Louis XIV. and his contemporaries ...

Front matter

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Section I

Louis XIIT. — Sterility of Anne — Buckingham and Richelieu make love to her — Birth of Louis XIV. — Richelieu's administration — Death of Louis XIII. — Anne of Austria and Mazarin — Concini — French victories under Conde — De Retz, and parties in France — Broussel's arrest — the Dukes of Beaufort, Bouillon, and Elbeuf, lead the Fronde — Beauty of the Duchess de Longueville — Libels on Queen Anne — Mazarin's pleasantry — Riots and intrigues — Distress in Paris, and the royal family in want — Joyous entrance of Louis XIV. — Mazarin's popularity — Conde's discontent and insolence — Pretended assassination of one of the Fronde — Counter-plot — Morals of Paris — Arrest of Conde, Conti, and Longueville — Plots of his family — Civil wars — Migration of the court — Its return to Paris — De Retz's desperation — Mazarin loses his self-possession — Vacillation of the Duke of Orleans — Rising of the Paris mob, incited by De Retz — Mazarin tardily liberates Conde, &c.— Who visit the Queen — Retirement of Mazarin — De Retz turns a spiritual character — Treaty between him and the Queen Regent — Disturbances in the Parliament — Louis attains his majority — De Retz makes love to the Queen — Power of Mazarin even in exile — Royal progress — Narrow escapes from Conde — Turenne acts for the royalists — Conde possesses himself of Paris — Turenne successful in bringing back Mazarin — Frightful scenes in Paris — Mazarin again exiled — Turbulence of De Retz — Beaufort, Conde, and others, make their escape — Restoration of the royal authority page 1

Section II

Treaty of Westphalia — Determination to put down Conde — Close of the public career of De Retz — Death of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Arrest of De Retz — Remarkable astrological predictions — Removal of De Retz — His escape — Interesting adventures by land and sea — His travels in Spain — Marriage of Mazarin's niece — High notions of Louis XIV. — Queen Christina — Oliver Cromwell — Charles II. a Roman Catholic — Testimonies to the greatness of Cromwell — Disgusting conduct of the

IV CONTENTS.

Stuarts — Taking of Dunkirk — Infamous murder by Queen Christina — Fear of Louis marrying one of Mazarin's nieces — Peace between France and Spain — Marriage of Louis XIV. — Pardon of Conde — Avarice of Mazarin — Marriages of his nieces — Final illness and characteristic death of Mazarin — Henrietta married to the Duke of Anjou — Female intrigues — Disgraceful amours of Louis XIV. — Fouquet's ambition — Dissimulation of the king — The government — Fouquet's arrest and lengthened imprisonment — His death — The French at Rome — Magnificent carousal at Versailles — Astrologers and Fools — Free Trade — Ship-building — Fashion of Dress — Policy of the Bourbons — French Navy — Dutch commerce — The Bishop of Munster — Repose and grandeur of France and Louis XIV 59

Section III

Death of Philip IV. — Louis' pretensions — Louvois promoted — Several towns in Flanders besieged — Rapid conquests — Conde recalled to public life — Consultations of De Witt, Temple, and De Dhona — Peace dictated by the Dutch — Also between Spain and Portugal — Cassimir, King of Poland, descends voluntarily from the throne — Death of Beaufort — Baseness of Charles II. — A new harlot presented to the King of England — Awful death of Henrietta — Continental supineness — Respect due to Holland — Splendid condition of the French army — Mercantile spirit of the Dutch — Passage of the Rhine — The sons of Abraham offer bribes for protection — Determination of the Dutch — Solbay — Vile and cruel ingratitude of the people to the De Witts — Little eredit therein to the Prince of Orange — Errors of Louis — Europe begins to rouse up — Perils of the French — Weakness of Leopold — The eminent engineer Vauban — Young Churchill (afterwards Duke of Marlborough) — Lorraine overrun — Luxembourg driven out of Flanders — The English murmur at the perfidy of Charles II. — Sufferings in Franche-Comte — Battle of Seneff — France in danger, for want of soldiers — Turenne and Montecuculi — Death of Turenne — Of Conde — And of Montecuculi — Monsieur succeeds in a battle, to the chagrin of Louis XIV. — De Ruyter's mortal wound — Treatise of peace — Designs of France — Strasbourg — Casal given up to the French — The Genoese — Colbert's success — John Sobicski, King of Poland — Fresh seizures on the part of Louis — Death of Charles II. of England — Accession of James II. — Digusting conduct of the Church of England — Remonstrances of Rouvigny to Louis XIV. — Description and History of the Edict of Nantes — Infamous cruelty of Louis, the ministers and clergy — Revocation of the Edict — Christian liberality of the late Archbishop of Canterbury — Louis' increasing "glory" — Persecution of the Vaudois — Religious differences . . 113

Section IV

Domestic occurrences of Louis' court — Retirement of LaValliere — General profligacy — Madame de Montespan — Lauzun — His imprisonment at Pigtaerol — The Duke d'Antin — Death of Anne of Austria — Poisoning — Implication of two of Mazarin's nieces — Murder of Maria-Louisa, Queen of Spain, by the mother of Prince Eugene — Disgraceful position of the Duke of Luxembourg — Pomponne — Treason of the Che v alier

CONTENTS. V

de Rohan — The great Colbert — Madame de Fontange — Madame de Maintenou — Death of the Queen — Marriage of some of Louis' illegitimate children — The man in the iron mask — English affairs — Traitorous schemes of the High Church — Injudicious conduct of James II. — Unexpected pregnancy of the Queen of England — Doubts as to her delivery — Manifesto of Louis against the Emperor — Expedition to bring over William III. — Dying agonies of the Scotch Kirk — The Protestant wind — Dismay of the court party in England — Arrival of William III. — Several lords join him — A parliament called — Invitation to William and Mary jointly to occupy the vacant throne — The true era of English liberty — Degradation of James II. — Expedition of France to Ireland — Schomberg and Ginkle — Battle of the Boyne — Flight of James — Marlborough finally reduces Ireland — Attempts to assassinate William III. — Conduct of Louis to James II. — Sketch of the misfortunes of the wretched Stuarts — Biography of the Hydes . . 187

Section V

The Dauphin commands an army in Germany — Infamy of Louis as regards cruelties in the Palatinate — A new Pope — Death of Louvois — Waldeck — Louis desires peace — Catinat — Luxembourg — Luxury and vanity of Louis XIV. — Battles of Steenkirk and Landen — French testimony to the merit of William III. — Starvation in France — Namur — Remarkable exploit and death of Luxembourg — Indian possessions of France — The buccaneers at Tortuga, the Cayos, Cape Tiburon, Panama, Chagre, Porto-Bello, Jamaica, &c. — Distress of France drives Louis to makes fresh overtures for peace — Peace of Ryswick — Charles VI. of Lorraine— Death of Sobieski, King of Poland — Election of a new king — A general peace — Peter the Great — Goes to Holland, England and Austria, whence he is hurried to Moscow by a rebellion — Frightful punishments — Charles XII. of Sweden — Peter and the kings of Poland and Denmark join to attack Sweden — Defeated — Russian resignation — Anticipations from the death of Charles II. of Spain — Intrigues— Final appointment of Philip V. — Declining state of William III. — Gradual drawing together of European powers to humble France — Another Pope — Arrival and first measures of the new King of Spain — Great treats prepared for Louis XIV. and Philip V. — Spanish pride and indolence — A sheep's-eye cast at church property — Marriage of Philip to Maria Louisa, daughter of the Duke of Savoy — Intrigues and surveillance — Agonies of the queen and court at the king becoming bald — Philip at Naples — Treated with miracles — Distress of Philip . . 264

Section VI

The war recommences in Italy — Declining health of William III. — Deaths of Tillotson, Queen Mary, and William — Accession of Queen Anne — Barbesieux, Chamlay, Ponchartrain, Pomponne. Prince Eugene of Savoy, Catinat, Villeroi, Duke of Savoy, Marlborough, Godolphin — Rapid conquests — Villars — Blenheim — Ramillies — Louis' depression — Turin relieved — Futile attempt of " the Pretender" upon England — New disasters of the French in the Low Countries — Fall of Lille — The English take Gibraltar — The English in Spain — Continued depves--

VI CONTENTS.

sion of France — Pride of Holland — Louis agrees to abandon Spain — Malplaquet — Duke of Orleans and Philip V. — The Whigs out, and the Tories change the counsels of England — Injustice to the Duke of Marlborough — Queen Anne's treachery — Deaths of the Dauphin, the Emperor Joseph, the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy, and their eldest son — Distraction of Louis XIV. — Favourable change for France — Peace of Utrecht — Death of Queen Anne — Duke of Marlborough in old age and retirement — Death of both Duke and Duchess .... 328

Section VII

Decline and Death of Louis XIV. — Picture of the sensation thereby created — Dissertation on his Character — A Day at Versailles — On the Arts — Memoirs of several eminent Artists — Architecture, Gardening, &c. — Pascal, Moliere, Corneille, Racine, Bossuet, La Fontaine, Bourdaloue, Boileau, Fenelon,Fontenelle, St. Aulaire, Le Sage, Massillon, Rousseau — Wind-up of the War — End of the career of Philip V. — Madame de Maintenon — Bishop Burnet's Death, and last Words to Posterity — The celebrated French historian Rollin, and this Book closed with his beautiful " Conclusion" 395

ERRATA.

At page 84, the \7th line from the bottom, " et it se fasoit V should be " il se fasoit, " &c.

At p. 208, the last line, the expression I have used I fear is too strong. One would not speak ill of a whole nation, among whom there are, and have ever been, virtuous in all ranks. I wished to convey that Madame de Maintenon could not in justice be considered more scrupulous than the French court ladies in general, who might well adopt the motto "Who is the Lord, that we should obey him ?"

At p. 245, I have spoken of the penalty France has ever paid for daring to rouse the British lion. Of course, I allude to the destruction of her navy, and her marine inferiority. I should regret that a line, written rather in a spirit of pleasantry than with an arrogant boast, should give offence to any of that great and gallant nation.

At p. 246, I must, in a similar way, beg to qualify an expression perhaps too general. By way of showing a parallel to the kind of clerical fashion of those days to malign the government, and lower the respect due to the crown, then worn by William III., I referred my reader to the habit of speaking ill of our present queen which pretty generally pervaded the established clergy while the Whigs were in power. I mean, of course, that if too general, there were yet numerous exceptions.

TO

HIS MAJESTY

LOUIS PHILIPPE,

KING OF THE FRENCH, &c.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,

We are told by Cicero that, as the condition of kings places them in stations most exposed to the observation of the world, their words and actions cannot be obscure. One of our own old writers remarks, of those sovereigns whose history, in an especial manner, has singularly marked the footsteps of Divine Providence, that their lives and deeds call for more diligent present attention, and will be more closely scrutinized by posterity.

Your Majesty's career has been remarkable : born to the highest station and almost boundless wealth, by the force of terrible storms, political and social, in comparative destitution, you were driven from your own country to seek a long asylum in ours. In the mutations of worldly events, you were carried back to the land of your birtV and in time restored to your ancestral possessions.

Vlii DEDICATION.

Another turn of the wheel of Providence, and you were placed at the head of the great country which could no longer tolerate the bad government of ancient bigots. After the hurricanes that had desolated France for half a century, it was your destiny to guide that lively, and yet magnificent, nation. And how have they been guided ?

Strong, prosperous, and yet restless, but for your Majesty's powerful mind, the latent embers of glory, with the French, having always been like tinder, would have ignited, and set Europe in a blaze. The praise of being one who could teach so warlike a people as your subjects how to turn their swords into plough -shares, and their spears into pruning - hooks, with sensible minds is even now very highly appreciated ; and remote posterity — who are likely to be wiser than the present race — will inscribe your name on imperishable records as a governor calculated by understanding and decision to rule the great and fiery people of France, as indeed they seem never to have been ruled before. It is more glorious to be classed with Sully than with that monarch whose history is the subject of the following pages.

The ground upon which I venture to dedicate this book to your Majesty is that you have given proof to the world you appreciate the real glory of France, and therefore have promoted the welfare of Europe. In your person, we see a remarkable instance of one who may be said to have been born to, to have achieved, and to be worthy of, a throne.

DEDICATION. IX

I make no apology for placing your illustrious name at the head of this dedication, because it is an honest tribute of a foreigner's respect to your character. According to the rule of all ages, I address myself to your Majesty under the fiction that these few lines will be perused by you, when in reality there cannot be a remote probability that you will ever hear of the existence of such a little book as this. If therefore it be asked, why then dedicate your work thus ? The answer is, it is our duty, while we bless Divine Providence for raising up and prospering remarkable instruments, to be grateful to those agents, and to do what we can to hold them up to public respect, that others may be incited to like good deeds.

With this view alone have I taken the liberty of recording my humble admiration of the course your majesty has run ; and expressing a hope that, when the common destinies of our nature shall bring us to the termination of our earthly career — you, as a mighty sovereign, and I, as an obscure writer, may find mercy at the hands of that dread King of kings, before whom we shall then stand as equals !

Till which hour may success attend your Majesty's

praise-worthy efforts, and may the declining years of

your important life be smoothed by every national and

domestic blessing.

The Author.

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TO

THE READER

What man is he, that boasts of fleshly might

And vaine assurance of mortality,

Which, all so soone as it doth come to fight

Against spirituall foes, yields by and by,

Or from the fielde most cowardly doth fly !

Ne let the man ascribe it to his skill

That thorough grace hath gained victory.

If any strength we have, it is to ill ;

But all the good is God's, both power and eke will.

Spenser's Faerie Quene,

First stanza of Canto X.

Gentle Readek,

Those who deal in second-hand and old books say there has of late been a considerable demand for works connected with the times of Louis XIV. This may partly be attributable to the attention directed thereto by Mr. James's elaborate Life of the Grand Monarque, which must have excited great desire for information on so interesting a portion of history, through the notices of the press. As it came out in four large and handsome 8vo. volumes, adapted to the shelves of a gentleman's library, it can be seen by but few. Voltaire's " Age

Xil 10 THE HEADER.

of Louis XIV.' : is too able and too cheerful ever to become obsolete ; but I am not aware that it is to be found in a modern garb, at a low price. Moreover, it is too full of the " glory " of France to be a pleasant companion of the English reader of this day, who remembers French doings at the Ee volution, and who has witnessed the humiliation of that people after the long war. The position of France, in our own times, has thus arToided a striking parallel to the prostration that darkened the latter days of Louis XIV., and, what is of far more consequence, inflicted such unheard-of misery upon our light-hearted neighbours, throughout the length and breadth of that extended kingdom.

The tendency to exalt the principles of liberty, without pandering to democracy — the most detestable of all exhibitions of power — the reader need not be directed to mark in the following pages. The wickedness and folly of war, from a sense of duty, are frequently pointed out ; nor has it been without considerable difficulty that I have been compelled silently to pass over many occasions where principle seemed to demand its reprehension. These noted battles have desolated thousands of hearths ; and tens of thousands

" Unliousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd, No reckoning made, but sent to their account, With all their imperfections on their head : O, horrible ! 0, horrible ! most horrible ! " —

Yet it would have appeared like a dosing of my reader always to have introduced the iniquity of the practice ; or to have avoided the use of terms of common parlance, such as bravery, heroes, masterly movements, &c, that almost convey admiration, or at any rate lead to the idea that our sympathies are enlisted, and do not seem congruous with abhorrence of the injustice treated of. It is confessedly a difficulty. Still I have endeavoured to clothe such pictures with no attraction, as that pernicious practice is even more objectionaide than open justification of "battles, and murder, and (therefore) sudden death."

TO THE READER.

Xlll

This work has proved very laborious : the following is a list of authors and works consulted or quoted : —

Aitken, Miss

Anquetfl, De

Biographie Universelle

Bolingbroke

Bossuet

Brienne, De

Brodie

Bucke

Bulwer, E. L.

Burnet, Bishop

Canterbury, late Archbishop of

Christina, Queen

Choisi, De

Clarendon, Lord

Coxe

Covvper

Dangeau, De

Delort

Dover, Lord

Fare, De La

Fayette, La

Fleuri, Cardinal

Fontenay, De

Gourville

Grainger

Gray

Grey

Henley

Howard, Cardinal

James II.

Johnson, Dr.

Joly

Lardner

Laval

Lempriere

Louvois

Maclaine

Maintenon, De

M avor

Montpensier, De

Moore, Dr.

Mosheim

Motteville, De

Neale

Necker

Noailles, Due De

Noble, Mark

Orleans, Memoires De

Pope

Retz, De

Rollin

Saturday Magazine

Scheltema

Simon, Due De St.

Smyth

Stuart Papers

Talon, De

lemple, Sir William

Venceslas

Voltaire

Ursins, Princess of

Walker

Walpole

Wellvvood, Dr

Wharncliffe, Lord

Wordsworth

Voltaire has largely helped me, because, spite of our total difference on religious matters, I think there is an evident desire to be traced, in his work, for truth to form the basis of his record; and the freedom and simplicity of his style will always sustain his standing in literature. I have endeavoured to prepare the following sheets so as to open European politics of those days ; to exhibit the passions of the main actors, leading to the deeds that stamped that remarkable age ; and to leave impressions of justice, without which we read in vain.

On the religious persecutions, more or less connected with the revocation of the edict of Nantes, I have spoken with unhesitating honor and disgust. Let us remember,

XIV TO THE READER.

however, that these crimes arose from no peculiar atrocity in the wicked heart of the selfish monarch, which in no respect was more deceitful than other hearts. These awful cruelties, it is true, led to the accumulation of sorrows and sufferings, to read only a small part of which rouses our indignation and enlists our sympathies. No, we must look deeper than this, and, to get profit from our reading, trace these deeds of darkness up to superstition. Aye, but, say some, superstition is a bye-gone thing ; you need not sound the tocsin of alarm here — it can never more disturb us in the 19th century; it may be all very well as a bugaboo for children and old women, but men are wiser now, &c. I should have been the first so to have said, reader, five years ago; but, if we look at the doings and " teachings " during that short time, we must be very bold to set bounds to the effects of superstition and will-worship.

The section of our established church that has made so determined a crusade against protestantism; who are enamoured of a pompous ceremonial, and passionately in love with frivolities at once numerous and minute, remind one of Swift's description of the son that would insist on it he was fulfilling his fathers will, who had left him a plain coat to wear, strictly enjoining that he should add nothing to it — when he covered it with gold lace, and bedizened it with tawdry ornaments, he was pertinacious in self-gratulation that he best carried out his parent's intentions. So the teaching of these men, " when stripped of the verbiage in which they have seen good to envelop it," says the Rev. T. Jackson, when clawing Dr. Pusey, in return for the scratch that velvetpawed divine had given to the numerous body of Wesleyans ; " their doctrine is precisely that of the council of Trent, and therefore at variance with the articles and homilies of their own church, which they have severally subscribed. I pass over the bitter and persecuting spirit, which not a few of them have betrayed." Now, this is precisely that which I do not pass over — for I want to show that this is the inevitable tendency of their " catholicity."

TO THE KEADEK. XV

Their hatred of the reformers, on all occasions expressed without " reserve f their dishonest attempts to " explain " away the honest meaning of words, by wanting to make out that persons wholly disapproving of what they are called on to subscribe may interpret those articles in accordance with their own views, may steam up in the nostrils of high church dignitaries as a very precious odour ; but men of common sense and honesty will see that this must be dishonourable and sinful. Nor does it require the spirit of prophecy to see where this must end. It is to be hoped there will ever be some remonstrants. Well, these " rubricians," " high-church," " Puseyites," " Komanizers," or quocunque nomine gaudes, will soon see how necessary it is, for " unity," that refractory " sons " should be silenced. And, should England once more become a land of graven images, what is to prevent scenes similar to the dreadful persecutions of the French protestants who would not bow down to the image Louis XIV. had set up ? Thus, if a hasty perusal should lead my reader to say, "What can the revival of wholesome discipline, so much talked of in the present day, have in common with the history of the revocation of the edict of Nantes?" I answer "Much every way."

Throughout church history the same principle may be traced. Under Jew and Gentile ; from the days of Wy cliff to Luther ; thenceforward to Louis XIV. ; and from his time to 1844. And so it must be to the end of time — a dominant sect must needs do all in the way of persecution which the circumstances of the day permit. I enquire not now in what other respects evil may result ; men's minds will, I fear, for some time to come, be divided thereupon. Dr. Adam Clarke, whose sons have become ministers of the church — showing how people will differ on these matters — in his commentary upon Luke xx. 25, observes, " the government of the church of Christ is widely different from secular government. It is founded in humility and brotherly love ; it is derived from Christ, the great head of the church, and is ever conducted by his maxims and spirit. When political matters are

XVI TO THE ItEADEE.

brought into the church of Christ, both are ruined. The church has more than once ruined the state; the state has often corrupted the church : it is certainly for the interests of both to be kept separate. This has already been exemplified in both cases, and will continue so to be over the whole world, wherever the church and state are united in secular matters."

The mind of man has made wonderful advances — for good or for evil. To all human establishments, civil or ecclesiastical, there is an allotted time. See how the ancient monarchies have been carried away as with a flood. Throughout the ages of the world, let us observe that the Almighty Architect never repairs, but removes ; and the mighty stream, w T hich is carrying back so many clericals to past errors and mummeries, may be one of those powerful agencies to bring about His purposes. The cup of iniquity, as regards priests and people, may be nearly full, and the irreversible sentence have gone forth, " Overturn, overturn, overturn/' It would seem that thus it must ever be — the state corrupts the church, the church panders to the state.

That interesting historian, Bishop Burnet, an ornament to the church he so ardently longed to see reformed, spared not the rod. He tells us with regret that he had observed the clergy in all the places through which he had travelled, Papists, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Dissenters ; but, of them all, he said, the clergy of the established church were the most remiss in their labours in private, and the least severe in their lives. So far was he from wishing to pull down the church that "he prayed earnestly it might be built up by their labours ; that it might long continue the joy of the whole earth in the perfection of its beauty ; and be a pattern, as well as give protection, to all the churches of God." The surgeon who inflicts great pain by the removal of a limb, and thereby confers permanent benefit on the sufferer, is a benefactor, though, while writhing under the knife, we do not look upon the operator with complacency.

I have frequently said, in the course of the following

TO THE READER. XV11

pages, that neither young nor old ought to read for amusement only : principles ought to be inculcated by a writer, who should keep constantly before his own eye, and his reader's attention, the objects he has in view. Kemembering the motto, " fas est et ab hoste doceri," let us learn of these rubricians, who so live, and think, and act, as if the one desideratum of existence was to bring back the halcyon days of darkness. Like those romantic rivers, the current of which here runs smoothly on — one while in broad, clear streams — anon contracted and sinuously twisting about; sometimes literally buried under ground, and so lost sight of; then re-appearing in vigour and beauty — but wheresoever seen, or lost sight of, ever tending to one point — ever emptying their waters into the sea.

Thus is it with these formalists. Sometimes they are starting such monstrous propositions, and cutting such capers, that we expect to hear they have clubbed together to purchase " Punch," that renowned periodical, as a vehicle for promulgating their apostolic views. At other periods demanding the rigid observance of fasts, hinting at reviving the confessional, and turning their regards towards more practical corporeal mortifications. Indeed one has lately, in a public sermon, told his audience all to purchase Moore's Almanack, for, as the saints' days are printed in red, they can more easily see them, and thus that celebrated work " may prove a means of grace to the people!" Like those who, says Mr. Jackson, " in Ireland and in Italy observe saints' days and profane the Sabbath ; who count their beads, practise all the rites of the church, carefully avoid all that would violate what is called 'catholic unity,' and would commit murder for half-a-crown ! "