Imatges de pàgina
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state of the continent prevented any princes supporting the just claims of the duke of Braganza; and he himself was a quiet, easy man, satisfied with obtaining honours and dignities. Philip was crowned at Lisbon.

Thus, 867 years after the fall of the Gothic kingdom, the whole peninsula was reunited under one head; happy if that head had not been Philip II.!

Germany.

A. D.

1581.

Charles V. was succeeded in the imperial dignity by his brother Ferdinand, king of the Romans. This excellent prince directed all his efforts to the establishment of civil and religious concord in the empire. By 1557. the diet of Ratisbon, a reconciliation was made between the houses of Hesse and Nassau. The council of Trent was reassembled; but the protestant princes met and 1561. came to the determination of adhering to the Confession of Augsburg whatever the council might decree. All the well-meant efforts of the emperor were in vain; the council, bent only on the now hopeless project of exalting the power of the church, would listen to none of his prudent suggestions. After passing a set of decrees, which effectually closed the doors against unity, this last if general councils was dissolved.

1563,

Maximilian II. had been chosen king of the Romans 1564. in the lifetime of his father. Immediately on his accession he was engaged in war with Suleiman I., who even meditated the conquest of the German empire. Selim II. concluded a truce with the emperor.

During the remainder of the reign of this mild and excellent prince, Germany enjoyed peace and tranquillity. His son and successor, Rodolf II., inherited his pacific 1576, temper.

Poland.

At this period the Polish constitution underwent a 1572. great alteration. On the death of the estimable Sigismund Augustus, the last male of the Jagellons, the diet, consisting of 182 deputies, met, and determined that no

A. D. 1573.

king should have the power of nominating his successor. The election of a king was thus regulated: On the plain of Vola, near Warsaw, the senate and the people assembled. The former was composed of two archbishops, fifteen bishops, thirty-seven voivodes (dukes), eighty-two castellans (senators and lieutenants of the voivodes), and ten ministers of state. The senate met in a wooden house; the deputies and the other nobles around it, within a wall and ditch. The king assembled and presided over this diet, wherein all matters relating to internal and external policy were transacted. The powers of the monarch were extremely limited; but he appointed to ecclesiastical dignities, conferred nobility, commanded the army, and his assent was necessary to give validity to the acts of the diet.

The protestant religion having made great progress in Poland, the greater part of the senate were of that persuasion; the most perfect toleration prevailed; all dissidents, as the non-catholics were styled, were eligible to all offices. The Arians and Socinians were numerous in Poland; the latter, when persecuted every where else, found an asylum there. Racau was their chief establish

ment.

On the death of Sigismund, a protestant named Szafraniec was proposed as his successor; but the choice fell upon Henry of Valois, duke of Anjou, brother to Charles IX. Henry succeeding to his brother in France, unceremoniously quitted Poland, and the Poles chose 1575. Stephen Bathori, prince of Transylvania, a wise and brave monarch. They insisted on his marrying Anna Jagellon, daughter of Sigismund, to prevent any prince whom she might espouse claiming the crown. Stephen was by her induced to embrace the catholic religion. 1587. His successor was Sigismund Vasa, crown-prince of Sweden, descended on the mother's side from the Jagellons.

Italy.

The haughty Caraffa (Paul IV.) was followed in the papal chair by the pious and zealous Pius IV. and V., and the good and well-intentioned Gregory XIII. The able, the vigorous, the resolute Montalto (Sixtus V.) next occupied the seat of St. Peter. This penetrating statesman saw clearly through the selfish policy of Philip II., whom he secretly wished no success; and he, in his heart, admired the king of France and queen of England, against whom he discharged his spiritual thunder. He established a rigorous police in the papal territories, and curbed the excesses of the lawless nobles. His strong measures against the great were followed up by his successor Aldobrandini (Clement VIII.).

In Florence, Cosimo, the first grand duke, fortunate in other respects, was unhappy in his family. His daughter Lucretia was poisoned by her husband, a duke of Ferrara; her sister Isabella was strangled by a prince of the Orsini, to whom she was married. The cardinal John of Medici was murdered by his brother Garcia, on account of a dispute at the chase, and Cosimo put his son Garcia to death with his own hand. Their mother died of grief. His eldest daughter was, on account of improper love, poisoned by order of the grand duke.

1576.

Francis, the second grand duke, also perished by A. D. poison. A Florentine, named Buonaventuri, settled at Venice, had run away with Bianca, the daughter of the senator Capello. They came to Florence, where they lived in poverty. The grand duke saw Bianca, admired, and got acquainted with her. Buonaventuri acquired wealth and honours. He loved a widow, and he employed his power to oppress her brothers; the`grand duke reproving him, he replied with insolence and threats; he was abandoned to the vengeance of those whom he had injured, and he was murdered. Just at this time the grand duchess, daughter of the emperor Ferdinand, died. Francis married his beloved Bianca. Soon after,

she took a hatred to her brother-in-law, the cardinal Ferdinand, and attempted to poison him at dinner. The cardinal, put perhaps on his guard, declined the proffered viands; - the grand duke, not aware of the truth, ate of A. D. the dish to remove his suspicions: - Bianca saw she 1587. was lost:- she also tasted of the dish, and died with her husband.

1559.

The cardinal now became grand duke. He was a prince of great political prudence and sagacity, and his maxims were adopted by some leading courts. But he gave the reins without restraint to every sensual indulgence, and his example was followed by his subjects. Manufactures languished, monopoly and companies checked trade; but Florence was one of the handsomest, richest, and politest cities in Europe.

The dukes of Savoy were proceeding with their characteristic activity. Emanuel Philibert, secured in his 1564. dominions by the treaty of Château Cambresis, turned all his thoughts to depressing the nobles and increasing the ducal authority. He established a militia, built the citadel of Turin, and fortified Montmelian and Vercelle; he created the manufacture of silk and the culture of olives; he greatly increased the revenues by his wise measures, and was enabled to let the assembly of the 1584. states go out of use. His son Charles Emanuel had all the talents of a great prince, and could accommodate himself to all circumstances. His fault was neglect of his word when it interfered with his interest. By exchange he obtained Saluzzo, and prepared the way for 1590, the acquisition of a part of Montferrat by his son. His reign was long and successful.

1566.

Turkey.

Selim II., on succeeding his father Suleiman, concluded a truce for twelve years with the emperor Maximilian. He turned his arms, without success, against Persia, and then revived an old claim of the Egyptian sultans on Cyprus. After a heroic resistance, the island was con1571. quered by the Turks, with the loss of 100,000 lives.

A league had been formed against Selim by the pope, the king of Spain, and the Venetians. Their fleet was too late to relieve Cyprus; but they encountered in the gulf of Lepanto the Turkish fleet, which ravaged the coasts of Italy and Dalmatia, and gained over it a most signal victory. Don John of Austria commanded the Christians; but dissension prevented any solid advantage being derived from it. Next year the Turks appeared with a still greater fleet, and the Venetians made a separate peace, by which they renounced all claim to Cyprus. Don John had meantime conquered Tunis and Biserta; but they were again recovered by the Turks.

During the reigns of the three following sultans, who were sunk in pleasure, the Turks made no acquisitions of consequence. Under Mohammed III., the grand vizier managed to draw to himself all power, by abolishing the places of the six viziers who sat in the divan.

CHAP. IV.

TIMES OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.

Germany.

THE archduke Mathias succeeded Rodolf in the em- a. D. pire. This prince had been hitherto favourable to the 1612. protestants, but he now resolved to curb them. He had his cousin Ferdinand duke of Styria chosen his successor in Bohemia and Hungary, and he made a family compact with the court of Spain. The protestants were alarmed; the Bohemians and Hungarians had recourse to arms: the latter were easily quelled; but the former were joined by the protestants of Silesia, Moravia, and Upper Austria, and supported by an army of other German protestants under count Mansfeld. Thus began the Thirty Years' War.

Mathias died, and Ferdinand was raised to the impe- 1619.

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