CHAP. XXXII.] ASSASSINATION OF BUCKINGHAM. 179 all his forces in Poitou, Saintonge, Angoumois and Aunis;' and Angoulême, Schomberg, Bassompierre and the other captains were enjoined to obey him as they would the King himself. Richelieu had all the qualities of a great general, and, had not his genius been diverted into another channel, it may be safely affirmed that he would have become a renowned commander instead of a consummate minister and statesman. The fall of La Rochelle, hermetically sealed both on the sea and land side, was of course only a question of time. The inhabitants held out to the last extremity, animated by the exhortations and examples of Jean Guiton, their mayor; who, throwing a poignard on the table of the chamber in which the town-council assembled, obtained leave to thrust it into the bosom of the first man who talked of surrender.2 After an unaccountable delay, an English fleet, under command of the Earl of Denbigh, at length appeared, and attempted the relief of La Rochelle (May 11th); but on reconnoitring the dike, and finding it impregnable, Denbigh got a certificate to that effect from some captains belonging to La Rochelle, who were on board his fleet; and after cannonading at a distance the French vessels in the inlet, he sailed home. Still the town held. out in expectation of fresh aid from England, and in spite of some insurrections of the starving citizens. The English succours were delayed by the assassination of Buckingham at Portsmouth (August 23rd). This event delivered Richelieu from an adversary whom he at once feared and despised. "The King," he observes, "could not have lost a more rancorous nor a more foolish enemy. The enterprises which he undertook without reason were executed without success; yet they put us in great peril and did us much harm; the folly and madness of a foe being more dangerous than his wisdom. For, as the fool acts on no principle common to the rest of mankind, reason loses her art of fence, and thus one is never secure. He will attempt everything, even though it be contrary to his own interest, and is arrested only by the impossibility of executing his designs." It On the 28th of September the English fleet, under command of the Earl of Lindsey, was again descried from Ré. But the chance of success against the dike was still less than before. was now completely finished, and strengthened by many additional works. On the 3rd of October the English fleet made an attempt to force the passage, and delivered many broadsides 1 Mercure Franç. t. xiv. p. 154. 2 Le Vassor, t. v. p. 690 sq. 3 Mémoires, liv. xix. (Petitot, t. xxiv. p. 163; cf. t. xxiii. p. 183). 180 SURRENDER OF LA ROCHELLE. [CHAP. XXXII. against the dike, as close as they could come; but they were scon compelled to retire by the ebbing tide, which on those coasts falls a great many feet. On the following day the attempt was renewed with the same result; nor did some fire-ships, launched by the English, do any harm. The case seemed hopeless; the English vessels drew too much water to come sufficiently near to deliver an effective fire, and after another general attack on the 22nd of October, the enterprise was abandoned. On the following day a deputation of the starving inhabitants of La Rochelle repaired to the Cardinal to treat for a surrender, which they were obliged to accept on his terms; and on the 30th the royal forces. took possession of the town. Rushworth states that out of a population of 15,000 persons, only 4,000 remained alive, so great had been the famine;' but this account is probably exaggerated. Louis XIII., who had returned some months before to the siege, and who had pointed the cannon and exposed his life before the walls-for he inherited at least the courage of his father-entered the town on horseback and fully armed, November 1st. On the following Sunday a solemn Te Deum was sung. On the Satur day, the King, who was a great lover of sacred music, sat up til midnight, arranging and rehearsing the chanting and musical accompaniments; and he himself led off the melody.2 The fall of La Rochelle, as consummating the subjection of the Hugonot party, and thus strengthening the hands of the French King, was an occurrence sufficiently important to rouse the hopes or fears of the various European States, according to their interest or politics. At Rome the event was celebrated by a Te Deum in the church of St. Louis, and gave occasion to Urban VIII. to exercise his poetical skill by composing some odes in honour of the French King. Richelieu's brother, now Archbishop of Lyon, was made a Cardinal, contrary to the constitution of Julius III. forbidding that dignity to be conferred on two brothers. But, in spite of the favour of the Holy See, Richelieu used his victory with moderation. In his answer to Buckingham's manifesto, he had declared with a liberality in advance of the age, and which was not observed in the next reign, that the time of religious martyrdom was past, and that Louis XIII. waged war, not with liberty of conscience, but with political rebellion. These principles he adhered to after his success; and though, as an insurgent 1 Collections, pt. i. p. 636. A contemporary writer compares him to King David, "citharam percutientem coram arca Dei." Mercure Frang, t. x". p. 619. CHAP. XXXII.] STATE OF GERMANY. 181 city, La Rochelle was deprived of its municipal privileges, the citizens were allowed the free exercise of their religion. During the progress of the siege a Spanish fleet had appeared off La Rochelle; but it was sent only to amuse the French with a false show of friendship, as appears from a letter of Philip IV. to his ambassador at Paris; and no sooner did news arrive that the English were preparing an expedition for the relief of La Rochelle than, in spite of the remonstrances of Richelieu, the Spaniards retired. The famous captain, Spinola, had also paid a visit to the French camp in the quality of ambassador; when Louis took him round the works, and flattered the Italian by remarking that he was imitating his example at Breda. Spinola had taken that town, after a two months' siege, in June, 1625. The Spanish Court had set its heart upon the capture, and Philip IV., with a mock sublime, had written to Spinola, in half a line, " Marquis, take Breda." Prince Maurice, after a four years' struggle with Spinola, had died 23rd April, 1625, not without the mortification of seeing that Breda must at length yield to the Spanish arms; but his brother and successor, Frederick Henry of Nassau, who was elected Captain-General of the United Provinces, assisted by Mansfeld, whose efforts Richelieu had diverted from the Palatinate, arrested the progress of the Spaniards in the Northern Netherlands. Frederick Henry, who shared not the political ambition and the religious prejudices of his brother, was also elected as their Stadholder by the three provinces of Holland, Zealand, and West Friesland. But the operations of the Dutch in Europe are not of much importance at this period, though it witnessed the growth of their possessions in the East Indies, and the establishment of their naval power at the expense of Spain. The struggle in Germany had now assumed a new phase by the intervention of Denmark. Christian IV. had from the first beheld the proceedings of the Emperor with alarm; as a Protestant Prince, he was disposed to support the unlucky Palatine Frederick; he had, at the instance of his brother-in-law, James I. of England, advanced several large sums of money to Frederick; and so early as the beginning of 1621 had agreed upon an alliance between Denmark, England, and the Dutch Republic; negotiations, however, which had resulted only in some representations. to the Emperor and a letter to Ambrose Spinola. Christian IV. had also a personal, or rather a family, interest in the great In Capefigue, Richelieu, &c. ch. xlii. second daughter of Frederick II. of Denmark. 182 CHRISTIAN IV. INTERFERES. [CHAP. XXXII. question which agitated Germany. He had procured his son Frederick to be appointed coadjutor and eventual successor of the titular lay Archbishop of Bremen, and had also purchased for him the Bishopric of Verden; and thus, in common with the other Princes of the Circle of Lower Saxony, he feared to be deprived of the ecclesiastical principalities which he had obtained. The headship of Lower Saxony had been long in the hands of the ducal Welfic House; but its various lines, Lüneburg, Wolfenbüttel, Zelle, Harburg, and Dannenberg were now at variance with one another respecting the Principality of Grubenhagen; while Frederick Ulrich, head of what is called the middle line of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, was not only a weak man, but also without the means of supporting an army. The Princes of Lower Saxony had thus begun to look towards Christian IV. for protection; who, by virtue of his Duchy of Holstein, was a member of the Empire and of their own Circle, and by his prosperous reign in Denmark enjoyed at that time a high reputation in Europe. Many volunteers among the Lower Saxons had in 1623 joined Duke Christian of Brunswick, whose defeat by Gonzales de Cordova and flight into Holland in 1622 has been already described (supra, p. 135). Christian was a very different man from his brother Duke Frederick Ulrich, into whose dominions he had returned with his old troops. He had begun his adventures with ten dollars in his pocket, nor would he abandon them after two defeats and the loss of an arm. Christian took the command of the forces levied by the Lower Saxon volunteers, in conjunction with those which he had raised himself; but Tilly hastened towards the north, compelled the Lower Saxon Circle to expel Christian, overtook that Prince as he was retreating into East Friesland to rejoin Count Mansfeld, and entirely defeated him near Stadtlohn, in Westphalia (August 9th, 1623). The Dutch now advised Mansfeld to disband his army, and the League troops and Spaniards established themselves on the Weser. Duke Christian, after his defeat, had given the King of Denmark a still further interest in the German question by transferring to that monarch his Bishopric of Halberstadt; besides which. Christian IV. had procured another see in Mecklenburg for his younger son. The menacing position taken up by the troops of the League in Westphalia, rendered some decisive step necessary. Christian IV., who had assembled an army, was elected military chief of the Circle of Lower Saxony in May, 1625; and on the 18th of that month he addressed a letter to Ferdinand II., CHAP. XXXII.] HOSTILITIES BEGUN. 183 which may be regarded as a declaration of war. He announced to the Emperor his election as head of the Lower Saxon Circle; declared his determination to put an end to the quartering of troops and other burdens with which some of the Princes belonging to that Circle were oppressed, contrary to the Religious Peace and the laws of the Empire; and he reminded Ferdinand that he had neglected to fulfil his promises to himself and his ally, the King of Great Britain, with regard to the Elector Palatine. Ferdinand answered politely, postponing the consideration of the questions urged, though he went on increasing his forces; whilst Tilly, in the Emperor's name, summoned the King of Denmark to lay down the military headship of the Circle, on the ground that it could not be intrusted to a foreign Sovereign. Meanwhile Christian IV. marched his army from the Elbe to the Weser. He had communicated to Gustavus Adolphus the steps which he intended to take, and intimated that his help would be welcome; but the Swedish King, at that time intent on an expedition into Livonia, though he received Christian's message in a friendly spirit, was not then in a position to afford him any succour. Gustavus's campaign in Poland was, however, indirectly beneficial, by preventing the Poles from fulfilling their promise to the Emperor of supporting him by an irruption into Brandenburg. Hostilities were begun by Duke Christian of Brunswick and Count Mansfeld; who having reassembled an army of some 12,000 or 15,000 men, entered the Duchy of Cleves, encamped in the neighbourhood of Wesel, and thence proceeded into the territory of Cologne. Tilly despatched against them the Count of Anhalt, and having been himself reinforced with some Spaniards, laid siege to Höxter. Christian IV. having received some subsidies from Charles I., now King of England, had also begun his march. James I. had repented of neglecting his son-in-law, the Elector Palatine, and on his death-bed had exhorted Charles to use every endeavour to reinstate his sister and her children in their dominions.1 But Charles, who deemed it better to seek the Palatinate in Spain, fitted out an expedition against that country, the ill-success of which has been already related; so that he could afford but little aid to his brother-in-law. In July Christian IV. had marched to Hameln, where his career was arrested by an unfortunate accident. In riding round the ramparts, he fell into a vault twenty feet deep, that had been negligently Mém. de l'Electrice Palatine Louise Juliane, p. 279. |