XII. 1559. BOOK Christian church; That all conquests made by either party, on this side of the Alps, since the commencement of the war in one thousand five hundred and fifty-one, should be mutually restored; That the dutchy of Savoy, the principality of Piedmont, the country of Bresse, and all the other territories formerly subject to the Dukes of Savoy, should be restored to Emanuel Philibert, immediately after the celebration of his marriage with Margaret of France, the towns of Turin, Quiers, Pignerol, Chivaz, and Villanova, excepted, of which Henry should keep possession until his claims to these places, in right of his grandmother, should be tried and decided in course of law; That as long as Henry retained these places in his hands, Philip should be at liberty to keep garrisons in the towns of Vercelli and Asti; That the French King should immediately evacuate all the places which he held in Tuscany and the Sienese, and renounce all future pretensions to them; That he should restore the marquisate of Montferrat to the Duke of Mantua; That he should receive the Genoese into favour, and give up to them the towns which he had conquered in the island of Corsica ; That none of the Princes or States, to whom these cessions were made, should call their subjects to account for any part of their conduct while under the dominion of their enemies, but should bury all past transactions in oblivion. The Pope, the Emperor, the Kings of Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Portugal, the King and Queen of Scots, and almost every Prince and State in Christendom, were comprehended in this pacification as the allies either of Henry or of Philip d. which re establishes THUS, by this famous treaty, peace was re-established in tranquillity Europe. All the causes of discord which had so long emin Europe. broiled the powerful monarchs of France and Spain, that had transmitted hereditary quarrels and wars from Charles to Philip, and from Francis to Henry, seemed to be wholly removed, or finally terminated. The French alone complained of the unequal conditions of a treaty, into which an ambitious minister, in order to recover his liberty, and an artful mistress, that she might gratify her resentment, had d Recueil des Traitez, tom. ii. 287. XII. 1559. seduced their too easy monarch. They exclaimed loudly в O O K against the folly of giving up to the enemies of France an hundred and eighty-nine fortified places, in the Low-Countries or in Italy, in return for the three insignificant towns of St. Quintin, Ham, and Catelet. They considered it as an indelible stain upon the glory of the nation, to renounce in one day territories so extensive, and so capable of being defended, that the enemy could not have hoped to wrest them out of its hands, after many years of victory. between fied. July 10. BUT Henry, without regarding the sentiments of his peo- The peace ple, or being moved by the remonstrances of his council, France and ratified the treaty, and executed with great fidelity what- Spain ratiever he had stipulated to perform. The Duke of Savoy repaired with a numerous retinue to Paris, in order to celebrate his marriage with Henry's sister. The Duke of Alva was sent to the same capital, at the head of a splendid embassy, to espouse Elizabeth in name of his master. They were received with extraordinary magnificence by the French court. Amidst the rejoicings and festivities on that occa- Death of sion, Henry's days were cut short by a singular and tragical Henry. accident. His son, Francis II. a prince under age, of a weak constitution, and of a mind still more feeble, succeeded him. Soon after, Paul ended his violent and imperious Pontificate, at enmity with all the world, and disgusted even with his own nephews. They, persecuted by Philip, and deserted by the succeeding Pope, whom they had raised by their influence to the papal throne, were condemned to the punishment which their crimes and ambition had merited, and their death was as infamous as their lives had been criminal. Thus most of the personages, who had long sustained the principal characters on the great theatre of Europe, disappeared about the same time. A more known period of history opens at this æra; other actors enter upon the stage, with different views, as well as different passions; new contests arose, and new schemes of ambition occupied and disquieted mankind. review of UPON reviewing the transactions of any active period in A general the history of civilized nations, the changes which are ac- the whole period. XII. 1559. BOOK complished appear wonderfully disproportioned to the efforts which have been exerted. Conquests are never very extensive or rapid, but among nations whose progress in improvement is extremely unequal. When Alexander the Great, at the head of a gallant people, of simple manners, and formed to war by admirable military institutions, invaded a state sunk in luxury, and enervated by excessive refinement; when Genchizcan and Tamerlane, with their armies of hardy barbarians, poured in upon nations, enfeebled by the climate in which they lived, or by the arts and commerce which they cultivated, these conquerors, like a torrent, swept every thing before them, subduing kingdoms and provinces in as short a space of time as was requisite to march through them. But when nations are in a state similar to each other, and keep equal pace in their advances towards refinement, they are not exposed to the calamity of sudden conquests. Their acquisitions of knowledge, their progress in the art of war, their political sagacity and address, are nearly equal. The fate of states in this situation, depends not on a single battle. Their internal resources are many and various. Nor are they themselves alone interested in their own safety, or active in their own defence. Other states interpose, and balance any temporary advantage which either party may have acquired. After the fiercest and most lengthened contest, all the rival nations are exhausted, none are conquered. At length they find it necessary to conclude a peace, which restores to each almost the same power and the same territories of which they were formerly in posses sion. The na tions of a similar SUCH was the state of Europe during the reign of Charles Europe in V. No Prince was so much superior to the rest in power, as to render his efforts irresistible, and his conquests easy. state during the No nation had made progress in improvement so far beyond sixteenth its neighbours, as to have acquired a very manifest pre-eminence. Each state derived some advantage, or was subject to some inconvenience from its situation or its climate; each was distinguished by something peculiar in the genius of its people, or the constitution of its government. But the advantages possessed by one state, were counterbalanced by century. XII. 1559. circumstances favourable to others; and this prevented any BOOK from attaining such supériority as might have been fatal to all. The nations of Europe in that age, as in the present, were like one great family; there were some features common to all, which fixed a resemblance; there were certain peculiarities. conspicuous in each, which marked a distinction. But there was not among them that wide diversity of character and of genius which, in almost every period of history, hath exalted the Europeans above the inhabitants of the other quarters of the globe, and seems to have destined the one to rule, and the other to obey. in the state BUT though the near resemblance and equality in improve- A remarka. ment among the different nations of Europe, prevented the ble change reign of Charles V. from being distinguished by such sud- of Europe, den and extensive conquests as occur in some other periods during the reign of of history, yet, during the course of his administration, all Charles V. the considerable states in Europe suffered a remarkable change in their political situation, and felt the influence of events, which have not hitherto spent their force, but still continue to operate in a greater or in a less degree. It was during his reign, and in consequence of the perpetual efforts to which his enterprising ambition roused him, that the different kingdoms of Europe acquired internal vigour; that they discerned the resources of which they were possessed; that they came both to feel their own strength, and to know how to render it formidable to others. It was during his reign, too, that the different kingdoms of Europe, which in former times seemed frequently to act as if they had been single and disjoined, became so thoroughly acquainted, and so intimately connected with each other, as to form one great political system, in which each took a station, where in it has remained since that time with less variation than could have been expected after the events of two active centuries. gress of THE progress, however, and acquisitions of the house of The proAustria, were not only greater than those of any other pow the house er, but more discernible and conspicuous. I have already of Austria. enumerated the extensive territories which descended to XII. 1559. BOOK Charles from his Austrian, Burgundian, and Spanish ancestors *. To these he himself added the Imperial dignity; and, as if all this had been too little, the bounds of the habitable globe seemed to be extended, and a new world was subjected to his command. Upon his resignation, the Burgundian provinces, and the Spanish kingdoms with their dependencies, both in the old and new worlds, devolved to Philip. But Charles transmitted his dominions to his son, in a condition very different from that in which he himself had received them. They were augmented by the accession of new provinces; they were habituated to obey an administration which was no less vigorous than steady; they were accustomed to expensive and persevering efforts, which, though necessary in the contests between civilized nations, had been little known in Europe before the sixteenth century. The provinces of Friesland, Utrecht, and Overyssel, which he acquired by purchase from their former proprietors, and the dutchy of Gueldres, of which he made himself master, partly by force of arms, partly by the arts of negociation, were additions of great value to his Burgundian dominions. Ferdinand and Isabella had transmitted to him all the provinces of Spain, from the bottom of the Pyrenees to the frontiers of Portugal; but as he maintained a perpetual peace with that kingdom, amidst the various efforts of his enterprising ambition, he made no acquisition of territory in that quarter. Particularly in Spain. CHARLES had gained, however, a vast accession of power in this part of his dominions. By his success in the war with the commons of Castile, he exalted the regal prerogative upon the ruins of the privileges which formerly belonged to the people. Though he allowed the name of the Cortes to remain, and the formality of holding it to be continued, he reduced its authority and jurisdiction almost to nothing, and modelled it in such a manner, that it became rather a junto of the servants of the crown, than an assembly of the representatives of the people. One member of the constitution being thus lopped off, it was impossible but * Vol. II. p. 2. |