4.30 Europe: a.d. 1601 to 1700  (Page 11/30)

Another reason for French supremacy is to be found in the calibre of its chief ministers. Guilio Mazarini, born in Sicily, sent as papal nuncio to Paris, caught the eye of Richelieu and after he had been made a cardinal (even though he had never been ordained a priest) in 1641, he followed Richelieu as chief minister under the name of Jules Mazarin, in 1642. He was the guiding hand at the Treaty of Westphalia. He served the Queen Mother well (Louis XIV was but 5 years old when he came to the throne) and perhaps was her lover. Even the king was only 1/4 French, being 1/2 Spanish from Aragon, Basque and Castilian lines (with possibly some Jewish and Moorish blood in the back-ground) by his mother Anne of Austria and 1/4 Italian by his grandmother, Marie de Medici. (Ref. 147 ) He was only 5' 5" tall, but robust, a good horseman and dancer, a skillful jouster and could turn a woman's head. (Ref. 53 ) He was basically a country person, loving the outdoors and his mind was not as good as his manners. He reigned from 1643 to 1715. Early in his rule some discontented nobles formed a resistance league, the "Fronde", which eventually came to open rebellion resulting in disruption of the Paris government and civil war in 1652. The nobles were conclusively defeated by the Crown and were tamed at the price of escaping taxations so that thereafter the economic burdens of the throne were thrown entirely on the lower classes. It was in this civil war, chiefly a war by Prince de Conde, trying to unseat Mazarin, that Mademoiselle de Montpersier, niece of Louis XIII, became known as the "Maid of Orleans" as she led her soldiers to take Orleans and later Paris, for Conde'. McNeill (Ref. 279 ) says that the successful suppression of the Fronde marked a turning point in European war and statecraft. Northern Europe then developed civilian control of army supply, paid soldiers regularly with money from tax revenues and learned to coordinate infantry, cavalry and artillery. All this had already been done by the 15th century in Italian city-states.

At the same time as the "Fronde", France was continuing a 23 year war with Spain, ending it in 1659 in the Peace of the Pyrenees, which probably only set up a situation which led to still another, later war. One cannot but help but relate France and German~ in this period to the Middle East in the 20th century where civil wars and wars with neighbors and various types of foreign interventions occur almost simultaneously and constantly. The Peace of the Pyrenees, besides yielding some territories to France, gave Marie Teresa, Spanish King Philip's daughter, in marriage to Louis XIV. Supposedly Louis, in turn, gave up all rights to succession to the Spanish throne. The peace was a triumph for Mazarin, who soon amassed a tremendous personal fortune amid the poverty of the common people. In the latter part of his reign, Louis also began to show defects of bigotry, vainness and arrogance. In spite of everything, however, France was well governed. Laws were revised into the Code Louis (1667-1673), a system of police was established in Paris, the streets of that city were paved and lighted by 5,000 lamps.