LOUIS XIV.

1643-1715.

PART I.

LOUIS XIV. was only five years old when he ascended the throne. Anne of Austria, supported by the Duke de Vendôme, his son (the Duc de Beaufort), and the Duke of Orleans, easily broke the will of Louis XIII., and took the power into her own hands. During four years her reign prospered. The war with Austria was continued, and five days after the death of Louis XIII., the Duc d'Enghien, a youth of twenty-one years of age, won the battle of Rocroi over the Spanish infantry. In 1644 he gained another victory over the Imperialist general Mercy, at Fribourg. Mercy, however, defeated Turenne, in May, 1645, and d'Enghien was ordered to the Rhine to repair this defeat; Gassion and Turrenne commanded under his orders. Mercy had fortified himself near Nordlingen, in Bavaria, aided by the famous John der Werth. The conflict was long and desperate, and d'Enghien despaired of victory, but Mercy was slain and the enemy forced to retreat. Condé took Dunkirk, but failed at the siege Lérida. He repaired his defeat by gaining the battle of Lens, 1648. Before the engagement he cried out to his troops, "Friends, remember Rocroi, Fribourg, and Nordlingen."

The treaty of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years war in Germany; it secured to France the possession of Alsace, Metz, Toul, and Verdun. "The War of the Thirty Years was the last struggle sustained for the cause of the reformed religion, which, for a hundred years, had served as a pretext for all the trouble that had overwhelmed Europe, from the

revolt of the peasants of Swabia, under Charles V., to the peace of Westphalia. It is usually divided into four periods: 1st, the Palatinate, from the defenestration of Prague to the ruin of the Elector Frederick; 2nd, the Danish period, from the attempts made to penetrate into Germany by Christiern IV., of Denmark, to the embarcation of Gustavus Adolphus; 3rdly, that prince's exploits up to the fatal battle of Lutzen; 4th, the French period, from the French armies by Cardinal Richelieu appearing on the borders of the Rhine to the conclusion of peace of Munster."-Timbs.

Mazarin, the successor of Richelieu, was greatly disliked by the people. He was to the nation an object of disdain on account of his avarice, of ridicule on account of his language, half Italian, half French; and of hatred because he was a foreigner. His subaltern, d'Emery, loaded the people with taxes; he used to say, Superintendents are only made to do evil: good faith is useful to merchants only." He proposed to raise a fine upon all houses built in the suburbs, but the parliament forbade the fiscal officers to enforce the tax; it was consequently withdrawn, and a loan of eighteen millions was to be forced upon the notables of Paris instead; the parliament registered this decree, but would not force its execution. Emery next proposed a tax upon all articles of consumption entering Paris, but was obliged to abandon this plan of filling the treasury also. Mazarin then "recurred to the old ruinous plan of creating new offices, and selling them. This he thought the scheme most acceptable to parliament; but they were now acquainted with their strength, and with the timid character of the minister, who felt obliged to make use of the dignity of the king's presence. A bed of justice was accordingly

held in February, 1648. The parliament registered in silence, but on the following day declared its assent to have been forced and the registry invalid. The queen was enraged at this audacious act. In July the Parliament produced its plan of reformation. This recommended, in the first place, the removal of the intendants whom Richelieu had appointed, the diminution of the "taille," the illegality of a taxes not consented to by the sovereign courts of law, and, finally, a kind of "habeas corpus," by which every prisoner was to be interrogated within twenty-four hours after his arrest, and brought before his natural judges. No marvel that the court, in the words of de Retz, "felt itself touched in the apple of the eye," by these bold demands, which constituted not less than a free constitution. It cost Anne of Austria fresh tears

and new bursts of rage.

The blood of Charles V. and
Not in a position to

Philip II. might well burn within her.
deny, the minister determined to evade. In a bed of justice
the young king was made to grant some immaterial demands,
but the principal articles were found to want the expression
which gave them force. The presence of royalty did not
now keep down the murmurs, and the boyhood of Louis XIV.,
unfortunately saw his dignity insulted, and his authority
denied. Bred up in these quarrels, his young ears drank in
the continued complaints and imprecations of his mother
against the parliament, and the circumstances increased that
strong bias to despotism which was but natural to his
station."-Crewe.

The Queen and Mazarin, however, did not intend to yield, and at the noise of the cannon which announced the victory of Lens, the court arrested three of the principal magistrates:

Charton, who escaped, Blancmenil, and Broussel. At the alarm given by the servant of the latter, the populace rose and passed the night in erecting barricades. One cry alone was heard: "Broussel and liberty." Anne of Austria, upon being told of the alarming state of the city, said: “It is rebellion itself to imagine the people can rebel, you would have me deliver Broussel; I will first strangle him with these hands." She was forced, however, to give up both Blancmenil and Broussel.

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At this time began also the disturbances called the "Fronde," so named, according to some authors, from the verb " fronder," to censure; and, according to others, from a game played by children in the ditches of Paris, and who attacked each other with the "fronde" or sling used to fling stones. The enemies of the cardinal were called "frondeurs;" they wore as a sign of their party a little stone attached to the hat, and afterwards they carried a bouquet of straw. The partizans of the court were called Mazarins," and wore a bouquet of paper. The principal frondeurs were the Prince of Conti, brother of Condé, the Dukes of Bouillon, Beaufort, (surnamed le roi des halles), La Rochefoucauld, Longueville, Vendôme, Nemours, and Gondy, afterwards Cardinal de Retz, who had at first tried to make peace between the two parties, but, failing, had then joined the Fronde. This war, celebrated for great names and little effects, continued for some time, and the queen, alarmed, retired with her children, Mazarin, Condé and the Duke of Orleans, to St. Germaine-en-Laye. She implored Condé to help her; he did not like the cardinal, “but," said he, "I am a Bourbon, and I do not want to embroil the state." In August, 1649, he signed a peace with the dis

contents at Reuil, and the royal family returned to Paris. De Retz abandoned the Fronde for a time, and as a reward received the rank of Cardinal; Condé finding his services slighted, revolted, and was confined by Mazarin, first at Vincennes, and afterwards at Hâvre, together with his brother the Prince of Conti, and the Duke of Longueville. The people, however, were so irritated against Mazarin that he was obliged to leave France. He retired first to Belgium, and later to Cologne; before his departure he released the three princes he had confined at Hâvre. Condé now returned to Paris and became all-powerful. The Queen allied with him, and granted that the marriage between the Prince of Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse should be broken off. This caused a quarrel between Condé and the party of the Fronde. The prince found every party deserting him; Anne of Austria, who had only affected friendship for him, and was in reality most anxious for the return of Mazarin, threw off the mask: he found himself without support or friend, and went to Guienne, where he again revolted. Louis XIV. was declared of age in September, 1651; his mother still retained the royal authority, and determined to recall her favourite Mazarin, who accordingly joined the court at Poitiers, and took his place as head of the council, to the great anger of the parliament. Marshal Turenne was put at the head of the royal troops, and defeated Condé, who retired into Spain. Gaston of Orleans was exiled to Blois for the part he had taken in this revolt. From this time the war of the Fronde ceased to be dangerous; indeed, it has always been regarded by Voltaire, and some others, as a pastime. Peace was concluded between France and Spain in 1659, by the treaty of the Pyrennees, by which it was