24

PERSECUTION OF THE VAUDOIS.

[BOOK V.. in three days, unless they could make it appear within twenty days that they were become Roman Catholics. Exasperated at this cruel proceeding, their brethren in the High Alps flew to arms, and solicited the assistance of the Vaudois of Dauphiné and of the Protestants of Geneva and Switzerland; but before help could arrive, they were attacked, and many of them massacred, by the Piedmontese troops, in conjunction with some French troops of the army of Lombardy. How the news of this act was received by the Protestants of Europe may be imagined; the feeling excited in England is shown by Milton's sonnet on the subject.30 Cromwell immediately ordered a general fast, and set on foot a subscription for the sufferers, which produced nearly 40,000l. He also desired Mazarine to put an end to the persecution. He told the Cardinal that he well knew that the Duke of Savoy was in the power of the French Court, and that if they did not restrain that sovereign, he must presently break with them. Mazarine, though he promised to use his good offices, at first demurred to this demand as unreasonable; but dreading the vigorous steps which Cromwell was preparing to take, and being apprehensive of the effect of his applications to the Kings of Sweden and Denmark, the States-General, and the Swiss Protestant cantons, the Cardinal obtained from the Duke of Savoy an amnesty for the insurgents, and an indemnity for the families which had been expelled from the lower valleys (August 1655).

Soon after the settlement of this affair, a treaty of peace and commerce was concluded between England and France (Nov. 3rd).31 The most important provision of it, with regard to political matters, was that the Stuarts and their adherents were not to be harboured in France. Although England was now at war with Spain, no military alliance was concluded between England and France. Mazarine was not yet prepared to pay Cromwell's price for it the surrender of Dunkirk, when captured, to England. Hence probably an attempt of the Cardinal's to negociate with Spain in 1656; on the failure of which he again resorted to Cromwell, prepared to submit to his conditions. On the 23rd of

30 Sonnet xviii. An account of this massacre will be found in Sir Samuel Morland's Hist. of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont. Morland was the agent employed by Cromwell to settle the concerns of the Vaudois. Milton also wrote, as Latin secretary, several state letters on the occasion; one of them is to the Duke of Savoy. See also Articles accordés par Charles Emmanuel à

ses sujets habitants des vallées de Piedmont, in Dumont, t. vi. pt. ii. P. 114.

31 Dumont, t. vi. pt. ii. p. 121. It is a singular feature of this treaty that mutual guarantees are given against piracy. The police of the seas was not even yet properly established, and the right of private maritime war was under certain circumstances still recognised.

March 1657, a treaty was accordingly signed at Paris, by which it was agreed that 6000 English foot, half to be paid by France and half by England, should join the French army in Flanders. Gravelines, Mardyck, and Dunkirk were to be attacked with the aid of an English fleet; Dunkirk, when taken, was to be delivered to the English; and the other two towns, if captured previously, were to be placed in the hands of England, as security till the condition respecting Dunkirk should be fulfilled.32

The assistance of the English troops under General Reynolds, and of the English fleet, turned the war in Flanders to the advantage of the French. In the campaign of 1657, Montmédy, St. Venant, and Mardyck were taken; when Mardyck, in the capture of which an English fleet had assisted, was, according to treaty, put into the hands of the English. Early in the following spring, Cromwell compelled Mazarine reluctantly to fulfil his engagements by ordering the siege of Dunkirk. It was a common opinion that Mazarine would have directed the allied forces against Cambrai, in order to make himself bishop and prince of that city, and the attention of the Spaniards had been chiefly turned towards the defence of that place. Don John of Austria was now Governor of the Spanish Netherlands. In 1656, the Emperor Ferdinand, with the view of pleasing the cabinet of Madrid, and in the hope of marrying his son to the heiress of the Spanish crown, had made room for Don John by recalling the Archduke Leopold William from Flanders, and at the same time Fuensaldana, Leopold's lieutenant, was replaced by Caracena. A jealousy between Condé and Leopold had prevented them from acting cordially together; but the haughty and impracticable Bourbon did not cooperate much better with the new governor. The Spaniards were astonished to find that Dunkirk, instead of Cambrai, was the point of attack. Turenne, after a long and difficult march, had invested that place (May 25th 1658). Don John, aware too late of his mistake, flew to its relief in such haste that he left his baggage and artillery a day's march in the rear, and encamped in presence of the enemy without the means of fortifying his position. In vain had Condé remonstrated; his sure and experienced eye foresaw the inevitable result. Next day, when Turenne marched out from his lines to engage the Spaniards, Condé inquired of the Duke of Gloucester, the younger brother of Charles II., who was by his side, "Have you ever seen a battle?" "Not yet." "Then in half an hour you will see us lose one. His prediction was speedily verified. The artillery of Turenne, aided by that of some

Dumont, t. vi. pt. ii. p. 224.

1933

33 Mem. du duc d'York.

26

BATTLE OF THE DUNES.

[Book V. English frigates on the coast, to which the Spaniards had not the means of replying, had already thrown them into disorder before the engagement became general. The charge of three or four thousand of Cromwell's veterans, composing the left wing under Lockhart, decided the fortune of the day. The Spaniards attempted to rally, but were dispersed by the French cavalry. On the right the French infantry were equally successful, in spite of all the efforts of Condé. The rout was complete; 1000 Spaniards and Germans were killed or wounded, 3000 or 4000 more were made prisoners, including many general officers; Condé himself escaped with difficulty. This battle, fought on the 14th of June 1658, called the "Battle of the Dunes," from its being fought on the dunes or sand hills which line the coast in that neighbourhood, decided the fate of Dunkirk. That place capitulated on the 23rd, and on the 25th, Louis XIV. in person surrendered it to Lockhart. Lord Fauconberg, Cromwell's son-in-law, who was sent to compliment Louis, was received with princely honours; and in return, the Duke of Créqui and Mazarine's nephew, Mancini, were despatched to the Protector with the present of a magnificent sword, and an apology from the Cardinal for not coming in person to pay his respects to so great a man!

The remainder of the campaign of 1658 was equally fortunate for Turenne. In a short time he took Bergues, Furnes, Gravelines and other places, and overran all Flanders to within a few leagues of Brussels. These reverses, coupled with others in Italy and in the war with the Portuguese, induced the Spanish Cabinet to think of a pacification; especially as Spain had now become in a manner isolated through the death of the Emperor Ferdinand III. and the policy of France with regard to the Rhenish League. But to explain this, we must cast a retrospective glance on the affairs of the German Empire.

The situation of Germany after the Peace of Westphalia was eminently favourable to French interests. Sweden, the close ally of France, held large possessions in the empire, which gave her a voice in the imperial diet. The German princes had become more independent of the Emperor, and several of them looked up to France for support and protection. In 1651, two leagues had been formed in Germany, with the professed object of carrying out the Peace of Westphalia. The first of these leagues was occasioned by the disorders committed by the troops of the Duke of Lorraine; who, as we have seen, was the instrument through whom the Emperor assisted Spain in her struggle with France. To avert this scourge the German princes most exposed to it,

namely, the Electors of Mentz, Trèves, and Cologne, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, and the Bishop of Münster, formed a League at Frankfort (March 1651); and they subsequently induced the circles of Suabia, Franconia, and Lower Saxony to join it. This union, from the religion of those who formed it, was called the Catholic League. About the same time, in Northern Germany, the Queen of Sweden, as Duchess of Bremen, the Dukes of Brunswick and Luneburg, and the Landgravine of Hesse also entered into a treaty, called the Protestant League, on the pretext of maintaining their territories and upholding the Peace of Westphalia. These leagues afforded Mazarine an opportunity to meddle in the affairs of Germany. He demanded that France should be admitted into them as guarantee of the treaties of Westphalia, and he subsequently made them the basis of the Rhenish League, in which French influence was predominant. These leagues were naturally regarded with suspicion and dislike by the Emperor; who, alarmed by the prospect of further coalitions, caused the provisions of the treaties of Münster and Osnabrück to be confirmed by the Diet of Ratisbon in 1654.34 This was called the Complement of the Peace of Westphalia, and served as the groundwork of the capitulation subsequently extorted from Ferdinand's son and successor, Leopold. Treaties in 1656, with the Elector of Brandenburg and the Elector Palatine, neither of whom had joined the leagues, served further to strengthen French influence in Germany. The Palatine had in fact sold himself for three years to France, in consideration of an annual pension.

Such being the state of things at the time of the somewhat sudden death of the Emperor Ferdinand III.35 (April 2nd 1657), Mazarine formed the plan of wresting the imperial crown from the House of Austria, and even of obtaining it for Louis XIV. The opportunity was rendered more promising by the circumstances of the Imperial House. Ferdinand's eldest son, whom he had procured to be elected King of the Romans, with the title of Ferdinand IV., had died in 1654; and the Emperor had not since succeeded in procuring that dignity, a necessary passport to the

34 This is the last Diet ever presided over by an Emperor in person, and its recess the last ever drawn up. The next Diet lasted till the dissolution of the Empire, and closed without a recess. Menzel, Neuere Gesch. der Deutschen, B. iv. S. 303.

35 Ferdinand's death was caused, or at least hastened, by an accident. When confined to bed by illness, a fire broke out near his apartments and those of his

youngest son, a child of three months. Ferdinand would not suffer himself to be removed till he saw his son in safety. A man who had snatched up the cradle in the confusion of the moment ran with it against the wall so violently that the cradle broke, and he and the child fell to the ground together. The Emperor survived the shock only a few hours. Hormayr, Oestr. Plutarch, ap. Menzel, Ibid. S. 305.

28

FRENCH INTRIGUES FOR THE EMPIRE.

[Book V. imperial crown, for his second son, Leopold Ignatius, who was now only seventeen years of age, and consequently still a minor. The situation was further embarrassed by the circumstance that the Emperor, only two days before his death, had signed an alliance with John Casimir, King of Poland, and had pledged himself to assist that monarch in the war then going on between him and Charles X., King of Sweden ;36 a policy which was adopted by the Archduke Leopold William, the uncle and guardian of the youthful heir of the House of Austria.

When the news of Ferdinand III.'s death reached Paris, Mazarine despatched the Marquis de Lionne and Marshal Gramont into Germany to canvass for the imperial crown, under the ostensible pretext of demanding reparation for some violations of the Peace of Westphalia. Lionne was a dexterous and practised diplomatist; but the real weight of the embassy rested with Gramont, a man of wit and of the world, who, with manners at once agreeable and dignified, united all the qualities of a jovial companion. His task it was to gain by his social qualities the good will of the German electors and princes in those interminable banquets and drinking bouts which sometimes lasted from midday almost to midnight. It is probable that Mazarine never seriously thought that he should be able to obtain the imperial crown for Louis. His real design seems to have been to transfer it to the Elector of Bavaria, or at all events to wrest it in any other manner from the House of Austria; and the canvassing for Louis would serve at least to create division and to gain time. The French ambassadors, on their way through Heidelberg, renewed the alliance with the Elector Palatine, who for a further sum of 140,000 crowns, and a yearly payment of 40,000 more for three years, placed himself entirely at their disposal. France might also reckon on the three spiritual electors; among whom the Elector of Mentz alone was actuated by honest, and what he deemed patriotic, motives. Thus half the electoral college had been gained, but not the most influential half. Of the other four electors, John George II. of Saxony,27 was for the House of Austria, out of love for precedent and custom, and also it is said from the

36 See the next chapter.

37 Gramont, in his Mémoires, has left an amusing account of this prince, and of the German courts in general at this period. John George II. was distinguished only by his zeal for Lutheranism, his hatred of the Calvinists, and his almost constant drunkenness. The following is a description of a dinner at Count Fürstemberg's: "Le

dîner dura depuis midi jusqu'à neuf heures de soir, au bruit des trompettes et des timbales, qu'on eut toujours dans les oreilles on y but bien 2000 ou 3000 santés; la table fut étayée, tous les électeurs dansèrent dessus; le maréchal (Gramont) qui étoit boiteux, y menoît le branle; tous les convives s'énivrèrent." Petitot, t. lvi. p. 463. (2nde Sér.)