rhodes,  where  in 
constant  warfare,  for  two  hundred  years  more,  they  formed 
the  outpost  of  Christendom  against  Mohammedanism. 

252.  The  Tartar  Invasions.  —  Toward  the  close  of  the  crusading  age, 
Europe  was  threatened  for  a  time  by  a  greater  peril  than  the  Turks. 
About  1200,  a  great  military  leader  appeared  among  the  heathen  Tartars 
of  Asia.  Taking  the  title  Genghis  Khan  (Lord  of  Lords)  he  organized 
the  scattered  nomad  tribes  into  a  terrible  fighting  machine,  and  set  out  to 
conquer  the  world.  The  ancient  Scythian  and  Hunnish  invasions  were 
repeated  upon  a  larger  scale  and  with  greater  horrors.  Genghis  turned 
fertile  countries  into  deserts  and  populous  districts  into  tombs,  marked  by 
enormous  pyramids  of  blackened  corpses. 

He  conquered  China,  northern  India,  and  Persia,  while  his  son  in- 
vaded Europe.  In  1223  the  rising  Christian  state  of  Russia  was  crushed, 
and  the  Mongol  empire  reached  from  Peking  and  the  Indus  to  Crimea 
and  the  Dnieper. 

The  death  of  the  Great  Khan  (1227)  recalled  his  son  to  Asia,  but,  ten 
years  later,  the  assault  on  Europe  was  renewed.  Moscow  was  burned, 
and  northern  Russia  became  a  tributary  province  ;  Poland  and  Hungary 
were  ravaged  and  conquered.  Half  of  Europe  became  Tartar,  and  these 
new  Huns  even  crossed  the  Danube.  In  vain  did  Emperor  Frederick  II 
appeal  for  aid  to  the  rest  of  Christendom.  A  German  army  inflicted  a 
slight  check  upon  the  invaders ;  but  again  Western  Europe  was  saved 
only  by  the  death  of  a  Mongol  emperor.  Soon  afterward  the  vast  Tartar 
realm  fell  into  fragments,  and  the  pressing  danger  passed  away. 


230  THE   CRUSADES  [§253 

Parts  of  Asia  have  hardly  yet  recovered  from  the  ravages  of  the  con- 
quest. The  whole  subsequent  development  of  Russia  has  felt  its  baleful 
influence  ;  and  for  three  centuries  a  Tartar  state,  the  Golden  Horde,  main- 
tained itself  in  Southern  Russia.  The  escape  of  Western  Europe,  through 
no  great  merit  of  its  own,  is  one  of  the  supremely  fortunate  events  in  history. 

253.  The  crusades  ceased  because  they  themselves  had  helped 
to  create  a  new  age.     The  Europe  of  1300  was  a  different  world 
from  the  Europe  of  1100.     Great  questions  at  home  of  general 
interest  to  all  Christendom,  —  like  the  investiture  conflict,— 
had  filled  men's  minds ;  and  each  country  had  its  special  deep 
interests  —  like  the  development  of  parliament  and  of  courts 
in  England.      Trade  had  grown  vastly,  and  society  was  not 
composed  so  exclusively  of  fighters.     Men  had  begun  to  believe 
less  in  the  saving  value  of  pilgrimages  to  distant  shrines ;  and 
they  had  learned  to  think  more  of  their  duties  to  the  world 
about  them. 

This  last  is  well  shown  in  a  story  told  by  Joinville  in  his 
Life  of  St.  Louis  (§  143).  Joinville  came  of  a  family  of  famous 
crusaders.  He  had  accompanied  Louis  IX  on  the  Seventh 
Crusade,  and  had  persisted  in  continuing  it  after  all  the  other 
counselors  of  the  king  had  advised  return.  But  when  Louis 
made  his  second  expedition,  Joinville  stoutly  refused  to  go  at 
all.  Louis  urged  him  to  join,  —  "Whereto  I  replied  that 
while  I  was  serving  God  and  the  king  beyond  sea  before,  the 
officers  of  the  king  [Louis]  had  ruined  myself  and  impover- 
ished my  people ;  and  that  if  I  wished  now  to  please  God  I 
should  remain  here  to  defend  my  people ;  for  if  I  risked  myself 
for  the  Cross,  when  I  saw  clearly  that  it  would  be  for  the  damage  of 
my  people,  I  should  bring  down  iqton  me  the  wrath  of  God,  who 
gave  his  life  to  save  His  people.  .  .  .  And  I  considered  that 
those  committed  a  deadly  sin  who  advised  him  to  that  voyage." 

III.   RESULTS 

254.  Intellectual  Results.  —  The  crusades  failed  to  recover 
the  Holy  Land,  but  they  did  check  the  advance  of  the  Turks 
into  Eastern  Europe,    and  their  indirect  results  to  Western 


§  255]  RESULTS  231 

Europe  were  vastly  more  important  than  the  recovery  of  Pales- 
tine could  have  been.  They  brought  new  energies  into  play, 
and  opened  up  new  worlds  of  thought.  The  intellectual  hori- 
zon widened.  Men  gained  acquaintance  with  new  lands,  new 
peoples,  new  manners,  and  new  standards  of  conduct.  Even 
among  the  Arabs  they  had  found  men  brave,  just,  honorable, 
and  religious. 

The  crusaders  brought  back  at  once  some  new  gains  in 
science,  art,  architecture,  and  medical  knowledge;  and  their 
romantic  adventures  furnished  heroic  subjects  for  the  pen  of 
poet  and  story-teller —  so  that  literary  activity  was  stimulated, 
and  many  histories  of  the  crusades  were  written  in  monasteries. 
But,  best  of  all,  Europeans  had  learned  that  there  was  more  to 
learn,  and  that  even  the  despised  infidel  could  teach  them. 
There  was  a  new  stir  in  the  intellectual  atmosphere,  and  the 
way  was  prepared  for  the  wonderful  intellectual  uprising  of 
the  following  century  (chapter  xix). 

255.  Commercial  Results.  —  As  long  as  the  Latin  states  in 
Syria  lasted  (nearly  two  hundred  years),  they  were  practically 
military  colonies,  dependent  upon  Europe  for  weapons,  horses, 
and  supplies  of  food.  These  things  had  to  be  transported  by 
sea;  and,  after  the  Second  Crusade,  the  crusaders  themselves 
usually  journeyed  by  ship.  Tliis  stimulated  shipbuilding,  and 
led  to  an  increased  production  of  many  commodities  for  these  new 
markets. 

Even  more  important  was  the  reappearance  in  the  West  of 
long-forgotten  Oriental  products.  Europeans  now  learned  to 
use  sugar  cane,  spices,  dates,  buckwheat,  sesame,  saffron,  apri- 
cots, watermelons,  oils,  perfumes,  and  various  drugs  and  dyes, 
and,  among  new  objects  of  manufacture,  cottons,  silks,  rugs, 
calicoes,  muslins,  damasks,  satins,  velvets,  delicate  glassware, 
the  cross-bow,  the  windmill. 

Many  of  these  things  became  almost  necessaries  of  life. 
Some  of  them  were  soon  grown  or  manufactured  in  Europe. 
Others,  like  spices,  could  not  be  produced  there,  and,  in  conse- 
quence, commerce  with  distant  parts  of  Asia  grew  enormously. 


232  THE   CRUSADES  [§256 

In  the  absence  of  fresh  meat  in  winter  and  of  our  modern 
root-foods,  spices  became  of  immense  importance  for  the  table. 
For  a  time,  Venice  and  Genoa,  assisted  by  their  favorable  posi- 
tions, monopolized  much  of  the  new  carrying  trade ;  but  all 
the  ports  of  Western  Europe  were  more  or  less  affected.  This 
commercial  activity  called  for  quicker  methods  of  reckoning; 
and  at  this  time  Europe  adopted  the  Arabic  numerals. 

256.  Money  replaces  Barter.1  —  All  these  commercial  transac- 
tions, as  well  as  the  fitting  out  of   the  crusades  themselves, 
called  for  money.     The  system  of  barter  and  of  exchange  of 
services,  by  which  Europe  had  lived  for  some  centuries,  was 
outgrown.    Until  this  time  the  Jews  had  been  the  only  money- 
lenders.     Christians    had   regarded    all    lending    for    interest 
(usury)  as  sinful.     Bankers  now  appeared,  and  mor«*  money 
was  coined  than  in  preceding  centuries. 

257.  The  crusades  undermined  feudalism.     After  the  appear- 
ance of  money,  the  relations  between  tenant  and  landlord  no 
longer  needed  to  rest  upon  exchange  of  services  for  land.     Thus 
the  economic  basis  of  feudalism  (§  118)  was  destroyed.     The 
presence  of  money,  too,  enabled  the  kings  to  collect  national 
revenues,  and  so  to  maintain  disciplined  and  regular  standing 
armies,  more  efficient  than  the  old  feudal  array. 

But  the  crusades  struck  more  direct  blows  than  these.  They 
swept  away  multitudes  of  the  feudal  lords  themselves.  Hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  barons  and  knights  squandered  their 
possessions  in  preparing  for  the  expedition,  and  then  left  their 
bones  in  Palestine.  This  cleared  the  ground.  It  made  it  easier 
for  the  monarchies,  on  one  hand,  and  the  city  democracies  on 
the  other  hand,  to  take  possession  of  Europe. 

258.  And  the  crusades  helped  these  two  new  systems  to  grow 
up,  to   take  the  place   vacated  by  dying  feudalism.     To  get 
money  wherewith  to  equip  their  followers  for  the  crusades,  the 
great   barons  mortgaged  their  possessions  to  the   kings,  and 
sometimes  the  smaller  barons  sold  theirs  outright.    Both  classes 
sold  charters  of  rights  to  the  rising  towns  on  their  domains. 

1  Cunningham,  Western  Civilization,  II,  74-77;  Adams,  Civilization. 


§  258]  RESULTS  233 

Thus  the  kings  consolidated  their  dominions,  and  got  rid  of 
dangerous  rivals;  and  at  the  same  time  the  towns  rose  to  politi- 
cal power.  Until  the  twelfth  century  there  had  been  only  two 
"estates,"  or  political  classes,  in  European  society,  —  clergy 
and  nobles.  Now  the  townsmen  appeared  as  a  "  third  estate."  1 
This  "third  estate"  wanted  order;  and  the  kings  could  help 
to  secure  it.  The  kings  wanted  money ;  and  the  third  estate 
could  supply  it.  So  these  two  elements  allied  themselves  against 
the  weakened  remnants  of  the  feudal  system,  and  soon  reduced 
feudalism  to  little  more  than  a  form.  It  was  succeeded,  as  a 
political  system,  by  the  free  cities  (§§  259  ff.)  and  by  the  "new 
monarchies"  (§§  287  ff.).  A  new  nobility  soon  appeared,  with 
the  title  and  honors  of  the  old,  but  without  its  power.  The  new 
nobles  were  dependent  on  the  monarch,  instead  of  being  his  rivals. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. — Three  contemporary  accounts  are  printed 
in  the  volume,  Chronicles  of  the  Crusades.  Joinville's  account  in  his  St. 
Louis — one  of  the  three  narratives  in  that  volume  —  is  especially  excel- 
lent. Further  source  material  will  be  found  in  Pennsylvania  Reprints,  I 
and  II,  and  Archer's  Crusade  of  Richard  I  in  the  series,  "English  His- 
tory by  Contemporary  Writers." 

Modern  accounts  :  Archer  and  Kingsford,  The  Crusades  (probably  the 
best  account  in  English;  especially  good  for  the  "Kingdom  of  Jeru- 
salem"); Tout,  Empire  and  Papacy,  175-197,  295-304;  Cox,  The  Cru- 
sades; Gray,  The  Children's  Crusade;  Oilman,  The  Saracens;  Emerton, 
Medieval  Europe,  ch.  xi ;  Adams,  Civilization,  ch.  xi ;  Pears,  Fall  of 
Constantinople;  Oman,  Byzantine  Empire ;  Cutts,  Scenes  and  Characters 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  157-194;  Lane-Poole,  Saladin ;  Perry,  St.  Louis, 
154-195,  284-296.  See  also  footnote  references  above. 

In  fiction  :  Scott's  Talisman. 

SPECIAL  REPORTS. —  1.  The  Third  Crusade.  2.  The  Latin  Kingdom 
of  Jerusalem.  3.  The  warfare  of  the  crusaders  (see  Oman's  History  of 
the  Art  of  War) . 

EXERCISE.  — Catchword  review  of  the  crusades. 


1  The  peasantry  did  not  yet  count  politically,  but  eveu  they  were  benefited 
by  the  new  conditions :  the  fact  that  they  might  be  tempted  to  run  away  to 
the  towns  (which  were  always  glad  to  afford  them  refuge)  helped  to  secure 
them  better  treatment  from  their  lords. 


SlEOE  OK  \  .MKim:\  \  i.  TOWN  :   tin-  summons  to  surrender.  —  From  ;i 
sixteenth  century 


CHAPTER   XII 

RISE   OF   THE   TOWNS 

259.  The  most  important  single  result  of  the  crusades  was 
the  impulse  they  gave  to  the  growth  of  towns.     For  nearly 
six  hundred  years,  before  1100,  the  three  figures  in  European 
life  had  been  the  tonsured  priest,  the  mailed  horseman,  and  the 
field  laborer,  stunted  with  toil  and  hard  fare.     In  the  twelfth 
century,  towns  again  became  a  large  part  of  the  life  of  Europe. 
Then,  alongside  priest,  noble,  and  peasant,  there  stood  forth  the 
sturdy,  resolute,  self-confident  townsman,  or  burgher. 

260.  Feudalism  and  the  towns  were  foes  by  nature.     Feudal- 
ism had   arisen  out  of  war,  and   lived  to  fight.     The  towns 
grew  out  of  trade.     They  could,  and   did,  fight   stubbornly, 
when  forced  to  do  so ;  but  they  lived  for  industry.     The  noble 
tried  to  confound  the  townsman  with  the  serf,  treated    him 
always  with  haughty  contempt,  and  usually  nobbed  him  when 
the  chance  offered. 

234 


§200] 


RISE   OF   TOWNS 


235 


In  England,  noble  and  townsman  were  far  less  hostile  than 
on  the  continent ;  but  an  event  in  England,  as  late  as  the  time 
of  Edward  I  (1300),  shows  this  class  war  even  there.  The 
town  of  Boston  was  holding  a  great  fair.1  Citizens,  of  course, 
guarded  its  gates  zealously  against  any  hostile  intruders,  but 
an  armed  band  of  country  gentleman  (of  the  "  noble "  class) 
got  through  in  the  disguise  of  play  actors.  When  darkness 


RUINS  OF  A  RHINE  CASTLE,  above  a  modern  town. 

fell,  they  began  their  horrible  work  of  murder  and  plunder. 
They  fired  every  booth,  slaughtered  the  merchants,  and  hurried 
the  booty  to  ships  ready  at  the  quay.  The  horror-stricken 
people  of  other  towns  told  how  streams  of  molten  gold  mingled 
with  rivers  of  blood  in  the  gutters. 

True,  King  Edward,  under  whose  license  the  fair  had  been 


1  Large  cities,  at  fixed  times,  held  great  fairs,  lasting  many  days,  for  all 
the  small  places  in  the  neighboring  regions,  —  since  the  villages  and  small 
towns  had  either  no  shops  or  small  ones  with  few  goods.  Merchants  from 
all  the  kingdom  — and,  indeed,  sometimes  from  all  Europe, —journeyed  to 
such  fairs  with  their  goods,  to  reap  a  harvest  from  the  country  folk  who  crowded 
about  their  booths.  The  town  took  toll  for  these  booths,  and  usually  itself 
paid  king  or  noble  a  license  fee  for  security. 


236  THE   FEUDAL  AGE  [§261 

promised  protection,  proved  strong  enough  to  hang  the  leaders 
of  these  "  gentlemen."  But  in  Germany,  at  the  same  period, 
like  events  followed  one  another  in  a  horrible  panorama,  with- 
out attempt  at  punishment.  The  towns  could  shut  out  the 
"  robber  knights  "  by  walls  and  guards.  But  from  their  castle 
crags  the  knights  swooped  down  upon  any  unwary  townsman 
who  ventured  too  near,  and  even  on  armed  caravans  of  traders 
on  the  highway,  to  rob  and  murder,  or  to  carry  off  for  ransom. 
Such  unhappy  captives  were  loaded  with  rusty  chains  that  ate 
into  the  flesh,  and  were  left  in  damp  and  filthy  dungeons  until 
sometimes  their  limbs  rotted  away  —  so  that  to  "  rot  a  peasant " 
became  a  German  by-word. 

Yet  it  was  the  "peasant"  townsmen,  not  the  knightly  fighter, 
who  was  to  make  our  modern  world  what  it  has  become. 

261.  Beginnings.  —  In  Italy   and   south' -m    France,  the   old 
Roman  towns  had  lived  along,  with  shrunken  population,  sub- 
ject to  neighboring  lords.     Under  the  new  impulse  to  trade, 
by  1200,  these  regions  were  once  more  dotted  with  prosperous 
self-governing  cities,  which  modeled  their  institutions,  in  part 
at  least,  on  those  they  had  brought  down  from  Roman  times. 
Elsewhere,  the  towns  were  mainly  new  growths  —  from  peasant 
villages  or  grim  fortresses,  under  the  influence  of  trade. 

Most  medieval  towns  were  small,  by  our  modern  ideas.  True, 
Milan,  in  Italy,  counted  300,000  people ;  and  some  German 
towns  claimed  50,000.  But  few  places  had  more  than  from 
3000  to  6000.  Until  the  year  1500,  England  had  only  two 
towns  with  more  than  12,000  —  London  and  Bristol. 

262.  At  first  each  inhabitant  of  a  town  remained  directly 
dependent  upon  the  feudal  lord  on  whose   domain  the  town 
was.     The  first  great  advance  toward  freedom  lay  in    changing 
this  individual  dependence  into  a  collective  dependence  of  the  citizen 
body  as  one  whole.     That  is,  the  town  secured  the  right  to 
have  its  elected  officers  bargain  with  the  lord  regarding  dues 
and  services  to  be  paid  by  the  town,  instead  of  each  helpless 
citizen   being   left  to  settle   for  himself  at  the  lord's  mercy. 
The  gain  was  immense  —  somewhat   like  that   of  the   trade- 


§  263] 


RISE   OF   TOWNS 


237 


union  of  to-day,  compared  with  the  position  of  a  single  work- 
man bargaining  with  a  great  employer. 

263.  Two  Centuries  of  Revolt.  —  By  1100,  towns  had  begun 
to  demand  this  privilege,  and  to  secure  written  charters  from 
the  lords,  expressly  guaranteeing  it.  Sometimes  they  got  it 
easily,  by  payments  of  money ;  sometimes  they  won  it  by 
blood.  The  two  centuries  from  1100  to  1300  are  the  period  of 
"the  revolt  of  the  towns." 

In  1194  Norwich,  in  England,  paid  Eichard  the  Lion-Hearted 
about  $  10,000  in  our  values  for  "  having  the  city  in  their  own 
hands."  In  particular,  the  charter  promised  (1)  that  citizens 
should  not  be  summoned  to 
any  law  court  outside  the 
gates ;  (2)  that  they  might 
elect  their  own  Provost 
(mayor) ;  and  (3)  that,  in 
place  of  dues  collected  by 
royal  officials,  they  might 
pay  the  king  each  year  from 
the  town  treasury  £  108. 

On  the  continent,  more 
commonly,  a  town  rose  in  GATE  OF  AIGUES  MORTES,  a  French  town 
arms  five  or  six  or  a  dozen  which  won  a  liberal  charter  in  1246' 
times,  and  suffered  terrible  martyrdom,  before  gaining  such 
success.  The  smaller  nobles,  in  particular,  fought  savagely  to 
keep  all  their  feudal  privileges.  In  the  long  conflict,  cities 
were  burned  and  ravaged ;  and  countless  heroic  leaders  of  the 
townsmen  swung  in  chains  from  the  nobles'  gallows,  or  dragged 
out  a  more  lingering  death  in  dungeons. 

Nor  did  one  victory  for  a  town  end  the  matter.  The  first 
charter  was  usually  brief  and  vague  —  and  so  became  the  occa- 
sion for  later  struggles  to  obtain  more  precise  and  extensive 
grants.  Many  a  medieval  town  guarded  carefully  several  suc- 
cessive charters  in  its  ironbound  town  chest. 

The  great  lords  felt  less  jealous  of  the  towns'  liberties;  and 
kings  sometimes  gave  charters  willingly,  to  encourage  the 


238  THE   FEUDAL    AGE  [§264 

growth  of  towns  on  their  domains,  partly  to  secure  increased 
revenues,  partly  to  build  up  a  check  upon  the  feudal  lords. 
Then  we  have  noted  that,  in  the  long  conflict  between  emperors 
and  popes,  both  parties  sold  liberties  freely  to  rising  towns. 
And  during  the  crusades,  great  numbers  of  lords  sold  charters 
recklessly,  to  get  funds  for  their  expeditions ;  while  the  towns 
found  even  more  advantage  in  the  destruction  of  countless 
noble  families  in  those  movements.  So,  in  one  way  or  another, 
by  1300,  by  stubborn  heroism  and  by  the  wraith  which  their 
industry  had  heaped  up,  the  towns  had  won. 

264.  Town  life  showed  new  wants,  new  comforts,  new  occu- 
pations. Thatched  hovels,  with  dirt  floors,  gave  way  to  com- 
fortable and  even  stately  burghers'  homes.  Universal  misery 
and  squalor  among  the  industrial  classes  were  .replaced,  for  a 
large  part  of  the  population,  by  happy  comfort;  and  there 
followed  a  lavish  expenditure  for  town  halls  and  cathedrals 
and  for  civic  feasts  and  shows. 

Still,  the  medieval  European  city  fell  far  behind  the  ancient 
Greek  or  Roman  city  or  the  contemporary  Arabian  city. 
There  were  no  street  lights  at  night,  no  city  water  supply,  no 
sewerage,  no  street-cleaning,  no  paving.  The  necessity  of 
inclosing  the  town  within  lofty  stone  walls  crowded  it 
into  small  space,  so  that  streets  were  always  narrow  and  dark. 
Dead  animals  rotted  in  these  streets,  and  on  one  occasion  in 
the  fifteenth  century  a  German  emperor,  warmly  welcomed  in 
a  loyal  city,  was  almost  swallowed  up,  horse  and  rider,  in  the 
bottomless  filth,  as  he  entered  the  city-gate.  Frankfort,  in 
1387,  found  it  necessary  to  forbid  the  building  of  pigsties  in 
the  public  streets ;  and  Ulm  a  little  later  was  troubled  by 
swine  running  loose. 

Within  doors,  too,  the  material  prosperity  was  not  for  all. 
Says  Dr.  Jessopp,  u  The  sediment  of  the  town  population  was 
a  dense  slough  of  stagnant  misery,  squalor,  famine,  loathsome 
disease,  and  dull  despair."  There  was  no  adequate  police 
system,  and  street  rights  were  constant.  At  night,  no  well-to- 
do  citizen  stirred  abroad  without  his  armor  and  his  guard  of 


§204] 


RISE   OF  TOWNS 


239 


OLD  STREET  IN  ROUEN,  present  condition.  The  Cathedral  is  visible  at  the 
opening  of  the  street  into  the  square.  Probably  the  appearance  of  the 
street  has  changed  little  since  the  fourteenth  century. 


240  THE    FEUDAL   AGE  [§265 

stout  apprentice  lads ;  and  he  was  always  compelled  to  fortify 
and  guard  his  house. 

The  citizen,  too,  however  safe  from  feudal  tyranny,  lived 
in  bondage  to  countless  minute  and  annoying,  but  necessary, 
town  regulations.  When  the  great  bell  in  the  town  belfry  or 
watchtower  rang  the  "  curfew  "  at  night,  he  must  "  cover  his 
fire  "  and  put  out  all  lights,  —  a  precaution  against  conflagra- 
tion which  was  particularly  necessary  because  of  the  closely 
crowded,  narrow  streets,  and  the  absence  of  fire  companies 
and  police.  He  could  plant  in  his  garden  no  more  than  a 
specified  number  of  trees.  His  clothing,  and  his  wife's  orna- 
ments must  be  no  richer  than  those  prescribed  for  his  par- 
ticular station  in  society.  Above  all,  he  must  serve  his 
oft-recurring  turn  as  "watch"  in  the  belfry  tower,  on  the 
walls,  at  the  gates,  or  in  the  streets  at  night. 

265.  Gilds. — The  people  of  a  town,  except  the  unskilled 
laborers,  were  grouped  in  gilds,  as  in  old  Roman  times  (? 
The  idea  of  the  gild  was  that  all  men  in  the  same  kind  of  work 
in  a  given  district  ought  to  unite,  to  help  one  another  and  to 
arrange  matters  in  which  they  were  all  .interested.  Each 
medieval  town  had  its  merchant  gild  and  its  many  craft  gilds. 
These  latter  were  unions  of  artisans,  —  weavers,  shoemakers, 
glovers,  bow-makers,  drapers,  tanners,  and  so  on.  York,  a 
small  English  city  of  some  two  or  three  thousand  people,  had 
fifty  such  gilds.  Cologne  had  eighty.  Even  the  homes  of  a 
gild  were  grouped  together.  One  street  was  the  street  of  the 
armorers ;  another,  of  the  goldsmiths ;  and  on  on. 

Each  craft  gild  contained  three  classes  of  members,  —  masters, 
journeymen,   and    apprentices.       The   master  owned   a   shop, 
—  probably   part   of   the   house   where   his   family   lived,  - 
and   employed  one  or  more   journeymen,  besides   a  band  of 
apprentices. 

Strictly,  apprentices  were  not  members  of  the  gild,  except 
in  prospect,  but  they  were  governed  by  its  rules.  They  were 
boys  or  youths  bound  out  by  their  parents  for  a  term  of  years 
to  learn  the  trade.  They  lived  in  the  master's  house,  ate  at 


§265]  CRAFT   GILDS  241 

his  table,  and  he  furnished  their  clothing  and  taught  them  "  all 
he  knew." 

On  the  expiration  of  the  terra  of  service  (three,  seven,  or 
ten  years),  the  apprentice  became  a  free  journeyman,  working 
for  wages.  For  the  next  few  years  he  traveled  from  place  to 
place,  practising  his  trade  in  various  cities,  to  see  the  world 
and  to  perfect  himself  in  his  "  mystery,"  as  the  secrets  of  the 
trade  were  called. 

If  he  could  save  the  small  amount  of  money  needed,  he 
finally  set  up  a  shop  of  his  own  and  became  a  master.  As  a 
master,  he  continued  to  work  with  his  own  hands,  living  among 
his  dependents  with  a  more  or  less  paternal  care  over  them. 

The  modern  separation  between  capital  and  labor  had  not 
yet  begun,  so  far  as  the  skilled  trades  were  concerned.  Manu- 
facturing was  still  carried  on  wholly  by  hand  labor ;  and  the 
tools  of  the  artisan  were  like  those  simple  instruments  that 
had  been  used  in  ancient  Egypt  or  Chaldea. 

The  gild  was  not  organized,  as  the  modern  trade-union  is, 
to  regulate  the  relations  of  workmen  to  employers.  It  was  a 
brotherhood,  containing  both  workmen  and  employers.  Its 
purposes  were  (1)  to  prevent  competition  (and  so  all  who 
practised  the  trade  were  forced  to  enter  the  gild  and  abide  by 
its  rules);  (2)  to  prevent  monopoly  of  materials  or  of  oppor- 
tunity by  any  of  its  members  (and  so  each  "  brother "  had  a 
right  to  share  in  any  purchase  by  another,  and  no  one  could 
sell  except  at  appointed  times  and  places) ;  (3)  to  keep  up 
the  price  (which  was  fixed  by  the  gild);  and  (4)  to  maintain  a 
high  standard  of  goods  (and  so  the  gild  punished  severely  all 
adulterations,  the  mixing  of  poor  wool  with  good,  and  the 
giving  short  weight).  Thus  the  gild  aimed  to  protect  'both  pro- 
ducer and  consumer. 

The  gild  was  also  a  fraternal  insurance  society :  it  provided 
assistance  for  a  needy  member,  attended  to  the  burial  of  a 
deceased  member,  and,  if  he  died  poor,  paid  pensions  to  his 
wife  and  children  and  the  dowry  for  his  daughter's  marriage. 
Moreover,  the  gild  had  social  features.  Indeed,  many  a  gild 


242 


THE    FEUDAL    AGE 


originated  as  a  social  club  for  men  engaged  in  the  same  trade, 
and  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  the  gild  feasts  were  the  chief 
social  event  in  the  lives  of  the  gild  members. 

266.  A  mighty  political  change,  also,  followed  the  rise  of 
towns.  The  townsmen  became  a  "  third  estate  "  in  government. 
We  must  not,  however,  think  of  them  yet  as  "  the  people  ?J  of  a 

, nation,    in    the    modern 

sense.  They  were  only  one 
more  "class"  risen  from 
the  unreckoned  mass,  to 
stand  beside  the  smaller 
but  higher  classes,  priests 
and  knights.  .S'or/W//  ,-<,„. 
tinned  for  centurion  to  be 
o/v/(///oW  in  classes,  not 
as  one  people;  and  the 
m-\v  "third  estate"  looked 
down  upon  the  mass  of 
unskilled  workmen  and 
farm  peasants  with  the 
same  bigoted  and  cruel 
contempt  with  which  it 
was  itself  regarded  by  the 
nobles.1  So  far  as  the 
burghers  fought  for  popu- 
lar liberty,  they  did  so  un- 
consciously. They  thought  only  of  their  own  liberties  ;  and  their 
spirit  was  as  narrow  and  jealous  as  that  of  any  feudal  lord. 

Even  within  a  city,  political  rights,  like  material  comforts, 
were  only  for  a  part  of  the  inhabitants,  —  the  traders  and  the 
skilled  artisans.  Unskilled  laborers  had  no  share  in  the 
government  of  the  city. 

Moreover,  the  merchants  and  the  artisans  were  mutually 
jealous;  and  for  two  centuries  (1200-1400),  in  city  after  city, 


MEDIEVAL  TOWN  HALL,  OUDKNARDE. 


i.See  an  excellent  statement  in  Adams'  Civilization,  305-307. 


§267] 


TOWNS   IN   ENGLAND 


243 


the  aristocratic  merchant  gild  struggled  in  ferocious  civil  war 
to  shut  out  the  more  democratic  craft  gilds  from,  the  city 
government.  At  Magdeburg  in  1302  the  democratic  party, 
securing  the  upper  hand,  burned  ten  aristocratic  aldermen  at 
the  stake  at  one  time. 

267.  English  towns  grew  up  later  than  those  on  the  continent. 
They  found  the  royal  authority  more  firmly  established ;  and 
so,  like  the  English  nobles,  they 
never  possessed  the  extreme  in- 
dependence common  elsewhere  in 
Europe. 

Each  town,  however,  built  its 
walls  and  armed  and  trained  its 
citizen-militia  to  defend  them.  It 
elected  its  own  officers,  and  pre- 
scribed their  powers.  Royal  officers 
could  not  enter  its  gates  without 
permission  from  the  town  authori- 
ties, and  they  could  exercise  no 
direct  control  within  its  walls.  The 
towns-folk  paid  a  tax  to  the  govern- 
ment, and  they  furnished  troops,  TORTURE  BY  WATER,  a  method 
upon  occasion  ;  but  both  tax  and 
troops  they  levied  in  their  own 
way.  Offenses  committed  within 
the  town  were  tried  in  the  mayor's 
court,  and  were  punished  by  duck- 
ing in  the  pond,  by  fines,  flogging, 
mutilation,  beheading,  or  by  hang- 
ing in  chains  on  the  town  gallows  at  the  city  gate.1  The  town 
passed  ordinances  on  many  matters  now  regulated  by  the  nation. 
They  did  not  fix  their  own  weights  and  measures,  or  coin 

1  On  the  continent  the  city  authorities  sometimes  exposed  criminals  in  iron 
cages,  pulled  away  the  flesh  of  blasphemers  with  red-hot  tongs,  and  boiled 
forgers  in  oil,  pouring  in  cold  water,  from  time  to  time,  that  death  might  not 
come  quickly. 


used  in  medieval  towns.  See 
footnote.  This  particular  form 
of  torture  to  compel  confession 
survived  to  recent  times  in  the 
Spanish  Philippines,  and  was 
adopted  by  American  soldiers 
there  in  the  barbarous  warfare 
with  the  natives. 


244  THE  FEUDAL  AGE 

their  own  money,  as  continental  towns  commonly  did;  but 
the  English  town  magistrates  supervised  all  industry,  and,  in 
particular,  they  looked  after  the  making  and  sale  of  food  stuffs  — 
bread,  meal,  ale,  wine,  meat,  fish  —  fixing  quality,  time  and 
place  of  sale,  and  price.  It  was  their  special  duty  to  guard 
against  a  season  of  scarcity  by  collecting  grain  in  the  town's 
warehouses.  This  custom,  too,  prevailed  on  the  continent.  In 
1540,  at  Nuremberg,  the  Emperor  Charles  V  (§  326)  was 
given  bread  to  taste,  made  from  wheat  that  was  said  to  have 
been  kept  in  the  town  granary  118  years. 

Each  English  town,  too,  fixed  and  collected  its  own  tariffs 
on  goods  brought  through  its  gates;  and  the  Cinque  Ports 
(a  league  of  five  towns  on  the  Channel)  waged  war  on  their 
own  account  with  French  and  Flemish  towns.  It  was  custom- 
ary, too,  for  one  towu  to  make  special  treaties  with  others 
regarding  trading  privileges.  Southampton  had  formal  treaties 
with  seventy  other  English  towns;  and,  within  twenty  years, 
London  sent  three  hundred  letters  on  such  matters  to  the 
officials  of  ninety  different  towns. 

268.  Italy  showed  the  greatest  degree  of  town  independence 
(§  226).     But,  before  1350,  most  of  the  cities  there  had  sunk 
under  the  rule  of  "  tyrants,"  who  found  their  opportunity  in 
the  incessant  wars  between  town  and  town.     Florence,  with 
her  stirring  democracy,  kept  her  freedom  until   after   1400; 
and,  indeed,  she  kept  the  forms  of  freedom,  under  her  3/< 
rulers,  for  nearly  a  century  more.     And   Venice,  under   her 
aristocratic  government,  built  up  a  mighty  maritime  empire, 
like  that  of  ancient  Carthage  or  of  Athens,  and  stood  forth  as 
one  of  the  chief  Powers  in  Europe. 

269.  In  France  the  southern  towns  were  for  a  time  almost 
as  independent  as  those  in  Italy,  and  many  of  those  in  the 
north  secured  greater  liberties  than  were  known  in  England. 
However,  when  the  French  kings  were  finally  victorious  over 
feudalism,  they  perfected  the  consolidation  of  the  realm  by 

1  Special  reports :  the  Medici  rule  in  Florence ;  famous  Florentines  from 
1250  to  1500;  Venice  from  1000  to  1500. 


§269] 


TOWNS   IN  ITALY   AND   FRANCE 


245 


THE  DUCAL  PALACE,  VENICE,  facing  the  Square  of  St.  Mark's 


246 


THE    FEUDAL   AGE 


[§  270 


bringing  the  towns  completely  under  their  authority.  Thus, 
before  1400,  after  a  shorter  life  than  elsewhere  in  Europe,  the 
early  liberties  of  French  towns  had  wholly  disappeared,  and 
they  were  ruled  by  royal  officers. 

270.  In  Germany,  after  1250  (§  234),  many  towns  secured 
liberal  charters  directly  from  the  emperors,  and  became  known 
as  "  free  cities  of  the  Empire."  Like  the  German  principali- 


ST.  MARK'S,  VENICE,  from  a  photograph;  perhaps  th«-  most  famou^  ex- 
ample of  "  Byzantine  architecture,"  \vlii.-li  was  based  upon  tin-  Kimiam-squ.-. 
and  modified  by  Gothic  and  Saracenic  influences.  Note  the  use  of  domes 
and  minarets.  See  also  the  Ducal  Palace  on  pat:*-  -'*•"' 

ties,  they  were  really  sovereign  states.    Most  of  them  belonged 
to  one  of  two  great  leagues  :  — 

TJie  Confederacy  of  the  Rhine  numbered  some  fifty  of  the 
leading  towns  of  southern  Germany.  It  was  organized  for 
defense  against  the  nobles,  and  for  a  time  it  seemed  likely  to 
secure  a  position  equal  to  that  of  the  great  princes.  This  bril- 
liant promise  was  ruined  by  a  victory  of  the  princes  over  the 
League-  at  the  battle  of  Doffingen  (1388),  but  many  of  the  sep- 


§270] 


THE    HANSA 


247 


arate  towns  retained  their  independence  into  the  nineteenth 
century. 

The  Hanseatic  League  ("Hansa," —  an  old  German  word  for 
"union")  was  composed  of  eighty  northern  German  towns.  It 
grew  up  about  1300,  out  of  earlier  unions  of  small  groups  of 
cities ;  and  it  was  organized,  not  for  political  purposes,  like 
the  Lombard  and  the  Rhine  Leagues,  but  to  protect  trade 


INTERIOR  OF  HALL,  OF  MERCHANT  PRINCES  AT  DANTZIG.    Originally 
a  Hall  of  the  Teutonic  Knights  (about  1300).  —  From  Liibke. 

against  pirates  and  robbers,  and  to  secure  greater  advantages 
in  foreign  countries  than  single  cities  could  secure  for  them- 
selves. 

It  established  polonies,  or  "  factories,"  in  foreign  cities,  as 
in  London,  Novgorod,  Bergen,  Bruges,  and  Wisby.  Each 
such  colony  had  its  own  government  and  its  own  soldiery, 
independent  of  those  of  the  other  parts  of  the  city  in  which 
it  was  imbedded.  The  Hanseatic  settlement  in  London  was 
known  as  the  Steelyard.  The  importance  of  the  Hansa  in 
English  trade  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  coin  (pound) 


248 


THE    FEUDAL   AGE 


[§270 


of  the  "  Easterlings  "  (from  the  East,  or  Baltic,  Sea),  became 
the  "pound  sterling"  in  English  currency;  and  the  trust- 
worthy character  of  their  wares  is  shown  by  the  meaning  of 
the  word  "  sterling  "  in  our  language. 


CA  D'  ORO,  a  Venetian  Palace  built  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

• 

By  war,  or  threats  of  war,  the  Hansa  won  trading  privileges 
from  the  kings  of  England  and  other  northern  countries.  In 
1370  Waldemar  of  Denmark  was  compelled  after  long  strife 
to  sign  the  Peace  of  Stmlsund,  which  provided  that  future 
Danish  kings  must  have  the  sanction  of  the  League  before 
they  mounted  the  throne.  For  a  century  the  League  was  one 


§271]  CITY  LEAGUES  249 

of  the  Great  Powers  of  Europe.  The  Hansa  flag  floated  over 
nearly  every  merchant  ship  of  the  northern  seas  and  ov^r  nearly 
every  counting  house  from  London  to  Novgorod.  The;  League 
owned  fisheries  and  mines;  and  in  their  trading  posts  there 
met,  for  exchange,  furs  and  hides  from  Russia,  grain  from 
Poland,  amber  from  the  Baltic  coasts,  metals  of  Saxony,  wines 
of  the  Rhine,  wool  and  tin  of  England,  cloths  of  Holland,  arid 
the  more  distant  products  of  the  South  and  East. 

As  the  other  northern  countries  developed,  the  Hansa  lost 
its  preeminence  and  its  special  privileges.  Some  of  its  cities, 
however,  remained  sovereign  states  until  late  in  the  nine- 
teenth century;  and  three  of  them  —  Hamburg,  Bremen,  and 
Llibeck —  entered  the  present  German  Empire,  when  it  was 
formed  in  1871,  on  equal  terms  with  the  other  confederating 
states. 

271.  City  Leagues.  —  For  a  time,  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
it  must  have  seemed  possible  that  Europe  would  give  up 
its  feudal  life  for  city  life,  and  become  an  enlarged  copy  of 
ancient  Greece.  The  Lombard  League  defeated  the  great 
Barbarossa.  The  Confederacy  of  the  Rhine  claimed  equality 
with  the  princes  of  the  Empire.  In  southern  France  the 
cities  predominated  over  feudalism.  In  the  rising  Christian 
states  in  Spain,  the  towns  were  among  the  freest  in  Europe, 
and  were  bound  together  in  a  Holy  League  to  resist  feudal  en- 
croachment. Even  in  England,  an  early  beginning  of  such  a 
league  was  to  be  seen  in  the  alliance  of  the  Cinque  Ports  (§  267). 
In  distant  Russia,  great  cities,  like  Novgorod,  Vladimir,  Kief, 
and  Moscow,  had  grown  up,  where  the  ringing  of  the  town  bell 
called  thousands  of  citizens  to  arms,  to  prescribe  terms  to 
princes.  And  the  Hanseatic  League  was  beginning  to  dominate 
the  coasts  and  waters  of  the  northern  seas. 

Most  of  these  unions,  however,  were  short-lived.  The  cities 
did  not  become  the  sole  political  force,  like  cities  in  Ancient 
Greece.  This  was  well.  Medieval  cities,  like  Greek  cities, 
could  not  of  themselves  alone  afford  a  permanant  basis  for  order 
and  liberty.  It  was  a  good  thing  that  Europe  did  not  pass  too 


250  THE   FEUDAL   AGE  [§271 

rapidly  into  the  city  stage,  but  moved   instead   toward   that 
larger  national  life  which  ancient  Greece  never  reached.1 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Source  material :  town  charters  and  gild 
rules  are  given  in  Pennsylvania  Reprints,  II,  No.  1.  Ogg's  Source  Book, 
No.  67,  gives  some  twelfth  century  charters. 

Modem  accounts :  brief  statements  of  great  value  are  to  be  found  in 
Adams,  Civilization,  290-310  ;  Cheyney,  Indu*tri<i!  <ni<i  Sudnl  Hint' try 
of  England,  67-95;  Green,  English  People,  I,  206-226;  Cunningham, 
English  Industry  and  Commerce,  I,  197-214;  Henderson,  Short  ///>•/.</•// 
of  Germany, I,  181-202;  Ziminern,  The  Hansa  T»fn.«:  Kmerton,  M> 
Europe,  520-540.  On  gilds,  —  Robinson's  Readings,  I,  409-412. 

SPECIAL  REPORTS.  —  1.  Mystery  plays  as  presented  by  the  gilds. 
2.  The  Hansa  and  the  herring  fishery.  3.  Fairs  in  the  Middle  Ages 
(see  Cheyney's  Industrial  and  Social  History,  75-79,  or  Cutts'  Scenes  and 
Characters  in  the  Middle  Ages,  606-508). 

1  Ancient  World,  §  268. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

LEARNING   AND   ART   IN   THE   FEUDAL   AGE 
I.   SCHOOLS  AND   UNIVERSITIES 

272.  The  "  Dark  Ages "  of  Europe  covered  six  centuries, 
from  the  Teutonic  invasions  to  the  Crusades.  We  have  noted 
that  the  old  Koman  schools  and  learning  vanished  during  the 
invasions  of  the  fifth  century.  There  was  a  brief  gleam  of 
promise  in  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  and  some  remarkable 
English  and  Irish  schools l  flourished  just  before  him,  and 
again,  a  little  later,  in  the  day  of  Alfred.  But  these  were 
points  of  light  in  a  vast  gloom.  On  the  whole,  from  500  to 
1100,  the  only  schools  were  those  connected  with  monasteries 
or  cathedrals,  and  these  aimed  only  to  fit  for  the  duties  of  the 
clergy.  Much  of  the  time,  even  this  important  task  was  per- 
formed poorly.  King  Alfred  was  not  the  only  reformer  who 
complained  of  priests  who  could  not  read  the  services  they 
mumbled  by  rote  (§  107). 

The  best  Cathedral  schools  claimed  to  teach  the  "  seven 
liberal  arts  "  of  the  ancient  classical  education  (§  18).  They 
did  teach  students  to  talk  a  barbarous  medieval  sort  of  Latin, 
and  gave  some  practice  in  writing  it  and  in  reasoning.  This 
instruction  was  a  shrunken  survival  of  the  Roman  trivium, 
Language,  Rhetoric,  and  Logic.  Even  slimmer  was  the  pre- 
tense to  teach  the  Roman  quadrivium  of  sciences.  As  a  great 
American  scholar  has  summed  it  up  (Dr.  Dana  Munro,  Middle 
Ages),  —  "  In  arithmetic  the  students  were  taught  to  keep  simple 
accounts ;  in  music,  what  was  necessary  for  the  church  services; 

1  These  schools  offer  an  excellent  topic  for  a  special  report  by  a  bright 
student,  especially  if  he  has  access  to  Zimmern's  Irish  Culture. 

251 


252  THE    FEUDAL   AGE  [§273 

in  geometry,  a  few   of  the  simplest   problems;  in  astronomy, 
enough  to  calculate  the  date  of  Easter." 

There  was  no  study  of  nature,  and  there  were  almost  no 
textbooks.  There  was  no  inquiry  and  no  criticism  or  discussion. 
The  teacher  dictated  (in  Latin)  dry  summaries,  word  by  word. 
Students  wrote  these  down  and  committed  them  to  memory 
for  recitation.  Such  schools  could  not  advance  learning  ;  but 
they  did  keep  alive  some  desire  for  if. 

273.  About  1 100,  Europe  began  to  stir  from  its  long  torpor  of 
the   intellect.     The   new  towns  set  up  lay  schools,  to   train  fin- 
business  and  trades.     These  schools  taught  reading,  writing,  a 
little  arithmetic,  and  geography;  and  they  taught,  not  in  Lai  in. 
but  in  the  "vernacular"  (the  speech  of  the  people).     That  is, 
they  sought  to  bring  education  to  greater  numbers  and  to  fit  it 
to  the  needs  of  daily  life. 

At  first,  the  church  schools  made  little  change  in  their  courses, 
but  their  spirit  improved.  The  teachers  began  to  draw  some 
real  scholarship  from  Arabian  universities  at  Cordova  and 
Alexandria  and  from  the  Greek  learning  that  still  lingered  at 
Constantinople  ;  and  here  and  there  they  ventured  to  add  lectures 
on  new  subjects,  —  theology,  medicine,  law. 

Soon  the  crusades  added  tremendously  to  the  intellectual 
awakening ;  and  the  result  of  all  these  impulses  was  the  medieval 
university. 

274.  One  of  the  earliest  universities,  and  the  most  famous  of 
them  all,  was  the  University  of  Paris.     The  Cathedral  of  Notre 
Dame  there  had  been  famous  for  its  school  for  fifty  years  ;  but 
that  school  began  to  grow  into  a  university  when  Peter  Abelard 
taught  there,  about  1115. 

Abelard  was  from  a  noble  family  in  Brittany,  but  he  chose 
the  life  of  a  churchman  rather  than  that  of  a  knight.  He  was 
an  attractive  youth,  with  a  brilliant  and  restless  mind,  and  the 
gift  of  simple  and  graceful  speech.  He  came  to  the  Paris 
school  as  a  student ;  but  his  teachers  soon  declared  him  their 
master  in  learning  and  in  eloquence,  and  at  twenty-two  he 
began  to  lecture  to  eager  crowds  on  theology  and  philosophy 


§274] 


RISE   OF   UNIVERSITIES 


253 


and  the  principles  of  right  living.  A  cruel  disappointment  in 
love,  and  the  jealous  hatred  of  intellectual  rivals,  drove  him 
from  Paris.  Thousands  of  students  followed  him,  however, 
from  place  to  place ;  and  when  he  sought  solitude  for  a  time, 
as  a  hermit,  they  covered  the  desert  about  him  with  their  tents 
and  reed  huts,  and  heaped  their  offerings  before  his  retreat. 

Such  an  experience  proved  that  Europe  was  hungry  for  knowl- 
edge,^ only  it  knew  where  to  seek  for  it.  The  impulse  Abelard 
had  given  to  the  school  at  Paris  was  not  lost.  Other  teachers 
flocked  thither,  to  satisfy  the  remaining  students  whom  his 
fame  had  drawn  together ;  and  soon  a  new  body  of  teachers  in 
theology  and  philosophy,  as  well  as  in  the  seven  "  arts,"  grew 
up  about  the  Cathedral  school,  but  wholly  separate  from  it. 
Before  1150,  several  hundred  "  masters  "  were  offering  instruc- 
tion in  the  "  Latin  Quarter "  of  Paris.  At  first  each  taught 
students  who  came  to  him  in  his  own  divelling,  collecting  his 
fees  from  them  as  best  he  _—<-«-  i 

could  ;  but  about  1150,  the 
masters  organized,  so  as 
to  confer  degrees  and  to 
establish  common  rules. 
This  marks  the  beginning 
of  a  definite  "  University 
of  Paris,"  with  a  recog- 
nized "faculty."  Before 
long,  the  university  began 
to  have  buildings  and  lec- 
ture halls. 

The  students  ranged 
from  boys  of  fourteen  to 
gray -bearded  men,  and 
they  came  from  all  parts 
of  Europe.  Those  from  one  country  grouped  themselves 
together  for  mutual  protection  and  companionship ;  and  each 
such  group  became  known  as  a  "  nation."  A  "  nation,"  how- 
ever, sometimes  included  students  from  several  adjoining 


SEAL  OF  THE  PICARDY  NATION  OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  PARIS,  fourteenth  cen- 
tury. 


254  THE   FEUDAL   AGE  [§  275 

countries,  —  like  the  "  English  nation,"  which  contained  men 
from  all  the  north  of  Europe.  There  were  four  "  nations  "  at 
Paris,  each  with  several  subdivisions.  The  government  of  the 
university  as  a  whole  was  in  the  hands  of  the  faculty  ;  but  there 
was  some  self-government  by  the  students.  The  nations  and 
subdivisions  elected  "  deans "  and  "  proctors "  to  look  after 
discipline.  The  university  was  a  "  Republic  of  Letters." 

When  the  teachers  organized,  they  copied  the  form  of  the  <//A/x 
(§  265).  The  professors,  or  "  doctors,"  were  "  masters."  They 
licensed  the  more  advanced  students,  after  the  completion  of 
the  course  in  "arts,"  as  "bachelors  in  arts,"  authorized  to 
teach  the  younger  students  in  those  courses  from  which  they 
themselves  had  graduated.  These  bachelors  corresponded  to 
the  journeymen  of  the  trade  gilds,  while  the  more  elementary 
students  corresponded  to  apprentices.  The  forms  of  public 
examination,  and  of  graduation  from  one  of  these  three  stages 
to  another,  were  copied,  too,  from  gild  customs.  Some  of 
them  survive  in  our  universities  to-day. 

For  nearly  a  century,  the  government  of  the  University  of 
Paris  remained  just  this  voluntary  association  of  teachers  and 
students,  independent  of  the  civil  government  and  of  the  church. 
But  many  quarrels  arose  between  students  and  townsfolk  (the 
first  "  town  and  gown  "  rows,  such  as  are  described  for  a  later 
period  in  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford);  and,  in  the  year  1200,  five 
students  were  killed  in  one  of  these  fights.  The  faculty  stood 
by  the  students,  and  threatened  to  remove  the  university.  To 
prevent  that  disaster  to  the  city,  King  Philip  Augustus  gave 
the  university  its  first  charter,  making  it  a  "corporation,"  — 
that  is,  a  person  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  —  able  to  own  property, 
and  in  this  case,  with  extreme  rights  of  self-government.  The 
students  were  to  be  tried  and  punished  for  crimes  only  by 
university  authorities,  not  by  courts  of  city  or  king. 

275.  Other  Universities.  —  "University"  did  not  at  first 
imply  instruction  in  all  forms  of  knowledge,  as  it  has  come 
to  do.  The  term,  as  it  was  used  in  early  charters,  meant  only 
"  all  of  you "  ;  and  it  became  the  common  legal  name  for  a 


§276] 


MEDIEVAL   UNIVERSITIES 


255 


"  corporation  "  of  teachers  and  students.     A  university  always 
had  a  course  in  "  arts,"  based  on  the  old  trivium  and  quad- 
rivium,  and  the   majority  of  students  went  no  further  than 
this.      But  graduates    of 
this   course  were    offered 
one  or  more  professional 
courses,  —  law,   medicine, 
or  theology. 

Paris,  we  have  seen, 
specialized  in  theology 
(which  included  philoso- 
phy). The  University  of 
Salerno,  in  southern  Italy, 
grew  out  of  a  monastery 
school,  through  the  promi- 
nence that  Constantine  the 
African  gave  there  to  the 
study  of  medicine  about 
1100.  Constantine  was  an 

African  Greek,  who  had  studied  in  Arabian  universities ;  and 
his  school  received  charters  of  privileges  from  Robert  Guiscard 
(§  218).  The  five-years'  medical  course  required  a  preparation 
of  three  years  in  "  arts." 

About  the  same  time,  at  Bologna,  Irnerius,  a  teacher  of 
Roman  law,  drew  students  from  all  Europe.  In  1158  Frederick 
Barbarossa  confirmed  this  University  of  Bologna  in  the  rights 
it  had  come  to  enjoy.  "  We  owe,"  said  Barbarossa's  charter, 
"  protection  to  all  our  subjects,  but  especially  to  those  whose 
knowledge  enlightens  the  world."  Bologna  was  soon  known 
as  "the  Mother  of  Laws."  Thus  it  has  been  said  that  the 
needs  of  the  body  gave  rise  to  Salerno,  the  needs  of  men  in 
society  created  Bologna,  and  the  eternal  needs  of  the  soul 
originated  Paris. 

276.  State  Universities.  —  The  next  great  step  was  taken  in 
1224,  when  the  Hohenstaufen  Frederick  II,  as  King  of  Sicily, 
created  by  charter  the  University  of  Naples,  to  combine  all 


SEAL  OF  THE  FACULTY  OF  THEOLOGY  AT 
PARIS,  fourteenth  century. 


256  THE   FEUDAL   AGE  [§  277 

branches  of  instruction,  "  in  order  that  those  who  hunger  for 
knowledge  may  find  within  the  kingdom  the  food  for  which 
they  yearn,  and  not  be  forced  to  go  into  exile  to  beg  the  bread 
of  learning  in  strange  lands."  The  UW/1", •*////  of  tuples  was 
the  first  university  created  by  a  government.  It  was  also  dis- 
tinctly a  "  state  university."  The  government  appointed  the 
professors,  endowed  chairs,  and  issued  degrees  in  the  different 
professions.  The  professors  were  free  from  taxes  and  1'rom 
military  service,  and  had  many  other  privileges  copied  from 
those  of  the  clergy  and  from  those  of  the  teachers  in  old 
Roman  universities.  Like  privileges  were  secured  soon  by 
all  university  professors. 

277.  Summary.  —  The  story  of  the  University  of  Paris  may 
stand  for  that  of  most  other  early  universities.  They  did  not 
come  into  existence  at  a  precise  moment.  They  were  volunfor;/ 
associations  of  teachers  and  students.  They  usually  grew 
out  of  some  church  school,  but  they  became  lay  schools,  with 
the  form  of  gilds.  Slowly  they  took  to  themselves,  by  custom, 
many  special  privileges;  and  later  these  were  confirmed  to 
them  by  charters  from  kings  or  popes.  Later  still,  enlightened 
rulers  began  to  create  new  universities,  as  Frederick  II  did 
that  of  Naples,  —  until,  before  1400,  some  fifty  mn'wrsities 
dotted  Western  Europe.  Some  single  institutions  claimed  to 
have  twelve,  or  even  twenty,  thousand  students. 

For  a  long  time,  a  university  had  little  in  the  way  of 
buildings.  Thus  it  could  move  easily ;  and,  by  threats  of 
doing  so,  it  compelled  its  town  to  put  up  with  much  student 
turbulence  and  crime.  The  great  University  of  Padua  did 
grow  out  of  a  secession  from  Bologna;  and  a  like  secession 
from  Paris  to  Oxford  in  England  first  made  that  place  a  real 
university  town. 

When  the  university  did  not  move,  the  individual  students 
very  commonly  did.  All  medieval  life  was  more  fiuid  than 
we  can  easily  comprehend.  Merchants,  soldiers  of  fortune, 
friars,  journeymen,  were  always  on  the  move ;  but  the  poor 
scholar-  was  the  typical  wanderer  of  them  all,  often  begging  his 


§  278]  ABELARD   AND  BERNARD  257 

bread  on  his  travels.  Young  men  thought  nothing  of  passing 
from  Oxford  to  Paris  or  Bologna,  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  some 
new  famous  teacher  —  and  to  see  the  world  by  the  way;  and 
often  they  traveled  in  considerable  bands,  with  much  jollity 
and  song  and  sometimes  with  much  disorder.  The  fact  that 
Latin  was  the  language  of  all  universities  encouraged  this 
freedom  of  movement.  Public  stage  coaches  are  said  to  have 
grown  up  to  meet  the  needs  of  student  travel. 

Thus,  before  1300,  another  figure  had  come  into  European  life.  Along- 
side peasant,  knight,  priest,  and  townsman,  there  moved  now  the  stu- 
dent (or  learned  "doctor")  in  cap  and  gown.  The  lay  lawyers  in 
England  (§  183)  in  Edward  the  First's  day  came  from  this  new  class. 
Of  all  five,  the  townsman  and  the  university  man  were  the  men  of  the 
coming  day. 

II.    THE    SCHOOLMEN 

278.  The  University  of  Paris  had  begun  in  a  spirit  of  fearless 
inquiry.  Alone  among  the  scholars  of  his  time,  Abelard  dared 
to  call  man's  reason  the  test  of  truth  —  even  in  the  matter  of 
church  doctrines.  He  did  not  himself  doubt  those  doctrines, 
so  far  as  we  know ;  but  devout  churchmen  were  alarmed  at  his 
method  of  teaching,  which  invited  doubt.  His  chief  opponent 
was  St.  Bernard,  head  of  the  famous  monastery  of  Clairvaux. 
Not  reason,  he  urged,  but  faith  and  love  enable  man  to  under- 
stand the  ways  of  God.  Man  might  not  use  his  reason  to  ask 
whether  or  not  a  doctrine  of  the  church  was  true,  but,  at  most, 
only  to  understand  how  it  was  true,  —  to  confirm  the  teachings 
of  the  church,  but  never  to  question  them.  This  view  prevailed. 
A  church  council  condemned  Abelard  as  a  heretic,  and  his 
books  were  burned. 

Bernard  was  a  far  better  man  than  Abelard,  and  one  of  the 
most  charming  and  lovely  characters  in  history.  His  abilities 
and  his  holy  life  gave  him  an  influence  greater  than  that  of  any 
king  or  emperor  of  his  day,  living  as  he  did  between  the  time 
of  Hildebrand  and  Innocent  III.  But  his  victory  over  Abelard 
cast  the  rising  universities *into  chains.  Teachers  thereafter 


258  THE    FEUDAL   AGE  [§279 

did  not  appeal  to  reason  as  a  guide  in  any  matter,  but  always 
to  authority,  —  in  human  matters  as  in  religion.  Some  garbled 
parts  of  the  science  of  Aristotle  (a  Greek  of  the  fourth  century 
B.C.)  had  been  recovered  through  Arabian  translations  from 
the  Greek,  and  they  soon  came  to  be  regarded  with  supersti- 
tious reverence  by  all  learned  men.  "  Thus  saith  Aristotle  " 
was  as  final  an  argument  in  science  as  "  Thus  saith  the  church  " 
in  religion. 

The  universities  were  captured  wholly  by  this  reverence  for 
authority.  They  yielded  to  the  spirit  of  the  Middle  Ages ;  and 
the  intellectual  rebirth  of  Europe  was  delayed  two  centuries 
more,  —  to  come  at  last  from  outside  their  wjills. 

279.  The  universities  took  refuge  in  a  method  of  reasoning  called 
scholasticism  (the  method  of  the  schools).  It  was  the  method 
we  use  in  geometry,  —  deducing  a  truth  from  given  premises  or 
axioms.  But  this  method  is  utterly  barren,  by  itself,  except  in 
mathematics.  It  ignores  observation  and  experiment  and  in- 
vestigation, and  it  has  never  discovered  a  new  truth  in  nature 
or  in  man.  The  schoolmen  did  not  use  it  in  mathematics. 
They  could  not  use  it  in  science.  And  so  they  turned  in  upon 
their  own  minds,  and,  from  premises  that  had  no  relation  to 
real  things,  they  built  up  vast  systems  of  */ «->•»!<  it  ion,  amaz- 
ingly constructed,  but  valueless  for  practical  life. 

At  the  same  time,  scholasticism  had  its  good  side.  It  was 
an  admirable  system  of  mental  gymnastics.  The  schoolmen 
developed  wonderful  acuteness  in  drawing  nice  verbal  distinc- 
tions. They  have  been  sometimes  ridiculed  unjustly  for  child- 
ishness in  discussing  such  questions  as,  How  many  spirits  can 
dance  at  one  time  on  the  point  of  a  needle.  But  in  this  discus- 
sion they  were  trying  to  decide  the  nature  of  space,  —  a 
question  very  far  from  childish.  Their  real  fault  was  that 
they  concerned  themselves  with  such  problems  rather  than 
with  something  that  would  have  helped  the  world  about 
them. 

About  the  year  1600,  Francis  Bacon  (an  English  thinker)  referred 
to  the  ""degenerate  learning"  that  "flid  reign  among  the  Schoolmen 


§281]  THE   SCHOOLMEN  259 

.  .  .  For  if  the  wit  of  men  .  .  .  work  upon  itself,  as  the  spider  worketh 
his  web,  then  it  is  endless  and  bringeth  forth  indeed  cobwebs  of  learning, 
admirable  for  the  fineness  of  thread  and  work,  but  of  no  substance  or 
profit." 

280.  The  three   great   Schoolmen   of  the   thirteenth   century 
were  Albert  the  Great,  TJwmas  of  Aquino,  and  Duns  the  Scot. 

Albert  (Albertus  Magnus,  died  1280)  was  a  German  Domini- 
can who  had  studied  at  Bologna  and  at  Paris.  He  mingled 
with  his  studies  enough  of  curious  speculation  upon  the  prop- 
erties of  stones,  plants,  and  animals  to  be  accused  of  the 
"  black  art, "  but  he  taught  positively  that  the  blood  of  a  stag 
would  soften  a  diamond,  without  ever  trying  an  experiment 
upon  the  matter. 

Thomas  Aquinas  (died  1274)  was  an  Italian  Dominican,  and 
a  pupil  of  Albertus  Magnus.  He  studied  at  Naples  and  Paris, 
and  afterward  lectured  at  Paris  to  immense  audiences.  He 
became  known  as  "  the  angelic  doctor.  "  His  great  work  sum- 
ming up  Christian  theology  is  the  most  complete  of  all  such 
published  systems  and  is  still  looked  upon  as  a  standard 
authority. 

Duns  Scotus  (died  1308)  was  among  the  last  of  the  great 
Schoolmen.  He  was  so  popular  that  an  able  disciple  was  proud 
to  be  called  "  a  Duns. "  When  a  better  intellectual  method 
arose,  after  the  revival  of  Greek  learning,  the  term  became  one 
of  contempt.  It  survives  in  "  dunce." 

281.  A  Forerunner  of  the    Scientific  Method.  —  Some    little 
science  crept  into  Europe  by  1200  from  the  Arabs,  especially 
in  astronomy  and  chemistry.     But  the  astronomy  was  mostly 
astrology,  —  a  system  of  telling  fortunes  by  the  stars.      And 
chemistry  was  little  more  than  a  search  for  the  "  philosopher's 
stone "  which  should  change  common  metals  into  gold,  or  for 
the  elixir  of  life,  a  drink  that  should  make  a  man  immortal. 
And  both  astrologers  and  chemists,  whether  honest  or  quacks, 
were  generally  believed  to  have  sold  their  souls  to  the  devil  in 
return  for  forbidden  knowledge. 

The  thirteenth  century,  however,  saw  one  attempt  to  study 


260  THE   FEUDAL   AGE  [§  281 

nature  in  a  scientific  way.  Roger  Bacon,1  an  English  Francis- 
can (died  1J94),  is  sometimes  called  a  Schoolman,  but  he  spent 
his  life  in  pointing  out  the  lacks  of  the  scholastic  method  and 
in  trying  to  make  clear  the  principles  of  true  science.  His 
"  Great  Work  "  was  a  cyclopedia  of  thirteenth-century  knowl- 
edge in  geography,  mathematics,  music,  and  physics. 

He  was  a  devoted  student,  working  under  difficulties  incred- 
ible to  us.  Fourteen  years  he  spent  in  prison,  for  his  opinions. 
More  than  once  he  sought  all  over  Europe  for  years  for  a  copy 
of  a  book,  when  a  modern  scholar  would  need  only  to  send  a 
note  to  the  nearest  bookseller.  He  learned  of  the  ocean  east 
of  China,  and  speculated  convincingly  upon  the  possibility  of 
reaching  Asia  by  sailing  west  into  the  Atlantic  (§  343).  He 
knew  much  about  chemical  explosives,  and  is  believed  to  ha\v 
invented  gunpowder.  He  is  thought  also  to  have  used  lenses 
as  a  telescope.  Probably  he  foresaw  the  possibility  of  using 
steam  as  a  motive  power.  Certainly  he  prophesied  that  in 
time  wagons  and  ships  would  move  "with  incredible  speed," 
without  the  help  of  horses  or  sails,  and  also  that  man  would 
learn  to  navigate  the  air. 

But  Bacon  lived  at  least  a  century  too  soon,  and  he  fou^d  no 
disciples.  In  1258  Brunetto  Latini,  the  tutor  of  Dante,  visited 
Bacon  and  wrote  as  follows  to  a  friend  in  Italy :  — 

Among  other  things  he  showed  me  a  black,  ugly  stone  called  a  magnet, 
which  has  the  surprising  quality  of  drawing  iron  to  it ;  and  if  a  needle  be 
rubbed  upon  it  and  afterward  fastened  to  a  straw,  so  that  it  will  swim 
upon  water,  it  will  instantly  turn  to  the  pole  star.  .  .  .  Therefore,  be 
the  night  never  so  dark,  neither  moon  nor  stars  visible,  yet  shall  the 
sailor  by  help  of  this  needle  be  able  to  steer  his  vessel  aright.  77/  fa  <//*/•/,/•- 
ery,  so  useful  to  all  who  travel  by  sea,  must  remain  concealed  until  other 
times,  because  no  master  mariner  dare  use  it,  Jest  he  fall  nmh'r  imputa- 
tion of  being  a  magician ;  nor  would  sailors  put  to  sea  with  one  who 
carried  an  instrument  so  evidently  constructed  by  the  devil.  A  time  may 
come  when  these  prejudices,  such  hindrances  to  researches  into  the  se- 

1  Roger  Bacon,  the  thirteenth-century  friar,  must  not  be  confused  with 
Francis  Bacon,  his  more  famous  but  no  more  deserving  countryman,  of  three 
centuries  later. 


§  283]  LITERATURE    AND   ART  261 

crets  of  nature,  will  be  overcome ;  and  then  mankind  will  reap  benefits 
from  the  labor  of  such  men  as  Friar  Bacon,  who  now  meet  only  with  oblo- 
quy and  reproach. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  (1)  On  Universities:  Sources:  Penn- 
sylvania Eeprints  (II,  No.  3)  and  Ogg's  Source  Book  (351-359)  contain 
much  interesting  information  concerning  "the  Medieval  Student." 
Robinson's  Headings,  I,  438^61  has  valuable  matter  on  medieval  learn- 
ing. Modern  accounts:  Laurie's  Rise  of  Universities;  McCabe's  Abe- 
lard;  Jessopp's  Friars  (ch.  vi,  "The  Building  up  of  a  University")  ; 
Mullinger's  Cambridge  (chs.  i-iii)  ;  and  Storrs'  Bernard. 

III.   LITERATURE  AND   THE   FINE   ARTS 

282.  Until  1200,  practically  all  writing  in  Western  Europe  was  in 
Latin,   and    was   therefore   the   possession   of  a   small   class. 
Knowledge  belonged  so  exclusively  to  the  clergy  that  a  man 
had    only  to  show  ability  to  read  in  order  to  establish  his 
right  to  "benefit  of  clergy  "  (§  151).     The  only  writers  were 
monks,  and  the  writings  consisted  almost  exclusively  of  the 
lives  of  saints  and  of  barren  chronicles. 

The  chroniclers  cared  more  about  the  acquisition  of  the 
wonder-working  bones  of  some  saint  by  a  monastery,  or  the 
election  of  a  new  abbot,  than  about  a  great  war  or  the  corona- 
tion of  a  new  monarch,  while  the  deeper  forces  in  a  people's 
life  they  seem  not  to  have  thought  of  at  all. 

The  Anglo  Saxon  Chronicle  has  this  entry  for  the  important  year  of 
1066  in  England :  "  In  this  year  King  Edward  died,  and  Earl  Harold  suc- 
ceeded to  the  kingdom  and  held  it  forty  weeks  and  one  day.  And  in 
this  year  William  came  and  won  England.  And  in  this  year  Christ 
Church  was  burned.  And  in  this  year  a  comet  appeared." 

283.  Rise  of  Vernacular  Literatures.  —  Latin  continued  long 
to  be  the  chief  language  of  science  and  philosophy.     But,  about 
1 200,  poets  and  story-tellers  began  to  use  the  speech  of  the  common 
people.     This  had  been  done  all  along  by  the  minstrels,  who, 
as  wandering  adventurers  or  as  retainers  of  some  lord,  formed 
a  characteristic  part  of  medieval  life.     But  now  there  arose  in 
various  lands  a  popular  poetry  of  a  high  order. 


262 


THE   FEUDAL   AGE 


[§  283 


Spanish  ballad  poets  chanted  the  Song  of  the  Cid  (the 
national  hero  in  the  conflict  with  the  Moors).  In  the  language 
of  northern  France,  the  trouveurs  celebrated  the  adventures  of 
Charlemagne  and  Roland  or  of  King  Arthur  and  his  Table 
Round.  In  the  softer  language  of  the  south  of  France  the 

troubadours  sang  of  love, 
as  did  the  minnesingers  in 
Germany.  Similar  songs 
were  written  in  the  dialect 
of  southern  Italy  at  the 
Sicilian  court  of  Frederick 
II  (§  231).  In  the  north, 
the  Scaiidiiiin-iiin  poets 
wove  the  ancient  Norse 
ballads  into  a  mighty 
epic,  the  /A'////.s7»v//////a, — 
as  the  Germans  also  had 
done  with  their  early 
5,  in  the 


England  was  backward, 
because  of  the  new  lan- 
guage imposed  fora  while 
by  her  Norm  an  conquerors. 
TheAngloSaxon  Chro/> 
it  is  true,  which  began  in 
Alfred's  day,  did  not  quite 
die  out  until  the  close  of 
Stephen's  reign,  and  soon 

afterward  rude  popular  songs  celebrated  the  deeds  of  Earl 
Simon ;  but  not  until  the  fourteenth  century  did  poetry  of  a 
high  order  awaken  in  that  island.  Finally,  toward  the  close 
of  the  century,  in  the  Canterbury  Tales,  Chaucer,  "  the  Father 
of  English  Poetry,"  fused  the  Saxon  and  the  Norman  French 
into  a  literary  English,  while  at  almost  the  same  time  Wyclif 
(§  295)  translated  the  Bible  into  the  speech  of  the  people. 


CHURCH  OF  SAINT-MACLOU  AT  ROUEN, 
fifteenth  century. 


283] 


GOTHIC   ARCHITECTURE 


263 


RHEIMS  CATHEDRAL.    This  beautiful  building  was  badly  damaged  by  Ger- 
man shells  in  1914. 


264 


THE   FEUDAL   AGE 


[§284 


284.  Medieval  Painting. — Classical  art  had  been  as  completely 
lost  through  the  early  Middle  Ages  as  classical  learning. 
Medieval  painting  existed  only  as  the  handmaid  of  religion. 
Monks  "illuminated"  missals  and  other  religious  books, — 
painting  with  tiny  brushes  in  brilliant  colors  on  parchment,  — 
and  they  designed  gay  page  borders  and  initial  letters,  some- 
times with  beauty  and  delicacy. 

On  a  larger  scale,  the  only  paintings  were  rude  altar  pieces, 
representing  stiff  Madonnas  and  saints,  in  unnatural  colors. 

___^    The  painters  knew  little  of 

perspective ;  and  even  the 
flowing  draperies  which 
they  used  freely  could  not 
hide  their  ignorance  of 
how  to  draw  the  human 
1 1  body. 

285.    Architecture,    too, 

until    tin'     twelfth      Centura* 

was  relatively    poor    and 
rude.     The  style  was  the 
Hininiiii'fuitii',  based   upon 
old   Roman    remains  and 
characterized  by  the  romul 
arch.     Hut  in  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries, 
SALISBURY    CATHEDRAL,  from  the  south-   the  Romanesque  gave  way 
east ;  built  1200-1250.    The  spire  rises  404    to    a    new    French    style, 

called  Gothic  ;  and  archi- 
tecture, especially  in  churches  and  cathedrals,  reached  one  of  its 
greatest  periods. 

At  bottom,  the  change  lay  in  a  better  way  of  carry  in  tj  the  weight 
of  the  huge  stone  roof.  The  early  architects  had  done  this  by 
massive  walls  ;  but  they  dared  not  weaken  these  by  cutting  out 
large  windows,  and  the  buildings  were  dark  and  gloomy.  The 
architect  of  the  twelfth  century  was  a  better  engineer,  and  he 
invented  two  new  devices  to  carry  the  roof.  (1)  He  gathered 


285] 


GOTHIC  ARCHITECTURE 


265 


its  weight  at  certain  points  —  by  using  converging  arches  —  in- 
stead of  leaving  the  weight,  as  before,  distributed  equally  along 
the  whole  length  of  the  wall.  And  he  rested  these  arches,  at 
the  points  of  convergence,  on  groups  of  mighty  pillars.  (2)  To 
help  these  pillars  bear  the  immense  burden,  he  added  arched 
props  (flying  buttresses)  against  the  outside  of  the  wall  at  the 
critical  points.  These  met  the  side  thrust -Qf  the  roof's  weight, 
and  left  only  the  direct 
vertical  burden  for  the 
pillars. 

The  massive  wall  and  round 
arch  can  be  seen  in  the  illus- 
tration of  Norman  architecture 
on  page  153.  The  view  of  the 
Salisbury  cloisters  (page  260) 
will  show  in  a  very  simple 
case  how  the  roof  was  borne 
by  converging  arches  resting 
on  pillars.  A  more  compli- 
cated illustration  of  this  fea- 
ture appears  in  the  gildhall  of 
the  Dantzig  merchants  on 
page  247. 


PART  OF  THE  UPPER  WALL  OF  NORWICH 
CATHEDRAL,  showing  flying  buttresses. 
(See  also  Bath  Abbey,  in  the  background 
of  the  cut  on  page  21.) 


As  a  consequence  of  these  changes  in  engineering,  Gothic  archi- 
tecture took  on  a  wholly  new  appearance.  It  changed  the  old 
round  arch  into  a  lighter,  more  varied,  and  more  graceful 
pointed  arch.  It  used  the  old  Greek  columns  with  greater  free- 
dom and  variety,  —  since  the  columns  now  did  the  work  of 
walls  to  so  great  a  degree.  Eounded  ceilings  gave  way  to 
loftier  and  curiously  vaulted  ceilings,  where  the  ribs  of  converg- 
ing arches  intersected  one  another  in  ingenious  ways.  The 
tower  replaced  the  Roman  dome ;  and  heaven-pointing  spires 
were  added,  borrowed  perhaps  from  the  Saracens.  The  weight 
of  the  roof  was  so  well  cared  for  that  it  was  safe  now  to  pierce 
the  walls  with  row  on  row  and  group  after  group  of  tall 
windows,  giving  the  building  an  effect  of  lightness  and  com- 
plexity. New  chances  for  ornament,  too,  were  found  in  the 


266 


THE   FEUDAL   AGE 


[§285 


SALISBTKY  CI.OISTKKS.     Note  the  intersect- 
ing ribs  of  the  vaulted  ceiling  (§  285). 


tracery  (openings  in  the  stonework  about  doors  and  windows 
to  reduce  the  weight),  in  the  moldings  of  the  many  window 
frames,  and  in  the  use  of  stained  glass  —  since  there  could  now 

be  windows  enough  to 
admit  the  necessary  light 
<-v«>n  through  darkened 
glass.  Externally,  the/y- 
iinj  buttresses  themselves 
were  made  into  a  strik- 
ingly beautiful  architec- 
tural feature;  and  the 
niches  about  the  portals 
were  tilled  with  countless 
m'liljitiircil  for/us  of  ?n tints.1 
The  total  result  was  a 
new  architecture,  so  dif- 
ferent from  the  older  styles  as  to  permit  no  comparison.  Gothic 
architecture  is  the  most  perfect  product  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  a  Gothic  Cathedral  is  one  of  the  world's  wonders  to-day. 
Such  buildings  were  the  finest  expression  of  the  highest  life 
of  the  time.  They  were  "  religious  aspirations  in  stone." 

1  The  general  effect  of  these  rough  sculptures  is  imposing,  especially  at  a 
little  distance;  but  a  close  inspection  reveals  a  vast  inferiority  between  them 
and  the  marble-sculptured  forms  of  athletes  in  which  ancient  art  had  delighted . 
The  medieval  workman,  however,  made  up,  in  a  measure,  for  his  lack  of 
skill  in  sculpture  and  for  the  poorer  material  that  he  worked  in  (stone,  not 
marble)  by  giving  full  play  to  a  rude  humor  — as  when  perhaps  he  carved  a 
monkey  on  a  monk's  back,  clinging  to  his  ears,  or  when  he  formed  the  quaint 
gargoyles  through  which  the  gutters  of  cathedral  roofs  discharged  rain  water. 


PART  II 

FROM  THE  CRUSADES  TO  LUTHER 

(Tim  AGE  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE,  1300-1520) 

286.  The  Periods.  —  The  five  centuries  from  Charlemagne  to 
1300  we  have  treated  as  "the  Age  of  Feudalism."  The  period 
falls  naturally  into  two  great  parts. 

From  814  to  1100  (to  the  opening  of  the  Crusades)  is  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  "  Dark  Ages,"  which  had  seemed  broken  by 
the  work  of  Charlemagne.  The  matters  of  moment  in  these 
gloomy  three  hundred  years  are  the  grim  feudal  system,  the 
medieval  church,  the  serf  system  of  labor,  the  destructive  strife 
between  empire  arid  papacy,  and  at  the  close,  the  Norman 
Conquest  of  England. 

From  1100  to  1300  we  find  ourselves  in  a  new  atmosphere. 
It  is  convenient  to  call  these  two  hundred  years  "  the  Age  of 
the  Crusades."  But  quite  as  much  they  were  the  age  of  the 
rise  of  towns  and  trade  gilds,  and  of  universities,  of  literature 
in  the  language  of  the  different  peoples,  of  Gothic  architecture 
in  cathedrals  and  town  halls,  of  the  growth  of  France  out  of 
feudal  fragments  into  a  kingdom,  and  of  the  rise  of  parliament 
and  of  national  courts  in  England.  True,  Germany  fell  back 
into  feudal  turbulence ;  and  the  universities  were  captured  by 
the  barren  spirit  of  scholasticism.  Still,  the  year  1100  is  the 
threshold  over  which  we  pass  from  centuries  of  gloom  to  centuries 
of  fruitful  progress. 

Part  II  deals  with  two  centuries  of  yet  more  rapid  advance, 
which  carry  us  well  out  of  the  Middle  Ages  into  Modern  life. 
Like  the  year  1100,  the  year  1300  also  is  a  milestone  of  progress. 
In  the  two  following  centuries  Europe,  politically,  passes  from 
feudalism  to  modern  national  states,  and  intellectually  finds  a 
rebirth  (Renaissance). 

267 


SKALS  OF  EDWARD  ill  OF  ENGLAND  before  and  after  the  assumption  of  the 
arms  of  France  (§  288).  On  the  seal  to  the  right  may  by  noticed  the  royal 
tieur-de-lis  of  France. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

ENGLAND   AND   FRANCE 
(DURING  THE   HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  AND  THE  WARS  OF  THE  ROSES) 

We  left  the  story  of  England  in  §  188  with  the  accession  of  Edward  III 
in  1327,  and  the  story  of  France,  in  §  196,  with  the  rule  of  Philip  the  Fair, 
which  closed  in  1314.  For  the  next  hundred  and  thirty  years,  the  stories 
of  the  two  countries  are  intertwined. 

I.   FIRST  PERIOD  OF  THE   HUNDRED   YEARS'    WAR 

287.  Opening  of  the  Struggle.  —  When  Edward  III  came  to 
the  throne  (1327)  most  of  England's  old  possessions  in  France 
were  gone ;  bfrfr  he  was  still  Duke  of  Aquitaine  —  and,  in  name, 
a  vassal  of  the  French  king  for  that  province.  Like  Edward  I, 
the  third  Edward  strove  strenuously  —  but  vainly  —  to  unite 
Scotland  to  England  by  arms ;  and  the  French  king,  continuing 
the  old  policy  of  Philip  Augustus  (§  194),  toward  his  too 
powerful  vassal,  gave  aid  to  Scotland.  Therefore,  in  1338, 
Edward  gladly  seized  the  excuse  to  declare  war  on  France. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  the  "  Hundred  Years'  War,"  which 
lasted,  with  two  truces,  until  1453. 

268 


§  288] 


THE    HUNDRED   YEARS'    WAR 


269 


288.  To  strengthen  his  position  Edward  set  up  a  fanciful 
claim  to  the  French  crown ; 1  and  from  that  time  until  the 
nineteenth  century,  each  English  king  kept  also  the  title  "  King 
of  France."  But  at  bottom  the  war  was  commercial  in  purpose. 


ENGLISH  LADY  ON  HORSEBACK.  — 
From  a  fourteenth  century  manu- 
script in  the  British  Museum. 


1  2 

FRENCH  DRESS  IN  THE  FOURTEENTH 
CENTURY:  1.  Middle  class;  2. 
Lower  class ;  3.  Noble  lady. 


England  wanted  markets  for  her  products.     In  particular,  her 
merchants  wanted  to  sett  their  wool  in  the  Flemish  manufacturing 


1  The  following  table  gives  the  Capetian  kings  for  this  period,  with  dates 
of  accession.    See  §  191  for  the  earlier  Capetians. 


Louis  X 1314 

Philip  V 1316 

Charles  IV 1322 

Philip  VI  (Valois) 1328 

John 1350 

Charles  V  (the  Wise).    .    .     .  1364 


Charles  VI 1380 

Charles  VII 1422 

Louis  XI 1461 

Charles  VIII 1483 

Louis  XII 1498 

Francis  I  .  .    1515-1547 


The  first  three  were  sons  of  Philip  IV,  and  left  no  sons.  The  French 
nobles  then  chose  Charles'  cousin,  Philip  of  Valois,  for  king.  The  mother 
of  Edward  III  was  a  daughter  of  Philip  the  Fair.  French  law,  however,  did 
not  recognize  inheritance  of  the  crown  through  females.  And  if  it  had,  then, 
through  other  princesses,  there  were  French  nobles  with  better  claims  than 
Edward.  Edward  did  not  put  forward  his  claim  until  after  war  had  begun. 


270  ENGLAND   AND  FRANCE  [§  289 

towns,  and  to  buy  the  famous  Bordeaux  wines  of  Aquitaine.  In 
that  day  every  country  shackled  foreign  merchants  with  re- 
strictions and  tolls ;  and  the  easiest  way  to  get  access  to  French 
markets  seemed  to  be  to  conquer  France. 

289.  The  war  was   waged   on    French   soil.       The    English 
gained   brilliant   victories,    overran    France    repeatedly,    and 
brought  home  much  plunder.     "  No  woman,"  says  an  English 
chronicler,  "  but  had  robes,  furs,  featherbeds,  and  utensils,  from 
French  cities."     England   was    prosperous,  too,  in   the  early 
period  of  the  war.     The  people  felt  none  of  its  direct  ravages  — 
except  for  occasional  raids  by  Norman  pirates  on  the  coas^  —  and 
for  many  years  they  bore  cheerfuly  the  cost  of  campaigns  abroad. 

290.  The  two  great  victories  of  this  first  period  of  the  war 
were  Crecy  and  Poitiers. 

In  1346  Edward  led  an  army  through  the  north  of  France, 
ravaging  crops,  burning  peasant  villages,  and  turning  the 
country  into  a  blackened  desert,  to  within  sight  of  the  walls  of 
Paris,  —  in  the  usual  fashion  of  warfare  in  those  chivalrous 
days.  Philip  VI  (less  capable  than  most  Capetians  but  a  brave 
prince)  gathered  the  feudal  forces  of  France  in  an  immense 
host  to  crush  the  invader.  Edward  retreated  toward  the  coast, 
but  was  overtaken  at  Cre'cy  by  five  times  his  numbers.  The 
French  might  easily  have  annihilated  his  little  army  by  shutting 
them  off  from  supplies ;  but  king  and  nobles  thought  only  of 
instant  vengeance  on  the  invader,  and  charged  at  once,  with 
headlong  but  blind  valor. 

Edward  had  drawn  up  his  troops,  less  than  sixteen  thousand 
in  all,  on  the  slope  of  a  hill,  with  a  ditch  in  front  to  check 
the  charge  of  horsemen.  Behind  the  ditch  stood  the  English 
bowmen,  the  main  force  of  the  army;  and  Edward  even  dis- 
mounted his  few  hundred  men-at-arms  to  fight  on  foot  among 
them  and  so  strengthen  their  lines  against  a  charge.  This 
force,  which  was  to  meet  the  French  onset,  was  placed  under 
the  command  of  the  king's  oldest  son,  the  young  Edward, 
known  better  as  " the  Black  Prince"  while  King  Edward,  with 
a  reserve,  took  stand  higher  up  the  hill. 


§  290]  CRfcCY   AND   CALAIS  271 

The  first  charge  of  the  French  nobles  seemed  for  a  moment 
about  to  swallow  up  the  little  English  army,  and  the  young 
Edward  sent  to  his  father  for  reinforcement.  But  the  king 
from  his  higher  ground  could  see  that  all  was  going  well.  "  Is 
my  son  dead,  or  unhorsed,  or  wounded  ?  Then  go  back,  and 
bid  them  not  send  to  me  again  so  long  as  he  lives.  Let  the 
boy  win  his  spurs,  for,  if  God  so  please,  I  will  that  the  honor 
of  the  day  be  his." 

TJie  honor  really  belonged  to  the  English  yeomen,  —  the  men  of 
the  six-foot  long-bow  and  heavy,  yard-long  shafts  winged  with 
feathers  from  gray-goose  wings.  The  English  free  peasants 
were  trained  from  childhood  to  draw  "  a  mighty  bow "  —  as 
English  ballads  called  the  national  weapon  —  by  "  laying  the 
body  to  it,"  when  main  strength,  unskilled,  could  not  have 
bent  it.  The  archer  shot  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile  (four  hun- 
dred yards),  and  drove  his  arrows  through  all  ordinary  iron 
armor;  or,  if  the  knight  were  clothed  in  "armor  of  proof" 
from  Milan,  he  took  deadly  aim,  at  closer  quarters,  at  openings 
for  eyes  and  mouth,  or  at  any  exposed  joint.  Confident  in 
their  skill,  the  bowmen  coolly  faced  the  ponderously  charging 
mass,  pouring  in  their  arrows,  says  a  French  chronicler, 
"  wherever  they  saw  the  thickest  press,"  and  letting  few  French 
knights  reach  the  English  lines.1 

The  battle  began  toward  evening.  At  dusk,  the  gallantest 
chivalry  in  Europe  were  in  flight,  leaving  dead  on  the  field 
twice  the  whole  number  of  the  English  army.  The  invincibility 
of  the  feudal  horseman  was  gone.  Ten  years  later,  the  Black 
Prince,  in  sole  command  this  time,  repeated  the  victory  at 
Poitiers  against  seven  times  the  English  numbers. 

One  chronicler  of  the  day  says  that  gunpowder  was  used  at  Cre"cy. 
The  English,  he  reports,  had  several  small  "bombards"  "which,  with 
fire,  and  noise  like  God's  thunder,  threw  little  iron  balls  to  frighten  the 
horses  /"  Cannon  certainly  came  into  use  about  this  time  ;  but  the  first 
ones  were  made  by  fastening  bars  of  iron  together  with  hoops ;  and  the 

1  Ogg's  Source  Book,  No.  76,  gives  Froissart's  description  of  Crecy. 


272 


ENGLAND   AND  FRANCE 


gunpowder  was  full  of  impurities  and  very  weak.  Cannon  were  of  little 
use  for  a  century  more.  Then  they  began  to  be  used  to  batter  down 
the  walls  of  castles  and  cities.  It  was  longer  still  before  firearms  replaced 
the  long-bow  for  infantry. 

291.    Calais  and  Peace.  —  Victories  like  Crecy  foretold  a  vast 
revolution  in  society,  but  they  had  little  effect  on  the  war  at 

the  time.  Edward  gained  little 
French  territory  by  them;  and, 
before  the  end  of  his  reign,  the 
French  had  recovered  all  that  he 
did  gain  except  a  few  places  on 
the  coast.  He  used  the  interval 
that  Cre'cy  brought  him,  it  is  true, 
to  besiege  and  capture  Calais,  an 
important  port  on  the  Channel  ; 
and  this  city  remained  in  Ewjlish 
hands  for  two  centuries,  —  an  open 
door  at  any  moment  for  the  inva- 
sion of  France. 

At  Poitiers,  John,  the  king  of 

France,  was  captured.  This  event  brought  a  short  peace. 
King  John  paid  an  enormous  ransom  and  surrendered  all 
suzerainty  over  Aquitaine.  Edward,  in  turn,  gave  up  all  'claim 
to  any  other  part  of  France,  except  Aquitaine  and  Calais.  Tliis 


A  "BOMBARD."  —  From  a  six- 
teenth century  German  wood- 
cut. 


Peace  of  Bretfgny  closed  the  first  period  of  the  icar 

292.  The  Second  Period  of  the  War.  —  In  1369  a  dispute  con- 
cerning Aquitaine  found  both  parties  eager  to  renew  the  war. 
The  French  king  now  was  Charles  V  (The  Wise),  and  the 
victories  all  belonged  to  the  French  side.  Place  after  place 
fell  to  them,  until,  at  the  end,  in  1380,  England  kept  only  two 
towns,  —  Bordeaux  and  Calais. 


II.  ENGLISH  DEVELOPMENT  DURING  THE  WAR 

293.   The  Black  Death.  —  French  success  in  the  second  period 
of  the  war  had  been  due  not  alone  to  Charles  the  Wise,  but 


§294]  THE  BLACK  DEATH  273 

even  more  to  new  conditions  in  England.  The  happy  pros- 
perity of  the  first  part  of  Edward's  reign  had  received  a 
terrible  shock  from  the  Black  Death.  This  was  the  most 
famous  of  all  the  plagues  of  history.  It  had  been  devastating 
the  continent  for  some  years,  —  moving  west  from  Asia,  —  and 
it  is  believed  to  have  carried  off  at  least  a  third  of  the  population 
of  Europe.  In  the  year  after  Crecy,  it  reached  England,  and 
almost  at  a  blow  it  certainly  swept  away  a  third  of  the  people 
there.  One  bright  fact  shines  out  from  the  universal  misery  — 
the  splendid  devotion  of  the  village  priests.  They  might 
easily  have  kept  themselves  safest ;  but  everywhere,  through 
their  self-sacrificing  care  of  their  dying  parishioners,  they 
suffered  most.  In  some  counties,  more  than  two-thirds  the 
parishes  were  left  without  clergy. 

294.  Serfs  and  Villeins  became  Free  Yeomen.  —  Except  for  the 
devoted  village  priests,  the  loss  fell  most  heavily  on  the  work- 
ing classes ;  but  it  soon  helped  those  who  remained  to  rise  out  of 
serfdom.  The  lack  of  laborers  was  so  great  that  wages  doubled, 
and  therefore  a  higher  standard  of  living  became  common. 

True,  parliament  tried,  in  the  interest  of  the  landlords,  to 
keep  down  the  laborers  by  foolish  and  tyrannical  laws,  —  for- 
bidding them  to  leave  the  parish  where  they  lived  or  to  take 
more  wages  than  had  been  customary  in  the  past,  and  ordering 
them  under  cruel  penalties  to  serve  any  one  who  offered  them 
such  wages.1  But  when  a  landlord  was  anxious  to  harvest  a 
standing  crop,  he  did  not  dare  to  try  to  take  advantage  of  such 
laws.  Instead,  to  keep  his  old  serfs  from  running  away  to 
other  landlords,  he  made  more  and  more  favorable  terms  with 
them,  and  gradually  alloived  them  to  exchange  all  their  personal 
services  for  a  fixed  rent  in  money. 

In  the  latter  part  of  Edward's  long  reign,  hoiuever,  the  peasants 
were  stirred  by  bitter  discontent.  The  change  from  serfdom  to 
freedom  had  begun  even  before  the  Black  Death.  That  event 
hastened  it;  but  still  it  was  spread  over  a  century.  This 

1  The  Pennsylvania  Reprints  (II,  5)  gives  the  famous  Statute  of  Laborers. 


274 


ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE 


[§295 


seems  swift,  to  a  student  ages  later  ;  but  to  the  suffering 
laborers  of  that  century  —  father,  son,  grandson,  great-grandson 
—  it  was  terribly  slow.  Each  gain  made  them  doubly  im- 
patient with  the  burdens  that  remained.  They  felt,  too,  many 
cases  of  bitter  hardship  and  tyranny,  —  where  a  lord,  by  legal 
trickery  or  by  downright  violence,  forced  half-freed  villeins 
back  again  to  serfdom. 

295.  Wyclif  and  John  Ball  —  Another  set  of  causes  added  to 
this  discontent.  The  growing  wealth  of  the  church,  and  the 
worldliness  of  the  great  churchmen,  were  becoming  a  common 

scandal.  The  famous  and 
gentle  Chaucer,  a  court 
poet,  indulged  in  keen 
raillery  toward  these 
faults.1  More  serious 
men  saw  them  as  plainly, 
and  could  not  dismiss 
them  with  a  jest. 

At  the  University  of 
Oxford,  a  clergyman,  Jnlm 
WfK'fif,  one  of  the  most 
famous  lecturers  there, 
preached  vigorously 
against  the  luxury  of  the 
rich  and  abuses  in  the 
church,  and  at  length 
passed  on  to  attack  some 
of  the  church  doctrines. 
He  has  been  called  "the 

Morning  Star  of  the  Reformation."  He  denied  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation  (§  148),  and  he  insisted  that  even  ignorant 
men  might  know  the  will  of  God,  through  the  Bible,  without 
the  aid  of  a  priest.  Accordingly,  with  his  companions,  he 


JOHN  WYCLIF. 


1  Illustrations  may  be  found  in  the  descriptions  of  the  monk,  the  prioress, 
the  friar,  and  the  pardoner,  in  the  Prologue  to  the  Canterbury  Tales. 


295] 


WYCLIF  AND   THE    "LOLLARDS 


275 


made  the  first  complete  translatioh  of  the  Bible  into  English ; 
and  his  disciples  made  many  copies  (with  the  pen,  since  print- 
ing was  not  yet  known)  and  distributed  them  throughout  the 
land. 

These  disciples,  who  wandered  through  England,  called  them- 
selves "poor  preachers."     Their    enemies  called  them  "mad 


AN  ENGLISH  CARRIAGE  OF  THE  FOURTEENTH  CENTURY.  —  After  Jusse- 
rand's  English  Wayfaring  Life;  from  a  fourteenth  century  psalter. 
This  carriage  is  represented  as  drawn  by  five  horses  tandem,  driven  by 
two  postilions.  Such  a  carriage  was  a  princely  luxury,  equaling  in  value 
a  herd  of  from  four  hundred  to  sixteen  hundred  oxen. 

priests  "  or  "  Lollards  "  (babblers).  Some  of  them  exaggerated 
their  master's  teachings  against  wealth,  and  called  for  the 
abolition  of  all  rank  and  property.  John  Ball,  one  of  the  "  mad 
preachers,"  attacked  the  privileges  of  the  gentry  in  rude 
rhymes  that  rang  through  England  from  shore  to  shore,  — 

"  When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span, 
Who  was  then  the  gentleman  ?  " 

"  This  priest,"  says  Froissart,  a  contemporary  chronicler,  "  used  often- 
times to  go  and  preach  when  the  people  in  the  villages  were  coming  out 
from  mass ;  and  he  would  make  them  gather  about  him,  and  would  say 
thus :  '  Good  people,  things  go  not  well  in  England,  nor  will,  till  every- 
thing be  in  common  and  there  no  more  be  villeins  and  gentlemen.  By 
what  right  are  they  whom  we  call  lords  greater  folk  than  we  ?  We  be  all 
come  from  one  father  and  one  mother,  Adam  and  Eve,  .  .  .  but  they 
are  clothed  in  velvet  and  are  warm  in  their  furs,  while  we  shiver  in  rags  ; 
they  have  wine,  and  spices,  and  fair  bread  ;  and  we,  oat  cake  and  straw, 


276  ENGLAND   AND   FRANCE  [§  206 

and  water  to  drink  ;  they  dwell  in  fine  houses,  and  we  have  the  pain  and 
travail,  the  rain  and  the  wind  in  the  fields.  From  our  labor  they  keep 
their  state.  Yet  we  are  their  bondmen  ;  and  unless  we  serve  them  readily, 
we  are  beaten.'  And  so  the  people  would  murmur  one  with  the  other  in 
the  fields,  and  in  the  ways  as  they  met  together,  affirming  that  John  Ball 
spoke  truth." 

296.  The  general  confusion  was  increased  by  weakness  in  the 
government.     Edward's  hand  lost  its  firm  control,  in  old  age, 
with  much  sickness  and  family  trouble,  and  he  died  in  l.">77. 
His  eldest  son,  the  Black  Prince,  had  died  before  him ;  and  he 
was  succeeded  by  his  grandson.1     That  prince,  Richard  II,  \vas 
a  mere  boy,  and  the  government  was  distracted  by  dissensions 
among  his  counselors. 

297.  The  Peasant  Rising  of  1381.  — While  England  was  in 
this  state  of  confusion  and  discontent,  parliament  passed   a 
heavy  poll  tax,  bearing  with  unfair  weight  on  the  poor.     This 
proved  a  match  to  set  the  realm  ablaze.    With  amazing  suddrn- 

iThe  following  t;il>l«-  will  show  the  succession  of  English  kings  for  the  rest 
of  this  chapter :  also  the  conflicting  claims  that  will  call  for  attention  in  §  304. 
For  Edward  III,  refer  back  to  the  table  on  page  178. 

(1)  EDWARD  III  (1327-1377) 


Ed 

ward                   Lionel 

John  of  Gaunt             Edmund.  Duke 

the  Black  Prince 

Duke  of                        of  YORK 

(d. 

1376) 

LANCASTER 

Philippa 

I 

(2)    RlCHARE 

•  II  (1377-1399) 

(3) 

HENRY  IV  (1399-1413) 

(deposed) 

(4) 

HENRY  V  (1413-1422) 

Roger 

| 

Earl  of  March  (5) 

HENRY  VI  (1422-1461) 

(deposed) 

Richard,  Duke  of  York 

(6)  EDWARD  IV  (8)  RICHARD  III 
(1461-1483)  (1483-1485) 

(7)  EDWARD  V 

(1483) 


§297] 


THE   PEASANT   REVOLT,    1381 


277 


ness,  the  peasantry  rose  in  arms.  From  all  sides  they  marched 
upon  London,  and  in  a  few  days  the  king  and  kingdom  were  in 
their  hands. 

Their  special  demand  was  that  all  labor  rents  should  be 
exchanged  for  fixed  money  rents.  The  strangest  thing  about 

the  rising   was   the   self-restraint      

shown  by  the  peasants.  The  vari- 
ous bands  sacked  some  buildings 
of  the  gentry  class,  —  destroying 
especially  the  "manor  rolls,"  or 
the  written  evidence  of  services 
due  from  villeins  on  an  estate, — 
and  they  put  to  death  a  few  lawyers 
and  nobles.  But  women  and  chil- 
dren were  not  injured,  and  there 
was  no  attempt  at  general  pillage 
and  murder,  such  as  usually  mark 
servile  insurrections  and  such  as 
characterized  the  frightful  risings 
of  the  peasantry  in  France  a  little 
earlier.  The  French  "Jacquerie"1 
was  an  outburst  of  brute  rage, 
upon  the  part  of  hopeless  crea- 
tures, goaded  past  endurance,  and 
seeking  only  to  glut  their  ven- 
geance. The  English  peasants 
stood  upon  a  higher  plane  of  comfort  and  of  civilization,  and 
their  revolt  was  marked  by  the  moderation  of  men  who  had  a 
reasonable  program  for  reform. 

Unfortunately,  the  peasants  lacked  the  organization  needful 
to  secure  the  results  of  their  temporary  success.  Their  chief 
leader,  Wat  the  Tyler,  was  murdered  treacherously  in  a  confer- 

1  From  the  name  Jacques,  used  generally  for  French  peasants,  as  "  Pat  "  is 
used  for  an  Irishman.  Probably  our  phrase,  "  a  country  Jake,"  has  this 
origin.  Conan  Doyle's  White  Company  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  the  French 
Jacquerie. 


EFFIGY  FROM  THE  TOMB  OF 
THE  BLACK  PRINCE. 


278 


ENGLAND    AND    FRANCE 


[§  -' 


ence  under  a  flag  of  truce  as  we  would  say.  "  Kill ! "  shouted 
the  great  mass  of  Tyler's  followers ;  "  they  have  murdered  our 
captain  ! "  But  the  young  Richard  rode  forward  fearlessly  to 
their  front.  "  What  need  ye,  my  masters  !  "  he  called ;  "  I  am 


A  FOURTEENTH  CENTURY  BRIDGE  IN  RURAL  ENGLAND,  near  Danby  in 
Oxfordshire.  — From  Jusserand's  English  }\'<i>/f,/ri)i</  Life. 

your  king  and  captain."  "  We  will  that  you  free  us  forever," 
shouted  the  peasant  army,  "  us  and  our  lands ;  and  that  we  be 
never  more  named  serfs."  "  I  grant  it,"  replied  the  boy ;  and 
he  persuaded  them  to  go  home  by  such  pledges  and  by  promise 
of  free  pardon.  For  days,  a  force  of  thirty  clerks  was  kept  busy 
writing  out  brief  charters  containing  the  king's  promises. 

But  when  the  peasants  had  scattered  to  their  villages,  bear- 
ing to  each  one  a  copy  of  the  king's  treacherous  charter,  the 
property  classes  rallied  and  took  a  bloody  vengeance.  Parlia- 
ment declared,  indeed,  that  Richard's  promise  was  void,  because 
he  could  not  give  away  the  gentry's  property  —  the  services 
due  them  —  without  their  consent.  Quite  willing,  Richard 
marched  triumphantly  through  England  at  the  head  of  forty 


§  298]  THE   PEASANT   REVOLT,    1381  279 

thousand  men,  stamping  out  all  hope  of  another  rising  by 
ruthless  execution  of  old  leaders.  Seven  thousand  men  were 
put  to  death  in  cold  blood.  The  men  of  Essex  met  him  with 
copies  of  his  charters,  declaring  that  they  were  free  Englishmen. 
"  Villeins  you  were,"  answered  Richard,  "  and  villeins  you  are. 
In  bondage  you  shall  abide ;  and  not  your  old  bondage,  but  a 
worse." 

We  do  not  know  the  names  of  most  of  the  patriot  leaders 
who  suffered  for  the  cause  of  liberty,  but  history  has  preserved 
the  story  of  one  of  them.  Early  in  the  rising,  the  peasants  o'f 
St.  Albans  (in  Essex)  had  wrung  charters  from  the  monastery 
which  had  previously  owned  their  town  —  in  so  legal  a  way 
that  now  even  the  royal  courts  could  not  ignore  them.  The 
leader  of  the  St.  Albans  villagers,  Grindecobbe,  was  condemned 
to  death,  however,  for  his  part  in  the  rising,  and  was  then 
offered  his  life  if  he  would  persuade  his  townsmen  to  give  up 
the  charters.  Grindecobbe  turned  to  his  fellows  only  to  bid 
them  take  no  thought  for  him  but  to  hold  firm  their  rights. 
"  I  shall  die  for  the  freedom  we  have  won,  counting  myself 
happy  to  end  my  life  by  such  a  martyrdom.  Do  then  as  if  I 
had  been  killed  in  battle  yesterday." 

The  steadfastness  of  such  forgotten  heroes  was  not  in  vain. 
In  a  short  time  the  movement  toward  the  emancipation  of 
villeins  began  again  with  fresh  force ;  and,  by  1450,  villeinage 
had  passed  away  from  England  forever. 

298.  The  growth  of  parliament  during  the  Hundred  Years' 
War  was  almost  as  important  as  the  rise  of  the  peasants  out  of 
bondage.  Constant  war  made  it  necessary  for  Edward  III  and 
his  successors  to  ask  parliament  for  many  grants  of  money. 
Parliament  supplied  the  king  generously ;  but  it  took  advantage 
of  his  needs  to  secure  new  powers  for  itself.  These  gains  may 
be  classed  under  nine  heads. 

(1)  It  became  an  established  principle  that  "redress  of 
grievances "  must  precede  a  "  grant  of  supply."  That  is,  the 
king  must  consent  to  such  new  laws  as  parliament  wanted  be- 
fore it  gave  him  money  to  carry  on  his  government. 


280 


ENGLAND    AND    FRANCE 


208 


(2)  In  the  closing  years  of  Edward  III  the  Good  r<ir!f  (intent 
(1376)  "impeached"  and   removed  his   ministers,  using   the 
same  forms  that  have  been  used  in  impeachments  ever  since  in 
English-speaking  countries. 

(3)  When  Richard  II  was  old  enough  to  take  the  goveni- 
ent  into  his  own  hands,  he  tried  to  rule  without  parliament. 

He  put  to  death,  or  drove  into  exile,  leading  nobles  whose 
opposition  he  feared;  and  then,  surrounding  parliament  with 
his  troops,  he  compelled  it  to  grant  him  a  tax  for  life,  with 
other  absolute  powers.  Soon  England  rose  against  him.  <(,,<! 
the  Parliament  of  1899  deposed  him,  electing  a  cousin  (Henry  of 
Lancaster)  in  7//.s  /dace. 


I'AKM.YMKNT  OK  l-'W,  \vhich  deposed  Richard  II.  —  From  ;i  contempo- 
rary manuscript. 

Richard   II  was  the  last  Plantagenet  king.     The  note  on  pag< 
gives  the  Lancastrian  reigns  and  those  of  the  family  that  followed. 

Richard's  reign  began  with  bloody  treachery  toward  the  English 
peasants,  and  it  ended  when  he  attempted  ecpual  treachery  toward  the 
nobles  and  middle  classes.  Shakspere  has  won  undeserved  sympathy 
for  the  tyrant  by  the  pathetic  lines  put  into  his  mouth  at  deposition,  when 
Richard  declares  his  willingness  to  give 

"  My  gorgeous  palace  for  a  hermitage, 
My  icay  apparel  for  an  alms-man's  gown  .  .  . 
And  my  large  kingdom  for  a  little  grave/' 


§  299]  GROWTH   OF   PARLIAMENT  281 

But  we  must  understand  that  this  deposition  by  parliament  is  one  of 
the  chief  landmarks  in  the  growth  of  English  (and  American)  free- 
dom. The  next  kings  owed  their  title  to  parliament,  and  were  dependent 
upon  it. 

(4)  The  new  king,  Henry  IV,  frankly  recognized  his  depend- 
ence on  parliament.     Under  him  the  •  lower  House  (House  of 
Commons;  §  185)  made  good  its  claims  that  all  money  bills 
must  originate  with  it  (a  practice  that  has  been  common  to  all 
English-speaking  legislatures  ever  since),  and  that  the  royal 
officers  must  report  to  it  the  way  in   which  they  expended 
money  (1407). 

(5)  The  Commons  secured  the  right  to  judge  of  the  election 
of  their  own  members. 

(6)  They  compelled  the  king  to  dismiss  his  ministers  and 
appoint  new  ones  satisfactory  to  parliament. 

(7)  Freedom   of   speech   in   parliament  and  freedom  from 
arrest,  except  by  the  order  of  parliament  itself,  became  recog- 
nized privileges  of  all  members. 

(8)  On  three  different  occasions  during  Henry's  reign,  parlia- 
ment passed  acts  fixing  the  succession  to  the  throne. 

(9)  So  far,  when  parliament  had  wanted  a  new  law,  it  only 
petitioned  the  king  to  enact  one  of  a  given  kind.     When -the 
king  had  consented,  and  parliament  had  adjourned,  the  royal 
officers,  in    putting   the  law  into   form,  often  inserted  words 
which  really  defeated  parliament's  purpose.     But  now,  under 
Henry  V  (1414),  parliament  began  to  pass  "bills,"  which  the 
king  had  to  accept  or  reject,  and  the  wording  of  which  he 
could  not  change  without  reference  back  to  parliament. 

299.  The  "Liberties  of  Englishmen."  —  Thus  under  the  Lan- 
castrians there  was  established  in  the  breasts  of  the  English 
middle  classes  a  proud  consciousness  of  English  liberty  as  a 
precious  inheritance.  With  right  they  believed  it  superior  to 
that  possessed  by  any  other  people  of  the  time.  As  a  French 
historian  says  (Duruy,  Middle  Ages,  436),  "  In  the  middle  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  the  English  people  had  in  Magna  Carta 


282  ENGLAND   AND   FRANCE  [§300 

a  declaration  of  their  rights,  in  the  jury  a  guarantee  for  then- 
safety  as  individuals,  and  in  parliament  a  guarantee  for  national 
liberty."  No  man  in  time  of  peace  could  be  arrested  except 
by  order  of  a  magistrate  (not  simply  on  the  king's  order). 
When  arrested,  he  was  entitled  to  speedy  trial.  And  he  could 
be  condemned  only  by  twelve  men  of  his  own  neighborhood. 
Parliament  voted  taxes  and  superintended  their  expenditure, 
settled  the  succession  to  the  throne,  impeached  offensive  officers, 
and,  upon  occasion,  deposed  a  king ;  and  no  law  could  be  made 
or  changed  without  its  consent. 

Sir  John  Fortescue,  Chief  Justice  under  Henry  VI,  wrote  a  book.  In 
Praise  of  the  Law*  ,,f  Km/land,  for  the  instruction  of  Henry's  son.  The 
volume  explains  the  English  kingship  in  these  words  :  — 

44  A  king  of  England  at  his  pleasure  cannot  make  any  alteration  in  the 
laws  of  the  land  without  the  consent  of  his  subjects,  nor  burden  them 
against  their  wills  with  strange  impositions.  .  .  .  Rejoice,  therefore,  my 
good  Prince,  that  such  is  the  law  of  the  kingdom  you  are  to  inherit,  be- 
cause it  will  afford  both  to  you  and  to  your  subjects  the  greatest  security 
and  satisfaction.  .  .  .  [The  king]  is  appointed  to  protect  his  subj« 
their  lives,  properties,  and  laws.  For  this  end  he  has  the  delegation  of 
power  from  the  people,  and  he  has  no  just  claims  to  any  other  power." 

III.  FRANCE  :  CLOSE  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR 

300.  Third  Period  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War.  — In  1415, 
after  a  generation  of  peace  with  France,  Henry  V  renewed 
the  Hundred  Years'  War.  He  had  no  clear  excuse;  but  he 
was  fired  by  ambition,  and  he  saw  an  opportunity  in  the  dis- 
order of  France  under  an  insane  king  (Charles  VI). 

Henry  was  brilliantly  successful.  At  Agincourt  he  won  a 
victory  which  recalled  the  day  of  Crdcy;  and  his  infant  son 
(afterward  Henry  VI)  was  crowned  King  of  France  at  Paris, 
with  the  assent  of  a  great  body  of  French  nobles. 

But  the  English  triumph  was  brief.  Through  the  long 
struggle  with  a  foreigner,  the  French  people  were  coming  to  feel 
themselves  one  nation  ;  and  an  unschooled  peasant  girl,  Joan 
of  Arc,  inspired  with  this  new  patriotism,  freed  her  country. 


300] 


JOAN  OF  ARC 


283 


Joan  saw  "  visions,"  and  thought  that  divine  voices  called  her 
to  her  task.  With  great  difficulty  she  won  her  way  to  the 
French  Dauphin  (the  title  of  the  heir  to  the  throne),  and 
secured  from  him  a  small  body  of  troops  with  which  she 
promised  to  relieve  Orleans.  The  English  had  nearly  reduced 
that  place  to  surrender,  and  it  was  the  last  French  strong- 
hold in  the  northern  half  of  the  kingdom.  Joan's  victory 
was  marvelous  —  and,  her  followers  believed,  miraculous. 
The  French  people  rose  in  one  mass  to  follow  the  "Holy 
Maid  of  Orleans,"  and  swept  away  the  invaders.  Victory 
followed  victory,  until 
the  English  lost  all 
France  except  Calais. 
Then  the  war  died  out, 
because  England  became 
involved  in  civil  wars  at 
home. 

Meantime,  however, 
Joan  tell  into  English 
hands,  and  was  tried  and 
burned  as  s  witch,  —  one 
of  the  darkest  stains  in 
all  the  bloody  pages  of 
medieval  history.  Joan's 
gentle  firmness  and 
purity,  and  her  steadfast 
endurance  even  in  the 
flames,  confounded  her 
persecutors.  "  We  are  JOAN  OF  ARC  AT  THE  RELIEF  OF  ORLEANS. 
lost,"  exclaimed  one  of 

them ;  "  we  have  burned  a  saint !  "  The  superstitious  cruelty 
of  the  English,  terrified  by  Joan's  victories,  deserves  no  more 
reproach  than  the  baseness  with  which  the  French  king  and 
court  deserted  her,  jealous  of  her  popularity,  without  an  effort 
to  save  her.  But  history  has  placed  her  foremost  among  all 
French  heroes.  Says  a  famous  French  historian,  —  French 


284  ENGLAND   AND   FRANCE  [§  301 

patriotism  "blossomed  in  Joan  of  Arc,  and  sanctified  itself 
with  the  perfume  of  a  miracle." 1 

301.  The  French  Kingship.  —  Charles  VII,  in   spite  of  his 
detestable  desertion  of  Joan  of  Arc,  proved  a  great  king.     He 
restbred  order  with  a  firm  hand.     Bands  of   "  free  lances " 
(mercenary  soldiers)  had  been  living  on  the  country  for  gen- 
erations   and    had    earned    the    name   "flayers"   from   their 
methods   of  torture   to  discover  valuables.     All   such  bands 
were   now   driven  from   France;    and  prosperity  came  back 
swiftly  to  the  exhausted  peasantry  and  the  towns. 

During  the  long  war,  and  after  it,  while  breaking  up  the 
"flayers,"  Charles  had  maintained  a  standing  army.  This 
force  he  was  careful  to  keep  when  these  troubles  were  over. 
He  had  also  a  train  of  artillery,  which  now  made  him  able 
easily  to  batter  the  castle  of  any  feudal  rebel  about  his  ears. 
During  the  war,  too,  the  kings  had  raised  taxes  arbitrarily,  of 
necessity.  They  continued  to  do  so,  now  that  the  national 
necessity  had  passed.  The  Estates  General  (§  196)  lost  all 
chance  to  become  a  real  power,  and  the  monarchs  grew  absolute. 

The  nobles  of  France  made  one  last  desperate  attempt  to 
check  this  royal  despotism  when  Louis  XI  came  to  the  throne, 
but  were  quickly  crushed.  The  young  Louis  won  his  victories 
mainly  by  cunning.  Through  his  reign,  he  chose  his  chief 
advisors  and  ministers  from  men  of  low  position,  who  could 
not  gain  by  turning  against  him  ;  and  before  his  death  feudalism 
had  ceased  to  be  a  political  danger  even  more  completely  than 
in  England.  Louis  XI  ranks  alongside  Philip  Augustus,  L'»<is 
IX,  Philip  the  Fair,  and  Charles  the  Wise,  in  numbering  the 
kings  who  built  up  the  French  monarchy. 

302.  The  Growth  of  France  Completed.  —  France  came  out  of 
the  Hundred  Years'  War,  after  vast  destruction  of  property, 
after  terrible  periods  of  suffering,  with  territory  consolidated, 
with  a  new  patriotism  binding  her  people  together,  and  with 
her  kings  stronger  than  ever. 

1  Special  report  on  Joan  of  Arc.  Lowell's  Joan  of  Arc,  Lang's  The  Maid 
of  France,  or  Clemens'  (Mark  Twaiu's)  Joan  of  Arc  (a  novel). 


§303]  FRANCE   IN   1500  285 

In  §  194  we  traced  the  growth  of  French  territory  to  the 
opening  of  this  war.  The  closing  campaigns  (after  the  vic- 
tories of  Joan),  made  the  French  king  finally  master  of 
Aquitaine  (the  southwest  quarter  of  France)  ;  and,  soon  after 
the  war  ended,  the  growth  of  France  was  completed  by  the 
addition  of  Provence  and  of  the  Dukedom  of  Burgundy. 

The  Dukedom  of  Burgundy  was  one  of  the  petty  states  that 
arose  after  the  partition  of  Verdun  (§  94).  Little  by  little, 
for  some  centuries  a  line  of  able  and  unscrupulous  dukes  had 
been  joining  province  to  province  and  city  to  city,  —  some,  the 
fiefs  of  France,  some,  fiefs  of  the  Empire,  —  until,  by  1450, 
Burgundy  was  one  of  the  "  powers  "  of  Europe.  During  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses  in  England,  Duke  Charles  the  Bold  was 
working  zealously  to  weld  his  groups  of  provinces  (map  after 
page  182)  into  a  kingdom,  and  to  persuade  the  Emperor  to 
change  his  title  to  that  of  king.  Louis  XI  of  France  in- 
trigued craftily  but  secretly  against  him  ;  but  Charles  seemed  on 
the  point  of  success  when  (1477)  he  was  defeated  and  slain 
by  the  Swiss  peasants,  whom  he  was  trying  to  force  into 
his  state.1 

Charles  left  a  daughter,  but  no  male  heir;  and  Louis  seized 
the  dukedom  as  a  fief  which  had  " escheated"  to  the  crown 
(§  125).  The  rich  Flemish  towns,  it  is  true,  escaped  him 
(§  323)  ;  but  he  found  compensation  by  grasping  Provence,  to 
which  Charles  of  Burgundy  had  made  some  claim.2 

303.  Louis  XI  left  France  the  richest,  most  orderly,  and  most 
united  country  in  Europe.  The  next  two  kings  were  less  able 
rulers,  and  so  France  did  not  just  at  first  step  into  the  leader- 
ship of  Europe  that  belonged  to  her.  But  with  Francis  I 
(1515-1547)  she,  at  times,  plainly  held  that  place.  That  reign 
carries  France  into  the  next  great  Part  of  our  history  (Part  III, 
page  325). 

1  Read  this  story  in  Scott's  Anne  of  Geierstein. 

2  Review  the  growth  of  France,  with  maps  after  page  182. 


286 


ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE 


[§304 


IV.     ENGLAND   AND    THE   WARS    OF  THE   ROSES,    1454-1485 

304.  The  Wars  of  the  Roses. J—  We  said  (§  300)  that  England 
withdrew  from  the  French  war  because  of  war  within  her  own 
realm.  In  1422  Henry  VI  became  king,  while  less  than  a 

year    old.      His    long 
minority    gave    time 
for     factions     to     grow 
among  the  nobles ;    and 
when    Henry    was    old 
enough    to    assume    the 
government,   he    proved 
too  weak  and  gentle  to 
restore  order.     The  mis- 
rule of  the  great   lords 
GUY'S  TowKR.-The  Keep  of  Warwick     caused  wide  discontent, 
Castle.    The  Earl  of  Warwick  (the  King-       especially  among  the  ris- 
maker)  was  a  prominent  leader  in  the      ing  towns,2  whose  indllS- 
Wars  of  the  Roses. 

tries   called    for    settled 

government;  and,  encouraged  by  this  discontent,  the  Duke 
of  York  came  forward  to  claim  the  crown.  Thus  began  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses,3  to  last  from  1454  to  1471. 

York  was  descended  from  a  son  of  Edward  III  older  than 
the  one  through  whom  the  Lancastrians  derived  their  claim  to 
the  throne;4  and  the  war,  the  most  ruthless  and  bloody  in 
English  history,  was  largely  a  selfish  contest  between  great 
nobles.  At  the  same  time  the  chief  significance  of  the  struggle 
lay  in  the  fact  that  the  Lancastrian  strength  was  in  the  feudal 


1  Stevenson's  Black  Arrow  is  an  admirable  story  for  a  boy,  and  Bulwer's 
Last  of  the  Barons  is  the  most  famous  novel  dealing  with  the  age. 

2  Special   topic:   Cade's  Rebellion.     (The  student   must  get  the  view  of 
recent  scholars  and  not  be  content  with  the  slanders  of  the  old  writers.) 

8  The  Yorkists  assumed  a  white  rose  as  their  badge ;  the  Lancastrians,  a 
red  rose.  Students  may  be  asked  to  find  the  scene  in  which  Shakspere  repre- 
sents the  choice  of  these  symbols. 

4  Footnote  on  page  276. 


306] 


WARS   OF  THE   ROSES 


287 


nobility  of  the  north  of  England,  while  York  was  supported  by 
the  new  middle  class  of  the  towns  in  the  south. 

305.  Finally,  York  and  the  cause  of  the  towns  conquered.     TJie 
three   Yorkish  reigns  are  shown  in  the  footnote  on  page  276. 
Edward  IV  was  a  selfish 

and  rather  careless  despot. 
His  son,  Edward  V,  was 
a  child  and  was  never 
crowned.  It  is  believed 
that  the  regent,  his  uncle, 
murdered  him.  The 
murderer  became  king  as 
Richard  III.  He  was  an 
atrocious  tyrant,  and  was 
soon  overthrown  by  a 
popular  rising.  Henry 
Tudor,  a  distant  connec- 
tion of  the  Lancastrians, 
led  this  rising,  and  be- 
came king  as  Henry  VII. 

306.  A"NewMonarchy." 
—  The  losses  in  the  long 

civil  war  had  fallen  mainly 
on  the  feudal  classes.  The 
old  nobility  was  almost 


A  MEDIEVAL  BATTLE.  —  From  a  sixteenth 
century  woodcut. 


swept  away  in  battle  or  by 
the  headsman's  ax.  The 
new  kings  created  new  nobles  (but  kept  them  dependent  on 
the  crown),  and  set  to  work  skillfully  to  crush  the  scant  remains  of 
feudal  independence.  For  instance,  a  law  of  Henry  VII  wisely 
forbade  nobles  to  maintain  armed  bands  of  retainers  —  whose 
presence  was  a  source  always  of  disorder  and  a  threat  to  peace. 
A  few  of  the  surviving  old  nobles  at  first  disregarded  this  law. 
On  a  visit  to  one  of  these,  —  the  great  Earl  of  Oxford,  —  the 
king  found  an  array  of  such  armed  retainers  drawn  up  to 
salute  him.  Oxford  had  been  one  of  Henry's  earliest  sup- 


288  ENGLAND   AND   FRANCE  [§306 

porters  for  the  throne ;  but  now  Henry  frowned  darkly :  "  I 
thank  you  for  your  good  hospitality,  Sir  Earl ;  but  I  cannot 
have  my  laws  broken  in  my  sight."  And  Oxford  was  called 
before  the  king's  court  and  ruined  by  a  fine  of  £15,000, — some 
half  million  dollars  in  the  values  of  to-day. 

The  first  plain  result  of  this  crushing  of  feudalism  was  a 
general  loss  of  liberty.  Without  great  nobles  for  leaders,  the 
towns  and  the  country  gentry  were  not  yet  strong  enough  to 
challenge  the  royal  power.  So  pnrl ><»i«-nt  ln*r  uuthoritif. 
During  the  wars,  it  had  not  been  possible  to  hold  true  parlia- 
ments; and  when  war  was  over,  the  kings  had  been  so  en- 
riched by  confiscations  of  the  property  of  opposing  nobles  that 
they  did  not  need  new  taxes  in  ordinary  times,  and  so  could 
get  along  without  calling  parliaments. 

Another  new  device  helped  the  monarch  to  maintain  this 
superiority.  During  the  wars,  a  king  had  had  to  depend,  not 
on  parliamentary  supplies,  but  on  free-will  gifts  (benevol< 
from  men  of  wealth  in  his  party.  After  the  war,  Edward  I  V 
continued  to  ask  benevolences  from  leading  men  as  he  met 
them  in  traveling  through  the  kingdom.  Richard  III  had 
tried  to  secure  popular  favor  by  promising  to*  surrender  this 
evil  custom ;  but  he  soon  practised  it  in  a  more  extortionate 
form  than  ever.  And  now  Henry  VII  reduced  it  to  a  system 
of  regular  supply.  He  asked,  no  longer  merely  in  person,  fmt 
by  letter.  His  minister,  Morton,  sent  out  demands  to  rich 
men  over  all  England.  To  some  he  said  that  their  luxurious 
manner  of  living  showed  that  they  were  easily  able  to  supply 
their  king;  to  others,  that  their  economy  of  life  proved  that 
they  must  have  saved  wherewith  to  aid  their  sovereign's 
necessities.  Thus  every  man  of  consequence  in  the  realm 
found  himself  impaled,  it  was  said,  on  one  prong  or  the  other 
of  "Morton's  Fork."1 


1  Perhaps  the  most  important  point  of  this  story  is  that  it  reminds  us  of  the 
recent  introduction  of  forks  (two-pronged  instruments)  at  the  table.  They 
had  come  into  use  in  Italy  a  little  earlier.  Cf.  §  140. 


§306]  THE    "NEW   MONARCHY"  289 

TJius  England  entered  the  sixteenth  century  under  the  Tudor 
kings  with  a  "  New  Monarchy"  Henry  VII  and  his  son  Henry 
VIII  (§  373)  were  more  absolute  than  any  preceding  English 
kings.  Still  they  were  shrewd  enough  to  cloak  their  power 
under  the  old  constitutional  forms,  and  so  did  not  challenge 
popular  opposition.  They  called  parliament  rarely,  —  and 
only  to  use  it  as  a  tool.  Parliament  did  not  play  as  large  a 
part  again  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  as  it  had  in  the  cen- 
tury before  the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  But  the  occasional 
meetings,  and  the  way  in  which  the  kings  seemed  to  rule 
through  it,  saved  the  forms  of  constitutional  government.  This 
was  a  mighty  service.  At  a  later  time,  as  we  shall  see,  life 
was  again  breathed  into  those  forms.  Then  it  became  plain 
that,  in  crushing  the  feudal  forces,  the  New  Monarchy  had 
paved  the  way  for  a  parlimentary  government  more  complete 
and  valuable  than  men  had  dreamed  of  in  earlier  times. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. — Green's  History  of  the  English  People  or 
his  Short  History,  or  Gardiner's  Student's  History  (note  on  page  143) 
continue  to  be  the  most  desirable  of  all  general  narratives  for  England, 
and  Adams'  Growth  of  the  French  Nation  for  France.  On  the  Hundred 
Years'  War,  the  student  will  enjoy  the  contemporary  story  of  Froissart, 
especially  in  Lanier's  Boy's  Froissart.  On  the  Battle  of  Cre"cy,  in  partic- 
ular, Robinson's  Readings,  I,  466-470  (sources),  and  Oman's  Art  of  War, 
603-615.  On  the  Black  Death,  Jessopp's  Coming  of  the  Friars,  ch.  iv. 
The  Pennsylvania  Eeprints,  II,  no.  5,  gives  documents  for  England  in 
the  age  of  Wyclif  and  the  Peasant  Rising. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  PAPACY  IN  THE  AGE  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE 

307.  The  Revolt  of  France  and  England.  —  We  saw  (chapter 
x)  how  the  thirteenth  century  conflict  between  popes  and 
emperors  left  the  popes  victorious.  The  victory,  however,  was 
not  long-lived.  Almost  at  once  new  forces  appeared  to 
challenge  their  overlordship.  In  France  and  England  the  new 
national  patriotism  had  already  begun  to  rebel  against  papal 
authority  in  temporal  matters.  Neither  people  nor  kings 
questioned  the  authority  of  the  pope  in  spiritual  matters ;  but 
they  did  demand  that  the  government  of  the  land  should  be 
free  from  papal  supervision.  To  this  feeling,  the  Emperor 
Frederick  II  had  tried  to  appeal  in  letters  to  the  kings:  u  My 
house  is  on  fire.  Hurry,  bring  water,  lest  the  fire  spread 
to  your  house  too!"  Soon  after  Frederick's  fall,  France  and 
England  did ,  take  up  in  earnest  the  struggle  against  papal 
claims. 

The  conflict  was  hastened  by  the  Hundred  Years'  "NYur. 
The  kings  needed  money,  and  were  trying  to  introduce  sys- 
tems of  national  taxation  in  the  place  of  the  unsatisfactory 
feudal  revenues.  The  clergy  had  been  exempt  from  feudal 
services ;  but  they  owned  so  much  of  the  wealth  of  the  two 
countries  that  the  kings  insisted  upon  their  paying  their 
share  of  the  new  taxes.  Pope  Boniface  VIII  (1296)  issued  a 
bull  forbidding  any  prince  to  impose  taxes  on  the  clergy  with- 
out papal  consent,  and  threatening  excommunication  against 
all  clergy  who  paid.  * 

*  308.  But  when  the  English  clergy,  trusting  in  this  papal  de- 
cree, refused  to  pay  taxes,  Edward  I  outlawed  them.  To  outlaw 
a  man  was  to  put  him  outside  the  protection  of  the  faw :  he 

290v  . 


§310]  THE   PAPACY  291 

could  not  bring  suit  to  recover  property  or  damages,  and  of- 
fenses against  him  were  not  "  crimes."  It  became  plain  at  once 
that,  in  comparison  with  this  practical  "excommunication" 
by  the  state,  the  old  clerical  excommunication  was  stage 
thunder.  The  clergy  generally  paid;  and,  a  little  later,  a 
compromise  was  made  whereby  they  were  permitted  to  tax 
themselves. 

309.  France  was  the  scene  of  a  sharper  contest.     As  it  pro- 
gressed, Boniface  set  forth  the  old  claims  of   papal  suprem- 
acy over  princes.     "  Whoever  resists  this  power,"  said  one  of 
his  bulls,  "  resists  the  ordination  of  God    .      .     Indeed  we  de- 
clare .  .  .  that  it  is  altogether  necessary  to  salvation  for  every 
human   creature   to  be   subject  to  the  Roman  pontiff."     But 
Philip  IV  treated  these  claims  with  contempt,  and  the  Estates 
General  (1302),  even  the  clerical  Estate,  denied  the  pope  any 
control  over  the  state,  and  pledged  their  lives  to  defend  the 
"  ancient  liberties  of  the  French  nation."     Philip  forbade  the 
payment  of  any  revenues  from  his  realm  to  the  pope,  and  ar- 
rested the  papal   legate.     Boniface  threatened  to  depose  the 
king.     A  few  days  later,  a  company  of  French  soldiers  made 
Boniface  prisoner ;  and  the  chagrin  of  the  old  man  at  the  in- 
sult probably  hastened  his  death  (1303). 

310.  The  "  Babylonian  Captivity."  —  Philip  secured  the  elec- 
tion of  a  French  pope,  who  removed  the  papal  capital  from 
Rome  to  Avignon,  in   southern  France.     Here  the  popes  re- 
mained  for   seventy  years  (1309-1377),  in   "  the   Babylonian 
Captivity  of  the  church." 

Of  course  the  papacy  lost  public  respect.  It  was  no  longer 
an  impartial  umpire.  Politically  it  had  sunk  into  a  mere  tool 
of  the  French  kings,  and  the  enemies  of  France  could  not  be 
expected  to  show  it  reverence.  The  English  parliaments  of 
Edward  III  passed  statutes  (Provisors  and  Praemunire)  to 
limit  papal  control  over  church  appointments  in  England  and 
to  prevent  appeals  from  the  courts  of  English  bishops  to 
the  papal  court.  Even  in  Germany,  distracted  as  it  was,  in 
1338,  a  Diet  (a  sort  of  parliament)  formally  denied  that  the 


292  CLOSE  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  [§311 

"  French  popes  "  had  any  part  in  the  choice  of  their  ruler.  In 
Italy  the  Papal  States  themselves  fell  into  anarchy  and  revo- 
lution, and  there  was  danger  that  the  popes  might  lose  their 
principality  altogether. 

311.  The  Great  Schism.  —  In  1377,  to  save  the  papal  terri- 
tory,  Gregory   XI   visited   Rome.      This   act   brought   on   a 
greater   disaster  even  than   the   exile    itself.     Gregory   died 
while  at  Rome.     The  cardinals  were  obliged  at  once  to  choose 
a  successor.     They  were  Frenchmen  (as  all  high  church  offices 
had  been  given  to  Frenchmen  during  the  scandal  of  the  Cap- 
tivity) ;  but  even  French  cardinals  did  not  dare  disregard  the 
savage  threats  of  the  people  of  Rome,  demanding  an  Italian 
pope.     They  chose  Urban  VI,  who  established  himself  in  the 
old  papal  seat  at  Rome.     But,  a  few  months  later,  the  cardi- 
nals assembled  again,  declared  that  the  choice  of  Urban  wits 
void  because  made  under  compulsion,  and  elected   a  French 
pope,  Clement  VII,  who  promptly  returned  to  Avignon. 

Urban  and  Clement  excommunicated  each  other,  each  devot- 
ing to  the  devil  all  the  supporters  of  the  other.  Which  pope 
should  good  Christians  obey?  The  answer  was  determined 
mainly  by  political  considerations.  France  obeyed  Clement; 
England  and  Germany  obeyed  Urban.  Two  such  heads  for 
Christendom  were  worse  than  no  head  at  all. 

312.  The  Hussite  Heresy.  —  This  sad  condition  of  the  papacy 
brought  with   it  danger   to  the   church   itself.     The  Wyclif 
movement  took  place  toward  the  close  of  the  exile  at  Avignon. 
That  movement  has  been  described  (§  295).     The  church  in 
England  had  declared  Wyclif  a  heretic ;  but  he  was  protected 
during   his  life  by  one  of  King  Edward's  sons.     Soon  after 
Wyclif's  death,  however,  the  Lancastrian  monarchs  began  to 
persecute  the  Lollards.     In  1401,  for  the  first  time,  an  English- 
man was  burned  for  heresy.     The  Lollards  finally  disappeared 
as  a  sect,  but  their  influence  lasted,  in  underground  ways,  until 
the   beginning  of   the  great  Protestant  movement  a  century 
later. 

Meantime,  the  seeds  of  the  heresy  had  been  scattered  in  a 


§313]  THE   PAPACY  293 

distant  part  of  Europe.  Richard  II  of  England  married  a  prin- 
cess of  Bohemia,  and  some  of  her  attendants  carried  the  teach- 
ings of  Wyclif  to  the  Bohemian  University  of  Prague.  About 
1400,  John  Hits,  a  professor  at  Prague,  became  a  leader  in 
a  radical  "  reform "  much  after  Wyclif's  example,  and  the 
movement  spread  rapidly  over  much  of  Bohemia. 

313.  The  Council  of  Constance.  —  Thus  the  religious  situation 
of  Christendom  was  desperate.  Great  and  good  men  every- 
where, especially  in  the  powerful  universities,  began  to  call 
for  a  General  Council  as  the  only  means  to  restore  unity  of 
church  government  and  doctrine.  Neither  pope  favored  the 
plan ;  but  at  last  the  cardinals  called  a  Council  at  Pisa.  This 
body  (1409)  declared  both  popes  deposed,  and  chose  a  new 
one.  The  result  was  three  popes,  for  the  Council  was  not  really 
universal  in  character,  and  it  acted  with  unwise  haste,  and  so 
failed  to  secure  obedience. 

Soon  after,  however,  one  of  the  popes,  under  pressure  from 
the  German  emperor,  called  the  Council  of  Constance  (1414). 
Five  thousand  delegates  were  present  (besides  vast  numbers  of 
visitors  and  attendants),  and  all  Latin  Christendom  was  repre- 
sented. With  recesses,  the  Council  sat  four  years.  In  the 
matter  of  church  government,  it  acted  with  wisdom  and  caution. 
One  pope  was  brought  to  resign;  the  others  were  deposed; 
and  unity  was  restored  under  a  new  pope,  Martin  V. 

Then  the  Council  turned  its  attention  to  the  troubles  in 
Bohemia.  John  Hus  was  present  under  a  "safe  conduct" 
from  the  emperor.  His  teachings  were  declared  hersey;  but 
neither  persuasion  nor  threats  could  move  him  to  recant.  "  It 
is  better  for  me  to  die,"  he  said,  "  than  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  Lord  by  deserting  the  truth."  Despite  the  emperor's 
solemn  pledge  for  his  safety,  Hus  was  burned  at  the  stake, 
and  his  ashes  were  scattered  in  the  Rhine  (1415).  Wyclif's 
doctrines,  too,  were  condemned ;  and,  to  make  thorough  work, 
his  ashes  were  disinterred  from  their  resting  place  and  scat- 
tered on  the  river  Swift. 

The  Council  was  made  up  of  earnest  reformers,  —  good  men, 


294  CLOSE   OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGES  [§314 

who  believed  that  in  this  work  they  were  serving  God  and 
saving  the  souls  of  future  generations  of  men  from  eternal 
torment.  But  their  vigorous  measures  did  not  wholly  succeed. 
Hus  became  a  national  hero  to  Bohemia.  That  country  rose 
in  arms  against  the  church.  A  crusade  was  preached  against 
the  heretics,  but  years  of  war  failed  to  crush  them  wholly. 

314.  The  Last  Popes  of  the  Middle  Ages.  —  The  unity  of  the 
papacy  was  restored,  and  much  of  its  spiritual  authority,  but 
not  its  power  over  kings.  Nicholas  V  (1447)  showed  himself 
a  learned  scholar,  eager  to  advance  learning,  as  well  as  :i 
pure  and  gentle  man.  Pius  II  (1455)  strove  to  arouse  a  new 
crusade  against  the  Turks,  who  had  just  captured  Constanti- 
nople ;  but  his  complete  failure  proved  (in  his  own  words)  that 
Europe  "looked  on  pope  and  emperor  alike  as  names  in  a 
story."  Some  of  the  succeeding  popes  were  busied  mainly  as 
Italian  princes,  building  up  their  temporal  principality  by  in- 
trigue and  craft  such  as  was  common  at  that  day  in  Italian 
politics. 

Of  this  class,  the  most  notorious  was  Alexander  Borgia 
(Pope  Alexander  VI,  1492-1503),  whose  name  (with  that  of 
his  son,  Caesar  Borgia)  has  become  a  byword  for  wicked- 
ness. A  scholarly  Catholic  historian  (Pastor,  77 />•/•//•//  <>f  the 
Popes)  gives  his  approval  to  this  quotation  regarding  Borgia: 
"  The  reign  of  this  pope  .  .  .  was  a  serious  disaster,  on  ac- 
count of  his  worldliness,  openly  proclaimed  with  the  most 
amazing  effrontery ;  on  account  of  his  nepotism  [favoritism  to 
relatives] ;  and  lastly  on  account  of  his  utter  absence  of  all 
moral  sense  both  in  public-  and  private  life  .  .  .  which  brought 
the  papacy  into  utter  discredit."  It  was  conditions  like  these 
that  made  Luther  possible  a  few  years  later. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

GERMANY   FROM    1273   TO    1520 

315.  Rudolph  of  Hapsburg,  1273-1290. — The  Holy  Roman 
Empire  never  recovered  from  the  failure  of  the  Hohenstaufen 
(§  234).     The  anarchy  of  the  "Fist-Law  period"  (1254-1273) 
was  slightly  checked   in   1273,  however,  by   the   election   of 
Rudolph  of  Hapsburg  as  emperor.     Rudolph  was  a  petty  count 
of  a  rude  district  in  the   Alps,    and    the   princes  chose   him 
because  they  did  not  fear  his  power.     The  king 'of 'Bohemia 
refused  to  acknowledge  him  as  emperor.     Rudolph  attacked 
Bohemia,  and  seized  from  it  the  duchy  of  Austria,  which  has 
ever  since  been  the  chief  seat  of  the  Hapsburgs.     He  completely 
abandoned   the    Italian   policy  of   the   earlier   emperors,  and 
throughout  his  reign  he  displayed  much  zeal  in  widening  the 
boundaries  of  his  personal  domain.     "  Sit  firm  on  thy  throne, 
0  Lord,"  once  prayed  the  Bishop  of  Basel,  "  or  the  Count  of 
Hapsburg  will  shove  Thee  off."     Rudolph  gave  much  energy 
also  to  the  restoration  of  order,  so  far  as  that  task  lay  within 
his  power.     Along  the  Rhine  alone,  he  demolished  over  one 
hundred  and  forty  robber  castles,  and  he  once  hung  twenty- 
nine  robber  knights  at  one  execution. 

316.  The  Electoral  College.  —  At  Rudolph's  death  the  Electors 
refused  to  give  the  imperial  crown  to  his  son ;  and  the  next 
fifty-five  years  saw  five  rulers,  each  of  a  different  house  from 
his  predecessor. 

The  method  of  electing  an  emperor  had  varied  greatly  at 
different  periods.  On  some  occasions,  a  gathering  of  great 
nobles  had  made  the  choice  in  a  fairly  popular  way,  while  at 
other  times  a  few  princes  had  settled  the  matter  by  private 
negotiation.  Before  the  end  of  the  Hohenstaufen  period,  the 
right  of  election  had  fallen  to  a  ring  of  seven  princes.  These 
"  Electors  "  now  passed  the  crown  from  family  to  family,  and, 

295 


296  CLOSE   OF   THE    MIDDLE    AGES  [§317 

at  each  new  election,  enriched  themselves  through  extortionate 
demands  upon  the  candidates. 

To  end  such  scandal,  the  emperor,  Charles  IV,  with  the 
consent  of  the  nobles,  issued  the  Golden  Bull  (1356).  This 
document  remained  the  fundamental  law  of  the  Empire  through 
the  rest  of  its  history.  It  defined  exactly  how  the  "  college  of 
Electors  "  should  make  elections,  and  fixed  its  members  as  the 
three  Archbishops  of  Mainz,  Cologne,  and  Trier,  the  King  of 
Bohemia,  the  Duke  of  Saxony,  the  Margrave  of  Brandenburg, 
and  the  Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine. 

317.  The  Diet.  —  At  about  the  same  time,  the  German  "national 
assembly"  took  form.     It  was  called  a  Diet.     In  earlier  times,  it  had 
been  merely  a  gathering  of  nobles.     To  this  gathering,  representatives  of 
the  free  cities  were  admitted  in  the  fourteenth  century  (as  had  been  the 
case  earlier  in  the  French  Estates  General,  the  English  Parliament,  and 
the  Spanish  Cortes).    Then  the  Diet  came  to  consist  of  three  11 

—  the  Chamber  of  Electors,  the  Chamber  of  Princes  (the  greater  nobles  of 
the  second  rank) ,  and  the  Chamber  of  City  Representatives.  The  Diet 
could  do  little,  however,  but  pass  resolutions,  which  nobody  obeyed 
unless  he  chose  to  do  so. 

318.  The  "Hapsburg"  Empire.  —  Finally,  in   1438,  after  a 
long  line  of  Bohemian  emperors,  the  imperial  title  came  back 
to  the  Hapsburgs  by  the  election  of  Albert,  Duke  of  Austria. 
From  this  time  to  its  disappearance  in  1806,  the  title,  "  Emperor 
of  the  Holy  Koman  Empire,"  belonged  to  the  House  of  A»*tri<i. 
The  form  of  an  election  was  always   gone  through,  but  the 
choice  invariably  fell  upon  the  Hapsburg  heir. 

Albert  was  followed  by  the  long  but  uninteresting  reign  of 
Frederick  III  (1440-1493),  and  then  the  crown  passed  to 
Maximilian  I  (1493-1519),  the  romantic  hero  of  the  Hapsburg 
race.  Maximilian  made  a  noble  effort  to  bring  Germany 
abreast  of  England  and  France,  but  in  the  end  he  failed 
utterly,  because  of  the  selfishness  of  the  nobles  and  the  local 
jealousies  between  the  provinces  and  because  of  his  own 
dreamy  nature  and  haughty  willfulness.  At  the  close  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  he  left  the  empire  what  he  found  it,  —  a  loose 
confederacy  of  petty  states  centered  about  Austria. 


SPANISH  KINGDOMS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


CHAPTER   XVII 

OTHER   STATES 

319.  Spain.  —  The  Mohammedan  invasion  of  711  (§  65), 
separated  the  course  of  development  in  Spain  from  that  of 
the  rest  of  Europe.  For  centuries,  "Africa  began  at  the 
Pyrenees." 

The  wave  of  Moorish  invasion,  however,  had  left  uncon- 
quered  a  few  resolute  Christian  chiefs  in  the  remote  fastnesses 
of  the  northwestern  mountains,  and  Charlemagne  recovered 
part,  also,  of  the  northeast  (§  82).  In  these  districts,  Asturia 
and  the  Spanish  March,  several  little  Christian  principalities 
began  the  long  task  of  winning  back  their  land,  crag  by  crag 
and  stream  by  stream.  This  they  accomplished  in  eight  hundred 
years  of  war,  —  a  war  at  once  patriotic  and  religious,  Spaniard 
against  African,  and  Christian  against  Infidel.  The  long 
struggle  left  the  Spanish  race  proud,  brave,  warlike,  unfitted  for 
industrial  civilization,  intensely  patriotic,  and  blindly  devoted 
to  the  church. 

During  the  eight  centuries  of  conflict,  the  Christian  states 
spread  gradually  to  the  south  and  east,  —  waxing,  fusing, 
splitting  up  into  new  states,  uniting  in  kaleidoscopic  com- 
binations by  marriage  and  war,  —  until,  before  1400,  they  had 
formed  the  three  countries,  Portugal,  Aragon,  and  Castile. 
Nearly  a  century  later,  the  marriage  of  Isabella  of  Castile  and 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon  united  the  two  larger  states,  and  in  1492 
their  combined  power  captured  Granada,  the  last  Moorish 
stronghold.  In  the  year  that  Columbus  discovered  America 
under  Spanish  auspices,  Spain  at  home  achieved  national  union 
and  national  independence,  and  she  soon  took  her  place  (with 
her  New- World  dependencies)  as  the  most  powerful  European 
state. 

297 


298  CLOSE   OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGES  [§320 

The  feudal  lords  of  the  many  Spanish  kingdoms  had  been 
the  most  uncontrollable  in  Europe.  In  each  petty  state  they 
elected  their  king,  and  took  the  oath  to  obey  him  in  forms 
like  this:  "We,  who  are  each  of  us  as  good  as  thou,  and  who 
together  are  far  more  powerful  than  thou,  swear  to  obey  thee 
if  thou  dost  obey  our  laws,  and  if  not,  not." 

The  towns  of  Spain,  too,  had  possessed  charters  of  liberties 
of  the  most  extreme  character,  and  in  various  kingdoms  they- 
had  sent  representatives  to  the  assembly  of  Estates,  or  the 
"  Cortes,"  for  more  than  a  century  before  a  like  practice  began 
in  England.  But  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  began  to  abridge  all 
these  privileges,  and  in  the  next  two  reigns  (§§  326,  360)  the 
process  was  carried  so  far  that  Spain  became  the  most  absolute 
monarchy  in  Europe. 

Mxr  EXERCISE.  —  "  Castile  "  was  at  first  merely  a  line  of  "  castles." 
It  was  a  "mark  state  "  :  it  shut  off  Aragon  on  one  side  and  Leon  on  tin* 
other  from  any  effective  contact  with  the  Moore,  as  Barcelona.  Navanv. 
and  Asturia  had  been  shut  off  still  earlier.  After  this  \\a.s  accomplished, 
Castile  was  the  state  most  likely  to  grow  to  supremacy.  Cf.  Wessex  in 
Britain,  §  105. 

320.  Southeastern  Europe  and  the  Turks.  —  While  the 
civilized  Mohammedan  Moors  were  losing  Spain,  barbarous 
Mohammed  Turks  were  gaining  southeastern  Europe.  They 
established  themselves  on  the  European  side  of  the  Hellespont 
first  in  1346.  Constantinople  held  out  for  a  century  more, 
a  Christian  island  encompassed  by  seas  of  Mohammedanism. 
But  at  Kassova  (1389),  the  Turks  completed  the  overthrow  of 
the  Servians  and  other  Slav  peoples  of  the  Balkan  regions, 
and  a  few  years  later  a  crushing  defeat  was  inflicted  upon 
the  Hungarians  and  Poles.  In  1453,  Mahomet  the  Cowi 
entered  Constantinople  through  the  breach  where  the  heroic 
Constantine  Palaeologus,  last  of  the  Greek  emperors,  died  sword 
in  hand. 

The  Turks  were  incapable  of  civilization,  in  the  European 
sense,  and  they  have  always  remained  a  hostile  army  encamped 
among  -subject  Christian  populations,  whom  their  rule  has 


•-  -\-\NN:' 


11! 


x/r^    ^r  'VitJLrs         «""'•'  ?*-  '^  **'^n/ 

^^ra?i»,  i  .*%••  •-'"/ 


.3 


300  CLOSE   OF   THE    MIDDLE    AGES  [§321 

blighted.  A  chief  factor  in  their  early  success  was  the  "  tribute 
of  children,"  organized  into  the  famous  fighting  force  of 
Janissaries. 

Says  Freeman:  "A  fixed  proportion  of  the  strongest  and  most 
promising  boys  among  the  conquered  Christian  nations  were  carried  off, 
brought  up  in  the  Mohammedan  faith,  and  .  .  .  employed  in  civil  and 
military  functions.  .  .  .  Out  of  them  was  formed  the  famous  force  of  the 
Janissaries,  who  for  three  centuries  formed  the  strenjjth  of  the  Ottoman 
armies.  .  .  .  The  strength  of  the  conquered  nations  was  turned  against 
themselves." 

From  1453  to  to-day  (1914),  Constantinople  has  remained  the 
capital  of  the  Turkish  Empire.  That  empire  continued  to  ex- 
pand for  a  century  more  (until  about  1550),  and  for  a  time  it 
seemed  as  though  nothing  could  save  Western  Europe.  Venice 
on  sea,  and  Hungary  by  land,  were  the  two  chief  out-posts 
of  Christendom,  and,  almost  unaided,  they  kept  up  ceaseless 
warfare  to  check  the  Mohammedan  invaders.  For  a  time, 
Hungary  was  conquered,  and  then  Austria  took  jts  place  as  a 
bulwark  for  Western  Europe. 

^^^^^^^^•jl^^^^. 

32ff  Switzerland  began  to  grow  into  a  political  state  just 
before  the  year  1300.  The  brave  and  sturdy  peasantry,  in  their 
mountain  fastnesses,  had  preserved  much  of  the  old  Teutonic 
independence.  Some  small  districts  (cantons)  in  the  German 
Alps  had  belonged  to  the  Hapsburg  counts.  When  Rudolph 
of  Hapsburg  became  duke  of  distant  Austria  (§  31o),  he  left 
these  possessions  to  subordinate  officers.  These  agents  op- 
pressed the  Swiss  by  extortion  and  tyranny;  and,  in  1291, 
the  three  "  Forest  Cantons  "  —  Uri,  ScJiwyz,  and  Untenvalden 
—  formed  a  "perpetual  league"  for  mutual  defense  against 
tyranny. 

For  two  centuries,  from  time  to  time,  the  Hapsburgs  in- 
vaded Switzerland  with  powerful  armies,  in  order  to  reduce 
the  mountaineers  to  subjection ;  and  very  soon  the  league 
against  oppression  by  the  lord's  agents  became  a  league  for 
independence,  against  the  lord  himself.  Freedom  was  estab- 
lished by  two  great  victories,  —  Morgarten  (1315)  and  Sempach 


302  CLOSE   OF   THE    MIDDLE    AGES 

(1386). l  Between  the  two  battles,  other  cantons  rebelled 
against  their  lords  and  joined  the  alliance.  The  new  members 
—  among  them  Bern,  Zurich,  and  Luzern  —  were  small  city- 
states,  wealthier  and  more  aristocratic  than  the  original  union. 
Soon  after  Sempach,  the  constitution  of  the  league  was  re- 
vised. In  the  new  document  the  confederate  cantons  claimed 
to  be  states  of  the  i*////*/'/v.  but  all  dependence  upon  feudal  lords 
was  expressly  rejected.  Each  canton  kept  complete  control 
over  its  own  internal  affairs.  The  "  Diet,"  or  central  congress 
of  representatives,  was  hardly  more  than  a  meeting  of  ambas- 
sadors to  manage  foreign  Avar  and  divide  the  plunder.  Tin- 
union  kept  this  loose  form  until  the  French  Revolution. 

The  victories  of  the  Swiss  developed  a  passion  for  plunder  and  for 
fighting ;  so  that,  when  there  were  no  wars  at  home,  great  numbers  of 
Swiss  youth  became  -'mercenaries."  For  centuries  they  were  the  must 
famous  soldiery  of  Europe,  and.  stran--  ly  enough,  when  the  urn-;it  demo- 
cratic movements  of  the  French  Revolution  lieiran.  the  thrones  of  Euro- 
pean despots  were  guarded  by  hirelings  from  the  free  Bwin  mountains. 

322.  Scandinavia. — Except  for  the  ninth  century  invasions 
(§  98),  and  for  the  brief  empire  of  Knut  (§  1  •").  Scandinavia 
hardly  touched  the  life  of  the  rest  of  Europe  until  the  seven- 
teenth century.  The  story  of  these  northern  lands  is  romantic. 
The  very  names  of  the  Norse  kings  make  a  portrait  gjtllery,  — 
Eric  Broadax,  Hakon  the  Good,  Hakon  the  Old,  Olaf  the 
Thickset,  Olaf  the  Saint.  But  the  history  for  the  most  part  is 
only  a  record  of  meaningless  wars,  until,  in  l."(.>7.  the  three 
kingdoms,  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  were  united  under 
Queen  Margaret  of  Denmark,  by  the  Union  ofCalmur. 

This  treaty  had  the  form  of  a  brief  written  constitution 
signed  by  the  principal  men  of  the  three  nations.  It  provided 
that  each  country  should  keep  its  own  laws  and  its  internal 
administration,  but  tib&t  for  foreign  affairs  the  three  should  be 
joined  in  "perpetual  union"  under  <>,,<>  hereditary  sovereign. 

!The  myth  of  William  Tell  belongs  to  the  period  of  .Mor^arten.  and  the 
m\  1 1'  of  Arnnlil  Wi/ikelrietl  to  that  of  Sempach.  These  two  stories  are  good 
subjects  for  special  reports. 


1 1 

4 


§323] 


THE   LOW   COUNTRIES 


303 


In  practice,  however,  the  "  Union "  made  the  states  of  the 
northern  peninsula  into  dependencies  of  Denmark.  Sweden  soon 
rebelled,  and  finally,  under  her  heroic  Gustavus  Vasa,  estab- 
lished her  independence;  but  Norway,  with  occasional  rebel- 
lions, remained  dependent 
until  1814. 

323.  The  Netherlands 
(Low  Countries)  did  not 
form  an  independent  state 
in  the  Middle  Ages.  They 
were  made  up  of  a  group 
of  provinces,  part  of  them 
fiefs  of  the  Empire,  part  of 
them  French  fiefs.  The 
southern  portion  has  be- 
come modern  Belgium ;  the 
northern  part,  modern  Hol- 
land. The  land  is  a  low, 
level  tract,  and  in  the 
Middle  Ages  it  was  more 
densely  packed  with  teem- 
ing cities  than  any  other 
part  of  Europe. 

The  inhabitants  were  a 
sturdy,  independent,  slow, 
industrious,  persistent  peo- 
ple. Ghent  claimed  eighty 

thousand  Citizens    able    to     HA^L   OF  THB  CLOTHMAKERB'   GILD  AT 

YPRES:   begun,  1200;  finished,  1364. 
bear  arms,  while  ipres  is 

said  to  have  employed  two  hundred  thousand  people  in  the 
weaving  of  cloth.  No  doubt  these  numbers  are  exaggerations ; 
but  wealth  so  abounded  that  the  "  counts  "  of  this  little  district 
excelled  most  of  the  kings  of  Europe  in  magnificence.  Early 
in  the  crusading  age  the  cities  had  won  or  bought  their  liber- 
ties. Each  province  had  its  Diet,  where  sat  nobles  and  city 
representatives. 


304  CLOSE  OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGES  [§323 

Many  of  these  cities  were  built  on  land  wrested  from  the 
sea,1  and  they  took  naturally  to  commerce.  In  their  markets, 
the  merchants  from  Italy  and  the  south  of  Europe  met  and 
exchanged  wares  with  the  Hansa  merchants. 

But  these  Netherland  towns  were  workshops  even  more  than 
they  were  trading  rooj^  "Nothing  reached  their  shores," 
says  one  historian,  "t^pceived  a  more  perfect  finish  :  what 
was  coarse  and  almost  worthless,  became  transmuted  into 
something  beautiful  and  good."  Matthew  Paris,  a  thirteenth 
century  English  chronicler,  exclaimed  that  "the  whole  world 
was  clothed  in  English  wool  in  Ted  in  Flandrr*.' 

The  need  of  English  wool  for  the  Flemish  looms  made  Flan- 
ders the  ally  of  England  in  the  Hundred  Years'  AYur.  1  >uring 
this  period  the  dukes  of  Burgundy  became  masters  of  Flanders. 
When  Charles  the  Bold  of  Burgundy  lost  his  life  in  trying  to 
extend  his  dukedom  into  a  kingdom  (§  301),  and  when  Lou; 
of  France  then  seized  most  of  his  possessions,  the  Flemish 
towns  wisely  chose  to  remain  faithful  to  Mary,  the  daughter 
of  Charles. 

In  return  for  their  fidelity,  an  Estates  General  of  the  prov- 
inces secured  from  that  princess  a  grant  of  Tlie  Great  /'/•/'•• 
the  "  Magna  Carta  of  the  Netherlands  "  (1478).  This  document 
promised  (1)  that^ft  provinces  might  hold  Diets  at  will; 
(2)  that  no  new  tax  snould  be  imposed  but  by  the  Estates  Gen- 
eral ;  (3)  that  no  war  should  be  declared  but  by  the  consent  of 
that  body ;  (4)  that  offices  should  be  filled  by  natives  only  ;  and 
(5)  that  Dutch  should  be  the  official  language. 

Mary  married  the  young  Maximilian  of  Hapsburg  (§  318), 
and  the  Netherlands  passed  to  the  House  of  Austria. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  The  only  reading  advisable  for  young  stu- 
dents on  this  period  (outside  England  and  France  for  which  suggestions 
have  been  given)  concerns  Holland.  The  best  accounts  will  be  found  in 
Griffis'  Brave  Little  Holland,  Rogers'  Holland,  and  the  opening  pages  of 
The  Student's  Motley. 

1  Amsterdam,  Rotterdam,  and  many  other  cities  to  the  north  were  built 
upon  dams,  or  dikes. 


Liinebur.g\fAltmark 


ET  a  n  c  e  n.b 


'U'Ul^ 


TT~^.  Duchy 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

CLOSE   OF  THE  MIDDLE   AGES  :   POLITICAL   EUROPE 

324.  "  Monarchic  States." — In  the  last  chapters  we  have  traced 
the  rise  of  new  powerful  monarchies  in  England,  France,  Spain, 
Austria  and  Bohemia,  Sweden  and  Denmark.  Like  govern- 
ments had  appeared,  too,  in  Hungary  and  Poland.  Two  small 
lands,  Switzerland  and  the  Netherlands,  were  loosely  connected 
with  the  Austrian  Hapsburg  monarchy.  And  two  great  lands 
had  no  part  in  the  movement:  until  1250,  Germany  and  Italy 
had  been  the  center  of  interest;  but  their  claim  for  universal 
rule  had  left  them  broken  in  fragments.  Not  for  centuries 
were  they  to  reach  this  new  form  of  united  monarchic  govern- 
ment. Leadership,  therefore,  passed  from  them  to  France,  Spain, 
and  England,  —  the  three  countries  in  which  the  new  move- 
ment was  most  advanced.  Germany  and  Italy  became  little 
more  than  a  battle  ground  for  these  states. 

It  is  well  at  this  point  to  look  back  for  a  bird's-eye  view  of 
the  political  progress  of  the  Middle  Ages.  After  Charlemagne, 
Europe  had  been  forced,  by  military  and  ecjonomic_necessities 
(chapter  v),  to  adopt  the  feudal  organization.  But  this  bar- 
barous anarchic  sort  of  government  did  not  long  meet  the  needs 
of  reviving  civilization  ;  and,  before  1300,  two  definite  plans  at 
better  organization  had  been  tried.  And  both  had  failed. 
(1)  The  hope  for  a  universal  monarchy  was  shattered  by  the 
conflict  between  emperors  and  popes.  (2)  The  papacy  seemed 
at  first  to  come  out  of  that  conflict  as  a  victorious  universal 
"  theocracy  "  ; l  but  its  political  power  soon  vanished  before  the 
rising  English  and  French  monarchies. 

1  Theocracy  is  a  government  by  a  priesthood,  as  in  parts  of  Jewish  history. 

306 


306  CLOSE   OF   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  [§325 

The  rise  of"  monarchic  states  "  is  the  great  change  that  murk* 
the  close,  politically,  of  the  Middle  Ages.  At  the  moment,  it  seemed 
a  disaster  to  many  good  men,  who  had  their  minds  fixed  on  the 
old  ideal  of  a  united  Christendom.  But,  since  the  days  of  the 
old  Roman  empire,  Europe  had  never  known  a  true  union. 
"  Latin  Christendom^'  in  its  best  period  of  union,  had  contained 
several  layers  of  society,  each  spread  over  all  Western  Europe 
—  nobles,  burgesses,  artisans,  priests,  peasants.  These 
zontal  lines  of  cleavage  between  classes  had  been  far 
disastrous  to  union  than  the  new  cleavage  into  nations  was  to 
be.  One  class  had  been  more  foreign  to  another  in  the  same 
land  than  France  to  England.  French  noble  and  German  noble 
were  always  ready  to  make  common  cause  against  peasants  or 
townsfolk  of  either  country. 

The  new  monarchies  were  to  change  all  this.  Indeed,  they 
had  already  begun  to  do  so.  The  real  mission  of  each  of  them. 
whether  the  monarchs  saw  it  yet  or  not,  was  to  wchl  till  tln> 
classes  within  its  land  into  one  p<-< >/>/>'  //•/'/ A  <i  m/mio,,  y»///W /*///. 
While  this  was  being  done,  some  old  liberties  were  lost.  I»ut, 
unconsciously,  the  monarchs  were  paving  the  way  for  a  new 
freedom,  a  few  centuries  later,  broader  and  safer  than  the 
world  had  ever  known. 

325.  The  Struggle  for  Italy.  —  Even  in  Italy  there  had  been 
some  movement  toward  unity.  Soon  after  1300  nearly  every 
city  fell  under  the  rule  of  tyrants.  But  by  1  1  •"")<>  the  many  petty 
divisions  had  been  brought  under  one  or  another  of  the  "  Five 
Great  States,"  —  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  in  the  south,  the  Papal 
States  in  the  center,  and  in  the  north  the  duchy  of  Milan  and  the 
so-called  republics  of  Venice  and  Florence.  The  movement  to- 
ward consolidation,  however,  had  not  gone  far  enough  to  afford 
security,  now  that  other  countries  were  united  at  home. 

We  saw  that  about  1250  a  pope  invited  a  French  prince, 
Charles  of  Anjou,  to  become  king  of  Sicily  (§  232).  Charles 
VIII  of  France  now  claimed  the  crown  of  Sicily  and  Naples 
as  the  heir  of  the  House  of  Anjou,  and,  in  1494,  he  crossed 
the  Alps  with  a  large  army  to  assert  his  claim.  Charles  was 


§325] 


THE    STRUGGLE   FOR   ITALY 


307 


ILLUSTRATION  FROM  A  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  MANUSCRIPT,  showing  in  the 
foreground  Maximilian  of  Austria,  Mary  of  Burgundy,  and  their  son  Philip. 
The  original  is  in  colors. 


308  CLOSE   OF  THE    MIDDLE   AGES  [§326 

animated  by  wild  dreams  of  conquest.  He  marched  victori- 
ously from  end  to  end  of  the  peninsula,  regulating  matters  at 
will,  not  only  in  his  southern  kingdom,  but  in  the  northern 
states  as  well.  However,  Italian  enemies  quickly  gathered 
behind  him.  Ferdinand  of  Arugon,  <ttei».  claimed  the  kingdom 
of  Sicily ;  and  Venice  joined  the  anti-French  party.  Charles 
secured  his  retreat  into  France  only  by  a  desperate  battle. 
^/ n  i  in  teas  left  mistress  of  Sicily  and  Naples. 

326.  The  Hapsburg  Power.  —  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  had  been 
building  up  family  alliances  to  strengthen  the  power  of  Spain. 
One  daughter  he  married  to  the  young  English  prince,  soon  to 
become  King  Henry  VIII  (§  373),  and  another  to  Philip  of 
Hapsburg,  son  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  and  Mary  of  Hur- 
gundy  (§  323).     From  this  last  marriage,  in  1500,  was  born  a 
child,  Charles,  who  was  almost  to  restore  a  universal  empire. 

Philip,  father  of  Charles,  had  been  ruler  of  the  rich  provinces 
of  the  Netherlands  through  his  mother,  Mary ;  and  his  early 
death  left  those  districts  to  Charles  while  yet  a  boy.  In 
1516  Charles  also  succeeded  his  grandfather,  Ferdinand,  as 
king  of  Sicily  and  Naples  and  as  king  of  Spain,  with  the 
gold-producing  realms  in  America  that  had  just  become  Spain's. 
Three  years  later  he  succeeded  his  other  grandfather.  Maxi- 
milian, as  the  hereditary  ruler  of  Austria,  with  its  many  de- 
pendent provinces.  Then,  still  a  boy  of  19,  Charles  became 
a  candidate  for  the  title  of  emperor,  which  Maximilian's  death 
had  left  vacant;  and  his  wealth  (or  that  of  his  Flemish  mer- 
chants) enabled  him  to  win  against  his  rivals,  Francis  of 
France  and  Henry  VIII  of  England. 

327.  Thus  Charles  I  of  Spain,  at  twenty,  became  also  Charles  V, 
Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.     This  election  gave  him  a 
claim  to  lordship  over  Germany  and  the  rest  of  Italy.     His 
hereditary  possessions  made  it  seem  possible  for  a  while  that 
he  might   make  his   claim  good  —  and  so  more  than  restore 
the  empire 'of  the  first  great  Charles  (Charlemagne). 

328.  Francis  and  Charles.  —  France,  at   first,  was  his  only 
apparent  obstacle.    Francis  I  had' been  trying  to  capture  Milan 


Ill 


ri 


\*>  i 


s    / 


K 


« 


§328]  CHARLES   V  AND   FRANCIS   I  309 

—  in  right  of  a  shadowy  French  claim;  and  this  brought 
Francis  and  Charles  into  conflict.  Compact  France  was  nearly 
equal  in  power  to  all  the  scattered 
Hapsburg  realms,  and  Francis  found 
mighty  reinforcement  from  an  event 
which  occurred  just  at  this  mo- 
ment in  Germany.  In  1520  Martin 
Luther  publicly  burned  a  papal  bull 
(§  353)  and  started  the  Protestant  GoLD  CoiN  OF  FBANCIS  L 
Reformation,  which  was  to  split  Germany  at  once  into  opposing 
camps  and  to  render  forever  impossible  the  restoration  of  the 
old  imperial  unity  of  Christendom,  of  which  Charles  perhaps 
had  dreamed. 

This  was  the  political  situation  when  Europe  entered  the 
age  of  the  Protestant  Revolt  (§  346).  Before  we  enter  upon 
that  story,  we  have  yet  to  treat  the  intellectual  side  of  the  two 
centuries  whose  political  story  we  have  been  tracing  in  the  last 
five  chapters. 

REVIEW   EXERCISES 

1.  Fact  drills. 

a.  Dates.     Add  to  previous  lists  the  following  :  — 
1100-1300,  Crusades.  1414,  Council  of  Constance. 
1254-1273,  Great  Interregnum.      1453,  Fall  of  Constantinople. 

1381,  Peasant  Rising  in  England.   1492,  Columbus.     Capture  of  Granada. 

b.  Fix  other  events  in  connection  with  the  above  ;  such  as  the  Swiss 

Confederacy  (after  the  death  of  Rudolph,  who  becomes  emperor 
1273,  at  close  of  Interregnum),  Innocent  III,  Albigensian  her- 
esy, Tartar  invasions,  etc. 

c.  Extend  list  of  terms  for  brief  explanation  (cf.  pages  130,  213)  : 

"take  the  cross,"  Dukes  of  Athens,  Teutonic  Order,  Janissaries, 
etc.  (The  list  should  be  a  long  one  for  this  period.) 

2.  Review  questions  presented  by  class. 

3.  Map  reviews  and  comparisons. 

4.  General   topics:    (a)  parliamentary  assemblies   of   Europe,  —  Diets, 

Estates,  Cortes,  etc. ;  (6)  movements  for  religious  reforms  within 
the  church  ;  (c)  movements  for  religious  reforms  that  threatened, 
at  least,  to  act  outside  the  church. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

THE    RENAISSANCE    (1350-1550) 
(A  TRANSITION  TO  A  NEW  AGE) 

329.  Character  of  the  Renaissance.  —  The  intellectual  awaken- 
ing that  followed  the  crusades  (§  254)  had  already  shown  itself 
before  1300  in  the  marvelous  growth  of  universities  i  jj  L'7  1  i  ; 
and  soon  after  that  date,  it  began  to  grow  into  the  fur  more 
wonderful  movement  which  we  call  the  Renaissance.  The 
name  is  a  fit  one  because  the  change  consisted  largely  in  a 
"  rebirth  "  of  an  old,  long-forgotten  way  of  looking  at  life. 
This  older  way  had  expressed  itself  in  the  art  and  literature 
of  the  ancient  Greeks ;  and  naturally  the  men  of  the  new 
age  were  passionately  enthusiastic  over  all  remains  of  the 
"  classical "  period.  The  real  characteristic  of  the  Renais- 
sance, however,  was  not  its  devotion  to  the  past,  /////  itxjni/ims- 
ness  and  self-trust  in  the  present.  The  meq  of  the  Renaissance 
cared  for  the  ancient  culture  of  Greece  and  of  Rome,  because 
they  found  in  it  what  they  themselves  thought  and  felt. 

Between  those  classical  times  and  the  fourteenth  century, 
there  had  intervened  centuries  of  very  different  life  —  which 
we  have  been  studying.  Those  "intervening"  centuries  are 
called,  properly  enough,  the  "Middle  Ages."  They  have  thw 
marks  on  the  intellectual  side.  (1)  Ignorance  was  the  general 
rule  ;  and  even  the  learned  followed  slavishly  in  the  footsteps  of 
some  intellectual  master.  (2)  Man  as  an  individual  counted 
for  little.  In  all  his  activities  he  was  part  of  some  gild  or  order 
or  corporation.  (3)  Interest  in  the  future  life  was  so  intense 
that  many  good  men  neglected  the  present  life.  Beauty  in 
nature  was  little  regarded,  or  regarded  almost  as  a  temptation 
of  the  devil.  Men  not  only  felt  it  wrong  to  take  delight  in 

*  310 


§331]  ITALIAN   HUMANISM  311 

the  world,  but   thought   they  ought  always  to   think  of   the 
terrors  of  a  world  to  come. 

The  Renaissance  changed  all  this.  (1)  For  blind  obedience 
to  authority  and  tradition,  it  substituted  the  free  inquiring 
way  in  which  the  Ancients  had  looked  at  things.  (2)  A  new 
self-reliance  and  self-confidence  marked  the  individual,  and  a 
fresh  and  lively  originality  appeared  in  every  form  of  thought. 
(3)  Men  awoke  to  delight  in  flower  and  sky  and  mountain,  in 
the  beauty  of  the  human  body,  in  all  the  pleasures  of  the  natural 
world,  and  also  of  the  world  of  thought  and  imagination. 

330.  Periods.  —  This   transformation  —  one   of   the  two  or 
three  most  wonderful  changes  in  all  history  —  began  first  in 
Italy   about   1350.     It   was  well  over  in  that  land  by  1550; 
while   it   hardly   began  in  England  until  1500,  and  there   it 
lasted   through   Shakspere's   age,  to   about  1600.     For   other 
countries,  the  movement  came  between  these  extreme  dates. 
The  whole  period  was  one  of  transition  out  of  one  age  into  an- 
other.    Thus  it  is  hard  to  date  it  at  all,  and  of  course  it  varied 
for  different  places.     This  chapter,  therefore,  in  places,  runs 
over  into  the  next  age. 

The  Renaissance,  too,  showed  itself  most  forcefully  at  different 
times  in  different  ways.  First  it  manifested  itself  in  art  and 
literature,  then  in  a  revival  of  learning  and  in  scientific  study, 
and  finally  in  a  movement  for  religious  reform.  Some  of  these 
phases  were  more  marked  in  one  country,  some  in  another. 

331.  Italy  was  the  natural  home  for  a  revival  in  literature  and 
art.     Italy's  Virgil  had  been  read  by  a  few  Italian  scholars  all 
down  the  Middle  Ages.     The  Italian  language  was  nearer  the 
Latin  than  any  other  European  language  was,  and  more  manu- 
scripts of  the  ancient  Roman  writers  survived  in  Italy  than 
elsewhere  in  Western  Europe. 

Three  names  are  commonly  associated  with  the  Italian  lit- 
erary Renaissance,  —  Dante  (1265-1321),  Petrarch  (1304-1374), 
and  Boccaccio  (1313-1375),  —  all  citizens  of  Florence.  The 
greatest  of  the  three  was  Dante;  but  after  all,  Dante's 
thought  belonged  to  the  Middle  Ages :  it  is  only  in  his 


312 


THE   RENAISSANCE,    1350-1560 


[§331 


independence  and  self-reliance  that  he  stood  for  a  new  era 
Petrarch,  in  the  next  generation,  was  the  champion  of  a  new 
age.  In  feeling  and  aspiration  he  belonged  wholly  to  the 
Renaissance,  —  which  he  did  much  to  bring  to  pass.  His 
graceful  sonnets  are  a  famous  part  of  Italian  literature,  but 
his  chief  influence  upon  the  world  lay  in  his  work  as  a  tireless 
critic  of  the  medieval  system  and  as  an  ardent  advocate  of 
the  old  classical  ideals.  He  attacked  vehemently  the  supersti- 
tions and  the  false  science  of  the 
day ;  he  ridiculed  the  mighty  tomes 
of  the  Schoolmen  as  "heaps  of 
worthless  rubbish  "  ;  the  universi- 
ties themselves  he  laughed  at  as 
"  nests  of  gloomy  ignorance  "  ;  and 
he  ventured  daringly  even  to  chal- 
lenge the  infallibility  of  Aristotle, 
—  who,  he  said,  was  after  all  "  only 
a  man." 

But  Petrarch  did  more  than 
merely  destroy.  It  was  desirable 
that  the  world  should  recover  what 
the  Ancients  had  possessed  of  art 
and  knowledge,  that  it  might  take 

up  progress  again  where  they  had  left  off.  Petrarch  began  an 
enthusiastic  search  for  classical  maim^'ri^tn.  and  his  disciples 
soon  made  this  zeal  fashionable  throughout  Italy. 

Among  these  disciples  the  most  famous  was  Boccaccio,  nine 
years  Petrarch's  junior.  He  is  widely  famed  as  the  writer  of 
the  Decameron,  a  collection  of  a  hundred  tales.  This  work  made 
him  the  father  of  Italian  prose,  as  Dante  was  of  Italian  poetry  ; 
but,  as  in  the  case  of  Petrarch,  Boccaccio's  real  worth  to  the 
world  lay  mainly  in  the  impulse  he  added  to  the  revival  of 
classical  learning.  He  wrote  the  first  dictionaries  of  classical 
geography  and  Greek  mythology,  and  so  made  it  easier  for 
scholars  to  understand  ancient  writers ;  and  he  brought  back 
the  study  of  Greek  to  Italy. 


PETRARCH. 


§334]  RECOVERY   OF   GREEK   CULTURE  313 

332.  This  new  enthusiasm  for  the  classics  became  known  as 
humanism  (Latin,  humanitas,  culture).     Before  1450,  the  Hu- 
manists had  recovered  practically  all  the  literary  remains  we 
now  have  of  the  Latin  authors,  and  a  large  part  of  the  surviv- 
ing  Greek  manuscripts.      Oftentimes  neglected   manuscripts 
were  found  decaying  in  moldy  vaults.     Many  had  been  muti- 
lated, or  had  been  erased  in  order  that  the  parchment  might 
receive  some  monastic  legend.1     Much  had  been  wholly  lost ; 
and  if  the  humanistic  revival  had  been  a  little  longer  delayed, 
a  great  deal  that  we  now  possess  would  never  have  been  re- 
covered. 

333.  Recovery  of  the  Greek  Language.  —  With  all  their  zeal 
for  Greek  manuscripts,  and  Latin  translations  of  them,  most 
of  the  early  Humanists  were  ignorant  of  the  Greek  language ; 
but  after  the  year  1400,  the  knowledge  of  that  tongue  grew 
rapidly.     Greek  scholars  were  invited  to  the  Italian  cities  and 
were  given  professorships  in  the  universities.'    The  increasing 
danger  in  the  Greek  Empire  from  the  Turk  (§  320)  made  such 
invitations  welcome,  and  the  high  prices  paid  by  princely  Ital- 
ian collectors  drew  more  and  more  of  the  literary  treasures  of 
Constantinople  to  the  Italian  cities.     Many  a  fugitive  scholar 
from  the  East  found  the  possession  of  some  precious  manu- 
script the  key  to  fortune  and  favor  in  Italy.2     This  movement 
received  a  sudden,  but  brief,  acceleration  when  Constantinople 
fell,  in  1453.    "  Greece  did  not  perish,"  said  an  Italian  scholar ; 
"  it  emigrated  to  Italy." 

334.  Humanism  in  the  History  of  Education. — At  first,  hu- 
manism had  been  stoutly  resisted  by  the  universities,  but  it 
finally  captured  them  and  established  a  "  new  education."    The 
earlier  "  liberal  education "  had  contained  no  Greek  and  had 
given  little  acquaintance  with  the  Latin  authors.     The  courses 
in  "  arts  "  were  now  broadened  so  as  to  furnish  a  true  classical 

1  In  some  cases  this  later  writing  has  since  been  carefully  removed,  and 
the  original  writing  restored  faintly,  through  chemical  processes. 

2  The  value  of  such  a  manuscript  furnishes  an  essential  element  in  the.plot 
of  George  Eliot's  Romola. 


314  THE   RENAISSANCE,    1350-1550  [§335 

training.  Medieval  Latin  was  replaced  by  the  refined  style 
of  Cicero,  and  the  great  works  of  classical  antiquity  were 
studied  at  first  hand.  Greek  thought  and  knowledge  and  the 
grand  and  beautiful  conceptions  of  Greek  and  Latin  literature 
were  gradually  absorbed  into  our  modern  thought  and  litera- 
ture, which  they  still  color. 

335.  Renaissance  Art.  —  Architecture  was  the  one  beautiful 
thing  that  suffered  at  the  Renaissance.  The  noble  Gut h it- 
style  was  replaced  by  imitations  of  the  older  Roman  and  Greek 
styles.  But  in  painting  and  sculpture  there  was  great  gain. 
These  arts  were  reborn  into  the  world,  with  the  rebirth  of  a 
delight  in  life;  and  painting,  at  least,  reached  a  perfection 
never  before  known. 

This  was  particularly  true  in  Italy.  In  that  land  many 
remains  of  ancient  art  were  still  preserved.  Otlu-rs,  buried  in 
the  soil,  were  now  eagerly  sought  for.  After  Boccaccio,  the  new 
movement  became  preeminently  artistic.  And  art  interested 
deeply  the  whole  people,  not  merely  a  select  few.  Great  popular 
processions  did  honor  to  single  paintings,  and  famous  works* 
were  produced  in  an  abundance  almost  inconceivable. 

Until  about  1450  the  paintings  were  mainly  frescoes,  or 
paintings  upon  freshly  plastered  ceilings,  in  churches  or  pal- 
aces. But  one  of  the  Van  Eyck  brothers  in  Holland,  about  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  invented  new  methods  of  pre- 
paring oil  paints,  so  that  painting  upon  canvas  became  possible. 
About  the  same  time  engraving  of  copper  plates  and  "  wood- 
cuts "  came  into  use. 

The  new  artistic  impulse  is  usually  dated  from  the  work  of  Giotto, 
early  in  the  fourteenth  century,  but  Italian  painting  culminated  in  the 
eighty  years  from  1470  to  15oO.  Between  these  dates  came  the  work  of 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Michael  Angdo,  Fra  Angelica,  Perugino,  R«, 
Andrea  del  Sarto,  the  Bellini,  Giorgione,  Titian,  Tintoretto,  and 
Correggio.  Each  town  had  its  able  artists,  but  nearly  all  the  greatest 
masters,  like  most  of  those  just  named,  belonged  to  Florence  or  to 
Venice.  Many  of  these  men  practised  more  than  one  art.  Thus.  Michael 
Angelo  was  great  as  architect,  engineer,  and  sculptor,  as  well  as  painter, 
and  he  "was  not  without  fame  as  a  poet. 


§337]  THE   OXFORD   REFORMERS  315 

The  great  period  of  Dutch  art  was  to  come  a  little  later,  between  1600 
and  1660,  with  Rubens,  Van  Dyck,  and  Rembrandt.  In  the  same  century 
came  the  great  Spanish  painters,  Velasquez  (1599-1660)  and  Murillo 
(1618-1682).  The  other  great  painters  of  the  Renaissance  age  outside  of 
Italy  were  the  Germans,  Albert  Dilrer  (1471-1528)  and  Holbein  (1498- 
1543).  Neither  England  nor  France  produced  much  in  this  direction  dur- 
ing these  centuries.  But  some  of  the  great  Italians  —  Andrea  del  Sarto 
and  Leonardo  —  found  their  chief  patronage  in  Paris  from  Francis  I,  and 
English  sovereigns  entertained  Holbein,  Rubens,  and  Van  Dyck. 

336.  There  was  an  evil,  pagan  side  to  the  Italian  Renaissance. 
The  men  of  the  new  movement,  having  cast  off  old  restraints 
and  beliefs,  fell  often  into  gross  and  shallow  unbelief  and  into 
shameless  self-indulgence.     Delight  in  beauty  sometimes  sank 
into   gross    sensuality.     Religious    faith   and   private    morals 
both  declined,  and  for  a  time  Italian  society  sank  lower  than 
the  old  Pagan  world.     The  "  Men  of  the  Renaissance "  were 
always  polished  and  elegant  and  full  of  robust  vitality;  but 
many  of  them  went  to  their  goal  recklessly  by  any  means,  and 
some  of  them  were  monsters  of  perfidy  and  cruelty. 

337.  This  side  of  the  Renaissance  was  typified  by  the  Italian 
Condottieri,  —  roving  captains  of  bands  of  soldiers  of  fortune. 
These  chieftains  sold  their  services  to  any  city  with  a  price  to 
pay,  —  and  then  betrayed  it,  on  occasion,  or  seized  it  for  them- 
selves,  if  convenient.     Such  was  the   source  of  most  of  the 
Italian  "  tyrants  "  (§  325)  of  the  time.     Many  of  them  were 
generous    patrons    of    art    and    learning ;  but   their    marked 
characteristics  were  indomitable  will,  reckless  scorn  of  danger, 
powerful  minds,  and  absolute  freedom  from  moral  scruple  — 
which  led  them  to  extremes  of  cruelty  and  perfidy  whenever 
such  measures  seemed  useful  to  them.     Like  traits  show  a  few 
years  later,  in  the  Spanish  conquerors  of  the  New  World ;  — 
Cortez,  Pizarro,  Balboa,  and  their  fellows.     The  scores  of  Eng- 
lish sea-kings  of  the  next  century  —  Raleigh,  Drake,  Hawkins, 
Gilbert,  Grenville  (who  fought  "  the  fight  of  the  one  and  the 
fifty-three  " *)  —  belong  to  the  same  order  of  men  except  that 
in  them  cruelty  is  refined  into  sternness,  and  perfidy  is  re- 

1  Read  Tennyson's  poem  of  that  name. 


316  THE   RENAISSANCE,    1350-1560 

placed  by  lofty  honor,  through  the  greater  moral  earnestness 
of  the  Renaissance  in  the  North. 

338.  The  Renaissance  was  mainly  artistic  and  literary  in  the 
south  of  Europe,  and  mainly  scientific  and  religious  in  the  north. 
But  the  intellectual  side,  too,  was  born  in  Italy.     The  first 
modern  scholar  with  the  scientific  spirit  (if  we  except  Roger 
Bacon,  §  281)  was  Laurentius  Valla  (died  1457).     Among  other 
works,  he  edited  the  New  Testament  in  Greek,  and  he  prove/l 
that  a  long-accepted  famous  "  donation  "  of  power  and  territory 
to  the  popes,  by  the  first  Christian  emperor,  Constantine,  was 
a  forged   document.     Valla   was    private   secretary   to   Pope 
Nicholas  V  (§  314),  who  sympathi/.cd  with  his  work. 

Thus  modern  science  began  with  "historical  criticism,'' —  a  careful, 
scientific  study  of  the  sources  of  knowledge  about  the  past,  and  a  critical 
investigation  of  documents,  which  disclosed  many  forgeries  and  corrup- 
tions. This  new  historical  criticism  was  akin  to  the  enthusiasm  of  tin' 
early  Humanists  for  the  recovery  of  classical  writings;  but  it  was  also  de- 
lated to  a  fervent  nU<jinu*  <1<*in'  to  remove  abuses  in  the  church  and 
get  back  to  the  spirit  and  practices  of  early  Christianity. 

339.  The    Oxford   Reformers.  —  But  though   born   in   Italy, 
this  "  New  Learning"  r//V  ft  ml  //*  trne  home  north  of  the  Alps. 
Valla's  work  was  continued   by  John  Colet,  an   Englishman 
who  studied  in  Italy.     He  brought  back  to  England  the  study 
of  Greek,  and  lectured  at  the  University  of  Oxford  on  the 
New  Testament,  preaching  earnestly  the  need  of  an  orderly 
reform  in  religion  and   church  government.      The   group    of 
his  enthusiastic  followers  are  known,  with  him,  as  the  Oxford 
Reformers.     Most  important  among  them   were   Erasmus   (a 
Hollander)  and  Sir  Thomas  More. 

Colet  became  Dean  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  in  London. 
There  he  established  the  famous  St.  Paul's  School, — a  model 
for  the  later  English  "  Public  Schools  "  like  Eton  and  Rugby, 
wholly  different  from  the  old  church  schools.  This  began  a 
new  era  in  education. 

340.  The  influence  of  Erasmus  was  not  limited  to  any  one 
country,  but  extended  throughout  Europe  ;  and  his  name  was 


§341] 


GUNPOWDER   AND  PRINTING 


317 


probably  the  most  widely  respected  in  that  age.  In  1516  he 
published  the  New  Testament  in  the  original  Greek  (with  a 
careful  Latin  translation).  His  Greek  text  (far  more  correct 
than  Valla's)  was  carefully  revised,  and  accompanied  by  many 
critical  notes.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  ordinary  scholars  could 
test  satisfactorily  the  ac- 
curacy of  the  common 
Latin  translation  (the  Vul- 
gate) in  use  in  the  church. 
Afterward  Erasmus 
edited  the  writings  of 
many  of  the  early  Chris- 
tian Fathers — to  show  the 
character  of  early  Chris- 
tianity. In  another  sort  of 
works  —  as  in  his  famous 
Praise  of  Folly  —  with 
keen  and  graceful  ridicule, 
he  lashed  the  false  learn- 
ing and  foolish  methods  of 
the  monks  and  Schoolmen. 
He  has  been  called  "the 

Scholar  of  the  Eeforma- 

„      TT.  .,.  ERASMUS.    After  a  portrait  by  Holbein, 

tion.       His  writings   did 

furnish  Luther  (§  347)  with  much  material  ready  for  use 
against  the  old  religious  system  ;  but  Erasmus  was  not  himself 
a  revolutionist.  Like  Valla,  Colet,  and  More,  he  worked,  with 
beautiful  charity  and  patience  and  largeness  of  view,  for  reform 
within  the  great  mother  church. 

341.  Sir  Thomas  More  was  one  of  the  noblest  Englishmen 
of  any  age.  He  was  a  distinguished  scholar  —  his  learning 
brightened  by  a  gentle  and  pervading  humor  —  and  a  man 
of  great  personal  charm.  It  was  at  his  house  that  Erasmus 
^vrote  his  Praise  of  Folly.  More's  own  influence  was  given  to 
reform  in  society  rather  than  in  religion.  In  the  year  that 
Erasmus  published  his  Greek  Testament,  More  issued  his 


318 


THE   RENAISSANCE,    1350-1550 


[§342 


of  the  Republic  of  Utopia  ("  Nowhere  ").  He  por- 
trays, with  burning  sympathy,  the  miseries  of  the  English 
peasantry,  and  points  accusingly  to  the  barbarous  social  and 
political  conditions  of  his  time  by  contrasting  with  them  the 
conditions  in  "  Nowhere  "  —  where  the  people  elect  their  gov- 
eminent  (which  accordingly  is  devoted  solely  to  their  wel- 
fare), possess  good  homes, 
work  short  hours,  enjoy  ab- 
solute freedom  of  speech, 
high  intellectual  culture, 
and  universal  happiness, 
with  all  property  in  common. 
l'f»/n'a  was  the  first  of  the 
many  modern  attempts  to 
picture,  in  the  guise  of  fic- 
tion, an  ideal  state,  of  so- 
ciety. 

342.  The  new  intellectual 
movement  was  marked  by  a 
number  of  new  inventions  or 
by  the  first  practical  use  of 
them.  Four  demand  special 
attention. 

Gunpowder  had  been 
known  for  some  time 
(5J  L-'DO),  but  about  1500  it 
was  very  much  improved  in 
quality.  Its  first  serious  use  was  in  the  wars  between  Charles 
V  and  Francis  I,  about  1521.  This  invention  gave  the  final 
blow  to  the  already  dying  feudalism. 

Printing  did  more  to  advance  the  new  order  than  gunpowder 
could  do  to  destroy  the  old.  Cheap  paper  (from  the  Saracens) 
had  been  introduced  before  1300,  to  replace  costly  parchments  ; 
but  all  books  had  still  to  be  written  by  hand  until  after  1400. 
Then  engravers  wads  plates  (engraved  blocks  of  wood),  each  a 
page  of  a  book.  This  made  the  reproduction  of  a  book  much 


SIK  THOMAS  MORK.     After  a  ropy  by 
Rubens  ot'  the  portrait  by  Holbein. 


§343]  GEOGRAPHICAL   DISCOVERIES  319 

quicker  and  cheaper  than  before.  Some  such  process  seems 
to  have  been  practised  by  the  Chinese  centuries  earlier. 
Finally,  John  Gutenberg,  about  1450  (at  Mainz),  invented  the 
process  of  "  casting  "  separate  metal  type  in  molds. 

This  invention  of  movable  type  came  at  a  happy  moment, 
when  the  recovery  of  ancient  manuscripts  was  just  complete. 
There  was  much  to  print ;  and  in  less  than  twenty-five  years 
printing  presses  were  at  work  in  every  country  in  Southwest- 
ern Europe.  In  1474  William  Caxton  brought  back  the  new 
art  from  the  continent  to  England,  issuing  for  the  first  book 
from  his  press,  the  Game  and  Playe  of  Chesse.  No  previous 
invention  had  spread  its  influence  so  rapidly.  Before  1500, 
Venice  alone  had  sent  out  over  three  thousand  editions  of 
famous  books.  The  new  process  reduced  the  price  of  books  at 
once  to  one-tenth  or  one-twentieth  the  old  price,  and  it  enor- 
mously increased  their  circulation.  It  preserved  the  precious 
works  recovered  by  the  Humanists,  and  soon  spread  broadcast 
the  new  thought  of  the  Reformation. 

The  telescope  (§  345)  gave  knowledge  of  other  worlds. 

The  mariner's  compass  enabled  Columbus  to  double  the  area 
of  the  known  globe. 

343.  Geographical  Discoveries.  —  The  Ancients  had  played 
with  the  notion  of  sailing  around  the  earth.  Aristotle 
speaks  of  "  persons  "  who  held  that  it  might  be  possible ;  and 
Strabo,  a  Roman  geographer,  suggested  that  one  or  more 
continents  might  lie  in  the  Atlantic  between  Europe  and 
Asia. 

But  during  the  Middle  Ages  men  had  come  to  believe  that 
the  known  habitable  earth  was  bounded  on  all  sides  by  an  un- 
inhabitable and  untraversable  world,  —  on  the  north  by  snow 
and  ice,  on  the  south  by  a  fiery  zone,  on  the  west  by  watery 
wastes  stretching  down  an  inclined  plane,  up  which  men  might 
not  return,  and  on  the  east  by  a  dim  land  of  fog  and  fen,  the 
abode  of  strange  and  terrible  monsters.1  The  Indian  Ocean, 

1  For  some  of  these  ideas,  see  the  curious  and  interesting  Travels  of  Sir 
John  Maudeville  (thirteenth  century). 


320 


THE   RENAISSANCE,    1350-1550 


[§343 


too,  was  thought  to  be  a  lake,  encompassed  by  the  shores  of 
Asia  and  Africa. 

The  first  step  toward  the  discovery  of  America  was  to  cor- 
rect these  views.  This  was  accomplished  in  part  by  a  better 
geographical  knowledge  of  Asia,  gained  in  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries.  Louis  IX  of  France  sent  Friar  Rubruk 
as  ambassador  to  the  court  of  the  Tartar  Khan  in  central  Asia; 
and  the  friar  on  his  return  reported  that  he  had  heard  of  a 

navigable  ocean  east  of 
Cathay  (China),  with  a 
marvelously  wealthy  is- 
land, Zipango  (Japan). 

This  rumor  of  an  ocean 
to  the  east  made  a  leap 
in  men's  though t.%  Friar 
•n  in  Kngland  (§  281) 
at  once  raised  the  question 
whether  this  ocean  might 
not  be  the  same  as  the  one 
that  washed  Europe  on 
the  west  and  whether  men 
might  not  reach  Asia  by 


MONK  TEACHING  THE  GLOBE.  —  From  a 
thirteenth  century  manuscript  in  the 
National  Library  at  Paris. 


sailing  west  into  the  At- 
lantic. Indeed,  Bacon 
wrote  a  book  to  support 
these  conjectures,  adding  many  opinions  of  the  Ancients ;  and 
extensive  extracts  from  this  volume  were  copied  into  a  later 
book,  which  was  to  become  a  favorite- of  Columbus. 

Such  speculation  implies  that  scholars  understood  the  sphericity  of  the 
earth.  The  ancient  Greeks  had  had  this  knowledge  of  the  earth's  form, 
and  of  its  true  size,  but  that  knowledge  had  been  lost  in  the  early 
Middle  Ages.  Saracenic  schools,  however,  preserved  the  truth,  and  some 
European  thinkers  had  been  familiar  with  it,  even  in  the  "  Dark  A 

Moreover,  the  Mongol  emperors  (§  252)  opened  China  to 
western  strangers  to  a  degree  altogether  new  for  that  land ; 
and,  while  Mongol  dominion  lasted,  many  strangers  and  raer- 


§  343]  A  NEW   WORLD  321 

chants  visited  the  East.  Among  these  were  three  Venetians, 
the  Polos,  who  on  their  return  sailed  from  Peking  through  the 
straits  into  the  Indian  Ocean  and  up  the  Persian  Gulf.  TJiis 
proved  true  the  rumor  of  Rubruk  regarding  an  eastern  ocean,  and 
proved  also  that  the  Indian  Ocean  was  not  landlocked. 

Travelers  in  that  age  did  not  often  write  descriptions  of  their  travels. 
One  of  these  Polos,  however,  being  captured,  soon  after  his  return,  in  a 
sea  fight  between  Venice  and  Genoa,  remained  a  prisoner  in  Genoa  for 
some  years ;  and  the  stories  that  he  told  of  his  adventures  were  written 
down  by  one  of  his  fellow  captives.  Thus  was  made  "The  Book  of  Ser 
Marco  Polo,"  one  of  the  most  widely  read  books  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

From  this  time  it  was  possible  to  think  seriously  of  reach- 
ing India  by  sailing  west.  Soon  afterward  commercial  condi- 
tions changed  so  as  to  impel  men  earnestly  to  try  it. 

The  crusades  had  given  a  new  impulse  to  trade  with  the 
Orient,  and  many  eastern  products  were  become  almost  neces- 
sities of  daily  life  to  Europe ;  but  in  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
progress  of  the  Turks  threatened  the  old  trade  routes.  Con- 
stantinople, the  emporium  for  the  route  by  the  Black  Sea,  fell 
into  their  hands,  and  each  year  their  power  crept  farther  south 
in  Asia,  endangering  the  remaining  route  by  the  Red  Sea. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  question  was  forced  home  to 
Europe  whether  or  not  a  new  route  could  be  found;  and  the 
speculations  of  Bacon  and  the  discoveries  of  the  Polos  pointed 
to  an  answer. 

The  Portuguese,  under  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator,  had 
already  been  engaged  in  building  up  a  Portuguese  empire  in 
Africa  and  in  the  islands  of  the  Atlantic  (Azores,  Canary,  and 
Verde !) ;  and  about  1470  they  began  to  attempt  to  reach  India 
by  sailing  around  Africa.  In  1486  a  Portuguese  captain,  Bar- 
tholomew Diaz,  while  engaged  in  this  attempt,  was  carried  far 
to  the  south  in  a  storm,  and  on  his  return  to  the  coast  he 
found  it  on  his  left  hand  as  he  moved  toward  the  north.  He 
followed  it  several  hundred  miles,  well  into  the  Indian  Ocean. 

iThe  name  "  Cape  Verde  "  indicates  the  surprise  of  the  discoverers  (1450) 
at  verdure  so  far  south. 


322  THE   RENAISSANCE,    1350-1550  [§344 

Then  his  sailors  compelled  him  to  turn  back  to  Portugal. 
India  was  not  actually  reached  until  the  expedition  of  Vasco 
da  Gama  in  1498,  after  more  memorable  voyages  in  another 
direction. 

One  of  the  sailors  with  Diaz  in  MXii,  when  in  this  way  he 
rounded  the  Cape  of  "  Good  Hope,"  was  a  Bartholomew 
Columbus,  whose  brother  Christopher  also  had  sailed  on  several 
Portuguese  voyages.  Now,  however,  for  some  years,  Christo- 
pher Columbus  had  devoted  himself  to  the  more  daring  theory 
that  India  could  be  reached  by  sailing  west  into  the  open 
Atlantic.  Portugal,  well  content  with  her  monopoly  of  African 
exploration,  refused  to  assist  him  to  try  his  plan.  Henry  VI I 
of  England  also  declined  to  furnish  him  ships.  But  finally,  the 
high-minded  Isabella  of  Castile,  while  the  siege  of  Granada 
was  in  progress,  fitted  out  his  small  fleet,  and  in  1492  Col  tun- 
bus  added  America  to  the  poxm'xxinnx  »f  «\ 

344.  These  discoveries  shifted  once  more  the  scene  of  history  to 
the  west.     The  marvels  of  the  new  regions  of  the  earth  added 
mightily  to  the  intellectual  stir  in  all  Europe.     For  a  century 
or   two  the  immediate  material  gain  was  confined  to   t/f  tn-n 
countries  which  had  begun  the  exploration*.     Portugal  built  up 
a  great  and  wealthy  empire  in  the  Indian  Ocean  and  in  the 
adjoining   islands   of    the  Pacific,  while   Spain  acquired  the 
wealth  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  and  poured  forth  multitudes   of 
adventurers  to  create  a  new  Spain  in  America.     Soon,  how- 
ever, the  other  sea-board  countries  on  the  western  ocean  began 
to  seize  parts  of  this  new  commercial  and  colonial  prosperity. 

The  Mediterranean,  for  the  past  two  thousand  years  the  one 
great  highway  between  Europe  and  the  Orient,  gave  way  to 
the  Atlantic  and  the  "  passage  round  the  Cape."  And  with 
the  decay  of  Mediterranean  trade,  the  cities  of  Italy  lost  their 
importance  both  in  commerce  and  in  intellectual  and  artistic 
leadership. 

345.  Physical  Science.  —  The  new  scientific  methods  which 
Valla  and  Erasmus  had  used   in  history  and   theology  were 
used  a  little  later   in  the   natural  sciences.     The   first   great 


§345]  A  NEW  UNIVERSE  323 

representative  of  this  movement  was  the  Prussian  astronomer 
Copernicus.  All  men  had  believed  the  earth  to  be  the  center 
of  the  universe.  Copernicus  proved  that  the  earth  was  only 
one  member  of  a  solar  system  which  had  the  sun  for  its  center. 
This  discovery  not  only  revolutionized  the  particular  science 
of  astronomy :  it  also  helped  to  revolutionize  thought  about 
man  and  the  world,  by  opening  up  such  immensities  of  worlds 
and  such  possibilities  of  other  forms  of  life  as  had  never  before 
been  dreamed  of.  Columbus  had  discovered  "  a  New  World  "  : 
Copernicus  revealed  a  new  universe. 

From  fear  of  persecution,  Copernicus  delayed  the  publication 
of  his  discovery  many  years,  until  just  before  his  death.  When 
his  work  was  printed  (1543),  the  long  series  of  devastating 
wars  between  Catholic  and  Protestant  Europe  was  just  begin- 
ning (§  359).  These  wars  had  Germany  for  their  especial 
battle  ground,  and  for  a  long  time  they  destroyed  all  chance 
of  scientific  or  literary  development  in  that,  country.  In 
another  way  the  great  struggle  repressed  scientific  thought, 
even  more  completely,  in  the  Catholic  countries.  At  the  open- 
ing of  the  Renaissance,  the  popes  had  been  among  the  most 
active  patrons  of  the  new  movement;  but  now  the  reaction 
against  Protestant  revolt  threw  control  into  conservative  hands, 
and  the  church  used  its  tremendous  power  for  a  time  to  stifle 
the  teachings  of  the  new  science. 

Still,  much  was  accomplished.  In  Italy,  Galileo  (1564-1642) 
discovered  the  laws  of  the  pendulum  and  of  falling  bodies, 
invented  the  thermometer,  and,  using  a  hint  from  a  Holland 
plaything,  constructed  the  first  real  telescope.  He  had  adopted 
the  Copernican  theory  of  the  universe,  and  with  his  telescope 
he  was  able  to  demonstrate  its  truth  by  showing  the  "phases"  of 
Venus  in  her  revolution  about  the  sun.  His  teachings,  how- 
ever, were  considered  dangerous  and  unsupported  by  scripture. 
He  was  summoned  to  Rome,  imprisoned,  and  forced  publicly 
to  abjure  his  teaching  that  the  earth  moved  around  the  sun. 
But  as  he  rose  from  his  knees  after  making  his  recantation 
he  whispered  to  a  friend,  "  None  the  less,  it  does  move" 


324  THE   RENAISSANCE,    1350-1550  [§345 

In  other  ways  than  around  the  sun,  Galileo's  world  was 
moving  swiftly. 

FOR  FCRTHBR  READING.  —  It  does  not  seem  advisable  to  require  read- 
ing on  this  period.  But  students  may  be  encouraged  to  explore  for  them- 
selves in  the  following  works :  Adams'  Civilization,  364-391 ;  Symond's 
Short  History  of  the  Renaissance ;  Robinson  and  Rolfe's  Petrarch  ; 
Froude's  Erasmus;  Saintsbury's  Flourishing  of  Romance.  Liibke's 
History  of  Art  is  particularly  good  for  the  medieval  period,  and  Van 
Dyke's  History  of  Painting  is  excellent.  Source  material  on  the  age  will 
be  found  in  Ogg's  Source  Book,  chs.  xxi-xxvi,  and  in  Robinson's  Bead- 
ings,  I,  524  ff. 

On  geographical  discovery,  Fiske's  Discovery  of  America,  I,  ch.  iv, 
Channing's  History  of  the  United  States,  I,  ch.  i,  and  Brooks'  Story  of 
Marco  Polo. 

In  fiction,  Charles  Reade's  Cloister  and  Hearth  and  George  Eliot's 
Eomola  picture  Renaissance  movements,  but  both  books,  as  wholes,  are 
rather  mature  for  high-school  students  of  the  second  year. 


PART   III 

THE  AGE   OP   THE  PKOTESTANT  KEFORMATION,  1520-1648 


CHAPTER   XX 

THE   REFORMATION   ON    THE   CONTINENT 
I.     LUTHERAN  ISM  — IN   GERMANY 

346.  Most  of  our  recent  references  to  the  church  (§§  295,  310, 
314)  have   involved  some    mention   of   abuses  that  were   grow- 
ing up  within  it.     All  good  Christians  lamented  those  abuses. 
A   few  wise,  broad-minded,    genial   men,    like   Erasmus   and 
Colet    (§§  339,  340),  strove  earnestly  to  reform   them.     Less 
patient,  more  impetuous  men  broke   away  in  revolt   against 
the  church  itself.     This  revolt  divided  Western  Christendom 
into  hostile  camps  for  centuries.     It  is  called  the  Protestant 
"  Reformation." 

The  name  is  not  wholly  satisfactory.  A  few  writers  prefer  to  call  the 
movement  instead  the  Protestant  Revolt.  But  the  name  Reformation 
has  nearly  universal  use,  and  it  does  not  seem  wise  to  discard  it  —  since 
it  is  only  a  name.  The  student  must  be  careful,  however,  to  notice  that 
this  Protestant  movement  does  not  include  the  "reform  "  of  the  church 
itself.  That  had  been  begun  by  Erasmus  and  his  associates,  and  it 
went  on  rapidly  (§371)  until  the  abuses  that  started  the  Protestant 
movement  were  abolished. 

347.  The  "Reformation"  began  in  Germany,  and  its  leader 
was  Martin  Luther  (1483-1546),  son  of  a  Thuringian  peasant. 
Luther  was  a  born  fighter,  —  a  straightforward,  forceful  man, 
with  a  blunt,  homely  way  that  sometimes   degenerated   into 
coarseness.     Erasmus   addressed   scholars.     Luther   spoke   to 

326 


326 


THE   PROTESTANT   REFORMATION 


[§348 


the  people.  He  had  been  intended  by  his  father  for  the  law ; 
but,  seized  by  a  sudden  sense  of  sin,  he  had  become  an 
Augustinian  friar  (an  order  somewhat  like  the  Franciscans) 
while  yet  a  youth.  His  scholarship  and  effective  preaching 
drew  attention  to  him,  and  he  was  made  professor  of  theology 
in  the  University  of  Wittenberg  in  Saxony.  There,  at  thirty- 
four,  he  entered  upon  a  struggle  with  Rome. 

348.  Luther's  revolt  began  in  his  opposition  to  the  sale  of 
indulgences.  To  get  money  to  rebuild  St.  Peter's  Cathedral 
at  Rome,  a  German  archbishop  had  licensed  John  Tetzel,  a 

Dominican,  to  sell  indul- 
gences. The  practice  was 
an  old  one,  arising  easily 
out  of  the  doctrine  of 
"  penance  "  (§  147).  The 
authorized  teaching  of  the 
church  was  that  it  might, 
in  reward  for  some  pious 
act  —  or  the  gift  of  m< 
for  a  pious  purpose  — 
remit  the  punishment  in 
purgatory  to  a  sinner  n-hn 
hail  truly  repented  and  ><•/,,, 
had,  so  far  as  possible, 
atoned  for  his  sins.  "  Letters  of  indulgence  "  from  the  pope 
himself,  —  the  immediate  representative  of  St.  Peter,  —  were 
especially  valued,  and  it  had  become  customary  to  sell  them 
in  great  quantities  as  one  source  of  the  papal  revenues.  The 
ignorant  masses,  unable  to  read  the  Latin  documents,  often 
thought  that  an  "indulgence"  was  an  unconditinmil  pardon, — 
or  even  that  it  was  a  license  to  sin;  and  some  professional 
"  pardoners,"  who  peddled  such  "  letters,"  encouraged  these  gross 
errors  in  their  zeal  to  raise  money.  Tetzel  was  a  special  offender 
in  this  way.  A  rude  German  rhyme,  ascribed  to  him,  runs, 
"  The  money  rattles  in  the  box ;  the  soul  from  purgatory  flies." 
More  than  a  hundred  years  before  Luther,  the  bright-souled 


ST.  PETER'S,  ROME. 


§  350]  LUTHER'S  THESES  327 

Chaucer  had  given  the  only  bitter  lines  in  the  Canterbury 
Tales  to  the  Pardoner  with  his  wallet  "bret-ful  of  pardons, 
come  from  Rome  all  hot."  Since  then,  the  evils  had  grown 
hugely.  The  gentle  Erasmus  wrote  scathing  words  against 
them.  Luther  had  criticized  them  on  more  than  one  occasion. 
Now  a  visit  of  Tetzel  to  Luther's  home  town  of  Wittenberg, 
with  a  batch  of  these  papal  letters,  aroused  him  to  more 
vehement  protest. 

349.  On  a  Sunday  in  October,  1517,  Luther  nailed  to  the  door 
of  the  Wittenberg  church  ninety-five  "  theses  "  (statements)  upon 
which  he  challenged  all  comers  to  debate.     That  door  was  the 
usual  university  bulletin  board,  and  it  was  customary  for  one 
scholar  to  challenge  others  to  debate  in  this  way.    But  Luther's 
act  had  consequences  far  beyond  the   university.     The   theses 
were   in  Latin,  the   regular   university    language-     They   ac- 
cepted the  church  doctrine  about  indulgences,  but  criticized 
savagely  the  abuses  connected  with  the  practice  of  selling  them. 
It  was   these   criticisms  that   drew  popular   attention.      The 
printing   press   scattered   copies   of    the   theses   broadcast  in 
German,  and  in  a  few  days  they  were  being  discussed  hotly 
over  all  Germany. 

350.  At  first  Luther  seems  to  have  had  no  thought  of  denying 
the  authority  of  the  pope.     Indeed,  he  asserted  that  the  pope 
would  be  the  first  to  condemn  Tetzel's  practices.     And  he  was 
honestly   amazed,    too,    at   the    public    attention    his    theses 
received.     He  dedicated  a  pamphlet  in  defense  of  his  theses 
to  Pope  Leo  (X),  and  in  his  letter  to  the  pope  he  says :  — 

"  By  what  unlucky  chance  it  is  that  these  propositions  of  mine  should 
go  forth  into  nearly  all  the  earth,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know.  They  were 
set  forth  here  for  our  use  alone.  .  .  .  But  what  shall  I  do  ?  Recall 
them  I  cannot;  and  yet  I  see  that  their  notoriety  bringeth  upon  me 
great  odium.  In  order  then  to  soften  my  adversaries,  ...  I  send  forth 
these  trifles  to  explain  my  theses.  For  greater  safety,  I  let  them  go 
forth,  most  blessed  Father,  under  your  name  and  under  the  shadow  of 
your  protection.  Here  all  who  will  may  see  how  basely  I  am  belied. 
.  .  .  Save  or  slay,  call  or  recall,  approve  or  disapprove,  as  it  shall  best 
please  you,  I  shall  acknowledge  your  voice  as  the  voice  of  Christ." 


328  THE   PROTESTANT   REFORMATION  [§351 

351.  The  matter   of   indulgences  soon   dropped   out   of   sight. 
The  papal  legate  in  Germany  reprimanded  Tetzel  so  sternly 
for  his  gross  mispractice  that  the  offender  is  said  to  have 
died  soon  after  from  mortification.     At  all  events,  now  that 
the  church  had  its  attention  called  so  forcefully  to  the  abuses, 
they  were  soon   corrected.1     But,  meanwhile,  in  the  heat  of 
argument,   Luther  had    quickly   passed   to   a    more    radical 
position.     He  startled  all  parties,  in  1519,  by  expressing  ap- 
proval of  the  heretic  Hussites ;  and  soon  after  he  denied  the 
authority  of  the  pope  and  of  church  councils,  appealing  instead  to 
the  Bible  as  the  sole  rule  of  conduct  and  belief. 

352.  Thus  Luther  tried  to  substitute  one  authority  for  another.    He 
had  no  intention  of  advancing  freedom  of  thought.     But  the  Bible  is 
capable  of  many  interpretations.     His  appeal  to  the  Bible  as  the  sole 
authority  meant  Luther's  understanding  of  the  Bible.    In  the  mouth  of 
another  man,  however,  the  same  appeal  meant  that  other's  understand- 
ing of  the  book.     So.  unintentionally,  the  Protestant  revolt  came  to  stand 
for  the  right  of  individual  judgment  in  matters  of  religion. 

353.  Luther  Burns  a  Papal  Bull.  —  Pope  Leo  (a  gentle  and 
good  man)  tried  to  bring  the  rebel  back  into  the  church  by 
papal  legates.     When  this  failed,  the  pope  issued  a  bull  of  ex- 
communication against  Luther.     The  document  condemned  a 
number  of  his  new  teachings,  ordered  him  to  burn  his  books, 
and   threatened   him    and  his  followers  with  punishment  as 

i  Catholics  to-day  admit,  of  course,  that  there  had  been  good  cause  for 
complaint.  One  of  the  greatest  of  modern  scholars,  the  Catholic  JaiiM-n 
(History  of  the  German  People,  III,  92)  declares  that  "grievous  abuses"  in 
the  manner  of  offering  indulgences  "  caused  all  sorts  of  scandal."  The 
Council  of  Trent,  which  sat  at  intervals  from  \~>1~>  t<>  1">'>3,  to  reform  the 
church,  reasserted  the  old  doctrine  in  its  purity,  emphasizing  the  indispensa- 
ble need  of  "contrition,  confession,  and  atonement."  It  condemned  "those 
who  assert  that  indulgences  are  useless,  or  who  deny  the  power  of  the  church 
to  grant  them.  ...  In  granting  them,  however,  the  Council  desires  that 
.  .  .  moderation  be  observed.  .  .  .  And,  being  desirous  of  mending  the 
abuses  which  have  crept  in,  by  occasion  of  which  the  honorable  name  of 
indulgences  is  blasphemed  by  heretics,  the  Council  ordains  .  .  .  that  all  evil 
gains  for  the  obtaining  thereof  be  abolished."  In  later  times  the  practice  of 
granting. indulgences  in  return  for  money  has  been  discontinued. 


§355]  LUTHER   AND  THE  POPE'S   BULL  329 

heretics  unless  they  recanted  within  two  months.  Instead  of 
burning  his  own  books,  Luther  burned  the  papal  bull  in  a  bonfire 
of  other  writings  of  the  church,  before  the  town  gate  in  Decem- 
ber, 1520,  while  a  crowd  of  students  and  townsfolk  applauded 
and  brought  fuel  to  feed  the  flames.  Open  war  had  begun 
between  the  German  friar  and  the  church. 

354.  Luther  at  Worms.  —  Luther  was  protected  by  the  Duke 
of  Saxony,  Frederick  the  Wise  ;  and  the  pope  appealed  to  the 
young  emperor,  Charles  V  (§  328),  to  punish  the  heretic.     All 
Germany  was  in  uproar.     A  papal  legate  wrote,  "  Nine  tenths  of 
Germany  shouts  for  Luther."     The  emperor,  coming  to  Ger- 
many for  the  first  time,  called  an  imperial  Diet  at  Worms  (1521) 
and  summoned  Luther  to  be  present,  under  a  safe  conduct. 

Friends  tried  to  dissuade  Luther  from  going,  pointing  to  the 
fate  of  Hus  a  century  before ;  but  he  replied  merely,  "  I  would 
go  on  if  there  were  as  many  devils  in  Worms  as  there  are  tiles 
on  the  housetops."  He  found  himself  confronted  in  the  Diet 
with  scornful  contempt  by  the  great  dignitaries  of  the  church 
and  of  the  empire,  arrayed  almost  solidly  against  him.  But 
he  boldly  answered  the  haughty  command  that  he  recant, — 
u  Unless  I  am  proven  wrong  by  Scripture  or  plain  reason  .  .  . 
my  conscience  is  caught  in  the  word  of  God.  .  .  .  Here  I 
stand.  As  God  is  my  help,  I  can  no  otherwise." 

Charles  kept  his  pledge,  and  Luther  departed  in  safety.  A 
month  later  the  Diet  pronounced  against  him  the  "  ban  of  the 
empire,"  ordering  that  he  be  seized  for  execution  and  that 
his  writings  be  burned.  But  the  friendly  Frederick  of  Saxony 
had  him  seized,  on  his  way  homeward,  and  carried  into  hiding 
in  the  castle  of  Wartburg.  Here,  while  for  a  time  most  of  his 
followers  mourned  him  as  dead,  Luther  translated  the  New 
Testament  into  strong  and  simple  German.1 

355.  Meantime,    North   Germany   revolted  from   the   Catholic 
church.     Luther's  teachings  were  accepted  by  whole  communi- 
ties.    Priests  married;2  nuns  and  monks  left  their  convents. 

1  In  this  work,  Luther  became  also  the  father  of  German  prose. 

2  Luther  afterward  married  a  nun  who  had  renounced  her  vows. 


330  THE    PROTESTANT   REFORMATION  [§  356 

Princes  joined  the  new  communion,  sometimes  from  honest  con- 
viction, sometimes  as  an  excuse  for  seizing  church  lands. 

In  1522,  in  spite  of  dangers,  Luther  left  his  retreat  for  a 
time  to  guide  the  movement  again  in  person  and  to  restrain  it 
from  going  to  extremes  that  he  disliked.  He  preserved  all 
that  he  could  of  the  old  church  services  and  organization, 
establishing  them  on  essentially  the  basis  on  which  they  still 
stand  in  the  Lutheran  church.  By  1530,  the  Lutheran  church 
was  in  possession  of  North  Germany. 

356.  The  Peasant  War.  —  The  revolt  against  the  old  church 
led  to  the  rise  of  some  sects  of  wild  fanatics  (one  of  which 
found  sanction  for  polygamy  in  its  interpretation  of  the  Bible)  ; 
and  in  1525  it  gave  an  impulse  to  a  great  revolt  of  the  peasants. 
That  class  in  Germany  were  in  a  much  more  deplorable  condi- 
tion than  in  England,  and  the  new  religious  teachings  spmul 
among  them  in  connection  with  new  ideas  about  property,  — 
somewhat  as  with  the  Lollard  movement  in  England  more  than 
a  hundred  years  before.     Finally,  the  German  peasants,  too, 
rose  in  arms,  avenging  centuries  of  cruel  oppression  by  some 
massacres  of  old  masters.     They  demanded  the  abolition  of 
serfdom  and  the  right  of  each  parish  to  choose  its  own  minister. 

Luther  feared  discredit  for  his  new  church,  and  called  loudly 
on  the  princes  to  put  down  this  rising  with  the  sword.  The 
movement  was  quickly  stamped  out  in  blood.  The  nobles 
slew  a  hundred  thousand  peasants  in  merciless  battle,  and 
murdered  at  least  ten  thousand  more  in  cold  blood  after  the 
struggle  was  over,  —  with  ghastly  scenes  that  infinitely  sur- 
passed in  horror  any  excesses  by  the  ignorant  peasants  them- 
selves. The  whole  peasant  class  was  crushed  down  to  a  level 
far  lower  than  before,  — lower  than  anywhere  else  in  Europe,  — 
where  they  were  to  remain  helpless  for  almost  three  hundred 
years. 

357.  If  the  zealous  young  Catholic  emperor,  Charles  V.  had  had 
his  hands  free,  he  would  have  enforced  the  ban  of  the  empire 
promptly  and  crushed  Lutheranism  at  its  birth.     But  even 
while  the  Diet  of  Worms  was  condemning  Luther,  the  Spanish 


§359]  IN   GERMANY  331 

towns  were  rising  in  revolt  and  Francis  I  of  France  was  seizing 
Italian  territory  (§  328).  These  events  called  Charles  hastily 
from  Germany.  He  put  down  the  rebellion  promptly  and 
crushed  the  ancient  liberties  of  the  Spanish  towns  ;  but  the  wars 
against  France,  and  against  the  Turk,  with  only  brief  truces, 
filled  the  next  twenty-three  years  (1621-1644)  l ;  and  so  for  a  gener- 
ation the  new  faith  was  left  to  grow  strong. 

It  is  a  peculiar  fact  that  the  two  countries  destitute  of  settled  govern- 
ment gave  Europe  the  Renaissance  and  the  Reformation.  The  intense 
city  life  in  the  small  Italian  states  was  favorable  to  the  intellectual  activity 
and  independence  of  the  Renaissance  ;  and  the  absence  of  strong  central 
government  was  the  condition  which  permitted  Lutheranism  so  long  to 
grow  unchecked  in  Germany. 

358.  "Protestants."  —  The  first  pause  in  the  French  wars 
came  in  1529.     Charles  at  once  summoned  a  German  Diet  at 
Speier,  which  reaffirmed  the  decree  of  Worms.     Against  this 
decision,  however,  the  Lutheran  princes  in  the  Diet  presented 
a  protest.     This  act  gave  the  name  Protestant  to  their  party. 

The  following  year,  in  a  Diet  at  Augsburg,  the  Lutherans  put 
forward  a  written  statement  of  their  beliefs,  "the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession," which  is  still  the  platform  of  the  Lutheran  church. 
Charles,  however,  prepared  to  enforce  by  arms  the  decrees  of 
Worms  and  Speier.  In  defense,  the  Protestant  nobles  organized 
a  League ;  but  an  open  clash  was  once  more  postponed,  because 
Solyman,  the  Turkish  Sultan,  invaded  Germany  and  threatened 
the  imperial  capital,  Vienna. 

359.  Peace  of  Augsburg.  —  Before  Charles  was  again  at  liberty 
to  give  his  attention  to  his  Protestant  subjects,  Lutheranism 
had  become  the  religion  of  most  of  Germany  and  of  all  Scandi- 
navia, while  the  English  church  had  cut  itself  off  from  Rome 

1  Some  features  connected  with  those  wars  may  be  assigned  for  special  re- 
ports, if  the  teacher  cares  to  delay  upon  them.  The  following  topics  are 
especially  suitable:  The  Battle  of  Pa  via;  the  sack  of  Rome  by  Charles' 
Lutheran  soldiers ;  the  alliance  between  Francis  and  the  Turkish  Solyman  the 
Magnificent ;  Soly man's  invasion  of  Germany ;  the  ravages  of  Turkish  pirates 
on  the  Mediterranean  coasts. 


332  THE   PROTESTANT  REFORMATION  [§360 

as  an  independent  Episcopal  church  (§  374),  and  a  new 
Presbyterian  heresy  had  begun  to  spread  rapidly  in  France 
and  even  in  Germany  (§§  362  ff.). 

Try  as  he  might,  Charles  did  not  find  himself  free  to  strike 
in  Germany  until  1546,  the  year  of  Luther's  death.  Then  two 
brief  struggles  settled  the  contest  for  the  time.  In  the  first, 
Charles  seemed  completely  victorious ;  but  almost  at  once  the 
defeated  princes  rallied  again,  drove  Charles  in  hurried  flight 
from  their  domains,  and  forced  him  to  accept  the  Peace  of 
Augsbury  (1555). 

According  to  this  treaty,  each  ruling  prince  of  the  Empire 
was  free  to  choose  between  Lutheranism  and  Catholicism  for 
himself  and  for  all  his  subjects;  but  if  an  ecclesiastical  ruler 
became  a  Protestant,  he  was  to  surrender  his  lands  to  the 
church,  from  whom  they  came.  This  peace  secured  tolrrntin,, 
for  princes  only,  not  for  their  subjects.  The  people  were  ex- 
pected to  follow  the  religion  of  the  ruler. 

360.  Abdication  of  Charles.  —  The  Protestants  in  their  last 
rising  had  sought  aid  from  Henry  II,  the  new  French  king; 
and  France  for  her  reward  had  seized  some  German  districts, 
including  the  city  of  Metz.     Charles  proved  unable  to  recover 
the  territory.     Chagrined  at  the  loss  and  disheartened  by  the 
split  within  the  Empire,  he  abdicated  his  many  crowns  in  1  .">*>••. 
His  brother  Ferdinand  became  ruler  of  Austria,  and  soon  after 
was  chosen  emperor,  while  by  marriage  he  added  Hungary  to 
the  Hapsburg  hereditary  dominions.     Charles'  son,  Phili^  II. 
received  the  Netherlands,  Spain,  Naples,  and  Spanish  America./^ 

361.  A  New  Political  Situation.  —  There  were  now  two  Haps-  <9 
burg  Houses,  one  in  Spain,  one  in  Austria.     France,  with  some    ^ 
reason,  feared  that  she  would  be  crushed  between  them.     After  -^ 
Francis  I,  France  gave  up  attempts  at  dominion  in  Italy ;  but 
each  French  ruler  sought  to  seize  territory  from  the  Empire. 
This  seemed  to  France  a  measure  of  necessary  protection. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Henderson's  Short  History  of  Germany.  I. 
263  ff.,  is  good.  The  great  Catholic  histories  are  too  extended  and  costly 
for  high  schools ;  but  if  students  have  access  to  the  work,  they  should 


§  362]  CALVINISM  333 

consult  the  scholarly  Catholic  Encyclopedia  ("Luther,"  ix,  438  ff . ;  "  In- 
dulgences," VII,  783  ff.,  etc.).  Lindsay's  Luther  and  the  German 
Eeformation  is  the  best  accessible  short  treatment.  Source  material  will 
be  found  in  Robinson's  Readings  II,  ch.  xxvi. . 

II.    CALVINISM  — IN   SWITZERLAND   AND   FRANCE 

362.  Luther  and  Zwingli.  —  Lutheranism  soon  took  possession 
also  of  the  Scandinavian  lands  ;  but  it  did  not  make  much  prog- 
ress in  any  other  non-German  country.  In  Switzerland  and 
France  —  and  even  in  parts  of  Germany  —  it  found  a  successful 
rival  in  another  form  of  Protestantism,  which  we  call  Calvinism. 

This  movement  was  started  in  1519  (the  year  before  Luther 
burned  the  papal  bull),  by  Zwingli,  a  priest  at  Zurich,  in 
German  Switzerland.  Zwingli,  like  Luther,  was  of  peasant 
birth ;  but  he  too  had  enjoyed  a  liberal  education.  He  was 
far  more  radical  than  Luther.  Luther  tried  to  keep  everything 
of  the  old  worship  and  doctrine  that  he  did  not  think  forbidden 
by  the  Bible.  But  Zwingli  refused  to  keep  anything  of  the  old 
that  he  did  not  think  absolutely  commanded  by  the  Bible.  He 
also  organized  a  strict  system  of  church  discipline  which  pun- 
ished severely  gaming,  swearing,  drunkenness,  and  some  inno- 
cent sports. 

The  contrast  between  Zwingli  and  Luther  appeared  clearly 
in  their  different  attitude  toward  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation  (§  148).  Catholics  believe  that  the  bread  and 
wine  of  the  communion  are  turned  by  the  sacrament  into  the 
actual  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  Luther  tried  to  hold  as 
much  of  this  doctrine  as  he  could,  and  to  keep  to  a  literal  use 
of  Christ's  words  —  "  This  is  my  body  "  (Mark,  xxiv,  23).  He 
taught  that  the  bread  and  wine  were  still  bread  and  wine  as 
they  seemed,  but  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  were  also 
present,  along  with  them  in  the  communion.  "  Ctorcsubstantia- 
tion  "  was  the  term  used  to  signify  this  doctrine.  The  followers 
of  Zwingli  held  that  Christ's  words  were  figurative,  and  that 
the  bread  and  wine  were  only  symbols  to  remind  us  of  his 
sacrifice. 


334  THE   PROTESTANT   REFORMATION  [§  363 

363.  It  was  this  distinction  between  Luther  and  Zu:in<jU  that 
prevented  a  union  between  the  two  Protestant  movements.    Zwingli 
attempted  to  secure  union,  and  a  conference  was  arranged  in 
1529.     But  Luther  stuck  stubbornly  to  his  text  —  "  This  is  my 
body,"  and  when  Zwingli  offered  his  hand  in  token  of  amity, 
Luther  refused  to  take  it  unless  Zwingli  would  first  accept 
those  words  literally. 

This  division  illustrates  the  way  in  which  the  Protestant  appeal  to  private 
judgment  was  to  give  rise  to  a  multitude  of  sects.  At  first,  in  particular, 
these  sects  were  scandalously  hostile  to  one  another ;  and,  in  Germany,  the 
mutual  hatred  of  Lutherans  and  Calvinists  endangered  more  than  once 
the  whole  cause  of  Protestantism.  When  the  Lutheran  princes  secured 
the  Peace  of  Augsburg  for  themselves,  they  did  not  include  Calvinists  in 
the  toleration  they  secured.  Catholics,  of  course,  pointed  to  such  dissen- 
sions as  proof  of  the  necessity  of  trusting  to  the  collective  wisdom  of  the 
church,  rather  than  to  individual  judgments. 

364.  Zwingli's  teachings  were   accepted   rapidly  by   the  rich 
"city  cantons"  of  Switzerland,  both  German  and   French,  like 
Zurich  and   Berne.     But   the  peasant    "forest  cantons,"  the 
core  of  the  original  confederation  (§  321),  remained  Catholic. 
In  a  battle  between  the  two  parties,  in  1531,  Zwingli   was 
killed  ;  but  his  work  was  soon  taken  up  —  and  carried  further 
—  by  the  man  whose  name  has  come  to  stand  for  the  whole 
movement. 

365.  John   Calvin   was  a  young  French  scholar  of  sternly 
logical  mind.     He  is  the  father  of   Puritan  theology  and  of 
the  Presbyterian  church,  with  its  system  of  synods  and  pres- 
byteries.    This  system  of  church  government  and  doctrine  he 
built  up  at  Geneva. 

Geneva  was  a  French  town  in  the  Swiss  Alps.  It  was  not 
yet  a  member  of  the  Swiss  confederation,  but  it  had  recently 
become  a  free  city-republic  by  rebellion  against  its  overlord. 
That  overlord  had  been  a  Catholic  ecclesiastic;  and  so  Geneva 
was  now  ready  to  accept  the  teachings  of  Zwingli. 

366.  In  1 536  Calvin,  a  fugitive  from  France  because  of  his  heresy, 
found  refuge  at  Geneva,  and  soon  became  there  an  absolute  dictator 


367] 


CALVIN  AND   SERVETUS 


over  both  the  church  and  the  civil  government.  Indeed,  the  civil 
government  of  the  city  was  absorbed  in  the  church  government, 
and  Geneva  became  a  Puritan  "theocracy"  (§  324,  note)  "  with 
Calvin  for  its  pope." 

Calvin  took  the  law  of  Moses  for  the  basis  of  his  legislation. 
Blasphemy  was  counted  a  capital  crime.  A  child  who  struck 
its  father  was  beheaded. 
The  government  repressed 
harshly  amusements  like 
dancing,  and  it  tyrannized 
over  the  private  life  of  citi- 
zens, punishing  sternly  for 
absence  from  church  and 
for  luxury  in  dress.  But 
it  did  make  turbulent  and 
unruly  Geneva  into  a  sober, 
industrious  commonwealth, 
and  it  furnished  many  hints 
for  the  Puritan  colony  of 
Massachusetts  a  century 
later. 

367.  One  terrible  case  of 
persecution,  in  particular, 
stains  Calvin's  fame.  Ser- 
vetus  was  a  learned  Spanish 
physician,  with  intense  re- 
ligious convictions  somewhat  like  those  of  modern  Unitarians. 
He  had  had  some  literary  controversies  with  Calvin ;  but,  to 
escape  from  Catholic  persecution  as  a  heretic  at  home,  he 
fled  to  Geneva.  Calvin's  government  there  seized  him,  tried 
him  in  its  own  way  for  heresy,  and  burned  him  at  the 
stake. 

Incidentally,  this  crime  put  back  medical  progress  for  at  least 
fifty  years.  The  foundation  of  true  medical  science  lies  in  a 
knowledge  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  as  taught  in  any  ele- 
mentary physiology  to-day.  But  in  the  time  of  Servetus,  it 


A  VILLAGE  MERRYMAKING.  —  From  a 
sixteenth  century  French  woodcut.  Such 
festivities  were  bitterly  regarded  in  Cal- 
vinistic  lands. 


336  THE   PROTESTANT   REFORMATION  [§  368 

had  been  believed  for  centuries  that  the  bright  blood  of  the 
arteries  and  the  dark  blood  of  the  veins  were  two  distinct 
systems,  one  from  the  heart,  the  other  from  the  liver.  Ser- 
vetus  first  discovered  that  the  two  were  one  system.  He 
found  out  how  the  dark  blood  is  purified  in  the  lungs,  and 
understood  fully  the  work  of  the  heart.  He  had  just  pub- 
lished his  medical  discovery  in  the  same  book  that  contained 
his  theological  opinions.  His  persecutors  sought  out  and 
burned  this  volume  so  zealously  that  only  two  copies  (out 
of  the  edition  of  a  thousand)  have  survived,  and  these  wore 
long  overlooked.  The  great  discovery  in  physiology  —  which 
would  have  shown  how  to  save  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
lives  —  was  lost  for  half  a  century,  until  made  again,  inde- 
pendently, in  England  (§  390). 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  Catholic  Spain  early  erected  a 
statue  in  honor  of  Servetus ;  and,  in  1903,  Calvinists  all  over 
the  world  subscribed  a  fund  for  the  erection  of  the  noble  "  ex- 
piatory monument"  to  him  which  stands  in  (it-ncva  to  mark 
the  spot  where  he  suffered  martyrdom. 

368.  Calvin's  writings  influenced  profoundly  his  own  and  future 
times.  The  more  ardent  reformers  from  all  Europe  flocked  to 
Geneva  to  imbibe  his  teachings,  and  then  returned  to  spread 
Calvinism  in  their  own  lands.  From  Geneva  came  the  seeds  of 
Scotch  Presbyterianism,  of  the  great  Puritan  movement  within  ////- 
English  church  (soon  to  be  treated),  of  the  leading  Protest <int 
movement  among  the  Dutch,  and  of  the  Huguenot  church  in 
France.  John  Winthrop,  the  founder  of  Massachusetts,  took 
his  ideas  both  in  religion  and  in  politics  from  Calvin. 

The  Calvinistic  doctrine  in  its  original  form  seems  to  nearly  all  men  or 
the  present  time  too  somber  and  merciless.  It  was,  however,  sternly 
logical.  It  made  strong  men,  and  it  appealed  to  strong  spirits.  Calvin 
did  not  believe  in  democracy,  and  he  taught  that  for  "subjects"  to  resist 
even  a  wicked  ruler  was  "to  resist  God  " ;  but,  in  spite  of  this  teaching, 
in  the  course  of  historical  movements,  Calvinism  became  the  ally  of 
political  freedom  in  Holland,  England,  and  America. 


§  370]  AND   THE   CATHOLIC    REFORMATION  337 

III.    CATHOLICISM   HOLDS   THE   SOUTH   OF   EUROPE 
THE  COUNTER-REFORMATION 

369.  Protestantism  Checked. — For  a  time  it  seemed  as 
though  Protestantism  would  overrun  the  south  of  Europe  also, 
but  the  Romance  (§  93)  lands  and  South  Germany  were  finally 
saved  to  Catholicism.  The  supremely  important  element  in 
this  victory  of  the  old  church  was  its  self-purification  (§  371) ; 
but  this  force  was  aided  by  some  less  attractive  factors. 
France  remained  Catholic,  partly  as  the  result  of  religious 
wars  (§§390  ff.).  The  same  may  be  said  of  much  of  South 
Germany  and  of  modern  Belgium  (§§395,  412);  and  the  final 
victory  of  Catholicism  elsewhere  was  due  partly  to  the  terrible 
repression  of  new  faiths  by  the  Inquisition. 

370-  The  Inquisition,  or  Holy  Office,  was  first  organized  for  the  sup- 
pression of  the  Albigensian  heresy  (§194).  After  open  resistance  in 
Languedoc  had  been  crushed,  the  pope  appointed  a  special  court  to  hunt 
out  and  try  heretics  there.  This  court  soon  became  a  regular  part  of  the 
machinery  of  the  church.  It  was  reorganized  and  enlarged,  and  in  this 
final  form  it  is  generally  known  as  the  "Spanish  Inquisition."  It  held 
sway  in  Portugal  and  in  Italy,  as  well  as  in  all  the  wide-lying  Spanish 
possessions,  but  France  and  Germany  never  admitted  it  in  any  consider- 
able degree. 

The  methods  of  the  Inquisition  were  sometimes  atrocious.  The  In- 
quisitor encouraged  children  to  betray  their  parents,  and  parents  their 
children.  Often  upon  secret  accusation  by  spies,  a  victim  disappeared, 
without  warning,  to  underground  dungeons.  The  trial  that  followed  was 
usually  a  farce.  The  court  seldom  confronted  the  accused  with  his  ac- 
cuser, or  allowed  him  witnesses  of  his  choosing ;  and  it  extorted  confes- 
sion by  cruel  tortures,  carried  to  a  point  where  human  courage  could  not 
endure.  Acquittals  were  rarer-  The  property  of  the  convicted  went  to 
enrich  the  church,  and  the  heretic  himself  was  handed  over  to  the  govern- 
ment for  death  by  fire. 

Persecution  of  unbelievers  was  characteristic  of  the  age  and  disgraced 
every  sect,  Protestant  as  well  as  Catholic.  We  shall  have  to  notice  per- 
secutions by  Protestants  as  the  story  goes  on.  But  no  Protestant  land 
possessed  a  device  so  admirably  calculated  to  accomplish  its  purpose  as 
this  Spanish  Inquisition.  In  Spain,  especially,  it  sifted  out  for  destruction 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  the  stoutest  hearts  and  best  brains,  and 


338  THE   PROTESTANT   REFORMATION  [§371 

played  a  great  part  in  the  intellectual  blight  that  soon  fell  upon  the 
Spanish  people  (§400). 

371.  Reform     within    the     Church.  —  Erasmus    and    other 
Humanists  had  at  first  been  interested  in  the  work  of  Luther. 
But  when  it  became  plain  that  the  movement  was  breaking  up 
the  unity  of  Christendom,  they  were  violently  repelled  by  it. 
Disruption  into  warring  sects,  they  felt,  was  a  greater  evil  than 
existing  faults.     They  continued  to  work,  however,  with  even 
greater  zeal  than  before,  for  reform  w-ithin  the  church. 

Such  reform  was  finally  carried  out  by  the  Council  of  Trent 
(1545-1563).  That  great  body  did  not  change  Catholic  forms ; 
but  it  defined  some  doctrines  more  exactly,  pruned  away 
abuses,  and  infused  a  greater  moral  energy  into  the  church. 

372.  The  new  religious  enthusiasm  within  the  Catholic  world 
gave  birth  to  several  new  religious  orders.     The  most  important 
of  these  was  that  of  the  Jesuits.     This  "  Order  of  Jesus  "  was 
founded  in  1534  by  Ignatius  Loyola,  a  gallant  Spanish  gentle- 
man of  deep  religious  feeling. 

The  Jesuits  stood  to  the  friars  somewhat  as  the  friars  stood 
to  the  older  monks  (§  230).  Holding  fast  like  the  friars  to 
an  intensely  religious  private  life,  they  represented  a  further 
advance  into  the  world  of  public  affairs.  Their  members  min- 
gled with  men  in  all  capacities.  Especially  did  they  distin- 
guish themselves  as  statesmen  and  as  teachers.  Their  schools 
were  the  best  in  Europe,  and  many  a  Protestant  youth  was 
won  back  by  them  to  Catholicism.  In  like  manner,  as  individ- 
ual counselors,  they  converted  many  a  Protestant  prince  — 
especially  in  Germany,  where  the  religion  of  the  prince  deter- 
mined that  of  his  people  (§  359)  ;  and  their  many  devoted  mis- 
sionaries among  the  heathen  in  the  New  Worlds  won  vast 
regions  to  Christianity  and  Catholicism. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Ward's  The  Counter-Reformation  is  the 
best  brief  account  of  its  subject.  Much  interesting  matter  on  Jesuit 
missionaries  can  be  found  in  Parkman's  histories,  especially  in  Pioneers 
of  New  France,  chs.  v  and  vi,  and  Jcxnit*  in  .Yurth  Amerir.a,  ch.  ii. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

ENGLAND   AND    THE   PROTESTANT   MOVEMENT 

373.  In  England  separation  from  Rome  was  at  first  the  act  of 
the  monarchs  rather  than  of  the  people,  and  the  motives  were 
personal  and  political.  Henry  VIII  (the  second  Tudor l)  had 
shown  himself  zealous  against  Luther,  and  had  even  written  a 
book  to  controvert  Luther's  teaching,  in  return  for  which  the 
pope  had  conferred  upon  him  the  title,  "  Defender  of  the  Faith." 
A  little  later,  however,  Henry  desired  a  divorce  from  his  wife, 
the  unfortunate  Catherine  of  Aragon,  aunt  of  Charles  V  (§  326), 
with  whom  he  had  lived  for  nineteen  years.  Catherine's  only 
child  was  a  girl  (Mary),  and  Henry  was  anxious  for  a  male 
heir,  in  order  to  secure  a  peaceful  succession  at  his  death.  More 
to  the  point,  he  wished  to  marry  Anne  Boleyn,  a  lady  of  the 
court.  After  long  negotiation,  the  pope  refused  to  grant  the 
divorce.  Thereupon  Henry  put  himself  in  the  place  of  the  pope 


1  The  following  table  of  Tudor  rulers  shows  also  the  claim  of  the  first  ruler 
of  the  next  royal  family  (§  424). 

(1)  HENRY  VII  (1485-1509)  (See  §  305) 


Margaret 
(m.  James  IV  of  Scotlan 

James  V  of  Scotland 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots 

(6)  JAMES  I 
of  England 
(1603-1625) 
the  first 
Stuart  king 

(2)  HENRY 

d) 

VIII  (1509-1547) 

Mary 
(grandmother  of 
Lady  Jane  Grey) 

(4)  MARY 
(1553-1558) 
(daughter  of 
Catherine 
of  Aragon) 

1 
(5)  ELIZABETH 
(1558-1603) 
(daughter  of 
Anne  Boleyn) 

1 
(3)  EDWARD  VI 
(1547-1553) 
(son  of 
Jane  Seymour) 

340  THE    ENGLISH   REFORMATION  [§  374 

so  far  as  his  island  was  concerned,  and  secured  the  divorce 
from  his  own  courts.1 

374.  The  secession  of  the  English  church  was  accomplished  in 
the  years  1 532-1534 2  by  two  simple  but  far-reaching  measures  of 
Henry's  servile  parliament.      (1)  The  clergy  and  people  were 
forbidden  to  make  any  further  payments  to  "the  Bishop  of 
Rome  " ;  and  (2)  the  "  Act  of  Supremacy  "  declared  Henry  the 
"only  supreme  head  on  earth  of  the  Church  of  England." 

375.  So  far  there  had  been  no  attack  on  the  religious  doctrines 
of  the   old  church;    and  Henry  wished  none.     But  his  chief 
advisers,  especially  Cranmer,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who 
had  pronounced  his  divorce,  had  strong  Protestant  leanings ; 
and  so  some  additional  measures  were  secured.     The  doctrine  of 
purgatory  was  declared  false ;  and  the  Bible,  in  English,  was 
introduced  into  the  church  service,  in  place  of  the  old  Latin 
liturgy.     The  use  of  the  English  Bible  was  even  permitted  to 
private  persons,  except  "husbandmen,   artificers,  journeymen, 
and  women  below  the  rank  of  gentlewoman"  [a  gentry  title]. 

376.  The  Pilgrimage  of  Grace.  —  Most  of  England  accepted 
these  changes  calmly,  and  even  the  clergy  made  no  serious  re- 
sistance, as  a  class,  to  the  overthrow  of  the  pope's  power.     But 
the  monasteries  were  centers  of  criticism,  and  the  north  of 
England,    more    conservative    than    the   south,  was    restless. 
Finally  Henry  hung  ten  friars,  who  had  spoken  blunt  words 
about  his  second  marriage,  and  began  to  seize  monastery  prop- 
erty.    Then  the  northern  counties  rose  in  rebellion. 

Economic  causes,  too,  had  a  part  in  the  rising.  The  peasants  were  full 
of  discontent  at  new  conditions  that  will  be  described  later  (§  415),  and 
at  a  general  rise  in  the  cost  of  living  which  marked  that  period  almost 

1  Three  wives  of  Henry  VIII  are  named  in  footnote  on  preceding  page.    He 
had  also  three  more,  —  marrying  the  third  on  the  day  after  he  beheaded  Anne 
Boleyn  for  alleged  immoral  conduct.    One  other  of  the  six  was  beheaded  on  a 
similar  accusation  ;   and  one  was  divorced,  after  six  months,  because  homely. 

2  Note  the  correspondence  in  time.    Luther's  movement  was  some  twelve 
years  old,  and  the  Augsburg  Confession  had  just  been  put  into  form.    Zwin^li 
had  just  been  slain  in  Switzerland,  and  Calvin  was  about  to  take  up  his  work. 


377] 


THE   PILGRIMAGE   OF   GRACE 


341 


as  emphatically  as  a  like  rise  has  marked  the  first  of  the  twentieth 
century.  The  banner  of  the  rebels  bore  a  plow  alongside  the  wounds 
of  Christ 

Henry's  generals  broke  up  this  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  by 
promises  of  redressing  grievances  and  of  full  pardon.  But 
Henry  wrote :  "  You  must  cause  such  dreadful  executions  on  a 
good  number  of  the  inhabitants,  —  hanging  them  on  trees, 
quartering  them,  and  setting  their  heads  and  quarters  in  every 
town,  —  as  shall  be  a  fearful  warning.  Accordingly,  seventy- 
four  were  executed,  —  among  them,  all  the  abbots  in  the  north  of 
England. 

377.  Then  Henry  determined  to  root  out  resistance,  and  to 
enrich  himself,  by  the  utter  ruin  of  the  monasteries.  At  his 


TINTERN  ABBEY  TO-DAY. 

wish,  parliament  dissolved  the  seven  hundred  such  institutions 
in  England.  A  hasty  commission  which  had  pretended  to  in- 
vestigate them  declared  them  grossly  corrupt ;  but  the  report 
was  predetermined  and  grossly  unfair. 

A  little  of  the  wealth  of  the  monasteries  was  set  aside  to 
found  schools  and  hospitals  (in  place  of  the  work  in  such  lines 


342 


THE   ENGLISH    REFORMATION 


(.§378 


formerly  done  by  the  monasteries  themselves),  but  Henry 
seized  most  of  the  monastic  lands  for  the  crown.  Then  he 
parceled  out  parts  of  them,  shrewdly,  to  the  new  nobles  and 
the  gentry.  Thousands  of  influential  families  were  enriched 
by  such  gifts,  and  became  centers  of  hostility  to  any  recon- 
ciliation with  Rome  that  would  ruin  their  private  fortunes. 

This  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  was  a  deed  of  terrible 
cruelty.  Many  abbots  who  tried  to  resist  the  king's  will  were 
put  to  death ;  but  the  most  cruel  results  were  felt  by  those  who 
lived.  Eight  thousand  monks  and  nuns  were  driven,  penniless, 
from  their  homes,  and  some  eighty  thousand  other  people  lost 
their  means  of  livelihood.  But  Henry  had  destroyed  hostility 
to  his  "  reform,"  and  had  planted  it  deep  in  the  interests  of  the 
country  gentry  and  nobles.  It  is  true,  too,  that,  when  things 
finally  adjusted  themselves  to  the  revolution,  the  prosperity 
of  England  was  probably  increased  by  having  the  former  prop- 
erty of  the  monasteries  in  lay  hands. 

378.  These  changes  (§  §  374-377)  were  as  far  as  Henry  would  go. 
He  had  permitted  little  change  in  doctrine ;  and,  to  the  close 

of  his  long  reign,  he  be- 
headed "  traitors  "  who 
recognized  papal  headship, 
and  burned  "  heretics  "  who 
denied  papal  doctrines. 
In  one  day,  in  1540,  three 
"  heretics "  and  three 
"  traitors  "  suffered  death. 
One  Protestant  martyr 
was  Anne  Askewe,  a  gen- 
tlewoman of  good  family, 
who  was  burned  for  insisting,  "  The  bread  of  the  communion 
cannot  be  God."  The  most  famous  among  the  many  noted 
Catholic  martyrs  was  Sir  Thomas  More,  the  greatest  English- 
man of  the  day  (§  341).  More  had  been  Henry's  chief  minister, 
for  a  time.  He  was  willing  to  allow  the  king's  power  over  the 
churchr  so  far  as  all  temporal  matters  were  concerned ;  but 


WHITBY  ABBEY  TO-DAY. 


§  380]  MARY   TUDOR  343 

he  could  not  take  an  oath  denying  the  pope's  authority  in 
spiritual  matters.  He  was  beheaded,  and  his  head  was  impaled 
to  wither  on  London  Bridge. 

Every  effort  had  been  made  to  induce  More  to  yield,  and  he 
had  been  plied  with  argument  by  subtle  logicians.  He  was  a 
broad-minded  man  and  a  statesman,  —  not  disposed  to  die  for 
a  quibble.  But  conscience,  not  verbal  quibble,  was  at  stake. 
And  when  he  had  taken  his  stand,  and  the  boat  was  bearing 
him  down  the  Thames  to  prison,  he  was  heard  to  exclaim, — 
"  I  thank  the  Lord,  the  field  is  won  !  "  He  had  indeed  won  a 
supreme  victory,  not  only  for  his  own  soul,  but  for  the  spiritual 
freedom  of  all  the  world. 

379.  Henry  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Edward  VI  (1547-1553). 
The  new  king  was  a  boy  of  nine,  and  during  his  short  reign  the 
government  was  held  by  a  rapacious  clique  of  Protestant  lords. 
Partly  to  secure  fresh  plunder  from  the  ruin  of  the  church, 
this  government  tried  to  carry  England  into  the  full  current 
of  the  Protestant  movement.     Priests  were  allowed  to  marry. 
The  use  of  the  old  litany,  and  of  incense,  holy  water,  and  the 
surplice,  was  forbidden.     Commissioners  to  carry   out  these 
commands  throughout  England  sometimes  broke  the  stained 
glass  windows  of  sacred  buildings  and  tore  from  the  pedestals 
the  carved  forms  of  saints.     Kebellion  broke  out,  this  time  in 
southwestern  England,   but  was   put  down  cruelly.     Several 
Catholics  were  burned  as  heretics  and  conspirators,  —  among 
them  Father  Forest,  who  was  roasted  barbarously  in  a  swinging 
iron  cradle  over  a  slow  fire. 

During  this  period,  the  English  Prayer  Book  was  put  into 
its  present  form,  under  the  direction  of  Cranmer  (§  375)  ;  and 
articles  of  faith  for  the  church  were  adopted  which  seemed  to 
make  it  incline  to  Calvinism. 

380.  Edward  died  at  fifteen,  and  the  throne  passed  to  his  elder 
half-sister,    Mary    (1553-1558).     Mary    was    a    daughter    of 
Catherine  of  Aragon  (§  373).     She  was  an  earnest   Catholic, 
and  naturally  she  felt  an  intense  personal  repugnance  for  the 
Protestant  movement  which  had  begun  in  England  by  the  dis- 


344  THE   ENGLISH   REFORMATION  [§  381 

grace  of  her  mother.1  The  nation,  too,  was  still  overwhelmingly 
Catholic  in  doctrine  and  feeling.  The  Protestants  were  active, 
organized,  and  influential,  but  they  were  few  in  numbers,  and 
Mary  had  no  difficulty  in  doing  away  with  the  Protestant  in- 
novations of  her  brother's  time. 

381 .  But  Mary  wanted  more  than  this.     She  wished  to  undo  her 
father's  work,  and  to  restore  England  to  its  allegiance  to  the  pope. 
Parliament  readily  voted  the  repeal  of  all  anti-Catholic  laws, 
except  that  it  refused  stubbornly  to  restore  the  church  lands. 
Finally  the  pope  wisely  waived  this  point.     Then  the  nation 
was  solemnly  absolved,  and  received  back  into  the  Roman  C/M'/V//. 

382.  But  Mary  destroyed  her  work  (1)  by  ?/«//•/•/////'/  Philiji  »f 
Spain,  son  of  the  emperor  Charles  V,  and  (2)  by  a  bloody  perse- 
cution of  Protestants. 

All  English  patriots  dreaded,  with  much  reason,  lest  little 
England  be  made  a  mere  province  of  the  world-wide  Spanish 
rule  ;  and  even  zealous  Catholics  shuddered  at  the  thought  of 
the  Spanish  Inquisition  which  the  imagination  pictured  loom- 
ing up  behind  the  Queen's  hated  Spanish  bridegroom. 

This  dread  of  the  Inquisition  made  the  people  unusually 
sensitive  to  Mary's  religious  persecution.  That  persecution  in 
itself  was  quite  enough  to  rouse  popular  fear  and  hatred.  In 
a  few  months,  more  than  two  hundred  and  seventy  martyrs 
were  burned,  —  nearly  half  the  entire  number  that  suffered 
death  for  conscience'  sake  in  all  English  history.  Catholics 
had  died  for  their  faith  under  both  Henry  and  Edward ;  but 
there  had  been  no  such  piling  up  of  executions;  and,  moreover, 
most  of  those  Catholic  victims  had  been  put  to  death,  nom- 
inally, not  for  religious  opinions,  but  as  detested  traitors ;  and 
the  executions  (with  a  very  few  exceptions)  had  taken  place 
not  by  fire  but  by  the  more  familiar  headsman's  ax.  Thus  we 

1  Mary's  own  crown,  too,  had  been  threatened  by  Protestantism.  To 
prevent  the  accession  of  a  Catholic,  the  Protestant  lords  had  plotted  to  seat 
on  the  throne  Lady  Jane  Grey,  a  distant  relative  of  the  royal  family  (foot- 
note, page  339).  The  attempt  failed,  and  Jane  Grey,  a  Protestant  girl  of 
lovely  character,  was  beheaded. 


§  384]  ELIZABETH  345 

can  understand  how  England,  which  had  taken  calmly  the  per- 
secutions by  the  preceding  sovereigns,  was  now  stirred  to  its 
depths. 

The  most  famous  martyrs  in  Mary's  persecution  were  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer  and  Bishops  Ridley  and  Latimer.  Latimer 
had  preached  in  approval  of  the  torture  of  Father  Forest;  but 
now  he  showed  at  least  that  he  too  knew  how  to  die  a  hero. 
"  Play  the  man,  Master  Ridley,"  he  called  out  to  his  companion 
in  martyrdom,  as  they  approached  the  stake ;  "  we  shall  this 
day,  by  God's  grace,  light  such  a  candle  in  England  as,  I  trust, 
shall  never  be  put  out."  Every  such  fire  did  make  scores  of 
converts  to  the  persecuted  cause. 

383.  Other  causes  made  Mary  unpopular.     To  please  her  hus- 
band (Philip)  she  led  England  into  a  silly  and  disastrous  war 
with  France,  and  then  managed  it  so  blunderingly  that  England 
lost  Calais,  her  last  foothold  on  the  continent.     England  had 
never  seemed  more  contemptible  to  other  nations  or  in  greater 
perils.     Apparently,  it  was  doomed  to  become  the  prey  of  Spain 
or  France.     And  at  home,  the  land  was  rent  by  religious  and 
social  dissension,  while  commerce  and  industry  were  stagnant. 

Mary  had  come  to  the  throne  amid  a  burst  of  popular  en- 
thusiasm. She  was  a  pure-minded  but  narrow  woman,  seeking 
earnestly  to  do  her  duty ;  but  after  a  reign  of  five  years  she 
died  more  universally  detested  than  any  other  English  sovereign 
had  ever  been  except  the  tyrant  John.  She  was  succeeded  by 
her  half-sister,  Elizabeth,  then  twenty-five  years  old. 

384.  Elizabeth  (1558-1603)  was  the  daughter  of  Henry  VIII 
and  Anne  Boleyn.     From  her  father,  she  had  a  strong  body, 
powerful  intellect,  an  imperious  will,  and  dauntless  courage; 
and  from  her  mother,  vanity  and  love  of  display.     From  both 
parents  she  took  a  sort  of  bold  beauty  and  a  certain  strain 
of  coarseness.     She  had  grown  up  in  Henry's  court  among 
the  men  of  the  New  Learning  (§  339),  and  was  probably  the 
best   educated    woman   of    her    century,  —  speaking    several 
languages  and  reading  both  Latin  and  Greek.     She  has  been 
called  "a  true  child  of  the  Renaissance,"  too,  in  her  freedom 


346 


THE    ENGLISH   REFORMATION 


[§384 


from  moral  scruple  (§336).  To  Elizabeth,  says  a  great  his- 
torian, "  a  lie  was  simply  an  intellectual  means  of  avoiding  a 
difficulty." 

She   was  often  vacillating  in  policy ;   but  she  was  a  keen 
judge  of  men,  and  had  the  good  sense  to  keep  about  her  a 


KEMLWORTH  CASTLE.  —  From  a  fresco  painting  of  If  >'_><).  Queen  Kli/abcth 
gave  this  castle  to  her  favorite,  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  who  entertained  the 
queen  there  in  a  splendid  pageant  described  in  Scott's  Kenilworth.  The 
walls  enclosed  seven  acres. 

group  of  wise  and  patriotic  counselors,  chief  of  whom  were 
Walsingham  and  Cecil  (whom  she  made  Lord  Burghley). 
Now  and  then,  in  fits  of  passion,  she  stormed  at  these  men  like 
a  common  virago,  but  she  never  let  them  go ;  and  her  shrewd 
commonsense  made  her  the  real  ruler  even  among  such  states- 
men. Above  all,  she  had  a  deep  love  for  her  country.  After 
more  than  forty  years  of  rule,  she  said  proudly,  and,  on  the 
whole,  truly,  —  "I  do  call  God  to  witness,  never  thought  was 
cherished  in  my  heart  that  tended  not  to  my  subjects'  good.'' 

And  England  repaid  her  love  with  a  passionate  and  romantic 
devotion  to  its  "  Virgin  Queen."  Except  for  her  counselors, 
men  knew  little  of  Elizabeth's  deceit  and  weaknesses.  They 


385] 


ELIZABETH 


347 


saw  only  that  her  long  reign  of  forty-five  years  had  piloted 
England  safely  through  a  maze  of  foreign  perils,  and  had  built 
up  its  power  and  dignity  abroad,  and  its  internal  unity  and 
prosperity,  while  her  court  was  made  glorious  by  splendid 
bands  of  statesmen,  warriors,  and  poets.  Amid  the  petty 


Sir  mm 


KENILWORTH  CASTLE  TO-DAY.  —  From  a  photograph. 

squabbles   of   succeeding   reigns,  England   looked  back  with 
longing  to 

"  The  spacious  days  of  great  Elizabeth." 

385.  When  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne,  at  least  two-thirds 
of  England  was  still  Catholic  in  doctrine.  Elizabeth  herself  had 
no  liking  for  Protestantism,  while  she  did  like  the  pomp  and 
ceremonial  of  the  old  church.  She  wanted  neither  the  system 
of  her  sister  nor  that  of  her  brother,  but  would  have  preferred 
to  go  back  to  that  of  her  father.  But  the  extreme  Catholic 
party  did  not  recognize  her  mother's  marriage  as  valid,  and  so 
denied  Elizabeth's  claim  to  the  throne.  This  forced  her  to 
throw  herself  into  the  hands  of  the  Protestants.  She  gave  all 
chief  offices  in  church  and  state  to  that  active,  intelligent,  well- 
organized  minority,  and  the  "  Elizabethan  Settlement "  established 


348 


THE   ENGLISH   REFORMATION 


[§386 


the  English  Episcopal  church  much  as  it  still  stands.  At  about 
the  same  time,  John  Knox  brought  Calvinism  from  Geneva  to 
Scotland,  and  organized  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  church. 

386.  Early  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  an  "Act  of  Uniformity" 
had  ordered  all  people  to  attend  the  Protestant  worship,  under 
threat  of  extreme  penalties  ;  but  for  many  years  this  act  was 
not  enforced  strictly,  and  Catholics  were  permitted  to  have 
their  own  services,  if  they  were  concealed  by  a  pretense  of 
privacy.  But  after  Catholic  plots  against  her  throne  began, 
Elizabeth  adopted  stronger  measures.  Many  leading  Catholics 

were  fined  and  imprisoned 
for  refusing  to  attend 
the  English  church.  And, 
under  a  new  law,  Catholic 
priests,  and  others  who 
made  converts  from  Prot- 
estantism to  Catholicism, 
were  declared  guilty  of 
trxtson.  Many  martyrs 

•?&    *-v       TCi^nB      l7?+AL*!*fL 

suffered  torture  on  the 
rack  and  death  on  the  scaf- 
fold; but  Elizabeth  suc- 
ceeded in  making  such 
executions  appear  punish- 
ment of  traitors  for  politi- 
cal plots,  instead  of  reli- 
gious persecution. 

387.  England  was  con- 
stantly threatened  by  the 
two  great  powers  of  Europe, 
Catholic  France  and  Spain.  Neither,  however,  was  willing  to 
see  the  other  gain  England ;  and  by  skillfully  playing  off  one 
against  the  other,  Elizabeth  kept  peace  for  many  years  and 
gained  time  for  England  to  grow  strong.  Finally  Philip  II, 
icith  the  blessing  of  the  pope,  sent  a  mighty  Spanish  armament, 
the  "Invincible  Armada,"  to  conquer  the  island. 


ELIZABETH,  in  the  attire  in  which  she  went 
to  divine  service  at  St.  Paul's  to  give 
thanks  for  victory  over  the  Armada. 


§389]  AND   IRELAND  349 

The  mass  of  English  Catholics  proved  more  English  than 
papal,  and  rallied  gallantly  to  the  Queen.  The  heroic  English 
navy  beat  off  the  invasion  (1588)  ;  and,  for  young  Englishmen, 
the  splendid  struggle  made  Protestantism  and  patriotism  seem 
much  the  same  thing.  The  rising  generation  became  largely 
Protestant;  and  before  Elizabeth's  death  (1603)  even  the  Puri- 
tan doctrines  from  Geneva  and  from  Presbyterian  Scotland 
had  begun  to  spread  widely  among  the  people. 

388.  Ireland,  the  third  part  of  the  British  Isles,  remained 
Catholic.     Henry  II  had  tried  to  conquer  Ireland  (§  168)  ;  but, 
until  the  time  of  the  Tudors,  the  English  really  held  only  a 
little  strip  of  land  ("the  English  Pale")  near  Dublin.     The 
rest  of  Ireland  remained  in  the  hands  of  native  chieftains. 
Constant  war  had  rooted  out  much  of  the  old  beginnings  of 
Irish  culture  (§  272),  and  the  Irish  tribes  were  half  barbarous. 

Henry  VIII  established  English  authority  over  most  of  the 
island  and  destroyed  the  monasteries,  the  chief  remaining 
centers  of  industry  and  learning.  Elizabeth's  generals  com- 
pleted the  military  subjugation  with  atrocious  cruelties.  Tens 
of  thousands  of  men,  women,  and  children  were  killed,  or  per- 
ished of  famine  in  the  Irish  bogs ;  and  great  districts  of  the 
country  were  given  to  English  nobles  and  gentry.  Incessant 
feuds  continued  between  the  peasantry  and  these  absentee 
landlords,  and  the  Irish  nation  looked  on  the  attempt  to 
introduce  the  Church  of  England  as  a  part  of  the  hated  Eng- 
lish tyranny.  As  English  patriotism  became  identified  with 
Protestantism,  so,  even  more  completely,  Irish  patriotism 
became  identified  with  Catholicism. 

389.  England  and  the  Renaissance.  —  Elizabeth's  reign   was 
part  of  a  period  of  important  change  in  industry  which  will  be 
treated  later  (§  415).     The  reign  is  best  known,  however,  for 
(1)  the  religious  changes  we  have  been  tracing,  and  (2)  for  the 
"  Elizabethan  Renaissance." 

Except  for  the  "Oxford  Reformers"  (§  339),  England  had 
lagged  behind  in  the  early  Renaissance.  But  now  it  took  a 
leading  place.  Harvey  discovered  afresh  the  way  in  which 


350  THE   ENGLISH   REFORMATION  [§  389 

the  blood  circulates  (§  367),  and  so  laid  the  foundation  for  a 
true  study  of  medicine.  Francis  Bacon,  statesman  and  philoso- 
pher, called  the  world's  attention  to  the  necessity  for  scientific 
observation  and  experiment.  Edmund  Spenser  created  a  new 
form  of  English  poetry  in  his  Faery  Queen.  And  the  splendor 
of  the  Elizabethan  age  found  a  climax  in  English  drama,  with 
Shakspere  as  the  most  resplendent  star  in  a  glorious  galaxy 
that  counted  such  other  shining  names  as  Marlowe,  Greene, 
Beaumont,  Fletcher,  and  Ben  Jonson. 


FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Green's  histories/pf  England  rtfaiam  the 
best  general  accounts  for  this  period.  Creight^'s  and  Ueesly's  lives  of 
Elizabeth  are  good  short  biographies. 


CHAPTER   XXII     . 

A  CENTURY    OF   RELIGIOUS   WARS 
I.    SPAIN   AND   THE   NETHERLANDS 

390.  When  Philip  II  succeeded  his  father  (§  360)  as  king  of 
Spain  and  of  the  Sicilies,  and  master  of  the  Netherlands,  he  was 
the  most  powerful  and  most  absolute  monarch  in  Europe.     The 
Spanish  infantry  were  the  finest  soldiery  in  the  world.     The 
Spanish   navy   was  the  unquestioned  mistress  of   the  ocean. 
Each  year  the  great  "gold  fleet"  filled  Philip's  coffers  from 
the  exhaustless  wealth  of  the  Americas.     In  1580  Portugal  and 
her  East  India  empire  fell  to  Spain,1  and  the  Spanish  boast  that 
the  sun  never  set  upon  Spanish  dominions  became  literal  fact. 
Philip  himself  was  a  plodding,  cautious  toiler,  who  worked  like 
a  clerk  day  after  day  in  a  bare  room  with  a  table  and  two  stiff 
chairs.     He  was  despotic,  cruel,  unscrupulous,  ambitious,  and 
an  ardent  Catholic. 

391.  The  Netherland  Revolt.  —  Charles  V  had  infringed  the 
old  liberties  of  the  Netherlands  (§  323),  and  had  set  up  the 
Inquisition   in    that    country    with    frightful   consequences ; 2 
but  the  great  majority  of  the  people  had  been  attached  to  him, 
as  their  native  sovereign,  and  had  felt  a  warm  loyalty  to  his 
government.     Philip  continued  all  his  father's  abuses,  without 
possessing  any  of  his  redeeming  qualities  in  Dutch  eyes.     He 

1  The  ruling  line  of  Portugal  ran  out;  and  Philip  II,  closely  related  to  the 
extinct  family,  claimed  the  throne.    The  Portuguese  were  unwilling  to  be  an- 
nexed to  Spain,  but  Philip  easily  seized  upon  the  country.     It  remained  Span- 
ish until  1640,  when  a  revolt  established  its  independence. 

2  Protestant  writers  used  to  claim  that  from  fifty  thousand  to  one  hundred 
thousand  men  and  women  were  burned,  strangled,  or  buried  alive  within  the 
Netherlands  during  Charles'  reign.     These  numbers  appear  to  be  mere  guesses ; 
but  the  actual  facts  were  horrible. 

351 


352  THE   PROTESTANT   REFORMATION  [§392 

was  a  foreign  master,  and  he  ruled  from  a  distance  through 
foreign  officers.  Finally,  Protestant  and  Catholic  nobles  joined 
in  demands  for  reform  and  especially  that  they  might  be  ruled 
by  officers  from  their  own  people. 

Philip's  reply  was  to  send  the  stern  Spanish  general,  Alva, 
vvith  a  veteran  army,  to  enforce  submission.  Alva's  council  is 
known  as  the  Council  of  Blood.  It  declared  almost  the  whole 
population  guilty  of  rebellion,  and  deserving  of  death  with 
confiscation  of  goods.  Alva  proceeded  to  enforce  this  atrocious 
sentence  upon  great  numbers,  —  especially  upon  the  wealthy 
classes,  —  and  in  1568  a  revolt  began.1 

392.  The  struggle  between  the  little  disunited  provinces  and 
the  huge  world-empire  lasted  forty  years.     In    the  beginning 
the  conflict  was  for  political  liberty,  but  it  soon  became  also  a 
religious  struggle.     It  was  waged  with  an  exasperated  and 
relentless  fury  that  made  it  a  byword  for  ferocity,  even  in  that 
brutal  age.     City  after  city  was  given  up  to  indiscriminate 
rapine  and  massacre,  with  deeds  of  horror  indescribable. 

Over  against  this  dark  side  stands  the  stubborn  heroism  <>J 
the  Dutch  people,  hardly  matched  in  history,  —  a  heroism 
which  saved  not  themselves  only,  but  also  the  cause  of  Prot- 
estantism and  of  political  liberty  for  the  world,  and  made 
their  little  spot  of  sea-rescued  land  a  true  "holy  land"  to 
all  who  love  freedom. 

393.  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  was  the  central  hero  of  the 
conflict.     Because  he  foiled  his  enemies  so  often  by  wisely 
keeping  his  plans  to  himself,  he  is   known  as    William  the 
Silent;  and  his  persistency  and  statesmanship  have  fitly  earned 
him  the  name  "  the  Dutch  Washington."     Again  and  again,  he 
seemed  to  be  crushed ;  but  from  each  defeat  he  snatched  a 
new  chance  for  victory. 

394.  The  turning  point  of  the  war  was  the  relief  of  Leyden 
(1574).     For  many  months  the  city  had  been  closely  besieged. 
The  people  had  devoured  the  cats  and  rats  and  were  dying 

1  Elizabeth  had  been  seated  on  the  throne  of  England  for  ten  years. 


§  396 J  THE    DUTCH   REPUBLIC  358 

grimly  of  starvation.  Once  they  had  murmured,  but  the 
heroic  burgomaster  (mayor)  shamed  them,  declaring  they 
might  have  his  body  to  eat,  but  while  he  lived  they  should 
never  surrender  to  the  Spanish  butchers.  All  attempts  to  re- 
lieve the  perishing  town  had  failed.  But  fifteen  miles  away, 
on  the  North  Sea,  rode  a  Dutch  fleet  with  supplies.  Then 
William  the  Silent  cut  the  dikes  and  let  in  the  ocean  on  the 
land.  Over  wide  districts  the  prosperity  of  years  was  engulfed 
in  ruin ;  but  the  waves  swept  also  over  the  Spanish  camp,  and 
upon  the  invading  sea  the  relieving  ships  rode  to  the  city  gates. 
Dutch  liberty  was  saved. 

In  memory  of  its  heroic  resistance,  William  offered  Leyden  ex- 
emption from  taxes  or  the  establishment  of  a  university.  The  citizens 
finely  chose  the  latter;  and  the  University  of  Leyden,  ever  since  one  of 
the  most  famous  universities  in  Europe,  arose  to  commemorate  the  city's 
deed. 

395.  The  Dutch  Republic  — The  ten  southern  provinces  of  the 
old  Netherlands  finally  gave  up  the  struggle  and  returned  to 
Spanish  allegiance.     They  were  largely  French  in  race  and 
Catholic  in  religion.     Protestantism  was  completely  stamped 
out  in  them.     After  this  time,  they  are  known  as  the  Spanish 
Netherlands,  and  finally  as  modern  Belgium. 

The  seven  northern  provinces,  —  Dutch  in  blood  and  Prot- 
estant in  religion,  —  maintained  the  conflict,  and  won  their  in- 
dependence as  "The  United  Provinces."  The  new  state  is 
sometimes  called  "the  Dutch  Republic."  The  government 
consisted  of  a  representative  "  States  General "  and  a  "  Stadt- 
holder "  (President).  Holland,  the  most  important  of  the 
seven  provinces,  has  given  its  name  to  the  union. 

396.  The  most  marvelous  feature  of  the  struggle  between  the 
little  Dutch  state  and  Spain  was  that   Holland  grew  wealthy 
during  the  contest,  although  the  stage  of  the  desolating  war. 
The  Dutch  drew  their  riches  not  from  the  wasted  land,  but 
from  the  sea ;  and  during  the  war  they  plundered  the  posses- 
sions of  Spain  in  the  East  Indies.     The  little  republic  built  up 
a  vast   colonial   empire;   and,  especially  after  Spain's  naval 


354 


THE   PROTESTANT   REFORMATION 


[§39G 


f  I 

THE  NETHERLANDS 

at  the  Truce  of  1609 


0      10     20     30     40     60    60     70     90 
T.ht  Seven  United  Province* 
Fhe  Provinces  Retained  by  Spain  C 


__  x  *-^~  •  i  ^Emb 

.flM*IM;KN"V_, 


t 
•«   1H  •  - 


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l.Mlel.fcrg    \  •*•'•   >J  •  \     ^-s         I 

... -  \     .-\y  - 

^•'•-i-^7  XW-^- 

|{V.,t-^      S^— '      \Ai,l«t-rp%       X^*^    ^/  \      >' 


§399]  THE   DUTCH   REPUBLIC  355 

supremacy  had  been  engulfed  with  the  Armada,  the  Dutch 
held  almost  a  monopoly  of  the  Asiatic  trade  for  all  Europe. 
One  hundred  thousand  of  their  three  million  people  lived  con- 
stantly upon  the  sea. 

397.  Success  in  so  heroic  a  war  stimulated  the  people  to  a  won- 
derful intellectual  and  industrial  activity.     Holland  taught  all 
Europe  scientific  agriculture  and  horticulture,  as  well  as  the 
science  of  navigation.     In  the  seventeenth  century  the  presses 
of  Holland  are  said  to  have  put  forth  more  books  than  all  the 
rest  of  Europe.     Motley  sums  up  this  wonderful  career,  — 

"The  splendid  empire  of  Charles  V  was  erected  upon  the  grave  of 
liberty.  .  .  .  But  from  the  hand-breadth  of  territory  called  Holland  rises 
a  power  which  wages  eighty  years'  warfare l  with  the  most  potent  empire 
upon  the  earth,  and  which,  during  the  struggle,  becomes  itself  a  mighty 
state,  and,  binding  about  its  slender  form  a  zone  of  the  richest  possessions 
of  the  earth,  from  pole  to  tropic,  finally  dictates  its  decrees  to  the  empire 
of  Charles." 

398.  English  Aid. — The  war  lasted  many  years  after  the 
relief  of  Leyden,  but  Spain  never  again  was  so  near  success. 
In  1584,  by  a  dastardly  offer  of  an  immense  reward,  Philip  II 
secured  the  assassination  of  William  the  Silent ;  but  his  second 
great  antagonist  was  now  ready  to  enter  the  conflict. 

It  had  been  plain  that  Holland  was  fighting  England's  battle 
quite  as  much  as  her  own.  If  Philip  had  not  had  his  hands 
full  with  the  Dutch  war,  he  would  long  since  have  attacked 
England.  Englishmen  knew  this ;  and,  for  many  years,  hun- 
dreds of  individual  English  adventurers  had  been  flocking  to 
the  Low  Countries  to  join  the  Dutch  army,  while  others,  like 
Drake,  had  sailed  off  on  their  own  account,  half-pirate  fashion, 
to  attack  Spain  in  the  New  World.  Elizabeth  herself  had 
helped  the  Dutch  by  secret  supplies  of  money ;  and  now,  in 
1585,  she  openly  sent  a  small  English  army  to  their  aid. 

399.  Philip  then  turned  savagely  on  England.     Drake  ruined 
his  first  preparations  for  invasion  by  sailing  daringly  into  the 


i  Motley  includes  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  §  408. 


356  THE    PROTESTANT   REFORMATION  [§  400 

harbor  of  Cadiz  and  burning  the  Spanish  fleet,  — "  singeing 
the  beard  of  the  Spanish  king,"  as  the  bold  sea-rover  described 
it.  But  in  1588  the  "Invincible  Armada"  at  last  set  sail  for 
England  (§  378,  close).  English  ships  of  all  sorts  —  mostly 
little  merchant  vessels  hastily  transformed  into  a  war  navy  — 
gathered  in  the  Channel ;  and,  to  the  amazement  of  the  world, 
the  small  but  swift  and  better  handled  English  vessels  com- 
pletely out-fought  the  great  Spanish  navy  in  a  splendid  nine- 
days'  sea  fight.  As  the  shattered  Spaniards  fled  around  the 
north  of  Scotland,  a  mighty  storm  completed  their  over- 
throw. Spain  never  recovered  her  supremacy  on  the  sea,  — 
and  the  way  was  prepared  for  the  fZnglish  c"1<miz<tti<m  of 
America. 

400.  From  this  time,  Spain  sank  rapidly  into  a  second-rate  power. 
The  bigot,  Philip  III,  drove  into  exile  the  Christianized  Moors, 
or  Moriscoes.     These  were  the  descendants  of  the  old  Moham- 
medan rulers  of   the  land,  who  had  been  left  behind  when 
the  Moorish  political  power  had  been  driven  out.     They  num- 
bered more  than  half  a  million,  —  perhaps  a  twentieth  of  the 
entire  population,  —  and  they  were  the  foremost  agricultural- 
ists and  almost  the  sole  skilled  artisans  and  manufacturers. 
Their  pitiless  expulsion  inflicted  a  deadly  blow  upon  the  pros- 
perity of  Spain. 

For  a  time  the  wealth  she  drew  from  America  concealed  her 
fall,  and  she  continued  to  furnish  money  for  the  Catholic 
Powers  through  the  Thirty  Years'  War  (§  408).  But  after 
the  Armada  she  never  played  a  great  part  in  Europe,  and, 
living  on  the  plunder  of  the  New  World,  she  failed  to 
develop  the  industrial  life  which  alone  could  furnish  a  true 
prosperity. 

401.  Lepanto.  —  One  great  service  Spain  rendered  Christen- 
dom  before  England   and   Holland   broke  her   naval   power. 
For    a    generation,   Turkish    fleets,   almost    unchecked,   had 
ravaged  the  Christian  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  even  burning 
villages  far  inland  and  sweeping  off  the  peasants  into  captivity. 
Cyprus  'had  fallen  before  their  attack,  and  Malta   had   been 


§402]  THE   HUGUENOTS  357 

saved  only  by  the  heroic  resistance  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John.1 
Finally  Spain,  Venice,  and  the  pope  joined  their  naval  strength, 
and  in  1571  the  combined  Christian  fleet  annihilated  the  great 
Turkish  navy  at  Lepanto,  on  the  Greek  coast.  Lepanto  was 
the  greatest  naval  battle  the  world  had  seen  for  eighteen  hun- 
dred years  —  since  the  ancient  wars  between  Eomans  and 
Carthaginians.  Over  six  hundred  ships  engaged.  The  Turks 
lost  thirty  thousand  men,  and  twelve  thousand  Christian 
rowers  were  freed  from  horrible  slavery  at  the  oar.  The  Turks 
never  recovered  their  naval  importance.  Indeed,  the  turning 
point  of  their  power  is  often  dated  from  this  defeat. 

II.  WARS  OF  THE  FRENCH  HUGUENOTS 

402.  Conditions  in  France.  —  The  French  Protestants  were 
Calvinists,  and  are  known  as  Huguenots.  By  1560,  they 
counted  one  man  out  of  twenty  in  the  population ;  and  (be- 
cause Calvinism  appealed  by  its  logic  mainly  to  intellectual 
people)  their  numbers  were  made  up  almost  wholly  from  the 
nobles  and  the  wealthy  middle  class  of  the  towns.  Francis  I 
and  his  son,  Henry  II,  persecuted  the  new  faith,  but  not  con- 
tinuously enough  to  crush  it. 

Henry  was  followed  by  his  three  sons,  —  Francis  II,  Charles 
IX,  and  Henry  III,  —  all  we^ak  in  body  and  in  mind.  During 
their  reigns  (1559-1589),  power  was  disputed  between  two 
groups  of  great  lords.  Each  was  closely  related  to  the  failing 
royal  family,  and  each  hoped  to  place  a  successor  upon  the 
throne.  One  of  these  groups  was  the  Catholic  Guise  family ; 
the  other  was  the  Protestant  Bourbons,  who  counted  as  their 
leaders  the  King  of  Navarre  and  the  Prince  of  Conde. 

In  the  background  was  the  chief  figure  of  all,  the  crafty, 
cruel,  and  utterly  unscrupulous  Queen-mother,  Catherine  of 
Medici,  who  played  off  one  party  against  the  other  in  what- 

1  Special  report :  the  siege  of  Malta ;  read  Prescott's  account  in  his 
Philip  II,  if  available.  The  Knights  of  St.  John  had  been  driven  from 
Rhodes  (§  251)  not  long  before. 


358  THE   PROTESTANT   REFORMATION  [§403 

ever  way  might  best  promote  her  own  control  over  her  feeble 
sons.     These  were  the  conditions  that  bred  civil  war  in  France. 

403.  War  between  the  two  factions  opened  in  1562  and  lasted, 
with  brief  truces,  to  1598.     Even  more  than  the  other  struggles 
of  the  period,  it  was  marked  by  assassinations  and  treacheries, 
which  struck  down  almost  every  leader  on  either  side.     The 
most  horrible  event  of  this  character  was  the  Massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew  (August  24,  1572). 

An  honest  attempt  had  just  been  made  to  establish  a  lasting 
peace,  and  a  marriage  had  been  arranged  between  the  young 
Henry  of  Navarre  and  the  sister  of  King  Charles  IX.  The 
grandest  Frenchman  of  the  age,  the  Protestant  Coligny,  be- 
came one  of  Charles'  chief  counselors,  and  soon  won  remark- 
able influence  over  him.  Catherine  of  Medici  had  not  expected 
to  see  her  own  power  over  her  son  so  superseded,  and  now 
she  joined  the  Guises  in  secret  attacks  upon  Coligny. 

An  attempt  to  assassinate  Coligny  failed,  and  the  king 
threatened  vengeance  for  the  attack.^  Then  the  conspirators, 
to  save  themselves,  played  upon  his  religious  bigotry  with  a 
plot  to  cleanse  France  from  heresy  at  one  blow ;  and  his  con- 
sent was  finally  won  for  a  general  massacre  of  the  Huguenots. 
Large  numbers  of  that  sect  were  assembled  in  Paris  to  witness 
the  marriage  of  their  chief,  and  at  the  appointed  moment, 
the  mob  of  Paris  bathed  in  Huguenot  blood.  Ten  thousand 
victims  fell  in  France. 

404.  Henry  of  Navarre  escaped  from  the  massacre,  and,  on 
the  death  of  the  king,  in  1589,  he  was  the  heir  to  the  throne. 
But  he  did  not  become  king,  as  Henry  IV,  until  after  four 
years  more  of  civil  war  with  the  Catholic  League. 

Philip  II  of  Spain  aided  the  League.  He  hoped  to  seat 
a  puppet  on  the  French  throne  and  virtually  add  that  country 
to  the  realms  of  Spain.  But  in  Henry  of  Navarre  he  met  the 
third  of  the  three  great  leaders  on  whom  his  imperial  schemes 
went  to  wreck.  Henry  drove  the  Spanish  army  in  shameful 
rout  from  France,  in  the  dashing  cavalry  battle  of  Ivry.  Then, 
to  secure  Paris,  which  he  had  long  besieged,  Henry  accepted 


§  407]  THE   HUGUENOTS  859 

Catholicism,  declaring  lightly  that  so  fair  a  city  was  "  well 
worth  a  mass."  His  purpose,  of  course,  was  not  only  to  secure 
the  capital,  but  also  to  give  peace  to  his  distracted  country. 

405.  In  1598  Henry's  Edict  of  Nantes  established  toleration  for 
the  Huguenots.    (1)  They  were  granted  full  equality  before  the 
law.1     (2)  They  were  to  have  perfect   liberty  of   conscience, 
and  to   enjoy  the  privilege  of  public  worship  except  in   the 
cathedral  cities.     And  (3)  certain  towns  were  handed  over  to 
them,  to  hold  with  their  own  garrisons,  as  a  security  for  their 
rights.    This  last  measure  was  no  doubt  needful,  but  it  carried 
with  it  a  political  danger :  it  set  up  a  state  within  a  state,  and 
hindered  the  unity  of  France. 

406.  Henry  IV  proved  one  of  the  greatest  of  French  kings, 
and  he  was   one   of  the   most   loved.      With   his   sagacious 
minister,  the  Duke  of  Sully,  he  set 

himself  to  restore  prosperity  to 
desolated  France.  One  of  his 
treasured  sayings  was,  that  if  he 
lived,  the  poorest  peasant  should 
have  a  fowl  in  the  pot  on  a  Sunday. 


Koads  and  canals  were  built ;  new       GOLD  COIN  OF  HENRY  IV. 
trades  were  fostered ;  and  under 

the  blessings  of  a  firm  government,  the  industry  of  the  French 
people  with  marvelous  rapidity  removed  the  evil  results  of  the 
long  strife.  In  1610  Henry  was  assassinated  by  a  half  insane 
Catholic  fanatic.  • 

407.  Richelieu.  —  Henry's  son,  Louis  XIII,  was  a  boy  of 
nine  years.  Anarchy  again  raised  its  head  ;  but  France  was 
saved  by  the  commanding  genius  of  Cardinal  Richelieu,  who 
became  the  chief  minister  of  the  young  king.  Richelieu  was 
a  sincere  patriot,  and,  though  an  earnest  Catholic,  his  states- 
manship was  guided  by  political,  not  by  religious,  motives. 


1  Before  this,  the  forms  of  oaths  required  in  law  courts  had  been  such  as  a 
Protestant  could  not  take.  Therefore  a  Huguenot  could  not  sue  to  recover 
property. 


360  THE   PROTESTANT   REFORMATION  [§  408 

He  crushed  the  great  nobles  and  he  waged  war  upon  the 
Huguenots  to  deprive  them  of  their  garrisoned  towns,  which 
menaced  the  unity  of  France.  But  when  he  had  captured 
their  cities  and  held  the  Huguenots  at  his  mercy,  he  kept 
toward  them  in  full  the  other  pledges  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes. 
He  aided  the  German  Protestants  against  the  Catholic  em- 
peror, in  the  religious  war  that  was  going  on  in  Germany,  and 
so  secured  a  cKaTice  to  seize  territory  from  the  emperor  for 
France.  To  make  the  king  supreme  in  France,  he  waged  war 
against  the  Protestants  within  the  nation :  to  make  France 
supreme  in  Europe,  he^aged  war  for  the  Protestants  of  Ger- 
many. 

III.     THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR   IN   GERMANY    (1618-1648) 

408.  Parties.  —  Fortunately  for  German  Protestants,  the 
two  immediate  successors  of  Charles  V  on  the  imperial  throne 
were  liberal  in  temper,  disinclined  either  to  persecution  or 
to  religious  war.  So  for  sixty  years  after  the  Peace  of  AUL 
burg  (§  359),  the  new  faith  gained  ground  rapidly.  It  spread 
over  much  of  South  Germany  and  held  possession  of  Bohemia, 
the  home  of  the  ancient  Hussite  reform.  Strife  was  incessantly 
threatening,  however.  The  Hapsburgs  strove  to  restrict  Prot- 
estantism in  their  dominions,  while  the  Protestant  princes 
systematically  evaded  the  promise  to  restore  church  lands. 

This  period  of  uneasy  peace  in  Germany  is  just  the  period 
of  the  religious  wars  in  the  Netherlands  and  in  France. 
Then,  in  1618,  these  conditions  in  Germany  led  to  the  last  of 
the  great  religious  wars.  It  began  a  century  after  Luther 
posted  his  theses  at  Wittenberg,  and  it  is  known  as  the 
Thirty  Years'  War  (1618-1648).  It  was  the  most  destructive 
and  terrible  war  in  all  history.  The  Protestant  princes 
showed  themselves  disunited,  timid,  and  incapable;  and,  had 
the  war  been  left  to  Germany,  a  Catholic  victory  would  soon 
have  been  assured.  But  first  Denmark  (1625-1629)  and  then 
Sweden  (1630)  entered  the  field  in  behalf  of  the  Protestant 


§  410]  THE   THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  361 

cause,  and  at  the  last  (1635-1648)  Catholic  France  under 
Richelieu  threw  its  weight  also  against  the  emperor. 

409.  The  war  was  marked  by  the  career  of  four  great  generals, 
—  Tilly  and  Wallenstein  on  the  imperial  side,  and  Gustavus 

Adolphus,  king  of  Sweden,  "the  Lion  of  the  North,"  and 
Mansfeld,  on  the  side  of  the  Protestants.  Gustavus  was  at 
once  great  and  admirable;  but  he  fell  at  the  battle  of  Lutzen 
(1632),  in  the  moment  of  victory ;  and  thereafter  the  struggle 
was  as  dreary  as  it  was  terrible.  Mansfeld  and  Wallenstein 
from  the  first  deliberately  adopted  the  policy  of  making  the 
war  pay,  by  supporting  their  armies  everywhere  upon  the  country ; 
but  during  the  short  career  of  Gustavus,  his  blond  Swede 
giants  were  held  in  admirable  discipline,  with  the  nearest 
approach  to  a  regular  commissariat  that  had  been  known  since 
E/oman  times. 

Gustavus'  success,  too,  was  due  largely  to  new  tactics. 
Muskets,  fired  by  a  "  match  "  and  discharged  from  a  "  rest," 
had  become  an  important  portion  of  every  army  ;  but  troops 
were  still  massed  in  the  old  fashion  that  had  prevailed  when 
pikemen  were  the  chief  infantry.  Gustavus  was  the  first 
general  to  adapt  the  arrangement  of  his  troops  to  the  new 
weapons. 

410.  The  calamities  the  war  brought  upon  Germany  were  mon- 
strous.    It  was  a  blasting  ruin,  from  which  Germany  had  not 
fully  recovered  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.     Sea- 
son  by   season,   for   a   generation   of   human   life,  armies  of 
ruthless  freebooters  harried  the  land  with  fire  and  sword.     The 
peasant  found  that  he  toiled  only  to  feed  robbers  and  to  draw 
them  to  outrage  and  torture  his  family ;  so  he  ceased  to  labor, 
and  became  himself  robber  or  camp-follower.     Half  the  popu- 
lation and   two-thirds  the  movable  property  of  Germany  were 
swept  away.      In  many  large  districts,  the  facts  were  worse 
than  this  average.     The  Duchy  of  Wurtemberg  had  fifty  thou- 
sand people  left  out  of  five  hundred  thousand.     Populous  cities 
shriveled  into  hamlets;  and  for  miles  upon  miles,  former  ham- 
lets were  the  lairs  of  wolf  packs.     Not  until  1850  did  some 


362  THE   PROTESTANT   REFORMATION  [§411 

sections  of  Germany  again  contain  as  many  homesteads  and 
cattle  as  in  1618. 

Even  more  destructive  was  the  result  upon  industry  and 
character.  Whole  trades,  with  their  long-inherited  skill, 
passed  from  the  memory  of  men.1  Land  tilled  for  centuries 
became  wilderness.  And  men  became  savages.  The  genera- 
tion that  survived  the  war  came  to  manhood  without  schools 
or  churches  or  law  or  orderly  industry. 

411.  The  war  was  closed  by  the  Peace  of  Westphalia.  This 
treaty  was  drawn  up  by  a  congress  of  ambassadors  from  nearly 
every  European  Power.  It  contained  three  distinct  classes  of 
stipulations :  (1)  provisions  for  religious  peace  in  Germany ; 
(2)  territorial  rewards  for  France  and  Sweden ;  and  (3)  pro- 
visions  to  secure  the  independence  of  the  German  princes 
against  the  empire. 

T/«>  i>riin-ii>l<-  <>f  (/,,  PeOM  Of  .l</</.s-^//v/  //v/s  mi  [finned  and 
extended.  Each  sovereign  prince  was  to  choose  hi^  relipion ; 
and  his  subjects  were  to  have  three  years  to  conform  to  his 
choice  or  to  withdraw  from  his  realm. 

Many  of  the  South  German  Protestants  were  driven  into  exile.  This 
was  the  first  cause  of  the  coming  to  America  of  the  "Pennsylvania 
Dutch."  Most  of  the  German  immigration  to  America  before  the  Revolu- 
tion was  connected  with  this  expulsion  or  with  the  devastation  of  the 
Rhine  provinces  a  little  later  by  Louis  XIV  (§  473)  of  France. 

Sweden,  which  was  already  a  great  Baltic  power,  extend- 
ing around  both  the  east  and  west  shores  of  that  sea,  secured 
also  much  of  the  south  coast :  Pomerania  —  with  the  mouths  of 
the  Oder,  Elbe,  and  Weser  —  was  the  payment  she  received 
for  her  part  in  the  war.  This  gave  Sweden  control  over  Ger- 
man commerce.  France  annexed  most  of  Alsace,  with  some 
fortresses  on  the  German  bank  of  the  Rhine.  The  independ- 
ence of  Switzerland  and  of  the  Dutch  Provinces  was  expressly 
recognized. 

1  An  instance  of  this  is  the  wonderful  old  German  wood  carving.  A  genu- 
ine old  piece  of  German  cabinetwork  is  easily  placed  before  1618,  because  the 
war  simply  wiped  out  the  skill  and  the  industry. 


§412]  CLOSE   OF   KELIGIOUS   WARS  363 

Besides  this  loss  of  imperial  territory,  there  were  various 
political  rearrangements  within  Germany,  which  made  clear  the 
weakness  of  the  empire.  The  states  were  given  the  .right  to 
form  alliances  with  one  another  or  even  with  foreign  powers. 
The  imperial  Diet  became  a  gathering  of  ambassadors  for  dis- 
cussion, but  not  for  government.  No  state  was  to  be  bound 
by  its  decisions  without  its  own  consent. 

412.  Summary.  —  The  religious  wars  filled  a  century  —  from 
the  struggle  between  the  German  princes  and  Charles  V  (1546) 
to  the  Peace  of  Westphalia  (1648).  They  left  the  Romance 
South  Catholic,  and  the  Teutonic  North  Protestant.  Politically, 
France  emerged,  under  the  Bourbon  branch  of  the  Capetians, 
stronger  and  more  united  than  ever,  quite  equal  in  power  to  any 
two  states  of  Europe.  England  and  Sweden  had  both  risen  into 
"  Great  Powers."  Two  new  federal  republics  had  been  added 
to  the  European  family  of  nations,  —  Switzerland  and  the 
United  Provinces ;  and  the  second  of  these  was  one  of  the  lead- 
ing "Powers."  The  danger  of  a  universal  Hapsburg  empire 
was  forever  gone.  Spain  had  sunk  from  the  first  place  in 
Europe  to  a  third-rate  power.  The  Holy  Roman  Empire  was 
an  open  sham.  The  Austrian  Hapsburgs  were  now  to  turn  to 
their  proper  task  of  defending  Europe  from  the  Turk.  Ear  to 
the  east  loomed  indistinctly  a  reviving  Russian  state,  which 
had  recovered  its  independence  from  the  Tartars. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  — England  is  covered  by  previous  references. 
It  is  not  worth  while  for  the  student  to  read  on  the  French  Wars,  except 
for  some  brilliant  story  like  Willert's  Henry  of  Navarre.  For  Holland  the 
references  on  page  304  should  be  continued  —  one  of  them  at  least.  For 
Germany,  Henderson's  Short  History  gives  enough  material.  Some  source 
material  can  be  found  in  Robinson's  Readings,  II. 

EXERCISES 

1.  Dates  :  add  to  previous  lists,  1520,  1588,  1648. 

2.  Review  the  Reformation  as  a  whole  in  each  country  to  the  close  of 
the  religious  wars. 


PART   IV 

ENGLAND  IN  THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

REVIEW   OF   THE   CHANGES    BETWEEN    1450    AND    1600 

413.  The  century  and  a  half  from  1450  to  1600  was  filled,  in 
England,  by  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  and  the  Tudor  reigns.     It 
was   a   period   of  tremendous  change,  intellectual,  religious, 
political,  and  economic. 

(1)  The  Renaissance  created  a  new  intellectual  life,  with 
the  spontaneous  energy  and  the  abounding  self-reliance  that 
we  associate  with  the  names  of  Shakspere  and  Elizabeth  and 
Raleigh. 

(2)  The  Reformation  introduced  new  church  organization 
and  new  religious  feeling. 

(3)  On  the  ruins  of  the  two  chief  political  forces  of  earlier 
times,  —  feudalism  and  the  church,  —  the  sovereigns  built  up  a 
"New  Monarchy"  (§306). 

(4)  Lastly,   industry   was  revolutionized  both  in  town  and 
country. 

The  first  three  changes  have  been  treated.  The  economic 
change  was  the  most  fundamental  of  all.  It  has  been  referred 
to  several  times  and  we  will  now  look  at  it  as  a  whole. 

414.  The  golden  age  for  English  peasants  was  the  half  century 
from  1450  to  1500,  just  after  the  disappearance  of  villeinage. 
The  small  farmer  lived  in  rude  abundance ;  and  even  the  farm 
laborer  had  his  cow,  sheep,  or  geese  on  the  common,  his  four- 
acre  patch  of  garden  about  his  cabin,  and  good  wages  for  his 

364 


§415]  ECONOMIC   CHANGES,    1450-1600  365 

labor  on  the  landlord's  fields.  Sir  John  Fortescue  (§  299) 
boasts  of  this  prosperity,  as  compared  with  that  of  the  French 
peasantry :  — 

"  They  [English  peasants]  drink  no  water,  unless  at  times  by  way  of 
penance.  They  are  fed  in  great  abundance  with  all  kinds  of  flesh  and 
fish.  They  are  clothed  in  good  woolens.  .  .  .  Every  one,  according  to 
his  rank,  hath  all  things  needful  to  make  life  easy  and  happy." 

The  large  landlords  had  been  relatively  less  prosperous. 
Since  the  rise  of  their  old  laborers  out  of  villeinage,  they  were 
"  land-poor.'7  They  paid  high  wages,  while,  under  the  waste- 
ful common-field  system,  crops  were  small  (§  134). 

415.  But  by  1500  a  change  had  begun  which  enriched  the  land- 
lords and  cruelly  depressed  the  peasants.  This  change  was  the 
process  of  "inclosures"  for  sheep  raising.  There  was  a  steady 
demand  for  wool  at  good  prices  to  supply  the  Flemish  markets 
(§  323),  and  enterprising  landlords  began  to  raise  sheep  instead 
of  grain.  Large  flocks  could  be  cared  for  by  a  few  hands,  so 
that  the  high  wages  mattered  less ;  and  profits  proved  so  en- 
ticing that  soon  there  was  a  mad  rush  into  the  new  industry. 

But  sheep-raising  called  for  large  tracts  of  land.  It  was  pos- 
sible only  for  the  large  landholders ;  and  even  these  were 
obliged  to  hedge  in  their  share  of  the  common  "fields."  There- 
fore, as  far  as  possible,  they  turned  out  small  tenants  whose 
holdings  interfered  with  such  "inclosures,"  and  often  they 
inclosed  also  the  woodlands  and  meadows,  in  disregard  of 
ancient  rights  of  common  pasture. 

Sir  Thomas  More,  in  his  Utopia  (§  341),  lamented  these  conditions 
bitterly  :  "A  careless  and  unsatiable  cormorant  may  compass  about  and 
inclose  many  thousand  acres  within  one  pale,  and  the  husbandmen  be 
thrust  out  of  their  own  ;  or  else  by  fraud,  or  violent  oppression,  or  by 
wrongs  and  injuries,  they  be  so  worried  that  they  be  compelled  to  sell.  .  .  . 
They  [the  landlords]  throw  down  houses ;  they  pluck  down  towns  [vil- 
lages], and  leave  nothing  standing  but  only  the  church,  to  be  made  a 
sheep-house." 

Then  he  gives  this  piteous  picture  of  the  peasants  who  have 
been  driven  from  their  homes  :  — 


366  ENGLAND  [§  415 

"  By  one  means  or  another,  either  by  hook  or  by  crook,  they  must 
needs  depart,  poor  wretched  souls  —  men,  women,  husbands,  wives, 
fatherless  children,  widows,  woeful  mothers  with  young  babes.  .  .  .  All 
their  household  stuff  .  .  .  suddenly  thrust  out,  they  be  constrained  to 
sell  it  for  a  thing  of  nought.  And  when  they  have  wandered  till  that  be 
spent,  what  can  they  then  else  do  but  steal,  and  then  justly,  pardy,  be 
hanged,  or  else  go  about  begging  ?  And  yet  then  also  they  be  cast  into 
prison  as  vagabonds,  because  they  go  about  and  work  not,  —  whom  no  man 
will  set  to  work  though  they  never  so  willingly  proffer  themselves  thereto." 

Other  statesmen  bewailed  that  sheep  should  take  the  place 
of  the  yeomanry  who  had  won  Cre'cy  and  Poitiers,  and  who, 
Bacon  said,  were  also  "  the  backbone  of  the  revenue  "  ;  and  the 
government  made  many  attempts  to  check  inclosures.  But 
law  availed  nothing.  Nor  did  the  peasant  risings  and  riots 
(§§  376,  379)  help.  On  the  other  hand,  Henry  VIIFs  transfer 
of  monastery  lands  (a  fifth  of  England)  to  greedy  private  land- 
lords increased  the  inclosure  movement  tremendously ;  and  it 
went  on  until  the  profits  of  sheep-raising  and  grain-raising 
found  a  natural  level. 

This  came  to  pass  before  1600.  The  wool  market  was  sup- 
plied, and  the  growth  of  town  populations  raised  the  price  of 
grain.  These  towns,  as  we  shall  explain  (§  417)  became  the 
basis  for  a  new  sort  of  prosperity  for  England,  and  the  land 
changes  created  a  wealthy  landed  gentry,  to  take  a  glittering 
part  in  society  and  politics. 

But  this  new  "  prosperity  "  had  a  somber  background.  Half 
of  the  villages  in  England  had  lost  heavily  in  population,  and 
many  had  been  wholly  swept  away.  Great  numbers  of  the 
peasants,  driven  from  their  homes,  became  "  sturdy  beggars  " 
(tramps)  ;  and  all  laborers  were  thrust  down  to  a  lower  standard 
of  life,  because  the  cost  of  food  and  clothing  rose  twice  as  fast 
as  wages. 

More  than  before  even,  rural  England  had  become  a  land- 
lord's country.  One  reason  why  wages  stayed  so  low  was  that 
the  gentleman  "justices  of  the  peace"1  were  given  power  to 

1  The  justices  were  appointed  by  the  crown. 


§  417]  ECONOMIC   CHANGES,    1450-1600  367 

fix  wages  for  farm  work.  And  when  tramps  spread  terror 
through  the  rural  districts,  the  justices  hung  them  in  batches. 
In  fifty  years,  in  the  glorious  day  of  Shakspere  and  Elizabeth, 
seventy  thousand  "  beggars  "  were  executed. 

These  conditions  explain  in  part  why  so  many  Englishmen  were  eager 
to  go  to  America.  John  Winthrop,  the  great  Puritan  leader  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts colony  (himself  from  the  prosperous  landlord  class),  declared 
"England  grows  weary  of  her  inhabitants,  so  as  man,  who  is  the  most 
precious  of  God's  creatures,  is  here  more  vile  and  base  than  the  earth  we 
tread  upon  and  of  less  prize  among  us  than  a  horse  or  an  ox." 

416.  Meantime,  England  was  becoming  a  manufacturing  country. 

From  the  time  of  the  Yorkist  kings,  the  sovereigns  had  made 
the  towns  their  special  care.  Elizabeth  welcomed  gladly  the 
skilled  workmen  driven  from  the  Netherlands  by  the  Spanish 
wars,  and  from  France  by  the  persecution  of  the  Huguenots. 
Colonies  of  these  foreign  artisans  were  given  their  special 
quarter  in  many  an  English  city,  with  many  favors,  and  were 
encouraged  to  set  up  there  their  manufactures,  of  which  Eng- 
land had  previously  known  almost  nothing.  Raw  English  wool 
was  no  longer  sold  abroad.  It  was  worked  up  at  home.  These 
new  manufactures  gave  employment  to  great  numbers  of  work- 
men, and  finally  absorbed  the  classes  driven  from  the  land. 

417.  This  manufacturing  fostered  commerce.     By  1600,  Eng- 
land was  sending,  not  merely  raw  materials  as  formerly,  but  her 
finished  products,  to  distant  markets.     "  Merchants  "  l  increased 
in  wealth  and  in  numbers,  so  as  to  form  a  new  class  in  society. 
In  1350  a  royal  inquiry  could  find  a  list  of  only  169  important 
merchants  in  England.     In  1601  more  than  twenty  times  that 
number  were  engaged  in  the  Holland  trade  alone. 

By  purchase  of  land  and  by  royal  gifts  from  the  confiscated 
church  property,  the  members  of  this  class  rose  into  the  new 


1  A  "  merchant "  was  a  trader  who  sent  goods  to  a  foreign  country.  Com- 
panies were  formed  to  trade  to  Russia,  or  India,  or  other  distant  parts  of  the 
world ;  and  sometimes  a  single  merchant  owned  a  considerable  fleet  of  ships 
for  such  trade  (cf.  Shakspere's  Antonio,  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice). 


368  ENGLAND  [§  418 

gentry,  and  their  capital  and  energy  helped  to  restore  pros- 
perity to  the  land. 

418.  The  rapid  growth  of  manufactures  brought  with  it  a  revo- 
lution in  the  position  of  the  workers.     The  old  gild  N//.S^///  broke 
down  and  was  replaced  by  the  so-called  "domestic  w/xteni"  of 
manufacturing.     The  work  was  still  carried  on  by  hand,  and 
mostly  in  the   master's  house ;    but   the    masters  demanded 
liberty  from  the  old  gild  control.     This  greater  freedom  per- 
mitted the   more  rapid   introduction  of   improved   methods ; 
but  on  the  other  hand,  the  gap  between  master  and  journey- 
men grew  wider  now  that  they  were  no  longer  members  of  a 
common,  self-governing  union. 

419.  The  growth  of  towns  had  underlain  the  other  great  changes 
named  in  §  413.     The  towns  gave  victory  to  the  Yorkists  in  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses  —  and  so  brought  about  the  final  overthrow  of  feudalism.     They  were 
the  centers  of  the  intellectual  life  of  the  Renaissance,  and  also  the  strong- 
holds of  the  Reformation.     And  now  they  become  the  chief  home  of  Puritan- 
ism, the  greatest  force  in  English  life  in  the  century  we  are  next  to  study. 

420.  The  burning  questions  in  English  politics  and  religion, 
after  1600,  had  to  do,  not  with  Catholicism,  but  with  Puritan- 
ism (§  387).     Puritanism  was  more  than  a  religious  sect.     It 
was  an  ardent  aspiration  for  reform,  personal  and  social.     In 
politics,  it  stood  for  an  advance  in  the  rights  of  the  people ; 
in  conduct,  for  a  stricter  morality;  in \theology,  for  the  stern 
doctrines  of  Calvin;  and  in   church  government,  for   an   ex- 
tension of  the  movement  which  had  cut  off  the  English  church 
from  Rome. 

421.  In  this  matter  of  church  government,  two  groups  of  Puri- 
tans stood  in  sharp  opposition,  —  an  influential  "Low-church" 
element  within  the  established  church,  and  the  despised  In- 
dependents ("  Separatists  ")  outside  of  it. 

422.  It  is  the  Low-church  Puritans  with  whom  we  are  chiefly 
concerned  for  nearly  fifty  years.     They  had  no  wish  to  separate 
church  and  state.     They  wanted  one  national  church  (their 
idea  of  a  church)  to  which  all  Englishmen  should  be  forced  to 
conform.     They  desired  to  make  the  church  a  more  far-reach- 


§  423]  PURITANISM  369 

ing  moral  power ;  and,  to  that  end,  they  wished  to  introduce 
more  preaching  into  the  service,  to  simplify  ceremonies,  and  to 
abolish  altogether  certain  customs  which  they  called  "  Romish," 
—  the  use  of  the  surplice,  and  of  the  ring  in  marriage,  of  the 
sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  and  (some  of  them)  of  the  prayer- 
book.  They  did  not  as  yet  care  to  change  radically  the 
established  form  of  church  government  ;  but  they  looked  upon 
all  church  machinery  not  as  divinely  instituted,  as  the  High- 
churchmen  did,  but  as  of  human  origin.  Some  of  them  had 
begun,  indeed,  to  speak  with  scant  respect  of  bishops,  and 
there  was  a  subdivision  among  them  inclined  to  the  Presbyterian 
church  government,  as  it  existed  in  Scotland. 

The  Independents  (or  "  Puritans  of  the  Separation  ")  believed 
that  there  should  be  no  national  church,  but  that  each  local 
religious  society  should  be  wholly  separate  from  the  civil 
government,  and  even  independent  of  other  churches.  These 
Independents  were  the  Puritans  of  the  Puritans..  They  were 
the  germs  of  later  Congregationalism.  To  all  other  sects  they 
seemed  mere  anarchists  in  religion.  Elizabeth  persecuted  them 
savagely,  and  her  successor  continued  that  policy.  Some  of 
the  Independent  churches  fled  to  Holland ;  and  one  of  them, 
from  Scrooby  in  northern  England,  after  staying  several 
years  at  Leyden,  founded  Plymouth  in  America  (the  "Pil- 
grims "  of  1620). 

423.  Political  liberty  in  England  had  fallen  low  under  the 
Tudors.  True,  no  law  could  be  made  without  consent  of  par- 
liament, and  that  body  controlled  all  new  grants  of  money. 
But  the  monarch  (or  his  ministers)  prepared  nearly  all  meas- 
ures that  came  before  parliament;  he  could  veto  any  act  of 
parliament,  and,  after  a  law  had  been  made,  he  sometimes 
nullified  it  by  special  proclamations.  Moreover,  the  monarch 
had  so  many  ways  of  injuring  a  private  man  that  it  was  ex- 
tremely hazardous  for  any  one  persistently  to  oppose  him. 

But,  after  all,  Henry  VIII  and  Elizabeth  had  ruled  absolutely, 
jmly  because  they  made  use  of  constitutional  forms  (§  306)  and 
because  they  possessed  a  shrewd  tact  which  taught  them  just 


370  ENGLAND   IN    1620  [§  423 

where  to  stop.  Moreover,  toward  the  close  of  Elizabeth's 
reign,  when  foreign  perils  were  past,  the  tone  of  parliament  be- 
gan to  rise  again.  Men  spoke  boldly  of  checks  upon  the 
royal  power;  and  parliament  and  the  courts  forced  the  great 
Queen  to  give  up  her  pet  practice  of  granting  trade  monop- 
olies1 to  her  favorites.  It  was  plain  to  keen  observers  that 
only  the  reverence  for  Elizabeth's  age  and  sex,  and  the  grati- 
tude due  her  for  her  great  services  to  the  kingdom,  held  off 
an  open  clash  between  sovereign  and  parliament.  Upon  her 
death,  the  clash  began,  —  to  last  eighty-five  years. 

1  Special  report  upon  the  dispute  over  monopolies. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

UNDER   THE   FIRST   TWO    STUARTS 

At  every  moment,  some  one  country,  more  than  any  other,  represents 
the  future  and  the  welfare  of  mankind. —  EMERSON. 

424.  "Divine  Right"  of  Kings.  —  Elizabeth  was   succeeded 
by  James  I  (James  Stuart),  already  king  of   Scotland  (foot- 
note, page   339).     James  was  learned   and  conceited,  —  "the 
wisest  fool  in  Christendom,"  as  Henry  IV  of   France  called 
him.     He  believed  sincerely  in  the  "  divine  right "  of  kings. 
That  is,  he  believed  that  the  king,  as  God's  anointed,  was  the 
source   of   law  and  could  not  himself  be  controlled   by  law. 
He  wrote  a  pompous  and   tiresome  book  to  prove  this.     He 
and  his  son  after  him  not  only  practised  absolutism,  but  they 
also  preached   it   on   every  occasion.     They  were   despots  on 
principle. 

The  nation  had  been  growing  restive  under  the  cloaked, 
beneficent,  elastic  tyranny  of  the  strong  Tudors:  naturally 
it  rose  in  fierce  opposition  against  the  noisy,  needless,  and  un- 
compromising tyranny  of  the  weak  Stuarts.  From  1603,  when 
the  first  James  mounted  the  throne,  until  1688]  when  his  grand- 
son, the  second  James,  ignominiously  ran  away  from  it,  Eng- 
land was  engaged  in  strife  between  this  "  divine  right "  of  kings 
and  the  right  of  the  people. 

425.  Through  all  that  seventeenth  century,  too,  this  little 
patch  of  land  was  the  last  remaining  battle  ground  for  liberty. 
In  all  other  important  states,  —  in  Spain,  in  France,  in  Aus- 
tria, in  the  Scandinavian  lands,  in  the  petty  principalities  of 
Germany  and  Italy,  —  despotism  was  supreme.     In  England 
both  sides  recognized  this  fact.     Said  the  second  Stuart  king, 
Charles  I,  in  a  crisis  of  his  reign,  "I  am  ashamed  that  my 

371 


372          ENGLAND   IN   THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY       [§426 

cousins  of  France  and  Spain  should  have  completed  what  I 
have  scarce  begun."  And  at  the  same  time  a  patriot  ex- 
claimed in  exhortation  to  his  party,  "England  is  the  last 
country  which  retains  her  ancient  liberties;  let  them  not 
perish  now." 

426.  The  issue  was  soon  stated.     In  the  first  few  weeks  of 
his  new  sovereignty,  James  gave   several  practical  proofs  of 
his   disregard  for  law  and  of  his  arbitrary  temper.     On  his 
royal  entry  from  Scotland,  he  ordered  a  thief  to  be  hanged 
without  trial;  and  when  he  summoned  his  first  parliament  he 
ordered  that  contested  elections  should  be  settled,  not  by  par- 
liament as  formerly,  but  by  his  courts.     And  then  in  a  famous 
utterance,  he  summed  up  his  theory :  "  As  it  is  atheism  and 
blasphemy  in  a  creature  to  dispute  what  God  can  do,  so  it  is 
presumption  and  high  contempt  in  a  subject  to  question  what 
a  king  can  do."     This  became  the  tone  of  the  court  party.1 

When  parliament  assembled,  it  took  the  first  chance  to  an- 
swer these  new  claims.  The  king,  as  usual,  opened  parlia- 
ment with  a  "  speech  from  the  throne."  As  usual,  the  Speaker 
of  the  Commons  replied ;  but,  in  place  of  the  usual  thanks  to 
his  majesty,  he  reminded  James  bluntly  of  his  limited  powers. 
"New  laws,"  said  the  Speaker,  "cannot  be  instituted,  nor  im- 
perfect laws  reformed  ...  by  any  other  power  than  this  high 
court  of  parliament."  The  Commons  backed  up  this  speech 
by  a  long  paper,  setting  forth  popular  rights  in  detail,  assert- 
ing that  the  privileges  of  Englishmen  were  their  inheritance 
"  no  less  than  their  lands  and  goods." 

427.  Wrangling.  —  James   seldom   called  parliaments   after 
this,  and  only  when  he  had  to  have  money.    Whenever  he  did, 
there  was  a  clash. 

Fortunately,  the   regular   royal   revenues   had   never   been 

1  There  were,  as  yet,  no  organized  political  parties.  But  there  was  a 
"court  party,"  devoted  to  the  royal  power,  consisting  of  most  of  the  nobles 
and  of  the  "  High  Church  "  clergy,  and  an  opposition  "  country  party,"  con- 
sisting of  the  mass  of  country  gentry,  some  Puritan  nobles,  and  the  Puritan 
element  generally. 


JAMES   I   AND   PARLIAMENT  373 

much  increased,  while  the  rise  in  prices  and  the  wider  duties 
of  government  called  for  more  money  than  in  former  times. 
Both  Elizabeth  and  James  were  poor.  Elizabeth,  however,  had 
been  economical  and  thrifty.  James  was  careless  and  waste- 
ful, and  could  not  get  along  without  new  taxes. 

Thus  parliament  was  able  to  hold  its  own.  It  insisted  stub- 
bornly on  its  control  of  taxation,  on  freedom  of  speech,  and  on 
its  right  to  impeach  the  king's  ministers.  In  the  parliament 
of  1621,  the  Commons  expressed  dissatisfaction  with  a  mar- 
riage that  James  had  planned  for  his  son  Charles  with  a  Span- 
ish princess.  James  roughly  forbade  them  to  discuss  such 
"  high  matters  of  state."  "  Let  us  resort  to  our  prayers,"  said 
one  of  the  members,  "  and  then  consider  this  great  business." 
The  outcome  of  the  consideration  was  a  resolution, 

"  (1)  that  the  liberties,  privileges,  and  jurisdictions  of  parliament  are 
the  ancient  and  undoubted  birthright  of  the  subjects  of  England;  and 
(2)  that  the  arduous  and  urgent  affairs  concerning  the  king,  the  state, 
the  church,  the  defense  of  the  realm,  the  making  and  maintenance  of 
laws,  and  the  redress  of  grievances,  which  happen  daily  within  this  realm, 
are  proper  subjects  for  debate  in  parliament ;  and  (3)  that  in  the  han- 
dling and  proceeding  of  those  businesses,  every  member  of  the  Commons 
.  .  .  has  freedom  of  speech  ...  to  bring  to  conclusion  the  same." 

James  tore  out  this  page  of  the  records  and  dissolved  parlia- 
ment. But  Charles  was  personally  insulted  by  the  Spanish 
court,  where  he  had  gone  to  visit  the  princess;  and  in  the 
last  year  of  James'  life  the  prince  succeeded  in  forcing  him 
into  war  with  Spain,  to  the  boundless  joy  of  the  nation. 

428.  The  First  Parliaments  of  Charles  I.  —  In  March,  1625, 
in  the  midst  of  shame  and  disgrace  because  of  mismanagement 
of  the  war,  James  died.     In  May,  Charles  I  met  his  first  parli- 
ament.    He  quarreled  with  it  at  once,  dissolved  it,  and  turned 
to  an  eager  prosecution  of  the  war,  trusting  to  win  the  nation 
to  his  side  by  glorious  victory.     Ignominious  failure,  instead, 
forced  him  to  meet  his  second  parliament  in  1626. 

429.  It  is  now  that  Sir  John  Eliot  stands  forward  as  leader  of 
the  patriots.     Eliot  is  the   "first  great  Commoner."     In  her 


374          ENGLAND   IN   THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY       [§430 

earlier  struggles  with  her  kings,  England  had  depended  upon 
nobles  for  leaders.  The  Tudor  inouarchs  had  begun  to  use 
members  from  the  rising  gentry  as  ministers  of  the  crown. 
Now  one  of  this  class  was  to  lead  the  opposition  to  the  crown. 

Eliot  was  a  Cornish  gentleman,  thirty-three  years  of  age, 
courtly  in  manner,  ardent  and  poetic  in  temper.  His  mind 
was  enriched  by  all  the  culture  of  the  "New  Learning,"  and 
afterward  in  weary  years  of  imprisonment  he  found  consola- 
tion in  his  Tacitus,  Livy,  Epictetus,  and  Seneca.  He  was  an 
athlete  and  a  courtier,  and  at  the  same  time  a  deeply  religious 
Puritan  ;  but  his  mind  was  never  tinged  with  the  somber  feel- 
ing of  later  Puritanism. 

Eliot  stood  for  the  control  of  the  Icing's  ministers  by  parlia- 
ment. Everything  else,  he  saw,  was  likely  to  prove  worthless, 
if  the  executive  could  not  be  held  responsible.  The  A'/////'x 
person  could  not  be  so  held,  except  by  revolution,  but  his  min- 
isters might  be  impeached;  and,  under  fear  of  this,  they  might 
be  held  in  control.  So  Eliot  persuaded  the  Commons  to  im- 
peach the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  the  king's  favorite  and  tin- 
instrument  of  much  past  tyranny  under  James.  Charles 
stopped  the  proceedings  by  casting  Eliot  into  prison  and  dis- 
solving parliament. 

430.  The  king  fell  back  upon  <•  benevolences  "  (§  306)  to  raise 
a  revenue.     These  benevolences  were  now  asked  of   all  tax 
payers,  through  the  county  courts.     But  county  after  county 
refused  to  give  a  penny,  often  with  cheers  for  parliament. 
Some  sheriffs  refused  to  ask  for  the  "  free  gift."     The  County 
of  Cornwall  (Sir  John  Eliot's  county)  answered  "  that  if  they 
had  but  two  kine,  they  would  sell  one  to  supply  his  majesty, 
—  in  a  parliamentary  way." 

431.  Then  Charles  tried  a  "forced  loan."     This  was  really  a 
tax  levied  by  the  usual  tax  machinery.     It  was  a  tax  thinly 
disguised  by  the  false  royal  promise  to  repay  it.     The  king's 
party  used  both  force  and  persuasion.     Pulpits,  manned  now 
by  the  anti-Puritan  party,  rang  with  the  cry  that  to  resist  the 
king  was  eternal    damnation.     As  a  patriot  of  the  time  put 


§432]  THE   PETITION   OF   RIGHT  375 

it,  the  "  High  Church "  clergy  "  improved  the  highwayman's 
formula  into  '  Your  money  or  your  life  eternal.'  " 

Charles,  however,  made  use  of  more  immediate  penalties. 
Poor  freeholders  who  refused  to  pay  were  "  pressed  "  into  the 
navy,  or  a  turbulent  soldiery  was  quartered  in  their  defense- 
less homes ;  and  two  hundred  English  gentlemen  were  con- 
fined in  disgraceful  prisons,  to  subdue  their  obstinacy.  One 
young  squire,  John  Hampden,  who  had  based  his  refusal  to 
pay  upon  a  clause  in  Magna  Carta,  was  rewarded  with  so  close 
an  imprisonment  that,  his  kinsman  tells  us,  "  he  never  did 
look  the  same  man  after."  Equal  heroism  was  shown  by  hun- 
dreds of  unknown  men.  George  Radcliffe  wrote  from  his 
prison  to  his  "  right  dear  and  loving  wife  "  (who  was  eager  to 
have  him  submit  in  time  to  have  Christmas  with  her),  "  Shall 
it  be  thought  I  prejudice  the  public  cause  by  beginning  to  con- 
form, which  none  yet  hath  done  of  all  that  have  been  com- 
mitted [imprisoned],  save  only  two  poor  men,  a  butcher  and 
another,  —  and  they,  hooted  at  like  owls  among  their  neighbors  ?  " 

The  forced  loan  raised  little  revenue;  and  with  an  arma- 
ment poorly  fitted  out,  Buckingham  sailed  against  France, 
with  which  his  blundering  policy  had  brought  England  into 
war.  For  the  third  time  in  four  years  an  English  army  was 
wasted  to  no  purpose ;  and,  sunk  in  debt  and  shame,  Charles 
met  his  third  parliament  in  1628. 

432.  "The  Petition  of  Right."  —  The  imprisoned  country 
gentlemen  were  released  before  the  elections,  and  some  seventy 
of  them  (all  who  appeared  as  candidates)  sat  in  the  new  parlia- 
ment, in  spite  of  the  royal  efforts  to  prevent  their  election. 

Charles  asked  for  money.  Instead  of  giving  it,  the 
Commons  debated  the  recent  infringements  of  English  liberties 
and  some  way  to  provide  security  in  future.  The  king  offered 
to  give  his  word  that  such  things  should  not  occur  again,  but 
was  reminded  that  he  had  already  given  his  oath  at  his  coro- 
nation. Finally  the  House  passed  the  Petition  of  Might,  a 
document  that  ranks  with  Magna  Carta  in  the  history  of 
English  liberty.  This  great  law  first  recited  the  ancient 


376         ENGLAND   IN  THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY      [§433 

statutes,  from  Magna  Carta  down,  against  arbitrary  imprison- 
ment, arbitrary  taxation,  quartering  of  soldiery  upon  the 
people  in  time  of  peace,  and  against  forced  loans  and  benevo- 
lences. Then  it  named  the  frequent  violations  of  right  in 
these  respects  in  recent  years.  And  finally  it  declared  all 
such  infringements  illegal. 

The  Lords  tried  to  save  the  king's  dignity  by  adding  an 
evasive  clause  to  the  effect  that  parliament  did  not  intend  to 
interfere  with  "  that  sovereign  power  wherewith  your  majesty 
is  intrusted."  But  the  Commons  rejected  the  amendment 
after  a  striking  debate.  "  Sovereign  power,"  said  one,  "  would 
mean  power  above  condition;  they  could  not  leave  the  king 
that,  for  he  had  never  had  it."  "  The  king's  person  I  will  call 
sovereign,"  said  another,  "  but  not  his  power "  ;  and  a  third 
added,  "  Magna  Carta  is  such  a  fellow  that  he  will  have  no 
sovereign."  Finally,  the  Lords,  too,  passed  the  Petition,  and 
Charles,  after  evasive  delays,  felt  compelled  to  sign  it. 

In  form,  the  document  was  a  petition :  in  fact,  when  passed, 
and  assented  to  by  the  king,  it  became  a  revision  of  the  consti- 
tution down  to  date,  so  far  as  the  personal  rights  of  Englishmen 
were  concerned.  Almost  at  once,  however,  in  recess  of  parlia- 
ment, Charles  broke  its  provisions  regarding  taxes. 

433.  Eliot's  Resolutions.  —  Parliament  reassembled  in  bitter 
humor.  Heedless  of  the  king's  plea  for  money,  it  turned  to 
punish  the  officers  who  had  acted  as  his  agents  in  the  recent 
infringements  of  the  Petition  of  Right.  Then  the  Speaker 
stopped  business  by  announcing  that  he  had  the  king's  com- 
mand to  adjourn  the  House.1  Men  knew  that  it  would  not  be 
permitted  to  meet  again,  and  there  followed  a  striking  scene. 
Two  of  the  patriots  (Holies  and  Valentine)  bounded  to  the 
Speaker,  thrust  him  back  into  his  chair  and  held  him  there.8 


1  The  king  could  adjourn  the  parliament  from  time  to  time,  or  he  could 
dissolve  it  altogether,  so  that  no  parliament  could  meet  until  he  had  called  for 
new  elections.     Students  should  notice  this  distinction  in  all  their  reading  on 
this  period. 

2  If  the  Speaker  left  the  chair,  business  was  at  an  end. 


§  434]  ELIOT'S   RESOLUTIONS  377 

Sir  Miles  Hobart  locked  the  doors  against  the  king's  messenger, 
putting  the  key  in  his  pocket;  and  Eliot  in  a  ringing  speech 
moved  a  series  of  resolutions,  which  were  to  form,  the  platform 
of  the  liberal  party  in  the  dark  years  to  come.  Royalist 
members  cried,  Traitor  !  Traitor !  Swords  were  drawn.  Out- 
side, an  usher  pounded  at  the  door  with  a  message  of  dissolu- 
tion from  the  king.  But  the  bulk  of  the  members  sternly 
voted  the  resolutions,  declaring  traitors  to  England  (1)  any  one 
who  should  bring  in  innovations  in  religion  without  the 
consent  of  Parliament,  (2)  any  minister  who  should  advise  the 
illegal  levy  of  taxes,  (3)  any  officer  who  should  aid  in  their 
collection,  and  (4)  every  citizen  who  should  voluntarily  pay 
them. 

And  in  the  moment's  hush,  when  the  great  deed  was  done, 
Eliot's  voice  was  heard  once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  in  that 
hall :  "  For  myself,  I  further  protest,  as  I  am  a  gentleman,  if 
my  fortune  be  ever  again  to  meet  in  this  honorable  assembly, 
where  I  now  leave  off,  I  will  begin  again."  Then  the  doors 
swung  open,  and  the  angry  crowd  surged  out.  Eliot  passed 
to  the  Tower,  to  die  there  a  prisoner  four  years  later.  But 
Eliot's  friends  remembered  his  words;  and,  when  another 
parliament  did  meet,  where  he  had  left  off,  they  began  again. 

434.  Eliot  could  have  had  his  liberty  if  he  had  bent  to 
acknowledge  himself  wrong.  His  wife  died ;  friends  fell 
away ;  consumption  attacked  him,  and  his  enemies  knew  that 
he  must  yield  or  die.  His  son  petitioned  for  his  release, 
on  the  ground  that  doctors  had  certified  that  without  it  he 
could  not  live.  The  king  refused:  "Though  Sir  John  be 
brought  low  in  body,  yet  is  he  as  high  and  lofty  in  mind  as 
ever."  A  month  later,  Eliot  was  dead.  His  son  presented 
another  petition,  that  he  might  have  his  father's  body  for 
burial.  This  request  too  was  refused,  and  there  was  inscribed 
on  the  paper,  —  a  mean  act  of  a  mean  king,  —  "  Let  Sir  John's 
body  be  buried  in  the  church  of  that  parish  where  he  died." 
So  Eliot's  body  rests  in  the  Tower,  and  the  spot  is  not 
marked. 


378          ENGLAND   IN  THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY       [§  436 

435.  Eleven  Years  of  "No  Parliament."  —  On  the  dissolution 
of  the  third  parliament  of  Charles,  England  entered  a  gloomy 
period.     The  king  issued  royal  edicts  in  place  of  laws,  and  no 
parliament  met   for  eleven  years   (1629-1640).     During  this 
period,  in  many  ways,  the  government  sought  the  welfare  of 
the  nation,  and  it  gave  particular  attention  to  the  needs  of  the 
poor ;  but  its  methods  were  thoroughly  despotic. 

To  avoid  the  necessity  of  calling  parliaments,  Charles  prac- 
tised rigid  economy.  He  sought,  too,  ingeniously  to  find  new 
ways  to  get  money,  and,  among  other  devices,  his  lawyers  in- 
vented "ship-money."  In  time  of  invasion,  seaboard  countries 
had  now  and  then  been  called  upon  by  the  kings  to  furnish 
ships  for  the  national  navy.  Charles  stretched  this  custom 
into  a  precedent  for  collecting  a  "ship-money  tax"  from  att 
England  in  time  of  peace. 

436.  John  Hampden  refused   to  pay  the   twenty  shillings  as- 
sessed upon  his  lands,  and  the  famous  ship-money  case  went  to 
the  courts  (1637).     James,  in  his  time,  had  turned  the  courts 
into  servile  tools,  by  dismissing  the  only  judge  (Sir  Edward 
Coke)  who  dared  oppose  his  will.     And  now  the  slavish  judges 
decided  for  the  king,  as  had  been  expected.     The  king's  friends 
were  jubilant,  seeing  in  the  new  tax  "an  everlasting  supply  on 
all  occasions " ;  but  Hampden  had  won  the  moral  victory  he 
sought.     The   twelve-day  argument   of  the  lawyers   attracted 
wide  attention,  and  the  court  in  its  decision  was  compelled  to 
state  the  theory  of  despotism  in  its  naked  hideousness.     It  de- 
clared that  there  was  no  power  to  check  the  king's  authority  over 
his  subjects,  —  their  persons  or  their  money,  —  "For,"  said  the 
Chief  Justice,  "no  act  of  parliament  makes  any  difference" 
The  nature  of  the  Stuart  rule  was  now  clear  to  all  men. 

437.  The  chief  servants  of  the  crown  during  this  period  were 
Archbishop  Laud  and    Thomas    Wentworth.     Wentworth   had 
been  one  of  the  leaders  in  securing  the  Petition  of  Right,  but 
soon  afterward  he  passed  over  to  the  side  of  the  king  and  be- 
came Earl  of  Strafford.     His  old  associates  regarded  him  as  a 
traitor  "to  the  cause  of  liberty  ;  but  it  is  possible  that  he  sin- 


§  439]  LAUD   AND   WENTWORTH  379 

cerely  expected  to  secure  the  good  of  England  best  through 
upholding  the  royal  power. 

Laud  was  an  extreme  High  Churchman  and  a  conscientious 
bigot.  He  reformed  the  discipline  of  the  church  and  ennobled 
the  ritual ;  but  he  persecuted  the  Puritan  clergy  cruelly,  with 
imprisonment  and  even  by  the  cutting  off  of  ears. 

As  a  result  of  this  and  of  the  political  discouragement,  that  sect  founded 
the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Practically  all  the  immigration  this 
colony  received  came  in  the  ten  years  1630-1640,  while  Charles  ruled 
without  parliament. 

438.  In  1638  Laud  tried  to  force  Episcopacy  on  Presbyterian 
Scotland.1     But  when   the  clergyman  of   the  great  church   at 
Edinburgh  appeared  first  in  surplice,  prayer  book  in  hand,  Jenny 
Geddes,  a  servant  girl,  hurled  her  stool 2  at  his  head,  crying,  — 
"  Out,  priest !     Dost  say  mass  at  my  lug  [ear]  ?  "     The  service 
broke  up  in  wild  disorder,  and  there  followed  a  strange  scene 
in  the  churchyard  where  stern,  grizzled  men  drew  blood  from 
their  arms,  wherewith  to  sign  their  names  to  a  "  Solemn  Oath 
and  Covenant "  to  defend  their  own  form  of  religion  with  their 
lives. 

This  Covenant  spread  swiftly  over  all  lowland  Scotland, 
and  the  Covenanters  rose  in  arms  and  crossed  the  border. 
Charles'  system  of  absolutism  fell  like  a  house  of  cards.  He 
could  get  no  help  from  England  without  a  parliament;  and 
(November,  1640)  he  called  the  famous  body  known  as  the 
Long  Parliament. 

439.  The  Long  Parliament.  —  The  great  leaders  of  the  Long 
Parliament  were  the  commoners  Pym,  Hampden,  Sir  Harry 
Vane?  and,  somewhat  later,  Cromwell.     Pym   took  the  place 

1  Scotland  had  been  joined  to  England  when  her  King  James  had  become 
king  of  England,  but  each  country  had  its  own  parliament,  laws,  and  church ; 
the  union  was  "personal,"  and  consisted  in  the  fact  that  the  two  countries 
had  the  same  king.    This  remained  the  theory  until  1707  (§  463). 

2  Churches  had  no  pews.    People  who  wished  to  sit  during  the  sermon 
carried  their  own  stools, 

8  Vane  had  spent  some  time  in  Massachusetts  and  had  been  governor  there. 


380          ENGLAND   IN  THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY       [§440 

of  Eliot,  and  promptly  indicated  that  the  Commons  were  the 
real  rulers  of  England.  When  the  Lords  tried  to  delay  reform, 
he  brought  them  to  time  by  his  veiled  threat :  he  "  should  be 
sorry  if  the  House  of  Commons  had  to  save  England  alone." 

The  Scots  remained  encamped  in  England;  so  the  king  had 
to  assent  to  parliament's  bills.  Parliament  first  made  itself 
safe  by  a  law  that  it  could  be  dissolved  only  by  its  own  vote. 
Then  it  began  where  Eliot  had  left  off,  and  sternly  put  into 
action  the  principles  of  his  last  resolutions.  Laud,  who  had 
"brought  in  innovations  in  religion,"  and  Wentworth,  who 
had  advised  and  helped  carry  out  the  king's  policy,  were  con- 
demned to  death  as  traitors.  The  lawyers  who  had  advised 
ship-money,  and  the  judges  who  had  declared  it  legal,  were 
cast  into  prison  or  driven  into  banishment.  And  forty  com- 
mittees were  appointed,  one  for  each  county,  to  secure  the 
punishment  of  the  lesser  officers  concerned  in  the  illegal  acts 
of  the  government.  Then  parliament  abolished  the  Court  of 
the  Star  Chamber  and  the  High  Commission, — two  rather  new 
courts  which  worked  without  juries  and  which,  therefore, 
Charles  had  been  able  to  use  as  instruments  of  tyranny. 
Meanwhile,  the  many  martyrs  whom  Laud  had  imprisoned 
were  freed  from  their  dungeons,  and  welcomed  to  London  by  a 
joyous  multitude  that  strewed  flowers  beneath  the  feet  of  their 
horses.  These  measures  filled  the  first  year,1  and  so  far  the 
Commons  had  been  united  —  in  punishing  and  redressing  past 
grievances. 

440.  But  now  a  split  began.  Moderate  men,  led  by  the  broad- 
minded  Hyde  and  the  chivalrous  Falkland,  thought  enough 
had  been  done.  Parliament  had  taught  the  king  a  stern  lesson ; 
to  do  more  would  mean  danger  of  revolution  and  anarchy,  for 
which  these  men  had  no  wish.  So  they  drew  nearer  to  the  king. 

On  the  other  hand,  more  far-sighted  leaders,  like  Pym  and 
Hampden,  saw  the  necessity  of  securing  safeguards  for  the  future, 
since  to  them  it  was  plain  that  the  king's  promises  were  worth- 

1  The  trial  of  Laud  came  later,  but  he  was  already  a  prisoner. 


§442]  THE   LONG  PARLIAMENT  381 

less.  Moreover,  a  small  Presbyterian  and  Independent  party 
("  Root  and  Branch  "  men),  under  Vane  and  Cromwell,  wanted 
to  overthrow  Episcopacy. 

441.  Pym  brought  matters  to  a  head  by  introducing  a  Grand  Re- 
monstrance, —  a  series  of   resolutions  which   appealed  to   the 
country  for  support  in  further  measures  against  the  king  and 
the  High-church  party.     In  particular  it  proposed  (1)  that  a 
synod  of  clergy  should  meet  to  reform  the  church  ;  and  (2)  that 
the  king's  choice  of  ministers  (his  chancellor,  and  so  on)  should 
be  subject  to  the  approval  of  parliament.     After  an  all-day  and 
almost  all-night  debate,  marked  by  bitter  speech  and  even  by 
the  drawing  of  swords,  the  Commons  adopted  the  Remonstrance 
by  the  narrow  majority  of  eleven  votes,  amid  a  scene  of  wild  con- 
fusion (November  22,  1641).     Said    Cromwell,  as  the  House 
broke  up,  "  If  it  had  failed,  I  should  have  sold  all  I  possess  to- 
morrow, and  never  seen  England  more." 

442.  Charles  tried  to  reverse  this  small  majority  against  him 
by  destroying  Pyin,  Hampden,  and  three  other  leaders,  on  a 
charge  of  treasonable  correspondence  with  the  invading  Scots. 
No  doubt  they  had  been  technically  guilty  of  treason.    But  such 
"  treason  "  against  Charles  was  the  noblest  loyalty  to  England. 
The  Commons  paid  no  attention  to  the  king's  charges ;  and  so 
Charles  entered  the  House  in  person,  followed  to  the  door  by  a 
body  of  armed  cavaliers,  to  seize  "  the  five  members" 

News  of  his  coming  had  preceded  him  ;  and,  at  the  order  of 
the.  House,  the  five  had  withdrawn.  Charles  did  not  know  this, 
and  ordered  the  Speaker  to  point  them  out.  The  Speaker  pro- 
tested that  he  had  "  no  eyes  to  see,  nor  tongue  to  speak,"  but 
as  the  House  should  direct  him.  "Well,  well!"  said  the 
king ;  "  my  eyes  are  as  good  as  another's  " ;  and  standing  in 
the  Speaker's  place  he  looked  over  the  room.  "I  see  the  birds 
are  flown,"  he  added,  in  a  different  tone,  —  and  walked  out 
baffled,  followed  by  angry  shouts  of  "  Privilege  !  Privilege  !  "  l 


1  Referring  to  the  privilege  of  members  of  parliament  to  be  free  from  arrest, 
except  ou  the  order  of  the  House  itself  (§  298). 


382          ENGLAND  IN  THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY      [§  442 

Charles'  despotic  attempt,  and  weak  failure,  consolidated  the 
opposition.  London  rose  in  arms,  and  sent  trainbands  to  guard 
parliament.  And  parliament  now  demanded  that  the  king  give 
it  control  of  the  militia  and  of  the  education  of  the  royal  princes. 
Charles  withdrew  to  the  conservative  North,  and  unfurled  the 
standard  of  civil  war  (1642). 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. — Green's  English  People  (or  his  Short  His- 
tory) is  thrillingly  interesting  for  this  and  the  following  periods. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

THE   GREAT   REBELLION    AND    THE    COMMONWEALTH 

443.  The  Civil  War.  —  Many  men  who  had  gone  with  par- 
liament in  its  reforms,  now  chose  the  king's  side  rather  than 
rebellion  and  the  danger  of  anarchy.  The  majority  of  the 
gentry  sided  with  the  king,  while  in  general  the  trading  and 
manufacturing  classes  and  the  yeomanry  fought  for  parliament. 
At  the  same  time,  the  struggle  was  a  true  "  civil  war,"  1  dividing 
families  and  old  friends.  The  king's  party  took  the  name 
"  Cavaliers  "  from  the  court  nobles ;  while  the  parliamentarians 
were  called  "  Round  Heads,"  in  derision,  from  the  cropped  hair 
of  the  London  'prentice  lads.2 

At  first  Charles  was  successful.  The  shopboys  of  the  city 
trainbands  could  not  stand  before  the  chivalry  of  the  "  Cava- 
liers." But  (1)  Cromwell,  a  colonel  in  the  parliamentary  army, 
had  raised  a  troop  known  as  Ironsides.  He  saw  that  the  only 
force  parliament  could  oppose  to  the  habitual  bravery  of  the 
English  gentleman  was  the  religious  enthusiasm  of  the  extreme 
Puritans.  Accordingly,  he  drew  his  recruits  from  the  Independents 
of  the  east  of  England,  —  mostly  yeomen  farmers.  They  were 
men  of  godly  lives,  free  from  the  usual  license  of  a  camp. 
They  fell  on  their  knees  for  prayer  before  battle,  and  then 
charged  with  the  old  Hebrew  battle  psalms  upon  their  lips. 
By  this  troop  the  great  battle  of  Marston  Moor  was  won. 

1  An  instructive  contrast  may  be  drawn  between  the  civilized  nature  of  this 
war  and  the  character  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  in  Germany,  which  was  going 
on  at  the  same  time.    In  England  non-combatants  were  rarely  molested,  and 
as  a  rule  property  rights  were  respected. 

2  The  portraits  of  Cromwell  and  Vane  (pages  384,  386)  show,  however,  that 
Puritan  gentlemen  did  not  crop  their  hair.    Short  hair  was  a  "  class  "  mark. 


384          ENGLAND   IN  THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY       [§444 

(2)  Then  Cromwell  was  put  in  chief  command.  He  re- 
organized the  whole  army  upon  this  "New  Model"  ;  and  soon 
after,  the  victory  of  Naseby  virtually  closed  the  war  (1645). 

Says  John  Fiske :  "If  we  consider  merely  its  territorial  area  or  the 
number  of  men  slain,  the  war  of  the  English  Parliament  against  Charles  I 

seems  a  trivial  affair  .  .  .  but 
if  we  consider  the  moral  and 
political  issues  involved,  and 
the  influence  of  the  struggle  on 
the  future  welfare  of  mankind, 
we  soon  come  to  see  that  there 
never  was  a  conflict  of  more 
world-wide  significance  than 
that  from  which  Oliver  Crom- 
well came  out  victorious.  .  .  . 
If  ever  there  were  men  who 
laid  down  their  lives  in  the 
cause  of  all  mankind,  it  was 
those  grim  old  Ironsides,  whose 
watchwords  were  texts  from 
Holy  Writ,  and  whose  battle 
cries  were  hymns  of  praise." 

444.  When  the  war  be- 
gan, many  Episcopalians 
in  parliament  withdrew  to 
join  the  king.  This  left 

the   Presbyterians  almost 
CROMWELL.  —  After  Lely's  portrait. 

in    control.      They    were 

strengthened  still  further  soon  by  the  need  of  buying  the  aid 
of  Presbyterian  Scotland.  Then  parliament  made  the  English 
church  Presbyterian. 

Soon,  it  began  to  compel  all  men  to  accept  this  form  of  wor- 
ship. On  this  point,  the  Presbyterian  parliament  and  the 
Independent  "New  Model"  quarreled.  Charles,  now  a  pris- 
oner, tried  to  play  off  one  against  the  other,  —  intending,  with 
shameless  duplicity,  to  keep  promises  to  neither.  "  Be  quite 
easy,"  he  wrote  his  wife,  "  as  to  the  concessions  I  may  grant. 
When  the  time  comes,  I  shall  know  very  well  how  to  treat 


§446] 


THE   CIVIL   WAR 


385 


these  rogues ;  and,  instead  of  a  silken  garter  [the  badge  of  an 
honorary  order  of  knighthood]  I  will  fit  them  with  a  hempen 
halter." 

445.  These  dissensions  and  intrigues  led  to  a  "  Second  Civil 
War."     But   now  the    real    government  of   England  was  in 
the  army.     A  council  of 

officers,  with  Cromwell 
for  their  head,  prepared 
plans ;  and  the  whole 
army  "  sought  the  Lord  " 
regarding  them  in  mon- 
ster prayer-meetings. 

The  army  quickly 
stamped  out  the  royalist 
and  Presbyterian  risings. 
Then,  under  order  from 
the  council  of  officers, 
Colonel  Pride  "  purged  " 
the  House  of  Commons 
by  expelling  143  Presby- 
terians. After  "Pride's 
Purge"  (December,  1648), 
parliament  rarely  had  an 
attendance  of  more  than 
sixty  (out  of  an  original 
membership  of  some  five 
hundred).  These  were  all 
Independents,  and  their  leader  was  Vane, 
had  both  died  some  time  before. 

446.  The  remnant  of  parliament,  backed  by  the  army,  abol- 
ished monarchy  and  the  House  of  Lords,  and  brought  "  Charles 
Stuart,  that  man  of  blood"  to  trial  for  treason  to  England. 
Charles  was  executed,  January  20,  1649,  dying  with  better 
grace  than  he  had  lived.     Then  the  "  Kump  "  parliament  abol- 
ished Presbyterianism  as  a  state  church,  and  declared  England 
a  republic,  under  the  name  of  the  Commonwealth.     "  The  people" 


CHARLES  I.  —  After  a  famous  portrait  by 
Van  Dyck. 


Pym  and  Hampden 


386          ENGLAND   IN   THE    SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY      [§447 

said  a  famous  resolution,  "  are,  under  God,  the  original  of  all 
just  power;  and  the  Commons  of  England  in  parliament  as- 
sembled, being  chosen  by  the  people,  have  the  supreme  power 
in  this  nation." 

The  Scots  were  not  ready  for  such  radical  measures,  and 
they  were  angry  at  the  overthrow  of  Presbyterianism.  So 
they  crowned  the  son  of  the  dead  king  as  Charles  II,  and  in- 
vaded England  to  place  him  on  the  throne.  Cromwell  crushed 
them  at  Worcester,  and  the  young  "  King  of  Scots  "  escaped  to 
the  continent. 

447.  Cromwell  and  the  Rump. —  The  Rump  continued  to  rule 
for  four  years  more.  But  it  was  only  a  shadow  of  a  parlia- 
ment, and  it  had  been  elected  thirteen  years  before.  Cronnvrll 
and  the  army  grew  anxious  to  see  the  government  put  on  a 
permanent  basis,  and  they  felt  that  this  could  be  done  only  by 
a  real  parliament.  The  Rump  was  unwilling  to  dissolve ;  but 

at  last,  under  Cromwell's  insist- 
ence, it  agreed  to  give  way  to  a 
new  parliament. 

But  Cromwell  learned  that  it 
was  hurrying  through  a  bill  which 
would  make  its  members  a  part 
of  the  new  parliament  without 
reelection,  and  which,  indeed, 
would  give  them  power  to  reject 
elected  members  if  they  chose. 
Cromwell  felt  that  he  was  being 
tricked.  Hurrying  to  the  House 
with  a  file  of  musketeers,  he  dis- 
persed it  (1653),  with  an  unusual 
HARRY  VANE. 

burst   of    passion.      "Come,'     he 

said,  "  I  will  put  an  end  to  your  prating.  You  are  no  parlia- 
ment !  I  say,  you  are  no  parliament !  "  His  old  friend,  Vane, 
reproached  his  violence  loudly.  Cromwell  turned  with  savage 
contempt:  "Harry  Vane!  Sir  Harry  Vane !  The  Lord  deliver 
me  from  Sir  Harry  Vane! "  And  after  his  officers  had  led  the 


§448]  THE    COMMONWEALTH  387 

Speaker  from  the  chair,  Cromwell  added  to  the  remaining  mem- 
bers, —  "  It's  you  that  have  forced  me  to  this.  I  have  sought 
the  Lord,  night  and  day,  that  he  would  slay  me  rather  than 
put  me  upon  the  doing  of  this  work." 

448.  The  Protectorate,  1654-1660. —  Cromwell's  outburst  of 
temper  at  the  Rump  was  natural.  He  saw  that  it  was  going 
to  be  almost  impossible  for  him  to  preserve  the  form  of  parlia- 
mentary government,  when  the  only  representatives  of  the 
nation  had  failed  him  —  poor  representatives  though  they 
were.  There  was  no  power  that  could  even  claim  the  right  to 
call  a  parliament.  Cromwell  and  the  army,  however,  sum- 
moned a  national  convention,  to  make  a  new  constitution,  and 
he  made  two  other  sincere  attempts  at  parliaments.  But  all 
these  bodies  proved  dilatory  and  factious ;  and  Cromwell  grew 
more  and  more  hasty  and  arbitrary. 

Finally  he  and  the  army  officers  impatiently  took  the  construc- 
tion of  new  machinery  of  government  into  their  own  hands. 
Cromwell  assumed  the  title  of  Lord  Protector  (1 654)  ;  and  the 
following  six  years  are  the  period  of  the  Protectorate. 

The  real  difficulty  was  that  the  Independents  were  only  a  small 
fraction  of  the  nation.  They  had  won  mastery  by  war,  and 
they  kept  it  through  the  discipline  of  the  army.  Cromwell 
became  practically  a  dictator,  with  greater  power  than  Charles 
had  ever  had.  His  rule  was  stained  by  cruelties  in  Ireland ; 1 
in  other  respects  it  was  wise  and  firm.  He  made  England 
once  more  a  Great  Power,  peaceful  at  home  and  respected 
d;  and  he  gave  freedom  of  worship  to  all  Protestant 
sects,  —  a  more  liberal  policy  in  religion  than  could  be  found 
fCnywhere  else  in  that  age  except  in  Holland  and  in  Roger 
Williams'  little  colony  just  founded  in  Rhode  Island. 

At  the  best,  however,  Cromwell's  rule  was  the  rule  of  force,  not 
of  law.  The  noble  experiment  of  a  Republic  had  failed  miser- 
ably in  the  hands  of  its  friends  ;  and,  on  Cromwell's  death,  the 
nation,  with  wild  rejoicings,  welcomed  back  Charles  II  (1660). 

1  As  were  his  earlier  campaigns  there  in  even  greater  degree.  Special  re- 
port, Cromwell  in  Ireland. 


388          ENGLAND   IN   THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY       [§440 

449.  Religious  Toleration. — Cromwell's  toleration  in  reli- 
gion, though  it  did  not  extend  to  Catholics,  was  ahead  of  the 
age.  This  is  a  good  point  at  which  to  note  the  slow  growth  of 
religious  freedom. 

The  Puritan  Long  Parliament,  in  1641  (while  still  led  by 
broadminded  men  like  Pym,  Hampden,  and  Hyde),  demanded 
from  Charles  I  certain  reforms  in  the  church  ;  but  it  protested 
that  it  did  not  favor  religious  toleration : 

"  We  do  declare  it  to  be  far  from  our  purpose  to  let  loose  the  golden 
reins  of  discipline  and  government  in  the  church,  to  leave  private  persons 
or  particular  congregations  to  take  up  what  form  of  divine  worship  they 
please.  For  we  hold  it  requisite  that  there  should  be  throughout  the 
whole  realm  a  conformity  to  that  order  which  the  laws  enjoin.'' 

This  is  as  good  a  statement  as  was  ever  made  for  the  almost 
universal  opinion.  Even  people  who  no  longer  thought  any  one 
religion  essential  to  salvation  did  think  one  form  essential  to 
good  order  in  society. 

True,  in  that  same  year,  Lord  Brooke  (a  Puritan  nobleman 
with  Independent  convictions)  wjote  nobly  in  a  treatise  on 
religion :  — 

"  The  individual  should  have  liberty.  No  power  on  earth  should  force 
his  practice.  One  that  doubts  with  reason  and  humility  may  not,  for 
aught  I  see,  be  forced  by  violence.  .  .  .  Fire  and  water  may  be  re- 
strained ;  but  light  cannot.  It  will  in  at  every  cranny.  Now  to  stint  it, 
is  [to-morrow]  to  resist  an  enlightened  and  inflamed  multitude.  Can  we 
not  dissent  in  judgment,  but  we  must  also  disagree  in  affection  ?  " 

Only  a  few  rare  spirits  anywhere  in  the  world,  however, 
reached  this  lofty  view.  Few  had  advanced  as  far  as  Crom- 
well. The  world  was  not  ready  for  religious  freedom. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Green's  histories  as  before  (cf.  page  143 
above).  George  MacDonald's  St.  George  and  St.  Michael  and  Scott's 
Woodstock  are  excellent  fiction  for  the  Civil  War,  and  they  present  some- 
what different  views. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

THE   RESTORATION  AND   THE   REVOLUTION 

450.  With  the  Restoration,  the  great  age  of  Puritanism  closed. 

The  court,  and  the  young  cavaliers  all  over  the  land,  gave 
themselves  up  to  shameful  licentiousness.  Of  course,  among 
the  country  gentry  and  the  middle  class  of  the  towns,  there 
continued  to  be  large  numbers  of  religious,  God-fearing  homes ; 
and  in  places  even  the  somber  morality  of  the  Puritans  sur- 
vived. But  fashionable  society  followed  largely  the  example 
of  the  court  circle. 

Court  literature,  too,  was  indescribably  corrupt  and  indecent. 
But,  in  just  this  age  of  political  defeat,  Puritanism  found  its 
highest  expression  in  literature.  John  Milton,  years  before, 
had  given  noble  poems  to  the  world  —  like  his  L' Allegro —  but 
for  many  years  he  had  abandoned  poetry  to  work  in  Crom- 
welPs  Council  and  to  champion  the  Puritan  cause  in  prose 
pamphlets.  Now,  a  blind,  disappointed  old  man,  he  composed 
Paradise  Lost.  And  John  Bunyan,  a  dissenting  minister,  lying 
in  jail  under  the  persecuting  laws  of  the  new  government, 
wrote  Pilgrim's  Progress. 

451.  The  established  church  became  again  Episcopalian,  as  it 
has  since  remained.     In  the  reaction  against  Puritan  rule,  the 
new  parliament  passed  many  cruel  acts  of  persecution.     Two 
thousand  Puritan  preachers  were  not  only  driven  from  their 
pulpits,  but  were  forbidden  to  earn  a  living  by  teaching,  or 
even  to  come  within  five  miles    of  any  city  or  borough  in 
England.      All   dissenters  —  Catholic    and    Protestant — were 
excluded  from  the  right  to  hold  municipal  office.     And  all  reli- 
gious  worship  except  the   Episcopalian  was   punished   with 
severe  penalties. 

389 


390          ENGLAND  IN  THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY       [§452 

452.  In  spite  of  all  this,  the   great  political  principles  for 
which  the  early  Puritan  parliaments  of  Charles  I  had  contended 
were  victorious,  and  were  adopted  by  their  old  enemies.      The 
parliament  that  was  elected  in  the  fervor  of  welcome  to  the 
restored   monarch   was   wildly   enthusiastic    for  king  as   for 
church.     Charles  knew  he  could  never  get  another  so  much  to 
his  mind;  and  so  he  shrewdly  kept  this  "Cavalier  Parliament" 
through  most  of  his  reign  —  till  1679.     But  even  the  Cavalier 
Parliament  insisted  strenuously,    and  successfully,  on  parlia- 
ment's sole  right  to  impose  taxes,  regulate  the  church,  and  control 
foreign  policy.     And  Charles'  second  parliament  adopted  the 
great   Habeas   Corpus   Act,   which   still   secures   Englishmen 
against  arbitrary  imprisonment — such  as  had  been  so  common 
under  Charles'  father.     The  principle  of  this  act  was  older  than 
Magna  Charta ;  but  the  law  of  Charles'  time  first  provided  ade- 
quate machinery,  much  as  we  have  it  in  our  States  to-day,  to 
enforce  the  principle. 

453.  Charles  II  was  careless,  indolent,  selfish,  extravagant, 
witty.     He  is  known  as  the  "  Merry  Monarch."     One  of  his 
courtiers  described  him  in  a  jesting  rhyme  as  a  king  "who 
never  said  a  foolish  thing,  and  never  did  a  wise  one." 

But  though  lazy,  Charles  had  real  ability.  He  said  lightly 
that  he  "  had  no  mind  to  go  on  his  travels  again,"  and  at  any 
cost  he  avoided  a  clash  with  parliament.  However,  in  return 
for  secret  grants  of  money  from  Louis  XIV  of  France,  he 
shamefully  made  England  a  mere  satellite  of  that  country  in 
foreign  affairs ;  and  at  home  he  cautiously  built  up  a  standing 
army.  There  is  reason  to  think  that  beneath  his  merry  ex- 
terior Charles  was  nursing  plans  for  tyranny  far  more  danger- 
ous than  his  father's ;  but  he  died  suddenly  (1685)  before  he 
was  ready  to  act. 

454.  Real  political  parties  first  appeared  toward  the  close  of  this 
reign.     Charles  had  no  legitimate  son;   and  his  brother  and 
heir,  James,  was  a  Catholic  of  narrow,  despotic  temper.     The 
more   radical    members   of    parliament   introduced   a  bill   to 
exclude  him  from  the  throne ;  and  their  supporters  throughout 


§456]  THE   RESTORATION  391 

England  sent  up  monster  petitions  to  have  the  bill  made  law. 
The  Catholics  and  the  more  conservative  part  of  parliament, 
especially  those  who  believed  that  parliament  had  no  right  to 
change  the  succession,  sent  up  counter-petitions  expressing 
horror  at  the  proposal.  These  "  Abhorrers  "  called  the  other 
petitioners  Whigs  (Whey-eaters),  a  name  sometimes  given  to 
the  extreme  Scotch  Calvinists  with  their  sour  faces.  The 
Whigs  called  their  opponents  Tories  (bog-trotters),  a  name 
for  the  ragged  Irish  rebels  who  had  supported  the  Catholic 
and  royal  policy  in  the  Civil  War. 

The  bill  failed  ;  but  the  rough  division  into  parties  remained. 
It  was  a  long  time  before  there  was  any  regular  organization, 
or  precise  platform ;  but,  in  general,  the  Whigs  believed  in  the 
supremacy  of  parliament,  and  sought  on  every  occasion  to  limit 
the  royal  authority;  while  the  Tories  sustained  the  royal 
authority  and  wished  to  prevent  any  further  extension  of  the 
powers  of  the  people. 

455.  James   II  lacked  his   brother's   tact.      He   arbitrarily 
"suspended"  the  laws  against  Catholics,  tried  to  intimidate 
the  law  courts,  and  rapidly  increased  the  standing  army.     It 
was  believed  that  he  meant  to  make  the  established  church 
Catholic ;  and  this  belief  prepared  England  for  revolution.   The 
Whig  leaders  called  for  aid  to  William  of  Orange,  the  Stadt- 
holder  of  Holland,  who  had  married  James'  daughter  Mary. 
William   landed   with   a  few   troops.     James  found  himself 
utterly  deserted,  even  by  his  army ;   and  fled  to  France  (1688). 

456.  The  story  of  the  Revolution  of  1688  is  not  a  noble  one. 
Selfishness  and  deceit  mark  every  step.     William  of  Orange 
is  the  only  fine  character  on  either  side.     There  is  no  longer  a 
patriot  Eliot  or  Pym  or  Hampden,  or  a  royalist  Hyde  or  Falk- 
land.    As  Macaulay  says,  it  was  "an  age  of  great  measures 
and  little  men  " ;  and  the  term  "  glorious,"  which  English  his- 
torians have  applied  to  the  Revolution,  must  be  taken  to  belong 
to  results  rather  than  to  methods. 

Those  results  were  of  mighty  import.  A  Convention-Parlia- 
ment declared  the  throne  vacant,  drew  up  the  great  Declaration 


392          ENGLAND  IN   THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY       [§457 

of  Rights,1  the  "  third  great  document  in  the  Bible  of  English 
Liberties,"  and  elected  William  and  Mary  joint  sovereigns, 
on  condition  of  their  assenting  to  the  Declaration.  The  suprem- 
acy of  parliament  over  the  king  was  once  more  firmly  estab- 
lished. The  new  sovereigns,  like  the  old  Lancastrians,  had  only 
a  parliamentary  title  to  the  throne. 

The  Bill  of  Rights  stated  once  more  the  fundamental  liberties  of  Eng- 
lishmen,'as  Magna  Carta  and  the  Petition  of  Right  had  done.  The  final 
clause  declared  that  no  Roman  Catholic  should  ever  be  eligible  to  ascend 
the  throne.  It  fixed  the  order  of  succession  (1)  in  the  children  of  William 
and  Mary,  if  any ;  (2)  in  Mary's  sister  Anne,  and  her  children,  if  any.  A 
few  years  later  (1701),  another  law  (the  Act  of  Settlement)  declared  the 
next  heir  to  be  a  grand-daughter  of  James  I,  Sophia  of  Hanover,  and  her 
children.  It  was  by  virtue  of  this  law  that  the  crown  passed  to  George 
I  in  1714,  and  to  each  English  sovereign  since  (note  on  page  395).  The 
law  excluded  nearer  heirs  by  blood  —  descendants  of  James  II  —  who 
were  Catholics. 

To  understand  the  results  of  the  Revolution  at  the  close  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  we  must  carry  the  political  story  in  part  into  the  ei</tif 

457.  Beginning  of  the  "Second  Hundred  Years'  War."  — 
William  III  was  a  great-grandson  of  William  the  Silent.  He 
ranks  among  England's  greatest  kings.  But  he  was  unpopular, 
as  a  foreigner  ;  and  his  reign  (1688  - 1702)  was  spent  mainly 
in  war  against  the  overshadowing  might  of  Louis  XIV  of 
France.  While  only  Stadtholder  of  Holland,  William  had 
already  become  the  most  formidable  opponent  of  Louis  XIV's 
schemes  (§  473)  ;  and  now  the  French  king  undertook  to  restore 
James  II  to  the  English  throne. 

This  began  a  series  of  wars  between  France  and  England. 
With  slight  intervals  of  peace,  the  struggle  lasted  from  1689 
to  1815.  The  story  will  be  told  in  future  chapters.  Now  it 
is  enough  to  note  that  the  long  conflict  turned  the  government's 
attention  away  from  reform  and  progress  at  home.  During  the 

JThe  next  regular  parliament  turned  this  document  into  the  "Bill  of 
Rights."  The  other  two  great  documents  that  rank  with  it  are,  of  course, 
Magna  Carta  and  the  Petition  of  Right. 


§459]  THE    "GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION"  393 

next  century  and  a  quarter,  there  were  great  changes  in 
England,  especially  in  farming  and  manufactures ;  but  they  were 
changes  made  by  the  people,  without  notice  by  the  government. 
These  changes  will  be  studied  in  later  chapters. 

458.  Just  in  the  first  years,  however,  some  remarkable  reforms 
were  made  by  parliament,  both  in  politics  and  in  religion.     These 
were  properly  part  of  the  Revolution.     The  religious  reform 
was  embodied  in  the  Act  of  Toleration  of  1689.     The  Revolution 
of  1688  was  essentially  the  work  of  the  English  church.     But 
the  persecuted  Protestant  dissenters  had  rallied  to  its  aid  — 
against  the  Catholic  James ;  and  William  insisted  that  parlia- 
ment should  now  grant  them  freedom  of  worship.     This  wap 
done. 

The  law,  however,  did  not  apply  to  Catholics,  Jews,  or 
Unitarians.  These  three  classes  remained  excluded  not  only 
from  all  right  to  worship  in  their  own  way  —  under  severe 
penalties  —  but  also /row  the  right  to  hold  office  or  attend  the  uni- 
versities. Indeed  the  Protestant  dissenters  were  not  allowed  to 
do  either  of  these  last  things.  Still,  for  a  country  like  England 
to  permit  by  law  the  public  exercise  of  more  than  one  religion 
was  a  great  step  forward. 

459.  The  chief  gains  in  political  liberty,  connected  with  the 
Revolution,  come  under  four  'heads  :  — 

(1)  The  Stuart  kings  had  frequently  interfered  shamelessly 
with  the  independence  of  the  courts.     Now  the  judges  were 
made  removable  only  by  parliament,  not  by  the  king. 

(2)  A  triennial  bill  ordered  that  a  new  parliament  should  be 
elected  at  least  once  in  three  years.     This  put  an  end  to  such 
abuse  as  the  long  life  of  the  Cavalier  Parliament.     In  1716 
the  term  was  changed  to  seven  years,  and  in   1911,  to   five. 
A  parliament  may  dissolve  itself  sooner  than  this ;  but  it  can- 
not last  longer. 

(3)  Parliament  hit  upon  a  simple  device  which,  indirectly, 
has  put  an  end  completely  to  the  old  way  in  which  kings  abused 
their  power  of  dissolving  parliaments.     After  the  Revolution, 
parliaments  determined   to  pass    "revenue   bills"    (furnishing 


394         ENGLAND'S   GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION   OF   1688       [§  400 

money  for  government  expenses)  only  for  a  year  at  a  time  — 
instead  of  for  the  life  of  the  sovereign,  as  had  been  customary 
—  and  to  put  off  their  consideration  until  other  business  had 
been  attended  to.  In  like  fashion,  the  Mutiny  Act,  which  gives 
officers  authority  over  soldiers,  was  passed  henceforth  only 
for  short  periods.  That  is,  parliament  adopted  the  regular 
policy  of  delegating  power  of  purse  and  sword  for  only  one  //«'/• 
at  a  time.  Thenceforward,  parliaments  have  been  assembled 
each  year,  and  they  have  practically  fixed  their  own  adjourn- 
ments. 

(4)  The  greatest  problem  of  parliamentary  government  (as 
Sir  John  Eliot  had  seen)  was  to  control  the  "  king's  ministers  " 
and  make  them  really  the  ministers  of  parliament.  Parliament 
could  remove  and  punish  the  king's  advisers ;  but  such  action 
could  be  secured  only  by  a  serious  struggle,  and  against 
notorious  offenders.  Some  way  was  wanted  to  secure  ministers 
acceptable  to  parliament  easily  and  at  all  times.  The  story  of 
this  gain  —  a  whole  peaceful  revolution — deserves  a  section 
to  itself. 

460.  This  desired  "  Cabinet  Government "  was  secured  indirectly 
through  the  next  century  and  a  half;  but  the  first  important 
steps  were  taken  in  the  reign  of  William.  At  first  William 
tried  to  unite  the  kingdom,  and  balance  Whigs  and  Tories,  by 
keeping  the  leaders  of  both  parties  among  his  ministers.  But 
he  was  much  annoyed  by  the  jealousy  and  suspicion  which 
parliament  felt  toward  his  measures.  Sometimes,  too,  there 
were  dangerous  deadlocks  between  king  and  parliament  at 
critical  times. 

Then  a  shrewd  political  schemer  suggested  to  the  king  that 
he  should  choose  all  his  advisers  and  assistants  from  the 
Whigs,  who  had  a  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Such 
ministers  would  have  the  confidence  of  the  Commons;  and 
that  body  would  support  their  proposals,  instead  of  blocking 
all  measures.  William  accepted  this  suggestion;  and  a  little 
later,  when  the  Tories  for  a  time  secured  a  majority,  he  car- 
ried out  the  principle  by  replacing  his  "cabinet"  with  leading 


§460]  BEGINNING   OF    CABINET   GOVERNMENT  395 

Tories.     This  was  the   beginning  of  ministerial  government,  or 
cabinet  government. 

William,  however,  was  a  powerful  ruler.  He  was  not  a 
tyrant  in  any  way ;  but  he  believed  in  a  king's  authority,  and 
he  succeeded  for  the  most  part  in  keeping  the  ministers,  the 
"king's  ministers''  —to  carry  out  his  policy.  Queen  Anne 
(1702-1714)  tried  to  maintain  a  similar  control  over  her  min- 
istry. But,  like  William  and  Mary,  she  too  died  without  living 
children ;  and  the  crown  passed  (§  456)  to  the  German  George 
I,  who  was  already  Elector  of  Hanover.1 


1  Hanover  was  given  a  vote  in  the  imperial  electoral  college  in  1691.    The 
following  table  shows  the  relationship  of  the  Hanoverians  to  the  Stuarts : 

(1)  JAMES  I  (1603-1625 ;  see  table  on  page  339) 

(2)  CHARLES  I  (1625-1649)         Elizabeth  =  Frederick  V  = 
|  Elector  Palatine 

| ~~T~  ~1  I , 

Mary          (3)  CHARLES  II     (4)  JAMES  II         | 
in.  William  II          (1660-1685)  (1685-1688)  Rupert  Sophia 


of  Orange 


(d.  1682)  Electress 

of  Hanover 

I 


(5)  WILLIAM  III  =  MARY     (6)  ANNE      James  Edward       (7) 

(1689-1702)    (d.  1694)  (1702-1714)  the  Old  Pretender          (1714-1*27) 

Charles  Edward        (8)  £EORGE  II 
the  Young  Pretender          (1727-1760) 

<d'1788>  Frederick 

(d.  1751) 

(9)  GEORGE  III 
(1760-1820) 

(10)   GEORGE  IV           (11)    WILLIAM  IV           Edward  Ernest  Augustus 

(1820-1830)                        (1830-1837)       Duke  of  Kent  who  became 

(d.  1820)  King  of  Hanover 

|  in  1837 

(12)  VICTORIA 
(1837-1901) 

(13)  EDWARD  VII 
(1901-1910) 

(14)  GEORGE  V 
(1910-        ) 


396  ENGLAND   IN   THE    EIGHTEENTH    CKX'ITKY         [§4(51 

Neither  George  I  nor  his  son  George  II  spoke  English ;  and 
so  far  as  they  cared  for  matters  of  government  at  all,  they 
were  interested  in  their  German  principality  rather  than  in 
England.  They  did  not  even,  attend  "  cabinet "  meetings.  During 
their  half-century  (1714-1760),  the  government  of  England 
was  left  to  the  group  of  ministers,  or  "  the  cabinet."  For  nearly 
half  the  period  (or  from  1721  to  1742)  the  leading  man  in  the 
cabinet  was  the  Whig  Sir  Robert  Walpole.  Wai  pole  selected 
the  other  ministers,  and  put  before  parliament  his  own  plans 
under  the  king's  name.  He  is  properly  called  "  the  first  Prime 
Minister."  Thus  the  reigns  of  these  two  stupid  German 
Georges  gave  a  great  impetus  to  true  cabinet  government.  The 
"  king's  ministers  "  were  fairly  on  the  way  to  become  the  "  minis- 
ters of  parliament." 

Unhappily,  parliament  itself  did  not  yet  really  represent  the  nation. 
Walpole  sought  earnestly,  and  on  the  whole  wisely,  to  advance  the 
material  prosperity  of  England,  and  especially  to  build  up  her  trade. 
Accordingly  he  clung  tenaciously  to  a  policy  of  peace.  But  he  ruled 
largely  by  unblushing  corruption.  Said  he  cynically,  "  Every  man  has  his 
price."  Certainly  he  found  it  possible  to  buy  many  members  of  parlia- 
ment with  gifts  of  lucrative  offices  —  oftentimes  offices  with  no  duties 
attached  to  them.  During  his  rule,  it  was  not  a  parliamentary  majority 
that  made  the  ministry,  but  the  ministry  that  made  the  parliamentary 
majority.  The  same  method,  used  only  a  little  less  shamelessly,  was  the 
means  by  which  the  ministers  of  George  III  in  the  next  generation  man- 
aged parliament,  and  brought  it  to  drive  the  American  colonies  into  war. 

461.  English  Society.  —  English  upper-classes  in  the  eight- 
eenth century  were  artificial  and  dissipated.  The  middle 
class  was  hearty,  bluff,  and  wholesomely  honest ;  but  it  was 
also  exceedingly  rude  and  coarse  and  immodest.  Modern  re- 
finement of  feeling  and  conduct  had  hardly  appeared.  Eng- 
land was  not  immoral.  Compared  with  other  lands,  she  was  a 
moral  country.  But  there  was  little  moral  earnestness.  The 
age  of  Puritanism  had  vanished.  The  established  Episcopalian 
church  had  many  "  fox-hunting  parsons,"  who  neglected  their 
duties,  or  made  them  empty  forms,  while  they  sought  the  com- 


§463]  THE   METHODIST   MOVEMENT  397 

panionship  of  the  neighboring  squires  in  sports  and  in  drink- 
ing bouts. 

462.  A  protest  against  this  lack  of  moral  earnestness  in  the 
church  and  in  society  was  the  great  Methodist  movement.     The 
founder  was  John  Wesley,  about  1738.     While  a  student  at 
Oxford,  some  years  earlier,  Wesley  had  established  a  religious 
society  among  his  fellow-students  ;  and  these  young  men  were 
nicknamed  Methodists,  because  of  their  regular  habits.     Wesley 
became  a  clergyman  of  the  established  church;  but  he  soon 
came   to    place    special    emphasis    on    the    idea    of    sudden 
and  absolute  "conversion"  from  sin.     Aided  by  his  brother 
Charles   and   by  the   powerful  preacher  Whitfield,  he    jour- 
neyed through    England,  holding    great  "revivals"   in    vast 
open-air  meetings,  preaching  the  love  of  Christ  and  its  power 
to  save  from  sin. 

Wesley  was  a  man  of  wonderful  spirituality;  but  his  fel- 
low-clergy for  the  most  part  were  shocked  at  his  method  and 
refused  to  take  him  into  their  pulpits,  and  his  converts  came 
almost  wholly  from  the  lower  classes.  Much  against  the  wish 
of  the  original  leaders,  the  movement  finally  was  organized  as 
a  dissenting  "Methodist  church."  But  Wesley's  work  went 
further  than  merely  to  found  a  new  church,  mighty  as  that 
church  has  become.  The  greatest  result  of  the  Methodist 
movement  was  found  in  the  revivifying  and  spiritual  quick- 
ening that  followed  within  the  established  church  and  through- 
out all  English  life. 

463.  Meantime    "England"   was  becoming  "Great   Britain." 
James  I  (1603)  joined  Scotland  and  England  under  one  crown 
(§424).     A  century  later  (1707)  this  "personal  union"  was 
made  a  true  consolidation  by  "  the  Act  of  Union,"  adopted  by 
the  parliaments    of  both  countries.      Scotland  gave  up   her 
separate  legislature,  and  became  part  of  the  "United  King- 
dom," with  the  right  to  send  members  to  the  English  parlia- 
ment and  to  keep  her  own  established  Presbyterian  church. 
Halfway  between  these  two  dates,  Cromwell  completed  the 


398  ENGLAND  IN  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY        [§463 

conquest  of  Ireland.  And  that  same  seventeenth  century  had 
seen  another  and  vaster  expansion  of  England  and  of  Europe, 
to  which  we  now  turn.1 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  — It  is  desirable  for  reading  students  to  con- 
tinue Green  at  least  through  the  Revolution  of  1688.  Blackmore's  L<>m<i 
Doone  is  a  splendid  story  which  touches  some  passages  in  the  history  of 
the  closing  seventeenth  century. 

iThe  "personal  union"  with  Hanover  under  the  Georges  ceased  in  1837, 
when  a  woman  became  the  sovereign  of  England  (§  75'J).  It  left  few  conse- 
quences in  English  history. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE  EXPANSION   OF   EUROPE1 
I.     BEGINNINGS  — SPAIN  AND   PORTUGAL 

464.  Discoveries.  — We  have  studied  several  great  phases  of 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  —  the  Renaissance ; 
the  Protestant  Reformation ;  the  century  of  religious  wars  on 
the  continent ;  and,  in  England,  the  Puritan  movement  and  the 
rise  of  political  liberty.     One  other  movement  of  those  cen- 
turies, quite  as  important  as  any  of  these,  is  yet  to  be  surveyed. 
This  is  the  expansion  of  Europe  into  New  Worlds. 

The  beginning  we  noted.  Europe's  growing  commerce  with 
the  Orient  was  threatened  in  the  fifteenth  century  by  the  Turks. 
To  get  into  the  rear  of  these  barbarians,  Europe,  astir  with 
the  new  life  of  the  Renaissance,  sought  new  routes  to  Asia. 
Portugal  found  one,  to  the  south,  around  Africa.  Columbus, 
with  the  aid  of  Spain,  tried  a  still  bolder  Western  route,  and 
stumbled  on  America  in  his  path. 

465.  These  discoveries  marked  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
Portugal  quickly  built  a  rich  empire  in  the  Indian  Ocean  and 
the  "  Spice  Islands "  of  the  Pacific,  and  an  accident  gave  her 
Brazil.     Otherwise,  the  sixteenth  century  in  America  belongs  to 
Spain.     The  story  of  her  conquests   is  a   tale  of  heroic  en- 
durance  and  ferocious   cruelty.      The   details,'  as  a  Spanish 
chronicler  said,  are  all  "horrid  transactions  —  nothing  pleasant 
in  any  of  them."     Spain  did  not  attempt  settlement  on  the 
mainland  until  twenty  years  after  the  discovery ;  but,  once  be- 
gun, her  handfuls  of  adventurers  swooped  north  and  south ; 

1  The  chief  importance  of  the  expansion,  for  some  centuries,  lay  in  the  ex- 
pansion of  England.  Therefore  this  chapter  is  included  conveniently  in 
Part  IV. 

399 


400  THE   EXPANSION  OF  EUROPE  [§466 

and,  by  1550,  she  held  all  South  America  (save  Portugal's 
Brazil),  all  Central  America,  Mexico,  the  Californias  far  up 
the  Pacific  coast,  and  the  Floridas.  The  Gulf  of  Mexico  and 
the  Caribbean  Sea  were  Spanish  lakes;  and  even  the  Pacific 
was  a  "closed  sea."  For  other  Europeans  to  venture  into 
those  waters  was  a  crime,  in  Spanish  eyes,  to  be  punished  by 
death. 

Not  content  with  this  huge  empire,  Spain  was  planning 
grandly  to  occupy  the  Mississippi  valley  and  the  Appalachian 
slope,  when  she  received  her  fatal  check  in  Europe,  at  the 
hands  of  the  English  sea  dogs,  in  the  ruin  of  her  Invincible 
Armada  (1588). 

Then  the  other  seaboard  countries  of  Western  Europe  tried 
their  fortunes  in  America.  But  Holland,  in  her  half-century 
of  rebellion  against  Spain,  turned  her  chief  energies  to  seizing 
Portugal's  old  empire  in  the  Orient,  which  had  now  become 
Spain's  (§  396).  The  Swedish  colonies  on  the  Delaware  were 
never  formidable  to  the  claims  of  other  nations,  after  the  death 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus  (§  409).  And  so  North  America  was  left 
to  France  and  England. 

» 

II.   FRANCE   IN  AMERICA 

466.  The  Story  of  French  Colonization.  —  After  a  quarter- 
century  of  exploration,  Champlain  founded  the  first  permanent 
French  colony  at  Quebec,  in  1608.  Explorers,  traders,  and 
missionaries  soon  traversed  the  Great  Lakes,  and  established 
stations  at  various  points  still  known  by  French  names. 
Toward  the  close  of  the  century  (1682),  after  years  of  gallant 
effort,  La  Salle  followed  the  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf,  setting  up 
French  claim  to  the  entire  valley.  After  that,  New  France 
consisted  of  a  colony  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  in  the  far  north, 
and  the  semi-tropical  colony  of  New  Orleans,  joined  to  each 
other  by  a  thin  chain  of  trading  posts  and  military  stations 
along  the  connecting  waterways. 

At  home,   French   statesmen    aimed    deliberately  to   build  a 


§  467]  FRANCE   IN  AMERICA  401 

French  empire  in  America.  The  same  inspiring  thought  ani- 
mated French  explorers  in  the  wilderness  —  splendid  patriots 
like  Champlain,  Kibault,  and  La  Salle.  France,  too,  sent  forth 
the  most  zealous  of  missionaries  to  convert  the  savages.  Pa- 
triotism and  missionary  zeal  played  a  greater  part  in  French 
colonization  than  in  either  English  or  Spanish  colonies.  More- 
over, the  adaptable  and  genial  French  could  deal  with  the 
natives  better  than  the  stiff  and  reserved  English  could. 

467.  Weak  Points.  —  But  though  the  French  colonies  were 
strong  in  the  leaders,  they  were  weak  in  some  vital  matters  that 
depended  on  the  mass  of  the  colonists.  They  lacked  homes,  in- 
dividual enterprise,  and  political  life. 

New  France  was  not  a  country  of  homes  or  of  agriculture. 
Except  for  a  few  leaders  and  missionaries,  the  settlers  were 
either  unprogressive  peasants  or  reckless  adventurers.  For 
the  most  part  they  did  not  bring  families,  and,  if  they  married, 
they  took  Indian  wives.  Agriculture  was  the  only  basis  for  a 
permanent  colony  ;  but  these  colonists  turned  instead  to  trap- 
ping and  the  fur  trade,  and  adopted  Indian  habits. 

The  French  government  sought,  in  vain,  to  remedy  this  by 
sending  over  cargoes  of  "  king's  girls,"  and  by  offering  bonuses 
for  early  marriages  and  large  families.  The  easiest  remedy 
would  have  been  to  let  the  Huguenots  come.  They  were  skill- 
ful artisans  and  agriculturists,  and,  while  they  held  towns  for 
themselves  (§  405),  they  had  shown  some  fitness  for  self-gov- 
ernment. But  Louis  XIV,  while  he  lavished  money  in  send- 
ing undesirable  immigrants,  refused  to  let  heretics  found  a 
new  state. 

Government  paternalism  smothered  private  enterprise  in  in- 
dustry. New  France  was  taught  to  depend,  not  on  herself,  but 
on  the  aid  and  direction  of  a  government  three  thousand  miles 
away.  Trade  was  shackled  by  silly  restrictions,  and  hampered 
almost  as  much  by  silly  encouragements.  The  rulers  did 
everything.  "  Send  us  money  to  build  storehouses  "  ran  the 
begging  letters  of  the  colonial  governors  to  the  French  king. 
"  Send  us  a  teacher  to  make  sailors.  We  want  a  surgeon." 


402  THE   EXPANSION  OF   EUROPE  [§468 

And  so,  at  various  times,  requests  for  brickmakers,  iron- 
workers, pilots.  New  France  got  the  help  she  asked ;  but  she 
did  not  leam  to  walk  alone. 

Political  life,  too,  was  lacking.  France  herself  had  become 
a  centralized  despotism ;  and,  in  New  France,  as  a  French 
writer  (Tocqueville)  says  :  "  this  deformity  was  seen  as  though 
magnified  by  a  microscope."  No  public  meetings  could  be  lu-ld 
without  special  license  from  the  governor ;  and  the  governor's 
ordinances  (not  the  people)  regulated  pew  rent,  the  order  in 
which  dignitaries  should  sit  in  church,  the  number  of  cattle  a 
man  might  keep,  the  pay  of  chimney  sweeps,  the  charges  in 
inns,  and  so  on.  "  It  is  of  greatest  importance,"  wrote  one  of- 
ficial, "that  the  people  should  not  be  at  liberty  to  speak  tlit-ir 
minds." 

III.   ENGLAND   IN  AMERICA 

468.  Colonizing  Forces,  and  the  Progress  to  1690. —  TV/-//  dif- 
ferent was  the  fringe  of  English  colonies  that  grew  up  on  the 
Atlantic  coast,  never  with  a  king's  subsidies,  often  out  of  a 
king's  persecution,  and  asking  no  favor  but  to  be  let  alone. 

During  the  last  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when 
Elizabeth's  reign  was  half  gone,  England  entered  openly  on  a 
daring  rivalry  with  the  over-shadowing  might  of  Spain.  Out 
of  that  rivalry,  English  America  ivas  born  —  by  the  work  not  of 
sovereigns,  but  of  individual  and  adventurous  patriots.  Reck- 
less and  picturesque  freebooters,  like  Drake  and  Hawkins, 
sought  profit  and  honor  for  themselves,  and  injury  to  the  foe, 
by  raiding  the  wide-flung  realms  of  New  Spain.  More  far- 
sighted  statesmen,  like  Raleigh,  saw  that  English  colonies  in 
America  would  be  "  a  great  bridle  to  the  Indies  of  the  Kinge 
of  Spaine,"  and  began  attempts  so  to  "  put  a  byt  in  the  anchent 
enemy's  mouth." 

Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  and  Raleigh,  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  made 
the  first  attempts.  These  came  to  nothing,  because  the  ener- 
gies of  the  nation  were  drained  by  the  exhausting  struggle 
with  the  might  of  Spain.  Then  James  became  king,  and 


§  468]  ENGLAND   IN  AMERICA  403 

sought  Spanish  friendship;  and  Englishmen  began  to  fear  lest 
their  chance  for  empire  was  slipping  through  their  fingers. 
Men  said  that  a  terrible  mistake  had  been  made  when  Henry 
VII  refused  to  adopt  the  enterprise  of  Columbus,  and  all  the 
more  they  insisted  that  England  should  not  now  abandon  Vir- 
ginia, —  "  this  one  enterprise  left  unto  these  days." 1 

Moreover,  population  had  doubled  in  the  long  internal  peace 
since  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  rising  to  some  four  million  people. 
This  was  still  only  a  tenth  as  many  people  as  the  island  sup- 
ports to-day  ;  but,  under  the  industrial  system  of  that  time, 
England  needed  an  outlet  for  this  "  crowded  "  population.  The 
more  enterprising  of  the  hard-pressed  yeomanry  were  glad  to 
seek  new  homes ;  and  this  class  furnished  most  of  the  manual 
labor  in  the  early  colonies. 

But  captains  and  capitalists,  too,  were  needed.  And  a  new 
condition  in  England  just  after  the  death  of  Elizabeth  turned 
some  of  the  best  of  the  middle  class  toward  American  adven- 
ture. Until  James  made  peace  with  Spain  (1604),  the  high- 
spirited  youth,  and  especially  the  younger  sons  of  gentry 
families,  fought  in  the  Low  Countries  for  Dutch  independence 
(§  398)  or  made  the  "gentlemen-adventurers"  who  under  com- 
manders like  Drake  paralyzed  the  vast  domain  of  New  Spain 
with  fear.  Now  these  men  sought  occupation  and  fortune  in 
colonizing  America,  still  attacking  the  old  enemy  in  his  weakest 
point.  These  young  adventurers  were  not  used  to  steady  in- 
dustry, and  they  were  restless  under  discipline.  But  when 
they  had  learnec^  somewhat  of  the  needs  of  frontier  life,  their 
pluck  and  endurance  made  them  splendid  colonists. 

Such  were  the  forces  in  English  life,  then,  that  established  Vir- 
ginia, early  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  Toward  the  close  of  that 
same  reign,  Puritanism  was  added  to  the  colonizing  forces,  and, 
before  the  Long  Parliament  met,  there  was  a  second  patch  of 
English  colonies  on  the  North  Atlantic  shore.  At  the  time  of 


1  This  and  the  two  preceding  quoted  expressions  come  from  Englishmen 
interested  in  colonization  in  Virginia. 


404  THE  EXPANSION  OF  EUROPE  [§469 

the  "  Revolution  of  1688,"  these  two  groups  of  settlements  had 
expanded  into  a  broad  band  of  twelve  great  colonies,  reaching 
from  the  Penobscot  to  the  Savannah,  with  a  total  population 
of  a  quarter  of  a  million. 

469.  Freedom.  —  These  colonies  all  enjoyed  the  English  Com- 
mon Law,  with  its  guarantees  for  jury  trial,  freedom  of  speech, 
and  other  personal  liberties  (such  as  were  known  in  no  other 
people's  colonies  for  two  hundred  years) ;  and  almost  as  soon  as 
founded,  they  developed  also  a  large  degree  of  poh'f  ><•<(!  liberty. 
They  all  possessed  their  own  self-governing  representative 
assemblies,  modeled  on  the  English  parliament.  Moreover, 
not  all  England,  but  only  the  more  democratic  part  of  EwjHdt 
life,  was  transferred  to  America.  No  hereditary  nobles  or  mon- 
arch or  bishop  ever  made  part  of  colonial  America.  And  tin  it 
part  of  English  society  which  did  come  was  drawn  toward  still 
greater  democracy  by  the  presence  here  of  unlimited  free  land. 

When  the  Puritan  gentlemen,  who  at  first  made  up  the 
governing  body  in  Massachusetts  colony,  tried  to  fix  wages  for 
carpenters  by  law,  as  the  gentry  did  in  England  (§  415),  the 
New  England  carpenters  simply  ceased  to  do  carpenter  work 
and  became  farmers.  Thus  wages  rose,  spite  of  aristocratic 
efforts  to  hold  them  down.  Free  land  helped  to  maintain 
equality  in  industry,  and  so  in  politics.  Thus  the  English 
colonies  from  the  first  began  to  diverge  from  the  old  home  in 
the  direction  of  even  greater  freedom. 

In  the  next  chapter  we  shall  see  how  the  story  of  American  coloniza- 
tion merged  with  the  story  of  European  wars.  The  conflict  in  Europe 
(§  457)  between  William  III  of  England  and  Louis  XIV  of  France  became 
a  hundred  years'  conflict  (1690-1815)  for  empire  in  America  and  Asia. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. — The  student  should  study  the  expansion  of 
Europe  in  Woodward's   Expansion  of  the  British  Empire,   I,   1 
Seeley's  Expansion  of  England  ;  or  Caldecott's  English  Colonization. 


PART   V 

THE  AGE  OF    LOUIS  XIV    AND    FREDEBIOZ   THE  GREAT 


CHAPTER   XXVIII 

FRENCH   LEADERSHIP 

470.  The  "  Balance  of  Power."  -  -  The  period  we  study  in  the 
next  three  short  chapters  covers  the  century  and  a  half  from 
the  close  of  the  hundred  years  of  religious  wars  to  the  beginning 
of  the  French  Revolution  (1648-1789)  .*  The  last  part  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  we  saw,  was  something  besides  a  religious 
conflict.  The  Hapsburgs  had  long  ringed  France  about  with 
peril  ;  and  so  Catholic  France  at  last  aided  Protestant  Germany 
and  Holland  to  break  the  power  of  Catholic  Austria  and  Spain. 
Such  attempts  to  destroy  a  too  powerful  neighbor  are  characteristic 
of  the  next  hundred  years  of  war. 

The  chief  object  of  statesmen  became  to  keep  any  one  coun- 
try from  growing  too  strong  for  its  neighbors'  safety.  This 
was  called  maintaining  the  Balance  of  Power.  For  many  years 
France  was  the  country  that  threatened  that  balance,  and  so 
league  after  league  of  other  countries  was  organized  against 
her.  International  morality  was  low  and  selfish,  however, 
and  commonly  the  nations  were  willing  to  let  a  strong  Power 
rob  a  weaker  neighbor,  if  they  could  find  "  compensation  "  (and 

1  During  this  141  years  the  map  of  Europe  was  incessantly  shifting.  The 
student  should  read  the  story  as  told  in  chapters  xxviii-xxx,  but  the  teacher 
may  find  it  best  to  conduct  recitations  with  open  books  and  to  fix  only  a  few 
summaries. 

405 


406  THE   AGE  OF  LOUIS  XIV  [§471 

maintain  the  "balance")   by  themselves  robbing  some  other 
weak  state. 

471.  Another  curious  fact  is  that  these  wars  were  dynastic  wars 
(wars  in  the  interests  of  ruling  families)  more  than  any  others 
that  Europe  had  ever  seen.     And   the   personal    likings  and 
hatreds  of  kings,  as  well  as  their  family  interests,  interfered 
sometimes  with  their  devotion  to  the  "  balance  of  power." 

During  most  of  the  long  period,  the  stage  is  held  by  one  or 
another  of  three  great  rulers,  Louis  XIV  of  France  (164.S-17ir>), 
Peter  the  Great  of  Russia  (1689-1725),  and  Frederick  the 
Great  of  Prussia  (1740-1786).  The  main  influence  of  Peter 
was  spent  directly  upon  his  own  country;  but  Louis  <>/"/ 
Frederick  belonged  to  all  Europe,  and  the  period  is  covered  by 
the  Age  of  Louis  XIV  and  the  Age  of  Frederick  II. 

472.  In  the  early  years  of  Louis  XIV  it  seemed  that  his  reign 
was  to  rival  that  of   Henry  IV.     With  his  great   minister, 
Colbert,  he  introduced  economy  into  the  finances,  encouraged 
new  manufactures,  built  roads,  introduced  canals,  and  watched 
zealously  over  the  growth  of  New  France  in  America.     But  in 
1667  he  began  a  series  of  wars  that  filled  most  of  the  remain- 
ing forty  years  of  his  reign. 

473.  In  the  first  twelve  years  of  war,  Louis'  sought  to  seize 
territory  on  his  northeastern  frontier.     The  Dutch  Republic 
was  his  chief  obstacle.    Finally,  Louis  dropped  all  other  plans, 
in  order  to  crush  that  little  state.     The  Dutch  then  intrusted 
their  government  to  William  of  Orange  (who  afterward  became 
William  III  of  England).     William  was  not  a  supreme  genius, 
like  his  great-grandfather,  William  the  Silent;   but  he  was 
faithful,  persistent,  and  heroic.     More  than  any  other  man  he 
foiled  the  ambition  of  France. 

It  was  urged  upon  William  that  conflict  with  the  mighty 
power  of  Louis  was  hopeless,  and  that  he  could  only  see  his 
country  lost.  "  There  is  a  way  never  to  see  it  lost,"  he  replied 
quietly  ;  "  that  way  is  to  die  on  the  last  dike."  With  such  grim 
determination,  he  finally  cut  the  dikes,  and  the  North  Sea 
drove  out  the  French  armies.  Meantime  he  toiled  ceaselessly 


§476]  GKEED  AND   WAR  407 

in  building  up  against  France  an  alliance  of  European  powers, 
until  Louis  was  compelled  to  accept  peace  with  only  slight 
gains  of  territory  from  the  Spanish  Netherlands. 

474.  During  ten  years  of  peace  that  followed,  Louis -continued 
to  seize  bits  of  territory  along  the  Rhine.     But  the  important 
event  of  this  period  was  his  treatment  of  the  Huguenots.     In 
1685  he  revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  and  tried  to  compel  the 
Huguenots  to  accept  Catholicism.     Dragoons  were  quartered 
in  the  Huguenot  districts,  and  terrible  persecutions  fell  upon 
those  who  refused  to  abandon  their  faith.     Protestantism  did 
finally  disappear  from  France.    But,  though  Louis  tried  to  pre- 
vent any  heretic  from  leaving  France  alive,  tens  of  thousands 
(perhaps  300,000  in  all)  escaped  to  Holland,  Prussia,  England, 
and  America.1 

The  effect  of  this  flight  on  France  corresponded  in  a  measure 
to  the  effect  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Moriscoes  (§  400)  on  Spain. 
It  was  a  crushing  blow  to  the  prosperity  of  the  country.  The 
rest  of  Louis'  reign  was  a  period  of  failure. 

475.  The  second  series  of  wars  began  in  1689,  when  William 
of  Orange  became  king  of  England  (§  457).     As  before,  the 
French  armies  seemed  invincible  in  the  field ;  but,  as  before, 
William   checked  Louis  by  building  up  a  general  European 
alliance  against  him.     Louis  had  fought  mainly  to  get  more 
Rhine  territory ;  but  this  time  he  made  no  gains.     This  war  is 
known  in  American  history  as  "  King  William's  War."     The 
struggle  in  Europe  had  widened  into  a  Titanic  conflict  between 
France  and  ^England  for  ivorld-empire. 

476.  Next,  Louis  sought  extension  on  his  other  land  frontier. 
Charles  II,  the  last  Spanish  Hapsburg,  was  dying.     The  crown 
would  go  naturally  either  to  the  Austrian  Hapsburgs  or  to  the 
sons  of  Louis  XIV,   who  were  nephews  of  Charles.     Louis 


1  In  America  the  Huguenots  went  mainly  to  the  Carolinas ;  but  some  old 
Virginia  families  trace  their  origin  to  this  immigration.  In  New  York  John 
Jay  and  Alexander  Hamilton  were  both  of  Huguenot  descent.  And  in  Massa- 
chusetts the  Huguenot  influence  is  suggested  by  the  names  of  Paul  Revere, 
Peter  Faneuil,  and  Governor  Bowdoin. 


408  THE   AGE   OF  LOUIS   XIV  [§477 

arranged  a  partition  treaty  with  William  of  Orange,  for  divid- 
ing the  Spanish  realms  among  the  powers  of  Europe.  But  the 
proud  Spanish  people,  who  had  not  been  consulted,  had  no 
mind  for,  such  an  assassination  of  their  empire.  They  pre- 
ferred instead  the  accession  of  Louis'  younger  grandson  as 
Philip  V.  When  Louis  became  sure  of  this  (1700),  he  decided 
to  snatch  the  whole  prize.  He  placed  Philip  on  the  Spanish 
throne,  and  said  exultantly,  "  The  Pyrenees  no  longer  exist." 

But  Europe  united  against  France  and  Spain  in  the  "  War 
of  the  Spanish  Succession,"  known  in  American  history  as 
"Queen  Anne's  War."  In  this  struggle,  for  the  first  time, 
success  in  the  field  lay  with  the  Allies.  The  English  Marl- 
borough  and  the  Hapsburg  Prince  Eugene  were  two  of  the 
greatest  generals  of  history,  and  they  won  terrible  victories 
over  the  hitherto  invincible  armies  of  France,  at  Blenheim, 
Ramillies,  Oudenarde*  and  Malplaquet. 

477.  The  Peace  of  Utrecht  (1713)  left  Philip  king  of  Spain, 
but  he  had  to  renounce  all  claim  upon  the  French  thioiu-. 
France  gained  no  territory  in  Europe,  and  in  America  she  lost 
Newfoundland  and  Nova  Scotia  to  England.     England  also  ac- 
quired command  of  the  Mediterranean,  by  securing  from  Spain 
the  fortress  of  Gibraltar  and  the  island  of  Minorca.     Spain 
lost  all  her  European  possessions  outside  her  own  peninsula, 
ceding  her  Netherland  provinces,  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  and 
Naples,  and  the  great   Duchy  of  Milan  in  North  Italy,  to 
Austria. 

478.  Louis  XIV  dazzled  the  men  of  his  age,  and  won  the  title 
of  the  Great  King  (Grand  Monarque) ;    but  we  can  now  see 
that  his  aims  were  mistaken,  even  from  a  purely  selfish  view. 
His  predecessors  had  fought  for  security  against  the  hostile 
embrace   of   the    Hapsburgs.     After   1648,   that   danger   had 
passed  away.     Louis  fought  only  to  enlarge  his  borders. 

In  this  aim  he  was  partially  successful;  but  his  wars  ex- 
hausted France,  and  left  the  nation  burdened  with  debt  through 
the  next  century.  At  the  close  of  his  reign,  the  industry  of 
France  was  declining  under  a  crushing  taxation,  of  which 


479] 


GREED   AND   WAR 


409 


more  than  half  went  merely  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  debt  he 
had  created.  And  in  his  unjust  attacks  upon  petty  properties 
of  his  neighbors  in  Eu- 
rope, he  had  wasted 
strength  that  might  have 
intrenched  France  as 
mistress  in  Asia  and 
America. 

479.  Intellectually 
France  was  now  the  ac- 
knowledged leader  of  Eu- 
rope. This  continued  to 
be  true  through  the  next 
century.  The  court  of 
Louis  XIV  was  the  model 
on  which  every  court  in 
Europe,  large  or  small, 
sought  to  form  itself. 
French  thought,  French 
fashions,  the  French 
language,  spread  over 
Europe  and  became  the 
common  property  of  all 
polite  society. 

This     admiration     for  Louis  XIV. 

France  was  due  partly  to 

an  outburst  of  French  poetry  at  this  time.  It  was  the  first 
great  age  in  French  literature.  The  leading  authors  were  the 
dramatists,  Corneille,  Racine,  and  Moliere.  A  striking  illustra- 
tion of  the  influence  of  this  French  literature  is  that  a  great 
English  school  of  writers  modeled  themselves  upon  it.  This 
is  the  body  of  "correct  poets,"  of  whom  Pope  is  the  most 
famous  member.  At  the  same  time,  this  literature  was  brilliant 
and  sparkling,  rather  than  great.  "  The  work  is  not  construc- 
tive, but  imitative.  It  is  not  free  and  strong,  but  careful  and 
studied." 


410  THE    AGE   OF   LOUIS   XIV  [§480 

480.  "I  am  the  state"  is  a  famous  saying  ascribed  to  Louis 
XIV.  Whether  he  said  it  or  not,  he  might  have  done  so  with 
perfect  truth.  So  might  almost  any  monarch  of  his  day,  out- 
side of  England.  In  that  age,  monarchs  were  everything;  the 
people,  so  far  as  government  was  concerned,  were  nothing. 
Louis  called  the  English  parliament  "an  intolerable  evil." 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

THE  RISE   OF   RUSSIA 

481 .  The  Russians  threw  off  the  Tartar  yoke,  we  have  noticed, 
about  1500.  Ivan  the  Terrible,  the  second  ruler  after  that 
event,  took  the  title  of  Tsar  (from  Caesar,  the  old  Roman  title 
for  emperors).  About  1550,  under  Ivan,  Russia  was  extended 
to  the  Caspian.  It  now  covered  a  vast  area  —  the  great  eastern 
plain  of  Europe,  reaching  over  into  Asiatic  Siberia.  But  it  had 
no  seacoast  except  on  the  ice-locked  Arctic,  and  no  touch  with 
Western  Europe.  Tartars  and  Turks  shut  Russia  off  from  the 
Black  Sea ;  the  Swedes  shut  it  from  the  Baltic  (§  411)  ;  and  the 
Poles  prevented  any  contact  with  Germany. 

Thus  the  Russians  were  really  Asiatic  in  geography.  They 
were  Asiatic  also  in  manners  and  thought.  They  belonged  to 
the  Greek  church;  but  they  had  no  other  tie  with  European 
life. 

482  Russia  was  made  a  European  Power  by  Peter  the  Great. 
Peter  was  a  barbaric  genius  of  tremendous  energy,  clear  intel- 
lect, and  ruthless  will.  He  admired  the  material  results  of 
western  civilization,  and  he  determined  to  Europeanize  his  peo- 
ple. As  steps  toward  this,  he  meant  to  get  the  Baltic  coast 
from  Sweden,  and  the  Black  Sea  from  the  Turks,  so  as  to  have 
"  windows  to  look  out  upon  Europe." 

Early  in  his  reign,  the  young  Tsar  decided  to  learn  more 
about  the  Western  world  he  had  admired  at  a  distance.  In 
Holland  he  studied  shipbuilding,  as  a  workman  in  the  navy 
yards.  He  visited  most  of  the  countries  of  the  West,  impress- 
ing all  who  met  him  with  his  insatiable  voracity  for  informa- 
tion. He  inspected  cutleries,  museums,  manufactories,  arsenals, 
departments  of  government,  military  organizations.  He  col- 

411 


412 


THE   RISE   OF  RUSSIA 


[§483 


lected  instruments  and  models,  and  gathered  naval  and  military 
stores.  He  engaged  choice  artists,  gold  beaters,  architects, 
workmen,  officers,  and  engineers,  to  return  with  him  to  Russia, 
by  promises,  not  well  kept,  of  great  pay. 

483.  Russia  veneered 
with  European  Culture. 
—  With  these  workmen 
Peter  sought  to  introduce 
western  civilization  into 
Russia.  The  manners  of 
his  people  he  reformed  by 
edict.  He  himself  cut  off 
the  Asiatic  beards  of  his 
courtiers  and  clipped  the 
bottoms  of  their  long 
robes.  Women  were 
ordered  to  put  aside  their 
veils  and  to  come  out  of 
their  Oriental  seclusion. 
Peter  "  tried  to  European- 
ize  by  Asiatic  methods." 
He  "  civilized  by  the 
cudgel."  The  upper 
classes  did  take  on  a 
European  veneer.  The 
masses  remained  Russian 
and  Oriental. 

484.  Peter  also  started  Russia  on  her  march  toward  the  Euro- 
pean seas.  On  the  south,  he  himself  made  no  permanent  ad- 
vance, despite  a  series  of  wars  with  Turkey ;  but  he  bequeathed 
his  policy  to  his  successors,  and,  ever  since  his  day,  Constanti- 
nople has  been  the  goal  of  Russian  ambition  in  this  direction. 
The  "  Baltic  window  "  Peter  himself  secured,  by  victory  over 
Charles  XII  of  Sweden,  "the  Glorious  Madman  of  the  North." 
Sweden  was  a  thinly  populated  country  with  no  great  natural 
resources.  For  a  century  a  line  of  great  kings  and  the  disci- 


CHURCH  OF  ST.  BASIL,  Moscow,  built 
about  1575,  in  the  reign  of  Ivan  the 
Terrible  (§170).  The  building  was 
painted  brilliantly,  in  all  the  colors 
of  the  rainbow. 


485] 


PETER   THE    GREAT 


413 


plined  bravery  of  her  soldiery  had  made  her  a  leading  power  in 
Europe  ;  but  such  leadership  could  hardly  be  permanent.  She 
had  grown  at  the  expense  of  Russia,  Poland,  Denmark,  and 
Brandenburg;  and  when  Charles  XII  came  to  the  Swedish 
throne  (1697)  as  a  mere  boy  of  fifteen,  these  states  leagued 
against  him. 

Charles  was  a  military  genius,  and  for  a  long  time  he  was 
victorious  against  this  overwhelming  coalition.  But  he  wore 
out  his  resources  in  winning  victories  that  did  not  destroy  his 
huge  antagonists.  Early  in  the  struggle  he  defeated  Peter  the 
Great  at  Narva,  with  an  army  not  more  than  an  eighth  as  large 
as  the  Russian  force ;  but  while  Charles  was  busied  in  Poland 
and  Germany,  Russia  recovered  herself,  and  in  1709  Peter 
crushed  Charles  at  Pid- 
tava. 

As  Peter  had  foretold, 
the  Swedes  had  taught 
him  how  to  beat  them. 
Sweden  never  recovered  her 
military  supremacy.  Rus- 
sia secured  the  Swedish 
provinces  on  the  east  coast 
of  the  Baltic  as  far  north 
as  the  Gulf  of  "Finland. 
These  districts  had  been 
colonized,  three  centuries 
before,  by  the  Teutonic 
Knights  (§§  247,  251), 
and  German  civilization 
was  strongly  implanted 
there.  Thus  the  acquisition  not  only  gave  Russia  a  door  into 
Europe,  but  actually  brought  part  of  Europe  inside  Russia.  It 
was  in  this  new  territory  that  Peter  founded  St.  Petersburg, 
recently  renamed  Petrograd. 

485.    The  next  important  acquisition  of  territory  was  under  the 
Empress  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Peter,  who  seized  most  of  Fin- 


PETER  THE  GREAT. 


414  THE   RISE   OF   RUSSIA  [§  485 

land  from  Sweden.  Toward  the  close  of  the  century,  under 
Catherine  77,  Russia  made  great  progress  along  the  Black  Sea 
and  on  the  west  at  the  expense  of  Poland  (§  500).  This  last 
change  can  be  understood  only  in  connection  with  the  rise 
of  Prussia, 


CHAPTER   XXX 

PRUSSIA  IN  EUROPE  — ENGLAND   IN   NEW  WORLDS 

486.  Growth   of   a   Mark   into   an   Electorate.  —  One   of   the 
German    "  marks "   established  in  the  tenth   century   as  bul- 
warks against  the  Slavs  (§  202)  was  Brandenburg.     Under  a 
race  of  fighting  margraves  it  grew  from  century  to  century,  and 
during  the  Hohenstaufen  period  its  ruler  became   one  of  the 
Electors  of  the  Empire. 

487.  Accession  of  the  Hohenzollerns.  —  In  1415,  the  first  line 
of  Brandenburg  Electors   ran  out,   and  Frederick   of  Hohen- 
zollern,   a   petty    count   in   the   Alps  (like   the   Hapsburgs  a 
century   and  a   half   before),    bought   Brandenburg   from   the 
emperor.      The   new    family   was   to   play   a   part    in   North 
Germany   even   greater  than   that   of  the  Hapsburgs  in  the 
South. 

488.  Prussia.  —  Shortly  after  1600  came  the  next  important 
acquisition  of   territory.     By  family  inheritance,  the  Elector 
of  Brandenburg  fell  heir  to  two  considerable  principalities,— 
the  duchy  of  Cleves  on  the  extreme  west  of   Germany,   and 
the  duchy  of  Prussia  outside  the  Empire  on  the  extreme  east. 
Prussia  was  the  name  given  to  a  district  which  the  Teutonic 
Knights  had  conquered  in  the  fourteenth  century    from   the 
heathen    Slavs,   and    which    had    been    partly    colonized   by 
Germans. 

Thereafter  the  Hohenzollern  Electors  ruled  three  widely 
separated  provinces,  —  on  the  Rhine,  the  Elbe,  and  the  Vistula 
(map,  page  417).  The  object  of  their  politics  was  to  unite  these 
regions  by  securing  intermediate  lands.  To  do  this,  an  army 
was  necessary ;  and  the  army  of  ,the  little  Prussian  state  was 
soon  among  the  -largest  and  best  in  Europe. 

415 


416  THE    RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  [§489 

489.  The  "Great  Elector."  —  Toward  the  close  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  Frederick  William,    the  "Great  Elector,"  came 
to  the   throne  of  Brandenburg.     He  at  once  took   a   leading 
part   in   the    struggle;  and,  as  his  reward,   at   the   Peace  of 
Westphalia,   he   secured    eastern    Pomerania.       This  brought 
Brandenburg  to  the  sea.     The  chief  services  of  the  long  reign 
of  the  Great  Elector,  however,  were  rendered  not  in  war  but 
in   peace.     He  built  roads  and  canals,  drained   marshes,  en- 
couraged agriculture,  and  welcomed  the   Huguenot   fugitives 
from  France  after  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes. 

490.  Frederick,  son  and  successor  of  the  Great  Elector,  in 
return  for  aid  against  Louis  XIV,  secured  the  emperor's  con- 
sent to  his  changing  the  title  "  Elector  of  Brandenburg "  for 
the  more  stately  one  of  "King  in  Prussia''  (1701). 

491.  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession. — The  second  king  of 
Prussia,  Frederick  William  I,  was   a   rude  "drill  sergeant," 
memorable  only  as  the  stupid  father  of  Frederick  the  Great 
and  as  the  builder  of  the  magnificent  army  which  his  son  was 
to  use  magnificently. 

Frederick  II  (the  Great)  ascended  the  Prussian  throne  in 
1740.  jn  the  same  year  the  Hapsburg  Emperor,  Charles  VI, 
died  without  a  male  heir,  and  Frederick  began  his  long  reign 
by  an  unjust  but  profitable  war.  With  his  perfectly  prepared 
army,  he  seized  Silesia,  an  Austrian  province.  This  high- 
handed act  was  the  signal  for  a  general  onslaught  to  divide 
the  Austrian  realms.  Spain,  France,  Savoy,  Bavaria,  each 
hurried  to  snatch  some  morsel  of  the  booty.  But  Maria 
Theresa,  daughter  of  Charles  VI,  displayed  courage  and 
ability.  Her  subjects,  especially  the  gallant  Hungarian  nobles, 
rallied  loyally  to  her  support  and,  a  little  later,  England  and 
Holland  added  their  strength  to  the  Austrian  side. 

This  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession  closed  in  1748.  Fred- 
erick II  kept  Silesia,  but  Austria  lost  no  other  territory. 
Frederick  had  shown  himself  the  greatest  general  of  the  age. 
Prussia  now  reached  down  into  the  heart  of  Germany;  and 
had  become  the  one  great  rival  of  Austria  in  Germany. 


/  r(swsi|.zp3 
\f^l\gfj 

. A; ... .  /"Y-    ...  q \  }    ¥?^~f*    -0^10-T^T1 

f  iS&tf2 


417 


418  THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  [§492 

492.  Much  more  important,  though  less  striking,  was  the  con- 
test  outside   Europe.     In  America  a  New  England  expedition 
captured   the   French   fortress  of    Louisburg.      In    India  the 
French  leader,  Dupleix,  saw  the  chance  to  secure  an  Asiatic 
empire  for  his  country,  and,  though  greatly  hampered  by  home 
indifference  and  jealousy,  he  captured  the  English  stations  in 
that  country. 

The  treaty  of  peace  restored  matters  to  their  former  position, 
both  in  America  and  Asia,  but  the  war  made  England  and 
France  feel  more  clearly  than  ever  before  that  they  were  rivals 
for  vast  realms  outside  Europe.  Whether  Prussia  or  Austria 
were  to  possess  Silesia,  whether  France  or  Austria  were  to 
hold  the  Netherlands,  were  questions  wholly  insignificant  in 
comparison  with  the  mightier  question  as  to  what  race  and 
what  political  ideas  should  hold  the  New  Worlds. 

493.  In     1756   Austria    began    a    war   of    revenge.      Maria 
Theresa  had  secured  the  alliance  of  Russia,  Sweden,  and  even 
of  her  old  enemy  France.     Four  great  armies  invaded   Prussia 
from  different  directions,  and  Frederick's   throne   seemed  to 
totter.     His  swift   action   and   his   supreme   military    genius 
saved  his  country,  in  the  victories  of  Rosxb<«-1t  and  Lt'iitln'it. 
The  next  year  England  entered  the  struggle  as  his  ally.     Eng- 
land and  France  had  remained  practically  at  ivar  in  ADC 
and  India  through  the  brief  interval  beticeen  the  two  Euro/ ^  in 
tears;1  and  now  that  France  had  changed  to  Austria's  side, 
England  saw  no  choice  but  to  support  Prussia. 

494.  In  America  this  "  Seven  Years'  War"  is  known  as  the 
"French  and  Indian  War."  —  The  struggle  was  literally  world- 
wide.    Red  men  scalped  each  other  by  the  Great  Lakes  of  North 
America,  and  Black  men  fought  in  Senegal  in  Africa ;  while 
Frenchmen  and  Englishmen  grappled  in  India  as  well  as  in 
Germany,  and  their  fleets  engaged  on  every  sea.     The  most 
tremendous  and  showy  battles  took  place  in  Germany;  and, 


1  Braddock's  campaign  in  America  (1754)  took  place  during  this  interval, 
before  any  formal  declaration  of  war  between  France  and  England. 


§  496]  THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   NEW   WORLDS  419 

though  the  real  importance  of  the  struggle  lay  outside  Europe, 
still  the  European  conflict  in  the  main  decided  the  wider 
results. 

William  Pitt,  the  English  minister,  who  was  working  to 
build  up  a  great  British  empire,  declared  that  in  Germany  he 
would  conquer  America  from  France.  He  did  so.  England 
furnished  the  funds  and  her  navy  swept  the  seas.  Frederick 
and  Prussia,  supported  by  English  subsidies,  furnished  the 
troops  and  the  generalship  for  the  European  battles.  The 
striking  figures  of  the  struggle  are  (1)  Pitt,  the  great  English 
imperialist,  the  directing  genius  of  the  war;  (2)  Frederick 
of  Prussia,  the  military  genius,  who  won  Pitt's  victories  in 
Germany;  (3)  Wolfe,  who  won  French  America  from  the 
great  Montcalm ;  and  (4)  Clive  in  India. 

495.  The  story  of  the  conquest  of  India  calls  for  a  brief  out- 
line.    Dupleix  had  been  recalled  by  the  short-sighted  French 
government,  and  no  French  commander  was  left  in  India  able 
to   cope  with   the   English  leaders.     Clive   was  an  unknown 
English  clerk  at  Madras.     The  native  Nabob  of  Bengal  treach- 
erously seized  the  English  post  at  Calcutta,  induced  the  garri- 
son to  surrender  on  the  promise  of  good  treatment,  and  then 
suffocated  them  horribly  by  packing  the  one  hundred  and  forty- 
six  Europeans  in  a  small,  close  dungeon,  the  famous  Black  Hole 
of  Calcutta,  through  the  hot  tropical  night.     The  young  Clive 
was  moved  to  vengeance.     He  organized  a  small  expedition  of 
a   thousand   Englishmen   and   two   thousand   faithful   native 
troops,  and  at  Plassey  (1757)  he  overthrew  the  Nabob's  Oriental 
army  of  sixty  thousand  men.     Soon  after,  English  supremacy 
was  thoroughly  established. 

496.  The  treaty  of  peace  left  Europe  without  change.    In  India, 
the  French  retained  only  a  few  unfortified  trading  posts.     In 
America,  England  received   Florida  ^from  Spain,  and  Canada 
and   the  eastern  half  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  from  France. 
France   ceded  to  Spain  the  western   half  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  in  compensation  for  the  losses  Spain  had  incurred  as 
her  ally ;  and,  except  for  her  West  Indian  islands,  she  herself 


420  THE   AGE   OF  FREDERICK   II  [§  497 

ceased  to  be  an  American  power.  England  had  dispossessed 
her  there  as  she  had  in  India. 

Spain  still  held  South  America  and  half  North  America; 
but  her  vast'  bulk  was  plainly  decaying  day  by  day.  Holland's 
wide  colonial  empire,  too,  was  in  decline.  England  stood  forth 
as  the  leading  world-power. 

497.  The  struggle  in  America  was  really  a  war  not  between 
Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  but  between  two  kinds  of  colonization.  The 
better  kind  won.  Man  for  man,  the  French  settlers  were  more 
successful  woodmen  and  Indian  fighters  than  their  English 
rivals ;  but  they  could  not  build  a  state  so  wett.  They  got  a  good 
start  first,  and  they  had  much  the  stronger  position.  But, 
after  a  century  of  such  fostering  care  as  we  described  in  §  467, 
the  French  colonies  did  not  grow.  When  the  final  conflict  be- 
gan, in  1754,  France,  with  a  home  population  four  Hint's  that  of 
England,  had  only  one  twentieth  as  many  colonists  as  En<jl<m<l 
had  in  America  —  60,000  to  about  1,200,000. 

Moreover,  despite  her  heroic  leaders,  the  mass  of  French 
colonists  had  too  little  political  activity  to  care  much  what 
country  they  belonged  to,  so  long  as  they  were  treated  de- 
cently. French  centralization  did  make  it  possible  for  a  capa- 
ble governor  to  wield  effectively  all  the  resources  of  New 
France1;  while  among  the  English  there  were  interminable 
delays  and  disastrous  jealousies.  But  the  Emjlixh  needed  to 
win  only  once.  If  Montcalm  had  conquered  Wolfe,  and  had 
then  been  able  to  occupy  Boston  and  New  York,  he  could  never 
have  held  them  even  as  long  as  King  George  did  a  few  years 
later.  The  colonists  would  have  fought  the  French  with 
vastly  more  determination  than  they  did  England  in  the  Revo- 
lution. But,  on  the  other  hand,  Wolfe's  victory  at  Quebec 
settled  the  fate  of  the  continent. 

The  lack  of  political  vitality  and  of  individual  enterprise  in 

1  The  advantage  was  offset  by  a  tendency  to  corruption  which  always 
threatens  a  despotic  system.  Says  Parkman  (Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  II,  30), 
"  Canada  was  the  prey  of  official  jackals."  Of  this  his  volumes  give  many 
illustrations. 


§499]  THE   AMERICAN   REVOLUTION  421 

industry  was  the  fatal  weakness  of  New  France.  The  opposite 
qualities  made  England  successful.  Says  John  Fiske :  "  It 
is  to  the  self-government  of  England,  and  to  no  lesser  cause,  that 
we  are  to  look  for  the  secret  of  that  boundless  vitality  which  has 
given  to  men  of  English  speech  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth 
for  an  inheritance." 

498.  The  American  Revolution  is  the  next  chapter  in  this 
series  of  wars.     That  war  began  because  the  English  govern- 
ment unwisely  insisted  upon  managing  American  affairs  after 
the  Americans  were  quite   able  to  take   care  of  themselves. 
Its  real  importance,  even  to  Europe,  lay  in  the  establishment 
of  an  independent  American  nation  and  in  teaching  England  to 
improve  her  system  of  colonial  government.     But  at  the  time, 
France  and  Spain  saw  in  the  American  Revolution  a  chance  to 
revenge  themselves  upon  England  by  helping  the  best  part  of 
her  empire  to  break  away. 

England  did  lose  most  of  her  empire  in  America;  but  she 
came  out  of  the  war  with  gains  as  well  as  losses,  and  with 
glory  little  tarnished.  She  had  been  fighting,  not  America 
alone,  but  France,  Spain,  Holland,  and  America.  Theodore 
Roosevelt  has  put  finely  the  result  and  character  of  this 
wider  struggle  (Gouverneur  Morris,  116)  : 

"  England,  hemmed  in  by  the  ring  of  her  foes,  fronted  them  with  a 
grand  courage.  In  her  veins  the  Berserker  blood  was  up,  and  she  hailed 
each  new  enemy  with  grim  delight,  exerting  to  the  full  her  warlike 
strength.  Single-handed  she  kept  them  all  at  bay,  and  repaid  with  crip- 
pling blows  the  injuries  they  had  done  her.  In  America,  alone,  the  tide 
ran  too  strong  to  be  turned.  But  Holland  was  stripped  of  all  her  colo- 
nies ;  in  the  East,  Sir  Eyre  Coote  beat  down  Hyder  Ali,  and  taught  Mos- 
lem and  Hindoo  alike  that  they  could  not  shake  off  the  grasp  of  the  iron 
hands  that  held  India  ;  Rodney  won  back  for  his  country  the  supremacy 
of  the  ocean  in  that  great  sea-fight  where  he  shattered  the  splendid  French 
navy ;  and  the  long  siege  of  Gibraltar  [§  477]  closed  with  the  crushing  over- 
throw of  the  assailants.  So,  with  bloody  honor,  England  ended  the  most 
disastrous  war  she  had  ever  waged." 

499.  The  secession  of  the  American  colonies  did  not  injure  Eng- 
land, as  her  friends  and  foes  had  expected  it  to  do.     The  com- 


422  THE   AGE   OF  FREDERICK   II  [§500 

merce  of  the  United  States  continued  to  be  carried  on  mainly 
through  England,  and,  very  soon,  the  new  nation,  with  its 
growing  wealth,  was  buying  more  English  goods  than  the  old 
colonies  had  been  able  to  pay  for.  For  her  territorial  loss, 
England  found  compensation,  too,  to  some  degree,  in  thi> 
acquisition  of  Australia. 

500.  The  Partitions  of  Poland.  —  Just  before  the  American 
Revolution  began,  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria  united  to  mur- 
der the  old  kingdom  of  Poland,  so  as  to  divide  the  carcass. 
The  anarchy  of  Poland  gave  its  neighbors  excuse.  The  popu- 
lation consisted  of  about  twelve  million  degraded  serfs,  and 
one  hundred  thousand  selfish,  oligarchic  nobles.  The  latter 
constituted  the  government.  They  met  in  occasional  Diets, 
and,  when  the  throne  became  vacant,  they  elected  the  figure- 
head king.  Unanimous  consent  was  required  for  any  vote  in 
the  Diet,  —  each  noble  possessing  the  right  of  veto. 

Under  such  conditions,  the  other  Powers  of  Europe  had 
begun  to  play  with  Poland  at  will.  Catherine  II  of  Russia 
determined  to  seize  a  large  part  of  the  country.  Frederick  II 
persuaded  Austria  to  join  him  in  compelling  Catherine  to 
share  the  booty. 

The  "  First  Partition,"  in  1772,  pared  off  a  rind  about  the 
heart.  The  Second  and  Third  Partitions,  which  completed  the 
work  and  "assassinated  the  kingdom,"  had  not  even  the  pre- 
text of  rnisgovernnient  in  Poland  (1793,  1795).  The  Poles 
had  undertaken  sweeping  reforms,  and  the  nation  made  an 
heroic  defense  under  their  hero-leader  Kosciusko;  but  the 
great  robbers  wiped  Poland  off  the  map. 

Russia  gained  far  the  greatest  part  of  the  territory,  and  she 
now  bordered  Germany  on  the  east,  as  France  did  on  the  west. 
Plainly  the  true  policy  of  the  Germans,  early  and  late,  would 
have  been  the  honest  one  of  supporting  the  "  buffer  states  " 
Poland  and  Charles  the  Bold's  Burgundy  —  against  the  greed  of 
Russia  and  France.  Failure  to  do  so  has  left  Germany  exposed 
to  immediate  attack  by  powerful  enemies  and  has  compelled 
her  to  build  up  artificial  frontiers  of  fortresses  and  bayonets. 


501] 


THE   PARTITIONS   OF  POLAND 


423 


501.  The  True  Greatness  of  Frederick.  —  Frederick  II  had 
shown  himself  unscrupulous  in  diplomacy  and  a  genius  in  war; 
but  there  was  another  side  to  his  life,  which,  more  properly 
than  either  war  or  diplomacy,  earns  him  his  title  of  "the 


FREDERICK  THE  GREAT. 

Great."  Most  of  his  forty-six  years'  reign  was  passed  in 
peace,  and  he  proved  a  father  to  his  people.  The  beneficent 
work  of  the  Great  Elector  was  taken  up  and  carried  forward 
vigorously.  Prussia  was  transformed.  Wealth  and  comfort 
increased  by  leaps.  The  condition  of  the  peasantry  was  im- 


424  THE   AGE   OF   FREDERICK    II  [§  502 

proved,  and  the  administration  in  all  its  branches  was  made 
economical  and  efficient.  Frederick  was  also  an  author  and 
a  patron  of  literature,  though  he  admired  only  the  artificial 
French  style  of  the  age. 

502.  Above  all,  Frederick  ?'.s  a  type  of  the  "  crowned  philos- 
ophers," or  " beneficent  despots"  who  sat  upon  the  thrones  of 
Europe  in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  just  before 
the  French  Revolution.  Under  the  influence  of  a  new  en- 
lightened sentiment,  created  by  a  remarkable  school  of  French 
writers  (§  520),  government  underwent  a  marvelous  change. 
It  was  just  as  aristocratic  as  before,  —  no  more  by  the  people 
than  before,  —  but  despots  did  try  to  govern  for  the  people, 
not  for  themselves.  Sovereigns  began  iol  speak  of  themselves, 
not  as  privileged  proprietors,  but,  in  Frederick's  phrase,  as 
"  the  first  servants  of  their  states." 

Catherine  of  Russia,  Charles  III  of  Spain,  Leopold,  Arch- 
duke of  Tuscany,  Ferdinand  of  Naples,  Joseph  II  of  Austria,  all 
belonged  to  the  class  of  philosophic,  liberal-minded,  "  benevo- 
lent despots,"  of  this  period.  In  Sweden  and  Portugal  two 
great  ministers  sought  to  impose  a  like  policy  upon  the  kings. 
All  these  rulers  planned  far-reaching  reforms,  —  the  abolition 
of  serfdom,  the  building  up  of  public  education,  and  the  reform 
of  the  church. 

Frederick's  genius  and  tireless  energy  accomplished  some- 
thing for  a  time ;  but  on  the  whole  the  monarchs  made  lamen- 
table failures.  One  man  was  powerless  to  lift  the  inert  weight 
of  a  nation.  The  clergy  and  nobles,  jealous  for  their  privi- 
leges, opposed  and  thwarted  the  royal  will.  Except  in  Eng- 
land and  France,  there  was  no  large  middle  class'  to  supply 
friendly  officials  and  sympathy. 

The  most  remarkable,  and  in  some  ways  the  greatest  of 
these  philosophic  despots,  was  Joseph  II  of  Austria,  the  son 
of  Maria  Theresa;  and  he  died  disheartened,  dictating  for 
himself  the  epitaph,  "Here  lies  a  king  who  designed  many 
benefits  for  his  people,  but  who  was  unable  to  accomplish 
any  of  them."  The  kings  had  failed  to  bring  about  suffi- 


§502]  FAILURE   OF   "BENEVOLENT  DESPOTS"  425 

cient  reform ;  and  now,  in  France,  the  people  were  to  try  for 
themselves. 

FURTHER  READING  upon  the  subject  of  the  last  three  chapters  may 
profitably  be  confined  to  a  continuation  of  that  proposed  at  the  close  of 
chapter  xxvii,  on  the  expansion  of  Europe  into  the  New  Worlds.  George 
Burton  Adams'  essay,  "Anglo-Saxon  Expansion,"  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  April,  1897,  is  excellent  reading.  For  the  great  struggle  in 
America,  the  student  should  read  Parkman's  Works,  especially  his  Mont- 
calm  and  Wolfe  and  his  Half  Century  of  Conflict.  The  following  biog- 
raphies, too,  are  good :  Wilson's  Clive,  Malleson's  Dupleix  and  Lord 
Clive,  and  Bradley's  Wolfe. 

REVIEW  EXERCISES 

1.  Fact  drills. 

a.  Dates :  add  the  following  with  their  significance  :  1640-1649,  1660, 

1688,  1713,  1740,  1763,  1783. 

b.  Extend  list  of  terms  for  drill. 

c.  List  twenty  important  battles  between  843  and  1789. 

2.  Review  by  countries,  with  "  catch- words, "  from  843. 

3.  Make  a  brief  paragraph  statement  for  the  period  1648-1787,  to  include 

the  changes  in  territory  and  in  the  relative  power  of  the  different 
European  states. 


PAET   VI 

THE  TRENCH  REVOLUTION 

The  devolution  was  a  creating  force  even  more  than  a  destroying  one. 
It  was  an  inexhaustible  source  of  fertile  influences. —  FKEUKKIC  HAKKI-"\. 


CHAPTER    XXXI 

ON   THE   EVE 

503.  A  True  «  Revolution."  —  Italy  had  given  the  world  an 
intellectual  revolution ;  Germany,  a  religious  revolution ;  now 
France  was  to  give  the  political  and  social  revolution.     More 
than  any  other  of  the  so-called  "  revolutions "  in  history,  the 
French  Revolution  deserves  the  name.     The  English  Revolu- 
tion of  1688  swept  away  a  temporary  interference  with  old 
lines  of  growth.     It  was  a  "  conservative  revolution,"  restoring 
the  nation  to  an  old  groove.     The  American  Revolution  was 
merely  a  sudden  leap  forward  in  a  direction  in  which  America 
had  long  been  progressing.     But  the  French  Revolution  over- 
turned and  swept  away  a  society  and  institutions  that  had 
been  growing  up  for  centuries.     It  cut  loose  from  the  past,  and 
started  France  upon  new  lines  of  growth. 

I.    THE   ABUSES 

504.  The  Privileged  Drones.  —  In  1789  France  had  a  popula- 
tion of  about  twenty -five  millions.     One  out  of  a  hundred  was 
a  noble  or  a  clergyman.     These  two  orders  had  many  special 

426 


§505]  THE   PRIVILEGED   DRONES  427 

privileges.  Together  they  owned  half  the  soil  of  France,  with 
all  the  fine  buildings.  Besides,  they  took  from  the  peasant,  in 
church  dues  and  feudal  payments,  more  than  a  fourth  of  his 
income ;  and  they  received,  in  pensions  and  sinecure l  salaries, 
a  large  part  of  the  taxes  paid  by  the  nation. 

TJie  privileged  nobles  rendered  no  service  to  society.  They 
had  been  useful  in  early  times,  but  the  kings  now  gave  all 
political  offices  to  men  of  the  lower  classes,  and  the  nobles 
themselves  abandoned  their  remaining  duty,  as  captains  of 
local  industry,  to  become  mere  courtiers.  Said  Arthur  Young, 
an  English  gentleman  who  traveled  extensively  in  France  just 
before  the  Revolution,  —  "  Exile  alone  forces  the  French  noble 
to  do  what  an  English  noble  does  by  preference:  to  reside 
upon  his  estate,  to  improve  it." 

The  bishops  and  abbots  were  all  from  noble  families.  They 
received  immense  revenues  for  doing  nothing,  —  paying  paltry 
sums  to  subordinates  who  did  their  work,  while  they  them- 
selves lived  at  court  in  idle  luxury  or  vice. 

The  village  priests  lived  on  mere  pittances.  They  were  not 
"  privileged."  They  numbered  many  devoted  men,  and  the 
Revolution  found  them  mostly  on  the  side  of  the  people. 

The  quarter  million  of  privileged  drones  were  supported  by 
twenty-three  millions  of  unprivileged,  overburdened  workers,  —  the 
peasants  and  the  workmen  in  towns. 

505.  The  Peasants.  —  Arthur  Young  (§  504)  describes  bit- 
terly the  hideous  wretchedness  of  the  peasantry.  Among 
other  piteous  stories,  he  tells  of  a  woman  whom  he  talked 
with  on  the  road  and  whom  he  supposed  to  be  seventy  years 
old,  but  who  proved  to  be  only  twenty-seven.  Toil,  want,  and 
hard  fare  robbed  the  workers  of  youth  and  life.  Famine  was 
chronic  in  the  fertile  land  of  France,  as  it  has  been  in  Russia 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  Taxation  and  feudal  extortion  dis- 
couraged farming.  A  fourth  of  the  land  lay  waste.  Of  the 
rest,  the  tillage  was  poor,  —  little  better  than  a  thousand  years 

1  A  sinecure  is  an  office  to  which  no  duties  are  attached  ("  without  care")- 


428  CAUSES  OF  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§506 

before.  The  yield  was  a  third  less  than  in  England,  where 
great  changes  had  been  taking  place  (§  658). 

And  if  crops  failed  in  one  province,  starvation  followed,  al- 
though neighboring  provinces  might  possess  abundance.  Poor 
roads,  and  high  tolls,  and  poverty,  and  the  government's  care- 
lessness made  it  impossible  for  one  district  to  draw  relief 
from  another. 

At  other  times,  when  things  were  not  so  bad,  great  numbers 
lived  on  a  coarse  bread  made  of  bran  and  bark  and  acorns  — 
because  of  which,  says  an  official  report  of  the  time,  "  the  chil- 
dren very  commonly  die." 

Conditions  varied  greatly,  however,  in  different  parts  of 
France,  and  in  some  districts  the  peasants  were  fairly  prosper- 
ous. As  a  whole  they  were  far  ahead  of  the  peasants  in  Ger- 
many or  Italy  or  Spain  or  Austria,  though  vastly  below  the 
English  peasants.  They  played  a  part  in  the  Revolution  !><>- 
cause  they  had  already  progressed  far  enough  to  feel  the  possi- 
bility of  further  progress. 

506.  A  million  and  a  half  were  still  serfs,  but  these  were 
nearly  all  in  Alsace  or  Lorraine,  the  regions  lately  seized  from 
Germany.  Elsewhere  they  had  become  free  in  person,  and  many 
of  them  owned  little  garden  spots  of  land. 

But  even  when  the  peasant  owned  land,  he  owned  if  sultj^t 
to  many  ancient  feudal  obligations.  He  could  leave  it,  if  he 
liked  (with  no  chance  to  do  better);  and  he  could  not  be 
turned  off  so  long  as  he  made  the  customary  payments  in 
labor  and  in  produce.  That  is,  he  had  advanced  out  of  serfdom 
to  a  state  of  villeinage  somewhat  like  that  of  the  English  villeins 
before  the  Peasant  Rising  of  1381.  Like  them,  a  French  peas- 
ant was  oppressed  by  a  lot  of  annoying  and  costly  restrictions, 
which  varied  somewhat  from  place  to  place.  In  general,  he 
could  not  sell  his  land  without  buying  his  lord's  consent,  nor 
sell  any  of  his  crop  except  in  the  lord's  market,  with  tolls  for 
the  privilege.  Commonly,  he  could  still  grind  his  grain  only 
at  the  lord's  mill,  leaving  one-sixteenth  the  flour,  and  he  could 
bake  only  in  the  lord's  oven,  leaving  a  loaf  in  pay. 


§509] 


THE    WORKERS 


429 


507.  Most  grievous  of  all  the  feudal  burdens  were  the  nobles' 
rights  to  hunt.  The  peasant  must  not  under  any  circum- 
stances injure  the  rabbits  or  pigeons  or  deer  that  devoured  his 
crop ;  but  the  nobles  at  will  might  ride  over  the  crops  to  chase 
the  game.  On  penalty  of  death,  the  peasant  might  not  carry 
a  gun,  even  to  kill  wolves.  He  could  not  enter  his  own  field, 
to  till  it,  when  the  pheasants  were  hatching  or  the  rabbits  were 


THE  CHATEAU  OF  CHENONCEAU.    A  typical  residence  of  the  nobles. 

young.     Year  after  year  the  crops  were  trampled  by  huntsmen 
or  devoured  by  game. 

508.  The  laborers   in   the  towns  were  little  better  off  than 
those  in  the  country.     Writers  of  the  time  describe  them  as 
pallid,  haggard,  dwarfed,  — "  sullen  masses  of  rags  and  mis- 
ery," huddled  in  garrets  and  cellars.     The  regulations  of  the 
gilds  left  the  poorer  workmen  in  the  towns  little  chance  to 
rise  into  well-paid  employments,  and  hampered  the  prosperity 
even  of  the  shopkeepers  and  small  manufacturers. 

509.  The  gild  system  of  the  Middle  Ages  had  lost  its  useful- 
ness, but  remained  in  .France  (and  elsewhere  on  the  continent) 


430  CAUSES  OF  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§510 

with  all  its  old  power  to  interfere  with  individuals.  Commonly 
it  forbade  a  master  to  keep  more  than  one  apprentice,  or  to 
sell  any  goods  which  he  had  not  himself  manufactured.  A 
"cobbler"  who  mended  shoes  could  not  make  new  ones.  A 
baker  could  make  bread,  but  not  cakes.  A  hatter  in  Paris 
who  improved  his  hats  (and  took  trade  from  other  hatters)  by 
mixing  silk  in  his  wool,  had  his  whole  stock  burned,  because 
gild  regulations  ordered  "  pure  wool "  for  hats.  The  "  masters  " 
decided  when  to  admit  journeymen  to  their  class;  and  if  a 
journeyman  ventured  to  manufacture  by  himself  before  being 
so  admitted,  the  government  sent  him  to  prison  or  to  the  gal- 
leys, and  seized  his  goods. 

510.  The  Middle  Class.  —  \Ve  have  surveyed  the  narrow  apex 
and  the  broad  base  of  society.     Between  the  two  came  an  im- 
portant middle  class,  composed  of  bankers,  lawyers,  physicians, 
men  of  letters,  merchants,  and  shopkeepers  (gild  "  masters  "). 
The  middle  class  was  smaller  than  in  England,  but  much  larger 
than  in  any  other  European  country.     It  was  to  furnish  most 
of  the  leaders  of  the  Revolution,  and,  indeed,  to  make  a  revolu- 
tion possible. 

511.  The  bankruptcy  of  the  government  was  the  immediate 
occasion  for  the  first  movement  in  the  Revolution.     The  mon- 
archy felt  no  responsibility  to  the   nation,  and   so   it   spent 
money  extravagantly,  wastefully,  wickedly.     Louis  XIV,  we 
have   seen,  left  France   burdened  with   a  huge   debt.      The 
cynical,  dissolute  Louis  XV  wasted  as  much  in  vice  as  his 
predecessor  had  wasted  in  war.     Much  of  the  rest  of  the  rev- 
enue was  given  away  in  pensions  to  unworthy  favorites  and 
needy  nobles,  or  stolen  by  corrupt  officials. 

On  the  eve  of  the  Revolution,  three  maiden  aunts  of  the  king  re- 
ceived $120,000  a  year  for  their  food  — most  of  which,  of  course,  went 
to  enrich  dishonest  servants.  Some  $17,000,000  went  each  year  in 
grants  to  members  of  the  royal  family  and  in  pensions.  This  amounted 
to  about  $  50,000,000,  in  our  values  to-day. 

512.  The  treasury,  emptied  in  these  shameful  ways,  was  filled 
in   ways   equally   shameful.       Taxes   were   frightful,    but   the 


§514]  UNFAIR   TAXES  .  431 

privileged  orders  practically  escaped  them.  The  clergy  were 
exempt  by  law,  and  the  nobles  escaped  by  their  influence.  The 
richest  man  in  France,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  stated  the  case 
frankly.  "I  make  arrangements  with  the  tax  officials,"  he 
said,  "and  pay  only  what  I  wish."  Large  numbers  of  the 
wealthier  men  of  the  middle  class  escaped  also,  often  by  purchas- 
ing exemption  in  the  form  of  sinecure  offices  connected  with 
the  royal  household. 

Thus  payment  was  made  only  by  those  least  able  to  pay, 
and  various  clumsy  devices  made  the  collection  needlessly 
burdensome  even  on  them  (§  513). 

513.  Two  of  the  many  direct  taxes  were  especially  offensive 
and  oppressive.     (1)  The  peasant  was  compelled  to  leave  his 
own  work,  no  matter  how  critical  the  harvest  time,  at  the  call 
of  an  official,  to  toil  without  pay  on  roads  or  other  public  works. 
This  labor  tax  was  called  the  corvee. 

(2)  The  chief  tax  had  once  been  a  land  tax.  This  now  was 
assessed  only  on  peasant  villages,  and  it  had  become  a  wholly 
arbitrary  tax,  fixed  each  year  by  the  government.  On  one 
occasion,  an  official  wrote:  "The  people  of  this  village  are 
stout,  and  there  are  chicken  .feathers  before  the  doors.  The 
taxes  here  should  be  greatly  increased  next  year."  So,  too,  if 
a  villager  lived  in  a  better  house  than  his  neighbors,  the  offi- 
cials made  him  pay  a  larger  share  of  the  common  village  tax. 
So  the  peasants  concealed  jealously  what  few  comforts  they 
had,  and  left  their  cottages  in  ruins. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  on  the  average  a  peasant  paid 
over  half  his  income  in  direct  taxes  to  the  government.  Feudal 
dues  and  church  tithes  raised  the  amount  to  over  four-fifths 
his  income.  From  the  remaining  one-fifth,  he  had  not  only  to 
support  his  family  but  also  to  pay  various  indirect  taxes. 

514.  The  most  famous  indirect  tax  was  that  upon  salt.1    This 
was  called  the  gabelle.     It  raised  the  price  of  salt  many  times 

1  The  man  who  sold  the  salt  paid  the  tax  to  the  government.  The  man 
who  bought  salt  had  of  course  to  pay  back  the  tax  in  a  higher  price.  So  it  is 
called  an  indirect  tax. 


432  .   CAUSES   OF  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§515 

its  first  value.  No  salt  could  be  bought  except  from  the  gov- 
ernment agents,  and  every  family  was  compelled  by  law  to 
purchase  from  these  agents  at  least  seven  pounds  a  year  for 
every  member  over  seven  years  of  age.  This  amount,  too,  was 
for  the  table  only.  If  the  peasant  salted  down  a  pig,  he  must 
buy  an  additional  supply  for  that  purpose.  Thousands  of  per- 
sons every  year  were  hanged  or  sent  to  the  galleys  for  trying 
to  evade  the  tax. 

This  tax  was  "  farmed "  to  collectors,  who  paid  the  govern- 
ment a  certain  amount  down,  and  then  secured  what  they 
could  get  above  that  amount  for  their  own  profit.  Only  one- 
fifth  the  amount  collected  reached  the  treasury.  Many  other 
indirect  taxes — on  candles,  fuel,  grain,  and  flour  —  were 
farmed  out  in  similar  fashion. 

515.  Another  class  of  vexatious  indirect  taxes  were  the  tolls 
and  tariffs  on  goods.     These  payments  were  required  not  only  at 
the  frontier  of  France,  but  again  and  again,  at  the  border  of 
each  province  and  even  at  the  gate  of  each  town,  as  the  goods 
traveled  through  the  country.     Workmen  who  crossed  a  river 
from  their  homes  in  one  district  to  their  day's  work  in  another 
had  to  pay  a  tariff  on  the  luncheon  in  their  pockets  ;  and  fish, 
on  their  way  to  Paris  from  the  coast,  paid  thirteen  times  tltt-ir 
first  cost  in  such  tolls. 

516.  The  Centralized  Government. — Directly  about  the  king 
was  a  Council  of  State.     Subject  to  the  king's  approval,  it  fixed 
the  taxes  and  the  levy  for  the  army,  drew  up  edicts,  and  indeed 
ruled  France.     Its  members  were  appointed  by  the  king,  and  held 
office  only  at  his  pleasure. 

France  was  made  up  of  about  thirty  districts,  which  corre- 
sponded roughly  to  the  old  feudal  provinces.  At  the  head  of 
each  such  province  was  a  governor  appointed  by  the  king. 
Subject  to  the  royal  power,  he  was  an  unchecked  despot,  with 
tremendous  power  for  good  or  evil. 

In  the  parish  the  mayor  or  syndic  was  sometimes  chosen  by 
the  people,  sometimes  appointed  by  the  governor ;  but  the  gov- 
ernor could  always  remove  him  at  will.  The  parish  assembly 


§518]  THE   GOVERNMENT  433 

could  not  meet  without  the  governor's  permission,  and  it  could 
not  take  any  action  by  itself.  Had  the  wind  damaged  the 
parish  steeple  ?  The  parish  might  petition  for  permission  to 
repair  it,  —  at  their  own  expense,  of  course.  The  governor 
would  send  the  petition,  with  his  recommendation,  to  the  Council 
of  State  at  Paris,  and  a  reply  might  be  expected  in  a  year  or 
two.  Tocqueville  declares  (France  before  the  Revolution,  92) 
that  in  the  musty  archives  he  found  many  cases  of  this  kind 
where  the  original  sum  needed  for  repair  would  not  have 
exceeded  five  dollars. 

517.  The  government  could  send  any  man  in  France  to  prison 
without  trial  merely  by  a  "  letter  "  with  the  royal  seal.     Such 
"  letters  of  the  seal "  were  not  only  used  to  remove  political 
offenders,  but  they  were  also  often  given,  or  sold,  to  private 
men  who  wished  to  remove  rivals.     The  government  of  Louis 
XV  issued  150,000  such  letters. 

Usually  the  imprisonments  were  for  a  few  months;  but 
sometimes  the  wretch  was  virtually  forgotten  and  left  to  die  in 
prison,  perhaps  without  ever  learning  the  cause  of  his  arrest. 
Arthur  Young  (§  504)  tells  of  an  Englishman  who  had  been 
kept  in  a  French  prison  thirty  years,  although  not  even  the 
government  held  a  record  of  the  reason.  Very  properly  did 
Blackstone,  the  English  law  writer,  class  France  with  Turkey 
as  countries  where  "personal  liberty"  was  "wholly  at  the 
mercy  of  the  ruler." 

518.  This  centralized  machinery  was  clumsy,  and  complicated 
by  the  fact  that  France  was  still  a  patchwork  of  territories 
which  had  been  seized  piece  by  piece  by  the  kings.     Each 
province  had  its  own  laws  and  customs,  its  own  privileges  and 
exemptions.     France  was  covered  with  shadows  of  old  local 
governments,  which  had  lost  their  power  for  action  but  which 
remained  powerful  to    delay  and   obstruct.     Two   classes   of 
such    survivals    need   attention, — the   Provincial   Assemblies 
of  certain  districts,  and  the  Parlement  of   Paris. 

Anciently,  each  province  had  had  its  Assembly  of  three  estates.  In 
the  thirteenth  century,  the  French  kings  began  to  abolish  these 


434  CAUSES  OF  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§519 

assemblies ;  but  several  large  provinces  kept  them  until  the 
Revolution.  These  "Provinces  with  Estates"  like  Brittany, 
Languedoc,  and  Champagne,  were  all  on  the  frontier.  They 
had  been  acquired  late,  and  had  preserved  their  "  Estates  "  by 
treaty.  The  Provincial  Estates  exercised  considerable  control 
over  local  improvements  and  local  taxation. 

Tlie  Parlement  of  Paris  was  a  law  court.  When  the  kinur 
issued  a  new  edict,  it  was  not  considered  in  force  until  it  had 
been  "  registered,"  or  put  on  record,  by  this  Parlement.  The 
Parlement  could  send  back  an  objectionable  edict  with  a  re- 
monstrance, and  so  might  possibly  secure  a  reconsideration. 

II.     THE  SPIRIT  OF  CHANGE 

519.  A  revolution,  it  has  been  said,  requires  not  only  abuses 
but  also  ideas.     The  combustibles  were  ready  ;  so  were  the  men 
of  ideas,  to  apply  the  match. 

Science  had  upset  all  old  ideas  about  the  world  outside  man. 
The  telescope  had  proved  that  other  planets  like  our  earth 
revolved  around  the  sun,  and  that  myriads  of  other  suns 
whirled  through  boundless  space ;  and  the  English  Newton  had 
shown  how  this  vast  universe  is  bound  together  by  the  un- 
varying "  laws "  of  unseen  gravitation.  The  microscope  had 
revealed  an  undreamed-of  world  of  minute  life  in  air  and 
earth  and  water  all  around  us ;  and  air,  earth,  water  (and  fire) 
themselves  had  changed  their  nature.  The  Ancients  had 
taught  that  they  were  the  "original  elements"  out  of  which 
everything  else  was  made  up.  But  the  French  Lavo i*i'-r. 
founder  of  modern  chemistry,  had  lately  decomposed  water  and 
air  into  gases,  and  shown  that  fire  was  a  union  of  one  of  these 
gases  with  earthy  carbon. 

520.  Such  a  revolution,  in  the  way  of  looking  at  the  material 
world,  prepared  men  to  ask  questions  about  the  world  of  men  and 
society.     Tradition  and  authority  had  been  proven  silly  in  the 
first  field:  perhaps  they  were  not  always  right  in  the  other 
field.   .England,  with  its  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press, 
led    in   this    revolt    against   the   authority   of   the   past,   but 


§521] 


VOLTAIRE   AND   ROUSSEAU 


435 


English  writers  were  relatively  cautious.  Their  speculations 
were  carried  much  farther  by  French  writers  who  quickly 
spread  their  influence  over  all  Europe.  About  1750  there  began 
an  age  of  dazzling  brilliancy  in  French  literature  and  scholarship. 
Never  before  had  any  country  seen  so  many  and  so  famous  men 
of  letters  at  one  time.  Of  the  scores,  we  can  mention  only 
four  foremost  ones  —  Vol- 
taire, Montesquieu,  Dide- 
rot, and  Rousseau. 

521.  Voltaire,  in  1750, 
had  already  won  his  fame, 
and  he  ruled  as  the  intel- 
lectual monarch  of  Eu- 
rope for  thirty  years  more. 
He  came  from  the  middle 
class.  As  a  young  man, 
the  king  had  imprisoned 
him  for  libel  by  a  "  letter 
of  the  seal " ;  and  a  dis- 
sipated noble  had  hired  a 
band  of  ruffians  to  beat 
him  nearly  to  death.  Some 

years  of  exile  he  spent  in  England,  where,  he  says,  he  "  learned 
to  think."  Most  of  his  writing  was  destructive  ;  but  the  old 
in  Europe  needed  to  be  swept  away,  before  new  growth  could 
start.  He  had  biting  satire,  mocking  wit,  keen  reasoning,  and 
incisive,  vigorous  style.  So  armed,  he  attacked  daringly  the 
absurdities  in  society  and  the  superstitions  and  scandals  of  the 
church. 

He  railed  at  absentee  bishops  of  licentious  lives ;  he  ques- 
tioned the  privileges  of  the  nobles ;  and  he  pitilessly  exposed 
the  iniquity  of  the  gabelle  and  of  the  "letters  of  the  seal." 
The  church  seemed  to  him  the  chief  foe  to  human  progress ; 
and  in  his  invective  against  its  abuses  he  sometimes  confused 
them  with  Christianity  itself.  So  too  did  most  of  the  other 
writers  in  this  brilliant  company.  But  "  their  glory  lies  not 


VOLTAIRE. 


436  CAUSES  OF  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§522 

in  their  contempt  for  things  holy,  but  in  their  scorn  for  things 
unjust." 

Voltaire's  powerful  plea  for  religious  tolerance  and  his  life-long 
exposure  of  the  folly  and  wrong  of  religious  persecution  had 
much  to  do  with  creating  the  free  atmosphere  in  which  we 
live  to-day.  Our  American  Lowell  says,  "  We  owe  half  our 
liberty  to  that  leering  old  mocker " ;  and  Professor  Jowett 
of  Oxford,  an  English  Churchman,  declares  that  Voltaire 
"did  more  good  than  all  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  together." 
He  is  often  incorrectly  called  an  atheist.  He  was  not  a 
Christian,  but  he  was  a  deist,  —  a  firm  believer  in  a  God  re- 
vealed in  nature  and  in  the  human  soul. 

522.  Montesquieu,  in  a  famous  book,  TV  Spirit  of  Laics,  con- 
trasted French  despotism  with  political  liberty  in  England. 

523.  In  1751   Diderot  and  a  group  of  companions  published 
the  first  volume  of   the  great  French  Encyclopedia^   a  work 
which  was  completed  twenty  years  later,  in  thirty-seven  vol- 
umes.    The  purpose  of  "  the  Encyclopedists  "  was  to  gather 
up  all  the  results  of  the  new  science  and  new  thought,  and  to 
make  them  known  to  larger  numbers.     Their  great  work  has 
been  called  "  a  rising  in  battle  array  of  all  the  men  of  the  new 
era  against  all  the  powers  of  the  past." 

524.  Rousseau  and  Democracy.  —  Voltaire  and  his  fellows  ad- 
mired the  constitutional  monarchy  of  England;  but  they  looked 
for  reform  rather  from  some  enlightened,  philosophic  despot. 
One  alone  among  them  stood  for  democracy.      7V//x  fv/.s  ]{fniwnn. 
He  wrote  much  that  was  absurd  about  an  ideal  "  state  of  nature  " 
before  men  "invented  governments"  and  created  an  "artificial 
civilization";   but  he  taught,  more  forcefully  than  any  man 
before  him,  the  sovereignty  of  the  whole  people.     His  most 
famous  book  (The  Social  Contract,  1762)  opens  with  the  words, 
"Man  was  born  free,  but  he  is  now  everywhere  in  chains"; 
and  it  argues  passionately  that  it  is  man's  right  and  duty  to 
recover  freedom.     Rousseau's  moral  earnestness  and  enthusi- 
asm made  his  doctrine  almost  a  religion  with  his  disciples.     He 
was  the  prophet  of  the  political  side  of  the  coining  Revolution. 


§527]  NATIONAL  BANKRUPTCY  437 

525.  Some  years  before  the  French  Revolution  began,  the  ideas,  and 
even  some  of  the  phrases,  of  Rousseau  began  to  have  a  powerful  influence 
in  America.     They  did   not  create  the  American  Revolution,  but  they 
helped    that    great    movement  to    justify    itself    in    words.      Passages 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  in  many  of  the  original  state  con- 
stitutions about  natural  equality  and  freedom,  are  popularly  supposed  to 
be  due  to  American  admiration  for  Rousseau.     Rousseau,  however,  drew 
these  ideas  to  a  great  extent  from  John  Locke  and  other  English  writers 
of  the   seventeenth   century  ;    and   we   cannot   always  tell  whether  an 
American  document  is  affected  directly  by  Rousseau  or  by  the  older  but 
less  impressive  English  literature. 

526.  "  Liberalism  "  becomes  Fashionable.  —  When  the  French 
writers  began  to  attack  hoary  abuses,  they  ran  extreme  per- 
sonal risks  and  played  an  heroic  part.     The  same  movement, 
however,  that  produced  these  men  of  letters  was  at  work  in 
all  social  circles.     The  writers  intensified  the  movement,  and, 
before  long,  criticism  of  existing  arrangements  became  general. 

Even  the  privileged  orders  began  to  talk  about  their  own 
uselessuess.  When  the  great  .noble  in  a  popular  play  was 
asked  what  he  had  done  to  deserve  all  his  privileges,  and 
when  it  was  answered  for  him,  "Your  Excellency  took  the 
trouble  to  be  born,"  the  audience  of  nobles  in  the  boxes 
laughed  and  applauded. 

Upon  the  whole,  however,  the  mass  of  the  privileged  classes 
remained  selfish  and  scornful.  The  chief  influence  of  the  new 
philosophy  was  in  its  effect  upon  the  unprivileged  masses.  The 
third  estate  became  conscious  of  its  wrongs  and  of  its  power. 
Said  a  famous  pamphlet  by  Sieyes  on  the  eve  of  the  Revo- 
lution, "  What  really  is  the  third  estate  ?  Everything.  What 
has  it  been  so  far  in  the  state?  Nothing.  What  does  it  ask? 
To  be  something." 

III.   THE   GOVERNMENT  ATTEMPTS   REFORMS,    1774-1789 

527.  In  1774  the  dissolute  but  able  Louis  XV  was   suc- 
ceeded by  the  well-disposed  but  irresolute  Louis  XVI.     This 
prince  had  a  vague  notion  of  what  was  right  and  a  general 


438 


CAUSES  OF  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 


[§  o28 


desire  to  do  it,  but  he  lacked  moral  courage  and  will  power. 
His  weakness  was  as  harmful  to  France  as  his  predecessor's 
wickedness.  He  abandoned  the  wisest  policy  and  the  best 
ministers,  rather  than  face  the  sour  looks  of  the  courtiers  and 
the  pouts  of  the  queen. 

528.  The  Queen  was  Marie  Antoinette,  daughter  of  the  great 
Maria  Theresa  of  Austria.  She  was  young,  high-spirited,  and 

lovely,  but  ignorant,  friv- 
olous, and  selfishly  bent 
upon  her  own  pleasures. 
The  king  was  greatly  in- 
fluenced by  her,  and  al- 
most always  for  evil. 

529.  National  Bank- 
ruptcy.—  When  Louis 
X  V I  came  to  the  throne, 
the  national  debt  was 
some  five  hundred  million 
dollars,  and  it  icas  increas- 
ing each  year  by  ten  m  iVi<»> 
dollars  more.  This  con- 
dition stirred  Louis  to 
spasmodic  attempts  at  re- 
form, and  he  called  to  his 
aid  Turgot,  a  man  of  let- 
ters, a  reformer,  and  an  ex- 
perienced administrator. 
530.  Turgot  had  been  a  Provincial  governor  for  many  years, 
and  had  made  remarkable  improvements  in  his  district.  Now 
he  set  about  conferring  still  greater  benefits  on  all  France. 

He  abolished  the  forced  labor  on  the  roads,  the  internal 
tariffs  on  grain,  and  the  outgrown  gilds  with  their  tyrannical 
restrictions.  "  The  right  to  labor,"  said  his  public  proclama- 
tion on  this  occasion,  "  is  the  most  sacred  of  all  possessions. 
Every  law  by  which  it  is  limited  violates  the  Natural  Rights 
of  man,  and  is  null  and  void."  He  also  cut  down  the  frivolous 


MARIE    ANTOINETTE.  —  From    a    painting 
by  Mme.  Le  Brun. 


§532]  TURGOT  AND   NECKER  439 

expenses  of  the  court,  and  curtailed  the  absurd  pension  list 
remorselessly. 

Turgot  planned  other  vast  and  far-reaching  reforms,  —  to 
recast  the  whole  system  of  taxation,  to  equalize  burdens,  to 
abolish  feudal  dues,  and  to  introduce  a  system  of  public  educa- 
tion :  "  a  whole  pacific  French  Revolution  in  that  head,"  says 
Carlyle.  But  the  courtiers  looked  black  ;  the  queen  hated  the 
reformer,  who  interfered  with  her  pleasures ;  and  so  Louis 
grew  cold,  and,  after  only  twenty  months,  dismissed  the  man 
who  might  perhaps  have  saved  France  from  a  revolution  of 
violence. 

531.  Necker.  —  All  Turgot' s  reforms  were  swiftly  undone; 
but,  in  1776,  Necker,  another  reformer,  was  called  to  the  helm. 
Necker  was  not  a  great  statesman  like  Turgot,  but  he  was  a 
good  business  man  with   liberal  views,   and   he   might  have 
accomplished  something  for  the  treasury  if  his  difficulties  had 
not  been  tremendously  augmented  in  an  unforeseen  manner. 
In  1778  France  joined  America  in  .the  war  against  England 
(§  498).     The   new  "  loans  "  l  to  support   the  expense  of  the 
war  increased  the  national  debt,  and  made  it  even  more  im- 
possible to  pay  the  annual  interest. 

Then  Necker  laid  before  the  king  a  plan  for  sweeping 
reform,  much  along  Turgot's  lines;  but  the  universal  outcry 
of  the  privileged  classes  caused  Louis  to  dismiss  him  from 
office  (1781). 

532.  Calonne  and  the   Notables.  —  Once   more,   all    the    old 
abuses  were  restored.     Then  a  new  minister  of  finance,  the 
courtly  Calonne,  adopted  the  policy  of  an  unscrupulous  bank- 
rupt, and  tried  to  create  credit  by  lavish  extravagance.     For  a 
time  this  was  successful ;  but  in  1786  the  treasury  was  running 
behind  to  the  amount  of  twenty-Jive  milliondollars  a  year !     Even 
adroit  Calonne  could  borrow  no  more  money  to  pay  expenses  or 
interest.     Under  these  conditions,  the  minister  persuaded  Louis 
to  call  together  the  "  Notables  of  France." 

1  When  a  nation  sells  bonds  to  raise  money,  the  proceeding  is  called  a  loan. 


440  EVE   OF  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§533 

TJie  Notables  were  composed  of  such  leading  nobles  and  clergy 
as  the  king  pleased  to  summon.  To  the  amazed  gathering, 
Galonne  suggested  that  the  privileged  orders  give  up  their 
exemption  from  taxation.  All  cried  out  against  him,  —  the 
few  Liberals  for  what  he  had  done  in  the  past,  the  many  Con- 
servatives for  what  he  now  proposed  to  do. 

533.  The  Parlement  of  Paris.  —  Calonne  gave  way  to  a  new 
minister,  a  favorite  of  the  queen,  who  found  himself  at  once 
driven  to  Calonne's  plan.     It  was  necessary  to  get  more  money, 
and  that  could  be  done  only  by  taxing  those  who  had  something 
wherewith  to  pay. 

As  the  Notables  were  still  stubborn,  they  were  dismissed, 
and  the  king  tried  to  force  the  plan  upon  the  nobles  by  royal 
edict.  The  Parlement  of  Paris,  like  the  Notables,  represented 
the  privileged  orders.  It  refused  to  register  the  edict  (§  518), 
and  cloaked  dislike  to  reform  under  the  excuse  that  the  only 
power  in  France  which  could  properly  impose  a  new  tax  wax  the 
States  General.  Louis  banished  the  Parlement,  but  it  had  given 
a  rallying  cry  to  the  nation. 

534.  The  States  General  (§  196)  had  not  met  since  1614.     Sug- 
gestions for  assembling  it  had  been  made  from  time  to  time, 
ever  since  Louis  XVI  became  king.     At  the  session  of  the 
Notables,  Lafayette  had  called  for  it.     Now,  after  the  action 
of  the  Parlement,  the  demand  became  universal  and  imperious. 
Finally,  August,  1788,  the  king  yielded.     He  recalled  Necker 
and  promised  that  the  States  General  should  be  assembled. 


IV.    SUMMARY 

535.    The  chief  institutions  of  France  were :  — 

(1)  a  monarchy,   despotic  and   irresponsible,  but   in  weak 
hands  and  anxious  to  keep  the  good  opinion  of  the  nobles ; 

(2)  an  aristocracy,  wealthy,  privileged,  corrupt,  skeptical ; 

(3)  an  established  church,  wealthy  and  often  corrupt. 
Below,  spread  the  masses,  a  necessary  but  ugly  substructure. 

Like  conditions  existed  over  the  continent.     In  France,  as  com- 


§536]  CAUSES   OF   REVOLUTION  441 

pared  with  the  other  large  countries,  the  nobles  had  fewer 
duties,  the  peasantry  had  risen  somewhat,  and  more  of  a  middle 
class  had  grown  up.  That  is,  feudal  society  was  more  decayed, 
and  the  industrial  state  was  more  advanced,  than  in  other  con- 
tinental countries.  This  explains  why  the  Revolution  came 
in  France.  Revolutions  break  through  in  the  weakest  spots. 

536.  The  Causes  of  the  Revolution  Classified.  —  First  among  the 
causes  of  the  Revolution,  we  must  put  the  unjust  privileges  of 
the  small  upper  class  and  the  crushing  burdens  borne  by  the 
great  non-privileged  mass.  These  evils,  however,  were  no 
greater  than  for  centuries  before.  Bat  the  consciousness  of  them 
was  greater  than  ever  before.  Not  only  was  the  system  bad, 
but  men  knew  that  it  was  bad.  The  masses  were  beginning 
to  demand  reform,  and  the  privileged  classes  and  the  govern- 
ment had  begun  to  distrust  their  rights.  Their  power  of  resist- 
ance was  weakened  by  such  doubts.  This  new  intellectual 
condition  was  due  primarily  to  the  new  school  of  French  men  of 
letters. 

The  bankruptcy  of  the  national  treasury  opened  the  way  for 
other  forces  to  act.  It  started  the  government  itself  upon 
the  path  of  reform ;  and  the  inefficiency  and  indecision  of  the 
government  led  the  people  finally  to  seize  upon  the  reform 
movement  themselves,  —  a  result  greatly  hastened  by  the  polit- 
ical doctrines  made  popular  just  before  by  Rousseau. 

The  American  Revolution  helped  directly  to  bring  on  the 
French  Revolution  by  sinking  the  French  monarchy  more 
hopelessly  into  bankruptcy.  In  other  indirect  ways  the 
American  movement  contributed  to  that  in  France.  Lafayette 
and  other  young  nobles  who  had  served  in  America  came  home 
with  liberal  ideas  strengthened;  and  the  French  regiments 
that  had  fought  side  by  side  with  the  American  yeomanry  had 
imbibed  democratic  ideas  and  were  soon  to  declare  themselves 
"the  army  of  the  nation,"  not  of  the  king.  Said  Arthur 
Young  in  1789,  "The  American  Revolution  has  laid  the 
foundation  for  another  one  in  France." 

Further,  to  run  a  centralized   despotism  with  real  success 


442  EVE   OF  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§536 

calls  for  a  Caesar  or  a  Napoleon.  But  hereditary  monarchy 
in  Europe  in  the  eighteenth  century  had  ceased  to  furnish 
great  rulers.  The  American  Jefferson,  with  some  exaggeration, 
wrote  from  Paris  in  1787  that  not  a  king  in  Europe  had  ability 
needful  to  fit  him  for  a  Virginia  vestryman.  Louis  XIV  had 
been  a  tireless  worker.  But  the  selfish,  indolent  Louis  XV 
said  to  his  favorite,  "Let  the  good  machine  run  itself.  It 
will  last  our  time.  After  us,  the  deluge/'  On  his  deathbed, 
the  same  shameless  king  said,  —  "I  should  like  very  much  to 
see  how  Berry  will  pull  through."  Under  "Berry"  (Louis 
XVI),  the  "  machine  "  went  to  pieces  and  the  "  deluge  "  came. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Source  material  may  be  found  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Reprints,  IV,  No  6,  and  VI,  No.  1  (short  extracts  from 
French  writers  of  the  time),  and  in  Robinson's  Readings,  II.  Arthur 
Young's  Travels  in  France  in  1787-1789  is  the  best  contemporary  de- 
scription. Students  may  dip  into  it  to  advantage. 

Modern  accounts  :  Lowell's  Eve  of  the  French  /,'.<•,,/„//,,„  is  th<-  lust 
one-volume  survey,  for  popular  purposes.  Maclehose's  Last  Days  of  the 
French  Monarchy,  Grant's  Fall  of  the  French  Monarchy,  and  Dabney's 
Causes  of  the  French  Revolution,  are  good.  John  Morley's  Lives  of  Vol- 
taire, Rousseau,  and -Diderot,  and  his  essays  in  his  Miscellanies,  upon 
"France  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  "  (Vol.  Ill)  and  "Turgot"  (Vol. 
II),  are  admirable  and  interesting.  The  opening  pages  of  most  of  the 
histories  of  the  Revolution  listed  on  page  460  have  brief  treatments  of  the 
conditions  before  1789, —especially  Shailer  Mathews  (pages  1-110), 
Mallet  (6-50),  and  Gardiner  (1-32).  One  of  these  three  should  be  read. 


CHAPTER   XXXII 

THE   REVOLUTION   IN   TIME   OF   PEACE 

I.     MAY  TO  AUGUST,  1789  :   THE  ASSEMBLY  AT  VERSAILLES 

537.  In  electing  the  States  General,  the  country  was  divided 
into  districts.     The  nobility  and  clergy  of  each  district  came 
together  to  choose  delegates.     The  delegates  of  the  third  estate 
were  elected  indirectly  by  "  electoral  colleges."      In  choosing 
these  colleges,  all  taxpayers  had  a  voice. 

When  finally  chosen,  the  States  General  consisted  of  about 
600  members  of  the  third  estate,  300  nobles,  and  300  clergy. 
Of  this  last  order,  two-thirds  were  village  priests.  The  dele- 
gates possessed  no  political  experience ;  but  the  bulk  of  the 
third  estate  were  lawyers,  and,  as  a  whole,  the  gathering  was 
scholarly  and  cultured. 

538.  The  States  General   becomes  the  National  Assembly.— 
May  5, 1789,  the  king  opened  the  States  General  at  Versailles.1 
The  royal  address  suggested  some  reforms,  but  it  was  plain 
that  the  king  hoped  mainly  for  more  taxes,  and  enthusiastic 
Liberals  were  sadly  disappointed.     Even  Necker's  three-hour 
address,  which  followed  the  king's,  dwelt  only  upon  the  need 
for  prompt  action  to  relieve  the  government's  financial  straits. 

The  nobles  and  the  clergy  then  organized  as  separate 
chambers,  after  the  ancient  fashion.  This  would  have  given 
the  privileged  orders  two  votes,  to  one  for  the  third  estate,  and 
would  have  blocked  reforms.  The  third  estate  insisted  that 
all  three  orders  should  organize  in  a  single  chamber,  —  where  its 

1  Read  Carlyle's  account  of  the  procession.  Louis  XIV  had  built  a  splendid 
palace  at  Versailles,  —  twelve  miles  southwest  of  Paris, — and  this  place  re- 
mained the  favorite  residence  of  the  French  kings. 

443 


444  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§539 

membership  could  outvote  the  other  orders  combined.  There 
followed  a  deadlock  for  five  weeks. 

But  delay  was  serious.  The  preceding  harvest  had  been  a 
failure,  and  famine  stalked  through  the  land.  In  Pans,  every 
bakeshop  had  its  "tail"  of  men  and  women,  standing  through 
the  night  for  a  chance  to  buy  bread.  Such  conditions  called 
for  speedy  action,  especially  as  the  ignorant  masses  had  got 
it  into  their  heads  that  the  marvelous  States  General  would  in 
some  way  make  food  plenty. 

Finally  (June  17),  on  motion  of  Sieves  (§  526),  an  ex-priest, 
the  third  estate  declared  that  by  itself  it  represented  niin?ty-*i.r 
per  cent  of  the  nation,  and  that,  with  or  without  the  other 
orders,  it  would  organize  as  a  National  Assembly.1  Tliis  loos  a 
revolution.  It  changed  a  gathering  of  feudal  "Estates"  intn  <m 
assembly  representing  the  nation  as  one  whole.  Nothimj  of  thix 
kind  had  ever  been  seen  before  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 

539.  /The  Tennis  Court  Oath.  —  Two  days  later,  the  National 
Assembly  was  joined  by  half  the  clergy  (mainly  parish  priests, 
§  504)  and  by  a  few  liberal  nobles.  But  the  next  morning  the 
Assembly  found  sentries  at  the  doors  of  their  hall,  and  car- 
penters within  putting  up  staging,  to  prepare  for  a  "  royal 
session."  Plainly  the  king  was  about  to  interfere.  The  gather- 
ing adjourned  to  a  tennis  court  near  by,  and  there  unanimously 
took  a  memorable  oath2  never  to  separate  until  they  had  estab- 
lished the  constitution  on  a  firm  foundation  (June  20). 

The  idea  of  a  written  constitution  came  from  America.  Six 
years  earlier,  Franklin,  our  minister  to  France,  had  published 
French  translations  of  the  constitutions  adopted  by  the  new 
American  States.  The  pamphlet  had  been  widely  read,  and 
much  talked  about.  The  instructions3  of  delegates  to  the 

1  See  Anderson's  Constitutions  and  Documents,  No.  1,  for  the  decree. 

2  See  the  text  in  Anderson's  Constitutions  and  Documents,  No.  2. 

8  Nearly  every  gathering  for  choosing  delegates  to  the  Assembly  had  drawn 
up  a  statement  of  grievances  and  had  suggested  reforms  for  the  guidance  of 
its  representatives.  These  cahiers  (ka-ya')  are  the  most  valuable  source  of 
our  knowledge  of  France  before  the  Revolution.  See  Pennsylvania  Reprints, 
IV,  No.  5,  for  examples. 


§541]  THE   NATIONAL   ASSEMBLY  445 

Assembly  had  commonly  called  for  a  constitution.  To  make 
one  became  now  the  chief  purpose  of  the  Assembly.  That 
body,  indeed,  soon  became  known  as  the  Constituent  Assembly. 

540.  King  and  Assembly  Clash.  —  On  June  23   Louis   sum- 
moned the  three  estates  to  meet  him,  and  told  them  that  they 
were  to  organize  as  separate  bodies,  and  to  carry  out  certain 
specified  reforms.     If  they  failed   to  comply  with  the  royal 
wishes,  the  king  would  himself  "  secure  the  happiness  of  his 
people." 

When  the  king  left,  the  nobles  and  higher  clergy  followed. 
The  new  "  National  Assembly  "  kept  their  seats.  There  was  a 
moment  of  uncertainty.  It  was  a  serious  matter  for  quiet  citi- 
zens to  brave  the  wrath  of  the  ancient  monarchy.  Mirabeau, 
a  noble  who  had  abandoned  his  order,  rose  to  remind  the  dele- 
gates of  their  great  oath.  The  royal  master  of  ceremonies,  re- 
entering,  asked  haughtily  if  they  had  not  heard  the  king's 
command  to  disperse.  "Yes,"  broke  in  Mirabeau's  thunder; 
"  but  go  tell  your  master  that  we  are  here  by  the  power  of  the 
people,  and  that  nothing  but  the  power  of  bayonets  shall  drive 
us  away."  Then,  on  Mirabeau's  motion,  the  Assembly  decreed 
the  inviolability  of  its  members:  "Infamous  and  guilty  of 
capital  crime  is  any  person  or  court  that  shall  dare  pursue  or 
arrest  any  of  them,  on  whose  part  soever  the  same  be  commanded" 

The  king's  weakness  prevented  conflict,  and  perhaps  it  was 
as  well ;  for  Paris  was  rising,  and  the  French  Guards,  the  main 
body  of  troops  in  the  capital,  when  ordered  to  fire  on  the  mob, 
rang  their  musket  butts  sullenly  on  the  pavement.  The  next 
day,  forty-seven  nobles  joined  the  National  Assembly.  In  IBSS 
than  a  week,  the  king  ordered  the  rest  to  join. 

541.  Paris  saves  the  Assembly.  —  However,  the  court  planned 
a  counter-revolution.     A  camp  of  several  thousand  veterans 
was  collected  near  Paris,  —  largely  German  or  Swiss   merce- 
naries who  could  be  depended  upon.     Probably  it  was  intended 
to  imprison  leading  deputies.     Certainly  the  Assembly  was  to 
be  overawed.    July  9,  Mirabeau  boldly  declared  to  the  Assembly 
that  this  was  the  royal  policy;   and,  on  his  motion,  the  As- 


446  THE   FRENCH  REVOLUTION  [§542 

sembly  requested  the  king  immediately  to  withdraw  the  troops. 
The  king's  answer  was  to  banish  Necker,  the  idol  of  the  people, 
who  had  opposed  the  royal  policy. 

This  was  on  the  evening  of  July  11.  About  noon  the  next 
day,  the  news  was  whispered  on  the  streets.  Camille  Des- 
moulins,  a  young  journalist,  pistol  in  hand,  leaped  upon  a 
table  in  one  of  the  public  gardens,  exclaiming,  "Necker  is 
dismissed.  It  is  a  signal  for  a  St.  Bartholomew  of  patriots. 
To  arms!  To  arms!"  By  night  the  streets  bristled  with 
barricades  against  the  charge  of  the  king's  cavalry,  and  the 
crowds  were  sacking  bakeshops  for  bread,  and  >i"n^f/n^s  for 
arms.  Three  regiments  of  the  French  Guards  join « I  tli<<  rebels. 
Some  rude  organization  was  introduced  during  the  next  day, 
and,  on  the  day  following,  the  revolutionary  forces  attacked  the 
Bastille. 

542.  The  Bastille  was  the  great  "state  prison,"  like  the 
Tower  in  England.  In  it  had  been  confined  political  offend- 
ers and  victims  of  "  letters  of  the  seal."  It  was  a  symbol 
of  the  U01d  Regime,"  and  an  object  of  detestation  to  the 
liberals. 

It  had  been  used  as  an  arsenal,  and  the  rebels  went  to  it  at 
first  only  to  demand  arms.  Refused  admission  and  tired  upon, 
they  made  a  frantic  attack.  The  fortress  was  virtually  im- 
pregnable ;  but  after  some  hours  of  wild  onslaught,  it  surren- 
dered to  an  almost  unarmed  force,  —  "taken,"  as  Carlyle  says, 
"like  Jericho,  by  miraculous  sound."  The  hangers-on  of  the 
attacking  force  massacred  the  garrison,  and  paraded  their 
heads  on  pikes  through  the  streets. 

Out  at  Versailles,  Louis,  who  had  spent  the  day  hunting  and 
had  retired  early,  was  awakened  to  hear  the  news.  "  What !  a 
riot,  then  ?  "  said  he.  "  No,  Sire,"  replied  the  messenger ;  "  a 
revolution."  The  anniversary  of  the  destruction  of  the  Bas- 
tille (July  14)  is  still  celebrated  in  France  as  the  birthday  of 
political  liberty. 

The  rising  of  Paris  had  saved  the  Assembly.  The  most 
hated  of  the  courtiers  fled  from  France.  The  king  visited 


§544]  FALL  OF   THE   BASTILLE  447 

Paris,  sanctioned  all  that  had  been  done,  sent  away  the  troops, 
accepted  the  tricolor  (red,  white,  and  blue),  the  badge  of  the 
Revolution,  as  the  national  colors,  and  recalled  Necker. 

543.  The  fall  of  the  Bastille  gave  the  signal  for  a  brief  mob- 
rule  all  over  France.  In  towns  the  mobs  demolished  local 
"  bastilles."  In  the  country  the  lower  peasantry  and  bands  of 
vagabonds  plundered  and  demolished  castles,  seeking  especially 
to  destroy  the  court  rolls  with  the  records  of  servile  dues,  and 


THE  FALL  OF  THE  BASTILLE.  —  From  an  old  print. 

to  slay  the  hated  deer  and  pigeons.     Each  district  had  its  car- 
nival of  plunder  and  bloodshed. 

544.  The  Middle  Classes  Organize.  —  The  king  could  not  en- 
force the  law :  the  machinery  of  the  old  royal  government  had 
collapsed.  The  Assembly  did  not  dare  interfere  vigorously, 
because  it  might  need  the  mob  again  for  its  own  protection.1 

1  Six  days  after  the  fall  of  the  Bastille,  the  moderate  Liberals  proposed  to 
issue  a  proclamation  denouncing  popular  violence.  From  an  obscure  seat  on 
the  Extreme-Left,  Robespierre,  then  an  unknown  deputy,  protested  vehe- 
mently: "Revolt?  This  revolt  is  liberty.  To-morrow  the  shameful  plots 
against  us  may  be  renewed,  and  who  will  then  repulse  them  if  we  declare 
rebels  the  men  who  have  rushed  to  our  protection  !  " 


448  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§645 

But  everywhere  the  middle  class  organized  locally  against  an- 
archy. In  Paris,  during  the  disorder  of  July  13,  the  electoral 
college  of  the  city  (the  men  who  chose  the  delegates  of  Paris 
to  the  States  General)  reassembled  and  assumed  authority  to 
act  as  a  Municipal  Council.  In  other  towns  the  like  was 
done,  and  in  a  few  weeks,  France  was  covered  with  new  local 
governments  composed  of  the  middle  class.  This  was  the 
easier,  because  in  many  cases  the  electoral  colleges,  instead  of 
breaking  up  after  the  election,  had  continued  to  hold  occa- 
sional meetings  during  the  two  months  since,  in  order  to  corre- 
spond with  their  delegates  in  the  National  Assembly. 

The  first  act  of  the  Paris  Council  had  been  to  order  that  in 
each  of  the  sixty  "  sections  "  (wards)  of  the  city,  two  hundred 
men  should  patrol  the  streets,  to  maintain  order.  This,  or 
something  like  this,  was  done  in  all  the  districts  of  France. 
This  new  militia  became  permanent.  It  took  the  name  Nat i<.,«il 
Guards,  and  in  Paris  Lafayette  became  the  commander.  Like 
the  new  municipal  councils,  the  Guards  were  made  up  from  the 
middle  class,  and  before  the  middle  of  August,  these  new 
forces  had  restored  order. 

545.  Abolition  of  "Privilege." —  Meantime,  on  the  evening  of 
August  4,  the  discussions  of  the  Assembly  were  interrupted  by 
the  report  of  a  committee  on  the  disorders  throughout  the  coun- 
try. The  account  stirred  the  Assembly  deeply.  A  young 
noble,  who  had  served  in  America  with  Lafayette,  declared 
that  these  evils  were  all  due  to  the  continuance  of  feudal 
burdens,  and,  with  impassioned  oratory,  he  moved  their  instant 
abolition.  One  after  another,  in  eager  emulation,  the  liberal 
nobles  followed,  each  proposing  some  sacrifice  for  his  order,  — 
game  laws,  dovecotes,  tithes,  exclusive  right  to  military  office, 
and  a  mass  of  sinecures  and  pensions. 

Every  proposal  was  ratified  with  applause.  Our  American 
minister,  Gouverneur  Morris,  was  disgusted  with  the  haste,  and 
even  Mirabeau  called  the  scene  "an  orgy  of  sacrifice."  No 
doubt  much  confusion  and  hardship  resulted ;  but,  on  the  whole, 
the  work  was  necessary  and  noble,  and  it  has  never  been  un- 


§547]  THE  ASSEMBLY,    1789-1791  449 

done.     The  night  of  August  4  saw  the  end  of  feudalism  and  of 
legal  inequalities  in  France.1 

546.  May  5  to  August  5.  —  In  three  months  France  had  been  revolu- 
tionized.    The  third  estate  had  asserted  successfully  its  just  claim  to 
represent  the  nation.    Its  favorite  motto  was  the  famous  phrase  — 
Liberty,  Fraternity,  and  Equality.     "Equality"  it  had  won.     The  odious 
privileges  of  the  aristocracy,  and  all  class  distinctions  before  the  law, 
had  been  forever  swept  away.     Toward  "  Liberty,"  much  progress  had 
been  made.     The  local  units  of  the  country  had  set  up  new  popular 
governments,  and  had  organized  new  citizen  armies  to  protect  them. 
And  the  Assembly  was  at  work  upon  a  new  constitution  for  the  nation  at  large. 

II.   AUGUST,  1789,  TO  SEPTEMBER,  1791  :     THE  ASSEMBLY  IN 

PARIS 

547.  The  March  of  the  Women,  October  5. — Even  after  the 
new  harvest  of  1789,  food  remained  scarce  and  some  riots  con- 
tinued.    To  maintain  order,  the  king  brought  a  regiment  of 
soldiers   to  Versailles.     The  "patriots,"  as  the   liberal  party 
called  themselves,  feared  that  he  was  again  plotting  to  undo  the 
Revolution.     Extravagant   loyal  demonstration   at  a  military 
banquet  emphasized  the  suspicion.     It  was  reported  that  young 
officers,  to  win  the  favor  of  court  ladies,  had  trampled  upon 
the  tricolor  and  had  displayed  instead  the  old  white  cockade  of 
the  Bourbon  monarchy. 

The  men  of  Paris  tried  to  go  to  Versailles  to  secure  the  per- 
son of  the  king,  but  the  National  Guards  turned  them  back. 
Then  thousands  of  the  women  of  the  market  place,  crying  that 
French  soldiers  would  not  fire  upon  women,  set  out  in  a  wild, 
hungry,  haggard  rout  to  bring  the  king  to  Paris.  In  their 
wake,  followed  the  riffraff  of  the  city.  Lafayette  permitted  the 
movement  to  go  on,  until  there  came  near  being  a  terrible  mas- 
sacre at  Versailles ;  but  his  tardy  arrival,  late  at  night,  with 
twenty  thousand  National  Guards,  restored  order.  In  the  early 
morning,  however,  the  mob  broke  into  the  palace,  and  the 

1  Anderson,  No.  4,  and  Pennsylvania  Reprints,  I,  No.  5,  give  the  decrees 
as  finally  put  in  order  a  few  days  later. 


450  THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§648 

queen's  life  was  saved  only  by  the  gallant  self-sacrifice  of  some 
of  her  guards.  The  king  yielded  to  the  demands  of  the  crowd 
and  to  the  advice  of  Lafayette ;  and  the  same  day  a  strange  pro- 
cession escorted  the  royal  family  to  Paris, —  the  mob  dancing 
in  wild  joy  along  the  road  before  the  royal  carriage,  carrying 
on  pikes  the  heads  of  some  slain  soldiers,  and  shouting,  "  Now 
we  shall  have  bread,  for  we  are  bringing  the  baker,  the  baker's 
wife,  and  the  baker's  little  boy."  The  king's  brothers  and 
great  numbers  of  the  nobles  fled  from  France ;  and  many  of 
these  "  Emigrants"  strove  at  foreign*  courts  to  stir  up  war 
against  their  country. 

548.  The  Assembly  in  Paris  was  no  longer  in  danger  of  in- 
terference from  the  king,  but  during  the  two  years  more  that 
it  spent  in  making  a  constitution,  it  was  threatened  often  with 
violence  from  the  mob.     The  sessions  were  all  open  to  the  pub- 
lic, and  the  galleries  jeered  and  hissed  and  threatened  speakers 
whom  they  disliked.     Sometimes,  too,  after  the  meeting,  the 
mob  attacked  conservative  delegates  on  the  street.     Very  soon, 
nearly  a  fourth  of  the  members  withdrew  from  the  Assembly, 
declaring  that  it  was  no  longer  free. 

549.  Political  clubs  arose,  too,  and  became  a  mighty  power 
outside  the  Assembly.     The  most  important  of  these  clubs 
was  the  Jacobins,  which  took  its  name  from  the  fact  that  it 
met  in  a  building  belonging  to  the  Dominicans.     In  Paris  that 
order  was  called  Jacobins,  because  its  first  home  in  that  city 
had  been  at  the  church  of  St.  Jacques. 

In  this  Jacobin  club  some  of  the  radical  members  met  to 
discuss  measures  about  to  come  before  the  Assembly.  Some 
others  besides  deputies  were  admitted,  and  the  club  became 
the  center  of  a  radical  democratic  party. 

Lafayette  tried  to  organize  a  "  Constitutionalist  Club,"  with 
more  moderate  opinions,  and  various  attempts  were  made  at 
royalist  clubs.  But  the  clubs,  like  the  galleries,  were  best 
fitted  to  add  strength  to  the  radicals. 

550.  ^Meantime   the  Assembly   divided   into   definite  political 
parties.     On  the  Speaker's  right,  the  place  of  honor,  sat  the 


§  551]  MIRABEAU  451 

extreme  Conservatives,  known  from  their  position  as  the 
Right.  They  were  reactionists,  and  stood  for  the  restoration 
of  the  old  order. 

Next  to  them  sat  the  Right-Center.  This  party  did  not  ex- 
pect to  restore  the  old  conditions,  but  they  did  hope  to  prevent 
the  Revolution  from  going  any  farther,  and  they  wished  to 
keep  political  power  in  the  hands  of  the  wealthy  landowners. 

The  Left-Center,  the  largest  body,  wished  neither  to  restrict 
power  to  the  very  wealthy,  nor  to  extend  it  to  the  very  poor, 
but  to  intrust  it  to  the  middle  class.  In  this  group  sat 
Mirabeau,  Lafayette,  and  Sieyes.  Both  parties  of  the  Center 
wished  a  constitutional  monarchy. 

The  Extreme-Left 1  comprised  some  thirty  deputies  who  were 
disciples  of  Rousseau.  They  wished  manhood  suffrage.  In 
this  group  sat  Robespierre. 

551.  Mirabeau.  —  One  man  in  the  Assembly  was  really  a 
party  in  himself.  Mirabeau  was  a  marvelous  orator,  a  states- 
man of  profound  insight,  and  a  man  of  dauntless  courage. 
He  never  hesitated  to  oppose  the  mob  if  his  convictions  re- 
quired it;  and  often  he  won  them  to  his  side.  But  he  had 
lived  a  wild  and  dissolute  life,  and  so  could  not  gain  influence 
over  some  of  the  best  elements  of  the  Assembly.  His  arro- 
gance, too,  aroused  much  jealousy.  Both  Necker  and  Lafayette 
hated  him. 

Mirabeau  was  resolutely  opposed  to  anarchy,  and  he  wanted 
a  strong  executive.  After  the  "  march  of  the  women,"  he  felt 
that  the  danger  to  the  Revolution  lay  not  so  much  in  the  king 
as  in  the  mob.  Thereafter,  he  sought  to  preserve  the  remain- 
ing royal  power  —  and  to  direct  it.  He  wished  the  king  to 
accept  the  Revolution  in  good  faith,  and  to  surround  him- 


1  In  the  legislatures  of  continental  Europe  a  like  arrangement  of  parties  is 
still  customary.  The  Conservatives  sit  on  the  right,  the  Liberals  on  the  left ; 
and  they  are  still  known  as  the  Right  and  the  Left.  In  England  the  sup- 
porters of  the  ministry  sit  on  the  right,  and  the  opposition  on  the  left,  and 
the  two  parties  change  place  with  a  change  of  ministry ;  so  in  that  country 
the  "  Left "  and  the  "  Right "  are  not  party  names. 


452 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION 


[§652 


self  with  a  liberal  ministry  chosen  from  the  Assembly.  As 
the  mob  grew  more  furious,  he  wished  the  king  to  leave  Paris 
and  appeal  to  the  provinces  of  France  against  the  capital. 

552.  Flight  of  the  King.  —  The  king  hesitated,  and  Mirabeau 
died  (April  2,  1791),  broken  down  by  the  strain  of  his  work 
and  by  dissolute  living.  Then  Louis  decided  to  flee,  not  to 

the  French  provinces, 
but  to  Austria,  to  raise 
war,  not  against  the 
Paris  mob,  but  against 
France  and  the  Revo- 
lution. The  plot  failed, 
because  of  the  king's 
indecision  and  clumsi- 
ness. The  royal  family 
did  get  out  of  Paris 
(Louis  in  disguise  as  a 
valet),  but  they  were 
recognized  and  brought 
back  prisoners. 

553.  This  attempt  of 
the  king  led  to  another 
popular  rising.  This 
time  the  purpose  was  to 
force  the  Assembly  to  de- 

throne  the  kin9'  A  Peti~ 
tion  for  such  action, 
and  for  the  establishment  of  a  republic,  was  drawn  up,  and 
crowds  flocked  out  from  Paris  to  the  Champs  de  Mars1  to  sign 
it.  Some  disorder  occurred.  The  municipal  authorities  seized 
the  excuse  to  forbid  the  gathering,  and  finally  Lafayette's 
National  Guards  dispersed  the  jeering  mob  with  volleys  of 
musketry. 

This  "  Massacre  of  the  Champs  de  Mars  "  (July  17)  marks  a 

1  An  open  space  near  the  city  where  a  great  celebration  of  the  fall  of  the 
Bastille  had  just  been  held. 


MARQUIS  DE  LAFAYETTE. 


§556]  THE    "RIGHTS  OF   MAN"  453 

sharp  division  between  the  mob  and  the  middle  class.  For 
the  time,  the  latter  carried  the  day.  In  the  next  six  weeks 
the  victorious  Assembly  completed  and  revised  its  two-years' 
work;  and  September  14,  1791,  after  solemnly  swearing  to 
uphold  the  constitution,  Louis  was  restored  to  power. 

III.     THE   CONSTITUTION   OF   1791 

554.  A  noble  "  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man  "  came  first  in 
the  new  constitution  —  after  the  example  of  the  Bills  of  Rights 
in  some  of  the  American  State  constitutions.     The  Declaration 
had  been  put  in  form  some  months  before,  as  a  completion  of 
the  "  night  of  August  4  "  (§  545).     It  proclaimed,  — 

(1)  "  Men  are  born  equal  in  rights,  and  remain  so." 

(2)  "Law  is  the  expression  of  the  will  of  all  the  people. 

Every  citizen  has  a  right  to  a  share  in  making  it ;  and 
it  must  be  the  same  for  all." 

And  so  on,  through  a  number  of  provisions.  It  made  all  French- 
men equal  before  the  law,  and  equally  eligible  to  public  office. 
It  abolished  hereditary  titles  and  confirmed  the  abolition  of  all 
special  privileges.  It  established  jury  trial,  freedom  of  re- 
ligion, and  freedom  of  the  press.  The  great  Declaration  has 
justified  the  boast  of  the  Assembly — that  it  "shall  serve  as 
an  everlasting  war  cry  against  oppressors." l 

555.  Political  Provisions.  —  The  Declaration  of  Rights  cared 
for  personal  liberties.     The  arrangements  concerning  the  gov- 
ernment secured  a  very  large  amount  of  political  liberty.     There 
was  established  a  limited  monarchy,  with  a  large  degree  of 
local  self-government,  under  middle-class  control. 

556.  The  Central  Government  was  made  to  consist  of  the  king 
and  a  Legislative  Assembly  of  one  House.     The  king  could 
not  dissolve  the  Assembly,  and  his  veto  could  be  overridden 
if  three  successive  legislatures  decided  against  him  on  any 

1  Read  the  "Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man,"  in  the  Pennsylvania  Re- 
prints, I,  No.  5,  or  in  Anderson,  No.  5. 


454  THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§557 

measure.1     A  new  Assembly  was  to  be  chosen  each  second 
year. 

557.  Local  Government.  —  The  historic  provinces,  with  their 
troublesome  peculiar  privileges  and  customs,  were  wiped  from 
the  map.      France   was    divided    into   eighty-three   "depart- 
ments" of  nearly  equal  size.     The  departments  were  subdivided 
into  districts  and  the  district  was  made  up  of  communes  (vil- 
lages or  towns,  with  their  adjacent  territory).     The  map  of 
France  still  keeps  these  divisions. 

Each  department  and  district  elected  a  "  General  Council " 
and  an  executive  board,  or  "  Directory."  The  forty  thousand 
communes  had  each  its  elected  Council  and  mayor.  So  much 
authority  was  left  to  the  communes,  that  France  under  this 
constitution  has  been  called  "a  loose  alliance  of  forty  thou- 
sand little  republics." 

558.  The  franchise  was  not  given  to  all,  despite  the  second 
statement  quoted  above  from  the  Declaration  of  Rights.     About 
one-fourth   of  the   men  had  no  vote.      A   voter  had  to  have 
enough  property  to  pay  taxes  equal  to  three  days'  wages  of  an 
artisan. 

Then  these  "  active  citizens,"  or  voters,  were  graded  further, 
according  to  their  wealth,  into  three  divisions.  The  first 
class  could  only  vote.  The  second  could  hold  offices  in  com- 
munes and  districts,  and  be  chosen  to  electoral  colleges.  Only 
the  third,  and  wealthiest,  class  could  be  chosen  to  the  higher 
offices. 

Thus  political  supremacy  was  secured  to  the  middle  class  by  two 
devices,  —  (1)  graded  property  qualifications,  and  (2)  indirect  elections. 
Both  these  devices  to  dodge  democracy  were  used  in  the  American  States 
of  that  day.  No  American  State  then  had  manhood  suffrage. 

559.  The  Church.  —  In  the  disorders  of  1789  people  ceased  to 
pay  the  old  and  unjust  taxes.     It  was  some  time  before  new 

1  The  new  American  States  had  just  begun  to  try  another  way  to  limit  the 
old  absolute  veto  —  permitting  a  two-thirds  vote  to  override  the  President  or 
governor. .  The  French  plan  of  a  "suspensive"  veto  bas  been  most  popular 
in  free  countries  in  Europe. 


§560]  THE   LIMITED   MONARCHY   OF   1791  455 

ones  could  be  arranged  for.  Meanwhile  the  Assembly  secured 
funds  by  seizing  and  selling  the  church  lands  —  more  than  a 
fifth  of  all  France. 

When  the  government  took  the  revenue  of  the  church,  of 
course  it  also  assumed  the  duty  of  paying  the  clergy  and  main- 
taining the  churches.  This  led  to  national  control  of  the  church. 
The  number  of  higher  clergy  was  greatly  reduced,  and  the 
clergy  of  all  grades  were  made  elective,  in  the  same  way  as 
civil  officers.  Unfortunately  they  were  required  to  take  an 
oath  of  fidelity  to  the  constitution  in  a  form  repulsive  to  many 
sincere  adherents  to  the  pope.  Only  four  of  the  old  bishops 
took  the  oath ;  a"nd  two-thirds  the  parish  priests,  including  the 
most  sincere  and  conscientious  among  them,  were  driven  into 
opposition  to  the  Revolution.  The  greatest  error  of  the  As- 
sembly was  in  arraying  religion  against  patriotism. 

On  the  other  hand,  vast  good  followed  from  the  sale  of  the 
church  lands.  At  first,  sales  were  slow;  and  so,  with  these 
lands  as  security,  the  Assembly  issued  paper  money  (assignats), 
which  was  received  again  by  the  government  in  payment  for 
the  lands.  This  currency  was  issued  in  such  vast  amounts 
that  it  depreciated  rapidly  —  as  with  our  "  Continental "  cur- 
rency a  few  years  before.  Serious  hardships  followed  ;  but  in 
the  final  outcome,  the  lands  passed  in  small  parcels  into  the 
hands  of  the  peasantry  and  the  middle  class,  and  so  laid  the 
foundation  for  future  prosperity.  France  became  a  land  of 
small  farmers,  and  the  peasantry  rose  to  a  higher  standard  of 
comfort  than  such  a  class  in  Europe  had  ever  known. 

IV.    THE  LEGISLATIVE  ASSEMBLY  TO  THE  WAR 
(SEPTEMBER,  1791,  TO  APRIL,  1792) 

560.  Election  of  the  Legislative  Assembly.  —  Thus  France 
had  been  made  over  in  two  years,  on  the  whole  with  little  vio- 
lence. The  bulk  of  the  nation  accepted  the  result  enthusi- 
astically, except  as  to  some  portions  of  the  new  organization 
of  the  church.  Most  men  believed  that  the  Revolution  was 


456  THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§561 

over.  The  moderate  Liberals  very  largely  withdrew  from 
active  politics,  and  did  not  even  vote  on  the  next  elections. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  small  vigorous  minority  of  radical 
spirits  was  dissatisfied  with  the  restrictions  on  the  franchise 
and  with  the  restoration  of  monarchy.  This  minority  possessed 
undue  weight,  because  of  its  organization  in  political  clubs. 
The  original  Jacobin  club  had  set  up  daughter  societies  in  the 
chief  towns  all  over  France ;  and  these  daughters  were  strictly 
obedient  to  the  suggestions  of  the  mother-club  in  Paris.  No 
other  party  had  any  political  machinery  whatever.  Moreover,  the 
Jacobins  had  the  sympathy  of  the  large  class  that  had  no 
votes ;  and  in  many  cases  these  citizens  proved  an  important 
factor  in  the  election,  terrorizing  the  more  conservative  ele- 
ments by  mob-violence. 

561.  Parties.  —  The  Constituent  Assembly  had  made  its 
members  ineligible  to  seats  in  the  Legislative  Assembly,  where 
their  political  experience  would  have  been  of  the  utmost  value. 
Tlie  seven  hundred  and  forty-Jive  members  of  the  Legislative  As- 
sembly were  all  new  men.  They  were  mostly  young  provin- 
cial lawyers  and  journalists;  and  there  was  not  among  them 
all  one  great  proprietor  or  practical  administrator. 

There  was  no  party  in  the  new  Assembly  corresponding  to 
the  old  Right  and  Right-Center  of  the  Constitutional  Assembly. 
The  new  Right  corresponded  to  the  old  Left-Center.  Its  mem- 
bers were  known  as  Constitutionalists,  because  they  wished  to 
preserve  the  constitution  as  it  was.  Outside  the  House  this 
party  was  represented  by  Lafayette,  who,  since  the  death  of 
Mirabeau,  was  the  most  influential  man  in  France.  In  the 
Assembly  the  party  counted  about  one  hundred  regular  ad- 
herents, but,  for  a  time,  the  four  hundred  members  of  the 
Center,  or  "  The  Plain,"  voted  with  it  on  most  questions.  The 
Plain,  however,  was  gradually  won  over  to  the  more  radical 
views  of  the  Left. 

This  Left  consisted  of  about  two  hundred  and  forty  dele- 
gates, many  of  them  connected  with  the  Jacobin  clubs.  The 
greater  part  were  to  become  known  as  Girondists,  from  the 


§562]  THE   LEGISLATIVE   ASSEMBLY  457 

Gironde,  the  name  of  a  department  from  which  the  leaders 
came.  They  ivished  a  republic,  but  they  were  unwilling  to  use 
force  to  get  one.  They  feared  and  hated  the  Paris  mob,  and 
they  wished  to  intrust  power  to  the  provinces  rather  than  to 
the  capital.  The  leaders  were  hot-headed,  eloquent  young 
men,  who  spoke  fine  sentiments,  but  who  were  not  fit  for 
decisive  action  in  a  crisis. 

The  members  of  the  Extreme-Left,  known  from  their  ele- 
vated seats  as  the  "Mountain,"  were  the  quintessence  of 
Jacobinism.  This  party  ivished  a  democratic  government  by 
whatever  means  might  offer,  and  it  contained  the  men  of  action 
in  the  Assembly. 

562.  Foreign  Perils.  —  The  Emigrants,  breathing  threats  of 
invasion  and  vengeance,  were  gathering  in  arms  on  the  Rhine, 
under  protection  of  German  princes.  They  were  drilling 
mercenary  troops,  and  they  had  secret  sympathizers  within 
France.  In  the  winter  a  treacherous  plot  to  betray  to  them 
the  great  fortress  of  Strassburg  all  but  succeeded.  The  dan- 
ger was  certainly  real.  The  Assembly  sternly  condemned  to 
death  all  Emigrants  who  should  not  return  to  France  before  a 
certain  date ;  but  the  king  vetoed  the  decree. 

And  back  of  the  Emigrants  loomed  the  danger  of  foreign 
intervention.  The  attempted  flight  of  Louis  in  June  had 
shown  Europe  that  he  was  really  a  prisoner.  His  brother-in- 
law,  the  Emperor  Leopold,  then  sent  to  the  sovereigns  of 
Europe  a  circular  note,  calling  for  common  action  against  the 
Revolution,  inasmuch  as  the  cause  of  Louis  was  "  the  cause  of 
kings  " ;  and  a  few  days  later,  Leopold  and  the  King  of  Prus- 
sia joined  in  asserting  their  intention  to  arm,  in  order  to  aid 
their  "  brother  "  Louis. 

Thus  war  was  almost  inevitable.  The  Revolution  stood  for 
a  new  social  order.  It  and  the  old  order  could  not  live  together. 
Its  success  was  a  standing  invitation  to  revolution  in  neighbor- 
ing lands.  If  the  cause  of  Louis  was  "  the  cause  of  kings,"  so 
was  the  cause  of  the  Revolution  "  the  cause  of  peoples  "  j  and 
the  kings  felt  that  they  must  crush  it  before  it  spread. 


458  THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§563 

563.  The  Legislative  Assembly  welcomed  the  prospect  of  war. 
It  demanded  of  Leopold  that  he  disperse  the  armies  of  the 
Emigrants  and  that  he  apologize  for  his  statements.     Leopold 
replied  with  a  counter-demand  for  a  change  in  the  French  gov- 
ernment such  as  to  secure  Europe  against  the  spread  of  revo- 
lution.    Then  in  April,  1792,  France  declared  war. 

The  insolent  attempts  of  German  princes  to  dictate  the 
policy  of  the  French  people  rightly  aroused  a  tempest  of 
scorn  and  wrath ;  but  the  light-heartedness  with  which  the 
Legislative  Assembly  rushed  into  a  war  for  which  France  was 
so  ill-prepared  is  at  first  a  matter  of  wonder.  The  explanation, 
however,  is  not  hard  to  find. 

TJie  Constitutionalists  expected  war  to  strengthen  the  execu- 
tive (as  it  would  have  done  if  Louis  had  gone  honestly  with 
the  nation),  and  they  hoped  also  that  it  would  increase  their 
own  power,  since  Lafayette  was  in  command  of  the  army. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Girondists  and  the  bulk  of  the  Assembly 
suspected  Louis  of  being  in  secret  league  with  Austria  (sus- 
picions only  too  well  founded),  and  they  knew  that  France 
was  filled  with  spies  and  plotters  in  the  interests  of  the  Kim- 
grants.  The  nervous  strain  of  such  a  situation  was  tremendous, 
and  the  majority  of  the  Assembly  preferred  open  war  to  this 
terror  of  secret  treason.  Moreover,  the  Girondists  hoped 
vaguely  that  the  disorders  of  war  might  offer  some  good  ex- 
cuse to  set  up  a  republic. 

564.  The  only  voices  raised  against  the  war  were  from  the 
Mountain  and  its  sympathizers  in  the  Jacobin  dub.     Constitu- 
tionalists and  Girondists  were  to  find  their  ruin  in  the  war 
they  recklessly  invited;  while  the  three  men  most  active  in 
opposing  war  —  Robespierre,  Danton,  and  Marat  —  were  to  be 
called  by  it  to  virtual  dictatorship. 

Marat  was  a  physician  of  high  scientific  attainments.  He 
was  jealous  and  suspicious,  and  he  seems  to  have  become  half- 
crazed  under  the  strain  of  the  Revolution.  Early  in  the  days 
of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  his  paper,  "  The  Friend  of  the 
People,"  began  to  preach  the  assassination  of  all  aristocrats. 


§564]  MAKAT,    ROBESPIERRE,    AND   DANTON  459 

But  Marat  was  moved  by  sincere  pity  for  the  oppressed ;  and 
he  opposed  war,  because,  as  he  said,  its  suffering  always  fell 
finally  upon  the  poor. 

Robespierre  before  the  Revolution  had  been  a  precise  young 
lawyer  in  a  provincial  town.  He  had  risen  to  the  position  of 
judge,  the  highest  he  could  ever  expect  to  attain ;  but  he  had 
resigned  his  office  because 
he  had  conscientious  scru- 
ples against  imposing  a 
death  penalty  upon  a  crim- 
inal. He  was  an  enthusi- 
astic disciple  of  Rousseau. 
He  was  narrow,  dull,  en- 
vious, pedantic  but  logi- 
cal, incorruptible,  sincere. 
"  That  man  is  dangerous," 
Mirabeau  had  said  of  him ; 
"he  will  go  far ;  he  be- 
lieves every  word  he  says." 
In  the  last  months  of  the 
Constituent  Assembly, 
Robespierre  had  advanced 
rapidly  in  popularity  and 
power;  and  now,  although 
without  a  seat  in  the  As- 
sembly, he  was  the  most 

ROBESPIERRE. 
influential  member  of  the 

Jacobin  Club.  He  opposed  the  war,  because  he  feared  — 
what  the  Constitutionalists  hoped  —  a  strengthening  of  the 
executive. 

Danton  was  a  Parisian  lawyer.  He  had  early  become  prom- 
inent in  the  radical  clubs ;  and  next  to  Mirabeau  he  was  the 
strongest  man  of  the  early  years  of  the  Revolution.  He  was 
well  named  "  the  Mirabeau  of  the  Market  Place."  He  was  a 
large,  forceful,  shaggy  nature,  and  a  born  leader  of  men.  Above 
all,  he  was  a  man  of  action.  Not  without  a  rude  eloquence 


460  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§664 

himself,  he  had  no  patience  with  the  fine  speechifying  of  the 
Girondists,  when  deeds,  not  words,  were  wanted.  He  opposed 
the  war,  because  he  saw  how  unprepared  France  was,  and  how 
unfit  her  leaders.  When  it  came,  he  brushed  aside  these  in- 
competent leaders  and  himself  organized  France. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. — The  three  best  one-volume  histories  of  the 
Revolution  are  those  by  Shailer  Mathews,  Mallet,  and  Mrs.  Gardiner; 
the  two  latter  are  somewhat  conservative.  Mrs.  Gardiner's  is  perhaps 
the  most  desirable,  upon  the  whole,  as  well  as  the  briefest.  There  are 
excellent  brief  treatments  in  H.  Morse  Stephens'  Revolutionary  Europe, 
1789-1815,  Rose's  Revolutionary  and  Napoleonic  Era,  and  Morris'  Fn  >/<•}! 
Revolution.  The  best  of  the  larger  works  in  English  is  H.  Morse 
Stephens'  History  of  the  French  Revolution  (3  vols.).  Carlyle's  French 
Revolution  remains  the  most  powerful  and  vivid  presentation  of  the 
forces  and  of  many  of  the  episodes  of  the  Revolution,  but  it  can  be  used 
to  best  advantage  after  some  preliminary  study  upon  the  age,  and  it  is 
sometimes  inaccurate.  Among  the  biographies,  the  following  are  especially 
good  :  Belloc's  Danton,  Belloc's  Robespierre,  Willert's  Mirabeau,  Hlind's 
Madam  Roland,  and  Morley's  "Robespierre"  (in  Miscellanies,  I).  For 
fiction,  Dickens'  Tale  of  Tioo  Cities  and  Victor  Hugo's  Ninety-Three  are 
notable.  (The  last  half  dozen  titles  pertain  especially  to  the  period 
treated  in  the  next  chapter.)  Anderson's  Constitutions  and  Documents 
and  the  Pennsylvania  Reprints,  I,  No.  6,  contain  illustrative  source 
material. 


CHAPTER   XXXIII 

THE   REVOLUTION   IN   WAR 
I.    FRANCE  THREATENED   BY   EUROPEAN   KINGS 

565.  June  20  :  the  Mob  invades  the  Tuileries.  —  At  the  decla- 
ration of  war,  the  raw  French  levies  at  once  invaded  Belgium 
(then  an  Austrian  province),  but  were  rolled  back  in  defeat. 
The  German  powers,  however,  were  busy  robbing  Poland  (§  500), 
and  a  few  weeks  more  for  preparation  were  given  before  the 
storm  broke.  The  Assembly  decreed  the  banishment  of  all 
non-juring-  priests  (those  who  refused  to  take  the  oath  to  the 
constitution),  many  of  whom  were  spies ;  and  it  provided  for  a 
camp  of  twenty  thousand  chosen  patriots  to  guard  the  capital. 
Louis  vetoed  both  Acts,  and  immediately  afterward  he  dismissed 
his  Liberal  ministers  (June  13). 

Despite  the  veto,  a  small  camp  was  formed,  under  the  pretense  of  cele- 
brating the  festival  of  the  destruction  of  the  Bastille.  Among  the  forces  so 
collected  were  six  hundred  Marseillaise,  sent  in  response  to  the  call  of  the 
deputy  of  Marseilles  for  "  six  hundred  men  who  know  how  to  die."  These 
men  entered  Paris,  singing  a  new  battle  hymn,  which  was  afterward 
chanted  on  many  a  Revolutionary  battle  field  and  which  was  to  become 
famous  as  Ttie  Marseillaise. 

The  populace  was  convinced  that  the  king  was  using  his 
power  treasonably,  to  prevent  effective  opposition  to  the  ene- 
mies of  France ;  and  on  June  20  there  occurred  an  armed  rising 
like  those  of  July  and  October,  1789.  An  immense  throng 
presented  to  the  Assembly  a  monster  petition  against  the  king's 
policy,  and  then  broke  into  the  Tuileries,  the  palace  of  the  royal 
family,  to  compel  the  king  to  withdraw  his  vetoes.  For  hours 
a  dense  mob  surged  through  the  apartments.  Louis  was 
crowded  into  a  window,  and  stood  there  patiently,  not  without 

461 


462  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§566 

courageous  dignity.  A  red  cap,  sign  of  the  Revolution,  was 
handed  him,  and  he  put  it  upon  his  head ;  but  to  all  demands 
for  a  recall  of  his  vetoes  he  made  firm  refusal.  By  nightfall 
the  building  was  cleared.  Little  harm  had  been  done,  except 
to  furniture ;  and  indeed  the  mob  had  shown  throughout  a 
surprising  good  nature. 

566.  There  followed  an  outburst  of  loyalty  from  the  Moderates. 
Lafayette,  in  command  on  the  frontier,  left  his  troops  and 
hastened  to  Paris,  to  demand  the  punishment  of  the  leaders 
of  the  mob  and  the  closing  of  the  Jacobin  Club.     The  middle 
class  was  ready  to  rally  about  him  ;  and,  if  the  kinij  had  been 
willing  to  join  himself  to  the  Constitutionalists,  Lafayette  might 
have  saved  the  government.     But  the  royal  family  secretly 
preferred  to  trust  to  the  advancing  Austrians;  and  Lafayette 
was  rebuffed  and  scorned.     He  returned  to  his  army,  and  the 
management  of  affairs  at  Paris  passed  rapidly  to  the  Jacobins. 

567.  France  was  girdled  with  foes.    The  Empire,  Prussia,  and 
Sardinia  were  in  arms.     Naples  and  Spain  were  soon  to  join. 
Sweden  and  Russia  both  offered  to  do  so,  if  they  were  needed. 
In  July  a  Prussian  army,  commanded  by  old  officers  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great,  crossed  the  frontier ;  and  two  Austrian  armies, 
one  from  the  Netherlands  and  one  from  the  upper  Rhine,  con- 
verged upon  the  same  line  of  invasion.     The  French  levies 
were  outnumbered  three  to  one.    Worse  still,  they  were  utterly 
demoralized  by  the  resignation  of  many  officers  in  the  face  of 
the  enemy  and  by  a  justifiable  suspicion  that  many  of  those  re- 
maining sympathized  with  the  invaders. 

Within  France  were  royalist  risings  and  plots  of  risings,  and 
the  king  was  in  secret  alliance  with  the  enemy.  The  queen 
had  even  communicated  the  French  plan  of  campaign  to  the 
Austrians. 

Brunswick,  the  Prussian  commander,  counted  upon  a  holiday 
march  to  Paris.  July  25  he  issued  to  the  French  people  a 
famous  proclamation  declaring  (1)  that  the  allies  entered  France 
to  restore  Louis  to  his  place,  (2)  that  all  men  taken  with  arms  in 
their  hands  should  be  hanged,  and  (3)  that,  if  Louis  were  injured, 


§568]  FALL   OF   THE   MONARCHY  463 

he  would  "  inflict  a  memorable  vengeance "  by  delivering  up 
Paris  to  military  execution.1 

568.  This  blustering  insolence  was  fatal  to  the  king.  France 
rose  in  rage,  to  hurl  back  the  boastful  invader.  But  before 
the  new  troops  marched  to  the  front,  some  of  them  insisted  upon 
guarding  against  enemies  in  the  rear.  The  Jacobins  had  de- 
cided that  Louis  should  not  be  left  free  to  paralyze  action 
again,  at  some  critical  moment,  by  his  veto.  They  demanded 
his  deposition ;  but  the  Girondists  were  not  ready  for  such 
extreme  action.  Then  the  Jacobins  carried  their  point  by 
insurrection. 

Led  by  Danton,  they  forcibly  displaced  the  middle-class 
municipal  council  of  Paris  with  a  new  government ;  and  this 
"Commune  of  Paris"  prepared  an  attack  upon  the  Tuileries 
for  August  10.  If  Louis  had  possessed  ability  or  decision,  his 
Guards  might  have  repulsed  the  mob;  but,  after  confusing 
them  with  contradictory  orders,  the  king  and  his  family  fled 
to  the  Assembly,  leaving  the  faithful  Swiss  regiment  to  be 
massacred.  Bloody  from  this  slaughter,  the  rebels  forced 
their  way  into  the  hall  of  the  Assembly  to  demand  the  king's 
instant  deposition.  Two-thirds  of  the  deputies  had  fled,  and 
the  "  rump  "  of  Girondists  and  Jacobins  decreed  the  deposition 
and  imprisonment  of  Louis,  and  the  immediate  election,  by  man- 
hood suffrage,  of  a  Convention  to  frame  a  new  government.2 

Lafayette  tried  to  lead  his  troops  against  Paris  to  restore 
the  king.  He  found  his  army  unwilling  to  follow  him,  — .ready, 
instead,  to  arrest  him,  —  and  so  he  fled  to  the  Austrians.3  The 
French  nation  at  large  had  not  desired  the  new  revolution,  but 
accepted  it  as  inevitable.  The  nation  was  more  concerned 
with  repulsing  foreign  foes  than  with  balancing  nice  questions 
as  to  praise  or  blame  in  Paris. 

1  Anderson,  No.  23,  gives  the  Proclamation. 

2  Tfyis  was  the  first  trial  of  manhood  suffrage  in  any  modern  nation.    The 
decree  is  given  by  Anderson. 

3  Lafayette  was  cast  into  prison  by  the  Austrians,  to  remain  there  until 
freed  by  the  victories  of  Napoleon  several  years  later. 


464  THE   FRENCH    REVOLUTION  [§569 

569.  The  September  Massacres.  —  The  rising  of  August  10 
had  been  caused  by  the  fear  of  foreign  invasion  and  of  treason 
at  home.  The  same  causes  three  weeks  later  led  to  one  of  the 
most  terrible  events  in  history.  The  u  Commune  of  Paris," 
under  Danton's  leadership,  had  packed  the  prisons  with  three 
thousand  "  suspected  "  aristocrats,  to  prevent  a  royalist  rising. 
Then,  on  August  29  and  September  2,  came  the  news  of  the 
shameful  surrender  of  Longwy  and  Verdun,  —  two  great 
frontier  fortresses  guarding  the  road  to  Paris. 

Paris  was  thrown  into  a  panic  of  fear,  and  the  Paris  volun- 
teers hesitated  to  go  to  the  front,  lest  the  numerous  prisoners 
recently  arrested  should  break  out  and  avenge  themselves  upon 
the  city,  stripped  of  its  defenders.  So,  while  Danton  was 
pressing  enlistments  and  hurrying  recruits  to  meet  Brunswick, 
the  frenzied  mob  attacked  the  prisons,  organized  rude  lynch 
courts,  and  on  September  2,  3,  and  4  massacred  over  a  thou- 
sand of  the  prisoners  with  only  the  shadow  of  a  trial.1  These 
events  are  known  as  the  "  September  massacres." 

Whether  the  Jacobin  leaders  had  a  secret  hand  in  starting 
the  atrocious  executions  at  the  prisons  will  probably  never  be 
known.  Certainly  they  did  not  try  to  stop  them ;  but  neither 
did  the  Assembly,  nor  the  Gironde  leaders,  nor  any  other  body 
of  persons  in  Paris. 

Says  Carlyle  :  "  Very  desirable  indeed  that  Paris  had  interfered,  yet  not 
unnatural  that  it  stood  looking  on  in  stupor.  Paris  is  in  death-panic 
.  .  .  gibbets  at  its  door.  Whosoever  in  Paris  hath  heart  to  front  death 
finds  it  more  pressing  to  do  so  fighting  the  Prussians  than  fighting  the 
slayers  of  aristocrats." 

The  Jacobins,  however,  did  openly  accept  the  massacres, 
when  committed,  as  a  useful  means  of  terrifying  the  royalist 
plotters.  When  the  Assembly  talked  of  punishment,  Danton 
excused  the  deed,  and  urged  action  against  the  enemies  of 
France  instead.  "  It  was  necessary  to  make  our  enemies  afraid," 
he  cried,  " .  .  .  Blast  my  memory,  but  let  France  be  free." 

1  The  fairest  account  in  English  of  these  massacres  is  that  by  Stephens, 
II,  141-150. 


§571]  AT   WAR   WITH   KINGS  465 

II.    SEPTEMBER,    1792,    TO   JUNE,  1793:   THE   GIRONDISTS 

570.  France  at  War  with  Kings.  —  After  August  10,  Danton 
became  the  leading  member  of  an  executive  committee  of  the 
Assembly.     At   once  he  infused   new   vigor  into  the  govern- 
ment.    "  We  must  dare,"  his  great  voice  rang  out  to  the  hesi- 
tating Assembly,  "  and  dare  again,  and  ever  dare,  —  and  France 
is  saved ! "     In  this  spirit  he  toiled,  night  and  day,  to  raise 
and  arm  and  drill  recruits.     France  responded  with  the  finest 
outburst  of  patriotic  enthusiasm  the  world  has  ever  seen  in  a 
great  civilized  state.     September  20  the  advancing  Prussians 
were  checked  at   Valmy ;  and  November  9  the  victory  of  Jem- 
mapes,  the  first  real  pitched  battle  of  the  war,  opened  Belgium 
to    French    conquest.     Another    French    arm}''   had    already 
entered  Germany,  and  a  third  had  occupied  Nice  and  Savoy. 

These  successes  of  raw  French  volunteers  over  the  veterans 
of  Europe  called  forth  an  orgy  of  democratic  enthusiasm. 
The  new  National  Convention  met  September  21  (1792),  and 
became  at  once,  in  Danton's  phrase,  "  a  general  committee  of 
insurrection  for  all  nations."  It  ordained  a  manifesto  in  all 
languages,  offering  the  alliance  of  the  French  nation  to  all 
peoples  who  wished  to  recover  their  liberties;  and  French 
generals,  entering  a  foreign  country,  were  ordered  "  to  abolish 
serfdom,  nobility,  and  all  monopolies  and  privileges,  and  to  aid 
in  setting  up  a  new  government  upon  principles  of  popular  sover- 
eignty." l  One  fiery  orator  flamed  out, — "  Despots  march  against 
us  with  fire  and  sword.  We  will  bear  against  them  Liberty  ! " 

Starving  and  ragged,  but  welcomed  by  the  invaded  peoples,  the 
French  armies  sowed  over  Europe  the  seed  of  civil  and  political 
liberty.  The  Revolution  was  no  longer  merely  French.  It  took 
on  the  intense  zeal  of  a  proselyting  religion,  and  its  principles 
were  spread  by  fire  and  sword. 

571.  The  Republic    Declared.  —  When   the  new  Convention 
met,  the  Constitutionalist  party  had  disappeared.2     The  Giron- 

1  The  decrees  are  given  by  Anderson,  No.  28. 

2  Note  the  progress  of  the  Revolution  :   the  old  Royalists  who  made  the 
Right  of  the  First  Assembly  had  no  place  in  the  Second  ;  while  the  Constitu- 


466  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§572 


dist  leaders  (the  Left  of  the  preceding  assembly)  now  sat 
the  Eight  and  seemed  to  have  the  adherence  of  the  previous 
Plain,  and  indeed  of  the  whole  Convention,  except  fora  small 
party  of  the  Mountain,  where  sat  Robespierre,  Danton,  and 
Marat,  with  the  rest  of  the  deputies  of  Paris  and  the  organizers 
of  the  Revolution  of  August  10.  On  its  first  afternoon  the 
Convention  declared  monarchy  abolished,  and  enthusiastically 
established  "The  French  Republic,  One  and  Indivisible."  l 

572.  The    Mountain   was    bent   also   upon    punishing    Louis. 
They  were  satisfied  of  his  treason,  and  they  wished  to  make 
reconciliation  with  the  old  order  of  things  impossible.     Said 
Danton  :  "  The  allied  kings  march  against  us.     Let  us  hurl  at 
their  feet,  as  the  gage  of  battle,  the  head  of  a  king."     The 
Girondists  wished  to  save  Louie*'  life,  but  their  majority  was 
intimidated  by  the  galleries  ;    and   "  Louis  Capet  "  was  con- 
demned to  death  for  "  treason  to  the  nation." 

573.  Early  in   1793   the   Convention  proposed  a  new  writ- 
ten constitution  for  the  Republic.     This   document  was   ex- 
tremely democratic.     It  swept  away  all  the  checks  of  indirect 
elections  and   property  qualifications,  and   made  all  citizens 
"equally  sovereign."     Further,  it  made  all  acts  of  the  leg- 
islature  subject    to   a    "referendum"  —  a   veto   or   adoption 
by  a  popular  vote.     This  Constitution  of  the  Year  J*  was  it- 


tionalists  who  made  the  Left  of  the  First  Assembly  and  the  Right  of  the 
Second  had  vanished  from  the  Third. 

1  The  student  should  keep  distinct  the  three  great  assemblies  :  First,  the 
Constituent  Assembly  (or  the  National  Assembly)  which  made  the  first  con- 
stitution ;  Second,  ths  Legislative  Assembly,  which  declared  war  and  called 
for  the  election  of  iU  successor  by  manhood  suffrage  ;  and,  Third,  the  Con- 
vention, which  deposed  Louis,  declared  a  Republic,  and  made  war  on  kings. 

2  The  Convention  adopted  a  new  Calendar.     September  22,  the  first  day  of 
the  Republic,  was  made  "  the  first  day  of  the  Tear  One  of  a  new  era."    There 
followed  twelve  months  of  thirty  days  each,  and  then  five  great  holidays  «1«  «li- 
cated  to  liberty.    Each  month  was  divided  into  three  decades,  and  each  tenth 
day  was  a  holiday  (in  place  of  the  Seventh  day  of  rest  and  worship).    The 
months  took  their  names  from  the  seasons,  —  Vintage  month,  Fog  month, 
Frost -month  for  autumn  ;  Snow,  Rain,  Wind  months,  for  winter  ;  Budding, 
Flower,  and  Meadow  months  for  spring  and  early  summer  ;   and  Harvest, 


§575]  THE   REPUBLIC   DECLARED  467 

self  submitted  to  such  a  referendum,  and  was  adopted  by  the 
nation.1 

The  constitution,  however,  never  went  into  operation.  The 
Convention  suspended  it,  declaring  that  France  was  in  danger 
and  that  the  government  must  be  left  free  from  constitutional 
checks  until  war  was  over. 

574.  New  Enemies  and  new  Treason.  —  France  was  indeed  in 
danger.     The  execution  of  the  king  was  one  factor  in  deciding 
England,  Spain,  Holland,  Naples,  and  Portugal  to  join  the  war 
against  France,  and  it  offended  many  French  patriots.     Du- 
mouriez,  an  able  but  unscrupulous  general,  who  had  succeeded 
Lafayette  as  the  chief  military  leader,  tried  to  play  traitor,  in 
the  spring  of  1793,  by  surrendering  Belgian  fortresses  to  the 
Austrians  and  by  leading  his  army  to  Paris  to  restore  the  mon- 
archy.    His   troops  refused  to  follow  him,  and  he   fled  to  the 
enemy ;  but  Belgium  was  lost  for  a  time,  and  once  more  the 
frontier  was  in  danger. 

575.  The  Girondists  attack  the  Mountain.  —  Ever  since  the 
Convention  met,  dissension  had  threatened  between  the  Gironde 
majority  and  the  Mountain.     The  Mountain  was  supported  by 
the  masses  of  Paris.     Outside  the  capital,  the  Girondists  were 
much  the  stronger.     They  wished  to  remove  the  Convention 
from  Paris  ;  and  the  Mountain  accused  them  of  desiring  to  break 
up  the  "  Indivisible  Republic  "  into  a  federation  of  provinces. 

The  Girondists  took  the  moment  of  foreign  danger,  in  the 
spring  of  1793,  to  press  the  quarrel  to  a  head.  They  accused 
Marat  of  stirring  up  the  September  massacres,  and  persuaded 
the  Convention  to  bring  him  to  trial.  Then  they  were  mad 
enough  to  charge  Danton  with  royalist  conspiracy. 

Heat,  and  Fruit  months,  to  close  the  year.  Holidays  were  no  longer  dedicated 
to  saints,  but  to  the  plow,  the  cow,  the  grape,  and  so  on.  This  is  an  interest- 
ing illustration  of  the  way  in  which  the  Convention  cut  loose  from  the  past. 

1  No  country  had  ever  had  so  democratic  a  constitution.  Nor  had  any 
great  nation  ever  adopted  its  own  government  by  direct  vote  before.  Four 
years  earlier,  the  much  less  democratic  constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
ratified  indirectly, — by  State  conventions  ;  and  only  two  of  the  State  consti- 
tutions had  been  submitted  to  the  people. 


468  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§570 

576.  Danton,  who  was  straining  his  mighty  strength  to  send 
reinforcements  to  the  armies  of  France,  pleaded  at  first  for  peace 
and   union;    but,   when  this  proved  vain,  he  turned  savagely 
upon  his  assailants.     "You  were  right,"  he  cried  to  his  friends 
on  the  Mountain,  who  had  pressed  before  for  action  against 
the  Girondists,  "and  I  was  wrong.     There  is  no  peace  possible 
with  these  men.     Let  it  be  war,  then.     They  will  not  save  the 
Republic  with  us.     It  shall  be  saved  without  them,  saved  in 
spite  of  them." 

While  the  Assembly  debated,  the  Mountain  acted.  It  was 
weak  in  the  Convention,  but  it  was  supreme  in  the  galleries 
and  in  the  streets  and  above  all  in  the  Commune  of  Paris. 
The  Commune,  which  had  carried  the  Revolution  of  August  10 
against  the  Legislative  Assembly,  n«»\v  marched  its  forces 
againat  the  Convention,  June  2,  1793,  and  held  it  prisoner 
until  it  passed  a  decree  imprisoning  thirty  of  the  leading 
Girondists.  Others  of  that  party  fled,  and  the  J<i<^>/>i/t  .l/o/-//.'/*;// 
was  left  in  power. 

The  fate  of  the  Girondists  has  aroused  much  sympathy;  but  the 
Jacobin  victory  was  the  only  means  to  save  the  Revolution  with  its  price- 
less gain  for  humanity.  Says  John  Morley  (Essay  on  Robespierre),  "The 
deliverance  of  a  people  beset  by  strong  and  implacable  foes  could  not 
wait  on  mere  good  manners  and  fastidious  sentiments,  when  those  comely 
things  were  in  company  with  the  most  stupendous  want  of  foresight  ever 
shown  by  a  political  party." 

III.     JUNE,    1792,   TO   MARCH,    1798:    JACOBIN  RULE 

577.  Gironde    Rebellion    and    Foreign    Invasion.  —  Fugitive 
Girondists  roused  the  provinces  against  the  Jacobin  capital. 
They   gathered   armies    at   Marseilles,   Bordeaux,   Cae'n,   and 
Lyons.     Lyons,  the  second  city  in  France,  even  raised  the 
white  flag  of  the  monarchy,  and  invited  in  the  Austrians,  — 
whereupon  the  Girondists  in  the  city  threw  down  their  arms, 
gallantly  choosing  death  rather  than  alliance  with  the  enemies 
of  France.     Elsewhere,  too,  royalist  revolt  reared   its   head. 
In  the  remote  province  of  Vendee  (in  ancient  Brittany),  the 


§578] 


THE   COMMITTEE   OF   PUBLIC   SAFETY 


469 


simple,  half-savage  peasants  were  still  devoted  to  king,  priest, 
and  hereditary  lord,  and  they  rose  now  in  wild  rebellion 
against  the  Republic.  The  great  port  of  Toulon  even  ad- 
mitted an  English  fleet  and  army.  The  Convention,  with 
Paris  and  a  score  of  the  central  departments,  faced  the  other 
three-fourths  of  France  as  well  as  the  rest  of  Europe. 

578.    So  far,  all  the  Revolutionists  but  Mirabeau  had  been 
afraid  of  a  real  executive,  as  a  danger  to  freedom ;  but  these 


CHATEAU  AT  BLOTS. 

new  perils  forced  the  Convention  to  intrust  power  to  a  great 
'•'Committee  of  Public  Safety."  Said  one  member,  the  Conven- 
tion "  established  the  despotism  of  liberty,  in  order  to  crush 
the  despotism  of  tyrants."  The  Committee  consisted  of  twelve 
members,  —  all  from  the  Mountain.  The  Convention  made  all 
other  national  committees  and  officers  its  servants,  and  ordered 
even  the  municipal  officials  to  give  it  implicit  obedience. 

The  Committee  were  not  trained  administrators,  but  they 
were  men  of  practical  business  sagacity  and  of  tremendous 
energy,  —  such  men  as  a  revolution  must  finally  toss  to  the 


470  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§579 

top.  In  the  war  office,  Carnot  "organized  victory";  beside 
him,  in  the  treasury,  labored  Cambon,  with  his  stern  motto, 
"War  to  the  manorhouse,  peace  to  the  hut";  while  a  group 
of  such  men  as  Robespierre  and  St.  Just  sought  to  direct  the 
Revolution  so  as  to  refashion  France  according  to  new  ideals.1 

579.  Nearly  a  hundred  "  Deputies  on  Mission  '' 2  were  sent  out 
to  all  parts  of  France  to  enforce  obedience  to  the  Committee. 
They  reported  every  ten  days  to  the  Committee;  bur.  subject 
to  its   approval,  they  exercised  despotic   power,  —  replacing 
civil  authorities   at  will,   seizing   money  or  supplies  for  the 
national  use,  imprisoning  and  condemning  to  death  by  their 
own  courts.     To  secure  energy  in  lh«'  management  of  the  war. 
and  to  prevent  further  treachery  like  that  of  Lafayette  and 
Dumouriez,  two  Deputies  on    Mission    accompanied    each    of 
the  fourteen  armies  of  the  Republic,  with  authority  to  arrest  a 
general  at  the  head  of  his  troops. 

580.  Energy  and  Victory  Abroad.  —  Never  has  a  despotism 
been  more  efficient  than  that  of  the  great  Committee  and  its 
agents.     In  October  Lyons  was  captured.     On  the    proposal 
of  the  Committee  the  Convention  ordered  that  the  rebel  city 
should  be  razed  to  the  gmnml.     Toulon    was   taken,   despite 
English  aid,  and  punished  sternly.     Other  centers  of  revolt, 
paralyzed  with  fear,  yielded.     Order  and  union  were  restored, 
and  Carnot  could  send  a  million  of  men  to  join  the  armies  of 
France.     Before  the  year  clos.ed,  French   soil   was  free  from 
danger  of  invasion,  and  French  armies  had  taken  the  offensive 
on  all  the  frontiers.     Peril  from  without  was  2>"*(• 
'•'•  A\\  France  and  whatsoever  it  contains  of  men  and  resources  is  put 

under  requisition,"  said  the  Committee,  in  a  stirring  proclamation  to  the 
nation  (August  23,  1793).3  "  The  Republic  is  one  vast  besieged  city.  .  .  . 
The  young  men  shall  go  to  battle  ;  it  is  their  task  to  conquer ;  the  niar- 

1  Stephens'  French  Revolution,  II,  285  (and  also  his  Revolutionary  Europe, 
133)  has  an  admirable  account  of  the  men  of  the  Committee.     A  dramatic 
account  of  their  meetings  is  given  by  John  Morley  in  his  "  Robespierre." 

2  They  were  "deputies"  in  the  Convention,  sent  out  by  the  great  Com- 
mittee on  special  "missions." 

8  Thexleciee  is  given  in  full  by  Anderson. 


§581]  'NINETY-THREE  471 

ried  men  shall  forge  arms,  transport  baggage  and  artillery,  provide 
subsistence  ;  the  women  shall  work  at  soldiers'  clothes,  make  tents,  serve 
in  the  hospitals;  children  shall  scrape  old  linen  into  surgeon's  lint ;  the 
old  men  shall  have  themselves  carried  into  public  places,  and  there,  by 
their  words,  excite  the  courage  of  the  young  and  preach  hatred  to  kings 
and  unity  for  the  Republic." 

"  In  this  humor,  then,  since  no  other  will  serve,"  adds  Carlyle,  "  will 
France  rush  against  its  enemies  ;  headlong,  reckoning  no  cost,  heeding 
no  law  but  the  supreme  law,  Salvation  of  the  People.  The  weapons  are 
all  the  iron  there  is  in  France  ;  the  strength  is  that  of  all  the  men  and 
women  there  are  in  France.  .  .  .  From  all  hamlets  towards  their  depart- 
mental town,  from  all  departmental  towns  toward  the  appointed  camp, 
the  Sons  of  Freedom  shall  march.  Their  banner  is  to  bear  *  The  French 
People  risen  against  Tyrants.'.  .  . 

"  These  soldiers  have  shoes  of  wood  and  pasteboard,  or  go  booted  in 
hay-ropes,  in  dead  of  winter.  .  .  .  What  then  ?  *  With  steel  and 
bread,'  says  the  Convention  Representative,  '  one  may  get  to  China.' 
The  generals  go  fast  to  the  guillotine,  justly  or  unjustly.  .  .  .  Ill-success 
is  death  ;  in  victory  alone  is  life.  .  .  .  All  Girondism,  Half  ness,  Com- 
promise, is  swept  away.  .  .  .  Forward,  ye  soldiers  of  the  Republic,  cap- 
tain and  man  !  Dash  with  your  Gallic  impetuosity  on  Austria,  England, 
Prussia,  Spain,  Sardinia,  Pitt,  Coburg,  York,  and  the  Devil  and  the 
World  ! 

' '  See  accordingly  on  all  frontiers,  how  the  '  Sons  of  Night '  astonished, 
after  short  triumph,  do  recoil ;  the  Sons  of  the  Republic  flying  after 
them,  with  temper  of  cat-o-mountain  or  demon  incarnate,  which  no  Son 
of  Night  can  withstand.  .  .  .  Spain  which  came  bursting  through  the 
Pyrenees,  rustling  with  Bourbon  banners,  and  went  conquering  here  and 
therefor  a  season,  falters  at  such  welcome,  draws  itself  in  again, — too 
happy  now  were  the  Pyrenees  impassable .  Dugomier  invades  Spain  by 
the  eastern  Pyrenees.  General  Mueller  shall  invade  it  by  the  western. 
*  Shall,1  that  is  the  word.  Committee  of  Public  Safety  has  said  it,  Rep- 
resentative Cavaignac,  on  mission  there,  must  see  it  done.  'Impossible,' 
cries  Mueller;  'Infallible,'  answers  Cavaignac.  *  The  Committee  is  deaf 
on  that  side  of  its  head,'  answers  Cavaignac.  '  How  many  want'st  thou 
of  men,  of  horses,  of  cannon  ?  Thou  shalt  have  them.  Conquerors, 
conquered,  or  hanged,  Forward  we  must.'  Which  things  also,  even  as  the 
Representative  spake  them,  were  done" 

581.  The  Reign  of  Terror  at  Home.  — The  Committee  had  not 
hesitated  to  use  the  most  terrible  means  to  secure  union  and 
obedience.  Early  in  September  of  1793  it  adopted  "  Terror  " 


472  THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION  [§681 

as  a  deliberate  policy.  This  "  Long  Terror"  was  a  very  differ- 
ent thing  from  the  "  Short  Terror  "  of  the  mob,  a  year  before. 
The  Paris  prisons  were  crowded  again  with  "  Suspects";  and 
each  day  the  Revolutionary  tribunal,  after  farcical  trials,  sent 
batches  of  the  condemned  to  the  guillotine.  Among  the  vic- 
tims were  the  queen,  many  aristocrats,  and  also  many  Consti- 
tutionalists and  Girondists  —  heroes  of  1791  and  1792.  In 
some  of  the  revolted  districts,  too,  submission  was  followed  by 
horrible  executions ;  and  at  Nantes  the  cruelty  of  Carrier,  the 
Deputy  on  Mission,  half-crazed  with  blood,  inflicted  upon  the 
Revolution  an  indelible  stain. 

Over  much  of  France,  however,  the  Terror  was  only  a  name. 
The  rule  of  most  of  the  great  Deputies  on  Mission  was  blood- 
less, and  was  ardently  supported  by  the  popular  will.  In  all, 
some  fifteen  thousand  executions  took  place  during  the  year  of 
the  Terror,  —  nearly  three  thousand  of  them  in  Paris. 

This  terrible  policy  proved  effectual.  After  two  months 
of  the  Terror,  Paris  was  tranquil  and  resumed  its  usual  life. 
There  were  no  more  riots  and  almost  no  crime,  even  of  the 
ordinary  kind.  France  was  again  a  mighty  nation,  united  and 
orderly  at  home  and  victorious  abroad.  Says  Carlyle,  — 

"Overhead  of  all  of  this,  there  is  the  customary  brewing  and  baking. 
Labor  hammers  and  grinds.  Frilled  promenaders  saunter  under  the  trees, 
white-muslin  promenadresses,  with  green  parasols,  leaning  on  your  arm. 
...  In  this  Paris,  are  twenty-three  theaters  nightly  [and]  sixty  places 
of  dancing." 

The  Terror  was  a  sure  weapon,  ready  to  hand  in  a  moment 
of  death  peril  to  the  Fatherland  and  to  liberty.  The  Conven- 
tion did  not  shrink  from  using  it.  That  much  may  be  said  in 
explanation.  Still  the  "  Reign  of  Terror  "  remains  a  terrible 
blot  on  human  history. 

At  the  same  time  it  does  not  stand  all  by  itself.  John  Mor- 
ley,  a  cultivated  English  scholar,  calls  it  "  almost  as  horrible  " 
as  the  scenes  the  English  enacted  six  years  later  in  Ireland 
(§  773)  without  such  mighty  reason.  And  it  was  far  less  ter- 
rible than  the  needless  vengeance  inflicted  by  the  conservative 


§583]  THE   REIGN   OF   TERROR  473 

government  of  Paris  in  1871  upon  twenty  thousand  victims  of  the 
Commune  (§  792),  —  over  which  the  world  shudders  ver.y  little. 

582.  A  study  of  the  Revolution  must  notice  this  bloodshed, 
but  ought  not  to  put  much  emphasis  on  it.     It  is  not  in  any  way 
the  significant  thing  about  the  Revolution.     Indeed,  it  was  not 
the  product  of  the  Revolution  itself,  but  of  foreign  war.     The 
significant  thing  about  the  Revolution  is  the  national  awaken-"" 
ing  which  swept  away  an  absurd,  tyrannical  society,  founded 
on  ancient  violence  and  warped  by  time,  to  replace  it  with  a 
simpler   society  based  on  equal  rights.     Literature  has  been  ' 
filled  with  hysterics  about  the  violence.     It  is  well  for  us  to 
shudder  —  but  there  is  no  danger  that  we  will  not,  for  those 
who  suffered  were  the  few  who  "  knew  how  to  shriek,"  and  so 
arouse  sympathy  for  their  woe.     The  danger  is  that  we  forget 
the  relief  to  the  dumb  multitudes  who  had  endured  worse  tortures 
for  centuries,  but  whose  inarticulate  meanings  hardly  attract  at- 
tention in  history.     As  Carlyle  justly  says,  not  for  a  thousand* 
years  had  any  equal  period  in  France  seen  so  little  suffering 
as  just  those  months  of  revolution  and  "terror." 

583.  If  the  Convention  destroyed  much,  it  built  up  vastly  more. 
It  made  the  Revolution  a  great  and  fruitful  reform.     The  grim, 
silent,  tense-browed  men  of  the  Committee  worked  eighteen 
hours  out  of   every  twenty-four.      Daily,  they   carried  their 
lives  in  their  hands ;  and  so  they  worked  swiftly,  disregard- 
ing some  niceties  of  detail,  and  cutting  knots  that  did  not 
easily   loosen.     While   Carnot,  "  Organizer  of  Victory,"   was 
creating  the  splendid  army  that  saved  liberty  from  despots, 
his  associates  were  laying  the  foundations  for  a  new  and  better 
society.     They  were  "  organizing  "  civilization. 

Mainly  on  their  proposals,  the  Convention  made  satisfactory 
provision  for  the  public  debt  that  had  crushed  the  old  monar- 
chy. It  adopted  the  beginning  of  a  simple  and  just  code  of 
laws.  It  accepted  the  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures, 
abolished  slavery  in  French  colonies,  instituted  the  first| 
Normal  School,  the  Polytechnic  School  of  France,  the  Conserv-1 
atory  of  France,  the  famous  Institute  of  France,  and  the 


474  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§583 

National  Library,  and  planned  also  a  comprehensive  system  of 
public  .instruction,  the  improvement  of  the  hospitals  and  of 
the  prisons,  and  the  reform  of  youthful  criminals.  As  Shailer 
Mathews  says,  "  No  government  ever  worked  harder  for  the 
good  of  the  masses  "  ;  and  says  H.  Morse  Stephens  :  — 

"  It  is  probable  that  as  the  centuries  pass,  the  political  strife  .  .  .  may 
be  forgotten,  while  the  projects  of  Cambace'res  and  Merlin  toward  codifi- 
cation, the  plans  of  Condorcet  and  Lakanal  for  a  system  of  national  edu- 
cation, and  Argobast's  report  on  the  new  weights  and  measures,  will  be 
regarded  as  making  great  and  important  steps  in  the  progress  /•/  >l> 
race.  .  .  .  The  Convention  laid  the  foundations  upon  which  Napoleon 
afterward  built.  In  educational  as  in  legal  ivform,  the  most  important 
work  was  done  during  the  Reign  of  Terror.'' 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  One  of  the  three  first  histori.  >  nanu»d  at 
the  close  of  the  last  chapter  ought  to  be  used  for  library  work  as  far  a- 
the  close  of  this  chapter.  Carlyle  should  surely  be  read,  now  or  later,  in 
high  school  life.  Other  references  are  named  on  page  460. 


CHAPTER   XXXIV 

THE  REVOLUTION   IN   DECLINE,    1794-1798 

I.    RUIN   OF  THE   JACOBINS 

584.  The  Jacobins  had  established  their  supremacy  over  all 
other  parties  by  the  "  Terror " ;   but  after  some  months  they 
themselves  broke  up  into  factions.     The  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  continued  to  uphold  the  inner  circle  of  its  members  (led 
by  Robespierre)  who  had  charge  of  carrying  on  the  Terror  ;  but, 
outside   the   Committee,  their   policy  was   attacked  violently 
from  both  sides. 

585.  The  Paris  Commune,   led   now   by  the   coarse   Hebert, 
clamored  for  more  blood.     This  group  wished  to  level  rich  and 
poor  by  wholesale  confiscation,  and  to  execute  all  who  might 
be  feared  as  opponents  of  such  measures.    In  Paris  they  carried 
another  part  of   their  program  to  success  for  a  time.     They 
closed  all  Christian  worship,  and  substituted  for  the  worship  of 
God  a  "  worship  of  Reason,"  with  ribald  blasphemy. 

This  atheism  aroused  Robespierre  to  denounce  the  Hebert- 
ists  in  the  Convention  as  dangerous  to  the  Revolution.  Twice 
the  Commune  had  reversed  the  control  of  a  national  assembly 
by  insurrection  (§§  558,  576).  Now  it  tried  a  third  time,  but 
failed  ;  and  Robespierre  sent  Hebert  and  his  leading  friends  to 
the  guillotine  (March,  1794). 

586.  On  the  other  hand,  Danton  was  weary  of  bloodshed.     He 
was  the  only  man  in  France  whose  popularity  and  influence 
rivaled  that  of  Robespierre.     For  months  he  had  been  urging 
in  the  Convention  that  "  Terror  "  was  no  longer  needed,  now  that 
France  was  victorious  without  and  tranquil  within.     And  Dan- 
ton's  friend,  Camille  Desmoulins  (§  541),  started  a  witty  news- 

476 


476  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§  587 

paper  to  criticize  the  policy  of  the  great  Committee,  suggesting 
in  its  place  a  "  Committee  of  Mercy,"  to  bind  up  the  wounds 
of  France.  In  April  Robespierre  accused  both  men  of  "  con- 
spiracy," and  sent  them  to  death. 

Danton's  danger  had  been  plain,  and  his  friends  urged  him  to  strike 
first.  "  Better  to  be  guillotined  than  to  do  more  guillotining,''  he  answered. 
As  he  mounted  the  scaffold,  he  faltered  a  moment  at  the  thought  of  his 
wife,  whom  he  loved  tenderly.  "  My  darling,"  he  murmured,  "shall  I 
see  you  never  again  ? "  But  rallying,  he  said  to  the  executioner,  — 
"  Show  my  head  to  the  people.  It  is  worth  while.  They  do  not  see  the 
like  every  day." 

587.  Robespierre,  for  the  next  three  months,  seemed  sole 
master1  of  France.  He  reopened  the  churches,  and  offset 
Hebert's  Festival  of  Reason  by  nuiking  the  Convention 
solemnly  celebrate  a  "  Festival  to  the  Supreme  Being."  *  He 
aimed  to  create  a  new  France,  with  simple  and  austere  virtues, 
like  those  Rousseau  pictured  in  his  ideal  "state  of  nature." 
This  he  believed  could  be  done  by  education.  He  secured 
from  the  Convention  a  decree  for  a  system  of  universal  public 
education.  The  opening  sentences  of  the  decree  read :  — 

"The  rise  of  an  oppressed  nation  to  democracy  is  like  the  effort  by 
which  nature  rose  out  of  nothingness  to  existence.  We  must  entirely 
refashion  a  people  whom  we  wish  to  make  free, — destroy  its  prejudices, 
alter  its  habits,  limit  its  necessities,  root  up  its  vices,  purify  its  desires. 
The  state  must  therefore  lay  hold  on  every  human  being  at  his  birth  and 
direct  his  education  with  powerful  hand." 

The  most  enthusiastic  follower  of  Robespierre  was  St.  Just ; 
and  the  fragments  of  St.  Just's  Institutes  express  the  ardent 
hopes  of  these  Terrorists. 

Boys  of  seven  were  to  be  handed  over  to  the  "  school  of  the  nation,"  to 
be  trained  "  to  endure  hardship  and  to  speak  little."  Neither  servants 
nor  gold  or  silver  vessels  were  to  be  permitted.  The  nation  was  to  possess 
"  the  happiness  of  virtue,  of  moderation,  of  comfort,  —  the  happiness  that 

1  Marat  had  been  murdered  by  Charlotte  Corday.    The  story  may  be 
presented  as  a  special  report. 

2  Robespierre  was  not  a  Christian  ;  he  was  a  deist,  like  Voltaire. 


§  589]  THE   DIRECTORY  477 

springs  from  the  enjoyment  of  the  necessary  without  the  superfluous.  The 
luxury  of  a  cabin  and  of  a  field  fertilized  by  your  own  hands,  a  cart,  a 
thatched  roof,  —  such  is  happiness."  St.  Just  declared  that  he  would  blow 
his  brains  out  if  he  did  not  believe  it  possible  to  remodel  the  French  people 
along  such  lines. 

During  his  three-months'  rule,  Robespierre  coupled  the  proc- 
lamation of  these  fine  theories  with  a  terrible  increase  in  the 
policy  of  the  "Terror"-  — to  clear  the  field.  The  number  of 
executions  rose  to  two  hundred  a  week.  The  Convention 
trembled  for  its  own  safety,  and  at  last  it  turned  savagely  on 
Robespierre.  On  July  27,  when  he  began  to  speak,  he  was 
interrupted  by  shouts  of  "  Down  with  the  tyrant !  "  Astounded, 
he  stammered  confusedly;  and  a  delegate  cried,  —  "See,  the 
blood  of  Danton  chokes  him."  Quickly  he  was  tried  and 
executed,  with  a  hundred  close  adherents. 

588.  The  "Terror"  now  came  to  an  end,  and  some  extreme 
laws  were  repealed.     In  December,  1794,  encouraged  by  the 
reaction  against  the  radicals,  the  fugitive  members  of  the  Right 
once  more  appeared  in  the  Assembly ;    and  in  March,  1795, 
even  the  survivors  of  the  expelled  Girondists  were  admitted. 
The   Jacobins   roused   the  populace  of  Paris  in  a  desperate 
attempt   to  undo  the   reaction;    but   the  middle  classes  had 
rallied,  and  the  mob  was  dispersed  by  troops  and  by  organized 
bands   of  "gilded  youth."     The  populace  was  disarmed,  the 
National  Guards  were  reorganized,  and  there  followed  over 
France  a  "  White  Terror,"  wherein  the  conservative  classes 
executed  or  assassinated  many  hundreds  of  the  Jacobin  party. 

II.     1795-1799:     THE    DIRECTORY 

589.  A  new  "Constitution  of  the  Year  III"  (1795)  replaced  the 
constitution  of  the  Year  I  and  confirmed  middle  class  rule. 
The  government  established  by  this  document  is  called  "  The 
Directory."     This  was  the  name  of  the  executive,  which  con- 
sisted of  a  committee  of  five,  chosen  by  the  legislature.     The 
legislature  consisted  of  two  Houses.     Property  qualifications 
for  voting  were  restored. 


478  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§  500 

590.  The  Last  Insurrection.  —  The  constitution  was  submitted 
to  a  popular  vote,  but  before  the  vote  was  taken,  at  the  last 
moment,  the  expiring  Convention  decreed  that  two-thirds  of  its 
members  should  hold  over  as  members  of  the  new  Assembly.1 
This  arrangement  was  submitted  to  the  people,  along  with  the 
constitution,  and  was  practically  made  a  condition  to  the  latter. 
It  was  carried  by  a  small  majority,  while  the  constitution 
was  ratified  by  an  overwhelming  vote.  In  Paris  the  secret 
Royalists  took  advantage  of  the  dissatisfaction  to  stir  up  a 
revolt.  They  were  joined  by  twenty  thousand  Natioir.il 
Guards.  The  Directory  was  in  terror.  But  it  had  four  thou- 
sand regular  troops,  and  it  happened  to  hit  upon  a  brilliant 
young  officer  to  command  them.  That  officer  posted  cannon 
about  the  approaches  to  the  Convention  hall,  and  mo\\v<l  d<.wn 
the  attacking  columns  with  grapeshot  (October  5,  1795).  The 
Directory  remained  in  power  for  four  years.  The  chief  inter- 
est for  this  period  centers  in  the  rise  of  the  officer  who  had 
saved  it,  and  whose  name  was  Napoleon  Bonaparte. 

1  Cf.  the  story  of  the  Rump  Parliament,  §  447. 


CHAPTER   XXXV 

THE   RISE   OF   NAPOLEON 

591.  In  1795,  when  the  government  of  the  Convention  was 
merged  in  the  Directory,  France  had  already  made  great  gains 
of  territory.     On  the  northeast,  Belgium  had  been  annexed,  with 
the  vote  of  its  people.     Nice  and  Savoy,  on  the  southeast,  had 
been  added,   in  like  manner.     The  eastern  frontier  had  been 
moved  to  the  Rhine,  by  the  seizure  of  all  the  territory  of  the 
Empire  on  the  west  side  of  the  river.     Holland  had  been  con- 
verted into  a  dependent  ally,  as  the  "  Batavian  Republic,"  with 
a  constitution  molded  on  that  of  France.     Prussia,  Spain,  and 
most  of  the  small  states   had  withdrawn  from   the  war.     Only 
England,  Austria,  and  Sardinia  kept  the  field. 

592.  Bonaparte    in    Italy.  —  The    Directory   determined   to 
attack    Austria   vigorously,    both    in    Germany    and    Italy.1 
Two  splendid  armies  were  sent  into  Germany,  and  a  small, 
ill-supplied   force  in    Italy  was   put  under   the   command  of 
Bonaparte.     The  wonderful  genius  of  the  young  general  (then 
twenty-seven  years  old)  made  the  Italian  campaign  the  decisive 
factor  in  the  war.      By  rapid  movements,  he  separated  the  Aus- 
trian and  Sardinian  forces,  beat  the  latter  in  five  battles  in  eleven 
days,  and  forced  Sardinia  to  conclude  peace.     Turning  upon 
the  brave  but  deliberate  Austrians,  he  won  battle  after  battle, 
and  by  July  he  was  master  of  Italy.     Austria,  however,  clung 
stubbornly  to  her  Italian  provinces ;  and  during  the  following 
year,  four  fresh  armies,  each  larger  than  Napoleon's,  were  sent 
in  succession  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Po,  only  to  meet  destruction. 
In  October,  1797,.  Austria  agreed  to  accept  Venice  from  Bona- 

1  Austria  at  this  time  held  a  considerable  part  of  North  Italy.    Cf.  §  477. 

479 


480 


THE   FRENCH    REVOLUTION 


parte,  in  exchange  for  Loinbardy  and  Belgium,  which  she  had  lost, 
and  war  on  the  continent  closed  with  the  Peace  of  Campo  Formic. 
593.  To  the  Italians,  Bonaparte  posed  at  first  as  a  deliverer,  and 
his  large  promises  awoke  the  peninsula  to  the  hope  of  a  new 
national  life.  Something  was  accomplished.  Oligarchic  Genoa 
became  the  Ligurian  Republic,  and  the  Po  valley  was  made 

into  the  Cisalpine  He- 
;»//>//»•.  Napoleon  swept 
away  feudalism  and  serf- 
dom and  the  forms  of  the 
old  Austrian  despotism, 
and  introduced  civil 
equality  and  some  polit- 
ical liberty.  At  the 
same  time,  however,  with 
amazing  perfidy,  Napo- 
leon tricked  the  independ- 
ent state  of  Venice  into 
war,  seized  it  by  a  French 
army,  and  afterward 
coolly  bartered  it  away 
to  Austria. 

Upon  even  the  friendly 
states,  Bonaparte   levied 

enormous  contributions, 
to  endch  Mg  soldiers  and 

officers,  to  fill  the  coffers 
of  France,  and  to  bribe  the  Directory.  His  proclamation  upon 
taking  command  of  the  Army  of  Italy  had  been  significant  of 
much  to  come  :  — 

"  Soldiers,  you  are  starving  and  in  rags.  The  government  owes  you 
much,  but  can  do  nothing  for  you.  I  will  lead  you  into  the  most  fruitful 
plains  of  the  world.  Teeming  provinces,  flourishing  cities,  will  be  in  your 
power.  There  you  may  reap  honor  and  glory  and  wealth." 

Works  of  art,  too,  and  choice  manuscripts  Bonaparte  ravished 
from  Italian  libraries  and  galleries,  and  sent  to  Paris,  to  gratify 


NAPOLEON  AT  ARCOLA,  in  a  critical  mo- 
ment  in  his  Italian  campaign.  After  the 
painting  by  Gros. 


§  594]  NAPOLEON   BONAPARTE  481 

French  vanity  ;  and  when  the  Italians  rose  against  this  spolia- 
tion, he  stamped  out  the  revolts  with  deliberate  cruelty. 

594.  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  —  The  Italian  campaigns  first 
showed  Napoleon  Bonaparte  to  the  world.  He  was  born  in 
Corsica  in  1769.  His  parents  were  Italians,  poor,  but  of  noble 
descent.  In  the  year  of  Napoleon's  birth,  Corsica  became 
a  possession  of  France.  The  boy  passed  through  a  French 
military  school,  and  when  the  Revolution  began  he  was  a 
junior  lieutenant  of  artillery.  The  war  gave  him  opportunity. 
He  had  distinguished  himself  at  the  capture  of  Toulon  (§  580) 
and,  chancing  to  be  in  Paris  at  the  time  of  the  rising  against 
the  Directory,  in  1795,  he  had  been  called  upon  to  defend  the 
government.  In  reward  he  was  given,  the  next  year,  the  com- 
mand of  the  "  Army  of  Italy." 

Bonaparte  was  one  of  the  three  or  four  supreme  military 
geniuses  of  all  history.  He  was  also  one  of  the  greatest  of 
civil  rulers.  He  had  profound  insight,  a  marvelous  memory, 
and  tireless  energy.  He  was  a  "  terrible  worker,"  and  his 
success  was  largely  due  to  his  wonderful  grasp  of  masses  of 
details,  —  so  that  he  could  recall  the  smallest  features  of 
geography  where  a  campaign  was  to  take  place,  or  could  name 
the  man  best  suited  for  office  in  any  one  of  a  multitude  of 
obscure  towns.  He  was  not  insensible  to  generous  feeling; 
but  he  was  utterly  unscrupulous,  and  he  deliberately  rejected 
all  claims  of  morality.  "  Morality,"  said  he,  "  has  nothing  to 
do  with  such  a  man  as  I  am."  Perfidy  and  cruelty,  when  they 
suited  his  ends,  he  used  as  calmly  as  appeals  to  honor  and 
patriotism. 

His  generalship  lay  largely  in  unprecedented  rapidity  of 
movement,  and  in  massing  his  troops  against  some  one  weak 
point  of  an  enemy.  uOur  general,"  said  his  soldiers,  "wins 
his  victories  with  our  legs."  Moreover,  the  French  army  was 
superior  to  any  army  in  Europe.  'Elsewhere  military  office 
came  by  birth  or  by  purchase.  In  the  Revolutionary  armies 
of  France,  it  came  by  merit  and  genius.  All  of  Napoleon's 
great  lieutenants  had  risen  from  the  ranks.  One  of  his  most 


482  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  [§595 

dashing  generals  (Jourdan)  had  been  a  tailor ;  another  (Murat) 
a  waiter.  Napoleon  always  cherished  this  democratic  character 
of  the  army.  "Every  soldier,"  said  he,  "carries  a  marshal's 
baton  in  his  knapsack." 

In  early  life  Bonaparte  may  have  been  a  sincere  Republican ; 
but  he  hated  anarchy  and  disorder,  and,  before  his  campaign 
in  Italy  was  over,  he  had  begun  to  plan  to  make  himself  ruler 
of  France.  He  worked  systematically  to  transform  the  army's 
earlier  ardor  for  liberty  into  a  passion  for  military  glory  and 
plunder.  He  became  the  idol  of  the  soldiery,  and  then  used 
the  military  power  to  overthrow  the  civil  authority. 

Before  Campo  Formio  he  had  said  to  a  friend,  **  Do  you  suppose  I  con- 
quer for  the  lawyers  of  the  Directory?  .  .  .  Do  you  think  I  mean  t» 
found  a  Republic?  What  an  idea!  .  .  .  The  nation  wants  a  h< 
chief  illustrious  for  great  exploits ;  it  does  not  care  for  theories  of  govern- 
ment. .  .  .  The  French  want  glory.  As  for  liberty,  of  that  ttu-y  have  no 
conception.  ...  I  am  everything  to  the  army.  Let  the  Directory  try  to 
take  my  command  from  me,  and  they  will  see  who  is  rnaM 

595.  Bonaparte  in  Egypt.  —  England  alone  continued  the  war 
against  France;  and  the  next  year  (1798)  Bonaparte  persuaded 
the  Directory  to  let  him  attack  Egypt,  as  a  step  toward  attack- 
ing England's  power  in  India.     He  won  a  series  of  brilliant 
battles  in  Egypt;  but  suddenly  his  Meet   was  annihilated  by 
the  English  under  Nelson,  in  the  Battle  of  the,  Nile,  and  his 
gorgeous  dreams  of  Oriental  empire  faded  away. 

596.  Bonaparte  overthrows  the  Directory. — Then  Bonaparte 
deserted  his  doomed  army,  and  escaped  to  France,  where  he 
saw  new  opportunities.     War  on  the  continent  had  been  re- 
newed.    In  1798  the  Directory  had  brought  about  a  change  in  the 
government  of  Switzerland  and  had  organized  that  country  as  the 
Helvetic  Republic.     They  had  also  driven  the  pope  from  Rome 
and  dispossessed  other  Italian  rulers,  to  make  way  for  new 
republican  states.     The  Great  Powers  of  Europe  were  alarmed 
at  these  measures.     England  succeeded  in  drawing  Russia  and 
Austria  into  another  coalition ;  and  so  far,  in  the  new  war,  the 
campaigns  had  gone  against  France.     Bonaparte's  failure   in 


§  596]  BONAPARTE   AND   THE   DIRECTORY  483 

distant  Egypt  was  not  comprehended,  and  the  French  people 
welcomed  him  as  a  savior.  , 

The  Directory  had  proven  disgracefully  corrupt.  Each  of 
three  years  in  succession  — 1797,  1798,  1799  —  the  elections 
had  gone  against  it ;  but  it  had  kept  itself  in  power  by  a  series 
of  coups  d'etat,1  or  arbitrary  interferences  with  the  result  of  the 
voting.  Now  Bonaparte  used  a  coup  d'etat  against  it.  His 
troops  purged  the  legislature  of  members  hostile  to  his  plan; 
and  a  Bump,  made  up  of  Bonaparte's  adherents,  abolished  the 
Directory  and  elected  Bonaparte  and  two  others  as  Consuls, 
intrusting  to  them  the  preparation  of  a  new  constitution. 
"  Now,"  said  the  peasantry,  "  we  shall  have  peace,  thanks  to 
God  and  to  Bonaparte  " ;  and  by  a  vote  of  some  three  million 
to  fifteen  hundred,  the  French  people  accepted  the  constitution 
that  virtually  made  Bonaparte  dictator.  France  was  not  really 
ready  for  the  freedom  she  had  won  so  unexpectedly  by  revo- 
lution. If  Bonaparte  had  not  seized  power,  some  other  military 
chief  surely  would  soon  have  done  so. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. —  High  school  students  will  hardly  get  time  to 
read  upon  the  Directory  period,  apart  from  Napoleon's  story.  For  that, 
see  references  on  page  499. 

!. Literally,  a  "  stroke  of  state."  This  is  the  name  given  in  France  to  in- 
fractions of  the  constitution  by  some  part  of  the  government  through  the  use 
of  force.  Happily  the  thing  itself  has  heen  so  unknown  to  English  history 
that  the  English  language  has  to  borrow  the  French  name.  The  attempt  of 
Charles  I  to  seize  the  five  members  (§  442)  was  something  of  the  sort.  The 
coming  century  was  to  see  many  a  coup  d'etat  in  France ;  and  like  phenomena 
have  been  common  in  other  European  countries. 


CHAPTER    XXXVI 

THE   CONSULATE,    1799-1804 

597.  Marengo  and  Hohenlinden.  —  Bonaparte's  first  work  as 
consul  was  to  crush  foreign  foes.     In  1800  he  won  the  un  at 
battle  of  Marengo  over  the  Austrians  in   Italy,  and    General 
Moreau  crushed  another  Austrian  army  in  Bavaria  at  //o//<  „- 
linden.     Austria  and  Russia  made  peace ;  and  two  years  later 
the  Peace  of  Amiens  (1802)  closed  the  war  between  France  and 
England.     For  a  brief  period,  the  world  was  free  from  war. 
Napoleon  appeared  a  conqueror,  with  dazzling  victories,  and 
also  the  restorer  of  the  long-desired  peace. 

598.  The  Consulate  was  confirmed  by  the  Constitution  of   the 
Year  VIII  (1800).     The  government   was  to  rest  on  iii<inli<><><l 
suffrage,  but  that  suffrage  was  to  be  **  refined  by  successive  Jilt  tui- 
tions."    The  adult  males,  some  five  million  in  all,   were   to 
choose   one-tenth   their  number;    the    five   hundred    thousand 
"  Communal  Notables,"  so  chosen,  were  in  turn  to  choose  one- 
tenth  their  number;  these  fifty  thousand  "  Departmental  Nota- 
bles "  were  to  choose  five  thousand  "  National  Notables." 

But  all  this  voting  was  only  to  settle  fV/V///;/7////.     The  execu- 
tive was  to  appoint  communal  officers  at  will  out  of  the  Coin 
munal  Notables,  departmental  officers  out  of  the  Departmental 
Notables,  and   members  of    the  legislature   and  other   chief 
officers  out  of  the  National  Notables. 

The  legislature  was  to  be  broken  up  into  four  parts:  a  Coun- 
cil of  State  to  prepare  bills  ;  a  Tribunate  to  discuss  them,  with- 
out right  to  vote;  a  Legislative  CJiamber  to  vote  upon  them, 
without  right  to  discuss ;  and  a  Senate,  with  power  to  veto. 

Sieyes,  who  planned  this  constitution,  had  intended  to  break 

484 


§600]  THE   CODE  485 

up  the  executive  in  like  manner  into  one  Consul  for  war,  an- 
other for  peace,  and  a  "  Grand  Elector  "  who  should  appoint 
the  consuls  and  other  great  officials,  but  should  then  have  no 
part  in  the  government.  Here  Napoleon  intervened.  He  was 
willing  to  accept  a  system  of  elections  that  never  elected  any- 
body, and  a  legislature  that  could  not  legislate ;  but  he 
changed  the  shadowy  "  Grand  Elector "  into  a  First  Consul, 
with  all  other  parts  of  the  constitution  subject  to  his  will. 

Bonaparte  became  First  Consul.  His  colleagues,  as  he  put 
it,  were  "  merely  counselors  whom  I  am  expected  to  consult, 
but  whose  advice  I  need  not  accept."  Directly  or  indirectly, 
he  himself  filled  all  offices,  and  no  law  could  even  be  proposed 
without  his  sanction. 

599.  Local  administration  was  highly  centralized.     For    each 
department  Napoleon  appointed  a  Prefect,  and  for  each  sub- 
district  a  Subprefect.     Even   the  forty  thousand  mayors   of 
towns  and  villages  were  appointed  by  the  First  Consul  or  by 
his  agents,  and  held  office  at  his  will ;  "  nor  did  there  exist 
anywhere  independent  of  him  the  authority  to  light  or  repair 
the  streets  of  the  meanest  village  in  France." 

This  new  administration  was  vigorous  and  fearless ;  and  under  Napo- 
leon's energy  and  genius,  it  conferred  upon  France  great  and  rapid  bene- 
fits. But,  in  the  long  run,  the  result  was  to  be  unspeakably  disastrous. 
The  chance  for  Frenchmen  to  train  themselves  at  their  own  gates  in  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  freemen,  by  sharing  in  the  local  government, 
was  lost;  and  the  willingness  to  depend  upon  an  all-directing  central 
power  was  fixed  even  more  firmly  than  before  in  their  minds. 

600.  Within  France  Bonaparte  used  his  vast  authority  to  restore 
order  and  heal  strife.     Royalist  and  Jacobin  were  welcomed  to 
public  employment  and  to  favor ;    and  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  exiles,  of  the  best  blood  and  brain  of  France,  returned, 
to  reinforce  the  citizen  body.     An  agreement  with  the  pope 
(the  Concordat}  reconciled  the  Catholic  church  to  the  state. 
All  bishops  were  replaced  by  new  ones  appointed  by  Napoleon 
and  consecrated   by  the   pope.     The   church   became   Roman 
again,  but  it  was  supported  and  controlled  by  the  state. 


486 


THE    RULE   OF   NAPOLEON 


[§601 


601.    The  work  of  the  great  Convention  of  '93  had  been  dropped 
by  the  Directory.     Some  parts  of  it  were  now  taken  up  again.     P>il>- 

lic  education  was  organized ;  cor- 
ruption and  extravagance  in  the 
government  gave  way  to  order 
and  efficiency ;  law  was  simpli- 
fied; and  justice  was  made 
cheaper  and  easier  to  secure. 

602.  The  Code  of  1804.  — This 
last  work  was  the  most  enduring 
and  beneficent  of  all.  The  Con- 
vention had  begun  to  reform  the 
outgrown  absurdities  of  the  con- 
fused mass  of  French  laws.  Tin1 
First  Consul  now  completed  the 
task.  A  commission  of  great 
lawyers,  working  under  his  direc- 
tion and  inspiration,  swiftly  re- 
duced the  vast  chaos  of  old  laws 
to  a  niarvelmisly  compact,  sim- 
ple, symmetrical  code. 

This  body  of  law  included  the 
new  principles  of  equality  born 
of  the  Revolution.  It  soon  be- 
came the  basis  of  law  for  practi- 
cally all  Europe,  except  England, 
Russia,  and  Turkey.  From  Spain 
it  spread  to  all  Spanish  America, 
and  it  lies  at  the  foundation  of 
the  law  of  the  State  of  Louisiana. 
Napoleon  himself  declared,  after 
his  overthrow,  "  Waterloo  will 
wipe  out  the  memory  of  my  forty 
victories  ;  but  that  which  nothing 
can  wipe  away  is  my  Civil  Code.  That  will  live  forever."  l 

1  Special  reports :  the  Legion  of  Honor ;  Napoleon's  encouragement  of  science. 


THE  VENDOME  COLUMN,  —  made 
from  Russian  and  Austrian  can- 
non captured  in  the  Austerlitz 
campaign.  The  figures  on  the 
spirals  represent  scenes  in  that 
campaign,  and  upon  the  summit, 
142  feet  high,  stood  a  statue  of 
Napoleon.  The  name  Vendome 
comes  from  the  name  of  the 
public  square.  Students  of 
ancient  history  will  naturally 
compare  this  column  with  Tra- 
jan's  (Ancient  World,  $  6'±»). 


§604] 


GAINS   TO   FRANCE 


487 


603.  The  material  side  of  society  was  not  neglected.  The  de- 
preciated paper  money  (§  559)  was  restored  to  a  sound  basis, 
and  industry  of  all  kinds  was  encouraged.  Paris  was  made 
the  most  beautiful  city  of  Europe,  and  it  was  given  an 
excellent  water  supply.  The  narrow  streets  were  widened 
into  magnificent  boulevards ;  parks  and  public  gardens  were 
provided;  while  here  and  there  rose  triumphal  arches  and 
columns.  Roads,  canals,  and  harbors  were  built,  and  old  ones 
were  improved.  And,  chief  of  all,  the  economic  gain  of  the 
peasants  in  the  Revolu- 
tion (§  559)  was  pre- 
served. The  peasantry 
were  landowners,  free 
from  their  old  burdens ; 
and  workmen  secured 
two  or  three  times  the 
wages  they  had  received 
ten  years  before.  Under 
such  conditions  the  peo- 
ple displayed  new  en- 
ergies, and,  with  the 
establishment  of  quiet 
and  order,  they  quickly 
built  up  a  vast  material 
prosperity. 

In  short,  Napoleon  de- 
stroyed political  liberty;  but  he  preserved  equality  before  the  law,  along  with 
the  economic  gains  from  the  Revolution  to  the  working  classes.  The 
burden  of  taxation  was  made  to  rest  with  fair  justice  upon  all  classes.  The 
peasant  paid  not  four-fifths  his  income  in  taxes,  as  before  the  Revolution, 
but  about  one-fifth ;  and  he  got  much  more  in  return  than  before. 

604.  In  all  this  reconstruction  the  controlling  mind  was  that 
of  the  First  Consul.  Functionaries  worked  as  they  had  worked 
for  no  other  master.  Bonaparte  knew  how  to  set  every  man 
the  right  task ;  and  his  own  matchless  activity  (he  sometimes 
worked  twenty  hours  a  day)  made  it  possible  for  him  to  over- 


ARCH  OF  TRIUMPH,  PARIS,    commemorat- 
ing Napoleon's  victories. 


488  THE    RULE   OF   NAPOLEON  [§  604 

see  countless  designs.  His  penetrating  intelligence  seized  the 
essential  point  of  every  problem,  and  his  indomitable  will 
drove  through  all  obstacles  to  a  quick  and  effective  solution. 
His  ardor,  his  ambition  for  France  and  for  glory,  his  passion 
for  good  work,  his  contempt  for  difficulties,  inspired  every 
official,  until,  as  one  of  them  said,  "the  gigantic  entered  into 
our  habits  of  thought." 

But  the  benefits  that  Bonaparte  conferred  upon  France  were  the 
work  of  a  beneficent  despotism,  not  of  a  free  government.  He 
worked  as  a  Joseph  II  (§  502)  of  greater  ability  might  have 
done.  Bonaparte  was  the  last  and  greatest  of  the  benevolent 
despots  ;  and  it  was  soon  plain  that  he  meant  to  seize  the  outer 
trappings  of  royalty  as  well  as  its  power. 


CHAPTER   XXXVII 

THE   FRENCH   EMPIRE,    1804-1814 

605.  "  Napoleon  I."  —  In  1802  Bonaparte  had  himself  elected 
Consul  for  Life.     He  set  up  a  court,  with  all    the  forms  of 
monarchy,  and  began  to  sign  papers  by  his  first  name  only  — 
Napoleon  —  as  kings   sign.     Then,  in  1804,  he   obtained  an- 
other vote  of  the  nation  declaring  him  "  Emperor  of  the  French," 
and  he  solemnly  crowned  himself  at  Paris,  with  the  presence 
and  sanction  of  the  pope,  as  the  successor  of  Charlemagne. 

606.  Napoleon  always  claimed  that  he  ruled  by  the  "  will  of  the 
French  people";   and  each  assumption  of  power  was  given  a 
show  of  ratification  by  a  popular  vote,  or  plebiscite.     But   the 
plebiscite  was  merely  the  nation's  Yes  or  No  to  a  question 
framed  by  the  master.     The  result  of  a  No  could  never  be  fore- 
seen ;  and  it  was  not  hard  so  to  shape  questions   that  men 
would  rather  say  Yes  than  risk  the  indefinite  consequences  of 
saying  No.     The  nation  had  no  share  at  any  stage  in  shaping  the 
questions  upon  which  it  was  to  vote;  and  even  the  vote  was  con- 
trolled largely  by  skillful  coercion.     A  plebiscite  was  a  thin 
veil  for  military  despotism  ;  but  it  was  at  least  a  standing 
denial  of  the  old  doctrine  of  "  divine  right." 

607.  Personal  liberty  was  no  longer   safe.     Napoleon  main- 
tained a  vast  network  of  secret  police  and  spies,  and  he  sent 
thousands  of  men  to  prison  or  into  exile  by  his  mere  order. 
The  press  was   subjected  to   stern   and    searching   censorship. 
No  book  could  be  published  if  it  contained  opinions  offensive  to 
the  emperor,  even  in  matters  only  slightly  related  to  politics.1 

1  Madame  de  Stael  was  not  allowed  to  say  that  the  drama  of  Iphigenia  by 
the  German  Goethe  was  a  greater  play  than  the  work  of  the  French  Racine 
upon  the  same  plot. 

489 


490  THE   RULE   OF  NAPOLEON  [§608 

Newspapers  were  forbidden  to  print  anything  "contrary  to 
the  duties  of  subjects."  They  were  required  to  omit  all  news 
"disadvantageous  or  disagreeable  to  France,"  and  in  political 
matters  they  were  allowed  to  publish  only  such  items  as  were 
furnished  them  by  the  government. 

Moreover,  they  were  required  to  praise  the  administration. 
"  Tell  them,"  said  Napoleon,  "I  shall  judge  them  not  only  by 
the  evil  they  say,  but  by  the  good  they  do  not  say."  Even 
the  schools  were  made  to  preach  despotism,  and  were  com- 
manded to  "  take  as  the  basis  of  their  instruction  fidelity  to 
the  Emperor."  Religion,  too,  was  pressed  into  service.  Every 
village  priest  depended,  directly  or  indirectly,  upon  Napoleon's 
will,  and  was  expected  to  uphold  his  power.  A  catechism  was 
devised  expressly  to  teach  the  duty  of  all  good  Christians  to 
obey  the  emperor.1 

608.  The  Empire  meant  war.  In  1802  Napoleon  told  his 
Council  of  State  that  he  should  welcome  war  and  that  he  ex- 
pected it.  Europe,  he  declared,  needed  a  single  head,  an  em- 
peror, to  distribute  the  various  kingdoms  among  lieutenants. 
He  felt,  too,  that  victories  and  military  glory  were  neeedjul  t<>  /»/•«•- 
vent  the  French  nation  from  nmrimiriiKj  wjain^t  his  d<'Xj><>ti's,,i. 

Moreover,  other  nations  felt  that  there  could  be  no  lasting 
peace  with  Napoleon  except  on  terms  of  absolute  submission. 
Under  such  conditions  as  these,  war  soon  broke  out  afresh. 
England  and  France  came  to  blows  again  in  1803,  and  there 
was  to  be  no  more  truce  between  them  until  Napoleon's  fall. 
During  the  next  eleven  years,  Napoleon  fought  also  three  wars 
with  Austria,  two  with  Prussia,  two  with  Russia,  a  long  war 
with  Spain,  and  various  minor  conflicts. 

The  European  wars  from  1792  to  1802  belong  to  the  period 
of  the  French  Revolution  proper.  Those  from  1803  to  1815 
are  Napoleonic  wars,  due  primarily  to  the  ambition  of  one 
great  military  genius.  In  the  first  series,  Austria  was  the  chief 
opponent  of  the  Revolution:  in  the  second  series,  England  >/-,/.s 
the  relentless  foe  of  Napoleo,,. 

1  Extracts  are  given  in  Anderson,  No.  <io. 


§612]  THE    "CONTINENTAL   SYSTEM"  491 

609.  Austerlitz.  —  On  the  breaking  out  of  war  with  England, 
Napoleon  prepared  a  mighty  flotilla  and  a  magnificent  army  at 
Boulogne.     England  was  threatened  with  overwhelming  inva- 
sion if  she  should  lose  command  of  the  Channel  even  for  a  few 
hours  ;  but  all  Napoleon's  attempts  to  get  together  a  fleet  to 
compete  with  England's  failed.     In  1805  Austria  and  Russia 
joined  England  in  the  war.     With  immediate  decision,  Napo- 
leon transferred  his  forces  from  the  Channel  to  the  Danube, 
annihilated  two  great  armies,  at  Ultn  and  Austerlitz  (October 
and    December),  and,   entering  Vienna  as  a  conqueror,  forced 
Austria  to  a  humiliating  peace.     That  country  gave  up  her  re- 
maining territory  in  Italy,  and  her  Illyrian    provinces,  and 
surrendered  also  many  of  her  possessions  in  Germany. 

610.  Jena.  —  Prussia   had    maintained    her   neutrality    for 
eleven  years ;  but  now,  with  his  hands  free,  Napoleon  goaded 
her  into  war,  crushed  her  absolutely  at  Jena  (October,  1806), 
occupied  Berlin,  and  soon  afterward  dictated  a  peace  that  re- 
duced Prussia  one-half  in  size  and  bound  her  to  France  as  a 
vassal  state. 

611.  Less  decisive  conflicts  with  Russia  were  followed  by  the 
Peace  of  Tilsit  (July,   1807).     The  Kussian  and  French  em- 
perors met  in  a  long  interview,  and  Tsar  Alexander  was  so 
impressed  by  Napoleon's  genius,  that,  from  an  enemy,  he  be- 
came a  friend  and  ally.     France,  it  was  understood,  was  to  rule 
Western  Europe ;  Russia  might  aggrandize  herself  at  the  ex- 
pense of  Sweden,  Turkey,  and  Asia ;  and  the  two  Powers  were 
to  unite  in  ruining  England  by  shutting  out  her  commerce  from 
the  continent. 

612.  The  "Continental  System."-  — England  had  proved  as 
supreme  on  the  seas  as  Napoleon  on  land.     In  1805,  at  Trafal- 
gar, off  the  coast  of  Spain,  Nelson  destroyed  the  last  great 
fleet  that  Napoleon  collected.     Soon  afterward  a  secret  article 
in  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit  agreed  that  Denmark  (then  a  consider- 
able  naval  power)  should  be  made  to  add  her   fleet  to  the 
French ;    but   the   English  government   struck  first.      It  de- 
manded the  surrender  of  the  Danish  fleet  into  English  hands 


492  THE   RULE   OF   NAPOLEON  [§613 

until  war  should  close,  and  finally  it  compelled  the  delivery 
by  bombarding  Copenhagen. 

After  this,  Napoleon  could  not  strike  at  England  with  his 
armies,  and  he  fell  back  upon  an  attempt  to  rain  her  by  <•/•>/*// //>'/ 
her  commerce.  All  the  ports  of  the  continent  were  to  be  closed 
to  her  goods.  Napoleon  stirred  French  scientists  into  desper- 
ate efforts  to  invent  substitutes  for  the  goods  shut  out  of  the 
continent.  One  valuable  result  followed.  The  English  cruis- 
ers prevented  the  importation  into  France  of  West-India  cane 
sugar ;  but  it  was  discovered  that  sugar  could  be  made  from 
the  beet,  and  the  raising  of  the  sugar-beet  became  a  leading 
industry  of  France. 

This  "Continental  System"  did  inflict  damage  upon  Eng- 
land, but  it  carried  greater  harm  to  the  continent,  which 
simply  could  not  do  without  the  manufactures  of  England, 
then  the  workshop  of  Europe.  At  times,  even  the  French 
armies  had  to  be  clothed  in  smuggled  English  goods,  and  they 
marched  into  Russia,  in  1812  (§  621),  in  English  shoes. 

England's  retort  to  the  Continental  System  was  an  attempt 
to  blockade  the  coast  of  France  and  her  dependencies  to  all 
neutral  vessels.  In  these  war  measures,  both  France  and 
England  ignored  the  rights  of  neutral  states ;  and  one  result 
was  the  War  of  1812  in  America  —  a  story  that  does  not  need 
telling  here. 

On  the  other  hand,  Napoleon's  attempts  to  enforce  his  Sys- 
tem led  him  from  one  high-handed  measure  to  another,  until 
Portugal  and  Russia  rose  against  him,  and  so  gave  Central 
Europe  another  chance  to  win  freedom  (§§  613,  621). 

613.  From  Tilsit  to  Wagram :  the  Peninsular  War.  —  Portugal 
refused  to  confiscate  the  English  vessels  in  her  ports.  There- 
upon Napoleon's  armies  occupied  the  kingdom.  From  this  act, 
Napoleon  passed  to  the  seizure  of  Spain,  placing  his  brother 
Joseph  upon  the  throne.  But  the  proud  and  patriotic  Spanish 
people  rose  in  a  "  War  for  Liberation,"  and  it  was  soon  plain 
that  a  new  force  had  appeared.  Hitherto,  Napoleon  had  warred 
against  governments,  and  had  dictated  peace  when  the  r  >(!>',•,•< 


§614] 


THE   PENINSULA   WAR 


493 


in  his  power :  now,  first,  he  had  to  figlit  with  a  people  in  arms. 
Brilliant  victories  merely  transferred  the  outbreaks  from  one 
quarter  to  another  and  called  for  more  and  more  of  his  ener- 
gies. England  seized  her  opportunity,  too,  and  sent  an  army 
under  Wellesley  (afterward  Duke  of  Wellington)  to  support 
the  Peninsular  revolt.  To  the  end  this  struggle  continued  to 
drain  Napoleon's  resources.  Long  after,  at  St.  Helena,  he 
declared  that  it  was  really 
the  Spanish  war  that 
ruined  him. 

In  1809,  encouraged  by 
the  Spanish  rising,  Aus- 
tria once  more  entered 
the  lists,  but  a  defeat  at 
Wagram  forced  her  again 
to  submission.  Napoleon 
now  married  a  princess 
of  Austria.  He  was  anx- 
ious for  an  heir,  and  so 
divorced  his  former  wife, 
Josephine,  who  had  borne 
him  no  children,  to  make 
way  for.  marriage  with  a 
grandniece  of  Marie  An- 
toinette. This  union  of 
the  Revolutionary  em-  NAPOLEON  toward  the  close  of  his  rule. 

peror  with  the  proud  Hapsburg  house  marks  in  some  respects 
the  summit  of  his  power. 

614.  Napoleon's  Changes  in  Territory  on  the  North  Sea  and  in 
Italy.  —  At  the  moment,  the  Spanish  campaigns  seemed  trivial ; 
and  after  Wagram,  Napoleon  was  supreme  in  Central  Europe. 
This  period  was  marked  by  sweeping  changes  in  territory. 
The  most  important  may  be  grouped  under  four  heads. 

a.  The  Batavian  Republic  (§  591)  was  converted  into  the  King- 
dom of  Holland,  with  Napoleon's  brother  Louis  for  its  sovereign. 
Later,  when  Louis  refused  to  ruin  his  people  by  enforcing  the 


494  THE   RULE   OF   NAPOLEON  [§<>15 

Continental  System  rigidly,  Napoleon  deposed  him,  and  an- 
nexed Holland  to  France,  along  with  the  whole  north  coast  of 
Germany  as  far  as  Denmark. 

b.  In  Italy  the  new  republics  and  the  old  petty  states  were  dis- 
posed of,  one  after  another.     Even  the  pope  was  deprived  of 
his  principality.     When   these  changes  were  complete,  Italy 
lay  in  three  fairly  equal  divisions.     In  the  .so/////  Napoleon's 
brother,  Joseph,  ruled  as  King  of  Naples.1     ///  tin'  )nn-t]n'<ixt  was 
the  "  Kingdom  of  Italy,"  with  Napoleon  himself  as  king.2     TJie 
rest  of  the  peninsula  was  made  a  part  of  France,  and  was  organ- 
ized as  a  French  department. 

c.  TJie  lllyrian  provinces  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Adriatic 
were  annexed  directly  to  France. 

d.  Most  important  of  all  were  the  changes  in  (rV/-///»/////.     To 
comprehend  the  significance  of  Napoleon's  work  there,  one 
must  first  grasp  the  bewildering  conditions  before  his  inter- 
ference (§  615). 

615.   Before  Napoleon   tin  rf   u-as  no  true  political  Germ<tn>/. 
The  Holy  Roman  Empire  was  made  up  of 

(1)  two  "  great  states,"  Austria  and  Prussia,  each  of  them 
half  Slavonic  in  blood ;  • 

(2)  some  thirty  states  of  the  "second  rank,"  like   Bavaria, 
and  Wurtemberg ; 

(3)  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  petty  states  of  the  "  third 
order"  (many   of  them  ecclesiastical  states),  ranging  in  size 
from  a  small  duchy   to   a  large  farm,  but  averaging  a   few 
thousand  inhabitants ; 

(4)  some  fifteen  hundred  "knights  of  the  empire,"  who  in 
England  would  have  been  country  squires  (§  121),  but  who  in 
Germany  were  really  independent  monarchs,  with  an  average 
territory  of  three  square  miles,  and  some  three  hundred  sub- 
jects apiece,  over  whom  they  held  power  of  life  and  death. 

1  When  Joseph  was  promoted  in  1809  to  the  throne  of  Spain,  he  was  suc- 
ceeded in  Naples  by  Murat,  one  of  Napoleon's  generals. 

2  Because  Charlemagne  and  Otto  and  their  successors  had  been  "  kings 
of  Italy." 


§616]  THE   NEW   MAP   OF   EUROPE  495 

(5)  About  fifty-six  "  free  cities,"  all  in  misrule,  governed  by 
narrow  aristocracies. 

Each  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  states  of  the  "third  rank," 
like  the  larger  ones,  was  an  absolute  monarchy,  with  its  own 
laws,  its  own  mimic  court  and  arrny,  its  own  coinage,  and  its 
crowd  of  pedantic  officials.  The  "  Sovereign  Count "  of  Leim- 
burg-Styrum-Wilhelmsdorf  kept  a  standing  army  of  one 
colonel,  nine  lower  officers,  and  two  privates !  Each  of  the  fif- 
teen hundred  "  knights  "  had  his  own  system  of  tariffs  and  taxes. 

One  more  factor  must  be  taken  into  account  in  order  to  get  an 
idea  of  the  indescribable  confusion.  Few  even  of  these  petty  prin- 
cipalities had  their  territory  compact.  Many  a  state  of  the  second 
or  third  order  consisted  of  several  fragments 1  (obtained  by  ac- 
cidents of  marriage  or  war),  sometimes  widely  scattered,  —  some 
of  them  perhaps  wholly  inside  a  larger  state  to  which  politically 
they  had  no  relation.  No  map  can  do  justice  to  the  quaint 
confusion  of  this  region,  about  the  size  of  Texas,  thus  broken 
into  eighteen  hundred  governments  varying  from  an  empire  to 
a  small  estate,  and  scattered  in  fragments  within  fragments.2 
It  is  little  wonder  that  the  philosopher  Lessing,  the  greatest 
German  between  Luther  and  Goethe,  should  have  said:  "Pa- 
triotism I  do  not  understand  ;  at  best  it  seems  an  amiable  weak- 
ness which  I  am  glad  to  be  free  from." 

616.  Napoleon  had  begun  his  rearrangement  of  Germany  at 
Campo  Formic  (§  592).  By  that  treaty  (and  by  subsequent  ar- 
rangements), princes  of  the  Empire  were  allowed  to  recompense 
themselves  for  the  territories  they  had  lost  to  France  by  absorb- 
ing the  ecclesiastical  states  and  most  of  the  l(free  cities." 

After  Austerlitz  and  Jena,  more  radical  changes  followed. 
Austria  and  Prussia  were  weakened.  The  first  became  an 
inland  state.  The  second  was  halved  and  pushed  altogether 
beyond  the  Elbe,  while  its  recent  Polish  acquisitions  were 
turned  into  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw.  Besides  so  depressing  the 

1  As  indicated  by  the  compound  name  of  the  one  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
paragraph. 

2  These  conditions  are  suggested  by  the  map  after  p.  304. 


496  THE   RULE   OF  NAPOLEON  [§617 

two  great  states,  Napoleon  proceeded  to  form  a  further  check 
upon  them  by  augmenting  the  states  of  the  second  rank.  Ba- 
varia, Saxony,  and  Wurtemberg  were  made  kingdoms,  with 
territories  enlarged  at  the  expense  of  Austria  and  of  smaller 
neighboring  states ;  while  out  of  old  Prussian  territory  and 
of  the  electorate  of  Hanover  was  formed  a  new  "  Kingdom  of 
Westphalia,"  for  Napoleon's  brother  Jerome. 

At  the  same  time,  the  large  states  were  encouraged  or  com- 
pelled to  absorb  the  territories  of  the  knights  and  of  thi>  jirtty 
jjrincipalities  within  or  adjoining  their  borders.  Thus  the  ••  po- 
litical crazy  quilt"  of  eighteen  hundred  states  was  simplified  to 
thirty-eight  states.  Tliis  tremendous  ro//.W/f /*////>/< .  *///•/•//•///// 
the  rearrangements  after  Napoleon's  fall,  paved  the  way  for  later 
German  unity. 

617.  Nearly   all   these   German   states,   except   Austria  and 
Prussia,  were  leagued  in  the  "  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,"  under 
Napoleon  as  "Protector."     TJiis  amounted  to  a  tlistmlutinn  <>f  tln> 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  and  in  1806  Francis  II  laid  down  that 
venerable  title.     Napoleon  himself  posed  as  the  successor  of 
the  Koman  emperors.     Francis  was  allowed  to  console  him- 
self with  the  title  "  Emperor  of  Austria,"  for  his  hereditary 
realms,  instead  of  his  previous  title,  "  Arch-Duke  of  Austria." 
The  title  emperor  began  now  to  lose  its  august  meaning. 

618.  Social  Reform.  —  In  the  Confederacy  of  the  Rhine  and 
in  the  many  kingdoms  of  Napoleon's  brothers  and  generals, 
serfdom  and  feudalism  were  abolished,  and  civil  equality  and 
the   Code  Napoleon  were  introduced.      Everywhere,  too,  the 
administration  of  justice  was  made  cheap  and  simple,  and  the 
old  clumsy  and  corrupt  methods  of  government  gave  way  to 
order  and  efficiency. 

619.  Most  striking  of   all  was  the  reform  in  Prussia.     Else- 
where the  new  methods  were  introduced  by  French  agents  or 
under   French   influence.      In  Prussia,  reform  came  from    a 
Prussian  minister,  and  was  adopted  in  order  to  make  Prussia 
strong  enough  to  cast  off  the  French  yoke. 

Jena  had  proved  that  the  old  Prussian  system  was  utterly 


§621]  THE   INVASION   OF   RUSSIA.  497 

rotten.  The  leading  spirit  in  a  new  Prussian  ministry  was 
Stein,  who  labored  to  fit  Prussia  for  leadership  in  freeing  and 
regenerating  Germany.  The  serfs  were  changed  into  free 
peasant-landowners.  The  caste  distinctions  t in  society  were 
broken  down.  The  old  law  had  recognized  distinct  classes, 
-peasants,  burgesses,  and  nobility,  —  and  had  practically 
forbidden  an  individual  to  pass  from  one  class  into  another. 
Even  the  land  had  been  bound  by  the  caste  system :  no  noble 
could  sell  land  to  the  citizen  of  a  town,  or  vice  versa ;  nor  could 
a  townsman  sell  to  a  peasant.  All  this  was  now  done  away. 
Some  self-government  was  granted  to  the  towns.  And  many 
of  the  best  principles  of  the  French  reforms  were  adopted. 
Napoleon's  insolence  and  the  domination  of  the  French  armies 
at  last  had  forced  part  of  Germany  into  the  beginning  of  a  new 
national  patriotism  ;  and  that  patriotism  began  to  arm  itself  by 
borrowing  weapons  from  the  arsenal  of  the  French  Revolution. 

620.  In  1810  Napoleon's  power  had  reached  its  widest  limits. 
The  huge  bulk  of  France  filled  the  space  from  the  Ocean  to  the 
Rhine,  including  not  only  the  France  which  we  know,  but 
also  Belgium,  half  of  Switzerland,  and  large  strips  of  German 
territory,  —  while  from  this  central  body  two  outward-curving 
arms  reached  toward  the  east,  one  along  the  North  Sea  to 
the  Danish  Peninsula,  and  the  other  down  the  coast  of  Italy 
past  Rome.     This  vast  territory  was  all  organized  in  French 
departments.     The  rest  of  Italy  and  half  the  rest  of  Germany 
were  under  Napoleon's  "  protection,"  and  were  ruled  by  his 
appointees.    Denmark  and  Switzerland,  too,  were  his  dependent 
allies ;  and  Prussia  and  Austria  were  unwilling  ones.     Only  the 
extremities  of  the  continent  kept  their  independence,  and  even 
there,  Sweden  and  Russia  were  his  friends. 

621.  The  "Retreat  from  Moscow." -  —  But  Russia  was  growing 
hostile.     Alexander  was  offended  by  the  partial  restoration  of 
Poland  (as  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw).     The  Continental  System, 
too,  was  growing  more  and  more  burdensome.     Russia  needed 
English  markets,  and  in  1811  the  Tsar  refused  longer  to  en- 
force the  "  System." 


498 


THE   RULE   OF   NAPOLEON 


[§622 


Napoleon  at  once  declared  war.  In  1812  he  invaded  Russia 
and  penetrated  to  Moscow.  The  Russians  set  fire  to  the  city, 
so  that  it  should  not  afford  him  winter  quarters  ;  but,  with  rare 
indecision,  he  stayed  there  five  weeks,  hoping  in  vain  that  the 
Tsar  would  offer  to  submit.  Then,  too  late,  in  the  middle  of 
October,  when  the  Russian  winter  was  already  upon  them,  the 
French  began  a  terrible  retreat,  fighting  desperately  each  foot 
of  the  way  against  cold,  starvation,  and  clouds  of  Cossack 


NAPOLKON  LEAVING  M< 


From  ;i  painting. 


cavalry.  Nine  weeks  later,  twenty  thousand  miserable  scare- 
crows recrossed  the  Niemen.  The  "Grand  Army,"  a  half 
million  strong,  had  left  its  bones  among  Russian  snows. 

622.  Battle  of  Leipzig.  —  The  Russians  kept  up  the  pursuit 
into  Germany,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Prussian  people 
forced  the  government  to  declare  against  Napoleon.  Univer- 
sity professors  enlisted  at  the  head  of  companies  of  their 
students  in  a  "  war  of  liberation."  Women  gave  their  jewels 
and  even  their  hair,  to  buy  arms  and  supplies.  The  next 
summer,  Austria  also  took  up  arms.  By  tremendous  efforts, 
Napoleon  raised  a  new  army  of  boys  and  old  men  from  exhausted 
France,  and  for  a  time  he  kept  the  field  victoriously  in  Ger- 


THE    WARS   OF   LIBERATION  499 

many ;  but  in  October,  1813,  he  met  crushing  defeat  at  Leipzig, 
in  the  "  Battle  of  the  Nations." 

623.  From  Leipzig  to  Paris. — Napoleon  retreated  across  the 
Rhine.     His  vassal  kings  fled  from  their  thrones,  and  most  of 
the  small  states  now  joined  his  enemies.     England,  Russia, 
Austria,  and  Prussia,  acting  in  close  concert,  took  to  themselves 
the  name  "  The  Allies,"  and  maintained  a  perfect  understand- 
ing.     After  Leipzig,  they  proposed  peace,  offering  to  leave 
Napoleon  his  crown,  with  the  Rhine  for  the  boundary  of  France. 
Like  a  desperate  gamester,  bound  to  win  or  lose  all,  Napoleon 
rejected  these  terms.     The  Allies  then  advanced  to  the  Rhine, 
and  offered  peace  with  the  French  boundaries  of  1792.     Napo- 
leon again  refused.      The  Allies  invaded  France  at  several 
points,  with  overwhelming  numbers ;    and,  in  spite  of  Napo- 
leon's   superb    defense,    they    entered    Paris    victoriously    in 
March,  1814. 

624.  The  Peace  of  1814.  —  The  Allies  made  Napoleon  a  large 
allowance,  and  granted  him  the  island  of  Elba,  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean, as  an  independent  principality.     The  Bourbon  heir  to 
the  French  throne,  one  of  the  Emigrant  brothers  of  Louis  XVI, 
appeared,  promised  a  constitution,  and  was  quietly  recognized 
by  the  French  Senate  as  Louis  XVIII.1    The  Allies  avoided  the 
appearance  of  imposing  this  king  upon  France,  but  they  liked 
the  arrangement.     To  make  it  popular,  they  granted  liberal 
terms  of  peace.     France  kept  her  territory  as  it  was  before  the 
Revolution.      The  Allies  withdrew  their  armies  without  im- 
posing any  war  indemnity,  such  as  France  had  exacted  repeat- 
edly from  other  countries  :  nor  did  they  even  take  back  the  works 
of  art  that  French  armies  had  plundered  from  so  many  famous 
galleries  in  Europe. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  The  best  brief  accounts  of  the  Napoleonic 
era  are  given  in  Stephen's  Revolutionary  Europe,  1789-1815  and  Rose's 

1  The  son  of  Louis  XVI  had  died  in  prison  at  Paris  in  1795.  According  to 
the  theory  that  he  began  to  reign  upon  his  father's  death  in  1793,  he  is  known 
as  Louis  XVII. 


500  THE   RULE   OF   NAPOLEON 

Revolutionary  and  Napoleonic  Era.  The  many  histories  of  Napoleon 
are  most  of  them  defaced  by  extreme  partisanship  on  one  side  or  the  other, 
or  are  too  long  for  general  use.  Probably  the  best  treatment  is  also  the 
most  recent,  —  Rose's  Napoleon  the  First.  Anderson's  Constitution*  mxl 
Documents  gives  an  admirable  selection  of  documents.  Kennan's  Folk- 
tales about  Napoleon  is  a  curious  and  interesting  volume.  Robinson's 
Readings,  II,  continues  to  offer  valuable  source  material. 


PART   VII 

THE  PEKIOD   OF  KEAOTION,   1815-1848 


CHAPTER   XXXVIII 

THE   CONGRESS    OF   VIENNA  :     REARRANGEMENT 

625.  Napoleon  had  wiped  away  the  old  map  of  Europe,  and 
now  his  map  fell  to  pieces.     All  the  districts  which  had  been 
annexed  to  France  since  1792,  and  all  the  states  which  had 
been  created  by  Napoleon,  were  left  without  governments.    The 
old  rulers  of  these  states  were  clamoring  for  restoration.    Other 
rulers  wanted  new  acquisitions  to  pay  for  their  exertions  against 
Napoleon.     To  settle  these  problems,  the  four  "  Allies  "  invited 
all  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  to  a  Congress. 

The  Congress  of  Vienna  assembled  in  November,  1814.  The 
crowd  of  smaller  monarchs  and  princes  were  entertained  by 
their  Austrian  host  in  a  constant  round  of  masques  and  revels, 
while  the  great  Allies  did  the  work  in  private  committee. 
From  time  to  time,  as  they  reached  agreements,  they  announced 
results  to  the  Congress  for  public  ratification. 

626.  The  territorial  rearrangements  fall  under  .four  heacft. 

a.  Italy  was  left  in  twelve  states,  and  Germany  in  thirty-eight. 
These  were  all  restored  to  their  old  ruling  families. 

b.  TJie   states   along  the  French  frontier  were   strengthened. 
Holland  was  made  into  the  Kingdom  of  the  Netherlands,  under 
the  House  of  Orange ;  and  Belgium  was  added  to  it,  although 
the  Belgians  wished  to  be  independent.     Nice  and  Savoy  were 
given  back  to  the  Kingdom  of  Sardinia,  to  which  was  added 

501 


502  REACTION,    1814-1848  [§626 

also  the  old  Republic  of  Genoa.  The  old  German  territory 
west  of  the  Rhine,  now  taken  back  from  France,  was  divided 
between  Bavaria  and  Prussia. 

c.  ^Denmark,  the  ally  of  France,  wan  jon-fl  to  cede  Norway  t<> 
Sweden.     This  was  really  in  the  interest  of  Russia  and  Pn; 

for,  in  return,  Sweden  ceded  Finland  to  Russia,  and  Pomerania 
to  Prussia.  Sweden  herself  now  retired  within  the  northern 
peninsula. 

d.  There  remained  the  matter  of  other  compensation  to  the 
Allies.     England  had  stood  out  alone  for  years  against  the 
whole  power  of  Napoleon,  and  she  had  incurred  an  enormous 
national  debt  by  acting  as  paymaster  of  the  various  coalitions. 
In  some  repayment,  she  kept  Malta,  the  Ionian  Islands,  Cape 
Colony,  Ceylon,  and  a  few  other  colonial  acquisitions,  mainly 
from  the  old  Dutch  empire.1     Al^rmnlr,-  ,,/  /.'//.W^  claimed  his 
.reward  in  Poland :    he  insisted  that  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw 
(§  616),  with  the  Russian  parts  of  Poland,  should  be  made  into 
a  Kingdom  of  Poland,  of  which  he  should  wear  the  crown. 

Austria  and  Prussia  had  both  been  enlarged  after  the  begin- 
ning of  the  French  Revolution  by  the  partitions  of  Poland 
(§  500).  It  was  understood,  now,  that  they  were  to  be  given 
territory  enough  to  make  them  as  large  as  they  were  after  those 
gains  Austria  received  back  her  lost  provinces,  accepting 
Venice  in  exchange  for  Belgium.  But  on  the  matter  of  the 
Prussian  compensation,  serious  difficulty  arose.  Alexander 
promised  to  aid  Prussia  to  obtain  Saxony  in  place  of  Warsaw. 
The  king  of  Saxony  had  remained  faithful  to  Napoleon,  and  so, 
Alexander  urged,  it  would  be  proper  to  make  an  exception  in 

r 

1  Exercise.  —  The  second  "  Hundred  Years'  War  "  (§  457)  can  now  be  seen 
as  a  whole,  in  relation  to  world-empire.  The  first  period  (1689-171J3)  is  cov- 
ered in  §§  475-477,  491-497 :  it  is  known  in  America  as  the  period  of  Inter- 
colonial Wars.  It  ended  with  the  exclusion  of  France  from  North  America 
and  India,  to  England's  gain.  The  second  period  (1775-1783)  is  the  period  of 
the  American  Revolution.  England  lost  the  richest  part  of  her  American 
empire,  but  she  made  gains  elsewhere  at  the  expense  of  France,  Spain,  and 
Holland,  and  acquired  Australia.  The  third  period,  the  wars  of  the  French 
Revolution  and  Napoleon  (1792-1815),  left  England  the  one  colonial  power. 


§627] 


THE   CONGRESS   OF  VIENNA 


503 


his  case  to  the  careful  respect  shown  by  the  conquerors  toward 
all  other  "  legitimate  rulers." 

But  Austria  dreaded  the  further  extension  of  Prussia  toward 
the  heart  of  Germany,  and  opposed  the  plan.  England  and 
France  joined  her,  and  the  Allies  came  to  the  verge  of  war. 
Finally,  however,  it  was  arranged  that  Prussia  should  have 
(1)  half  of  Saxony  and  (2)  considerable  German  territory  re- 
covered from  France  west  of  the  Rhine  (b  above). 

627.  During  these  dissensions,  the  Congress  was  startled  by 
the  news  that  Napoleon  had  left  Elba.  A  few  months  of  Bour- 
bon rule  had  filled  France  with  unrest.  The  Tricolor,  under 
which  Frenchmen  had  marched  in  triumph  into  nearly  every 
capital  in  Europe,  had  been  replaced  by  the  Bourbon  White 
flag,  and  many  Napoleonic  officers  had  been  dismissed  from  the 
army  to  make  way  for  returned  Emigrants,  tvho  for  twenty  years 
had  fought  against  France.  Thus 
the  army  was  restless.  The  ex- 
treme Royalists  were  talking,  too, 
of  restoring  the  land  of  the  church 
and  of  the  Emigrants,  though  it  had 
passed  for  a  generation  into  other 
hands.  In  consequence,  the  peas- 
ants and  the  middle  class  were 


uneasy. 

Napoleon,  learning  how  matters 
stood,  landed  in  France,  almost  un- 
attended. The  forces  sent  to  cap- 
ture him  joined  his  standard  ;  and 
in  a  few  days,  he  entered  Paris  in 
triumph,  without  firing  a  shot,  as 
he  had  foretold  he  would  do.  The 

king  and  the  old  Emigrants  emigrated  again.     Napoleon  offered 
a  liberal  constitution,  and  France  accepted  it. 

The  Allies,  however,  refused  even  to  treat  with  Napoleon. 
They  declared  unrelenting  war  upon  him  as  "the  disturber  of 
the  peace  of  Europe,"  and  promptly  moved  powerful  armies  to 


THE  DUKE  OF  WELLINGTON. 


504  REACTION,    1814-1848  [§628 

the  French  frontier.  No  time  was  given  Napoleon  for  prepa- 
ration, and  the  odds  were  overwhelming.  After  a  brief  rule, 
known  as  "  The  Hundred  Days,"  he  was  crushed  at  Waterloo 
by  the  English  under  Wellington  and  the  Prussians  under 
Blucher  (June  18,  1815). 

628.  Second    Treaty  with    France.  —  The   Allies    reentered 
Paris,   "bringing   Louis   XVIII   in    their    baggage,"   as   the 
French  wits  put  it.      Napoleon  was    imprisoned  on  the  dis- 
tant volcanic  rock  of  St.  Helena;  and  to  France  was  dictated 
a  new  treaty,  much  more  severe  than  that  of  181  1. 

Prussia  urged  that  France  should  be  dismembered,  as  she 
herself  had  been  after  Jena.  Some  Prussian  papers  talked  of 
killing  off  the  whole  French  people  "  like  mad  dogs,"  and  mod- 
erate statesmen  wished  to  take  Alsace  and  Lori-aim-  and  other 
German  territory  that  had  been  seized  by  Louis  XIV.1  But 
Alexander  and  England  insisted  on  milder  punishment;  and 
France  was  required  only  to  give  up  some  small  strips  of  ter- 
ritory containing  about  a  half-million  people,  and  to  pay  a 
huge  war  indemnity.  The  works  of  art,  too,  which  Napoleon's 
armies  had  plundered  from  European  galleries  were  now  re- 
turned to  their  proper  homes. 

629.  The   Verdict  on  the  Congress.  —  During   the  Hundred 
Days,  the   Congress   finished   its   work.      Some   of  its   later 
measures  were  highly  praiseworthy.     England  persuaded  the 
Powers  to  join  in  a  declaration  against  the  slave  trade.2     The 
navigation  of  rivers  flowing  through  or  between  different  coun- 
tries was  declared  free  to  the  commerce  of  all  countries.8    And 

1  This  was  the  plan  carried  out  by  Bismarck  fifty  years  lat«-r. 

2  Thereafter,  England  kept  ships  of  war  on  the  African  coast  to  capture 
pirate  slaving  vessels.    But,  unhappily,  the  United  States  was  unwilling  to 
grant  the  necessary   "right  of  search";   and   so,  until   1861,   the  horrible 
African  slave  trade  continued  to  be  carried  on  mainly  by  ships  under  the 
protection  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

8  A  country  in  possession  of  the  mouth  of  a  river  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
closing  it  against  the  trade  of  other  nations.  Spain,  while  she  held  both  banks 
of  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  (1783-1801),  had  tried  to  follow  this  policy  — 
to  the  wrath  of  our  settlers  up  the  river  and  on  the  Ohio.  The  principle 
established  at  Vienna  was  a  step  forward  for  civilization. 


§629]  THE   CONGRESS   OF  VIENNA  505 

the  Powers  guaranteed  the  neutrality  of  Switzerland.  That 
is,  they  agreed  that  in  future  war,  no  country  should  invade 
Switzerland,  or  send  troops  through  her  territory. 

Moreover ',  it  was  worth  much  for  Europe  to  recognize  that  it 
had  common  interests,  and  that  it  could  arrange  them  in  a  peaceful 
Congress.  This  was  an  advance  from  eighteenth  century  politics 
toward  the  Hague  Congress  and  the  "federation  of  the  world." 

The  Congress,  to  be  sure,  had  no  thought  of  this  great  move- 
ment. That  "  assemblage  of  princes  and  lackeys  "  stood  for  re- 
action. As  an  English  historian  says,  —  "It  complacently  set 
to  work  to  turn  back  the  hands  of  time  to  the  historic  hour  at 
which  they  stood  before  the  Bastille  fell."  It  represented  kings, 
not  peoples.  All  the  republics  which  had  appeared  since  the 
French  Revolution,  and  also  the  old  republics  of  the  United 
Provinces,  Venice,  and  Genoa,  were  given  to  monarchs.  Switzer- 
land was  the  only  republic  left  in  Europe,  —  and  it  was  given 
an  inefficient,  loose  union,  far  less  effective  than  it  had  enjoyed 
under  Napoleon's  supremacy.  Peoples  were  never  consulted.  The 
Congress  transferred  Belgians,  Norwegians,  Poles,  Venetians, 
from  freedom  to  a  master,  or  from  one  master  to  another,  — 
in  every  case  against  their  fierce  resentment. 

Still,  this  selfish,  despotic  work  contained  unseen  germs  of 
progress.  (1)  The  addition  of  Genoa,  Nice,  and  Savoy  to  the 
"kingdom  of  Sardinia"  began  the  consolidation  of  Italy. 
(2)  Napoleon's  steps  toward  the  consolidation  of  Germany 
were  not  retraced.  (3)  Austria  lost  territory  in  central  Europe, 
and  gained  it  on  the  south.  Thus  this  despotic  Power  was 
drawn  away  from  German  questions  toward  Italian  and 
Danubian  questions.  And  (4)  regenerated  Prussia,  from  whom 
a  true  German  Union  might  be  hoped,  had  lost  Slav  territory 
(Poland),  and  had  gained  German  territory.  With  her  new 
Saxon  districts,  she  reached  down  into  the  heart  of  Germany  ; 
and  with  her  distant  isolated  lands  to  defend  on  the  Ehine  and 
the  Nieman  (map  after  page  502),  she  stood  forth  as  the  natural 
champion  of  German  independence  against  Slav  and  Gaul. 

EXERCISE.  —  Add  to  the  list  of  dates  the  following  :  1776,  1789,  1815. 


CHAPTER   XXXIX 

CENTRAL    EUROPE   TO    1820 

The  history  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  the  history  of  the  influences 
which  the  French  Revolution  left.  —  FREDERIC  HARRISON. 

No  land  touched  by  the  French  Revolution  was  ever  again  quite  the 
same.  —  F.  A.  OGG. 

630.  The  immediate  result   of  the  Congress  of  Vienna  was    a 
victory  for  reaction  and  despotism.     In  many  states,  especially 
in  the  pettier  ones,  the  restoration  of  the  old  rulers  was  ac- 
companied by  ludicrous  absurdities.     The  princes  who  had 
scampered  away  before  the  French  eagles  came  back  to  show 
that  they  had  "  learned  nothing  and  forgotten  nothing."     They 
set  out  to  ignore  the  past  twenty  years.     In  France  a  school 
history  spoke  of  Austerlitz  as  "  a  victory  gained  by  General 
Bonaparte,  a  lieutenant  of  the  king  "  !     The  Elector  of  Hesse 
censured  his  military  Commandant  for  "  omitting  quarterly 
reports    during    the   preceding   ten    years "  —  in    which    the 
Elector  had  been  a  fugitive.     The  king  of  Sardinia  restored 
serfdom.     The  Papal  States  and  Spain  again  set  up  the  In- 
quisition.    In  some  places  French  plants  were  uprooted  from 
the  botanical  gardens,  and  street  lamps  and  vaccination  were 
abolished  because  they  were  "  French  improvements." 

631.  The  statesmen  of  the  Great  Powers   must  have  smiled 
to  themselves  at  some  of  these  absurd  extremes  ;  but  they,  too, 
almost  universally  strove  to  suppress  progress.     Five  states  — 
Eussia,  Austria,  Prussia,  France,  and  England  —  really  deter- 
mined the  policy  of  Europe.     The   first  four  were   "divine 
right "  monarchies.     Louis  XVIII  gave  France  a  limited  Char- 
ter, but  it  carefully    preserved    the  theory    of  divine  right. 
That  theory,  of  course,  could  have  no  place  in  England,  where 
the  monarchy  rested  on  the  Revolution  of  1688.     But  even 

606 


§  633]  METTERNICH  507 

in  England  the  Whigs  were  discredited,  because  they  had 
sympathized  at  first  with  the  French  Revolution.  For  some 
years  the  government  was  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  Tory  party, 
which  was  bitterly  opposed  to  progress. 

632.  "  The  rule  of  Napoleon  was  succeeded  by  the  rule  of  Met- 
ternich."     That  subtle  Austrian  statesman  was  the  evil  genius 
of  Europe  from  1814  to  1848.     He  summed  up  his  political 
creed  thus :   "  Sovereigns  alone  are  entitled  to  guide  the  des- 
tinies of  their  peoples,  and  they  are  responsible  to  none  but 
God.  .  .  .     Government  is  no  more  a  subject  for  debate  than 
religion  is."     Napoleon  said  of  him  that  he  "mistook  intrigue 
for  statesmanship,"  and,  again,  that  he  "narrowly  missed  being 
a  statesman  " ;  and  Stein  (§  619)  complained  that,  though  he 
had  industry  and  ability,  he  was  "  overfond  of  complications  " 
and  did  not  know  how  to  do  business  "  in  the  great  and  simple 
way." 

Metternich  was  too  shrewd  to  think  it  possible  to  return 
altogether  to  the  days  before  the  French  Revolution ;  but  he 
did  strive  to  arrest  all  change  at  the  lines  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  had  drawn.  The  "  new  ideas "  of  democracy  and 
equality  and  nationality  ought  never  to  have  been  allowed  to 
get  into  Europe,  he  said ;  but,  since  they  were  in,  the  business 
of  governments  must  be  to  keep  them  down. 

The  sentiment  of  nationality  is  the  feeling  among  all  the  people  of  one 
race,  speech,  and  country  that  they  should  make  one  political  state,  or 
become  a  "nation."  This  feeling  tended  to  draw  all  Germans  into  one 
German  state,  and  all  Italians  into  one  Italian  state.  In  any  conglom- 
erate state,  like  Austria,  the  feeling  of  nationality  was  likely  to  be  a  dis- 
rupting force. 

633.  The  political  reaction  was  the  more  galling  to  the  friends 
of  liberty  because  the  "Wars  of  Liberation"  in  1812-1814  had 
been  essentially  popular  uprisings.     The  Prussian  king  had  made 
repeated  appeals  to  national  patriotism,  and  had  twice  prom- 
ised a  constitution.     Austria  and  England  had  held  out  hopes 
of  union  and  freedom  to  the  Italians.     And  the  Spanish  rebels 
had  adopted  a  free  constitution  for  their  country. 


508  REACTION,   1814-1848  [§634 

Thus  the  Liberals  of  Europe  had  greeted  Napoleon's  over- 
throw with  joyous  acclaim ;  but  they  soon  saw  that  Waterloo 
had  done  nothing  toward  freeing  Europe.  It  simply  "  replaced 
one  insolent  giant  by  a  swarm  of  swaggering  pygmies."  A  few 
months  after  Waterloo,  Byron l  lamented  that  "  the  chain  of 
banded  nations  has  been  broke  in  vain  by  the  accord  of  raised-up 
millions  "  ;  and,  "  standing  on  an  Empire's  dust "  at  the  scene 
of  the  great  battle,  and  noting  "  how  that  red  rain  has  made  the 
harvest  grow,"  he  mused  :  — 

"  Gaul  may  champ  the  bit  and  foam  in  fetters, 
But  is  Earth  more  free  ? 
Did  nations  combat  to  make  one  submit, 
Or  league  to  teach  all  kings  true  sovereignty  ?  .   .  . 
Then  o'er  one  fallen  despot  boast  no  more." 

634.  Metternich's  chief  victory  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna  lay 
in  the  new  organization  of  Germany.  Liberal  Germany,  repre- 
sented by  Stein  (§  019),  had  hoped  for  a  real  union,  either  in 
the  revival  and  strengthening  of  the  Kmpiiv,  or  in  a  new  federal 
state.  But  Metternich  saw  that  in  a  true  Gerimm  Kmpire, 
Austria  (with  her  Slav,  Hungarian,  and  Italian  interests)  could 
not  long  keep  the  lead  against  Prussia.  He  preferred  to  leave 
the  various  states  practically  independent,  so  that  Austria,  the 
largest  of  all,  might  play  them  off  against  one  another.  The 
small  rulers,  too,  were  hostile  to  a  real  union,  because  it  would 
limit  their  sovereignties.  Metternich  allied  himself,  in  the 
Congress,  with  these  princes  of  the  small  states,  and  won.  The 
thirty-eight  states  were  organized  into  a  "Germanic  Confed- 
eration," a  loose  league  of  sovereigns*  Each  state  controlled 
its  own  government,  its  own  army,  its  own  tariffs,  and  its  ow.n 
foreign  diplomacy.  They  even  kept  the  right  to  form  alliances 
with  foreign  powers,  —  although  they  did  promise  not  to  make 
war  upon  one  another. 

1  An  English  poet  of  strong  liberal  sympathies  in  politics. 

2  Thirty-four  of  the  members  were  sovereign  princes ;  the  other  four  were 
the  governments  of  the  surviving  "  free  cities,"  —  Hamburg,  Bremen,  Lubeck, 
and  Frankfort. 


§  636]  METTERNICH  509 

The  Confederacy  had  no  distinct  executive,  judicial,  and 
legislative  departments.  Its  one  organ  was  a  Federal  Diet  at 
Frankfort.  This  was  merely  a  standing  conference  of  ambas- 
sadors appointed  by  the  sovereigns.  The  Austrian  representa- 
tive presided  ;  but  no  important  action  could  be  taken  without 
the  consent  of  every  state.  Before  many  years  the  Diet  was 
the  laughingstock  of  Europe.  "  It  was  not  a  government  at 
all ;  it  was  a  polite  and  ceremonious  way  of  doing  nothing." 

635.  The  Promised  Constitutions. —  But  though  the  chance 
for  making  a  German  nation  had  been  lost  at  the  Congress,  the 
Liberals  still  hoped,  for  a  time,  for  free  political  institutions  in 
the  separate  states.     Within  the  next  four  years,  constitutions 
were  granted  by  the  liberal  Grand  Duke  of  Weimar,  and  by  the 
rulers  of  Nassau  and  of  the  four  South  German  states,  Wur- 
temberg,  Bavaria,  Baden,  and  Hesse-Darmstadt.1     The  people 
in  these  southern  districts  had  been  greatly  influenced  by  the 
French   Revolution,    and   their    rulers    granted   constitutions 
largely    in    order   to  secure  popular  support  against   possible 
attempts  of  Austria  or  Prussia  upon  their  sovereignty.      These 
constitutions  left  the  princes  still  the  real  rulers  of  their  states  ; 
but  they  provided  for  equality  of  all  classes  before  the  law,  for 
freedom  of  the  press.,  and  for  representative  assemblies  with  control 
over  new  taxes. 

The  king  of  Prussia,  also,  appointed  a  committee  to  draw 
up  the  constitution  he  had  promised  (§  633).  But  he  was  a 
weak,  vacillating  man,  and  greatly  influenced  by  the  nobles, 
who  railed  bitterly  at  the  idea  of  free  institutions.  The  com- 
mittee dawdled  along  for  four  years,  and  finally  the  king  re- 
pudiated his  pledge. 

636.  Liberal  Indignation.  —  Outside  the  Rhine  districts  the 
Liberals  were  not  numerous,  but  the  group  was  influential,  — 
made  up  of  writers,  journalists,  students,  professors,  and  most 
of  the  rest  of  the  small  educated  middle  class.     By  1817,  they 
had  become  indignant  at   the  delays  and  evasions  by  which 

1  Germany  south  of  the  river  Main  is  known  as  South  Germany. 


510  REACTION,    1814-1848  [§636 

promised  constitutions  were  withheld.  In  October,  the  three- 
hundredth  anniversary  of  Luther's  defiance  of  the  pope  and 
the  fourth  anniversary  of  the  Battle  of  Leipzig  were  celebrated 
together  at  the  Wartburg  castle  in  the  Duchy  of  Weimar.  The 
Jena  University  students  turned  the  celebration  into  a  demon- 
stration of  liberal  feeling.  They  sang  patriotic  and  religious 
songs,  made  a  few  ardent  speeches,  and,  in  the  evening,  threw 
some  old  textbooks  into  a  bonfire,  —  having  first  labeled  them 


THK  WARTBURG  CASTLK. 

with  the  names  of  reactionary  works  especially  hated  by  the 
liberal  party. 

This  boyish  ebullition  threw'  sober  statesmen  into  spasms  of 
fear,  and  seemed  to  prelude  a  revolutionary  "  Reign  of  Terror." 
Metternich  took  shrewd  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  wean 
the  king  of  Prussia  from  his  earlier  liberalism.  Unhappily, 
Metternich's  hand  was  strengthened  by  the  foolish  crimes  of 
some  Liberal  enthusiasts.  A  small  section  of  radical  agitators 
preached  that  even  assassination  in  the  cause  of  liberty  was 
right;  and,  in  1819,  a  fanatical  student  murdered  Kotzebue, 
a  Russian  representative  in  Germany,  who  was  supposed  to 
have  drawn  away  the  Tsar  from  liberal  sympathies.  Soon 


§637]  METTERNICH  511 

after,  a  like  attempt  was  made  upon  an  absolutist  minister  in 
Hesse. 

637.  The  Carlsbad  Decrees.  —  Austria  at  once  called  the  lead- 
ing sovereigns  of  Germany  to  a  conference  at  Carlsbad.  There 
Metternich  secured  their  approval  for  a  series  of  resolutions, 
which  he  forced  through  the  Diet  at  Frankfort.  The  "  Carls- 
bad Decrees,"  so  adopted,  were  especially  directed  against  free 
speech  in  the  press  and  in  the  universities.  They  forbade 
secret  societies  among  students ;  they  appointed  a  government 
official  in  every  university  to  discharge  any  professor  who 
should  preach  doctrines  "  hostile  to  the  public  order " ;  they 
set  up  a  rigid  censorship  of  all  printed  matter;  and  they  created 
a  standing  committee  to  hunt  down  conspiracies. 

For  Further  Reading.  —  The  most  desirable  general  treatment  of  the 
nineteenth  century  for  high  schools  is  Hazen\s  Europe  Since  1815. 
Students  should  have  access  also  to  Andrews1  Modern  Europe  and 
Seignobos'  Europe  Since  1814. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  SOUTH  OF  EUROPE  —  REVOLUTIONS  OF  1820 

638.  The  Spanish  Revolution.  —  The  first  attacks  upon  Met- 
ternich's  system  came  from  the  south  of  Europe.  To  under- 
stand them  we  must  turn  back  a  moment  to  notice  conditions 
in  Spain.  The  Spanish  patriots  who  rose  in  1808  against 
Napoleon  (§  613)  found  themselves  without  a  government. 
Their  king  was  in  the  hands  of  the  French.  The  insurgents 
set  up  a  representative  Cortes,  and,  in  1812,  they  adopted  a 
liberal  constitution.  This  ''Constitution  of  1812  "  was  modeled 
largely  upon  the  French  Constitution  of  1791,  and  it  was  the 
standard  about  which  the  Liberals  of  Southern  Europe  were  to 
rally  for  a  generation. 

Meantime,  when  Napoleon  seized  Spain,  the  Spanish  Ameri- 
can states  refused  to  recognize  his  authority,  and  so  became 
virtually  independent  under  governments  of  their  own^  At 
first,  most  of  these  new  governments  were  in  name  loyal  to  the 
Spanish  crown.  During  the  next  few  years,  however,  the 
Spanish  Americans  experienced  the  benefits  of  freedom  and  of 
free  trade  with  the  world,  and  began  to  follow  the  example  of 
the  United  States,  which  had  so  recently  been  merely  a  group 
of  European  colonies.  By  1815,  all  the  Spanish  states  on  the 
continent  of  America  had  declared  themselves  independent 
nations. 

After  the  fall  of  Napoleon,  the  Spanish  king,  Ferdinand,  re- 
turned to  his  throne.  He  had  promised  to  maintain  the  new 
constitution ;  but  he  soon  broke  his  pledges,  restored  all  the  old 
iniquities,  and  cruelly  persecuted  the  liberal  heroes  of  the 
"  war  of  liberation." 

612 


§640]  THE   HOLY  ALLIANCE  513 

In  1820  he  collected  troops  to  subdue  the  revolted  American 
colonies ;  but  the  service  was  unpopular,  and,  instead  of  em- 
barking, one  of  the  regiments  raised  the  standard  of  revolt 
and  proclaimed  the  Constitution  of  1812.  Tumult  followed  in 
Madrid.  The  king,  cowardly  as  he  was  treacherous,  yielded, 
called  a  Cortes,  and  restored  the  constitution. 

639.  This  Spanish  Revolution  became   the  signal  for  like  at- 
tempts in  other  states.     Before  the  year  closed,  Portugal  and 
Naples  both  forced  their  kings  to  grant  constitutions  modeled 
upon  that  of  Spain.     Early  in  the  next  year,  the  people  and 
army  of  Piedmont1  rebelled,  to  secure  a  constitution  for  the 
Kingdom  of  Sardinia.     Lombardy  and  Venetia  stirred  rest- 
lessly in  the  overpowering  grasp  of  Austria.     And  the  Greeks 
began  a  long  and  heroic   struggle  for  independence  against 
Turkey. 

This  widespread  unanimity  of  action  was  due  in  part  to 
secret  revolutionary  societies,  already  in  existence.  The  most 
important  of  these  was  the  Carbonari  ("charcoal  burners"). 
It  had  been  formed  in  Italy  in  the  time  of  Napoleon,  to  drive 
out  the  French,  and  was  continued  there  to  drive  out  Austrian 
rule  and  to  unite  Italy. 

640.  The  "Holy  Alliance."   -We  have  seen  how  Metternich 
used    the    Germanic    Confederacy,    designed    for    protection 
against  foreign  attack,  to  stifle  liberalism  in  Germany.     We 
are   now  to  observe  how  he  adroitly  twisted   an    alliance  of 
inonarchs  from  its  original  purpose  in  order   to  crush   these 
revolutions  in  Southern  Europe. 

After  Waterloo,  while  the  four  "  Allies  "  were  still  in  Paris 
(November  20,  1815),  they  agreed  to  preserve  their  union 
and  to  hold  meetings  from  time  to  time.  The  purpose  was  to 
guard  against  any  future  aggression  by  France.  But  when  the 
revolutions  of  1820  began,  Metternich  invited  France  also  to 
a  Congress  of  the  Great  Powers  at  Troppau. 

1  Piedmont  ("  Foot  of  the  Mount")  was  the  district  between  the  Alps  and 
the  plains  of  Lombardy.  It  was  the  most  important  part  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Sardinia. 


514  THE   REVOLUTIONS   OF   1820  [§640 

At-Tropgau,  the  absolute  sovereigns  of  Austria,  Russia,  and 

Prussia  signed  ~a  declaration  that  they  would  intervene  to  put 
down  revolution  against  any  established  government.  This 
principle  of  "intervention"  was  a  proclamation  that  the  "divine 
right"  monarchs  would  support  each  other  against  the  nations. 
It  was  directed  against  the  right  of  a  people  to  throw  off 
despotic  rule  and  to  make  its  government  for  itself. 

England  protested  against  this  doctrine,  both  before  and 
after  the  meeting,  and  formulated  in  opposition  to  it  the  prin- 
ciple of  "non-intervention."  This  was  the  doctrine  that  each 
nation  should~mahage  its  internal  affairs  as  it  chose.  On  this 
issue  the  alliance  of  1815  was  broken  up.  Undaunted  by 
England's  protests,  however,  the  united  eastern  despots,  known 
popularly  from  this  time  as  "  the  Holy  Alliance,"  l  prepared  to 
enforce  the  Troppau  program. 

641.  "Intervention"  in  Naples  and  Sardinia. — A  few  months 
after  Troppau,  the  three  allied  monarchs  met  again  at  Lai- 
bach.  With  them  was  Ferdinand  of  Naples,  another  treach- 
erous Bourbon  king.  He  had  sworn  solemnly  to  uphold  the 
new  Neapolitan  constitution  (§  639),  and  had  invoked  the 
vengeance  of  Heaven  upon  his  head  if  he  should  prove  un- 
faithful. But  at  the  moment  of  these  protestations  he  was 
in  secret  correspondence  with  Metternich,  and  now  he  came 


!This  name  belongs  strictly  not  to  this  outgrowth  of  the  political  alli:nu-«« 
of  November,  1815,  but  to  a  wholly  different  league  organized  two  months 
earlier  by  the  Tsar,  under  the  influence  of  strong  religious  emotion.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1815,  Alexander  had  presented  to  the  monarchs  a  brief  agreement 
whereby  the  signers  would  promise  to  govern  their  respective  peoples  as 
"branches  of  one  Christian  nation"  in  accordance  with  ''the  precepts  of 
justice,  charity,  and  peace."  (The  document  is  printed  in  the  Pennsylva- 
nia Reprints,  I,  No.  3.)  No  one  took  very  seriously  this  "  pious  verbiai:'." 
as  Metternich  called  it,  except  the  Tsar  himself  and  his  friend  Frederick 
William  of  Prussia ;  but,  from  motives  of  courtesy,  it  was  signed  by  every 
Christian  ruler  on  the  continent,  except  the  pope.  This  League  called  itself 
the  Holy  Alliance.  Its  name  has  come  to  be  applied  to  the  Troppau  league, 
—  so  different  in  composition  and  purpose.  The  confusion  was  helped  by  the 
fact  that  the  three  despotic  sovereigns  who  signed  the  Troppau  agreement 
were  also  the  first  three  signers  of  the  Holy  Alliance. 


§613]  THE    HOLY   ALLIANCE  515 

to  Laibach  for  help  to  regain  his  absolutism.  The  Laibach 
meeting  sent  an  Austrian  army  to  Naples.  The  Neapolitans 
were  defeated ;  and  Ferdinand  returned,  surrounded  by  Aus- 
trian bayonets,  to  glut  his  vengeance  upon  the  Liberals,  with 
dungeon  and  scaffold. 

Three  days  after  the  Neapolitan  defeat  came  the  revolt  in 
Piedmont  (March  10,  1821).  The  "Congress  of  Laibach" 
promptly  marched  eighty  thousand  Austrians  into  North  Italy, 
while  one  hundred  thousand  Russians  were  held  ready  to 
support  them  ;  and  the  Piedmontese  were  easily  crushed. 

642.  Flushed  with  success,  the  Holy  Alliance   determined  to 
overthrow  also  the  Spanish  constitution,  from  which  the  "  con- 
tagion of  liberty  "  had  spread.     In  1822  the  Great  Powers  were 
summoned  to  a  Congress  at  Vefrrfta.     England  again  protested 
vigorously;1  but  France  now  joined  the  eastern  Powers,  and, 
with  the  sanction  of  the  "  crowned  conspirators," 2  a  French 
army  restored  the  old  absolutism  in  Spain.     Then  the  Bourbon 
Ferdinand  in  Spain,  like  his  namesake  in  Naples,  busied  him- 
self for  many  months  in  a  reactionary  "  Reign  of  Terror." 

643.  The  next  wish  of  the  Holy  Alliance  was  to  restore  mo- 
narchic  control  in  the  revolted  Spanish  colonies.     But  here  they 
failed.     England's   protests    they    had  been  able  to  disregard 
as  long  as  only  the  continent  of  Europe  was  concerned ;  but 
on  the  sea  England  was  supreme.     The  Allies  could  not  reach 
America  without  her  consent,  and  she  made  it  known  that  she 
would  oppose  the  intended  expedition  with  all  her  great  might. 

America  shares  in  the  credit  of  checking  the  despots. 
Canning,  the  English  minister,  urged  the  United  States  to 
join  England  in  an  alliance  to  protect  Spanish  America.  The 

1  The  French  representative  tried  to  reconcile  England  by  pleading  that  a 
constitution  might  be  all  very  well  in  Spain,  but  that  it  should  be  a  constitu- 
tion granted  by   the  king,  not  one  forced  upon  him  by  rebels  against  his 
authority.    Wellington,  the  English  representative,  Tory  though  he  was,  fitly 
answered  this  "divine  right"  plea  :  "Do  you  not  know,  sir,  that  it  is  not 
kings  who  make  constitutions,  but  constitutions  that  make  kings?  " 

2  Sidney  Smith,  an  English  Liberal,  called  the  allied  Powers  at  the  Congress 
"  the  crowned  conspirators  of  Verona." 


516  THE   HOLY   ALLIANCE  [§  C44 

United  States  chose  to  act  without  formal  alliance,  but  it  did 
act  along  the  same  lines.  President  Monroe's  message  to 
Congress  in  1823  announced  to  the  world  that  this  country 
would  oppose  any  attempt  of  the  despotic  Powers  to  extend 
their  "  political  system "  to  America.1  Probably  the  decided 
position  of  either  England  or  the  United  States  would  have 
caused  the  Powers  to  abandon  their  project.  Acting  together, 
the  two  nations  were  certainly  irresistible  in  America;  and 
the  Holy  Alliance  quietly  dropped  its  plan. 

When  reproached  afterward,  in  parliament,  for  not  having  done  more 
to  preserve  constitutionalism  in  Spain,  Canning  replied  with  the  proud 
boast,  "  I  called  the  New  World  into  existence  to  redress  the  balance  of 
the  Old."  It  is  possible  to  argue  that  both  America  and  England  acted 
from  selfish  motives,  rather  than  from  love  of  liberty.  England  wanted 
to  keep  her  commerce  with  the  free  Spanish  states  ;  and  the  United  States 
objected  to  the  neighborhood  of  a  strong  Power  that  might  interfere  with 
her  leadership  or  with  her  safety.  There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that, 
along  with  these  proper  though  selfish  motives,  both  countries  were 
actuated  also  by  principle  and  by  sympathy  with  freedom.  The  accusa- 
tion against  Canning  and  the  tone  of  his  reply  show  what  the  real  feel- 
ing of  the  English  people  was. 

644.  Intervention  in  Greece,  for  Freedom.  —  Almost  at  once 
Metternich  met  another  check  in  the  affairs  of  Greece.  The 
rising  there  had  been  accompanied  by  terrible  massacres  of  all 
Turks  dwelling  in  the  country,  and  the  exasperated  Turkish 
government  was  now  putting  down  the  rebellion  by  a  war  of 
extermination.  For  a  time  Metternich  hoped  to  bring  about 
intervention  by  the  allied  Powers  to  restore  Turkish  authority  ; 
but  he  failed  from  two  causes. 

a.  Tlie  educated  classes  of  Western  Europe  had  been  nourished 
mainly  on  the  ancient  Greek  literature  (§  334),  and  now  their 
imagination  was  fired  by  the  thought  that  this  struggle  against 
the  Turks  was  a  contest  akin  to  that  ancient  war  against  the 
Persians  which  Herodotus,  Xenophon,  Plutarch,  and  ^Eschylus 
had  made  glorious  to  them.  The  man  who  did  most  to  widen 

1  This  is  one  part  of  the  famous  Monroe  Doctrine. 


§644]  REACTION    TRIUMPHANT  517 

this  sympathy  was  Byron,  the  English  poet.  He  closed  a 
career  of  mingled  genius  and  generosity  and  wrongdoing  by  a 
noble  self-devotion,  giving  fortune  and  life  to  the  Greek  cause ; 
and  his  poems,  invoking  the  magic  of  the  old  names  of  Mara- 
thon and  Salamis,  stirred  Europe  to  passionate  enthusiasm. 

No  schoolboy  to-day  can  read  the  stirring  lyric,  "  The  Isles  of  Greece," 
without  quicker  pulse-beat ;  but  the  European  youth  of  Byron's  time  were 
moved  more  deeply  than  the  present  generation  can  easily  understand  by 
the  allusions  in  such  passages  as  these  :  — 

**  Standing  on  the  Persian's  grave, 
I  could  not  deem  myself  a  slave  "; 


"Ye  have  the  letters  Cadmus  gave; 
Think  ye  he  meant  them  for  a  slave  !  " 

Great  numbers  of  volunteers  followed  Byron  to  fight  for  Greek 
liberty,  and  before  any  government  had  taken  action,  the  Turks 
complained  that  they  had  to  fight  all  Europe. 

b.  The  Russian  people,  untouched  by  this  Western  passion,  still 
felt  a  deep  sympathy  for.  the  Greeks  as  their  co-religionists,  and  a 
deeper  hatred  for  the  Turks  as  their  hereditary  foes ;  and  so 
Metternich  lost  his  chief  ally.  For  though  the  Tsar  at  first 
discountenanced  the  Greek  rising,  and  even  punished  Russian 
officers  who  had  encouraged  it,  still  he  was  too  much  influenced 
by  the  feeling  of  his  people  to  join  in  open  intervention  against 
the  revolution. 

Finally,  indeed,  intervention  came,  but  for  the  Greeks,  not 
against  them.  The  English,  French,  and  Russian  fleets  had 
proceeded  to  Greece  to  enforce  a  truce,  so  as  to  permit  negotia- 
tion. The  three  fleets  were  acting  together  under  the  lead  of 
the  English  admiral,  who  happened  to  be  the  senior  officer. 
Almost  by  chance,  and  chiefly  through  the  excited  feelings  of  the 
common  sailors,  the  fleets  came  into  conflict  with  the  Turkish 
fleet,  and  annihilated  it  in  the  battle  of  Navarino  (October, 
1827).  The  English  commander  had  gone  beyond  his  instruc- 
tions, but  excited  public  feeling  gave  the  government  no 


518 


THE   REVOLUTION   OF   1820 


[§  C.45 


chance  to  disown  him.  The  three  Powers,  by  war,  at  once 
forced  Turkey  to  grant  Greek  independence. 

645.  Elsewhere  Metternich  was  triumphant.  Distant  Greece 
did  not  threaten  his  "  system "  in  Central  Europe,  and  the 
Greek  success  did  not  come  any  way  for  many  years.  For 
ten  years  after  the  attempted  Spanish  Revolution  of  1820,  the 

reactionists  had  things  all 
their  own  way  from  Eng- 
land to  Greece. 

The  "Decrees  of  Carls- 
bad" (§  637)  were  re- 
newed in  1824,  and 
remained  the  law  of  the 
German  Confederacy, 
with  little  interruption, 
for  a  generation  more. 
During  this  time,  thou- 
sands of  enthusiastic 
youths  were  sent  into  ex- 
ile or  to  prison  for  long 
terms,  for  singing  for- 
bidden patriotic  songs,  or 
for  wearing  the  colors 
black,  red,  and  orange,  — 
the  symbol  of  German 

unity.  "Turnvater  Jahn,"  the  organizer  of  the  patriotic 
Turner  societies  in  the  time  of  Napoleon,  and  the  poet  Arndt. 
whose  songs  had  done  much  to  arouse  the  people  against 
French  rule,  were  both  persecuted.  Learned  professors  who 
would  not  consent  to  be  completely  muzzled  were  driven  from 
the  universities.  Men  ceased  to  talk  politics,  and  left  matters 
of  government  to  princes. 

TJie  next  attacks  on  the  reaction  came  from  France.  That  story 
demands  that  we  survey  the  story  of  France  from  Waterloo. 


METTERNICH.  —  From  the  portrait  by  Sir 
Thomas  Lawrence. 


CHAPTER   XLI 

FRANCE,    1815-1830 
I.   THE   DIVINE    RIGHT  MONARCHY   OF  THE    BOURBONS 

646.  The  Charter  of  1815.  —  When  Louis  XVIII  became  king 
(§624),  he  saw  that  France  must  have  some  guarantee  of  the 
personal  rights  which  the  Revolution  had  won.     He  refused 
indeed  to  accept  a  constitution  which  the  old  Senate  of  Napo- 
leon tried  to  force  upon  him,  but  he  himself  gave  to  the  nation 
a  Charter.     In  this  way  he  saved  the  theory  of  "l  divine  right." 
The  preamble  expressly  declared  the  king  the  source  of  all 
authority.     But   the  provisions    of   the  document,  otherwise, 
closely  resembled  the  rejected  constitution,  and  gave  the  people 
more  liberty  than  any  other  country  on  the  continent  had. 

The  legislature  had  two  Houses,  —  the  Peers,  appointed  for 
life  by  the  king,  and  the  Deputies.  These  last  were  elected, 
but  a  very  high  property  qualification  let  only  one  man  in 
seventy  vote.  To  be  eligible  for  election,  a  man  had  to  be 
still  more  wealthy,  —  so  much  so  that  in  some  districts  it  was 
hard  to  find  any  one  to  send  to  the  legislature.  The  king 
kept  an  absolute  veto  and  the  sole  right  to  propose  laws. 

Purchasers  of  the  church  lands  (confiscated  and  sold  during 
the  Revolution)  were  guaranteed  in  title.  Religious  liberty, 
equality  before  the  law,  free  speech,  and  freedom  of  the  press  were 
confirmed.  In  local  government,  the  centralized  system  of  Napo- 
leon was  retained. 

647.  In  1824  Louis  was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  Charles  X, 
who  was  an  extreme  reactionary.     He  wanted  to  restore  lands  to 
the  church,  to  give  it  control  of  all  education,  and  to  punish 
all  old   Revolutionists.      By  force   and   fraud,  aided   by  the 
limitations  on  voting,  the  government   secured  a  reactionary 

519 


520  FRANCE  FROM   1815   TO    1830 

legislature.  Then  the  king  and  legislature  curtailed  the  free- 
dom of  the  press,  closed  the  historical  lectures  of  the  famous 
Guizot  (a  very  moderate  liberal),  joined  the  other  crowned 
conspirators  of  Verona  in  overthrowing  liberty  in  Spain, 
secured  $  200,000,000  from  the  national  treasury  for  returned 
Emigrants,  and  strengthened  still  further  the  influence  of 
the  aristocracy  by  giving  large  landlords  a  double  vote. 

648.  Defeats  of  the  Ultras  at  the  Polls.  — The  few  Liberals 
in  the  legislature  annoyed  Charles  by  their  vigorous  protests ; 
and  in  1827  he  dissolved  it,  expecting  under  the  new  law  to 
secure  a  more  submissive  body. 

The  issue  was  drawn  clearly.  TJiiers,  a  brilliant  young 
journalist,  preached  the  constitutional  theory  in  the  words 
"  The  king  reigns,  but  does  not  govern,"  and  he  made  repeated 
and  significant  references  in  his  paper  to  the  English  Revolution 
of  1688.  On  the  other  hand,  Charles  announced  frankly  that 
he  regarded  the  legislature  only  as  an  advisory  council. 

The  elections  showed  that  even  the  narrow  body  of  voters 
was  earnestly  opposed  to  the  king's  doctrine.  The  intellect  of 
France  and  the  influential  part  of  the  press  were  with  the 
Liberal  party;  and,  despite  all  court  influence,  the  Liberals 
received  a  decisive  majority. 

When  Charles  still  tried  to  rule  through  a  ministry  of  Ultras, 
the  Assembly  issued  a  bold  address  (March  2, 1830),  calling  for 
the  dismissal  of  the  ministry,  that  "  menace  to  public  safety." 
The  address  was  carried  by  a  vote  of  221  to  182.  Charles  at 
once  dissolved  the  Chamber.  Public  interest  was  intense,  and 
the  aged  Lafayette  journeyed  through  France  to  organize  the 
Liberals  for  the  contest  at  the  polls.  The  new  elections  in 
June  destroyed  the  Ultra  party.  Every  deputy  who  had  voted 
against  the  ministry  was  reflected,  and  the  Liberals  gained  also 
fifty  °f  the  remaining  seats, 

II.    THE  REVOLUTION   OF   1830 

649.  The  "July  Ordinances."— No  whit  daunted,  the  stub- 
born monarch  tried  a  coup  d'etat.  He  suspended  the  Charter 


§651]  THE   REVOLUTION   OF   1830  521 

by  a  series  of  edicts,  known  as  the  "July  Ordinances." 
These  Ordinances  forbade  the  publication  of  newspapers 
without  royal  approval,  dissolved  the  new  legislature  (which 
had  not  yet  met),  and  promulgated  a  new  law  for  elections. 

Metternich  had  foreseen  this  deed,  and  its  probable  result. 
He  lamented  the  free  press  and  the  representative  system  in 
France  ;  but  he  warned  the  French  ambassador  that  an  attempt 
now  to  do  away  with  these  "  plague  spots  "  would  ruin  the  dy- 
nasty:  "  TJte  men  of  lead"  said  he,  "  are  on  the  side  of  the  Con- 
stitution; Charles  X  should  remember  1789" 

650.  The  Barricades.  —  The  Ordinances  were  published,  July 
26,  1830.  Forty-one  journalists  of  Paris  at  once  printed  a 
protest,  declaring  the  ordinances  illegal  and  calling  upon 
France  to  resist  them.  The  journalists  had  in  mind  only  legal 
resistance,  not  violence;  but  there  were  in  Paris  a  few  old 
Revolutionists  who  were  ready  to  go  further,  and  they  were 
powerful  in  a  crisis,  because  of  their  organization  in  secret 
societies. 

The  same  evening  these  radicals  decided  upon  revolt,  and 
appointed  "  Committees  of  Insurrection "  for  the  various  dis- 
tricts of  the  city.  The  next  morning  angry  crowds  thronged 
the  streets,  and  threw  up  barricades  out  of  paving  stones. 
That  night  Lafayette  reached  Paris,  to  take  charge  of  the  re- 
volt, and  on  the  following  morning  the  fighting  began. 

651^JXhe^llJul3jDa£§^ — The  28th,  29th,  and  30th  are  the 
"  Three  Days  of  July."  On  the  28th  the  crowd  cried,  "  Down 
with  the  ministry !  "  but,  as  their  blood  became  heated  with 
fighting,  they  began  to  shout,  "Down  with  the  Bourbons!" 
The  regular  troops  lacked  good  leadership,  and  they  hated  to 
fire  on  the  rebel  flag, — the  old  tricolor.  About  four  thousand 
men  were  slain  in  the  three  days.  At  his  palace  at  St. 
Cloud,  in  the  suburbs,  the  king  hunted  as  usual ;  and,  on  each 
evening,  messengers  from  the  sorely  beset  troops  were  kept 
waiting  overnight,  so  as  not  to  disturb  the  royal  game  of  whist, 
while  the  scepter  was  slipping  forever  from  the  old  line  of 
French  kings.  Suddenly  Charles  opened  his  eyes  to  his  dan- 


522  THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  OF   1830  [§652 


ger,  and  fled  to  England.     Outside  Paris,  there  was  no 

but  the  nation  gladly  accepted  the  "Second  French  Revolution." 

652.  A  Limited  Monarchy.  —  The  legislature,  which  Charles 
had  tried  to  dissolve,  restored  the  tricolor  as  the  flag  of  France, 
made  the  Charter  into  a  more  liberal  constitution,  and  then 
ottered  the   crown  to  Louis   Philippe1  (a  distant  cousin   of 
Charles),  on  condition  that  he  accept  this  amended  Charter.     The 
old  Charter  had  declared  that  the  king  ruled  "  by  the  grace  of 
God."     The  new  document  added  the  words,  "awl  !>>/  th<'  >n'll 
of  the  nation."     In  actual  fact,  Louis  XVIII  had  ruh-d  f»/  //</-,  ,/. 
itary  title,  and  had  given  a  charter  to  France.     Louis  Philippe, 
"  King  of  the  Barricades,"  ruled  by  election,  and  a  constitution 
was  imposed  upon  him. 

In  this  vital  respect,  the  Second  French  Revolution  corre- 
sponded to  the  English  Revolution  of  1688.  In  other  respects 
it  did  not  go  so  far.  The  most  important  of  the  other  reforms 
were:  (1)  the  right  to  introduce  bills  was  given  to  the  legisla- 
ture; and  (2)  the  number  of  voters  was  about  doubled  by 
extending  the  franchise  to  all  who  paid  forty  dollars  in  direct 
taxes.  This  still  left  twenty-nine  men  out  of  thirty  without 
votes.  It  made  a  voting  body  of  less  than  200,000  in  a  total 
population  of  some  30,000,000. 

III.   THE   REVOLUTIONS   OF   1830  OVER   EUROPE 

653.  Meantime,  the  success  of  this  "  Second  French  Revolution  " 
had  been  followed  by  revolts  all  over  Europe.      For   a  moment, 
Metternich's  system  tottered.     Belgium  broke  away  from  the 
king  of  Holland,  to  whom  the  Congress  of  Vienna  had  given 
it.     Poland  rose  against  the  Tsar,  to  whom  the  Congress  had 
given  it.     The  states  of  Italy  rose  against  Austria  and  the  Aus- 
trian satellites,  to  whom  the  Congress  had  given  them.     And 

i  As  a  youth  Louis  Philippe  had  taken  the  side  of  the  First  Revolution  in 
1789,  and  had  fought  gallantly  in  the  French  Revolutionary  armies,  until  the 
extremists  drove  him  into  exile.  Then,  instead  of  joining  the  royalist  emi- 
grants in  their  attacks  on  France,  he  had  fled  to  England  and  America. 


§655]  GAINS  AND   LOSSES  523 

in  Germany  there  were  uprisings  in  all  absolutist  states,  to 
demand  the  constitutions  which  the  Congress  had  not  given. 

654.  Gains  and  Losses.  —  The  final  gains,  however,  were  not 
so  vast  as  at  first  they  seemed.     Belgium  did  become  an  inde- 
pendent  monarchy^  with  the  most  liberal  constitution  on  the 
continent.     To  that  country  as  well  as  to  France  the  Kevolu- 
tion  brought  permanent  profit.     Indeed  France,  now  definitely 
lost  to  the  "  Holy  Alliance,"  joined  England  in  protecting  Bel- 
gium against  "  intervention,"  —  so  that  Metternich  called  Lon- 
don and  Paris  "  the  two  mad-houses  of  Europe." 

But  Tsar  Nicholas  crushed  the  Poles,  took  away  their  con- 
stitution,1 and  made  them  a  Russian  province.  Austria  crushed 
the  Italian  revolts.  And  though  four  small  German  states 
secured  constitutions,  still  the  general  despotic  character  of 
the  Confederacy  was  not  modified.  While  Austria  was  busied 
in  Italy,  it  is  true,  there  had  seemed  some  hope  of  progress 
for  Germany;  but  Metternich  soon  had  his  hands  free,  and 
at  once  he  set  about  restoring  "order." 

655.  Still,  reaction  had  lost  much  of  its  vigor  and  confidence, 
and  it  was  being  slowly  undermined  by  a  quiet  but  growing 
public  opinion.     Metternich's  genius  sufficed  to  keep  his  sys- 
tem standing,  as  long  as  it  was  not  disturbed  from  without ; 
but  when  the  next  year  of  Kevolutions  came  (1848),  that  sys- 
tem fell  forever  in  Western  Europe.     For  the  beginning  of 
that  story  we  must  go  first  to  England  and  then  to  France. 

\ . 

1  Tsar  Alexander  had  given  a  liberal  constitution  to  his  "  Kingdom  of 
Poland,"  but  in  1825  Alexander  was  succeeded  by  Nicholas. 


PART  VIII 

ENGLAND  AND  THE  INDUSTKIAL  REVOLUTION 


CHAPTER  XLII 

THE   REVOLUTION   IN   METHODS   OF   "WORK 

656.  What  the   Industrial  Revolution  was. —  While  France 
was  giving  the  world  her  first  great  social  and  political  revo- 
lution, with  noise  a*rd  blood,  toward  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  England  had  been  working  out  quietly  an  even  greater 
revolution  which  was  to  change  the  work  and  daily  life  of  the 
masses  of  men  and  women  and  children  over  all  the  world. 
This  "revolution"  was  a^  first  a  change  in  the  ways  in  which 
certain  kinds  of  work  were  done ;  so  we  call  it  the  "  Industrial 
Revolution." 

Not  all  the  legislation  of -the  great  French  Convention  of 
'93,  nor  Napoleon's  "  forty  victories,"  nor  even  his  code  that 
would  "  livte  forever,^  nor  the  assembled  statesmen  at  Vienna, 
—  nor  all  these  together,  —  had  so  much  to  do  in  deciding  how 
you  and  I  should  live  to-day  as  did  this  Industrial  Revolution 
which  we  are  now  to  study.  It  was  not  wrought  by  kings,  or 
diplomats,  or  generals,  or  even  by  dazzling  intellectual  geniuses, 
but  by  humble  workers,  while  busied  in  homely  toil,  puzzling 
day  after  day  over  wheels  and  belts  and  rollers  and  levers, 
seeking  some  way  to  save  time. 

657.  Industrial  Conditions  about  1775.  — Our  life  and  labor 
differs   far  more  widely  from  that  of  our  great-great-grand- 
fathers in  the  time  of  the  American  Revolution,  than  their 
life  and  labor  differed  from  that  of  men  in  the  time  of  Charle- 

524 


§657]  THE  WORLD  IN   1750  525 

magne  a  thousand  years  before.  In  the  days  of  Frederick 
the  Great  and  Voltaire  and  George  Washington,  men  raised 
grain,  and  wove  cloth,  and  carried  their  spare  products  to 
market,  in  almost  precisely  the  same  way  in  which  these 
things  had  been  done  for  four  thousand  or  six  thousand  years. 
The  discovery  of  America  had  added  corn  (maize)  and  the 
potato  to  the  world's  food  plants  (§  1),  and  had  enormously 
increased  the  production  of  sugar  (in  the  West  Indies)  and  so 
made  its  use  more  general.  But  in  Europe  itself  a  farmer 
rarely  had  as  great  a  variety  of  vegetables  in  his  garden  as 
the  ancient  Egyptian  or  Roman  farmer  had.  The  English  or 
American  or  French  farmer,  with  strenuous  toil  scratched  the 
soil  with  a  clumsy  wooden  plow  (not  unlike  those  shown  on 
Egyptian  monuments  six  thousand  years  old).  He  had  no  other 
machine  for  horses  to  draiv,  except  a  rude  harrow  and  a  cart, 
almost  as  ancient  in  style.  He  sowed  his  grain  by  hand,  cut 
it  with  the  sickle  of  ancient  times,  and  threshed  it  out  with 
the  prehistoric  flail,  if  he  did  not  tread  it  out  on  his  barn  floor 
by  cattle,  as  the  old  Egyptians  did. 

Carpenters'  tools,  too,  did  not  differ  much,  either  in  number 
or  style,  from  a  set  four  thousand  years  old,  found  recently  in 
Crete.  Blacksmiths  and  masons  used  tools  as  ancient  in  origin. 
The  seventeenth  century  had  seen  the  invention  of  sawmills 
driven  by  water  power  (like  the  earlier  grist  mills) ;  but  these 
only  cut  the  logs  into  rough  boards.  All  planiitg  and  other 
dressing  of  lumber  was  still  done  by  hand,  as  was  also  all  the 
work  now  done  by  machines  in  furniture  factories  and  joiners' 
shops.  Merchandise  was  still  carried  from  place  to  place  on 
pack  horses  or  mules,  or  sometimes  in  clumsy  carts  sinking  to 
the  axles  in  muddy  roads ;  and  travel  was  mainly  on  horseback, 
though  slow  coaches  toiled  along  on  a  few  main  roads,  six 
horses  to  each  vehicle. 

No  man  living  had  ever  dreamed  of  traveling  by  railway  or 
steamship,  or  of  communicating  with  absent  friends  by  tele- 
phone or  telegraph,  or  of  reading  by  electric  lights  or  even  by 
kerosene  lamps.  No  woman  had  ever  cooked  a  meal  by  a  stove. 


526 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION 


[§658 


Household  lights  were  still  dim,  ill-smelling  candles  or  smoky 
and  flaring  torches.  If  a  householder  carelessly  let  the  fire  in 
his  fireplace  go  out,  he  borrowed  live  coals  from  a  neighbor,  or 
struck  sparks  into  tinder  with  flint  and  steel.  If  man  or  child 
had  to  have  an  arm  amputated,  the  pain  had  to  be  borne  with- 
out the  merciful  aid  of  anaesthetics.  The  few  cities  were  still 
medieval.  London  was  the  only  town  in  Europe  that  boasted 
lamp  posts ;  and  there  the  light  was  supplied  by  a  poorly 
burning  oil.  In  Paris,  on  the  main  streets,  the  mud  lay  a 
foot  deep  in  rainy  weather.  Arthur  Young,  in  17S7,  wrote  of 
Paris,  —  "  Walking,  which  in  London  is  so  pleasant  and  clean 
that  ladies  do  it  every  day  (!),  is  here  a  toil  and  a  fatigue  to  a 
man,  and  an  impossibility  to  a  well-dressed  woman." 

658.    The  first  improvements  came  in  England  —  in  agriculture. 
Early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  landlords  introduced  a  t>< 
system  of  "  crop-rotation,"  raising  roots,  like  beets  and  turnips, 
on  the  field  formerly  left  fallow  (§  134).     This  proved  just  as 

good  for  the  ground,  and 
it  furnished  food  which 
made  it  possible  to  keep 
more  cattle.  Besides  the 
direct  profits,  the  addi- 
tional cattle  furnished 
more  manure,  which  en- 
riched the  soil  and  in- 
creased all  crops.  Eng- 
lish gentlemen,  too,  began 
to  give  much  attention  to 
breeding  better  cattle  and 
sheep,  and  so  produced 
more  beef  and  wool. 


A  COMPLETE  ASSORTMENT  OF  FARM  TOOLS 
IN  1800.  Note  the  clumsy  and  heavy  char- 
acter of  all  but  ax  and  sickle. 


659.   Mechanical  invention  in  agriculture  came  a  little  later. 

In  1785  the  first  threshing  machine  was  invented,  and  enter- 
prising «  gentlemen  farmers  "  soon  began  to  use  it ;  but  it  was 
exceedingly  crude.  The  cast-iron  plow  appeared  about  1800. 
This  was  soon  to  work  a  marvelous  revolution  in  farming  — 


§661]  TN    ENGLAND  527 

permitting  deeper  plowing  and  more  rapid  work  ;  but  for  some 
time,  even  in  America,  farmers  were  generally  prejudiced 
against  it,  asserting  that  the  iron  "  poisoned "  the  ground. 
The  cradle  scythe  —  a  hand  tool,  but  a  vast  improvement  on 
the  old  sickle  for  harvesting  grain  —  was  patented  in  America 
in  1803.  Drills,  seeders,  mowers,  reapers,  binders,  were  still 
in  the  future ;  but  in  1800  the  era  of  farm  machinery  was  just 
at  hand. 

The  bare  beginnings  of  change  came  first,  then,  in  agriculture ; 
but  great  changes  appeared  first  in  other  lines  (below). 

660.  The  next  change  was  in  transportation.     England  began 
to  improve  her  main  roads  about  1750,  building  "  turn-pikes," 
with  frequent  barriers  where  tolls  were  collected  from  travelers 
to  keep  up  repairs.    A  Scotch  engineer,  MacAdam,  gave  his  name 
to  macadamized  roads.      Before  the  American  Revolution  began, 
Englishmen  were  boasting  of  the  "astounding  change  "  in  rapid- 
ity of  travel  and  transport  of  goods. 

In  a  few  years  they  had  even  better  reason  for  such  boasts. 
The  ancient  Egyptians  and  Babylonians  had  dug  canals  and 
used  them  to  carry  goods.  Louis  XIV  and  Frederick  the  Great 
had  constructed  a  few  in  France  and  Prussia.  But  now  Eng- 
land gave  canals  a  wholly  new  importance  in  commerce.  The 
first  one  with  a  system  of  locks,  to  permit  a  boat  to  pass  from 
one  level  to  another,  was  built  in  1761,  to  bring  coal  to  Man- 
chester from  a  mine  seven  miles  away.  And  before  1800, 
England  was  better  supplied  with  canals  than  she  had  been 
with  roads  in  1700.  The  boats  were  "towed"  by  horses 
driven  along  a  tow  path.  One  horse  could  draw  many  times 
the  weight  he  could  draw  on  land  over  even  the  best  roads, 
and  most  bulky  merchandise  was  soon  carried  by  the  new 
water  roads. 

661 .  The  change  that  was  really  to  revolutionize  the  working  so- 
ciety, however,  came  not  in  farming  nor  in  transportation,  but  in 
manufacturing,  —  and  first  in   spinning.     In  Queen  Elizabeth's 
time  the  fiber  of  flax  or  wool  was  drawn  into  thread  by  the  distaff 
and  spindle,  as  it  had  been  for  four  or  five  millenniums.     But 


528  THE   INDUSTRIAL    REVOLUTION  [§001 

in  the  seventeenth  century  in  England,  the  distaff  was  re- 
placed by  the  spinning  wheel,1  —  run  first  by  one  hand,  but  after- 
ward by  the  foot  of  the  spinner.  Even  the  wheel,  however 
(such  as  may  now  and  then  still  be  found  tucked  away  in  an 
old  attic),  drew  out  only  mm  thr»'(«l  nt  <i  ////<?.  To  spin  thread 
enough  to  weave  into  the  cloth  for  a  family's  clothing  was  a 
serious  task.  A  weaver  with  his  clumsy  hand  loom  could 
weave  all  the  thread  that  eight  spinners  could  supply. 
Weavers  didn't  get  thread  fast  enough,  and  soon  after  1750 
they  began  to  think  about  swifter  ways  to  secure  it.  In  1761 
the  English  Royal  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Manu- 
factures offered  a  prize  for  an  invention  for  swifter  spinning. 
Three  years  later,  in  17(>4  (the  last  year  of  Louis  XIV  in 
France),  an  English  weaver,  James  Hargreaves,  noticed  that 
his  wife's  spinning  wheel,  tipped  over  on  the  floor,  kept  whirl- 
ing away  for  a  surprising  time.  Taking  a  hint  from  this  new 
position,  he  invented  a  machine  where  one  wheel  turned  eight 
spindles,  and  spun  eft/ht  threads,  instead  of  one.  Hargreaves 
called  the  new  machine  the  "Jenny,"  from  his  wife's  name. 
Soon  it  was  improved  so  as  to  spin  sixteen  threads  at  a  time. 

The  thread  was  not  satisfactory,  however,  for  all  parts  of 
cloth  manufacture;  but  in  1771  Richard  Arkwright,  a  barber 
and  peddler,  devised  a  new  sort  of  spinner  without  spindles. 
He  ran  his  wool  or  cotton  through  a  series  of  rollers  revolving 
at  different  rates,  to  draw  out  the  thread  ;  and  he  drove  these 
rollers  by  tvater  power,  not  by  hand,  and  so  called  his  machine  a 
"  Water  Frame."  Four  years  later  (1779),  Samuel  Crompton,  an 
English  weaver,  ingeniously  combined  the  best  features  of  the 
"  Jenny  "  and  the  "  Water  Frame  "  into  a  new  machine  which 
he  called  "  the  mule  "  —  in  honor  of  this  mixed  parentage.  With 
"  the  mule,"  one  spinner  could  spin  tiro  hundred  threads  at  a  time. 

Crompton  received  $  300  from  the  manufacturers,  who  piled  up  wealth 
from  his  invention !     He  was  a  shy  man,  who  spent  his  life  in  poverty, 

1  Note  that  the  seventeenth  century  began  the  era  of  modern  industrial 
inventions  by  producing  the  spinning  wheel  and  sawmills. 


§663]  SPINNING  AND   WEAVING  529 

making  his  "mule''  and  improving  it  When  he  was  sixty  years  old, 
parliament  gave  him  $25,000  (in  1820),  as  a  recognition  of  his  services 
to  England ;  but  he  spent  this  in  attempting  new  inventions,  and  died 
extremely  poor,  in  1827. 

Two  hundred  threads  seem  few  enough  to  us,  acquainted 
with  machinery  such  that  a  man,  with  one  or  two  boys,  winds 
twelve  thousand  spools  at  once ;  but  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  "  the  mule  "  was  a  revolution,  and  it  pro- 
duced other  revolutions.  Now  the  weavers  had  too  much  thread; 
they  could  not  keep  up  with  the  spinners,  and  it  was  necessary 
to  improve  their  processes. 

662.  The  weavers  still  used  the  hand  loom,  older  than  any  of 
the  records  of  history.     Threads  were  first  drawn  out  length- 
wise on  a  frame  :  this  made  the  warp.     Then  the  weaver  drove 
his  shuttle  by  hand  back  and  forth  between  those  threads  with 
the  woof  (cross  threads).     Edmund  Cartwright,  a  clergyman  of 
the  church  of  England,  gave   his  energies  to  discovering  a 
better  process,  and  in  1784  he  patented  a  "  power  loom,"  in 
which   the   shuttle   threw   itself  back  and  forth  automatically. 
Then  the  weavers  could  keep  up  easily  ;  and  by  later  improve- 
ments, before  1900,  it  became  possible  for  one  man  to  weave 
more  cloth  than  two  hundred  could  in  1770. 

663.  The  next   need   was   more   cotton  ready  to   spin.     Eli 
Whitney,  in  America,  met  this  by  inventing  his  Cotton  Gin, 
wherewith  one  slave  could  clean  as  much  fiber  from  the  seed 
as  three  hundred  had  been  able  to  clean  before.     This  was  in 
1793.     In  that  year  the  United  States  exporft$  200,000  pounds 
of  cotton.     In  1800  the  amount  was  20,000,000  pounds,  and  in 
1803,  40,000,000  pounds.     All  of  this  went  to  feed  the  new 
manufactures  in  England. 

Two  other  minor  inventions  accompanied  these  greater  ones.  In- 
stead of  bleaching  cloth  white  slowly  by  air  and  sunshine,  a  way  was 
found  to  do  it  swiftly  by  using  a  chemical  (chlorine}.  And  instead  of 
printing  patterns  on  cotton  cloth  (calico)  with  little  blocks,  — first  a  block 
of  one  color,  and  then  one  of  another,  —  the  patterns  were  soon  graven  on 
rollers  which  printed  all  the  colors  at  one  time  as  the  cloth  passed  over  them. 


530  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION  [§664 

664.  The  next  need   was   a  better  power  to  drive  the  new 
machines.     Water  had  largely  replaced  hand  power ;  but  water 
sometimes  failed,  and  it  was  not  present  at  all  in  many  places 
where  it  would  have  been  welcome.     This  need  was  supplied 
by  James  Watt's  improvements  on  the  steam  engine. 

We  have  noted  that  Roger  Bacon,  before  1300,  speculated 
on  the  expansive  power  of  steam  as  a  motive  power  for  the 
future.  A  nobleman  of  Charles  I's  time  is  believed  to  have 
constructed  a  steam  engine  that  pumped  water;  but,  if  he 
did,  the  invention  and  inventor  both  perished  in  the  civil  war 
between  king  and  parliament.1  But  in  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  steam  engines  had  been  invented  that  could 
pump  water,  and  they  were  used  to  draw  water  out  of  flooded 
mines.  These  engines,  however,  had  only  an  up-and-down 
movement;  they  were  clumsy  and  slow;  they  wasted  steam 
and  fuel.  James  Watt,  an  instrument-maker,  was  called  upon 
to  repair  a  model  for  such  an  engine,  and  became  interested 
in  removing  these  defects.  By  1785,  he  had  constructed 
engines  that  worked  much  more  swiftly,  economically,  and 
powerfully,  and  which  could  transmit  their  power  to  wheels 
(and  so  drive  machinery),  by  an  arrangement  of  shafts  and 
cranks. 

In  1785  steam  was  first  used  to  drive  spinning  machinery. 
Fifteen  years  later,  there  were  more  steam  engines  in  England 
than  ivater  wheels,  and  four  had  found  their  way  to  America. 

665.  One  more  series  of  inventions  completed  the  wonderful 
circle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  where  one  discovery  had  so  led 
on  to  another.     Engines  and  power  machines  could  be  built  in 
a  satisfactory  manner  only  from  iron ;  but  in  1790  the  manu- 
facture of  iron  was  still  slow  and  costly,  and  the  product  was 
poor  stuff.     In  that  year,  however,  steam  began  to  be  used  to 
furnish  a  new  blowing  apparatus  which  gave  a  steady  blast  of 
air,  in  place  of  the  old  bellows  and  like  arrangements.     This 
made   possible  more   rapid   and   more  perfect  work  in  iron. 

1  George  McDonald's  St.  George  and  St. Michael  tells  the  story. 


§667]  THE   STEAMBOAT  531 

Soon,  too,  new  and  better  ways  were  found  to  change  the 
brittle  "  castings  "  into  malleable  "  wrought "  iron. 

666.  Thus,  by  1800,  the  "age  of  steam  and  iron''  had  begun  in 
England,  and  to  some  degree  in  America.     The  continent  of 
Europe  remained  closed  against  it  for  some  years  longer,  by 
Napoleon's  Continental  System  ;  but,  on  his  fall  it  began  to  win 
its  way  there  also. 

Since  prehistoric  man  found  ways  to  make  fire  and  bake  pots 
and  spin  and  weave  (with  spindle  and  loom)  and  extract  iron 
from  ore,  there  had  been  no  change  in  man's  work  that  com- 
pared in  any  degree  with  this  tremendous  revolution  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  American  Revolu- 
tion and  even  the  greater  French  Revolution  were  dwarfed  by 
the  gigantic  Industrial  Revolution. 

Before  we  leave  this  age  of  invention,  we  must  note  two 
applications  of  the  steam  engine,  and  also  a  few  separate  inven- 
tions, in  all  of  which  America  had  a  large  share. 

667.  The   Steamboat. — Some    of   Watt's    engines,   we   said, 
found  their  way  to  America  before  1800.     Here,  in  that  day, 
the  chief  need  was  locomotion.     And,  since  there  was  no  time  at 
first  to  build  roads  over  our  vast  territory,  we  wanted  first 
locomotion  by  water.     Rivers  were  used  to  carry  goods  easily 
down  the  current;  but  some  means  to  force  a  boat  up  stream 
was  needed.     Therefore,  in  America,  ingenious  mechanics  at 
once  sought  to  apply  the  new  steam  engine  to  navigation. 

As  early  as  1789,  John  Fitch,  a  poor,  unschooled  carpenter 
with  wonderful  inventive  genius,  built  a  ferryboat  with 
paddles  driven  by  a  steam  engine  of  his  own  make.  He  even 
ran  this  boat  up  the  river  at  Philadelphia,  as  well  as  down, 
and  showed  it  there  for  some  months.  But  men  with  money 
in  America  were  still  old-fashioned ;  and  Fitch  could  not  raise 
money  to  extend  the  use  of  his  invention.  He  next  tried  his 
fortune  in  the  new  West,  where  such  motive  power  was  sadly 
needed,  but  with  no  better  success ;  and  finally,  in  bitter 
disappointment  and  despair,  he  killed  himself  in  a  Kentucky 
tavern. 


532  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION  [§667 

During  those  same  years  Philadelphia  had  another  neglected 
genius,  Oliver  Evans,  who  also  built  a  steam  engine  suited  for 
locomotion ;  but,  like  Fitch,  he  failed  to  secure  money  to 
carry  his  invention  to  practical  success.  Soon  after,  however, 
Robert  Fulton  was  more  fortunate.  He,  too,  met  with  one 
rebuff.  He  offered  his  steamboat  to  Napoleon  as  a  means 
whereby  that  baffled  conqueror  might  transport  the  waiting 
army  from  Boulogne  to  England,  spite  of  English  sailing 
vessels  (§  609).  Happily,  Napoleon  repulsed  him  disdainfully 


FULTON'S  STKAMKK,  THK  CLBKMOM  . 

as  a  faker  —  and  so  lost  his  best  chance  to  become  undisputed 
master  of  the  world.  And  some  three  years  later  Fulton  secured 
money  from  Chancellor  Livingstone  of  New  York.  In  1807, 
amid  popular  jeers,  Fulton  launched  the  Clermont,  furnished 
with  an  engine  from  England,  and  made  a  trial  trip  up  the 
Hudson,  from  New  York  to  Albany,  at  about  five  miles  an  hour. 
The  next  year  a  regular  line  of  steamboats  plied  between  the 
two  cities,  and  men  were  eagerly  waiting  for  them  elsewhere. 
In  1811  the  Orleans  was  launched  on  the  Ohio  at  Pittsburg, 
to  voyage  to  the  distant  city  for  which  it  was  named.  The 
War  of  1812  interrupted  steamboat  building,  but  in  1820  sixty 
such  vessels  plied  the  waters  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  and 
some  of  them  were  finding  their  way  up  the  muddy  Missouri, 
between  herds  of  astonished  buffalo. 


§668]  THE    RAILWAY  533 

668.  The  Railway.  —  If  steam  would  drive  boats,  why  not 
coaches  as  well,  as  Roger  Bacon  foretold  five  hundred  years 
before  ?  Experiments  for  land  locomotives  began  at  once. 

Short  horse  "  tramways "  had  been  used  in  some  places  in 
England  for  many  years.  A  tramway  was  merely  a  line  of 
rails  on  which  carts  were  drawn  more  easily  than  on  the  bare 
ground.  By  1807  they  were  in  use  in  the  United  States,  but, 
as  in  England,  they  were  commonly  only  a  few  rods  in  length. 
Soon  after  1800,  a  Cornishman,  Richard  Trevithick,  used  a  steam 
engine  to  furnish  power  for  a  short  tramway ;  but  this  was 
really  a  stationary  engine  of  the  old  type.  What  was  wanted 


FIRST  STEAM  PASSENGER  TRAIN  IN  AMERICA  (November  12,  1831).  The 
engine  was  modeled  upon  Stephenson's  "Rocket,"  which,  some  months 
before,  had  drawn  a  train  from  Manchester  to  Liverpool. 

was  a  "traveling"  engine.  In  1811  John  Stevens,  in  America, 
began  twenty  years  of  vain  effort  to  interest  moneyed  men  in 
his  ideas  of  such  a  "locomotive";  but  success  was  achieved 
first  in  England  by  George  Stephenson,  who  had  spent  his  poor, 
unschooled  boyhood  partly  in  herding  sheep,  partly  in  helping 
his  father  tend  an  engine  in  a  coal  mine. 

In  1814  Stephenson  completed  a  locomotive  which  was  used 
to  haul  carts  of  coal  on  tramways  from  mines  to  the  nearest 
canal  or  river.  In  1825  a  passenger  line  twelve  miles  long  was 
opened  in  England;  and  in  1828,  in  America,  the  aged  Charles 
Carroll,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
drove  the  gold  spike  that  began  the  construction  of  the  great 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  line.  In  1833  a  railway  carried  passen- 
gers from  London  to  Liverpool  in  ten  hours,  where  the  old 
stage  coach  had  taken  sixty.  The  railway  age  had  fairly  begun. 


534  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION 

The  tremendous  importance  of  the  railroad,  however,  did  not 
show  fully  until  some  twenty  years  later.  The  early  rails 
were  of  wood,  protected  from  wear  by  a  covering  of  iron 
"straps"  —  which  had  an  awkward  way  of  curling  up  at  a 
loosened  end.  The  cars  were  at  first  merely  lines  of  "  coaches," 
almost  precisely  the  old  stage  coaches.  The  name  coach  still 
remains  in  England,  and  the  form  was  kept  there,  and  else- 
where in  Europe,  until  very  recently;  but  in  America  a  more 
convenient  form  was  soon  introduced.  Fifteen  miles  an  hour 
on  early  roads  was  thought  quite  amazing. 

669.  In  many  other  ways,  mechanical  inventions  began  to 
affect  human  life  soon  after  1800.  The  rapidity  with  which 
they  appeared  may  be  judged  partly  from  the  records  of  the 
American  patent  office.  From  1790  to  1812  that  office  regis- 
tered less  than  eighty  new  inventions  a  year.  From  1811'  to 
1820  the  number  rose  to  about  200  a  year,  and  in  1830  then* 
were  544  new  patents  issued.  Twenty  years  later  the  thousand 
mark  was  passed,  and  in  1860  there  were  five  thousand. 

These  inventions  mostly  saved  time  or  helped  to  make  life 
more  comfortable  or  more  attractive.  A  few  cases  only  can  be 
mentioned  from  the  bewildering  mass.  The  McCormick  reaper 
(to  be  drawn  by  horses)  appeared  in  1834,  and  multiplied  tin* 
farmer's  efficiency  in  the  harvest  field  by  twenty.  Plui<!i«j 
mills  created  a  new  industry  in  woodworking.  "  Coifs 
revolver "  (1835)  replaced  the  one-shot  "  pistol."  Iron  stoves 
began  to  rival  the  ancient  fireplace,  especially  for  cooking. 
Friction  matches,  invented  in  England  in  1827,  were  the  first 
improvement  on  prehistoric  methods  of  making  fire.  Illumi- 
nating gas,  for  lighting  city  streets,  made  better  order  possible 
at  night,  and  helped  improve  public  morals.  In  1838  the 
English  Great  Western  (with  screiv  propeller  instead  of  side 
paddles,  and  with  coal  to  heat  its  boilers)  established  steam 
navigation  between  Europe  and  America.  The  same  year  saw 
the  first  successful  use  of  huge  steam  hammers.  In  1839  a 
Frenchman,  Daguerre,  began  photography  with  his  "  daguerro- 
type."  Still  earlier,  a  French  chemist  had  invented  the  can- 


§669]  MECHANICAL   INVENTIONS  535 

ning  of  foods.  In  1841  two  Americans,  Dr.  Morton  and  Dr. 
Jackson,  independently  discovered  the  value  of  ether  as  an 
anaesthetic,  —  an  incomparable  boon  to  suffering  men  and 
women.  The  magnetic  telegraph,  invented  in  1835,  was  made 
effective  in  1844.  The  sewing  machine  was  patented  in  1846 ; 
and  the  next  year  saw  the  first  rotary  printing  press. 

It  is  not  the  plan  of  this  book  to  treat  American  history, 
because  that  subject  receives  better  attention  in  separate 
volumes.  But  this  topic  of  invention  cannot  be  discussed 
without  entering  the  American  field.  In  1820  a  famous  Eng- 
lish writer,  influenced  partly  by  the  ugly  feeling  awakened  by 
the  War  of  1812,  had  exclaimed,  —  "Who  in  the  four  quarters 
of  the  globe  reads  an  American  book,  ...  or  drinks  out  of 
American  glasses,  ...  or  sleeps  in  American  blankets  ?  "  But 
in  1841  in  parliament  a  member  of  the  English  cabinet  con- 
fessed that  the  great  majority  of  helpful  inventions  came  from 
America. 


CHAPTER   XLIII 

THE   REVOLUTION    IN   THE   WORKERS     LIVES 
(CAPITALISM  AND  THE  WAGE  SYSTEM) 

670.  The  introduction  of  machinery  and  of  steam  power  showed 
at  once  (by  1800)  several  great  results.     The  fundamental  one 
was  that  labor  with  the  new  machinery  produced  much  more 
wealth.     Robert  Owen,  a  cloth  manufacturer  at  New  Lanark 
in  Scotland,  said  in  1815  that  his  two  thousand  operatives  pro- 
duced more  than  all  the  workmen  in  Scotland  forty   years 
before.1 

This  change  ought  to  have  been  purely  good.  It  should 
have  meant  a  gain  for  all  the  world.  Especially  it  should 
have  meant  more  comfort  and  more  leisure  for  the  workers. 
In  practice,  it  meant  something  very  different. 

Part  of  the  increased  wealth  did  go  at  last,  and  indirectly,  to 
the  common  gain  in  lower  prices.  Every  one,  the  workmen 
included,  can  buy  cloth  or  hardware  cheaper  than  before  the  In- 
dustrial Revolution  began.  This  is  a  vast  gain.  It  is  the  thing 
about  the  Revolution  which  justifies  a  vast  deal  of  the  suffer- 
ing that  it  has  caused.  It  makes  possible  more  life  and  some 
better  life. 

But  the  revolution  also  resulted  directly  in  much  lower  life  for 
just  those  who,  we  would  have  supposed,  would  be  the  first  bene- 
fited. This  was  particularly  true  in  the  beginning.  To  under- 
stand this  we  must  look  once  more  at  the  condition  of  work- 
men before  the  invention  of  machinery. 

671.  Under  the  "domestic  system"  (§418)  all  manufactures 

i  Note  that  wealth  is  not  money.  It  is  any  desirable  thing  produced  or  ob- 
tained by  labor. 


§  672]  THE   NEW   FACTORY   SYSTEM  537 

had  been  hand-made  (as  the  word  manufacture  means).  Hours 
of  labor  were  long  and  profits  were  small,  because  there  was 
little  surplus  wealth  to  divide.  But  workmen  worked  in  their 
own  homes,  under  reasonably  wholesome  conditions.  Their  labor 
was  varied.  Tliey  owned  their  own  tools.  Tliey  had  considerable 
command  over  their  hours  of  toil.  Their  condition  resembled 
that  of  the  farmer  of  to-day  more  than  that  of  the  modern 
factory  worker. 

Thus,  in  England  and  America  especially,  the  artisan  drew 
part  of  his  support  from  the  plot  of  ground  about  his  cottage. 
Even  the  iron  workers  of  Sheffield  (famous  for  its  cutlery  since 
1400)  lived  in  little  homes  surrounded  each  by  its  garden  where 
the  workman  could  spend  a  dull  season  profitably.  Defoe,  the 
author  of  Robinson  Crusoe,  describes  a  like  condition  which  he 
saw  among  the  weavers  in  Yorkshire,  about  1725  :  — 

"  The  land  was  divided  into  small  inclosures  of  from  two  acres  to  six  or 
seven  acres  each,  seldom  more,  every  three  or  four  pieces  having  a  house 
belonging  to  them  ;  hardly  a  house  standing  out  of  speaking  distance  from 
another.  ...  At  every  considerable  house  there  was  a  manufactory. 
Every  clothier  keeps  one  horse  at  least  to  cariy  his  manufactures  to 
market,  and  every  one  generally  keeps  a  cow  or  two,  or  more,  for  his 
family.  .  .  .  The  houses  are  full  of  lusty  fellows,  some  at  their  dye  vat, 
some  at  their  looms,  others  dressing  the  cloth ;  the  women  and  children 
carding  or  spinning,  all  being  employed  from  the  youngest  to  the  eldest." 

672.  The  Hardship  of  Change  to  the  Old  Weavers.  —  But  hand 
workmen  could  not  match  tireless  iron  machines  driven  by 
steam.  They  could  not  produce  enough  cloth  —  at  the  lower 
prices  at  which  it  was  sold  after  1800  —  to  support  themselves, 
even  with  the  aid  of  their  garden  spots.  The  Industrial  Eevo- 
lution  came  swiftly  —  upturning  the  whole  system  of  manufac- 
turing before  a  hale  man  turned  into  an  old  one.  The  hand 
weavers  were  people  slow  to  accept  change.  Many  of  them 
could  not  understand  the  drift  of  the  times.  They  had  gained, 
in  generation  after  generation,  a  skill  of  which  they  were  proud 
and  which  had  made  them  envied  by  other  workmen.  They 
did  not  see  how  a  new  contrivance  of  wood  and  iron  could 


538  THE   INDUSTRIAL    REVOLUTION  [§673 

make  that  painfully  gained  skill  of  hand  a  worthless  thing, 
and  cast  them  down  into  the  position  of  wholly  unskilled 
workers.  Great  numbers  of  them  kept  up  the  losing  fight,  for 
their  lifetime,  under  harsher  and  harsher  conditions;1  and, 
from  time  to  time,  such  laborers  rose  in  ignorant  but  natural 
riots  to  smash  machinery  and  burn  factories. 

This  sort  of  tragedy  has  been  repeated  time  after  time  with 
millions  of  workers,  as  the  Industrial  Revolution  (which  is 
still  in  progress)  has  replaced  one  process  by  a  quicker  one  in 
all  kinds  of  work.  It  happened  not  long  ago,  when  the  lino- 
type replaced  hand  typesetting.  J/ON^-N  nf  //v, /•/,-»- /-x  /,,/<•<  y,,//v 
for  every  gain  to  the  world  by  terrible  personal  loss  that  destroyed 
families  and  ruined  lives.  Society,  which  profits  so  splendidly, 
has  not  yet  learned  how  to  insure  its  workers  against  this  un- 
fair loss.  But,  in  1800,  the  thing  was  new.  There  was  no  ac- 
cident insurance  or  old-age  insurance  or  pension  system,  such 
as  many  countries  are  now  coming  to  have;  and  the  class  of 
workmen  who  were  ruined  made  a  larger  part  of  the  total 
population  than  have  ever  again  been  so  affected  at  one  time. 

673.  But  the  most  serious  evils  in  1800  fell  not  upon  the 
workmen  who  kept  up  this  hopeless  fight  against  steam  and 
machinery,  but  upon  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  workmen  who 
accepted  the  change  and  tried  to  work  under  it. 

The  new  machinery  was  costly.  Workmen  could  not  own  it 
as  they  had  owned  their  old  tools.  Nor  did  they  know  how  to 
combine  to  own  it  in  groups.  It  all  passed  into  the  hands  of 
wealthy  men,  who  hired  workers  ("  operatives  ")  to  "  operate  " 
it.  This  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  organization  of  labor. 
The  old  slave  system  gave  way  to  serfdom  in  agriculture  and 
to  a  gild  organization  in  manufactures.  Gilds  gave  way  to  the 
domestic  system.  And  now  the  domestic  system  gave  way  to 
the  present  Capitalist  system,  or  Wage  system,  or  Factory  system. 

674.  The  capitalist  manufacturer  was  a  new  figure  in  Euro- 
pean life,  appearing  first  in  England.     There,  by  1800,  the 
capitalists  ranked  alongside  the  country  gentlemen  and  the 

1  George  Eliot's  Silas  Marner  is  the  story  of  such  a  weaver. 


§  676]  CAPITALISTS   AND   "  HANDS  "  539 

merchant  princes  as  the  "  upper"  middle  class,  just  below  the 
titled  nobility  in  social  standing  and  often  superior  to  them  in 
wealth.  The  appearance  of  this  new  figure  was  in  many  ways 
a  gain  to  society ;  but  there  was  also  a  bad  side. 

The  capitalist  manufacturer  was  not  himself  a  workman,  like 
the  old  "  master  "  in  the  gilds  or  in  the  domestic  system.  He 
was  only  an  "  employer."  He  erected  great  buildings  called 
factories,  filled  them  with  costly  machines,  bought  the  necessary 
"  raw  material "  (cotton,  wool,  or  iron,  as  the  case  might  be), 
and  paid  wages. 

675.  The   workman   now   furnished  nothing   but    his    hands. 
Great  numbers  of  men  wanted  work ;  and,  moreover,  much  of 
the  work  on  the  new  machinery  could  be  done  by  women  and 
children  —  especially   in   all   cloth    manufactures,    where   the 
work  consisted   largely   in  turning  a  lever,  or  tying  broken 
threads,  or  cleaning  machinery.     So  the  capitalist  could  fix 
wages. and  hours  of  labor  about  as  he  pleased.     The  workman 
was  at  his  mercy. 

And  if  the  capitalist  was  a  new  figure  in  middle  class 
society,  the  capitalless  and  landless  worker  (proletariat)  was  a 
much  more  significant  new  figure  in  the  "lower  classes." 

676.  Thus  the  new  manufacturing  society  was  made  up  of  two 
distinct   and   hostile   classes.      Under   the   gild   and   domestic 
system,  apprentices   and   journeymen   had   expected   to  rise, 
sooner  or  later,  to  be  "  masters  " ;  and  at  all  times  they  lived 
on   terms   of  constant   intercourse   with  their   masters,  who 
worked  side  by  side  with  them,  shared  their  hardships,  and 
had  a  sort  of  fatherly  guardianship  over  them.     Under  the 
new  system,  a  particularly  enterprising  and  fortunate  workman 
might  now  and  then  rise  into  the  capitalist  class  (as  a  villein 
had  now  and  then  become  a  noble  in  old  days) ;  but,  on  the 
whole,  the  line  was  drawn  as  distinctly  between  soft-handed 
capitalist    and    hard-handed   workman   in   1800,    as   between 
armored  noble  and   stooped  peasant  in  1200.     Moreover,  the 
capitalist  had  no  personal  contact  with  his  workmen.     He  em- 
ployed not  three  or  four,  living  in  his  own  family,  but  him- 


540  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION  [§  677 

dreds  or  thousands.  He  never  saw  them,  to  know  them, 
outside  the  factory,  and  he  did  not  even  know  their  names 
except  on  the  payroll.  There  was  no  chance  for  real  sympathy 
or  understanding  between  the  two  classes. 

677.  The  workman's  work  was  more  monotonous  than  ever 
before.     The  use  of  machinery  was  followed  by  a  minute  sub- 
division of  labor.     A  workman  who  formerly  had  performed 
many  different  processes  at  different  times,  now  spent  his  long 
day  of  labor  in  doing  some  simple  set  of  motions  over  and  over 
again,  standing  at  one  place  from  dawn  to  dark. 

678.  These  changes,  .so  far  noted,  are  more  or  less  permanent 
results  of  the  Capitalist  system.     We  still  have  them  in  our 
society,  but  in  1800,  in  England,  there  was  another  result  more 
immediately  disastrous  to  the  worker.     He  was  compelled  to 
change  his  whole  manner  of  life  for  the  worse.     He  must  reach 
the  factory  within  a  few  minutes  after  the  first  whistle  blew, 
about  sunrise,  and  stay  there  until  sunset  or  dusk  —  all  the 
time  that  it  was  light  enough  to  work.1     So  the  capitalist  built 
long  blocks  of  ugly  tenements  near  his  factory,  to  rent;  and 
the  workmen   moved   from    their   rural  village   homes,   with 
garden  spots  and  fresh  air  and  varied  industry,  into  these 
crowded  city  quarters. 

The  factory  system  produced  cities  with  marvelous  rapidity. 
In  1750  England  was  still  a  rural  country,  with  only  four  or 
five  towns  that  had  more  than  6000  people.  In  1800  cities 
had  leaped  into  life  everywhere.  More  than  100  towns 
counted  5000  people.  And  in  1891,  the  number  of  such  towns 
was  622.  In  1700  the  entire  population  of  England  and  Wales 
(not  including  Scotland  or  Ireland)  was  somewhere  between 
four  and  five  millions.  In  1801,  when  the  first  accurate  census 
was  taken,  it  was  8,893,000.  Most  of  the  increase  had  come 
in  the  last  half  of  the  century,  and  practically  aU  of  it  had  come 
in  cities.  During  the  next  half-century,  population  doubled 
again,  rising  to  17,928,000  in  1851 ;  and  in  the  second  half  of 

1  There  were  then  no  artificial  lights  suitable  for  illuminating  factories. 


§  680]  GROWTH  OF   CITIES  541 

the  same  century  it  very  nearly  doubled  once  more,  amounting 
to  32,526,000  in  1901. 

The  factory  system  has  helped  to  produce  rapid  growth  of 
population  and  of  cities  in  all  civilized  lands  ;  but  nowhere  else 
(except  in  the  United  States,  where  immigration  has  added 
millions)  has  the  growth  been  so  enormous  as  in  England  ;  and  in 
no  other  country  did  rapid  growth  begin  until  England  had  faced 
and  begun  to  solve  its  new  problems. 

679.  For  the  growth  of  cities,  together  with  the  factory  system, 
did  give  rise  to  wholly  new  problems.     For  a  time  no  one  saw 
them  clearly.     The  employers,  most  directly  responsible,  felt 
no  responsibility,  and  were  engaged  in  an  exciting   race  for 
wealth.     The  new  cities   grew  up  without  water   supply,    or 
drainage,  or  garbage- collection.     Science  had  not  learned  how 
to  care  for  these  needs  properly  and  law  had  not  begun  to 
wrestle  with  them.     The  masses  of  factory  workers  and  their 
families  dwelt  in  den-like  garrets  and  cellars  —  a  family  stuffed 
indecently  into  a  squalid  unwholesome  room  or  two  —  bordering 
on  pestilential  alleys,  in  perpetual  filth  and  disease  and  misery 
and  vice.     In  1837  one-tenth  of  the  people   of  the  great  city 
of  Manchester  lived  in  cellars.     The  employment  of  women 
in  the  factory  destroyed  the  home  for  a  large  part  of  the 
nation.1 

680.  Hours  of  labor  were  cruelly  long,  especially  for  children. 
We  shall  appreciate  this  best  by  looking  at  conditions  in  our 
own  land.     Carpenters,  in  1830,  worked  from  sunrise  to  sun- 
set ;  and  in  factories  (which  began  to  grow  up  here  after  1815) 
women  and  children  were  ground  down  by  a  monotonous  toil 
of  thirteen  or  fifteen  hours  a  day.     Many  years  ago,  Professor 
Richard  T.  Ely,  of  Wisconsin  University,  wrote  (Labor  Move- 
ment in  America,  49)  :  — 

"The  length  of  actual  labor  [in  1832]  in  the  Eagle  Mill  at  Griswold 
[Connecticut]  was  fifteen  hours  and  ten  minutes.  The  regulations  at 
Paterson,  New  Jersey,  required  women  and  children  to  be  at  work  at 

1  Women  had  done  most  of  the  spinning  under  the  old  domestic  system ;  but 
they  had  done  it  then  at  odd  spells,  as  part  of  the  household  work. 


542 


THE    INDUSTRIAL    REVOLUTION 


[§680 


half-past  four  in  the  morning.  .  .  .  Operatives  were  taxed  by  the  manu- 
facturers for  the  support  of  churches.  .  .  .  Women  and  children  were 
urged  on  by  the  use  of  the  rawhide." 

Such  conditions  were  the  rule  both  in  America  and  in 
England  where  they  had  begun  a  generation  sooner.  Hope 
Factory  (Rhode  Island)  rang  its  first  bell  ten  minutes  before 
the  "break  of  day  "(sunrise);  the  second  bell,  ten  minutes 
later;  and  in  five  minutes  more  the  gates  were  locked  upon 
tardy  comers.  Labor  lasted  till  eight  at  night;  and  a  com- 
mittee of  laborers  claimed  that  by  keeping  the  factory  clock 
always  slow,  the  em- 
ployer lengthened  this 
horrible  labor-day  by 
twenty  or  twenty-live 
minutes  more.  The  only 
respite  from  work  during 
the  day  was  twenty-five 
minutes  for  breakfast  and 
as  much  more  for  dinner 
—  both  meals  eaten  inside 
the  walls  from  cold 
lunches  brought  by  the 
workers.  A  Convention 
of  New  England  Mechan- 
ics at  Boston  in  1832  de- 
clared that  two-fifths  of 
all  persons  employed  in  American  factories  were  children,  whose 
day  of  toil  averaged  fourteen  hours,  and  who  had  no  chance 
whatever  for  schooling.1 

In  England,  conditions  were  at  first  worse  than  this.  Parish 
authorities  had  power  to  take  children  from  pauper  families 
and  apprentice  them  to  employers ;  and  dissolute  parents  some- 
times sold  their  children  into  service  by  written  contracts. 
In  the  years  just  before  1800,  gangs  of  helpless  little  ones 


WHITNEY'S  COTTON  GIN.  — For  separating 
the  seed  from  cotton.     Cf.  §  663. 


1  More  details  for  the  United  States  are  given  in  West's  American  History 
and  Government,  §  288. 


HOURS   OF  TOIL   FOR   CHILDREN  543 

from  six  and  seven  years  upwards,  secured  in  this  way  by 
greedy  contractors,  were  auctioned  off,  thousands  at  a  time,  to 
great  factories,  where  their  life  was  a  ghastly  slavery.  They 
received  no  wages.  They  were  clothed  in  rags.  They  had 
too  little  food,  and  food  only  of  the  coarsest  sort.  Often  they 
ate  standing  at  their  work,  while  the  machinery  was  in  motion. 
They  were  driven  to  toil  sometimes  sixteen  hours  a  day,  in 
some  places  by  inhuman  tortures.  They  had  no  holiday  ex- 
cept Sunday;  and  their  few  hours  for  sleep  were  spent  in 
dirty  beds,  from  which  other  relays  of  little  workers  had  just 
been  turned  out.  Schooling  or  play  there  was  none ;  and  the 
poor  waifs  grew  up  —  girls  as  well  as  boys  —  if  they  lived  at 
all,  amid  shocking  and  brutal  immorality.  When  one  batch 
of  such  labor  had  been  used  up,  another  was  ready  at  little 
cost ;  and  employers  showed  a  disregard  for  the  physical  well- 
being  of  these  "  white  slaves,"  such  as  no  prudent  negro-driver 
could  ever  afford  toward  his  more  costly  black  chattels. 

In  1800  a  terrible  epidemic  among  children  in  factory  dis- 
tricts aroused  public  attention;  and  parliament  "reduced" 
the  hours  of  labor  for  children-apprentices  to  twelve  a  day. 
The  apprentice  system,  however,  was  abolished  soon  after; 
and  the  new  law  did  not  apply  to  the  remaining  child-opera- 
tives, who  were  supposed  to  be  looked  after  by  their  parents. 
In  1819  and  in  1831  laws  were  passed  to  shorten  hours  for 
these  children  also,  but  they  were  not  enforced ;  and  the  old 
conditions  continued  with  little  gain  until  after  political  re- 
forms which  we  are  soon  to  study. 

Lord  Ashley  (Earl  of  Shaftesbury),  whose  championship  helped  finally 
to  remedy  these  evils,  spoke  with  great  emotion  forty  years  later  (1873) 
of  how  he  used  to  stand  at  the  factory  gates  and  watch  the  children  come 
out,  —  "sad,  dejected,  cadaverous  creatures,"  among  whom  "the  crip- 
pled and  distorted  forms  might  be  counted  by  hundreds."  The  poet 
Southey  in  1833  declared  of  the  factory  system  that  the  "slave  trade  is 
mercy  compared  with  it."  And  the  piteous  story  called  forth  a  pas- 
sionate protest  from  the  heart  of  England's  woman  poet  against  this 
hideous  phase  of  English  civilization  (Mrs.  Browning's  Cry  of  the  Chil- 
dren} :  — 


544  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION  f§  681 

*'  *  For  oh,  say  the  children,  '  we  are  weary, 

And  we  can  not  run  or  leap. 
If  we  cared  for  any  meadows,  it  were  merely 

To  drop  down  in  them  and  sleep.  .  .  . ' 
44  4  How  long,'  they  say,  '  how  long,  O  cruel  nation, 
Will  you  stand  to  move  the  world  on  a  child's  heart  — 
Stifle  down  with  a  mailed  heel  its  palpitation, 
And  tread  onward  to  your  throne  amid  the  mart  1 
Our  blood  splashes  upward,  O  gold-heaper, 

And  our  purple  shows  your  path. 
But  the  child's  sob  in  the  silence  curses  deeper 

Than  the  strong  man  in  his  wrath.' '' 

681.  "Landlord  England/'  —Another  unhappy  change  dur- 
ing this  same  period  destroyed  the  yeomen  of  rural  England. 
In  America  one  reason  why  factory  workers  were  so  at  the  mercy 
of  employers  was  that  in  1800  they  could  no  longer  find  "  free 
land,"  as  workers  could  do  in  colonial  times.  Good  farming 
land  near  the  Eastern  cities  was  all  taken  up ;  and  the  remote 
land  in  the  West  had  not  yet  been  opened  by  the  government  to 
settlement  in  small  lots  so  that  poor  men  could  get  hold  of  it. 

But  in  England  things  were  worse.  There  it  was  not  a 
matter  of  the  absence  of  just  land-laws,  but  the  presence  of 
unjust  laws.  The  new  profits  in  farming  (§  658)  made  land- 
lords eager  for  more  land.  They  controlled  parliament; 
and  that  body  passed  law  after  law,  after  1760,  inclosing  the 
"  commons  "  for  the  benefit,  not  of  the  common  good,  but  of  their 
class.1  A  popular  rhyme  of  the  day  expresses  the  feeling  of 
the  poor  at  this  renewal  of  the  ancient  inclosure  movement :  — 

4 '  The  law  locks  up  the  man  or  woman 
Who  steals  the  goose  from  off  the  common  ; 
But  leaves  the  greater  villain  loose 
Who  steals  the  common  from  the  goose." 

1  These  new  inclosures  were  outwardly  more  decent  than  those  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Pains  were  taken  to  "  compensate  "  every  villager  for 
the  share  he  lost  in  the  village  commons.  But,  whatever  the  intention  of  the 
law,  the  compensation  proved  ridiculously  inadequate.  Usually  it  was  in  the 
form  of  a  little  cash,  which  the  peasant  spent  without  any  lasting  improve- 
ment in  his  condition. 


§  681]  LANDLORD   ENGLAND  545 

And   Goldsmith's   pathetic  "  Deserted  Village "   pictures   the 
result  and  gives  its  stern  warning :  — 

"  111  fares  the  land,  to  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates,  and  men  decay." 

The  peasant  farmers,  having  lost  their  old  pasture  land  by 
these  inclosures,  could  no  longer  maintain  themselves  against 
the  competition  of  the  privileged  landlord,  who  also  alone  had 
money  to  buy  the  new  machinery  coming  into  use.  Small 
farmers  were  compelled  to  sell  out;  while  the  merchants  and 
new  manufacturing  capitalists  were  eager  to  buy,  both  because 
of  the  new  profits  in  agriculture  and  because  social  position 
and  political  power  in  England  in  that  day  rested  on  owner- 
ship of  land. 

In  1700,  in  spite  of  the  older  inclosure  movement  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  England  had  still  some  400,000  peasant 
farmers.  These  with  their  families  made  nearly  half  the 
total  population.  But  by  1800,  though  population  had  doubled 
(§  678),  this  class  of  independent  small  farmers  had  disappeared, 
and  rural  England  had  become  a  country  of  great  landlords^ 
The  dispossessed  yeomanry  drifted  to  the  new  factory  towns 
to  swell  the  unhappy  class  there  already  described,  and  to 
make  its  condition  worse  by  increasing  the  competition  for 
work.  Or  they  remained  to  till  the  landlord's  land,  living  on 
his  estate  as  "  cottagers,"  subject  to  removal  at  his  order. 

Since  this  change,  the  classes  connected  with  the  land  in 
England  are  three, — landlords,  teriCMf-farmers,  and  laborers. 
The  first  class  comprise  a  few  thousand  gentry  and  nobles. 
Each  such  proprietor  divides  his  estate  into  "  farms,"  of  from 
a  hundred  to  three  hundred  acres,  and  leases  them  out  to  men 
with  a  little  capital,  who  are  known  as  "  farmers."  This 
second  class  work  the  land  directly,  with  the  aid  of  the  third 
class,  who  have  no  land  of  their  own,  but  who  labor  for  day- 
wages. 

The  landlords  as  a  rule  pride  themselves  upon  keeping  up 
their  estates.  They  introduce  costly  machinery  and  improved 


546  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION  [§  (581 

methods  of  agriculture  more  rapidly  than  small  proprietors 
could,  and  they  furnish  some  of  the  money  necessary  to  put 
farms  and  buildings  into  good  condition ;  while  their  own 
stately  homes,  encompassed  by  rare  old  parks,  give  a  beauty 
to  rural  England  such  as  no  other  country  knows.  The 
farmers,  compared  with  the  farm-laborers,  are  an  aristocratic 
and  prosperous  class ;  but,  of  course,  they  have  always  been 
largely  influenced  by  their  landlords.  And  they  do  not  own 
their  land.  Peasants  became  free  in  England  some  centuries 
sooner  than  in  France  or  Germany ;  but  in  no  other  European 
country  have  the  peasants  so  completely  ceased  to  be  owners 
of  the  soil  as  in  modern  England.  In  1876  a  parliamentary 
inquiry  found  only  a  quarter  of  a  million  (262,886)  land- 
owners with  more  than  an  acre  apiece.  France  with  a  pop- 
ulation only  a  little  larger  had  more  than  twenty  times  as 
many  landowners. 

The  "Industrial  Revolution  '*  applies  especially  to  the  change  in 
Manufacturing,  due  to  the  use  of  machinery  and  steam,  in  the  period  from 
1760  to  1820.  The  Agricultural  Revolution  began  earlier  and  was  of  less 
direct  importance.  It  helped  on  the  Industrial  Revolution,  however,  by 
furnishing  workmen  for  the  new  factories. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  On  industrial  conditions  an  excellent  con- 
cise treatment,  especially  designed  for  high  school  students,  is  to  be  found 
in  Cheyney's  Industrial  and  Social  History  of  England,  203-223.  Fuller 
discussions  are  given  in  Toynbee's  Industrial  Revolution,  Gibbins'  Indus- 
trial History  of  England,  and  Cunningham  and  McArthur's  Outlines  of 
English  Industrial  History. 

EXERCISE. — Note  the  transitions  in  rural  labor  in  England:  (1)  serf 
and  villein  labor  to  about  1350,  and  then  a  decay  of  that  system  until  it 
disappears,  about  1450;  (2)  inclosures  (for  sheep  farming),  driving  a 
large  part  of  the  peasantry  from  the  soil,  1450-1600  ;  then,  after  a  pros- 
perous period,  (3)  the  new  period  of  inclosures  for  large  grain  farming, 
1760-1830.  (Recent  attempts  to  restore  the  peasantry  to  the  soil  will  be 
noted  in  §  895.) 

Note  also  the  transitions  in  manufacturing  :  the  gild  system  to  about 
1600 ;  the  domestic  system,  1600-1760 ;  the  factory  system  of  to-day. 


CHAPTER    XLIV 

THE    REVOLUTION     IN     IDEAS     ABOUT     GOVERNMENT 

682.  The  "  Let  Alone  "  Idea.  —  The  prosperous  capitalist  class 
resented  all  thought  of  interference  in  their  business  by  govern- 
ment.    Such  interference  in  past  times,  they  easily  proved, 
had  been  foolish  and  harmful,  even  when  best  intended. 

A  group  of  scholars  and  writers  put  into  form  the  new  ideas 
about,  carrying  on  industry  and  producing  wealth.  They  called 
their  new  science  Political  Economy.  It  was  founded  by  Adam 
Smith,  about  the  beginning  of  the  American  Revolution.  The 
fundamental  principle  of  the  doctrine  was  that  government  must 
"keep  hands  off",  unless  called  in  as  a  policeman  to  keep  order. 
"  Laws  "  of  "  supply  and  demand,"  it  taught,  were  "  natural 
laws  "  among  men  (as  gravitation  was  in  the  physical  universe) 
and  could  not  be  meddled  with,  except  to  do  harm.  Supply 
and  demand  must  be  left  absolute  to  determine  prices,  quality 
of  goods,  wages,  and  other  conditions  of  employment.  Only 
so  could  the  "greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest  number" 
be  secured. 

This  became  known  as  the  "  Manchester  doctrine,"  because  it 
was  so  universal  among  manufacturers  in  that  leading  center 
of  manufactures.  It  is  also  called  by  a  French  name,  —  Laissez 
faire  ("let  alone,"  or  "let  it  go").  English  merchants  ac- 
cepted it  no  less  readily  than  manufacturers,  in  their  hatred  of 
the  old  tariffs  which  hampered  their  trade  ;  and  it  soon  became 
almost  a  religion  to  the  town  middle  class. 

683.  Socialism.  —  It  is  easy  now  to  see  that  this  new  doc- 
trine suited  the  strong,  but  that  it  was  totally  unchristian  in 
its  disregard  of  the  weak.     It  produced  happiness  for  a  few 

547 


548  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION  [§684 

and  misery  for  the  greatest  number.  The  horrible  conditions 
of  the  factory  towfts  (§  679)  were  its  tirst  fruits.  Many  tender- 
hearted men,  like  John  Stuart  Mill  in  England,  were  so  imbued 
with  the  teaching  that  they  continued  long  to  proclaim  it. 
But  other  men  first  called  this  political  economy  a  "dismal 
science,"  and  then  set  up  a  contrary  set  of  doctrines.  These 
doctrines  were  usually  some  form  of  what  is  now  called 
Socialism. 

684.  The  first  u  Socialists ''  were  very  unscientific  in  their 
ideas,  but  they  were  moved  by  a  deep  love  for  suffering  hu- 
manity. They  believed  that  men  by  laws  or  by  mutual  ar- 
rangements could  set  up  a  society  of  common  goods  and 
brotherly  love,  —  such  as  Sir  Thomas  More  had  pictured  in 
Utopia.  Three  great  names  among  these  forerunners  of  real 
Socialism  deserve  mention,  —  Saint-Simon,  Fourier,  and  Robert 
Owen. 

Saint-Simon  was  a  French  noble  who  had  aided  America  in 
the  Revolution.  Afterward,  in  a  lifetime  of  study,  he  taught 
that  government  ought  to  manage  all  industry  and  secure  to 
each  worker  a  reward  suitable  to  his  service.  He  called  his 
great  book  The  New  Chrixtntitity. 

Fourier  also  was  a  Frenchman.  He  thought  government 
unable  to  manage  industry  on  such  a  scale  as  Saint-Simon  ad- 
vocated. Instead,  he  urged  that  groups  of  workmen  (and  their 
families)  should  organize  in  little  "  phalanxes  "  of  two  thou- 
sand members  each,  —  each  phalanx  to  own  its  own  capital 
and  to  divide  products  in  nearly  equal  parts  between  the  <•>!/»'- 
tal,  labor,  and  management.  Horace  Greeley,  in  America,  was 
deeply  interested  in  this  plan ;  and  a  number  of  New  Eng- 
landers  (Emerson  and  Hawthorne  among  them)  tried  such  an 
experiment  at  Brook  Farm  in  1841. 

Robert  Owen  was  a  wealthy  English  manufacturer.  His 
ideas  for  reform  were  much  like  Fourier's ;  and  he  used  his 
wealth  to  establish  a  number  of  such  cooperative  colonies  in 
England  and  in  America  —  as  at  New  Harmony,  Indiana. 
His  colonies  all  failed  finally ;  but  meantime  he  had  given  an 


685] 


SOCIALISM 


549 


impulse  to  cooperative  societies  for  buying  and  selling  goods, 
which  ever  since  have  accomplished  great  good ;  and  his  influ- 
ence did  much  to  spread  faith  in  human  brotherhood  and  to 
arouse  the  men  who  were  to  lead  in  social  reforms  in  the  next 
generation. 

685.  Modern  Socialists  look  back  on  all  these  early  attempts 
as  well-meant  efforts  of  dreamers,  and  trace  their  present  doctrine 
to  Karl  Marx.  Marx  was 
born  in  1818  in  Germany. 
He  attended  the  Univer- 
sity of  Berlin,  and  was 
intended  by  his  family  for 
a  University  professor ; 
but  his  radical  ideas  kept 
him  from  obtaining  such 
a  position.  He  began  to 
publish  his  works  on 
Socialism  about  1847. 
Germany  and  then  France 
drove  him  away,  as  a 
dangerous  disturber  of 
order;  and  he  spent  the 
last  forty  years  of  his  life 
(died  1883)  in  England, 
where,  perhaps  even  more 
than  in  America,  men  of 
all  creeds  and  opinions  have  found  full  freedom  of  speech. 

Marx  threw  aside  the  idea  that  benevolent  persons  could 
introduce  a  new  era  of  cooperation  by  agreement.  He  be- 
lieved, however,  that  a  new  cooperative  organization  of  society 
was  going  to  succeed  the  present  individualistic  organization, 
as  inevitably  as  that  had  followed  the  gild  and  slave  organiza- 
tion—  not  by  humanitarian  legislation,  but  through  tendencies 
in  human  development  that  could  not  be  controlled.  All 
history,  he  said,  had  been  the  story  of  class  struggles.  Ancient 
society  was  a  contest  between  master  and  slave ;  medieval 


KARL  MARX. 


550  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION  [685 

society,  between  lord  and  serf ;  present  society,  between  capital- 
ist and  workers.  The  workers,  he  was  sure,  will  win,  when 
they  learn  to  unite,  by  transferring  ownership  of  all  machinery 
(all  "  means  of  production  ")  to  the  nation  as  a  whole,  instead 
of  leaving  it  and  its  profits  in  the  hands  of  a  few.  He  fore- 
told the  recent  concentration  of  wealth  and  industry  in  great 
combines,  and  said  that  such  combination  would  be  a  step 
toward  the  cooperative  state,  since  it  would  make  it  easier  for 
the  masses  to  seize  the  "  means  of  production." 

In  the  name  of  "democracy  and  human  welfare,"  Marx 
called  to  the  working  class  of  all  lands  to  unite.  "  You  have 
nothing  to  lose  but  your  chains,"  he  said.  "  Unite,  and  make 
the  world  your  own,"  so  as  to  inaugurate  a  golden  future, 
when  all  shall  work,  but  none  have  to  work  too  long  or  too 
hard.  Then  no  one  will  grow  rich  at  the  expense  of  others, 
but  each  may  receive  honorable  reward  for  any  service  that  he 
renders  society.  Then  degrading  poverty  and  insolent  wealth 
will  both  vanish ;  and  emancipated  humankind  will  move  for- 
ward grandly  to  unforeseen  conquests  over  nature,  and  live  as 
one  vast  family,  in  brotherly  love. 

/Labor,  the  Socialist  teaches,  is  the  source  of  all  wealth, — 
food,  clothing,  houses,  machinery,  books,  pictures,  railroads. 

/labor,  he  insists,  produced  the  capital  which  now  controls 
further  production,  and  so  controls  labor.  He  would  have 
labor  instead  own  all  capital  —  that  is,  all  wealth  employed 
in  producing  more  wealth.  This  does  not  mean  that  the 
Socialists  wish  to  divide  property,  or  to  keep  individuals  after- 
ward from  owning  houses,  libraries,  carriages,  jewels,  clothing, 
of  their  own.  They  do  not  wish  to  abolish  private  ownership 

/of  those  things  which  we  use  for  ourselves,  but  only  of  those 

/  things  which  we  use  to  produce  more  wealth. 

Nor  do  Socialists  usually  wish  to  pay  all  men  alike  for  their 
work.  They  would  have  the  nation  own  the  property  now 
owned  mainly  by  great  trusts  and  corporations,  and  then  pay 
salaries  and  wages,  as  corporations  now  do  —  except  that  as  the 
nation  would  not  try  to  keep  most  of  the  profits,  there  would 


§  685]  SOCIALISM  551 

be  more  for  wages.     And  as  all  would  work,  no  one  would  have 
to  work  so  long. 

Students  who  pay  any  attention  to  Socialism  admit  that  its  ideals 
are  noble  and  attractive,  and  that  the  evils  in  present  society  are  real 
and  cruel.  But  the  great  majority  of  people  do  not  believe  that  the 
Socialist  program  would  work  as  its  advocates  teach. 

By  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  new  Socialist 
doctrines  were  in  the  air,  even  when  not  clearly  understood ; 
and  they  had  much  to  do  with  the  next  great  period  of  revolu-    ^ 
tion  in  Europe,  in  1848. 


PART   IX 

CONTINENTAL  EUROPE,  1848-1871 

(FROM  THE  YEAR  OF  REVOLUTIONS  TO  THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR) 


CHAPTER    XLV 

THE   REVOLUTION    OF   1848   IN   FRANCE 

686.  The  "Orleans1   Monarchy."  — Louis    Philippe  (§   652) 
liked  to  be  called  "  the  Citizen  King."     He  walked  the  streets  in 
the  dress  of  a  prosperous  shopkeeper,  a  green  cotton  umbrella 

Bunder  his  arm,  and  he  sent  his  children  to  the  public  schools. 
He  had  little  understanding,  however,  of  the  needs  of  France, 
or  of  the  feelings  of  the  masses  below  the  shop-keeping 
class.  For  eighteen  years  (1830-1848)  the  favor  of  the  middle 
class  "upheld  his  throne.  Only  the  richest  citizens  had 
any  share  in  political  power;  but  the  whole  middle  class  held 
military  power,  since  it  was  organized  in  the  National  Guards 
—  to  which  workingmen  were  not  admitted. 

687.  In  the  legislature  there  were  two  main  parties.     UTiiers 
(§  648)  led  the  more  liberal  one,  which  wished  the  monarchy 
to  be  a  figurehead,  as  in  England;  Guizot,  the  conservative 

1  The  first  break  in  the  direct  descent  of  the  Capetian  kings  from  father  to 
son  came  with  the  accession  of  Philip  VI  (table  on  page  269).  That  king  was 
a  cousin  of  the  preceding  king.  He  had  been  Duke  of  Valois ;  and  his  suc- 
cessors, until  Henry  IV  (§  406),  are  known  as  the  Valois  branch  of  the  Cape- 
tians.  Henry  IV  began  the  Bourbon  branch.  The  other  kings  of  that 
Capetian  branch  have  been  named  in  §§  407,  472,  527,  646,  647.  Louis  Philippe 
marks  the  third  accession  of  a  cousin.  He  had  been  Duke  of  Orleans  until  the 
Revolution  put  an  end  to  titles,  and  his  rule  is  known  as  the  Orleans  Monarchy. 

552 


§  688]  IN   FRANCE  553 

leader,  wanted  to  leave  the  king  the  real  executive,  and  to  re- 
sist all  further  liberalizing  of  the  government.  From  1840  to 
1848,  Guizot  (§  647)  was  in  control  as  the  chief  minister. 
Both  Guizot  and  Thiers  were  famous  historians. 

France  was  undergoing  rapid  industrial  growth,  and 
needed  peace  and  reforms.  Guizot  gave  it  tranquillity.  His 
ministry  was  the  most  stable  that  France  had  known  since  the 
days  of  Napoleon.  But,  in  his  desire  for  tranquillity,  he  ig- 
nored the  other  great  need,  and  opposed  all  reform.  Proposals 
to  reduce  the  enormous  salt  tax,  to  extend  education,  to  re- 
form the  outgrown  postal  system,  to  improve  the  prisons,  to 
care  for  youthful  criminals,  were  alike  suppressed. 

Thus,  after  a  time,  the  bright,  brainy  public  men  were  nearly  all 
driven  into  opposition ;  and  even  the  interests  of  the  middle  class 
suffered.  In  1842  Lamartine,  another  brilliant  historian- 
statesman,  attacked  Guizot  with  a  bitter  speech  in  the  legisla- 
ture, declaring  him  so  "  inert "  and  "  immovable,"  that  "  a  post " 
would  answer  as  well  all  purposes  of  government. 

688.  But  Guizot  could  not  be  overthrown  by  lawful  means. 
The  franchise  was  too  narrow ;  and  he  had  organized  the  vast 
patronage  of  the  government  for  public  corruption  too  skill- 
fully. In  America  the  constitution  forbids  the  President  to 
appoint  Congressmen  to  paid  offices,  such  as  postmasters  or 
custom-house  collectors.  But  in  France  it  was  the  regular 
practice  to  make  members  of  the  legislature  "  placemen "  of 
this  sort,  as  in  England  a  century  earlier  (§  460).  This  evil 
was  the  greater,  since  in  France  the  government  appointed  not 
only  national  officials  as  with  us,  but  also  all  local  officers,  like 
our  county  and  State  officials  and  city  mayors  and  chiefs  of 
police. 

-Less  than  200,000  men  could  vote.  The  government  had 
300,000  offices  to  buy  these  voters  with.  Then  when  an  elec- 
tion was  over,  Guizot  strengthened  his  majority  in  the  legisla- 
ture by  appointing  members  to  profitable  offices,  or  by  giving 
them  lucrative  business  contracts  from  the  government.  At 
one  time,  half  the  legislature  held  considerable  revenues  at 


554  THE   REVOLUTION   OF  1848  [§689 

Guizot's  will,  and  gave  their  votes  at  his  nod.  Personally, 
Guizot  was  incorruptible  and  rather  austere;  but  lie  rule<(  //// 
organizing  corruption. 

689.  In  the  matter  of  political   reform   Thiers'  party  asked 
only    (1)  to  forbid  the  appointment  of  members  of  the  legis- 
lature to  salaried  offices,  and   (2)   to  widen  the  franchise  so 
one  man  out  of  twenty  could  vote.     Guizot  smothered  both  pro- 
posals.    France  already  had  too  many  voters,  he  declared; 
1  not  more  than  100,000  men  in  the  country  were  capable  of 
voting  with  good  judgment.7 

Finally  the  Liberals  began  to  appeal  to  that  vast  part  of  the  na- 
tion that  had  no  vote.  They  planned  a  series  of  mass  meetings 
and  public  demonstrations,  to  bring  public  opinion  to  bear  on 
the  legislature.  According  to  American  or  English  ideas,  the 
proceeding  was  perfectly  proper.  But  the  French  government 
forbade  it  —  and  brought  on  a  revolution.  This  "Revolution. 
of  ISIS"  was  the  work  of  a  class  of  workinijmen  that  had  been 
growing  up,  almost  unnoticed  by  political  leaders  of  either 
party. 

690.  Until  1825,  when  the  Industrial  Revolution  was  fairly 
complete  in  England,  it  had  not  begun  in  France.     Cloth  manu- 
factures there  were  still  carried  on  under  the  "  Domestic  sys- 
tem."     But  in  the  next   ten   years   5000   power-looms   were 
installed   in   factories ;    and   in   ten   years   more   (1846),    the 
number  had  grown  to  30,000.      In  1815  there  was  only  one 
steam  engine  in  the  country,  aside  from  a  dozen  or  so  used  to 
pump  water ;  but  in  1830  there  were  625,  and  in  1850  there 
were  more  than  5000.     The  first  French  railway  of  importance 
was  opened  in  1843. 

Late  as  all  this  was,  the  Industrial  Revolution  came  in 
France  sooner  than  in  any  other  country  of  the  continent. 
And  it  came  soon  enough  so  that,  by  1848,  a  large  factory- 
population  had  grown  up  in  cities  like  Bordeaux,  Lyons, 
Toulouse,  and  Paris.  Moreover,  more  than  the  working  class 
then  in' any  other  land,  the  French  workingmen  of  the  towns 
were  influenced  by  the  new  teachings  of  socialism  (§  685). 


691] 


IN   FRANCE 


555 


Their  chief  spokesman  was  Louis  Blanc,  an  ardent  young  editor, 
who  preached  especially  "  the  right  to  work."  Every  man,  he 
urged,  had  a  right  to  em- 
ployment. To  insure  that 
right,  he  wished  the  nation 
to  establish  workshops  in 
different  trades  and  give 
employment  in  them  to 
all  who  wished  it  and  who 
could  not  get  it  elsewhere. 
In  the  end,  according  to 
his  plan,  the  workers 
would  manage  the  work- 
shops. 

Blanc  was  an  unselfish, 
high-minded  man,  moved 
by  deep  pity  for  the  suffer- 
ing masses ;  and  his  pro- 
posals were  moderate  and 
were  urged  with  modera- 
tion of  word  and  style. 
But  among  his  followers 
there  were  many  crack- 
brain  enthusiasts  and  some  criminally  selfish  adventurers,  and 
a  large  number  of  ignorant  men  easily  incited  to  violence. 
Large  numbers  of  the  workingmen  of  Paris,  in  particular,  had 
adopted  phrases,  not  only  about  the  "  right  to  work,"  but  also 
about  "  the  crime  of  private  property,"  as  a  sort  of  religious 
creed.  This  class  was  first  revealed  as  a  political  power  in 
the  revolution  that  followed. 

691.  The  "  February  Days."  —  In  1848  the  Liberals  had  ap- 
pointed a  monster  political  demonstration  in  Paris  for  Febru- 
ary 22 — choosing  that  day  in  honor  of  the  American  celebration. 
At  the  last  moment  the  government  forbade  the  meeting.  The 
leaders  obeyed,  but  the  streets  were  filled  all  day  with  angry 
crowds  shouting  for  the  dismissal  of  the  ministry.  The  Na- 


Louis  BLANC. 


556  THE   REVOLUTION   OF    1848  [§692 

tional  Guards,  when  called  out  to  disperse  the  mob,  themselves 
took  up  the  cry.     The  next  day  Guizot  resigned. 

Peace  seemed  restored ;  but  that  night  a  collision  occurred 
between  some  troops  and  the  mob;  and  the  Socialists  and 
Radicals  seized  the  chance  to  rouse  the  masses  against  the 
monarchy.  The  bodies  of  a  few  slain  men  were  paraded 
through  the  poorer  quarters  of  the  city  in  carts ;  and  by  the 
morning  of  the  24th,  the  streets  bristled  with  barricades  and 
the  mob  was  marching  on  the  Tuileries.  Louis  Philippe  fled 
to  England.  His  government  had  lost  the  support  of  the 
middle  classes,  and  it  collapsed. 

692.  The  Provisional  Government.  —  The  Chamber  of  Deputies 
was  about  to  proclaim  the  infant  grandson  of  Louis  Philippe 
as  king,  when  the  room  was  invaded  by  a  howling  mob,  flour- 
ishing muskets  and  butcher-knives  and  calling  for  a  republic. 
In  the  midst  of  this  tumult  the  few  deputies  who  kept  their  seats 
hastily  appointed  a  "Provisional  Government." 

This  body  was  at  once  escorted  by  the  mob  to  the  Hotel  de 
Ville  (a  sort  of  town  hall),  where  it  found  another  provisional 
government  already  set  up  by  the  Radicals  and  Socialists. 
By  a  compromise,  some  of  this  latter  body  were  incorporated 
in  the  first.  The  Provisional  Government  was  now  made  up 
of  three  elements :  Lamartine^ jthe  poet-historian,  represented 
the  Moderate  Republicans;  Lwlni-RnHin  was  the  representa- 
tive of  the  Radical  Republicans  ("theTleds"),  who  wished  to 
return  to  the  "Terror"  of  1793;  and  Louis  Blanc_ represented 
the  Socialists.  On  the  whole,  Lamartine  proved  to  be  the 
guiding  force. 

693.  The  difficulties  before  the  Government  were  tremendous. 
For  sixty  hours  it  was  in  the  presence  of  an  infuriated  and 
drunken  mob.     A  crowd  of  100,000  armed  men  was  packed 
into  the  streets  about  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  and  delegations  from 
it  repeatedly  forced  their  way  into  the  building  to  make  wild 
demands  upon  the  "Government."     That  Government  must  at 
once  disperse  this  seething  multitude,  avert  plunder  and  mas- 
sacre, clear  away  barricades,  bury  the  dead  and  care  for  the 


§  694]  IN   FRANCE  557 

wounded,  and  supply  food  for  the  great  city  wherein  all  ordi- 
nary business  had  ceased.  All  this,  too,  had  to  be  accomplished 
without  any  police  assistance. 

Time  after  time,  during  the  sixty-hours'  session,  was  Lamar- 
tine  called  from  the  room  to  check  invasions  by  new  bands  of 
revolutionists.  Said  the  spokesman  of  one  of  the  bands  : 

"  We  demand  the  extermination  of  property  and  of  capitalists,  the  in- 
stant establishment  of  community  of  goods,  the  proscription  of  the  rich, 
the  merchants,  those  of  every  condition  above  that  of  wage-earners,  .  .  . 
and  finally  the  acceptance  of  the  red  flag,  to  signify  to  society  its  defeat, 
to  the  people  its  victory,  to  all  foreign  governments  invasion." 

Lamartine  grew  faint  with  exhaustion  and  want  of  food. 
His  face  was  scratched  by  a  bayonet  thrust.  But  his  fine 
courage  and  wit  and  persuasive  eloquence  won  victory  over 
every  danger.  To  help  appease  the  mob,  however,  the  Govern- 
ment hastily  adopted  a  number  of  radical  decrees,  declaring 
France  a  Republic,  abolishing  the  House  of  Peers,  establishing 
manhood  suffrage,  shortening  the  11-hour  working  day  to  10 
hours,  and  affirming  the  duty  of  the  state  to  give  every  man  a 
chance  to  work.1 

694.  "National  Workshops."-- A  few  days  later,  the  decree 
recognizing  the  "  right  to  work  "  was  given  more  specific  mean- 
ing by  the  establishment  of  "  national  workshops "  for  the 
unemployed.  In  the  panic  that  followed  the  Revolution,  great 
numbers  of  men  had  been  thrown  out  of  work.  The  govern- 
ment now  organized  these  men  in  Paris,  as  they  applied,  into 
a  "workshop  army,"  in  brigades,  companies,  and  squads, — 
paying  full  wages  to  all  it  could  employ  and  a  three-fourths 
wage  to  those  obliged  to  remain  idle. 

Over  one  hundred  thousand  men,  many  of  them  from  other 
cities,  were  soon  enrolled  in  this  way ;  but,  except  for  a  little 
work  on  the  streets,  the  Government  had  no  employment  ready 
for  such  a  number.  The  majority  of  the  Government,  too,  suc- 
ceeded in  placing  the  management  in  the  hands  of  a  personal 

1  A  number  of  these  decrees  are  given  by  Anderson. 


558  THE   REVOLUTION   OK    1848  [§  695 

enemy  of  Blanc's,  and  it  seems  to  have  been  their  intention 
that  the  experiment  should  fail,  so  as  to  discredit  Blanc  with 
the  populace.  The  experiment  was  not  in  any  sense  a  fair  trial 
of  the  socialistic  idea.  It  was  a  police  provision  and  a  tem- 
porary poor-law.  It  preserved  order  and  distributed  alms,  but 
it  also  gave  a  formidable  organization  to  a  terrible  force  with 
which  the  new  Republic  would  soon  have  to  reckon. 

695.  A  new  "  Constituent  Assembly,"  elected  by  manhood 
suffrage,  met  May  4.  The  Revolution,  like  that  of  1830,  had 
been  confined  to  Paris.  The  rest  of  France  had  not  cared  to 
interfere  in  behalf  of  Louis  Philippe,  but  it  felt  no  enthusiasm 
for  a  republic  and  it  abhorred  the  "Reds"  and  the  Socialists. 
This,  too,  was  the  temper  of  the  Assembly.  It  accepted  the 
revolution,  but  it  was  bent  upon  putting  down  the  Radicals. 
V  As  soon  as  this  became  evident,  the  mob  rose  once  more 
(May  15),  and  burst  into  the  legislative  hall,  holding  possession 
for  three  turbulent  hours.  At  last",  however,  some  middle- 
class  battalions  of  the  National  (Juard  arrived,  under  Lamar- 
tine,  to  save  the  Assembly. 

696.  The  rescued  Assembly  promptly  followed  up  its  victory. 
After  making  military  preparations,  it  abolished  the  workshop 
army.     A  conservative  French  statesman  has  styled  this  "a 
brutal,  unjust,  blundering  end  to  a  foolish  experiment."     The 
men   of   the  national  workshops   rose.     They  comprised  the 
great  body  of  the  working  men  of  Paris,  and  they  were  aided 
by  the   semi-military   organization  of   the  "workshop  army." 
The  conflict  raged  for  four  days, — the  most  terrible  struggle 
that  even  turbulent  Paris  had  ever  witnessed.     Twenty  thou- 
sand men  perished ;  but  in  the  outcome,  the  superior  discipline 
and  equipment  of  the  Assembly's  troops  crushed  the  Socialists 
for  another  generation.     Then  eleven  thousand  prisoners  were 
slaughtered  in  cold  blood,  or  transported  for  life. 

697.  The  Assembly  now  turned  to  its  work  of  making  a  consti- 
tution.    The  document1  was  made  public  in  November.     It  was 

iThe  document  is  given  in  Anderson's  Constitutions  and  Documents. 


§  697]  IN   FRANCE  559 

not  submitted  to  a  popular  vote.  It  provided  for  a  legislature 
of  one  house,  and  for  a  four-year  president,  both  to  be  chosen 
by  manhood  suffrage.  A  month  later  (December  10)  Louis 
Napoleon,  a  nephew  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  was  elected  the 
first  president  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 

Napoleon's  political  capital  was  his  name.  A  group  of  bril- 
liant writers  had  created  a  "  Napoleonic  legend/7  representing 
the  rule  of  the  First  Napoleon  as  a  period  of  glory  and  pros- 
perity for  France,  broken  only  by  wars  forced  upon  Napoleon 
by  the  jealousy  of  other  rulers.  These  ideas  had  become  a 
blind  faith  for  great  masses  in  France.  Louis  Napoleon  had 
long  believed  that  he  was  destined  to  revive  the  rule  of  his 
family.  Twice  in  the  early  years  of  Louis  Philippe's  reign  he 
had  tried  to  stir  up  a  Napoleonic  revolution,  only  to  become  a 
laughing  stock  to  Europe.,  But  now  to  the  peasantry  and  the 
middle  class,  alarmed  by  the  specter  of  Socialism,  Napoleon's 
name  seemed  the  symbol  "of  order  and  peace.  '  He  received  over 
five  and  a  half  million  votes,  to  about  one  and  a  half  million 
for  the  next  highest  candidate. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. —  Hazen  (see  page  511  of  this  volume), 
114-194.  (Andrews'  Modern  Europe  and  Seignobos'  Europe  since  1814 
remain  good ;  but  duplicate  copies  of  Hazen  will  be  better  for  high 
schools  than  a  multiplicity  of  references.)  On  early  French  Socialists, 
Robinson  and  Beard's  Headings,  II.  78-80.  On  the  national  workshops 
of  1848,  ib.,  80-84. 


CHAPTER    XL VI 

THE   SECOND   FRENCH    EMPIRE,    1852  1870 

698.  Preparation  :  Napoleon  and  the  Assembly  at  Loggerheads.— 
Louis  Napoleon  had  repeatedly  pledged  his  faith  to  the  con- 

J  stitution,  but  he  plotted  from  the  first  to  overthrow  it.  The 
Assembly  gave  him  opportunity.  In  1849  it  passed  a  reac- 
tionary law  which  disfranchised  a  large  part  of  the  working- 
men  of  the  cities. 

After  the  law  had  been  passed,  Napoleon  criticised  it  vehe- 

>  mently,  and  so  appeared  to  the  workingmen  as  their  chain pion. 
At  the  same  time,  the  discontent  of  the  artisans  made  the  middle 

*"  class  fear  a  revolution ;  and  that  class  turned  to  Napoleon  as 
the  sole  hope  for  order.  Thus  the  chief  t'l<>mfnts  in  the  state 
dreaded  the  approaching  close  of  Napoleon's  presidency. 

The  constitution  forbade  a  reelection ;  and  an  attempt  to 
amend  this  clause  was  defeated  in  the  Assembly.  Thus  that 
body  had  now  seriously  offended  both  the  artisan  class  and  the 

-s  middle  class;  and  Napoleon  could  overthrow  it  with  impunity. 

699.  The   Coup  d'Etat.  —  In    semi-royal  progresses  through 
France,  Napoleon  had  been  preparing  the  nation  for  his  blow. 

^\He  found  fault  with  the  Assembly  freely,  and  his  speeches  were 
filled  with  references  to  the  "  glory "  of  the  former  French 
Empire,  and  to  the  benefits  conferred  upon  France  by  "my 
great  uncle."  All  important  offices  in  the  army  and  in  the 
government  were  put  into  the  hands  of  his  tools  and  his  trusted 
friends;  and  on  December  2,  1851,  he  carried  out  the  most 

""striking  coup  d'etat  in  all  French  history. 

During  the  preceding  night,  some  eighty  men  whose  oppo- 
sition was  especially  feared  —  journalists,  generals,  and  leaders 
in  the  Assembly  —  were  privately  arrested  and  imprisoned; 

660 


§700]  LOUIS   NAPOLEON'S   COUP   D'ETAT  561 

and  all  the  printing  offices  in  the  city  were  seized  by  Napo- 
leon's troops.  In  the  morning  the  amazed  people  found  the 
city  posted  with  startling  placards.  These  announced  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Assembly,  proposed  a  new  government  with 
Napoleon  at  its  head,  and  promised  an  appeal  to  the  nation  for 
ratification. 

The  Assembly  was  dispersed  by  soldiers,  and  most  of  the 
members  were  imprisoned.  During  the  next  few  days  a  few 
Radicals  began  to  raise  barricades  here  and  there  in  the  streets, 
but  these  were  carried  by  the  soldiers  with  pitiless  slaughter, 
and  the  conflict  was  made  an  excuse  for  a  "reign  of  terror." 
'Batches  of  prisoners,  taken  at  the  barricades,  were  shot  down 
after  surrender.  The  radical  districts  of  France  were  put 
under  martial  law.  And  thousands  of  men  were  transported  to 
penal  settlements,  virtually  without  trial. 

Under  these  conditions,  a  few  days  later,  the  country  was 
invited  to  vote  Yes  or  No  upon  a  new  constitution  making 
Napoleon  President  for  Ten  Years  with  dictatorial  power. 
France  "  ratified  "  this  proposal  by  a  vote  of  seven  and  a  half 
million  out  of  eight  million.  In  November  of  the  next  year, 
a  still  more  nearly  unanimous  vote  sanctioned  a  second  step 
in  the  usurpation,  and  made  the  daring  adventurer  Emperor  of 
the  French,  under  the  title  Napoleon  III.  (The  Bonapartists 
counted  the  son  of  Napoleon  I  as  Napoleon  II,  though  he 
never  reigned.) 

The  unanimity  in  the  vote  was  due  partly  to  shameless  interference  at 
the  polls.  The  army  was  voted  first,  for  an  example  ;  and  in  many  places 
the  rural  population  was  marched  to  the  polls,  under  military  authority. 
Such  measures,  however,  were  not  necessary  to  secure  a  large  majority. 
Apart  from  them,  France  threw  itself  into  Napoleon's  arms,  except  for 
a  small  body  of  Liberals  and  Socialists. 

700.  The  "  Second  Empire "  was  modeled  closely  upon  that  of 
Napoleon  I.  The  people  elected  a  Legislative  Chamber  (a 
greater  popular  power  than  existed  under  the  First  Empire) ; 
but  the  emperor  appointed  a  Senate  and  a  Council  of  State, 
while  for  some  years  he  kept  in  his  hands  the  sole  right  to  in- 


562 


THE   SECOND   FRENCH   EMPIRE 


[§701 


troduce  laws.     Moreover,  of  his  own  will,  he  filled  all  offices, 
made  treaties,  and  declared  war. 

Napoleon's  methods  had  been  those  of  a  dastardly  conspira- 
tor, and  his  rule  ignored  real  political  liberty ;  but  he  desired 
to  benefit   France,  and  he  honestly  regarded  himself   as  "  a 
democratic  chief."     His  government,  he  insisted,  rested  upon 
/  manhood  suffrage  in  elections  and  plebiscites.     The  Restora- 
tion (1815-1830),  he  said,  was  the  government  of   the  great 
landowners ;  the  Orleans  Monarchy  was  the  government  of  the 
middle  class ;  the  Empire  was  the  government  of  the  people. 

701.  During  the  first  years  of  the  Empire,  however,  political 
life  was  suspended.  The  gnvernnuMit  presented  for  every  elec- 
tive position  an  "  official  can- N 
didate,"  for  whom  the  way 
was  made  easy.  Opposing 
candidates  could  not  hold 
public  meetings,  nor  hire 
the  distribution  of  circulars. 
They  were  seriously  ham- 
pered even  in  the  use  of  the 
mails,  and  their  placards  were* 
torn  down  by  the  police,  or 
industriously  covered  by  the 
official  bill-poster  for  the  gov- 
ernment candidate.  More- 
over, the  ballot  boxes  were 
supervised  by  the  police,  aud,^ 
no  doubt,  were  sometimes 
"stuffed."  Napoleon  subsi- 
dized a  large  number  of 

newspapers,  and  suppressed  all  that  were  unfavorable  to  him. 
Personal  liberty  was  wholly  at  the  mercy  of  the  government^ 
The  servants  of  prominent  men  were  likely  to  be  the  paid  spies>> 
of  the  police.     Under  the  "  Law  of  Public  Security "  (1858), 
Napoleon  could  legally  send  "  suspects,"  icithqy£&ial,  to  linger 
through  a  slow  death  in  tropical  penal  colonies,  as  he  had  been 


"FRANCE  is  TRANQUIL"  (a  favorite 
phrase  with  Napoleon  III). —  A  car- 
toon from  Harper's  Magazine. 


703] 


NAPOLEON  THE    LITTLE 


WARS 


563 


doing  illegally  before.  Many  thousands  are  said  to  have  per- 
ished in  this  way.  Upon  the  passage  of -this  law,  an  order  was 
sent  to  each  prefect  to  arrest  a  fixed  number  of  men  in  his  de- 
partment, using  his  own  choice  in  selecting  them.  The  total  ar- 
rests under  this  order  exceeded  two  thousand.  The  purpose 
was  merely  to  intimidate 
the  nation. 

/fSoon  afterward,  how- 
ever, Napoleon's  govern- 
ment grew  more  liberal, 
and  during  the  last  ten 
years  of  his  rule  (1860- 
1870),  there  was  complete 
freedom  of  debate  in  the 
legislature. 

\  702.  In  partial  recom- 
pense for  loss  of  liberty, 
too,  the  Empire  gave  to 
France  great*  material  and 
economic  progress.  Indils- 
try  was  encouraged.  Paris 
and  other  leading  cities 
were  rebuilt  upon  a  more 
magnificent  scale.  A$y- 
luins  and  hospitals  were 
founded ;  schools  were  en- 
couraged, and  school  libraries  were  established.  And  a  system 
of  vast  public  works  throughout  the  Empire  afforded  employ- 
ment to  the  working  classes.  France  secured  her  full  share  of 
the  increase  of  wealth  and  comfort  that  caine  to  the  world  so 
rapidly  during  these  years. 

703.  Foreign  Wars  to  1860.  —  In  1852  Napoleon  had  declared 
"  The  Empire  is  Peace "  ;  but  he  found  himself  irresistibly 
impelled  to  war,  in  order  to  keep  the  favor  of  the  army  and 
of  the  populace  by  reviving  the  glories  of  the  First  Empire. 
His  foreign  policy  soon  became  aggressive ;  and  the  first  eight 


NAPOLEON  III. 


J 


564  %          THE   SECOND   FRENCH   EMPIRE  [§704 

'years  of  his  reign  saw  a  series  of  victories  that  dazzled  France. 

For  forty  years,  —  ever  since  the  fall  of  Napoleon  I,  —  Europe 
'Tiad  been  free  from  great  wars.    Napoleon  III  rei  ntroduced  them. 

The  two  most  important  wars  of  this  period  were  the  Crimean 

(1854-1856)  and  the  Italian  11859). 

a.  France  had  a  trivial  quarrel  with  Russia  over  the  guar- 
dianship of  Christian  pilgrims  at  Jerusalem.     England  was  hos- 
tile to  Russia,  fearing  lest  that  Power  should  force  itself  to  the 
Mediterranean  and  endanger  England's  route  to  India.    Sfeussia 
and  Turkey  were  at  war  in  the  Black  Sea.     Through  Napoleon's 
intrigues/ France  and  England  joined  Turkey.     The  struggle 
was  waged  mainly  in  Crimea,  and  took  its  name  from  that  pen- 
insula. /Russia  was  defeated,  but  no  permanent  results  of  im- 
portance were  achieved.     However,  at  the  close  of  the  contest, 
Napoleon  gathered  representatives  of  all  the  leading  Powers  at 
the'  Congress  of  Paris,  to  make  peace,  and  France  seemed  again 
to  have  become  the  leader  in  European  politics. 

b.  In  1859  Napoleon  joined  the  Kingdom  of  Sardinia  in  a 
war  against  Austria  to  free  Italy.     He  won  striking  victories 
at  Magenta  and  Solferino,  near  the  scene  of  the  early  triumphs 
of  the  First  Napoleon  over  the  same  foe;  and  then  he  minlr 
unexpected  peace,  to  the  dismay  and  wrath  of  the  half-freed 
Italians.     For  his  pay,  Napoleon  received  from  Italy  the  prov- 
inces of  Nice  and  Savoy,  and  so  recovered  for  France  some  of 
the  territory  which  his  uncle  had  lost. 

704.  But  the  second  half  of  Napoleon's  rule  was  a  series  of 
humiliations  and  blunders  in  foreign  affairs. 

Napoleon  favored  the  Southern  Confederacy  in  the  American 
Civil  War,  and  repeatedly  urged  England  to  unite  with  him  in 
acknowledging  it  as  an  independent  state.  Thus  he  incurred 
the  hostility  of  the  United  States. 

^  Then  in  1863  he  entered  upon  a  disastrous  scheme  in  Mexico. 
That  country  had  repudiated  its  debts.  Several  European 
governments  had  sent  fleets  to  its  ports  to  compel  payment  to 
their  citizens ;  but  soon  it  became  plain  that  Napoleon  meant 
much  more  than  the  mere  collection  of  debts.  Thereupon,  the 


§  704]  NAPOLEON   AND   MEXICO  565 

other  governments  withdrew  from  the  enterprise.     Napoleon*' 
then  sent  a  large  army  to  overthrow  the  Mexican  Republic  and 
to  set  up  as  "  Emperor  of  Mexico  "  his  protege,  Maximilian/ 
an  Austrian  prince,  brother  of  Emperor  Franz  Joseph. 

Napoleon  expected  (1)  to  secure  a  larger  share  of  the  Mexican* 
trade  for  France  ~(2)  to  increase  the  prestige  of  France  as  ar- 
biter in  the  destinies  of  nations  ;  andV  (3)  to  forward  a  union  of 
the  Latin  peoples  of  Europe  and  America,  under  French  leader- 
ship, against  the  Teutonic  states.  /His  act  was  a  defiance  of 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  of  the  United  States ;  but  his  purpose 
seemed  triumphant  until  the  close  of  the  American  Civil  War. 
Then  the  government  of  the  United  States  demanded  the 
withdrawal  of  the  Fryench  troops  from  Mexico.4  Napoleon  was 
obliged  to  comply.  Soon  afterwards  Maximilian  was  over- 
thrown by  the  Mexicans,  and  captured  and  shot. 

-Much  more  serious  still  were  a  number  of  checks  in  Napo- 
leon's attempts  on  the  Ehine  frontier.  These  brought  about  his 
fall  in  1870.  That  story  will  be  told  after  we  have  studied  the 
rise  of  Germany. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  See  comment  on  pp.  511,  559,  as  to  books. 
Multiple  copies  of  Hazen's  Europe  Since  1815  (194-300)  make  the  most 
desirable  library  work  for  high-school  students,  though  Andrews  and 
Seignobos  are  also  good. 

On  the  Coup  d'Etat,  Eobinson  and  Beard's  Readings,  II,  88-94. 


CHAPTER   XLVII 

CENTRAL  EUROPE  IN    48 

705.  The  year  1848  was  "  the  year  of  revolutions."     In  central 
Europe  Metternich's  system  had  lasted  until  that  time.      For 
long,  however,  the  forces  of  revolution  had   been  gathering 
strength  for  a  general  upheaval.     Metternich,  now  an  old  man, 
saw  this.     In  January  he   wrote  to  a  friend,  "The  world  is 
very  sick.     The  one  thing  certain  is  that  tremendous  changes 
are  coming."     A  month  later,  the  February  rising  in  Paris 
gave  the  signal  for  March  risings  in  other  lands.     Metternich 
fled  from  Vienna   in   a  laundry   cart;   and   thrones   tottered 
all  over  Europe  —  except  in  stable  free  England  on  the  west, 
and  in  stable  despotic  Russia  and  Turkey  on  the  east. 

Within  a  few  days,  in  Holland,  Spain,  Denmark,  and  Sweden, 
to  save  their  crowns  the  kings  granted  new  constitutions  and 
many  liberties.  In  every  one  of  the  German  states,  large  or 
small,  the  rulers  did  the  like.  So,  too,  in  Italy  in  the  leading 
states,  —  Sardinia,  Tuscany,  Rome,  and  Naples.  In  all  these 
countries  the  administration  passed  for  a  time  to  the  hands 
of  liberal  ministries  pledged  to  reform.  Everywhere,  too,  the 
remains  of  feudal  privilege  were  finally  abolished. 

Outside  France  (§§  691-697),  the  chief  interest  centers  (1)  in 
the  Austrian  empire,  the  storm-center;  (2)  in  Germany,  which 
Austria  had  so  long  dominated;  and  (3)  in  Italy,  much  of 
which  was  subject  to  Austria. 

I.    THE   REVOLUTION   IN   THE   AUSTRIAN  EMPIRE 

706.  Liberalism  triumphs  in  Vienna.  —  March  13,  two  weeks 
after  the  French  .rising,   the  students  of  the   University  of 
Vienna  and  the  populace  of  the  city  rose  in  street  riots,  to  the 

566 


§708]  IN   THE   AUSTRIAN   EMPIRE  567 

J 

cry,  "Down  with  Metternich."  After  his  escape,  the  crowds 
about  the  emperor's  palace  began  to  call  for  a  constitution,  with 
freedom  of  speech  and  with  an  elected  legislature.  The  em- 
peror promised  these  and  other  reforms,  and  appointed  a  liberal 
ministry  to  put  them  in  operation. 

707.  Nationalism  (§  632)  in  Hungary  and  Bohemia.  —  But  the 
Austrian  empire  was  a  vast  conglomerate.     It  included  many 
peoples  and  several  distinct  states.     Two  subject  states  in  par- 
ticular now  demanded  self-government.     These  were  Bohemia 
and  Hungary.     The  Austrians  proper  were  Germans/    They 
made  the  bulk  of  the  inhabitants  in  the  old  duchy  of  Austria, 
and  they  were  the  ruling  class  elsewhere  in  the  empire,  compris- 
ing, too,  a  portion  of  the  population  everywhere.     Still  they 
made   up   less   than    one-fourth   of    all   the   inhabitants.     In 
Bohemia  the  bulk  of  the  inhabitants   were  the   native  Slavs 
(Czechs);  and  in  the  Hungarian  half  of  the  empire,  the  Hun- 
garians (§  201)  were  the  dominant  people.     Hungary  itself, 
however,  was  also  a  conglomerate  state.     In  many  of  its  border 
districts  (map  opposite),  the  Slav  peoples  (Croats,  Serbs,  Sla^ 
vonians)  made  the  larger  part  of  the  population. 

In  Bohemia  and  Hungary  the  March  risings  were  not 
merely  for  liberalism,  as  in  German  Austria.  They  were  also 
for  a  recognition  of  Bohemian  and  Hungarian  nationalitji 
These  peoples,  however,  did  not  yet  demand  complete  inde- 
pendence. So  the  emperor  skillfully  conciliated  both  states  by 
granting  constitutional  governments  with  a  large  measure  of 
home-rule  and  the  official  use  of  their  own  languages  (instead 
of  German).  Then  he  used  the  time  so  gained  to  crush  similar 
national  movements  in  Italy  (III,  below). 

708.  The  Reaction.  —  In  all  this,  the  government  had  yielded 
only  to  a  momentary  necessity.     It  was  bent  on  restoring  old 
conditions..    In  this  despotic  purpose,  it  had  an  ally  in  race 
jealousy.     The  German  Liberals  dreaded  Slav  rule,  especially  in 
Bohemia,  where  many  Germans  lived.    'Soon  disturbances  be- 
tween the  two  races  there  gave  the  emperor  excuse  to  interfere 
with  the  army.     The  arrny  was  now  ready,  —  as  it  was  not  in 


568  THE   REVOLUTIONS   <>F    1848  [§709 

March, —  and,  in  July,  the  emperor  replaced  the  constitution  lie 
had  just  given  to  Bohemia  by  military  rule.  Then,  alarmed  at 
the  signs  of  reaction,  the  Radicals  rose  again  in  Vienna,  and 
got  possession  of  the  city  (October) ;  but  the  triumphant  army, 
recalled  now  from  Bohemia,  captured  the  city  after  a  savage 
bombardment. 

The  old  emperor  (Ferdinand)  was  embarrassed  somewhat  by 
his  recent  solemn  promises  to  the  Liberals  and  to  the  subject 
.peoples.  But  now  he  abdicated  in  favor  of  his  nephew,  the 
v  shrewd  Francis  Joseph.  This  new  ruler  pled  that  he  had 
never  consented  to  any  weakening  of  his  absolute  powers, 
and  at  once  restored  absolutism  both  in  Bohemia  and  in  the 
central  government  of  the  empire. 

709.  Hungary   remained   to   be   dealt  with.     Here,  too,  race 
jealousies   played  into   the   hands  of   despotism.     The  Slavs 
wanted  independence  from  the  Hungarians  ;  and  if  they  had  to 
be  subject  at  all,  they  preferred   German  rule  from   distant 
Vienna  rather  than  Hungarian  rule  from  Budapest.     The  Hun- 
garians had  just  crushed  a  rising  of  the  Croats  for  independence. 
When  the  new  emperor  came  to  the  throne,  the  Croats  rose 
again,  this  time  with  !  mix- rial  aid.  /Accordingly,  the  Hungarians 
refused  to  acknowledge  Francis  Joseph  as  emprmr.     Instead 
they  declared  Hungary  a   republic,   chose  the  hero   Kossuth 
president,  and  waged  a  gallant  war  for  full  independence.     For 
a  time  they  seemed  successful;  but  the  Tsar,  in  accordance 
with  the  compact  between  the  monarchs  of  the  Holy  Alliance 

/(§  640),  sent  a  Russian  army  of  150,000  men  to  aid  Austria, 
/and  Hungary  was  crushed  (April- August,  1849). 

It  remained  only  for  Austria  to  reestablish  her  authority  in 

Germany,  which  had  been  left  for  a  time  to  Prussia  and  the 

German  Liberals  (II,  below). 

II.    IN   GERMANY 

710.  Prussia.  —  In   Berlin,  from   March    13   to   March  18, 
excited  crowds  thronged  the  streets.     They  made  no  attempt 


§  711]  IN   GERMANY  569 

at  serious  violence  against  the  government,  however,  until,  in 
some  way,  never  clearly  understood,  a  sharp  conflict  took 
place  with  the  troops  on  the  18th.  The  army  inflicted  terrible 
slaughter  on  the  unorganized  citizens ;  but  Frederick  William 
IV  was  neither  resolute  enough  nor  cold-hearted  enough  to 
follow  up  his  victory.  To  pacify  the  people,  he  sent  into 
temporary  exile  his  brother  William,  who  had  commanded  the 
troops  ;  and  he  took  part  in  a  procession  in  honor  of  the  slain, 
wearing  the  red,  gold,  and  black  colors  of  the  German  patriots. 
Then  he  called  a  Prussian  parliament  to  draw  up  a  constitu- 
tion. He  tried  also  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  move- 
ment for  German  national  union.  "From  this  time,"  he 
declared,  "  Prussian  interests  will  be  absorbed  in  those  of 
Germany." 

711.  Meantime,  a  real  ''people's  movement"  for  German  unity 
had  got  under  way.  Early  in  March,  prominent  German 
Liberals  gathered  at  Heidelberg  and  called  a  German  National 
Assembly,  to  be  chosen  by  manhood  suffrage,  —  arranging  the 
number  of  representatives  from  each  German  state.  May  18, 
1848,  the  National  Assembly  met  at  Frankfort.  Tliis  was  the 
first  representative  assembly  of  the  whole  German  people. 

Unhappily,  it  was  led  by  talkers  and  scholars,  not  by  states- 
men or  men  of  action.  The  members  could  not  understand  the 
necessity  of  compromise  or  of  prompt  action.  They  spent 
precious  months  in  wordy  orations  and  in  laying  down  compre- 
hensive theories  of  government.  During  May  and  June,  they 
did  organize  an  ineffective  "  provisional  government " ;  but 
meanwhile  Austria  had  crushed  Bohemia  (§  708).  The  next 
four  months  at  Frankfort  went  to  debating  a  bill  of  rights, 
while  all  chance  of  securing  any  rights  was  being  lost.  During  , 
this  time,  Austria  restored  "  order"  finally  in  Italy  (§  716)  and\ 
recovered  Vienna  from  the  Radicals.  Over  all  Germany,  too, 
the  commercial  class  was  becoming  alienated  from  the  revo- 
lution by  the  long-continued  business  panic. 

Moreover,  the  new  Prussian  parliament  at  Berlin,  which  was 
to  have  drawn  up  a  liberal  constitution,  had  provoked  Frederick 


570  THE   REVOLUTIONS  OF   1848  [§712 

William  into  dissolving  it.  To  be  sure,  the  king  himself  then 
gave  a  constitution  to  Prussia ;  but  it  was  of  a  very  conserva- 
tive character.  In  other  German  states,  too,  the  rulers  were 
overthrowing  liberal  ministries  which  had  been  set  up  after  the 
March  Days. 

These  were  the  conditions  in  October  when  the  Frankfort 
Assembly  at  last  took  up  the  making  of  a  constitution.  Two 
questions  then  divided  the  Assembly :  \1)  should  the  new  gov- 
ernment be  monarchic  or  republican ;  and  (4)  should  the  new 
nation  include  despotic  Austria  with  her  vast  non-German  pop- 
ulation. The  republicans  had  no  chance  whatever  to  succeed, 
but  they  helped  to  delay  action  on  the  more  practical  question. 
The  wrangling  went  on  through  the  winter  of  1849,  until 
Austria  finally  got  her  hands  free  elsewhere  and  announced 
that  she  would  permit  no  German  union  into  which  she  did 
not  enter  with  all  her  provinces. 

Then  the  Radicals  gave  up  the  impossible  republic,  and  the 

\  Assembly  took  the  step  it  should  have  taken  months  before. 
It  decided  for  a  union  without  Austria,  under  the  name  of 
the  German  Empire;  and  it  offered  the  imperial  crown  to 
Frederick  William  of  Prussia.  But  it  was  six  months  too 
late.  The  first  enthusiasm  among  the  people  was  gone. 
Frederick  William  was  timid  ;  he  was  influenced  by  a  sense  of 
" honor  among  kings"  so  that  he  hesitated  to  take  advantage  of 
the  Austrian  emperor's  embarrassments  with  revolted  sub- 
jects ;  and  he  felt  a  growing  aversion  to  the  movement  which, 
a  few  months  before,  he  had  called  "  the  glorious  German  rev- 
olution." After  some  hesitation,  he  declined  the  crown  "be- 
spattered with  the  blood  and  mire  of  revolution."  Then  the 
Radicals,  in  despair,  resorted  to  arms  to  set  up  a  republic. 

.  They  were  promptly  crushed,  and  the  National  Assembly  van- 
ished in  the  spring  of  1849.  Many  German  Liberals,  like 
Carl  Schurz,  fled  to  America. 

,1  712.  The  people's  attempt  to  make  a  German  nation  had 
failed. '  Next  the  princes  tried  —  with  no  better  success.  In 
the  summer  of  1849,  despite  the  protests  of  Austria  and 


§714]  IN   ITALY  571 

Bavaria,  twenty-eight  rulers  of  North  German  states  were  or-  * 
ganized  into  a  league  under  the  lead  of  the  Prussian  king. 

Several  of  the  princes,  however,  were  half-hearted,  joining   / 
only  through  fear  of  popular  risings.     Austria,  with  Hungary 
now  at  her  feet,  organized  the   South  German  states  into  a  * 
counter-league,    and    demanded    the    restoration    of    the    oldv 
Confederation.     The  Austrian  government  announced  bluntlj 
its    policy,  — "  First   humiliate    Prussia,  then   destroy   her." 
Austrian  and  Prussian  troops  met  on  the  borders  of  Bavaria. 
Shots  were  exchanged ;  but  the  Prussian  army  was  not  ready. 
The    Russian    tsar    showed    himself    ready    to    aid    Austria 
in    Germany    as    he    had    done    in    Hungary ;     and    finally 
Frederick  William  made  ignominious  submission  to  the  Aus- 
trian demands  in  a  conference  at  Olmiitz  (November,  1850JV 
Austria  restored  the  old  Confederation  of  1815. 

III.   IN   ITALY 

713.  A  Review  to  1815.  —  Italy  had  been  in  fragments  since 
the  days  of  the  Roman  Empire.     Her  people,  however,  had  not 
forgotten  that  once  she  had  ruled  the  world.      Through  the 
Middle  Ages,  enthusiastic  Italians  had   dreamed  of  national 
unity,  and  some  of  the  great  popes  had  hoped  for  a  union  of  the 
peninsula  under  papal  leadership.      No  progress  was  made, 
however,  until  about  1800.     The  proclamations  of  Napoleon  I 
in  his  Italian  campaigns,  promising  independence,  again  awoke 
hope  in  Italian  hearts,  and,  under  his  control,  some  advance 
was  made  toward  union  (§§  593,  614). 

Then,  when  the  European  coalition  was  struggling  with 
Napoleon,  in  1813  and  1814,  the  generals  of  the  Allies  appealed 
to  the  Italian  populations  with  glowing  promises.  An  English 
force  landed  at  Genoa,  with  its  flag  inscribed  "Italian  Liberty 
and  Independence";  and  Austrian  proclamations  announced: 
"  We  come  to  you  as  liberators.  Long  have  you  groaned 
beneath  oppression.  You  shall  be  an  independent  nation." 

714.  The  Congress  of  Vienna  ignored  these  promises  and  hopes. 
Even  the  Napoleonic  improvements  were  undone,  and  medieval 


572 


THE    REVOLUTIONS   OF   1848 


[§715 


conditions  were  restored.  Lombardy  and  Venetia  became 
Austrian  provinces  (§  626),  and  most  of  the  rest  of  the  pen  in  twin 
was  handed  over  to  Austrian  influence.  Bourbon  rule  was  re- 
stored in  the  south  over  the  Kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies^ 
where  the  king  pledged  himself  to  allow  no  institutions  more 
liberal  than  those  permitted  by  Austria  in  her  districts.  Dukes, 

dependent  upon  Austria, 
were  set  up  in  Tuscany, 
Modena,  and  Parma.  Be- 
tween these  duchies  and 
Naples  lay  the  restored 
Papal  States,  with  the 
government  in  close  sym- 
pathy  with  Austria.  In 
the  northwest  the  King- 
dom of  Sardinia  was  given 
back  to  its  native  line  of 
monarchs,  to  whom  the 
people  were  loyally  at- 
tached. This  was  the  one 
Italian  state  (beside  the 
pope's  territories)  where 
the  ruler  was  not  strictly 
dependent  on  Austrian 
protection.  But  even  in 
Sardinia  until  1848  the 
government  was  a  military  despotism.  "  Italy,"  said  Metternich 
complacently,  "is  a  mere  geographical  expression." 

715.  From  1815  to  1848. — The  story  of  the  Italian  revolu- 
tions of  1820  and  the  Holy  Alliance  has  been  told.  In  1830, 
after  the  July  Revolution  in  Paris,  new  revolutions  broke  out 
in  the  Papal  States  and  the  small  duchies,  but  these  move- 
ments also  were  soon  put  down  by  Austria. 

The  next  ten  years  are  famous  for  the  organization  of  "  Young 
Italy  "  by  Mazzini.  Mazzini  was  a  lawyer  of  Genoa  and  a  revo- 
lutionary enthusiast  who  was  to  play,  in  freeing  Italy,  a  part 


§716]  IN   ITALY  573 

somewhat  like  that  of  Garrison  and  Phillips  in  preparing 
for  our  American  Civil  War.  Ulis  mission  'was  to  create  a 
great  moral  enthusiasm,  j  His  words  and  writings  worked 
wonderfully  upon  the  younger  Italians  of  the  educated  classes, 
and  his  Society  of  Young  Italy  replaced  the  older  Carbonari 
(§  639).  Young  Italy  had  for  its  program  a  (united  Italian 
Republic)  The  idea  of  a  free  and  united  Italy  grew  steadily, 
until  even  some  of  the  rulers  became  imbued  with  it.  Especi- 
ally did  the  Liberals  hope  much  from  Pius  IX,  a  liberal 
Italian,  who  was  chosen  pope  in  1846,  in  opposition  to  the 
wishes  of  Austria. 

716.  Thus  when  the  revolutions  of  1848  broke  out,  Italy  was 
ready  to  strike  for  national  union  and  independence.  On  the  news 
of  Metternich's  flight,  Milan  and  Venice  drove  out  their  Austrian 
garrisons.  \  Then  Charles  Albert,  king  of  Sardinia,  gave  his 
pUple  a  constitution  and  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  movement 
to  expel  Austria  from  the  peninsula.  The  pope  and  the  rulers' 
of  Tuscany  and  Naples  promised  loyal  aid.  Venice  and  other 
small  states  in  the  north  voted  for  incorporation  into  Sardinia. 

(But  the  king  of  Naples  was  dishonest  in  his  promises; 
and  even  the  liberal  and  patriotic  pope  was  not  ready  to  break 
fully  with  Austria.  Except  for  a  few  thousand  volunteer 
soldiers,  Charles  Albert  got  no  help  from  Italy  south  of 
Lombardy ;  and,  July  15,  1848,  he  was  defeated  at  Custozza. 
Then  the  movement  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Radicals. 
Venice  and  Florence  each  set  up  a  republic  ;  and  in  February, 
1849,  the  citizens  of  Rome,  led  by  Mazzini,  drove  away  the  pope 
and  proclaimed  the  "  Roman  Republic." 

(These  republican  movements  succeeded  for  the  hour  only 
because  Austria  was  busied  in  Bohemia  and  Hungary.  But 
soon  a  strong  Austrian  army  was  sent  to  Italy.  Charles 
Albert  took  the  field  once  more,  but  was  defeated  decisively 
at  ^owmiJMarch,  1849) ;  and  Venice  was  captured  in  August 
after  gallant  resistance.  Louis  Napoleon  restored  the  pope  to 
his  Roman  principality,  and  left  a  French  garrison  there  for 
his  protection  during  the  next  twenty  years,  to  1870. 


574  THE   REVOLUTIONS   OF   1848  [§717 

717.  Summary. — TJ^gj^estoration  seemed  complete  in  Europe. 
The  Revolution  closed  in  Italy  with  Novara  (March,  1849),  in 
Hungary  with  the  fall  of  the  R,epublic__(Jiily,  1849),  and  in 
Germany  with  the  "  humiliation  of  Olmtttz  "  (December,  1850). 
A  year  later  it  closed  in  France  with  Napoleon's  coup  d'ttut. 

Still,  feudalism  was  finally,  gojie,  even  from  the  Austrian 
realms ;  and  in  both  Italy  and  Prussia,  as  we  shall  see,  there 
had  been  gains  which,  in  the  next  twenty  years,  in  a  period 
of  "blood  and  iron,"-Trere"~to  give  rise  to  a  new  Kingdom  of 
Italy  and  a  newTjerman  Empire. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Hazen's  Europe  Since  1815,  152-186.  An- 
drews, Seignobos,  and  Phillips,  as  before.  Murdock's  Rffumttrni'tion  of 
Europe  has  a  clear  account.  Headlam's  Germany,  1815-1819,  and  Hen- 
derson's Short  History  of  Germany  are  excellent. 


CHAPTER   XLVIII 

THE  MAKING   OP   ITALY 

718.  The  making  of  Italy  really  began  in  '48.     In  1820-1821 
the  extremities  of  the  peninsula  had  been  convulsed  by  revo- 
lution ;  in  1830,  the  middle  states ;  in  1848,  there  was  no  foot 
of  Italian  ground  not  shaken,  and  this  time  the  revolutionists 
sought  union  as  ardently  as  freedom.     The  movement  failed ; 

Sit  revealed  the  fact  that  "  United  Italy,"  once  a  dream 
cattered  enthusiasts,  was  at  last  a  passionate  faith  in  the 
hearts  of  a  whole  people.     Moreover,  it  showed  one  state  will- 
ing to  risk  annihilation  to  carry  on  the  work.     From  this  time, 
the  making  of  Italy  is  the  history  of  Piedmont  (§  639). 

719.  Victor  Emmanuel.  —  The    night    after    the    defeat   of 
Novara  (§  716),  Charles  Albert  abdicated,  and  his  son,  Victor 
Emmanuel  II,  became  king  of    Sardinia.     The  young  prince 
was  an  intense  patriot.     A  popular   story   tells   how,   as   he 
rallied  his  shattered  regiment  at  the  close  of  the  fatal  day  of 
Novara  and  withdrew  sullenly  from  the  bloody  field,  he  shook 
his  clenched  fist  at  the  Austrian  ranks  with  the  vow,  "  By  the 
Almighty,  my  Italy  yet  shall  be  !  " 

The  new  king  was  at  once  called  upon  to  stand  a  sharp  test'. 
Victorious  Austria  insisted  that  he  should   abolish   the  new   / 
constitution  (§  716).      In  return,  Austria  offered  easy  terms 
of  peace,  and  promised  military  support  against  any  revolt. 
At  the  same  time  the  obstinate  and  inexperienced  Sardinian 
parliament  was  embarrassing  the  king  by  foolish  opposition.  / 
J$ut  Victor  Emmanuel  nobly  refused  the  Austrian  bribe,  de- * 
claring  that  he  would  rather  lose  his  crown.     In  consequence, 
he  had  to  submit  to  severe  terms.     But  a  frank  appeal  to  his 

575 


576  THE   MAKING   OF  ITALY  [§720 

people  gave  him  a  new  loyal  parliament,  which  ratified  the 
peace,  and  his  conduct  won  him  the  title  of  "the  Honest 
King." 

720.  Austria,  which  Sardinia  wished  to  expel  from  Italy, 
had  jJ7,OOOJH&J2ejo]3le.  Sardinia  was  poor  and  had  only 
5,000,000  people.  For  several  years,  the  king  and  his  great 
minister.  Cavour.  bent  all  energies  to  strengthening  Sardinia  for  an- 
other struggle  and  to  securing  jdlifis-ouTsT3e  Italy.  Victor  Em- 
manuel was  essentially  a  soldier.  Cavow^uia^  the  statesman 
whose  brain  was  to  guide  the  making  of^Italy.  The  king's  part 
was  loyally  and  steadily  to  "support  him.  Exiles  and  fugitive 
Liberals  from  other  Italian  states  were  welcomed  at  the 
Sardinian  court  and  were  often  given  high  office  there,  so  that 
the  government  seemed  to  belong  to  the  whole  ]n-nfnxnitt.  Cavour 
carried  through  the  parliament .jqany  economic,  milifatry.^iH 
jiocial  reforms.  £nd,  in  1854,  he  sent  a  small  but  excelwit 
Sardinian  army  to  assist  the  allies  against  Russia  in  the 
Crimean  War  (§  703  y  Mazzini  called  this  action  a  monstrous 
moral  degradation  ^  and  many  other  Liberals  condemned  it 
bitterly.  The  action  may  easily  be  called  immoral ;  but  it  is 
well  to  see  Cavour's  two  reasons  for  it, 

a/  The  Crimean  War,  unnecessary  as  it  was,  was,  after  all, 
in  a  way  a  defiance  of  despotic  Russia  by  ^piore  liberal  France 
and  England.1  Italy  had  reason  to  join  in  this  feeling  toward 
Russia :  /he  Tsar  had  been  strongly  opposed  to  the  liberal 
movements  of  1848;  >e  had  helped  crush  Hungary,  virtually 
an  ally  of  Sardinia  in  the  war  of  that  period;  and  he  had 
declined  to  recognize  the  accession  of  Victor  Emmanuel. 

6."  Cavour  wished  to  show  that  Sardinia  was  a  military 
power,  and  to  secure  for  her  a  place  in  the  councils  of  Europe, 
so  as  to  obtain  intjejci£ntion  for  Ital^L  against  Austria.  This 
second  reason,  of  course,  was  the  deeper  motive.  Said  an  Italian 
officer  to  soldiers  digging  in  the  trenches  before  Sebastopol, 
"  Of  this  mud  our  Italy  is  to  be  made." 

1This  explains  the  tone  of  Tennyson's  Maud,  toward  it. 


§722] 


WAR   WITH   AUSTRIA,    1859 


577 


721.  At  the  Congress  of  Paris,  in  1856,  Cavour's  policy  bore 
fruit.     Cavour  sat  there  on  full  equality  with  the  representatives 
of  the  Great  Powers  ;  and,  despite  Austria's  protests,  he  secured 
attention  for  an  eloquent  and  convincing  statement  of  the  needs 
of  Italy  and  of  her  claim  upon  Europe,  jxtfpon  all  minds  he 
impressed  forcefully  that  Italian  unrest  could  never  cease  so  long 
as  Austria  remained  in  the 

peninsula.  -x 

722.  First   Step   in   the 
Growth    of    Sardinia    into 
Italy.  —  Three  years  later 
this     patient     diplomatic 
game    was    won.      As    a 
young  man,  in  exile  from 
France,   Louis    Napoleon 
had  been  involved  in  the 
plots  of  the  Carbonari  for 
Italian  freedom.     Cavour 
now  drew  him  into  a  se4 
cret  alliance.      In  return 
for  a  pledge  of  Nice  and 
Savoy,    which    had    once 
been  French  (§  626),  and 
for  a  marriage   alliance,1 
Napoleon     promised      to 
come  t to  the  aid  of   Sar- 
dinian/ Cavour  could  provoke  Austria  into  beginning  a  war) 

Cavour  then  inveigled  Austria  into  the  attack.  Napoleon  at 
once  entered  Italy,  declaring  his  purpose  to  free  it  "  from  the 
Alps  to  the  Adriatic."  His  victories  of  Magenta  and  Solferinoj 
(§  703)  drove  Austria  forever  out  of  Lombardy,  which  was 
promptly  incorporated  into  Sardinia.  This  was  the  first  step  in 
the  expansion  of  Sardinia  into  Italy\  The  population  of  the 
growing  state  had  risen  at  a  stroke  from  five  millions  to  eight. 

1  Victor  Emmanuel  was  persuaded  to  sacrifice  his  young  daughter  by  giving 
her  in  marriage  to  the  dissolute  Prince  Napoleon,  a  relative  of  Louis  Napoleon. 


CAVOUR. 


§725]  GARIBALDI  ADDS   SOUTH   ITALY  579 

723.  Venetia  remained  in  Austria's  hands,  but  Napoleon  sud- 
denly made  peace^The  Italians  felt  that  they  had  been  be- 
trayed by  "  the  infamous  treaty  " ; *  and  probably  they  were 
right.     Napoleon  had  no  wish  that  Italy  should  be  one  strong, 
consolidated  nation ;    and  he  began  to  see  that  a  free  Italy 
would  be  a  united  Italy, 

724.  Annexation  of  the  Duchies.  —  It  soon  became  apparent 
that  more  had  already  been  accomplished  than  the  mere  free- 
ing of  Lonibardy.     At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  the  peoples 
of  the  duchies  (Parma,  Modena,  and  Tuscany)  had  driven  out 
their  dukes  (dep~endants  of  Austria)  and  had  set  up  provisional 
governments.     At  the  peace,  Napoleon  had  promised  Austria 
that  the  dukes  should  be  restored.     He  had  stipulated,  how- 
ever, that  Austria  should  riot  use  force  against  the  duchies ; 
and  the  people  now  insisted  upon  incorporation  with  Sardinia. 

For  eight  months  this  situation  continued,  while  Cavour 
played  a  second  delicate  diplomatic  game  with  Napoleon. 
Only  a  foreign  army  could  again  place  the  dukes  upon  their 
thrones,  and  Cavour  finally  persuaded  Napoleon  to  leave  the 
matter  to  a  plebiscite,  his  favorite  device  in  France.  In 
March,  1860,  the  three  duchies  by  almost  unanimous  votes2 
declared  again  for  annexation.  Tliis  was  the  second  step  in  ex- 
pansion. Sardinia  was  enlarged  once  more  by  one-third,  and 
had  now  become  a  state  of  eleven  million  people,  comprising 
all  Italy  north  of  the  papal  districts,  except  Venetia. 

725.  The  next  advance  was  due  in  its  beginning  to  Garibaldi 
(a  gallant  republican  soldier  in  the  Revolution  of  1848),  who 
had  now  given  his  allegiance  loyally  to  Victor   Emmanuel,    j 
In  May,  1860,  Garibaldi  sailed  from  Genoa  with  a  thousand    ' 
red-shirted  fellow-adventurers,  to  arouse  rebellion  in  Sicily. 
Cavour  thought  it  needful  to  make  a  show  of  trying  to  stop! 
the  expedition.     When  it  was  safely  under  way,  he  expressed 

!Read  James  Russell  Lowell's  Villafranca,  to  get  an  idea  of  the  wrath  of 
freedom-loving  men  at  Napoleon's  betrayal. 

2  In  Tuscany  the  vote  stood  366,571  to  14,925;  and  this  was  the  largest 
adverse  vote. 


580 


THE   MAKING   OF   ITALY 


[§726 


his  "regret"  in  a  note  to  the  Powers  of  Europe.  And  he 
had  sent  a  message  to  the  Sardinian  Admiral,  —  "  Try  to  place 
your  fleet  between  Garibaldi  and  the  Neapolitan  cruisers.  / 
hope  you  understand  me"  (The  admiral  "understood"  very 
well  that  he  was  to  protect,  not  hinder,  the  expedition1.  Gari- 
baldi landed  safely  in  Sicily  and  won  tUe  island  almost  without 
bloodshed.  Crossing  to  the  mainland  he  easily  occupied 
Naples  also,  while  the  Bourbon  king  fled.  Obeying  a  popular 
demand,  Garibaldi  proclaimed  Victor  Emmanuel  "  King  of 
Italy:' 

He  then  planned  to  seize  Rome  from  its  French  garrison. 
Such  a  move  would  have  brought  on  intervention  from  both 
Austria  and  France,  and  would  have  put  at  hazard  all  that 

^___ had  been  gained.     Cavour 

made  prompt  decision. 
Victor  Emmanuel  with 
the  Sardinian  army  moved 
south  to  take  up  the  war  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Naples, 
and  to  check  Garibaldi's 
mad  march.  Rome  and 
the  surrounding  territory 
was  left  to  the  pope ;  but 
the  Marches  and  Umbria 
(the  eastern  part  of  the 
Papal  States)  were  al- 
lowed, with  the  Kingdom 
of  Naples,  to  vote  on  tin- 
question  of  annexation 
to  Sardinia.  The  vote 
was  even  more  nearly 
unanimous  than  that  in 
the  duchies  had  been. 
726.  These  additions  made  the  third  step  in  the  expansion 
of  "  Sardinia "  into  "  Italy/'  The  new  state  now  comprised 
all  the  peninsula  excejti^Mwne  anjl_Venvtia ;  and  it  reached 


GARIBALDI. 


§726] 


THE   FIRST   ITALIAN    PARLIAMENT 


581 


from  the  Alps  to  Sicily.  This  time  the  population  was  raised 
from  eleven  to  twenty-two  millions.  In  February,  1861^  the 
first  "  Italian  parliament "  met  at _ Turin  and  enthusiastically 
confirmed  the  establish- 
ment of  -the  "  gingdom_oj 
Italy."  Cavour's  states- 
manship Vv"as  triumphant. 
In  this  first  parliament  of 
the  new  natioji  an  oppo- 
sition party  to  the  great 
minister  hardly  raised  its 
head.  Five  months  later, 
Cavour  was  dead,  broken 
down  by  the  terrible 
strain  of  his  work.  His 
last  words  were,  "  Ital^. 
is  made  —  all  is  safe." 
His  achievements  rank 
as  the  most  marvelous 
in  all  modern  statesman- 
ship. 

The  acquisition  of  the 
two  remaining  provinces, 
Venetia   and  Rome    (1867 
and    1870),  was   intertwined   with    the    making   of    Germany 
(§  727  if.) 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Bolton  King's  Italian  Unity  is  the  best 
single  work.  Good  accounts  will  be  found  in  Probyn's  Italy,  Bolton 
King's  Mazzini,  Dicey's  Victor  Emmanuel,  or  Cesaresco's  Cavour. 
Hazen,  Andrews,  Seignobos,  Phillips,  and  Murdock  all  contain  brief  treat- 
ments. Good  material  will  be  found  in  Robinson  and  Beard's,  Readings, 
II,  115-141. 


VICTOR  EMMANUEL. 


SPECIAL  REPORT.  — Garibaldi's  life. 


PROCLAMATION   OK  THK   GKKMXN    KMI-IKK    \r    VKB8AILUM, 
January   18,  1871  (§7:««). 


CHAPTER    XLIX 

• 

THE   MAKING   OF   GERMANY 

727.  William  I  of  Prussia. —In  Germany  the  years  from 
1850  to  1861  were  barren  of  political  results.  The  only  nucleus 
for  a  German  nation  was  Prussia ;  but  from  Prussia  nothing 
could  be  expected  as  long  as  Frederick  William  IV  reigned. 
In  1861  that  prince  was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  William  I. 
The  preceding  eleven  years  had  seen  the  making  of  Italy  : 
the  next  ten  were  to  see  the  making  of  Germany. 

William  I,  destined  to  become  the  most  revered  of  German 
kings,  was  the  prince  who  had  been  banished  for  a  time  in 
1848  to  satisfy  the  Liberals  (§  710).  That  party  had  nick- 
named him  "  Prince  Cartridge."  He  was  a  conservative  of 
the  old  school,  and  he  had  bitterly  opposed  the  mild  constitu- 
tional concessions  of  his  brother.  But  he  was  also  a  patriot  to 
the  core.  He  tingled  with  indignation  at  the  humiliation  of 
Olmutz;  and  he  was  determined  that  Prussia  should  never 
again  have  to  suffer  such  disgrace.  He  hoped,  too,  with 
all  his  heart,  for  German  unity  ;  and  he  believed  that  this 

582 


§  729]  WILLIAM  I  AND   BISMARCK  583 

unity  could  be  made  only  after  expelling  Austria  from  Ger- 
many. To  expel  Austria  would  be  the  work  of  the  Prussian 
army. 

728.  The  Prussian  army  differed  from  all  others  in  Europe. 
Elsewhere  the  armies  were  of  the  old  class,  —  standing  bodies 
of  mercenaries  and  professional  soldiers,  reinforced  at  need 
by  raw  levies  from  the  population.     The  Napoleonic  wars  had 
resulted  in  a  different  system  for  Prussia.     In  1807,  after  Jena, 
Napoleon  had   required  Prussia  to  reduce  her  army  to  forty- 
two  thousand  men.     The  Prussian  government,  however,  had 
evaded  Napoleon's  purpose  to  keep  her  weak,  by  passing  fresh 
bodies  of  Prussians  through  the  regiments  at  short  intervals. 
Each  soldier  was  given  two  years'  service ;  and  part  of  each 
regiment  was  dismissed  each  year,  and  its  place  filled  with 
new  levies.     These  in  turn  took  on  regular  military  discipline, 
while  those  who  had  passed  out  were  held  as  a  reserve. 

After  the  Napoleonic  wars  were  over,  Prussia  kept  up  this 
system.  The  plan  was  to  make  the  entire  male  population  a 
trained  army ;  but  it  had  not  been  fully  followed  up.  Since 
1815,  population  had  doubled,  but  the  army  had  been  left  upon 
the  basis  of  that  period.  No  arrangements  had  been  made  for 
organizing  new  regiments ;  and  so  twenty-five  thousand  men 
each  year  reached  military  age  without  being  summoned  into 
the  ranks. 

King  William's  first  efforts  were  directed  to  increasing  the  num- 
ber of  regiments  so  as  to  accommodate  60,000  new  recruits  each 
year,  instead  of  40,000.  To  do  this  required  a  large  increase 
in  taxes.  But  the  Prussian  parliament  (Landtag)  was  jealous  of 
military  power  in  the  hands  of  a  sovereign  hostile  to  constitu- 
tional liberty,  and  it  resolutely  refused  money.  Then  William 
found  a  minister  to  carry  out  his  will,  parliament  or  no. 

729.  This  man,  who  was  to  be  the  German  Cavour,  was  Otto 
von  Bismarck.     Thirteen  years  earlier,  Count  Bismarck  had  been 
known  as  a  grim  and  violent  leader  of  the  "  Junkers,"  the  ex- 
treme conservative  party  made  up  of  young  landed  aristocrats. 
He  held,  at  that  time,  to  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of 


584  THE   MAKING   OF   GERMANY  [§  730 

kings.  When  he  was  announced  as  the  head  of  a  new  ministry, 
the  Liberals  ominously  prophesied  a  coup  d'etat. 

Something  like  a  coup  d'etat  did  take  place.  The  Prussian 
constitution  declared  that  the  ministers  must  be  "responsible" 
to  the  Landtag,  or  parliament.  But  this  did  not  mean  respon- 
sible in  the  modern  English  sense :  that  is,  it  did  not  mean 
that  they  must  resign  if  outvoted;  but  only  that  they  mi^ht 
be  held  to  account  for  their  actions.  William  stood  stead- 
fastly by  his  minister;  and  for  four  years  Bismarck  ruled  and 
collected  taxes  unconstitutionally. 

Over  and  over  again,  the  Landtag  demanded  Bismarck's 
dismissal,  and  many  violent  scenes  took  place.  The  Liberals 
threatened  to  hang  him,  —  as  very  probably  they  would  have 
done  if  power  had  fallen  to  them  by  another  revolution. 
Unable  to  do  that,  they  challenged  him  repeatedly  to  duels. 
Bismarck  in  turn  railed  at  the  Liberals  contemptuously  as 
"  mere  pedants,"  and  told  them  bluntly  that  the  making  of 
Germany  was  to  be  "a  matter  not  of  speechifying  and  parlia- 
mentary majorities,  but  of  blood  and  iron";  and  he  grimly 
went  on,  muzzling  the  press,  bullying  or  dissolving  parliaments, 
and  overriding  the  national  will  roughshod. 

Meantime,  the  army  was  greatly  augmented.  First  of  any 
large  army,  too,  it  was  supplied  with  the  new  invention  of 
breech-loading,  repeating  rifles,  instead  of  the  old-fashioned 
muzzle-loaders ;  and  Von  Moltke,  the  Prussian  "  chief  of  staff," 
made  it  the  most  perfectly  organized  military  machine  in  Europe. 

730.  From  the  first,  Bismarck  intended  that  this  reconstructed 
army  should  expel  Austria  from  Germany  and  force  the  princes 
of  the  rest  of  Germany  into  a  true  national  union.  It  had  not 
been  possible  for  him  to  avow  his  purpose ;  but  time  was  grow- 
ing precious,  and  he  began  to  look  anxiously  for  a  chance  to 
use  his  new  tool.  By  a  series  of  master-stokes  of  unscrupulous 
and  daring  diplomacy,  he  brought  on  three  wars  in  the  next 
seven  years,  —  the  Danish  War  (1864),  the  Six  Weeks'  War 
with  Austria  (1866),  and  the  Franco-Prussian  War  (1870-1871). 
Out  of  these  war-clouds  emerged  a  new  Germany. 


§732]  "BLOOD    AND   IRON"  585 

731.  The  Danish  War,   1864.  —  The  Danish  king  was  also 
Duke  of  Schleswig-Holstein,  two  provinces  at  the  base  of  the 
peninsula.     These  duchies  had  some  German  inhabitants,  and 
the  claims  upon  the  provinces  by  Danish  and  German  princes 
were  exceedingly  complicated. 

Bismarck  determined  to  secure  the  duchies  for  Prussia,  who 
had  no  claim  at  all.  He  felt  no  moral  hesitation,  and  he  had 
skillfully  guarded  against  interference  by  the  Powers.  Russia 
he  had  conciliated  by  aiding  her  a  few  months  before  to  put 
down  a  Polish  rebellion,  so  that  the  grateful  Tsar  was  willing 
to  give  him  a  free  hand.  Napoleon  III,  as  Bismarck  afterward 
explained,  uhad  been  allowed  to  deceive  himself"  into  thinking 
that  France  would  be  permitted  to  annex  Rhine  territory  to 
"  indemnify  "  .her  for  Prussia's  proposed  gain ;  England  would 
not  fight  unsupported.  And  Austria,  the  natural  ally  of  Den- 
mark,1 Bismarck  made  his  accomplice.  In  1864  the  Prussian 
and  Austian  armies  seized  the  duchies,  despite  the  gallant  re- 
sistance of  the  Danes. 

732.  Then  Bismarck  forced  Austria  into  war  over  the  division  of 
the  spoils.     He  claimed  both  duchies  for  Prussia ;  and,  though 
at  Austria's  indignant  protest  a  system  of  joint  protection  was 
temporarily  arranged,  it  was  plain  that  the  Prussian  minister 
meant  to  secure  all  the  booty. 

King  William,  however,  had  scruples.  He  wanted  to  fight 
Austria,  but  he  wanted  a  just  cause.  Bismarck  had  drawn  Italy 
into  an  alliance  by  which  that  country  promised  to  join  in  an 
attack  upon  Austria.  But,  to  satisfy  his  king,  he  must  provoke 
Austria  into  some  offensive  act.  So  he  was  driven  to  desperate 
wiles.  He  continued  to  make  absurd  demands  regarding  the 
duchies,  such  as  he  knew  could  not  be  granted.  At  last,  the 
German  Diet  summoned  Prussia  to  refer  the  whole  matter 
to  its  decision  (perfectly  in  accord  with  the  Confederation). 
Bismarck  offered  to  do  so,  if  the  Diet  would  first  exclude  Austria 
from  the  German  Confederation.  Under  Austria's  lead  the  Diet 

1  It  was  to  Austria's  interest  to  keep  Denmark  as  strong  as  possible,  in 
order  to  check  Prussia. 


58t>  THE   MAKING   OF   GERMANY  [§  733 

then  declared  war  on  Prussia,  "the  wanton  disturber  of  the 
national  peace"  (June  14, 1866).  Bismarck  was  as  jubilant  as 
Cavour  had  been  when  he  had  tricked  Austria  into  war  in 
1859. 

Practically  all  Germany  held  to  Austria.  But  Bismarck 
and  Von  Moltke  were  certain  of  success.  In  three  days  the 
Prussian  army  seized  Hanover,  Hesse,  and  Saxony,  —  the 
important  hostile  states  in  North  Germany;  and  in  less  than 
three  weeks  from  the  declaration  of  war,  Austria  was  com- 
pletely crushed  at  Sadowa  (Koniggratz)  in  Bohemia.  The 
war  is  known  as  "  the  Six  Weeks'  War." 

733.  The  Peace  gave  Venetia  to  Italy  (§  726).  The  other 
still  more  important  provisions  coine  under  two  heads.  The 
first  set  augmented  Prussian  territory.  The  second  set  re- 
organized Germany. 

a.  Prussia  annexed  Hesse,  Hanover,  Nassau,  and  the  "  free 
city "   of    Frankfort.      These    acquisitions    consolid«t< ••!    //«-/• 
formerly  scattered  lands.      She  also   kept  Schleswig-Holstein, 
with  the  magnificent  harbor  of  Kiel.     Her  territory  was  en- 
larged one  half;  and  her  population  rose  to  thirty  millions. 
No  other  German  state  approached  this  —  now  that  Austria 
was  no- longer  to  be  a  German  state. 

Frederick  II  at  his  accession  ruled  over  two  and  a  half  million  subjects. 
This  number  was  doubled  during  his  reign,  with  some  new  territory. 
By  1815,  it  had  doubled  again,  to  ten  millions.  In  the  next  half  century 
(1815-1866),  the  population  had  doubled,  without  additions  of  territory. 
The  Six  Weeks'  War  raised  it  from  twenty  to  thirty  millions.  Compare 
the  map  opposite  with  that  on  page  417. 

b.  Austria  definitely  withdrew  from    German  affairs;    and 
the  Confederation  of  1815  was   replaced  by  two  federations. 
The  first  was  known  as  The  North  German  Federation.     This 
union  was  placed  under  Prussian  presidency.     It  was  not  a 
loose  league  like  the  old  Confederacy,  but  a  true  federal  state, 
with  essentially  the  same  constitution  as  the  present  German 
Empire:     The  second  federation  included  the  four  South  Ger- 
man  states,  —  Bavaria,    Wurtemberg,    Hesse-Darmstadt,   and 


'.  ?r<~    x  \  2     -.-'-vr    ij*-s    > 

4i-M,?> 

^<>  :3  i    g,^  -:'-„,  ;    i. 


/\^^^*^,         -^.--^A     '  jj 

I..M£.4^* 

r  /     G->s-     ?7s  /V*3% 


^f  ;4ff|7tm||m^ 
viiiix 


. 

iii 

o 


587 


588  THE    MAKING    OK    i.KK.MANY  [§734 

Baden.     This  union  was   intended  to  be   similar   to   the   old 
Confederacy   of   1815  (of  which,  indeed,  it   was  a  survival). 

734.  After  Sadowa,  Bismarck  was  the   idol  of   the   Prussian 
people.     As  soon  as  his  purpose  to  fight  Austria  became  plain. 
the   Liberal    opposition   in   Prussia   had   been   hushed.     The 
Landtag  passed    enthusiastically    the    act    of   indemnity    lit- 
requested  for  his  previous  illegal  ;u-t>,  and  gave  him  a  hearty 
support  that  made  it  easier  for  him  to  complete  his  work. 

735.  Bismarck  had  outwitted  Louis  Napoleon  in  both  the  pre- 
ceding wars.     After  the  Danish   \Var.  Napoleon  had  expected 
to  get  at  least  Luxemburg,   by   Prussia's   aid,   in  return  for 
giving  her  a  free  hand  (§  731).     And  when  the  Six  Weeks' 
War  began,  he  thought  his  chance  had  surely  come.     Bismarck 
had  visited  him  shortly  before,  and  had  again  "permitted" 
him  to  deceive  himself.     Napoleon  meant,  however,  to  remain 
neutral  at  first,  and  then  step  in  at  the  critical  moment  to  save 
the   vanquished.     The   vanquished,   he    was   sure,   would    be 
Prussia..     In    gratitude    for    his    protection.    Prussia    would 
sanction  his  annexing  German  territory  on  the  Rhine. 

But  the  war  was  over,  and  over  the  other  ivay,  before  Napo- 
leon's armies  were  ready.  The  chance  was  past :  but  Napoleon 
weakly  tried  negotiation.  He  suggested  to  Bismaivk  that 
France  be  allowed  to  annex  part  of  Bavaria  (one  of  Prussia's 
antagonists  in  the  war),  to  offset  Prussia's  annexations ;  and 
then  France  would  give  Prussia  a  free  hand  in  reorganizing 
Germany.  Bismarck  was  already  planning  war  with  France, 
and  this  proposal  delivered  Napoleon  into  his  hands.  He 
revealed  it  privately  to  the  South  German  states.  This  terri- 
fied them  into  a  secret  alliance  ivith  Prussia.  Now  a  war  with 
France  would  fuse  the  two  German  Confederations  into  one. 

736.  This  Franco-Prussian  War  (1870-1871)  Bismarck  hurried 
on  with  characteristic  craft.     But  his  success  was  made  possible 
only  by  the  folly  and  envy  of  the  rulers  of  France.     French 
military  authorities  looked  with  jealousy  and  hatred  upon  the 
rise  of  a  German  nation ;  and  Napoleon  was  bent  desperately 
on  retrieving  his  reputation. 


§737] 


THE   FRANCO-PRUSSIAN   WAR 


589 


The  immediate  occasion  for  war  grew  out  of  a  proposal  of 
the  Spaniards  to  place  upon  their  throne  a  German  prince,  a 
distant  relative  of  King 
William  of  Prussia. 
Napoleon  called  upon 
William  to  prevent  this, 
urging  that  it  would  be 
dangerous  to  the  peace 
of  Europe.  William  did 
induce  his  relative  to 
decline  the  offered  crown. 
Napoleon,  however,  was 
bent  upon  humiliating 
William.  So  the  French 
ambassador  insisted  that 
William  should  give  a 
definite  pledge  that  the 
offer,  if  renewed,  would 
not  be  accepted.  King 
William  very  properly 
declined  to  do  this.  But 
his  refusal,  though  firm, 

was  so  courteous  that  there  was  no  cause  for  offense.  That 
night,  however,  Bismarck  sent  out  reports  of  the  interview  so 
11  edited "  as  to  represent  that  the  king  had  insulted  the  French 
envoy.1  As  Bismarck  hoped,  France  took  fire  and  declared 
war  (July  19,  1870). 

737.  French  Inefficiency.  —  "We  are  thrice  ready,  down  to 
the  last  soldier's  shoestring,"  boasted  Napoleon's  war-minister ; 
and  France,  which  had  never  been  beaten  by  one  foe,  shouted 
light-heartedly,  "  On  to  Berlin."  But  the  first  attempts  to  move 
troops  showed  that  the  government  was  honey-combed  with 
corruption  and  inefficiency.  Begiments  lacked  men.  There 
was  no  discipline.  Arsenals  were  empty.  Transportation  was 

1  Anderson's  Constitutions  and  Documents  gives  in  parallel  columns 
the  king's  original  "  Ems  Dispatch  "  and  Bismarck's  version  of  it. 


BISMARCK. 


590  THE   MAKING   OF   GERMANY  [§  738 

not  ready  where  it  was  needed,  and  supplies  of  all  sorts  were 
of  poor  quality.  The  French  fought  gallantly ;  but  they  were 
outnumbered  and  outgeneraled  at  every  point. 

738.  German  Efficiency.  —  The  news  that  France  had  declared 
war  reached  Berlin  late  at  night.     Von  Moltke  was  awakened 
by  an  aide,  for  directions.     The  story  goes  that  the  great  gen- 
eral merely  turned  over,  saying,  "  You  will  find  all  instructions 
in  a  drawer  in  my  desk.     Telegraph  the  orders  as  filed  there." 

At  all  events,  twelve  days  after  the  declaration  of  war 
(August  1),  Germany  had  put  one  and  a  quarter  million  of 
trained  troops  into  the  field  and  had  massed  most  of  them  on 
the  Rhine.  The  world  had  never  seen  such  marvelous  perfec- 
tion of  military  preparation.  Carlyle  wrote,  "  It  took  away 
the  breath  of  Europe."  August  2,  William  took  command  at 
Mainz.  The  Prussians  won  victory  after  victory.  One  of  the 
two  main  French  armies  — 173,000  men  —  was  securely  shut 
up  in  Metz.  And,  September  2,  the  other,  of  130,000  men, 
was  captured  at  Sedan,  with  Napoleon  in  person.  Napoleon 
remained  a  prisoner  of  war  for  a  few  months,  and  soon  after- 
ward he  died  in  England.  Meantime  the  Prussians  pressed  on 
to  the  siege  of  Paris. 

739.  Out  of  the  war  clouds  emerged  a  new  German  Empire. 
The  South-German  peoples  went   wild  with   enthusiasm    for 
Prussia.     By  a  series  of  swift  treaties,  while  this  feeling  was 
at  its  height,  Bismarck  brought  them  all  into  the  North  Ger- 
man  Confederation.      Then   he   arranged   that   the    King   of 
Bavaria   and   other   leading   German  rulers  should  ask  King 
William  to  take  the  title  of  German  Emperor.     And  on  Janu- 
ary 18,  1871,  while  the  siege  of  Paris  was  still  going  on,  in  the 
ancient  palace  of  French  kings  at  Versailles,  William  solemnly 
assumed  that  title.     This  act  was  soon  ratified  by  a  parliament 
of  all  Germany. 

740.  Germany  had  been  made  not  merely  by  "  blood  and  iron," 
but  also  by  fraud  and  falsehood.     One  can  hardly  tell  the  story 
of  such  gigantic  audacity  and  successful  trickery  without  seem- 
ing to  glorify  it.     Of  course,  Bismarck  did  not  work  for  low  or 


§  740]  THE   GERMAN  EMPIRE  591 

personal  ends.  He  was  inspired  by  a  broad  and  lofty  patriot- 
ism. The  national  union  which  he  made  had  to  come  before 
the  German  people  could  reach  the  best  elements  of  modern 
life.  He  sought  a  noble  end. 

At  the  same  time,  Bismarck's  methods  were  distinctly  lower 
than  Cavour's;  and  his  success  tended  to  lower  the  tone  of 
morality  among  nations.  His  policy  of  fraud  and  violence,  too, 
while  successful  at  the  moment,  left  Germany  troubled  with 
burning  questions,  and  burdened  with  the  crushing  weight  of 
militarism  and  with  the  rule  of  police  in  private  life. 

The  later  story  of  France  and  Germany  can  be  best  understood 
after  studying  the  growth  of  constitutional  government  in  England. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Hazen,  Europe  since  1815,  240-306. 
Headlam's  Bismarck,  and  his  Germany  from  1815  to  1889,  are  excellent. 

EXERCISE.  —  1.  Review  the  story  of  Germany  from  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  to  the  establishment  of  the  Empire.  2.  The  story  of  Italy  from 
1814  to  the  final  union  of  the  peninsula  in  1870. 


PART   X 

ENGLAND  AFTER   1815:   REFORM 

Reconstruction  without  Revolution.  — JUDSON. 

England  in  the  nineteenth  century  served  as  a  political  model  for  Europe. 
The  English  developed  constitutional  monarchy,  pa rlin in •  ntunj  i/overn- 
ment,  and  safeguards  for  personal  liberty.  Other  nations  have  only  im- 
itated them.  —  SEIGNOBOS. 


CHAPTER   L 

POLITICAL    CONDITIONS   IN   1815 

741.  Absence  of  Political  Progress  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.  — 
In  the  eighteenth  century  England   acquired  a  world-empire 
and  gave  the  world  the  Industrial  Revolution.    But,  in  political 
matters,  that  century  was  singularly  uninteresting.    In  the  pre- 
ceding century  England  had  led  the  world  in  political  progress ; 
and  she  was  to  do  so  again  in  the  nineteenth  century.     But  in 
the  eighteenth,  except  for  accidental  progress  in  the  matter  of 
ministerial   government  (§  460),  that   country  actually  went 
backward  in  freedom. 

742.  Parliament  had  never  been  democratic  in  make-up,  and, 
after  1688,  it  shriveled  up  into  the  selfish  organ  of  a  small  class 
of  landlords.     This  came  about  largely  by  accident. 

The  House  of  Commons  contained  658  members.  Ireland 
sent  100,  and  Scotland  45.  Each  of  the  40  English  counties, 
large  or  small,  sent  two.  The  rest  came  from  "  parliamentary 
boroughs  "  in  England  and  Wales. 

The  old  kings  had  summoned  representatives  from  whatever 
boroughs  they  pleased;  but  a  borough  which  had  once  sent 

592 


§  743]  THE   UNREFORMED  PARLIAMENT  593 

representatives  had  the  right,  by  custom,  to  send  them  always 
afterward.  At  first  this  power  to  "summon"  boroughs  was 
used  wisely  to  recognize  new  towns  as  they  grew  up.  But  the 
Tudor  monarchs,  in  order  better  to  manage  parliaments,  had 
summoned  representatives  from  little  hamlets  which  had  no 
just  claim  to  representation.  These  were  "  pocket  boroughs  " 
—  owned  or  controlled  by  some  lord  of  the  court  party. 

This  bad  condition  was  mad'e  worse  by  natural  causes.  In 
early  times  the  south  of  England,  with  its  fertile  soil  and  its 
ports  on  the  Channel,  had  been  the  most  populous  part ;  but  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  with  the  growth  of  manufactures,  pop- 
ulation shifted  to  the  coal  and  iron,  regions  of  the  north  and  west. 
In  Elizabeth's  day  that  part  of  the  island  had  only  insignificant 
towns.  Before  1800,  great  cities  grew  up  there,  like  Birming- 
ham, Bradford,  Leeds,  Liverpool,  Manchester,  Sheffield,  some 
of  them  with  more  than  100,000  people.  But  these  new  toivns 
could  get  no  representation  in  parliament ;  because  after  the 
"  Kestoration  "  of  1660,  the  kings  had  lost  the  right  to  create 
new  boroughs,  just  when  that  power  might  have  been  used  to 
public  advantage. 

743.  Conditions  had  become  unspeakably  unfair  and  corrupt. 
Dumvich  was  under  the  waves  of  the  North  Sea,  which  had 
gradually  encroached  upon  the  land.  But  a  descendant  of  an 
ancient  owner  of  the  soil  possessed  the  right  to  row  out  with 
the  sheriff  on  election  day  and  choose  himself  as  representative 
to  parliament  for  the  submerged  town.  Old  Sarum  was  once  a 
cathedral  city  on  the  summit  of  a  lofty  hill ;  but  new  Sarum, 
or  Salisbury,  a  few  miles  away  on  the  plain,  drew  the  popula- 
tion and  the  cathedral  to  itself  until  not  a  vestige  of  the  old 
town  remained.  Then  the  grandfather  of  William  Pitt  bought 
the  soil  where  Old  Sarum  had  stood,  and  it  was  for  this  "  pocket 
borough  "  that  the  great  Pitt  entered  parliament.  It  was  wit- 
tily said  at  the  time,  that  the  Pitt  family  had  "  an  hereditary 
seat  in  the  House  of  Commons."  So,  Gatton  was  a  park,  and 
Corfe  Castle  a  picturesque  ruin,  —  each  with  a  representative 
in  parliament. 


594  ENGLAND  AFTER   1815  [§  743 

Then  there  were  a  great  number  of  petty  villages  or  little  towns, 
with  six  or  a  dozen  or  fifty  voters.  Bosseuey  in  Cornwall  had 
three  cottages.  It  had,  however,  nine  voters,  eight  of  them  in 
one  family.  And  these  voters  elected  two  members  to  parlia- 
ment. Even  in  large  towns,  the  rules  which  determined  the 
right  to  vote  were  often  fantastic,  and  sometimes  they  shut  out 
all  but  a  fraction  of  the  inhabitants.  Portsmouth,  with  46,000 
people,  had  only  103  voters ;  and  in  Weymouth,  in  1826,  the 
right  to  vote  went  with  the  right  to  share  in  the  rents  of  certain 
ancient  village  property,  —  and  so  twenty  persons,  some  of  them 
paupers,  voted  because  of  their  title  each  to  one-twentieth  of  a 
sixpence. 

Many  of  these  places  also,  with  few  voters,  were  "  pocket 
boroughs,"  —  the  voters  being  dependent  upon  a  neighboring 
landlord  and  always  electing  his  nominee.  Large  places  had 
sometimes  a  like  character.  In  1828,  at  Newark,  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle  drove  out  587  tenants  who  ventured  to  vote  against 
his  candidate.  Complaint  was  made  in  parliament ;  but  the 
Duke  merely  answered  calmly,  "  Have  I  not  a  right  to  do 
what  I  like  with  my  own  ?  "  So  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  filled 
eleven  seats ;  and  fully  two-thirds  of  the  whole  House  were 
really  the  appointees  of  great  landlords. 

And  when  not  pocket  boroughs,  such  places  commonly  were 
"  rotten  boroughs."  That  is,  the  few  voters  sold  the  seats  in  par- 
liament as  a  regular  part  of  their  private  revenue.  In  1766 
Sudbury  advertised  in  the  public  press  that  its  parliamentary 
seat  was  for  sale  to  the  highest  bidder.  Moreover,  all  voting 
was  viva-voce,  and  the  polls  were  held  open  for  two  weeks  — 
so  that  there  was  every  chance  to  sell  and  buy  votes. 

The  House  of  Commons  had  become  hardly  more  represen- 
tative than  the  House  of  Lords.  As  the  English  historian 
Macaulay  said,  The  "  boasted  representative  system  "  of  Eng- 
land had  decayed  into  "  a  monstrous  system  of  represented  ruins 
and  unrepresented  cities"  In  1832  Lord  John  Russell  intro- 
duced a  great  Reform  Bill  in  parliament.  In  his  speech  he 
pictured  the  amazement  of  a  stranger  who  had  come  to  England 


§744]  THE   UNREFORMED   PARLIAMENT  595 

to  study  the  free  representative  government  of  which  English- 
men were  so  proud.  The  stranger  would  be  shown,  said  Lord 
Russell,  a  ruined  mound,  and  be  told  that  that  mound  sent  two 
representatives  to  parliament.  He  would  be  taken  to  a  stone 
wall  with  three  niches  in  it,  and  be  told  that  those  niches  sent 
two  representatives  to  parliament.  He  would  see  a  green  park, 
with  no  sign  of  human  habitation,  and  be  told  that  that  park 
sent  two  representatives  to  parliament.  And  then  he  might 
chance  to  see  populous  towns,  full  of  human  enterprise  and 
industry,  but  he  would  be  told  that  most  of  those  towns  sent 
no  representatives  to  parliament. 

744.  Summary.  The  sixteenth  century  in  England  had  seen  a  new 
absolutism  rise  upon  the  ruins  of  the  old  feudalism  and  the  old  church. 
The  struggle  of  the  seventeenth  century  had  resulted  in  replacing  this  ab- 
solutism with  representative  government  highly  aristocratic  in  character. 
Then,  by  natural  decay,  this  had  hardened  into  the  narrow  oligarchy  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  nineteenth  century  was  to  see  the  victory  of 
democracy. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Hazen's  Europe  Since  1815,  409-415; 
Beard's  English  Historians,  538-548  (an  extract  from  Walpole's  great 
History  of  England  Since  1815). 


CHAPTER   LI 

THE   FIRST   REFORM   BILL 

745.  Attempts  before  1815.  —  Progressive  men  had  long  seen 
that  parliament  no  longer  represented  the  nation.  The  reason 
why  no  reform  had  been  secured  was  that  from  1689  to  1815 
all  energies  went  to  the  long  French  wars.  In  the  twelve 
years  (1763-1775),  between  the  "Seven  Years'  War"  (§  493) 
and  the  American  Revolution,  the  Whig  leaders  did  at- 
tempt wise  changes.  In  1766  William  Pitt  declared  that 
parliament  must  reform  itself  from  within,  or  it  would  soon  be 
reformed  "  with  a  vengeance "  from  without ;  and  during  the 
next  few  years  many  mass  meetings  urged  parliament  to  take 
action. 

But  George  III  was  determined  to  prevent  reform.  The 
war  with  America  was  connected  closely  with  this  determina- 
tion. George  felt  that  his  two  indolent  and  gross  predecessors 
had  allowed  kingly  power  to  slip  from  their  hands  (§  460). 
He  meant  to  get  it  back,  and  to  "  be  a  king  "  in  fact  as  well  as 
in  name,  as  his  mother  had  urged  him.  To  do  this,  he  must 
be  able  to  control  parliament.  It  would  be  easier  to  control 
the  parliament  as  it  was  then  —  made  up  so  largely  of  repre- 
sentatives of  pocket  borroughs  —  than  to  control  a  parliament 
that  really  represented  the  nation. 

Therefore,  when  just  at  this  time  the  Americans  began  to 
cry,  "  No  taxation  without  representation,"  King  George  felt  it 
needful  to  put  them  down.  If  their  claim  was  allowed,  so 
must  the  demand  of  Manchester  and  other  new  towns  in 
England  for  representation  in  parliament.  But  if  the  Ameri- 
can demand  could  be  made  to  seem  a  treasonable  one,  on  the 

596 


§746]  REFORM   WITHOUT   REVOLUTION  597 

part  of  a  distant  group  of  rebels,  then  the  king  could  check 
the  movement  in  England  also.  This  explains  why  King 
George  took  so  active  a  part  against  America. 

The  victory  of  the  Americans  seemed  at  first  to  have  won  an 
immediate  victory  for  English  freedom  also.  King  George 
was  forced  to  say  that  he  was  "  pleased  to  appoint "  as  prime 
minister  his  chief  enemy,  Charles  Fox,  the  leading  friend  of 
America.  Arid  William  Pitt  the  Younger  at  once  took  up  the 
work  of  reform.  Even  before  peace  was  declared,  Pitt  as- 
serted vehemently :  Parliament  "  is  not  representative  of  the 
people  of  Great  Britain.  It  is  representative  of  nominal  bor- 
oughs, and  exterminated  towns,  of  noble  families,  of  wealthy 
individuals."  This  condition,  he  declared,  alone  had  made  it 
possible  for  the  government  to  wage  against  America  "this 
unjust,  cruel,  wicked,  and  diabolical  war." 

IB  the  years  that  immediately  followed,  Pitt  introduced 
three  different  bills  to  reform  parliament ;  but,  before  anything 
was  accomplished,  came  the  French  Revolution.  This  shelved 
all  prospect  of  success.  In  1790,  on  a  proposal  for  reform,  the 
keynote  of  the  opposition  was  struck  by  a  Tory  speaker  who 
exclaimed  that  no  wise  man  would  select  a  hurricane  season 
to  repair  his  roof,  however  dilapidated.  Soon  the  violence  of 
the  Revolutionists  in  France  turned  the  whole  English  middle 
class  definitely  against  change  —  and  projects  for  reform  slum- 
bered for  forty  years  more  (1790-1830). 

This  unhappy  check  came  just  when  the  evils  of  the  Indus- 
trial Revolution  were  becoming  serious.  But  the  Tory  party, 
which  had  carried  England  stubbornly  to  victory  through  the 
tremendous  wars  against  Napoleon,  was  totally  unfitted  to  cope 
with  internal  questions.  Its  leaders  looked  on  every  time- 
sanctioned  abuse  as  sacred.  Even  after  the  fall  of  Napoleon, 
they  refused  to  listen  to  proposals  for  reform. 

746.  From  1815  to  1830.  —  The  peace  of  1815  was  followed 
by  a  general  business  depression,  —  the  first  modern  "panic." 
This  resulted  in  labor  riots  and  in  political  agitation.  The 
Tory  government  met  such  movements  by  stern  laws,  forbid- 


598  ENGLAND  AFTER   1815  [§  747 

ding  public  meetings  (without  consent  of  magistrates)  under 
penalty  of  death ;  suspending  habeas  corpus ;  and  suppressing 
debating  societies.  In  1812  two  editors  were  condemned  to  a 
year's  imprisonment  for  saying  that  a  rival  paper  had  been 
guilty  of  exaggeration  in  calling  the  Prince  of  Wales  an  Adonis 
(a  Greek  of  great  beauty).  Between  1808  and  1821,  ninety-four 
other  journalists  were  punished  for  libelous  or  seditious  utter- 
ances, and  twelve  of  them  were  condemned  to  transportation 
to  penal  colonies.  The  government  even  prosecuted  men  I'm- 
sedition  who  merely  signed  petitions  for  the  reform  of  parlia- 
ment. 

Some  small  gains,  however,  were  made  before  1830.  In 
1825  parliament  recognized  the  right  of  workingmen  to  unite 
in  labor  unions  —  which  had  always  before  been  treated  as 
conspiracies.  In  1828  political  rights  were  restored  to  Protes- 
tant dissenters  (Baptists,  Presbyterians,  Quakers,  Methodists)  ; 
and  the  next  year  the  same  justice  was  secured  for  Catholics. 
A  beginning  was  made,  too,  in  the  reform  of  the  atrocious 
laws  regarding  capital  punishment. 

The  English  penal  code  of  the  eighteenth  century  has  been  fitly  called 
a  "sanguinary  chaos."  Its  worst  faults,  like  the  abuses  of  the  rotten 
borough  era  in  politics,  were  due  to  the  English  dislike  for  change. 
Whenever  in  the  course  of  centuries  a  crime  had  become  especially  trouble- 
some, some  parliament  had  fixed  a  death  penalty  for  it,  and  no  later  par- 
liament had  ever  revised  the  code.  In  1660  the  number  of  "  capital 
crimes"  was  fifty  (three  and  a  half  times  as  many  as  there  were  in  New 
England  at  the  same  time  under  the  much  slandered  "  blue  laws"),  and 
by  1800  the  number  had  risen  to  over  two  hundred.  To  steal  a  sheep, 
to  snatch  a  handkerchief  out  of  a  woman's  hand,  to  cut  down  trees  in  an 
orchard,  were  all  punishable  by  death.  The  reformer  Romilly  had  long 
agitated  for  the  repeal  of  these  absurd  and  cruel  laws  ;  and  in  1823  parlia- 
ment struck  the  death  penalty  from  100  offenses. 

747.  1830-1832.  —  In  1830  George  IV  was  succeeded  by 
his  brother  William  IV.  William  was  supposed  to  be  more 
liberal  than  the  preceding  king;  and  at  just  this  time  the 
French  Revolution  of  1830,  by  its  moderation  and  success, 
greatly  strengthened  the  reform  party. 


747] 


REFORM   WITHOUT  REVOLUTION 


599 


A  new  parliament  was  at  once  chosen;  and  the  Whigs 
promptly  introduced  a  motion  to  reform  the  representation. 
The  prime  minister  was 
the  Tory  Wellington,  the 
hero  of  Waterloo.  He 
scorned  the  proposal,  de- 
claring that  he  did  not 
believe  the  existing  rep- 
resentation "  could  be 
improved"!  This 
speech  cost  him  his  pop- 
ularity, both  in  and  out 
of  parliament.  He  was 
compelled  to  resign  ;  and 
the  Whigs  came  into 
power  with  Earl  Grey  as 
prime  minister.  Grey 
was  a  stately  English 
lord,  whose  eloquence  at 
the  trial  of  Warren 
Hastings  forty  years 

before  has  been  celebrated  by  Macaulay.  In  the  House  of 
Commons  the  chief  member  of  the  ministry  was  Lord  John 
Russell.  He  was  the  son  of  a  duke,  and  his  title  of  Lord 
at  this  time  was  only  a  "courtesy  title."1 

Lord  Russell  drew  the  bill  for  the  reform  of  parliament.  It 
aimed  (1)  to  distribute  representation  somewhat  more  fairly,  and 
(2)  to  extend  the  franchise  to  a  somewhat  larger  class  of  voters. 
The  manner  of  voting  was  not  affected,  because  Earl  Grey  ob- 
jected to  the  ballot  system. 

Representation  was  to  be  taken  away  from  56  "  rotten"  or  "pocket  " 
boroughs,  and  one  member  was  to  be  taken  from  30  more  small  places 

1  Later,  Russell  himself  was  a  great  prime  minister.  During  the  American 
Civil  War,  he  was  the  member  of  the  English  ministry  directly  responsible  for 
carelessly  letting  the  Alabama  escape  to  prey  on  American  commerce,  — a 
fact  for  which  he  afterward  apologized. 


WILLIAM  IV. 


600  ENGLAND   AFTER    1815  [§  748 

under  4000  people  each.  The  86  seats  gained  in  this  way  were  given  to 
new  boroughs  that  needed  representation.  The  suffrage  was  extended  to 
all  householders  in  the  towns  who  owned  or  rented  houses  worth  s  ">o 
a  year,  and  to  the  whole  "  farmer"  class  in  the  country  (§  681).  Farm 
laborers  and  the  artisan  class  in  towns  (who  lived  in  tenements  or  as 
lodgers)  were  still  left  out. 

748.  The  Struggle.  —  To  the  Tories  this  mild  measure  seemed 
to  threaten  the  foundations  of  society.  Fierce  debates  lasted 
month  after  month.  In  March  of  1831  the  ministry  carried 
the  "  second  reading"  by  a  majority  of  one  vote.  It  was  plain 
that  the  Whig  majority  was  not  large  enough  to  save  the  bill 
from  hostile  amendment.  (A  bill  nas  to  pass  three  "  readings," 
and  amendments  are  usually  considered  after  the  second.) 
The  ministry  decided  to  dissolve,  and  "  appeal  to  the  country  -' 
for  better  support.  The  king  was  bitterly  opposed  to  this  plan. 
A  passionate  scene  took  place  between  him  and  his  ministers, 
but  he  was  forced  to  give  way  —  and  so,  incidentally,  it  was 
settled  that  the  ministry,  not  the  king,  dissolves  parliament. 
This  means  that  parliament  really  dissolves  itself. 

The  dissolution  proved  that  the  ministry  meant  to  stand  or 
fall  on  the  bill.  People  showed  their  joy  everywhere  by 
illuminating  windows;  and  a  mob  smashed  the  windows  of 
Wellington's  castle  because  they  were  not  lighted.  The  Whigs 
went  into  the  campaign  with  the  cry,  "  The  Bill,  the  whole 
Bill,  and  nothing  but  the  Bill."  Despite  the  unrepresentative 
nature  of  parliament,  they  won  an  overwhelming  majority.  In 
June  Lord  Russell  introduced  the  bill  again.  In  September 
it  passed  the  Commons,  345  to  239.  Then  the  Lords  calmly 
voted  it  down. 

One  session  of  the  second  parliament  was  wasted.  The  na- 
tion cried  out  passionately  against  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
there  was  some  demand  for  its  abolition.  There  was  much 
violence,  and  England  seemed  on  the  verge  of  revolution. 

In  December  the  same  parliament  met  for  a  new  session. 
Lord  Russell  introduced  the  same  bill  for  the  third  time.  It 
passed  the  Commons  by  an  increased  majority.  This  time  the 


§  750]  MINISTERIAL   GOVERNMENT  601 

Lords  did  not  venture  altogether  to  throw  it  out,  but  they 
tacked  on  hostile  amendments. 

The  king  had  always  had  power  to  make  new  peers  at  will. 
Lord  Grey  now  demanded  from  the  king  authority  to  create 
enough  new  peers  to  save  the  bill.  William  refused.  Grey 
resigned.  For  eleven  days  England  had  no  government.  The 
Tories  tried  to  form  a  ministry,  but  could  get  no  majority. 
Angry  mobs  stormed  about  the  king's  carriage  in  the  streets. 
It  was  feared  that  William  and  Wellington  might  try  to  over- 
throw the  Whigs  by  a  coup  d'etat;  and  the  Whig  leaders  went 
so  far  as  secretly  to  prepare  for  civil  war.  Finally  the  king  re- 
called the  Whig  ministry. 

William  was  still  unwilling  to  create  new  peers,  but  he 
offered  to  use  his  personal  influence  to  get  the  upper  House  to 
pass  the  bill.  Happily,  Earl  Grey  was  firm  to  show  where 
real  sovereignty  lay ;  and  finally  the  king  was  compelled  to 
sign  the  scrap  of  paper  (still  exhibited  in  the  British  Museum) 
on  which  the  Earl  had  written,  "  The  King  grants  permission  to 
Earl  Grey  .  .  .  to  create  such  a  number  of  new  peers  as  will  in- 
sure the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill"  This  ended  the  struggle. 
It  was  not  needful  actually  to  make  new  peers.  The  Tory 
lords  withdrew  from  the  sessions,  and  the  bill  passed,  June  4, 
1832. 

749.  Incidentally  the  long  contest  had  settled  two  points  in 
the  constitution : 

It  had  shown  how  the  Commons  could  control  the  Lords. 

It  had  shown  that  the  ministers  are  not  the  king's  ministry,  except 
in  name,  but  that  they  are  really  the  ministry,  or  servants,  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  This  principle  has  never  since  been 
threatened.  The  king  acts  only  through  the  ministers.  Even 
the  speech  he  reads  at  the  opening  of  parliament  is  written  for 
him,  and  without  consulting  him;  and  he  cannot  change  a 
phrase  in  it. 

750.  Excursus :    the  way  in  which  a  change   in   ministry  is 
brought  about  should  be  clearly  understood.     If  the  ministry  is 
outvoted  on  any  matter  of  importance,  it  must  resign.     If  it 


602  ENGLAND   AFTER   1815  [§  750 

does  not  do  so,  and  claims  to  be  in  doubt  whether  it  has  really 
lost  its  majority,  its  opponents  will  test  the  matter  by  moving 
a  vote  of  "  lack  of  confidence."  If  this  carries,  the  ministry 
takes  it  as  a  mandate  to  resign. 

There  is  only  one  alternative:  If  the  ministry  believes  that 
the  nation  will  support  it,  it  may  dissolve  parliament,  and 
"appeal  to  the  country."  If  the  new  parliament  gives  it  a 
majority,  it  may  go  on.  If  not,  it  must  at  once  give  way  to  a 
new  ministry. 

In  form,  the  new  ministry  is  chosen  by  the  king;  but  in 
reality,  he  simply  names  those  whom  the  will  of  the  in«j<>rii>i  in  tln> 
Commons  has  plainly  pointed  out.  Indeed,  he  names  only  one 
man,  whom  he  asks  to  "  form  a  government."  This  man  be- 
comes prime  minister,  and  selects  the  other  ministers.  In  a 
parliamentary  election,  Englishmen  really  vote  also  for  the 
next  prime  minister,  just  as  truly,  and  about  as  <l>'r< -<•//>/.  as  we 
in  this  country  vote  for  our  President.  If  the  king  asks  any 
one  else  to  form  a  ministry  but  the  man  whom  the  Commons 
have  accepted  as  their  leader,  probably  the  man  asked  will 
respectfully  decline.  If  he  tries  to  act,  he  will  fail  to  get 
other  strong  meii  to  join  him,  and  his  ministry  will  at  once 
fail.  If  there  were  any  real  uncertainty  as  to  which  one  of 
several  men  were  leader,  the  matter  would  be  settled  by  confer- 
ence among  the  leaders,  and  the  ministry  would,  of  course,  in- 
clude all  of  them.  In  1902  Balfour  was  chosen  by  the  Con- 
servatives in  such  a  conference. 

A  curious  feature  to  an  American  student  is  that  all  this 
complex  procedure  rests  only  on  custom  —  nowhere  on  a  written 
constitution.  Each  member  of  the  Cabinet  is  the  head  of  some 
great  department  —  Foreign  Affairs,  Treasury,  War,  and  so  on. 
The  leading  assistants  in  all  these  departments  —  some  forty 
people  now  —  are  included  in  the  ministry.  About  twenty 
of  the  forty,  —  holding  the  chief  positions,  —  make  the  inner 
circle  which  is  called  the  Cabinet. 

The  Cabinet  is  reaUy  " the  Government"  and  is  often  referred 
to  by  that  title.  It  is  the  real  executive  as  well  as  the  guiding  force 


§  750]  MINISTERIAL   GOVERNMENT  603 

in  the  legislature.  In  their  private  meetings  the  members  of 
the  Cabinet  decide  upon  general  policy.  In  parliament  they 
introduce  bills  and  advocate  them.  As  ministers,  they  carry 
out  the  plans  agreed  upon.  The  prime  minister  corresponds 
in  a  way  to  a  combination  of  the  President  and  the  Congressional 
Speaker  in  America.  The  Cabinet  is  what  our  cabinet  would 
be  if  the  President  were  merely  its  head,  and  if  its  members  had 
seats  in  Congress  with  control  over  the  order  of  business  in  that 
body,  and  with  power  to  dissolve  it  and  appeal  to  the  people  if 
Congress  differed  with  it. 

The  English  dissolution,  it  should  be  seen  clearly,  is  a  sort 
of  referendum  (§  854).  It  gives  the  English  people  a  better 
chance  to  express  their  will  directly  on  particular  important 
questions  than  we  in  America  get  —  except  in  very  rare  in- 
stances. That  is  one  reason  why  many  Englishmen  claim  that 
their  government  —  in  spite  of  the  "figure-head  royalty"  —  is 
really  more  democratic  than  ours.  It  does  respond  more  quickly 
to  the  will  of  the  nation  than  ours  does. 

Moreover,  the  union  of  executive  and  legislative  parts  of  the 
government  fixes  responsibility.  In  America,  Congress  passes  a 
multitude  of  bills  and  appropriations,  often  by  log-rolling  pro- 
cesses, for  which  no  party  and  no  leading  member  will  confess 
responsibility.  In  England,  the  ministry  is  responsible  for  every 
bill  that  is  passed.  Either  the  ministry  introduces  the  bill  to 
begin  with,  or  at  least  it  permits  or  adopts  it.  If  not  willing 
to  do  that,  it  either  defeats  the  bill,  or  is  itself  defeated.  It 
cannot  dodge  responsibility  to  the  nation.  Deadlocks  between 
executive  and  legislature  are  o.f  course  impossible. 

The  king's  veto,  of  course,  has  disappeared  in  these  changes. 
The  last  veto  was  one  by  Queen  Anne  in  1707.  Now  the  only 
veto  is  a  dissolution  of  parliament  by  the  ministry,  and  if  the 
country  is  in  favor  of  the  "  vetoed "  measure,  the  next  parlia- 
ment is  certain  to  make  it  into  law. 

The  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  it  should  be  under- 
stood, holds  a  very  different  position  from  the  Speaker  in 
America.  Here  he  is  the  party  leader  of  the  majority  party. 


604  ENGLAND  AFTER   1815  [§  751 

He  appoints  committees  so  as  to  give  complete  control  of  Con- 
gress to  his  own  party,  and  in  debates,  he  recognizes  members 
in  such  order  as  he  and  the  leaders  of  his  party  have  decided 
upon  —  not  simply  as  they  claim  the  floor.  In  England,  the 
Speaker  is  absolutely  non-partisan,  —  a  true  presiding  "  mode- 
rator," bound  to  treat  all  members  and  parties  impartially. 

No  authority  in  England  can  set  aside  a  law  of  parliament,  as  our 
Supreme  Court  sometimes  does  with  laws  of  Congress.  There  is  no 
possibility  of  a  deadlock  between  legislature  and  executive ;  nor,  since 
the  "mending"  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  1914  (§900)  can  there  be  any 
long  continued  deadlock  between  the  two  Houses  of  the  Legislature.  An 
election  is  followed  by  the  immediate  meeting  of  the  new  parliament, 
while  in  the  United  States  a  new  Congress  does  not  meet,  commonly, 
until  thirteen  months  after  its  election.  The  English  election,  too,  is 
very  often  to  decide  some  particular  important  question.  The  English 
people  can  express  their  will  in  such  an  election,  and  feel  sure  that  it 
will  be  made  promptly  into  law.  It  is  not  strange  that  Englishmen 
boast  (so  far  as  the  machinery  of  government  is  concerned)  that  their 
country  is  in  practice  more  democratic  than  any  other  large  country. 

751.  Excursus  :  American  and  English  Democracy.  —  The  First  Reform 
Bill  was  one  episode  in  a  general  period  of  democratic  advance.  The 
Second  French  Revolution  and  its  results  for  Europe  have  been  mentioned. 
In  America,  too,  much  progress  was  made  at  about  the  same  time.  All 
the  original  States  had  shut  out  large  classes  from  voting  (more  than 
half  all  the  men  on  an  average),  and  still  larger  classes  from  holding 
office,  by  graded  property  qualifications.  But  in  1821,  fifteen  of  the 
twenty-four  States  had  manhood  suffrage,  and  the  number  was  steadily 
growing.  Public  officials,  too,  were  just  ceasing  to  wear  powdered  hair. 
knee-breeches,  and  silk  stockings,  to  mark  themselves  off  from  the 
common  people. 

Moreover,  the  wider  franchise  of  tke  American  States  was  used  more 
directly  than  at  first.  In  1800  only  six  of  the  sixteen  commonwealths 
of  that  day  chose  presidential  electors  by  the  voters  directly;  but, 
after  1832,  South  Carolina  was  the  only  State  that  continued  to  choose 
them  by  the  legislature.  The  electors,  too,  were  no  longer  supposed 
to  be  a  select  coterie  who  were  to  "refine"  the  popular  judgment  by 
their  own  higher  intelligence.  They  had  become  —  what  they  have  since 
remained —  "  mere  letter  carriers,"  to  register  the  will  of  the  people. 

Thus  in  England  the  nation  politely  shelved  the  old  hereditary,  mo- 
narchic executive  by  taking  over  its  powers  through  a  committee  of  the 


§  751]  ENGLAND  A  DEMOCRACY  605 

elected  parliament.  In  America  the  people  captured  the  old  indirectly 
elective,  aristocratic  executive,  by  making  it  directly  responsive  to  the 
popular  will.  The  victory  of  Jackson,  in  the  election  of  1828,  marks  this 
change.  He  was  called  the  "  chosen  Tribune  of  the  people."  Since  that 
time,  the  President  has  been  more  truly  representative  of  the  people's  will 
than  Congress  has.  One  result  of  the  contrast  between  English  and 
American  democracy  is  that,  while  the  royal  veto  has  utterly  vanished, 
the  Presidential  veto  has  steadily  grown  in  importance. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  The  most  brilliant  story  is  Justin  McCarthy's 
Epoch  of  Reform,  25-83.  Rose's  Rise  of  Democracy,  9-52,  is  excellent. 
See  also  one  or  more  of  the  following :  Hazen's  Europe  Since  1815,  428- 
438;  Beard's  English  Historians,  549-565,  and  594-607  (extract  from 
Bagehot's  English  Constitution};  Robinson  and  Beard's  Readings,  II, 
239-245  ;  Cheyney's  Readings,  679-690.  Lee's  Source  Book  gives  one  of 
Russell's  speeches,  and  a  letter  from  Macaulay.  Weyman's  Chipping 
Borough  (fiction)  shows  forcefully  the  mob  influence  in  1832  and  reflects 
faithfully  the  snobbishness  of  the  middle-class  Liberals  of  the  time. 


CHAPTER   LII 

POLITICAL    REFORM   IN    THE   VICTORIAN   AGE 

752.  The  First  Reform  Bill  introduced  a  new  era,  which  we 
call  the  Victorian  age.  In  1837  William  IV  was  succeeded  by 
his  niece,  Victoria,  a  girl  of  eighteen,  whose  reign  filled  the 
next  sixty-four  years.  Victoria  came  to  the  throne  a  modest, 
high-minded  girl.  She  was  not  brilliant,  nor  particularly  in- 
tellectual ;  but  she  grew  into  a  worthy,  sensible,  good  woman, 
of  splendid  moral  influence,  deeply  loved  by  her  people  and 
admired  by  all  the  world.  In  1840  she  married  Albert,  the 
ruler  of  a  small  German  principality ;  and  their  happy,  pure, 
and  lovely  family  life  (blessed  with  nine  children)  was  an 
example  new  to  European  courts  for  generations. 

In  politics  Victoria  kept  willingly  the  position  of  a  "  consti- 
tutional "  sovereign ;  but,  on  some  critical  occasions,  she  did 
induce  her  ministers  to  moderate  their  intended  policy.  The 
most  notable  instance  of  this  sort  was  in  18G1,  when  her  sug- 
gestion and  influence  softened  a  communication  from  the  Eng- 
lish government  to  the  United  States,  which  otherwise  might 
have  driven  the  two  countries  into  war  (the  Mason  and  Slidell 
incident  at  the  opening  of  our  Civil  War). 

The  Victorian  age  was  a  period  of  peace,  prosperity,  refine- 
ment of  morals,  and  intellectual  glory.  Throughout  the  long 
period,  England  remained  the  must  powerful  and  the  richest 
country  in  the  world,  —  leading  especially  in  manufacturing, 
in  commerce,  in  sea-power,  and  in  literature.  In  this  last  re- 
spect, English  leadership  is  marked  by  a  long  list  of  famous 
names.  True,  Burns,  Byron,  and  Scott  belong  to  the  age  of 
the  Georges ;  Wordsworth  and  Macaulay,  too,  had  begun  their 
activity  before  the  accession  of  Victoria.  But  Browning, 

606 


§753] 


THE   VICTORIAN  AGE 


607 


Tennyson,  Dickens,  "  George  Eliot,"  and  Thackeray  are  only  a 
part  of  the  dazzling  Victorian  galaxy  in  poetry  and  fiction, 
while  such  names  as  Darwin,  Tyndal.  and  Huxley  suggest  some 
of  the  services  of  Victorian  scientists  to  the  world.  During 

the  same  period,  the  lit-      §_ _ i 

erary  charm  of  Carlyle, 
Ruskin,  and  William  Mor- 
ris enabled  them  to 
preach  effectively  to  all 
English-speaking  peoples 
their  new  views  of  life 
and  of  art. 

753.  Politics  in  the  Vic- 
torian Age.  — The  First 
Reform  Bill  gave  votes 
to  650,000  people  — or  to 
one  out  of  six  grown  men. 
This  was  five  times  as 
liberal  as  the  French  fran- 
chise after  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1830.  Political 
power  in  England  had 
passed  from  a  narrow, 
selfish  landlord  oligarchy 
to  a  broad  enlightened 
middle-class  aristocracy. 
For  more  than  forty  years  QUEEN  VICTORIA.  At  the  time  of  her  coro- 


nation. —  From  a  portrait  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 


(1790-1830),  parliament 
had  openly  been  contemp- 
tuous of  public  opinion.  Thenceforward  it  has  been  always 
promptly  responsive  to  that  force,  and  reform  has  crowded 
upon  reform. 

During   the  next   forty-two  years   (1832-1874)   the    Tories 
(Conservatives J)   were   in   power  less  than  one-sixth  of  the 


1Soon  after  the  great  Reform  Bill,  the  name  Conservative  began  to  replace 
Tory,  and  Liberal  replaced  Whig. 


608 


ENGLAND  AFTER   1815 


[§753 


time.  After  that  period,  they,  too,  adopted  a  liberal  policy 
toward  the  working  classes,  and  secured  longer  leases  of 
power.1  The  man  who  did  most  to  educate  the  Conservatives 
into  this  new  attitude  toward  social  reform  was  Disraeli,  the 
real  leader  of  the  party  through  the  third  quarter  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  By  birth  Disraeli  was  a  Jew.  He  was  an 
author,  and  a  man  of  brilliant  genius.  Some  critics  called  him 
"  a  Conservative  with  Radical  opinions,"  while  others  insisted 
that  he  had  no  principles  in  politics.  Carlyle  expressed  the 
general  amazement  at  Disraeli's  attitude  and  at  his  success  in 
drawing  his  party  with  him,  —  "a  superlative  Hebrew  con- 
jurer, spell-binding  all  the  great  lords,  great  parties,  great  in- 
terests, and  leading  them  by  the  nose,  like  helpless,  mesmer- 
ized, somnambulant  cattle." 

An  even  more  important  figure  was  Disraeli's  great  adver- 
sary, William  E.  Gladstone.  Gladstone  entered  parliament  in 
1833,  at  the  first  election  after  the  Reform  Bill,  and  soon 
proved  himself  a  powerful  orator  and  a  master  of  debate.  He 
was  then  an  extreme  Tory.  By  degrees  he  grew  Liberal,  and 
thirty  years  later  he  succeeded  Lord  Russell  as  the  unchal- 
lenged leader  of  that  party.  For  thirty  years  more  he  held 
that  place,  —  four  times  prime  minister,  —  and  at  the  close  of 
his  long  career  he  had  become  an  advanced  Radical. 


1  Reference  Table  of  Administrations  : 


1830-34 
1834-35 
1835-41 
1841-16 

lS4li-.ri2 


Liberals 
Grey 


Melbourne 


Conser- 
vatives 


Peel 
Peel 


Russell 

1852 Derby 

1852-58       Ml)  Aberdeen 
I  (2)  Palmerston 

1858-59 Derby 

1850-456      /  M  Palmerston 
'  \  (2)  Russell 

1866-68 Derby 

1868-74    .    Gladstone 


Conser- 
vatives 

1874-80 Disraeli 

(Beaconsfield) 

1880-85    .    Gladstone 

1885-86 Salisbury 

1886     .    .    Gladstone 

1886-92 Salisbury 

1892-95    .  J  (1)  Gladstone 
I  (2)  Rosebery 

1895-1906  -f  (1)  Salisbury 


1906 


\  (2)  Balfour 
J  Campbell-Bannerman 
t  Asquith  (to  1915) 


§756]  DISRAELI  AND   GLADSTONE  609 

His  early  friends  accused  Gladstone  bitterly  as  inconsistent 
or  treacherous;  but  the  world  at  large  accepted  his  own  simple 
explanation  of  his  changes,  —  "  I  was  brought  up  to  distrust 
liberty;  I  learned  to  believe  in  it."  For  the  last  quarter- 
century  of  his  life  he  was  widely  revered  as  England's  "  Grand 
Old  Man." 

After  this  general  survey,  we  will  turn  to  some  of  the  details 
of  England's  progress  in  the  Victorian  age. 

754.  The  Tories  at  once  accepted  the  result  of  1832,  as  the 
Conservative  party  in  England  always  does  when  a  new  reform 
has  once  been  forced  upon  them.     But  they  planted  themselves 
upon  it  as  a  finality.     Even  the  Whigs,  who  were  by  no  means 
democrats,  agreed  in  this  "  finality  "  view.     In  the  parliament 
of  1837  a  Radical  moved  a  resolution  in  favor  of  a  further  ex- 
tension of  the  franchise ;  but  Lord  Russell,  speaking  for  the 
ministry,  condemned  it  savagely,  and  only  twenty-two  votes 
supported  it.     A  few  eager  Radicals  in  parliament  for  a  time 
kept  up  a  cry  for  a  more  liberal  franchise,  but  soon  they  gave 
up  the  contest,  to  take  part  in  the  great  social  legislation  of  the 
period  (§  763  ff.). 

755.  But  outside  parliament,  and  outside  the  sovereign  middle 
class,  lay  the  masses  of  workingmen,  who  knew  that  the  victory 
of  1832  had  been  won  largely  by  their  sympathy  and  public 
demonstrations,  and  who  felt  that  they  had  been  cheated  of 
the   fruits.1      This  class   continued  restless;   but   they   lacked 
leadership,  and,  in  ordinary  times,  their  claims  secured  little 
attention.     Two  marked  periods  of  agitation  there  were,  how- 
ever, at  intervals-of  nearly  twenty  years, — just  before  1848  and 
again  before  1867.     The  first  was  futile ;  the  second  led  to  the 
Second  Reform  Bill. 

756.  The  earlier  of  the  two  agitations  is  the  famous  Chartist 
movement.     Even  before  the  First  Reform  Bill,  there  had  been 
an  extensive  agitation  for  a  more  radical  change,  and  the  ex- 
tremists had  fixed  upon  six  points  to  struggle  for :   (1)  man- 

1  There  is  an  admirable  treatment  in  Hose's  Rise  of  Democracy,  ch.  ii. 


610 


ENGLAND   AFTER    1815 


[§757 


hood  suffrage,  (2)  equal  electoral  districts,  (3)  abolition  of  all 
property  qualification  for  membership  in  parliament,  (4)  pay- 
ment of  members,  (5)  the  ballot,  and  (6)  annual  elections.1  In 
1837  the  Radicals  renewed  their  agitation,  and  these  "Six 
Points"  were  embodied  in  the  Charter  they  demanded.  Ex- 
citement grew  for  years,2  and  in  the  forties,  many  Chartist* 
looked  forward  to  rebellion.  Men  drilled  and  armed;  and 

the  government  was  terrified  into 
taking  stringent  precautions. 

"  Forty  -eight "  was  the  critical 
year.  The  Chartists  adopted  a 
resolution,  "All  labor  shall  cease 
till  the  people's  Charter  becomes 
the  law  of  the  land."  This  was 
the  first  attempt  at  a  national 
strike  for  political  pur  poses.  But 
the  plan  for  monster  demonstra- 
tions, with  great  petitions  and  pro- 
cessions, fizzled  out,  and  the  "year 
of  revolutions"  saw  no  disturbance 
in  England  that  called  for  more 
than  a  few  extra  policemen. 

757.  The  next  agitation  took  its 
rise  from  the  suffering  of  the  unem- 
ployed while  the  American  Civil  War  cut  off  the  supply  of 
cotton  for  English  factories.  This  time  no  one  dreamed  of 
force.  The  agitators  could  count  safely  on  winning,  through 
the  rivalry  of  the  two  political  parties;  and  the  "Second  He- 
form  Bill"  was  finally  passed  in  1867  by  the  Conservative 
ministry  of  Derby  and  Disraeli. 

Lord  Derby  was  prime  minister,  but,  as  he  sat  in  the  Lords,  it  was 
necessary  to  intrust  some  Commoner  with  special  leadership  in  the  lower 

1  To  the  average  British  "  Liberal  "  of  1832,  such  demands  seemed  revolu- 
tionary, but  the  first  five  have  now  been  adopted.    The  sixth  is  no  longer 
demanded. 

2  Charles  Kingsley's  Alton  Locke  is  a  powerful  story  of  this  period. 


DISRAELI— LORD  BEACONSFIKLD. 


§759]  MINOR   POLITICAL   REFORMS  611 

House.     This  task  fell  upon  Disraeli,  who  became  (as  is  usually  the  case 
under  such  conditions)  the  real  genius  of  the  administration. 

Votes  were  now  given  in  the  towns  to  all  householders  (owners 
or  renters)  and  to  all  lodgers  who  paid  ten  pounds  a  year  for 
their  rooms.  Thus  the  bill  gave  the  franchise  to  the  artisan 
class,  raising  the  number  of  voters  to  over  three  million,  or  to 
something  over  half  the  adult  male  population  of  that  time. 

758.  The  "  Third  Reform  Bill,"  1884.  —The  unskilled  laborers 
in  town  and  country,  and  the   male  house-servants,  still  had 
no  votes ;  but  England  had  taken  a  tremendous  step  toward 
democracy.     This   victory   of  1867,   like  that   of  1832,   was 
followed  by  a  period  of  sweeping  legislation  for  social  reforms, 

-  mainly  in  Gladstone's  Liberal  ministry,  1868-1874  (§  768). 
Then,  after  a  Conservative  ministry,  led  by  Disraeli  and 
chiefly  concerned  with  foreign  matters  (§  769 )  ,  Gladstone 
took  office  again,  and  the  "  Third  Reform  Bill "  (1884)  enfran- 
chised the  unskilled  laborer  and  the  servant  class. 

This  raised  the  electorate  to  over  six  millions,  and  (except 
for  unmarried  sons,  without  property,  living  in  the  father's 
family)  it  enfranchised  practically  all  self-supporting  men.  The 
next  year,  parliament  did  away  with  the  chief  remaining 
inequalities  in  representation  by  dividing  England  into  parlia- 
mentary districts,  like  our  congressional  districts. 

It  is  well  to  fix  clearly  the  nature  of  the  three  Reform  Bills.  The  First 
(1832)  enfranchised  the  middle  class  (merchants,  shopkeepers,  profes- 
sional men,  etc.,  besides  the  gentry,  freeholders,  and  members  of  borough 
corporations,  who  had  the  franchise  before).  The  Second  (1867)  en- 
franchised the  artisans  in  the  towns.  The  Third  (1884)  enfranchised 
the  unskilled  laborers.  The  proportion  of  voters  to  population  is  now 
about  the  same  as  in  the  United  States. 

759.  Four  other  reforms  have  made  English  politics  clean  and 
honest. 

In  1870  the  secret  ballot  was  introduced.  The  form  adopted 
was  the  excellent  one  known  as  the  Australian  ballot,  from 
its  use  in  Victoria.  Many  of  the  States  of  our  Union  have 
since  then  adopted  the  same  model. 


612  ENGLAND  AFTER   1815  [§759 

Between  1855  and  1870,  the  civil  service  was  thoroughly  re- 
formed. In  earlier  years,  public  offices  had  been  given  to 
reward  political  partisans,  in  as  disgraceful  a  degree  as  ever 
marked  American  politics.  But  since  1870,  appointments  have 
always  been  made  after  competitive  examinations,  and  now 
no  appointed  official  is  removed  for  party  reasons.  England  had 
completed  this  great  reform  just  when  the  United  States 
began  it. 

In  1868  parliament  turned  over  to  the  courts  the  trial  of  con- 
tested elections.  In  earlier  times,  when  the  kings  sometimes 
attempted  to  control  the  composition  of  parliament,  it  was 
needful  for  the  Commons  themselves  to  have  the  right  to 
decide  between  two  men  who  claimed  the  same  seat.  That 
need  had  passed  away ;  and  the  decision  of  contested  elections 
in  parliament,  as  in  our  legislatures  still,  was  often  made 
by  a  strict  "  party  vote,"  without  regard  to  the  merits  of  the 
opposing  claims.  In  transferring  these  cases  to  the  courts, 
England  led  the  way  in  a  reform  which  other  free  countries 
will  in  time  adopt. 

BrV» ••/•//  '/'  elections,  direct  and  also  indirect,  was  effectively 
checked  by  the  "  Corrupt  Practices  Prevention  Act "  of  1883. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. —  On  the  Second  and  Third  Bills,  interesting 
treatments  are  to  be  found  in  Hazen,  Rose,  McCarthy's  History  of  Our 
Own  Times,  and  in  the  younger  McCarthy's  England  under  Gladstone. 
Beard's  English  Hint'Tinns,  666-581  and  582-593,  is  admirable.  On  the 
Chartists,  Rose,  84-146  ;  Hazen,  440-450  ;  Lee's  Source  Book,  530-539. 


CHAPTER   LIII 

REFORM   IN   ENGLISH  LOCAL   GOVERNMENT 

760.  The  extension  of  the  franchise  in  the  three  great  "  Re- 
form "  bills  applied  only  to  parliamentary  elections.     Local  gov- 
ernment remained  aristocratic.     It  was  not  centralized,  as  in 
France ;  but  each  local  unit  was  controlled  by  the  local  aristoc- 
racy. 

a.  The  two  rural  units,  the  counties  and  the  parishes,  were 
altogether  controlled  by  the  country  gentry,  without  even  the 
form  of  an  election.     The  crown  appointed  a  Board  of  Justices 
of  the  Peace,  for  life,  from  the  most  important  gentlemen  of 
each  county.     This  Board  managed  all  matters  of  county  gov- 
ernment, acting  both  as  judges  and  as  county  commissioners. 
And  each  parish  was  ruled  by  a  vestry  of  twelve  gentlemen 
who  formed  a  close  corporation,  holding  office  for  life  and  them- 
selves filling  vacancies. 

b.  In  the  towns,  the  government  was  usually  vested  in  a  mayor 
and  a  council,  who  were  virtually  self-elected  for  life.     This  town 
rule  had  long  been  indescribably  corrupt.     The  "  corporation," 
as  the  government  was  called,  never  represented  any  large  part 
of  the  inhabitants.     The  members  spent  public  funds  as  they 
pleased,  —  largely  in  salaries  to  themselves,  and  in  entertain- 
ments and  state  dinners,  —  and  they  rented  public  property  to 
each  other  at  nominal  prices,  while  all  the  pressing  needs  of 
the  great  and  growing  city  populations  were  ignored. 

761.  This  corrupt  town  government  was  the  first  part  of  local 
government  to  be  reformed.     Earl  Grey's  ministry  in  1833  ap- 
pointed "  a  commission  of  inquiry  " ;  and,  after  the  report  of 
the  commission  in  1835,  Lord  Russell  introduced  a  Municipal 
Reform  Bill.     The  measure  provided  that  183  boroughs  (in- 

613 


614  ENGLAND   AFTER    1815  [§762 

dicated  by  name)  should  each  have  a  municipal  council  elected  by 
all  icho  paid  local  taxes.  The  Lords  went  wild  with  dismay  at 
this  "  gigantic  innovation,"  and  by  votes  of  6  to  1,  they  amended 
nearly  every  clause  in  the  bill  so  as  to  make  it  worthless. 
At  this  time,  O'Connell,  the  Irish  agitator,  started  a  movement 
to  abolish  the  House  of  Lords.  "  It  is  impossible,"  said  he, 
"that  it  should  last,  —  that  such  a  set  of  stupid,  ignorant, 
half-mad  fops  and  coxcombs  should  continue  so  to  lord  it." 
The  Commons  refused  the  amendments;  and  after  a  four 
months'  struggle  the  Lords  yielded.  From  time  to  time, 
through  the  century,  new  towns  were  added  to  the  list,  as 
need  arose,  and  finally,  in  1882,  it  was  provided  that  any  town 
might  adopt  this  form  of  government  for  itself. 

The  municipal  reform  of  1835  was  immediate  and  successful.  English 
town  government  ever  since  has  been  honest,  efficient,  and  enlightened,  — 
a  model  to  all  other  democratic  countries.  The  best  citizens  serve  in  the 
town  councils.  The  appointed  officials,  like  the  city  engineer,  city  health 
officer,  and  so  on,  are  men  of  high  professional  standing,  who  serve  virtu- 
ally for  life  and  are  never  appointed  or  removed  for  political  purposes. 
The  government  costs  less  and  gives  more  than  in  American  cities.  And 
the  scandals  that  disgrace  our  city  governments  are  unknown.  The  form 
of  government  is  that  known  as  the  "Council  plan"  :  the  mayor  is 
hardly  more  than  a  presiding  officer.  He  is  elected  by  the  council,  and 
he  has  no  veto.  The  cities  own  their  own  water  and  lighting  and  street 
car  systems  to  a  much  greater  degree  than  in  America. 

762.  Reform  in  the  Rural  Units,  in  1888  and  1894.  —  In  the 
counties  and  parishes,  the  gentry  rule  was  honest,  but  it  broke 
down  in  the  nineteenth  century,  under  the  burden  of  new 
duties.  Finally,  in  1888,  the  Conservative  ministry  of  Lord 
Salisbury  passed  the  County  Council  Bill,  providing  for  the  elec- 
tion of  a  Council  for  each  county  by  all  local  tax  payers.  A  new 
interest  in  local  affairs  followed,  and  the  elected  Councils  be- 
gan to  change  the  face  of  England  by  their  energetic  govern- 
ment. Six  years  later,  the  last  ministry  of  Gladstone  extended 
this  movement  by  the  still  more  important  Parish  Councils 
Bill. 

These  two  laws  have  made  local  government  in  the  rural 


§762]  LOCAL   HOME   RULE  615 

units  thoroughly  democratic.  The  elements  are  four.  (1)  The 
parish  has  a  primary  assembly  (parish  meeting).  (2)  Parishes 
with  more  than  three  hundred  people  have  also  an  elective 
Parish  Council.  (3)  Larger  subdivisions  of  the  county,  known 
as  districts,  have  elective  District  Councils.  And  (4)  at  the 
top  is  the  elective  County  Council.  The  powers  of  all  these 
local  bodies  are  very  great.  Women  have  the  franchise  in  elect- 
ing local  Councils  and  the  right  to  sit  in  them,  on  the  same 
terms  as  men. 

London  had  not  been  included  in  the  previous  municipal  reform  acts, 
but  in  1888  it  was  made  an  "administrative  county."  Since  1888  the 
representative  County  Council  of  London,  ruling  six  million  people,  has 
been  one  of  the  most  interesting  governing  bodies  in  the  world. 


CHAPTER  LIV 

SOCIAL    REFORM   IN   ENGLAND 

763.  Social  Reform  by  the  Grey  Ministry,  1832-1834. —  The 
thirties  were  a  period  of  humanitarian  agitation,  as  well  as  of 
democratic  advance.  In  England,  Charles  Dickens  wrote  his 
moving  stories  of  the  abuses  in  the  courts,  the  schools,  the 
factories,  the  shops.  Carlyle  thundered  against  injustice,  in 
Chartism  and  in  Past  and  Present;  Mrs.  Browning  pleaded  for 
the  abused  children  in  touching  poems  (§  .680). l  Public  men, 
like  Wilberforce,  Romilly,  and  Shaftesbury,  urged  reform  in 
parliament. 

After  carrying  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  Earl  Grey  dissolved 
parliament.  The  new  parliament,  chosen  by  the  enlarged 
citizen-body,  contained  a  huge  majority  for  the  Liberals. 
Earl  Grey's  ministry  remained  in  office  for  three  years  more,— 
years  packed  with  social  reforms.  It  freed  the  Negro  slaves 
in  the  West  India  colonies,  paying  the  colonists  for  their  loss.2 
It  began  to  free  the  hardly  less  miserable  "white  slaves"  of  the 
English  factory  towns,  by  a  new  era  of  factory  legislation 
(§  764).  It  freed  the  Irish  peasants  from  the  obligation  of  pay- 
ing tithes  to  support  the  Episcopalian  clergy,  whom  they  hated. 
It  swept  away  some  more  excesses  of  the  absurd  and  bloody 
criminal  code  (§  746).  It  abolished  the  pillory  and  the  whip- 
ping post,  and  purified  the  prisons.  It  made  a  first  step  toward 

iSo  in  America,  the  thirties  saw  the  beginning  of  the  "woman's  rights" 
movement,  including  demands  for  coeducation ,  equal  property  rights  with  men, 
and  the  right  to  vote.  Massachusetts  founded  the  first  public  hospital  for 
the  insane.  Special  schools  soon  appeared  for  the  blind  and  the  deaf.  The 
temperance  movement  and  the  abolition  movement  got  fairly  under  way. 

2  Special  report :  Wilberforce,  and  his  work  for  emancipation. 

616 


§764]  FACTORY  LEGISLATION  617 

public  education,  by  a  national  grant  of  £100,000  a  year  to 
schools.     And  it  began  the  reform  of  local  government. 

764.  The  most  important  legislation  of  the  century  was  the 
labor  and  factory  legislation.  Gradually  Englishmen  awakened 
to  the  ugly  fact  that  the  new  factory  system  was  ruining,  not 
only  the  souls,  but  also  the  bodies  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  women  and  children,  so  as  to  threaten  national  degeneracy. 
In  1833,  among  the  first  acts  of  the  "  Reformed  parliament," 
Lord  Ashley  secured  a  factory  law  limiting  the  work  of  chil- 
dren (under  thirteen  years)  to  forty-eight  hours  a  week,  and 
that  of  "young  people"  (from  thirteen  to  eighteen  years)  to 
sixty-nine  hours  a  week  (or  twelve  hours  on  five  days  and 
nine  hours  on  Saturdays).  Some  provision  was  made  also 
for  educating  children  and  for  a  few  holidays;  and  the  em- 
ployment of  children  under  nine  (!)  was  strictly  forbidden. 
About  half  all  the  children  employed  (some  30,000)  were  freed 
by  this  law. 

The  bill  was  fought  bitterly  by  most  of  the  manufacturers,  who  urged 
(1)  that  it  would  oblige  them  to  reduce  wages  and  raise  prices;  (2)  that 
it  took  from  the  workingman  his  "freedom  of  contract,"  or  right  to  sell 
his  labor  as  he  chose  ;  and  (3)  that  it  would  cost  England  her  industrial 
leadership  among  nations.  But  public  opinion  had  at  last  been  aroused, 
and  the  bill  became  law.  Fortunately,  it  provided  for  salaried  "factory 
inspectors"  ;  and  these  officers,  after  many  prosecutions,  compelled  the 
employers  to  obey  it. 

In  1847  a  still  greater  factory  law  limited  the  labor  of  women  and 
"  young  persons  "  (between  14  and  16)  to  ten  hours  a  day,  with  only  half- 
time  for  "  children  "  (between  9  and  14)  and  with  provision  for  schooling 
in  the  vacant  half  of  the  day.  Indirectly,  this  law  fixed  a  limit  upon  the 
hours  of  men  also,  because,  after  the  women  and  children  had  all  left  a 
factory,  it  was  not  profitable  to  keep  the  machinery  going.  Thus  ten 
hours  became  the  factory  working-day. 

The  legislation  of  1833  applied  only  to  factories  for  weaving 
goods.  But  in  1840,  a  parliamentary  commission  made  public 
the  horrible  condition  of  women  and  children  in  the  coal  mines, 
—  stunted,  crippled,  misshapen  wretches,  living  in  brutal  in- 
decency. Children  began  work  underground  at  five  or  six  years 


618  ENGLAND  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY        [§766 

of  age,  and  rarely  saw  daylight.  Girls  and  women  worked  al- 
most naked  among  the  men.  The  working  hours  were  from 
twelve  to  fourteen  a  day ;  and  in  the  wet  underground  pas- 
sages, two  or  three  feet  high,  women  were  compelled  to  crawl 
back  and  fourth  on  hands  and  knees,  hauling  great  carts  of 
coal  by  chains  fastened  to  their  waists.  A  law  at  once  forbade 
underground  labor  by  women  and  children. 

Then  the  principles  of  factory  legislation  were  soon 
extended  to  almost  all  other  lines  of  manufactures.  Of  the 
long  series  of  later  acts,  the  most  important  is  Asquith's  Factory 
Act  of  1895  (which,  along  with  other  wholesome  provisions, 
prohibits  the  employment  of  any  child  under  eleven  years  of  age),1 
and  the  great  Act  of  1901,  which  revised  and  advanced  the 
factory  legislation  of  the  preceding  century.  Since  1902,  no 
child  under  12  can  be  employed  at  all  in  any  sort  of  factory  or 
workshop;  and  for  employees  between  12  and  16,  a  physician 
must  certify  that  there  is  no  danger  of  physical  injury  from 
the  employment.  Night  work  for  women  and  children  is 
strictly  forbidden. 

These  acts  have  beeto  accompanied  by  many  provisions  to 
secure  good  lighting  and  ventilation  in  factories  and  work- 
shops, and  to  prevent  accidents  from  machinery,  by  compelling 
the  employer  to  fence  it  in  with  every  possible  care.  In  1880 
an  Employers'  Liability  Act  made  it  easy  for  a  workman  to 
secure  compensation  for  any  injury  for  which  he  was  not  him- 
self to  blame;  and  in  1897  a  still  more  generous  Workman's 
Compensation  Act  secured  such  compensation  for  the  workmen 
by  a  simple  process  without  lawsuits.  These  acts  have  been 
copied  in  the  last  few  years  by  progressive  States  in  our  Union. 

765.  Lord  Grey  retired  in  1834 ;  but  his  Liberal  successors 
began  the  modern  liberal  policy  toward  the  English  colonies  by 

!For  Further  Reading:  Gibbin's  Industrial  History  of  England,  175-176, 
and  Cheyney's  Industrial  and  Social  History,  224-262.  Vivid  statements  are 
given  also  in  Justin  McCarthy's  Epoch  of  Reform,  History  of  Our  Own 
Times,  and  England  in  the  Ninteenth  Century,  and  in  Lecky's  History  of 
England,  VI,  219-225. 


§766] 


FREE   TRADE 


619 


FIRST  ADHESIVE 
PENNY  POSTAGE 
STAMP.  The  de- 
sign was  used 
without  change 
for  thirty  years, 
from  1840  to  1870. 


a  new  "  Government  Act"  for  Canada  in  1839  (§  782);  and  in- 
troduced penny  postage  in  1840.     Previous  to  this,  the  charge 
on  letters  had  been  very  high,  sometimes  sev- 
eral shillings,  and  had  been  collected  in  cash 
by  the  carriers.     When  the  change  was  sug- 
gested, the  postal   authorities  protested  ear- 
nestly, declaring  that  under  the  proposed  plan 
the  carriers  would  never  be  able  to  handle  the 
letters,  or  that  it  would  cost  ruinous  sums  to 
do  so. 

766.  Repeal  of  the  "Corn  Laws."— The  Con- 
servative ministry  of  Peel  (1841-1846)  was 
marked  by  the  abolition  of  the  Corn  Laws. 
Those  laws  had  put  an  excessively  high  tariff 
on  imported  grain.  The  aim  was  to  encour- 
age the  raising  of  food-stuffs  in  England,  so 
as  to  make  sure  of  a  home  supply ;  and  during  the  Napoleonic 
war  this  policy  perhaps  had  been  justifiable.  The  money  prof- 
its, however,  had  always 
gone  mainly  to  the  land- 
lords, who  enacted  the 
laws  in  parliament  and 
who  raised  rents  high 
enough  to  confiscate  the 
benefits  which  the  high 
prices  might  otherwise 
have  brought  to  the 
farmer.  After  the  rapid 
growth  in  population 
had  made  it  impossible 
for  England  to  produce 
enough  food  for  her  peo- 


SIR  ROBERT  PEEL,  a  portrait  bust. 


pie  anyway,  the  land- 
lords' monopoly  of  bread- 
stuffs  had  become  an  intolerable  burden  upon  the  starving 
multitudes. 


620  ENGLAND   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY         [§  7(>7 

The  needless  increase  of  misery  among  this  class  finally 
aroused  great  moral  indignation.  In  1838  the  Anti-Corri-Law 
League  was  organized  by  Richard  Cobden  and  John  Bright,  and 
for  years  it  carried  on  a  wonderful  campaign  of  education 
through  the  press  and  by  means  of  great  public  meetings. 
The  manufacturing  capitalists  were  made  to  see  that  the  Corn 
Laws  taxed  them,  indirectly,  for  the  benefit  of  the  landlords 
—  since  to  enable  their  workmen  to  live,  they  l*ad  to  pay  higher 
wages  than  would  otherwise  have  been  necessary.  And  so  the 
selfish  interests  of  this  influential  manufacturing  class  were 
thrown  to  the  side  of  reform. 

Finally,  in  184(5,  a  huge  calamity  was  added  to  the  same  side 
of  the  scales.  This  was  the  Irish  Famine.  The  population  of 
Ireland  had  been  increasing  rapidly,  until  it  amounted  to  over 
eight  millions.  The  greater  part  were  poor  peasants,  living  in 
misery,  with  the  potato  for  almost  their  sole  food.  Suddenly, 
in  1846,  in  a  night,  came  a  blight  that  ruined  the  crop  for  the 
year;  and,  despite  generous  gifts  of  food  from  all  the  world, 
two  million  people  died  of  starvation.1 

The  government  in  England  had  already  been  considering  a 
reform  of  the  Corn  Laws,  and  this  terrible  event  in  Ireland 
forced  it  to  act.  As  John  Bright  afterward  said  for  the  re- 
formers, "  Famine  itself,  against  wh'om  we  fought,  took  up  arms 
in  our  behalf."  Peel  decided  to^sweep  away  the  tax  and  to  let 
food  in  free;  and,  despite  some  bitter  opposition  from  his  own 
party,  the  reform  was  adopted. 

767.  "  Free  Trade."  —  Peel  was  at  once  overthrown  by  a  party 
revolt,  but  the  Liberals  took  up  the  work  and  carried  it  farther. 
They  abolished  one  protective  tariff  after  another,  until,  by 
1852,  England  had  become  a  "free  trade"  country. 

This  policy  was  never  afterward  seriously  questioned  in 
England  (whose  manufactures  and  commerce  have  prospered 
so  marvel  ously  under  it)  until  1903.  For  some  years  preceding 
that  date,  to  be  sure,  some  of  the  Conservative  party  talked  of 

i  A  million  more  emigrated  to  America  in  the  next  four  years  (1847-1850). 
This  was  the  first  large  immigration  of  Catholic  Irish  to  this  country. 


§768]  GLADSTONE,    1868-1874  621 

a  policy  of  "  fair  trade,"  or  a  system  of  retaliatory  tariffs  against 
countries  whose  tariffs  shut  out  British  manufactures ;  and, 
finally,  in  1903,  Joseph  Chamberlain,  a  member  of  the  Con- 
servative cabinet,  declared  that  the  time  had  come  for  England 
to  adopt  a  policy  of  that  kind  and  at  the  same  time  to  secure 
closer  trade  relations  with  her  colonies.  In  1909  and  1910  the 
Conservative  party  made  their  campaigns  on  this  issue  —  in 
opposition  to  the  radical  internal  tax  reform  of  Lloyd-George 
(§  898);  but  so  far  (1915),  they  have  not  won  the  nation. 

768.  The  Gladstone  Administration  of  1868-1874.  —  For  some 
twenty  years,  after  the  Corn- Law  reform,  England  saw  little 
legal  reform  aside  from  the  extensions  of  free  trade  and  of  the 
factory  legislation  already  mentioned. 

Then,  after  the  enfranchisement  of  the  artisan  class  by  the 
Reform  Bill  of  1867,  came  Gladstone's  great  reform  adminis- 
tration (1868-1874),  which  rivals  in  importance  that  of  Earl 
Grey  in  the  thirties.  In  1870  it  established  alongside  the  old 
private  and  parochial  schools  a  new  system  of  public  schools, 
or,  as  the  English  call  them,  Board  Schools.1  It  abolished  pur- 
chase of  office  in  the  army,  and  completed  the  civil  service  re- 
form (§  759).  It  introduced  the  ballot  (§  759).  It  opened 
English  universities  to  others  than  the  members  of  the  Church 
of  England.  It  passed  further  factory  laws.  It  definitely 
repealed  the  old  conspiracy  laws,  under  which  labor-unions 
had  been  persecuted,  and  it  gave  legal  rights  to  such  unions, 
permitting  them  to  incorporate  and  secure  the  rights  at  law  of 
an  individual.  It  also  arranged  honorably  the  Alabama  Arbi- 
tration Treaty  with  the  United  States.  It  "  disendowed  "  and 

1  So  called  because  they  are  managed  by  elected  Boards.  The  term  "  public 
school  "  in  England  had  been  appropriated  by  the  great  secondary  schools, 
like  Rugby  and  Eton,  though  there  is,  of  course,  no  public  control  over  them. 

These  Board  Schools  have  revolutionized  the  English  working-class.  About 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  more  than  a  third  of  the  newly  married 
couples  had  to  sign  their  names  in  the  marriage  registers  with  their  "  marks  " 
In  1903  only  two  per  cent  were  unable  to  write  their  names.  This  fact  is  full 
of  promise  for  those  European  lands  which  are  still  struggling  with  gross 
illiteracy. 


622  ENGLAND  IN  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY         [§769 

"  disestablished  "  the  English  Church  in  Ireland,1  and  carried 
through  important  land  reforms  for  Ireland  (§  775). 

But  Gladstone  would  not  go  far  enough  to  satisfy  the  Irish ; 
and.  despite  the  trade-union  law,  he  offended  the  labor  party 
by  a  law  regarding  strikes.  This  law  recognized  the  right  of  a 
union  to  strike,  but  made  criminal  any  show  of  intimidation. 
It  forbade  strikers  to  revile  those  who  remained  at  work ;  and 
it  is  reported  that  under  the  law  seven  women  were  sent  to 
prison  for  crying  "  Bah !  "  at  a  workman  who  had  deserted  the 
strikers.  The  ministry  lost  more  and  more  of  its  support,  and 
finally  Gladstone  "  dissolved."  In  the  election,  the  labor 
unions  voted  for  the  Conservatives ;  and  that  party  secured  a 
large  majority,  for  the  first  time  since  IS.'L'. 

769.  Disraeli's  Dazzling  Foreign  Policy  Administration,  1874- 
1880.  —  Gladstone's  ministry  had  been  exceedingly  peaceful 
and  honorable  in  dealing  with  foreign  nations.  Disraeli,  leader 
of  the  new  ministry,  characterized  this  attitude  as  weak,  and 
said  that  it  had  "compromised  the  honor"  of  Knirlund.  He 
adopted  an  aggressive  foreign  policy,  and  tried  to  excite 
English  patriotism  by  " jingo"2  utterances  and  conduct.  By 
act  of  parliament,  Queen  Victoria  was  declared  "  Empress  of 
India";  the  Boers  of  the  Transvaal  were  forced  into  war  so 
that  England  might  seize  their  lands  ;  ancl  in  1878,  when  Russia 

i  Since  the  days  of  Henry  VIII  and  Elizabeth,  the  Episcopal  Church  had 
held  the  ancient  property  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland.  The  Celtic  Irish 
population,  however,  clung  with  amazing  fidelity  to  the  old  faith,  so  that  in 
1835  a  parliamentary  inquiry  failed  to  find  one  Protestant  (except  the  Episco- 
palian clergyman)  in  any  one  of  150  parishes. 

After  Gladstone's  "  disestablishment,"  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Ireland  was 
separated  from  political  power,  and  was  upon  an  equal  footing  legally  with 
any  other  church;  but  the  "  disendowment  "  was  only  partial.  The  church 
lost  all  income  from  taxes  (tithes),  and  much  of  its  property  was  taken  from 
it  to  create  funds  for  the  Catholics  and  Presbyterians  in  the  island;  but  it 
kept  its  buildings  and  enough  other  property  to  leave  it  still  very  rich.  All 
this,  which  to  one  party  seemed  only  a  partial  remedying  of  a  huge  ancient 
injustice  toward  a  whole  people,  seemed  to  another  party  an  unpardonable 
injustice;  and  many  good  churchmen  never  forgave  Gladstone  for  this  "act 
of  robbery." 

a  For  this  use  of  "  jingo,"  see  McCarthy's  Our  Own  Times,  II,  382,  383. 


§770] 


DISRAELI  IN   1878 


623 


conquered  Turkey  (§  881)  and  seemed  about  to  exclude  the 
Turks  from  Europe,  Disraeli  interfered.  He  got  together 
a  Congress  of  the  Powers  at  Berlin,  and  saved  enough  of  Euro- 
pean Turkey  to  shut  Russia  off  from  the  Mediterranean.  In 
home  affairs,  the  only 
reform  was  to  repeal  the 
law  of  1871  regarding 
strikes. 

770.  Gladstone  and  Ire- 
land. --  Gladstone  had 
carried  on  a  great  cam- 
paign against  the  policy 
of  supporting  the  Turk 
in  his  mastery  over  the 
Christian  populations  of 
Southeastern  Europe. 
This  appeal  to  the  moral 
sense  of  the  English  peo- 
ple was  successful ;  and 
in  the  election  of  1880 
the  "Liberals  secured  an 
overwhelming  majority. 
Gladstone's  new  ministry 
passed  the  Third  Reform 
Bill  and  it  also  completed 
the  purification  of  English  politics,  by  adopting  the  law  against 
"  Corrupt  Practices  "  (§  759) ;  but  it  soon  found  itself  occupied 
with  Irish  questions,  about  which  English  politics  were  to  re- 
volve for  the  next  fifteen  years.  Some  explanation  of  Irish 
affairs  must  precede  further  survey  of  English  matters. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING  :  Details  on  particular  topics  can  be  found 
in  McCarthy's  Epoch  of  Eeform  (for  the  years  1830  to  1850),  History  of 
Our  Own  Times  (1837-1880),  and  in  the  younger  McCarthy's  England 
under  Gladstone.  Briefer  accounts  for  the  whole  period  are  given  in 
Hazen's  Europe  Since  1815,  in  McCarthy's  England  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  and  in  Rose's  Eise  of  Democracy.  See  also  p.  618. 


GLADSTONE. 


CHAPTER   LV 

ENGLAND   AND  THE   IRISH  QUESTION 

In  the  history  of  Ireland  ...  ice  may  trace  with  singular  clearness  the 
perverting  and  degrading  influences  of  great  legislative  injustices. — 
LECKK 

771.  Ireland  to  1700.  —  The  English  people  proper  are  Saxon- 
Norman  mixed  with  Celtic  blood;  the  Welsh,  Highland  Scots, 
and  Irish  are  pure  Celts.  In  the  larger  of  the  British  Isles, 
the  English,  Welsh,  and  Scots  live  at  peace ;  but  for  centuries 
the  Irish  in  the  smaller  island  have  been  restless  under 
English  rule. 

Ireland  has  been  an  unfortunate  and  misgoverned  land.  In 
the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries,  she  had  begun  to  show 
brilliant  promise  (§  272) ;  but  this  early  civilization  vanished 
in  the  wars  of  the  Danish  invasions,  which,  for  three  hundred 
years,  inflicted  upon  Ireland  all  the  woes  suffered  by  England 
for  the  generation  before  Alfred  the  Great. 

Thus  Henry  II  of  England  found  the  island  sunk  in  misery 
and  barbarism  and  torn  by  incessant  tribal  strife.  Unhappily 
for  both  English  and  Irish,  Henry's  conquest  was  left  incom- 
plete; and  war,  anarchy,  and  inisgovernment  filled  three 
centuries  more,  down  to  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  Sir  John 
Davis,  a  poet-historian  and  statesman  of  Elizabeth's  time, 
wrote,  "If  it  had  been  practised  in  Hell  as  it  has  been  in 
Ireland,  it  had  long  since  destroyed  the  very  kingdom  of 
Beelzebub." 

Henry  VIII  and  Elizabeth  completed  the  subjugation  of 
the  island;  but  now  the  English  and  Irish  civilizations  had 
grown  far  apart,  and  the  two  people  could  not  easily  mingle. 
Moreover,  the  English  had  become  Protestant,  and  the  differ- 

624 


§  772]  IRELAND   TO    1700  625 

ence  in  religion  added  a  tremendous  difficulty.  There  was 
real  danger  that  Catholic  Ireland  might  join  Spain  against 
Protestant  England;  and  so  the  mutual  hate  and  fear  between 
Irish  and  English  grew  more  and  more  intense.  About  1600, 
the  government  began  to  try  to  make  Ireland  English  by 
crushing  out  the  native  language  and  customs  and  religion, 
and  by  reducing  the  native  population  to  mere  tillers  of  the 
soil  for  their  conquerors.  On  trumped-up  charges,  with  every 
imaginable  form  of  force  and  fraud,  the  lands  of  even  the 
loyal  Irish  gentry  were  confiscated  to  furnish  estates  for 
English  adventurers ;  and  a  war  of  extermination  was  waged 
against  all  who  remained  in  arms. 

Just  before  the  Civil  War  in  England,  the  goaded  Irish 
rose  in  fierce  rebellion.  A  little  later,  the  merciless  hand 
of  Cromwell  restored  order  with  a  cruelty  which  makes  his 
name  a  by-word  in  Ireland  to-day.  Toward  the  close  of  the 
century,  the  Irish  sided  with  James  II  against  William  III, 
but  were  defeated  at  the  Battle  of  the  Boyne  (1690).  The 
Treaty  of  Limerick  (1691),  however,  promised  them  the 
enjoyment  of  their  own  religion  and  certain  other  privileges ; 
but  these  promises  were  treacherously  broken  by  the  English 
settlers,  who  controlled  the  parliament  of  the  island,  so  that 
Limerick  is  known  as  "  the  City  of  the  Broken  Treaty." 

772.  Ireland  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.  —  For  the  next  cen- 
tury the  fate  of  Ireland  was  wretched  beyond  description. 
Six-sevenths  of  the  land  belonged  to  English  landlords,  most 
of  whom  lived  in  England  and  spent  their  rents  there.  Those 
who  stayed  in  Ireland  made  up  the  ruling  class  of  the  island. 
Six-sevenths  of  the  people  were  Catholic  Irish.1  A  few  of 
these,  especially  in  the  west,  were  country  gentlemen ;  a  con- 
siderable number  more  were  tenant  farmers;  but  the  great 
bulk  were  a  starving  peasantry,  working  the  land  for  Saxon 
landlords  and  living  in  mud  hovels,  —  each  with  an  acre  or 
two  of  ground  about  it. 

1  Except  in  Ulster,  the  northern  province,  where  the  population  was  mainly 
English. 


626  ENGLAND   AND   IRELAND  [§  773 

Farmers  and  laborers  alike  were  "  tenants  at  will."  That  is, 
they  could  be  evicted  at  the  landlord's  word.  Population  was 
so  crowded  that  there  was  always  sharp  competition  to  get 
farms  and  cottages,  and  so  the  landlord  could  make  his  own 
terms.  If  the  tenant  improved  the  buildings  or  drained  the 
land,  he  commonly  found  at  once  that  he  had  to  pay  more  rent, 
so  that  he  himself  got  no  profit  from  his  extra  labor.  This 
system  of  "  rack  rent"  made  the  peasantry  reckless  and  lazy  ; 
and  the  fact  that  the  law  of  their  masters  was  used  only  to 
oppress  them,  trained  them  to  hate  and  break  the  law. 

773.  The  "Union"  with  England,  1800.  —  In  1798  the  Irish 
rebelled.     They  were  promised  aid  by  the  French  Directory ; 
but  the  help  did  not   come  in  time,  and  the  rising  was   put 
down  with  horrible  cruelty. 

A  change  in  the  government  followed.  For  several  centu- 
ries, there  had  been  a  separate  parliament  for  Ireland,  controlled 
by  the  English  settlers ;  but  after  1798  England  consolidated 
the  government  of  the  two  islands.  The  Act  of  Union  (1800) 
abolished  the  Irish  legislature,  and  gave  Ireland  one  hundred 
representatives  in  the  English  parliament.  Ireland  became 
subject  directly  to  English  rule  and  English  officials. 

These  were  the  conditions  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  In  1803  a  brilliant  young  Irishman,  Robert  Emmet, 
tried  to  organize  a  rebellion  for  Irish  independence;  but  the 
effort  failed  miserably,  and  Emmet  died  on  the  scaffold. 
There  was  no  further  movement  in  Irish  politics  until  1830. 

774.  The  struggle  for  the  repeal  of  the  Union  began  in  1830,  in 
the  first  parliament  in  which  Catholics  were  allowed  to  sit 
(§  746).     Forty  of  the  Irish  delegation  were  pledged  to  work 
for  repeal,  and  they  were  led  by  the  dauntless  and  powerful 
Daniel  O'Connell;  but  the  Irish  famine  of  1846  checked  the 
agitation,  and  just  afterward  O'Connell  died.     Then  a  band  of 
hot-headed  young  men  tried  conspiracy,  and  the  fruitless  and 
rather  farcical  rebellion  of  Young  Ireland  marked  the  year  1848. 

The  next  twenty  years  saw  no  progress.  In  1866  came  an- 
other rebellion,  —  the  Fenian  Conspiracy,  organized  by  Irish  of- 


§  775]  STRUGGLE   FOR   HOME   RULE  627 

ficers  who  had  served  in  the  American  Civil  War.  The  danger 
did  not  become  serious,  but  it  convinced  many  liberal  English- 
men that  something  must  be  done  for  Ireland,  and  Gladstone's 
reform  ministry  of  1868-1874  took  up  the  task. 

775.  Then  there  opened  a  new  period  in  Irish  history.  The 
Episcopalian  church  in  Ireland  (§  768)  was  disestablished, 
and  this  act  was  followed  in  1870  by  the  first  of  a  long  series 
of  important  reforms  of  the  land  laws.  Two  things  were 
attempted:  (1)  in  case  of  eviction,  it  was  ordered  that  the 
landlord  must  pay  for  any  improvements  the  tenant  had 
made ;  and  (2)  the  government  arranged  to  loan  money  on  long 
time,  and  at  low  interest,  to  the  tenants,  so  that  they  might  buy 
their  little  patches  of  land.  In  1881  and  1885  Gladstone's 
ministries  extended  and  improved  these  laws  until  the  peas- 
ants began  to  be  true  landowners,  with  a  chance  to  develop 
new  habits  of  thrift  and  industry. 

Meantime,  in  1870,  a  group  of  Irish  members  of  parliament 
had  begun  a  new  agitation  for  "  Home  Rule,"  and  soon  after- 
ward the  same  leaders  organized  the  "  Land  League,"  to  try 
to  fix  rents,  as  labor  unions  sometimes  try  to  fix  wages.  For 
the  time,  the  Liberal  ministries  frowned  on  both  these  move- 
ments, and  prosecuted  the  Land  League  sternly  on  the  ground 
that  it  encouraged  crime  against  landlords.  At  the  same  time, 
indeed,  that  the  government  was  passing  beneficent  land  laws, 
it  was  also  passing  "  Coercion  Acts  "  to  establish  martial  law 
in  Ireland.  The  Coercion  Acts  were  resisted  by  the  Irish 
members  with  a  violence  never  before  seen  in  an  English 
parliament,  and  Irish  conspirators  outside  made  various  at- 
tempts to  wreck  the  English  government  buildings  with  dyna- 
mite and  to  assassinate  English  officials. 

But  suddenly  Gladstone  made  a  change  of  front.  In  the 
new  parliament  of  1884,  eighty-six  of  Ireland's  hundred  and 
five  members  were  "  Home  Rulers."  They  began  to  block 
all  legislation;  and  Gladstone  could  go  on  only  by  securing 
their  alliance.  Moreover,  he  had  become  convinced  that  the 
only  way  to  govern  Ireland  was  to  govern  it  in  cooperation  with 


628  ENGLAND    AND   IRELAND  [§  776 

the  Irish,  not  in  opposition  to  them.  So  in  1886  he  adopted 
the  "  Home-Rule "  plan  and  introduced  a  bill  to  restore  a 
separate  legislature  to  Ireland. 

776.  The  Conservatives  declared  that  this  policy  meant  disunion 
and  ruin  to  the  Empire,  and  in  this  belief  they  were  joined  by 
many  of  the  old  Liberals,  who  took  the  name  of  Liberal  Union- 
ists. The  Home  Rule  Bill  was  defeated  ;  but  it  made  the  issue 
in  the  next  election  a  few  years  later,  and  in  1893  Gladstone 
tried  to  carry  another  such  measure.  This  time,  the  Commons 
passed  the  bill,  but  the  Lords  threw  it  out.  The  bill  differed 
in  important  particulars  from  the  one  before  considered.  More- 
over, the  majority  for  it  in  parliament  was  narrow  and  plainly 
due  only  to  the  Irish  vote.  Thus  Gladstone  felt  that  the  na- 
tion would  not  support  him  in  any  attempt  to  pass  the  bill  by 
swamping  the  Lords  with  new  peers.  Then  his  age  compelled 
him  to  retire  from  parliamentary  life,  and  the  Liberals,  left 
for  a  time  without  a  fit  leader,  went  out  of  power. 

The  Conservatives  and  Unionists  tried  to  conciliate  Ireland 
by  extending  the  policy  of  government  loans  to  the  peasantry 
to  an  almost  unlimited  extent,  though  formerly  they  had  railed 
at  such  acts  as  robbery  and  socialism ;  and  they  granted  a  kind 
of  local  "home  rule,"  by  establishing  elective  County  Councils 
like  those  in  England.  The  Irish  members  kept  up  agitation 
in  parliament,  but  for  a  long  time  even  the  Liberals  seemed  to 
have  lost  interest  in  Irish  Home  Rule  ;  and  indeed  it  was  plain 
that  nothing  could  be  done  until  after  "  the  mending  or  end- 
ing "  of  the  House  of  Lords.  This  matter  was  soon  forced 
to  the  front  in  connection  with  English  questions  (§  899). 

FOR  FURTHER  READING  :  Hazen's  Europe  Since  1815,  471-594 ; 
Johnston  and  Spencer's  Ireland's  Story. 


CHAPTER  LVI 

ENGLISH  COLONIES  AND  DEPENDENCIES 

After  many  years  of  wandering  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
mightiest  factor  in  the  civilization  of  the  world  is  the  imperial  policy  of 
England. — ADMIRAL  GEORGE  DEWEY  (1899). 

777.  Of  all  peoples  the  English  are  the  most  successful  in  coloniz- 
ing new  lands  and  in  ruling  semi- barbarous  races.     The  British 
Empire  covers  eleven  million  square  miles,  or  over  three  times 
the  area  of  the  United  States,  and  its  population  numbers  four 
hundred  millions,   or  about  one-fourth   of  the  whole   human 
race.     Forty   millions   of   this    number   dwell   in  the    British 
Islands,  and  about  twelve  million  more  of  English  descent  live 
in  self-governing  colonies,  —  mainly  in  Canada  and  Australia. 
The  other  seven-eighths  of  the  vast  population  of  the  Empire 
are  of  non-European  blood,  and  for  the  most  part  they  are 
subject  peoples. 

778.  The  outlying  possessions  are  of  two  kinds  :  (I)  those  of 
continental  importance  in  themselves,  such  as  Canada,  India, 
Egypt,  Australia,  South  Africa,  and  the  West  Indian  and  South 
American  colonies;  and  (2)  coaling  stations  and  naval  posts 
commanding  the  routes  to  these  possessions,  such  as  Gibraltar, 
Malta,  Cyprus,  Ceylon,  St.  Helena,  Trinidad,  and  scores  more. 

779.  Some  of  these  colonies  are  completely  self-governing,  with 
no  dependence  upon  England  except  in  form.     This  is  true  of 
Canada  and  Australia,  and,  not  quite  so  completely,  of  Cape 
Colony.     These  colonies  are  said  to  have  "  responsible  govern- 
ments"    The  English  ministry  appoints  a  Governor  General, 
whose  powers  resemble  those  of  the  figure-head  monarch  in 
England.     But  the  people  of  the  colony  elect  the  local  legislature  ; 

629 


630  ENGLISH   COLONIES  [§  780 

and  the  real  executive  is  the  local  ministry,  "  responsible  "  to  the 
legislature,  as  the  ministry  in  England  is  to  parliament. 

In  another  group  of  colonies,  the  governors  and  officials,  sent 
out  from  England,  really  control  the  whole  government.  This 
class  of  "  crown  colonies  "  comprises  most  of  the  naval  posts, 
like  Gibraltar,  and  also  those  colonies  lying  in  the  torrid  zone, 
where  the  population,  of  course,  is  mainly  non-European. 


GIBRALTAR.  —  From  the  Spanish  Shore. 

780.  India  is  a  huge  crown  colony.  Until  1867  it  remained  under  the 
control  of  the  East  India  Company,  but  in  that  year  came  the  Sepoy 
mutiny, — a  rising  of  part  of  the  native  soldiers, — and  when  order  had 
been  restored,  India  was  annexed  to  the  British  crown.  The  English 
ministry  appoints  a  Viceroy  and  a  Council,  and  these  authorities  name 
the  subordinate  officials  for  the  subdivisions  of  the  vast  country.  In  the 
smaller  districts  the  English  officials  are  assisted  by  the  native  officers,  and 
to  some  extent  by  elected  councils  of  natives.1 

1  Outside  the  territory  ruled  directly  by  England  there  are  also  nearly  a 
thousand  native  principalities,  large  and  small,  where  the  governments  are 
really  directed  by  resident  English  "  agents." 


§  781]  INDIA   AND   EGYPT  631 

The  English  are  making  a  notable  attempt  to  introduce  self-government 
and  to  get  the  natives  to  care  for  it.  Towns  are  invited  to  elect  municipal 
councils  and  to  take  charge  of  their  streets  and  drainage  and  other  matters 
of  local  welfare.  The  officers  of  the  old  East  India  Company  were  some- 
times rapacious  robbers,  oppressing  the  natives  to  fill  their  own  and  the 
Company's  coffers  ;  but  since  India  became  a  crown  colony,  English  rule, 
for  the  most  part,  has  been  wise,  firm,  and  just,  and  has  aimed  unselfishly 
at  the  good  of  the  natives.  India  pays  no  taxes  into  the  English  treasury  ; 
indeed,  she  is  a  drain  on  that  treasury,  but  her  trade  is  a  chief  source  of 
British  wealth.  The  petty,  constant  wars,  which  formerly  were  always 
wasting  the  land,  have  been  wholly  done  away  with,  and  the  terrible 
famines,  which  from  time  immemorial  have  desolated  it  at  intervals,  have 
become  fewer,  and  on  the  whole,  less  serious.  As  a  result,  population  has 
increased  rapidly,  — over  fifty  per  cent  in  a  century,  — and  to-day  nearly 
three  hundred  million  people  dwell  in  India.1  England  has  built  rail- 
roads, and  developed  cotton  industries.  Cotton  mills  give  a  Western  ap- 
pearance to  parts  of  that  ancient  Oriental  land.  India  has  800  newspapers 
(printed  in  twenty  different  languages)  ;  and  5,000,000  students  are  being 
educated  in  schools  of  many  grades. 

Still,  acute  critics  maintain  that  all  this  is  superficial,  and  that  except 
as  to  numbers,  and  except  that  the  people  have  been  forced  to  stop  burn- 
ing widows  alive,  the  condition  of  India  is  little  better  than  before,  and 
there  seems  to  be  no  attachment  among  the  natives  for  English  rule.  The 
Hindoos  cannot  understand  Western  civilization,  and  they  do  not  like  it. 
Whether  England  can  leaven  this  vast  mass  and  lift  it  to  a  higher  life  is 
one  of  the  great  problems  of  the  future. 

781.  Egypt  in  name  was  one  of  the  tributaiy  states  of  Turkey  until  1914. 
In  fact,  however,  it  had  been  independent  for  most  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  until,  in  1881,  a  new  master  stepped  in.  The  government  had 
borrowed  recklessly  and  spent  wastef ully,  and  the  land  was  misgoverned 
and  oppressed  by  crushing  taxation.  Then,  in  1879,  England  and  France 
jointly  intervened  to  secure  payment  of  debts  due  from  the  Egyptian 
Khedive  to  English  and  French  capitalists.  In  1881  came  a  native 
Egyptian  rising  against  this  foreign  control.  France  withdrew.  England 
stayed,2  restored  order,  and  "occupied"  the  country. 

After  that  time,  Egypt  was  really  an  English  protectorate.  The 
Khedive  and  all  the  machinery  of  the  old  government  remained  unchanged  ; 

1  Read  Kipling's   William  the  Conqueror. 

2  England  had  a  special  motive  for  staying.    The  Suez  Canal  was  opened 
in  1869.    In  1875  the  English  government  (Disraeli's  administration)  bought 
from  the  Egyptian  government  its  share  of  the  Canal  stock,  and  the  English 
intervention  in  Egypt  was  largely  to  protect  this  property. 


632  ENGLISH  COLONIES  [§782 

but  an  English  agent  was  always  present  at  the  court  "to  offer  advice," 
and  the  Khedive  understood  that  this  advice  must  be  followed.  Many 
Englishmen  entered  the  service  of  the  Egyptian  government,  too,  and 
all  such  officers  looked  to  the  English  agent  as  their  real  head. 

When  England  put  down  anarchy  in  1881,  the  ministry  declared  that 
the  occupancy  would  be  only  temporary.  This  statement  of  Gladstone's 
ministry  was  made  in  good  faith,  and  was  in  keeping  with  other  parts  of 
Gladstone's  modest  foreign  policy.  None  the  less,  it  has  long  been  certain 
that  no  English  government  will  willingly  give  up  Egypt ;  and  in  1914,  dur- 
ing the  great  European  war,  England  announced  a  full  protectorate.  The 
possession  of  that  country,  together  with  the  mastery  of  tin-  Suez  Canal, 
insures  the  route  to  India ;  and  Egypt  has  been  made  a  base  of  operation. 
also,  from  which  English  rule  has  been  extended  far  toward  Central  Africa. 

To  Egypt,  English  rule  has  been  an  unmixed  good.  The  system  of 
taxation  has  been  reformed,  so  that  it  is  less  burdensome  and  more  pro- 
ductive. The  irrigation  works  have  been  revived  and  improved,  so  that 
Egypt  is  richer,  more  populous,  and  with  a  more  prosperous  peasantry, 
than  ever  before. 

782.  One  of  the  most  important  features  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury was  the  development  of  self-government  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
colonies  of  England.  The  loss  of  the  American  colonies  had 
taught  a  lesson,  and  the  next  colony  to  show  violent  dissat- 
isfaction had  all  its  wishes  granted. 

This  event  took  place  in  Canada  in  1837.  The  two  prov- 
inces of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  had  been  governed  for  many 
years  much  as  Massachusetts  or  Virginia  was  governed  before 
1776.  There  had  been  a  growing  dissatisfaction  because  the 
legislatures  did  not  have  a  more  complete  control  over  the 
finances  and  over  the  executive ;  and  the  accession  of  the  girl- 
queen  in  England  in  1837  was  the  signal  for  a  rising.  The 
rebellion  was  stamped  out  quickly;  but  an  English  commis- 
sioner, sent  over  to  investigate,  recommended  that  the  demands 
of  the  conquered  rebels  should  be  granted.  Parliament  adopted 
this  recommendation.  In  1839  the  two  provinces  were  united 
and  were  granted  "responsible"  ministries.  England,  in  name, 
retained  a  veto  upon  Canadian  legislation ;  but  it  has  never  been 
used.  In  1850  a  like  plan  for  self-government  was  granted 
to  the  Australian  colonies,  and,  in  1872,  to  Cape  Colony. 


§  784]  SELF-GOVERNMENT  633 

783.  South  Africa  is  not  an  altogether  satisfactory  part  of  the  Empire 
for  Englishmen  to  contemplate.    England  seized  Cape  Colony  from  the 
Dutch  during  the  Napoleonic  wars.     English  settlers  came  in  rapidly, 
but  in  1834  a  portion  of  the  old  Dutch  colonists  "  trekked  "  (moved  with 
families,  ox-wagons,  herds,  and  flocks)   north  into  the  wilderness,  and 
set  up   an  independent  government  in  Natal.    A  few  years  later  the 
British  annexed  Natal,  and  the  Dutch  again  trekked  into  what  is  known 
as  the  Orange  Free  State,  and,   in  1848,  once  more  into   the   country 
beyond  the  Vaal  river.     These  "Transvaal"  settlers  became   involved 
in   serious    difficulties    with    the    native    blacks,    and    a    native    rising 
threatened   to   exterminate   Europeans  in   South   Africa.     England  in- 
terposed,  put  down  the  Zulus,  and  extended  her  authority  once  more 
over  the  Boer  states. 

In  1880  the  Boers  rebelled,  and,  with  their  magnificent  marksmanship, 
destroyed  a  British  force  at  the  battle  of  Majuba  Hill.  Gladstone  adopted 
the  view  that  the  Boers  had  been  wrongfully  deprived  of  their  independ- 
ence, and,  without  attempting  to  avenge  Majuba  Hill,  he  magnanimously 
withdrew  the  British  claims  and  left  to  the  Boers  of  the  Transvaal  a 
virtual  independence,  under  British  "protection."  The  exact  relations 
between  the  two  countries,  however,  were  not  well  defined,  and  much 
ground  was  left  for  future  disputes. 

Soon  afterward,  gold  was  discovered  in  the  Transvaal,  and  English 
and  other  foreigners  rushed  in,  so  as  to  outnumber  the  Boer  citizens. 
The  Boers,  who  were  simple  farmers,  unable  themselves  to  develop  the 
country,  had  at  first  invited  immigrants,  but  soon  became  jealous  of 
their  growing  numbers  and  refused  them  all  political  rights.  England 
attempted  to  secure  better  treatment  for  her  citizens  among  these  new 
settlers,  and  was  bent  upon  reasserting  her  authority  in  general.  The 
Boers  saw  that  England  had  determined  to  force  them  to  a  policy  which 
would  put  the  government  of  the  little  land  into  the  hands  of  these  foreign 
immigrants  ("Outlanders"),  and  they  declared  war  (1899).  The  Orange 
Free  State  joined  the  Transvaal,  and  the  little  republics  carried  on  a  mar- 
velous and  heroic  struggle.  They  were  finally  beaten,  of  course;  and 
England  adopted  a  generous  policy  toward  the  conquered,  making  large 
gifts  of  money  to  restock  their  ruined  farms,  and  granting  liberal  self- 
government,  without  any  discrimination  against  her  recent  foes. 

When  England  became  involved  in  the  general  European  war  of  1914, 
some  of  the  Boers  rose  once  more  ;  but  on  the  whole  that  people  seem 
now  content  with  the  new  and  liberal  English  rule. 

784.  Federation  of  Groups  of  Colonies.  —  In  1867  another  great 
advance  was  made  by  the  organization  of   the   Dominion  of 


634 


ENGLISH  COLONIES 


[§785 


Canada.  This  is  a  federal  state,  similar  to  the  United  States, 
composed  now  of  eight  members.  The  union  has  a  two-house 
legislature,  with  a  responsible  ministry ;  and  each  of  the  eight 
states  has  its  own  local  legislature  and  ministry. 

A  similar  union  of  the  seven  Australian  colonies  into  one 
federal  state  was  agitated  for  many  years ;  and,  after  two  fed- 
eral conventions  and  a  popular  vote,  it  was  finally  established 
on  the  first  day  of  the  twentieth  century. 


PARLIAMENT  BUILDING  AT  OTTAWA. 

Finally,  in  1909,  the  four  South  Africa  states  were  combined 
into  a  similar  federation,  with  the  name,  "  The  Union  of  South 
Africa." 

Thus  three  new  English  nations  were  formed,  —  each  large 
enough  to  command  respect  among  the  nations  of  the  world 
(each  one  double  the  size  of  the  United  States  when  its  in- 
dependence was  achieved). 

785.  Imperial  Federation. — The  Boer  War  and  the  great 
European  struggle  of  1914  showed  that  there  was  a  strong  tie 


§  785]  COLONIAL   FEDERATIONS  635 

between  England  and  her  self-governing  colonies;  for,  both 
times,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  Canada  all  made  liberal 
gifts  of  troops  and  money  to  assist  the  mother  country. 

The  bond  which  holds  together  the  Anglo-Saxon  parts  of  the 
Empire  is,  however,  almost  wholly  one  of  sentiment.  Cer- 
tainly, if  either  Canada  or  Australia  wished  to  set  up  as  an  in- 
dependent nation,  England  would  not  dream  of  trying  to  hold 
it.  At  present  the  colonists  in  these  lands  have  no  cause  to 
complain,  except  in  one  respect:  namely,  they  have  no  voice 
in  deciding  the  policy  of  the  Empire  toward  foreign  nations. 

This  evil  is  largely  offset  by  the  fact  that  the  English  navy 
affords  protection  to  the  Canadian  and  Australian  trade,  so 
that  these  great  and  wealthy  countries  are  practically  freed 
from  all  burden  of  military  and  naval  defense.  Still,  the  situ- 
ation is  not  altogether  satisfactory.  A  Canadian  may  properly 
wish  a  voice  in  the  policy  of  the  Empire ;  that  is,  he  mav^  wish 
to  be  a  citizen  in  as  full  a  degree  as  if  he  lived  in  England : 
and  England  may  properly  think  that  Canada  ought  to  contrib- 
ute something  to  imperial  defense.  It  has  been  proposed  to 
meet  both  these  wants  by  some  form  of  Imperial  Federation. 

This  means  that  the  different  parts  of  the  Empire  would  be 
left  their  present  parliaments  for  local  matters,  but  that  the 
management  of  matters  that  concern  the  Empire  as  a  whole 
would  be  turned  over  to  a  new  parliament  made  up  of  repre- 
sentatives in  fit  proportion  from  England  and  her  colonies.  If 
such  a  federation  can  be  carried  out  successfully,  it  will  be  the 
greatest  triumph  ever  yet  achieved  by  federal  government  and 
a  new  boon  to  civilization,  equal  perhaps  to  any  political  device 
yet  developed  by  the  English-speaking  race. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Hazen,  523-545.  A  good  longer  account 
may  be  found  in  Woodward's  Expansion  of  the  British  Empire. 


PART  XI 

WESTERN  CONTINENTAL  EUROPE  AFTER  THE  PRANOO- 
PRUSSIAN  WAR 


CHAPTER   LVII 

FRANCE:    THE   THIRD   REPUBLIC 
I.  THE   CLOSE   OF  THE   FRANCO-PRUSSIAN   WAR 

786.  The  Government  of   National   Defense.  —  The  news   of 
Sedan  (§  738)  reached  Paris   September  3,  1870.     The  city 
had    been    kept    in  ignorance   of  the   previous   disasters   to 
French  armies.     Now  it  went  mad  with  dismay  and  terror. 
The  next  day  a  mob  invaded  the  hall  where  the  legislature 
was  already  debating  the  deposition  of  Napoleon.     So  strength- 
ened, a  few  Radical  deputies  tumultuously   proclaimed   the 
"Third  Republic,"  and  set  up  a  provisional  Government  of 
National  Defense. 

This  government  tried  at  first  to  secure  an  honorable  peace 
with  Germany.  But  when  Prussia  made  it  plain  that  she  in- 
tended to  punish  France  by  taking  large  slices  of  her  territory, 
the  conflict  entered  upon  a  new  stage  and  became  a  heroic 
struggle  for  defense. 

787.  For  this  second  stage  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  there 
are  two  main  features :  the  gallant  resistance  of  Paris  through 
a  four  months'  siege,  and  a  magnificent,  patriotic  uprising  in 
the  provinces.     Gambetta,  a  leading  member  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  Defense,  escaped  from  Paris,  in  a  balloon,1  to  organize 

1  This  was  long  before  the  day  of  aeroplanes. 
636 


§  790]  THE   PARIS   COMMUNE  637 

the  movement  in  the  provinces.  For  a  time  success  seemed 
possible.  Exhausted  France  raised  army  after  army,  and 
amazed  the  world  by  her  tremendous  exertions.  But  in  the 
end  it  became  apparent  that  the  iron  grasp  of  the  German 
armies,  with  their  perfect  organization,  could  not  be  broken. 
The  great  population  of  Paris  began  to  suffer  the  horrors  of 
famine ;  and  on  January  28  the  city  surrendered. 

788.  There  was  no  government  in  France  with  any  real  author- 
ity to  make  peace ;  and  so  an  armistice  was  arranged,  to  permit 
the  election  of  a  National  Assembly.     The  Assembly  was  chosen 
by  manhood  suffrage.     It  met  toward  the  close  of  February, 
1871,  and  created  a  provisional  government  by  electing  Tliiers 
"  Head  of  the  Executive  Power  of  the  French  Republic." 

789.  The  terms  of  peace  were  hard.     The  Prussians  demanded 
Alsace  and  a  part  of  Lorraine,  with  the  great  fortresses  of 
Metz  and  Strassburg,  and  a  huge  war  indemnity  of  one  and  a 
fifth  billion  dollars.     Day  after  day  the  aged  Thiers  wrestled 
in  pleading  argument  with  Bismarck,  the  grim  German  Chan- 
cellor, to  secure  better  terms.     He  did  finally  secure  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  indemnity  to  one  billion,  and  the  retention  of  Belfort, 
one  of  the  cities  of  Alsace.     In  return  for  these  concessions, 
Bismarck  humiliated  Paris  by  marching    German   troops   in 
triumphal  progress  into  the  capital. 

,  II.    THE   PARIS   COMMUNE 

790.  The  National  Assembly  had  hardly  arranged  peace  with 
the  foreign  foe,  before  it  had  to  meet  a  terrible  rebellion  at  home. 
During  the  siege  all  the  adult  males  of  Paris  had  been  armed 
as  National  Guards.     When  the  siege  was  over,  every  one  who 
could  get  away  from  the  distressed  city  did  temporarily  re- 
move, including  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of  the  wealth- 
ier National  Guards.     Paris  was  left  in  control  of  the  radical 
element.     This  element,  too,  kept  its  arms  and  its  military  or- 
ganization :  and  it  now  set  up  a  government  of  its  own  by 
choosing  a  large  "  Central  Committee." 

The  National  Assembly  had  established  itself,  not  at  Paris, 


638  FRANCE  :   THIRD   REPUBLIC  [§  791 

but  at  Versailles.  The  radical  Republicans  of  Paris  suspected 
it  of  wishing  to  restore  the  monarchy.  In  fact,  a  large  major- 
ity of  the  members  were  Monarchists,  as  events  were  soon  to 
prove  (§  793).  The  Assembly,  too,  had  put  in  command  of  the 
army  a  man  who  had  assisted  in  Napoleon's  conp  d'etat.  Paris 
suspected  him  of  preparing  another  such  move  in  favor  of 
some  of  the  royalist  pretenders.  Moreover,  the  Assembly  had 
aggrieved  the  poorer  classes  of  Paris :  it  had  insisted  upon  the 
immediate  payment  of  rents  and  other  debts  incurred  during 
the  siege ;  and  it  did  away  in  large  measure  with  the  pay  of 
the  National  Guard,  which  since  the  surrender  had  been  a 
kind  of  poor-relief.  In  addition  to  all  this,  the  Reds  and 
Socialists  still  remembered  bitterly  the  cruel  middle-class  ven- 
geance of  '48  (§  696). 

For  two  weeks  Paris  and  Versailles  faced  each  other  like 
hostile  camps.  The  National  Guards  collected  a  large  num- 
ber of  cannon  in  one  of  the  forts  of  Paris.  March  18  the 
Assembly  sent  a  detachment  of  troops  to  secure  these  guns. 
A  mob  gathered  to  resist  them.  The  Assembly's  troops  re- 
fused to  fire,  and  looked  on  while  two  of  their  officers  were 
seized  and  shot  by  the  rebels.  This  was  the  opening  of  the 
insurrection. 

791.  The  Commune.  —  For  a  time,  there  was  still  hope  that 
a  conflict  might  be  averted.  Paris  decided  to  hold  an  election 
for  a  "  General  Council,"  and  it  was  possible  that  the  moderate 
element  might  win.  Two  hundred  thousand  votes  were  cast. 
The  Radicals  and  Revolutionists  elected  sixty-four  members, 
to  about  twenty  Moderates.  Then  the  Radical  Council,  act- 
ing with  the  "  Central  Committee,"  set  up  the  Commune,  and 
adopted  the  red  flag. 

In  1848  the  Paris  Radicals  had  learned  that  the  country  districts  of 
France  were  overwhelmingly  opposed  to  Socialism  and  to  "  Red  Republi- 
canism." So  this  new  Paris  Commune  advocated  extreme  local  self-gov- 
ernment for  all  France.  As  Hanotaux,  a  prominent  French  historian, 
puts  it,  *«  The  men  of  the  Commune  wished  to  make  a  Switzerland  of 
France."  If  each  city  and  village  could  become  an  almost  independent 


§  792]  THE   PARIS   COMMUNE  639 

state,  then  the  Radicals  hoped  to  carry  out  their  socialistic  policy  in 
Paris  and  in  the  other  large  cities. 

The  supporters  of  this  program  wished  the  central  government  of 
France  to  be  merely  a  loose  federation  of  independent  "communes"; 
and  so  they  called  themselves  "  Federals."  They  are  properly  described 
also  as  "Communards"  ;  but  the  name  "Communist,"  which  is  often 
applied  to  them,  is  likely  to  give  a  false  impression.  That  latter  name 
is  generally  used  only  for  those  who  oppose  private  property.  Many 
of  the  Communards  were  also  Communists,  but  probably  the  majority 
of  them  were  not. 

The  supporters  of  the  Paris  Commune  included  the  greater  part  of  the 
citizens  remaining  in  Paris.  But  France,  though  still  bleeding  from  in- 
vasion, refused  to  be  dismembered  by  internal  revolt.  The  excited  middle 
class  felt,  moreover,  that  the  institution  of  property  itself  was  at  stake, 
and  they  confounded  all  Communards  together  as  criminals  seeking  to 
overthrow  society. 

Little'chance  was  given  to  show  what  the  Commune  would  have  done, 
if  left  to  itself  ;  but  its  government  was  made  up  of  visionary  enthusiasts 
and  unpractical  or  criminal  revolutionists,  and  certainly,  in  actual  opera- 
tion, it  tended  toward  anarchy.  Like  attempts  to  set  up  Communes  took 
place  at  Marseilles,  Toulouse,  Narbonne,  and  Lyons ;  but  they  came  to 
little,  and  the  civil  war  was  confined  to  Paris. 

792.  April  2  the  Versailles  Assembly  attacked  Paris  with  the 
regular  troops  that  had  now  returned  from  captivity  in  Germany. 
The  struggle  lasted  two  months  and  was  utterly  ferocious. 
The  Assembly  refused  to  treat  the  Communards  as  regular 
combatants,  and  shot  down  all  prisoners.  In  retaliation,  the 
Commune  seized  several  hundred  hostages  from  the  better 
classes  left  in  Paris,  declaring  that  it  would  execute  three  of 
them  for  each  of  its  soldiers  shot  after  surrender.  In  fact, 
however,  it  did  not  carry  out  this  threat ;  and  the  hostages 
were  not  harmed  until  the  Commune  had  been  overthrown. 
Then,  in  the  final  disorder,  an  unauthorized  mob  did  put  sixty- 
three  of  them  to  death,  —  the  venerable  Archbishop  of  Paris 
among  them. 

The  bombardment  of  Paris  by  the  Versailles  government 
was  far  more  destructive  than  that  by  the  Germans  had  been. 
Finally  the  troops  forced  their  way  into  the  city,  which  was 
already  in  flames  in  many  sections.  For  eight  days  more, 


640  FRANCE:   THIRD   REPUBLIC  [§793 

desperate  fighting  went  on  in  the  streets,  before  the  rebellion 
was  suppressed. 

The  Commune  had  arranged  mines  in  the  sewers  to  blow  up 
certain  portions  of  the  streets  where  the  invaders  were  expected 
to  enter;  and,  during  its  brief  rule,  it  had  cast  down  the 
triumphal  column  of  Napoleon  I  (§  601),  on  the  ground  that 
such  glorification  of  wars  of  conquest  was  unworthy  a  civilized 
people.  These  facts,  together  with  some  destruction  by  the 
mob  after  the  Commune  had  ceased  to  control  the  city,  gave 
rise  to  the  report  that  the  Commune  tried  to  destroy  Paris 
when  it  could  no  longer  retain  possession.  No  such  intention 
is  needed  to  explain  an  enormous  destruction  under  the 
conditions  of  the  war.  The  world  has  never  ceased  to  lament 
the  loss  to  the  art  collections  of  the  city. 

Court-martial  executions  of  large  batches  of  prisoners  con- 
tinued for  many  months,  and  some  thirteen  thousand  sur- 
vivors were  condemned  to  transportation,  before  the  rage  of  the 
victorious  middle  class  was  sated.  There  are  few  darker 
stains  on  the  page  of  history  than  the  cruelty  and  brutality 
of  this  middle-class  vengeance.1 

III.     FROM   THE   SUPPRESSION  OF    THE    COMMUNE    TO    THE 
SECURE   ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE   REPUBLIC,    1871-1879 

793.  TJie  Assembly  had  been  elected  simply  with  a  view  to 
making  peace.  In  choosing  it,  men  had  thought  of  nothing  else. 
It  was  limited  by  no  constitution,  and  it  had  no  definite  term  of 
office.  Certainly,  it  had  not  been  commissioned  to  make  a  con- 
stitution or  to  continue  to  rule  indefinitely;  but  it  did  both 
these  things. 

At  the  election,  people  had  chosen  conservative  candidates, 
because  they  wanted  men  who  could  be  counted  upon  not  to 
renew  the  war  rashly.  The  majority  of  the  members  proved  to 
be  Monarchists ;  and  they  failed  to  set  up  a  king,  only  because 

1  On  the  Commune,  Hazen's  Europe  Since  1815,  330-336,  or  Andrews' 
Modern  Europe,  II,  343-349.  Also  Robinson  and  Beard's  Readings,  II  211-212 


794] 


THE   MONARCHISTS 


641 


they  were  divided  into  three  rival  groups,  —  Imperialists  (Bona- 
partists),  Orleanists  (supporters  of  the  Count  of  Paris,  grandson 
of  Louis  Philippe),  and  Legitimists  (adherents  of  the  Count 
of  Chambord,  grandson  of  Charles  X).  These  three  factions 
agreed  in  believing  that  a  new  election  would  increase  the 
strength  of  the  Republi- 
cans; and  so  for  five  years 
they  resisted  all  demands 
of  the  Republican  mem- 
bers for  dissolution. 

794.  Presidency  of 
Thiers,  1871-1873.  — 
Peace  had  been  made, 
and  the  rebellion  crushed. 
Now  the  Assembly  felt 
compelled  to  replace  the 
"provisional  govern- 
ment" (§  788)  by  some 
more  regular  form.  Ac- 
cordingly it  made  Thiers 
"President  of  the  Re- 
public." 

In  truth,  however,  the 
government  remained 
"provisional."  The 
majority  of  the  Assembly 
hoped  to  change  to  a  monarchy  at  some  favorable  moment,  and 
they  gave  Thiers  no  fixed  term  of  office.  Still,  this  presidency 
lasted  more  than  two  years  longer,  — the  most  glorious  years 
of  the  old  statesman's  life,  —  and  it  was  marked  by  three  im- 
portant features. 

a.  France  took  up  gallantly  the  huge  work  of  reorganization. 
Schools,  army,  and  church  were  reconstructed  (§§  805  ff.). 

b.  France  was  freed  from  foreign  occupation,  and  Thiers  won 
the  proud  title  of  "  Liberator  of  the  Territory."     It  had  been 
intended  that  the  vast  war  indemnity  should  be  paid  in  install- 


THIERS.  —  From  a  portrait  by  Bonnat. 


642  FRANCE:   THIRD   REPUBLIC  [§795 

merits  through  three  years;  and  German  garrisons  were  to 
remain  in  France  until  payment  was  complete. 

But  France  astonished  all  beholders  by  her  rapid  recovery 
of  prosperity.  In  eighteen  months  the  indemnity  was  paid  in 
coin,  and  the  last  German  soldier  had  left  French  soil.  The 
government  loans  (§  807)  were  taken  up  enthusiastically  by 
all  classes  of  Frenchmen,  and  in  great  measure  by  the  indus- 
trious and  prosperous  peasantry. 

c.  Rtpublicanifm  was  strengthened.  Thiers  was  an  old  Or- 
leanist ;  but  he  saw  that  to  set  up  a  king  was  to  risk  civil  war. 
Accordingly,  he  allied  himself  with  the  Moderate  Republicans 
in  the  Assembl}7,  ami  battled  triumphantly  the  efforts  of  the 
Monarchists.  Meantime  Republicanism  grew  stronger  daily 
in  the  country. 

795.  Monarchists  in  Control.  —  In  1873  a  momentary  coalition 
of  Monarchists  and  Radicals  in  the  Assembly  forced  Thiers  to 
resign.     In  his  place  the  Monarchists  elected  Morxlml  Mac- 
MahoH,  an  ardent  Orleanist.     For  some  months  a  monarchic 
restoration  seemed  almost  certain.     Legitimists  and  Orleanists 
had  at  last  united  in  support  of  the  Count  of  Chambord,  who 
agreed  to  adopt  the  Count  of  Paris  as  his  heir.     The  Mon- 
archists had  the  inarliinrry  of  the  government  in  their  hands, 
and  were  just  ready  to  declare  the  Bourbon  heir  the  King  of 
France,  when  the  two  factions  split  once  more  on  the  /y/-. 

of  a  symbol.  The  Orleanists  wished  to  keep  the  tricolor,  the 
flag  of  the  1830  Revolution.  But  the  Count  of  Chambord  de- 
nounced the  tricolor  as  the  "  symbol  of  revolution,"  and  de- 
clared that  he  would  not  give  up  the  white  lilies  of  the  old 
Bourbon  monarchy,  the  symbol  of  divine  right.  On  this 
scruple  the  chance  of  the  Monarchists  came  to  shipwreck. 

796.  Then  in  1875,  despairing  of  an  immediate  restoration,  the 
Assembly  adopted  a  constitution.     Modified  slightly   by  later 
amendments,  this  is  the  present  constitution  of  the  French  Re- 
public.    It  has  never  been  submitted  to  the  people. 

The  Constitution  is  very  brief,  because  the  Monarchist  major- 
ity preferred  to  leave  the  details  to  be  settled  by  later  legisla- 


§  798]  THE   CONSTITUTION  643 

tion,  hoping  to  adapt  them  to  a  kingly  government.  The  word 
"  republic  "  did  not  appear  in  the  original  draft,  but  it  was 
introduced,  indirectly,  by  amendment.  The  first  draft  spoke 
of  a  "  Chief  Executive  "  ;  an  amendment  changed  this  title  to 
"President  of  the  Republic. "  The  change  was  adopted  by  a 
majority  of  one  in  a  vote  of  seven  hundred  and  five.  In  1884 
a  new  amendment  declared  the  republican  form  of  government 
"  not  subject  to  repeal.7' 

797.  The  legislature  consists  of  two  Houses.     The  Senate 
contains  three  hundred  members,  holding  office  for  nine  years, 
one-third  going  out  each  third  year.     At  first,  seventy -five  of 
the  members  were  to  hold  office  for  life,  but  in  1884  an  amend- 
ment declared  that  no  more  life  members  should  be  chosen. 
The  Deputies  (Lower  House)  are  chosen  by  manhood  suffrage 
for  a  term  of  four  years. 

When  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Deputies  agree  that  it  is 
desirable  to  amend  the  constitution,  or  when  it  is  necessary  to 
choose  a  President,  the  two  Houses  meet  together,  at  Versailles, 
away  from  possible  disturbances  in  Paris.  In  this  joint  form, 
they  take  the  name  National  Assembly.  A  majority  vote  of  this 
National  Assembly  suffices  to  change  the  constitution. 

798.  The  executive  consists  of  a  president,  elected  for  seven 
years  by  the  National  Assembly,  and  of  the  ministry  he  ap- 
points.    The  president  has  much  less  power  than  the  President 
of  the  United  States.     He  is  little  more  than  a  figurehead. 
He  can  act  only  through  his  ministers. 

The  ministers,  as  in  England,  are  the  real  executive.  They 
wield  enormous  power,  directing  all  legislation,  appointing  a 
vast  multitude  of  officers,  and  carrying  on  the  government. 
Nominally,  the  president  appoints  the  ministers ;  but,  in  prac- 
tice, he  must  always  name  those  who  will  be  acceptable  to  the 
chambers,  and  the  ministry  is  obliged  to  resign  when  it  ceases 
to  have  a  majority  of  Deputies  to  support  its  measures. 

The  Deputies  maintain  a  control  over  the  ministers  by  the 
right  of  interpellation.  That  is,  any  Deputy  may  address  to  the 
ministers  a  formal  question,  calling  upon  them  to  explain  their 


644  FRANCE:   THIRD    REPUBLIC  [§799 

action  in  any  matter.     Such  a  question  must  be  answered  fully, 
and  it  affords  a  chance  to  overthrow  the  ministry. 

799.  The    Republicans   gain   Possession    of    the    Government, 
1876-1879 — Even  after  the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  the 
Assembly  did  not  give  way  at  once  to  a  new  legislature.     But 
almost  every  "  by-election  "  (to  fill  a  vacancy,  upon  death  or 
resignation)  resulted  in  a  victory  for  the  Republicans;  and  by 
1876  that  party  had  gained  a  bare  majority  of  the  seats.     It 
at  once  dissolved  the  Assembly,  and  the  new  elections  created 
a  House  of  Deputies  two-thirds  Republican. 

The  Senate,  with  its  seventy-five  life-members,  was  still 
monarchic;  and,  with  its  support,  MarMahon  tried  to  keep  a 
Monarchist  ministry.  During  this  contest  the  President  and 
Senate  dissolved  the  House  of  Deputies  (as  the  constitution 
gives  them  power  to  do  when  they  act  together),  and  the 
ministry  changed  prefects  and  local  officers  all  over  France,  in 
order  to  control  the  election.  But  the  Republicans  rallied 
under  the  leadership  of  the  fiery  Gambetta  (§  787),  and  the 
new  House  of  Deputies  was  even  more  strongly  Republican 
than  the  preceding  one.  This  body  ttn-n  /r>'f//J«<!<1  <i1l  votes  of 
supply  until  Mac.Mahon  appointed  a  ministry  acceptable  to  it. 

In  1879  the  renewal  of  one-third  the  Senate  gave  the  Re- 
publicans a  majority  in  that  House  also,  and,  soon  after,  Ma«  - 
Mahon  resigned.  Then  the  National  Assembly  elected  to  the 
presidency  Gr6vy,  an  ardent  Republican ;  and  all  branches  of 
the  government  had  at  last  come  under  Republican  control. 

800.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  France,  republican  govern- 
ment was  established  by  the  calm  will  of  the  nation.     Four  times  between 
1792  and  1871  had  the  Republicans  seized  Paris;  three  times  they  had 
set  up  a  republic;  but  never  before  had  they  truly  represented  the  de- 
liberate determination  of  the  nation.    In  1879  they  came  into  power,  not 
by  violence,  but  by  an  eight-years'  constitutional  struggle  against  the 
political  tricks  of  an  accidental  Monarchist  majority.     This  time  it  was 
the  Republicans  whom  the  conservative,  peace-loving  peasantry  supported. 

Never  since  has  France  been  in  danger  of  revolution.  In  1885  General 
Boulanger,  an  ardent  advocate  of  a  war  of  revenge  against  Germany, 
hoped  for  a  time  to  become  master  of  France,  as  Louis  Napoleon  had 


§  802]  STABILITY  645 

done  formerly;   but  the  complete  collapse  of  the  scheme  showed  how 
firmly  the  Republic  stood. 

IV.    FRANCE   TO-DAY 

801.  Stability  and   Progress.  —  The  present  constitution  is 
the  eleventh  since  1789.     For  nearly  a  century  France  passed 
from  revolution  to  revolution  so  incessantly  that  the  world 
came  to  doubt  whether  any  French  government  could  be  stable.1 
But  the  present  Republic  has  lasted  twice  as  long  as  any  other 
government  in  France  since  1789,  and  to-day  (1915)  it  seems 
more  secure  than  any  European  monarchy.     Even  the  minis- 
tries  change  less  frequently  than  formerly ;   and   a  political 
crisis  is  met  much  as  in  English-speaking  countries.     The  pres- 
ent great  war  (1915)  has  given  no  tremor  to  the  republican 
form  of  government.     Since  1893,  the  Monarchists  have  had 
little  weight  in  the  Assembly ;    while  the  Socialists,  at  the 
other  extreme,  have  become  a  true  political  party,  working 
by  constitutional  means.      The   age   of  Revolution  in  France 
seems  to  have  ended;   the  age  of  a  parliamentary  republic  has 
fairly  begun.    The  legislature  is  made  up  of  nine  parties.    In  the 
present  Assembly  (1915),  the  "Radical  Socialists "  are  much 
the  largest  group,  and  the  various  Socialist  groups  make  nearly 
half  the  whole.     In  the  two  elections  since  1906,  the  Socialist 
vote  among  the  people  has  nearly  doubled.     Recent  ministries 
have  been  composed  of  a  union  of  Radicals  and  Socialists. 

Other  progress  has  not  been  neglected.  In  literature  and 
science,  France  once  more  (after  long  eclipse)  shines  forth  as  a 
leader  of  European  thought ;  and  in  material  wealth  her  people 
are  the  richest  in  Europe. 

802.  The  chief  peril  to  the  Republic  has  been  its  conflict  with 
the  clergy  of  the  Catholic  church.     Seventy-eight  per  cent  of  the 
people  of  France  are  members  of  the  Catholic  church.     Other 
religions  make  up  about  two  per  cent.     Twenty  per  cent  have 
no  religious  connection. 

i  The  French  felt  in  the  same  way  toward  England  for  some  time  after  the 
English  revolutions  of  the  seventeenth  century. 


646  FRANCE  :    THIRD    REPUBLIC  [§  802 

During  the  dubious  period  from  1871  to  1879,  the  Repub- 
lican leaders  felt  that  the  bulk  of  the  Catholic  clergy  were 
aiding  the  Monarchists  with  their  tremendous  influence.  Ac- 
cordingly, when  the  Republicans  came  into  power,  they  hastened 
to  weaken  the  church  by  taking  from  it  its  ancient  control 
over  the  family.  Marriage  was  made  a  civil  contract  (to  be 
performed  by  a  magistrate)  instead  of  a  sacrament ;  divorce 
was  legalized,  despite  the  teachings  of  the  Catholic  church 
against  it;  and  all  religious  orders  were  forbidden  to  teach 
in  either  public  or  private  schools. 

The  mass  of  the  nation  supported  this  anti-clerical  policy ; 
but  it  drove  extreme  Catholics  into  fierce  opposition.  The 
wise  and  gentle  Pope  Leo  XIII,  however,  moderated  the  bitter- 
ness of  the  political  warfare  by  recommending  French  Catholics 
to  "  rally  "  to  the  Republic,  and  to  try  to  get  the  privileges 
they  needed  by  influencing  legislation,  not  by  trying  to  change 
the  government  (1893).  On  its  side,  the  government  then 
for  a  time  let  most  of  the  anti-clerical  laws  rest  quietly 
unenforced. 

But  about  the  year  1900,  the  Republicans  and  Radicals 
became  alarmed  at  the  evidence  of  Monarchic  sympathies  still 
existing  among  the  aristocracy,  and  even  among  army  officers, 
and  convinced  themselves  that  these  sympathies  were  due  to 
the  remaining  clerical  influence  in  the  schools.  In  the  years 
1901-1903,  thousands  of  church  schools  were  closed  by  the 
police,  sometimes  amid  riots  and  bloodshed.  Pope  Pius  X 
protested,  and  deposed  two  French  bishops  who  had  acquiesced 
in  the  government's  policy.  The  government  recalled  its 
ambassador  from  the  papal  court,  and  prepared  a  plan  which 
it  called  "  Separation  of  Church  and  State,"  but  which  zealous 
Catholics  denounced  as  anti-religious  robbery. 

According  to  this  new  plan,  a  law  of  1905  declared  the 
nation  the  owner  of  all  church  property  in  France.  Each 
religious  congregation,  however,  was  invited  to  reorganize  as 
a  "cultural  association,"  and  was  promised  permanent  use 
of  its  old  property  if  it  did  so.  Protestant  churches  complied; 


§803]  THE   KULTURKAMPF  647 

but  such  organization  was  forbidden  to  Catholics  by  the  pope 
as  incompatible  with  the  principles  of  the  church.  In  the 
elections  of  1906,  however,  the  nation  gave  an  overwhelming 
endorsement  to  the  whole  anti-clerical  policy ;  and  then  the 
government  evicted  great  numbers  of  Catholic  clergy  from 
their  homes  (for  refusing  to  obey  the  law  of  1905)  and  banished 
multitudes  of  them  from  the  country.  In  1914,  when  the 
great  European  war  began,  it  was  reported  that  two  thousand 
of  these  banished  priests  had  returned  to  France  to  fight  in 


THE  CHAMBER  OF  DEPUTIES,  PARIS.  —  From  across  the  Seine  River. 

the  ranks  against  the  invaders  of  their  country.  The  "  kultur- 
kampf "  (struggle  between  church  and  state  to  control  educa- 
tion) is  not  yet  fully  ended  in  France  (1915). 

803.  Local  Government.  —  France  is  divided  into  86  "  depart- 
ments." Each  department  has  an  executive  officer,  called  a 
prefect,  and  a  General  Council.  The  prefect  is  appointed  by 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  and  he  may  be  removed  by  the 
same  authority.  He  appoints  police,  postmen,  and  other  local 
officers.  The  General  Council  is  elected  by  universal  suffrage. 
It  exercises  control  over  local  taxation  and  expenditures, 
especially  for  roads,  asylums,  and,  to  some  degree,  for  schools ; 


648  FRANCE:   THIRD   REPUBLIC  [§804 

but  its  decisions  are  subject  to  the  supervision  of  the  central 
government.  Indeed,  the  central  government  may  dissolve  a 
departmental  council  at  any  time,  and  order  a  new  election. 

The  thirty-six  thousand  communes1  of  France  vary  in  size 
from  great  cities  like  Marseilles,2  to  rural  villages  with  only 
two  or  three  hundred  people.  For  all  of  them  there  is  one 
system  of  government.  Each  has  a  mayor  and  a  council. 
Until  1884,  the  mayor  was  appointed  by  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior;  since  1884,  he  has  been  elected  by  the  municipal 
council.  He  is  still  regarded,  however,  as  the  officer  of  the 
central  government,  which  may  revise  his  acts  or  even  remove 
him  from  office.  The  municipal  council  is  elected  by  manhood 
suffrage.  All  its  acts  are  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
prefect  or  the  central  government,  and  the  latter  may  dissolve 
the  council. 

Such  conditions  do  not  seem  very  encouraging  at  first  to  an 
American  student ;  but  the  situation,  as  compared  with  the 
past  in  France^  is  full  of  promise  (cf.  §  599).  Political  interest 
is  steadily  growing  in  the  communes,  and  Frenchmen  are 
learning  more  and  more  to  use  the  field  of  self-government 
open  to  them. 

804.  The  French  system  of  law  seems  to  an  American  or  an 
Englishman  to  be  wanting  in  safeguards  for  personal  liberty. 
Unlike  the  previous  French  constitutions,  the  present  constitu- 
tion has  no  "  bill  of  rights."  That  is,  there  are  no  provisions 
in  the  fundamental  law  regarding  jury  trial,  habeas  corpus 
privileges,  or  the  right  of  free  speech.  Even  if  there  were,  the 
courts  could  not  protect  the  individual  from  arbitrary  acts  of 
the  government  by  appealing  to  such  provisions,  because,  in 
case  of  conflict  between  a  citizen  and  the  government,  the  case 

1  There  are  two  other  local  divisions,  intermediate  between  commune  and 
department.    These  two  middle  divisions  are  less  important.    The  canton  is 
the  unit  for  the  administration  of  justice.    The  arrondissement  is  the  unit 
for  the  election  of  a  deputy  to  the  national  legislature,  like  our  congressional 
district. 

2  Paris  and  Lyons  are  each  organized  as  a  department,  with  even  less  self- 
government  than  the  other  departments  of  the  country. 


§  806]  SCHOOLS  649 

is  tried,  not  in  ordinary  civil  courts,  but   in  administrative 
courts  made  up  of  government  officials.1 

This  does  not  mean  that  in  ordinary  times  an  individual  is 
likely  to  be  treated  unjustly.  As  a  rule,  the  administrative 
courts  mete  out  excellent  justice.  But  in  case  of  any  supposed 
danger  to  the  government,  they  are  liable  to  become  careless  of 
the  rights  of  an  individual. 

805.  Education.  — The  plans  of  the  early  Revolutionists  for 
educating  the  people  (§  583)  came  to  little ;    and  for  a  long 
time  after  the  Restoration,  nothing  was  done.     In  1827  over  a 
third  of  the  communes  of  France  had  no  primary  school  what- 
ever, and  nearly  a  third  of  the  population  could  neither  read 
nor  write. 

The  real  growth  of  popular  education  dates  from  the  Third 
Republic.  Almost  as  soon  as  the  Franco-Prussian  war  was 
over,  France  adopted  in  large  measure  the  German  plan  for 
schools  and  for  her  army.  To-day,  in  every  commune  there  is 
a  primary  school  or  group  of  schools.  Education  is  free  and 
compulsory  and  strictly  regulated  by  the  state.  That  is,  the 
central  government  appoints  teachers  and  regulates  the  courses 
of  study.  Each  department  has  an  excellent  system  of  sec- 
ondary schools,  called  lycees,  and  the  higher  institutions  are 
among  the  most  famous  in  the  world,  and  are  sought  by  great 
numbers  of  advanced  American  students.  When  its  recent 
birth  is  considered,  the  educational  system  is  marvelously 
efficient. 

806.  The  advance  of  industry  under  the  Third  Republic  has 
been  enormous.     In  the  forty  years,  1871-1911,  the  yearly  pro- 
duction of  wealth  tripled   (rising  from  one   billion  to  three 
billions  of  dollars  in  value),  though  population  grew  less  than 
one-twentieth.     In   1870,  thirteen  million  tons   of  coal   were 
mined ;  in  1911,  forty -two  millions.     In  1870,  less  than  3000 
patents  were  granted  to  inventors;  in  1911,  the  number  was 
nearly  15,000. 

1  For  an  excellent  statement  of  the  growth  of  such  courts,  see  Lowell's 
Governments  and  Parties,  I,  50-55. 


650  FRANCE  :   THIRD   REPUBLIC  [§  807 

France  is  preeminently  an  agricultural  country.  The  peculiar 
thing  about  French  society  is  the  large  number  of  small  landowners 
and  the  prosperity  of  this  landed  peasantry.  Half  the  entire 
population  live  on  the  soil,  and  three-fourths  the  soil  is  under 
crops.  The  great  mass  of  cultivators  own  little  farms  of  from 
five  to  fifty  acres ;  3,000,000  proprietors  have  less  than  twenty- 
five  acres  each.  The  cultivation  is  scientific  in  a  high  degree. 
France  supplies  her  population  with  foodstuffs,  and  exports  a 
large  surplus.  The  subdivision  of  the  soil  is  carried  so  far 
that  it  is  difficult  to  introduce  the  best  machinery  (though 
neighborhood  associations  are  being  founded  to  own  machinery 
in  common)  ;  but  the  peasant  is  intelligent,  industrious,  thrifty, 
prosperous,  happy,  and  conservative. 

The  peasant  wishes  to  educate  his  son,  and  he  has  a  high  stand- 
ard of  living,  compared  with  other  European  peasantry.  \Yith 
five  or  six  children,  a  farmer  owning  five  or  ten  acres  would 
almost  necessarily  find  it  impossible  to  keep  up  this  high 
standard,  and  to  leave  his  children  as  well  off  as  he  himself 
had  been.  Therefore  the  peasantry  do  not  wish  large  families, 
and  population  is  almost  stationary.  At  present  (census  of 
1911)  it  is  a  little  under  forty  millions. 

807.  This  population  is  a  "  nation  of  little  savers,"  and  conse- 
quently a  nation  of  money  lenders.  Through  the  nineteenth 
century,  England  was  the  world's  banker.  To-day  France 
holds  that  place.  When  a  government  wishes  to  "  float "  a 
huge  loan,  or  when  capitalists  wish  to  finance  some  vast  indus- 
trial enterprise,  France  commonly  furnishes  the  cash.  France 
furnished  England  cash  for  the  Boer  war,  and  Eussia  cash 
for  the  war  with  Japan  (§  892),  and  American  bankers  and 
capitalists  the  sums  needful  to  tide  over  the  "crisis"  of  1907- 
1908. 

England  still  has  more  wealth  than  France ;  but  it  is  largely 
"fixed"  in  long-time  investments,  while  French  wealth  is 
growing  rapidly  and  is  held  by  a  great  number  of  people  of 
small  means,  all  seeking  constantly  for  investments. 

The  French  national  debt  is  not  held,  like  the  American  or 


COLONIES  651 

the  English,  by  men  of  great  wealth,  in  large  amounts,  but  by 
some  3,000,000  French  people,  —  shopkeepers,  clerks,  artisans, 
day-laborers,  small  farmers,  —  in  small  amounts.  The  French 
government  encourages  this  tendency  of  the  workingman  and 
the  peasant  to  save  and  to  "  invest,"  by  issuing  its  bonds  in 
small  denominations  —  as  low  even  as  one  franc  (20  cents). 
An  American  who  wishes  to  invest  in  United  States  bonds 
must  have  at  least  $  100  at  a  time,  —  and  then  he  may  find 
it  hard  to  get  a  bond;  a  Frenchman  with  20  cents  has  no 
difficulty  in  buying  a  French  bond  in  any  village  in  the 
country.  In  no  other  country  is  wealth  so  distributed  as  in 
France. 

808.  Colonies.  —  About  1750  France  bade  fair  to  be  the 
great  colonial  power  of  the  world.  The  century-long,  duel 
with  England  was  then  half  over.  "  New  France  "  was  written 
on  the  map  across  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  the  richest  lands  of  the  Orient  seemed  within  the 
French  grasp.  Thirty  years  later  saw  France  stripped  of  all 
possessions  outside  Europe,  except  a  few  unimportant  islands 
in  the  Indian  Ocean  and  in  the  Antilles  and  some  small  ports  in 
India  (§§  492-497). 

But  in  the  nineteenth  century  France  became  again  a  colonial 
power.  In  1830  the  government  of  Charles  X  took  advantage 
of  an  insult  by  the  Dey  of  Algiers  to  a  French  consul  to  seize 
territory  in  North  Africa.  In  the  middle  of  the  century  this 
foothold  had  grown,  through  savage  and  bloody  wars,  into 
complete  military  occupancy  of  Algeria;  and  in  the  early 
years  of  the  Third  Republic  civil  rule  was  introduced.  Since 
1880,  Algeria  has  been  not  so  much  a  foreign  possession,  or  a 
colony,  as  a  part  of  France  separated  from  the  rest  by  a  strip 
of  sea.  The  French  make  only  a  small  part  of  the  population, 
it  is  true,  but  the  country  is  orderly  and  civilized.1  It  is 
divided  into  three  departments,  which  are  ruled  essentially  like 
the  departments  in  European  France;  and  it  has  representa- 

1  All  these  statements  apply  to  the  settled  portions  under  civil  rule.  The 
vast  districts  farther  inland  are  still  barbarous. 


652  FRANCE  :   THIRD  REPUBLIC  [§  808 

tives  in  the  French  legislature.  French  rule  has  restored  to  the 
long-desolate  Barbary  coast  the  fertility  and  bloom  which  be- 
longed to  that  region  when  it  was  the  garden  of  the  Roman 
world  (§  12). 

In  1881  France  seized  upon  Tunis  as  a  "  protectorate."  That 
is,  France  controls  its  relations  with  foreign  governments, 
but  leaves  it  to  manage  its  own  internal  matters  —  except 
that  the  French  enjoy  special  traveling  privileges  in  the 
country.  In  1904  France  began  to  reduce  Morocco  to  a  like 
condition. 

The  rest  of  the  vast  colonial  empire,  apart  from  these  pos- 
sessions in  North  Africa,  has  been  acquired  since  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War  (except  for  some  slight  beginnings  made  by 
Napoleon  III);  but  the  seizure  of  territory  has  very  commonly 
been  based  upon  ancient  claims  connected  with  the  period  be- 
fore the  French  revolution.  In  Asia,  France  has  chief  posses- 
sion of  the  great  peninsula  of  Indo-China.1  In  Africa,  France 
kept  a  hold  upon  Senegal  from  her  ancient  colonial  empire,  and 
since  1884  she  has  acquired  huge  possessions  on  both  the  east 
and  west  coasts,  besides  the  great  island  of  Madagascar  (map, 
facing  page  721).  In  America,  France  holds  Guiana, or  Cayenne, 
with  a  few  islands  in  the  Antilles.  In  Oceanica,  between  1884 
and  1887,  she  secured  New  Caledonia  and  several  smaller 
islands. 

Though  France  has  these  immense  possessions,  she  is  i.ot  a 
colonizing  nation.  Large  parts  of  these  regions  are  almost 
unpeopled,  or  are  inhabited  by  savage  tribes  and  are  under 
military  government.  The  total  population  (not  counting  the 
"  protectorates  ")  is  about  41  millions.  But  even  in  the  settled 
portions  the  European  population  is  small.  The  total  area  of 
the  colonial  possessions  is  about  four  million  square  miles,  of 
which  about  three  and  a  half  million  are  in  Africa.  All  the 
settled  and  orderly  regions  have  a  share  in  self-government, 

AThe  order  in  which  the  different  provinces  in  Asia  have  been  acquired  is 
as  follows:  Cambodia  (1862),  Cochin  China  (1863),  Tonking  (1884),  Anam 
(1886),  Siani,  to  the  Mekong  River  (1893-18%). 


§  808]  COLONIES    -  653 

and  most  of  them  have  representatives  in  the  legislature  at 
Paris. 

X  FOR  FURTHER  BEADING.  —  The  works  mentioned  on  page  565  continue 
to  be  valuable  well  into  the  Third  Republic.  Woodrow  Wilson's  The 
State,  215-244,  outlines  the  government.  All  the  important  constitu- 
tional documents  are  given  in  Anderson's  Constitutions  and  Documents. 
For  recent  history  of  all  European  countries,  every  high  school  should 
have  one  or  more  good  Reviews  accessible  or  in  the  reading  rooms,  besides 
an  International  Year  Book  or  The  Statesman's  Year  Book,  at  least  for 
every  second  or  third  year,  and  The  World  Almanac. 


F.MrKi;»i;   \\ILLIAM  I  ;    the  Cobleuz  monument 

CHAPTER   LVII1 

GERMANY    SINCE   1871 
I.    THE   GOVERNMENT 

809.  A  Federal  State.  —  The  Germanic  Confederation  (1815- 
1867)  was  a  confederacy  of  sovereign  states,  a  union  even  weaker 
than  that  of  our  American  states  under  the  Articles  of  Con- 
federation.    The  present  German  Empire  is  a  true  federal  state, 
like  our  present  union. 

It  has  this  peculiarity,  however :  it  is  the  only  strong  federal 
state  in  history  made  up  of  monarchies.  Of  the  twenty-five 
states  composing  the  Empire,  four  are  kingdoms  (Prussia, 
Bavaria,  Saxony,  Wurteraberg) ;  eighteen  more  are  duchies, 
grand  duchies,  or  principalities;  and  only  three  are  republi- 
can in  character,  —  the  city-republics,  Bremen,  Hamburg,  and 
Lubeck.  Alsace-Lorraine  is  imperial  domain. 

810.  The  emperor  is  not  in  theory  a  ruler,  but  rather  a £>/•'*/- 
dent  of  the  federation.     The  presidency  is  hereditary  in  the 

654 


THE  GERMAN  EMPIRE 

siiiee  1871 


SCALE  OF  MILES 

30 40   CO   80 100  120   140   100   180   200 
_  I 


I — I-     -^ — <-« 

1.  Sahwarzburg-Sonderthauten 

2.  Saxe-Coburg-G'.tha 

3.  &ize- 


§812]  THE   GOVERNMENT  655 

kings  of  Prussia,  —  somewhat  as  if  the  governor  of  New  York 
were  ex-officio  president  of  the  United  States. 

The  emperor  cannot  be  impeached.  He  has  extensive  power  of  pat- 
ronage, and  almost^  absolute  control  over  foreign  relations.  He  has  no 
veto  upon  imperial  legislation,  though  his  overwhelming  influence  in  the 
Federal  Council  almost  amounts  to  that  power  (§  811).  His  chief  au- 
thority in  the  Empire  comes  from  the  fact  that  he  is  master  of  Prussia. 
That  state  is  larger  and  more  powerful  than  all  the  rest  of  the  union  put 
together,  and  its  constitution  leaves  its  king  almost  an  absolute  monarch 
within  its  territory. 

811.  The  Bundesrath.  —  TJie  sovereignty  of  the  Empire  is 
vested  in  a  Federal  Council  or  Bundesrath.     This  body  con- 
sists of  fifty-six  delegates  appointed  by  the  sovereigns  of  the 
different  states  in  fixed  proportions.     Prussia  has  seventeen  ; 
seventeen  small  states  have  one  each ;   and  the  other  seven 
states  have  from  two  to  six  each. 

The  Bundesrath  is  not  a  mere  upper  House  of  a  legislature. 
Its  powers  are  executive  rather  than  legislative.  It  looks 
after  the  administration,  prepares  most  of  the  measures  for  the 
law-making  body  (the  Reichstag,  §  812),  and  has  a  veto  upon 
all  laws  passed  by  that  body. 

812.  The  National  Legislature  is  the  Reichstag.     It  consists 
of  one  House.     The  members  are  elected  by  manhood  suffrage, 
in  single  districts,  like  our  congressmen,  for  a  term  of  five 
years.     There  are  397  delegates,  of  which  Prussia  has  236. 
The  constitution  calls  for  a  periodic  reapportionment  of  repre- 
sentatives, to  suit  changes  in  population : .  but  so  far  (to  1914) 
there  has  been  none.     (The  United  States,  of  course,  has  had 
four  reapportionments  of  congressmen  within  this  period.) 

The  power  of  the  Reichstag  is  much  less  than  the  American 
student  would  at  first  expect  in  a  national  legislature.  It  can 
introduce  bills,  but  they  are  not  likely  to  receive  the  approval 
of  the  Bundesrath  unless  they  were  originally  submitted  from 
that  body.  Thus,  practically,  the  Reichstag  is  limited  to  accept- 
ing or  rejecting  Bundesrath  measures.  Even  its  control  over 
taxation  is  incomplete,  because  most  revenue  measures,  instead 


656  GERMANY   SINCE   1871  [§813 

of  being  annual  appropriations,  are  standing  laws.  That  is, 
once  passed,  they  remain  in  force  until  changed  ;  and  they  can 
be  changed  only  with  the  consent  of  the  Bundesrath.  At  the 
same  time,  debates  in  the  Reichstag  are  highly  important  as 
expressions  of  national  desires,  and  they  hate  a  special  value 
in  a  country  like  Germany,  where  other  methods  of  expres- 
sion of  opinion  are  subject  in  a  measure  to  police  control. 

813.  The  Imperial  Ministry  is  appointed  by  the  emperor.    Its 
most  important  member  is  the  Chancellor.   Ministers  are  declared 
responsible ;    but  this  is  in  the  Prussian,  not  in  the  English 
sense.     They  are  not  obliged  to  resign  if  outvoted  in  the  Reichstag.1 

814.  Amendments  to  the  constitution  are  made  just  as  ordi- 
nary laws  are  passed,  except  that  fourteen  negative  votes  in 
the  Bundesrath  are  enough  to  veto  a  proposal.     Thus  the  king 
of  Prussia  alone,  or  the  small  states  alone,  or  the  South  Ger- 
man states  alone,  can  prevent  change. 

815.  Prussia  and    the   Other    States.  —  The    population    of 
Prussia  is  three-fifths  that  of  the  whole  Empire ;  her  king  is 
emperor ;  her  representative  in  the  ministry  is  usually  Chan- 
cellor;  and  in  general  her  military  and  political  system  is 
extended  as  far  as  possible  throughout  the  Empire. 

The  Prussian  constitution  to-day  is  the  one  granted  by 
Frederick  William  IV  (§  710).  It  maintains  the  doctrine  of 
divine  right,  and  the  royal  authority  claims  that  it  has  been 
limited  only  by  its  own  consent.  The  legislature  (Landtag)  ' 
consists  of  a  House  of  Lords  and  a  House  of  Representatives. 
All  males  have  a  vote  in  the  election  of  the  lower  House  ;  but 
they  vote  in  three  orders,  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  two-thirds 
of  the  representation  to  the  wealthiest  one-sixth  of  the  voters. 

The  threefold  division  is  based  upon  wealth.  In  1907  the  wealthiest 
class  (153,808  voters)  elected  as  many  representatives  as  the  poorer  class 
(2,591,960  voters).  In  the  city  of  Berlin,  a  rich  man's  vote  counts  for 

1  In  1909,  however,  the  Chancellor  (Von  Billow)  did  resign,  because  his 
proposals  as  to  taxation  were  defeated.  He  explained  that  the  Reichstag 
could  not  compel  him  to  resign,  but  that  he  could  not,  under  existing  condi- 
tions, remain  in  office  and  keep  his  own  self-respect. 


§816]  PATERNALISM;    MILITARISM  657 

that  of  fifty  poor  men.     This  applies,  of  course,  to  Prussian  elections 
only.     In  imperial  elections,  manhood  suffrage  exists. 

The  authority  of  the  legislature  is  limited.  The  "king  may 
adjourn  or  dissolve  it.  and  he  "keeps  an  absolute  veto.  In  prac- 
tice, he  has  the  initiative  in  legislation,  and  the  ministry  is  not 
compelled  to  resign  if  outvoted.  Prussia  and  England  are 
both  constitutional  monarchies,  but  the  student  must  not  be 
misled  by  the  likeness  of  name.  They  stand  at  the  two  ex- 
tremes of  such  government :  England  is  almost  or  quite  a  de- 
mocracy; Prussia  is  almost  as  autocratic  as  Russia. 

The  constitutions  of  the  other  states  vary  in  considerable 
degree,  but  few  of  them  give  the  representative  legislature  any 
real  control  over  the  administration,  as  in  England  or  in  France. 
Usually,  too,  the  franchise  rests  upon  property  qualifications, 
and  everywhere  the  officials  come  from  the  aristocratic  classes. 
In  general,  however,  South  Germany  is  less  military  and  more 
democratic  than  Prussia  and  North  Germany. 

816.  Paternal  Despotism,  Police  Rule,  Militarism.  —  The  Ger- 
man government  is  honest  and  frugal,  and  it  is  paternal  in  the 
extreme.  Justice  between  man  and  man  is  easy  to  obtain ; 
land-transfer  is  cheap;  food-adulteration  is  carefully  guarded 
against ;  the  public  health  is  zealously  protected. 

But,  alongside  this  kindly  and  watchful  paternalism,  there 
are  grievous  faults.  Germany  has  been  made  by  violence,  and 
the  result  still  shows  in  the  spirit  of  militarism  and  in  the 
predominance  of  the  methods  of  the  drill-sergeant  and  the 
policeman.  No  other  state  with  so  high  a  civilization  is  so  in- 
fected with  these  evils.  A  policeman's  evidence  in  a  court  is 
equal  to  that  of  five  independent  witnesses,  and  his  rule  is  all- 
pervading.  Said  a  somewhat  hostile  English  critic  (in.  the 
Contemporary  Review  for  February,  1896) :  — 

"  The  policeman  strolls  into  your  house  or  garden  when  he  likes,  much 
as  a  master  enters  the  class-room  to  see  that  all  is  going  on  properly.  If 
you  go  for  a  bath,  he  will  forbid  you  to  get  out  of  your  depth,  swim  you 
never  so  strongly.  .  .  .  To  live  in  Germany  always  seems  to  me  like 
a  return  to  the  nursery." 


658  GERMANY   SINCE   1871  [§817 

Even  worse  is  the  contemptuous  and  oftentimes  brutal  treatment 
of  civilians  by  army  officers.  For  years  newspapers  have  con- 
tained reports  of  gross  and  unprovoked  insults,  and  some- 
times of  violent  assaults,  by  officers  upon  unoffending  citizens, 
for  which  it  is  difficult  to  obtain  redress  in  the  courts. 

817.  The  Emperors.  —  At  his  coronation,  William  I  took  the 
crown  from  the  communion  table,  declaring,  "The  crown 
comes  only  from  God,  and  I  have  received  it  from  His  hands." 
William  never  modified  this  conception  of  kingship,  although 
he  allowed  Bismarck  to  coquette  with  liberalism  at  times, 
when  that  policy  suited  the  Chancellor's  ends.  In  an  election 
manifesto  of  1882,  the  emperor  reminded  all  officials  that 
"the  duty  which  you  have  *//•'*/•//  t<>  ^-rfm-ni  [in  the  oath  of 
office]  extends  to  supporting  the  policy  of  the  government  at  the 
elections." 

In  1888  William  was*  succeeded  by  his  son,  Frederick  III. 
Frederick  was  an  admirer  of  parliamentary  government  upon 
the  English1  pattern,  and  he  had  long  been  hostile  to  l>is- 
marck ;  but  he  was  suffering  from  a  fatal  disease  at  the  time 
of  his  accession,  and  his  three  months'  reign  brought  no  change 
in  the  government. 

William  II,  the  son  of  Frederick,  returned  to  the  principles 
of  his  grandfather.  As  a  youth,  he  had  been  a  great  admirer 
of  Bismarck ;  but  it  soon  became  plain  that  the  two  men  were 
each  too  masterful  to  work  together,  and  in  1890  the  emperor 
curtly  dismissed  the  Chancellor  from  office.  Since  that  time, 
William  II  has  himself  directed  the  policy  of  the  Empire,  and 
he  has  been  a  greater  force  in  European  politics  than  any 
other  sovereign  in  Europe.  He  believes  thoroughly  in  the 
"  divine  right  "  theory,  and  he  has  repeatedly  stated  it  in  as 
striking  a  form  as  ever  did  James  I  of  England  or  Louis  XIV 
of  France,  two  or  three  centuries  ago. 

Perhaps  the  emperor's  most  concise  statement  is  the  sentence  he  wrote 
in  the  Visitors'  Book  in  the  Town  Hall  of  Munich,  "  The  will  of  the  king 

1  Frederick's  wife  was  Victoria,  daughter  of  the  great  English  yur«Mi. 


§818]  WILLIAM  II  659 

is  the  supreme  law."  In  1890,  in  an  address  to  a  body  of  instructors 
upon  the  proper  teaching  of  history,  he  told  his  hearers  that  they  should 
teach  that  the  French  Revolution  was  "an  unmitigated  crime  against 
God  and  man."  In  1891,  in  an  address  to  a  body  of  military  recruits,  he 
said:  "You  are  now  my  soldiers.  You  have  given  yourselves  to  me, 
body  and  soul.  There  is  now  but  one  enemy  for  you,  and  that  is  my 
enemy.  In  these  times  of  socialistic  intrigue,  it  may  happen  that  I  shall 
order  you  to  fire  upon  your  brothers  or  fathers.  God  save  us  from  it ! 
But  in  such  a  case  you  are  bound  to  obey  me  without  a  murmur  !  "  In 
1897  the  emperor,  in  a  prepared  address,  set  forth  at  length  his  office  as 
a  "vice-regent  of  God";  and  the  same  year,  his  brother  Henry,  when 
about  to  set  sail  for  China,  in  command  of  a  German  expedition,  used  the 
following  words  in  a  public  address  to  the  emperor:  "Of  one  thing  I 
can  assure  Your  Majesty.  Neither  fame  nor  laurels  have  charm  for  me. 
One  thing  is  the  aim  that  draws  me  on  :  it  is  to  declare  in  foreign  lands 
the  evangel  of  Your  Majesty's  hallowed  person,  —  to  preach  it  to  every 
one  who  will  hear  it,  and  also  to  those  who  will  not  hear  it.  ...  This 
gospel  I  have  inscribed  on  my  banner,  and  I  will  inscribe  it  whithersoever 
Igo."i 

818.  Insecurity  of  Personal  Rights.  —  The  imperial  constitu- 
tion contains  a  bill  of  rights,  but  the  courts  have  no  power  to 
declare  void  an  unconstitutional  law.  The  administration,  too, 
can  appeal  cases  in  which  it  is  interested  to  administrative 
courts  without  juries.2  As  a  result,  trial  by  jury,  freedom  of  the 
press,  freedom  of  public  meetings,  and  free  speech  exist  only 
in  a  limited  degree.3  To  criticize  the  emperor  in  the  press, 
ever  so  lightly,  is  likely  to  land  the  offender  in  jail  for  a 
considerable  term,  through  prosecution  for  I&se-majest6.  In 
January,  1898,  it  was  reported  on  good  authority  that  seventy 
German  editors  were  in  jail  for  that  offense. 

1  Longer  extracts  from  the  emperor's  speeches  may  be  found  in  Robinson 
and  Beard's  Readings,  II,  193  ff.  and  198  ff. 

2  Russell's  Social  Democracy,  48-50,  gives  an  interesting  account  of  a 
famous  trial  of  the  Socialist  Lassalle  (§  822) . 

8  The  following  anecdote  illustrates  how  limited  is  the  right  of  public  meet- 
ing. In  1897  a  landed  proprietor  gave  a  harvest  festival  for  his  workmen. 
Some  fifty  in  all,  they  marched  to  a  wood  and  had  a  picnic.  A  few  days  later 
the  proprietor  and  several  of  the  men  were  arrested  on  the  charge  of  having 
held  a  public  meeting  without  notifying  the  police.  No  other  fault  was 
alleged,  but  the  offenders  were  sentenced  to  fines  or  short  terms  in  jail. 


660  GERMANY   SINCE   1871  [§819 

II.    RECENT  MOVEMENTS 

819.  The  Kulturkampf.  —  The  Empire  brought  together 
Catholic  and  Protestant  states ;  and  this  contact  resulted  in  a 
serious  conflict  between  church  and  state.  The  immediate  out- 
break came  in  connection  with  a  famous  decree  of  the  Vatican 
Council  of  1870,  affirming  the  pope  to  be  infallible  in  matters 
of  faith  and  morals.  The  German  bishops  at  the  Council  re- 
fused to  assent  to  the  new  statement  of  the  doctrine,  and  with- 
drew in  a  body.  Within  a  year  they  had  for  the  most  part 
fallen  into  line ;  but  some  of  the  German  Catholics  maintained 
their  position  and  took  the  name  of  Old  Catholics.  This  sect 
was  soon  attacked  vigorously  by  the  orthodox  bishops.  In- 
structors in  the  clerical  schools  who  did  not  teach  the  dogma  of 
infallibility  were  suspended  from  their  offices  and  excommuni- 
cated ;  teachers  in  the  primary  schools  were  dismissed;  and  the 
orthodox  clergy  refused  to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony  for 
Old  Catholics. 

Then  Bismarck  stepped  in  for  the  defense  of  the  Old  Catho- 
lics ;  and  apparently  he  was  not  sorry  for  so  good  an  occasion 
to  assert  the  supremacy  of  the  state  over  the  church.  Under 
his  influence,  the  legislature  took  marriage  and  all  education, 
private  and  public,  from  the  control  of  the  church.  The 
Jesuits  were  expelled  from  Germany ;  the  state  assumed  control 
over  the  education  of  priests ;  and  the  church  was  forbidden  to 
exclude  its  own  members  except  with  government  permission. 

The  bishops  and  orthodox  clergy  formally  refused  to  obey 
these  laws.  Then  Bismarck  fell  back  upon  a  series  of  violent 
measures.  Priests  were  deprived  of  office  and  were  refused 
their  salaries,  and  were  even  punished  by  long  terms  of  im- 
prisonment or  by  exile.  The  pope  protested,  and  in  1875  he 
declared  that  the  anti-clerical  laws  ought  not  to  be  obeyed. 
The  Empire  had  already  withdrawn  its  ambassador  from  the 
papal  court,  and  Bismarck  had  appealed  confidently  to  German 
national  feeling  in  his  boast,  "We  shall  not  go  to  Canossa" 
(§  221).  The  government  now  confiscated  ecclesiastical  salaries 


§820]  THE   ARMY  SYSTEM  661 

and  took  into  its  own  hands  all  the  property  and  revenues  of  the 
church,  at  the  same  time  expelling  from  Prussia  all  Catholic 
religious  orders. 

These  measures  have  been  described  as  having  a  military 
character,  —  "  designed  to  cut  off  the  enemy  from  his  commis- 
sariat and  to  deprive  him  of  his  most  active  troops."  Cer- 
tainly there  is  a  reminder  of  the  "  blood  and  iron  "  policy  in 
all  the  story.  But  such  a  policy  was  not  suited  to  internal 
problems.  From  1875  to  1879,  it  is  true,  the  government  held 
its  position.  One-fifth  the  parishes  in  Prussia  had  no  clergy ; 
schools  and  seminaries  were  closed ;  chairs  of  theology  in  the 
German  universities  were  vacant;  houses  of  the  clergy  were 
raided  by  the  police ;  and  numbers  of  men  of  devoted  Christian 
lives  and  broad  scholarship  languished  in  prison  or  in  exile. 

This  persecution,  however,  was  ineffective  against  the  heroic 
resistance  of  the  clergy,  and  it  steadily  lost  favor  among  the 
people.  A  strong  and  growing  "  Catholic  "  party  in  the  Reichs- 
tag, "  the  Center,"  hampered  all  Bismarck's  projects ;  and 
finally  he  was  forced  to  make  terms  with  it,  in  order  to  secure 
the  legislation  he  desired  against  the  Socialists  and  for  tariffs. 
In  1880  the  government  began  its  retreat;  and,  if  it  did  not 
"  go  to  Canossa,"  it  abandoned  step  by  step  every  position  it  had 
assumed  in  the  quarrel.  The  chief  result  of  the  contest  to-day 
is  the  large,  watchful  Conservative  party,  "  the  Center." 

820.  The  Prussian  army  system  (§  728)  has  been  extended 
all  over  Germany.  The  fundamental  principle  is  the  universal 
obligation  of  all  adult  males  to  serve.  The  army  is  the  armed 
nation.  At  twenty,  each  man  is  supposed  to  enter  the  ranks 
for  two  years'  active  service.  For  five  years  more  he  serves  in 
the  active  reserves,  with  two  months  each  year  in  camp.  This 
takes  the  soldier  to  his  twenty-seventh  year.  For  twelve  years 
more  he  forms  part  of  the  territorial  reserve  (Landwehr). 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  not  possible  to  bring  every  man 
into  the  ranks.  Exemption  is  allowed  in  Germany  to  the  only 
son  of  a  widow,  theological  students,  to  those  weakened  by 
physical  defects,  and  in  some  other  cases.  Moreover,  young 


662  GERMANY   SINCE    1871  [§820 

men  who  have  passed  through  the  higher  educational  institutions 
are  allowed  to  get  off  with  only  one  year's  service  in  the  ranks. 
The  army  on  a  peace  footing  comprises  those  who  are  under- 
going the  two  years'  service.  In  case  of  war,  this  body  and 
the  active  reserves  are  ready  for  offensive  operations,  while  the 
territorial  reserves  form  garrisons  and  guard  lines  of  communi- 
cation. In  case  of  actual  invasion,  all  other  males  between 
seventeen  and  forty-five,  or  the  army  of  emergency  (Landsturm), 


Till  OK  THE  (iKKMAN   ARMY. 

are  called  out.  In  1911  the  German  army  on  a  peace  footing 
counted  626,732  men  under  arms.  In  war,  Germany  can  put 
nearly  four  million  veterans  into  the  field. 

The  system  constitutes  an  enormous  burden ;  but  the  Prussian  victories 
in  1866  and  in  1870  convinced  all  Europe  of  its  military  utility,  and 
since  1870  every  state  in  Europe  has  adopted  it,  with  slight  modifica- 
tions. Thus  Europe  is  a  group  of  armed  camps.  The  tax  involved  in 
giving  so  large  a  part  of  each  man's  best  years  to  camp  life  weighs 
heavily  upon  the  civilized  world.  England,  relying  on  her  navy,  and  the 
United  States,  trusting  to  her  position,  are  the  only  great  countries  that 
are  now  free  from  it.  No  doubt,  certain  good  results  come  from  the 
military  discipline;  but.  on  the  whole,  the  present  European  army  sys- 
tem is  the  most  woeful  and  immense  waste  of  energy  that  the  world 
ever  saw.  It  is  also  a  constant  temptation  to  war.  A  military  power 
has  a  multitude  of  officers  as  anxious  to  try  their  new  war-engines  on 
some  foe  as  any  boy  to  try  a  new  gun  on  game. 


§  821]  COLONIES  663 

821.  Trade  and  Colonies. — The  old  Germany  had  been  essen- 
tially an  agricultural  country,  and  its  foreign  trade  had  been 
of  little  consequence.  After  1880,  German  manufactures,  en- 
couraged by  high  protective  tariffs,  mounted  by  great  leaps; 
and  the  label  "  Made  in  Germany  "  began  to  appear  on  all  sorts 
of  articles  in  all  parts  of  the  globe.  Before  1900  Germany 
had  passed  all  other  nations  except  England  and  America  in 
manufactures  and  trade. 

German  population  increases  rapidly.  In  1815  the  states 
in  the  present  German  Empire  had  a  population  of  25  millions. 
In  1911  the  number  was  almost  65  millions.  This  increase 
resulted  for  a  time  in  a  large  German  emigration,  which  went 
mainly  to  the  United  States  and  to  South  America.1  Partly 
to  secure  commercial  advantages  for  her  citizens  abroad,  and 
partly  in  hopes  of  keeping  future  German  emigrants  under  the 
German  flag,  the  government  has  recently  adopted  the  policy 
of  acquiring  colonies. 

Bismarck  announced  this  plan  in  1884.  At  that  time,  Ger- 
many had  no  possessions  outside  of  Europe ;  but,  though  she 
was  late  in  entering  the  nineteenth-century  scramble  for  foreign 
possessions,  she  made  rapid  progress.  In  Africa  she  has  vast 
possessions,  nearly  a  million  square  miles  in  all,  mainly  on 
the  Guinea  coast  and'  in  the  southwest  and  southeast.  In 
the  western  Pacific  she  owned  several  groups  of  valuable  is- 
lands.2 Shortly  after  1890,  she  began  acquiring  concessions  in 
Asia  Minor  from  the  Turkish  government ;  and  this  rich  region, 
so  long  abandoned  to  barbarism,  promised  to  become  the  most 
important  field  for  German  enterprise 3  until  the  present  need- 
less and  destructive  war  (1914-15). 


1  Of  late  years,  emigration  has  declined.    In  the  nineties,  it  was  from  200- 
000  to  300,000  a  year.    During  the  past  five  years,  it  has  been  under  30,000  a 
year.    The  rapid  development  of  German  industry  has  furnished  industrial 
opportunity  at  home. 

2  See  maps  facing  page  721  and  following  page  724. 

8  Germany  does  not  own  territory  in   Asia  Minor,  hut  she  obtained  by 
treaties  valuable   rights  of  trade  and  railroad-building;   and  in  case  of  a 


664  GERMANY   SINCE    1871  [§822 

In  1897  another  field  opened,  which  seemed  even  more 
attractive.  Two  missionaries  of  German  birth  were  murdered 
in  China,  and  the  German  government  made  that  event  an  ex- 
cuse to  seize  a  valuable  Chinese  port,  Kiau  Chau,  with  a  large 
adjacent  territory.  From  this  center,  Germany  acquired  a 
"sphere  of  influence"  in  eastern  China,  in  which  German  cap- 
italists developed  mines  and  built  railroads,  as  Russians  were 
doing  to  the  north,  and  Englishmen  and  Frenchmen  to  the 
south.  Germany  was  rapidly  converting  a  rich  section  of 
China  into  a  German  dependency ;  but,  early  in  the  general  war 
of  1914,  Japan  expelled  her  from  China. 

As  a  colonizing  nation,  Germany  so  far  is  not  a  success. 
Capitalists  go  in  small  numbers  to  Asia  Minor  and  to  China, 
but  they  do  not  go  to  Africa;  and  the  mass  of  emigrants  still 
sail  to  America,  giving  up  German  citizenship.  German  colo- 
nies contained  a  population  of  some  14  million  people  in  1911, 
but  only  20,000  of  these  were  whites.  The  government  is 
believed  to  be  anxious  to  obtain  possessions  in  South  or  Cen- 
tral America,  where  German  emigrants  might  make  their 
homes;  and  but  for  the  Monroe  Doctrine  of  the  United 
States,  some  attempts  in  these  lines  would  perhaps  have 
been  made. 

822.  Socialism  did  not  appear  prominently  in  Germany  until 
after  1848.  German  Socialism  was  founded  by  Karl  Marx,  a 
profound  philosophic  thinker  (  §  684),  and  its  doctrines  were 
thrown  among  the  masses  by  his  disciple  Lassalle,  a  brilliant 
writer  and  speaker.  Its  nunv  recent  leaders  have  been  Lieb- 
kneckt  and  Bebel. 

There  was  of  course  no  opening  for  Socialism  in  politics 
until  manhood  suffrage  was  introduced  in  the  elections  for  the 
Reichstag  of  the  North  German  Confederation  (1867).  The 
first  Reichstag  contained  eight  Socialists.  These  men  bitterly 
opposed  the  war  with  France,  especially  after  it  became  a  war 

break-up  of  Turkey's  power,  she  expected  to  convert  these  rights  into  full 
occupancy  of  territory.  Of  late  years  the  Emperor  has  courted  the  Sultan's 
favor  on  all  occasions. 


§  822]  SOCIALISM  665 

for  conquest,  and  criticized  the  seizure  of  Alsace-Lorraine 
against  the  will  of  the  inhabitants.1 

This  "  unpatriotic  "  attitude  resulted  in  a  check.  The  leaders 
were  tried  for  treason  and  condemned  to  a  few  years'  imprison- 
ment; and  in  the  first  imperial  Reichstag  (1871)  the  party  had 
only  two  representatives.  In  1874  the  number  had  risen  to 
nine,  and  in  1877,  to  twelve. 

Bismarck  then  began  to  feel  it  needful  to  put  down  Socialism. 
His  first  effort  to  secure  repressive  legislation  from  the  Reich- 
stag failed,  but  it  called  out  two  attempts  by  Socialist  fanatics 
to  assassinate  the  emperor  (1877,  1878).  The  criminals  had 
no  sanction  from  the  Social  Democratic  party  ;  but  they  played 
into  Bismarck's  hands.  The  Reichstag  was  dissolved,  and  the 
new  election  gave  a  legislature  ready  to  go  all  lengths  against 
the  "  Red  Specter."  New  laws  gave  the  government  au- 
thority to  dissolve  associations,  break  up  meetings,  confiscate 
publications,  suspend  habeas  corpus  privileges  and  jury  trial, 
and  banish  suspects  by  decree,  without  any  trial  at  all.  Not 
content  with  these  extraordinary  powers,  Bismarck  made  them 
retroactive,  and  at  once  banished  from  Berlin  sixty  or  seventy 
men  who  had  formerly  been  connected  with  the  Socialists. 

But  here  again  the  Iron  Chancellor  failed.  The  Socialists 
met  his  ruthless  severity  with  as  much  fortitude  and  heroism2 
as  the  Catholic  clergy  had  shown  in  their  conflict,  and  all  that 
he  could  do  was  to  make  Socialism  for  a  time  an  underground 
current.  In  1881,  just  after  the  beginning  of  the  repressive 
legislation,  the  Socialist  vote  fell  off  somewhat;  but  in  the 
election  of  1884  it  had  risen  to  over  half  a  million  —  much 
more  than  ever  before — and  in  1887  it  was  over  three-fourths 
of  a  million.  Then  the  repressive  laws  were  allowed  to  expire ; 
and  in  1890  the  vote  was  doubled.  Since  1898  the  Socialists 
have  been  much  the  largest  German  party,  and  they  have  cap- 

1  The  party  in  Germany  and  elsewhere  is  opposed  to  all  wars  of  conquest. 
It  teaches  that  the  burdens  and  losses  of  wars  between  nations  fall  in  the 
end  on  the  working  classes,  who  ought  to  be  brothers. 

2  For  an  account,  see  Russell,  Social  Democracy,  103-114. 


666  GERMANY   SINCE    1871  [§822 

tured  the  wage-earners  of  the  great  cities  almost  in  a  body. 
The  following  table  shows  their  progress :  — 

ELECTION  VOTES  CAST  PERCENTAGE  OF  TOTAL  MEMBERS  IN 

V..TK  REICHSTAG 

1871  124,000           4  2 

1874  351,000           7  9 

1877  493,000                          8.5  12 

1878  437,000                          8  9 
1881  312,000                          6.3  12 
1884  549,000                          6  24 
1887  763,000                          7.6  11 
1890  1,427,000  20  36 
1893  1,786,000  23  44 
1898  2,107,000  28  56 
1903  3,025,000  32.3  81 
1907  3,259,000  31.6  43 
1912  4,239,000  34.8  110 

The  total  vote  in  1912  was  12,188,337,  divided  among  15  parties.  The 
Socialist  vote  was  twice  that  of  the  next  largest  party  (the  Center,  or 
Catholic,  with  2,013,000  votes).  The  number  of  Socialist  representatives 
is  small  in  proportion  to  the  popular  vote,  because  of  the  unjust  apportion- 
ment. The  Socialist  vote  is  strongest  in  the  cities.  The  cities  have  grown 
rapidly  in  population  (Berlin  has  tripled  since  1860)  ;  but,  from  fear  of 
Socialist  gains,  the  distribution  of  representatives  has  not  been  changed 
since  the  establishment  of  the  Empire  (§  812).  If  a  fair  apportionment, 
such  as  the  constitution  calls  for,  were  to  be  made,  the  Social  Democrats 
would  have,  not  110  delegates,  but  140.  The  Center,  with  half  the  votes 
of  the  Socialists,  has  nine-elevenths  as  many  delegates. 

William  II,  for  a  time,  seemed  disposed  to  use  gentler 
methods  than  those  that  Bismarck  had  followed ;  but  he,  too, 
soon  became  alarmed  at  the  growth  of  the  Socialist  vote,  and 
in  1894-1895  he  tried  vehemently  to  secure  another  "  excep- 
tional law,"  even  more  sweeping  than  Bismarck's  legislation. 
The  proposed  bill  of  1894  provided  two  years'  imprisonment 
for  "publicly  attacking  religion,  the  monarchy,  marriage, 
the  family,  or  property,  by  insulting  utterances."  Under 
such  a  law,  to  suggest  a  change  in  the  government  to  a  re- 
publican form,  or,  indeed,  to  urge  much  milder  changes,  might 
constitute  a  crime;  and  all  Liberals  joined  with  the  Social- 


§  823]  SOCIALISM  667 

ists  in  voting  down  the  proposal.1  The  Catholics  did  not  dare 
to  vote  for  it,  lest  their  opposition  to  civil  marriage  should  be 
treated  as  a  crime. 

The  above  account  suggests  some  of  the  causes  of  strength 
in  Social  Democracy.  That  party  has  for  its  adherents,  not 
only  Collectivists,  or  Socialists  proper,  but  also  great  numbers 
of  political  Radicals,  or  Democrats  and  believers  in  Republican 
government.  Indeed,  a  large  part  of  the  vague  discontent  with 
the  arbitrary  nature  of  the  government  finds  expression  in 
votes  for  Socialist  candidates.  Recent  congresses  of  that  party 
have  placed  first  in  their  platforms  a  number  of  practical  po- 
litical and  economic  measures  which  the  average  American  or 
Englishman  would  not  regard  as  dangerous,  —  such  as  univer- 
sal suffrage  without  discrimination  against  woman,  the  initia- 
tive and  referendum,  equal  electoral  districts,  payment  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Reichstag,  responsibility  of  the  government  to  the 
Reichstag,  popular  local  government,  securities  for  free  speech, 
a  militia  system  in  place  of  the  present  army  system,  an  eight- 
hour  labor  day  with  prohibition  of  employment  of  children 
under  fourteen,  freedom  to  organize  labor  unions,  and  progres- 
sive income  taxes. 

823.  State  Socialism.  —  Early  in  the  contest  with  the  Social 
Democrats,  Bismarck  tried  to  cut  the  ground  from  under  their 
feet  by  adopting  part  of  their  program  of  social  betterment,  in 
1883  a  public  address  of  the  emperor  declared,  "  That  the 
state  should  care  for  its  poorer  members  in  a  higher  degree 
than  in  the  past  is  not  only  a  duty  demanded  by  humanity  and 
Christianity,  but  is  also  a  measure  necessary  to  preserve  the 
state."  In  1884  Bismarck  said,  "  Give  the  workingman  a  right 
to  work  while  he  is  in  health,  and  assure  him  care  when  he  is 

1 A  few  days  before  this  defeat,  William  had  suffered  another  repulse  from 
the  same  quarter.  At  the  opening  of  the  Reichstag  in  December,  1894,  when 
cheers  for  the  emperor  were  called  for,  the  Socialists  kept  their  seats.  The 
government,  at  the  emperor's  desire,  introduced  a  request  for  permission  to 
bring  the  offenders  to  trial  for  lese-majeste,  but  the  request  was  refused  by  a 
vote  of  168  to  88.  Members  of  the  Reichstag  cannot  be  prosecuted  for  any- 
thing that  they  say  or  do  in  that  body,  except  by  its  consent. 


668  GERMANY   SINCE   1871  [§823 

sick  and  maintenance  when  he  is  old,  and  Social  Democrats 
will  get  no  hold  upon  him." 

In  accordance  with  these  principles,  Bismarck  favored  the 
introduction  of  great  public  works  to  afford  employment,  and 
he  created  a  state  fund  to  help  insure  the  injured  and  the  aged. 

(1)  The  state  compels  the  laborers  to  insure  against  sickness. 

(2)  It  insures  them  against  accident,  taking  the  premium  from 
the  employer.     And  (3)  it  pays  old-age  pensions  to  men  over 
seventy  years  of  age,  out  of  a  fund  created  partly  by  payments 
from  the  insured,  partly  by  payments  from  the  employers,  and 
partly  by  a  payment  from  the  state  treasury. 

In  this  "  Social  insurance,"  Germany  was  the  pioneer  govern- 
ment. This  legislation,  however,  has  not  weakened  Social 
Democracy.  Indeed  the  Socialists  rail  at  it  as  fear-inspired, 
poor-law  legislation.  To  Bismarck  and  William  II,  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  divine-right  government  to  care  for  the  laborer. 
To  the  Social  Democrats,  it  is  the  right  of  the  laborers  them- 
selves to  control  the  goverment  and  to  care  for  themselves 
through  it.  State  Socialism  in  a  democratic  country  like 
America  would  be  the  same  thing  as  Social  Democracy;  in 
Germany  at  present  it  is  old-fashioned  paternalism. 

Said  Emperor  William  II  in  1894,  "  The  noblest  task  of  the  state  is  to 
protect  the  weaker  classes  of  society  and  to  aid  them  to  higher  economic 
and  moral  development ;  and  the  duty  of  the  state  is  to  smooth  away  the 
difficulties  and  to  preserve  an  increased  content  and  solidarity,  but  thin 
mnst  be  done  by  the  state  and  not  by  the  people." 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  See  references  on  page  691.  Dawson's 
Bismarck  and  Socialism  and  Russell's  German  Social  Democracy  give 
good  statements  of  the  topic  suggested  by  the  names.  Woodrow  Wilson's 
The  State  gives  a  clear  treatment  of  the  constitution.  For  recent  events 
and  special  topics,  the  student  must  consult  recent  Reviews,  Year  Books, 
and  Annual  Encyclopedias.  (See  page  653.) 

SPECIAL  REPORT. —  Prussia's  schools  and  their  history. 


CHAPTER   LIX 

ITALY    SINCE   1870 

824.  The  constitution  of  Italy  is  essentially  that  given  to  Sar- 
dinia in  1848.  It  provides  for  a  limited  monarchy,  somewhat 
of  the  Prussian  type,  but  more  liberal.  By  custom,  as  in 
France  and  England,  the  ministries  resign  when  they  no  longer 
have  a  parliamentary  majority  Local  government  and  admin- 
istrative courts  are  patterned  upon  the  French  model. 

Until  1882,  a  high  property  qualification  was  required  for 
voters.  At  that  date,  after  two  years'  agitation,  the  franchise 
was  given  to  all  who  could  read  and  write,  or  who  paid  certain 
rents  or  four  dollars  in  direct  taxes.  This  raised  the  electorate 
from  about  six  hundred  thousand  to  over  two  millions,  but  it 
still  excluded  half  the  adult  males.  Since  that  time,  however, 
with  the  progress  of  education,  the  proportion  of  voters  has 
been  slowly  increasing. 

In  1861  Italy  had  no  schools  except  those  taught  by  reli- 
gious orders.  In  the  next  twenty  years  a  fair  system  of  public 
education  was  built  up.  Primary  education  is  gratuitous,  com- 
pulsory, and  regulated  by  the  state,  but  attendance  is  not  well 
enforced.  In  1861  seventy-four  per  cent  of  the  population  over 
six  years  of  age  could  not  read  or  write.  In  1881  this  per- 
centage of  illiterates  had  fallen  to  sixty-two,  and  in  1901  to 
fifty-six.  The  higher  educational  institutions  are  excellent,  and 
in  many  fields  Italian  scholars  hold  a  foremost  place. 

The  kingdom  of  Italy  at  its  birth  was  far  behind  the  other 
great  states  of  Europe.  Its  proper  tasks  were  to  provide  for 
public  education,  to  repress  brigandage,  to  build  railroads,  to 
foster  useful  industries,  to  drain  malarial  swamps  and  reclaim 
abandoned  lands.  In  all  this,  much  progress  has  been  made ; 


670  ITALY  SINCE    1870  [§825 

but  the  government  has  been  hampered  by  its  poverty  and  by 
the  tremendous  expenditure  for  military  purposes. 

Taxation  is  crushing ;  and  yet,  much  of  the  time,  the  govern- 
ment can  hardly  meet  expenses.  A  fourth  of  the  revenue  goes 
to  pay  the  interest  on  the  national  debt,  and  a  large  part  of  the 
rest  is  for  military  purposes,  leaving  only  a  small  part  for  the 
normal  and  helpful  purposes  of  government.1  To  make  ends 
meet,  the  government  has  been  driven  to  desperate  financial 
expedients.  Salt  and  tobacco  are  government  monopolies ;  the 
state  runs  a  lottery  ;  and  taxation  upon  houses,  land,  and  in- 
comes is  so  exorbitant  as  seriously  to  hamper  industry.  The 
financial  and  military  problem  is  the  great  question  before 
Italy. 

The  economic  distress  has  led  to  political  and  socialistic  agi- 
tation. The  government  in  general  has  met  this  by  stern 
repressive  legislation.  Socialists  and  Republicans  have  been 
imprisoned  by  hundreds,  often  on  the  charge  of  being  anar- 
chists ;  and  for  years  at  a  time  large  parts  of  Italy  have  been 
in  "state  of  siege,"  or  under  martial  law.  The  Radicals  and 
Socialists,  however,  have  gained  slowly  in  the  parliament. 

825.  Colonial  and  Territorial  Questions.  —  A  large  emigration 
leaves  Italy  each  year,  mainly  for  Brazil  and  the  Argentine 
Republic.  Partly  in  hope  to  retain  these  emigrants  as  Italian 
citizens,  the  government  took  up  a  policy  of  securing  colonial 
dependencies.  Attention  was  first  turned  to  Tunis,  but  when 
France  supplanted  Italian  influence  there,  Italy  acquired  valu- 
able territory  on  the  Abyssinian  coast  in  Northeast  Africa 

1  Italy  was  freed  by  force  of  arms,  in  1859-1861 ;  and  the  same  power  com- 
pleted her  union  between  1861  and  1870.  The  new-born  state,  for  many  years 
more,  feared  that  the  work  might  be  undone  by  France  or  Austria  ;  and  to 
the  present  time  she  has  maintained  the  usual  European  military  system, 
with  longer  terms  of  active  service  than  are  required  in  Germany  or 
France.  From  her  position,  too,  Italy  has  had  some  reason  to  wish  to  be 
strong  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  at  an  immense  cost  she  has  kept  up  a  navy 
among  the  most  powerful  in  the  world,  after  England's.  Italy,  however,  is 
much  less  able  to  endure  this  tremendous  burden  than  are  rich  fount ries  like 
France  and  Germany,  and  she  is  one  of  those  states  in  which  the  present  mili- 
tary system  is  likely  soonest  to  break  down. 


§826] 


THE   PAPACY 


671 


(1885).  From  1889  to  1896,  indeed,  Italy  held  a  protectorate 
over  all  Abyssinia ;  but  in  the  latter  year  an  Italian  army  was 
destroyed  in  the  interior,  and  Italian  control  was  reduced  again 
to  the  coast  district,  Eritrea.  Up  to  the  present  time,  however, 
emigration  has  not  been  directed  in  any  considerable  degree 
to  this  possession.  In  1911-1912  Italy  seized  Tripoli  from 
Turkey,  renaming  it  Libya. 

One   other   territorial   difficulty    has    long   annoyed    Italy. 
Austria  (1915)  still  keeps  Trentino  on  the  southern  slope  of  the 


THE  VICTOR  EMMANUEL  MONUMENT,  ROME. 

Alps,  with  its  three  hundred  thousand  people.  The  population 
is  Italian  in  race  and  language,  and  the  district  geographically 
is  a  part  of  Italy.  Italians  expect  to  secure  this  region,  by 
arms  or  diplomacy,  in  connection  with  the  present  war. 

826.  Italy  has  also  a  serious  problem  in  the  relations  of  state 
and  church.  Almost  all  Italians  are  Roman  Catholics,  in  name 
at  least;  but  the  government  and  the  popes  have  been  hostile 
to  each  other  ever  since  the  Kingdom  of  Italy  was  established. 
The  clergy,  of  course,  in  the  main,  adhere  to  the  pope,  while 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  earnestly  support  the  government. 

In  1870,  when  Italy  took  forceful  possession  of  Kome,  Pope 


672  ITALY   SINCE   1870 

Pius  IX  protested  against  the  act  as  a  deed  of  brigandage.1 
The  government  has  left  the  papacy  every  power  it  thinks  con- 
sistent with  the  territorial  unity  of  Italy.  The  pope  is  not  an 
Italian  subject,  but,  in  all  matters  of  form,  is  an  independent 
sovereign,  though  his  territory  has  been  reduced  to  a  single 
palace  (the  Vatican)  and  some  small  estates.  Within  this 
domain  he  keeps  his  own  court,  maintains  his  own  diplomatic 
service,  and  carries  on  the  machinery  of  a  state.  A  generous 
annual  income  is  also  set  aside  for  him  by  the  government  of 
Italy,  but  this  has  never  been  accepted.  The  clergy  and  church 
throughout  Italy  are  left  by  the  government  to  manage  their 
own  affairs  as  completely  as  in  the  United  States,  except  that 
the  state  pays  the  salaries,  in  compensation  for  the  church 
lands  it  has  seized. 

In  common  with  many  zealous  Catholics,  however,  Pope 
Pius  IX  felt  that  to  exercise  his  proper  influence  as  head  of 
the  church,  he  must  be  also  an  independent  temporal  prince. 
He  refused  to  recognize  the  Italian  state  or  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  it,  never  left  his  palace  grounds,  and  he  styled  him- 
self the  "Prisoner  of  the  Vatican."  His  successors  (1915) 
have  followed  this  policy.  For  some  time,  no  doubt,  it  was 
possible  that  in  case  of  a  general  European  war,  Austria  might 
restore  the  papacy  as  a  temporal  principality,  but  that  pos- 
sibility has  passed  away. 

Certainly,  so  far,  the  papacy  has  not  suffered  from  the  arrange- 
ment of  1870-1871.  Never  before  have  the  popes  been  so 
independent  of  foreign  interference ;  nor,  since  Gregory  VII 
and  Innocent  III,  have  they  been  more  powerful  in  spiritual 
and  temporal  concerns  than  in  the  recent  period  since  they 
ceased  to  rule  a  petty  principality. 

1  In  spite  of  this,  the  citizens  of  Rome  ratified  the  act  by  a  vote  of  130,000 
to  1500,  or  ninety  to  one. 


CHAPTER   LX 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY  — A   DUAL    MONARCHY 

827.  From  the  Year  of  Revolutions  to  the  Dual  Monarchy.  - 

The  medieval  system  lasted  in  the  Austrian  realms  until  1848. 
The  revolutions  of  that  year  abolished  the  feudal  burdens  of 
the  peasantry  and  the  feudal  privileges  of  the  nobles.  The 
counter-revolution  (§  709)  did  not  undo  these  social  reforms ; 
but  it  did  restore  absolutism,  and  from  1850  to  1860  strenu- 
ous efforts  were  made  to  Germanize  the  various  districts  that 
had  risen  for  national  independence  in  1848.  All  rights  of 
local  government  in  Bohemia  and  Hungary  were  trampled 
under  foot,  and  only  the  German  language  was  allowed  in  the 
schools,  the  press,  the  courts,  and  the  administration.  For  a 
Bohemian  to  publish  a  paper  in  his  native  language  was  a  penal 
offense. 

Accordingly  the  defeat  of  Austria  in  1859  by  France  and 
Italy  was  hailed  with  delight  by  Bohemia  and  Hungary.  Then 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph  awoke  to  the  absolute  necessity  of 
conciliating  these  provinces.  Liberal  reforms  were  begun,  and 
a  sort  of  parliamentary  system  was  introduced.  Hungary, 
however,  remained  unsatisfied ;  and,  after  the  next  over- 
throw of  Austria,  at.  Sadowa  (1866),  it  became  necessary  at 
any  cost  to  satisfy  that  country.  The  emperor  and  Francis 
Peak,  the  Hungarian  leader,  arranged  a  compact,  which  was 
then  ratified  by  the  Hungarian  and  Austrian  parliaments.  This 
compact  is  the  present  constitution  of  Austria-Hungary. 

828.  Austria-Hungary  is  a  dual  monarchy,  a  federation  of  two 
states.     Each  state  has   its  own  constitution,  its  own  parlia- 
ment, its  own  system  of  local  government  and  law      The  two 

673 


674  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY  [§  829 

have  the  same  monarch  and  a  curious  kind  of  a  common  legis- 
lature (the  Delegations). 

Tlie  monarch  is  crowned  separately,  with  different  titles,  in 
Vienna  and  in  Budapest,  and  his  powers  differ  in  the  two  states. 
The  Delegations  are  two  committees  of  sixty  each,  the  one 
chosen  by  the  Austrian  parliament,  the  other  by  the  Hungarian. 
They  meet  one  year  at  Vienna,  the  next  at  Budapest ;  and  they 
carry  on  their  work,  one  in  German,  the  other  in  the  Magyar 
(Hungarian)  language.  If  the  two  bodies  disagree,  equal 
numbers  from  the  two  meet  together  and  settle  the  matter  by 
vote,  without  debate. 

829.  The  Race  Question.  —  Austria  has  been  and  still  is  "  a 
tangle  of  races  and  a  Babel  of  tongues."  The  inhabitants  speak 
eleven  distinct  languages,  besides  numerous  dialects.  At  the 
opening  of  the  Austrian  Reichsrath  the  official  oath  is  adminis- 
tered in  eight  languages.  Half  the  population  are  Slavs, 
broken  up,  however,  into  many  sub-races,  Czechs,  Croats,  Serbs, 
Slavonians,  Poles,  Ruthenians.  A  fourth  are  Germans ;  a  fifth 
are  Magyars ;  and  the  rest  are  Italians,  Jews,  or  Illyrians.  If 
we  regard  the  Slav  sub-races  as  separate  peoples,  the  Ger- 
mans are  more  numerous  than  any  other  people.  They  numbt'i- 
eleven  and  a  third  millions.  The  Magyars  come  next,  with 
nine  millions.  Of  the  Slavs,  the  Czechs  (Bohemians)  lead  with 
nearly  six  millions. 

The  arrangements  of  1867  sacrificed  the  Slavs  to  satisfy  the 
demands  of  Hungary.  Until  recently,  the  Germans  have  been 
the  dominant  people  in  the  Austrian  half,  and  the  Magyars 
still  are  in  their  half.  But  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  with  the  growth  of  education  and  prosperity,  the 
other  races  pushed  forward  toward  an  equality  of  culture; 
and,  in  those  provinces  where  they  are  most  numerous,  they 
began  to  demand  equal  political  rights,  and,  sometimes,  national 
independence.  This  fact  gives  the  key  to  all  the  recent  history 
of  the  Empire. 

Croatia  has  been  allowed  some  privileges  of  its  own ;  but 
elsewhere  in  Hungary,  despite  violent  protests,  the  Magyars  are 


§830]  RACE   CONFLICTS  675 

slowly  but  successfully  imposing  their  language  and  national- 
ity upon  the  scattered  Slav  fragments.  Representation  in  the 
legislature  is  so  apportioned  as  to  give  nearly  all  the  members 
to  Magyar  constituencies,  through  other  peoples  make  up  half 
the  population. 

In  the  Austrian  half  of  the  Empire,  Bohemia  demands,  if  not 
independence,  at  least  that  she  be  admitted  into  the  imperial 
federation  as  a  separate  state  upon  an  equality  with  Hungary. 
In  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  struggle  was 
particularly  vehement.  The  Czechs  make  about  two-thirds  of 
the  population  of  Bohemia;  but  the  other  third  are  mainly 
Germans,  and  the  Austrian  Germans  elsewhere  are  unwilling  to 
abandon  these  fellow-Germans  to  Czech  rule.  On  two  or  three 
occasions  Bohemia  was  under  martial  law  for  months  at  a  time ; 
but,  upon  the  whole,  the  Czechs  have  been  steadily  winning 
ground,  until  some  of  the  Germans  in  that  country  begin  to 
long  for  annexation  to  the  German  empire.  Says  Lowell 
{Government  and  Parlies,  121)  :  — 

"  In  Austria,  everybody  is  irreconcilable. . . .  The  task  of  the  ministers, 
therefore,  has  been  hard.  It  has  resembled  that  of  an  Esquimaux  trying 
to  drive  a  team  of  dogs,  all  of  which  want  to  break  loose  from  the  sledge, 
except  the  strongest,  which  pulls  the  wrong  way. " 

830.  Thus  Austria-Hungary  is  an  uncertain  factor  in  European 
politics.  Her  German  population  is  drawn  toward  the  German 
Empire ;  her  Italians  want  to  be  annexed  to  Italy ;  her  Poles  look 
to  the  revival  of  the  Polish  kingdom ;  the  Roumanians  in  east- 
ern Hungary  wish  to  be  joined  to  neighboring  Roumania,  and 
her  many  Slav  elements  desire  independence  or  annexation  to 
neighboring  Slav  states.  The  condition  of  the  Empire  is  one 
of  unstable  equilibrium.  The  union  between  the  two  halves  is 
not  due  to  internal  ties,  but  to  external  pressure.  If  the  emperor 
had  not  the  Hungarian  troops  at  his  command,  Austria  could 
not  keep  down  her  subject  nationalities ;  and  if  Hungary 
had  not  Austria  behind  her,  she  would  be  lost  in  Slav  Europe. 
The  union  is  for  mutual  defense. 


676  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 

831.  In  foreign  policy  Austria  had  abandoned  Italy,  and  had 
been  excluded  from  Germany  after  1866.     She  turned,  there- 
fore, toward  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Aegean,  for  new  booty, 
and  has  been  a  chief  factor  in  Slav  and  Balkan  questions.     In 
1878,  after  the  war  between  Turkey  and  Russia  (§  881),  Austria 
received  from  Turkey  the  provinces  of   Bosnia   and   Herze- 
govina. 

832.  In  domestic  matters  Austria  has  taken  two  great  steps 
forward,  since  the  creation  of  the  dual  monarchy. 

a.  In  1868-1869  the  German  Liberals  in  the  parliament 
(Reichsrath)  secured  laws  for  complete  religious  liberty  for  all 
men.  These  laws  also  took  from  the  church  its  old  control  over 
marriage  and  the  schools.  The  population  is  almost  wholly 
Catholic;  but  it  has  supported  this  anti-clerical  legislation, 
against  even  the  severe  condemnation  of  the  pope. 

6.  In  1906,  after  many  years  of  agitation,  full  and  equal 
manhood  suffrage  was  secured  for  local  elections  and  for  the 
lower  House  of  the  national  parliament.1  This  placed  Austria 
among  the  most  progressive  states  in  Europe,  politically.  The 
parliament  (Reichsrath)  contains  twenty-eight  distinct  parties 
(largely  on  a  basis  of  race  jealousies).  The  election  of  1913 
made  the  Christian  Socialists  far  the  largest  of  any  one  party, 
giving  them  96  members  out  of  a  total  of  516. 

1  An  upper  House  is  made  up  partly  of  princes  and  hereditary  lords,  and 
partly  of  life  members  appointed  by  the  emperor. 


CHAPTER  LXI 

THE  SMALL  STATES  OF  WESTERN  EUROPE1 

833.  Besides  the  great  states  the  usual  map  of  Europe  shows  fourteen'2 
small  states.     All  of  these  except  Switzerland  and  Portugal  are  consti- 
tutional monarchies.       Six — the  Slav    and   Greek  states  —  are  in   the 
southeast  of  Europe  in  the  Balkan  region.     The  other  eight  belong  to 
Western  Europe  and  claim  brief  notice  at  this  point. 

Of  these  small  states  of  Western  Europe,  two  are  in  the  south,  in  the 
Iberian  peninsula;  three  are  in  the  north,  in  the  Scandinavian  pen- 
insulas ;  two  lie  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine,  and  the  remaining  one  at  its 
source.  Four  of  the  eight  —  Spain,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Holland  — 
have  at  some  time  ranked  as  Great  Powers. 

I.   SPAIN 

834.  From  1800  to  1833.  —  Before   1800   the  ideas   of  the 
French    Revolutionists  began    to  filter  into  Spain,  but  their 
welcome  was  confined  to  the  small  educated  class.     Napoleon's 
attack  broke  down  the  old  monarchy  and  gave  these  Liberals 
a  chance.     They  took  the  lead  in  the  War  for  Independence 
(1809-1813) ;  and,  in  the   midst  of  that  struggle,  a  national 
Cortes  drew  up  the  famous  Constitution  of  1812  (§  638). 

Then  followed  the  restoration  of  the  cruel  and  suspicious 
Ferdinand  VII,  his  treacherous  overthrow  of  the  constitution, 
its  restoration  by  the  revolution  of  1820,  and  the  armed  inter- 
vention of  the  despotic  Holy  Alliance  in  1823  (§§638,  642). 
For  the  next  ten  years  the  Liberals  were  persecuted  vigorously. 
To  own  a  foreign  book  was  a  crime.  In  1831  a  young  man  was 
hanged  in  Madrid  for  shouting  "  Hurrah  for  Liberty  !  "  and  a 

1  It  is  suggested "  that,  if  time  presses,  this  chapter  be  merely  read,  and 
talked  over,  without  much  attempt  to  fix  details. 

2  There  are  also  four  or  five  others,  like  the  little  republic  of  San  Marino 
in  the  Italian  Alps,  so  small  that  few  maps  take  notice  of  them. 

(577 


678  SPAIN   AFTER   1820  [§835 

woman  met  the  same  fate  for  embroidering  on  a  flag  the  words, 
"  Law,  Liberty,  Equality." 

835  From  1833  to  *&73-  —  Ferdinand  died  in  1833,  but,  for 
forty  years  more,  Spain  passed  from  revolution  to  revolution, 
—  none  for  liberty,  each  for  some  ruler  or  military  chieftain. 
During  the  middle  half  of  the  century  Spain  had  many  "  paper 
constitutions  "  but  no  constitutionalism.  The  government  was 
"  government  by  revolt."  Every  change  was  brought  about  by 
a  coup  d'etat. 

The  many  successive  military  revolutions,  however,  were  marked  by 
surprisingly  little  bloodshed.  It  has  been  wittily  said,  that  during  this 
period,  "revolution  in  Spain  became  a  fine  art."  When  an  adminis- 
tration had  grown  sufficiently  unpopular,  some  officer  with  docile  battal- 
ions and  a  grievance  would  issue  a  "  pronunciainento "  declaring  the 
existing  government  dissolved  and  naming  the  members  of  a  new  one. 
If  the  adventurer  had  counted  his  strength  advisedly,  the  old  government 
would  vanish  ;  if  it  stayed,  the  revolt  usually  disappeared.  It  was  part  of 
the  political  game  to  know,  without  fighting,  when  one  was  beaten. 
Some  one  has  said  that  Spaniards  developed  a  delicate  tact  in  working 
revolutions,  as  English-speaking  people  work  elections,  with  the  least 
possible  disturbance  to  the  affairs  of  everyday  life. 

To  be  sure,  after  each  of  the  meaningless  commotions  of 
these  forty  years,  the  victorious  faction  would  "  appeal  to  the 
nation  "  for  sanction ;  but  it  used  all  the  machinery  of  the 
government,  including  the  police,  to  carry  its  candidates ;  and 
members  of  an  opposing  party,  if  active,  were  liable  to  be 
mobbed  by  the  government  party  (the  "  party  of  the  club  "), 
or,  if  they  resisted,  to  be  locked  up  "  to  prevent  a  disturbance." 

Meantime  wasteful  taxation  and  miserable  misgovernment 
made  the  nation  seethe  with  discontent ;  and  in  1868  a  Liberal 
uprising  expelled  the  ruling  Bourbon  line,  and  set  up  a  Pro- 
visional Government.  For  the  next  few  years,  this  govern- 
ment begged  prince  after  prince  in  Europe  to  accept  the 
Spanish  crown  (cf.  §  736).  One  Italian  prince,  Amadeo,  a 
younger  son  of  Victor  Emmanuel,  accepted  it,  and  made  an 
honorable  attempt  to  rule  as  a  constitutional  king;  but  after 
two  years  (1871-1873),  in  despair,  he  left  the  country. 


THE   REPUBLIC,    1873-1875  679 

836.  Then  in  1873  the  Liberals  set  up  a  republic,  with  Caste- 
lar  as  president.  The  constitution,  said  to  have  been  drawn 
up  in  twenty-four  hours,  was  never  more  than  a  form.  The 
leaders  made  absurd  promises  which  could  not  be  kept :  to  re- 
duce taxes,  though  the  treasury  was  bankrupt ;  to  do  away  with 
conscription,  though  the  army  was  demoralized  and  revolt  flour- 
ished; to  abolish  capital  punishment,  though  crime  was  rampant. 

But  Castelar  could  learn ;  and  six  months  of  anarchy  changed 
his  views.  Bourbon  risings  were  making  rapid  progress  in 
the  northern  provinces ;  the  seaboard  cities  of  the  south  had 
declared  themselves  independent  communes,  after  the  plan  of 
Paris  two  years  before ;  taxes  ceased  to  come  in ;  the  remnants 
of  the  army  were  in  mutiny ;  the  towns  were  at  the  mercy  of 
ruffians,  and  the  country  districts  in  the  hands  of  bandits. 
Then,  in  a  fortunate  recess  of  the  Cortes,  Castelar  turned  his 
vague  legal  authority  into  a  beneficent  dictatorship.  The 
choice,  he  saw,  lay  between  bayonet-rule  in  the  hands  of  dis- 
ciplined troops  controlled  by  good  men,  and  pike-rule  in  the 
hands  of  a  vicious  rabble  led  by  escaped  galley-slaves.  He 
candidly  abandoned  his  old  theories,  broke  his  foolish  pledges, 
and  with  wise  energy  brought  order  out  of  chaos.  He 
crushed  the  communes  with  an  army  recruited  by  a  strict  con- 
scription, and  checked  crime  and  anarchy  by  military  execu- 
tions after  swift  drumhead  courtmartials. 

It  was  natural  that  he  should  be  assailed  as  a  tyrant.  When 
the  Cortes  reassembled,  his  old  friends  passed  a  vote  of  lack  of 
confidence.  The  commander  of  the  troops  asked  for  permis- 
sion to  disperse  the  Cortes  ;  but,  by  resigning  promptly,  Caste- 
lar showed  that  he  had  no  wish  to  prolong  his  personal 
authority.  To-day  no  one  doubts  his  good  faith  or  good  judg- 
ment, and  the  name  of  this  republican  statesman-author-dic- 
tator stands  out  as  the  chief  glory  of  Spain  in  the  nineteenth 
century.1 


1  Castelar  had  been  professor  of  philosophy  in  the  University  of  Madrid 
before  he  entered  politics,  and  he  ranks  among  the  great  orators  of  modern 
times.  Hannay's  Castelar  is  a  brief  and  interesting  biography. 


680  SPAIN   AFTER    1820  [§837 

837.  Restoration  of  the   Monarchy.  —  Castelar's   resignation 
was  followed   by    brief   anarchy ;  but   two   more   revolutions 
brought  the  nation  to  the  restoration  of  the  old  Bourbon  line, 
at  the  close  of  1874,  in  the  person  of  the  young  Alphonso  XII,1 
grandson  of  Ferdinand.     The  restoration  was  welcomed  with 
delight  by  the  exhausted  nation,  and  it  closed  the  long  period 
of  revolution.     The  new  government  proved  vigorous  and  pru- 
dent; and  in  1876  the  present  constitution  introduced  Spain 
to  a  more  hopeful  period. 

838.  The  government  in  theory  rests  mainly  in  the  Cortes. 
This  body  consists  of  a  Senate  and  a  Congress.     Half  the  sen- 
ators are  elected,  while  the  rest  are  appointed  for  life,  or  hold 
position  by  virtue  of  other  office  or  of  relationship  to  the  kiiiij. 
The  congressmen  are  elected  by  manhood  suffrage  (since  1890). 

The  ministry  is  expected  to  resign  if  outvoted  in  the  Cortes, 
but,  in  practice,  parliamentary  ?/w/"/-///v.s  do  not  yet  really  imik<> 
ministries.  Instead,  ministries  make  parliamentary  majorities, 
as  in  England  a  century  and  a  half  ago  (§  460).  A  ministry 
is  formed  by  coalition  between  factions,  and  then  it  supplies 
itself  with  a  good  working  majority  by  a  new  election.  The 
ministry  controls  the  elections  pretty  thoroughly;  but  such 
things  are  managed  more  decorously  than  formerly.  Since 
1876  no  party  has  "  called  in  the  infantry/'  Pronunciamentos 
seem  to  be  outgrown,  and,  in  the  near  future,  Spain  may  be 
expected  to  secure  the  spirit,  as  well  as  the  form,  of  parliamen- 
tary government.  Of  late  years  the  chief  disturbances  have 
come  from  the  Socialists. 

839.  Reforms,  1881-1890. — Until  1881  the  energies  of  the 
government  went  mainly  to  restoring   order.     Then,  for   ten 
years,  reform  crowded  upon  reform.    Jury  trial  was  introduced; 
civil  marriage  was  permitted;  popular  education  was  encour- 
aged ;  the  franchise  was  extended ;  the  slaves  in  the  colonies 
were  freed ;  honest  but  vain  attempts  were  made  to  improve 
the  government  of  the  colonies  ;  and,  above  all,  so  far  as  Spain's 
welfare  is  concerned,  the  system  of  taxation  was  reformed. 

i  In  1885  Alphonso's  death  left  the  crown  to  his  son,  Alphonso  XIII. 


§840]  RELIGION,    EDUCATION,    COLONIES  681 

In  1876  taxes  were  still  levied  in  the  wasteful,  demoraliz- 
ing way  characteristic  of  France  before  the  First  Revolution, 
and  both  foreign  trade  and  home  industries  were  strangled  by 
them.  Conditions  are  still  far  from  ideal,  but  the  heaviest 
shackles  have  been  struck  off.  As  a  result,  trade  has  mounted 
by  bounds ;  manufactures  have  developed ;  railroads  and  tele- 
graphs have  been  tripled.  Population  has  doubled  in  the  last 
century,  rising  from  ten  millions  to  twenty,  and  the  growth 
has  been  especially  rapid  in  the  last  decades.  Above  all,  the 
number  of  peasant  landowners  is  rapidly  increasing. 

To  be  sure,  the  shiftless,  excitable,  bigoted  character  of  the 
mass  of  the  people  has  not  yet  become  perceptibly  altered. 
Still,  Spain  is  far  from  being  a  dying  nation,  as  she  is  some- 
times called.  She  is  a  reviving  nation :  and  the  increase  in 
population  and  in  material  wealth  is  a  chief  reason  for  the 
greater  political  stability  of  the  last  forty  years.  Under  the 
new  conditions,  constant  revolution  would  be  too  costly. 

Castelar  gave  his  allegiance  to  the  liberal  monarchy;  but, 
though  taking  a  prominent  part  in  politics,  he  always  refused 
to  accept  office.  The  leading  statesman  in  this  long  course  of 
reform  from  1880  to  1898  was  Sagasta,  whose  name  stands 
next  to  Castelar's  in  honor  in  modern  Spanish  history. 

840.  Religion  and  Education.  —  Catholicism  is  the  state 
religion.  Though  the  constitution  promises  "freedom  of 
worship,"  no  other  religious  services  are  permitted  in  pub- 
lic. In  this  respect  Spain  is  the  most  backward  of  European 
lands.  The  schools  are  poorly  attended  (despite  a  compul- 
sory education  law)  and  poorly  taught.  These  conditions  are 
improving,  but  it  will  be  several  years  at  least  before  even  half 
the  adults  can  read  and  write.1 

Castelar  and  Sagasta  wished  to  change  all  this  radically, 
(1)  by  the  complete  separation  of  church  and  state,  and  (2)  by 
the  exclusion  of  clerical  control  from  the  schools.  But  the  intro- 
duction of  manhood  suffrage  strengthened  the  Clericals  and 

1  By  the  census  of  1910,  64  per  cent  could  not  do  either. 


682  SPAIN   TO-DAY  [§842 

Conservatives  in  the  Cortes  after  1890  (because  of  the  absolute 
obedience  paid  at  elections  by  the  peasants  to  their  priests), 
and  for  many  years  no  change  in  these  lines  has  been  possible. 

841.  Loss  of   Colonies.  —  Until   1898  the   great   drag   upon 
Spanish  progress  was  the  surviving  colonial  empire.     After 
1876  a  series  of  efforts  was  made  to  give  good  government  and 
some  measure  of  self-control  to  Cuba,  which  had  been  in  inces- 
sant and  wasting  rebellion.     But  the  problem  was  probably  too 
difficult  to  be  worked  out  under  the  most  favorable  conditions 
by  a  country  politically  so  backward  at  home.    Corrupt  officials 
oftentimes  ruined  the  designs  of  the  government ;  and  in  any 
case,  the  colonies  were  already  so  alienated  by  long  misgov- 
ernment  as  to  make  the  task  hopeless. 

In  1894  Cuba  rose  again  for  independence.  Spain  made 
tremendous  efforts  to  hold  her  colony,  and  for  some  years,  at 
an  immense  cost,  maintained  an  army  of  200,000  men  at  a  dis- 
tance of  2000  miles  from  home.  The  warfare,  however,  was 
reducing  Cuba  to  a  desert;  and  finally,  in  1898,  the  United 
States  interfered.  The  Spanish- American  War  resulted  in  the 
surrender  of  all  the  Spanish  colonies,  except  a  few  neighboring 
islands  and  some  districts  in  northwest  Africa. 

842.  Outlook.  —  It  may  be  hoped  that  this  loss  will  prove  a 
gain.     The  poverty  of  the  government  has  been  serious.     The 
national  debt  is  almost  two  billions  of  dollars.     The  interest 
charge    is  a  crushing  burden,  and  until  1900  the  debt  was 
constantly  growing.     Now  that  Spain  no  longer  has  the  task 
of  holding  distant  colonial  possessions,  she  may  conclude  to 
reduce  her  absurd  army  system  and  to  use  the  money  for  the 
development  of  the  intellect  of  the  people  and  of  the  resources 
of  the  land.     Spain  still  has  ambitions,  however,  to  extend  her 
colonial  possessions  in  Africa. 

Just  before  the  loss  of  the  Spanish  colonies,  Castelar  expressed  the 
feeling  of  thoughtful  Spaniards  in  effective  words:  "When  we  turn  our 
eyes  to  the  sad  past  and  compare  it  with  the  present,  we  see  what  may 
be  accomplished  without  trying  to  fulfill  Utopian  dreams.  .  .  .  Men 
who  have  seen  an  absolute  monarchy,  see  to-day  a  democratic  monarchy. 


§844]  CONDITIONS   AND   PROBLEMS  683 

Men  who  once  scarcely  dared  express  their  thoughts,  can  write  to-day 
anything  that  they  wish.  Men  who  were  once  dismissed  from  the  uni- 
versities for  proclaiming  free  thought  and  scientific  truth  have  the  right 
to-day  to  teach  what  they  believe.  .  .  .  We  may  well  be  content  with 
the  work  of  the  last  forty  years." 

II.  THE  REPUBLIC  OF  PORTUGAL 

843.  Historical  Survey.  —  When  Napoleon  1  seized  Portugal 
(1807),  the  royal  family  of  the  Braganzas  fled  to  Brazil,  the 
most  important  of  Portugal's  dependencies ;  and  after  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  French,  King  John  preferred  to  rule  the  home 
country  from  the  colony.     The  Portuguese  were  deeply  dissat- 
isfied with  this  arrangement,  and  finally,  to  save  his  European 
crown,  the  king  left  his  son  Pedro l  to  rule  Brazil,  and  returned 
to  Portugal,  accepting  the  radical  constitution  which  agitators 
had  drawn  up  (1821)  on  the  model  of  the  Spanish  constitution 
of  1820. 

For  many  years,  however,  the  country  was  distracted  by 
revolutions,  and  by  wars  between  claimants  for  the  crown ; 
but  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Portugal 
began  to  make  some  progress  in  constitutional  government. 
Then,  in  1910,  a  sudden  uprising  set  up  a  republic,  which  so  far 
(1915)  seems  stable.  English  influence  is  dominant  in  foreign 
relations,  so  that  Portugal  is,  in  practice,  almost  an  English 
protectorate. 

844.  Conditions  and  Problems.  —  Until  1910  Catholicism  was 
the  state  religion.     Indeed  there  were  only  a  few  hundred 
people  of  other  faiths  in  the  country.     But  the  Republican 
government  at  once  established  complete  religious  freedom,  con- 
fiscated the  church  property,  and  adopted  a  plan  for  the  "  sepa- 
ration of  church  and  state  "  like  that  set  up  in  France  in  1906. 

Education,  by  law,  is  universal  and  gratuitous ;  but  in  prac- 

1  The  son  of  this  prince  was  Pedro  II  of  Brazil,  who  ruled  from  1835  to  1890. 
In  that  last  year,  the  Brazilians  called  for  a  republic,  and  Pedro  resigned  the 
throne,  winning  the  admiration  of  the  world  by  his  dignified  moderation. 
His  wise  rule  was  the  last  remnant  of  monarchy  on  the  Western  hemisphere. 


684  BELGIUM  [§  845 

tice  the  children  of  the  poor  do  not  attend  school.  The  schools, 
too,  are  very  poor.  Portugal  is  more  illiterate  even  than  Spain. 
In  1900  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  people  (above  six  years 
of  age)  could  neither  read  nor  write.  The  chief  peril  to  the 
Republic  is  ignorance. 

Colonies  are  still  extensive  (in  the  Verde  islands,  in  Africa, 
and  in  India),  but  they  do  not  pay  expenses,  and  it  is  doubtful 
whether  so  poor  a  country  can  afford  to  keep  them.  Their  ad- 
ministration, too,  is  very  bad. 

National  finances  are  in  a  deplorable  condition.  In  1893 
Portugal  suspended  payment  of  two-thirds  of  the  interest  on 
her  national  debt.  In  1894  France  withdrew  her  ambassador, 
because  of  dissatisfaction  at  this  treatment  of  French  creditors. 
Such  action  gave  rise  to  talk  of  possible  intervention  by 
European  governments  in  Portuguese  affairs.  For  some  years 
the  government  has  had  an  annual  deficit.  It  would  seem 
that  the  country  must  give  up  her  costly  army  system  and 
sell  her  colonies. 

Recent  years  have  seen  much  distress  from  lack  of  employ- 
ment or  from  low  wages,  and  many  strikes  accompanied  by  riots. 

III.   BELGIUM 

845.  The  Constitution  of  Belgium  is  still  that  of  1831,  with  a 
few  amendments.  It  has  an  admirable  bill  of  rights.  The 
king  acts  only  through  ministers ;  and  by  custom  the  ministers 
must  resign  if  outvoted  in  parliament. 

In  1831  the  franchise  rested  upon  the  payment  of  a  consid- 
erable tax.  When  the  revolutions  of  1848  were  upsetting  so 
many  governments,  Belgium  made  a  slight  reduction  in  this 
qualification  for  voting.  For  nearly  fifty  years  there  was  no 
further  change ;  but  meanwhile  great  city  populations  were 
growing  up,  with  masses  of  artisans  who  had  no  votes.  In 
the  eighties  only  one  man  in  ten  could  vote ;  and  agitation  be- 
gan for  further  extension  of  the  franchise. 

The  proposal  secured  little  support  in  parliament,  however, 


§847]  RECENT  PROGRESS  685 

and  bill  after  bill  was  voted  down.  In  the  early  nineties  the 
discontent  of  the  Radicals  became  violent.  In  1893  the  Labor 
party  declared  a  general  strike,  in  order  to  exert  political  pres- 
sure, and  the  crowds  of  unemployed  men  in  Brussels  about  the 
parliament  house  threatened  serious  riots.  The  militia  was 
called  out,  but  it  showed  a  dangerous  disposition  to  side  with 
the  rioters. 

The  members  of  parliament,  looking  on  from  their  windows, 
changed  their  minds,  and  quickly  passed  the  present  franchise 
law,  providing  for  manhood  suffrage,  with  plural  votes  for  wealth 
and  education.  Each  man  has  one  vote ;  two  votes  are  given  to 
each  man,  over  thirty-five  years  of  age,  if  he  possesses  certain 
wealth,  or  if  he  is  the  head  of  a  family  with  children ;  and  three 
votes  are  given  to  men  of  high  educational  qualification  and 
to  those  who  have  held  important  public  office. 

846.  The  Kulturkampf.  —  The  new  franchise  produced  unex- 
pected results.     From  1850  to  1884  the  leading  question  in 
politics  had  been  whether  state  or  church  should  control  educa- 
tion.    The  Liberals  were  in  power  the  greater  part  of  the  time, 
and,  by  one  bill  after  another,  they  had  taken  the  schools  wholly 
away  from  clerical  influence. 

This  resulted,  however,  in  the  growth  of  a  large  Clerical 
party.  Then,  the  election  of  1894  returned  104  Clericals, 
15  Liberals,  and  33  Socialists.  Of  the  two  million  votes  cast, 
over  a  third  were  "plural  votes"  and  these  very  largely  reinforced 
the  Clericals.  A  new  education  bill  (1895)  placed  the  public 
schools  under  the  supervision  of  the  church,  and  provided  state 
support  for  church  schools.  Education  continued  to  make 
progress.  In  1890,  16  per  cent  of  the  army  recruits  could  not 
read  or  write  ;  in  1910  the  number  was  only  9  per  cent. 

847.  Belgium  has  ranked  for  many  years  among  the  leading  in- 
dustrial  nations.      In   1910  the   population  was   seven  and   a 
half  million  —  more  than  double  that  in  1815.     At  this  writing 
(March,  1915),  the  country  for  many  weeks  has  been  the  chief 
battle  ground  of  the  terrible  European  war,  and  its  unparalleled 
sufferings  excite  the  compassion  and  horror  of  the  world. 


686  HOLLAND 

IV.    HOLLAND 

848.  Government.     The  royal  family  of  Holland  belongs  to 
the  great  House  of  Orange,1  and  the  people  are  loyally  devoted 
to  it.     The  upper  House  of  the  States  General  (the  parliament 
keeps  that  ancient  name)  is  chosen  by  the  local  legislatures  of 
the  various  provinces  for  nine  years,  one  third  going  out  each 
third  year.     This  plan  of  partial  reneivals  of  a  branch  of  the 
legislature   has   been  adopted  in  many  countries,   as  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  but  it  seems  to  have  originated  in 
Holland  some  centuries  ago. 

The  House  of  Representatives  (lower  House  of  the  States 
General)  is  elected  directly  by  the  people.  Since  1896  about 
three-fourths  of  the  adult  men  have  votes,  —  nearly  all  except 
paupers,  vagabonds,  and  unmarried  sons  in  poor  families. 
The  monarchy  has  been  of  the  Prussian  rather  than  the  English 
type,  until  recently ;  but  during  the  long  minority  of  the  girl- 
queen  the  ministries  began  to  be  truly  "  responsible "  to  the 
Representatives. 

849.  The  country  is  rich  and  prosperous.      The  population 
(six  millions  in  1910)  has  grown  in  the  last  century  even  faster 
than  that  of  Belgium.     The  colonial  empire,  despite  great  losses 
in  the  Napoleonic  wars,  is  still  vast  and  productive. 

V.   THE   SWISS   REPUBLIC2 

850.  The  Congress  of  Vienna  left  the  Swiss  Cantons  in  a 
loose  confederacy,  not  unlike  that  of  the  United  States  before 
1789.     The  original  "  Forest  Cantons  "  were  pure  democracies. 
They  governed  themselves  (as  some  do  still)  by  folkmoots, — 
primary  assemblies  of  all  the  people.     In  Bern,  Luzern,  and 
some  other  of  the  rich  "  City   Cantons,"  a  few  families  had 
complete  possession  of  the  government,  so  that  the  rule  was  an 
hereditary  oligarchy.     But  in  1830,  after  the  success  of  the 

1  The  present  sovereign  is  Queen  Wilhelmiua,  who  came  to  the  throne  in 
1890  at  ten  years  of  age. 

*  For  early  Swiss  history,  see  §§  321,  596,  629. 


§851]  RECENT  PROGRESS  687 

French   revolution,  popular   risings   established  liberal   local 
constitutions  in  those  city  cantons. 

851.  The  next  change  grew  out  of  religious  strife.  The  re- 
organized cantons  of  1830  were  Protestant,  and  now  they  be- 
came radical  in  politics.  The  old  democratic  cantons  were 
Catholic,  and  were  coming  to  be  controlled  by  a  new  Clerical 
party.  The  confederacy  seemed  ready  to  split  in  twain. 


A  TYPICAL,  Swiss  TOWN.  —  Meran. 

Some    individual    cantons,    too,    were    torn    by   civil    strife. 
Switzerland  was  organized  in  two  camps. 

The  final  struggle  began  in  Aargau.  In  this  canton,  in  the 
election  of  1840,  the  Radicals  won.  The  Clericals  rose  in 
revolt.  To  punish  them,  after  suppressing  the  rising,  the 
Radicals  dissolved  the  eight  monasteries  of  the  canton.  This 
act  was  contrary  to  the  constitution  of  the  Union;  and  the 
seven  Catholic  cantons  in  alarm  formed  a  separate  league, 
—  the  Sonderbund, —  and  declared  that  they  would  protect 
the  Clericals  in  their  rights  in  any  canton  where  they  might 
be  attacked. 


688  SWITZERLAND  [§  862 

852.  The  Sonderbund  War.  —  For  the  Sonderbund  to  exist  at 
all  was  practically  to  dissolve  the  union.     In  1847  the  Federal 
Diet,  now  controlled  by  the  Radicals,  ordered  the  Sonderbund 
to  dissolve.     The  Sonderbund  withdrew  its  deputies  from  the 
Diet,  and  war  was  begun  (1847)  — seven  cantons  against  fifteen. 
The  despotic  Powers  of  the  Holy  Alliance  were  preparing  to 
interfere  in  behalf  of  the  Sonderbund  (§  640),  and  did  furnish 
it   with   arms   and   money ;  but  the   Unionists    (warned  and 
encouraged  by  the  English  government)  acted  with  remarkable 
celerity  and  crushed  the  Secessionists  in  a  three  weeks'  cam- 
paign, before  foreign   intervention   could   begin.     Metternich 
still  intended  to  interfere,  but  the  revolutions  of  1848  rendered 
him  harmless.     Then  the  Radicals  remodeled  the  constitutions 
of  the  conquered  cantons,  so  as  to  put  power  into  the  hands 
of  the  Radicals  there,  and  adopted  a  new  national  constitution. 

There  are  many  interesting  points  of  likeness  between  the  civil  war  in 
Switzerland  and  that  a  little  later  in  the  United  States.  In  both  countries 
there  was  a  conflict  between  a  national  and  a  states'  sovereignty  party. 
In  both,  as  a  result  of  war,  the  more  progressive  part  of  the  nation  forced 
a  stronger  union  upon  the  more  backward  portion  ;  in  both,  too,  the  states 
which  tried  to  secede  did  so  in  behalf  of  rights  guaranteed  them  in  the  old 
constitution,  which  they  believed  to  be  endangered  by  their  opponents. 

853.  By  the  new  constitution  of  1848,  which  with  slight  amend- 
ments is  that  of  to-day,  the  union  became  a  true  Federal  Republic. 

TJie  Federal  Assembly  (national  legislature)  has  two  Houses, 
—  the  Council  of  the  States  and  the  National  Council  The  first 
consists  of  two  delegates  from  each  canton.  The  delegates  are 
chosen  by  the  cantonal  legislatures,  by  whom  also  their  term 
of  office  is  fixed  and  their  salaries  are  paid.  This  Council 
represents  the  states'  rights  principle,  and  in  form  it  is  a  survival 
of  the  old  Diet. 

The  other  parts  of  the  constitution,  however,  are  new,  and 
tend  toward  nationalism.  The  second  House  of  the  legislature, 
the  National  Council,  represents  the  people  of  the  union.  The 
members  are  elected  in  single  districts,  like  our  Representa- 
tives, for  a  term  of  three  years.  The  franchise  is  given  to 


§854]  DIRECT  DEMOCRACY  689 

all  adult  males,  and  elections  take  place  on  Sundays,  so  that 
all  may  vote. 

The  Federal  Executive  is  not  a  single  president,  but  a  com- 
mittee of  seven  (the  Federal  Council),  whose  members  are 
chosen  by  the  Federal  Assembly.  One  of  the  seven,  especially 
named  for  the  purpose,  is  the  President  of  the  Council;  but  he 
possesses  little  more  authority  than  the  other  members.  The 
Federal  Council  acts  much  as  an  English  ministry,  but  it 
cannot  dissolve  the  legislature,  and  it  need  not  resign  if  its 
measures  are  rejected. 

There  is  also  a  Federal  Judiciary,  chosen  by  the  Federal 
Assembly ;  but  it  lacks  the  power  of  our  American  Supreme 
Court  to  declare  laws  void :  it  is  bound  to  accept  as  valid  all 
acts  of  the  legislature. 

Each  canton,  like  each  of  our  States,  has  its  own  constitution 
and  government.  In  a  few  cantons  the  old  folkmoot,  or  pri- 
mary Assembly,  is  still  preserved ;  in  the  others  the  legislature 
consists  of  one  chamber,1  chosen  by  manhood  suffrage.  In  all 
there  are  executive  councils. 

854.  Direct  Legislation.  —  As  a  rule,  even  in  modern  demo- 
cratic countries,  the  people  govern  themselves  only  indirectly. 
They  choose  representatives  (legislatures  and  governors),  and 
these  few  delegated  individuals  attend  directly  to  all  matters 
of  government.  Democratic  thinkers,  however,  demand  that 
some  way  be  found  for  the  people  themselves  to  take  a  direct 
part  in  law-making;  and  Switzerland  was  the  first  country  to 
show  how  this  may  be  done.  The  two  Swiss  devices  for  this 
end  are  known  as  the  referendum  and  the  popular  initiative. 

The  referendum  is  the  older.  It  consists  merely  in  referring 
laws  that  have  been  passed  by  the  legislature  to  a  popular  vote. 
This  practice  really  originated  in  America.  The  State  of 
Massachusetts  submitted  its  first  constitution  to  a  popular  vote 
in  1778  and  in  1780,  and  there  were  a  few  other  applications 

1 A  two-chambered  legislature  is  contrary  to  Swiss  practice,  and  the  plan 
was  adopted  in  the  national  constitution,  from  the  United  States,  to  reconcile 
the  claims  of  the  adherents  of  States'  rights  and  of  the  Nationalists. 


690  SWITZERLAND  [§  854 

of  the  principle  in  America  at  about  the  same  time.  A  little 
later,  the  French  Revolutionists  adopted  the  practice  for  their 
constitutions  ;  and  the  plebiscites  of  the  Napoleons  extended 
the  principle  to  some  other  questions  besides  constitutions.1 
In  America,  after  1820,  nearly  all  our  States  used  the  referen- 
dum on  the  adoption  of  new  constitutions  and  of  constitu- 
tional amendments;  and  sometimes  other  important  measures 
were  submitted  to  popular  decision,  both  in  state  and  city 
governments. 

But  Switzerland  taught  the  world  how  to  go  farther  than 
this.  By  the  Constitution  of  1848,  all  constitutional  amend- 
ments, cantonal  or  national,  must  be  submitted  to  popular  vote, 
and  in  some  cantons  this  compulsory  referendum  /x  extended  to 
all  laws  ;  while,  by  an  amendment  of  1874,  a  certain  number 
of  voters  by  petition  may  require  the  submission  of  any  nati'»mf 
law.  This  last  provision  is  known  as  the  optional  referendum, 
and  it  has  been  in  use  in  the  separate  cantons  for  most  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

The  popular  initiative  is  a  purely  Swiss  development.  It 
consists  in  the  right  of  a  certain  number  of  voters,  by  petition, 
to  frame  a  new  bill  and  to  compel  its  submission  to  the  people. 
A  little  before  1848,  this  device  began  to  be  regarded  as  the 
natural  complement  of  the  referendum.  Four  cantons  had 
already  made  some  use  of  it,  and  the  new  Constitution  of  1848 
required  all  cantons  to  permit  it  in  constitutional  amendments, 
if  a  majority  of  voters  so  petitioned. 

The  cantons  themselves  rapidly  adopted  more  generous 
measures  than  this ;  and,  by  1870,  in  nearly  all  of  them  a  small 
number  of  voters  could  introduce  any  law  they  desired.  In 
1891,  by  amendment,  this  liberal  principle  was  adopted  for  the 
national  government:  a  petition  of  fifty  thousand  voters  may 
frame  a  law,  which  must  then  be  submitted  to  a  national  vote. 

Thus  the  people  can  act  directly,  without  the  intervention 
of  the  legislature.  They  can  frame  bills  by  the  initiative,  and 

!The  French  Constitution  of  the  Year  I  provided  for. a  referendum  on  ordi- 
nary laws  ;  but  this  constititution  never  went  into  effect  (§  573). 


§855]  DIRECT  DEMOCRACY  691 

pass  on  them  by  the  referendum.1  These  devices  for  direct 
legislation  are  the  most  important  advances  made  in  late  years 
by  democracy.  Recently,  many  of  the  more  progressive  States 
of  the  American  Union  have  carried  them  (with  the  further 
device  of  the  recall)  to  a  higher  degree  of  perfection  even  than 
in  their  Swiss  home. 

855.  Switzerland  fills  a  far  larger  place  in  history  and  in  human 
interest  than  her  territory  fills  on  the  map.  Since  1848  the 
Swiss  have  been  one  nation.  The  defeated  party  quickly  ac- 
cepted the  result  of  the  Sonderbund  war  in  good  faith,  and 
now  all  Swiss  look  upon  each  other  as  fellow-countrymen.  In 
the  last  half-century  Switzerland  has  made  amazing  advances, 
and  to-day  it  is  one  of  the  most  progressive  countries  in  the 
world.  The  schools  are  among  the  best  in  Europe ;  no  other 
country  has  so  little  illiteracy.  Comfort  is  well  diffused.  No 
other  country  to-day  gives  such  complete  equality  of  opportu- 
nity in  industry  and  in  politics.  The  population  increases 
rapidly,  and  in  1896  it  numbered  three  and  a  third  millions. 
The  army  system  is  a  universal  militia  service,  lighter  than 
is  known  anywhere  else  in  Europe. 

Two-thirds  of  the  people  are  Germans;  but  French  and 
Italian,  as  well  as  German,  are  "  official "  languages,  and  the 
debates  in  the  Federal  Assembly  are  carried  on  in  all  three 
tongues.  But  race  feeling,  which  is  so  disintegrating  a  force 
in  Austria,  works  no  harm  in  Switzerland.  The  universal 
patriotism  of  the  people  is  a  high  testimonial  to  the  strength 
of  free  institutions  and  of  the  flexible  federal  principle,  in 
binding  together  diverse  elements.  Says  President  Lowell,  of 
Harvard,  "The  Swiss  Confederation,  on  the  whole,  is  the 
most  successful  democracy  in  the  world." 

FOR  FURTHER  READING.  —  Seignobos'  Europe  Since  1814,  255-284,  or 
Hazen's  Europe  Since  1815.  Fuller  accounts,  of  interest  and  great  value, 
may  be  found  in  Lloyd's  A  Sovereign  People  and  Crawford's  Switzerland 
of  To-day  (1911). 

1  A  good  account  of  the  referendum  and  initiative  in  Switzerland  is  given 
in  Seignobos,  Europe  Since  1814,  271-279  and  283-284. 


692  DENMARK  [§  856 

VI.    DENMARK 

856.  To  1866.  —  In  the  later  Middle  Ages,  Denmark  was  an 
elective   monarchy   distracted   by  feudal  anarchy.     In  1660, 
after  a  shameful  defeat  by  Sweden,  it  became  an  hereditary 
and  absolute  monarchy.     In   1848  the  king  felt  obliged   to 
grant  a  paper  constitution ;  but  not  until  after  the  defeat l  of 
1864  did  Denmark  begin  to  have  any  real  constitutional  devel- 
opment.    A  Democratic  party   ("Friends  of  the  Peasants") 
then  began  to  demand  reform,  and,  after  two  years  of  clamor, 
a  constitution  was  established. 

857.  This  constitution  of  1866  promises  freedom  of  speech 
and  of  the  press,  and  creates  a  Diet  (Eigsdag)  of  two  Houses. 
The  Landthing,  or  upper  House,  is  composed  partly  of  mem- 
bers appointed  by  the  king,  partly  of  members  elected  on  a 
very  high  property  basis.     The  Folkthing,  or  lower  House,  is 
elected  by  manhood  suffrage.     All  self-supporting  men,  thirty 
years  of  age,  can  vote.     In  1901,  after  a  thirty-years'  contest, 
ministries  were  made  responsible  to  the  Representatives. 

858.  Denmark  is  the  special  home  of  cooperation  among  farmers. 
The  land  is  not  naturally  fertile.     The  people,  until  after  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  were   poor  and   ignorant. 
Agriculture    was   backward.      The    defeat   by   Prussia    and 
Austria  iu  1864  left  the  little  state  disrupted  and  impoverished. 
Its  people  were  forced  to  seek  some  escape  from  their  condition. 

A  new  system  of  schools  pointed  the  way.  Denmark  con- 
tains 15,000  square  miles  with  two  and  three  quarters  millions 
of  people.  That  is,  it  has  more  people  than  Indiana,  in  less 
than  half  the  territory.  More  than  a  third  of  these  people 
are  farmers.  For  them,  ninety-eight  high  schools  give  in- 
struction in  agriculture  and  domestic  economy,  —  twenty  of 
the  ninety-eight  being  special  schools  in  agriculture.  Most  of 
these  schools,  too,  give  special  "  short  courses  "  in  the  winter, 
and  these  are  largely  attended  by  adult  farmers  and  their 
wives.  The  schools  are  not  merely  industrial ;  even  the  short 

i  Compare  with  the  case  of  Austria  after  1866,  and  France  after  1870. 


§859]  THE   UNION   OF   1814  693 

courses  emphasize  music  and  literature.  They  aim  to  teach 
not  merely  how  to  get  a  living,  but  also  how  to  live  nobly. 
But  they  have  taught  the  Danish  farmers  the  methods  of 
successful  cooperation,  and  to-day  Denmark  is  one  of  the  most 
progressive  and  prosperous  farming  countries  in  the  world. 

Local  cooperative  societies  are  found  in  almost  every  dis- 
tinct line  of  farm  industry,  —  in  dairying,  in  the  hog  industry, 
in  marketing  of  eggs,  in  breeding  cattle,  in  producing  im- 
proved seed,  in  securing  farm  machinery,  in  loaning  one  an- 
other money  (farm  credits),  and  so  on.  The  local  societies  are 
federated  into  national  organizations.  The  central  society 
that  markets  eggs  and  dairy  products  has  an  office  in  London 
as  well  as  in  Copenhagen,  and  owns  its  own  swift  steamers  to  ply 
daily  between  the  two  capitals.  Little  Denmark  supplies 
England's  forty  millions  with  a  large  part  of  their  eggs, 
bacon,  and  butter,  —  $  10,000,000  worth,  $32,000,000  worth, 
and  $50,000,000  worth,  respectively,  in  1911. 

Thanks  to  intelligent  methods  of  farming,  and  of  handling 
produce,  these  Danish  articles  command  the  top  price  in  the 
London  market;  and,  thanks  to  the  cooperative  system,  the 
profits  go  to  the  producers,  not  to  middlemen.  Best  of  all, 
the  Danish  peasant,  on  eight  or  ten  acres  of  land,  is  an 
educated  man,  cultured,  because  of  his  intelligent,  scientific 
mastery  of  his  work. 

The  cooperative  movement  in  agriculture  is  found  also,  in 
only  a  slightly  smaller  degree,  in  Belgium,  Holland,  Norway, 
and  Sweden,  —  all  the  other  small  states  of  Northern  Europe. 
The  movement  is  making  much  progress,  too,  in  France. 

VII.   NORWAY 

859.  The  Union  with  Sweden.  —  The  Congress  of  Vienna,  in 
1814,  took  Norway  from  Denmark  and  gave  it  to  Sweden 
(§  626),  to  reward  that  country  for  services  against  Napoleon. 
But  the  Norwegian  people  declined  to  be  bartered  from  one 
ruler  to  another  without  their  own  consent.  A  Diet  assembled 
at  Eidvold  declared  Norway  a  sovereign  state,  adopted  a  lib- 


694  NORWAY  AND   SWEDEN  [§800 

eral  constitution,  and  elected  a  king  (May  17, 1814)-  Sweden, 
backed  by  the  Powers,  made  ready  to  enforce  its  claims,  but 
finally  a  compromise  was  arranged.  The  king  abdicated,  and 
the  Diet  elected  the  Swedish  king  as  King  of  Norway,  on  con- 
dition that  he  should  recognize  the  new  Norwegian  constitution. 

Thus  Norway  and  Sweden  became  a  dual  monarchy.  The 
union  was  looser,  however,  than  that  of  Austria-Hungary.  The 
two  countries  had  the  same  king,  but  they  had  no  common 


A  FJORD  IN  NORWAY.  —  Sogudal. 

ministry  and  nothing  to  correspond  to  the  Austrian  Delega- 
tions. Each  kingdom  kept  its  own  constitution  and  its  own 
legislature.  The  arrangement  lasted  almost  a  century. 

860.  Struggle  for  Self-government.  —  In  1814  the  Norwegian 
legislature  (Storthing)  was  chosen  on  the  basis  of  a  low  prop- 
erty qualification,  and  in  1884  manhood  suffrage  was  adopted. 
The  Storthing  assembles  as  one  house,  but  divides  itself  for 
most  purposes  into  two  chambers.  The  king  of  the  dual  state 
could  not  dissolve  it,  and  a  bill  became  law  in  spite  of  his  veto, 
if  passed  in  three  successive  annual  sessions.  In  the  early  part 


§861]  NORWAY   WINS   INDEPENDENCE  695 

of  the  century  the  Storthing  succeeded  in  abolishing  nobility  in 
Norway,  after  two  vetoes  by  the  king. 

The  chief  interest  in  Norwegian  politics  in  the  nineteenth 
century  lay  in  the  agitation  for  a  greater  amount  of  self-gov- 
ernment. Except  for  one  period  of  about  thirty  years  in  the 
middle  of  the  century,  the  contest  was  incessant,  and  after 
1872  it  grew  bitter. 

In  1872-1874  the  Storthing  passed  a  bill  three  times,  re- 
quiring the  ministries  to  resign  if  outvoted.  King  Oscar  II l 
declared  truly  that  this  was  an  amendment  to  the  constitution, 
and  therefore  a  change  in  the  compact  between  the  two  coun- 
tries. In  such  a  case,  he  urged,  the  rule  limiting  his  veto 
could  not  apply,  and  he  declined  to  recognize  the  law.  The 
Storthing  impeached  the  ministers.  Civil  war  seemed  at  hand; 
but  a  new  election  in  1884  showed  that  the  Norwegians  were 
almost  unanimous  in  the  demand,  and  the  king  yielded. 

861.  Independence.  —  By  this  success  the  real  executive,  for 
all  internal  affairs,  became  Norwegian,  not  Swede.  The  Stor- 
thing passed  at  once  to  a  demand  for  power  to  appoint  Nor- 
wegian consuls,  separate  from  the  Swedish  service.  This 
demand  also  seemed  to  the  king  to  involve  a  change  in  the 
constitution,  —  which  put  the  regulation  of  foreign  affairs  into 
his  hands,  —  and  the  Swedish  party  exclaimed  that  the  pro- 
posed arrangement  would  ruin  the  slight  union  that  remained 
between  the  two  countries. 

The  struggle  waxed  vehement.  In  the  course  of  the  con- 
test the  Norwegians  removed  the  symbol  of  union  from  their 
flag  (1886-1888),  after  passing  the  bill  to  that  effect  each  year 
for  three  sessions,  and  both  countries  at  times  made  prepara- 

1  Oscar  II  came  to  the  Swedish  throne  in  1872,  just  before  the  Norwegian 
national  movement  became  violent  ;  and  his  moderation  and  fairness  had 
much  to  do  with  preventing  an  armed  conflict,  which  impetuous  men  on  either 
side  were  ready  to  precipitate.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  who  sat  upon 
European  thrones  in  the  last  century.  Foreign  nations  paid  a  deserved 
tribute  to  his  ability  and  fairness,  by  requesting  him  frequently  to  act  as 
arbitrator  in  international  disputes.  The  United  States  was  interested  in 
some  of  these  arbitrations. 


696  NORWAY  [§  862 

tions  for  war.  Indeed,  Norway  erected  a  costly  line  of  forti- 
fications on  the  frontier  toward  Sweden. 

In  May,  1905,  when  once  more  a  long  negotiation  for  separate 
consular  service  had  failed,  the  Storthing,  by  unanimous  vote, 
provided  by  its  own  act  for  Norwegian  consuls.  This  was  vir- 
tual secession,  and  the  king  refused  to  recognize  it.  The 
Storthing  then  declared  the  union  dissolved.  The  aristocratic 
element  in  Sweden  called  for  war ;  but  King  Oscar  was  nobly 
resolute  that  his  two  peoples  should  not  imbrue  their  hands  in 
each  other's  blood.  The  Swedish  labor-unions,  too,  threatened  a 
universal  strike,  to  prevent  violent  coercion  of  their  Norwegian 
brethren.  In  July  the  Norwegians  declared  in  favor  of  inde- 
pendence in  a  great  national  referendum,  by  a  vote  of  368,000 
to  184.  Sweden  bowed  to  the  decision.  In  September,  1905,  to 
the  eternal  honor  of  both  peoples,  a  peaceful  separation  was  ar- 
ranged upon  friendly  terms. 

Thus  Norway  became  an  independent  nation.  A  small  party 
wished  the  new  nation  to  become  a  republic ;  but,  in  a  second 
referendum,  a  large  majority  declared  for  a  monarchy  and 
chose  a  Danish  prince  (Haakon  VII)  for  king. 

862.  Woman   Suffrage.  —  In   1901    the   Storthing  gave   the 
franchise  in  all  municipal  matters  to  women  who  paid  (or 
whose  husbands  paid)  a  small  tax.     In  1907  the  parliamentary 
franchise  was  given  to  the  same  class  of  women.     Thus,  Nor- 
way was  the  first  sovereign  nation  to  give  the  full  franchise  to 
women.1     Women,  too,  sit  in  the  Storthing.     There  is  a  strong 
demand  for  the  extension  of  the  franchise  to  all  women  on  the 
same  terms  as  men,  —  a  demand  certain  to  be  granted  in  the 
near  future. 

863.  Conditions.  —  Norway  has  two  and  a  half  millions  of 
people ;  Sweden,  more  than  twice  as  many.2     Sweden  is  also 

JThe  student  will  find  in  §  903  an  enumeration  of  States  and  provinces  in 
which  woman  suffrage  prevails  ;  but  he  will  notice  that  those  granting  that 
right  before  1907  were  not  "  sovereign  "  nations. 

2  Each  of  the  three  Scandinavian  kingdoms  (like  so  many  other  countries 
that  we  have  noted)  at  least  doubled  in  population  in  the  nineteenth  century. 


§863]  RECENT  PROGRESS  697 

the  richer  country.  The  Norwegians,  however,  have  the  larger 
merchant  navy,  —  more  than  four  times  as  large  as  Sweden's, 
and  the  fourth  in  size  in  all  Europe.  This  was  one  reason  why, 
during  the  "  Union,"  Norway  felt  it  had  a  special  interest  in 
controlling  the  consular  service.  Norwegian  authors,  like  the 
novelist-statesman  Bjornson  and  the  poet  Ibsen,  stand  in  the 
front  ranks  of  European  literature,  and  such  facts,  no  doubt, 
helped  to  make  the  people  more  discontented  with  their  recent 
political  inferiority. 

Recent  progress  (apart  from  equal  suffrage)  includes  two 
especial  matters :  — 

a.  The  schools  of  Norway  (despite  the  necessity  for  economy 
in  so  poor  a  country)  have  become  among  the  best  in  the  world. 
Schoolhouses  are  equipped  with  fine  rooms  for  physical  training 
and  with  modern  bath  rooms,  and  are  supplemented  by  farm 
gardens.     Industrial  training  (in  various  branches  of  agricul- 
ture and  in  cooking  and  sewing)  is  a  regular  part  of  the  course 
of  study. 

b.  Norway  has  discovered  a  peculiar  way  to  deal  with  the  liquor 
question.     Until  after  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
drunkenness  was  a  national  vice,  alarming  in  amount.     To-day 
it  has  practically  vanished. 

In  1865  the  town  of  Gothenberg  (in  Sweden)  put  the  sale  of 
all  intoxicants  within  its  limits  into  the  hands  of  one  company, 
which  agreed  to  maintain  certain  conditions  of  cleanliness  and 
good  order  in  its  shops  and  to  hand  over  to  the  city  all  profits 
above  5  per  cent.  In  1871  this  "Gothenberg  system"  was 
adopted  by  the  Norwegian  Storthing  as  the  only  legal  way  in 
which  liquor  can  be  sold  anywhere  in  the  country.  Some 
twenty  years  later  (1895),  "local  option"  was  established 
between  this  plan  and  prohibition. 

To-day,  prohibition  prevails  in  the  country  districts,  on  the 
whole,  and  the  Gothenberg  method  in  the  large  towns.  But 

This  rapid  growth  of  population  is  one  of  the  striking  phenomena  of  modern 
times.  It  has  been  made  possible,  of  course,  by  the  improved  economic  con- 
ditions and  the  growth  of  great  cities  with  new  kinds  of  employment. 


698  SWEDEN  [§  864 

between  1871  and  1895  (while  that  system  held  the  whole  field), 
the  amount  of  liquor  consumed  in  Norway,  per  head,  decreased 
almost  one-half —  whereas,  during  the  same  period  it  was  dou- 
bling in  many  other  countries,  including  our  own.  The  various 
advantages  of  the  Gothenberg  plan  all  come  from  the  central  fact 
that  it  does  away  with  private  profits,  and  so  with  all  temptation 
to  try  to  increase  the  sale  of  intoxicants.  Prohibitionists 
sometimes  condemn  it  because  it  seems  to  give  the  trade  the 
sanction  of  the  state ;  but  experience  in  Norway  seems  to  indi- 
cate that  it  is  a  very  practical  step  toward  prohibition. 

VIII.    SWEDEN 

864.  Until  after  1580  the  Swedish  Diet  was  made  up, 
medieval  fashion,  of  four  estates  —  nobles,  clergy,  burgesses,  and 
peasants.  Such  a  body  was  only  a  slight  check  upon  royal 
power.  The  king  could  play  off  one  class  against  the  other. 
In  1866  this  arrangement  was  replaced  by  a  modern  parliaim-nt 
of  two  houses,  but  for  nearly  half  a  century  more  the  fanchise 
excluded  a  large  part  of  the  adult  males.  Agitation  for  reform 
began  vehemently  in  1895.  Seventeen  years  later,  the  right  to 
vote  for  members  of  the  lower  House  of  the  parliament  was 
given  to  all  adult  men  and  wqmen. 


PART   XII 

SLAV  EUKOPE 


CHAPTER   LXII 

4 

RUSSIA 

865.  Growth.  —  Russia's  destruction  of  Napoleon's  Grand 
Army,  in  1813,  changed  the  fate  of  Europe  and  revealed  her 
own  tremendous  power.  The  growth  of  this  vast,  aggressive, 
semi-Oriental  state  upon  the  edge  of  Western  Europe  created 
new  problems  for  all  "Western"  peoples. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  (§  481),  the  Russians  held  only  a 
part  of  what  is  now  South  Central  Russia,  nowhere  touching 
a  navigable  sea.  Expansion,  since  then,  has  come  partly  by 
colonization,  partly  by  war. 

a.  Until  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great,  the  advance  was  made 
almost  wholly  by  the  ceaseless  movement  of  pioneers  into  the 
savage  wilderness  north  and  east.  Like  swarming  hives, 
Russian  villages  along  the  frontier  sent  forward  bands  of 
people,  each  band  to  advance  a  little  way  and  form  a  new  village, 
driving  out  or  absorbing  the  Tartar  barbarians.  On  the  east 
much  of  the  advance  was  made  by  another  kind  of  frontiersmen, 
called  Cossacks.  The  Cossacks  lived  partly  by  agriculture, 
partly  by  grazing,  and  often  they  waged  war  on  their  own 
account  against  Turks  and  Tartars,  somewhat  as  our  early 
American  frontiersmen  won  Kentucky  from  the  Indians  and 
Texas  from  Mexico.  As  early  as  the  time  of  Ivan  the  Terrible 
(§  481)  a  Cossack  horde  seized  part  of  Siberia. 

699 


700  RUSSIA  [§  865 

b.  The  most  important  additions  by  war  come  under  live 
heads : — 

(1)  The  Baltic  Provinces  from  Sweden,  by  Peter  the  Great,  about 

1700  (§484). 

(2)  Poland,  by  Catherine  II,  1772-1793  (§  500). 

(3)  Finland  from  Sweden,  in  1743  and  1814  (§§  485,  626). 

(4)  The  provinces  along  the  Black  Sea  from  Azof  to  the  Danube,  in  a 

century  of  war  against  the  Turks,  — from  1772  to  1878. 

(5)  In  Asia:  (a)  the  occupation  of  Siberia  at  the  expense  of  savage 

Tartar  tribes  (completed  to  the  Pacific  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury), and  of  Kamchatka  in  1707  ;  (6)  a  district  of  Asia  Minor 
from  the  Caucasus  to  the  Caspian,  and  the  Trans-Caspian  region 
—  between  the  Caspian  Sea  and  Persia  —  at  the  expense  of 
Mohammedan  principalities  and  of  Turkey;  and  (c)  recently, 
northwestern  China,  until  checked  by  Japan. 

Naturally  Russia  has  sought  outlets  to  the  sea.  She  reached 
the  frozen  ocean  of  the  north  early.  Peter  the  Great  reached 
the  Baltic.  In  war,  however,  the  narrow  outlets  from  that  sea 
are  easily  closed  by  a  hostile  power,  and  hence  Russia  has 
been  suspected  of  looking  covetously  towards  the  Atlantic  ports 
of  Sweden  and  Norway.  Peter  began  a  struggle  also  for  the 
Black  Sea,  and  Catherine  II  won  those  waters ;  but  Constanti- 
nople closes  the  exit  from  them  to  the  outer  world.  Kussian 
ambition  therefore  has  aimed,  for  over  half  a  century,  at  that 
ancient  city,  the  former  capital  of  the  Greek  faith.  Until  the 
present  war  (1915),  England  steadily  opposed  Russian  advance 
in  this  direction.  Now  she  has  withdrawn  that  opposition. 

In  Asia,  until  recently,  Russian  advance  has  been  steady  and 
terrifying.  In  that  continent  Russia  aimed  at  the  Pacific  ports 
on  the  east,  and  at  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  Indian  seas  on 
the  south  (besides  the  rich  realms  of  central  Asia  and  India). 
Shortly  after  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  she  came 
into  conflict  with  China  on  the  extreme  northwest.  In  1858 
she  advanced  to  the  Amur  (seizing  northern  Manchuria).  Two 
years  later  she  secured  Vladivostock,  and  so  obtained  a  Pacific 
port  ice-free  for  most  of  the  year.  In  1895  the  great  Trans- 
Siberian  Railway  was  begun,  and  in  1902  the  vast  undertaking 


865] 


EXPANSION 


701 


was  completed  to  Vladivostock.  This  road  is  more  than  5000 
miles  long,  —  nearly  double  the  length  of  the  great  American 
transcontinental  roads.  Eventually  it  must  prove  one  of  the 
great  steps  in  the  advance  of  civilization ;  and  it  has  been  fitly 
compared  in  importance  to  the  finding  of  the  passage  around 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
or  the  building  of  the 
Suez  or  Panama  canals. 
Meanwhile  Russia  had 
compelled  China  to  cede 
the  magnificent  harbor 
of  Port  Arthur  (§  891) 
and  the  right  to  extend 
the  Trans-Siberian  Rail- 
road through  Chinese 
Manchuria  to  that  port 
(1898). 

On  the  south,  just 
after  the  opening  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  Rus- 
sia secured  the  passes  of 
the  Caucasus.  By  the 
middle  of  the  century 
she  had  advanced  into 
Turkestan.  From  that 
lofty  vantage  ground  she 
planned  a  further  ad- 
vance toward  India.  In  swift  succession,  heedless  of  England's 
threats,  she  secured  Bokhara  (1868),  Khiva  (1873),  and  Merv 
(1884),  despite  explicit  pledges  to  England  three  years  before.1 
In  1893  she  reached  the  "roof  of  the  world,"  the  great  Pamir 
plateau,  and  soon  extended  her  military  railroad  to  within 
seventy-five  miles  of  Herat,  the  "  key  to  India."  Great  Britain 
seemed  ready  to  resist  further  advance  by  war ;  but  a  clash  in 

1  These  Trans-Caspian  districts  are  in  the  main  rich  and  fertile,  with  valu- 
able mines,  and  with  a  teeming,  industrious  population. 


CATHEDRAL  OF  THE  ARCHANGEL  —  Mos- 
cow. With  the.  Tower  of  Ivan  the  Great 
and  the  Great  Bell. 


702  RUSSIA  [§  866 

Central  Asia  was  postponed  by  Japan's  victory  in  the  extreme 
east  (below). 

In  the  last  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  Russia  was  busied 
with  vast  internal  improvements,  —  not  only  the  great  railroads 
mentioned  above,  from  Moscow  to  the  Pacific  and  to  the  fron- 
tiers of  India,  but  also  a  stupendous  system  of  canals  to  connect 
her  internal  waterways.  She  was  still  in  a  primitive  stage  in- 
dustrially, and  these  useful  projects  were  carried  on  largely  by 
foreign  workmen  and  foreign  capital.  Under  such  conditions 
at  home,  Russia  had  every  reason  to  desire  peace  abroad ;  but 
in  1904  the  arrogant  folly  of  her  military  classes  plunged  her 
into  a  war  with  Japan  as  unjust  as  it  proved  ruinous.  The 
story  of  this  struggle  is  told  in  another  place  (§  892).  To  the 
amazement  of  the  world,  Russia's  huge  power  collapsed  utterly 
on  land  and  sea,  and  she  was  thrust  back  from  Port  Arthur  and 
Manchuria. 

866.  Area  and  Population.  —  Including  her  Asiatic  territory, 
Russia  covers  eight  and  a  half  million  square  miles  (between 
two  and  three  times  the  area  of  the  United  States),  or  about 
one-seventh  the  area  of  the  habitable  earth.  In  1910  she  had 
a  population  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  millions,1  of  which  all 
but  about  thirty  millions  live  in  Europe.  The  population  is 
made  up  of  some  seventy  different  nationalities,  but  the  great 
central  core,  comprising  over  two-thirds  the  whole,  is  composed 
of  Russian  Slavs. 

The  subject  races  fomf  only  a  fringe  about  the  center,  and  are  rapidly 
being  Russianized  (§  872).  The  largest  of  the  subject  nationalities  are 
the  Poles  (twelve  millions)  and  the  Finns  (something  over  three  and  a 
half  millions).  There  are  also  about  five  million  Jews  dispersed  through- 
out the  larger  cities  of  the  empire,  especially  at  the  seaports,  and  more 
than  thirteen  million  Tartars ;  but  both  these  peoples  are  widely  scattered 
and  have  never  formed  governments  of  their  own  as  the  Finns  and  Poles 
each  have  done. 

In  1815  nearlj7  one-half  all  the  Jews  in  the  world  were  in  Russia. 
During  the  Middle  Ages  they  had  been  persecuted  in  Christian  lands  in 

1  This  population  is  just  about  equal  to  the  whole  group  of  English-speak- 
ing peoples  in  the  United  States  and  the  British  Empire. 


§  869]  AREA  AND   POPULATION  703 

Europe  and  had  fled  to  Turkey,  settling  in  provinces  about  the  Black 
Sea  which  afterward  passed  under  Russian  control.  In  the  last  century 
and  in  recent  years  they  have  been  subjected  to  persecuting  laws  and  to 
massacres,  much  as  they  were  in  England  and  France  six  hundred  years 
ago.  As  a  result,  great  numbers  of  them  have  been  coming  to  the 
United  States. 

867.  The  government  is  an  absolute  despotism.     Moreover,  it 
is  highly  centralized.     Not  a  scholarship  in  a  school,  or  a  bed 
in  a  hospital,  can  be  established  without  the  solemn  approval 
of  the  tsar.     Until  1855  no  village  church  or  school  could  be 
built  until  the  plan  had  been  sent  to  St.  Petersburg  for  ap- 
proval.    Under  Nicholas  I  (1825-1855),  even  a  private  house 
with  as  many  as  five  windows  required  a  special  royal  permit. 

868.  Emancipation  of  the  Serfs,  1861. — The  greatest  event 
in  Russian  history  between  the  reforms  of  Peter  the  Great  and 
the  present  constitutional  movement  is  the  emancipation   of 
the  serfs  by  Alexander  II.     The  serfs  numbered  over  47  mil- 
lions (nearly  twelve  times  as  many  as  the  slaves  who  were 
freed  in  the  United  States  at  nearly  the  same  time),  and  they 
made  four-fifths  the  population  of  European  Russia. 

Not  only  were  they  freed  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  nobles 
and  from  obligation  to  serve  them ;  they  were  also  given  land. 
They  had  always  dwelt  in  little  village-communities  ;  in  1861 
each  village,  or  mir,  was  left  to  manage  its  own  local  matters 
and  was  given  land  for  its  support.  The  land,  like  the  serf 
labor,  was  taken  from  the  noble,  but  it  was  not  confiscated : 
each  mir  was  to  pay  an  annual  rent  (fixed  by  the  tsar's  com- 
missioners) or  to  buy  the  land  outright,  as  it  chose.  If  the 
mir  wished  to  buy,  the  tsar  paid  the  landlord,  and  the  mir 
undertook  to  repay  the  tsar  in  small  installments  spread  over 
forty-nine  years.  Most  mirs  adopted  the  purchase  plan. 

869.  The  Peasantry.  —  Alexander  and  other  Liberals  hoped 
that  marvelous  improvement  would  follow  the  emancipation ; 
but  such  hopes  have  not  been  realized  in  the  two  generations 
that  have  elapsed.     The  great  body  of  the  peasantry  remain 
constantly  near  the  starving  point.     This  unfortunate  condi- 


704  RUSSIA  [§  870 


tion  has  been  due  in  great  measure  to  the  fact  that  the 
antry  did  not  get  land  enough. 

The  tsar  intended  each  village  to  receive  at  least  as  much 
land  as  its  inhabitants  had  cultivated  for  their  own  support 
while  they  had  been  serfs.  But  the  nobles,  who  carried  out  the 
details  of  the  arrangement,  managed  to  cut  down  the  amount, 
desiring,  indeed,  that  the  peasants  should  be  forced  to  eke  out 
their  income  by  tilling  the  land  of  the  larger  proprietors  about 
them.  Moreover,  the  taxes  are  excessive,  so  that  much  more 
than  half  the  peasant's  labor  goes  to  the  tax  collector.  Nearly 
one-third  the  entire  peasant  body,  indeed,  have  been  so  reduced 
that  they  have  pledged  their  labor  for  one  or  more  years  in 
advance  to  neighboring  landlords,  and  so  have  been  forced  back 
into  a  kind  of  temporary  serfdom. 

In  addition,  the  government,  until  1907,  held  the  mir  respon- 
sible as  a  unit  for  the  annual  rent  or  annual  installment  of  the 
purchase  price  of  the  land,  and  for  other  taxes.1  In  consequence, 
fanning  methods  were  poor,  and  labor  brought  small  returns. 
The  artisan  was  not  allowed  to  leave  his  village  to  seek  oppor- 
tunity in  the  cities,  except  under  hampering  restrictions  ;  and, 
as  a  rule,  agriculture  was  carried  on  carelessly  and  uneconorai- 
cally,  by  a  communal  system.  The  mir  assembly,  each  year  or 
two,  redistributed  its  land  in  strips  among  its  families,  and  the 
cultivation  was  by  the  primitive  three-field  arrangement  (§  134). 

870.  A  recent  attempt  has  been  made  to  remedy  these  evil  con- 
ditions. In  October,  1906,  after  a  year  of  terrible  disorder  and 
anarchy  (§  876),  the  tsar  by  edict  declared  the  communal  sys- 
tem no  longer  binding.  Freedom  of  movement  was  granted  ; 
some  taxes  were  abolished,  and  vast  amounts  of  state  land  were 
offered  to  the  peasantry,  to  be  paid  for  on  low  terms  in  fifty 
annual  payments. 

It  is  too  early,  as  yet,  to  see  how  far  these  reforms  may 
improve  the  material  situation  of  the  rural  workers.  The 
peasantry  are  unaffected  by  Western  civilization,  and  live  in  a 
world  wholly  different  from  that  of  the  small  class  of  educated 

1  Cf.  the  French  land  tax  before  1789  (§  513). 


§  872]  SLAVOPHIL   FEELING  705 

Russians.  Nowhere  else  in  the  civilized  world  is  the  gap  be- 
tween the  upper  and  lower  classes  so  complete  (§  483).  The 
peasants  are  filthy,  ignorant,  and  wretched.  The  death  rate  is 
a  half  higher  than  in  the  countries  of  Western  Europe,  and 
higher  in  the  country  than  in  the  cities.  One-half  the  children 
die  before  they  reach  the  age  of  five,  and  every  now  and  then 
large  districts  are  desolated  by  famine,  while  vast  tracts  of 
fertile  land  lie  uncultivated.  On  the  other  hand,  the  peasants 
have  sometimes  shown  themselves  capable  of  sublime  self- 
sacrifice  and  of  lofty  religious  enthusiasm. 

871.  The  Higher  Classes:  Slavophil  Sentiment.  —  Besides  the 
peasants,  the  rural  population  comprises  a  numerous  nobility 
and  other  landed  proprietors ;  and  in  the  cities  there  are  small 
professional  and  mercantile  classes. 

For  two  hundred  years  (since  Peter  the  Great),  these  upper 
classes  have  had  a  veneer  of  Western  civilization.  At  the 
opening  of  the  nineteenth  century,  their  conversation  was 
carried  on,  not  in  Russian,  but  in  French;  and  their  books, 
customs,  fashions,  and  ideas  were  imported  from  Paris.  A 
little  before  the  middle  of  the  century,  however,  a  reaction  be- 
gan in  favor  of  native  ideas  and  customs.  This  is  the  Slav- 
ophil movement.  * 

Notwithstanding  their  recent  humiliation  by  Japan,  the 
Russians  believe  zealously  in  themselves  as  the  future  leaders 
of  civilization  They  look  forward  to  a  Pan-Slavic  empire 
which  shall  include  the  Slav  states  of  Bohemia  and  of  South- 
eastern Europe,  and  which  shall,  both  in  power  and  in  the 
character  of  its  culture,  surpass  the  Western  civilization  which 
now  sways  the  world. 

872.  Russianizing  the  Favored  Provinces.  — The  western  prov- 
inces  of   Russia  —  Finland   and   the   Baltic    provinces  —  had 
drawn  their  civilization  from  Sweden  and  Germany.     Indeed, 
in  the  Baltic  provinces,  the  upper  classes  are  still  mainly  Ger- 
man in  blood.     In  both  regions  until  recently  the  leading  re- 
ligion has  been  Lutheran.     The  Poles,  too,  have  been  marked 
off  from  the  Russian  Slavs  by  the  greater  German  influence 


706  RUSSIA  L§  873 

in  their  customs  and  by  their  adherence  to  the  Catholic  church. 
Finland,  Poland,  and  the  Baltic  Provinces  all  excel  Russia 
proper  in  civilization ;  and  each  at  its  acquisition  was  solemnly 
promised  the  perpetual  enjoyment  of  its  own  language,  religion, 
customs,  and  laws. 

Despite  such  pledges,  the  Slavophils  determined  to  Russian- 
ize these  districts.1  Such  a  policy  is  a  blessing  to  the  barba- 
rous regions  on  the  east,  but  it  has  been  bitterly  hard  upon  the 
progressive  western  districts.  Since  1881,  in  the  Baltic  prov- 
inces, the  German  language  has  been  forbidden  in  schools  and 
churches  and  in  all  public  matters  (sign  boards,  for  instance). 
In  Poland  a  like  policy  had  been  begun  earlier,  after  the  in- 
surrection of  1863. 

873.  Finland  was  connected  with  Russia  only  through  a 
"personal  union":  the  tsar  was  also  grand-duke  of  Finland, 
but  the  duchy  had  its  own  constitution,  its  own  representative 
Diet,  and  its  free  institutions,  all  guaranteed  in  the  most 
solemn  manner  by  each  grand-duke  at  his  accession.  More- 
over, the  Finns  were  industrious,  peaceful,  and  prosperous, 
and  gave  no  handle  for  interference.  Still,  the  Slavophils 
finally  got  their  way.  In  1900  the  process  of  making  Finland 
a  mere  province  of  despotic  and  Slav  Russia  began ;  and,  de- 
spite the  sympathies  of  the  Western  world  for  Finland,  it  was 
carried  on  rapidly,  until  in  1902  the  last  vestiges  of  the 
ancient  liberties  of  this  little  northern  land  had  been  swept 
away. 

The  revolutionary  disorders  of  1905-1906  (§  876),  however, 
afforded  the  Finns  an  opportunity  which  they  were  quick  to 
seize.  In  the  helplessness  of  the  Russian  state,  the  tsar  was 
forced  to  restore  their  ancient  privileges.  A  Diet,  elected  by 

iThe  desire  is  natural  enough,  if  it  can  be  honorably  secured.  At  the 
bottom,  it  is  the  same  sense  of  nationality  which  has  helped  to  make  Ger- 
many, Italy,  and  Belgium,  and  which  leads  the  German  empire  now  to  try  to 
Germanize  its  Polish  and  Danish  subjects,  or  which  makes  us  desire  to  Ameri- 
canize the  foreigners  who  come  to  live  among  us.  The  difference,  however, 
between  the  American  method,  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  of  Germany  or 
Russia,  on  the  other,  is  easily  appreciated. 


§  874]  FINLAND  707 

manhood  suffrage,  adopted  a  new  constitution  for  Finland, 
which  received  the  tsar's  approval  in  September,  1906. 
This  constitution  provides  a  single-House  legislature  elected 
by  universal  suffrage.  Nineteen  women  sat  in  the  Diet  of  1907. 

874.  The  government  of  Russia  has  varied  with  the  tsars. 
Alexander  I  (1801-1825)  has  been  mentioned  several  times 
in  connection  with  the  period  of  Napoleon  and  Metternich. 
He  had  been  educated  by  a  liberal  French  tutor,  and,  in  a 
weak  and  indecisive  way,  he  favored  a  liberal  policy  in  the 
management  of  Russia  and  Poland.  His  brother,  Nicholas  1 
(1825-1855),  was  wholly  Russian  in  feeling,  and  this  reign 
marks  the  beginning  of  the  Slavophil  movement.  Nicholas 
despised  Western  ideas  and  Western  civilization,  and  he  be- 
lieved in  Russia  with  all  his  heart.  He  abandoned  all  of 
Alexander's  reforms  and  returned  openly  to  the  policy  of 
despotic  autocracy. 

In  the  last  years  of  Nicholas'  reign,  however,  the  humil- 
iation of  the  Crimean  War  revealed  a  weakness  in  the 
despotic  bureaucratic  system  when  pitted  against  Western 
civilization  ;  and  Alexander  II  (1855-1881),  the  son  of  Nicholas, 
turned  again  to  a  liberal  policy.  He  emancipated  the  serfs, 
against  the  almost  unanimous  opposition  of  the  nobles,  and 
he  introduced  local  representative  assemblies  in  the  provinces, 
though  the  people  cared  so  little  for  such  institutions  that 
many  times  the  mirs  and  towns  petitioned  to  be  relieved  from 
the  burden  of  sending  representatives.  Jury  trial  was  intro- 
duced ;  the  press  was  left  more  unshackled ;  the  universities 
were  allowed  a  freedom  never  before  permitted ;  and  attempts 
were  made  to  secure  just  treatment  for  the  Jews. 

But  Alexander  soon  found  himself  threatened  with  a  move- 
ment by  liberal  agitators  altogether  too  radical  for  his  taste. 
In  the  years  1860-1870  many  educated  Russians,  especially 
the  younger  men  and  women,  were  carried  away  by  vague  but 
enthusiastic  speculations  regarding  some  regeneration  of  so- 
ciety, and  in  the  years  1870-1878  ardent  disciples  of  these 
new  theories  began  to  spread  them  among  the  peasantry.  To 


708  RUSSIA  [§  875 

Alexander  this  seemed  full  of  danger ;  and  in  1877-1878  the 
police  put  down  the  movement  with  barbarous  cruelty. 

Then  the  Radicals  fell  back  upon  a  policy  of  terrorism.  They 
organized  a  secret  society  of  Nihilists,  and,  by  assassination 
after  assassination,  tried  to  avenge  the  persecution  of  their 
friends  and  to  terrify  the  tsar  into  granting  a  constitution 
and  full  representative  government. 

Alexander  finally  decided  to  grant  part  of  these  demands. 
He  prepared  a  draft  of  a  constitution  which  was  to  set  up 
a  national  Assembly.  Unhappily,  the  day  before  the  project 
was  to  be  published,  the  Nihilists  succeeded  in  murdering  him 
with  a  dynamite  bomb. 

Alexander  III  (1881-1894)  returned  to  the  policy  of  his 
grandfather  Nicholas.  Many  of  the  liberal  reforms  of  Alex- 
ander II  were  undone.  In  nearly  half  of  European  Russia 
the  local  assemblies  were  abolished.  The  press  was  again 
subjected  to  stern  censorship.  The  teachers  in  the  universities 
were  muzzled,  and  the  royal  officers  and  police  were  given 
great  authority  to  interfere  in  the  self-government  of  the  mirs. 
Merely  by  decree,  without  trial,  suspected  liberals  were  impris- 
oned in  secret  dungeons,  or  sent  to  suffer  in  Siberia. 

This  policy,  both  as  to  despotism  and  to  Slavophilism,  was 
continued  by  Nidiolas  II,  who  became  tsar  in  1894.  Teachers 
in  the  universities  were  ordered  not  to  touch  upon  matters  of 
government  in  their  lectures ;  and  books  like  Green's  EnrjHxh 
People  and  Bryce's  American  Commonwealth  were  added  to  the 
long  list  whose  circulation  was  forbidden. 

875.  "  Underground  Russia."  -  -  For  a  time  the  police  seemed 
to  have  crushed  all  reform  agitation  and  all  open  criticism  of 
the  government.  But,  below  the  surface,  modern  ideas  were 
working  silently.  Many  liberals  were  growing  up  among 
lawyers,  physicians,  professors,  merchants,  and,  sometimes, 
among  the  nobles.  When  opportunity  came,  these  men  would 
speak  out.  Most  of  them,  it  is  true,  dreamed  only  of  very 
slight  reforms,  and  they  were  thoroughly  loyal  to  the  tsar. 

More  important  was  the  fact  that  about  1890  Russia  began 


§876]  THE    "TERRORISTS"  709 

to  be  touched  by  the  industrial  revolution  which  had  trans- 
formed England  a  century  earlier.  Moscow  had  been  a  "  sacred 
city  "  of  churches,  marked  by  spires  and  minarets.  It  was  be- 
coming an  industrial  center,  with  huge  factories  and  furnaces, 
marked  by  smoke-hung  chimneys.  In  such  cities  Socialism 
was  making  converts  among  the  new  working  class. 

There  are  two  distinct  bodies  of  Russian  Socialists.  The 
larger  body  looks  forward  only  to  peaceful  reform,  like  the 
Social  Democratic  party  in  other  lands.  The  other  is  made 
up  of  Socialist-Revolutionists.  This  is  a  secret  society, 
perfectly  organized,  which  has  absorbed  the  old  Nihilists. 
It  holds  that  violence  is  necessary  and  right  in  the  struggle  to 
free  Russia  from  the  despotism  which  chokes  and  crushes  all 
attempts  at  peaceful  reform.  In  this  day  of  perfectly  disci- 
plined standing  armies,  with  modern  guns,  open  revolution  is 
doomed  to  almost  certain  extinction  in  blood.  So  the  Revolu- 
tionists work  by  the  dagger  and  the  dynamite  bomb,  to  slay 
the  chief  ministers  of  despotism.  The  society  selects  its  in- 
tended victims  with  careful  deliberation ;  and,  when  one  has 
been  killed,  secretly  posted  placards  proclaim  to  the  world  the 
list  of  "  crimes  "  for  which  he  has  been  "  executed."  Spite  of 
every  precaution,  the  Revolutionists,  with  complete  disregard 
of  their  own  lives,  managed  to  strike  down  minister  after 
minister  among  the  most  hated  of  the  tsar's  tools. 

876.  The  Beginnings  of  Progress,  1904-1906.  — The  opportu- 
nity of  these  reform  forces  seemed  to  have  come  in  1904.  The 
failure  of  Russia  in  the  Japanese  War  showed  that  the  despotic 
government  had  been  both  inefficient  and  corrupt.  High  of- 
ficials had  stolen  money  which  should  have  gone  for  rifles  and 
powder  and  food  and  clothing  for  the  armies.  During  the 
disasters  of  the  war  itself,  other  officials  stole  the  Red  Cross 
funds  intended  to  relieve  the  suffering  of  the  wounded.  The 
intelligent  classes  were  exasperated  by  these  shames  and  by 
the  humiliating  defeat  of  their  country,  and  began  to  make 
their  murmurs  heard.  The  peasantry  were  woefully  oppressed 
by  war-taxes.  The  labor  classes  in  the  towns  were  thrown  out 


710  RUSSIA 


[§876 


of  employment  or  lost  wages,  in  the  general  stagnation  of  in- 
dustry. Early  in  1905,  while  the  war  was  still  running  its 
disastrous  course,  Russia  was  convulsed,  as  never  before,  by 
strikes,  peasant  risings,  and  mutiny  in  army  and  navy. 

For  a  while  longer  the  government  thought  to  stifle  such 
popular  manifestations  in  blood.  One  instance,  famous  be- 
cause so  near  the  royal  palace  and  the  homes  of  foreign  am- 
bassadors, sent  a  thrill  of  horror  through  the  civilized  world. 
A  great  number  of  loyal  citizens  in  St.  Petersburg  (Petrograd) 
had  sent  a  petition  to  the  tsar,  asking  him  to  hear  them  in 
person  when,  on  the  following  Sunday,  they  should  march  to 
the  palace  to  present  their  grievances  —  since  they  had  lost 
faith  in  his  officers.  Then  Sunday  morning,  January  L'2,  1905, 
dense  masses  of  men,  women,  and  children,  wholly  unarmed, 
filled  the  streets  leading  to  the  royal  palace.  The  Cossack 
cavalry  charged  these  helpless  throngs,  and  the  palace  troops 
mowed  them  down  with  quick-firing  guns.1  This  was  "  Red 
Sunday." 

Now,  for  once,  the  educated  classes  spoke  out  forcefully. 
The  day  after  Red  Sunday,  leading  citizens  of  the  capital 
joined  in  a  public  declaration  that  "  the  government  has  de- 
clared war  on  the  Russian  people,"  and  in  an  appeal  to  all 
good  citizens  to  support  the  cause  of  reform.  For  a  time  the 
tsar  and  his  advisers  felt  compelled  to  yield.  In  March  a 
representative  assembly  was  promised,  and,  soon  after,  the  tsar 
issued  a  decree  guaranteeing  complete  freedom  of  speech. 

Nicholas  stated,  however,  that  the  Duma  (assembly)  should 
have  power  only  to  advise  him,  and  he  excluded  workingmen 
and  professional  classes  from  the  right  of  voting  in  the  election. 
Then  followed  a  general  strike.  In  October  the  railways  were 
idle.  In  the  cities,  stores  were  closed.  Power  houses  shut 
down,  and  electric  lights  went  out.  This  finally  brought  the 
government  to  yield.  New  rules  were  issued  for  the  election, 
and  the  assembly  was  promised  some  slight  power. 

In  May,  1906,  amid  gathering  anarchy,  the  promised  Duma 

1  Robinson  and  Beard's  Readings,  II,  373  ff.  gives  a  contemporary  account 


§  877]  THE  FIRST   DUMA  711 

was  at  last  brought  together  —  the  first  representative  assembly 
of  the  Russian  nation.  The  tsar  had  arranged  the  elections  so 
as  to  leave  most  weight  in  the  hands  of  the  wealthy  and 
noble  classes,  and  the  police  interfered  actively  at  the  polls 
against  radical  candidates  ;  but  the  revolutionary  movement 
had  swept  everything  before  it.  A  great  majority  of  the  mem- 
bers were  liberals,  and  called  themselves  Constitutional  Demo- 
crats. Among  them  were  many  leaders  of  wise  and  moderate 
statesmanship,  and  the  world  was  amazed  at  the  political 
ability  in  this  first,  inexperienced  Russian  Assembly. 

By  unanimous  vote  the  Duma  asked  for  four  great  political 
reforms,  —  universal  suffrage,  a  "responsible"  ministry,  the 
abolition  of  martial  law,  and  amnesty  for  all  political  offenders 
then  in  prison  or  in  exile,  —  and  for  a  long  program  of  social 
reform,  including  the  turning  over  of  state  lands  to  the  suf- 
fering peasantry.  All  these  demands  were  refused.  After 
proper  persistence,  the  Duma  wisely  withdrew  all  but  the 
agrarian  demand.  Reactionary  councils,  however,  were  gain- 
ing ground  with  the  tsar.  He  announced  that  he  was  "  sadly 
disappointed "  that  the  Duma  insisted  upon  meddling  with 
matters  that  did  not  pertain  to  it ;  and  July  21  he  dissolved  it, 
announcing  that  he  himself  would  care  for  the  needed  reforms. 

Accordingly,  in  October,  1906,  an  imperial  edict  decreed  the 
land  reforms  mentioned  in  §  870,  and  also  abolished  the  special 
privileges  of  the  nobles,  making  all  Russians  equal  before  the 
law  and  equally  eligible  to  public  employment.  Another 
Duma  was  promised,  also,  for  March,  1907. 

877.  Later  Politics. — The  dissolution  was  followed  by  months 
of  anarchy.  The  government  fell  back  upon  stern  repression 
and  intimidation,  to  suppress  not  only  disorder,  but  also  political 
agitation.  The  extreme  revolutionists  resorted  to  a  new  cam- 
paign of  systematic  political  assassination.  Meantime  the 
unhappy  land  was  again  distracted  by  peasant  risings  and  by 
strikes,  which  were  put  down  brutally  by  Cossack  "punitive 
expeditions "  in  which  thousands  of  unoffending  people  per- 
ished ;  while  a  new  famine  desolated  many  provinces. 


712  RUSSIA   TO-DAY  [§  877 

Fifty  officials  were  assassinated  in  one  week  in  August,  just  after  the 
dissolution  of  the  Duma,  the  victims  ranging  from  ministers  of  state  to 
petty  police  officers.  Many  others  were  wounded.  During  the  following 
four  months,  1629  riots  occurred  and  244  bombs  were  thrown  at  officials. 
On  the  other  hand,  more  than  a  thousand  political  offenders  were  executed, 
and  fifty  thousand  were  sent  to  Siberia  or  to  prison,  while  the  Revolution- 
ists count  up  24,230  others  slain  by  the  soldiery  in  putting  down  or 
punishing  riots. 

The  extremists  who  engage  in  the  desperate  policy  of  assassi- 
nating government  agents  expect  death  on  the  scaffold  or  by 
torture  in  prison.  But  the  government  virtually  proscribed 
also  the  Constitutional  Democratic  party,  to  prevent  its  further 
political  activity.  In  November,  1906,  of  the  leaders  of  that 
party  in  the  dissolved  Duma,  one  (a  learned  professor)  had 
been  murdered;  two  had  been  cruelly  beaten  in  prison,  and 
another  had  been  driven  insane  by  treatment  there;  ten  wen- 
in  hiding ;  five  had  been  exiled  ;  twenty-four  were  imprisoned  ; 
and  182  others  were  under 'indictment  for  treason  (the  presi- 
dent and  vice-president  of  the  Duma  among  them).  During 
the  year,  700  editors  were  prosecuted  by  the  government  for 
sedition. 

The  second  Duma  met  March  5, 1907.  The  liberal  members 
of  the  former  assembly,  so  far  as  they  were  not  already  in 
exile  or  in  the  grave,  had  been  made  ineligible  for  election. 
But  a  new  body  of  Socialist  deputies  appeared,  and  there  was 
a  large  majority  opposed  to  the  government.  In  June  the 
tsar  ordered  the  Duma  to  expel  some  sixty  members  on  the 
ground  of  treason.  The  Duma  appointed  a  committee  to 
investigate  the  charge.  The  tsar  at  once  dissolved  it  for  this 
delay,  and  the  police  seized  the  accused  delegates. 

Then,  contrary  to  plain  promises  in  1906,  the  tsar  changed 
once  more  the  plan  of  elections,  so  as  to  give  power  very  largely 
to  the  great  landowners.  The  third  Duma,  elected  on  this  new 
basis,  met  in  November,  1907,  and  proved  submissive  to  the 
tsar's  will.  On  the  expiration  of  its  term  (in  1912),  like  methods 
secured  a  fourth  Duma  equally  satisfactory  to  despotism. 


§  877]  LATER    DUMAS  713 

The  Revolutionists,  however,  continued  their  campaigns  of 
assassination  until  the  outbreak  of  the  great  European  war  of 
1914.  A  striking  feature -of  the  opening  of  that  struggle  was 
the  way  in  which  the  government  turned  for  help  to  the  men 
whom  it  had  been  hunting  down,  and  the  loyal  way  in  which 
the  Revolutionists  gave  their  whole  support  to  the  government 
they  had  been  fighting.  How  this  new  condition  will  affect 
Russia  after  the  war  cannot  now  (1915)  be  foreseen. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. — Hazen,  645-718,  or  Seignobos,  578-608 
(does  not  cover  recent  years).  Somewhat  longer  treatments  are  given  in 
Skrine's  Expansion  of  Russia  and  Nevison's  The  Dawn  in  Russia. 


CHAPTER   LXIII 

THE   BALKAN    STATES 

878.  In  1815  all  Southeastern  Europe  beyond  Austria-Hun- 
gary and  Russia  was  part  of  Turkey.  The  Turk,  however,  was 
merely  an  invader,  and  had  no  part  in  European  civilization. 
TJie  modern  history  of  Southeastern  Europe  began  only  as  the 
native  races  regained  their  freedom. 

The  Turks  made  a  small,  part  of  the  population,  and  the 
bulk  of  the  people  had  kept  their  Christian  (Greek)  Faith. 
In  the  old  Hellenic  peninsula  dwelt  the  Greeks.  North  of  the 
Danube,  in  the  provinces  of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia,  dwelt 
the  Latin  Roumanians,  claiming  descent  from  ancient  Roman 
colonists  in  Dacia.1  Between  the  Greek  and  Latin  peoples 
lay  two  Slav  nations,  —  the  Bulgarians  in  the  east,  from  the 
^Egean  to  the  Danube,  and  the  Servians  on  the  west.  On  the 
Adriatic  were  the  Albanian N,  wild  herdsmen,  who  had  aban- 
doned Christianity  for  Mohammedanism. 

TJie  lines  between  these  peoples  and  their  kinsmen  in  Austria 
and  in  south'  m  Iixxsia  were  drawn  merely  by  the  accidents  of  war. 
A  fourth  of  the  Roumanian  race  were  in  the  province  of 
Bessarabia,  which  Russia  had  seized  from  the  Turks  in  1812. 
Another  fourth  were  in  Transylvania,  which  the  Hungarians 
had  reconquered  from  Turkey  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
Croats  and  Serbs,  in  southern  Hungary,  were  merely  part  of 
the  Servian  race  living  in  lands  which  Hungary  reconquered 
from  Turkey  in  the  seventeenth  century.  In  the  fastnesses  of 
Montenegro  (Black  Mountain)  dwell  two  hundred  thousand 
half-savage  Servians  who  never  yielded  to  the  Turks,  but  kept 

i  Ancient  World,  §  606. 
714 


§881]  THE   FIRST    "EASTERN   QUESTION"  715 

their  freedom  at  the  cost  of  five  hundred  years  of  "  ferocious 
heroism." 

879.  Three  Subject  Races  win  Freedom,  1829.  —  The  Rouma- 
nians,  beyond  the  Danube,  and  the  Servians,  in  their  rugged 
country,  had  risen  in  various  rebellions  early  in  the  nineteenth 
century;  but  the  first  successful  revolt  of  a  subject  people  was 
the  Greek  rising  of  1821-1828  (§  644).     In  connection  with 
the   final   settlement    (1829),  the   Roumanian    provinces  and 
Servia  were  granted  a  large  measure  of  internal  self-govern- 
ment lender  rulers  of  their  own.     They  remained  tributary, 
however,  to  the  Turkish  Empire. 

880.  The  First  Eastern  Question.  —  About  the  middle  of  the 
century,  the  Tsar  Nicholas  suggested  to  England  that  it  was 
time  to  decide  what  was  to  be  done  with  the  possessions  of  the 
Turks  as  Turkish  rule  decayed.     This  was  the  "  Eastern  Ques- 
tion," as  that  question  was  long  to  be  understood.1     England 
received  this  suggestion  for  the  partition  of  Turkey  very  coolly. 
She  preferred  to  bolster  up  the  Ottoman  power  as  a  barrier  to 
Russian  advance.     England  and  France  and  Russia  had  acted 
in  concert  twenty-five  years  before,  in  freeing  the  Greeks ;  but 
in  1854  the  two  western  states  fought  Russia  to  prevent  any 
further  breaking  up  of  Turkey  (§  703). 

881.  Russian-Turkish  War  of  1877-78.  —  In  return,  the  Sul- 
tan promised  reforms  for  his  Christian  subjects  ;  but  the  next 
twenty  years  saw  no  serious  attempt  to  carry  out  the  pledge- 
Then,  in  1875-1876,  the  Serbs  in  Herzegovina  and  the  Bulga- 
rians rose  for  independence.     The  Herzegovinian  herdsmen  in 
their  distant  mountains  were  able  to  carry  on  a  guerrilla  warfare 
for  some  time,  but  the  Bulgarians  in  their  easily  accessible 
country  felt  the  full  force  of  Turkish  vengeance.     There  fol- 
lowed the  horrible  events  known  as  the  "  Bulgarian  Atrocities." 
Turkish  soldiers  destroyed  a  hundred  villages,  with  every  form 

1  "  We  have  on  our  hands  a  sick  man,  a  very  sick  man,"  said  Nicholas  to 
the  English  ambassador;  "it  would  be  a  great  misfortune  if  one  of  these 
days  he  should  slip  away  before  the  proper  arrangements  have  been  made." 
This  is  the  origin  of  the  phrase,  "  the  Sick  Man  of  Europe." 


716  THE   BALKAN   STATES  [§  882 

of  torture  and  cruelty,  and  massacred  thirty  thousand  people, 
carrying  off  also  thousands  of  Christian  women  into  terrible 
slavery. 

The  Servians  then  sprang  to  arms ;  and  in  1877  Alexander 
II  of  Russia,  in  sympathy  with  the  unanimous  demands  of  his 
people,  declared  war  on  Turkey.  The  universal  horror  in 
Western  Europe  at  the  crimes  of  the  Turks  prevented  for  a 
time  any  interference  with  Russia,  and  in  ten  months  her 
armies  held  the  Turks  at  their  mercy.1  The  Peace  of  San  Stef- 
ano  (1878)  arranged  for  a  group  of  free  Slav  states  in  the 
peninsula,  and  the  withdrawal  of  the  Turk  from  Europe  ex- 
cept for  the  city  of  Constantinople  itself. 

882.  But   now   Europe   interfered.     The    Congress  of  Berlin, 
dominated  by  Disraeli  (§  769),  shamefully  returned  part  of  the 
freed  Christian  populations  to  their  old  slavery,  and  cut  down 
the  liberties  of  the  rest 

a.  Rouraania  and   Servia,  virtually  independent  since  1829,  became 
sovereign  kingdoms,  and  Servia  kept  a  small  part  of  the  new  territory  slit- 
had  recovered  from  the  Turk  in  the  war. 

b.  "  Bulgaria,"  as  San  Stefano  had  left  it,  was  divided  into  three 
parts.     The  northern  part,  between  the  Danube  and   the  Balkans,  re- 
ceived the  same  kind  of  independence  which  Rouinania  and  St-rvia  had 
possessed  before  the  war.    The  middle  part  (Roumelia)  was  returned  to 
the  Turk,  who,  however,  was  compelled  to  promise  that  its  governors 
should  be  Christians,  supervised  by  the  Powers  of  Europe.     The  southern 
third  ("  Macedonia  ")  was  given  back  absolutely  to  the  Turk. 

c.  Greece,  at  a  staggering  cost,  had  built  up  an  army,  and  in  1877  she 
wished  to  join  in  the  attack  upon  Turkey,  so  as  to  recover  her  ancient 
territories,   Thessaly  and   Epirus.     The    Western   Powers  forbade   such 
action,  promising  Greece  that  she  should  gain  her  end  by  keeping  quiet. 
Accordingly,  soon  after  the  Berlin  Congress  (1881)  she  was  given  most  of 
these  districts. 

883.  The    miserable    and    selfish    interference    by    the    Great 
Powers  put  back  the  development  of  the  Balkan  States  for  a  third 
of  a   century.     During  much  of   that   time,  "  Macedonia "  in 

i  The  Turks  fought  with  their  ancient  gallantry,  and  made  a  stouter  resist- 
ance than  had  been  thought  possible.    Special  report :  the  defense  of  Plevna. 


§884]  WARS   OF   1912-1913  717 

particular  was  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  Insurrectionary  com- 
mittees, operating  from  Bulgaria,  fomented  revolts ;  and  the 
Turks  put  them  down  with  cruelties  like  those  of  1876,  while 
jealousies  between  the  Great  Powers  prevented  intervention. 
Then,  in  1S96,  Crete  rebelled  against  Turkey ;  but  the  Powers 
interfered,  to  prevent  her  union  with  Greece,  and  confusions 
and  massacres  followed  for  many  months. 

The  next  spring,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  Powers, 
Greece  declared  war  upon  Turkey.  The  Greeks  hoped  that  the 
Bulgarians  would  rise  at  the  same  time,  and  that  the  European 
Powers  would  then  feel  compelled  to  intervene.  In  fact,  how- 
ever, Bulgaria  remained  quiet,  and  the  Powers  left  Greece  to 
her  fate.  The  German  emperor,  indeed,  had  sent  the  Sultan 
German  officers  to  organize  and  command  the  Turkish  army, 
and  that  force  showed  a  military  excellence  wholly  unexpected. 
Greece  was  quickly  defeated,  and  forced  to  pay  a  war  indem- 
nity, while  Turkey  took  small  strips  of  territory  all  along  her 
northern  frontier,  so  as  to  command  all  the  passes  into  Greece. 

884.  Finally,  in  1912,  Bulgaria,  Servia,  Montenegro,  and  Greece 
joined  in  a  war  to  drive  the  Turk  out  of  Europe.  The  allies  won 
swift  and  amazing  victories,  and  in  a  few  months  were  almost 
at  the  walls  of  Constantinople.  But  Austria  now  proposed  to 
seize  the  best  of  the  prey.  The  Powers  kept  her  quiet  (since 
such  a  move  by  her  would  have  precipitated  a  general  war), 
and  forced  the  allies  to  make  peace.  Turkey,  it  was  agreed, 
should  give  up  all  her  territory  in  Europe,  except  Constantinople 
and  a  small  strip  of  land  near  it. 

But  now  the  allies  fell  out  over  the  booty.  Bulgaria  claimed 
most  of  the  conquered  territory  —  as  part  of  her  ancient  domain 
and  in  accordance  with  her  understanding  of  the  treaty  of 
alliance.  This  would  have  made  her  the  dominant  state  in 
the  peninsula.  Servia,  Greece,  and  Roumania  joined  in  war 
against  Bulgaria  (June,  1913).  After  bloody  defeats,  Bulgaria 
was  forced  to  sue  for  peace.  Meantime  the  Turks  reoccupied 
Adrianople  and  doubled  their  hold  upon  Europe.  The  peace 
once  more  left  burning  questions.  Austrian  jealousy  kept 


718 


THE   BALKAN   STATES 


[§885 


Servia  from  getting  a  port  on  the  JSgean,  and/  interposed  a 
new  petty  kingdom,  Albania.  Bulgaria  was  cheated  of  her 
hopes.  Greece  added  parts  of  Thrace,  along  the  northern 
^Egean.  The  Turk,  backed  by  Germany  and  Austria,  re- 
mained not  only  in  Constantinople  but  in  Adrianople. 


1912 


Tin:  HVI.KAN  STATES. 


1913 


885.  The  Balkan  States  are  all  constitutional  monarchies,  in 
form,  and  Bulgaria,  Greece,  and  Roumania  have  much  real 
constitutional  life.  In  Servia,  changes  in  government  are  still 
brought  about  by  coups  d'ttat  and  assassination.  Montenegro 
and  Albania,  practically,  are  absolutisms.  The  national  assem- 
bly in  each  country,  except  in  Roumania,  has  only  one  House  ; 
and  manhood  suffrage  prevails  everywhere.  Illiteracy  is  as 
serious  as  in  the  Iberian  peninsula,  though  Roumania,  Greece, 
and  Bulgaria  are  making  some  progress  in  education.  The 


WARS   OF   1912-1913 


719 


total  population  is  something  over  twenty  millions.  If  the 
six  states  could  unite  in  some  kind  of  federation,  they  would 
be  able  to  command  their  own  fate.  Hatreds  and  race  jeal- 
ousies seem  to  make  this  impossible  at  present;  and  so  the 
whole  region  is  gazed  upon  hungrily  from  opposite  sides  by 


CONSTANTINOPLE.  —  General  view  from  across  the  Goldeu  Horn. 

Austria  and  by  Kussia,  both  of  whom  intermeddle  shamelessly 
and  destructively  with  the  politics  of  the  various  states. 

FOR  FURTHER  READING. — Of  the  general  histories  of  modern  times, 
Hazen  and  Seignobos  give  the  best  treatments  of  the  Balkan  states. 

EXERCISE.  —  Review  of  certain  general  topics  for  the  Europe  of  to-day  : 
(1)  Education  and  illiteracy;  (2)  the  kulturkampf ;  (3)  the  army  sys- 
tem; (4)  financial  conditions  of  the  governments  in  the  small  states; 
(5)  the  state  of  the  franchise,  with  dates  for  progress  toward  democracy. 


PART    XIII 

THE  NEW  AGE 


CHAPTER    LXIV 

THE  EXPANSION  OF  EUROPE  INTO  AFRICA  AND  ASIA 

886.  Toward  the  year  1900,  European  politics  were  suddenly 
merged  in  world  politics.     Rhenish  :in<l  Danubian  questions,  for 
a  time,  gave  way  to  African  or  Asiatic.     The  possession  of 
petty  counties  on  a  little  European  river  reused  to  interest 
peoples  who  had  fixed  their  eyes  on  vast  continents. 

Australia  was  already  Knglish.  North  America  was  held  by 
the  United  States  or  England.  South  and  Central  America 
were  protected  beneath  the  shield  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 
Africa,  however,  was  largely  unappropriated,  and  in  Asia  the 
stationary  and  apparently  helpless  empires  of  China,  Turkey, 
and  Persia  invited  attack. 

887.  There  followed  a  swift  and  peaceful  division  of  the  vast 
African  continent.     In  1880  only  a  few  patches  here  and  there 
on  the  coast  were  European  ;  in  1891  the  continent  was  mapped 
out  between  European  claimants.1 

For  half  a  century,  France  had  been  extending  her  sway 
over  Algeria  on  the  north.  For  nearly  double  that  time 
England  had  held  Cape  Colony  on  the  south ;  and  the  events 
of  1881  (§  781)  put  the  Nile  valley  into  English  control.  A 

iCaldecott's  English  Colonization,  112,  has  a  good  map  illustrating  the 
transformation  of  this  decade  of  years.  Note  also  the  dates  on  the  map  in 
this  volume,  facing  page  721. 

720 


Wx  mi*mn 
•:&^         '  va 

,c°    ^  \vv>ii    *NDO  p3»  'i*««u  \fa 
rf      (,^)  ,  a.Jl 


§  887]  INTO   AFRICA  721 

little  earlier  the  explorations  of  Livingstone  and  Stanley  had 
awakened  interest  in  the  heart  of  the  "  Dark  Continent." 

In  the  early  seventies  Stanley  had  proved  that  the  upper 
Congo  extended  far  into  the  interior,  and  that  the  immense 
region  in  the  center  of  Africa  was  a  rich  and  accessible 
country.  In  1876,  at  the  suggestion  of  King  Leopold  of 
Belgium,  the  Congo  International  Association  was  organized  to 
'explore  Central  Africa  and  to  stop  the  horrible  slave  trade 
carried  on  by  the  Arabs ;  and  in  1879  Stanley,  in  the  service 
of  Leopold  and  the  Association,  returned  to  the  upper  Congo 
and  made  the  beginnings  of  a  European  state  there. 

In  1884  Bismarck  called  an  international  Congress  at 
Berlin  to  consider  conditions  in  Africa.  As  a  result,  the 
"Congo  Free  State"  was  formed,  with  a  territory  of  1,000,000 
square  miles,  and  with  some  thirty  million  inhabitants.  It 
was  placed  under  the  administration  of  Belgium ;  and,  of  the 
three  or  four  thousand  Europeans  in  the  country,  about  half 
are  Belgians.  The  state  is  pledged,  however,  to  neutrality  and 
to  free  trade  with  all  nations. 

The  establishment  of  the  Congo  State,  and  the  Berlin  Con- 
ference, were  followed  by  the  raising  of  the  German  flag  in 
Africa  (§  821)  ;  and  then  began  a  wild  scramble  for  territory, 
which  quickly  left  all  the  continent  European,  except  Abyssinia 
and  Liberia.  The  three  leading  European  Powers  in  Africa 
are  England,  France,  and  Germany.  Of  these,  England  is  far 
in  the  lead.  Aside  from  small  territories  at  other  parts  on 
the  coast,  her  sway  extends  over  the  whole  Nile  valley  (the 
richest  part  of  the  continent)  and  over  extensive  territories  in 
the  south.  Her  ambition  has  been  to  unite  her  possessions 
north  and  south  ;  but  the  Congo  State  and  German  East  Africa 
were  thrust  between  too  soon.  However,  in  the  near  future, 
an  English  railway,  already  far  advanced,  will  join  Cairo  and 
Cape  Town  (through,  the  neutral  Congo  State)  and  open  Africa 
to  English  civilization. 

France  would  have  liked  to  join  her  realms  on  the  east  and 
on  the  west  of  the  continent;  but  she  found  English  territory 


722  EXPANSION    OF    K.rKol'K  [§888 

thrust  in  between.  German  ambition  was  thwarted  in  like 
manner.  The  three  Powers  checked  one  another's  efforts  to 
dominate  Africa;  but  the  present  European  war  (1915)  will 
probably  result  in,  rearrangements. 

888.  The  occupation  of  Asia  by  European  states  has  proceeded 
more  slowly  than  that  of  Africa,  but  it  has  moved  with  increasing 
rapidity  in  recent  years.     Central  and  Northern  Asia  is  Russian. 
The  great,   densely  populated  peninsula  of   Hindostan,  with 
adjoining  Burma,   is"  English.     The   southeastern    peninsula, 
since  1896,  is  mainly  French.     The  only  independent  states 
left  in  this  greatest  of  the  continents  are  Asia  Minor  (Turkey), 
Persia,  Afghanistan,  Siam,  and  China. 

Of  these,  Afghanistan  and  Siam  are  mere  remnants  of 
"  buffer  states,"  separating  England  from  Russia  on  one  side 
and  from  France  on  the  other.  Of  recent  years  England  has 
sought  to  preserve  them  as  barriers  to  her  rivals.  Persia,  too, 
is  virtually  a  dependency  either  of  England  or  Russia,  accord- 
ing to  the  varying  fortune  of  those  countries ;  and  in  the  closing 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  seemed  that  even  the  ancient 
Chinese  Empire  had  brgun  to  go  to  pieces.  In  those  same 
years  two  new  actors  appeared  upon  the  stage  of  world  politics. 
A  war  between  Japan  and  China  and  the  Spanish-American 
War  added  the  United  States  and  Japan  to  the  group  of  World 
Powers  interested  in  China. 

889.  Until  the  year  1900  the  United  States  found  scope  for 
its  energies  in  peopling  its  great  territories  and  in  developing 
resources  at  home.    Content  with  primacy  on  the  American  con- 
tinents, it  resolutely   kept   out    of    European   complications. 
But  the  Spanish-American  War  left  it  in  possession  of  the 
Philippines ;  and  during  the  war  it  annexed  Hawaii.    Thus  it 
held  the  mastery  of  the  Pacific  and  was  brought  to  the  door 
of  Asia.     In  particular,  the  United  States  is  desirous  of  secur- 
ing a  fair  show  for  its  trade  in  China,  one  of  its  important 
customers. 

The  similarity  of  English  and  American  views  regarding 
China  and  the  likeness  of  the  English  and  Americans  in  poli- 


§891]  JAPAN   WESTERNIZED  723 

tics  and  culture  inclined  the  two  peoples  to  act  together  in  the 
East,  in  opposition  to  Russia  and  Germany.  Both  those 
countries  had  always  treated  their  dependencies  as  estates  to 
be  managed  for  the  benefit  of  the  peoples  possessing  them. 
This  low  standard  had  long  since  been  rejected  by  the  English- 
speaking  nations.  Thus  a  broad  human  interest  was  given  to 
the  question  as  to  which  group  of  powers  should  impose  its 
civilization  upon  the  industrious  but  passive  millions  of  China. 
But  the  victory  of  Japan  over  Russia  (§  892)  introduced  still 
another  factor  into  the  problem. 

890.  Until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Japan  had 
kept  herself  sealed  to  the  outer  world.      For  more  than  two 
centuries,  indeed,  to  hold  communication  with  foreigners  had 
been  a  capital  crime.     But  in  1853,  Commodore  Perry,  under 
orders  from  the  United  States  Government,  by  a  show  of  force 
secured  the  admission  of  American  trade  to  certain  Japanese 
ports ;  and  Japan  began  swiftly  to  exchange  her  Oriental  civi- 
lization for  Western  culture.    Before  the  close  of  the  century 
this  transformation  had  been  carried  to  a  marvelous  complete- 
ness.    Army  and  navy,  schools  and  industry,  took  on  modern 
character;  and  in    1889   the   liberal   Mikado    (emperor)    pro- 
claimed a  constitution  which  created  a  limited  monarchy,  with 
a  parliament  of  two  houses  and  a  responsible  ministry. 

In  1894-1895  Japan  and  China  engaged  in  war  over  Korea. 
With  amazing  rapidity  little  Japan  overcame  her  huge  antago- 
nist on  land  and  sea.  China  agreed  to  cede  the  island  of  For- 
mosa, Port  Arthur,  and  the  kingdom  of  Korea.  Russia, 
however,  was  already  longing  for  these  districts,  and,  backed 
by  France,  she  forced  Japan  to  renounce  her  gains  upon  the 
mainland.  Japan  was  unprepared  for  war  with  these  powers, 
and  was  wise  enough  to  yield,  but  she  began  at  once  to  make 
ready,  patiently  and  skillfully,  for  the  struggle  with  Russia 
which  was  to  come  ten  yeair.  later  (§  892). 

891.  The  Opening  of  China.  —  In  return  for  her  interference 
against  Japan,  Russia  secured  from  China  the  right  to  extend 
her  Trans-Siberian  railroad  through  Manchuria  (§  865).     Then 


724  THE  FAR  EAST  [§  892 

in  1898  she  secured  Port  Arthur,  the  strongest  naval  fortress 
that  China  possessed.  Roused  by  this  advance  of  her  rival, 
England  at  once  demanded  and  obtained  Wai-hei-wai,  on  the 
opposite  shore  of  the  Gulf,  to  enable  her  to  check  Russian 
movements.  Somewhat  earlier  (§  821),  on  a  curious  pretext, 
Germany  had  seized  Kiau  Chau,  with  the  surrounding  district ; 
and  now  France  seized  the  port  of  Kwang-Chau-Wau.  Still 
earlier,  France  had  begun  to  occupy  the  far  southeast,  and 
England  had  held  the  island  of  Hong  Kong  ever  since  1S1-  : 
but  the  recent  seizures  commanded  Pekin  itself,  and  it  began 
to  look  as  if  China  were  doomed  to  partition. 

In  1900  the  Chinese  resentment  at  this  prospect  culminated 
in  popular  patriotic  and  fanatical  uprisings  which  sought  to 
exterminate  the  "  Western  barbarians."  The  movement  was 
organized  by  a  secret  society  known  as  the  Boxers.  Mission- 
aries and  scattered  Europeans  were  massacred  and  the  foreign 
embassies  themselves  were  besieged  at  Pekin.  The  Powers 
(the  United  States  and  Japan  included)  sent  joint  forces  to  re- 
lieve their  beleaguered  representatives.  After  horrible  and 
almost  incredible  barbarities  by  the  invading  armies,  especially 
by  the  Russians,  Pekin  was  taken  and  sacked  and  the  Euro- 
pean residents  were  rescued. 

892.  The  Russian-Japanese  War.  —  Largely  through  the  in- 
sistence of  the  United  States,  no  territorial  indemnities  were 
taken  from  China.  During  the  campaign,  however,  Russia 
occupied  Manchuria.  She  claimed  that  such  action  was  neces- 
sary to  protect  her  railroad  there,  and  promised  to  withdraw  at 
the  return  of  peace.  In  1902  this  pledge  was  solemnly 
repeated;  but,  before  1904,  it  was  clear  that  such  promises 
had  been  made  only  to  be  broken,  and  that  Russia  was 
determined  not  to  loosen  her  grasp  upon  the  coveted 
province.  Moreover,  she  began  to  encroach  upon  Korea.  To 
Japan  this  Russian  approach  seemed  to  imperil  not  only  her 
commercial  prosperity  (in  Korea),  but  her  independence  as  a 
nation  ;  and  after  months  of  futile  negotiations,  and  a  pressing 
ultimatum  for  Russian  withdrawal,  she  resorted  to  war. 


180  160 


.THE  WOULD 
POWERS 


40  Greenwich  90 


20  40 


100  120  110 


30   longitude  10        But       60        from        80  Greenwich  100 


§892]  THE    RUSSIAN-JAPANESE   WAR  725 

Diplomacy  had  assured  Japan  that  she  would  have  only  Rus- 
sia to  fight.  England  and  Japan,  in  1902,  in  a  treaty  designed 
to  preserve  the  integrity  of  China,  had  agreed  to  aid  each 
other  in  war  if  either  were  attacked  by  more  than  one  power. 
Still  the  case  for  Japan  looked  dark.  To  most  of  the  world, 
Russian  advance  in  Asia  seemed  irresistible,  and  the  little 
island-state  was  thought  doomed  to  defeat. 

But  Russia  fought  at  long  range.  She  had  to  transport 
troops  and  supplies  across  Asia  by  a  single-track  railroad.  Her 
railway  service  was  of  a  low  order  (like  all  her  forms  of  en- 
gineering), and  her  rolling  stock  was  inferior  and  insufficient. 
Congestion  of  traffic  and  long  delays  at  critical  moments  were 
the  inevitable  results.  To  be  sure,  it  was  supposed  that  im- 
mense supplies  had  already  been  accumulated  at  Port  Arthur 
and  in  Manchuria,  in  expectation  of  war ;  but  it  proved  that 
high  officials  had  made  way  with  the  larger  part  of  the  money 
and  that  neither  army  nor  navy  was  properly  equipped.  In- 
efficiency, corruption,  lack  of  organization,  were  matched  only 
by  boastful  overconfidence  and  silly  contempt  for  the  foe. 
These  drawbacks  could  not  be  counterbalanced  by  Russia's 
immense  but  unavailable  resources  nor  by  the  desperate 
bravery  and  heroic  endurance  of  her  poorly  led  soldiery. 

Japan,  on  the  other  hand,  had  the  most  perfectly  organized 
army,  hospital  service,  and  commissariat  the  world  had  ever 
seen.  Her  leaders  were  patriotic,  honest,  faithful,  and  always 
equal  to  the  occasion ;  and  the  whole  nation  was  animated  by 
a  spirit  of  ardent  self-sacrifice.  By  her  admirable  organiza- 
tion, Japan  was  able,  at  all  critical  moments,  to  confront  the 
Russians  wTith  equal  or  superior  numbers,  even  after  a  year  of 
war,  when  she  had  rolled  back  the  battle  line  several  hundred 
miles  toward  the  Russian  base. 

At  the  outset,  Japan  could  hope  for  success  only  by  secur- 
ing naval  control  of  Asiatic  waters.  Russia  had  gathered  at 
Port  Arthur  a  fleet  supposedly  much  stronger  than  Japan's 
whole  navy;  but  (February  8,  1904)  Japan  struck  the  first 
blow,  torpedoing  several  mighty  battleships  and  cruisers. 


THE   FAR   EAST  [§  892 

The  rest  of  the  Russian  fleet  was  blockaded  in  the  harbor  ; 
and,  to.  the  end  of  the  war,  Japan  transported  troops  and  sup- 
plies by  water  almost  without  interference. 

Korea  was  swiftly  overrun,  and,  on  February  23,  its  govern- 
ment recognized  a  Japanese  protectorate.  The  Russians  were 
driven  back  from  the  Yalu  in  a  great  battle,  and  Port  Arthur 
was  invested  (May  28)  by  land  as  well  as  by  sea.  Seven 
months  later  (January,  1905),  that  fortress,  which  had  been 
boastfully  declared  invulnerable,  capitulated,  after  terrible 
suffering  and  reckless  sacrifice  of  life  on  both  sides.  Mean- 
time, in  September,  the  Japanese  army  won  a  remarkable  vic- 
tory at  Liaoii  Yang,  and,  soon  afterward,  repulsed  a  desperate 
attack,  driving  the  Russians  back  on  Mukden. 

The  severe  northern  winter  interrupted  the  campaign ;  but 
in  March,  1905,  the  Japanese  resumed  their  advance.  The 
Battle  of  Mukden  was  the  most  tremendous  military  struggle 
the  world  had  seen.  It  lasted  fifteen  days.  The  battle  front 
extended  a  hundred  miles,  and  a  million  men  were  engaged, 
with  all  the  terrible,  destructive  agencies  of  modern  science 
at  their  command.  The  Russians  were  completely  routed. 
They  lost  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  men,  and  were  driven 
back  on  Harbin  in  disorder.  It  seemed  that  Russia  would  be 
unable,  for  that  summer  at  least,  to  gather  another  army  in 
the  East  able  to  take  the  field. 

Russia's  only  chance  was  to  regain  command  of  the  sea. 
During  the  winter  of  1905,  after  a  year  of  delays,  an  attempt 
had  been  begun.  A  huge  fleet,  far  exceeding  the  Japanese 
navy  in  number  and  in  size,  but  poorly  equipped  and  miserably 
officered,  set  out  on  the  long  voyage  from  the  Baltic.  By  a 
breach  of  strict  neutrality  on  the  part  of  France,  it  was  al- 
lowed to  rest  and  refit  at  Madagascar,  and  again  at  the  French 
stations  near  Southern  China;  and  in  May  it  reached  the  Sea 
of  Japan.  There  it  was  annihilated  by  the  splendidly  handled 
Japanese  fleet,  under  Admiral  Togo,  in  the  greatest  of  the 
world's  naval  battles. 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  President  of  the  United  States,  now 


§893]  "ASIA   FOR   THE   ASIATICS"  727 

"  offered  his  good  offices  "  to  secure  peace ;  and  a  meeting  of 
envoys  was  arranged  (August,  1905,  at  Portsmouth,  N.H.),  at 
which  the  Treaty  of  Portsmouth  was  signed.  Japan's  demands 
were  exceedingly  moderate,  and  she  yielded  even  a  part  of 
these  at  President  Roosevelt's  urgent  appeal  for  peace.  Russia 
agreed  (1)  to  withdraw  from  Chinese  Manchuria,  (2)  to  cede 
the  Port  Arthur  branch  of  her  railroad  to  China,  (3)  to  recog- 
nize the  Japanese  protectorate  in  Korea,  and  (4)  to  cede  to 
Japan  the  southern  half  of  Sakhalin,  —  an  island  formerly 
belonging  to  Japan  but  occupied  by  Russia  in  1875. 

893.  The  most  important  results  of  the  war  were  indirect  re- 
sults. Russia  was  checked  in  her  career  of  aggression  in 
Europe  and  toward  India,  as  well  as  in  the  Far  East,  and  the 
collapse  of  her  despotic  government  gave  opportunity  for  the 
beginning  of  a  great  revolution  in  society  and  politics  (§  876). 
The  appearance  of  Japan,  on  the  other  hand,  as  one  of  the 
foremost  "world  powers,"  went  far  to  check  the  European 
greed  for  Asiatic  territory.  It  seems  probable  that  Asia  will 
hereafter  be  left  to  the  Asiatics.  During  the  great  European 
war  of  1914,  Japan  took  Kiau  Chau  from  Germany. 


CHAPTER   LXV 

REFORM   IN   THE   TWENTIETH   CENTURY 
I.    "WAR   UPON   POVERTY'1:    ENGLAND 

I  hope  that  great  advance  will  be  made  during  tl>  M  t<»r,,ril 

the  time  when  poverty.  »-i(1i  its  wretchedness  and  .-"/«//  /i.r,  trill  be  as  remote 
from  the  people  of  this  country  as  are  the  wolves  which  once  infe*' 
.  —  L\M\  i)  GEORGE. 


894.  Twentieth  century  social  reform  can  be  studied  best,  so 
far,  in  England.    Before  the  election  of  1892,  the  Liberals  adopted 
a  platform  calling  for  Irish  Home  Rule,  for  the  disestablish- 
ment  of   the  Episcopal  church  in    Wales  (where  nine-tenths 
of  the  people  are  dissenters),  for  a  greater  degree  of  local  self- 
government,   for   sweeping  reform    in    taxation,   for   old-age 
pensions,  and  —  as  a  necessary  step  toward  these  things  —  for 
the  "  mending  or  ending  "   of  the  House  of  Lords.     Twenty 
years  carried  this  program  into  operation. 

How  the  Lords  thwarted  Gladstone's  ministry  of  '92-'95  on  the 
Home  Rule  matter  has  been  told  (§779).  That  minist  ry  did  pass 
the  great  Parish  Councils  act  (§  762),  making  England  a  complete 
democracy  in  local  government.  Gladstone's  last  speech  in 
parliament  was  in  defense  of  that  bill  against  attempted  inter- 
ference by  the  Lords.  If  health  had  let  the  "  Grand  (  )ld  Man  " 
continue  his  leadership,  that  House  would  have  had  to  meet 
then  the  attack  upon  its  veto  which  came  finally  in  1911. 

895.  The  Parish  Councils  Act  helped  along  another  vital  reform. 
For  many  years  the  Liberal  party  had  declared  for  making  the 
peasantry  once  more  the  owners  of  farm  lands,  and  the  Con- 
servatives had  finally   come  to  favor  the  measure.     In  1890, 
1200  men  (out  of  a  population  of  32,000,000)  owned  a  fourth 

728 


897} 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ON  POVERTY 


729 


of  the  soil  of  England,  and  only  one  twenty-fourth  of  the  popula- 
tion owned  any  land  at  all  A  series  of  Allotment  acts  (1883, 
1887,  1892)  had  tried  to  remedy  this  great  evil,  but  with  little 
success.  Since  1894,  however,  the  democratic  Parish  Councils 
have  been  buying  land  (and  even  condemning  it  and  taking 
it  at  a  forced  sale),  and  then  turning  it  over  in  small  holdings  to 
farm  laborers,  either  on  long  leases  or  for  purchase  on  easy  terms. 
Slowly  but  surely  the  English  people  are  again  becoming  the 
owners  of  England. 

896.  After  Gladstone's  retirement,  the  Conservatives  held  power 
for  ten  years  (1896-1906).     They  carried  forward  some  social 
reforms  which  they  had  once  bitterly  opposed  —  such  as  factory 
reform  and  Irish-land  re- 
form —  but     they    also 

placed  the  English  Board 
schools  under  the  control 
of  the  established  church. 
These  schools  are  at- 
tended mainly  by  the 
children  of  the  working 
people.  These  are  almost 
wholly  dissenters.  When 
the  Liberals  returned  to 
power  they  gave  their 
first  efforts  to  repeal  this 
law. 

897.  And   by  1906  the 
Liberals  had  found  a  group 
of  new  leaders,  who  still 
(1915)  remain  the  great 
figures  in  English  public 
life,  —  Mr.   Asquith, 
prime      minister      since 

1908;  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  his  leading  finance  minister  and  a 
radical  reformer  in  taxation ;  and  Mr.  Winston  Churchill.  The 
ministry  which  contained  these  men  was  supported  by  the 


H.  H.  ASQUITH.  —  Prime  Minister  of  Eng- 
land. 


730  THE   TWENTIETH   CENTURY  .[§898 

largest  parliamentary  majority  which  had  been  seen  since  the 
First  Reform  Bill  in  1832.  The  same  election  sent  fifty  Labor 
representatives  to  parliament,  several  of  them  avowed  socialists. 

The  new  ministry  completed  earlier  legislation  by  a  compre- 
hensive Workingman's  Compensation  act  (§  765) ;  but  the  first 
attempt  to  take  the  schools  from  the  control  of  the  church 
was  successful  only  in  part  —  owing  to  the  veto  of  the  Lords. 
That  House,  too,  ventured  to  challenge  conflict  by  vetoing  a 
bill  that  tried  to  take  away  the  "  plural  votes  "  of  rich  men.1 

The  ministry  wisely  refused  the  challenge  of  the  Lords  to 
dissolve  and  appeal  to  the  country  on  any  one  of  these  issues. 
Instead,  they  let  the  hereditary  House  pile  up  the  account 
against  it,  until  Englishmen  should  be  ready  to  strike  decisively. 
The  final  clash  came  in  1909  over  the  budget. 

898.  Radical  Tax  Reform.  —  Each  year  the  ministry  presents 
a  statement  of  the  expenses  it  intends  to  incur,  and  of  the  taxes 
it  proposes  to  lay  wherewith  to  meet  those  expenses.  This 
statement  is  the  budget.  In  April  of  1909  Lloyd  George 
presented  a  budget  which  htuu-stly  horrified  Conservatives, 
and  which  was  the  most  socialistic  step  ever  taken  by  a  great 
goveriiiiH-nt.  Leading  provisions  were  as  follows  :  — 

Automobiles  (as  articles  of  luxury)  paid  a  heavy  tax. 

A  gn/'tii'id'/  income  tax  took  a  large  part  of  all  incomes  over  $25,000, 
and  tm  f>  in  "ft  in  nr//>/  nn  un<><irn*'<l  inmiinx  thnn  »n  those  that  a 

A  graduated  inheritance  tax  took  larm-r  proportions  than  formerly  of 
inheritances,  — fifteen  per  cent  of  bequests  over  £  1,000,000. 

A  much  higher  tax  was  placed  on  land  that  paid  rents  and  royalties  to 
landlords  than  on  land  worked  by  its  owners. 

Finally,  and  most  important  of  all,  there  was  a  provision  that  when 
any  man  sold  land  for  more  than  it  had  cost,  he  must  pay  one-fifth  tin- 
gain  into  the  national  treasury.  This  is  known  as  a  tax  on  the  "  unearned 
increment,"  and  is  a  move  toward  the  doctrine  of  the  Single  taxers,  who 
wish  the  community  to  take  all  such  unearned  increment. 

1  The  English  law  permitted  a  man  to  vote  in  as  many  counties  as  he  held 
lauded  property.  One  clause  in  the  Liberal  platform  of  1892  had  been,  "  One 
man,  one  vote  "  ;  and,  in  like  manner,  the  defense  of  this  ancient  privilege  of 
property  had  become  a  matter  of  intense  feeling  with  the  English  Conserva- 
tives. 


§  899]  ENGLAND    "  MENDS  "    THE   LORDS  731 

The  Conservatives  attacked  the  budget  violently  as  revolu- 
tionary. Especially  they  denounced  the  distinction  as  to 
unearned  incomes  as  an  invidious  assault  on  the  rights  of 
property.  Moreover,  they  claimed  that  the  treasury  did  not 
need  such  vast  income  as  was  proposed.  As  to  this  last  point, 
Lloyd  George  had  declared  that  he  was  proposing  a  "war- 
budget," — for  "  waging  implacable  war  against  poverty."  (See 
also  the  theme  sentence  at  the  head  of  this  chapter.)  The 
other  accusations  were 
answered  forcibly  and 
directly  by  Mr.  Winston 
Churchill,  who  frankly 
declared  a  man's  right  to 
property  dependent  upon 
the  way  in  which  he 
obtained  it :  "  Formerly," 
said  he,  "the  only  ques- 
tion of  the  tax-gatherer 
was  '  How  much  have  you 
got  ? '  .  .  .  To-day,  we  do 
not  ask  only,  '  How  much 
have  you  got  ?  '  We  ask 
also,  '  How  did  you  get  it  9 
Did  you  earn  it,  or  has  it 
been  left  you  by  others  ? 
Was  it  gained  by  proces- 

ses  which   are  beneficial  WlNSTON  SpENSER 

to  the  community,  or  by  processes  which  have  done  no  good  to 
any  one,  but  only  harm  ?  .  .  .  Was  it  derived  by  active  reproduc- 
tive processes,  or  merely  by  squatting  on  a  piece  of  land  till  enter- 
prise and  labor  had  to  buy  you  out  ?  ...  How  did  you  get  it  ? ' 
That  is  the  new  question  which  is  vibrating  through  the  land." 

899.  Final  Struggle  with  the  Lords.  —  The  Commons  passed 
the  budget,  but  the  Lords  quickly  threw  it  out  by  a  vote  of  five 
to  one.  For  many  centuries  the  upper  House  had  not  dared  to 
interfere  with  a  "  money-bill  "  (§  298).  Now  was  the  time  for 


732  THE   TWENTIETH   CENTURY  [§  900 

the  reformers  to  strike.  In  the  Commons  Mr.  Asquith  promptly 
moved  a  resolution  "  That  the  action  of  the  Lords  is  a  breach  of 
the  Constitution  and  a  usurpation  of  the  rights  of  the  Commons." 
This  resolution  passed  by  a  vote  of  three  to  one. 

Then  the  ministry  dissolved,  and  appealed  to  the  country 
for  approval  in  the  avowed  policy  of  restricting  the  power  of 
the  Lords.  The  election  (January,  1910)  gave  the  Liberals 
again  a  good  working  majority.  The  ministry  announced  at 
once  that  the  budget  would  be  again  presented,  and,  after  it, 
some  proposal  for  change  of  the  House  of  Lords.  If  the  Lords 
stopped  either  measure,  the  ministry  would  again  dissolve,  and 
appeal  to  the  nation. 

Hie  Lords  now  allowed  the  revolutionary  budget  to  become  lo.w. 
The  Liberals,  however,  pressed  their  attack  on  the  veto  power 
of  the  Lords.  The  death  of  King  Edward  (May,  1910)  caused 
some  delay;  but  in  November  the  matter  came  again  to  a 
head.  The  Lords  threw  out  the  Commons'  bill  against  them. 
Again,  as  they  had  promised,  the  ministry  dissolved.  The 
new  election  (the  second  referendum  within  twelve  months) 
gave  them  slight  gains ;  and  the  new  House  of  Commons  enthu- 
siastically passed  a  second  bill  to  take  away  the  Lords'  veto. 
When  the  bill  was  sent  to  the  other  House,  Mr.  Asquith  an- 
nounced that  the  king  (George  V)  would  create  five  hundred 
new  peers,  if  necessary,  to  secure  its  passage. 

900.  Then  the  helpless  Lords  passed  the  law  which  reduced  their 
House  to  a  nonentity.  Under  this  new  law  (August,  1911)  any 
money  bill  passed  by  the  Commons  becomes  law  within  a 
month,  whether  the  Lords  pass  it  or  not ;  and  the  Speaker  of 
the  Commons  decides  whether  a  bill  is  or  is  not  a  money  bill. 
Any  other  bill  passed  by  the  Commons  at  three  successive 
sessions  becomes  law,  in  spite  of  a  veto  by  the  Lords.  That  is, 
the  Lords'  former  veto  is  taken  away  wholly  for  a  large  and  im- 
portant class  of  bills,  and  is  made  only  a  suspensive  veto,  good 
for  two  years,  for  all  other  legislation.  At  last,  the  hereditary 
part  of  parliament  is  made  strictly  subordinate  to  the  representa- 
tive branch. 


§  902]  REFORMS   IN   ENGLAND  733 

901.  The  Liberals  hastened  to  push  through  their  program  of 
social  reform.     In  1908  they  had   already  passed  an  Old-age 
Pensions  act  giving  $1.25  a  week  to  every  person  over  seventy 
years  old  with  a  yearly  income  of  less  than  £  150.      A  more 
important  move  in  the  "  war  against  poverty  "  was  now  made, 
in  the   National  Insurance  act   of   1911.      This  act  compels 
every  worker  with  a  yearly  income  of  less  than  $  800  to  in- 
sure  against  sickness,  and   offers  tempting  inducements  for 
such  insurance  to  workers  with  higher  incomes.     More  radical 
still  was  a  provision  insuring  workers  in  certain  trades  against 
unemployment.     Half  the  cost  of  all  this  insurance  is  taken 
from    the  wages   of  the  workers ;   the  other  half  is  divided 
between  the  employers  and  the  national  treasury. 

Thus  England's  social  legislation  includes  comprehensive 
factory  acts,  workingmen's  compensation  for  injuries  received 
in  their  work,  insurance  against  sickness  and  against  loss  of 
time,  and  old-age  pensions.  By  a  radical  system  of  taxation, 
the  money  to  wage  this  war  against  poverty  comes  especially 
from  the  wealthy,  and  particularly  from  that  class  of  wealthy 
men  who  receive  their  incomes  without  rendering  service  to  society 
in  return.  Nearly  all  civilized  countries  are  now  moving  along 
these  same  lines ;  but  no  other  (1915)  has  gone  quite  so  far. 

902.  Political  reform,  too,  was  pushed  forward.     In  1911  the 
maximum  duration  of  parliaments  was  limited  to  five  years? 
instead  of  seven,  and  salaries  ($2000  a  year)  were  provided 
for  members  of  parliament.1     "  Welsh  disestablishment "  and 
Home  Rule  for  Ireland  have  been  at  last  secured.     The  Lords 
vetoed  both  bills  in  the  sessions  of  1912  and  1913,  but  in  1914 
both  became  law  over  their  veto.2 

1  This  makes  it  more  possible  for  poor  men  to  sit  in  parliament.    For  some 
ysars,  labor  unions  had  been  in  the  practice  of  paying  salaries  to  Labor  repre- 
sentatives in  the  Commons ;  but  the  English  courts  had  just  declared  that  the 
unions  had  no  right  to  use  money  for  that  purpose.    The  new  law  destroyed 
the  Tory  force  of  this  judicial  decision,  and  established  one  more  of  the 
"points"  of  the  old  Chartists  (§  756). 

2  The  Conservatives  threatened  for  a  time  to  stir  up  rebellion  in  Protestant 
and  English  Ulster,  when  the  new  law  should  be  put  into  effect;  but  the 


734  THE  TWENTIETH   CENTURY  [§903 

This  final  act  of  justice  completes  Irish  reform  so  far  as  English  con- 
trol is  concerned.  Previous  laws  had  abolished  the  establishment  of  a 
foreign  church,  and  had  attempted  to  undo  the  injustice  of  centuries  of 
foreign  landlordism  by  making  the  Irish  peasantry  again  the  owners  of 
their  own  lands.  Since  the  establishment  of  Home  Rule,  further  reform 
legislation  rests  in  Irish  hands. 

903.  Woman  Suffrage.  —  In  1912  the  ministry  introduced  a 
"  Fourth  Parliamentary  Reform  Bill,"  extending  the  suffrage 
to  all  grown  men  and  establishing  the  principle  "  one  man,  one 
vote."  This  bill  was  withdrawn,  later,  because  of  complica- 
tions with  the  "equal  suffrage"  movement,  which  deinands  some 
mention  here. 

Until  1870,  women  in  England  (and  in  most  European  lands) 
had  fewer  rights  than  in  America.  To  the  law,  a  married 
woman  was  a  minor.  Her  husband  was  her  guardian,  —  almost 
her  master.  He  might  even  beat  her  if  she  disobeyed  him. 

Property  rights  have  gradually  hem  --ranted  women,  though 
not  so  fully  as  in  progressive  American  States.  In  187U.  when 
the  English  "Hoard  schools"  (§  768)  were  created,  women 
were  given  the  right  to  vote  for  the  Boards,  and  to  serve  upon 
them.  In  1888  and  1894  they  were  given  the  franchise  for 
the  County  Councils  and  Parish  Councils  ($  7<>2),  subject 
to  the  same  tax-paying  restrictions  that  applied  to  men.  In 
1893  the  colony  of  New  Zealand  gave  women  full  political 
rights,  and  in  1894  South  Australia  did  so.  Then  (1901)  the 
new  federal  Australian  Commonwealth  granted  women  the 
franchise  for  the  federal  parliament.  This  was  quickly  fol- 
lowed by  like  action  in  the  remaining  states  of  the  federation. 

The  action  of  these  progressive  English-speaking  colonies1 

leaders  of  this  extreme  program  of  violence  abandoned  their  program,  in 
order  not  to  weaken  their  country,  when  the  war  of  1914  began.  In  return, 
the  ministry  secured  an  act  postponing  for  a  year  the  date  when  Home  Rule 
(and  Welsh  disestablishment)  should  go  into  operation. 

*  And  also  the  progress  of  equal  suffrage  in  the  United  States,  and  in  other 
European  countries.  See  (§§862,  873).  The  state  of  Wyoming  established 
woman  suffrage  in  1869,  earlier,  indeed,  than  any  of  the  provinces  or  countries 
named  above.  In  1893  Wyoming  was  joined  by  Colorado,  and  in  1896  by 


903] 


WOMAN   SUFFRAGE 


735 


reacted  upon  Old  England ;  and  there  the  question  was  taking 
on  a  new  character.  In  1905  numbers  of  English  women 
exchanged  peaceful  agitation  for  violence,  in  the  campaign  for 
the  ballot.  They  made  noisy  and  threatening  demonstrations 
before  the  homes  of  members  of  the  ministry;  they  broke 
windows ;  they  invaded  the  House  of  Commons  in  its  sittings ; 
and  at  last  they  began  even  to  destroy  mail  boxes  and  burn 
buildings. 

The  leaders  in  this  movement  were  Mrs.  /Sylvia  Pankhurst 
and  her  daughter  Christobel.  The  purpose  was  to  center  atten- 
tion on  the  demand 
"  Votes  for  women," 
since,  the  leaders  be- 
lieved, the  demand  was 
sure  to  be  granted  if  only 
people  could  be  kept 
thinking  about  it.  When 
members  of  this  party  of 
violence  were  sent  to  jail 
for  their  outbreaks,  they 
resorted  to  a  "  starvation 
strike,"  refusing  all  food 
until  the  government  felt 
compelled  to  release 
them. 

Lloyd  George  is  an 
open  advocate  of  equal 
suffrage;  but  the  minis- 
try as  a  whole  was  unwilling  to  put  its  other  reform  pro- 
gram in  peril  by  making  woman  suffrage  "a  government 
measure."  When  (1912)  Mr.  Asquith  introduced  the  proposed 
parliamentary  reforms,  he  promised  that  the  ministry  would 


DAVID  LLOYD  GEORGE. 


Utah  and  Idaho.  These  four,  however,  were  all  Western  States  with  small 
populations.  But  in  1912-1913,  at  a  leap,  the  number  of  States  in  the  Union 
with  woman  suffrage  rose  to  ten,  —  among  them  the  great  commonwealths  of 
California  and  Illinois,  —  and  in  1914  the  number  was  twelve. 


736  THE  TWENTIETH   CENTURY  [§  904 

accept  an  amendment  for  woman  suffrage  if  the  House  should 
pass  one.  This  did  not  content  the  women  agitators.  Violence 
increased ;  and  the  sympathies  of  the  Liberals  were  so  divided 
that  the  government  finally  withdrew  the  bill  altogether,  as  it 
did  another  in  1914.  When  the  great  war  began,  in  the  fall  of 
that  year,  Mrs.  Pankhurst  called  upon  her  followers  to  drop 
all  violence  while  the  country  was  in  peril. 

II.    DESPOTISM   VANISHING 

904.  As  late  as  1830,  we  have  seen,  England,  Switzerland, 
and  Norway  were  the  only  Old- World  countries  which  were 
not  absolute  despotisms ;  and  these  countries  were  far  from 
being  the  democracies  they  are  now.     During  the  remaining 
two-thirds  of  the  nineteenth  century,  constitutional  govern- 
ment spread  eastward  from  England  through  Europe,  and  west, 
from  the  United  States  to  Japan.     In  1900  Russia  and  little 
Montenegro  (with  the  possessions  of  Turkey)  were  the  only 
European  states  still  unaffected  by  the  movement.     The  re- 
maining independent  states  of  Asia,  —  Turkey,  Persia,  China, 
and  Siam, —  were  still  despotic.     But  in  1913  Siam  was  the 
only  sovereign  state  on  this  earth  without  a  representative 
assembly  and  some  degree  of  constitutional  government. 

The  revolution  in  Russia  has  been  described.  The  swift  rev- 
olutions which,  soon  after  1900,  set  up  constitutions  in  the 
other  despotisms  have  been  peculiar  in  their  freedom  from 
great  bloodshed. 

905.  A  "Young  Turk''  party  appeared  in  the  more  civilized 
parts  of  the  Turkish  empire  soon  after  1900.     This  group  of 
intelligent  and  progressive   men   agitated   for   a   parliament. 
Early   in   1908  its  leaders  organized  an  executive  committee 
with  headquarters  at  Salonika.     In  July  the   Salonika  com- 
mittee published  a  constitution  and  demanded  that  the  Sultan 
accept  it. 

The  army  officers  were  largely  "Young  Turks,"  and  the 
Sultan  felt  constrained  to  yield.  In  December  of  the  same 
year  the  first  Turkish  parliament  met,  with  magnificent  cere- 


§  907]  THE  REPUBLIC   OF  CHINA  737 

mony.  Foreign  countries,  however,  embarrassed  the  movement 
seriously.  Bulgaria  seized  this  moment  to  turn  her  nominal 
dependence  into  absolute  independence,  and  Austria  formally 
annexed  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  Conservative  Turks  accused 
the  Young  Turks  of  carelessly  permitting  this  dismemberment 
of  the  empire.  A  reactionary  revolution  broke  out;  but  the 
army  remained  loyal  to  the  constitution,  and  suppressed  the 
revolt  with  little  bloodshed.  The  aged  Sultan  (Abdul  Harnid) 
had  sympathized  with  the  attempt  at  reaction,  if  indeed  he  did 
not  instigate  it ;  and  in  1909  the  parliament  deposed  him,  plac- 
ing on  the  throne  his  brother,  as  Mohammed  V. 

The  advance  of  the  new  era  has  been  threatened  by  revolts 
and  by  foreign  wars  (  §  884).  The  empire  is  a  conglomerate 
of  hostile  provinces,  held  together  for  centuries  by  the  bayonet. 
The  government,  too,  is  threatened  with  bankruptcy,  due  to  a 
long  course  of  preceding  mismanagement  and  inefficiency. 
Still  it  is  fairly  certain  that  despotism  will  not  again  be  firmly 
established. 

906.  In  Persia,  in  1906,  the  enlightened  portion  of  the  people 
were  demanding  a  parliament  so  loudly  that  the  monarch  (shah) 
called  one,  and  issued  a  constitution.     On  his  death,  however, 
in  1907,  his  son  bombarded  the  parliament  house  and  arrested 
the  liberal  leaders.     The  provinces  broke  into  revolt ;  and,  in 
May  of  1909,  the  shah  felt  compelled  to  restore  the  constitution. 
The  revolutionists,  however,  proceeded  to  depose  him,  seating 
on  the  throne  his  son,  a  boy  of  thirteen.     The  country  has  so 
far  remained  distracted  by  revolts  and  disorder. 

907.  Most   amazing   of  all   is  the   revolution   which    swiftly 
changed  vast  "  changeless  China"  into  a  republic.     In  the  closing 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Western  ideas  began  to  spread 
among  a  small  educated  class  in  the  empire ;  but  the  ruling 
dynasty  (the  Manchus)  and  the  mass,  of  the  people  were  still 
hostile  to  reform.     The  dynasty,  however,  became  hated  as  a 
result  of  national  -humiliations  in  the  war  with  Japan  and 
the  Boxer  war  and  in  the  seizure  of  territory  by  European 
nations  ;  and  then  the  marvelous  victory  of  Westernized  Japan 


738  THE   TWENTIETH   CENTURY  [§  908 

over  Russia  reinforced  the  advocates  of  Western  civilization  for 
China.  In  1909  the  regent  (Empress  Dowager,  whose  Km- 
peror-son  was  still  a  babe)  promised  a  constitution  "  in  the 
near  future."  The  agitation  of  the  Liberals  forced  her  to  fix 
the  date  first  for  1915,  and  then  for  1913.  But  this  was  not 
soon  enough.  In  1911  Central  China  rose  in  revolution,  to 
make  the  many  provinces  of  the  empire  into  a  Federal  Re- 
public. 

The  movement  spread  with  marvelous  rapidity,  and  in  a 
few  weeks  the  Republicans  were  in  possession  of  the  rich*  >t 
and  most  populous  parts  of  the  empire.  They  then  set  up  a 
provisional  republican  government,  at  Nanking,  under  the 
presidency  of  an  enlightened  patriot,  Dr.  Sun  Tat  Sen.  In  an 
attempt  to  save  the  monarchy,  the  Empress  then  issued  a  con- 
stitution, and  called  to  power  a  moderate  reformer,  Yuan  xhH, 
Kai  (yoo-an  she  ki).  When  it  quickly  appeared  that  this  was 
not  enough,  the  Manchus  abdicated.  Yuan  Shih  Kai  estab- 
lished a  provisional  republican  government  at  IVkinij,  and 
opened  negotiations  with  the  Nanking  government.  To  re- 
move all  hindrance  to  union,  the  noble  Sun  Yat  Sen  resigned. 
Then  the  two  provisional  governments  elected  Yuan  Shih  Kai 
president  of  the  "  Republic  of  China." 

In  April,  1913,  the  first  Chinese  parliament  assembled,  rep- 
resenting 400,000,000  people,  or  a  fourth  of  the  human  race. 
The  president,  however,  proved  self-seeking  and  reactionary. 
Leading  Liberals  in  the  army  and  in  politics  were  assassinated, 
supposedly  by  his  orders,  and  he  seems  to  have  made  himself 
a  military  dictator.  A  vast  population  like  that  of  China  can- 
not leap  into  civilization  and  true  freedom  in  a  day. 

III.    MORAL   AND   SCIENTIFIC   MOVEMENTS 

908.  The  rate  of  human  progress  is  accelerating  tremendously. 
Our  day  is  further  removed  from  Napoleon's  than  his  was 
from  Charlemagne's.  The  last  century  has  made  more  prog- 
ress than  the  thousand  years  preceding  it. 

In  this  recent  transformation  of  the  world,  the  three  mighty 


§910]  SCIENCE    AND    HUMAN    LIFE  739 

agents  have  been  democracy,  humane  sentiment,  and  scientific 
invention.  The  growth  of  democracy  has  been  a  special  theme 
of  this  book.  We  have  seen,  too,  in  part  at  least,  how  the 
gentler  spirit  of  this  age  has  abolished  slavery  and  serfdom, 
ameliorated  laws,  and  created  a  "war  upon  poverty,"  with 
zealous  efforts  to  lessen  suffering  and  misery.  But  the  most 
marvelous  phase  of  all  is  the  scientific  advance.  A.  E,.  Wallace, 
in  his  Wonderful  Century,  counts  up  the  epoch-making  inven- 
tions from  earliest  times  to  the  year  1800,  making  them  eighteen 
in  number ;  and  then  names  twenty-four  of  equal  or  greater  rank 
for  the  nineteenth  century.  Ancient  science  was  a  plaything 
of  philosophers ;  to-day  science  is  the  servant  of  mankind. 

909.  Science  and   Human   Life.  —  In    the    eighties  a   noble 
French  scientist,    Pasteur,  proved   true   the   germ   theory    of 
disease,  and  invented  methods  of   inoculation  against    some 
dreaded  forms,  such  as  hydrophobia.     Devoted  students  fol- 
lowed in  his  footsteps.     Major  Walter  E-eed,  during  the  Ameri- 
can   occupation    of    Cuba    after    the    Spanish- American  war, 
proved  that  the  deadly  Yellow  Fever,  and  ordinary  malaria  as 
well,  were  spread  by  the  bite  of  mosquitoes.     In  like  manner  it 
has  been  shown  that  certain  fleas,  living  on  rats,  spread  the 
terrible    bubonic    plague.     In    1903    Dr.    Charles   W.    Stiles 
proved  that  the  inefficiency  and  low  vitality  of  the  listless 
"  poor  Whites  "  in  our  own  South  was  due  largely  to  the  hook- 
worm, a  parasite  which,  he  showed,  enters  the  body  through 
the  bare  feet  common  in  that  region.     The  special  causes  of 
typhoid  and  of  tuberculosis  have  become  well  known. 

Each  such  discovery  has  enabled  men  to  fight  disease  more 
successfully.  It  is  not  improbable  that  in  the  not  distant 
future  all  deadly  contagious  disease  may  be  practically  ban- 
ished from  the  earth.  Already,  since  1850,  the  average  human 
life  has  been  lengthened  by  a  fourth,  and  the  population  of  the 
civilized  world  has  been  trebled. 

910.  This  larger  amount  of  life,  too,  has  been  lifted  to  a  higher 
plane.    There  is  more  life  and  better  life,  than  formerly.    Wealth 
is  more  abundant ;  and  the  workers,  though  still  getting  far  too 


740 


THE   TWENTIETH   CENTURY 


[§911 


little  of  it,  get  far  more  than  in  1800.  A  day's  work  buys 
more  comfort  than  in  1800  or  in  1850.  Owing  to  this  increased 
wealth  and  to  the  new  conveniences  of  modern  life,  the  people 
of  the  world  have  undergone  a  marvelous  change  in  their  daily 
habits.  It  is  probably  true  that  the  life  of  an  industrious, 
healthy  artisan  of  to-day  is  more  enjoyable  than  was  that  of  a 
great  noble  a  century  ago. 

911.  The  age  of  electricity  has  supplanted  the  age  of  steam. 
Gasoline  engines  and  electric  engines  furnish  new  power  for 
locomotion  and  for  work.  With  electricity  to  aid  him,  man 


ELECTRIC  ENOINB.  —  The  30th  Century  Limited  from  New  York  to  Chicago- 

has  at  last  learned  to  explore  the  depths  of  the  sea  in  subma- 
rines and  to  conquer  the  air  in  airships.  Automobiles  make 
for  clean  city  streets  and  good  country  roads.  Electric  lights 
banish  crime  along  with  darkness. 

912.  Human  Solidarity.  —  This  larger  and  better  life  has 
been  spreading  over  the  globe ;  steam  and  electricity  bind 
the  most  scattered  portions  together  more  closely  than  adjacent 
villages  were  joined  in  the  near  ]mst.  The  world  is  more  and 
more  compact.  The  ox-cart  and  the  pack-horse  of  1800  are 
replaced  as  carriers  by  long  trains  of  cars,  swiftly  carrying 
their  hundreds  of  tons  of  all  kinds  of  freight  across  conti- 
nents. New  methods  of  banking  make  it  possible  to  transfer 


§914]  HUMAN  UNITY  741 

credit  and  to  do  business  with  magical  quickness  between  dis- 
tant portions  of  the  earth.  To  say  nothing  of  the  telegraph, 
lines  of  communication  are  so  organized  that  it  costs  no  more 
to  send  a  letter  around  the  globe  than  to  send  it  around  the 
corner.  The  Minnesota  farmer's  market  is  not  Minneapolis, 
or  Chicago,  or  London,  but  the  world.  The  sheep  raiser  in 
Australia,  the  Kansas  farmer,  the  New  York  merchant,  the 
London  banker,  are  parts  of  one  industrial  organism,  and 
whatever  touches  one  of  them  affects  all  the  rest.  There  is 
a  new  social  unity,  or  solidarity,  among  men. 

This  neiv  unity  is  not  merely  one  of  material  interests :  it 
has  its  intellectual  and  its  moral  side.  Any  happening  of  con- 
sequence is  known  within  an  hour  in  London,  Petrograd, 
Peking,  New  York,  and  San  Francisco,  and,  within  a  day  or  two, 
in  almost  every  hamlet  where  civilized  men  live.  News 
spreads  over  the  entire  surface"  of  the  globe  as  fast  as  gossip 
used  to  run  down  a  village  street.  Hence  a  closer  human 
interest,  and  a  greater  unity  of  sympathy  and  opinion.  A 
"  world  opinion  "  now  takes  form  and  makes  itself  felt  in 
important  human  concerns  almost  as  promptly  as  village 
opinion  could  be  brought  to  bear  upon  an  individual  citizen's 
conduct  a  century  ago. 

913.  The  picture  of  course  has  its  darker  side.     The  crowded 
populations  of  the  modern  world  still  live  and  work  under 
conditions  of   misery  and   disease   and   oftentimes    of   want. 
Great  cities  are  breeding-places  of  crime.    Sometimes  the  civi- 
lized nations  show  callous  disregard  of  humane  principles,  when 
weaker  or  barbarous  peoples  are  concerned.     And  over  the  civi- 
lized peoples  themselves  broods  the  danger  of  annihilating  war, 
more  terrible  because  of  the  new  inventions  of  this  scientific  age. 

IV.    INTERNATIONAL   RELATIONS   SINCE    1871 

914.  Triple  and  Dual  Alliances.  —  The  years  1866-1871  saw  a 
new  "  Great  Power  "  added  to  the  European  circle.     The  rise 
of  Germany  as  a  strong  united  nation,  in  place  of  the  former 
petty  jealous  states  of  Central  Europe,  compelled  a  recasting  of 


742  INTERNATIONAL    RELATIONS   SINCE   1871  [§'.»15 

political  alliances ;  and  about  the  same  time  other  causesxjon- 
tributed  to  a  like  result. 

(1)  France  was  bent  upon  revenge  for  the  Franco-Prussian 
War,  and  she  longed  to  recover  her  lost  provinces.  For  twenty 
years  after  1871  the  Alsace-Lorraine  matter  was  the  burning 
question  in  European  politics.  To  strengthen  herself  for  the 
expected  conflict,  France  cultivated  cordial  relations  with 
Russia.  (2)  At  the  same  time,  Germany  offended  Russia  by 
supporting  Austria's  claims  in  the  Balkans,  where  lay  the  other 
chief  storm-center  of  Europe.  (3)  In  1880  Italy  was  un. 
by  the  French  seizure  of  Tunis  (§808),  —  the  first  important 
conflict  of  interest  in  recent  times  outside  Europe. 

Thus,  in  curious  fashion  old  enemies  were  drawn  together 
and  old  associates  divided.  In  1881  Germany,  Austria,  and 
Italy  leagued  themselves  in  a  union  known  as  the  Tri^lf 
Alliance,  and  a  few  years  later  Russia  and  France  formally 
adopted  a  dual  alliance.  The  continent  was  thrown  int.- 
hostile  camps,  jealously  watching  each  other's  slightest  move. 

915.  Recent  Changes.  —  In  the  early  '80's  Kn-land  looked 
with  some  jealousy  on  the  swift  French  advance  in  North 
Africa,  and  Bismarck  hoped  to  draw  her  into  the  Triple  Alli- 
ance. But  Kngland  soon  saw  in  Germany  a  rival  in  Africa  and 
Asia  more  to  be  dreaded  than  France.  Germany's  new  com- 
mercial activity,  too,  threatened  England's  supremacy  in  trade. 
Above  all,  German  militarism  was  repugnant  to  Knglish  de- 
mocracy. On  the  other  hand.  Kngland  and  France  grew  into 
better  and  better  understanding  of  each  other,  and  in  1903  an 
arbitration  treaty  between  them  (§917)  went  far  to  prevent 
future  jealousies. 

From  that  time,  England  has  been  regarded  as  connected 
with  the  Dual  Alliance,  so  far  at  least  as  <!?/•  -IIMI-P  purposes 
are  concerned.  The  small  states  of  Western  Europe,  like 
Belgium  and  Portugal,  have  given  their  sympathies  warmly 
to  this  Triple  Entente,  largely  because  of  their  friendly  rela- 
tions with  England.  Holland  has  done  so  because  of  her  fear 
of  German  attemps  to  annex  her.  On  the  other  hand,  Turkey 


Longitude  West         0  Longitude  East  10  from         Greenwich 


§917]  THE   WAR   OF   1914-1915  743 

has  fallen  more  and  more  away  from  English  influence  and 
under  German  influence. 

Meantime,  while  the  old  Dual  Alliance  was  growing  into  this 
Triple  Entente,  the  old  Triple  Alliance  was  threatened  with 
the  loss  of  one  of  its  members.  Italy's  acquisition  of  Tripoli 
(§  825)  canceled  her  grievance  against  France.  Then  her 
ancient  grievance  against  Austria,  from  Austria's  retention  of 
the  Italian  province  of  Trentino  (§  825),  began  to  drive  her 
away  from  Austria  and  Germany. 

916.  War.  —  Each  of  the  two  armed  camps  always  professed 
that  its  aim  was  peace.     No  doubt  each  did  shrink  from  pre- 
cipitating a  conflict  between  such  enormous  forces,  under  the 
new  conditions  of  army  organization,  quick  transportation,  and 
deadly  explosives.     For  half  a  century  (1871-1914),  except  for 
the  minor  struggles  in  the  Balkan   districts,  Europe  rested 
under  a  costly  "  armed  peace,"  based  upon  fear. 

The  cost  mounted  steadily,  year  by  year,  as  each  alliance 
strove  to  make  its  armies  and  navies  mightier  than  the  other's. 
The  crushing  burden  to  the  small  states  of  Europe  has  been 
referred  to  often  in  the  preceding  pages.  Finally  even  the 
richest  and  mightiest  states  began  to  feel  the  strain.  Still  men 
had  come  to  think  that  war  between  the  civilized  peoples  of 
Western  Europe  was  hardly  possible  again,  when  suddenly 
Europe  was  plunged  into  the  most  terrible  war  in  all  history 
—  of  which  at  this  writing  it  is  too  early  to  speak  further. 

917.  The  Promise   of   Arbitration.  —  This  "Needless   War" 
is  the  more  disappointing  to  all  lovers  of   mankind  because 
the  world   had  recently  begun  to  invent  new  machinery   by 
which  to  avoid  war.     The  nations  have  begun  to  adopt  per- 
manent arbitration  treaties  with  one  another,  and  to  establish 
standing  international  tribunals  to  settle  disputes   peacefully. 
The  present  war  proves  —  what  many  thinkers  had  foreseen  — 
that   these    devices    are    comparatively   powerless   unless   ac- 
companied by  a  general  disarmament.     Still  they  contain  the 
greatest  promise  ever  yet  seen  for  the  final  abolition  of  the 
curse  of  war,  the  greatest  peril  to  our  civilization. 


744 


THE   PROMISE   OF   ARBITRATION 


[§017 


In  earlier  times  an  impending  war  was  sometimes  averted 
by  diplomacy  or  by  the  mediation  of  a  powerful  neighbor. 
But  arbitration,  in  the  modern  sense,  means  neither  diplomatic 
negotiation  nor  mediation.  It  means  adjudication  of  disputed 
points  by  an  impartial  body  of  experts  resembling  a  law  court, 
following  the  forms  of  a  court  of  justice,  hearing  evidence  and 


Tin    II  \<;I;K  PKACK  PALACK. 

argument  in  public,  and  basing  its  decision  on  the  merits  of 
the  case. 

The  first  arbitration  of  this  kind  in  modern  times  was 
arranged  by  one  clause 1  of  the  Jay  Treaty  of  1794  between 
England  and  the  United  States.  For  nearly  a  hundred  years 
this  sensible  device  continued  to  be  used  mainly  by  the  two 
English-speaking  nations ;  but  before  the  close  of  the  nineteenth 
century  it  began  to  spread  rapidly  to  other  lands.  During 
that  century  several  hundred  disputes  between  nations  were 

1  Regarding  the  disputed  boundary  between  Maine  and  Nova  Scotia.  See 
West's  American  History  and  Government,  §  232. 


§917]  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA  745 

settled  honorably,  peacefully,  and  justly,  by  this  process, — 
many  of  them  critical  disputes,  which  might  easily  have  led 
to  war.1 

But  all  these  cases  of  arbitration  concerned  some  individual 
dispute,  regarding  which  a  special  treaty  had  to  be  negotiated 
before  arbitration  could  begin.  This  left  much  to  be  desired  ; 
and  the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  saw  agitation 
for  "  general  arbitration  treaties  "  by  which  nations  might  agree 
in  advance  to  submit  disputes  to  a  certain  court  of  arbitrators. 
In  1897  a  treaty  of  this  kind  between  England  and  the  United 
States  failed  of  adoption  because  of  opposition  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  though  it  had  been  recommended  vigorously 
first  by  President  Cleveland  and  afterward  by  President  Mc- 
Kinley.  Then  leadership  in  this  great  movement  passed  for 
the  time  away  from  the  English-speaking  peoples. 

On  August  24,  1898,  by  order  of  the  Tsar,  the  Russian  Min- 
ister of  Foreign  Affairs  handed  to  the  representatives  of  the 
different  nations  in  St.  Petersburg  a  written  suggestion  for  a 
world  conference  to  consider  some  means  for  arresting  the 
danger  of  war  and  for  lessening  the  burden  of  the  armed 
peace.  Out  of  this  suggestion  there  grew  the  Hague  Peace  Con- 
ference of  1899. 

Twenty-six  nations  were  represented,  including  Mexico, 
Siam,  Japan,  China,  and  Persia,  —  practically  all  the  inde- 
pendent states  of  the  world  except  the  South  American  re- 
publics. Never  before  had  any  gathering  so  nearly  approached 
a  "  parliament  of  man,"  and  never  had  an  international  congress 
accomplished  so  great  a  work.  It  was  not  found  possible 
to  provide  any  limitation  upon  the  armament  of  different 
nations,  because  the  German  representatives  refused  to  con- 
sider that  matter;  but  agreements  were  reached  to  regulate 
the  methods  of  war  in  the  interests  of  greater  humanity,  and, 

lrrhe  student  of  American  history  will  recall  the  arbitrations  with  England 
regarding  the  Alabama  damages,  the  Behriug  Sea  Seal  Fisheries,  the  Vene- 
zuela territory,  the  Alaskan  boundary,  and  several  other  disputes  concerning 
our  northern  boundary  at  the  eastern  and  western  extremities. 


746  THE   PROMISE   OF  ARBITRATION  [§917 

in  spite  of  German  opposition,  the  Congress  provided  a  per- 
manent International  Tribunal  for  arbitration  between  nations. 

No  nation,  of  course,  is  compelled  to  submit  its  quarrels  to 
this  court;  but  it  is  of  supreme  consequence  that  machinery 
is  ready  so  that  nations  can  escape  war,  without  loss  of  dig- 
nity, if  they  desire. 

The  next  step  was  for  groups  of  nations  to  pledge  them- 
selves to  make  use  of  this  machinery,  or  of  similar  machinery. 
This  pledge  is  the  essence  of  a  "general  arbitration  treaty." 
The  first  such  treaty  was  adopted  by  two  South  American 
countries. 

\Yhile  the  Hague  Conference  was  sitting,  Chili  and  Argen- 
tina (which  had  not  been  invited  to  the  Conference)  were  on 
the  verge  of  war  over  a  boundary  dispute  in  the  Andes.  For 
the  next  two  years  both  governments  made  vigorous  prepara- 
tions,—  piling  up  war  taxes,  increasing  armaments,  building 
and  buying  ships  of  war.  But  at  the  last  moment  a  popular 
movement,  led  by  bishops  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  two 
countries,  brought  about  arbitration  ;  and  soon  after,  the  bound- 
ary was  adjusted  rationally  by  a  commission  of  geographers 
and  legal  experts.  So  well  pleased  were  the  two  nations  with 
this  individual  case  of  arbitration  that  they  proceeded  to  adopt 
a  "  general  treaty  "  by  which  they  bound  themselves,  for  a 
period  of  five  years,  to  submit  all  disputes  which  might  arise 
between  them  to  a  specific  tribunal. 

This  was  the  first  "  general  arbitration  treaty  "  ever  actually 
adopted  (June,  1903).  But  others  were  already  in  preparation 
in  Europe  ;  and,  four  months  later  (October,  1903),  France  and 
England  adopted  one,  agreeing  (with  certain  reservations)  to 
submit  future  disputes  to  the  Hague  Tribunal.  Others  followed 
swiftly,  until  every  civilized  state  of  Europe  and  America 
(except  Russia)  was  joined  with  one  or  more  other  states  in 
such  agreements. 

In  1907  a  Second  Hague  Conference  met,  at  the  suggestion 
of  the  United  States.  This  time  the  South  American  repub- 
lics were  represented.  The  Conference  extended  somewhat  the 


§917]  THE   HAGUE   CONGRESSES  747 

work  of  the  first  meeting,  but  again  attempts  to  limit  armies 
and  navies  failed.  England  took  the  lead  for  such  limitation 
(a  step  toward  disarmament) ;  but,  as  before,  Germany  and 
Austria  opposed  it ;  and  now  they  were  joined  by  Russia  and 
Japan,  who  had  just  closed  their  great  war. 

In  spite  of  this  failure,  and  in  spite  of  the  present  European 
War,  the  Hague  Congresses  and  the  standing  arbitration 
treaties  make  the  greatest  step  yet  seen  toward  the  poet's 
dream  .of  a  "  federation  of  the  world."  When  men  cease  to 
divide  in  order  to  war  upon  one  another,  they  will  be  ready  to 
unite  in  the  war  upon  poverty,  ignorance,  and  suffering. 

The  student  of  history  will  learn  not  to  look  upon  any  such 
development  as  impossible.  He  has  seen  that  "the  thoughts 
of  men  are  widened  with  the  process  of  the  suns."  He  will 
not  think  any  present  condition  unchangeable. 

"  Our  little  systems  have  their  day  ; 
They  have  their  day  and  cease  to  be. 
They  are  but  broken  lights  of  Thee  ; 
And  Thou,  O  God,  art  more  than  they." 


APPENDIX 


A  LIST   OF  BOOKS   IN  MODERN   HISTORY  FOR  HIGH  SCHOOLS 

The  following  titles  are  classified  in  two  periods,  and,  under  each 
period,  in  two  groups.  In  the  judgment  of  the  writer,  all  high  schools 
should  have  access  to  Group  I  (or  an  equivalent),  while  large  schools  may 
well  have  Group  II  also.  Works  marked  with  a  *  should  be  present  in 
more  than  single  copies.  The  prices  are  listed ;  but  a  reduction  of  from 
25  to  33  per  cent  can  usually  be  secured  by  schools. 

A.   TO   THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION 

GROUP  I 

Source  Material. 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  (Bohn  edition).     $1.60. 

Chronicles  of  the  Crusades  (Bohn  Library).     $1.50. 

Davis,  W.  S.,  Readings  in  Ancient  History,  II,  $1.     Allyn  and  Bacon. 

Einhard,  Charlemagne,  $0.30.     Am.  Book  Co. 

English  History  from  Contemporary  Writers,  edited  by  F.  York  Powell. 
A  series  of  ten  small  volumes,  40  cents  each,  published  from  1886  to 
1894  by  Putnams,  as  follows :  Archer,  Crusade  of  Richard  I;  Ash- 
ley, Edward  III  and  His  Wars;  Barnard,  Strongbow's  Conquest 
of  Ireland  •  Hutton,  Misrule  of  Henry  III;  Simon  of  Montfort; 
St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury  ;  Jacobs,  The  Jews  of  Angevin  England; 
Powell,  Alfred  and  the  Danes ;  Smith,  Troublous  Days  of  Richard  II. 

Hill,  Mabel,  Liberty  Documents.    $2.     Longmans. 

Joinville,  Memoir  of  St.  Louis.     (Various  editions.) 

Lanier  (editor),  The  Boy's  Froissart.     $2.50.     Scribners. 

Lee,  Source  Book  of  English  History.     $2.     Holt. 

Marco  Polo,  The  Story  of,  edited  by  Noah  Brooks.     $1.     Century  Co. 

Ogg,  F.  A.,  Source  Book  of  Medieval  History.     $1.50.     Am.  Book  Co. 

Pennsylvania  Translations  and  Reprints  from  Original  Sources.  1  vols. 
$1.50  each.  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

*  Robinson,  J.  H.,  Readings  in  European  History.    2  vols.     $3.     Ginri. 

1 


2  APPENDIX 

Modern  Accounts. 

*  Adams,  G.  B.,  Growth  of  the  French  Nation.     $1.25.     Macmillan. 
* Civilization  during  the  Middle  Ages.     §2.60.     Serilm. 

*  Archer  and  Kingsford,  The  Crusades  ("  Nations").    $1.50.     Putnanis. 
Balzani,  Popes  and  H<>ln-nst,tni'< ».     so. HO.     Longmans. 

Beard,  Charles,  ylw  Introduction  to  English  Historians  (extracts  from 
leading  authorities  on  interesting  topics).  Sl.iio.  Ma -milUm. 

Beesly.  E.  S..  Kliznlwth  ("  English  Statesmen  ").     SO. 75.     Macmillan. 

Boyeson.  H.  H.,  Norway  ("Nations"),     91.50.     Putnams. 

Bradley.   Wolf,-.     $0.75.     Macmillan. 

Brown,  Horatio,  The  Venetian  Republic  ("Temple  Primers").  $0.40. 
Macmillan. 

*  Bryce,  James.  II»ly  Roman  I  *1.60.     Macmillan. 
*Cheyney,  E.  P.,    Industrial  and  Social  History  <>f  Engl«, 

Macmillan. 

Church,  Itwj anting*  «f  ///•    V  I. /•*('•  Epochs").    $0.76.    Longmans. 

Clemens  (Mark  Twain).  J»an  <>f  Arc.     $1.60.     Harpers. 
Cornish,  F.  W.,  Ctiir  ///•//.     si. -jr..     Macmillan. 
Cox,  G.  W..  Tin-  tinundu    ••  Epochs'').     $1.     Longmans. 
Creighton,  M..  Aye  of  Elizabeth  ("Epochs").     91.     Longmans. 
Cunningham,    \\'i-#tern    Civilization  (Vol.    II,    Medieval    and    Modern). 

11.25,      Macmillan. 
Cunningham  ami   McArthur,   Outlines  of  English   Industrial    II 

|1.60.     Macmillan. 

Davis,  H.  W.  C.,  dharleuiigm  ("  Heroes").     81.60.     Putnam-. 
*Emerton,  Intr<«!>i>-tinn  t»  the  Study  of  the  Middle  Ages.     $1.12.     Ginn. 

—  Medieval  Europe.     §1.60.     Ginn. 
Firth,  Cromwell  ("  Heroes").     $1.50.     Putnams. 
Gardiner,  S.  R.,  Student's  History  of  England.    §3.     Longmans. 

-  The  Puritan  Revolution  ("Epochs").     $1.     Longmans. 

-  The  Thirty  Years'  War  (••  Ep-u-hs  ").     $1.     Longmans. 
Gibbins,  / >i<1us( rial  History  of  England.     -SI.     Metluien  ;  London. 
Gilman,  The  Saracens  (*'  Nations").     $1.60.     Putnams. 

Gray,  The  Children's  Crusade.     $1.50.     Houghton. 

*  Green,  J.  R.,   Ilinlnry  of  the  English  People.    4  vols.     83.40.      Burt ; 

New  York. 

Or,  in  place  of  this  last  work, 

*  Green,  J.  R.,  Stutrt  Hist  urn  "/  thi-  English  People.    -SI  .'J".    Am.  Book  Co. 
Green,  Mrs.,  Henry  II.     *o.7-">.     Macmillan. 

Hughes,  Thomas,  Alfred  the  Great.     -SI. 50.     Macmillan. 
Jenks,  Edward  Pl<tnt>i>i,  net  ("  Heroes").     $1.50.     Putnams. 
Jessopp,  The  Coming  of  the  Friars.    $1.25.     Putnams. 


APPENDIX  3 

Jiriczek,  Xorthern  Hero  Legends.     $0.40.     Macmillan. 

Johnston,  C.,  and  Spencer,  C.,  Ireland'' s  Story.     $1.40.     Houghton. 

Lane-Poole,  Saladin  ("  Heroes").     $1.50.     Putnams. 

Lindsay,  T.  M.,  Luther  and  the  German  Reformation.    $1.25.    Scribners. 

Mabie,  H.  W.,  Yorse  Stories  Retold.     $1.     L>odd  and  Mead. 

Masterman,  J.  H.  B.,  Dawn  of  Medieval  Europe  ("  Six  Ages").     $0.90. 

Macmillan. 
Motley,  The  Student's  Motley,  — the  best  history  of  the  Dutch  Republic 

in  its  heroic  age  ;  edited  by  Griffis.     $1.50.     Harpers. 
Mullinger,  University  of  Cambridge.     81.     Longmans. 
Oman,  C.  W.  C.,  Byzantine  Empire  ("Nations").     $1.50.     Putnams. 
Pears,  E.,  Fall  of  Constantinople.     $2.     Harpers. 
Perry,  F.,  St.  Louis  ("Heroes").     $1.50.     Putnams. 

*  Pollard,  History  of  England  ("  Home  University").     $0.50.     Holt. 

*  Shepherd,  W.  R..  Historical  Atlas.    $2.50.     Holt. 
Stubbs,  Early  Plantayenets  (".Epochs").     $1.     Longmans. 
Tout,  T.  F.,  Empire  and  Papacy,  918-1273.     $1.75.     Macmillan. 

—  Edward  I.     $0.75.     Macmillan. 
Van  Dyke,  History  of  Painting.     $3.     New  York. 
Walker,  W.,  The  Reformation.     $2.     Scribners. 
Ward,  The  Counter-Reformation.     80.80.     Longmans. 
Willert,  Henry  of  Xava rre  ("  Heroes  ").     $1.50.     Putnams. 
Woodward,  W.  H.,  Expansion  of  the  British  Empire,  1500-1902.     $1. 

Putnams. 
Zimmern,  H.,  The  Hansa  ("  Nations  ").     $1.50.     Putnams. 

GROUP  II 

Ashley,  Introduction  to  English  Economic  History.      Vol.  I,   Part  I. 

•SI. 25.     Longmans. 

Beard,  Martin  Luther.     $2.50.     London. 

Beazley,  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator  ("  Heroes").     $1.50.     Putnams. 
Bradley,   Wolfe.    $0.75.     Macmillan. 
Cults,  Parish  Priests  and  their  People.    $3.     London. 

—  Scenes  and  Characters  of  the  Middle  Ages.     $3.75.     New  York. 
Du  Chaillu,  The  Viking  Age.    2  vols.     $5.75.     Murray. 
Fletcher,  Gustavus  Adolphus  ("  Heroes").     $1.50.     Putnams. 
Fox-Bourne,  Sir  Philip  Sidney  (**  Heroes").     $1.50.     Putnams. 
Gasquet,  F.  A.,  Parish  Life  in  Medieval  England.     $2.     New  York. 
Harrison,  F.,  William  the  Silent.     $0.75.     Macmillan. 
Henderson,   E.,    Short  History  of  Germany.     2  vols.   in  one.     $1.60. 

Macmillan. 
Hodgkin,  T.,  Charles  the  Great.     $0.75.     Macmillan. 


4  APPENDIX 

James,  G.  P.  R.,  History  of  Chivalry.     $2.    Harpers. 

Jusserand,  English  Wayfaring  Life  in  the  Middle  Ages.     S3.     London. 

Keary,  The  Vikings  in  Western  Christendom.     82.50.     Putnams. 

Liibke,  History  of  Art.    2  vols.     $7.60.     Dodd  and  Mead. 

McCabe,  Abelard.    $1.50.     Putnams. 

Morison,  Life  and  Times  of  St.  Bernard.     $1.85.     Macmillan. 

Oman,  Art  of  War.    $4.50.     Putnams. 

Putnam,  Ruth,  Books  and   Their  Makers  in  the  Middle  Ages.    $2.50. 

Putnams. 

Robinson  and  Rolfe,  Petrarch.     $2.     Putnams. 
Sabatier,  St.  Francis.     $2.50.     Scribners. 
Saintsbury,  Flourishing  of  Romance.     §1.50.     Scribners. 
Seeley,  Expansion  of  England.     $1.10.     Macmillan. 
Smith,  J.  H.,  The  Troubadours  at  Home.    $2.    Putnams. 
Stephens,  W.  R.  W.,  Hildebrand  and  His  Times.     $0.80.     Longmans. 
Storrs,  Bernard  of  Clairoaux.     $2.50.     Scribners. 
Story  of  the  Burnt  Njal  (Dassent,  translator).     $1.50.     New  York. 
Symonds,  J.  A.,  Short  History  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy  (Edited  by 

Pi-arson).    $1.25.     Scribners. 
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B.    FROM   THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION   TO  THE    PRESENT 

TIME 

GROUP  I 

Source  Material. 
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History  of  France,   1789-1907.     $2.     H.    W.    Wilson   Co.;    White 

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Cesaresco,  Cavour.     $0.75.     Macmillan. 

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*Gardiner,  Mrs.  B.  M.,  French  Revolution  ("Epochs").  $0.75.  Long- 
mans. 


APPENDIX  5 

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Stillman,  W.  J.,  The  Union  of  Italy,  1815-1895  ("Cambridge  Series"). 

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1  Other  fiction  is  referred  to  only  in  footnotes  in  the  text ;  but  this  volume, 
—  so  vivid  a  portraiture  of  the  folly  and  horror  of  modern  war,  —  deserves 
a  place  in  this  list.  It  should  be  read  by  every  student. 


INDEX 


The  references  are  to  sections,  unless  otherwise  indicated. 

Pronunciation,  except  for  familiar  names  and  terms,  is  shown  by  divi- 
sion into  syllables  and  accentuation.  When  diacritical  marks  for  English 
names  are  needed,  the  common  marks  of  Webster's  Dictionaries  are  used. 
German  and  French  pronunciation  can  be  indicated  only  imperfectly  to 
those  who  are  not  familiar  with  the  languages  ;  but  attention  is  called  to 
the  following  marks :  the  soft  aspirated  guttural  sound  g  of  the  German 
is  marked  G  ;  the  corresponding  ch  (as  in  ich~)  is  marked  K  ;  the  sound  of 
the  nasal  French  n  is  marked  n;  for  the  German  a  and  au  the  equiva- 
lents are  indicated,  to  prevent  confusion  with  English  a  ;  o  is  always  the 
German  letter  ;  and  u  is  the  German  diphthong  or  the  equivalent  French  u. 
In  French  words  with  an  accent  on  the  final  syllable,  that  accent  only  is 
marked  ;  but  it  should  be  understood  that  in  such  words  the  syllables  as 
a  rule  receive  nearly  equal  stress. 


Aachen  (ach'en),  84. 
Aarg-au  (ar-gau'),  851. 
Abbot,  term  explained,  51. 
Abdul-Hamid  II  (ab-dool-ha-med') , 

_  r.0o. 

Ab'e-lard,  Peter,  274,  278. 

Absentee  landlords,  772. 

Absolution,  147. 

Absolutism,  in  government,  defined, 
25;  in  England  under  Norman 
kings,  166;  under  Tudors,  306; 
and  Stuarts,  424  if. ;  growth  of,  in 
France,  195,  302;  in  Spain,  319, 
390;  general,  in  sixteenth  century, 
324;  decline,  see  Liberalism;  sur- 
viving in  Europe  in  Albania  and 
Montenegro,  885;  vanishing  even 
in  Asia,  904-906. 

Abyssinia,  Italy  in,  825. 

Accident  Insurance,  see  Social  In- 
surance. 

Act  of  Settlement  (English),  456. 

Act  of  Supremacy  (English),  374. 


Act  of  Union  (England  and  Scot- 
land), 463. 

Adelheid  (ad'el-heit),  207. 

A'dri-an,  Pope,  225. 

Ad-ri-an-6'ple,  Visigoth  victory  at, 
40 ;  reoccupied  by  Turks  in  1913,  884. 

Adriatic  Sea,  dividing  line  between 
Greek  and  Latin  cultures,  11,  42. 

Aeschylus  (gs'ki-lus),  644. 

Af-g-Tzan-is-tan',  888. 

Africa,  prosperity  under  Rome,  12 ; 
Moors  in,  63,  67;  Europe  expands 
into,  886,  887.  See  Algeria,  Egypt, 
etc. 

Ag-incourt  (aj'in-kort,  or  Fr.t 
a-zhan-koor'),  battle  of,  300. 

Agriculture,  monastic,  in  7th  cen- 
tury, 51;  in  Charlemagne's  day, 
85;  in  Age  of  Feudalism,  134;  Mo- 
hammedan, in  Middle  Ages,  236; 
revolution  in,  in  England,  18th 
century,  658;  in  France,  806;  in 
Russia,  869. 


INDEX 


The  references  are  to  section*,  unless  othenrinr  in</i<-<itr<l 


Aistulf  (I'stQlf ) ,  73. 

Aix-la-Chapelle  (aks-la-sha-peT ) , 
Peace  of,  491. 

Al'ar-ic,  40. 

Albania,  Kingdom  of,  884. 

Albert  the  Great  (Albertus  Mag- 
nus), 280. 

Al-bl-gen's§s,  194. 

Alcuin  (iil'kwlu),  87. 

Al-e-man'ni  (ne),  36;  conquered  by 
Clovis.  ."•_'. 

Alexander  the  Great,  8. 

Alexander  VI,  Pope,  314. 

Alexander  I,  Tsar,  and  Napoleon, 
611,  <L'l  ;  ami  Congress  of  Vienna, 
626;  ami  Holy  Alliance,  640  and 
note:  policy,  874. 

Alexander  II.  Tsar,  874. 

Alexander  III.  DMT,  *:i. 

Alexandria,  in  Egypt,  under  Rome, 
13,  14,18;  1 'atria  re-hate  of,  34;  con- 
quered by  Saracens,  63. 

Alfred  the  Great,  106;  reforms  of, 
107. 

Al-£§'ri-a.  and  France,  808. 

Al-ham'bra,  •_'.".<;. 

Allah,  explanation  of  term,  58. 

Al-phon'so  XII,  837. 

Alphonso  XIII,  837. 

Al-sace',  becomes  French  in  Thirty 
Years'  War,  411 ;  Prussian  demands 
for,  lii's ;  lost  by  France,  789. 

Alva,  Duke  of.  ."91. 

A-ma-de'6,  Prince,  835. 

America,  discovery,  343;  expansion 
of  Europe  into,  4<V4  ff . :  Spain  in, 
}•;.">:  France  in.  4<^i.  4<i7;  England 
in,  468-469:  ami  European  Wars  ,,f 
18th  century,  492,  494-497:  ami  the 
Holy  Alliance.  M.".;  and  the  Indus- 
trial Revolution.  <><>.V<;<>9;  and  de- 
mocracy, compared  with  English, 
750,  751 ;  and  world-politics,  889  ff . 

American  Revolution.  49S:  and 
Rousseau,  525 ;  and  French  Revolu- 
tion, 536;  and  English  reform,  745. 

Amiens  (iim-yan'),  Peace  of,  597. 

A-nam',  French  possession,  808. 

Ancient  History,  review  of,  1-91; 
t,-rm  explained.  .">!.  note. 

Andrea  del  Sarto,  335. 


Ang-elico,  Fra,  335. 

An'ge-vlns,  kings  of  England,  189. 

An'grles,  in  Britain,  101. 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  The,  166,  282, 
283. 

Anjou  (an'joo;  Fr.  6n-zhoo'),  167. 

Anne,  Queen  of  England,  456,  460. 

Anselm,  2±i. 

Antioch,  under  Rome.  14  :  ]>atriarch- 
ate  of,  34;  conquered  by  Sanu-ens. 
«».'i:  in  crusades,  245. 

Appian  Way,  the,  16. 

Apprentices,  in  Middle  Ages,  65. 

A-qui'no,  Thomas  of,  280. 

Aquitaine  (ii-k\\  i-tan'),  in  Memvin- 
-ian  Empire,  56;  English,  168,  'J'.U  ; 
\\on  back  by  France,  292,  300. 

Arabia,  before  Mohammed,  58.  See 
.S. »/•«/»••  //.  Moftnui iin'ifitiiism. 

Arabic  notation,  •_':;»;. 

Arbitration,  between  nations,  <»17. 

Arc.  J6an  of,  300. 

Archbishops,  origin,  34;  in  Middle 
\-es,  150  c. 

Architecture,  feudal,  111,  132;  Nor- 
man, 158,  165:   Mohammedan. 
Romanesque,  285 ;  Gothic,  285 ;  Ren- 
iii-saMec,  335. 

Ar'I-an-ism,  35;  adopted  by  Barbari- 
ans. :;:.  n 

A'ri-us,  35. 

Aristotle    (ar'Is-tSt-l),   authority   in 

Miildle   Ages.  27S. 

Arkwright,  Richard.  r,f.i. 
Armada,    Spanish,    3X7.    399;    and 

American  coloni/.ation,  465. 
Armor,  feudal,  li:>. 
Armaments,    increase    after    1870, 

Sl'O.  !M4. 

"  Armed  peace."  !M4. 
As'quith.  Prime  Minister,  897. 
Assize  of  Arms,  169,  184. 
As-tii'rl-a.  .-,19. 
Ath-an-a'si-us.  :i5. 
Ath'el-stane  the  Glorious,  108. 
A-the'ne,  Greek  goddess  of  wisdom, 

o. 
Athens,  duchy  of  (in  Middle  Ages), 

250. 
Augsburu,  Confession,    359;    Peace 

of,  359. 


INDEX 


The  references  are  to  sections,  unless  otherwise  indicated 


Augustinians  (friars) ,  347. 

Augustus,  Roman  emperor,  22. 

Aus'ter-litz,  battle  of,  609. 

Australia,  becomes  English,  498; 
Commonwealth  of,  784. 

Aus-tra'si-a,  56. 

Austria,  duchy,  seized  by  Hapsburgs, 
315 ;  head  of  Holy  Roman  Empire, 
318;  and  Turks,  320;  and  Nether- 
lands, 323,  477 ;  and  North  Italy, 
477;  and  Frederick  the  Great,  491, 
493;  and  Napoleon,  592  ff. ;  Empire 
of,  617;  and  Congress  of  Vienna, 
626  ff . ;  see  Metlernich ;  and  Revo- 
lution of  1848,  706-709  ;  composite 
nature  of  Empire,  707;  crushes 
Hungary,  709;  crushes  attempts  at 
German  unity,  712 ;  and  Bismarck, 
730  ff.;  Danish  War,  731;  Six 
Weeks'  War,  732-733;  expelled 
from  Germany,  733  b.  See  Austria- 
Hungary. 

Austria-Hungary,  creation  of  dual 
state,  827;  government,  828;  race 
question  in,  829 ;  manhood  suffrage, 
832 ;  kulturkampf ,  832. 

Austrian  Succession,  War  of,  491, 
492. 

Autun  (o-tiin'),  18. 

Avars,  82. 

Avignon  (a-ven-yon'),  Papacy  at, 
311,  312. 

Babylonian  Captivity  of  the 
Church,  311,  312. 

Babylonians,  civilization  of,  2,  3. 

Bacon,  Francis,  389;  quoted  on 
schoolmen,  279. 

Bacon,  Roger,  281 ;  and  circumnavi- 
gation of  the  globe,  343. 

Bagdad,  66. 

Balance  of  Power,  470;  wars  to 
maintain,  473  ff. 

Balkan  States,  878  ff . ;  Turks  in, 
878;  first  three  to  win  freedom, 
879;  "Eastern  question,  "880;  Rus- 
sian-Turkish War,  881;  Balkan 
War,  884;  separate  states  to-day, 
885;  illiteracy,  ib.  See  Greece, 
Albania,  Bulgaria,  Montenegro, 
Roumania,  and  Servia. 


Balkan  Wars,  1912  and  1913,  884. 

Ball,  John,  295. 

Ballot,  adopted  in  England  in  1870, 

759. 
Barbarian  Invasions,  Scythians  in 

the  Ancient  world,  2;  Teutonic,  in 

4th  and  5th  centuries,  30-44 ;  in  9th 

century,  96  ff. ;  Norse,  98  ff. ;  Slavs 

and  Hungarians,  96,  97,  200,  201; 

Moors,  96;  Tartars,  in  Age  of  the 

Crusades,  252  ;  Turks,  238. 
Barbarossa,  Frederick,  224  ff . 
"  Barrack  emperors,"  the,  23. 
Bastille  (bas-teel'),  fall  of,  542. 
Battle,  Trial  by,  48. 
Bavaria,   conquered  by  Franks,  52, 

56;    stem   duchy  of  the  Germans, 

198.     See  Germany. 
Bayeux  (ba-oo')  Tapestry,  159. 
Beaumont  (bo'mont),  389. 
Bebel  (ba'bel),  822. 
Becket,  Thomas,  170,  175. 
Beet  sugar,  612. 
Belgium,  origin  as  a  separate  group 

of     provinces,     395;    annexed     to 

France,  591 ;   annexed  to  Holland, 

626 ;  Revolution  of  1830  in ,  653,  654 ; 

present  constitution,  845;  franchise 

reforms,    845;    kulturkampf,   846; 

and  War  of  1914,  847. 
Bellini  (bel-le'ne),  the,  335. 
Benedict,  Saint,  51 ;  Rule  of,  ib. 
Benefit    of    clergy,    151 ;    struggle 

over,  in  England,  170,  175. 
Benevolences,  306;  and  Charles  I, 

430. 

"  Benevolent  Despots,"  502. 
B§r'-gen,  a  station  of  the  Hansa,  270. 
Ber-lin',    and    Napoleon,    610;    and 

Revolution  of  1848,  710. 
Berlin,  Congress  of  (1878),  769,  882; 

(1884),  887. 
Ber-nard'      Saint,      of      Clairvaux 

(clar-vo'),  and  Crusades,  249;  and 

Abelard,  278. 
Bible,     Wyclif's     translation,     295; 

Valla's     Greek    Testament,     338; 

Erasmus'   Greek    Testament,   340; 

Luther's    German,  354;    restricted 

use  of,  in  English,  in  time  of  Henry 

VIII,  375. 


10 


INDEX 


The  reference*  are  to  flection*,  unit**  otherwise  indicated 


Bill  of  rights,  4.T<>;  and  results,  468, 
4.V.L 

Bills,  origin  of,  in  parliament,  298  (9). 

Bishop,  origin,  34;  in  feudal  age, 
ir.o  h. 

Bismarck,  Otto  von,  and  making  of 
Germans .  7J'.»  If.  :  and  kulturkampf, 
KI9;  and  German  colonies,  821 ;  and 
Socialism,  K22,  823. 

Black  Death,  the,  293. 

Black  Hole,  the,  at  Calcutta,  4 

Black  Prince,  the,  290,  29(5. 

Blanc,  Louis,  690,  692. 

BISn'Aelm,  battle  of,  476. 

Blois  (blwii),  190. 

Blucher  (blii'Ker)  627. 

Boccaccio  (bflk-kiit'ch6),  331. 

Boers,  and  England,  783. 

Bohemia,  added  to  Empire,  216 ;  and 
Hussites,  312,  313;  loses  duchy  of 
Austria  to  the  Hapslmr^-.  :;i">;  and 
Revidutii.ii  of  iMv  7«'7.  708;  after 
'4S.  s-Jil.  s-J7:  in  present  Dual  Kiiin- 
•  :«.m,  «•_".»,  830. 

Boleyn  (bool'ln),  Anne,  373. 

Bologna  (l>6-l6n'yii),  University  of. 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  ram.  594:  in 
Italy.  .V.rj.  .V.i:;:  in  K-ypt.  .V.«5: 
M\erthro\\>  Directory,  ")'.Ni.  See 
Napoleon  I. 

Boniface  VIII,  Pope,  307-309. 

Bordeaux  (bor-d6'),  18. 

BCr'gia  family,  314. 

Boroughs,  origin,  160,  161. 

Bosnia,  and  Austria,  831. 

Bosseney  (bds'ny),  pocket  borough, 
7i:i. 

Boston,  Fair  at,  in  the  time  of  Ed- 
ward 1,  200.  _ 

Boulanger  (hoo-loii-zha),  800. 

Boulogne  (boo-l6nO,  Napoleon  at, 
<k)!>;  and  Fulton,  667. 

Bourbons,  Royal  House  of,  402  ff . 

Boxers,  Chinese,  891. 

Boyne,  battle  of,  771. 

Braddock,  Campaign,  493,  note. 

Bretigny  (brfi-ten-ye"),  Peace  of,  289. 

Bright.  John,  766. 

Britain,  Saxon  conquest,  101;  slow, 
102;  a  Teutonic  laud,  103;  Chris- 


tianized, 70,  104;  union,  105;  Danish 
invasions,  106-108 ;  Alfred,  107;  be- 
comes England,  which  see. 

Bruce,  Robert,  181. 

Bru-n6t'to  La-tl'nl,  281. 

Buckingham,  Duke  of.  4'_><>,  431. 

Budget,  English,  of  I«t0l>,  8<W,  899. 

Bulgaria,  4'J,  L':>7;  conquered  by 
Turks,  320 ;  divided  by  accidents  of 
War,  878;  rising  of  '76,  881;  and 
Congress  of  Berlin,  882;  and  Bal- 
kan Wars  of  1912,  1913,  884. 

Bull,  papal,  term  explained,  150  d. 

Bundesrath  ( boon 'dfe-rat),  811. 

Bunyan,  John,  450. 

Burgundians,  3»>;  invasions  by,  41; 
conquered  by  Frank>.  ."._'. 

Burgundy,  Dukedom  of,  301. 

Byron,  Ix.rd,  on  Waterloo,  633;  and 
K  freedom.  »'44. 

By  zan'tlne  Empire,  see  Greek  Em- 
pire. 

Cabinet  government,  in  England, 

4.V.».  41  JO,  74'.).  7.-.O. 
Cade's  Rebellion,  ;{04,  note. 
Caesar.  Julius,  ID. 
Cahiers  (kii-ya'),  539. 
Calais  (kii-la'),  captured  by  England, 

recovered  by  France. 
Calendar,  origin  of  our,  2 ;  adoption 

of    Christian    era,    7i!    and    note; 

French  Revolutionary,  573  and  note. 
Ca-lIg'Q-la,  Emperor,  JJ. 
Ca'llphs,  t*i. 
Calmar,  Union  of.  I 
Calonne  (kii-lon'),  533. 
Calvin,  John,  365;   at  Geneva,  366; 

and  Servetus,  307. 
Calvinism,  .S02  ff . ;  distinction  from 

Lutheranism,    363;    branches,   308. 

See  Haf/nci/nts,  Presbiit?r'mni*m. 
Cambarc6res  (kam-bar-c6r-a'),  583. 
Cambon  (kom-bon).  "'7-v 
Campo-Formio.  Peace  of,  592.      — 
Canada,  Dominion  of,  784. 
Canals,  and  locks,  600. 
Canning,  and  the  New  World,  643. 
Canon  Law,  150  &. 
Ca-nSs'sa,    Henry  IV  at,  221;  and 

Bismarck,  819. 


INDEX 


11 


The  references  are  to  section*,  unless  otherwise  indicated 


Canterbury  Tales,  823;  quoted,  see 

Chaucer. 

Canton,  Swiss,  321. 
Capet  (ka-pa'),  190. 
Cape'tians,  tables  of,  191,  289,  402- 

407,  472,  527,  024,  680,  note. 
Capitalism,  056-661. 
Ca-pit'u-la/ries  of   Charlemagne, 

80. 

Car-bo-na'ri,  639. 

Cardinals,  College  of,  150  d,  218  «. 
Carlsbad  (karls'bat)  Decrees,  637. 
Car-no  t',  "  Organizer  of  Victory," 

578,  583. 

Carrier  (kil-re-a'),  581. 
Cartwright,  Edmund,  662. 
Cas'te-lar,  836,  840 ;  quoted  on  Spain 

Today,  842. 

Castile*  (kiis-teel'),  319. 
Castles,  medieval,  112. 
Catherine  II,  of  Russia,  485;  and 

Poland,  500. 

Catherine  of  Aragon,  326,  373. 
Catherine  of   Medici    (ma'de'-che), 

402,  403. 

Catholicism,  see  Church. 
Cavaignac  (ka-van-yak'),  580. 
Cavalier  Parliament,  452. 
Cavaliers,  443. 
Cavour  (ka-voor),  720  ff. 
Caxton,  William,  342. 
Celt,  term  explained,  101,  note. 
Centralization    in     government, 

defined,  25;  Roman,  25;  French  in 

1789,    516,    519;     Napoleon's,    599; 

French    after    1815,   646;   Russian, 

867. 
Chambord   (shon-bor'),   Count  of, 

1»5. 

Champagne  (sham-pan'),  190. 
Champlain,  466. 
Champs    de    Mars    (sholi  dgmar'), 

"  Massacre  "  of,  553. 
Charlemagne      (sharle'man),      77; 

wars,  78-82;   and  Saxons,  79;  and 

Lombards,  80 ;  "  King  of  Italy,"  80 ; 

union  of  German  peoples,  81 ;  and 

Slavs,  82;  and  Roman  Empire,  83; 

civilization  in  his  age,  83-85;  gov- 
ernment,   86;    and    learning,    87; 

place  in  history,  88;  death,  92. 


Charles  I,  of  England,  427-446. 

Charles  II,  449,  453. 

Charles  V  (the  Wise),  of  France, 
292. 

Charles  VII,  300,  301. 

Charles  VIII,  and  Italy,  325. 

Charles  IX,  and  St.  Bartholomew, 
403. 

Charles  X.  647  ff. 

Charles  IV,  Emperor,  and  Golden 
Bull,  316. 

Charles  V,  Emperor,  326;  inheri- 
tance, ib. ;  power,  327;  and 
Lutheranism,  354  ff . ;  wars,  357 ; 
abdication,  360. 

Charles  I,  of  Spain,  see  Charles  V, 
Emperor. 

Charles  II,  47(5. 

Charles  XII,  of  Sweden,  484. 

Charles  Albert,  of  Sardinia,  716  ff. 

Charles  Martel  (mar-teT),  57;  and 
Tours,  66. 

Charles  of  Anjou,  232,  325. 

Charles  the  Bold,  301. 

Charles  the  Fat,  95. 

Chartists,  in  England,  756. 

Chaucer,  quoted,  142,  348. 

Child  labor,  in  England,  680,  764. 

China,  trade  with  Roman  Empire, 
16;  war  with  Japan,  890;  "opening 
of,"  by  European  Powers,  891; 
Boxers,  ib. ;  Republic  of,  907. 

Chivalry,  141,  142. 

Christian  Era,  date,  72  and  note. 

Christianity,  and  Roman  Empire, 
33,  34.  See  Church. 

Church,  the,  organization  under 
Roman  Empire,  34;  doctrine  and 
heresies,  35;  affected  by  Teutonic 
Conquest,  44 ;  and  Roman  Law,  44 ; 
in  Middle  Ages  a  political  state, 
144;  clergy  and  laity,  145;  sacra- 
ments, 146,  147;  worship,  148; 
festivals,  148;  preaching,  149;  or- 
ganization, 150;  courts,  150;  coun- 
cils, 150  e ;  weapons,  152 ;  revenues, 
153;  priests,  155;  parish  church, 
155;  and  democracy,  156.  Decline 
in  tenth  century,  211;  Cluny  and 
reform,  212;  celibacy,  213;  and 
papacy,  see  Papacy.  Hussite 


12 


INDEX 

The  references  are  to  sections,  unit**  otherwise  indicated 


Heresy,  312 ;  at  close  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  314;  and  Protestant  Refor- 
mation, which  see.  The  Counter- 
Reformation,  369-372;  Council  uf 
Trent,  371;  Jesuits,  372;  religious 
wars,  373  ff . 

Church  of  England,  established, 
374-377;  under  Edward  VI,  379; 
persecution  by  Mary,  381-382;  re- 
stored by  Elizabeth,  386;  Presby- 
terian during  Civil  '  "War.  Ill: 
Episcopalianism  restored,  451 ;  and 
reform  after  rise  of  Method  U  in. 
461.462;  disestablished  in  Ireland, 
TiiS:  in  Wales,  8%,  902. 

Churchill,  Winston,  897;  quoted, 
886. 

Cid,  Song  of  the,  283. 

Cinque  (sank)  Ports,  267. 

Circuit  Judges,  in  England,  origin, 
17.'.  182. 

CIs-al'plne  Republic,  593.  till. 

Citeaux  (sl-to'),  Abbey,  51. 

Cities,  see  Towns. 

Clairvaux  (kliii 

Clement  VII.  I'..)"-.  S1L 

Clermont,  tin-.  M7. 

Clermont.  Council  at,  241. 

Clive,  Robert.  4 'jr.. 

ClotZnl'da. :>•_'. 

Clo'vis.  .-,-_•  :,i 

Cluny,  Monastery  of,  212. 

Cobden,  Richard.  7<*i. 

Code  Napoleon,  i>t)2. 

Coke,  Sir  Edward,   dismissed,  436. 

Colbert  (kol-tnV),  472. 

Col'et,  John,  :',:«i. 

Coligny  (ko-len-ye"),  403. 

CSl-i-se'um,  17. 

Co  16 'ni.  30. 

Columbus,  and  America,  31'J. 
844. 

Combat.  Trial  by,  48. 

Commendation,  114,  note. 

Commerce,  Roman,  1">,  1(5  ;  in  Dark 
Ages,  50,  135;  Mohammedan,  2W : 
growth  as  result  of  crusades,  255, 
2.-i6:  and  towns,  259  ff. 

Common  Law,  the  English,  172. 

Common  Pleas,  Court  of.  is-j. 

Commons,  House  of,  origin,  187. 


Com-mune'    of    Paris,    in    French 

Revolution,  569,  576,  585;   in  1871, 

791,  792. 

Compass,  invention  of,  281,  342. 
Compurgation.  Trial  by,  48. 
Concordat  of  Napoleon,  600. 
Concordat  of  Worms  (vormz)  .  __'_' 
Con-d6t-tl-er'i,  .LJ7. 
Confederacy  of  the  Rhine,  in  the 

.Middle  Ages,  27n. 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  under 

Napoleon.  'il7  :  and  reforms,  618. 
Congo  Free  State,  887. 
Conservatives,  an    English    party. 

753. 
Constance,  Council  of,  313;  Peace 

of,  226. 
Constantino,  Emperor,  and  Chris- 

tian:- 
Constantino  IV,  and  repulse  of  the 

Saracens,  C4. 
Constantino  VI.  M. 
Constantino    Palaeologus    (pa-le- 


Constantinople,   capital    of    Greek 

Kmpirv.    4.".;     repe;  .    ill  : 

patriarchate  of.  :>4  :  civilization  of. 

in  800,   *!>;    in    12th   century. 

threatened    by    Turks,    238,    320; 

captured,  320;   retained  by  Turks 

in  1913,  884. 
Continental  System,  of  Napoleon, 

618, 

Copenhagen,  bombardment  of,  612. 
Co-per'nl  cus.  :.»:. 
Corneille  (kur-nu'y),  47'J. 
Corn  Laws,  Repeal  of.  7in:. 
Correggio  (kor-Cd'jfl),  335. 
Corvee  (kor-va'),  513. 
Cotton  Gin.  i  ;•;::. 
Council  of  Blood.  :wi. 
Counter-Reformation,  369-372. 
County  Councils,  in  Englaml,  762. 
Coup  d'6tat  (ko.'-.le-tii'K  51H5,  note. 
Covenanters,  4-"8. 
Cranmer,     Archbishop,     375;      and 

Prayer  Book  and  Thirty-nine  Arti- 

cles. 379;  martyrdom,  382. 
Crecy  (kresVi).  battle  of.  2«.ii. 
Cretan  civilization.  •_'. 
Crete,  and  the  Turks,  883. 


INDEX 


13 


The  references  are  to  sections,  unless  otherwise  indicated 


Cri-me'an  War,  703;  and  Italy,  720. 

Croats  (kro'ats),  707. 

Crompton,  Samuel,  661. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  439, 440, 441 ;  and 
Civil  War,  443-446;  strife  with 
parliament,  446 ;  and  Rump,  447 ; 
Protectorate,  448;  and  religious 
toleration,  449. 

Crusades,  conditions,  238  ff. ;  and 
pilgrimages,  240;  and  Urban,  241; 
motives  for,  242 ;  story  of,  243  ff . ; 
preliminary  movements,  243;  1st, 
244  ff . ;  Latin  States  in  Syria,  246 ; 
continuous  movement,  248 ;  2d  and 
3d,  249;  4th,  250;  later,  251;  cause 
of  decline,  253 ;  results,  254-258. 

Curia  Regis,  182. 

Curials,  28. 

Custozza  (koos-t5d'za),  battle  of, 
716. 

Czechs  (cheks) ,  829. 

Da-guer'ro-type,  669. 

Dane'law  (or  Danelagh),  108. 

Danish  War,  731. 

Dante  (dan'tg),  331. 

Danton  (d5n-ton') ,  564,  569-572,  575, 
576,  586. 

"  Dark  Ages,"  denned,  272. 

Darwin,  Charles,  752. 

De-cam'§-ron,  331. 

Democracy,  see  Liberalism. 

Denmark,  Empire  in  llth  century, 
157 ;  later,  322 ;  and  Napoleon,  620 ; 
and  Congress  of  Vienna,  cession  of 
Norway,  626;  historical  review, 
856;  constitution  in  1866,  857;  co- 
operation in,  858. 

Derby  (dar'by),  Lord,  757. 

De-si  de'rl-us,  80. 

Desmoulins,  Camille  (da-moo- 
lail'),  541,  586. 

Diaz  (de-as'),  Bartholomew,  343. 

Diderot  (de-dro'),  523. 

Diocese,  Roman,  25;  ecclesiastical, 
150. 

Di-o-cle'tl-an,  Emperor,  25;  edict 
on  prices,  29. 

Directory,  the,  and  Napoleon,  591- 
596 ;  overthrow,  596. 

"  Disestablishment "  of  the  Eng- 


lish Church,  in  Ireland,  768;  in 
Wales,  894,  902. 

Disraeli  (diz-ra'li),  Benjamin  (Lord 
Beaconsfield),  753,  757,  758  ;  "Jin- 
go "  ministry  of,  769. 

Dissenters,  recover  political  rights, 
746. 

"Divine  Right,"  theory  of,  and  the 
Stuarts,  424,  426. 

Doff  ing-en,  battle  of,  270. 

Domesday  Book,  166. 

Domestic  system,  in  manufactures, 
418,  671. 

Do-mm'I-cans,  230. 

"  Do-nothing  Kings,"  53. 

Drake,  Sir  Francis^398,  399. 

Dumouriez  (doo-moo-re-a/),  574. 

Duns  the  Scot  (Scotus),  280. 

Dupleix  (du-pla'),492. 

Diirer,  Albert,  335. 

Dutch  Republic,  see  Holland  and 
Netherlands.  Independence  rec- 
ognized, 411. 

East  Anglia,  101. 

East  Goths,  46. 

Eastern  Empire,  see  Greek  Empire. 

E'bro,  80. 

Edessa,  249. 

Edgar  the  Peaceful,  108. 

Edward  I,  of  England,  181;  and 
judiciary,  182-183;  and  feudalism, 
184 ;  and  parliament,  185-186. 

Edward  II,  deposed,  188. 

Edward  III,  287-292. 

Edward  VI,  379. 

Edward  VII,  899. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  158. 

Egbert  of  Wessex,  105. 

Egypt,  ancient  civilization,  2,  3;  Na- 
poleon in,  595;  English  protecto- 
rate, 781. 

Eidvold  (id 'volt),  Diet  of,  859. 

Ein-hard  (in'hart),  77. 

Electoral  College  (of  the  Holy  Ro- 
man Empire),  316. 

Eliot,  Sir  John,  429-434. 

Elizabeth,  of  England,  384-389. 

Elizabeth,  of  Russia,  485. 

Emmett,  Robert,  773. 

Ems  Dispatch,  the,  736 ;  note. 


14 


INDEX 

The  referenced  are  to  sections,  unless  othencixe  indicated 


Employers'  Liability,  in  England, 
7i>"),  and  elsewhere. 

Emigrants,  French,  547. 

Enclosures,  see  Inclosures. 

England,  see  Britain.  Part  of  Knut's 
Empire,  157;  first  Norman  inrlu- 
ence,  158;  Norman  Conquest.  1.".'.': 
Saxon  local  institutions,  160;  Saxon 
feudalism,  162;  Norman  centrali/a- 
tion,  163;  Norman  feudalism,  K'.l: 
results  of  theConniu-t.  Ui5;  Domes- 
day census,  !»•»>:  Norman  kings, 
liKJ;  anarchy  of  Stephen's  reiirn. 
166;  Henry  II,  167  ff. ;  French  pos- 
sessions, 168;  assize  of  arms.  ir>'.»: 
and  English  courts,  172:  Common 
Law,  172;  jury  trial.  17:!;  grand 
jury,  174;  Henry  and  the  Great 
Council.  17«i:  Richard  I,  177 :  .John. 
178-180;  Magna  Cart  a.  179:  under 
Henry  III,  180;  Edward  I,  1S1  IT.: 
al  system,  is-j-is:;:  decay  of 
fi-ndalism,  184;  and  the  long-bow, 
1*1:  ami  parliament,  ls.--l.s7:  and 
representative  government. 
growth  of  parliament's  p..\\ei 
under  Edward  III,  287  ff. :  Hundn-.l 
Year>'  War.  2X7  If.:  l',la<-k  Death, 
•_'!>:>;  disappearance  of  villeinage. 
•-".'4-297;  peasant  risin-  ,,f  i::-.n. 
297:  power  of  parliament  under 
Lancastrians,  'J9S-29H:  Wars  of  the 
Roses,  304-305 ;  "  New  Monarchy  of 
the  Tudors,"  306;  the  Reformat  inn 
in,  372  IT.;  under  Kli/abeth.  :W4  ff.; 
and  Catholic  Europe,  387;  the  Ar- 
mada, 387,  399;  Puritanism  in, 
388  ff.;  Elizabethan  Renaissance, 
389;  and  the  Dutch  Republic,  398; 
summary  for  1450-1600,  413  ff. :  in- 
closures,  415;  rise  of  towns,  41.~>. 
41<>;  manufactures  and  trade.  41(1, 
417;  Puritanism.  420-422:  political 
condition  under  the  Tudors.  42:1: 
under  James  I,  and  Charles  1, 424  IT. : 
the  world's  hope,  425 ;  struggle  be- 
tween Parliament  and  James,  42i>. 
427;  Charles  and  his  early  Parlia- 
ments. 428-433;  Petition  of  Right. 
429:  11  years  of  "  No  Parliament," 
435;  Long  Parliament,  439  ff. ;  Civil 


War,  442-445 ;  Commonwealth,  447 ; 
Protectorate, 448;  Restoration.  ir.». 
452;  James  II.  455  ff . ;  Revolution 
of  1G8X,  4.V.,  4.")ii:  results.  458  ff . ; 
ministerial  government,  4<X);  the 
early  Georges,  4<50;  society  in  1Mb 
century.  4<il  :  expansion  to  Great 
Britain.  4U3:  in  America.  4tiS--lti'.i : 
and  in  isth  century  wars.  47">-477. 
492-497;  loss  of  American  colonies. 

•I  wai>  nf  the  Freud, 
lution  and   Napoleon,  67 
608  ff. ;  Napoleon's  Continental  As- 
tern,  61l':     Napoleon's    only    oppo- 
nent. <;_'0;    victory  over   Napoleon. 

\\  gains  in  1814,626;  protests 
against  Holy  Alliance  at  Troppau, 
i;i"  :  ehucks  attempt  of  Holy  Alli- 
ance upon  Spanisli  Ann-He 
and  Industrial  Revolution.  <  : 
review  of  18th  century  reaction. 
741-748;  pocket  boroughs.  741'.  74:'.: 
attempts  at  reform  to  l*r>.  71V 
reaction  from  17'.'-  to  Waterloo. 
74<i;  penal  code  and  reform.  74<i : 
poliiical  rights  restored  to  !• 
en,  746;  R.-form  bill  of  1882,  747. 
748,  74'.i ;  ministerial  government 
conlirineil.750;  English  and  Ameri- 
can democracy,  751  :  Victorian  A  .re. 
7.VJ  IT. :  political  leaders 
tion  for  extension  of  francliise. 
7:.4  ff. :  Chartists,  756 ;  It.-form  bill 
of  IN 57.  7.Y7;  of  1884,  7r,S ;  ballot, 
civil  service,  etc.,  759 ;  local  govern- 
ment  reform,  7o()  ff. :  in  towns.  7(11  : 
rural  units.  7ti'J:  social  reform  in 
19th  century,  763  ff . ;  factory  re- 
form. 7ii4  :  corn  law  repeal,  7M  ;  free 
trade,  767;  Gladstone's  ministry  of 

>74  (schools,  disestablish- 
ment, etc.),  768;  Disraeli's  Jingo 
ministry,  '74-'.SM.  7<i'.':  England  and 
Ireland.  771  ff. :  Home-Rule  strug- 
gle, 774:  colonial  empire.  7" 
self-government  in.  7S2  IT. :  colonial 
federation.  7<S4 :  imperial  federa- 
tion. 7S.">:  2<>th  century  and  social 
reform.  S94 :  Welsh  disestablish- 
ment, 894.  !»(>•_>:  Irish  Home  Rule, 
ib. ;  new  liberal  leaders.  s'.i7 ;  "  war 


INDEX 


15 


The  references  are  to  sections,  unless  otherwise  indicated 


on  poverty,"  898;  "mending"  of 
the  Lords,  879,  900 ;  social  insur- 
ance, 901 ;  parliamentary  reform, 
902 ;  agitation  for  woman  suffrage, 
903 ;  alliances  of  the  New  Age,  915. 

English  language,  165. 

Ep'Ic-te'tus,  19. 

E-ras'mus,  339, 340 ;  and  Luther,  371. 

"  Estate,"  in  politics,  term  explained, 
187,  note. 

Estates  General,  French,  196;  see 
French  Revolution. 

Eth'el-red  the  Rede'less,  157. 

Evans,  Oliver,  inventor,  667. 

Eves'-bam,  battle  of,  180. 

Ex-arch'ate  of  Ra-v§n'na,  46. 

Ex-ch§q'uer,  Court  of,  182. 

Ex'com-mu-nl-ca'tion,  72,  note,  152, 

Factory  System,  656-681;  factory 
reform,  763,  764. 

Fairs,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  260  and 
note. 

Falconry,  139. 

Falkirk,  battle  of,  184. 

Falkland,  Lord,  440. 

Fenians,  774. 

Ferdinand,  of  Aragon,  319,  326. 

Ferdinand  VII,  of  Spain,  638,  834. 

Ferdinand,  of  Naples,  641. 

Feudal  aids,  125. 

Feudalism,  product  of  anarchy,  109, 
110;  castles,  111;  armor,  112,  113; 
origin  of  classes,  114;  fiefs,  114; 
origin  of  feudal  privileges,  115;  de- 
centralization, 116,  126;  and  eco- 
nomic conditions,  118 ;  good  side  of, 
117;  theory  and  practice,  120; 
hereditary  classes,  121 ;  homage, 
122;  obligation  of  vassal,  123-125; 
of  lords,  126;  private  wars,  128; 
and  the  workers,  129;  life  in  feudal 
times,  132  ff.;  manor,  132,  133; 
agriculture,  134 ;  life  in  castles,  137 ; 
tournament,  138;  falconry,  139.; 
feasting,  140;  chivalry,  141 ;  morals 
under,  143;  undermined  by  cru- 
sades, 256-258;  decline  in  England 
after  Wars  of  the  Roses,  306. 

Feudal  reliefs,  125. 

Fiefs,  114. 


Finland,  Swedish,   485;   part  seized 

by  Russia,  485 ;  rest  ceded  to  Russia, 

626;   attempts  to  Russianize,  873; 

Diet  of  1907,  873;  and  woman  suf- 

•  frage,  873. 

Fitch,  John,  inventor,  667. 

Florence,  and  the  iMedici,  268. 

For'tes-cue,  Sir  John,  299,  414. 

Fourier  (fou-ri-a'),  684. 

France,  rise  of  Capetians,  190; 
growth  of  territory,  194;  growth  of 
kingship,  195 ;  and  Hundred  Years' 
War,  300;  growth  completed,  301; 
growth  of  despotism,  302;  leader- 
ship, in  Europe,  303  ;  wars  of  Fran- 
cis I,  328,  357;  in  Italy,  325;  aban- 
dons Italy  for  expansion  toward 
Rhine,  361 ;  religious  wars  in,  402- 
404;  prosperity  under  Henry  IV, 
405-406^;  under  Richelieu,  407 ;  and 
Thirty  Years'  War,  407,  408 ;  gains 
in,  411;  under  Louis  XIV,  472-479; 
seizure  of  territory,  473 ;  revocation 
of  Edict  of  Nantes,  474 ;  intellectual 
leadership,  479  ;  and  wars  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great,  492  ff . ;  in  America, 
466,  467 ;  wars  for,  492-494 ;  loss  of 
America,  496.  See  French  Revolu- 
tion and  Napoleon.  After  1814, 
charter,  646 ;  and  Charles  X,  647  ff . ; 
struggle  against  despotism,  648  ff . ; 
Revolution  of  1830,  649  ff . ;  Louis 
Philippe,  652;  liberal  constitution, 
652;  reaction  of  Revolution  upon 
Europe,  653,  654;  Orleans  mon- 
archy, 686-688;  overthrown  by 
Revolution  of  1848,  689  ff . ;  influ- 
ence of  industrial  revolution  upon, 
690;  national  workshops  in  '48, 
694;  overthrown,  696;  Louis  Napo- 
leon, 697  (see  Louis  Napoleon)  • 
Franco-Prussian  War,  735  ff.;  Third 
Republic,  786;  close  of  war,  786- 
787;  peace,  789;  loss  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  789  ;  struggle  with  Paris 
Commune,  791-792 ;  attempts  to  re- 
store monarchy,  793-798;  presi- 
dency of  Thiers,  794 ;  of  MacMahon, 
795;  the  Constitution,  796-798; 
Republicanism  victorious,  799-800; 
France  to-day,  801  ff . ;  stability  and 


16  INDEX 

The  references  are  to  sections,  unless  otherwise  indicated 


progress,  801;  kulturkampf,  802; 
local  government,  803 ;  administra- 
tive courts,  804;  schools,  805;  ad- 
vance in  industry,  806;  wealth  and 
its  distribution,  807;  colonies,  808 ; 
recent  international  relations,  914- 
915. 

Francis  I,  of  France,  328.  357 ;  can- 
<ii«late  for  imperial  crown,  326. 

Francis  II.  of  Austria,  <»17. 

Francis  Joseph,  Emperor,  708. 

Francis.  Saint.  2:  so. 

Franciscans,  2-'50. 

Fran-c5'nl-ans  (Austrasians) ,  198, 
190. 

Frankfort  Assembly,  of  '48,  711. 

Franks,  W;  rise  and  conquests,  52; 
Empire  in  7th  century,  53-55;  re- 
stored by  Pippin  of  Heristal,  55. 
See  Charlemagne,  Francf. 

Frederick  I  (Barbarossa),  of 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  224;  and 
Lombard  League,  226;  place  in 
history.  227  ;  :kl  crusade,  227,  249. 

Frederick  II,  231;  and  the  Popes, 
232:  and  crusades.  231,  251. 

Frederick  I,  of  Prussia,  490. 

Frederick  II  (the  Great),  471-491; 
and  Poland,  500;  true  greatne- 
501 :  type  of  1». •netu-ent despots,  502. 

Frederick  III,  817. 

Frederick  of  Saxony  (the  Wise), 
854. 

Frederick  William  (Great  Elector), 
180. 

Frederick  William  I,  of  Prussia, 
491. 

Frederick  William  IV,  710  ff. 

French  Revolution  of  1789,  503  ff . ; 
a  true  revolution,  503  ;  abuses  lead- 
ing to,  504  ff. ;  government's  need 
of  money,  511;  taxation,  512-515; 
abuses  of  government,  516,  517 ;  the 
men  of  ideas,  519-525 ;  and  American 
Revolution,  525;  attempts  at  reform, 
530-533;  States  General,  524,  537  ; 
becomes  National  Assembly,  538; 
Tennis  Court  Oath,  539;  Bastille, 
541,  542;  middle-class  organization, 
544;  "August  4"  —  abolition  of 
privilege,  545,  547;  March  of  the 


Women  ;  Assembly  and  King  at 
Paris,  547 ;  mob  and  clubs,  548, 549,- 
parties  in  Assembly,  550  ;  flight  of 
Louis,  552  ;  Constitution  of  1791, 
554-559;  landed  peasantry,  559; 
Legislative  Assembly,  560  ;  parties 
in,  561;  foreign  perils,  562;  atti- 
tude toward  war,  563;  mob  in  the 
Tuileries,  565;  foreign  invasion. 
567;  Brunswick's  proclamation. 
567 ;  deposition  of  Louis,  568  ;  Sep- 
tember massacres,  569  ;  "at  \var 
with  kings,"  570  ;  Republic  de- 
clared, 571 ;  Convention  of 
570  ff. ;  Constitution  of  Year  I,  573; 
aristocratic  treason,  574;  Giron- 
dists and  Jacobins,  575,  576;  Gi- 
ronde  Rebellion.  577:  Committee  of 
Public  Safety,  57* ff. :  "Terror," 
581,  582:  constructive  work,  583; 
fall  of  Jacobins,  584 ;  end  of 
' '  Terror, "  588 ;  Directory,  589-5'. N  ; : 
Consulate,  598-599.  See  Napoleon. 

Freya  (fra'ya),  37. 

Friars,  230. 

Froiss'art,  on  Crecy,  290;  on  John 
Hall.  29.V 

Fulton,  Robert,  inventor,  667. 

Ga-belle',  514. 
Gal  i-le'o,  345. 
Gam-bet'ta  (Fr.,  gSn-bfit-ta'),  787, 

797. 

Gar-i-bal'di,  725. 
Ge-mul'lus,  17. 

Genghis  Khan  (jen'jlskan),  252. 
Gen'o-a,  Ligurian  Republic,  593,  614; 

added  to  Sardinia.  li'Jii. 
Geoffrey  of  Anjou.  1<,7. 
George  I  and  II,  of  England,  456, 

MO. 

George  III,  745. 
George  IV.  747. 
George  V,  899. 
George.  LZoyd,  894.  8%,  898. 
Geographical    Discoveries,    343, 

:U4. 

Gerbert  (Pope  Sylvester  II),  215. 
German  Diet.  310,  :U7.  411. 
German  Empire,  see  North  German 

Confederation;  growth  of  Prussia 


INDEX 


17 


The  references  are  to  sections,  unless  otherwise  indicated 


after  1848, 727-734 ;  Franco-Prussian 
War,  736  ff. ;  Empire  established, 
739;  militarism,  740,  816;  federal 
character,  809  ;  constitution,  810- 
814  ;  Prussia  in,  815  ;  paternalism, 
816,  818;  the  rulers,  817;  kultur- 
kampf ,  819 ;  army,  820  ;  trade  and 
colonies,  821 ;  socialists  in,  822  ; 
state  socialism,  823 ;  recent  foreign 
relations,  914,  915. 

Germanic  Confederation,  634-337. 

Germany,  before  Napoleon  "stems" 
in  900, 198 ;  elective  kingship,  197  ff. ; 
Henry  the  Fowler  and  Hungarian 
raids,  199;  Otto  I,  201;  expansion 
into  the  Slav  East,  202 ;  kingship, 
of  the  10th  century,  203 ;  and  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  208  ff. ;  decline  of 
German  kingship,  223,  234.  See 
Holy  Roman  Empire.  Reformation 
in,  346-355;  Peasant  War,  356; 
Thirty  Years'  War,  and  since,  408- 
411;  Germany  in  1800,  615;  and 
Napoleon's  consolidations,  616  ; 
social  reform  in,  618;  in  Prussia 
(Stein),  619;  and  Congress  of 
Vienna,  626,  634.  See  Germanic 
Confederation,  North  German 
Confederation,  German  Empire, 
and  Prussia. 

Ghibelline  (jib'el-lin),  228. 

Gibraltar,  siege  of,  498. 

Gilds,  Roman,  29;  medieval,  265; 
model  for  university  organization, 
274;  abolished  in  'England,  418; 
restrictions  on  labor  in  France  in 
1780,  509;  abolished,  530. 

Giorgione  (jorzh-i-o'ne),  335. 

Giotto  (jot'to),  335. 

Girondists,  561,  563,  571,  572,  575-577. 

Gladstone,  William  E.,  753  ff.; 
reform  ministry  of  '67-'74,  768 ;  and 
Ireland,  770,  778,  779;  foreign 
policy,  781. 

Goethe,  607. 

Golden  Bull,  316. 

Golden  Horde,  252. 

"  Good  Parliament,"  the,  298. 

Gothenberg  (go' ten-ben;)  system, 
8(53. 

Goths,  36. 


Gra-na'da,  319. 

Grand  Jury,  origin  of,  174. 

Great  Interregnum,  in  Germany, 
234. 

Greece,  Ancient:  geography  and 
character,  4 ;  contributions  to  civ- 
ilization, 5,  6;  limitations,  7;  and 
Persians,  8.  Modern:  Revolution 
of  1821  in,  644;  and  war  of  1878, 
882 ;  war  With  Turkey  in  1897,  883  ; 
in  1912,  884.  See  Balkan  states. 

Greek  Church,  71. 

Greek  Empire  (Byzantine  or  East- 
ern Empire) ,  45 ;  keeps  part  of 
Italy,  46 ;  culture  in  time  of  Charle- 
magne, 89;  in  12th  century,  237; 
threatened  by  Turks,  238 ;  and  cru- 
sades, 238;  4th  crusade  and  Latin 
Empire,  250;  restoration  of  Greek 
Empire,  250;  overthrown  by  Turks, 
320. 

Greek  fire,  64. 

Greek  language,  recovery  of,  333. 

Gregory  the  Great,  Pope,  70. 

Gregory  V,  215. 

Gregory  VII  (Hildebrand,*  which 
see),  219,  220,  221;  and  Norman 
Conquest  of  England,  165,  note. 

Gregory  XI,  311. 

Gregory  of  Tours  (toor),  quoted, 
52. 

Grmde'cobbs,  297. 

Guelf  (gwglf),  228. 

Guiscard  (ges-ciir'),  Robert,  2186. 

Guise  (^ez),  402. 

Guizot  (£e-zo'),  687,  6*8,  691. 

Gunpowder,  invention,  290,  342. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  Thirty 
Years'  War,  409. 

Gustavus  Vasa  (va'sa),  322. 

Gutenberg  (goot'en-bero),  John, 
342. 

Haskon  VII,  861. 

Habeas  Corpus,  452. 

Hadrian,  Emperor,  on  Alexandria, 

14. 

Hadrian.  Pope,  72. 
Hague  Congresses,  917. 
Hampden,  John,  431,  436,  439,  442, 
445. 


INDEX 


'/'//»•  >•>/••/•'  tiff*  are  to  section*,  un/?**  nthtririxe  im/ii'<iff<l 


Han-se  at'ic  League ,  270. 
Hapsburg    (haps'boorc),    Rudolph 

of,  3ir>,  318. 
Hapsburgs,  Spanish  and  Austrian, 

361. 

Hargreaves,  James,  inventor,  661. 
Harold  the  Saxon,  158,  l.v.i. 
Harold  Hardrada.  inn. 
Hia-roun'  al  Raschid,  99. 
Harvey,  William,  and  discovery  of 

circulation  of  the  blood,  389. 
Hastings,  battle  of,  159. 
Hubert  (a-ber'),  507. 
Hebrews,  religion,  3. 
He-gl'ra.  <U. 
Heims'kring-la 
Henry  I.  of  England,  166. 
Henry  II,  1(17-17.".. 
Henry  III,  180. 
Henry  IV. 
Henry  V,  298,  300. 
Henry  VI.  300. 
Henry  VII,  305,  306;  and  Columbus, 

MS. 

Henry  VIII,  :'>73  ff. 
Henry  II,  of  France,  .UKI. 
Henry  IV  (Navanv),  4o:J-M5. 
Henry  I,  of  Germany  (the  Fowler). 

!'.»'.>,  200. 
Henry  III,   of  the  Holy  Roman 

Empire,  •_'!<;. 
Henry    IV,  and    investiture  strife, 

UA-an. 

Henry  the  Navigator,  343. 

Her'mes.  .">. 

Ho-r6d'o-tus,  (>. 

Herzegovina  (he"rt-se-g<>-ve'nii ).  ;i« - 

quired  by  Austria.  s:;i,  880. 
Hesse  Darmstadt  (diirm'stiit),  635. 
Hildebrand,  217;   papal  counsellor. 

21S;   <;>•('!/<>/•  it  VI,  which  see. 
Hohenlinden  (ho-Sn-lIii'den),  battle 

of,  51)7. 

Ho-Aen-stauf'en,  224  IT. 
Hohenzollerns         (hO-gn-tsoTerns), 

487  ff. 

Holbein  (hol-bln),  335. 
Holland,  see  Netherlands;  separate 

state,  395;  wins  wealth  during  war 

with  Spain,  396;   colonial  empire, 

ib.;   and  Louis  XIV,  473,  475;  de- 


cline, 496,  499 ;  Batavian  Republic, 
591;  and  Napoleon.  «>14:  made 
Kingdom  of  the  Netherlands  in  1814, 
i '••_'! i;  government  and  conditions, 

Hol'les,  4.™. 

Holy  Alliance,  640  ff . 

Holy  Roman    Empire,   revival   of 
Roman     Kmpire    in   800,    83  ;    con- 
trasted   with    Greek     Empire. 
"Holy,"  84;  lapsed,  205:  rotored 
by  Otto,  207 ;  character,  '_'<>'.  i :  ; 
and  emperors,  210,  'J11 :  strife  over 
investitures,   217-222:    tin-    Hohen- 
staufen,  224  ff . ;  decline,  234 ;  Great 
Interregnum.  234;  close,  617. 

Homage.  122. 

Huguenots  (hiVgc-nn'ts),  402  ff. ; 
Massacre  of  St.  Hart holomew,  403; 
led  by  Henry  of  Navarre.  4<>4; 
Edict  of  Nantes,  40T> :  ami  Richelieu. 
}(>7:  and  Louis  XIV.  474;  fu-i: 
in  England,  416. 

Humanists 

Hundred  Years'  War,  between 
Knglan.l  ami  Franee.  2S7-:»0. 

Hungarians,  raids,  5Xi.  '.»7;  checked 
by  Henry  I,  200;  ended  by  Otto, 
201.  See  Hn/tc/ary. 

Hungary,  see  Jlm/i/nri'ins :  added 
temporarily  to  the  Empire.  2.V. : 
and  Turks,  320;  a  Hapsburg  prov- 
ince, 360;  in  '48,  707,  709;  and 
Holy  Alliance,  709;  to  1866,  827; 
see  Austria-Hungary. 

Hus.  John,  312,  313. 

Huxley,  scientist,  752. 

I-c6n-6-cl&s'tic  dispute,  71. 

Illiteracy,  in  Italy.  824:  Spain.  S41  : 
Portugal,  844;  Belgium,  846;  in 
Balkan  states,  885. 

Inclosures,  in  Tudor  period,  415 ;  in 
18th  century,  681. 

India,  English  dependency,  780. 

Indulgences.  348,  351. 

Industrial  Revolution,  656  ff. :  im- 
portance, 656;  conditions  before, 
t..">7  :  in  agriculture  in  England,  608, 
(i-V.i;  in  transportation,  660,  ^J7. 
668;  in  English  manufacturing, 


INDEX 


19 


The  references  are,  to  sections,  unless  otherwise  indicated 


661  ff. ;  steam  engine,  664;  in  iron, 
665;  age  of  steam  and  iron,  666; 
steamboat,  (567 ;  railroad,  668;  rev- 
olution in  manner  of  living,  670  ff. ; 
conditions  under  Domestic  system, 
671;  hardship  of  change,  672  ff . ; 
factory  system ,  673  ff . ;  growth  of 
cities,  678 ;  and  effect  upon  factory 
workers,  679;  child  labor,  630; 
landlord  England,  681;  revolution 
in  ideas  of  government,  682  if. ; 
socialism,  683  ff . ;  industrial  revo- 
lution in  France,  690. 

"Infantry,"  113. 

Initiative,  Popular,  in  law-making, 
855. 

Innocent  II,  Pope,  225. 

Innocent  III,  178,  194,  229. 

Inquisition,  370. 

Interdict,  152. 

Inventions,  in  Age  of  Renaissance, 
342  ;  sawmills,  657 ;  agricultural 
machinery,  659;  spinning  wheel, 
661 ;  spinning  and  weaving  (Indus- 
trial Revolution),  661,  662;  cotton 
gin,  663  ;  steam  engine,  664;  iron- 
working,  665;  steamboat,  667 ;  rail- 
way, 668;  miscellaneous,  669;  and 
America,  669 ;  in  recent  years,  bear- 
ing on  human  life,  909. 

Investiture,  strife  over,  220-222. 

Ireland,  schools  in  Dark  Ages,  272; 
and  England  ;  Henry  II,  168 ;  Henry 
VIII  and  Elizabeth,  388;  Catholi- 
cism and  patriotism,  388;  review  to 
1700,  771 ;  18th  century,  772 ;  rebel- 
lion of  '98,  773;  union  of  1800,  773; 
disorders,  774-775;  struggle  to  re- 
peal union,  777  ff. ;  disestablishment 
of  Episcopal  Church,  768 ;  land  re- 
forms, 775  ff. ;  Gladstone's  change 
of  front,  775 ;  victory  for  Home 
Rule,  894,  902. 

I-rene',  Empress,  71,  83,  84. 

Irish  famine,  776. 

Ir-ne'rf-us,  275. 

Isabella  of  Castile,  319,  343. 

Islam,  60. 

Italy,  divided  between  Teutons  and 
the  Empire,  46.  See  Papacy,  Lorn- 
bards,  and  Franks.  In  fragments 


in  10th  century,  206 ;  and  Germany, 
208  ff . ;  struggle  for,  between  Spain 
and  France,  325  ;  in  Renaissance, 
which  see;  loss  of  commercial  im- 
portance, 343;  and  Napoleon,  592, 
593,  614;  and  Congress  of  Vienna, 
626;  political  reaction,  630;  risings 
of  1821,  639,  641;  risings  of  1830, 
653,  654;  review  to  1815,  713-714; 
from  1815  to  1848,  715;  Mazzini 
and  Young  Italy,  715;  risings  of 
'48,  716 ;  restorations,  716 ;  making 
of  Italy  by  Sardinia,  718  ff . ;  Victor 
Emmanuel  and  Cavour,  719,  720; 
Crimean  War,  720;  Congress  of 
Paris,  721 ;  War  of  1869  with  Aus- 
tria, 703,  722;  steps  in  growth,  to 
"  Kingdom  of  Italy,"  722-726;  ad- 
dition of  Venetia,  732,  733 ;  of  Rome, 
826 ;  since  1870,  824  ff . 

I-tm'§r-ant  Justices,  172,  182. 

Ivan  (e-vau7)  the  Terrible,  481. 

Ivry,  battle  of,  404. 

Jac'5-blns,  549-561,  570-587. 

Jacquerie  (zhak-re'),  297. 

James    I,    and    Divine    Right,    424, 

426. 

James  II,  454,  455. 
Jan'Is-sa-ries,  320. 
Japan,  890 ;  war  with  China,  890 ; 

with  Russia,  892. 
Jemmapes    (zha-map'),    battle    of, 

570. 

Jena  (ya'nii),  battle  of,  610. 
Jenny,  the,  661. 
Jesuits,  372. 
Jews,  in  Russia,  866. 
J5an  of  Arc,  300. 
John,  of  England,  178-180. 
Joinville      (Fr.,     zhwan-veT),      64, 

117;    quoted,    140,    143,    149,    197, 

253. 

Joseph  II,  of  Austria,  522. 
Jourdan  (zhur-dan'),  594. 
Jugglers,  in  Middle  Ages,  138. 
Jury  trial,  origin  of,  173. 
Justice,    administration    in    Middle 

Ages,  171. 

Jus-tm'I-an  the  Great,  45. 
Jutes,  101. 


20 


INDEX 


The  references  are  to  sections,  unlt*s  othtrtri^f  indicated 


h,  59. 

Karl'mann,  74. 

Kas-so'va,  battle  of,  321. 

Khedive  (ke-dev'),  of  Egypt,  781. 

Kiau-chou  (kyou'-chou'),  821. 

Kief  (kei),  271. 

King  WUliam's  War.  47.1. 

King's  Bench,  Court  of,  origin,  182. 

Knighthood,  141 :  ideals,  142. 

Knights  of  St.  John,  247 ;  at  Rhodes, 
251  :  at  Malta.  4<M. 

Knights  Templar.  247. 

Knights,  Teutonic,  247. 

Knox.  John, 

Knut  the  Great,  157. 

Koniggratz  (koe-nek-grets'),  732. 

K6-ran'.  »io. 

K6s-ci-us'ko,  500. 

Kossuth  (kosh'oot),  709. 

K6t  ze  bue,  636. 

Kulturkampf.  in  France,  802;  Ger- 
many, -Sl'.i;  Italy.  826;  Austria,  832; 
Belgium,  sir,. 

Kwang-chau-wan,  891. 

Kyff'haus-er  Mountain,  227. 

Labor,  see  Serfdom,  Qildt,  Domestic 

System,      In<lnntrinl      l{<>r,,l<iti»n. 

f-'urtnri/  N//.v/<  ///,  Sin-jit!  Iiixiiruiirr. 
Lafayette  (lii-fa-yeV) ,  534,  5»5.  :.H. 

.-.17.  .M'.i-.v.i.  508,  563,  568. 
Laibach  (li'biiK),  Congress  of,  641. 
Laissez  faire   (le"sa  far'),  doctrine 

of,  6S2. 

La-ka-nal',  583. 

Lamartine  (Hi-raar-ten'),  687,  692  ff. 
Lancastrians,  table,  304. 
Landtag  (liint'tii*;).  si.'i. 
Langton.  Stephen,  179. 
Lan-gue-d6c',  283. 
La  SalZe,  4ii<i. 
Lassalle,  S-JL'. 
Latimer  Bishop.  a^2. 
Latin  States  in    Syria  (crusades), 

246  ff . 

Laud.  Archbishop,  437,  438,  439. 
Lawyers,  rise  of,  in  England,  183; 

and  universities,  277. 
Lavoisier  (la-vwa-zya'),  519. 
Lechfeld  (leK'feit),  battle  of,  201. 
Legnano  (Ia-uya'n6),  battle  of,  226. 


Leim'burG-Styr'um  =  Wil'helms- 

ddrf.  c,i.-i. 

Leipzig  (lip'slK),  battle  of,  622. 
Leo  X.  Pope,  350,  353. 
Leo  XIII.  802. 
Leo  the  Isaurian.  »>4,  7'J. 
Leonardo     (Ia-o-uiir'd5)     da  Vinci 

(rgn'cWO, 

Le-pan'to,  battle  of,  40. 
Lessing,  autlior.  til"). 
Letters  of  the  Seal.  r.17. 
Leuthen  (loi-ten),  battl.-  of. 
Lewes  (lii'&O,  battle  of,  180. 
Leyden  (li'dCn),  relief  of,  31  »4. 
Liaouyang  (le'ou-yang'),  battle  of, 

Liberalism,  in  England  in  17tli  i-t-n- 
tury.     4L'4-4tX):    in     l!»tli.     747  7:. I. 
754-768;  in  20th,  894-' W:  in  France, 
before  French  Revolution.  ;>! 
530;  see  French  /ft  >..(//,.,//.   ;itt.r 
Revolution,  in  1830, 649 «f.;  in  Third 
Republic.  7'.il-s<>l  :  in  (i»M-nian\ 
Socin li*in;    in    Italy,  i ;:;«».  i'41. 
654,  715,  716,  719,   720,  824   ff.  :    in 
Austria,  832;  in  Switzerland. 
854;   Belgium,  653,  654,  845;    N..r- 
way,  859-862;  Sweden,  8(>4  :  Ki. 
874,    875,  876;    in   2«ith   century   in 
Oriental  lands,  904-'. »»7. 

Liberal  party,  in  England,  753,  note. 

LIb'y-a 

Liebknecht  ('op'kmvht ).  822. 

LI  gQ'rl-an  Republic,  .v.i:;.  r,i4. 

LIm'er-ick.  Treaty  of,  771. 

L/oyd  George.  Hi>4,  8%.  898. 

Lollards.  2:1:..  ."12. 

Lombard  League,  22' i. 

Lombards.  :>»>.  4*1.  7.">. 

Long  Parliament.  4:5!>-440. 

Lords,  House  of,  and  Reform  Bill  of 
is: m.  7:.":   •'  mended,"  S'.U,  S'.»7-'.M). 

Lor-ram?,  197;  lost  by  France.  J 

L6-tha:r',  I,  Emperor,  93. 

Lotha'r'.  II.  22.'.. 

L6-thar-infir'I-ans,  198. 

Louis  the  Pious.  92. 

Louis  IX,  of  France,  195,  197;  and 
crusades,  251,  253. 

Louis  XI,  301-303. 

Louis  XIV,  470  ff. 


INDEX 


21 


The,  references  are,  to  sections,  unless  otherwise  indicated 


Louis  XV,  511,  517,  536. 

Louis  XVI,  527  ff . 

Louis  XVII,  624,  note. 

Louis  XVIII,  624,  646. 

Louis  Phl-llppe',  686  if. 

Louvre  (loo'vr),  3. 

L6-yo'la,  Ig-na'tius,  372. 

Luther,  Martin,  347;  and  indul- 
gences, 348;  theses,  349;  and  the 
pope,  350 ;  burns  papal  bull,  353 ;  at 
Worms,  354;  organizes  Lutheran 
Church,  355;  and  Peasant  War, 
356 ;  and  Zwingli,  362. 

Lutheran  Church,  355,  358,  359. 

Lut'zen,  battle  of,  409. 

Mac-Ma-fcon',  President  of  France, 
795. 

Madgeburg  (rnag'dg-boora),  266. 

Magenta,  battle  of,  703. 

Magna  Carta,  179. 

Magnetic  needle,  281,  342. 

Magyars  (mod'yorz),  829. 

Mahomet  the  Conqueror,  320. 

Mainz  (minz),  342. 

Malplaquet  (mal-plii-ka') ,  battle  of, 
47ii. 

Manchus  (man-chooz'),  dethroned, 
907. 

Manor,  feudal,  132;  life  in,  132-133; 
labor,  135;  court  of ,  136. 

Ma-ra£',  564,  575. 

Marengo,  battle  of,  597. 

Maria  TAe-re'sa,  491,  493. 

Marie  Antoinette  (an-twa-ne"t) , 
528  ff. 

Mark  states,  86,  200,  note. 

Marlborough,  Duke  of,  476. 

Marseillaise  (mar-sa-ye's')  Hymn, 
565. 

Marston  Moor,  battle  of,  443. 

Martin  V,  Pope,  313. 

Marx,  Karl,  (584. 

Mary  of  Burgundy,  323. 

Mary  Tudor,  373,  380-382. 

Mary  II,  of  England,  455. 

Mas  sll'I-a,  18. 

Matilda,  of  England,  166,  167. 

Mau-rl  ta'nl  ans,  67. 

Maximilian,  of  Austria,  318;  mar- 
ries Mary  of  Burgundy,  323. 


Maximilian,  Emperor  of  Mexico, 
704. 

Mayfields,  of  Charlemagne,  86. 

Mayors  of  the  Palace,  55. 

Mazzini  (mat-se'ne),  715,  720. 

Medici  (mad'e-che),  the,  268. 

Mel'Ich-ope  Manor  House,  132. 

Men-at-arms,  112. 

Mer-o-vm'gl-ans,  54. 

Methodists,  4<  52. 

Metric  system,  583. 

Metternich  (IIIK),  rule  of,  630  ff . ; 
character,  632 ;  in  '48,  705,  706. 

Metz,  became  French,  360;  lost  by 
.  France,  789. 

Michael  Angelo  (mi'ka-el  an'ja-lo), 
335. 

Middle  Ages,  defined,  329. 

Milton,  John,  450. 

Ministerial  government,  see  Cabi- 
net government. 

MIn'ne-sing'ers,  227,  283. 

Mirabeau  (me-ra-bo'),  540,  550,  551, 
262. 

MIs'si  Do-mm'i-ci,  86. 

Model  Parliament,  186. 

Modern  History,  51,  note. 

Mo-ham'med,  59  ff. 

Mohammedanism,  58  ff . ;  attacks  on 
Europe,  64;  on  Spain,  65;  repulsed 
at  Tours,  66;  later  character,  (57, 
236;  decline  after  appearance  of 
Turks,  238.  See  Turks. 

Moliere  (mo-lyar),  author,  479. 

MSlt'ke,  General  von,  731. 

Monarchic  States,  324. 

Monasteries,  51;  dissolved  in  Eng- 
land, 377. 

Money,  Roman,  drawn  to  the  Orient, 
31 ;  lack  a  cause  of  fall  of  Empire, 
30,  31 ;  lack  in  time  of  Charlemagne, 
85;  lack  a  cause  of  feudalism,  85, 
118;  increase  after  crusades,  256; 
presence  undermines  feudalism, 
257. 

Mont-ca'.Zm',  and  struggle  for  Amer- 
ica, 494. 

M6n-te-ne'gro,  879. 

M5n-tes-quleu',  author,  522. 

Mont'fort,  Simon  de,  180,  186. 

Moors,  term  explained,  67. 


INDEX 


The  references  are  to  sections,  unle**  othenrise  indi<'<ifr,l 


More,  Sir  Thomas,  339,  341;  mar- 
tyrdom, 378. 

Mo-rls'coes,  expelled  from  Spain, 
400. 

Morocco,  French  protectorate,  808. 

Morgarten,  battle  of,  321. 

"  Morton's  Fork,"  306. 

Mos  cov^7,  retreat  from,  621. 

Mukden  (mook'de'n),  battle  of,  892. 

Municipal  institutions,  under  Ro- 
man Empire,  13;  survival  in  Dark 
Agee,  H.  ."in. 

Mtt-rat',  59 ». 

Murillo  (moo-re'lyo),  335. 

Muskets,  iiitn.<lii,-ti.»ii  of,  409. 

Nantes,  Edict  of.  4o."i ;  revoked,  474. 
Naples,  University  of,  i»75.  _'7'i. 
Napoleon  I,  see  Bonaparte  to  1800  ; 
and  local  government,  0B9;  bnietits 

to  France,  (KXMkKi  ;  Emperor.  - 
plebiscites,    606;     despotism.    ti(>7 : 
\\ars.     tins  IT.  :     rearrangements    in 
Europe.    614-618;    greatest  power. 
620:     n-treat     from     Mos.-ow.    6-_'l  : 
Leipzig,   til"-':    at    Elba.    6-J4  :    tbe 
"Hundred    Days"  ami    Waterloo, 
6-_'7-r,L's  :  and   Fulton  at  Boul 
WT. 

Napoleon  II,  699. 

Napoleon  III,  Louis  Napoleo-.. 
Pre>ident.  ami   tin-  AsN,.nibly,  698; 
tbe    coup    d'etat,    699;    Emperor. 
699  IT.  :  "  Fran,-e  is  traii(|uil,"  701; 
economic  progress.  7»>-_';  war- 
704;   and  United  States.  7<>4  :  ami 
Mexico,  704;    and    Italy,  "Ll^iM  : 
and    I'.isinarek,   7.'>1,  736;    Franeo- 
rnis>iaii  \\'ar.  7.'i5  ff. 

Nar-b6nne',  18. 

Nar'va.  batile  of.  4S4. 

Nass'by.  battle  of.  443. 

Nas'sau.  added  to  Prussia,  (>35. 

National  Workshops,  French,  in 
'48,  694.  r«Ki. 

Nationality,  detim-d.  683, 

Na-var.re',  :;!<». 

Necker,  minister  of  finance,  531,  534, 
.-.41.  .V.I. 

Nelson.  Admiral.  .V.i.-). 

Netherlands,  to  1500, 323 ;  and  Spain, 


391-395 ;  relief  of  Leyden,  394 ;  and 
Louis  XIV,  47:?:  ami  Austria,  477: 
see  Belgium,  Dutch  Republic,  Hol- 
land. 

Neus'trl-a,  r.ti. 

"New  Monarchy,"  in  England,  in 
Tudor  times,  306. 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  r»i9. 

Nibelungrenlied  (ne'be'1-ung-e'u-let), 
283. 

Ni-cae'a,  Council  of 

Nice  (nes)  annexed   t<>    F ranee,  ."'.'I  : 
to    Sardinia,   (',-jti^;     r»- 
by  I-'rain'c.  7 

Ni  cens'  Creed. 

Nicholas  I.  oi  Ku-sia.and  K. -volution 
of  is:ai.  »;.-, i:  policy, 

Nicholas  II.  >7l. 

Nicholas  V,  Pope,  314;  and  the 
'  \.-\\'  Lt-arn;: 

Nihilists.  STJ. 

Nile,  battle  of,  f)9.'.. 

Nimes  (neins),  Aqueduct  at.  ]•_'. 

Nobility,  eontiiu-ntal  and  English, 
12L 

Norman  architecture.  !<;:>. 

Normandy,  founded.  KM),  ir.S;  influ- 
ence on    En.u'lanil  b.-lore  Itt^:. 
see  Etii/tii'tii.  \<>riii"n  <'»n<in<-xtof; 
lost  by  -lolin.  17>. 

Normans  in  Italy,  IMS. 

Norsemen,  %.  '.is  :  conquests.  W  ff. : 
\  rinandy,  100;  and  England, 
lixlff. :  results  of  invasions,  ins. 

Norway,  early  kin.us.  :V_"J  :   tributary 
to  Denmark!  3i"J ;  ceded  to  Sweden. 
»;•_'»;:     rebellion,    and     "union  "    of 
1814,859;  struggle  for  self-govern- 
ment, 860;  independent,  st',1  ;    con- 
stitution, Mil  :  \voniansulTrai:' 
conditions,  863;     Got  limber- 
t.-ni.  -s<;:i. 

Nor'vp-Ich.  charter,  263. 

Notre  Dame  (no'trdam),  school  of, 
274. 

N6-va'ra.  battle  of.  716.  719. 

Nov-go  r6d',  and  the  Hansa.  -7o. 

Oath  of  Strassburgr  (striis'booro) 

9.'5. 
Oath  of  the  Tennis  Court,  539. 


INDEX 


The  references  are  to  sections,  unless  otherwise  indicated 


O'Connell,  Daniel,  774. 

Old  Sarum,  743. 

Olmutz,  Prussian  humiliation  at,  712. 

Ordeal,  Trial  by,  48. 

Oriental  civilization,  2,  3. 

Orleans  Monarchy,  686  ff. 

Oscar  II,  of  Sweden,  861,  862. 

Otto  I,  of  Germany,  and  Huns,  201 ; 

restores  Holy  Roman  Empire,  205; 

and  Papacy,  214. 
Otto  II,  215. 
Otto  III,  215. 

Ou-de-narcte',  battle  of,  476. 
Owen,  Robert,  684. 
Oxford,  University  of,  277. 
Oxford  Reformers,  339. 

Pages,  training  in  feudal  times,  141. 

Painting1,  medieval,  284;  renaissance, 
335. 

Pankhurst,  Sylvia,  903. 

Papacy,  rise  of,  68-71  ;  beginnings  of 
temporal  power,  72 ;  and  Lombards, 
73;  and  Franks,  74-76;  position  in 
Middle  Ages,  150;  decline  in  10th 
century,  211;  reforms,  212-214; 
and  Otto  I,  214;  and  Otto  11,215; 
and  Henry  HI,  216;  Hildebrand  and 
Henry  IV,  217-221 ;  and  the  Hohen- 
staufen,  224-232;  claims  to  head- 
ship, 225  ;  results  of  victory,  233  ff. ; 
in  Age  of  Renaissance,  307  ff. ;  con- 
flict in  England,  308;  in  France, 
309;  Babylonian  Captivity,  310; 
Great  Schism,  310;  at  close  of 
Middle  Ages,  314. 

Papal  18g'ates,  150  d. 

Papal  states,  76. 

Paper,  342. 

Paris,  and  the  Norsemen,  190 ;  in  1800. 
657. 

Paris  Com-mune',  see  Commune. 

Paris,  Congress  of,  703. 

Paris,  University  of,  274,  275,  278. 

Parish  Councils  Bill,  of  1894,  762 ; 
and  land  allotments,  895. 

Parlement  (par-le-rnan')  of  Paris, 
518,  533. 

Parliament,  English,  beginning, 
185  ff . ;  develops  two  Houses,  187 ; 
growth  in  Hundred  Years'  War,  298- 


299;  loss  after  Wars  of  Roses,  306; 
under  Tudors,  374.  See  Liberalism. 
Reform  of,  in  19th  century,  741-752. 
See  Cabinet  Government. 

Parliament  of  1399,  deposes 
Richard  II,  298. 

Parthenon,  8. 

Pas-teur',  909. 

Patriarch,  in  the  Church,  34. 

Pe'dro  I,  of  Portugal,  843. 

Pedro  II,  843. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  766. 

Penance,  146,  147;  and  indulgences, 
348,  351. 

Peninsular  War,  613. 

Pensions,  Old  Age,  see  Social  Insur- 
ance. 

Persia,  services  to  ancient  civiliza- 
tion, 2;  and  Greeks,  8;  conquered 
by  Saracens,  64 ;  buffer  state,  888; 
Liberalism  in,  906. 

Pe-rii-gl'no,  :«r>. 

Peter  the  Great,  471,  482-484. 

Peter  the  Hermit,  243. 

Petition  of  Right,  432. 

Pe'trarch,  331. 

Petrine  supremacy,  doctrine  of,  68. 

Pe'tro-grad,  484,  876. 

Phld'i-as,  5. 

Philip  II,  of  Spain,  marries  Mary 
Tudor,  382;  character  and  power, 
390 ;  and  the  Netherlands,  391  ff . ; 
and  England,  398,  399. 

Philip  III,  and  the  Moriscoes,  400. 

Philip  V,  476. 

Philip  IV  (Augustus),  of  France, 
194-1%:  and  Pope  Boniface,  309. 

Philip  of  Hapsburg  (haps'boora), 
son  of  Mary  of  Burgundy,  326. 

Phoe-nlg'I-a,  civilization,  2,  3;  under 
Rome,  14. 

Piedmont  (ped'mont),  639,  note,  641. 

Pierr-3'fonds,  Castle  of,  111. 

Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  376. 

Pilgrimages,  medieval,  148,  240; 
and  the  crusades,  240. 

PIp'pIn  of  HSr'I-stal,  56. 

PIp'pIn  the  Short,  74. 

Pitt,  William,  the  Elder,  and 
America,  494;  and  Old  Sarum,  743; 
and  parliamentary  reform,  745. 


24 


INDEX 


The  reftr<  no-*  <ir?  to  sections,  ?////< •*«  nth,  ririxe  indicated 


Pitt,  William,  the  Younger,  aud 
]);irliamentary  reform,  745. 

Pius  II,  Pope,  314. 

Pius  IX,  715 ;  and  Italy,  826. 

Pius  X,  802. 

Plan-tag '6-net,  167. 

Plas'sey.  battle  of,  495. 

Pleb'is-cites,  in  France,  606. 

Pliny,  author,  19. 

Plutarch,  -ju. 

Pocket  borough,  743. 

Poitiers  (pwii-tl-a'),  battle  of,  290, 291. 

Poitou  (pwii-too')»  168. 

Poland,  added  to  Holy  Roman  Em- 
pire, 216;  partition,  500  ;  as  Duchy 
of  Warsaw,  i>21  :  Kingdom  of,  added 
to  Alexander  of  Ru  rising 

of  1830,  653,  654;  and  Slavophilism, 

STL'. 

Political  parties,  rise  of,  in  England, 
154. 

P6'16.  Marco.  948. 

P6m  e  ra'nl-a,  Swedish,  411;  l'ru>- 
sian.  li'Jii. 

Pompeii  (pom-pa'ye),  election  plac- 
anls  in,  1.'5. 

Pope, origin  of  term.  :'.:U.  See  /',//../.-//. 

Port  Arthur,  Ru.ssian,  *»'»•'',  MM  ;  cap- 
ture by  -Japan,  892. 

Portugal,  origin.  319;  and  geo- 
graphical explorat ion.  :U:>;  Colonial 
Empire,  344;  seized  by  Spain,  391 ; 
remaining  eolonie>.  ir>.~> ;  ami  IVnin- 
sular  Wat,  6i:?:  review  from  1814 
to  1910,  843;  Republic  of,  844. 

Poverty,  and  "  war  "  on.  S04-8D9. 

Prae-mu  ni're.  Statute  of,  310. 

Prax-It'e-les,  5. 

Prehistoric  man,  1. 

Presbyterianism,  in  Scotland,  385; 
in  England.  :'.S7.  4'J'J,  444. 

Pride's  Purge.  4t:.. 

Priests,  parish,  145  ff. ;  esp.,  155. 

Pri  mo-gen'I-ture,  121. 

Printing,  invention,  342. 

Protestantism,  and  Luther,  346  ff . ; 
denial  of  authority,  351,  352;  name, 
358.  See  Lutheran  Church,  Calvin- 
ism, etc. 

Provence  (pro-vSnV),  301. 

Pro-vi's6rs,  Statute  of,  310. 


Prussia,  468;  growth  to  Thirty 
irs'  War,  486-488;  and  Thirty 
Years'  War,  489;  Great  Sector, 
489;  Kingdom,  490;  under  Freder- 
ick II,  491,  496;  and  Poland,  500; 
and  French  Revolution  and  Napo- 
leon, 562,  565,  570,  580,  591,  610:  re- 
forms  (Stein),  i ;•_"-';  and  the  "Al- 
lies" of  1813  (War  of  Independ- 
ence), 623;  territorial  gains  in 
1814,  626;  reaction  after  1*14,  i;:r>- 
637;  and  '48,  710  ff . :  humiliation 
at  Olinut/.  7TJ:  William  I.  727  ff. ; 
Prussian  army.  7'_'7 :  Bismarck, 
7i!9  ff. ;  Danish  War.  7."1 :  Six 
Weeks'  War,  7 :;•_'.  7.".:?:  see  North 
German  Confut'-mCum,  German 
Kinjili-f':  constitution,  815. 

Piil-ta'va,  battle  of.  4*1. 

Puritanism,  explained,  420;  English 
divi.Mons.  4i'l ;  and  Restoration, 
450;  and  America,  468.  See  Calvin, 
Pntbjftertanttm,  etc. 

Pym.  John.  4W,  440  ;  Grand  Remon- 
strance, 141  :  one  of  the  "  live  mem- 
bers," 442;  death,  445. 

Quad-rlv'I-um.  the.  lv 

Queen  Anne's  War.  47(5. 

Quia  (kwr'ii)  Emp-t5'res.  Statute 

of.  184. 
Quintain,  exercise  of,  141. 

Racine  (ra-cen'),  47! ». 

Railway,  invention  of.  668. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  4(>8. 

Ramilles  (rii-me-\  n  i.  battle  of,  477. 

Raphael  (rsif'a-Pl- 

Reed,  Major  Walter,  and  yellow 
fever,  «*)«.). 

Referendum,  in  Switzerland,  8.ri4. 

Reform  Bill,  English,  of  1832,  74.V 
74S.  7:..'. :  of  1867,  757  ;  of  1884,  758. 

Reformation,  the  Protestant,  346  ff . ; 
in  Germany,  547  ff . ;  in  France  and 
Switzerland,  362  ff. ;  checked  in 
Southern  Europe,  369;  in  England, 
373  ff. ;  threatened  by  Queen  Mary. 
380-382.  See  Luther,  Calvin,  Pnrl- 
taiiism,  Presbyterianism,  Church 
of  England. 


INDEX 


25 


The  references  are  to  sections 

Reichsrath  (riKs'rat) ,  Austrian,  832. 

Reichstag1  (riKs'tao),  German,  812. 

Religious  Wars,  390-412. 

Religious  Freedom,  449. 

Rembrandt  (rgm'brant) ,  335. 

Renaissance,  329-345;  Elizabethan, 
389 ;  prepared  for  by  crusades,  254. 

Representative  government,  prin- 
ciple developed  in  England,  185. 
See  Liberalism. 

Rheims  (remz),  Cathedral  of,  285. 

Ribault  (re-bo'),  466. 

Richard  I,  of  England,  177,  249. 

Richard  II,  296-298. 

Richelieu  (re'shgl-yu),  407. 

Rights  of  Man,  Declaration  of,  554. 

Roads,  Roman,  15;  improvement  in 
England  in  18th  century,  660. 

Ro'bes-pj'eri'e,  544,  note,  550, 564,  578, 
584,  585-587. 

Roland,  Song  of,  80,  note. 

Rolf  the  Dane,  100. 

Rollin  (rol-in,  or  Fr.,  ro-lan'),  Le- 
dru',  692. 

Roman  Empire,  origin,  10 ;  territory, 
11;  unity  of,  10;  prosperity,  1st 
two  centuries,  11;  municipal  life, 
12;  industries,  14-17;  roads  and 
travel,  15;  drain  of  coin  to  Orient, 
16;  literature  and  learning,  18: 
morals,  19,  20 ;  gentle  law,  21 ; 
peace,  22;  decline  in  3d  century, 
23  ff . ;  reorganization  by  Diocle- 
tian,^; caste,  26-30;  taxation,  32; 
and  Christianity,  33 ;  and  Teutons, 
which  see;  survives  in  East  as 
Greek  Empire,  45;  survives  in 
West  as  an  idea,  47 ;  contributions, 
91;  restored,  see  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  Charlemagne. 

Roman  house,  27. 

Roman  law,  45. 

Roman  slavery,  and  decline  of  popu- 
lation, 23. 

Romance  languages,  93,  note. 

Rome,  Ancient,  geography  and  char- 
acter, 9;  limitations  in  government, 
10 ;  see  Roman  Empire  ;  govern- 
ment under  Empire,  13 ;  center  of 
learning,  18. 

Rom'Il-ly,  and  penal  reform,  746. 


,  unless  otherwise  indicated 

"  Root  and  Branch  "  men,  440. 

Rossbach  (ros'baK),  battle  of,  493 

Rotten  boroughs,  743. 

Roumania,  wins  freedom,  879,  882; 
war  of  1913,  884. 

"  Round  Heads,"  443. 

Rousseau  (roo-so') ,  524. 

Rubens,  335. 

Rubrxik,  Friar,  343. 

Rudolph,  of  Hapsburg  (haps'- 
booro),  315. 

Ru-fll'la,  17. 

Runnymede,  179. 

Russell,  Lord  John,  743,  747. 

Russia,  and  Greek  Christianity,  237 ; 
and  Tartar  invasions,  252;  recovers 
independence,  412,  481 ;  expansion, 
481;  shut  off  from  Europe,  481; 
Greek  Church,  481 ;  and  Peter,  482 
ff . ;  veneered  with  Western  culture, 
482,  483;  expansion  toward  seas, 
484,  485;  and  Poland,  500;  and 
Napoleon,  611,  622;  gains  at  Con- 
gress of  Vienna,  626 ;  see  Holy  Alli- 
ance ;  and  Greeks  in  1829,  644 ;  and 
Crimean  War,  see  growth  reviewed, 
865;  area  and  population,  866;  gov- 
ernment, 867;  emancipation,  868; 
peasants,  869,  870;  land  reform, 
870;  Slavophil  movement,  871; 
Russianizing  Poland  and  Finland, 
872;  Tsars  since  1801,  874;  "Ter- 
rorists," 874,  875;  Liberal  move- 
ment since  1904,876;  "Red  Sun- 
day," 876;  1st  Duma,  876;  later 
Dumas,  877. 

Russo-Japanese  War,  876,  891,  892. 

Russo-Turkish  War,  881. 

Sacraments  of  the  Church,  146. 

Sadowa  (sa'do-va),  battle  of,  732. 

Sa-gas'ta,  840. 

St.  Bartholomew,  massacre  of,  403. 

St.  Benedict,  51 ;  rules  of,  ib. 

St.  Bernard,  249,  278. 

St.  Eloy,  sermon  of,  149. 

St.  Francis,  230. 

St.  Helena,  and  Napoleon,  628. 

St.  Just,  and  plans  for  reform,  578, 

587. 
St.  Petersburg,  see  Petrograd. 


INDEX 


The  references  are  tv  ><  <-t/»/t*.  /mlr**  <>thi-nri#e  indicated 


Saint-Simon,  084. 

St.  S6-phi'a,  Church  of,  46. 

Saints,  148. 

Sakhalin  (sii-Kii-lyeV),  892. 

Sal'a-dm,  249. 

Sa-ler'n5,  University  of,  -j;.'.. 

SaUs'bu-ry  Cathedral,  _ 

Sa-16-ni'ca,  IKI.-,. 

San  Stef-a'no,  Peace  of. 

Saracens,  term  delim-d,  67.  See 
Mohammedanism. 

Sardinia,    and    Congress  of   Vienna, 
(il'ii:    ami   Revolution   ..f  1*21. 
See  Italy. 

Savoy,  annexed  to  Fran...  .v.U ;  re- 
turned to  Sardinia,  62ii;  regained 
li\  France,  703. 

Saxons,  36  \  s.-c  /;/•//•//.•< .  and  Charle- 
magne 7'.";  a  German  "stem,"  198, 
198, 

Scandinavia,  to  17th  century,  832. 
See  Sweden,  Nonnii/.  Ih-mnnrk. 

Schism  of  Latin  and  Greek 
Churches,  71. 

Schoolmen,  tin-.  27*:  ni.-tli...l  ..• 

Schools,  Roman.  IS;  disappear  after 
600,  45;  of  Charlemagne  *7 ;  Ara- 
bian. 236;  in  Dark  Ages,  272 ;  grow 
into  I'niversities,  which  see;  town 
schools  after  crusades,  273. 

Schools,  English  Board,  768;  and 
Coiisrrvativ.'s,  S% ;  and  Liberals, 
SI  »7. 

Schurz,  Carl.  711. 

Schwyz  (sciiwit-i.  :;•_'!. 

Science,  at  opening  of  French  Revo- 
lution, "»!«>:  in  'JOth  century,  1H)*». 

Scotland,  and  Henry  II,  168;  and 
Edward  I,  181;  Presbyterian,  385; 
united  to  England  under  .lame-*. 
438,  note;  and  Archbishop  Laud, 
438;  Covenanters,  438 :  and  English 
Civil  War,  438-443;  Act  of  Union, 
463. 

Scrooby  Pilgrims,  422. 

Scutag-e,  169. 

Scythians.  2. 

"  Secular"  clergy.  51. 

Sedan  (se-d«wm),  battle  of,  738. 

Sempach,  battle  of,  321. 

Sen'e-gral,  494. 


Senlac,  battle  of,  159. 

Separatists,  422. 

Serfdom,  Roman,  30;  feudal,  114, 
115;  129,  130;  life  and  labor  under, 
132-136 ;  disappearance  in  England, 
294-297;  in  France,  505-506,  545, 
559;  in  Germany,  618;  Pn; 
619;  temporary  restoration  in  Sar- 
dinia, <!.".<>:  final  disappearance  from 
Western  Europe  in  '48,  717;  in 
Russia,  868. 

Ser-vS'tus,   367  ;    and  discovery  of 
circulatory  system,  t&. 

Servians,    42,     237;    conquered    by 
Turks.  320:  in  r.-c.-nt  times,  880-883. 

Seven  Years'   War.    I1.'.1,:    in   New 
World.  4!»4    I'.'T. 

Shakspere,  William 

Sheriff,  Knglish.  If.:1.. 

Ship  money,  in  Kngland,  435,  436. 

Shire,  English  county,  160,  Ml. 

SI  am',  888. 

Sicily,    union     with     Empire, 

Charles  of  Anjou  in,  232.  :v_>."> ;  and 
French  Revolution  and  Napoleon, 
574,  614;  Revolution   of    1S21. 
See  Itnlii. 

Sieves  (se-yas'),  526,  538,  550,  598. 

Si-le'si-a,  471. 

Simon  of  Montfort,  ISO,  186. 

Simony,  213. 

Slavery,  Roman,  and  decay  of  popu- 
lation. 83. 

Slave  trade,  and  piracy.  <>_"' 

Slavs,  42;  in    Austrian    Empire,  707, 

9ee  ii'iiknn  xtii'- »,  /; 
Smith.  Adam.  »M'. 
Social  Insurance,  in  Germany. 

in  England,  '.ml. 
Socialists,  rise,  683-(»5;  in   Franc.  . 

690;  in  Germany.  S22.S23:  in  Italy. 

S24;  in  Austria,  832 ;  Belgium. 

Russia,  876;  England,  897. 
Soissons  (swiis-son'),  battle  of,  52. 
S61-fer-i'no,  battle  of,  7i>:?. 
Sol'y-man  the    Magnificent,   :i."»7, 

note. 

Sonderbund  (zon'der-bftnt) ,  851, 852. 
Sophia  of  Hanover,  4r(t;. 
South  Africa,    and    England,   783; 

Union  of,  7s  1 


INDEX 


27 


The  references  are  to  sections,  unless  otherwise  indicated 


Spain,  Vandals  in,  40,  41;  Goths  in, 
ib.;  Arab  conquest,  05;  and  Charle- 
magne, 80;  "African  "  to  1492,  319; 
recovery,  319;  master  of  South 
Italy,  325 ;  union  with  Austria  under 
Charles  V,  326;  colonial  empire, 
344;  see  Charles  V;  falls  to  Philip 
11,360;  and  France,  301 ;  absolutism 
of  Philip,  390;  Netherlands  and, 
391  ff.;  war  with  England,  398,  399; 
decay,  400,  Lepanto,  401;  and  re- 
ligious wars  in  France,  404;  and 
New  World,  464-465;  loses  Gibral- 
tar and  outside  European  realms, 
477;  Revolution  of  1820,  638,  639; 
and  Holy  Alliance,  642;  from  1800 
to  1833,834;  to  1873,  835;  Castelar's 
Republic,  836;  constitution  to-day, 
837-838:  reforms,  839;  education, 
840;  loss  of  colonies,  841. 

Spanish  America,  after  French 
Revolution,  (538,  643. 

Spanish  Revolution  of  182O,  638  ff . 

Spanish- American  War,  889. 

Spanish  Succession,  War  of,  476. 

Speier  (spir),  Diet  of,  358. 

Spenser,  Edmund,  389. 

Sphinx,  2. 

Squire,  feudal  training  of,  141. 

Stael,  Madame  de,  607. 

Stamford  Bridge,  battle  of,  159. 

Stanley,  Henry,  explorer,  887. 

States  General,  French,  see  Estates 
General . 

Steamboat,  invention  of,  667. 

Steelyard,  the,  270. 

Stein  (shtin),  619;  on  Metternich, 
632;  defeated  by  Metternich  at 
Vienna,  634. 

Stephen,  King-  of  England,  166, 
167. 

Stephen  of  Blois  (blwii),  crusader's 
Ictlrr,  245. 

Stephen,  Pope,  consecrates  Pippin, 
75. 

Stephenson,  George,  inventor,  668. 

Stiles,  Dr.  Charles  W.,  and  hook- 
worm, 909. 

Stra'bo,  343. 

Strass'burg  (bol>rg),  battle  of,  52; 
city  lost  by  French,  789. 


Stor'tMng,  Norwegian,  860. 

Stuart  kings,  424  ff . 

Sua'bl-ans,  198. 

Suffragettes, in  England,  see  Woman 
Suffrage. 

Sully,  Duke  of,  406. 

Sun  Yat  Sen,  Dr.,  907. 

Suzerain,  feudal,  114,  120,  126,  130. 

Sweden,  and  Denmark,  322  ;  and 
Thirty  Years'  War,  408-409;  gains, 
411;  and  American  colonies,  465; 
cedes  Finland  to  Russia,  626 ;  se- 
cures Norway,  *626 ;  see  Norway; 
franchise  reform,  864. 

Swegn  (swan),  157. 

Switzerland,  to  French  Revolution, 
321  ;  independence  recognized  at 
Congress  of  Westphalia,  411;  Hel- 
vetic Republic,  596;  and  Congress 
of  Vienna,  629,  850;  religious  fac- 
tions, 851 ;  Sonderbund  War,  851, 
852;  constitution,  853;  direct  leg- 
islation, 854;  place  in  history,  855. 

Syl-ves'ter  II,  Pope,  see  Gerbert. 

Tacitus,  on  Teutons,  36,  38. 

Tartar  invasions,  252. 

Telescope,  invention  of,  342,  345. 

Tenants  in-chief,  182. 

Terence,  20. 

Ter-tul'll  an,  quoted,  22. 

Testry,  battle  of,  56. 

Tetzel,  John,  348,  351. 

Teutonic  law,  48  ff . 

Teutonic  Order,  Knights  of,  247; 
wars  in  Germany,  251. 

Teutons,  36-39  ;  invasions,  40-41  ; 
importance,  42;  results  of  inva- 
sions, 43-45 ;  small  numbers  of  in- 
vaders, 44;  a  rural  aristocracy,  44; 
fusion  with  Roman  populations 
and  civilization,  45  ff. ;  relation  to 
development  of  representative  gov- 
ernment, 49;  contributions  to  later 
civilization,  42,  91 ;  in  Britain,  101- 
104.  See  Goths,  Franks,  etc. 

The'o-bald,  Archbishop,  167. 

The-oc'ra-cy,  defined,  324  note. 

Thiers  (ty-ar'),648,  687,  788,  789,  794. 

Third  Estate,  258,  259,  266. 

Thirty  Years'  War,  408-411. 


INDEX 


The  references  art  to  sections,  unless  otheririxt 


T2zor,  37. 

Thucydid.es  (thoo-cld'i-dez),  6. 

Thuringia,  .">2. 

Titian  (iish'an),  335. 

Tilsit,  Peace  of,  (ill. 

Tin-to  ret'to,  :;:r>. 

Togo.  Admiral,  892. 

Torture,  in  Middle  Ages,  L'C.T. 

Tory.  454;  and  Conservative,  763. 

Tos'tig,  159. 

Tou-louse',  18. 

Tournament,  138. 

Tours  (tour),  battle  of,  66. 

Towns,  under  Roman  Empire,  12,  13, 
i:>;  few  from  GOO  to  1100,  60;  sur- 
vival in  South  of  Europe,  50.  I'll  : 
rise  of,  after  crusades,  L'J 
•J«il  :  and  feudalism. 260;  lif«- in, 'Jill  : 
gilds,  26.-.;  "J5d  Mtate,"  --V.6:  in 
1  Inland,  267;  other  land  8,268-270; 
liatisa.  270;  leagues,  271:  i:i<>wtli 
after  Industrial  Revolution,  678. 

Tra-fal'gar,  battle  of.  612. 

Tra'jan,  and  anonymous  accusations, 
20. 

Transubstantiation,  doctrine  of, 
Us;  and  Luther,  :W. 

Trent,  Council  of,  371. 

Trev  I  thick.  Richard,  inventor,  668. 

Triple  Alliance.  «•!». 

Triple  En-tente',  '.U4,  '.»i:>. 

Trlv'i-um,  is. 

TrSp'pau.  Congress  of.  MO. 

Trou'ba-dours  (doors),  283. 

Trouveurs'.  -_'s;;. 

Truce  of  God.  128. 

Tsar,  title.  4*1. 

Tudor  monarchs,  305. 

Tuileries  u  \\el-re').  565. 

Tunis,  Kivnch  protectorate,  808. 

Tur-gof,  530. 

Turks,  67,  238;  and  crusades,  240: 
checked  by  crusades.  -Jlii  IT.;  iii 
Southeastern  Europe,  320;  and  Le- 
panto,  401 ;  lose  Greece,  (544 :  lose 
Balkan  peninsula.  878-884;  Liber- 
alism in.  U04.  «*).-». 

Turnvater  Jahn  (yan),  645. 

Twentieth  century,  progress  in, 
908-913. 

Tyndal,  scientist,  752. 


Ulm  (oolm) ,  battle  of,  609. 

Ul'pl-an,  21. 

United  States,  in  world  politics,  889. 

Universities,  Roman,  18;  in  Middle 
Ages,  273  ff . ;  of  Paris,  274 ;  in  gen- 
eral, 27.VJ77:  state.  -J7C,. 

Unterwalden  (oon-ter-\iirden),321. 

Urban  I,  Pope,  and  crusades,  241  ff. 

Urban  VI,  311. 

Uri  (oo-re"),  Canton  of,  ••-'!. 

Utopia,  (in.. ted.  .",41.  41.~i. 

Utrecht,  Peace  of,  477. 

Val'la,  Laurentius,  338. 

Valmy  (viil-ine')  battle  of,  570. 

Valois  (\iil-\\ii'),  House  of,  289. 

Vandals,  36.  40. 

VanDyck  (dik). 

Vane,  Sir  Harry,  439,  440,  417. 

Van  Eycks  (Iks),  the,  and  oil  paint- 
in-,  335. 

Vas'co  da  Qa'ma,  34->. 

Vassals,  feudal,  114,  120,  126,  130. 

Velasquez  (vii-liis'kPth),  8 

Vend6e  (von-tla'.. 

Vendome  (von-d6m')  Column.  »,n.;. 

Venice,    and    4th  eru-ade.  'jr.O;    and 
Kinpire.  2«iS;    and  Bonaparte, 
transferred   to  Austria,  .v.i:?;    foil- 
firmed  by  Congress  of  Vienna,  »>_'».. 
See  It nlii. 

Verdiin'.  Treaty  of 

Verona,  ' '  Crowned  Conspira- 
tors" of,  i;}-'. 

Versailles  ( \-.-r- 

Victor  Emmanuel  II.  71!>.  72«  ff. 

Victoria,  of  England,  T.'.J. 

Victorian  Age.  7.".L'  IT. 

Vienna.  Congress  of.  62.'ML".». 

Villa,  Roman,  27;  Teutonic,  6th  cen- 
tury. 50. 

Villeins,  114,  129,130;  life  and  labor, 
1. '.•_'-!  36. 

Visigoths,  see  ir..s7  Gothx. 

Vladivostock(vlii-dye-vas-t5k'),and 
Russia,  865. 

V61-taire',  521. 

Waib'ling-en,  228. 
Waihei  wai  (wi'ha-wi'),  891. 
Wallace,  William,  181. 


INDEX 


The,  references  are  to  sections 

Wallenstein  (vtil'len-stin),  409. 

Wallingford,  Treaty  of,  167. 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  460. 

Walter  the  Penniless,  243. 

"  Wardship  and  marriage,"  feudal 
incidents,  125. 

War  of  1812,  612. 

Warsaw,  Duchy  of,  616-626. 

Wars  of  the  Roses,  304,  305;  re- 
sults, 306. 

Wartburg  (vart'boora) ,  celebration 
of  1817,  6:36. 

Waterloo,  627. 

Watling  Street,  106. 

Watts,  James,  inventor,  664. 

Wedmore,  Treaty  of,  10<i. 

Weimar  (vi'mar) ,  after  1814,  635. 

Wellesley  (welz'ly),  613.  See  Well- 
ington. 

Wellington,  and  Peninsular  War, 
613 ;  and  Waterloo,  627 ;  and  Holy 
Alliance,  642;  and  parliamentary 
reform,  747. 

Went  worth,  Thomas,  437,  439. 

Wesley,  John  and  Charles,  462. 

Wessex,  101,  105,  106. 

Westphalia,  Kingdom  of,  616. 

Westphalia,  Peace  of,  411. 

West  Goths,  story,  40;  and  Franks, 
52. 

Whigs,  454;  take  name,  Liberal,  753. 

Whitfleld,  462. 

Whitney,  Eli,  inventor,  663. 

Wilberforce,  763. 

William  I,  of  England,  158,  159,  163- 
166. 

William  II  (Rufus),  166. 


,  unless  otherwise  indicated 

William  III  (of  Orange),  455  ff.; 
parliamentary  title,  455 ;  wars,  457  ; 
and  cabinet  government,  460;  and 
Louis  XIV,  473-476. 

William  IV,  747,  748. 

William  of  Orange  (the  Silent),  393, 
394,  398. 

William  Tell,  myth  of,  321, 

Winkelried  (red),  Arnold,  321. 

Witan  (wi'tan),  158  and  note. 

Wittenberg  (vit'lgn-bero),  348. 

Woden,  37. 

Women,  under  Roman  Empire,  20; 
suffrage,  local,  in  England,  762;  in 
Norway,  863;  in  Finland,  873;  agi- 
tation for,  in  England,  903;  survey 
of,  in  other  countries,  903. 

Worms  (vormz),  Diet  at,  354. 

Writing,  prehistoric  stages,  1. 

Wurtemberg  (vurt'em-bera),  410, 
and  Thirty  Years'  War. 

Wyclif,  John,  295,  312,  313. 

Xenophon  (zen'o-fon),  644. 

Yalu  (ya-loo'),  battle  of,  892. 
Young,  Arthur,  504,  517,  657. 
Young  Ireland,  774. 
Young  Italy,  715. 
Young  Turks,  905. 
Yuan  (yoo-an')  ShiA  Kai,  907. 
Ypres    (e'pr),  Hall  of  Clothmakers' 
Gild,  323. 

Zurich  (tsu'rlK),  362. 
Zwingli  (tsving'le),  362,  363. 


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