14

CONDÉ ENTERS THE SPANISH SERVICE.

[BOOK V. metropolis; the Duke of Orléans, though Louis was of age, was declared Lieutenant-General of the kingdom; and Condé, who still kept up his connection with Spain, was appointed generalissimo of the forces. The King having retired to Pontoise, summoned thither the Parliament of Paris, declaring null and void all that they should do in the metropolis. Only a few score members appeared at Pontoise, but they assumed all the functions of the legitimate Parliament. Louis had found himself compelled to announce his willingness that Mazarine should retire; but as the Cardinal was very loth to quit his post, the Parliament of Pontoise, by concert with the Court, drew up a remonstrance beseeching the King to remove every pretext for disaffection by dismissing his minister; and Louis, after pronouncing a pompous eulogium on Mazarine, permitted him to retire (Aug. 10th). The Cardinal now fixed his residence at Bouillon, close to the frontiers. The King, who had betaken himself to Turenne's army at Compiègne, and who received from all sides assurances of loyalty and devotion, offered an amnesty to Condé and the Parisians; but though all desired peace, none were inclined to trust an offer dictated by the influence of the detested Cardinal. Condé, however, though the Dukes of Würtemberg and Lorraine had marched to his assistance, began to find his position untenable. All the magistrates of Paris had been changed; the Court had gained the Coadjutor, by procuring for him from the Pope a cardinal's hat; and while Condé despaired of the favour of the higher classes, De Retz caballed against him with the lower. The Parisians had sent some deputies to the King at Pontoise, who were delighted with their reception. Condé felt that it was time to fly. He quitted Paris for Flanders about the middle of October, and in the following month accepted from the Spanish general, Fuensaldaña, the bâton of generalissimo of the forces of Philip IV., with the red scarf which he had vanquished at Rocroi and Lens: thus degenerating from a rebel into a renegado. About the same time, the Queen and Louis XIV. entered Paris, escorted by the troops of Turenne. At their approach the Duke of Orléans retired to Blois, where he spent the remainder of his life in the obscurity befitting it. Mademoiselle de Montpensier was relegated to Bois le Comte; Broussel was incarcerated, and about a dozen members of the Parliament were banished to various places. An edict of amnesty was published, from which however the Prince of Condé, the Duke of Beaufort, and other leaders of the Fronde, were excepted. Subsequently, in 1654, Condé was sentenced to death by the Parliament, as a traitor.

CHAP. I.] MAZARINE RETURNS. END OF THE FRONDE.

15

Mazarine, however, still remained in exile. He could not yet rely on the disposition of the Parisians, especially so long as the arch intriguer, the Cardinal de Retz, remained among them. But that subtle prelate at length outwitted himself. The Queen on entering Paris had received him very graciously, and even attended one of his sermons at St. Germain l'Auxerrois. Deceived by these appearances, De Retz put too high a value on his services. In order to get rid of him, the Court offered him the management of the affairs of France at Rome; but De Retz demanded in addition, honours, governments and money for his friends; and when these were refused, he began to negociate with Condé. But the time for such pretensions was past. On December 19th, after paying a visit to the Queen, he was arrested by a captain of the guard, and confined at Vincennes; whence he was afterwards removed to Nantes. This was the end of his political career; for though he contrived to escape from Nantes, whence he proceeded into Spain, and afterwards to Rome, he was not allowed to return to France during the lifetime of Mazarine. De Retz has preserved a great reputation chiefly through his literary talent. As a politician he had no patriotic, nor even definite views; he loved embroilment and disturbance, partly for their own sake, partly for the advantage he derived from them. After the pacification of Paris, the malcontents in the provinces were soon reduced. Bordeaux, where the Fronde had taken a singular turn under the name of L'Ormée,was one of the last places to submit.

14

While these things were going on, Mazarine had joined Turenne and his army near Bar; and towards the end of January 1653, he set out for Paris, which he entered February 3rd. Louis XIV. went out in state to meet him, and gave him a place in his own carriage. It is said that the Cardinal had distributed money among the leaders of the mob to cheer him on his entrance; it is certain that he was not only received with acclamation by the populace, but also feasted by the magistrates. The jurists of the Parliament displayed a grovelling servility, and he received the humble visits of some of those very counsellors who had set a price upon his head. Such was the end of the Fronde; a movement without grandeur or possible result, whose sterility only confirmed the power of the King and of the minister. From this time till the end of his life Mazarine reigned with absolute power; for he

"After the death of Mazarine, however, de Retz obtained the archbishopric of Paris. His uncle, the old Archbishop Gondi, died in 1654. The Mémoires of

De Retz terminate in 1655. They have been completed by Champollion-Figeac. (See Coll. Michaud, Sér. iii. t. i.)

16

COMMONWEALTH IN ENGLAND.

[Book V. maintained the same influence over the young King as he had previously exerted ever Louis's mother. His avarice and despotism grew worse than before. The management of the finances was intrusted to the most unworthy persons, among whom Fouquet astonished Europe by his magnificence. Mazarine made the interests of France subordinate to his own avaricious views, and his plans for the advancement of his family. Fortune seemed to favour all his enterprises. His nieces, the Mancini, celebrated for their beauty and vivacity, were all married into princely houses; and Louis XIV. himself was with difficulty dissuaded from giving his hand to one of the six.

The Fronde is the last occasion on which we find the French nobles arrayed in open war against the Crown. Henceforth they became the mere satellites of the Court, whose power was supported, and whose splendour was increased, by their presence. How different from the great revolution which took place about the same time in England! The English reader hardly needs to be reminded that King Charles I., after a solemn trial, was publicly executed on the scaffold, January 20th 1649; that the House of Peers, as well as the monarchy, was abolished, and the government of the kingdom conducted by the Commons; that Cromwell gradually assumed the supreme power, both military and civil, and after reducing the Royalists by his victories in Ireland, Scotland, and England, and reviving by his vigorous foreign policy the lustre of the English name, he finally, in December 1653, caused himself to be named "Lord Protector."

Meanwhile the Spanish war had been going on, with disastrous consequences to the French. The Spaniards had good leaders in the Archduke Leopold William and Don John of Austria, to whom was now added the great Condé. They also received material assistance from the Emperor Ferdinand III. In spite of the peace of Westphalia, Ferdinand sent thousands of men into Flanders under the flag of Charles IV., Duke of Lorraine, who, since his quarrels with France, had become a sort of partisan chief. Don John, whose exploit in saving Naples from the French we have already related,15 and who subsequently recovered from them the Tuscan ports, had in 1651 laid siege to Barcelona; which city, after a blockade of thirteen months both by sea and land, at length surrendered (October 12th 1652.) Girona, Palamos, Balaguer, and other places next fell; and all Catalonia was ultimately reunited to Spain, from which it had been separated during a period of thirteen years. In the same year the Spaniards wrested back from 15 Vol. II. p. 631 sq.

CHAP. I.]

WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND SPAIN.

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the French Gravelines and Dunkirk. Their conquest of Dunkirk had been facilitated by the conduct of the English Government. The Parliament which then ruled in England had offered D'Estrades, the French commandant of Dunkirk, a large sum to put that place in their hands. D'Estrades honourably refused to accept the bribe, but referred the English agent to his own Court. Mazarine was inclined to cede Dunkirk to the English on condition of receiving 15,000 men and 50 vessels to act against the French rebels and the Spaniards; but Anne of Austria would not consent. In consequence of this refusal, the English fleet under Blake defeated a French fleet that was proceeding to the relief of Dunkirk (Sept. 14th 1652), and four days after D'Estrades was compelled to surrender to the Spaniards. Yet so fearful were the French Government of bringing upon them another enemy, that even this gross outrage failed to produce a war with England.

It would be tedious to relate in detail all the campaigns between the French and Spaniards, in which nothing decisive was achieved till in the year 1657, Cromwell threw the weight of England into the scale. The most prominent figures on the scene during this struggle were Condé and Turenne, who, like two Homeric heroes, seemed to hold in their hands the fortune of war. Their skill was conspicuously displayed in 1654, when Turenne compelled the Spaniards to raise the siege of Arras; but was prevented by the manœuvres of Condé from pursuing his advantage.16 It was in this school that the youthful Louis XIV. served his apprenticeship in arms. The campaign of 1655 was almost wholly unimportant; but the reverses which the French suffered in the following year, as well as the failure of some negociations with Spain, because the Spanish Court would not consent to abandon Condé, induced Mazarine to enter into a close alliance with the Protector Cromwell.

France had not been so forward as Spain in recognising the new order of things in England. The French Court, connected with Charles I. by his marriage with Henrietta, had viewed the rebellion with displeasure; and had exhibited this feeling by prohibiting the importation of certain articles of English manufacture. The English Parliament had naturally resented this conduct, and the establishment of the Republic had not been announced to France, as to other countries. Subsequently, in 1650, Mazarine had even listened to the proposals of the Dutch Stadtholder, William II., to cooperate with him for the restoration of

16 It was on this occasion that Philip IV. wrote to Condé: "I know that all was lost, and that you have saved all."

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DUTCH HOSTILITY TO ENGLISH REPUBLIC.

[BOOK V. the Stuarts. The Spanish Cabinet, on the other hand, being desirous of the English alliance, had, immediately after the execution of Charles, acknowledged the Republic; and when Cromwell seized the supreme power, he was not only congratulated by Don Alonso de Cardenas, the Spanish ambassador, but even informed that if he should assume the crown, the King of Spain would venture his own to defend him in it.17 At a later period, however, Mazarine, seeing the necessity for the English alliance, became a rival suitor for Cromwell's friendship. But the Protector, though well aware of the advantages of his position, was for some time prevented by a war with the Dutch from declaring for either nation.

Instead of that sympathy and support which the English Republicans might naturally have expected from the Dutch Commonwealth, which English blood and treasure had contributed to establish, the States-General had interposed to save the life of Charles I.; had acknowledged his son as lawful King of England, condoled with him on the "murder," as they styled it, of his royal father, and given him an asylum in their dominions. 18 This conduct was influenced by the youthful Stadtholder, William II., who, having married Mary, the eldest daughter of Charles I., was naturally in favour of the Stuarts; and he had at various times supplied Queen Henrietta with arms, ammunition, and soldiers in aid of her husband's cause. In this policy William was supported by the Dutch clergy and the populace; which, incited by its ministers, was so furious against the English Parliament, or "rebels," that Strickland, the Parliamentary envoy, durst not leave his lodgings; and on May 2nd 1649, Dr. Dorislaus, his colleague, was assassinated. The higher classes of the Dutch alone, and especially in the province of Holland, where the principles of an aristocratic republic prevailed, as well as with a view to commercial interests, were for the English Parliament, and advocated at least a strict neutrality. These principles had even threatened to bring the province of Holland into a dangerous collision with the Stadtholder. After the peace with Spain, the question had arisen as to the reduction of the army, and what regiments were to be dismissed; and on these points the States of Holland were at complete variance with the Stadtholder. They had shown a disposition to assert the right of self-government on these and other subjects, so that it even became a question whether the supreme power was to be vested in the States-General, or whether each province was to form an independent State. William attempted to decide this

17 Thurloe, State Papers, vol. i. p. 759.

18 Harris, Life of Cromwell, p. 249.