Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/608

572 1648. this result, partly by depressing Austria and Spain, partly by familiarizing men with the careers of brave adventurers not royal, not even princely, partly by arousing enthusiasm for strong Protestantism, as in the English volunteers who supported the Calvinist " winter king," or took service under the " Protestant hero," Gustavus Adolphus, partly Chart of Districts ceded to France in 10-18 and 1C59. 1 also by the results of the war, as seen in the acknowledged independence of the United Provinces and Switzerland, two republics finally freed from royal control. Besides this there was an aristocratic reaction which had brought down the monarchy of the papacy, as was clearly seen in the long pontificate of Urban VIII. ; there was the popular reaction which was steadily destroying the absolutist theories of the Stewarts in England ; there was a certain weakening of royalty in Scandinavia, whether at Stockholm or at Copenhagen. And France could not fail to feel the same influences at work. Mazarin s easier rule allowed the princes and nobles whom llichelieu had steadily kept down to raise their heads again, and the lawyers who composed the parliament of Paris, flattered at having been allowed to pronounce an authoritative judgment on the last will of Louis XIII, and thinking themselves an institution parallel to the parliament of England, were also much disposed to take advantage of the childhood of the king, the weakness of the queen-mother, the easier disposition of the cardinal. The French people, who had much rejoiced when Richelieu died, thinking that his heavy burdens would be lightened, were deeply irritated to find that they had fallen into the hands of a greedy foreigner ; that their financial position was worse and their burdens grew yearly heavier ; that Mazarin allowed Emeri, a harsh and cruel creature, also an Italian, to manage the purse of France, and to plunder it at will for his own and his master s profit. These causes are quite enough to account for the outbreak of civil war in 1 Copied (reduced) by permission of the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, Oxford. [HISTORY. 1648. The only wonder is that this war, the "War of the 1648- Frondc," or the Sling (a nickname drawn from the boys in The the city ditches of Paris, who played at mimic fights with of th< slings), proved so hollow and absurd, when one sees engaged Fron( in it the great names of Conde" and Turenne. The name of the Fronde was first adopted by the leader of the move ment, the coadjutor to the archbishop of Paris, Paul of Gondi, who is best known to history as the Cardinal de Retz. The immediate cause of the outbreak was the attempt of Mazarin to punish the parliament of Paris for having brought about the dismissal of his corrupt agent Emeri. The news of Condi s great victory at Lens (9th August 1648) had inspirited the court party, which counted Conde as its champion ; and Mazarin determined to use the en thusiasm thus aroused to strike terror into the parliament. On the thanksgiving day for the victory, four members of the parliament were suddenly arrested, one of them being Broussel, " an old counsellor in his dotage, whom the mob loved for his rude manners and his fine head of white hair." All Paris was at once in an uproar; the coadjutor De Rctz threw himself into the disturbance, obtained Brousscl s re lease, and quiet for the moment was restored. The queen- mother and Mazarin, alarmed at the troubled look of affairs, fled from Paris to Ruel, The parliament took the lead in what seemed to be a revolution, and De Retz, a born agita tor and demagogue, gave to the lawyers a popular force in the discontent of the Paris mob. Though the court had been induced to return to Paris in October 1648, Mazarin thought it safer to escape with it again early in 1649 to St Germains. Then the discontented nobles, chiefly influ enced by that romantic intriguer, the duchess of Longue- ville, Condi s sister, united their cause with that of Paris and the parliament, and seemed likely to overbear all oppo sition. The prince of Conti, Condi s younger brother, the duke of Longueville, a crowd of others, and eventually Turenne himself, formed the heads of a new " War of the Public Weal." Conde saved the court ; his siege of Paris, and the weariness of the people, who had to pay for all the brilliant follies of their noble allies, led to the peace of Ruel early in 1649, a delusive peace, negotiated by the stiff pedantic president of the parliament, Matthew Mole. This movement marks the division between the Old The 1 Fronde and the New, the Old the Fronde of Paris and !l j ld the parliaments, the New the Fronde of the discontented F CT nobles. These latter were by no means inclined to accept the agreement of Ruel ; the second period of the Frondo began at once ; Cond6 tried to play a middle part, intrigu ing with both sides, and equally disliked by both. He formed a kind of party of his own, that of the " petits maitres," the frivolous young nobles, dazzled by his bright manners and warlike reputation. The chiefs of the New Fronde began serious negotiations with Spain, and Spanish troops entered northern France, descending as far as to Rheims. Anne of Austria, somewhat strengthened by the adherence of the Old Fronde, ventured now to arrest ConchS Conti, and Longueville, early in 1650. But the duchess of Longueville escaped, whereby the stroke was rendered a complete failure. She carried Turenne over to the Nev Fronde, and he, supported by Spanish troops, threatened Paris. The three prisoners were sent down to Havre for safety; Turenne s Spaniards were driven back to the frontier, and the royal troops retook Rethel from them. Feeling that Paris was still too uneasy for him, Mazarin released the three prisoners, and withdrew to Briihl on the Rhine. His cunning thought was that Cond6 would certainly arouse jealousies and confusion, out of which the royal power might soon recover authority. Nor was he wrong : in the autumn of 1651 the Old Fronde had come entirely over to the court ; De Retz, satisfied by the exile of Mazarin, was bought with a cardinal s hat ; Condii withdrew, and roused