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humblest subjects, which secured for him the title of "Father of his People," has a memorial in his oft-quoted declaration, "If I live, the poorest peasant shall have a fowl to put in his pot on Sundays."

In devising and carrying out his measures of reform, Henry was aided by one of the most prudent and sagacious advisers that ever strengthened the hands of a prince, the illustrious Duke of Sully. He was an author as well as statesman, and in his Memoirs left one of the most valuable records we possess of the transactions in which he took so prominent a part.

Towards the close of his reign Henry, feeling strong in his resources and secure in his power, began to revolve in his mind vast projects for the aggrandizement of France and the weakening of her old enemy, - the House of Hapsburg in both its branches.1 He was making great preparations for war, when the dagger of a fanatic by the name of Ravaillac, who regarded Henry as an enemy of the Roman Catholic Church, cut short his life and plans (1610).

Louis XIII. (1610-1643): the Regency. As Henry's son Louis, who succeeded him, was a mere child of nine years, during his minority the government was administered by his mother, Mary de Medici. Nothing was done, but much undone, by the queenregent. The wounds of the old religious wars, which were just beginning to heal, were torn open afresh; the public treasures accumulated by Henry's economy were shamefully wasted upon unworthy Italian courtiers; and everything fell into disorder and the government into contempt.

Cardinal Richelieu and his Policy.-Upon attaining his majority, Louis took the government into his own hands and banished his

1 In connection with his designs against the House of Hapsburg, Henry seems to have had in mind a most magnificent scheme, which was nothing less than the organization of all the Christian states of Europe (save Russia) into a great confederation or commonwealth. The ostensible objects of the "Christian Republic" were the securing of religious toleration to all the different Christian sects, the expulsion of the Turks from Europe, and the doing away with war by the creation of an international tribunal, by which all disputes between nations should be settled through peaceful arbitration.

mother from court. But the king was frivolous and weak, and entirely unable to manage the different parties about him, or to lift the kingdom out of the troubles into which it had fallen. The States-General was assembled in 1614 in the hope that it might devise some way out of existing embarrassments. But it effected nothing, and was dismissed, not to meet again for one hundred and seventy-five years, not until the memorable year 1789.

But though neither king nor estates were able to manage affairs, there fortunately was a man, a member of the recent StatesGeneral, who had mind and will sufficient for the task. This was Cardinal Richelieu, the Wolsey of France, one of the most remarkable characters of the seventeenth century. To him we might apply the words used by Frederick the Great of Prussia respecting one of England's greatest statesmen, and say that France had at last brought forth a man. From the time that Louis admitted the young prelate to his cabinet (in 1622), the ecclesiastic became the actual sovereign of France, and for the space of twenty years swayed the destinies not only of that country, but, it might almost be said, those of Europe as well.

His policy was two-fold: first, to render the authority of the French king absolute in France; second, to make the power of France supreme in Europe.

To attain the first end, Richelieu sought to crush the political power of the Huguenots, and to trample out the last vestige of independence among the old feudal aristocracy; to secure the second, he labored to break down the power of both branches of the House of Hapsburg, that is, of Austria and Spain. With these rivals crushed, France would be easily first among the states of Europe.

For nearly the life-time of a generation Richelieu, by intrigue, diplomacy, and war, pursued with unrelenting purpose these objects of his ambition. At times, when it suited best his purpose, he put on the helmet of the warrior, and led in person the armies of France; and then again he donned the red cap of the cardinal, and forced proud nobles to kneel before him, and at his feet seek

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pardon for acts which his own unbearable tyranny had provoked. His own words best indicate how he proposed to use his double authority as cardinal and prime minister: "I shall trample all opposition under foot," said he, "and then cover all errors with my scarlet robe."

In the following paragraph we will speak very briefly of the Cardinal's dealings with the Huguenots, which feature alone of his policy at present especially concerns us.

Political Power of the Huguenots crushed. In the prosecution of his plans, Cardinal Richelieu's first step was to break down the political power of the Huguenot chiefs, who, dissatisfied with their position in the government, and irritated by religious grievances, were revolving in mind the founding in France of a Protestant commonwealth like that which the Prince of Orange and his adherents had set up in the Netherlands. The capital of this new Republic was to be La Rochelle, on the southwestern coast of France, which city, it will be recalled, was by the Edict of Nantes granted to the Protestants as a place of security.

In 1627, an alliance having been formed between England and the French Protestant nobles, an English fleet and army was sent across the Channel to aid the Huguenot enterprise.

Richelieu now resolved to ruin forever the power of these Protestant nobles who were constantly challenging the royal authority and threatening the dismemberment of France. Accordingly he led in person an army to the siege of La Rochelle, which, after a gallant resistance of more than a year, during which time famine, sickness, and the casualties of war reduced the population of the place from 30,000 to 5,000 persons, was compelled to open its gates to the forces of the Cardinal (1628). That the place might never again be made the centre of resistance to the royal power, Louis ordered that "the fortifications be razed to the ground, in such wise that the plow may plow through the soil as through tilled land."

The Huguenots maintained the struggle a few months longer in the south of France, but were finally everywhere reduced to sub

mission. The result of the war was the complete destruction of the political power of the French Protestants. A treaty of peace called the Edict of Grace, negotiated the year after the fall of La Rochelle, left them, however, freedom of worship, according to the provisions of the Edict of Nantes.

The Edict of Grace properly marks the close of the religious wars which had desolated France for two generations (from 1562 to 1629). It is estimated that this series of wars and massacres cost France one million lives, and that between three and four hundred hamlets and towns were destroyed by the contending parties.

Richelieu and the Thirty Years' War. When Cardinal Richelieu came to the head of affairs in France, there was going on in Germany the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), of which we shall tell in the following chapter. This was very much such a struggle between the Catholic and Protestant German princes as we have seen waged between the two religious parties in France.

Although Richelieu had just crushed French Protestantism, he now gives aid to the Protestant princes of Germany, because their success meant the division of Germany and the humiliation of Austria. At first he gave assistance in the form of subsidies to Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, who had become the champion of the German Protestants; but later he sent the armies of France to take direct part in the struggle.

Richelieu did not live to see the end either of the Thirty Years' War or of that which he had begun with Spain; but this foreign policy of the great minister, carried out by others, finally resulted, as we shall learn hereafter, in the humiliation of both branches of the House of Hapsburg, and the lifting of France to the first place among the powers of Europe.

Nature and Causes of the War.- -The long and calamitous Thirty Years' War was the last great combat between Protestantism and Catholicism in Europe. It started as a struggle between the Protestant and Catholic princes of Germany, but gradually involved almost all the states of the continent, degenerating at last into a shameful and heartless struggle for power and territory.

The real cause of the war must of course be sought in the irreconcilable character of the two creeds in Germany. But if we seek a more specific cause, it will be found in the defective character of the articles of the celebrated Religious Peace of Augsburg1 (1555). There were at least three things in that treaty well calculated to make future trouble.

First. Each secular prince was given permission to set up in his dominions either the Catholic or the Lutheran Church, and to drive out all persons who did not accept the State creed. This provision gave rise to much tyranny, and created great bitterness of feeling between the different religious sects, Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists.

Second. By virtue of the famous clause known as the Ecclesiastical Reservation, any spiritual prince (i.e., bishop or abbot holding immediately of the Empire) upon turning Protestant, was required to give up his office and lands. The Lutherans did not admit the validity of this article, and evading it, got many of the Catholic bishoprics in North Germany in Protestant hands. This was made a matter of bitter complaint on the part of the Catholics.

1 See above, page 392.