Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/601

 HENRY IV.] It was the last act of Philip IT., the confession that his great schemes were unfulfilled, his policy a failure. III. THE BOURBON MONARCHY. The year 1598 closes the meclueval history of Franco ; henceforth she takes her part in modern history. The power of the feudal noblesse has passed away ; the earlier rivalries between France and Austria take a new character; the centralized absolutist monarchy begins. We are coining to the days of the great ministers, first Sully, then Riche lieu, lastly Colbert, under whose rule France becomes great, almost in spite of her kings. The age now past had little to look back on with pleasure ; the utter corruption of the court, reign after reign, the selfish partizanship of the nobles, and the harsh incidence of civil war, incline us to believe the age to have been thoroughly wretched. Yet the condition of the French people was less miserable than it had been ; without seeing much prosperity we hear less of famine than in previous or in later ages ; for civil wars do not so much exhaust the well-being of a country as might appear. It has been observed that the wars of the Roses did little to check the progress of England ; and in like manner the wars of the League do not seem to have deeply afflicted France. These wars, in fact, were all the fighting of lords and princes with their retainers ; they were languid and partial ; and though their story might be wretched enough, the wretchedness of it chiefly fell on the heads of the belligerents themselves. There is no Jacquerie in this age, as in the 15th and as in the 18th century in France ; and in some respects the country made a real advance. In arts she has never been really great, and her age of poetry was not yet come. Ronsard and Du Bartas, great as their reputation was once, do not rise into the first rank of poets, and there are no better names. In political and legal writings, on the other hand, we have the great names of Montaigne and L Hopital, of Bodin and Hottmann, of Cujas and Etienne Pasquier. Stephanus and Joseph Scaliger represent classical tastes and chronological investi gation. Town-life was but little injured, except in Paris herself, by the wars of the period ; and even Paris was not altogether the worse for them, for even Henry III. took an interest in the capital, and tried to develop its resources. Whether the Christian Republic, that great political romance, was ever laid before the eyes of Henry IV. we shall never know ; at all events it represents, in a rather extreme form, the broader politics of modern history, and marks a great change in the relations of states. Many of its ideas were, consciously or not, adopted by the imperialism of our own century ; for they favoured the national vanity, which sought to impose its principles and wishes on Europe. It represented the resistance of France to the Austro-Spanish power, affirmed the general principle of toleration, en deavoured to substitute a court of arbitration in place of war, recognized many different forms of government, and sought to weld all civilized Europe into one harmonious community. That it was a dream the world s history has plentifully proved ; that there was in it much to admire, much to strive for, is equally proved by the persistence of many of its ideas, and their agreement with the best parts of the development of Europe in modern times. In 1598, on the close of the Spanish war, when Henry IV. was at last fully recognized as king of France on all sides, we find at his court representatives of the two policies which for ages contended for the possession of the great resources of the country. These were the Hispano- Catholic policy, which aimed at uniting French and Spanish interests against the north and west of Europe ; and on the other side, the policy of the tolerant party, which desired to make France the leader of the Protestant and Maximi- lian of 15etllull&amp;lt;3 duke of 565 liberal part of Europe, which allied itself with the Dutch, 1598- with the North German Lutherans, with the English, with 1600. the Swedes. It is the glory of Sully, of Richelieu, and of Colbert that they advanced the greatness of France by following the latter of these lines ; whereas Louis XIV. lost power tfrom the moment that he abandoned himself to the Spanish policy. So at Henry s court we find Maximilian of Bethune, lord of Rosny (he was not made duke of Sully till 1GOG), who headed the liberal party, the party of economy and good government, opposed to Villeroy, who represented the Spanish party, arid seemed to have an equal share iu the king s regard. Between these two were Jeannin, a great lawyer, and president of the Paris parliament, who worked with Sully and Sillery, who held a middle course, and was the most trusted diplomatist of his time. Villeroy and the Spanish advisers were strongly supported by the court, especially after the appearance of Mary de Medici. The court of Spain was only too glad to thwart Henry where it could ; the English court, after the accession of James, was too much set on windy schemes and grand im possibilities to afford a counterpoise on the other side. Sully had been made head of the finances in 1597, and had found everything in frightful disorder. His stern temper, severe manners, even his narrow grasp, proved him L ii-ii -Lie XT i. i_ t_ T j. 1 to be admirably suited for the part he had to play ; a more enlightened statesman might have failed where he succeeded. We find in his finance no large views as to economic princi ples ; we only see a rigid determination to stop waste, to punish thieves in high places, to make the taxes yield their full worth to the crown. So far as he occupied himself with general politics, Sully s views were right and liberal ; he disliked the Spanish tendencies of the court, and did his best to keep his master clear of them. He could not make the king economical, or reduce the outgoings of the state ; on the contrary, he felt himself obliged to make a strong army and plentiful artillery, and to accumulate good store of coin at the arsenal, so as to be ready for any need. In spite of these expenses, he speedily lessened the severity of the taxation ; and as good government made tranquillity, and tranquillity plenty, France bore her burdens with increasing willingness and ability. The chief failure of Sully s administration lay in his having done nothing to equalize taxation, by compelling noble land to bear its share with the labour of the peasant. He laid on some new taxes, increased some of the worst of the existing imposts, reduced the amount of the public debt, and encouraged agriculture. Henry, who with all his faults had broader views than his finance minister, also did his best for manu factures ; the edicts of the reign are numerous, and for the most part very sensible and helpful. Though the civil wars were over before 1598, content had not returned to the country. Henry was often ungrateful to his old friends and loyal supporters ; and the leaders of the Politique party, who might well think they had secured his throne for him, were especially dissatisfied. Conse quently, when war broke out with the duke of Savoy in 1600 over some frontier question, the duke of Biron entered Biron a into a great plot with Savoy and Spain, and carried with plot. him a formidable party of nobles. Sully, however, was prepared for all ; his artillery and munitions of war were such as had never before been seen ; and the duke of Savoy, seeing Montmelian, an impregnable stronghold, as it was deemed, actually taken, sued for peace. He re tained Saluzzo, for Henry had no desire to meddle in Italian politics, and ceded to France Bresse and Bugey, Valromey and Gex, so securing French influences up to the very gates of Geneva, and making it certain that the duke of Savoy must never again hope to crush that vigorous republic. Just before the end of this war, his