224 AFFAIRS OF THE NETHERLANDS. [CHAP. XXXIII. Parliament, called the Parliament of Austrasia, was erected at Metz, the jurisdiction of which was intended one day to extend to the Rhine. Thus was broken the last effectual link which connected the Three Bishoprics (Metz, Toul, and Verdun), with the Empire; appeals, which had been formerly made to the Imperial Chamber at Spires, were now heard by the new Parliament, and everywhere the Germanic eagle was displaced by the fleursde-lis. Charles of Lorraine, finding resistance hopeless, abdicated the Duchy in favour of his brother, the Cardinal Nicholas Francis; and, betaking himself with what soldiers still remained to him into the service of the Emperor, became, instead of a bad Sove reign, a valiant adventurer and skilful leader. From this period the house of Lorraine long remained dispersed and fugitive. The Duke's sister, Margaret, having escaped into Belgium, had married the King's brother, Gaston Duke of Orleans, then an exile in that country; which so offended Louis that he instituted a suit against the marriage. Both Gaston and his mother had retired into Belgium after Richelieu's triumph over his political enemies, and Mary de' Medici was received at Brussels with all the solemnity due to an illustrious ally. She was never again to enter France. Spinola, who had been called to Italy in 1629, was succeeded in military command in Belgium by Count van den Berghe, a good soldier. After Spinola's departure, Prince Frederick Henry of Orange resolved, by way of compensation for the loss of Breda, to take Herzogenbusch (Bois-le-Duc). The siege, which occupied the years 1629 and 1630, is among the most remarkable of that period in a military point of view; but the most important circumstance about it is, that by engaging the whole Spanish forces in the Netherlands, it facilitated the conquests of Gustavus Adolphus. Although Van den Berghe came to the relief of the town with 30,000 foot and 10,000 horse, he could not prevent its surrender. He was soon after superseded in the command by the Marquis of Santa Croce, who neither possessed much ability nor enjoyed the confidence of the Spanish Netherlanders. Hence Frederick Henry, whose military operations were supported with the greatest ardour by the Dutch, although deputies were appointed by the States to accompany his movements, was able to find sufficient employment for the Spaniards. In the years 1629 and 1630 the Dutch had about 120,000 men in the field, who were partly supported by voluntary contributions. After the capture of Herzogenbusch, the Prince 1 See Mercure Fr. t. xix. p. 106 sqq.; Richelieu, Mémoires, t. viii. p. 466 (Petitot). CHAP. XXXIII.] FRENCH AND DUTCH ALLIANCE. 225 directed his operations chiefly against Gelderland, and in 1632 he took Maestricht. While the Prince was besieging this place, Santa Croce, with 15,000 men, not venturing to attack his fortified camp, Cordova, with 20,000 men, was recalled from Germany to Santa Croce's help; yet such was the strength of Frederick Henry's position that the Spaniards with their combined forces declined to assault it. The Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia now besought the help of Pappenheim, at that time in Westphalia with a considerable army. Pappenheim led his veterans against the Dutch trenches, August 7th; but the Spaniards, offended by his boast that he would relieve Maestricht, would give him no aid, and coolly looked on while he suffered two bloody repulses on the same day. The Infanta, who was much beloved by the Belgians, and showed as much consideration for them as the Court of Madrid would allow, died in December 1633, after which Belgium again fell under the direct government of Spain. Richelieu had been for some time desirous of entering into a close alliance with the Dutch; and in April, 1634, Charnacé had brought about a treaty by which France engaged to pay a subsidy of two million livres per annum, besides supporting a body of auxiliary troops. This treaty was followed in February, 1635, by a still more effective alliance, offensive and defensive, based on Richelieu's plans for extending the French frontier. Each of the contracting parties engaged to invade the Spanish Netherlands with an army of 30,000 men. The Belgians were to be invited to form themselves into a free and independent State; but a strip of land upon the coast, two leagues in depth, from Gravelines to Blankenberghe, besides the towns of Namur and Diedenhofen, was to be ceded to France; while the United Provinces were to have Hulst and the Pays de Waes, Breda, Geldern, and Stephanswend. If the Belgians persisted in their allegiance to Spain they were to be conquered and partitioned: France was to have Luxemburg, Namur, Hainault, Artois, Flanders, and the Cambrésis; while the share of the United Provinces was to include Antwerp, Brabant, and the coast of Flanders, north of Blankenberghe. England was to be invited to neutrality.' About the same time Richelieu had also made a new treaty with the Swedes. The defeat at Nördlingen, and the knowledge that the Elector of Saxony was endeavouring to effect a peace with the Emperor, left the Swedes no alternative but to throw themselves into the arms of France; and in September envoys 1 Dumont, t. vi. pt. i. p. 80. 1 226 TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XXXIII. were sent to Paris to request that the 6,000 men so often promised should be despatched to their aid, and to urge the French King to break openly with Spain and Austria. Oxenstiern at length procured a treaty to be executed at Paris in November, 1634, by which France engaged to maintain 12,000 men, Germans or others, under the command of a German Prince, and to keep a body of troops on the Rhine, to act in case of need. France was to hold all fortresses conquered on the right bank of the Rhine, from Breisach to Constance; on the left bank she was to have Alsace and its fortresses, and the free use of the bridge at Strasburg, till a future peace. The Swedes, in the places which they should conquer, were not to molest the Catholics in the exercise of their religion. By this treaty, France obtained a seat and vote in the Heilbronn League. Oxenstiern was very much dissatisfied with it, because Bennfelden was given up without payment, and still more because the generalissimo of the allied armies was to be a German Prince, a circumstance which lowered his position in the Empire; he therefore refused to ratify it, dismissed Löffler, the plenipotentiary who had made it, and early in 1635 sent Hugo Grotius to Paris to procure that it should be altered. Grotius having failed in his mission, Oxenstiern himself proceeded int France in April, and had an interview with Louis XIII. at Compiègne. Richelieu, however, would not consent to make any material alteration in the terms, and all that the Swedish Chancellor could obtain was that a fresh treaty should be drawn up for his signature. Oxenstiern arrived in Sweden in the summer of 1636, and never returned into Germany.3 2 In these transactions Richelieu endeavoured to avoid an open breach with the Emperor, though the French and Imperial troops could not avoid coming into collision. In December, 1634. Marshals La Force and Brezé compelled the Imperialists and Bavarians to raise the siege of Heidelberg, defended by a Swedish garrison. In January, 1635, the Imperialists took Philippsburg from the French, and two months after a Spanish corps surprised Treves, cut the French garrison to pieces, and carried off the Elector, Philip Christopher, a prisoner to Antwerp. This even: had important consequences. Richelieu immediately demanded the Elector's liberation from the Cardinal-Infant, the new Governor of the Netherlands, and on his delaying, on the pretext that b must await the orders of the Imperial and Spanish Courts, wa 1 Dumont, t. vi. pt. i. p. 79. CHAP. XXXIII.] WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND SPAIN. 227 was openly declared by a French herald at Brussels, May 26th, 1635. So haughty was the tone adopted by France that the Spanish ambassador at Paris departed without taking leave, while the French ambassador at Madrid was arrested. On the 6th of. June Louis XIII. published a declaration of the motives which had led to this rupture, a prelude to the colossal strife that was to follow. The Elector of Treves, who, like several other Princes of the Empire, had been put under the Imperial ban for admitting French troops into Ehrenbreitstein and other places, was finally carried to Vienna, where he was kept a prisoner ten years. Another grave cause of offence was his having named Richelieu his coadjutor, a step by which that Cardinal might have eventually secured a vote as one of the Imperial Electors; but his nomination was disallowed by Pope Urban VIII. In Germany, meanwhile, affairs had assumed a new face by the peace of Prague. After the overthrow at Nördlingen, the only Swedish force consisted of Baner's army, encamped at Leitmeritz in Bohemia, which immediately broke up and proceeded into Thuringia. The difficulties of Baner's position were increased by his disputes with the Elector of Saxony. John George had been long wavering, and the disaster at Nördlingen determined him to go over to the Emperor. Negotiations were opened at Pirna; better terms were offered to the Elector than he might reasonably have anticipated, particularly the permanent cession to him of Lusatia, which had been made over to him as a pledge in 1621; preliminaries were signed at Pirna in November, 1634, and on May 30th, 1635, was definitely concluded the PEACE OF PRAGUE. By this treaty it was agreed, with regard to the affairs of religion, that all mediate possessions of the Church secularized before the Peace of Passau should remain to the Protestants for ever, and that all other mediate possessions, and such immediate ones as had been confiscated since the Peace of Passau, should remain to them for forty years, before the expiration of which erm a mixed commission was to settle how such property should be proceeded with at the end of it. The immediate obility and the Imperial cities were to be allowed the utheran worship, a privilege, however, granted only to Silesia among the lands subject to the House of Austria. With egard to political affairs, the hereditary right of the House of Austria to the Bohemian Crown was acknowledged; Lusatia was eded to the Elector of Saxony as a Bohemian fief, and his son vas invested with the administration of Magdeburg; Pomerania 228 PEACE OF PRAGUE. [CHAP. XXXIII. was to be made over to the Elector of Brandenburg, in case he acceded to the treaty; a general amnesty was to be granted; all leagues were to be dissolved, and the paramount authority of the Emperor was to be everywhere acknowledged. It was also agreed that the Duke of Lorraine should be re-established in his Duchv. The Emperor could not be induced to make any concessions respecting the Palatinate or the Bohemian Protestants. By an express article, the Elector was to assist in expelling the Swedes from Germany, and thus Saxony was pledged to a war. Such was the return made by John George to the Swedes, whose King had fallen in defending his Electorate! This peace brought a storm of obloquy on John George; he was accused of sacrificing the family of the unfortunate Palatine to the vengeance of the Emperor, and of arming Germany against the Swedes, who had thrice been the means of saving his dominions. Nevertheless by degrees all the Princes and States of the Empire acceded to the treaty of Prague, with the exception of Hesse-Cassel and the other Calvinist States. The Swedish Government also desired peace, and Oxenstiern, whom they accused of opposing it, while Richelieu was reproaching him with having lost all courage for the prosecution of the war, was placed in a most difficult situation. The Swedish States, however. assembled in the autumn of 1635, recognized the impossibility of acceding to the Treaty of Prague. The Elector of Saxony, whe had made it, was, after all, only a subject, and any treaty tha Sweden should enter into must, with regard both to her dignity and safety, be made directly with the Emperor. But Oxenstiern's proposals to the Court of Vienna remained unanswered.3 2 Towards the end of May, 1635, the French, after defeating th Spanish forces under the Piedmontese Prince of Carignano, whi had endeavoured to obstruct their passage, formed a junctiva with the Dutch at Maestricht, when the Prince of Orange tocs the command in chief of the allied forces. The campaign, however, went against the Allies. The brutality displayed by both armies at the taking of Tirlemont exasperated the Belgians, wh instead of listening to the offers of independence, threw therselves into the arms of the Spaniards. The Peace of Prag enabled the Emperor to send Piccolomini, with 20,000 men, int Belgium; another division threatened the Isle of Batavia; and t allies, instead of conquering Belgium, found themselves reduce The treaty is in Londorp, t. iv. p. 468; Dumont, t. vi. pt. i. p. 88. 2 Mémoires, t. viii. p. 352; t. ix. p. 3 3 Geijer, B. iii. S. 302 f. |