Ghent, which had revolted from him. Any other than Francis I. would have seized this opportunity of exacting a ransom in his turn; but this confidence of a man of bad faith is a fine testimony to the honor of his dupe.

The two princes having quarrelled, a new war broke out, A.D. 1542, and raged along all the frontiers. The king's galleys joined those of Barbarossa the Turk, and the count d'Enghien gained the battle of Cerisoles, in Italy, but without any advantage to France. Charles, in league with Henry VIII., penetrated as far as Soissons, and a peace was again signed at Crecy, which did not, however, procure the slightest rest to the world. On the inhabitants of Cabrières and Merindol, cantons of Provence, where the traditions of the Albigenses had been preserved, embracing Lutheranism, the parliament of Provence condemned them to the flames: the troops which were returning out of Italy executed this decree, and 3000 persons were massacred for the honor of the faith, by bands of robbers. These things did not prevent Cauvin or Calvin from making fresh proselytes to a reform more entire than that of Luther. He denied the real presence, suppressed the ceremonies of worship, and submitted the Scriptures and the faith to the test of reason. He, however, caused poor Servetus to be burned, who did not believe in the trinity. His doctrine spread in Switzerland, France, Holland, and England. Francis I. died of a disease called the Neapolitan in France, and at Naples the French.

Francis I. was the most absolute of the kings of France; he loaded the people with taxes without the authority of the states; and substituted, instead of these, assemblies of the nobles, that is to say, courtiers, whom it was his pleasure to consult, and who always approved his actions. He enslaved the Gallican church, instituted the censorship, sold the office of the judges, and corrupted the nation by his bad example. He was called the restorer of learning and the arts, because they grew while he was on the throne; he doubtless protected them, but the age for their advancement had arrived. The genius of republicanism had prepared the way for them in Italy; Erasmus, the Hollander, the Voltaire of the sixteenth century, had ridiculed the pedantry of theologians; liberty had peopled Florence with great men, and the Medici, merchants who had become magistrates, were the Mecanates of the age. The honor of the revival of letters has also been very improperly attributed to the Greeks, who, having emigrated from Constantinople in 1453, brought into Western Europe the reveries of Plato, a taste for subtilties that was by no means wanted, and the mania of erudition instead of the spirit of enquiry. Francis I. is only to be celebrated for having founded the college of France, and established the use of the French tongue in public documents.

The character of Henry II. much resembled that of his father; their reigns are also in some respects similar. The war was still carried on against Charles, in the course of which the king took Metz, Taul, and Verdun, and the emperor laid siege to Metz with 100,000 men. The duke

of Guise, a celebrated member of the ancient house of Lorrain, repulsed him, when Charles avenged himself by rasing to the ground 400 towns, and soon after Europe heard with astonishment, that he had quitted the empire to retire into a convent. Ferdinand, his brother, was made emperor, and his son Philip II. king of Spain. The latter was the Louis XI. of this age, and the most powerful prince in Europe. He moved it with two great levers, the gold of Mexico and Peru, and religious zeal. While the French were carrying on a fruitless war in Italy, the duke of Savoy, his general, obtained at St. Quentin, a victory disastrous to France. Terror spread on all sides; Paris was fortified; the Spaniards could have easily entered it; Philip, however, thought proper to retreat. The duke of Guise, who was now appointed lieutenant general of the kingdom, repaired this loss by taking Calais from the English; but, when a peace was signed at Cateau Cambresis, it was stipulated that Calais should be restored in eight years (which has never been done) while the French were to keep possession of Metz, Toul, and Verdun. Henry II. was killed soon after this at a tournament, while jousting with one of his knights.

Under this reign, as under the preceding, women began to assume great influence at court; their intrigues, say the historians, have always been fatal to France. Henry II. suffered himself to be governed by his mistress, Diana of Poitiers, who had already governed his father. The ingenious Rabelais, and the lively Brantome, have satirised these two kings, and described the dissolute manners of the age. In 1558 the states were assembled in conjunction with the parliament, and figured in it as a fourth order: an anomaly which has not since been renewed. The nobles, humbled by Louis XI., had become the courtiers of his successors, until the luxury of the court had completely attached them to the king, and they appeared formed for obedience to his will. External wars now no longer occupied them, and, while they resumed a portion of their independence, those factions re-appeared of which religion was the motive or the pretext. The prince of Condé, and the king of Navarre, his brother, of the branch of Bourbon, were the chiefs of the protestant party; Guise, the uncle of Mary Stuart, the king's wife, directed that of the Catholics. The constable, Montmorency, had also his party. The imperious queen dowager, Catharine of Medicis, alternately protected and betrayed each party, while she endeavoured to preserve the balance between them, by the celebrated maxim, ‘divide and rule.'

The magistrate, Anne Dubourg, having been hanged as a protestant, A. D. 1560, his brethren formed a conspiracy at Amboise, to revenge his death. This the duke of Guise defeated, and the conspirators perished in arms. The punishments of the Calvinists were now redoubled; they defended themselves, and in the assembly of Fontainbleau claimed liberty of conscience, but in vain: the states were convened at Orleans, in order to draw the Bourbons thither: and when Condé attended he was arrested, and

condemned, and would have been executed, had not the king died. Francis II. is described as an excellent young man'; but he was a weak prince. His brother Charles IX. succeeded him at the age of ten years.

The states were now very much agitated: L'Hospital, a virtuous citizen, and philosophical magistrate, a prodigy for his time, endeavoured in vain to bring their minds back to moderation and union. He merely succeeded in re-establishing the Pragmatic sanction in relation to the election of bishops. Catharine then turned about from the Calvinist or Huguenot party (from a German word signifying confederates), and proposed to terminate the existing differences, by a conference at Poissy which only revived them. It was at this period that the Jesuits first established themselves in France.

A massacre of the Huguenots now took place at Vassy in Champagne, in consequence of some injuries committed by the duke of Guise's people. At Toulouse 4000 of the Protestants were murdered; an outrage which the people of Toulouse, for two centuries, have annually celebrated, and this furnished a fresh motive for rupture. The civil war broke out; the Protestants were conquered by the royalists at Dreux; and two of their ablest generals were taken. The rapacious and ambitious duke of Guise laid siege to Orleans, and was assassinated there: he had made use of religion wholly as a means of aggrandising himself. Ashort peace ensued; but the persecution of the Protestants soon re-commenced; and was continued with impunity. The Huguenots were driven to extremities. Condé undertook to carry off the king, in order to get possession of the government; for so absurd are the consequences of absolute power, that it is often exercised in the name of the titulary sovereign against himself. This attempt failed, and the doubtful battle of St. Denis took place soon after (A. D. 1567), in which the able Montmorency was slain. On a renewal of the war, the Huguenots, assisted by the Protestants of Germany and England, ventured upon another pitched battle at Jarnac, and were defeated by the duke of Anjou, the king's brother. Here the prince of Condé fell; assassinated it is said, near the field of battle, and while surrendering himself to his enemies as a prisoner. Coligny, a prudent chief, repaired this defeat, and rallied the forces, until Henry of Navarre, whom he had formed 'for war, was placed at the head of the party. The duke of Anjou was again victor, however, at Mocontour.

After these checks, the Protestants again made an advantageous peace, and having had four cities surrendered to them as pledges for their civil and religious liberty, Catherine drew their chiefs to court, and lulled them into a false confidence of security. Young Henry had just married the king's sister; and scarcely had the festivities closed, when on a sudden, in the dead of the night, the alarm bell was sounded, and the royalists rushed into the houses of the Huguenots, and massacred them without distinction of age or sex. The Louvre flowed with blood; the infamous king fired from his balcony upon the French. At the same moment similar horrors

were perpetrated in the different provinces of the kingdom; but in the midst of this infatuation of cruelty, every one was filled with admiration at beholding two of the king's officers (D'Orthez and Curzay) who refused to act as executioners. The illustrious Coligny, however, was sacrificed; and on this occasion the infamous Charles IX. said, 'A dead enemy always smells well.' Henry and the new prince of Condé were compelled to a sudden abjuration of their sentiments; and the king openly avowed that every thing had been done by his orders: even the parliament applauded this massacre, and decreed an annual procession to commemorate the murder of 100,000 Frenchmen! It is sufficient at this day to mention St. Bartholomew's day to excite horror; and yet at this day, observes an able French writer, it finds some apologists.

If ever men were justified in assuming the sword in defence of religion, the Protestants of France were at this period. (A. D. 1573). The war was again kindled; and the duke of Anjou lost .000 men at the siege of' La Rochelle; the women even fought with the courage of despair. The year following the party of the malcontents was formed, to which the Huguenots united themselves, and the contest still continued. In the midst of these transactions the king died. We learn with some surprise, says the worthy writer above alluded to, that this monster had some sense, wrote verses, and protected learning. During this reign the long continued council of Trent terminated its sitting; after being occupied wholly in matters of diplomatic etiquette, and in condemning the doctrines of the Protestants. At this time also the Belgians and the Hollanders rose against the Catholic despot, Philip II. The duke of Alva, his general, committed in those countries horrible excesses against the Huguenots, who were here called Beggars. But the latter found happily those means of resistance which enabled them to found one of the richest and most industrious 'communities of Europe. The manners of this age are a mixture of corruption and barbarity, of stoicism united with superstition, and debauchery with crime. By an ordinance of 1574, in conformity with a bull of Gregory XIII., the year, which used to commence with Easter, and consequently to alter every year, was fixed to begin regularly on the 1st of January. The parliament for three years opposed this reform: it had always an antipathy to useful innovations.

The duke of Anjou, who had just come from Poland, where he had been chosen king, returned to France under the name of Henry III. He proved himself a very successful general of an army: as a king he was idle, trifling, superstitiously devout, and given up to infamous debaucheries. He was advised to act mildly towards the Calvinists; he declared war against them. His brother, the duke of Alençon, and Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV., united against him, and, in an edict of 1576, the Calvinists obtained some political advantages. The holy league was then formed: a combination of mad' Catholics who pledged themselves to defend religion and the king in blind obedience to their chief, Henry of Guise. The states were

assembled at Blois, and the leaguers had the ascendancy, for the king was compelled to authorise the league; but they soon began to treat him with little respect; and having consulted the pope, to know if they might disobey him for the service of religion, were answered in the affirmative. Guise put forward the old cardinal Bourbon, who issued a manifesto in the name of all the Catholic monarchs of Europe; and the court, intimidated, yielded entirely to the leaguers. After this, however, the war called that of the three Henries broke out. Sixtus V. excommunicated Henry of Navarre; and the punishment of Mary Stuart, ordered by the Protestant Elizabeth, increased the fury of the Catholics. Henry, however, beat the royalists, under the command of Joyeuse and other favorites, at Coutras ; while Guise, on the other hand, defeated the German Calvinists who were coming to his assistance. In the mean time, insurrections were organised at Paris under the name of the Sixteen; that is, the sixteen quarters of the commune. The Sorbonne, which supported them, decided that the government might be taken out of the hands of weak princes; and, having assembled at Nancy, the leaguers dictated orders to the king, who sent for the Swiss to Paris. The fanatical citizens immediately ran to arms, barricadoed the streets, even up to the Louvre, and surrounded the troops. The king fled and left the capital to Guise and the league. This was the day of the barricading.' The leaguers imposed on the king a new union against the heretics; and, about the same time, the English defeated the great invincible fleet of Philip.

The states re-assembled at Blois (A. D. 1588), when the leaguers again had the majority. They occupied themselves much about the council of Trent, and not at all in the establishment of order. The Guises were now at the summit of their power, and could with equal ease play the parts of Pepin or of Capet. This the king perceived, and, being unable to resist them, procured, to his disgrace, their assassination. The rage of the leaguers was thus redoubled: in the duke of Mayenne they soon found a second head: they cursed the king in the pulpit; and those members of the parliament who resisted them were imprisoned in the bastile. At last the king, having only a few towns left, felt the necessity of being reconciled to Henry of Bearn; who received him very cordially and led him back towards Paris. They had already reached St. Cloud, when a young Dominican, under the direction of the leaguers, stabbed the king with a knife; a murder which the Parisians celebrated with joy: the Catholics generally, instigated by the Jesuits, endeavoured to prove from Scripture that it was lawful to kill a tyrant; and Clé, the assassin, was regarded as a saint. In this reign the order of St. Michael, founded by Louis XI., having fallen into discredit, that of the Holy Spirit was instituted to flatter the Catholics. The intriguing Catherine died in 1589, detested by all parties. SECT. V.-THE BRANCH OF THE BOURBONS. The branch of the Valois being extinct, Henry of Bourbon Navarre ascended the throne as a descendant of Louis IX. he merited it by his

virtues. Brought up in the mountains, and among shepherds, he had little knowledge of that which corrupts princes; he was a man long before he was a king; and became, so to speak, the author of that legitimacy which he had to prove sword in hand. Acknowledged only by a few provinces, in full possession of none, he first struggled against Mayenne, whose numerous army included a considerable body of Spanish infantry, at that time the best in Europe. He was on the point of determining to go over to England, when encountering Mayenne at Arques he defeated him with 5000 men, and marched immediately towards Paris, which he was very near surprising. Here the old cardinal of Bourbon, his cousin, had just been declared king under the title of Charles X. Henry, after this, vanquished Mayenne, in another battle, at Ivri, where he was heard to cry out Save the French,' and then blockaded Paris. The leaguers defended themselves with fury; fanaticism supported them; they even formed regiments of priests and monks; but the famine became frightful and bread was made of the bones of the dead. Henry at last suffered provisions to be sent in to the besieged until the celebrated Farnese, the general of Philip II. came with an army to raise the siege.

During this time the duke of Savoy invaded Dauphiny and Provence; and, the new pope having proscribed Henry IV., Philip II., the demon of the south,' assisted by the Sixteen, labored to get himself elected king of France. Henry laid siege to Rouen, which Farnese delivered, and war raged throughout almost all the country. To increase the anarchy a new faction was formed at Paris, called the party of the politicians, which united with that of the malcontents. It consisted of some moderate Catholics who sought for peace by recognising the king. At length the various parties came to a conference. The king decided on recantation, and said,

Paris is worth a mass;' Mayenne signed a truce, and the league fell by the power of ridicule and contempt in an attempt to assassinate Henry, who entered Paris on the 22nd of March, 1594.

Thus closed the sixteenth century, the century of the Reformation, and of the most glorious events for mankind. Copernicus, Galileo, and Torricelli, notwithstanding the power of the inquisition, applied themselves in this memorable era to the study of the philosophy of experience and reason, while the pedants of the university were contending about the pronunciation of the letter Q. Bacon, the chancellor of England, introduced some order into the catalogue of human sciences; Montaigne carried independence of mind into the study of man; but political questions were still approached with much timidity. Morus, Bodin, and Grotius sought for the laws of the social body, rather among the ancients than in nature, while Boëtius attacked despotism with quotations and declamation. The Reformation, however, 't must be admitted, spread something of a republican spirit: the Calvinist politicians, in 1575, traced the plan of a constitutional organisation, and were the liberals of the age; but public

opinion was not ripe for their efforts. Then also, as at all times when the human mind is emancipated, the enemies of religious and civil liberty were leagued together to reduce it again under their yoke. The Spanish kings had strengthened their throne by a union of the tiara with the sword; the inquisition had been established; and though for this time, at least, it was repulsed by France, the policy and fanaticism of the priests again rallied, and the society of the Jesuits was founded, to become the curse of the world.

Holland, struggling both against the ocean and the Spanish aggression, triumphed over both. Called forward by the states of this republic, the brother of Henry III. wanted to assume the authority of a king, but the French stupidly cried out 'Live the mass,' and they were irritated, and drove them away.

Henry IV. at first re-established the parliament; then he undertook to allay the animosities of the Calvinists and the leaguers; which the Jesuits as steadily inflamed. They were, however, by the advice of the parliament, driven out of the university and the church, until they obtained from the pope the absolution of the king, as the price of their re-establishment. At this time Mayenne was not reduced, but the king defeated him at French Fontaine, and granted him an amnesty. The duke of Epernon also having revolted, submitted, and war was declared against Philip II., who took Calais. On this the king, who wanted money to oppose him, summoned the nobles at Rouen, to take their advice; that is to say, to ask for subsidies, and told them, that his fairest title was the quality of a gentleman.

Ultimately, the Spaniards were driven back; Mercœur, governor of Brittany, who still held with the league, submitted, and a treaty was signed with Philip, who died soon after. At this time, the Calvinists having loudly expressed, in their meeting at Saumur, their discontent at the little favor they enjoyed, Henry issued the celebrated edict of Nantes, in which the exercise of their religion was tolerated under some restrictions.

An event of this period leads us to speak of the French peerage. According to one of the principles of feudalism, a man was to be tried by his peers. The dukes of Normandy, Burgundy, and Aquitaine, the earls of Champagne, Toulouse, and Flanders, and other great vassals, could alone judge in matters that concerned each other; and they had a right to enter the king's council at any time, as they were themselves sovereigns: it has been seen how the royal power was oppressed by such counsellors; but, by their pride or their carelessness, the chief of them were kept from repairing to the court. Philip the Fair created new peers, in order to weaken and pervert this institution, which was still so imposing that the rank of peer was superior to that of prince of the blood. During the civil wars, however, the peerage had declined; the nobles, being divided, became less formidable, and Henry IV. lowered their claims by a vigorous display of the royal will. But the governors of the provinces had usurped immense power in

the time of the anarchy. They formed the project of preserving this in the same way as the counts of the time of Charles the Bald had done; in fact, they wished to recommence the feudal government. Mayenne, Mercœur, and Nemours strove to make their honors hereditary. Biron treated with the duke of Savoy to attain the same object. The plan was to make France a feudal and electoral confederation like Germany. But the conspiracy was discovered, and Biron, although the king's old companion in arms, was beheaded by a decree of parliament, A. D. 1602.

The latter events of this reign were, the promise made to the pope to recall the Jesuits; the conspiracy of Henrietta of Entragues, to whom Henry had made a promise of marriage; and the mediation between the pope, the Venetians, Spain, and Holland. Henry took arms against Austria, and proposed, they say, to execute the plan of a perpetual peace and confederation of Europe. At this time he was assassinated by Ravaillac. Two other fanatics had already attempted this crime; excited to it, as was this wretch, by the Jesuits.

Henry, assisted by Sully, his friend and minister, introduced order and economy into the public treasury, which formerly not more than one-fifth of the taxes ever reached. He was truly a good man, though he reigned like an absolute monarch; and repressed every rising attempt at freedom, even to the resistance of parliament, by the empty parade of seats of justice. How, indeed, could such a man sign the cruel edict, that condemned his subjects to the whip and the galleys for killing a rabbit? The reason may be easily given, though it is with pain; the despotism of Richelieu and of Louis XIV. is to be traced to Henry IV. After this we may cease to reproach him for loving gambling, and seducing the wives of his subjects. But he was popular, and still lives in the gratitude of the nation; a glory which, to the present day, belongs almost solely to him.

The

The new favorite received, as a gift from the king, the immense riches arising from their malpractices. Louis XIII. was one of those men, who execute without energy the suggestions of others, and who avenge themselves for their habitual submission, by fits of brutality.

At this time appeared the celebrated cardinal Richelieu; he was the creature of Concini, and had lived retired since the fall of the latter. Possessed of a disposition the most inflexible, and the most ardent desire of making others feel his power, he subjected every thing to the force of his despotic but able mind. He at first attempted to make himself feared by the great, and caused several of them to be condemned to death by commissions. He surrounded himself with guards; suppressed the high offices of admiral and constable, which formerly conferred immense authority; and treated the Calvinists with sufficient kindness to excite their hopes, that he might afterwards succeed in his project for oppressing them, by taking away their towns. After a famous siege, which he conducted in person, and a truly heroic resistance of a year, displayed in all the horrors of famine, he took Rochelle, which was defended by an English fleet, and he caused this bulwark of the Calvinistic faith to be rased to the ground. He then reduced Rohan, the general of the reformed army, and discovered, it is said, that the plan of the Protestants was to found a federative republic, like that which they had seen so prosperous in Holland. Had they succeeded, how different would the history of Europe have appeared!

We are, in fact, not now treating of the reign of Louis, but of Richelieu, before whom every thing bowed. Roussillon was conquered in 1628; the house of Austria was humbled, and several wars were carried on against the Spaniards with various success: Catalonia was given up to France. The genius of Richelieu could avail itself of all the resources of policy; and he is entitled to the praise of gloriously maintaining the rank of France among the nations of Europe. There is, however, something sad and monotonous in this reign; every thing in it bears the mark of despotism. Weak attempts were made, from time to time, to resist its progress, but they were always effectually suppressed; even the noblest families connected with them did not escape. The marshal Marillac was executed in 1630; the duke of Montmorency, taken in arms, and condemned by the parliament of Toulouse, was doomed to the same fate, notwithstanding he obtained the king's pardon, in 1632; and his estates of St. Maur, Ecouen, and Chantilly passed to the house of Condé, as national domains. Cinq Mars and de Thou were beheaded in 1642, for having conspired against the cardinal, with the knowledge even of the king himself, who was weary of the haughty pomp of his minister. At length this tyrannical priest died. Louis XIII. breathed a little, and then died also, as if,' say our French authorities, ‘Richelieu had ordered him to follow him to the tomb!' The absolute power of Charles VII. and Henry IV. at least preserved the elasticity of the French character. Richelieu, like Louis XI., humbled and degraded it; under him France

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was rendered miserable; it seems as if despotism stupified the people, and inflicted barrenness on the soil. The claims of parliament were of very little avail under such a master. One day, the magistrates having refused a registration, Richelieu had them cited before the king, and kept them on their knees during the whole of the audience. He, however, instituted the academy, which had the patience to draw up his apotheosis annually for 150 years; but the Cid, which he suppressed, gave scope to the genius of French literature, and Descartes, persecuted by the devotees, went to philosophise in Sweden.

Louis XIV. was at this time (A. D. 1643) five years old. The parliament still arrogated to itself the right of appointing the regency. The queen dowager, Anne of Austria, a coquettish and versatile woman, obtained it. Mazarine, an Italian cardinal, her favorite, who had been elevated by Richelieu, governed for her. He was a clever and supple man, who cunningly acted the despot, and seemed to regard the art of making dupes as the only art of reigning. The war with Austria continued, but without any result. The young d'Enghien, afterwards the great Condé, showed himself on this occasion: he triumphed at Rocroy and at Fribourg; Turenne was victor (1644) at Nordlingen, and took Dunkirk; and Condé was again victorious at Lens. This war, in which the Swedes were useful allies, terminated in the treaty of Westphalia (A. D. 1648), which arranged the Germanic body, and limited the imperial power.

At the peace, the discontents of the nobles broke out against cardinal Mazarine, and, united with the parliament, they began the association called La Fronde, while the people sometimes supported them, and opposed the two magistrates appointed by the court. There was, however, hardly any thing interesting to them in these quarrels of a few ambitious and turbulent men: bowed down under the yoke, they gained nothing by these disputes; these factions were in fact the clubs of despots, who laughed and jested at the public wrongs while they were contending for power. A libertine prelate was seen playing the part of Catiline, and, while he recited his strange exploits, he rendered civil war amusing. At length Condé, discontented with the court, which he had at first served, forsook it; and though Mazarine had him arrested, he afterwards released him. Seeing the storm growing blacker, this great man at first left France; but, a price being set on his head, he returned, raised 7000 men, and united himself with the Frondeurs and the Spaniards. Mazarine now raised a force, which he placed under the command of Turenne, and an engagement ensued near the fauxbourg of St. Anthony; in which Condé was victorious after a bloody battle. The parliament on this appointed the irresolute Gaston, duke of Orleans, lieutenant of the kingdom. Mazarine retired from court, and the Fronde having no longer any pretext dispersed; but the king and the cardinal soon re-entered Paris, and the natural result of this parade of insurrection was to render their power more absolute. Condé now