Henry IV. to put forth all his energies. In the North of France the Spaniards captured Calais, Ardres and Amiens; but Henry IV. recovered Amiens, September 25, 1597. By the Peace of Vervins, in May, 1598, Philip II. relinquished all his conquests in France except the citadel of Cambray.

By the Edict of Nantes, which he signed in April, 1598, Henry IV. guaranteed to the Huguenots complete religious freedom and toleration, and secured to them equal civil and political rights with the Catholics. All civil and military offices were thrown open to the Huguenots, and special courts for their protection were instituted throughout the kingdom. They were also admitted to all colleges, schools and hospitals equally with the Catholics, and were permitted to publish religious books and found institutions of learning for their own exclusive patronage. They were granted the right to hold a general assembly once in three years, to deliberate upon matters pertaining to their welfare, and to petition the crown for a redress of grievances. The seventy-five towns which the Huguenots had obtained by the Peace of Bergerac, in 1577, were permanently secured to them by this famous edict. Among these towns were La Rochelle, Nismes, Montpellier and Grenoble.

By the Edict of Nantes, Henry IV. reassured his Huguenot subjects, who had been alarmed by his compulsory desertion of their party in 1593. The Catholic clergy, and the more zealous of the Catholic laity, bitterly denounced this memorable edict; but nevertheless it was registered by the Parliament of Paris, February 25, 1599, thus ending the long period of civil and religious strife.

As France was now free from civil and foreign war, Henry IV. was enabled to devote his energies to the task of arranging the internal affairs of the kingdom upon a secure basis. The finances were in a deplorable condition. The national debt exceeded three hundred million francs-a sum equivalent to about one hundred and sixty million dollars in United States money. The Farmers-General-the officials who col

lected this revenue-defrauded the government to such an extent that only thirty million francs reached the national treasury out of the two hundred million which the French people paid annually as taxes.

In 1598 Henry IV. assigned the management of the finances to Maximilian de Bethune, Baron de Rosny, whom he had created Duke of Sully. This Minister was one of the ablest statesmen that France ever produced, and was a man of the most sterling integrity. His vigorous measures soon redounded to the financial benefit of France. The frauds which had deprived the government of the greater part of its revenue were sternly checked, and the levying of arbitrary taxes was stopped, while unnecessary and expensive offices and titles were abolished. There was a reduction in taxation to twenty-six million francs per annum, twenty million of which were paid into the national treasury. The national debt was reduced almost one half, and a reserve fund of more than twenty-six million livres was accumulated.

Henry IV. gave a cordial and unswerving support to his great Minister, and the kingdom soon felt the good results of the new policy. The king and the Minister. encouraged agriculture, commerce, manufactures and all branches of industry. Commercial treaties were negotiated with England, Holland, Spain and Turkey; and French colonies were planted in America, where De Monts founded Acadia, afterward Nova Scotia, in 1605, and where Samuel Champlain founded the city of Quebec in

Marshes were drained; roads, bridges and canals were constructed; and measures were adopted for the preservation of the forests of France. Everything connected with the welfare and prosperity of the kingdom received the personal care and attention of Henry IV. and the Duke of Sully; and the unrivaled fame of the French for the production of fine and curious fabrics dates from this reign.

In his own dress and equipage, Henry IV. presented an example of moderation; and the French nobles were recommended

court.

At the close of the sixteenth century France was the greatest, wealthiest and most populous state of Europe; and Paris was the largest European capital, excepting Moscow.

Although Henry IV. was so successful in his public life, he was very unfortunate in his family affairs. The unmitigated vices of his wife, Margaret of Valois, had led to his separation from her many years previously; and, as he had no legitimate heir, he now seriously thought of procuring a divorce from his dissolute wife in order to marry his mistress, Gabrielle d'Estrées, with whom he had several children, and whom he had created Duchess of Beaufort. Many of the leading nobles of France favored the proposed marriage, but the Duke of Sully prevented it. The duchess unwisely demanded that the king should disgrace his great Minister, but Henry IV. bluntly replied that if it were necessary to part with either herself or the Duke of Sully he would stand by the Minister. This decisive blow to her hopes threw her into a violent illness which ended her life in April, 1599.

At the request of Henry IV., Pope Clement VIII. granted him a divorce from Margaret of Valois in December, 1599. The king now gave a written promise to his new mistress, the beautiful Henriette d'Entragues, whom he created Marchioness of Verneuil. When this paper was shown to the Duke of Sully the great Minister tore it to pieces, and exerted himself to find a suitable partner for the king. Henry IV. chose Mary de Medici, daughter of the late Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the marriage took place in October, 1600. The fruit of this marriage were several children, the eldest of whom was born September 27, 1601, and was the heir to his father's throne.

The Peace of Vervins in 1598 required the Duke of Savoy to cede the Marquisate of Saluces to France; but that prince retained that small territory in violation of the treaty, and in 1600 he proceeded to

concerning it. The Duke of Savoy embraced the opportunity afforded by this visit to organize a conspiracy against the French king, and induced many of the old members of the Catholic League to join in the plot.

The most prominent conspirator was Marshal de Biron, the king's old comrade in arms, and whom Henry IV. had esteemed as his most devoted friend. But Biron was ambitious and exceedingly vain. As Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, was satisfied with his work he returned to his duchy and refused to surrender the territory required by treaty. He hoped that the plot which he had instigated in Paris, and which aimed at the dismemberment of the French kingdom into feudal states under the suzerainty of King Philip III. of Spain, was in a fair way to become successful; and he was also anxious for war.

Unconscious of the conspiracy at home, Henry IV. declared war against the Duke of Savoy, invaded his territory with an army in which Marshal de Biron held an important command, quickly overran the duchy. of Savoy, and occupied Chamberry, its capital, August 21, 1600. Duke Charles Emmanuel was obliged to solicit peace, which he only obtained by surrendering the district of La Bresse, between Lyons and Geneva, in return for Saluces.

Upon his return to France, Henry IV. was informed of the conspiracy against him, and of Biron's share in the plot; and Biron, struck with dismay, made a full confession of his treason. The king generously pardoned him, and sent him on a diplomatic mission to England. But Biron failed to profit by the king's magnanimity, and renewed his treasonable designs and his intrigues with the enemies of France. His plots were discovered; and the king offered him an opportunity to confess his guilt, with the intention of granting him a pardon if he manifested any remorse; but Biron haughtily refused to acknowledge his treason, and was tried, convicted and sentenced by the Parliament of Paris, and be

headed July 31, 1602. This measure was as wise as it was severe, as it put an end to the plots against Henry IV., and secured the internal tranquillity of France. Henry Henry IV. devoted the three years of unbroken peace which ensued to the improvement of his kingdom.

By his recall of the Jesuits in 1603, and by his manifest desire to stand well with the Pope, Henry IV. alienated the Huguenots, whose leader, the Duke of Bouillon, even made overtures to King Philip III. of Spain. Thereupon that nobleman's capital, Sedan, was seized by the royal forces, which occupied it for four years; after which Henry IV. pardoned him and reinstated him in all his offices and honors, either through his natural leniency or through fear of offending the Protestant princes of Germany.

A favorite scheme of Henry IV. was the union of all the states of Christendom into a great Christian confederacy, in which the Lutheran, Calvinistic and Catholic faiths should be tolerated and stand upon a footing of perfect equality, all disputes to be settled by arbitration in a diet or federal council in which all the states of the league would be represented, while commerce was to be freed from the restrictions which then paralyzed enterprise in the southern countries of Europe. Each of the states comprising the league was to be guaranteed the free and full enjoyment of its own political institutions.

This great Christian confederation was to consist of fifteen states, classified in three groups-six elective monarchies, embracing the Germano-Roman Empire, the Papal States, Venice, Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland; six hereditary monarchies, comprising France, Spain, England with Scotland, Denmark with Norway, Sweden, and Savoy with Milan; and three federal republics, namely, the Dutch Republic, Switzerland, and a confederation of Italian republics consisting of Genoa, Lucca and the other small Italian states. The Czar of Russia was regarded as the ruler of a state more Asiatic than European, but was to be admitted to the league on his own application.

An equilibrium between the great powers of Europe would have been established by the acceptance of this scheme, which would have weakened both branches of the princely House of Hapsburg-that of Spain by the loss of the Netherlands, Franche-Comté and Lombardy, and that of Austria by the loss of Bohemia, Hungary and the Tyrol; thus carrying out the desire of Henry IV. for weakening Spain and humbling Austria, both of which powers were too strong for the welfare of Europe. Henry IV. also hoped thus to put an end to the religious wars and disputes, and to establish a system of international law which should be binding upon all Europe. This grand scheme was cut short by its author's assassination, as we shall soon see.

As a preliminary part of his design, Henry IV. sought the humiliation of both branches of the House of Hapsburg. It was with this view that he aided the Protestants of Germany and Holland, and recommended the Pope to annex Naples and Sicily to the Papal States, thus severing Southern Italy from the dominion of the King of Spain. He also renounced the French claims upon Italy, thus seeking to deliver that country from all foreign dominion. He also intrigued with the oppressed Moriscoes of Spain; but the edict of King Philip III., expelling those Christianized Moors from Spain, frustrated the French king's efforts in their behalf.

For the purpose of humbling the Austrian House of Hapsburg, Henry IV. interfered in a dispute which broke out in Germany between the Protestant Union and the Catholic League in 1609. The death of Duke William of Cleves, Berg and Jülich in that year without heirs was followed by the seizure of those duchies by the Elector of Brandenburg and the Count Palatine of Neuburg. By the Treaty of Halle, in January, 1610, Henry IV. agreed to support them with a French army of ten thousand men, thus arraying himself distinctly as the enemy of the Austrian Hapsburgs, as the Emperor Rudolf II. claimed the estates of the deceased Duke William as a lapsed fief.

Henry IV. commenced his military preparations on a vast scale. He collected an army of thirty thousand men for the invasion of Germany, one of fourteen thousand men to join the Duke of Savoy and attack Lombardy, and one of twenty-five thousand men along the Pyrenees to invade Spain. | Henry IV. postponed his departure for the seat of war, in order to celebrate the coronation of his queen, Mary de Medici, whom he had already appointed regent during his absence from Paris. She was crowned with great splendor at St. Denis, May 13, 1610. In the midst of the festivities which enlivened Paris on the occasion of his queen's coronation, King Henry IV. wore a countenance of dejection, and seemed to take no pleasure in the festivities, his mind being distracted by the most gloomy forebodings, in fearful anticipation of a sudden and violent death.

The next day the good king's apprehensions were fatally realized. In reply to an expression of affection from one of his attendants, he said: "You do not know me now; but when you have lost me you will know my worth, and the difference between me and other men." Bassompierre then said to him: "Sire, will you never cease afflicting us by saying that you will soon die? You will live, if it please God, long and happy years. There is no felicity in the world equal to yours. You are in the flower of your age; in perfect health and strength of body, full of honor beyond any other mortal; in the tranquil enjoyment of the most flourishing kingdom, adored by your subjects, possessed of wealth, of fine, beautiful palaces, a handsome wife and fine children. What can you desire more?" The king only sighed, and said in reply: "All these I must quit!"

In the afternoon of that day, May 14, 1610, he was was driven in his coach in company with six noblemen to visit the Duke of Sully, who was then ill at his residence, the arsenal. While the coach became entangled in a crowd, a Jesuit named François Ravaillac jumped upon one of the hind wheels of the vehicle, reached over

and stabbed the good king twice in the breast while he was reading a letter. The coach was driven back to the Louvre, to which it might be tracked all the way by the blood which flowed from it. The wounded monarch was at once laid upon a bed, surrounded by weeping officers, and soon breathed his last, dying in the fiftyeighth year of his age and the twenty-first of his reign. His widowed queen, Mary de Medici, was proclaimed regent for his little son and successor, Louis XIII.

The consternation and the public grief were universal throughout France, and never was the death of any other king so lamented by his subjects. The French people almost went wild with sorrow and mourning. The assassin Ravaillac was put to the torture to make him reveal his motives for the regicide and the names of his accomplices. made no revelations, and was executed with the most shocking cruelties, amid the curses of the populace, May 27, 1610.

Henry IV. was one of the greatest and best of France's kings. He was a brilliant and successful warrior, a profound statesman, and a wise and vigorous ruler. France was rapidly increasing in power and prosperity under his enlightened and firm rule, and his death was a great misfortune to his kingdom. His memory as a sovereign has been justly hallowed by the admiration of posterity, and among all the Kings of France there is none whose name is so cherished to this day as that of Henry IV. His reign, like those of St. Louis and Louis XII., might serve as a model to all monarchs who love their subjects. He will always be honored for the clemency which he showed to his inveterate foes, the wisdom with which he tranquillized a kingdom distracted by civil wars for thirty-six years, and the enlightened toleration of which he gave a bright example himself and recommended the practice to his successors.

Though much of the glory of the public. works of Henry IV. undoubtedly belongs to the Duke of Sully, the good king deserves praise for selecting so good and great a statesman for his Minister, and for

patiently bearing the reproofs which the Duke of Sully so frequently administered to him with almost republican boldness. The king was happy in having such a Minister, and the Minister was happy in having such a king; while the French nation was still more fortunate in enjoying so rare a combi

nation as a wise and good sovereign and an able and patriotic administration of the government. The virtues of Henry IV. as a sovereign have caused posterity to throw the mantle of charity over the few serious vices and follies which marred his private character.

OLAND and Russia, the two Slavonic monarchies of Eastern Europe-like the Scandinavian kingdoms in the North -still formed no part of the European States-System; and their history is therefore unconnected with that of Central, Western and Southern Europe. Both these nations were powerful and had able sovereigns during the sixteenth century, but their history demands only a brief notice.

POLAND.

One of the best of the Kings of Poland was SIGISMUND the Great, who reigned forty-two years, A. D. 1506-1548. He was a wise and able sovereign; and Poland enjoyed more prosperity during his long reign than it had ever experienced before, as he patronized learning and industry, and preferred the blessings of peace to the glories of war. After vainly endeavoring to check the progress of the Reformation in Poland, Sigismund the Great wisely abandoned the attempt, and contented himself with excluding Protestants from all public offices. During this period there were at least fifty printing-presses in Cracow alone, and books were printed in more than eighty towns in the kingdom. Poland was then the only European country which permitted freedom of the press. Copernicus, the great astronomer, flourished during the reign of Sigismund the Great, and was a native of Thorn, then in Poland, but now in Prussia. Under Sigismund the Great, Lithuania was permanently united with Poland.

The next King of Poland was SIGISMUND

AUGUSTUS, who reigned twenty-four years, A. D. 1548-1572, and was also a great monarch. During his reign the Dukedom of Prussia became a feudal dependency of Poland, and with his death ended the dynasty of the Jagellos and the greatness of Poland.

Poland had been partially an elective. kingdom for almost two centuries, but during that entire period the Polish sovereign had been chosen from the family of the Jagellos. Upon the death of Sigismund Augustus, in 1572, the Polish crown became entirely elective, without regard to hereditary descent.

After an interregnum of some months, HENRY OF VALOIS was chosen King of Poland by the Polish Diet in 1573; but he accepted that dignity with great reluctance; and upon the death of his brother, King Charles IX. of France, the next year, 1574, he abdicated the throne of Poland, and returned to Paris and became King Henry III. of France. When he left the Polish capital he carried the Polish crown jewels with him, and was pursued on horseback for many miles by many of the Polish nobles, who vainly endeavored to persuade him to return.

After another short interregnum, the Polish Diet chose STEPHEN BATHORI to the vacant Polish throne in 1575. He died in 1586; and in 1587, after another brief interregnum, the Diet of Poland elected SIGISMUND III., who also became King of Sweden by inheritance upon the death of his father, John III. of Sweden, in 1592. Sigismund III. lost the Swedish crown in 1599, but reigned over Poland forty-five