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CHAPTER XV

From the Civil War in England, to the Peace of Ryswick.

At this period England was convulsed by civil war. During the prosperous age of Elizabeth the Commons had greatly increased in opulence; and, without regard to the resources of her successors, she had alienated many of the crown estates; James was prodigal towards his favorites; and Charles fell into difficulties in consequence of the disordered state of his financial affairs. He was magnanimous, amiable and learned; but deficient in steadfast exertion, and in the dignity and vigor necessary to the situation in which he stood. His ideas of the royal prerogative were extravagant; but he often showed a timidity and irresolution on the appearance of opposition from his Parliament, which emboldened them to carry their opposition to the most unwarrantable lengths. In order to raise supplies without the authority of parliament, the king exacted the customs and levied an arbitrary tax on ships; many feudal privileges and ancient abuses were exercised with increased severity; contributions and loans, called voluntary, were exacted by force; the forms of law were dis- THE BÜSY MAN'S HAND-BOOK. regarded by the court of star-chamber; Englishmen were subjected to long imprisonments and exorbitant fines; and their rights treated with contempt. From the discussions to which these grievances gave rise, arose others relating to the nature and origin of political constitutions. The violence of parties daily increased; but as the king conceded, the parliament grew more arrogant in their demands, and the hour was rapidly approaching when it was evident anarchy would trample upon the ruins of monarchy. At length a fierce civil war arose; religion was made a political stalking horse, and gross hypocrisy overspread the land. Enthusiasts, equally inaccessible. to reason or revelation, to a sense of propriety or any moral restraint, exercised the most irresistible influence on the course of events. The high church sunk into misery; the ancient nobility were basely degraded; the whole constitution fell into ruins; a "solemn mockery," miscalled the king's trial, took place;-and Charles finally perished by the axe of the executioner, A. D. 1649. His death was soon followed by the usurpation of Cromwell, soon after whose death the nation, weary of tyranny and hypocrisy, restored the son of their murdered sovereign to the throne: A. D. 1660.

From the peace of Westphalia until the death of Ferdinand III., in 1657, Germany remained undisturbed; when considerable ferment prevailed in the diet, respecting the election of his successor. The choice of the electors, however, having fallen on his son Leopold, he immediately contracted an alliance with Poland and Denmark, against Sweden, and a numerous army of Austrians entered Pomerania; but failing in their object, peace was quickly restored. He next turned his arms against the Turks, who had invaded Transylvania, and gave them a signal overthrow. In this situation of affairs the youthful and ambitious Louis XIV., king of France, disturbed the peace of the empire by an attack upon the Netherlands, which he claimed in right of his queen, sister of Philip IV., the late king of Spain. In a secret treaty, Louis and Leopold had divided the Spanish monarchy; to the former was given the Netherlands, and to the latter Spain, after the demise of Charles II., the reigning monarch. Having prepared ample means, the king and Turenne entered Flanders, and immediately reduced Charleroi, Tournay, Douay, and Lille. Such rapid success alarmed the other European powers, who feared that another campaign would make him master of the Low Countries; and a triple alliance was formed between England, Holland, and Sweden, with a view to setting bounds to his ambition, and of compelling Spain to accede to certain prescribed conditions. A treaty was accordingly, negotiated at Aix-la-Chapelle, by which Louis was allowed to retain the towns he had taken; and these he secured by entrusting their fortifications to the celebrated Vauban, and by garrisoning them with his best troops: A. D. 1668.