A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Outline of Universal History

G >> George Park Fisher >> Outline of Universal History




THE MING DYNASTY (1368-1650).--_Hung-wu_, the son of a Chinese
laborer, shook off the Mongol yoke, and founded a new dynasty with its
capital at _Nanking;_ whence it was afterwards transferred by the
third emperor, _Yung-lo_ (1403-1425), to _Peking_. He
conquered and annexed _Cochin China_ and _Tonquin_, and even
portions of Tartary. The Tartars continued their attack; and in 1450
_Ching-tung_, the emperor, was taken prisoner, and held until he
was released in consequence of a Chinese victory.


II. JAPAN.

CHANGES IN GOVERNMENT.--In the seventh century A.D., there began
changes in Japan which resulted in a dual government, and eventually in
a feudal system which continued until recent times. The _Mikados_
retired from personal contact with their subjects; and the power by
degrees fell into the hands of the families related to the Mikado, and
combined into clans. Military control was exercised by the generals
(_Shoguns_), and towards the end of the eighth century devolved on
the two rival clans of _Gen_ and _Hei_, or _Taira_ and
_Minamoto_. About the same time (770-780) the _agricultural_
class became distinct from the _military_, and were compelled to
labor hard for their support. One family, the _Fujiwara_, by
degrees absorbed the civil offices. They gradually sank into
luxury. From the middle to the end of the twelfth century, there was
terrible civil war between the _Taira_ clan and the
_Minamoto_ clan, in which the former were destroyed. The military
power passed from one family to another; but a main fact is that the
_Shoguns_ acquired such a control as the "mayors of the palace"
had possessed among the Franks. The _Mikados_ lost all real power,
and the _Shoguns_ or _Tycoons_ had the actual government in
their hands. In recent times (1868) a revolution occurred which
restored to the Mikado the power which had belonged to him in the
ancient times, before the changes just related took place.

CIVIL WAR: FEUDALISM.--The final struggle of the two clans, the
_Hei_ or _Taira_, and the _Gen_ or _Minamoto_, was
in the naval battle of _Dannoura_, in 1185, which was followed by
the extermination of the _Taira_. _Yoritomo_, the victor, was
known as the Shogun after 1192. The supremacy of his clan gave way in
1219 to that of their adherents, the _Hôjô_ family, who ruled the
Shogun and the emperor both. The invasion of the Mongol Tartars failed,
their great fleet being destroyed by a typhoon (1281). The _Hôjô_
rule terminated, after a period of anarchy and civil war, in 1333. The
"war of the chrysanthemums"--so called from the imperial emblem, the
chrysanthemum--was between two rival Mikados, one in the North, and the
other in the South (1336-1392). There ensued a period of confusion and
internal war, lasting for nearly two centuries. Gradually there was
developed a system of feudalism, in which the _daimios_, or lords
of larger or smaller principalities, owned a dependence, either close
or more loose, on the _Shogun_. But feudalism was not fully
established until the days of the _Tokugama_ dynasty, early in the
seventeenth century.


III. INDIA.

MOHAMMEDAN STATES.--During the Middle Ages, India was invaded by a
succession of Mohammedan conquerors. The first invasions were in the
seventh and the early part of the eighth centuries. A temporary
lodgment was effected in the province of _Sind_, on the
north-west, in 711; but the Moslems were driven out by the Hindus in
750. The next invader was the _Afghan_ sultan, _Mahmud_ of
Ghazim, a Turk, who is said to have led his armies seventeen times
into India. From his time the _Punjab_, except for a brief
interval, has been a Mohammedan province. The last of his line of
rulers, _Bahram_, was conquered by the Afghan _Allah-ud-din_
of Ghor (1152). Bahram's son fled to _Lahore_, but the
_Ghoride_ dynasty soon absorbed his dominion. One of the Ghoride
rulers, _Mohammed Ghori_, the _Shahab-ud-din_ of the
Mohammedan writers, spread his dominion so that it reached from the
Indus to the Brahmaputra. After his death, _Kutab-ud-din_, who
had been a Turkish slave, became the founder of the "slave" dynasty
(1206-1290), whose capital was _Delhi_. _Allah-ud-din_, by
whom he was assassinated (1294), had a brilliant reign of twenty
years, and conquered _Deccan_ and _Guzerat_. Of the
_Togluk_ dynasty, which gained the throne in 1321, _Mohammed
Togluk_ (1325-1351) is said to have had the "reputation of one of
the most accomplished princes and most furious tyrants that ever
adorned or disgraced human nature." Desiring to remove the seat of
empire to the _Deccan_, he compelled the inhabitants of
_Delhi_ to leave their old home, and to make the journey of seven
hundred miles.

TAMERLANE.--Revolts in India made the triumph of _Timour_
(Tamerlane) easy (1398). The Mongol leader sacked _Delhi_, and
made a full display of his unrivaled ferocity. A half century of
anarchy followed this invasion.

LITERATURE.--On Mediaeval History: The General Subject. (See list of
works on Universal History, p. 16.) GIBBON'S _Decline and Fall_,
etc.; "THE STUDENTS' GIBBON" (Smith, 1 vol.); FREEMAN, _General
Sketch of European History_, and _Historical Geography of
Europe_; DURUY, _Histoire du Moyen Age_, etc. (11th edition,
1882); Hallam. _View of the State of Europe during the Middle
Ages_; Lavisse et Rambaud, _Histoire Generale_
(vols. i.-iii.); Cunningham, _Western Civilization_ (vol. ii);
Lavisse, _Political History of Europe_; Dunham, _History of
Europe during the Middle Ages_ (4 vols.); BRYCE, _The Holy Roman
Empire_; Putz and Arnold, _Mediaeval History_; E. A. FREEMAN,
_Historical Essays_ (series 1 and 3).

Works on Church History. The Church Histories of GIESELER, NEANDER;
MILMAN, _History of Latin Christianity_; ALZOG [a Roman
Catholic], _Manual_, etc. (3 vols. 1874-78); Hardwick (vol. i.,
_Middle Ages_); _Students' History of the Church_;
STANLEY'S _Eastern Church_; Fisher, _History of the Christian
Church_.

On Portions of the Mediaeval Period. Froissart, _Chronicles_,
etc.; CURTEIS, _History of the Roman Empire_ [395-800];
R. W. CHURCH, _The Beginning of the Middle Ages_; A. Thierry,
_Histoire d'Attila_, etc., _St. Jerome_, etc., _St. Jean
Chrysostome_, etc.; Church, _Life of Anselm_; MORISON,
_Life and Times of St. Bernard_; Gfrörer, _Pabst Gregorius
VII. u. sein Zeitalter_ (1859); Bury, _The Later Roman
Empire_ (2 vols.); Oman, _The Dark Ages_ (476-918); TOUT,
_The Empire and the Papacy_ (918-1272); Emerton, _Mediaeval
Europe_ (800-1300); Pears, _The Fall of Constantinople_;
Sergeant, _The Franks_; MULLINGER, _The Schools of Charles the
Great, and the Restoration of Education in the 9th Century_
(1877); MONTALEMBERT, _The Monks of the West_ (7 vols.);
Sartorius, _Gesch. des hanseatischen Bundes_ (3 vols.); Mombert,
_Charlemagne_; Sabatier, _Life of Francis of Assisi_;
Hasse, _Leben Anselm_; West, _Alcuin_; Hodgkin,
_Theodoric the Goth_.

General Character of the Period. ROBERTSON, _A View of the Progress
of Society in Europe from the Subversion of the Roman Empire_,
etc. (Introduction to the History of Charles V.); Kingsley, C.,
_The Roman and the Teuton: a Series of Lectures_, etc.;
SULLIVAN, _Historical Causes and Effects; from the Fall of the
Roman Empire_ A.D. 476 to 1517; Ozanam, A. F., _History of
Civilization in the Fifth Century_; LAURENT, _Études_,
etc. (vol vii.); Sir James Stephen, _Ecclesiastical Essays_;
Adams, _Civilization during the Middle Ages_. Scott's
novels,--_Ivanhoe, The Talisman, Anne of Geierstein_: they are
historically much less correct pictures than his romances which
relate to Scotland.

Particular Aspects of the Period. SAVIGNY, _Gesch. d. römischen
Rechts im Mittelalter_ (7 vols.); Sismondi, _Literature in the
South of Europe_; Hallam, _Introduction to the Study of
Literature_, etc.; Geffchen, _Church and State_ (2 vols.);
GUIZOT, _History of the Origin of Representative Government in
Europe_; Hecker, _Epidemics of the Middle Ages_;
J. E. THOROLD ROGERS, _A History of Agriculture and Prices in
England_ [1259-1793] (4 vols., 1866); Amos, _Roman Civil
Law_; Jenks, _Law and Politics in the Middle Ages_; Gross,
_The Guild Merchant_; Oman, _Art of War_; VIOLLET-LE-DUC,
_Annals of a Fortress_; H. C. Lea, _History of Sacerdotal
Celibacy, History of the Inquisition_ (3 vols.), and
_Superstition and Force_; LACROIX, _Works on the Middle
Ages_, richly illustrated (5 vols., London, 1880); Gautier,
_Chivalry_; Cornish, _Chivalry_; BULFINCH, _Age of
Chivalry, or Legends of King Arthur; Legends of Charlemagne, or
Romance of the Middle Ages_ (2 vols.); COX AND JONES, _Popular
Romances of the Middle Ages_; NASSE, _On the Agricultural
Community of the Middle Ages_ (1871); Roth,
_Gesch. d. Beneficialwesens_, etc.; Secretan, _Essai sur la
Feodalité_; Smith, T., _English Guilds_ (1870); WILDA, _Das
Gildenwesen im Mittelalter_ (1831); Seignobos, _The Feudal
Regime_.

Works on the Crusades. G. W. COX, _The Crusades_ (1878); also,
art. _Crusades_ in the _Encycl. Brit_.; Michaud, _History
of the Crusades_ (3 vols.); VON SYBEL, _The History and
Literature of the Crusades_; Mills, _A History of the
Crusades_, etc. (2 vols.); Heeren, in _Vermischte historische
Schriften_ (3 vols.); Procter's _History of the Crusades_;
Gray's _Children's Crusade_; Archer and Kingsford, _The
Crusades_.

For works on Mohammedanism and the Arabic kingdom, see p. 232.

The works here mentioned respecting the several countries either
relate to their entire history, or to their history prior to the
close of the Middle Ages.

I. ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.--GREEN'S _History of the English
People_ (4 vols.), and _Short History of England_ (1 vol.);
the "STUDENTS' HUME"; the histories of BRIGHT, Knight, LINGARD,
Hume, GUIZOT, Traill, _Social England_ (6 vols., two editions);
GAIRDNER, _Outline_, etc.; Turner's _History of the
Anglo-Saxons_; Palgrave's _Rise and Progress of the English
Commonwealth_; Palgrave's _History of Normandy and of
England_; FREEMAN'S _History of the Norman Conquest_ (6
vols.), and _History of William Rufus_; Green, _The Making of
England_, and _The Conquest of England_; Ramsay,
_Foundations of England, Angevin Empire, Lancaster and York_;
STUBBS, _The Early Plantagenets_; LONGMAN'S _History of
Edward III_.; Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and
Commerce_; Cheyney, _Industrial and Social History of
England_; Seebohm, _English Village Community_; _Life of
Wickliffe_, by LECHLER, by LOSERTH, by WILSON, by Trevelyan.

Kemble's _The Saxons in England_; STUBBS'S _Constitutional
History of England in its Origin and Development_ (3 vols.);
STUBBS'S _Select Charters_; CREASY'S _Rise and Progress of
the English Constitution_; THOMPSON'S _Essay on Magna
Charta_; Bisset, _History of the Struggle for Parliamentary
Government in England_ (1877); TASWELL-LANGMEAD'S _English
Constitutional History_, etc.; FREEMAN'S _Growth of the English
Constitution_, etc.; Bagehot, _The English Constitution_;
Macy, _The English Constitution_.

SCOTLAND.--P. H. Brown, _History of Scotland_ (2 vols.); Miss
Macarthur, _History of Scotland_ (1 vol.); E. M. Robertson,
_Scotland under her Early Kings_ (2 vols.).

IRELAND.--C. G. Walpole, _The Kingdom of Ireland_; Morris,
_Ireland_.

II. FRANCE.--General histories by Crowe (5 vols.); DURUY (2 vols.);
GUIZOT (to 1789, 5 vols.; 1789-1848, 3 vols.); and _Outlines of
the History of France_ (1 vol.); Bonnechose (to 1848); JERVIS
(Hassall edition); MARTIN (17 vols.); KITCHIN, LACOMBE, MICHELET (17
vols.); Lavisse, _Histoire de France_; Adams, _Growth of the
French Nation_; Grant, _The French Monarchy_; Wallon's
_St. Louis et son Temps_ (2 vols.); Sismondi, _The French
under the Carlovingians_ (1 vol.), _France under the Feudal
System_ (1 vol.); BARANTE'S _Histoire des Ducs de Bourgogne de
la Maison de Valois_, 1364-1477; WALLON'S _Jeanne d'Arc_ (2
vols.); Lowell's _Joan of Arc_; Jameson's _Life and Times of
Du Guesclin_.

COULANGES' _Histoire des Institutions politiques de l'Ancienne
France_ (1877); Viollet, _Institutions politiques de la
France_ (3 vols.); Luchaire, _Manuel des Institutions
Françaises_; Esmein, _Histoire du Droit Français_; GUIZOT'S
_History of Civilization in France_ (3 vols.), and _Essai sur
l'Histoire de France_; THIERRY'S _The Formation and Progress of
the Third Estate in France_; Sir James Stephens's _Lectures on
the History of France_.

III. GERMANY.--Henderson, _A Short History of Germany_ (2
vols.); Histories by C. T. LEWIS (founded on D. Müller), Kohlrausch;
Kaufman, _Deutsche Geschichte_; Lamprecht, _Deutsche
Geschichte_ (6 vols.); Schröder, _Lehrbuch der
d. Rechtsgeschichte_; Richter, _Annalen_.

GEISEBRECHT'S _Geschichte d. deutschen Kaiserzeit_ (4 vols.);
VON RAUMER'S _Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und ihrer Zeit_ (6
vols.).

Coxe's _History of the House of Austria_; KRONES'S _Handbuch
d. Geschichte Osterreichs_ (3 vols.); Marlath's _Geschichte
Osterreichs_.

ARNOLD, _Ansiedelungun und Wanderungen deutscher Stämme_
(1875); also, _Deutsche Urzeit_ (1879); Ozanam, _Les Germains
avant le Christianisme_ (1872); SOHM, _Die altdeutsche Reichs
und Gerichtsverfassung_; MAURER'S histories of German local
institutions (the Marks, the Villages, the Cities); WAITZ,
_Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte_ (8 vols.), Wirth, _Die
Geschichte der Deutschen_ (1853); SUGENHEIM, _Geschichte
d. deutschen Volkes und seiner Kultur_, etc.

IV. ITALY.--Cantu, _Histoire des Italiens_ (12 vols., 1859);
HUNT'S _History of Italy_ (in Freeman's Series); Butt's
_History of Italy_ (2 vols.); LEO'S _Geschichte von
Italien_ (5 vols.); SISMONDI'S _Histoire des Republiques
Italiennes du Moyen Age_ (10 vols.); SPALDING'S _Italy and the
Italians_; Boscoe and Morell, _Compendium of Italian
History_.

Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_ (2 vols.); TESTA, _History
of the War of Frederic I. against the Communes of Lombardy_;
HEYD, _Geschichte des Levantehandels im Mittelalter_ (2 vols.);
C. HEGEL, _Gesckichte der Städteverfassung von Italien_, etc.

Daru, _Histoire de la Republique de Venise_ (9 vols.); BROWN,
_Venice: an Historical Sketch_; Ranke, _Zur Venitianer
Geschichte_; Machiavelli's _History of Florence_; Napier's
_Florentine History_ (6 vols.); PERRENS, _Histoire de
Florence_ (4 vols.); REUMONT'S _Lorenzo the Magnificent_ (2
vols.); Roscoe's _Life of Lorenzo de' Medici_; TROLLOPE'S
_History of Florence_; Campbell's _Life of Petrarch_;
GREGOROVIUS' _History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages_
(8 v., from fifth to sixteenth century); Gallenga, _History of
Piedmont_ (3 vols.); Amari, _History of the War of the Sicilian
Vespers_ (3 vols.); Malleson, _Studies from Genoese History_
(1 vol.); Oliphant, _Makers of Florence_, etc.; SYMONDS,
_Sketches and Studies in Southern Europe_; TAINE, _Florence
and Venice_, and _Rome and Naples_; Freeman, _Historical
and Architectural Studies_ (chiefly Italian, 1 vol.).

V. RUSSIA.--Bell's _History of Russia_ (3 vols.); Howorth's
_History of the Mongols_; KARAMSIN, _Histoire de l'Empire de
Russie_ (11 vols.); Histories of Russia, by Kelly, Lamartine,
Levesque; RAMBAUD, _History of Russia_ (2 vols., 1879);
RALSTON, _Early Russian History_.

VI. POLAND.--Histories of Poland, by DUNHAM (12mo), Fletcher,
JOACHIM (2 vols.), RÖPELL AND CARO.

VII. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.--Lembke und Schäfer, _Geschichte von
Spanien_ (3 vols.); MARIANA, _The General History of Spain_;
DUNHAM, _History of Spain and Portugal_; CRAWFORD, _Portugal,
Old and New_; Burke, _History of Spain_ (2 vols.); Stevens's
_Portugal_; TICKNOR'S _History of Spanish Literature_ (3
vols.); Prescott's _History of the Reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella_ (introductory chapter).

VIII. SWITZERLAND.--History of Switzerland, in LARDNER'S CYCLOPEDIA
(1832); Histories of Switzerland, by MORIN (5 vols.); J. Müller;
Zschokke; Rochholz, _Tell und Gessler in Sage und Geschichte_
(1877).

IX. SCANDINAVIA.--DUNHAM'S _History of Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway_ (3 vols.); Dahlmann's _Geschichte von Danemark bis zur
Reformation_ (with Norway and Iceland, 3 vols.); Histories of
Sweden, by Fryxell, GEIJER AND CARLSON (5 vols.); Laing's _History
of Norway_; MALLET'S _Northern Antiquities_; MAURER'S
_History of Iceland_; RINK'S _Danish Greenland_; Sinding's
_Scandinavia_; WHEATON'S _History of the Northmen_;
Worsaac's _Danes and Northmen in Great Britain_.

X. OTTOMAN TURKS.--HAMMER-PURGSTALL'S _Geschichte des osmanischen
Reiches_ (10 vols.); CREASY'S _History of the Ottoman Turks_;
FREEMAN, _The Ottoman Power in Europe_ (1877); ZINKEISEN,
_Geschichte d. osmanisch. Reiches in Europa_ (7 vols.).

XI. CHINA, JAPAN, AND INDIA.--(See lists on pp. 25, 32.) Dickson,
_Japan_, etc. (vol. i., 1869); Griffis, _The Micado's
Empire_ (1876).

XII. BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--In addition to Adams, _Manual_;
Sonnenschein, _The Best Books_ and _A Reader's Guide_;
Gross, _Sources and Literature of English History_ (to 1485);
Gardiner and Mullinger, _English History for Students_; Monod,
_Bibliographie de l'Histoire de France_; Dahlmann-Waitz,
_Quellenkunde, der Deutschen Geschichte_; lists in Lavisse et
Rambaud, _Histoire Générale_.




PART III. MODERN HISTORY.

_FROM THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (1453) TO THE PRESENT TIME._


INTRODUCTION.

Modern history as a whole, in contrast with mediæval, is marked by
several plainly defined characteristics. They are such as appear,
however, in a less developed form, in the latter part of the Middle
Ages.

1. In the recent centuries, there has been an increased tendency to
consolidate smaller states into larger kingdoms.

2. There has been a _gradual secularizing of politics._
Governments have more and more cast off ecclesiastical control.

3. As another side of this last movement, _political unity_ in
Europe has superseded _ecclesiastical unity_. The bond of union
among nations, in the room of being membership in one great
ecclesiastical commonwealth, became political: it came to be membership
in a loosely defined confederacy of nations, held together
by treaties or by a tacit agreement in certain accepted rules of
public law and outlines of policy.

4. In this system, one main principle is the _balance of power_.
This means that any one state may be prevented from enlarging its
bounds to such an extent as to endanger its neighbors. We have seen the
action of such a principle among the ancient states of Greece. Even in
the Middle Ages, as regards Italy, the popes endeavored to keep up an
equilibrium. They supported the _Norman kingdom_ in Southern
Italy, or the _Lombard leagues_ in the North, as a counterpoise to
the German emperors. In the sixteenth century, there were formed
combinations to check the power of _Charles V._, king of Spain and
emperor of Germany, and afterwards to restrain his successor on the
Spanish throne, _Philip II._ In the seventeenth century, there
were like combinations against _Louis XIV._ of France, and, over a
century later, against the first _Napoleon_.

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
_Brétagne_, 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.

Copyright (c) 2007. famouswriterz.com. All rights reserved.