An Introduction to the History of Western Europe Part 47

Alva brought with him a fine army of Spanish soldiers, ten thousand in number and superbly equipped. He judged that the wisest and quickest way of pacifying the discontented provinces was to kill all those who ventured to criticise "the best of kings," of whom he had the honor to be the faithful servant. He accordingly established a special court for the speedy trial and condemnation of all those whose fidelity to Philip was suspected. This was popularly known as the Council of Blood, for its aim was not justice but butchery. Alva's administration from 1567 to 1573 was a veritable reign of terror. He afterwards boasted that he had slain eighteen thousand, but probably not more than a third of that number were really executed.

[Sidenote: William of Orange, called the Silent, 1533-1584.]

The Netherlands found a leader in William, Prince of Orange and Count of Na.s.sau. He is a national hero whose career bears a striking resemblance to that of Was.h.i.+ngton. Like the American patriot, he undertook the seemingly hopeless task of freeing his people from the oppressive rule of a distant king. To the Spaniards he appeared to be only an impoverished n.o.bleman at the head of a handful of armed peasants and fishermen, contending against the sovereign of the richest realm in the world.

[Sidenote: William the Silent collects an army.]

William had been a faithful servant of Charles V and would gladly have continued to serve his son after him had the oppression and injustice of the Spanish dominion not become intolerable. But Alva's policy convinced him that it was useless to send any more complaints to Philip. He accordingly collected a little army in 1568 and opened the long struggle with Spain.

[Sidenote: Differences between the northern i.e., Dutch, provinces and the southern.]

William found his main support in the northern provinces, of which Holland was the chief. The Dutch, who had very generally accepted Protestant teachings, were purely German in blood, while the people of the southern provinces, who adhered (as they still do) to the Roman Catholic faith, were more akin to the population of northern France.

[Sidenote: William chosen governor of Holland and Zealand, 1572.]

The Spanish soldiers found little trouble in defeating the troops which William collected. Like Was.h.i.+ngton again, he seemed to lose almost every battle and yet was never conquered. The first successes of the Dutch were gained by the "sea beggars,"--freebooters who captured Spanish s.h.i.+ps and sold them in Protestant England. Finally they seized the town of Brille and made it their headquarters. Encouraged by this, many of the towns in the northern provinces of Holland and Zealand ventured to choose William as their governor, although they did not throw off their allegiance to Philip. In this way these two provinces became the nucleus of the United Netherlands.

[Sidenote: Both the northern and southern provinces combine against Spain, 1576.]

Alva recaptured a number of the revolted towns and treated their inhabitants with his customary cruelty; even women and children were slaughtered in cold blood. But instead of quenching the rebellion, he aroused even the Catholic southern provinces to revolt. He introduced an unwise system of taxation which required that ten per cent of the proceeds of every sale should be paid to the government. This caused the thrifty Catholic merchants of the southern towns to close their shops in despair.

[Sidenote: The 'Spanish fury.']

After six years of this tyrannical and mistaken policy, Alva was recalled. His successor soon died and left matters worse than ever. The leaderless soldiers, trained in Alva's school, indulged in wild orgies of robbery and murder; they plundered and partially reduced to ashes the rich city of Antwerp. The "Spanish fury," as this outbreak was called, together with the hated taxes, created such general indignation that representatives from all of Philip's Burgundian provinces met at Ghent in 1576 with the purpose of combining to put an end to the Spanish tyranny.

[Sidenote: The Union of Utrecht.]

[Sidenote: The northern provinces declare themselves independent of Spain, 1581.]

This union was, however, only temporary. Wiser and more moderate governors were sent by Philip to the Netherlands, and they soon succeeded in again winning the confidence of the southern provinces. So the northern provinces went their own way. Guided by William the Silent, they refused to consider the idea of again recognizing Philip as their king. In 1579 seven provinces (Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel, Groningen, and Friesland, all lying north of the mouths of the Rhine and the Scheldt) formed the new and firmer Union of Utrecht.

The articles of this union served as a const.i.tution for the United Provinces which, two years later, at last formally declared themselves independent of Spain.

[Sidenote: a.s.sa.s.sination of William the Silent.]

Philip realized that William was the soul of the revolt and that without him it might not improbably have been put down. The king therefore offered a patent of n.o.bility and a large sum of money to any one who should make away with the Dutch patriot. After several unsuccessful attempts, William, who had been chosen hereditary governor of the United Provinces, was shot in his house at Delft, 1584. He died praying the Lord to have pity upon his soul and "on this poor people."

[Sidenote: Reasons why the Dutch finally won their independence.]

[Sidenote: Independence of the United Provinces acknowledged by Spain, 1648.]

The Dutch had long hoped for aid from Queen Elizabeth or from the French, but had heretofore been disappointed. At last the English queen decided to send troops to their a.s.sistance. While the English rendered but little actual help, Elizabeth's policy so enraged Philip that he at last decided to attempt the conquest of England. The destruction of the great fleet which he equipped for that purpose interfered with further attempts to subjugate the United Provinces, which might otherwise have failed to preserve their liberty in spite of their heroic resistance.

Moreover, Spain's resources were being rapidly exhausted and the state was on the verge of bankruptcy in spite of the wealth which it had been drawing from across the sea. But even when Spain had to surrender the hope of winning back the lost provinces, which now became a small but important European power, she refused formally to acknowledge their independence until 1648[315] (Peace of Westphalia).

172. The history of France during the latter part of the sixteenth century is little more than a chronicle of a long and b.l.o.o.d.y series of civil wars between the Catholics and Protestants. Each party, however, had political as well as religious objects, and the religious issues were often almost altogether obscured by the worldly ambition of the leaders.

[Sidenote: Beginnings of Protestantism in France.]

[Sidenote: Lefevre, 1450-1537.]

[Sidenote: Persecution of the Protestants under Francis I.]

[Sidenote: Ma.s.sacre of the Waldensians, 1545.]

Protestantism began in France[316] in much the same way as in England.

Those who had learned from the Italians to love the Greek language, turned to the New Testament in the original and commenced to study it with new insight. Lefevre, the most conspicuous of these Erasmus-like reformers, translated the Bible into French and began to preach justification by faith before he had ever heard of Luther. He and his followers won the favor of Margaret, the sister of Francis I and queen of the little kingdom of Navarre, and under her protection they were left unmolested for some years. The Sorbonne, the famous theological school at Paris, finally stirred up the suspicions of the king against the new ideas. While, like his fellow-monarchs, Francis had no special interest in religious matters, he was shocked by an act of desecration ascribed to the Protestants, and in consequence forbade the circulation of Protestant books. About 1535 several adherents of the new faith were burned, and Calvin was forced to flee to Basel, where he prepared a defense of his beliefs in his _Inst.i.tutes of Christianity_. This is prefaced by a letter to Francis in which he pleads with him to protect the Protestants.[317] Francis, before his death, became so intolerant that he ordered the ma.s.sacre of three thousand defenseless peasants who dwelt on the slopes of the Alps, and whose only offense was adherence to the simple teachings of the Waldensians.[318]

[Sidenote: Persecution under Henry II, 1547-1559.]

Francis' son, Henry II (1547-1559), swore to extirpate the Protestants, and hundreds of them were burned. Nevertheless, Henry's religious convictions did not prevent him from willingly aiding the German Protestants against his enemy Charles V, especially when they agreed to hand over to him three bishoprics which lay on the French boundary,--Metz, Verdun, and Toul.

[Sidenote: Francis II, 1559-1560, Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Guises.]

Henry II was accidentally killed in a tourney and left his kingdom to three weak sons, the last scions of the house of Valois, who succeeded in turn to the throne during a period of unprecedented civil war and public calamity. The eldest son, Francis II, a boy of sixteen, succeeded his father. His chief importance for France arose from his marriage with the

RELATIONS OF THE GUISES, MARY STUART, THE VALOIS, AND THE BOURBONS

Claude, duke of Francis I (d. 1547) Guise (d. 1527) | | | +--+------------+-----------+ | | | | | Francis, duke Charles, Mary, m. James V of Scotland, | of Guise cardinal of | son of Henry VIII's Henry II (d. 1559), m. Catherine (murdered 1563) Lorraine | sister | de' Medici | | | | +-----------------+ +-------------------------------+ | | | | | +---------------+------+-----+----------+ | | | | | | | Mary Stuart, m. Francis II Charles IX Henry III Margaret, m. Henry IV (d. 1610), | Queen of Scots (d. 1560 (d. 1574 (d. 1589 king of Navarre, | | without without without a descendant | | heirs) heirs) heirs) through the Henry, duke of | younger, _Bourbon_, Guise (killed | line from St. Louis 1588) | | | | James VI of Scotland Louis XIII (d. 1643), I of England, by Henry's second by Mary's second marriage with marriage with Mary de' Medici Lord Darnley | Louis XIV (d. 1715) | Louis XV (d. 1774) great grandson of Louis XIV

daughter of King James V of Scotland, Mary Stuart, who became famous as Mary, Queen of Scots. Her mother was the sister of two very ambitious French n.o.bles, the duke of Guise and the cardinal of Lorraine. Francis II was so young that Mary's uncles, the Guises, eagerly seized the opportunity to manage his affairs for him. The duke put himself at the head of the army, and the cardinal of the government. When the king died, after reigning but a year, the Guises were naturally reluctant to surrender their power, and many of the woes of France for the next forty years were due to the machinations which they carried on in the name of the Holy Catholic religion.

[Sidenote: The queen mother, Catherine de' Medici.]

[Sidenote: The Bourbons.]

173. The new king, Charles IX (1560-1574), was but ten years old, and his mother, Catherine de' Medici, of the famous Florentine family, claimed the right to conduct the government for her son. The rivalries of the time were complicated by the existence of a younger branch of the French royal family, namely, the Bourbons, one of whom was king of Navarre. The Bourbons formed an alliance with the Huguenots,[319] as the French Calvinists were called.

[Sidenote: The Huguenots and their political ambition.]

Many of the leading Huguenots, including their chief Coligny, belonged to n.o.ble families and were anxious to play a part in the politics of the time. This fact tended to confuse religious with political motives. In the long run this mixture of motives proved fatal to the Protestant cause in France, but for the time being the Huguenots formed so strong a party that they threatened to get control of the government.

[Sidenote: Catherine grants conditional toleration to the Protestants, 1562.]

Catherine tried at first to conciliate both parties, and granted a Decree of Toleration (1562) suspending the former edicts against the Protestants and permitting them to a.s.semble for wors.h.i.+p during the daytime and outside of the towns. Even this restricted toleration of the Protestants appeared an abomination to the more fanatical Catholics, and a savage act of the duke of Guise precipitated civil war.

[Sidenote: The ma.s.sacres of Va.s.sy and the opening of the wars of religion.]

As he was pa.s.sing through the town of Va.s.sy on a Sunday he found a thousand Huguenots a.s.sembled in a barn for wors.h.i.+p. The duke's followers rudely interrupted the service, and a tumult arose in which the troops killed a considerable number of the defenseless mult.i.tude. The news of this ma.s.sacre aroused the Huguenots and was the beginning of a war which continued, broken only by short truces, until the last weak descendant of the house of Valois ceased to reign. As in the other religious wars of the time, both sides exhibited the most inhuman cruelty. France was filled for a generation with burnings, pillage, and every form of barbarity. The leaders of both the Catholic and the Protestant party, as well as two of the French kings themselves, fell by the hands of a.s.sa.s.sins, and France renewed in civil war all the horrors of the English invasion in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

[Sidenote: Coligny's influence and plan for a national war against Philip II.]

In 1570 a brief peace was concluded. The Huguenots were to be tolerated, and certain towns were a.s.signed to them, including La Roch.e.l.le, where they might defend themselves in case of renewed attacks from the Catholics. For a time both the king and the queen mother were on the friendliest terms with the Huguenot leader Coligny, who became a sort of prime minister. He was anxious that Catholics and Protestants should join in a great national war against Spain. In this way the people of France would combine, regardless of their differences in religion, in a patriotic effort to win the county of Burgundy and a line of fortresses to the north and east, which seemed naturally to belong to France rather than to Spain. Coligny did not, of course, overlook the consideration that in this way he could aid the Protestant cause in the Netherlands.

[Sidenote: The ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, 1572.]

The strict Catholic party of the Guises frustrated this plan by a most fearful expedient. They easily induced Catherine de' Medici to believe that she was being deceived by Coligny, and an a.s.sa.s.sin was engaged to put him out of the way; but the scoundrel missed his aim and only wounded his victim. Fearful lest the young king, who was faithful to Coligny, should discover her part in the attempted murder, the queen mother invented a story of a great Huguenot conspiracy. The credulous king was deceived, and the Catholic leaders at Paris arranged that at a given signal not only Coligny, but all the Huguenots, who had gathered in great numbers in the city to witness the marriage of the Protestant Henry of Navarre with the king's sister, should be ma.s.sacred on the eve of St. Bartholomew's Day (August 23, 1572).

[Sidenote: The Holy League.]