Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A History of France, Vol. 3: A. D. 1624-1792
Spanish power had sprung up again with amazing vitality. The first period of the Thirty Years' War was over, and Germany seemed prostrate at the Emperor's feet. The posi tion was like that of Charles V after Miihlberg; the Princes were crushed; Electors were made and unmade at will by the Imperial fiat Frederick, Elector Palatine, was degraded, Maxi milian of Bavaria promoted: the Austrian t100ps, overrunning the rhine-palatinate, shook the French King's faith in the wisdom of his course. The Austrians were now masters of the Rhine from Basel to Emmerich; war had again broken out in the Low Countries in 1621, which were torn to pieces by religious and political factions; the whole of Italy, except Venice, lay at the Spaniards' feet; they had seized the Valtelline, and so secured their communications with Austria and Germany. The English Court, in its eagerness to reinstate the Elector Palatine without having to fight for him, seemed to have forsaken its old French alliance and to have turned to Spain; the Prince of Wales, men learnt with anger and surprise, was making a romantic journey to Madrid to win a Spanish bride 1.
In Germany the Protestants were destined once more to be saved by the dissensions between the Catholic Princes and the Imperial power, between Tilly, the Princes' general, with his Jesuits, and Wallenstein, the Emperor's, with his astrolo gers: in France it is a Cardinal who will arrest for ever the triumph of the Church, set his country into its right course, and lay the foundations of the peace of Europe.
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