the Grisons; and the king of Spain, as protector of the Catholic faith, supported them in their rebellion. The situation of the Valteline rendered it of infinite importance, as it facilitated the corespondence between the two branches of the house of Austria, shut the Swiss out of Italy, kept the Venetians in awe, and was a bridle on all the Italian states.

Mar. 31, In the midst of these ambitious schemes (to which of N. S. himself he was little inclined) the king of Spain died. Philip IV., his son and successor, was a prince of a more enterprising disposition; and the abilities of Olivarez, the new minister, were far superior to those of the duke of Lerma, who had directed the measures of government during the greater part of the former reign. The ambition of Olivarez was yet more lofty than his capacity. He made his master assume the surname of Great, as soon as he ascended the throne, and thought himself bound to justify the appellation. He hoped to raise the house of Austria to that absolute dominion in Europe, for which it had been so long struggling. In prosecution of this bold plan, he resolved to maintain the closest alliance with the emperor; to make him despotic in Germany; to keep possession of the Valteline; to humble the Italian powers, and reduce the United Provinces to subjection, as the truce had now expired 1.

Nor was this object so chimerical as it may at first sight appear. The emperor had already crushed the force of the Protestant league; France was distracted by civil wars, and England was amused by a matrimonial treaty between the prince of Wales and the infanta, which, more than every other consideration, prevented James from taking any material step in favour of the Palatine, till he was stripped of his dominions. But France, though internally agitated, was not lost to all sense of external danger; and the match with the infanta being broken off by a quarrel between the English and the Spanish ministers,

an

A.D. alliance was formed between France and England, in 1624. conjunction with the United Provinces, for restraining the ambition of the house of Austria, and recovering the Palatinate. The affairs of Holland now demand our attention.

After the truce of 1609, the United Provinces, as I have already noticed, became a prey to religious dissensions. Gomar and Arminius, two professors at Leyden, differed on some abstract points in theology, and their opinions divided the republic. Gomar maintained, in all their austerity, the doctrines

Anecdotes d'Olivar.

2 Rushworth.-Clarendon.

of Calvin in regard to grace and predestination; Arminius endeavoured to soften them. The Gomarists, who composed the body of the people, ever carried towards enthusiasm, were headed by prince Maurice; the Arminians, by the pensionary Barneveldt, a firm patriot, who had been chiefly instrumental in negotiating the late truce in opposition to the house of Orange. The Arminian principles were defended by Grotius, Vossius, and the learned in general. But prince Maurice and the Gomarists at last prevailed. The Arminian preachers were banished, and Barneveldt was brought to the block in 1619, for "vexing the church of God" (as his sentence imported), at the age of seventy-two years, and after he had served the republic forty years in the cabinet, with as much success as Maurice had in the field. He was a man of eminent abilities and incorruptible integrity, and had espoused the cause of the Arminians chiefly from a persuasion that Maurice intended to make use of his popularity with the Gomarists, and of their hatred of the other sect, in order to enslave that people whom he had so gloriously defended against the tyranny of Spain'.

This opinion appears to have been well founded; for Maurice, during these religious commotions, frequently violated the rights of the republic; and so vigorous an opposition was necessary to prevent him from overturning its liberties. The ardour of ambition at once withered his well-earned laurels and disappointed itself. The death of Barneveldt opened the eyes of the people. They saw their danger, and the iniquity of the sentence, notwithstanding their religious prejudices. Maurice was detested as a tyrant, at the very time that he hoped to be received as a sovereign. The deliverer of his country when he went abroad was saluted with groans and murmurs; and, as he passed, the name of Barneveldt sounded in his ears from every street.

But, amidst all their civil and religious dissensions, the Dutch were extending their commerce and their conquests in both extremities of the globe. The city of Batavia was founded, and the plan of an empire laid in the East Indies, infinitely superior in wealth, power, and grandeur to the United Provinces. They had already cast their eyes on Brazil, which they conquered soon after the expiration of the truce; and they carried on a lucrative trade with the European settlements in the West Indies. The prospect of hostilities with their ancient masters,

1 Le Clerc.

composed their domestic animosities. They dismissed their jealousy of Maurice, as he seemed to relinquish his ambitious views. Every one was zealous to oppose and annoy the common enemy; and Spinola was obliged, by his old antagonists, to relinquish the siege of Bergen-op-zoom, in 1622, after having lost ten thousand of his best troops in the enterprise 1.

In France, during this period, both civil and religious disputes were carried much higher than in Holland. Louis XIII. being a minor when Henry IV. was murdered, Mary of Medicis, the queen-mother, was chosen regent. New counsels were immediately adoped, and the sage maxims of Sully despised. He, therefore, resigned his employments and retired from court. The regent was entirely guided by her Italian favourites, Concini and his wife Galligai. By them, in concert with the pope and the duke of Florence, was negotiated, in 1612, an union between France and Spain, by means of a double marriage, of Louis with Anne of Austria, the eldest infanta; and of Elizabeth the king's sister, with the prince of Asturias, afterwards Philip IV. The dissolution of the alliances formed under the late reign, and the ruin of the Protestants, were also among the projects of Mary's Italian ministers 2.

The nobility, dissatisfied with the measures of the court, and with the favour shown to foreigners, entered into cabals; they revolted in 1613; and the treasures collected by Henry in order to humble the house of Austria, were employed by a weak administration to appease those factious leaders. The prince of Condé, who had headed the former faction, revolted anew in 1615. He and his adherents were again gratified, at the expense of the public; and fresh intrigues being suspected, he was sent to the Bastile.

The imprisonment of the prince of Condé alarmed many of the nobles, who retired from court, and prepared for their defence; or, in other words, for hostilities. Meanwhile Concini, who still maintained his influence, received a blow from a quarter whence he little expected it. Luines, who had originally recommended himself to the young king's favour by rearing and training birds for his amusement, found means to make him jealous of his authority. He dwelt on the ambition of the queen-mother, and the mal-administration of her foreign favourites, to whom the most important affairs of state were committed,

1 Neuville, Hist. d'Hollande.

2 Dupleix.-Mezeray.

and whose insolence, he affirmed, had occasioned all the dissatisfactions among the great'.

Louis, struck with the picture set before him, and desirous of seizing the reins of government, immediately ordered Concini to be arrested; and Vitri, captain of the guards, to whom that service was entrusted, executed it, in 1617, entirely to the wish of Luines. Concini was shot, under pretence of resistance. The sentence of treason was passed on his memory; and Galligai, his widow, being accused of sorcery and magic, was condemned by the parliament to suffer death, for treason divine and human. When asked what spell she had used to fascinate the queen-mother, she magnanimously replied, "that influence which a superior mind has over a feeble spirit!" The regent was confined for a time to her apartment, and afterwards exiled to Blois 2.

The indignation which Concini and his wife had excited, was soon transferred to Luines, enriched by their immense spoils, and who engrossed in a still higher degree the royal favour. His avarice and ambition knew no bounds. From a page and gentleman of the bedchamber, he became, in rapid succession, a mareschal, duke, and peer of France, constable and keeper of the seals. In the mean time a conspiracy was formed for the release of the queen-mother, and carried into execution by the duke d'Espernon, whose power at first exalted her to the regency. The court, for a time, talked loudly of violent measures: but it was judged proper, in 1619, to conclude a treaty advantageous to the malcontents, and avoid proceeding to extremities. This lenity encouraged Mary to enter into fresh cabals; and a new treaty was agreed to by the court, no less indulgent than the former 3.

These cabals in opposition to the court were chiefly conducted by Richelieu, bishop of Luçon. He had risen to notice through the influence of Galligai: he had been disgraced with the queenmother, and with her he returned into favour, as well as consequence. At her solicitation he obtained a cardinal's hat, a seat in the council, and soon after, a share in the administration *. But hypocrisy was necessary to conceal, for a season, from envy and jealousy, those transcendant abilities which were one day to astonish Europe.

Mém. des Affaires de France, depuis 1610 jusqu'à 1620. 2 Mezeray.

3 Mezeray. Vie du Duc d'Espernon.

4 Auberi, Hist. du Card. Rich.

A new civil war soon arose, more violent than any of the former. Louis having united, by a solemn edict, the principality of Bearn, the hereditary estate of the family, to the crown of France, in 1620, attempted to re-establish the Catholic religion in that province, where there were no Catholics', and to restore to the clergy the church lands, contrary to the stipulations of Henry IV. The Huguenots, alarmed at the impending danger, assembled at Rochelle, in contempt of the king's prohibition: and, concluding that their final destruction was resolved upon, they determined to throw off the royal authority, and establish a republic after the example of the Protestants in the Low Countries, for the protection of their civil and religious liberties. Rochelle was to be the capital of the new commonwealth, which would have formed a separate state within the kingdom of France'.

The constable Luines, equally ignorant and presumptuous, imagining he could subdue this formidable party, immediately had recourse to arms. Nor was intrigue neglected. After seducing, by bribes and promises, several of the Protestant leaders, among whom was the duke of Bouillon, and reducing some inconsiderable places, the king and Luines laid siege to Montauban in 1621. The royal army consisted of twenty-five thousand men, animated by the presence of their sovereign; but the place was so gallantly defended by the marquis de la Force, that Louis and his favourite, in spite of their most vigorous efforts, were obliged to abandon the enterprise. Luines died soon after this shameful expedition; and the brave and ambitious Lesdiguieres, who had already deserted the Huguenots, and solemnly renounced Calvinism, was honoured with the constable's sword 3.

The loss which the Protestant cause sustained by the apostacy of Lesdiguieres, and by the defection of the duke of Bouillon, was compensated by the zeal and abilities of the duke of Rohan and his brother Soubise; men not inferior (especially the duke), either in civil or military talents, to any of the age in which they lived. Soubise, however, was defeated by the king in person, who continued to carry on the war with vigour. But the duke still kept the field; and Louis having invested Montpelier, which defended itself as gallantly as Montauban, peace was concluded with the Huguenots, in 1622, to prevent a second disgrace.