HIS CHARACTER.

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tration of the kingdom. He created a national navy, pro- Ch.10 tected commerce and industry, rewarded genius, and formed the French Academy. He attained a higher pitch of great- 1642. ness than any subject ever before or since enjoyed in any country; a sway far above that possessed by Wolsey, in England. Wolsey, powerful as he was, lived like a Turkish vizier, in constant fear of his capricious master. But Richelieu controlled the King himself. Louis XIII. feared him, and felt Influthat he could not reign without him. He did not like the ence Cardinal, and was often tempted to dismiss him, but could King. never summon sufficient resolution. Richelieu could mount no higher, unless he mounted the throne itself. He was bishop, cardinal, duke, governor of a province, abbot of several monasteries, knight of most of the chivalrous orders of Europe, and prime minister to the King. His ordinary progress was a triumphal procession. He had a guard of honor, like a sovereign. He built the Palais Royal, and adorned it with all the wonders of art. All persons united to do him reverence. The King himself condescended to play the second part in the monarchy, while his throne was raised to the first in Europe.

death.

charac.

ter.

But an end came to his greatness. In the year 1642 a mortal His malady wasted him away. He summoned to his death bed his royal master; recommended Mazarin as his successor; and died like a man who knew no remorse, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and the eighteenth of his reign as minister. was eloquent, but his words served only to disguise his senti- His ments; he was direct and frank in his speech, and yet a perfect master of the art of dissimulation; he could not be imposed upon, and yet was passionately fond of flattery; he was not learned, yet appreciated learning in others, and munificently rewarded it; he was fond of pleasure, and easily fascinated by women, and yet he was cold, politic, implacable, and cruel. Nor was his ordinary life a model of simple greatness. His vanity, ostentation, and pride destroyed the elevation of his character. He aspired to write plays and poetry

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CARDINAL MAZARIN.

Ch. 10 as well as to govern a kingdom. Like Louis XIV., he thought he did all things equally well. He led a life of 1643. incessant activity; shunned neither danger nor fatigue; and had the talent of making still more powerful intellects than His in his own subserve his purposes, as in the case of his friend, fluence Father Joseph, the Capuchin friar, who managed his most others. difficult negotiations, but who was unrewarded for his services. That he was sincere in his belief that he acted for the glory of France, cannot be questioned; nor can it be doubted that he, more than any other man, contributed to aggrandize the French monarchy. "Nothing of any considerable moment was done in Europe for a whole generation which he had not foreseen or prepared; and until the peace of the Pyrenees, when the genius of Spain bowed in submission to that of France, Anne of Austria, as Regent of the kingdom, continued the policy of the minister who had been her personal and Louis XIV. himself received it as a precious inheritance, nor did his star pale so long as he remained faithful to its dictates."

Louis
XIII.

enemy;

Death of Louis XIII. did not long survive this greatest of ministers. Naturally weak, he was still weaker by disease. He was at last reduced to a skeleton. In this state he called a council, nominated his Queen, Anne of Austria, Regent during the minority of his son, Louis XIV., then four years of age, and shortly after died.

Cardi

Mazarin, the new minister, followed out the policy of nal Ma- Richelieu. The war with Austria and Spain was continued. zarin. This was closed, on the Spanish side, by the victory of

Rocroi, in 1643, obtained by the Prince of Condé, in which battle twenty-three thousand Frenchmen completely routed twenty-six thousand Spaniards, killing eight thousand, and making six thousand prisoners--one of the bloodiest battles ever fought. The great Condé here obtained those laurels which subsequent disgrace could never take away. The war on the side of Germany was closed, in 1648, by the peace of Westphalia. Turenne first appeared in

CARDINAL DE RETZ.

115. the latter campaign of this long war, but gained no signal Ch.10 victory.

A. D.

Cardinal Mazarin, a subtle and intriguing Italian, while he 1643 pursued the policy of Richelieu, had neither his genius nor to success. He was soon involved in troubles. The aristocracy 1648. first rebelled. Had they been united, they would have succeeded; but their rivalries, jealousies, and squabbles divided their strength, and distracted their councils. Their cause

was lost; and Mazarin triumphed, more from their divisions than from his own strength.

of De

But a more formidable enemy appeared in the person of InDe Retz, Coadjutor Archbishop of Paris, and afterwards trigues Cardinal, a man of boundless intrigue, unconquerable ambi- Retz. tion, and restless discontent. To detail his plots and intrigues, would be to describe a labyrinth. He succeeded, however, in keeping the country in perpetual turmoil; now inflaming the minds of the people; then exciting insurrections among the nobles; and then, again, encouraging the parliaments in resistance. He never appeared as an actor; but every movement was directed by his genius. He did not escape suspicion; but committed no overt acts by which he could be punished. He and the celebrated Duchess de Longueville, a woman who had as great a talent for intrigue as himself, were the life and soul of the Fronde-a civil war which ended The Fronde, only in the re-establishment of the monarchy on a firmer foundation. As the Fronde had been commenced by a troop influof urchins, who at the same time amused themselves with slings, the wits of the court called the insurgents frondeurs, or slingers, insinuating that their force was trifling, and their aim mischief.

Nevertheless, the Frondeurs kept France in a state of anarchy for six years (1648—1654), being headed by some of the most powerful nobles, and even supported by the Parliament of Paris. The people were on the side of the rebels, since they were ground down by taxation, and hoped to gain a relief from their troubles. But the rebels took the side of the

and its

ence on

France.

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to

THE PRINCE OF CONDE'.

Ch. 10 oppressed only for their private advantage; and the Parlia ment itself lacked the perseverance and intrepidity necessary 1648 to secure its liberty. The insurrection would probably have been successful, had the people been firm, or the nobles 1650. faithful to the cause they defended. But the English Revolution, then in progress, where a king had been executed, shocked the lovers of constitutional liberty in France, and reacted then, as the French Revolution afterwards reacted on the English mind. Moreover, the excesses which the people perpetrated at Paris alarmed the Parliament and the nobles who were allied with it, while it urged on the ministers to desperate courses.

of Condé.

The Prince of Condé, whose victories had given him immortality, dallied with both parties, as his interests served. Position Allied with the court, he could overpower the insurgents; but allied with the insurgents, he could control the court. Sometimes he sided with the minister, and sometimes with his antagonists; but in neither case unless he exercised a power dangerous in any government. Both parties were jealous of him, both feared him, both hated him, both insulted him, and both courted him. At one time he headed the royal troops to attack Paris, which was generally in the hands of the people and of the Parliament; and then, at another, he fought like a tiger to defend himself in Paris against the royal troops. The truth was, he had no sympathy with either the Parliament or the people, while he fought for them; and he venerated the throne, while he rebelled against it.

of Mazarin.

The crafty Mazarin quietly beheld these dissensions, and was sure of ultimate success, even though at one time Course banished to Cologne. Like a reed, he was ever ready to bend to difficulties he could not conquer. He at last got the Prince of Condé, his brother the Prince of Conti, and the Duke of Longueville in his power. When the Duke of Bourbon heard of it, he said, "He has taken a good haul in the net; he has taken a lion, a fox, and a monkey." But the princes escaped from the net; and, leagued with Turenne,

FAILURE OF THE FRONDE,

117

Bouillon, La Rochefoucauld, and other great nobles, reached Ch. 10 Paris, and were received with acclamations of joy by the A. D. misguided people. Then, again, they obtained the ascend- 1650 ant. But this was no sooner gained than the victors quar- to relled among themselves, and with the Parliament, for whose 1654. cause they professed to contend.

sions of

the no

It was in their power, when united, to have deprived the Queen Regent of her authority, and to have established constitutional liberty in France. But they would not unite. DissenCondé, the victor, suffered himself to be again bribed by the court. He would not persevere in his alliance with either bles. nobles or Parliament. He did not unite with the nobles, because he felt that he was a prince. He did not continue with the Parliament, because he had no sympathy with freedom. The Parliament, at length, grew weary of war and of popular commotions, and submitted to the court.

of the

The power of the insurgent nobles now declined. De Retz, the arch intriguer, was in 1653 driven from Paris. The Duchess de Longueville sought refuge in the vale of Port Royal. Condé quitted Paris to join the Spanish armies. The rest of the rebellious nobles made humble submission. The people, finding they had nothing to gain from any Failure dominant party, resigned themselves to another long period Fronde. of political and social humiliation. The magistrates abandoned, in despair and disgust, their high claims to political rights; while the young King, on his bed of justice, decreed that Parliament should no more presume to discuss or meddle with State affairs. The submissive Parliament registered, without a murmur, the edict which gave a finishing stroke to its liberties. The Fronde war was a complete failure, because all parties usurped powers which did not belong to them, and were jealous of the rights of each other; because it did not consult constitutional forms; because it promoted unnatural alliances; and because it sought to support itself by mere physical strength rather than by moral power, which alone is the secret and glory of all great internal changes.