book 4, chapter 4 (volume 2).

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1564-1618. The tolerance of Maximilian II. The bigotry and tyranny of Rodolph and Ferdinand II. Prelude to the Thirty Years War.

"There is no period connected with these religious wars that deserves more to be studied than these reigns of Ferdinand I., Maximilian [the Second], and those of his successors who preceded the thirty years' war. We have no sovereign who exhibited that exercise of moderation and good sense which a philosopher would require, but Maximilian; and he was immediately followed by princes of a different complexion. ... Nothing could be more complete than the difficulty of toleration at the time when Maximilian reigned; and if a mild policy could be attended with favourable effects in his age and nation, there can be little fear of the experiment at any other period. No party or person in the state was then disposed to tolerate his neighbour from any sense of the justice of such forbearance, but from motives of temporal policy alone. The Lutherans, it will be seen, could not bear that the Calvinists should have the same religious privileges with themselves. The Calvinists were equally opinionated and unjust; and Maximilian himself was probably tolerant and wise, chiefly because he was in his real opinions a Lutheran, and in outward profession, as the head of the empire, a Roman Catholic. For twelve years, the whole of his reign, he preserved the religious peace of the community, without destroying the religious freedom of the human mind. He supported the Roman Catholics, as the predominant party, in all their rights, possessions, and privileges; but he protected the Protestants in every exercise of their religion which was then practicable. In other words, he was as tolerant and just as the temper of society then admitted, and more so than the state of things would have suggested. ... The merit of Maximilian was but too apparent the moment that his son Rodolph was called upon to supply his place. ... He had always left the education of his son and successor too much to the discretion of his bigoted consort. Rodolph, his son, was therefore as ignorant and furious on his part as were the Protestants on theirs; he had immediate recourse to the usual expedients--force, and the execution of the laws to the very letter. ... After Rodolph comes Matthias, and, unhappily for all Europe, Bohemia and the empire fell afterwards under the management of Ferdinand II. Of the different Austrian princes, it is the reign of Ferdinand II. that is more particularly to be considered. Such was the arbitrary nature of his government over his subjects in Bohemia, that they revolted. They elected for their king the young Elector Palatine, hoping thus to extricate themselves from the bigotry and tyranny of Ferdinand. This crown so offered was accepted; and, in the event, the cause of the Bohemians became the cause of the Reformation in Germany, and the Elector Palatine the hero of that cause. It is this which gives the great interest to this reign of Ferdinand II., to these concerns of his subjects in Bohemia, and to the character of this Elector Palatine. For all these events and circumstances led to the thirty years' war."

_W. Smyth, Lectures on Modern History, volume I, lecture 13._

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1611-1618, and GERMANY: A. D. 1618-1620.

{208}

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1567-1660. Struggles of the Hapsburg House in Hungary and Transylvania to establish rights of sovereignty. Wars with the Turks.

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1567-1604, and 1606-1660.

AUSTRIA: End----------

Seventeenth Century: Second Half.

Contemporaneous Events.

A.D.

1651. Invasion of England by Charles II. and the Scots; Cromwell's victory at Worcester; complete conquest of Scotland.

1652. Victorious naval war of the English with the Dutch. End of the Fronde. Institution of the Liberum Veto in Poland.

1653. Expulsion of "the Rump" by Cromwell, and establishment of the Protectorate in England. Adoption of the Instrument of Government. Return of Mazarin to power in France. The Cromwellian settlement of Ireland.

1654. Incorporation of Scotland with the English Commonwealth, under Cromwell. Peace between the English and Dutch. Conquest of Nova Scotia, by the New England colonists.

1655. Alliance of England and France against Spain. English conquest of Jamaica.

1656. Beginning of the persecution of the Quakers in Massachusetts.

1658. Capture of Dunkirk from the Spaniards and possession given by the French to the English. Death of Cromwell and succession of his son Richard as Protector.

1659. Meeting of a new Parliament in England; its dissolution; resuscitation and re-expulsion of the Rump, and formation of a provisional government by the Army.

1660. March of the English army under Monk from Scotland to London. Call of a new Parliament by Monk, and restoration of the monarchy, in the person of Charles II.

1661. Restoration of the Church of England and ejection of 2,000 nonconformist ministers. Personal assumption of government by Louis XIV. in France. Beginning of the ministry of Colbert.

1662. Sale of Dunkirk to France by Charles II. Restoration of episcopacy in Scotland and persecution of the Covenanters.

1664. Seizure of New Netherland (henceforth New York) by the English from the Dutch and grant of the province to the duke of York. Grant of New Jersey to Berkeley and Carteret.

1665. Outbreak of the great Plague in London. Formal declarations of war between the English and the Dutch.

1666. The great fire in London. Tremendous naval battles between Dutch and English and defeat of the former.

1667. Ravages by a Dutch fleet in the Thames. Peace treaties of Breda, between England, Holland, France and Denmark. War of Louis XIV., called the War of the Queen's Rights, in the Spanish Netherlands.

1668. Triple alliance of England, Holland and Sweden against France.

1669. First exploring journey of La Salle from the St. Lawrence to the West.

1670. Treaty of the king of England with Louis XIV. of France, betraying his allies, the Dutch, and engaging to profess himself a Catholic,

1672. Alliance of England and France against the Dutch. Restoration of the Stadtholdership in Holland to the Prince of Orange, and murder of the De Witts.

1673. Recovery of New Netherland by the Dutch from the English.

1674. Treaty of Westminster, restoring peace between the Dutch and English and ceding New Netherland to the latter.

1675. War with the Indians in New England, known as King Philip's War.

1678. Pretended Popish Plot in England. Treaties of Nimeguen.

1679. Passage of the Habeas Corpus Act in England. Oppression of Scotland and persecution of the Covenanters. Defeat of Claverhouse at Drumclog. Defeat of Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge.

1680. First naming of the Whig and Tory parties in England.

1681. Merciless despotism of the duke of York in Scotland. Beginning of "dragonnade" persecution of Protestants in France. Grant of Pennsylvania by Charles II. to William Penn.

1682. Exploration of the Mississippi to its mouth by La Salle.

1683. The Rye-house Plot, and execution of Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney, in England. Great invasion of Hungary and Austria by the Turks; their siege of Vienna, and the deliverance of the city by John Sobieski, king of Poland. Establishment of a penny post in London.

1685. Death of Charles II., king of England, and accession of his brother James II., an avowed Catholic. Rebellion of the duke of Monmouth. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. of France.

1686. Consolidation of New England under a royal governor-general. League of Augsburg against Louis XIV. of France.

1688. Declaration of Indulgence by James II. of England, and imprisonment and trial of the seven bishops for refusing to publish it. Invitation to William and Mary of Orange to accept the English crown. Arrival in England of the Prince of Orange and flight of James.

1689. Completion of the English Revolution. Settlement of the crown on William and Mary. Passage of the Toleration Act and the Bill of Rights. Landing of James II. in Ireland and war in that island; siege and successful defense of Londonderry.

1690. The first congress of the American colonies. Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.

1692. The Salem Witchcraft madness in Massachusetts. Massacre of Glencoe in Scotland.

1695. Passage of the first of the Penal Laws, oppressing Catholics in Ireland.

1697. Peace of Ryswick. Cession of Strasburg and restoration of Acadia to France.

1699. Peace of Carlowitz, between Turkey, Russia, Poland, Venice, and the Emperor.

1700. Prussia raised in rank to a kingdom. First campaigns of Charles XII. of Sweden.

Seventeenth Century: First Half.

Contemporaneous Events.

A.D. 1602. Chartering of Dutch East India Company. First acting of Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

1603. Death of Queen Elizabeth of England and accession of James I.

1600. Gunpowder plot of English Catholics. Publication of Bacon's "Advancement of Learning," and part 1 of Cervantes' "Don Quixote."

1606. Charter granted to the London and Plymouth companies, for American colonization. Organization of the Independent church of Brownists at Scrooby, England.

1607. Settlement of Jamestown, Virginia. Migration of Scrooby Independents to Holland.

1609. Settlement of the exiled Pilgrims of Scrooby at Leyden. Construction of the telescope by Galileo and discovery of Jupiter's moons.

1610. Assassination of Henry IV. of France and accession of Louis XIII.

1611. Publication in England of the King James or Authorized version of the Bible.

1614. Last meeting of the States General of France before the Revolution.

1610. Appearance at Frankfort-on-the-Main of the first known weekly newspaper.

1616. Opening of war between Sweden and Poland. Death of Shakespeare and Cervantes.

1618. Rising of Protestants in Bohemia, beginning the Thirty Years War.

1619. Trial and execution of John of Barneveldt. Introduction of slavery in Virginia.

1620. Decisive defeat of the Protestants of Bohemia in the battle of the White Mountain. Rising of the French Huguenots at Rochelle. Migration of the Pilgrims from Leyden to America.

1621. Formation of the Dutch West India Company. The first Thanksgiving Day in New England.

1622. Appearance of the first known printed newspaper in England "The Weekly Newes."

1624. Beginning of Richelieu's ministry, in France.

1625. Death of James I., of England, and accession of Charles I.; beginning of the English struggle between King and Parliament. Engagement of Wallenstein and his army in the service of the Emperor against the Protestants.

1627. Alliance of England with the French Huguenots. Siege of Rochelle by Richelieu.

1628. Passage by the English Parliament of the act called the Petition of Right. Assassination of the duke of Buckingham. Surrender of Rochelle to Richelieu. Publication of Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood.

1629. Tumult in the English Parliament, dissolution by the king and arrest of Eliot and others.

1630. Appearance in Germany of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, as the champion of Protestantism. Settlement of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, and founding of Boston. The Day of the Dupes in France.

1631. Siege, capture and sack of Magdeburg by the imperial general, Tilly. Defeat of Tilly on the Breitenfeld, at Leipzig, by Gustavus Adolphus.

1632. Defeat and death of Tilly. Victory and death of Gustavus Adolphus at Lützen. Patent to Lord Baltimore by James I., of England, granting him the territory in America called Maryland. First Jesuit mission to Canada.

1634. Assassination of Wallenstein. Levy of Ship-money in England.

1635. First settlements in the Connecticut valley.

1636. Banishment of Roger Williams from Massachusetts, and his founding of Providence.

1637. The Pequot War in New England. Introduction of Laud's Service-book in Scotland; tumult in St. Giles' church.

1638. Banishment of Anne Hutchinson from Massachusetts. Rising in Scotland against the Service-book; organization of the Tables; signing of the National Covenant.

1639. The First Bishops' War of the Scotch with King Charles I.

1640. Meeting of the Long Parliament in England. Recovery of independence by Portugal.

1641. Impeachment and execution of Strafford and adoption of the Grand Remonstrance by the English Parliament. Catholic rising in Ireland and alleged massacres of Protestants.

1642. King Charles' attempt, in England, to arrest the Five Members, and opening of the Civil War at Edgehill. Conspiracy of Cinq Mars in France. Death of Cardinal Richelieu.

1643. Meeting of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. Subscription of the Solemn League and Covenant between the Scotch and English nations. Siege of Gloucester and first battle of Newbury. Death of Louis XIII. of France and accession of Louis XIV.

1644. Battles of Marston Moor and the second Newbury, in the English civil war.

1645. Oliver Cromwell placed second in command of the English Parliamentary army. His victory at Naseby. Exploits of Montrose in Scotland.

1646. Adoption of Presbyterianism by the English Parliament. Surrender of King Charles to the Scottish army.

1647. Surrender of King Charles by the Scots to the English, and his seizure by the Army.

1648. The second Civil War in England. Cromwell's victory at Preston. Treaty of Newport with the king. Grand Army Remonstrance, and Pride's Purge of Parliament. Last campaigns of the Thirty Years War. Peace of Westphalia; cession of Alsace to France.

1649. Trial and execution of King Charles I., of England, and establishment of the Common-wealth. Campaign of Cromwell in Ireland. First civil war of the Fronde in France.

1650. Charles II. in Scotland. War between the English and the Scotch. Victory of Cromwell at Dunbar. The new Fronde in France, in alliance with Spain.

End "Contemporaneous Events"-----

AUSTRIA: A. D, 1618-1648. The Thirty Years War. The Peace of Westphalia.

"The thirty years' war made Germany the centre-point of European politics. ... No one at its commencement could have foreseen the duration and extent. But the train of war was everywhere laid, and required only the match to set it going; more than one war was joined to it, and swallowed up in it; and the melancholy truth, that war feeds itself, was never more clearly displayed. ... Though the war, which first broke out in Bohemia, concerned only the house of Austria, yet by its originating in religious disputes, by its peculiar character as a religious war, and by the measures adopted both by the insurgents and the emperor, it acquired such an extent, that even the quelling of the insurrection was insufficient to put a stop to it. ... Though the Bohemian war was apparently terminated, yet the flame had communicated to Germany and Hungary, and new fuel was added by the act of proscription promulgated against the elector Frederic and his adherents. From this the war derived that revolutionary character, which was henceforward peculiar to it; it was a step that could not but lead to further results, for the question of the relations between the emperor and his states, was in a fair way of being practically considered. New and bolder projects were also formed in Vienna and Madrid, where it was resolved to renew the war with the Netherlands. Under the present circumstances, the suppression of the Protestant religion and the overthrow of German and Dutch liberty appeared inseparable; while the success of the imperial arms, supported as they were by the league and the co-operation of the Spaniards, gave just grounds for hope. ... By the carrying of the war into Lower Saxony, the principal scat of the Protestant religion in Germany (the states of which had appointed Christian IV. of Denmark, as duke of Holstein, head of their confederacy), the northern states had already, though without any beneficial result, been involved in the strife, and the Danish war had broken out. But the elevation of Albert of Wallenstein to the dignity of duke of Friedland and imperial general over the army raised by himself, was of considerably more importance, as it affected the whole course and character of the war. From this time the war was completely and truly revolutionary. The peculiar situation of the general, the manner of the formation as well as the maintenance of his army, could not fail to make it such. ... The distinguished success of the imperial arms in the north of Germany unveiled the daring schemes of Wallenstein. He did not come forward as conqueror alone, but, by the investiture of Mecklenburg as a state of the empire, as a ruling prince. ... But the elevation and conduct of this novus homo, exasperated and annoyed the Catholic no less than the Protestant states, especially the league and its chief; all implored peace, and Wallenstein's discharge. Thus, at the diet of the electors at Augsburg, the emperor was reduced to the alternative of resigning him or his allies: He chose the former. Wallenstein was dismissed, the majority of his army disbanded, and Tilly nominated commander-in-chief of the forces of the emperor and the league. ... On the side of the emperor sufficient care was taken to prolong the war. The refusal to restore the unfortunate Frederic, and even the sale of his upper Palatine to Bavaria, must with justice have excited the apprehensions of the other princes. But when the Jesuits finally succeeded, not only in extorting the edict of restitution, but also in causing it to be enforced in the most odious manner, the Catholic states themselves saw with regret that peace could no longer exist. ... The greater the success that attended the house of Austria, the more actively foreign policy laboured to counteract it. England had taken an interest in the fate of Frederic V. from the first, though this interest was evinced by little beyond fruitless negotiations. Denmark became engaged in the quarrel mostly through the influence of this power and Holland. Richelieu, from the time he became prime minister of France, had exerted himself in opposing Austria and Spain. He found employment for Spain in the contests respecting Veltelin, and for Austria soon after, by the war of Mantua. Willingly would he have detached the German league from the interest of the emperor; and though he failed in this, he procured the fall of Wallenstein. ... Much more important, however, was Richelieu's influence on the war, by the essential share he had in gaining Gustavus Adolphus' active participation in it. ... The nineteen years of his [Gustavus Adolphus'] reign which had already elapsed, together with the Polish war, which lasted nearly that time, had taught the world but little of the real worth of this great and talented hero. The decisive superiority of Protestantism in Germany, under his guidance, soon created a more just knowledge, and at the same time showed the advantages which must result to a victorious supporter of that cause. ... The battle at Leipzig was decisive for Gustavus Adolphus and his party, almost beyond expectation. The league fell asunder; and in a short time he was master of the countries from the Baltic to Bavaria, and from the Rhine to Bohemia. ... But the misfortunes and death of Tilly brought Wallenstein again on the stage as absolute commander-in-chief, bent on plans not a whit less extensive than those he had before formed. No period of the war gave promise of such great and rapid successes or reverses as the present, for both leaders were determined to effect them; but the victory of Lutzen, while it cost Gustavus his life, prepared the fall of Wallenstein. {209} ... Though the fall of Gustavus Adolphus frustrated his own private views, it did not those of his party. ... The school of Gustavus produced a number of men, great in the cabinet and in the field; yet it was hard, even for an Oxensteirn, to preserve the importance of Sweden unimpaired; and it was but partially done by the alliance of· Heilbronn. ... If the forces of Sweden overrun almost every part of Germany in the following months, under the guidance of the pupils of the king, Bernard of Weimar and Gustavus Horn, we must apparently attribute it to Wallenstein's intentional inactivity in Bohemia. The distrust of him increased in Vienna the more, as he took but little trouble to diminish it; and though his fall was not sufficient to atone for treachery, if proved, it was for his equivocal character and imprudence. His death probably saved Germany from a catastrophe. ... A great change took place upon the death of Wallenstein; as a prince of the blood, Ferdinand, king of Hungary and Bohemia, obtained the command. Thus an end was put to plans of revolutions from this quarter. But in the same year the battle of Nordlingen gave to the imperial arms a sudden preponderance, such as it had never before acquired. The separate peace of Saxony with the emperor at Prague, and soon after an alliance, were its consequences; Sweden driven back to Pomerania, seemed unable of herself, during the two following years, to maintain her ground in Germany: the victory of Wittstock turned the scale in her favour. ... The war was prolonged and greatly extended by the active share taken in it by France: first against Spain, and soon against Austria. ... The German war, after the treaty with Bernhard of Weimar, was mainly carried on by France, by the arming of Germans against Germans. But the pupil of Gustavus Adolphus preferred to fight for himself rather than others, and his early death was almost as much coveted by France as by Austria. The success of the Swedish arms revived under Baner. ... At the general diet, which was at last convened, the emperor yielded to a general amnesty, or at least what was so designated. But when at the meeting of the ambassadors of the leading powers at Hamburg, the preliminaries were signed, and the time and place of the congress of peace fixed, it was deferred after Richelieu's death, (who was succeeded by Mazarin), by the war, which both parties continued, in the hope of securing better conditions by victory. A new war broke out in the north between Sweden and Denmark, and when at last the congress of peace was opened at Munster and Osnabruck, the negotiations dragged on for three years. ... The German peace was negotiated at Munster between the emperor and France, and at Osnabruck between the emperor and Sweden; but both treaties, according to express agreement, Oct. 24, 1648, were to be considered as one, under the title of the Westphalian."

_A. H. L. Heeren, A Manual of the History of the Political System of Europe and its Colonies, pages 91-99._

"The Peace of Westphalia has met manifold hostile comments, not only in earlier, but also in later, times. German patriots complained that by it the unity of the Empire was rent; and indeed the connection of the States, which even before was loose, was relaxed to the extreme. This was, however, an evil which could not be avoided, and it had to be accepted in order to prevent the French and Swedes from using their opportunity for the further enslavement of the land. ... The religious parties also made objections to the peace. The strict Catholics condemned it as a work of inexcusable and arbitrary injustice. ... The dissatisfaction of the Protestants was chiefly with the recognition of the Ecclesiastical Reservation. They complained also that their brethren in the faith were not allowed the free exercise of their religion in Austria. Their hostility was limited to theoretical discussions, which soon ceased when Louis XIV. took advantage of the preponderance which he had won to make outrageous assaults upon Germany, and even the Protestants were compelled to acknowledge the Emperor as the real defender of German independence."

_A. Gindely, History of the Thirty Years' War,