Chapter IV: , VII (54)

"Condé, unfortunately for his fame, made no attempts at
reconciliation, and retired to the Spaniards--an enemy of his
country! He captured several small places on the [Flemish]
frontier, and hoped to return in spring victorious. A few days
after the entry into Paris, Turenne set out to oppose him;
and, retaking some towns, had the satisfaction, of compelling
him to seek winter quarters beyond the limits of France. ...
Condé persuaded the Spanish to bring 30,000 men into the field
for the next campaign: Turenne and La Ferté had but 13,000. To
paralyze the plans of the enemy, the Viscount proposed, and
his proposal was allowed, to be always threatening their rear
and communications; to occupy posts they would not dare to
attack, and so to avoid fighting, at the same time hindering
them from all important undertakings. He began by throwing
himself between two corps of their army, at the point where
they expected to effect a junction; and in the eight or nine
days thus gained, he recovered Rhétel, without which it would
have been, as he declares himself, impossible to defend
Picardy and Champagne. Rhétel, so much an object of anxiety,
was taken in three days. Baffled in their original purposes,
and at a loss, the Spanish expected a large convoy from
Cambray, escorted by 3,000 horse. Turenne got news of this,
and, posting himself near Peronne to intercept it, drove it
back to Cambray [August 11, 1653]. There Condé and Fuensaldaña
turned upon him; but he took up a position, which they watched
for three or four days, and there defied their attack. They
refused the challenge. Thence the enemy drew off," with
designs on Guise, which Turenne frustrated. "Condé then laid
siege to Rocroi, where his own first glory had been gained;
and this place is so hemmed in by woods and defiles, that the
relief of it was impossible. But Turenne compensated for the
loss of it by the equally valuable recapture, of Mouson. Thus
the whole year was spent in marches and countermarches, in
gains and losses, which had no influence on events. By this
time the malcontents were so prostrate that Condé's brother,
the Prince de Conti, and his sister, the Duchesse de
Longueville, made their peace with the court. ... The year
1654 opened with the siege of Stenay by the young king in
person, who was carried thither by Mazarin, to overawe Condé's
governor with the royal name and majesty. That officer was
more true to his trust than to his allegiance, and Stenay cost
a siege. ... Condé could do no better than imitate Turenne's
policy of the previous year, and besiege Arras as an
equivalent for Stenay; to which end he mustered 32,000 men.
Arras was a town of some value. Condé had caught it at
disadvantage; the governor, Mondejeu ... was put on his
defence with 2,500 foot and 100 horse. To reinforce this
slender garrison was the first care of Turenne. ... Mazarin
was anxious for Arras, and offered Turenne to break up the
siege of Stenay, for the sake of reinforcing the army of
relief. This proposal the Viscount declined. He must have been
very confident of his own capacity; for he could collect only
14,000 men to hover around the enemy's camp. ... He proposed
no attempt upon the intrenchments till he had the aid of the
troops from Stenay ... ; but he disposed his parties around so
as to prevent the enemy's convoys from reaching them." Stenay
surrendered on the 6th of August, and Turenne, with
reinforcements from its besiegers, attacked the Spanish lines
at Arras on the night of the 24th, with complete success. The
Spaniards raised the siege and retreated to Cambray, leaving
3,000 prisoners and 63 pieces of cannon in the hands of the
French. "The capture of Quesnoy and Binches filled up the rest
of the year; the places were weak and the garrisons feeble.
{1231}
Nor did the next season, 1655, offer anything of interest.
Turenne reduced Landrecies, Condé, and Guislain, while his
active opponent was sometimes foiled by his precautions, and
sometimes baffled by the absurd behaviour of the Spanish
authorities. ... The great event of 1656 was the siege of
Valenciennes. This place ... was invested by Turenne about the
middle of June: but hardly had his camp been intrenched before
he repented of his undertaking. The Scheldt flows through the
town, and by reservoirs and sluices was flooded at the will of
the enemy. Turenne's camp was largely inundated. ... He had
overestimated his means: so great was the circle of his
circumvallation that he had not men enough to guard it
adequately, when Condé and the Spanish appeared with 20,000
men to the relief of the place." They broke through his lines
and forced him to retreat, with a heavy loss of prisoners
taken. "The Viscount retrieved his credit by the bold stand he
made after the defeat."

_T. O. Cockayne,
Life of Marshal Turenne,
pages 58-69._

ALSO IN:
_Lord Mahon,
Life of Condé,
chapter 10._

_J. B. Perkins,
France under Mazarin,
chapters 16-17 (volume 2)._

FRANCE: A. D. 1653-1660.
First persecution of the Jansenists.

See PORT ROYAL AND THE JANSENISTS.

FRANCE: A. D. 1655-1658.
Alliance with the English Commonwealth against Spain.
The taking of Dunkirk for England and Gravelines for France.
End of the war.

"Mazarin was now bent upon an enterprise which, if successful,
must finish the war. A deadly blow would be struck at the
strength of Spain if Dunkirk, Mardyck, and Gravelines--the
possession of which was of vital importance to her
communication with Flanders, as well as enabling her to ruin
French commerce on that coast--could be wrested from her. For
this the cooperation of some maritime power was necessary, and
Mazarin determined at all costs to secure England. With
Cromwell, the only diplomatist by whose astuteness he
confessed himself baffled, he had been negotiating since 1651.
... At length on November 3, 1655, a treaty was signed at
Westminster, based upon freedom of commerce and an engagement
that neither country should assist the enemies or rebels of
the other; Mazarin consented to expel Charles II., James, and
twenty named royalists from France. Cromwell similarly agreed
to dismiss from England the emissaries of Condé. But Mazarin
was soon anxious for a more effectual bond. ... Cromwell had
equally good reasons for drawing closer to France, for Spain
was preparing actively to assist Charles II. French and
English interests thus coinciding, an alliance was signed at
Paris on March 23, 1657

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1655-1658.

Gravelines and Dunkirk were to be at once besieged both by
land and sea. England was to send 6,000 men to assist the
French army. Gravelines was to become French and Dunkirk
English; should the former fall first it was to be held by
England until Dunkirk too was taken. ... The alliance was not
a moment too soon. The campaign of 1657 had opened
disastrously. The tide was however turned by the arrival of
the English contingent. Montmédy was immediately besieged, and
capitulated on August 4. The effect was again to make Mazarin
hang back from further effort, since it seemed possible now to
make peace with Spain, and thereby avoid an English occupation
of Dunkirk. But Cromwell would stand no trifling, and his
threats were so clear that Mazarin determined to act loyally
and without delay. On September 30, Turenne laid siege to
Mardyck, which protected Dunkirk, and took it in four days. It
was at once handed over to the English." In the spring of 1658
the siege of Dunkirk was begun. The Spaniards, under Don John
of Austria and Condé, attempting to relieve the place, were
defeated (June 13) in the battle of the Dunes, by Turenne and
Cromwell's Ironsides (see ENGLAND: A. D.1655-1658). "Dunkirk
immediately surrendered, and on the 25th was in Cromwell's
possession. Two months later Gravelines also fell. A short and
brilliant campaign followed, in which Don John and Condé, shut
up in Brussels and Tournai respectively, were compelled to
remain inactive while fortress after fortress fell into French
hands. A few days after the fall of Gravelines Cromwell died;
but Mazarin was now near his goal. Utterly defeated on her own
soil, beaten, too, by the Portuguese at Elvas, and threatened
in Milan, her army ruined, her treasury bankrupt, without a
single ally in Europe, Spain stood at last powerless before
him."

_O. Airy,
The English Restoration and Louis XIV.,
chapter 6._

FRANCE: A. D. 1657.
Candidacy of Louis XIV. for the imperial crown.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1648-1705.

FRANCE: A. D. 1659-1661.
The treaty of the Pyrenees.
Marriage of Louis XIV. to the Spanish Infanta.

"The Spaniards could struggle no longer: they sued for peace.
Things were prepared for it on every hand: Spain was
desperate; matters far from settled or safe in France; in
England the Protector's death had come very opportunely for
Mazarin; the strong man was no longer there to hold the
balance between the European powers. Questions as to a Spanish
marriage and the Spanish succession had been before men since
1648; the Spaniards had disliked the match, thinking that in
the end it must subject them to France. But things were
changed; Philip IV. now had an heir, so that the nations might
hope to remain under two distinct crowns; moreover, the needs
of Spain were far greater than in 1648, while the demands of
France were less. So negociation between Mazarin and Louis de
Haro on the little Isle of Pheasants in the Bidassoa, under
the very shadow of the Pyrenees, went on prosperously; even
the proposal that Louis XIV. should espouse the Infanta of
Spain, Maria Theresa, was at last agreed to at Madrid. The
only remaining difficulty arose from" the fact that the young
King, Louis XIV., had fallen in love with Maria Mancini,
Cardinal Mazarin's niece, and wished to marry her. "The King
at last abandoned his youthful and pure passion, and signed
the Treaty of the Pyrenees [concluded November 7, 1659],
condemning himself to a marriage of state, which exalted high
the dignity of the French Crown, only to plunge it in the end
into the troubles and disasters of the Succession War. The
treaty of peace begins with articles on trade and navigation:
then follow cessions, restitutions, and exchanges of
territories.

{1232}

1. On the Northern frontier Spain ceded all she had in Artois,
with exception of Aire and S. Omer; in Flanders itself France
got Gravelines and its outer defences. In Hainault she became
mistress of the important towns, Landrecies, Quesnoy, and
Avesnes, and also strengthened her position by some exchanges:
in Luxemburg she retained Thionville, Montmédy, and several
lesser places; so that over her whole northern border France
advanced her frontier along a line answering to her old
limits. ... In return she restored to Spain several of her
latest conquests in Flanders: Ypres, Oudenarde, Dixmüden,
Furnes, and other cities. In Condé's country France recovered
Rocroy, Le Câtelet and Linchamp, occupied by the Prince's
soldiers; and so secured the safety and defences of Champagne
and Paris.

2. More to the East, the Duke of Lorraine, having submitted
with such good grace as might be, was reinstated in his Duchy.
... But France received her price here also, the Duchy of Bar,
the County of Clermont on the edge of Champagne, Stenay, Dun,
Jametz, Moyenvic, became hers. The fortifications of Nancy
were to be rased for ever; the Duke of Lorraine bound himself
to peace, and agreed to give France free passage to the
Bishopricks and Alsace. This was the more necessary, because
Franche-Comté, the other highway into Alsace, was left to the
Spaniards, and such places in it as were in the King's hands
were restored to them. Far out in Germany Louis XIV. replaced
Jülich in the hands of the Duke of Neuberg; and that element
of controversy, the germ or pretext of these long wars, was
extinct for ever. On the Savoyard border France retained
Pinerolo, with all the means and temptations of offence which
it involved: she restored to the Duke her other conquests
within his territories, and to the Spaniards whatever she held
in Lombardy; she also honourably obtained an amnesty for those
subjects of Spain, Neapolitans or Catalans, who had sided with
France. Lastly, the Pyrenees became the final, as it was the
natural, boundary between the two Latin kingdoms. ...
Roussillon and Conflans became French: all French conquests to
the south of the Pyrenees were restored to Spain. The Spanish
King renounced all claims on Alsace or Breisach: on the other
hand the submission of the great Condé was accepted; he was
restored to all his domains; his son, the young Duke of
Enghien, being made Grand Master of France, and he himself
appointed Governor of Burgundy and Bresse: his friends and
followers were included in the amnesty. Some lesser
stipulations, with a view to the peace of Europe, for the
settlement of the differences between Spain and Portugal,
between the Dukes of Savoy and Mantua, between the Catholic
and the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland, and an agreement to
help forward peace between the Northern Courts, worthily close
this great document, this weighty appendix to the Treaties of
Westphalia. A separate act, as was fitting, regulated all
questions bearing on the great marriage. It contains a solemn
renunciation, intended to bar for ever the union of the two
Crowns under one sceptre, or the absorption into France of
Flanders, Burgundy, or Charolais. It was a renunciation which,
as Mazarin foresaw long before, would never hold firm against
the temptations and exigencies of time. The King's marriage
with the Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain did not take place
till the next year, by which time Mazarin's work in life
seemed well nigh over; racked with gout, he had little
enjoyment of his triumphs. ... He betook himself to the
arrangement of his own affairs: his physicians giving him,
early in 1661, no hopes of recovery. ... These things
arranged, the Cardinal resigned himself to die 'with a
serenity more philosophic than Christian'; and passed away on
the 8th of March, 1661."

_G. W. Kitchin,
History of France,
book 4, chapter 8 (volume 3)._

"The Treaty of the Pyrenees, which completed the great work of
pacification that had commenced at Munster, is justly
celebrated as having put an end to such bitter and useless
animosities. But, it is more famous, as having introduced a
new æra in European politics. In its provisions all the
leading events of a century to come had their origin--the wars
which terminated with the Treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle,
Nimeguen, and Ryswick, and that concerning the Spanish
succession. So great an epoch in history has the Pyrenean
Treaty been accounted by politicians, that Lord Bolingbroke
was of opinion, 'That the only part of history necessary to be
thoroughly studied, goes no farther back than this treaty,
since, from that period, a new set of motives and principles
have prevailed all over Europe.'"

_J. Dunlop,
Memoirs of Spain during the Reigns of
Philip IV. and Charles II., volume 1.
chapter 11._

FRANCE: A. D. 1660-1688.
A footing gained in Newfoundland.

See NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1660-1688.

FRANCE: A. D. 1661.
Personal assumption of the government by Louis XIV.
The extraordinary characteristics of the reign of the Grand
Monarch, now begun.

On the death of Mazarin Louis XIV., then twenty-three years
old, announced to his council his intention of taking the
government solely upon himself. His ministers were
henceforward to receive instructions from him in person; there
was to be no premier at their head. The reign which then began
"was the culminating epoch in the history of the French
Monarchy. What the age of Pericles was in the history of the
Athenian Democracy, what the age of the Scipios was in the
history of the Roman Republic, that was the reign of Louis
XIV. in the history of the old Monarchy of France. ... It is
not only the most conspicuous reign in the history of
France--it is the most conspicuous reign in the history of
Monarchy in general. Of the very many kings whom history
mentions, who have striven to exalt the monarchical principle,
none of them achieved a success remotely comparable to his. ...
They may have ruled over wider dominions, but they never
attained the exceptional position of power and prestige which
he enjoyed for more than half a century. They never were
obeyed so submissively at home, nor so dreaded, and even
respected, abroad. For Louis XIV. carried off that last reward
of complete success, that he for a time silenced even envy,
and turned it into admiration. We who can examine with cold
scrutiny the make and composition of this Colossus of a French
Monarchy; who can perceive how much the brass and clay in it
exceeded the gold; who know how it afterwards fell with a
resounding ruin, the last echoes of which have scarcely died
away, have difficulty in realising the fascination it
exercised upon contemporaries who witnessed its first setting
up. Louis XIV.'s reign was the very triumph of commonplace
greatness, of external magnificence and success, such as the
vulgar among mankind can best and most sincerely appreciate.
... His qualities were on the surface, visible and
comprehensible to all. ...
{1233}
He was indefatigably industrious: worked on an average eight
hours a day for fifty-four years; had, great tenacity of will;
that kind of solid judgment which comes of slowness of brain,
and withal a most majestic port and great dignity of manners.
He had also as much kindliness of nature as the very great can
be expected to have. ... He must have had great original
fineness of tact, though it was in the end nearly extinguished
by adulation and incense. His court was an extraordinary
creation, and the greatest thing he achieved. He made it the
microcosm of all that was most brilliant and prominent in
France. Every order of merit was invited there, and received
courteous welcome. To no circumstance did he so much owe his
enduring popularity. By its means he impressed into his
service that galaxy of great writers, the first and the last
classic authors of France, whose calm and serene lustre will
for ever illumine the epoch of his existence. It may even be
admitted that his share in that lustre was not so accidental
and undeserved as certain king-haters have supposed. That
subtle critic, M. Ste. Beuve, thinks he can trace a marked
rise even in Bossuet's style from the moment he became a
courtier of Louis XIV. The king brought men together, placed
them in a position where they were induced and urged to bring
their talents to a focus. His Court was alternately a
high-bred gala and a stately university. ... But Louis XIV.'s
reign has better titles than the adulations of courtiers and
the eulogies of wits and poets to the attention of posterity.
It marks one of the most memorable epochs in the annals of
mankind. It stretches across history like a great
mountain-range, separating ancient France from the France of
modern times. On the farther slope are Catholicism and
feudalism in their various stages of splendour and decay--the
France of crusade and chivalry, of St. Louis and Bayard. On
the hither side are free-thought, industry, and
centralization--the France of Voltaire, Turgot and Condorcet.
When Louis came to the throne, the Thirty Years' War still
wanted six years of its end, and the heat of theological
strife was at its intensest glow. When he died, the religious
temperature had cooled nearly to freezing-point, and a new
vegetation of science and positive inquiry was overspreading
the world. This amounts to saying that his reign covers the
greatest epoch of mental transition through which the human
mind has hitherto passed, excepting the transition we are
witnessing in the day which now is. We need but recall the
names of the writers and thinkers who arose during Louis
XIV.'s reign, and shed their seminal ideas broadcast upon the
air, to realise how full a period it was, both of birth and
decay; of the passing away of the old and the uprising of the
new forms of thought. To mention only the greatest;--the
following are among the chiefs who helped to transform the
mental fabric of Europe in the age of Louis XIV.:--Descartes,
Newton, Leibnitz, Locke, Boyle. ... But the chief interest
which the reign of Louis XIV. offers to the student of history
has yet to be mentioned. It was the great turning-point in the
history of the French people. The triumph, of the Monarchical
principle was so complete under him, independence and
self-reliance were so effectually crushed, both in localities
and individuals, that a permanent bent was given to the
national mind--a habit of looking to the Government for all
action and initiative permanently established. Before the
reign of Louis XIV. it was a question which might fairly be
considered undecided, whether the country would be able or
not, willing or not, to co-operate with its rulers in the work
of the Government and the reform of abuses. On more than one
occasion such co-operation did not seem entirely impossible or
improbable. ... After the reign of Louis' XIV. such
co-operation of the ruler and the ruled became impossible. The
Government of France had become a machine depending upon the
action of a single spring. Spontaneity in the population at
large was extinct, and whatever there was to do must be done
by the central authority. As long as the Government could
correct abuses it was well; if it ceased to be equal to this
task they must go uncorrected. When at last the reform of
secular and gigantic abuses presented itself with imperious
urgency, the alternative before the Monarchy was either to
carry the reform with a high hand, or perish in the failure to
do so. We know how signal the failure was, and could not help
being, under the circumstances; and through having placed the
Monarchy between these alternatives, it is no paradox to say
that Louis XIV. was one of the most direct ancestors of the
Great Revolution."

_J. C. Morison,
The Reign of Louis XIV.
(Fortnightly Review, March, 1874)._

ALSO IN:
_J. I. von Döllinger,
The Policy of Louis XIV.
(Studies in European History, chapter 11)._

FRANCE: A. D. 1661-1680.
Revived and growing persecution of the Huguenots.

"One of the King's first acts, on assuming the supreme control
of affairs at the death of Mazarin, was significant, of his
future policy with regard to the Huguenots. Among the
representatives of the various public bodies who came to
tender him their congratulations, there appeared a deputation
of Protestant ministers, headed by their president Vignole;
but the King refused to receive them, and directed that they
should be ordered to leave Paris forthwith. Louis was not slow
to follow up this intimation by measures of a more positive
kind, for he had been carefully taught to hate Protestantism;
and, now that he possessed unrestrained power, he flattered
himself with the idea of compelling the Huguenots to abandon
their convictions and adopt his own. His minister Louvois
wrote to the governors throughout the provinces that 'his
majesty will not suffer any person in his kingdom but those
who are of his religion.' ... A series of edicts was
accordingly published with the object of carrying the King's
purposes into effect. The conferences of the Protestants were
declared to be suppressed. Though worship was still permitted
in their churches, the singing of psalms in private dwellings
was declared to be forbidden. ... Protestant children were
invited to declare themselves against the religion of their
parents. Boys of fourteen and girls of twelve years old might,
on embracing Roman Catholicism, become enfranchised and
entirely free from parental control. ... The Huguenots were
again debarred from holding public offices, though a few, such
as Marshal Turenne and Admiral Duquesne, who were Protestants,
broke through this barrier by the splendor of their services
to the state. In some provinces, the exclusion was so severe
that a profession of the Roman Catholic faith was required
from simple artisans. ...
{1234}
Colbert, while, he lived, endeavored to restrain the King, and
to abate these intolerable persecutions. ... He took the
opportunity of cautioning the King lest the measures he was
enforcing might tend, if carried out, to the impoverishment of
France and the aggrandizement of her rivals. ... But all
Colbert's expostulations were in vain; the Jesuits were
stronger than he was, and the King was in their hands;
besides, Colbert's power was on the decline. ... In 1666 the
queen-mother died, leaving to her son, as her last bequest,
that he should suppress and exterminate heresy within his
dominions. ... The Bishop of Meaux exhorted him to press on in
the path his sainted mother had pointed out to him. ... The
Huguenots had already taken alarm at the renewal of the
persecution, and such of them as could readily dispose of
their property and goods were beginning to leave the kingdom
in considerable numbers for the purpose of establishing
themselves in foreign countries. To prevent this, the King
issued an edict forbidding French subjects from proceeding
abroad without express permission, under penalty of
confiscation of their goods and property. This was followed by
a succession of severe measures for the conversion or
extirpation of such of the Protestants--in numbers about a
million and a half--as had not by this time contrived to make
their escape from the kingdom. The kidnapping of Protestant
children was actively set on foot by the agents of the Roman
Catholic priests, and their parents were subjected to heavy
penalties if they ventured to complain. Orders were issued to
pull down the Protestant places of worship, and as many as
eighty were shortly destroyed in one diocese. ... Protestants
were forbidden to print books without the authority of
magistrates of the Romish communion. Protestant teachers were
interdicted from teaching children any thing more than
reading, writing, and arithmetic. ... Protestants were only
allowed to bury their dead at daybreak or at nightfall. They
were prohibited from singing psalms on land or on water, in
workshops or in dwellings. If a priestly procession passed one
of their churches while the psalms were being sung, they must
stop instantly on pain of the fine or imprisonment of the
officiating minister. In short, from the pettiest annoyance to
the most exasperating cruelty, nothing was wanting on the part
of the 'Most Christian King' and his abettors."

_S. Smiles,
The Huguenots,
chapter 7._

ALSO IN:
_A. Maury,
Memoirs of a Huguenot Family (Fontaine),
chapters 4-7._

_W. S. Browning,
History of the Huguenots,
chapters 59-60._

FRANCE: A. D. 1661-1683.
The administration of Colbert.
His economic system and its results.

"With Colbert the spirit of the great Cardinal came back to
power. Born at Reims on the 29th of August, 1619, Colbert was
educated by the Jesuits, and at the early age of nineteen
entered the War Office, in which department Le Tellier, a
connection of his family by marriage, filled the post of
Under-Secretary of State. From the first Colbert distinguished
himself by his abnormal powers of work, by his extraordinary
zeal in the public service, and by an equal devotion to his
own interests. His Jesuit training showed fruit in his
dealings with all those who, like Le Tellier or Mazarin, could
be of use to him on his road to power, whilst the old
tradition of his Scotch blood is favoured by a certain
'dourness' of character which rendered him in general
difficult of access. His marvellous strength of brain,
seconded by rare powers of endurance, enabled him to work
habitually fourteen hours a day to enter into every detail of
every branch of the administration, whilst at the same time he
never lost sight of that noble project of universal reform
which he had conceived, and which embraced both Church and
State. ... Qualified in every way for the work of
administration, absolutely indifferent to popularity, Colbert
seemed destined by nature to lead the final charge against the
surviving forces of the feudal system. After the troubles of
the Fronde had died away and the death of Mazarin had left
Louis XIV. a king in deed as well as in name, these forces of
the past were personified by Fouquet, and the duel between
Fouquet and Colbert was the dramatic close of a struggle
predestined to end in the complete triumph of absolutism. The
magnificent and brilliant Fouquet, who for years past had
taken advantage of his position as 'Surintendant des Finances'
to lavish the resources of the State on his private pleasures,
was plainly marked out as the object of Colbert's hostility.
... On the losing side were ranged all the spendthrift princes
and facile beauties of the Court, all the greedy recipients of
Fouquet's ostentatious bounties. He had reckoned that the
greatest names in France would be compromised by his fall, and
that by their danger his own safety was assured. He had
reckoned without Colbert; he had reckoned without that power
which had been steadily growing throughout all vicissitudes of
fate during the last two generations, and which was now
centred in the King. No stranger turn of fortune can be
pictured than that which, on the threshold of the modern era,
linked the nobles of France in their last struggle for
independence with the fortunes of a rapacious and fraudulent
financier, nor can anything be more suggestive of the
character of the coming epoch than the sight of this last
battle fought, not in the field of arms, but before a court of
law. To Colbert, the fall of Fouquet was but the necessary
preliminary to that reform of every branch of the
administration which had been ripening in his mind ever since
he had entered the public service. To bring the financial
situation into order, it was necessary first to call Fouquet
to account. ... The fall of the chief offender, Fouquet,
having been brought about, it was easy to force all those who
had been guilty of similar malversations on a minor scale to
run the gauntlet of the High Commission. Restitution and
confiscation became the order of the day, and when the Chamber
of Justice was finally dissolved in 1669, far beyond any
advantage which might be reckoned to the Treasury from these
sources was the gain to the nation in the general sense of
security and confidence. It was felt that the days of
wholesale dishonesty and embezzlement were at an end. ...
Colbert went forward from this moment without hesitation,
devoting his whole energies to the gigantic task of re-shaping
the whole internal economy of France. ... Backed by despotic
power, his achievements in these directions have to an
incredible extent determined the destinies of modern industry,
and have given origin to the whole system of modern
administration, not only in France, but throughout Europe.
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In the teeth of a lavish expenditure which he was utterly
unable to check, once and again did Colbert succeed in
establishing a financial equilibrium when the fortunes of
France seemed desperate. ... He aimed ... at the fostering of
home production by an elaborate system of protection, whilst
at the same time the markets of other countries were to be
forced open and flooded with French goods. Any attempt on the
part of a weaker power to imitate his own policy, such for
instance as that made in the papal states by Alexander VII.
and Clement IX., was instantly repressed with a high hand. ...
His leading idea was to lower all export dues on national
produce and manufactures, and, whilst diminishing import
duties on such raw materials as were required for French
manufactures, to raise them until they became prohibitive on
all foreign goods.

See TARIFF LEGISLATION: A. D. 1664-1667 (FRANCE).

The success of the tariff of 1664 misled Colbert. That tariff
was a splendidly statesmanlike attempt to put an end to the
conflict and confusion of the duties, dues, and customs then
existing in the different provinces and ports of France, and
it was in effect a tariff calculated for purely fiscal
purposes. Far other were the considerations embodied in the
tariff of 1667, which led to the Dutch and English wars, and
which, having been enacted in the supposed interests of home
industry, eventually stimulated production in other countries.
... If, however, the industrial policy of Colbert cannot be
said to have realised his expectations, since it neither
brought about a great increase in the number of home
manufactures nor succeeded in securing a larger share of
foreign trade, there is not a doubt that, in spite even of the
disastrous wars which it provoked, it powerfully contributed,
on the whole, to place France in the front rank as a
commercial nation. ... The pitiless and despotic Louvois, who
had succeeded his father, Colbert's old patron Le Tellier, as
Secretary of State for War, played on the imperious vanity of
King Louis, and engaged him in wars big and little, which in
most cases wanted even the shade of a pretext. ... All the
zeal of the great Minister's strict economy could only stay
for a while the sure approach of national distress. ... When
Colbert died, on 6th September, 1683, the misery of France,
exhausted by oppressive taxation, and depopulated by armies
kept constantly on foot, cried out against the Minister who,
rather than fall from power, had lent himself to measures
which he heartily condemned. For the moment men forgot how
numerous were the benefits which he had conferred ... and
remembered only the harshness with which he had dealt justice
and stinted mercy. Yet order reigned where, before his advent,
all had been corruption and confusion; the navy of France had
been created, her colonies fostered, her forests saved from
destruction; justice and the authority of the law had been
carried into the darkest corners of the land; religious
toleration, socially if not politically, had been advocated;
whilst the encroachments of the Church had been more or less
steadfastly opposed. To the material prosperity of the
nation--even after we have made all possible deductions for
the evils arising from an exaggerated system of protection--an
immense and enduring impulse had been given; and although it
is true that, with the death of Colbert, many parts of his
splendid scheme fell to the ground, yet it must be confessed
that the spirit in which it was originated and improved still
animates France."

_Lady Dilke,
France under Colbert
(Fortnightly Rev., February, 1886)._

ALSO IN:
_H. Martin,
History of France: Age of Louis XIV.,
volume 1, chapters 1-7._

See, also, TAILLE AND GABELLE.

FRANCE: A. D. 1662.
The purchase of Dunkirk from Charles II.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1662.

FRANCE: A. D. 1663-1674.
New France made a Royal Province.
The French West India Company.

See CANADA: A. D. 1663-1674.

FRANCE: A. D. 1664.
Aid given to Austria against the Turks.
The victory of St. Gothard.

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1660-1664.

FRANCE: A. D. 1664-1666.
War with the piratical Barbary States.
The Jijeli expedition.
Treaties with Tunis and Algiers.

See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1664-1684.

FRANCE: A. D. 1664-1690.
The building of Versailles.

See VERSAILLES.

FRANCE: A. D. 1665.
The Great Days of Auvergne.

"We must read the curious account of the Great Days of
Auvergne, written by Fléchier in his youth, if we would form
an idea of the barbarism in which certain provinces of France
were still plunged, in the midst of the brilliant civilization
of the 17th century, and would know how a large number of
those seigniors, who showed themselves so gallant and tender
in the boudoirs of Paris, lived on their estates, in the midst
of their subjects: we might imagine ourselves in the midst of
feudalism. A moment bewildered by the hammer of the great
demolisher [Richelieu], which had battered down so many
Chateaux, the mountain squires of Auvergne, Limousin, Marche
and Forez had resumed their habits under the feeble government
of Mazarin. Protected by their remoteness from Paris and the
parliament, and by the nature of the country they inhabited,
they intimidated or gained over the subaltern judges, and
committed with impunity every species of violence and
exaction. A single feature will enable us to comprehend the
state of these provinces. There were still, in the remoter
parts of Auvergne, seigniors who claimed to use the wedding
right (droit de jambage), or, at the least, to sell exemption
from this right at a high price to bridegrooms. Serfhood of
the glebe still existed in some districts. August 31, 1665, a
royal declaration, for which ample and noble reasons were
given, ordered the holding of a jurisdiction or court
'commonly called the Great Days,' in the city of Clermont, for
Auvergne, Bourbonnais, Nivernais, Forez, Beaujolais, Lyonnais,
Combrailles, Marche, and Berry. A president of parliament, a
master of requests, sixteen councillors, an attorney-general,
and a deputy procurator-general, were designated to hold these
extraordinary assizes. Their powers were almost absolute. They
were to judge without appeal all civil and criminal cases, to
punish the 'abuses and delinquencies of officers of the said
districts,' to reform bad usages, as well in the style of
procedure as in the preparation and expedition of trials, and
to try all criminal cases first. It was enjoined on bailiffs,
seneschals, their lieutenants and all other judges, to give
constant information of all kinds of crimes, in order to
prepare matter for the Great Days. A second declaration
ordered that a posse should be put into the houses of the
contumacious, that the chateaux where the least resistance was
made to the law should be razed; and forbade, under penalty of
death, the contumacious to be received or assisted.
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The publication of the royal edicts, and the prompt arrival of
Messieurs of the Great Days at Clermont, produced an
extraordinary commotion in all those regions. The people
welcomed the Parisian magistrates as liberators, and a
remarkable monument of their joy has been preserved, the
popular song or Christmas hymn of the Great Days. Terror, on
the contrary, hovered over the châteaux; a multitude of
noblemen left the province, and France, or concealed
themselves in the mountains; others endeavored to conciliate
their peasants. ... The Great Days at least did with vigor
what it was their mission to do: neither dignities, nor
titles, nor high connections preserved the guilty. ... The
Court of Great Days was not content with punishing evil; it
undertook to prevent its return by wise regulations: first,
against the abuses of seigniorial courts; second, against the
vexations of seigniors on account of feudal service due them;
third, concerning the mode and abbreviation of trials; and
lastly, concerning the reformation of the clergy, who had no
less need of being reformed than the nobility. The Great Days
were brought to a close after three months of assizes (end of
October, 1665--end of January, 1666), and their recollection
was consecrated by a medal."

_H. Martin,
History of France: The Age of Louis XIV:,
volume 1, chapter 2._

FRANCE: A. D.1665-1670.
The East India Company.

See INDIA: A. D. 1665-1743.

FRANCE: A. D. 1666.
Alliance with Holland against England.

See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1665-1666.

FRANCE: A. D. 1667.
The War of the Queen's Rights.
Conquests in the Spanish Netherlands.

See NETHERLANDS (SPANISH PROVINCES): A. D. 1667.

FRANCE: A. D. 1668.
The king's conquests in Flanders checked by the Triple
Alliance.

See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1668.

FRANCE: A. D. 1670.
The secret treaty of Dover.
The buying of the English king.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1668-1670.

FRANCE: A. D. 1672-1678.
War with Holland and the Austro-Spanish Coalition.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1672-1714;
and NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1672-1674,
and 1674-1678.

FRANCE: A. D. 1673-1682.
Discovery and exploration of the Mississippi
by Marquette and La Salle.
Possession taken of Louisiana.

See CANADA: A. D. 1634-1673, and 1669-1687.

FRANCE: A. D. 1678-1679.
The Peace of Nimeguen.

See NIMEGUEN. PEACE OF.

FRANCE: A. D. 1679-1681.
Complete absorption of Les Trois-Evêchés and Alsace.
Assumption of entire sovereignty by Louis XIV.
Encroachments of the Chambers of Reannexation.
The seizure of Strasburg.

"The Lorraine Trois-Evêchés, recovered by France from the Holy
Roman Empire, had remained in an equivocal position, as to
public law, during nearly a century, between their old and new
ties: the treaty of Westphalia had cut the knot by the formal
renunciation of the Empire to all rights over these countries;
difficulties nevertheless still subsisted relative to the
fiefs and the pendencies of Trois-Evêchés possessed by members
of the Empire. Alsace, in its turn, from the treaty of
Westphalia to the peace of Nimeguen, had offered analogous and
still greater difficulties, this province of Teutonic tongue
not having accepted the annexation to France as easily as the
Walloon province of Trois-Evêchés, and the treaty of
Westphalia presenting two contradictory clauses, one of which
ceded to France all the rights of the Emperor and the Empire,
and the other of which reserved the 'immediateness' of the
lords and the ten cities of the prefecture of Alsace towards
the Empire. ...

See GERMANY: A. D. 1648.

At last, on the complaints carried to the Germanic Diet by the
ten Alsacian cities, joined by the German feudatories of
Trois-Evêchés, Louis, who was then very conciliatory towards
the Diet, consented to take for arbiters the King of Sweden
and some princes and towns of Germany (1665). The arbitration
was protracted for more than six years. In the beginning of
1672, the arbiters rendered an ambiguous decision which
decided nothing and satisfied no one. War with Holland broke
out meanwhile and changed all the relations of France with
Germany. ... Louis XIV. disarmed or took military occupation
of the ten cities and silenced all opposition. ... In the
conferences of Nimeguen, the representatives of the Emperor
and the Empire endeavored to return to the 'immediateness,'
but the King would not listen to a renewal of the arbitration,
and declared all debate superfluous. 'Not only,' said the
French plenipotentiaries, 'ought the King to exercise, as in
fact he does exercise, sovereign domain over the ten cities,
but he might also extend it over Strasburg, for the treaty of
Münster furnishes to this city no special title guaranteeing
its independence better than that of the other cities.' It was
the first time that Louis had disclosed this bold claim,
resting on an inaccurate assertion. The Imperialists,
terrified, yielded as regarded the ten cities, and Alsace was
not called in question in the treaty of Nimeguen. Only the
Imperialists protested, by a separate act, against the
conclusions which might be drawn from this omission. The ten
cities submitted and took to the King an oath of fidelity,
without reservation towards the Empire; their submission was
celebrated by a medal bearing the device: 'Alsatia in
provinciam reducta' (1680). The treaty of Nimeguen was
followed by divers measures destined to win the Alsacian
population. ... This wise policy bore its fruits, and Alsace,
tranquillized, gave no more cause of anxiety to the French
government. France was thenceforth complete mistress of the
possessions which had been ceded to her by the Empire; this
was only the first part of the work; the point in question now
was, to complete these possessions by joining to them their
natural appendages which the Empire had not alienated. The
boundaries of Lower Alsace and the Messin district were ill
defined, encroached upon, entangled, on the Rhine, on the
Sarre, and in the Vosges, by the fiefs of a host of petty
princes and German nobles. This could not be called a
frontier. Besides, in the very heart of Alsace, the great city
of Strasburg preserved its independence towards France and its
connection with the Empire. A pacific method was invented to
proceed to aggrandizements which it would seem could only be
demanded by arms; a pacific method, provided that France could
count on the weakness and irresolution of her neighbors; this
was to investigate and revendicate everything which, by any
title and at any epoch whatsoever, had been dependent on
Alsace and Trois-Evêchés.
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We may comprehend whither this would lead, thanks to the
complications of the feudal epoch; and it was not even
designed to stop at the feudal system, but to go back to the
times of the Frankish kings! Chambers of 'reannexation' were
therefore instituted, in 1679, in the Parliament of Metz, and
in the sovereign council of Alsace, with a mission which their
title sufficiently indicated. ... Among the nobles summoned,
figured the Elector of Treves, for Oberstein, Falkenburg,
etc.; the Landgrave of Hesse, for divers fiefs; the Elector
Palatine, for Seltz and the canton situated between the Lauter
and the Keich (Hogenbach, Germersheim, etc.); another prince
palatine for the county of Veldentz: the Bishop of Speyer, for
a part of his bishopric; the city of Strasburg, for the
domains which it possessed beyond the Rhine (Wasselonne and
Marlenheim); lastly, the King of Sweden, for the duchy of
Deux-Ponts or Zweibrücken, a territory of considerable extent
and of irregular form, which intersected the cis-Rhenish
Palatinate. ... By divers decrees rendered in March, August,
and October, 1680, the sovereign council of Alsace adjudged to
the King the sovereignty of all the Alsacian seigniories. The
nobles and inhabitants were summoned to swear fidelity to the
King, and the nobles were required to recognize the sovereign
council as judge in last resort. The chamber of Metz acted on
a still larger scale than the chamber of Breisach. April 12,
1680, it united to Trois-Evêchés more than 80 fiefs, the
Lorraine marquisate of Pont-à-Mousson, the principality of
Salm, the counties of Saarbourg and Veldentz, the seigniories
of Sarrebourg, Bitche, Homburg, etc. The foundation of the new
town of Sarre-Louis and the fortification of Bitche
consolidated this new frontier; and not only was the course of
the Sarre secured to France, but France, crossing the Sarre,
encroached deeply on the Palatinate and the Electorate of
Treves, posted herself on the Nahe and the Blies, and threw,
as an advance-guard, on a peninsula of the Moselle, the
fortress of Mont-Royal, half-way from Treves to Coblentz, on
the territories of the county of Veldentz. The parliament of
Franche-Comté, newly French as it was, zealously followed the
example of the two neighboring courts. There was also a
frontier to round towards the Jura. ... The Duke of Würtemberg
was required to swear allegiance to the King for his county of
Montbéliard. ... The acquisitions made were trifling compared
with those which remained to be made. He [Louis XIV.] was not
sure of the Rhine, not sure of Alsace, so long as he had not
Strasburg, the great city always ready to throw upon the
French bank of the river the armies of the Empire. France had
long aimed at this conquest. As soon as she possessed Metz she
had dreamed of Strasburg. ... Though the King and Louvois had
prevented Créqui from besieging the place during the war, it
was because they counted on surprising it after peace. This
great enterprise was most ably manœuvred." The members of the
regency of the city were gained over, one by one. "The
Imperial troops had evacuated the city pursuant to the treaty
of Nimeguen; the magistrates dismissed 1,200 Swiss which the
city had in its pay; then, on the threatening demands of the
French, they demolished anew Fort Kehl, which they had rebuilt
since its destruction by Créqui. When the fruit seemed ripe,
Louis stretched out his hand to gather it. In the latter part
of September, 1681, the garrisons of Lorraine, Franche-Comté,
and Alsace put themselves in motion. ... The 28th, 35,000 men
were found assembled before the city; Baron de Montclar, who
commanded this army, informed the magistrates that 'the
sovereign chamber of Breisach having adjudged to the king the
sovereignty of all Alsace, of which Strasburg was a member,
his Majesty desired that they should recognize him as their
sovereign lord, and receive a garrison." On the 30th the
capitulation of the city was signed; on the 23d of October the
King entered Strasburg in person and was received as its
sovereign.

_H. Martin,
History of France: Age of Louis XIV.,
volume 1, chapter 7._

FRANCE: A. D. 1680.
Imprisonment of the "Man in the Iron Mask."

See IRON MASK.

FRANCE: A. D. 1681-1684.
Threatening relations with the Turks.
War with the Barbary States.
Destructive bombardment of Algiers.

See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1664-1684.

FRANCE: A. D. 1681-1698.
Climax of the persecution of the Huguenots.
The Dragonnades.
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
The great exodus of French Protestants and the consequent
national loss.

"Love and war suspended for a considerable time" the ambition
of the king to extinguish heresy in his dominions and
establish uniformity of religious worship; "but when Louis
became satiated at once with glory and pleasure, and when
Madame de Maintenon, the Duke de Beauvilliers, the Duke de
Montausier, Bossuet, the Archbishop of Rheims, the Chancellor
Letellier, and all the religious portion of the court, began
to direct his now unoccupied and scrupulous mind to the
interests of religion, Louis XIV. returned to his plans with
renewed ardor. From bribery they proceeded to compulsion.
Missionaries, escorted by dragoons, spread themselves at the
instigation of Bossuet, and even of Fénelon, over the western,
southern and eastern provinces, and particularly in those
districts throughout which Protestantism, more firmly rooted
among a more tenacious people, had as yet resisted all
attempts at conversion by preaching. ... Children from above
seven years of age were authorized to abjure legally the
religion of their fathers. The houses of those parents who
refused to deliver up their sons and daughters were invaded
and laid under contributions by the royal troops. The
expropriation of their homes, and the tearing asunder of
families, compelled the people to fly from persecution. The
king, uneasy at this growing depopulation, pronounced the
punishment of the galleys against those who sought liberty in
flight; he also ordered the confiscation of all the lands and
houses which were sold by those proprietors who were preparing
to quit the kingdom. ... Very soon the proscription was
organized en masse: all the cavalry in the kingdom, who, on
account of the peace, were unemployed, were placed at the
disposal of the preachers and bishops, to uphold their
missions [known as the dragonnades] with the sabre. ...
Bossuet approved of these persecutions. Religious and
political faith, in his eyes, justified their necessity. His
correspondence is full of evidence, while his actions prove
that he was an accomplice: even his eloquence ... overflowed
with approbation of, and enthusiasm for, these oppressions of
the soul and terrors of heresy."

_A. de Lamartine,
Memoirs of Celebrated Characters,
volume 3: Bossuet._

{1238}