34

LOUIS XIV. MARRIES THE INFANTA.

[Book V. Court itself was not sincere in thinking that this renunciation would be observed. The wording of the very clause in which it was contained was calculated to raise questions likely to produce a war. The renunciation was made to depend on the payment of the dowry, and to extend to all inheritances and successions, whatever were their title, known or unknown.44

The marriage could not be immediately celebrated, as, on. account of the relationship of the parties, it was first necessary to procure a dispensation from Rome. Philip IV., too, who was then in bad health, wished to accompany his daughter to the frontiers. The French Court therefore lingered during the winter in Provence; for which it had another motive in a wish to display its authority in those parts, which had been in a state of fermentation ever since the Fronde. Condé, who had written to the Cardinal in the most obsequious terms to desire a reconciliation, visited the Court at Aix in January 1660. In the spring the French Court proceeded slowly through Perpignan to St. Jean de Luz, where it arrived May 8th; and three days afterwards Philip IV. came to St. Sebastian. The French and Spanish ministers, however, were delayed more than three weeks in settling some points with regard to the treaty; and it was not till June 3rd that Don Louis de Haro, being provided with the procuration of the French King, espoused the Infanta in his name at Fontarabia. On the following day Philip IV. met his sister, Anne of Austria, in the Isle of Pheasants. They had not seen each other during forty-five years. On this occasion the Infanta accompanied her father, and Louis XIV., concealed incognito among the young lords in his mother's suite, obtained the first view of his bride. Next day the Kings of Spain and France met upon the island and swore to the observance of the treaties. On June 7th the Infanta was delivered to her husband, and on the 9th the marriage was consummated at St. Jean de Luz. The Court then proceeded by easy journies to Paris, which they entered in state August 26th.

The Peace of the Pyrenees was the last important act of Mazarine, whose life was now drawing to a close. By this treaty he completed the policy of Richelieu, and put the finishing hand to the diplomatic triumphs of Münster and Osnabrück. It has been objected that this policy was not ultimately advantageous to France, and that the Spanish match even became a source of misfortune to her.45 But to require that Mazarine should have foreseen these results seems too great a demand on human wis45 See Michelet, Richelieu et La Fronde, p. 407.

44 Garden, t. ii. p. 29; Dumont, t. vi. pt. ii. p. 283.

CHAP. I.]

DEATH OF MAZARINE.

35

dom; and it is sufficient for his fame that he successfully achieved what at the time appeared to most men a very desirable object of ambition.46 It cannot be doubted that the Peace of Westphalia and of the Pyrenees secured for some time the supremacy of France. The credit of both these measures is due to Mazarine; and some of the chief advantages of the latter were secured by the personal exercise of his extraordinary diplomatic talent.47 That he made France pay dearly for these triumphs must be allowed. He enriched himself unscrupulously at her expense, and amassed so large a fortune that, in order to avert the envy of it, he made it over in his last days to the King; though doubtless in the confident anticipation of Louis' generosity and munificence in restoring it. Yet what could have been expected from a political adventurer and professed gambler,48 raised to the absolute control of a great kingdom in which he was by birth an alien? To Louis at least he appears to have discharged his duties with fidelity. Some of his last days were spent in advising the young King as to his future course, and rendering him fit to assume the sole control of his kingdom; and he recommended to Louis Le Tellier, Colbert, Pomponne, and other ministers who achieved so much for the greatness of France. The young monarch was already impatient to seize the administration. The control of Mazarine was becoming irksome to him; and the very next day after the Cardinal's death he announced to his Council," For the future I shall be my own prime minister."

Cardinal Mazarine died March 8th 1661, at the age of fifty-nine. Like Richelieu, he had conducted the affairs of France during a period of eighteen years.

46 The Parliament of Paris complimented the Cardinal on the great service he had done to France.

47 See the account of his negociations with the Spanish Minister at the Isle of Pheasants in Garden, Hist. des Traités de Paix, t. ii.

48 He is described by Mdme. de Motteville as gambling even on his death-bed, and amusing himself with weighing the pistoles he had gained, in order to stake the light ones again at play. Mémoires, p. 504. The ruling passion strong in death.

36

CHRISTINA QUEEN OF SWEDEN.

[Book V.

CHAPTER II.

HAVING thus described the manner in which France pursued the advantages which she had obtained at the Peace of Westphalia, we will now turn to Sweden, the companion of her policy, and partaker of the spoils.

We have already recorded the accession of Christina, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, to the Swedish throne in December 1644.1 Christina, in the first years of her reign, displayed great industry and application to business, as well as extraordinary ability. She regularly attended the meetings of her Council, over which she acquired an astonishing influence; she made herself mistress of the questions to be discussed, by perusing the state papers, whatever might be their length; and she had the faculty of stating the conclusions at which she arrived with great clearness and discrimination. She was resolved to govern by herself, and to discharge worthily the high functions to which she was called. She gave audience to all foreign ambassadors, and she is said to have taken a large personal share in effecting the Peace of Westphalia. She also possessed uncommon literary talent. To an acquaintance with the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues she added a knowledge of German, French, Italian, and Spanish ; which she assures us that she acquired without the aid of masters.3 Her patronage of literature attracted to Stockholm a crowd of learned men, among whom may be named Grotius, Isaac Vossius, Meibomius, Gerdesius, and others; and among them was René Descartes, the most original thinker of the age, who visited Stockholm in 1649, and died there in the following year. But unfortunately these pursuits disqualified Christina for her more serious duties. The foreigners by whom she was surrounded, by their description of southern climates and southern art, created in her an aversion for her wintry realm, and the rustic simplicity of her subjects; whilst their more philosophical discussions inspired her, if not with positive atheism, at least with an

1 Vol. II. p. 619.

2 See a character of Christina in Ranke's

Popes, B. 8. § ix.

Vie de Christine, faite par elle-même, p. 53. (In Arckenholtz, Mem. de Christine, t. iii.)

CHAP. II.]

ABDICATION OF CHRISTINA.

3377

indifference for all religion, unless it were an inclination to enter the Roman Catholic Church, as most indulgent to sins like hers. Hence she began gradually to entertain the idea of laying down the crown, the duties of which seemed to debar her from those scenes and studies that were congenial to her temper.

Other motives led her in the same direction. Besides her literary pursuits, Christina had a taste for show and splendour. She was fond of masques and mythological ballets, in 'which she sometimes took a part herself, in costumes not remarkable for decorum. Her extravagance was so great that she was often in want of money for her daily expenses. She bestowed with a lavish hand the royal domains on her courtiers and favourites, in order that they might appear at her feasts and revels with princely splendour, and thus deprived the monarchy of resources which were afterwards employed by the nobles to establish their own power at the expense of the crown. The necessities in which she thus became involved strengthened her wish to quit a land whose climate, customs, and religion were alike distasteful to her. Already in 1651 she had proposed to abdicate, but had been diverted from the project by the advice of her counsellors. Three years later her embarrassments became so great that she determined to throw the burden from her shoulders, and to transfer the crown to her cousin, Charles Gustavus.

We have already had occasion to mention this prince in the narrative of the Thirty Years' War. He was son of the Count Palatine, John Casimir, by Catherine, sister of Gustavus Adolphus ; and was born at the castle of Nyköping, Nov. 8th 1622. All Sweden had desired a marriage between their Queen and the nephew of their great monarch, and in 1647 the States had earnestly pressed Christina to marry; when she declared that if ever she did so, she would give the preference to her cousin, who had already proposed for her hand and been refused. In 1649, when the States renewed their request, Christina signified her resolution to remain single, but at the same time named her cousin as her successor on the throne. In the following year she was crowned with a splendour hitherto unseen in Sweden. The nomination of Charles Gustavus did not give general satisfaction. It was much opposed by the nobles, and especially by the now aged Oxenstiern, who could never be brought to give his consent. Nevertheless the States recognised Charles Gustavus, who, however, was obliged to promise Christina's privy counsellors that he would protect and maintain them in all the gifts they had received from See Vol. II. p. 622.

38

CHARLES X. OF SWEDEN.

[BOOK V. her, and to come under all sort of engagements both towards the Queen and the States.

On her abdication in June 1654, Christina stipulated that she should not be considered as a subject, nor be made responsible for the debts of the crown; and she reserved as the source of her revenues several towns, provinces, and islands. Nobody then certainly knew that she had renounced the religion of her fathers; but her conversion to the Roman Catholic faith was suspected, nor was it long before she openly declared it. The manner of her abdication resembled rather the flight of a criminal than the departure of a queen. Instead of proceeding to Germany in the fleet appointed to convey her with becoming state, she hastened through Denmark into the Netherlands, as if she were flying from shame."

Charles X., for such was the title of the new monarch, found Sweden in a terrible state of exhaustion; which had arisen not only from Christina's expensive habits, but also from the position taken by Sweden as a conquering nation, and by efforts in the Thirty Years' War more than commensurate with its strength. The difficulty of the situation was enhanced by the peculiar constitution of the Assembly of the States, and by the great difference that prevailed between the provinces composing the kingdom, which rendered it difficult to levy any general taxes, while it was almost impossible to make the nobles and clergy contribute their shares. Christina, by her lavish expenditure, had not only exhausted the ready money and credit of the State, but also by the alienation of the crown lands had sapped the very foundation of the public property. Thus Charles found the kingdom in a state in which he must either declare a bankruptcy, or else endeavour to free himself from his burdens by a war that should maintain itself; for no small part of his expenses was occasioned by the maintenance of a numerous army of Swedes and German mercenaries, that had been kept on foot since the Thirty Years' War. Nor was he averse to the latter alternative. Naturally of a warlike disposition, his service under Torstenson had fitted him to become an able commander; he was now in the flower of his age, and was filled with the ambition of executing the plans of his uncle, and extending the Swedish dominion over all the countries contiguous to the Baltic.

5 She was solemnly received into the Romish Church at Innsbrück, in November 1655.

• Christina, after wandering over great part of the Continent, ultimately died at Rome in 1689. In the interval she twice

revisited Sweden; in 1660, and 1667. To describe her way of life after her abdication belongs not to a general history, and would reflect but little credit on her character.