Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/602

 566 FRANCE [HISTORY. 1600-10 divorce from Margaret of Valois having come from the pope, Maryde Henry married Mary de Medici (1600), then in the prime Medici, of her beauty ; later on she grew fat and heavy. She was always stiff and obstinate, a prejudiced follower of the old ways, who spent her life first in thwarting, after wards in obliterating, the traces of the higher schemes and acts of her spouse. The duke of Biron, utterly dissatisfied at the result of the Savoyard war, plunged into fresh con spiracy; then Henry IV. felt no more pity for him, but seized and beheaded him ; it was believed that the queen herself was mixed up in his plot, which had far-reaching ramifications. By 1605 Henry had reduced all the rest of his recalcitrant nobles, treating them without rancour or revenge if they came in, and setting trusty officers of his QWII to watch over them. The remainder of the king s life was occupied with two things : first, the strengthening of the resources of France at home ; secondly, the preparations for authoritative inter vention in the affairs of Europe, which were now beginning The to attract the attention of all. The king was called on to state of intervene as a mediator between the papacy and Venice in Europe. J6Q6-1607, and decided their quarrel in a way which ought to have roused the gratitude of the papal power. Chiefly through Henry s firmness, a truce for twelve years was signed between Spain and the United Provinces, for the Spaniards, exhausted by the siege of Ostend, the greatest siege the world had ever seen (1601-1604), and quite unable to cope with the genius of Maurice of Nassau, gladly accepted the peaceful overtures of Olden Barneveldt and the commercial grandees of the towns, who then, as afterwards, were opposed to the democratic and war-loving population of the country, which supported the house of Orange. This truce closed the great struggle of the Low Countries for their independence, and virtually secured it to them. While, however, tranquillity reigned in Holland and Italy, Germany was growing ever more uneasy ; in more districts than one the struggle between the communions, deferred not ended by the peace of Augsburg of 1555, had become acute. Not only in the Slavonic lands connected with the house of Austria was there excitement and dis turbance, but in the Rhine districts questions had arisen which called out the warm interest of all the three confes sions, the Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinistic. The death of the duke of Cleves in 1609 brought matters to a head ; the Dutch and Spaniards, the elector of Brandenburg, and the emperor, all interfered. Then Henry IV. took up the cause of the Protestant princes, and sent envoys to the Evangelic Union of Halle (January 1610), and made most vigorous preparations for war, in combination with Maurice [of Nassau, who agreed to join him with 20,000 Dutchmen in Cleves. It was arranged that the queen should be regent in the king s absence, and as she had never been solemnly crowned, she delayed Henry s departure till that ceremony had taken place ; in the days of waiting the king, fretting to be off, went to visit Sully, who lay ill at the Arsenal. and to feast his eyes once more on the splendid armoury and munitions of war collected there. As he went, he was Assassi- assassinated by Ravaillac, who plunged a knife into his nation heart. It is said to have been the eighteenth attempt made emy on his life. All the grand plans for interference in the affairs of Europe, and for the reduction of the house of Austria, fell to the ground at once, and German affairs were left to seethe as they would, until in 1618-1619 they came to a head in the outbreak of the Thirty Years War. The knife of Ravaillac, whether he was set on by the queen and the Spanish party or not, did their work ; it left the Pro testants of the north to fight for themselves, relieved the king of Spain of grave anxieties, and plunged France once more into confusion and trouble. Not till the reign of Richelieu had succeeded the administration of Sully did France resume her true direction and lead the resistance to 161 the house of Austria. Henry IV. had the great quality of individuality. He Cha stands out fresh and clear as a distinct personage, of high tei- soul, bright temper, original and characteristic speech, f^ All great men leave sayings behind them, and Henry s ring with vigorous good nature and humour. His brilliancy in war was that of a captain ; he had not the coolness and combination of a general ; his moral character was restless, bad, ungrateful, self-indulgent ; he took little trouble to help his subjects to greater comfort, though he ever wished them well. They felt that there was in him something of the lazy kindliness of Louis XII. He chose a grand minister in Sully, and, in spite of some wavering, followed him in the right policy for France. He had the faults of the Bourbons; yet he was their greatest king, on the whole, their noblest man. Voltaire sums up the good deeds of his reign in nervous phrasss: &quot;Justice is reformed, and far harder task! the two religions live in peace to all appearance. Agriculture is encouraged; as Sully said, Plough and cow, these are the breasts of France, whereat she sucks; they are the true mines and treasures of Peru. Com merce and the arts, which Sully cared for less, were still honoured; gold and silver stuffs enriched Lyons and France. Henry esta blished manufactures of tapestry; French glass after the Venetian style began to be made. To him alone France owes the silkworm and the mulberry, in spite of Sully. It was Henry who dug the canal which joins the Seine and the Loire. Under him Paris grew and grew fair; he built the Place Koyale, he rebuilt the old 1 nidges. Before his day the St Germain suburb was not connected with the town, and was improved; he saw to that. He built that fine bridge on which every Frenchman as he passes still looks up with emotion at his statue. St Germain, Monceaux, Fontainebleau, above all the Louvre, were enlarged, almost rebuilt, by him. He established in his long gallery in the Louvre artists of all kinds, and encour aged them frequently with his presence as well as his presents. 1 Finally, he had made France the arbiter of Europe, as was felt at Venice and Amsterdam, and as would have been also felt on the Rhine, had not the Spanish faction, and the undying hatred of the Catholic fanaticism, cut short his life on the very eve of great events. The regency in France belonged in theory to the princes Lj of the blood-royal ; as, however, Catherine de Medici had x made her a precedent, and as Henry IV. had as good as a * named his spouse regent, Marie de Medici seized the office at once. She took no vengeance on Sully for his opposition to her in past time, but made friends with him, taking from him all real power and command of the finances, while she left him the charge of the artillery and woods, together with the government of Poitou. The princes of the blood- royal were easily disposed of : Cond6 was in exile, the I prince of Conti a cipher ; the count of Soissons she quieted with great gifts. Then she composed a council of regency, which was managed by her favourites Concini and his wife Leonora Galigai. Concini, who purchased the marquisate of Ancre, and was made marshal, though an ambitious and greedy foreigner, did not use his power amiss for a time. When the princes, headed by Conde, opposed him and clamoured for the convocation of the States-General, Concini quieted them skilfully, and in 1614 caused the young king s majority to be declared, for Louis XIII. was then thirteen years old, and summoned the States-General to meet at 1 Paris. As this was the last time that they were called ^ together before the eve of the Revolution, it may be well to fl say a word as to the body, its nature and composition. The States-General of France, in which the three orders met from time to time at invitation of the king, was an assembly of clergy, nobles, and &quot;third estate&quot; or commons. The three formed three entirely independent chambers, sitting, debat ing, and voting separately. Consequently the vote of two orders could always veto the wishes of the third ; and as clergy were a class and nobles a caste, and as to a large