war was found in the quarrel over the election of the archbishop of Cologne, which Louis was resolved to secure for Von Fürstenburg, bishop of Strasburg, in place of prince Clement of Bavaria (1688). Meantime the unfavorable impression produced throughout Protestant Europe by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes had contributed to the success of the plans of William of Orange, and 1686. The League of Augsburg, directed against France, was signed July 9. by the Emperor, the kings of Sweden and Spain, the electors of Bavaria, of Saxony, and the palatinate. In 1688 occurred the revolution in England which placed William of Orange on the throne of that country, and added a powerful kingdom to the new foes of Louis. The exiled James II. took refuge with the French monarch (court at St. Germain, p. 385). 1688. Invasion and frightful devastation of the Palatinate, by Oct. order of Louvois, executed by Melac (Heidelberg, Mannheim, Speier, Worms, and the whole country as far as the borders of Alsace ravaged and burnt). The military successes of the French on the Rhine were unimportant, especially after 1693, when prince Louis of Bavaria assumed the chief command against them. 1689. The Grand Alliance, between the powers who had joined the League of Augsburg and England and Holland (Savoy had joined the league in 1687). The principal scene of war was in the Netherlands. 1690, June 30. Battle of Fleurus, defeat of the prince of Waldeck by Louis' general, Marshal Luxembourg. The French expedition to Ireland in aid of James had but a temporary success. 1690, July 1. Victory of William III. over the adherents of James II. at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland (p. 387). French successes in Piedmont; Catinat reduced Savoy; defeat of Victor Amadeus at Staffarda. 1692, May. Defeat of the French fleet under Tourville by the English and Dutch at Cape La Hogue. The mastery of the sea passed from the French to the English. Death of Louvois. 1692, July 24. Battle of Steenkirke (Steenkerken) in Hainault. Victory of Luxembourg over William III. Fall of Namur (June). 1693, July 29. Battle of Neerwinden. Victory of Luxembourg over William III., who in spite of his many defeats still kept the field. In Italy Marshal Catinat defeated the duke of Savoy at Marsaglia. Rise of prince Eugene ("Eugenio von Savoye," "the little abbé," son of Maurice of Savoy-Carignan, count of Soissons and Olympia Mancini, niece of Mazarin, b. 1663 at Paris; refused a commission by Louis XIV., he entered the Austrian service in 1683; died April 21, 1736). On June 30, the English fleet was defeated at Lagos Bay by Tourville. Failure of the English attack upon Brest (1694), not by the treachery of Marlborough. Death of Luxembourg (Jan. 1696); he was succeeded by the incapable Villeroy. 1695, Sept. Recapture of Namur by William III. All con quests were restored to the duke (Pignerol and Casale), and his daughter married Louis' grandson, the duke of Burgundy. Savoy promised to remain neutral. 1697, Peace of Ryswick, a village near the Hague. Treaty Sept. 30. between France, England, Spain, and Holland. 1. Confirmation of the separate peace with Savoy. 2. Restoration of conquests between France and England and Holland; William III. acknowledged as king of England, and Anne, as his successor, Louis promising not to help his enemies. 3. It was agreed that the chief fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands should be garrisoned with Dutch troops as a barrier between France and Holland. 4. France restored to Spain all places which had been "reunited " since the peace of Nimwegen, with the exception of eighty-two places, and all conquests. 5. Holland restored Pondicherri in India to the French East India Company and received commercial privileges in return. 1697, Oct. 30. Treaty between France and the emperor (and empire.) 1. France ceded all the "reunions" except Alsace, which henceforward was lost to the empire. 2. Strasburg was ceded to France. 3. France ceded Freiburg and Breisach to the emperor, and Phillipsburg to the empire. 4. The duchy of Zweibrücken was restored to the king of Sweden, as count palatine of the Rhine. 5. Lorraine was restored to duke Leopold (excepting Saarlouis). 6. The claims of cardinal Fürstenburg to the archbishopric of Cologne were disavowed. 7. The Rhine was made free. Brilliant period of French literature in the age of Louis XIV. Corneille (1606–1684); Racine (1639–1699); Molière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin, 1622-1673); La Fontaine (1621-1695); Boileau (16361711); Bossuet (1627-1704); Fléchier († 1710); Fénelon (François de Salignac de Lamothe, 1651-1715). Louis' court at Versailles (after 1680) was the pattern for all the other courts of Europe. Buildings, luxury, mistresses (La Vallière, Montespan, Fontange). After the death of his wife, Maria Theresa of Spain (1683), Louis made a secret marriage with Françoise d'Aubigné, widow of the poet Scarron (1610-1660), whom he made Marquise de Maintenon. § 3. GERMANY. 1658-1705. Leopold I., son of Ferdinand III. After 1663 permanent diet at Regensburg, consisting of the representatives of the eight electors, the sixty-nine ecclesiastical, the ninety-six secular princes, and the imperial cities. [A miracle of tedious legislation, often degenerating into a squabble for precedence. "A bladeless knife without a handle."] Corpus Catholicorum and Corpus Evangelicorum; [the corporate organizations of the Catholic and the evangelical estates, the latter being the most important. This or ganization of the Protestant estates had existed, in fact, since the latter half of the sixteenth century, but it was legally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia, where it was decreed that in the diet matters relating to religion and the church should not be decided by a majority, but should be settled by conference and agreement between the Catholic and Protestant estates, as organized corporations.] 1661-1664. First war with the Turks; caused by a dispute concerning the election of a prince in Transylvania. The Turkish successes at last enabled the emperor to obtain help from the empire and from the French. Victory of the imperial general Montecuculi over the Turks at St. Gotthard on the Raab (1664). A truce for twenty years, favorable to the Turks, was, nevertheless concluded. War of the empire against Louis XIV. (see p. 367). 1666. Settlement of the contested succession of Cleve-Jülich : Cleve, Mark, Ravenstein, and half of Ravensberg given to Brandenburg; afterwards, the whole of Ravensberg instead of Ravenstein. 1682-1699. Second war with the Turks. Conspiracy of Hungarian magnates detected and punished. Count Tököly appealed to the Turks for aid. Invasion of Hungary by the Grand Vizier Kara Mustapha and 1683. Siege of Vienna. Heroic defense conducted by Rüdiger von Stahremberg. Successful relief by a united German and Polish army under Charles of Lorraine and John Sobieski, king of Poland. Henceforward active participation of the German princes in the war, assisted by Venice. After the victory of Charles of Lorraine over the Turks at Mohacs (pron. Mohatch) Aug. 12, 1687, the diet at Pressburg conferred the hereditary succession to the throne of Hungary upon the male line of Austria. The war continued with varying fortune until Prince Eugene, by the 1697. Victory of Zenta, brought about the 1699, Jan. 26. Peace of Carlowitz : 1. The Porte received the Banat Temesvar; Austria, the rest of Hungary and Transylvania. 2. Venice received Morea (the Peloponnesus, p. 416). Toward the close of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, several German princes obtained an elevation in rank. 1692. 1. Hanover became the ninth electorate. 1697. 2. The elector of Saxony (Augustus II.), after the death of John Sobieski, became king of Poland, and adopted the Catholic faith. 3. Frederic III., elector of Brandenburg (1688-1713), son of the Great Elector, assumed, with the consent of the emperor, the 1701. title of king in Prussia (Frederic I.) and crowned himself at Jan. 18. Königsberg. § 4. THE NORTH AND EAST. Sweden. Sweden, whose possessions almost surrounded the Baltic Sea, was the first power of the North after the Thirty-Years' War. 1654-1718 (1751). Dynasty of the counts palatine of Zweibrucken (p. 352). 1654-1660. Charles X., Gustavus, undertook a war with Poland, because John Casimir (of the house of Vasa) refused to acknowledge him. He invaded Livonia and Poland, captured Warsaw and drove John Casimir into Silesia. Frederic William, elector of Brandenburg, who had come with an army to the defense of East Prussia, was obliged, by the treaty of Königsberg (1656) to receive his duchy in fee from Sweden, as he had heretofore held it from Poland. He received also the bishopric of Ermeland. Uprising in Poland against the Swedes. Charles Gustavus and the elector Frederic William, who had become a still closer ally by the treaty of Marienburg, gained the 1656. Three days' battle of Warsaw over the Poles. In order to further secure for himself the aid of the elector of Brandenburg, Charles Gustavus granted him, in the treaty of Labiau (1656) the sovereignty over East Prussia and Ermeland. Nevertheless, Russia, Denmark and the emperor, declared war upon Sweden, and they were soon joined by the elector of Brandenburg, who received from Poland in the treaty of Wehlau (1657) recognition of his sovereignty over East Prussia, but not over Ermeland, for which he received compensation elsewhere. The Swedes were soon driven out of Poland, retaining a hold on Polish Prussia only. Charles Gustavus attacked Denmark which he soon conquered (crossing of the frozen Belt, Jan. 1658), and compelled to make important cessions in the peace of Roeskild (1658). In the same year Charles Gustavus invaded Denmark a second time, purposing the annihilation of the monarchy. Courageous defense of Copenhagen. The Danes received assistance from all sides. Raise of the siege. Sudden death of Charles Gustavus (1660). Under his minor son 1660-1697. Charles XI., the 1660. Peace of Oliva (monastery near Danzig) was conIcluded with Poland. John Casimir abandoned his claims upon the throne of Sweden, as well as upon Livonia and Esthonia. Restoration of the duke of Curland. The sovereignty of Prussia ratified by Sweden and Poland. This was followed immediately by the Peace of Copenhagen with Denmark, which surrendered forever the southern part of the Scandinavian peninsula, which had been ceded already by the peace of Roeskild, but retained Drontheim and Bornholm. Peace between Sweden and Russia at Kardis (1661); reciprocal surrender of conquests. War between Sweden, as the ally of France, and Brandenburg; battle of Fehrbellin, p. 368; peace of St. Germain-en-Laye, p. 368. Denmark. Immediately after the peace (1660) the third estate (burghers), impatient of the rule of the nobility, and the clergy, conferred upon the king, Frederic III. (1648-1670), an absolutely uncontrolled authority. Lex Regia. In the same way the Swedish estates, weary of the over-great power of the royal council, conferred almost unlimited power upon king Charles XI., who was now of age. Poland. In Poland, on the contrary, the royal power had become a mere shadow at this period, and the state was, in fact, a republic of nobles. The diet, composed of the senate (bishops, woiwods, castellanes), and the elected representatives from the country (representatives of the nobility) exercised every function of government. The liberum veto, that is, the right of each individual member of the diet to defeat a resolution by his protest, and thus to break up the diet, led to bribery, violence, and, in the end, to absolute anarchy. After the abdication of John Casimir (1668), there followed a bloody contest for the throne; then John Sobieski (1674–1696), the liberator of Vienna (p. 372), and finally Augustus II. of Saxony (1697-1733), uuder whom the war with the Turks was ended by the Peace of Carlowitz (p. 372). Russia. Under the house of Romanow Russia developed in strength and influence. The son of the founder of the dynasty, Alexis, reconquered Little (White) Russia from Poland, and began to introduce European civilization into Russia. After the death of his eldest son, Feodor (1682), his brothers, Ivan and Peter (son of the Czar's second wife, Natalia Narischkin), proclaimed Czars under the guardianship of their elder sister, Sophia, by the Strelitzes, the noble body-guard of the emperor. Peter in Preobaschensk, under the guidance of Lefort, a Swiss. Playing soldiers: origin of the later guard. His half-sister, Sophia, endeavored to exclude him from the throne, but was sent to a cloister by Peter (1689). 1689-1725. Peter I., the Great, reigned as sole monarch, his weak minded brother, Ivan, continuing until his death (1696) without the least authority. Peter began his reforms with the assistance of Gordon, a Scot, and Lefort. Conquest of Azoff (1696). After cruelly punishing a revolt of the Strelitzes, Peter undertook his first journey (1697-1698), for his instruction, through Germany to Holland, where he worked as a ship's carpenter in Saardam (Zaandam), and afterwards to England (engagement of foreign artisans, artists, and military officers). Peter intended to visit Italy, but was recalled by a new revolt of the |