5. The vast influence and control of Europe, by discovery, colonization, and commerce, in other quarters of the globe, is a striking feature of modern times.

6. With the increase of commerce and the growing power of the middle classes, there has arisen the "industrial age." Interests connected with production and trade, and with the material side of civilization, have come into great prominence.

7. Both the pursuits of men, and culture, have become far more diversified than was the case in the Middle Ages.

8. The influence of Christianity in its ethical relations—as an instrument of political and social reform, and a motive to philanthropy—has become more active and conspicuous.



PERIOD I. FROM THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE TO THE REFORMATION (1453-1517):

THE CONSOLIDATION OF MONARCHY: INVENTION AND DISCOVERY: THE RENAISSANCE.

CHARACTER OF THIS PERIOD.—In this period monarchy, especially in France, England, and Spain, acquires new strength and extension. The period includes the reigns of three kings who did much to help forward this change: Louis XI. of France, Henry VII. of England, and Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain. The Italian wars begin with the French invasion of Italy: the rivalship of the kingdoms, and the struggles pertaining to the balance of power, are thus initiated. In this period fall new inventions which have altered the character of civilization, and great geographical discoveries, of which the discovery of the New World is the chief. It is the epoch, moreover, of the Renaissance, or the re-awakening of learning and art. There is a new era in culture. All these movements and changes foretoken greater revolutions in the age that was to follow.



CHAPTER I. FRANCE: ENGLAND: SPAIN: GERMANY: ITALY: THE OTTOMAN TURKS: RUSSIA: THE INVASIONS OF ITALY.

I. FRANCE.

CHARLES VII. AND THE NOBLES.—The result of the hundred-years' war was the acquisition of Aquitaine by the French crown. Aquitaine was incorporated in France. Southern Gaul and Northern Gaul were now one. During the last years of Charles VII., his kingdom was comparatively peaceful. Its prosperity revived. A new sort of feudalism had sprung up in the room of the old noblesse, whose power had been crushed. The new nobility was made up of relatives of the royal family, as the Dukes of Burgundy, Berry, Bourbon, and the house of Anjou. On the east of France was Burgundy, which had expanded into a great European power. "The duchy of Burgundy, with the county of Charolois, and the counties of Flanders and Artois, were joined under a common ruler with endless imperial fiefs in the Low Countries, and with the imperial county of Burgundy." The Burgundian boundary was on the south of the Somme, and little more than fifty miles north of Paris. The Burgundian dukes were constantly striving to bring it still nearer. On the east and south, the house of Anjou held the duchy of Bar and Provence, besides other possessions. On the south, too, was the province of Dauphiny; and on the west the strong, half-independent duchy of Bretagne, or Brittany. Charles had a standing quarrel with his son Louis, who early showed his power to inspire dread, but gave no signs of the policy which he triumphantly pursued, after he became king, of putting down feudal insubordination. His young wife Margaret, daughter of James I. of Scotland, was twelve years old when he, a boy of thirteen, was married to her. He aroused such terror and aversion in her mind that she died at twenty-one of a broken heart. Louis—to whom, much to his disgust, Dauphiny instead of Normandy was given to rule—abetted the great lords in their resistance to his father's authority; and, when threatened with coercion, fled to Brussels, to the court of his father's cousin, Philip of Burgundy, where he was kindly entertained. Charles VII., who knew the traits of his son, said, "As for my cousin of Burgundy, he harbors a fox that will one day eat up his chickens." Even then the relations of Louis and Charles, Count of Charolois, the heir of Burgundy, were cool and unsympathetic. The king occupied Dauphiny, and in 1457 it was fully incorporated in France. The rulers of France and Burgundy, taken up with their own schemes of territorial gain, turned a deaf ear to the calls of Pope Pius II. for a crusade against the Turks. It has been said that most of the kings of the house of Valois were either bad or mad. The indolent and heartless Charles VII. would seem to have been both. In his last days he suspected that the Dauphin's plots were aided by persons about himself, and that his food was poisoned. He refused to eat, and died in 1461.

CHARACTER OF LOUIS XI.—Louis XI. (1461-1483) showed himself a master of "statecraft," or the cunning, diplomatic management which pursued its ends stealthily, held no engagements sacred, and was deterred by no scruples of conscience from whatever perfidy was thought requisite to attain the objects in view. Louis was one of the earliest examples of the kingcraft which in the succeeding age was deemed a gift to be coveted by princes. It was an art in which the Italians were masters; and its secrets were set forth, somewhat later than the time of Louis, in "The Prince" of Machiavelli, a work in which that eminent statesman and historian describes the means by which despots may entrap and crush their enemies. Whether he meant to afford aid to tyrants, or aid to their subjects through an exposure of the tricks of their rulers, the "Machiavellian" spirit designates the policy of intrigue that prevailed all through the sixteenth century, and infected even some of the best of the public men of that age. Louis was mean-looking, shabby in his dress, with a cunning aspect; in his whole deportment and character, in sharp contrast with the chivalrous princes, Philip and Charles of Burgundy. If he was vindictive, he was perhaps not more cruel than others; but he was ungenial, regarding men as his tools. He took pleasure in the society of his provosts or hangmen,—Tristan l'Hermite and Olivier le Daim. He often ordered men to execution without so much as the form of a trial. There was in him a vein of superstition. He was punctilious in his devotions. He would not swear a false oath over the cross of St. Loup of Angers, because he thought that death would be the penalty. He did not quail before an enemy in battle; yet such was his alarm at the prospect of death, that he collected about him relics and charms, magicians and hermits, to help him prolong his days.

STRIFE WITH THE NOBLES.—The first years of Louis's reign (1461-1467) were passed in a struggle with the great lords whom he was determined to subdue. At the beginning his measures for this end were imprudent. They combined against him in the League of the Public Weal in 1464. Their force was so great that he stood in imminent peril. He counted on the support of Paris, and was trying to reach that city when the hostile armies encountered one another at Montlhery (1465). It was an absurd battle, where at night both parties thought themselves beaten. The king secured his place of refuge. He deemed it prudent to make peace on the terms demanded by the Count of Charolois, and the other nobles. This treaty of Conflans (1465) he caused the Parliament of Paris to refuse to ratify or register. He had trusted to his ability to regain what he might surrender. The strife between the Duke of Brittany and the king's brother Charles, now made Duke of Normandy, enabled Louis soon to recover Normandy.

CHARLES THE BOLD, AND LOUIS.—The death of Philip made his son, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Charles was in the prime of life, of a chivalrous temper, courteous and polished, fond of reading and music, as well as of knightly sports, and with his head full of dreams of ambition. With certain noble qualities, his pride was excessive, his temper not only hot but obstinate, and, as he grew older, he became more overbearing and cruel. He was the most powerful prince in Europe. The most of his lands were German. In the early part of his reign he pursued the same scheme as that which was at the root of the League of the Public Weal. He aimed to hem in Louis, and to build up his own power in the direction of France. He allied himself, in 1466, with the House of York, then uppermost in England. An English force was sent to Calais in 1467. Threatened by this coalition of adversaries, Louis hastened to attack Brittany, and forced its duke to conclude a separate peace. Trusting too much to his powers of negotiation, and yielding to the treacherous advice of Cardinal Balue, one of his chief counselors, the king determined to go in person to confer with Charles of Burgundy. He soon learned that his safe-conduct was of little value. At Peronne, he found himself in the midst of enemies, and in reality a prisoner. While there, Liege was in revolt, as Charles ascertained, at the king's instigation. The wrathful duke could be appeased only by agreeing to every thing that he required. Louis had to undergo the humiliation of attending Charles and his army, and of basely taking part in the vengeance inflicted on the city which he had himself stirred up to revolt. He was glad to escape with his life. After his return, he ordered Balue to be put in an iron cage, where he was kept for ten years,—a mode of punishment of Balue's own invention. Louis repudiated the treaty of Peronne, under the advice of a body of Notables, all of whom he had nominated and summoned. A new league was organized against him; but the king by his wariness, and by his promptitude in attacking Brittany, gained advantages, so that a truce was concluded with the Burgundian duke in 1472. Philip de Commines, at that time a companion and counselor of Charles, left his service for that of Louis. To his Memoirs we owe most instructive and interesting details respecting these princes, and the manners and occurrences of the time.

CHARLES THE BOLD, AND THE SWISS.—From this time Charles turned his attention eastward, and devoted himself to building up a great principality on the Rhine, which might open the way for his succession to the empire. It seemed to be his plan to bring together the old kingdom of Lotharingia and that of the Burgundies. He found no sympathy in his schemes from the emperor Frederick III. The great barrier in Charles's way was the freedom-loving spirit of the inhabitants of the Swiss mountains. Availing himself of a plausible pretext, he endeavored to get possession of Cologne by first laying siege to Neuss, which lies below it. Wasting his strength in the unsuccessful attempt to capture this place, he failed to make a junction of his forces with the English troops who landed in France under his ally, King Edward IV. The English king was persuaded to make a truce with France by the wily Louis, who was constantly on the watch for any mistakes or mishaps of his impetuous Burgundian adversary. The cruelty of Charles to the Swiss inhabitants of Granson, who had surrendered, brought upon him an attack of their exasperated countrymen near that place (1476). The Burgundians were routed; and the duke's camp, with all its treasures, including his sword, the plate of his chapel, and precious stones of inestimable value, fell into the hands of the hardy mountaineers, who knew nothing of the worth of these things. The next year the Duke once more flung his reckless valor against the strength of the Swiss infantry, and barely escaped from an utter defeat at Morat. Made desperate by misfortune, he risked another battle near Nanci, in 1477, at the head of an inferior force, composed partly of treacherous mercenaries, and was vanquished and slain. He had intended to make Nanci his capital; but his body was found near by in a swamp, stripped of its clothing, frozen, and covered with wounds.

EXTENSION OF FRANCE.—Louis XI could hardly stifle expressions of joy at the news of the death of his hated and formidable rival. While Charles had been busy in Germany, Louis had taken the opportunity to put down, one by one, the great nobles who had shown themselves ill-affected. He secured to France Roussillon and the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. It was now his purpose to lay hold of as many as possible of the possessions of the late duke. Mary, the daughter of Charles the Bold, the heiress of Burgundy, gave her hand in marriage to Maximilian of Austria, an event which carried after it the most important consequences. The result of the conflicts of Louis and Maximilian was the Peace of Arras (1482), which left in the hands of France the towns on the Somme, and the great Burgundian duchy. For a time Maximilian, as holder of the French fiefs of Flanders and Artois, was a vassal of the French king. On the death of King Rene, in 1480, and the extinction of the house of Anjou, Louis annexed the three great districts of Anjou, Maine, and Provence, the last of which was a fief of the empire.

LAST DAYS OF LOUIS XI.—In his last days, old King Louis, in wretched health, tortured with the fear of death, and in constant dread of plots to destroy him, shut himself up in the castle of Plessis-les-Tours, which he strongly fortified, and manned with guards who were instructed to shoot all who approached without leave. He kept up his activity in management, and in truth devised schemes for the advantage of his realm. His selfish and malignant temper brought to him one unexpected joy from the sudden death of Mary of Burgundy (1482), from which, however, France did not reap the advantages which he expected. He died in 1483, at the age of sixty-one. He, more than any other, was the founder of the French monarchy in the later form. He centralized the administration of the government. He fought against feudalism, old and new. He strengthened, however, local authority where it did not interfere with the power of the king. In matters of internal government he was often just and wise.

CHARLES VIII. (1483-1496): ANNE OF BEAUJEU.—Charles VIII. at the death of his father was only fourteen years old. But in his older sister, Anne of Beaujeu, the wife of Peter of Bourbon, he had an energetic guide who for ten years virtually managed public affairs. She proved too strong for the opposition of the royal princes, of the nobility, and of the States General. The nobles turned for support to Richard III. of England. Anne strengthened with men and money Henry of Richmond, the rival and conqueror of Richard. The Duke of Brittany, with his allies, the Duke of Orleans, the Prince of Orange, and others, was defeated in a hardly contested battle in 1488, which was followed by a treaty advantageous to France. The crowning achievement of Anne of Beaujeu was the marriage of Anne of Brittany to Charles VIII. This was accomplished although she had already been married by proxy to Maximilian, while Charles was pledged to marry Margaret, the emperor's daughter. If Anne of Brittany should outlive Charles, she engaged to marry his successor. This second marriage actually took place: she became the wife of Louis XII. Brittany was thus incorporated in France. The Italian expeditions, the great events in the reign of Charles VIII., will be related hereafter.

II. ENGLAND.

WAR OF THE ROSES: THE HOUSE OF YORK.—The crown in England had come to be considered as the property of a family, to which the legitimate heir had a sacred claim. The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) grew out of family rivalries. It was a fight among nobles. But other reasons were not without influence. The party of York (whose badge was the white rose) was the popular party, which had its strength in Kent and in the trading cities. It went for reform of government. The party of Lancaster (whose badge was the red rose) was the more conservative party, having its strength among the barons of the North. Richard, Duke of York, thought that he had a better claim to the English crown than Henry VI., because his ancestor, Lionel, was an older son of Edward III. than John of Gaunt, the ancestor of Henry. The king was insane at times, and Richard was made Protector or Regent of Parliament. But Henry, becoming better, drove him from his presence. He organized an insurrection, but was defeated in a battle at Wakefield by the troops of the strong-hearted queen. He was crowned with a wreath of grass, and then beheaded. His brave son, Rutland, was killed as he fled. But Richard's eldest son, Edward—Edward IV. (1461-1483)—supported by the powerful Earl of Warwick, "the king-maker," defeated the queen at Towton, took possession of the throne, and imprisoned Henry VI., who had fallen into imbecility. Edward was popular because he kept order. But the favors which he lavished on the Woodvilles, relatives of his Lancastrian wife Elizabeth, enabled the opposing party, to which Warwick deserted, to get the upper hand (1470); and Edward fled to Holland. But he soon returned, and won the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury (1471). Henry VI. was secretly murdered in the Tower. The house of York was now in the ascendant. A quarrel between the king and his ambitious brother Clarence, who had married Warwick's daughter, led to the trial and condemnation of Clarence, who was put to death in the Tower. It was during the reign of Edward IV. that Caxton set up the first printing-press in England. After Edward his brother reigned, Richard III. (1483-1485), a brave but merciless man, who made his way to the throne by the death of the two young princes Edward and Richard, whose murder in the Tower he is with good reason supposed to have procured. He had pretended that Edward IV. had never been lawfully married to their mother. Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, descended by his mother from John of Gaunt, aided by France, landed in Wales, and won a victory at Bosworth over the adherents of the white rose,—a victory which gave him a kingdom and a crown. Thus the house of Lancaster in the person of Henry VII. (1485-1509), gained the throne. He married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV., and so the two hostile houses were united. He was the first of the TUDOR kings.

CHARACTER OF THE CIVIL WARS.—The Wars of the Roses are, in certain respects, peculiar. They extended over a long period, but did not include more than three years of actual fighting. The battles were fierce, and the combatants unsparing in the treatment of their foes. Yet the population of the country did not diminish. Business and the administration of justice went on as usual. Trade began to be held in high esteem, and traders to amass wealth. The number of journeymen and day-laborers increased, and there was a disposition to break through the guild laws.

EFFECTS OF THE CIVIL WARS.—The most striking result of the civil wars was the strengthening of the power of the king. Not more than thirty of the old nobles survived. Laws were made forbidding the nobles to keep armed "retainers;" and against "maintenance," or the custom of nobles to promise to support, in their quarrels or law-cases, men who adhered to them. The court of the Star Chamber was set up to prevent these abuses. It was turned into an instrument of tyranny in the hands of the kings. Henry VII. extorted from the rich, "benevolences," or gifts solicited by the king, which the law authorized him to collect as a tax. He contrived to get money in such ways, and thus to carry forward the government without Parliament, which met only once during the last thirteen years of his reign. Royal power, in relation to the nobles, was further exalted by the introduction of cannon into warfare, which only the king possessed. Two pretenders to the throne, Lambert Simnel (1487), and Perkin Warbeck (1492), were raised up; but the efforts made to dethrone Henry proved abortive. He kept watch over his enemies at home and abroad, and punished all resistance to his authority. Circumstances enabled the founder of the Tudor line to exalt the power of the king over the heads of both the nobles and the commons.

III. SPAIN.

FERDINAND OF ARAGON (1479-15l6).—The union of Aragon and Castile, by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella (1474-1504), was nominal, as each sovereign reigned independently in his own dominion. But both sovereigns were bent on the same end,—that of subjecting the powerful grandees and feudal lords to their authority. In this policy they found efficient helpers in the shrewd and loyal counselor Mendoza, Cardinal and Archbishop of Toledo, and in Ximenes, who combined the qualities of a prelate of strict orthodoxy with those of a profound and energetic statesman. To bring both nobles and clergy into subservience to the crown, was their great aim; and for this end the sagacious Ferdinand procured from the Pope the privilege of filling the bishoprics and the grand masterships of the military orders. He deprived the nobles of their judicial functions, which he committed to impartial and severe tribunals of his own creation. He re-organized and strengthened the Holy Hermanadad, or militia of the cities, and thus had at his service against the grandees a standing military force. He used the nobles and the cities to keep one another in check. Over both stood the Inquisition,—a tribunal established against the Moors and the Jews who had made an outward profession of Christianity, but which under Torquemada, who had been confessor of the queen, became a terror to all Spain. The king had the power to name the Grand Inquisitor and all the judges; and he thus acquired in this institution not only a fearful weapon against heretics of every description, but also a political instrument for the subjugation of the nobles and the clergy. By this alliance of the throne and the altar, the despotic power of Ferdinand had the firmest prop.

CONQUEST OF GRANADA.—After a ten-years' bloody war, the Moorish kingdom of Granada was conquered. The capital, with the famous castle of Alhambra, was captured (1492). The dethroned Moorish king, Boabdil, robbed of his possessions, sailed to Africa, where he fell in battle. By the terms of their surrender, the Moors were to have the free exercise of their religion. But the promise was not kept. Choice was given to the Moslems to become Christians, or to emigrate. Many left to wage war elsewhere against their Spanish persecutors, either as corsairs in Africa, or as bands of robbers in Sierra Nevada. The professed converts were goaded by cruel treatment into repeated insurrections. It was a fierce war of races and religions. The frightful sufferings of the Moors, under the pressure of this double fanaticism, form a long and gloomy chapter of Spanish history. The dismal tale continues until the cruel expulsion from the kingdom of nearly a million of this unhappy people by Philip III., in 1609.

FERDINAND, REGENT OF CASTILE.—Most of the children of Ferdinand and Isabella died young. Their daughter Joanna married Philip of Burgundy, son of Maximilian and Mary; but he died in 1506, at the age of twenty-eight. They had been recognized as the rulers of Castile. But the mind of Joanna, who had always been eccentric, became disordered, so that the government devolved on Ferdinand, her father. He placed her in the castle at Tordesillas, where the remainder of her life, which continued forty-seven years longer, was spent. Ferdinand was, in form, constituted by the Cortes (1510), regent of the kingdom in the name of his daughter, and as guardian of her son (Charles). Ferdinand administered the government with wisdom and moderation. As there were no children by his second marriage with Germaine de Foix, niece of Louis XII. of France, the succession of Joanna's son remained secure. Ferdinand availed himself of the disturbances in France to annex to Castile the portion of Navarre lying on the south of the Pyrenees.

IV. GERMANY AND THE EMPIRE.

FREDERICK III. (1440-1493).—While England, France, and Spain were organizing monarchy, Italy and Germany kept up the anarchical condition of the Middle Ages. Hence these countries, first Italy and then Germany, became enticing fields of conquest for other nations. Frederick III. was the last emperor crowned at Rome (1452), and only one other emperor after him was crowned by the Pope. Frederick reigned longer than any other German king before or after him. He lacked energy, neglected the empire, and busied himself in enlarging his Austrian domains, which he erected into an archduchy (1453). When he sought to interfere with the German princes, they set him at defiance. He did little more than remain an indolent spectator of the conflict in which the Swiss overthrew Charles the Bold. The great danger to Europe was now from the Turks. Christendom was defended by the Poles and the Hungarians. Frederick left the Hungarians, under the gallant John Hunyady, without his help, to drive them, in 1456, from Belgrade. He tried to obtain the Bohemian and Hungarian crowns; but Podiebrad, a Utraquist nobleman, was made king of Bohemia, and Matthias Corvinus succeeded Hunyady, his father, on the throne of Hungary. By the death of Albert, the brother of Frederick, to whom the emperor had been compelled to give up Vienna, he became master of all the Austrian lands except Tyrol. He was bent on getting the Hungarian crown; but Vienna was taken by Matthias, in 1485, and the emperor had to fly for his life. A great confederation, composed of princes, nobles, and cities, was made in Swabia, for repressing private war, and did much good in South Germany. The western part of Prussia was taken from the Teutonic Knights by the Peace of Thorn, in 1466, and annexed to Poland by Casimir IV.

Maximilian I. (1493-15l9).—Maximilian I. was a restless prince, eager for adventure. Although not crowned, he was authorized by Pope Julius II. to style himself "Emperor Elect." In his reign, efforts, only in part successful, were made to secure peace and order in Germany. At the Diet of Worms in 1495, a perpetual public peace, or prohibition of private feuds, was proclaimed; and a court called the Imperial Chamber, the judges of which, except the president, were appointed by the states, was constituted to adjust controversies among them. The benefits of this arrangement were partly defeated by the Aulic Council, an Austrian tribunal established by Maximilian for his own domains, but which interfered in matters properly belonging to the Chamber. Germany was also divided into circles, or districts, for governmental purposes. In 1499 Maximilian endeavored, without success, to coerce the Swiss League into submission to the Imperial Chamber, and to punish it for helping the French in their Italian invasion. Although he was brave, cultured, and eloquent, he lacked perseverance, and not a few of his numerous projects failed. The most fortunate event in his life, as regards the aggrandizement of his house, was his marriage to Mary of Burgundy (1477). His grandson Ferdinand married the sister of Louis II., the last king of Bohemia of the Polish line, who was also king of Hungary; and by the election of Ferdinand to be his successor (1526), both these countries were added to the vast possessions of the Austrian family. To Maximilian's doings in Italy, we shall soon refer.

GERMAN CITIES.—From the middle of the thirteenth century there was a rapid growth of German cities, and an advance of the trading-classes. The cities gained a large measure of self-government, and were prosperous little republics. They were centers of commerce and wealth, and often exercised power much beyond their own precincts, which were well defended by ditches, walls, and towers. The old Gothic town-halls in Aix, Nuremburg, Cologne, etc., are monuments of municipal thrift and dignity. Their churches and convents grew rich, and schools with numerous pupils were connected with them. Dwellings became more comfortable and attractive. All branches of art and manufacture flourished. The city nobles and the guilds had their banquets. In the church festivals all the people took part. The German cities, such as Mayence, Worms, Strasburg, Luebeck, Augsburg, excited the admiration even of Italian visitors.



THE MEDICI.

Giovanni d' Medici, d. 1429. + COSMO ("Father of his Country"), d. 1464. + PIERO, d. 1469. + LORENZO (the Magnificent), d. 1492. + Maddelena. + PIERO d. 1503 + LORENZO II, Duke of Urbino, d. 1510. + Catharine, m. Henry II of France. + ALESSANDRO, First Duke of Florence, 1531-1537. + GIOVANNI (Pope Leo X), d. 1521. + GIULIANO, Duke of Nemours, d. 1516. + Ippolito (Cardinal), d. 1535. + GIULIANO, killed by Pozzi 1478. + Giulio (Pope Clement VII), d. 1534. + LORENZO, d. 1440. + Piero Francesco, d. 1474. + Giuliano, d. 1498. + Giovanni (the Invincible), d. 1526. + COSIMO I, First Grand Duke of Tuscany, 1537-1574. + FRANCESCO, 1574-1587, m. Joanna, daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I. + Mary m. Henry IV of France. + FERDINAND I, 1587-1600, m. Christina, daughter of Charles II of Lorraine. + COSIMO II, 1609-1621, m. Mary Magdalen, sister of Emperor Ferdinand II. + FERDINAND II, 1621-1670. + COSIMO III, 1670-1723. + JOHN GASTON, 1723-1737.

V. ITALY.

CONDITION OF ITALY.—Italy, at the epoch of the French invasions, was the most prosperous as well as the most enlightened and civilized country in Europe. Its opulent and splendid cities were the admiration of all visitors from the less favored countries of the North. But national unity was wanting. The country was made up of discordant states. Venice was ambitious of conquest; and the pontiffs in this period, to the grief of all true friends of religion, were absorbed in Italian politics, being eager to carve out principalities for their relatives. Italy was exposed to two perils. On the one hand, it was menaced by the Ottoman Turks; not to speak of the kings of France and Spain, who were rival aspirants for control in the Italian peninsula. On the other hand, voyages of discovery were threatening to open new highways of commerce to supersede the old routes of traffic through its maritime cities.

MILAN.—The fall of Constantinople produced a momentary union in Italy. At Lodi, in 1454, the principal states took an oath of perpetual concord,—Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan; Cosmo de Medici, to whom Florence had given the name of "Father of his Country;" Alfonso V. the Magnanimous, king of Naples and Sicily; the Popes Calixtus III. and Pius II. (1458-1464). But conflicts soon arose among them. An abortive attempt was made by John of Calabria to deprive Ferdinand of Naples of his inheritance (1462). In 1478 there was a coalition against Florence; in 1482, a coalition against Venice. The Turks made the best use of these quarrels, and captured Otranto (1480), killing or enslaving twelve thousand Christians. The idea of the ancients that tyrannicide is a virtue, whether the master be good or bad, was caught up, and gave rise to conspiracies. At Milan, in 1476, the cruel Duke Galeazzo Maria was assassinated by three young men, near the Church of St. Stephen. Giovanni Galeazzo, his son, a minor, married a daughter of the king of Naples. But his uncle, Ludovico il Moro, had seized on power, and ruled in the name of Giovanni (1480). He imprisoned Giovanni and his young wife; and being threatened by the king of Naples, who had for an ally Peter de Medici, he formed an alliance with the Pope and the Venetians; and, not confiding in them, he invited Charles VIII. of France to invade the kingdom of Naples. Genoa fell under the yoke of Ludovico, who was invested with it by Charles VIII. as a fief of France.

VENICE.—Venice, which up to the fall of Constantinople had been the strongest of the Italian states, forgot its duties and its dangers in relation to the Turks, in order to aggrandize itself in Italy. It could not avoid war with them, which broke out in 1464. The Turks took Negropont and Scutari, passed the Piave, and the fires kindled by their troops could be seen from Venice. The city made a shameful treaty with them, paying them a large sum (1479). But four years after, it conquered Cyprus, which it did not scruple to demand the privilege of holding as a fief of the Sultan of Egypt. The great power of Venice at this time was a cause of alarm to all the other states; but their first combination against it in 1482, in defense of the Duke of Ferrara, was of no effect. In 1454 the government of Venice was placed practically in the hands of three "inquisitors", who exercised despotic power under the old forms, and, by such means as secret trials and executions, maintained internal order and quiet at the cost of liberty. Its soldiers were condottieri, under foreign leaders, whom it watched with the utmost jealousy.

FLORENCE.—Cosmo de Medici had continued to be a man of the people. But the members of his family who followed him, while they copied his munificence and public spirit, behaved more as princes. Against Peter I. plots were formed by the nobles, but were baffled (1465). Jerome Riario, a nephew of Pope Sixtus IV., strove with papal help to conquer for himself a principality in the Romagna. The Florentines protested against it as a breach of the treaty of Lodi. Hence Riario took part in the conspiracy of the Pazzi against the lives of Lorenzo and Julian, sons of Cosmo. They were attacked in the cathedral of Florence by the assassins, during the celebration of mass; Julian was killed, but Lorenzo escaped. The Archbishop of Pisa, one of the accomplices, was hung from his palace window in his pontifical robes. The Pope excommunicated the Medici, and all the Italian states plunged into war. The capture of Otranto at this time by the Turks frightened the princes. Lorenzo de Medici repaired in person to Naples to negotiate with Ferdinand, the Pope's ally, and peace was concluded. Lorenzo earned the name of "The Magnificent" by his lavish patronage of literature and art.

SAVONAROLA.—Against the rule of Lorenzo, one voice was raised, that of the Dominican monk Jerome Savonarola, a preacher of fervid eloquence, who aimed in his harangues, not only to move individuals to repentance, but to bring about a thorough amendment of public morals, and a political reform in the direction of liberty. In his discourses, however, he lashed the ecclesiastical corruptions of the time, not sparing those highest in power. There were two parties, that of the young nobles,—the arribiati, or "enraged;" and that of the people,—the frateschi, or friends of the monks. Savonarola proclaimed that a great punishment was impending over Italy. He predicted the invasion from north of the Alps.

FLORENCE IN THE AGE OF LORENZO.—Florence in the time of Lorenzo presented striking points of resemblance to Athens in its most flourishing days. In some respects, the two communities were quite unlike. Florence was not a conquering power, and had no extensive dominion. Civil and military life were distinct from one another: the Italian had come to rely more upon diplomacy than upon arms, and his wealth and mercantile connections made him anxious to avoid war. In Florence, moreover, trade and the mechanic arts were in high repute; industry was widely diffused, and was held in honor. But in equality and pride of citizenship, in versatility of talent and intellectual activity, in artistic genius and in appreciation of the products of art, in refinement of manners, cheerfulness of temper, and a joyous social life, the Florentines in the fifteenth century compare well with the Athenians in the age of Pericles. In Florence, the burgess or citizen had attained to the standing to which in other countries he only aspired. Nobility of blood was counted as of some worth; but where there was not wealth or intellect with it, it was held in comparatively low esteem. Prosperous merchants, men of genius and education, and skillful artisans were on a level with the best. Men of noble extraction engaged in business. The commonwealth conferred knighthood on the deserving, according to the practice of sovereign princes. Persons of the highest social standing did not disdain to labor in their shops and counting-houses. Frugal in their domestic life, the Florentines strove to maintain habits of frugality by strict sumptuary laws. Limits were set to indulgence in finery, food, etc. The population of Florence somewhat exceeded one hundred thousand. In the neighborhood of the city, there was a multitude of attractive, richly furnished villas and country-houses. Among the industries in which the busy population was engaged in 1472, a chronicler enumerates eighty-three rich and splendid warehouses of the silk-merchants' guild, thirty-three great banks, and forty-four goldsmiths' and jewellers' shops. The houses of the rich were furnished with elegance, and decorated with beautiful works of art. There was a great contrast between the simplicity of ordinary domestic life, especially as regards provisions for the table, and the splendor displayed on public occasions, or when guests were to be hospitably entertained. The effect of literary culture was seen in the tone of conversation. It is remarkable that the great sculptors were all goldsmiths, and came out of the workshop. A new generation of painters had a like practical training. In those days, there was a union of manual skill with imagination. The art of the goldsmith preceded and outstripped all the others. In such a society, there was naturally a great relish for public festivals, both sacred and secular. Everywhere in Italy the Mysteries, or religious plays, exhibiting events of scriptural history, were in vogue; brilliant pantomimes were enjoyed, and the festivities of the yearly carnival were keenly relished. In the government of Florence, the liberty of the citizens was mainly confined to the choosing of their magistrates. Once in office, they ruled with arbitrary power. There was no liberty of the press, nor was there freedom of discussion in the public councils. It was a community where, with all its cultivation and elegance, morality was at a low ebb. Lorenzo himself, although "he had all the qualities of poet and statesman, connoisseur and patron of learning, citizen and prince," nevertheless "could not keep himself from the epicureanism of the time," and was infected with its weaknesses and vices. "These joyous and refined civilizations," writes M. Taine, "based on a worship of pleasure and intellectuality,—Greece of the fourth century, Provence of the twelfth, and Italy of the sixteenth,—were not enduring. Man in these lacks some checks. After sudden outbursts of genius and creativeness, he wanders away in the direction of license and egotism; the degenerate artist and thinker makes room for the sophist and the dilettant."

THE POPES.—The Popes, Nicholas V. (1447-1455), a protector of scholars and a cultivated man, and Pius II. (1458-1464),



THE OTTOMAN SULTANS.

OTHMAN, 1307-1325. + ORCHAN, 1325-1359. + AMURATH I, 1359-1389. + BAJEZET I, 1389-1402. + Soliman, 1402-1410. + Musa, 1410-1413. + Issa. + MOHAMMED I, 1413-1421. + AMURATH II, 1421-1451. + MOHAMMED II, 1451-1481. + BAJEZET II, 1481-1512. + SELIM I, 1512-1520. + SOLIMAN I, 1520-1566. + SELIM II, 1566-1574. + AMURATH III, 1574-1595. + MOHAMMED III, 1595-1603. + ACHMET I, 1603-1617. + OTHMAN II, 1618-1622. + AMURATH IV, 1623-1640. + IBRAHIM, 1640-1649, deposed. + MOHAMMED IV, 1649-1687, deposed. + MUSTAPHA II, 1695-1703, deposed. + MAHMOUD I, 1730-1754. + OTHMAN III, 1754-1757. + ACHMET III, 1703-1730, deposed. + MUSTAPHA III, 1757-1774. + SELIM III, 1789-1807, deposed. + ABUL HAMID I, 1774-1789. + MUSTAPHA IV, 1807-1808, deposed. + MAHMOUD II, 1808-1839. + ABDUL MEDJID, 1839-1861. + MURAD V (June 4, 1876- Aug. 31, 1876). + ABDUL HAMID II (Aug. 31, 1876 ). + ABDUL AZIZ, 1861-1876. + SOLIMAN II, 1687-1691. + ACHMET II, 1691-1695. + MUSTAPHA I, 1617-1618, 1622-1623. + Djem. + Alaeddin.

[Mainly from George's Genealogical Tables.]



zealously but in vain exhorted to crusades against the Turk. Paul II. (1464-1471) pursued the same course; but after him, for a half-century, there ensued the deplorable era when the pontiffs were more busied with other interests than with those pertaining to the weal of Christianity. The pontificates of Sixtus IV. (1471-1484), Innocent VIII. (1484-1492), and especially of Alexander VI. (1492-1503), the second pope of the Borgia family, present a lamentable picture of worldly schemes and of "nepotism," as the projects for the temporal advancement of their relatives were termed. The Roman principality was the prey of petty tyrants, and the theater of wars, and of assassinations perpetrated by the knife or with poison. Alexander VI. succeeded in subduing or destroying all these petty lords. He was seconded in these endeavors by his son Caesar Borgia, brave, accomplished, and fascinating, but a monster of treachery and cruelty. No deed was savage or base enough to cost him any remorse. Hardly had he acquired the Romagna, when Pope Alexander died. Although his death was due to Roman fever, legend speedily ascribed it to poison. His son was betrayed, was imprisoned for a time by Ferdinand the Catholic, and, while he was in the service of the King of Navarre, was slain before the castle of Viana.

NAPLES.—In Naples, Ferdinand I., who was established on his throne by the defeat of his competitors in 1462, provoked a revolt of his barons by his tyranny, invited them to a festival to celebrate a reconciliation with them, and caused them to be seized at the table, and then to be put to death. He treated the people with equal injustice and cruelty. He allowed the Turks to take Otranto (1480), and the Venetians to take Gallipoli and Policastro (1484).

WEAKNESS OF ITALY.—Italy, at the close of the fifteenth century, with all its proficiency in art and letters, and its superiority in the comforts and elegances of life, was a prey to anarchy. This was especially true after the death of Lorenzo de Medici. Diplomacy had become a school of fraud. Battles had come to be, in general, bloodless; but either perfidy, or prison and the dagger, were the familiar instruments of warfare. The country from its beauty, its wealth, and its factious state, was an alluring prize to foreign invaders.

VI. THE OTTOMAN TURKS.

THEIR CONQUESTS.—The empire of Mohammed II. (1451-1481) extended from the walls of Belgrade, on the Danube, to the middle of Asia Minor. To the east was the Seljukian principality of Caramania in the center of Asia Minor, and, when that was finally overthrown (1486), Persia, whose hostility was inflamed by differences of sect. The conquest of the Greek Empire was achieved by Mohammed. Matthias Corvinus (1458-1493), the successor of Hunyady, was the greatest of the kings of Hungary, and defended the line of the Danube against the Turkish assaults. For twenty-three years Scanderbeg, the intrepid Prince of Albania, repulsed all the attacks of the Moslems. It was not until ten years after his death (1467) that his principal stronghold was surrendered to the invaders. The attacks on the Venetians have already been mentioned, as well as the capture of Otranto. Bajazet II. was more inclined to study than to war: his brother Djem, who tried to supplant him, passed as a prisoner into the hands of Pope Alexander VI. An annual tribute was paid by the Sultan for keeping him from coming back to Turkey; and when, at last, he was released, rumor declared that he had been poisoned. Selim I. (1512-1520) entered anew on the path of conquest. He defeated the Persians, and made the Tigris his eastern boundary. He annexed to his empire Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt. The Sultan now became the commander of the faithful, the inheritor of the prophetic as well as military leadership. The conquest of Alexandria by Selim (1517) inflicted a mortal blow on the commerce of Venice, by intercepting its communication with the Orient. The despotic domination of Selim stretched from the Danube to the Euphrates, and from the Adriatic to the cataracts of the Nile. Such was the empire which the Ottoman conqueror handed down to his son, Soliman I. the Magnificent (1520-1566). Mohammed II. and Selim were the two conquerors by whom the Ottoman Empire was built up. Each of them combined with an iron will and revolting cruelty a taste for science and poetry, and the genius of a ruler. They take rank among the most eminent tyrants in Asiatic history. While they were spreading their dominion far and wide, the popes and the sovereigns of the West did nothing more effectual than to debate upon the means of confronting so great a danger.



RUSSIA.

IVAN III, Vassilievitch, 1462-1505, m. Sophia, daughter of Thomas Palaeologus, brother of Emperor Constantine XIII. + BASIL IV, 1505-1533. + IVAN IV,[1] 1533-1584, m. + Anastasia HOUSE OF ROMANOFF + Nicetas. + Mary [4] (Marta the Nun), m. Theodore (Philaret the Metropolitan). + MICHAEL, 1613-1645. + ALEXIS, 1645-1676. + THEODORE, 1676-1682. + IVAN V, 1682-1689, resigned; d. 1696. + ANNA, 1730-1740. + Catharine m. Charles Leopold, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin + Anna, m. Antony Ulric, son of Ferdinand Albert II, of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel. + IVAN VI, 1740-1741, deposed. + PETER I (the Great) 1689-1725, m. (1), Eudocia; + Alexis, executed 1718. m. Charlotte, d. of Lewis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel + PETER II, 1727-1730. (2), CATHARINE I, 1725-1727. + Anna, d. 1738, m. Charles Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp. + PETER III, January-July, 1762 (deposed, and died soon after) m. CATHERINE II of Anhalt, 1762-1796. + PAUL, 1796-1801. + ALEXANDER I, 1801-1825. + NICHOLAS, 1825-1855, m. Charlotte, daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia. + ALEXANDER II, 1855-1881, m. Mary of Hesse Darmstadt. + ALEXANDER III, 1881- m. Mary (Dagmar), daughter of Christian IX of Denmark + ELIZABETH, 1741-1762. + THEODORE, 1584-1598. m. + Irene,[2] + BORIS, Godounof, [3] 1598-1605.

1 First Czar. 2 Declined the crown on Theodore's death, which was seized by her brother. 3 Succeeded by an imposter pretending to be Demetrius, son of Ivan IV, who reigned for one year; then Basil V, 1606-1610; then chaos until 1613. 4 Said to be a descendent of the old royal house.

[Mainly from George's Genealogical Tables.]



VII. RUSSIA.

RUSSIA: IVAN III.—For two centuries Russia paid tribute to the Tartar conquerors in the South, the "Golden Horde" (p. 283). The liberator of his people from this yoke was Ivan III.,—Ivan the Great,—(1462-1505). In the period when the nations of the West were becoming organized, Russia escaped from its servitude, and made some beginnings of intellectual progress. Ivan was a cold and calculating man, who preferred to negotiate rather than to fight; but he inflicted savage punishments, and even "his glance caused women to faint." He was able to subdue the rich trading-city of Novgorod (1478), which had been connected with the Hanseatic League, and where a party endeavored to bring to pass a union with Poland. He conquered unknown frozen districts in the North, and smaller princedoms, including Tver, in the interior. The empire of the Horde was so broken up that Ivan achieved an almost bloodless triumph, which made Russia free. In wars with Lithuania, Western Russia was reconquered up to the Soja. Ivan married Sophia Palaeologus, a niece of the last Christian emperor of the East. She taught him "to penetrate the secret of autocracy." Numerous Greek emigrants of different arts and professions came to Moscow. Ivan took for the new arms of Russia the two-headed eagle of the Byzantine Caesars, and thenceforward Russia looked on herself as the heir of the Eastern Empire. The Russian metropolitan, called afterwards Patriarch, was now elected by Russian bishops. Moscow became "the metropolis of orthodoxy," and as such the protector of Greek Christians in the East. Ivan laid out in the city the fortified inclosure styled the Kremlin. He brought into the country German and Italian mechanics. It was he who founded the greatness of Russia. Vassali Ivanovitch (1505-1533), his son, continued the struggle with Lithuania, and acquired Smolensk (1514). He exchanged embassies with most of the sovereigns of the West.

IVAN IV. (1533-1584).—Ivan IV., Ivan the Terrible, first took the title of Czar, since attached to "the Autocrat of all the Russias." It was the name that was given, in the Slavonian books which he read, to the ancient kings and emperors of the East and of Rome. Moscow was now to be a third Rome, the successor of Constantinople. Ivan conquered the Tartar principalities of Kazan and Astrakhan in the South, and extended his dominion to the Caucasus. The Volga, through its entire course, was now a Russian river. He brought German mechanics into Russia, established printing-presses, and made a commercial treaty with Queen Elizabeth, whom he invited to an alliance against Poland and Sweden. It was in this reign (1581-1582) that a brigand chief, Irmak by name (a Cossack, in the service of the Czar), crossed the Urals with a few hundred followers, and made the conquest of the vast region of Siberia, then under the dominion of the Tartars. Ivan sent thither bishops and priests. He had to cede Livonia to the Swedes, who, with their allies were too strong to be overcome. In Russia, he put down the aristocracy, and crushed all resistance to his personal rule. Whatever tyranny and cruelty this result cost, it prevented Russia from becoming an anarchic kingdom like Poland. Ivan, by forming the national guard of streltsi or strelitz, laid the foundation of a standing army. In his personal conduct, brutal and sensual practices alternated with exercises of piety. In a fit of wrath, he struck his son Ivan a fatal blow, and in consequence was overwhelmed with sorrow. After a short reign of his second son, Feodor (1584-1598), who was weak in mind and body, the throne was usurped by one of the aristocracy, the able and ambitious regent, Boris Godounof (1598-1605).

THE COSSACKS.—These were brought into subjection by Ivan IV. and his successors. They were robber hordes of mixed origin, partly Tartar and partly Russian. Their abodes were near the rapids of the Dnieper, and on the Don, and at the foot of the Caucasus. They were fierce warriors, and did a great service to Russia in subduing the wild nomad tribes on the north and east of the regions where the Cossacks dwelt.

TIMES OF TROUBLE.—After the death of Boris Godounof, two pretenders, one after the other, each assuming to be Demetrius, the younger son of Ivan,—a son who had been put to death,— seized on power. This was rendered possible by the mutual strife of Russian factions, and by the help afforded to the impostors by the Poles. Sigismund III., king of Poland, openly espoused the cause of the second Demetrius. Moscow was forced to surrender (1610); and the czar whom the nobles had enthroned, Basil V., died in a Polish prison. These events gave rise to a lasting enmity between the two Slavonic nations. In 1611 the Poles were driven out by a national rising, which led to the elevation to the throne of Michael Romanoff (1613-1645), the founder of the present dynasty of czars. Peace was concluded with Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and with the Poles. Commercial treaties were made with foreign nations. In Russia there was a great increase of internal prosperity.

SERFDOM IN RUSSIA.—The lower classes in Russia consisted of three divisions: 1. Slaves, captives taken in war, who were bought and sold. 2. The inscribed peasants, who were attached to the soil and became serfs. They belonged to the commune, or village, which held the land, and as a unit paid to the lord his dues. They made up the bulk of the rural population. The peasant was an arbitrary master, a little czar in his own family. 3. The free laborers, who could change their masters, but who soon fell into the rank of serfs. While the higher classes in Russia advanced, the condition of the rustics for several centuries continued to grow worse.

RUSSIAN SOCIETY.—The great nobles kept in their castles a host of servants. These were slaves, subject to the caprices of their master. Russian women were kept in seclusion. There was an Asiatic stamp imprinted on civil and social life. "Thanks to the general ignorance, there was no intellectual life in Russia: thanks to the seclusion of women, there was no society." By degrees intercourse with Western Europe was destined to soften, in some particulars, the harsh outlines of this picture.

VIII. FRENCH INVASIONS OF ITALY.

EFFECT OF ABSOLUTE MONARCHY.—The establishment of absolute monarchy in Western Europe placed the resources of the nations at the service of their respective kings. The desire of national aggrandizement led to great European wars, which took the place of the feudal conflicts of a former day. These wars began with the invasion of Italy by Charles VIII., king of France.

MOTIVES OF THE INVASION.—To this unwise enterprise Charles VIII. was impelled by a romantic dream of conquest, which was not to be limited to the Italian peninsula. He intended to attack the Turks afterward, and to establish once more, under his protection, a Latin kingdom at Jerusalem. His counselors could not dissuade him from the hazardous undertaking. In order to set his hands free, he made treaties that were disadvantageous to France with Henry VII., Maximilian, and Ferdinand the Catholic. He was invited to cross the Alps by Ludovico il Moro (p. 374), by the Neapolitan barons, by all the enemies of Pope Alexander VI. The special ground of the invasion was the claim of the French king, through the house of Anjou, to the throne of Naples. In 1494 Charles crossed the Alps with a large army, and, with the support of Ludovico, advanced from Milan, through Florence and Rome to Naples. When he was crowned he wore the imperial insignia as if pretending to the Empire of the East also. The rapid progress of the French power alarmed the Pope and the other princes, including Ludovico himself, who was afraid that the king might cast a covetous eye on his own principality. A formidable league was formed against Charles, including, besides the Italian princes, Ferdinand, Maximilian, and Henry VII. of England. It was the first European combination against France. Charles left eleven thousand men under Gilbert de Montpensier, at Naples; and after being exposed to much peril, although he won a victory at Fornovo (1495), he made his way back to France. Ferdinand II., aided by Spanish troops, expelled the French from Naples; and the remnant of their garrisons, after the death of Montpensier, was led back to France. The conquests of Charles were lost as speedily as they were gained. His great expedition proved a failure.

DEATH OF SAVONAROLA.—Civil strife continued in the Italian states. Savonarola had been excommunicated by Alexander VI. The combination of parties against him was too strong to be overcome by his supporters, and he was put to death in 1498.

LOUIS XII. (1498-1515): HIS FIRST ITALIAN WAR.—On the death of Charles VIII., who left no male children, the crown reverted to his nearest relative, Louis of Orleans. He entered once more on the aggressive enterprise begun by his predecessor. He laid claim not only to the rights of Charles VIII. at Naples, but also claimed Milan through his grandmother Valentine Visconti. In alliance with Venice, and with Florence to which he promised Pisa, then in revolt against the detested Florentine supremacy, and with the support of Caesar Borgia, he entered Italy, and defeated Ludovico il Moro at Novara (1500). Ludovico had before been driven out of Milan by the French, but had regained the city. He was imprisoned in France; and on his release twelve years afterward, he died from joy. Louis bargained with Ferdinand the Catholic to divide with him the Neapolitan kingdom. Ferdinand, the king of Naples, was thus dethroned. But Ferdinand of Spain was as treacherous in his dealing with Louis as he had been in relation to his Neapolitan namesake; and the kingdom fell into the hands of Gonsalvo de Cordova, the Spanish general.

THE SECOND ITALIAN WAR OF LOUIS.—Anxious for revenge, Louis sent two armies over the Pyrenees, which failed of success, and a third army into Italy under La Tremoille, which was defeated by Gonsalvo, notwithstanding the gallantry of Bayard, the pattern of chivalry, the French knight "without fear and without reproach."

THE THIRD ITALIAN WAR OF LOUIS.—The third Italian war of Louis began in 1507, and lasted eight years. It includes the history of the League of Cambray, and also of the anti-French League subsequently formed. France was barely saved from great calamities in consequence of foolish treaties, three in number, made at Blois in 1504. The party of the queen, Anne of Brittany, secured the betrothal of Claude, the child of Louis XII., to Charles of Austria, afterwards Charles V., the son of Philip, with the promise of Burgundy and Brittany as her dowry. The arrangement was repudiated by the estates of France (1506). Claude was betrothed to Francis of Angouleme, the king's nearest male relative, and the heir of the French crown. On the marriage of Ferdinand to Germaine of Foix, Louis agreed to give up his claims on Naples. The sufferings of Italy had redounded to the advantage of Venice. Among her other gains, she had annexed certain towns in the Romagna which fell into anarchy at the expulsion of Caesar Borgia. The energetic Pope, Julius II., organized a combination, the celebrated League of Cambray (1508), between himself, the Emperor Maximilian, the kings of France and of Aragon: its object was the humbling of Venice, and the division of her mainland possessions among the partners in the League.



ENGLAND.—THE TUDORS AND STUARTS.

HENRY VII, 1485-1509, m. Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. + Margaret, m. James IV of Scotland. + James V. + Mary, Queen of Scots. + JAMES I, 1603-1625, m. Anne, daughter of Frederick II of Denmark. + 3, CHARLES I, 1625-1649, m. Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV of France. + CHARLES II, 1660-1685, m. Catharine, daughter of John IV of Portugal. + Mary, m. William II, Prince of Orange. + WILLIAM III, 1688-1702. m. + MARY, d. 1694 + JAMES II, 1685-1688 (deposed, d. 1701), m. Anne Hyde, daughter of Earl of Clarendon. + ANNE, 1702-1714, m. George, son of Frederick III of Denmark. + 2, Elizabeth, m. Frederick V, Elector Palatine. + Sophia, m. Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover. + GEORGE I, succeeded 1714. + HENRY VIII, 1509-1547, m., 1. Catharine, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella; 2, Anne Boleyn; 3. Jane Seymour; 4. Anne, sister of William, Duke of Cleves; 5. Catharine Howard; 6. Catharine Parr. + 3, EDWARD VI, 1547-1553. + 1, MARY, 1553-1558, m. Philip II of Spain. + 2, ELIZABETH, 1558-1603. + Mary, m. 1, Louis XII of France; 2, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. + Frances, m. Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk. + Jane (m. Guilford Dudley), executed 1554.



A fine army of Louis, composed of French, Lombards, and Swiss, crossed the Adda, and routed the Venetians, who abandoned all their towns outside of Venice. Each of the other confederate powers now seized the places which it desired. France, mistress of Milan, was at the height of her power. The Venetians, however, retook Padua from the emperor. The Pope made peace with them, and, fired with the spirit of Italian patriotism, organized a new league for the expulsion of the French—"the barbarians," as he called them—from the country. Old man as he was, he took the field himself in the dead of winter. He was defeated, and went to Rome. Louis convoked a council at Pisa, which was to depose Julius. A Holy League was formed between the Pope, Venice, Ferdinand of Aragon, and Henry VIII. of England. The arms of the French under Gaston of Foix, the young duke of Nemours, were for a while successful. Ravenna was in their hands. But Gaston fell at the moment of victory. The Swiss came down, and established Maximilian Sforza at Milan. Leo X., of the house of Medici, and hostile to France, was chosen Pope (1513). The French troops were defeated by the Swiss near Novara, and driven beyond the Alps. France was attacked on the north by the English, with Maximilian, who had joined the League in 1513: and Bayard was taken captive. James IV. of Scotland, who had made a diversion in favor of France, was beaten and slain at Flodden Field (1513). The eastern borders of France were attacked by the Swiss Leagues, who, aided by Austrians, penetrated as far as Dijon. They were bought off by La Tremoille the French commander, by a large payment of money, and by still more lavish promises. France concluded peace with the Pope, the emperor, and the king of Aragon (1514), and in the next year with Henry VIII., whose sister, Mary, Louis XII. married, a few months after the death of Anne of Brittany. He abandoned his pretensions to the Milanese, in favor of his younger daughter Renee, the wife of Hercules II., the duke of Ferrara. Louis died (1515), shortly after his marriage. The policy of the belligerent pontiff, Julius II., had triumphed. The French were expelled from Italy, but the Spaniards were left all the stronger.

The events just narrated bring us into the midst of the struggles and ambitions of ruling houses, diplomatic intercourse among states, and international wars. These are distinguishing features of modern times.



CHAPTER II. INVENTION AND DISCOVERY: THE RENAISSANCE.

We have glanced at the new life of Europe in its political manifestations. We have now to view this new life in other relations: we have to inquire how it acted as a stimulus to intellectual effort in different directions.

The term Renaissance is frequently applied at present not only to the "new birth" of art and letters, but to all the characteristics, taken together, of the period of transition from the Middle Ages to modern life. The transformation in the structure and policy of states, the passion for discovery, the dawn of a more scientific method of observing man and nature, the movement towards more freedom of intellect and of conscience, are part and parcel of one comprehensive change,—a change which even now has not reached its goal. It was not so much "the arts and the inventions, the knowledge and the books, which suddenly became vital at the time of the Renaissance," that created the new epoch: it was "the intellectual energy, the spontaneous outburst of intelligence, which enabled mankind at that moment to make use of them."

INVENTIONS: GUNPOWDER.—In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, there were brought into practical use several inventions most important in their results to civilization. Of these the principal were gunpowder, the mariner's compass, and printing by movable types. Gunpowder was not first made by Schwartz, a monk of Freiburg, as has often been asserted. We have notices, more or less obscure, of the use of an explosive material resembling it, among the Chinese, among the Indians in the East as early as Alexander the Great, and among the Arabs. It was first brought into use in firearms in the middle of the fourteenth century. The effect was to make infantry an effective force, and to equalize combatants, since a peasant could handle a gun as well as a knight. Another consequence has been to mitigate the brutalizing influence of war on the soldiery, by making it less a hand-to-hand encounter, an encounter with swords and spears, attended with bloodshed, and kindling personal animosity; and by rendering it possible to hold in custody large numbers of captives, whose lives, therefore, can be spared.

THE COMPASS.—The properties of the magnetic needle were not first applied to navigation, as has been thought, by Flavio Gioja, but long before his time, as early as the twelfth century, the compass came into general use. Navigation was no longer confined to the Mediterranean and to maritime coasts. The sailor could push out into the ocean without losing himself on its boundless waste.

PRINTING.—Printing, which had been done to some extent by wooden blocks, was probably first done with movable types (about 1450) by John Gutenberg, who was born at Meniz, but who lived long at Strasburg. He was furnished with capital by an associate, Faust, and worked in company with a skillful copyist of manuscripts, Schoeffer. Gutenberg brought the art to such perfection, that in 1456 a complete Latin Bible was printed. Within a short time, printing-presses were set up in all the principal cities of Germany and Italy. As an essential concomitant, linen and cotton paper came into vogue in the room of the costly parchment. Books were no longer confined to the rich. Despite the censorship of the press, thought traveled from city to city and from land to land. It was a sign of a new era, that Maximilian in Germany and Louis XI. in France founded a postal system.

NEW ROUTE TO INDIA.—The discovery by the Portuguese of the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira (1419-1420), of the Canary Islands and of the Azores, was followed by their discovery of the coast of Upper Guinea, with its gold-dust, ivory, and gums (1445). The Pope, to whom was accorded the right to dispose of the heathen and of newly discovered lands, granted to the Portuguese the possession of these regions, and of whatever discoveries they should make as far as India. From Lower Guinea (Congo), Bartholomew Diaz reached the southern point of Africa (1486), which King John II. named the Cape of Good Hope. Then, under Emanuel the Great (1495-1521), Vasco da Gama found the way to East India, round the Cape, by sailing over the Indian Ocean to the coast of Malabar, and into the harbor of Calicut (1498). The Portuguese encountered the resistance of the Mohammedans to their settlement; but by their valor and persistency, especially by the agency of their leaders Almeida and the brave Albuquerque, their trading-posts were established on the coast.

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.—The grand achievement in maritime exploration in this age was the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa. The conviction that India could be reached by sailing in a westerly direction took possession of his mind. Having sought in vain for the patronage of John II. of Portugal, and having sent his brother Bartholomew to apply for aid from Henry VII. of England, he was at length furnished with three ships by Queen Isabella of Castile, to whom Granada had just submitted (1492). Columbus was to have the station of grand admiral and viceroy over the lands to be discovered, with a tenth part of the incomes to be drawn from them, and the rank of a nobleman for himself and his posterity. The story of an open mutiny on his vessels does not rest on sufficient proof: that there were alarm and discontent among the sailors, may well be believed. On the 11th of October, Columbus thought that he discovered a light in the distance. At two o'clock in the morning of Oct. 12, a sailor on the Pinta espied the dim outline of the beach, and shouted, "Land, land!" It was an island called Guanahani, named by Columbus, in honor of Jesus, San Salvador. Its beauty and productiveness excited admiration; but neither here nor on the large islands of Cuba (or Juana) and Hayti (Hispaniola), which were discovered soon after, were there found the gold and precious stones which the navigators and their patrons at home so eagerly desired. Columbus built a fort on the island of Hispaniola, and founded a colony. The name of West Indies was applied to the new lands. Columbus lived and died in the belief that the region which he discovered belonged to India. Of an intermediate continent, and of an ocean beyond it, he did not dream. The Pope granted to Ferdinand and Isabella all the newly discovered regions of America, from a line stretching one hundred leagues west of the Azores. Afterwards Ferdinand allowed to the king of Portugal that the line should run three hundred and seventy, instead of one hundred, leagues west of these islands. In two subsequent voyages (1493-1496, 1498-1500), Columbus discovered Jamaica and the Little Antilles, the Caribbean Islands, and finally the mainland at the mouths of the Orinoco (1498). In 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian captain living in England, while in quest of a north-west passage to India, touched at Cape Breton, and followed the coast of North America southward for a distance of nine hundred miles. Shortly after, Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine, employed first by Spain and then by Portugal, explored in several voyages the coast of South America. The circumstance that his full descriptions were published (1504) caused the name of America, first at the suggestion of the printer, to be attached to the new world.

LATER VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS.—On his return from his first voyage, Columbus was received with distinguished honors by the Spanish sovereigns. But he suffered from plots caused by envy, both on the islands and at court. Once he was sent home in fetters by Bobadilla, a commissioner appointed by Ferdinand. He was exonerated from blame, but the promises which had been made to him were not fulfilled. A fourth voyage was not attended by the success in discovery which he had hoped for, and the last two years of his life were weary and sad. Isabella had died; and in 1506 the great explorer, who with all his other virtues combined a sincere piety, followed her to the tomb.

THE PACIFIC.—The spirit of adventure, the hunger for wealth and especially for the precious metals, and zeal for the conversion of the heathen, were the motives which combined in different proportions to set on foot exploring and conquering expeditions to the unknown regions of the West. The exploration of the North-American coast, begun by John Cabot (perhaps also by his son), and the Portuguese Cortereal (1501), continued from Labrador to Florida. In 1513 Balboa, a Spaniard at Darien, fought his way to a height on the Isthmus of Panama, whence he descried the Pacific Ocean. Descending to the shore, and riding into the water up to his thighs, in the name of the king he took possession of the sea. In 1520 Magellan, a Portuguese captain, sailed round the southern cape of America, and over the ocean to which he gave the name of Pacific. He made his way to the East Indies, but was killed on one of the Philippine Islands, leaving it to his companions to finish the voyage around the globe. A little later the Spaniards added first Mexico, and then Peru, to their dominions.

CONQUEST OF MEXICO.—The Spanish conqueror of Mexico, the land of the Aztecs, was Hernando Cortes (1485-1547). The principal king in that country was Montezuma, whose empire was extensive, with numerous cities, and with no inconsiderable advancement in arts and industry. From Santiago, in 1519, Cortes conducted an expedition composed of seven hundred Spaniards, founded Vera Cruz, where he left a small garrison, subdued the tribe of Tlascalans who joined him, and was received by Montezuma into the city of Mexico. Cortes made him a prisoner in his own palace, and seized his capital. The firearms and the horses of the Spaniards struck the natives with dismay. Nevertheless, they made a stout resistance. To add to the difficulties of the shrewd and valiant leader, a Spanish force was sent from the West Indies, under Narvaez, to supplant him. This force he defeated, and captured their chief. In 1520 Cortes gained over the Mexicans, at Otumba, a victory which was decisive in its consequences. The city of Mexico was recaptured (1521); for Montezuma had been slain by his own people, and the Spaniards driven out. Guatimozin, the new king, was taken prisoner and put to death, and the country was subdued. Cortes put an end to the horrid religious rites of the Mexicans, which included human sacrifices. Becoming an object of jealousy and dread at home, he was recalled (1528). Afterwards he visited the peninsula of California, and ruled for a time in Mexico, but with diminished authority.

CONQUEST OF PERU.—The conquest of Peru was effected by Francisco Pizarro, and Almagro, both illiterate adventurers, equally daring with Cortes, but more cruel and unscrupulous. The Peruvians were of a mild character, prosperous, and not uncivilized, and without the savage religious system of the Mexicans. They had their walled cities and their spacious temples. The empire of the Incas, as the rulers were called, was distracted by a civil war between two brothers, who shared the kingdom. Pizarro captured one of them, Atahualpa, and basely put him to death after he had provided the ransom agreed upon, amounting to more than $17,500,000 in gold (1533). Pizarro founded Lima, near the sea-coast (1535). Almagro and Pizarro fell out with each other, and the former was defeated and beheaded. The land and its inhabitants were allotted among the conquerors as the spoils of victory. The horrible oppression of the people excited insurrections. At length Charles V. sent out Pedro de la Gasca as viceroy (1541), at a time when Gonzalo Pizarro, the last of the family, held sway. Gonzalo perished on the gallows. Gasca reduced the government to an orderly system.

THE AMAZON.—Orellena, an officer of Pizarro, in 1541 first descended the river Amazon to the Atlantic. His fabulous descriptions of an imaginary El Dorado, whose capital with its dazzling treasures he pretended to have seen, inflamed other explorers, and prompted to new enterprises. The cupidity of the Spaniards, and their eagerness for knightly warfare, made the New World, with its floral beauty and mineral riches, a most enticing field for adventure. To devout missionaries, to the monastic orders especially, the new regions were not less inviting. They followed in the wake of the Spanish conquerors and viceroys.

REVIVAL OF LEARNING.—The stirring period of invention and of maritime discovery was also the period of "the revival of learning." Italy was the main center and source of this intellectual movement, which gradually spread over the other countries of Western Europe. There was a thirst for a wider range of study and of culture than the predominantly theological writings and training of the Middle Ages afforded. The minds of men turned for stimulus and nutriment to the ancient classical authors. Petrarch, the Italian poet (1304-1374), did much to foster this new spirit. In the fifteenth century the more active intercourse with the Greek Church, and the efforts at union with it, helped to bring into Italy learned Greeks, like Chrysoloras and Bessarion, and numerous manuscripts of Greek authors. The fall of Constantinople increased this influx of Greek learning. The new studies were fostered by the Italian princes, who vied with one another in their zeal for collecting the precious literary treasures of antiquity, and in the liberal patronage of the students of classical literature. The manuscripts of the Latin writers, preserved in the monasteries of the West, were likewise eagerly sought for. The most eminent of the patrons of learning were the Medici of Florence. Cosmo founded a library and a Platonic academy. All the writings of Plato were translated by one of that philosopher's admiring disciples, Marsilius Ficinus. Dictionaries and grammars, versions and commentaries, for instruction in classical learning, were multiplied. These, with the ancient poets, philosophers, and orators themselves, were diffused far and wide by means of the new art of printing, and from presses, of which the Aldine—that of Aldus Minutius—at Venice was the most famous. "By the side of the Church, which had hitherto held the countries of the West together (though it was unable to do so much longer) there arose a new spiritual influence, which, spreading itself abroad from Italy, became the breath of life for all the more instructed minds in Europe."

CONTEST OF THE NEW AND THE OLD CULTURE.—In Germany, the new learning gained a firm foothold. But there, as elsewhere, the Humanists, as its devotees were called, had a battle to fight with the votaries of the mediaeval type of culture, who, largely on theological grounds, objected to the new culture, and were stigmatized as "obscurantists." In Italy, the study of the ancient heathen writers had engendered, or at least been accompanied by, much religious skepticism and indifference. This, however, was not the case in Germany. But the champions of the scholastic method and system, in which logic and divinity, as handled by the schoolmen, were the principal thing, were strenuously averse to the linguistic and literary studies which threatened to supplant them. The advocates of the new studies derided the lack of learning, the barbarous style, and fine-spun distinctions of the schoolmen, who had once been the intellectual masters. The disciples of Aristotle and of the schoolmen still had a strong hold in Paris, Cologne, and other universities. But certain universities, like Tuebingen and Heidelberg, let in the humanistic studies. In 1502 Frederick, the elector of Saxony, founded a university at Wittenberg, in which from the outset they were prominent. In England, the cause of learning found ardent encouragement, and had able representatives in such men as Colet, dean of St. Paul's, who founded St. Paul's School at his own expense; and in Thomas More, the author of Utopia, afterwards lord chancelor under Henry VIII.

REUCHLIN: ULRICH VON HUTTEN.—A leader of humanism in Germany was John Reuchlin (1455-1522), an erudite scholar, who studied Greek at Paris and Basel, mingled with Politian, Pica de Mirandola, and other famous scholars at Florence, and wrote a Hebrew as well as a Greek grammar. This distinguished humanist became involved in a controversy with the Dominicans of Cologne, who wished to burn all the Hebrew literature except the Old Testament. The Humanists all rallied in support of their chief, to whom heresy was imputed, and their success in this wide-spread conflict helped forward their cause. Ulrich von Hutten, one of the young knights who belonged to the literary school, and others of the same class, made effective use, against their illiterate antagonists, of the weapons of satire and ridicule.

ERASMUS.—The prince of the Humanists was Desiderius Erasmus (1467-1536). No literary man has ever enjoyed a wider fame during his own lifetime. He was not less resplendent for his wit than for his learning. Latin was then the vehicle of intercourse among the educated. In that tongue the books of Erasmus were written, and they were eagerly read in all the civilized countries. He studied theology in Paris; lived for a number of years in England, where, in company with More and Colet, he fostered the new studies; and finally took up his abode at Basel. In early youth, against his will, he had been for a while an inmate of a cloister. The idleness, ignorance, self-indulgence, and artificial austerities, which frequently belonged to the degenerate monasticism of the day, furnished him with engaging themes of satire. But in his Praise of Folly, and in his Colloquies, the two most diverting of his productions, he lashes the foibles and sins of many other classes, among whom kings and popes are not spared. By such works as his editions of the Church Fathers, and his edition of the Greek Testament, as well as by his multifarious correspondence, he exerted a powerful influence in behalf of culture. If he incurred the hostility of the conservative Churchmen, he still adhered to the Roman communion, and won unbounded applause from the advocates of liberal studies and of practical religious reforms.

LITERATURE IN ITALY.—The first effect of the revival of letters in Italy was to check original production in literature. The charm of the ancient authors who were brought out of their tombs, the belles-lettres studies, and the criticism awakened by them, naturally had this effect for a time. Italy had two great authors in the vernacular, the poet Ariosto (1474-1533), and Machiavelli: it had, besides, one famous historian, Guicciardini (1482-1540).