274

TREATIES OF WESTPHALIA.

[CHAP. XXXIV. and other tribunals, tending to give the Protestants a larger share of power. The authority of the Aulic Council was recognized by this treaty, but nothing was determined respecting its constitution. and it was not till 1654 that the Emperor, of his own authority. fixed the number of Aulic Councillors (besides a President and Vice-president) at eighteen, of whom six were to be Protestants. But the most important article of this part of the treaty was tha: by which the various Princes and States of Germany were permitted to contract defensive alliances among themselves, or with foreigners, provided they were not against the Emperor, or the public peace of the Empire-conditions easily evaded.

Respecting the affairs of religion in the Empire, as the Catholics sometimes pretended that the Religious Peace of 1555 had been only temporary, and ceased to have force of law after the dissolution of the Council of Trent, it was now formally renewed, subject to certain interpretations; and it was agreed that members of the Reformed Church, or Calvinists, were comprehended under it, and put on the same footing as those belonging to the Confession of Augsburg, or Lutherans. This concession was opposed by the latter sect, but readily agreed to by the Emperor. And ir general everything concerning religion was referred to the footing on which it stood on New-Year's day, 1624, hence called the decretory, or normal, year.

With regard to the satisfaction of France, the Bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, which, indeed, she had held for nearly a century, were ceded to her in full sovereignty, as well as Pinerol in Piedmont. The Emperor and the House of Austria also ceded to France all their right to Breisach, Upper and Lower Alsace, the Sundgau, and the prefecture of the ten Imperial cities of Hagenau, Rosheim, Oberehnheim, Landau, Weissenburg, Schlettstadt. Colmar, Münster im Gregorienthal, Kaisersberg, and Türkhein, on condition that the Catholic religion should be upheld in these lands and towns. France was empowered to maintain a garriser in Phillipsburg. The Breisgau and the Rhenish Forest towns were to be restored to the House of Austria. It had been debate whether France should hold Alsace as a fief of the Empire, wit a seat in the Diet, or in full sovereignty. Avaux had inclined t the former plan, which was also supported by the Elector of Bavaria, and several of the Catholic States of Germany; while, e the other hand, it was opposed by the Protestant States assemble at Osnabrück, and by the Emperor, who was unwilling to see b most dangerous enemy admitted, as it were, into his very house

CHAP. XXXIV.]

CESSIONS TO FRANCE AND SWEDEN.

275

hold. Servien too, the colleague of Avaux, disapproved of a plan that would lower the dignity of France, by rendering its King a vassal of the Emperor; and this view of the matter prevailed at the French Court.

For the satisfaction of Sweden were ceded to her, as perpetual and hereditary fiefs, all Western Pomerania, together with the towns of Stettin, Garz, Damm, and Gollnow at the mouth of the Oder, the islands of Wollin, Usedom, and Rügen, the city and port of Wismar in Mecklenburg, and the secularized Bishoprics of Bremen and Verden, the former as a Duchy, the latter as a Principality; with seat and triple vote in the Diets of the Empire. Sweden was allowed to erect a University, which was afterwards established at Greifswald.

Other articles regulated the compensation to be made to German Princes; by which the Houses that chiefly profited were those of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Brunswick, and Hesse. Brandenburg, which was soon to assume a foremost rank among German States, for the part of Pomerania which she abandoned to Sweden, received the Bishopric (henceforth Principality) of Halbertstadt with the Lordships of Lohra and Klettenberg, the Bishoprics of Minden and Camin, the former secularized as a Principality, and, after the death of Prince Augustus of Saxony, the reversion of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg secularized as a Duchy.

By the Peace of Westphalia the independence of the Swiss League was recognized, and the Empire acknowledged also the independence of the Northern Netherlands, nor made any provision for the free navigation of the Rhine. The question respecting the succession to the inheritance of Jülich was referred to future adjustment. There were many other articles respecting the surety and guarantee of the peace, its execution, the pay of the soldiery, evacuation of fortresses; &c., which it is not necessary here to detail.1

As the Pope seemed to be included in the peace as an ally of the Emperor, under the expression "the Princes and Republics of Italy," the Nuncio Chigi, immediately after the completion of the treaty, entered a protest against it; not indeed against the peace itself, but against the articles which it contained detrimental to the Church of Rome; and Pope Innocent X. soon after

I The chief work on the Peace of Westphalia is that of Meiern, Acta Pacis Westphalica publica, Hanover, 1734, 6 vols. fol. The treaties are in Bougeant, liv. x. t. vi., and Dumont, t. vi. pt. i. p. 450 sqq. Wolt

mannn's Gesch. des Westphälisches Friedens may also be consulted. The general reader will find all that he can require in the summary of the Count de Garden, Hist des Traités de Paix, t. i. § 4.

276 THE POPE DECLARES THE TREATIES NULL. [CHAP. XXXIV. published a bull (November 26th) declaring the treaties of Münster and Osnabrück null and void. Such weapons, however, were now mere bruta fulmina. Even the Catholic Princes, who were glad to see the war ended, gave little heed to the Pope's proceedings; and Ferdinand III. himself, notwithstanding his devotion to the Holy See, did not hesitate to forbid the circulation of the bull.'

Thus the policy of France and Sweden was entirely successful. These countries, besides raising up a counterpoise to the power of the Emperor in Germany itself, had succeeded in aggrandizing themselves at the expense of the Empire. Sweden, indeed, in the course of the next century was to lose most of her acquisitions; but France had at last seated herself, for more than two coming centuries, on the Rhine; the House of Austria lost the preponderance it had enjoyed since the time of Charles V., which was now to be transferred to her rival; and, during the ensuing period, we shall have to contemplate France as the leading European Power; a post which she mainly owed to the genius and policy of Cardinal Richelieu. Thus the peace of Westphalia marks a new era in the policy and public law of Europe.

The protest and bull are in Dumont, t. vi. pt. i. p. 462.

CHAP. XXXV.] FRANCE AND SPAIN UNRECONCILED.

277

CHAPTER XXXV.

HE Peace of Westphalia, as we have seen, had not included

for continuing the war. France was still animated with the ancient spirit of rivalry, nor had yet forgotten the painful sacrifices imposed upon her by the peace of Madrid in 1526; wounds only partially healed by the treaties of Cambrai, of Câteau Cambrésis, and of Vervins. The national animosity was kept alive by the counsels of Mazarin, who had his private reasons for desiring the prolongation of a war which provided employment abroad for those restless spirits which threatened his domination at home. Spain, on the other hand, though terribly exhausted, found in the aspect of affairs, some hopeful and encouraging circumstances. The state of her foreign relations was favourable. The peace which she had concluded with the United Netherlands had diminished the number of her enemies; on the side of England, now approaching the catastrophe of her long civil wars, there was nothing to be dreaded; and though the German branch of the House of Austria was precluded by the peace from lending her any open assistance, yet she might reckon on the good wishes, and even the secret aid, of the Emperor Ferdinand III. Above all, the Cabinet of Madrid was encouraged by the domestic troubles which then agitated France.

The sedition of the FRONDE,' though it nearly caused a revolution in France, is important in the general affairs of Europe only as crippling for some years the power of that country, and ranging the military talents of Condé on the side of Spain; and we shall therefore enter but very briefly into its history.

Although the victories of Condé and Turenne had gratified the national vanity and thrown a lustre on the administration of Anne of Austria and Mazarin, they had not been purchased without many sacrifices and privations. As a financier Mazarin had

This ridiculous name, which, however, is sufficiently characteristic of this halftragic, half-comic disturbance, is said to

have been derived from the slings used by the Parisian gamins in their sports.

278

THE FRONDE.

[CHAP. XXXV. neither skill nor conscience, and Eméri, his agent, was entirely unscrupulous. The taxes had been everywhere increased, and in some places, as Languedoc, it had been necessary to levy them by force. But it was the Parisians, and especially the sovereign courts, that had been chiefly incensed by the tyrannical proceedings of the cabinet, of which we can select only a few examples. In 1644 Eméri had thought proper to revive an obsolete edict, passed in 1548, soon after the invasion of Charles V., and inspired by the fear that the capital might be besieged, by which it was forbidden to erect any buildings outside the walls of Paris. Its operation, however, had subsided with the alarm which gave it birth, and the vacant space had been covered with the dwellings of the poorer classes of the population. The proprietors were now called upon to pay a tax in proportion to the space occupied; and, in case of non-compliance, they were threatened with the demolition of their houses. The president Barillon and several others, who pleaded in favour of these poor people, were snatched from their homes and incarcerated. Barillon was carried to Pinerolo in Piedmont, where he soon after died. Among other odious ways of raising money, Mazarin resorted to a forced loan, and put a duty on all articles of consumption entering Paris. This last measure, as it touched the pockets of all, may be regarded as the principal cause of the disturbances which followed. Having thus disgusted the citizens, his next step was to alienate the magistrates. The guaranty of hereditary succession to offices that had been purchased, renewable every nine years, expired on January 1st, 1648; and Mazarin, to insure the submission of the Parliament, and compel them to register his edicts, refused to renew it. As there were between 40,000 and 50,000 families in France dependent on these places, the discontent thus occasioned may be imagined. New magistrates were created, and the old ones were only continued in their places at a sacrifice of four years' income. In order, however, not to offend the whole Parliament, the edict was confined to such chambers as were not strictly courts of justice; as the Chambre des Comptes, the Cour des Aules, and the Grand Conseil. But these chambers called upon the Parliament to defend their rights; and by an Arrêt d'Unice, deputies from all the chambers were summoned to meet together in the Chambre de St. Louis, and consult for the common good. The Arrêt was annulled by the Royal Council, yet the self-constituted chamber continued its sittings, and instead of confining itself to questions concerning the interest and jurisdiction of the