A.D. their estates, the protestants the liberty of conscience, and the whole empire their privileges. 1631 Cardinal Richelieu renews the alliance with the Dutch, assists the rebels in the Spanish provinces, encourages the protestants in Germany, connects the interests of France with those of the northern powers, and supplies Gustavus Adolphus with the money he wanted to humble the house of Austria. Gustavus Adolphus invades Pomerania, obtains signal success at Stettin, in the new March, in the Mecklinburgh, assists the elector of Saxony, crosses the Elbe, marches to Leipsick just taken by Tilli, a general of the emperor, and obtains a complete victory against him. Thence he extends his conquests in Franconia, Pomerania, Bavaria, Lower Saxony, the Palatinate, and the Electorate of Mentz. 1632 A rebellion in France, headed by Monsieur, the king's brother, but soon quelled by the defeat sustained by the rebels in Languedoc, where the duke of Montmorency was wounded and taken prisoner; he was tried by the parliament of Toulouse, condemned, and beheaded. Gustavus Adolphus, after many new conquests, was killed, November 16th, at the battle of Lutzen, which, however, was won by the duke of Saxe Weimar, his lieutenant. The treaty of Grotius, on the right of war and peace, which was his usual reading, was found in his tent. One of his most remarkable opinions was, that no other rank existed among the kings than that to which each of them was intitled by his personal merit. He died in the 38th year of his age, and was succeeded by the celebrated Christina, his daughter, then six years old. 1633 A sentence of imprisonment is issued by the inquisition at Rome against Galileo, for having supported the system of Copernic, respecting the motion of the earth round the sun, and could not obtain his liberty without retracting that pretended heresy ! A dreadful eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which, besides an immense devastation of land, destroyed above 4000 persons. The chancellor Oxenstiern, whom Gustavus Adolphus had appointed to the government of Upper Germany, is entrusted with the sovereign administration of the A. D. affairs and Swedish interests in the empire; and the generals of Gustavus resolve to continue to act at once respectively against all the branches of the catholic party. The soul of the departed. Gustavus still animated their courage. 1634 The Swedes are completely defeated at the battle of Norlingen, and Oxenstiern is obliged to fly. Cardinal Richelieu undertakes the establishment of a powerful navy in France, improves the discipline in the army, the order and regularity in the financial department, encourages by his protection all sciences and arts, causes the first meridian to be fixed, the royal botanic garden to be established, and prepares the institution of the French academy, which was founded next year by letters patent. 1635 The king of France finding that since the victory of Norlingen the emperor began to resume his former power and pretensions, resolves to take under his pro.. tection the Swedes and all the protestant princes, raises five powerful armies, and declares war against the emperor and the king of Spain, a war which lasted 13 years against the former, and 25 against the latter, with various successes on both sides. 1640 A general rebellion in Catalonia, with a view of forming a republic; but this scheme was given up, and the Catalans treat for their union to France A revolution in Portugal, which placed on the throne John IV. duke of Braganza, who acted no other part in the revolution than accepting the crown. 1642 Roussillon is invaded and conquered by the French, and has been since a province of France. Cardinal Richelieu discovers a secret treaty, subscribed by the prime minister of Spain, Olivares, in the name of his master, and by Fontraille, in the name of Monsieur, the king's brother, to whom the Spanish_king was to give an army of 12,000 foot and 5000 horse, with large sums of money for levying troops in France, with a view of ruining the cardinal and overthrowing the state. Cinqmars, who was named in the treaty as having been active in that conspiracy, was the only victim of his ambition. He was sentenced to death and beheaded at Lyons. His friend de Thou shared in A.D. the same fate, for having known the treaty and not revealed it. Mary of Medicis, the queen mother, dies at Cologne in the utmost distress. This princess was perhaps too little surprised and too little afflicted by the death of Henry the Great, her husband. Since her departing from France in 1631 she had wandered in Flanders, in England, every where unhappy and burdensome. She had remained three years in London, where she received from Charles I. her son in law, 100l. a-day for her sustenance, when cardinal de Richelieu, her constant persecutor, though he owed his fortune to her protection, prevailed on Charles to send her out of England. Richelieu died five months after her, and was buried with a much greater pomp than her, at the Sarbonne college, which he had rebuilt with royal magnificence. The mausoleum erected to him in the chapel, is the masterpiece of the celebrated Girardon. When the Czar Peter visited it, he wanted to embrace the statue, and exclaimed with enthusiasm, "Ah! why are you "not still alive? I would give you the half of my "empire to govern the other half." Cardinal Mazarin was called to the king's council the very day of Richelieu's death. 1643 Death of Lewis XIII.; he is succeeded by Lewis XIV. his son, then five years old. Five days after the king's death, the duke of Enghien, afterwards deservedly styled the Great Condé, obtained a complete victory at Rocroi against the Spaniards. He was then 22 years old. He soon after took Thionville and Sirk. 1647 Insurrection at Naples among the rabble, headed by one Mazanielle. It was soon quelled by the Viceroy, who caused Mazanielle to be murdered; but, two months after, Don Juan, of Austria, a natural son to Philip IV. having entered the town to punish the rebels, the in- ́ surrection began again under one Gennare, who, more prudent than Mazanielle, persuaded the rebels to put themselves under the protection of France. He accordingly invited the duke of Guise, who was at Rome at that time, to take the command; the duke came to Naples, and was immediately declared generalissimo. But France took no advantage of the circumstance, and A. D. sent to him neither the provisions nor the money which had been promised, and the insurrection dwindled away. At this period began in France the famous quarrels about Jansenism. 1648 Treaty of peace signed at Munster between Spain and Holland. The king of Spain, after a war of eighty years, acknowledged by this treaty the sovereignty and independence of the United Provinces. Treaties of Munster and Osnabruc between the emperor and the princes of the empire; the former was signed with France and with the catholic princes, and the latter with the protestants. These treaties, previous to the late new modelling of Germany, were considered as the political code of that part of Europe, and were the basis of all the subsequent treaties between the same powers. These two treaties form what is called the treaty of Westphalia. A ridiculous civil war in France, well known under the name of War of the Fronde, between the court and the parliament of Paris. In the mean time Sultan Ibrahim was strangled by the janizaries, and Charles I. was kept in confinement by Cromwell in the isle of Wight. The spirit of rebellion seemed to pervade all Europe. 1649 The war of the Fronde, which seemed to be terminated by a declaration issued in the month of October last, begins again, and the court is obliged to fly from Paris, and go to St. Germain. A new accommodation takes place, and is followed by a general amnesty, but disturbances break out throughout the kingdom; the princes are put in close confinement by the court. 1651 1he French princes are restored to liberty, and cardi nal Mazarin is obliged to depart the kingdom. 1652 Mazarin re-enters France, and meets the court at Poictiers; the civil war begins again; a famous battle in the suburbs of Paris, between the king's troops, commanded by Turenne, and the army of the Fronde, commanded by the prince de Conde. Mazarin consents to depart from France, and retires to Bouillon. A new pacification. A.D. 1653 Mazarin comes again to Paris, is visited by the princes, the parliament, and cheered by the people. 1654 Abdication of Christina, queen of Sweden. She abjures the protestant religion and becomes a catholic. 1657 The five positions of Jansenius are condemned by a bull of Alexander VII. The queen Christina causes Monaldeschy, her master of the horse, to be assassinated in the palace of Fontainebleau. 1658 The famous league, known by the name of the league of the Rhine, between the principal electors and princes of Germany and the king of Sweden as duke of Bremen, in view of maintaining the treaty of Westphalia, and preserving the peace in Germany, for which purpose it was agreed to keep constantly on foot an army of 10,000 men. The king of France acceded to this treaty, and acquired by it, in the affairs of the empire, an influence frequently more powerful than that of the emperor himself. 1659 Peace of the Pyrenées between France and Spain; the latter consented by it to a final cession of Roussillon, and of many towns and extensive districts in the Low Countries. This pacification was sealed by the marriage of Lewis XIV. with the infanta Maria Theresa, who received a portion of 500,000 crowns, on condition of her renouncing the Spanish succession, a condition which, even at that time, was considered of no value by the Spanish minister Don Louis de Haro, and by Philip IV. himself, who said, esto es una patarata, this is ridiculous nonsense. Peace is concluded between Charles Gustavus, king of Sweden, and the king of Denmark, by the mediation of France. 1661 Cardinal Mazarin dies in the 59th year of his age. Monsieur, the French king's brother, marries princess Henrietta, sister to Charles II. 1663 The first diet held at Ratisbonne, where these assem→ blies have since continued to meet. About this time began in France that glorious period, known by the name of the age of Lewis XIV. a wonderful age indeed, not only by the superior abilities and eminent qualifications of the monarch, but by the infinite number of illustrious men of all descriptions it has produced. |