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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6417-8.txt b/6417-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..21dbeb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/6417-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,24100 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Political and Social History of Modern +Europe V.1., by Carlton J. H. Hayes + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. + +Author: Carlton J. H. Hayes + +Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6417] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 8, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EUROPE V1 *** + + + + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +A POLITICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE +VOLUME I +1500-1815 + +BY CARLTON J. H. HAYES + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book represents an attempt on the part of the author to satisfy a +very real need of a textbook which will reach far enough back to afford +secure foundations for a college course in modern European history. + +The book is a long one, and purposely so. Not only does it undertake to +deal with a period at once the most complicated and the most inherently +interesting of any in the whole recorded history of mankind, but it +aims to impart sufficiently detailed information about the various +topics discussed to make the college student feel that he is advanced a +grade beyond the student in secondary school. There is too often a +tendency to underestimate the intellectual capabilities of the +collegian and to feed him so simple and scanty a mental pabulum that he +becomes as a child and thinks as a child. Of course the author +appreciates the fact that most college instructors of history piece out +the elementary textbooks by means of assignments of collateral reading +in large standard treatises. All too frequently, however, such +assignments, excellent in themselves, leave woeful gaps which a slender +elementary manual is inadequate to fill. And the student becomes too +painfully aware, for his own educational good, of a chasmal separation +between his textbook and his collateral reading. The present manual is +designed to supply a narrative of such proportions that the need of +additional reading will be somewhat lessened, and at the same time it +is provided with critical bibliographies and so arranged as to enable +the judicious instructor more easily to make substitutions here and +there from other works or to pass over this or that section entirely. +Perhaps these considerations will commend to others the judgment of the +author in writing a long book. + +Nowadays prefaces to textbooks of modern history almost invariably +proclaim their writers' intention to stress recent happenings or at +least those events of the past which have had a direct bearing upon the +present. An examination of the following pages will show that in the +case of this book there is no discrepancy between such an intention on +the part of the present writer and its achievement. Beginning with the +sixteenth century, the story of the civilization of modern Europe is +carried down the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries with +constant _crescendo_. Of the total space devoted to the four +hundred years under review, the last century fills half. And the +greatest care has been taken to bring the story down to date and to +indicate as clearly and calmly as possible the underlying causes of the +vast contemporaneous European war, which has already put a new +complexion on our old historical knowledge and made everything that +went before seem part and parcel of an old régime. + +As to why the author has preferred to begin the story of modern Europe +with the sixteenth century, rather than with the thirteenth or with the +French Revolution, the reader is specially referred to the +_Introduction_. It has seemed to the author that particularly from +the Commercial Revolution of the sixteenth century dates the remarkable +and steady evolution of that powerful middle class--the bourgeoisie-- +which has done more than all other classes put together to condition +the progress of the several countries of modern Europe and to create +the life and thought of the present generation throughout the world. +The rise of the bourgeoisie is the great central theme of modern +history; it is the great central theme of this book. + +Not so very long ago distinguished historians were insisting that the +state, as the highest expression of man's social instincts and as the +immediate concern of all human beings, is the only fit subject of +historical study, and that history, therefore, must be simply "past +politics"; under their influence most textbooks became compendiums of +data about kings and constitutions, about rebellions and battles. More +recently historians of repute, as well as eminent economists, have +given their attention and patronage to painstaking investigations of +how, apart from state action, man in the past has toiled or traveled or +done the other ordinary things of everyday life; and the influence of +such scholars has served to provide us with a considerable number of +convenient manuals on special phases of social history. Yet more +recently several writers of textbooks have endeavored to combine the +two tendencies and to present in a single volume both political and +social facts, but it must be confessed that sometimes these writers +have been content to tell the old political tale in orthodox manner and +then to append a chapter or two of social miscellany, whose connection +with the body of their book is seldom apparent to the student. + +The present volume represents an effort really to combine political and +social history in one synthesis: the author, quite convinced of the +importance of the view that political activities constitute the most +perfect expression of man's social instincts and touch mankind most +universally, has not neglected to treat of monarchs and parliaments, of +democracy and nationalism; at the same time he has cordially accepted +the opinion that political activities are determined largely by +economic and social needs and ambitions; and accordingly he has +undertaken not only to incorporate at fairly regular intervals such +chapters as those on the Commercial Revolution, Society in the +Eighteenth Century, the Industrial Revolution, and Social Factors, +1870-1914, but also to show in every part of the narrative the economic +aspects of the chief political facts. + +Despite the length of this book, critics will undoubtedly note +omissions. Confronting the writer of every textbook of history is the +eternal problem of selection--the choice of what is most pointedly +significant from the sum total of man's thoughts, words, and deeds. It +is a matter of personal judgment, and personal judgments are +notoriously variant. Certainly there will be critics who will complain +of the present author's failure to follow up his suggestions concerning +sixteenth-century art and culture with a fuller account of the +development of philosophy and literature from the seventeenth to the +twentieth century; and the only rejoinders that the harassed author can +make are the rather lame ones that a book, to be a book, must conform +to the mechanical laws of space and dimension, and that a serious +attempt on the part of the present writer to make a synthesis of social +and political facts precludes no effort on the part of other and abler +writers to synthesize all these facts with the phenomena which are +conventionally assigned to the realm of "cultural" or "intellectual" +history. In this, and in all other respects, the author trusts that his +particular solution of the vexatious problem of selection will prove as +generally acceptable as any. + +In the all-important matter of accuracy, the author cannot hope to have +escaped all the pitfalls that in a peculiarly broad and crowded field +everywhere trip the feet of even the most wary and persistent searchers +after truth. He has naturally been forced to rely for the truth of his +statements chiefly upon numerous secondary works, of which some +acknowledgment is made in the following _Note_, and upon the +kindly criticisms of a number of his colleagues; in some instances, +notably in parts of the chapters on the Protestant Revolt, the French +Revolution, and developments since 1848 in Great Britain, France, and +Germany, he has been able to draw on his own special studies of primary +source material, and in certain of these instances he has ventured to +dissent from opinions that have been copied unquestioningly from one +work to another. + +No period of history can be more interesting or illuminating than the +period with which this book is concerned, especially now, when a war of +tremendous magnitude and meaning is attracting the attention of the +whole civilized world and arousing a desire in the minds of all +intelligent persons to know something of the past that has produced it. +The great basic causes of the present war the author has sought, not in +the ambitions of a single power nor in an isolated outrage, but in the +history of four hundred years. He has tried to write a book that would +be suggestive and informing, not only to the ordinary college student, +but to the more mature and thoughtful student of public affairs in the +university of the world. + +CARLTON J. H. HAYES. AFTON, NEW YORK, May, 1916. + + + + +NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT + + +The author begs to acknowledge his general indebtedness to a veritable +host of historical writers, of whose original researches or secondary +compilations he has constantly and almost unblushingly made use in the +preparation of this book. At the close of the _Introduction_ will +be found a list of the major works dealing with the whole period under +review, or with the greater part of it, which have been drawn upon most +heavily. And there is hardly a book cited in any of the special +bibliographies following the several chapters that has not supplied +some single fact or suggestion to the accompanying narrative. + +For many of the general ideas set forth in this work as well as for +painstaking assistance in reading manuscript and correcting errors of +detail, the author confesses his debt to various colleagues in Columbia +University and elsewhere. In particular, Professor R. L. Schuyler has +helpfully read the chapters on English history; Professor James T. +Shotwell, the chapter on the Commercial Revolution; Professor D. S. +Muzzey, the chapters on the French Revolution, Napoleon, and +Metternich; Professor William R. Shepherd, the chapters on "National +Imperialism"; and Professor Edward B. Krehbiel of Leland Stanford +Junior University, the chapter on recent international relations. +Professor E. F. Humphrey of Trinity College (Connecticut) has given +profitable criticism on the greater part of the text; and Professor +Charles A. Beard of Columbia University, Professor Sidney B. Fay of +Smith College, and Mr. Edward L. Durfee of Yale University, have read +the whole work and suggested several valuable emendations. Three +instructors in history at Columbia have been of marked service--Dr. +Austin P. Evans, Mr. D. R. Fox, and Mr. Parker T. Moon. The last named +devoted the chief part of two summers to the task of preparing notes +for several chapters of the book and he has attended the author on the +long dreary road of proof reading. + + + + +CONTENTS + +VOLUME I + +PART I + +FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN EUROPE + + +CHAPTER I. THE COUNTRIES OF EUROPE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH + CENTURY + The New National Monarchies + The Old Holy Roman Empire + The City-States + Northern and Eastern Europe in the year 1500 + +CHAPTER II. THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION + Agriculture in the Sixteenth Century + Towns on the Eve of the Commercial Revolution + Trade Prior to the Commercial Revolution + The Age of Exploration + Establishment of Colonial Empires + Effects of the Commercial Revolution + +CHAPTER III. EUROPEAN POLITICS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + The Emperor Charles V + Philip II and the Predominance of Spain + +CHAPTER IV. THE PROTESTANT REVOLT AND THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION + The Catholic Church at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century + The Protestant Revolt + Lutheranism + Calvinism + Anglicanism + The Catholic Reformation + Summary of the Religious Revolution in the Sixteenth Century + +CHAPTER V. THE CULTURE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + The Invention of Printing + Humanism + Art in the Sixteenth Century + National Literatures in the Sixteenth Century + Beginnings of Modern Natural Science + + +PART II + +DYNASTIC AND COLONIAL RIVALRY + +CHAPTER VI. THE GROWTH OF ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE AND THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN + BOURBONS AND HABSBURGS, 1589-1661 + Growth of Absolutism in France: Henry IV, Richelieu, and Mazarin + Struggle between Bourbons and Habsburgs: The Thirty Years' War + +CHAPTER VII. THE GROWTH OF ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE AND THE STRUGGLE + BETWEEN BOURBONS AND HABSBURGS, 1661-1743 + The Age of Louis XIV + Extension of French Frontiers + The War of the Spanish Succession + +CHAPTER VIII. THE TRIUMPH OF PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND + Conflicting Political Tendencies in England: Absolutism _versus_ + Parliamentarianism + The Puritan Revolution + The Restoration: the Reign of Charles II + The "Glorious Revolution" and the Final Establishment of + Parliamentary Government in Great Britain + +CHAPTER IX. THE WORLD CONFLICT OF FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN + French and English Colonies in the Seventeenth Century + Preliminary Encounters, 1689-1748 + The Triumph of Great Britain: The Seven Years' War, 1756-1763 + +CHAPTER X. THE REVOLUTION WITHIN THE BRITISH EMPIRE + The British Colonial System in the Eighteenth Century + The War of American Independence, 1775-1783 + The Reformation of the British Empire + +CHAPTER XI. THE GERMANIES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + The Holy Roman Empire in Decline + The Habsburg Dominions + The Rise of Prussia. The Hohenzollerns + The Minor German States + The Struggle between Hohenzollerns and Habsburgs + +CHAPTER XII. THE RISE OF RUSSIA, AND THE DECLINE OF TURKEY, SWEDEN, AND + POLAND + Russia in the Seventeenth Century + Peter the Great + Sweden and the Career of Charles XII + Catherine the Great: the Defeat of Turkey and the Dismemberment of + Poland + + +PART III + +"LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY" + +CHAPTER XIII. EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + Agriculture in the Eighteenth Century + Commerce and Industry in the Eighteenth Century + The Privileged Classes + Religious and Ecclesiastical Conditions in the Eighteenth Century + Scientific and Intellectual Developments in the Eighteenth Century + +CHAPTER XIV. EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + The British Monarchy + The Enlightened Despots + The French Monarchy + +CHAPTER XV. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION + Introductory + The End of Absolutism in France, 1789 + The End of the Old Regime: the National Constituent Assembly, + 1789-1791 + The Limited Monarchy in Operation: the Legislative Assembly + (1791-1792) and the Outbreak of Foreign War + Establishment of the First French Republic: the National + Convention, 1792-1795 + The Directory (1795-1799) and the Transformation of the Republic into + a Military Dictatorship + Significance of the French Revolution + +CHAPTER XVI. THE ERA OF NAPOLEON + The French Republic under the Consulate, 1799-1804 + The French Empire and its Territorial Expansion + Destruction of the French Empire + Significance of the Era of Napoleon + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +The story of modern times is but a small fraction of the long epic of +human history. If, as seems highly probable, the conservative estimates +of recent scientists that mankind has inhabited the earth more than +fifty thousand years [Footnote: Professor James Geikie, of the +University of Edinburgh, suggests, in his _Antiquity of Man in +Europe_ (1914), the possible existence of human beings on the earth +more than 500,000 years ago!], are accurate, then the bare five hundred +years which these volumes pass in review constitute, in time, less than +a hundredth part of man's past. Certainly, thousands of years before +our day there were empires and kingdoms and city-states, showing +considerable advancement in those intellectual pursuits which we call +civilization or culture,--that is, in religion, learning, literature, +political organization, and business; and such basic institutions as +the family, the state, and society go back even further, past our +earliest records, until their origins are shrouded in deepest mystery. +Despite its brevity, modern history is of supreme importance. Within +its comparatively brief limits are set greater changes in human life +and action than are to be found in the records of any earlier +millennium. While the present is conditioned in part by the deeds and +thoughts of our distant forbears who lived thousands of years ago, it +has been influenced in a very special way by historical events of the +last five hundred years. Let us see how this is true. + +Suppose we ask ourselves in what important respects the year 1900 +differed from the year 1400. In other words, what are the great +distinguishing achievements of modern times? At least six may be noted: + +(1) _Exploration and knowledge of the whole globe_. To our +ancestors from time out of mind the civilized world was but the lands +adjacent to the Mediterranean and, at most, vague stretches of Persia, +India, and China. Not much over four hundred years ago was America +discovered and the globe circumnavigated for the first time, and very +recently has the use of steamship, telegraph, and railway served to +bind together the uttermost parts of the world, thereby making it +relatively smaller, less mysterious, and in culture more unified. + +(2) _Higher standards of individual efficiency and comfort_. The +physical welfare of the individual has been promoted to a greater +degree, or at all events preached more eloquently, within the last few +generations than ever before. This has doubtless been due to changes in +the commonplace everyday life of all the people. It must be remembered +that in the fifteenth century man did the ordinary things of life in +much the same manner as did early Romans or Greeks or Egyptians, and +that our present remarkable ways of living, of working, and of +traveling are the direct outcome of the Commercial Revolution of the +sixteenth century and of the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth. + +(3) _Intensification of political organization, with attendant public +guarantees of personal liberties_. The ideas of nationalism and of +democracy are essentially modern in their expression. The notion that +people who speak the same language and have a common culture should be +organized as an independent state with uniform laws and customs was +hardly held prior to the fifteenth century. The national states of +England, France, and Spain did not appear unmistakably with their +national boundaries, national consciousness, national literature, until +the opening of the sixteenth century; and it was long afterwards that +in Italy and Germany the national idea supplanted the older notions of +world empire or of city-state or of feudalism. The national state has +proved everywhere a far more powerful political organization than any +other: its functions have steadily increased, now at the expense of +feudalism, now at the expense of the church; and such increase has been +as constant under industrial democracy of the nineteenth and twentieth +centuries as under the benevolent despotism of the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries. But in measure as government has enlarged its +scope, the governed have worked out and applied protective principles +of personal liberties. The Puritan Revolution, the French Revolution, +the American Revolution, the uprisings of oppressed populations +throughout the nineteenth century, would be quite inexplicable in other +than modern times. In fact the whole political history of the last four +centuries is in essence a series of compromises between the conflicting +results of the modern exaltation of the state and the modern exaltation +of the individual. + +(4) _Replacement of the idea of the necessity of uniformity in a +definite faith and religion by toleration of many faiths or even of no +faith_. A great state religion, professed publicly, and financially +supported by all the citizens, has been a distinguishing mark of every +earlier age. Whatever else may be thought of the Protestant movement of +the sixteenth century, of the rise of deism and skepticism in the +seventeenth and eighteenth, and of the existence of scientific +rationalism in the nineteenth and twentieth, there can be little doubt +that each of them has contributed its share to the prevalence of the +idea that religion is essentially a private, not a public, affair and +that friendly rivalry in good works is preferable to uniformity in +faith. + +(5) _Diffusion of learning_. The invention of printing towards the +close of the fifteenth century gradually revolutionized the pursuit of +knowledge and created a real democracy of letters. What learning might +have lost in depth through its marvelous broadening has perhaps been +compensated for by the application of the keenest minds in the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to experimental science and in our +own day to applied science. + +(6) _Spirit of progress and decline of conservatism_. For better +or for worse the modern man is intellectually more self-reliant than +his ancestors, more prone to try new inventions and to profit by new +discoveries, more conscious and therefore more critical of conditions +about him, more convinced that he lives in a better world than did his +fathers, and that his children who come after him should have a better +chance than he has had. This is the modern spirit. It is the product of +all the other elements of the history of five hundred years--the larger +geographical horizon, the greater physical comfort, the revolutionized +political institutions, the broader sympathies, the newer ideals of +education. Springing thus from events of the past few centuries, the +modern spirit nevertheless looks ever forward, not backward. A debtor +to the past, it will be doubly creditor to the future. It will +determine the type of individual and social betterment through coming +centuries. Such an idea is implied in the phrase, "the continuity of +history"--the ever-flowing stream of happenings that brings down to us +the heritage of past ages and that carries on our richer legacies to +generations yet unborn. + +From such a conception of the continuity of history, the real +significance of our study can be derived. It becomes perfectly clear +that if we understand the present we shall be better prepared to face +the problems and difficulties of the future. But to understand the +present thoroughly, it becomes necessary not only to learn what are its +great features and tendencies, but likewise how they have been evolved. +Now, as we have already remarked, six most important characteristics of +the present day have been developed within the last four or five +centuries. To follow the history of this period, therefore, will tend +to familiarize us both with present-day conditions and with future +needs. This is the genuine justification for the study of the history +of modern times. + +Modern history may conveniently be defined as that part of history +which deals with the origin and evolution of the great distinguishing +characteristics of the present. No precise dates can be assigned to +modern history as contrasted with what has commonly been called ancient +or medieval. In a sense, any division of the historical stream into +parts or periods is fundamentally fallacious: for example, inasmuch as +the present generation owes to the Greeks of the fourth century before +Christ many of its artistic models and philosophical ideas and very few +of its political theories, the former might plausibly be embraced in +the field of modern history, the latter excluded therefrom. But the +problem before us is not so difficult as may seem on first thought. To +all intents and purposes the development of the six characteristics +that have been noted has taken place within five hundred years. The +sixteenth century witnessed the true beginnings of the change in the +extensive world discoveries, in the establishment of a recognized +European state system, in the rise of Protestantism, and in the +quickening of intellectual activity. It is the foundation of modern +Europe. + +The sixteenth century will therefore be the general subject of Part I +of this volume. After reviewing the geography of Europe about the year +1500, we shall take up in turn the _four_ factors of the century +which have had a lasting influence upon us: (1) socially and +economically--The Commercial Revolution; (2) politically--European +Politics in the Sixteenth Century; (3) religiously and +ecclesiastically--The Protestant Revolt; (4) intellectually--The +Culture of the Sixteenth Century. + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +THE STUDY OF HISTORY. On historical method: C. V. Langlois and Charles +Seignobos, _Introduction to the Study of History_, trans. by G. G. +Berry (1912); J. M. Vincent, _Historical Research: an Outline of Theory +and Practice_ (1911); H. B. George, _Historical Evidence_ (1909); F. M. +Fling, _Outline of Historical Method_ (1899). Different views of +history: J. H. Robinson, _The New History_ (1912), a collection of +stimulating essays; J. T. Shotwell, suggestive article _History_ in +11th edition of _Encyclopædia Britannica_; T. B. Macaulay, essay on +_History_; Thomas Carlyle, _Heroes and Hero Worship_; Karl Lamprecht, +_What is History_? trans. by E. A. Andrews (1905). Also see Henry +Johnson, _The Teaching of History_ (1915); Eduard Fueter, _Geschichte +der neueren Historiographie_ (1911); Ernst Bernheim, _Lehrbuch der +historischen Methode und der Geschichtsphilosophie_, 5th ed. (1914); G. +P. Gooch, _History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century_ (1913). + +TEXTBOOKS AND MANUALS OF MODERN HISTORY. J. H. Robinson and C. A. +Beard, _The Development of Modern Europe_, 2 vols. (1907), a political +and social narrative from the time of Louis XIV, and by the same +authors, _Readings in Modern European History_, 2 vols. (1908-1909), an +indispensable sourcebook, with critical bibliographies; Ferdinand +Schevill, _A Political History of Modern Europe from the Reformation to +the Present Day_ (1907); T. H. Dyer, _A History of Modern Europe from +the Fall of Constantinople_, 3d ed. revised and continued to the end of +the nineteenth century by Arthur Hassall, 6 vols. (1901), somewhat +antiquated but still valuable for its vast store of political facts; +Victor Duruy, _History of Modern Times from the Fall of Constantinople +to the French Revolution_, trans. by E. A. Grosvenor (1894), verbose +and somewhat uncritical, but usable for French history. More up-to-date +series of historical manuals are now appearing or are projected by +Henry Holt and Company under the editorship of Professor C. H. Haskins, +by The Century Company under Professor G. L. Burr, by Ginn and Company +under Professor J. H. Robinson, and by Houghton Mifflin Company under +Professor J. T. Shotwell: such of these volumes as have appeared are +noted in the appropriate chapter bibliographies following. The +Macmillan Company has published _Periods of European History,_ 8 vols. +(1893-1901), under the editorship of Arthur Hassall, of which the last +five volumes treat of political Europe from 1494 to 1899; and a more +elementary political series, _Six Ages of European History_, 6 vols. +(1910), under the editorship of A. H. Johnson, of which the last three +volumes cover the years from 1453 to 1878. Much additional information +is obtainable from such popular series as _Story of the Nations_ (1886 +_sqq._), _Heroes of the Nations_ (1890 _sqq._), and _Home University +Library,_ though the volumes in such series are of very unequal merit. +Convenient chronological summaries are: G. P. and G. H. Putnam, +_Tabular Views of Universal History_ (1914); Carl Ploetz, _Manual of +Universal History_, trans. and enlarged by W. H. Tillinghast, new +edition (1915); _Haydn's Dictionary of Dates_, 25th ed. (1911); C. E. +Little, _Cyclopædia of Classified Dates_ (1900); _Cambridge Modern +History_, Vol. XIII (1911). The best atlas--a vitally necessary adjunct +of historical study--is either that of W. R. Shepherd, _Historical +Atlas_ (1911), or that of Ramsay Muir, _Hammond's New Historical Atlas +for Students_, 2d ed. (1915); a smaller historical atlas is that of E. +W. Dow (1907), and longer ones are _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. XIV +(1912) and, in German, Putzger, _Historischer Schulatlas_. Elaborate +treatises on historical geography: Elisée Reclus, _The Universal +Geography_, trans. and ed. by E. G. Ravenstein, 19 vols.; _Nouveau +Dictionnaire de Géographie Universelle_, by Vivien de Saint-Martin and +Louis Rousselet, 10 vols. See also H. B. George, _The Relations of +Geography and History_ (1910) and Ellen C. Semple, _The Influence of +Geographic Environment_ (1911). + +STANDARD SECONDARY WORKS AND SETS ON MODERN HISTORY. _The Cambridge +Modern History_, 12 vols. and 2 supplementary vols. (1902-1912), +planned by Lord Acton, edited by A. W. Ward, G. W. Prothero, and +Stanley Leathes, written by English scholars, covering the period from +1450 to 1910, generally sound but rather narrowly political. Better +balanced is the monumental work of a group of French scholars, +_Histoire générale du IVe siècle à nos jours_, edited by Ernest Lavisse +and Alfred Rambaud, 12 vols. (1894-1901), of which the last nine treat +of the years from 1492 to 1900. For social history a series, _Histoire +universelle du travail_, 12 vols., is projected under the editorship of +Georges Renard. _The Encyclopædia Britannica_, 11th ed. (1910-1911), is +the work mainly of distinguished scholars and a storehouse of +historical information, political, social, and intellectual. Also +available in English is _History of All Nations_, 24 vols. (1902), the +first nineteen based on translation of Theodor Flathe, _Allgemeine +Weltgeschichte_,--Vols. X-XXIV dealing with modern history,--Vol. XX, +on Europe, Asia, and Africa since 1871, by C. M. Andrews, and Vols. +XXI-XXIII, on American history, by John Fiske; likewise H. F. Helmolt +(editor), _Weltgeschichte_, trans. into English, 8 vols. (1902-1907). +Sets and series in German: Wilhelm Oncken (editor), _Allgemeine +Geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen_, 50 vols. (1879-1893); _Geschichte +der europäischen Staaten_, an enormous collection, appearing more or +less constantly from 1829 to the present and edited successively by +such famous scholars as A. H. L. Heeren, F. A. Ukert, Wilhelm von +Giesebrecht, and Karl Lamprecht; G. von Below and F. Meinecke +(editors), _Handbuch der mittel-alterlichen und neueren Geschichte_, a +series begun in 1903 and planned, when completed, to comprise 40 vols.; +Paul Hinneberg (editor), _Die Kultur der Gegenwart, ihre Entwicklung +und ihre Ziele_, a remarkable series begun in 1906 and intended to +explain in many volumes the civilization of the twentieth century in +all its aspects; Erich Brandenburg (editor), _Bibliothek der +Geschichtswissenschaft_, a series recently projected, the first volume +appearing in 1912; J. von Pflugk-Harttung, _Weltgeschichte: die +Entwicklung der Menschheit in Staat und Gesellschaft, in Kultur und +Geistesleben_, 6 vols. illust. (1908-1911); Theodor Lindner, +_Weltgeschichte seit der Völkerwanderung_, 8 vols. (1908-1914). +Valuable contributions to general modern history occur in such +monumental national histories as Karl Lamprecht, _Deutsche Geschichte_, +12 vols. in 16 (1891-1909), and, more particularly, Ernest Lavisse +(editor), _Histoire de France depuis les origines jusqu'à la +Révolution_, 9 double vols. (1900-1911). + +BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARIES. General: _Encyclopedia Britannica_, 11th +ed., 29 vols. (1910-1911); _New International Encyclopedia_, 2d ed., 24 +vols. (1914-1916); _Catholic Encyclopedia_, 15 vols. (1907-1912). Great +Britain: Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee (editors), _Dictionary of +National Biography_, 72 vols. (1885-1913). France: Hoefer (editor), +_Nouvelle biographie générale_, 46 vols. (1855-1866); _Dictionnaire de +biographie française_, projected (1913) under editorship of Louis +Didier, Albert Isnard, and Gabriel Ledos. Germany: Liliencron and +Wegele (editors), _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, 54 vols. (1875 +_sqq_.). Austria-Hungary: Wurzbach (editor), _Biographisches Lexikon +des Kaiserthums Oesterreich_, 60 vols. (1856-1891). There is also a +well-known French work--L. G. Michaud, _Biographie universelle ancienne +et moderne_, 45 vols. (1880). + +BIBLIOGRAPHY. Many of the works cited above and most of the works +mentioned in the following chapter bibliographies contain convenient +bibliographies on special topics. The best general guide to collections +of source material and to the organization of historical study and +research, though already somewhat out-of-date, is C. V. Langlois, +_Manuel de bibliographie historique_, 2 vols. (1901-1904). See also C. +M. Andrews, J. M. Gambrill, and Lida Tall, _A Bibliography of History +for Schools and Libraries_ (1910); and C. K. Adams, _A Manual of +Historical Literature_, 3d ed. (1889). Specifically, for Great Britain: +W. P. Courtney, _A Register of National Bibliography_, 3 vols. (1905- +1912); S. R. Gardiner and J. B. Mullinger, _Introduction to the Study +of English History_, 4th ed. (1903); H. L. Cannon, _Reading References +for English History_ (1910); _Bibliography of Modern English History_, +now (1916) in preparation under the auspices of English scholars and of +the American Historical Association. For German bibliography: Dahlmann- +Waitz, _Quellenkunde der deutschen Geschichte_, 8th ed. (1912); +_Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissenschaft_, a valuable annual +publication issued under the auspices of the Historical Association of +Berlin. For French bibliography: Gabriel Monod, _Bibliographie de +l'histoire de France_ (1888), new ed. projected (1910) in 4 vols.; +_Manuels de bibliographie historique_ (1907-1916): Part II, 1494-1610, +by Henri Hauser, _Part III, 1610-1715_, by Émile Bourgeois and Louis +André; _Répertoire méthodique de l'histoire moderne et contemporaine de +la France_, an annual publication edited by Brière and Caron. For +American bibliography: Edward Channing, A. B. Hart, and F. J. Turner, +_Guide to the Study of American History_ (1912). Among important +historical periodicals, containing bibliographical notes and book +reviews, are, _History Teacher's Magazine, The American Historical +Review, The English Historical Review, Die historische Zeitschrift, +Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, La revue historique_, and +_La revue des questions historiques_. For periodical literature see +_Poole's Index_ (1802-1906) and _Readers' Guide_ (1900 _sqq._). The +most famous lists of published books are: _The American Catalogue_ +(1876 _sqq._); the _English Catalogue_ (1835 _sqq._); C. G. Kayser, +_Bücher-Lexikon_ (1750 _sqq._); Wilhelm Heinsius, _Bücher-Lexikon_ +(1700-1892); Otto Lorenz, _Catalogue général de la librarie française +(1840 _sqq_.); and, for general comment, American Library Association, +_Index to General Literature_ (1893 _sqq._). + + + + +PART I + +FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN EUROPE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE COUNTRIES OF EUROPE AT THE OPENING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + + +1. THE NEW NATIONAL MONARCHIES + +[Sidenote: "National Monarchies" in 1500] + +Before we can safely proceed with the story of European development +during the past four hundred years, it is necessary to know what were +the chief countries that existed at the beginning of our period and +what were the distinctive political institutions of each. + +A glance at the map of Europe in 1500 will show numerous unfamiliar +divisions and names, especially in the central and eastern portions. +Only in the extreme west, along the Atlantic seaboard, will the eye +detect geographical boundaries which resemble those of the present day. +There, England, France, Spain, and Portugal have already taken form. In +each one of these countries is a real nation, with a single monarch, +and with a distinctive literary language. These four states are the +_national_ states of the sixteenth century. They attract our +immediate attention. + + +ENGLAND + +[Sidenote: The English Monarchy] + +In the year 1500 the English monarchy embraced little more than what on +the map is now called "England." It is true that to the west the +principality of Wales had been incorporated two hundred years earlier, +but the clannish mountaineers and hardy lowlanders of the northern part +of the island of Great Britain still preserved the independence of the +kingdom of Scotland, while Irish princes and chieftains rendered +English occupation of their island extremely precarious beyond the so- +called Pale of Dublin which an English king had conquered in the +twelfth century. Across the English Channel, on the Continent, the +English monarchy retained after 1453, the date of the conclusion of the +Hundred Years' War, only the town of Calais out of the many rich French +provinces which ever since the time of William the Conqueror (1066- +1087) had been a bone of contention between French and English rulers. + +While the English monarchy was assuming its geographical form, peculiar +national institutions were taking root in the country, and the English +language, as a combination of earlier Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French, +was being evolved. The Hundred Years' War with France, or rather its +outcome, served to exalt the sense of English nationality and English +patriotism, and to enable the king to devote his whole attention to the +consolidation of his power in the British islands. For several years +after the conclusion of peace on the Continent, England was harassed by +bloody and confused struggles, known as the Wars of the Roses, between +rival claimants to the throne, but at length, in 1485, Henry VII, the +first of the Tudor dynasty, secured the crown and ushered in a new era +of English history. + +[Sidenote: Increase of Royal Power in England under Henry VII] + +Henry VII (1485-1509) sought to create what has been termed a "strong +monarchy." Traditionally the power of the king had been restricted by a +Parliament, composed of a House of Lords and a House of Commons, and as +the former was then far more influential than the latter, supreme +political control had rested practically with the king and the members +of the upper house--great land-holding nobles and the princes of the +church. The Wars of the Roses had two effects which redounded to the +advantage of the king: (1) the struggle, being really a contest of two +factions of nobles, destroyed many noble families and enabled the crown +to seize their estates, thereby lessening the influence of an ancient +class; (2) the struggle, being long and disorderly, created in the +middle class or "common people" a longing for peace and the conviction +that order and security could be maintained only by repression of the +nobility and the strengthening of monarchy. Henry took advantage of +these circumstances to fix upon his country an absolutism, or one-man +power in government, which was to endure throughout the sixteenth +century, during the reigns of the four other members of the Tudor +family, and, in fact, until a popular revolution in the seventeenth +century. + +Henry VII repressed disorder with a heavy hand and secured the +establishment of an extraordinary court, afterwards called the "Court +of Star Chamber," to hear cases, especially those affecting the nobles, +which the ordinary courts had not been able to settle. Then, too, he +was very economical: the public revenue was increased by means of more +careful attention to the cultivation of the crown lands and the +collection of feudal dues, fines, benevolences [Footnote: +"Benevolences" were sums of money extorted from the people in the guise +of gifts. A celebrated minister of Henry VII collected a very large +number of "benevolences" for his master. If a man lived economically, +it was reasoned he was saving money and could afford a "present" for +the king. If, on the contrary, he lived sumptuously, he was evidently +wealthy and could likewise afford a "gift."], import and export duties, +and past parliamentary grants, while, by means of frugality and a +foreign policy of peace, the expenditure was appreciably decreased. +Henry VII was thereby freed in large measure from dependence on +Parliament for grants of money, and the power of Parliament naturally +declined. In fact, Parliament met only five times during his whole +reign and only once during the last twelve years, and in all its +actions was quite subservient to the royal desires. + +[Sidenote: Foreign relations of England under Henry VII] + +Henry VII refrained in general from foreign war, but sought by other +means to promote the international welfare of his country. He +negotiated several treaties by which English traders might buy and sell +goods in other countries. One of the most famous of these commercial +treaties was the _Intercursus Magnus_ concluded in 1496 with the +duke of Burgundy, admitting English goods into the Netherlands. He +likewise encouraged English companies of merchants to engage in foreign +trade and commissioned the explorations of John Cabot in the New World. +Henry increased the prestige of his house by politic marital alliances. +He arranged a marriage between the heir to his throne, Arthur, and +Catherine, eldest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spanish +sovereigns. Arthur died a few months after his wedding, but it was +arranged that Catherine should remain in England as the bride of the +king's second son, who subsequently became Henry VIII. The king's +daughter Margaret was married to King James IV of Scotland, thereby +paving the way much later for the union of the crowns of England and +Scotland. + +England in the year 1500 was a real national monarchy, and the power of +the king appeared to be distinctly in the ascendant. Parliament was +fast becoming a purely formal and perfunctory body. + + +FRANCE + +[Sidenote: The French Monarchy] + +By the year 1500 the French monarchy was largely consolidated +territorially and politically. It had been a slow and painful process, +for long ago in 987, when Hugh Capet came to the throne, the France of +his day was hardly more than the neighborhood of Paris, and it had +taken five full centuries to unite the petty feudal divisions of the +country into the great centralized state which we call France. The +Hundred Years' War had finally freed the western duchies and counties +from English control. Just before the opening of the sixteenth century +the wily and tactful Louis XI (1461-1483) had rounded out French +territories: on the east he had occupied the powerful duchy of +Burgundy; on the west and on the southeast he had possessed himself of +most of the great inheritance of the Angevin branch of his own family, +including Anjou, and Provence east of the Rhone; and on the south the +French frontier had been carried to the Pyrenees. Finally, Louis's son, +Charles VIII (1483-1498), by marrying the heiress of Brittany, had +absorbed that western duchy into France. + +[Sidenote: Steady Growth of Royal Power in France] + +Meanwhile, centralized political institutions had been taking slow but +tenacious root in the country. Of course, many local institutions and +customs survived in the various states which had been gradually added +to France, but the king was now recognized from Flanders to Spain and +from the Rhone to the Ocean as the source of law, justice, and order. +There was a uniform royal coinage and a standing army under the king's +command. The monarchs had struggled valiantly against the disruptive +tendencies of feudalism; they had been aided by the commoners or middle +class; and the proof of their success was their comparative freedom +from political checks. The Estates-General, to which French commoners +had been admitted in 1302, resembled in certain externals the English +Parliament,--for example, in comprising representatives of the clergy, +nobles, and commons,--but it had never had final say in levying taxes +or in authorizing expenditures or in trying royal officers. And unlike +England, there was in France no live tradition of popular participation +in government and no written guarantee of personal liberty. + +[Sidenote: Foreign Relations of the French Kings about 1500] + +Consolidated at home in territory and in government, Frenchmen began +about the year 1500 to be attracted to questions of external policy. By +attempting to enforce an inherited claim to the crown of Naples, +Charles VIII in 1494 started that career of foreign war and +aggrandizement which was to mark the history of France throughout +following centuries. His efforts in Italy were far from successful, but +his heir, Louis XII (1498-1515), continued to lay claim to Naples and +to the duchy of Milan as well. In 1504 Louis was obliged to resign +Naples to King Ferdinand of Aragon, in whose family it remained for two +centuries, but about Milan continued a conflict, with varying fortunes, +ultimately merging into the general struggle between Francis I (1515- +1547) and the Emperor Charles V. + +France in the year 1500 was a real national monarchy, with the +beginnings of a national literature and with a national patriotism +centering in the king. It was becoming self-conscious. Like England, +France was on the road to one-man power, but unlike England, the way +had been marked by no liberal or constitutional mile-posts. + + +SPAIN AND PORTUGAL + +[Sidenote: Development of the Spanish and Portuguese Monarchies] + +South of the Pyrenees were the Spanish and Portuguese monarchies, +which, in a long process of unification, not only had to contend +against the same disuniting tendencies as appeared in France and +England, but also had to solve the problem of the existence side by +side of two great rival religions--Christianity and Mohammedanism. +Mohammedan invaders from Africa had secured political control of nearly +the whole peninsula as early as the eighth century, but in course of +time there appeared in the northern and western mountains several +diminutive Christian states, of which the following may be mentioned: +Barcelona, in the northeast, along the Mediterranean; Aragon, occupying +the south-central portion of the Pyrenees and extending southward +toward the Ebro River; Navarre, at the west of the Pyrenees, reaching +northward into what is now France and southward into what is now Spain; +Castile, west of Navarre, circling about the town of Burgos; Leon, in +the northwestern corner of the peninsula; and Portugal, south of Leon, +lying along the Atlantic coast. Little by little these Christian states +extended their southern frontiers at the expense of the Mohammedan +power and showed some disposition to combine. In the twelfth century +Barcelona was united with the kingdom of Aragon, and a hundred years +later Castile and Leon were finally joined. Thus, by the close of the +thirteenth century, there were three important states in the peninsula +--Aragon on the east, Castile in the center, and Portugal on the west-- +and two less important states--Christian Navarre in the extreme north, +and Mohammedan Granada in the extreme south. + +While Portugal acquired its full territorial extension in the peninsula +by the year 1263, the unity of modern Spain was delayed until after the +marriage of Ferdinand (1479-1516) and Isabella (1474-1504), sovereigns +respectively of Aragon and Castile. Granada, the last foothold of the +Mohammedans, fell in 1492, and in 1512 Ferdinand acquired that part of +the ancient kingdom of Navarre which lay upon the southern slope of the +Pyrenees. The peninsula was henceforth divided between the two modern +states of Spain and Portugal. + +[Sidenote: Portugal a Real National Monarchy in 1500] + +Portugal, the older and smaller of the two states, had become a +conspicuous member of the family of nations by the year 1500, thanks to +a line of able kings and to the remarkable series of foreign +discoveries that cluster about the name of Prince Henry the Navigator. +Portugal possessed a distinctive language of Latin origin and already +cherished a literature of no mean proportions. In harmony with the +spirit of the age the monarchy was tending toward absolutism, and the +parliament, called the Cortes, which had played an important part in +earlier times, ceased to meet regularly after 1521. The Portuguese +royal family were closely related to the Castilian line, and there were +people in both kingdoms who hoped that one day the whole peninsula +would be united under one sovereign. + +[Sidenote: The Spanish Kingdom in 1500] + +From several standpoints the Spanish monarchy was less unified in 1500 +than England, France, or Portugal. The union of Castile and Aragon was, +for over two centuries, hardly more than personal. Each retained its +own customs, parliaments (Cortes), and separate administration. Each +possessed a distinctive language, although Castilian gradually became +the literary "Spanish," while Catalan, the speech of Aragon, was +reduced to the position of an inferior. Despite the continuance of +excessive pride in local traditions and institutions, the cause of +Spanish nationality received great impetus during the reign of +Ferdinand and Isabella. It was under them that territorial unity had +been obtained. It was they who turned the attention of Spaniards to +foreign and colonial enterprises. The year that marked the fall of +Granada and the final extinction of Mohammedan power in Spain was +likewise signalized by the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, which +prefigured the establishment of a greater Spain beyond the seas. On the +continent of Europe, Spain speedily acquired a commanding position in +international affairs, as the result largely of Ferdinand's ability. +The royal house of Aragon had long held claims to the Neapolitan and +Sicilian kingdoms and for two hundred years had freely mixed in the +politics of Italy. Now, in 1504, Ferdinand definitely secured +recognition from France of his rights in Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. +Spain was becoming the rival of Venice for the leadership of the +Mediterranean. + +[Sidenote: Increase of Royal Power in Spain under Ferdinand and +Isabella] + +While interfering very little with the forms of representative +government in their respective kingdoms, Ferdinand and Isabella worked +ever, in fact, toward uniformity and absolutism. They sought to +ingratiate themselves with the middle class, to strip the nobility of +its political influence, and to enlist the church in their service. The +Cortes were more or less regularly convened, but their functions were +almost imperceptibly transferred to royal commissions and officers of +state. Privileges granted to towns in earlier times were now gradually +revoked. The king, by becoming the head of the ancient military orders +which had borne prominent part in the struggle against the Mohammedans, +easily gained control of considerable treasure and of an effective +fighting force. The sovereigns prevailed upon the pope to transfer +control of the Inquisition, the medieval ecclesiastical tribunal for +the trial of heretics, to the crown, so that the harsh penalties which +were to be inflicted for many years upon dissenters from orthodox +Christianity were due not only to religious bigotry but likewise to the +desire for political uniformity. + +In population and in domestic resources Spain was not so important as +France, but the exploits of Ferdinand and Isabella, the great wealth +which temporarily flowed to her from the colonies, the prestige which +long attended her diplomacy and her armies, were to exalt the Spanish +monarchy throughout the sixteenth century to a position quite out of +keeping with her true importance. + + +2. THE OLD HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE + +[Sidenote: The Idea of an "Empire" Different in 1500 from that of a +"National Monarchy"] + +The national monarchies of western Europe--England, France, Spain, and +Portugal--were political novelties in the year 1500: the idea of +uniting the people of similar language and customs under a strongly +centralized state had been slowly developing but had not reached +fruition much before that date. On the other hand, in central Europe +survived in weakness an entirely different kind of state, called an +empire. The theory of an empire was a very ancient one--it meant a +state which should embrace all peoples of whatsoever race or language, +bound together in obedience to a common prince. Such, for example, had +been the ideal of the old Roman Empire, under whose Caesars practically +the whole civilized world had once been joined, so that the inhabitant +of Egypt or Armenia united with the citizen of Britain or Spain in +allegiance to the emperor. That empire retained its hold on portions of +eastern Europe until its final conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, +but a thousand years earlier it had lost control of the West because of +external violence and internal weakness. So great, however, was the +strength of the idea of an "empire," even in the West, that Charlemagne +about the year 800 temporarily united what are now France, Germany, +Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium into what he persisted in styling +the "Roman Empire." Nearly two centuries later, Otto the Great, a +famous prince in Germany, gave other form to the idea, in the "Holy +Roman Empire" of which he became emperor. This form endured from 962 to +1806. + +[Sidenote: The Holy Roman Empire; Its Mighty Claims in Theory and its +Slight Power in Practice] + +In theory, the Holy Roman Empire claimed supremacy over all Christian +rulers and peoples of central and western Europe, and after the +extinction of the eastern empire in 1453 it could insist that it was +the sole secular heir to the ancient Roman tradition. But the greatness +of the theoretical claim of the Holy Roman Empire was matched only by +the insignificance of its practical acceptance. The feudal nobles of +western Europe had never recognized it, and the national monarchs, +though they might occasionally sport with its honors and titles, never +admitted any real dependence upon it of England, France, Portugal, or +Spain. In central Europe, it had to struggle against the anarchical +tendencies of feudalism, against the rise of powerful and jealous city- +states, and against a rival organization, the Catholic Church, which in +its temporal affairs was at least as clearly an heir to the Roman +tradition as was the Holy Roman Empire. From the eleventh to the +thirteenth century the conflict raged, with results important for all +concerned,--results which were thoroughly obvious in the year 1500. + +[Sidenote: The Holy Roman Empire practically Restricted by 1500 to the +Germanies] + +In the first place, the Holy Roman Empire was practically restricted to +German-speaking peoples. The papacy and the Italian cities had been +freed from imperial control, and both the Netherlands--that is, Holland +and Belgium--and the Swiss cantons were only nominally connected. Over +the Slavic people to the east--Russians, Poles, etc.--or the +Scandinavians to the north, the empire had secured comparatively small +influence. By the year 1500 the words Empire and Germany had become +virtually interchangeable terms. + +Secondly, there was throughout central Europe no conspicuous desire for +strong centralized national states, such as prevailed in western +Europe. + +[Sidenote: Internal Weakness of the Holy Roman Empire] + +Separatism was the rule. In Italy and in the Netherlands the city- +states were the political units. Within the Holy Roman Empire was a +vast hodge-podge of city-states, and feudal survivals--arch-duchies, +such as Austria; margravates, such as Brandenburg; duchies, like +Saxony, Bavaria, and Württemberg; counties like the Palatinate, and a +host of free cities, baronies, and domains, some of them smaller than +an American township. In all there were over three hundred states which +collectively were called "the Germanies" and which were united only by +the slender imperial thread. The idea of empire had not only been +narrowed to one nation; it also, in its failure to overcome feudalism, +had prevented the growth of a real national monarchy. + +[Sidenote: Government of the Holy Roman Empire] + +What was the nature of this slight tie that nominally held the +Germanies together? There was the form of a central government with an +emperor to execute laws and a Diet to make them. The emperor was not +necessarily hereditary but was chosen by seven "electors," who were the +chief princes of the realm. These seven were the archbishops of Mainz +(Mayence), of Cologne, and of Trier (Trèves), the king of Bohemia, the +duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg, and the count palatine of +the Rhine. Not infrequently the electors used their position to extort +concessions from the emperor elect which helped to destroy German unity +and to promote the selfish interests of the princes. The imperial Diet +was composed of the seven electors, the lesser princes (including the +higher ecclesiastical dignitaries, such as bishops and abbots), and +representatives of the free cities, grouped in three separate houses. +The emperor was not supposed to perform any imperial act without the +authorization of the Diet, and petty jealousies between its members or +houses often prevented action in the Diet. The individual states, +moreover, reserved to themselves the management of most affairs which +in western Europe had been surrendered to the central national +government. The Diet, and therefore the emperor, was without a treasury +or an army, unless the individual states saw fit to act favorably upon +its advice and furnish the requested quotas. The Diet resembled far +more a congress of diplomats than a legislative body. + +[Sidenote: The Habsburgs: Weak as Emperors but Strong as Rulers of +Particular States within the Holy Roman Empire] + +It will be readily perceived that under these circumstances the emperor +as such could have little influence. Yet the fear of impending Slavic +or Turkish attacks upon the eastern frontier, or other fears, +frequently operated to secure the election of some prince who had +sufficiently strong power of his own to stay the attack or remove the +fear. In this way, Rudolph, count of Habsburg, had been chosen emperor +in 1273, and in his family, with few interruptions, continued the +imperial title, not only to 1500 but to the final extinction of the +empire in 1806. Several of these Habsburg emperors were influential, +but it must always be remembered that they owed their power not to the +empire but to their own hereditary states. + +Originally lords of a small district in Switzerland, the Habsburgs had +gradually increased their holdings until at length in 1273 Rudolph, the +maker of his family's real fortunes, had been chosen Holy Roman +Emperor, and three years later had conquered the valuable archduchy of +Austria with its capital of Vienna. The family subsequently became +related by marriage to reigning families in Hungary and in Italy as +well as in Bohemia and other states of the empire. In 1477 the Emperor +Maximilian I (1493-1519) married Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles +the Bold and heiress of the wealthy provinces of the Netherlands; and +in 1496 his son Philip was united to Joanna, the daughter of Ferdinand +and Isabella and heiress of the crowns of Castile and Aragon. The +fortunes of the Habsburgs were decidedly auspicious. + +[Sidenote: Vain Attempts to "Reform" the Holy Roman Empire] + +Of course, signs were not wanting of some national life in the +Germanies. Most of the people spoke a common language; a form of +national unity existed in the Diet; and many patriots raised their +voice in behalf of a stronger and more centralized government. In 1495 +a Diet met at the city of Worms to discuss with Emperor Maximilian +projects of reform. After protracted debates, it was agreed that +private warfare, a survival of feudal days, should be abolished; a +perpetual peace should be declared; and an imperial court should be +established to settle all disputes between states within the empire. +These efforts at reform, like many before and after, were largely +unfruitful, and, despite occasional protests, practical disunion +prevailed in the Germanies of the sixteenth century, albeit under the +high-sounding title of "Holy Roman Empire." + + +3. THE CITY-STATES + +[Sidenote: "City-States" in 1500] + +Before the dawn of the Christian era the Greeks and Romans had +entertained a general idea of political organization which would seem +strange to most of us at the present time. They believed that every +city with its outlying country should constitute an independent state, +with its own particular law-making and governing bodies, army, coinage, +and foreign relations. To them, the idea of an empire was intolerable +and the concept of a national state, such as we commonly have to-day, +unthinkable. + +Now it so happened, as we shall see in the following chapter, that the +commerce of the middle ages stimulated the growth of important trading +towns in Italy, in Germany, and in the Netherlands. These towns, in one +way or another, managed to secure a large measure of self-government, +so that by the year 1500 they had become somewhat similar to the city- +states of antiquity. In Germany, though they still maintained their +local self-government, they were loosely attached to the Holy Roman +Empire and were overshadowed in political influence by other states. In +the case of Italy and of the Netherlands, however, it is impossible to +understand the politics of those countries in the sixteenth century +without paying some attention to city-states, which played leading +rôles in both. + +[Sidenote: Italy in 1500 neither a National Monarchy not Attached to +the Holy Roman Empire] + +In the Italy of the year 1500 there was not even the semblance of +national political unity. Despite the ardent longings of many Italian +patriots [Footnote: Of such patriots was Machiavelli (see below, p. +194). Machiavelli wrote in _The Prince:_ "Our country, left almost +without life, still waits to know who it is that is to heal her +bruises, to put an end to the devastation and plunder of Lombardy and +to the exactions and imposts of Naples and Tuscany, and to stanch those +wounds of hers which long neglect has changed into running sores. We +see how she prays God to send some one to rescue her from these +barbarous cruelties and oppressions. We see too how ready and eager she +is to follow any standard, were there only some one to raise it."], and +the rise of a common language, which, under such masters as Dante and +Petrarch, had become a great medium for literary expression, the people +of the peninsula had not built up a national monarchy like those of +western Europe nor had they even preserved the form of allegiance to +the Holy Roman Empire. This was due to several significant events of +earlier times. In the first place, the attempt of the medieval German +emperors to gain control of Italy not only had signally failed but had +left behind two contending factions throughout the whole country,--one, +the Ghibellines, supporting the doctrine of maintaining the traditional +connection with the Germanies; the other, the Guelphs, rejecting that +doctrine. In the second place, the pope, who exercised extensive +political as well as religious power, felt that his ecclesiastical +influence would be seriously impaired by the creation of political +unity in the country; a strong lay monarch with a solid Italy behind +him would in time reduce the sovereign pontiff to a subservient +position and diminish the prestige which the head of the church enjoyed +in foreign lands; therefore the popes participated actively in the game +of Italian politics, always endeavoring to prevent any one state from +becoming too powerful. Thirdly, the comparatively early commercial +prominence of the Italian towns had stimulated trade rivalries which +tended to make each proud of its independence and wealth; and as the +cities grew and prospered to an unwonted degree, it became increasingly +difficult to join them together. Finally, the riches of the Italians, +and the local jealousies and strife, to say nothing of the papal +policy, marked the country as natural prey for foreign interference and +conquest; and in this way the peninsula became a battleground for +Spaniards, Frenchmen, and Germans. + +Before reviewing the chief city-states of northern Italy, it will be +well to say a word about two other political divisions of the country. +The southern third of the peninsula comprised the ancient kingdom of +Naples, which had grown up about the city of that name, and which +together with the large island of Sicily, was called the kingdom of the +Two Sicilies. + +[Sidenote: Southern Italy in 1500: the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies] + +This state, having been first formed by Scandinavian adventurers in the +eleventh century, had successively passed under papal suzerainty, under +the domination of the German emperors, and at length in 1266 under +French control. A revolt in Sicily in the year 1282, commonly called +the Sicilian Vespers, had severed the relation between the island and +the mainland, the former passing to the royal family of Aragon, and the +latter troublously remaining in French hands until 1442. The reunion of +the Two Sicilies at that date under the crown of Aragon served to keep +alive the quarrel between the French and the Spanish; and it was not +until 1504 that the king of France definitely renounced his Neapolitan +claims in favor of Ferdinand of Aragon. Socially and politically Naples +was the most backward state in Italy. + +[Sidenote: Italy in 1500: the Papal States] + +About the city of Rome had grown up in the course of centuries the +Papal States, or as they were officially styled, the Patrimony of St. +Peter. It had early fallen to the lot of the bishop, as the most +important person in the city, to exercise political power over Rome, +when barbarian invasions no longer permitted the exercise of authority +by Roman emperors; and control over neighboring districts, as well as +over the city, had been expressly recognized and conferred upon the +bishop by Charlemagne in the eighth century. This bishop of Rome was, +of course, the pope; and the pope slowly extended his territories +through central Italy from the Tiber to the Adriatic, long using them +merely as a bulwark to his religious and ecclesiastical prerogatives. +By the year 1500, however, the popes were becoming prone to regard +themselves as Italian princes who might normally employ their states as +so many pawns in the game of peninsular politics. The policy of the +notorious Alexander VI (1492-1503) centered in his desire to establish +his son, Cesare Borgia, as an Italian ruler; and Julius II (1503-1513) +was famed more for statecraft and military prowess than for religious +fervor. + +[Sidenote: The City-States of Northern Italy in 1500] + +North and west of the Papal States were the various city-states which +were so thoroughly distinctive of Italian politics at the opening of +the sixteenth century. Although these towns had probably reached a +higher plane both of material prosperity and of intellectual culture +than was to be found at that time in any other part of Europe, +nevertheless they were deeply jealous of each other and carried on an +interminable series of petty wars, the brunt of which was borne by +professional hired soldiers and freebooters styled _condottieri_. +Among the Italian city-states, the most famous in the year 1500 were +Milan, Venice, Genoa, and Florence. + +[Sidenote: Italian City-States: Milan Governed by Despots] + +Of these cities, Milan was still in theory a ducal fief of the Holy +Roman Empire, but had long been in fact the prize of despotic rulers +who were descended from two famous families--the Visconti and the +Sforza--and who combined the patronage of art with the fine political +subtleties of Italian tyrants. The Visconti ruled Milan from the +thirteenth century to the middle of the fifteenth, when a Sforza, a +leader of _condottieri_ established the supremacy of his own +family. In 1499, however, King Louis XII of France, claiming the duchy +as heir to the Visconti, seized Milan and held it until he was expelled +in 1512 by the Holy League, composed of the pope, Venice, Spain, and +England, and a Sforza was temporarily reinstated. + +[Sidenote: Venice, a Type of the Commercial and Aristocratic Italian +City-States] + +As Milan was the type of Italian city ruled by a despot or tyrant, so +Venice was a type of the commercial, oligarchical city-states. Venice +was by far the most powerful state in the peninsula. Located on the +islands and lagoons at the head of the Adriatic, she had profited +greatly by the crusades to build up a maritime empire and an enviable +trade on the eastern Mediterranean and had extended her sway over rich +lands in the northeastern part of Italy. In the year 1500, Venice +boasted 3000 ships, 300,000 sailors, a numerous and veteran army, +famous factories of plate glass, silk stuffs, and gold and silver +objects, and a singularly strong government. Nominally Venice was a +republic, but actually an oligarchy. Political power was intrusted +jointly to several agencies: (1) a grand council controlled by the +commercial magnates; (2) a centralized committee of ten; (3) an elected +doge, or duke; and (4), after 1454, three state inquisitors, henceforth +the city's real masters. The inquisitors could pronounce sentence of +death, dispose of the public funds, and enact statutes; they maintained +a regular spy system; and trial, judgment, and execution were secret. +The mouth of the lion of St. Mark received anonymous denunciations, and +the waves which passed under the Bridge of Sighs carried away the +corpses. To this regime Venice owed an internal peace which contrasted +with the endless civil wars of the other Italian cities. Till the final +destruction of the state in 1798 Venice knew no political revolution. +In foreign affairs, also, Venice possessed considerable influence; she +was the first European state to send regular envoys, or ambassadors, to +other courts. It seemed in 1500 as if she were particularly wealthy and +great, but already had been sowed the seed of her subsequent decline +and humiliation. The advance of the Ottoman Turks threatened her +position in eastern Europe, although she still held the Morea in +Greece, Crete, Cyprus, and many Ionian and Ægean islands. The discovery +of America and of a new route to India was destined to shake the very +basis of her commercial supremacy. And her unscrupulous policy toward +her Italian rivals lost her friends to the west. So great was the +enmity against Venice that the formidable League of Cambrai, entered +into by the emperor, the pope, France, and Spain in 1508, wrung many +concessions from her. + +[Sidenote: Genoa] + +Second only to Venice in commercial importance, Genoa, in marked +contrast with her rival, passed through all manner of political +vicissitudes until in 1499 she fell prey to the invasion of King Louis +XII of France. Thereafter Genoa remained some years subject to the +French, but in 1528 the resolution of an able citizen, Andrea Doria, +freed the state from foreign invaders and restored to Genoa her +republican institutions. + +The famed city-state of Florence may be taken as the best type of the +democratic community, controlled by a political leader. The city, as +famous for its free institutions as for its art, in the first half of +the fifteenth century had come under the tutelage of a family of +traders and bankers, the wealthy Medici, who preserved the republican +forms, and for a while, under Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492), surnamed +the Magnificent, made Florence the center of Italian culture and +civilization. + +[Sidenote: Florence, a Type of the Cultured and Democratic Italian +City-State] + +Soon after the death of Lorenzo, a democratic reaction took place under +an enthusiastic and puritanical monk, Savonarola, who welcomed the +advent of the French king, Charles VIII, in 1494, and aided materially +in the expulsion of the Medici. Savonarola soon fell a victim to the +plots of his Florentine enemies and to the vengeance of the pope, whom +Charles VIII had offended, and was put to death in 1498, The democracy +managed to survive until 1512 when the Medici returned. The city-state +of Florence subsequently became the grand-duchy of Tuscany. + +[Sidenote: The Obscure Duchy of Savoy in 1500] + +Before we take leave of the Italian states of the year 1500, mention +should be made of the insignificant duchy of Savoy, tucked away in the +fastnesses of the northwestern Alps, whose duke, after varying +fortunes, was to become, in the nineteenth century, king of a united +Italy. + +[Sidenote: The City-States in the Netherlands] + +The city-state was the dominant form of political organization not only +in Italy but also in the Netherlands. The Netherlands, or the Low +Countries, were seventeen provinces occupying the flat lowlands along +the North Sea,--the Holland, Belgium, and northern France of our own +day. Most of the inhabitants, Flemings and Dutch, spoke a language akin +to German, but in the south the Walloons used a French dialect. At +first the provinces had been mere feudal states at the mercy of various +warring noblemen, but gradually in the course of the twelfth, +thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, important towns had arisen so +wealthy and populous that they were able to wrest charters from the +lords. Thus arose a number of municipalities--practically self- +governing republics--semi-independent vassals of feudal nobles; and in +many cases the early oligarchic systems of municipal government +speedily gave way to more democratic institutions. Remarkable in +industry and prosperity were Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Brussels, Liege, +Utrecht, Delft, Rotterdam, and many another. + +[Sidenote: Relation of the City-Stats of the Netherlands to the Dukes +of Burgundy] + +Beginning in 1384 and continuing throughout the fifteenth century, the +dukes of Burgundy, who as vassals of the French king had long held the +duchy of that name in eastern France, succeeded by marriage, purchase, +treachery, or force in bringing one by one the seventeen provinces of +the Netherlands under their rule. This extension of dominion on the +part of the dukes of Burgundy implied the establishment of a strong +monarchical authority, which was supported by the nobility and clergy +and opposed by the cities. In 1465 a common parliament, called the +States General, was constituted at Brussels, containing deputies from +each of the seventeen provinces; and eight years later a grand council +was organized with supreme judicial and financial functions. Charles +the Bold, who died in 1477, was prevented from constructing a great +central kingdom between France and the Germanies only by the shrewdness +of his implacable foe, King Louis XI of France. As we have seen, in +another connection, Louis seized the duchy of Burgundy on the death of +Charles the Bold, thereby extending the eastern frontier of France, but +the duke's inheritance in the Netherlands passed to his daughter Mary. +In 1477 Mary's marriage with Maximilian of Austria began the long +domination of the Netherlands by the house of Habsburg. + +Throughout these political changes, the towns of the Netherlands +maintained many of their former privileges, and their prosperity +steadily increased. The country became the richest in Europe, and the +splendor of the ducal court surpassed that of any contemporary +sovereign. A permanent memorial of it remains in the celebrated Order +of the Golden Fleece, which was instituted by the duke of Burgundy in +the fifteenth century and was so named from the English wool, the raw +material used in the Flemish looms and the very foundation of the +country's fortunes. + + +4. NORTHERN AND EASTERN EUROPE IN THE YEAR 1500 + +[Sidenote: Northern and Eastern Europe of Small Importance in the +Sixteenth Century, but of Great Importance Subsequently] + +We have now reviewed the states that were to be the main factors in the +historical events of the sixteenth century--the national monarchies of +England, France, Portugal, and Spain; the Holy Roman Empire of the +Germanies; and the city-states of Italy and the Netherlands. It may be +well, however, to point out that in northern and eastern Europe other +states had already come into existence, which subsequently were to +affect in no small degree the history of modern times, such as the +Scandinavian kingdoms, the tsardom of Muscovy, the feudal kingdoms of +Poland and Hungary, and the empire of the Ottoman Turks. + +[Sidenote: Northwestern Europe: the Scandinavian Countries] + +In the early homes of those Northmen who had long before ravaged the +coasts of England and France and southern Italy and had colonized +Iceland and Greenland, were situated in 1500 three kingdoms, Denmark, +Norway, and Sweden, corresponding generally to the present-day states +of those names. The three countries had many racial and social +characteristics in common, and they had been politically joined under +the king of Denmark by the Union of Calmar in 1397. This union never +evoked any popularity among the Swedes, and after a series of revolts +and disorders extending over fifty years, Gustavus Vasa (1523-1560) +established the independence of Sweden. Norway remained under Danish +kings until 1814. + +[Sidenote: The Slavs in Central and Eastern Europe] + +East of the Scandinavian peninsula and of the German-speaking +population of central Europe, spread out like a great fan, are a +variety of peoples who possess many common characteristics, including a +group of closely related languages, which are called Slavic. These +Slavs in the year 1500 included (1) the Russians, (2) the Poles and +Lithuanians, (3) the Czechs, or natives of Bohemia, within the confines +of the Holy Roman Empire, and (4) various nations in southeastern +Europe, such as the Serbs and Bulgars. + +[Sidenote: Russia in 1500] + +The Russians in 1500 did not possess such a huge autocratic state as +they do to-day. They were distributed among several principalities, the +chief and center of which was the grand-duchy of Muscovy, with Moscow +as its capital. Muscovy's reigning family was of Scandinavian +extraction but what civilization and Christianity the principalities +possessed had been brought by Greek missionaries from Constantinople. +For two centuries, from the middle of the thirteenth to the middle of +the fifteenth, the Russians paid tribute to Mongol [Footnote: The +Mongols were a people of central Asia, whose famous leader, Jenghiz +Khan (1162-1227), established an empire which stretched from the China +Sea to the banks of the Dnieper. It was these Mongols who drove the +Ottoman Turks from their original Asiatic home and thus precipitated +the Turkish invasion of Europe. After the death of Jenghiz Khan the +Mongol Empire was broken into a variety of "khanates," all of which in +course of time dwindled away. In the sixteenth century the Mongols +north of the Black Sea succumbed to the Turks as well as to the +Russians.] khans who had set up an Asiatic despotism north of the Black +Sea. The beginnings of Russian greatness are traceable to Ivan III, the +Great (1462-1505), [Footnote: Ivan IV (1533-1584), called "The +Terrible," a successor of Ivan III, assumed the title of "Tsar" in +1547.] who freed his people from Mongol domination, united the numerous +principalities, conquered the important cities of Novgorod and Pskov, +and extended his sway as far as the Arctic Ocean and the Ural +Mountains. Russia, however, could hardly then be called a modern state, +for the political and social life still smacked of Asia rather than of +Europe, and the Russian Christianity, having been derived from +Constantinople, differed from the Christianity of western Europe. +Russia was not to appear as a conspicuous European state until the +eighteenth century. + +[Sidenote: Poland in 1500] + +Southwest of the tsardom of Muscovy and east of the Holy Roman Empire +was the kingdom of Poland, to which Lithuanians as well as Poles owed +allegiance. Despite wide territories and a succession of able rulers, +Poland was a weak monarchy. Lack of natural boundaries made national +defense difficult. Civil war between the two peoples who composed the +state and foreign war with the neighboring Germans worked havoc and +distress. An obstructive parliament of great lords rendered effective +administration impossible. The nobles possessed the property and +controlled politics; in their hands the king gradually became a puppet. +Poland seemed committed to feudal society and feudal government at the +very time when the countries of western Europe were ridding themselves +of such checks upon the free growth of centralized national states. + +[Sidenote: Hungary in 1500] + +Somewhat similar to Poland in its feudal propensities was the kingdom +of Hungary, which an invasion of Asiatic tribesmen [Footnote: +Hungarians, or Magyars--different names for the same people.] in the +tenth century had driven like a wedge between the Slavs of the Balkan +peninsula and those of the north Poles and Russians. At first, the +efforts of such kings as St. Stephen (997-1038) promised the +development of a great state, but the weakness of the sovereigns in the +thirteenth century, the infiltration of western feudalism, and the +endless civil discords brought to the front a powerful and predatory +class of barons who ultimately overshadowed the throne. The brilliant +reign of Matthias Hunyadi (1458-1490) was but an exception to the +general rule. Not only were the kings obliged to struggle against the +nobles for their very existence--the crown was elective in Hungary--but +no rulers had to contend with more or greater enemies on their +frontiers. To the north there was perpetual conflict with the Habsburgs +of German Austria and with the forces of the Holy Roman Empire; to the +east there were spasmodic quarrels with the Vlachs, the natives of +modern Rumania; to the south there was continual fighting, at first +with the Greeks and the Slavs--Serbs and Bulgars, and later, most +terrible of all, with the Ottoman Turks. + +[Sidenote: The Ottoman Turks in 1500] + +To the Eastern Roman Empire, with Constantinople as its capital, and +with the Greeks as its dominant population, and to the medieval +kingdoms of the Bulgars and Serbs, had succeeded by the year 1500 the +empire of the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman Turks were a tribe of Asiatic +Mohammedans who took their name from a certain Othman (died 1326), +under whom they had established themselves in Asia Minor, across the +Bosphorus from Constantinople. Thence they rapidly extended their +dominion over Syria, and over Greece and the Balkan peninsula, except +the little mountain state of Montenegro, and in 1453 they captured +Constantinople. The lands conquered by the arms of the Turks were +divided into large estates for the military leaders, or else assigned +to the maintenance of mosques and schools, or converted into common and +pasturage lands; the conquered Christians were reduced to the payment +of tribute and a life of serfdom. For two centuries the Turks were to +remain a source of grave apprehension to Europe. + + +ADDITIONAL READINGS + + +THE NATIONAL MONARCHIES ABOUT 1600. A. F. Pollard, _Factors in European +History_ (1907), ch. i on "Nationality" and ch. iii on "The New +Monarchy"; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. I, ch. xiv, xii, xi; +_Histoire générale_, Vol. IV, ch. xiii, iv, v; _History of All +Nations_, Vol. X, ch. xii-xvi; A. H. Johnson, _Europe in the Sixteenth +Century_ (1897), ch. i, ii; Mary A. Hollings, _Renaissance and +Reformation_ (1910), ch. i-v. On England: A. L. Cross, _History of +England and Greater Britain_ (1914), ch. xviii; J. F. Bright, _History +of England_, Vol. II, a standard work; James Gairdner, _Henry VII_ +(1889), a reliable short biography; Gladys Temperley, _Henry VII_ +(1914), fairly reliable and quite readable; H. A. L. Fisher, _Political +History of England 1485-1547_ (1906), ch. i-iv, brilliant and +scholarly; A. D. Innes, _History of England and the British Empire_ +(1914), Vol. II, ch. i, ii; William Cunningham, _The Growth of English +Industry and Commerce in Modern Times_, 5th ed., 3 vols. (1910-1912), +Vol. I, Book V valuable for social conditions under Henry VII; William +(Bishop) Stubbs, _Lectures on Mediæval and Modern History_, ch. xv, +xvi; F. W. Maitland, _The Constitutional History of England_ (1908), +Period II. On Scotland: P. H. Brown, _History of Scotland_, 3 vols. +(1899-1909), Vol. I from earliest times to the middle of the sixteenth +century; Andrew Lang, _A History of Scotland_, 2d ed., 4 vols. (1901- +1907), Vol. I. On France: A. J. Grant, _The French Monarchy, 1483- +1789_, 2 vols. (1900), Vol. I, ch. i, ii, brief and general; G. B. +Adams, _The Growth of the French Nation_ (1896), ch. viii-x, a +suggestive sketch; G. W. Kitchin, _A History of France_, 4th ed., 3 +vols. (1894-1899), Vol. I and Vol. II (in part), dry and narrowly +political; Lavisse (editor), _Histoire de France_, Vol. V, Part I +(1903), an exhaustive and scholarly study. On Spain and Portugal: E. P. +Cheyney, _European Background of American History_ (1904), pp. 60-103; +U. R. Burke, _A History of Spain from the Earliest Times to the Death +of Ferdinand the Catholic_, 2d ed., 2 vols. (1900), edited by M. A. S. +Hume, Vol. II best account of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella; W. +H. Prescott, _History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella_, 3 vols. +(1836), antiquated but extremely readable; Mrs. Julia Cartwright, +_Isabella the Catholic_ (1914), in "Heroes of the Nations" Series; H. +M. Stephens, _Portugal_ (1891) in "Story of the Nations" Series; F. W. +Schirrmacher, _Geschichte von Spanien_, 7 vols. (1902), an elaborate +German work, of which Vol. VII covers the years 1492-1516. + +THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. I (1902), ch. +ix, a political sketch; James (Viscount) Bryce, _The Holy Roman +Empire_, new ed. revised (1911); William Coxe, _History of the House of +Austria_, Bohn edition, 4 vols. (1893-1894), a century-old work but +still useful for Habsburg history; Sidney Whitman, _Austria_ (1899), +and, by the same author, _The Realm of the Habsburgs_ (1893) 5 Kurt +Kaser, _Deutsche Geschichte zur Zeit Maximilians I, 1486-1519_ (1912), +an excellent study appearing in "Bibliothek deutscher Geschichte," +edited by Von Zwiedineck-Südenhorst; Franz Krones, _Handbuch der +Geschichte Oesterreichs von der altesten Zeit_, 5 vols. (1876-1879), of +which Vol. II, Book XI treats of political events in Austria from 1493 +to 1526 and Vol. III, Book XII of constitutional development 1100-1526; +Leopold von Ranke, _History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations_, 1494- +1514, a rev. trans. in the Bohn Library (1915) of the earliest +important work of this distinguished historian, published originally in +1824. + +ITALY AND THE CITY STATES. _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. I (1902), +ch. iv-viii; _Histoire générale, Vol. IV, ch. i, ii; Mrs. H. M. Vernon, +_Italy from 1494 to 1790_ (1909), a clear account in the "Cambridge +Historical Series"; J. A. Symonds, _Age of the Despots_ (1883), +pleasant but inclined to the picturesque; Pompeo Molmenti, _Venice, its +Individual Growth from the Earliest Beginnings to the Fall of the +Republic_, trans. by H. F. Brown, 6 vols. (1906-1908), an exhaustive +narrative of the details of Venetian history; Edward Armstrong, +_Lorenzo de' Medici_ (1897), in the "Heroes of the Nations" Series, +valuable for Florentine history about 1500; Col. G. F. Young, _The +Medici_, 2 vols. (1909), an extended history of this famous Florentine +family from 1400 to 1743; Ferdinand Gregorovius, _History of the City +of Rome in the Middle Ages_, trans. from 4th German ed. by Annie +Hamilton, 8 vols. in 13, a non-Catholic account of the papal monarchy +in Italy, of which Vol. VII, Part II and Vol. VIII, Part I treat of +Rome about 1500. For the city-states of the Netherlands see _Cambridge +Modern History_, Vol. I (1902), ch. xiii; the monumental _History of +the People of the Netherlands_, by the distinguished Dutch historian P. +J. Blok, trans. by O. A. Bierstadt, 5 vols. (1898-1912), especially +Vols. I and II; and _Belgian Democracy: its Early History_, trans. by +J. V. Saunders (1915) from the authoritative work of the famous Belgian +historian Henri Pirenne (1910). For the German city-states see +references under HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE above. + +NORTHERN AND EASTERN EUROPE ABOUT 1500. General: _Cambridge Modern +History_, Vol. I (1902), ch. x, iii; _Histoire générale, Vol. IV, ch. +xviii-xxi; R. N. Bain, _Slavonic Europe: a Political History of Poland +and Russia from 1447 to 1796_ (1908), ch. i-iv; T. Schiemann, +_Russland, Polen, und Livland bis ins 17ten Jahrhundert_, 2 vols. +(1886-1887). Norway: H. H. Boyesen, _The History of Norway_ (1886), a +brief popular account in "Story of the Nations" Series. Muscovy: V. O. +Kliuchevsky, _A History of Russia_, trans. with some abridgments by C. +J. Hogarth, 3 vols. to close of seventeenth century (1911-1913), latest +and, despite faulty translation, most authoritative work on early +Russian history now available in English; Alfred Rambaud, _Histoire de +la Russie depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours_, 6th ed. completed to +1913 by Émile Haumant (1914), a brilliant work, of which the portion +down to 1877 has been trans. by Leonora B. Lang, 2 vols. (1879); W. R. +A. Morfill, _Russia_, in "Story of the Nations" Series, and _Poland_, a +companion volume in the same series. See also Jeremiah Curtin, _The +Mongols: a History_ (1908). For the Magyars: C. M. Knatchbull-Hugessen, +_The Political Evolution of the Hungarian Nation_, 2 vols. (1908), +especially Vol. I, ch. i-iii; A. Vámbéry, _The Story of Hungary_ (1886) +in "Story of the Nations" Series; Count Julius Andrássy, _The +Development of Hungarian Constitutional Liberty_, trans. by C. Arthur +and Ilona Ginever (1908), the views of a contemporary Magyar statesman +on the constitutional development of his country throughout the middle +ages and down to 1619, difficult to read. For the Ottoman Turks and the +Balkan peoples: Stanley Lane-Poole, _Turkey_ (1889), in "Story of the +Nations" Series, best brief introduction; A. H. Lybyer, _The Government +of the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificent_ (1913); +Prince and Princess Lazarovich-Hrebelianovich, _The Servian People, +their Past Glory and their Destiny_, 2 vols. (1910), particularly Vol. +II, ch. xi, xii; far more pretentious works are, Joseph von Hammer, +_Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches_, 2d ed., 4 vols. (1834-1835), and +Nicolae Jorga, _Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches nach den Quellen +dargestellt_, 5 vols. (1908-1913), especially Vol. II, _1451-1538_, +and H. A. Gibbons, _The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire _(1916), +covering the earlier years, from 1300 to 1403. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION + + +[Sidenote: Introductory] + +Five hundred years ago a European could search in vain the map of "the +world" for America, or Australia, or the Pacific Ocean. Experienced +mariners, and even learned geographers, were quite unaware that beyond +the Western Sea lay two great continents peopled by red men; of Africa +they knew only the northern coast; and in respect of Asia a thousand +absurd tales passed current. The unexplored waste of waters that +constituted the Atlantic Ocean was, to many ignorant Europeans of the +fifteenth century, a terrible region frequented by fierce and fantastic +monsters. To the average European the countries surveyed in the +preceding chapter, together with their Mohammedan neighbors across the +Mediterranean, still comprised the entire known world. + +Shortly before the close of the fifteenth century, daring captains +began to direct long voyages on the high seas and to discover the +existence of new lands; and from that time to the present, Europeans +have been busily exploring and conquering--veritably "Europeanizing"-- +the whole globe. Although religion as well as commerce played an +important role in promoting the process, the movement was attended from +the very outset by so startling a transformation in the routes, +methods, and commodities of trade that usually it has been styled the +Commercial Revolution. By the close of the sixteenth century it had +proceeded far enough to indicate that its results would rank among the +most fateful events of all history. + +It was in the commonplace affairs of everyday life that the Commercial +Revolution was destined to produce its most far-reaching results. To +appreciate, therefore, its true nature and significance, we must first +turn aside to ascertain how our European ancestors actually lived about +the year 1500, and what work they did to earn their living. Then, after +recounting the story of foreign exploration and colonization, we shall +be in a position to reappraise the domestic situation in town and on +the farm. + + +AGRICULTURE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + +[Sidenote: Differences between Sixteenth-century Farming and That of +To-day] + +Agriculture has always been the ultimate basis of society, but in the +sixteenth century it was of greater relative importance than it is now. +People then reckoned their wealth, not by the quantity of stocks and +bonds they held, but by the extent of land they owned. Farming was +still the occupation of the vast majority of the population of every +European state, for the towns were as yet small in size and few in +number. The "masses" lived in the country, not, as to-day, in the city. + +A twentieth-century observer would be struck by other peculiarities of +sixteenth-century agriculture. He would find a curious organization of +rural society, strange theories of land-ownership, and most unfamiliar +methods of tillage. He would discover, moreover, that practically each +farm was self-sufficing, producing only what its own occupants could +consume, and that consequently there was comparatively little external +trade in farm produce. From these facts he would readily understand +that the rural communities in the year 1500, numerous yet isolated, +were invulnerable strongholds of conservatism and ignorance. + +[Sidenote: Two Rural Classes: Nobility and Peasantry] + +In certain respects a remarkable uniformity prevailed in rural +districts throughout all Europe. Whether one visited Germany, Hungary, +France, or England, one was sure to find the agricultural population +sharply divided into two social classes--nobility and peasantry. There +might be varying gradations of these classes in different regions, but +certain general distinctions everywhere prevailed. + +[Sidenote: The Nobility] + +The nobility [Footnote: As a part of the nobility must be included at +the opening of the sixteenth century many of the higher clergy of the +Catholic Church--archbishops, bishops, and abbots--who owned large +landed estates quite like their lay brethren.] comprised men who gained +a living from the soil without manual labor. They held the land on +feudal tenure, that is to say, they had a right to be supported by the +peasants living on their estates, and, in return, they owed to some +higher or wealthier nobleman or to the king certain duties, such as +fighting for him, [Footnote: This obligation rested only upon lay +noblemen, not upon ecclesiastics.] attending his court at specified +times, and paying him various irregular taxes (the feudal dues). The +estate of each nobleman might embrace a single farm, or "manor" as it +was called, inclosing a petty hamlet, or village; or it might include +dozens of such manors; or, if the landlord were a particularly mighty +magnate or powerful prelate, it might stretch over whole counties. + +Each nobleman had his manor-house or, if he were rich enough, his +castle, lording it over the humble thatch-roofed cottages of the +villagers. In his stables were spirited horses and a carriage adorned +with his family crest; he had servants and lackeys, a footman to open +his carriage door, a game-warden to keep poachers from shooting his +deer, and men-at-arms to quell disturbances, to aid him against +quarrelsome neighbors, or to follow him to the wars. While he lived, he +might occupy the best pew in the village church; when he died, he would +be laid to rest within the church where only noblemen were buried. + +[Sidenote: Reason for the Preëminence of the Nobility] + +In earlier times, when feudal society was young, the nobility had +performed a very real service as the defenders of the peasants against +foreign enemies and likewise against marauders and bandits of whom the +land had been full. Then fighting had been the profession of the +nobility, And to enable them to possess the expensive accoutrements of +fighting--horses, armor, swords, and lances--the kings and the peasants +had assured them liberal incomes. + +Now, however, at the opening of the sixteenth century, the palmy days +of feudalism were past and gone. Later generations of noblemen, +although they continued by right of inheritance to enjoy the financial +income and the social prestige which their forbears had earned, no +longer served king, country, or common people in the traditional +manner. At least in the national monarchies it was the king who now had +undertaken the defense of the land and the preservation of peace; and +the nobleman, deprived of his old occupation, had little else to do +than to hunt, or quarrel with other noblemen, or engage in political +intrigues. More and more the nobility, especially in France, were +attracted to a life of amusement and luxury in the royal court. The +nobility already had outlived its usefulness, yet it retained its old- +time privileges. + +[Sidenote: The Peasantry] + +In striking contrast to the nobility--the small minority of land-owning +aristocrats--were the peasantry--the mass of the people. They were the +human beings who had to toil for their bread in the sweat of their +brows and who were deemed of ignoble birth, as social inferiors, and as +stupid and rude. Actual farm work was "servile labor," and between the +man whose hands were stained by servile labor and the person of "gentle +birth" a wide gulf was fixed. + +[Sidenote: Serfdom and the Manorial System] + +During the early middle ages most of the peasants throughout Europe +were "serfs." For various reasons, which we shall explain presently, +serfdom had tended gradually to and the die out in western Europe, but +at the opening of the sixteenth century most of the agricultural +laborers in eastern and central Europe, and even a considerable number +in France, were still serfs, living and working on nobles' manors in +accordance with ancient customs which can be described collectively as +the "manorial system." + +The serf occupied a position in rural society which it is difficult for +us to understand. He was not a slave, such as was usual in the Southern +States of the American Union before the Civil War; he was neither a +hired man nor a rent-paying tenant-farmer, such as is common enough in +all agricultural communities nowadays. The serf was not a slave, +because he was free to work for himself at least part of the time; he +could not be sold to another master; and he could not be deprived of +the right to cultivate land for his own benefit. He was not a hired +man, for he received no wages. And he was not a tenant-farmer, inasmuch +as he was "attached to the soil," that is, he was bound to stay and +work on his land, unless he succeeded in running away or in purchasing +complete freedom, in which case he would cease to be a serf and would +become a freeman. + +[Sidenote: Obligations of the Serf to the Lord] + +To the lord of the manor the serf was under many and varied +obligations, the most essential of which may be grouped conveniently as +follows: (1) The serf had to work without pay two or three days in each +week on the strips of land and the fields whose produce belonged +exclusively to the nobleman. In the harvest season extra days, known as +"boon-days," were stipulated on which the serf must leave his own work +in order to harvest for the lord. He also might be called upon in +emergencies to draw a cord of wood from the forest to the great manor- +house, or to work upon the highway (_corvée_). (2) The serf had to +pay occasional dues, customarily "in kind." Thus at certain feast-days +he was expected to bring a dozen fat fowls or a bushel of grain to the +pantry of the manor-house. (3) Ovens, wine-presses, gristmills, and +bridges were usually owned solely by the nobleman, and each time the +peasant used them he was obliged to give one of his loaves of bread, a +share of his wine, a bushel of his grain, or a toll-fee, as a kind of +rent, or "banality" as it was euphoniously styled. (4) If the serf died +without heirs, his holdings were transferred outright to the lord, and +if he left heirs, the nobleman had the rights of "heriot," that is, to +appropriate the best animal owned by the deceased peasant, and of +"relief," that is, to oblige the designated heir to make a definite +additional payment that was equivalent to a kind of inheritance tax. + +[Sidenote: Free-Tenants] + +As has been intimated, the manorial system was already on a steady +decline, especially in western Europe, at the opening of the sixteenth +century. A goodly number of peasants who had once been serfs were now +free-tenants, lessees, or hired laborers. Of course rent of farm-land +in our present sense--each owner of the land letting out his property +to a tenant and, in return, exacting as large a monetary payment as +possible--was then unknown. But there was a growing class of peasants +who were spoken of as free-tenants to distinguish them from serf- +tenants. These free-tenants, while paying regular dues, as did the +others, were not compelled to work two or three days every week in the +lord's fields, except occasionally in busy seasons such as harvest; +they were free to leave the estate and to marry off their daughters or +to sell their oxen without the consent of the lord; and they came to +regard their customary payments to the lord not so much as his due for +their protection as actual rent for their land. + +[Sidenote: Hired Laborers] + +While more prosperous peasants were becoming free-tenants, many of +their poorer neighbors found it so difficult to gain a living as serfs +that they were willing to surrender all claim to their own little +strips of land on the manor and to devote their whole time to working +for fixed wages on the fields which were cultivated for the nobleman +himself, the so-called lord's demesne. Thus a body of hired laborers +grew up claiming no land beyond that on which their miserable huts +stood and possibly their small garden-plots. + +[Sidenote: Métayers] + +Besides hired laborers and free-tenants, a third group of peasants +appeared in places where the noble proprietor did not care to +superintend the cultivation of his own land. In this case he parceled +it out among particular peasants, furnishing each with livestock and a +plow and expecting in return a fixed proportion of the crops, which in +France usually amounted to one-half. Peasants who made such a bargain +were called in France _métayers_, and in England "stock-and-land +lessees." The arrangement was not different essentially from the +familiar present-day practice of working a farm "on shares." + +[Sidenote: Steady Decline of Serfdom] + +In France and in England the serfs had mostly become hired laborers, +tenants, or _métayers_ by the sixteenth century. The obligations +of serfdom had proved too galling for the serf and too unprofitable for +the lord. It was much easier and cheaper for the latter to hire men to +work just when he needed them, than to bother with serfs, who could not +be discharged readily for slackness, and who naturally worked for +themselves far more zealously than for him. For this reason many +landlords were glad to allow their serfs to make payments in money or +in grain in lieu of the performance of customary labor. In England, +moreover, many lords, finding it profitable to inclose [Footnote: There +were no fences on the old manors. Inclosing a plot of ground meant +fencing or hedging it in.] their land in order to utilize it as +pasturage for sheep, voluntarily freed their serfs. The result was that +serfdom virtually had disappeared in England before the sixteenth +century. In France as early as the fourteenth century the bulk of the +serfs had purchased their liberty, although in a few districts serfdom +remained in its pristine vigor until the French Revolution. + +In other countries agricultural conditions were more backward and +serfdom longer survived. Prussian and Austrian landowners retained +their serfs until the nineteenth century; the emancipation of Russian +serfs on a large scale was not inaugurated until 1861. There are still +survivals of serfdom in parts of eastern Europe. + +[Sidenote: Survival of Servile Obligations after Decline of Serfdom] + +Emancipation from serfdom by no means released the peasants from all +the disabilities under which they labored as serfs. True, the freeman +no longer had week-work to do, provided he could pay for his time, and +in theory at least he could marry as he chose and move freely from +place to place. But he might still be called upon for an occasional +day's labor, he still was expected to work on the roads, and he still +had to pay annoying fees for oven, mill, and wine-press. Then, too, his +own crops might be eaten with impunity by doves from the noble dovecote +or trampled underfoot by a merry hunting-party from the manor-house. +The peasant himself ventured not to hunt: he was precluded even from +shooting the deer that devoured his garden. Certain other customs +prevailed in various localities, conceived originally no doubt in a +spirit of good-natured familiarity between noble and peasants, but now +grown irritating if none the less humorous. It is said, for instance, +that in some places newly married couples were compelled to vault the +wall of the churchyard, and that on certain nights the peasants were +obliged to beat the castle ditch in order to rest the lord's family +from the dismal croaking of the frogs. + +[Sidenote: Persistence of "Three-field System" of Agriculture] + +In another important respect the manorial system survived long after +serfdom had begun to decline. This was the method of doing farm work. A +universal and insistent tradition had fixed agricultural method on the +medieval manor and tended to preserve it unaltered well into modern +times. The tradition was that of the "three-field system" of +agriculture. The land of the manor, which might vary in amount from a +few hundred to five thousand acres, was not divided up into farms of +irregular shape and size, as it would be now. The waste-land, which +could be used only for pasture, and the woodland on the outskirts of +the clearing, were treated as "commons," that is to say, each villager, +as well as the lord of the manor, might freely gather fire-wood, or he +might turn his swine loose to feed on the acorns in the forest and his +cattle to graze over the entire pasture. The cultivable or arable land +was divided into several--usually three--great grain fields. Ridges or +"balks" of unplowed turf divided each field into long parallel strips, +which were usually forty rods or a furlong (furrow-long) in length, and +from one to four rods wide. Each peasant had exclusive right to one or +more of these strips in each of the three great fields, making, say, +thirty acres in all; [Footnote: In some localities it was usual to +redistribute these strips every year. In that way the greater part of +the manor was theoretically "common" land, and no peasant had a right +of private ownership to any one strip.] the lord too had individual +right to a number of strips in the great fields. + +[Sidenote: Disadvantages of Three-field System of Agriculture] + +This so-called three-field system of agriculture was distinctly +disadvantageous in many ways. Much time was wasted in going back and +forth between the scattered plots of land. The individual peasant, +moreover, was bound by custom to cultivate his land precisely as his +ancestors had done, without attempting to introduce improvements. He +grew the same crops as his neighbors--usually wheat or rye in one +field; beans or barley in the second; and nothing in the third. Little +was known about preserving the fertility of the soil by artificial +manuring or by rotation of crops; and, although every year one-third of +the land was left "fallow" (uncultivated) in order to restore its +fertility, the yield per acre was hardly a fourth as large as now. Farm +implements were of the crudest kind; scythes and sickles did the work +of mowing machines; plows were made of wood, occasionally shod with +iron; and threshing was done with flails. After the grain had been +harvested, cattle were turned out indiscriminately on the stubble, on +the supposition that the fields were common property. It was useless to +attempt to breed fine cattle when all were herded together. The breed +deteriorated, and both cattle and sheep were undersized and poor. A +full-grown ox was hardly larger than a good-sized calf of the present +time. Moreover, there were no potatoes or turnips, and few farmers grew +clover or other grasses for winter fodder. It was impossible, +therefore, to keep many cattle through the winter; most of the animals +were killed off in the autumn and salted down for the long winter +months when it was impossible to secure fresh meat. + +[Sidenote: Peasant Life on the Manor] + +Crude farm-methods and the heavy dues exacted by the lord [Footnote: In +addition to the dues paid to the lay lord, the peasants were under +obligation to make a regular contribution to the church, which was +called the "tithe" and amounted to a share, less than a tenth, of the +annual crops.] of the manor must have left the poor man little for +himself. Compared with the comfort of the farmer today, the poverty of +sixteenth-century peasants must have been inexpressibly distressful. +How keenly the cold pierced the dark huts of the poorest, is hard for +us to imagine. The winter diet of salt meat, the lack of vegetables, +the chronic filth and squalor, and the sorry ignorance of all laws of +health opened the way to disease and contagion. And if the crops +failed, famine was added to plague. + +On the other hand we must not forget that the tenement-houses of our +great cities have been crowded in the nineteenth century with people +more miserable than ever was serf of the middle ages. The serf, at any +rate, had the open air instead of a factory in which to work. When +times were good, he had grain and meat in plenty, and possibly wine or +cider, and he hardly envied the tapestried chambers, the bejeweled +clothes, and the spiced foods of the nobility, for he looked upon them +as belonging to a different world. + +In one place nobleman and peasant met on a common footing--in the +village church. There, on Sundays and feast-days, they came together as +Christians to hear Mass; and afterwards, perhaps, holiday games and +dancing on the green, benignantly patronized by the lord's family, +helped the common folk to forget their labors. The village priest, +[Footnote: Usually very different from the higher clergy, who had large +landed estates of their own, the parish priests had but modest incomes +from the tithes of their parishioners and frequently eked out a living +by toiling on allotted patches of ground. The monks too were ordinarily +poor, although the monastery might be wealthy, and they likewise often +tilled the fields.] himself often of humble birth, though the most +learned man on the manor, was at once the friend and benefactor of the +poor and the spiritual director of the lord. Occasionally a visit of +the bishop to administer confirmation to the children, afforded an +opportunity for gayety and universal festivity. + +[Sidenote: Rural Isolation and Conservatism] + +At other times there was little to disturb the monotony of village life +and little to remind it of the outside world, except when a gossiping +peddler chanced along, or when the squire rode away to court or to war. +Intercourse with other villages was unnecessary, unless there were no +blacksmith or miller on the spot. The roads were poor and in wet +weather impassable. Travel was largely on horseback, and what few +commodities were carried from place to place were transported by pack- +horses. Only a few old soldiers, and possibly a priest, had traveled +very much; they were the only geographies and the only books of travel +which the village possessed, for few peasants could read or write. + +Self-sufficient and secluded from the outer world, the rural village +went on treasuring its traditions, keeping its old customs, century +after century. The country instinctively distrusted all novelties; it +always preferred old ways to new; it was heartily conservative. +Country-folk did not discover America. It was the enterprise of the +cities, with their growing industries and commerce, which brought about +the Commercial Revolution; and to the development of commerce, +industry, and the towns, we now must turn our attention. + + +TOWNS ON THE EVE OF THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION + +[Sidenote: Trade and the Towns ] + +Except for the wealthy Italian city-states and a few other cities which +traced their history back to Roman times, most European towns, it must +be remembered, dated only from the later middle ages. At first there +was little excuse for their existence except to sell to farmers salt, +fish, iron, and a few plows. But with the increase of commerce, which, +as we shall see, especially marked the thirteenth, fourteenth, and +fifteenth centuries, more merchants traveled through the country, ways +of spending money multiplied, and the little agricultural villages +learned to look on the town as the place to buy not only luxuries but +such tools, clothing, and shoes as could be manufactured more +conveniently by skillful town artisans than by clumsy rustics. The +towns, moreover, became exchanges where surplus farm products could be +marketed, where wine could be bartered for wool, or wheat for flax. And +as the towns grew in size, the prosperous citizens proved to be the +best customers for foreign luxuries, and foreign trade grew apace. +Town, trade, and industry thus worked together: trade stimulated +industry, industry assisted trade, and the town profited by both. By +the sixteenth century the towns had grown out of their infancy and were +maintaining a great measure of political and economic freedom. + +[Sidenote: Freedom of the Towns.] +[Sidenote: Town Charters] + +Originally many a town had belonged to some nobleman's extensive manor +and its inhabitants had been under much the same servile obligations to +the lord as were the strictly rural serfs. But with the lapse of time +and the growth of the towns, the townsmen or burghers had begun a +struggle for freedom from their feudal lords. They did not want to pay +servile dues to a baron, but preferred to substitute a fixed annual +payment for individual obligations; they besought the right to manage +their market; they wished to have cases at law tried in a court of +their own rather than in the feudal court over which the nobleman +presided; and they demanded the right to pay all taxes in a lump sum +for the town, themselves assessing and collecting the share of each +citizen. These concessions they eventually had won, and each city had +its charter, in which its privileges were enumerated and recognized by +the authority of the nobleman, or of the king, to whom the city owed +allegiance. In England these charters had been acquired generally by +merchant gilds, upon payment of a substantial sum to the nobleman; in +France frequently the townsmen had formed associations, called +_communes_, and had rebelled successfully against their feudal +lords; in Germany the cities had leagued together for mutual protection +and for the acquisition of common privileges. Other towns, formerly +founded by bishops, abbots, or counts, had received charters at the +very outset. + +[Sidenote: Merchant Gilds] + +A peculiar outgrowth of the need for protection against oppressive +feudal lords, as well as against thieves, swindlers, and dishonest +workmen, had been the typically urban organization known as the +merchant gild or the merchants' company. In the year 1500 the merchant +gilds were everywhere on the decline, but they still preserved many of +their earlier and more glorious traditions. At the time of their +greatest importance they had embraced merchants, butchers, bakers, and +candlestick-makers: in fact, all who bought or sold in the town were +included in the gild. And the merchant gild had then possessed the +widest functions. + +[Sidenote: Earlier Functions of the Merchant Gild.] +[Sidenote: Social] + +Its social and religious functions, inherited from much earlier bodies, +consisted in paying some special honor to a patron saint, in giving aid +to members in sickness or misfortune, attending funerals, and also in +the more enjoyable meetings when the freely flowing bowl enlivened the +transaction of gild business. + +[Sidenote: Protective] + +As a protective organization, the gild had been particularly effective. +Backed by the combined forces of all the gildsmen, it was able to +assert itself against the lord who claimed manorial rights over the +town, and to insist that a runaway serf who had lived in the town for a +year and a day should not be dragged back to perform his servile labor +on the manor, but should be recognized as a freeman. The protection of +the gild was accorded also to townsmen on their travels. In those days +all strangers were regarded as suspicious persons, and not infrequently +when a merchant of the gild traveled to another town he would be set +upon and robbed or cast into prison. In such cases it was necessary for +the gild to ransom the imprisoned "brother" and, if possible, to punish +the persons who had done the injury, so that thereafter the liberties +of the gild members would be respected. That the business of the gild +might be increased, it was often desirable to enter into special +arrangements with neighboring cities whereby the rights, lives, and +properties of gildsmen were guaranteed; and the gild as a whole was +responsible for the debts of any of its members. + +[Sidenote: Regulative] + +The most important duty of the gild had been the regulation of the home +market. Burdensome restrictions were laid upon the stranger who +attempted to utilize the advantages of the market without sharing the +expense of maintenance. No goods were allowed to be carried away from +the city if the townsmen wished to buy; and a tax, called in France the +_octroi_, was levied on goods brought into the town. [Footnote: +The _octroi_ is still collected in Paris.] Moreover, a conviction +prevailed that the gild was morally bound to enforce honest +straightforward methods of business; and the "wardens" appointed by the +gild to supervise the market endeavored to prevent, as dishonest +practices, "forestalling" (buying outside of the regular market), +"engrossing" (cornering the market), [Footnote: The idea that +"combinations in restraint of trade" are wrong quite possibly goes back +to this abhorrence of engrossing.] and "regrating" (retailing at higher +than market price). The dishonest green grocer was not allowed to use a +peck-measure with false bottom, for weighing and measuring were done by +officials. Cheats were fined heavily and, if they persisted in their +evil ways, they might be expelled from the gild. + +These merchant gilds, with their social, protective, and regulative +functions, had first begun to be important in the eleventh century. In +England, where their growth was most rapid, 82 out of the total of 102 +towns had merchant gilds by the end of the thirteenth century. +[Footnote: Several important places, such as London, Colchester, and +Norwich, belonged to the small minority without merchant gilds.] On the +Continent many towns, especially in Germany, had quite different +arrangements, and where merchant gilds existed, they were often +exclusive and selfish groups of merchants in a single branch of +business. + +[Sidenote: Decline of Merchant Guilds] + +With the expansion of trade and industry in the thirteenth and +fourteenth centuries the rule of the old merchant gilds, instead of +keeping pace with the times, became oppressive, limited, or merely +nominal. Where the merchant gilds became oppressive oligarchical +associations, as they did in Germany and elsewhere on the Continent, +they lost their power by the revolt of the more democratic "craft +gilds." In England specialized control of industry and trade by craft +gilds, journeymen's gilds, and dealers' associations gradually took the +place of the general supervision of the older merchant gild. After +suffering the loss of its vital functions, the merchant gild by the +sixteenth century either quietly succumbed or lived on with power in a +limited branch of trade, or continued as an honorary organization with +occasional feasts, or, and this was especially true in England, it +became practically identical with the town corporation, from which +originally it had been distinct. + +[Sidenote: Industry: the Craft Guilds] + +Alongside of the merchant gilds, which had been associated with the +growth of commerce and the rise of towns, were other guilds connected +with the growth of industry, which retained their importance long after +1500. These were the craft gilds. [Footnote: The craft gild was also +called a company, or a mistery, or _métier_ (French), or _Zunft_ +(German).] Springing into prominence in the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries, the craft gild sometimes, as in Germany, voiced a popular +revolt against corrupt and oligarchical merchant gilds, and +sometimes most frequently so in England--worked quite harmoniously with +the merchant gild, to which its own members belonged. In common with +the merchant gild, the craft gild had religious and social aspects, and +like the merchant gild it insisted on righteous dealings; but unlike +the merchant gild it was composed of men in a single industry, and it +controlled in detail the manufacture as well as the marketing of +commodities. There were bakers' gilds, brewers' gilds, smiths' gilds, +saddlers' gilds, shoemakers' gilds, weavers' gilds, tailors' gilds, +tanners' gilds, even gilds of masters of arts who constituted the +teaching staff of colleges and universities. + +When to-day we speak of a boy "serving his apprenticeship" in a trade, +we seldom reflect that the expression is derived from a practice of the +medieval craft gilds, a practice which survived after the gilds were +extinct. Apprenticeship was designed to make sure that recruits to the +trade were properly trained. The apprentice was usually selected as a +boy by a master-workman and indentured--that is, bound to work several +years without wages, while living at the master's house. After the +expiration of this period of apprenticeship, during which he had +learned his trade thoroughly, the youth became a "journeyman," and +worked for wages, until he should finally receive admission to the gild +as a master, with the right to set up his own little shop, with +apprentices and journeymen of his own, and to sell his wares directly +to those who used them. + +This restriction of membership was not the only way in which the trade +was supervised. The gild had rules specifying the quality of materials +to be used and often, likewise, the methods of manufacture; it might +prohibit night-work, and it usually fixed a "fair price" at which goods +were to be sold. By means of such provisions, enforced by wardens or +inspectors, the gild not only perpetuated the "good old way" of doing +things, but guaranteed to the purchaser a thoroughly good article at a +fair price. + +[Sidenote: Partial Decay of Craft Gilds] + +By the opening of the sixteenth century the craft gilds, though not so +weakened as the merchant gilds, were suffering from various internal +diseases which sapped their vitality. They tended to become exclusive +and to direct their power and affluence in hereditary grooves. They +steadily raised their entrance fees and qualifications. Struggles +between gilds in allied trades, such as spinning, weaving, fulling, and +dyeing, often resulted in the reduction of several gilds to a dependent +position. The regulation of the processes of manufacture, once designed +to keep up the standard of skill, came in time to be a powerful +hindrance to technical improvements; and in the method as well as in +the amount of his work, the enterprising master found himself +handicapped. Even the old conscientiousness often gave way to greed, +until in many places inferior workmanship received the approval of the +gild. + +Many craft gilds exhibited in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a +tendency to split somewhat along the present lines of capital and +labor. On the one hand the old gild organization would be usurped and +controlled by the wealthier master-workmen, called "livery men," +because they wore rich uniforms, or a class of dealers would arise and +organize a "merchants' company" to conduct a wholesale business in the +products of a particular industry. Thus the rich drapers sold all the +cloth, but did not help to make it. On the other hand it became +increasingly difficult for journeymen and apprentices to rise to the +station of masters; oftentimes they remained wage-earners for life. In +order to better their condition they formed new associations, which in +England were called journeymen's or yeomen's companies. These new +organizations were symptomatic of injustice but otherwise unimportant. +The craft gilds, with all their imperfections, were to continue in +power awhile longer, slowly giving away as new trades arose outside of +their control, gradually succumbing in competition with capitalists who +refused to be bound by gild rules and who were to evolve a new +"domestic system," [Footnote: See Vol. II, ch xviii.] and slowly +suffering diminution of prestige through royal interference. + +[Sidenote: Life in the Towns] + +In the year 1500 the European towns displayed little uniformity in +government or in the amount of liberty they possessed. Some were petty +republics subject only in a very vague way to an extraneous potentate; +some merely paid annual tribute to a lord; some were administered by +officers of a king or feudal magnate; others were controlled by +oligarchical commercial associations. But of the general appearance and +life of sixteenth-century towns, it is possible to secure a more +uniform notion. + +It must be borne in mind that the towns were comparatively small, for +the great bulk of people still lived in the country. A town of 5000 +inhabitants was then accounted large; and even the largest places, like +Nuremberg, Strassburg, London, Paris, and Bruges, would have been only +small cities in our eyes. The approach to an ordinary city of the time +lay through suburbs, farms, and garden-plots, for the townsman still +supplemented industry with small-scale agriculture. Usually the town +itself was inclosed by strong walls, and admission was to be gained +only by passing through the gates, where one might be accosted by +soldiers and forced to pay toll. Inside the walls were clustered houses +of every description. Rising from the midst of tumble-down dwellings +might stand a magnificent cathedral, town-hall, or gild building. Here +and there a prosperous merchant would have his luxurious home, built in +what we now call the Gothic style, with pointed windows and gables, +and, to save space in a walled town, with the second story projecting +out over the street. + +The streets were usually in deplorable condition. There might be one or +two broad highways, but the rest were mere alleys, devious, dark, and +dirty. Often their narrowness made them impassable for wagons. In +places the pedestrian waded gallantly through mud and garbage; pigs +grunted ponderously as he pushed them aside; chickens ran under his +feet; and occasionally a dead dog obstructed the way. There were no +sidewalks, and only the main thoroughfares were paved. Dirt and filth +and refuse were ordinarily disposed of only when a heaven-sent rain +washed them down the open gutters constructed along the middle, or on +each side, of a street. Not only was there no general sewerage for the +town, but there was likewise no public water supply. In many of the +garden plots at the rear of the low-roofed dwellings were dug wells +which provided water for the family; and the visitor, before he left +the town, would be likely to meet with water-sellers calling out their +ware. To guard against the danger of fires, each municipality +encouraged its citizens to build their houses of stone and to keep a +tub full of water before every building; and in each district a special +official was equipped with a proper hook and cord for pulling down +houses on fire. At night respectable town-life was practically at a +standstill: the gates were shut; the curfew sounded; no street-lamps +dispelled the darkness, except possibly an occasional lantern which an +altruistic or festive townsman might hang in his front-window; and no +efficient police-force existed--merely a handful of townsmen were +drafted from time to time as "watchmen" to preserve order, and the +"night watch" was famed rather for its ability to sleep or to roister +than to protect life or purse. Under these circumstances the citizen +who would escape an assault by ruffians or thieves remained prudently +indoors at night and retired early to bed. Picturesque and quaint the +sixteenth-century town may have been; but it was also an uncomfortable +and an unhealthful place in which to live. + + +TRADE PRIOR TO THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION + +Just as agriculture is the ultimate basis of human society, so town- +life has always been an index of culture and civilization. And the +fortunes of town-life have ever depended upon the vicissitudes of trade +and commerce. So the reviving commerce of the later middle ages between +Europe and the East meant the growth of cities and betokened an advance +in civilization. + +[Sidenote: Revival of Trade with the East] + +Trade between Europe and Asia, which had been a feature of the antique +world of Greeks and Romans, had been very nearly destroyed by the +barbarian invasions of the fifth century and by subsequent conflicts +between Mohammedans and Christians, so that during several centuries +the old trade-routes were traveled only by a few Jews and with the +Syrians. In the tenth century, however, a group of towns in southern +Italy--Brindisi, Bari, Taranto, and Amalfi--began to send ships to the +eastern Mediterranean and were soon imitated by Venice and later by +Genoa and Pisa. + +This revival of intercourse between the East and the West was well +under way before the first Crusade, but the Crusades (1095-1270) +hastened the process. Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, on account of their +convenient location, were called upon to furnish the crusaders with +transportation and provisions, and their shrewd Italian citizens made +certain that such services were well rewarded. Italian ships, plying to +and from the Holy Land, gradually enriched their owners. Many Italian +cities profited, but Venice secured the major share. It was during the +Crusades that Venice gained numerous coastal districts and islands in +the Ægean besides immunities and privileges in Constantinople, and +thereby laid the foundation of her maritime empire. + +The Crusades not only enabled Italian merchants to bring Eastern +commodities to the West; they increased the demand for such +commodities. Crusaders--pilgrims and adventurers--returned from the +Holy Land with astonishing tales of the luxury and opulence of the +East. Not infrequently they had acquired a taste for Eastern silks or +spices during their stay in Asia Minor or Palestine; or they brought +curious jewels stripped from fallen infidels to awaken the envy of the +stay-at-homes. Wealth was rapidly increasing in Europe at this time, +and the many well-to-do people who were eager to affect magnificence +provided a ready market for the wares imported by Italian merchants. + +[Sidenote: Commodities of Eastern Trade] + +It is desirable to note just what were these wares and why they were +demanded so insistently. First were spices, far more important then +than now. The diet of those times was simple and monotonous without our +variety of vegetables and sauces and sweets, and the meat, if fresh, +was likely to be tough in fiber and strong in flavor. Spices were the +very thing to add zest to such a diet, and without them the epicure of +the sixteenth century would have been truly miserable. Ale and wine, as +well as meats, were spiced, and pepper was eaten separately as a +delicacy. No wonder that, although the rich alone could buy it, the +Venetians were able annually to dispose of 420,000 pounds of pepper, +which they purchased from the sultan of Egypt, to whom it was brought, +after a hazardous journey, from the pepper vines of Ceylon, Sumatra, or +western India. From the same regions came cinnamon-bark; ginger was a +product of Arabia, India, and China; and nutmegs, cloves, and allspice +grew only in the far-off Spice Islands of the Malay Archipelago. + +Precious stones were then, as always, in demand for personal adornment +as well as for the decoration of shrines and ecclesiastical vestments; +and in the middle ages they were thought by many to possess magical +qualities which rendered them doubly valuable. [Footnote: Medieval +literature is full of this idea. Thus we read in the book of travel +which has borne the name of Sir John Maundeville: +"And if you wish to know the virtues of the diamond, I shall tell you, +as they that are beyond the seas say and affirm, from whom all science +and philosophy comes. He who carries the diamond upon him, it gives him +hardiness and manhood, and it keeps the limbs of his body whole. It +gives him victory over his enemies, in court and in war, if his cause +be just; and it keeps him that bears it in good wit; and it keeps him +from strife and riot, from sorrows and enchantments, and from fantasies +and illusions of wicked spirits. ... [It] heals him that is lunatic, +and those whom the fiend torments or pursues."] The supply of diamonds, +rubies, pearls, and other precious stones was then almost exclusively +from Persia, India, and Ceylon. + +Other miscellaneous products of the East were in great demand for +various purposes: camphor and cubebs from Sumatra and Borneo; musk from +China; cane-sugar from Arabia and Persia; indigo, sandal-wood, and +aloes-wood from India; and alum from Asia Minor. + +The East was not only a treasure-house of spices, jewels, valuable +goods, and medicaments, but a factory of marvelously delicate goods and +wares which the West could not rival--glass, porcelain, silks, satins, +rugs, tapestries, and metal-work. The tradition of Asiatic supremacy in +these manufactures has been preserved to our own day in such familiar +names as damask linen, china-ware, japanned ware, Persian rugs, and +cashmere shawls. + +In exchange for the manifold products of the East, Europe had only +rough woolen cloth, arsenic, antimony, quicksilver, tin, copper, lead, +and coral to give; and a balance, therefore, always existed for the +European merchant to pay in gold and silver, with the result that gold +and silver coins grew scarce in the West. It is hard to say what would +have happened had not a new supply of the precious metals been +discovered in America. But we are anticipating our story. + +[Sidenote: Oriental Trade-Routes] + +Nature has rendered intercourse between Europe and Asia exceedingly +difficult by reason of a vast stretch of almost impassable waste, +extending from the bleak plains on either side of the Ural hills down +across the steppes of Turkestan and the desert of Arabia to the great +sandy Sahara. Through the few gaps in this desert barrier have led from +early times the avenues of trade. In the fifteenth century three main +trade-routes--a central, a southern, and a northern--precariously +linked the two continents. + +(1) The central trade-route utilized the valley of the Tigris River. +Goods from China, from the Spice Islands, and from India were brought +by odd native craft from point to point along the coast to Ormuz, an +important city at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, thence to the mouth of +the Tigris, and up the valley to Bagdad. From Bagdad caravans journeyed +either to Aleppo and Antioch on the northeastern corner of the +Mediterranean, or across the desert to Damascus and the ports on the +Syrian coast. Occasionally caravans detoured southward to Cairo and +Alexandria in Egypt. Whether at Antioch, Jaffa, or Alexandria, the +caravans met the masters of Venetian ships ready to carry the cargo to +Europe. + +(2) The southern route was by the Red Sea. Arabs sailed their ships +from India and the Far East across the Indian Ocean and into the Red +Sea, whence they transferred their cargoes to caravans which completed +the trip to Cairo and Alexandria. By taking advantage of monsoons,--the +favorable winds which blew steadily in certain seasons,--the skipper of +a merchant vessel could make the voyage from India to Egypt in somewhat +less than three months. It was often possible to shorten the time by +landing the cargoes at Ormuz and thence dispatching them by caravan +across the desert of Arabia to Mecca, and so to the Red Sea, but +caravan travel was sometimes slower and always more hazardous than +sailing. + +(3) The so-called "northern route" was rather a system of routes +leading in general from the "back doors" of India and China to the +Black Sea. Caravans from India and China met at Samarkand and Bokhara, +two famous cities on the western slope of the Tian-Shan Mountains. West +of Bokhara the route branched out. Some caravans went north of the +Caspian, through Russia to Novgorod and the Baltic. Other caravans +passed through Astrakhan, at the mouth of the Volga River, and +terminated in ports on the Sea of Azov. Still others skirted the shore +of the Caspian Sea, passing through Tabriz and Armenia to Trebizond on +the Black Sea. + +The transportation of goods from the Black Sea and eastern +Mediterranean was largely in the hands of the Italian cities,[Footnote: +In general, the journey from the Far East to the ports on the Black Sea +and the eastern Mediterranean was performed by Arabs, although some of +the more enterprising Italians pushed on from the European settlements, +or _fondachi_, in ports like Cairo and Trebizond, and established +_fondachi_ in the inland cities of Asia Minor, Persia, and Russia.] +especially Venice, Genoa, Pisa, and Florence, although Marseilles +and Barcelona had a small share. From Italy trade-routes led +through the passes of the Alps to all parts of Europe. German merchants +from Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, Regensburg, and Constance purchased +Eastern commodities in the markets of Venice, and sent them back to the +Germanies, to England, and to the Scandinavian countries. After the +lapse of many months, and even years, since the time when spices had +been packed first in the distant Moluccas, they would be exposed +finally for sale at the European fairs or markets to which thousands of +countryfolk resorted. There a nobleman's steward could lay in a year's +supply of condiments, or a peddler could fill his pack with silks and +ornaments to delight the eyes of the ladies in many a lonesome castle. + +[Sidenote: Difficulties of European Commerce] + +Within Europe commerce gradually extended its scope in spite of the +almost insuperable difficulties. The roads were still so miserable that +wares had to be carried on pack-horses instead of in wagons. Frequently +the merchant had to risk spoiling his bales of silk in fording a +stream, for bridges were few and usually in urgent need of repair. +Travel not only was fraught with hardship; it was expensive. Feudal +lords exacted heavy tolls from travelers on road, bridge, or river. +Between Mainz and Cologne, on the Rhine, toll was levied in thirteen +different places. The construction of shorter and better highways was +blocked often by nobles who feared to lose their toll-rights on the old +roads. So heavy was the burden of tolls on commerce that transportation +from Nantes to Orleans, a short distance up the River Loire, doubled +the price of goods. Besides the tolls, one had to pay for local market +privileges; towns exacted taxes on imports; and the merchant in a +strange city or village often found himself seriously handicapped by +regulations against "foreigners," and by unfamiliar weights, measures, +and coinage. + +Most dreaded of all, however, and most injurious to trade were the +robbers who infested the roads. Needy knights did not scruple to turn +highwaymen. Cautious travelers carried arms and journeyed in bands, but +even they were not wholly safe from the dashing "gentlemen of the +road." On the seas there was still greater danger from pirates. Fleets +of merchantmen, despite the fact that they were accompanied usually by +a vessel of war, often were assailed by corsairs, defeated, robbed, and +sold as prizes to the Mohammedans. The black flag of piracy flew over +whole fleets in the Baltic and in the Mediterranean. The amateur +pirate, if less formidable, was no less common, for many a vessel +carrying brass cannon, ostensibly for protection, found it convenient +to use them to attack foreign craft and more frequently "took" a cargo +than purchased one. + +[Sidenote: Venice] + +These dangers and difficulties of commercial intercourse were due +chiefly to the lack of any strong power to punish pirates or +highwaymen, to maintain roads, or to check the exactions of toll- +collectors. Each city attempted to protect its own commerce. A great +city-state like Venice was well able to send out her galleys against +Mediterranean pirates, to wage war against the rival city of Genoa, to +make treaties with Oriental potentates, and to build up a maritime +empire. Smaller towns were helpless. But what, as in the case of the +German towns, they could not do alone, was partially achieved by +combination. + +[Sidenote: The Hanseatic League. Towns in the Netherlands: Bruges] + +The Hanse or the Hanseatic League, as the confederation of Cologne, +Brunswick, Hamburg, Lübeck, Dantzig, Königsberg, and other German +cities was called, waged war against the Baltic pirates, maintained its +trade-routes, and negotiated with monarchs and municipalities in order +to obtain exceptional privileges. From their Baltic stations,-- +Novgorod, Stockholm, Königsberg, etc.,--the Hanseatic merchants brought +amber, wax, fish, furs, timber, and tar to sell in the markets of +Bruges, London, and Venice; they returned with wheat, wine, salt, +metals, cloth, and beer for their Scandinavian and Russian customers. +The German trading post at Venice received metals, furs, leather goods, +and woolen cloth from the North, and sent back spices, silks, and other +commodities of the East, together with glassware, fine textiles, +weapons, and paper of Venetian manufacture. Baltic and Venetian trade- +routes crossed in the Netherlands, and during the fourteenth century +Bruges became the trade-metropolis of western Europe, where met the raw +wool from England and Spain, the manufactured woolen cloth of Flanders, +clarets from France, sherry and port wines from the Iberian peninsula, +pitch from Sweden, tallow from Norway, grain from France and Germany, +and English tin, not to mention Eastern luxuries, Venetian +manufactures, and the cunning carved-work of south-German artificers. + + +THE AGE OF EXPLORATION + +[Sidenote: Desire of Spaniards and Portuguese for New Trade-Routes] + +In the unprecedented commercial prosperity which marked the fifteenth +century, two European peoples--the Portuguese and the Spanish--had +little part. For purposes of general Continental trade they were not so +conveniently situated as the peoples of Germany and the Netherlands; +and the Venetians and other Italians had shut them off from direct +trade with Asia. Yet Spanish and Portuguese had developed much the same +taste for Oriental spices and wares as had the inhabitants of central +Europe, and they begrudged the exorbitant prices which they were +compelled to pay to Italian merchants. Moreover, their centuries-long +crusades against Mohammedans in the Iberian peninsula and in northern +Africa had bred in them a stern and zealous Christianity which urged +them on to undertake missionary enterprises in distant pagan lands. +This missionary spirit reënforced the desire they already entertained +of finding new trade-routes to Asia untrammeled by rival and selfish +Italians. In view of these circumstances it is not surprising that +Spaniards and Portuguese sought eagerly in the fifteenth century to +find new trade-routes to "the Indies." + +[Sidenote: Geographical Knowledge] + +In their search for new trade-routes to the lands of silk and spice, +these peoples of southwestern Europe were not as much in the dark as +sometimes we are inclined to believe. Geographical knowledge, almost +non-existent in the earlier middle ages, had been enriched by the +Franciscan friars who had traversed central Asia to the court of the +Mongol emperor as early as 1245, and by such merchants and travelers as +Marco Polo, who had been attached to the court of Kublai Khan and who +subsequently had described that potentate's realms and the wealth of +"Cipangu" (Japan). These travels afforded at once information about +Asia and enormous incentive to later explorers. + +Popular notions that the waters of the tropics boiled, that demons and +monsters awaited explorers to the westward, and that the earth was a +great flat disk, did not pass current among well-informed geographers. +Especially since the revival of Ptolemy's works in the fifteenth +century, learned men asserted that the earth was spherical in shape, +and they even calculated its circumference, erring only by two or three +thousand miles. It was maintained repeatedly that the Indies formed the +western boundary of the Atlantic Ocean, and that consequently they +might be reached by sailing due west, as well as by traveling eastward; +but at the same time it was believed that shorter routes might be found +northeast of Europe, or southward around Africa. + +[Sidenote: Navigation] + +Along with this general knowledge of the situation of continents, the +sailors of the fifteenth century had learned a good deal about +navigation. The compass had been used first by Italian navigators in +the thirteenth century, mounted on the compass card in the fourteenth. +Latitude was determined with the aid of the astrolabe, a device for +measuring the elevation of the pole star above the horizon. With maps +and accurate sailing directions (_portolani_), seamen could lose +sight of land and still feel confident of their whereabouts. Yet it +undoubtedly took courage for the explorers of the fifteenth century to +steer their frail sailing vessels either down the unexplored African +coast or across the uncharted Atlantic Ocean. + +[Sidenote: The Portuguese Explorers] + +In the series of world-discoveries which brought about the Commercial +Revolution and which are often taken as the beginning of "modern +history," there is no name more illustrious than that of a Portuguese +prince of the blood,--Prince Henry, the Navigator (1394-1460), who, +with the support of two successive Portuguese kings, made the first +systematic attempts to convert the theories of geographers into proved +fact. A variety of motives were his: the stern zeal of the crusader +against the infidel; the ardent proselyting spirit which already had +sent Franciscan monks into the heart of Asia; the hope of +reëstablishing intercourse with "Prester John's" fabled Christian +empire of the East; the love of exploration; and a desire to gain for +Portugal a share of the Eastern trade. + +To his naval training-station at Sagres and the neighboring port of +Lagos, Prince Henry attracted the most skillful Italian navigators and +the most learned geographers of the day. The expeditions which he sent +out year after year rediscovered and colonized the Madeira and Azores +Islands, and crept further and further down the unknown coast of the +Dark Continent. When in the year 1445, a quarter of a century after the +initial efforts of Prince Henry, Denis Diaz reached Cape Verde, he +thought that the turning point was at hand; but four more weary decades +were to elapse before Bartholomew Diaz, in 1488, attained the +southernmost point of the African coast. What he then called the Cape +of Storms, King John II of Portugal in a more optimistic vein +rechristened the Cape of Good Hope. Following in the wake of Diaz, +Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape in 1497, and then, continuing on his own +way, he sailed up the east coast to Malindi, where he found a pilot +able to guide his course eastward through the Indian Ocean to India. At +Calicut Vasco da Gama landed in May, 1498, and there he erected a +marble pillar as a monument of his discovery of a new route to the +Indies. + +[Sidenote: Occupation of Old Trade-Routes by the Turks] + +While the Portuguese were discovering this new and all-water route to +the Indies, the more ancient Mediterranean and overland routes, which +had been of inestimable value to the Italians, were in process of +occupation by the Routes by Ottoman Turks. [Footnote: Professor A. H. +Lybyer has recently and ably contended that, contrary to a view which +has often prevailed, the occupation of the medieval trade-routes by the +Ottoman Turks was not the cause of the Portuguese and Spanish +explorations which ushered in the Commercial Revolution. He has pointed +out that prior to 1500 the prices of spices were not generally raised +throughout western Europe, and that apparently before that date the +Turks had not seriously increased the difficulties of Oriental trade. +In confirmation of this opinion, it should be remembered that the +Portuguese had begun their epochal explorations long before 1500 and +that Christopher Columbus had already returned from "the Indies."] +These Turks, as we have seen, were a nomadic and warlike nation of the +Mohammedan faith who "added to the Moslem contempt for the Christian, +the warrior's contempt for the mere merchant." Realizing that +advantageous trade relations with such a people were next to +impossible, the Italian merchants viewed with consternation the advance +of the Turkish armies, as Asia Minor, Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, and +the islands of the Ægean were rapidly overrun. Constantinople, the +heart of the Eastern Empire, repeatedly repelled the Moslems, but in +1453 Emperor Constantine XI was defeated by Sultan Mohammed II, and the +crescent replaced the Greek cross above the Church of Saint Sophia. +Eight years later Trebizond, the terminal of the trade-route from +Tabriz, was taken. In vain Venice attempted to defend her possessions +in the Black Sea and in the Ægean; by the year 1500 most of her empire +in the Levant was lost. The Turks, now in complete control of the +northern route, proceeded to impose crushing burdens on the trade of +the defeated Venetians. Florentines and other Italians who fared less +hardly continued to frequent the Black Sea, but the entire trade +suffered from Turkish exactions and from disturbing wars between the +Turks and another Asiatic people--the Mongols. + +[Sidenote: Loss to the Italians] + +For some time the central and southern routes, terminating respectively +in Syria and Egypt, exhibited increased activity, and by rich profits +in Alexandria the Venetians were able to retrieve their losses in the +Black Sea. But it was only a matter of time before the Turks, +conquering Damascus in 1516 and Cairo in 1517, extended their +burdensome restrictions and taxes over those regions likewise. Eastern +luxuries, transported by caravan and caravel over thousands of miles, +had been expensive and rare enough before; now the added peril of +travel and the exactions of the Turks bade fair to deprive the Italians +of the greater part of their Oriental trade. It was at this very moment +that the Portuguese opened up independent routes to the East, lowered +the prices of Asiatic commodities, and grasped the scepter of maritime +and commercial power which was gradually slipping from the hands of the +Venetians. The misfortune of Venice was the real opportunity of +Portugal. + +[Sidenote: Columbus] + +Meanwhile Spain had entered the field, and was meeting with cruel +disappointment. A decade before Vasco da Gama's famous voyage, an +Italian navigator, Christopher Columbus, had presented himself at the +Spanish court with a scheme for sailing westward to the Indies. The +Portuguese king, by whom Columbus formerly had been employed, already +had refused to support the project, but after several vexatious rebuffs +Columbus finally secured the aid of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spanish +monarchs who were at the time jubilant over their capture of Granada +from the Mohammedans (January, 1492). In August, 1492, he sailed from +Palos with 100 men in three small ships, the largest of which weighed +only a hundred tons. After a tiresome voyage he landed (12 October, +1492) on "San Salvador," one of the Bahama Islands. In that bold voyage +across the trackless Atlantic lay the greatness of Columbus. He was not +attempting to prove a theory that the earth was spherical--that was +accepted generally by the well informed. Nor was he in search of a new +continent. The realization that he had discovered not Asia, but a new +world, would have been his bitterest disappointment. He was seeking +merely another route to the spices and treasures of the East; and he +bore with him a royal letter of introduction to the great Khan of +Cathay (China). In his quest he failed, even though he returned in +1493, in 1498, and finally in 1502 and explored successively the +Caribbean Sea, the coast of Venezuela, and Central America in a vain +search for the island "Cipangu" and the realms of the "Great Khan." He +found only "lands of vanity and delusion as the miserable graves of +Castilian gentlemen," and he died ignorant of the magnitude of his real +achievement. + +[Sidenote: America] + +Had Columbus perished in mid ocean, it is doubtful whether America +would have remained long undiscovered. In 1497 John Cabot, an Italian +in the service of Henry VII of England, reached the Canadian coast +probably near Cape Breton Island. In 1500 Cabral with a Portuguese +expedition bound for India was so far driven out of his course by +equatorial currents that he came upon Brazil, which he claimed for the +king of Portugal. Yet America was named for neither Columbus, Cabot, +nor Cabral, but for another Italian, the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci, +who, returning from voyages to Brazil (1499-1500), published a letter +concerning what he called "the new world." It was thought that he had +discovered this new world, and so it was called after him,--America. + +[Sidenote: First Circumnavigation of the Earth] + +Very slowly the truth about America was borne in upon the people of +Europe. They persisted in calling the newly discovered lands the +"Indies," and even after Balboa had discovered (1513) that another +ocean lay beyond the Isthmus of Panama, it was thought that a few days' +sail would bring one to the outlying possessions of the Great Khan. Not +until Magellan, leaving Spain in 1519, passed through the straits that +still bear his name and crossed the Pacific was this vain hope +relinquished. Magellan was killed by the natives of the Philippine +Islands, but one of his ships reached Seville in 1522 with the tale of +the marvelous voyage. + +Even after the circumnavigation of the world explorers looked for +channels leading through or around the Americas. Such were the attempts +of Verrazano (1524), Cartier (1534), Frobisher (1576-1578), Davis +(1585-1587), and Henry Hudson in 1609. + + +ESTABLISHMENT OF COLONIAL EMPIRES + +[Sidenote: Portugal] + +When Vasco da Gama returned to Lisbon in 1499 with a cargo worth sixty +times the cost of his expedition, the Portuguese knew that the wealth +of the Indies was theirs. Cabral in 1500, and Albuquerque in 1503, +followed the route of Da Gama, and thereafter Portuguese fleets rounded +the Cape year by year to gain control of Goa (India), Ormuz, Diu +(India), Ceylon, Malacca, and the Spice Islands, and to bring back from +these places and from Sumatra, Java, Celebes, and Nanking (China) rich +cargoes of "spicery." After the Turkish conquest of Egypt in 1517 the +bulk of commerce was carried on by way of the Cape of Good Hope, for it +was cheaper to transport goods by sea than to pay taxes to the Turks in +addition to caravan cartage. Lisbon rapidly gained prominence as a +market for Eastern wares. + +The Portuguese triumph was short-lived. Dominion over half the world-- +for Portugal claimed all Africa, southern Asia, and Brazil as hers by +right of discovery--had been acquired by the wise policy of the +Portuguese royal house, but Portugal had neither products of her own to +ship to Asia, nor the might to defend her exclusive right to the +carrying trade with the Indies. The annexation of Portugal to Spain +(1580) by Philip II precipitated disaster. The port of Lisbon was +closed to the French, English, and Dutch, with whom Philip was at war, +and much of the colonial empire of Portugal was conquered speedily by +the Dutch. + +[Sidenote: Spain] + +On the first voyage of Columbus Spain based her claim to share the +world with Portugal. In order that there might be perfect harmony +between the rival explorers of the unknown seas, Pope Alexander VI +issued on 4 May, 1493, the famous bull [Footnote: A bull was a solemn +letter or edict issued by the pope.] attempting to divide the +uncivilized parts of the world between Spain and Portugal by the "papal +line of demarcation," drawn from pole to pole, 100 leagues west of the +Azores. A year later the line was shifted to about 360 leagues west of +the Cape Verde Islands. Portugal had the eastern half of modern Brazil, +Africa, and all other heathen lands in that hemisphere; the rest +comprised the share of Spain. + +For a time the Spanish adventurers were disappointed tremendously to +find neither spices nor silks and but little gold in the "Indies," and +Columbus was derisively dubbed the "Admiral of the Mosquitos." In spite +of failures the search for wealth was prosecuted with vigor. During the +next half century Haiti, called Hispaniola ("Spanish Isle"), served as +a starting point for the occupation of Puerto Rico, Cuba (1508), and +other islands. An aged adventurer, Ponce de Leon, in search of a +fountain of youth, explored the coast of Florida in 1513, and +subsequent expeditions pushed on to the Mississippi, across the plain +of Texas, and even to California. + +Montezuma, ruler of the ancient Aztec [Footnote: The Aztec Indians of +Mexico, like various other tribes in Central America and in Peru, had +reached in many respects a high degree of civilization before the +arrival of Europeans.] confederacy of Mexico, was overthrown in 1519 by +the reckless Hernando Cortez with a small band of soldiers. Here at +last the Spaniards found treasures of gold and silver, and more +abundant yet were the stores of precious metal found by Pizarro in Peru +(1531). Those were the days when a few score of brave men could capture +kingdoms and carry away untold wealth. + +In the next chapter we shall see how the Spanish monarchy, backed by +the power of American riches, dazzled the eyes of Europe in the +sixteenth century. Not content to see his standard waving over almost +half of Europe, and all America (except Brazil), Philip II of Spain by +conquering Portugal in 1580 added to his possessions the Portuguese +empire in the Orient and in Brazil. The gold mines of America, the +spices of Asia, and the busiest market of Europe--Antwerp--all paid +tribute to his Catholic Majesty, Philip II of Spain. + +By an unwise administration of this vast empire, Spain, in the course +of time, killed the goose that laid the golden egg. The native Indians, +enslaved and lashed to their work in Peruvian and Mexican silver mines, +rapidly lost even their primitive civilization and died in alarming +numbers. This in itself would not have weakened the monarchy greatly, +but it appeared more serious when we remember that the high-handed and +harassing regulations imposed by short-sighted or selfish officials had +checked the growth of a healthy agricultural and industrial population +in the colonies, and that the bulk of the silver was going to support +the pride of grandees and to swell the fortunes of German speculators, +rather than to fill the royal coffers. The taxes levied on trade with +the colonies were so exorbitant that the commerce with America fell +largely into the hands of English and Dutch smugglers. Under wise +government the monopoly of the African trade-route might have proved +extremely valuable, but Philip II, absorbed in other matters, allowed +this, too, to slip from his fingers. + +While the Spanish monarchy was thus reaping little benefit from its +world-wide colonial possessions, it was neglecting to encourage +prosperity at home. Trade and manufacture had expanded enormously in +the sixteenth century in the hands of the Jews and Moors. Woolen +manufactures supported nearly a third of the population. The silk +manufacture had become important. It is recorded that salt-works of the +region about Santa Maria often sent out fifty shiploads at a time. + +These signs of growth soon gave way to signs of decay and depopulation. +Chief among the causes of ruin were the taxes, increased enormously +during the sixteenth century. Property taxes, said to have increased 30 +per cent, ruined farmers, and the "alcabala," or tax on commodities +bought and sold, was increased until merchants went out of business, +and many an industrial establishment closed its doors rather than pay +the taxes. Industry and commerce, already diseased, were almost +completely killed by the expulsion of the Jews (1492) and of the Moors +(1609), who had been respectively the bankers and the manufacturers of +Spain. Spanish gold now went to the English and Dutch smugglers who +supplied the peninsula with manufactures, and German bankers became the +financiers of the realm. + +The crowning misfortune was the revolt of the Netherlands, the richest +provinces of the whole empire. Some of the wealthiest cities of Europe +were situated in the Netherlands. Bruges had once been a great city, +and in 1566 was still able to buy nearly $2,000,000 worth of wool to +feed its looms; but as a commercial and financial center, the Flemish +city of Antwerp had taken first place. In 1566 it was said that 300 +ships and as many wagons arrived daily with rich cargoes to be bought +and sold by the thousand commercial houses of Antwerp. Antwerp was the +heart through which the money of Europe flowed. Through the bankers of +Antwerp a French king might borrow money of a Turkish pasha. Yet +Antwerp was only the greatest among the many cities of the Netherlands. + +Charles V, king of Spain during the first half of the sixteenth +century, had found in the Netherlands his richest source of income, and +had wisely done all in his power to preserve their prosperity. As we +shall see in Chapter III, the governors appointed by King Philip II in +the second half of the sixteenth century lost the love of the people by +the harsh measures against the Protestants, and ruined commerce and +industry by imposing taxes of 5 and 10 per cent on every sale of land +or goods. In 1566 the Netherlands rose in revolt, and after many bloody +battles, the northern or Dutch provinces succeeded in breaking away +from Spanish rule. + +Spain had not only lost the little Dutch provinces; Flanders was +ruined: its fields lay waste, its weavers had emigrated to England, its +commerce to Amsterdam. Commercial supremacy never returned to Antwerp +after the "Spanish Fury" of 1576. Moreover, during the war Dutch +sailors had captured most of the former possessions of Portugal, and +English sea-power, beginning in mere piratical attacks on Spanish +treasure-fleets, had become firmly established. The finest part of +North America was claimed by the English and French. Of her world +empire, Spain retained only Central and South America (except Brazil), +Mexico, California, Florida, most of the West Indies, and in the East +the Philippine Islands and part of Borneo. + +[Sidenote: Dutch Sea Power] + +The Dutch, driven to sea by the limited resources of their narrow strip +of coastland, had begun their maritime career as fishermen "exchanging +tons of herring for tons of gold." In the sixteenth century they had +built up a considerable carrying trade, bringing cloth, tar, timber, +and grain to Spain and France, and distributing to the Baltic countries +the wines and liquors and other products of southwestern Europe, in +addition to wares from the Portuguese East Indies. + +The Dutch traders had purchased their Eastern wares largely from +Portuguese merchants in the port of Lisbon. Two circumstances--the +union of Spain with Portugal in 1580 and the revolt of the Netherlands +from Spain--combined to give the Dutch their great opportunity. In 1594 +the port of Lisbon was closed to Dutch merchants. The following year +the Dutch made their first voyage to India, and, long jealous of the +Portuguese colonial possessions, they began systematically to make the +trade with the Spice Islands their own. By 1602, 65 Dutch ships had +been to India. In the thirteen years--1602 to 1615--they captured 545 +Portuguese and Spanish ships, seized ports on the coasts of Africa and +India, and established themselves in the Spice Islands. In addition to +most of the old Portuguese empire,--ports in Africa and India, Malacca, +Oceanica, and Brazil, [Footnote: Brazil was more or less under Dutch +control from 1624 until 1654, when, through an uprising of Portuguese +colonists, the country was fully recovered by Portugal. Holland +recognized the Portuguese ownership of Brazil by treaty of 1662, and +thenceforth the Dutch retained in South America only a portion of +Guiana (Surinam).]--the Dutch had acquired a foothold in North America +by the discoveries of Henry Hudson in 1609 and by settlement in 1621. +Their colonists along the Hudson River called the new territory New +Netherland and the town on Manhattan island New Amsterdam, but when +Charles II of England seized the land in 1664, he renamed it New York. + +Thus the Dutch had succeeded to the colonial empire of the Portuguese. +With their increased power they were able entirely to usurp the Baltic +trade from the hands of the Hanseatic (German) merchants, who had +incurred heavy losses by the injury to their interests in Antwerp +during the sixteenth century. Throughout the seventeenth century the +Dutch almost monopolized the carrying-trade from Asia and between +southwestern Europe and the Baltic. The prosperity of the Dutch was the +envy of all Europe. + +[Sidenote: Beginnings of English and French Explorations] + +It took the whole sixteenth century for the English and French to get +thoroughly into the colonial contest. During that period the activities +of the English were confined to exploration and piracy, with the +exception of the ill-starred attempts of Gilbert and Raleigh to +colonize Newfoundland and North Carolina. The voyages of the Anglo- +Italian John Cabot in 1497-1498 were later to be the basis of British +claims to North America. The search for a northwest passage drove +Frobisher (1576-1578), Davis (1585-1587), Hudson (1610-1611), and +Baffin (1616) to explore the northern extremity of North America, to +leave the record of their exploits in names of bays, islands, and +straits, and to establish England's claim to northern Canada; while the +search for a northeast passage enticed Willoughby and Chancellor (1553) +around Lapland, and Jenkinson (1557-1558) to the icebound port of +Archangel in northern Russia. Elizabethan England had neither silver +mines nor spice islands, but the deficiency was never felt while +British privateers sailed the seas. Hawkins, the great slaver, Drake, +the second circumnavigator of the globe, Davis, and Cavendish were but +four of the bold captains who towed home many a stately Spanish galleon +laden with silver plate and with gold. As for spices, the English East +India Company, chartered in 1600, was soon to build up an empire in the +East in competition with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the French, but +that story belongs to a later chapter. + +France was less active. The rivalry of Francis I [Footnote: See below, +pp. 77 ff.] with Charles I of Spain had extended even to the New World. +Verrazano (1524) sailed the coast from Carolina to Labrador, and +Cartier (1534-1535) pushed up the Saint Lawrence to Montreal, looking +for a northwest passage, and demonstrating that France had no respect +for the Spanish claim to all America. After 1535, however, nothing of +permanence was done until the end of the century, and the founding of +French colonies in India and along the Saint Lawrence and Mississippi +rivers belongs rather to the history of the seventeenth century. + +[Sidenote: Motives for Colonization] + +One of the most amazing spectacles in history is the expansion of +Europe since the sixteenth century. Not resting content with +discovering the rest of the world, the European nations with sublime +confidence pressed on to divide the new continents among them, to +conquer, Christianize, and civilize the natives, and to send out +millions of new emigrants to establish beyond the seas a New England, a +New France, a New Spain, and a New Netherland. The Spaniards in Spain +to-day are far outnumbered by the Spanish-speaking people in Argentina, +Chili, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Central America, and the Philippine +Islands. + +[Sidenote: Religion] + +It was not merely greed for gold and thirst for glory which inspired +the colonizing movement. To the merchant's eager search for precious +metals and costly spices, and to the adventurer's fierce delight in +braving unknown dangers where white man never had ventured, the +Portuguese and Spanish explorers added the inspiration of an ennobling +missionary ideal. In the conquest of the New World priests and chapels +were as important as soldiers and fortresses; and its settlements were +named in honor of Saint Francis (San Francisco), Saint Augustine (St. +Augustine), the Holy Saviour (San Salvador), the Holy Cross (Santa +Cruz), or the Holy Faith (Santa Fé). Fearless priests penetrated the +interior of America, preaching and baptizing as they went. +Unfortunately some of the Spanish adventurers who came to make fortunes +in the mines of America, and a great number of the non-Spanish +foreigners who owned mines in the Spanish colonies, set gain before +religion, and imposed crushing burdens on the natives who toiled as +slaves in their mines. Cruelty and forced labor decimated the natives, +but in the course of time this abuse was remedied, thanks largely to +the Spanish bishop, Bartolomé de las Casas, and instead of forming a +miserable remnant of an almost extinct race, as they do in the United +States, the Indians freely intermarried with the Spaniards, whom they +always outnumbered. As a result, Latin America is peopled by nations +which are predominantly Indian in blood, [Footnote: Except in the +southern part of South America.] Spanish or Portuguese [Footnote: In +Brazil.] in language, and Roman Catholic in religion. + +The same religious zeal which had actuated Spanish missionary-explorers +was manifested at a later date by the French Jesuit Fathers who +penetrated North America in order to preach the Christian faith to the +Indians. Quite different were the religious motives which in the +seventeenth century inspired Protestant colonists in the New World. +They came not as evangelists, but as religious outcasts fleeing from +persecution, or as restless souls worsted at politics or unable to gain +a living at home. This meant the dispossession and ultimate extinction +rather than the conversion of the Indians. + +[Sidenote: Decline of the Hanseatic League] + +The stirring story of the colonial struggles which occupied the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries will be taken up in another +chapter; at this point, therefore, we turn from the expanding nations +on the Atlantic seaboard to note the mournful plight of the older +commercial powers--the German and Italian city-states. As for the +former, the Hanseatic League, despoiled of its Baltic commerce by +enterprising Dutch and English merchants, its cities restless and +rebellious, gradually broke up. In 1601 an Englishman metaphorically +observed: "Most of their [the league's] teeth have fallen out, the rest +sit but loosely in their head,"--and in fact all were soon lost except +Lübeck, Bremen, and Hamburg. + +[Sidenote: Decay of Venice] + +Less rapid, but no less striking, was the decay of Venice and the other +Italian cities. The first cargoes brought by the Portuguese from India +caused the price of pepper and spices to fall to a degree which spelled +ruin for the Venetians. The Turks continued to harry Italian traders in +the Levant, and the Turkish sea-power grew to menacing proportions, +until in 1571 Venice had to appeal to Spain for help. To the terror of +the Turk was added the torment of the Barbary pirates, who from the +northern coast of Africa frequently descended upon Italian seaports. +The commerce of Venice was ruined. The brilliance of Venice in art and +literature lasted through another century (the seventeenth), supported +on the ruins of Venetian opulence; but the splendor of Venice was +extinguished finally in the turbulent sea of political intrigue into +which the rest of Italy had already sunk. + + +EFFECTS OF THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION + +In a way, all of the colonizing movements, which we have been at pains +to trace, might be regarded as the first and greatest result of the +Commercial Revolution--that is, if by the Commercial Revolution one +understands simply the discovery of new trade-routes; but, as it is +difficult to separate explorations from colonization, we have used the +term "Commercial Revolution" to include both. By the Commercial +Revolution we mean that expansive movement by which European commerce +escaped from the narrow confines of the Mediterranean and encompassed +the whole world. We shall proceed now to consider that movement in its +secondary aspects or effects. + +One of the first in importance of these effects was the advent of a new +politico-economic doctrine—mercantilism--the result of the transference +of commercial supremacy from Italian and German city-states to national +states. + +[Sidenote: Nationalism in Commerce] + +With the declining Italian and German commercial cities, the era of +municipal commerce passed away forever. In the peoples of the Atlantic +seaboard, who now became masters of the seas, national consciousness +already was strongly developed, and centralized governments were +perfected; these nations carried the national spirit into commerce. +Portugal and Spain owed their colonial empires to the enterprise of +their royal families; Holland gained a trade route as an incident of +her struggle for national independence; England and France, which were +to become the great commercial rivals of the eighteenth century, were +the two strongest national monarchies. + +[Sidenote: Mercantilism] + +The new nations founded their power not on the fearlessness of their +chevaliers, but on the extent of their financial resources. Wealth was +needed to arm and to pay the soldiers, wealth to build warships, wealth +to bribe diplomats. And since this wealth must come from the people by +taxes, it was essential to have a people prosperous enough to pay +taxes. The wealth of the nation must be the primary consideration of +the legislators. In endeavoring to cultivate and preserve the wealth of +their subjects, European monarchs proceeded upon the assumption that if +a nation exported costly manufactures to its own colonies and imported +cheap raw materials from them, the money paid into the home country for +manufactures would more than counterbalance the money paid out for raw +materials, and this "favorable balance of trade" would bring gold to +the nation. This economic theory and the system based upon it are +called mercantilism. In order to establish such a balance of trade, the +government might either forbid or heavily tax the importation of +manufactures from abroad, might prohibit the export of raw materials, +might subsidize the export of manufactures, and might attempt by minute +regulations to foster industry at home as well as to discourage +competition in the colonies. Thus, intending to retain the profits of +commerce for Englishmen, Cromwell and later rulers required that +certain goods must be carried on English ships. + +[Sidenote: Chartered Companies] + +By far the most popular method of developing a lucrative colonial +trade--especially towards the end of the sixteenth and throughout the +seventeenth century--was by means of chartered commercial companies. +England (in 1600), Holland (in 1602), France (in 1664), Sweden, +Denmark, Scotland, and Prussia each chartered its own "East India +Company." The English possessions on the Atlantic coast of America were +shared by the London and Plymouth Companies (1606). English companies +for trade with Russia, Turkey, Morocco, Guiana, Bermuda, the Canaries, +and Hudson Bay were organized and reorganized with bewildering +activity. In France the crop of commercial companies was no less +abundant. + +To each of these companies was assigned the exclusive right to trade +with and to govern the inhabitants of a particular colony, with the +privilege and duty of defending the same. Sometimes the companies were +required to pay money into the royal treasury, or on the other hand, if +the enterprise were a difficult one, a company might be supported by +royal subsidies. The Dutch West India Company (1621) was authorized to +build forts, maintain troops, and make war on land and sea; the +government endowed the company with one million florins, sixteen ships, +four yachts, and exemption from all tolls and license dues on its +vessels. The English East India Company, first organized in 1600, +conducted the conquest and government of India for more than two +centuries, before its administrative power was taken away in 1858. + +[Sidenote: Financial Methods.] +[Sidenote: The "Regulated Company"] + +The great commercial companies were a new departure in business method. +In the middle ages business had been carried on mostly by individuals +or by partnerships, the partners being, as a rule, members of the same +family. After the expansion of commerce, trading with another country +necessitated building forts and equipping fleets for protection against +savages, pirates, or other nations. Since this could not be +accomplished with the limited resources of a few individuals, it was +necessary to form large companies in which many investors shared +expense and risk. Some had been created for European trade, but the +important growth of such companies was for distant trade. Their first +form was the "regulated company." Each member would contribute to the +general fund for such expenses as building forts; and certain rules +would be made for the governance of all. Subject to these rules, each +merchant traded as he pleased, and there was no pooling of profits. The +regulated company, the first form of the commercial company, was +encouraged by the king. He could charter such a company, grant it a +monopoly over a certain district, and trust it to develop the trade as +no individual could, and there was no evasion of taxes as by +independent merchants. + +[Sidenote: The Joint-stock Company] + +After a decade or so, many of the regulated companies found that their +members often pursued individual advantage to the detriment of the +company's interests, and it was thought that, taken altogether, profits +would be greater and the risk less, if all should contribute to a +common treasury, intrusting to the most able members the direction of +the business for the benefit of all. Then each would receive a dividend +or part of the profits proportional to his share in the general +treasury or "joint stock." The idea that while the company as a whole +was permanent each individual could buy or sell "shares" in the joint +stock, helped to make such "joint-stock" companies very popular after +the opening of the seventeenth century. The English East India Company, +organized as a regulated company in 1600, was reorganized piecemeal for +half a century until it acquired the form of a joint-stock enterprise; +most of the other chartered colonial companies followed the same plan. +In these early stock-companies we find the germ of the most +characteristic of present-day business institutions--the corporation. +In the seventeenth century this form of business organization, then in +its rudimentary stages, as yet had not been applied to industry, nor +had sad experience yet revealed the lengths to which corrupt +corporation directors might go. + +[Sidenote: Banking] + +The development of the joint-stock company was attended by increased +activity in banking. In the early middle ages the lending of money for +interest had been forbidden by the Catholic Church; in this as in other +branches of business it was immoral to receive profit without giving +work. The Jews, however, with no such scruples, had found money-lending +very profitable, even though royal debtors occasionally refused to pay. +As business developed in Italy, however, Christians lost their +repugnance to interest-taking, and Italian (Lombard) and later French +and German money-lenders and money-changers became famous. Since the +coins minted by feudal lords and kings were hard to pass except in +limited districts, and since the danger of counterfeit or light-weight +coins was far greater than now, the "money-changers" who would buy and +sell the coins of different countries did a thriving business at +Antwerp in the early sixteenth century. Later, Amsterdam, London, +Hamburg, and Frankfort took over the business of Antwerp and developed +the institutions of finance to a higher degree. [Footnote: The gold of +the New World and the larger scope of commercial enterprises had +increased the scale of operations, as may be seen by comparing the +fortunes of three great banking families: 1300--the Peruzzi's, +$800,000; 1440--the Medici's, $7,500,000; 1546--the Fuggers', +$40,000,000.] The money-lenders became bankers, paying interest on +deposits and receiving higher interest on loans. Shares of the stock of +commercial companies were bought and sold in exchanges, and as early as +1542 there were complaints about speculating on the rise and fall of +stocks. + +Within a comparatively short time the medieval merchants' gilds had +given way to great stock-companies, and Jewish money-lenders to +millionaire bankers and banking houses with many of our instruments of +exchange such as the bill of exchange. Such was the revolution in +business that attended, and that was partly caused, partly helped, by +the changes in foreign trade, which we call the Commercial Revolution. + +[Sidenote: New Commodities] + +Not only was foreign trade changed from the south and east of Europe to +the west, from the city-states to nations, from land-routes to ocean- +routes; but the vessels which sailed the Atlantic were larger, +stronger, and more numerous, and they sailed with amazing confidence +and safety, as compared with the fragile caravels and galleys of a few +centuries before. The cargoes they carried had changed too. The +comparative cheapness of water-transportation had made it possible +profitably to carry grain and meat, as well as costly luxuries of small +bulk such as spices and silks. Manufactures were an important item. +Moreover, new commodities came into commerce, such as tea and coffee. +The Americas sent to Europe the potato, "Indian" corn, tobacco, cocoa, +cane-sugar (hitherto scarce), molasses, rice, rum, fish, whale-oil and +whalebone, dye-woods and timber and furs; Europe sent back +manufactures, luxuries, and slaves. + +[Sidenote: Slavery] + +Slaves had been articles of commerce since time immemorial; at the end +of the fifteenth century there were said to have been 3000 in Venice; +and the Portuguese had enslaved some Africans before 1500. But the need +for cheap labor in the mines and on the sugar and tobacco plantations +of the New World gave the slave-trade a new and tremendous impetus. The +Spaniards began early to enslave the natives of America, although the +practice was opposed by the noble endeavors of the Dominican friar and +bishop, Bartolomé de las Casas. But the native population was not +sufficient,--or, as in the English colonies, the Indians were +exterminated rather than enslaved,--and in the sixteenth century it was +deemed necessary to import negroes from Africa. The trade in African +negroes was fathered by the English captain Hawkins, and fostered alike +by English and Dutch. It proved highly lucrative, and it was long +before the trade yielded to the better judgment of civilized nations, +and still longer before the institution of slavery could be eradicated. + +[Sidenote: Effects on Industry and Agriculture] + +The expansion of trade was the strongest possible stimulus to +agriculture and industry. New industries--such as the silk and cotton +manufacture--grew up outside of the antiquated gild system. The old +industries, especially the English woolen industry, grew to new +importance and often came under the control of the newer and more +powerful merchants who conducted a wholesale business in a single +commodity, such as cloth. Capitalists had their agents buy wool, dole +it out to spinners and weavers who were paid so much for a given amount +of work, and then sell the finished product. This was called the +"domestic system," because the work was done at home, or +"capitalistic," because raw material and finished product were owned +not by the man who worked them, but by a "capitalist" or rich merchant. +How these changing conditions were dealt with by mercantilist +statesmen, we shall see in later chapters. + +The effect on agriculture had been less direct but no less real. The +land had to be tilled with greater care to produce grain sufficient to +support populous cities and to ship to foreign ports. Countries were +now more inclined to specialize--France in wine, England in wool--and +so certain branches of production grew more important. The introduction +of new crops produced no more remarkable results than in Ireland where +the potato, transplanted from America, became a staple in the Irish +diet: "Irish potatoes" in common parlance attest the completeness of +domestication. + +[Sidenote: General Significance of Commercial Revolution] + +In the preceding pages we have attempted to study particular effects of +the Commercial Revolution (in the broad sense including the expansion +of commerce as well as the change of trade-routes), such as the decline +of Venice and of the Hanse, the formation of colonial empires, the rise +of commercial companies, the expansion of banking, the introduction of +new articles of commerce, and the development of agriculture and +industry. In each particular the change was noticeable and important. + +But the Commercial Revolution possesses a more general significance. + +[Sidenote: Europeanization of the World] + +(1) It was the Commercial Revolution that started Europe on her career +of world conquest. The petty, quarrelsome feudal states of the smallest +of five continents have become the Powers of to-day, dividing up +Africa, Asia, and America, founding empires greater and more lasting +than that of Alexander. The colonists of Europe imparted their language +to South America and made of North America a second Europe with a +common cultural heritage. The explorers, missionaries, and merchants of +Europe have penetrated all lands, bringing in their train European +manners, dress, and institutions. They are still at work Europeanizing +the world. + +[Sidenote: 2. Increase of Wealth, Knowledge, and Comfort] + +(2) The expansion of commerce meant the increase of wealth, knowledge, +and comfort. All the continents heaped their treasures in the lap of +Europe. Knowledge of the New World, with its many peoples, products, +and peculiarities, tended to dispel the silly notions of medieval +ignorance; and the goods of every land were brought for the comfort of +the European--American timber for his house, Persian rugs for his +floors, Indian ebony for his table, Irish linen to cover it, Peruvian +silver for his fork, Chinese tea, sweetened with sugar from Cuba. + +[Sidenote: 3. The Rise of the Bourgeoisie] + +(3) This new comfort, knowledge, and wealth went not merely to nobles +and prelates; it was noticeable most of all in a new class, the +"bourgeoisie." In the towns of Europe lived bankers, merchants, and +shop-keepers,--intelligent, able, and wealthy enough to live like kings +or princes. These bourgeois or townspeople (_bourg_ = town) were +to grow in intelligence, in wealth, and in political influence; they +were destined to precipitate revolutions in industry and politics, +thereby establishing their individual rule over factories, and their +collective rule over legislatures. + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +GENERAL. A. F. Pollard, _Factors in Modern History_ (1907), ch. +ii, vi, x, three illuminating essays; E. P. Cheyney, _An Introduction +to the Industrial and Social History of England_ (1901), ch. ii-vi, +a good outline; F. W. Tickner, _A Social and Industrial History of +England_ (1915), an interesting and valuable elementary manual, ch. +i-vii, x-xii, xvi, xvii, xix-xxi, xxiv-xxvii; W. J. Ashley, _The +Economic Organization of England_ (1914), ch. i-v; G. T. Warner, +_Landmarks in English Industrial History_, 11th ed. (1912), ch. +vii-xiii; H. D. Traill and J. S. Mann (editors), _Social England_ +(1909), Vols. II, III; H. de B. Gibbins, _Industry in England_, +6th ed. (1910), compact general survey; William Cunningham, _The +Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times_, 5th ed., 3 +vols. (1910-1912), a standard work; H. D. Bax, _German Society at the +Close of the Middle Ages_ (1894), brief but clear, especially ch. i, +v, vii on towns and country-life in the Germanies. Very detailed works: +Maxime Kovalevsky, _Die ökonomische Entwicklung Europas bis zum +Beginn der kapitalistischen Wirtschaftsform_, trans. into German +from Russian, 7 vols. (1901-1914), especially vols. III, IV, VI; Émile +Levasseur, _Histoire des classes ouvrières et de l'industrie en +France avant 1789_, Vol. II (1901), Book V; Georges d'Avenel, +_Histoire économique de la propriété, des salaires, etc._, 1200- +1800, 6 vols. (1894-1912). + +AGRICULTURE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. R. E. Prothero, _English +Farming Past and Present_ (1912), ch. iv; E. C. K. Gonner, _Common +Land and Inclosure_ (1912), valuable for England; R. H. Tawney, +_The Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century_ (1912); E. F. Gay, +_Essays on English Agrarian History in the Sixteenth Century_ +(1913); H. T. Stephenson, _The Elizabethan People_ (1910); W. +Hasbach, _A History of the English Agricultural Labourer_, trans. +by Ruth Kenyon (1908), an excellent work, particularly Part I on the +development of the class of free laborers from that of the medieval +serfs. Valuable for feudal survivals in France is the brief _Feudal +Regime_ by Charles Seignobos, trans. by Dow. Useful for social +conditions in Russia: James Mavor, _An Economic History of +Russia_, 2 vols. (1914), Vol. I, Book I, ch. iii. See also Eva M. +Tappan, _When Knights were Bold_ (1911) for a very entertaining +chapter for young people, on agriculture in the sixteenth century; +Augustus Jessopp, _The Coming of the Friars_ (1913), ch. ii, for a +sympathetic treatment of "Village Life Six Hundred Years Ago"; and W. +J. Ashley, _Surveys, Historical and Economic_, for a series of +scholarly essays dealing with recent controversies in regard to +medieval land-tenure. + +TOWNS AND COMMERCE ABOUT 1500. Clive Day, _History of Commerce_ (1907), +best brief account; W. C. Webster, _A General History of Commerce_ +(1903), another excellent outline; E. P. Cheyney, _European Background +of American History_ (1904) in "American Nation" Series, clear account +of the medieval trade routes, pp. 3-40, of the early activities of +chartered companies, pp. 123-167, and of the connection of the +Protestant Revolution with colonialism, pp. 168-239; W. S. Lindsay, +_History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce_, 4 vols. (1874- +1876), very detailed. The best account of sixteenth-century industry is +in Vol. II of W. J. Ashley, _English Economic History and Theory_, with +elaborate critical bibliographies. For town-life and the gilds: Mrs. J. +R. Green, _Town Life in England in the Fifteenth Century_, 2 vols. +(1894); Charles Gross, _The Gild Merchant_, 2 vols. (1890); Lujo +Brentano, _On the History and Development of Gilds_ (1870); George +Unwin, _The Gilds and Companies of London_ (1908), particularly the +interesting chapter on "The Place of the Gild in the History of Western +Europe." A brief view of English town-life in the later middle ages: E. +Lipson, _An Introduction to the Economic History of England_, Vol. I +(1915), ch. v-ix. On town-life in the Netherlands: Henri Pirenne, +_Belgian Democracy: its Early History_, trans. by J. V. Saunders +(1915). On town-life in the Germanies: Helen Zimmern, _The Hansa Towns_ +(1889) in "Story of the Nations" Series; Karl von Hegel, _Städte und +Gilden der germanischen Volker im Mittelalter_, 2 vols. (1891), the +standard treatise in German. On French gilds: Martin St. Leon, +_Histoire des corporations des métiers_ (1897). See also, for advanced +study of trade-routes, Wilhelm Heyd, _Geschichte des Levantehandels im +Mittelalter_, 2 vols. (1879), with a French trans. (1885-1886), and +Aloys Schulte, _Geschichte des mittelalterlichen Handels und Verkehrs +zwischen Westdeutschland und Italien_, 2 vols. (1900). + +GENERAL TREATMENTS OF EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION. _Cambridge Modern +History_, Vol. I (1902), ch. i, ii; A. G. Keller, _Colonization: a +Study of the Founding of New Societies_ (1908), a textbook, omitting +reference to English and French colonization; H. C. Morris, _History +of Colonization_, 2 vols. (1908), a useful general text; M. B. +Synge, _A Book of Discovery: the History of the World's Exploration, +from the Earliest Times to the Finding of the South Pole_ (1912); +_Histoire générale_, Vol. IV, ch. xxii, xxiii, and Vol. V, ch. +xxii; S. Ruge, _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_ +(1881), in the ambitious Oncken Series; Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, _La +colonisation chez les peuples modernes_, 6th ed., 2 vols. (1908), +the best general work in French; Charles de Lannoy and Hermann van der +Linden, _Histoire de l'expansion coloniale des peuples européens_, +an important undertaking of two Belgian professors, of which two +volumes have appeared--Vol. I, _Portugal et Espagne_ (1907), and +Vol. II, _Néerlande et Danemark, 17e et 18e siècle_ (1911); Alfred +Zimmermann, _Die europaischen Kolonien_, the main German treatise, +in 5 vols. (1896-1903), dealing with Spain and Portugal (Vol. I), Great +Britain (Vols. II, III), France (Vol. IV), and Holland (Vol. V). Much +illustrative source-material is available in the publications of the +Hakluyt Society, Old Series, 100 vols. (1847-1898), and New Series, 35 +vols. (1899-1914), selections having been separately published by E. J. +Payne (1893-1900) and by C. R. Beazley (1907). An account of the +medieval travels of Marco Polo is published conveniently in the +"Everyman" Series, and the best edition of the medieval travel-tales +which have passed under the name of Sir John Maundeville is that of The +Macmillan Company (1900). For exploration prior to Columbus and Da +Gama, see C. R. Beazley, _The Dawn of Modern Geography_, 3 vols. +(1897-1906). + +WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO AMERICA: J. S. Bassett, _A Short History of +the United States_ (1914), ch. i, ii, a good outline; Edward +Channing, _A History of the United States_, Vol. I (1905), an +excellent and more detailed narrative; Livingston Farrand, _Basis of +American History_ (1904), Vol. II of the "American Nation" Series, +especially valuable on the American aborigines; E. J. Payne, _History +of the New World called America_, 2 vols. (1892-1899); John Fiske, +_Colonization of the New World_, Vol. XXI of _History of All +Nations_, ch. i-vi; R. G. Watson, _Spanish and Portuguese South +America_, 2 vols. (1884); Bernard Moses, _The Establishment of +Spanish Rule in America_ (1898), and, by the same author, _The +Spanish Dependencies in South America_, 2 vols. (1914). With special +reference to Asiatic India: Mountstuart Elphinstone, _History of +India: the Hindu and Mohametan Periods_, 9th ed. (1905), an old but +still valuable work on the background of Indian history; Sir W. W. +Hunter, _A Brief History of the Indian Peoples_, rev. ed. (1903), +and, by the same author, _A History of British India_ to the +opening of the eighteenth century, 2 vols. (1899-1900), especially Vol. +I; Pringle Kennedy, _A History of the Great Moghuls_, 2 vols. +(1905-1911). With special reference to African exploration and +colonization in the sixteenth century: Sir Harry Johnston, _History +of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races_ (1899), a very useful +and authoritative manual; Robert Brown, _The Story of Africa_, 4 +vols. (1894-1895), a detailed study; G. M. Theal, _South Africa_ +(1894), a clear summary in the "Story of the Nations" Series; J. S. +Keltic, _The Partition of Africa_ (1895). See also Sir Harry +Johnston, _The Negro in the New World_ (1910), important for the +slave-trade and interesting, though in tone somewhat anti-English and +pro-Spanish; J. K. Ingram, _A History of Slavery and Serfdom_ +(1895), a brief sketch; and W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, _The Negro_ +(1915), a handy volume in the "Home University Library." + +EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION COUNTRY BY COUNTRY. Portugal: C. R. +Beazley, _Prince Henry the Navigator_ in "Heroes of the Nation," Series +(1897); J. P. Oliveira Martins, _The Golden Age of Prince Henry the +Navigator_, trans. with notes and additions by J. J. Abraham and W. E. +Reynolds (1914); K. G. Jayne, _Vasco da Gama and his Successors_, 1460- +1580 (1910); H. M. Stephens, _Portugal_ (1891), a brief sketch in the +"Story of the Nations" Series; F. C. Danvers, _The Portuguese In +India_, 2 vols. (1894), a thorough and scholarly work; H. M. Stephens, +_Albuquerque and the Portuguese Settlements in India_ (1892), in +"Rulers of India" Series; Angel Marvaud, _Le Portugal et ses colonies_ +(1912); G. M. Theal, _History and Ethnography of Africa South of the +Zambesi_, Vol. I, _The Portuguese in South Africa from 1505 to 1700_ +(1907), a standard work by the Keeper of the Archives of Cape Colony. +Spain: John Fiske, _Discovery of America_, 2 vols. (1892), most +delightful narrative; Wilhelm Roscher, _The Spanish Colonial System_, a +brief but highly suggestive extract from an old German work trans. by +E. G. Bourne (1904); E. G. Bourne, _Spain in America_, 1450-1580 +(1904), Vol. III of "American Nation" Series, excellent in content and +form; W. R. Shepherd, _Latin America_ (1914) in "Home University +Library." pp. 9-68, clear and suggestive; Sir Arthur Helps, _The +Spanish Conquest in America_, new ed., 4 vols. (1900-1904). A scholarly +study of Columbus's career is J. B. Thacher, _Christopher Columbus_, 3 +vols. (1903-1904), incorporating many of the sources; Washington +Irving, _Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus_, originally +published in 1828-1831, but still very readable and generally sound; +Filson Young, _Christopher Columbus and the New World of his +Discovery_, 2 vols. (1906), a popular account, splendidly illustrated; +Henry Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb, son origine, sa vie, ses voyages_, +2 vols. (1884), a standard work by an authority on the age of +exploration; Henri Vignaud, _Histoire critique de la grande entreprise +de Christophe Colomb_, 2 vols. (1911), destructive of many commonly +accepted ideas regarding Columbus; F. H. H. Guillemard, _The Life of +Ferdinand Magellan_ (1890); F. A. MacNutt, _Fernando Cortes and the +Conquest of Mexico_, 1485-1547 (1909), in the "Heroes of the Nations" +Series, and, by the same author, both _Letters of Cortes_, 2 vols. +(1908), and _Bartholomew de las Casas_ (1909); Sir Clements Markham, +_The Incas of Peru_ (1910). On the transference of colonial power from +Spain to the Dutch and English, see _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. IV +(1906), ch. xxv, by H. E. Egerton. England: H. E. Egerton, _A Short +History of British Colonial Policy_, 2d ed. (1909), a bald summary, +provided, however, with good bibliographies; W. H. Woodward, _A Short +History of the Expansion of the British Empire, 1500-1911_, 3d ed. +(1912), a useful epitome; C. R. Beazley, _John and Sebastian Cabot: the +Discovery of North America_ (1898); J. A. Williamson, _Maritime +Enterprise, 1485-1558_ (1913); E. J. Payne (editor), _Voyages of the +Elizabethan Seamen to America_, 2 vols. (1893-1900); L. G. Tyler, +_England in America, 1580-1652_ (1904), Vol. IV of "American Nation" +Series; George Edmundson, _Anglo-Dutch Rivalry, 1600-1653_ (1911). +France: R. G. Thwaites, _France in America, 1497-1763_ (1905), Vol. VII +of "American Nation" Series. + +ECONOMIC RESULTS OF THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION. William Cunningham, _An +Essay on Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects_, Vol. II, +_Mediaeval and Modern Times_ (1910), pp. 162-224, and, by the same +author, ch. xv of Vol. I (1902) of the _Cambridge Modern History_; E. +P. Cheyney, _Social Changes in England in the Sixteenth Century_ +(1912); George Unwin, _Industrial Organization in the Sixteenth and +Seventeenth Centuries_ (1904); G. Cawston and A. H. Keane, _Early +Chartered Companies_ (1896); W. R. Scott, _The Constitution and Finance +of English, Scottish, and Irish Joint-Stock Companies to 1720_, Vol. I +(1912); C. T. Carr (editor), _Select Charters of Trading Companies_ +(1913); Beckles Willson, _The Great Company_ (1899), an account of the +Hudson Bay Company; Henry Weber, _La Compagnie française des Indes, +1604-1675_ (1904); _Recueil des voyages de la Compagnie des Indes +orientales des Hollandois_, 10 vols. (1730), the monumental source for +the activities of the chief Dutch trading-company. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +EUROPEAN POLITICS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + + +THE EMPEROR CHARLES V + +As we look back upon the confused sixteenth century, we are struck at +once by two commanding figures,--the Emperor Charles V [Footnote: +Charles I of Spain.] and his son Philip II,--about whom we may group +most of the political events of the period. The father occupies the +center of the stage during the first half of the century; the son, +during the second half. + +[Sidenote: Extensive Dominions of Charles] + +At Ghent in the Netherlands, Charles was born in 1500 of illustrious +parentage. His father was Philip of Habsburg, son of the Emperor +Maximilian and Mary, duchess of Burgundy. His mother was the Infanta +Joanna, daughter and heiress of Ferdinand of Aragon and Naples and +Isabella of Castile and the Indies. The death of his father and the +incapacity of his mother--she had become insane--left Charles at the +tender age of six years an orphan under the guardianship of his +grandfathers Maximilian and Ferdinand. The death of the latter in 1516 +transferred the whole Spanish inheritance to Charles, and three years +later, by the death of the former, he came into possession of the +hereditary dominions of the Habsburgs. Thus under a youth of nineteen +years were grouped wider lands and greater populations than any +Christian sovereign had ever ruled. Vienna, Amsterdam, Antwerp, +Brussels, Milan, Naples, Madrid, Cadiz,--even the City of Mexico,--owed +him allegiance. His titles alone would fill several pages. + +Maximilian had intended not only that all these lands should pass into +the hands of the Habsburg family, but also that his grandson should +succeed him as head of the Holy Roman Empire. This ambition, however, +was hard of fulfillment, because the French king, Francis I (1515- +1547), feared the encircling of his own country by a united German- +Spanish-Italian state, and set himself to preserve what he called the +"Balance of Power"--preventing the undue growth of one political power +at the expense of others. It was only by means of appeal to national +and family sentiment and the most wholesale bribery that Charles +managed to secure a majority of the electors' votes against his French +rival [Footnote: Henry VIII of England was also a candidate.] and +thereby to acquire the coveted imperial title. He was crowned at Aix- +la-Chapelle in his twenty-first year. + +[Sidenote: Character of Charles] + +Never have greater difficulties confronted a sovereign than those which +Charles V was obliged to face throughout his reign; never did monarch +lead a more strenuous life. He was the central figure in a very +critical period of history: his own character as well as the +painstaking education he had received in the Netherlands conferred upon +him a lively appreciation of his position and a dogged pertinacity in +discharging its obligations. Both in administering his extensive +dominions and in dealing with foreign foes, Charles was a zealous, +hard-working, and calculating prince, and the lack of success which +attended many of his projects was due not to want of ability in the +ruler but to the multiplicity of interests among the ruled. The emperor +must do too many things to allow of his doing any one thing well. + +[Sidenote: Difficulties Confronting Charles] + +Suppose we turn over in our minds some of the chief problems of Charles +V, for they will serve to explain much of the political history of the +sixteenth century. In the first place, the emperor was confronted with +extraordinary difficulties in governing his territories. Each one of +the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands--the country which he always +considered peculiarly his own--was a distinct political unit, for there +existed only the rudiments of a central administration and a common +representative system, while the county of Burgundy had a separate +political organization. The crown of Castile brought with it the +recently conquered kingdom of Granada, together with the new colonies +in America and scattered posts in northern Africa. The crown of Aragon +comprised the four distinct states of Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, and +Navarre, [Footnote: The part south of the Pyrenees. See above, p. 8.] +and, in addition, the kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, each +with its own customs and government. At least eight independent cortes +or parliaments existed in this Spanish-Italian group, adding greatly to +the intricacy of administration. Much the same was true of that other +Habsburg group of states,--Austria, Styria, Carniola, Carinthia, the +Tyrol, etc., but Charles soon freed himself from immediate +responsibility for their government by intrusting them (1521) to his +younger brother, Ferdinand, who by his own marriage and elections added +the kingdoms of Bohemia [Footnote: Including the Bohemian crown lands +of Moravia and Silesia.] and Hungary (1526) to the Habsburg dominions. +The Empire afforded additional problems: it made serious demands upon +the time, money, and energies of its ruler; in return, it gave little +but glamour. In all these regions Charles had to do with financial, +judicial, and ecclesiastical matters. He had to reconcile conflicting +interests and appeal for popularity to many varied races. More than +once during his reign he even had to repress rebellion. In Germany, +from his very first Diet in 1521, he was face to face with rising +Protestantism which seemed to him to blaspheme his altar and to assail +his throne. + +The emperor's overwhelming administrative difficulties were complicated +at every turn by the intricacies of foreign politics. In the first +place, Charles was obliged to wage war with France throughout the +greater part of his reign; he had inherited a longstanding quarrel with +the French kings, to which the rivalry of Francis I for the empire gave +a personal aspect. In the second place, and almost as formidable, was +the advance of the Turks up the Danube and the increase of Mohammedan +naval power in the Mediterranean. Against Protestant Germany a Catholic +monarch might hope to rely on papal assistance, and English support +might conceivably be enlisted against France. But the popes, who +usually disliked the emperor's Italian policy, were not of great aid to +him elsewhere; and the English sovereigns had domestic reasons for +developing hostility to Charles. A brief sketch of the foreign affairs +of Charles may make the situation clear. + +[Sidenote: Francis I of France and the Reasons for his Wars with the +Emperor Charles V] + +Six years older than Charles, Francis I had succeeded to the French +throne in 1515, irresponsible, frivolous, and vain of military +reputation. The general political situation of the time,--the gradual +inclosure of the French monarchy by a string of Habsburg territories,-- +to say nothing of the remarkable contrast between the character of +Francis and that of the persevering Charles, made a great conflict +inevitable, and definite pretexts were not lacking for an early +outbreak of hostilities. (1) Francis revived the claims of the French +crown to Naples, although Louis XII had renounced them in 1504. (2) +Francis, bent on regaining Milan, which his predecessor had lost in +1512, invaded the duchy and, after winning the brilliant victory of +Marignano in the first year of his reign, occupied the city of Milan. +Charles subsequently insisted, however, that the duchy was a fief of +the Holy Roman Empire and that he was sworn by oath to recover it. (3) +Francis asserted the claims of a kinsman to the little kingdom of +Navarre, the greater part of which, it will be remembered, had recently +[Footnote: In 1512. See above.] been forcibly annexed to Spain. (4) +Francis desired to extend his sway over the rich French-speaking +provinces of the Netherlands, while Charles was determined not only to +prevent further aggressions but to recover the duchy of Burgundy of +which his grandmother had been deprived by Louis XI. (5) The outcome of +the contest for the imperial crown in 1519 virtually completed the +breach between the two rivals. War broke out in 1521, and with few +interruptions it was destined to outlast the lives of both Francis and +Charles. + +[Sidenote: The Italian Wars of Charles V and Francis I] + +Italy was the main theater of the combat. In the first stage, the +imperial forces, with the aid of a papal army, speedily drove the +French garrison out of Milan. The Sforza family was duly invested with +the duchy as a fief of the Empire, and the pope was compensated by the +addition of Parma and Piacenza to the Patrimony of Saint Peter. The +victorious Imperialists then pressed across the Alps and besieged +Marseilles. Francis, who had been detained by domestic troubles in +France, [Footnote: These troubles related to the disposition of the +important landed estates of the Bourbon family. The duke of Bourbon, +who was constable of France, felt himself injured by the king and +accordingly deserted to the emperor.] now succeeded in raising the +siege and pursued the retreating enemy to Milan. Instead of following +up his advantage by promptly attacking the main army of the +Imperialists, the French king dispatched a part of his force to Naples, +and with the other turned aside to blockade the city of Pavia. This +blunder enabled the Imperialists to reform their ranks and to march +towards Pavia in order to join the besieged. Here on 24 February, +1525,--the emperor's twenty-fifth birthday,--the army of Charles won an +overwhelming victory. Eight thousand French soldiers fell on the field +that day, and Francis, who had been in the thick of the fight, was +compelled to surrender. "No thing in the world is left me save my honor +and my life," wrote the king to his mother. Everything seemed +auspicious for the cause of Charles. Francis, after a brief captivity +in Spain, was released on condition that he would surrender all claims +to Burgundy, the Netherlands, and Italy, and would marry the emperor's +sister. + +[Sidenote: The Sack of Rome, 1527] + +Francis swore upon the Gospels and upon his knightly word that he would +fulfill these conditions, but in his own and contemporary opinion the +compulsion exercised upon him absolved him from his oath. No sooner was +he back in France than he declared the treaty null and void and +proceeded to form alliances with all the Italian powers that had become +alarmed by the sudden strengthening of the emperor's position in the +peninsula,--the pope, Venice, Florence, and even the Sforza who owed +everything to Charles. Upon the resumption of hostilities the league +displayed the same want of agreement and energy which characterized +every coalition of Italian city-states; and soon the Imperialists were +able to possess themselves of much of the country. In 1527 occurred a +famous episode--the sack of Rome. It was not displeasing to the emperor +that the pope should be punished for giving aid to France, although +Charles cannot be held altogether responsible for what befell. His army +in Italy, composed largely of Spaniards and Germans, being short of +food and money, and without orders, mutinied and marched upon the +Eternal City, which was soon at their mercy. About four thousand people +perished in the capture. The pillage lasted nine months, and the +brigands were halted only by a frightful pestilence which decimated +their numbers. Convents were forced, altars stripped, tombs profaned, +the library of the Vatican sacked, and works of art torn down as +monuments of idolatry. Pope Clement VII (1523-1534), a nephew of the +other Medici pope, Leo X, had taken refuge in the impregnable castle of +St. Angelo and was now obliged to make peace with the emperor. + +[Sidenote: Peace of Cambrai, 1529] + +The sack of Rome aroused bitter feelings throughout Catholic Europe, +and Henry VIII of England, at that time still loyal to the pope, +ostentatiously sent aid to Francis. But although the emperor made +little headway against Francis, the French king, on account of +strategic blunders and the disunion of the league, was unable to +maintain a sure foothold in Italy. The peace of Cambrai (1529) provided +that Francis should abandon Naples, Milan, and the Netherlands, but the +cession of Burgundy was no longer insisted upon. Francis proceeded to +celebrate his marriage with the emperor's sister. + +[Sidenote: Habsburg Predominance in Italy] + +Eight years of warfare had left Charles V and the Habsburg family +unquestionable masters of Italy. Naples was under Charles's direct +government. For Milan he received the homage of Sforza. The Medici +pope, whose family he had restored in Florence, was now his ally. +Charles visited Italy for the first time in 1529 to view his +territories, and at Bologna (1530) received from the pope's hands the +ancient iron crown of Lombard Italy and the imperial crown of Rome. It +was the last papal coronation of a ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. + +The peace of Cambrai proved but a truce, and war between Charles and +Francis repeatedly blazed forth. Francis made strange alliances in +order to create all possible trouble for the emperor,--Scotland, +Sweden, Denmark, the Ottoman Turks, even the rebellious Protestant +princes within the empire. There were spasmodic campaigns between 1536 +and 1538 and between 1542 and 1544, and after the death of Francis and +the abdication of Charles, the former's son, Henry II (1547-1559), +continued the conflict, newly begun in 1552, until the conclusion of +the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559, by which the Habsburgs retained +their hold upon Italy, while France, by the occupation of the important +bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, extended her northeastern +frontier, at the expense of the empire, toward the Rhine River. +[Footnote: It was during this war that in 1558 the French captured +Calais from the English, and thus put an end to English territorial +holdings on the Continent. The English Queen Mary was the wife of +Philip II of Spain.] + +[Sidenote: Results of the Wars between Charles V and Francis I] + +Indirectly, the long wars occasioned by the personal rivalry of Charles +and Francis had other results than Habsburg predominance in Italy and +French expansion towards the Rhine. They preserved a "balance of power" +and prevented the incorporation of the French monarchy into an +obsolescent empire. They rendered easier the rise of the Ottoman power +in eastern Europe; and French alliance with the Turks gave French trade +and enterprise a decided lead in the Levant. They also permitted the +comparatively free growth of Protestantism in Germany. + +[Sidenote: The Turkish Peril] + +More sinister to Charles V than his wars with the French was the +advance of the Ottoman Turks. Under their greatest sultan, Suleiman II, +the Magnificent (1520-1566), a contemporary of Charles, the Turks were +rapidly extending their sway. The Black Sea was practically a Turkish +lake; and the whole Euphrates valley, with Bagdad, had fallen into the +sultan's power, now established on the Persian Gulf and in control of +all of the ancient trade-routes to the East. The northern coasts of +Africa from Egypt to Algeria acknowledged the supremacy of Suleiman, +whose sea power in the Mediterranean had become a factor to be reckoned +with in European politics, threatening not only the islands but the +great Christian countries of Italy and Spain. The Venetians were driven +from the Morea and from the Ægean Islands; only Cyprus, Crete, and +Malta survived in the Mediterranean as outposts of Christendom. + +[Sidenote: Suleiman the Magnificent] + +Suleiman devoted many years to the extension of his power in Europe, +sometimes in alliance with the French king, sometimes upon his own +initiative,--and with almost unbroken success. In 1521 he declared war +against the king of Hungary on the pretext that he had received no +Hungarian congratulations on his accession to the throne. He besieged +and captured Belgrade, and in 1526 on the field of Mohács his forces +met and overwhelmed the Hungarians, whose king was killed with the +flower of the Hungarian chivalry. The battle of Mohács marked the +extinction of an independent and united Hungarian state; Ferdinand of +Habsburg, brother of Charles V, claimed the kingdom; Suleiman was in +actual possession of fully a third of it. The sultan's army carried the +war into Austria and in 1529 bombarded and invested Vienna, but so +valiant was the resistance offered that after three weeks the siege was +abandoned. Twelve years later the greater part of Hungary, including +the city of Budapest, became a Turkish province, and in many places +churches were turned into mosques. In 1547 Charles V and Ferdinand were +compelled to recognize the Turkish conquests in Hungary, and the latter +agreed to pay the sultan an annual tribute of 30,000 ducats. Suleiman +not only thwarted every attempt of his rivals to recover their +territories, but remained throughout his life a constant menace to the +security of the hereditary dominions of the Habsburgs. + +[Sidenote: Charles V and the Holy Roman Empire.] +[Sidenote: Possibility of transforming the Empire into a National +German Monarchy] + +At the very time when Charles V was encountering these grave troubles +in administering his scattered hereditary possessions and in waging war +now with the French and now with the Mohammedans, he likewise was +saddled with problems peculiar to the government of his empire. Had he +been able to devote all his talent and energy to the domestic affairs +of the Holy Roman Empire, he might have contributed potently to the +establishment of a compact German state. It should be borne in mind +that when Charles V was elected emperor in 1519 the Holy Roman Empire +was virtually restricted to German-speaking peoples, and that the +national unifications of England, France, and Spain, already far +advanced, pointed the path to a similar political evolution for +Germany. Why should not a modern German national state have been +created coextensive with the medieval empire, a state which would have +included not only the twentieth-century German Empire but Austria, +Holland, and Belgium, and which, stretching from the Baltic to the +Adriatic and from the English Channel to the Vistula, would have +dominated the continent of Europe throughout the whole modern era? +There were certainly grave difficulties in the way, but grave +difficulties had also been encountered in consolidating France or +Spain, and the difference was rather of degree than of kind. In every +other case a strong monarch had overcome feudal princes and ambitious +nobles, had deprived cities of many of their liberties, had trampled +upon, or tampered with, the privileges of representative assemblies, +and had enforced internal order and security. In every such case the +monarch had commanded the support of important popular elements and had +directed his major efforts to the realization of national aims. + +National patriotism was not altogether lacking among Germans of the +sixteenth century. They were conscious of a common language which was +already becoming a vehicle of literary expression. They were conscious +of a common tradition and of a common nationality. They recognized, in +many cases, the absurdly antiquated character of their political +institutions and ardently longed for reforms. In fact, the trouble with +the Germans was not so much the lack of thought about political reform +as the actual conflicts between various groups concerning the method +and goal of reform. Germans despised the Holy Roman Empire, much as +Frenchmen abhorred the memory of feudal society; but Germans were not +as unanimous as Frenchmen in advocating the establishment of a strong +national monarchy. In Germany were princes, free cities, and knights,-- +all nationalistic after a fashion, but all quarreling with each other +and with their nominal sovereign. + +[Sidenote: Charles V bent on Strengthening Monarchical Power though not +on a National Basis] + +The emperors themselves were the only sincere and consistent champions +of centralized monarchical power, but the emperors were probably less +patriotic than any one else in the Holy Roman Empire. Charles V would +never abandon his pretensions to world power in order to become a +strong monarch over a single nation. Early in his reign he declared +that "no monarchy was comparable though not to the Roman Empire. This +the whole world had once obeyed, and Christ Himself had paid it honor +and obedience. Unfortunately it was now only a shadow of what it had +been, but he hoped, with the help of those powerful countries and +alliances which God had granted him, to raise it to its ancient glory." +Charles V labored for an increase of personal power not only in Germany +but also in the Netherlands, in Spain, and in Italy; and with the vast +imperial ambition of Charles the ideal of creating a national monarchy +on a strictly German basis was in sharp conflict. Charles V could not, +certainly would not, pose simply as a German king--a national leader. + +[Sidenote: Nationalism among the German Princes] + +Under these circumstances the powerful German princes, in defying the +emperor's authority and in promoting disruptive tendencies in the Holy +Roman Empire, were enabled to lay the blame at the feet of their +unpatriotic sovereign and thereby arouse in their behalf a good deal of +German national sentiment. In choosing Charles V to be their emperor, +the princely electors in 1519 had demanded that German or Latin should +be the official language of the Holy Roman Empire, that imperial +offices should be open only to Germans, that the various princes should +not be subject to any foreign political jurisdiction, that no foreign +troops should serve in imperial wars without the approval of the Diet, +and that Charles should confirm the sovereign rights of all the princes +and appoint from their number a Council of Regency +(_Reichsregiment_) to share in his government. + +[Sidenote: The Council of Regency, 1521-1531] +[Sidenote: Its Failure to Unify Germany] + +In accordance with an agreement reached by a Diet held at Worms in +1521, the Council of Regency was created. Most of its twenty-three +members were named by, and represented the interests of, the German +princes. Here might be the starting-point toward a closer political +union of the German-speaking people, if only a certain amount of +financial independence could be secured to the Council. The proposal on +this score was a most promising one; it was to support the new imperial +administration, not, as formerly, by levying more or less voluntary +contributions on the various states, but by establishing a kind of +customs-union (_Zollverein_) and imposing on foreign importations +a tariff for revenue. This time, however, the German burghers raised +angry protests; the merchants and traders of the Hanseatic towns +insisted that the proposed financial burden would fall on them and +destroy their business; and their protests were potent enough to bring +to nought the princes' plan. Thus the government was forced again to +resort to the levy of special financial contributions,--an expedient +which usually put the emperor and the Council of Regency at the mercy +of the most selfish and least patriotic of the German princes. + +[Sidenote: Nationalism among the German Knights] + +More truly patriotic as a class than German princes or German burghers +were the German knights--those gentlemen of the hill-top and of the +road, who, usually poor in pocket though stout of heart, looked down +from their high-perched castles with badly disguised contempt upon the +vulgar tradesmen of the town or beheld with anger and jealousy the +encroachments of neighboring princes, lay and ecclesiastical, more +wealthy and powerful than themselves. Especially against the princes +the knights contended, sometimes under the forms of law, more often by +force and violence and all the barbarous accompaniments of private +warfare and personal feud. Some of the knights were well educated and +some had literary and scholarly abilities; hardly any one of them was a +friend of public order. Yet practically all the knights were intensely +proud of their German nationality. It was the knights, who, under the +leadership of such fiery patriots as Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von +Sickingen, had forcefully contributed in 1519 to the imperial election +of Charles V, a German Habsburg, in preference to non-German candidates +such as Francis I of France or Henry VIII of England. For a brief +period Charles V leaned heavily upon the German knights for support in +his struggle with princes and burghers; and at one time it looked as if +the knights in union with the emperor would succeed in curbing the +power of the princes and in laying the foundations of a strongly +centralized national German monarchy. + +[Sidenote: Rise of Lutheranism Favored by the Knights and Opposed by +Charles V] + +But at the critical moment Protestantism arose in Germany, marking a +cleavage between the knightly leaders and the emperor. To knights like +Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen the final break in 1520 +between Martin Luther and the pope seemed to assure a separation of +Germany from Italy and the erection of a peculiar form of German +Christianity about which a truly national state could be builded. As a +class the knights applauded Luther and rejoiced at the rapid spread of +his teachings throughout Germany. On the other hand, Charles V remained +a Roman Catholic. Not only was he loyally attached to the religion of +his fathers through personal training and belief, but he felt that the +maintenance of what political authority he possessed was dependent +largely on the maintenance of the universal authority of the ancient +Church, and practically he needed papal assistance for his many foreign +projects. The same reasons that led many German princes to accept the +Lutheran doctrines as a means of lessening imperial control caused +Charles V to reject them. At the same Diet at Worms (1521), at which +the Council of Regency had been created, Charles V prevailed upon the +Germans present to condemn and outlaw Luther; and this action alienated +the knights from the emperor. + +[Sidenote: The Knights' War, 1522-1523] + +Franz von Sickingen, a Rhenish knight and the ablest of his class, +speedily took advantage of the emperor's absence from Germany in 1522 +to precipitate a Knights' War. In supreme command of a motley army of +fellow-knights, Franz made an energetic attack upon the rich landed +estates of the Catholic prince-bishop of Trier. At this point, the +German princes, lay as well as ecclesiastical, forgetting their +religious predilections and mindful only of their common hatred of the +knights, rushed to the defense of the bishop of Trier and drove off +Sickingen, who, in April, 1523, died fighting before his own castle of +Ebernburg. Ulrich von Hutten fled to Switzerland and perished miserably +shortly afterwards. The knights' cause collapsed, and princes and +burghers remained triumphant. [Footnote: The Knights' War was soon +followed by the Peasants' Revolt, a social rather than a political +movement. For an account of the Peasants' Revolt see pp. 133 ff.] It +was the end of serious efforts in the sixteenth century to create a +national German state. + +[Sidenote: Failure of German Nationalism in the Sixteenth Century] + +The Council of Regency lasted until 1531, though its inability to +preserve domestic peace discredited it, and in its later years it +enjoyed little authority. Left to themselves, many of the princes +espoused Protestantism. In vain Charles V combated the new religious +movement. In vain he proscribed it in several Diets after that of +Worms. In vain he assailed its upholders in several military campaigns, +such as those against the Schmalkaldic League, which will be treated +more fully in another connection. But the long absences of Charles V +from Germany and his absorption in a multitude of cares and worries, to +say nothing of the spasmodic aid which Francis, the Catholic king of +France, gave to the Protestants in Germany, contributed indirectly to +the spread of Lutheranism. In the last year of Charles's rule (1555) +the profession of the Lutheran faith on the part of German princes was +placed by the peace of Augsburg [Footnote: See below, p. 136.] on an +equal footing with that of the Catholic religion. Protestantism among +the German princes proved a disintegrating, rather than a unifying, +factor of national life. The rise of Protestantism was the last straw +which broke German nationalism. + +[Sidenote: Charles V and England] + +With England the relations of Charles V were interesting but not so +important as those already noted with the Germans, the Turks, and the +French. At first in practical alliance with the impetuous self-willed +Henry VIII (1509-1547), whose wife--Catherine of Aragon--was the +emperor's aunt, Charles subsequently broke off friendly relations when +the English sovereign asked the pope to declare his marriage null and +void. Charles prevailed upon the pope to deny Henry's request, and the +schism which Henry then created between the Catholic Church in England +and the Roman See increased the emperor's bitterness. Towards the close +of Henry's reign relations improved again, but it was not until the +accession of Charles's cousin, Mary (1553-1558), to the English throne +that really cordial friendship was restored. To this Queen Mary, +Charles V married his son and successor Philip. + +[Sidenote: Abdication of Charles V] + +At length exhausted by his manifold labors, Charles V resolved to +divide his dominions between his brother Ferdinand and his son Philip +and to retire from government. In the hall of the Golden Fleece at +Brussels on 25 October, 1555, he formally abdicated the sovereignty of +his beloved Netherlands. Turning to the representatives, he said: +"Gentlemen, you must not be astonished if, old and feeble as I am in +all my members, and also from the love I bear you, I shed some tears." +At least in the Netherlands the love was reciprocal. In 1556 he +resigned the Spanish and Italian crowns, [Footnote: He made over to his +brother all his imperial authority, though he nominally retained the +crown of the Holy Roman Empire until 1558] and spent his last years in +preparation for a future world. He died in 1558. Personally, Charles V +had a prominent lower jaw and a thin, pale face, relieved by a wide +forehead and bright, flashing eyes. He was well formed and dignified in +appearance. In character he was slow and at times both irresolute and +obstinate, but he had a high sense of duty, honest intentions, good +soldierly qualities, and a large amount of cold common sense. Though +not highly educated, he was well read and genuinely appreciative of +music and painting. + + +PHILIP II AND THE PREDOMINANCE OF SPAIN + +For a century and a half after the retirement of Charles V in 1556, we +hear of two branches of the Habsburg family--the Spanish Habsburgs and +the Austrian Habsburgs, descended respectively from Philip II and +Ferdinand. By the terms of the division, Ferdinand, the brother of +Charles, received the compact family possessions in the East--Austria +and its dependencies, Bohemia, that portion of Hungary not occupied by +the Turks, and the title of Holy Roman Emperor,--while the remainder +went to Charles's son, Philip II,--Spain, the Netherlands, Franche +Comté (the eastern part of Burgundy), the Two Sicilies, Milan, and the +American colonies. + +Over the history of Ferdinand and his immediate successors, we need not +tarry, because, aside from efforts to preserve religious peace and the +family's political predominance within the empire and to recover +Hungary from the Turks, it is hardly essential. But in western Europe +Philip II for a variety of reasons became a figure of world-wide +importance: we must examine his career. + +[Sidenote: Character and policies of Philip II] + +Few characters in history have elicited more widely contradictory +estimates than Philip II. Represented by many Protestant writers as a +villain, despot, and bigot, he has been extolled by patriotic Spaniards +as Philip the Great, champion of religion and right. These conflicting +opinions are derived from different views which may be taken of the +value and inherent worth of Philip's policies and methods, but what +those policies and methods were there can be no doubt. In the first +place, Philip II prized Spain as his native country and his main +possession--in marked contrast to his father, for he himself had been +born in Spain and had resided there during almost all of his life--and +he was determined to make Spain the greatest country in the world. In +the second place, Philip II was sincerely and piously attached to +Catholicism; he abhorred Protestantism as a blasphemous rending of the +seamless garment of the Church; and he set his heart upon the universal +triumph of his faith. If, by any chance, a question should arise +between the advantage of Spain and the best interests of the Church, +the former must be sacrificed relentlessly to the latter. Such was the +sovereign's stern ideal. No seeming failure of his policies could shake +his belief in their fundamental excellence. That whatever he did was +done for the greater glory of God, that success or failure depended +upon the inscrutable will of the Almighty and not upon himself, were +his guiding convictions, which he transmitted to his Spanish +successors. Not only was Philip a man of principles and ideals, but he +was possessed of a boundless capacity for work and an indomitable will. +He preferred tact and diplomacy to war and prowess of arms, though he +was quite willing to order his troops to battle if the object, in his +opinion, was right. He was personally less accustomed to the sword than +to the pen, and no clerk ever toiled more industriously at his papers +than did this king. From early morning until far into the night he bent +over minutes and reports and other business of kingcraft. Naturally +cautious and reserved, he was dignified and princely in public. In his +private life, he was orderly and extremely affectionate to his family +and servants. Loyalty was Philip's best attribute. + +There was a less happy side to the character of Philip II. His free use +of the Inquisition in order to extirpate heresy throughout his +dominions has rendered him in modern eyes an embodiment of bigotry and +intolerance, but it must be remembered that he lived in an essentially +intolerant age, when religious persecution was stock in trade of +Protestants no less than of Catholics. It is likewise true that he +constantly employed craft and deceit and was ready to make use of +assassination for political purposes, but this too was in accordance +with the temper of the times: lawyers then taught, following the +precepts of the famous historian and political philosopher, +Machiavelli, that Christian morality is a guide for private conduct +rather than for public business, and that "the Prince" may act above +the laws in order to promote the public good, and even such famous +Protestant leaders as Coligny and William the Silent entered into +murder plots. But when all due allowances have been made, the student +cannot help feeling that the purpose of Philip II would have been +served better by the employment of means other than persecution and +murder. + +The reign of Philip II covered approximately the second half of the +sixteenth century (1556-1598). In his efforts to make Spain the +greatest power in the world and to restore the unity problems of +Christendom, he was doomed to failure. The chief Confronting reason for +the failure is simple--the number and [side note Problems Confronting +Philip II] variety of the problems and projects with which Philip II +was concerned. It was a case of the king putting a finger in too many +pies--he was cruelly burned. Could Philip II have devoted all his +energies to one thing at a time, he might conceivably have had greater +success, but as it was, he must divide his attention between +supervising the complex administration of his already wide dominions +and annexing in addition the monarchy and empire of Portugal, between +promoting a vigorous commercial and colonial policy and suppressing a +stubborn revolt in the Netherlands, between championing Catholicism in +both England and France and protecting Christendom against the +victorious Mohammedans. It was this multiplicity of interests that +paralyzed the might of the Spanish monarch, yet each one of his foreign +activities was epochal in the history of the country affected. We shall +therefore briefly review Philip's activities in order. + +[Sidenote: Spain under Philip II: Political] + +As we have seen, Philip II inherited a number of states which had +separate political institutions and customs. He believed in national +unification, at least of Spain. National unification implied +uniformity, and uniformity implied greater power of the crown. So +Philip sought to further the work of his great-grandparents, Ferdinand +and Isabella,--absolutism and uniformity became his watchwords in +internal administration. Politically Philip made no pretense of +consulting the Cortes on legislation, and, although he convoked them to +vote new taxes, he established the rule that the old taxes were to be +considered as granted in perpetuity and as constituting the ordinary +revenue of the crown. He treated the nobles as ornamental rather than +useful, retiring them from royal offices in favor of lawyers and other +subservient members of the middle class. All business was conducted by +correspondence and with a final reference to the king, and the natural +result was endless delay. + +[Sidenote: Spain under Philip II: Economic] + +Financially and economically the period was unfortunate for Spain. The +burden of the host of foreign enterprises fell with crushing weight +upon the Spanish kingdom and particularly upon Castile. Aragon, which +was poor and jealous of its own rights, would give little. The income +from the Netherlands, at first large, was stopped by the revolt. The +Italian states barely paid expenses. The revenue from the American +mines, which has been greatly exaggerated, enriched the pockets of +individuals rather than the treasury of the state. In Spain itself, the +greater part of the land was owned by the ecclesiastical corporations +and the nobles, who were exempt from taxation but were intermittently +fleeced. Moreover, the 10 per cent tax on all sales--the alcabala +[Footnote: See above, p. 57.]--gradually paralyzed all native +industrial enterprise. And the persecution of wealthy and industrious +Jews and Moors diminished the resources of the kingdom. Spain, at the +close of the century, was on the verge of bankruptcy. + +[Sidenote: Spain under Philip II: Religious] + +In religious matters Philip II aimed at uniform adherence to the +doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. He felt, like so many of his +contemporaries, that disparity of belief among subjects would imperil +a state. Both from political motives and from religious zeal Philip was +a Catholic. He therefore advised the pope, watched with interest the +proceedings of the great Council of Trent which was engaged with the +reformation of the Church, [Footnote: See below, pp. 158 ff.] and +labored for the triumph of his religion not only in his own dominions +and in France, but also in Poland, in England, and even in Scandinavia. +In Spain he strengthened the Inquisition and used it as a tool of royal +despotism. + +[Sidenote: Temporary Union of Spain and Portugal] + +Territorially Philip II desired to complete political unity in the +peninsula by combining the crown of Portugal with those of Castile and +Aragon. He himself was closely related to the Portuguese royal family, +and in 1580 he laid formal claim to that kingdom. The duke of Braganza, +whose claim was better than Philip's, was bought off by immense grants +and the country was overrun by Spanish troops. Philip endeavored to +placate the Portuguese by full recognition of their constitutional +rights and in particular by favoring the lesser nobility or country +gentry. Although the monarchies and vast colonial possessions of Spain +and Portugal were thus joined for sixty years under a common king, the +arrangement never commanded any affection in Portugal, with the result +that at the first opportunity, in 1640, Portuguese independence was +restored under the leadership of the Braganza family. + +[Sidenote: Rebellions Against Philip II in Spain] + +The most serious domestic difficulty which Philip had to face was the +revolt of the rich and populous Netherlands, which we shall discuss +presently. But with other revolts the king had to contend. In his +efforts to stamp out heresy and peculiar customs among the descendants +of the Moors who still lived in the southern part of Spain, Philip +aroused armed opposition. The Moriscos, as they were called, struggled +desperately from 1568 to 1570 to reëstablish the independence of +Granada. This rebellion was suppressed with great cruelty, and the +surviving Moriscos were forced to find new homes in less favored parts +of Spain until their final expulsion from the country in 1609. A revolt +of Aragon in 1591 was put down by a Castilian army; the constitutional +rights of Aragon were diminished and the kingdom was reduced to a +greater measure of submission. + +[Sidenote: Revolt of the Netherlands: The Causes] + +The causes that led to the revolt of the Netherlands may be stated as +fourfold. (1) Financial. The burdensome taxes which Charles V had laid +upon the country were increased by Philip II and often applied to +defray the expenses of other parts of the Spanish possessions. +Furthermore, the restrictions which Philip imposed upon Dutch commerce +in the interest of that of Spain threatened to interfere seriously with +the wonted economic prosperity of the Netherlands. (2) Political. +Philip II sought to centralize authority in the Netherlands and +despotically deprived the cities and nobles of many of their +traditional privileges. Philip never visited the country in person +after 1559, and he intrusted his arbitrary government to regents and to +Spaniards rather than to native leaders. The scions of the old and +proud noble families of the Netherlands naturally resented being +supplanted in lucrative and honorable public offices by persons whom +they could regard only as upstarts. (3) Religious. Despite the rapid +and universal spread of Calvinistic Protestantism throughout the +northern provinces, Philip was resolved to force Catholicism upon all +of his subjects. He increased the number of bishoprics, decreed acts of +uniformity, and in a vigorous way utilized the Inquisition to carry his +policy into effect. (4) Personal. The Dutch and Flemish loved Charles V +because he had been born and reared among them and always considered +their country as his native land. Philip II was born and brought up in +Spain. He spoke a language foreign to the Netherlands, and by their +inhabitants he was thought of as an alien. + +[Sidenote: Margaret of Parma and the "Beggars"] + +At first the opposition in the Netherlands was directed chiefly against +the Inquisition and the presence of Spanish garrisons in the towns. The +regent, Margaret of Parma, Philip's half-sister, endeavored to banish +public discontent by a few concessions. The Spanish troops were +withdrawn and certain unpopular officials were dismissed. But +influential noblemen and burghers banded themselves together early in +1566 and presented to the regent Margaret a petition, in which, while +protesting their loyalty, they expressed fear of a general revolt and +begged that a special embassy be sent to Philip to urge upon him the +necessity of abolishing the Inquisition and of redressing their other +grievances. The regent, at first disquieted by the petitioners, was +reassured by one of her advisers, who exclaimed, "What, Madam, is your +Highness afraid of these beggars (_ces gueux_)?" Henceforth the +chief opponents of Philip's policies in the Netherlands humorously +labeled themselves "Beggars" and assumed the emblems of common begging, +the wallet and the bowl. The fashion spread quickly, and the "Beggars'" +insignia were everywhere to be seen, worn as trinkets, especially in +the large towns. In accordance with the "Beggars'" petition, an embassy +was dispatched to Spain to lay the grievances before Philip II. + +[Sidenote: Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, 1567-1573] + +Philip II at first promised to abolish the Inquisition in the +Netherlands, but soon repented of his promise. For meanwhile mobs of +fanatical Protestants, far more radical than the respectable "Beggars," +were rushing to arms, breaking into Catholic churches, wrecking the +altars, smashing the images to pieces, profaning monasteries, and +showing in their retaliation as much violence--as their enemies had +shown cruelty in persecution. In August, 1566, this sacrilegious +iconoclasm reached its climax in the irreparable ruin of the +magnificent cathedral at Antwerp. Philip replied to these acts, which +he interpreted as disloyalty, by sending (1567) his most famous +general, the duke of Alva, into the Netherlands with a large army and +with instructions to cow the people into submission. Alva proved +himself quite capable of understanding and executing his master's +wishes: one of his first acts was the creation of a "Council of +Troubles," an arbitrary tribunal which tried cases of treason and which +operated so notoriously as to merit its popular appellation of the +"Council of Blood." During the duke's stay of six years, it has been +estimated that eight thousand persons were executed, including the +counts of Egmont and Horn, thirty thousand were despoiled of their +property, and one hundred thousand quitted the country. Alva, moreover, +levied an enormous tax of one-tenth upon the price of merchandise sold. +As the tax was collected on several distinct processes, it absorbed at +least seven-tenths of the value of certain goods--of cloth, for +instance. The tax, together with the lawless confusion throughout the +country, meant the destruction of Flemish manufactures and trade. It +was, therefore, quite natural that the burgesses of the southern +Netherlands, Catholic though most of them were, should unite with the +nobles and with the Protestants of the North in opposing Spanish +tyranny. The whole country was now called to arms. + +[Sidenote: William the Silent, Prince of Orange] + +One of the principal noblemen of the Netherlands was a German, William +of Nassau, prince of Orange.[Footnote: William (1533-1584), now +commonly called "the Silent." There appears to be no contemporaneous +justification of the adjective as applied to him, but the misnomer, +once adopted by later writers, has insistently clung to him.] He had +been governing the provinces of Holland and Zeeland when Alva arrived, +but as he was already at the point of accepting Protestantism he had +prudently retired into Germany, leaving his estates to be confiscated +by the Spanish governor. Certain trifling successes of the insurgents +now called William back to head the popular movement. For many years he +bore the brunt of the war and proved himself not only a resourceful +general, but an able diplomat and a whole-souled patriot. He eventually +gained the admiration and love of the whole Dutch people. + +[Sidenote: The "Sea Beggars"] + +The first armed forces of William of Orange were easily routed by Alva, +but in 1569 a far more menacing situation was presented. In that year +William began to charter corsairs and privateers to prey upon Spanish +shipping. These "Sea Beggars," as they were called, were mostly wild +and lawless desperadoes who stopped at nothing in their hatred of +Catholics and Spaniards: they early laid the foundations of Dutch +maritime power and at the same time proved a constant torment to Alva. +They made frequent incursions into the numerous waterways of the +Netherlands and perpetually fanned the embers of revolt on land. +Gradually William collected new armies, which more and more +successfully defied Alva. + +[Sidenote: The "Spanish Fury" and the Pacification of Ghent, 1576] + +The harsh tactics of Alva had failed to restore the Netherlands to +Philip's control, and in 1573 Alva was replaced in the regency by the +more politic Requesens, who continued the struggle as best he could but +with even less success than Alva. Soon after Requesens's death in 1576, +the Spanish army in the Netherlands, left without pay or food, mutinied +and inflicted such horrible indignities upon several cities, notably +Antwerp, that the savage attack is called the "Spanish Fury." Deputies +of all the seventeen provinces at once concluded an agreement, termed +the Pacification of Ghent (1576), by which they mutually guaranteed +resistance to the Spanish until the king should abolish the Inquisition +and restore their old-time liberties. + +Then Philip II tried a policy of concession, but the new governor, the +dashing Don John of Austria, fresh from a great naval victory over the +Turks, soon discovered that it was too late to reconcile the +Protestants. William the Silent was wary of the Spanish offers, and Don +John died in 1578 without having achieved very much. + +[Sidenote: Farnese, Duke of Parma] +[Sidenote: The Treaty of Array and the Union of Utrecht (1579): the +Permanent Division of the Netherlands] + +But Philip II was not without some success in the Netherlands. He was +fortunate in having a particularly determined and tactful governor in +the country from 1578 to 1592 in the person of Alexander Farnese, duke +of Parma. Skillfully mingling war and diplomacy, Farnese succeeded in +sowing discord between the northern and southern provinces: the former +were Dutch, Calvinist, and commercial; the latter were Flemish and +Walloon, Catholic, and industrial. The ten southern provinces might +eventually have more to fear from the North than from continued union +with Spain; their representatives, therefore, signed a defensive league +at Arras in 1579 for the protection of the Catholic religion and with +the avowed purpose of effecting a reconciliation with Philip II. In the +same year the northern provinces agreed to the Union of Utrecht, +binding themselves together "as if they were one province" to maintain +their rights and liberties "with life-blood and goods" against Spanish +tyranny and to grant complete freedom of worship and of religious +opinion throughout the confederation. In this way the Pacification of +Ghent was nullified and the Netherlands were split into two parts, each +going its own way, each developing its own history. The southern +portion was to remain in Habsburg hands for over two centuries, being +successively termed "Spanish Netherlands" and "Austrian Netherlands"-- +roughly speaking, it is what to-day we call Belgium. The northern +portion was to become free and independent, and, as the "United +Provinces" or simply "Holland," to take its place among the nations of +the world. For a considerable period of time Holland was destined to be +more prosperous than Belgium. The latter suffered more grievously than +the former from the actual hostilities; and the Dutch, by closing the +River Scheldt and dominating the adjacent seas, dealt a mortal blow at +the industrial and commercial supremacy of Antwerp and transferred the +chief trade and business of all the Netherlands to their own city of +Amsterdam. + +[Sidenote: Reasons for the Success of the Dutch] + +For many years the struggle dragged on. At times it seemed probable +that Farnese and the Spaniards would overcome the North by force as +they had obtained the South by diplomacy. But a variety of reasons +explain the ultimate success of the Dutch. The nature of the country +rendered ordinary campaigning very difficult--the network of canals +constituted natural lines of defense and the cutting of the dikes might +easily imperil an invading army. Again, the seafaring propensities of +the Dutch stimulated them to fit out an increasing number of privateers +which constantly preyed upon Spanish commerce: it was not long before +this traffic grew important and legitimate, so that in the following +century Amsterdam became one of the greatest cities of the world, and +Holland assumed a prominent place among commercial and colonial +nations. Thirdly, the employment of foreign mercenaries in the army of +defense enabled the native population to devote the more time to +peaceful pursuits, and, despite the persistence of war, the Dutch +provinces increased steadily in wealth and prosperity. Fourthly, the +cautious Fabian policy of William the Silent prevented the Dutch from +staking heavily upon battles in the open field. Fifthly, the Dutch +received a good deal of assistance from Protestants of Germany, +England, and France. Finally, Philip II pursued too many great projects +at once to be able to bring a single one to a satisfactory conclusion: +his war with Queen Elizabeth of England and his interference in the +affairs of France inextricably complicated his plans in the +Netherlands. + +[Sidenote: Formal Declaration of Dutch Independence, 1581] + +In 1581 Philip II published a ban against William of Orange, +proclaiming him a traitor and an outlaw and offering a reward to any +one who would take him dead or alive. William replied by his famous +"Apology" to the charges against him; but his practical answer to the +king was the Act of Abjuration, by which at his persuasion the +representatives of the northern provinces, assembled at The Hague, +solemnly proclaimed their separation from the crown of Spain, broke the +royal seal of Philip II, and declared the king deprived of all +authority over them. We should call this Act of 1581 the Dutch +declaration of independence. It was an augury of the definitive result +of the war. + +[Sidenote: Recognition of Dutch Independence] + +Although William the Silent was assassinated by an agent of Spain +(1584), and Antwerp was captured from the Protestants in 1585, the +ability and genius of Farnese did not avail to make further headway +against the United Provinces; but Philip II, stubborn to the end, +positively refused to recognize Dutch independence. In 1609 Philip III +of Spain consented to a twelve years' truce with the States-General of +The Hague. In the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) the Dutch and Spaniards +again became embroiled, and the freedom of the republic was not +recognized officially by Spain till the general peace of Westphalia in +1648. [Footnote: See below, p. 229.] + +The seven provinces, which had waged such long war with Spain, +constituted, by mutual agreement, a confederacy, each preserving a +distinct local government and administration, but all subject to a +general parliament--the States-General--and to a stadtholder, or +governor-general, an office which subsequently became hereditary in the +Orange family. Between the States-General and the stadtholder, a +constitutional conflict was carried on throughout the greater part of +the seventeenth century--the former, supported by well-to-do burghers, +favoring a greater measure of political democracy, the latter, upheld +by aristocratically minded nobles, laboring for the development of +monarchical institutions under the Orange family. + +[Sidenote: Natural Opposition of England and France to the Policies of +Philip II] + +Not only his efforts in the Netherlands but many other projects of +Philip II were frustrated by remarkable parallel developments in the +two national monarchies of England and France. Both these countries +were naturally jealous opposition and fearful of an undue expansion of +Spain, which might upset the balance of power. Both states, from their +geographical locations, would normally be inimical to Philip II: +England would desire, from her island position, to destroy the monopoly +which Spain claimed of the carrying trade of the seas; France, still +encircled by Habsburg possessions in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, +would adhere to her traditional policy of allying herself with every +foe of the Spanish king. Then, too, the papal authority had been +rejected in England and seriously questioned in France: Philip's +crusading zeal made him the champion of the Church in those countries. +For ecclesiastical as well as for economic and political purposes it +seemed necessary to the Spanish king that he should bring France and +England under his direct influence. On their side, patriotic French and +English resented such foreign interest in their domestic affairs, and +the eventual failure of Philip registered a wonderful growth of +national feeling among the peoples who victoriously contended against +him. The beginnings of the real modern greatness of France and England +date from their struggle with Philip II. + +[Sidenote: Philip II and Mary Tudor] + +At the outset of his reign, Philip seemed quite successful in his +foreign relations. As we have seen, he was in alliance with England +through his marriage with Queen Mary Tudor (1553-1558): she had +temporarily restored the English Church to communion with the Holy See, +and was conducting her foreign policy in harmony with Philip's--because +of her husband she lost to the French the town of Calais, the last +English possession on the Continent (1558). Likewise, as has been said, +Philip II concluded with France in 1559 the advantageous treaty of +Cateau-Cambrésis. But during the ensuing thirty years the tables were +completely turned. Both England and France ended by securing respite +from Spanish interference. + +[Sidenote: Philip II and Elizabeth] + +Mary Tudor died unhappy and childless in 1558, and the succession of +her sister Queen Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, +altered the relations between the English and Spanish courts. Elizabeth +(1558-1603) was possessed of an imperious, haughty, energetic +character; she had remarkable intelligence and an absorbing patriotism. +She inspired confidence in her advisers and respect among her people, +so that she was commonly called "Good Queen Bess" despite the fact that +her habits of deceit and double-dealing gave color to the French king's +remark that she was the greatest liar in Christendom. This was the +woman with whom Philip II had to deal; he tried many tactics in order +to gain his ends,--all of them hopelessly unsuccessful. + +Philip first proposed matrimony, but Elizabeth was very careful not to +give herself, or England, such a master. Then when the queen declared +herself a Protestant and showed no inclination to assist Philip in any +of his enterprises, the Spanish king proceeded to plot against her +throne. He subsidized Roman Catholic priests, especially Jesuits, who +violated the laws of the land. He stirred up sedition and even went so +far as to plan Elizabeth's assassination. Many conspiracies against the +English queen centered in the person of the ill-starred Mary Stuart, +[Footnote: Mary Stuart (1542-1587).] queen of Scotland, who was +next in line of succession to the English throne and withal a Catholic. + +[Sidenote: Mary Stuart] + +Descended from the Stuart kings of Scotland and from Henry VII of +England, related to the powerful family of Guise in France, Mary had +been brought up at the French court and married to the short-lived +French king, Francis II. Upon the death of the latter she returned in +1561 to Scotland, a young woman of but eighteen years, only to find +that the government had fallen victim to the prevalent factional fights +among the Scotch nobles and that in the preceding year the parliament +had solemnly adopted a Calvinistic form of Protestantism. By means of +tact and mildness, however, Mary won the respect of the nobles and the +admiration of the people, until a series of marital troubles and +blunders--her marriage with a worthless cousin, Henry Darnley, and then +her scandalous marriage with Darnley's profligate murderer, the earl of +Bothwell--alienated her people from her and drove her into exile. She +abdicated the throne of Scotland in favor of her infant son, James VI, +who was reared a Protestant and subsequently became King James I of +England, and she then (1568) threw herself upon the mercy of Elizabeth. +She thought she would find in England a haven of refuge; instead she +found there a prison. + +For the score of years during which she remained Elizabeth's prisoner, +Mary Stuart was the object of many plots and conspiracies against the +existing governments of both Scotland and England. In every such scheme +were to be found the machinations and money of the Spanish king. In +fact, as time went on, it seemed to a growing section of the English +people as though the cause of Elizabeth was bound up with Protestantism +and with national independence and prosperity just as certainly as the +success of Mary would lead to the triumph of Catholicism, the political +supremacy of Spain, and the commercial ruin of England. It was under +these circumstances that Mary's fate was sealed. Because of a political +situation over which she had slight control, the ex-queen of Scotland +was beheaded by Elizabeth's orders in 1587. + +[Sidenote: The Armada] + +Philip II had now tried and failed in every expedient but one,--the +employment of sheer force. Even this he attempted in order to avenge +the death of Mary Stuart and to bring England, politically, +religiously, and commercially, into harmony with his Spanish policies. +The story of the preparation and the fate of the Invincible Armada is +almost too well known to require repetition. It was in 1588 that there +issued from the mouth of the Tagus River the most formidable fleet +which up to that time Christendom had ever beheld--130 ships, 8000 +seamen, 19,000 soldiers, the flower of the Spanish chivalry. In the +Netherlands it was to be joined by Alexander Farnese with 33,000 +veteran troops. But in one important respect Philip had underestimated +his enemy: he had counted upon a divided country. Now the attack upon +England was primarily national, rather than religious, and Catholics +vied with Protestants in offering aid to the queen: it was a united +rather than a divided nation which Philip faced. The English fleet, +composed of comparatively small and easily maneuvered vessels, worked +great havoc upon the ponderous and slow-moving Spanish galleons, and +the wreck of the Armada was completed by a furious gale which tossed +ship after ship upon the rocks of northern Scotland. Less than a third +of the original expedition ever returned to Spain. + +Philip II had thus failed in his herculean effort against England. He +continued in small ways to annoy and to irritate Elizabeth. He tried-- +without result--to incite the Catholics of Ireland against the queen. +He exhausted his arsenals and his treasures in despairing attempts to +equip a second and even a third Armada. But he was doomed to bitterest +disappointment, for two years before his death an English fleet sacked +his own great port of Cadiz. The war with England ruined the navy and +the commerce of Spain. The defeat of the Armada was England's first +title to commercial supremacy. + +[Sidenote: Economic Benefits of the Period for England] + +It was long maintained that the underlying causes of the conflict +between England and Spain in the second half of the sixteenth century +and its chief interest was religious--that it was part of an epic +struggle between Protestantism and Catholicism. There may be a measure +of truth in such an idea, but most recent writers believe that the +chief motives for the conflict, as well as its important results, were +essentially economic. From the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, English +sailors and freebooters, such as Hawkins and Drake, took the offensive +against Spanish trade and commerce; and many ships, laden with silver +and goods from the New World and bound for Cadiz, were seized and towed +into English harbors. The queen herself frequently received a share of +the booty and therefore tended to encourage the practice. For nearly +thirty years Philip put up with the capture of his treasure ships, the +raiding of his colonies, and the open assistance rendered to his +rebellious subjects. Only when he reached the conclusion that his power +would never be secure in the Netherlands or in America did he dispatch +the Armada. Its failure finally freed Holland and marked the collapse +of the Spanish monopoly upon the high seas and in the New World. + +[Sidenote: Affairs in France] + +Before we can appreciate the motives and results of the interference of +Philip II in French affairs, a few words must be said about what had +happened in France since Francis I (1515-1547) and his son, Henry II +(1547-1559), exalted the royal power in their country and not only +preserved French independence of the surrounding empire of Charles V +but also increased French prestige by means of a strong policy in Italy +and by the extension of frontiers toward the Rhine. Henry II had +married a member of the famous Florentine family of the Medici-- +Catherine de' Medici--a large and ugly woman, but ambitious, +resourceful, and capable, who, by means of trickery and deceit, took an +active part in French politics from the death of her husband, +throughout the reigns of her feeble sons, Francis II (1559-1560), +Charles IX (1560-1574), and Henry III (1574-1589). Catherine found her +position and that of her royal children continually threatened by (1) +the Protestants (Huguenots), (2) the great nobles, and (3) Philip II of +Spain. + +[Sidenote: Dangers to Royal Power in France: Protestantism] + +French Protestantism had grown steadily during the first half of the +sixteenth century until it was estimated that from a twentieth to a +thirtieth of the nation had fallen away from the Catholic Church. The +influence of the advocates of the new faith was, however, much greater +than their number, because the Huguenots, as they were called, were +recruited mainly from the prosperous, intelligent middle class,--the +bourgeoisie,--who had been intrusted by preceding French kings with +many important offices. The Huguenots represented, therefore, a +powerful social class and likewise one that was opposed to the undue +increase of royal power. They demanded, not only religious toleration +for themselves, but also regular meetings of the Estates-General and +control of the nation's representatives over financial matters. The +kings, on their part, felt that political solidarity and their own +personal rule were dependent upon the maintenance of religious +uniformity in the nation and the consequent defeat of the pretensions +of the Huguenots. Francis I and Henry II had persecuted the Protestants +with bitterness. From 1562 to 1593 a series of so-called religious wars +embroiled the whole country. + +[Sidenote: Dangers to Royal Power in France: the Nobles] + +French politics were further complicated during the second half of the +sixteenth century by the recrudescence of the power of the nobles. The +so-called religious wars were quite as much political as religious-- +they resulted from efforts of this or that faction of noblemen to +dictate to a weak king. Two noble families particularly vied with each +other for power,--the Bourbons and the Guises,--and the unqualified +triumph of either would be certain to bring calamity to the sons of +Catherine de' Medici. + +[Sidenote: The Bourbons] + +The Bourbons bore the proud title of princes of the blood because they +were direct descendants of a French king. Their descent, to be sure, +was from Saint Louis, king in the thirteenth century, and they were +now, therefore, only distant cousins of the reigning kings, but as the +latter died off, one after another, leaving no direct successors, the +Bourbons by the French law of strict male succession became heirs to +the royal family. The head of the Bourbons, a certain Anthony, had +married the queen of Navarre and had become thereby king of Navarre, +although the greater part of that country--the region south of the +Pyrenees--had been annexed to Spain in 1512. Anthony's brother Louis, +prince of Condé, had a reputation for bravery, loyalty, and ability. +Both Condé and the king of Navarre were Protestants. + +[Sidenote: The Guise Family] + +The Guise family was descended from a duke of Lorraine who had attached +himself to the court of Francis I. It was really a foreign family, +inasmuch as Lorraine was then a dependency of the Holy Roman Empire, +but the patriotic exploits of the head of the family in defending Metz +against the Emperor Charles V and in capturing Calais from the English +endeared the Guises to a goodly part of the French nation. The duke of +Guise remained a stanch Catholic, and his brother, called the Cardinal +of Lorraine, was head of as many as twelve bishoprics, which gave him +an enormous revenue and made him the most conspicuous churchman in +France. During the reign of Henry II (1547-1559) the Guises were +especially influential. They fought valiantly in foreign wars. They +spurred on the king to a great persecution of the Huguenots. They +increased their own landed estates. And they married one of their +relatives--Mary, queen of Scots--to the heir to the throne. But after +the brief reign of Mary's husband, Francis II (1559-1560), the Guise +family encountered not only the active opposition of their chief noble +rivals, the Bourbons, with their Huguenot allies, but likewise the +jealousy and crafty intrigues of Catherine de' Medici. + +[Sidenote: Religious Wars in France] + +Catherine feared both the ambition of the powerful Guise family and the +disruptive tendencies of Protestantism. The result was a long series of +confused civil wars between the ardent followers, respectively +Catholic and Protestant, of the Guise and Bourbon families, in which +the queen-mother gave support first to one side and then to the other. +There were no fewer than eight of these sanguinary conflicts, each one +ending with the grant of slight concessions to the Huguenots and the +maintenance of the weak kings upon the throne. The massacre of Saint +Bartholomew's Day (1572) was a horrible incident of Catherine's policy +of "trimming." Fearing the undue influence over the king of Admiral de +Coligny, an upright and able Huguenot leader, the queen-mother, with +the aid of the Guises, prevailed upon the weak-minded Charles IX to +authorize the wholesale assassination of Protestants. The signal was +given by the ringing of a Parisian church-bell at two o'clock in the +morning of 24 August, 1572, and the slaughter went on throughout the +day in the capital and for several weeks in the provinces. Coligny was +murdered; even women and children were not spared. It is estimated that +in all at least three thousand--perhaps ten thousand--lost their lives. + +[Sidenote: The "Politiques"] + +The massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day did not destroy French +Protestantism or render the Huguenot leaders more timid in +asserting their claims. On the other hand, it brought into +clear light a noteworthy division within the ranks of their Catholic +opponents in France--on one side, the rigorous followers of the Guise +family, who complained only that the massacre had not been sufficiently +comprehensive, and, on the other side, a group of moderate Catholics, +usually styled the "Politiques" who, while continuing to adhere to the +Roman Church, and, when called upon, bearing arms on the side of the +king, were strongly opposed to the employment of force or violence or +persecution in matters of religion. The Politiques were particularly +patriotic, and they blamed the religious wars and the intolerant policy +of the Guises for the seeming weakness of the French monarchy. They +thought the massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day a blunder as well as a +crime. + +The emergence of the Politiques did not immediately make for peace; +rather, it substituted a three-sided for a two-sided conflict. + +[Sidenote: Philip II and the War of the Three Henries] + +After many years, filled with disorder, it became apparent that the +children of Catherine de' Medici would have no direct male heirs and +that the crown would therefore legally devolve upon the son of Anthony +of Bourbon--Henry of Bourbon, king of Navarre and a Protestant. Such an +outcome was naturally distasteful to the Guises and abhorrent to Philip +II of Spain. In 1585 a definite league was formed between Henry, duke +of Guise, and the Spanish king, whereby the latter undertook by +military force to aid the former's family in seizing the throne: French +politics in that event would be controlled by Spain, and Philip would +secure valuable assistance in crushing the Netherlands and conquering +England.[Footnote: At that very time, Mary, Queen of Scots, cousin of +Henry, duke of Guise, was held a prisoner in England by Queen +Elizabeth. See above, p. 99.] The immediate outcome of the agreement +was the war of the three Henries--Henry III, son of Catherine de' +Medici and king of France; Henry of Bourbon, king of Navarre and heir +to the French throne; and Henry, duke of Guise, with the foreign +support of Philip II of Spain. Henry of Guise represented the extreme +Catholic party; Henry of Navarre, the Protestant faction; and Henry of +France, the Catholic moderates--the Politiques--who wanted peace and +were willing to grant a measure of toleration. The last two were +upholders of French independence against the encroachments of Spain. + +The king was speedily gotten into the power of the Guises, but little +headway was made by the extreme Catholics against Henry of Navarre, who +now received domestic aid from the _Politiques_ and foreign +assistance from Queen Elizabeth of England and who benefited by the +continued misfortunes of Philip II. At no time was the Spanish king +able to devote his whole attention and energy to the French war. At +length in 1588 Henry III caused Henry of Guise to be assassinated. The +king never had a real chance to prove whether he could become a +national leader in expelling the foreigners and putting an end to civil +war, for he himself was assassinated in 1589. With his dying breath he +designated the king of Navarre as his successor. + +[Sidenote: Henry of Navarre] + +Henry of Navarre, the first of the Bourbon family upon the throne of +France, took the title of Henry IV (1589-1610). [Footnote: It is a +curious fact that Henry of Navarre, like Henry of Guise and Henry of +France, died by the hand of an assassin.] For four years after his +accession, Henry IV was obliged to continue the civil war, but his +abjuration of Protestantism and his acceptance of Catholicism in 1593 +removed the chief source of opposition to him within France, and the +rebellion speedily collapsed. With the Spanish king, however, the +struggle dragged on until the treaty of Vervins, which in the last year +of Philip's life practically confirmed the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis. + +[Sidenote: Decline of Spain and Rise of France] + +Thus Philip II had failed to conquer or to dismember France. He had +been unable to harmonize French policies with those of his own in the +Netherlands or in England. Despite his endeavors, the French crown was +now on the head of one of his enemies, who, if something of a renegade +Protestant himself, had nevertheless granted qualified toleration to +heretics. Nor were these failures of Philip's political and religious +policies mere negative results to France. The unsuccessful interference +of the Spanish king contributed to the assurance of French +independence, patriotism, and solidarity. France, not Spain, was to be +the center of European politics during the succeeding century. + +[Sidenote: Philip II and the Turks] + +In concluding this chapter, a large section of which has been devoted +to an account of the manifold failures of Philip II, a word should be +added about one exploit that brought glory to the Spanish monarch. It +was he who administered the first effective check to the advancing +Ottoman Turks. + +After the death of Suleiman the Magnificent (1566), the Turks continued +to strengthen their hold upon Hungary and to fit out piratical +expeditions in the Mediterranean. The latter repeatedly ravaged +portions of Sicily, southern Italy, and even the Balearic Islands, and +in 1570 an Ottoman fleet captured Cyprus from the Venetians. Malta and +Crete remained as the only Christian outposts in the Mediterranean. In +this extremity, a league was formed to save Italy. Its inspirer and +preacher was Pope Pius V, but Genoa and Venice furnished the bulk of +the fleet, while Philip II supplied the necessary additional ships and +the commander-in-chief in the person of his half-brother, Don John of +Austria. The expedition, which comprised 208 vessels, met the Ottoman +fleet of 273 ships in the Gulf of Lepanto, off the coast of Greece, on +7 October, 1571, and inflicted upon it a crushing defeat. The Turkish +warships were almost all sunk or driven ashore; it is estimated that +8000 Turks lost their lives. When news of the victory reached Rome, +Pope Pius intoned the famous verse, "There was a man sent from God +whose name was John." + +[Sidenote: Lepanto] + +The battle of Lepanto was of great political importance. It gave the +naval power of the Mohammedans a blow from which it never recovered and +ended their aggressive warfare in the Mediterranean. It was, in +reality, the last Crusade: Philip II was in his most becoming rôle as +champion of church and pope; hardly a noble family in Spain or Italy +was not represented in the battle; volunteers came from all parts of +the world; the celebrated Spanish writer Cervantes lost an arm at +Lepanto. Western Europe was henceforth to be comparatively free from +the Ottoman peril. + +[Illustration: THE HABSBURG FAMILY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH +CENTURIES] + +[Illustration: THE VALOIS, BOURBON, AND GUISE FAMILIES, PHILIP OF SPAIN +AND MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS] + +[Illustration: THE HOUSE OF TUDOR: SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND (1485-1603)] + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +GENERAL, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HABSBURG TERRITORIES. A. H. +Johnson, _Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 1494-1598_ (1897), ch. iii- +ix, a political summary; Mary A. Hollings, _Renaissance and +Reformation, 1453-1660_ (1910), ch. vi, ix, x, a brief outline; E. M. +Hulme, _Renaissance and Reformation_, 2d ed. (1915), ch. x, xiv, xxiv- +xxviii, a brief and fragmentary account; T. H. Dyer, _A History of +Modern Europe_, 3d ed., rev. by Arthur Hassall (1901), ch. ix, xi- +xxvii, old but containing a multitude of political facts; _Cambridge +Modern History_, Vol. II (1904), ch. ii, iii, vii, viii, and Vol. III +(1905), ch. xv, v; _History of All Nations_, Vol. XI and Vol. XII, ch. +i-iii, by the German scholar on the period, Martin Philippson; +_Histoire générale_, Vol. IV, ch. iii, ix, Vol. V, ch. ii-v, xv. Of the +Emperor Charles V the old standard English biography by William +Robertson, still readable, has now been largely superseded by that of +Edward Armstrong, 2 vols. (1902); two important German works on Charles +V are Baumgarten, _Geschichte Karls V_, 3 vols. (1885-1892), and Konrad +Häbler, _Geschichte Spaniens unter den Habsburgen_, Vol. I (1907). Of +Philip II the best brief biography in English is Martin Hume's (1902), +which should be consulted, if possible, in connection with Charles +Bratli, _Philippe II, Roi d'Espagne: Etude sur sa vie et son +caractère_, new ed. (1912), an attempt to counteract traditional +Protestant bias against the Spanish monarch. Also see M. A. S. Hume, +_Spain, its Greatness and Decay, 1479-1788_ (1898), ch. i-vi, for a +general account of the reigns of Philip II and Philip III; and Paul +Herre, _Papstium und Papstwahl im Zeitalter Philipps II_ (1907) for a +sympathetic treatment of Philip's relations with the papacy. For a +proper understanding of sixteenth-century politics the student should +read that all-important book, Machiavelli's _Prince_, the most +convenient English edition of which is in "Everyman's Library." For +political events in the Germanies in the sixteenth century: E. F. +Henderson, _A Short History of Germany_, 2 vols. in 1 (1902); Sidney +Whitman, _Austria_ (1899); Gustav Welf, _Deutsche Geschichte im +Zeitalter der Gegenreformation_ (1899), an elaborate study; Franz +Krones, _Handbuch der Geschichte Oesterreichs von der ältesten Zeit_, +Vol. III (1877), Book XIII. + +FRANCE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. A. J. Grant, _The French Monarchy, +1483-1789_ (1900), Vol. I, ch. iii-v; G. W. Kitchin, _A History of +France,_ 4th ed. (1894-1899), Vol. II, Book II, ch. iv-v, and Book III; +_Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. III (1905), ch. i; Ernest Lavisse +(editor), _Histoire de France_, Vol. V (1903), Books III, IV, VII, +VIII, and Vol. VI (1904), Books I-III, the most thorough and best +treatment; Edward Armstrong, _The French Wars of Religion_ (1892); J. +W. Thompson, _The Wars of Religion in France: the Huguenots, Catherine +de Medici and Philip II of Spain_, 1559-1576 (1909), containing several +suggestions on the economic conditions of the time; A. W. Whitehead, +_Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France_ (1904); C. C. Jackson, _The +Last of the Valois_, 2 vols. (1888), and, by the same author, _The +First of the Bourbons_, 2 vols. (1890); Lucien Romier, _Les origines +politiques des Guerres de Religion_, Vol. I, _Henri II et l'Italie, +1547-1555_ (1913), scholarly and authoritative, stressing economic +rather than political aspects; Louis Batiffol, _The Century of the +Renaissance in France_, Eng. trans. by Elsie F. Buckley (1916), +covering the years 1483-1610, largely political. + +ENGLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Brief accounts: A. L. Cross, _History +of England and Greater Britain_ (1914), ch. xix-xxvi; E. P. Cheyney, _A +Short History of England_ (1904), ch. xii, xiii; _Cambridge Modern +History,_ Vol. III (1905), ch. viii-xi; J. F. Bright, _History of +England_, 5 vols. (1884-1904), Vol. II, _Personal Monarchy, 1485-1688_ +(in part); A. D. Innes, _History of England and the British Empire_, 4 +vols, (1914), Vol. II, ch. iii-viii; J. R. Seeley, _Growth of British +Policy_, 2 vols. (1895), a brilliant work, of which Vol. I, Part I, +affords an able account of the policy of Elizabeth. More detailed +studies: J. S. Brewer, _The Reign of Henry VIII from his Accession to +the Death of Wolsey_, 2 vols. (1884); H. A. L. Fisher, _Political +History of England, 1485-1547_ (1906), ch. vi-xviii; A. F. Pollard, +_History of England from the Accession of Edward VI to the Death of +Elizabeth_ (1910); J. A. Froude, _History of England from the Fall of +Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada_, 12 vols. (1870-1872), a +masterpiece of prose-style but strongly biased in favor of Henry VIII +and against anything connected with the Roman Church; E. P. Cheyney, _A +History of England from the Defeat of the Armada to the Death of +Elizabeth_, Vol. I (1914), scholarly and well-written. Also see Andrew +Lang, _A History of Scotland_, 2d ed. (1901-1907), Vols. I and II; and +P. H. Brown, _History of Scotland_ (1899-1900), Vols. I and II. +Important biographies: A. F. Pollard, _Henry VIII_ (1905), the result +of much research and distinctly favorable to Henry; E. L. Taunton, +_Thomas Wolsey, Legate and Reformer_ (1902), the careful estimate of a +Catholic scholar; Mandell Creighton, _Cardinal Wolsey_ (1888), a good +clear account, rather favorable to the cardinal; J. M. Stone, _Mary the +First, Queen of England_ (1901), a sympathetic biography of Mary Tudor; +Mandell Creighton, _Queen Elizabeth_ (1909), the best biography of the +Virgin Queen; E. S. Beesly, _Queen Elizabeth_ (1892), another good +biography. For Mary, Queen of Scots, see the histories of Scotland +mentioned above and also Andrew Lang, _The Mystery of Mary Stuart_ +(1901); P. H. Brown, _Scotland in the Time of Queen Mary_ (1904); and +R. S. Rait, _Mary Queen of Scots_, 2d ed. (1899), containing important +source-material concerning Mary. Walter Walsh, _The Jesuits in Great +Britain_ (1903), emphasizes their political opposition to Elizabeth. +Martin Hume, _Two English Queens and Philip_ (1908), valuable for the +English relations of Philip II. For English maritime development see +David Hannay, _A Short History of the English Navy_ (1898); J. S. +Corbett, _Drake and the Tudor Navy_, 2 vols. (1898), and, by the same +author, _The Successors of Drake_ (1900); J. A. Froude, _English Seamen +in the Sixteenth Century_ (1895). + +THE NETHERLANDS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. A good brief account is that +of George Edmundson in the _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. III +(1905), ch. vi, vii, and Vol. II (1904), ch. xix. For the Dutch +Netherlands the great standard work is now P. J. Blok, _History of +the People of the Netherlands_, trans. in large part by O. A. +Bierstadt, and for the Belgian Netherlands a corresponding function is +performed in French by Henri Pirenne. J. L. Motley, _Rise of the +Dutch Republic_, 3 vols. (many editions), is brilliantly written and +still famous, but it is based on an inadequate study of the sources and +is marred throughout by bitter prejudice against the Spaniards and in +favor of the Protestant Dutch: it is now completely superseded by the +works of Blok and Pirenne. Admirable accounts of William the Silent are +the two-volume biography by Ruth Putnam and the volume by the same +author in the "Heroes of the Nations" Series (1911); the most detailed +study is the German work of Felix Rachfahl. + +THE TURKS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. _Cambridge Modern History_, +Vol. III (1905), ch. iv; A. H. Lybyer, _The Government of the Ottoman +Empire in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificent_ (1913); Stanley +Lane-Poole, _Turkey_ (1889) in the "Story of the Nations" Series; +Nicolae Jorga, _Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches_; Leopold von +Ranke, _Die Osmanen und die spanische Monarchie im sechzehnten und +siebzehnten Jahrhundert_; Joseph von Hammer, _Geschichte des +osmanischen Reiches_, 2d ed., 4 vols. (1834-1835), Vol. II, a famous +German work, which has been translated into French. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE PROTESTANT REVOLT AND THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION + + +THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AT THE OPENING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + +[Sidenote: Differences between Religious Bodies in 1500 and Those in +1900] + +Four hundred years ago, practically all people who lived in central or +western Europe called themselves "Christians" and in common recognized +allegiance to an ecclesiastical body which was called the "Catholic +Church." This Catholic Church in 1500 differed from any present-day +religious society in the following respects: (1) Every child was born +into the Church as now he is born into the state; every person was +expected to conform, at least outwardly, to the doctrines and practices +of the Church; in other words the Catholic Church claimed a universal +membership. (2) The Church was not supported by voluntary contributions +as now, but by compulsory taxes; every person was compelled to assist +in defraying the expenses of the official religion. (3) The state +undertook to enforce obedience on the part of its subjects to the +Church; a person attacking the authority of the Catholic Church would +be liable to punishment by the state, and this held true in England and +Germany as well as in Spain or Italy. + +[Sidenote: Rise of Protestantism] + +Then, within fifty years, between 1520 and 1570, a large number of +Catholic Christians, particularly in Germany, Scandinavia, Scotland, +and England, and a smaller number in the Low Countries and in France, +broke off communion with the ancient Church and became known as +Protestants. Before the year 1500 there were no Protestants; since the +sixteenth century, the dominant Christianity of western and central +Europe has been divided into two parts--Catholic and Protestant. It is +important that we should know something of the origin and significance +of this division, because the Christian religion and the Christian +Church had long played very great roles in the evolution of European +civilization and because ecclesiastical and religious questions have +continued, since the division, to deserve general attention. + +[Sidenote: "Catholic" Christianity] + +Let us understand clearly what was meant in the year 1500 by the +expression "Catholic Christianity." It embraced a belief in certain +religious precepts which it was believed Jesus of Nazareth had taught +at the beginning of the Christian era, the inculcation of certain moral +teachings which were likewise derived from Jesus, and a definite +organization--the Church--founded, it was assumed, by Jesus in order to +teach and practice, till the end of time, His religious and moral +doctrines. By means of the Church, man would know best how to order his +life in this world and how to prepare his soul for everlasting +happiness in the world to come. + +[Sidenote: The Catholic Church] + +The Catholic Church was, therefore, a vast human society, believed to +be of divine foundation and sanction, and with a mission greater and +more lofty than that of any other organization. Church and state had +each its own sphere, but the Church had insisted for centuries that it +was greater and more necessary than the state. The members of the +Church were the sum-total of Christian believers who had been baptized +--practically the population of western and central Europe--and its +officers constituted a regular governing hierarchy. + +[Sidenote: Head of the Church] + +At the head of the hierarchy was the bishop of Rome, styled the pope or +sovereign pontiff, who from the first had probably enjoyed a leading +position in the Church as the successor of St. Peter, prince of the +apostles, and whose claims to be the divinely appointed chief bishop +had been generally recognized throughout western Europe as early as the +third century--perhaps earlier. The bishop of Rome was elected for life +by a group of clergymen, called cardinals, who originally had been in +direct charge of the parish churches in the city of Rome, but who later +were frequently selected by the pope from various countries because +they were distinguished churchmen. The pope chose the cardinals; the +cardinals elected the pope. Part of the cardinals resided in Rome, and +in conjunction with a host of clerks, translators, lawyers, and special +officials, constituted the _Curia_, or papal court, for the +conduct of general church business. + +[Sidenote: Local Administration of the Church] +[Sidenote: Secular Clergy] + +For the local administration of church affairs, the Catholic world was +divided under the pope into several territorial subdivisions, (1) The +patriarchates had been under patriarchs who had their sees [Footnote: +"See," so called from the Latin _sedes_, referring to their seat +or chair of office. Similarly our word "cathedral" is derived from the +Latin _cathedra_, the official chair which the bishop occupies in +his own church.] in such ancient Christian centers as Rome. Jerusalem, +Alexandria, Antioch. and Constantinople. (2) The provinces were +divisions of the patriarchates and usually centered in the most +important cities, such as Milan, Florence, Cologne, Upsala, Lyons, +Seville, Lisbon, Canterbury, York; and the head of each was styled a +metropolitan or archbishop. (3) The diocese--the most essential unit of +local administration--was a subdivision of the province, commonly a +city or a town, with a certain amount of surrounding country, under the +immediate supervision of a bishop. (4) Smaller divisions, particularly +parishes, were to be found in every diocese, embracing a village or a +section of a city, and each parish had its church building and its +priest. Thus the Catholic Church possessed a veritable army of +officials from pope and cardinals down through patriarchs, archbishops, +and bishops, to the parish priests and their assistants, the deacons. +This hierarchy, because it labored _in the world_ (_sæculo_), +was called the "secular clergy." + +[Sidenote: "Regular" Clergy] + +Another variety of clergy--the "regulars"--supplemented the work of the +seculars. The regulars were monks, [Footnote: The word "monk" is +applied, of course, only to men; women who followed similar rules are +commonly styled nuns.] that is, Christians who lived by a special +_rule_ (_regula_), who renounced the world, took vows of +chastity, poverty, and obedience, and strove to imitate the life of +Christ as literally as possible. The regular clergy were organized +under their own abbots, priors, provincials, or generals, being usually +exempt from secular jurisdiction, except that of the pope. The regulars +were the great missionaries of the Church, and many charitable and +educational institutions were in their hands. Among the various orders +of monks which had grown up in the course of time, the following should +be enumerated: (1) The monks who lived in fixed abodes, tilled the +soil, copied manuscripts, and conducted local schools. Most of the +monks of this kind followed a rule, or society by-laws, which had been +prepared by the celebrated St. Benedict about the year 525: they were +called therefore Benedictines. (2) The monks who organized crusades, +often bore arms themselves, and tended the holy places connected with +incidents in the life of Christ: such orders were the Knights Templars, +the Knights Hospitalers of St. John and of Malta, and the Teutonic +Knights who subsequently undertook the conversion of the Slavs. (3) The +monks who were called the begging friars or mendicants because they had +no fixed abode but wandered from place to place, preaching to the +common people and dependent for their own living upon alms. These +orders came into prominence in the thirteenth century and included, +among others, the Franciscan, whose lovable founder Saint Francis of +Assisi had urged humility and love of the poor as its distinguishing +characteristics, and the Dominican, or Order of the Preachers, devoted +by the precept of its practical founder, Saint Dominic, to missionary +zeal. All the mendicant orders, as well as the Benedictine monasteries, +became famous in the history of education, and the majority of the +distinguished scholars of the middle ages were monks. It was not +uncommon, moreover, for regulars to enter the secular hierarchy and +thus become parish priests or bishops, or even popes. + +[Sidenote: Church Councils] +[Sidenote: Conciliar Movement] + +The clergy--bishops, priests, and deacons--constituted, in popular +belief, the divinely ordained administration of the Catholic Church. +The legislative authority in the Church similarly was vested in the +pope and in the general councils, neither of which, however, could set +aside a law of God, as affirmed in the gospels, or establish a doctrine +at variance with the tradition of the early Christian writers. The +general councils were assemblies of prelates of the Catholic world, and +there had been considerable discussion as to the relative authority of +their decrees and the decisions and directions of the pope. [Footnote: +Papal documents have been called by various names, such as decretals, +bulls, or encyclicals.] General church councils held in eastern Europe +from the fourth to the ninth centuries had issued important decrees or +canons defining Christian dogmas and establishing ecclesiastical +discipline, which had been subsequently ratified and promulgated by the +pope as by other bishops and by the emperors; and several councils had +been held in western Europe from the twelfth to the fourteenth +centuries under the direct supervision of the bishop of Rome, all the +canons of which had been enacted in accordance with his wishes. But +early in the fifteenth century a movement was inaugurated by certain +Catholic bishops and scholars in favor of making the councils superior +to the pope and a regular source of supreme legislation for the Church. +In this way, the councils of Constance (1414-1418) and Basel (1431 ff.) +had endeavored to introduce representative, if not democratic, +government into the Church. The popes, however, objected to this +conciliar movement and managed to have it condemned by the Council of +Ferrara-Florence (1438-1442). By the year 1512 the papal theory had +triumphed and Catholics generally recognized again that the government +of the Church was essentially monarchical. The laws of the Catholic +Church were known as canons, and, of several codes of canon law which +had been prepared, that of a monk named Gratian, compiled in the +twelfth century, was the most widely used. + +[Sidenote: The Pope and his Powers] + +We are now in a position to summarize the claims and prerogatives of +the bishop of Rome or pope. (1) He was the supreme lawgiver. He could +issue decrees of his own, which might not be set aside by any other +person. No council might enact canons without his approval. From any +law, other than divine, he might dispense persons. (2) He was the +supreme judge in Christendom. He claimed that appeals might be taken +from decisions in foreign courts to his own Curia, as court of last +resort. He himself frequently acted as arbitrator, as, for example, in +the famous dispute between Spain and Portugal concerning the boundaries +of their newly discovered possessions. (3) He was the supreme +administrator. He claimed the right to supervise the general business +of the whole Church. No archbishop might perform the functions of his +office until he received his insignia--the pallium--from the pope. No +bishop might be canonically installed until his election had been +confirmed by the pope. The pope claimed the right to transfer a bishop +from one diocese to another and to settle all disputed elections. He +exercised immediate control over the regular clergy--the monks and +nuns. He sent ambassadors, styled legates, to represent him at the +various royal courts and to see that his instructions were obeyed. (4) +He insisted upon certain temporal rights, as distinct from his directly +religious prerogatives. He crowned the Holy Roman Emperor. He might +depose an emperor or king and release a ruler's subjects from their +oath of allegiance. He might declare null and void, and forbid the +people to obey, a law of any state, if he thought it was injurious to +the interests of the Church. He was temporal ruler of the city of Rome +and the surrounding papal states, and over those territories he +exercised a power similar to that of any duke or king. (5) He claimed +financial powers. In order to defray the enormous expenses of his +government, he charged fees for certain services at Rome, assessed the +dioceses throughout the Catholic world, and levied a small tax--Peter's +Pence--upon all Christian householders. + +[Sidenote: Purpose of the Church] + +So far we have concerned ourselves with the organization of the +Catholic Church--its membership, its officers, the clergy, secular and +regular, all culminating in the pope, the bishop of Rome. But why did +this great institution exist? Why was it loved, venerated, and well +served? The purpose of the Church, according to its own teaching, was +to follow the instructions of its Divine Master, Jesus Christ, in +saving souls. Only the Church might interpret those instructions; the +Church alone might apply the means of salvation; outside the Church no +one could be saved. [Footnote: Catholic theologians have recognized, +however, the possibility of salvation of persons outside the visible +Church. Thus, the catechism of Pope Pius X says: "Whoever, without any +fault of his own, and in good faith, being outside the Church, happens +to have been baptized or to have at least an implicit desire for +baptism, and, furthermore, has been sincere in seeking to find the +truth, and has done his best to do the will of God, such an one, +although separated from the body of the Church, would still belong to +her soul, and therefore be in the way of salvation."] The salvation of +souls for eternity was thus the supreme business of the Church. + +[Sidenote: Theology] + +This salvation of souls involved a theology and a sacramental system, +which we shall proceed to explain. Theology was the study of God. It +sought to explain how and why man was created, what were his actual and +desirable relations with God, what would be the fate of man in a future +life. The most famous theologians of the Catholic Church, for example, +St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), studied carefully the teachings of +Christ, the Bible, the early Christian writings, and the decrees of +popes and councils, and drew therefrom elaborate explanations of +Christian theology--the dogmas and faith of the Catholic Church. + +[Sidenote: The Sacramental System] + +The very center of Catholic theology was the sacramental system, for +that was the means, and essentially the only means, of saving souls. It +was, therefore, for the purpose of the sacramental system that the +Church and its hierarchy existed. The sacraments were believed to have +been instituted by Christ Himself, and were defined as "outward signs +instituted by Christ to give grace." The number generally accepted was +seven: baptism, confirmation, holy eucharist, penance, extreme unction, +holy orders, and matrimony. By means of the sacraments the Church +accompanied the faithful throughout life. Baptism, the pouring of +water, cleansed the child from original sin and from all previous +actual sins, and made him a Christian, a child of God, and an heir of +heaven. The priest was the ordinary minister of baptism, but in case of +necessity any one who had the use of reason might baptize. +Confirmation, conferred usually by a bishop upon young persons by the +laying on of hands and the anointing with oil, gave them the Holy Ghost +to render them strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus +Christ. Penance, one of the most important sacraments, was intended to +forgive sins committed after baptism. To receive the sacrament of +penance worthily it was necessary for the penitent (1) to examine his +conscience, (2) to have sorrow for his sins, (3) to make a firm +resolution never more to offend God, (4) to confess his mortal sins +orally to a priest, (5) to receive absolution from the priest, (6) to +accept the particular penance--visitation of churches, saying of +certain prayers, or almsgiving--which the priest might enjoin. The holy +eucharist was the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the consecration of +bread and wine by priest or bishop, its miraculous transformation +(transubstantiation) at his word into the very Body and Blood of +Christ, and its reception by the faithful. It was around the eucharist +that the elaborate ritual and ceremonies of the Mass developed, that +fine vestments and candles and incense and flowers were used, and that +magnificent cathedrals were erected. Extreme unction was the anointing +at the hands of a priest of the Christian who was in immediate danger +of death, and it was supposed to give health and strength to the soul +and sometimes to the body. By means of holy orders,--the special +imposition of hands on the part of a bishop,--priests, bishops, and +other ministers of the Church were ordained and received the power and +grace to perform their sacred duties. Matrimony was the sacrament, held +to be indissoluble by human power, by which man and woman were united +in lawful Christian marriage. + +Of the seven sacraments it will be noticed that two--baptism and +penance--dealt with the forgiveness of sins, and that two--holy orders +and matrimony--were received only by certain persons. Three--baptism, +confirmation, and holy orders--could be received by a Christian only +once. Two--confirmation and holy orders--required the ministry of a +bishop; and all others, except baptism and possibly matrimony, required +the ministry of at least a priest. The priesthood was, therefore, the +absolutely indispensable agent of the Church in the administration of +the sacramental system. It was the priesthood that absolved penitents +from their sins, wrought the great daily miracle of transubstantiation, +and offered to God the holy sacrifice of the Mass. + +[Sidenote: Various Objections to the Church] + +It must not be supposed that either the theology or the organization of +the Catholic Church, as they existed in the year 1500, had been +precisely the same throughout the Christian era. While educated +Catholics insisted that Christ was indirectly the source of all faith +and all practice, they were quite willing to admit that external +changes and adaptations of institutions to varying conditions had taken +place. Moreover, it must not be supposed that the proud eminence to +which the Catholic Church had attained by 1500 in central and western +Europe had been won easily or at that time was readily maintained. +Throughout the whole course of Christian history there had been +repeated objections to new definitions of dogma--many positively +refused to accept the teaching of the Church as divine or infallible-- +and there had been likewise a good deal of opposition to the temporal +claims of the Church, resulting in increasing friction between the +clergy and the lay rulers. Thus it often transpired that the kings who +vied with one another in recognizing the spiritual and religious +headship of the pope and in burning heretics who denied doctrines of +the Catholic Church, were the very kings who quarreled with the pope +concerning the latter's civil jurisdiction and directed harsh laws +against its exercise. + +[Sidenote: Sources of Conflict between Church and State] + +As strong national monarchies rose in western Europe, this friction +became more acute. On one side the royal power was determined to exalt +the state and to bring into subjection to it not only the nobles and +common people but the clergy as well; the national state must manage +absolutely every temporal affair. On the other side, the clergy stoutly +defended the special powers that they had long enjoyed in various +states and which they believed to be rightly theirs. There were +_four_ chief sources of conflict between the temporal and +spiritual jurisdictions, (1) Appointments of bishops, abbots, and other +high church officers. Inasmuch as these were usually foremost citizens +of their native kingdom, holding large estates and actually +participating in the conduct of government, the kings frequently +claimed the right to dictate their election. On the other hand the +popes insisted upon their rights in the matter and often "reserved" to +themselves the appointment to certain valuable bishoprics. (2) Taxation +of land and other property of the clergy. The clergy insisted that by +right they were exempt from taxation and that in practice they had not +been taxed since the first public recognition of Christianity in the +fourth century. The kings pointed out that the wealth of the clergy and +the needs of the state had increased along parallel lines, that the +clergy were citizens of the state and should pay a just share for its +maintenance. (3) Ecclesiastical courts. For several centuries the +Church had maintained its own courts for trying clerical offenders and +for hearing certain cases, which nowadays are heard in state courts-- +probating of wills, the marriage relations, blasphemy, etc. From these +local church courts, the pope insisted that appeals might be taken to +the Roman Curia. On their side, the kings were resolved to substitute +royal justice for that of both feudal and ecclesiastical courts: they +diminished, therefore, the privileges of the local church courts and +forbade the taking of appeals to Rome. (4) How far might the pope, as +universally acknowledged head of the Church, interfere in the internal +affairs of particular states? While the pope claimed to be the sole +judge of his own rights and powers, several kings forbade the +publication of papal documents within their states or the reception of +papal legates unless the royal assent had been vouchsafed. + +[Sidenote: Royal Restrictions on the Church] + +Gradually the national monarchs secured at least a partial control over +episcopal appointments, and in both England and France papal +jurisdiction was seriously restricted in other ways. In England the +power of the ecclesiastical courts had been reduced (1164); no property +might be bestowed upon the Church without royal permission (1279); the +pope might not make provision in England for his personal appointees to +office (1351); and appeals to Rome had been forbidden (1392). +[Footnote: All these anti-papal enactments were very poorly enforced.] +In France the clergy had been taxed early in the fourteenth century, +and the papacy, which had condemned such action, had been humiliated by +a forced temporary removal from Rome to Avignon, where it was +controlled by French rulers for nearly seventy years (1309-1377); and +in 1438 the French king, Charles VII, in a document, styled the +Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, solemnly proclaimed the "liberties of +the Gallican Church," that a general council was superior to the pope, +that the pope might not interfere in episcopal elections, that he might +not levy taxes on French dioceses. The Pragmatic Sanction was condemned +by the pope, but for three-quarters of a century after its issuance +there were strained relations between the Church in France and the +sovereign pontiff. + +[Sidenote: Political Differences Distinct from Religious Differences] + +Similar conflicts between spiritual and temporal jurisdictions were +common to all Christian states, but the national strength and the +patriotism of the western monarchies caused them to proceed further +than any other state in restricting the papal privileges. Despite the +conflict over temporal affairs, which at times was exceedingly bitter, +the kings and rulers of England and France never appear to have +seriously questioned the religious authority of the Church or the +spiritual supremacy of the pope. Religiously, the Catholic Church +seemed in 1500 to hold absolute sway over all central and western +Europe. + +[Sidenote: Religious Opposition to Catholicism] + +Yet this very religious authority of the Catholic Church had been again +and again brought into question and repeatedly rejected. Originally, a +united Christianity had conquered western Asia, northern Africa, and +eastern Europe; by 1500 nearly all these wide regions were lost to +Catholic Christianity as that phrase was understood in western Europe. +The loss was due to (1) the development of a great Christian schism, +and (2) the rise of a new religion--Mohammedanism. + +[Sidenote: The Schism between the East and the West] + +Eastern Europe had been lost through an ever-widening breach in +Christian practice from the fifth to the eleventh century. The Eastern +Church used the Greek language in its liturgy; that of the West used +the Latin language. The former remained more dependent upon the state; +the latter grew less dependent. Minor differences of doctrine appeared. +And the Eastern Christians thought the pope was usurping unwarrantable +prerogatives, while the Western Christians accused the Oriental +patriarchs of departing from their earlier loyalty to the pope and +destroying the unity of Christendom. Several attempts had been made to +reunite the Catholic Church of the West and the Orthodox Church of the +East, but with slight success. In 1500, the Christians of Greece, the +Balkan peninsula, and Russia were thought to be outside the Catholic +Church and were defined, therefore, by the pope as schismatics. + +[Sidenote: Mohammedanism] + +Far more numerous and dangerous to Catholic Christianity than the +schismatic Easterners were the Mohammedans. Mohammed himself had lived +in Arabia in the early part the seventh century and had taught that he +was the inspired prophet of the one true God. In a celebrated book,-- +the Koran,--which was compiled from the sayings of the prophet, are to +be found the precepts and commandments of the Mohammedan religion. +Mohammedanism spread rapidly: within a hundred years of its founder's +death it had conquered western Asia and northern Africa and had gained +a temporary foothold in Spain; thenceforth it stretched eastward across +Persia and Turkestan into India and southward into central Africa; and +in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as we have seen, it +possessed itself of Constantinople, the Balkans, Greece, and part of +Hungary, and threatened Christendom in the Germanies and in the +Mediterranean. + +[Sidenote: Western Heresies] + +Even in western Europe, the Catholic Church had had to encounter +spasmodic opposition from "heretics," as those persons were called who, +although baptized as Christians, refused to accept all the dogmas of +Catholic Christianity. Such were the Arian Christians, who in early +times had been condemned for rejecting the doctrine of the divinity of +Christ, and who had eventually been won back to Catholicism only with +the greatest efforts. Then in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the +Albigensian heretics in southern France had assailed the sacramental +system and the organization of the Church and had been suppressed only +by armed force. In the fourteenth century, John Wycliffe appeared in +England and John Hus in Bohemia, both preaching that the individual +Christian needs no priestly mediation between himself and God and that +the very sacraments of the Church, however desirable, are not +essentially necessary to salvation. The Lollards, as Wycliffe's English +followers were called, were speedily extirpated by fire and sword, +through the stern orthodoxy of an English king, but the Hussites long +defied the pope and survivals of their heresy were to be found in 1500. + +[Sidenote: Skeptics] + +In addition to these heretics and the Jews, [Footnote: For detailed +accounts of the Jews during the middle ages as well as in modern times, +see the _Jewish Encyclopædia_, ed. by Isidore Singer, 12 vols. +(1901-1906).] many so-called skeptics no doubt existed. These were +people who outwardly conformed to Catholicism but inwardly doubted and +even scoffed at the very foundations of Christianity. They were +essentially irreligious, but they seem to have suffered less from +persecution than the heretics. Many of the Italian humanists, +concerning whom we shall later say a word, [Footnote: See below] were +in the fifteenth century more or less avowed skeptics. + + +THE PROTESTANT REVOLT + +[Sidenote: A Religious and Political Movement] + +We have seen in the preceding pages that prior to 1500 there had been +many conflicts between kings and popes concerning their respective +temporal rights and likewise there had been serious doubts in the minds +of various people as to the authority and teachings of the Catholic +Church. But these two facts--political and religious--had never been +united in a general revolt against the Church until the sixteenth +century. Then it was that Christians of Germany, Scandinavia, Scotland, +and England, even of the Low Countries and France, successfully +revolted against the papal monarchy and set up establishments of their +own, usually under the protection of their lay rulers, which became +known as the Protestant churches. The movement is called, therefore, +the Protestant Revolt. It was begun and practically completed between +1520 and 1570. + +[Sidenote: Political Causes of Protestant Revolt] + +In explaining this remarkable and sudden break with the religious and +ecclesiastical development of a thousand years, it is well to bear in +mind that its causes were at once political, economic, and religious. +Politically, it was merely an accentuation of the conflict which had +long been increasing in virulence between the spiritual and temporal +authorities. It cannot be stated too emphatically that the Catholic +Church during many centuries prior to the sixteenth had been not only a +religious body, like a present-day church, but also a vast political +power which readily found sources of friction with other political +institutions. The Catholic Church, as we have seen, had its own +elaborate organization in every country of western and central Europe; +and its officials--pope, bishops, priests, and monks--denied allegiance +to the secular government; the Church owned many valuable lands and +estates, which normally were exempt from taxation and virtually outside +the jurisdiction of the lay government; the Church had its own +independent and compulsory income, and its own courts to try its own +officers and certain kinds of cases for every one. Such political +jurisdiction of the Church had been quite needful and satisfactory in +the period--from the fifth to the twelfth century, let us say--when the +secular governments were weak and the Church found itself the chief +unifying force in Christendom, the veritable heir to the universal +dominion of the ancient Roman Empire. + +But gradually the temporal rulers themselves repressed feudalism. +Political ambition increased in laymen, and local pride was exalted +into patriotism. By the year 1200 was begun the growth of that notable +idea of national monarchy, the general outline of which we sketched in +the opening chapter. We there indicated that at the commencement of the +sixteenth century, England, France, Spain, and Portugal had become +strong states, with well-organized lay governments under powerful +kings, with patriotic populations, and with well-developed, distinctive +languages and literatures. The one thing that seemed to be needed to +complete this national sovereignty was to bring the Church entirely +under royal control. The autocratic sovereigns desired to enlist the +wealth and influence of the Church in their behalf; they coveted her +lands, her taxes, and her courts. Although Italy, the Netherlands, and +the Germanies were not yet developed as strong united monarchies, many +of their patriotic leaders longed for such a development, worked for +it, and believed that the principal obstacle to it was the great +Christian Church with the pope at its head. Viewed from the political +standpoint, the Protestant Revolt was caused by the rise of national +feeling, which found itself in natural conflict with the older +cosmopolitan or catholic idea of the Church. It was nationalism +_versus_ Catholicism. + +[Sidenote: Economic Causes of Protestant Revolt] + +Economically, the causes of the Protestant Revolt were twofold. In the +first place, the Catholic Church had grown so wealthy that many people, +particularly kings and princes, coveted her possessions. In the second +place, financial abuses in ecclesiastical administration bore heavily +upon the common people and created serious scandal. Let us say a word +about each one of these difficulties. + +At the opening of the sixteenth century, many bishops and abbots in +wealth and power were not unlike great lay lords: they held vast fair +dominions--in the Germanics a third of the whole country, in France a +fifth, etc.--and they were attended by armies of retainers. Most of +them were sons of noblemen who had had them consecrated bishops so as +to insure them fine positions. Even the monks, who now often lived in +rich monasteries as though they had never taken vows of poverty, were +sometimes of noble birth and quite worldly in their lives. The large +estates and vast revenues of Catholic ecclesiastics were thus at first +the lure and then the prey of their royal and princely neighbors. The +latter grew quite willing to utilize any favorable opportunity which +might enable them to confiscate church property and add it to their own +possessions. Later such confiscation was euphemistically styled +"secularization." + +On the other hand, many plain people, such as peasants and artisans, +begrudged the numerous and burdensome ecclesiastical taxes, and an +increasing number felt that they were not getting the worth of their +money. There was universal complaint, particularly in the Germanies, +that the people were exploited by the Roman Curia. Each ecclesiastic, +be he bishop, abbot, or priest, had right to a benefice, that is, to +the revenue of a parcel of land attached to his post. When he took +possession of a benefice, he paid the pope a special assessment, called +the "annate," amounting to a year's income--which of course came from +the peasants living on the land. The pope likewise "reserved" to +himself the right of naming the holders of certain benefices: these he +gave preferably to Italians who drew the revenues but remained in their +own country; the people thus supported foreign prelates in luxury and +sometimes paid a second time in order to maintain resident +ecclesiastics. The archbishops paid enormous sums to the pope for their +badges of office (_pallia_). Fat fees for dispensations or for +court trials found their way across the Alps. And the bulk of the +burden ultimately rested upon the backs of the people. At least in the +Germanics the idea became very prevalent that the pope and Curia were +really robbing honest German Christians for the benefit of scandalously +immoral Italians. + +There were certainly grave financial abuses in church government in the +fifteenth century and in the early part of the sixteenth. A project of +German reform, drawn up in 1438, had declared: "It is a shame which +cries to heaven, this oppression of tithes, dues, penalties, +excommunication, and tolls of the peasant, on whose labor all men +depend for their existence." An "apocalyptic pamphlet of 1508 shows on +its cover the Church upside down, with the peasant performing the +services, while the priest guides the plow outside and a monk drives +the horses." It was, in fact, in the Germanics that all the social +classes--princes, burghers, knights, and peasants--had special economic +grievances against the Church, and in many places were ready to combine +in rejecting papal claims. + +This emphasis upon the political and particularly upon the economic +causes need not belittle the strictly religious factor in the movement. +The success of the revolt was due to the fact that many kings, nobles, +and commoners, for financial and political advantages to themselves, +became the valuable allies of real religious reformers. It required +dogmatic differences as well as social grievances to destroy the +dominion of the Church. + +[Sidenote: Abuses in the Catholic Church] + +Nearly all thoughtful men in the sixteenth century recognized the +existence of abuses in the Catholic Church. The scandals connected with +the papal court at Rome were notorious at the opening of the century. +Several of the the popes lived grossly immoral lives. Simony (the sale +of church offices for money) and nepotism (favoritism shown by a pope +to his relatives) were not rare. The most lucrative ecclesiastical +positions throughout Europe were frequently conferred upon Italians who +seldom discharged their duties. One person might be made bishop of +several foreign dioceses and yet continue to reside in Rome. Leo X, who +was pope when the Protestant Revolt began, and son of Lorenzo de' +Medici, surnamed the Magnificent, had been ordained to the priesthood +at the age of seven, named cardinal when he was thirteen, and speedily +loaded with a multitude of rich benefices and preferments; this same +pope, by his munificence and extravagance, was forced to resort to the +most questionable means for raising money: he created many new offices +and shamelessly sold them; he increased the revenue from indulgences, +jubilees, and regular taxation; he pawned palace furniture, table +plate, pontifical jewels, even statues of the apostles; several banking +firms and many individual creditors were ruined by his death. + +[Sidenote: Attacks on Immorality of Clergymen] + +What immorality and worldliness prevailed at Rome was reflected in the +lives of many lesser churchmen. To one of the popes of the fifteenth +century, a distinguished cardinal represented the disorders of the +clergy, especially in the Germanics. "These disorders," he said, +"excite the hatred of the people against all ecclesiastical order; if +it is not corrected, it is to be feared that the laity, following the +example of the Hussites, will attack the clergy as they now openly +menace us with doing." If the clergy of Germany were not reformed +promptly, he predicted that after the Bohemian heresy was crushed +another would speedily arise far more dangerous. "For they will say," +he continued, "that the clergy is incorrigible and is willing to apply +no remedy to its disorders. They will attack us when they no longer +have any hope of our correction. Men's minds are waiting for what shall +be done; it seems as if shortly something tragic will be brought forth. +The venom which they have against us is becoming evident; soon they +will believe they are making a sacrifice agreeable to God by +maltreating or despoiling the ecclesiastics as people odious to God and +man and immersed to the utmost in evil. The little reverence still +remaining for the sacred order will be destroyed. Responsibility for +all these disorders will be charged upon the Roman Curia, which will be +regarded as the cause of all these evils because it has neglected to +apply the necessary remedy." To many other thoughtful persons, a moral +reformation in the head and members of the Church seemed vitally +necessary. + +Complaints against the evil lives of the clergy as well as against +their ignorance and credulity were echoed by most of the great scholars +and humanists of the time. The patriotic knight and vagabond scholar, +Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523), contributed to a clever series of +satirical "Letters of Obscure Men," which were read widely, and which +poked fun at the lack of learning among the monks and the ease with +which the papal court emptied German pockets. + +[Sidenote: Ulrich von Hutten and Erasmus] + +Then, too, the great Erasmus (1466-1536) employed all his wit and +sarcasm, in his celebrated "Praise of Folly," against the theologians +and monks, complaining that the foolish people thought that religion +consisted simply in pilgrimages, the invocation of saints, and the +veneration of relics. Erasmus would have suppressed the monasteries, +put an end to the domination of the clergy, and swept away scandalous +abuses. He wanted Christianity to regain its early spiritual force, and +largely for that purpose he published in 1516 the Greek text of the New +Testament with a new Latin translation and with notes which mercilessly +flayed hair-splitting theologians. + +Thus throughout the fifteenth century and the early part of the +sixteenth, much was heard from scholars, princes, and people, of the +need for "reformation" of the Church. That did not signify a change of +the old regulations but rather their restoration and enforcement. For a +long time it was not a question of abolishing the authority of the +pope, or altering ecclesiastical organization, or changing creeds. It +was merely a question of reforming the lives of the clergy and of +suppressing the means by which Italians drew money from other nations. + +[Sidenote: Religious Causes of Protestant Revolt] + +In the sixteenth century, however, a group of religious leaders, such +as Luther, Cranmer, Zwingli, Calvin, and Knox, went much further than +Erasmus and the majority of the humanists had gone: they applied the +word "reformation" not only to a reform in morals but to an open break +which they made with the government and doctrines of the Catholic +Church. The new theology, which these reformers championed, was derived +mainly from the teachings of such heretics as Wycliffe and Hus and was +supposed to depend directly upon the Bible rather than upon the Church. +The religious causes of the Protestant Revolt accordingly may be summed +up as: first, the existence of abuses within the Catholic Church; +second, the attacks of distinguished men upon the immorality and +worldliness of the Catholic clergy; and third, the substitution by +certain religious leaders of new doctrines and practices, which were +presumed to have been authorized by the Bible, but which were at +variance with those of the medieval Church. + +[Sidenote: Date and Extent of the Protestant Revolt] + +For the great variety of reasons, which we have now indicated,-- +political, economic, and religious,--the peoples of northern Germany, +Scandinavia, the Dutch Netherlands, most of Switzerland, Scotland, +England, and a part of France and of Hungary, separated themselves, +between the years 1520 and 1570, from the great religious and political +body which had been known historically for over a thousand years as the +Catholic Christian Church. The name "Protestant" was first applied +exclusively to those followers of Martin Luther in the Holy Roman +Empire who in 1529 protested against an attempt of the Diet of Speyer +to prevent the introduction of religious novelties, but subsequently +the word passed into common parlance among historians and the general +reading public as betokening all Christians who rejected the papal +supremacy and who were not in communion with the Orthodox Church of +eastern Europe. + +Of this Protestant Christianity three main forms appeared in the +sixteenth century--Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism. Concerning +the origin and development of each one of these major forms, a brief +sketch must be given. + + +LUTHERANISM + +[Sidenote: Martin Luther] + +Lutheranism takes its name from its great apostle, Martin Luther. +Luther was born in Eisleben in Germany in 1483 of a poor family whose +ancestors had been peasants. Martin early showed himself bold, +headstrong, willing to pit his own opinions against those of the world, +but yet possessing ability, tact, and a love of sound knowledge. +Educated at the university of Erfurt, where he became acquainted with +the humanistic movement, young Martin entered one of the mendicant +orders--the Augustinian--in 1505 and went to live in a monastery. In +1508 Luther was sent with some other monks to Wittenberg to assist a +university which had been opened there recently by the elector of +Saxony, and a few years later was appointed professor of theology in +the institution. + +[Sidenote: Justification by Faith] + +While lecturing and preaching at Wittenberg, where he was very popular, +Luther developed from the writings of St. Paul and St. Augustine an +important doctrinal conviction which differed widely from the faith of +the Catholic Church. It concerned the means of eternal salvation. The +Church taught, as we have seen, that she possessed the sole means, and +that every Christian must perform certain "good works" in order to +secure salvation. Luther, on the other hand, became convinced that man +was incapable, in the sight of God, of any good works whatsoever, and +could be saved only by faith in God's promises. In other words, this +monk placed his doctrine of "justification by faith" in opposition to +the generally accepted belief in "justification by faith and works." + +[Sidenote: Tetzel's "Sale" of Indulgences] + +So far, Luther certainly had no thought of revolting against the +authority of the Church. In fact, when he visited Rome in 1511, it was +as a pious pilgrim rather than as a carping critic. But a significant +event in the year 1517 served to make clear a wide discrepancy between +what he was teaching and what the Church taught. That year a certain +papal agent, Tetzel by name, was disposing of indulgences in the great +archbishopric of Mainz. An indulgence, according to Catholic theology, +was a remission of the temporal punishment in purgatory due to sin, and +could be granted only by authority of the Church; the grant of +indulgences depended upon the contrition and confession of the +applicant, and often at that time upon money-payments. Against what he +believed was a corruption of Christian doctrine and a swindling of the +poorer people, Luther protested in a series of ninety-five Theses which +he posted on the church door in Wittenberg (31 October, 1517). + +[Sidenote: The Ninety-five Theses] + +The Theses had been written in Latin for the educated class but they +were now speedily translated into German and spread like wildfire among +all classes throughout the country. Luther's underlying principle of +"salvation through simple faith" was in sharp contrast with the theory +of "good works," on which the indulgences rested. "The Christian who +has true repentance," wrote Luther, "has already received pardon from +God altogether apart from an indulgence, and does not need one; Christ +demands this true repentance from every one." Luther's attitude +provoked spirited discussion throughout the Germanics, and the more +discussion, the more interest and excitement. The pope, who had +dismissed the subject at first as a mere squabble among the monks, was +moved at length to summon Luther to Rome to answer for the Theses, but +the elector of Saxony intervened and prevailed upon the pope not to +press the matter. + +[Sidenote: Disputation at Leipzig, 1519] + +The next important step in the development of Luther's religious ideas +was a debate on the general question of papal supremacy, held at +Leipzig in 1519, between himself and an eminent Catholic apologist, +Johann Eck. Eck skillfully forced Luther to admit that certain views of +his, especially those concerning man's direct relation with God, +without the mediation of the Church, were the same as those which John +Hus had held a century earlier and which had been condemned both by the +pope and by the great general council of Constance. Luther thereby +virtually admitted that a general council as well as a pope might err. +For him, the divine authority of the Roman Catholic Church ceased to +be. + +[Sidenote: Separation of Luther from the Catholic Church] + +Separation from the traditional Church was the only course now open to +Luther and this was consummated in the year 1520. In a series of three +bold pamphlets, he vigorously and definitely attacked the position of +the Church. In the first--_An Address to the Nobility of the German +Nation_--Luther stated that there was nothing inherently sacred +about the Christian priesthood and that the clergy should be deprived +immediately of their special privileges; he urged the German princes to +free their country from foreign control and shrewdly called their +attention to the wealth and power of the Church which they might justly +appropriate to themselves. In the second--_On the Babylonian +Captivity of the Church of God_--he assailed the papacy and the +whole sacramental system. The third--_On the Freedom of a Christian +Man_--contained the essence of Luther's new theology that salvation +was not a painful _progress_ toward a goal by means of sacraments +and right conduct but a _condition_ "in which man found himself so +soon as he despaired absolutely of his own efforts and threw himself on +God's assurances"; the author claimed that man's utter personal +dependence on God's grace rendered the system of the Church +superfluous. + +In the midst of these attacks upon the Church, the pope excommunicated +Luther, and in the following year (1521) influenced the Diet of the +Holy Roman Empire, assembled at Worms, to pronounce him an outlaw. But +the rebel calmly burnt the papal bull and from the imperial ban he was +protected by the elector of Saxony. He at once devoted himself to +making a new German translation of the Bible, which became very popular +and is still prized as a monument in the history of German literature. +[Footnote: The first edition of the Bible in German had been printed as +early as 1466. At least eighteen editions in German (including four Low +German versions) had appeared before Luther issued his German New +Testament in 1522.] + +[Sidenote: Spread of Lutheranism] + +Within the next few years the Lutheran teachings carried everything +before them throughout the northern and central Germanies. Nor are the +reasons for Luther's success in defying pope and emperor and for the +rapid acceptance of his new theology hard to understand. The movement +was essentially popular and national. It appealed to the pious-minded +who desired a simplification of Christian dogma and a comprehensible +method of salvation. It also appealed to the worldly minded who longed +to seize ecclesiastical lands and revenues. Above all, it appealed to +the patriots who were tired of foreign despotism and of abuses which +they traced directly to the Roman Curia. Then, too, the Emperor Charles +V, who remained a loyal Catholic, was too immersed in the difficulties +of foreign war and in the manifold administrative problems of his huge +dominions to be able to devote much time to the extirpation of heresy +in the Germanies. Finally, the character of Luther contributed to +effective leadership--he was tireless in flooding the country with +pamphlets, letters, and inflammatory diatribes, tactful in keeping his +party together, and always bold and courageous. Princes, burghers, +artisans, and peasants joined hands in espousing the new cause. + +[Sidenote: Luther and the German Peasants] + +But the peasants espoused it in a manner altogether too logical and too +violent to suit Luther or the desires of the princes. The German +peasants had grievances against the old order compared with which those +of the knights and towns-folk were imaginary. For at least a century +several causes had contributed to make their lot worse and worse. While +their taxes and other burdens were increasing, the ability of the +emperor to protect them was decreasing; they were plundered by every +class in the community, especially by the higher clergy. Thus, under +the influence of social and economic conditions, various uprisings of +the peasants had taken place during the latter part of the fifteenth +century. These insurrections became almost regular in the southwestern +Germanies, and were called _Bundschuhe_, a shoe fastened upon the +end of a pole serving as a standard of revolt. When Luther urged the +princes to assail the ecclesiastics, to seize church lands, and to put +an end to financial abuses, the peasants naturally listened to his +words with open ears and proceeded with glad hearts to apply his advice +themselves. + +The new Lutheran theology may have been too refined for the peasants, +but they imagined they understood its purport. And spurred on by +fanatics, whom the religious ferment of the times produced in large +numbers, [Footnote: Many of these radical religious leaders were more +consistent and thoroughgoing than Luther in maintaining the right of +each Christian to interpret the Scriptures for himself. Since they +generally refused to recognize infant baptism as valid and insisted +that baptism should be administered only to adults, they were +subsequently often referred to as "Anabaptists." Many of the +"Anabaptists" condemned oaths and capital punishment; some advocated +communism of worldly goods, in several instances even the community of +women. Nicholas Storch (d. 1525), a weaver, and Thomas Munzer (d. +1525), a Lutheran preacher, spread these doctrines widely among the +peasants. Luther vehemently denounced the "Anabaptists."] the peasants +again took arms against feudal oppression. That the peasants' demands +were essentially moderate and involved no more than is granted +everywhere to-day as a matter of course, may be inferred from their +declaration of principles, the Twelve Articles, among which were: +abolition of serfdom, free right of fishing and hunting, payment in +wages for services rendered, and abolition of arbitrary punishment. So +long as the peasants directed their efforts against the Catholic +ecclesiastics, Luther expressed sympathy with them, but when the +revolt, which broke out in 1524, became general all over central and +southern Germany and was directed not only against the Catholic clergy +but also against the lay lords,--many of whom were now Lutheran,--the +religious leader foresaw a grave danger to his new religion in a split +between peasants and nobles. Luther ended by taking strong sides with +the nobles--he had most to expect from them. He was shocked by the +excesses of the revolt, he said. Insisting upon toleration for his own +revolt, he condemned the peasants to most horrible fates in this world +and in the world hereafter. [Footnote: Although Luther was particularly +bitter against the "Anabaptist" exhorters, upon whom he fastened +responsibility for the Peasants' Revolt, and although many of them met +death thereby, the "Anabaptists" were by no means exterminated. +Largely through the activity of a certain Melchior Hofmann, a widely +traveled furrier, "Anabaptist" doctrines were disseminated in northern +Germany and the Netherlands. From 1533 to 1535 they reigned supreme, +attended by much bloodshed and plenty of personal license, in the +important city of Munster in western Germany. Subsequently, Carlstadt +(1480-1541), an early associate of Luther, though his later antagonist, +set forth Anabaptist views with greater moderation; and in course of +time the sect became more or less tinged with Calvinistic theology.] He +furiously begged the princes to put down the insurrection. "Whoever +can, should smite, strangle, or stab, secretly or publicly!" + +[Sidenote: The Peasants' Revolt] + +The Peasants' Revolt was crushed in 1525 with utmost cruelty. Probably +fifty thousand lost their lives in the vain effort. The general result +was that the power of the territorial lords became greater than ever, +although in a few cases, particularly in the Tyrol and in Baden, the +condition of the peasants was slightly improved. Elsewhere, however, +this was not the case; and the German peasants were assigned for over +two centuries to a lot worse than that of almost any people in Europe. +Another result was the decline of Luther's influence among the +peasantry in southern and central Germany. They turned rapidly from one +who, they believed, had betrayed them. On the other hand, many Catholic +princes, who had been wavering in their religious support, now had +before their eyes what they thought was an object lesson of the results +of Luther's appeal to revolution, and so they cast their lot decisively +with the ancient Church. The Peasants' Revolt registered a distinct +check to the further spread of Lutheranism. + +[Sidenote: Diets of Speyer 1526, 1529] +[Sidenote: The Word "Protestant"] + +The Diet of the Holy Roman Empire which assembled at Speyer in 1526 saw +the German princes divided into a Lutheran and a Roman Catholic party, +but left the legal status of the new faith still in doubt, contenting +itself with the vague declaration that "each prince should so conduct +himself as he could answer for his behavior to God and to the emperor." +But at the next Diet, held at the same place in 1529, the emperor +directed that the edict against heretics should be enforced and that +the old ecclesiastical revenues should not be appropriated for the new +worship. The Lutheran princes drafted a legal protest, in which they +declared that they meant to abide by the law of 1526. From this protest +came the name _Protestant_. + +[Sidenote: Confession of Augsburg, 1530] + +The next year, Luther's great friend, Melancthon, presented to the Diet +of Augsburg an account of the beliefs of the German reformers, which +later became known as the Confession of Augsburg and constitutes to the +present day the distinctive creed of the Lutheran Church. The emperor +was still unconvinced, however, of the truth or value of the reformed +doctrine, and declared his intention of ending the heresy by force of +arms. + +[Sidenote: Religious Peace of Augsburg, 1555] + +In this predicament, the Lutheran princes formed a league at Schmalkald +for mutual protection (1531); and from 1546 to 1555 a desultory civil +war was waged. The Protestants received some assistance from the French +king, who, for political reasons, was bent on humiliating the emperor. +The end of the religious conflict appeared to have been reached by the +peace of Augsburg (1555), which contained the following provisions: (1) +Each prince was to be free to dictate the religion of his subjects +[Footnote: _Cuius regio eius religio_.]; (2) All church property +appropriated by the Protestants before 1552 was to remain in their +hands; (3) No form of Protestantism except Lutheranism was to be +tolerated; (4) Lutheran subjects of ecclesiastical states were not to +be obliged to renounce their faith; (5) By an "ecclesiastical +reservation" any ecclesiastical prince on becoming a Protestant was to +give up his see. + +[Sidenote: Lutheranism in the Germanies] + +Thus, between 1520 and 1555, Martin Luther [Footnote: He died in 1546, +aged 62.] had preached his new theology at variance with the Catholic, +and had found general acceptance for it throughout the northern half of +the Germanies; its creed had been settled and defined in 1530, and its +official toleration had been recognized in 1555. The toleration was +limited, however, to princes, and for many years Lutheran rulers showed +themselves quite as intolerant within their own dominions as did the +Catholics. + +[Sidenote: Lutheranism in Scandinavia] + +The triumph of Lutheranism in the Scandinavian countries has been +traced largely to political and economic causes. When Martin Luther +broke with the Catholic Church, Christian II (1513-1523) was reigning +as elected king over Denmark and Norway and had recently conquered +Sweden by force of arms. The king encountered political difficulties +with the Church although he maintained Catholic worship and doctrine +and apparently recognized the spiritual supremacy of the pope. But +Christian II had trouble with most of his subjects, especially the +Swedes, who were conscious of separate nationality and desirous of +political independence; and the king eventually lost his throne in a +general uprising. The definite separation of Sweden from Denmark and +Norway followed immediately. The Swedes chose the celebrated Gustavus +Vasa (1523-1560) as their king, while the Danish and Norwegian crowns +passed to the uncle of Christian II, who assumed the title of Frederick +I (1523-1533). + +[Sidenote: Denmark] + +In Denmark, King Frederick was very desirous of increasing the royal +power, and the subservient ecclesiastical organization which Martin +Luther was advocating seemed to him for his purposes infinitely +preferable to the ancient self-willed Church. But Frederick realized +that the Catholic Church was deeply rooted in the affections of his +people and that changes would have to be effected slowly and +cautiously. He therefore collected around him Lutheran teachers from +Germany and made his court the center of the propaganda of the new +doctrine, and so well was the work of the new teachers done that the +king was able in 1527 to put the two religions on an equal footing +before the law. Upon Frederick's death in 1533, the Catholics made a +determined effort to prevent the accession of his son, Christian III, +who was not only an avowed Lutheran but was known to stand for +absolutist principles in government. + +The popular protest against royal despotism failed in Denmark and the +triumph of Christian III in 1536 sealed the fate of Catholicism in that +country and in Norway. It was promptly enacted that the Catholic +bishops should forfeit their temporal and spiritual authority and all +their property should be transferred to the crown "for the good of the +commonwealth." After discussions with Luther the new religion was +definitely organized and declared the state religion in 1537. It might +be added that Catholicism died with difficulty in Denmark,--many +peasants as well as high churchmen resented the changes, and Helgesen, +the foremost Scandinavian scholar and humanist of the time, protested +vigorously against the new order. But the crown was growing powerful, +and the crown prevailed. The enormous increase of royal revenue, +consequent upon the confiscation of the property of the Church, enabled +the king to make Denmark the leading Scandinavian country throughout +the second half of the sixteenth century and the first quarter of the +seventeenth. In time national patriotism came to be intertwined with +Lutheranism. + +[Sidenote: Sweden] + +In Sweden the success of the new religion was due to the crown quite as +much as in Denmark and Norway. Gustavus Vasa had obtained the Swedish +throne through the efforts of a nationalist party, but there was still +a hostile faction, headed by the chief churchman, the archbishop of +Upsala, who favored the maintenance of the union with Denmark. In order +to deprive the unionists of their leader, Gustavus begged the pope to +remove the rebellious archbishop and to appoint one in sympathy with +the nationalist cause. This the pope peremptorily refused to do, and +the breach with Rome began. Gustavus succeeded in suppressing the +insurrection, and then persevered in introducing Protestantism. The +introduction was very gradual, especially among the peasantry, and its +eventual success was largely the result of the work of one strong man +assisted by a subservient parliament. + +At first Gustavus maintained Catholic worship and doctrines, contenting +himself with the suppression of the monasteries, the seizure of two- +thirds of the church tithes, and the circulation of a popular Swedish +translation of the New Testament. In 1527 all ecclesiastical property +was transferred to the crown and two Catholic bishops were cruelly put +to death. Meanwhile Lutheran teachers were encouraged to take up their +residence in Sweden and in 1531 the first Protestant archbishop of +Upsala was chosen. Thenceforth, the progress of Lutheranism was more +rapid, although a Catholic reaction was threatened several times in the +second half of the sixteenth century. The Confession of Augsburg was +adopted as the creed of the Swedish Church in 1593, and in 1604 +Catholics were deprived of offices and estates and banished from the +realm. + + +CALVINISM + +The second general type of Protestantism which appeared in the +sixteenth century was the immediate forerunner of the modern +Presbyterian, Congregational, and Reformed Churches and at one time or +another considerably affected the theology of the Episcopalians and +Baptists and even of Lutherans. Taken as a group, it is usually called +Calvinism. Of its rise and spread, some idea may be gained from brief +accounts of the lives of two of its great apostles--Calvin and Knox. +But first it will be necessary to say a few words concerning an older +reformer, Zwingli by name, who prepared the way for Calvin's work in +the Swiss cantons. + +[Sidenote: Zwingli] + +Switzerland comprised in the sixteenth century some thirteen cantons, +all of which were technically under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman +Empire, but constituted in practice so many independent republics, +bound together only by a number of protective treaties. To the town of +Einsiedeln in the canton of Schwyz came Huldreich Zwingli in the year +1516 as a Catholic priest. Slightly younger than Luther, he was well +born, had received an excellent university education in Vienna and in +Basel, and had now been in holy orders about ten years. He had shown +for some time more interest in humanism than in the old-fashioned +theology, but hardly any one would have suspected him of heresy, for it +was well known that he was a regular pensioner of the pope. + +Zwingli's opposition to the Roman Church seems to have been based at +first largely on political grounds. He preached eloquently against the +practice of hiring out Swiss troops to foreign rulers and abused the +Church for its share in this shameless traffic in soldiers. Then he was +led on to attack all manner of abuses in ecclesiastical organization, +but it was not until he was installed in 1518 as preacher in the great +cathedral at Zürich that he clearly denied papal supremacy and +proceeded to proclaim the Scriptures as the sole guide of faith and +morals. He preached against fasting, the veneration of saints, and the +celibacy of the clergy. Some of his hearers began to put his teachings +into practice: church edifices were profaned, statues demolished, +windows smashed, and relics burned. Zwingli himself took a wife. + +[Sidenote: Zwinglian Revolt in Switzerland] + +In 1523 a papal appeal to Zürich to abandon Zwingli was answered by the +canton's formal declaration of independence from the Catholic Church. +Henceforth the revolt spread rapidly throughout Switzerland, except in +the five forest cantons, the very heart of the country, where the +ancient religion was still deeply intrenched. Serious efforts were made +to join the followers of Zwingli with those of Luther, and thus to +present a united front to the common enemy, but there seemed to be +irreconcilable differences between Lutheranism and the views of +Zwingli. The latter, which were succinctly expressed in sixty-seven +Theses published at Zürich in 1523, insisted more firmly than the +former on the supreme authority of Scripture, and broke more thoroughly +and radically with the traditions of the Catholic Church. Zwingli aimed +at a reformation of government and discipline as well as of theology, +and entertained a notion of an ideal state in which the democracy would +order human activities, whether political or religious. Zwingli +differed essentially from Luther in never distrusting "the people." +Perhaps the most distinctive mark of the Swiss reformer's theology was +his idea that the Lord's Supper is not a miracle but simply a symbol +and a memorial. + +In 1531 Zwingli urged the Protestant Swiss to convert the five forest +cantons to the new religion by force of arms. In answer to his +entreaties, civil war ensued, but the Catholic mountaineers won a great +victory that very year and the reformer himself was killed. A truce was +then arranged, the provisions of which foreshadowed the religious +settlement in the Germanies--each canton was to be free to determine +its own religion. Switzerland has remained to this day part Catholic +and part Protestant. + +[Sidenote: Calvin] + +By the sudden death of Zwingli, Swiss Protestantism was left without a +leader, but not for long, because the more celebrated Calvin took up +his residence in Geneva in 1536. From that time until his death in 1564 +Calvin was the center of a movement which, starting from these small +Zwinglian beginnings among the Swiss mountains, speedily spread over +more countries and affected more people than did Lutheranism. In +Calvinism, Catholicism was to find her most implacable foe. + +John Calvin, who, next to Martin Luther, was the most conspicuous +Protestant leader of the sixteenth century, was a Frenchman. Born of +middle-class parentage at Noyon in the province of Picardy in 1509, he +was intended from an early age for an ecclesiastical career. A pension +from the Catholic Church enabled him to study at Paris, where he +displayed an aptitude for theology and literature. When he was nineteen +years of age, however, his father advised him to abandon the idea of +entering the priesthood in favor of becoming a lawyer--so young Calvin +spent several years studying law. + +[Sidenote: Calvin in France] + +It was in 1529 that Calvin is said to have experienced a sudden +"conversion." Although as yet there had been no organized revolt in +France against the Catholic Church, that country, like many others, was +teeming with religious critics. Thousands of Frenchmen were in sympathy +with any attempt to improve the Church by education, by purer morals, +or by better preaching. Lutheranism was winning a few converts, and +various evangelical sects were appearing in divers places. The chief +problem was whether reform should be sought within the traditional +Church or by rebellion against it. Calvin believed that his conversion +was a divine call to forsake Roman Catholicism and to become the +apostle of a purer life. His heart, he said, was "so subdued and +reduced to docility that in comparison with his zeal for true piety he +regarded all other studies with indifference, though not entirely +abandoning them. Though himself a beginner, many flocked to him to +learn the pure doctrine, and he began to seek some hiding-place and +means of withdrawal from people." + +[Sidenote: "The Institutes"] + +His search for a hiding-place was quickened by the announced +determination of the French king, Francis I, to put an end to religious +dissent among his subjects. Calvin abruptly left France and found an +asylum in the Swiss town of Basel, where he became acquainted at first +hand with the type of reformed religion which Zwingli had propagated +and where he proceeded to write a full account of the Protestant +position as contrasted with the Catholic. This exposition,--_The +Institutes of the Christian Religion_,--which was published in 1536, +was dedicated to King Francis I and was intended to influence him in +favor of Protestantism. + +Although the book failed of its immediate purpose, it speedily won a +deservedly great reputation. It was a statement of Calvin's views, +borrowed in part from Zwingli, and in part from Luther and other +reformers. It was orderly and concise, and it did for Protestant +theology what the medieval writers had done for Catholic theology. It +contained the germ of all that subsequently developed as Calvinism. + +[Sidenote: Calvin and Luther] + +It seemed for some time as if the _Institutes_ might provide a +common religious rule and guide for all Christians who rebelled against +Rome. But Calvin, in mind and nature, was quite different from Luther. +The latter was impetuous, excitable, but very human; the former was +ascetic, calm, and inhumanly logical. Then, too, Luther was quite +willing to leave everything in the church which was not prohibited by +Scripture; Calvin insisted that nothing should remain in the church +which was not expressly authorized by Scripture. The _Institutes_ +had a tremendous influence upon Protestantism but did not unite the +followers of Calvin and Luther. Calvin's book seems all the more +wonderful, when it is recalled that it was written when the author was +but twenty-six years of age. + +[Sidenote: Calvin at Geneva] + +In 1536 Calvin went to Geneva, which was then in the throes of a +revolution at once political and religious, for the townsfolk were +freeing themselves from the feudal suzerainty of the duke of Savoy and +banishing the Catholic Church, whose cause the duke championed. Calvin +aided in the work and was rewarded by an appointment as chief pastor +and preacher in the city. This position he continued to hold, except +for a brief period when he was exiled, until his death in 1564. It +proved to be a commanding position not only in ordering the affairs of +the town, but also in giving form to an important branch of Protestant +Christianity. + +The government of Geneva under Calvin's regime was a curious theocracy +of which Calvin himself was both religious leader and political "boss." +The minister of the reformed faith became God's mouthpiece upon earth +and inculcated an unbending puritanism in daily life. "No more +festivals, no more jovial reunions, no more theaters or society; the +rigid monotony of an austere rule weighed upon life. A poet was +decapitated because of his verses; Calvin wished adultery to be +punished by death like heresy, and he had Michael Servetus [Footnote: A +celebrated Spanish reformer.] burned for not entertaining the same +opinions as himself upon the mystery of the Trinity." + +Under Calvin's theocratic despotism, Geneva became famous throughout +Europe as the center of elaborate Protestant propaganda. Calvin, who +set the example of stern simplicity and relentless activity, was +sometimes styled the Protestant pope. He not only preached every day, +wrote numerous theological treatises, and issued a French translation +of the Bible, but he established important Protestant schools-- +including the University of Geneva--which attracted students from +distant lands, and he conducted a correspondence with his disciples and +would-be reformers in all points of Europe. His letters alone would +fill thirty folio volumes. + +[Sidenote: Diffusion of Calvinism] + +Such activities account for the almost bewildering diffusion of +Calvinism. French, Dutch, Germans, Scotch, and English flocked to +Geneva to hear Calvin or to attend his schools, and when they returned +to their own countries they were likely to be so many glowing sparks +ready to start mighty conflagrations. + +Calvinism was known by various names in the different countries which +it entered. On the continent of Europe it was called the Reformed +Faith, and in France its followers were styled Huguenots; in Scotland +it became Presbyterianism; and in England, Puritanism. Its essential +characteristics, however, remained the same wherever it was carried. + +[Sidenote: Calvinism in Switzerland] + +We have already noticed how Switzerland, except for the five forest +cantons, had been converted to Protestantism by the preaching of +Zwingli. Calvin was Zwingli's real theological successor, and the +majority of the Swiss, especially those in the urban cantons of Zürich +and Bern as well as of Geneva, cheerfully accepted Calvinism. + +[Sidenote: Calvinism in France: the Huguenots] + +Calvinism also made converts in France. The doctrines and writings of +Luther had there encountered small success. Many French reformers +believed that greater good would eventually be achieved within the +Catholic Church than without. There appeared to be fewer abuses among +the French clergy than among the ecclesiastics of northern Europe, for +they possessed less wealth and power. The French sovereign felt less +prompted to lay his hand upon the dominions of the clergy, because a +special agreement with the pope in 1516 bestowed upon the king the +nomination of bishops and the disposition of benefices. For these +reasons the bulk of the French people resisted Protestantism of every +form and remained loyally Catholic. + +What progress the new religion made in France was due to Calvin rather +than to Luther. Calvin, as we have seen, was a Frenchman himself, and +his teachings and logic appealed to a small but influential body of his +fellow-countrymen. A considerable portion of the lower nobility, a few +merchants and business men, and many magistrates conformed to Calvinism +openly; the majority of great lawyers and men of learning adhered to it +in public or in secret. Probably from a twentieth to a thirtieth of the +total population embraced Calvinism. The movement was essentially +confined to the middle-class or _bourgeoisie_, and almost from the +outset it acquired a political as well as a religious significance. It +represented among the lesser nobility an awakening of the aristocratic +spirit and among the middle-class a reaction against the growing power +of the king. The financial and moneyed interests of the country were +largely attracted to French Calvinism. The Huguenots, as the French +Calvinists were called, were particularly strong in the law courts and +in the Estates-General or parliament, and these had been the main +checks upon royal despotism. + +[Sidenote: Edict of Nantes] + +The Huguenots were involved in sanguinary civil and religious wars +which raged in France throughout the greater part of the sixteenth +century and which have already been treated in their appropriate +political aspect. The outcome was the settlement accorded by King Henry +IV in the famous Edict of Nantes (1598), which contained the following +provisions: (1) Private worship and liberty of conscience were allowed +to the Calvinists throughout France; (2) Public Protestant worship +might be held in 200 enumerated towns and over 3000 castles; (3) A +financial grant was made to Protestant schools, and the publication of +Calvinist books was legalized; (4) Huguenots received full civil +rights, with admission to all public offices; (5) Huguenots were +granted for eight years the political control of two hundred towns, the +garrisons of which were to be maintained by the crown; and (6) +Huguenots were accorded certain judicial privileges and the right of +holding religious and political assemblies. For nearly a hundred years +France practiced a religious toleration which was almost unique among +European nations, and it was Calvinists who benefited. + +[Sidenote: Calvinism in the Netherlands] + +The Netherlands were too near the Germanies not to be affected by the +Lutheran revolt against the Catholic Church. And the northern or Dutch +provinces became quite thoroughly saturated with Lutheranism and also +with the doctrines of various radical sects that from time to time were +expelled from the German states. The Emperor Charles V tried to stamp +out heresy by harsh action of the Inquisition, but succeeded only in +changing its name and nature. Lutheranism disappeared from the +Netherlands; but in its place came Calvinism, [Footnote: Many +Anabaptist refugees from Germany had already sought refuge in the +Netherlands: they naturally found the teachings of Zwingli and Calvin +more radical, and therefore more appropriate to themselves, than the +teachings of Luther. This fact also serves to explain the acceptance of +Calvinism in regions of southern Germany where Lutheranism, since the +Peasants' Revolt, had failed to take root.] descending from Geneva +through Alsace and thence down the Rhine, or entering from Great +Britain by means of the close commercial relations existing between +those countries. While the southern Netherlands eventually were +recovered for Catholicism, the protracted political and economic +conflict which the northern Netherlands waged against the Catholic king +of Spain contributed to a final fixing of Calvinism as the national +religion of patriotic Dutchmen. Calvinism in Holland was known as the +Dutch Reformed religion. + +[Sidenote: Calvinism in Southern Germany] + +We have already noted that southern Germany had rejected aristocratic +Lutheranism, partially at least because of Luther's bitter words to the +peasants. Catholicism, however, was not destined to have complete sway +in those regions, for democratic Calvinism permeated Württemberg, +Baden, and the Rhenish provinces, and the Reformed doctrines gained +numerous converts among the middle-class. The growth of Calvinism in +Germany was seriously handicapped by the religious settlement of +Augsburg in 1555 which officially tolerated only Catholicism and +Lutheranism. It was not until after the close of the direful Thirty +Years' War in the seventeenth century that German Calvinists received +formal recognition. + +[Sidenote: Scotland] + +Scotland, like every other European country in the early part of the +sixteenth century, had been a place of protest against moral and +financial abuses in the Catholic Church, but the beginnings of +ecclesiastical rebellion are to be traced rather to political causes. +The kingdom had long been a prey to the bitter rivalry of great noble +families, and the premature death of James V (1542), which left the +throne to his ill-fated infant daughter, Mary Stuart, gave free rein to +a feudal reaction against the crown. In general, the Catholic clergy +sided with the royal cause, while the religious reformers egged on the +nobles to champion Protestantism in order to deal an effective blow +against the union of the altar and the throne. Thus Cardinal Beaton, +head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, ordered numerous executions on +the score of protecting religion and the authority of the queen-regent; +on the other hand several noblemen, professing the new theology, +assassinated the cardinal and hung his body on the battlements of the +castle of St. Andrews (1546). Such was the general situation in +Scotland when John Knox appeared upon the scene. + +[Sidenote: John Knox] + +Born of peasant parents about 1515, John Knox [Footnote: John Knox (c. +1515-1572).] had become a Catholic priest, albeit in sympathy with many +of the revolutionary ideas which were entering Scotland from the +Continent and from England. In 1546 he openly rejected the authority of +the Church and proceeded to preach "the Gospel" and a stern puritanical +morality. "Others snipped the branches," he said, "he struck at the +root." But the Catholic court was able to banish Knox from Scotland. +After romantic imprisonment in France, Knox spent a few years in +England, preaching an extreme puritanism, holding a chaplaincy under +Edward VI (1547-1553), and exerting his influence to insure an +indelibly Protestant character to the Anglican Church. Then upon the +accession to the English throne of the Catholic Mary Tudor, Knox betook +himself to Geneva where he made the acquaintance of Calvin and found +himself in essential agreement with the teachings of the French +reformer. + +[Sidenote: Calvinism in Scotland] + +After a stay of some five years on the Continent, Knox returned finally +to Scotland and became the organizer and director of the "Lords of the +Congregation," a league of the chief Protestant noblemen for purposes +of religious propaganda and political power. In 1560 he drew up the +creed and discipline of the Presbyterian Church after the model of +Calvin's church at Geneva; and in the same year with the support of the +"Lords of the Congregation" and the troops of Queen Elizabeth of +England, Knox effected a political and religious revolution in +Scotland. The queen-regent was imprisoned and the subservient +parliament abolished the papal supremacy and enacted the death penalty +against any one who should even attend Catholic worship. John Knox had +carried everything before him. + +Mary Stuart, during her brief stay in Scotland (1561-1567), tried in +vain to stem the tide. The jealous barons would brook no increase of +royal authority. The austere Knox hounded the girl-queen in public +sermons and fairly flayed her character. The queen's downfall and +subsequent long imprisonment in England finally decided the +ecclesiastical future of Scotland. Except in a few fastnesses in the +northern highlands, where Catholicism survived among the clansmen, the +whole country was committed to Calvinism. + +[Sidenote: Calvinism in England] + +Calvinism was not without influence in England. Introduced towards the +close of the reign of Henry VIII, it gave rise to a number of small +sects which troubled the king's Anglican Church almost as much as did +the Roman Catholics. Under Edward VI (1547-1553), it considerably +influenced the theology of the Anglican Church itself, but the moderate +policies of Elizabeth (1558-1603) tended to fix an inseparable gulf +between Anglicans and Calvinists. Thenceforth, Calvinism lived in +England, in the forms of Presbyterianism, Independency, [Footnote: +Among the "Independents" were the Baptists, a sect related not so +immediately to Calvinism as to the radical Anabaptists of Germany. See +above, pp. 134 f., 145, footnotes] and Puritanism, as the religion +largely of the commercial middle class. It was treated with contempt, +and even persecuted, by Anglicans, especially by the monarchs of the +Stuart family. After a complete but temporary triumph under Cromwell, +in the seventeenth century, it was at length legally tolerated in +England after the settlement of 1689. It was from England that New +England received the Calvinistic religion which dominated colonial +forefathers of many present-day Americans. + + +ANGLICANISM + +Anglicanism is the name frequently applied to that form of +Protestantism which stamped the state church in England in the +sixteenth century and which is now represented by the Episcopal Church +in the United States as well as by the established Church of England. +The Methodist churches are comparatively late off-shoots of +Anglicanism. + +The separation of England from the papacy was a more gradual and +halting process than were the contemporary revolutions on the +Continent; and the new Anglicanism was correspondingly more +conservative than Lutheranism or Calvinism. + +[Sidenote: English Catholicism in 1500] +[Sidenote: Church of England] + +At the opening of the sixteenth century, the word "Catholic" meant the +same in England as in every other country of western or central Europe +--belief in the seven sacraments, the sacrifice of the Mass, and the +veneration of saints; acceptance of papal supremacy and support of +monasticism and of other institutions and practices of the medieval +Church. During several centuries it had been customary in legal +documents to refer to the Catholic Church in England as the _Ecclesia +Anglicana_, or Anglican Church, just as the popes in their letters +repeatedly referred to the "Gallican Church," the "Spanish Church," the +"Neapolitan Church," or the "Hungarian Church." But such phraseology +did not imply a separation of any one national church from the common +Catholic communion, and for nearly a thousand years--ever since there +had been an _Ecclesia Anglicana_--the English had recognized the +bishop of Rome as the center of Catholic unity. In the course of the +sixteenth century, however, the great majority of Englishmen changed +their conception of the _Ecclesia Anglicana_, so that to them it +continued to exist as the Church of England, but henceforth on a +strictly national basis, in communion neither with the pope nor with +the Orthodox Church of the East nor with the Lutherans or Calvinists, +abandoning several doctrines that had been universally held in earlier +times and substituting in their place beliefs and customs which were +distinctively Protestant. This new conception of the Anglican Church-- +resulting from the revolution in the sixteenth century--is what we mean +by Anglicanism as a form of Protestantism. It took shape in the +eventful years between 1520 and 1570. + +[Sidenote: Religious Opposition to the Roman Catholic Church in +England] + +In order to understand how this religious and ecclesiastical revolution +was effected in England, we must appreciate the various elements +distrustful of the Catholic Church in that country about the year 1525. +In the first place, the Lutheran teachings were infiltrating into the +country. As early as 1521 a small group at Cambridge had become +interested in the new German theology, and thence the sect spread to +Oxford, London, and other intellectual centers. It found its early +converts chiefly among the lower clergy and the merchants of the large +towns, but for several years it was not numerous. + +In the second place, there was the same feeling in England as we have +already noted throughout all Europe that the clergy needed reform in +morals and in manners. This view was shared not only by the +comparatively insignificant group of heretical Lutherans, but likewise +by a large proportion of the leading men who accounted themselves +orthodox members of the Catholic Church. The well-educated humanists +were especially eloquent in preaching reform. The writings of Erasmus +had great vogue in England. John Colet (1467?-1519), a famous dean of +St. Paul's cathedral in London, was a keen reformer who disapproved of +auricular confession and of the celibacy of the clergy. Sir Thomas More +(1478-1535), one of the greatest minds of the century, thought the +monks were lazy and indolent, and the whole body of churchmen in need +of an intellectual betterment. But neither Colet nor More had any +intention of breaking away from the Roman Church. To them, and to many +like them, reform could be secured best within the traditional +ecclesiastical body. + +[Sidenote: Political Opposition to the Roman Catholic Church in +England] + +A third source of distrust of the Church was a purely political feeling +against the papacy. As we have already seen, the English king and +English parliament on several earlier occasions had sought to restrict +the temporal and political jurisdiction of the pope in England, but +each restriction had been imposed for political reasons and even then +had represented the will of the monarch rather than that of the nation. +In fact, the most striking limitations of the pope's political +jurisdiction in the kingdom had been enacted during the early stages of +the Hundred Years' War, when the papacy was under French influence, and +had served, therefore, indirectly as political weapons against the +French king. Before that war was over, the operation of the statutes +had been relaxed, and for a century or more prior to 1525 little was +heard of even a political feeling against the bishop of Rome. + +Nevertheless an evolution in English government was in progress at that +very time, which was bound sooner or later to create friction with the +Holy See. On one hand, a sense of nationalism and of patriotism had +been steadily growing in England, and it was at variance with the older +cosmopolitan idea of Catholicism. On the other hand, a great increase +of royal power had appeared in the fifteenth century, notably after the +accession of the Tudor family in 1485. Henry VII (1485-1509) had +subordinated to the crown both the nobility and the parliament, and the +patriotic support of the middle class he had secured. And when his son, +Henry VIII (1509-1547), came to the throne, the only serious obstacle +which appeared to be left in the way of royal absolutism was the +privileged independence of the Catholic Church. + +[Sidenote: Early Loyalty of Henry VIII to the Roman Catholic Church] + +Yet a number of years passed before Henry VIII laid violent hands upon +the Church. In the meanwhile, he proved himself a devoted Roman +Catholic. He scented the new Lutheran heresy and sought speedily to +exterminate it. He even wrote in 1521 with his own royal pen a bitter +arraignment of the new theology, and sent his book, which he called +_The Defence of the Seven Sacraments_, with a delightful +dedicatory epistle to the pope. For his prompt piety and filial +orthodoxy, he received from the bishop of Rome the proud title of +_Fidei Defensor_, or Defender of the Faith, a title which he +jealously bore until his death, and which his successors, the +sovereigns of Great Britain, with like humor have continued to bear +ever since. He seemed not even to question the pope's political claims. +He allied himself on several occasions with Leo X in the great game of +European politics. His chief minister and adviser in England for many +years was Thomas Wolsey, the most conspicuous ecclesiastic in his +kingdom and a cardinal of the Roman Church. + +[Sidenote: The Marriage Difficulty of Henry VIII] + +Under these circumstances it is difficult to see how the Anglican +Church would have immediately broken away from Catholic unity had it +not been for the peculiar marital troubles of Henry VIII. The king had +been married eighteen years to Catherine of Aragon, and had been +presented by her with six children (of whom only one daughter, the +Princess Mary, had survived), when one day he informed her that they +had been living all those years in mortal sin and that their union was +not true marriage. The queen could hardly be expected to agree with +such a definition, and there ensued a legal suit between the royal +pair. + +To Henry VIII the matter was really quite simple. Henry was tired of +Catherine and wanted to get rid of her; he believed the queen could +bear him no more children and yet he ardently desired a male heir; +rumor reported that the susceptible king had recently been smitten by +the brilliant black eyes of a certain Anne Boleyn, a maid-in-waiting at +the court. The purpose of Henry was obvious; so was the means, he +thought. For it had occurred to him that Catherine was his elder +brother's widow, and, therefore, had no right, by church law, to marry +him. To be sure, a papal dispensation had been obtained from Pope +Julius II authorizing the marriage, but why not now obtain a revocation +of that dispensation from the reigning Pope Clement VII? Thus the +marriage with Catherine could be declared null and void, and Henry +would be a bachelor, thirty-six years of age, free to wed some +princess, or haply Anne Boleyn. + +[Sidenote: Difficult Position of the Pope] + +There was no doubt that Clement VII would like to do a favor for his +great English champion, but two difficulties at once presented +themselves. It would be a most dangerous precedent for the pope to +reverse the decision of one of his predecessors. Worse still, the +Emperor Charles V, the nephew of Queen Catherine, took up cudgels in +his aunt's behalf and threatened Clement with dire penalties if he +nullified the marriage. The pope complained truthfully that he was +between the anvil and the hammer. There was little for him to do except +to temporize and to delay decision as long as possible. + +The protracted delay was very irritating to the impulsive English king, +who was now really in love with Anne Boleyn. Gradually Henry's former +effusive loyalty to the Roman See gave way to a settled conviction of +the tyranny of the papal power, and there rushed to his mind the +recollection of efforts of earlier English rulers to restrict that +power. A few salutary enactments against the Church might compel a +favorable decision from the pope. + +Henry VIII seriously opened his campaign against the Roman Church in +1531, when he frightened the English clergy into paying a fine of over +half a million dollars for violating an obsolete statute that had +forbidden reception of papal legates without royal sanction, and in the +same year he forced the clergy to recognize himself as supreme head of +the Church "as far as that is permitted by the law of Christ." His +subservient Parliament then empowered him to stop the payment of +annates and to appoint the bishops without recourse to the papacy. +Without waiting longer for the papal decision, he had Cranmer, one of +his own creatures, whom he had just named archbishop of Canterbury, +declare his marriage with Catherine null and void and his union with +Anne Boleyn canonical and legal. Pope Clement VII thereupon handed down +his long-delayed decision favorable to Queen Catherine, and +excommunicated Henry VIII for adultery. + +[Sidenote: Separation of England from the Roman Catholic Church: the +Act of Supremacy] + +The formal breach between England and Rome occurred in 1534. Parliament +passed a series of laws, one of which declared the king to be the "only +supreme head in earth of the Church of England," and others cut off all +communication with the pope and inflicted the penalty of treason upon +any one who should deny the king's ecclesiastical supremacy. + +One step in the transition of the Church of England had now been taken. +For centuries its members had recognized the pope as their +ecclesiastical head; henceforth they were to own the ecclesiastical +headship of their king. From the former Catholic standpoint, this might +be schism but it was not necessarily heresy. Yet Henry VIII encountered +considerable opposition from the higher clergy, from the monks, and +from many intellectual leaders, as well as from large numbers of the +lower classes. A popular uprising--the Pilgrimage of Grace--was sternly +suppressed, and such men as the brilliant Sir Thomas More and John +Fisher, the aged and saintly bishop of Rochester, were beheaded because +they retained their former belief in papal supremacy. Tudor despotism +triumphed. + +[Sidenote: The "Six Articles"] + +The breach with Rome naturally encouraged the Lutherans and other +heretics to think that England was on the point of becoming Protestant, +but nothing was further from the king's mind. The assailant of Luther +remained at least partially consistent. And the Six Articles (1539) +reaffirmed the chief points in Catholic doctrine and practice and +visited dissenters with horrible punishment. While separating England +from the papacy, Henry was firmly resolved to maintain every other +tenet of the Catholic faith as he had received it. His middle-of-the- +road policy was enforced with much bloodshed. On one side, the Catholic +who denied the royal supremacy was beheaded; on the other, the +Protestant who denied transubstantiation was burned! It has been +estimated that during the reign of Henry VIII the number of capital +condemnations for politico-religious offenses ran into the thousands-- +an inquisition that in terror and bloodshed is comparable to that of +Spain. + +[Sidenote: Suppression of the Monasteries] + +It was likewise during the reign of Henry VIII that one of the most +important of all earlier Christian institutions--monasticism--came to +an end in England. There were certainly grave abuses and scandals in +some of the monasteries which dotted the country, and a good deal of +popular sentiment had been aroused against the institution. Then, too +the monks had generally opposed the royal pretensions to religious +control and remained loyal to the pope. But the deciding factor in the +suppression of the monasteries was undoubtedly economic. Henry, always +in need of funds on account of his extravagances, appropriated part of +the confiscated property for the benefit of the crown, and the rest he +astutely distributed as gigantic bribes to the upper classes of the +laity. The nobles who accepted the ecclesiastical wealth were thereby +committed to the new anti-papal religious settlement in England. + +[Sidenote: Protestantizing the Church of England: Edward VI] + +The Church of England, separated from the papacy under Henry VIII, +became Protestant under Edward VI (1547-1553). The young king's +guardian tolerated all manner of reforming propaganda, and Calvinists +as well as Lutherans preached their doctrines freely. Official articles +of religion, which were drawn up for the Anglican Church, showed +unmistakably Protestant influence. The Latin service books of the +Catholic Church were translated into English, under Cranmer's auspices, +and the edition of the _Book of Common Prayer_, published in 1552, +made clear that the Eucharist was no longer to be regarded as a +propitiatory sacrifice: the names "Holy Communion" and "Lord's Supper" +were substituted for "Mass," while the word "altar" was replaced by +"table." The old places of Catholic worship were changed to suit a new +order: altars and images were taken down, the former service books +destroyed, and stained-glass windows broken. Several peasant uprisings +signified that the nation was not completely united upon a policy of +religious change, but the reformers had their way, and Protestantism +advanced. + +[Sidenote: Temporary Roman Catholic Revival under Mary Tudor] + +A temporary setback to the progress of the new Anglicanism was afforded +by the reign of Mary Tudor (1553-1558), the daughter of Catherine of +Aragon, and a devout Roman Catholic. She reinstated the bishops who had +refused to take the oath of royal supremacy and punished those who had +taken it. She prevailed upon Parliament to repeal the ecclesiastical +legislation of both her father's and her brother's reigns and to +reconcile England once more with the bishop of Rome. A papal legate, in +the person of Cardinal Reginald Pole, sailed up the Thames with his +cross gleaming from the prow of his barge, and in full Parliament +administered the absolution which freed the kingdom from the guilt +under Mary incurred by its schism and heresy. As an additional support +to her policy of restoring the Catholic Church in England, Queen Mary +married her cousin, Philip II of Spain, the great champion of +Catholicism upon the Continent. + +But events proved that despite outward appearances even the reign of +Mary registered an advance of Protestantism. The new doctrines were +zealously propagated by an ever-growing number of itinerant exhorters. +The Spanish alliance was disastrous to English fortunes abroad and +distasteful to all patriotic Englishmen at home. And finally, the +violent means which the queen took to stamp out heresy gave her the +unenviable surname of "Bloody" and reacted in the end in behalf of the +views for which the victims sacrificed their lives. During her reign +nearly three hundred reformers perished, many of them, including +Archbishop Cranmer, by fire. The work of the queen was in vain. No heir +was born to Philip and Mary, and the crown, therefore, passed to +Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, a Protestant not so much from +conviction as from circumstance. + +[Sidenote: Definite Fashioning of Anglicanism: the Reign of Elizabeth] + +It was in the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603) that the Church of England +assumed definitely the doctrines and practices which we now connect +with the word "Anglicanism." By act of Parliament, the English Church +was again separated from the papacy, and placed under royal authority, +Elizabeth assuming the title of "supreme governor." The worship of the +state church was to be in conformity with a slightly altered version of +Cranmer's _Book of Common Prayer_. A uniform doctrine was likewise +imposed by Parliament in the form of the _Thirty-nine Articles_, +which set a distinctively Protestant mark upon the Anglican Church in +its appeal to the Scriptures as the sole rule of faith, its insistence +on justification by faith alone, its repudiation of the sacrifice of +the Mass, and its definition of the Church. All the bishops who had +been appointed under Mary, with one exception, refused to accept the +changes, and were therefore deposed and imprisoned, but new bishops, +Elizabeth's own appointees, were consecrated and the "succession of +bishops" thereby maintained. Outwardly, the Church of England appeared +to retain a corporate continuity throughout the sixteenth century; +inwardly, a great revolution had changed it from Catholic to +Protestant. + +Harsh laws sought to oblige all Englishmen to conform to Elizabeth's +religious settlement. Liberty of public worship was denied to any +dissenter from Anglicanism. To be a "papist" or "hear Mass"--which were +construed as the same thing--was punishable by death as high treason. A +special ecclesiastical court--the Court of High Commission--was +established under royal authority to search out heresy and to enforce +uniformity; it served throughout Elizabeth's reign as a kind of +Protestant Inquisition. + +[Sidenote: English Dissent from Anglicanism] + +While the large majority of the English nation gradually conformed to +the official Anglican Church, a considerable number refused their +allegiance. On one hand were the Roman Catholics, who still maintained +the doctrine of papal supremacy and were usually derisively styled +papists, and on the other hand were various Calvinistic sects, such as +Presbyterians or Independents or Quakers, who went by the name of +"Dissenters" or "Non-conformists." In the course of time, the number of +Roman Catholics tended to diminish, largely because, for political +reasons which have been indicated in the preceding chapter, +Protestantism in England became almost synonymous with English +patriotism. But despite drastic laws and dreadful persecutions, Roman +Catholicism survived in England among a conspicuous group of people. On +the other hand, the Calvinists tended somewhat to increase their +numbers so that in the seventeenth century they were able to +precipitate a great political and ecclesiastical conflict with +Anglicanism. + + +THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION + +We have now traced the origins of the Protestant Revolt against the +Catholic Church, and have seen how, between 1520 and 1570, three major +varieties of new theology--Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism-- +appeared on the scene and divided among themselves the nations of +northern Europe. The story of how, during that critical half-century, +the other civilized nations retained their loyalty to the Catholic +Church virtually as it had existed throughout the middle ages, remains +to be told. The preservation of the papal monarchy and Catholic +doctrine in southern Europe was due alike to religious and to political +circumstances. + +It must not be supposed that pious critics of ecclesiastical abuses +were confined to countries which subsequently became Protestant. There +were many sincere Catholics in Italy, Austria, France, and Spain who +complained of the scandals and worldliness that afflicted the Church at +the opening of the sixteenth century: they demanded sweeping reforms in +discipline and a return of the clergy to a simple apostolic life. They +believed, however, that whatever change was desirable could best be +achieved by means of a reformation within the Catholic Church--that is, +without disturbing the unity of its organization or denying the +validity of its dogmas--while the critics of northern Europe, as we +have seen, preferred to put their reforms into practice by means of a +revolution--an out-and-out break with century-old traditions of +Catholic Christianity. Even in northern Europe some of the foremost +scholars of that period desired an intellectual reformation within +Catholicism rather than a dogmatic rebellion against it: with Luther's +defiance of papal authority, the great Erasmus had small sympathy, and +Sir Thomas More, the eminent English humanist, sacrificed his life for +his belief in the divine sanction of the papal power. + +Thus, while the religious energy of northern Europe went into +Protestantism of various kinds, that of southern Europe fashioned a +reformation of the Catholic system. And this Catholic reformation, on +its religious side, was brought to a successful issue by means of the +improved conditions in the papal court, the labors of a great church +council, and the activity of new monastic orders. A few words must be +said about each one of these religious elements in the Catholic +reformation. + +[Sidenote: Reforming Popes] + +Mention has been made of the corruption that prevailed in papal affairs +in the fifteenth century, and of the Italian and family interests which +obscured to the Medici pope, Leo X (1513-1521), the importance of the +Lutheran movement in Germany. And Leo's nephew, who became Clement VII +(1523-1534), continued to act too much as an Italian prince and too +little as the moral and religious leader of Catholicism in the contest +which under him was joined with Zwinglians and Anglicans as well as +with Lutherans. But under Paul III (1534-1549), a new policy was +inaugurated, by which men were appointed to high church offices for +their virtue and learning rather than for family relationship or +financial gain. This policy was maintained by a series of upright and +far-sighted popes during the second half of the sixteenth century, so +that by the year 1600 a remarkable reformation had been gradually +wrought in the papacy, among the cardinals, down through the prelates, +even to the parish priests and monks. + +[Sidenote: The Council of Trent] + +The reforming zeal of individual popes was stimulated and reinforced by +the work of the Council of Trent (1545-1563). The idea of effecting a +"reformation in head and members" by means of a general council of the +Catholic Church had been invoked several times during the century that +preceded the Protestant Revolt, but, before Luther, little had been +accomplished in that way. + +With the widening of the breach between Protestantism and the medieval +Church, what had formerly been desirable now became imperative. It +seemed to pious Catholics that every effort should be made to reconcile +differences and to restore the unity of the Church. The errors of the +manifold new theologies which now appeared might be refuted by a clear +statement of Catholic doctrine, and a reformation of discipline and +morals would deprive the innovators of one of their most telling +weapons against the Church. + +It was no easy task, in that troublous time, to hold an ecumenical +council. There was mutual distrust between Catholics and Protestants. +There was uncertainty as to the relative powers and prerogatives of +council and pope. There were bitter national rivalries, especially +between Italians and Germans. There was actual warfare between the two +chief Catholic families--the Habsburgs of Germany and Spain and the +royal house of France. + +Yet despite these difficulties, which long postponed its convocation +and repeatedly interrupted its labors, the Council of Trent [Footnote: +Trent was selected largely by reason of its geographical location, +being situated on the boundary between the German-speaking and Italian- +speaking peoples.] consummated a great reform in the Church and +contributed materially to the preservation of the Catholic faith. The +Protestants, whom the pope invited to participate, absented themselves; +yet such was the number and renown of the Catholic bishops who +responded to the summons that the Council of Trent easily ranked with +the eighteen œcumenical councils which had preceded it. [Footnote: Its +decrees were signed at its close (1563) by 4 cardinal legates, 2 +cardinals, 3 patriarchs, 25 archbishops, 167 bishops, 7 abbots, 7 +generals of orders, and 19 proxies for 33 absent prelates.] The work of +the council was twofold--dogmatic and reformatory. + +Dogmatically, the fathers at Trent offered no compromise to the +Protestants. They confirmed with inexorable frankness the main points +in Catholic theology which had been worked out in the thirteenth +century by Thomas Aquinas and which before the appearance of +Protestantism had been received everywhere in central and western +Europe. They declared that the tradition of the Church as well as the +Bible was to be taken as the basis of the Christian religion, and that +the interpretation of the Holy Scripture belonged only to the Church. +The Protestant teachings about grace and justification by faith were +condemned, and the seven sacraments were pronounced indispensable. The +miraculous and sacrificial character of the Lord's Supper (Mass) was +reaffirmed. Belief in the invocation of saints, in the veneration of +images and of relics, in purgatory and indulgences was explicitly +stated, but precautions were taken to clear some of the doctrines of +the pernicious practices which at times had been connected with them. +The spiritual authority of the Roman See was confirmed over all +Catholicism: the pope was recognized as supreme interpreter of the +canons and incontestable chief of bishops. + +[Sidenote: Reformatory Canons of the Council of Trent ] + +A volume of disciplinary statutes constituted the second achievement of +the Tridentine Council. The sale of church offices was condemned. +Bishops and other prelates were to reside in their respective dioceses, +abandon worldly pursuits, and give themselves entirely to spiritual +labors. Seminaries were to be established for the proper education and +training of priests. + +While Latin was retained as the official and liturgical language, +frequent sermons were to be preached in the vernacular. Indulgences +were not to be issued for money, and no charge should be made for +conferring the sacraments. + +[Sidenote: Index and inquisition ] + +The seed sown by the council bore abundant fruit during several +succeeding pontificates. The central government was completely +reorganized. A definite catechism was prepared at Rome and every layman +instructed in the tenets and obligations of his religion. Revisions +were made in the service books of the Church, and a new standard +edition of the Latin Bible, the Vulgate, was issued. A list, called the +Index, was prepared of dangerous and heretical books, which good +Catholics were prohibited from reading. By these methods, discipline +was in fact confirmed, morals purified, and the scandal of the immense +riches and the worldly life of the clergy restrained. From an unusually +strict law of faith and conduct, lapses were to be punishable by the +ancient ecclesiastical court of the Inquisition, which now zealously +redoubled its activity, especially in Italy and in Spain. + +A very important factor in the Catholic revival--not only in preserving +all southern Europe to the Church but also in preventing a complete +triumph of Protestantism in the North--was the formation of several new +religious orders, which sought to purify the life of the people and to +bulwark the position of the Church. The most celebrated of these +orders, both for its labors in the sixteenth century and for its +subsequent history, is the Society of Jesus, whose members are known +commonly as Jesuits. The society was founded by Ignatius Loyola +[Footnote: Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556).] in 1534 and its constitution +was formally approved by the pope six years later. + +[Sidenote: Ignatius Loyola] + +In his earlier years, Ignatius followed the profession of arms, and as +a patriotic Spaniard fought valiantly in the armies of Emperor Charles +V against the French. But while he was in a hospital, suffering from a +wound, he chanced to read a Life of Christ and biographies of several +saints, which, he tells us, worked a great change within him. From +being a soldier of an earthly king, he would now become a knight of +Christ and of the Church. Instead of fighting for the glory of Spain +and of himself, he would henceforth strive for the greater glory of +God. Thus in the very year in which the German monk, Martin Luther, +became the leading and avowed adversary of the Catholic Church, this +Spanish soldier was starting on that remarkable career which was to +make him Catholicism's chief champion. + +After a few years' trial of his new life and several rather footless +efforts to serve the Church, Ignatius determined, at the age of thirty- +three, to perfect his scanty education. It was while he was studying +Latin, philosophy, and theology at the University of Paris that he made +the acquaintance of the group of scholarly and saintly men who became +the first members of the Society of Jesus. Intended at first primarily +for missionary labors among the Mohammedans, the order was speedily +turned to other and greater ends. + +[Sidenote: The Jesuits] + +The organization of the Jesuits showed the military instincts of their +founder. To the three usual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, +was added a fourth vow of special allegiance to the pope. The members +were to be carefully trained during a long novitiate and were to be +under the personal direction of a general, resident in Rome. Authority +and obedience were stressed by the society. Then, too, St. Ignatius +Loyola understood that the Church was now confronted with conditions of +war rather than of peace: accordingly he directed that his brothers +should not content themselves with prayer and works of peace, with +charity and local benevolence, but should adapt themselves to new +circumstances and should strive in a multiplicity of ways to restore +all things in the Catholic Church. + +Thus it happened that the Jesuits, from the very year of their +establishment, rushed to the front in the religious conflict of the +sixteenth century. In the first place, they sought to enlighten and +educate the young. As schoolmasters they had no equals in Europe for +many years. No less a scholar and scientist than Lord Francis Bacon +said of the Jesuit teaching that "nothing better has been put in +practice." Again, by their wide learning and culture, no less than by +the unimpeachable purity of their lives, they won back a considerable +respect for the Catholic clergy. As preachers, too, they earned a high +esteem by the clearness and simplicity of their sermons and +instruction. + +It was in the mission field, however, that the Jesuits achieved the +most considerable results. They were mainly responsible for the +recovery of Poland after that country had almost become Lutheran. They +similarly conserved the Catholic faith in Bavaria and in the southern +Netherlands. They insured a respectable Catholic party in Bohemia and +in Hungary. They aided considerably in maintaining Catholicism in +Ireland. At the hourly risk of their lives, they ministered to their +fellow-Catholics in England under Elizabeth and the Stuarts. And what +the Catholic Church lost in numbers through the defection of the +greater part of northern Europe was compensated for by Jesuit missions +among the teeming millions in India and China, among the Huron and +Iroquois tribes of North America, and among the aborigines of Brazil +and Paraguay. No means of influence, no source of power, was neglected +that would win men to religion and to the authority of the bishop of +Rome. Politics and agriculture were utilized as well as literature and +science. The Jesuits were confessors of kings in Europe and apostles of +the faith in Asia and America. + +[Sidenote: Political and Economic Factors in the Catholic Reformation] + +It has been pointed out already that the rapid diffusion of +Protestantism was due to economic and political causes as well as to +those narrowly religious. It may be said with equal truth that +political and economic causes co-operated with the religious +developments that we have just noted in maintaining the supremacy of +the Catholic Church in at least half the countries over which she had +exercised her sway in 1500. For one thing, it is doubtful whether +financial abuses had flourished as long or as vigorously in southern as +in northern Europe. For another, the political conditions in the states +of southern Europe help to explain the interesting situation. + +[Sidebar: Italy] + +In Italy was the pope's residence and See. He had bestowed many favors +on important Italian families. He had often exploited foreign countries +in behalf of Italian patronage. He had taken advantage of the political +disunity of the peninsula to divide his local enemies and thereby to +assure the victory of his own cause. Two popes of the sixteenth century +belonged to the powerful Florentine family of the Medici--Florence +remained loyal. The hearty support of the Emperor Charles V preserved +the orthodoxy of Naples, and that of Philip II stamped out heresy in +the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. + +[Sidenote: France] + +In France, the concordat of 1516 between pope and king had peacefully +secured for the French monarch appointment of bishops and control of +benefices within his country,--powers which the German princes and the +English sovereigns secured by revolutionary change. Moreover, French +Protestantism, by its political activities in behalf of effective +checks upon the royal power, drove the king into Catholic arms: the +cause of absolutism in France became the cause of Catholicism, and the +latter was bound up with French patriotism to quite the same extent as +English patriotism became linked with the fortunes of Anglicanism. + +[Sidenote: Spain and Portugal] + +In Spain and Portugal, the monarchs obtained concessions from the pope +like those accorded the French sovereigns. They gained control of the +Catholic Church within their countries and found it a most valuable +ally in forwarding their absolutist tendencies. Moreover, the +centuries-long struggle with Mohammedanism had endeared Catholic +Christianity alike to Spaniards and to Portuguese and rendered it an +integral part of their national life. Spain and Portugal now remained +fiercely Catholic. + +[Sidenote: Austria] + +Somewhat similar was the case of Austria. Terrifying fear of the +advancing Turk, joined with the political exigencies of the Habsburg +rulers, threw that duchy with most of its dependencies into the hands +of the pope. If the bishop of Rome, by favoring the Habsburgs, had lost +England, he had at least saved Austria. + +[Sidenote: Poland and Ireland] + +Ireland and Poland--those two extreme outposts of the Roman Catholic +Church in Europe--found their religion to be the most effectual +safeguard of their nationality, the most valuable weapon against +aggression or assimilation by powerful neighbors. + + +SUMMARY OF THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + +By the year 1570 the profound religious and ecclesiastical changes +which we have been sketching had been made. For seventy-five years more +a series of wars was to be waged in which the religious element was +distinctly to enter. In fact these wars have often been called the +Religious Wars--the ones connected with the career of Philip II of +Spain as well as the subsequent dismal civil war in the Germanies--but +in each one the political and economic factors predominated. Nor did +the series of wars materially affect the strength or extent of the +religions implicated. It was prior to 1570 that the Protestant Revolt +had been effected and the Catholic Reformation achieved. + +[Sidenote: Geographical Extent of the Revolt] + +In the year 1500, the Roman Catholic Church embraced central and +western Europe; in the year 1600 nearly half of its former subjects-- +those throughout northern Europe--no longer recognized its authority or +practiced its beliefs. There were left to the Roman Catholic Church at +the close of the sixteenth century the Italian states, Spain, Portugal, +most of France, the southern Netherlands, the forest cantons of +Switzerland, the southern Germanies, Austria, Poland, Ireland, large +followings in Bohemia and Hungary, and a straggling unimportant +following in other countries. + +Those who rejected the Roman Catholic Church in central and western +Europe were collectively called Protestants, but they were divided into +three major groups. Lutheranism was now the religion of the northern +Germanies and the Scandinavian states of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. +Calvinism, under a bewildering variety of names, was the recognized +faith of the majority of the cantons of Switzerland, of the northern +Netherlands, and Scotland, and of important followings in Germany, +Hungary, France, and England. Anglicanism was the established religion +of England. + +[Sidenote: Doctrines Held in Common by Catholics and Protestants] + +The Protestants retained a large part of Catholic theology, so that all +portions of western Christianity continued to have much in common. They +still believed in the Trinity, in the divinity of Jesus Christ, in the +sacredness of the Jewish scriptures and of the New Testament, the fall +of man and his redemption through the sacrifice of the Cross, and in a +future life of rewards and punishments. The Christian moralities and +virtues continued to be inculcated by Protestants as well as by +Catholics. + +[Sidenote: Doctrines Held by all Protestants Apart from Catholics] + +On the other hand, the Protestants held in common certain doctrines +which separated all of them from Roman Catholicism. These were the +distinguishing marks of Protestantism: (1) denial of the claims of the +bishop of Rome and consequent rejection of the papal government and +jurisdiction; (2) rejection of such doctrines as were supposed to have +developed during the middle ages,--for example, purgatory, indulgences, +invocation of saints, and veneration of relics,--together with +important modifications in the sacramental system; (3) insistence upon +the right of the individual to interpret the Bible, and recognition of +the individual's ability to save himself without the interposition of +ecclesiastics--hence to the Protestant, authority resided in individual +interpretation of the Bible, while to the Catholic, it rested in a +living institution or Church. + +[Sidenote: Divisions among Protestants] + +Now the Protestant idea of authority made it possible and essentially +inevitable that its supporters should not agree on many things among +themselves. There would be almost as many ways of interpreting the +Scriptures as there were interested individuals. It is not surprising, +therefore, that in the last Almanac some one hundred and sixty-four +varieties or denominations of Protestants are listed in the United +States alone. These divisions, however, are not so complex as at first +might appear, because nearly all of them have come directly from the +three main forms of Protestantism which appeared in the sixteenth +century. Just how Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism differed from +each other may be gathered from a short summary. + +(1) The Calvinists taught justification by election--that God +determines, or _predestines_, who is to be saved and who is to be +lost. The Lutherans were inclined to reject such doctrine, and to +assure salvation to the mere believer. The Anglicans appeared to accept +the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith, although the Thirty- +nine Articles might be likewise interpreted in harmony with the +Calvinistic position. + +(2) The Calvinists recognized only two sacraments--baptism and the +Lord's Supper. Lutherans and Anglicans retained, in addition to the two +sacraments, the rite of confirmation, and Anglicans also the rite of +ordination. The official statement of Anglicanism that there are "two +major sacraments" has made it possible for some Anglicans--the so- +called High Church party--to hold the Catholic doctrine of seven +sacraments. + +(3) Various substitutes were made for the Catholic doctrine of +transubstantiation, the idea that in the Lord's Supper the bread and +wine by the word of the priest are actually changed into the Body and +Blood of Christ. The Lutherans maintained what they called +consubstantiation, that Christ was _with_ and _in_ the bread +and wine, as fire is in a hot iron, to borrow the metaphor of Luther +himself. The Calvinists, on the other hand, saw in the Eucharist, not +the efficacious sacrifice of Christ, but a simple commemoration of the +Last Supper; to them the bread and wine were mere symbols of the Body +and Blood. As to the Anglicans, their position was ambiguous, for their +official confession of faith declared at once that the Supper is the +communion of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ but that the +communicant receives Jesus Christ only spiritually: the present-day +"Low Church" Anglicans incline to a Calvinistic interpretation, those +of the "High Church" to the Catholic explanation. + +(4) There were pronounced differences in ecclesiastical government. All +the Protestants considerably modified the Catholic system of a divinely +appointed clergy of bishops, priests, and deacons, under the supreme +spiritual jurisdiction of the pope. The Anglicans rejected the papacy, +although they retained the orders of bishop, priest, and deacon, and +insisted that their hierarchy was the direct continuation of the +medieval Church in England, and therefore that their organization was +on the same footing as the Orthodox Church of eastern Europe. The +Lutherans rejected the divinely ordained character of episcopacy, but +retained bishops as convenient administrative officers. The Calvinists +did away with bishops altogether and kept only one order of clergymen-- +the presbyters. Such Calvinistic churches as were governed by +assemblies or synods of presbyters were called Presbyterian; those +which subordinated the "minister" to the control of the people in each +separate congregation were styled Independent, or Separatist, or +Congregational. [Footnote: This latter type of church government was +maintained also by the quasi-Calvinistic denomination of the Baptists.] + +(5) In the ceremonies of public worship the Protestant churches +differed. Anglicanism kept a good deal of the Catholic ritual although +in the form of translation from Latin to English, together with several +Catholic ceremonies, in some places even employing candles and incense. +The Calvinists, on the other hand, worshiped with extreme simplicity: +reading of the Bible, singing of hymns, extemporaneous prayer, and +preaching constituted the usual service in church buildings that were +without superfluous ornaments. Between Anglican formalism and +Calvinistic austerity, the Lutherans presented a compromise: they +devised no uniform liturgy, but showed some inclination to utilize +forms and ceremonies. + +[Sidenote: Significance of the Protestant Revolt] + +Of the true significance of the great religious and ecclesiastical +changes of the sixteenth century many estimates in the past have been +made, varying with the point of view, or bias, of each author. Several +results, however, now stand out clearly and are accepted generally by +all scholars, regardless of religious affiliations. These results may +be expressed as follows: + +In the first place, the Catholic Church of the middle ages was +disrupted and the medieval ideal of a universal theocracy under the +bishop of Rome was rudely shocked. + +In the second place, the Christian religion was largely nationalized. +Protestantism was the religious aspect of nationalism; it naturally +came into being as a protest against the cosmopolitan character of +Catholicism; it received its support from _nations_; and it +assumed everywhere a national form. The German states, the Scandinavian +countries, Scotland, England, each had its established state religion. +What remained to the Catholic Church, as we have seen, was essentially +for national reasons and henceforth rested mainly on a national basis. + +Thirdly, the whole movement tended to narrow the Catholic Church +dogmatically. The exigencies of answering the Protestants called forth +explicit definitions of belief. The Catholic Church was henceforth on +the defensive, and among her members fewer differences of opinion were +tolerated than formerly. + +Fourthly, a great impetus to individual morality, as well as to +theological study, was afforded by the reformation. Not only were many +men's minds turned temporarily from other intellectual interests to +religious controversy, but the individual faithful Catholic or +Protestant was encouraged to vie with his neighbor in actually proving +that his particular religion inculcated a higher moral standard than +any other. It rendered the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries more +earnest and serious and also more bigoted than the fifteenth. + +Finally, the Protestant Revolution led immediately to important +political and social changes. The power of secular rulers was +immeasurably increased. By confiscation of church lands and control of +the clergy, the Tudor sovereigns in England, the kings in Scandinavia, +and the German princes were personally enriched and freed from fear of +being hampered in absolutist tendencies by an independent +ecclesiastical organization. Even in Catholic countries, the monarchs +were able to wring such concessions from the pope as resulted in +shackling the Church to the crown. + +The wealth of the nobles was swelled, especially in Protestant +countries, by seizure of the property of the Church either directly or +by means of bribes tendered for aristocratic support of the royal +confiscations. But despite such an access of wealth, the monarchs took +pains to see that the nobility acquired no new political influence. + +In order to prevent the nobles from recovering political power, the +absolutist monarchs enlisted the services of the faithful middle class, +which speedily attained an enviable position in the principal European +states. It is safe to say that the Protestant Revolution was one of +many elements assisting in the development of this middle class. + +For the peasantry--still the bulk of European population--the religious +and ecclesiastical changes seem to have been peculiarly unfortunate. +What they gained through a diminution of ecclesiastical dues and taxes +was more than lost through the growth of royal despotism and the +exactions of hard-hearted lay proprietors. The peasants had changed the +names of their oppressors and found themselves in a worse condition +than before. There is little doubt that, at least so far as the +Germanies and the Scandinavian countries are concerned, the lot of the +peasants was less favorable immediately after, than immediately before, +the rise of Protestantism. + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +GENERAL. Good brief accounts of the whole religious revolution of the +sixteenth century: Frederic Seebohm, _The Era of the Protestant +Revolution,_ new ed. (1904); J. H. Robinson, _Reformation_, in +"Encyclopædia Britannica," 11th ed. (1911); A. H. Johnson, _Europe in +the Sixteenth Century_ (1897), ch. iii-v and pp. 272 ff.; E. M. Hulme, +_Renaissance and Reformation,_ 2d ed. (1915), ch. x-xviii, xxi-xxiii; +Victor Duruy, _History of Modern Times_, trans. and rev. by E. A. +Grosvenor (1894), ch. xiii, xiv. More detailed accounts are given in +the _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. II (1904), and in the _Histoire +generate_, Vol. IV, ch. x-xvii, and Vol. V, ch. i. All the standard +general histories of the Christian Church contain accounts of the rise +of Protestantism, naturally varying among themselves according to the +religious convictions of their authors. Among the best Protestant +histories may be cited: T. M. Lindsay, _A History of the Reformation,_ +2 vols. (1906-1910); Wilhelm Moeller, _History of the Christian +Church_, trans. and condensed by J. H. Freese, 3 vols. (1893-1900); +Philip Schaff, _History of the Christian Church_, Vols. VI and VII; A. +H. Newman, A Manual of Church History, Vol. II (1903), Period V; G. P. +Fisher, _History of the Christian Church_ (1887), Period VIII, ch. i- +xii. From the Catholic standpoint the best ecclesiastical histories +are: John Alzog, _Manual of Universal Church History_, trans. from 9th +German edition (1903), Vol. II and Vol. Ill, Epoch I; and the histories +in German by Joseph (Cardinal) Hergen-rother [ed. by J. P. Kirsch, 2 +vols. (1902-1904)], by Alois Knopfler (5th ed., 1910) [based on the +famous _Conciliengeschichte_ of K. J. (Bishop) von Hefele], and by F. +X. von Funk (5th ed., 1911); see, also, Alfred Baudrillart, _The +Catholic Church, the Renaissance and Protestantism_, Eng. trans. by +Mrs. Philip Gibbs (1908). Many pertinent articles are to be found in +the scholarly _Catholic Encyclopedia_, 15 vols. (1907-1912), in the +famous _Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche_, 3d +ed., 24 vols. (1896-1913), and in the (Non-Catholic) _Encyclopedia of +Religion and Ethics_, ed. by James Hastings and now (1916) in course of +publication. For the popes of the period, see Ludwig Pastor, _The +History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages_, the monumental +work of a distinguished Catholic historian, the twelfth volume of which +(coming down to 1549) was published in English translation in 1912; and +the older but still useful (Protestant) _History of the Papacy from the +Great Schism to the Sack of Rome_ by Mandell Creighton, new ed. in 6 +vols. (1899-1901), and _History of the Popes_ by Leopold von Ranke, 3 +vols. in the Bonn Library (1885). Heinrich Denziger, _Enchiridion +Symbolorum, Definitionum, et Declarationium de rebus fidei el morum,_ +11nth ed. (1911), is a convenient collection of official pronouncements +in Latin on the Catholic Faith. Philip Schaff, _The Creeds of +Christendom,_ 3 vols. (1878), contains the chief Greek, Latin, and +Protestant creeds in the original and usually also in English +translation. Also useful is B. J. Kidd (editor), _Documents +Illustrative of the Continental Reformation_ (1911). For additional +details of the relation of the Reformation to sixteenth-century +politics, consult the bibliography appended to Chapter III, above. + +THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY. In the _Cambridge +Modern History,_ Vol. I (1902), a severe indictment of the Church is +presented (ch. xix) by H. C. Lea, and a defense is offered (ch. xviii) +by William Barry. The former opinions are developed startlingly by H. +C. Lea in Vol. I, ch. i, of his _History of the Inquisition in the +Middle Ages._ An old-fashioned, though still interesting, Protestant +view is that of William Roscoe, _Life and Pontificate of Leo X,_ 4 +vols. (first pub. 1805-1806, many subsequent editions). For an +excellent description of the organization of the Catholic Church, see +André Mater, _L'église catholique, sa constitution, son administration_ +(1906). The best edition of the canon law is that of Friedberg, 2 vols. +(1881). On the social work of the Church: E. L. Cutts, _Parish Priests +and their People in the Middle Ages in England_ (1898), and G. A. +Prévost, _L'église et les campagnes au moyen âge_ (1892). The most +recent and comprehensive study of the Catholic Church on the eve of the +Protestant Revolt is that of Pierre Imbart de la Tour, _Les origines de +la Réforme,_ Vol. I, _La France moderne_ (1905), and Vol. II, _L'église +catholique, la crise et la renaissance_ (1909). For the Orthodox Church +of the East see Louis Duchesne, _The Churches Separated from Rome,_ +trans. by A. H. Mathew (1908). + +MOHAMMEDANISM. Sir William Muir, _Life of Mohammed,_ new and rev. ed. +by T. H. Weir (1912); Ameer Ali, _Life and Teachings of Mohammed_ +(1891), and, by the same author, warmly sympathetic, Islam (1914); D. +S. Margoliouth, _Mohammed and the Rise of Islam_ (1905), in the "Heroes +of the Nations" Series, and, by the same author, _The Early Development +of Mohammedanism_ (1914); Arthur Gilman, _Story of the Saracens_ +(1902), in the "Story of the Nations" Series. Edward Gibbon has two +famous chapters (1, li) on Mohammed and the Arabian conquests in his +masterpiece, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire._ The _Koran,_ the +sacred book of Mohammedans, has been translated into English by E. H. +Palmer, 2 vols. (1880): entertaining extracts are given in Stanley +Lane-Poole, _Speeches and Table Talk of the Prophet Mohammad._ + +LUTHER AND LUTHERANISM. Of innumerable biographies of Luther the best +from sympathetic Protestant pens are: Julius Köstlin, _Life of Luther,_ +trans. and abridged from the German (1900); T. M. Lindsay, _Luther and +the German Reformation_ (1900); A. C. McGiffert, _Martin Luther, the +Man and his Work_ (1911); Preserved Smith, _The Life and Letters of +Martin Luther_ (1911); Charles Beard, _Martin Luther and the +Reformation in Germany until the Close of the Diet of Worms_ (1889). A +remarkable arraignment of Luther is the work of the eminent Catholic +historian, F. H. S. Denifle, _Luther und Luthertum in der ersten +Entwickelung,_ 3 vols. (1904-1909), trans. into French by J. Pasquier +(1911-1912). The most available Catholic study of Luther's personality +and career is the scholarly work of Hartmann Grisar, _Luther,_ 3 vols. +(1911-1913), trans. from German into English by E. M. Lamond, 4 vols. +(1913-1915). _First Principles of the Reformation,_ ed. by Henry Wace +and C. A. Buchheim (1885), contains an English translation of Luther's +"Theses," and of his three pamphlets of 1520. The best edition of +Luther's complete works is the Weimar edition; English translations of +portions of his _Table Talk,_ by William Hazlitt, have appeared in the +Bonn Library; and _Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary +Letters_ is now (1916) in course of translation and publication by +Preserved Smith. J. W. Richard, _Philip Melanchthon_ (1898) is a brief +biography of one of the most famous friends and associates of Luther. +For the Protestant Revolt in Germany: E. F. Henderson, _A Short History +of Germany_ (1902), Vol. I, ch. x-xvi, a brief sketch of the political +and social background; Johannes Janssen, _History of the German +People,_ a monumental treatise on German social history just before and +during the revolt, scholarly and very favorable to the Catholic Church, +trans. into English by M. A. Mitchell and A. M. Christie, 16 vols. +(1896-1910); Gottlob Egelhaaf, _Deutsche Geschichte im sechzehnten +Jahrhundert bis zum Augsburger Religionsfrieden,_ 2 vols. (1889-1892), +a Protestant rejoinder to some of the Catholic Janssen's deductions; +Karl Lamprecht, _Deutsche Geschichte,_ Vol. V, Part I (1896), +suggestive philosophizing; Leopold von Ranke, _History of the +Reformation in Germany,_ Eng. trans., 3 vols., a careful study, coming +down in the original German to 1555, but stopping short in the English +form with the year 1534; Friedrich von Bezold, _Geschichte der +deutschen Reformation,_ 2 vols. (1886-1890), in the bulky Oncken +Series, voluminous and moderately Protestant in tone; J. J. I. von +Döllinger, _Die Reformation, ihre innere Entwicklung und ihre +Wirkungen,_ 3 vols. (1853-1854), pointing out the opposition of many +educated people of the sixteenth century to Luther; A. E. Berger, _Die +Kulturaufgaben der Reformation,_ 2d ed. (1908), a study of the cultural +aspects of the Lutheran movement, Protestant in tendency and opposed in +certain instances to the generalizations of Janssen and Döllinger; J. +S. Schapiro, _Social Reform and the Reformation_ (1909), a brief but +very suggestive treatment of some of the economic factors of the German +Reformation; H. C. Vedder, _The Reformation in Germany_ (1914), +likewise stressing economic factors, and sympathetic toward the +Anabaptists. For additional facts concerning the establishment of +Lutheranism in Scandinavia, see R. N. Bain, _Scandinavia, a Political +History of Denmark, Norway and Sweden from 1513 to 1900_ (1905), and +John Wordsworth (Bishop of Salisbury), _The National Church of Sweden_ +(1911). Zwingli, Calvin, and Calvinism. The best biography of Zwingli +in English is that of S. M. Jackson (1901), who likewise has edited the +_Selected Works of Zwingli_; a more exhaustive biography in German is +Rudolf Stahelin, _Huldreich Zwingli: sein Leben und Wirken_, 2 vols. +(1895 1897). Biographies of Calvin: H. Y. Reyburn, _John Calvin: his +Life, Letters, and Work_ (1914); Williston Walker, John Calvin, the +Organizer of Reformed Protestantism (1906); Emile Doumergue, _Jean +Calvin: les hommes et les choses de son temps_, 4 vols. (1899-1910); L. +Penning, _Life and Times of Calvin_, trans. from Dutch by B. S. +Berrington (1912); William Barry, _Calvin_, in the "Catholic +Encyclopædia." Many of Calvin's writings have been published in English +translation by the "Presbyterian Board of Publication" in Philadelphia, +22 vols. in 52 (1844-1856), and his _Institutes of the Christian +Religion_ has several times been published in English. H. M. Baird, +_Theodore Beza_ (1899) is a popular biography of one of the best-known +friends and associates of Calvin. For Calvinism in Switzerland: W. D. +McCracken, _The Rise of the Swiss Republic_, 2d ed. (1901); F. W. +Kampschulte, _Johann Calvin, seine Kirche und sein Staat in Genf_, 2 +vols. (1869-1899). For Calvinism in France: H. M. Baird, _History of +the Rise of the Huguenots of France_, 2 vols. (1879), and by the same +author, a warm partisan of Calvinism, _The Huguenots and Henry of +Navarre_, 2 vols. (1886); the brothers Haag, _France protestante_, 2d +ed., 10 vols. (1877-1895), an exhaustive history of Protestantism in +France; E. Lavisse (editor), _Histoire de France_, Vol. V, Livre IX, by +Henry Lemonnier (1904), most recent and best. For Calvinism in +Scotland: P. H. Brown, _John Knox, a Biography_, 2 vols. (1895); Andrew +Lang, _John Knox and the Reformation_ (1905); John Herkless and R. K. +Hannay, _The Archbishops of St. Andrews_, 4 vols. (1907-1913); D. H. +Fleming, _The Reformation in Scotland: its Causes, Characteristics, and +Consequences_ (1910); John Macpherson, _History of the Church in +Scotland_ (1901), ch. iii-v. + +THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. The eve of the revolution: +Frederic Seebohm, _The Oxford Reformers_, 3d ed. (1887), a sympathetic +treatment of Colet, Erasmus, and More; F. A. (Cardinal) Gasquet, _The +Eve of the Reformation in England_ (1899), and, by the same author, an +eminent Catholic scholar, _England under the Old Religion_ (1912). +General histories of the English Reformation: H. O. Wakeman, _An +Introduction to the History of the Church of England_, 8th ed. (1914), +ch. x-xiv, the best brief "High Church" survey; J. R. Green, _Short +History of the English People_, new illust. ed. by C. H. Firth (1913), +ch. vi, vii, a popular "Low Church" view; W. R. W. Stephens and William +Hunt (editors), _A History of the Church of England_, Vols. IV (1902) +and V (1904) by James Gairdner and W. H. Frere respectively; James +Gairdner, _Lollardy and the Reformation in England_, 4 vols. (1908- +1913), the last word of an eminent authority on the period, who was +convinced of the revolutionary character of the English Reformation; +John Lingard, _History of England to 1688_, Vols. IV-VI, the standard +Roman Catholic work; R. W. Dixon, _History of the Church of England +from the Abolition of the Roman Jurisdiction_, 6 vols. (1878-1902), a +thorough treatment from the High Anglican position; H. W. Clark, +_History of English Nonconformity_, Vol. I (1911), Book I, valuable for +the history of the radical Protestants; Henry Gee and W. J. Hardy, +_Documents Illustrative of English Church History_ (1896), an admirable +collection of official pronouncements. Valuable special works and +monographs: C. B. Lumsden, _The Dawn of Modern England, being a History +of the Reformation in England, 1509-1525_ (1910), pronouncedly Roman +Catholic in tone; Martin Hume, _The Wives of Henry VIII_ (1905); F. A. +(Cardinal) Gasquet, _Henry VIII and the English Monasteries_, 3d ed., 2 +vols. (1888), popular ed. in 1 vol. (1902); R. B. Merriman, _Life and +Letters of Thomas Cromwell_, 2 vols. (1902), a standard work; Dom Bede +Camm, _Lives of the English Martyrs_ (1904), with special reference to +Roman Catholics under Henry VIII; A. F. Pollard, [Footnote: See also +other works of A. F. Pollard listed in bibliography appended to Chapter +III, p. 110, above.] _Life of Cranmer_ (1904), scholarly and +sympathetic, and, by the same author, _England under Protector +Somerset_ (1900), distinctly apologetic; Frances Rose-Troup, _The +Western Rebellion of 1549_ (1913), a study of an unsuccessful popular +uprising against religious innovations; M. J. Stone, _Mary I, Queen of +England_ (1901), an apology for Mary Tudor; John Foxe (1516-1587), +_Acts and Monuments of the Church_, popularly known as the _Book of +Martyrs_, the chief contemporary account of the Marian persecutions, +uncritical and naturally strongly biased; R. G. Usher, _The +Reconstruction of the English Church_, 2 vols. (1910), a popular +account of the changes under Elizabeth and James I; H. N. Birt, _The +Elizabethan Religious Settlement_ (1907), from the Roman Catholic +standpoint; G. E. Phillips, _The Extinction of the Ancient Hierarchy, +an Account of the Death in Prison of the Eleven Bishops Honored at Rome +amongst the Martyrs of the Elizabethan Persecution_ (1905), also Roman +Catholic; A. O. Meyer, _England und die katholische Kirche unter +Elisabeth und den Stuarts_, Vol. I (1911), Eng. trans. by J. R. McKee +(1915), based in part on use of source-material in the Vatican Library; +Martin Hume, _Treason and Plot_ (1901), deals with the struggles of the +Roman Catholics for supremacy in the reign of Elizabeth; E. L. Taunton, +_The History of the Jesuits in England_, 1580-1773 (1901); Richard +Simpson, _Life of Campion_ (1867), an account of a devoted Jesuit who +suffered martyrdom under Elizabeth; Champlin Burrage, _The Early +English Dissenters in the Light of Recent Research, 1550-1641_, 2 vols. +(1912). + +THE REFORMATION WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Brief narratives: William +Barry, _The Papacy and Modern Times_ (1911), in "Home University +Library," ch. i-iii; A. W. Ward, _The Counter Reformation_ (1889) in +"Epochs of Church History" Series; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. Ill +(1905), ch. xiii by Ugo (Count) Balzani on "Rome under Sixtus V." +Longer accounts: G. V. Jourdan, _The Movement towards Catholic Reform +in the Early Sixteenth Century, 1496-1536_ (1914); K. W. Maurenbrecher, +_Geschichte der katholischen Reformation_, Vol. I (1880), excellent +down to 1534 but never completed; J. A. Symonds, _Renaissance in +Italy_, Vols. VI and VII, _The Catholic Reaction_, replete with +inaccuracy, bias, and prejudice. The _Canons and Decrees of the Council +of Trent_ have been translated by J. Waterworth, new ed. (1896), and +the _Catechism of the Council of Trent_, by J. Donovan (1829). Nicholas +Hilling, _Procedure at the Roman Curia_, 2d ed. (1909), contains a +concise account of the "congregations" and other reformed agencies of +administration introduced into church government in the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries. The famous _Autobiography of St. Ignatius +Loyola_ has been trans. and ed. by J. F. X. O'Conor (1900), and the +text of his _Spiritual Exercises_, trans. from Spanish into English, +has been published by Joseph Rickaby (1915). See Stewart Rose (Lady +Buchan), _St. Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits_, ed. by W. H. Eyre +(1891); Francis Thompson, _Life of Saint Ignatius_ (1910); T. A. +Hughes, _Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits_ (1892). +Monumental national histories of the Jesuits are now (1916) appearing +under the auspices of the Order: for Germany, by Bernhard Duhr, Vol. I +(1907), Vol. II (1913); for Italy, by Pietro Tacchi Venturi, Vol. I +(1910); for France, by Henri Fouqueray, Vol. I (1910), Vol. II (1913); +for Paraguay, by Pablo Pastells, Vol. I (1912); for North America, by +Thomas Hughes, 3 vols. (1907-1910); for Spain, by Antonio Astrain, +Vols. I-IV (1902-1913). Concerning the Index, see G. H. Putnam, _The +Censorship of the Church of Rome and its Influence upon the Production +and Distribution of Literature_, 2 vols. (1907). On the Inquisition, +see H. C. Lea, _A History of the Inquisition of Spain_, 4 vols. (1907), +and, by the same author, _The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies_ +(1908), on the whole a dark picture; and, for a Catholic account, +Elphège Vacandard, _The Inquisition: a Critical and Historical Study of +the Coercive Power of the Church_, trans. by B. L. Conway (1908). + +FOR THE OUTCOME OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLT AND THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION +FROM THE THEOLOGICAL STANDPOINT, see Adolph Harnack, _History of +Dogma_, Eng. trans., Vol. VII (1900). Charles Beard, _The Reformation +of the Sixteenth Century in its Relation to Modern Thought and +Knowledge_ (1883) is a strongly Protestant estimate of the significance +of the whole movement. J. Balmes, _European Civilization: Protestantism +and Catholicity Compared in their Effects on the Civilization of +Europe_ (1850), though old, is a suggestive résumé from the Catholic +standpoint. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CULTURE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + + +[Sidenote: "Culture"] + +"Culture" is a word generally used to denote learning and refinement in +manners and art. The development of culture--the acquisition of new +knowledge and the creation of beautiful things--is ordinarily the work +of a comparatively small number of scientists and artists. Now if in +any particular period or among any special people, we find a relatively +larger group of intellectual leaders who succeed in establishing an +important educated class and in making permanent contributions to the +civilization of posterity, then we say that it is a cultured century or +a cultured nation. + +[Sidenote: Greek Culture] + +All races and all generations have had some kind of culture, but within +the recorded history of humanity, certain peoples and certain centuries +stand out most distinctly as influencing its evolution. Thus, the +Greeks of the fourth and fifth centuries before Christ gathered +together and handed down to us all manner of speculation about the +nature of the universe, all manner of hypothetical answers to the +eternal questions--Whence do we come, What are we doing, Where do we +go?--and this was the foundation of modern philosophy and metaphysics. +From the same Greeks came our geometry and the rudiments of our +sciences of astronomy and medicine. It was they who gave us the model +for nearly every form of literature--dramatic, epic, and lyric poetry, +dialogues, oratory, history--and in their well-proportioned temples, in +their balanced columns and elaborate friezes, in their marble +chiselings of the perfect human form, they fashioned for us forever the +classical expression of art. + +[Sidenote: Roman Culture] + +Still in ancient times, the Romans developed classical architecture in +the great triumphal arches and in the high-domed public buildings which +strewed their empire. They adapted the fine forms of Greek literature +to their own more pompous, but less subtle, Latin language. They +devised a code of law and a legal system which made them in a real +sense the teachers of order and the founders of the modern study of +law. + +[Sidenote: Mohammedan Culture] + +The Mohammedans, too, at the very time when the Christians of western +Europe were neglecting much of the ancient heritage, kept alive the +traditions of Greek philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. +From eastern Asia they borrowed algebra, the Arabic numerals, and the +compass, and, in their own great cities of Bagdad, Damascus, and +Cordova, they themselves developed the curiously woven curtains and +rugs, the strangely wrought blades and metallic ornaments, the +luxurious dwellings and graceful minarets which distinguish Arabic or +Mohammedan art. + +[Sidenote: Medieval Culture] + +In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries--the height of the middle ages +--came a wonderful outburst of intellectual and artistic activity. +Under the immediate auspices of the Catholic Church it brought forth +abundantly a peculiarly Christian culture. Renewed acquaintance with +Greek philosophy, especially with that of Aristotle, was joined with a +lively religious faith to produce the so called scholastic philosophy +and theology. Great institutions of higher learning--the universities-- +were now founded, in which centered the revived study not only of +philosophy but of law and medicine as well, and over which appeared the +first cloud-wrapped dawn of modern experimental science. And side by +side with the sonorous Latin tongue, which long continued to be used by +scholars, were formed the vernacular languages--German, English, +French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.--that gave a wealth of +variety to reviving popular literature. Majestic cathedrals with +pointed arch and flying buttress, with lofty spire and delicate +tracery, wonderful wood carvings, illuminated manuscripts, quaint +gargoyles, myriad statues of saints and martyrs, delicately colored +paintings of surpassing beauty--all betokened the great Christian, or +Gothic, art of the middle ages. + +[Sidenote: New Elements in Culture of Sixteenth Century] + +The educated person of the sixteenth century was heir to all these +cultural periods: intellectually and artistically he was descended from +Greeks, Romans, Mohammedans, and his medieval Christian forbears. But +the sixteenth century itself added cultural contributions to the +original store, which help to explain not only the social, political, +and ecclesiastical activities of that time but also many of our +present-day actions and ideas. The essentially new factors in +sixteenth-century culture may be reckoned as (1) the diffusion of +knowledge as a result of the invention of printing; (2) the development +of literary criticism by means of humanism; (3) a golden age of +painting and architecture; (4) the flowering of national literature; +(5) the beginnings of modern natural science. + + +THE INVENTION OF PRINTING + +The present day is notably distinguished by the prevalence of enormous +numbers of printed books, periodicals, and newspapers. Yet this very +printing, which seems so commonplace to us now, has had, in all, but a +comparatively brief existence. From the earliest recorded history up to +less than five hundred years ago every book in Europe [Footnote: For an +account of early printing in China, Japan, and Korea, see the informing +article "Typography" in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 11th +edition, Vol. XXVII, p. 510.] was laboriously written by hand, +[Footnote: It is interesting to note the meaning of our present word +"manuscript," which is derived from the Latin--_manu scriptum_ +("written by hand").] and, although copyists acquired an astonishing +swiftness in reproducing books, libraries of any size were the property +exclusively of rich institutions or wealthy individuals. It was at the +beginning of modern times that the invention of printing revolutionized +intellectual history. + +Printing is an extremely complicated process, and it is small wonder +that centuries of human progress elapsed before its invention was +complete. Among the most essential elements of the perfected process +are _movable type_ with which the impression is made, and +_paper_, on which it is made. A few facts may be conveniently +culled from the long involved story of the development of each of these +elements. + +[Sidenote: Development of paper] + +For their manuscripts the Greeks and Romans had used papyrus, the +prepared fiber of a tough reed which grew in the valley of the Nile +River. This papyrus was very expensive and heavy, and not at all +suitable for printing. Parchment, the dressed skins of certain animals, +especially sheep, which became the standard material for the hand- +written documents of the middle ages, was extremely durable, but like +papyrus, it was costly, unwieldy, and ill adapted for printing. + +The forerunner of modern European paper was probably that which the +Chinese made from silk as early as the second century before Christ. +For silk the Mohammedans at Mecca and Damascus in the middle of the +eighth century appear to have substituted cotton, and this so-called +Damascus paper was later imported into Greece and southern Italy and +into Spain. In the latter country the native-grown hemp and flax were +again substituted for cotton, and the resulting linen paper was used +considerably in Castile in the thirteenth century and thence penetrated +across the Pyrenees into France and gradually all over western and +central Europe. Parchment, however, for a long time kept its +preeminence over silk, cotton, or linen paper, because of its greater +firmness and durability, and notaries were long forbidden to use any +other substance in their official writings. Not until the second half +of the fifteenth century was assured the triumph of modern paper, +[Footnote: The word "paper" is derived from the ancient "papyrus."] as +distinct from papyrus or parchment, when printing, then on the +threshold of its career, demanded a substance of moderate price that +would easily receive the impression of movable type. + +[Sidenote: Development of Movable Type] + +The idea of movable type was derived from an older practice of carving +reverse letters or even whole inscriptions upon blocks of wood so that +when they were inked and applied to writing material they would leave a +clear impression. Medieval kings and princes frequently had their +signatures cut on these blocks of wood or metal, in order to impress +them on charters, and a kind of engraving was employed to reproduce +pictures or written pages as early as the twelfth century. + +It was a natural but slow evolution from block-impressing to the +practice of casting individual letters in separate little pieces of +metal, all of the same height and thickness, and then arranging them in +any desired sequence for printing. The great advantage of movable type +over the blocks was the infinite variety of work which could be done by +simply setting and resetting the type. + +The actual history of the transition from the use of blocks to movable +type--the real invention of modern printing--is shrouded in a good deal +of mystery and dispute. It now appears likely that by the year 1450, an +obscure Lourens Coster of the Dutch town of Haarlem had devised movable +type, that Coster's invention was being utilized by a certain Johan +Gutenberg in the German city of Mainz, and that improvements were being +added by various other contemporaries. Papal letters of indulgence and +a version of the Bible, both printed in 1454, are the earliest +monuments of the new art. + +Slowly evolved, the marvelous art, once thoroughly developed, spread +with almost lightning rapidity from Mainz throughout the Germanics, the +Italian states, France, and England,--in fact, throughout all Christian +Europe. It was welcomed by scholars and applauded by popes. Printing +presses were erected at Rome in 1466, and book-publishing speedily +became an honorable and lucrative business in every large city. Thus, +at the opening of the sixteenth century, the scholarly Aldus Manutius +was operating in Venice the famous Aldine press, whose beautiful +editions of the Greek and Latin classics are still esteemed as +masterpieces of the printer's art. + +The early printers fashioned the characters of their type after the +letters that the scribes had used in long-hand writing. Different kinds +of common hand-writing gave rise, therefore, to such varieties of type +as the heavy black-faced Gothic that prevailed in the Germanics or the +several adaptations of the clear, neat Roman characters which +predominated in southern Europe and in England. The compressed "italic" +type was devised in the Aldine press in Venice to enable the publisher +to crowd more words upon a page. + +[Sidenote: Results of Invention of Printing] + +A constant development of the new art characterized the sixteenth +century, and at least three remarkable results became evident. (1) +There was an almost incalculable increase in the supply of books. Under +earlier conditions, a skilled and conscientious copyist might, by +prodigious toil, produce two books in a year. Now, in a single year of +the sixteenth century, some 24,000 copies of one of Erasmus's books +were struck off by one printing press. + +(2) This indirectly increased the demand for books. By lessening the +expense of books and enabling at least all members of the middle class, +as well as nobles and princes, to possess private libraries, printing +became the most powerful means of diffusing knowledge and broadening +education. + +(3) A greater degree of accuracy was guaranteed by printing than by +manual copying. Before the invention of printing, it was well-nigh +impossible to secure two copies of any work that would be exactly +alike. Now, the constant proof-reading and the fact that an entire +edition was printed from the same type were securities against the +anciently recurring faults of forgery or of error. + + +HUMANISM + +Printing, the invention of which has just been described, was the new +vehicle of expression for the ideas of the sixteenth century. These +ideas centered in something which commonly is called "humanism." To +appreciate precisely what humanism means--to understand the dominant +intellectual interests of the educated people of the sixteenth century +--it will be necessary first to turn back some two hundred years +earlier and say a few words about the first great humanist, Francesco +Petrarca, or, as he is known to us, Petrarch. + +[Sidenote: Petrarch, "the Father of Humanism"] + +The name of Petrarch, who flourished in the fourteenth century (1304- +1374), has been made familiar to most of us by sentimentalists or by +literary scholars who in the one case have pitied his loves and his +passions or in the other have admired the grace and form of his Italian +sonnets. But to the student of history Petrarch has seemed even more +important as the reflection, if not the source, of a brilliant +intellectual movement, which, taking rise in his century, was to grow +in brightness in the fifteenth and flood the sixteenth with resplendent +light. + +In some respects Petrarch was a typical product of the fourteenth +century. He was in close touch with the great medieval Christian +culture of his day. He held papal office at Avignon in France. He was +pious and "old-fashioned" in many of his religious views, especially in +his dislike for heretics. Moreover, he wrote what he professed to be +his best work in Latin and expressed naught but contempt for the new +Italian language, which, under the immortal Dante, had already acquired +literary polish. [Footnote: Ironically enough, it was not his Latin +writings but his beautiful Italian sonnets, of which he confessed to be +ashamed, that have preserved the popular fame of Petrarch to the +present day.] He showed no interest in natural science or in the +physical world about him--no sympathy for any novelty. + +Yet despite a good deal of natural conservatism, Petrarch added one +significant element to the former medieval culture. That was an +appreciation, amounting almost to worship, of the pagan Greek and Latin +literature. Nor was he interested in antique things because they +supported his theology or inculcated Christian morals; his fondness for +them was simply and solely because they were inherently interesting. In +a multitude of polished Latin letters and in many of his poems, as well +as by daily example and precept to his admiring contemporaries, he +preached the revival of the classics. + +[Sidenote: Characteristics of Petrarch's Humanism] + +This one obsessing idea of Petrarch carried with it several corollaries +which constituted the essence of humanism and profoundly affected +European thought for several generations after the Italian poet. They +may be enumerated as follows: + +(1) Petrarch felt as no man had felt since pagan days the pleasure of +mere human life,--the "joy of living." This, he believed, was not in +opposition to the Christian religion, although it contradicted the +basis of ascetic life. He remained a Catholic Christian, but he +assailed the monks. + +(2) Petrarch possessed a confidence in himself, which in the constant +repetition in his writings of first-person pronouns partook of +boastfulness. He replaced a reliance upon Divine Providence by a sense +of his own human ability and power. + +(3) Petrarch entertained a clear notion of a living bond between +himself and men of like sort in the ancient world. Greek and Roman +civilization was to him no dead and buried antiquity, but its poets and +thinkers lived again as if they were his neighbors. His love for the +past amounted almost to an ecstatic enthusiasm. + +(4) Petrarch tremendously influenced his contemporaries. He was no +local, or even national, figure. He was revered and respected as "the +scholar of Europe." Kings vied with each other in heaping benefits upon +him. The Venetian senate gave him the freedom of the city. Both the +University of Paris and the municipality of Rome crowned him with +laurel. + +[Sidenote: "Humanism" and the "Humanities"; Definitions] + +The admirers and disciples of Petrarch were attracted by the fresh and +original human ideas of life with which such classical writers as +Virgil, Horace, and Cicero overflowed. This new-found charm the +scholars called humanity (_Humanitas_) and themselves they styled +"humanists." Their studies, which comprised the Greek and Latin +languages and literatures, and, incidentally, profane history, were the +humanities or "letters" (_litterae humaniores_), and the pursuit +of them was humanism. + +Petrarch himself was a serious Latin scholar but knew Greek quite +indifferently. About the close of his century, however, Greek teachers +came in considerable numbers from Constantinople and Greece across the +Adriatic to Italy, and a certain Chrysoloras set up an influential +Greek school at Florence. [Footnote: This was before the capture of +Constantinople by the Turks in 1453.] Thenceforth, the study of both +Latin and Greek went on apace. Monasteries were searched for old +manuscripts; libraries for the classics were established; many an +ancient masterpiece, long lost, was now recovered and treasured as fine +gold. [Footnote: It was during this time that long-lost writings of +Tacitus, Cicero, Quintilian, Plautus, Lucretius, etc., were +rediscovered.] + +[Sidenote: Humanism and Christianity] + +At first, humanism met with some opposition from ardent churchmen who +feared that the revival of pagan literature might exert an unwholesome +influence upon Christianity. But gradually the humanists came to be +tolerated and even encourage, until several popes, notably Julius II +and Leo X at the opening of the sixteenth century, themselves espoused +the cause of humanism. The father of Leo X was the celebrated Lorenzo +de' Medici, who subsidized humanists and established the great +Florentine library of Greek and Latin classics; and the pope proved +himself at once the patron and exemplar of the new learning: he enjoyed +music and the theater, art and poetry, the masterpieces of the ancients +and the creations of his humanistic contemporaries, the spiritual and +the witty--life in every form. + +[Sidenote: Spread of Humanism] + +The zeal for humanism reached its highest pitch in Italy in the +fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth, but it gradually +gained entrance into other countries and at length became the +intellectual spirit of sixteenth-century Europe. Greek was first taught +both in England and in France about the middle of the fifteenth +century. The Italian expeditions of the French kings Charles VIII, +Louis XII, and Francis I, 1494-1547, served to familiarize Frenchmen +with humanism. And the rise of important new German universities called +humanists to the Holy Roman Empire. As has been said, humanism +dominated all Christian Europe in the sixteenth century. + +[Sidenote: Erasmus, Chief Humanist of the Sixteenth Century] + +Towering above all his contemporaries was Erasmus, the foremost +humanist and the intellectual arbiter of the sixteenth century. Erasmus +(1466-1536) was a native of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, but +throughout a long and studious life he lived in Germany, France, +England, Italy, and Switzerland. He took holy orders in the Church and +secured the degree of doctor of sacred theology, but it was as a lover +of books and a prolific writer that he earned his title to fame. +Erasmus, to an even greater degree than Petrarch, became a great +international figure--the scholar of Europe. He corresponded with every +important writer of his generation, and he was on terms of personal +friendship with Aldus Manutius, the famous publisher of Venice, with +Sir Thomas More, the distinguished statesman and scholar of England, +with Pope Leo X, with Francis I of France, and with Henry VIII of +England. For a time he presided at Paris over the new College of +France. + +A part of the work of Erasmus--his Greek edition of the New Testament +and his _Praise of Folly_--has already been mentioned. In a series +of satirical dialogues--the _Adages_ and the _Colloquies_--he +displayed a brilliant intellect and a sparkling wit. With quip and jest +he made light of the ignorance and credulity of many clergymen, +especially of the monks. He laughed at every one, himself included. +"Literary people," said he, "resemble the great figured tapestries of +Flanders, which produce effect only when seen from the distance." + +[Sidenote: Humanism and Protestantism] + +At first Erasmus was friendly with Luther, but as he strongly +disapproved of rebellion against the Church, he subsequently assailed +Luther and the whole Protestant movement. He remained outside the group +of radical reformers, to the end devoted to his favorite authors, +simply a lover of good Latin. + +Perhaps the chief reason why Erasmus opposed Protestantism was because +he imagined that the theological tempest which Luther aroused all over +Catholic Europe would destroy fair-minded scholarship--the very essence +of humanism. Be that as it may, the leading humanists of Europe--More +in England, Helgesen in Denmark, and Erasmus himself--remained +Catholic. And while many of the sixteenth-century humanists of Italy +grew skeptical regarding all religion, their country, as we have seen, +did not become Protestant but adhered to the Roman Church. + +[Sidenote: Decline of Humanism] + +Gradually, as the sixteenth century advanced, many persons who in an +earlier generation would have applied their minds to the study of Latin +or Greek, now devoted themselves to theological discussion or moral +exposition. The religious differences between Catholics and +Protestants, to say nothing of the refinements of dispute between +Calvinists and Lutherans or Presbyterians and Congregationalists, +absorbed much of the mental energy of the time and seriously distracted +the humanists. In fact, we may say that, from the second half of the +sixteenth century, humanism as an independent intellectual interest +slowly but steadily declined. Nevertheless, it was not lost, for it was +merged with other interests, and with them has been preserved ever +since. + +Humanism, whose seed was sown by Petrarch in the fourteenth century and +whose fruit was plucked by Erasmus in the sixteenth, still lives in +higher education throughout Europe and America. The historical +"humanities"--Latin, Greek, and history--are still taught in college +and in high school. They constitute the contribution of the dominant +intellectual interest of the sixteenth century. + + +ART IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + +[Sidenote: Humanism and the Renaissance of Art] + +The effect of the revived interest in Greek and Roman culture, which, +as we have seen, dominated European thought from the fourteenth to the +sixteenth century, was felt not only in literature and in the outward +life of its devotees--in ransacking monasteries for lost manuscripts +scripts, in critically studying ancient learning, and in consciously +imitating antique behavior--but likewise in a marvelous and many-sided +development of art. + +The art of the middle ages had been essentially Christian--it sprang +from the doctrine and devotions of the Catholic Church and was +inextricably bound up with Christian life. The graceful Gothic +cathedrals, pointing their roofs and airy spires in heavenly +aspiration, the fantastic and mysterious carvings of wood or stone, the +imaginative portraiture of saintly heroes and heroines as well as of +the sublime story of the fall and redemption of the human race, the +richly stained glass, and the spiritual organ music--all betokened the +supreme thought of medieval Christianity. But humanism recalled to +men's minds the previous existence of an art simpler and more +restrained, if less ethereal. The reading of Greek and Latin writers +heightened an esteem for pagan culture in all its phases. + +Therefore, European art underwent a transformation in the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries. While much of the distinctively medieval culture +remained, civilization was enriched by a revival of classical art. The +painters, the sculptors, and the architects now sought models not +exclusively in their own Christian masters but in many cases in pagan +Greek and Roman forms. Gradually the two lines of development were +brought together, and the resulting union--the adaptation of classical +art-forms to Christian uses--was marked by an unparalleled outburst of +artistic energy. + +From that period of exuberant art-expression in the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries, our present-day love of beautiful things has come +down in unbroken succession. With no exaggeration it may be said that +the sixteenth century is as much the basis of our modern artistic life +as it is the foundation of modern Protestantism or of modern world +empire. The revolutions in commerce and religion synchronized with the +beginning of a new era in art. All arts were affected--architecture, +sculpture, painting, engraving, and music. + +[Sidenote: Architecture] + +In architecture, the severely straight and plain line of the ancient +Greek temples or the elegant gentle curve of the Roman dome was +substituted for the fanciful lofty Gothic. A rounded arch replaced the +pointed. And the ancient Greek orders--Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian-- +were dragged from oblivion to embellish the simple symmetrical +buildings. The newer architecture was used for ecclesiastical and other +structures, reaching perhaps its highest expression in the vast +cathedral of St. Peter, which was erected at Rome in the sixteenth +century under the personal direction of great artists, among whom +Raphael and Michelangelo are numbered. + +[Sidenote: In Italy] + +The revival of Greek and Roman architecture, like humanism, had its +origin in Italy; and in the cities of the peninsula, under patronage of +wealthy princes and noble families, it attained its most general +acceptance. But, like humanism, it spread to other countries, which in +turn it deeply affected. The chronic wars, in which the petty Italian +states were engaged throughout the sixteenth century, were attended, as +we have seen, by perpetual foreign interference. But Italy, vanquished +in politics, became the victor in art. While her towns surrendered to +foreign armies, her architects and builders subdued Europe and brought +the Christian countries for a time under her artistic sway. + +[Sidenote: In France] + +Thus in France the revival was accelerated by the military campaigns of +Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I, which led to the revelation of +the architectural triumphs in Italy, the result being the importation +of great numbers of Italian designers and craftsmen. Architecture after +the Greek or Roman manner at once became fashionable. Long, horizontal +lines appeared in many public buildings, of which the celebrated palace +of the Louvre, begun in the last year of the reign of Francis I (1546), +and to-day the home of one of the world's greatest art collections, is +a conspicuous example. + +[Sidenote: In Other Countries] + +In the second half of the sixteenth century, the new architecture +similarly entered Spain and received encouragement from Philip II. +About the same time it manifested itself in the Netherlands and in the +Germanies. In England, its appearance hardly took place in the +sixteenth century. it was not until 1619 that a famous architect, Inigo +Jones (1573-1651), designed and reared the classical banqueting house +in Whitehall, and not until the second half of the seventeenth century +did Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), by means of the majestic St. +Paul's cathedral in London, render the new architecture popular in +England. + +[Sidenote: Sculpture] + +Sculpture is usually an attendant of architecture, and it is not +surprising, therefore, that transformation of the one should be +connected with change in the other. The new movement snowed itself in +Italian sculpture as early as the fourteenth century, owing to the +influence of the ancient monuments which still abounded throughout the +peninsula and to which the humanists attracted attention. In the +fifteenth century archaeological discoveries were made and a special +interest fostered by the Florentine family of the Medici, who not only +became enthusiastic collectors of ancient works of art but promoted the +study of the antique figure. Sculpture followed more and more the Greek +and Roman traditions in form and often in subject as well. The plastic +art of Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was strikingly +akin to that of Athens in the fifth or fourth centuries before Christ. + +The first great apostle of the new sculpture was Lorenzo Ghiberti +(1378-1455), whose marvelous doors on the baptistery at Florence +elicited the comment of Michelangelo that they were "worthy of being +placed at the entrance of paradise." Slightly younger than Ghiberti was +Donatello (1383-1466), who, among other triumphs, fashioned the +realistic statue of St. Mark in Venice. Luca della Robbia (1400-1482), +with a classic purity of style and simplicity of expression, founded a +whole dynasty of sculptors in glazed terra-cotta. Elaborate tomb- +monuments, the construction of which started in the fifteenth century, +reached their highest magnificence in the gorgeous sixteenth-century +tomb of Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti, the founder of the princely family +of Visconti in Milan. Michelangelo himself was as famous for his +sculpture as for his painting or his architecture; the heroic head of +his David at Florence is a work of unrivaled dignity. As the style of +classic sculpture became very popular in the sixteenth century, the +subjects were increasingly borrowed from pagan literature. Monuments +were erected to illustrious men of ancient Rome, and Greek mythology +was once more carved in stone. + +The extension of the new sculpture beyond Italy was even more rapid +than the spread of the new architecture. Henry VII invited Italian +sculptors to England; Louis XII patronized the great Leonardo da Vinci, +and Francis I brought him to France. The tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella +in Spain was fashioned in classic form. The new sculpture was famous in +Germany before Luther; in fact, it was to be found everywhere in +sixteenth-century Europe. + +[Sidenote: Painting] + +Painting accompanied sculpture. Prior to the sixteenth century, most of +the pictures were painted directly upon the plaster walls of churches +or of sumptuous dwellings and were called frescoes, although a few were +executed on wooden panels. In the sixteenth century, however, easel +paintings--that is, detached pictures on canvas, wood, or other +material--became common. The progress in painting was not so much an +imitation of classical models as was the case with sculpture and +architecture, for the reason that painting, being one of the most +perishable of the arts, had preserved few of its ancient Greek or Roman +examples. But the artists who were interested in architecture and +sculpture were likewise naturally interested in painting; and painting, +bound by fewer antique traditions, reached a higher degree of +perfection in the sixteenth century than did any of its allied arts. + +Modern painting was born in Italy. In Italy it found its four great +masters--Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian. The +first two acquired as great a fame in architecture and in sculpture as +in painting; the last two were primarily painters. + +Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), a Florentine by birth and training, was +patronized in turn by the Sforza family of Milan, by the Medici of +Florence, and by the French royal line. His great paintings--the Holy +Supper and Madonna Lisa, usually called La Gioconda--carried to a high +degree the art of composition and the science of light and shade and +color. In fact, Leonardo was a scientific painter--he carefully studied +the laws of perspective and painstakingly carried them into practice. +He was also a remarkable sculptor, as is testified by his admirable +horses in relief. As an engineer, too, he built a canal in northern +Italy and constructed fortifications about Milan. He was a musician and +a natural philosopher as well. This many-sided man liked to toy with +mechanical devices. One day when Louis XII visited Milan, he was met by +a large mechanical lion that roared and then reared itself upon its +haunches, displaying upon its breast the coat-of-arms of France: it was +the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo influenced his age perhaps more +than any other artist. He wrote extensively. He gathered about himself +a large group of disciples. And in his last years spent in France, as a +pensioner of Francis I, he encouraged painting in that country as well +as in Italy. + +Michelangelo (1475-1564), Florentine like Leonardo, was probably the +most wonderful of all these artists because of his triumphs in a vast +variety of endeavors. It might almost be said of him that "jack of all +trades, he was master of all." He was a painter of the first rank, an +incomparable sculptor, a great architect, an eminent engineer, a +charming poet, and a profound scholar in anatomy and physiology. +Dividing his time between Florence and Rome, he served the Medici +family and a succession of art-loving popes. With his other qualities +of genius he combined austerity in morals, uprightness in character, a +lively patriotism for his native city and people, and a proud +independence. To give any idea of his achievements is impossible in a +book of this size. His tomb of Julius II in Rome and his colossal +statue of David in Florence are examples of his sculpture; the +cathedral of St. Peter, which he practically completed, is his most +enduring monument; the mural decorations in the Sistine Chapel at Rome, +telling on a grandiose scale the Biblical story from Creation to the +Flood, are marvels of design; and his grand fresco of the Last Judgment +is probably the most famous single painting in the world. + +[Sidenote: Raphael] + +Younger than Michelangelo and living only about half as long, Raphael +(1483-1520), nevertheless, surpassed him in the harmonious composition +and linear beauty of his painting. For ineffable charm of grace, "the +divine" Raphael has always stood without a peer. Raphael lived the +better part of his life at Rome under the patronage of Julius II and +Leo X, and spent several years in decorating the papal palace of the +Vatican. Although he was, for a time, architect of St. Peter's +cathedral, and displayed some aptitude for sculpture and for the +scholarly study of archæeology, it is as the greatest of modern +painters that he is now regarded. Raphael lived fortunately, always in +favor, and rich, and bearing himself like a prince. + +[Sidenote: Titian] + +Titian (c. 1477-1576) was the typical representative of the Venetian +school of painting which acquired great distinction in bright coloring. +Official painter for the city of Venice and patronized both by the +Emperor Charles V and by Philip II of Spain, he secured considerable +wealth and fame. He was not a man of universal genius like Leonardo da +Vinci or Michelangelo; his one great and supreme endowment was that of +oil painting. In harmony, light, and color, his work has never been +equaled. Titian's portrait of Philip II was sent to England and proved +a potent auxiliary in the suit of the Spanish king for the hand of Mary +Tudor. His celebrated picture of the Council of Trent was executed +after the aged artist's visit to the council about 1555. + +From Italy as a center, great painting became the heritage of all +Europe. Italian painters were brought to France by Louis XII and +Francis I, and French painters were subsidized to imitate them. Philip +II proved himself a liberal patron of painting throughout his +dominions. + +[Sidenote: Dürer] + +In Germany, painting was developed by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), a +native of Nuremberg, who received a stimulus from Italian work and was +royally patronized by the Emperor Maximilian. The career of Dürer was +honored and fortunate: he was on terms of friendship with all the first +masters of his age; he even visited and painted Erasmus. But it is as +an etcher or engraver, rather than as a painter, that Dürer's +reputation was earned. His greatest engravings--such as the Knight and +Death, and St. Jerome in his Study--set a standard in a new art which +has never been reached by his successors. The first considerable +employment of engraving, one of the most useful of the arts, +synchronized with the invention of printing. Just as books were a means +of multiplying, cheapening, and disseminating ideas, so engravings on +copper or wood were the means of multiplying, cheapening, and +disseminating pictures which gave vividness to the ideas, or served in +place of books for those who could not read. + +The impetus afforded by this extraordinary development of painting +continued to affect the sixteenth century and a greater part of the +seventeenth. The scene shifted, however, from Italy to the Spanish +possessions. And Spanish kings, the successors of Philip II, patronized +such men as Rubens (1577-1640) and Van Dyck (1599-1641) in the Belgian +Netherlands, or Velasquez (1590-1660) and Murillo (1617-1682) in Spain +itself. + +[Sidenote: Rubens and Van Dyck] + +If the work of Rubens displayed little of the earlier Italian grace and +refinement, it at any rate attained to distinction in the purely +fanciful pictures which he painted in bewildering numbers, many of +which, commissioned by Marie de' Medici and King Louis XIII of France, +are now to be seen in the Louvre galleries in Paris. And Van Dyck +raised portrait painting to unthought-of excellence: his portraits of +the English royal children and of King Charles I are world-famous. + +[Sidenote: Velasquez] +[Sidenote: Murillo] + +Within the last century, many connoisseurs of art have been led to +believe that Velasquez formerly has been much underrated and that he +deserves to rank with the foremost Italian masters. Certainly in all +his work there is a dignity, power, and charm, especially in that well- +known Maids of Honor, where a little Spanish princess is depicted +holding her court, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, her dwarfs and +her mastiff, while the artist himself stands at his easel. The last +feat of Velasquez was to superintend the elaborate decorations in honor +of the marriage of the Spanish Infanta with King Louis XIV of France. +Murillo, the youngest of all these great painters, did most of his work +for the Catholic Church and naturally dealt with ecclesiastical +subjects. + +A somewhat different type of painter is found in the Dutchman, +Rembrandt (1606-1669), who lived a stormy and unhappy life in the towns +of Leyden and Amsterdam. It must be remembered that Holland, while +following her national career of independence, commerce, and colonial +undertaking, had become stanchly Protestant. Neither the immoral +paganism of antiquity nor the medieval legends of Catholicism would +longer appeal to the Dutch people as fit subjects of art. Rembrandt, +prototype of a new school, therefore painted the actual life of the +people among whom he lived and the things which concerned them--lively +portraits of contemporary burgomasters, happy pictures of popular +amusements, stern scenes from the Old Testament. His Lesson in Anatomy +and his Night Watch in their somber settings, are wonderfully realistic +products of Rembrandt's mastery of the brush. + +[Sidenote: Rembrandt] +[Sidenote: Music] + +Thus painting, like architecture and sculpture, was perfected in +sixteenth-century Italy and speedily became the common property of +Christian Europe. Music, too, the most primitive and universal of the +arts, owes in its modern form very much to the sixteenth century. +During that period the barbarous and uncouth instruments of the middle +ages were reformed. The rebeck, to whose loud and harsh strains the +medieval rustic had danced, [Footnote: The rebeck probably had been +borrowed from the Mohammedans.] by the addition of a fourth string and +a few changes in form, became the sweet-toned violin, the most +important and expressive instrument of the modern orchestra. As +immediate forerunner of our present-day pianoforte, the harpsichord was +invented with a keyboard carried to four octaves and the chords of each +note doubled or quadrupled to obtain prolonged tones. + +[Sidenote: Palestrina] + +In the person of the papal organist and choir-master, Palestrina (1524- +1594), appeared the first master-composer. He is justly esteemed as the +father of modern religious music and for four hundred years the +Catholic Church has repeated his inspired accents. A pope of the +twentieth century declared his music to be still unrivaled and directed +its universal use. Palestrina directly influenced much of the Italian +music of the seventeenth century and the classical German productions +of the eighteenth. + + +NATIONAL LITERATURE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + +[Sidenote: Latin and the Vernaculars] + +Latin had been the learned language of the middle ages: it was used in +the Church, in the universities, and in polite society. If a lecturer +taught a class or an author wrote a book, Latin was usually employed. +In those very middle ages, however, the nations of western Europe were +developing spoken languages quite at variance with the classical, +scholarly tongue. These so-called vernacular languages were not often +written and remained a long time the exclusive means of expression of +the lower classes--they consequently not only differed from each other +but tended in each case to fall into a number of petty local dialects. +So long as they were not largely written, they could achieve no fixity, +and it was not until after the invention of printing that the national +languages produced extensive national literatures. + +Just when printing was invented, the humanists--the foremost scholars +of Europe--were diligently engaged in strengthening the position of +Latin by encouraging the study of the pagan classics. Virgil, Cicero, +Caesar, Tacitus, and the comedies of Plautus and Terence were again +read by educated people for their substance and for their style. +Petrarch imitated the manner of Latin classics in his letters; Erasmus +wrote his great works in Latin. The revival of Greek, which was also +due to the humanists, added to the learning and to the literature of +the cultured folk, but Greek, even more than Latin, was hardly +understood or appreciated by the bulk of the people. + +Then came the sixteenth century, with its artistic developments, its +national rivalries, its far-away discoveries, its theological debates, +and its social and religious unrest. The common people, especially the +commercial middle class, clamored to understand: and the result was the +appearance of national literatures on a large scale. Alongside of +Latin, which was henceforth restricted to the liturgy of the Roman +Catholic Church and to particularly learned treatises, there now +emerged truly literary works in Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, +German, English, etc. The printing of these works at once stereotyped +their respective languages, so that since the sixteenth century the +written forms of the vernacular tongues have been subject to relatively +minor change. Speaking generally, the sixteenth century witnessed the +fixing of our best known modern languages. + +To review all the leading writers who employed the various vernaculars +in the sixteenth century would encroach too much upon the province of +professed histories of comparative literature, but a few references to +certain figures that tower head and shoulders above all others in their +respective countries may serve to call vividly to mind the importance +of the period for national literatures. + +[Sidenote: Italian Literature] + +At the very outset, one important exception must be made in favor of +Italy, whose poetry and prose had already been immortalized by Dante, +Petrarch, and Boccaccio a hundred years and more before the opening of +the sixteenth century. But that country, as we have already repeatedly +observed in many kinds of art, anticipated all others in modern times. +Italy, almost the last European land to be politically unified, was the +first to develop a great national literature. + +But Italian literature was broadened and popularized by several +influential writers in the sixteenth century, among whom stand +preeminent the Florentine diplomat Machiavelli (1469-1527), whose +_Prince_ really founded the modern science of politics, and who +taught the dangerous doctrine that a ruler, bent on exercising a +benevolent despotism, is justified in employing any means to achieve +his purpose; Ariosto (1474-1533), whose great poem _Orlando +Furioso_ displayed a powerful imagination no less than a rare and +cultivated taste; and the unhappy mad Tasso (1544-1595), who in +_Jerusalem Delivered_ produced a bulky epic poem, adapting the +manner of Virgil to a crusading subject, and in Aminta gave to his +countrymen a delightful pastoral drama, the exquisite lyrics of which +were long sung in opera. + +[Sidenote: French literature] + +French literature, like other French art, was encouraged by Francis I. +He set up printing presses, established the College of France, and +pensioned native writers. The most famous French author of the time was +the sarcastic and clever Rabelais (c. 1490-1553), whose memorable +_Gargantua_ comprised a series of daring fanciful tales, told with +humor of a rather vulgar sort. The language of _Gargantua_ is +somewhat archaic--perhaps the French version of Calvin's +_Institutes_ would be a better example of the French of the +sixteenth century. But France, thus seriously beginning her national +literature, was to wait for its supremacy until the seventeenth +century--until the institution of the French Academy and the age of +Louis XIV. + +[Sidenote: Spanish Literature] + +Spanish literature flourished in the golden era when Velasquez and +Murillo were painting their masterpieces. The immortal _Don +Quixote_, which was published in 1604, entitles its author, +Cervantes (1547-1616), to rank with the greatest writers of all time. +Lope de Vega (1562-1635), far-famed poet, virtually founded the Spanish +theater and is said to have composed eighteen hundred dramatic pieces. +Calderon (1600-1681), although less effective in his numerous dramas, +wrote allegorical poems of unequaled merit. The printing of large cheap +editions of many of these works made Spanish literature immediately +popular. + +[Sidenote: Portuguese Literature] + +How closely the new vernacular literatures reflected significant +elements in the national life is particularly observable in the case of +Portugal. It was of the wonderful exploring voyages of Vasco da Gama +that Camoens (1524-1580), prince of Portuguese poets, sang his stirring +_Lusiads_. + +[Sidenote: German Literature] + +In the Germanies, the extraordinary influence of humanism at first +militated against the development of literature in the vernacular, but +the Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, in his desire to reach the ears +of the common people, turned from Latin to German. Luther's translation +of the Bible constitutes the greatest monument in the rise of modern +German. + +To speak of what our own English language and literature owe to the +sixteenth century seems superfluous. The popular writings of Chaucer in +the fourteenth century were historically important, but the presence of +very many archaic words makes them now difficult to read. But in +England, from the appearance in 1551 of the English version of Sir +Thomas More's _Utopia_, [Footnote: Originally published in Latin +in 1516.] a representation of an ideal state, to the publication of +Milton's grandiose epic, _Paradise Lost_, in 1667, there was a +continuity of great literature. There were Cranmer's Book of Common +Prayer and the King James Version of the Bible; Edmund Spenser's +graceful _Faerie Queene_; [Footnote: For its scenery and mechanism, the +Orlando Furioso of Ariosto furnished the framework; and it similarly +shows the influence of Tasso.] the supreme Shakespeare; Ben Jonson and +Marlowe; Francis Bacon and Richard Hooker; Thomas Hobbes and Jeremy +Taylor; and the somber Milton himself. + + +BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATURAL SCIENCE + +[Sidenote: Two-fold Development of Culture, Science and Art] + +Human civilization, or culture, always depends upon progress in two +directions--the reason, and the feelings or emotions. Art is the +expression of the latter, and science of the former. Every great period +in the world's history, therefore, is marked by a high appreciation of +aesthetics and an advance in knowledge. To this general rule, the +sixteenth century was no exception, for it was distinguished not only +by a wonderful development of architecture, sculpture, painting, +engraving, music, and literature,--whether Roman, Greek, or +vernacular,--but it is the most obvious starting point of our modern +ideas of natural and experimental science. + +Nowadays, we believe that science is at once the legitimate means and +the proper goal of the progress of the race, and we fill our school +curricula with scientific studies. But this spirit is essentially +modern: it owes its chief stimulus to important achievements in the +sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth. + +[Sidenote: Characteristics of the Sixteenth Century] + +Five elements contributed to impress the period that we are now +reviewing with a scientific character. In the first place, the +humanists encouraged a critical spirit in comparing and contrasting +ancient manuscripts and in investigating the history of the distant +past; and their discovery and application of pagan writings served to +bring clearly and abruptly before the educated people of the sixteenth +century all that the Greeks and Romans had done in astronomy, physics, +mathematics, and medicine, as well as in philosophy, art, and +literature. Secondly, the invention of printing itself was a scientific +feat, and its extended use enabled scientists, no less than artists, +immediately to acquaint the whole civilized world with their ideas and +demonstrations. + +Thirdly, the marvelous maritime discoveries of new routes to India and +of a new world, which revolutionized European commerce, added much to +geographical knowledge and led to the construction of scientific maps +of the earth's surface. Fourthly, the painstaking study of a small +group of scholars afforded us our first glimpse of the real character +of the vast universe about our own globe--the scientific basis of +modern astronomy. Lastly, two profound thinkers, early in the +seventeenth century,--Francis Bacon and Descartes,--pointed out new +ways of using the reason--the method of modern science. + +In an earlier chapter, an account has been given of the maritime +discoveries of the sixteenth century and their immediate results in +broadening intellectual interests. In this chapter, some attention +already has been devoted to the rise of humanism and likewise to the +invention of printing. It remains, therefore, to say a few words about +the changes in astronomy and in scientific method that characterized +the beginning of modern times. + +[Side Note: Astronomy] + +In the year 1500 the average European knew something about the universe +of sun, moon, planets, and stars, but it was scarcely more than the +ancient Greeks had known, and its chief use was to foretell the future. +This practical aspect of astronomy was a curious ancient misconception, +which now passes under the name of astrology. It was popularly believed +prior to the sixteenth century that every heavenly body exerted a +direct and arbitrary influence upon human character and events, +[Footnote: Disease was attributed to planetary influence. This +connection between medicine and astrology survives in the sign of +Jupiter 4, which still heads medicinal prescriptions.] and that by +casting "horoscopes," showing just how the stars appeared at the birth +of any person, the subsequent career of such an one might be foreseen. +Many silly notions and superstitions grew up about astrology, yet the +practice persisted. Charles V and Francis I, great rivals in war, vied +with each other in securing the services of most eminent astrologers, +and Catherine de' Medici never tired of reading horoscopes. + +[Sidenote: "The Ptolemaic System"] + +Throughout the middle ages the foremost scholars had continued to +cherish the astronomical knowledge of the Greeks, which had been +conveniently collected and systematized by a celebrated mathematician +and scholar living in Egypt in the second century of the Christian era +--Ptolemy by name. Among other theories and ideas, Ptolemy taught that +the earth is the center of the universe, that revolving about it are +the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, the other planets, and the fixed +stars, and that the entire machine is turned with incredible velocity +completely around every twenty-four hours. This so-called Ptolemaic +system of astronomy fitted in very nicely with the language of the +Bible and with the popular prejudice that the earth remains stationary +while the heavenly bodies daily rise and set. It was natural that for +many centuries the Christians should accept the views of Ptolemy as +almost divinely inspired. + +[Sidenote: "The Copernican System"] + +However, a contradictory theory of the solar system was propounded and +upheld in the sixteenth century, quite supplanting the Ptolemaic theory +in the course of the seventeenth. The new system is called Copernican +after its first modern exponent--and its general acceptance went far to +annihilate astrology and to place astronomy upon a rational basis. + +Copernicus [the Latin form of his real name, Koppernigk (1473-1543)] +was a native of Poland, who divided his time between official work for +the Catholic Church and private researches in astronomy. It was during +a ten-year sojourn in Italy (1496-1505), studying canon law and +medicine, and familiarizing himself, through humanistic teachers, with +ancient Greek astronomers, that Copernicus was led seriously to +question the Ptolemaic system and to cast about in search of a truthful +substitute. Thenceforth for many years he studied and reflected, but it +was not until the year of his death (1543) that his results were +published to the world. His book--_On the Revolutions of the +Celestial Bodies_, dedicated to Pope Paul III--offered the theory +that the earth is not the center of the universe but simply one of a +number of planets which revolve about the sun. The earth seemed much +less important in the Copernican universe than in the Ptolemaic. + +The Copernican thesis was supported and developed by two distinguished +astronomers at the beginning of the next century--Kepler (1571-1630) +and Galileo (1564-1642), one a German, the other an Italian. Kepler +taught astronomy for a number of years at Gratz and subsequently made +his home in Prague, where he acquired a remarkable collection of +instruments [Footnote: From Tycho Brahe, whose assistant he was in +1600-1601.] that enabled him to conduct numerous interesting +experiments. While he entertained many fantastic and mystical theories +of the "harmony of the spheres" and was not above casting horoscopes +for the emperor and for Wallenstein, that soldier of fortune, +[Footnote: See below, pp. 223, 226.] he nevertheless established +several of the fundamental laws of modern astronomy, such as those +governing the form and magnitude of the planetary orbits. It was Kepler +who made clear that the planets revolve about the sun in elliptical +rather than in strictly circular paths. + +Galileo popularized the Copernican theory. [Footnote: Another +"popularizer" was Giordano Bruno (c. 1548-1600).] His charming lectures +in the university of Padua, where he taught from 1592 to 1610, were so +largely attended that a hall seating 2000 had to be provided. In 1609 +he perfected a telescope, which, although hardly more powerful than a +present-day opera glass, showed unmistakably that the sun was turning +on its axis, that Jupiter was attended by revolving moons, and that the +essential truth of the Copernican system was established. Unfortunately +for Galileo, his enthusiastic desire to convert the pope immediately to +his own ideas got him into trouble with the Roman Curia and brought +upon him a prohibition from further writing. Galileo submitted like a +loyal Catholic to the papal decree, but had he lived another hundred +years, he would have rejoiced that almost all men of learning--popes +included--had come to accept his own conclusions. Thus modern astronomy +was suggested by Copernicus, developed by Kepler, and popularized by +Galileo. + +The acquisition of sound knowledge in astronomy and likewise in every +other science rests primarily upon the observation of natural facts or +phenomena and then upon deducing rational conclusions from such +observation. Yet this seemingly simple rule had not been continuously +and effectively applied in any period of history prior to the sixteenth +century. The scientific method of most of the medieval as well as of +the ancient scholars was essentially that of Aristotle. [Footnote: +Exception to this sweeping generalization must be made in favor of +several medieval scientists and philosophers, including--Roger Bacon, a +Franciscan friar of the thirteenth century.] This so-called deductive +method of Aristotle assumed as a starting-point some general of +principle as a premise or hypothesis and thence proceeded, by logical +reasoning, to deduce concrete applications or consequences. It had been +extremely valuable in stimulating the logical faculties and in showing +men how to draw accurate conclusions, but it had shown a woeful +inability to devise new general principles. It evolved an elaborate +theology and a remarkable philosophy, but natural experimental science +progressed relatively little until the deductive method of Aristotle +was supplemented by the inductive method of Francis Bacon. + +[Sidenote: Modern Method of Science: Introduction. Francis Bacon] + +Aristotle was partially discredited by radical humanists, who made fun +of the medieval scholars who had taken him most seriously, and by the +Protestant reformers, who assailed the Catholic theology which had been +carefully constructed by Aristotelian deduction. But it was reserved +for Francis Bacon, known as Lord Bacon (1561-1626), to point out all +the shortcomings of the ancient method and to propose a practicable +supplement. A famous lawyer, lord chancellor of England under James I, +a born scientist, a brilliant essayist, he wrote several philosophical +works of first-rate importance, of which the _Advancement of +Learning_ (1604) and the _Novum Organum_ (1620) are the most +famous. It is in these works that he summed up the faults which the +widening of knowledge in his own day was disclosing in ancient and +medieval thought and set forth the necessity of slow laborious +observation of facts as antecedent to the assumption of any general +principle. + +[Sidenote: Descartes] + +What of scientific method occurred to Lord Bacon appealed even more to +the intellectual genius of the Frenchman Descartes (1596-1660). A +curious combination of sincere practicing Catholic and of original +daring rationalist was this man, traveling all about Europe, serving as +a soldier in the Netherlands, in Bavaria, in Hungary, living in +Holland, dying in Sweden, with a mind as restless as his body. Now +interested in mathematics, now in philosophy, presently absorbed in +physics or in the proof of man's existence, throughout his whole career +he held fast to the faith that science depends not upon the authority +of books but upon the observation of facts. "Here are my books," he +told a visitor, as he pointed to a basket of rabbits that he was about +to dissect. The _Discourse on Method_ (1637) and the _Principles +of Philosophy_ (1644), taken in conjunction with Bacon's work, +ushered in a new scientific era, to some later phases of which we shall +have occasion to refer in subsequent chapters. + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +THE RENAISSANCE. GENERAL. _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. I (1902), +ch. xvi, xvii; _Histoire générale_, Vol. IV, ch. vii, viii, Vol. V, ch. +x, xi; E. M. Hulme, _Renaissance and Reformation_, 2d ed. (1915), ch. +v-vii, xix, xxix, xxx. More detailed accounts: Jakob Burckhardt, _The +Civilization of the Period of the Renaissance in Italy_, trans. by S. +G. C. Middlemore, 2 vols. (1878), 1 vol. ed. (1898), scholarly and +profound; J. A. Symonds, _Renaissance in Italy_, 5 parts in 7 vols. +(1897-1898), interesting and suggestive but less reliable than +Burckhardt; Ludwig Geiger, _Renaissance und Humanismus in Italien und +Deutschland_ (1882), in the great Oncken Series; F. X. Kraus, +_Geschichte der christlichen Kunst_, 2 vols. in 4 (1896-1908), a +monumental work of great interest and importance, by a German Catholic. + +HUMANISM. The best description of the rise and spread of humanism is J. +E. Sandys, _A History of Classical Scholarship_, Vol. II (1908). For +the spirit of early humanism see H. C. Hollway-Calthrop, _Petrarch: his +Life and Times_ (1907); J. H. Robinson and H. W. Rolfe, _Petrarch, the +First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters_, 2d ed. (1914), a selection +from Petrarch's letters to Boccaccio and other contemporaries, +translated into English, with a valuable introduction; Pierre de +Nolhac, _Pétrarque et l'humanisme_, 2d ed., 2 vols. in 1 (1907). Of the +antecedents of humanism a convenient summary is presented by Louise +Loomis, _Mediæval Hellenism_ (1906). A popular biography of Erasmus is +that of Ephraim Emerton, _Desiderius Erasmus_ (1899); the Latin +_Letters of Erasmus_ are now (1916) in course of publication by P. S. +Allen; F. M. Nichols, _The Epistles of Erasmus_, 2 vols. (1901-1906), +an excellent translation of letters written prior to 1517; Erasmus's +_Praise of Folly_, in English translation, is obtainable in many +editions. D. F. Strauss, _Ulrich von Hutten, his Life and Times_, +trans. by Mrs. G. Sturge (1874), gives a good account of the whole +humanistic movement and treats Hutten very sympathetically; _The +Letters of Obscure Men_, to which Hutten contributed, were published, +with English translation, by F. G. Stokes in 1909. An excellent edition +of _The Utopia_ of Sir Thomas More, the famous English humanist, is +that of George Sampson (1910), containing also an English translation +and the charming contemporary _Biography_ by More's son-in-law, William +Roper. The standard summary of the work of the humanists is the German +writing of Georg Voigt, _Die Wiederbelebung des classischen +Alterthums_, 3d ed., 2 vols. (1893). Interesting extracts from the +writings of a considerable variety of humanists are translated by +Merrick Whitcomb in his _Literary Source Books_ of the Renaissance in +Germany and in Italy (1898-1899). + +INVENTION OF PRINTING. T. L. De Vinne, _Invention of Printing_, 2d +ed. (1878), and, by the same author, _Notable Printers of Italy +during the Fifteenth Century_ (1910), two valuable works by an +eminent authority on the subject; G. H. Putnam, _Books and their +Makers during the Middle Ages_, 2 vols. (1896-1897), a useful +contribution of another experienced publisher; Johannes Janssen, +_History of the German People_, Vol. I, Book I, ch. i. There is an +interesting essay on "Publication before Printing" by R. K. Root in the +_Publications of the Modern Language Association_, Vol. XXVIII +(1913), pp. 417-431. + +NATIONAL LITERATURES. Among the many extended bibliographies of +national literatures the student certainly should be familiar with the +_Cambridge History of English Literature_, ed. by A. W. Ward and +A. R. Waller, 12 vols. (1907-1916); and with G. Lanson, _Manuel +bibliographique de la littérature française moderne_, 1500-1900, 4 +vols. (1909-1913). See also, as suggestive references, Pasquale +Villari, _The Life and Times of Machiavelli_, 2 vols. in i (1898); +A. A. Tilley, _The Literature of the French Renaissance_, 2 vols. +(1904); George Saintsbury, _A History of Elizabethan Literature_ +(1887); and Sir Sidney Lee, _Life of Shakespeare_, new rev. ed. +(1915). + +ART IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Architecture: A. D. F. Hamlin, _A +Textbook of the History of Architecture_, 5th ed. (1902), a brief +general survey; _A History of Architecture_, Vols. I, II by Russell +Sturgis (1906), III, IV by A. L. Frothingham (1915); Banister Fletcher, +_A History of Architecture_, 5th ed. (1905); James Fergusson, _History +of Architecture in All Countries_, 3d rev. ed., 5 vols. (1891-1899). +Sculpture: Allan Marquand and A. L. Frothingham, _A Text-book of the +History of Sculpture_ (1896); Wilhelm von Lubke, _History of +Sculpture_, Eng. trans., 2 vols. (1872). Painting: J. C. Van Dyke, _A +Text-book of the History of Painting_, new rev. ed. (1915); Alfred von +Woltmann and Karl Woermann, _History of Painting_, Eng. trans., 2 vols. +(1894). Music: W. S. Pratt, _The History of Music_ (1907). See also the +_Lives of Seventy of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and +Architects_ by Giorgio Vasari (1512-1574), the contemporary and friend +of Michelangelo, trans. by Mrs. Foster in the Bohn Library; Osvald +Siren, _Leonardo da Vinci: the Artist and the Man_ (1915); and Romain +Rolland, _Michelangelo_ (1915). + +SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. _Cambridge Modem +History_, Vol. V (1908), ch. xxiii, Vol. IV (1906), ch. xxvii, +scholarly accounts of Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, and their +contemporaries. A veritable storehouse of scientific facts is H. S. and +E. H. Williams, _A History of Science_, 10 vols. (1904-1910). +Specifically, see Arthur Berry, _Short History of Astronomy_ (1899); +Karl von Gebler, _Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia_, Eng. trans. by +Mrs. George Sturge (1879); B. L. Conway, _The Condemnation of Galileo_ +(1913); and Galileo, _Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences_, Eng. +trans. by Crew and Salvio (1914). _The Philosophical Works of Francis +Bacon_, ed. by J. M. Robertson (1905), is a convenient edition. On the +important thinkers from the time of Machiavelli to the middle of the +eighteenth century, see Harald Hoffding, _A History of Modern +Philosophy_, Vol. I (1900); W. A. Dunning, _A History of Political +Theories from Luther to Montesquieu_ (1905); Paul Janet, _Histoire de +la science politique dans ses rapports avec la morale_, 3d ed., Vol. II +(1887). + + + + +PART II + +DYNASTIC AND COLONIAL RIVALRY + + +In the seventeenth century and in the greater part of the eighteenth, +public attention was directed chiefly toward dynastic and colonial +rivalries. In the European group of national states, France was the +most important. Politically the French evolved a form of absolutist +divine-right monarchy, which became the pattern of all European +monarchies, that of England alone excepted. In international affairs +the reigning family of France--the Bourbon dynasty after a long +struggle succeeded in humiliating the rulers of Spain and of Austria-- +the Habsburg dynasty. The hegemony which, in the sixteenth century, +Spain had exercised in the newly established state-system of Europe was +now supplanted by that of France. Intellectually, too, Italian +leadership yielded to French, until France set the fashion alike in +manners, morals, and art. Only in the sphere of commerce and trade and +exploitation of lands beyond the seas was French supremacy questioned, +and there not by declining Portugal or Spain but by the vigorous +English nation. France, victorious in her struggle for dynastic +aggrandizement on the continent of Europe, was destined to suffer +defeat in her efforts to secure colonies in Asia and America. + +This period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was marked +likewise by the constant decay of old political and social institutions +in Italy and in Germany, by the gradual decline of the might and +prestige of the Ottoman Turks, and by the extinction of the ancient +kingdom of Poland. In their place appeared as great world powers the +northern monarchies of Prussia and Russia, whose royal lines-- +Hohenzollerns and Romanovs--were to vie in ambition and prowess, before +the close of the period, with Habsburgs and Bourbons. + +Socially, the influence of nobles and clergy steadily declined. As +steadily arose the numbers, the ability, and the importance of the +traders and commercial magnates, the moneyed people, all those who were +identified with the new wealth that the Commercial Revolution was +creating, the lawyers, the doctors, the professors, the merchants,--the +so-called middle class, the _bourgeoisie_, who gradually grew +discontented with the restrictive institutions of their time. Within +the _bourgeoisie_ was the seed of revolution: they would one day in +their own interests overturn monarchy, nobility, the Church, the whole +social fabric. That was to be the death-knell of the old regime--the +annunciation of the nineteenth century. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE GROWTH OF ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE AND THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN BOURBONS +AND HABSBURGS, 1589-1661 + + +GROWTH OF ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE: HENRY IV, RICHELIEU, AND MAZARIN + +For the first time in many years France in 1598 was at peace. The Edict +of Nantes, which in that year accorded qualified religious toleration +to the Huguenots, removed the most serious danger to internal order, +and the treaty of Vervins, concluded in the same year with the king of +Spain, put an end to a long and exhausting foreign war. Henry IV was +now free to undertake the internal reformation of his country. + +Sorry, indeed, was the plight of France at the close of the sixteenth +century. Protracted civil and foreign wars had produced their +inevitable consequences. The state was nearly bankrupt. Country +districts lay largely uncultivated. Towns were burned or abandoned. +Roads were rough and neglected, and bridges in ruins. Many of the +discharged soldiers turned highwaymen, pillaged farmhouses, and robbed +travelers. Trade was at a standstill and the artisans of the cities +were out of work. During the wars, moreover, great noblemen had taken +many rights into their own hands and had acquired a habit of not +obeying the king. The French crown seemed to be in danger of losing +what power it had gained in the fifteenth century. + +That the seventeenth century was to witness not a diminution but a +pronounced increase of royal power, was due to the character of the +French king at this critical juncture. Henry IV (1589-1610) was strong +and vivacious. With his high forehead, sparkling eyes, smiling mouth, +and his neatly pointed beard (_Henri quatre_), he was +prepossessing in looks, while his affability, simplicity, and constant +expression of interest in the welfare of his subjects earned him the +appellation of "Good King Henry." His closest companions knew that he +was selfish and avaricious, but that his quick decisions were likely to +be good and certain to be put in force. Above all, Henry had soldierly +qualities and would brook no disloyalty or disobedience. + +[Sidenote: Sully] + +Throughout his reign, Henry IV was well served by his chief minister, +the duke of Sully, [Footnote: 1560-1641.] an able, loyal, upright +Huguenot, though avaricious like the king and subject to furious fits +of jealousy and temper. Appointed to the general oversight of financial +affairs, Sully made a tour of inspection throughout the country and +completely reformed the royal finances. He forbade provincial governors +to raise money on their own authority, removed many abuses of tax- +collecting, and by an honest, rigorous administration was able between +1600 and 1610 to save an average of a million livres a year. The king +zealously upheld Sully's policy of retrenchment: he reduced the +subsidies to artists and the grants to favorites, and retained only a +small part of his army, sufficient to overawe rebellious nobles and to +restore order and security throughout the realm. To promote and +preserve universal peace, he even proposed the formation of a World +Confederation--his so-called "Grand Design"--which, however, came to +naught through the mutual jealousies and rival ambitions of the various +European sovereigns. It proved to be much too early to talk +convincingly of general pacifism and disarmament. + +[Sidenote: Agricultural Development] + +While domestic peace was being established and provision was being made +for immediate financial contingencies, Henry IV and his great minister +were both laboring to increase the resources of their country and +thereby to promote the prosperity and contentment of the people. Sully +believed that the true wealth of the nation lay in farming pursuits, +and, therefore, agriculture should be encouraged even, if necessary, to +the neglect of trade and industry. While the king allowed Sully to +develop the farming interests, he himself encouraged the new commercial +classes. + +In order to promote agriculture, Sully urged the abolition of interior +customs lines and the free circulation of grain, subsidized stock +raising, forbade the destruction of the forests, drained swamps, +rebuilt the roads and bridges, and planned a vast system of canals. + +On his side, Henry IV was contributing to the wealth of the middle +class. It was he who introduced silkworms and the mulberry trees, on +which they feed, thereby giving an impetus to the industry which is now +one of the most important in France. The beginnings of the industrial +importance of Paris, Lyons, and Marseilles date from the reign of Henry +IV. + +The king likewise encouraged commerce. A French merchant marine was +built up by means of royal bounties. A navy was started. Little by +little the French began to compete for trade on the high seas at first +with the Dutch, and subsequently with the English. French trading posts +were established in India; and Champlain was dispatched to the New +World to lay the foundations of a French empire in America. It was +fortunate for France that she had two men like Henry IV and Sully, each +supplementing the work of the other. + +The assassination of Henry IV by a crazed fanatic in 1610 threatened +for a time to nullify the effects of his labors, for supreme power +passed to his widow, Marie de' Medici, an ambitious but incompetent +woman, who dismissed Sully and undertook to act as regent for her nine- +year-old son, Louis XIII. The queen-regent was surrounded by worthless +favorites and was hated by the Huguenots, who feared her rigid +Catholicism, and by the nobles, Catholic and Huguenot alike, who were +determined to maintain their privileges and power. + +The hard savings of Henry IV were quickly exhausted, and France once +more faced a financial crisis. In this emergency the Estates-General +was again convened (1614). Since the accession of Louis XI (1461), the +French monarchs with their absolutist tendencies had endeavored to +remove this ancient check upon their authority: they had convoked it +only in times of public confusion or economic necessity. Had the +Estates-General really been an effective body in 1614, it might have +taken a position similar to that of the seventeenth-century Parliament +in England and established constitutional government in France, but its +organization and personnel militated against such heroic action. The +three estates--clergy, nobles, and commoners (bourgeois)--sat +separately in as many chambers; the clergy and nobles would neither tax +themselves nor cooperate with the Third Estate; the commoners, many of +whom were Huguenots, were disliked by the court, despised by the First +and Second Estates, and quite out of sympathy with the peasants, the +bulk of the French nation. It is not surprising, under the +circumstances, that the session of 1614 lasted but three weeks and +ended as a farce: the queen-regent locked up the halls and sent the +representatives home--she needed the room for a dance, she said. It was +not until the momentous year of 1789--after a lapse of 175 years--that +the Estates-General again assembled. + +After the fiasco of 1614, affairs went from bad to worse. Nobles and +Huguenots contended between themselves, and both against the court +favorites. As many as five distinct uprisings occurred. Marie de' +Medici was forced to relinquish the government, but Louis XIII, on +reaching maturity, gave evidence of little executive ability. The king +was far more interested in music and hunting than in business of state. +No improvement appeared until Cardinal Richelieu assumed the guidance +of affairs of state in 1624. Henceforth, the royal power was exercised +not so much by Louis XIII as by his great minister. + +[Sidenote: Cardinal Richelieu] + +Born of a noble family of Poitou, Armand de Richelieu (1585-1642), at +the age of twenty-one had been appointed bishop of the small diocese of +Luçon. His eloquence and ability as spokesman for the clergy in the +fatuous Estates-General of 1614 attracted the notice of Marie de' +Medici, who invited him to court, gave him a seat in the royal council, +and secured his nomination as a cardinal of the Roman Church. From 1624 +until his death in 1642, Richelieu was the most important man in +France. + +With undoubted loyalty and imperious will, with the most delicate +diplomacy and all the blandishments of subtle court intrigue, sometimes +with sternest and most merciless cruelty, Richelieu maintained his +influence over the king and proceeded to destroy the enemies of the +French crown. + +[Sidenote: Richelieu's Policies] + +Richelieu's policies were quite simple: (1) To make the royal power +supreme in France; (2) to make France predominant in Europe. The first +involved the removal of checks upon royal authority and the triumph of +absolutism; the second meant a vigorous foreign policy, leading to the +humiliation of the rival Habsburgs. In both these policies Richelieu +was following the general traditions of the preceding century, +essentially those of Henry IV, but to an exaggerated extent and with +unparalleled success. Postponing consideration of general European +affairs, let us first see what the great cardinal accomplished in +France. + +[Sidenote: Disappearance of Representative Government] + +First of all, Richelieu disregarded the Estates-General. He was +convinced of its futility and unhesitatingly declined to consult it. +Gradually the idea became current that the Estates-General was an out- +worn, medieval institution, totally unfit for modern purposes, and that +official business could best--and therefore properly--be conducted, not +by the representatives of the chief social classes in the nation, but +by personal appointees of the king. Thus the royal council became the +supreme lawmaking and administrative body in the country. + +Local estates, or parliaments, continued to exist in certain of the +most recently acquired provinces of France, such as Brittany, Provence, +Burgundy, and Languedoc, but they had little influence except in +apportioning taxes: Richelieu tampered with their privileges and vetoed +many of their acts. + +[Sidenote: The Royal Army] + +The royal prerogative extended not only to matters of taxation and +legislation, including the right to levy taxes and to make expenditures +for any purpose without public accounting, but it was preserved and +enforced by means of a large standing army, which received its pay and +its orders exclusively from the crown. To the royal might, as well as +to its right, Richelieu contributed. He energetically aided Louis XIII +in organizing and equipping what proved to be the best army in Europe. + +Two factions in the state aroused the cardinal's ire--one the +Huguenots, and the other the nobles--for both threatened the autocracy +which he was bent upon erecting. Both factions suffered defeat and +humiliation at his hands. + +Richelieu, though a cardinal of the Roman Church, was more politician +and statesman than ecclesiastic; though living in an age of religious +fanaticism, he was by no means a bigot. As we shall presently see, this +Catholic cardinal actually gave military support to Protestants in +Germany--for political purposes; it was similarly for political +purposes that he attacked the Protestants in France. + +As has already been pointed out, French Protestantism meant an +influential political party as well as a religion. Since Henry IV had +issued the Edict of Nantes, the Huguenots had had their own assemblies, +officers, judges, and even certain fortified towns, all of which +interfered with the sovereign authority and impaired that uniformity +which thoughtful royalists believed to be the very cornerstone of +absolutism. Richelieu had no desire to deprive the Huguenots of +religious freedom, but he was resolved that in political matters they +should obey the king. Consequently, when they revolted in 1625, he +determined to crush them. In spite of the considerable aid which +England endeavored to give them, the Huguenots were entirely subdued. +Richelieu's long siege of La Rochelle, lasting nearly fifteen months, +showed his forceful resolution. When the whole country had submitted, +the Edict of Alais was published (1629), leaving to the Protestants +freedom of conscience and of worship but depriving them of their +fortifications and forbidding them to hold assemblies. Public office +was still open to them and their representatives kept their judicial +posts. "The honest Huguenot retained all that he would have been +willing to protect with his life, while the factious and turbulent +Huguenot was deprived of the means of embarrassing the government." + +The repression of the nobles was a similar statesmanlike achievement, +and one made in the face of redoubtable opposition. It had long been +customary to name noblemen as governors of the various provinces, but +the governors had gradually become masters instead of administrators: +they commanded detachments of the army; they claimed allegiance of the +garrisons in their towns; they repeatedly and openly defied the royal +will. The country, moreover, was sprinkled with noblemen's castles or +_châteaux_, protected by fortifications and armed retainers, +standing menaces to the prompt execution of the king's orders. Finally, +the noblemen at court, jealous of the cardinal's advancement and +spurred on by the intrigues of the disaffected Marie de' Medici or of +the king's own brother, hampered the minister at every turn. Of such +intolerable conditions, Richelieu determined to be quit. + +Into the ranks of noble courtiers, Richelieu struck terror. By means of +spies and trickery, he ferreted out conspiracies and arbitrarily put +their leaders to death. Every attempt at rebellion was mercilessly +punished, no matter how exalted in rank the rebel might be. Richelieu +was never moved by entreaties or threats--he was as inexorable as fate +itself. + +[Sidenote: Demolition of Private Fortifications ] + +The cardinal did not confine his attention to noblemen at court. As +early as 1626 he published an edict ordering the immediate demolition +of all fortified castles not needed for defense against foreign +invasion. In carrying this edict into force, Richelieu found warm +supporters in peasantry and townsfolk who had long suffered from the +exactions and depredations of their noble but warlike neighbors. The +ruins of many a _chateau_ throughout modern France bear eloquent +witness to the cardinal's activity. + +[Sidenote: Centralization of Administration] +[Sidenote: The Intendants] + +Another enduring monument to Richelieu was the centralization of French +administration. The great minister was tired of the proud, independent +bearing of the noble governors. Without getting rid of them altogether, +he checked these proud officials by transferring most of their powers +to a new kind of royal officer, the intendant. Appointed by the crown +usually from among the intelligent, loyal middle class, each intendant +had charge of a certain district, supervising therein the assessment +and collection of royal taxes, the organization of local police or +militia, the enforcement of order, and the conduct of courts. These +intendants, with their wide powers of taxation, police, and justice, +were later dubbed, from their approximate number, the "thirty tyrants" +of France. But they owed their positions solely to the favor of the +crown; they were drawn from a class whose economic interests were long +and well served by the royal power; and their loyalty to the king, +therefore, could be depended upon. The intendants constantly made +reports to, and received orders from, the central government at Paris. +They were so many eyes, all over the kingdom, for an ever-watchful +Richelieu. And in measure as the power of the _bourgeois_ +intendants increased, that of the noble governors diminished, until, by +the eighteenth century, the offices of the latter had become largely +honorary though still richly remunerative. To keep the nobles amused +and in money, and thereby out of mischief and politics, became, from +Richelieu's time, a maxim of the royal policy in France. + +[Side Note: Richelieu's Significance] + +Such, in brief, was the work of this grim figure that moved across the +stage at a critical period in French history. Richelieu, more than any +other man, was responsible for the assurance of absolutism in his +country at the very time when England, by means of revolution and +bloodshed, was establishing parliamentary government; and, as we shall +soon see, his foreign policy covered France with European glory and +prestige. + +In person, Richelieu was frail and sickly, yet when clothed in his +cardinal's red robes he appeared distinguished and commanding. His +pale, drawn face displayed a firm determination and an inflexible will. +Unscrupulous, exacting, and without pity, he preserved to the end a +proud faith in his moral strength and in his loyalty to country and to +king. + +Richelieu died in 1642, and the very next year the monarch whom he had +served so gloriously followed him to the grave, leaving the crown to a +boy of five years--Louis XIV. + +[Side Note: Minority of Louis XIV] +[Sidenote: Cardinal Mazarin] + +The minority of Louis XIV might have been disastrous to France and to +the royal power, had not the strong policies of Richelieu been +exemplified and enforced by another remarkable minister and cardinal, +Mazarin. Mazarin (1602-1661) was an Italian, born near Naples, educated +for an ecclesiastical career at Rome and in Spain. In the discharge of +several delicate diplomatic missions for the pope, he had acted as +nuncio at Paris, where he so ingratiated himself in Richelieu's favor +that he was invited to enter the service of the king of France, and in +1639 he became a naturalized Frenchman. + +Despite his foreign birth and the fact that he never spoke French +without a bad accent, he rose rapidly in public service. He was named +cardinal and was recognized as Richelieu's disciple and imitator. From +the death of the greater cardinal in 1642 to his own death in 1661, +Mazarin actually governed France. + +[Sidenote: Unrest of the Nobles] + +Against the Habsburgs, Mazarin continued the great war which Richelieu +had begun and brought it to a successful conclusion. In domestic +affairs, he encountered greater troubles. The nobles had naturally +taken umbrage at the vigorous policies of Richelieu, from which Mazarin +seemed to have no thought of departing. They were strengthened, +moreover, by a good deal of popular dislike of Mazarin's foreign birth, +his avarice, his unscrupulous plundering of the revenues of the realm +for the benefit of his own family, and his tricky double-dealing ways. + +[Sidenote: The Fronde] + +The result was the Fronde, [Footnote: Probably so called from the name +of a street game played by Parisian children and often stopped by +policemen.] the last attempt prior to the French Revolution to cast off +royal absolutism in France. It was a vague popular protest coupled with +a selfish reaction on the part of the influential nobles: the pretext +was Mazarin's interference with the parlement of Paris. + +[Sidenote: The Parlements] + +The parlements were judicial bodies [Footnote: There were thirteen in +the seventeenth century.] which tried important cases and heard appeals +from lower courts. That of Paris, being the most eminent, had, in +course of time, secured to itself the right of registering royal +decrees--that is, of receiving the king's edicts in formal fashion and +entering them upon the statute books so that the law of the land might +be known generally. From making such a claim, it was only a step for +the parlement of Paris to refuse to register certain new edicts on the +ground that the king was not well informed or that they were in +conflict with older and more binding enactments. If these claims were +substantiated, the royal will would be subjected to revision by the +parlement of Paris. To prevent their substantiation, both Louis XIII +and Louis XIV held "beds of justice"--that is, appeared in person +before the parlement, and from their seat of cushions and pillows +declared their will regarding the new edict and directed that it be +promulgated. There were amusing scenes when the boy-king, at the +direction of Mazarin, gave orders in his shrill treble to the learned +lawyers and grave old judges. + +Egged on by seeming popular sympathy and no doubt by the +contemporaneous political revolution in England, the parlement of Paris +at length defied the prime minister. It proclaimed its immunity from +royal control; declared the illegality of any public tax which it had +not freely and expressly authorized; ordered the abolition of the +office of intendant; and protested against arbitrary arrest or +imprisonment. To these demands, the people of Paris gave support-- +barricades were erected in the streets, and Mazarin, whose loyal army +was still fighting in the Germanies, was obliged temporarily to +recognize the new order. Within six months, however, sufficient troops +had been collected to enable him to overawe Paris and to annul his +concessions. + +[Sidenote: Suppression of the Fronde] +[Sidenote: Triumph of Absolutism in France] + +Subsequent uprisings, engineered by prominent noblemen, were often more +humorous than harmful. To be sure, no less a commander than the great +Condé, one of the chief heroes of the Thirty Years' War, took arms +against the Cardinalists, as Mazarin's party was called, but so slight +was the aid which he received from the French people that he was +speedily driven from his country and joined the Spanish army. The +upshot of the Fronde was (1) the nobility were more discredited than +ever; (2) the parlement was forbidden to devote attention to political +or financial affairs; (3) Paris was disarmed and lost the right of +electing its own municipal officers; (4) the royal authority was even +stronger than under Richelieu because an unsuccessful attempt had been +made to weaken it. Henry IV, Richelieu, and Mazarin had made straight +the way for the despotism of Louis XIV. + + +STRUGGLE BETWEEN BOURBONS AND HABSBURGS THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR + +[Sidenote: Dynastic Character of Wars in the Seventeenth Century.] + +Every European country, except England, was marked in the seventeenth +century by a continued growth of monarchical power. The kings were +busily engaged in strengthening their hold upon their respective states +and in reaching out for additional lands and wealth. International +wars, therefore, assumed the character of struggles for dynastic +aggrandizement. How might this or that royal family obtain wider +territories and richer towns? There was certainly sufficient national +life in western Europe to make the common people proud of their +nationality; hence the kings could normally count upon popular support. +But wars were undertaken upon the continent of Europe in the +seventeenth century not primarily for national or patriotic motives, +but for the exaltation of a particular royal family. Citizens of border +provinces were treated like so many cattle or so much soil that might +be conveniently bartered among the kings of France, Spain, or Sweden. + +[Sidenote: Habsburg Dominions in 1600.] + +This idea had been quite evident in the increase of the Habsburg power +during the sixteenth century. In an earlier chapter we have noticed how +that family had acquired one district after another until their +property included: (1) Under the Spanish branch--Spain, the Two +Sicilies, Milan, Franche Comte, the Belgian Netherlands, Portugal, and +a huge colonial empire; (2) Under the Austrian branch--Austria and its +dependencies, Hungary, Bohemia, and the title of Holy Roman Emperor. +Despite the herculean labors of Philip II, France remained outside +Habsburg influence, a big gap in what would otherwise have been a +series of connected territories. + +[Sidenote: Ambition of the Bourbons.] + +In measure as the French kings--the Bourbons--strengthened their +position in their own country, they looked abroad not merely to ward +off foreign attacks but to add land at their neighbors' expense. +Richelieu understood that his two policies went hand in glove--to make +the Bourbons predominant in Europe was but a corollary to making the +royal power supreme in France. + +[Sidenote: The Thirty Years' War.] + +The chief warfare of the seventeenth century centers, therefore, in the +long, terrible conflict between the Habsburgs and the Bourbons. Of this +struggle, the so-called Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) may be treated as +the first stage. Let us endeavor to obtain a clear idea of the +interests involved. + +When Richelieu became the chief minister of Louis XIII (1624), he +found the Habsburgs in serious trouble and he resolved to take +advantage of the situation to enhance the prestige of the Bourbons. The +Austrian Habsburgs were facing a vast civil and religious war in the +Germanies, and the Spanish Habsburgs were dispatching aid to their +hard-pressed kinsmen. + +The war, which proved momentous both to the Habsburgs and to their +enemies, resulted from a variety of reasons--religious, economic, and +political. + +[Sidenote: The Thirty Years' War: Ecclesiastical Causes] + +The peace of Augsburg (1555) had been expected to settle the religious +question in the Germanies. But in practice it had failed to fix two +important matters. In the first place, the provision forbidding further +secularization of church property ("Ecclesiastical Reservation") was +not carried out, nor could it be while human nature and human +temptation remained. Every Catholic ecclesiastic who became Protestant +would naturally endeavor to take his church lands with him. Then, in +the second place, the peace had recognized only Catholics and +Lutherans: meanwhile the Calvinists had increased their numbers, +especially in southern and central Germany and in Bohemia, and demanded +equal rights. In order to extort concessions from the emperor, a union +of Protestant princes was formed, containing among its members the +zealous young Calvinist prince of the Palatinate, Frederick, commonly +called the Elector Palatine of the Rhine. The Catholics were in an +equally belligerent frame of mind. Not only were they determined to +prevent further secularization of church property, but, emboldened by +the progress of the Catholic Reformation in the Germanies during the +second half of the sixteenth century, they were now anxious to revise +the earlier religious settlement in their own interest and to regain, +if possible, the lands that had been lost by the Church to the +Protestants. The Catholics relied for political and military support +upon the Catholic Habsburg emperor and upon Maximilian, duke of Bavaria +and head of the Catholic League of Princes. Religiously, the enemies of +the Habsburgs were the German Protestants. + +[Sidenote: The Thirty Years' War: Political Causes] + +But a hardly less important cause of the Thirty Years' War lay in the +politics of the Holy Roman Empire. The German princes had greatly +increased their territories and their wealth during the Protestant +Revolution. They aspired, each and all, to complete sovereignty. They +would rid themselves of the outworn bonds of a medieval empire and +assume their proper place among the independent and autocratic rulers +of Europe. On his side, the emperor was insistent upon strengthening +his position and securing a united powerful Germany under his personal +control. Politically, the enemies of the Habsburgs were the German +princes. + +With the princes was almost invariably allied any European monarch who +had anything to gain from dividing Germany or weakening Habsburg +influence. In case of a civil war, the Habsburgs might reasonably +expect to find enemies in Denmark, Sweden, and France. + +[Sidenote: Four Periods in the Thirty Years' War] + +The war naturally divides itself into four periods: (1) The Bohemian +Revolt; (2) The Danish Period; (3) The Swedish Period; (4) The French +or International Period. + +[Sidenote: 1. The Bohemian Revolt] + +The signal for the outbreak of hostilities in the Germanics was given +by a rebellion in Bohemia against the Habsburgs. Following the death of +Rudolph II (1576-1612), a narrow-minded, art-loving, and unbalanced +recluse, his childless brother Matthias (1612-1619) had desired to +secure the succession of a cousin, Ferdinand II (1619-1637), who, +although a man of blameless life and resolute character, was known to +be devoted to the cause of absolutism and fanatically loyal to the +Catholic Church. Little opposition to this settlement was encountered +in the various Habsburg Bohemian dominions, except in Bohemia. In that +country, however, the nobles, many of whom were Calvinists, dreaded the +prospective accession of Ferdinand, who would be likely to deprive them +of their special privileges and to impede, if not to forbid, the +exercise of the Protestant religion in their territories. Already there +had been encroachments on their religious liberty. + +One day in 1618, a group of Bohemian noblemen broke into the room where +the imperial envoys were stopping and hurled them out of a window into +a castle moat some sixty feet below. This so-called "defenestration" of +Ferdinand's representatives was followed by the proclamation of the +dethronement of the Habsburgs in Bohemia and the election to the +kingship of Frederick, the Calvinistic Elector Palatine. Frederick was +crowned at Prague and prepared to defend his new lands. Ferdinand II, +raising a large army in his other possessions, and receiving assistance +from Maximilian of Bavaria and the Catholic League as well as from +Tuscany and the Spanish Habsburgs, intrusted the allied forces to an +able veteran general, Count Tilly (1559-1632). King Frederick had +expected support from his father-in-law, James I of England, and from +the Lutheran princes of northern Germany, but in both respects he was +disappointed. What with parliamentary quarrels at home and a curiously +mistaken foreign policy of a Spanish alliance, James confined his +assistance to pompous advice and long words. Then, too, most of the +Lutheran princes, led by the tactful John George, elector of Saxony, +hoped by remaining neutral to obtain special concessions from the +emperor. + +Within a very brief period, Tilly subdued Bohemia, drove out Frederick, +and reestablished the Habsburg power. Many rebellious nobles lost their +property and lives, and the practice of the Protestant religion was +again forbidden in Bohemia. Nor was that all. The victorious +imperialists drove the fugitive Frederick, now derisively dubbed the +"winter king," out of his original wealthy possessions on the Rhine, +into miserable exile, an outcast without land or money. The conquered +Palatinate was turned over to Maximilian of Bavaria, who was further +rewarded for his services by being recognized as an elector of the Holy +Roman Empire in place of the deposed Frederick. + +The first period of the war was thus favorable to the Habsburg and +Catholic causes. Between 1618 and 1620, revolt had been suppressed in +Bohemia and an influential Rhenish electorate had been transferred from +Calvinist to Catholic hands. + +Now, however, the northern Protestant princes took alarm. If they had +viewed with composure the failure of Frederick's foolhardy efforts in +Bohemia, they beheld with downright dismay the expansion of Bavaria and +the destruction of a balance of power long maintained between Catholic +and Protestant Germany. And so long as the ill-disciplined remnants of +Frederick's armies were behaving like highwaymen, pillaging and burning +throughout the Germanics, the emperor declined to consider the grant of +any concessions. + +[Sidenote: 2. Danish Intervention. Christian IV] + +At this critical juncture, while the Protestant princes were wavering +between obedience and rebellion, Christian IV of Denmark intervened and +precipitated the second period of the war. Christian IV (1588-1648) was +impulsive and ambitious: as duke of Holstein he was a member of the +Holy Roman Empire and opposed to Habsburg domination; as king of +Denmark and Norway he was anxious to extend his influence over the +North Sea ports; and as a Lutheran, he sought to champion the rights of +his German co-religionists and to help them retain the rich lands which +they had appropriated from the Catholic Church. In 1625, therefore, +Christian invaded Germany, supported by liberal grants of money from +England and by the troops of many of the German princes, both Calvinist +and Lutheran. + +[Sidenote: Wallenstein] + +Against the Danish invasion, Tilly unaided might have had difficulty to +stand, but fortune seemed to have raised up a codefender of the +imperialist cause in the person of an extraordinary adventurer, +Wallenstein. This man had enriched himself enormously out of the +recently confiscated estates of rebellious Bohemians, and now, in order +to benefit himself still further, he secured permission from the +Emperor Ferdinand II to raise an independent army of his own to restore +order in the empire and to expel the Danes. By liberal promises of pay +and plunder, the soldier of fortune soon recruited an army of some +50,000 men, and what a motley collection it was! Italian, Swiss, +Spaniard, German, Pole, Englishman, and Scot,--Protestant was welcomed +as heartily as Catholic,--any one who loved adventure or hoped for +gain, all united by the single tie of loyalty and devotion to +Wallenstein. The force was whipped into shape by the undoubted genius +of its commander and at once became an effective machine of war. Yet +the perpetual plundering of the land, on which it lived, was a constant +source of reproach to the army of Wallenstein. + +The campaigning of the second period of the war took place in North +Germany. At Lutter, King Christian IV was defeated overwhelmingly by +the combined forces of Tilly and Wallenstein, and the Lutheran states +were left at the mercy of the Catholic League. Brandenburg openly +espoused the imperialist cause and aided Ferdinand's generals in +expelling the Danish king from German soil. Only the lack of naval +control of the Baltic and North seas prevented the victors from seizing +Denmark. The desperation of Christian and the growingly suspicious +activity of Sweden resulted in the peace of Lubeck (1629), by which the +king of Denmark was left in possession of Jutland, Schleswig, and +Holstein, but deprived of the German bishoprics which various members +of his family had taken from the Catholic Church. + +Following up its successes, the Catholic League prevailed upon the +Emperor Ferdinand II in the same year (1629) to sign the Edict of +Restitution, restoring to the Church all the property that had been +secularized in violation of the peace of Augsburg of 1555. The edict +was to be executed by imperial commissioners, all of whom were +Catholics, and so well did they do their work that, within three years +of the promulgation of the edict, Roman Catholicism in the Germanies +had recovered five bishoprics, thirty Hanse towns, and nearly a hundred +monasteries, to say nothing of parish churches of which the number can +hardly be estimated. + +So far, the religious and economic grievances against the Habsburgs had +been confined mainly to Calvinists, but now the Lutheran princes were +alarmed. The enforcement of the Edict of Restitution against all +Protestants alike was the signal for an emphatic protest from Lutherans +as well as from Calvinists. A favorable opportunity for intervention +seemed to present itself to the foremost Lutheran power--Sweden. Not +only were many Protestant princes in Germany in a mood to welcome +foreign assistance against the Catholics, but the emperor was less able +to resist invasion, since in 1630, yielding to the urgent entreaties of +the Catholic League, he dismissed the plundering and ambitious +Wallenstein from his service. + +The king of Sweden at this time was Gustavus Adolphus (1611-1632), the +grandson of that Gustavus Vasa who had established both the +independence and the Lutheranism of his country. Gustavus Adolphus was +one of the most attractive figures of his age--in the prime of life, +tall, fair, and blue-eyed, well educated and versed in seven languages, +fond of music and poetry, skilled and daring in war, impetuous, well +balanced, and versatile. A rare combination of the idealist and the +practical man of affairs, Gustavus Adolphus had dreamed of making +Protestant Sweden the leading power in northern Europe and had +vigorously set to work to achieve his ends. His determination to +encircle the whole Baltic with his own territories--making it literally +a Swedish lake--brought him first into conflict with Muscovy, or, as we +call it today, Russia. Finland and Esthonia were occupied, and Russia +agreed in 1617 to exclusion from the Baltic sea coast. Next a stubborn +conflict with Poland (1621-1629) secured for Sweden the province of +Livonia and the mouth of the Vistula River. Gustavus then turned his +longing eyes to the Baltic coast of northern Germany, at the very time +when the Edict of Restitution promised him aggrieved allies in that +quarter. + +[Sidenote: 3. Swedish Intervention: Gustavus Adolphus] + +It was likewise at the very time when Cardinal Richelieu had crushed +out all insurrection, whether Huguenot or noble, in France and was +seeking some effective means of prolonging the war in the Germanies to +the end that the rival Habsburgs might be irretrievably weakened and +humiliated. He entered into definite alliance with Gustavus Adolphus +and provided him arms and money, for the time asking only that the +Protestant champion accord the liberty of Catholic worship in conquered +districts. + +[Sidenote: French Aid] + +Gustavus Adolphus landed in Pomerania in 1630 and proceeded to occupy +the chief northern fortresses and to treat for alliances with the +influential Protestant electors of Brandenburg and Saxony. While +Gustavus tarried at Potsdam, in protracted negotiation with the elector +of Brandenburg, Tilly and the imperialists succeeded, after a long +siege, in capturing the Lutheran stronghold of Magdeburg (May, 1631). +The fall of the city was attended by a mad massacre of the garrison, +and of armed and unarmed citizens, in streets, houses, and churches; at +least 20,000 perished; wholesale plundering and a general conflagration +completed the havoc. The sack of Magdeburg evoked the greatest +indignation from the Lutherans. Gustavus Adolphus, now joined by the +electors of Brandenburg and Saxony and by many other Protestant princes +of northern Germany, advanced into Saxony, where, in September, 1631, +he avenged the destruction of Magdeburg by defeating decisively the +smaller army of Tilly on the Breitenfeld, near Leipzig. Then Gustavus +turned southwestward, making for the Rhine valley, with the idea of +forming a union with the Calvinist princes. Only the prompt protest of +his powerful ally, Richelieu, prevented the rich archbishoprics of +Cologne, Trier, and Mainz from passing immediately under Swedish +control. Next Gustavus Adolphus turned east and invaded Bavaria. Tilly, +who had reassembled his forces, failed to check the invasion and lost +his life in a battle on the Lech (April, 1632). The victorious Swedish +king now made ready to carry the war into the hereditary dominions of +the Austrian Habsburgs. As a last resort to check the invader, the +emperor recalled Wallenstein with full power over his freelance army. +About the same time the emperor concluded a close alliance with his +kinsman, the ambitious Philip IV of Spain. + +The memorable contest between the two great generals--Gustavus Adolphus +and Wallenstein--was brought to a tragic close in the late autumn of +the same year on the fateful field of Lützen. Wallenstein was defeated, +but Gustavus was killed. Although the Swedes continued the struggle, +they were comparatively few in numbers and possessed no such general as +their fallen king. On the other side, Wallenstein's loyalty could not +be depended upon; rumors reached the ear of the emperor that his +foremost general was negotiating with the Protestants to make peace on +his own terms; and Wallenstein was assassinated in his camp by +fanatical imperialists (February, 1634). The tragic removal of both +Wallenstein and Gustavus Adolphus, the economic exhaustion of the whole +empire, and the national desire on the part of many Protestant princes, +as well as on the part of the Catholic emperor, to rid the Germanies of +foreign soldiers and foreign influence--all these developments seemed +to point to the possibility of concluding the third, or Swedish, period +of the war, not perhaps as advantageously for the imperialist cause as +had ended the Bohemian revolt or the Danish intervention, but at any +rate in a spirit of reasonable compromise. In fact, in May, 1635, a +treaty was signed at Prague between the emperor and such princes as +were then willing to lay down their arms, whereby all the military +forces in the empire were henceforth to be under the direct control of +the emperor (with the exception of a contingent under the special +command of the Lutheran elector of Saxony); all princely leagues within +the empire were to be dissolved; mutual restoration of captured +territory was to be made; and, as to the fundamental question of the +ownership of ecclesiastical lands, it was settled that any such lands +actually held in the year 1627, whether acquired before or after the +religious peace of Augsburg of 1555, should continue so to be held for +forty years or until in each case an amicable arrangement could be +reached. + +What wrecked the peace of Prague was not so much the disinclination of +the Protestant princes of Germany to accept its terms as the policy of +Cardinal Richelieu of France. Richelieu was convinced more than ever +that French greatness depended upon Habsburg defeat; he would not +suffer the princes to make peace with the emperor until the latter was +soundly trounced and all Germany devastated; instead of supplying the +Swedes and the German Protestants with assistance from behind the +scenes, he now would come boldly upon the stage and engage the emperor +in open combat. + +[Sidenote: 4. French Intervention. Richelieu's Policy in the Germanies] + +The final, or French, period of the Thirty Years' War lasted from 1635 +to 1648--almost as long as the other three periods put together. +Richelieu entered the war not only to humble the Austrian Habsburgs +and, if possible, to wrest the valuable Rhenish province of Alsace from +the Holy Roman Empire, but also to strike telling blows at the +Continental supremacy of the Spanish Habsburgs, who, since 1632, had +been actively helping their German kinsmen. The Spanish king, it will +be remembered, still held the Belgian Netherlands, on the northern +frontier of France, and Franche Comté on the east, while oft-contested +Milan in northern Italy was a Spanish dependency. France was almost +surrounded by Spanish possessions, and Richelieu naturally declared war +against Spain as against the emperor. The wily French cardinal could +count upon the Swedes and many of the German Protestants to keep the +Austrian Habsburgs busily engaged and upon the assistance of the Dutch +in humbling the Spaniard, for Spain had not yet formally recognized the +independence of the Dutch Netherlands. Inasmuch as England was chiefly +concerned with troublesome internal affairs, the enemies of France +could hardly expect aid from across the Channel. + +[Sidenote: Condé and Turenne] + +At first, the French suffered a series of military reverses, due in +large part to unpreparedness, incompetent commanders, and ill- +disciplined troops. At one time it looked as if the Spaniards might +capture Paris. But with unflagging zeal and patriotic devotion, +Richelieu pressed on the war. He raised armies, drilled them, and +dispatched them into the Netherlands, into Alsace, into Franche Comté, +into northern Italy, and into Roussillon. He stirred up the Portuguese +to revolt and recover their independence (1640). And Mazarin, who +succeeded him in 1642, preserved his foreign policy intact. Young and +brilliant generals now appeared at the head of the French forces, among +whom were the dashing Prince of Condé (1621-1686), and the master +strategist Turenne (1611-1675), the greatest soldier of his day. The +former's victory of Rocroi (1643) dated the commencement of the +supremacy of France in war, a supremacy which was retained for a +century. + +[Sidenote: Peace of Westphalia (1648)] + +Finally, Turenne's masterly maneuvering against the Spaniards and his +forcible detachment of Maximilian of Bavaria from the imperial alliance +broke down effective opposition and ended the Thirty Years' War in the +Germanies. The various treaties which were signed in 1648 constituted +the peace of Westphalia. + +The political clauses of the peace of Westphalia provided: (1) Each +German state was free to make peace or war without consulting the +emperor--each prince was invested with sovereign authority; (2) France +received Alsace, except the free city of Strassburg, and was confirmed +in the possession of the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun; (3) +Sweden was given territory in Pomerania controlling the mouth of the +Oder, and the secularized bishopric of Bremen, surrounding the city of +that name and dominating the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser; (4) +France and Sweden received votes in the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire, +with implied rights to exercise an oversight of German affairs; (5) +Brandenburg secured eastern Pomerania and several bishoprics, including +Magdeburg; (6) The Palatinate was divided between Maximilian of Bavaria +and the son of the deposed Frederick--each bearing the title of +elector; (7) Switzerland and the United Provinces (Holland) were +formally recognized as independent of the empire and of Spain +respectively. + +The religious difficulties were settled as follows: (1) Calvinists were +to share all the privileges of their Lutheran fellow-Protestants; (2) +All church property was to be secured in the possession of those, +whether Catholics or Protestants, who held it on 1 January, 1624; (3) +An equal number of Catholic and Protestant judges were to sit in the +imperial courts. Inasmuch as after 1648 there was little relative +change of religion in Germany, this religious settlement was +practically permanent. + +[Sidenote: Evil Effects of the Thirty Years' War on Germany] + +One of the most striking results of the peace of Westphalia was the +completion of a long process of political disruption in the Germanies. +Only the form of the Holy Roman Empire survived. The already shadowy +imperial power became a mere phantom, nor was a change destined to come +until, centuries later, the Prussian Hohenzollerns should replace the +Austrian Habsburgs. Meanwhile the weakness of Germany enabled France to +extend her northern boundaries toward the Rhine. + +Far more serious than her political losses were the economic results to +Germany. The Thirty Years' War left Germany almost a desert. "About +two-thirds of the total population had disappeared; the misery of those +that survived was piteous in the extreme. Five-sixths of the villages +in the empire had been destroyed. We read of one in the Palatinate that +in two years had been plundered twenty-eight times. In Saxony, packs of +wolves roamed about, for in the north quite one-third of the land had +gone out of cultivation, and trade had drifted into the hands of the +French or Dutch. Education had almost disappeared; and the moral +decline of the people was seen in the coarsening of manners and the +growth of superstition, as witnessed by frequent burning of witches." + +[Sidenote: Continuation of War between French Bourbons and Spanish +Hapsburgs. Peace of the Pyrenees 1659] + +The peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War in the Germanies, +but it did not stop the bitter contest between France and Spain. +Mazarin was determined to secure even greater territorial gains for his +country, and, although Condé deserted to Spain, Turenne was more than a +match for any commander whom the Spaniards could put in the field. +Mazarin, moreover, by ceding the fortress of Dunkirk to the English, +obtained aid from the veteran troops of Cromwell. It was not until 1659 +that, in the celebrated treaty of the Pyrenees, peace was concluded +between France and Spain. This provided: (1) France added the province +of Roussillon on her southern frontier and that of Artois on the north; +(2) France was recognized as protector of the duchy of Lorraine; (3) +Condé was pardoned and reinstated in French service; (4) Maria Theresa, +eldest daughter of the Spanish Habsburg king, Philip IV, was to marry +the young French Bourbon king, Louis XIV, and, in consideration of the +payment of a large dowry, was to renounce all claims to the Spanish +dominions. + +The treaty of the Pyrenees was the last important achievement of +Cardinal Mazarin. But before he died in 1661 he had the satisfaction of +seeing the triumph of those policies which he had adopted from +Richelieu: the royal power firmly established within France; the +Habsburgs, whether Austrian or Spanish, defeated and humiliated; the +Bourbon king of France respected and feared throughout Europe. + +[Sidenote: Development of International Law] +[Sidenote: In Italy] + +Not least among the results of the conflict between Habsburgs and +Bourbons was the stimulus given to the acceptance of fixed principles +of international law and of definite usages for international +diplomacy. In ancient times the existence of the all-embracing Roman +Empire had militated against the development of international relations +as we know them to-day. In the early middle ages feudal society had +left little room for diplomacy. Of course, both in ancient times and in +the middle ages, there had been embassies and negotiations and +treaties; but the embassies had been no more than temporary missions +directed to a particular end, and there had been neither permanent +diplomatic agents nor a professional diplomatic class. To the +development of such a class the Italy of the fifteenth century had +given the first impetus. Northern and central Italy was then filled, as +we have discovered, with a large number of city-states, all struggling +for political and economic mastery, all dependent for the maintenance +of a "balance of power" upon alliances and counter alliances, all +employing diplomacy quite as much as war in the game of peninsular +politics. It was in Italy that there grew up the institution of +passports, the distinction between armed forces and civilians, +international comity, and in fact the very notion that states have an +interest in the observance of law and order among themselves. Of +special importance, in this connection, was Venice, which gradually +evolved a regular system of permanent diplomats, and incidentally +obliged her ambassadors to present detailed reports on foreign affairs; +and, because of their commercial preeminence in the Mediterranean, the +Venetians contributed a good deal to the development of rules of the +sea first in time of peace, and subsequently in time of war. + +[Sidenote: In Europe in Sixteenth Century] + +During the sixteenth century the Italian ideas of statecraft and inter- +state relations, ably championed by Machiavelli, were communicated to +the nations of western Europe. Permanent embassies were established in +foreign countries by the kings of Spain, Portugal, France, and England. +Customs of international intercourse grew up. Diplomacy became a +recognized occupation of distinguished statesmen. + +[Sidenote: Thirty Years' War and International Law] + +Two institutions might have thwarted or retarded the development of +international law: one was the Catholic Church with its international +organization and its claim to universal spiritual supremacy; the other +was the Holy Roman Empire, with its claim to temporal predominance and +with its insistence upon the essential inequality between itself and +all other states. But the Protestant Revolt in the sixteenth century +dealt a severe blow to the claim and power of the Catholic Church. And +the long struggle between Bourbons and Habsburgs, culminating in the +Thirty Years' War, reduced the Holy Roman Empire to a position, in +theory as well as in fact, certainly no higher than that of the +national monarchies of France, England, and Spain, or that of the Dutch +Republic. + +From the treaties of Westphalia emerged a real state-system in Europe, +based on the theory of the essential equality of independent sovereign +states, though admitting of the fact that there were Great Powers. +Henceforth the public law of Europe was to be made by diplomats and by +congresses of ambassadors. Westphalia pointed the new path. + +Another aspect of international relations was emphasized in the first +half of the seventeenth century. It was the Thirty Years' War, with its +revolting cruelty, which brought out the contrast between the more +humane practice of war as an art in Italy and the savagery which +disgraced the Germanies. The brutality of the struggle turned thinkers' +attention to the need of formulating rules for the protection of non- +combatants in time of war, the treatment of the sick and wounded, the +prohibition of wanton pillage and other horrors which shocked the +awakening conscience of seventeenth-century Europe. It was the +starting-point of the publication of treatises on international law. + +[Sidenote: Grotius] + +The first effective work, the one which was destined long to influence +sovereigns and diplomats, was Grotius's _On the Law of War and +Peace_. Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) [Footnote: Known in his native +country as Huig van Groot. The last years of his life he spent as +ambassador of Sweden at the French court.] was a learned Dutch +humanist, whose active participation in politics against the stadholder +of the Netherlands and whose strong protests for religious toleration +against the dominant orthodox Calvinists of his country combined to +bring upon himself a sentence of life imprisonment. Immured in a Dutch +fortress in 1619, he managed to escape and fled to Paris, where he +prepared and in 1625 published his immortal work. _On the Law of War +and Peace_ is an exhaustive and masterly text-book--the first and +one of the best of the systematic treatises on the fundamental +principles of international law. + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +HENRY IV, RICHELIEU, AND MAZARIN. Brief general accounts: H. O. +Wakeman, _The Ascendancy of France, 1598-1715_ (1894), ch. i-vii; Mary +A. Hollings, _Renaissance and Reformation, 1453-1660_ (1910), ch. xi, +xii; J. H. Sacret, _Bourbon and Vasa, 1610-1715_ (1914), ch. i-vii; A. +J. Grant, _The French Monarchy, 1483-1789_, Vol. I (1900), ch. vi-ix; +G. W. Kitchin, _A History of France_, 3d and 4th editions (1894-1899), +Vol. II, Book IV, ch. i-iii, Vol. III, Book IV, ch. iv-viii; H. T. +Dyer, _A History of Modern Europe from the Fall of Constantinople_, 3d +ed. rev. by Arthur Hassall (1901), ch. xxix-xxxv; Victor Duruy, +_History of Modern Times_, trans. and rev. by E. A. Grosvenor (1894), +ch. xvii, xviii, xx; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. II, ch. xx (by +Stanley Leathes, on Henry IV), Vol. IV, ch. iv (on Richelieu), xxi (on +Mazarin); _Histoire générale_, Vol. V, ch. vi-viii, Vol. VI, ch. i. +More detailed works: _Histoire de France_, ed. by Ernest Lavisse, Vol. +VI, Part I (1904), Livre IV (on Henry IV), Vol. VI, Part II (1905), +Livres I-III (on Henry IV and Richelieu, by J. H. Mariéjol), Vol. VII, +Part I (1906), Livre I (on Mazarin, by E. Lavisse); P. F. Willert, +_Henry of Navarre_ (1897), in "Heroes of the Nations" Series; C. C. +Jackson, _The First of the Bourbons_, 2 vols. (1890); J. B. Perkins, +_Richelieu and the Growth of French Power_ (1900), in the "Heroes of +the Nations" Series, and, by the same author, an admirable writer and +authority on the whole period, _France under Mazarin_, 2 vols. (1886); +Georges (Vicomte) d'Avenel, _Richelieu et la monarchie absolue_, 4 +vols. (1884-1890), the foremost French work on the subject; Gabriel +Hanotaux, _Origines de l'institution des intendants de provinces_ +(1884), a careful study of the beginnings of the office of intendant by +a famous French statesman and historian; P. A. Chéruel, _Histoire de +France pendant la minorité de Louis XIV_, 4 vols. (1879-1880), and, by +the same author, _Histoire de France sous le ministère de Mazarin, +1651-1661_, 3 vols. (1882), a very elaborate treatment of Mazarin's +public career in France; Louis Batiffol, _The Century of the +Renaissance in France_, Eng. trans. by Elsie F. Buckley (1916), +containing an excellent chapter on the French monarchy at the close of +the sixteenth century. + +THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. General treatments: E. F. Henderson, _A Short +History of Germany_, Vol. I (1902), ch. xvii, xviii, a good, short +introduction; S. R. Gardiner, _The Thirty Years' War_ (1897), in the +"Epochs of Modern History" Series, the best brief survey; _History of +All Nations_, Vol. XII, ch. iv-viii, by Martin Philippson, a well-known +German historian; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. IV (1906), ch. i, +iii, v-vii, xiii, xiv, xx, xxii; _Histoire générale_, Vol. V, ch. xii; +Anton Gindely, _The Thirty Years' War_, trans. from the German by +Andrew Ten Brook, 2 vols. (1884), a popular treatment by a recognized +authority in this field, breaking off, unfortunately, in the year 1623; +Gustav Droysen, _Das Zeitalter des dreissigjährigen Krieges_ (1888) and +Georg Winter, _Geschichte des dreissigjährigen Krieges_ (1893), two +bulky volumes in the Oncken Series devoted respectively to the +political and military aspects of the war; Émile Charvériat, _Histoire +de la guerre de trente ans_, 2 vols. (1878), a reliable French account +of the whole struggle. On the history of the Germanies from the +religious peace of Augsburg to the peace of Westphalia there is the +painstaking _Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Gegenreformation und +des dreissigjährigen Krieges, 1555-1648_, by Moritz Ritter, 3 vols. +(1889-1908). For the history of Austria during the period, see Franz +Kroncs, _Handbuch der Geschichte Oesterreichs von der ältesten Zeit_, +Vol. III (1877), Books XIV-XV. For the Netherlands, with special +reference to Spain's part in the war: Henri Pirenne, _Histoire de +Belgique_, Vol. IV, _1567-1648_ (1911). For Bohemia: Ernest Denis, _Fin +de l'indépendance bohême_, Vol. II (1890), and, by the same author, _La +Bohême depuis la Montagne-Blanche_, Vol. I (1903). For Denmark and +Sweden: R. N. Bain, _Scandinavia, a Political History of Denmark, +Norway, and Sweden, from 1513 to 1900_ (1905). There is a convenient +biography of _Gustavus Adolphus_ by C. R. L. Fletcher in the "Heroes of +the Nations" Series (1890), and a more detailed study in German by +Gustav Droysen, 2 vols. (1869-1870). On Wallenstein there are two +standard German works: Leopold von Ranke, _Geschichte Wallensteins_, 3d +ed. (1872), and Anton Gindely, _Waldstein_, 1625-1630, 2 vols. (1886). +The best brief treatment of European international relations in the +time of Richelieu and Mazarin is Emile Bourgeois, _Manuel historique de +politique étrangère_, 4th ed., Vol. I (1906), ch. i, ii, vi. For a +brief treatment of the development of international law during the +period, see D. J. Hill, _History of Diplomacy in the International +Development of Europe_, Vol. II (1906), ch. vii. The treaties of +Westphalia are in the famous old compilation of Jean Dumont, _Corps +universel diplomatique du droit des gens_, 8 vols. (1726-1731). + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GROWTH OF ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE AND THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN BOURBONS +AND HABSBURGS, 1661-1743 + + +THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV + +Upon the death of Cardinal Mazarin in 1661, the young king Louis XIV +declared that he would assume personal charge of the domestic and +foreign affairs of the French monarchy. From that date, throughout a +long reign, Louis was in fact as well as in name ruler of the nation, +and his rule, like that of Napoleon, stands out as a distinct epoch in +French history. + +[Sidenote: Louis XIV the Heir to Absolutist Tendencies] + +Louis XIV profited by the earlier work of Henry IV, Sully, Richelieu, +and Mazarin. He inherited a fairly compact state, the population of +which was patriotic and loyal to the crown. Insurrections of +Protestants or rebellions of the nobles were now things of the past. +The Estates-General, the ancient form of representative government, had +fallen into disuse and oblivion. Local administration was conducted by +faithful middle-class officials, the intendants; and all powers of +taxation, war, public improvements, police, and justice were centered +in the hands of the king. Abroad, the rival Habsburgs had been humbled +and French boundaries had been extended and French prestige heightened. +Everything was in readiness for a great king to practice absolutism on +a scale never before realized. + +[Sidenote: Absolutism. Monarchy by Divine Right] + +The theories of government upon which the absolutism of Louis XIV was +based received a classic expression in a celebrated book written by +Bossuet (1627-1704), a learned and upright bishop of the time. +Government, according to Bossuet, [Footnote: The statements of the +arguments in favor of monarchy by divine right are taken from Bossuet's +famous book, _La politique tirée des propres paroles de l'Ecriture +Sainte_.] is divinely ordained in order to enable mankind to satisfy +the natural instincts of living together in organized society. Under +God, monarchy is, of all forms of government, the most usual and the +most ancient, and therefore the most natural: it is likewise the +strongest and most efficient, therefore the best. It is analogous to +the rule of a family by the father, and, like that rule, should be +hereditary. Four qualities are referred by the eloquent bishop to such +an hereditary monarch: (1) That he is sacred is attested by his +anointing at the time of coronation by the priests of the Church--it is +accordingly blasphemy and sacrilege to assail the person of the king or +to conspire against him; (2) That he is to provide for the welfare of +his people and watch over their every activity may be gathered from the +fact that he is, in a very real sense, the father of his people, the +paternal king; (3) His power is absolute and autocratic, and for its +exercise he is accountable to God alone--no man on earth may rightfully +resist the royal commands, and the only recourse for subjects against +an evil king is to pray God that his heart be changed; (4) Greater +reason is given to a king than to any one else--the king is an earthly +image of God's majesty, and it is wrong, therefore, to look upon him as +a mere man. The king is a public person and in him the whole nation is +embodied. "As in God are united all perfection and every virtue, so all +the power of all the individuals in a community is united in the person +of the king." + +[Sidenote: Louis XIV] + +Such was the theory of what is called divine-right monarchy or +absolutism. It must be remembered that it had been gaining ground +during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, until it was accepted +practically by all the French people as well as by most of their +Continental neighbors. Even in England, as we shall presently +see,[Footnote: See below, pp. 263 ff.] the Stuart kings attempted, for +a time with success, to assert and maintain the doctrine. It was a +political idea as popular in the seventeenth century as that of +democracy is to-day. And Louis XIV was its foremost personification. +Suave, dignified, elegant in manners and speech, the French king played +his part well; he appeared to have been born and divinely appointed to +the kingly calling. + +For a king, Louis worked hard. He was conscientious and painstaking. +Day after day he reviewed the details of administration. Over all +things he had a watchful eye. Systematically he practiced what he +termed the "trade of a king." "One reigns by work and for work," he +wrote his grandson. + +No prince was more fortunate than Louis XIV in his personal advisers +and lieutenants. Not only were his praises proclaimed by the silver- +tongued Bossuet, but he was served by such men as Colbert, the +financier and reformer; Louvois, the military organizer; Vauban, the +master builder of fortifications; Condé and Turenne, unconquerable +generals; and by a host of literary lights, whom he patronized and +pensioned, and who cast about his person a glamour of renown. Louis was +hailed as the "Grand Monarch," and his age was appropriately designated +the Age of Louis the Fourteenth. + +[Sidenote: Versailles and the Court of Louis XIV] + +At Versailles, some twelve miles from Paris, in the midst of what had +been a sandy waste, the Grand Monarch erected those stately palaces, +with their lavish furnishings, and broad parks and great groves and +myriads of delightful fountains, which became Europe's pleasure center. +Thither were drawn the French nobility, who, if shorn of all political +power, were now exempted from disagreeable taxes and exalted as +essential parts of a magnificent social pageant. The king must have +noblemen as _valets-de-chambre_, as masters of the wardrobe or of +the chase or of the revels. Only a nobleman was fit to comb the royal +hair or to dry off the king after a bath. The nobles became, like so +many chandeliers, mere decorations for the palace. Thus, about +Versailles gathered the court of France, and the leaders of fashion met +those of brains. + +[Sidenote: "The Age of Louis XIV"] + +It was a time when French manners, dress, speech, art, literature, and +science were adopted as the models and property of civilized Europe. +Corneille (1606-1684), the father of the French stage; Molière (1622- +1673), the greatest of French dramatists; Racine (1639-1699), the +polished, formal playwright; Madame de Sévigné (1626-1696), the +brilliant and witty authoress of memoirs; La Fontaine (1621-1695), the +popular rhymer of whimsical fables and teller of scandalous tales; and +many another graced the court of Versailles and tasted the royal +bounty. French became the language of fashion as well as of diplomacy-- +a position it has ever since maintained. + +[Sidenote: "Rule of the Robe"] + +While the court of Louis XIV was thus the focal point of French--almost +of European--life, the professional and mercantile classes, who +constituted the Third Estate, enjoyed comparative security and +prosperity and under the king held all of the important offices of +actual administration. Because of the judicial offices which the middle +class filled, the government was popularly styled the "rule of the +robe." + +[Sidenote: "Colbert"] + +Colbert (1619-1683), one of Louis's greatest ministers, was the son of +a merchant, and was intensely interested in the welfare of the class to +which he belonged. Installed in office through the favor of Mazarin, he +was successively named, after the cardinal's death, superintendent of +public works, controller-general of finances, minister of marine, of +commerce and agriculture, and of the colonies. In short, until his +death in 1683, he exerted power in every department of government +except that of war. Although he never possessed the absolute personal +authority which marked the ministries of Richelieu and Mazarin, being +plainly subservient to the king's commands, nevertheless he enjoyed for +many years the royal favor and by incessant toil succeeded in +accomplishing a good deal for the material prosperity of France. In +many respects his policies and achievements resembled Sully's. + +[Sidenote: Attempted Financial Reform] + +First, financial reform claimed all the energies of Colbert. Under the +government of Richelieu, and more particularly under that of Mazarin, +the hard savings of Sully had been squandered, enormous sums had been +granted to favorites, and the ever-increasing noble class had been +exempted from taxation, an evil system of tax-gathering, called +"farming the taxes," [Footnote: "Farming the taxes," that is, +intrusting the collection of taxes to individuals or corporations that +squeezed as much money as they could from the taxpayers and kept for +themselves what they collected over and above the lump sum due the +government.] had grown up, and the weight of the financial burden had +fallen almost exclusively upon the wretched peasantry. Colbert sternly +and fearlessly set about his task. He appointed agents whose honesty he +could trust and reformed many of the abuses in tax-collecting. While he +was unable to impose the direct land tax--the _taille_--upon the +privileged nobility, he stoutly resisted every attempt further to +augment the number of exemptions, and actually lowered this direct tax +upon the peasantry by substituting indirect taxes, or customs duties, +which would in some degree affect all the people. To lighten the burden +of the country-folk, he sought to promote agriculture. He provided that +no farmers' tools might be seized for debt. He encouraged the breeding +of horses and cattle. He improved the roads and other means of interior +communication. The great canal of Languedoc, joining the Mediterranean +with the Garonne River and thence with the Atlantic, was planned and +constructed under his patronage. As far as possible, the duties on the +passage of agricultural produce from province to province were +equalized. + +[Sidenote: Colbert and French Merchantilism] + +In forwarding what he believed to be his own class interests, Colbert +was especially zealous. Manufactures and commerce were fostered in +every way he could devise. New industries were established, inventors +protected, workmen invited from foreign countries, native workmen +prohibited to leave France. A heavy tariff was placed upon foreign +imports in order to protect "infant industries" and increase the gain +of French manufacturers and traders. Liberal bounties were allowed to +French ships engaged in commerce, and foreign ships were compelled to +pay heavy tonnage duties for using French ports. And along with the +protective tariff and subsidizing of the merchant marine, went other +pet policies of mercantilism, [Footnote: See above, pp. 63 f.] such as +measures to prevent the exportation of precious metals from France, to +encourage corporations and monopolies, and to extend minute +governmental supervision over the manufacture, quality, quantity, and +sale of all commodities. What advantages accrued from Colbert's efforts +in this direction were more than offset by the unfortunate fact that +the mercantile class was unduly enriched at the expense of other and +numerically larger classes in the community, and that the centralized +monarchy, in which the people had no part, proved itself unfit, in the +long run, to oversee the details of business with wisdom or honesty. + +[Sidenote: Colbert's "World Policy"] + +Stimulation of industry and commerce has usually necessitated the +creation of a protecting navy. Colbert appreciated the requirement and +hastened to fulfill it. He reconstructed the docks and arsenal of +Toulon and established great ship-yards at Rochefort, Calais, Brest, +and Havre. He fitted out a large royal navy that could compare +favorably with that of England or Spain or Holland. To supply it with +recruits he drafted seamen from the maritime provinces and resorted to +the use of criminals, who were often chained to the galleys like so +many slaves of the new industry. + +Likewise, the adoption of the mercantile policy seemed to demand the +acquisition of a colonial empire, in which the mother-country should +enjoy a trade monopoly. So Colbert became a vigorous colonial minister. +He purchased Martinique and Guadeloupe in the West Indies, encouraged +settlements in San Domingo, in Canada, and in Louisiana, and set up +important posts in India, in Senegal, and in Madagascar. France, under +Colbert, became a serious colonial competitor with her older European +rivals. + +Colbert was essentially a financier and economist. But to the arts of +peace, which adorned the reign of Louis XIV, he was a potent +contributor. He strengthened the French Academy, which had been founded +by Richelieu, and himself established the Academy of Sciences, now +called the Institute of France, and the great astronomical observatory +at Paris. He pensioned many writers, and attracted foreign artists and +scientists to France. Many buildings and triumphal arches were erected +under his patronage. + +[Sidenote: Louvois and French Militarism under Louis XIV] + +In the arts of war, Louis XIV possessed an equally able and hard- +working assistant. Louvois (1641-1691) was one of the greatest war +ministers that the world has ever seen. He recruited and supported the +largest and finest standing army of his day. He introduced severe +regulations and discipline. He prescribed, for the first time in +history, a distinctive military uniform and introduced the custom of +marching in step. Under his supervision, camp life was placed upon a +sanitary basis. And under his influence, promotion in the service no +longer depended primarily on social position but upon merit as well. In +Vauban (1633-1707), Louvois had the greatest military engineer in +history--for it was Vauban who built those rows of superb +fortifications on the northern and eastern frontiers of France. In +Condé and Turenne, moreover, Louvois had first-class generals who could +give immediate effect to his reforms and policies. + +[Sidenote: Deceptive Character of the Glamour of the Age of Louis XIV] + +Thus was the Grand Monarch well and faithfully served. Yet the outward +show and glamour of his reign were very deceptive of the true internal +conditions. Colbert tried to do too many things, with the result that +his plans repeatedly miscarried. The nobles became more indolent, +wasteful, and pleasure-loving, and the middle class more selfish and +more devoted to their own class interests, while the lot of the +peasantry,--the bulk of the nation,--despite the spasmodic efforts of +the paternal government, steadily grew worse under the unrelieved +burden of taxation. Then, too, the king was extravagant in maintaining +his mistresses, his court, and his favorites. His excessive vanity had +to be appeased by expensive entertainment and show. He preferred the +spectacular but woeful feats of arms to the less pretentious but more +solid triumphs of peace. Indeed, in course of time, Colbert found his +influence with the king waning before that of Louvois, and when he died +it was with the bitter thought that his financial retrenchment had been +in vain, that his husbanded resources were being rapidly dissipated in +foreign war. It was Louis's wars that deprived his reign of true +grandeur and paved the way for future disaster. + +[Sidenote: Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685] + +Before turning our attention to the foreign wars of Louis XIV, mention +must be made of another blot on his reign. It was Louis XIV who renewed +the persecution of the Protestants. He was moved alike by the +absolutist's desire to secure complete uniformity throughout France and +by the penitent's religious fervor to make amends for earlier scandals +of his private life. For a time he contented himself with so-called +dragonnades--quartering licentious soldiers upon the Huguenots--but at +length in 1685 he formally revoked the Edict of Nantes. France, which +for almost a century had led Europe in the principle and practice of +religious toleration, was henceforth reactionary. Huguenots were still +granted liberty of conscience, but were denied freedom of worship and +deprived of all civil rights in the kingdom. The immediate effect of +this arbitrary and mistaken action was the emigration of large numbers +of industrious and valuable citizens, who added materially to the +political and economic life of England, Holland, and Prussia, the chief +Protestant foes of France. + + +EXTENSION OF FRENCH FRONTIERS + +Louis XIV was not a soldier himself. He never appeared in military +uniform or rode at the head of his troops. What he lacked, however, in +personal genius as a great military commander, he compensated for in a +genuine fondness for war and in remarkable personal gifts of diplomacy. +He was one of the greatest diplomats of his age, and, as we have seen, +he possessed large loyal armies and able generals that he could employ +in prosecuting the traditional foreign policy of France. + +[Sidenote: Traditional Foreign Policy of France] + +This foreign policy, which had been pursued by Francis I, Henry II, +Henry IV, Richelieu, and Mazarin, had for its goal the humiliation of +the powerful Habsburgs, whether of Austria or of Spain. Although France +had gained materially at their expense in the treaties of Westphalia +and of the Pyrenees, much remained to be done by Louis XIV. When the +Grand Monarch assumed direct control of affairs in 1661, the Spanish +Habsburgs still ruled not only the peninsular kingdom south of France, +but the Belgian Netherlands to the north, Franche Comte to the east, +and Milan in northern Italy, while their kinsmen of Austria maintained +shadowy imperial government over the rich Rhenish provinces on the +northeastern boundary of France. France was still almost completely +encircled by Habsburg holdings. + +[Sidebar: Doctrine of "Natural Boundaries"] + +To justify his subsequent aggressions, Louis XIV propounded the +doctrine of "natural boundaries." Every country, he maintained, should +secure such frontiers as nature had obviously provided--mountains, +lakes, or rivers; and France was naturally provided with the frontiers +of ancient Gaul--the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Rhine River, and the +Ocean. Any foreign monarch or state that claimed power within such +frontiers was an interloper and should be expelled. + +[Sidenote: The Wars of Louis XIV] + +For many years, and in three great wars, Louis XIV endeavored, with +some success, to reach the Rhine. These three wars--the War of +Devolution, the Dutch War, and the War of the League of Augsburg--we +shall now discuss. A fourth great war, directed toward the acquisition +of the Spanish throne by the Bourbon family, will be treated separately +on account of the wide and varied interests involved. + +[Sidenote: The "War of Devolution"] + +The War of Devolution was an attempt of Louis to gain the Spanish or +Belgian Netherlands. It will be remembered that in accordance with the +peace of the Pyrenees, Louis had married Maria Theresa, the eldest +daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Now by a subsequent marriage Philip IV +had had a son, a weak-bodied, half-witted prince, who came to the +throne in 1665 as Charles II. Louis XIV at once took advantage of this +turn of affairs to assert in behalf of his wife a claim to a portion of +the Spanish inheritance. The claim was based on a curious custom which +had prevailed in the inheritance of private property in the +Netherlands, to the effect that children of a first marriage should +inherit to the exclusion of those of a subsequent marriage. Louis +insisted that this custom, called "devolution," should be applied not +only to private property but also to sovereignty and that his wife +should be recognized, therefore, as sovereign of the Belgian +Netherlands. In reality the claim was a pure invention, but the French +king thought it would be a sufficient apology for the robbery of a weak +brother-in-law. + +Before opening hostilities, Louis XIV made use of his diplomatic wiles +in order to guard himself against assistance which other states might +render to Spain. In the first place, he obtained promises of friendly +neutrality from Holland, Sweden, and the Protestant states of Germany +which had been allied with France during the Thirty Years' War. In the +second place, he threatened to stir up another civil war in the Holy +Roman Empire if the Austrian Habsburgs should help their Spanish +kinsman. Finally, he had no fear of England because that country was in +the midst of a peculiarly bitter trade war with the Dutch. [Footnote: +It was on the eve of this second trade war between England and Holland +(1665-1667) that the English took New Amsterdam from the Dutch (1664) +and rechristened it New York, and during this struggle that the +remarkable Dutch admiral, De Ruyter, burned the English fleet and +shipping on the Thames (June, 1667).] + +[Sidenote: The "Balance of Power"] + +The War of Devolution lasted from 1667 to 1668. The well-disciplined +and splendidly generaled armies of Louis XIV had no difficulty in +occupying the border fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands. The whole +territory would undoubtedly have fallen to France, had not a change +unexpectedly occurred in international affairs. The trade war between +England and Holland came to a speedy end, and the two former rivals now +joined with Sweden in forming the Triple Alliance to arrest the war and +to put a stop to the French advance. The "balance of power" demanded, +said the allies, that the other European states should combine in order +to prevent any one state from becoming too powerful. This plea for the +"balance of power" was the reply to the French king's plea for "natural +boundaries." + +[Sidenote: Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1668] + +The threats of the Triple Alliance caused Louis XIV to negotiate the +treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, by which Spain surrendered to France an +important section of territory in Flanders, including the fortified +cities of Charleroi, Tournai, and Lille, but still retained the greater +part of the Belgian Netherlands. The taste of the Grand Monarch was +thereby whetted, but his appetite hardly appeased. + +[Sidenote: Franco-Dutch Rivalry] + +Louis blamed the Dutch for his rebuff. He was thoroughly alive to the +fact that Holland would never take kindly to having powerful France as +a near neighbor, and that French acquisition of the Belgian +Netherlands, therefore, would always be opposed by the Dutch. Nor were +wounded vanity and political considerations the only motives for the +Grand Monarch's second war, that against the Dutch. France, as well as +England, was now becoming a commercial and colonial rival of Holland, +and it seemed both to Louis XIV and to Colbert that the French middle +class would be greatly benefited by breaking the trade monopolies of +the Dutch. Louis's second war was quite as much a trade war as a +political conflict. + +[Sidenote: Civil Strife in Holland] + +First, Louis bent his energies to breaking up the Triple Alliance and +isolating Holland. He took advantage of the political situation in +England to arrange (1670) the secret treaty of Dover with Charles II, +the king of that country: in return for a large pension, which should +free him from reliance upon Parliament, the English king undertook to +declare himself a Roman Catholic and to withdraw from the Triple +Alliance. Liberal pensions likewise bought off the Swedish government. +It seemed now as if Holland, alone and friendless, would have to endure +a war with her powerful enemy. Nor was Holland in shape for a +successful resistance. Ever since she had gained formal recognition of +her independence (1648), she had been torn by civil strife. On one +side, the head of the Orange family, who bore the title of stadholder, +supported by the country districts, the nobles, the Calvinistic clergy, +and the peasantry, hoped to consolidate the state and to establish an +hereditary monarchy. On the other side, the aristocratic burghers and +religious liberals, the townsfolk generally, found an able leader in +the celebrated Grand Pensionary, John DeWitt (1625-1672), who sought to +preserve the republic and the rights of the several provinces. For over +twenty years, the latter party was in power, but as the young prince of +Orange, William III, grew to maturity, signs were not lacking of a +reaction in favor of his party. + +[Sidenote: The Dutch War] + +Under these circumstances, Louis XIV declared war against Holland in +1672. French troops at once occupied Lorraine on the pretext that its +duke was plotting with the Dutch, and thence, proceeding down the +Rhine, past Cologne, invaded Holland and threatened the prosperous city +of Amsterdam. The Dutch people, in a frenzy of despair, murdered John +DeWitt, whom they unjustly blamed for their reverses; and, at the order +of the young William III, who now assumed supreme command, they cut the +dykes and flooded a large part of northern Holland. The same expedient +which had enabled them to expel the Spaniards in the War of +Independence now stayed the victorious advance of the French. + +The refusal of Louis XIV to accept the advantageous terms of peace +offered by the Dutch aroused general apprehension throughout Europe. +The Emperor Leopold and the Great Elector of Brandenburg made an +offensive alliance with Holland, which subsequently was joined by Spain +and several German states. The general struggle, thus precipitated, +continued indeed with success for France. Turenne, by a brilliant +victory, compelled the Great Elector to make peace. The emperor was +defeated. The war was carried into the Spanish Netherlands and Franche +Comté. + +[Sidenote: Treaty of Nijmwegen, 1678] + +But when at length the English Parliament compelled Charles II to +adhere to the general anti-French alliance, Louis XIV thought it was +time to make peace. As events proved, it was not Holland but Spain that +had to pay the penalties of Louis's second war. By the treaty of +Nijmwegen, the former lost nothing, while the latter ceded to France +the long-coveted province of Franche Comté and several strong +fortresses in the Belgian Netherlands. France, moreover, continued to +occupy the duchy of Lorraine. + +[Sidenote: Effects of the Dutch War on France] + +Thus, if Louis XIV had failed to punish the insolence of the Dutch, he +had at least succeeded in extending the French frontiers one stage +nearer the Rhine. He had become the greatest and most-feared monarch in +Europe. Yet for these gains France paid heavily. The border provinces +had been wasted by war. The treasury was empty, and the necessity of +negotiating loans and increasing taxes put Colbert in despair. Turenne, +the best general, had been killed late in the contest, and Condé, on +account of ill health, was obliged to withdraw from active service. + +Yet at the darker side of the picture, the Grand Monarch refused to +look. He was puffed up with pride by his successes in war and +diplomacy. Like many another vain, ambitious ruler, he felt that what +economic grievances or social discontent might exist within his country +could readily be forgotten or obscured in a blaze of foreign glory--in +the splendor of ambassadors, the glint and din of arms, the grim +shedding of human blood. Having picked the sanguinary path, and at +first found pleasure therein, the Grand Monarch pursued it to an end +bitter for his family and tragic for his people. + +[Sidenote: The "Chambers of Reunion" and Further French Annexations] + +No sooner was the Dutch War concluded than Louis XIV set out by a +policy of trickery and diplomacy further to augment the French +territories. The cessions, which the treaties of Westphalia and +Nijmwegen guaranteed to France, had been made "with their +dependencies." It now occurred to Louis that doubtless in the old +feudal days of the middle ages or early modern times some, if not all, +of his new acquisitions had possessed feudal suzerainty over other +towns or territories not yet incorporated into France. Although in most +cases such ancient feudal ties had practically lapsed by the close of +the seventeenth century, nevertheless the French king decided to +reinvoke them in order, if possible, to add to his holdings. He +accordingly constituted special courts, called "Chambers of Reunion," +composed of his own obedient judges, who were to decide what districts +by right of ancient feudal usage should be annexed. So painstaking and +minute were the investigations of these Chambers of Reunion that they +adjudged to their own country, France, no less than twenty important +towns of the Holy Roman Empire, including Luxemburg and Strassburg. +Nothing seemed to prevent the prompt execution of these judgments by +the French king. He had kept his army on a war footing. The king of +England was again in his pay and his alliance. The emperor was hard +pressed by an invasion of the Ottoman Turks. Armed imperial resistance +at Strassburg was quickly overcome (1681), and Vauban, the great +engineer, proceeded to make that city the chief French fortress upon +the Rhine. A weak effort of the Spanish monarch to protect Luxemburg +from French aggression was doomed to dismal failure (1684). + +[Sidenote: War of the League of Augsburg or of the Palatinate] + +Alarmed by the steady advance of French power, the Emperor Leopold in +1686 succeeded in forming the League of Augsburg with Spain, Sweden, +and several German princes, in order to preserve the territorial +integrity of the Holy Roman Empire. Nor was it long before the League +of Augsburg was called upon to resist further encroachments of the +French king. In 1688 Louis dispatched a large army into the Rhenish +Palatinate to enforce a preposterous claim which he had advanced to +that valuable district. The war which resulted was Louis's third +struggle, and has been variously styled the War of the League of +Augsburg or the War of the Palatinate. In America, where it was to be +paralleled by an opening conflict between French and English colonists, +it has been known as King William's War. + +[Sidenote: William III, Stadholder of Holland and King of England] + +In his first two wars, Louis XIV could count upon the neutrality, if +not the friendly aid, of the English. Their king was dependent upon him +for financial support in maintaining an absolutist government. Their +influential commercial and trading classes, who still suffered more +from Dutch than from French rivalry, displayed no anxiety to mix unduly +in the dynastic conflicts on the Continent. Louis had an idea that he +could count upon the continuation of the same English policy; he was +certainly on good terms with the English king, James II (1685-1688). +But the deciding factor in England and in the war was destined to be +not the subservient James II but the implacable William III. This +William III, [Footnote: William III (1650-1702), Dutch stadholder in +1672 and British king in 1689.] as stadholder of Holland, had long been +a stubborn opponent of Louis XIV on the Continent; he had repeatedly +displayed his ability as a warrior and as a cool, crafty schemer. +Through his marriage with the princess Mary, elder daughter of James +II, he now managed adroitly to ingratiate himself with the Protestant, +parliamentary, and commercial parties in England that were opposing the +Catholic, absolutist, and tyrannical policies of James. + +We shall presently see that the English Revolution of 1688, which drove +James II into exile, was a decisive step in the establishment of +constitutional government in England. It was likewise of supreme +importance in its effects upon the foreign policy of Louis XIV, for it +called to the English throne the son-in-law of James, William III, the +stadholder of Holland and arch enemy of the French king. + +[Sidenote: Beginning of a new Hundred Years' War between France and +England] + +England, under the guidance of her new sovereign, promptly joined the +League of Augsburg, and declared war against France. Trade rivalries +between Holland and England were in large part composed, and the +colonial empires of the two states, now united under a joint ruler, +naturally came into conflict with the colonial empire of France. Thus, +in addition to the difficulties which the Bourbons encountered in +promoting their dynastic interests on the continent of Europe, they +were henceforth confronted by a vast colonial and commercial struggle +with England. It was the beginning of a Hundred Years' War that was to +be fought for the mastery of India and America. + +Louis XIV never seemed to appreciate the importance of the colonial +side of the contest. He was too much engrossed in his ambition of +stretching French boundaries to the Rhine. So in discussing the War of +the League of Augsburg as well as the subsequent War of the Spanish +Succession, we shall devote our attention in this chapter primarily to +the European and dynastic elements, reserving the account of the +parallel colonial struggle to a later chapter on the "World Conflict of +France and Great Britain." + +The War of the League of Augsburg, Louis' third war, lasted from 1689 +to 1697. Notwithstanding the loss of Turenne and Condé, the splendidly +organized French armies were able to hold the allies at bay and to save +their country from invasion. They even won several victories on the +frontier. But on the sea, the struggle was less successful for Louis, +and a French expedition to Ireland in favor of James II proved +disastrous. After many years of strife, ruinous to all the combatants, +the Grand Monarch sued for peace. + +[Sidenote: The Treaty of Ryswick, 1697] + +By the treaty of Ryswick, which concluded the War of the League of +Augsburg, Louis XIV (1) surrendered nearly all the places adjudged to +him by the Chambers of Reunion, except Strassburg; (2) allowed the +Dutch to garrison the chief fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands as a +"barrier" against French aggression; (3) granted the Dutch a favorable +commercial treaty; (4) restored Lorraine to its duke; (5) abandoned his +claim to the Palatinate; (6) acknowledged William III as king of +England and promised to support no attempt against his throne. Thus, +the French king lost no territory,--in fact, he obtained full +recognition of his ownership of the whole province of Alsace,--but his +reputation and vanity had been uncomfortably wounded. + + +THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION + +One of the main reasons that prompted Louis XIV to sue for peace and to +abandon his claims on Lorraine and the Palatinate was the rapid +physical decline of the inglorious Spanish monarch, Charles II, of +whose enormous possessions the French king hoped by diplomacy and +intrigue to secure valuable portions. + +[Sidenote: The Spanish Inheritance] + +Spain was still a great power. Under its crown were gathered not only +the ancient kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Navarre in the Spanish +peninsula, but the greater part of the Belgian Netherlands, and in +Italy the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the duchy of Milan, and the +control of Tuscany, as well as the huge colonial empire in America and +the Philippines. At the time when kings were absolute rulers and +reckoned their territories as personal possessions, much depended upon +the royal succession. + +[Sidenote: The Spanish Succession] + +Now it happened that the Spanish Habsburgs were dying out in the male +line. Charles II was himself without children or brothers. Of his +sisters, the elder was the wife of Louis XIV and the younger was +married to the Emperor Leopold, the heir of the Austrian Habsburgs. +Louis XIV had renounced by the peace of the Pyrenees (1659) all claims +to the Spanish throne on condition that a large dowry be paid him, but +the impoverished state of the Spanish exchequer had prevented the +payment of the dowry. Louis, therefore, might lay claim to the whole +inheritance of Charles II and entertain the hope of seeing the Bourbons +supplant the Habsburgs in some of the fairest lands of Christendom. In +opposition to the French contention, the emperor was properly moved by +family pride to put forth the claim of his wife and that of himself as +the nearest male relative of the Spanish king. If the contention of +Leopold were sustained, a single Habsburg ruler might once more unite +an empire as vast as that which the Emperor Charles V had once ruled. +On the other side, if the ambition of Louis XIV were realized, a new +and formidable Bourbon empire would be erected. In either case the +European "balance of power" would be destroyed. + +[Sidenote: Commercial and Colonial Complications] + +Bound up with the political problem in Europe were grave commercial and +colonial questions. According to the mercantilist theories that +flourished throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, every +country which possessed colonies should reserve trade privileges with +them exclusively to its own citizens. So long as France and Spain were +separate and each was only moderately powerful, their commercial +rivals, notably England and Holland, might hope to gain special trade- +concessions from time to time in French or Spanish colonies. But once +the colonial empires of France and Spain were united under a joint +ruler, such a vast monopoly would be created as would effectually +prevent the expansion of English or Dutch commerce while it heightened +the economic prosperity of the Bourbon subjects. + +[Sidenote: Attempts to Partition the Spanish Inheritance] + +It was natural, therefore, that William III, as stadholder of Holland +and king of England, should hold the balance of power between the +Austrian Habsburgs and the French Bourbons. Both the claimants +appreciated this fact and understood that neither would be allowed +peacefully to appropriate the entire Spanish inheritance. In fact, +several "partition treaties" were patched up between Louis and William +III, with a view to maintaining the balance of power and preventing +either France or Austria from unduly increasing its power. But flaws +were repeatedly found in the treaties, and, as time went on, the +problem grew more vexatious. After the conclusion of the peace of +Ryswick, Louis XIV was absorbed in the game of dividing the property of +the dying Spanish king. One of the very greatest triumphs of Louis' +diplomatic art was the way in which he ingratiated himself in Spanish +favor. It must be remembered that it was Spain which the Grand Monarch +had attacked and despoiled in his earlier wars of aggrandizement, and +neither the Spanish court nor the Spanish people could have many +patriotic motives for loving him. Yet such was his tact and his finesse +that within three years after the treaty of Ryswick he had secured the +respect of the feeble Charles II and the gratitude of the Spanish +people. + +[Sidenote: Will of Charles II of Spain in Favor of the French Bourbons] + +A month before his pitiful death (1700), Charles II, the last of the +Spanish Habsburgs, summoned all his strength and dictated a will that +awarded his whole inheritance to Philip of Anjou, the grandson of Louis +XIV, with the resolute proviso that under no circumstances should the +Spanish possessions be dismembered. When the news reached Versailles, +the Grand Monarch hesitated. He knew that acceptance meant war at least +with Austria, probably with England. Perhaps he thought of the wretched +condition into which his other wars had plunged his people. + +[Sidenote: Acceptance of the Will by Louis XIV] + +Hesitation was but an interlude. Ambition triumphed over fear, and the +glory of the royal family over the welfare of France. In the great hall +of mirrors at Versailles, the Grand Monarch heralded his grandson as +Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain. And when Philip, left for +Madrid, his now aged grandfather kissed him, and the Spanish ambassador +exultantly declared that "the Pyrenees no longer exist." + +Anticipating the inevitable outbreak of hostilities, Louis proceeded to +violate the treaty of Ryswick by seizing the "barrier" fortresses from +the Dutch and by recognizing the son of James II as king of England. He +then made hasty alliances with Bavaria and Savoy, and called out the +combined armies of France and Spain. + +[Sidenote: The Grand Alliance against the Bourbons] + +Meanwhile, William III and the Emperor Leopold formed the Grand +Alliance, to which at first England, Holland, Austria, and the German +electors of Brandenburg-Prussia, Hanover, and the Palatinate adhered. +Subsequently, Portugal, by means of a favorable commercial treaty with +England,[Footnote: The "Methuen Treaty" (1703).] was induced to join +the alliance, and the duke of Savoy abandoned France in favor of +Austria with the understanding that his country should be recognized as +a kingdom. The allies demanded that the Spanish crown should pass to +the Archduke Charles, the grandson of the emperor, that Spanish trade +monopolies should be broken, and that the power of the French king +should be curtailed. + +[Sidenote: The War of the Spanish Succession] + +The War of the Spanish Succession--the fourth and final war of Louis +XIV--lasted from 1702 to 1713. Although William III died at its very +commencement, he was certain that it would be vigorously pushed by the +English government of his sister-in-law, Queen Anne (1702-1714). The +bitter struggle on the high seas and in the colonies, where it was +known as Queen Anne's War, will be treated in another place. [Footnote: +See below, p. 308.] The military campaigns in Europe were on a larger +scale than had hitherto been known. Fighting was carried on in the +Netherlands, in the southern Germanies, in Italy, and in Spain. + +The tide of war turned steadily for several years against the Bourbons. +The allies possessed the ablest generals of the time in the duke of +Marlborough (1650-1722), the conscientious self-possessed English +commander, and in the skillful and daring Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663- +1736). The great battle of Blenheim (1704) drove the French from the +Holy Roman Empire, and the capture of Gibraltar (1704) gave England a +foothold in Spain and a naval base for the Mediterranean. Prince Eugene +crowded the French out of Italy (1706); and by the victories of +Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde (1708), and Malplaquet (1709), Marlborough +cleared the Netherlands. On land and sea one reverse followed another. +The allies at length were advancing on French soil. It appeared +inevitable that they would settle peace at Paris on their own terms. + +Then it was that Louis XIV displayed an energy and devotion worthy of a +better cause. He appealed straight to the patriotism of his people. He +set an example of untiring application to toil. Nor was he disappointed +in his expectations. New recruits hurried to the front; rich and poor +poured in their contributions; a supreme effort was made to stay the +advancing enemy. + +The fact that Louis XIV was not worse punished was due to this +remarkable uprising of the French and Spanish nations and likewise to +dissensions among the allies. A change of ministry in England led to +the disgrace and retirement of the duke of Marlborough and made that +country lukewarm in prosecuting the war. Then, too, the unexpected +accession of the Archduke Charles to the imperial and Austrian thrones +(1711) now rendered the claims of the allies' candidate for the Spanish +throne as menacing to the European balance of power as would be the +recognition of the French claimant, Philip of Bourbon. + +These circumstances made possible the conclusion of the peace of +Utrecht, with the following major provisions: + +[Sidenote: The Peace of Utrecht 1713-1714] + +(1) Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV, was acknowledged king of Spain and +the Indies, on condition that the crowns of France and Spain should +never be united. (2) The Austrian Habsburgs were indemnified by +securing Naples, Sardinia, [Footnote: By the treaty of London (1720), +Austria exchanged Sardinia for Sicily.] Milan, and the Belgian +Netherlands. The last-named, which had been called the Spanish +Netherlands since the days of Philip II, were henceforth for a century +styled the Austrian Netherlands. + +(3) England received the lion's share of the spoils. She obtained +Newfoundland, Acadia (Nova Scotia), and Hudson Bay from France, and +Gibraltar and Minorca from Spain. She also secured a preferential +tariff for her imports into the great port of Cadiz, the monopoly of +the slave trade, and the right of sending one ship of merchandise a +year to the Spanish colonies. France promised not to assist the Stuarts +in their attempts to regain the English throne. + +(4) The Dutch recovered the "barrier" fortresses and for garrisoning +them were promised financial aid by Austria. The Dutch were also +allowed to establish a trade monopoly on the River Scheldt. + +(5) The elector of Brandenburg was acknowledged king of Prussia, an +important step In the fortunes of the Hohenzollern family which at the +present time reigns in Germany. + +(6) The duchy of Savoy was recognized similarly as a kingdom and was +given the island of Sicily. [Footnote: The title of king was recognized +by the emperor only in 1720, when Savoy exchanged Sicily for Sardinia. +Henceforth the kingdom of Savoy was usually referred to as the kingdom +of Sardinia.] From the house of Savoy has descended the reigning +sovereign of present-day Italy. + +[Sidenote: Significance of the Settlement of Utrecht] + +The peace of Utrecht marked the cessation of a long conflict between +Spanish Habsburgs and French Bourbons. For nearly a century thereafter +both France and Spain pursued similar foreign policies for the common +interests of the Bourbon family. Bourbon sovereigns have continued, +with few interruptions, to reign in Spain to the present moment. + +The Habsburg influence, however, remained paramount in Austria, in the +Holy Roman Empire, in Italy, and in the Belgian Netherlands. It was +against this predominance that the Bourbons were to direct their +dynastic policies throughout the greater part of the eighteenth +century. + +The peace of Utrecht likewise marked the rise of English power upon the +seas and the gradual elimination of France as a successful competitor +in the race for colonial mastery. Two states also came into prominence +upon the continent of Europe--Prussia and Savoy--about which the new +German Empire and the unified Italian Kingdom were respectively to be +builded. + +[Sidenote: Last Years of the Grand Monarch] + +While France was shorn of none of her European conquests, nevertheless +the War of the Spanish Succession was exceedingly disastrous for that +country. In its wake came famine and pestilence, excessive imposts and +taxes, official debasement of the currency, and bankruptcy--a long line +of social and economic disorders. Louis XIV survived the treaty of +Utrecht but two years, and to such depths had his prestige and glory +fallen among his own people, that his corpse, as it passed along the +royal road to the stately tombs of the French kings at St. Denis, "was +saluted by the curses of a noisy crowd sitting in the wine-rooms, +celebrating his death by drinking more than their fill as a +compensation for having suffered too much from hunger during his +lifetime. Such was the coarse but true epitaph which popular opinion +accorded to the Grand Monarch." + +[Sidenote: Misgovernment of France during Minority of Louis XV] + +Nor had the immediate future much better things in store for exhausted +France. The successor upon the absolutist throne was Louis XV, great- +grandson of Louis XIV and a boy of five years of age, who did not +undertake to exercise personal power until near the middle of the +eighteenth century. In the meantime the country was governed for about +eight years by the king's uncle, the duke of Orleans, and then for +twenty years by Cardinal Fleury. + +[Sidenote: John Law] + +Orleans loved pleasure and gave himself to a life of debauchery; he +cared little for the boy-king, whose education and training he +grievously neglected. His foreign policy was weak and vacillating, and +his several efforts to reform abuses in the political and economic +institutions of Louis XIV invariably ended in failure. It was while +experimenting with the disorganized finances that he was duped by a +Scotch adventurer and promoter, a certain John Law (1671-1729). Law had +an idea that a gigantic corporation might be formed for French colonial +trade, [Footnote: Law's corporation was actually important in the +development of Louisiana.] shares might be widely sold throughout the +country, and the proceeds therefrom utilized to wipe out the public +debt. Orleans accepted the scheme and for a while the country went mad +with the fever of speculation. In due time, however, the stock was +discovered to be worthless, the bubble burst, and a terrible panic +ensued. The net result was increased misery for the nation. + +[Sidenote: Fleury and the War of the Polish Election] + +The little sense which Orleans possessed was sufficient to keep him out +of foreign war [Footnote: France was at peace throughout his regency, +except for a brief time (1719-1720) when Orleans joined the British +government in preventing his Spanish cousin, Philip V, from upsetting +the treaty of Utrecht.] but even that was lacking to his successor, +Cardinal Fleury. Fleury was dragged into a war (1733-1738) with Austria +and Russia over the election of a Polish king. The allies supported the +elector of Saxony; France supported a Pole, the father-in-law of Louis +XV, Stanislaus Leszczinski. France was defeated and Louis XV had to +content himself with securing the duchy of Lorraine for his father-in- +law. Thus, family ambition merely added to the economic distress of the +French people. + +It was during the War of the Polish Election, however, that the Bourbon +king of Spain, perceiving his rivals engaged elsewhere, seized the +kingdom of the Two Sicilies from Austria and put a member of his own +family on its throne. Thus, in the eighteenth century, the Bourbons +dominated France, Spain, and southern Italy. + +[Illustration: THE SPANISH SUCCESSION] + +[Illustration: THE BOURBON FAMILY, 1589-1915 KINGS OF FRANCE, SPAIN, +AND NAPLES] + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +GENERAL. Brief accounts: J. H. Robinson and C. A. Beard, _The +Development of Modern Europe_, Vol. I (1907), ch. i-iii; H. O. Wakeman, +_The Ascendancy of France, 1598-1715_ (1894), ch. ix-xi, xiv, xv; A. H. +Johnson, _The Age of the Enlightened Despot, 1660-1789_ (1910), ch i- +iii, vi; J. H. Sacret, _Bourbon and Vasa, 1610-1715_ (1914), ch. viii- +xii; Arthur Hassall, _Louis XIV and the Zenith of the French Monarchy_ +(1897) in the "Heroes of the Nations" Series; H. T. Dyer, _A History of +Modern Europe from the Fall of Constantinople_, 3d ed. rev. by Arthur +Hassall (1901), ch. xxxvii, xxxix-xl, xlii-xliv; A. J. Grant, _The +French Monarchy, 1483-1789_, Vol. II (1900), ch. x-xvi; G. W. Kitchin, +_A History of France_, Vol. III (1899), Books V and VI, ch. i, ii; +Victor Duruy, _History of Modern Times_, trans. and rev. by E. A. +Grosvenor (1894), ch. xxi-xxiii. More detailed treatments: _Cambridge +Modern History_, Vol. V (1908), ch. i-iii, vii-ix, xiii, xiv, Vol. VI +(1909), ch. iv-vi; _Histoire générale_, Vol. VI, ch. iii-v, vii-ix, +xii-xvi, xx, Vol. VII, ch. i-iii; _Histoire de France_, ed. by Ernest +Lavisse, Vols. VII and VIII (1906-1909); _History of All Nations_, Vol. +XIII, _The Age of Louis XIV_, by Martin Philippson. + +DOMESTIC AFFAIRS OF FRANCE. Cécile Hugon, _Social France in the +Seventeenth Century_ (1911), popular, suggestive, and well- +illustrated. On Colbert: A. J. Sargent, _Economic Policy of Colbert_ +(1899); S. L. Mims, _Colbert's West India Policy_ (1912); Émile +Levasseur, _Histoire des classes ouvrières et de l'industrie en France +avant 1789_, Vol. II (1901), Book VI; Pierre Clément (editor), +_Lettres, Instructions et Mémoires de Colbert_, 7 vols. in 9 (1861- +1873). H. M. Baird, _The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of +Nantes_, 2 vols. (1895), a detailed study by a warm partisan of the +French Protestants. Among the numerous important sources for the reign +of Louis XIV should be mentioned especially F. A. Isambert (editor), +_Recueil général des anciennes lois_, Vols. XVIII-XX, containing +significant statutes of the reign; G. B. Depping (editor), +_Correspondance administrative sous le règne de Louis XIV_, 4 vols. +(1850-1855), for the system of government; Arthur de Boislisle +(editor), _Correspondance des contrôleurs généraux_, 2 vols., for the +fiscal system. Voltaire's brilliant _Age of Louis the Fourteenth_ has +been translated into English; an authoritative history of French +literature in the Age of Louis XIV is Louis Petit de Julleville +(editor), _Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française_, Vol. +V (1898). The best account of the minority of Louis XV is that of J. B. +Perkins, _France under the Regency_ (1892); a brief summary is Arthur +Hassall, _The Balance of Power, 1715-1789_ (1896), ch. i-iv. + +FOREIGN WARS OF LOUIS XIV. On Louis XIV's relations with the Dutch: P. +J. Blok, _History of the People of the Netherlands_, Part IV, +_Frederick Henry, John DeWitt, William III_, abridged Eng. trans. +by O. A. Bierstadt (1907). On his relations with the empire: Ruth +Putnam, _Alsace and Lorraine from Cæsar to Kaiser, 58 B.C.-1871 +A.D._ (1914), a popular narrative; Franz Krones, _Handbuch der +Geschichte Oesterreichs_, Vol. III, Book XVI, Vol. IV, Book XVII +(1878), a standard German work. On his relations with Spain: M. A. S. +Hume, _Spain, its Greatness and Decay, 1479-1788_ (1898), ch. ix- +xiii. On Louis XIV's relations with England: Osmund Airy, _The +English Restoration and Louis XIV_ (1895), in the "Epochs of Modern +History" Series; Sir J. R. Seeley, _The Growth of British Policy_, +2 vols. (1895), especially Vol. II, Parts IV and V; Earl Stanhope, +_History of England, Comprising the Reign of Queen Anne until the +Peace of Utrecht_ (1870), a rather dry account of the War of the +Spanish Succession; G. J. (Viscount) Wolseley, _Life of John +Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, to the Accession of Queen Anne_, 4th +ed., 2 vols. (1894), an apology for Marlborough; J. S. Corbett, +_England in the Mediterranean, 1603-1713_, Vol. II (1904), for +English naval operations; J. W. Gerard, _The Peace of Utrecht_ +(1885). On the diplomacy of the whole period: D. T. Hill, _History of +Diplomacy in the International Development of Europe,_ Vol. III +(1914), ch. i-iv, a clear outline; Emile Bourgeois, _Manuel +historique de politique étrangère_, 4th ed., Vol. I (1906), ch. iii, +iv, vii, ix, xiv; Arsène Legrelle, _La diplomatie française et la +succession d'Espagne, 1659-1725_, 4 vols. (1888-1892), a minute +study of an important phase of Louis XIV's diplomacy; the text of the +principal diplomatic documents is in course of publication at Paris (20 +vols., 1884-1913) as the _Recueil des instructions données aux +ambassadeurs et ministres de France depuis les traités de Westphalie +jusqu'à la révolution française_. + +MEMOIRS OF THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. Among the multitudinous memoirs of the +period, the most significant, from the standpoint of the general +historian, are: Marquise de Sévigné, _Lettres_, delightful +epistles relating mainly to the years 1670-1696, edited in fullest form +for "Les grands écrivains de la France" by Monmerqué, 14 vols. (1862- +1868), selections of which have been translated into English by C. Syms +(1898); Duc de Saint-Simon, _Mémoires_, the most celebrated of +memoirs, dealing with many events of the years 1692-1723, gossipy and +racily written but occasionally inaccurate and frequently partisan, +edited many times--most recently and best for "Les grands écrivains de +la France" by Arthur de Boislisle, 30 vols. (1879-1916), of which a +much-abridged translation has been published in English, 4 vols.; +Marquis de Dangeau, _Journal_, 19 vols. (1854-1882), written day +by day, throughout the years 1684-1720, by a conscientious and well- +informed member of the royal entourage; _Life and Letters of +Charlotte Elizabeth_ (1889), select letters, trans. into English, of +a German princess who married Louis XIV's brother, of which the most +complete French edition is that of Jaeglé, 3 vols. (1890). See also +Comtesse de Puliga, _Madame de Sévigné, her Correspondents and +Contemporaries_, 2 vols. (1873), and, for important collections of +miscellaneous memoirs of the period, J. F. Michaud and J. J. F. +Poujoulat, _Nouvelle collection des mémoires relatifs à l'histoire de +France depuis le 13e siècle jusqu'à la fin du 18e siècle_, 34 vols. +(1854), and Louis Lafaist and L. F. Danjou, _Archives curieuses de +l'histoire de France_, 27 vols. (1834-1840). + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE TRIUMPH OF PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND + + +CONFLICTING POLITICAL TENDENCIES IN ENGLAND: ABSOLUTISM _VERSUS_ +PARLIAMENTARIANISM + +Through all the wars of dynastic rivalry which have been traced in the +two preceding chapters, we have noticed the increasing prestige of the +powerful French monarchy, culminating in the reign of Louis XIV. We now +turn to a nation which played but a minor rôle in the international +rivalries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Later, from 1689 +to 1763, England was to engage in a tremendous colonial struggle with +France. But from 1560 to 1689 England for the most part held herself +aloof from the continental rivalries of Bourbons and Habsburgs, and +never fought in earnest except against Philip II of Spain, who +threatened England's economic and political independence, and against +the Dutch, who were England's commercial rivals. While the continental +states were engaged in dynastic quarrels, England was absorbed in a +conflict between rival principles of domestic government--between +constitutional parliamentary government and unlimited royal power. To +the triumph of the parliamentary principle in England we owe many of +our modern ideas and practices of constitutional government. + +[Sidenote: Absolutism of the Tudors, 1485-1603] + +Absolutism had reached its high-water mark in England long before the +power and prestige of the French monarchy had culminated in the person +of Louis XIV. In the sixteenth century--the very century in which the +French sovereigns faced constant foreign war and chronic civil +commotion--the Tudor rulers of England were gradually freeing +themselves from reliance upon Parliament and were commanding the united +support of the English nation. From the accession of Henry VII in 1485 +to the death of his grand-daughter Elizabeth in 1603, the practice of +absolutism, though not the theory of divine-right monarchy, seemed ever +to be gaining ground. + +How Tudor despotism was established and maintained is explained in part +by reference to the personality of Henry VII and to the circumstances +that brought him to the throne. [Footnote: For the character and main +achievements of Henry VII (1485-1500), see above, pp. 4 ff.] It is also +explicable by reference to historical developments in England +throughout the sixteenth century. [Footnote: For the reigns of Henry +VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, see above, pp. 86, 97 ff., 150 +ff.] As Henry VII humbled the nobility, so Henry VIII and Elizabeth +subordinated the Church to the crown. And all the Tudors asserted their +supremacy in the sphere of industry and commerce. By a law of 1503, the +craft gilds had been obliged to obtain the approval of royal officers +for whatever new ordinances the gilds might wish to make. In the first +year of the reign of Edward VI the gilds were crippled by the loss of +part of their property, which was confiscated under the pretext of +religious reform. Elizabeth's reign was notable for laws regulating +apprenticeship, prescribing the terms of employment of laborers, +providing that wages should be fixed by justices of the peace, and +ordering vagabonds to be set to work. In the case of commerce, the +royal power was exerted encouragingly, as when Henry VII negotiated the +_Intercursus Magnus_ with the duke of Burgundy to gain admittance +for English goods into the Netherlands, or chartered the "Merchant +Adventurers" to carry on trade in English woolen cloth, or sent John +Cabot to seek an Atlantic route to Asia; or as when Elizabeth +countenanced and abetted explorers and privateers and smugglers and +slave-traders in extending her country's maritime power at the expense +of Spain. All this meant that the strong hand of the English monarch +had been laid upon commerce and industry as well as upon justice, +finance, and religion. + +The power of the Tudors had rested largely upon their popularity with +the growing influential middle class. They had subdued sedition, had +repelled the Armada, had fostered prosperity, and had been willing at +times to cater to the whims of their subjects. They had faithfully +personified national patriotism; and the English nation, in turn, had +extolled them. + +Yet despite this absolutist tradition of more than a century's +duration, England was destined in the seventeenth century to witness a +long bitter struggle between royal and parliamentary factions, the +beheading of one king and the exiling of another, and in the end the +irrevocable rejection of the theory and practice of absolutist divine- +right monarchy, and this at the very time when Louis XIV was holding +majestic court at Versailles and all the lesser princes on the +Continent were zealously patterning their proud words and boastful +deeds after the model of the Grand Monarch. In that day a mere +parliament was to become dominant in England. + +[Sidenote: Accession of the Stuarts: James I, 1603-1625] + +The death of Elizabeth, the last of the Tudors, and the accession +(1603) of her cousin James, the first of the Stuarts, marked the real +beginning of the struggle. When he was but a year old, this James had +acquired through the deposition of his unfortunate mother, Mary Stuart, +the crown of Scotland (1567), and had been proclaimed James VI in that +disorderly and distracted country. The boy who was whipped by his tutor +and kidnapped by his barons and browbeaten by Presbyterian divines +learned to rule Scotland with a rod of iron and incidentally acquired +such astonishing erudition, especially in theology, that the clever +King Henry IV of France called him "the wisest fool in Christendom." At +the age of thirty-seven, this Scotchman succeeded to the throne of +England as James I. "He was indeed," says Macaulay, "made up of two +men--a witty, well-read scholar who wrote, disputed, and harangued, and +a nervous, driveling idiot who acted." + +[Sidenote: The Stuart Theory of Absolutist Divine-right Monarchy] + +James was not content, like his Tudor predecessors, merely to be an +absolute ruler in practice; he insisted also upon the theory of divine- +right monarchy. Such a theory was carefully worked out by the pedantic +Stuart king eighty years before Bishop Bossuet wrote his classic +treatise on divine-right monarchy for the guidance of the young son of +Louis XIV. To James it seemed quite clear that God had divinely +ordained kings to rule, for had not Saul been anointed by Jehovah's +prophet, had not Peter and Paul urged Christians to obey their masters, +and had not Christ Himself said, "Render unto Cæsar that which is +Cæsar's"? As the father corrects his children, so should the king +correct his subjects. As the head directs the hands and feet, so must +the king control the members of the body politic. Royal power was thus +the most natural and the most effective instrument for suppressing +anarchy and rebellion. James I summarized his idea of government in the +famous Latin epigram, "_a deo rex, a rege lex_, "--"the king is +from God, and law from the king." + +[Sidenote: Stuart Theory Opposed to Medieval English Tradition] + +It has been remarked already [Footnote: See above, pp. 4-7] that in one +important respect the past governmental evolution of England differed +from that of France. While both countries in the sixteenth century +followed absolutist tendencies, in France the medieval tradition of +constitutional limitations upon the power of the king was far weaker +than in England, with the result that in the seventeenth century the +French accepted and consecrated absolutism while the English gave new +force and life to their medieval tradition and practice of +constitutional government. + +[Sidenote: Restrictions on Royal Power in England: Magna Carta] + +The tradition of English restrictions upon royal power centered in the +old document of _Magna Carta_ and in an ancient institution called +Parliament. _Magna Carta_ dated back, almost four centuries before +King James, to the year 1215 when King John had been compelled by his +rebellious barons to sign a long list of promises; that list was the +"long charter" or _Magna Carta_, [Footnote: _Magna Carta_ was +many times reissued after 1215.] and it was important in three +respects. (1) It served as a constant reminder that "the people" of +England had once risen in arms to defend their "rights" against a +despotic king, although as a matter of fact _Magna Carta_ was more +concerned with the rights of the feudal nobles (the barons) and of the +clergy than with the rights of the common people. (2) Its most +important provisions, by which the king could not levy extraordinary +taxes on the nobles without the consent of the Great Council, furnished +something of a basis for the idea of self-taxation. (3) Clauses such as +"To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice," although +never effectively enforced, established the idea that justice should +not be sold, denied, or delayed. + +[Sidenote: Parliament] + +Parliament was a more or less representative assembly of clergy, +nobility, and commoners, claiming to have powers of taxation and +legislation. The beginnings of Parliament are traced back centuries +before James I. There had been an advisory body of prelates and lords +even before the Norman conquest (1066). After the conquest a somewhat +similar assembly of the king's chief feudal vassals--lay and +ecclesiastical--had been called the Great Council, and its right to +resist unjust taxation had been recognized by _Magna Carta_. +Henceforth it had steadily acquired power. The "Provisions of Oxford" +(1258) had provided, in addition, for "twelve honest men" to represent +the "commonalty" and to "treat of the wants of the king; and the +commonalty shall hold as established that which these men shall do." + +[Sidenote: House of Lords and House of Commons] + +For the beginnings of the House of Commons we may go back to the +thirteenth century. In 1254 the king summoned to Parliament not only +the bishops, abbots, earls, and barons, but also two knights from every +shire. Then, in an irregular Parliament, convened in 1265 by Simon de +Montfort, a great baronial leader against the king, two burgesses from +each of twenty-one towns for the first time sat with the others and +helped to decide how their liberties were to be protected. These +knights and burgesses were the elements from which the House of Commons +was subsequently to be formed. Similar bodies met repeatedly in the +next thirty years, and in 1295 Edward I called a "model Parliament" of +archbishops, bishops, abbots, representative clergy, earls, and barons, +two knights from every shire, and two citizens from each privileged +city or borough,--more than four hundred in all. For some time after +1295 the clergy, nobility, and commoners [Footnote: _I.e._, the +knights of the shires and the burgesses from the towns.] may have +deliberated separately much as did the three "estates" in France. At +any rate, early in the fourteenth century the lesser clergy dropped +out, the greater prelates and nobles were fused into one body--the +House of "Lords spiritual and temporal,"--and the knights joined the +burgesses to form the House of Commons. Parliament was henceforth a +bicameral body, consisting of a House of Commons and a House of Lords. + +[Sidenote: Powers of Parliament: Taxation] + +The primary function of Parliament was to give information to the king +and to hear and grant his requests for new "subsidies" or direct taxes. +The right to refuse grants was gradually assumed and legally +recognized. As taxes on the middle class soon exceeded those on the +clergy and nobility, it became customary in the fifteenth century for +money bills to be introduced in the Commons, approved by the Lords, and +signed by the king. + +[Sidenote: Legislation] + +The right to make laws had always been a royal prerogative, in theory +at least. Parliament, however, soon utilized its financial control in +order to obtain initiative in legislation. A threat of withholding +subsidies had been an effective way of forcing Henry III to confirm +_Magna Carta_ in 1225; it proved no less effective in securing +royal enactment of later "petitions" for laws. In the fifteenth century +legislation by "petition" was supplanted by legislation by "bill," that +is, introducing in either House of Parliament measures which, in form +and language, were complete statutes and which became such by the +united assent of Commons, Lords, and king. To this day English laws +have continued to be made formally "by the King's most Excellent +Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and +Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the +authority of the same." + +[Sidenote: Influence on Administration] + +The right to demand an account of expenditures, to cause the removal of +royal officers, to request the king to abandon unpopular policies, or +otherwise to control administrative affairs, had occasionally been +asserted by Parliament, but not consistently maintained. + +[Sidenote: Parliament under the Tudors] + +From what has been said, it will now be clear that the fulcrum of +parliamentary power was control of finance. What had enabled the Tudors +to incline toward absolutism was the fact that for more than a hundred +years they had made themselves fairly independent of Parliament in +matters of finance; and this they had done by means of economy, by +careful collection of taxes, by irregular expedients, by confiscation +of religious property, and by tampering with the currency. Parliament +still met, however, but irregularly, and during Elizabeth's reign it +was in session on the average only three or four weeks of the year. +Parliament still transacted business, but rarely differed with the +monarch on matters of importance. + +[Sidenote: James I and Parliament] + +At the end of the Tudor period, then, we have an ancient tradition of +constitutional, parliamentary government on the one hand, and a strong, +practical, royal power on the other. The conflict between Parliament +and king, which had been avoided by the tactful Tudors, soon began in +earnest when James I ascended the throne in 1603, with his exaggerated +notion of his own authority. James I was an extravagant monarch, and +needed parliamentary subsidies, yet his own pedantic principles +prevented him from humoring Parliament in any dream of power. The +inevitable result was a conflict for political supremacy between +Parliament and king. When Parliament refused him money, James resorted +to the imposition of customs duties, grants of monopolies, sale of +peerages, and the solicitation of "benevolences" (forced loans). +Parliament promptly protested against such practices, as well as +against his foreign and religious policies and against his absolute +control of the appointment and operation of the judiciary. Parliament's +protests only increased the wrath of the king. The noisiest +parliamentarians were imprisoned or sent home with royal scoldings. In +1621 the Commoners entered in their journal a "Great Protestation" +against the king's interference with their free right to discuss the +affairs of the realm. This so angered the king that he tore the +Protestation out of the journal and presently dissolved the intractable +Parliament; but the quarrel continued, and James's last Parliament had +the audacity to impeach his lord treasurer. + +[Sidenote: Political Dispute Complicated by Religious Difference] +[Sidenote: Calvinists in England] +[Sidenote: The "Puritans"] + +The political dispute was made more bitter by the co-existence of a +religious conflict. James, educated as a devout Anglican, was naturally +inclined to continue to uphold the compromise by which the Tudors had +severed the English Church from the Roman Catholic hierarchy, yet had +retained many forms of the Catholic Church and the episcopal +organization by means of which the sovereign was able to control the +Church. During Elizabeth's reign, however, a large part of the middle +class--the townsmen especially--and many of the lower clergy had come +under the influence of Calvinistic teaching. [Footnote: On the +doctrines of Calvinism, see above, pp. 139 ff., 156, 164 ff.] The +movement was marked (1) by a virulent hatred for even the most trivial +forms reminiscent of "popery," as the Roman Catholic religion was +called; and (2) by a tendency to place emphasis upon the spirit of the +Old Testament as well as upon the precepts of the New. Along with +austerity of manner, speech, dress, and fast-day observance, they +revived much of the mercilessness with which the Israelites had +conquered Canaan. The same men who held it a deadly sin to dance round +a may-pole or to hang out holly on Christmas were later to experience a +fierce and exalted pleasure in conquering New England from the heathen +Indians. They knew neither self-indulgence nor compassion. Little +wonder that Elizabeth feared men of such mold and used the episcopal +administration of the Anglican Church to restrain them. Many of these +so-called Puritans remained members of the Anglican Church and sought +to reform it from within. But restraint only caused the more radical to +condemn altogether the fabric of bishops and archbishops, and to +advocate a presbyterian church. Others went still further and wished to +separate from the Established Anglican Church into independent +religious groups, and were therefore called Independents or +Separatists. + +[Sidenote: Hostility of James I to the Puritans] + +These religious radicals, often grouped together as "Puritans," were +continually working against Elizabeth's strict enforcement of Anglican +orthodoxy. The accession of James was seized by them as an occasion for +the presentation of a great petition for a modification of church +government and ritual. The petition bore no fruit, however, and in a +religious debate at Hampton Court in 1604 James made a brusque +declaration that bishops like kings were set over the multitude by the +hand of God, and, as for these Puritans who would do away with bishops, +he would make them conform or "harry them out of the land." From this +time forth he insisted on conformity, and deprived many clergymen of +their offices for refusing to subscribe to the regulations framed in +1604. + +[Sidenote: Hatred of the Puritans for James I] + +The hard rule of this monarch who claimed to govern by the will of God +was rendered even more abhorrent to the stern Puritan moralists by +reports of "drunken orgies" and horrible vices which made the royal +court appear to be a veritable den of Satan. But worst of all was his +suspected leaning towards "popery." The Puritans had a passionate +hatred for anything that even remotely suggested Roman +Catholicism. Consequently it was not with extreme pleasure that they +welcomed a king whose mother had been a Catholic, whose wife was +suspected of harboring a priest, a ruler who at times openly exerted +himself to obtain greater toleration for Roman Catholics and to +maintain the Anglican ritual against Puritan modification. With growing +alarm and resentment they learned that Catholic conspirators had +plotted to blow up the houses of Parliament, and that in his foreign +policy James was decidedly friendly to Catholic princes. + +The cardinal points of James's foreign policy,--union with Scotland, +peace, and a Spanish alliance,--were all calculated to arouse +antagonism. The English, having for centuries nourished enmity for +their northern neighbors and perceiving no apparent advantage in close +union, defeated the project of amalgamating the two kingdoms of England +and Scotland. James's policy of non-intervention in the Thirty Years' +War evoked bitter criticism; he was accused of favoring the Catholics +and of deserting his son-in-law, the Protestant elector of the +Palatinate. The most hotly contested point was, however, the Spanish +policy. Time and time again, Parliament protested, but James pursued +his plans, making peace with Spain, and negotiating for a marriage +between his son Charles and the Infanta of Spain, and Prince Charles +actually went to Spain to court the daughter of Philip III. + +[Sidenote: Interconnection of Puritanism, Commercialism, and +Parliamentarianism] + +It was essentially the Puritan middle classes who were antagonized by +the king. The strength of the Puritans rested in the middle class of +merchants, seamen, and squires. It was this class which had profited by +the war with Spain in the days of "good Queen Bess" when many a Spanish +prize, laden with silver and dye woods, had been towed into Plymouth +harbor. Their dreams of erecting an English colonial and commercial +empire on the ruins of Spain's were rudely shattered by James. It was +to this Puritan middle class that papist and Spaniard were bywords for +assassin and enemy. By his Spanish policy, as well as by his irregular +methods of taxation, James had touched the Puritans in their +pocketbooks. The Puritans, too, were grieved to see so sinful a man sit +on the throne of England, and so wasteful a man squander their money. +They were even hindered in the exercise of their religious convictions. +Every fiber in them rebelled. + +Puritans throughout the country looked to the large Puritan majority in +the House of Commons to redress their grievances. The parliamentary +struggle became then not only a defense of abstract ideals of democracy +but also a bitter battle in defense of class interests. Parliamentary +traditions were weapons against an oppressive monarch; religious +scruples gave divine sanction to an attack on royalist bishops; +consciousness of being God's elect gave confidence in assailing the +aristocracy of land and birth. For the present, the class interests of +the Puritans were to be defended best by the constitutional limitation +of royal power, and in their struggle with James's son and successor, +Charles I (1625-1649), they represent by chance the forces of +democracy. + +[Sidenote: Charles I, 1625-1649] +[Sidenote: A True Stuart in Devotion to Absolutism] + +For a time it appeared as if the second Stuart king would be very +popular. Unlike his father, Charles seemed thoroughly English; and his +athletic frame, his dignified manners, and his purity of life +contrasted most favorably with James's deformities in character and +physique. Two years before his father's death Charles had been jilted +by his Spanish fiancée and had returned to England amid wild rejoicing +to aid Parliament in demanding war with Spain. He had again rejoiced +the bulk of the English nation by solemnly assuring Parliament on the +occasion of his marriage contract with Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis +XIII of France, that he would grant no concessions to Roman Catholics +in England. As a matter of fact, Charles simultaneously but secretly +assured the French government not only that he would allow the queen +the free exercise of her religion but that he would make general +concessions to Roman Catholics in England. This duplicity on the part +of the young king, which augured ill for the harmony of future +relations between himself and Parliament, throws a flood of light upon +his character and policies. Though Charles was sincerely religious and +well-intentioned, he was as devoted to the theory of divine-right +monarchy as his father had been; and as to the means which he might +employ in order to establish absolutism upon a firm foundation he +honestly believed himself responsible only to God and to his own +conscience, certainly not to Parliament. This fact, together with a +certain inherent aptitude for shirking the settlement of difficulties, +explains in large part the faults which historians have usually +ascribed to him--his meanness and ingratitude toward his most devoted +followers, his chronic obstinacy which only feigned compliance, and his +incurable untruthfulness. + +Just before Charles came to the throne, Parliament granted subsidies in +expectation of a war against Spain, but, when he had used up the war- +money without showing any serious inclination to open hostilities with +Spain, and had then demanded additional grants, Parliament gave +evidence of its growing distrust by limiting a levy of customs duties +to one year, instead of granting them as usual for the whole reign. In +view of the increasingly obstinate temper manifested by the House of +Commons in withholding subsidies and in assailing his worthless +favorite, the Duke of Buckingham, Charles angrily dissolved his first +Parliament. + +[Sidenote: Continued Conflict between King and Parliament] +[Sidenote: The Petition of Right, 1628] + +The difficulties of the administration were augmented not only by this +arbitrary treatment of Parliament but also by the miserable failure of +an English fleet sent against Cadiz, and by the humiliating result of +an attempt to relieve the French Huguenots. Meanwhile, a second +Parliament, more intractable even than its predecessor, had been +dissolved for its insistence on the impeachment of Buckingham. Attempts +to raise money by forced loans in place of taxes failed to remove the +financial distress into which Charles had fallen, and consequently, in +1628, he consented to summon a third Parliament. In return for grants +of subsidies, he signed the _Petition of Right_ (1628), prepared +by the two houses. By it he promised not to levy taxes without consent +of Parliament, not to quarter soldiers in private houses, not to +establish martial law in time of peace, not to order arbitrary +imprisonment. + +Even these concessions were not enough. Parliament again demanded the +removal of Buckingham, and only the assassination of the unpopular +minister obviated prolonged dispute on that matter. The Commoners next +attempted to check the unauthorized collection of customs duties, which +produced as much as one-fourth of the total royal revenue, and to +prevent the introduction of "popish" innovations in religion, but for +this trouble they were sent home. + +[Sidenote: "Personal" Rule of Charles I, 1629-1640] + +Charles was now so thoroughly disgusted with the members of Parliament +that he determined to rule without them, and for eleven years (1629- +1640) he successfully carried on a "personal" as distinct from a +parliamentary government, in spite of financial and religious +difficulties. + +Without the consent of Parliament, Charles was bound not to levy direct +taxes. During the period of his personal rule, therefore, he was +compelled to adopt all sorts of expedients to replenish his treasury. +He revived old feudal laws and collected fines for their infraction. A +sum of one hundred thousand pounds was gained by fines on suburban +householders who had disobeyed a proclamation of James I forbidding the +extension of London. The courts levied enormous fines merely for the +sake of revenue. Monopolies of wine, salt, soap, and other articles +were sold to companies for large sums of money; but the high prices +charged by the companies caused much popular discontent. + +[Sidenote: "Personal" Rule of Charles I, 1629-1640] +[Sidenote: "Ship money"] + +The most obnoxious of all devices for raising money were the levies of +"ship-money." Claiming that it had always been the duty of seaboard +towns to equip ships for the defense of the country, Charles demanded +that since they no longer built ships, the towns should contribute +money for the maintenance of the navy. In 1634, therefore, each town +was ordered to pay a specified amount of "ship-money" into the royal +treasury, and the next year the tax was extended to inland towns and +counties. [Footnote: The first writ of ship-money yielded £100,000 +(Cunningham).] To test the legality of this exaction, a certain John +Hampden refused to pay his twenty shillings ship-money, and took the +matter to court, claiming that ship-money was illegal taxation. The +majority of the judges, who held office during the king's pleasure and +were therefore strictly under royal influence, upheld the legality of +ship-money and even went so far as to assert that in times of emergency +the king's prerogative was unlimited, but the country rang with +protests and Hampden was hailed as a hero. + +[Sidenote: Devotion of Charles I to the Anglican Church: Archbishop +Laud] +[Sidenote: Puritan Opposition] + +Opposition to financial exactions went hand in hand with bitter +religious disputes. Charles had intrusted the control of religious +affairs to William Laud, whom he named archbishop of Canterbury, and +showed favor to other clergymen of marked Catholic leanings. The laws +against Roman Catholics were relaxed, and the restrictions on Puritans +increased. It seemed as if Charles and his bishops were bent upon +goading the Puritans to fury, at the very time when one by one the +practices, the vestments, and even the dogmas of the Catholic Church +were being reintroduced into the Anglican Church, when the tyrannical +King James was declared to have been divinely inspired, and when +Puritan divines were forced to read from their pulpits a royal +declaration permitting the "sinful" practices of dancing on the green +or shooting at the butts (targets) on the Sabbath. [Footnote: It is an +interesting if not a significant fact that the Puritans with their +austere views about observance of the Sabbath not only decreased the +number of holidays for workingmen, but interfered with innocent +recreation on the remaining day of rest. One aspect of the resulting +monotonous life of the laborer was, according to Cunningham, the +remarkable increase of drunkenness at this period.] So hard was the lot +of the extreme Protestants in England that thousands fled the country +and established themselves in America. [Footnote: In the decade 1630- +1640 some 20,000 Englishmen sailed for the colonies. Many of these, +however, emigrated by reason of strictly economic distress.] + +[Sidenote: The Scotch Covenant, and Beginnings of Armed Opposition to +the King] +[Sidenote: Convocation of the Long Parliament, 1640] + +In his Scotch policy Charles overreached himself. With the zealous +coöperation of Archbishop Laud, imprudently attempted to strengthen the +episcopacy (system of bishops) in the northern kingdom, and likewise to +introduce an un-Calvinistic order of public worship. Thereupon the +angry Scotch Presbyterians signed a great Covenant, swearing to defend +their religion (1638); they deposed the bishops set over them by the +king and rose in revolt. Failing in a first effort to crush the Scotch +rebellion, the king summoned a Parliament in order to secure financial +support for an adequate royal army. This Parliament--the so-called +Short Parliament--was dissolved, however, after some three weeks of +bootless wrangling. Now unable to check the advance of the rebellious +Scotch forces into northern England, Charles in desperation convoked +(1640) a new Parliament, which, by reason of its extended duration +(1640-1660), has been commonly called the Long Parliament. In England +and Scotland divine-right monarchy had failed. + + +THE PURITAN REVOLUTION + +[Sidenote: Reforms of the Long Parliament] + +Confident that Charles could neither fight nor buy off the Scotch +without parliamentary subsidies, the Long Parliament showed a decidedly +stubborn spirit. Its leader, John Pym, a country gentleman already +famous for speeches against despotism, openly maintained that in the +House of Commons resided supreme authority to disregard ill-advised +acts of the Upper House or of the king. Hardly less radical were the +views of John Hampden and of Oliver Cromwell, the future dictator of +England. + +The right of the Commons to impeach ministers of state, asserted under +James I, was now used to send to the Tower both Archbishop Laud and +Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford, who, since 1629, had been the +king's most valued and enthusiastically loyal minister. [Footnote: +Strafford was accused of treason, but was executed in 1641 in +accordance with a special "bill of attainder" enacted by Parliament. +Laud was put to death in 1645.] The special tribunals--the Court of +High Commission, the Court of Star Chamber, and others--which had +served to convict important ecclesiastical and political offenders were +abolished. No more irregular financial expedients, such as the +imposition of ship-money, were to be adopted, except by the consent of +Parliament. As if this were not enough to put the king under the thumb +of his Parliament, the royal prerogative of dissolving that body was +abrogated, and meetings at least every three years were provided for by +a "Triennial Act." + +[Sidenote: Violation of Parliamentary Privileges: Attempted Seizure by +Charles of the Five Members] +[Sidenote: The Great Rebellion, 1642-1646] + +All the contested points of government had been decided adversely to +the king. But his position was now somewhat stronger. He had been able +to raise money, the Scotch invaders had turned back, and the House of +Commons had shown itself to be badly divided on the question of church +reform and in its debates on the publication of a "Grand Remonstrance" +--a document exposing the grievances of the nation and apologizing for +the acts of Parliament. Moreover, a rebellion had broken out in Ireland +and Charles expected to be put at the head of an army for its +suppression. With this much in his favor, the king in person entered +the House of Commons and attempted to arrest five of its leaders, but +his dismal failure only further antagonized the Commons, who now +proceeded to pass ordinances without the royal seal, and to issue a +call to arms. The levy of troops contrary to the king's will was an act +of rebellion; Charles, therefore, raised the royal standard at +Nottingham and called his loyal subjects to suppress the Great +Rebellion (1642-1646). + +[Sidenote: The Parties to the Civil War: "Cavaliers" and "Roundheads"] + +To the king's standard rallied the bulk of the nobles, high churchmen, +and Roman Catholics, the country "squires," and all those who disliked +the austere moral code of the Puritans. In opposition to him a few +great earls led the middle classes--small land-holders, merchants, +manufacturers, shop-keepers, especially in London and other busy towns +throughout the south and east of England. The close-cropped heads of +these "God-fearing" tradesmen won them the nickname "Roundheads," while +the royalist upper classes, not thinking it a sinful vanity to wear +their hair in long curls, were called "Cavaliers." + +[Sidenote: Parliament and the Presbyterians] + +In the Long Parliament there was a predominance of the Presbyterians-- +that class of Puritans midway between the reforming Episcopalians and +the radical Independents. Accordingly a "solemn league and covenant" +was formed (1643) with the Scotch Presbyterians for the establishment +of religious uniformity on a Presbyterian basis in England and Ireland +as well as in Scotland. After the defeat of Charles at Marston Moor +(1644) the Presbyterians abolished the office of bishop, removed altars +and communion rails from the churches, and smashed crucifixes, images, +and stained-glass windows. Presbyterianism became a more intolerant +state religion than Anglicanism had been. Satisfied with their work, +the Presbyterian majority in Parliament were now willing to restore the +king, provided he would give permanence to their religious settlement. + +[Sidenote: The Army and the Independents: Oliver Cromwell] + +The Independent army, however, was growing restive. Oliver Cromwell, an +Independent, had organized a cavalry regiment of "honest sober +Christians" who were fined 12 pence if they swore, who charged in +battle while "singing psalms," and who went about the business of +killing their enemies in a pious and prayerful, but withal a highly +effective, manner. Indeed, so successful were Cromwell's "Ironsides" +that a considerable part of the Parliamentary army was reorganized on +his plan. The "New Model" army, as it was termed, was Independent in +sympathy, that is to say, it wished to carry on the war, and to +overthrow the tyranny of the Presbyterians as well as that of the +Anglicans. + +[Sidenote: Cromwell's Army Defeats the King and Dominates Parliament] +[Sidenote: The "Rump Parliament"] + +The "New Model" army, under the command of Fairfax and Cromwell, +defeated Charles and forced him to surrender in 1646. For almost two +years the Presbyterian Parliament negotiated for the restoration of the +king and at last would have made peace with the royalists, had not the +army, which still remembered Charles's schemes to bring Irish and +foreign "papists" to fight Englishmen, now taken a hand in affairs. +Colonel Pride, stationed with his soldiers at the door of the House of +Commons, arrested the 143 Presbyterian Commoners, and left the +Independents--some sixty strong--to deliberate alone upon the nation's +weal (1648). This "Rump" or sitting part of Parliament, acting on its +own authority, appointed a "High Court of justice" by whose sentence +Charles I was beheaded, 30 January, 1649. It then decreed England to be +a Commonwealth with neither king nor House of Lords. + +[Sidenote: The Commonwealth, 1649-1660] + +The executive functions, hitherto exercised by the king, were intrusted +to a Council of State, of whose forty-one members thirty were members +of the House. The Rump Parliament, instead of calling for new +elections, as had been expected, continued to sit as the +"representatives of the people," although they represented the +sentiments of only a small fraction of the people. England was in the +hands of an oligarchy whose sole support was the vigorous army of +Cromwell. + +Menacing conditions confronted the newly born Commonwealth. War with +Scotland and with Holland was imminent; mutiny and unrest showed that +the execution of Charles had infused new life into the royalists; +Catholic-royalist rebels mastered all of Ireland except Dublin. Under +these circumstances, the Commonwealth would have perished but for three +sources of strength: (1) Its financial resources proved adequate: +customs duties were collected, excise taxes on drinks and food were +levied, and confiscated royalist estates were sold; (2) its enemies had +no well-drilled armies; and (3) its own army was remarkably powerful. + +[Sidenote: Cromwell and the Restoration of Order] + +Cromwell, victor in a series of bloody engagements in Ireland, after +butchering thousands of the defeated royalists and shipping others as +slaves to Barbados, was able to return to London in 1650, declaring, "I +am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these +barbarous wretches [the Irish] who have imbrued their hands in so much +innocent blood, and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood +for the future." The next movement of Cromwell, as Parliamentary +commander-in-chief, was against the Scotch, who had declared for +Charles II, the son of Charles I. The Scotch armies were annihilated, +and Prince Charles fled in disguise to France. + +[Sidenote: Navigation Act, 1651] + +Meanwhile the members of the Rump, still the nominal rulers of England, +finding opportunity for profit in the sale of royalist lands and in the +administration of finance, had exasperated Cromwell by their +maladministration and neglect of the public welfare. The life of the +Rump was temporarily prolonged, however, by the popularity of its +legislation against the Dutch, at this time the rivals of England on +the seas and in the colonies. In 1651 the Rump passed the first +Navigation Act, forbidding the importation of goods from Asia, Africa, +or America, except in English or colonial ships, and providing that +commodities of European production should be imported only in vessels +of England or of the producing country. The framers of the Navigation +Act intended thereby to exclude Dutch vessels from trading between +England and other lands. The next year a commercial and naval war +(1652-1654) broke out between England and Holland, leading to no +decisive result, but, on the whole, increasing the prestige of the +English navy. With renewed confidence the Rump contemplated +perpetuating its narrow oligarchy, but Cromwell's patience was +exhausted, and in 1653 he turned Parliament out of doors, declaring, +"Your hour is come, the Lord hath done with you!" Cromwell remained as +military and religious dictator. + +[Sidenote: Oliver Cromwell] + +Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) is the most interesting figure in +seventeenth-century England. Belonging by birth to the class of country +gentlemen, his first appearance in public life was in the Parliament of +1628 as a pleader for the liberty of Puritan preaching. When the Long +Parliament met in 1640, Cromwell, now forty-one years of age, assumed a +conspicuous place. His clothes were cheap and homely, "his countenance +swollen and reddish, his voice sharp and untuneable," nevertheless his +fervid eloquence and energy soon made him "very much hearkened unto." +From the Civil War, as we know, Cromwell emerged as an unequaled +military leader, the idol of his soldiers, fearing God but not man. His +frequent use of Biblical phrases in ordinary conversation and his +manifest confidence that he was performing God's work flowed from an +intense religious zeal. He belonged, properly speaking, to the +Independents, who believed that each local congregation of Christians +should be practically free, excepting that "prelacy" (_i.e._, the +episcopal form of church government) and "popery" (_i.e._, Roman +Catholic Christianity) were not to be tolerated. In private life +Cromwell was fond of "honest sport," of music and art. It is said that +his gayety when he had "drunken a cup of wine too much" and his taste +in statuary shocked his more austere fellow-Puritans. In public life he +was a man of great forcefulness, occasionally giving way to violent +temper; he was a statesman of signal ability, aiming to secure good +government and economic prosperity for England and religious freedom +for Protestant Dissenters. + +[Sidenote: Radical Experiments under Cromwell] + +After arbitrarily dissolving the Rump of the Long Parliament (1653), +Cromwell and his Council of State broke with tradition entirely by +selecting 140 men to constitute a legislative body or convention. This +body speedily received the popular appellation of "Barebone's +Parliament" after one of its members, a certain leather merchant, who +bore the descriptive Puritan name of Praisegod Barebone. The new +legislators were good Independents--"faithful, fearing God, and hating +covetousness." Recommended by Independent ministers, they felt that God +had called them to rule in righteousness. Their zeal for reform found +expression in the reduction of public expenditure, in the equalization +of taxes, and in the compilation of a single code of laws; but their +radical proposals for civil marriage and for the abolition of tithes +startled the clergy and elicited from the larger landowners the cry of +"confiscation!" Before much was accomplished, however, the more +conservative members of "Barebone's Parliament" voted to "deliver up +unto the Lord-General [Cromwell] the powers we received from him." + +[Sidenote: The Protectorate, 1653-1659] + +Upon the failure of this experiment, Cromwell's supporters in the army +prepared an "Instrument of Government," or constitution. By this +Instrument of Government--the first written constitution in modern +times--a "Protectorate" was established, which was a constitutional +monarchy in all but name. Oliver Cromwell, who became "Lord Protector" +for life, was to govern with the aid of a small Council of State. +Parliaments, meeting at least every three years, were to make laws and +levy taxes, the Protector possessing the right to delay, but not to +veto, legislation. Puritanism was made the state religion. + +[Sidenote: Parliament under the Protectorate] + +The first Parliament under the Protectorate was important for three +reasons. (1) It consisted of only one House; (2) it was the Parliament +of Great Britain and Ireland rather than of England alone; (3) its +members were elected on a reformed basis of representation,--that is, +the right of representation had been taken from many small places and +transferred to more important towns. + +[Sidenote: Practical Dictatorship of Cromwell, 1655-1658] + +Although royalists were excluded from the polls, the Independents were +unable to control a majority in the general election, for, it must be +remembered, they formed a very small, though a powerful, minority of +the population. The Presbyterians in the new Parliament, with +characteristic stubbornness, quarreled with Cromwell, until he abruptly +dismissed them (1655). Thenceforth Cromwell governed as a military +dictator, placing England under the rule of his generals, and +quarreling with his Parliaments. To raise money he obliged all those +who had borne arms for the king to pay him 10 per cent of their rental. +While permitting his office to be made hereditary, he refused to accept +the title of king, but no Stuart monarch had ruled with such absolute +power, nor was there much to choose between James's "_a deo rex, a +rege lex_" and Cromwell's, "If my calling be from God and my +testimony from the people, God and the people shall take it from me, +else I will not part from it." + +The question is often raised, how Cromwell, representing the +numerically insignificant Independents, contrived to maintain himself +as absolute ruler of the British Isles. Three circumstances may have +contributed to his strength. (1) He was the beloved leader of an army +respected for its rigid discipline and feared for its grim +mercilessness. (2) Under his strict enforcement of law and order, trade +and industry brought domestic prosperity. (3) His conduct of foreign +affairs was both satisfactory to English patriotism and profitable to +English purses. Advantageous commercial treaties were made with the +Dutch and the French. Industrious Jews were allowed to enter England. +Barbary pirates were chastised. In a war against Spain, the army won +Dunkirk; and the navy, now becoming truly powerful, sank a Spanish +fleet, wrested Jamaica from Spain, and brought home ship-loads of +Spanish silver. + +The weakness of Cromwell's position, however, was obvious. Cavaliers +were openly hostile to a régime of religious zealots; moderate +Anglicans would suffer the despotism of Cromwell only as long as it +promoted prosperity; Presbyterians were anxious to end the toleration +which was accorded to all Puritan sects; radicals and republicans were +eager to try new experiments. + +[Sidenote: Disorganization following the Death of Oliver Cromwell] + +The death of Cromwell (1658) left the army without a master and the +country without a government. True, Oliver's son, Richard Cromwell +(1626-1712), attempted for a time to fill his father's place, but soon +abdicated after having lost control of both army and Parliament. Army +officers restored the Rump of the Long Parliament, dissolved it, set it +up again, and forced it to recall the Presbyterian members who had been +expelled in 1648, and ended by obliging the reconstituted Long +Parliament to convoke a new and freely elected "Convention Parliament." +Meanwhile, General Monck opened negotiations for the return of Charles +II. + + +THE RESTORATION: THE REIGN OF CHARLES II + +[Sidenote: Popular Grievances against the Protectorate] + +The widespread and exuberant enthusiasm which restored the Stuarts was +not entirely without causes, social and religious, as well as +political. The grievances and ideals which had inspired the Great +Rebellion were being forgotten, and a new generation was finding fault +with the Protectorate. The simple country folk longed for their may- +poles, their dances, and games on the green; only fear compelled them +to bear with the tyranny of the sanctimonious soldiers who broke the +windows in their churches. Especially hard was the lot of tenants and +laborers on the many estates purchased or seized by Puritans during the +Rebellion. Many townsmen, too, excluded from the ruling oligarchy, +found the Puritan government as oppressive and arbitrary as that of +Charles I. + +[Sidenote: Opposition to Puritanism] + +The religious situation was especially favorable for Charles II. The +outrages committed by Cromwell's soldiery had caused the Independents +to be looked upon as terrible fanatics, Even the Presbyterians were +willing to yield some points to the king, if only Independency could be +overthrown; and many who had been inclined to Puritanism were now +unwavering in loyalty to the Anglican Church. Orthodox Anglicanism, +from its origin, had been bound up with the monarchy, and it now +consistently expected a double triumph of the "divine-right" of kings +and of bishops. Most bitter of all against the Cromwellian régime were +the Roman Catholics in Ireland. Though Cromwell as Lord Protector had +favored toleration for Protestants, it would be long before Catholics +could forget the Irish priests whom Cromwell's soldiery had brutally +knocked on the head, or the thousands of Catholic girls and boys whom +Cromwell's agents had sold into horrible slavery in the West Indies. + +[Sidenote: Royalist Reaction] + +This strong royalist undercurrent, flowing from religious and social +conditions, makes more comprehensible the ease with which England +drifted back into the Stuart monarchy. The younger generation, with no +memory of Stuart despotism, and with a keen dislike for the confusion +in which no constitutional form was proof against military tyranny, +gave ready credence to Prince Charles's promises of constitutional +government. There seemed to be little probability that the young +monarch would attempt that arbitrary rule which had brought his +father's head to the block. + +[Sidenote: Charles II, 1660-1685] + +The experiment in Puritan republicanism had resulted only in convincing +the majority of the people that "the government is, and ought to be, by +King, Lords, and Commons." The people merely asked for some assurances +against despotism,--and when a throne was thus to be purchased with +promises, Charles II was a ready buyer. He swore to observe _Magna +Carta_ and the "Petition of Right," to respect Parliament, not to +interfere with its religious policy, nor to levy illegal taxes. Bound +by these promises, he was welcomed back to England in 1660 and crowned +the following year. The reinstatement of the king was accompanied by a +general resumption by bishops and royalist nobles of their offices and +lands: things seemed to slip back into the old grooves. Charles II +dated his reign not from his actual accession but from his father's +death, and his first Parliament declared invalid all those acts and +ordinances passed since 1642 which it did not specifically confirm. + +The history of constitutional government under the restored Stuarts is +a history of renewed financial and religious disputes. Charles II and +his younger brother and heir, Prince James, duke of York, alike adhered +to the political faith of their Stuart father and grandfather. Cousins +on their mother's side of Louis XIV of France, in whose court they had +been reared, they were more used to the practices of French absolutism +than to the peculiar customs of parliamentary government in England. +Unlike their father, who had been most upright in private life and most +loyal to the Anglican Church, both Charles and James had acquired from +their foreign environment at once a taste for vicious living and a +strong attachment to the Roman Catholic Church. In these two Stuarts +Catholicism was combined with absolutism; and the Englishmen +represented in Parliament were therefore brought face to face not only +with a revival of the earlier Stuart theory of divine-right monarchy +but with a new and far more hateful possibility of the royal +establishment of Roman Catholicism in England. Charles II did not +publicly confess his conversion to Catholicism until his deathbed, but +James became a zealous convert in 1672. + +That Charles II was able to round out a reign of twenty-five years and +die a natural death as king of England was due not so much to his +virtues as to his faults. He was so hypocritical that his real aims +were usually successfully concealed. He was so indolent that with some +show of right he could blame his ministers and advisers for his own +mistakes and misdeeds. He was so selfish that he would make concessions +here and there rather than "embark again upon his travels." In fact, +pure selfishness was the basis of his policy in domestic and foreign +affairs, but it was always a selfishness veiled in wit, good humor, and +captivating affability. + +[Sidenote: Renewal of Financial Disputes between King and Parliament] + +At the beginning of the reign of Charles II, the country gentlemen were +astute enough to secure the abolition of the surviving feudal rights by +which the king might demand certain specified services from them and +certain sums of money when an heiress married or a minor inherited an +estate. This action, seemingly insignificant, was in reality of the +greatest importance, for it indicated the abandonment in England of the +feudal theory that land is held by nobles in return for military +service, and at the same time it consecrated the newer principle that +the land should be owned freely and personally--a principle which has +since been fully recognized in the United States and other modern +countries as well as in England. The extinction of feudal prerogatives +in the early days of the Stuart Restoration benefited the landlords +primarily, but the annual lump sum of £100,000 which Charles II was +given in return, was voted by Parliament and was paid by all classes in +the form of excise taxes on alcoholic drinks. Customs duties of £4 +10_s_. on every tun of wine and 5 per cent _ad valorem_ on +other imports, hearth-money (a tax on houses), and profits on the post +office contributed to make up the royal revenue of somewhat less than +£1,200,000. This was intended to defray the ordinary expenses of court +and government but seemed insufficient to Charles, who was not only +extravagantly luxurious, but desirous of increasing his power by +bribing members of Parliament and by maintaining a standing army. The +country squires who had sold their plate for the royalist cause back in +the 'forties and were now suffering from hard times, thought the court +was too extravagant; to this feeling was added fear that Charles might +hire foreign soldiers to oppress Englishmen. Consequently Parliament +grew more parsimonious, and in 1665-1667 claimed a new and important +privilege--that of devoting its grants to specific objects and +demanding an account of expenditures. + +Charles, however, was determined to have money by fair means or foul. A +group of London goldsmiths had loaned more than a million and a quarter +pounds sterling to the government. In 1672 Charles announced that +instead of paying the money back, he would consider it a permanent +loan. Two years earlier he had signed the secret treaty of Dover (1670) +with Louis XIV, by which Louis promised him an annual subsidy of +£200,000 and troops in case of rebellion, while Charles was openly to +join the Roman Catholic Church and to aid Louis in his French wars +against Spain and Holland. + +[Sidenote: Continued Religious Complications] +[Sidenote: Legislation against Protestant Dissenters] + +In his ambition to reëstablish Catholicism in England, Charles +underestimated the intense hostility of the bulk of the English squires +to any religious innovation. During the first decade of the +Restoration, Puritanism had been most feared. Some two thousand +clergymen, mostly Presbyterian, had been deprived of their offices by +an Act of Uniformity (1662), requiring their assent to the Anglican +prayer-book; these dissenting clergymen might not return within five +miles of their old churches unless they renounced the "Solemn League +and Covenant" and swore loyalty to the king (Five-mile Act, 1665); for +repeated attendance at their meetings (conventicles) Dissenters might +be condemned to penal servitude in the West Indies against (Conventicle +Act, 1664); and the Corporation Act of 1661 excluded Dissenters from +town offices. + +[Sidenote: Leanings of Charles II toward Roman Catholicism] + +As the danger from Puritanism disappeared, the Catholic cloud darkened +the horizon. In 1672 Prince James, the heir to the throne, embraced +Catholicism; and in the same year Charles II issued a "Declaration of +Indulgence," suspending the laws which oppressed Roman Catholics and +incidentally the Dissenters likewise. The Declaration threw England +into paroxysms of fear; it was believed that the Catholic monarch of +France was about to aid in the subversion of the Anglican Church. + +[Sidenote: Leanings of Charles II toward Roman Catholicism] +[Sidenote: The Exclusion Bill] + +Parliament, already somewhat distrustful of Charles's foreign policy, +and fearful of his leanings toward Roman Catholicism, found in the +Declaration of Indulgence a serious infraction of parliamentary +authority. The royal right to "suspend" laws upon occasion had +undoubtedly been exercised before, but Parliament was now strong enough +to insist upon the binding force of its enactments and to oblige +Charles to withdraw his Indulgence. The fear of Catholicism ever +increased; gentlemen who at other times were quite rational gave +unhesitating credence to wild tales of a "Popish Plot" (1678). In 1679 +an Exclusion Bill was brought forward which would debar Prince James +from the throne, because of his conversion to Roman Catholicism. + +[Sidenote: The "Whigs"] + +In the excitement over this latest assertion of parliamentary power, +[Footnote: In the course of the debate over Exclusion, the +parliamentary party won an important concession--the Habeas Corpus Act +of 1679, which was designed to prevent arbitrary imprisonment.] two +great factions were formed. The supporters of Exclusion were led by +certain great nobles who were jealous of the royal power, and were +recruited from merchants and shop-keepers who looked to Parliament to +protect their economic interests. Since many of the adherents of this +political group were Dissenters, whose dislike of Anglicanism was +exceeded only by their hatred of "popery," the whole party was called +by a nickname--"Whig"--which had formerly been applied to rebellious +Presbyterians in Scotland. + +[Sidenote: The "Tories"] + +Opposed to the Whigs were the "Tories" [Footnote: Tory, a name applied +to "popish" outlaws in Ireland.]--squires and country clergymen and all +others of an essentially conservative turn of mind. They were anxious +to preserve the Church and state alike from Puritans and from +"papists," but most of all to prevent a recurrence of civil war. In the +opinion of the Tories, the best and most effective safeguard against +quarreling earls and insolent tradesmen was the hereditary monarchy. +Better submit to a Roman Catholic sovereign, they said, than invite +civil war by disturbing the regular succession. In the contest over the +Exclusion Bill, the Tories finally carried the day, for, although the +bill was passed by the Commons (1680), it was rejected by the House of +Lords. + +[Sidenote: Temporary Success of the Tories] + +In the last few years of Charles's reign the cause of the Whigs was +discredited. Rumors got abroad that they were plotting to assassinate +the king and it was said that the Whiggish nobles who brought armed +retainers to Parliament were planning to use force to establish +Charles's illegitimate son--the duke of Monmouth--on the throne. These +and similar accusations hurt the Whigs tremendously, and help explain +the violent Tory reaction which enabled Charles to rule without +Parliament from 1681 to his death in 1685. As had been feared, upon the +death of Charles II, the duke of Monmouth organized a revolt, but this, +together with a simultaneous insurrection in Scotland, was easily +crushed, and James II was securely seated on the throne. + + +THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" AND THE FINAL ESTABLISHMENT OF PARLIAMENTARY +GOVERNMENT IN GREAT BRITAIN + +[Sidenote: James II (1685-1688): His Futile Combination of Absolutism +and Roman Catholicism] + +In his short reign of three years James II (1685-1688) succeeded in +stirring up opposition on all sides. The Tories, the party most +favorable to the royal prerogative, upon whom he might have relied, +were shocked by his attempts to create a standing army commanded by +Catholics, for such an army might prove as disastrous to their +liberties as Cromwell's "New Model"; and the Whigs, too, were driven +from sullenness to desperation by James's religious policy and despotic +government. James, like his brother, claiming the right to "suspend" +the laws and statutes which Parliament had enacted against Roman +Catholics and Dissenters, issued a Declaration of Indulgence in 1687, +which exempted Catholics and Dissenters from punishment for infractions +of these laws. Furthermore, he appointed Roman Catholics to office in +the army and in the civil government. In spite of protests, he issued a +second Declaration of Indulgence in 1688 and ordered it to be read in +all Anglican churches, and, when seven bishops remonstrated, he accused +them of seditious libel. No jury would convict the seven bishops, +however, for James had alienated every class, and they were acquitted. +The Tories were estranged by what seemed to be a deliberate attack on +the Anglican Church and by fear of a standing army. The arbitrary +disregard of parliamentary legislation, and the favor shown to Roman +Catholics, goaded the Whigs into fury. + +[Sidenote: The "Glorious Revolution" (1688): Dethronement of James II] + +So long as Whigs and Tories alike could expect the accession on the +death of James II of one of his Protestant daughters--Mary or Anne-- +they continued to acquiesce in his arbitrary government. But the +outlook became gloomier when on 10 June, 1688, a son was born to James +II by his second wife, a Catholic. Most Protestants believed that the +prince was not really James's son; politicians prophesied that he would +be educated in his father's "popish" and absolutist doctrines, and that +thus England would continue to be ruled by papist despots. Even those +who professed to believe in the divine right of kings and had denied +the right of Parliament to alter the succession were dejected at this +prospect, and many of them were willing to join with the Whigs in +inviting a Protestant to take the throne. The next in line of +succession after the infant prince was Mary, the elder of James's two +daughters, wife of William of Orange, [Footnote: See above, pp. 245, +248] and an Anglican. Upon the invitation of Whig and Tory leaders, +William crossed over to England with an army and entered London without +opposition (1688). Deserted even by his army James fled to France. +[Footnote: Risings in favor of James were suppressed in Ireland and in +Scotland. In Ireland the famous battle of the Boyne (1 July, 1690) was +decisive.] + +[Sidenote: Accession of William and Mary, 1689] +[Sidenote: Constitutional Settlement: the Bill of Rights (1689) and +Triumph of Parliament] +[Sidenote: The Mutiny Act] + +A bloodless revolution was now accomplished and the crown was formally +presented to William and Mary by an irregular Parliament, which also +declared that James II, having endeavored to subvert the constitution +and having fled the kingdom, had vacated the throne. In offering the +crown to William and Mary, Parliament was very careful to safeguard its +own power and the Protestant religion by issuing a Declaration of +Rights (13 February, 1689), which was enacted as the Bill of Rights, 16 +December, 1689. This act decreed that the sovereign must henceforth +belong to the Anglican Church, thereby debarring the Catholic son of +James II. The act also denied the power of a king to "suspend" laws or +to "dispense" subjects from obeying the laws, to levy money, or to +maintain an army without consent of Parliament; asserted that neither +the free election nor the free speech and proceedings of members of +Parliament should be interfered with; affirmed the right of subjects to +petition the sovereign; and demanded impartial juries and frequent +Parliaments. The Bill of Rights, far more important in English history +than the Petition of Right (1628), inasmuch as Parliament was now +powerful enough to maintain as well as to define its rights, was +supplemented by the practice, begun in the same year, 1689, of granting +taxes and making appropriations for the army for one year only. Unless +Parliament were called every year to pass a Mutiny Act (provision for +the army), the soldiers would receive no pay and in case of mutiny +would not be punishable by court martial. + +[Sidenote: Measures Favorable to Landlords] +[Sidenote: Religious Toleration for Protestant Dissenters: Continued +Persecution of Roman Catholics] + +Both Whigs and Tories had participated in the Revolution, and both +reaped rewards. The Tories were especially pleased with the army laws +and with an arrangement by which farmers were given a "bounty" or money +premium for every bushel of grain exported. [Footnote: That is, when +wheat was selling for less than 6s. a bushel.] The Whigs, having played +a more prominent part in the deposition of James II, were able to +secure the long-coveted political supremacy of Parliament, and +religious toleration of Dissenters. The Toleration Act of 1689 did not +go as far as the Dissenters might have desired, but it gave them the +legal right to worship in public, while their enemies, the Roman +Catholics, remained under the ban. + +[Sidenote: Commercial Gains for England] +[Sidenote: Union of England and Scotland: the Kingdom of Great Britain, +1707] + +In the foreign policy of the reigns of William (1689-1702) and Mary, +and of Anne (1702-1714), Whiggish policies generally predominated. The +merchants and shippers who formed an important wing of the Whig party +were highly gratified by the Wars of the League of Augsburg and the +Spanish Succession, [Footnote: See above, pp. 248 ff., and below, pp. +306 ff.] in which England fought at once against France, her commercial +and colonial rival, and against Louis XIV, the friend of the Catholic +Stuart pretenders to the English throne. [Footnote: Louis XIV openly +supported the pretensions of James (III), the "Old Pretender."] The +Methuen Treaty (1703) was also advantageous: it allowed English +merchants to sell their manufactures in Portugal without hindrance; in +return for this concession England lowered the duties on Portuguese +wines, and "Port" supplanted "Burgundy" on the tables of English +gentlemen. The Act of Union of 1707 was not unfavorable either, for it +established common trade regulations, customs, and excise in England +and in Scotland. To the merely personal union between the crowns of +England and Scotland which had been inaugurated (1603) by the first of +the Stuart monarchs of England now succeeded under the last of the +Stuart sovereigns a corporate union of the two monarchies under the +title of the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707). + +[Sidenote: Accession of the Hanoverians (1714); Continued Decline of +Royal Power] + +Upon the death of Anne (1714), the crown passed [Footnote: In +accordance with the Act of Settlement (1701).] to her cousin, the son +of Sophia of Hanover, George I (1714-1727). The new king, unable even +to speak the English language, much less to understand the complicated +traditions of parliamentary government, was neither able nor anxious to +rule, but was content merely to reign. The business of administration, +therefore, was handed over to a group of ministers who strove not only +to please their royal master but to retain the good-will of the +predominant party in Parliament. + +[Sidenote: Rise of the Cabinet] + +Since this practice, with the many customs which have grown up about +it, has become a most essential part of the government of the United +Kingdom today, and has been copied in recent times by many other +countries, it is important to understand its early history. Even before +the accession of the Tudors, the Great Council of nobles and prelates +which had advised and assisted early kings in matters of administration +had surrendered most of its actual functions to a score or so of "Privy +Councilors." The Privy Council in turn became unwieldy, and allowed an +inner circle or "cabal" of its most energetic members to direct the +conduct of affairs. This inner circle was called a cabinet or cabinet +council, because it conferred with the king in a small private room +(cabinet), and under the restored Stuarts it was extremely unpopular. + +William III, more interested in getting money and troops to defend his +native Holland against Louis XIV than in governing England, allowed his +ministers free rein in most matters. So long as the Whigs held a +majority of the seats in the Commons, William found that the wheels of +government turned smoothly if all his ministers were Whigs. On the +other hand, when the Tories gained a preponderance in the Commons, the +Whig ministers were so distasteful to the new majority of the Commons +that it was necessary to replace them with Tories. Queen Anne, although +her sincere devotion to Anglicanism inclined her to the Tories, was +forced to appoint Whig ministers. Only toward the close of her reign +(1710) did Anne venture to dismiss the Whigs. + +[Sidenote: Era of Whig Domination, 1714-1761] +[Sidenote: Robert Walpole and his Policies] + +Under George I (1714-1727) it became customary for the king to absent +himself from cabinet-meetings. (It will be remembered that George could +not speak English.) This tended to make the cabinet even more +independent of the sovereign, as shown by the fact that Anne was the +last to use her prerogative to veto bills. From 1714 to 1761 was the +great era of Whig domination. Both George I and George II naturally +favored the Whigs, because the Tories were supposed to desire a second +restoration of the Stuarts. Certainly many of the Tories had +participated in the vain attempt of the "Old Pretender" in 1715 to seat +himself on the British throne as James III, and again in 1745 extreme +Tories took part in the insurrection in Scotland, gallantly led by the +Young Pretender, "Prince Charlie" the grandson of James II. Under these +circumstances practically all classes rallied to the support of the +Whigs, who stood for the Protestant monarchy. Great Whig landowners +controlled the rural districts, and the aristocracy of the towns was +won by the Whiggish policy of devotion to public credit and the +protection of commerce. The extensive and continued power of the Whigs +made it possible for Sir Robert Walpole, [Footnote: Created earl of +Orford in 1742.] a great Whig leader, to hold office for twenty-one +years (1721-1742), jealously watching and maintaining his supremacy +under two sovereigns--George I (1714-1727) and George II (1727-1760). +Though disclaiming the title, he was recognized by every one as the +"prime minister"--prime in importance, prime in power. The other +ministers, nominally appointed by the sovereign, were in point of fact +dependent upon him for office, and he, though nominally appointed by +the crown, was really dependent only upon the support of a Whig +majority in the Commons. + +[Sidenote: William Pitt, Earl of Chatham] + +Walpole's power was based on policy and political manipulation. His +policy was twofold, the maintenance of peace and of prosperity. We +shall see elsewhere how he kept England clear of costly Continental +wars. [Footnote: See above, p. 256, and below, pp. 309 ff., 324 f.] His +policy of prosperity was based on mercantilist ideas and consisted in +strict attention to business methods in public finance, [Footnote: +Walpole was called the "best master of figures of any man of his +time."] the removal of duties on imported raw materials, and on +exported manufactures. In spite of the great prosperity of the period, +there was considerable criticism of Walpole's policy, and "politics" +alone enabled him to persevere in it. By skillful partisan patronage, +by bestowal of state offices and pensions upon members of Parliament, +by open bribery, and by electioneering, he secured his ends and +maintained his majority in the House of Commons. + +Walpole's successors,--Henry Pelham and the duke of Newcastle,--like +him represented the oligarchy of Whig nobles and millionaires, and even +outdid him in corrupt methods. Another section of the Whig party under +the leadership of William Pitt the elder (the earl of Chatham) won +great popularity by its condemnation of political "graft." Pitt's fiery +demands for war first against Spain (1739-1748) and then against France +(1756-1763) were echoed by patriotic squires and by the merchants who +wished to ruin French commerce and to throw off the restrictions laid +by Spain on American commerce. Pitt had his way until George III, a +monarch determined to destroy the power of the Whigs, appointed Tory +ministers, such as Lord Bute and Lord North. The attempt of George III +to regain the power his great-grandfather had lost, to rule as well as +to reign, was in the end a failure, and later Hanoverians might well +have joined George II in declaring that "ministers are kings in this +country." + +[Sidenote: Significance of English Constitutional Development in the +Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries] + +This indeed is the salient fact in the evolution of constitutional +government in England. While in other countries late in the eighteenth +century monarchs still ruled by divine right, in England Parliament and +ministers were the real rulers, and, in theory at least, they ruled by +the will of the people. That England was able to develop this form of +government may have been due in part to her insular position, her +constitutional traditions, and the ill-advised conduct of the Stuart +kings, but most of all it was due to the great commercial and +industrial development which made her merchant class rich and powerful +enough to demand and secure a share in government. + +[Sidenote: Great Britain Parliamentarian but not Democratic] + +In their admiration for the English government, many popular writers +have fallen into the error of confounding the struggle for +parliamentary supremacy with the struggle for democracy. Nothing could +be more misleading. The "Glorious Revolution" of 1689 was a _coup +d'état_ engineered by the upper classes, and the liberty it +preserved was the liberty of nobles, squires, and merchants--not the +political liberty of the common people. + +[Sidenote: The Unreformed Parliament] + +The House of Commons was essentially undemocratic. Only one man in +every ten had even the nominal right to vote. It is estimated that from +1760 to 1832 nearly one-half of the members owed their seats to +patrons, and the reformed representatives of large towns were +frequently chosen by a handful of rich merchants. In fact, the +government was controlled by the upper class of society, and by only a +part of that. No representatives sat for the numerous manufacturing +towns which had sprung into importance during the last few decades, and +rich manufacturers everywhere complained that the country was being +ruined by the selfish administration of great landowners and commercial +aristocrats. + +Certain it is that the Parliament of the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries, while wonderfully earnest and successful in enriching +England's landlords and in demolishing every obstacle to British +commerce, at the same time either willfully neglected or woefully +failed to do away with intolerance in the Church and injustice in the +courts, or to defend the great majority of the people from the greed of +landlords and the avarice of employers. + +Designed as it was for the protection of selfish class interests, the +English government was nevertheless a step in the direction of +democracy. The idea of representative government as expressed by +Parliament and cabinet was as yet very narrow, but it was capable of +being expanded without violent revolution, slowly but inevitably, so as +to include the whole people. + +[Illustration: THE HOUSE OF STUART] + +[Illustration: THE HANOVERIAN SOVEREIGNS OF GREAT BRITAIN (1714-1915)] + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +GENERAL. Brief surveys: A. L. Cross, _History of England and Greater +Britain (1914)_, ch. xxvii-xli; T. F. Tout, _An Advanced History of +Great Britain (1906)_, Book VI, Book VII, ch. i, ii; Benjamin Terry, _A +History of England (1901)_, Part III, Book III and Book IV, ch. i-iii; +E. P. Cheyney, _A Short History of England (1904)_, ch. xiv-xvi, and, +by the same author, _An Introduction to the Industrial and Social +History of England (1901)_. More detailed narratives: J. F. Bright, +_History of England_, 5 vols. (1884-1904), especially Vol. II, +_Personal Monarchy_, 1485-1688, and Vol. III, _Constitutional Monarchy, +1689-1837_; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. IV (1906). ch. viii-xi, +xv-xix, Vol. V (1908), ch. v, ix-xi, xv; H. D. Traill and J. S. Mann +(editors), _Social England_, illus. ed., 6 vols. in 12 (1909), Vol. IV; +A. D. Innes, _History of England and the British Empire_, 4 vols. +(1914), Vol. II, ch. x-xvi; G. M. Trevelyan, _England under the +Stuarts_, 1603-1714 (1904), brilliant and suggestive; Leopold von +Ranke, _History of England, Principally in the Seventeenth Century_, +Eng. trans., 6 vols. (1875), particularly valuable for foreign +relations; Edward Dowden, _Puritan and Anglican_ (1901), an interesting +study of literary and intellectual England in the seventeenth century; +John Lingard, _History of England to 1688_, new ed. (1910) of an old +but valuable work by a scholarly Roman Catholic, Vols. VII-X; H. W. +Clark, _History of English Nonconformity_, Vol. I (1911), Book II, ch. +i-iii, and Vol. II (1913), Book III, ch. i, ii, the best and most +recent study of the role of the Protestant Dissenters; W. R. W. +Stephens and William Hunt (editors), _History of the Church of +England_, the standard history of Anglicanism, of which Vol. V (1904), +by W. H. Frere, treats of the years 1558-1625, and Vol. VI (1903), by +W. H. Hutton, of the years 1625-1714. On Scotland during the period: P. +H. Brown, _History of Scotland_, 3 vols. (1899-1909), Vols. II, III; +Andrew Lang, _A History of Scotland_ from the Roman Occupation, 2d ed., +4 vols. (1901-1907), Vols. III, IV. On Ireland: Richard Bagwell, +_Ireland under the Tudors_, 3 vols. (1885-1890), and _Ireland under the +Stuarts and during the Interregnum_, 2 vols. (1909). Convenient source- +material: G. W. Prothero, _Select Statutes and Other Constitutional +Documents Illustrative of the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I_, 4th ed. +(1913); S. R. Gardiner, _The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan +Revolution_, 1628-1660, 2d ed. (1899); C. G. Robertson, _Select +Statutes, Cases, and Documents, 1660-1832_ (1904); E. P. Cheyney, +_Readings in English History Drawn from the Original Sources_ (1908); +Frederick York Powell, _English History by Contemporary Writers_, 8 +vols. (1887); C. A. Beard, _An Introduction to the English Historians_ +(1906), a collection of extracts from famous secondary works. + +THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. F. W. Maitland, +_The Constitutional History of England_ (1908), Periods III, IV, +special studies of the English government in 1625 and in 1702 by an +eminent authority; D. J. Medley, _A Student's Manual of English +Constitutional History_, 5th ed. (1913), topical treatment, +encyclopedic and dry; T. P. Taswell-Langmead, _English Constitutional +History_, 7th ed. rev. by P. A. Ashworth (1911), ch. xiii-xvi, +narrative style and brief; Henry Hallam, _Constitutional History of +England from the Accession of Henry VII to the Death of George II_, +an old work, first pub. in 1827, still useful, new ed., 3 vols. (1897). +The best summary of the evolution of English parliamentary government +in the middle ages is A. B. White, _The Making of the English +Constitution, 449-1485_ (1908), Part III. In support of the +pretensions of the Stuart kings; see J. N. Figgis, _The Divine Right +of Kings_, 2d ed. (1914); and in opposition to them, see G. P. +Gooch, _English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century_ +(1898). + +JAMES I AND CHARLES I. S. R. Gardiner, _The First Two Stuarts and the +Puritan Revolution_, 7th ed. (1887), a brief survey in the "Epochs of +Modern History" Series by the most prolific and most distinguished +writer on the period, and, by the same author, the elaborate _History +of England from the Accession of James I to the Outbreak of the Civil +War_, 10 vols. (1883-1884), _History of the Great Civil War, 1642- +1640_, 4 vols. (1893), and _Constitutional Documents of the Puritan +Revolution_ (1899); F. C. Montague, _Political History of England, +1603-1660_ (1907), an accurate and strictly political narrative; +_Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. III, ch. xvi, xvii, on Spain and +England in the time of James I. Clarendon's _History of the Great +Rebellion_, the classic work of a famous royalist of the seventeenth +century, is strongly partisan and sometimes untrustworthy: the best +edition is that of W. D. Macray, 6 vols. (1886). R. G. Usher, _The Rise +and Fall of the High Commission_ (1913), is an account of one of the +arbitrary royal courts. Valuable biographies: H. D. Traill, _Strafford_ +(1889); W. H. Hutton, _Laud_ (1895); E. C. Wade, John Pym (1912); C. R. +Markham, _Life of Lord Fairfax_ (1870). + +THE CROMWELLIAN RÉGIME. The standard treatise is that of S. R. +Gardiner, _The History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate_, 4 vols. +(1903). Among numerous biographies of Oliver Cromwell, the following +are noteworthy: C. H. Firth, _Cromwell_ (1900). in "Heroes of the +Nations" Series; S. R. Gardiner, _Cromwell_ (1899), and, by the same +author, _Cromwell's Place in History_ (1897); John (Viscount) Morley, +_Oliver Cromwell_ (1899); A. F. Pollard, _Factors in Modern History_ +(1907), ch. ix-x; Thomas Carlyle, _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches_, +ed. by S. C. Lomas, 3 vols. (1904). The _Diary_ of John Evelyn, a +royalist contemporary, affords naturally a somewhat different point of +view: the best edition is that of H. B. Wheatley, 4 vols. (1906). +Various special phases of the régime: C. H. Firth, _Cromwell's Army_, +2d ed. (1912); Edward Jenks, _The Constitutional Experiments of the +Protectorate_ (1890); Sir J. R. Seeley, _Growth of British Policy_, +Vol. II (1895), Part III; G. L. Beer, _Cromwell's Policy in its +Economic Aspects_ (1902); Sir W. L. Clowes, _The Royal Navy: a +History_, Vol. II (1898); G. B. Tatham, _The Puritans in Power, a Study +of the English Church from 1640 to 1660_ (1913); W. A. Shaw, _History +of the English Church, 1640-1660_, 2 vols. (1900); Robert Dunlop, +_Ireland under the Commonwealth_, 2 vols. (1913), largely a collection +of documents; C. H. Firth, _The Last Years of the Protectorate_, 2 +vols. (1909). + +THE RESTORATION. Richard Lodge, _The Political History of England, +1660-1702_, a survey of the chief political facts, conservative in +tone; J. N. Figgis, _English History Illustrated from Original Sources, +1660-1715_ (1902), a convenient companion volume to Lodge's; Osmund +Airy, _Charles II_ (1901), inimical to the first of the restored Stuart +kings. Of contemporary accounts of the Restoration, the most +entertaining is Samuel Pepys, _Diary_, covering the years 1659-1669 and +written by a bibulous public official, while the most valuable, though +tainted with strong Whig partisanship, is Gilbert (Bishop) Burnet, +_History of My Own Times_, edited by Osmund Airy, 2 vols. (1897-1900). +See also H. B. Wheatley, _Samuel Pepys and the World he Lived In_ +(1880). Special topics in the reign of Charles II: W. E. Sydney, +_Social Life in England, 1660-1660_ (1892); J. H. Overton, _Life in the +English Church, 1663-1714_ (1885); John Pollock, _The Popish Plot_ +(1903); G.B. Hertz, _English Public Opinion after the Restoration_ +(1902); C. B. R. Kent, _The Early History of the Tories_ (1908). + +JAMES II AND THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION." The best brief account is that +of Arthur Hassall, _The Restoration and the Revolution_ (1912). The +classic treatment is that of T. B. (Lord) Macaulay, _History of +England, 1685-1702_, a literary masterpiece but marred by vigorous Whig +sympathies, new ed. by C. H. Firth, 6 vols. (1913-1914). Sir James +Mackintosh, _Review of the Causes of the Revolution of 1688_ (1834), an +old work but still prized for the large collection of documents in the +appendix; _Adventures of James II_ (1904), an anonymous and sympathetic +account of the career of the deposed king; H. B. Irving, _Life of Lord +Jeffreys_ (1898), an apology for a much-assailed agent of James II; +Alice Shield and Andrew Lang, _The King over the Water_ (1907), and, by +the same authors, _Henry Stuart, Cardinal of York, and his Times_ +(1908), popular treatments of subsequent Stuart pretenders to the +British throne. A good account of the reign of William III is that of +Sir J. R. Seeley, _Growth of British Policy_, Vol. II (1895), Part V. + +GREAT BRITAIN IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. General +histories: _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. VI (1909), ch. i-iii; I. S. +Leadam, _Political History of England, 1702-1760_ (1909), conservative +and matter-of-fact; W. E. H. Lecky, _A History of England in the +Eighteenth Century_, new ed., 7 vols. (1892-1899), especially Vol. I, +brilliantly written and very informing, and, by the same author, _A +History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century_, 5 vols. (1893); C. G. +Robertson, _England under the Hanoverians_ (1911), ch. i, ii, iv; Earl +Stanhope (Lord Mahon), _History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to +the Peace of Versailles, 1713-1783_, 5th ed., 7 vols. (1858), +particularly Vols. I, II, tedious but still useful especially for +foreign affairs. On the union of England and Scotland: P. H. Brown, +_The Legislative Union of England and Scotland_ (1914); W. L. +Matthieson, _Scotland and the Union_, 1695-1747 (1905); Daniel Defoe, +_History of the Union between England and Scotland_ (1709). On the rise +of the cabinet system: Mary T. Blauvelt, _The Development of Cabinet +Government in England_ (1902), a clear brief outline; Edward Jenks, +_Parliamentary England: the Evolution of the Cabinet System_ (1903); +and the general constitutional histories mentioned above. The best +account of _Sir Robert Walpole_ is the biography by John (Viscount) +Morley (1889). + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE WORLD CONFLICT OF FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN + + +FRENCH AND ENGLISH COLONIES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + +In the sixteenth century, while Spain and Portugal were carving out +vast empires beyond the seas, the sovereigns of France and England, +distracted by religious dissensions or absorbed in European politics, +did little more than to send out a few privateers and explorers. But in +the seventeenth century the England of the Stuarts and the France of +the Bourbons found in colonies a refuge for their discontented or +venturesome subjects, a source of profit for their merchants, a field +for the exercise of religious zeal, or gratification for national +pride. Everywhere were commerce and colonization growing apace, and +especially were they beginning to play a large part in the national +life of England and of France. We have already noticed how the Dutch, +themselves the despoilers of Portugal [Footnote: See above, pp. 58f] in +the first half of the seventeenth century, were in turn attacked by the +English in a series of commercial wars [Footnote: The Dutch Wars of +1652-1654, 1665-1667, and 1672-1674. See above pp. 59, 243, 278.] +during the second half of the seventeenth century. By 1688 the period +of active growth was past for the colonial empires of Holland, +Portugal, and Spain; but England and France, beginning to realize the +possibilities for power in North America, in India, and on the high +seas, were just on the verge of a world conflict, which, after raging +intermittently for more than a hundred years, was to leave Great +Britain the "mistress of the seas." + +[Sidenote: Relative Position of the Rivals in 1688. In North America] + +Before plunging into the struggle itself, let us review the position of +the two rivals in 1688: first, their claims and possessions in the New +World and in the Old; secondly, their comparative resources and +policies. It will be remembered that the voyage of John Cabot (1497) +gave England a claim to the mainland of North America. The Tudors +(1485-1603), however, could not occupy so vast a territory, nor were +there any fences for the exclusion of intruders. Consequently the +actual English settlements in North America, made wholly under the +Stuarts, [Footnote: However much modern Englishmen may condemn the +efforts of the Stuart sovereigns to establish political absolutism at +home, they can well afford to praise these same royal Stuarts for +contributing powerfully to the foundations of England's commercial and +colonial greatness abroad.] were confined to Newfoundland, to a few fur +depots in the region of Hudson Bay, and to a strip of coastland from +Maine to South Carolina; while the French not only had sent Verrazano +(1524), who explored the coast of North America, and Cartier (1534- +1536), who sailed up the St. Lawrence, but by virtue of voyages of +discovery and exploration, especially that of La Salle (1682), laid +claim to the whole interior of the Continent. + +Of all the North American colonies, the most populous were those which +later became the United States. In the year 1688 there were ten of +these colonies. The oldest one, Virginia, had been settled in 1607 by +the London Company under a charter from King James I. Plymouth, founded +in 1620 by the Pilgrims (Separatists or Independents driven from +England by the enforcement of religious conformity to the Anglican +Church), was presently to be merged with the neighboring Puritan colony +of Massachusetts. Near these first, New England settlements had grown +up the colonies of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire: Maine +was then a part of Massachusetts. Just as New England was the Puritans' +refuge, so Maryland, granted to Lord Baltimore in 1632, was a haven for +the persecuted Roman Catholics. A large tract south of Virginia, known +as Carolina, had been granted to eight nobles in 1663; but it was +prospering so poorly that its proprietors were willing to sell it to +the king in 1729 for a mere £50,000. The capture of the Dutch colony of +New Netherland [Footnote: Rechristened New York. It included New Jersey +also.] in 1664, and the settlement of Pennsylvania (1681) by William +Penn and his fellow Quakers [Footnote: The Swedish colony on the +Delaware was temporarily merged with Pennsylvania.] at last filled up +the gap between the North and the South. + +Numerous causes had contributed to the growth of the British colonies +in America. Religious intolerance had driven Puritans to New England +and Roman Catholics to Maryland; the success of the Puritan Revolution +had sent Cavaliers to Virginia; thousands of others had come merely to +acquire wealth or to escape starvation. And America seemed a place +wherein to mend broken fortunes. Upon the estates (plantations) of +southern gentlemen negro slaves toiled without pay in the tobacco +fields. [Footnote: Subsequently, rice and cotton became important +products of Southern agriculture.] New England was less fertile, but +shrewd Yankees found wealth in fish, lumber, and trade. No wonder, +then, that the colonies grew in wealth and in population until in 1688 +there were nearly three hundred thousand English subjects in the New +World. + +The French settlers were far less numerous [Footnote: Probably not more +than 20,000 Frenchmen were residing in the New World in 1688. By 1750 +their number had increased perhaps to 60,000.] but more widespread. +From their first posts in Acadia (1604) and Quebec (1608) they had +pushed on up the St. Lawrence. Jesuit and other Roman Catholic +missionaries had led the way from Montreal westward to Lake Superior +and southward to the Ohio River. In 1682 the Sieur de La Salle, after +paddling down the Mississippi, laid claim to the whole basin of that +mighty stream, and named the region Louisiana in honor of Louis XIV of +France. Nominally, at least, this territory was claimed by the English, +for in most of the colonial charters emanating from the English crown +in the seventeenth century were clauses which granted lands "from sea +to sea"--that is, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The heart of "New +France" remained on the St. Lawrence, but, despite English claims, +French forts were commencing to mark the trails of French fur-traders +down into the "Louisiana," and it was clear that whenever the English +colonists should cross the Appalachian Mountains to the westward they +would have to fight the French. + +[Sidenote: In West Indies] + +French and English were neighbors also in the West Indies. Martinique +and Guadeloupe acknowledged French sovereignty, while Jamaica, +Barbados, and the Bahamas were English.[Footnote: The following West +Indies were also English: Nevis, Montserrat, Antigua, Honduras, St. +Lucia, Virgin Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. St. Kitts was +divided between England and France; and the western part of Haiti, +already visited by French buccaneers, was definitely annexed to France +in 1697. The Bermudas, lying outside the "West Indies," were already +English.] These holdings in the West Indies were valuable not only for +their sugar plantations, but for their convenience as stations for +trade with Mexico and South America. + +[Sidenote: In Africa] + +In Africa the French had made settlements in Madagascar, at Gorée, and +at the mouth of the Senegal River, and the English had established +themselves in Gambia and on the Gold Coast, but as yet the African +posts were mere stations for trade in gold-dust,[Footnote: Gold coins +are still often called "guineas" in England, from the fact that a good +deal of gold used to come from the Guinea coast of Africa. ] ivory, +wax, or slaves. The real struggle for Africa was not to come until the +nineteenth and twentieth centuries. + +[Sidenote: In India] + +Of far greater importance was Asiatic India, which, unlike America or +even Africa, offered a field favorable for commerce rather than for +conquest or for colonization. For it happened that the fertility and +extent of India--its area was half as large as that of Europe--were +taxed to their uttermost to support a population of probably two +hundred millions; and all, therefore, which Europeans desired was an +opportunity to buy Indian products, such as cotton, indigo, Spices, +dyes, drugs, silk, precious stones, and peculiar manufactures. + +In the seventeenth century India was ruled by a dynasty of Mohammedan +emperors called Moguls,[Footnote: So called because racially they were +falsely supposed to be Mongols or Moguls.] who had entered the +peninsula as conquerors in the previous century and had established a +splendid court in the city of Delhi on a branch of the Ganges. The bulk +of the people, however, maintained their ancient "Hindu" religion with +their social ranks or "castes" and preserved their distinctive speech +and customs. Over a country like India, broken up into many sections by +physical features, climate, industries, and language, the Mohammedan +conquerors,--the "Great Mogul" and his viceroys, called nawabs, +[Footnote: More popularly "nabobs."]--found it impossible to establish +more than a loose sovereignty, many of the native princes or "rajas" +still being allowed to rule with considerable independence, and the +millions of Hindus feeling little love or loyalty for their emperor. It +was this fatal weakness of the Great Mogul which enabled the European +traders, who in the seventeenth century besought his favor and +protection, to set themselves up in the eighteenth as his masters. + +It will be remembered that after the voyage of Vasco da Gama the +Portuguese had monopolized the trade with India and the East until they +had been attacked by the Dutch toward the close of the sixteenth +century. This was the very time when the English were making their +first voyages [Footnote: Actually the first English voyage to the East +Indies was made between 1591 and 1594, almost a century after the first +Portuguese voyage.] to the East and were taking advantage of their own +war with Philip II to attack his Portuguese possessions. The first +English trading stations were opened at Masulipatam (1611) and at Surat +(1612). In the latter year and again in 1615 Portuguese fleets were +defeated, and in 1622 the Portuguese were driven out of the important +Persian city of Ormuz. By 1688 the English had acquired three important +points in India, (1) Calcutta in the delta of the Ganges had been +occupied in 1686, but it was yet uncertain whether the English could +hold it against the will of the Mogul emperor. (2) At Madras, further +south, Sir Francis Day had built Fort St. George (1640). (3) On the +western coast, the trading station of Surat was now surpassed in value +by Bombay, the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess, +who had married King Charles II (1662). + +The first French Company for Eastern trade had been formed only four +years [Footnote: Charters to French companies had been granted in 1604 +and in 1615. The _Compagnie des Indes_ was formed in 1642, and +reconstructed in 1664.] after the English East India Company, but the +first French factory in India--at Surat--was not established until 1668 +and the French did not seriously compete with the English and Dutch in +India until the close of the seventeenth century. However, their post +at Chandarnagar (1672), in dangerous proximity to Calcutta, and their +thriving station at Pondicherry (1674), within a hundred miles of +Madras, augured ill for the future harmony of French and English in +India. + +[Sidenote: Comparative Resources of France and England] + +From the foregoing brief review of the respective colonial possessions +of Great Britain and France in the year 1688, it must now be clear that +although France had entered the colonial competition tardily, she had +succeeded remarkably well in becoming a formidable rival of the +English. The great struggle for supremacy was to be decided, +nevertheless, not by priority of settlement or validity of claim, but +by the fighting power of the contestants. Strange as it may seem, +France, a larger, more populous, and richer country than England, able +then single-handed to keep the rest of Europe at bay, was to prove the +weaker of the two in the struggle for world empire. + +In the first place, England's maritime power was increasing more +irresistibly than that of France. Although Richelieu (1624-1642) had +recognized the need for a French navy and had given a great impetus to +ship-building, France had become inextricably entangled in European +politics, and the navy was half forgotten in the ambitious land wars of +Louis XIV. The English, on the other hand, were predisposed to the sea +by the very fact of their insularity, and since the days of the great +Armada, their most patriotic boast had been of the deeds of mariners. +In the commercial wars with Holland, the first great English admiral-- +Robert Blake--had won glorious victories. + +Then, too, the Navigation Acts (1651, 1660), by excluding foreign ships +from trade between Great Britain and the colonies, may have lessened +the volume of trade, but they resulted in undoubted prosperity for +English shippers. English shipbuilders, encouraged by bounties, learned +to build stronger and more powerful vessels than those of other +nations. Whether capturing galleons on the "Spanish main" or defeating +Portuguese fleets in the Far East, English pirates, slavers, and +merchantmen were not to be encountered without fear or envy. English +commerce and industry, springing up under the protection and +encouragement of the Tudors, had given birth, as we have seen, to a +middle class powerful enough to secure special rights and privileges +through Parliament. + +The French, on the other hand, labored under most serious commercial +handicaps. Local tolls and internal customs-duties hindered traffic; +and the medieval gild system had retained in France its power to hamper +industry with absurd regulations. The long civil and religious wars, +which called workmen from their benches and endangered the property and +lives of merchants, had resulted in reducing French commerce to a +shadow before 1600. Under Henry IV prosperity revived, but the growth +of royal power made it impossible for the Huguenot merchants in France +to achieve political power comparable with that which the Puritans won +in England. Consequently the mercantile classes were quite unable to +prevent Louis XIV from ruining his country by foreign war,--they could +not vote themselves privileges and bounties as in England, nor could +they declare war on commercial rivals. True, Colbert (1662-1683), the +great "mercantilist" minister, did his best to encourage new +industries, such as silk production, to make rules for the better +conduct of old industries, and to lay taxes on such imported goods as +might compete with home products, but French industry could not be made +to thrive like that of England. It is often said that Colbert's careful +regulations did much harm by stifling the spirit of free enterprise; +but far more destructive were the wars and taxes [Footnote: In order to +obtain money for his court, diplomacy, and wars, Louis XIV not only +increased taxes but debased the coinage. Particularly unfortunate, +economically, was the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), as a +result of which some 50,000 of the most industrious and thrifty +citizens of France fled to increase the industry of England, Holland, +and Brandenburg (Prussia).] of the Grand Monarch. The only wonder is +that France bore the drain of men and money so well. + +The English, then, had a more promising navy and a more prosperous +trade than the French, and were therefore able to gain control of the +seas and to bear the expense of war. + +[Sidenote: Comparative Colonial Policies of France and England] + +In general colonial policy France seemed decidedly superior. Louis XIV +had taken over the whole of "New France" as a royal province, and the +French could present a united front against the divided and discordant +English colonies. Under Colbert the number of French colonists in +America increased 300 per cent in twenty years. Moreover the French, +both in India and in America, were almost uniformly successful in +gaining the friendship and trust of the natives, whereas, at least with +most of the redmen, the English were constantly at war. + +The English, however, had a great advantage in the number of colonists. +The population of France, held in check by wars, did not naturally +overflow to America; and the Huguenots, persecuted in the mother +country, were not allowed to emigrate to New France, lest their +presence might impede the missionary labors of the Jesuits among the +Indians. [Footnote: The statement is frequently made that the +"paternalism" or fatherly care with which Richelieu and Colbert made +regulations for the colonies was responsible for the paucity of +colonists and the discouragement of colonial industry. This, however, +will be taken with considerable reservation when it is remembered that +England attempted to prevent the growth of such industries in her +colonies as might compete with those at home.] England was more +fortunate in that her Puritan, Quaker, and Catholic exiles went to her +colonies rather than to foreign lands. The English colonists, less +under the direct protection of the mother country, learned to defend +themselves against the Indians, and were better able to help the mother +country against their common foe, the French. + +Taken all in all, the situation was favorable to Great Britain. As long +as French monarchs wasted the resources of France in Europe, they could +scarcely hope to cope with the superior navy, the thriving commerce, +and the more populous colonies, of their ancient enemies. + + +PRELIMINARY ENCOUNTERS, 1689-1748 + +[Sidenote: War of the League of Augsburg] + +Colonial and commercial rivalry could hardly bring France and Great +Britain to blows while the Stuart kings looked to Louis XIV for +friendly aid in the erection of absolutism and the reinstatement of +Catholicism in England. + +The Revolution of 1689, which we have already discussed [Footnote: See +above, pp. 286 ff.] in its political significance, was important in its +bearing on foreign relations, for it placed on the English throne the +arch-enemy of France, William III, whose chief concern was the +protection of his ancestral possessions--the Dutch Netherlands--against +the encroachments of Louis XIV. The support given by the latter to the +pretensions of James II was a second cause of war. In an earlier +chapter [Footnote: See above, pp. 247 ff.] we have seen how +international relations in 1689 led to the juncture of England and +Holland with the League of Augsburg, which included the emperor, the +kings of Spain and Sweden, and the electors of Bavaria, Saxony, and the +Palatinate; and how the resulting War of the League of Augsburg was +waged in Europe from 1689 to 1697. It was during that struggle, it will +be remembered, that King William finally defeated James II and the +latter's French and Irish allies in the battle of the Boyne (1690). It +was also during that struggle that the French navy, though successful +against combined Dutch and English squadrons off Beachy Head (1690), +was decisively beaten by the English in a three-day battle near La +Hogue (1692). + +[Sidenote: King William's War, 1689-1697] + +The War of the League of Augsburg had its counterpart in the American +"King William's War," of which two aspects should be noted. In the +first place, the New England colonists aided in the capture (1690) of +the French fortress of Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia) and in an +inconsequential attack on Quebec. In the second place, we must notice +the role of the Indians. As early as 1670, Roger Williams, a famous New +England preacher, had declared, "the French and Romish Jesuits, the +firebrands of the world, for their godbelly sake, are kindling at our +back in this country their hellish fires with all the natives of this +country." The outbreak of King William's War was a signal for the +kindling of fires more to be feared than those imagined by the good +divine; the burning of Dover (N. H.), Schenectady (N. Y.), and Groton +(Mass.) by the red allies of the French governor, Count Frontenac, +earned the latter the lasting hatred of the "Yankees." + +[Sidenote: Treaty of Ryswick, 1697] + +The contest was interrupted rather than settled by the colorless treaty +of Ryswick (1697), according to which Louis XIV promised not to +question William's right to the English throne, and all colonial +conquests, including Port Royal, were restored. + +[Sidenote: War of the Spanish Succession] + +Only five years later Europe was plunged into the long War of the +Spanish Succession (1702-1713). King William and the Habsburg emperor +with other European princes formed a Grand Alliance to prevent Louis' +grandson Philip from inheriting the Spanish crowns. For if France and +Spain were united under the Bourbon family, their armies would overawe +Europe; their united colonial empires would surround and perhaps engulf +the British colonies; their combined navies might drive the British +from the seas. Furthermore, the English were angered when Louis XIV, +upon the death of James II (1701), openly recognized the Catholic son +of the exiled royal Stuart as "James III," king of Great Britain. + +[Sidenote: Queen Anne's War, 1702-1713] + +While the duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene were winning great +victories in Europe, [Footnote: See above, pp. 249 ff.] the British +colonists in America were fighting "Queen Anne's War" against the +French. Again the French sent Indians to destroy New England villages, +and again the English retaliated by attacking Port Royal and Quebec. +After withstanding two unsuccessful assaults, Port Royal fell in 1710 +and left Acadia open to the British. In the following year a fleet of +nine war vessels and sixty transports carried twelve thousand +Britishers to attack Quebec, while an army of 2300 moved on Montreal by +way of Lake Champlain; but both expeditions failed of their object. + +On the high seas, as well as in America and in Europe, the British won +fresh laurels. It was during Queen Anne's War that the British navy, +sometimes with the valuable aid of the Dutch, played an important part +in defeating the French fleet in the Mediterranean and driving French +privateers from the sea, in besieging and capturing Gibraltar, in +seizing a rich squadron of Spanish treasure ships near Cartagena, and +in terrorizing the French West Indies. + +[Sidenote: Treaty of Utrecht, 1713] + +The main provisions of the treaty of Utrecht, which terminated this +stage of the conflict, in so far as they affected the colonial of +situation, [Footnote: For the European settlement, see above, pp. 253 +f.] were as follows: (1) The French Bourbons, were allowed to become +the reigning family in Spain, and though the proviso was inserted that +the crowns of France and Spain should never be united, nevertheless so +long as Bourbons reigned in both countries, the colonies of Spain and +France might almost be regarded as one immense Bourbon empire. (2) +Great Britain was confirmed in possession of Acadia, [Footnote: A +dispute later arose whether, as the British claimed, "Acadia" included +Cape Breton Island.] which was rechristened Nova Scotia, and France +abandoned her claims to Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and the island of St. +Kitts in the West Indies. (3) Great Britain secured from Spain the +cession of the island of Minorca and the rocky stronghold of Gibraltar +--bulwarks of Mediterranean commerce. (4) Of more immediate value to +Great Britain was the trade concession, called the Asiento, made by +Spain (1713). Prior to the Asiento, the British had been forbidden to +trade with the Spanish possessions in America, and the French had +monopolized the sale of slaves to the Spanish colonies. + +[Sidenote: The Asiento, 1713] + +The Asiento, however, allowed Great Britain exclusive right to supply +Spanish America with negro slaves, at the rate of 4800 a year, for +thirty years. They were still forbidden to sell other commodities in +the domains of the Spanish king, except that once a year one British +ship of five hundred tons burden might visit Porto Bello on the Isthmus +of Panama for purposes of general trade. For almost three decades after +the peace of Utrecht, the smoldering colonial jealousies were not +allowed to break forth into the flame of open war. + +[Sidenote: The Interlude of Peace, 1713-1739] + +During the interval, however, British ambitions were coming more and +more obviously into conflict with the claims of Spain and France in +America, and with those of France in India. + +[Sidenote: French Aggressiveness in America] + +In spite of her losses by the treaty of Utrecht, France still held the +St. Lawrence River, with Cape Breton Island defending its mouth; her +fishermen still had special privileges on the Newfoundland banks; her +islands in the West Indies flourished under greater freedom of trade +than that enjoyed by the English; and her pioneers were occupying the +vast valley of the Mississippi. Moreover, in preparing for the next +stage of the conflict, France displayed astonishing energy. Fort +Louisburg was erected on Cape Breton Island to command the entrance to +the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A long series of fortifications was +constructed to stake out and guarantee the French claims. From Crown +Point on Lake Champlain, the line was carried westward by Fort Niagara, +Fort Detroit, Sault Sainte Marie, on to Lake Winnipeg and even beyond; +other forts commanded the Wabash and Illinois rivers, and followed the +Mississippi down to the Gulf. [Footnote: By the year 1750 there were +over sixty French forts between Montreal and New Orleans.] Settlements +were made at Mobile (1702) and at New Orleans (1718), and British +sailors were given to understand that the Mississippi was French +property. The governors of British colonies had ample cause for alarm. + +[Sidenote: French Aggressiveness in India: Dupleix] + +In India, likewise, the French were too enterprising to be good +neighbors. Under the leadership of a wonderfully able governor-general, +Dupleix, who was appointed in 1741, they were prospering and were +extending their influence in the effete empire of the Great Mogul. +Dupleix exhibited a restless ambition; he began to interfere in native +politics and to assume the pompous bearing, gorgeous apparel, and proud +titles of a native prince. He conceived the idea of augmenting his +slender garrisons of Europeans with "sepoys," or carefully drilled +natives, and fortified his capital, Pondicherry, as if for war. + +[Sidenote: Trade Disputes between Spain and Great Britain] + +To the dangerous rivalry between British and French colonists and +traders in America and in India, during the thirty years which followed +the treaty of Utrecht, was added the continuous bickering which grew +out of the Asiento concluded in 1713 between Great Britain and Spain. +Spaniards complained of British smugglers and protested with justice +that the British outrageously abused their special privilege by keeping +the single stipulated vessel in the harbor of Porto Bello and refilling +it at night from other ships. On the other hand, British merchants +resented their general exclusion from Spanish markets and recited to +willing listeners at home the tale of their grievances against the +Spanish authorities. Of such tales the most notorious was that of a +certain Captain Robert Jenkins, who with dramatic detail told how the +bloody Spaniards had attacked his good ship, plundered it, and in the +fray cut off one of his ears, and to prove his story he is said to have +produced a box containing what purported to be the ear in question. In +the face of the popular excitement aroused in England by this and +similar incidents, Sir Robert Walpole, the peace-loving prime minister, +was unable to restrain his fellow-countrymen from declaring war against +Spain. + +[Sidenote: The "War of Jenkins's Ear," 1739] + +It was in 1739 that the commercial and colonial warfare was thus +resumed,--on this occasion involving at the outset only Spain and Great +Britain,--in a curious struggle commonly referred to as the War of +Jenkins's Ear. A British fleet captured Porto Bello, but failed to take +Cartagena. In North America the war was carried on fruitlessly by James +Oglethorpe, who had recently (1733) founded the English colony of +"Georgia" [Footnote: So named in honor of the then reigning King George +II (1727-1760)] to the south of the Carolinas, in territory claimed by +the Spanish colony of Florida. + +[Sidenote: War of the Austrian Succession. King George's War, 1744- +1748] + +The War of Jenkins's Ear proved but an introduction to the resumption +of hostilities on a large scale between France and Great Britain. In a +later chapter [Footnote: See below, pp. 354 ff.] it is explained how in +1740 the War of the Austrian Succession broke out on the continent of +Europe--a war stubbornly fought for eight years, and a war in which +Great Britain entered the lists for Maria Theresa of Austria against +France and Prussia and other states. And the European conflict was +naturally reflected in "King George's War" (1744-1748) in America, and +in simultaneous hostilities in India. + +The only remarkable incident of King George's War was the capture of +Louisburg (1745) by Colonel William Pepperell of New Hampshire with a +force of British colonists, who were sorely disappointed when, in 1748, +the captured fortress was returned to France by the treaty of Aix-la- +Chapelle. The war in India was similarly indecisive. In 1746 a French +squadron easily captured the British post at Madras; other British +posts were attacked, and Dupleix defeated the nawab of the Carnatic, +who would have punished him for violating Indian peace and neutrality. + +[Sidenote: Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748] + +The tables were turned by the arrival of a British fleet in 1748, which +laid siege to Dupleix in Pondicherry. At this juncture, news arrived +that Great Britain and France had concluded the treaty of Aix-la- +Chapelle (1748), whereby all conquests, including Madras and Louisburg, +were to be restored. So far as Spain was concerned. Great Britain in +1750 renounced the privileges of the Asiento in return for a money +payment of £100,000. + + +THE TRIUMPH OF GREAT BRITAIN: THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR, 1756-1763 + +[Sidenote: Questions at Issue in 1750] +[Sidenote: World-wide Extent of the Seven Years' War] + +Up to this point, the wars had been generally indecisive, although +Great Britain had gained Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia by +the peace of Utrecht (1713). British naval power, too, was undoubtedly +in the ascendancy. But two great questions were still unanswered. +Should France be allowed to make good her claim to the Mississippi +valley and possibly to drive the British from their slender foothold on +the coast of America? Should Dupleix, wily diplomat as he was, be +allowed to make India a French empire? To these major disputes was +added a minor quarrel over the boundary of Nova Scotia, which, it will +be remembered, had been ceded to Great Britain in 1713. Such questions +could be decided only by the crushing defeat of one nation, and that +defeat France was to suffer in the years between 1754 and 1763. Her +loss was fourfold: (1) Her European armies were defeated in Germany by +Frederick the Great, who was aided by English gold, in the Seven Years' +War (1756-1763). [Footnote: For an account of the European aspects of +this struggle, see below, pp. 358 ff.] (2) At the same time her naval +power was almost annihilated by the British, whose war vessels and +privateers conquered most of the French West Indies and almost swept +French commerce from the seas. (3) In India, the machinations of +Dupleix were foiled by the equally astute but more martial Clive. (4) +In America, the "French and Indian War" (1754-1763) dispelled the dream +of a New France across the Atlantic. We shall first consider the war in +the New World. + +[Sidenote: The American Phase of the Seven Years' War: the "French and +Indian" War, 1754-1763] + +The immediate cause of the French and Indian War was a contest for the +possession of the Ohio valley. The English had already organized an +Ohio Company (1749) for colonization of the valley, but they did not +fully realize the pressing need of action until the French had begun +the construction of a line of forts in western Pennsylvania--Fort +Presqu'Isle (Erie), Fort Le Bœuf (Waterford), and Fort Venango +(Franklin). The most important position--the junction of the +Monongahela and Allegheny rivers--being still unoccupied, the Ohio +Company, early in 1754, sent a small force to seize and fortify it. The +French, however, were not to be so easily outwitted; they captured the +newly built fort with its handful of defenders, enlarged it, and +christened it Fort Duquesne in honor of the governor of Canada. Soon +afterward a young Virginian, George Washington by name, arrived on the +scene with four hundred men, too late to reënforce the English fort- +builders, and he also was defeated on 4 July, 1754. + +Hope was revived, however, in 1755 when the British General Braddock +arrived with a regular army and an ambitious plan to attack the French +in three places--Crown Point (on Lake Champlain), Fort Niagara, and +Fort Duquesne. Against the last-named fort he himself led a mixed force +of British regulars and colonial militia, and so incautiously did he +advance that presently he fell into an ambush. From behind trees and +rocks the Frenchmen and redskins peppered the surprised redcoats. The +"seasoned" veterans of European battlefields were defeated, and might +have been annihilated but for the timely aid of a few "raw" colonial +militiamen, who knew how to shoot straight from behind trees. The +expedition against Niagara also failed of its object but entailed no +such disaster. Failing to take Crown Point, the English built Forts +Edward and William Henry on Lake George, while the French constructed +the famous Fort Ticonderoga. [Footnote: This same year, 1755, so +unfortunate for the English, was a cruel year for the French settlers +in Nova Scotia; like so many cattle, seven thousand of them were packed +into English vessels and shipped to various parts of North America. The +English feared their possible disloyalty.] + +[Sidenote: Montcalm] + +The gloom which gathered about British fortunes seemed to increase +during the years 1756 and 1757. Great Britain's most valuable ally, +Frederick the Great of Prussia, was defeated in Europe; an English +squadron had been sadly defeated in the Mediterranean; the French had +captured the island of Minorca; and a British attack on the French +fortress of Louisburg had failed. To the French in America, the year +1756 brought Montcalm and continued success. The Marquis de Montcalm +(1712-1759) had learned the art of war on European battlefields, but he +readily adapted himself to new conditions, and proved to be an able +commander of the French and Indian forces in the New World. The English +fort of Oswego on Lake Ontario, and Fort William Henry on Lake George, +were captured, and all the campaigns projected by the English were +foiled. + +In 1757, however, new vigor was infused into the war on the part of the +British, largely by reason of the entrance of William Pitt (the Elder) +into the cabinet. Pitt was determined to arouse all British subjects to +fight for their country. Stirred with martial enthusiasm, colonial +volunteers now joined with British regulars to provide a force of about +50,000 men for simultaneous attacks on four important French posts in +America--Louisburg, Ticonderoga, Niagara, and Duquesne. The success of +the attack on Louisburg (1758) was insured by the support of a strong +British squadron; Fort Duquesne was taken and renamed Fort Pitt +[Footnote: Whence the name of the modern city of Pittsburgh.] (1758); +Ticonderoga repulsed one expedition (1758) but surrendered on 26 July, +1759, one day after the capture of Fort Niagara by the British. + +[Sidenote: Wolfe] + +Not content with the capture of the menacing French frontier forts, the +British next aimed at the central strongholds of the French. While one +army marched up the Hudson valley to attack Montreal, General Wolfe, in +command of another army of 7000, and accompanied by a strong fleet, +moved up the St. Lawrence against Quebec. An inordinate thirst for +military glory had been Wolfe's heritage from his father, himself a +general. An ensign at fourteen, Wolfe had become an officer in active +service while still in his teens, had commanded a detachment in the +attack on Louisburg in 1758, and now at the age of thirty-three was +charged with the capture of Quebec, a natural stronghold, defended by +the redoubtable Montcalm. The task seemed impossible; weeks were wasted +in futile efforts; sickness and apparent defeat weighed heavily on the +young commander. With the energy of despair he fastened at last upon a +daring idea. Thirty-six hundred of his men were ferried in the dead of +night to a point above the city where his soldiers might scramble +through bushes and over rocks up a precipitous path to a high plain-- +the Plains of Abraham--commanding the town. + +[Sidenote: British Victory at Quebec, 1759] + +Wolfe's presence on the heights was revealed at daybreak on 13 +September, 1759, and Montcalm hastened to repel the attack. For a time +it seemed as if Wolfe's force would be over-powered, but a well- +directed volley and an impetuous charge threw the French lines into +disorder. In the moment of victory, General Wolfe, already twice +wounded, received a musket-ball in the breast. His death was made happy +by the news of success, but no such exultation filled the heart of the +mortally wounded Montcalm, dying in the bitterness of defeat. + +Quebec surrendered a few days later. It was the beginning of the end of +the French colonial empire in America. All hope was lost when, in +October, 1759, a great armada, ready to embark against England, was +destroyed in Quiberon Bay by Admiral Hawke. In 1760 Montreal fell and +the British completed the conquest of New France, at the very time when +the last vestiges of French power were disappearing in India. + +[Sidenote: Futile Intervention of Spain, 1762] + +In his extremity, Louis XV of France secured the aid of his Bourbon +kinsman, the king of Spain, against England, but Spain was a worthless +ally, and in 1762 British squadrons captured Cuba and the Philippine +Islands as well as the French possessions in the West Indies. + +[Sidenote: Phase of the Seven Years' War in India] +[Sidenote: Continued Activity of Dupleix] + +Let us now turn back and see how the loss of New France was paralleled +by French defeat in the contest for the vastly more populous and +opulent empire of India. The Mogul Empire, to which reference has +already been made, had been rapidly falling to pieces throughout the +first half of the eighteenth century. The rulers or nawabs (nabobs) of +the Deccan, of Bengal, and of Oudh had become semi-independent princes. +In a time when conspiracy and intrigue were common avenues to power, +the French governor, Dupleix, had conceived the idea of making himself +the political leader of India, and in pursuit of his goal, as we have +seen, he had affected Oriental magnificence and grandiloquent titles, +had formed alliances with half the neighboring native magnates, had +fortified Pondicherry, and begun the enrollment and organization of his +sepoy army. In 1750 he succeeded in overthrowing the nawab of the +Carnatic [Footnote: The province in India which includes Madras and +Pondicherry and has its capital at Arcot.] and in establishing a +pretender whom he could dominate more easily. + +[Sidenote: Robert Clive] +[Sidenote: French Failure in the Carnatic] + +The hopes of the experienced and crafty Dupleix were frustrated, +however, by a young man of twenty-seven--Robert Clive. At the age of +eighteen, Clive had entered the employ of the English East India +Company as a clerk at Madras. His restless and discontented spirit +found relief, at times, in omnivorous reading; at other times he grew +despondent. More than once he planned to take his own life. During the +War of the Austrian Succession, he had resigned his civil post and +entered the army. The hazards of military life were more to his liking, +and he soon gave abundant evidence of ability. After the peace of 1748 +he had returned to civil life, but in 1751 he came forward with a bold +scheme for attacking Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, and +overthrowing the upstart nawab who was supported by Dupleix. Clive +could muster only some two hundred Europeans and three hundred sepoys, +but this slender force, infused with the daring and irresistible +determination of the young leader, sufficed to seize and hold the +citadel of Arcot against thousands of assailants. With the aid of +native and British reënforcements, the hero of Arcot further defeated +the pretender; and, in 1754, the French had to acknowledge their +failure in the Carnatic and withdraw support from their vanquished +protégé. Dupleix was recalled to France in disgrace; and the British +were left to enjoy the favor of the nawab who owed his throne to Clive. + +[Sidenote: Plassey] +[Sidenote: British Success in India] + +Clive's next work was in Bengal. In 1756 the young nawab of Bengal, +Suraj-ud-Dowlah by name, seized the English fort at Calcutta and locked +146 Englishmen overnight in a stifling prison--the "Black Hole" of +Calcutta--from which only twenty-three emerged alive the next morning. +Clive, hastening from Madras, chastised Suraj for this atrocity, and +forced him to give up Calcutta. And since by this time Great Britain +and France were openly at war, Clive did not hesitate to capture the +near-by French post of Chandarnagar. His next move was to give active +aid to a certain Mir Jafir, a pretender to the throne of the unfriendly +Suraj-ud-Dowlah. The French naturally took sides with Suraj against +Clive. In 1757 Clive drew up 1100 Europeans, 2100 sepoys, and nine +cannon in a grove of mango trees at Plassey, a few miles south of the +city of Murshidabad, and there attacked Suraj, who, with an army of +68,000 native troops and with French artillerymen to work his fifty- +three cannon, anticipated an easy victory. The outcome was a brilliant +victory for Clive, as overwhelming as it was unexpected. The British +candidate forthwith became nawab of Bengal and as token of his +indebtedness he paid over £1,500,000 to the English East India Company, +and made Clive a rich man. The British were henceforth dominant in +Bengal. The capture of Masulipatam in 1758, the defeat of the French at +Wandewash, between Madras and Pondicherry, and the successful siege of +Pondicherry in 1761, finally established the British as masters of all +the coveted eastern coast of India. + +[Sidenote: The Treaty of Paris, 1763] + +The fall of Quebec (1759) and of Pondicherry (1761) practically decided +the issue of the colonial struggle, but the war dragged on until, in +1763, France, Spain, and Great Britain concluded the peace of Paris. Of +her American possessions France retained only two insignificant islands +on the Newfoundland coast, [Footnote: St. Pierre and Miquelon.] a few +islands in the West Indies, [Footnote: Including Guadeloupe and +Martinique.] and a foothold in Guiana in South America. Great Britain +received from France the whole of the St. Lawrence valley and all the +territory east of the Mississippi River, together with the island of +Grenada in the West Indies; and from Spain, Great Britain secured +Florida. Beyond the surrender of the sparsely settled territory of +Florida, Spain suffered no loss, for Cuba and the Philippines were +restored to her, and France gave her western Louisiana, that is, the +western half of the Mississippi valley. The French were allowed to +return to their old posts in India, but were not to maintain troops in +Bengal or to build any fort. In other words, the French returned to +India as traders but not as empire builders. [Footnote: During the war, +the French posts in Africa had been taken, and now Gorée was returned +while the mouth of the Senegal River was retained by the British.] + +[Sidenote: Significance of the Seven Years' War to Great Britain and +France] + +Let us attempt to summarize the chief results of the war. In the first +place, Great Britain preserved half of what was later to constitute the +United States, and gained Canada and an ascendancy in India--empires +wider, richer, and more diverse than those of a Cæsar or an Alexander. +Henceforth Great Britain was indisputably the preëminent colonizing +country--a nation upon whose domains the sun never set. It meant that +the English language was to spread as no other language, until to-day +one hundred and sixty millions of people use the tongue which in the +fifteenth century was spoken by hardly five millions. + +Secondly, even more important than this vast land empire was the +dominion of the sea which Great Britain acquired, for from the series +of wars just considered, and especially from the last, dates the +maritime supremacy of England. Since then her commerce, protected and +advertised by the most powerful navy in the world, has mounted by leaps +and bounds, so that now half the vessels which sail the seas bear at +their masthead the Union Jack. From her dominions beyond the oceans and +from her ships upon the seas Great Britain drew power and prestige; +British merchants acquired opulence with resulting social and political +importance to themselves and to their country, and British manufactures +received that stimulation which prepared the way for the Industrial +Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. + +Thirdly, the gains of Great Britain were at least the temporary ruin of +her rival. Not without reluctance did France abandon her colonial +ambitions, but nearly a century was to elapse after the treaty of Paris +before the French should seriously reënter the race for the upbuilding +of world empire. Nor was France without a desire for revenge, which was +subsequently made manifest in her alliance with Britain's rebellious +American colonies in 1778. But French naval power had suffered a blow +from which it was difficult to recover, [Footnote: Yet between 1763 and +1778 the French made heroic and expensive efforts to rebuild their +navy. And as we shall presently see in studying the general war which +accompanied the American revolt, France attempted in vain to reverse +the main result of the Seven Years' War.] and much of her commerce was +irretrievably lost. If toward the close of the eighteenth century +bankruptcy was to threaten the Bourbon court and government at +Versailles, and if at the opening of the next century, British sea- +power was to undermine Napoleon's empire, it was in no slight degree +the result in either case of the Seven Years' disaster. + +India and America were lost to France. Her trade in India soon dwindled +into insignificance before the powerful and wealthy British East India +Company. "French India" to-day consists of Pondicherry, Karikal, +Yanaon, Mahé, and Chandarnagar--196 square miles in all,--while the +Indian Empire of Britain spreads over an area of 1,800,000 square +miles. French empire in America is now represented only by two puny +islands off the coast of Newfoundland, two small islands in the West +Indies, and an unimportant tract of tropical Guiana, but historic +traces of its former greatness and promise have survived alike in +Canada and in Louisiana. In Canada the French population has stubbornly +held itself aloof from the British in language and in religion, and +even to-day two of the seven millions of Canadians are Frenchmen, quite +as intent on the preservation of their ancient nationality as upon +their allegiance to the British rule. In the United States the French +element is less in evidence; nevertheless in New Orleans sidewalks are +called "banquettes," and embankments, "levées"; and still the names of +St. Louis, Des Moines, Detroit, and Lake Champlain perpetuate the +memory of a lost empire. + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +GENERAL. Textbooks and brief treatises: J. S. Bassett, _A Short History +of the United States_ (1914), ch. iii-vii; A. L. Cross, _History of +England and Greater Britain_ (1914), ch. xxxvi-xlii; J. H. Robinson and +C. A. Beard, _The Development of Modern Europe_, Vol. I (1907), ch. vi, +vii; A. D. Innes, _History of England and the British Empire_, Vol. III +(1914), ch. i-vi; W. H. Woodward, _A Short History of the Expansion of +the British Empire, 1500-1911_, 3d ed. (1912), ch. i-v; A. T. Story, +_The Building of the British Empire_ (1898), Part I, _1558-1688_; H. C. +Morris, _The History of Colonization_ (1900), Vol. I, Part III, ch. x- +xii, Vol. II, ch. xvi-xviii. More detailed and specialized studies: +John Fiske, _New France and New England_(1902), a delightful review of +the development of the French empire in America, its struggle with the +British, and its collapse, and, by the same author, _Colonization of +the New World_, ch. vii-x, and _Independence of the New World_, ch. i- +iii, the last two books being respectively Vols. XXI and XXII of the +_History of All Nations; Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. V (1908), ch. +xxii, on the growth of the French and English empires, Vol. VI (1909), +ch. xv, on the English and French in India, 1720-1763, and Vol. VII +(1903), ch. i-iv, on the struggle in the New World; Pelham Edgar, _The +Struggle for a Continent_ (1902), an excellent account of the conflict +in North America, edited from the writings of Parkman; E. B. Greene, +_Provincial America, 1690-1740_ (1905), being Vol. VI of the "American +Nation" Series; Émile Levasseur, _Histoire du commerce de la France_, +Vol. I (1911), the best treatment of French commercial and colonial +policy prior to 1789; Sir J. R. Seeley, _Expansion of England_ (1895), +stimulating and suggestive on the relations of general European history +to the struggle for world dominion; A. W. Tilby, _The English People +Overseas_, a great history of the British empire, projected in 8 vols., +of which three (1912) are particularly important--Vol. I, _The American +Colonies, 1583-1763_, Vol. II, _British India, 1600-1828_, and Vol. IV, +_Britain in the Tropics, 1527-1910_; A. T. Mahan, _The Influence of Sea +Power upon History, 1660-1783_, 24th ed. (1914), an epoch-making work; +Sir W. L. Clowes (editor), _The Royal Navy: a History_, 7 vols. (1897- +1903), ch. xx-xxviii; J. S. Corbett, _England in the Seven Years' War_, +2 vols. (1907), strongly British and concerned chiefly with naval +warfare; J. W. Fortescue, _History of the British Army_, Vols. I and II +(1899). See also the general histories of imperialism and of the +British Empire listed in the bibliographies appended to Chapters XXVII +and XXIX, of Volume II. + +WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE BRITISH IN AMERICA. C. M. Andrews, _The +Colonial Period_ (1912) in "Home University Library," and C. L. Becker, +_Beginnings of the American People_ (1915) in "The Riverside History," +able and stimulating résumés; L. G. Tyler, _England in America, 1580- +1652_ (1904), Vol. IV of "American Nation" Series; John Fiske, _Old +Virginia and her Neighbors_ (1900), and, by the same author, in his +usually accurate and captivating manner, _Beginnings of New England_ +(1898), and _Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_ (1903); H. L. +Osgood, _The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century_, 3 vols. +(1904-1907), the standard authority, together with J. A. Doyle, +_English Colonies in America_, 5 vols. (1882-1907); Edward Channing, _A +History of the United States_, Vol. II, _A Century of Colonial History, +1660-1760_ (1908), very favorable to New England. + +WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. R. G. Thwaites, +_France in America, 1497-1763_ (1905), Vol. VII of the "American +Nation" Series, is a clear and scholarly survey. For all concerning +French Canada prior to the British conquest, the works of Francis +Parkman occupy an almost unique position: they are well known for their +attractive qualities, descriptive powers, and charm of style; on the +whole, they are accurate, though occasionally Parkman seems to have +misunderstood the Jesuit missionaries. The proper sequence of Parkman's +writings is as follows: _Pioneers of France in the New World_ (1865), +_The Jesuits in North America_ (1867), _La Salle and the Discovery of +the Great West_ (1869), _The Old Régime in Canada_ (1874), _Count +Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV_ (1877), _A Half Century of +Conflict_, 2 vols. (1892), _Montcalm and Wolfe_, 2 vols. (1884), _The +Conspiracy of Pontiac, and the Indian War after the Conquest of +Canada_, 2 vols. (1851). Other useful studies: C. W. Colby, _Canadian +Types of the Old Régime, 1608-1698_ (1908); G. M. Wrong, _The Fall of +Canada: a Chapter in the History of the Seven Years' War_ (1914); +Thomas Hughes, S.J., _History of the Society of Jesus in North +America_, Vols. I, II (1907-1908), the authoritative work of a learned +Jesuit; T. J. Campbell, S.J., _Pioneer Priests of North America, 1642- +1710_, 3 vols. (1911-1914); William Kingsford, _History of Canada_, 10 +vols. (1887-1897), elaborate, moderately English in point of view, and +covering the years from 1608 to 1841; F. X. Garneau, _Histoire du +Canada_, 5th ed. of the famous work of a French Canadian, revised by +his grandson Hector Garneau, Vol. I to 1713 (1913). + +INDIA IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. A monumental +_History of India_ in 6 bulky volumes is now (1916) in preparation +by the Cambridge University Press on the model of the "Cambridge Modern +History." Of brief accounts, the best are: A. C. Lyall, _The Rise and +Expansion of British Dominion in India_, 5th ed. (1910); A. D. +Innes, _A Short History of the British in India_ (1902); and G. B. +Malleson, _History of the French in India, 1674-1761_, 2d ed. +reissued (1909). See also the English biography of _Dupleix_ by G. +B. Malleson (1895) and the French lives by Tibulle Hamont (1881) and +Eugène Guénin (1908). An excellent brief biography of _Clive_ is +that of G. B. Malleson (1895). Robert Orme (1728-1801), _History of +the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan from +1745_ [to 1761], 2 vols. in 3, is an almost contemporaneous account +by an agent of the English East India Company who had access to the +company's records, and Beckles Willson, _Ledger and Sword_, 2 +vols. (1903), deals with the economic and political policies of the +English East India Company. For history of the natives during the +period, see Sir H. M. Elliot, _History of India, as told by its own +Historians: the Muhammadan Period_, 8 vols. (1867-1877); and J. G. +Duff, _History of the Mahrattas_, new ed., 3 vols. (1913). + +WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. Of the character of the Elder Pitt, such +an important factor in the British triumph over France, many different +estimates have been made by historians. The two great biographies of +the English statesman are those of Basil Williams, 2 vols. (1913), very +favorable to Pitt, and Albert von Ruville, Eng. trans., 3 vols. (1907), +hostile to Pitt. See also Lord Rosebery, _Lord Chatham, His Early +Life and Connections_ (1910); D. A. Winstanley, _Lord Chatham and +the Whig Opposition_ (1912); and the famous essay on Pitt by Lord +Macaulay. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE REVOLUTION WITHIN THE BRITISH EMPIRE + + +THE BRITISH COLONIAL SYSTEM IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + +The contest for world-empire, from which we have seen Great Britain +emerge victorious, was closely followed by a less successful struggle +to preserve that empire from disrupting forces. We may properly leave +to American history the details of the process by which, as the +colonies became more acutely conscious of the inherent conflict between +their economic interests and the colonial and commercial policy of +Great Britain, they grew at the same time into a self-confident and +defiant independence. Nevertheless, as an epochal event in the history +of British imperialism, the American War of Independence deserves a +prominent place in European history. + +[Sidenote: Mercantilism and the British Colonies] + +The germs of disease were imbedded in the very policy to which many +statesmen of the eighteenth century ascribed England's great career,-- +the mercantilist theories, whose acquaintance we made in an earlier +chapter. [Footnote: See above, pp. 63 ff, and likewise pp. 239 f.] The +mercantilist statesman, anxious to build up the power, and therefore +the wealth, of his country, logically conceived three main ideas about +colonies: (1) they should furnish the mother country with commodities +which could not be produced at home; (2) they should not injure the +mother country by competing with her industries or by enriching her +commercial rivals; and (3) they should help bear the burdens of the +government, army, and navy. Each one of these ideas was reflected in +the actual policy which the British government in the eighteenth +century adopted and enforced in respect of the American colonies. + +[Sidenote: Regulation of Colonial Industry. Bounties] + +(1) Various expedients were employed to encourage the production of +particular colonial commodities which the British Parliament thought +desirable. The commodity might be exempted from customs duties, or +Parliament might forbid the importation into Great Britain of similar +products from foreign countries, or might even bestow outright upon the +colonial producer "bounties," or sums of money, as an incentive to +persevere in the industry. Thus the cultivation of indigo in Carolina, +of coffee in Jamaica, of tobacco in Virginia, was encouraged, so that +the British would not have to buy these desirable commodities from +Spain. Similarly, bounties were given for tar, pitch, hemp, masts, and +spars imported from America rather than from Sweden. + +[Sidenote: Restrictions on Colonial Industry] + +(2) The chief concern of the mercantilist was the framing of such +governmental regulations of trade as would deter colonial commerce or +industry from taking a turn which conceivably might lessen the +prosperity of the British manufacturers or shippers, on whom Parliament +depended for taxes. Of the colonial industries which were discouraged +for this reason, two or three are particularly noteworthy. Thus the hat +manufacturers in America, though they could make hats cheaply, because +of the plentiful supply of fur in the New World, were forbidden to +manufacture any for export, lest they should ruin the hatters of +London. The weaving of cloth was likewise discouraged by a law of 1699 +which prohibited the export of woolen fabrics from one colony to +another. Again, it was thought necessary to protect British iron- +masters by forbidding (1750) the colonists to manufacture wrought iron +or its finished products. Such restrictions on manufacture were +imposed, not so much for fear of actual competition in the English +market, as to keep the colonial markets for English manufacturers. They +caused a good deal of rancor, but they were too ill enforced to bear +heavily upon the colonies. + +[Sidenote: Restrictions on Colonial Trade] + +More irksome were the restrictions on commerce. As far back as 1651, +when Dutch traders were bringing spices from the East and sugar from +the West to sell in London at a handsome profit, Parliament had passed +the first famous Navigation Act, [Footnote: See above, pp. 277 f., 304 +f.] which had been successful in its general design--to destroy the +Dutch carrying trade and to stimulate British ship-building. In the +eighteenth century a similar policy was applied to the colonies. For it +was claimed that the New England traders who sold their fish and lumber +for sugar, molasses, and rum in the French West Indies were enriching +French planters rather than English. Consequently, a heavy tariff was +laid on French sugar-products. Moreover, inasmuch as it was deemed most +essential for a naval power to have many and skilled ship-builders, the +Navigation Acts [Footnote: Subsequent to the Act of 1651, important +Navigation Acts were passed in 1660, 1663, 1672, and 1696.] were so +developed and expanded as to include the following prescriptions: (1) +In general all import and export trade must be conducted in ships built +in England, in Ireland, or in the colonies, manned and commanded by +British subjects. Thus, if a French or Dutch merchantman appeared in +Massachusetts Bay, offering to sell at a great bargain his cargo of +spices or silks, the shrewd merchants of Boston were legally bound not +to buy of him. (2) Certain "enumerated" articles, such as sugar, +tobacco, cotton, indigo, and, later, rice and furs, could be exported +only to England. A Virginia planter, wishing to send tobacco to a +French snuff-maker, would have to ship it to London in an English ship, +pay duties on it there, and then have it reshipped to Havre. (3) All +goods imported into the American colonies from Europe must come by way +of England and must pay duties there. Silks might be more expensive +after they had paid customs duties in London and had followed a +roundabout route to Virginia, but the proud colonial dame was supposed +to pay dearly and to rejoice that English ships and English sailors +were employed in transporting her finery. + +[Sidenote: Reasons for Early Colonial Toleration of Restrictions on the +Industry and Trade] + +It would seem as if such restrictive measures would not have been +tolerated in the colonies, even when imposed by the mother country. +There were, however, several very good reasons why the trade +restrictions were long tolerated. + +[Sidenote: Leniency of Enforcement] + +In the first place, for many years they had been very poorly enforced. +During his long ministry, from 1721 to 1742, Sir Robert Walpole had +winked at infractions of the law and had allowed the colonies to +develop as best they might under his policy of "salutary neglect." +Then, during the colonial wars, it had been inexpedient and impossible +to insist upon the Navigation Acts; and smuggling had become so common +that respectable merchants made no effort to conceal their traffic in +goods which had been imported contrary to provisions of the law. + +[Sidenote: Fear of the French] + +Moreover, the colonies would gladly endure a good deal of economic +hardship in order to have the help of the mother country against the +French. So long as Count de Frontenac and his successors were sending +their Indians southward and eastward to burn New England villages, it +was very comforting to think that the mother country would send armies +of redcoats to conquer the savages and defeat the French. + +[Sidenote: Weakness and Disunion of the Thirteen Colonies] + +But even had there been every motive for armed resistance to Great +Britain, the American colonies could hardly have attempted it until +after the conclusion of the French and Indian War. Until the second +half of the eighteenth century the British colonies were both weak and +divided. They had no navy and very few fortifications to defend their +coastline. They had no army except raw and unreliable militia. Even in +1750 their inhabitants numbered but a paltry 1,300,000 as compared with +a population in Great Britain of more than 10,000,000; and in wealth +and resources they could not dream of rivaling the mother country. + +The lack of union among the colonies sprang from fundamental +industrial, social, and religious differences. The southern provinces-- +Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia--were agricultural, and their +products were plantation-grown rice, indigo, and tobacco. New York and +Pennsylvania produced corn and timber. In New England, although there +were many small farmers, the growing interest was in trade and +manufacture. The social distinctions were equally marked. The northern +colonists were middle-class traders and small farmers, with democratic +town governments, and with an intense pride in education. In the South, +gentlemen of good old English families lived like feudal lords among +their slaves and cultivated manners quite as assiduously as morals. Of +forms of the Christian religion, the Atlantic coast presented a bizarre +mixture. In the main, New England was emphatically Calvinistic and +sternly Puritanical; Virginia, proudly Episcopalian (Anglican); and +Maryland, partly Roman Catholic. Plain-spoken Quakers in Pennsylvania, +Presbyterians and Baptists in New Jersey, and German Lutherans in +Carolina added to the confusion. + +Between colonies so radically different in religion, manners, and +industries, there could be at the outset little harmony or cooperation. +It would be hard to arouse them to concerted action, and even harder to +conduct a war. Financial cooperation was impeded by the fact that the +paper money issued by any one colony was not worth much in the others. +Military cooperation was difficult because while each colony might call +on its farmers temporarily to join the militia in order to repel an +Indian raid, the militia-men were always anxious to get back to their +crops and would obey a strange commander with ill grace. + +[Sidenote: Altered Situation in the Thirteen Colonies after 1763] + +With the conclusion of the French and Indian War, however, conditions +were materially changed, (1) The fear of the French was no longer +present to bind the colonies to the mother country. (2) During the wars +the colonies had grown not only more populous (they numbered about +2,000,000 inhabitants in 1763) and more wealthy, but also more self- +confident. Recruits from the northern colonies had captured Louisburg +in 1745 and had helped to conquer Canada in the last French war. +Virginia volunteers had seen how helpless were General Braddock's +redcoats in forest-warfare. Experiences like these gave the provincial +riflemen pride and confidence. Important also was the Albany Congress +of 1754, in which delegates from seven colonies came together and +discussed Benjamin Franklin's scheme for federating the thirteen +colonies. Although the plan was not adopted, it set men to thinking +about the advantages of confederation and so prepared the way for +subsequent union. + +[Sidenote: More Rigorous Attitude of Great Britain toward the Colonies +after Accession of George III, 1760] + +Not only were the colonists in a more independent frame of mind, but +the British government became more oppressive. During two reigns--those +of George I and George II--ministers had been the power behind the +throne, but in 1760 George III had come to the throne as an +inexperienced and poorly educated youth of twenty-two, full of ambition +to be the power behind the ministers. Not without justice have +historians accused George III of prejudice, stubbornness, and +stupidity. Nevertheless, he had many friends. The fact that he, the +first really English king since the Revolution of 1688, should manifest +a great personal interest and industry in affairs of state, endeared +him to many who already respected his irreproachable private morality +and admired his flawless and unfailing courtesy. Under the inspiration +of Lord Bute, [Footnote: The earl of Bute (1713-1792) became prime +minister in 1762, after the resignations of Pitt, who had been the real +head of the cabinet, and the duke of Newcastle, who had been the +nominal premier. Bute in turn was succeeded by George Grenville (1712- +1770).] the "king's friends" became a political party, avowedly intent +on breaking the power of the great Whig noblemen who had so long +dominated corrupt Parliaments and unscrupulous ministries. + +[Sidenote: Grenville, Prime Minister, 1763-1765, Executor of the +Colonial Policies of George III] + +George III attempted at the outset to gain control of Parliament by +wholesale bribery of its members, but, since even this questionable +expedient did not give him a majority, he tried dividing the forces of +his Whig opponents. This was somewhat less difficult since Pitt, the +most prominent Whig, the eloquent Chauvinist [Footnote: Chauvin, a +soldier in Napoleon's army, was so enthusiastic for the glory of the +great general that his name has since been used as an adjective +denoting excessive patriotism and fondness for war.] minister, "friend +of the colonies," and idol of the cities, had lost control of the +ministry. England, too, felt the burdensome expense of war, and the +public debt had mounted to what was then the enormous sum of +£140,000,000. George III, therefore, chose for prime minister (1763- +1765) George Grenville, a representative of a faction of Whig +aristocrats, who, alarmed by the growth of the public debt, and jealous +of Pitt's power, were quite willing to favor the king's colonial +policies. Great Britain, they argued, had undergone a costly war to +defend the colonists on the Atlantic coast from French aggression. The +colonies were obviously too weak and too divided to garrison and police +the great Mississippi and St. Lawrence valleys; and yet, in order to +prevent renewed danger from French, Spaniards, or Indians, at least ten +thousand regular soldiers would be needed at an annual expense of +£300,000. What could be more natural than that the colonists, to whose +benefit the war had redounded, and to whose safety the army would add, +should pay at least a part of the expense? This idea, put forward by +certain Whig statesmen, that the colonists should bear part of the +financial burden of imperial defense, was eagerly seized upon by George +III and utilized as the cornerstone of his colonial policy. To such a +policy the Tories, as ardent upholders of the monarchy, lent their +support. + +[Sidenote: The Sugar Act, 1764] + +Grenville, the new minister, accordingly proposed that the colonists +should pay about £150,000 a year,--roughly a half of the estimated +total amount,--and for raising the money, he championed two special +finance acts in the British Parliament. The first was the Sugar Act of +1764. Grenville recognized that a very high tariff on the importation +of foreign sugar-products into the colonies invited smuggling on a +large scale, was therefore generally evaded, and yielded little revenue +to the government. As a matter of fact, in the previous year, +Massachusetts merchants had smuggled 15,000 hogsheads of molasses +[Footnote: Large quantities of molasses were used in New England for +the manufacture of rum.] from the French West Indies. Now, in +accordance with the new enactment, the duty was actually halved, but a +serious attempt was made to collect what remained. For the purpose of +the efficient collection of the sugar tax, the Navigation Acts were +revived and enforced; British naval officers were ordered to put a +peremptory stop to smuggling; and magistrates were empowered to issue +"writs of assistance" enabling customs collectors to search private +houses for smuggled goods. The Sugar Act was expected to yield one- +third of the amount demanded by the British ministry. + +[Sidenote: The Stamp Act, 1765] +[Sidenote: Opposition in the Colonies] + +The other two-thirds of the £150,000 was to be raised under the Stamp +Act of 1765. Bills of lading, official documents, deeds, wills, +mortgages, notes, newspapers, and pamphlets were to be written or +printed only on special stamped paper, on which the tax had been paid. +Playing cards paid a stamp tax of a shilling; dice paid ten shillings; +and on a college diploma the tax amounted to £2. The Stamp Act bore +heavily on just the most dangerous classes of the population-- +newspaper-publishers, pamphleteers, lawyers, bankers, and merchants. +Naturally the newspapers protested and the lawyers argued that the +Stamp Act was unconstitutional, that Parliament had no right to levy +taxes on the colonies. The very battle-cry, "Taxation without +Representation is Tyranny," was the phrase of a Boston lawyer, James +Otis. + +At once the claim was made that the colonists were true British +subjects and that taxation without representation was a flagrant +violation of the "immemorial rights of Englishmen." Now the colonists +had come to believe that their only true representatives were those for +whom they voted personally, the members of the provincial assemblies. +Each colony had its representative assembly; and these assemblies, like +the parent Parliament in Great Britain, had become very important by +acquiring the function of voting taxes. The colonists, therefore, +claimed that taxes could be voted only by their own assemblies, while +the British government replied, with some pertinency, that Parliament, +although elected by a very small minority of the population, was +considered to be generally representative of all British subjects. + +[Sidenote: The Stamp Act Congress, 1765] + +Many colonists, less learned than the lawyers, were unacquainted with +the subtleties of the argument, but they were quite willing to be +persuaded that in refusing to pay British taxes they were contending +for a great principle of liberty and self-government. Opposition to the +stamp tax spread like wildfire and culminated in a congress at New York +in October, 1765, comprising delegates from nine colonies. The "Stamp +Act Congress," for so it was called, issued a declaration of rights-- +the rights of trial by jury [Footnote: The right of trial by jury had +been violated by British officials in punishing smugglers.] and of +self-taxation--and formally protested against the Stamp Act. + +[Sidenote: Repeal of the Stamp Act, 1776] + +Parliament might have disregarded the declaration of the Congress, but +not the tidings of popular excitement, of mob violence, of stamp- +collectors burned in effigy. Moreover, colonial boycotts against +British goods--"nonimportation agreements"--were effective in creating +sentiment in England in favor of conciliation. Taking advantage of +Grenville's resignation, a new ministry under the marquess of +Rockingham, [Footnote: Rockingham retired in July, 1766] a liberal +Whig, procured the repeal of the obnoxious Stamp Act in March, 1766. +While the particular tax was abandoned, a Declaratory Act was issued, +affirming the constitutional right of Parliament to bind the colonies +in all cases. + +[Sidenote: The Townshend Acts, 1767] + +That right was asserted again in 1767 by a brilliant but reckless +chancellor of the exchequer, Charles Townshend, who, without the +consent of the other ministers, put through Parliament the series of +acts which bear his name. His intention was to raise a regular colonial +revenue for the support of colonial governors, judges, and other +officers as well as for the defense of the colonies. For these +purposes, import duties were laid on glass, lead, painters' colors, +paper, and tea; the duties were to be collected by English +commissioners resident in the American ports; and infractions of the +law in America were to be tried in courts without juries. + +[Sidenote: "The Boston Massacre"] + +The Townshend Acts brought forth immediate and indignant protests. +Colonial merchants renewed and extended their nonimportation +agreements. Within a year the imports Boston from Great Britain fell +off by more than £700,000. The customs officers were unable or afraid +to collect the duties strictly, and it is said that in three years the +total revenue from them amounted only to £16,000. Troops were +dispatched to overawe Boston, but the angry Bostonians hooted and +hissed the "lobsterbacks," as the redcoats were derisively styled, and +in 1770 provoked them to actual bloodshed--the so-called "Boston +Massacre." + +[Sidenote: Lord North, Prime Minister, 1770] + +At this crucial moment, King George III chose a new prime minister, +Lord North, a gentleman of wit, ability, and affability, unfailingly +humorous, and unswervingly faithful to the king. Among his first +measures was the repeal (1770) of the hated Townshend duties. Merely a +tax of threepence a pound on tea was retained, in order that the +colonies might not think that Parliament had surrendered its right to +tax them. Lord North even made an arrangement with the East India +Company whereby tea was sold so cheaply that it would not pay to +smuggle tea from the Dutch. + +[Sidenote: "The Boston Tea Party," 1773] + +But the colonists would not now yield even the principle of +Parliamentary taxation. [Footnote: Despite the fact that the colonists +had regularly been paying import duties on molasses and on foreign +wine.] They insisted that were they to pay this tax, trifling as it +might be, Parliament would assert that they had acknowledged its right +to tax them, and would soon lay heavier taxes upon them. They, +therefore, refused to buy the tea, and on a cold December night in 1773 +a number of Boston citizens dressed up like Indians, boarded a British +tea ship, and emptied 342 chests of tea into the harbor. + +[Sidenote: The Five "Intolerable Acts," 1774] + +Boston's "Tea-Party" brought punishment swift and sure in the famous +five "intolerable acts" (1774). Boston harbor was closed; Massachusetts +was practically deprived of self-government; royal officers who +committed capital offenses were to be tried in England or in other +colonies; royal troops were quartered on the colonists; and the +province of Quebec was extended south to the Ohio, cutting off vast +territories claimed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia. This +last act, by recognizing and establishing the Roman Catholic Church in +French-speaking Quebec, excited the liveliest fear and apprehension on +the part of Protestants in the English-speaking colonies. + +[Sidenote: First Continental Congress, 1774] + +Agitators in the other colonies feared that their turn would come next, +and rallied to the aid of Massachusetts. The first Continental Congress +of delegations from all the colonies [Footnote: Except Georgia.] met in +1774 in Philadelphia "to deliberate and determine upon wise and proper +measures, to be by them recommended to all the colonies, for the +recovery and establishment of their just rights and liberties, civil +and religious, and the restoration of union and harmony between Great +Britain and the colonies." The Congress dispatched a petition to the +king and urged the colonists to be faithful to the "American +Association" for the non-importation of British goods. + + +THE WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 1775-1783 + +[Sidenote: Revolt of the Thirteen Colonies] + +Neither king nor colonies would yield a single point. William Pitt, now +earl of Chatham, in vain proposed conciliatory measures. The colonies +fast drifted into actual revolt. In May, 1775, the second Continental +Congress met at Philadelphia, but already blood had been shed at +Lexington (Massachusetts), 19 April, 1775, and New England was a hotbed +of rebellion. The Congress accepted facts as they were, declared war, +appointed George Washington commander-in-chief, sent agents to France +and other foreign countries, and addressed a final petition to the +king. + +[Sidenote: The Declaration of Independence, 1776] + +But it was too late for reconciliation, and events marched rapidly +until on 4 July, 1776, the colonies declared themselves "free and +independent states." [Footnote: The colonies on the recommendation of +Congress set up independent governments and these state governments +were formally federated in accordance with "articles of Confederation +and perpetual Union," drawn up in Congress in 1777 and finally ratified +in 1781.] The Declaration of Independence was remarkable for two +things, its philosophy and its effects. The philosophy was that held by +many radical thinkers of the time--"that all men are endowed by their +Creator with certain unalienable rights"; that among such rights are +life, liberty, and the exclusive right to tax themselves; and that any +people may rightfully depose a tyrannical ruler. We shall find a +similar philosophy applied more boldly in the French Revolution. + +In America the Declaration was denounced by "Tories" as treason, but +was welcomed by "patriots" as an inspiration and a stimulus. To show +their joy, the people of New York City pulled down the leaden statue of +King George and molded it into bullets. Instead of rebellious subjects, +the English-speaking Americans now claimed to be a belligerent nation, +and on the basis of this claim they sought recognition and aid from +other nations. + +[Sidenote: Difficulties and Early Successes of the British] + +For over three years, however, the war was carried on simply between +rebellious colonies and the mother country. Had the grave nature of the +revolt been thoroughly understood in England from the outset, the +colonists might possibly have been crushed within a short time, for +many of the richest colonists were opposed to the war; and even had the +"people of the United States" supported the struggle unanimously, they +were no match for Great Britain in wealth, population, or naval power. +As it was, Great Britain allowed the revolution to get under full +headway before making a serious effort to suppress it. In 1776, +however, a force of about 30,000 men, many of whom were mercenary +German soldiers, commonly called "Hessians," was sent to occupy New +York. Thenceforward, the British pursued aggressive tactics, and +inasmuch as their armies were generally superior to those of the +colonists in numbers, discipline, and equipment, and besides were +supported by powerful fleets, they were able to possess themselves of +the important colonial ports of New York, Philadelphia, and +Charlestown, [Footnote: Name changed to Charleston in 1783.] and to win +many victories. On the other hand, the region to be conquered was +extensive and the rebel armies stubborn and elusive. Moreover, the +colonists possessed a skillful leader in the person of the aristocratic +Virginian planter who has already been mentioned as taking a part in +the French and Indian War. At first, George Washington was criticized +for bringing the gravity of a judge and the dignified bearing of a +courtier to the battlefield, but he soon proved his ability. He was +wise enough to retreat before superior forces, always keeping just out +of harm's way, and occasionally catching his incautious pursuer +unawares, as at Princeton or Trenton. + +[Sidenote: British Reverse at Saratoga, 1777] + +One of the crucial events of the war was the surrender of the British +General Burgoyne with some six thousand men at Saratoga, on 17 October, +1777, after an unsuccessful invasion of northern New York. At that very +time, Benjamin Franklin, the public-spirited Philadelphia publisher, +was in Paris attempting to persuade France to ally herself with the +United States. Franklin's charming personality, his "republican +plainness," his shrewd common sense, as well as his knowledge of +philosophy and science, made him welcome at the brilliant French court; +but France, although still smarting under the humiliating treaty of +1763, would not yield to his persuasion until the American victory at +Saratoga seemed to indicate that the time had come to strike. An +alliance with the United States was concluded, and in 1778 war was +declared against Great Britain. + +[Sidenote: Entrance into the War of France (1778), Spain (1779), +Holland (1780)] +[Sidenote: Isolation of Great Britain] + +The war now took on a larger aspect, and in its scale of operations and +in its immediate significance the fighting in the colonies was dwarfed +into comparative insignificance. In the attack upon Great Britain, +France was dutifully joined by Spain (1779). Holland, indignant at the +way in which Great Britain had tried to exclude Dutch traders from +commerce with America, joined the Bourbons (1780) against their common +foe. Other nations, too, had become alarmed at the rapid growth and +domineering maritime policy of Great Britain. Since the outbreak of +hostilities, British captains and admirals had claimed the right to +search and seize neutral vessels trading with America or bearing +contraband of war. Against this dangerous practice, Catherine II of +Russia protested vigorously, and in 1780 formed the "armed neutrality +of the North" with Sweden and Denmark to uphold the protest with force, +if necessary. Prussia, Portugal, the Two Sicilies, and the Holy Roman +Empire subsequently pronounced their adherence to the Armed Neutrality, +and Great Britain was confronted by a unanimously hostile Europe. + +[Sidenote: The War in Europe] + +In the actual operations only three nations figured--France, Spain, and +Holland; and of the three the last named gave little trouble except in +the North Sea. More to be feared were France and Spain, for by them the +British Empire was attacked in all its parts. For a while in 1779 even +the home country was threatened by a Franco-Spanish fleet of sixty-six +sail, convoying an army of 60,000 men; but the plan came to naught. +Powerful Spanish and French forces, launched against Great Britain's +Mediterranean possessions, succeeded in taking Minorca, but were +repulsed by the British garrison of Gibraltar. + +[Sidenote: The War in America] + +On the continent of North America the insurgent colonists, aided by +French fleets and French soldiers, gained a signal victory. An American +and French army under Washington and Lafayette and a French fleet under +De Grasse suddenly closed in upon the British general, Lord Cornwallis, +in Yorktown, Virginia, and compelled him to surrender on 19 October, +1781, with over 7000 men. The capitulation of Cornwallis practically +decided the struggle in America, for all the reserve forces of Great +Britain were required in Europe, in the West Indies, and in Asia. + +[Sidenote: The War in the West Indies] +[Sidenote: Battle of Saints, 1782] + +Matters were going badly for Great Britain until a naval victory in the +Caribbean Sea partially redeemed the day. For three winters an +indecisive war had been carried on in the West Indies, but in 1782 +thirty-six British ships, under the gallant Rodney, met the French +Count de Grasse with thirty-three sail of the line near the group of +islands known as "the Saints," and a great battle ensued--the "battle +of Saints"--on 12 April, 1782. During the fight the wind suddenly +veered around, making a great gap in the line of French ships, and into +this gap sailed the British admiral, breaking up the French fleet, and, +in the confusion, capturing six vessels. + +[Sidenote: The War in India] + +While the battle of Saints saved the British power in the West Indies, +the outlook in the East became less favorable. At first the British had +been successful in seizing the French forts in India (1778) and in +defeating (1781) the native ally of the French, Hyder Ali, the sultan +of Mysore. But in 1782 the tide was turned by the appearance of the +French admiral De Suffren, whose brilliant victories over a superior +British fleet gave the French temporary control of the Bay of Bengal. + +[Sidenote: Defeat but not Ruin of Great Britain] +[Sidenote: Treaties of Paris and Versailles, 1783] + +Unsuccessful in America, inglorious in India, expelled from Minorca, +unable to control Ireland, [Footnote: The Protestants in Ireland had +armed and organized volunteer forces, and threatened rebellion unless +Great Britain granted "home rule" to them. Great Britain yielded and in +1782 granted legislative autonomy to the Irish Parliament. See below, +p. 431.] and weary with war, England was very ready for peace, but not +entirely humbled, for was she not still secure in the British Channel, +victorious over the Dutch, triumphant in the Caribbean, unshaken in +India, and unmoved on Gibraltar? Defeat, but not humiliation, was the +keynote of the treaties (1783) which Great Britain concluded, one at +Paris with the United States, and one at Versailles with France and +Spain. Let us consider the provisions of these treaties in order, as +they affected the United States, France, and Spain. + +[Sidenote: The United States of America] + +By the treaty of Paris (3 September, 1783), the former thirteen +colonies were recognized as the sovereign and independent United States +of America,--bounded on the north by Canada and the Great Lakes, on the +east by the Atlantic, on the west by the Mississippi, and on the south +by Florida. Important fishing rights on the Newfoundland Banks and the +privilege of navigation on the Mississippi were extended to the new +nation. When the treaty of Paris was signed, the United States were +still held loosely together by the articles of Confederation, but after +several years of political confusion, a new and stronger federal +constitution was drawn up in 1787, and in 1789 George Washington became +first president of the republic. The republic thus created was the +first important embodiment of the political theories of Montesquieu and +other French philosophers, who, while condemning titled nobility and +absolute monarchy, distrusted the ignorant classes of the people, and +believed in placing political control chiefly in the hands of +intelligent men of property and position. + +[Sidenote: Results to France] + +Had it not been for the disastrous battle of Saints, France might have +dictated very favorable terms in the treaty of Versailles, [Footnote: +In 1786 a supplementary Anglo-French treaty restored regular commerce +between the two nations, and recognized that Great Britain had no right +to seize traders flying a neutral flag, except for contraband of war, +_i.e._, guns, powder, and provisions of war.] but, as it was, she +merely regained Tobago in the West Indies and Senegal in Africa, which +she had lost in 1763. [Footnote: See above, p. 317.] The equipment of +navies and armies had exhausted the finances of the French government, +and was largely responsible for the bankruptcy which was soon to +occasion the fall of absolutism in France. Moreover, French "radicals," +having seen the Americans revolt against a king, were, themselves, the +more ready to enter upon a revolution. + +[Sidenote: Results to Spain] + +Better than France fared Spain. By the treaty of Versailles she +received the island of Minorca and the territory of Florida, which then +included the southern portions of what later became the American states +of Alabama and Mississippi. [Footnote: The Louisiana territory, which +had come into Spanish possession in 1763, was re-ceded to France in +1800 and sold by France to the United States in 1803. Eighteen years +later (1821) all of Florida was formally transferred to the United +States. And see below, p. 532.] + +[Sidenote: Settlement between Great Britain and Holland, 1784] + +Holland, the least important participant in the war, was not a party to +the treaty of Versailles, but was left to conclude a separate peace +with Great Britain in the following year (1784). The Dutch not only +lost some of their East Indian possessions, [Footnote: Including +stations on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts of India.] but, what was +more essential, they were forced to throw open to British merchants the +valuable trade of the Malay Archipelago. + + +THE REFORMATION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE + +[Sidenote: New Conciliatory Colonial Policy] + +The War of American Independence not only had cost Great Britain the +thirteen colonies, hitherto the most important, [Footnote: The thirteen +colonies were not actually then so profitable, however, as the fertile +West Indies, nor did they fit in so well with the mercantilist theory +of Colonialism.] oldest, and strongest of her possessions, and likewise +Senegal, Florida, Tobago, and Minorca, but it had necessitated a +terrible expenditure of men, money, and ships. More bitter than the +disastrous results of the war, however, was the reflection that +possibly all might have been avoided by a policy of conciliation and +concession. Still it was not too late to learn, and in its treatment of +the remaining colonies, the British government showed that the lesson +had not been lost. + +[Sidenote: Quebec Act, 1774] +[Sidenote: Board of Control in India, 1784] +[Sidenote: Separate Parliament for Ireland, 1782] + +On the eve of the revolt of the English-speaking colonies in America, a +wise measure of toleration was accorded to the French inhabitants of +Canada by the Quebec Act of 1774, which allowed them freely to profess +their Roman Catholic religion, and to enjoy the continuance of the +French civil law. To these advantages was added in 1791 the privilege +of a representative assembly. India, too, felt the influence of the new +policy, when in 1784 Parliament created a Board of Control to see that +the East India Company did not abuse its political functions. Even +Ireland, which was practically a colony, was accorded in 1782 the right +to make its own local laws, a measure of self-government enjoyed till 1 +January, 1801. [Footnote: See below, p. 431.] + +[Sidenote: Decline and Gradual Abandonment of Mercantilism] + +British commercial policy, too, underwent a change, for the Navigation +Acts, which had angered the American colonies, could not now be applied +to the free nation of the United States. Moreover, the mercantilist +theory, having in this case produced such unfortunate results, +henceforth began to lose ground, and it is not without interest that +Adam Smith's _Wealth of Nations_, the classic expression of the +new political economy of free trade,--of _laisser-faire_, as the +French styled it,--which was destined to supplant mercantilism, was +published in 1776, the very year of the declaration of American +independence. Of course Great Britain's mercantilist trade regulations +were not at once abandoned, but they had received a death-blow, and +British commerce seemed none the worse for it. The southern American +states began to grow cotton [Footnote: During the war, cotton was +introduced into Georgia and Carolina from the Bahamas, and soon became +an important product. In 1794, 1,600,000 pounds were shipped to Great +Britain.] for the busy looms of British manufacturers, and of their own +free will the citizens of the United States bought the British +manufactures which previously they had boycotted as aggrieved +colonists. In this particular, at least, the loss of the colonies was +hardly a loss at all. + +[Sidenote: Extent of the British Empire at Close of Eighteenth Century] + +Even for those ardent British patriots who wished to see their flag +waving over half the world and who were deeply chagrined by the +untoward political schism that had rent kindred English-speaking +peoples asunder, there was still some consolation and there was about +to be some compensation. In the New World, Canada, Bermuda, the +Bahamas, Jamaica, and smaller islands of the West Indies, and a part of +Honduras, made no mean empire; and in the Old World the British flag +flew over the forts at Gibraltar, Gambia, and the Gold Coast, while +India offered almost limitless scope for ambition and even for greed. + +[Sidenote: Extension of the British Empire in India] +[Sidenote: Warren Hastings] + +To the extension and solidification of her empire in the East, Great +Britain now devoted herself, and with encouraging results. It will be +remembered that British predominance in India had already been assured +by the brilliant and daring Clive, who had defeated the French, set up +a puppet nawab in Bengal, and attempted to eliminate corruption from +the administration, Clive's work was continued by a man no less famous, +Warren Hastings (1732-1818), whose term as governor-general of India +(1774-1785) covered the whole period of the American revolt. At the age +of seven-teen, Hastings had first entered the employ of the British +East India Company, and an apprenticeship of over twenty years in India +had browned his face and inured his lean body to the peculiarities of +the climate, as well as giving him a thorough insight into the native +character. When at last, in 1774, he became head of the Indian +administration, Hastings inaugurated a policy which he pursued with +tireless attention to details--a policy involving the transference of +British headquarters to Calcutta, and a thorough reform of the police, +military, and financial systems. In his wars and intrigues with native +princes and in many of his financial transactions, a Parliament, which +was inclined to censure, found occasion to attack his honor, and the +famous Edmund Burke, with all the force of oratory and hatred, +attempted to convict the great governor of "high crimes and +misdemeanors." But the tirades of Burke were powerless against the man +who had so potently strengthened the foundations of the British empire +in India. + +[Sidenote: Cornwallis] + +In 1785 Hastings was succeeded by Lord Cornwallis--the same who had +surrendered to Washington at Yorktown. Cornwallis was as successful in +India as he had been unfortunate in America. His organization of the +tax system proved him a wise administrator, and his reputation as a +general was enhanced by the defeat of the rebellious sultan of Mysore. + +The work begun so well by Clive, Hastings, and Cornwallis, was ably +carried on by subsequent administrators, [Footnote: For details +concerning British rule in India between 1785 and 1858, see Vol. II, +pp. 662 ff.] until in 1858 the crown finally took over the empire of +the East India Company, an empire stretching northward to the +Himalayas, westward to the Indus River, and eastward to the +Brahmaputra. + +[Sidenote: The Straits Settlements] +[Sidenote: Australia] + +In the years immediately following the War of American Independence +occurred two other important extensions of British power. One was the +occupation of the "Straits Settlements" which gave Great Britain +control of the Malay peninsula and of the Straits of Malacca through +which the spice ships passed. But more valuable as a future home for +English-speaking Europeans, and, therefore, as partial compensation for +the loss of the United States, was the vast island-continent of +Australia, which had been almost unknown until the famous voyage of +Captain Cook to Botany Bay in 1770. For many years Great Britain +regarded Australia as a kind of open-air prison for her criminals, and +the first British settlers at Port Jackson (1788) were exiled convicts. +The introduction of sheep-raising and the discovery of gold made the +island a more attractive home for colonists, and thenceforth its +development was rapid. To-day, with an area of almost 3,000,000 square +miles, and a population of some 4,800,000 English-speaking people, +Australia is a commonwealth more populous than and three times as large +as were the thirteen colonies with which Great Britain so unwillingly +parted in 1783. + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +BRITISH COLONIAL POLICY. A very brief survey: J. S. Bassett, _A Short +History of the United States_ (1914), ch. viii, ix. The most readable +and reliable detailed account of mercantilism as applied by the British +to their colonies is to be found in the volumes of G. L. Beer, _The +Origin of the British Colonial System_, 1578-1660 (1908); _The Old +Colonial System_, 1660-1754, Part I, _The Establishment of the System_, +2 vols. (1912); _British Colonial Policy_, 1754-1765 (1907); and _The +Commercial Policy of England toward the American Colonies_ (1893), a +survey. From the English standpoint, the best summary is that of H. E. +Egerton, _A Short History of British Colonial Policy_ (1897). Other +valuable works: C. M. Andrews, _Colonial Self-Government_ (1904), Vol. +V of the "American Nation" Series; O. M. Dickerson, _American Colonial +Government, 1696-1765_ (1912), a study of the British Board of Trade in +its relation to the American colonies, political, industrial, and +administrative; G. E. Howard, _Preliminaries of the Revolution, 1763- +1775_ (1905), Vol. VIII of the "American Nation" Series; Reginald +Lucas, _Lord North, Second Earl of Guilford_, 2 vols. (1913); and the +standard treatises of H. L. Osgood and of J. A. Doyle cited in the +bibliography to Chapter IX, above. + +THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. Sir G. 0. Trevelyan, _The American +Revolution_, 4 vols. (1899-1912), and, by the same author, _George the +Third and Charles Fox: the Concluding Part of the American Revolution_, +2 vols. (1914), scholarly and literary accounts, sympathetic toward the +colonists and the English Whigs; Edward Channing, _A History of the +United States_, Vol. III (1912), the best general work; C. H. Van Tyne, +_The American Revolution_ (1905), Vol. IX of the "American Nation" +Series, accurate and informing; John Fiske, _American Revolution_, 2 +vols. (1891), a very readable popular treatment; S. G. Fisher, _The +Struggle for American Independence_, 2 vols. (1908), unusually +favorable to the British loyalists in America; _Cambridge Modern +History_, Vol. VII (1903), ch. v-vii, written in great part by J. A. +Doyle, the English specialist on the American colonies; J. B. Perkins, +_France in the American Revolution_ (1911), entertaining and +instructive; Arthur Hassall, _The Balance of Power_, 1715-1789 (1896), +ch. xii, a very brief but suggestive indication of the international +setting of the War of American Independence; J. W. Fortescue, _History +of the British Army_, Vol. III (1902), an account of the military +operations from the English standpoint. + +THE REFORMATION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. A good general history: M. R. P. +Dorman, _History of the British Empire in the Nineteenth Century_, Vol. +I, 1793-1805 (1902), Vol. II, 1806-1900 (1904). On Ireland: W. O'C. +Morris, _Ireland_, 1494-1905, 2d ed. (1909). On Canada: Sir C. P. +Lucas, _A History of Canada_, 1763-1812 (1909). On India: Sir Alfred +Lyall, _Warren Hastings_, originally published in 1889, reprinted +(1908), an excellent biography; G. W. Hastings, _Vindication of Warren +Hastings_ (1909), the best apology for the remarkable governor of +India, and should be contrasted with Lord Macaulay's celebrated +indictment of Hastings; Sir John Strachey, _Hastings and the Rohilla +War_ (1892), favorable to Hastings' work in India. On Australia: +Greville Tregarthen, _Australian Commonwealth_, 3d ed. (1901), a good +outline, in the "Story of the Nations" Series; Edward Jenks, _A History +of the Australasian Colonies_ (1896), an excellent summary; Edward +Heawood, _A History of Geographical Discovery in the Seventeenth and +Eighteenth Centuries_ (1912); Arthur Kitson, _Captain James Cook_ +(1907). + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GERMANIES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + +THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE IN DECLINE + +[Sidenote: Backwardness of the Germanies] + +In another connection we have already described the political condition +of the Germanies in the sixteenth century. [Footnote: See above, pp. 10 +ff.] Outwardly, little change was observable in the eighteenth. The +Holy Roman Empire still existed as a nominal bond of union for a loose +assemblage of varied states. There was still a Habsburg emperor. There +were still electors--the number had been increased from seven to nine +[Footnote: Bavaria became an electorate in 1623 and Hanover in 1708; in +1778 Bavaria and the Palatinate were joined, again making eight.]--with +some influence and considerable honor. There was still a Diet, composed +of representatives of the princes and of the free cities, meeting +regularly at Ratisbon. [Footnote: Ratisbon or Regensburg--in the +Bavarian Palatinate. The Diet met there regularly after 1663.] But the +empire was clearly in decline. The wave of national enthusiasm which +Martin Luther evoked had spent itself in religious wrangling and +dissension, and in the inglorious conflicts of the Thirty Years' War. +The Germans had become so many pawns that might be moved back and forth +upon the international chessboard by Habsburg and Bourbon gamesters. +Switzerland had been lost to the empire; both France and Sweden had +deliberately dismembered other valuable districts. [Footnote: For the +provisions of the treaties of Westphalia, see above, pp. 228 f.] + +[Sidenote: Deplorable Results of the Thirty Years' War] + +It seemed as though slight foundation remained on which a substantial +political structure could be reared, for the social conditions in the +Germanies were deplorable. It is not an exaggeration to say that during +the Thirty Years' War Germany lost at least half of its population and +more than two-thirds of its movable property. In the middle of the +seventeenth century, at about the time Louis XIV succeeded to a fairly +prosperous France, German towns and villages were in ashes, and vast +districts turned into deserts. Churches and schools were closed by +hundreds, and religious and intellectual torpor prevailed. Industry and +trade were so completely paralyzed that by 1635 the Hanseatic League +was virtually abandoned, because the free commercial cities, formerly +so wealthy, could not meet the necessary expenses. Economic expansion +and colonial enterprise, together with the consequent upbuilding of a +well-to-do middle class, were resigned to Spain, Portugal, Holland, +France, or England, without a protest from what had once been a proud +burgher class in Germany. This elimination of an influential +bourgeoisie was accompanied by a sorry impoverishment and oppression of +the peasantry. These native sons of the German soil had fondly hoped +for better things from the religious revolution and agrarian +insurrections of the sixteenth century; but they were doomed to failure +and disappointment. The peasantry were in a worse plight in the +eighteenth century in Germany than in any other country of western or +central Europe. + +[Sidenote: The German Princes] + +The princes alone knew how to profit by the national prostration. +Enriched by the confiscation of ecclesiastical property in the +sixteenth century and relieved of meddlesome interference on the part +of the emperor or the Diet, they utilized the decline of the middle +class and the dismal serfdom of the peasantry to exalt their personal +political power. They got rid of the local assemblies or greatly +curtailed their privileges, and gradually established petty tyrannies. +After the Thirty Years' War, it became fashionable for the heirs of +German principalities to travel and especially to spend some time at +the court of France. Here they imbibed the political ideas of the Grand +Monarch, and in a short time nearly every petty court in the Germanics +was a small-sized reproduction of the court of Versailles. In a silly +and ridiculous way the princes aped their great French neighbor: they +too maintained armies, palaces, and swarms of household officials, +which, though a crushing burden upon the people, were yet so +insignificant in comparison with the real pomp of France, that they +were in many instances the laughingstock of Europe. Beneath an external +gloss of refinement, these princes were, as a class, coarse and +selfish, and devoid of any compensating virtues. Neither the common +people, whom they had impoverished, nor the Church, which they had +robbed, was now strong enough to resist the growing absolutism and +selfishness of the princes. + + +THE HABSBURG DOMINIONS + +[Sidenote: Charles VI and his Hereditary Dominions] + +At the opening of the eighteenth century, the largest and most +important states of the Holy Roman Empire were those which owned the +direct sovereignty of the Austrian Habsburgs. Charles VI (1711-1740), +who as the Archduke Charles had vainly struggled against Louis XIV to +secure the whole Spanish inheritance in the War of the Spanish +Succession (1702-1713), reigned over extensive and scattered dominions. +Around Vienna, his capital city, were gathered his hereditary +possessions: (1) Lower Austria, or Austria proper, on the Danube; (2) +Inner Austria, which comprised Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola; (3) +Further Austria, consisting of the mountainous regions about Innsbruck, +commonly designated the Tyrol; and (4) Upper Austria, embracing +Breisgau on the upper Rhine near the Black Forest. To this nucleus of +lands, in the greater part of which the German language was spoken +universally, had been added in course of time the Czech or Slavic +kingdom of Bohemia with its German dependency of Silesia and its Slavic +dependency of Moravia, and a portion of the Magyar kingdom of Hungary, +with its Slavic dependencies of Croatia and Slavonia and its Rumanian +dependency of Transylvania. Charles VI, like so many of his Habsburg +ancestors, was also emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and was thereby +accounted the foremost of German princes. But neither Bohemia nor +Hungary was predominantly German in language or feeling, and Hungary +was not even a part of the Holy Roman Empire. + +[Sidenote: Conquests of Charles VI] + +What additions were made to the Habsburg dominions by Charles VI were +all of non-German peoples. The treaty of Utrecht had given him the +Flemish- and French-speaking Belgian Netherlands and the Italian- +speaking duchy of Milan and kingdom of the Two Sicilies. [Footnote: See +above, p. 253, footnote.] A series of wars with the Ottoman Turks had +enabled his family to press the Hungarian boundaries south as far as +Bosnia and Serbia and to incorporate as a dependency of Hungary the +Rumanian-speaking principality of Transylvania. [Footnote: Definitely +ceded by Turkey by the treaty of Karlowitz (1699).] Of course all these +newer states of the Habsburgs remained outside of the Holy Roman +Empire. + +[Sidenote: Diversity of Habsburg Dominions] + +Between the various peoples who were thus brought under the Habsburg +sway, the bond was of loosest description. They spoke a dozen different +languages and presented an even greater diversity of interests. They +did not constitute a compact, strongly centralized, national state like +France. Charles VI ruled his territories by manifold titles: he was +archduke of Austria, king of Bohemia, king of Hungary, duke of Milan, +and prince of the Netherlands; and the administration of each of these +five major groups was independent of the others. The single bond of +union was the common allegiance to the Habsburg monarch. + +[Sidenote: Check upon Habsburg Ambitions in the Germanies] + +To adopt and pursue a policy which would suit all these lands and +peoples would hardly be possible for any mortal: it certainly surpassed +the wit of the Habsburgs. They had made an attempt in the seventeenth +century to develop a vigorous German policy, to unify the empire and to +strengthen their hold upon it, but they had failed dismally. The +disasters of the Thirty Years' War, the jealousies and ambitions of the +other German princes, the interested intervention of foreign powers, +notably Sweden and France, made it brutally clear that Habsburg +influence in the Germanies had already reached its highest pitch and +that henceforth it would tend gradually to wane. + +Blocked in the Germanies, the Austrian Habsburgs looked elsewhere to +satisfy their aspirations. But almost equal difficulties confronted +them. Extension to the southeast in the direction of the Balkan +peninsula involved almost incessant warfare with the Turks. Increase of +territory in Italy incited Spain, France, and Sardinia to armed +resistance. Development of the trade of the Belgian Netherlands aroused +the hostility of the influential commercial classes in England, +Holland, and France. The time and toil spent upon these non-German +projects obviously could not be devoted to the internal affairs of the +Holy Roman Empire. Thus, not only were the Germanies a source of +weakness to the Habsburgs, but the Habsburgs were a source of weakness +to the Germanies. + +[Sidenote: Continued Prestige of the Habsburgs] + +Despite these drawbacks, the Habsburg family was still powerful. The +natural resources and native wealth of many of the regions, the large, +if rather cosmopolitan, armies which might be raised, the intricate +marriage relationships with most of the sovereign families of Europe, +the championship of the Catholic Church, the absolutist principles and +practices of the reigning prince, all contributed to cloak the +weaknesses, under a proud name and pretentious fame, of the imperial +Austrian line. + +[Sidenote: Question of the Habsburg Inheritance] +[Sidenote: The "Pragmatic Sanction" of Charles VI] + +In the eighteenth century a particularly unkind fate seemed to attend +the Habsburgs. We have already noticed how the extinction of the male +line in the Spanish branch precipitated a great international war of +succession, with the result that the Spanish inheritance was divided +and the greater part passed to the rival Bourbon family. Now Charles VI +was obliged to face a similar danger in the Austrian inheritance. He +himself had neither sons nor brothers, but only a daughter, Maria +Theresa. Spurred on by the fate of his Spanish kinsman, Charles VI +directed his energies toward securing a settlement of his possessions +prior to his death. Early in his reign he promulgated a so-called +Pragmatic Sanction which declared that the Habsburg dominions were +indivisible and that, contrary to long custom, they might be inherited +by female heirs in default of male. Then he subordinated his whole +foreign policy to securing general European recognition of the right of +Maria Theresa to succeed to all his territories. One after another of +his manifold principalities swore to observe the Pragmatic Sanction. +One after another of the foreign powers--Prussia, Russia, Great +Britain, Holland, the Empire, Poland, France, Spain, and Sardinia,--to +whom liberal concessions were made--pledged their word and their honor +most sacredly to preserve the Pragmatic Sanction. When Charles VI died +in 1740, he left his daughter a disorganized state, a bankrupt +treasury, and a small ill-disciplined army, but he bequeathed her an +ample number of parchment guarantees. The cynical Prussian king +remarked that 200,000 fighting men would have been a more useful +legacy, and, as events proved, he was right. + + +THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. THE HOHENZOLLERNS + +[Sidenote: The Hohenzollern Family] + +Next to the Habsburgs, the most influential German family in the +eighteenth century was the Hohenzollern. As far back as the tenth +century, a line of counts was ruling over a castle on the hill of +Zollern just north of what is now Switzerland. These counts slowly +extended their lands and their power through the fortunes of feudal +warfare and by means of a kindly interest on the part of the Holy Roman +Emperors, until at length, in the twelfth century, a representative of +the Hohenzollerns became by marriage burgrave of the important city of +Nuremberg. + +[Sidenote: Brandenburg] + +So far the Hohenzollerns had been fortunate, but as yet they were no +more conspicuous than hundreds of petty potentates throughout the +empire. It was not until they were invested by the Habsburg emperor +with the electorate of Brandenburg in 1415 that they became prominent. +Brandenburg was a district of northern Germany, centering in the town +of Berlin and lying along the Oder River. As a mark, or frontier +province, it was the northern and eastern outpost of the German +language and German culture, and the exigencies of almost perpetual +warfare with the neighboring Slavic peoples had given Brandenburg a +good deal of military experience and prestige. As an electorate, +moreover, it possessed considerable influence in the internal affairs +of the Holy Roman Empire. + +In the sixteenth century, the acceptance of Lutheranism by the +Hohenzollern electors of Brandenburg enabled them, like many other +princes of northern Germany, to seize valuable properties of the +Catholic Church and to rid themselves of a foreign power which had +curtailed their political and social sway. Brandenburg subsequently +became the chief Protestant state of Germany, just as to Austria was +conceded the leadership of the Catholic states. + +[Sidenote: The Hohenzollerns and the Thirty Years' War] + +The period of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) was as auspicious to +the Hohenzollerns as it was unlucky for the Habsburgs. On the eve of +the contest, propitious marriage alliances bestowed two important +legacies upon the family--the duchy of Cleves [Footnote: Though the +alliance between Brandenburg and Cleves dated from 1614, the +Hohenzollerns did not reign over Cleves until 1666. With Cleves went +its dependencies of Mark and Ravensberg.] on the lower Rhine, and the +duchy of East Prussia, [Footnote: Prussia was then an almost purely +Slavic state. It had been formed and governed from the thirteenth to +the sixteenth century by the Teutonic Knights, a military, crusading +order of German Catholics, who aided in converting the Slavs to +Christianity. In the sixteenth century the Grand Master of the Teutonic +Knights professed the Lutheran faith and transformed Prussia into an +hereditary duchy in his own family. In a series of wars West Prussia +was incorporated into Poland, while East Prussia became a fief of that +kingdom. It was to East Prussia only that the Hohenzollern elector of +Brandenburg succeeded in 1618.] on the Baltic north of Poland. +Henceforth the head of the Hohenzollern family could sign himself +margrave and elector of Brandenburg, duke of Cleves, and duke of +Prussia. In the last-named role, he was a vassal of the king of Poland; +in the others, of the Holy Roman Emperor. In the course of the Thirty +Years' War, the Hohenzollerns helped materially to lessen imperial +control, and at the close of the struggle secured the wealthy +bishoprics of Halberstadt, Minden, and Magdeburg, [Footnote: The right +of accession to Magdeburg was accorded the Hohenzollerns in 1648; they +did not formally possess it until 1680.] and the eastern half of the +duchy of Pomerania. + +[Sidenote: The Great Elector] + +The international reputation of the Hohenzollerns was established by +Frederick William, commonly styled the Great Elector (1640-1688). When +he ascended the throne, the Thirty Years' War had reduced his scattered +dominions to utmost misery: he was resolved to restore prosperity, to +unify his various possessions, and to make his realm a factor in +general European politics. By diplomacy more than by military prowess, +he obtained the new territories by the peace of Westphalia. Then, +taking advantage of a war between Sweden and Poland, he made himself so +invaluable to both sides, now helping one, now deserting to the other, +that by cunning and sometimes by unscrupulous intrigue, he induced the +king of Poland to renounce suzerainty over East Prussia and to give him +that duchy in full sovereignty. In the Dutch War of Louis XIV (1672- +1678) he completely defeated the Swedes, who were in alliance with +France, and, although he was not allowed by the provisions of the peace +to keep what he had conquered, nevertheless the fame of his army was +established and Brandenburg-Prussia took rank as the chief competitor +of Sweden's hegemony in the Baltic. + +In matters of government, the Great Elector was, like his contemporary +Louis XIV, a firm believer in absolutism. At the commencement of his +reign, each one of the three parts of his lands--Brandenburg, Cleves, +and East Prussia--was organized as a separate, petty state, with its +own Diet or form of representative government, its own army, and its +own independent administration. After a hard constitutional struggle, +Frederick William deprived the several Diets of their significant +functions, centered financial control in his own person, declared the +local armies national, and merged the three separate administrations +into one, strictly subservient to his royal council at Berlin. Thus, +the three states were amalgamated into one; and, to all intents and +purposes, they constituted a united monarchy. + +The Great Elector was a tireless worker. He encouraged industry and +agriculture, drained marshes, and built the Frederick William Canal, +joining the Oder with the Elbe. When the revocation of the Edict of +Nantes caused so many Huguenots to leave France, the Great Elector's +warm invitation attracted to Brandenburg some 20,000, who were settled +around Berlin and who gave French genius as well as French names to +their adopted country. The capital city, which at the Great Elector's +accession numbered barely 8000, counted at his death a population of +over 20,000. + +[Sidenote: Brandenburg-Prussia a "Kingdom," 1701] + +Brandenburg-Prussia was already an important monarchy, but its ruler +was not recognized as "king" until 1701, when the Emperor Leopold +conferred upon him that title in order to enlist his support in the War +of the Spanish Succession. In 1713, by the treaty of Utrecht, the other +European powers acknowledged the title. It was Prussia, rather than +Brandenburg, which gave its name to the new kingdom, because the former +was an entirely independent state, while the latter was a member of the +Holy Roman Empire. Thereafter the "kingdom of Prussia" [Footnote: At +first the Hohenzollern monarch assumed the title of king _in_ +Prussia, because West Prussia was still a province of the kingdom of +Poland. Gradually, however, under Frederick William I (1713-1740), the +popular appellation of "king of Prussia" prevailed over the formal +"king in Prussia." West Prussia was definitely acquired in 1772 (see +below, p. 387).] designated the combined territories of the +Hohenzollern family. + +Prussia rose rapidly in the eighteenth century. She shared with Austria +the leadership of the Germanies and secured a position in Europe as a +first-rate power. This rise was the result largely of the efforts of +Frederick William I (1713-1740). + +[Sidenote: King Frederick William I, 1713-1740] + +King Frederick William was a curious reversion to the type of his +grandfather: he was the Great Elector over again with all his practical +good sense if without his taste for diplomacy. His own ideal of +kingship was a paternal despotism, and his ambition, to use most +advantageously the limited resources of his country in order to render +Prussia feared and respected abroad. He felt that absolutism was the +only kind of government consonant with the character of his varied and +scattered dominions, and he understood in a canny way the need of an +effective army and of the closest economy which would permit a +relatively small kingdom to support a relatively large army. Under +Frederick William I, money, military might, and divine-right monarchy +became the indispensable props of the Hohenzollern rule in Prussia. + +By a close thrift that often bordered on miserliness King Frederick +William I managed to increase his standing army from 38,000 to 80,000 +men, bringing it up in numbers so as to rank with the regular armies of +such first-rate states as France or Austria. In efficiency, it probably +surpassed the others. An iron discipline molded the Prussian troops +into the most precise military engine then to be found in Europe, and a +staff of officers, who were not allowed to buy their commissions, as in +many European states, but who were appointed on a merit basis, +commanded the army with truly professional skill and devoted loyalty. + +In civil administration, the king persevered in the work of +centralizing the various departments. A "general directory" was +intrusted with the businesslike conduct of the finances and gradually +evolved an elaborate civil service--the famous Prussian bureaucracy, +which, in spite of inevitable "red tape," is notable to this day for +its efficiency and devotion to duty. The king endeavored to encourage +industry and trade by enforcing up-to-date mercantilist regulations, +and, although he repeatedly expressed contempt for current culture +because of what he thought were its weakening tendencies, he +nevertheless prescribed compulsory elementary education for his people. + +King Frederick William, who did so much for Prussia, had many personal +eccentricities that highly amused Europe. Imbued with patriarchal +instincts, he had his eye on everybody and everything. He treated his +kingdom as a schoolroom, and, like a zealous schoolmaster, flogged his +naughty subjects unmercifully. If he suspected a man of possessing +adequate means, he might command him to erect a fine residence so as to +improve the appearance of the capital. If he met an idler in the +streets, he would belabor him with his cane and probably put him in the +army. And a funny craze for tall soldiers led to the creation of the +famous Potsdam Guard of Giants, a special company whose members must +measure at least six feet in height, and for whose service he attracted +many foreigners by liberal financial offers: it was the only luxury +which the parsimonious king allowed himself. + +[Sidenote: Accession of Frederick the Great, 1740] + +During a portion of his reign the crabbed old king feared that all his +labors and savings would go for naught, for he was supremely +disappointed in his son, the crown-prince Frederick. The stern father +had no sympathy for the literary, musical, artistic tastes of his son, +whom he thought effeminate, and whom he abused roundly with a quick and +violent temper. When Prince Frederick tried to run away, the king +arrested him and for punishment put him through such an arduous, slave- +like training in the civil and military administration, from the lowest +grades upward, as perhaps no other royal personage ever received. It +was this despised and misunderstood prince who as Frederick II +succeeded his father on the throne of Prussia in 1740 and is known in +history as Frederick the Great. + +The year 1740 marked the accession of Frederick the Great in the +Hohenzollern possessions and of Maria Theresa in the Habsburg +territories. [Footnote: Below are discussed the foreign achievements +(pp. 354 ff.) of these two rival sovereigns, and in Chapter XIV (pp. +440 ff.) their internal policies.] It also marked the outbreak of a +protracted struggle within the Holy Roman Empire between the two +foremost German states--Austria and Prussia. + + +THE MINOR GERMAN STATES + +[Sidenote: German States Other than Austria and Prussia] + +Of the three hundred other states which composed the empire, few were +sufficiently large or important to exert any considerable influence on +the issue of the contest. A few, however, which took sides, deserve +mention not only because in the eighteenth century they preserved a +kind of balance of power between the rivals but also because they have +been more or less conspicuous factors in the progress of recent times. +Such are Bavaria, Saxony, and Hanover. + +[Sidenote: Bavaria] + +Bavaria lay on the upper Danube to the west of Austria and in the +extreme southeastern corner of what is now the German Empire. For +centuries it was ruled by the Wittelsbach family, whose remarkable +prince, Maximilian I (1597-1651), had headed the Catholic League and +loyally supported the Habsburgs in the Thirty Years' War, and by the +peace of Westphalia had gained a part of the Palatinate [Footnote: The +other part of the Palatinate, under another branch of the Wittelsbachs, +was reunited with Bavaria in 1779.] together with the title of +"elector." His successor had labored with much credit in the second +half of the seventeenth century to repair the wounds caused by the war, +encouraging agriculture and industries, building or restoring numerous +churches and monasteries. But the Bavarian electors in the first half +of the eighteenth century sacrificed a sound, vigorous policy of +internal reform to a far-reaching ambition in international politics. +Despite the bond of a common religion which united them to Austria, +they felt that their proximity to their powerful neighbor made the +Habsburgs their natural enemies. In the War of the Spanish Succession, +therefore, Bavaria took the side of France against Austria, and when +Maria Theresa ascended the throne in 1740, the elector of Bavaria, who +had married a Habsburg princess disbarred by the Pragmatic Sanction of +Charles VI, immediately allied himself with Frederick of Prussia and +with France in order to dismember the Austrian dominions. + +[Sidenote: Saxony] + +The Saxony of the eighteenth century was but a very small fraction of +the vast Saxon duchy which once comprised all northwestern Germany and +whose people in early times had emigrated to England or had been +subjugated by Charlemagne. Saxony had been restricted since the +thirteenth century to a district on the upper Elbe, wedged in between +Habsburg Bohemia and Hohenzollern Brandenburg. Here, however, several +elements combined to give it an importance far beyond its extent or +population. It was the geographical center of the Germanies. It +occupied a strategic position between Prussia and Austria. Its ruling +family--the Wettins--were electors of the empire. It had been, +moreover, after the championship of Martin Luther by one of its most +notable electors, [footnote: Frederick the Wise( 1486-1525)] a leader +of the Lutheran cause, and the reformer's celebrated translation of the +Bible had fixed the Saxon dialect as the literary language of Germany. +At one time it seemed as if Saxony, rather than Brandenburg-Prussia, +might become the dominant state among the Germanies. But the trend of +events determined otherwise. A number of amiable but weak electors in +the seventeenth century repeatedly allied themselves with Austria +against the Hohenzollerns and thereby practically conceded to +Brandenburg the leadership of the Protestant states of northern +Germany.[Footnote: Another source of weakness in Saxony was the custom +in the Wettin family of dividing the inheritance among members of the +family. Such was the origin of the present infinitesimal states of +Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, and Saxe-Altenburg.] + +[Sidenote: Personal Union of Saxony and Poland] + +Then, too, toward the close of the century, the elector separated +himself from his people by becoming a Roman Catholic, and, in order +that he might establish himself as king of Poland, he burdened the +state with continued Austrian alliance, with war, and with heavy taxes. +The unnatural union of Saxony and Poland was maintained throughout the +greater part of the eighteenth century: it was singularly disastrous +for both parties. + +[Sidenote: Hanover, and its Personal Union with Great Britain] + +A part of the original ancient territory of the Saxons in north western +Germany was included in the eighteenth century in the state of Hanover, +extending between the Elbe and the Weser and reaching from Brandenburg +down to the North Sea. Hanover was recognized as an electorate during +the War of the Spanish Succession, [Footnote: The emperor had given the +title of elector to Ernest Augustus in 1692; the Powers recognized +George I as elector in 1708.] but its real importance rested on the +fact that its first elector, through his mother's family, became in +1714 George I of Great Britain, the founder of the Hanoverian dynasty +in that country. This personal union between the British kingdom and +the electorate of Hanover continued for over a century, and was not +without vital significance in international negotiations. Both George I +and George II preferred Hanover to England as a place of residence and +directed their primary efforts towards the protection of their German +lands from Habsburg or Hohenzollern encroachments. + +Enough has now been said to give some idea of the distracted condition +of the Germanies in the eighteenth century and to explain why the Holy +Roman Empire was an unimportant bond of union. Austria, traditionally +the chief of the Germanies, was increasingly absorbed in her non-German +possessions in Hungary, Italy, and the Netherlands. Prussia, the rising +kingdom of the North, comprised a population in which Slavs constituted +a large minority. Saxony was linked with Poland; Hanover, with Great +Britain. Bavaria was a chronic ally of France. Add to this situation, +the political domination of France or Sweden over a number of the petty +states of the empire, the selfishness and jealousies of all the German +rulers, the looming bitter rivalry between Prussia and Austria, and the +sum-total is political chaos, bloodshed, and oppression. + + +THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN HOHENZOLLERNS AND HABSBURGS + +[Sidenote: Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa] + +In the struggle between Prussia and Austria--between Hohenzollerns and +Habsburgs--centered the European diplomacy and wars of the mid- +eighteenth century. On one side was the young king Frederick II (1740- +1786); on the other, the young queen Maria Theresa (1740-1780). Both +had ability and sincere devotion to their respective states and +peoples,--a high sense of royal responsibilities. Maria Theresa was +beautiful, emotional, and proud; the Great Frederick was domineering, +cynical, and always rational. The Austrian princess was a firm believer +in Catholic Christianity; the Prussian king was a friend of Voltaire +and a devotee of skepticism. + +[Sidenote: Coalition against Maria Theresa] + +Frederick inherited from his father a fairly compact monarchy and a +splendidly trained and equipped army of 80,000 men. He smiled at the +disorganized troops, the disordered finances, the conflicting interests +in the hodge-podge of territories which his rival had inherited from +her father. He also smiled at the solemn promise which Prussia had made +to respect the Austrian dominions. No sooner was the Emperor Charles VI +dead and Maria Theresa proclaimed at Vienna than Frederick II entered +into engagements with Bavaria and France to dismember her realm. The +elector of Bavaria was to be made Holy Roman Emperor as Charles VII and +Prussia was to appropriate Silesia. France was suspected of designs +upon the Austrian Netherlands. + +[Sidenote: Frederick's Designs on Silesia] + +Silesia thus became the bone of contention between Frederick II and +Maria Theresa. Silesia covered the fertile valley of the upper Oder, +separating the Slavic Czechs of Frederick's Bohemia on the west from +the Slavic Poles on the east. Its population, which was largely German, +was as numerous as that of the whole kingdom of Prussia, and if annexed +to the Hohenzollern possessions would make them overwhelmingly German. +On the other hand, the loss of Silesia would give Austria less direct +influence in strictly German affairs and would deprive her of a +convenient point of attack against Berlin and the heart of Prussia. + +[Sidenote: Outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession, 1740] + +Trumping up an ancient family claim to the duchy, Frederick immediately +marched his army into Silesia and occupied Breslau, its capital. To the +west, a combined Bavarian and French army prepared to invade Austria +and Bohemia. Maria Theresa, pressed on all sides, fled to Hungary and +begged the Magyars to help her. The effect was electrical. Hungarians, +Austrians, and Bohemians rallied to the support of the Habsburg throne; +recruits were drilled and hurried to the front; the War of the Austrian +Succession (1740-1748) was soon in full swing. + +[Sidenote: Entrance of Great Britain and Spain] + +A trade war had broken out between Great Britain and Spain in 1739, +[Footnote: Commonly called the War of Jenkins's Ear. See above, p. 311] +which speedily became merged with the continental struggle. Great +Britain was bent on maintaining liberal trading privileges in the +Belgian Netherlands and always opposed the incorporation of those +provinces into the rival and powerful monarchy of France, preferring +that they should remain in the hands of some distant and less-feared, +less commercial power, such as Austria. Great Britain, moreover, had +fully recognized the Pragmatic Sanction and now determined that it was +in accordance with her own best interests to supply Maria Theresa with +money and to dispatch armies to the Continent to defend the Netherlands +against France and to protect Hanover against Prussia. On the other +side, the royal family of Spain sympathized with their Bourbon kinsmen +in France and hoped to recover from Austria all the Italian possessions +of which Spain had been deprived by the treaty of Utrecht (1713). + +The main parties to the War of the Austrian Succession were, therefore, +on the one hand, Prussia, France, Spain, and Bavaria, and, on the +other, Austria and Great Britain. With the former at first joined the +elector of Saxony, who wished to play off Prussia against Austria for +the benefit of his Saxon and Polish lands, and the king of Sardinia, +who was ever balancing in Italy between Habsburg and Bourbon +pretensions. With Austria and Great Britain was united Holland, because +of her desire to protect herself from possible French aggression. + +[Sidenote: Course of the War] + +The war was not so terrible or bloody as its duration and the number of +contestants would seem to indicate. Saxony, which inclined more +naturally to Austrian than to Prussian friendship, was easily persuaded +by bribes to desert her allies and to make peace with Maria Theresa. +Spain would fight only in Italy; and Sardinia, alarmed by the prospect +of substantial Bourbon gains in that peninsula, went over to the side +of Austria. The Dutch were content to defend their own territories. + +[Sidenote: Success of Frederick] + +Despite the greatest exertions, Maria Theresa was unable to expel +Frederick from Silesia. Her generals suffered repeated reverses at his +hands, and three times she was forced to recognize his occupation in +order that she might employ all her forces against her western enemies. +By the third treaty between the two German sovereigns, concluded at +Dresden in 1745, Silesia [Footnote: Except a very small district, which +thereafter was known as "Austrian Silesia."] was definitely ceded by +Austria to Prussia. Frederick had gained his ends: he coolly deserted +his allies and withdrew from the war. + +Meanwhile the Austrian arms had elsewhere been more successful. The +French and Bavarians, after winning a few trifling victories in +Bohemia, had been forced back to the upper Danube. Munich was occupied +by the troops of Maria Theresa at the very time when the elector was +being crowned at Frankfort as Holy Roman Emperor. The whole of Bavaria +was soon in Austrian possession, and the French were in retreat across +the Rhine. Gradually, also, the combined forces of Austria and Sardinia +made headway in Italy against the Bourbon armies of France and Spain. + +In the last years of the war, the French managed to protect Alsace and +Lorraine from Austrian invasion, and, under the command of the gifted +Marshal Saxe, they actually succeeded in subjugating the greater part +of the Austrian Netherlands and in carrying the struggle into Holland. +On the high seas and in the colonies, the conflict raged between France +and Great Britain as "King George's War," which has already been +separately noted. [Footnote: See above, pp. 311 f.] + +[Sidenote: Treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748): Indecisive Character of +Struggle between Prussia and Austria] + +The treaties which ended the War of the Austrian Succession were signed +at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. They guaranteed the acquisition of Silesia +by Frederick II of Prussia and restored everything else to the +situation at the opening of the conflict. The Wittelsbach family was +reinstated in Bavaria and in the Palatinate, and the husband of Maria +Theresa, Francis of Lorraine, succeeded Charles VII as Holy Roman +Emperor. France, for all her expenditures and sacrifices, gained +nothing. The War of the Austrian Succession was but a preliminary +encounter in the great duel for German leadership between Prussia and +Austria. It was similarly only an indecisive round in the prolonged +battle between France and Great Britain for the mastery of the colonial +and commercial world. + +[Sidenote: Coalition against Frederick the Great] + +In the war just closed, Austria had been the chief loser, and the +resolute Maria Theresa set herself at once to the difficult task of +recovering her prestige and her ceded territory. Her first efforts were +directed toward internal reform--consolidating the administrations of +her various dominions by the creation of a strong central council at +Vienna, encouraging agriculture, equalizing and augmenting the taxes, +and increasing the army. Her next step was to form a great league of +rulers that would find a common interest with her in dismembering the +kingdom of Frederick. She knew she could count on Saxony. She easily +secured an ally in the Tsarina Elizabeth of Russia, who had been deeply +offended by the caustic wit of the Prussian king. She was already +united by friendly agreements with Great Britain and Holland. She had +only France to win to her side, and in this policy she had the services +of an invaluable agent, Count Kaunitz, the greatest diplomat of the +age. Kaunitz held out to France, as the price for the abandonment of +the Prussian alliance and the acceptance of that of Austria, the +tempting bait of Frederick's Rhenish provinces. But Louis XV at first +refused an Austrian alliance: it would be a departure from the +traditional French policy of opposing the Habsburgs. Kaunitz then +appealed to the king's mistress, the ambitious Madame de Pompadour, +who, like the Tsarina Elizabeth, had had plenty of occasions for taking +offense at the witty verses of the Prussian monarch: the favor of the +Pompadour was won, and France entered the league against Prussia. + +[Sidenote: The "Diplomatic Revolution"] + +Meanwhile, however, Great Britain had entered into a special agreement +with Frederick with the object of guaranteeing the integrity of Hanover +and the general peace of the Germanies. When, therefore, the colonial +war between Great Britain and France was renewed in 1754, it was quite +natural that the former should contract a definite alliance with +Prussia. Thus it befell that, whereas in the indecisive War of the +Austrian Succession Prussia and France were pitted against Austria and +Great Britain, in the determinant Seven Years' War, which ensued, +Austria and France were in arms against Prussia and Great Britain. This +overturn of traditional alliances has been commonly designated the +"Diplomatic Revolution." + +[Sidenote: The Seven Years' War, 1756-1763] + +The Seven Years' War lasted in Europe from 1756 to 1763, and, as +regards both the number of combatants and the brilliant generalship +displayed, deserves to rank with the War of the Spanish Succession as +the greatest war which the modern world had so far witnessed. The story +has already been told of its maritime and colonial counterpart, which +embraced the French and Indian War in America (1754-1763) and the +triumphant campaigns of Clive in India, and which decisively +established the supremacy of Great Britain on the seas, in the Far +East, and in the New World. [Footnote: See above, pp. 312 ff.] There +remains to sketch its course on the European continent. + +[Sidenote: Frederick's Victory at Rossbach, 1757] + +Without waiting for a formal declaration of hostilities, Frederick +seized Saxony, from which he exacted large indemnities and drafted +numerous recruits, and, with his well-trained veteran troops, crossed +the mountains into Bohemia. He was obliged by superior Austrian forces +to raise the siege of Prague and to fall back on his own kingdom. +Thence converged from all sides the allied armies of his enemies. +Russians moved into East Prussia, Swedes from Pomerania into northern +Brandenburg, Austrians into Silesia, while the French were advancing +from the west. Here it was that Frederick displayed those qualities +which entitle him to rank as one of the greatest military commanders of +all time and to justify his title of "the Great." Inferior in numbers +to any one of his opponents, he dashed with lightning rapidity into +central Germany and at Rossbach (1757) inflicted an overwhelming defeat +upon the French, whose general wrote to Louis XV, "The rout of our army +is complete: I cannot tell you how many of our officers have been +killed, captured, or lost." No sooner was he relieved of danger in the +west than he was back in Silesia. He flung himself upon the Austrians +at Leuthen, took captive a third of their army, and put the rest to +flight. + +The victories of Frederick, however, decimated his army. He still had +money, thanks to the subsidies which Pitt poured in from Great Britain, +but he found it very difficult to procure men: he gathered recruits +from hostile countries; he granted amnesty to deserters; he even +enrolled prisoners of war. He was no longer sufficiently sure of his +soldiers to take the offensive, and for five years he was reduced to +defensive campaigns in Silesia. The Russians occupied East Prussia and +penetrated into Brandenburg; in 1759 they captured Berlin. + +[Sidenote: French Reverses. The "Family Compact"] + +The French, after suffering defeat at Rossbach, directed their energies +against Hanover but encountered unexpected resistance at the hands of +an army collected by Pitt's gold and commanded by a Prussian general, +the prince of Brunswick. Brunswick defeated them and gradually drove +them out of Germany. This series of reverses, coupled with disasters +that attended French armies in America and in India, caused the French +king to call upon his cousin, the king of Spain, for assistance. The +result was the formation of the defensive alliance (1761) between the +Bourbon states of France, Spain, and the Two Sicilies, and the entrance +of Spain into the war (1762). + +[Sidenote: Withdrawal of Russia] + +What really saved Frederick the Great was the death of the Tsarina +Elizabeth (1762) and the accession to the Russian throne of Peter III, +a dangerous madman but a warm admirer of the military prowess of the +Prussian king. Peter in brusque style transferred the Russian forces +from the standard of Maria Theresa to that of Frederick and restored to +Prussia the conquests of his predecessor. [Footnote: Peter III was +dethroned in the same year; his wife, Catherine II, who succeeded him, +refused to give active military support to either side.] Spain entered +the war too late to affect its fortunes materially. She was unable to +regain what France had lost, and in fact the Bourbon states were +utterly exhausted. The Austrians, after frantic but vain attempts to +wrest Silesia from Frederick, finally despaired of their cause. + +[Sidenote: Treaty of Hubertusburg (1763): Humiliation of the Habsburgs +and Triumph of the Hohenzollerns] + +The treaty of Hubertusburg (1763) put an end to the Seven Years' War in +Europe. Maria Theresa finally, though reluctantly, surrendered all +claims to Silesia. Prussia had clearly humiliated Austria and become a +first-rate power. The Hohenzollerns were henceforth the acknowledged +peers of the Habsburgs. The almost synchronous treaty of Paris closed +the war between Great Britain, on the one hand, and France and Spain on +the other, by ceding the bulk of the French colonial empire to the +British. Thereafter, Great Britain was practically undisputed mistress +of the seas and chief colonial power of the world. + +[Sidenote: Frederick the Great and the Partition of Poland] + +Frederick the Great devoted the last years of his life to the +consolidation of his monarchy [Footnote: For the internal reforms of +Frederick, see below, pp. 440 ff.] and to enlarging its sphere of +influence rather by diplomacy than by war. Frederick felt that the best +safeguard against further attempts of Austria to recover Silesia was a +firm alliance between Prussia and Russia. And it was an outcome of that +alliance that in 1772 he joined with the Tsarina Catherine in making +the first partition of Poland. Catherine appropriated the country east +of the Düna and the Dnieper rivers. Frederick annexed West Prussia, +except the towns of Danzig and Thorn, thereby linking up Prussia and +Brandenburg by a continuous line of territory. Maria Theresa, moved by +the loss of Silesia and by fear of the undue preponderance which the +partition of Poland would give to her northern rivals, thought to +adjust the balance of power by sharing in the shameful transaction: she +occupied Galicia, including the important city of Cracow. Maria Theresa +repeatedly expressed her abhorrence of the whole business, but, as the +scoffing Frederick said, "She wept, but she kept on taking." + +The partition of Poland was more favorable to Prussia than to Austria. +In the former case, the land annexed lay along the Baltic and served to +render East Prussia, Brandenburg, and Silesia a geographical and +political unit. On the other hand, Austria to some extent was +positively weakened by the acquisition of territory outside her natural +frontiers, and the addition of a turbulent Polish people further +increased the diversity of races and the clash of interests within the +Habsburg dominions. + +When, a few years later, the succession to the electorate of Bavaria +was in some doubt and Austria laid claims to the greater part of that +state (1777-1779), Frederick again stepped in, and now by intrigue and +now by threats of armed force again prevented any considerable +extension of Habsburg control. His last important act was the formation +of a league of princes to champion the lesser German states against +Austrian aggression. + +By hard work, by military might, by force of will, unhampered by any +moral code, Frederick the Great perfected the policies of the Great +Elector and of Frederick William I and raised Prussia to the rank of +partner with Austria in German leadership and to an eminent position in +the international affairs of Europe. Had Frederick lived, however, but +a score of years longer, he would have witnessed the total extinction +of the Holy Roman Empire, the apparent ruin of the Germanies, and the +degradation of his own country as well as that of Austria. [Footnote: +See below, Chapter XVI.] He might even have perceived that a personal +despotism, built by bloodshed and unblushing deceit, was hardly proof +against a nation stirred by idealism and by a consciousness of its own +rights and power. + +[Illustration: THE HOHENZOLLERN FAMILY (1415-1915): ELECTORS OF +BRANDENBURG, KINGS OF PRUSSIA, AND GERMAN EMPERORS] + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +GENERAL. Brief narratives: J. H. Robinson and C. A. Beard, _The +Development of Modern Europe_, Vol. I (1907), ch. iv, v; E. F. +Henderson, _A Short History of Germany_, Vol. II (1902), ch. i-iv; A. +H. Johnson, _The Age of the Enlightened Despot, 1660-1789_ (1910), ch. +vii, viii; Ferdinand Schevill, _The Making of Modern Germany (1916)_, +ch. i, ii; Arthur Hassall, _The Balance of Power, 1715-1789_ (1896), +ch. vi-ix; C. T. Atkinson, _A History of Germany, 1715-1813_ (1908), +almost exclusively a military history; H. T. Dyer, _A History of Modern +Europe from the Fall of Constantinople_, 3d ed. rev. by Arthur Hassall, +6 vols. (1901), ch. xlv-xlviii. Longer accounts: _Cambridge Modern +History_, Vol. V (1908), ch. xii, xx, xxi, and Vol. VI (1909), ch. vii- +ix, xx; _Histoire générale_, Vol. V, ch. xix, Vol. VI, ch. xvi, and +Vol. VII, ch. iv, v; Émile Bourgeois, _Manuel historique de politique +étrangère_, 4th ed., Vol. I (1906), ch. vi, xii, valuable for +international relations of the Germanies; Bernhard Erdmannsdörffer, +_Deutsche Geschichte, 1648-1740_, 2 vols. (1892-1893). + +THE HABSBURG DOMINIONS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. In English: Sidney +Whitman, _Austria (1899)_, and, by the same author, _The Realm of the +Habsburgs_ (1893), brief outlines; Louis Leger, _A History of Austro- +Hungary from the Earliest Time to the Year 1889_, trans. by Mrs. B. +Hill from a popular French work (1889); William Coxe, _House of +Austria_, 4 vols. (1893-1895) in the Bohn Library, originally published +nearly a century ago but still useful, especially Vol. Ill; C. M. +Knatchbull-Hugessen, _The Political Evolution of the Hungarian Nation_, +Vol. I (1908), ch. iv-vii; Ármin Vámbéry, _The Story of Hungary_ +(1894), in the "Story of the Nations" Series. In German: Franz Krones, +_Handbuch der Geschichte Oesterreichs_, 5 vols. (1876-1879), Vol. IV, +Book XVIII. There is a good brief English biography of _Maria Theresa_ +by J. F. Bright (1897) in the "Foreign Statesmen" Series, and a great +standard German biography by Alfred von Arneth, _Geschichte Maria +Theresias_, 10 vols. (1863-1879). See also A. Wolf and Hans von +Zwiedineck-Südenhorst, _Österreich unter Maria Theresia_ (1884). + +THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. _History of All Nations_, Vol. XV, _The Age +of Frederick the Great_, Eng. trans. of a well-known German history +by Martin Philippson; Herbert Tuttle, _History of Prussia to the +Accession of Frederick the Great_ (1884), and, by the same author, +_History of Prussia under Frederick the Great_, 3 vols., coming +down to 1757 (1888-1896), primarily constitutional and political; +Reinhold Koser, _Geschichte der brandenburgisch-preussischen +Politik_, Vol. I (1914), from earliest times through the Thirty +Years' War, by the late general director of the Prussian State +Archives, an eminent authority on the history of his country; J. G. +Droysen, _Geschichte der preussischen Politik_, 14 vols. (1868- +1876), the most elaborate history of Prussia down to 1756 by a famous +national historian; Ernst Berner, _Geschichte des preussischen +Staates_ (1891), a briefer, popular account, richly illustrated; +Hans von Zwiedineck-Südenhorst, _Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitraum der +Gründung des preussischen Königtums_, 2 vols. (1890-1894), an +enthusiastic German appreciation; Albert Waddington, _Histoire de +Prusse_, Vol. I (1911), from the origins of the state to the death +of the Great Elector, an able French presentation. There is an +admirable old German biography of Frederick the Great's father, with +copious extracts from the sources, by F. C. Forster, _Friedrich +Wilhelm I König von Preussen_, 3 vols. (1834-1835). On Frederick the +Great: F. W. Longman, _Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' +War_, 2d ed. (1886), a good summary in English; W. F. Reddaway, +_Frederick the Great and the Rise of Prussia_ (1904) in the +"Heroes of the Nations" Series; Thomas Carlyle, _Frederick the +Great_, an English classic in many editions, sympathetic and in +spots inaccurate; Reinhold Koser, _Geschichte Friedrichs des +Grossen_, 5th ed., 4 vols. (1912-1914), a most thorough and +authoritative biography; _Politische Korrespondenz Friedrichs des +Grossen_, ed. by Reinhold Koser and others, in many volumes, +constitutes the most valuable original source for the reign of +Frederick the Great. + +THE WARS OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. G. M. Priest, _Germany since 1740_ +(1915), ch. i-iii, a useful outline; D. J. Hill, _History of Diplomacy +in the International Development of Europe_, Vol. III (1914), ch. vi- +viii, valuable for diplomatic relations; Richard Waddington, _La guerre +de sept ans: histoire diplomatique et militaire_, 5 vols. (1899-1914), +the best history of the Seven Years' War; A. D. Schaefer, _Geschichte +des siebenjährigen Kriegs_, 2 vols. in 3 (1867-1874), a careful German +account; Wilhelm Oncken, _Das Zeitalter Friedrichs des Grossen_, 2 +vols. (1881-1882), an important work on Frederick's reign, in the +imposing Oncken Series. See also A. W. Ward, _Great Britain and +Hanover, Some Aspects of their Personal Union_ (1899). + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE RISE OF RUSSIA AND THE DECLINE OF TURKEY, SWEDEN, AND POLAND + + +RUSSIA IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + +How the backward, Oriental tsardom of Muscovy has been transformed into +the huge empire of Russia, now comprising one-sixth of the land surface +and one-twelfth of the population of the earth, is one of the most +fascinating phases of the history of modern times. It was not until the +eighteenth century that Russia came into close contact with the +commerce and culture of western Christendom; not until then did she +become a great power in the European family of nations. + +[Sidenote: Russian Expansion] + +Several occurrences during the two centuries which separated the reign +of the Tsar Ivan the Great from that of Peter the Great paved the way +for the subsequent, almost startling rise of the powerful empire of +northern and eastern Europe. The first in importance was the expansion +of the Russian race and dominion. Throughout the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries the farming folk of the region about Moscow were +emigrating south and east and establishing themselves in the fertile +plains of the Don, the Volga, and the Irtysh. [Footnote: Armies of the +tsar backed up the colonists: they occupied Kazan in 1552 and +Astrakhan, near the Caspian Sea, in 1554.] A glance at the map of +Russia will show how the network of rivers combined with the level +character of the country to facilitate this process of racial +expansion. The gentle southerly flowing Dnieper, Don, and Volga, +radiating from the same central region, and connected by way of the +Kama with the headwaters of the Dwina, which empties into the White Sea +in the extreme north, became chief channels of trade and migration, and +contributed much more to the elaboration of national unity than any +political institutions. Boats could be conveyed over flat and easy +portages from one river-basin to another, and these portages with a +relatively small amount of labor were gradually changed into navigable +channels, so that even now the canals are more important than many of +the railways as arteries of commerce. + +[Sidenote: The Cossacks] + +As the emigrants threaded their way along the river courses and over +the broad plains they had to be constantly on the alert against attacks +of troublesome natives, and they accordingly organized themselves in +semi-military fashion. Those in the vanguard of territorial expansion +constituted a peculiar class known as Cossacks, who, like frontiersmen +of other times and places, for example, like those that gained for the +United States its vast western domain, lived a wild life in which +agricultural and pastoral pursuits were intermingled with hunting and +fighting. In the basins of the southern rivers, the Cossacks formed +semi-independent military communities: those of the Volga and the Don +professed allegiance to the tsar of Muscovy, while those of the Dnieper +usually recognized the sovereignty of the king of Poland. + +[Sidenote: Eastword Expansion into Asia] + +Nor was the migration of the Russian race restricted to Europe. The +division between Europe and Asia is largely imaginary, as another +glance at the map will prove,--the low-lying Urals are a barrier only +toward the north, while southward the plains of Russia stretch on +interminably above the Caspian until they are merged in the steppes of +Siberia. Across these plains moved a steady stream of Cossacks and +peasants and adventurers, carrying with them the habits and traditions +of their Russian homes. Ever eastward wended the emigrants. They +founded Tobolsk in 1587 and Tomsk in 1604; they established Yakutsk on +the Lena River in 1632, and Irkutsk on Lake Baikal in 1652; in 1638 +they reached the Sea of Okhotsk, and, by the close of the seventeenth +century, they occupied the peninsula of Kamchatka and looked upon the +broad Pacific. Thus at the time when the Spaniards were extending their +speech and laws throughout South America and the English were laying +the foundations for the predominance of their institutions in North +America, the Russians were appropriating northern Asia and +demonstrating that, with them at least, the course of empire takes its +way eastward. + +Ivan the Great had already been described in church service as "the +ruler and autocrat of all Russia, the new Tsar Constantine [Footnote: +The last Cæsar of the Græco-Roman Empire, Constantine XI, had perished +in 1453 in vain defense of Constantinople against the Turks. It was a +significant fact that the Russian rulers, who owed their Christianity +and their nation's culture to the Greeks, should now revive the title +of Caesar (Russian form, tsar or czar).] in the new city of +Constantine, Moscow." His successors invariably had themselves crowned +as tsars and autocrats of all Russia. By military might they maintained +their control over the ever-widening territories of the Russian people; +with racial pride and religious fervor, the distant emigrants regarded +their royal family at Moscow. The power of the tsars kept pace with the +expansion of the state. + +[Sidenote: Oriental Characteristics of Russia] + +Yet this greater Russia remained essentially Oriental. Its form of +Christianity was derived from the East rather than from the West. Its +social customs savored more of Asia than of Europe. Its nobles and even +its tsars were rated by western Christendom as little better than +barbarians. In fact, the Russian state was looked upon in the +seventeenth century in much the same way as China was regarded in the +nineteenth century. + +The reasons for this relative backwardness are not hard to ascertain. +In the first place, the religion of the state was a direct heritage of +the expiring Eastern Empire and was different from either the +Catholicism or the Protestantism of western Europe. Secondly, long and +close contact with the conquering Mongols or Tatars of Asia had +saturated the Russian people with Oriental customs and +habits.[Footnote: See above, pp. 21 f.] Thirdly, the nature of the +country tended to exalt agriculture and to discourage industry and +foreign commerce, and at the same time to turn emigration and expansion +eastward rather than westward. Finally, so long as the neighboring +western states of Sweden, Poland, and Turkey remained powerful and +retained the entire coast of the Baltic and Black seas, Russia was +deprived of seaports that would enable her to engage in traffic with +western Europe and thus to partake of the common culture of +Christendom. + +Not until Russia was modernized and westernized, and had made +considerable headway against one or all of her western neighbors, could +she hope to become a European Power. Not until the accession of the +Romanov dynasty did she enter seriously upon this twofold policy. + +[Sidenote: The "Troublous Times"] + +The direct line of Ivan the Great had died out at the close of the +sixteenth century, and there ensued what in Russian history are known +as "the troublous times." Disputes over the succession led to a series +of civil wars, and the consequent anarchy invited foreign intervention. +For a time the Poles harassed the country and even occupied the +Kremlin, or citadel, of Moscow. The Swedes, also, took advantage of the +troublous times in Russia to enlarge their conquests on the eastern +shore of the Baltic and to seize the important trading center of +Novgorod. In the south, the Turks warred with the Cossacks and brought +many of the Crimean principalities under their control. + +[Sidenote: The Accession of the Romanovs, 1613] + +Under these discouraging circumstances a great national assembly met at +Moscow in 1613 to elect a tsar, and their choice fell upon one of their +own number, a certain Michael Romanov, whose family had been connected +by marriage ties with the ancient royal line. It is an interesting fact +that the present autocrat of Russia is a lineal descendant of the +Romanov who was thus popularly elected to supreme authority in 1613. + +Michael Romanov proved an excellent choice. Accepted by all classes, he +reestablished order and security throughout the country and +successfully resisted foreign encroachments. He founded several +fortified towns in the south against the Tatars and the Turks. He +recovered Novgorod from the Swedes. During the reign of his son, Polish +depredations were stopped and the Dnieper River was fixed upon +[Footnote: Treaty of Andrussovo (1667), in accordance with which Poland +ceded to Russia Kiev, Smolensk, and eastern Ukraine.] as the general +dividing line between Poland and Russia. + + +PETER THE GREAT + +[Sidenote: His Accession and Early Travels] + +The grandson of Michael Romanov was the celebrated Peter the Great, who +may rightfully be designated as the father of modern Russia. His older +brothers, with whom during his youth he was nominally associated in the +government, died in turn without leaving direct heirs, and Peter became +sole ruler in 1696. From the outset he showed an insatiable curiosity +about the arts and sciences of western Europe, the authority of its +kings and the organization of its armies and fleets. To an intense +curiosity, Peter added an indomitable will. He was resolved to satisfy +his every curiosity and to utilize whatever he learned or found. + +From childhood, Peter had displayed an aptitude for mechanical tools +and inventions and especially for boat-making. Shipbuilding and ship- +sailing became his favorite pastimes. When he was barely twenty-one, he +launched at Archangel, on the ice-bound White Sea, a ship which he had +built with his own hands. Now in 1696, being sole tsar at the age of +twenty-four, he fitted out a fleet which defeated the Turks on the +Black Sea and allowed him to capture the valuable port of Azov. No +other successes were gained, however, in this Turkish War; and the +young tsar began to perceive that if he were to succeed in his +cherished project he would have to obtain Western aid. In 1697, +therefore, a special commission left Moscow for the purpose of +soliciting the cooperation of the principal Powers against Turkey, and +to this commission the young tsar attached himself as a volunteer +sailor, "Peter Mikhailov," in order that he might incidentally learn +much about ship-building and other technical sciences. + +In its primary purpose, the Russian commission failed signally. Western +Europe was on the eve of the War of the Spanish Succession, and all the +European sovereigns seemed to be engrossed in the distractions of +dynastic politics. No help against the Turks was forthcoming. But +personally Peter learned many useful things. In Holland he studied +ship-building as well as anatomy and engraving. In England he +investigated industry and commerce. He closely scrutinized the military +establishment of Prussia. In all places which he visited he collected +artisans, sailors, engineers, or other workmen, whom he sent back to +Russia to instruct his people. + +[Sidenote: Suppression of the Streltsi] + +While he was on his way from Vienna to Venice, news reached him that +the royal bodyguard, called the _streltsi_, had taken advantage of +his absence of a year and a half and had mutinied at Moscow. In hot +haste he hurried home and wreaked dire vengeance upon the mutineers. +Two thousand were hung or broken on the wheel, five thousand were +beheaded, and Peter for many days amused himself and edified his court +by the wonderful dexterity he displayed in slicing off the heads of +_streltsi_ with his own royal arm. + +The severe punishment of the rebellious _streltsi_ and the +immediate abolition of their military organization was clear evidence +that Peter was fully determined both to break with the past traditions +of his country and to compel all the Russian people to do likewise. + +[Sidenote: Military Reform] + +His first care was the reconstruction of the army on the Prussian +model. Officered and disciplined by foreigners dependent entirely upon +the tsar, the new army replaced the _streltsi_ and proved a potent +factor in furthering the domestic and foreign policies of Peter the +Great. + +[Sidenote: Introduction of Occidental Customs] + +The young reformer next turned his attention to the customs of his +people--their clothing and manners--which he would transform from +Oriental to Occidental. Edict followed edict with amazing rapidity. The +chief potentates of the empire were solemnly assembled so that Peter +with his own hand might deliberately clip off their long beards and +flowing mustaches. A heavy tax was imposed on such as persisted in +wearing beards. French or German clothes were to be substituted, under +penalty of large fines, for the traditional Russian costume. The use of +tobacco was made compulsory. The Oriental semi-seclusion of women was +prohibited. Both sexes were to mingle freely in the festivities of the +court. These innovations were largely superficial: they partially +permeated the nobility and clergy, but made little impression on the +mass of the population. Peter had begun a work, however, which was +certain of great results in the future. + +[Sidenote: Development of Autocracy] + +The reign of Peter the Great is notable for the removal of serious +checks upon the power of the tsar and the definitive establishment of +that form of absolutism which in Russia is called "autocracy." By sheer +ability and will-power, the tsar was qualified to play the role of +divine-right monarch, and his observation of the centralized government +of Louis XIV, as well as the appreciation of his country's needs, +convinced him that that kind of government was the most suitable for +Russia. + +[Sidenote: Subordination of the Orthodox Church to the Russian State] +[Sidenote: The Holy Synod] + +We have already observed how Peter replaced the independent, turbulent +_streltsi_ with a thoroughly devoted and orderly standing army. +That was one important step in the direction of autocracy. The next was +the subordination of the Church to the state. The tsar understood the +very great influence which the Holy Orthodox Church exerted over the +Russian people and the danger to his policies that ecclesiastical +opposition might create. He was naturally anxious that the Church +should become the ally, not the enemy, of autocracy. He, therefore, +took such steps as would exalt the Church in the opinion of his +countrymen and at the same time would render it a serviceable agent of +the government. Professing the warmest faith in its religious tenets, +he deprived the patriarch [Footnote: Until late in the sixteenth +century, the metropolitan of Moscow was in theory under the authority +of the patriarch of Constantinople; thereafter, through Boris Godunov, +he became independent with full consent and approval of the whole Greek +Orthodox Church and was styled the patriarch of Moscow.] of Moscow of +his privilege of controlling the ecclesiastical organization and vested +all powers of church government in a body, called the Holy Synod, whose +members were bishops and whose chief was a layman, all chosen by the +tsar himself. No appointment to ecclesiastical office could henceforth +be made without the approval of the Holy Synod; no sermon could be +preached and no book could be published unless it had received the +sanction of that august body. The authority which the tsar thereby +obtained over the Russian Church was as complete and far-reaching as +that which Henry VIII had acquired, two centuries earlier, over the +Anglican Church. The results have been in keeping with Peter's fondest +expectations, for the Orthodox Church in Russia has been from his time +to the present the right-hand support of absolutism. The tsars have +exalted the Church as the fountain of order and holiness; as a +veritable ark of the covenant have the clergy magnified and extolled +the autocracy. + +[Sidenote: Secular Power of the Tsar] + +A remodeling of the secular government of Russia along autocratic lines +was another achievement of Peter the Great which long endured. At the +head of the state was the tsar or emperor, possessing absolute, +unlimited powers. An ancient assembly, or Duma, of nobles, which had +formerly exercised vague legislative rights, was practically abolished, +its place being taken by an advisory Council of State whose members, +usually noblemen, were selected by the tsar. All traces of local self- +government were similarly swept away, and the country was henceforth +administered by the tsar's personal agents. To enforce his autocratic +will, a system of police was organized on a militia basis, its chiefs +being made dependent on the central authority. In these, as in all his +other reforms, the tsar encountered a good deal of opposition, and for +a while was obliged to rely largely on foreigners to carry them out. As +soon as possible, however, Peter employed natives, for it was a +cardinal point in his policy that the Russians themselves must manage +their own state without foreign interference or help. + +[Sidenote: Attempted Social Reforms of Peter the Great] + +Like his contemporaries in western Europe, Peter gave considerable +attention to the economic condition of the monarchy. He strove, though +often in a bungling manner, to promote agriculture and to improve the +lot of the peasantry, who still constituted the overwhelming bulk of +forms of the population. He certainly deprived the nobles of many of +their former privileges and sought to rest political power and social +position on ability rather than on birth. He understood that Russia +grievously lacked a numerous and prosperous middle class, and he aimed +to create one by encouraging trade and industries. His almost constant +participation in wars, however, prevented him from bringing many of his +economic and social plans to fruition. + +[Sidenote: Ambitious Foreign Policy of Peter the Great] + +Internal reforms were but one-half of Peter's ambitious program. To him +Russia owes not only the abolition of the _streltsi_, the loss of +the independence of the Church, the Europeanization of manners and +customs, and the firm establishment of autocracy, but also the +pronouncement and enforcement of an elaborate scheme of foreign +aggrandizement. On one hand, the tsar showed a lively interest in the +exploration and colonization of Siberia and in the extension of Russian +dominion around the Caspian Sea and towards the Persian Empire. On the +other hand,--and this, for our purposes, is far more important,--he was +resolved to make the cultural and commercial connection between Russia +and Europe strong and intimate, to open a way to the west by gaining +outlets on both the Black and Baltic seas--"windows" to the west, as he +termed them. + +On the Baltic Sea, Sweden blocked him; toward the Black Sea, the +Ottoman power hemmed him in. It was, therefore, against Sweden and +Turkey that Peter the Great waged war. It seemed to him a matter of +dire necessity for the preservation of European civilization in Russia +that he should defeat one or both of these states. Against the Turks, +as events proved, he made little headway; against the Swedes he fared +better. + +In order that we may understand the nature of the momentous conflict +between Russia and Sweden in the first quarter of the eighteenth +century, it will be necessary at this point to notice the parallel +development of Sweden. + + +SWEDEN AND THE CAREER OF CHARLES XII + +[Sidenote: Sweden a Great Power in the Seventeenth Century] + +It will be recalled that a century before Peter the Great, the +remarkable Gustavus Adolphus had aimed to make the Baltic a Swedish +lake. To his own kingdom, lying along the western shore of that sea, +and to the dependency of Finland, he had added by conquest the eastern +provinces of Karelia, Ingria, Esthonia, and Livonia [Footnote: Livonia, +occupied by Gustavus Adolphus during the Polish War of 1621-1629, was +not formally relinquished by Poland until 1660. Esthonia had been +conquered by the Swedes in 1561, but Russia did not renounce her +pretensions to this province until 1617.], and his successful +interference in the Thirty Years' War had given Sweden possession of +western Pomerania and the mouths of the Elbe, Oder, and Weser rivers +and a considerable influence in German affairs. For many years after +the death of Gustavus Adolphus, Sweden was the recognized leader of +continental Protestantism, and her trade on the Baltic grew and +thrived. The exports of Russia and Poland found a convenient outlet +through the Swedish port of Riga, and those of the northern Germanics +were frequently dispatched on Swedish vessels from Stettin or +Stralsund. + +Repeated efforts were made by Denmark, Poland, and Brandenburg to break +the commercial monopoly which Sweden enjoyed upon the Baltic and to +deprive her of her conquests, but for a long time in vain. Victory +continued to attend Swedish arms and a general treaty in 1660 confirmed +her dominion. At that time Sweden was not only a military power of the +first magnitude but also one of the largest states of Europe, +possessing about twice as much area as present-day Sweden. Her area +embraced a land-surface 7000 square miles larger than the modern German +Empire. All the islands and the greater part of the coast of the Baltic +belonged to her. Stockholm, the capital, lay in the very center of the +empire, whose second city was Riga, on the other side of the sea. In +politics, in religion, and in trade, Sweden was feared and respected. + +[Sidenote: Elements of Weakness in Sweden's Position] + +Yet the greatness of Sweden in the seventeenth century was more +apparent than real. Her commerce provoked the jealousy of all her +neighbors. Her dependencies across the Baltic were difficult to hold: +peopled by Finns, Russians, Poles, Germans, and Danes, their bond with +Sweden was essentially artificial, and they usually sympathized, +naturally enough, with their sovereign's enemies. They, therefore, +imposed on the mother country the duty of remaining a military +monarchy, armed from head to foot for every possible emergency. For +such a tremendous destiny Sweden was quite unfitted. Her wide territory +was very sparsely populated, and her peasantry were very poor. Only the +French alliance gave her solid backing in the Germanies, and, with the +decline of the fortunes of Louis XIV and the rise of Prussia and +Russia, she was bound to lose her leadership in the North. + +To the fate of Sweden, her rulers in the seventeenth century +contributed no small share. Nearly all of them were born fighters and +nearly all of them were neglectful of home interests and of the works +of peace. The military instincts of the Swedish kings not only +sacrificed thousands of lives that were urgently needed in building up +their country and cost the kingdom enormous sums of money but likewise +impaired commerce, surrounded the empire with a broad belt of desolated +territory, and implanted an ineradicable hatred in every adjacent +state. Then, too, the extravagance and negligence of the sovereigns led +to chaos in domestic government. Taxes were heavy and badly +apportioned. The nobles recovered many of their political privileges. +The royal power steadily dwindled away at the very time when it was +most needed; and a selfish, grasping aristocracy hastened their +country's ruin. [Footnote: A reaction appeared under the capable +Charles XI (1660-1697), but its fruits were completely lost by his son +and successor, Charles XII.] + +[Sidenote: Coalition against Charles XII] + +At length, in 1697, when Charles XII, a boy of fifteen years, ascended +the throne of Sweden, the neighboring Powers thought the time had +arrived to partition his territories among themselves. Tsar Peter, +while returning home the following year from his travels abroad, had +discussed with Augustus II, elector of Saxony and king of Poland, a +plan which the latter had formed for the dismemberment of the Swedish +Empire: Poland was to recover Livonia and annex Esthonia; Russia was to +obtain Ingria and Karelia and thereby a port on the Baltic; Brandenburg +was to occupy western Pomerania; and Denmark was to take possession of +Holstein and the mouths of the Elbe and Weser. Charles XII was to +retain only his kingdom in the Scandinavian peninsula and the grand +duchy of Finland. At the last moment Brandenburg balked, but Saxony, +Denmark, and Russia signed the nefarious alliance in 1699. The allies +expected quick and decisive victory. All western and southern Europe +was on the verge of a great struggle for the Spanish inheritance and +would clearly be unable to prevent them from despoiling Sweden. + +[Sidenote: Military Exploits of Charles XII] + +But the allies grossly underrated their foe. Charles XII was a mere +boy, but precocious, gloomy, and sensitive, and endowed with all the +martial determination and heroism of his ancestors. He desired nothing +better than to fight against overwhelming odds, and the fury of the +youthful commander soon earned him the sobriquet of the "madman of the +North." The alliance of 1699 precipitated the Great Northern War which +was to last until 1721 and slowly, but no less inevitably, lower Sweden +to the position of a third-rate power. It was amid the most spectacular +exploits of the boy-king that the ruin of Sweden was accomplished. It +was a grander but more tragic fate than in the same period befell +Spain. + +Charles XII did not give the allies time to unite. Hurriedly crossing +the straits, he invaded Denmark, whose terrified king promptly signed a +treaty with him (1700), paying a large indemnity and engaging to keep +the peace in future. + +Thence Charles hastened across the Baltic to Esthonia in order to deal +with the invading Russians. At Narva he met and annihilated their army. +Then he turned southward, clearing Livonia and Lithuania of Poles, +Saxons, and Russians. + +Into the very heart of Poland he carried the war, possessing himself of +both Warsaw and Cracow. He obliged the Polish Diet to dethrone Augustus +and to accept a king of his own choice in the person of a certain +Stanislaus Leszczynski (1704). + +All these things had been done by a young man between the age of +seventeen and twenty--two. It was quite natural that he should be +puffed up with pride in his ability and successes. It was almost as +natural that, hardened at an early age to the horrors of war, he should +become increasingly callous and cruel. Many instructions the impulsive +youth sent out over conquered districts in Russia, Poland, and Saxony +"to slay, burn, and destroy." "Better that the innocent suffer than +that the guilty escape" was his favorite adage. + +Small wonder, then, that neither Peter the Great nor the Elector +Augustus would abandon the struggle. While Charles was overrunning +Poland, Peter was reorganizing his army and occupying Karelia and +Ingria; and when the Swedish king returned to engage the Russians, +Augustus drove out Stanislaus and regained the crown of Poland. Yet +Charles, with an unreasoning stubbornness, would not perceive that the +time had arrived for terminating the conflict with a few concessions. +Russia at that time asked only a port on the Gulf of Finland as the +price of an alliance against Poland. + +[Sidenote: Battle of Poltava (1709): Defeat of Charles XII] + +To all entreaties for peace, Charles XII turned a deaf ear, and pressed +the war in Russia. Unable to take Moscow, he turned southward in order +to effect a juncture with some rebellious Cossacks, but met the army of +Peter the Great at Poltava (1709). Poltava marks the decisive triumph +of Russia over Sweden. The Swedish army was destroyed, only a small +number being able to accompany the flight of their king across the +southern Russian frontier into Turkish territory. + +Then Charles stirred up the Turks to attack the tsar, but from the new +contest he was himself unable to profit. Peter bought peace with the +Ottoman government by re-ceding the town of Azov, and the latter +gradually tired of their guest's continual and frantic clamor for war. +After a sojourn of over five years in Ottoman lands, Charles suddenly +and unexpectedly appeared, with but a single attendant, at Stralsund, +which by that time was all that remained to him outside of Sweden and +Finland. + +[Sidenote: Obstinacy and Death of Charles XII] + +Still, however, the war dragged on. The allies grew in numbers and in +demands. Peter the Great and Augustus were again joined by the Danish +king. Great Britain, Hanover, and Prussia, all covetous of Swedish +trade or Swedish territory, were now members of the coalition. Charles +XII stood like adamant: he would retain all or he would lose all. So he +stood until the last. It was while he was directing an invasion of +Norway that the brilliant but ill-balanced Charles lost his life +(1718), being then but thirty-six years of age. + +[Sidenote: Decline of Sweden] + +Peace which had been impossible during the lifetime of Charles, became +a reality soon after his death. It certainly came none too soon for the +exhausted and enfeebled condition of Sweden. By the treaties of +Stockholm (1719 and 1720), Sweden resigned all her German holdings +except a small district of western Pomerania including the town of +Stralsund. Denmark received Holstein and a money indemnity. Hanover +gained the mouths of the Elbe and Weser; Prussia, the mouth of the Oder +and the important city of Stettin. Augustus was restored to the Polish +throne, though without territorial gain. Great Britain, Denmark, and +Prussia became the principal commercial heirs of Sweden. + +[Sidenote: Treaty of Nystad (1721): Russia on the Baltic] +[Sidenote: Petrograd] + +The treaty of Nystad (1721) was the turning point for Russia, for +thereby she acquired from Sweden full sovereignty over not only Karelia +and Ingria but the important Baltic provinces of Esthonia and Livonia +and a narrow strip of southern Finland including the strong fortress of +Viborg. Peter the Great had realized his ambition of affording his +country a "window to the west." On the waste marshes of the Neva he +succeeded with enormous effort and sacrifice of life in building a +great city which might be a center of commerce and a bond of connection +between Russia and the western world. He named his new city St. +Petersburg [Footnote: Known generally in the Teutonic form "St. +Petersburg" from its foundation until the War of the Nations in 1914, +when the Slavic form of "Petrograd" was substituted.] and to it he +transferred his government from Moscow. Russia supplanted Sweden in the +leadership of the Baltic and assumed a place among the Powers of +Europe. + +Peter the Great did not realize his other ambition of securing a +Russian port on the Black Sea. Although he captured and held Azov for a +time, he was obliged to relinquish it, as we have seen, in order to +prevent the Turks from joining hands with Charles XII. + +[Sidenote: Character of Peter the Great] + +Nevertheless, when Peter died in 1725, he left his empire a compact +state, well-organized, and well-administered, westernized at least +superficially, and ready to play a conspicuous role in the +international politics of Europe. The man who succeeded in doing all +these things has been variously estimated. By some he has been +represented as a monster of cruelty and a murderer, [Footnote: Peter +had his son and heir, the Grand Duke Alexius, put to death because he +did not sympathize with his reforms. The tsar's other punishments often +assumed a most revolting and disgusting character.] by others as a +demon of the grossest sensuality, by still others as a great national +hero. Probably he merited all such opinions. But, above all, he was a +genius of fierce energy and will, who toiled always for what he +considered to be the welfare of his country. + + +CATHERINE THE GREAT: THE DEFEAT OF TURKEY AND THE DISMEMBERMENT OF +POLAND + +It is hardly possible to feel much respect for the character of the +Russian rulers who succeeded Peter the Great in the eighteenth century. +Most of them were women with loose morals and ugly manners. But they +had little to fear from Sweden, which, utterly exhausted, was now on a +steady decline; and domestic difficulties both in Poland and in Turkey +removed any apprehension of attacks from those countries. In policies +of internal government, Peter had blazed a trail so clear and +unmistakable that one would have difficulty in losing it. + +[Sidenote: Character of the Tsarina Catherine II] + +Of those female sovereigns of the Russian Empire, the most notable was +Catherine II, usually called Catherine the Great (1762-1796). By birth +she was not even a Russian, but a princess of Protestant Germany, whom +dynastic considerations made the wife of the heir to the Russian crown. +[Footnote: The marriage was arranged by Frederick the Great in order to +minimize Austrian influence at Petrograd.] + +No sooner was she in her adopted country than she set to work to +ingratiate herself with its people. She learned the Russian language. +She outwardly conformed to the Orthodox Church. She slighted her German +relatives and surrounded herself with Russians. She established a +reputation for quick wit and lofty patriotism. So great was her success +that when her half-insane husband ascended the throne as Peter III in +1762, the people looked to her rather than to him as the real ruler, +and before the year was over she had managed to make away with him and +to become sovereign in name as well as in fact. For thirty-four years +Catherine was tsarina of Russia. Immoral to the last, without +conscience or scruple, she ruled the country with a firm hand and +consummated the work of Peter the Great. + +[Sidenote: Her Administration] + +In the administrative system Catherine introduced the "governments" and +"districts," divisions and subdivisions of Russia, over which were +placed respectively governors and vice-governors, all appointed by the +central authority. To the ecclesiastical alterations of Peter, she +added the secularization of church property, thereby making the clergy +distinctly dependent upon her bounty and strengthening the autocracy. + +[Sidenote: Her Patronage of Learning] + +The tsarina had some personal interest in the literary and scientific +progress of the eighteenth century and was determined to make Russia +appear cultured in the eyes of western Europe. She corresponded with +Voltaire and many other philosophers and learned men of the time. She +pensioned Diderot, the author of the great Encyclopædia, and invited +scholars to her court. She posed as the friend of higher education. + +[Sidenote: Her Foreign Policy] + +Of the three foreign countries which in the eighteenth century blocked +the western expansion of Russia, Sweden had been humbled by Peter in +the Great Northern War and the treaty of Nystad. Poland and Turkey +remained to be dealt with by Catherine the Great. Let us see what had +lately transpired to render this task comparatively easy for the +tsarina. + +[Sidenote: Poland in the Eighteenth Century] + +Poland in the first half of the eighteenth century was geographically a +large state, but a variety of circumstances contributed to render it +weak and unstable. In the first place, it was without natural +boundaries or adequate means of defense. To the west it was separated +from Prussia and Austria by an artificial line drawn through level +plains or over low-lying hills. To the south a fluctuating frontier, +fixed usually along the Dniester River, set it off from the Ottoman +Empire. The fertile valleys of the Dnieper, to the east, and of the +Dona, to the north, were shared by Russia and Poland. No chains of +mountains and no strongly fortified places protected the Polish people +from Germans, Turks, or Russians. + +Nor was this wide, but indefensible, territory inhabited by a single +homogeneous people. The Poles themselves, centering in the western +cities of Warsaw and Cracow, constituted a majority of the population, +but the Lithuanians, a kindred Slavic folk, covered the east-central +part of the kingdom and a large number of Cossacks and "Little +Russians" [Footnote: Ruthenians.] lived in the extreme east, while +along the northern and western borders were settlements of Germans and +Swedes. Between the Poles and the Lithuanians existed a long-standing +feud, and the Germans regarded all the Slavs with ill-disguised +contempt. + +Religion added its share to the dissension created by race and language +within Poland. The Poles and most of the Lithuanians were stanch Roman +Catholics. Other Lithuanians--especially the great nobles--together +with the Russians and Cossacks adhered to the Greek Orthodox faith, +while Lutheran Protestantism was upheld by the western settlements of +Swedes and Germans. The Dissenters, as the Orthodox and Protestants +were called, demanded from the Catholic majority a toleration and a +freedom of worship which at that time existed in no other country of +Europe. When it was not forthcoming, they appealed to foreign Powers-- +the Lutherans to Prussia, the Orthodox to Russia. + +[Sidenote: Wretched Social Conditions in Poland] + +Worst of all were the social conditions in Poland. By the eighteenth +century, the towns had sunk into relative insignificance, leaving +Poland without a numerous or wealthy middle class. Of the other +classes, the great nobles or magnates owned the land, lived in luxury, +selfishly looked out for their own interests, and jealously played +politics, while the mass of the nation were degraded into a state of +serfdom and wretchedness that would be difficult to parallel elsewhere +in Europe. With a grasping, haughty nobility on one hand, and an +oppressed, ignorant peasantry on the other, social solidarity, the best +guarantee of political independence, was entirely lacking. + +[Sidenote: Weakness of Polish Political Institutions] + +An enlightened progressive government might have done something to +remedy the social ills, but of all governments that the world has ever +seen, the most ineffectual and pernicious was the Polish. Since the +sixteenth century, the monarchy had been elective, with the result that +the reign of every sovereign was disfigured by foreign intrigues and +domestic squabbles over the choice of his successor, and also that the +noble electors were able not only to secure liberal bribes but to wring +from the elect such concessions as gradually reduced the kingship to an +ornamental figurehead. Most of the later kings were foreigners who used +what little power was left to them in furtherance of their native +interests rather than of the welfare of Poland. Thus the kings in the +first half of the eighteenth century were German electors of Saxony, +who owed their new position to the interested friendship of Austria, +Prussia, or Russia, and to the large sums of money which they lavished +upon the Polish magnates; these same Saxon rulers cheerfully applied +the Polish resources to their German policies. + +Another absurdity of the Polish constitution was the famous "_liberum +veto_," a kind of gentlemen's agreement among the magnates, whereby +no law whatsoever could be enacted by the Diet if a single member felt +it was prejudicial to his interests, and objected. In the course of the +seventeenth century the principle of the _liberum veto_ had been +so far extended as to recognize the lawful right of any one of the ten +thousand noblemen of Poland to refuse to obey a law which he had not +approved. This amounted to anarchism. And anarchism, however beautiful +it might appear as an ideal, was hardly a trustworthy weapon with which +to oppose the greedy, hard-hearted, despotic monarchs who governed all +the surrounding countries. + +[Sidenote: Steady Decline of Ottoman Power during Seventeenth Century] + +The Ottoman Empire was not in such sore straits as Poland, but its +power and prestige were obviously waning. In another place we have +reviewed the achievements of the Turks in the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries--how they overran the Balkan peninsula, captured +Constantinople, put an end to the ancient Græco-Roman Empire and under +Suleiman the Magnificent extended their conquests along the northern +coast of Africa and in Europe across the Danube into the very heart of +Hungary. Although the sea-power of the Turks suffered a serious reverse +at Lepanto (1571), their continued land advances provoked in +Christendom the liveliest apprehension throughout the seventeenth +century. After a twenty-five-years conflict they took Crete from +Venice. They subjugated to their dominion the Tatars and Russians +immediately north of the Black Sea. They exacted homage from the +princes of Rumania and Transylvania. They annexed Hungary. For a time +they received tribute from the king of Poland. In 1683 they laid siege +to the city of Vienna and would have taken it had not the patriotic +Polish monarch, John Sobieski, brought timely aid to the beleaguered +Austrians. That was the high-water mark of the Mohammedan advance in +Europe. + +Thenceforth the Turkish boundaries gradually receded. An alliance of +Venice, Poland, the pope, and Austria waged long and arduous warfare +with the Ottomans, and the resulting treaty of Karlowitz, signed at the +very close of the seventeenth century, gave the greater part of +Hungary, including Transylvania, to the Austrian Habsburgs, extended +the southern boundary of Poland to the Dniester River, and surrendered +important trading centers on the Dalmatian and Greek coasts to the +Venetians. Two subsequent wars between the sultan and the Habsburgs +definitely freed the whole of Hungary from the Ottoman yoke. The +reasons for the wane of Turkey's power are scarcely to be sought in the +inherent strength of her neighbors, for, with the possible exception of +Austria and Russia, they were notoriously weak and had seldom been able +or willing to work together in behalf of any common cause. The real +reasons lay rather in the character and nature of the Turkish power +itself. Domestic, not foreign, difficulties prepared the way for future +disasters. + +[Sidenote: Nature of the Turkish Conquests] + +It should be borne in mind that the Turks never constituted a majority +of the population of their European possessions. They were a mere body +of conquerors, who in frenzies of religious or martial enthusiasm, +inspired with the idea that Divine Providence was using them as agents +for the spread of Mohammedanism, had fought valiantly with the sword or +cunningly taken advantage of their enemies' quarrels to plant over wide +areas the crescent in place of the cross. In the conquered regions, the +native Christian peoples were reduced to serfdom, and the Turkish +conquerors became great landholders and the official class. To extend, +even to maintain, such an artificial order of things, the Turks would +be obliged to keep their military organization always at the highest +pitch of excellence and to preserve their government from weakness and +corruption. In neither of these respects did the Turks ultimately +succeed. + +[Sidenote: Corruption In the Turkish Government] + +The sultans of the eighteenth century were not of the stuff of which a +Suleiman the Magnificent had been made. To the grim risks of battle +they preferred the cushioned ease of the palace, and all their powers +of administration and government were quite consumed in the management +of the household and the harem. Actual authority was gradually +transferred to the Divan, or board of ministers, whose appointments or +dismissals were the results of palace intrigues, sometimes petty but +more often bloody. Corruption ate its way through the entire office- +holding element of the Ottoman state: positions were bought and sold +from the Divan down to the obscure village, and office was held to +exist primarily for financial profit and secondarily as a means of +oppressing the subject people. + +The army, on which so much in the Turkish state depended, naturally +reflected the demoralized condition of the government. While Peter the +Great was organizing a powerful army in Russia, and Frederick the Great +was perfecting the Prussian military machine, the Ottoman army steadily +declined. It failed to keep pace with the development of tactics and of +firearms in western Europe, and fell behind the times. The all- +prevalent corruption ruined its discipline, and its regularly organized +portion--the "janissaries"--became the masters rather than the servants +of the sultans and of the whole Turkish government. + +It was the fortune of the Russian tsarina--Catherine the Great--to +appreciate the real weakness of both Turkey and Poland and to turn her +neighbors' distress to the profit of her own country. + +[Sidenote: Catherine's Interference in Poland] + +No sooner had Catherine secured the Russian crown and by her inactivity +permitted Frederick the Great to bring the Seven Years' War to a +successful issue, than the death of Augustus III, elector of Saxony and +king of Poland, gave her an opportunity to interfere in Polish affairs. +She was not content with the Saxon line which was more or less under +Austrian influence, and, with the astute aid of Frederick, she induced +the Polish nobles to elect one of her own courtiers and favorites, +Stanislaus Poniatowski, who thus in 1764 became the last king of an +independent Poland. + +With the accession of Stanislaus, the predominance of Russia was fully +established in Poland. Russia entered into an execrable agreement with +Prussia and Austria to uphold the anarchical constitution of the +unhappy and victimized country. When patriotic Poles made efforts--as +they now frequently did--to reform their government, to abolish the +_liberum veto_, and to strengthen the state, they found their +attempts thwarted by the allies either by force of arms or by bribes of +money. The racial animosities and the religious differences within +Poland afforded sufficient pretexts for the intervention of the +neighboring Powers, especially Prussia and Russia. + +A popular insurrection of Polish Catholics against the intolerable +meddling of foreigners was crushed by the troops of Catherine, with the +single result that the Russians, in pursuing some fleeing insurgents +across the southern frontier, violated Turkish territory and +precipitated a war between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. + +[Sidenote: Catherine's War with the Turks, 1768-1774] + +This Turkish War lasted from 1768 to 1774. The Ottoman government was +profoundly alarmed by the Russian foreign policy, believing that the +intrigues in Poland would end in the annexation of that state to Russia +and the consequent upsetting of the balance of power in the East, and +that, Poland once being disposed of, the turn of Turkey would come +next. The Turks, moreover, were egged on by the French government, +which, anxious also to preserve the balance of power and to defend the +liberties of Poland, was too financially embarrassed itself to +undertake a great war against Prussia and Russia. + +This war between Russia and Turkey fully confirmed the belief that the +power of the latter was waning. The Ottoman troops, badly armed and +badly led, suffered a series of reverses. The Russians again occupied +Azov, which Peter the Great had been compelled to relinquish; they +overran Moldavia and Wallachia; they seized Bucharest; and they seemed +likely to cross the Danube. Catherine went so far as to fan a revolt +among the Greek subjects of the sultan. + +[Sidenote: Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji (1774): Russia on the Black Sea] + +At length, in 1774, the treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji was concluded between +the belligerents. It was most important in marking the southern +extension of Russia. By its provisions, (1) Turkey formally ceded Azov +and adjacent territory to Russia and renounced sovereignty over all +land north of the Black Sea; (2) Turkey recovered Wallachia, Moldavia, +and Greece, on condition that they should be better governed; (3) +Russia obtained the right of free navigation for her merchant ships in +Turkish waters; and (4) Russia was recognized as the protector of +certain churches in the city of Constantinople. + +Within a few years after the signature of the treaty of Kuchuk +Kainarji, Catherine established Russian control over the various Tatar +principalities north of the Black Sea, whose sovereignty Turkey had +renounced, and by a supplementary agreement in 1792, the Dniester River +was fixed upon as the boundary between the Russian and Ottoman empires. + +The Turkish policy of Catherine the Great bore three significant +results. In the first place, Russia acquired a natural boundary in +southern Europe, and became the chief Power on the Black Sea, whence +her ships might pass freely through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles +out into the Mediterranean to trade with western Europe. Russia's +second "window to the west" was gained. Then, in the second place, +Russia was henceforth looked upon as the natural ally and friend of +oppressed nationalities within the Turkish Empire. Finally, the special +clause conferring on Russia the protectorate of certain churches in +Constantinople afforded her a pretext for a later claim to protect +Christians throughout the Ottoman state and consequently to interfere +incessantly in Turkish affairs. Since the treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji, +Turkey has declined with ever-increasing rapidity, and Russia has +become an eager candidate for a liberal share of the spoils. + +[Sidenote: Catherine and the Partition of Poland] +[Sidenote: First Partition, 1772] + +Even while the Turkish War was in progress, Catherine the Great had not +lost sight of her Polish policy. Frederick of Prussia had doubtless +hoped that she would, in order that he might have a free rein to direct +a distribution of territory entirely satisfactory to himself and to +Prussia But the wily tsarina was never so immersed in other matters +that she neglected Russian interests in Poland. In 1772, therefore, she +joined with Frederick and with Maria Theresa of Austria in making the +first partition of Poland. Russia took all the country which lay east +of the Dona and Dnieper rivers. Prussia took West Prussia except the +town of Danzig. Austria took Galicia and the city of Cracow. In all, +Poland was deprived of about a fourth of her territory. + +[Sidenote: Second Partition, 1793] +[Sidenote: Third and Last Partition, 1795] + +The partition of 1772 sobered the Polish people and brought them to a +full realizing sense of the necessity of radical political reform. But +the shameful and hypocritical attitude of the neighboring sovereigns +continued to render their every effort abortive. For another twenty-one +years the wretched country struggled on, a victim of selfish foreign +tutelage. Although both Frederick and Maria Theresa died in the +interval, their successors proved themselves quite as willing to +coöperate with the implacable tsarina. In 1793 Russia and Prussia +effected the second partition of Poland, and in 1795, following a last +desperate attempt of the Poles to establish a new government, they +admitted Austria to a share in the final dismemberment of the unhappy +country. Desperately did the brave Kosciuszko try to stem the tide of +invasion which poured in from all sides. His few forces, in spite of +great valor, were no match for the veteran allies, and the defense was +vain. "Freedom shrieked when Kosciuszko fell." King Stanislaus +Poniatowski resigned his crown and betook himself to Petrograd. Poland +ceased to exist as an independent state. + +By the partitions of 1793 and 1795, Austria obtained the upper valley +of the Vistula, and Prussia the lower, including the city of Warsaw, +while the rest--the major share--went to Russia. Little Russia +(Ruthenia) and approximately all of Lithuania thus passed into the +hands of the tsarina. Russia thenceforth bordered immediately on +Prussia and Austria and became geographically a vital member of the +European family of nations. + +Catherine the Great survived the third and final partition of Poland +but a year, dying in 1796. If it can be said of Peter that he made +Russia a European Power, it can be affirmed with equal truth that +Catherine made Russia a Great Power. The eighteenth century had +witnessed a marvelous growth of Russia in Europe. She had acquired +territory and a capital on the Baltic. She had secured valuable ports +on the Black Sea. She had pushed her boundaries westward into the very +center of the Continent. + +The rise of Russia was at the expense of her neighbors. Sweden had +surrendered her eastern provinces and lost her control of the Baltic. +Turkey had abandoned her monopoly of the shores and trade of the Black +Sea. Poland had disappeared from the map. + +[Illustration: THE ROMANOV FAMILY: RUSSIAN SOVEREIGNS (1613-1915)] + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +THE RISE OF RUSSIA. Elementary sketches: J. H. Robinson and C. A. +Beard, _The Development of Modern Europe_, Vol. I (1907), ch. iv; +H. O. Wakeman, _The Ascendancy of France, 1598-1715_ (1894), ch. +viii, xii, xiii; Arthur Hassall, _The Balance of Power, 1715-1789_ +(1896), ch. v, xi; A. H. Johnson, _The Age of the Enlightened Despot, +1660-1789_ (1910), ch. iv, v; H. T. Dyer, _A History of Modern +Europe from the Fall of Constantinople_, 3d ed. rev. by Arthur +Hassall, 6 vols. (1901), ch. xxxvi, xxxviii, xli, xlix, 1. More +detailed histories: _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. V (1908), ch. +xvi-xix, and Vol. VI (1909), ch. x, xix; _Histoire générale_, Vol. +V, ch. xvi-xviii, xx, Vol. VI, ch. xvii-xix, xxi, xxii, Vol. VII, ch. +viii, ix, excellent chapters in French by such eminent scholars as +Louis Leger and Alfred Rambaud; V. 0. Kliuchevsky, _A History of +Russia_, Eng. trans. by C. J. Hogarth, 3 vols. (1911-1913), +authoritative on the early history of Russia, but comes down only to +1610; Alfred Rambaud, _Histoire de la Russie depuis les origines +jusqu'à nos jours_, 6th ed. (1914), ch. xiv-xxxii,--an earlier +edition of this standard work was translated into English by Leonora B. +Lang and published in two volumes, of which the larger part treats of +the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; James Mayor, _Economic +History of Russia_, Vol. I (1914), Book I, ch. iv-vii, especially +useful for the economic and social reforms of Peter the Great. On the +Russian sovereigns: R. N. Bain, _The First Romanovs, 1613-1725_ +(1905), and, by the same author, _Pupils of Peter the Great: a +History of the Russian Court and Empire from 1697 to 1740_ (1897); +Eugene Schuyler, _Peter the Great_, 2 vols. (1884), a scholarly +work; Kazimierz Waliszewski, _Peter the Great_, an admirable study +trans. from the French by Lady Mary Loyd (1900), and, by the same +author, though not as yet translated, _L'héritage de Pierre le Grand: +règne des femmes, gouvernement des favoris, 1725-1741_ (1900) and +_La dernière des Romanov, Elisabeth R_ (1902); Alexander Bruckner, +_Peter der Grosse_ (1879), and, by the same author, _Katharina +die Zweite_ (1883), important German works, in the Oncken Series; E. +A. B. Hodgetts, _The Life of Catherine the Great of Russia_ +(1914), a recent fair-minded treatment in English. On the expansion of +the Russian people: Alfred Rambaud, _The Expansion of Russia_, 2d +ed. (1904); F. A. Golder, _Russian Expansion on the Pacific, 1641- +1850_; Hans Übersberger, _Russlands Orientpolitik in den letzten +zwei Jahrhunderten_, Vol. I, down to 1792 (1913). + +THE DECLINE OF SWEDEN, TURKEY, AND POLAND. On Sweden: R. N. Bain, +_Scandinavia, a Political History of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, +1513-1900_ (1905), and, by the same author, _Charles XII_ +(1899) in the "Heroes of the Nations" Series. On Turkey: Stanley Lane- +Poole, _Turkey_ (1889), in the "Story of the Nations" Series, and +E. A. Freeman, _The Ottoman Power in Europe, its Nature, its Growth, +and its Decline_ (1877), suggestive outlines by eminent English +historians; Nicolae Jorga, _Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches_, 5 +vols. (1908-1913), particularly Vols. III, IV, the best and most up-to- +date history of the Ottoman Empire; Joseph von Hammer, _Geschichte +des osmanischen Reiches_, 10 vols. (1827-1835), an old work, very +detailed and still famous, of which Vols. VI-VIII treat of the +eighteenth century prior to 1774. On Poland: W. A. Phillips, +_Poland_ (1915), ch. i-vi, a convenient volume in the "Home +University Library"; R. N. Bain, _Slavonic Europe: a Political +History of Poland and Russia from 1447 to 1796_ (1908), ch. v-xix; +_Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. VIII (1904), ch. xvii; W. R. A. +Morfill, _Poland_ (1893), in the "Story of the Nations" Series; R. +H. Lord, _The Second Partition of Poland: a Study in Diplomatic +History_ (1915), scholarly and well-written; R. N. Bain, _The Last +King of Poland and his Contemporaries_ (1909); U. L. Lehtonen, +_Die polnischen Provinzen Russlands unter Katharina II in den Jahren +1772-1782_ (1907), a German translation of an important Finnish +work. An excellent French account of international relations in the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, affecting Russia, Sweden, Poland, +and Turkey, is Émile Bourgeois, _Manuel historique de politique +étrangère_, 4th ed., Vol. I (1906), ch. viii, x, xiii. + + + + +PART III + +"LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY" + + +Our narrative of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries thus far has +been full of intrigue, dynastic rivalry, and colonial competition. We +have sat with red-robed cardinals in council to exalt the monarch of +France; we have witnessed the worldwide wars by which Great Britain won +and lost vast imperial domains; we have followed the thundering march +of Frederick's armies through the Germanies, wasted with war; but we +have been blind indeed if the glare of bright helmets and the glamour +of courtly diplomacy have hidden from our eyes a phenomenon more +momentous than even the growth of Russia or the conquest of New France. +It is the rise of the bourgeoisie. + +Driven on by insatiable ambition, not content to be lords of the world +of business, with ships and warehouses for castles and with clerks for +retainers, the bourgeoisie have placed their lawyers in the royal +service, their learned men in the academies, their economists at the +king's elbow, and with restless energy they push on to shape state and +society to their own ends. In England they have already helped to +dethrone kings and have secured some hold on Parliament, but on the +Continent their power and place is less advanced. + +For the eighteenth century is still the grand age of monarchs, who take +Louis XIV as the pattern of princely power and pomp. "Benevolent +despots" they are, these monarchs meaning well to govern their people +with fatherly kindness. But their plans go wrong and their reforms fall +flat, while the bourgeoisie become self-conscious and self-reliant, and +rise up against the throne of the sixteenth Louis in France. It is the +bourgeoisie that start the revolutionary cry of "Liberty, Equality, +Fraternity," and it is this cry in the throats of the masses which +sends terror to the hearts of nobles and kings. Desperately the old +order--the old régime--defends itself. First France, then all Europe, +is affected. Revolutionary wars convulse the Continent. Never had the +world witnessed wars so disastrous, so bloody. + +Yet the triumph of the bourgeoisie is not assured. The Revolution has +been but one battle in the long war between the rival aristocracies of +birth and of business--a war in which peasants and artisans now give +their lives for illusory dreams of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," now +fight their feudal lords, and now turn on their pretended liberators, +the bourgeoisie. For already it begins to dawn on the dull masses that +"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" are chiefly for their masters. + +The old regime, its decay, the rise of the bourgeoisie, the +disappointment of the common people,--these are the bold landmarks on +which the student must fix his attention, while in the following +chapters we sketch the condition of Europe in the eighteenth century, +and trace the course of the French Revolution, the career of Napoleon, +and the restoration of "law and order" under Metternich. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + +AGRICULTURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + +[Sidenote: General Backwardness] + +If some "Rip Van Winkle" of the sixteenth century could have slept for +two centuries to awake in 1750, he would have found far less to marvel +at in the common life of the people than would one of us. Much of the +farming, even of the weaving, buying, and selling, was done just as it +had been done centuries before; and the great changes that were to +revolutionize the life and work of the people were as yet hardly +dreamed of. In fact, there was so much in common between the sixteenth +and eighteenth centuries, that the reader who has already made himself +familiar with the manor and the gild, as described in Chapter II, will +find himself quite at home in the "old regime," as the order of things +in the eighteenth century is now termed. + +One might still see the countless little agricultural villages and +manor houses nestling among the hills or dotting the plains, surrounded +by green fields and fringed with forest or wasteland. The simple +villagers still cultivated their strips in the common fields in the +time-honored way, working hard for meager returns. A third of the land +stood idle every year; it often took a whole day merely to scratch the +surface of a single acre with the rude wooden plow then in use; cattle +were killed off in the autumn for want of good hay; fertilizers were +only crudely applied, if at all; many a humble peasant was content if +his bushel of seed brought him three bushels of grain, and was proud if +his fatted ox weighed over four hundred pounds, though a modern farmer +would grumble at results three or four times as good. + +[Sidenote: "Gentlemen Farmers" and "Husbandry"] +[Sidenote: "Rotation of Crops"] + +There were some enterprising and prosperous landowners who used newer +and better methods, and even wrote books about "husbandry," as +agriculture was called. The Dutch, especially, learned to cultivate +their narrow territory carefully, and from them English farmers +learned many secrets of tillage. They grew clover and "artificial +grasses"--such as rye--for their cattle, cultivated turnips for winter +fodder, tilled the soil more thoroughly, used fertilizers more +diligently, and even learned how to shift their crops from field to +field according to a regular plan, so that the soil would not lose its +fertility and would not have to be left idle or "fallow" every third +year. + +[Sidenote: Survival of Primitive Methods] + +These new methods were all very fine for "gentlemen farmers," but for +the average peasant the old "open-field" system was an effective +barrier to progress. He could not plant new crops on his strips in the +grain fields, for custom forbade it; he could not breed his cows +scientifically, while they ran in with the rest of the village cattle. +At best he could only work hard and pray that his cows would not catch +contagion from the rest, and that the weeds from his neighbor's wheat- +patch might not spread into his own, for between such patches there was +neither wall nor fence. + +[Sidenote: Survival of Serfdom] +[Sidenote: Sorry Condition of the Peasantry] + +Primitive methods were not the only survivals of manorial life. Actual +serfdom still prevailed in most of the countries of Europe except +France [Footnote: Even in France, some serfdom still survived.] and +England, and even in these countries nominal freedom lifted the +peasantry but little above the common lot. It is true, indeed, that +countless differences in the degree and conditions of servitude existed +between Russians and Frenchmen, and even between peasants in the same +country or village. The English or French plowman, perhaps, might not +be sold to fight for other countries like the Hessians, nor could he be +commanded to marry an undesired bride, as were of the tenants of a +Russian nobleman. But in a general way we may say that all the peasants +of Europe suffered from much the same causes. With no voice in making +the laws, they were liable to heavy fines or capital punishment for +breaking the laws. Their advice was not asked when taxes were levied or +apportioned, but upon them fell the heaviest burdens of the state. + +It was vexatious to pay outrageous fees for the use of a lord's mill, +bridge, oven, or wine-press, to be haled to court for an imaginary +offense, or to be called from one's fields to war, or to work on the +roads without pay. It was hard for the hungry serf to see the fat deer +venturing into his very dooryard, and to remember that the master of +the mansion house was so fond of the chase that he would not allow his +game to be killed for food for vulgar plowmen. + +But these and similar vexations sank into insignificance in comparison +with the burdens of the taxes paid to lord, to church, and to king. In +every country of Europe the peasants were taxed, directly or +indirectly, for the support of the three pillars of the "old regime." +The form of such taxation in England differed widely from that in +Hungary; in Sweden, from that in Spain. But beneath discrepancies of +form, the system was essentially the same. Some idea of the triple +taxation that everywhere bore so heavily upon the peasantry may be +obtained from a brief resume of the financial obligations of an +ordinary French peasant to his king, his Church, and his lord. + +[Sidenote: Peasant Obligations to Landlord] + +To the lord the serf owed often three days' labor a week, in addition +to stated portions of grain and poultry. In place of servile work the +freeman paid a "quit-rent," that is, a sum of money instead of the +services which were considered to accompany the occupation of land. +Double rent was paid on the death of the peasant, and, if the farm was +sold, one-fifth of the price went to the lord. Sometimes, however, a +freeman held his land without quit-rent, but still had numerous +obligations which had survived from medieval times, such as the annual +sum paid for a "military protection" which he neither demanded nor +received. + +[Sidenote: Peasant Obligation to Church] + +The second obligation was to the church--the tithe or tenth, which +usually amounted every year to a twelfth or a fifteenth of the gross +produce of the peasant's land. + +[Sidenote: Peasant Obligations to King and State] + +Heaviest of all were the taxes levied by the king. The _taille_, +or land tax, was the most important. The amount was not fixed, but was +supposed to be proportional to the value of the peasant's land and +dwelling. In practice the tax-collectors often took as much as they +could get. and a shrewd peasant would let his house go to pieces and +pretend to be utterly destitute in order that the assessors might not +increase the valuation of his property. + +The other direct taxes were the poll tax, _i.e._, a certain sum +which everybody alike must pay, and the income tax, usually a twentieth +part of the income. Finally, there were indirect taxes, such as the +salt _gabelle_. Thus, in certain provinces every person had to buy +seven pounds of salt a year from the government salt-works at a price +ten times its real value. Road-making, too, was the duty of the +peasant, and the _corvée_, or labor on roads, often took several +weeks in a year. + +[Sidenote: Burden of Taxation on Peasants] + +All these burdens--dues to the lord, tithes to the church, taxes to the +king--left the peasant but little for himself. It is so difficult to +get exact figures that we can put no trust in the estimate of a famous +writer that dues, tithes, and taxes absorbed over four-fifths of the +French peasant's produce: nevertheless, we may be sure that the burden +was very great. In a few favored districts of France and England +farmers were able to pay their taxes and still live comfortably. But +elsewhere the misery of the people was such as can hardly be imagined. +With the best of harvests they could barely provide for their families, +and a dry summer or long winter would bring them to want. There was +only the coarsest of bread--and little of that; meat was a luxury; and +delicacies were for the rich. We read how starving peasants in France +tried to appease their hunger with roots and herbs, and in hard times +succumbed by thousands to famine. One-roomed mud huts with leaky +thatched roofs, bare and windowless, were good enough dwellings for +these tillers of the soil. In the dark corners of the dirt-floors +lurked germs of pestilence and death. Fuel was expensive, and the +bitter winter nights must have found many a peasant shivering +supperless on his bed of straw. + +True, the gloom of such conditions was relieved here and there by a +prosperous village or a well-to-do peasant. But, speaking in a general +way, the sufferings of the poorer European peasants and serfs can +hardly be exaggerated. It was they who in large part had paid for the +wars, theaters, palaces, and pleasures of the courts of Europe. + + +COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + +[Sidenote: Growth of Towns] + +Let us now turn our eyes from the country to the city, for in the towns +are to be found the bourgeoisie, the class in which we are most +interested. The steady expansion of commerce and industry during the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had been attended by a remarkable +development of town life. Little villages had grown, until in 1787 +there were 78 towns of over 10,000 inhabitants each. London, the +greatest city in Europe, had increased in population from about half a +million in 1685 to over a million in 1800. Paris was at least half as +large; Amsterdam was a great city; and several German towns like +Hamburg, Bremen, and Frankfort were important trading centers. + +The towns had begun to lose some of their medieval characteristics. +They had spread out beyond their cramping walls; roomy streets and +pleasant squares made the newer sections more attractive. The old +fortifications, no longer needed for protection, served now as +promenades. City thoroughfares were kept cleaner, sometimes well paved +with cobbles; and at night the feeble but cheerful glow of oil street- +lamps lessened the terrors of the belated burgher who had been at the +theater or listened to protracted debates at the great town hall. + +[Sidenote: Industry Gild Regulation] + +The life of the town was nourished by industry and commerce. Industry +in the eighteenth century meant far more than baking bread, making +clothes, cobbling shoes, and fashioning furniture for use in the town; +it meant the production on a large scale of goods to sell in distant +places,--cloth, clocks, shoes, beads, dishes, hats, buttons, and what +not. Many of these articles were still manufactured under the +regulations of the old craft gilds. For although the gild system was +pretty well broken up in England, it still maintained its hold on the +Continent. In France the division of crafts had become so complicated +that innumerable bickerings arose between cobblers' gilds and +shoemakers' gilds, between watch-makers and clock-makers. In Germany +conditions were worse. The gilds, now aristocratic and practically +hereditary corporations, used their power to prevent all competition, +to keep their apprentices and journeymen working for little or nothing, +to insure high profits, and to prevent any technical improvements which +might conceivably injure them. "A hatter who improved his wares by +mixing silk with the wool was attacked by all the other hatters; the +inventor of sheet lead was opposed by the plumbers; a man who had made +a success in print-cloths was forced to return to antiquated methods by +the dyers." + +[Sidenote: Government Regulation of Industry: Mercantilism] + +To gild regulation was added government regulation. It will be +remembered that many seventeenth-century statesmen had urged their +kings to make laws for the greater prosperity of industry, and that +Colbert had given the classic expression in France to the mercantilist +idea that wealth could be cultivated by regulating and encouraging +manufactures. In order that French dyers might acquire a reputation for +thorough work, he issued over three hundred articles of instruction for +the better conduct of the dyeing business. In an age when unscrupulous +English merchants were hurting the market with poorly woven fabrics, +French weavers were given careful orders about the quality of the +thread, the breadth of the cloth, and the fineness of the weave. It is +said that in 1787 the regulations for French manufactures filled eight +volumes in quarto; and other governments, while less thorough, were +equally convinced of the wisdom of such a policy. + +The mercantilist was not content with making rules for established +industries. In justice to him it should be explained that he was +anxious to plant new trades. Privileges, titles of nobility, exemption +from taxation, generous grants of money, and other favors were accorded +to enterprising business men who undertook to introduce new branches of +manufacture. + +In general, however, the efforts of such mercantilists as Colbert have +been adversely criticized by economists. The regulations caused much +inconvenience and loss to many manufacturers, and the privileges +granted to new enterprises often favored unstable and unsuitable +industries at the expense of more natural and valuable trades. It is +impossible to estimate the value to France of Colbert's pet industries, +and equally impossible to see what would have happened had industry +been allowed free rein. But we must not entirely condemn the system +simply because its faults are so obvious and its benefits so hard to +ascertain. + +[Sidenote: Restrictions on Commerce] + +Commerce, like industry, was subject to restrictions and impeded by +antiquated customs. Merchants traversing the country were hindered by +poor roads; at frequent intervals they must pay toll before passing a +knight's castle, a bridge, or a town gate. Customs duties were levied +on commerce between the provinces of a single kingdom. And the cost of +transportation was thus made so high that the price of a cask of wine +passing from the Orléanais to Normandy--two provinces in northwestern +France--increased twenty-fold. + +From our past study of the commercial and colonial wars of the +eighteenth century, especially those between France and Great Britain, +we have already learned that mercantilist ideas were still dominant in +foreign commerce. We have noted the heavy protective tariffs which were +designed to shut out foreign competition. We have discussed the +Navigation Acts, by means of which England encouraged her ship-owners. +We have also mentioned the absorption, by specially chartered +companies, of the profits of the lucrative European trade with the +Indies. The East India Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, the Dutch +East India Company, and the French _Compagnie des Indes_ were but +a few famous examples of the chartered companies which still +practically monopolized the trade of most non-European countries. + +[Sidenote: Great Growth of Commerce] + +Customs and companies may have been injurious in many respects, but +commerce grew out of all bounds. The New World gave furs, timber, +tobacco, cotton, rice, sugar, rum, molasses, coffee, dyes, gold, and +silver, in return for negro slaves, manufactures, and Oriental wares; +and the broad Atlantic highways were traversed by many hundreds of +heavily laden ships. The spices, jewels, tea, and textiles of the Far +East made rich cargoes for well-built East Indiamen. Important, too, +was the traffic which occupied English and Dutch merchant fleets in the +Baltic; and the flags of many nations were carried by traders coastwise +along all the shores of Europe. Great Britain at the opening of the +eighteenth century possessed a foreign commerce estimated at +$60,000,000, and that of France was at least two-thirds as great. +During the century the volume of commerce was probably more than +quadrupled. + +It is difficult to realize the tremendous importance of this expansion +of commerce and industry. It had erected colonial empires, caused wars, +lured millions of peasants from their farms, and built populous cities. +But most important of all--it had given strength to the bourgeoisie. + +[Sidenote: Rise of the Bourgeoisie] + +Merchants, bankers, wholesalers, rich gild-masters, and even less +opulent shopkeepers, formed a distinct "middle class," between the +privileged clergy and nobility on the one hand, and the oppressed +peasant and artisan, or manual laborer, on the other. The middle class, +often called by the French word _bourgeoisie_ because it dwelt in +towns or _bourgs_, was strongest in England, the foremost +commercial nation of Europe, was somewhat weaker in France, and very +much weaker in less commercial countries, such as Germany, Austria, and +Russia. + +If the bourgeoisie was all-powerful in the world of business, it was +influential in other spheres. Lawyers came almost exclusively from +commercial families. Judges, local magistrates, keepers of prisons, +government secretaries, intendants, all the world of officialdom was +thronged with scions of bourgeois families. The better and older +middle-class families prided themselves on their wealth, influence, and +culture. They read the latest books on science and philosophy; they +sometimes criticized the religious ideas of the past; and they eagerly +discussed questions of constitutional law and political economy. + +[Sidenote: Ambition of the Bourgeoisie] + +Ambition came quite naturally with wealth and learning. The bourgeoisie +wanted power and privilege commensurate with their place in business +and administration. It seemed unbearable that a foppish noble whose +only claims to respect were a moldy castle and a worm-eaten patent of +nobility should everywhere take precedence over men of means and +brains. Why should the highest social distinctions, the richest +sinecures, and the posts of greatest honor in the army and at court be +closed to men of ignoble birth, as if a man were any better for the +possession of a high-sounding title? + +Moreover, the bourgeoisie desired a more direct say in politics. In +England, to be sure, the sons of rich merchants were frequently +admitted to the nobility, and commercial interests were pretty well +represented in Parliament. In France, however, the feudal nobility was +more arrogant and exclusive, and the government less in harmony with +middle-class notions. The extravagant and wasteful administration of +royal money was censured by every good business man. It was argued that +if France might only have bourgeois representation in a national +parliament to regulate finance and to see that customs duties, trade- +laws, and foreign relations were managed in accordance with business +interests, then all would be well. + + +THE PRIVILEGED CLASSES + +Thus far, in analyzing social and economic conditions in the eighteenth +century, we have concerned ourselves with the lowest class, the +peasants and day laborers, and with the middle class or bourgeoisie-- +the "Third Estate" of France and the "Commons" of Great Britain. All of +these were technically unprivileged or ignoble classes. The highest +place in society was reserved for the classes of the privileged, the +clergy and the nobility, constituting the First and the Second Estates, +respectively. And it is to these that we must now direct our attention. + +[Sidenote: Small Number of "Privileged"] + +The privileged classes formed a very small minority of the population. +Of the 25,000,000 inhabitants of France, probably less than 150,000 +were nobles and 130,000 clerics; about one out of every hundred of the +people was therefore privileged. + +[Sidenote: Large Number of "Privileges"] + +This small upper class was distinguished from the common herd by rank, +possessions, and privileges. The person of noble birth, _i.e._, +the son of a noble, was esteemed to be inherently finer and better than +other men; so much so that he would disdain to marry a person of the +lower class. He was addressed in terms of respect--"my lord," "your +Grace"; common men saluted him as their superior. His clothes were more +gorgeous than those of the plain people; on his breast glittered the +badges of honorary societies, and his coach was proudly decorated with +an ancestral coat of arms. His "gentle" birth admitted him to the +polite society of the court and enabled him to seek preferment in +church or army. + +More substantial than marks of honor were the actual possessions of +nobles and clergy. Each noble bequeathed to his eldest son a castle or +a mansion with more or less territory from which to collect rents or +feudal dues. Bishops, abbots, and archbishops received their office by +election or appointment rather than by inheritance, and, being +unmarried, could not transmit their stations to children. But in +countries where the wealth of the Church had not been confiscated by +Protestants, the "prince of the Church" often enjoyed during his +lifetime magnificent possessions. The bishop of Strassburg had an +annual income approximating 500,000 francs. Castles, cathedrals, +palaces, rich vestments, invaluable pictures, golden chalices, rentals +from broad lands, tithes from the people,--these were the property of +the clergy. It is estimated that the clergy and nobility each owned +one-fifth of France, and that one-third of all the land of Europe, one- +half the revenue, and two-thirds the capital, were in the hands of +Christian churches. + +The noble families, possessing thousands of acres, and monopolizing the +higher offices of church and army, were further enriched, especially in +France, by presents of money from the king, by pensions, by grants of +monopolies, and by high-salaried positions which entailed little or no +work. "One young man was given a salary of $3600 for an office whose +sole duty consisted in signing his name twice a year." + +[Sidenote: Exemption from Taxation] + +With all their wealth the first two orders contributed almost nothing +to lighten the financial burdens of the state. [Footnote: Exemption +from taxation was often and similarly granted to bourgeois incumbents +of government offices.] The Church in France claimed exemption from +taxation, but made annual gifts to the king of several hundred thousand +dollars, though such grants represented less than one per cent of its +income. The nobles, too, considered the payment of direct taxes a +disgrace to their gentle blood, and did not hesitate by trickery to +evade indirect taxation, leaving the chief burdens to fall upon the +lower classes, and most of all upon the peasantry. + +[Sidenote: Failure of the Privileged to Perform Real Services] +[Sidenote: The Higher Nobility] + +All these advantages, privileges, and immunities might be looked upon +as a fitting reward which medieval Europe had given to her nobles for +protecting peaceable plowmen from the marauding bands then so common, +and which she had bestowed upon her clergy for preserving education, +for encouraging agriculture, for fostering the arts, for tending the +poor, the sick, and the traveler, and for performing the offices of +religion. But long before the eighteenth century the protective +functions of feudal nobles had been transferred to the royal +government. No longer useful, the hereditary nobility was merely +burdensome, and ornamental. Such as could afford it, spent their lives +in the cities or at the royal court where they rarely did anything +worth while, unless it were to invent an unusually delicate compliment +or to fashion a flawless sonnet. Their morals were not of the best--it +was almost fashionable to be vicious--but their manners were perfect. + +Meanwhile, the landed estates of these absentee lords were in charge of +flint-hearted agents, whose sole mission was to squeeze money from the +peasants, to make them pay well for mill, bridge, and oven, to press to +the uttermost every claim which might give the absent master a larger +revenue. + +[Sidenote: The Country Gentry] + +The poorer noble, the "country gentleman," was hardly able to live so +extravagant a life, and accordingly remained at home, sometimes making +friends of the villagers, standing god-father to peasant-children, or +inviting heavy-booted but light-hearted plowmen to dance in the castle +courtyard. But often his life was dull enough, with rents hard to +collect, and only hunting, drinking, and gossip to pass the time away. + +[Sidenote: The Clergy] + +A similar and sharper contrast was observable between the higher and +lower clergy, in England as well as in Roman Catholic countries. Very +frequently dissipated young nobles were nominated bishops or abbots: +they looked upon their office as a source of revenue, but never dreamed +of discharging any spiritual duties. While a Cardinal de Rohan with +2,500,000 livres a year astonished the court of France with his +magnificence and luxury, many a shabby but faithful country curate, +with an uncertain income of less than $150 a year, was doing his best +to make both ends meet, with a little to spare for charity. + + +RELIGIOUS AND ECCLESIASTICAL CONDITIONS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + +[Sidenote: The Catholic Church] + +The great ecclesiastical organization that had dominated the middle +ages was no longer the one church of Europe, but was still the most +impressive. Although the Protestant Revolt of the sixteenth century had +established independent denominations in the countries of northern +Europe, as we have seen in Chapter IV, Roman Catholic Christianity +remained the state religion of Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Austria, +the Austrian Netherlands, Bavaria, Poland, and several of the Swiss +Cantons. Moreover, large sections of the population of Ireland, +Bohemia, Hungary, Asia, and America professed Catholic Christianity. + +Orthodox Roman Catholics held fast to their faith in dogmas and +sacraments and looked for spiritual guidance, correction, and comfort +to the regular and secular clergy of their Church. The "secular" +hierarchy of pope, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, and +deacons, did not cease its pious labor "in the world"; nor was there +lack of zealous souls willing to forego the pleasures of this world, +that they might live holier lives as monks, nuns, or begging friars,-- +the "regular" clergy. + +[Sidenote: Relations of the Catholic Church with Lay States] + +In its relations with lay states, the Roman Catholic Church had changed +more than in its internal organization. Many Protestant rulers now +recognized the pope merely as an Italian prince, [Footnote: The pope, +it will be remembered, ruled the central part of Italy as a temporal +prince.] and head of an undesirable religious sect--Roman Catholics +were either persecuted, or, as in Great Britain, deprived of political +and civil rights. The Pope, on the other hand, could hardly regard as +friends those who had denied the spiritual mission and confiscated the +temporal possessions of the Church. + +In Roman Catholic countries, too, the power of the pope had been +lessened. The old dispute whether pope or king should control the +appointment of bishops, abbots, and other high church officers had at +last been settled in favor of the king. The pope consented to recognize +royal appointees, provided they were "godly and suitable" men; in +return he usually received a fee ("annate") from the newly appointed +prelate. Other taxes the pope rarely ventured to levy; but good Roman +Catholics continued to pay "Peter's Pence" as a free-will offering, and +the bishops occasionally taxed themselves for his benefit. In other +ways, also, the power of the Church was curtailed. Royal courts now +took cognizance of the greater part of those cases which had once been +within the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts;[Footnote: Blasphemy, +contempt of religion, and heresy were, however, still matters for +church courts.] the right of appeal to the Roman Curia was limited; +and the lower clergy might be tried in civil courts. Finally, papal +edicts were no longer published in a country without the sanction of +the king. These curtailments of papal privilege were doubtless +important, but they meant little or nothing to the millions of peasants +and humble workmen who heard Mass, were confessed, and received the +sacraments as their fathers had done before them. + +[Sidenote: Surviving Privileges of the Church] + +Besides their incalculable influence over the souls of men, the clergy +were an important factor in the civil life of Roman Catholic countries. +Education was mostly under their auspices; they conducted the hospitals +and relieved the poor. Marriages were void unless solemnized in the +orthodox manner, and, in the eye of the law, children born outside of +Christian wedlock might not inherit property. Heretics who died +unshriven, were denied the privilege of burial in Catholic cemeteries. + +Of the exemption of the clergy from taxation, and of the wealth of the +Church, we have already spoken, as well as of the high social rank of +its prelates--a rank more in keeping with that of wealthy worldly +noblemen than with that of devout "servants of the Lord." But we have +yet to mention the influence of the Church in suppressing heresy. + +In theory the Roman Catholic religion was still obligatory in Catholic +states. Uniformity of faith was still considered essential to political +unity. Kings still promised at coronation faithfully to extirpate +heretical sects. In Spain, during the first half of the eighteenth +century hundreds of heretics were condemned by the Inquisition and +burned at the stake; only toward the close of the century was there an +abatement of religious intolerance. In France, King Louis XIV had +revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and in the eighteenth century one +might have found laws on the French statute-books directing that men +who attended Protestant services should be made galley-slaves, that +medical aid should be withheld from impenitent heretics, and that +writers of irreligious books should suffer death. Such laws were very +poorly enforced, however, and active religious persecution was dying +out in France in the second half of the eighteenth century. But +toleration did not mean equality; full civil and political rights were +still denied the several hundred thousand Huguenots in France. + +[Sidenote: Summary of Weaknesses in the Catholic Church] + +The strength of the Roman Catholic Church in the eighteenth century was +impaired by four circumstances: (1) the existence of bitterly +antagonistic Protestant sects; (2) the growth of royal power and of the +sentiment of nationalism, at the expense of papal power and of +internationalism; (3) the indolence and worldliness of some of the +prelates; and (4) the presence of internal dissensions. The first three +circumstances should be clear from what has already been said, but a +word of explanation is necessary about the fourth. + +[Sidenote: Jansenism] + +The first of these dissensions arose concerning the teachings of a +certain Flemish bishop by the name of Cornelius Janssen (1585-1638), +[Footnote: Janssen is commonly cited by the Latin version of his name-- +Jansenius.] whose followers, known as Jansenists, had possessed +themselves of a sort of hermitage and nunnery at Port-Royal in the +vicinity of Paris. Jansenism found a number of earnest disciples and +able exponents, whose educational work and reforming zeal brought them +into conflict with the Jesuits. The Jesuits accused the Jansenists of +heresy, affirming that Janssen's doctrine of conversion-by-the-will-of- +God was in last analysis practically Calvin's predestination. For some +years the controversy raged. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a famous +mathematician and experimenter in physics, defended the Jansenists +eloquently and learnedly, but Jesuits had the ear of Louis XIV and +broke up the little colony at Port-Royal. Four years later the pope +issued a famous bull, called "Unigenitus" (1713), definitively +condemning Jansenist doctrines as heretical; but the sect still lived +on, especially in Holland, and "Unigenitus" was disliked by many +orthodox Roman Catholics, who thought its condemnations too sweeping +and too severe. + +[Sidenote: Febronianism] + +A second dispute, questioning the authority of the papacy, centered in +a German theologian [Footnote: Johann Nikolaus von Hoatheim, auxiliary +bishop of Trier. His famous work was published in 1763.] who wrote +under the Latin name of Febronius. Febronianism was an attempted +revival of the conciliar movement of the fifteenth century and closely +resembled "Gallicanism," as the movement in favor of the "Liberties of +the Gallican Church" was called. These "Liberties" had been formulated +in a French declaration of 1682 and involved two major claims: (1) that +the pope had no right to depose or otherwise to interfere with temporal +monarchs, and (2) that in spiritual affairs the general council of +bishops (œcumenical council) was superior to the sovereign pontiff. +This twofold movement towards nationalism and representative church +government was most strongly controverted by the Jesuits, who took +their stand on the assertion that the pope was supreme in all things. +By the opponents of the Jesuits, this looking "beyond the mountains" to +the Roman Curia for ultimate authority was called Ultramontanism +(beyond-the-mountainism). In almost every Catholic country of Europe +the struggle between Ultramontanism and Febronianism aroused +controversy, and the nature of papal supremacy remained a mooted point +well into the nineteenth century. + +[Sidenote: Suppression of the Jesuit Order] + +Towards the close of the eighteenth century Ultramontanism received a +serious though temporary setback by the suppression of the Jesuits +(1773). For over two centuries members of the Society of Jesus had been +famed as schoolmasters, preachers, controversialists, and missionaries; +but in the eighteenth century the order became increasingly involved in +temporal business; its power and wealth were abused; its political +entanglements incurred the resentment of reforming royal ministers; and +some of its missionaries became scandalously lax in their doctrines. +The result was the suppression of the order, first in Portugal (1759), +then in other countries, and finally altogether by a papal decree of +1773. [Footnote: In Russia, where the order of suppression was not +enforced, the Jesuits kept their corporate organization. Subsequently, +on 7 August, 1814, the entire society was restored by papal bull, and +is now in a flourishing condition in many countries.] + +[Sidenote: The Anglican Church] + +We shall next consider the Anglican Church, whose complete independence +from the papacy, it will be remembered, was established by Henry VIII +of England, and whose doctrinal position had been defined in the +Thirty-nine Articles of Elizabeth's reign. It was the state Church of +England, Ireland, and Wales, and had scattering adherents in Scotland +and in the British colonies. Like the Roman Catholic Church in France, +the Anglican Church enjoyed in the British Isles, excepting Scotland, +special privileges, great wealth, and the collection of tithes from +Anglicans and non-Anglicans alike. It was intensely national, +independent of papal control or other foreign influence, and patriotic +in spirit. It retained a hierarchical government similar to that of the +Roman Catholics. As in France, the bishops were inclined to use the +emoluments without doing the work of their office, while the country +curates were very poor. + +In its relations with others, the Anglican Church was not very liberal. +In England, Protestant (Calvinistic) Dissenters had been granted +liberty of worship in 1689 (Toleration Act) but still they might not +hold civil, military, or political office without the special +dispensation of Parliament. Baptism, registration of births and deaths, +and marriage could be performed legally only by Anglican clergymen. +Non-Anglicans were barred from Oxford and could take no degree at +Cambridge University. + +Worst of all was the lot of the Roman Catholics. In England they had +practically no civil, political, or religious rights. By a law of 1700 +[Footnote: Repealed in 1778, but on condition that Roman Catholics +should deny the temporal power of the pope and his right to depose +kings.] the Roman Catholic must abjure the Mass or lose his property, +and priests celebrating Mass were liable to life imprisonment. In +Ireland the communicants of the "Church of Ireland" (Anglican) +constituted a very small minority, [Footnote: Even in the nineteenth +century, there were only about 500,000 Anglicans out of a population of +somewhat less than 6,000,000.] while the native Roman Catholics, +comprising over four-fifths of the population, were not only seriously +hindered from exercising their own religion, not only deprived of their +political rights, not only made subservient to the economic interests +of the Protestants, but actually forced to pay the tithe to support +English bishops and curates, who too often lived in England, since +their parishioners were all Roman Catholics. + +[Sidenote: Protestant Sects in England: Baptists] + +The Dissenters from the Anglican Church embraced many different creeds. +We have already spoken of the Calvinistic Presbyterians and +Separatists. Besides these, several new sects had appeared. The Baptist +Church was a seventeenth-century off-shoot of Separatism. To +Calvinistic theology and Congregational Church government, the Baptists +had added a belief in adult baptism, immersion, and religious liberty. + +[Sidenote: Unitarians] + +A group of persons who denied the divinity of Christ, thereby departing +widely from usual Protestantism as well as from traditional +Catholicism, came into some prominence in the eighteenth century +through secessions from the Anglican Church and through the preaching +of the scientist Joseph Priestley, and gradually assumed the name of +Unitarians. It was not until 1844 that the sect obtained complete +religious liberty in England. + +[Sidenote: Quakers] + +A most remarkable departure from conventional forms was made under the +leadership of George Fox, the son of a weaver, whose followers, loosely +organized as the Society of Friends, were often derisively called +Quakers, because they insisted that true religion was accompanied by +deep emotions and quakings of spirit. Although severely persecuted, +[Footnote: In 1685 as many as 1460 Quakers lay in English prisons.] the +Quakers grew to be influential at home, and in the colonies, where they +founded Pennsylvania (1681). Their refusal to take oaths, their quaint +"thee" and "thou," their simple and somber costumes, and their habit of +sitting silent in religious meeting until the spirit should move a +member to speak, made them a most picturesque body. Professional +ministers and the ceremonial observance of Baptism and the Lord's +Supper, they held to be forms destructive of spontaneous religion. War, +they said, gave free rein to un-Christian cruelty, selfishness, and +greed; and, therefore, they would not fight. They were also vigorous +opponents of negro slavery. + +[Sidenote: Methodists] + +The Methodist movement did not come until the eighteenth century. By +the year 1740, a group of earnest Oxford students had won the nickname +of "Methodists" by their abstinence from frivolous amusements and their +methodical cultivation of fervor, piety, and charity. Their leader, +John Wesley (1703-1791), was a man of remarkable energy, rising at four +in the morning, filling every moment with work, living frugally on £28 +a year, visiting prisons, and exhorting his companions to piety. The +Methodist leaders were very devout and orthodox Anglicans, but they +were so anxious "to spread Scriptural Holiness over the land" that they +preached in open fields as well as in churches. Wesley and other great +orators appealed to the emotions of thousands of miners, prisoners, and +ignorant weavers, and often moved them to tears. It is said that John +Wesley preached more than 40,000 sermons. + +The Methodist preachers gradually became estranged from the Anglican +Church, established themselves as a new dissenting sect, and dropped +much of the Anglican ritual. The influence of their preaching was very +marked, however, and many orthodox Anglican clergymen traveled about +preaching to the lower classes. This "evangelical movement" is +significant because it showed that a new class of industrial workers +had grown up without benefit of the church or protection of the state. +We shall subsequently hear more of them in connection with the events +of the Industrial Revolution. + +[Sidenote: Lutheran Churches on the Continent] + +In the eighteenth century, Lutheranism was the state religion of +Denmark (including Norway), Sweden, and of several German states, +notably Prussia, Saxony, and Brunswick. The Lutheran churches retained +much of the old ritual and episcopal government. Ecclesiastical lands, +however, had been secularized, and Lutheran pastors were supported by +free-will offerings and state subventions. In Prussia, [Footnote: +Later, in 1817, the Lutherans and Calvinists of Prussia were brought +together, under royal pressure, to form the "Evangelical Church." +According to the king, this was not a fusion of the two Protestant +faiths, but merely an external union.] Denmark, and Sweden the church +recognized the king as its _summus episcopus_ or supreme head. + +[Sidenote: Reformed Churches] + +Zwinglian and Calvinistic churches were usually called "Reformed" or +"Presbyterian" and represented a more radical deviation than +Lutheranism from Roman Catholic theology and ritual, holding the Lord's +Supper to be but a commemorative ceremony, doing away with altar- +lights, crucifixes, and set prayers, and governing themselves by synods +of priests or presbyters. In the eighteenth century Presbyterianism was +still the established religion of Scotland, and of the Dutch +Netherlands. In France the Huguenots, in Switzerland the French- +speaking Calvinists and German-speaking Zwinglians, and numerous +congregations in southern Germany still represented the Reformed Church +of Calvin and Zwingli. [Footnote: For the Orthodox Church in Russia, +see above, pp. 122, 372, 380. Some reforms in the ritual had been +introduced by a certain Nikon, a patriarch of the seventeenth century.] + +[Sidenote: Growth of Skepticism. Deism] + +One of the most noteworthy features of the eighteenth century was the +appearance of a large number of doubters of Christianity. In the +comparatively long history of the Christian Church, there had often +been reformers, who attacked specific doctrines or abuses, but never +before, with the possible exception of Italian humanists of the +fifteenth century, [Footnote: See above, pp. 124, 182 ff.] had there +been such a considerable and influential number who ventured to assail +the very foundations of the Christian belief. During the last quarter +of the seventeenth century, a number of English philosophers, imbued +with enthusiasm for the discovery of scientific laws, went on to apply +the newer scientific methods to religion. They claimed that the Bible +was untrustworthy, that the dogmas and ceremonies of the churches were +useless if not actually harmful, and that true religion was quite +natural in man and independent of miraculous revelation. God, they +asserted, had created the universe and established laws for it. He +would not upset these laws to answer the foolish prayers of a puny +human being. Men served God best by discounting miracles, discrediting +"superstition," and living in accordance with natural law. Just what +this law was, they left largely to the common sense of each man to +determine. As a result, the positive side of Deism, as the body of the +new teachings was called, was lost in vagueness, and the negative side +--the mere denial of orthodox Christianity--became uppermost in men's +minds. + +Deism was important in several ways, especially for France, whence it +was carried from England. (1) For a large part of the most intelligent +and influential classes, it _destroyed reverence_ for the Church, +and prepared the way for the religious experiments of the French +Revolution. (2) It gave an impetus to _philosophers_ who evolved +great systems and exhibited wonderful ingenuity and confidence in +formulating laws which would explain the why, what, whence, and whither +of human life. (3) While casting doubt on the efficacy of particular +religions, it demanded _toleration_ for all. (4) Finally, it was +responsible for a great increase of _indifference_ to religion. +People too lazy or too ignorant to understand the philosophic basis of +Deism, used the arguments of Deists in justification of their contempt +for religion, and to many people disbelief and intelligence seemed to +be synonymous. We have considered Deism here for its significant +bearing on the religious situation in the eighteenth century. In the +following section we shall see how it was part and parcel of the +scientific and intellectual spirit of the times. + + +SCIENTIFIC AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + +[Sidenote: Art] + +As we have observed in an earlier chapter, both science and art +flowered in the sixteenth century. The great men of the eighteenth +century, however, devoted themselves almost exclusively to science; and +the artists of the time were too insincere, too intent upon pleasing +shallow-brained and frivolous courtiers, to produce much that was worth +while. Great numbers of plays were written, it is true, but they were +hopelessly dull imitations of classic models. Imitative and uninspired +likewise were statues and paintings and poems. One merit they +possessed. If a French painter lacked force and originality, he could +at least portray with elegance and charm a group of fine ladies angling +in an artificial pool. Elegance, indeed, redeemed the eighteenth +century from imitative dullness and stupid ostentation: elegance +expressed more often in perfumes, laces, and mahogany than in paint or +marble. The silk-stockinged courtier accompanying his exquisitely +perfect bow with a nicely worded compliment was surely as much an +artist as the sculptor. Nor can one help feeling that the chairs of +Louis XV were made not to sit in, but to admire; for their curving +mahogany legs look too slenderly delicate, their carved and gilded +backs too uncomfortable, for mere use. Chairs and fine gentlemen were +alike useless, and alike elegant. + +[Sidenote: The New Science] + +More substantial were the achievements of eighteenth-century +scientists. From philosophers of an earlier century--Francis Bacon +(1561-1626) and René Descartes (1596-1650)--they learned to question +everything, to seek new knowledge by actual experiment, to think +boldly. You must not blindly believe in God, they said, you must first +prove His existence. Or, if you will learn how the body is made, it +will not do to believe what Hippocrates or any other Greek authority +said about it; you must cut rabbits open and see with your own eyes +where heart and lungs are hidden beneath the coat of fur. Seeing and +thinking for oneself were the twin principles of the new scientific +method. + +[Sidenote: Isaac Newton] + +The new science found many able exponents in the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries, and of them all Sir Isaac Newton (1646-1727) was +probably the most illustrious. Coming from a humble family in a little +English village, Newton at an early age gave evidence of uncommon +intelligence. At Cambridge University he astonished his professors and +showed such great skill in mathematics that he was given a professor's +chair when only twenty-three years old. + +For Descartes, Newton conceived great admiration, and, like Descartes, +he applied himself to experimentation as well as to formal mathematics. +His boyish ingenuity in the construction of windmills, kites, and +water-clocks was now turned to more serious ends. Like other scientists +of the day, he experimented with chemicals in his laboratory, and tried +different combinations of lenses, prisms, and reflectors, until he was +able to design a great telescope with which to observe the stars. + +His greatest achievement was in astronomy. Galileo, Copernicus, and +other investigators had already concluded that the earth is but one of +many similar bodies moving around the sun, which in turn is only one of +countless suns--for every star is a sun. Now Newton wondered what held +these mighty spheres in their places in space, for they appeared to +move in definite and well-regulated orbits without any visible support +or prop. It is alleged that the answer to the problem was suggested by +the great philosopher's observation of a falling apple. The same +invisible force that made the apple fall to the ground must, he is said +to have reasoned, control the moon, sun, and stars. The earth is pulled +toward the sun, as the apple to the earth, but it is also pulled toward +the stars, each of which is a sun so far away that it looks to us very +small. The result is that the earth neither falls to the sun nor to any +one star, but moves around the sun in a regular path. + +This suggestive principle by which every body in the universe is pulled +towards every other body, Newton called the law of universal +gravitation. Newton's law [Footnote: It was really only a shrewd guess, +but it appears to work so well that we often call it a "law."] was +expressed in a simple mathematical formula [Footnote: "The force +increases directly in proportion to the product of the masses, and +inversely in proportion to the square of the distance."] by means of +which physics and astronomy were developed as mathematical sciences. +When a modern astronomer foretells an eclipse of the sun or discusses +the course of a comet, or when a physicist informs us that he has +weighed the earth, he is depending directly or indirectly upon Newton's +discovery. + +[Sidenote: Experimental and Applied Science] + +The brilliance of Sir Isaac Newton's individual achievement should not +obscure the fame of a host of other justly celebrated scientists and +inventors. One of Newton's contemporaries, the German philosopher +Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz (1646-1716), elaborated a new and +valuable branch of mathematics, the differential calculus, [Footnote: +The credit for this achievement was also claimed by Newton.] which has +proved to be of immense service in modern engineering. At the same +time, the first experiments were being made with the mysterious +potencies of electricity: the electrical researches of Benjamin +Franklin (1706-1790), his discovery that flashes of lightning are +merely electrical phenomena and his invention of the lightning rod are +too familiar to need repeating; the work of Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) +and of Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), two famous Italian +physicists, is less well known, but their labors contributed much to +the development of physical science, and their memory is perpetuated +whenever the modern electrician refers to a "voltaic cell" or when the +tinsmith speaks of "galvanized" iron. In this same period, the first +important advances were made in the construction of balloons, and the +conquest of the air was begun. In the eighteenth century, moreover, the +foundations of modern chemistry were laid by Joseph Priestley (1733- +1804), Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), and Henry Cavendish +(1731-1810); oxygen was discovered, water was decomposed into its +elements, and the nomenclature of modern chemistry had its inception. +In medicine and surgery, too, pioneer work was done by John Hunter +(1728-1793), a noted Scotch surgeon and anatomist, and by the Swiss +professor Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777), the "father of modern +physiology"; the facts which eighteenth-century physicians discovered +regarding the circulation of the blood made possible more intelligent +and more effective methods of treating disease; and just at the close +of the eighteenth century, Edward Jenner (1749-1823), an English +physician, demonstrated that the dread disease of smallpox could be +prevented by vaccination. Geographical knowledge was vastly extended by +the voyages of scientific explorers, like the English navigator Captain +James Cook [Footnote: The Captain Cook who discovered, or rediscovered, +Australia. See above, P. 340.] (1728-1779) and the French sailor Louis +de Bougainville (1739-1811), in the hitherto uncharted expanses of the +southern Pacific. Furthermore, since these explorers frequently brought +home specimens of unfamiliar tropical animals and plants, rich material +was provided for zoology and botany, which, thanks to the efforts of +the Frenchman Georges de Buffon (1707-1788) and of the Swede Carolus +Linnaeus (1707-1778), were just becoming important sciences. + +[Sidenote: Popularity of the New Science] + +One reason for the rapid development of natural science in the +eighteenth century was the unprecedented popularity and favor enjoyed +by scientists. Kings granted large pensions to scientists; British +ministers bestowed remunerative offices, and petty princes showered +valuable gifts upon them. Pretentious observatories with ponderous +telescopes were built, often at public expense, in almost every country +of Europe. Groups of learned men were everywhere banded together in +"academies" or "societies." The "Royal Society" of London, founded in +1662, listened to reports of the latest achievements in mathematics, +astronomy, and physics. The members of the _Académie française +(French Academy) were granted pensions by Louis XIV and even reckoned +Newton among their honorary members. + +Never before had there been such interest in science, and never before +had there been such opportunity to learn. Printing was now well +developed; the learned societies and observatories published reports of +the latest development in all branches of knowledge. Encyclopedias were +gotten out professing to embody in one set of volumes the latest +information relative to all the new sciences. Books were too expensive +for the common person, but not so for the bourgeoisie, nor for numerous +nobles. Indeed, it became quite the fashion in society to be a +"savant," a scientist, a philosopher, to dabble in chemistry, perhaps +even to have a little laboratory or a telescope, and to dazzle one's +friends with one's knowledge. + +[Sidenote: The Spirit of Progress and Reform] + +It seemed as if the golden age was dawning: the human mind seemed to be +awakening from the slumber of centuries to con the world, to unravel +the mysteries of life, and to discover the secrets of the universe. +Confident that only a little thought would be necessary to free the +world from vice, ignorance, and superstition, thinkers now turned +boldly to attack the vexing problems of religion and morality, to +criticize state, society, and church, and to point the way to a new and +earthly paradise. + +This tendency--this enthusiasm--has usually been styled "rationalism" +because its champions sought to make everything _rational_ or +reasonable. Its foremost representatives were to be found in Great +Britain between 1675 and 1725. They wrote many books discussing +abstruse problems of philosophy, which can have slight interest for us; +but certain ideas they had of very practical importance, ideas which +probably found their most notable expression in the writings of John +Locke (1632-1704). Locke argued (1) that all government exists, or +should exist, by consent of the governed--by a "social" contract, as it +were; (2) that education should be more widespread; (3) that +superstition and religious formalism should not be allowed to obscure +"natural laws" and "natural religion"; and (4) that religious +toleration should be granted to all but atheists. + +The ideas of these English philosophers were destined to exercise a far +greater influence upon France than upon England. They found delighted +admirers among the nobility, ardent disciples among the bourgeoisie, +and eloquent apostles in Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau. + +Without a doubt, the foremost figure in the intellectual world of the +eighteenth century was François Marie Arouet, or, as he called himself, +François M. A. de Voltaire (1694-1778). Even from his boyhood he had +been a clever hand at turning verses, and had fully appreciated his own +cleverness. His businesslike father did not enjoy the boy's poetry, +especially if it was written when young François should have been +studying law. But François had a mind of his own; he liked to show his +cleverness in gay society and relished making witty rhymes about the +foibles of public ministers or the stupidity of the prince regent of +France. + +His sharp tongue and sarcastic pen were a source of constant danger to +Voltaire. For libel the regent had him imprisoned a year in the +Bastille. Some years later he was beaten by the lackeys of an offended +nobleman, again sent to the Bastille, and then exiled three years in +England. + +At times he was the idol of Paris, applauded by _philosophes_ and +petted by the court, or again he would be a refugee from the wrath of +outraged authorities. For a great part of his life he resided at Cirey +in Lorraine,--with his mistress, his books, his half-finished plays, +and his laboratory--for Voltaire, like all _philosophes_, had to +play at science. Here he lived in constant readiness to flee over the +border if the king should move against him. For a time he lived in +Germany as the protégé of Frederick the Great, but he treated that +irascible monarch with neither tact nor deference, and soon left Berlin +to escape the king's ire. He visited Catherine the Great of Russia. He +also lived at Geneva for a while, but even there he failed to keep +peace with the magistrates. + +Such conflicts with established authority only increased his fame. +Moreover, his three years' exile in England (1726-1729) had been of +untold value, for they had given him a first-hand acquaintance with +English rationalism. He had been brought up to discount religious +"superstition" but the English thinkers provided him with a well- +considered philosophy. Full of enthusiasm for the ideas of his English +friends, he wrote _Letters on the English_--a triumph of deistic +philosophy and sarcastic criticism of church and society. + +The opinions which Voltaire henceforth never ceased to expound had long +been held by English rationalists. He combined (1) admiration for +experimental science with (2) an exalted opinion of his own ability to +reason out the "natural laws" which were supposed to lie at the base of +human nature, religion, society, the state, and the universe in +general. (3) He was a typical Deist, thinking that the God who had made +the myriad stars of the firmament and who had promulgated eternal laws +for the universe, would hardly concern Himself with the soul of Pierre +or Jean. To him all priests were impostors, and sacraments meaningless +mummery, and yet he would not abolish religion entirely. Voltaire often +said that he believed in a "natural religion," but never explained it +fully. Indeed, he was far more interested in tearing down than in +building up, and disposed rather to scoff at the priests, teachings, +and practices of the Catholic Church than to convert men to a better +religion. (4) Likewise in his criticism of government and of society, +he confined himself mostly to bitter denunciations of contemporaneous +conditions, without offering a substitute or suggesting practical +reforms. His nearest approach to the practical was his admiration for +English institutions, but he never explained how the "liberties" of +England were to be transplanted into France. + +Voltaire was not an acutely original thinker. Nevertheless, his +innumerable tragedies, comedies, histories, essays, and letters +established his reputation as the most versatile and accomplished +writer of his age. But all the "hundred volumes" of Voltaire are rarely +read today. They are clever, to be sure, witty, graceful,--but +admittedly superficial. He thought that he could understand at a glance +the problems upon which more earnest men had spent their lives; he +would hurriedly dash off a tragedy, or in spare moments write a +pretentious history. He was not always accurate but he was always +clever. + +Let us remember him as, at the age of eighty-four, he pays a famous +visit to Paris,--a sprightly old man with wrinkled face, and with sharp +old eyes peering out from either side of the long nose, beaming with +pride at the flattery of his admirers, sparkling with pleasure as he +makes a witty repartee. The ladies call him a most amusing old cynic. +Cynic he is, and old. His life work has been scoffing. Yet Voltaire is +unquestionably the intellectual dictator of Europe. His genius for +satire and his fearless attacks on long-standing abuses have made him +hated, and feared, and admired. He has given tone and character to the +Old Régime. + +[Sidenote: Diderot and the Encyclopedists] + +Voltaire was not alone in the work of spreading discontent. Less famous +but hardly less brilliant or versatile, was Denis Diderot (1713-1784). +His great achievement was the editing of the _Encyclopedia_. The +gathering of all human knowledge into one set of volumes--an +encyclopedia--had been for generations a favorite idea in Europe. +Diderot associated with himself the most distinguished mathematicians, +astronomers, scientists, and philosophers of the time in the +compilation of a work which in seventeen volumes [Footnote: Not +counting pictorial supplements.] undertook to summarize the latest +findings of the scholarship of the age. Over four thousand copies had +been subscribed when the _Encyclopedia_ appeared in 1765. It +proved to be more than a monument of learning: it was a manifesto of +radicalism. Its contributors were the apostles of rationalism and +deism, [Footnote: Some went even further and practically denied the +existence of God.] and their criticism of current ideas about religion, +society, and science won many disciples to the new ideas. + +The mission of Voltaire and the Encyclopedists (as the editors of the +_Encyclopedia_ are called) was to disseminate knowledge and to +destroy prejudice, especially in religion. Practical specific reforms +were suggested by Montesquieu, Rousseau, Beccaria, and Adam Smith. + +[Sidenote: Montesquieu] + +Montesquieu (1689-1755), a French lawyer-nobleman, a student of natural +science, and an admirer of Newton, was the foremost writer of the +eighteenth century on the practice of government. In his _Persian +Letters_, and more especially in _The Spirit of the Laws_ +(1748), he argued that government is a complicated matter and, to be +successful, must be adapted to the peculiarities of a particular +people. Theoretically he preferred a republic, and the Constitution of +the United States consciously embodied many of his theories. +Practically, he considered the government of Great Britain very +admirable, and although it sheltered many abuses, as we shall presently +see, [Footnote: See below, pp. 432 ff.] nevertheless he urged the +French to pattern their political organization after it. Moderation was +the motto of Montesquieu. + +[Sidenote: Rousseau] + +A more radical reformer was Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). In his +life Rousseau was everything he should not have been. He was a failure +as footman, as servant, as tutor, as secretary, as music copier, as +lace maker. He wandered in Turin, Paris, Vienna, London. His immorality +was notorious,--he was not faithful in love, and his children were sent +to a foundling asylum. He was poverty-stricken, dishonest, +discontented, and, in his last years, demented. + +Yet this man, who knew so little how to live his own life, exercised a +wonderful influence over the lives of others. Sordid as was his career, +the man himself was not without beautiful and generous impulses. He +loved nature in an age when other men simply studied nature. He liked +to look at the clear blue sky, or to admire the soft green fields and +shapely trees, and he was not ashamed to confess it. The emotions had +been forgotten while philosophers were praising the intellect: Rousseau +reminded the eighteenth century that after all it may be as sane to +enjoy a sunset as to solve a problem in algebra. Rousseau possessed the +soul of a poet. + +To him right feeling was as important as right thinking, and in this +respect he quarreled with the rationalists who claimed that common +sense alone was worth while. Rousseau was a Deist--at most he believed +but vaguely in a "Being, whatever He may be, Who moves the universe and +orders all things." But he detested the cold reasoning of philosophers +who conceived of God as too much interested in watching the countless +stars obey His eternal laws, to stoop to help puny mortals with their +petty affairs. "0 great philosophers!" cried Rousseau, "How much God is +obliged to you for your easy methods and for sparing Him work." And +again Rousseau warns us to "flee from those [Voltaire and his like] +who, under the pretense of explaining nature, sow desolating doctrines +in the hearts of men, and whose apparent skepticism is a hundred times +more ... dogmatic" than the teachings of priests. Rousseau was not an +orthodox Christian, nor a calmly rational Deist; he simply felt that +"to love God above all things, and your neighbor as yourself, is the +sum of the law." + +This he reproached the philosophers with not doing. Rousseau had seen +and felt the bitter suffering of the poor, and he had perceived the +cynical indifference with which educated men often regarded it. Science +and learning seemed to have made men only more selfish. Indeed, the +ignorant peasant seemed to him humbler and more virtuous than the +pompous pedant. In a passionate protest--his _Discourse on Arts and +Sciences_ (1749)--Rousseau denounced learning as the badge of +selfishness and corruption, for it was used to gratify the pride and +childish curiosity of the rich, rather than to right the wrongs of the +poor. + +In fact, it were better, he contended, that all men should be savages, +than that a few of the most cunning, cruel, and greedy should make +slaves of the rest. His love of nature, his contempt for the silly +showiness and shallow hypocrisy of eighteenth-century society, made the +idea a favorite one. He loved to dream of the times [Footnote: It must +be confessed that here Rousseau was dreaming of times that probably +never existed.] when men were all free and equal, when nobody claimed +to own the land which God had made for all, when there were no wars to +kill, no taxes to oppress, no philosophers to deceive the people. + +In an essay inquiring _What is the Origin of Inequality among Men_ +(1753), Rousseau sought to show how vanity, greed, and selfishness had +found lodgment in the hearts of these "simple savages," how the +strongest had fenced off plots of land for themselves and forced the +weak to acknowledge the right of private property. This, said Rousseau, +was the real origin of inequality among men, of the tyranny of the +strong over the weak; and this law of private property "for the profit +of a few ambitious men, subjected thenceforth all the human race to +labor, servitude, and misery." + +The idea was applied to government in a treatise entitled the _Social +Contract_ (1761). The "social-contract" theory was not new, but +Rousseau made it famous. He taught that government, law, and social +conventions were the outcome of an agreement or contract by which at +the misty dawn of history all members of the state had voluntarily +bound themselves. All governments exercised their power in last +analysis by virtue of this social contract, by will of the people. +Laws, therefore, should be submitted to popular vote. The republic is +the best form of government, because it is the most sensitive to the +desires of the people. This idea of "popular sovereignty," or rule of +the people, was in men's minds when they set up a republic in France +fourteen years after the death of Rousseau. + +Rousseau's cry, "Back to nature," had still another aspect. He said +that children should be allowed to follow their natural inclinations, +instead of being driven to study. They should learn practical, useful +things, instead of Latin and Greek. "Let them learn what they must do +when they are men, and not what they must forget." + +It is hard to fix limits to the influence of Rousseau's writings. True, +both the orthodox Catholics and the philosophical Deists condemned him. +But his followers were many, both bourgeois and noble. "Back to nature" +became the fad of the day, and court ladies pretended to live a +"natural" life and to go fishing. His theory of the social contract, +his contention that wealth should not be divided among a few, his idea +that the people should rule themselves,--these were to be the +inspiration of the republican stage of the French Revolution, and in +time to permeate all Europe. + +[Sidenote: Beccaria] + +The spirit of reform was applied not only against the clergy, the +nobles, the monarchy, and faulty systems of law and education, but +likewise to the administration of justice. Hitherto the most barbarous +"punishments" had been meted out. A pickpocket might be hung for +stealing a couple of shillings [Footnote: In England.]; for a more +serious offense the criminal might have his bones broken and then be +laid on his back on a cart-wheel, to die in agony while crowds looked +on and jeered. In a book entitled _Crimes and Punishments_ (1764), +an Italian marquis of the name of Beccaria (1738-1794) held that such +punishments were not only brutal and barbarous, but did not serve to +prevent crimes as effectually as milder sentences, promptly and surely +administered. Beccaria's ideas are the basis of our modern laws, +although the death penalty still lingers in a few cases. + +[Sidenote: Political Economy: the Physiocrats] + +In yet another sphere--that of economics--philosophers were examining +the old order of things, and asking, as ever, "Is it reasonable?" As we +have repeatedly observed, most governments had long followed the +mercantilist plan more or less consistently. But in the eighteenth +century, François Quesnay, a bourgeois physician at the court of Louis +XV, announced to his friends that mercantilism was all wrong. He became +the center of a little group of philosophers who called themselves +"economists," and who taught that a nation's wealth comes from farming +and mining; that manufacturers and traders produce nothing new, but +merely exchange or transport commodities. The manufacturers and +merchants should therefore be untaxed and unhampered. _Laissez- +faire_--"Let them do as they will." Let the farmers pay the taxes. +The foremost disciple of _laisser-faire_ in France was Turgot +(1727-1781). As minister of finance under Louis XVI he attempted to +abolish duties and restrictions on commerce, but his efforts were only +partially successful. + +[Sidenote: Adam Smith] + +Meanwhile, a Scotchman, who had visited France and had known Quesnay, +was conveying the new ideas across the Channel. It was Adam Smith, the +"father of political economy." Smith was quite in harmony with the +philosophic spirit, with its "natural rights," "natural religion," and +"natural laws." He was a professor of "moral philosophy" in the +University of Glasgow, and as an incident of his philosophical +speculations, he thought out a system of political economy, +_i.e._, the "laws" by which a nation might increase its wealth, on +the lines suggested by Quesnay. Adam Smith's famous book _The Wealth +of Nations_ appeared in 1776, the year of American independence. It +was a declaration of independence for industry. Let each man, each +employer of labor, each seller of merchandise follow his own personal +business interests without let or hindrance, for in so doing he is "led +by an invisible hand" to promote the good of all. Let the government +abolish all monopolies, [Footnote: He was somewhat inconsistent in +approving joint-stock monopolies and shipping regulations.] all +restrictions on trade, all customs duties, all burdens on industry. +Thus only can the true wealth of a nation be promoted. + +Smith's opinions were so plausible and his arguments so ingenious that +his doctrines steadily gained in influence, and in the first half of +the nineteenth century pretty generally triumphed. In actual practice +the abolition of restrictions on industry was destined to give free +rein to the avarice and cruelty of the most selfish employers, to +enrich the bourgeoisie, and to leave the lower classes more miserable +than ever. The "Wealth of Nations" was to be the wealth of the +bourgeoisie. But meanwhile, it was to destroy mercantilism. + +[Sidenote: Conclusion] + +We have now completed our survey of the social, religious, and +intellectual conditions in the Europe of the eighteenth century. Before +our eyes have passed poverty-stricken peasants plowing their fields, +prosperous merchants who demand power, frivolous nobles squandering +their lives and fortunes, worldly bishops neglecting their duties, +humble priests remaining faithful, sober Quakers refusing to fight, +earnest astronomers who search the skies, sarcastic Deists who scoff at +priests, and bourgeois philosophers who urge reform. The procession is +not quite done. Last of all come the kings in their royal ermine and +ministers in robes of state. To them we dedicate a new chapter. It will +be the last occasion on which kings will merit such detailed attention. + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +GENERAL SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE. Brief outlines: +J. H. Robinson and C. A. Beard, _The Development of Modern Europe_, +Vol. I (1907), ch. viii, ix; H. E. Bourne, _The Revolutionary Period in +Europe, 1763-1815_ (1914), ch. i, iii; Clive Day, _History of Commerce_ +(1907). More detailed accounts: _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. VI; +and _Histoire générale_, Vol. VII, ch. xiii-xvii. The most scholarly +and exhaustive study of social conditions is that of Maxime Kovalevsky, +_Die oekonomische Entwicklung Europas bis zum Beginn der +kapitalistischen Wirtschaftsform_, trans. into German from Russian by +Leo Motzkin, 7 vols. (1901-1914), especially Vols. VI, VII. + +FRENCH SOCIETY ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION. Shailer Mathews, _The +French Revolution_ (reprint, 1912), ch. i-v, a clear summary; E. J. +Lowell, _The Eve of the French Revolution_ (1892), probably the best +introduction in English; Alexis de Tocqueville, _The State of Society +in France before the Revolution of 1789_, Eng. trans. by Henry Reeve, +3d ed. (1888), a brilliant and justly famous work; H. A. Taine, _The +Ancient Régime_, Eng. trans. by John Durand, new rev. ed. (1896), +another very celebrated work, better on the literary and philosophical +aspects of the Old Régime than on the economic; Albert Sorel, _L'Europe +et la Révolution française, Vol. I (1885) of this monumental history is +an able presentation of French social conditions in the eighteenth +century; Arthur Young, _Travels in France, 1787, 1788, and 1789_, +valuable observations of a contemporary English gentleman-farmer on +conditions in France, published in several editions, notably in the +Bohn Library. Detailed treatises in French: _Histoire de France_, Vol. +IX, Part I (1910), _Règne de Louis XVI, 1774-1789_, by H. Carré, P. +Sagnac, and E. Lavisse, especially livres III, IV; Emile Levasseur, +_Histoire des classes ouvrières et de l'industrie en France avant +1789_, Vol. II (1901), livre VII; Maxime Kovalevsky, _La France +économique et sociale à la veille de la Révolution_, 2 vols. (1909- +1911), an admirable study of common life both rural and urban; Georges +d'Avenel, _Histoire économique de la propriété, des salaires, etc., +1200-1800_, 6 vols. (1894-1912), elaborate treatments of such topics as +money, land, salaries, the wealthy and bourgeois classes, the growth of +private expenses, etc.; Albert Babeau's careful monographs on many +phases of the Old Régime, such as _Les voyageurs en France_ (1885), _La +ville_ (1884), _La vie rurale_ (1885), _Les artisans et les +domestiques_ (1886), _Les bourgeois_ (1886), _La vie militaire_, 2 +vols. (1890), _Le village_ (1891), _La province_, 2 vols. (1894); +Nicolas Karéiev, _Les paysans et la question paysanne en France dans le +dernier quart du XVIIIe siècle_, Fr. trans. (1899); Edmé Champion, _La +France d'après les cahiers de 1789_ (1897). Also see books listed under +THE FRENCH MONARCHY, 1743-1789, p. 463, below. + +ENGLISH SOCIETY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Brief surveys: A. L. Cross, +_History of England and Greater Britain_ (1914), ch. xliv; G. T. +Warner, _Landmarks in English Industrial History_, 11th ed. (1912), ch. +xiv; H. de B. Gibbins, _Industry in England_, 6th ed. (1910), ch. xvii- +xx; G. H. Perris, _The Industrial History of Modern England_ (1914), +ch. i. Fuller treatments: H. D. Traill and J. S. Mann (editors), +_Social England_, illus. ed., 6 vols. in 12 (1909), ch. xvi-xviii; W. +G. Sydney, _England and the English in the Eighteenth Century_, 2 vols. +(1891); E. S. Roscoe, _The English Scene in the Eighteenth Century_ +(1912); Sir H. T. Wood, _Industrial England in the Middle of the +Eighteenth Century_ (1910); Sidney and Beatrice Webb, _English Local +Government from the Revolution to the Municipal Corporations Act, 1688- +1835, The Manor and the Borough_, 2 parts (1908), and _The Story of the +King's Highway_ (1913); W. E. H. Lecky, _A History of England in the +Eighteenth Century_, London ed., 7 vols. (1907), particularly full on +social and intellectual conditions. Special studies and monographs: A. +Andréadès, _History of the Bank of England_, Eng. trans. by Christabel +Meredith (1909), an authoritative review by a Greek scholar; Sir Walter +Besant, _London in the Eighteenth Century_ (1903), charmingly written +but not always trustworthy; J. L. and B. Hammond, _The Village +Labourer, 1760-1832_ (1911); J. E. Thorold Rogers, _History of +Agriculture and Prices in England_, 7 vols. (1866-1902), a monumental +work, of which Vol. VII deals with the eighteenth century; R. E. +Prothero, _English Farming Past and Present_ (1912); E. C. K. Gonner, +_Common Land and Inclosure_ (1912); A. H. Johnson, _The Disappearance +of the Small Landowner_ (1909); Wilhelm Hasbach, _A History of the +English Agricultural Labourer_, new ed. trans. into English by Ruth +Kenyon (1908); R. M. Gamier, _History of the English Landed Interest, +its Customs, Laws and Agriculture_, 2 vols. (1892-1893), and, by the +same author, _Annals of the British Peasantry_ (1895). For interesting +contemporary accounts of English agriculture in the eighteenth century, +see the journals of Arthur Young, _A Six Weeks' Tour through the +Southern Counties_ (1768), _A Six Months' Tour through the North of +England_, 4 vols. (1791), and _The Farmer's Tour through the East of +England_, 4 vols. (1791). Also see books listed under THE BRITISH +MONARCHY, 1760-1800, pp. 461 f., below. + +SPECIAL STUDIES OF SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN OTHER COUNTRIES. For Scotland: +H. G. Graham, _Social Life in Scotland in the Eighteenth Century_, +2 vols. (1900). For Hungary: Henry Marczali, _Hungary in the +Eighteenth Century_ (1910). For Russia: James Mavor, _An Economic +History of Russia_, Vol. I (1914), Book II, ch. i-iv. For Spain: +Georges Desdevises du Dezert, _L'Espagne de l'ancien régime_, 3 +vols. (1897-1904). For the Germanies: Karl Biedermann, _Deutschland +im achtsehnten Jahrhundert_, 2 vols. in 3 (1867-1880). + +ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. The general histories +of Christianity, cited in the bibliography to Chapter IV, above, should +be consulted. Additional information can be gathered from the +following. On the Catholic Church: William Barry, _The Papacy and +Modern Times_ (1911), ch. v; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. V (1908), +ch. iv, on Gallicanism and Jansenism, by Viscount St. Cyres, a vigorous +opponent of Ultramontanism; _Histoire générale_, Vol. VI, ch. vi, and +Vol. VII, ch. xvii, both by Émile Chénon; Joseph de Maistre, _Du pape_, +24th ed. (1876), and _De l'église gallicane_, most celebrated +treatments of Gallicanism from the standpoint of an Ultramontane and +orthodox Roman Catholic; C. A. Sainte-Beuve, _Port-Royal_, 2d ed., 5 +vols. (1860), the best literary account of Jansenism; R. B. C. Graham, +_A Vanished Arcadia: being some account of the Jesuits in Paraguay, +1607 to 1767_ (1901); Paul de Crousaz-Crétet, _L'église et l'état, ou +les deux puissances au XVIIIe siècle, 1713-1789_ (1893), on the +relations of church and state; Léon Mention, _Documents relatifs aux +rapports du clergé avec la royauté de 1682 à 1789_, 2 vols. (1893- +1903), containing many important documents. On Protestantism in +England: H. O. Wakeman, _An Introduction to the History of the Church +of England_, 5th ed. (1898), ch. xviii, xix; J. H. Overton and Frederic +Relton, _A History of the Church of England, 1714-1800_ (1906), being +Vol. VII of a comprehensive work ed. by W. R. W. Stephens and William +Hunt; John Stoughton, _Religion under Queen Anne and the Georges, 1702- +1800_, 2 vols. (1878); H. W. Clark, _History of English Nonconformity_, +2 vols. (1911-1913), especially Vol. II, Book IV, ch. i, ii, on +Methodism; W. C. Braithwaite, _The Beginnings of Quakerism_ (1912); F. +J. Snell, _Wesley and Methodism_ (1900); and T. E. Thorpe, _Joseph +Priestley_ (1906). + +DEISM AND THE SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. +_Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. V, ch. xxiii, and Vol. VIII, ch. i; +_Histoire générale_, Vol. VI, ch. x, and Vol. VII, ch. xv, two +excellent chapters on natural science, 1648-1788, by Paul Tannery; Sir +Oliver Lodge, _Pioneers of Science_ (1893); Sir Leslie Stephen, +_History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century_, 3d ed., 2 vols. +(1902), an interesting account of the English Deists and of the new +political and economic theorists, and, by the same author, _English +Literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century_ (1909); Edmund Gosse, +_A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, 1660-1780_ (1911); J. M. +Robertson, _A Short History of Free Thought_, 3d rev. ed., 2 vols. +(1915), a sympathetic treatment of deism and rationalism; C. S. Devas, +_The Key to the World's Progress_ (1906), suggestive criticism of the +thought of the eighteenth century from the standpoint of a well- +informed Roman Catholic. On the most celebrated French philosophers of +the time, see the entertaining and enthusiastic biographies by John +(Viscount) Morley, _Rousseau_, 2 vols. (1873), _Diderot and the +Encyclopædists_, 2 vols. (1891), _Voltaire_ (1903), and the essays on +Turgot, etc., scattered throughout his _Critical Miscellanies_, 4 vols. +(1892-1908). There is a convenient little biography of _Montesquieu_ by +Albert Sorel, Eng. trans. by Gustave Masson (1887), and useful +monographs by J. C. Collins, _Bolingbroke, a Historical Study; and +Voltaire in England_ (1886). Such epochal works as Montesquieu's +_Spirit of the Laws_, Voltaire's _Letters on the English_ and +_Philosophical Dictionary_, and Rousseau's _Social Contract_ and +_Émile_, are readily procurable in English. On the rise of political +economy: Henry Higgs, _The Physiocrats_ (1897); Charles Gide and +Charles Rist, _A History of Economic Doctrines from the Time of the +Physiocrats_, Eng. trans. (1915), Book I, ch. i, ii; L. L. Price, _A +Short History of Political Economy in England from Adam Smith to Arnold +Toynbee_, 7th ed. (1911); R. B. (Viscount) Haldane, _Life of Adam +Smith_ (1887) in the "Great Writers" Series; John Rae, _Life of Adam +Smith_ (1895), containing copious extracts from Smith's letters and +papers; Georges Weulersse, _Le mouvement physiocratique en France de +1756 à 1770_, 2 vols. (1910), scholarly and elaborate. There is a two- +volume edition of Adam Smith's _Wealth of Nations_ (1910) in +"Everyman's Library," with an admirable introductory essay by E. R. A. +Seligman. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + +[Sidenote: General] + +In the foregoing chapter we have seen how the social structure of the +eighteenth century rested on injustice, poverty, and suffering; we have +listened to the complaints of the bourgeoisie and to their demands for +reform. Philosophers might plead for reform, but only the king could +grant it. For in him were vested all powers of government: he was the +absolute monarch. + +Such was the situation in virtually every important country in Europe. +In Great Britain alone were the people even reputed to have a share in +the government, and to Great Britain the Voltaires and the Montesquieus +of the Continent turned for a model in politics. Let us join them in +considering the peculiar organization of the British monarchy, and then +we shall observe how the other governments of Europe met the demand for +reform. + + +THE BRITISH MONARCHY + +[Sidenote: England. Scotland] + +In the eighteenth century, what was the British monarchy? It was, first +of all, the government of England (which included Wales). Secondly, it +embraced Scotland, for since 1603 Scotland and England had been subject +to the same king, and in 1707 by the Act of Union the two kingdoms had +been united to form the monarchy of "Great Britain," with a common king +and a common Parliament. + +[Sidenote: Great Britain] + +The British monarchy was properly, then, the government of united +England (Wales) and Scotland. But in addition the crown had numerous +subordinate possessions: the royal colonies, [Footnote: The royal +colonies were, in 1800: Newfoundland (1583), Barbados (1605), Bermudas +(1609), Gambia (c. 1618), St. Christopher (1623), Nevis (1628), +Montserrat (1632), Antigua (1632), Honduras (1638), St. Lucia (1638), +Gold Coast (c. 1650), St. Helena (1651), Jamaica (1655), Bahamas +(1666), Virgin Islands (1666), Gibraltar (1704), Hudson Bay Territory +(1713), Nova Scotia (1713), New Brunswick (1713), Quebec, Ontario, and +Prince Edward Island (1763), Dominica (17633), St. Vincent (1763), +Grenada (1763), Tobago (1763), Falkland (1765), Pitcairn (1780), +Straits Settlements (1786 ff.), Sierra Leone (1787), New South Wales +(1788), Ceylon (1795), Trinidad (1797), and, under the East India +Company, Madras (1639), Bombay (1661), and Bengal (1633-1765).] and +Ireland. For these dependencies the home government appointed +governors, made laws, and levied taxes, in theory at least; but they +were possessions rather than integral parts of the monarchy. + +[Sidenote: Ireland] + +A few words should be said in explanation of the political status of +Ireland under the British crown. The English kings had begun their +conquests in that island as far back as the twelfth century; and by +dint of much bloodshed and many efforts they had long maintained +possession. In the seventeenth century Oliver Cromwell had put down a +bitter revolt and had encouraged Protestant English and Scotch +immigrants to settle in the north and east, taking the land from the +native Irishmen, who were Roman Catholics. An Irish parliament had +existed since the middle ages, but from the close of the fifteenth +century its acts to be valid required the approval of the English Privy +Council, and from the middle of the seventeenth century Roman Catholics +were debarred from it. In 1782, however, while Great Britain was +engaged in the War of American Independence, the Protestants in Ireland +secured the right to make most of their own laws, and ten years later +the Catholic disqualifications were removed. From 1782 to 1801, Ireland +retained this half-way independence; but a Protestant minority actually +controlled the Irish Parliament, incurring the dislike of the Roman +Catholic Irish and of the British government, so that in 1800, +following an Irish revolt, an Act of Union was passed, according to +which, in 1801, Great Britain and Ireland became the United Kingdom. +Thenceforth Ireland was represented by 28 peers and 100 Commoners in +the Parliament of the United Kingdom (often called, carelessly, the +British Parliament). + +It may be said, then, that except during the brief period of Irish +semi-independence (1782-1801), the British Parliament governed not only +Great Britain, but Ireland and the crown colonies as well. How the +British monarchy was governed, we have now to discover. + +[Sidenote: The King and his Nominal Powers] + +In theory the king was still the ruler of his kingdom. In his name all +laws were made, treaties sealed, governmental officials appointed. Like +other monarchs, he had his "Privy Councilors" to advise him, and +ministers (Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretaries of State, the +Lord Chancellor, etc.) to supervise various details of central +administration. But this was largely a matter of form. In fact, the +kings of Great Britain had lost most of their power, and retained only +their dignity; they were becoming figureheads. + +[Sidenote: The British Constitution] + +Ever since the signing of _Magna Carta_, back in 1215, the English +people had been exacting from their sovereigns written promises by +which the crown surrendered certain powers. Greatest progress in this +direction had been made amid those stirring scenes of the seventeenth +century which have been described already in the chapter on the Triumph +of Parliamentary Government in England. In addition to formal +documents, there had been slowly evolved a body of customs and usages, +which were almost as sacred and binding as if they had been inscribed +on parchment. Taken together, these written and customary limitations +on royal authority were called the "British Constitution." + +[Sidenote: Limitations on the Actual Powers of the King] + +This Constitution limited the king's power in four important ways. (1) +It deprived him of the right to levy taxes. For his household expenses +he was now granted an allowance, called the Civil List. William III, +for instance, was allowed £700,000 pounds a year. (2) The king had no +right either to make laws on his own responsibility or to prevent laws +being made against his will. The sovereign's prerogative to veto +Parliament's bills still existed in theory, but was not exercised after +the reign of Queen Anne. (3) The king had lost control of the judicial +system (_i.e._, the courts): he could not remove judges even if +they gave decisions unfavorable to him; and the Habeas Corpus Act of +1679 provided that any one thrown into prison should be told why, and +given a fair legal trial. (4) The king could not maintain a standing +army without consent of Parliament. These restrictions made Great +Britain a "limited," rather than an "absolute," monarchy. + +[Sidenote: Parliament] + +The powers taken from the king were now exercised by Parliament. The +constitutional conflict of the seventeenth century had left Parliament +not only in enjoyment of freedom of speech for its members but with +full power to levy taxes, to make laws, to remove or retain judges, and +essentially to determine the policy of the government in war and in +peace. Parliament had even taken upon itself on one celebrated occasion +(1689) to deprive a monarch of his "divine right" to rule, to establish +a new sovereign, and to decree that never again should Great Britain +have a king of the Roman Catholic faith. + +French philosophers who saw so much power vested in a representative +body could not be too loud in their praise of "English liberty." Had +they investigated more closely, these same observers might have learned +to their surprise that Parliament represented the people of Great +Britain only in name. + +[Sidenote: Undemocratic Character of Parliament] + +As we have seen in an earlier chapter [Footnote: See above, pp. 265 +f.], Parliament consisted of two legislative assemblies or "Houses," +neither one of which could make laws without the consent of the other. +One of these houses, the House of Lords, was frankly aristocratic and +undemocratic. Its members were the "lords spiritual"--rich and +influential bishops of the Anglican Church,--and the "lords temporal," +or peers, haughty descendants of the ancient feudal nobles or haughtier +heirs of millionaires recently ennobled by the king. [Footnote: A peer +was technically a titled noble who possessed an hereditary seat in the +House of Lords. George III created many peers: at his death there were +over 300 in all.] These proud gentlemen were mainly landlords, and as a +class they were almost as selfish and undemocratic as the courtiers of +France. + +But, the French philosopher replies, the representatives of the people +are found in the lower house, the House of Commons; the peers merely +give stability to the government. Let us see. + +One thing at least is certain, that in the eighteenth century the +majority of the people of Great Britain had no voice in choosing their +"representatives." In the country, the "knights of the shire" were +supposedly elected, two for each shire or county. But a man could not +vote unless he had an estate worth an annual rent of forty shillings, +and, since the same amount of money would then buy a good deal more +than nowadays, forty shillings was a fairly large sum. Persons who +could vote were often afraid to vote independently, and frequently they +sold their vote to a rich noble, so that many "knights of the shire" +were practically named by the landed aristocracy, the wealthy and +titled landlords. + +Matters were even worse in the towns, or "boroughs." By no means all of +the towns had representation. Moreover, for the towns that did choose +their two members to sit in the House of Commons, no method of election +was prescribed by law; but each borough followed its own custom. In one +town the aristocratic municipal corporation would choose the +representatives; in another place the gilds would control the election; +and in yet another city there might be a few so-called "freemen" (of +course everybody was free,--"freeman" was a technical term for a member +of the town corporation) who had the right to vote, and sold their +votes regularly for about £5 apiece. In general the town +representatives were named by a few well-to-do politicians, while the +common 'prentices and journeymen worked uninterruptedly at their +benches. It has been estimated that fewer than 1500 persons controlled +a majority in the House of Commons. + +In many places a nobleman or a clique of townsmen appointed their +candidates without even the formality of an election. In other places, +where rival influences clashed, bribery would decide the day. For in +contested elections, the voting lasted forty days, during which time +the price of votes might rise to £25 or more. Votes might be purchased +with safety, too, for voting was public and any one might learn from +the poll-book how each man had voted. Not infrequently it cost several +thousand pounds to carry such an election. + +[Sidenote: "Rotten Boroughs"] + +We may summarize these evils by saying that the peasants and artisans +generally were not allowed to vote, and that the methods of election +gave rise to corruption. But this was not all. There was neither rhyme +nor reason to be found in the distribution of representation between +different sections of the country. Old Sarum had once been a prosperous +village and had been accorded representation, but after the village had +disappeared, leaving to view but a lonely hill, no one in England could +have told why two members should still sit for Old Sarum. Nor, for that +matter, could there have been much need of representation in Parliament +for the sea-coast town of Dunwich. Long ago the coast had sunk and the +salt-sea waves now washed the remains of a ruined town. Bosseney in +Cornwall was a hamlet of three cottages, but its citizens were entitled +to send two men to Parliament. + +While these decayed towns and "rotten boroughs" continued to enjoy +representation, populous and opulent cities like Birmingham, +Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield were ignored. They had grown with the +growth of industry, while the older towns had declined. Yet +Parliamentary representation underwent no change from the days of +Charles II to the third decade of the nineteenth century. Thus +Parliament in the eighteenth century represented neither the different +classes of society nor the masses of population. Politics was a +gentleman's game. The nobleman who sat in the upper house had his +dummies in the lower chamber. A certain Sir James Lowther had nine +protégés in the lower house, who were commonly called "Lowther's +Ninepins." A distinguished statesman of the time described the position +of such a protégé: "He is sent here by the lord of this or the duke of +that, and if he does not obey the instructions which he receives, he is +held to be a dishonest man." + +[Sidenote: Parliamentary Bribery and Corruption] + +Under conditions such as these it is not hard to understand how seats +in Parliament were bought and sold like boxes at the opera or seats in +a stock-exchange. Nor is it surprising that after having paid a small +fortune for the privilege of representing the people, the worldly-wise +Commoner should be willing to indemnify himself by accepting bribes, +or, if perchance his tender conscience forbade monetary bribes, by +accepting a government post with fat salary and few duties except to +vote with the government. + +[Sidenote: The Cabinet] + +For many years (1714-1761) the arts of corruption were practiced with +astonishing success by a group of clever Whig politicians. As has been +noticed in an earlier chapter,[Footnote: See above, pp. 291 f.] it was +to their most conspicuous leader, Sir Robert Walpole, that the first +two Georges intrusted the conduct of affairs; and Walpole filled the +important offices of state with his Whig friends. Likewise it has been +noticed [Footnote: See above, p. 290.] that during the same period the +idea of the cabinet system became more firmly fixed. Just as Walpole +secured the appointment of his friends to the high offices of state, so +subsequent statesmen put their supporters in office. The practice was +not yet rigid, but it was customary for a dozen or so of the leaders of +the faction in power to hold "cabinet" meetings, in which they decided +in advance what measures should be presented to Parliament. If a +measure indorsed by the cabinet should be defeated by the Commons, the +leader of the party would normally resign, and the ministers he had +appointed would follow his example. In other words, the cabinet acted +in concert and resigned as a whole. + +If the affairs of the government were all carried on by the cabinet, +and if the cabinet depended for its support on the majority in the +House of Commons, what remained for the king to do? Obviously, very +little! + +[Sidenote: British Government under George III] + +George I and George II had not been averse from cabinet-government: it +was easy and convenient. But George III (1760-1820) was determined to +make his authority felt. He wished to preside at cabinet meetings; he +outbribed the Whigs; and he repeatedly asked his ministers to resign +because he disliked their policies. + +Besides the friends he purchased, George III possessed a considerable +number of enthusiastic and conscientious supporters. The country +squires and clergy who believed in the Anglican Church and looked with +distrust upon the power of corrupt Whig politicians in Parliament, were +quite willing that a painstaking and gentlemanly monarch should do his +own ruling. Such persons formed the backbone of the Tory party and +sometimes called themselves the "king's friends." With their support +and by means of a liberal use of patronage, George III was able to keep +Lord North, a minister after his own heart, in power twelve years +(1770-1782). But as we have learned, [Footnote: See above, pp. 332 ff.] +the War of American Independence caused the downfall of Lord North, and +for the next year or two, politics were in confusion. During 1782-1783 +the old Whig and Tory parties [Footnote: See above, pp. 285 f.] were +sadly broken up, and a new element was unmistakably infused into party- +warfare by the spirit of reform. + +[Sidenote: Need and Demand for Reform] + +Surely, if ever a country needed reform, it was Great Britain in 1783. +The country was filled with paupers maintained by the taxes; poor +people might be shut up in workhouses and see their children carted off +to factories; sailors were kidnapped for the royal navy; the farmhand +was practically bound to the soil like a serf; over two hundred +offenses, such as stealing a shilling or cutting down an apple tree, +were punishable by death; religious intolerance flourished--Quakers +were imprisoned and Roman Catholics were debarred from office and +Parliament. And Ireland was being ruined by the selfish and obstinate +minority which controlled its parliament. + +But about these things English "reformers" were not much concerned. A +few altruistic souls decried the traffic in black slaves, but that evil +was quite far from English shores. The reform movement was chiefly +directed against parliamentary corruption and received its support from +the small country gentlemen who hated the great Whig owners of "pocket- +boroughs," [Footnote: Boroughs whose members were named by a political +"patron."] and from the lower and newer ranks of the bourgeoisie. For +the small shop-keepers and tradesmen, and especially the rich +manufacturers in new industrial towns like Birmingham, felt that +Parliament did not represent their interests, and they set up a cry for +pure politics and reformed representation. + +[Sidenote: Wilkes] + +The spirit of reform spread rapidly. In the 'sixties of the eighteenth +century, John Wilkes, a squint-eyed and immoral but very persuasive +editor, had raised a hubbub of reform talk. He had criticized the +policy of George III, had been elected to Parliament, and, when the +House of Commons expelled him, had insisted upon the right of the +people to elect him, regardless of the will of the House. His admirers +--and he had many--shouted for "Wilkes and Liberty," elected him Lord +Mayor of London, and enabled him to carry his point. + +The founding of four newspapers furthered the reform movement. They +took it upon themselves to report parliamentary debates, and along with +information they spread discontent. Their activity was somewhat +checked, however, by the operation of the old laws which punished +libelous attacks on the king with imprisonment or exile, and also by a +stamp duty of 2-1/2d. a sheet (1789). + +[Sidenote: Charles James Fox] + +Under the new influence a number of Whigs became advocates of reform. +George III had outdone them at corruption; they now sought to +reëstablish their own power and Parliament's by advocating reform. Of +these Whigs, Charles James Fox (1749-1806) was the most prominent. Fox +had been taught to gamble by his father and took to it readily. Cards +and horse-racing kept him in constant bankruptcy; many of his nights +were spent in debauchery and his mornings in bed; and his close +association with the rakish heir to the throne was the scandal of +London. In spite of his eloquence and ability, the loose manner of his +life militated against the success of Fox as a reformer. His friends +knew him to be a free-hearted, impulsive sympathizer with all who were +oppressed, and they entertained no doubt of his sincere wish to bring +about parliamentary reform, complete religious toleration, and the +abolition of the slave trade. But strangers could not easily reconcile +his private life with his public words, and were antagonized by his +frequent lack of political tact. + +[Sidenote: The Program of Reform] + +Despite drawbacks Fox furthered the cause of reform to a considerable +extent. He it was who presided over a great mass meeting, held under +the auspices of a reform club, at which meeting was drawn up a program +of liberal reform, a program which was to be the battle-cry of British +political radicals for several generations. It comprised six demands: +(1) Votes for all adult males, (2) each district to have representation +proportionate to its population, (3) payment of the members of +Parliament so as to enable poor men to accept election, (4) abolition +of the property qualifications for members of Parliament, (5) adoption +of the secret ballot, and (6) Parliaments to be elected annually. + +[Sidenote: William Pitt the Younger] + +Such reform seemed less likely of accomplishment by Fox than by a +younger statesman, William Pitt (1759-1806), second son of the famous +earl of Chatham. When but seven years old, Pitt had said: "I want to +speak in the House of Commons like papa." Throughout his boyhood and +youth he had kept this ambition constantly before him; he had studied, +practiced oratory, and learned the arts of debate. At the age of +twenty-one, he was a tall, slender, and sickly youth, with sonorous +voice, devouring ambition, and sublime self-confidence. He secured a +seat in the Commons as one of Sir James Lowther's "ninepins," and +speedily won the respect of the House. He was the youngest and most +promising of the politicians of the day. At the outset he was a Whig. + +[Sidenote: The "New Tories"] + +By a combination of circumstances young Pitt was enabled to form an +essentially new political party--the "New Tories." By his scrupulous +honesty and earnest advocacy of parliamentary reform, he won to his +side the unrepresented bourgeoisie and the opponents of "bossism." On +the other hand, by accepting from King George III an appointment as +chief minister, and holding the position in spite of a temporarily +hostile majority in the House of Commons, Pitt won the respect of the +Tory country squires and the clergy, who stood for the king against +Parliament. And finally, being quite moral himself (if chronic +indulgence in port wine be excepted), and supporting a notoriously +virtuous king against corrupt politicians and against the gambling Fox, +Pitt became an idol of all lovers of "respectability." + +In the parliamentary elections of 1784 Pitt won a great victory. In +that year he was prime minister with loyal majorities in both Houses of +Parliament, with royal favor, and with the support of popular +enthusiasm. He was feasted in Grocers' Hall in London; the shopkeepers +of the Strand illuminated their dwellings in his honor; and crowds +cheered his carriage. + +Reform seemed to be within sight. The horrors of the slave trade were +mitigated, and greater freedom was given the press. Bills were +introduced to abolish the representation of "rotten" boroughs and to +grant representation to the newer towns. + +[Sidenote: Halt of Reform in Great Britain] + +It can hardly be doubted that Pitt would have gone further had not +affairs in France--the French Revolution--alarmed him at the critical +time and caused him fear a similar outbreak in England. [Footnote: For +the effect of the French Revolution upon England, see pp. 494 f., 504.] +The government and upper classes of Great Britain at once abandoned +their roles as reformers, and set themselves sternly to repress +anything that might savor of revolution. + +[Sidenote: Conclusion] + +Two important conclusions may now be drawn from our study of the +British government in the eighteenth century. In the first place, +despite the admiration with which the French philosophers regarded the +British monarchy as a model of political liberty and freedom, it was in +fact both corrupt and oppressive. Secondly, the spirit of reform seemed +for a time as active and as promising in Great Britain as in France, +but from the island kingdom it was frightened away by the tumult of +revolution across the Channel. + + +THE ENLIGHTENED DESPOTS + +The spirit of progress and reform had slowly made itself felt in Great +Britain through popular agitation and in Parliament. On the Continent +it naturally took a different turn, for there government certainly was +not by Parliaments, but by sovereigns "by the Grace of God." In France, +Prussia, Austria, Spain, and Russia, therefore, the question was +always, "Will his Majesty be cruel, extravagant, and unprogressive; or +will he prove himself an able and liberal-minded monarch?" + +[Sidenote: The Era of Benevolent Despotism on the Continent] + +It happened during the eighteenth century that most of the Continental +rulers were of this latter sort--conscientious and well-meaning. On the +thrones of Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Tuscany, Sardinia, +Bavaria, and Sweden sat men of extraordinary ability, who sought rather +the welfare of their country than careless personal pleasure. + +These were the benevolent despots. They were despots, absolute rulers, +countenancing no attempt to diminish royal authority, believing in +government by one strong hand rather than by the democratic many. But +with despotism they combined benevolence; they were anxious for the +glory of their nation, and no less solicitous for the happiness and +prosperity of their people. Thus the development of absolute monarchy +and the rationalism of the eighteenth century united to produce the +benevolent despot. For this reason the term "enlightened" (i.e., +philosophical) despot is frequently applied to these autocrats who +attempted to rule in the light of reason. + +[Sidenote: Frederick the Great of Prussia, 1740-1786] + +One of the most successful of the enlightened despots was Frederick II +(the Great) of Prussia. In our chapter on the Germanies, [Footnote: See +above, ch. xi.] we have seen how he fought all Europe to gain prestige +and power for Prussia; we shall now see how he endeavored to apply +scientific methods to the government of his own country. + +With the major intellectual interests of the eighteenth century, +Frederick II became acquainted quite naturally. As a boy he had been +fond of reading French plays, had learned Latin against his father's +will, had filled his mind with the ideas of deistic philosophers, and +had seemed likely to become a dreamer instead of a ruler. But the +dogged determination of his father, King Frederick William I, to make +something out of Frederick besides a flute-playing, poetizing +philosopher, had resulted in familiarizing him with elaborate financial +reports and monotonous minutes of tiresome official transactions. Young +Frederick, however, learned to like the details of administration and +when he came to the throne in 1740 he was not only enlightened but +industrious. + +The young king had a clear conception of his duties, and even wrote a +book in French about the theory of government. "The prince," he said, +"is to the nation he governs what the head is to the man; it is his +duty to see, think, and act for the whole community, that he may +procure it every advantage of which it is capable." "The monarch is not +the absolute master, but only the first servant of the state." +Frederick was indeed the first servant of Prussia, rising at five in +the morning, working on official business until eleven o'clock, and +spending the afternoon at committee meetings or army reviews. + +He set about laboriously to make Prussia the best and most governed +state in Europe. He carefully watched the judges to see that they did +not render wrongful decisions or take bribes. He commissioned jurists +to compile the laws and to make them so simple and clear that no one +would violate them through ignorance. He abolished the old practice of +torturing suspected criminals to make them confess their guilt. + +Education, as well as justice, claimed his attention; he founded +elementary schools, so that as many as possible of his subjects could +learn at least to read and write. In religious affairs, Frederick +allowed great individual liberty; for he was a deist, and, like other +deists of the time, believed in religious toleration. + +More important even than justice, education, and toleration, he +considered the promotion of material prosperity among his people. He +would have considered himself a failure, had his reign not meant "good +times" for farmers and merchants. He encouraged industry. He fostered +the manufacture of silk. He invited thrifty farmers to move from other +countries and to settle in Prussia. He built canals. Marshes were +drained and transformed into rich pasture-land. If war desolated a part +of the country, then, when peace was concluded, Frederick gave the +farmers seed and let them use his war-horses before the plow. He +advised landlords to improve their estates by planting orchards; and he +encouraged peasants to grow turnips as fodder for cattle. Much was done +to lighten the financial burdens of the peasantry, for (as Frederick +himself declared) if a man worked all day in the fields, "he should not +be hounded to despair by tax-collectors." + +Taxes were not light by any means, but everybody knew that the king was +not squandering the money. Frederick was not a man to lavish fortunes +on worthless courtiers; he diligently examined all accounts; and his +officials dared not be extravagant for fear of being corporally +punished, or, what was worse, of being held up to ridicule by the cruel +wit of their royal master. + +It was only this marvelous economy and careful planning that enabled +Prussia to support an army of 200,000 men and to embark upon a policy +of conquest, by which Silesia and a third of Poland were won. On the +army alone Frederick was willing to spend freely, but even in this +department he made sure that Prussia received its money's worth. +Tireless drill, strict discipline, up-to-date arms, and well-trained +officers made the Prussian army the envy and terror of eighteenth- +century Europe. + +In dwelling upon his seemingly successful attempts to govern in the +light of reason and common sense, we have almost forgotten Frederick's +love of philosophy. Let us recur to it before we take leave of him; for +benevolent despotism was only one side of the philosophical monarch. He +liked to play his flute while thinking how to outwit Maria Theresa; he +delighted in making witty answers to tiresome reports and petitions; he +enjoyed sitting at table with congenial companions discussing poetry, +science, and the drama. True, he did not encourage the rising young +German poets Lessing and Goethe. He thought their work vulgar and +uninspired. But he invited literary Frenchmen to come to Berlin, and he +put new life into the Berlin Academy of Science. Even Voltaire was for +a time a guest at Frederick's court, and the amateurish poems written +in French by the Prussian king were corrected by the "prince of +philosophers." + +[Sidenote: Catherine the Great of Russia, 1762-1796] + +While Frederick was demonstrating that "the prince is but the first +servant of the state," Catherine II was playing the enlightened despot +in Russia. In the course of her remarkable career, [Footnote: See +above, pp. 380 ff.] Catherine found time to write flattering letters to +French philosophers, to make presents to Voltaire, and to invite +Diderot to tutor her son. She posed, too, as a liberal-minded monarch, +willing to discuss the advisability of giving Russia a written +constitution, or of emancipating the serfs. Schools and academies were +established, and French became the language of polite Russian society. + +At heart Catherine was little moved by desire for real reform or by +pity for the peasants. She had the heavy whip--the knout--applied to +the bared backs of earnest reformers. Her court was scandalously +immoral, and she violated the conventions of matrimony without a qualm. +For some excuse or another, the promised constitution was never +written, and the lot of the serfs tended to become actually worse. To +the governor of Moscow, the tsarina wrote: "My dear prince, do not +complain that the Russians have no desire for instruction; if I +institute schools, it is not for us,--it is for Europe, where we must +keep our position in public opinion. But the day when our peasants +shall wish to become enlightened, both you and I will lose our places." +This shows clearly that while Catherine wished to be considered an +enlightened despot, she was at heart quite the reverse. Her true +character was not to be made manifest until the outbreak of the French +Revolution, and then Catherine of Russia was to preach a crusade +against reform. + +[Sidenote: Charles III of Spain, 1759-1788] + +There were other benevolent despots, however, who were undoubtedly +sincere. Charles III, with able ministers, made many changes in Spain. +[Footnote: Charles III had previously been king of Naples (1735-1759) +and had instituted many reforms in that kingdom] The Jesuits were +suppressed; the exaggerated zeal of the Inquisition was effectually +checked; police were put on the streets of Madrid; German farmers were +encouraged to settle in Spain; roads and canals were built; +manufactures were fostered; science was patronized; and the fleet was +nearly doubled. When Charles III died, after a reign of almost thirty +years, the revenues of Spain had tripled, and its population had +increased from seven to eleven millions. + +[Sidenote: Joseph I of Portugal, 1750-1777] + +Charles's neighbor, Joseph I of Portugal, possessed in the famous +Pombal a minister who was both a typical philosopher and an active +statesman. Under his administration, industry, education, and commerce +throve in Portugal as in Spain. Gustavus III (1771-1792) of Sweden +similarly made himself the patron of industry and the friend of the +workingman. In Italy, the king of Sardinia was freeing his serfs, while +in Tuscany several important reforms were being effected by Duke +Leopold, a younger brother of the Habsburg emperor, Joseph II. + +[Sidenote: Joseph II of Austria, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire] + +Joseph II, archduke of Austria and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, +carried the theory of enlightened despotism to its greatest lengths. He +was at once the most enthusiastic and the most unsuccessful of all the +benevolent despots. In him is to be observed the most striking example +of the aims, and likewise the weaknesses, of this generation of +philosopher-kings. + +[Sidenote: His Heritage from Maria Theresa] + +Before we consider Joseph's career, it is important to understand what +his mother, Maria Theresa (1740-1780), had already done for the +Habsburg realms. We are familiar with her brave conduct in defense of +her hereditary lands against the unscrupulous ambition of Frederick the +Great. [Footnote: See above ch. xi.] For her loss of Silesia she had +obtained through the partition of Poland some compensation in Galicia +and Moldavia. Her domestic policy is of present concern. + +The troops furnished by vote of provincial assemblies, she welded +together into a national army. German became the official language of +military officers; and a movement was begun to supplant Latin by German +in the civil administration. The privileges of religious orders were +curtailed in the interest of strong government; and the papal bull +suppressing the Jesuits was enforced. The universities were remodeled; +and the elaborate system of elementary and secondary schools, then +established, survived with but little change until 1869. + +Maria Theresa had begun reform along most of the lines which her son +was to follow. But in two important particulars she was unlike him and +unlike the usual enlightened despot. In the first place, she was +politic rather than philosophical. She did not attempt wholesale +reforms, or blindly follow fine theories, but introduced practical and +moderate measures in order to remedy evils. She was very careful not to +offend the prejudices or traditions of her subjects. Secondly, Maria +Theresa was a devout Roman Catholic. Love of her subjects was not a +theory with her,--it was a religious duty. A cynical Frederick the +Great might laugh at conscience, and to a Catherine morality might mean +nothing; but Maria Theresa remained an ardent Christian in an age of +unbelief and a pure woman when loose living was fashionable. + +[Sidenote: Policies and Plans of Joseph II, 1780-1790] + +Her eldest son, Joseph II, [Footnote: Holy Roman Emperor (1765-1790), +and sole ruler of the Habsburg dominions (1780-1790).] was brought up a +Roman Catholic, and although strongly influenced by Rousseau's +writings, never seceded from the Church. But neither religion nor +expediency was his guiding principle. He said, "I have made Philosophy +the legislator of my Empire: her logical principles shall transform +Austria." + +There was something very noble in the determination of the young ruler +to do away with all injustice, to relieve the oppressed, and to lift up +those who had been trampled under foot. His ambition was to make +Austria a strong, united, and prosperous kingdom, to be himself the +benefactor of his people, to protect the manufacturer, and to free the +serf. Austria was to be remodeled as Rousseau would have wished--except +in respect of Rousseau's basic idea of popular sovereignty. + +It is a pity that Joseph II cannot be judged simply by his good +intentions, for he was quite unfitted to carry out wholesome reforms. +He had derived his ideas from French philosophers rather than from +actual life; he was so sure that his theories were right that he would +take no advice; he was impatient and would brook no delay in the +wholesale application of his theories. Regardless of prejudice, +regardless of tradition, regardless of every consideration of political +expediency, he rushed ahead on the path of reform. + +To Joseph II it mattered not that Austria had long been the stronghold +and her rulers the champions of Catholic Christianity. He insisted that +no papal bulls should be published in his dominions without his own +authorization; he nominated the bishops; he confiscated church lands. +Side altars and various emblems were removed from the churches, not +because they were useless, for humble Christians still prayed to their +God before such altars, but because the emperor thought side altars +were signs of superstition. The old and well-loved ceremonies were +altered at his command. Many monasteries were abolished. The clergy +were to be trained in schools controlled by the emperor. And, to cap +the climax, heretics and Jews were to be not only tolerated, but +actually given the same rights as orthodox Catholics. + +Many of these measures were no doubt desirable, and one or two of them +might have been accomplished without causing much disturbance, but by +trying to reform everything at once, Joseph only shocked and angered +the clergy and such of his people as piously loved their religion. + +His political policies, which were no more wisely conceived or +executed, were three in number. (1) He desired to extend his +possessions eastward to the Black Sea and southward to the Adriatic, +while the distant Netherlands might conveniently be exchanged for near- +by Bavaria. (2) He wished to get rid of all provincial assemblies and +other vestiges of local independence, and to have all his territories +governed uniformly by officials subject to himself. (3) He aimed to +uplift the lower classes of his people, and to put down the proud +nobles, so that all should be equal and all alike should look up to +their benevolent, but all-powerful, ruler. + +The first of these policies brought him only disastrous wars. His +designs on Bavaria were frustrated by Frederick the Great, who posed as +the protector of the smaller German states. In the Balkan peninsula his +armies fought much and gained little. + +His administrative policy was as unfortunate as his territorial +ambition. Maria Theresa had taken some steps to simplify the +administration of her heterogeneous dominions, but she had wisely +allowed Hungary, Lombardy, and the Netherlands to preserve certain of +the traditions and formulas of self-government, and she did everything +to win the loyalty and confidence of her Hungarian subjects. Joseph, on +the other hand, carried the sacred crown of St. Stephen--treasured by +all Hungarians--to Vienna; abolished the privileges of the Hungarian +Diet, or congress; and with a stroke of the pen established a new +system of government. He divided his lands into thirteen provinces, +each under a military commander. Each province was divided into +districts or counties, and these again into townships. There would be +no more local privileges but all was to be managed from Vienna. The +army was henceforth to be on the Prussian model, and the peasants were +to be forced to serve their terms in it. German was to be the official +language throughout the Habsburg realm. This was all very fine on +paper, but in practice it was a gigantic failure. The Austrian +Netherlands rose in revolt rather than lose their local autonomy; the +Tyrol did likewise; and angry protests came from Hungary. Local +liberties and traditions could not be abolished by an imperial decree. + +Finally, in his attempts to reconstruct society, Joseph came to grief. +He directed that all serfs should become free men, able to marry +without the consent of their lord, privileged to sell their land and to +pay a fixed rent instead of being compelled to labor four days a week +for their lord. Nobles and peasants alike were to share the burdens of +taxation, all paying 13 per cent on their land. Joseph intended still +further to help the peasantry, for, he said "I could never bring myself +to skin two hundred good peasants to pay one do-nothing lord more than +he ought to have." He planned to give everybody a free elementary +education, to encourage industry, and to make all his subjects +prosperous and happy. + +[Sidenote: Failure of Joseph II] + +But the peasants disliked compulsory military service and misunderstood +his reforms; the nobles were not willing to be deprived of their feudal +rights; the bourgeoisie was irritated by his blundering attempts to +encourage industry; the clergy preached against his religious policy. +He reigned only ten years; yet he was hated by many and loved by none; +he had met defeat abroad, and at home his subjects were in revolt. + +Little wonder that as he lay dying (1790) with hardly friend or +relative near to comfort him, the discouraged reformer should have +sighed: "After all my trouble, I have made but few happy, and many +ungrateful." He directed that most of his "reforms" should be canceled, +and proposed as an epitaph for himself the gloomy sentence: "Here lies +the man who, with the best intentions, never succeeded in anything." +[Footnote: The epitaph was not quite true. The serfs in Austria +retained at least part of the liberty he had granted.] + +[Sidenote: Weakness of Benevolent Despotism] + +Joseph II was not the only benevolent despot who met with +discouragement. The fatal weakness of "enlightened despotism" was its +failure to enlist the sympathy and support of the people. Absolute +rulers like Joseph II tried to force reforms on their peoples whether +the reforms were popularly desired or not. As a result, few of their +measures were lasting, and ingratitude was uniformly their reward. + +If all kings had possessed the supreme ability and genius of a +Frederick the Great, enlightened despotism might still be in vogue. The +trouble was that even well-meaning monarchs like Joseph II were +unpractical; and many sovereigns were not even well-meaning. In +Prussia, the successor of Frederick the Great, King Frederick William +II, had neither ability nor character; his weak rule undid the work of +Frederick. The same thing happened in other countries: weakness +succeeded ability, extravagance wasted the fruits of economy, and +corruption ruined the work of reform. Absolute monarchy without good +intentions proved terribly oppressive. + + +THE FRENCH MONARCHY + +In no country was the evil side of absolutism exhibited so unmistakably +as in France. During the eighteenth century the French government went +from bad to worse, until at last it was altered not by peaceful reform +but by violent revolution. + +[Sidenote: French People better off than their Neighbors] + +As far as their actual condition was concerned, the people of France +were, on the whole, better off than most Germans or Italians. Next to +England, France had the most numerous, prosperous, and intelligent +middle class; and her peasants were slightly above the serfs of other +Continental countries. But the very fact that in material well-being +they were a little better off than their neighbors, made the French +people more critical of their government. The lower classes had not all +been ground down until they were mere slaves without hope or courage; +on the contrary, there were many sturdy farmers and thrifty artisans +who hoped for better days and bitterly resented inequalities in society +and abuses in the government. The bourgeoisie was even less inclined to +bow to tyranny; it was numerous, intelligent, wealthy, and influential; +it could see the mistakes of the royal administration and was hopeful +of gaining a voice in the government. Thus, the people of France were +keener to feel wrongs and to resent the injustice of undutiful +monarchs. + +Let us glance at the crying abuses in the French state of the +eighteenth century, and then we shall understand how great was the +guilt of that pleasure-loving despot--Louis XV (1715-1774). + +[Sidenote: The Administration] +[Sidenote: The King] + +The French administrative system was confused and oppressive. In +theory, it was quite simple--the government was the king. As Louis XV +haughtily remarked: "The sovereign authority is vested in my person... +the legislative power exists in myself alone... my people are one only +with me; national rights and national interests are necessarily +combined with my own and only rest in my hands." + +But in practice, the king could not alone make laws, keep order, and +collect taxes, especially when he spent whole days hunting or gambling. +He contented himself with spending the state money, getting into wars, +and occasionally interfering with the work of his ministers. And it was +necessary to intrust the actual conduct of affairs to a complicated +system or no-system of royal officials. + +[Sidenote: The Royal Council] + +The highest rung in the ladder of officialdom was the Royal Council. It +was composed of the half dozen chief ministers and about thirty +councilors who helped their chiefs to supervise the affairs of the +kingdom,--issuing decrees, conferring on foreign policy, levying taxes, +and acting on endless reports from local officials. + +[Sidenote: Local Administration. The Intendants] + +The Royal Council had numerous local representatives. There were the +bailiffs and seneschals, whose actual powers had quite disappeared, but +whose offices served to complicate matters. Then there were the +governors of provinces, well-fed gentlemen with fat salaries and little +to do. The bulk of local administration fell into the hands of the +intendants and their sub-delegates. Each of the thirty-four intendants +--the so-called "Thirty Tyrants of France"--was appointed by the king's +ministers and was like a petty despot in his district +(_généralité_). + +The powers of the intendant were extensive. He decided what share of +the district taxes each village and taxpayer should bear. He had his +representatives in each parish of his district, and through them he +supervised the police, the preservation of order, and the recruiting of +the army. He relieved the poor in bad seasons. The erection of a +church, or the repair of a town hall, needed his sanction. When the +Royal Council ordered roads to be built, it was the intendant and his +men who directed the work and called the peasants out to do the labor. +With powers such as these, it was little wonder that the intendant was +called _Monseigneur_--"My lord." + +[Sidenote: The Parlement of Paris] + +The system of Royal Council, intendants, and sub-intendants would have +been comparatively simple, had it not been complicated by the presence +of numerous other political bodies, each of which claimed certain +customary powers. First of all, there was the _Parlement_, or +supreme court, of Paris, primarily a judicial body which registered the +royal decrees. If the Parlement disliked a decree, it might refuse to +register it, until the king should hold a "bed of justice"--that is, +should formally summon the Parlement and in person command it to +register his decree. + +[Sidenote: Provincial Estates] + +Then there were provincial "Estates," or assemblies, in a few of the +provinces. [Footnote: Such provinces were called _pays d'état_ and +included Brittany, Languedoc, Provence, Roussillon, Dauphiné, Burgundy, +Franche Comté, Alsace, Lorraine, Artois, Flanders, Corsica, etc. The +local assemblies in these _pays d'état_ were by no means +representative of all the inhabitants. The remaining provinces, in +which no vestiges of provincial self-government survived, were called +_pays d'élection_: they included Ile de France, Orléanais, +Champagne and Brie, Maine, Anjou, Poitou, Guyenne and Gascony, +Limousin, Auvergne, Lyonnais, Bourbonnais, Touraine, Normandy, Picardy, +etc.] These bodies, survivals of the middle ages, did not make laws +but had a voice in the apportionment of taxes among the parishes of the +province, and exercised powers of supervision over road-building and +the collection of taxes. + +[Sidenote: Town Councils] + +The government of the towns was peculiar. The old gilds, now including +only a small number of the wealthiest burghers, elected a Town Council, +which managed the property of the town, appointed tax-collectors, saw +that the town hall was kept in repair, and supervised the collection of +customs duties on goods brought into the town. It is easy to perceive +how the Town Council and the intendant would have overlapping powers, +and how considerable confusion might arise, especially since in +different towns the nature and the powers of the Town Council differed +widely. Matters were complicated still further by the fact that the +mayors of the towns were not elected by the council, but appointed by +the crown. + +In rural districts there was a trace of the same conflict between the +system of intendants and the survivals of local self-government. +Summoned by the clanging church bell, all the men of the village met on +the village green. And the simple villagers, thus gathered together as +a town meeting or communal assembly, might elect collectors of the +_taille_, or might perhaps petition the intendant to repair the +parsonage or the bridge. + +[Sidenote: Confusion in Administration] + +Possibly the reader may now begin to realize that confusion was a prime +attribute of the French administrative system. The common people were +naturally bewildered by the overlapping functions of Royal Council, +Parlement, provincial estates, governors, bailiffs, intendants, +subintendants, mayors, town councils, and village assemblies. The +system, or lack of system, gave rise to corruption and complication +without insuring liberty. The most trivial affairs were regulated by +overbearing and exacting royal officials. Everything depended upon the +honesty and industry or upon the meanness and caprice of these +officials. Each petty officer transmitted long reports to his superior; +but the general public was kept in the dark about official matters, and +was left to guess, as best it could, the reasons for the seemingly +unreasonable acts of the government. If an intendant increased the +taxes on a village, the ignorant inhabitants blamed it upon official +"graft" or favoritism. Or, if hard times prevailed, or if a shaky +bridge broke down, the villagers were prone in any case to find fault +with the government, for the more mysterious and powerful the +government was, the more likely was it to bear the blame for all ills. + +Confusion in administrative offices was not the only confusion in +eighteenth-century France. There was no uniformity or simplicity in +standards of weight and measure, in coinage, in tolls, in internal +customs-duties. But worst of all were the laws and the courts of +justice. + +[Sidenote: Confusion in Laws] + +What was lawful in one town was often illegal in a place not five miles +distant. Almost four hundred sets or bodies of law were in force in +different parts of France. In some districts the old Roman laws were +still retained; elsewhere laws derived from early German tribes were +enforceable. Many laws were not even in writing; and such as were +written were more often in Latin than in French. The result was that +only unusually learned men knew the law, and common people stumbled +along in the dark. The laws, moreover, were full of injustice and +cruelty. An offender might have his hand or ear cut off, or his tongue +torn out; he might be burned with red-hot irons or have molten lead +poured into his flesh. Hanging was an easy death compared to the +lingering torture of having one's bones broken on a wheel. + +[Sidenote: Confusion in Law Courts] + +The courts were nearly as bad as the laws. There were royal courts, +feudal courts, church courts, courts of finance, and military courts; +and it was a wise offender who knew before which court he might be +tried. Extremely important cases might be carried on appeal to the +highest courts of the realm--the Parlements--of which there were +thirteen, headed in honor by that of Paris. + +[Sidenote: Prevalence of Injustice] + +Although courts were so plenteous, justice was seldom to be found. +Persons wrongfully accused of crime were tortured until they confessed +deeds they had never committed. The public was not admitted to trials, +so no one knew on what grounds the sentence was passed, and the judge +gave no reason for his verdict. Civil lawsuits were appealed from court +to court and might drag on for years until the parties had spent all +their money. Lawyers were more anxious to extract large fees from their +clients than to secure justice for them. + +[Sidenote: "Noblesse de la Robe"] + +Confused laws and conflicting jurisdictions were often made worse by +the character of the judges who presided over royal courts. Many of +them were rich bourgeois who had purchased their appointment from the +king. For a large price it was possible to buy a judgeship or seat in a +Parlement, not only for a lifetime but as an hereditary possession. It +has been estimated that 50,000 bourgeois families possessed such +judicial offices: they formed a sort of lower nobility, exempted from +certain taxes and very proud of their honors. Naturally envious were +his neighbors when the "councilor" appeared in his grand wig and his +enormous robe of silk and velvet, attended by a page who kept the robe +from trailing in the dust. No wonder these bourgeois judges were called +"the nobility of the robe." + +In some way or other the "noble of the robe" had to compensate himself +for the price of his office and the cost of his robe. One bought an +office for profit as well as for honor. For to the judge were paid the +court fees and fines; and no shrewd judge would let a case pass him +without exacting some kind of a fee. Even more profitable were the +indirect gains. If Monsieur A had gained his case in court, it was +quite to be expected that in his joy Monsieur A would make a handsome +present to the judge who had given the decision. At least, that is the +way the judge would have put it. As a plain matter of fact the judges +were bribed, and justice was too often bought and sold like judgeships. + +[Sidenote: Abuses in the Army] + +Corruption and abuses were not confined to the civil government and the +courts of law; the army, too, was infected. In the ranks were to be +found hired foreigners, unwilling peasants dragged from their farms, +and the scum of the city slums. Thousands deserted every year. Had the +discontented troops been well commanded, they might still have answered +the purpose. But such was not the case. There were certainly enough +officers--an average of one general for every 157 privates. But what +officers they were! Dissolute and dandified generals drawing their pay +and never visiting their troops, lieutenants reveling in vice, instead +of drilling and caring for their commands. Noble blood, not ability, +was the qualification of a commander. Counts, who had never seen a +battlefield, were given military offices, and the seven-year-old Duc de +Frousac was a colonel. + +[Sidenote: Confusion in Finance] + +Confused administration, antiquated laws, corrupt magistrates, and a +disorganized army showed the weakness of the French monarchy; but +financial disorders threatened its very existence,--for a government +out of money is as helpless as a fish out of water. + +The destructive wars, costly armies, luxurious palaces, and extravagant +court of Louis XIV had left to the successors of the Grand Monarch many +debts, an empty treasury, and an overtaxed people. If ever there was +need of care and thrift, it was in the French monarchy in the +eighteenth century. + +Yet the king's ministers did not even trouble themselves to keep +orderly accounts. Bills and receipts were carelessly laid away; no one +knew how much was owed or how much was to be expected by the treasury; +and even the king himself could not have told how much he would run +into debt during the year. While it lasted, money was spent freely. + +[Sidenote: Royal Revenue] + +The amount of money required by the king would have made taxes very +heavy anyway, but bad methods of assessment and collection added to the +burden. The royal revenue was derived chiefly from three sources: the +royal domains, the direct taxes, and the indirect taxes. From the royal +domains, the lands of which the king was landlord as well as sovereign, +a considerable but ever-diminishing income was derived. + +[Sidenote: Direct Taxes] +[Sidenote: The Income Tax] +[Sidenote: The Poll Tax] + +The direct taxes were the prop of the treasury, for they could be +increased to meet the demand, at least as long as the people would pay. +There were three direct taxes--the _taille_, the _capitation_, and the +_vingtième_. The _vingtième_, or "twentieth," was a tax on incomes—5 +per cent [Footnote: Five per cent in theory; in practice in the reign +of Louis XVI it was 11 per cent] on the salary of the judge, on the +rents of the noble, on the earning of the artisan, on the produce of +the peasant. The clergy were entirely exempted from this tax; the more +influential nobles and bourgeois contrived to have their incomes +underestimated, and the burden fell heaviest on the poorer classes. +_Capitation_ was a general poll or head tax, varying in amount +according to whichever of twenty-two classes claimed the individual +taxpayer. Maid-servants, for example, paid annually three _livres_ and +twelve _sous_. [Footnote: A _livre_ was worth about a _franc_ (20 +cents) and a _sou_ was equivalent to one cent.] + +[Sidenote: The Taille or Land Tax] + +The most important and hated direct tax was the _taille_ or land +tax,--practically a tax on peasants alone. The total amount to be +raised was apportioned among the intendants by the Royal Council, and +by the intendants among the villages of their respective districts. At +the village assembly collectors were elected, who were thereby +authorized to demand from each villager a share of the tax, according +to his ability to pay. As a result of this method, each villager tried +to appear poor so as to be taxed lightly; whole villages looked run- +down in order to be held for only a small share; and influential +politicians often obtained alleviation for parts of the country. + +[Sidenote: Indirect Taxes] +[Sidenote: "Tax Farming"] + +The indirect taxes were not so heavy, but they were bitterly detested. +There were taxes on alcohol, metal-ware, cards, paper, and starch, but +most disliked of all was that on salt (the _gabelle_). Every +person above seven years of age was supposed annually to buy from the +government salt-works seven pounds of salt at about ten times its real +value. [Footnote: It should be understood, of course, that the +_gabelle_ was higher and more burdensome in some provinces than in +others.] Only government agents could legally sell salt, and smugglers +were fined heavily or sent to the galleys. These indirect taxes were +usually "farmed out," that is, in return for a lump sum the government +would grant to a company of speculators the right to collect what they +could. These speculators were called "farmers-general,"--France could +be called their farm [Footnote: Etymologically, the French word for +farm (_ferme_) was not necessarily connected with agriculture, but +signified a fixed sum (_firma_) paid for a certain privilege, such +as that of collecting a tax.] and money its produce. And they farmed +well. After paying the government, the "farmers" still had millions of +francs to distribute as bribes or as presents to great personages or to +retain for themselves. Thus, millions were lost to the treasury. + +[Sidenote: The Burden of Taxation] + +Taxes could not always be raised to cover emergencies, nor collected so +wastefully. The peasants of France were crushed by feudal dues, tithes, +and royal taxes. The bourgeoisie were angered by the income tax, by the +indirect taxes, by the tolls and internal customs, and by the +monopolistic privileges which the king sold to his favorites. How long +the unprivileged classes would bear the burden of taxation, while the +nobles and clergy were almost free, no one could tell; but signs of +discontent were too patent to be ignored. + +Louis XIV (1643-1715) at the end of his long reign perceived the +danger. As the aged monarch lay on his deathbed, flushed with fever, he +called his five-year-old great-grandson and heir, the future Louis XV, +to the bedside and said: "My child, you will soon be sovereign of a +great kingdom. Do not forget your obligations to God; remember that it +is to Him that you owe all that you are. Endeavor to live at peace with +your neighbors; do not imitate me in my fondness for war, nor in the +exorbitant expenditure which I have incurred. Take counsel in all your +actions. Endeavor to _relieve the people at the earliest possible +moment_, and thus to accomplish what, unfortunately, I am unable to +do myself." + +[Sidenote: Louis XV, 1715-1774] + +It was good advice. But Louis XV was only a boy, a plaything in the +hands of his ministers. In an earlier chapter [Footnote: See above, pp. +255 f.] we have seen how under the duke of Orleans, who was prince +regent from 1715 to 1723, France entered into war with Spain, and how +finance was upset by speculation; and how under Cardinal Fleury, who +was minister from 1726 to 1743, the War of the Polish Election (1733- +1738) was fought and the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) +begun. + +When in 1743 the ninety-year-old Cardinal Fleury died, Louis XV +announced that he would be his own minister. But he was not a Frederick +the Great. At the council table poor Louis "opened his mouth, said +little, and thought not at all." State business seemed terribly dull, +and the king left most of it to others. + +But of one thing, Louis XV could not have enough--and that was +pleasure. He much preferred pretty girls to pompous ministers of state, +and spent most of his time with the ladies and the rest of the time +either hunting or gambling. In spite of the fact that he was married, +Louis very easily fell in love with a charming face; at one time he was +infatuated by the duchess of Châteauroux, then by Madame de Pompadour, +and later by Madame du Barry. Upon his mistresses he was willing to +lavish princely presents,--he gave them estates and titles, had them +live at Versailles, and criminally allowed them to interfere in +politics; for their sake he was willing to let his country go to ruin. + +The character of the king was reflected in his court. It became +fashionable to neglect one's wife, to gamble all night, to laugh at +virtue, to be wasteful and extravagant. Versailles was gay; the ladies +painted their cheeks more brightly than ever, and the lords spent their +fortunes more recklessly. + +But Versailles was not France. France was ruined with wars and taxes. +Louis XIV had said, "Live at peace with your neighbors"; but since his +death four wars had been waged, culminating in the disastrous Seven +Years' War (1756-1763), by which French commerce had been destroyed and +the French colonies had been lost. [Footnote: The formal annexation of +Lorraine in 1766 and of Corsica in 1768 afforded some crumbs of comfort +for Louis XV.] Debts were multiplied and taxes increased. What with +war, extravagance, and poor management, Louis XV left France a bankrupt +state. + +[Sidenote: Growing complaints against the French Monarchy under Louis +XV] + +Complaints were loud and remonstrances bitter, and Louis XV could not +silence them, try as he might. Authors who criticized the government +were thrown into prison: radical writings were confiscated or burned; +but criticism persisted. Enemies of the government were imprisoned +without trial in the Bastille by _lettres de cachet_, which were +orders for arrest signed in blank by the king, who sometimes gave or +sold them to his favorites, so that they, too, might have their enemies +jailed. Yet the opposition to the court ever increased. Resistance to +taxation centered in the Parlement of Paris. It refused to register the +king's decrees, and remained defiant even after Louis XV had angrily +announced that he would not tolerate interference with his +prerogatives. The quarrel grew so bitter that all the thirteen +Parlements of France were suppressed (1771), and in their stead new +royal courts were established. + +Opposition was only temporarily crushed; and Louis XV knew that graver +trouble was brewing. He grew afraid to ride openly among the +discontented crowds of Paris; the peasants saluted him sullenly; the +treasury was empty; the monarchy was tottering. Yet Louis XV felt +neither responsibility nor care. "It will surely last as long as I," he +cynically affirmed; "my successor may take care of himself." + +[Sidenote: Louis XVI, 1774-1792] + +His successor was his grandson, Louis XVI (1774-1792), a weak-kneed +prince of twenty years, very virtuous and well-meaning, but lacking in +intelligence and will-power. He was too awkward and shy to preside with +dignity over the ceremonious court; he was too stupid and lazy to +dominate the ministry. He liked to shoot deer from out the palace +window, or to play at lock-making in his royal carpentry shop. +Government he left to his ministers. + +[Sidenote: Turgot] + +At first, hopes ran high, for Turgot, friend of Voltaire and +contributor to the _Encyclopedia_, was minister of finance (1774- +1776), and reform was in the air. Industry and commerce were to be +unshackled; _laisser-faire_ was to be the order of the day; +finances were to be reformed, and taxes lowered. The clergy and nobles +were no longer to escape taxation; taxes on food were to be abolished; +the peasants were to be freed from forced labor on the roads. But +Turgot only stirred up opposition. The nobles and clergy were not +anxious to be taxed; courtiers resented any reduction of their +pensions; tax-farmers feared the reforming minister; owners of +industrial monopolies were frightened; the peasants misunderstood his +intentions; and riots broke out. Everybody seemed to be relieved when, +in 1776, Turgot was dismissed. + +[Sidenote: Necker] + +Turgot had been a theorist; his successor was a businessman. Jacques +Necker was well known in Paris as a hard-headed Swiss banker, and +Madame Necker's receptions were attended by the chief personages of the +bourgeois society of Paris. During his five years in office (1776-1781) +Necker applied business methods to the royal finances. He borrowed +400,000,000 francs from his banker friends, reformed the collection of +taxes, reduced expenditures, and carefully audited the accounts. In +1781 he issued a report or "Account Rendered of the Financial +Condition." The bankers were delighted; the secrets of the royal +treasury were at last common property; [Footnote: _The Compte +Rendu_, as it was called in France, was really not accurate; Necker, +in order to secure credit for his financial administration, made +matters appear better than they actually were.] and Necker was praised +to the skies. + +[Sidenote: Marie Antoinette] + +While Necker's Parisian friends rejoiced, his enemies at court prepared +his downfall. Now the most powerful enemy of Necker's reforms and +economies was the queen, Marie Antoinette. She was an Austrian +princess, the daughter of Maria Theresa, and in the eyes of the French +people she always remained a hated foreigner--"the Austrian," they +called her--the living symbol of the ruinous alliance between Habsburgs +and Bourbons which had been arranged by a Madame de Pompadour and which +had contributed to the disasters and disgrace of the Seven Years' War +[Footnote: See above, pp. 358 ff]. While grave ministers of finance +were puzzling their heads over the deficit, gay Marie Antoinette was +buying new dresses and jewelry, making presents to her friends, giving +private theatricals, attending horse-races and masked balls. The light- +hearted girl-queen had little serious interest in politics, but when +her friends complained of Necker's miserliness, she at once demanded +his dismissal. + +Her demand was granted, for the kind-hearted, well-intentioned Louis +XVI could not bear to deprive his pretty, irresponsible Marie +Antoinette and her charming friends,--gallant nobles of France,--of +their pleasures. Their pleasures were very costly; and fresh loans +could be secured by the obsequious new finance-minister, Calonne, only +at high rates of interest. + +From the standpoint of France, the greatest folly of Louis XVI's reign +was the ruinous intervention in the War of American Independence (1778- +1783). The United States became free; Great Britain was humbled; +Frenchmen proved that their valor was equal to their chivalry; but when +the impulsive Marquis de Lafayette returned from assisting the +Americans to win their liberty, he found a ruined France. The treasury +was on the verge of collapse. From the conclusion of the war in 1783 to +the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, every possible financial +expedient was tried--in vain. + +[Sidenote: The Problem of Taxation] + +To tax the so-called privileged classes--the clergy and the nobles-- +might have helped; and successive finance ministers so counseled the +king. But it was absolutely against the spirit of the "old régime." +What was the good of being a clergyman or a noble, if one had no +privileges and was obliged to pay taxes like the rest? To tax all alike +would be in itself a revolution, and the tottering divine-right +monarchy sought reform, not revolution. + +[Sidenote: The Assembly of Notables, 1787] + +Yet in 1786 the interest-bearing debt had mounted to $600,000,000, the +government was running in debt at least $25,000,000 a year, and the +treasury-officials were experiencing the utmost difficulty in +negotiating new loans. Something had to be done. As a last resort, the +king convened (1787) an Assembly of Notables--145 of the chief nobles, +bishops, and magistrates--in the vain hope that they would consent to +the taxation of the privileged and unprivileged alike. The Notables +were not so self-sacrificing, however, and contented themselves with +abolishing compulsory labor on the roads, voting to have provincial +assemblies established, and demanding the dismissal of Calonne, the +minister of finance. The question of taxation, they said, should be +referred to the Estates-General. All this helped the treasury in no +material way. + +[Sidenote: Convocation of the Estates-General] + +A new minister of finance, who succeeded Calonne,--Archbishop Loménie +de Brienne,--politely thanked the Notables and sent them home. He made +so many fine promises that hope temporarily revived, and a new loan was +raised. But the Parlement of Paris, which together with the other +Parlements had been restored early in the reign of Louis XVI, soon saw +through the artifices of the suave minister, and positively refused to +register further loans or taxes. Encouraged by popular approval, the +Parlement went on to draw up a declaration of rights, and to assert +that subsidies could constitutionally be granted only by the nation's +representatives--the ancient Estates-General. This sounded to the +government like revolution, and the Parlements were again abolished. +The abolition of the Parlements raised a great cry of indignation; +excited crowds assembled in Paris and other cities; and the soldiers +refused to arrest the judges. Here was real revolution, and Louis XVI, +frightened and anxious, yielded to the popular demand for the Estates- +General. + +In spite of the fact that every one talked so glibly about the Estates- +General and of the great things that body would do, few knew just what +the Estates-General was. Most people had heard that once upon a time +France had had a representative body of clergy, nobility, and +commoners, somewhat like the British Parliament. But no such assembly +had been convoked for almost two centuries, and only scholars and +lawyers knew what the old Estates-General had been. Nevertheless, it +was believed that nothing else could save France from ruin; and in +August, 1788, Louis XVI, after consulting the learned men, issued a +summons for the election of the Estates-General, to meet in May of the +following year. + +[Sidenote: Failure of Absolutism in France] + +The convocation of the Estates-General was the death-warrant of divine- +right monarchy in France. It meant that absolutism had failed. The king +was bankrupt. No half-way reforms or pitiful economies would do now. +The Revolution was at hand. + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +THE BRITISH MONARCHY, 1760-1800. General accounts: A. L. Cross, +_History of England and Greater Britain_ (1914), ch. xlv, a brief +résumé; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. VI (1909), ch. xiii; A. D. +Innes, _History of England and the British Empire_, Vol. III (1914), +ch. vii-ix, xi; C. G. Robertson, _England under the Hanoverians_ +(1911); J. F. Bright, _History of England_, Vol. III, _Constitutional +Monarchy_, 1689-1837; William Hunt, _Political History of England, +1760-1801_ (1905), Tory in sympathy; and W. E. H. Lecky, _A History of +England in the Eighteenth Century_, London ed., 7 vols. (1907), and _A +History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century_, 5 vols. (1893), the most +complete general histories of the century. Special studies: E. and A. +G. Porritt, _The Unreformed House of Commons_, new ed., 2 vols. (1909), +a careful description of the undemocratic character of the +parliamentary system; J. R. Fisher, _The End of the Irish Parliament_ +(1911); W. L. Mathieson, _The Awakening of Scotland, 1747-1797_ (1910); +_Correspondence of George III with Lord North, 1768-1783_, ed. by W. B. +Donne, 2 vols. (1867), excellent for illustrating the king's system of +personal government; Horace Walpole, _Letters_, ed. by Mrs. P. Toynbee, +16 vols. (1903-1905), a valuable contemporary source as "Walpole is the +acknowledged prince of letter writers"; G. S. Veitch, _The Genesis of +Parliamentary Reform_ (1913), a clear and useful account of the +agitation in the time of Pitt and Fox; W. P. Hall, _British Radicalism, +1791-1797_ (1912), an admirable and entertaining survey of the movement +for political and social reform in England; J. H. Rose, _William Pitt +and National Revival_ (1911), dealing with the years 1781-1791. There +are biographies of _William Pitt_ (the Younger) by Lord Rosebery (1891) +and by W. D. Green (1901); and _The Early Life of Charles James Fox_ by +Sir G. 0. Trevelyan (1880) affords a delightful picture of the life of +the time. Also see books listed under ENGLISH SOCIETY IN THE EIGHTEENTH +CENTURY, pp. 427 f., above. + +THE BENEVOLENT DESPOTS. Brief general accounts: H. E. Bourne, _The +Revolutionary Period in Europe, 1763-1815_ (1914), ch. ii, iv, v; J. +H. Robinson and C. A. Beard, _The Development of Modern Europe_, +Vol. I (1907), ch. x, xi; H. M. Stephens, _Revolutionary Europe, +1789-1815_ (1893), ch. i; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. VI +(1909), ch. xii, xviii-xx, xxii, xvi; E. F. Henderson, _A Short +History of Germany_, Vol. II (1902), ch. v, excellent on Frederick +the Great. With special reference to the career of Charles III of +Spain: Joseph Addison, _Charles III of Spain_ (1900); M. A. S. +Hume, _Spain, its Greatness and Decay, 1479-1788_ (1898), ch. xiv, +xv; François Rousseau, _Règne de Charles III d'Espagne, 1759- +1788,_ 2 vols. (1907), the best and most exhaustive work on the +subject; Gustav Diercks, _Geschichte Spaniens von der fruhesten +Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart_, 2 vols. (1895-1896), a good general +history of Spain by a German scholar. On Gustavus III of Sweden: R. N. +Bain, _Scandinavia, a Political History of Denmark, Norway, and +Sweden, from 1513 to 1900_ (1905). On the Dutch Netherlands in the +eighteenth century: H. W. Van Loon, _The Fall of the Dutch +Republic_ (1913). On Joseph II: A. H. Johnson, _The Age of the +Enlightened Despot, 1660-1789_ (1910), ch. x, an admirable brief +introduction to the subject; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. VIII +(1904), ch. xi, on Joseph's foreign policy; William Coxe (1747-1828), +_History of the House of Austria_, Vol. III, an excellent account +though somewhat antiquated; Franz Krones, _Handbuch der Geschichte +Oesterreichs_, Vol. IV (1878), Books XIX, XX, a standard work; Karl +Ritter, _Kaiser Joseph II und seine kirchlichen Reformen_; G. +Holzknecht, _Ursprung und Herkunft der reformideen Kaiser Josefs II +auf kirchlichem Gebiete_ (1914). For further details of the projects +and achievements of Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa, see +bibliographies accompanying Chapter XI, above; and for those of +Catherine II of Russia, see bibliography of Chapter XII, above. + +THE FRENCH MONARCHY, 1743-1789. Brief general accounts: Shailer +Mathews, _The French Revolution_ (reprint 1912), ch. vi-viii; A. J. +Grant, _The French Monarchy, 1483-1789_, Vol. II (1900), ch. xix-xxi; +G. W. Kitchin, _A History of France_, Vol. III (4th ed., 1899), Book +VI, ch. iii-vii; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. VIII (1904), ch. ii- +iv; E. J. Lowell, _The Eve of the French Revolution_ (1892), an able +survey; Sophia H. MacLehose, _The Last Days of the French Monarchy_ +(1901), a popular narrative. More detailed studies: J. B. Perkins, +_France under Louis XV_, 2 vols. (1897), an admirable treatment; Ernest +Lavisse (editor), _Histoire de France_, Vol. VIII, Part II, _Règne de +Louis XV, 1715-1774_ (1909), and Vol. IX, Part I, _Règne de Louis XVI, +1774-1789_ (1910), the latest and most authoritative treatment in +French; Felix Rocquain, _The Revolutionary Spirit Preceding the French +Revolution_, condensed Eng. trans. by J. D. Hunting (1891), a +suggestive account of various disorders immediately preceding 1789; +Leon Say, _Turgot_, a famous little biography translated from the +French by M. B. Anderson (1888); W. W. Stephens, _Life and Writings of +Turgot_ (1895), containing extracts from important decrees of Turgot; +Alphonse Jobez, _La France sous Louis XV_, 6 vols. (1864-1873), and, +by the same author, _La France sous Louis XVI_, 3 vols. (1877-1893), +exhaustive works, still useful for particular details but in general +now largely superseded by the _Histoire de France_ of Ernest Lavisse; +Charles Gomel, _Les causes financières de la révolution française: les +derniers contrôleurs généraux_, 2 vols. (1892-1893), scholarly and +especially valuable for the public career of Turgot, Necker, Calonne, +and Loménie de Brienne; Rene Stourm, _Les finances de l'ancien régime +et de la révolution_, 2 vols. (1885); Aimé Cherest, _La chute de +l'ancien regime_, 1787-1789, 3 vols. (1884-1886), a very detailed study +of the three critical years immediately preceding the Revolution; F. C. +von Mercy-Argenteau, _Correspondance secrète avec l'impératrice Marie- +Thérèse, avec les lettres de Marie-Thérèse et de Marie-Antoinette_, 3 +vols. (1875); and _Correspondance secrète avec l'empereur Joseph II et +le prince de Kaunitz_, 2 vols. (1889-1891), editions of original +letters and other information which Mercy-Argenteau transmitted to +Vienna from 1766 to 1790, very valuable for the contemporary pictures +of court-life at Versailles (selections have been translated and +published in English). Also see books listed under FRENCH SOCIETY ON +THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION, p. 427, above. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FRENCH REVOLUTION INTRODUCTORY + + +The governments and other political institutions which flourished in +the first half of the eighteenth century owed their origins to much +earlier times. They had undergone only such alterations as were +absolutely necessary to adapt them to various places and changing +circumstances. Likewise, the same social classes existed as had always +characterized western Europe; and these classes--the court, the nobles, +the clergy, the bourgeoisie, the artisans, the peasants--continued to +bear relations to each other which a hoary antiquity had sanctioned. +Every individual was born into his class, or, as the popular phrase +went, to "a station to which God had called him," and to question the +fundamental divine nature of class distinctions seemed silly if not +downright blasphemous. + +[Sidenote: Dislocation of Society in Eighteenth Century] + +Such ideas were practical so long as society was comparatively static +and fixed, but they were endangered as soon as the human world was +conceived of as dynamic and progressive. The development of trade and +industry, as has been emphasized, rapidly increased the numbers, +wealth, and influence of the bourgeoisie, or middle class, and quite +naturally threw the social machine out of gear. The merchants, the +lawyers, the doctors, the professors, the literary men, began to envy +the nobles and clergy, and in turn were envied by the poor townsfolk +and by the downtrodden peasants. With the progress of learning and +study, thoughtful persons of all classes began to doubt whether the old +order of politics and society was best suited to the new conditions and +new relations. The "old régime" was for old needs; did it satisfy new +requirements? + +[Sidenote: Influence of Philosophy] + +To this question the philosophers of the eighteenth century responded +unequivocally in the negative. Scientists, of whom the period was full, +had done much to exalt the notions that the universe is run in +accordance with immutable laws of nature and that man must forever +utilize his reasoning faculties. It was not long before the +philosophers were applying the scientists' notions to social +conditions. "Is this reasonable?" they asked, or, "Is that rational?" +Montesquieu insisted that divine-right monarchy is unreasonable. +Voltaire poked fun at the Church and the clergy for being irrational. +Rousseau claimed that class inequalities have no basis in reason. +Beccaria taught that arbitrary or cruel interference with personal +liberty is not in accordance with dictates of nature or reason. + +Philosophy did not directly effect a change; it was merely an +expression of a growing belief in the advisability of change. It +reflected a conviction, deep in many minds, that the old political +institutions and social distinctions had served their purpose and +should now be radically adapted to the new order. Every country in +greater or less degree heard the radical philosophy, but it was in +France that it was first heeded. + +[Sidenote: The Revolution] + +In France, between the years 1789 and 1799, occurred a series of +events, by which the doctrine of democracy supplanted that of divine- +right monarchy, and the theory of class distinctions gave way to that +of social equality. These events, taken together, constitute what we +term the French Revolution, and, inasmuch as they have profoundly +affected all political thought and social action throughout the +nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they are styled, by way of +eminence, the Revolution. + +[Sidenote: The Revolution French] + +Why the Revolution started in France may be suggested by reference to +certain points which have already been mentioned in the history of that +country. France was the country which, above any other, had perfected +the theory and practice of divine-right monarchy. In France had +developed the sharpest contrasts between the various social classes. It +was likewise in France that the relatively high level of education and +enlightenment had given great vogue to a peculiarly destructive +criticism of political and social conditions. Louis XIV had erected his +absolutism and had won for it foreign glory and prestige only by +placing the severest burdens upon the French people. The exploitation +of the state by the selfish, immoral Louis XV had served not to lighten +those burdens but rather to set forth in boldest relief the inherent +weaknesses of the "old régime." And Louis XVI, despite all manner of +pious wishes and good intentions, had been unable to square conditions +as they were with the operation of antique institutions. One royal +minister after another discovered to his chagrin that mere "reform" was +worse than useless. A "revolution" would be required to sweep away the +mass of abuses that in the course of centuries had adhered to the body +politic. + +[Sidenote: Differences between the French and English Revolutions] + +At the outset, any idea of likening the French Revolution to the +English Revolution of the preceding century must be dismissed. Of +course the English had put one king to death and had expelled another, +and had clearly limited the powers of the crown; they had "established +parliamentary government." But the English Revolution did not set up +genuine representative government, much less did it recognize the +theory of democracy. Voting remained a special privilege, conferred on +certain persons, not a natural right to be freely exercised by all. Nor +was the English Revolution accompanied by a great social upheaval: it +was in the first instance political, in the second instance religious +and ecclesiastical; it was never distinctly social. To all intents and +purposes, the same social classes existed in the England of the +eighteenth century as in the England of the sixteenth century, and, +with the exception of the merchants, in much the same relation to one +another. + +[Sidenote: The French Revolution in Two Periods] + +How radical and far-reaching was the French Revolution in contrast to +that of England will become apparent as we review the course of events +in France during the decade 1789-1799. A brief summary at the close of +this chapter will aim to explain the significance of the Revolution. +Meanwhile, we shall devote our attention to a narrative of the main +events. + +The story falls naturally into two parts: First, 1789-1791, the +comparatively peaceful transformation of the absolute, divine-right +monarchy into a limited monarchy, accompanied by a definition of the +rights of the individual and a profound change in the social order; +second, 1792-1799, the transformation of the limited monarchy into a +republic, attended by the first genuine trial of democracy, and +attended likewise by foreign war and internal tumult. The story, in +either of its parts, is not an easy one, for the reason that important +rôles are played simultaneously by five distinct groups of interested +persons. + +[Sidenote: Rôle of the Court and the Privileged] + +In the first place, the people who benefit by the political and social +arrangements of the "old régime" will oppose its destruction. Among +these friends of the "old régime" may be included the royal court, +headed by the queen, Marie Antoinette, and by the king's brothers, the +count of Provence and the count of Artois, and likewise the bulk of the +higher clergy and the nobles--the privileged classes, generally. These +persons cannot be expected to surrender their privileges without a +struggle, especially since they have been long taught that such +privileges are of divine sanction. Only dire necessity compels them to +acquiesce in the convocation of the Estates-General and only the +mildest measures of reform can be palatable to them. They hate and +dread revolution or the thought of revolution. Yet at their expense the +Revolution will be achieved. + +[Sidenote: Rôle of the Bourgeoisie] + +In the second place, the bourgeoisie, who have the most to lose if the +"old régime" is continued and the most to gain if reforms are obtained, +will constitute the majority in all the legislative bodies which will +assemble in France between 1789 and 1799. Their legislative decrees +will in large measure reflect their class interests, and on one hand +will terrify the court party and on the other will not fully satisfy +the lower classes. The real achievements of the Revolution, however, +will be those of the bourgeois assemblies. + +[Sidenote: Rôle of the Urban Proletariat] + +In the third place, the artisans and poverty-stricken populace of the +cities, notably of Paris, will through bitter years lack for bread. +They will expect great things from the assemblies and will revile the +efforts of the court to impede the Revolution. They will shed blood at +first to defend the freedom of the assemblies from the court, +subsequently to bring the assemblies under their own domination. +Without their cooperation the Revolution will not be achieved. + +[Sidenote: Rôle of the Peasantry] + +In the fourth place, the dull, heavy peasants, in whom no one has +hitherto suspected brains or passions, long dumb under oppression, will +now find speech and opinions and an unwonted strength. They will rise +against their noble oppressors and burn castles and perhaps do murder. +They will force the astonished bourgeoisie and upper classes to take +notice of them and indirectly they will impress a significant social +character upon the achievements of the Revolution. + +[Sidenote: Rôle of the Foreign Powers] + +Finally, the foreign monarchs must be watched, for they will be +intensely interested in the story as it unfolds. If the French people +be permitted with impunity to destroy the very basis of divine-right +monarchy and to overturn the whole social fabric of the "old régime," +how long, pray, will it be before Prussians, or Austrians, or Russians +shall be doing likewise? With some thought for Louis XVI and a good +deal of thought for themselves, the monarchs will call each other +"brother" and will by and by send combined armies against the +revolutionaries in France. At that very time the success of the +Revolution will be achieved, for all classes, save only the handful of +the privileged, will unite in the cause of France, which incidentally +becomes the cause of humanity. Bourgeoisie, townsfolk, peasants, will +go to the front and revolutionary France will then be found in her +armies. Thereby not only will the Revolution be saved in France, but in +the end it will be communicated to the uttermost parts of Europe. + + +THE END OF ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE, 1789 + +[Sidenote: France on the Eve of the Revolution] + +When the story opens, France is still the absolute, divine-right +monarchy which Louis XIV had perfected and Louis XV had exploited. The +social classes are still in the time-honored position which has been +described in Chapter XIII. But all is not well with the "old régime." +In the country districts the taxes are distressingly burdensome. In the +cities there is scarcity of food side by side with starvation wages. +Among the bourgeoisie are envy of the upper classes, an appreciation of +the critical philosophy of the day, and a sincere admiration of what +seem to be happier political and social conditions across the Channel +in Great Britain. The public debt of France is enormous, and a large +part of the national income must, therefore, be applied to the payment +of interest: even the courtiers of Louis XVI find their pensions and +favors and sinecures somewhat reduced. When the privileged classes +begin to feel the pinch of hard times, it is certain that the finances +are in sore straits. + +[Sidenote: Financial Embarrassment] + +In fact, all the great general causes of the French Revolution, which +may be inferred from the two preceding chapters, may be narrowed down +to the financial embarrassment of the government of Louis XVI. The king +and his ministers had already had recourse to every expedient +consistent with the maintenance of the "old regime" save one, and that +one--the convocation of the Estates-General--was now to be tried. It +might be that the representatives of the three chief classes of the +realm would be able to offer suggestions to the court, whereby the +finances could be improved and at the same time the divine-right +monarchy and the divinely ordained social distinctions would be +unimpaired. + +[Sidenote: Convocation of the Estates-General] + +With this idea of simple reform in mind, Louis XVI in 1788 summoned the +Estates-General to meet at Versailles the following May. The Estates- +General were certainly not a revolutionary body. Though for a hundred +and seventy-five years the French monarchs had been able to do without +them, they were in theory still a legitimate part of the old-time +government. Summoned by King Philip the Fair in 1302, they had been +thenceforth convoked at irregular intervals until 1614. Their +organization had been in three separate bodies, representing by +election the three estates of the realm--clergy, nobility, and +commoners (Third Estate). Each estate voted as a unit, and two out of +the three estates were sufficient to carry a measure. It usually +happened that the clergy and nobility joined forces to outvote the +commoners. The powers of the Estates-General had always been advisory +rather than legislative, and the kings had frequently ignored or +violated the enactments of the assembly. In its powers as well as in +its organization, the Estates-General differed essentially from the +Parliament of England. By the Estates-General the ultimate supremacy of +the royal authority had never been seriously questioned. + +[Sidenote: Election of the Estates-General] + +The elections to the Estates-General were held in accordance with +ancient usage throughout France in the winter of 1788-1789. Also, in +accordance with custom, the electors were invited by the king to +prepare reports on the condition of the locality with which they were +familiar and to indicate what abuses, if any, existed, and what +remedies, in their opinion, were advisable. + +[Sidenote: The Cahiers] + +By the time the elections were complete, it was apparent that the +majority of the French people desired and expected a greater measure of +reform than their sovereign had anticipated. The reports and lists of +grievances that had been drafted in every part of the country were +astounding. To be sure, these documents, called _cahiers_, were +not revolutionary in wording: with wonderful uniformity they expressed +loyalty to the monarchy and fidelity to the king: in not a single one +out of the thousand _cahiers_ was there a threat of violent +change. But in spirit the _cahiers_ were eloquent. All of them +reflected the idea which philosophy had made popular that reason +demanded fundamental, thoroughgoing reforms in government and society. +Those of the Third Estate were particularly insistent upon the social +inequalities and abuses long associated with the "old régime." It was +clear that if the elected representatives of the Third Estate carried +out the instructions of their constituents, the voting of additional +taxes to the government would be delayed until a thorough investigation +had been made and many grievances had been redressed. + +[Sidenote: The Third Estate] + +On the whole, it was probable that the elected representatives of the +Third Estate would heed the _cahiers_. They were educated and +brainy men. Two-thirds of them were lawyers or judges; many, also, were +scholars; only ten could possibly be considered as belonging to the +lower classes. A goodly number admired the governmental system of Great +Britain, in which the royal power had been reduced; the class interests +of all of them were directly opposed to the prevailing policies of the +French monarchy. The Third Estate was too intelligent to follow blindly +or unhesitatingly the dictates of the court. + +In the earliest history of the Estates-General, the Third Estate had +been of comparatively slight importance either in society or in +politics, and Philip the Fair had proclaimed that the duty of its +members was "to hear, receive, approve, and perform what should be +commanded of them by the king." But between the fourteenth and +eighteenth centuries the relative social importance of the bourgeoisie +had enormously increased. The class was more numerous, wealthier, more +enlightened, and more experienced in the conduct of business. It became +clearer with the lapse of time that it, more than nobility or clergy, +deserved the right of representing the bulk of the nation. This right +Louis XVI had seemed in part to recognize by providing that the number +of elected representatives of the Third Estate should equal the +combined numbers of those of the First and Second Estates. The +commoners naturally drew the deduction from the royal concession that +they were to exercise paramount political influence in the Estates- +General of 1789. + +The Third Estate, as elected in the winter of 1788-1789, was fortunate +in possessing two very capable leaders, Mirabeau and Sieyès, both of +whom belonged by office or birth to the upper classes, but who had +gladly accepted election as deputies of the unprivileged classes. With +two such leaders, it was extremely doubtful whether the Third Estate +would tamely submit to playing an inferior role in future. + +[Sidenote: Mirabeau] + +Mirabeau (1749-1791) was the son of a bluff but good-hearted old +marquis who was not very successful in bringing up his family. Young +Mirabeau had been so immoral and unruly that his father had repeatedly +obtained _lettres de cachet_ from the king in order that prison +bars might keep him out of mischief. Released many times only to fall +into new excesses, Mirabeau found at last in the French Revolution an +opportunity for expressing his sincere belief in constitutional +government and an outlet for his almost superhuman energy. From the +convocation of the Estates-General to his death in 1791, he was one of +the most prominent men in France. His gigantic physique, half-broken by +disease and imprisonment, his shaggy eyebrows, his heavy head, gave him +an impressive, though sinister, appearance. And for quickness in +perceiving at once a problem and its solution, as well as for gifts of +reverberating oratory, he was unsurpassed. + +[Sidenote: Sieyès] + +Of less force but greater tact was the priest, Sieyès (1748-1836), +whose lack of devotion to Christianity and the clerical calling was +matched by a zealous regard for the skeptical and critical philosophy +of the day and for the practical arts of politics and diplomacy. It was +a pamphlet of Sieyès that, on the eve of the assembling of the Estates- +General, furnished the Third Estate with its platform and program. +"What is the Third Estate?" asks Sieyès. "It is everything," he +replies. "What has it been hitherto in the political order? Nothing! +What does it desire? To be something!" + +[Sidenote: Meeting of the Estates-General (May, 1789)] +[Sidenote: Constitutional Question Involved in the Organization of the +Estates-General] + +The position of the Third Estate was still officially undefined when +the Estates-General assembled at Versailles in May, 1789. The king +received his advisers with pompous ceremony and a colorless speech, but +it was soon obvious that he and the court intended that their business +should be purely financial and that their organization should be in +accordance with ancient usage; the three estates would thus vote "by +order," that is, as three distinct bodies, so that the doubled +membership of the Third Estate would have but one vote to the +privileged orders' two. With this view the great majority of the nobles +and a large part of the clergy, especially the higher clergy, were in +full sympathy. On their side the commoners began to argue that the +Estates-General should organize itself as a single body, in which each +member should have one vote, such voting "by head" marking the +establishment of true representation in France, and that the assembly +should forthwith concern itself with a general reformation of the +entire government. With the commoners' argument a few of the liberal +nobles, headed by Lafayette, and a considerable group of the clergy, +particularly the curates, agreed; and it was backed up by the undoubted +sentiment of the nation. Bad harvests in 1788 had been followed by an +unusually severe winter. The peasantry was in an extremely wretched +plight, and the cities, notably Paris, suffered from a shortage of +food. The increase of popular distress, like a black cloud before a +storm, gave menacing support to the demands of the commoners. + +[Sidenote: The King Defied by the Third Estate] +[Sidenote: The "Oath of the Tennis Court," 20 June, 1789] + +Over the constitutional question, fraught as it was with the most +significant consequences to politics and society, the parties wrangled +for a month. The king, unwilling to offend any one, shilly-shallied. +But the uncompromising attitude of the privileged orders and the +indecision of the leaders of the court at length forced the issue. On +17 June, 1789, the Third Estate solemnly proclaimed itself a National +Assembly. Three days later, when the deputies of the Third Estate came +to the hall which had been set apart in the palace of Versailles for +their use, they found its doors shut and guarded by troops and a notice +to the effect that it was undergoing repairs. Apparently the king was +at last preparing to intervene in the contest himself. Then the +commoners precipitated a veritable revolution. Led by Mirabeau and +Sieyès, they proceeded to a great public building in the vicinity, +which was variously used as a riding-hall or a tennis court. There, +amidst intense excitement, with upstretched hands, they took an oath as +members of the "National Assembly" that they would not separate until +they had drawn up a constitution for France. The "Oath of the Tennis +Court" was the true beginning of the French Revolution. Without royal +sanction, in fact against the express commands of the king, the ancient +feudal Estates-General had been transformed, by simple proclamation of +the nation's representatives, into a National Assembly, charged with +the duty of establishing constitutional government in France. The "Oath +of the Tennis Court" was the declaration of the end of absolute divine- +right monarchy and of the beginning of a limited monarchy based on the +popular will. + +What would the king do under these circumstances? He might overwhelm +the rebellious commoners by force of arms. But that would not solve his +financial problems, nor could he expect the French nation to endure it. +It would likely lead to a ruinous civil war. The only recourse left +open to him was a game of bluff. He ignored the "Oath of the Tennis +Court," and with majestic mien commanded the estates to sit separately +and vote "by order." But the commoners were not to be bluffed. Now +joined by a large number of clergy and a few nobles, they openly defied +the royal authority. In the ringing words of Mirabeau, they expressed +their rebellion: "We are here by the will of the people and we will not +leave our places except at the point of the bayonet." The weak-kneed, +well-intentioned Louis XVI promptly acquiesced. Exactly one week after +the scene in the tennis court, he reversed his earlier decrees and +directed the estates to sit together and vote "by head." + +[Sidenote: Transformation of the Estates-General into the National +Constituent Assembly] + +By 1 July, 1789, the first stage in the Revolution was completed. The +nobles and clergy were meeting with the commoners. The Estates-General +had become the National Constituent Assembly. As yet, however, two +important questions remained unanswered. In the first place, how would +the Assembly be assured of National freedom from the intrigues and +armed force of the court? In the second place, what direction would the +reforms of the Assembly take? + +[Sidenote: The Court Prepares to Use Force against the Assembly] + +The answer to the first question was speedily evoked by the court +itself. As early as 1 July, a gradual movement of royal troops from the +garrisons along the eastern frontier toward Paris and Versailles made +it apparent that the king contemplated awing the National Assembly into +a more deferential mood. The Assembly, in dignified tone, requested the +removal of the troops. The king responded by a peremptory refusal and +by the dismissal of Necker [Footnote: Necker had been restored to his +office as director-general of finances in 1788] the popular finance- +minister. Then it was that Paris came to the rescue of the Assembly. + +[Sidenote: Popular Uprising at Paris in Behalf of the Assembly] +[Sidenote: The Destruction of the Bastille, 14 July, 1789] + +The Parisian populace, goaded by real want, felt instinctively that its +own cause and that of the National Assembly were identical. Fired by an +eloquent harangue of a brilliant journalist, Camille Desmoulins (1760- +1794) by name, they rushed to arms. For three days there was wild +disorder in the city. Shops were looted, royal officers were expelled, +business was at a standstill. On the third day--14 July, 1789--the mob +surged out to the east end of Paris, where stood the frowning royal +fortress and prison of the Bastille. Although since the accession of +Louis XVI the Bastille no longer harbored political offenders, +nevertheless it was still regarded as a symbol of Bourbon despotism, a +grim threat against the liberties of Paris. The people would now take +it and would appropriate its arms and ammunition for use in defense of +the National Assembly. The garrison of the Bastille was small and +disheartened, provisions were short, and the royal governor was +irresolute. Within a few hours the mob was in possession of the +Bastille, and some of the Swiss mercenaries who constituted its +garrison had been slaughtered. + +[Sidenote: Revolution in the Government of Paris: the Commune] + +The fall of the Bastille was the first serious act of violence in the +course of the Revolution. It was an unmistakable sign that the people +were with the Assembly rather than with the king. It put force behind +the Assembly's decrees. Not only that, but it rendered Paris +practically independent of royal control, for, during the period of +disorder, prominent citizens had taken it upon themselves to organize +their own government and their own army. The new local government--the +"commune," as it was called--was made up of those elected +representatives of the various sections or wards of Paris who had +chosen the city's delegates to the Estates-General. It was itself a +revolution in city government: it substituted popularly elected +officials in place of royal agents and representatives of the outworn +gilds. And the authority of the commune was sustained by a popularly +enrolled militia, styled the National Guard, which soon numbered 48,000 +champions of the new cause. + +[Sidenote: Temporary Acquiescence of the King] + +The fall of the Bastille was such a clear sign that even Louis XVI did +not fail to perceive its meaning. He instantly withdrew the royal +troops and recalled Necker. He recognized the new government of Paris +and confirmed the appointment of the liberal Lafayette to command the +National Guard. He visited Paris in person, praised what he could not +prevent, and put on a red-white-and-blue cockade--combining the red and +blue of the capital city with the white of the Bourbons--the new +national tricolor of France. Frenchmen still celebrate the fourteenth +of July, the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille, as the +independence day of the French nation. + +[Sidenote: Renewed Intrigues of the Royal Family against the Assembly] + +For a while it seemed as though reform might now go forward without +further interruption. The freedom of the Assembly had been affirmed and +upheld. Paris had settled down once more into comparative repose. The +king had apparently learned his lesson. But the victory of the +reformers had been gained too easily. Louis XVI might take solemn oaths +and wear strange cockades, but he remained in character essentially +weak. His very virtues--good intentions, love of wife, loyalty to +friends--were continually abused. The queen was bitterly opposed to the +reforming policies of the National Assembly and actively resented any +diminution of royal authority. Her clique of court friends and +favorites disliked the decrease of pensions and amusements to which +they had long been accustomed. Court and queen made common cause in +appealing to the good qualities of Louis XVI. What was the weak king to +do under the circumstances? He was to fall completely under the +domination of his entourage. + +[Sidenote: Demonstrations of the Parisian Women at Versailles, October, +1789] + +The result was renewed intrigues to employ force against the +obstreperous deputies and their allies, the populace of Paris. This +time it was planned to bring royal troops from the garrisons in +Flanders. And on the night of 1 October, 1789, a supper was given by +the officers of the bodyguard at Versailles in honor of the arriving +soldiers. Toasts were drunk liberally and royalist songs were sung. +News of the "orgy," as it was termed, spread like wildfire in Paris, +where hunger and suffering were more prevalent than ever. That city was +starving while Versailles was feasting. The presence of additional +troops at Versailles, it was believed, would not only put an end to the +independence of the Assembly but would continue the starvation of +Paris. More excited grew the Parisians. + +On 5 October was presented a strange and uncouth spectacle. A long line +of the poorest women of Paris, including some men dressed as women, +riotous with fear and hunger and rage, armed with sticks and clubs, +screaming "Bread! bread! bread!" were straggling along the twelve miles +of highway from Paris to Versailles. They were going to demand bread of +the king. Lafayette and his National Guardsmen, who had been unable or +unwilling to allay the excitement in Paris, marched at a respectful +distance behind the women out to Versailles. + +By the time Lafayette reached the royal palace, the women were +surrounding it, howling and cursing, and demanding bread or blood; only +the fixed bayonets of the troops from Flanders had prevented them from +invading the building, and even these regular soldiers were weakening. +Lafayette at once became the man of the hour. He sent the soldiers back +to the barracks and with his own force undertook the difficult task of +guarding the property and lives of the royal family and of feeding and +housing the women for the night. Despite his precautions, it was a wild +night. There was continued tumult in the streets and, at one time, +shortly before dawn, a gang of rioters actually broke into the palace +and groped about in search of the queen's apartments. Just in the nick +of time the hated Marie Antoinette hurried to safer quarters, although +several of her personal bodyguard were killed in the mêlée. + +When the morning of 6 October had come, Lafayette addressed the crowd, +promising them that they should be provided for, and, at the critical +moment, there appeared at his side on the balcony of the palace the +royal family--the king, the little prince, the little princess, and the +queen--all wearing red-white-and-blue cockades. A hush fell upon the +mob. The respected general leaned over and gallantly kissed the hand of +Marie Antoinette. A great shout of joy went up. Apparently even the +queen had joined the Revolution. The Parisians were happy, and +arrangements were made for the return journey. + +[Sidenote: Forcible Removal of the Court and Assembly from Versailles +to Paris] + +The procession of 6 October from Versailles to Paris was more curious +and more significant than that of the preceding day in the opposite +direction. There were still the women and the National Guardsmen and +Lafayette on his white horse and a host of people of the slums, but +this time in the midst of the throng was a great lumbering coach, in +which rode Louis and his wife and children, for Paris now insisted that +the court should no longer possess the freedom of Versailles in which +to plot unwatched against the rights of the French people. All along +the procession reechoed the shout, "We have the baker and the baker's +wife and the little cook-boy--now we shall have bread." And so the +court of Louis XVI left forever the proud, imposing palace of +Versailles, and came to humbler lodgings [Footnote: In the palace of +the Tuileries.] in the city of Paris. + +Paris had again saved the National Assembly from royal intimidation, +and the Assembly promptly acknowledged the debt by following the king +to that city. After October, 1789, not reactionary Versailles but +radical Paris was at once the scene and the impulse of the Revolution. + +The "Fall of the Bastille" and the "March of the Women to Versailles" +were the two picturesque events which assured the independence of the +National Assembly from the armed force and intrigue of the court. +Meanwhile, the answer to the other question which we propounded above, +"What direction would the reforms of the Assembly take?" had been +supplied by the people at large. + +[Sidenote: Disintegration of the Old Régime throughout France] +[Sidenote: Peasant Reprisals against the Nobility] + +Ever since the assembling of the Estates-General, ordinary +administration of the country had been at a standstill. The people, +expecting great changes, refused to pay the customary taxes and +imposts, and the king, for fear of the National Assembly and of a +popular uprising, hesitated to compel tax collection by force of arms. +The local officials did not know whether they were to obey the Assembly +or the king. In fact, the Assembly was for a time so busy with +constitutional questions that it neglected to provide for local +government, and the king was always timorous. So, during the summer of +1789, the institutions of the "old régime" disappeared throughout +France, one after another, because there was no popular desire to +maintain them and no competent authority to enforce them. The +insurrection in Paris and the fall of the Bastille was the signal in +July for similar action elsewhere: other cities and towns substituted +new elective officers for the ancient royal or gild agents and +organized National Guards of their own. At the same time the direct +action of the people spread to the country districts. In most provinces +the oppressed peasants formed bands which stormed and burned the +châteaux of the hated nobles, taking particular pains to destroy feudal +or servile title-deeds. Monasteries were often ransacked and pillaged. +A few of the unlucky lords were murdered, and many others were driven +into the towns or across the frontier. Amid the universal confusion, +the old system of local government completely collapsed. The intendants +and governors quitted their posts. The ancient courts of justice, +whether feudal or royal, ceased to act. The summer of 1789 really ended +French absolutism, and the transfer of the central government from +Versailles to Paris in October merely confirmed an accomplished fact. + +[Sidenote: The Revolution Social as well as Political] + +Whatever had been hitherto the reforming policies of the National +Assembly, the deputies henceforth faced facts rather than theories. +Radical social readjustments were now to be effected along with purely +governmental and administrative changes. The Revolution was to be +social as well as political. + + +THE END OF THE OLD RÉGIME: THE NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY, 1789-1791 + +[Sidenote: Achievements of the National Assembly, 1789-1791] + +By the transformation of the Estates-General into the National +Constituent Assembly, France had become to all intents and purposes a +limited monarchy, in which supreme authority was vested in the nation's +elected representatives. From October, 1789, to September, 1791, this +Assembly was in session in Paris, endeavoring to bring order out of +chaos and to fashion a new France out of the old that was dying of +exhaustion and decrepitude. Enormous was the task, but even greater +were the achievements. Although the work of the Assembly during the +period was influenced in no slight degree by the Parisian populace, +nevertheless it was attended by comparative peace and security. And the +work done was by far the most vital and most lasting of the whole +revolutionary era. + +Leaving out of consideration for the time the frightened royal family, +the startled noblemen and clergy, the determined peasantry, and the +excited townsfolk, and not adhering too closely to chronological order, +let us center our attention upon the National Assembly and review its +major acts during those momentous years, 1789-1791. + +[Sidenote: 1. Legal Destruction of Feudalism and Serfdom] + +The first great work of the Assembly was the legal destruction of +feudalism and serfdom--a long step in the direction of social equality. +We have already noticed how in July while the Assembly was still at +Versailles, the royal officers in the country districts had ceased to +rule and how the peasants had destroyed many _châteaux_ amid +scenes of unexpected violence. News of the rioting and disorder came to +the Assembly from every province and filled its members with the +liveliest apprehension. A long report, submitted by a special +investigating committee on 4 August, 1789, gave such harrowing details +of the popular uprising that every one was convinced that something +should be done at once. + +[Sidenote: "The August Days"] + +While the Assembly was debating a declaration which might calm revolt, +one of the nobles--a relative of Lafayette--arose in his place and +stated that if the peasants had attacked the property and privileges of +the upper classes, it was because such property and privileges +represented unjust inequality, that the fault lay there, and that the +remedy was not to repress the peasants but to suppress inequality. It +was immediately moved and carried that the Assembly should proclaim +equality of taxation for all classes and the suppression of feudal and +servile dues. Then followed a scene almost unprecedented in history. +Noble vied with noble, and clergyman with clergyman, in renouncing the +vested rights of the "old régime." The game laws were repudiated. The +manorial courts were suppressed. Serfdom was abolished. Tithes and all +sorts of ecclesiastical privilege were sacrificed. The sale of offices +was discontinued. In fact, all special privileges, whether of classes, +of cities, or of provinces, were swept away in one consuming burst of +enthusiasm. The holocaust lasted throughout the night of the fourth of +August. Within a week the various independent measures had been +consolidated into an impressive decree "abolishing the feudal system," +and this decree received in November the royal assent. What many +reforming ministers had vainly labored for years partially to +accomplish was now done, at least in theory, by the National Assembly +in a few days. The so-called "August Days" promised to dissolve the +ancient society of France. + +It has been customary to refer these vast social changes to the +enthusiasm, magnanimity, and self-sacrifice of the privileged orders. +That there was enthusiasm is unquestionable. But it may be doubted +whether the nobles and clergy were so much magnanimous as terrorized. +For the first time, they were genuinely frightened by the peasants, and +it is possible that the true measure of their "magnanimity" was their +alarm. Then, too, if one is to sacrifice, he must have something to +sacrifice. At most, the nobles had only legal claims to surrender, for +the peasants had already taken forcible possession of nearly everything +which the decree accorded them. In fact the decree of the Assembly +constituted merely a legal and uniform recognition of accomplished +facts. + +The nobles may have thought, moreover, that liberal acquiescence in the +first demands of the peasantry would save themselves from further +demands. At any rate, they zealously set to work in the Assembly to +modify what had been done, to secure financial or other indemnity, +[Footnote: The general effect of the series of decrees of the Assembly +from 5 to 11 August, 1789, was to impose some kind of financial +redemption for many of the feudal dues. It was only in July, 1793, +almost four years after the "August Days," that _all_ feudal dues +and rights were legally abolished without redemption or compensation.] +and to prevent the enactment of additional social legislation. Outside +the Assembly few nobles took kindly to the loss of privilege and +property: the overwhelming majority protested and tried to stir up +civil war, and, when such attempts failed, they left France and +enrolled themselves among their country's enemies. + +It is not necessary for us to know precisely who were responsible for +the "August Days." The fact remains that the "decree abolishing the +feudal system" represented the most important achievement of the whole +French Revolution. Henceforth, those who profited by the decree were +loyal friends of the Revolution, while the losers were its bitter +opponents. + +[Sidenote: 2. The Declaration of the Rights of Man] + +The second great work of the Assembly was the guarantee of individual +rights and liberties. The old society and government of France were +disappearing. On what basis should the new be erected? Great Britain +had its _Magna Carta_ and its Bill of Rights; America had its +Declaration of Independence. France was now given a "Declaration of the +Rights of Man and of the Citizen." This document, which reflected the +spirit of Rousseau's philosophy and incorporated some of the British +and American provisions, became the platform of the French Revolution +and tremendously influenced political thought in the nineteenth and +twentieth centuries. A few of its most striking sentences are as +follows: "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights." The rights +of man are "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression." +"Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right +to participate personally, or through his representative, in its +formation. It must be the same for all." "No person shall be accused, +arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms +prescribed by law." Religious toleration, freedom of speech, and +liberty of the press are affirmed. The people are to control the +finances, and to the people all officials of the state are responsible. +Finally, the influence of the propertied classes, which were +overwhelmingly represented in the Assembly, showed itself in the +concluding section of the Declaration: "Since private property is an +inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be deprived thereof except +where public necessity, legally determined, shall clearly demand it, +and then only on condition that the owner shall have been previously +and equitably indemnified." + +[Sidenote: 3. Reform of Local Administration] + +The next great undertaking of the National Assembly was the +establishment of a new and uniform administrative system in France. The +ancient and confusing "provinces," "governments," "intendancies," +"_pays d'état_" "_pays d'élection_" "parlements," and +"bailliages" were swept away. The country was divided anew into eighty- +three departments, approximately uniform in size and population, and +named after natural features, such as rivers or mountains. Each +department was subdivided into districts, cantons. and communes,-- +divisions which have endured in France to the present time. The heads +of the local government were no longer to be appointed by the crown but +elected by the people, and extensive powers were granted to elective +local councils. Provision was made for a new system of law courts +throughout the country, and the judges, like the administrative +officials, were to be elected by popular vote. Projects were likewise +put forward to unify and simplify the great variety and mass of laws +which prevailed in different parts of France, but this work was not +brought to completion until the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. + +[Sidenote: 4. Financial Regulation. 5. Secularization of Church +Property, the Assignats] + +Another grave matter which concerned the National Assembly was the +regulation of the public finances. It will be recalled that financial +confusion was the royal reason for summoning the Estates-General. And +in the early days of the Assembly, the confusion became chaos: it was +impossible to enforce the payment of direct taxes; indirect taxes were +destroyed by legislative decree; and bankers could not be induced to +make new loans. Therefore, it was to heroic measures that the Assembly +resorted to save the state from bankruptcy. To provide funds, a heavy +blow was struck at one of the chief props of the "old régime"--the +Catholic Church. The Church, as we have seen, owned at least a fifth of +the soil of France, and it was now resolved to seize these rich church +lands, and to utilize them as security for the issue of paper money-- +the _assignats_. As partial indemnity for the wholesale +confiscation, the state was to undertake the payment of fixed salaries +to the clergy. Thus by a single stroke the financial pressure was +relieved, the Church was deprived of an important source of its +strength, and the clergy were made dependent on the new order. Of +course, as often happens in similar cases, the issue of paper money was +so increased that in time it exceeded the security and brought fresh +troubles to the state, but for the moment the worst dangers were tided +over. + +[Sidenote: 6. Other Legislation against the Catholic Church] + +The ecclesiastical policies and acts of the National Assembly were +perhaps the least efficacious and the most fateful achievements of the +Revolution. Yet it would be difficult to perceive how they could have +been less radical than they were. The Church appeared to be +indissolubly linked with the fortunes of old absolutist France; the +clergy comprised a particularly privileged class; and the leaders and +great majority of the Assembly were filled with the skeptical, Deistic, +and anti-Christian philosophy of the time. In November, 1789, the +church property was confiscated. In February, 1790, the monasteries and +other religious houses were suppressed. In April, absolute religious +toleration was proclaimed. In August, 1790, the "Civil Constitution of +the Clergy" was promulgated, by which the bishops and priests, reduced +in numbers, were made a civil body: they were to be elected by the +people, paid by the state, and separated from the sovereign control of +the pope. In December, the Assembly forced the reluctant king to sign a +decree compelling all the clergy to take a solemn oath of allegiance to +the "Civil Constitution." + +[Sidenote: Catholic Opposition to the Revolution] + +The pope, who had already protested against the seizure of church +property and the expulsion of the monks, now condemned the "Civil +Constitution" and forbade Catholics to take the oath of allegiance. +Thus, the issue was squarely joined. Such as took the oath were +excommunicated by the pope, such as refused compliance were deprived of +their salaries and threatened with imprisonment. Up to this time, the +bulk of the lower clergy, poor themselves and in immediate contact with +the suffering of the peasants, had undoubtedly sympathized with the +course of the Revolution, but henceforth their convictions and their +consciences came into conflict with devotion to their country. They +followed their conscience and either incited the peasants, over whom +they exercised considerable influence, to oppose further revolution, or +emigrated [Footnote: The clergy who would not take the oath were called +the "non-juring" clergy. Those who left France, together with the noble +emigrants, were called "émigrés."] from France to swell the number of +those who, dissatisfied with the course of events in their own country, +would seek the first opportunity to undo the work of the Assembly. The +Catholic Church, as well as the hereditary nobility, became an +unwearied opponent of the French Revolution. + +[Sidenote: 7. The Constitution of 1791] + +Amid all these sweeping reforms and changes, the National Constituent +Assembly was making steady progress in drafting a written constitution +which would clearly define the agencies of government, and their +respective powers, the new limited monarchy. This constitution was +completed in 1791 and signed by the king--he could do nothing else--and +at once went into full effect. It was the first written constitution of +any importance that any European country had had, and was preceded only +slightly in point of time by that of the United States. [Footnote: The +present American constitution was drafted in 1787 and went into effect +in 1789, the year that the Estates-General assembled.] + +The Constitution of 1791, as it was called, provided, like the American +constitution, for the "separation of powers," that is, that the law- +making, law-enforcing, and law-interpreting functions of government +should be kept quite distinct as the legislative, executive, and +judicial departments, and should each spring, in last analysis, from +the will of the people. This idea had been elaborated by Montesquieu, +and deeply affected the constitution-making of the eighteenth century +both in France and in the United States. + +[Sidenote: Legislative Provisions] + +The legislative authority was vested in one chamber, styled the +"Legislative Assembly," the members of which were chosen by means of a +complicated system of indirect election. [Footnote: That is to say, the +people would vote for electors, and the electors for the members of the +Assembly.] The distrust with which the bourgeois framers of the +constitution regarded the lower classes was shown not only in this +check upon direct election but also in the requirements that the +privilege of voting should be exercised exclusively by "active" +citizens, that is, by citizens who paid taxes, and that the right to +hold office should be restricted to property-holders. + +[Sidenote: Weakness of the King under the Constitution] + +Nominally the executive authority resided in the hereditary king. In +this respect, most of the French reformers thought they were imitating +the British government, but as a matter of fact they made the kingship +not even ornamental. True, they accorded to the king the right to +postpone for a time the execution of an act of the legislature--the so- +called "suspensive veto"--but they deprived him of all control over +local government, over the army and navy, and over the clergy. Even his +ministers were not to sit in the Assembly. Tremendous had been the +decline of royal power in France during those two years, 1789-1791. + +[Sidenote: Summary of the Work of the National Assembly] + +This may conclude our brief summary of the work of the National +Constituent Assembly. If we review it as a whole, we are impressed by +the immense destruction which it effected. No other body of legislators +has ever demolished so much in the same brief period. The old form of +government, the old territorial divisions, the old financial system, +the old judicial and legal regulations, the old ecclesiastical +arrangements, and, most significant of all, the old condition of +holding land--serfdom and feudalism--all were shattered. Yet all this +destruction was not a mad whim of the moment. It had been preparing +slowly and painfully for many generations. It was foreshadowed by the +mass of well-considered complaints in the _cahiers_. It was +achieved not only by the decrees of the Assembly, but by the forceful +expression of the popular will. + + +THE LIMITED MONARCHY IN OPERATION: THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY (1791-1792) +AND THE OUTBREAK OF FOREIGN WAR + +[Sidenote: Brief Duration of Limited Monarchy in France, 1791-1792] + +Great public rejoicing welcomed the formal inauguration of the limited +monarchy in 1791. Many believed that a new era of Peace and prosperity +was dawning for France. Yet the extravagant hopes which were widely +entertained for the success of the new régime were doomed to speedy and +bitter disappointment. The new government encountered all manner of +difficulties, the country rapidly grew more radical in sentiment and +action, and within a single year the limited monarchy gave way to a +republic. The establishment of the republic was the second great phase +of the Revolution. Why it was possible and even inevitable may be +gathered from a survey of political conditions in France during 1792,-- +at once the year of trial for limited monarchy and the year of +transition to the republic. + +[Sidenote: Sources of Opposition to the Limited Monarchy] + +By no means did all Frenchmen accept cheerfully and contentedly the +work of the National Constituent Assembly. Of the numerous dissenters, +some thought it went too far and some thought it did not go far enough. +The former may be styled "reactionaries" and the latter "radicals." + +[Sidenote: Reactionaries] +[Sidenote: 1. The Émigrés] + +The reactionaries embraced the bulk of the formerly privileged nobility +and the non-juring clergy. The nobles had left France in large numbers +as soon as the first signs of violence appeared--about the time of the +fall of the Bastille and the peasant uprisings in the provinces. Many +of the clergy had similarly departed from their homes when the +anticlerical measures of the Assembly rendered it no longer possible +for them to follow the dictates of conscience. These reactionary +exiles, or émigrés as they were termed, collected in force along the +northern and eastern frontier, especially at Coblenz on the Rhine. They +possessed an influential leader in the king's own brother, the count of +Artois, and they maintained a perpetual agitation, by means of +newspapers, pamphlets, and intrigues, against the new régime. They were +anxious to regain their privileges and property, and to restore +everything, as far as possible, to precisely the same position it had +occupied prior to 1789. + +[Sidenote: 2. The Court] +[Sidenote: The Flight to Varennes] + +Nor were the reactionaries devoid of support within France. It was +believed that the royal family, now carefully watched in Paris, +sympathized with their efforts. So long as Mirabeau, the ablest leader +in the National Assembly, was alive, he had never ceased urging the +king to accept the reforms of the Revolution and to give no countenance +to agitation beyond the frontiers. In case the king should find his +position in Paris intolerable, he had been advised by Mirabeau to +withdraw into western or southern France and gather the loyal nation +about him. But unfortunately, Mirabeau, worn out by dissipation and +cares, died prematurely in April, 1791. Only two months later the royal +family attempted to follow the course against which they had been +warned. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, in an effort to rid themselves +of the spying vigilance of the Parisians, disguised themselves, fled +from the capital, and made straight for the eastern frontier, +apparently to join the émigrés. At Varennes, near the border, the royal +fugitives were recognized and turned back to Paris, which henceforth +became for them rather a prison than a capital. Although Louis +subsequently swore a solemn oath to uphold the constitution, his +personal popularity vanished with his ill-starred flight, and his wife +--the hated "Austrian woman"--was suspected with good reason of being +in secret correspondence with the émigrés as well as with foreign +governments. Marie Antoinette was more detested than ever. The king's +oldest brother, the count of Provence, was more successful than the +king in the flight of June, 1791: he eluded detection and joined the +count of Artois at Coblenz. + +[Sidenote: 3. Conservative and Catholic Peasants.] + +Had the reactionaries been restricted entirely to émigrés and the royal +family, it is hardly possible that they would have been so troublesome +as they were. They were able, however, to secure considerable popular +support in France. A small group in the Assembly shared their views and +proposed the most extravagant measures in order to embarrass the work +of that body. Conservative clubs existed among the upper and well-to-do +classes in the larger cities. And in certain districts of western +France, especially in Brittany, Poitou (La Vendée), and Anjou, the +peasants developed hostility to the course of the Revolution: their +extraordinary devotion to Catholicism placed them under the influence +of the non-juring clergy, and their class feeling against townspeople +induced them to believe that the Revolution, carried forward by the +bourgeoisie, was essentially in the interests of the bourgeoisie. Riots +occurred in La Vendée throughout 1791 and 1792 with increasing +frequency until at length the district blazed into open rebellion +against the radicals. + +[Sidenote: Radicals] +[Sidenote: 1. The Bourgeois Leaders] +[Sidenote: 2. The Proletarians] + +More dangerous to the political settlement of 1791 than the opposition +of the reactionaries was that of the radicals--those Frenchmen who +thought that the Revolution had not gone far enough. The real +explanation of the radical movement lies in the conflict of interest +between the poor working people of the towns and the middle class, or +bourgeoisie. The latter, as has been repeatedly emphasized, possessed +the brains, the money, and the education: it was they who had been +overwhelmingly represented in the National Assembly. The former were +degraded, poverty-stricken, and ignorant, but they constituted the bulk +of the population in the cities, notably in Paris, and they were both +conscious of their sorry condition and desperately determined to +improve it. These so-called "proletarians," though hardly directly +represented in the Assembly, nevertheless fondly expected the greatest +benefits from the work of that body. For a while the bourgeoisie and +the proletariat coöperated: the former carried reforms through the +Assembly, the latter defended by armed violence the freedom of the +Assembly; both participated in the capture of the Bastille, in the +establishment of the commune, and in the transfer of the seat of +government from Versailles to Paris. So long as they faced a serious +common danger from the court and privileged orders, they worked in +harmony. + +[Sidenote: Conflict of Interests Between Bourgeoisie and Proletariat] + +But as soon as the Revolution had run its first stage and had succeeded +in reducing the royal power and in abolishing many special privileges +of the nobles and clergy, a sharp cleavage became evident between the +former allies--between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The +bourgeoisie, to whom was due the enactment of the reforms of the +National Constituent Assembly, profited by those reforms far more than +any other class in the community. Their trade and industry were +stimulated by the removal of the ancient royal and feudal restrictions. +Their increased wealth enabled them to buy up the estates of the +outlawed émigrés and the confiscated lands of the Church. They secured +an effective control of all branches of government, local and central. +Of course, the peasantry also benefited to no slight extent, but their +benefits were certainly less impressive than those of the bourgeoisie. +Of all classes in France, the urban proletariat seemed to have gained +the least: to be sure they were guaranteed by paper documents certain +theoretical "rights and liberties," but what had been done for their +material well-being? They had obtained no property. They had +experienced no greater ease in earning their daily bread. And in 1791 +they seemed as far from realizing their hopes of betterment as they had +been in 1789, for the bourgeois constitution-makers had provided that +only taxpayers could vote and only property-owners could hold office. +The proletariat, thereby cut off from all direct share in the conduct +of government, could not fail to be convinced that in the first phase +of the Revolution they had merely exchanged one set of masters for +another, that at the expense of the nobles and clergy they had exalted +the bourgeoisie, and that they themselves were still downtrodden and +oppressed. Radical changes in the constitution and radical social +legislation in their own behalf became the policies of the proletariat; +violence would be used as a means to an end, if other means failed. + +Not all of the bourgeoisie were thoroughly devoted to the settlement of +1791. Most of them doubtless were. But a thoughtful and conspicuous +minority allied themselves with the proletariat. Probably in many +instances it was for the selfish motive of personal ambition that this +or that middle-class individual prated much about his love for "the +people" and shed tears over their wretchedness and made all manner of +election promises to them. But, on the other hand, there were sincere +and altruistic bourgeois who had been converted to the extreme +democratic doctrines of Rousseau and who were deeply touched by the +misery of the lowest classes. It was under the leadership of such men +that the proletariat grew ever more radical until they sought by force +to establish democracy in France. + +[Sidenote: Center of Radicalism in Paris] + +The radical movement centered in Paris, where now lived the royal +family and where the legislature met. With the object of intimidating +the former and controlling the latter, the agitation made rapid headway +during 1791 and 1792. It was conducted by means of inflammatory +newspapers, coarse pamphlets, and bitter speeches. It appealed to both +the popular reason and the popular emotions. It was backed up and +rendered efficient by the organization of revolutionary "clubs." + +[Sidenote: The Clubs] +[Sidenote: Cordeliers and Jacobins] + +These clubs were interesting centers of political and social agitation. +Their origin was traceable to the "eating clubs" which had been formed +at Versailles by various deputies who desired to take their meals +together, but the idea progressed so far that by 1791 nearly every café +in Paris aspired to be a meeting place for politicians and "patriots." +Although some of the clubs were strictly constitutional, and even, in a +few instances, professedly reactionary, nevertheless the greater number +and the most influential were radical. Such were the Cordelier and +Jacobin clubs. The former, organized as a "society of the friends of +the rights of man and of the citizen," was very radical from its +inception and enrolled in its membership the foremost revolutionaries +of Paris. The latter, starting out as a "society of the friends of the +constitution," counted among its early members such men as Mirabeau, +Sieyès, and Lafayette, but subsequently under the leadership of +Robespierre, transformed itself into an organization quite as radical +as the Cordeliers. It is an interesting tact that both these radical +clubs derived their popular names from monasteries, in whose +confiscated buildings they customarily met. + +[Sidenote: Radical Propaganda] + +From Paris the radical movement radiated in all directions. Pamphlets +and newspapers were spread broadcast. The Jacobin club established a +regular correspondence with branch clubs or kindred societies which +sprang up in other French towns. The radicals were everywhere inspired +by the same zeal and aided by a splendid organization. + +[Sidenote: Radical Leaders] + +Of the chief radical leaders, it may be convenient at this point to +introduce three--Marat, Danton, and Robespierre. All belonged to the +bourgeoisie by birth and training, but by conviction they became the +mouthpieces of the proletariat. All played important rôles in +subsequent scenes of the Revolution. + +[Sidenote: Marat] + +Marat (_c_. 1742-1793), had he never become interested in politics +and conspicuous in the Revolution, might have been remembered in +history as a scientist and a man of letters. He had been a physician, +and for skill in his profession, as well as for contributions to the +science of physics, he had received an honorary degree from St. Andrews +University in Scotland, and for a time he was in the service of the +count of Artois. The convocation of the Estates-General turned his +attention to public affairs. In repeated and vigorous pamphlets he +combated the idea then prevalent in France that his countrymen should +adopt a constitution similar to that of Great Britain. During several +years' sojourn in Great Britain he had observed that that country was +being ruled by an oligarchy which, while using the forms of liberty and +pretending to represent the country, was in reality using its power for +the promotion of its own narrow class interests. He made up his mind +that real reform must benefit all the people alike and that it could be +secured only by direct popular action. This was the simple message that +filled the pages of the _Ami du peuple_--the _Friend of the +People_--a newspaper which he edited from 1789 to 1792. With fierce +invective he assailed the court, the clergy, the nobles, even the +bourgeois Assembly. Attached to no party and with no detailed policies, +he sacrificed almost everything to his single mission. No poverty, +misery, or persecution could keep him quiet. Forced even to hide in +cellars and sewers, where he contracted a loathsome skin disease, he +persevered in his frenzied appeals to the Parisian populace to take +matters into their own hands. By 1792 Marat was a man feared and hated +by the authorities but loved and venerated by the masses of the +capital. [Footnote: Marat was assassinated on 13 July, 1793, by +Charlotte Corday, a young woman who was fanatically attached to the +Girondist faction.] + +[Sidenote: Danton] + +No less radical but far more statesmanlike was Danton (1759-1794), who +has been called "a sort of middle-class Mirabeau." The son of a farmer, +he had studied law, had purchased a position as advocate of the Royal +Council, and, before the outbreak of the Revolution, had acquired a +reputation not only as a brilliant young lawyer, but also as a man of +liberal tastes, fond of books, and happy in his domestic life. Like +Mirabeau, he was a person of powerful physique and of stentorian voice, +a skilled debater and a convincing orator; unlike Mirabeau, he himself +remained calm and self-possessed while arousing his audiences to the +highest pitch of enthusiasm. Like Mirabeau, too, he was not so +primarily interested in the welfare of his own social class as in that +of the class below him: what the nobleman Mirabeau was to the +bourgeoisie, the bourgeois Danton was to the Parisian proletariat. +Brought to the fore, through the favor of Mirabeau, in the early days +of the Revolution, Danton at once showed himself a strong advocate of +real democracy. In 1790, in conjunction with Marat and Camille +Desmoulins, he founded the Cordelier Club, the activities of which he +directed throughout 1791 and 1792 against the royal family and the +whole cause of monarchy. An influential member of the commune of Paris, +he was largely instrumental in crystallizing public opinion in favor of +republicanism, Danton was rough and courageous, but neither venal nor +bloodthirsty. + +[Sidenote: Robespierre] + +Less practical than Danton and further removed from the proletariat +than Marat, Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) nevertheless combined +such qualities as made him the most prominent exponent of democracy and +republicanism. Descended from a middle-class family of Irish +extraction, Robespierre had been a classmate of Camille Desmoulins in +the law school of the University of Paris, and had practiced law with +some success in his native town of Arras. He was appointed a criminal +judge, but soon resigned that post because he could not endure to +inflict the death penalty. In his immediate circle he acquired a +reputation as a writer, speaker, and something of a dandy. Elected to +the Third Estate in 1789, he took his place with the extreme radicals +in that body--the "thirty voices," as Mirabeau contemptuously called +them. Robespierre had read Rousseau from cover to cover and believed in +the philosopher's doctrines with all his heart so that he would have +gone to death for them. In the belief that they eventually would +succeed and regenerate France and all mankind, he was ready to work +with unwearied patience. The paucity of his followers in the National +Assembly and the overpowering personality of Mirabeau prevented him +from exercising much influence in framing the new constitution, and he +gradually turned for support to the people of Paris. He was already a +member of the Jacobin Club, which, by the withdrawal of its more +conservative members in 1791, came then under his leadership. +Thenceforth the Jacobin Club was a most effective instrument for +establishing social democracy (although it was not committed to +republicanism until August, 1792), and Robespierre was its oracle. +Robespierre was never a demagogue in the present sense of the word: he +was always emphatically a gentleman and a man of culture, sincere and +truthful. Although he labored strenuously for the "rights" of the +proletariat, he never catered to their tastes; to the last day of his +life he retained the knee-breeches and silk stockings of the old +society and wore his hair powdered. + +We are now in a position to understand why the constitutional monarchy +floundered. It had no great leaders to strengthen it and to conduct it +through the narrow strait. It was bound to strike the rocks of reaction +on one side or those of radicalism on the other. Against such fearless +and determined assailants as Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, it was +helpless. + +[Sidenote: Difficulties Confronting the Legislative Assembly, 1791] + +The new government came into being with the first meeting of the +Legislative Assembly on 1 October, 1791. Immediately its troubles +began. The members of the Legislative Assembly were wholly +inexperienced in parliamentary procedure, for an unfortunate self- +denying ordinance [Footnote: Proposed by Robespierre.] of the retiring +Constituent Assembly had prohibited any of its members from accepting +election to the new body. The Legislative Assembly contained deputies +of fundamentally diverse views who quarreled long though eloquently +among themselves. Moreover, it speedily came into conflict with the +king, who vainly endeavored to use his constitutional right of +suspensive veto in order to check its activities. Combined with these +problems was the popular agitation and excitement: a peasant revolt in +La Vendée, the angry threats of émigré nobles and non-juring clergy +across the eastern frontier, the loud tumults of the proletariat of +Paris and of other large cities as well. + +[Sidenote: Foreign Hostility to the French Revolution] + +The difficulties of the limited monarchy were further complicated by an +embarrassing foreign situation. It will be borne in mind that all +important European states still adhered rigidly to the social +institutions of the "old régime" and, with the exception of Great +Britain, to divine-right monarchy. Outside of France there appeared as +yet no such thing as "public opinion," certainly no sign among the +lower classes of any opinion favorable to revolution. In Great Britain +alone was there a constitutional monarchy, and in the early days of the +French Revolution, so long as British statesmen could flatter +themselves that their neighbors across the Channel were striving to +imitate their political system, these same public men sympathized with +the course of events. But when it became evident that the Revolution +was going further, that it aimed at a great social leveling, that it +was a movement of the masses in behalf of the lowest classes in the +community, then even British criticism assailed it. At the close of +1790 Edmund Burke published his _Reflections on the Revolution in +France_, a bitter arraignment of the newer tendencies and a +rhetorical panegyric of conservatism. Although Burke's sensational work +was speedily and logically answered by several forceful thinkers, +including the brilliant Thomas Paine, nevertheless it long held its +place as the classical expression of official Britain's horror of +social equality and of "mob violence." The book was likewise received +with such approval by the monarchs of continental Europe, who +interpreted it as a telling defense of their position, that Catherine +of Russia personally complimented the author and the puppet king of +Poland sent him a flamboyant glorification and a gold medal. +Thenceforth the monarchs, as well as the nobles and clergy, of Europe +saw in the French Revolution only a menace to their political and +social privileges: were it communicated to the lower classes, the +Revolution might work the same havoc throughout the length and breadth +of Europe that it was working in France. The "benevolent despots" had +sincere desires to labor for the welfare of the people; they shuddered +at the thought of what the people themselves would do in laboring for +their own welfare. + +[Sidenote: The Holy Roman Emperor the Champion of Opposition to the +Revolution] + +Of the monarchs of Europe, several had special reasons for viewing the +progress of the Revolution with misgiving. The Bourbons of Spain and of +the Two Sicilies were united by blood and family compacts with the +ruling dynasty of France: any belittling of the latter's power was +bound to affect disastrously the domestic position and foreign policy +of the former. Then, too, the French queen, Marie Antoinette, was an +Austrian Habsburg. Her family interests were in measure at stake. In +the Austrian dominions, the visionary and unpractical Joseph II had +died in 1790 and had been succeeded by another brother of Marie +Antoinette, the gifted though unemotional Emperor Leopold II. Leopold +skillfully extricated himself from the embarrassments at home and +abroad bequeathed him by his predecessor and then turned his attention +to French affairs. He was in receipt of constant and now frantic +appeals from his sister to aid Louis XVI against the revolutionaries. +He knew that the Austrian Netherlands, whose rebellion he had +suppressed with difficulty, were saturated with the doctrines of the +Revolution and that many of their inhabitants would welcome annexation +to France. As chief of the Holy Roman Empire, he must keep +revolutionary agitation out of the Germanies and protect the border +provinces against French aggression. All these factors served to make +the Emperor Leopold the foremost champion of the "old regime" in Europe +and incidentally of the royal cause in France. + +[Sidenote: Declaration of Pilinitz, August, 1791] + +Now it so happened that the emperor found a curious ally in Prussia. +The death of Frederick the Great in 1786 had called to the throne of +that country a distinctly inferior sort of potentate, Frederick William +II (1786-1797), who combined with a nature at once sensual and +pleasure-loving a remarkable religious zeal. He neglected the splendid +military machine which Frederick William I and Frederick the Great had +constructed with infinite patience and thoroughness. He lavished great +wealth upon art as well as upon favorites and mistresses. He tired the +nation with an excessive Protestant orthodoxy. And in foreign affairs +he reversed the far-sighted policy of his predecessor by allying +himself with Austria and reducing Prussia to a secondary place among +the German states. In August, 1791, Frederick William II joined with +the Emperor Leopold in issuing the public Declaration of Pilinitz, to +the effect that the two rulers considered the restoration of order and +of monarchy in France an object of "common interest to all sovereigns +of Europe." The declaration was hardly more than pompous bluster, for +the armies of the German allies were not as yet ready for war, but its +solemn expression of an intention on the part of foreign despots to +interfere in the internal affairs of France aroused the most bitter +feeling among Frenchmen who were patriotic as well as revolutionary. + +[Sidenote: French Politics Under the Limited Monarchy Favorable to +Foreign War] + +The prospect of war with the blustering monarchs of Austria and Prussia +was quite welcome to several important factions in France. Marie +Antoinette and her court clique gradually came to the conclusion that +their reactionary cause would be abetted by war. If the allies won, +absolutism would be restored in France by force of arms. If the French +won, it would redound to the prestige of the royal family and enable +them by constitutional means to recover their authority. Then, too, the +constitutionalists, the bourgeois party which was led by Lafayette and +which loyally supported the settlement of 1791, worked for war. +Military success would consolidate the French people and confirm the +constitution, and Lafayette aspired to win personal glory as the +omnipotent commander. Finally, the overwhelming majority of radicals +cried for war: to them it seemed as if the liberal monarchy would be +completely discomfited by it and that out of it would emerge a republic +in France and the general triumph of democratic principles in Europe. +Why not stir up all the European peoples against their monarchs? The +cause of France should be the cause of Europe. France should be the +missionary of the new dispensation. + +[Sidenote: Political Parties in the Legislative Assembly] + +The Legislative Assembly, on which depended in last instance the +solution of all these vital problems, domestic and foreign, represented +several diverse shades of political opinion. Of the seven hundred +members, four hundred admitted no special leadership but voted +independently on every question according to individual preference or +fear, while the others were divided between the camp of +_Feuillants_ and that of _Jacobins_. The Feuillants were the +constitutionalists, inclined, while in general consistently championing +the settlement of 1791, to strengthen the royal power,--they were the +conservatives of the Assembly. The Jacobins, on the other hand, +deriving their common name from the famous club in Paris, were the +radicals: many of them secretly cherished republican sentiments, and +all of them desired a further diminution of the constitutional powers +of Louis XVI. The Jacobins, however, were divided into two groups on +the question of how the royal power should be reduced. The larger +number, whose most conspicuous members came from the department of the +Gironde and were, therefore, collectively designated as Girondists, +entertained the idea that the existing government should be clearly +proved futile before proceeding to the next stage in the Revolution: +they clamored for foreign war as the most effective means of disgracing +the existing monarchy. The smaller number of Jacobins, drawn largely +from Paris, desired to take no chances on the outcome of war but +advocated the radical reformation of monarchical institutions by direct +and immediate popular action: subsequently this small group was dubbed +the Mountain [Footnote: This name did not come into general use until +1793.] from the high seats its members later occupied in the +Convention: they represented the general views of such men as Marat, +Danton, and Robespierre. + +[Sidenote: The Girondists] + +Of the various parties or groups in the Legislative Assembly, the best +organized was the Girondist. Its members, recruited chiefly from the +provinces, were young, enthusiastic, and filled with noble, if somewhat +unpractical, ideas borrowed from the ancient republics of Greece and +Rome. They were cultured, eloquent, and patriotic. In Brissot (1754- +1793), a Parisian lawyer, they had an admirable leader and organizer. +In Vergniaud (1753-1793), they had a polished and convincing orator. In +Condorcet (1743-1794), they had a brilliant scholar and philosopher. In +Dumouriez (1739-1823), they possessed a military genius of the first +order. And in the refined home of the brilliant Madame Roland (1754- +1793), they had a charming center for political discussion. + +In internal affairs the Legislative Assembly accomplished next to +nothing. Everything was subordinated to the question of foreign war. In +that, Feuillants and Girondists found themselves in strange agreement. +Only Marat and Robespierre raised their voices against a policy whose +pursuit they dreaded would raise a military dictator. Marat expressed +his alarms in the _Friend of the People:_ "What afflicts the +friends of liberty is that we have more to fear from success than from +defeat .. .the danger is lest one of our generals be crowned with +victory and lest ... he lead his victorious army against the capital to +secure the triumph of the Despot." But the counsels of extreme radicals +were unavailing. + +[Sidenote: Declaration of War against Austria and Prussia, April, 1792] + +In the excitement the Girondists obtained control of the government and +demanded of the emperor that the Austrian troops be withdrawn from the +frontier and that the émigrés be expelled from his territories. As no +action was taken by the emperor, the Girondist ministers prevailed upon +Louis XVI to declare war on 20 April, 1792. Lafayette assumed supreme +command, and the French prepared for the struggle. Although Leopold had +just died, his policy was followed by his son and successor, the +Emperor Francis II. Francis and Frederick William II of Prussia +speedily collected an army of 80,000 men at Coblenz with which to +invade France. The campaign of 1792 was the first stage in a vast +conflict which was destined to rage throughout Europe for twenty-three +years. It was the beginning of the contest between the forces of +revolution and those of reaction. + +Enthusiasm was with the French. They felt they were fighting for a +cause--the cause of liberty, equality, and nationalism. Men put on red +liberty caps, and such as possessed no firearms equipped themselves +with pikes and hastened to the front. Troops coming up from Marseilles +sang in Paris a new hymn of freedom which Rouget de Lisle had just +composed at Strassburg for the French soldiers,--the inspiring +Marseillaise that was to become the national anthem of France. But +enthusiasm was about the only asset that the French possessed. Their +armies were ill-organized and ill-disciplined. Provisions were scarce, +arms were inferior, and fortified places in poor repair. Lafayette had +greater ambition than ability. + +[Sidenote: Early French Reverses] +[Sidenote: Equivocal Position of the Royal Family] + +The war opened, therefore, with a series of French reverses. An +attempted invasion of the Austrian Netherlands ended in dismal failure. +On the eastern frontier the allied armies under the duke of Brunswick +experienced little difficulty in opening up a line of march to Paris. +Intense grew the excitement in the French capital. The reverses gave +color to the suspicion that the royal family were betraying military +plans to the enemy. A big demonstration took place on 20 June: a crowd +of market women, artisans, coal heavers, and hod carriers pushed +through the royal residence, jostling and threatening the king and +queen: no violence was done but the temper of the Parisian proletariat +was quite evident. But Louis and Marie Antoinette simply would not +learn their lesson. Despite repeated and solemn assurances to the +contrary, they were really in constant secret communication with the +invading forces. The king was beseeching aid from foreign rulers in +order to crush his own people; the queen was supplying the generals of +the allies with the French plans of campaign. Limited monarchy failed +in the stress of war. + + +ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRST FRENCH REPUBLIC: THE NATIONAL CONVENTION, +1792-1795 + +[Sidenote: Proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick, 25 July, 1792] +[Sidenote: The French Reply: the Insurrection of 9-10 August, 1792] + +On 25 July, 1792, the duke of Brunswick (1735-1806), the pig-headed +commander-in-chief of the allied armies, issued a proclamation to the +French people. He declared it his purpose "to put an end to the anarchy +in the interior of France, to check the attacks upon the throne and the +altar, to reëstablish the legal power, to restore to the king the +security and liberty of which he is now deprived and to place him in a +position to exercise once more the legitimate authority which belongs +to him." The bold duke went on to declare that French soldiers who +might be captured "shall be treated as enemies and punished as rebels +to their king and as disturbers of the public peace," and that, if the +slightest harm befell any member of the royal family, his Austrian and +Prussian troops would "inflict an ever-memorable vengeance by +delivering over the city of Paris to military execution and complete +destruction, and the rebels guilty of such outrages to the punishment +that they merit." This foolish and insolent manifesto sealed the fate +of the French monarchy. It was the clearest proof that French royalty +and foreign armies were in formal alliance not only to prevent the +further development of the Revolution but also to undo what had already +been done. And all patriotically minded Frenchmen, whether hitherto +they had sympathized with the course of events or not, now grew furious +at the threats of foreigners to interfere in the internal affairs of +their country. The French reply to the duke of Brunswick was the +insurrection of 9-10 August, 1792. + +[Sidenote: Suspension of the King and Fall of Limited Monarchy] + +On those days the proletariat of Paris revolted against the liberal +monarchy. They supplanted the bourgeois commune with a radically +revolutionary commune, in which Danton became the leading figure. They +invaded the royal palace, massacred the Swiss Guards, and obliged the +king and his family to flee for their lives to the Assembly. On 10 +August, a remnant of terror-stricken deputies voted to suspend the king +from his office and to authorize the immediate election by universal +manhood suffrage of a National Convention that would prepare a new +constitution for France. + +[Sidenote: Anarchy in France] + +From the suspension of the king on 10 August to the assembling of the +National Convention on 21 September, France was practically anarchical. +The royal family was incarcerated in the gloomy prison of the Temple. +The regular governmental agents were paralyzed. Lafayette protested +against the insurrection at Paris and surrendered himself to the +allies. + +Still the allies advanced into France. Fear deepened into panic. +Supreme control fell into the hands of the revolutionary commune: +Danton became virtual dictator. His policy was simple. The one path of +safety left open to the radicals was to strike terror into the hearts +of their domestic and foreign foes. "In my opinion," said Danton, "the +way to stop the enemy is to terrify the royalists. Audacity, more +audacity, and always greater audacity!" The news of the investment of +Verdun by the allies, published at Paris on 2 September, was the signal +for the beginning of a wholesale massacre of royalists in the French +capital. For five long days unfortunate royalists were taken from the +prisons and handed over by a self-constituted judicial body to the +tender mercies of a band of hired cutthroats. Slight discrimination was +made of rank, sex, or age. Men, women, and children, nobles and +magistrates, priests and bishops,--all who were suspected of royalist +sympathy were butchered. The number of victims of these September +massacres has been variously estimated from 2000 to 10,000. + +Meanwhile Danton was infusing new life and new spirit into the French +armies. Dumouriez replaced Lafayette in supreme command. And on 20 +September the allies received their first check at Valmy. + +[Sidenote: Valmy: the First Military Success of the Revolutionaries] +[Sidenote: Proclamation of the First French Republic] + +The very day on which news reached Paris that it was saved and that +Brunswick was in retreat, the National Convention met. Amid the wildest +enthusiasm, it unanimously decreed "that royalty is abolished in +France." Then it was resolved to date from 22 September, 1792, Year 1 +of the Republic. A decree of perpetual banishment was enacted against +the émigrés and it was soon determined to bring the king to trial +before the Convention. + +[Sidenote: The National Convention 1792-1795] + +The National Convention remained in session for three years (1792- +1795), and its work constituted the second great phase of the +Revolution. This work was essentially twofold: (1) It secured a series +of great victories in the foreign war, thereby rendering permanent the +remarkable social reforms of the first period of the Revolution, that +between 1789 and 1791; and (2) it constructed a republican form of +government, based on the principle of democracy. + +[Sidenote: Problems Confronting the National Convention] + +Perhaps no legislative body in history has been called upon to solve +such knotty problems as those which confronted the National Convention +at the opening of its sessions. At that time it was necessary (1) to +decide what should be done with the deposed and imprisoned king; (2) to +organize the national defense and turn back foreign invasion; (3) to +suppress insurrection within France; (4) to provide a strong government +for the country; (5) to complete and consolidate the social reforms of +the earlier stage of the Revolution; and (6) to frame a new +constitution and to establish permanent republican institutions. With +all these questions the Convention coped with infinite industry and +much success. And in the few following pages, we shall review them in +the order indicated, although it should be borne in mind that most of +them were considered by the Convention simultaneously. + +[Sidenote: Personnel of the National Convention] +[Sidenote: The Girondists] +[Sidenote: The Mountainists] +[Sidenote: The Plain] + +Before taking up the work of the Convention, a word should be said +about the personnel of that body. The elections had been in theory by +almost universal suffrage, but in practice indifference or intimidation +reduced the actual voters to about a tenth of the total electorate. The +result was the return of an overwhelming majority of radicals, who, +while agreeing on the fundamental republican doctrines, nevertheless +differed about details. On the right of the Convention sat nearly two +hundred Girondists, including Brissot, Vergniaud, Condorcet, and the +interesting Thomas Paine. These men represented largely the well-to-do +bourgeoisie who were more radical in thought than in deed, who ardently +desired a democratic republic, but who at the same time distrusted +Paris and the proletariat. In the raised seats on the opposite side of +the Convention sat nearly one hundred members of the Mountain, now +exclusively designated as Jacobins--extreme radicals in thought, word, +and deed--disciples of Rousseau--counting among their number Danton, +Robespierre, Carnot, and St. Just. Between the two factions of +Mountainists and Girondists sat the Plain, as it was called, the real +majority of the house, which had no policies or convictions of its own, +but voted usually according to the dictates of expediency. Our tactful, +trimming Abbé Sieyès belonged to the Plain. At the very outset the +Plain was likely to go with the Girondists, but as time went on and the +Parisian populace clamored more and more loudly against any one who +opposed the action of their allies, the Mountainists, it gradually saw +fit to transfer its affections to the Left. + +[Sidenote: Trial and Execution of King Louis XVI, 1793] + +The first serious question which faced the Convention was the +disposition of the king. The discovery of an iron chest containing +accounts of expenditures for bribing members of the National +Constituent Assembly, coupled with the all but confirmed suspicion of +Louis' double dealings with France and with foreign foes,[Footnote: +After the execution of the king, actual letters were discovered which +Louis had dispatched to his fellow monarchs, urging their assistance. A +typical extract is given in Robinson and Beard, _Readings in Modern +European History_, Vol. I, pp. 287-288.] sealed the doom of that +miserably weak monarch. He was brought to trial before the Convention +in December, 1792, and condemned to death by a vote of 387 to 334. With +the majority voted the king's own cousin, the duke of Orleans, an +enthusiastic radical who had assumed the name of Citizen Philippe +Égalité (Equality). On 21 January, 1793, Louis XVI was beheaded near +the overthrown statue of his voluptuous predecessor Louis XV in the +Place de la Révolution (now called the Place de la Concorde). The +unruffled dignity with which he met death was the finest act of his +reign. + +[Sidenote: Military Successes] + +Meanwhile the tide of Austrian and Prussian invasion had been rolling +away from France. After Valmy, Dumouriez had pursued the retreating +foreigners across the Rhine and had carried the war into the Austrian +Netherlands, where a large party regarded the French as deliverers. +Dumouriez entered Brussels without serious resistance, and was speedily +master of the whole country. It seemed as though the French would have +an easy task in delivering the peoples of Europe from their old régime. + +[Sidenote: France the Champion of the Revolution] + +Emboldened by the ease with which its armies were overrunning the +neighboring states, the National Convention proposed to propagate +liberty and reform throughout Europe and in December, 1792, issued the +following significant decree: "The French nation declares that it will +treat as enemies every people who, refusing liberty and equality or +renouncing them, may wish to maintain, recall, or treat with a prince +and the privileged classes; on the other hand, it engages not to +subscribe to any treaty and not to lay down its arms until the +sovereignty and independence of the people whose territory the troops +of the republic shall have entered shall be established, and until the +people shall have adopted the principles of equality and founded a free +and democratic government." + +[Sidenote: Foreign Fears] + +In thus throwing down the gauntlet to all the monarchs of Europe and in +putting the issue clearly between democracy and the old régime, the +French revolutionaries took a dangerous step. Although a large number +of the neighboring peoples undoubtedly sympathized with the aims and +achievements of the Revolution, the rulers and privileged classes in +more distant countries, such as Russia, Austria, Prussia, and even +Spain and Great Britain, were still deeply intrenched in the patriotism +and unquestioning loyalty of their people. + +[Sidenote: The "First Coalition" against France] + +Then, too, the execution of Louis XVI in January, 1793, increased the +bitterness of the approaching grave struggle. A royalist reaction in +France itself precipitated civil war in La Vendée. Dumouriez, the +ablest general of the day, in disgust deserted to the Austrians. And at +this very time, a formidable coalition of frightened and revengeful +monarchs was formed to overthrow the French Republic. To Austria and +Prussia, already in the field, were added Great Britain, Holland, +Spain, and Sardinia. + +[Sidenote: Military Endeavours of the Revolutionaries] + +Once more France was placed on the defensive. Once more the allies +occupied Belgium and the Rhine provinces, and took the roads toward +Paris. The situation in the spring of 1793 appeared as critical as that +in the preceding summer. But as the event proved, the republic was a +far more effective government than the liberal monarchy, Revolutionary +France now went gladly to war, singing the Marseillaise and displaying +the banners of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." Bourgeois citizens, +whose social and financial gains in the earlier stage of the Revolution +would be threatened by the triumph of the foreign forces, now gave +money and brains to the national defense. Artisans and peasants, who +had won something and hoped to win more from the success of the +Revolution, now laid down their lives for the cause. Heroism and +devotion to a great ideal inspired the raw recruits that were rushed to +the front. + +[Sidenote: Carnot] + +But it was not enthusiasm alone that saved France. It was the splendid +organization of that enthusiasm by an efficient central government at +Paris. In Carnot (1753-1823) the National Convention possessed a +military and administrative genius of the first order. Of honorable and +upright character, fearless, patriotic, and practical, Carnot plunged +into the work of organizing the republican armies. His labors were +incessant. He prepared the plans of campaign and the reports that were +submitted to the Convention. He raised volunteers and drafted militia, +drilled them, and hurried them to the frontiers. With the aid of Robert +Lindet (1749-1825), the able finance minister, he found means of +feeding, clothing, and arming the host of soldiers. He personally +visited the armies and by word and precept infused them with energy and +determination. For the first time in modern history a nation was truly +in arms. + +[Sidenote: The New Generals] + +The work of Carnot was supplemented by the labors of the "deputies on +mission," radical members of the Convention who were detailed to watch +the generalship and movements of the various French armies, endowed +with power to send any suspected or unsuccessful commander to the +guillotine and charged with keeping the central government constantly +informed of military affairs. Gradually, a new group of brilliant young +republican generals appeared, among whom the steadfast Moreau (1763- +1813), the stern Pichegru (1761-1804), and the gallant Jourdan (1762- +1833) stood preeminent. + +[Sidenote: French Successes] +[Sidenote: Break-up of the First Coalition, 1795] + +In this way France met the monster coalition which would have staggered +a Louis XIV. The country was cleared of foreign enemies. The war was +pressed in the Netherlands, along the Rhine, in Savoy, and across the +Pyrenees. So successful were the French that Carnot's popular title of +"organizer of defense" was justly magnified to that of "organizer of +victory." Of course it is impossible in our limited survey to do +justice to these wonderful campaigns of 1794 and 1795. It will suffice +to point out that when the National Convention finally adjourned in +1795, the First Coalition was in reality dissolved. The pitiful Charles +IV of Spain humbled himself to contract a close alliance with the +republic which had put his Bourbon cousin to death. By the separate +treaty of Basel (1795), Prussia gave France a free hand on the left +bank of the Rhine and turned her attention to securing compensation at +the expense of Poland, William V, the Orange stadholder of Holland, was +deposed and his country transformed into the Batavian Republic, allied +with France. French troops were in full possession of the Austrian +Netherlands and all other territories up to the Rhine. The life-long +ambition of Louis XIV appeared to have been realized by the new France +in two brief years. Only Great Britain, Austria, and Sardinia remained +in arms against the republic. + +[Sidenote: Suppression of Domestic Insurrection] + +The foreign successes of the republic seem all the more wonderful when +it is remembered that at the same time serious revolts had to be +suppressed within France. Opposition to Carnot's drafting of soldiers +was utilized by reactionary agitators to stir up an insurrection of the +peasants in La Vendée in order to restore the monarchy and to +reëstablish the Roman Catholic Church. Provincial and bourgeois dislike +of the radicalism of the Parisian proletariat caused riots and +outbreaks in such important and widely separated cities as Lyons, +Marseilles, and Bordeaux. With the same devotion and thoroughness that +had characterized their foreign policy, but with greater sternness, the +officials of the National Convention stamped out all these riots and +insurrections. By 1795 all France, except only the émigrés and secret +conspirators, had more or less graciously accepted the republic. + +The true explanation of these marvelous achievements, whether at home +or abroad, lies in the strong central government which the National +Convention established and in the policy of terrorism which that +government pursued. + +[Sidenote: Rule Of The Committee Of Public Safety] + +In the spring of 1793 the National Convention intrusted the supreme +executive authority of France to a special committee, composed of nine +(later twelve) of its members, who were styled the Committee of Public +Safety. This small body, which included such Jacobin leaders as Carnot, +Robespierre, and St. Just, acting secretly, directed the ministers of +state, appointed the local officials, and undertook the administration +of the whole country. Manifold were the duties it was called upon to +discharge. Among other problems, it must conduct the foreign relations, +supervise the armies, and secure the active support of the French +people. Diligently and effectively did it apply itself to its various +activities. + +[Sidenote: The "Terror" A Political Expedient] + +Terrorism has been the word usually employed to describe the internal +policy of the Committee of Public Safety, and the "Reign of Terror," +the period of the Committee's chief work, from the summer of 1793 to +that of 1794. So sensational and so sanguinary was the period that many +writers have been prone to make it the very center of the Revolution +and to picture "liberty, equality, and fraternity" as submerged in a +veritable sea of blood. As a matter of fact, however, the Reign of +Terror was but an incident, though obviously an inevitable incident, in +a great Revolution. Nor may the French people be justly accused of a +peculiarly bloodthirsty disposition. Given the same circumstances, it +is doubtful whether similar scenes would not have been enacted at +Vienna, Berlin, Madrid, or even London. It must be remembered that +great principles and far-reaching reforms were endangered by a host of +foreign and domestic enemies. It seemed to the republican leaders that +the occasion demanded complete unanimity in France. A divided nation +could not triumph over united Europe. The only way in which France +could present a united front to the world was by striking terror into +the hearts of the opponents of the new régime. And terror involved +bloodshed. + +The chief allies of the Committee of Public Safety in conducting +terrorism were the Committee of General Security and the Revolutionary +Tribunal. The former was given police power in order to maintain order +throughout the country. The latter was charged with trying and +condemning any person suspected of disloyalty to the republic. Both +were responsible to the Committee of Public Safety. A decree of the +Convention, called the Law of Suspects, proclaimed as liable to +arbitrary arrest every person who was of noble birth, or had held +office before the Revolution, or had any relation with an émigré, or +could not produce a signed certificate of citizenship. + +With such instruments of despotism France became revolutionary by +strokes of the guillotine. [Footnote: The guillotine, which is still +used in France, consists of two upright posts between which a heavy +knife rises and falls. The criminal is stretched upon a board and then +pushed between the posts. The knife falls and instantly beheads him. +The device was invented by a certain philanthropic Dr. Guillotine, who +wished to substitute in capital punishment an instrument sure to +produce instant death in the place of the bungling process of beheading +with an ax. (Mathews.)] It is estimated that about 2500 persons were +executed at Paris during the Reign of Terror. Among others Marie +Antoinette, Philippe Égalité, and Madame Roland suffered death. + +The Terror spread to the provinces. Local tribunals were everywhere +established to search out and condemn suspected persons. The city of +Lyons, which ventured to resist the revolutionary government, was +partially demolished and hundreds of its citizens were put to death. At +Nantes, where echoes of the Vendée insurrection were long heard, the +brutal Jacobin deputy Carrier loaded unhappy victims on old hulks which +were towed out into the Loire and sunk. The total number of those who +perished in the provinces is unknown, but it may have reached ten +thousand. + +When the total loss of life by means of revolutionary tribunals is +calculated, it will certainly be found to bear slight comparison with +the enormous sacrifice of life which any one of the numerous great wars +of the nineteenth century has entailed. The chief wonder about the +Reign of Terror is that its champions and supporters, who had so much +at stake, did not do worse things. + +[Sidenote: Factions among the Revolutionaries] + +A more calamitous phase of the Terror than the slaughter of royalists +and reactionaries was the wretched quarreling among various factions of +the radicals and the destruction. of one for the benefit of another. +Thus, the efforts of the Girondists to stay the execution of the king +and to appeal to the provinces against the violence in Paris, coupled +with the treason of Dumouriez, seemed to the Parisian proletariat to +mark the alliance of the Girondists with the reactionaries. +Accordingly, the workingmen of Paris, under the leadership of Marat, +revolted on 31 May, 1793, and two days later obliged the Convention to +expel twenty-nine Girondist members. Of these, the chief, including +Brissot and Vergniaud, were brought to the guillotine in October, 1793. +Next, the leaders of the commune of Paris, who had gone to such extreme +lengths as to suppress the Christian churches in that city and to +proclaim atheism, were dispatched in March, 1794, by a coalition of the +followers of Danton and Robespierre. Then in April, when Danton at +length wearied of the Terror and counseled moderation, that redoubtable +genius, together with his friend, Camille Desmoulins, was guillotined. +Finally, Robespierre himself, after enjoying a brief dictatorship, +during which time he vainly endeavored to put in practice the theories +of Rousseau, was sent, in company with St. Just, to the guillotine by +direction of the National Convention in July, 1794. This meant the +beginning of reaction. + +[Sidenote: End of the Terror: Thermidorian Reaction, 1794] + +The death of Robespierre ended the Reign of Terror. The purpose of the +Terror, however, was already achieved. The Revolution was preserved in +France, and France was preserved in Europe. The Thermidorian Reaction, +as the end of the Terror is called, left the National Convention free +to resume its task of devising a permanent republican constitution for +the country. A few subsequent attempts were made, now by reactionaries, +now by extreme radicals, to interfere with the work, but they were +suppressed with comparative ease. The last uprising of the Parisian +populace which threatened the Convention was effectually quelled +(October, 1795) by a "whiff of grape-shot" discharged at the command of +a young and obscure major of artillery, Napoleon Bonaparte by name. + +[Sidenote: Reforms of the National Convention, 1792-1795] + +In the midst of foreign war and internal dissension, even in the midst +of the Terror, the National Convention found time to further the social +reforms of the earlier stage of the Revolution. Just as the bourgeois +Constituent Assembly destroyed the inequalities arising from the +privileges of the "old régime," so the popular Convention sought to put +an end to the inequalities arising from wealth. Under its new leaders, +the Revolution assumed for a time a distinctly socialistic character. +The property of the émigrés was confiscated for the benefit of the +state. A maximum price for grain was set by law. Large estates were +broken up and offered for sale to poorer citizens in lots of two or +three acres, to be paid for in small annual installments. All ground +rents were abolished without compensation to the owners. "The rich," +said Marat, "have so long sucked out the marrow of the people that they +are now visited with a crushing retribution." + +Some of the reforms of the Convention went to absurd lengths. In the +popular passion for equality, every one was to be called "Citizen" +rather than "Monsieur." The official record of the expense of Marie +Antoinette's funeral was the simple entry, "Five francs for a coffin +for the widow of Citizen Capet." Ornate clothing disappeared with +titles of nobility, and the silk stockings and knee breeches +(_culottes_), which had distinguished the privileged classes and +the gentlemen, were universally supplanted by the long trousers which +had hitherto been worn only by the lowest class of workingmen (_sans- +culottes_). To do away with the remembrance of historic +Christianity, the year was divided anew into twelve months, each +containing three weeks of ten days (_décades_), every tenth day +(_décadi_) being for rest, and the five or six days left over at +the end of the year, called _sans-culottides_, were national +holidays; the names of the months were changed, and the revolutionary +calendar made to date from the establishment of the republic, 22 +September, 1792. + +Many of the reforms had long been urgently needed and proved to be of +permanent value. Such was the establishment of a convenient and uniform +system of weights and measures, based on decimal reckoning, the so- +called metric system, which has come to be accepted by almost all +civilized nations save the English-speaking peoples. Such, too, was the +elaborate system of state education which the philosopher Condorcet +[Footnote: Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794).] prepared and which, +though more pressing questions compelled its postponement, became the +basis on which the modern scheme of free public instruction has been +built up in France. Such, moreover, was the separation of Church and +state, effected in September, 1794, the establishment in the following +year of liberty of worship, and the restoration of the churches to +Christian worship on condition that the clergymen submitted to the laws +of the state. Such, finally, was the project of preparing a single +comprehensive code of law for the whole country. Although the legal +code was not completed until the dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte, +nevertheless the Convention made a beginning and incorporated in it a +fundamental principle of inheritance that has marked modern France--the +principle that no person may will his property to one direct heir to +the exclusion of others but that all children must inherit almost +equally. Moreover, the practice of imprisoning men for debt was +abolished, negro slavery was ended, and woman's claim on property was +protected in common with man's. Finally the new republican constitution +was permeated with ideas of political democracy. + +[Sidenote: Eventual Bourgeois Control Of The National Convention] + +After the downfall of Robespierre (Thermidorian Reaction), the National +Convention ceased to press reforms in behalf of the proletariat and +came more and more under the influence of the moderate well-to-do +bourgeoisie. The law against suspects was repealed and the grain laws +were amended. The Revolutionary Tribunal was suppressed and the name of +the Place de la Révolution was changed to the Place de la Concorde. The +death in prison of the young and only son of Louis XVI in 1795 was a +severe blow to the hopes of the royalists. By 1795 France seemed +definitively committed to a republican form of government, which, +however, would not be extremely radical but only moderate, being now +founded on the bourgeoisie rather than on the proletariat. + + +THE DIRECTORY (1795-1799) AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE REPUBLIC INTO A +MILITARY DICTATORSHIP + +[Sidenote: Constitution of the Year III, the Constitution of the First +French Republic] +[Sidenote: The Directory] + +The constitution of the first French Republic was drawn up by the +National Convention during the last year of its session and after it +had passed under bourgeois influence. This constitution which went into +effect in 1795 and is known, therefore, as the Constitution of the Year +III (of the Republic), intrusted the legislative power to two chambers, +chosen by indirect election,--a lower house of five hundred members, to +propose laws, and a Council of Ancients, of two hundred and fifty +members, to examine and enact the laws. The bourgeois distrust of the +lower classes showed itself again in restricting the electorate to +taxpayers who had lived at least a year in one place. The executive +authority of the republic was vested in a board of five members, styled +Directors, and elected by the legislature, one retiring every year. The +Board of Directors, or "Directory," was to supervise the enforcement of +laws and to appoint the ministers of state, or cabinet, who should be +responsible to it. + +[Sidenote: Brief Duration of the Directory, 1795-1799] + +Thus, as the National Constituent Assembly had framed the constitution +for the liberal monarchy, so the National Convention drafted that for +the republic. But in strength and durability the republic was hardly +more fortunate than the limited monarchy. Louis XVI reigned as +constitutional king under the document of 1791 less than a year. The +Directory governed in accordance with the constitution of the Year III +less than four years (1795-1799). + +[Sidenote: Weaknesses in the Directory] + +The failure of the Directory was due to two chief causes: first, the +prevalence of domestic difficulties; and second, the rise of military +power and the appearance of a victorious, ambitious general. To both of +these causes reference must be made. The former proved that another +kind of government was needed to cope with the situation; the latter +suggested what the nature of the new government would be. + +To consolidate the French people after six years of radical +revolutionary upheavals required hard and honest labor on the part of +men of distinct genius. Yet the Directors were, almost without +exception, men of mediocre talents, [Footnote: Carnot, upright and +sincere, and the only member of first-rate ability, was forced out of +the Directory in 1797.] who practiced bribery and corruption with +unblushing effrontery. They preferred their personal gain to the +welfare of the state. + +[Sidenote: Political and Social Dissensions] + +The period of the Directory was a time of plots and intrigues. The +royalists who were elected in large numbers to the Assemblies were +restrained from subverting the constitution only by illegal force and +violence on the part of the Directors. On the other hand, the +extremists in Paris found a warm-hearted leader in a certain Babeuf +(1760-1797), who declared that the Revolution had been directed +primarily to the advantage of the bourgeoisie, that the proletarians, +despite their toil and suffering and bloodshed, were still just as +poorly off as ever, and that their only salvation lay in a compulsory +equalization of wealth and the abolition of poverty. An insurrection of +these radicals--the forerunners of modern Socialism--was suppressed and +Babeuf was put to death in 1797. + +[Sidenote: Financial Difficulties] + +While sincere radicals and convinced reactionaries were uniting in +common opposition to the unhappy Directory, the finances of the state +were again becoming hopelessly involved. "Graft" flourished unbridled +in the levying and collecting of the taxes and in all public +expenditures. To the extravagance of the Directors in internal +administration were added the financial necessities of armies +aggregating a million men. Paris, still in poverty and want, had to be +fed at the expense of the nation. And the issue of _assignats_ by +the National Constituent Assembly, intended at first only as a +temporary expedient, had been continued until by the year 1797 the +total face value of the _assignats_ amounted to about forty-five +billion _livres_. So far had the value of paper money depreciated, +however, that in March, 1796, three hundred _livres_ in +_assignats_ were required to secure one _livre_ in cash. In +1797 a partial bankruptcy was declared, interest payments being +suspended on two-thirds of the public debt, and the _assignats_ +were demonetized. The republic faced much the same financial crisis as +had confronted the absolute monarchy in 1789. + +[Sidenote: Continued Success in Foreign War] + +From but one direction did light stream in upon the Directory--and that +was the foreign war. When the Directory assumed office, France was +still at war with Austria, Sardinia, and Great Britain. The general +plan of campaign was to advance one French army across the Rhine, +through southern Germany, and thence into the Austrian dominions, and +to dispatch another army across the Alps, through northern Italy, and +thence on to Vienna. Of the army of the Rhine such veteran generals as +Pichegru, Jourdan, and Moreau were put in charge. To the command of the +army operating in Italy, the young and inexperienced Bonaparte was +appointed. + +[Sidenote: Appearance of Napoleon Bonaparte] + +Napoleon Bonaparte hitherto had not been particularly conspicuous in +politics or in war. He was believed to be in full sympathy with the +Revolution, although he had taken pains after the downfall of +Robespierre to disavow any attachment to the extreme radicals. He had +acquired some popularity by his skillful expulsion of the British from +Toulon in 1793, and his protection of the National Convention against +the uprising of the Parisian radicals in 1795 gave him credit as a +friend of law and order. Finally, his marriage in 1796 with Josephine +Beauharnais, the widow of a revolutionary general and an intimate +friend of one of the Directors, bettered his chances of indulging his +fondness for politics and his genius in war. + +[Sidenote: Bonaparte's First Italian Campaign, 1796-1797] +[Sidenote: Treaty of Campo Formio, 1797] + +That very year (1796), while the older and more experienced French +generals were repeatedly baffled in their efforts to carry the war into +the Germanies, the young commander--but twenty-seven years of age-- +swept the Austrians from Italy. With lightning rapidity, with +infectious enthusiasm, with brilliant tactics, with great personal +bravery, he crossed the Alps, humbled the Sardinians, and within a year +had disposed of five Austrian armies and had occupied every fort in +northern Italy. Sardinia was compelled to cede Savoy and Nice to the +French Republic, and, when Bonaparte's army approached Vienna, Austria +stooped to make terms with this amazing republican general. By the +treaty of Campo Formio (1797), France secured the Austrian Netherlands +and the Ionian Islands; Austria obtained, as partial compensation for +her sacrifices, the ancient Venetian Republic, but agreed not to +interfere in other parts of Italy; and a congress was to assemble at +Rastatt to rearrange the map of the Holy Roman Empire with a view to +compensating those German princes whose lands on the left bank of the +Rhine had been appropriated by France. + +[Sidenote: Great Britain Left Alone in Arms Against the French +Republic] + +The campaign of 1796-1797, known in history as the First Italian +campaign, was the beginning of a long series of sensational military +exploits which were to rank Napoleon Bonaparte as the foremost soldier +of modern times. Its immediate effect was to complete the dissolution +of the First Coalition by forcing Austria and Sardinia to follow the +example of Spain, Prussia, and Holland and to make a peace highly +favorable to the French Republic. Great Britain alone continued the +struggle against the Directory. + +[Sidenote: Bonaparte's Rising Fame] + +Another effect of the first Italian campaign, almost as immediate and +certainly more portentous, was the sudden personal fame of Napoleon +Bonaparte. He was the most talked-of man in France. The people +applauded him. The government feared but flattered him. Schemers and +plotters of every political faith sought his support. Alongside of +decreasing respect for the existing government was increasing trust in +Bonaparte's strength and ability. + +[Sidenote: Bonaparte's Egyptian Campaign Against Great Britain, 1798] + +It was undoubtedly with a sense of relief that the despised Directors +in 1798 assented to a project proposed by the popular hero to transport +to Egypt a French expedition with the object of interrupting +communications between Great Britain and India. The ensuing Egyptian +campaign of 1798 was spectacular rather than decisive. Bonaparte made +stirring speeches to his soldiers. He called the Pyramids to witness +the valor of the French. He harangued the Mohammedans upon the +beautiful and truthful character of their religion and upon the +advantages which they would derive from free trade with France. He +encouraged the close study of Egyptian antiquities. [Footnote: It was +an army officer on this Egyptian expedition who discovered the famous +Rosetta Stone, by the aid of which hieroglyphics could be deciphered.] +But his actual victories did not measure up to the excessively colored +reports that he sent home. He was checked in Syria, and a great naval +victory won by the celebrated English admiral, Lord Nelson, near the +mouth of the Nile, effectually prevented the arrival of reinforcements. + +[Sidenote: Embarrassments of the Directory during Bonaparte's Absence +from France] + +Thereupon, General Bonaparte, luckily eluding the British warships, +returned to France. It was believed by Frenchmen that his last +expedition had been eminently successful: but that in the meantime the +work of the Directory had been disastrous, no one doubted. While +Bonaparte was away, affairs in France had gone from bad to worse. There +were new plots, increased financial and social disorders, and finally +the renewal on a large scale of foreign war. + +[Sidenote: The Second Coalition and the Renewal of War in Europe] + +After the treaty of Campo Formio, the Directors had prosecuted +zealously the policy of surrounding France with a circle of dependent +republics. Even before that peace, Holland had been transformed into +the Batavian Republic, and now pretexts of various sorts were utilized +to convert the duchy of Milan, or Lombardy, into the Cisalpine +Republic; the oligarchy of Genoa into the Ligurian Republic; the Papal +States into the Roman Republic; the kingdom of the Two Sicilies into +the Parthenopaean Republic; the Swiss Confederation into the Helvetic +Republic. + +In view of the fact that the governments of all these republics were +modeled after that of France and were allied with France, the monarchs +of Europe bestirred themselves once more to get rid of the danger that +threatened them. A Second Coalition was formed by Great Britain, +Austria, and Russia, and, thanks to liberal sums of money supplied by +William Pitt, the British minister, they were able to put large armies +in the field. + +[Sidenote: French Reverses] + +During 1799 the Second Coalition won repeated victories; the French +were driven from Italy; and most of the dependent republics collapsed. +It seemed as though Bonaparte's first Italian campaign had been for +naught. Possibly the military hero of France had himself foreseen this +very situation and had intended to exploit it to his own advantage. + +[Sidenote: Return of Bonaparte from Egypt: the "Man of the Hour"] + +At any rate, when Bonaparte had sailed for Egypt, he had left his +country apparently prosperous, victorious, and honored. Now, when he +landed at Fréjus on 9 October, 1799, he found France bankrupt, +defeated, and disgraced. It is small wonder that his journey from +Fréjus to Paris was a triumphal procession. The majority of Frenchmen +were convinced that he was the man of the hour. + +[Sidenote: The Coup d'État of the Eighteenth Brumaire: Overthrow of the +Directory, 1799] Within a month of his return from Egypt, public +opinion enabled the young conqueror to overthrow the government of the +Directory. Skillfully intriguing with the Abbé Sieyès, who was now one +of the Directors, he surrounded the Assemblies with a cordon of troops +loyal to himself and on 18-19 Brumaire (9-10 November, 1799) secured by +show of force the downfall of the government and the appointment of +himself to supreme military command. This blow at the state (_coup +d'état_) was soon followed by the promulgation of a new +constitution, by which General Bonaparte became First Consul of the +French Republic. + +[Sidenote: Militarism and the Close of the Revolution] + +The _coup d'état_ of 18 Brumaire virtually ended the Revolution in +France. Within the space of ten and a half years from the assembling of +the Estates-General at Versailles, parliamentary and popular government +fell beneath the sword. The predictions of Marat and Robespierre were +realized: militarism had supplanted democracy. + + +SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1799) + +It may now be possible for us to have some idea as to the real meaning +of these ten years of Assemblies, constitutions, insurrections, and +wars, which have marked the period of the French Revolution. A present- +day visitor in Paris will be struck by the bold letters which stand out +on the public buildings and churches: _Liberté, Egalité, +Fraternité_--Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. These were the words +which the revolutionaries spelled out on their homes, which they +thought embodied the true meaning of the Revolution. + +As to the meaning of these words, there were certainly quite +contradictory views. To the royalists and rigid Catholics--to the +privileged nobility and clergy--to many a surprised peasant--to all the +reactionaries, they meant everything that was hateful, blasphemous, +sordid, inhuman, and unpatriotic. To the enlightened altruistic +bourgeois--to the poverty-stricken workingman of the city--to many a +dreamer and philanthropist--to all the extreme radicals, they were but +a shadowy will-of-the-wisp that glimmered briefly and perhaps indicated +faintly the gorgeousness of the great day that much later might break +upon them. Between these extremes of reaction and radicalism fell the +bulk of the bourgeoisie and of the peasantry--the bulk of the nation-- +and it is in their sense that we shall try to make clear the meaning of +the three symbolical words. + +[Sidenote: "Liberty"] + +"Liberty" implied certain political ideals. Government was henceforth +to be exercised not autocratically by divine right, but +constitutionally by the sovereign will of the governed. The individual +citizen was no longer to be subject in all things to a king, but was to +be guaranteed in possession of personal liberties which no state or +society might abridge. Such were liberty of conscience, liberty of +worship, liberty of speech, liberty of publication. The liberty of +owning private property was proclaimed by the French Revolution as an +inherent right of man. + +[Sidenote: "Equality"] + +"Equality" embraced the social activities of the Revolution. It meant +the abolition of privilege, the end of serfdom, the destruction of the +feudal system. It pronounced all men equal before the law. It aspired, +though with little success, to afford every man an equal chance with +every other man in the pursuit of life and happiness. + +[Sidenote: "Fraternity"] + +"Fraternity" was the symbol of the brotherhood of those who sought to +make the world better and happier and more just. In France it found +expression in an outburst of patriotism and national sentiment. No +longer did mercenaries fight at the behest of despots for dynastic +aggrandizement; henceforth a nation in arms was prepared to do battle +under the glorious banner of "fraternity" in defense of whatever it +believed to be for the nation's interests. + +Political liberty, social equality, patriotism in the nation,--these +three have been the enduring watchwords of all those who down to our +own day have looked for inspiration to the French Revolution. + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +GENERAL. Textbook narratives: J. H. Robinson and C. A. Beard, _The +Development of Modern Europe,_ Vol. I (1907), ch. xii, xiii; J. A. +R. Marriott, _The Remaking of Modern Europe, 1789-1878_ (1910), +ch. i-vi; H. E. Bourne, _The Revolutionary Period in Europe, 1763- +1815_ (1914), ch. Vi-xvi; H. M. Stephens, _Revolutionary Europe, +1789-1815_ (1893), ch. ii-vi; J. H. Rose, _Revolutionary and +Napoleonic Era, 1789-1815_ (1895), ch. Ii-vi; C. A. Fyffe, _A +History of Modern Europe, 1792-1878_ (1896), ch. i-iv; H. T. Dyer, +_A History of Modern Europe from the Fall of Constantinople,_ 3d +ed. rev. by Arthur Hassall (1901), ch. lii-lxi; Charles Seignobos, +_History of Contemporary Civilization,_ Eng. trans. by J. A. James +(1909), pp. 92-149. See also H. A. L. Fisher, _The Republican +Tradition in Europe_ (1911), ch. i-vii; and Emile Bourgeois, +_Manuel historique de politique étrangère,_ 4th ed., Vol. II +(1906), ch. i-v, vii. + +ONE-VOLUME SURVEYS: Shailer Mathews, _The French Revolution_ +(reprint 1912), a clear, well-balanced introduction, ending with the +year 1795; Hilaire Belloc, _The French Revolution_ (1911), in the +"Home University Library," interestingly written and inclined to be +philosophical; R. M. Johnston, _The French Revolution_ (1909), +emphasizes the spectacular and military rather than the social and +economic; Louis Madelin, _La Révolution_ (1911), written for the +general French reader and probably the very best of its kind, now in +process of translation into English. + +STANDARD HISTORIES OF THE REVOLUTION: Alphonse Aulard, _Histoire +politique de la révolution française, 1789-1804,_ 3d ed. (1905), +Eng. trans. by Bernard Miall, 4 vols. (1910), a painstaking study of +the growth of the spirit of democracy and of the rise of the republican +movement, by an eminent authority who has devoted many years to a +sympathetic study of the Revolution; H. M. Stephens, _A History of +the French Revolution,_ 2 vols. (1886-1891), mainly political, +generally reliable, but stops short with the Reign of Terror; H. A. +Taine, _The French Revolution,_ Eng. trans. by John Durand, 3 +vols. (1878-1885), brilliantly written and bitterly hostile to many of +the leaders of the Revolution, a work still famous though many of its +findings have been vehemently assailed by Aulard, the apologist of the +Revolution; Jean Jaurès (editor), _Histoire socialiste, 1789- +1900,_ 12 vols. (1901-1909), a well-known and highly useful history +of France by a group of prominent French Socialists with a penchant for +stressing economic matters--Vols. I-IV, by Jaurès himself, treat of the +years 1789-1794, and Vol. V, by Gabrielle Deville, of 1794-1799; P. A. +(Prince) Kropotkin, _The Great French Revolution, 1789-1793,_ Eng. +trans. by N. F. Dryhurst (1909), emphasizes the role played by the +uneducated classes, eulogizes Marat, and suggests the conflict of +interests between the bourgeoisie and the lower classes; Thomas +Carlyle, _The French Revolution,_ originally published in 1837, +lively literary gossip and commentary rather than narrative history, +amusing though often fuliginous, should be read only by those already +familiar with the actual events of the Revolution; Albert Sorel, +_L'Europe et la révolution française,_ 8 vols. (1885-1904), of +which Vols. I-V deal with the years 1789-1799 and mainly with the +effects of the Revolution throughout Europe, a monumental work of the +highest merit; Gustave Le Bon, _La révolution française et la +psychologie des révolutions_ (1912), trans. by Bernard Miall under +the title of _The Psychology of Revolution_ (1913), a noteworthy +contribution to the study of "mob psychology" as exemplified by the +French Revolution; Ernest Lavisse and Alfred Rambaud (editors), +_Histoire générale,_ Vol. VIII, a collection of scholarly +monographs on various phases of the Revolution; _Cambridge Modern +History,_ Vol. VIII (1904), a similar work in English; Heinrich von +Sybel, _Geschichte der Revolutionzeit von 1789,_ 3d ed., 5 vols. +(1865-1879), the best and most famous German work on the subject; +Wilhelm Oncken, _Das Zeitalter der Revolution,_ 2 vols. (1884- +1886); Adalbert Wahl, _Geschichte des europäischen Staatensystems im +Zeitalter der französischen Revolution und der Freiheits-Kriege, 1789- +1815_ (1912), useful epitome of foreign relations; Émile Levasseur, +_Histoire des classes ouvrières et de l'industrie en France de 1789 à +1870,_ Vol. I (1903), Livre I, _La Révolution,_ valuable for +the history of the working classes; Philippe Sagnac, _La législation +civile de la révolution française,1789-1804_ (1898), very important +survey of permanent social and civil gains; E. F. Henderson, _Symbol +and Satire in the French Revolution_ (1912), interesting side- +lights. + +SOURCE MATERIALS. Of the vast masses of source material available for +special study of the French Revolution, the following selections may be +found useful and suggestive: F. M. Anderson, _Constitutions and Other +Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1901,_ 2d +rev. ed. (1909); L. G. Wickham Legg, _Select Documents Illustrative of +the French Revolution, the Constituent Assembly,_ 2 vols. (1905); Léon +Duguit and Henry Monnier, _Les constitutions et les principales lois +politiques de la France depuis 1789_ (1898); H. M. Stephens, _The +Principal Speeches of the Statesmen and Orators of the French +Revolution, 1789-1795,_ 2 vols. (1892); Léon Cahen and Raymond Guyot, +_L'oeuvre législative de la révolution_ (1913); Alphonse Aulard, _Les +grands orateurs de la révolution--Vergniaud, Danton, Robespierre_ +(1914); Merrick Whitcomb, _Typical Cahiers of 1789,_ in "Translations +and Reprints" of the University of Pennsylvania (1898). In the +_Collection de documents inédits sur l'histoire économique de la +révolution française,_ now in course of publication under the auspices +of the French Ministry of Public Instruction, have appeared (1906-1915) +several volumes of the local _cahiers_ of 1788-1789. See also Armand +Brette, _Recueil des documents relatifs à la convocation des états +généraux de 1789,_ 3 vols. (1894-1904); P. J. B. Buchez and P. C. Roux- +Lavergne, _Histoire parlementaire de la révolution française, 1789- +1815,_ 40 vols. (1834-1838), embracing extracts from the debates, +quotations from contemporary newspapers and pamphlets, and the text of +some of the most important statutes and decrees; _Archives +parlementaires de 1787 à 1860_, 1st series _1787-1799_, 82 vols., the +official, but not always trustworthy, reports of the debates in the +successive French legislative bodies; _Réimpression de l'ancien +Moniteur_, 32 vols., a reprint, in several different editions, of one +of the most famous Parisian newspapers of the revolutionary period; +Alphonse Aulard, _La société des jacobins_, 6 vols. (1889-1897), a +collection of documents concerning the most influential political club +of revolutionary France. Of the numerous memoirs of the time, perhaps +the most valuable are those of Mallet du Pan, Comte de Fersen, Bailly, +Ferrières, and Malouet; see also the _History of My Time_ by the Duc +d'Audiffret-Pasquier (1767-1862), Eng. trans. by C. E. Roche, 3 vols. +(1893-1894), especially Part I; and for additional memoirs and other +source-material consult the bibliographies in the _Cambridge Modern +History_ or in the _Histoire générale_. There are several detailed +bibliographies on the French Revolution; and since 1881 the veteran +scholar Aulard has edited _La révolution française_, devoted +exclusively to the subject. For interesting personal impressions of the +Revolution by an American eye-witness, see Gouverneur Morris, _Diary +and Letters_, 2 vols. (1888). F. M. and H. D. Fling, _Source Problems +on the French Revolution_ (1913), is a useful compilation for intensive +critical study of various phases of the Revolution. + +SPECIAL WORKS ON THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. W. M. +Sloane, _The French Revolution and Religious Reform_ (1901), a +résumé of legislation affecting the Church, 1789-1804; Antonin +Debidour, _Histoire des rapports de l'église et de l'état en France +de 1789 à 1870_ (1898); Pierre de La Gorce, _Histoire religieuse +de la révolution française_, Vol. I, _1789-1791_ (1909), Vol. +II, _1791-1793_ (1912), comprehensive and exhaustive, sympathetic +with the Church but scrupulously fair; Paul Pisani, _L'église de +Paris et la révolution_, 4 vols. (1908-1911), covering the years +1789-1802, a work of high rank by a canon of Notre Dame; J. F. E. +Robinet, _Le mouvement religieux à Paris pendant la révolution, 1789- +1801_, 2 vols. (1896-1898), primarily a collection of documents; The +Abbé Bridier (editor), _A Papal Envoy during the Reign of Terror, +being the Memoirs of Mgr. de Salamon the Internuncio at Paris during +the Revolution, 1790-1801_, Eng. trans. by Frances Jackson (1911); +Ludovic Sciout, _Histoire de la constitution civile du clergé, 1790- +1801_, 4 vols. (1872-1881); Alphonse Aulard, _La révolution et les +congrégations: exposé historique et documents_ (1903); Edmé +Champion, _La séparation de l'église et de l'état en 1794_ (1903). + +SPECIAL WORKS ON CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH OPINION OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. +Edward Dowden, _The French Revolution and English Literature_ (1897); +H. N. Brailsford, _Shelley, Godwin, and their Circle_ (1913); W. P. +Hall, _British Radicalism, 1791-1797_ (1912); Edmund Burke, +_Reflections on the Revolution in France_, in many editions, a furious +and prejudiced arraignment of the whole movement; John (Viscount) +Morley, _Edmund Burke_ (1879), an apology for Burke; John MacCunn, _The +Political Philosophy of Burke_ (1913), clear and concise though +somewhat less laudatory of Burke; _The Life and Writings of Thomas +Paine_, edited by D. E. Wheeler, 10 vols. (1909), the most elaborate +edition of the writings of the chief English friend of the Revolution; +Paine's _The Rights of Man_ has appeared in many other editions. + +SECONDARY WORKS ON OTHER SPECIAL TOPICS. On the wars 1792-1795: Arthur +Chuquet, _Les guerres de la révolution_, 11 vols. (1886-1896), +very detailed, coming down only to September, 1793; A. T. Mahan, _The +Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793- +1812_, Vol. I, 10th ed. (1898); Mrs. Maxwell-Scott, _Life of the +Marquise de la Rochejaquelein_ (1912), and Ida A. Taylor, _The +Tragedy of an Army: La Vendee in 1793_ (1913), two sympathetic and +popular accounts of the Vendean Revolt. On the Terror: H. A. Wallon, +_La Terreur_, 2 vols. (1881), and, by the same author, _Les +représentants du peuple en mission_, 5 vols. (1889-1890), and _Le +tribunal révolutionnaire_, 2 vols. (1900); Louis Mortimer-Ternaux, +_Histoire de la Terreur, 1792-1794_, 8 vols. (1862); Edmond Bire, +_La légende des girondins_ (1881); Charles de Ricault Héricault, +_La révolution de thermidor_, 2d ed. (1878). On the Directory, +1795-1799: Ludovic Sciout, _Le Directoire_, 2 vols. (1895-1896). + +BIOGRAPHIES. Of Mirabeau, the best biography in English undoubtedly +will be that of F. M. Fling, projected in three volumes, of which Vol. +I, _The Youth of Mirabeau_, was published in 1908; the most recent and +convenient French treatment is by Louis Barthou (1913); a standard +German work is Alfred Stern, _Das Leben Mirabeaus_, 2 vols. (1889); and +for a real insight into Mirabeau's character and policies, reference +should be made to his _Correspondance avec le comte de la Marck_, 3 +vols. (1851). Hilaire Belloc has written very readable and suggestive +English biographies of _Danton_ (1899), _Robespierre_ (1901), and +_Marie Antoinette_ (1909). Perhaps the best brief appreciation of +_Danton_ is that by Louis Madelin (1914); J. F. E. Robinet has written +a valuable _Danton_ (1889), and likewise a _Condorcet_ (1893). The +elaborate _Histoire de Robespierre et du coup d'état du 9 thermidor_ by +Ernest Hamel, 3 vols. (1865-1867), is marred by excessive hero-worship. +Jules Claretie, _Camille Desmoulins, Lucille Desmoulins: étude sur les +dantonistes_ (1875), a charming biography, has been translated into +English. Among other useful biographies of persons prominent during the +Revolution, the following might be consulted with profit: J. H. +Clapham, _The Abbé Sieyès: an Essay in the Politics of the French +Revolution_ (1912); E. D. Bradby, _The Life of Barnave_, 2 vols. +(1915), containing vivid descriptions of the National Constituent +Assembly; Francois Chèvremont, _Jean-Paul Marat_, 2 vols. (1880); +Charles Vatel, _Vergniaud_, 2 vols. (1873), and, by the same author, +_Charlotte de Corday et les girondins: pièces classées et annotées_, 3 +vols. (1864-1872); Arthur Chuquet, _Dumouriez_ (1914); Pouget de Saint- +André, _Le général Dumouriez, 1739-1823_ (1914); C. A. Dauban, _Étude +sur Madame Roland et son temps_ (1864); Bernard Mallet, _Mallet du Pan +and the French Revolution_(1902); E. B, Bax, _Babeuf: the Last Episode +of the French Revolution_ (1911). + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE ERA OF NAPOLEON + + +[Sidenote: Introductory] + +From 1799 to 1814 the history of Europe was the history of France, and +the history of France was the biography of Napoleon Bonaparte. So +completely did this masterful personality dominate the course of events +that his name has justly been used to characterize this era. The Era of +Napoleon stands out as one of the most significant periods in modern +times. Apart from its importance as marking a revolution in the art of +war, it bore memorable results in two directions: (1) the adaptation of +revolutionary theories to French practical political necessities, and +the establishment of many of the permanent institutions of present-day +France; and (2) the communication of the revolutionary doctrines of the +French Revolution far and wide throughout Europe, so that henceforth +the movement was general rather than local. + +During the first five years of the era (1799-1804) France remained +formally a republic. It was in these years that General Bonaparte, as +First Consul, consolidated his country and fashioned the nature of the +lasting gains of the Revolution. Thenceforth, from 1804 to 1814, France +was an empire, established and maintained by military force. Then it +was that the national hero--self-crowned Napoleon I, emperor of the +French,--by means of war, conquest, annexation, or alliance, spread the +ideas of his country far and wide throughout Europe. Before we review +the main activities of the constructive consulate or of the proselyting +empire, we should have some notion of the character of the leading +actor. + + +THE FRENCH REPUBLIC UNDER THE CONSULATE, 1799-1804 + +[Sidenote: Napoleon Bonaparte] + +When General Bonaparte executed the _coup d'état_ of 1799 and +seized personal power in France, he was thirty years of age, short, of +medium build, quiet and determined, with cold gray eyes and rather +awkward manners. His early life had been peculiarly interesting. He was +born at Ajaccio in Corsica on 15 August, 1769, just after the island +had been purchased by France from Genoa but before the French had fully +succeeded in quelling a stubborn insurrection of the Corsicans. +Belonging to a prominent and numerous Italian family,--at the outset +his name was written Napoleone di Buonaparte,--he was selected along +with sons of other conspicuous Corsican families to be educated at +public expense in France. In this way he received a good military +education at Brienne and at Paris. He early displayed a marked fondness +for the study of mathematics and history as well as for the science of +war; and, though reserved and taciturn, he was noticeably ambitious and +a keen judge of men. + +During his youth Buonaparte dreamed of becoming the leader in +establishing the independence of Corsica, but the outbreak of the +French Revolution afforded him a wider field for his enthusiasm and +ambition. Already an engineer and artilleryman, he threw in his lot +with the Jacobins, sympathized at least outwardly with the course of +the Revolution, and was rewarded, as we have seen, with an important +place in the recapture of Toulon (1793) and in the defense of the +Convention (1795). It was not, however, until his first Italian +campaign,--when incidentally he altered his name to the French form, +Bonaparte,--that he acquired a commanding reputation as the foremost +general of the French Republic. + +[Sidenote: Character of Bonaparte] + +How Bonaparte utilized his reputation in order to make himself master +of his adopted country has already been related. It was due in large +part to an extraordinary opportunity which French politics at that time +offered. But it was due, likewise, to certain characteristic qualities +of the young general. In the first place, he was thoroughly convinced +of his own abilities. Ambitious, selfish, and egotistical, he was +always thinking and planning how he might become world-famous. +Fatalistic and even superstitious, he believed that an unseen power was +leading him on to higher and grander honors. He convinced his +associates that he was "a man of destiny." Then, in the second place, +Bonaparte possessed an effective means of satisfying his ambition, for +he made himself the idol of his soldiers. He would go to sleep +repeating the names of the corps, and even those of some of the +individuals who composed them; he kept these names in a corner of his +memory, and this habit came to his aid when he wanted to recognize a +soldier and to give him a cheering word from his general. He spoke to +the subalterns in a tone of good fellowship, which delighted them all, +as he reminded them of their "common feats of arms." Then, in the third +place, Bonaparte was a keen observer and a clever critic. Being +sagacious, he knew that by 1799 France at large was weary of weak +government and perpetual political strife and that she longed to have +her scars healed by a practical man. Such a man he instinctively felt +himself to be. In the fourth place, Bonaparte was a politician to the +extreme of being unscrupulous. Knowing what he desired, he was ready +and willing to employ any means to attain his ends. No love for +theories or principles, no fear of God or man, no sentimental aversion +from bloodshed, nothing could deter him from striving to realize his +vaulting but self-centered ambition. Finally, there was in his nature +an almost paradoxical vein of poetry and art which made him human and +often served him well. He dreamed of empires and triumphs. He reveled +in the thought of courts and polished society. He entertained a sincere +admiration for learning. His highly colored speeches to his soldiers +were at once brilliant and inspiriting. His fine instinct of the +dramatic gave the right setting to all his public acts. And in the +difficult arts of lying and deception, Bonaparte has never been +surpassed. + +[Sidenote: The Government Of The Consulate: Constitution Of The Year +VIII] + +Such was the man who effected the _coup d'état_ of 18 Brumaire +(November, 1799). His first work in his new rôle was to publish a +constitution, which he prepared in conjunction with the Abbé Sieyès and +which was to supersede the Constitution of the Year III. It concealed +the military despotism under a veil of popular forms. The document +named three "consuls," the first of whom was Bonaparte himself, who +were to appoint a Senate. From lists selected by general election, the +Senate was to designate a Tribunate and a Legislative Body. The First +Consul, in addition to conducting the administration and foreign +policies and having charge of the army, was to propose, through a +Council of State, all the laws. The Tribunate was to discuss the laws +without voting on them. The Legislative Body was then to vote on the +laws without discussing them. And the Senate, acting as a kind of +supreme court, was to decide all constitutional questions. Thus a +written constitution was provided, and the principle of popular +election was recognized, but in last analysis all the power of the +state was centered in the First Consul, who was Napoleon Bonaparte. + +The document was forthwith submitted for ratification to a popular +vote, called a _plebiscite_. So great was the disgust with the +Directory and so unbounded was the faith of all classes in the military +hero who offered it, that it was accepted by an overwhelming majority +and was henceforth known in French history as the Constitution of the +Year VIII. + +[Sidenote: Foreign Danger Confronting France] + +One reason why the French nation so readily acquiesced in an obvious +act of usurpation was the grave foreign danger that threatened the +country. As we have noted in another connection, the armies of the +Second Coalition in the course of 1799 had rapidly undone the +settlement of the treaty of Campo Formio, and, possessing themselves of +Italy and the Rhine valley, were now on the point of carrying the war +into France. The First Consul perceived at a glance that he must face +essentially the same situation as that which confronted France in 1796. + +[Sidenote: Dissolution of the Second Coalition] + +The Second Coalition embraced Great Britain, Austria, and Russia. +Bonaparte soon succeeded by flattery and diplomacy not only in securing +the withdrawal of Russia but in actuating the half-insane Tsar Paul to +revive against Great Britain an Armed Neutrality of the North, which +included Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark. Meanwhile the First +Consul prepared a second Italian campaign against Austria. Suddenly +leading a French army through the rough and icy passes of the Alps, he +descended into the fertile valley of the Po and at Marengo in June, +1800, inflicted an overwhelming defeat upon the enemy. French success +in Italy was supplemented a few months later by a brilliant victory of +the army under Moreau at Hohenlinden in southern Germany. Whereupon +Austria again sued for peace, and the resulting treaty of Lunéville +(1801) reaffirmed and strengthened the provisions of the peace of Campo +Formio. + +[Sidenote: Truce between France and Great Britain: Treaty of Amiens, +1802] + +Meanwhile, steps were being taken to terminate the state of war which +had been existing between France and Great Britain since 1793. Although +French arms were victorious in Europe, the British squadron of Lord +Nelson (1758-1805) had managed to win and retain the supremacy of the +sea. By gaining the battle of the Nile (1 August, 1798) Nelson had cut +off the supplies of the French expedition in Egypt and eventually +(1801) obliged it to surrender. Now, by a furious bombardment of +Copenhagen (2 April, 1801), Nelson broke up the Armed Neutrality of the +North. But despite the naval feats of the British, republican France +seemed to be unconquerable on the Continent. Under these circumstances +a treaty was signed at Amiens in March, 1802, whereby Great Britain +promised to restore all the colonial conquests made during the war, +except Ceylon and Trinidad, and tacitly accepted the Continental +settlement as defined at Lunéville. The treaty of Amiens proved to be +but a temporary truce in the long struggle between France and Great +Britain. + +[Sidenote: French Reforms under the Consulate] + +So far, the Consulate had meant the establishment of an advantageous +peace for France. With all foreign foes subdued, with territories +extended to the Rhine, and with allies in Spain, and in the Batavian, +Helvetic, Ligurian, and Cisalpine republics, the First Consul was free +to devote his marvelous organizing and administrative instincts to the +internal affairs of his country. The period of the Consulate (1799- +1804) was the period of Bonaparte's greatest and most enduring +contributions to the development of French institutions. + +[Sidenote: The Revolutionary Heritage] + +Throughout his career Bonaparte professed himself to be the "son of the +Revolution," the heir to the new doctrine of Liberty, Equality, and +Fraternity. It was to the Revolution that he owed his position in +France, and it was to France that he claimed to be assuring the results +of the Revolution. Yet, in actual practice, it was equality and +fraternity, but not liberty, that were preserved by the First Consul. +"What the French people want," he declared, "is equality, not liberty." +In the social order, therefore, Bonaparte rigidly maintained the +abolition of privilege, of serfdom and feudalism, and sought to +guarantee to all Frenchmen equal justice, equal rights, equal +opportunity of advancement. But in the political order he exercised a +tyranny as complete, if less open, than that of Louis XIV. + +[Sidenote: Administrative Centralization] + +The Constitution of the Year VIII (1799) placed in Bonaparte's hands +all the legislative and executive functions of the central government, +and a series of subsequent acts put the law courts under his control. +In 1800 the local government of the whole country was subordinated to +him. The extensive powers vested by the Constituent Assembly in +elective bodies of the departments and smaller districts +(_arrondissements_) were now to be wielded by prefects and sub- +prefects, appointed by the First Consul and responsible to him. The +local elective councils continued to exist, but sat only for a +fortnight in the year and had to deal merely with the assessment of +taxes: they might be consulted by the prefect or sub-prefect but had no +serious check upon the executive. The mayor of every small commune was +henceforth to be chosen by the prefect, while the police of all cities +containing more than 100,000 inhabitants were directed by the central +government and the mayors of towns of more than 5000 population were +chosen by Bonaparte. + +This highly centralized administration of the country afforded the +people little direct voice in governmental matters but it possessed +distinct advantages in assuring the prompt, uniform, military-like +execution of the laws and decrees of the central government. In essence +it was a continuation of the system of intendants instituted by +Cardinal Richelieu. How conservative are the French people, at least in +the institutions of local government, may be inferred from the fact +that despite many changes in France during the nineteenth century from +republic to empire to monarchy to republic to empire to republic, +Bonaparte's system of prefects and sub-prefects has survived to the +present day. + +[Sidenote: Bonaparte's Centralizing Tendencies] + +As in administration, so in all his internal reforms, Bonaparte +displayed the same fondness for centralization, with consequent +thoroughness and efficiency, at the expense of idealistic liberty. His +reforms of every description--financial, ecclesiastical, judicial, +educational,--and even his public works, showed the guiding hand of the +victorious general rather than that of the convinced revolutionary. +They were the adaptation of the revolutionary heritage to the purposes +and policies of one-man power. + +[Sidenote: Financial Readjustment] +[Sidenote: The Bank of France] + +It will be remembered that financial disorders had been the immediate +cause of the downfall of the absolute monarchy as well as of the +Directory. From the outset, Bonaparte guarded against any such +recurrence. By careful collection of taxes he increased the revenue of +the state. By rigid economy, by the severe punishment of corrupt +officials, and by the practice of obliging people whose lands he +invaded to support his armies, he reduced the public expenditures. The +crowning achievement of his financial readjustments was the +establishment (1800) of the Bank of France, which has been ever since +one of the soundest financial institutions in the world. + +[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical Settlement: the Concordat, 1801] + +Another grave problem which Bonaparte inherited from the Revolution was +the quarrel between the state and the Roman Catholic Church. He was +determined to gain the political support of the large number of +conscientious French Catholics who had been alienated by the harsh +anti-clerical measures of the revolutionaries. After delicate and +protracted negotiations, a settlement was reached in a concordat (1801) +between Pope Pius VII and the French Republic, whereby the pope, for +his part, concurred in the confiscation of the property of the Church +and the suppression of the monasteries, and the First Consul undertook +to have the salaries of the clergy paid by the state; the latter was to +nominate the bishops and the former was to invest them with their +office; the priests were to be appointed by the bishops. In this way +the Catholic Church in France became a branch of the lay government +much more completely than it had been in the time of Louis XIV. So +advantageous did the arrangement appear that the Concordat of 1801 +continued to regulate the relations of church and state until 1905. + +[Sidenote: Judicial Reforms] +[Sidenote: The Code Napoléon] + +One of the fondest hopes cherished by enlightened liberals was to clear +away the confusion and discrepancies of the numerous legal systems of +the old régime and to reduce the laws of the land to a simple and +uniform code, so that every person judicial who could read would be +able to know what was legal and what was illegal. The constitution of +1791 had promised such a work; the National Convention had actually +begun it; but the preoccupations of the leading revolutionaries, +combined with the natural caution and slowness of the lawyers to whom +the task was intrusted, delayed its completion. It was not until the +commanding personality of Bonaparte came into contact with it that real +progress was made. Then surrounding himself with excellent legal +advisers [Footnote: Chief among these legal experts was Cambacérès +(1753-1824), the Second Consul.] whom he literally drove to labor, the +First Consul brought out a great Civil Code (1804), which was followed +by a Code of Civil Procedure, a Code of Criminal Procedure, a Penal +Code, and a Commercial Code. These codes were of the utmost importance. +The simplicity and elegance of their form commended them not only to +France, but to the greater part of continental Europe. Moreover, they +preserved the most valuable social conquests of the Revolution, such as +civil equality, religious toleration, equality of inheritance, +emancipation of serfs, freedom of land, legal arrest, and trial by +jury. It is true that many harsh punishments were retained and that the +position of woman was made distinctly inferior to that of man, but, on +the whole, the French Codes long remained not only the most convenient +but the most enlightened set of laws in the world. Bonaparte was +rightly hailed as a second Justinian. + +[Sidenote: The New Educational System] + +A similar motive and the same enthusiasm actuated the First Consul in +pressing forward important educational reforms. On the foundation laid +several years earlier by Condorcet was now reared an imposing system of +public instruction. (1) Primary or elementary schools were to be +maintained by every commune under the general supervision of the +prefects or sub-prefects. (2) Secondary or grammar schools were to +provide special training in French, Latin, and elementary science, and, +whether supported by public or private enterprise, were to be subject +to governmental control. (3) _Lycées_ or high schools were to be +opened in every important town and instruction given in the higher +branches of learning by teachers appointed by the state. (4) Special +schools, such as technical schools, civil service schools, and military +schools, were brought under public regulation. (5) The University of +France was established to maintain uniformity throughout the new +educational system. Its chief officials were appointed by the First +Consul, and no one might open a new school or teach in public unless he +was licensed by the university. (6) The recruiting station for the +teaching staff of the public schools was provided in a normal school +organized in Paris. All these schools were directed to take as the +bases of their teaching the principles of the Catholic Church, loyalty +to the head of the state, and obedience to the statutes of the +university. Despite continued efforts of Bonaparte, the new system was +handicapped by lack of funds and of experienced lay teachers, so that +at the close of the Napoleonic Era, more than half of the total number +of French children still attended private schools, mostly those +conducted by the Catholic Church. + +[Sidenote: Public Works] + +Bonaparte proved himself a zealous benefactor of public works and +improvements. With very moderate expenditure of French funds, for +prisoners of war were obliged to do most of the work, he enormously +improved the means of communication and trade within the country, and +promoted the economic welfare of large classes of the inhabitants. The +splendid highways which modern France possesses are in large part due +to Bonaparte. In 1811 he could enumerate 229 broad military roads which +he had constructed, the most important of which, thirty in number, +radiated from Paris to the extremities of the French territory. Two +wonderful Alpine roads brought Paris in touch with Turin, Milan, Rome, +and Naples. Numerous substantial bridges were built. The former network +of canals and waterways was perfected. Marshes were drained, dikes +strengthened, and sand dunes hindered from spreading along the ocean +coast. The principal seaports, both naval and commercial, were enlarged +and fortified, especially the harbors of Cherbourg and Toulon. + +Along with such obviously useful labor went desirable embellishment of +life. State palaces were restored and enlarged, so that, under +Bonaparte, St. Cloud, Fontainebleau, and Rambouillet came to rank with +the majesty of Versailles. The city of Paris was beautified. Broad +avenues were projected. The Louvre was completed and adorned with +precious works of art which Bonaparte dragged as fruits of victory from +Italy, or Spain, or the Netherlands. During the Consulate, Paris was +just beginning to lay claim to a position as the pleasure city of +Europe. Its population almost doubled during the Era of Napoleon. + +[Sidenote: Colonial Enterprises and their Failure] + +The First Consul also entertained the hope of appearing as the restorer +of the French colonial empire. In 1800 he prevailed upon the Spanish +government to re-cede to France the extensive territory--called +Louisiana--lying west of the Mississippi River. Soon afterwards he +dispatched his brother-in-law, General Leclerc, with an army of 25,000 +men, to make good the French claims to the large island of Haiti. But +the colonial ventures of Napoleon ended in failure. In Haiti, Leclerc's +efforts to reestablish negro slavery encountered the stubborn +resistance of the blacks, organized and led by one of their number, +Toussaint L'Ouverture, a remarkable military genius. After a determined +and often ferocious struggle Leclerc proposed a compromise, and +Toussaint, induced by the most solemn guarantees on the part of the +French, laid down his arms. He was seized and sent to France, where he +died in prison in 1803. The negroes, infuriated by this act of +treachery, renewed the war with a barbarity unequaled in previous +contests. The French, further embarrassed by the appearance of a +British fleet, were only too glad to relinquish the island in November, +1803. Meanwhile, expectation of war with Great Britain had induced +Bonaparte in April, 1803, to sell the entire Louisiana Territory to the +United States. + +[Sidenote: Success of the Consulate] + +If we except these brief and ill-starred colonial exploits, we may +pronounce the First Consul's government and achievements eminently +successful. Bonaparte had inspired public confidence by the honesty of +his administration and by his choice of officials, for he was served by +such a consummate diplomat as Talleyrand and by such a tireless chief +of police as Fouché. His speedy and victorious termination of the War +of the Second Coalition and his subsequent apparent policy of peace had +redounded to his credit. His sweeping and thorough reforms in internal +affairs had attracted to his support many and varied classes in the +community--the business interests, the bourgeoisie, the peasantry, and +the sincere Catholics. + +[Sidenote: Dwindling Opposition to Bonaparte] + +Only two groups--and these continually dwindling in size and +importance--stood in the way of Bonaparte's complete mastery of France. +One was the remnant of the Jacobins who would not admit that the +Revolution was ended. The other was the royalist party which longed to +undo all the work of the Revolution. Both these factions were reduced +during the Consulate to secret plots and intrigues. Attempts to +assassinate the First Consul served only to increase his popularity +among the masses. Early in 1804 Bonaparte unearthed a conspiracy of +royalists, whom he punished with summary vengeance. General Pichegru, +who was implicated in the conspiracy, was found strangled in prison +soon after his arrest. Moreau, who was undoubtedly the ablest general +in France next to Bonaparte, was likewise accused of complicity, +although he was a stanch Jacobin, and escaped more drastic punishment +only by becoming an exile in America. Not content with these +advantages, Bonaparte determined thoroughly to terrorize the royalists: +by military force he seized a young Bourbon prince, the due d'Enghien, +on German soil, and without a particle of proof against him put him to +death. + +[Sidenote: Transformation of the Consulate into the Empire] + +In 1802 a plébiscite had bestowed the Consulate on Bonaparte for life. +Now there was little more to do than to make the office hereditary and +to change its name. This alteration was proposed in 1804 by the +subservient Senate and promptly ratified by an overwhelming popular +vote. On 2 December, 1804, amid imposing ceremonies in the ancient +cathedral of Notre Dame, in the presence of Pope Pius VII, who had come +all the way from Rome to grace the event, General Bonaparte placed a +crown upon his own head and assumed the title of Napoleon I, emperor of +the French. + + +THE FRENCH EMPIRE AND ITS TERRITORIAL EXPANSION + +[Sidenote: The French Empire a Continuation of the First French +Republic] + +The establishment of the empire was by no means a break in French +history. The principle of popular sovereignty was still recognized. The +social gains of the Revolution were still intact. The magic words +"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" still blazed proudly forth on public +buildings. The tricolor was still the flag of France. + +[Sidenote: Lapse of Republican Institutions] + +Of course a few changes were made in externals. The title of "citoyen" +was again replaced by that of "monsieur." The republican calendar +gradually lapsed. Napoleon's relatives became "grand dignitaries." The +revolutionary generals who accepted the new regime were promoted to be +"marshals of the empire." The old titles of nobility were restored, and +new ones created. + +[Sidenote: Monarchical Alteration in Dependent States] + +The outward changes in France were reflected in the dependent +surrounding states. And in effecting the foreign alterations, Napoleon +took care to provide for his numerous family. For his brother Louis, +the Batavian Republic was transformed into the kingdom of Holland. For +his brother Jerome, estates were subsequently carved out of Hanover, +Prussia, and other northwest German lands to form the kingdom of +Westphalia. Brother Joseph was seated on the Bourbon throne of the Two +Sicilies. The Cisalpine Republic became the kingdom of Italy with +Napoleon as king, and Eugène Beauharnais, his stepson, as viceroy. Both +Piedmont and Genoa were incorporated into the French Empire. + +[Sidenote: Censorship of the Press and Activity of the Secret Police] +[Sidenote: The Eventual Absolutism of Napoleon] + +The Consulate, as has been explained, was characterized by a policy of +peace. Sweeping reforms had been accomplished in internal affairs so +that France was consolidated and the vast majority of her citizens +became devoted supporters of the emperor. What adverse criticism +Frenchmen might have directed against the empire was stifled by the +activity of a splendidly organized secret police and by a rigorous +censorship of the press. So complete was Napoleon's control of the +state that the decisive naval defeat of Trafalgar was not mentioned by +a single French newspaper until after the fall of the empire. By +degrees the imperial despotism of the Corsican adventurer became as +rigid as the absolute monarchy of the Bourbons. In fact, Napoleon went +so far as to adapt an old catechism which the celebrated Bishop Bossuet +had prepared during the reign of Louis XIV and to order its use by all +children. A few extracts from the catechism will make clear how +Napoleon wished to be regarded. + +"_Question_. What are the duties of Christians toward those who +govern them, and what in particular are our duties towards Napoleon I, +our emperor? + +"_Answer_. Christians owe to the princes who govern them, and we +in particular owe to Napoleon I, our emperor, love, respect, obedience, +fidelity, military service, and the taxes levied for the preservation +and defense of the empire and of his throne. We also owe him fervent +prayers for his safety and for the spiritual and temporal prosperity of +the state. + +"_Question_. Why are we subject to all these duties toward our +emperor? + +"_Answer_. First, because God, who has created empires and +distributed them according to His will, has, by loading our emperor +with gifts both in peace and in war, established him as our sovereign +and made him the agent of His power and His image upon earth. To honor +and serve our emperor is, therefore, to honor and serve God Himself. +Secondly, because our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, both by His teaching +and His example, has taught us what we owe to our sovereign. Even at +His very birth He obeyed the edict of Cæsar Augustus; He paid the +established tax and while He commanded us to render to God those things +which belong to God, He also commanded us to render unto Cæsar those +things which are Cæsar's. + +"_Question_. What must we think of those who are wanting in their +duties towards our emperor? + +"_Answer_. According to the Apostle Paul, they are resisting the +order established by God Himself, and render themselves worthy of +eternal damnation." + +[Sidenote: Military Ambition of Napoleon] + +With opposition crushed in France and with the loyalty of the French +nation secured, Napoleon as emperor could gratify his natural instincts +for foreign aggrandizement and glory. He had become all-powerful in +France; he would become all-powerful in Europe. Ambitious and +successful in the arts of peace, he would be more ambitious and more +successful in the science of war. The empire, therefore, meant war +quite as clearly as the Consulate meant peace. To speculate upon what +Napoleon might have accomplished for France had he restrained his +ambition and continued to apply his talents entirely to the less +sensational triumphs of peace, is idle, because Napoleon was not that +type of man. He lived for and by selfish ambition. + +[Sidenote: The Empire Military] + +The ten years of the empire (1804-1814) were attended by continuous +warfare. Into the intricacies of the campaigns it is neither possible +nor expedient in the compass of this chapter to enter. It is aimed, +rather, to present only such features of the long struggle as are +significant in the general history of Europe, for the wars of Napoleon +served a purpose which their prime mover only incidentally had at +heart--the transmission of the revolutionary heritage to Europe. + +[Sidenote: Renewal of War between France and Great Britain] + +When the empire was established, war between France and Great Britain, +interrupted by the truce of Amiens, had already broken forth afresh. +The struggle had begun in first instance as a protest of the British +monarchy against the excesses of the French Revolution, especially +against the execution of Louis XVI, and doubtless the bulk of the +English nation still fancied that they were fighting against revolution +as personified in Napoleon Bonaparte. But to the statesmen and +influential classes of Great Britain as well as of France, the conflict +had long assumed a deeper significance. It was an economic and +commercial war. The British not only were mindful of the assistance +which France had given to American rebels, but also were resolved that +France should not regain the colonial empire and commercial position +which she had lost in the eighteenth century. The British had struggled +to maintain their control of the sea and the monopoly of trade and +industry which attended it. Now, when Napoleon extended the French +influence over the Netherlands and Holland, along the Rhine, and +throughout Italy, and even succeeded in negotiating an alliance with +Spain, Britain was threatened with the loss of valuable commercial +privileges in all those regions, and was further alarmed by the +ambitious colonial projects of Napoleon. In May, 1803, therefore, Great +Britain declared war. The immediate pretext for the resumption of +hostilities was Napoleon's positive refusal to cease interfering in +Italy, in Switzerland, and in Holland. + +Napoleon welcomed the renewal of war. He understood that until he had +completely broken the power of Great Britain all his Continental +designs were imperiled and his colonial and commercial projects +hopeless. The humiliation of the great rival across the Channel would +be the surest guarantee of the prosperity of the French bourgeoisie, +and it was in last analysis from that class that his own political +support was chiefly derived. The year 1803-1804 was spent by the +emperor in elaborate preparations for an armed invasion of England. +Along the Channel coast were gradually collected at enormous cost a +host of transports and frigates, a considerable army, and an abundance +of supplies. To the amazing French armament, Spain was induced to +contribute her resources. + +[Sidenote: The Third Coalition Against France] + +Great Britain replied to these preparations by covering the Channel +with a superior fleet, by preying upon French commerce, and by seizing +Spanish treasure-ships from America. And William Pitt, the very +embodiment of the Englishman's prejudice against things French, +returned to the ministry of his country. Pitt was unwilling to risk +British armies against the veterans of Napoleon, preferring to spend +liberal sums of money in order to instigate the Continental Powers to +combat the French emperor. Pitt was the real bone and sinews of the +Third Coalition, which was formed in 1805 by Great Britain, Austria, +Russia, and Sweden to overthrow Napoleon. + +Austria naturally smarted under the provisions of the treaty of +Lunéville quite as much as under those of Campo Formio. Francis II was +aroused by French predominance in Italy and now that he himself had +added the title of "hereditary emperor of Austria" to his shadowy +dignity as "Holy Roman Emperor" he was irritated by the upstart +Napoleon's assumption of an imperial title. + +In Russia the assassination of the Tsar Paul, the crazy admirer of +Bonaparte, had called to the throne in 1801 the active though easily +influenced Alexander I. In early life Alexander had acquired a +pronounced taste for revolutionary philosophy and its liberal ideas, +and likewise a more or less theoretical love of humanity. Now, Pitt +persuaded him, with the assistance of English gold, that Napoleon was +the enemy both of true liberty and of humanity. So the tsar joined his +army with that of Austria, and in the autumn of 1805 the allies +advanced through southern Germany toward the Rhine. + +Pitt had done his best to bring Prussia into the coalition, but the +Prussian king, Frederick William III (1797-1840), was timid and +irresolute, and, despite the protests of his people, was cajoled by +Napoleon's offer of Hanover into a declaration of neutrality. Bavaria +and Württemberg, from fear of Austria, became open allies of the French +emperor. + +[Sidenote: Napoleon vs. Austria] + +Before the troops of the Third Coalition could threaten the eastern +frontier of France, Napoleon abandoned his military projects against +Great Britain, broke up his huge armaments along the Atlantic coast, +and, with his usual rapidity of march, hurled his finely trained army +upon the Austrians near the town of Ulm in Württemberg. There, on 20 +October, 1805, the Austrian commander, with some 50,000 men, +surrendered, and the road to Vienna was open to the French. + +[Sidenote: Trafalgar (1805) and the Continued Sea Power of Great +Britain] + +This startling military success was followed on the very next day by a +naval defeat quite as sensational and even more decisive. On 21 +October, the allied French and Spanish fleets, issuing from the harbor +of Cadiz, encountered the British fleet under Lord Nelson, and in a +terrific battle off Cape Trafalgar were completely worsted. Lord Nelson +lost his life in the conflict, but from that day to the close of the +Napoleonic Era British supremacy on the high seas was not seriously +challenged. + +[Sidenote: Austerlitz, 1805] + +Wasting no tears or time on the decisive loss of sea-power, Napoleon +hastened to follow up his land advantages. Occupying Vienna, he turned +northward into Moravia where 1805 Francis II and Alexander I had +gathered a large army of Austrians and Russians. On 2 December, 1805, +the anniversary of his coronation as emperor,--his "lucky" day, as he +termed it,--Napoleon overwhelmed the allies at Austerlitz in one of the +greatest battles in history. + +[Sidenote: Defeat of Austria: Treaty of Pressburg, 1805] + +The immediate result of the campaign of Ulm and Austerlitz was the +enforced withdrawal of Austria from the Third Coalition. Late in +December, 1805, the emperors Francis II and Napoleon signed the treaty +of Pressburg, whereby the former ceded Venetia to the kingdom of Italy +and recognized Napoleon as its king, and resigned the Tyrol to Bavaria, +and outlying provinces in western Germany to Württemberg. Both Bavaria +and Württemberg were converted into kingdoms. By the humiliating treaty +of Pressburg, Austria thus lost 3,000,000 subjects and large revenues; +was cut off from Italy, Switzerland, and the Rhine; and was reduced to +the rank of a second-rate power. + +[Sidenote: Napoleon vs. Prussia] +[Sidenote: Jena (1806) and the Humiliation of Prussia] + +For a time it seemed as if the withdrawal of Austria from the Third +Coalition would be fully compensated for by the adhesion of Prussia. +Stung by the refusal of Napoleon to withdraw his troops from southern +Germany and by the bootless haggling over the transference of Hanover, +and goaded on by his patriotic and high-spirited wife, the beautiful +Queen Louise, timid Frederick William III at length ventured in 1806 to +declare war against France. Then, with a ridiculously misplaced +confidence in the old-time reputation of Frederick the Great, without +waiting for assistance from the Russians who were coming up, the +Prussian army--some 110,000 strong, under the old-fashioned duke of +Brunswick--advanced against the 150,000 veterans of Napoleon. The +resulting battle of Jena, on 14 October, 1806, proved the absolute +superiority of Napoleon's strategy and of the enthusiastic French +soldiers over the older tactics and military organization of the +Prussians. Jena was not merely a defeat for the Prussians; it was at +once a rout and a total collapse of that Prussian military prestige +which in the course of the eighteenth century had been gained by the +utmost sacrifice. Napoleon entered Berlin in triumph and took +possession of the greater part of the kingdom of Prussia. + +[Sidenote: Napoleon vs. Russia, Friedland] +[Sidenote: Treaty of Tilsit (1807): Dissolution of the Third Coalition] + +The Russians still remained to be dealt with. Winter was a bad season +for campaigning in East Prussia, and it was not until June, 1807, at +Friedland, that Napoleon was able to administer the same kind of a +defeat to the Russians that he had administered to the Austrians at +Austerlitz and to the Prussians at Jena. The Tsar Alexander at once +sued for peace. At Tilsit, on a raft moored in the middle of the River +Niemen, Napoleon and Alexander met and arranged the terms of peace for +France, Russia, and Prussia. The impressionable tsar was dazzled by the +striking personality and the unexpected magnanimity of the emperor of +the French. Hardly an inch of Russian soil was exacted, only a promise +to coöperate in excluding British trade from the Continent. Alexander +was accorded full permission to deal as he would with Finland and +Turkey. "What is Europe?" exclaimed the emotional tsar: "Where is it, +if it is not you and I?" But Prussia had to pay the price of the +alliance between French and Russian emperors. From Prussia was torn the +portion of Poland which was erected into the grand-duchy of Warsaw, +under Napoleon's obsequious ally, the elector of Saxony. Despoiled +altogether of half of her territories, compelled to reduce her army to +42,000 men, and forced to maintain French troops on her remaining lands +until a large war indemnity was paid, Prussia was reduced to the rank +of a third-rate power. Tilsit destroyed the Third Coalition and made +Napoleon master of the Continent. Only Great Britain and Sweden +remained under arms, and against the latter country Napoleon was now +able to employ both Denmark and Russia. + +[Sidenote: Humiliation of Sweden] + +Early in 1808 a Russian army crossed the Finnish border without any +previous declaration of war, and simultaneously a Danish force prepared +to invade Sweden from the Norwegian frontier. The ill-starred Swedish +king, Gustavus IV (1792-1809), found it was all he could do, even with +British assistance, to fight off the Danes. The little Finnish army, +left altogether unsupported, succumbed after an heroic struggle against +overwhelming odds, and in 1809 the whole of Finland and the Åland +Islands were formally ceded to Russia. Finland, however, did not enter +Russia as a conquered province, but, thanks to the bravery of her +people and not less to the wisdom and generosity of the Tsar Alexander, +she long maintained her free constitution and was recognized as a semi- +independent grand-duchy with the Russian tsar as grand-duke. Thus +Sweden lost her ancient duchy of Finland, and she was permitted to +retain a small part of Pomerania only at the humiliating price of +making peace with Napoleon and excluding British goods from all her +ports, In the same year, Gustavus IV was compelled to abdicate in favor +of his uncle, Charles XIII (1809-1818), an infirm and childless old +man, who was prevailed upon to designate as his successor one of +Napoleon's own marshals, General Bernadotte. Surely, Napoleon might +hope henceforth to dominate Sweden as he then dominated every other +Continental state. Of course, Great Britain, triumphant on the seas, +remained unconquered, but the British army, the laughingstock of +Europe, could expect to achieve little where Austria, Prussia, Russia, +and Sweden had failed. + +[Sidenote: Height of Napoleon's Power, 1808] + +The year that followed Tilsit may be taken as marking the height of +Napoleon's career. The Corsican adventurer was emperor of a France that +extended from the Po to the North Sea, from the Pyrenees and the Papal +States to the Rhine, a France united, patriotic, and in enjoyment of +many of the fruits of the Revolution. He was king of an Italy that +embraced the fertile valley of the Po and the ancient possessions of +Venice, and that was administered by a viceroy, his stepson and heir- +apparent, Eugène Beauharnais. The pope was his friend and ally. His +brother Joseph governed the kingdom of Naples. His brother Louis and +his stepdaughter Hortense were king and queen of Holland. His sister +Elise was princess of the diminutive state of Lucca. The kings of Spain +and Denmark were his admirers and the tsar of Russia now called him +friend and brother. A restored Poland was a recruiting station for his +army. Prussia and Austria had become second- or third-rate powers, and +French influence once more predominated in the Germanies. + +[Sidenote: Profound Changes in the Germanies] + +It was in the Germanies, in fact, that Napoleon's achievements were +particularly striking. Before his magic touch many of the antique +political and social institutions of that country crumbled away. As +early as 1801 the diminution of the number of German states had begun. +The treaty of Lunéville had made imperative some action on the part of +the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire in order to indemnify the rulers +whose lands on the left bank of the Rhine had been incorporated into +France, and to grant "compensations" to the south German states. After +laborious negotiations, lasting from 1801 to 1803, the Diet authorized +[Footnote: By a decree, called the +_Reichsdeputationshauptschluss_.] the wholesale confiscation +throughout southern Germany of ecclesiastical lands and of free cities, +with the result that 112 formerly independent states lying east of the +Rhine were wiped out of existence and nearly one hundred others on the +west bank were added to France. Thus the number of the Germanies was +suddenly reduced from more than three hundred to less than one hundred, +and the German states which mainly benefited, along with Prussia, were +the southern states of Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden, which Napoleon +desired to use as an equipoise against both Austria and Prussia. In +this ambition he was not disappointed, for in the War of the Third +Coalition (1805) he received important assistance from these three +states, all of which were in turn liberally rewarded for their +services, the rulers of Bavaria and Württemberg being proclaimed kings. + +[Sidenote: Extinction of the Holy Roman Empire (1806), and its +Replacement by the Empire of Austria and the Confederation of the +Rhine] + +The year 1806 was epochal in German history. On 19 July, the +Confederation of the Rhine was formally established with Napoleon as +Protector. The kings of Bavaria and Württemberg, the grand-dukes of +Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Berg, the archbishop of Mainz, and nine +minor princes virtually seceded from the Holy Roman Empire and accepted +the protection of Napoleon, whom they pledged themselves to support +with an army of 63,000 men. On 1 August, Napoleon declared that he no +longer recognized the Holy Roman Empire, and on 6 August the Habsburg +emperor, Francis II, resigned the crown which his ancestors for +centuries had worn. The work of a long line of French kings and +statesmen,--Francis I, Henry IV, Richelieu, Mazarin, Louis XIV,--was +thus consummated by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Holy Roman Empire had at +last come to the inglorious end which it had long deserved. And its +last emperor had to content himself with his newly appropriated title +of Francis I, Hereditary Emperor of Austria. The dignity and might of +the proud Habsburgs had declined before a mere upstart of the people as +never before a royal Bourbon. And this same year, 1806, witnessed, as +we have seen, not only the humiliation of Austria but the deepest +degradation of Prussia. + +By 1808 all the Germanies were at the mercy of Napoleon. Prussia was +shorn of half her possessions and forced to obey the behests of her +conqueror. The Confederation of the Rhine was enlarged and solidified. +A kingdom of Westphalia was carved out of northern and western Germany +at the expense of Prussia, Hanover, Brunswick, and Hesse, and bestowed +upon Jerome, brother of Napoleon. The grand-duchy of Berg was governed +by the Protector's plebeian brother-in-law, Joachim Murat. And, +greatest fact of all, wherever the French emperor's rule extended, +there followed the abolition of feudalism and serfdom, the recognition +of equality of all citizens before the law, the principles and precepts +of the Code Napoléon. + +[Sidenote: Napoleon "the Son of the Revolution"] + +This was the true apogee of Napoleon's power. From the November day in +1799 when the successful general had overthrown the corrupt and +despicable Directory down to 1808, his story is a magnificent +succession of the triumphs of peace and of war. Whatever be the +judgment of his contemporaries or of posterity upon his motives, there +can be little question that throughout these nine years he appeared to +France and to Europe what he proclaimed himself--"the son of the +Revolution." He it was who in the lull between the combats of the +Second Coalition and those of the Third had consolidated the work of +the democratic patriots from Mirabeau to Carnot and had assured to +France the permanent fruits of the Revolution in the domains of +property, law, religion, education, administration, and finance. He it +was who, if narrowing the concept of liberty, had broadened the +significance of equality by the very lesson of his own rise to power +and had deepened the meaning of fraternity by lavishing affection and +devotion upon that machine of democracy--the national army--the "nation +in arms." And he it was who, true to the revolutionary tradition of +striking terror into the hearts of the divine-right monarchs of Europe, +had with a mighty noise shaken the whole Continent and brought down the +political and social institutions of the "old régime" tumbling in ruins +throughout central and southern Europe. He had made revolutionary +reform too solid and too widespread to admit of its total extinction by +the allied despots of Europe. The dream which a Leopold and a Frederick +William had cherished in 1791 of turning back the hands on the clock of +human progress and of restoring conditions in France as they had been +prior to 1789, was happily dispelled. But in the meantime the despots +were to have their innings. + + +DESTRUCTION OF THE FRENCH EMPIRE + +[Sidenote: Weaknesses in the French Empire of Napoleon] +[Sidenote: 1. Napoleon Himself] + +From 1808 to 1814--six dreadful years--Napoleon's power was constantly +on the wane. Nor are the reasons for his ultimate failure difficult to +perceive. Some of the very elements which had contributed most to the +upbuilding of his great empire with its dependent kingdoms and duchies +were in the long run elements of weakness and instability--vital causes +of its eventual downfall. In the first place, there was the factor of +individual genius. Altogether too much depended upon the physical and +mental strength of one man. Napoleon was undoubtedly a genius, but +still he was human. He was growing older, more corpulent, less able to +withstand exertion and fatigue, fonder of affluence and ease. On the +other hand, every fresh success had confirmed his belief in his own +ability and had further whetted his appetite for power until his +ambition was growing into madness and his egotism was becoming mania. +His aversion from taking the advice of others increased so that even +the subtle intriguers, Talleyrand and Fouché, were less and less +admitted to his confidence. The emperor would brook the appearance of +no actor on the French stage other than himself, although on that stage +during those crowded years there was too much for a single emperor, +albeit a master emperor, to do. + +[Sidenote: 2. Defects of Militarism] + +The second serious defect in the Napoleonic system was the fact that +its very foundation was military. What had enabled the National +Convention in the days of the Revolution's darkest peril to roll back +the tide of foreign invasion was the heroism and devotion of an +enthusiastic citizen soldiery, actuated by a solemn consciousness that +in a very literal sense they were fighting for their fields and +firesides, for the rights of men and of Frenchmen. They constituted +compact and homogeneous armies, inspired by the principles and words of +Rouget de Lisle's rousing battle hymn, and they smote the hired +troopers of the banded despots hip and thigh. It was this kind of an +army which Napoleon Bonaparte took over and which had earned for him +his first spectacular successes. He certainly tried to preserve its +Revolutionary enthusiasm throughout his career. He talked much of its +"mission" and its "destiny," of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and +he kept alive its traditions of heroism and duty. He even improved its +discipline, its material well-being, and its honor. But gradually, +almost imperceptibly, the altruistic ideals of the Revolution gave way +in the French army to the more selfish and more Napoleonic ideal of +glamour and glory. And as years passed by and the deadly campaigns +repeated themselves and the number of patriotic volunteers lessened, +Napoleon resorted more and more to conscription--forcibly taking away +thousands of young Frenchmen from peaceful and productive pursuits at +home and strewing their bones throughout the length and breadth of the +Continent. + +[Sidenote: 3. Reaction of Nationalism] + +Nor did Napoleon's army remain homogeneous. To the last its kernel was +French, but, as the empire expanded and other peoples were brought into +a dependent or allied position, it came to include regiments or +companies of Poles, Germans, Italians, Dutch, Spaniards, and Danes. In +its newer heterogeneous condition it tended the more to lose its +original character and to assume that of an enormous machine-like +conglomeration of mercenaries who followed the fortunes of a despot +more tyrannical and more dangerous than any of the despots against whom +it had at first been pitted. It is true that many of the Frenchmen who +composed the kernel of the Grand Army still entertained the notion that +they were fighting for liberty, equality, and fraternity, and that +their contact with their fellow-soldiers and likewise with their +enemies was a most effective means of communicating the revolutionary +doctrines to Europe, but it is also true that Napoleon's policy of +quartering his troops upon the lands of his enemies or of his allies, +and thereby conserving the resources of his own country, operated to +develop the utmost hatred for the French, for the Revolution, and for +Napoleon. This hatred produced, particularly in Germany and in Spain, a +real patriotic feeling among the masses of the exploited nations, so +that those very peoples to whom the notions of liberty and equality had +first come as a blessed promise of deliverance from the oppression of +their own divine-right rulers now used the same notions to justify them +in rising as nations against the despotism of a foreign military +oppressor. Liberty, equality, and fraternity--the gospel of the +Revolution--was the boomerang which Napoleon by means of his army +hurled against the European tyrants and which returned with redoubled +force against him. + +[Sidenote: 4. "The Continental System"] + +It was thus the character of the emperor himself and his military +exigencies that, taken in conjunction with the so-called "Continental +System" and the national revolts, made Napoleon's empire but an episode +in the story of modern times. It is now time to explain the Continental +System and then to see how it reacted throughout Europe upon the +feeling of national patriotism to bring about the downfall of the +Corsican adventurer. + +[Sidenote: The Economic War between Great Britain and France] + +"Continental System" is the term commonly applied to the curious +character which the warfare between Napoleon and Great Britain +gradually assumed. By 1806 the interesting situation had developed that +Great Britain was indisputable mistress of the seas while Napoleon was +no less indisputable master of the Continent. The battles of the Nile, +of Copenhagen, and of Trafalgar had been to the British what those of +Marengo, Austerlitz, and Jena had been to the French. On one hand the +destruction of the French fleet, together with the Danish, Dutch, and +Spanish squadrons, had effectually prevented Napoleon from carrying +into practice his long-cherished dream of invading England. On the +other hand, the British army was not strong enough to cope successfully +with Napoleon on land, and the European Powers which all along had been +subsidized by English gold had been cowed into submission by the French +emperor. Apparently neither France nor Great Britain could strike each +other by ordinary military means, and yet neither would sue for peace. +William Pitt died in January, 1806, heart-broken by the news of +Austerlitz, the ruin of all his hopes. Charles James Fox, the gifted +Whig, who thereupon became British foreign secretary, was foiled in a +sincere attempt to negotiate peace with Napoleon, and died in September +of the same year, despairing of any amicable settlement. + +The brilliant French victory at Jena in October, 1806, seemed to fill +the British as well as the Prussian cup to overflowing. The very next +month Napoleon followed up his successes by inaugurating a +thoroughgoing campaign against his arch-enemy, Great Britain herself; +but the campaign was to be conducted in the field of economics rather +than in the purview of military science. England, it must be +remembered, had become, thanks to the long series of dynastic and +colonial wars that filled the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the +chief commercial nation of the world: she had a larger number of +citizens who made their living as ship-owners, sailors, and traders +than any other country in the world. Then, too, as we shall see in a +subsequent chapter, it was in the England of the eighteenth century +that the Industrial Revolution began,--a marvelous improvement in +manufacturing, which fostered the growth of a powerful industrial class +and enabled the English to make goods more cheaply and in greater +profusion and to sell them more readily, at lower prices, both at home +and abroad, than any other people in the world. Industry was fast +becoming the basis of Great Britain's wealth, and the commercial +classes were acquiring new strength and influence. It was, therefore, +against "a nation of shopkeepers," as Napoleon contemptuously dubbed +the English, that he must direct his new campaign. + +To Napoleon's clear and logical mind, the nature of the problem was +plain. Deprived of a navy and unable to utilize his splendid army, he +must attack Great Britain in what appeared to be her one vulnerable +spot--in her commerce and industry. If he could prevent the importation +of British goods into the Continent, he would deprive his rivals of the +chief markets for their products, ruin British manufacturers, throw +thousands of British workingmen out of employment, create such hard +times in the British Islands that the mass of the people would rise +against their government and compel it to make peace with him on his +own terms: in a word, he would ruin British commerce and industry and +then secure an advantageous peace. It was a gigantic gamble, for +Napoleon must have perceived that the Continental peoples might +themselves oppose the closure of their ports to the cheaper and better +manufactured articles of Great Britain and might respond to a common +economic impulse and rise in force to compel him to make peace on +British terms, but the stakes were high and the emperor of the French +was a good gambler. From 1806 to 1812 the struggle between Napoleon and +Great Britain was an economic endurance-test. On the one hand, the +question was whether the British government could retain the support of +the British people. On the other hand, the question was whether +Napoleon could rely upon the cooperation of the whole Continent. + +[Sidenote: The Berlin and Milan Decrees] + +The Continental System had been foreshadowed under the Directory and in +the early years of the Consulate, but it was not until the Berlin +Decree (November, 1806) that the first great attempt was made to define +and enforce it. In this decree, Napoleon proclaimed a state of blockade +against the British Isles and closed French and allied ports to ships +coming from Great Britain or her colonies. The Berlin Decree was +subsequently strengthened and extended by decrees at Warsaw (January, +1807), Milan (December, 1807), and Fontainebleau (October, 1810). The +Milan Decree provided that even neutral vessels sailing from any +British port or from countries occupied by British troops might be +seized by French warships or privateers. The Fontainebleau Decree went +so far as to order the confiscation and public burning of all British +manufactured goods found in the Napoleonic States. + +[Sidenote: The Orders in Council] + +To these imperial decrees the British government, now largely dominated +by such statesmen as Lord Castlereagh and George Canning, replied with +celebrated Orders in Council (January-November, 1807), which declared +all vessels trading with France or her allies liable to capture and +provided further that in certain instances neutral vessels must touch +at a British port. Thus the issue was squarely joined. Napoleon would +suffer no importation of British goods whether by combatants or by +neutrals. The British would allow none but themselves to trade with +France and her allies. In both cases the neutrals would be the worst +sufferers. The effects of the conflict were destined to be far- +reaching. + +[Sidenote: Difficulties in Maintaining the Continental System] + +The British by virtue of their sea-power could come nearer to enforcing +their Orders in Council than could Napoleon to giving full effect to +his imperial decrees. Of course they had their troubles with neutrals. +The stubborn effort of Denmark to preserve its independence of action +in politics and trade was frustrated in 1807 when a British expedition +bombarded Copenhagen and seized the remnant of the Danish navy. From +that time until 1814 Denmark was naturally a stanch ally of Napoleon. +Against the Americans, too, who took advantage of the Continental +System to draw into their own hands a liberal portion of the carrying +trade, the British vigorously applied the Orders in Council, and the +consequent ill-feeling culminated in the War of 1812 between Great +Britain and the United States. But on the whole, the British had less +trouble with neutrals than did Napoleon. And compared with the +prodigious hardships which the System imposed upon the Continental +peoples and the consequent storms of popular opposition to its author, +the contemporaneous distress in England was never acute; and the +British nation at large never seriously wavered in affording moral and +material support to their hard-pressed government. + +Here was the failure of Napoleon. It proved physically impossible for +him to extend the Continental System widely and thoroughly enough to +gain his point. In many cases, to stave off opposition, he authorized +exceptions to his own decrees. If he could have prevailed upon every +Continental state to close its ports to British goods simultaneously +and for several successive years, he would still have been confronted +with a difficult task to prevent smuggling and the bribery of customs +officials, which reached large proportions even in France and in the +surrounding states that he had under fairly effective control. But to +bring all Continental states into line with his economic campaign +against Great Britain was a colossal task, to the performance of which +he subordinated all his subsequent policies. + +[Sidenote: Subordination of Napoleon's Foreign Policies to the +Enforcement of the Continental System] + +We have seen how by the treaty of Tilsit (1807) Napoleon extorted +promises from the tsar of Russia and the king of Prussia to exclude +British goods from their respective countries. He himself saw to the +enforcement of the decrees in the French Empire, in the kingdom of +Italy, in the Confederation of the Rhine, and in the grand-duchy of +Warsaw. Brother Joseph did his will in Naples, Brother Jerome in +Westphalia, Sister Elise in Tuscany, and Brother Louis was expected to +do his will in Holland. The outcome of the war with Sweden in 1808 was +the completion of the closure of all Scandinavian ports to the British. +Napoleon's determination to have his decrees executed in the Papal +States, as well as his high-handed treatment of matters affecting the +Catholic Church in France, brought him into conflict with Pope Pius +VII, a gentle but courageous man, who in daring to excommunicate the +European taskmaster was summarily deprived of his temporal rule and +carried off a prisoner, first to Grenoble, then to Savona, and finally +to Fontainebleau, where he resided, heaped with disgrace and insults, +until 1814. In 1809 Napoleon formally incorporated the Papal States +into the French Empire. And when in the next year Louis Bonaparte gave +clear signs of an intention to promote the best interests of his Dutch +subjects, even to his brother's detriment, by admitting British goods, +he was peremptorily deposed, and Holland, too, was incorporated into +the ever-enlarging French Empire. Henceforth, the Dutch had to bear the +burdens of conscription and of crushing taxation. + +[Sidenote: Napoleon's Interference in Portugal] + +Meanwhile Napoleon was devoting special attention to closing Portugal +and Spain to British goods, and political conditions in these countries +seemed to favor his designs. For over a hundred years Portugal had been +linked in close trade relations with England, ever since the Methuen +Treaty of 1703, which, in return for the admission of English woolens +into Portugal, had granted differential duties favoring the importation +of Portuguese wines into England and had thus provided a good market +for an important Portuguese product to the exclusion largely of the +French. Napoleon, early in his public career, had tried, for a time +successfully, [Footnote: In 1801, as First Consul, Napoleon had +prevailed upon Spain to attack Portugal in order to secure the +repudiation of the Methuen Treaty and the promise of hostility to Great +Britain. This step had proved fatal to Portuguese trade, and in 1804 +the Portuguese government had purchased from Napoleon a solemn +recognition of neutrality.] to break these commercial relations between +Great Britain and Portugal, but it was not until after Tilsit that he +entered seriously upon the work. He then formally demanded the +adherence of Portugal to the Continental System and the seizure of all +British subjects and property within the kingdom. Prince John, the +regent of the small country, protested, besought Great Britain for aid, +hesitated, and finally refused. Already a Franco-Spanish army was on +its way to force compliance with the emperor's demands. + +[Sidenote: and in Spain] + +In the court of the Spanish Bourbons was a situation that Napoleon +could readily utilize in order to have his way both in Portugal and in +Spain. On the throne of Spain was seated the aging Charles IV (1788- +1808), boorish, foolish, easily duped. By his side sat his queen, a +coarse sensuous woman "with a tongue like a fishwife's." Their heir was +Prince Ferdinand, a conceited irresponsible young braggart in his early +twenties. And their favorite, the true ruler of Spain, if Spain at this +time could be said to have a ruler, was Godoy, a vain flashy +adventurer, who was loved by the queen, shielded by the king, and +envied by the heir. Under such a combination it is not strange that +Spain from 1795 to 1808 was but a vassal state to France. Nor is it +strange that Napoleon was able in 1807 to secure the approval of the +Spanish king to the partition of Portugal, a liberal share having been +allotted to the precious Godoy. + +Thus French troops were suffered to pour across Spain, and, in October, +1807, to invade Portugal. On 1 December, Lisbon was occupied and the +Continental System proclaimed in force, but on the preceding day the +Portuguese royal family escaped and, under convoy of a British fleet, +set sail for their distant colony of Brazil. Then it was that +Napoleon's true intentions in regard to Spain as well as to Portugal +became evident. + +[Sidenote: Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain, 1808] + +French troops continued to cross the Pyrenees and to possess themselves +of the whole Iberian peninsula. In Spain public opinion blamed the +feeble king and the detested favorite for this profanation of the +country's soil, and in the recriminations that ensued at court Prince +Ferdinand warmly espoused the popular side. Riots followed. Charles IV, +to save Godoy, abdicated and proclaimed Ferdinand VII (17 March, 1808). +On the pretext of mediating between the rival factions in the Bourbon +court, Napoleon lured Charles and Ferdinand and Godoy to Bayonne on the +French frontier and there by threats and cajolery compelled both king +and prince to resign all claims upon their throne. Charles retired to +Rome on a pension from Napoleon; Ferdinand was kept for six years under +strict military guard at Talleyrand's château; the Bourbons had ceased +to reign. Brother Joseph Bonaparte was at once promoted to the throne +of Spain, and Brother-in-law Joachim Murat supplanted him as king of +Naples. + +In July, 1808, under protection of French troops, Joseph Bonaparte was +crowned at Madrid. Forthwith he proceeded to confer upon his new +subjects the favors of the Napoleonic régime: he decreed equality +before the law, individual liberties, abolition of feudalism and +serfdom, educational reforms, suppression of the Inquisition, +diminution of monasteries, confiscation of church property, public +improvements, and, last but not least, the vigorous enforcement of the +Continental System. + +[Sidenote: Resistance in Spain] + +The comparative ease with which Napoleon had thus been able to supplant +the Spanish Bourbons was equaled only by the difficulty which he and +his brother now experienced with the Spanish people. Until 1808 the +Corsican adventurer had had to deal primarily with divine-right +monarchs and their old-fashioned mercenary armies; henceforth he was +confronted with real nations, inspired by the same solid patriotism +which had inspirited the French and dominated by much the same +revolutionary fervor. The Spanish people despised their late king as +weak and traitorous; they hated their new king as a foreigner and an +upstart. For Spain they were patriotic to the core: priests and nobles +made common cause with commoners and peasants, and all agreed that they +would not brook foreign interference with their domestic concerns. All +Spain blazed forth in angry insurrection. Revolutionary committees, or +_juntas_, were speedily organized in the provinces; troops were +enrolled; and a nationalist reaction was in full swing. By 1 August, +1808, Joseph was obliged to flee from Madrid and the French troops were +in retreat toward the Pyrenees, + +[Sidenote: Interrelation of the Continental System and Spanish +Nationalism] +[Sidenote: The Peninsular War, 1808-1813] + +To add to the discomfiture of the French, George Canning, the British +foreign minister, promptly promised his country's active assistance to +a movement whose real significance he already clearly perceived. In +ringing words he laid down the British policy which would obtain until +Napoleon had been overthrown: "We shall proceed upon the principle that +any nation of Europe which starts up to oppose a Power which, whether +professing insidious peace or declaring open war, is the common enemy +of all nations, becomes instantly our ally." On 1 August, 1808, true to +this declaration, a British army under the command of Sir Arthur +Wellesley, subsequently duke of Wellington, landed in Portugal and +proceeded to cooperate with Portuguese and Spanish against the French. +It was the beginning of the so-called Peninsular War, which, with +little interruption, was to last until 1813 and to spell the first +disasters for Napoleon. + +Within three weeks after their landing the British were in possession +of Portugal. Roused by this unexpected reverse, Napoleon assumed +personal command of the French forces in the Peninsula. And such was +his vigor and resourcefulness that in December, 1808, he reinstated +Joseph in Madrid and drove the main British army out of Spain. The +success of Napoleon, however, was but temporary and illusory. Early in +1809 grave developments in another part of Europe called him away from +Spain, and the marshals, whom he left behind, quarreled with one +another and at the same time experienced to the full the difficulties +which Napoleon himself would have encountered had he remained. + +The difficulties which impeded French military operations in the +Iberian peninsula were well-nigh insurmountable. The nature of the +country furnished several unusual obstacles. In the first place, the +poverty of the farms and the paucity of settlements created a scarcity +of provisions and rendered it difficult for the French armies to resort +to their customary practice of living upon the land. Secondly, the +sudden alternations of heat and cold, to which the northern part of +Spain is liable, coupled with the insanitary condition of many of the +towns, spread disease among the French soldiery. Finally, the +succession of fairly high and steep mountain ranges, which cross the +Peninsula generally in a direction of northwest to southeast, prevented +any campaigning on the large scale to which Napoleonic tactics were +accustomed, and put a premium upon loose, irregular guerrilla fighting, +in which the Spaniards were adepts. In connection with these obstacles +arising from the nature of the country must be remembered the fierce +patriotic determination of the native people and the arms and +disciplined commanders furnished by the British. + +[Sidenote: Nationalism in Austria] +[Sidenote: Premature Efforts of Austria] +[Sidenote: Wagram (1809) and the Failure of Austria] + +The era of national revolts had dawned, and it was not long before +Austria learned the lesson from Spain. Ever since 1792 the Austrian +ruler had borne the brunt of the Continental warfare against +revolutionary France. And stung by the disasters and humiliations of +1805 and 1806, the Emperor Francis intrusted preparations for a war of +revenge to the Archduke Charles and to Count Stadion, an able statesman +and diplomat. The immediate results were: first, a far-reaching scheme +of military reform, which abolished the obsolete methods of the +eighteenth century, the chief characteristics of the new order being +the adoption of the principle of the "nation in arms" and of the war +organization and tactics in use among the French; and secondly, the +awakening of a lively and enthusiastic feeling of patriotism among the +Austrian people, especially among the Tyrolese, whom the arbitrary act +of the French despot had handed over to Bavaria. The opportunity for an +effective stroke appeared to be afforded by the Spanish situation, and +the general result was a desperate attempt, premature as the event +proved, to overthrow Napoleon. On 9 April, 1809, Austria declared war, +and the next day Archduke Charles with a splendid army advanced into +Bavaria. Napoleon, who temporarily put the Spanish danger out of his +mind, struck the archduke with his usual lightning rapidity, and within +a week's time had forced him back upon Vienna. Before the middle of May +the French emperor was once more in the Austrian capital. But the +Archduke Charles remained resolute, and on 21-22 May inflicted such a +reverse on Napoleon at Aspern on the Danube below Vienna, that, had +there been prompt cooperation on the part of other Austrian commanders +and speedy assistance from other states, the Corsican might then have +been overthrown and Europe saved from a vaster deluge of blood. As it +was, Napoleon was allowed a fateful breathing spell, and on 5-6 July he +fought and won the hard battle of Wagram. Wagram was not a rout like +Austerlitz, but it was sufficiently decisive to induce the Austrian +emperor to accept an armistice, and, after the failure of a coöperating +British expedition, to conclude the treaty of Vienna or Schönbrunn (14 +October, 1809), by the terms of which he had to surrender western +Galicia to the grand-duchy of Warsaw and eastern Galicia to Russia; to +cede the Illyrian provinces to the French Empire; and to restore the +Tyrol, together with a strip of Upper Austria, to Bavaria. This treaty +cost Austria four and one-half million subjects, a heavy war indemnity, +and promises not to maintain an army in excess of 150,000 men, nor to +have commercial dealings with Great Britain. As a further pledge of +Austria's good behavior, and in order to assure a direct heir to his +greatness, Napoleon shortly afterwards secured an annulment of his +marriage with Josephine on the ground that it had not been solemnized +in the presence of a parish priest, and early in 1810 he married a +young Austrian archduchess, Maria Louisa, the daughter of the Emperor +Francis II. Even this venture at first seemed successful, for in the +following year a son was born who received the high-sounding +appellation of king of Rome. But Austria remained at heart thoroughly +hostile; Maria Louisa later grew faithless; and the young prince, half- +Habsburg and half-Bonaparte, was destined to drag out a weary and +futile existence among enemies and spies. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the French Revolution upon Prussia] + +Meanwhile, the national reaction against Napoleon grew apace. It was in +Prussia that it reached more portentous dimensions than even in Austria +or in Spain. Following so closely upon the invigorating victories of +Frederick the Great, the disaster of Jena and the humiliation of Tilsit +had been a doubly bitter cup for the Prussian people. Prussian +statesmen were not lacking who put the blame for their country's +degradation upon many of the social and political conditions which had +characterized the "old régime" in all European monarchies, and, as +these statesmen were called in counsel by the well-intentioned King +Frederick William III (1797-1840), the years from 1807 to 1813 were +marked by a series of internal reforms almost as significant in the +history of Prussia as were those from 1789 to 1795 in the history of +France. + +[Sidenote: The Regeneration of Prussia] + +The credit of the Prussian regeneration belongs mainly to the great +minister, the Baron vom Stein (1757-1831), and in the second place to +the Chancellor Hardenberg (1750-1822), both of whom felt the influence +of English ideas and of the French philosophy of the eighteenth +century. On 9 October, 1807, Stein issued at Memel the famous Edict of +Emancipation, which abolished the institution of serfdom throughout +Prussia. Free trade in land was established, and land was left free to +pass from hand to hand and class to class. Thus the Prussian peasants +became personally free, although they were still bound to make fixed +payments to their lords as rent. Moreover, all occupations and +professions were thrown open to noble, commoner, and peasant alike. +Stein's second important step was to strengthen the cabinet and to +introduce sweeping changes in the conduct of public business, reforms +too complicated and too technical to receive detailed explanation in +this place. His third great measure was the grant (19 November, 1808) +of local self-government, on liberal yet practical lines, to all +Prussian towns and villages with a population in excess of 800. Stein +undoubtedly intended the last law to be a corner-stone in the edifice +of national constitutional government which he longed to erect in his +country, but in this respect his plans were thwarted and Prussia +remained another two generations without a written constitution. In +1811 Hardenberg continued the reform of the condition of the peasants +by making them absolute owners of part of their holdings, the landlords +obtaining the rest as partial compensation for their lost feudal and +servile dues. During the same period, the army was likewise reorganized +by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau; compulsory universal service was +introduced, while the condition imposed by Napoleon that the army +should not exceed 42,000 men was practically evaded by replacing each +body of 42,000 men by another of the same size as soon as the first was +fairly versed in military affairs. In this way every able-bodied male +Prussian was in preparation for an expected War of Liberation. + +Of course Napoleon had some idea of what was happening in Prussia: he +protested, he threatened, he actually succeeded late in 1808 in +securing the dismissal of Stein. But the redoubtable Prussian reformer +spent the next three years in trying to fan the popular flame in +Austria and thence betook himself to Russia to poison the ear and mind +of the Tsar Alexander against the emperor of the French. In the +meantime Napoleon was far too busy with other matters to give thorough +attention to the continued development of the popular reforms in +Prussia. There the national spirit burned ever brighter through the +exertions of patriotic societies, such as the _Tugendbund_, or +"League of Virtue," through the writings of men like Fichte and Arndt, +and, perhaps most permanently of all, through the wonderful educational +reforms, which, associated indissolubly with the name of Wilhelm von +Humboldt (1767-1835), gave to Prussia the basis of her present common- +school system and to the world the great University of Berlin (1809). + +It was no longer true that the French had a monopoly of the blessed +principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, for which to fight. It +was no longer a fact that they were the only nation defending their +homes, their lands, and their rights. By 1810 the despotism of Napoleon +was more selfish and more directly galling to the Prussian people than +had been the threatened tyranny of Austrian and Prussian monarchs to an +emancipated French nation in the dark days of 1792. Prussia was +bankrupt, shorn of half her provinces, enduring the quartering of +foreign soldiers, and suffering the ruin of her crops and the paralysis +of her trade. Thanks to the Continental System, which had been none of +their doing, the Prussian people witnessed the decay of their seaports, +the rotting of their ships in their harbors, paid exorbitant prices for +tobacco, and denied themselves sugar, coffee, and spices. They were +grumbling and getting into a temper that boded ill to the author of +their injuries. + +[Sidenote: Liberalism in Spain] +[Sidenote: The Spanish Constitution of 1812] + +Meanwhile the warfare in Spain dragged on. In 1812 Wellington with his +allied British and Spanish troops won the great victory of Salamanca, +captured Madrid, and drove Joseph and the French north to Valencia. In +the same year radical groups of Spaniards, who had learned +revolutionary doctrines from the French, assembled at Cadiz and drafted +a constitution for what they hoped would be their regenerated country. +This written constitution, next in age to the American and the French, +was more radical than either and long served as a model for liberal +constitutions throughout southern Europe. After a preamble in honor of +the "old fundamental laws of this monarchy," the constitution laid down +the very principle of the Revolution: "Sovereignty is vested +essentially in the nation, and accordingly it is to the nation +exclusively that the right of making its fundamental laws belongs." The +legislative power was intrusted to the Cortes, a single-chamber +parliament elected for two years by indirect universal suffrage. The +executive power was given to the king to be exercised by his ministers. +The king could affix a suspensive veto to the acts of the Cortes. The +constitution further proclaimed the principles of individual liberty +and legal equality and sought to abolish the old régime root and +branch: provision was made for a thorough reorganization of courts, +local administration, taxation, the army, and public education. While +the framers of the constitution affirmed that "the religion of the +Spanish nation is and always will be the Apostolic Church of Rome, the +only true Church," they persisted in decreeing the suppression of the +Inquisition and the secularization of ecclesiastical property. That +such a radical constitution would be understood and championed +forthwith by the whole Spanish people, only the most confirmed and +fanatical optimist could believe, but, on the other hand, it was +certain that the Spaniards as a nation were resolved that the +Continental System and the Bonaparte family must go. They might +sacrifice equality but not national liberty. + +At last the four fateful defects in the Napoleonic Empire,--the +character of Napoleon himself, the nature of his army, the Continental +System, and the rise of nationalism,--were painfully in evidence. The +drama thenceforth led irresistibly through two terrible acts--the +Russian campaign and the Battle of the Nations--to the +_dénouement_ in the emperor's abdication and to a sorry epilogue +in Waterloo. + +[Sidenote: Strained Relations between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander] + +It was the rupture between Napoleon and the Tsar Alexander that +precipitated the disasters. A number of events which transpired between +the celebrated meeting at Tilsit in 1807 and the memorable year of 1812 +made a rupture inevitable. Tilsit had purported to divide the world +between the two emperors, but Alexander, as junior partner in the firm, +soon found that his chief function was to assist Napoleon in bringing +all western and central Europe under the domination of the French +Empire while he himself was allowed by no means a free rein in dealing +with his own country's hereditary enemies--Sweden, Poland, and Turkey. +To be sure, Alexander had wrested Finland from Sweden (1809), but +Napoleon's forcing of Sweden into a war with Great Britain (1810-1812), +presumably as an ally of Russia as well as of France, had prevented him +from extending his territory further in that direction. Then, too, the +revival of a Polish state under the name of the grand-duchy of Warsaw +and under French protection was a thorn in his flesh, which became all +the more painful, more irritating, when it was enlarged after the +Austrian War of 1809. Finally, Alexander's warfare against Turkey was +constantly handicapped by French diplomacy, so that when the treaty of +Bucharest was at length concluded (28 May, 1812) it was due to British +rather than to French assistance that Russia extended her southern +boundary to the River Pruth. Alexander was particularly piqued when +Napoleon dethroned one of the tsar's relatives in Oldenburg and +arbitrarily annexed that duchy to the French Empire, and he was deeply +chagrined when the marriage of his ally with a Habsburg archduchess +seemed to cement the bonds between France and Austria. + +All these political differences might conceivably have been adjusted, +had it not been for the economic breach which the Continental System +ever widened. Russia, at that time almost exclusively an agricultural +country, had special need of British imports, and the tsar, a +sympathetic, kind-hearted man, could not endure the suffering and +protests of his people. The result was a gradual suspension of the +rigors of the Continental System in Russia and the eventual return to +normal trade relations as they had existed prior to Tilsit. This simple +fact Napoleon could not and would not recognize. "Russia's partial +abandonment of the Continental System was not merely a pretext but the +real ground of the war. Napoleon had no alternative between fighting +for his system and abandoning the only method open to him of carrying +on war against England." + +[Sidenote: Preparations for War between France and Russia] + +By the opening of the year 1812 Napoleon was actively preparing for war +on a large scale against his recent ally. From the Austrian court, +thanks to his wife, he secured assurances of sympathy and the promise +of a guard of 30,000 men to protect the right wing of his Russian +invasion. From the trembling Prussian king he wrung, by threats, +permission to lead his invaders across Prussian soil and the support of +20,000 troopers for the left of his lines. A huge expedition was then +gathered together: some 250,000 French veterans, 150,000 Germans from +the Confederation of the Rhine; 80,000 Italians; 60,000 Poles; and +detachments of Dutch, Swiss, Danes, and Serbo-Croats; in all, a mighty +motley host of more than 600,000 men. + +As the year advanced, the Tsar Alexander made counter preparations. He +came to a formal understanding with Great Britain. Through British +mediation he made peace with the Turks and thus removed an enemy from +his flank. And a series of treaties between himself, Great Britain, and +Marshal Bernadotte, who was crown-prince of Sweden and tired of +Napoleonic domination, guaranteed him in possession of Finland, assured +him of a supporting Swedish army, and in return promised Norway as +compensation to Sweden. A well-trained Russian army of 400,000 men, +under the stubborn, taciturn veteran, General Kutusov, was put in the +field. + +[Sidenote: Napoleon's Russian Campaign, 1812] + +War seemed imminent by April, 1812. After leisurely completing his +preparations, Napoleon crossed the Niemen on 24 June, and the invasion +of Russia had begun. It was the plan of the French emperor either to +smash his enemy in a single great battle and to force an early +advantageous treaty, or, advancing slowly, to spend the winter in +Lithuania, inciting the people to insurrection, and then in the +following summer to march on to Moscow and there in the ancient capital +of the tsars to dictate terms of peace. The Russian plan of campaign +was quite different. The tsar knew his people, that they were deeply +religious and patriotic, that they hated Napoleon bitterly, and that +they could be trusted not to revolt. He likewise knew well the +character of the 800 miles of comparatively barren steppes that +intervened between the Niemen and Moscow, whereon small armies could be +beaten and large ones starved. Against the _Grande Armée_ +therefore, Alexander directed that no decisive battle be risked, but +that the Russian forces, always retreating, should draw their opponents +on as far as possible into the interior of the country, where the +rigors and privations of a Russian winter could be expected to work +greater havoc among them than could powder and bullets. + +To his surprise and uneasiness, therefore, Napoleon after crossing the +Niemen found the Russians always retreating before his advance. No +decisive victory could be won against the elusive foe. Nor was the +temper of the Lithuanians such as to encourage him to remain all winter +among them. Pushing on into Russia, he captured the great fortress of +Smolensk but still failed to crush the main Russian army. Then it was +that he made the momentous decision to press on at once to Moscow. On 7 +September, General Kutusov turned against him at Borodino and inflicted +serious injury upon his army, but a week later he was in possession of +Moscow. The battle of Borodino, together with the perpetual harassing +of his outposts by the retreating Russians, had already inflicted very +severe losses upon Napoleon, but he still had an army of about 100,000 +to quarter in Moscow. + +The very night of his triumphal entry, the city was set on fire through +the carelessness of its own inhabitants,--the bazaar, with its stock of +wine, spirits, and chemicals, becoming the prey of the flames. Barracks +and foodstuffs were alike destroyed; the inhabitants fled; what was +left of the city was pillaged by the French troops as well as by the +Russians themselves; and the burning of Moscow became the signal for a +general rising of the peasants against the foreigners who had brought +such evils in their train. The lack of supplies and the impossibility +of wintering in a ruined city, attacked in turn by an enraged peasantry +and by detachments of General Kutusov's army, now comfortably ensconced +a short distance to the south, compelled Napoleon on 22 October, after +an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the Kremlin, or citadel, to evacuate +Moscow and to retrace his steps toward the Niemen. + +[Sidenote: The Disastrous Retreat from Moscow] + +The retreat from Moscow is one of the most horrible episodes in all +history. To the exasperating and deadly attacks of the victoriously +pursuing Russians on the rear were added the severity of the weather +and the barrenness of the country. Steady downpours of rain changed to +blinding storms of sleet and snow. Swollen streams, heaps of abandoned +baggage, and huge snow-drifts repeatedly blocked the line of march. The +gaunt and desolate country, which the army had ravaged and pillaged +during the summer's invasion, now grimly mocked the retreating host. It +was a land truly inhospitable and dreary beyond description. Exhaustion +overcame thousands of troopers, who dropped by the wayside and beneath +the snows gave their bodies to enrich the Russian ground. The retreat +became a rout and all would have been lost had it not been for the +almost superhuman efforts of the valiant rear-guard under Marshal Ney. +As it was, a mere remnant of the _Grande Armée_ certainly fewer +than 50,000 men--recrossed the Niemen on 13 December, and, in pitiable +plight, half-starved and with torn uniforms, took refuge in Germany. +Fully half a million lives had been sacrificed upon the fields of +Russia to the ambition of one man. Yet in the face of these distressing +facts, this one man had the unblushing effrontery and overweening +egotism to announce to the afflicted French people that "the emperor +has never been in better health!" + +[Sidenote: Final Coalition against Napoleon] + +For a moment the Tsar Alexander hesitated. Russia at least was freed +from the Napoleonic peril. To make peace in this hour of triumph might +be of great advantage to his country and would involve no further risks +on his part. But his own dreamy longing to pose as the chief figure on +the European stage, the deliverer of oppressed nationalities, coupled +with the insistent promptings of Baron vom Stein, who was always at his +elbow, eventually decided him to complete the overthrow of his rival. +Late in December he signed a convention with the Prussian commander, +General Yorck, whereby the Prussian army was to cooperate with the +Russian, British, and Swedish forces, and, in return, Prussia was to be +restored to the position it had enjoyed prior to Jena. On 13 January, +1813, Alexander at the head of the Russian troops crossed the Niemen +and proclaimed the liberty of the European peoples. King Frederick +William III, amidst the enthusiastic rejoicing of his people, soon +confirmed the convention of his general, and in March declared war +against Napoleon. The War of Liberation had commenced. + +[Sidenote: The War of Liberation] + +The events of the year 1813 were as glorious in the history of Germany +as they were disastrous for the fortunes of Napoleon. Prussia led in +the movement to free all the German-speaking people from French +domination. From Prussia the national enthusiasm spread to the other +states. Mecklenburg, which had been the last addition to the +Confederation of the Rhine, was the first to secede from it. All +northern and central Germany was speedily in popular revolt, and the +Prussian army, swelled by many patriotic enlistments, marched southward +into Saxony. Austria, divided between fear of Napoleon and jealousy of +the growing power of Russia, mobilized her army and waited for events +to shape her conduct. In these trying circumstances Napoleon acted with +his accustomed promptness and vigor. Since his arrival in France late +in 1812, he had been frantically engaged in recruiting a new army, +which, with the wreck of the _Grande Armée_ and the assistance +that was still forthcoming from Naples and southern Germany, now +numbered 200,000 men, and with which he was ready to take the offensive +in Saxony. On 2 May, 1813, he fell on the allied Russians and Prussians +at Lützen and defeated them, but was unable to follow up his advantage +for want of cavalry. On 20-21 May, he gained another fruitless victory +at Bautzen. It became increasingly obvious that he was being +outnumbered and outmaneuvered. + +[Sidenote: The Coalition Joined by Austria] + +At this point an armistice was arranged through the friendly mediation +of Austria. The government of that country proposed a general European +peace on the basis of the reconstruction of Prussia, the re-partition +of the grand-duchy of Warsaw by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, the re- +cession of the Illyrian provinces to Austria, the dissolution of the +Confederation of the Rhine, and the freedom of the German ports of +Hamburg and Lübeck. But it was a decisive victory, not peace, that +Napoleon most wanted, and the only reason which had induced him to +accept the armistice was to gain time in order that reënforcements from +Italy and France might arrive. The delay, however, was fatal to the +French emperor, for his reënforcements were greatly outnumbered by the +patriots who were continually flocking to the standards of the allies, +and by 12 August, 1813, when a state of war was resumed, Austria, whose +peace proposals had been rudely rejected, had formally joined the +coalition against him. + +[Sidenote: Leipzig, the "Battle of the Nations," October 1813] + +Napoleon was now at Dresden in supreme command of armies aggregating +about 400,000 men, opposed by 250,000 Austrians in Bohemia under +Schwarzenberg; 100,000 Prussians and Russians in Silesia under Blücher; +100,000 Swedes, Prussians, and Russians near Berlin under the Crown +Prince Bernadotte of Sweden; and at least 300,000 reserves. At Dresden, +in August, he won his last great victory, against the Austrian army of +General Schwarzenberg. As his marshals suffered repeated reverses, he +was unable to follow up his own successes and found himself gradually +hemmed in by the allies, until at Leipzig he turned at bay. There, on +16-19 October, was fought the great three-day "Battle of the Nations." +Against the 300,000 troops of the allies, Napoleon could use only +170,000, and of these the Saxon contingent deserted in the heat of the +fray. It was by military prowess that the French Empire had been +reared; its doom was sealed by the battle of Leipzig. Napoleon +sacrificed on that field another 40,000 lives, besides 30,000 prisoners +and a large quantity of artillery and supplies. A fortnight later, with +the remnant of his army, he recrossed the Rhine. Germany was freed. + +[Sidenote: Collapse of Napoleon's Power outside of France] + +The "Battle of the Nations" following within a year the disasters of +the retreat from Moscow, marked the collapse of Napoleon's power +outside of France. His empire and vassal states tumbled like a house of +cards. The Confederation of the Rhine dissolved, and its princes +hastened, with a single exception, to throw in their lot with the +victorious allies. King Jerome Bonaparte was chased out of Westphalia. +Holland was liberated, and William of Orange returned to his country as +king. Denmark submitted and by the treaty of Kiel (January, 1814) +engaged to cede Norway to Sweden in return for a monetary payment and +Swedish Pomerania. Austria readily recovered the Tyrol and the Illyrian +provinces and occupied Venetia and Switzerland. Even Joachim Murat +deserted his brother-in-law, and, in order to retain Naples, came to +terms with Austria. Only Polish Warsaw and the king of Saxony remained +loyal to the Napoleonic alliance: the territories of both were in full +possession of the allies. + +[Sidenote: The Campaign of 1814 in France] + +With the remnant of his defeated army and what young boys and old men +he was able to recruit, Napoleon needlessly prolonged the struggle on +French soil. At the close of 1813 Austria prevailed upon her more or +less willing allies to offer him wonderfully favorable terms: France +might retain her "natural boundaries"--the Rhine, the Alps, and the +Pyrenees; and Napoleon might continue to rule over a region which would +have gladdened the heart of a Richelieu or of a Louis XIV. But it was +still victory and not peace upon which the supreme egotist had bet his +mind. He still dreamed of overwhelming Prussia and Russia. + +Early in 1814 three large foreign armies, totaling 400,000 men, and +accompanied by the emperors of Russia and Austria and the king of +Prussia, invaded northern France and converged on Paris. Blücher with +his German troops was advancing up the Moselle to Nancy; Schwarzenberg +with the Austrians crossed the Rhine to the south at Basel and Neu +Breisach; Bernadotte in the Netherlands was welding Swedes, Dutch, and +Prussians into a northern army. Meanwhile, the great defeat which +Wellington with his allied army of British, Spaniards, and Portuguese, +had inflicted upon the French at Vittoria (21 June, 1813) had for the +last time driven King Joseph from Madrid and in effect cleared the +whole Iberian peninsula of Napoleon's soldiers. The British general had +then gradually fought his way through the Pyrenees so that in the +spring of 1814 a fourth victorious allied army in the neighborhood of +Toulouse threatened Napoleon from the south. An Austrian army, which +was then operating in Venetia and Lombardy, menaced France from yet a +fifth direction. + +Against such overwhelming odds, Napoleon displayed throughout the +desperate months of February and March, 1814, the same remarkable +genius, the same indomitable will, as had characterized his earliest +campaigns. If anything, his resourcefulness and his rapidity of attack +were even greater. Inflicting a setback on one invader, he would turn +quickly and dash against a second. Such apprehension did his tiger-like +assaults excite among his opponents that as late as February he might +have retained the French frontiers of 1792 if he had chosen to make +peace. He would play the game to the bitter end. On 1 March, the four +Great Powers--Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia--concluded +the treaty of Chaumont, definitely cementing their alliance for a +period of twenty years and mutually agreeing not to make terms without +each other's consent nor to desist from war until their arch-enemy had +been overthrown: each contracting party undertook to furnish 150,000 +men, and Great Britain further promised a subsidy of five million +pounds. The fate of Napoleon was at last settled. + +[Sidenote: Surrender of Paris and Abdication of Napoleon] + +To describe in any detail the brilliant campaign of 1814 lies outside +our province. Suffice it to state that, after the most stubborn +fighting, resistance was broken. Paris surrendered to the allies on 31 +March, and thirteen days later Napoleon signed with the allied +sovereigns the personal treaty of Fontainebleau, by which he abdicated +his throne and renounced all rights to France for himself and his +family, and, in return, was guaranteed full sovereignty of the island +of Elba and an annual pension of two million francs for himself; the +Italian duchy of Parma was conferred upon the Empress Maria Louisa, and +pensions of two and a half million francs were promised for members of +his family. Another seven days and Napoleon bade his Old Guard an +affecting farewell and departed for Elba. In his diminutive island +empire, hard by the shore of Tuscany and within sight of his native +Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte lived ten months, introducing such vigor +into the administration as the island had never experienced and all the +while pondering many things. + +[Sidenote: Restoration of the Bourbons in France] +[Sidenote: Compromise with the Revolutionary Ideas] + +Meanwhile, in France order was emerging from chaos. In 1793 European +sovereigns had banded together to invade France, to restore the divine- +right monarchy of the Bourbons and the traditional rights of the +privileged classes, and to stamp out the embryonic principles of +liberty, equality, and fraternity. The most noteworthy significance of +the Era of Napoleon was the simple fact that now in 1814 the monarchs +of Europe, at last in possession of France, had no serious thought of +restoring social or political conditions just as they had been prior to +the Revolution. Their major quarrel was not with principles but with a +man. The Tsar Alexander, to whom more than to any other one person, was +due the triumph of the allies, was a benevolent prince, well-versed in +the revolutionary philosophy, considerate of popular wishes, and +anxious to promote a lasting peace. Talleyrand, the man of the hour +among Frenchmen, who himself had played no mean rôle throughout the +Revolution and under Napoleon, combined with a desire to preserve the +frontiers of his country a firm conviction that the bulk of his +countrymen would not revert to absolute monarchy. Between Talleyrand +and Alexander it was arranged, with the approval of the Great Powers, +that in the name of "legitimacy" the Bourbons should be restored to the +throne of France, but with the understanding that they should fully +recognize and confirm the chief social and political reforms of the +Revolution. It was likewise arranged by the treaty of Paris (30 May, +1814), also in the name of "legitimacy," that France should regain the +limits of 1792, should recover practically all the colonies which Great +Britain had seized during the course of the Napoleonic wars, [Footnote: +Great Britain kept Tobago and St. Lucia in the West Indies, and +Mauritius (Île de France) on the route to India.] and should pay no +indemnity. "Legitimacy" was a brilliant discovery of Talleyrand: it +justified the preservation of France in the face of crushing defeat, +and, if it restored the Bourbons, it did so as limited, not as +absolute, monarchs. + +[Sidenote: Louis XVIII] + +Louis XVI's "legitimate" heir was his brother, the count of Provence, a +cynical, prosaic, and very stout old gentleman who had been quietly +residing in an English country-house, and who now made a solemn, if +somewhat unimpressive, state entry into Paris. The new king kept what +forms of the old régime he could: he assumed the title of Louis XVIII, +"king of France by the grace of God"; he reckoned his reign from the +death of the dauphin ("Louis XVII") in the year 1795; he replaced the +revolutionary tricolor by the white and lilies of his family; out of +the fullness of his divinely bestowed royal authority he granted a +charter to the French people. But Louis XVIII was neither so foolish +nor so principled as to insist upon the substance of Bourbon autocracy: +the very Constitutional Charter, which he so graciously promulgated, +confirmed the Revolutionary liberties of the individual and established +a fairly liberal form of government for France. It was obvious that the +gouty old man had no desire to risk his head or to embark again upon +his travels. + +[Sidenote: Monarchical Restorations Elsewhere in Europe] + +The same month that witnessed the unbecoming straddle of this French +Bourbon between revolution and reaction, beheld the restoration of +another Bourbon in the person of Ferdinand VII to the throne of Spain, +and the return of Pope Pius VII, amid the enthusiastic shouts of the +Romans, to the ancient see upon the Tiber. About the same time Piedmont +and Savoy were restored to Victor Emmanuel I, king of Sardinia. Europe +was rapidly assuming a more normal appearance. To settle the +outstanding territorial questions which the overthrow of Napoleon had +raised, a great congress of rulers and diplomats met at Vienna in the +autumn of 1814. + +[Sidenote: Napoleon at Elba, 1814-1815] + +Within a few months the unusual calm was rudely broken by the sudden +reappearance of Napoleon Bonaparte himself upon the European stage. It +was hardly to be expected that he for whom the whole Continent had been +too small would be contented in tiny Elba. He nursed grievances, too. +He could get no payment of the revenue secured him by the treaty of +Fontainebleau; his letters to his wife and little son were intercepted +and unanswered; he was treated as an outcast. He became aware of a +situation both in France and at Vienna highly favorable to his own +ambition. As he foresaw, the shrinkage of the great empire into the +realm of old France filled many patriotic Frenchmen with disgust, a +feeling fed every day by stories of the presumption of returning +émigrés and of the tactless way in which the Bourbon princes treated +veterans of the _Grande Armée_. Napoleon in time felt certain that +he could count once more upon the loyalty of the French nation. That he +would not be obliged to encounter again the combined forces of the +European Powers he inferred from his knowledge of the ever-recurring +jealousies among them and from the fact that even then Russia and +Prussia on one side were quarreling with Austria and Great Britain on +the other over the fate of Saxony and Poland. If some fighting were +necessary, the return of French prisoners from Russia, Germany, Great +Britain, and Spain would supply him with an army far larger than that +with which he had fought the brilliant campaign of 1814. + +[Sidenote: The Episode of Napoleon's Return to France: "The Hundred +Days," March-June, 1815] + +On 26 February, 1815, Napoleon slipped away from Elba with some twelve +hundred men, and, managing to elude the British guardships, disembarked +at Cannes on 1 March and advanced northward. Troops sent out to arrest +the arch-rebel were no proof against the familiar uniform and cocked +hat: they threw their own hats in the air amid ringing shouts of +_vive l'empereur_. Everywhere the adventurer received a hearty +welcome, which attested at once the unpopularity of the Bourbons and +the singular attractiveness of his own personality. The French people, +being but human, put imagination in the place of reason. Without firing +a shot in his defense, Napoleon's bodyguard swelled until it became an +army. Marshal Ney, the "bravest of the brave," who had taken the oath +of allegiance to the Bourbons and had promised Louis XVIII that he +would bring Napoleon to Paris in an iron cage, deserted to him with +6000 men, and on 20 March the emperor jauntily entered the capital. +Louis XVIII himself, who had assured his parliament that he would die +in defense of his throne, was already in precipitate flight toward the +Belgian frontier. + +[Sidenote: Napoleon and France] + +Napoleon clinched his hold upon the French people by means of an astute +manifesto which he promptly published. "He had come," he declared, "to +save France from the outrages of the returning nobles; to secure to the +peasant the possession of his land; to uphold the rights won in 1789 +against a minority which sought to reëstablish the privileges of caste +and the feudal burdens of the last century; France had made trial of +the Bourbons; it had done well to do so, but the experiment had failed; +the Bourbon monarchy had proved incapable of detaching itself from its +worst supports, the priests and nobles; only the dynasty which owed its +throne to the Revolution could maintain the social work of the +Revolution. ... He renounced war and conquest ... he would govern +henceforth as a constitutional sovereign and seek to bequeath a +constitutional crown to his son." + +[Sidenote: Napoleon and Europe] + +The emperor was as wrong in his judgment of what Europe would do as he +was right concerning the attitude of France. The statesmen who had been +haggling about treaty stipulations at Vienna speedily forgot all their +differences in the face of common danger. The four Great Powers +solemnly renewed their treaty of alliance, and with alacrity and +unanimity all joined in signing a declaration. "In violating the +convention which established him in the island of Elba, Bonaparte has +destroyed the only legal title to his existence. By reappearing in +France with projects of disorder and destruction, he has cut himself +off from the protection of the law, and has shown in the face of all +the world that there can be neither peace nor truce with him. +Accordingly the Powers declare that Napoleon Bonaparte is excluded from +civil and social relations, and as an enemy and disturber of the +tranquillity of the world he has incurred public vengeance...." + +In order to give force to their threats, the allies rushed troops +toward France. Wellington assembled an army of more than 100,000 +British, Dutch, and Germans, and planned to coöperate with 120,000 +Prussians under Blücher near Brussels. The Austrian army under +Schwarzenberg neared the Rhine. Russia and Germany were alive with +marching columns. To oppose these forces Napoleon raised an army of +200,000 men, and on 12 June, 1815, quitted Paris for the Belgian +frontier. His plan was to separate his opponents and to overcome them +singly: it would be a repetition of the campaign of 1814, though on a +larger scale. + +[Sidenote: Waterloo] + +How Napoleon passed the border and forced the outposts of the enemy +back to Waterloo; how there, on 18 June, he fought the final great +battle of his remarkable career; how his troops were mowed down by the +fearful fire of his adversaries and how even his famous Old Guard +rallied gloriously but ineffectually to their last charge; how the +defeat administered by Wellington was turned at the close of the day +into a mad rout through the arrival of Blücher's forces: all these +matters are commonplaces in the most elementary histories of military +science. It has long been customary to cite the battle of Waterloo as +one of the world's decisive battles. In a sense this is just, but it +should be borne in mind that, in view of the firm united determination +of all Europe, there was no ultimate chance for Napoleon. If he had +defeated Wellington, he would still have had to deal with Blücher. If +he should then defeat the Prussians, he would have to turn suddenly +against Schwarzenberg and the Austrians. By that time Wellington would +have been sufficiently reënforced to resume the offensive, and the war +would have gone on inevitably to but a single grim conclusion. The +allies could put almost limitless numbers in the field; Napoleon was at +the end of his resources. For the conservation of human life, it was +fortunate that Napoleon was overwhelmed at Waterloo and that the first +battle of the campaign of 1815 was also its last. Waterloo added +military prestige to the naval preëminence which Great Britain already +enjoyed, and finally established the reputation of Wellington as the +greatest general of his age next only to Napoleon himself. It is small +wonder that the English have magnified and glorified Waterloo. +[Footnote: An interesting side issue of the Waterloo campaign was the +fate of Joachim Murat. The wily king of Naples, distrustful of the +allies' guarantees, threw in his lot with his brother-in-law. His +forces were speedily put to rout by the Austrians and he himself fled +to France and later to Corsica, and was ultimately captured and shot. +His action enabled still another Bourbon, the despicable Ferdinand I, +to recover his throne.] + +[Sidenote: Final Overthrow of Napoleon ] + +On 21 June, Napoleon arrived in Paris, defeated and dejected. That very +day the parliament, on the motion of Lafayette, declared itself in +permanent session and took over all functions of government. The +following day Napoleon abdicated the second time in favor of his son, +and the provisional government of France, under the skillful trimming +of the clever Fouché, reopened negotiations with the Bourbons. On 7 +July the allies reoccupied Paris, bringing the flustered old Louis +XVIII "in their baggage-train." The Bourbons, thus unheroically +restored, were destined for fifteen years to maintain in peace their +compromise between revolution and reaction. + +[Sidenote: Napoleon at St. Helena 1815-1821 ] + +On 15 July, the day following the anniversary of the fall of the +Bastille, Napoleon, who had gone to Rochefort on the French coast, with +some vague idea of taking refuge in America, delivered himself over to +the commander of a British warship which was lying in the harbor. For +us who live a century after the stirring events whose narrative has +filled this chapter, it is easy to perceive that the British government +might safely have extended hospitality to their famous captive and +might have granted him an asylum in England. He was finally discredited +in the eyes not only of the European despots but also of the vast +majority of the French people; no matter how much he might burn with +the flame of his old ambition, he could never again be in a position to +endanger the safety or prosperity of the United Kingdom. But in 1815 +Englishmen felt differently, and naturally so. To them Napoleon had +been for years a more troublesome and dangerous enemy than a Philip II +or a Louis XIV. By them he was deemed the unregenerate child of +darkness and of the evil spirit. And "General Bonaparte," as the +British authorities persisted in calling him, was not suffered to touch +foot upon the sacred soil of England, but was dispatched on another +British warship to the rocky island of St. Helena in the south +Atlantic. + +On St. Helena Napoleon lived five and a half years. He was allowed +considerable freedom of movement and the society of a group of close +personal friends. He spent his time in walking on the lonely island or +in quarreling with his suspicious strait-laced English jailer, Sir +Hudson Lowe, or in writing treatises on history and war and dictating +memoirs to his companions. These memoirs, which were subsequently +published by the Marquis de Las Cases, were subtly compounded of truth +and falsehood. They represented Napoleon Bonaparte in the light of a +true son and heir of the Revolution, who had been raised by the will of +the French people to great power in order that he might consolidate the +glorious achievements of liberty, equality, and fraternity. According +to the emperor himself, he had always been the friend of peace and of +oppressed nationalities, the author of blessings which had flowed +uninterruptedly upon his people until he had been thwarted by the +machinations of the British and the sheer brute force of the European +despots. Napoleon shrewdly foresaw the increase of popular discontent +with the repressive measures which the reactionary sovereigns and +statesmen of Europe were bound to inaugurate, and in the resulting +upheaval he thought he could see an opportunity for his beloved son to +build anew an empire of the French. It could hardly have been blind +chance that caused him to insert in his will the pious request that he +"be buried on the banks of the Seine in the midst of the French people +whom he so dearly loved." On 5 May, 1821, the greatest adventurer of +modern times died on the island of St. Helena. + +[Sidenote: The Napoleonic Legend] + +Already the history of the emperor was becoming the Napoleonic Legend. +The more his memory was revered as the noble martyr of St. Helena, the +more truth withdrew into the background and fiction stepped into the +limelight. His holocausts of human life were forgotten; only the glory, +the unconquerable prowess of his arms, was remembered. French cottages +were adorned with cheap likenesses of the little corporal's features; +quaint, endearing nicknames for their hero were on villagers' lips; and +around hearth and campfire were related apocryphal anecdotes of his +exploits at Lodi, at Austerlitz, and at Wagram. From a selfish despot +Napoleon was returning to his mightier, if humbler, position as a child +of the people. Thus the last years at St. Helena were far from +fruitless: they proved once more that the pen is mightier than the +sword,--for one day, not by feats of arms, but by the power of the +Napoleonic Legend, another Bonaparte was to be seated upon the throne +of France. + + +SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ERA OF NAPOLEON + +[Sidenote: A Continuation of the Revolutionary Era] +[Sidenote: Liberty under Napoleon] + +If we turn now from the story of Napoleon's life to an attempt to +appraise the significance of the whole era which fittingly bears his +name, we are struck by its manifold achievements in politics and +society, in commerce, and in war. In general it was a continuation of +the French the Revolution. The principles of liberty, equality, and +fraternity, which, from 1789 to 1799, had been laid down as the +foundation exclusively of French political and social institutions, +became, from 1799 to 1815, the building-blocks for all European +nations. The least understood and used was undoubtedly liberty. To be +sure, both the Consulate and the empire were concrete and substantial +examples of the replacement of the old theory of divine-right monarchy +by the new idea of popular sovereignty, of governments resting, in last +analysis, upon the consent of the governed. But Napoleon did hardly +more to vitalize individual liberties than did the benevolent despots +of the eighteenth century, or those of his own day. To secure the +interested support of the bourgeoisie and the peasantry, the sacred +right of private property was eloquently reaffirmed, and, as a trusty +weapon against possible clerical pretensions, the noble rights of +liberty of conscience and liberty of worship were grandiloquently +preached; but the less serviceable liberties of speech and of +publication were confined within the narrowest limits of military and +imperial toleration. + +[Sidenote: "Equality" under Napoleon] + +With equality it was quite different. In all the lands annexed to +France or included within the radius of Napoleon's direct influence, +the forms and rights of feudalism and serfdom were abolished, and the +social equalities embodied _Code Napoléon_ were guaranteed. +Throughout southern Germany, the Netherlands, the Iberian peninsula, +and a great part of Italy, as well as in France, the social aspects of +the old régime underwent a thorough transformation; interior customs +lines, private roadways, toll-bridges, and internal trade restrictions +were swept away; in the place of large landed estates, with their old- +time noble owners and their wretched peasants attached to the soil and +suffering from burdensome tithes and dues and personal services, +appeared a numerous class of peasant proprietors, owning and tilling +their own fields, free to buy, sell, or exchange them, or to move away +to the growing towns. Outside of Napoleon's direct influence, the land +reforms of Baron vom Stein in Prussia reflected the same spirit of the +age. These social gains in the direction of equality were, in fact, the +most permanent achievements of the Napoleonic Era: in spite of later +reaction, it was beyond the reach of possibility to restore the +inequalities of the outworn feudal system. + +[Sidenote: "Fraternity" under Napoleon] +[Sidenote: The Emphasis on Nationalism] + +Fraternity, or national patriotism, received a marked impetus during +the era. Communicated from France by the ardor of the revolutionary and +Napoleonic soldiers, it evoked ready response not only in Poland, +Holland, Portugal, Spain, England, and Russia, in which countries it +was already existent, but also in the Germanies and in the Italian +states, where centuries of petty strife and jealousy seemed to have +blotted it out forever. The significance of the Napoleonic period in +the history of Germany is incalculable. The diminution of the number of +states, the abolition of the effete Holy Roman Empire, the regeneration +of Prussia, the War of Liberation, the Battle of the Nations, the +consciousness of common interests, and the wave of patriotism which +swept over the whole German folk, presaged before the lapse of many +decades the political unification of the Germanies and the erection of +a powerful national state. Nor were the Italians devoid of a similar +national feeling. The fame of Napoleon, a man of Italian blood, the +temporary establishment of a "kingdom of Italy," the title of "king of +Rome" conferred upon the infant heir to Napoleon's fortunes, the social +reforms and the patriotic awakening throughout the peninsula,--all +betokened a national destiny for the whole Italian people. + +[Sidenote: Minor Political Happenings] + +In minor political ways the Napoleonic Era was not without +significance. The Tsar was enabled finally to acquire Finland, Poland, +and Turkish land as far as the River Pruth, Minor thus completing the +work of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, and rounding out the +European frontier of Russia to its present extent. Sweden secured +Norway and a new dynasty, which, descended from Marshal Bernadotte, the +interesting son of an obscure French lawyer, has reigned ever since. In +the case of Portugal, the flight of the royal family to Brazil in 1807 +had the curious effect of causing them for several years to hold their +court in their principal colony and to govern the mother-country +through regents. + +[Sidenote: Remarkable Significance of the Era to Great Britain] +[Sidenote: Colonies] +[Sidenote: Commerce] + +Beyond continental Europe the period was of utmost importance. The +maritime and commercial supremacy of Great Britain, which had been +seriously shaken by the War of American Independence, was regained in +the course of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Of course the +United States continued independent. But the great victories of Lord +Nelson over the French fleets rendered Great Britain the true mistress +of the seas; and she proceeded to utilize her naval superiority to +appropriate what remaining French colonies most suited her purpose. In +this way she possessed herself of Malta (1800), St. Lucia, Tobago +(1803), and Mauritius (1810). Then, too, the dependence of Holland upon +France, involuntary though it was most of the time, afforded her an +opportunity to seize such valuable Dutch colonies as Ceylon (1795), +Guiana (1803), and South Africa (1806). The sorry subservience of the +Spanish Bourbons to Napoleon gave Great Britain a similar chance to +prey upon Spanish commerce, to occupy some Spanish colonies, and to +open others to her own trade: at this time the British took possession +of Trinidad (1797) and Honduras (1798) and sent raiding expeditions +against Buenos Aires and Montevideo (1806-1807). The subsequent +Peninsular War, in which, as we have seen, the British coöperated with +the Spaniards in maintaining the latter's freedom against Napoleon, put +an end to the hostile British incursions into the Spanish colonies, but +it worked in another way to Great Britain's advantage. The Spanish +colonies--Mexico, Central America, and the greater part of South +America--were thrown into grave administrative perplexities by the +conflict of authority between the two Bourbon kings, Charles IV and +Ferdinand VII, and between King Joseph Bonaparte and the revolutionary +_juntas_; the colonists gradually got into the habit of managing +their own affairs and of opening their ports to British trade; and the +result was that by 1814, when Ferdinand was at length firmly +established upon the Spanish throne, he was confronted by colonists, +the greater number of whom had all along professed allegiance to him, +but who now, accustomed to the advantages of free trade and practical +independence, were resolved to maintain them. The disruption of the +Spanish colonial empire was a direct outcome of Napoleon's career, and +next to the colonists themselves the British were the chief +beneficiaries. In general, the new colonies which Great Britain +acquired were intended either, as in the case of Malta, Mauritius, +Ceylon, and South Africa, to strengthen her hold upon India, or, as in +the case of the others, to develop her trade with Spanish America. + +[Sidenote: Industry] + +This naval predominance of Great Britain and the expansion of her +commerce and colonial empire synchronized with the rapid development of +the Industrial Revolution within England. It was the ceaseless +operation of spinning frames and power looms, of blast furnaces and +steam engines, in a country on which the French emperor's army had +never trod, that most truly worked the downfall of Napoleon. + +[Illustration: THE BONAPARTE FAMILY] + + +ADDITIONAL READING + + +TEXTBOOK NARRATIVES. H. E. Bourne, _The Revolutionary Period in +Europe, 1763-1815_ (1914), ch. xvii-xxvii; J. H. Robinson and C. A. +Beard, _The Development of Modern Europe_, Vol. I (1907), ch. xiv, +xv; H. M. Stephens, _Revolutionary Europe, 1789-1815_ (1893), ch. +vii-xi; J. H. Rose, _Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era, 1789-1815_ +(1895), ch. vii-xi; J. A. R. Marriott, _The Remaking of Modern +Europe, 1789-1878_ (1910), ch. vii-xi; H. T. Dyer, _A History of +Modern Europe from the Fall of Constantinople_, 3d ed. rev. by +Arthur Hassall (1901), ch. lxi-lxvii; C. A. Fyffe, _A History of +Modern Europe, 1792-1878_ (1896), ch. v-xii. + +STANDARD BIOGRAPHIES OF NAPOLEON. Two suggestive outlines, either one +of which may serve as an admirable introduction to more careful study: +Herbert Fisher, _Napoleon_ (1912), in the "Home University Library"; +and R. M. Johnston, _Napoleon, a Short Biography_ (1910). August +Fournier, _Napoleon I_, 3d rev. ed., 3 vols. (1914), perhaps the best +biography, a German work, scholarly, well written, and impartial, +trans. into English from the 2d German edition by A. E. Adams, 2 vols. +(1912). J. H. Rose, _The Life of Napoleon I_, new ed., 2 vols. in i +(1907), a highly prized work, mainly political, and thoroughly British +in tone; and, by the same author, _The Personality of Napoleon_ (1912), +a collection of interesting lectures. W. M. Sloane, _The Life of +Napoleon Bonaparte_, rev. and enlarged ed., 4 vols. (1910), confined +largely to the personal history of Napoleon, with special reference to +his earlier years, based upon source-material, and profusely +illustrated. J. C. Ropes, _The First Napoleon_ (1900), a military and +political outline by an authority on several of the great campaigns of +the emperor. Pierre Lanfrey, _The History of Napoleon the First_, Eng. +trans., 2d ed., 4 vols. (1894), a severe arraignment of the character +and policies of Napoleon by a celebrated French scholar, reaches only +to the close of the year 1811. Adolphe Thiers, _Histoire du consulat et +de l'empire_, 20 vols., highly laudatory of Napoleon, and should be +read as an antidote to Lanfrey; the portion of the work down to 1807 +has been translated into English by D. F. Campbell, 2 vols. in 1 +(1845). H. A. Taine, _The Modern Regime_, Eng. trans. by John Durand, 2 +vols. (1890-1894), a brilliant and fascinating analysis of Napoleon's +genius and a critical estimate of the importance of the institutions +established by him. Frederic Masson, _Napoleon et sa famille_, 5th ed., +12 vols. (1897-1915), an encyclopedia of information concerning the +emperor's numerous relatives, and, by the same author, _Napoleon à +Sainte-Hélène_ (1912). Three volumes of an elaborate history of +Napoleon appeared in 1912-1914, the work of a well-known German +specialist, F. M. Kircheisen, _Napoleon I: sein Leben und seine Zeit_. +See also, on the early life of Bonaparte, Oscar Browning, _Napoleon: +the First Phase, 1769-1793_ (1905); and, on his final years at St. +Helena, Lord Rosebery, _Napoleon: the Last Phase_ (1900). An +illuminating work is that of A. M. Broadley, _Napoleon in Caricature, +1795-1821_, with an introductory essay by J. H. Rose, 2 vols. (1911). + +ILLUSTRATIVE SOURCE MATERIAL. In addition to the indispensable +_Readings in Modern European History_ by J. H. Robinson and C. A. Beard +(1909), the following selections from the masses of source material are +especially serviceable: D. A. Bingham, _A Selection from the Letters +and Despatches of the First Napoleon_, 3 vols. (1884); _Memoirs of the +History of France during the Reign of Napoleon, dictated by him at St. +Helena to the generals who shared his captivity_, Eng. trans., 2d ed., +4 vols. (1823-1824); the correspondence of Napoleon I, published in +French under the auspices of Napoleon III, 32 vols. (1858-1870), and +Napoleon's military correspondence published under the auspices of the +Ministry of War of the Third French Republic; _Narrative of Captain +Coignet_, new French ed. (1909), Eng. trans. by Mrs. Carey, the story +of the life of a soldier in the ranks. Of the abundant memoirs of the +period, the best are those of Mme. de Rémusat, covering the years 1802- +1808, hostile but informing, Eng. trans. by Mrs. Cashel Hoey and John +Lillie (1891); Fauvalet de Bourrienne, Eng. trans. by J. S. Memes, 3 +vols. (1892); Antoine de Marbot, 3 vols.; C. F. de Méneval, covering +the years 1802-1815, 3 vols. (1894); A. F. Miot de Melito, Eng. trans. +(1881); L. P. de Ségur, 3 vols; and C. M. de Talleyrand-Périgord, Eng. +trans., 5 vols. (1891-1892). For further bibliographical suggestions, +see F. M. Kircheisen, _Bibliography of Napoleon_ (1902). An extended +bibliography is in course of publication by an Italian scholar, Alberto +Lumbroso, 5 parts to date (1894-1914). + +THE ERA OF NAPOLEON. A very brief summary: Charles Seignobos, _History +of Contemporary Civilization_, trans. by J. A. James (1909), pp. 150- +185. Standard general works: _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. IX +(1906); _Histoire générale_, Vol. IX; _History of All Nations_, Vol. +XVI, _The French Revolution and the Rise of Napoleon_, ch. viii, ix, +and Vol. XVII, _The Napoleonic Empire_, by Theodor Flathe; Wilhelm +Oncken, _Das Zeitalter der Revolution, des Kaiserreiches, und der +Befreiungskriege_, 2 vols. (1884-1886); Émile Bourgeois, _Manuel +historique de politique étrangère, 4th ed., Vol. II (1909), ch. viii- +xviii. Standard works on special phases of the era: Armand Lefebvre, +_Histoire des cabinets de l'Europe pendant le consulat et l'empire +1800-1815_, 2d ed., 5 vols. (1866-1869), an admirable diplomatic +history; Albert Sorel, L'Europe et la révolution française, 8 vols. +(1885-1904), a standard authoritative work, of which Vols. VI-VIII +treat of the communication of revolutionary ideas to Europe during the +Era of Napoleon; L. de Lanzac de Laborie, _Paris sous Napoléon_, 8 +vols. (1905-1913), invaluable for a detailed study of French life under +Napoleon; Émile Levasseur, _Histoire des classes ouvrières et de +l'industrie en France de 1789 à 1870_, Vol. I (1903), Livre II, _Le +consulat et l'empire_, for social history; Jean Jaurès, _Histoire +socialiste, 1789-1900_, Vol. VI, by Paul Brousse and Henri Turot, _Le +consulat et l'empire, 1799-1815_ (1905), likewise for social history; +J. 0. B. de Cléron d'Haussonville, _L'eglise romaine et le premier +empire, 1800-1814_, 5 vols. (1868-1869), for ecclesiastical affairs; +Alphonse Aulard, _Napoléon I-er et la monopole universitaire_ (1911), +for educational matters; Henri Welschinger, _La censure sous le premier +empire_ (1882), for restrictions on personal liberty in France: and for +French plots and attempts against Napoleon, the works of Ernest Daudet, +particularly _La police et les chouans sous le consulat et l'empire, +1800-1815_ (1895), _Histoire de l'émigration_, 3 vols. (1886-1890), and +_L'exil et la mort du Général Moreau_ (1909); and Sir John Hall, +_General Pichegru's Treason_ (1916). MILITARY CAMPAIGNS OF NAPOLEON. +T. A. Dodge, _Napoleon: a History of the Art of War_, 4 vols. (1904- +1907), the work of an American army officer, not always accurate, but +the best general account in English; A. T. Mahan, _The Influence of Sea +Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793-1812_, 10th ed., 2 +vols. (1898), a justly famous book, especially valuable for the +Continental System. Special campaigns: Albert Vandal, _Napoléon et +Alexander Ier_, 3d ed., 3 vols. (1893-1896); R. G. Burton, _Napoléon's +Campaigns in Italy, 1796-1797 and 1800_ (1912), and, by the same +author, _From Boulogne to Austerlitz: Napoleon's Campaign of 1805_ +(1912); the works of F. L. Petre, particularly _Napoleon's Conquest of +Prussia, 1806_ (1907), _Napoleon's Campaign in Poland, 1806-1807_ +(1906), _Napoleon and the Archduke Charles_ (1908), _Napoleon's Last +Campaign in Germany, 1813_ (1912), _Napoleon at Bay_ (1914); Henry +Houssaye, _Jéna et la campagne de 1806_, with introduction by Louis +Madelin (1912); Édouard Driault, _Austerlitz: la fin du Saint-Empire, +1804-1808_ (1912); Charles Oman, _History of the Peninsular War_, a +monumental work extending to the year 1812, 5 vols. (1902-1914), and, +by the same author, _Wellington's Army, 1809-1814_ (1912); Hermann +Baumgarten, _Geschichte Spaniens vom Ausbruch der französischen +Revolution bis auf unsere Tage_, Vol. I (1865), a scholarly German +treatment of the Peninsular campaign; R. G. Burton, _Napoleon's +Invasion of Russia_ (1914); F. W. O. Maycock, _The Invasion of France, +1814_ (1915); Oscar Browning, _The Fall of Napoleon_ (1907), useful for +the years 1813-1815; E. F. Henderson, _Blucher and the Uprising of +Prussia against Napoleon, 1806-1815_ (1911), in the "Heroes of the +Nations" Series; D. P. Barton, _Bernadotte: the First Phase, 1763-1799_ +(1914); A. F. Becke, _Napoleon and Waterloo_, 2 vols. (1914); J. C. +Ropes, _The Campaign of Waterloo_, 2d ed. (1893). + +THE GERMANIES IN THE ERA OF NAPOLEON. Brief accounts: G. M. Priest, +_Germany since 1740_ (1915), ch. iv-vii; Ferdinand Schevill, _The +Making of Modern Germany_ (1916), ch. iii; E. F. Henderson, _A Short +History of Germany_, Vol. II (1902), ch. vi, vii, and, by the same +author, the book on Blücher listed in the preceding paragraph; C. T. +Atkinson, _A History of Germany, 1715-1815_ (1908), almost exclusively +a military history; H. A. L. Fisher, _Studies in Napoleonic +Statesmanship: Germany_ (1903), instructive and stimulating. The best +and most thorough work in English is J. R. Seeley, _Life and Times of +Stein, or Germany and Prussia in the Napoleonic Age_, 2 vols. (1879). +Standard German works, all highly patriotic in tone: Ludwig Häusser, +_Deutsche Geschichte vom Tode Friedrichs des Grossen bis zur Gründung +des deutschen Bundes_, 4th ed., 4 vols. (1869); K. T. von Heigel, +_Deutsche Geschichte vom Tode Friedrichs des Grossen bis zur Auflösung +des alten Reiches_, 2 vols. (1899-1911); Hans von Zwiedineck- +Südenhorst, _Deutsche Geschichte von der Auflösung des alten bis zur +Errichtung des neuen Kaiserreiches_, _1806-1871_, 3 vols. (1897-1905), +of which Vol. I deals with the years 1806-1815; Heinrich von +Treitschke, _Deutsche Geschichte im neunzehnten Jahrhundert_, 5 vols. +(1890-1896), of which Vol. I, in Eng. trans. (1915), covers the period +down to 1814; Heinrich Ulmann, _Geschichte der Befreiungskriege, 1813 +und 1814_, 2 vols. (1914-1915), not so much military as political and +diplomatic; Hans Delbrück, _Das Leben des Feldmarschalls Grafen +Neidhardt von Gneisenau_, 3d rev. ed. (1913). A reliable French view is +that of Ernest Denis, _L'Allemagne, 1789-1810_ (1896). + +GREAT BRITAIN IN THE ERA OF NAPOLEON. Sir Herbert Maxwell, _A Century +of Empire_, Vol. I, _1801-1832_ (1909), political and conservative; G. +C. Broderick and J. K. Fotheringham, _Political History of England, +1801-1837_ (1906), accurate but dry, containing valuable +bibliographies; J. H. Rose, _William Pitt and the Great War_ (1911), a +notable contribution, and, by the same author, though not so excellent, +_Pitt and Napoleon: Essays and Letters_ (1912); W. C. Russell, Horatio +Nelson (1890), a convenient little biography in the "Heroes of the +Nations" Series; A. T. Mahan, _The Life of Nelson, the Embodiment of +the Sea Power of Great Britain_, 2 vols. (1897), a standard work; J. S. +Corbett, _Campaign of Trafalgar_ (1913), with reference to Pitt more +than to Nelson; A. T. Mahan, _Sea Power in its Relation to the War of +1812_, 2 vols. (1905); J. W. Fortescue, _History of the British Army_, +Vols. IV-VII (1906-1912), a monumental work on the British military +campaigns from 1793 to 1810; Sir W. L. Clowes (editor), _The Royal +Navy: a History_, Vol. IV (1899), ch. xxxiv-xxxvii, for the years 1792- +1802, and Vol. V (1900), for 1803-1815; J. W. Fortescue, _British +Statesmen of the Great War, 1793-1814_ (1911), derogatory of Pitt and +marked by zealous prejudice in favor of other Tory statesmen, +especially Castlereagh and Liverpool; Sir Herbert Maxwell, _The Life of +Wellington_, 2 vols. (1899); W. O'C. Morris, _Wellington, Soldier and +Statesman_ (1904), in "Heroes of the Nations" Series; F. J. MacCunnan, +_The Contemporary English View of Napoleon_ (1914), an interesting +compilation. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Political and Social History of +Modern Europe V.1., by Carlton J. H. Hayes + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EUROPE V1 *** + +This file should be named 6417-8.txt or 6417-8.zip + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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