1648. by the treasury of France, conquered Elsatz, A. D. 1638 A.D. The Swedes had again penetrated into the country, defeated the Saxons, and taken up their position in Schlesien. The Emperor proposed terms of peace, although he had all along been expecting and hoping the fortune of war would change, and place his enemies at his mercy. No sooner, then, had the French been defeated, and the Swedes withdrawn their troops to Denmark, than he forgot the treaty he had proposed. The French, however, soon made new conquests, and, crossing the Rhine, they advanced into the heart of Bavaria. The Danes were soon reduced to subjection, and in the winter of 1645 A.D., Torstenson, the Swedish general, was again defeated in Bohemia. And now the Emperor was anxiously negotiating conditions of peace both at Osnabrucke and Munster; still almost every article required an appeal to arms to enforce it. But when the French had lost all patience by these repeated deceptions, and had returned in the greatest fury and laid waste Bavaria, and when the Swedes had also taken and pillaged without mercy a large suburb of Prague, the Emperor gave way to his fears, and signed the treaty of peace on the 6th of August, 1648 A. D. Elector of the Pfalz was reinstated, the Protestants were allowed the public exercise of their religion, and obtained in every respect equal privileges with the Roman Catholics. A part of Pomerania was given to Sweden, and Elsatz to France. The 1648. A. D. Germany was made a perfect waste, and whole tracts of land presented the appearance of a wilderness. Heaps of ruins and of ashes, towns and villages overthrown, covered that once flourishing country, and even where a town was still left standing, many of the houses were desolate and forsaken. 1572. CHAP. LIX. HENRY IV. A. D. OF all the princes that ever reigned in Europe, one of the most renowned was Henry IV., King of France from the year 1589 to 1610 A.D. In his youth he received an excellent education, but espousing the doctrines of the Reformation, he was hated at the court of the Roman Catholic king. On the 24th of August, 1572 A.D., all the Reformers in Paris were treacherously murdered, and Henry himself only escaped by pretending for a time that he was willing to adopt the Roman Catholic faith. At a later period, however, he stood up manfully in defence of his principles and Protestant rights; but when, in the year 1589 A. D., he was next heir to the throne, the Roman Catholics refused to acknowledge him as their sovereign. It is true that Henry in 1590 A. D. won a battle against them; still Paris closed her gates against her conqueror, and, unwilling to reduce his Parisian subjects to the extremities of famine, he raised the siege. And now force and 1593. generosity proved equally unavailing, and one A.г. means only remained to give peace to his country, and that was apostacy. In the year 1593 A. D., Henry embraced the Roman Catholic religion. Paris now opened her gates, and he no sooner entered the town than he generously pardoned all who had taken part against him. After quieting the whole of Roman Catholic France by virtue of the Edict of Nantes, he secured to the Reformers, in matters of religion, a measure of freedom of conscience to which his own sincerity had won the assent of his Roman Catholic councillors. He now sought every means of diffusing prosperity throughout his dominions: he encouraged agriculture, reduced taxation, planted mulberry trees, and introduced the breeding of silkworms, and also gave increased facilities to commercial intercourse, and endeavoured, by his own example, to recommend simplicity of dress. No sooner was he free from war himself, than he took a pleasure in settling the disputes of his neighbours, and more especially entertained a project of humbling the tyrannical power of Spain, having formed the noble design. of establishing a lasting peace among all nations. Notwithstanding all his philanthropic intentions, Henry IV. was assassinated by a fanatic named Francis Ravaillac, on the 14th March, 1610 a. D. One blessing fell to the lot of Henry, which monarchs can rarely call their own, namely, a true and noble-hearted friend; such was the faithful Sully. And what, perhaps, is rarer still, Henry always permitted that friend to speak with can 1610. A. D. dour and without disguise, or if conscious of a momentary feeling of impatience, it soon passed away, and was followed by a reconciliation which never failed to make the friends still more fervent and affectionate than before. 1643. CHAP. LX. LEWIS XIV., HIS LIFE AND TIMES. A. D. LEWIS XIV. was grandson of Henry IV., and reigned from the year 1643 to 1715 A.D. His reign was the most brilliant in the history of French kings, but by no means the most beneficial to his country. Lewis was naturally fond of war, and was himself a brave warrior, with many great generals to act under his command. Lewis humbled Spain and Austria, reduced the power of Holland, and was master of the sea. He was at the zenith of his power in 1685 A. D., and in 1688, though every state bordering on France united with England against him, he still continued victorious, and in 1697 concluded a peace of which the terms were dictated by himself. In 1701 arose the war which is commonly called "The War of the Spanish Succession." Lewis aimed at making his grandson Philip king of Spain, in opposition to Charles of Austria. Whereupon several of the European powers formed a confederacy called the League of Augsburg, which Lewis was unable to resist; he was at a loss both The exhausted A. D. for money and commanders. 1715. |