Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/607

BEIGN OP LOUIS XIV.] FRANCE 571 45. prince ; his bearing and surroundings were more than noble ; he called to his side artists of every kind; art, in its 17th century decadence and formalism, was well content to do his bidding, and gild an age of splendour without genius. ise Louis XIII. died within six months after Richelieu s za death ; he did but give twno to Mazarin to win the favour of the queen and to secure his position as first minister. Mazariu was destined to fail completely in home govern ment, while in foreign affairs he brought all his great master s policy to a splendid and successful end. At home his rule reversed llichelieu s stern principle of repression. The subtle and flexible Italian, after the manner of his countrymen, hoped to succeed by counterpoises, by playing factions off against one another, by trading on the meaner side of human nature, by love affairs and jealousies, and all the stock in trade of weak intriguing characters. His rule is characterized by the burlesque wars of the Fronde, which sufficiently showed his want of firmness and the degradation of the age. Louis XIII. left at his death two sons, Louis the dauphin, now Louis XIV., and Philip duko of Anjou, afterwards duke of Orleans, who founded the Orleans branch of the Bourbon family, which ceased to reign on the deposition of Louis Philippe in 1848. The regency was in the hands of Anne of Austria, his queen ; Gaston of Orleans was named lieutenant-general of the kingdom ; the direction of the government was placed with a council, the prince of Conde, Mazarin, Seguier the chancellor, and two more. The king s will, however, was little respected. Anne, a haughty and ambitious woman, with Mazarin to back her, was not likely to care much for the clog of a council of regency. The parliament of Paris, flattered at appearing to be the arbiter of the counsels of kings, set aside the will, and declared ncy Anne independent regent. The old court party, of which me Anne had always been the head, expected to rule at will ; ria Mazarin was tolerated only because he was necessary to bring foreign affairs to a successful issue ; that done he would have to go. The "Importants," as they were nick- x>rt- named, a frivolous and unworthy company of noble nobodies, reckoned on a long lease of power; the king was little more than a babe, he was but four years and a half old, and it would be strange if they could not secure themselves^ The war on the frontiers, however, ruthlessly destroyed their hopes. The Spaniards, cheered by the deaths of Richelieu and Louis XIII., had besieged the little frontier- town of Rocroi ; Mazarin hastily sent up an army to relieve the place, commanded by Marshal L Hopital and the young duke of Enghien, eldest son of Henry I., prince of Cond6, a distant cousin of the king. In spite of L Hopital s prudent counsels, Enghien recklessly with the confidence of genius and youthful inexperience attacked and utterly defeated the world-famous Spanish infantry, and killed their aged general Fuentes. The battle of Rocroi (1643) destroyed for ever the older fighting-power of the world, the solid Spanish foot, and gave to France her first taste of that military glory which marks the reign ; it was the bapteme de feu of the child-king of France ; it also secured the dominance of Mazarin. The house of Conde was his friend ; Rocroi enabled him to hold up his head against both Spain and the "Importants"; their party, for the time, was utterly broken up. In tliese closing years of the Thirty Years War two able soldiers came to the front, the Great Cond6 and Turenne, the one all fire and dash, alike dangerous to friend and foe, the other the greatest tactician of the age. The one represents at its best the old noble "" fighter, the other the modern skilful officer. In 1644 they drove the imperial general Mercy out of his position at Freiberg, and became masters of the middle Rhine-land ; in 1645, pressing the Austrians nearer home, they fought and won the sanguinary second battle of Nordlingen ; so much were they weakened by that Cadmean victory that they 16W-43. were unable to keep the advantage, and were thrust back to the Rhine. In 1646 they directed their attention against the elector of Bavaria, in hopes of being able to detach him from Austria; Turenne took undisputed possession of the whole upper Danube valley, and threatened the elector Maximilian at Munich. In 1647 he, to free himself from the invader, who mercilessly ravaged and plundered his lands, signed a separate truce with France, and abandoned at last the imperial cause. Well might the house of Austria now feel that by any sacrifices it must bring the long war to an end. When the elector broke truce early next year, his resistance was crushed by the French at Zusmarshausen, and the fighting in Germany was over. The war had rather more life in it as between France and Spain. In Italy, Flanders, and Catalonia considerable movements went on ; that in Flanders, where Conde" com manded, was alone decisive; the battle of Lens (9th August 1648), the last of the fighting on that side, was a crushing and final defeat of the Spanish, and even more fatal to their power than the overthrow of Rocroi. For years there had been negotiations for peace ; they The had taken definite form as long back as 1639 at Cologne, peace of In 1643 the congresses of Munster and Osnabriick were set permanently going : at Munster, France, Spain, and the Catholic princes were to make terms with the emperor ; at Osnabriick negotiations should go on between him and Sweden, and the Protestant princes ; the results should be welded into one coherent treaty of peace. The Dutch and Spaniards made peace together in January 1648, so ending their eighty years struggle. The terms between the empire and Sweden were signed at Osnabriick in August ; those between the empire and France at Miinster in October 1648. The quarrel between France and Spain alone re- mained unsettled. The peace of Westphalia, as was neces sary, largely favoured France. As the war had gone on, her growing strength, and at last her preponderance, had made this quite inevitable ; yet in actual gain of territory France received but little, only Austrian Alsace being added to the kingdom. In influence and in relative strength, how ever, she grew much. The power of Germany was broken up ; the princes friendly to France, the elector of Treves, the Palatine house, the house of Hesse Cassel, the Swiss cantons, were all strengthened. The three bishoprics, Metz, Verdun, Toul, were ceded in full sovereignty to France, as was also Pinerolo ; she might garrison Philips- burg ; the chief Rhine fortresses, barriers against her ambition, were to be dismantled ; Breisach remained in her hands. Austria was cut off from the Netherlands, and was rendered almost powerless. Thus the foreign policy of France was finally triumphant, although Richelieu did not live to see it. He had marked out its course, had watched over the preparations for it, had set it in motion, and had seen it through its earlier failures and difficulties ; then he bequeathed it to Mazarin, who, though far inferior to him in tenacity and unity of purpose, was perhaps better fitted to steer things to their end ; for his subtle skill and flexi bility were exactly calculated for the intricate mazes of long negotiations, and could well defend French purposes amidst the innumerable and conflicting claims and wishes of the states represented at the congresses. No sooner had the peace of Westphalia settled, as it did Mazarin for long years, the basis of the public law of Europe, than and Mazarin was obliged to turn his attention to home-affairs, }}< in which he was never so fortunate as in his foreign ven tures. It has been noticed that a singular movement, ad verse to the claims of monarchy, was at this very moment sweeping across Europe. The rulers of every state seem to lose power, sometimes are overthrown entirely. The characteristics of the Thirty Years War tended to produce affairs.