and acquire preponderance. In these selfish and personal quarrels, nation and class both lost sight of their peculiar interest as well as of the public advantage. But the danger of giving apanages was soon perceived. Princes and nobles were no longer indulged with provinces places and pensions were bestowed in lieu. Charles VII. had begun this system; and he was enabled to do so, being the first monarch who levied a fixed and perpetual tax. In this arrangement, the great nobles were to have a share in the public contribution, while the smaller, forming the great mass of the nobility, were to be exempt from paying their quota. Thus were all those of higher birth in the nation attached to despotic royalty by the simple and stubborn tie of self-interest. The demands of the nobles in the present assembly of states were merely against being summoned by the arrière-ban to war at their own expense. Louis XI., who found that they paid no taille under the modern system of collecting revenue, thought they might at least afford their ancient contribution of feudal service. But no: they insisted upon being freed from both, and they were freed.

The clergy prayed that the pragmatic sanction might be upheld, and the privileges of the Gallican church defended, especially the right of election, and the nonpayment of annates. The tide of opinion even among ecclesiastics was against Rome. Striking examples occurred during the reign of Louis, showing how low the papal authority had fallen. When Charles of Burgundy aspired to a throne, it was not to the pope, that anciently received fabricator and hallower of crowns, that he had recourse, but to the emperor. When cardinal Bessarion came on a mission from the papal court to Louis XI., he was admitted, after a delay of two months, to the royal presence. When he had made a most learned speech richly garnished with quotations, the king for answer seized the venerable cardinal by the beard, and repeated an absurd line from the Latin Grammar of that day. Bessarion, it is said, died of chagrin at this in

1483.

ASSEMBLY OF THE STATES.

167

sult; and we hear of no indignation on the part of the pope.

The tiers état, or commons, were equally loud against the pope, and prayed that no legate should be allowed to enter the kingdom. They made the usual complaint respecting the taille, and solicited the abolition of so hateful a word. They hinted, that if the royal domains could not suffice for the national expenditure, they would be ready at all times to come forward and vote supplies. Considerable difficulties nevertheless existed as to the sum now to be granted. In short, the states seemed most willing to adopt the economical resistance of an old English parliament, when the lady of Beaujeu, growing alarmed, dissolved the assembly.

The discontent of the duke of Orleans was not appeased by the decision of the states. He was a handsome, frank, amiable man, not naturally inclined to be turbulent but as first prince of the blood, and heir presumptive to the throne, it was derogatory to his pride and spirit to remain tranquil, while deprived of all influence by a woman. Dunois, son of the famous bastard of Orleans, was his chief friend and counsellor ; a man as fond of intrigue, apparently, as his stout sire had been of battle. The dukes of Lorraine and Bourbon seemed at first inclined to join him, but both were won over by the lady Anne; Bourbon, the elder brother of the lord of Beaujeu, being made constable. Orleans tried every expedient to shake the authority of the king's sister. He sought to make himself popular in the capital, and to bring its citizens to declare in his favour. He tried the parliament also; but its president, La Vaquerie, replied, that it was not their interest or duty to interfere in a private struggle for power. Orleans was soon after closely pressed by La Tremouille at the head of a superior army, and obliged to make submission; Dunois being banished to Asti, a town in Italy which the duke of Orleans inherited from his grandmother, Valentine of Milan.

Such a forced submission could not conduce to a lasting

peace. Dunois soon afterwards returned from exile. There was a plot for carrying off the king, which failed, and the duke of Orleans was obliged to take refuge in Britany. The gay and fascinating manners of the French prince entirely won the good will of Francis, the reigning duke. He was without male heirs; and his daughter, as inheritor of the duchy, was a rich prize for an ambitious prince. The duke of Orleans became a suitor for the hand of Anne, and duke Francis favoured his pretensions. But the native nobles of the province were jealous of the duke of Orleans and of his influence with their prince. They leagued with the lady of Beaujeu against both; and a French army, supported by a great body of Bretons, soon after besieged the dukes of Britany and Orleans in Nantes. There were two other pretenders to the hand of the heiress of Britany: the sieur d'Albret, a rich lord of Gascony, into whose family the crown of Navarre had passed from that of Foix. The duke of Orleans, in prosecuting his own suit, affected to support this competitor. The other was Maximilian king of the Romans. A timely succour sent by this prince obliged the French to raise the siege of Nantes; and the lady of Beaujeu betraying a disposition to conquer the duchy, and to garrison and appropriate its towns, the Bretons became suspicious, abandoned her, and resumed their allegiance to the duke. The war nevertheless continued. The troops on both sides met at St. Aubin, and a battle ensued. The French were commanded by La Tremouille; the prince of Orange and the duke of Orleans led on the Bretons. With the latter were 300 English; 1200 Bretons also clothed themselves in the English garb, the more to intimidate their enemies. The Bretons were celebrated as foot-soldiers. At St. Aubin they supported their character; but the French gendarmerie, having routed the cavalry opposed to them, took the Bretons in flank and rear, and routed them. The duke of Orleans and the prince of Orange were both taken prisoners. They were startled to perceive a confessor

1491.

MARRIAGE OF ANNE OF BRITANY. 169

enter their tent in the evening. La Tremouille, who saw and enjoyed their consternation, reassured them by observing that it was only for the inferior rebels to clear their consciences and prepare for death.

ever.

An accommodation followed this defeat. The duke of Britany made submissions, and survived but a short time. He was the last duke of the province, which now descended to his daughter Anne. There was another sister, who, as she died soon after, need not be more than mentioned. Affairs were now as unsettled as The count d'Albret, seconded by a strong party of Bretons, who above all things aimed at the independence of their duchy, pushed his suit with the young heiress. The addresses of this aged noble could not be agreeable to a princess of fourteen. The duke of Orleans, the object of her predilection, was in prison. The armies of France were invading the duchy, and it behoved her to espouse a prince capable of defending her dominions. The resolution was taken that she should be married to Maximilian king of the Romans, and the ceremony was accordingly performed by proxy; the archduke's ambassador, to conclude it, putting a naked leg into the couch of the young duchess. Hitherto the aim of king Charles and his regent sister had been to conquer the duchy by force of arms, laying claim to it as a male fief. Charles had been long betrothed to Margaret of Austria, Maximilian's daughter, who was then receiving her education in the French court, and awaiting the years of nubility. The stubbornness of the Bretons, however, made the lady of Beaujeu despair of her project. The ever-ready Dunois, in order to make his own peace and procure the liberty of the duke of Orleans, proposed that Charles should espouse the young duchess himself, and thus unite Britany to the kingdom. Charles and his sister instantly entered into this scheme. The king, with a kingly generosity, began by setting the duke of Orleans, his secret rival, at liberty. This the monarch did without consulting his sister; nor was his generosity abused, for the duke remained

ever after faithful to him, and even seconded his purpose of espousing Anne. Dunois, on his side, laboured to render the duchess less hostile to France. Anne still held with all the faithfulness of a wife to Maximilian, to whom she was nominally betrothed. An ostensible act of compulsion was deemed requisite to overcome her reluctance. A royal army besieged her in Rennes. One of the conditions of the capitulation was, that she should espouse the king of France. This marriage really as well as ceremoniously took place.* The inactivity of Maximilian lost him a richly endowed consort, and at the same time brought a severe mortification upon his daughter Margaret. She, who had been brought up as the future queen of France, was now sent home, as she herself expressed it, a widow ere she was a wife." This rejection was not unattended with loss to the French monarch, who was compelled to restore Artois and Franche-Comté, acquired as the dowry of Margaret. Thus, within a short period, were the two most considerable fiefs of the ancient feudal kingdom of France, viz. Burgundy and Britany, united finally to the crown. Flanders, the remaining province, followed other fortunes; for while France gradually extended her dominions eastward, by encroaching on the empire, the house of Austria gained possession of the rich province of Flanders, originally French, which gave her the advantage of seaports, and one of the richest manufacturing and commercial regions in the world.

66

There never was a period of history in which the efforts of individual minds were so important in their effects as the present. The inventions of one or two artisans on the banks of the Rhine presented mankind with the art of printing; — an idea, a theory, springing up in the manly mind of Columbus, led to the discovery of another hemisphere;—a whim conceived by Charles VIII., who, from hearing tales of Cæsar and Charlemagne, suddenly became desirous of turning conqueror, had more effect on the destinies of Europe than all

*Dec. 1491.