England -The Civil War.

A. D. An eventful period now commences in England. Anew 1603. dynasty fills the throne, and the grand struggle begins between liberty and absolute power. James VI. of Scot◄ land, son of Mary, and descended from the eldest daughter of Henry VII., was, on the death of Elizabeth, placed by the free will and choice of the English nation on her royal seat. This monarch was possessed of learning and abilities rather above the common rate; but he was pedantic, mean, and pusillanimous, shamefully subservient to unworthy favourites, and in his inglorious love of peace careless of the national honour. In the reign of this feeble prince, the English nation first learned to listen to the doctrines of the divine and indefeasible rights of kings; then, too, the church began to depart from the principles of the reformers, and some of her divines to approximate in their doctrines to those of the church of Rome, so generally odious to the nation. Every thing, in short, was done, as it were, to prepare the materials of the coming conflagration.

In the reign of James, the nation took greatly to trade and maritime enterprise, and increased rapidly in wealth, intelligence, and love of freedom. Public events were few. The most remarkable was the Gunpowder Plot, a plan formed in the beginning of the king's reign by a few desperate catholics to blow up the king and parliament, but fortunately discovered in time. The most laudable act of James's reign was the settlement and plantation of the north of Ireland.

Charles I., of a harsh and arbitrary temper, éndea1625. voured to put into practice the speculative tenets of his father. He saw not the state of the nation. English liberty had made great progress under the Plantagenets: circumstances enabled the Tudors nearly to crush it; but with the growth of wealth, and the freedom of religious opinion, the spirit of the nation had recovered its vigour. Charles was suspected on account of his marriage with Henrietta, sister to the king of France, a bigoted catho

rancour.

lic, and his partiality towards the professors of that religion, of a secret design against protestantism. The Puriritans, now a numerous party, were bitterly hostile to the church of England; and the persecuting violence and silly superstition of archbishop Laud augmented their Refused the necessary supplies by the parliament, without giving some security for liberty, the king had recourse to all the illegal modes of taxation employed by his predecessors. Tonnage and poundage were levied; all the oppressions of feudalism renewed; for A. D. more than ten years no parliament assembled. An at- 1638. tempt being made to force episcopacy upon the Scots, that nation took arms, and entered into the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT. A dreadful rebellion broke out 1641. in Ireland, in which thousands of protestants were barbarously massacred by the catholics. The Long Parliament, which the king had assembled, advanced every day in their demands on him, and testified a spirit of determined hostility to the church. The impeachment and illegal and unjust, though well-merited, condemnation of Strafford, the king's ablest and most obnoxious minister, showed him the spirit by which they were actuated. Charles, though reluctantly, still yielded to their demands; but concession only produced further assumption. An invincible distrust of the king's sincerity, for which, indeed, there was abundant reason, haunted the minds of the parliament, and prevented all accommodation. Both parties finally determined on the 1642.

appeal to the sword.

The king was supported by a large proportion of the ancient nobility and gentry of the realm, many of whom had at first been zealous in checking the royal excesses; but now, seeing the exorbitant demands of the commons, resolved to sustain the throne. The catholics were naturally unanimous in his favour; the western counties were in general well affected to him. The chief strength of the parliament lay in the cities and great towns, and the eastern counties, and the lower orders were mostly on their side. It is idle to seek to extenuate the faults

on either side; to represent the one party as the champions of right and justice, the other as the inveterate foes of both. Each had much, indeed, to answer for: it was a struggle, the probable termination of which would be tyranny or anarchy; yet impartiality will say, that the king was left no alternative, and that the balance of guilt was rather on the side of the parliament. Certainly, neither party is entitled to our unqualified approbation. But, in truth, the Civil War was inevitable; it was the almost necessary result of the state of opinion then prevalent; it was the tempest which was to purify the political atmosphere.

The royal standard was raised at Nottingham (Aug. 22.). The first battle was fought at Edgehill. In the course of three years, numerous engagements occurred between the troops of the king and those of the parliament, now joined by the Scots. Lansdown Hill, Roundway Down, Newbury, Nantwich, Marston Moor, and other places, witnessed the successes and reverses of A. D. either party. At length the king received a final and 1645. fatal overthrow at Naseby (June 14.), and unable any

longer to make head, he fled for protection to the camp 1647. of the Scots at Newark. He was by them dishonourably surrendered to the parliament. After a confinement of some time, he was, by means of the sect of the Independents, who were all powerful in the army, and were, therefore, now the prevailing party, brought to 1649. trial, condemned, and beheaded; a sentence, even if morally just, which it undoubtedly was not, flagrantly illegal; a sentence that filled Europe with amazement; and that, even if passed with purer motives than it was, by most of his judges, was an act of useless and pernicious folly. A republic was now established.

Holland.

After the truce of 1609, the United Provinces were agitated by religious dissensions. The opinions of Calvin were maintained in all their rigour by the followers of Gomer: a milder system was advocated by Arminius. Prince Maurice sided with the former; the patriotic functionary Barneveldt, who saw through the ambitious

designs of the prince, supported the latter. The Gomerists prevailed; the Arminian preachers were banished. Barneveldt, at the age of 72, was brought to the block, a. d. under the base and iniquitous charge of "vexing the 1619. church of God." But the people saw the object of Maurice, and groans and murmurs, and the name of Barneveldt, attended him wherever he went.

The Dutch were, during this period, usually allied with France against Spain. They extended their trade in the East and West Indies. In the former they founded Batavia, and laid the foundation of their future empire in those regions.

Russia.

That most extraordinary tyrant, Ivan IV. the Terri- 1598. ple, was succeeded by his only remaining son, Fedor, with whom ended the house of Ruric. The boyars chose Boris, the brother of the empress. This prince

governed well; but an impostor appeared, pretending to be Dmitri, the eldest son of Ivan. After the death of Boris, the pseudo-Dmitri gained the throne, and his reign was praiseworthy. Suspected of a fondness for

Polish manners, he was murdered by his boyars.

Several false Dmitries appeared. At length, the nobles assembled to choose a sovereign. Three days they and the people fasted, and called upon God, and they then ap- 1613. pointed Michaila Romanov, son of the archbishop Philocetus, and grandson, by his mother, of the Tzar Ivan, a boy of but fifteen years. The new Tzar spent his reign in restoring Russia to its former state of power and order. His son Alexei extended the relations of the empire. He first sent an embassy to China, and made 1645. Tobolsk the staple of the Chinese trade.

Turkey and Persia.

The Turkish sultans Ahmed, Mustafa, Osman, Moorad IV., and Ibrahim were, all but the ill-fated Osman and Moorad, sunk in pleasure and sensual indulgence, and took little part in the affairs of Europe. Moorad conquered Bagdad, and restrained the power of the janizaries.

A. D.

Persia, under the rule of Abbas the Great, attained 1582. to considerable power. This truly great monarch was victorious in his wars against the Ottomans and the Usbegs; and he established a degree of tranquillity throughout his dominions, to which Persia had long been a stranger. After his death the Persian power 1627. began to decline.

CHAP. V.

TIMES OF LOUIS XIV.

France, to the Peace of the Pyrenees.

LOUIS XIV. was a minor, his mother, Anne of Austria, 1518. regent, and cardinal Mazarin minister. De Retz (afterwards cardinal) coadjutor archbishop of Paris, a man of unprincipled ambition, endeavoured to excite the nobility and people against the minister. The parliament of Paris joined him. The queen was insulted whenever she appeared. Mazarin ordered the president and some of the most factious members of the parliament to be arrested. The populace rose, and barricadoed the streets till the prisoners were released. Such was the commencement of the celebrated Fronde.

The parliament of Paris proclaimed the cardinal a public enemy. The prince of Conti, the duke of Bouillon, and other nobles, joined them. Other parliaments followed their example. The great prince of Condé, at the request of the court, dispersed the undisciplined troops the parliament had raised. Matters were settled for a time; but Condé, Conti, and others were afterwards, by the advice of de Retz, arrested at the council-table. Their partisans took arms: the duke of Orleans, uncle to the king, set himself at their head. The cardinal was obliged to fly to Cologne. By the intrigues of him and de Retz the duke of Bouillon and his brother Turenne were detached from the malcontents, and Mazarin returned, 1651. escorted by 6000 men.