404

FREDERICK IV. ACCEDES IN DENMARK. [CHAP. XXXVIII.

the "Reduction." The province of Livonia was the chief sufferer by it, where nearly five-sixths of the whole landed estates of the province were adjudged to the Crown.' This unjust and violer: measure, which deprived a great number of families of their patrimony, was further aggravated by the imposition of a tax amounting to a fourth part of the revenues of the nobles. A deputation from Livonia having warmly protested at Stockholm against these proceedings, and having resorted to steps offensive to the Court, were criminally indicted and condemned to death as rebels (1694). This penalty was commuted as regards three of the deputies, for perpetual imprisonment; the fourth, John Reinhold Patkul, having escaped into Poland, entered the service of Augustus II., and became the principal instigator of that league against Sweden which we shall have to relate in a subsequen chapter.

During the latter part of his reign, which lasted till 1697, Charles XI. remained at peace, and employed himself in restoring the army and navy, in improving the finances, and accumulating a treasure; which enabled his son and successor, Charles XII, again to assert for a short period the supremacy of the Swedish arms. Although the measures of Charles XI. were often tyrannical, it must be confessed that they were designed for the public good: he and his family lived in a simple and sparing manner, and the large sums which he wrung from the people were applied for their benefit. The regulations which he adopted concerning the army rendered it a national institution. Every nobleman who had an income of from 500 to 580 marks, was bound to provide a soldier; if his income was double that sum, two soldiers, and so on, in the same ratio. The peasant, or several peasants together, were in like manner bound to provide a man, whom they em ployed and kept, the King only finding his horse. The soldiers thus provided were exercised twice a year; and in this manner was formed, from the pith of the nation, the army which performe. such wonders under Charles XII.

Christian V. of Denmark reigned till 1699, when he was succeeded by his son, Frederick IV. Christian's reign, subsequently to the peace of Lunden, like that of his rival, Charles X., presents little worthy of notice.

1 De Bray, Essai Crit. sur l'Hist. de la Livonie, ap. Koch and Schoell, Hist. des Trance, t. xiii. p. 156.

CHAP. XXXIX.]

CHAMBRES DE REUNION.

405

TH

CHAPTER XXXIX.

HE ambition of Louis was not satisfied with the Peace of Nimeguen. He contemplated it, like those of Westphalia and the Pyrenees, only as a stepping-stone to further acquisitions, which were to be made by means of the very treaties themselves. Disputes had been going on the last twenty years between France and the Empire as to the extent of the cessions made by the Treaty of Westphalia. Louis XIV. contended that the cession of the three bishoprics, Metz, Toul, and Verdun, with their dependencies, included the sovereignty of the German fiefs which held under them; thus identifying vassalage with the sovereignty of the feudal lord-a principle at variance with the public law of Germany. The Imperial plenipotentiaries had neglected to discuss the principle at Nimeguen, and Louis now proceeded to reopen the whole question; not only with regard to the bishoprics, but also his more recent acquisitions of Alsace and FrancheComté. In 1680 were established in the Parliaments of Metz, of Besançon, in Franche-Comté, and in the Sovereign Council of Alsace, then sitting at Breisach, certain Chambers called Chambres Royales de Réunion, in order to examine the nature and extent of the cessions made to France by the Treaties of Westphalia, the Pyrenees, and Nimeguen. The researches of these Chambers were carried back to the times of the Frankish kings. The Alsatian Chamber, whose decisions seem to have been justified by the text of the Treaty of Westphalia,' adjudicated to France the bishopric of Strasburg, the abbeys of Murbach, Lure, Andlau, and Weissemburg, a great part of the bishopric of Spires, and the counties of Horburg, Lichtenberg, and other places. The Chamber of Metz, though with less appearance of equity, went still further, and reunited to the French Crown all the Hundsrück, the Duchy of Zwey-brücken, or Deux-Ponts, the counties of Saarbrück, Veldenz, and Salm, the Lordships of Bitsche, Sarreburg, Homburg, part of the states of the Rhinegraves and Counts of Linange, and a number of immediate territories and lordships.

Pfeffel, Hist. d'Allemagne, t. ii. p. 400.

406

LOUIS SEIZES STRASBURG.

[CHAP. XXXIX. Nay, this Chamber eventually adjudged to Louis the dependencies of the county of Chiny, comprising a full third of the Duchy of Luxembourg, besides the sovereignty of the Duchy of Bouiller, of the territory between the Sambre and the Meuse, and of some other districts in the Bishopric of Liége. The Chamber of Besançon, although Franche-Comté had been but so recently annexed to the French Crown, was as zealous for its interests as the others, and adjudged to it the county of Montbéliard, and four lordships holding of the county of Burgundy. These assignments affected the domains of several considerable potentates; as the Elector of Trèves, the Elector Palatine, the Duke of Würtemberg, the King of Sweden for the Duchy of Deux-Ponts, and others of less name. The King of Sweden remonstrated, but without effect. The Chamber of Metz decreed that if homage were not rendered within a certain time, the Duchy of Deux-Ponts would be reunited to the Crown; and as Charles XI. refused thus to abase his royal dignity, the duchy was confiscated, and Louis XIV. invested with it as a fief the Prince Palatine of Birkenfeld.

The possession of the Imperial city of Strasburg was a principa! object with Louis. Till that city was in his hands, Alsace could never be considered in safety, and the passage of the Rhine might at any time be secured to the Imperial armies. In the late war Strasburg had retained a neutral posture, which was regarded by the French as a want of loyalty, and it was resolved to seize the city on the first opportunity, under the decree of the Chamber of Breisach. The municipal government was gained by bribes, and on July 28th, 1681, an army of 35,000 men, concentrated from various quarters with great celerity, appeared before its walls. Resistance was useless; the Imperial Resident attempted to raise the people, but the magistrates had taken care to deprive the city of all means of defence, and no alternative remained but to accept the favourable capitulation offered by the French. Strasburg, by recognizing Louis as its sovereign lord, obtained the confirmation of all its civil and religious rights and liberties, and continued to form a sort of republic under the authority of France down to the time of the French Revolution. Louis XIV. entered Strasburg in person, October 23rd. It was then consigned to the skill f Vauban, who rendered it a fortress of the first order, and the bulwark of France on the east.

Louis also sought to make acquisitions in the Spanish Nether lands. By forced interpretations of the Treaty of Nimeguen, be pretended a right to all the towns and districts which had been

CHAP. XXXIX.]

EXORBITANT AMBITION OF LOUIS XIV. 407

occupied by his troops during the late war, although these had been withdrawn either at or before the peace, on the ground that the restitution of such places had not been expressly stipulated. On this pretext he claimed the Burgraviate, or ancient borough of Ghent, Beveren, Alost, Gramont, Ninove, and Lessines. The real object of these claims, however, the granting of which, as Louis himself admitted, would have entirely compromised the safety of the Spanish Netherlands, was to obtain concessions on the side of Luxembourg; and therefore to the indignant remonstrances of the Spanish Cabinet, he coolly replied that he should be ready to listen to any proposals of exchange. To keep the French out of Flanders, Spain ceded the county of Chiny, adjudged, as we have said, to the crown of France by the Parliament of Metz. But it was then discovered, or pretended, that this inconsiderable domain, whose capital was a mere village, possessed dependencies which extended to the very gates of Luxembourg; and the King of Spain was called on to do homage for a multitude of arrière fiefs. At the same time Louis was seeking to extend his dominions on the side of Italy. He entertained the project of obtaining Savoy, by procuring the marriage of the young duke, Victor Amadeus II., who had succeeded to his father, Charles Emmanuel II., in 1675, with the heiress of Portugal. Victor, it was expected, would cede his duchy to France on obtaining the Portuguese crown; he had already been betrothed. (March 1681), and was on the point of setting off for Lisbon, when he was deterred by the remonstrances and threats of the Piedmontese from completing the marriage. Louis, however, was in some degree consoled for this disappointment by the occupation of Casale in September, 1681, which he had purchased from the profligate and needy Duke of Montferrat.

These pretensions and acquisitions alarmed all Europe. Louis, it was said, was aiming at a universal monarchy, and the suspicion was encouraged by his attempts on the Empire itself. A pretended Imperial capitulation was circulated in Germany in July, 1681, by which the Dauphin was to be elected King of the Romans, and consequently the presumptive successor of the Emperor Leopold.1 Symptoms of resistance began to appear. In October, 1681, the King of Sweden concluded a treaty with the United Netherlands to guarantee the Treaties of Münster and Nimeguen against violation. The Emperor acceded to this treaty in February, 1682, and Spain in the following May. It was probably these move

1 Dumont, Mémoires politiques, ap. Martin, t. xiii. p. 587.

408

:

ALLIANCES AGAINST FRANCE.

[CHAP. XXXIX. ments that caused Louis to withdraw the troops which were blockading Luxembourg, and to offer to refer his claims to the mediation of the King of England. This appears from a treaty which he concluded about this time (January 22nd), with the Elector, Frederick William of Brandenburg. Although many of the German States were joining the league against French ambition, that politic Prince, from the hope apparently of regaining Pomerania by the aid of Louis, not only refused to participate in such an alliance, but also undertook to use his endeavours for a peaceful solution of the points in question between France and the Empire in other words, to induce the Emperor to give up t the French the places which they had occupied. Louis promise in return to put a stop to further reunions, and not to resort to arms so long as any hope remained of a friendly settlement.' He claimed for his motives the praise of a disinterested generosity, and he gave out that he had no wish to disturb the peace of Europe at a moment when it was menaced by the Turks, or to prevent Spain from succouring the Emperor against the common enemy of Christendom. His plans, therefore, were for the present postponed, though not abandoned. But Europe knew how to appreciate his moderation. The alliances of the German States against France were pushed more vigorously than ever, and were ever joined by the young Elector of Bavaria, Louis's son-in-law; and in the spring of 1682, the Emperor, Spain, Sweden and Holland renewed their conventions for mutual succour." Louis, however, who, in spite of his pretended generosity, was secretly encouraging the Turks to attack the Emperor, gave an ostensible colouring to his assertions by bombarding Algiers (June, 1682), in punishment of the many piracies committed by the Algerines on French subjects. The bombardment was renewed in the following year: but it was not till April, 1684, that the Dey was reduced to submission.

The pretended forbearance of Louis had come to an end while the motive alleged for it was not only still in existence but had even become more powerful than ever. In the summer of 1683. while the Turks were in full march upon Vienna, Louis was preparing to assert by arms his claims on the Spanish Netherlands. During the two months, indeed, that the Turks were encamped before Vienna, he suspended the blow which he was prepared to

Puffendorf, De Rebus g. Frid. Wilhelmi, lib. xviii. § 44. Cf. Stenzel, Gesch. des preussischen Staates, B. ii. S. 414, Anm. 1.

2 The Austrian and Turkish war wil be related in another chapter.

3 Dumont, t. vii. pt. ii. p. 22 $11.