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HENRY HOLT & CO., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.
HISTORY OF
FROM THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE
TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
VICTOR DURUY
TRANSLATED AND REVISED, WITH NOTES BY
EDWIN A. GROSVENOR
Professor of French in Amherst College and Professor of History in
Smith College, and formerly Professor of History in
Robert College, Constantinople
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1894
COPYRIGHT, 1894,
BY
HENRY HOLT & CO.
THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS,
RAHWAY, N. J.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
MONSIEUR DURUY'S " Histoire des Temps Modernes "
is unique. His skill and comprehensive grasp are equally
manifest in what he has omitted and in the vivid promi-
nence given to what is most essential. President C. K.
Adams says of this book in his "Manual of Historical
Literature": "It is doubtful whether any other single
volume on the period of which it treats can be of so much
value to the student." A work thus guaranteed needs no
further credential. But it is of interest that its author is
one of the foremost contemporary French writers ; that he
was for years Minister of Public Instruction in France ; and
that no foreigner has better appreciated or more admired
those grand political ideas which underlie our national insti-
tutions and dominate our national life.
This work traces the gradual elaboration of principles
which on this side the ocean have attained their fullest
development. Moreover, it is well for us Americans to
gaze sometimes upon the processional march of trans-
atlantic events from a continental standpoint, and not, as we
commonly do, through the medium of insular and British
eyes. Thus only can our education become broad and
cosmopolitan as it ought to be.
By rendering this compendium more accessible one con-
tributes to the pursuit of studies which are inspiring in
themselves and most beneficent in their results. I espe-
cially thank my colleagues Professors Frink, Genung, and
Todd for suggestions and information which have been
invaluable in the accomplishment of this task.
EDWIN A. GROSVENOR,
AMHERST, May j/,
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
THIS volume contains the history in general of the
European states from 1453 to 1789, that is to say, from the
close of the Middle Ages to the commencement of contem-
poraneous history. Upon the three and a half centuries
which preceded 1789 we can now pronounce consummatum
est. The French Revolution, which tends more and more to
become a European revolution, separates the utterly dead
old regime from the new regime inaugurated by the grand
leaders of the Constitutional Assembly.
The Middle Ages had been characterized by the prepon-
derance of local powers, and by the most complete develop-
ment of individual energies, at least among the lords of
feudalism and the burgesses of the communes. The dis-
tinguishing feature of Modern Times is found in the pre-
ponderance of the central power, or the absolute authority
of the kings, and in state action substituted for that of com-
munities.
But while the power and political life of the nations were
concentrated in the hands of their chiefs, intelligence, by a
contrary effort breaking its fetters, was diffused everywhere
and upon all. The revolution was the struggle of these
two opposing forces. So their reconciliation that of social
order with liberty, or the development of individual activity
and individual rights conjointly with the strength of the
state is the problem of our age, and will be the dominant
characteristic of future society.
I do not claim to include in this volume all even of the
prominent facts which have been produced from 1453 to 1789,
but only to give a rapid sketch of European life in general,
and of those momentous events which permit us to trace its
progressive march.
VI AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
The word revolution occurs often in these pages. It is
because I know no other to express those modifications which
are continually operating in the life of nations. Science has
demonstrated that there is not one of our organs whose
elements are not in a brief space of time completely
replaced. If the human body is thus the theater of an
incessant renovation and transformation, what must that
not be which is accomplished at the heart of that social
order on which so many influences exert their powerful
action ?
There are persons whom the mere word revolution
appalls. Let us have none of those childish terrors ; let us
look everything in its face, and we shall behold the mena-
cing phantom transform itself into a prudent and necessary
counselor. Why should that word which serves to indicate
eternal wisdom when describing celestial motion become
a cause of terror when used to represent the general move-
ments of the moral world ?
The History of Modern Times, beheld I dare not say
from above, but from a distance, is summed up in a small
number of dominant facts. The rest is episodic.
First, there is the political revolution which intrusts to
the hand of kings the authority formerly wielded by the
lords ; its inevitable consequence is found in great foreign
wars. The kings in truth do not resist the temptation
of employing for their personal ambition the national
forces which they control. Charles VIII., Louis XII., and
Francis I. seek beyond the Alps crowns which others seize ;
and the result of the first Italian wars is the predominance
of Spain and of the house of Austria upon the peninsula.
While the kings wrestle with each other along their
frontiers, Christopher Columbus, Raphael, Copernicus,
Rabelais, and the predecessors of Bacon and Descartes
unveil new worlds. Maritime commerce is born among the
western nations ; the precious metals by their sudden
abundance produce effects analogous to those of which we
ourselves are witnesses, and personal property is amassed
in the hands of plebeians. The arts, letters, sciences, and
philosophy are transformed : in a word there is the revolu-
tion, or, as the men of the sixteenth century called it by an
expressive and charming name, the Renaissance, which is
wrought in ideas and interests as it is wrought in politics,
and which is brought about even in creeds.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. Vll
But the vanquished past is restive under its defeat ; feu-
dalism seeks a new life in making use of Protestantism.
Though it fails in France, where, under the bloody ruins
piled up by religious wars, Henry IV. finds again the rights
and the authority of Francis I., it succeeds in Germany,
where the peace of Augsburg, prelude to the treaties of
Westphalia, consecrates the independence of the princes
and the ruin of imperial authority.
At the same time by the Council of Trent and by the
creation of the Jesuit order the Catholics determine at the
heart of the Church a movement of concentration akin to
that accomplished in social order. The absolute authority
of the pontifical monarchy is founded ; protesting against
the new spirit, Rome at last assumes the arms of austerity
and discipline. At the service of the Catholic restoration
Philip II. places the treasures of the New World and his
veteran Spanish troops. The great battle of creeds is
joined, but the victory is won by the ideas of toleration
represented by Henry IV. Spain declines and France
ascends.
During the second half of the sixteenth century every-
thing had taken on a religious form : the democratic aspira-
tions of the great cities were called the Holy League ; the
desires for independence of the provincial nobility, Calvin-
ism ; the kings were by turns on one side or the other.
In the seventeenth everything became again political.
Richelieu, a state cardinal, as the Pope in disdain entitled
that priest, who was the ally of the Protestant powers, was
its highest expression, and thanks to him the preponderance
exercised by the house of Austria passed to the house of
Bourbon.
But Louis XIV. commits the same fault as Charles V.
and Philip II. in undertaking for his own account their
ambitious projects. He abandons the traditional policy of
France, that of Francis I., of Henry II., of Henry IV., and
of Richelieu ; he repudiates the Protestant alliances ; he
exhausts his kingdom to dominate Europe in the name of
his dynasty, which he renders usurping, and in the name of
Catholicism, which he renders persecuting ; and he descends
to the tomb as sad as the mighty vanquished of the pre-
ceding age, discrowned of his glory, with the grief of see-
ing new stars climb the horizon which eclipse his own. To
Louis XIV. is due the greatness of Prussia and England.
Vlll AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
In the eighteenth century France descends still lower.
At Rossbach she seems to lose even her military qualities,
and is as destitute of great generals as of great bishops and
great ministers of state. Another power of former times,
even Austria, has the same fate as France. In Germany
she loses a vast and opulent province, in Italy a kingdom ;
then by a strange overturning of political ideas those two
irreconcilable enemies, who for two hundred years disputed
the supremacy against each other, unite without being able
to regain their military honor or restore their compromised
fortune.
In the presence of these venerable monarchies, which
decline in consequence of their errors, young and valiant
states grow strong through the skill of their leaders, the
devotion of their peoples, or the virtue of their free institu-
tions.
Prussia under Frederick II. doubles her resources and
becomes conscious of her strength ; under Peter the Great
and Catherine II. Russia is born, and speedily casts her
threatening shadow over the eastern half of Europe ; Eng-
land at last grasps the scepter of the seas, while time solid-
ifies her successful revolution of 1688, and she accomplishes
the task of the coalition which was roused against France
by the disastrous ambition of Louis XIV.; moreover, she
banishes from almost all the two Indies the flag of the
French.
But, like the Hapsburgs and the Bourbons, she misuses
her victory. She claims upon the seas the supremacy which
Philip II. and Louis XIV. sought upon the Continent, and
against her the coalition is renewed ; her colonies revolt ;
under the thunderclap of 1789 which revolutionizes every-
thing maritime despotism is compromised just as continental
despotism had been broken.
The triumph of the English colonie's on the other side of
the Atlantic had a far other reach than the victors them-
selves believed. It was not only American independence
which the starry flag bore in its folds ; it was the harbinger of
a commercial policy which was to produce a new revolution
in the economical interests of the world. Resultant of the
victory of Washington there was a future which is the pres-
ent to-day, the abolition of monopolies, of the slave trade,
and of the colonial system, whose vigorous formula had been
drawn up by Colbert and the Long Parliament. Freedom
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. IX
of colonial commerce and of the seas found its germ in the
liberty of the revolutionists in America.
While beyond the ocean a new people arose, in the midst
of our aged continent a people, ancient, heroic, necessary,
was blotted from the roll of nations. Poland was invaded
and dismembered ; Prussia, Russia, and Austria shared its
bloody fragments. Herein was a political crime which
caused torrents of blood and tears to flow, the fountains of
which are not yet dry.
England and France allowed the tragedy to be accom-
plished, absorbed as were both by the American war, which
was drawing nigh ; the latter by the intellectual agitation,
which was become formidable.
France in the eighteenth century had regained in letters
the influence she had lost in war. Nations no longer
dominated by her arms submitted to the influence of her
mind. Her conquerors even spoke her language, read her
books, and were subdued by her ideas. What mattered it
to Voltaire that France lost Canada ; to Buffon, to Diderot,
to d'Alembert, to the philosophers and literary men of the
age, that the Russians marched to Constantinople and the
Prussians to Warsaw ? They had another task than to be
anxious for the fate of a province, even of an empire.
They sought for man, believed they had found him, and
meant to make of him a citizen. They studied society, be-
lieved it ill built, and desired its reconstruction. There
was a civilization to recast. For workmen so ardently em-
ployed at such a task what mattered the sound of a stone
which was detached from the old edifice and fell !
Those even whom they seemed to threaten listened to
them with deference. The monarchs paid court to those
men of mind. Everywhere the kings experimented with
their ideas, and despite the wars an effort at reformation
was made from one end to the other of Europe. It was
felt that in the bosom of modern society there existed a
profound disagreement ; that in political institutions they
were still far in the past, while through ideas they lived in
the future. The princes wished to re-establish harmony.
For the economists they developed highways, canals, agri-
culture ; for Beccaria and Montesquieu they tempered the
penal laws and on many points ameliorated legislation ; for
Voltaire they spoke of toleration, banished the Jesuits,
diminished the number of monasteries, and sought the pub-
X AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
lie welfare. But they were still seeking, and already some,
like Joseph II., had died in their labor ; others, like Charles
IV. and Ferdinand IV., were falling back into the old
repose, when the dike disastrously built up in France
against legitimate desires, and behind which the great
waters were heaped together, gave way and everything was
swept headlong by the furious torrent.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
EDITOR'S PREFACE, Hi
AUTHOR'S PREFACE, * . . v
Bool? first
REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL 'ORDER, OR
DEFINITIVE RUIN OF THE POLITICAL
INSTITUTIONS OF THE MIDDLE
AGES, AND A NEW SYSTEM
OF GOVERNMENT.
CHAPTER I.
STATE OF EUROPE AT THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
The Boundary between the Middle Ages and Modern Times.
Western Europe. Northern, Eastern, and Central States, . I
CHAPTER II.
FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494.
Progress of the Royal Authority during the Last Years of Charles
VII. Louis XI. (1461-83). League of Public Welfare (1465).
Interview of Peronne (1468). Ambition and Death of
the Duke of Burgundy (1477). Ruin of the Great Feudal
Houses. Death of Louis XI. (1483). Reign of Charles VIII.
until the Italian Expedition (1483-94), .... 8
CHAPTER III.
ENGLAND FROM 1453 TO 1509.
State of England at the Middle of the Fifteenth Century. War of
the Roses (1455-85). Henry VII., Tudor (1485-1509). Sup-
pression of Public Liberties, . . . . . . .27
x 'l CONTEXTS.
CHAPTER IV.
SPAIN FROM 1453 TO 1521.
PAGE
State of Spain at the Middle of the Fifteenth Century. Navarre,
Aragon, and Castile. Portugal, 39
CHAPTER V.
GERMANY AND ITALY FROM 1453 TO 1494.
Divisions of Germany and Italy. The Emperors Frederick III. and
Maximilian. Italy in the Second Part of the Fifteenth Cen-
tury, 51
CHAPTER VI.
THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE FROM 1453 TO 1520.
Mohammed II. (1451-81). Ba'iezid II. and Selim I. (1481-1520), 67
Boofe Seconfc.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE POLITICAL REVO-
LUTION. FIRST EUROPEAN
WARS (1494-1559).
CHAPTER VII.
THE ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516).
the Preceding Period. Expedition of Charles VIII. into
Italy (1494). Louis XII. (1498-1515). New Conquest of the
Milanais by Francis I. (1515), 75
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIRST PERIOD OF RIVALRY BETWEEN THE HOUSES OF
FRANCE AND AUSTRIA (1519-29).
Francis I. and Charles V. First War (1521-25). Second War
(1526-29). Treaty of Cambrai, . . . . . . 91
CONTENTS. Xlll
CHAPTER IX.
THE SECOND PERIOD OF RIVALRY BETWEEN THE HOUSES
OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. INTERVENTION OF TURKEY
AND ENGLAND (1529-47).
PAGE
New System of French Alliances. Charles V. before Tunis and
Algiers. Third War with France (1536-38). Fourth War
(1542-44), 99
CHAPTER X.
THE THIRD PERIOD OF RIVALRY BETWEEN THE HOUSES
OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA (1547-59).
Supremacy of Charles V. Fifth War against France (1547-56).
Last Struggle for Italian Independence. Treaty of Cateau-
Cambresis (1559), .... .... 109
3Boofe
REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS, IDEAS, AND CREEDS.
CHAPTER XI.
THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, OR DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
AND OF THE PASSAGE TO INDIA.
First Maritime Discoveries. Vasco da Gama (1497) and the Colon-
ial Empire of the Portuguese. Christopher Columbus (1492).
Cortes (1519). Magellan (1520). Pizarro (1529). Colonial
Empire of the Spaniards. Consequences of the New Discoveries.
Introduction of Posts and of Canals with Locks, . . . 118
CHAPTER XII.
REVOLUTION IN LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, OR THE
RENAISSANCE.
Invention of Printing. Renaissance of Letters. Renaissance of
Arts. Renaissance of Sciences, 138
CHAPTER XIII.
REVOLUTION IN CREEDS, OR THE REFORMATION.
State of the Clergy in the Sixteenth Century. Luther : The Refor-
mation in Germany and in the Scandinavian States (1517-55).
xiv CONTENTS.
PAGE
Zwingli and Calvin : The Reformation in Switzerland, France,
the Netherlands, and Scotland (1517-59). The Reformation
in England (1531-62). Principal Differences among the
Protestant Churches, 160
3Boofe jFourtb..
THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION AND THE
RELIGIO US WA RS. PREPONDER-
ANCE OF SPAIN.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE COUNCIL OF TRENT AND THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION.
Reforms at the Pontifical Court and Attempts at Reconciliation with
the Protestants. Defensive Measures : The Inquisition, the
Index, the Jesuits. Council of Trent (1545-63), . . . 189
CHAPTER XV.
THE RELIGIOUS WARS (1559-98).
The Catholic Chiefs and the Protestant Chiefs. Struggle of the two
Religions in the Netherlands ; Formation of the Republic of
the United Provinces (1566-1609). Struggle of the two Reli-
gions in England ; Elizabeth and Mary Stuart ; the Great
Armada (1559-1588). Religious Wars in France (1562-98), 201
CHAPTER XVI.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE, SPAIN,
ENGLAND, AND HOLLAND.
Decline and Ruin of Spain. Prosperity of England and Holland.
Reorganization of France by Henry IV. (1598-1610), . . 235
Boofe jfiftb.
THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIII.
AND LOUIS XIV. (1610-1715).
CHAPTER XVII.
Louis XIII. AND RICHELIEU INTERNAL PACIFICATION (1610-43).
The Minority of Louis XIII. and the Regency of Marie de Medici
(1610-17). Richelieu humbles the Protestants and the High
Nobility (1624-42), ........ 255
CONTENTS. XV
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.
PAGE
The Northern Countries and Germany at the Time of the Thirty
Years' War. The Thirty Years' War ; the Palatine and Danish
Periods (1618-26) ; the Swedish and French Periods (1630-48), 267
CHAPTER XIX.
ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS AND CROMWELL.
The Stuarts : James I. (1603-25) ; Charles I. (1625-40). The Long
Parliament (1640-1649). The Commonwealth of England
(1649-60) 286
CHAPTER XX.
FRANCE FROM 1643 TO 1661. CONDITION OF EUROPE IN 1661.
Mazarin and the Fronde. War with Spain ; Treaty of the Pyre-
nees (1659). Condition of Europe in 1661, .... 311
CHAPTER XXI.
THE REIGN OF Louis XIV. TO THE WAR OF THE LEAGUE
OF AUGSBURG.
Administrative Centralization of France; Colbert and Louvois. War
in Flanders (1667). First Coalition against France (1668).
War with Holland (1672). Conquests by Louis XIV. in Time
of Peace. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), . . 329
CHAPTER XXII.
REVOLUTION OF 1688 IN ENGLAND. SECOND AND THIRD
COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. PEACE OF RYSWICK
(1697) AND OF UTRECHT (1713).
Charles II. and James II. (1660-88). Wars of the League of
Augsburg (1688-97) and of the Spanish Succession (1701-
13) 349
CHAPTER XXIII.
LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Letters and Arts in France. Letters and Arts in Foreign Countries.
The Sciences in the Seventeenth Century, .... 365
XVI CONTENTS.
Booft Sijtb.
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. GREATNESS
OF ENGLAND, RUSSIA, AND
PRUSSIA.
CHAPTER XXIV.
RISE OF RUSSIA AND RUIN OF SWEDEN.
PAGE
Peter the Great and Russia at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Cen-
tury ; Power of Sweden ; Narva and Pultowa. Charles XII.
at Bender; Treaties of the Pruth (1711) and Nystadt (1721)
Second Journey of Peter to Europe (1716) ; St. Petersburg ;
The Czar Chief of the Russian Church, .... 387
CHAPTER XXV.
CREATION OF PRUSSIA. HUMILIATION OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA.
Regency of the Duke of Orleans ; Ministries of Dubois, of the
Duke of Bourbon, and of Fleury (1715-43). Formation of
Prussia, and Situation of Austria. War of the Austrian Succes-
sion (1741-48). The Seven Years' War (1756-63), . . 401
CHAPTER XXVI.
MARITIME AND COLONIAL POWER OF ENGLAND.
England from 1688 to 1763. The English East India Company, . 434
CHAPTER XXVII.
FOUNDATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Origin and Constitution of the English Colonies in America.
American War (1775-83), 446
CHAPTER XXVIII.
DESTRUCTION OF POLAND. DECLINE OF THE OTTOMANS.
GREATNESS OF RUSSIA.
Russia from Peter the Great to Catherine II. Catherine II. (1762-
96). First Partition of Poland (1772). Treaties of KaTn-
ardji (1774) and Jassy (1792). Second and Third Partitions of
Poland (1793 and 1795), 457
CONTENTS. xvii
36oofe Seventb.
PRELIMINARIES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER XXIX.
SCIENCES AND LETTERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
PAGE
Scientific and Geographical Discoveries. Letters and Arts, . 471
CHAPTER XXX.
ATTEMPTS AT REFORM.
Disagreement between Ideas and Institutions. Agitation of Mind
and Demands for Reforms. Reforms Accomplished by the
Governments. Last Years of Louis XV. (1763-74). Politi-
cal and Military Decline of France. Attempt at, and then
Abandonment of Reforms under Louis XVI. (1774-93), . 484
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST of the Popes, Emperors, and Princes who
reigned in the Principal States between 1453 and 1789, . . 517
INDEX, 521
LIST OF MAPS.
PAGE
FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XL, 1461-1483 ... 26
THE BRITISH ISLANDS, 1066-1603 .... 38
ITALY IN THE XV. CENTURY 74
EUROPE IN 1648 284
EUROPEAN STATES IN 1789 482
HISTORY OF MODERN TIMES.
(1453-1789.)
BOOK I.
REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER, OR
DEFINITIVE RUIN OF THE POLITICAL INSTI-
TUTIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES, AND A
NEW SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.
CHAPTER I.
STATE OF EUROPE AT THE MIDDLE OF THE
FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
The Boundary between the Middle Ages and Modern Times. Western
Europe. Northern, Eastern, and Central States.
IT is customary to take the year 1453 as the end of the
Middle Ages and the beginning of Modern Times, because
that date marks two important events : the
beTweenthe ary capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans,
Middle Ages and and the close of the Hundred Years' War
ies ' between France and England. But it is in
a higher sphere that we must seek reasons for tracing a
boundary between these two periods of the world's life, and
we should find them in times more recent : at the end of
the fifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth,