SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. (1600-1700.) FRANCE, under Louis XIV., now becomes the leading power in Europe, and makes great accessions of territory. ENGLAND also becomes one of the important states of Europe, and, besides being engaged in civil and foreign wars, is planting colonies in America and in India. Union of the crowns of England and Scotland takes place in 1603. AUSTRIA increases her power in Italy and Hungary. The SPANISH monarchy is quite broken up, and Spain sinks to an inferior position. PRUSSIA first rises into prominence in this century under the great elector, Frederick William. The UNITED PROVINCES hold a high place at this period, and are engaged in a long struggle with France. ITALY has fallen to a low condition. SAVOY is slowly gaining in power, and VENICE is engaged in wars with the Turks. SWEDEN in this century is at the height of her power and possessions. RUSSIA is rapidly rising, and POLAND is declining. The TURKS press forward into Austria, from which they are driven out, and make some important conquests in other parts; but their power is on the decline. PORTUGAL is freed from the Spanish yoke in 1640, but is of little account at this time. SCOTLAND. Union of the crowns of England and Scotland takes place in 1603. In AMERICA, colonization is rapidly going on, the English and Dutch taking the lead in planting new settlements. The Spaniards hold their first conquests, but with a rapid decline of power. The French lay claim to the great territory beyond the English possessions, and are engaged in frequent wars with the English in the New as in the Old World. A. D. 1600-A. D. 1700. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 1640. Portugal independent of Spain. 1654. Cromwell declared Protector. 1665. Great plague in London. 1669. South Carolina settled (English). 1685. Edict of Nantes revoked. 1688. "The Glorious Revolution" in England. 1698. Colonization of Louisiana. PROMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURY. FRANCE. Kings. Henry IV., Louis XIV. ENGLAND: Queen. Elizabeth. Kings of Great Britain. - James I., Charles I., The Commonwealth (Oliver Cromwell), Charles II., James II., William and Mary. Tycho Brahe, Beza, Scaliger, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Beaumont, Raleigh, Bellarmine, Fletcher, Bacon, Kepler, Lope de Vega, Ben Jonson, Rubens, Vandyck, Galileo, Richelieu, Descartes, Harvey, Selden, Cromwell, Pascal, Bega, Poussin, Jeremy Taylor, Rembrandt, Molière, Milton, Spinoza, Turenne, Hobbes, Butler, Murillo, Corneille, Condé, Calderon, Bunyan, George Fox, Boyle, Baxter, Racine, La Fontaine, Dryden, Locke, Bossuet, Bayle, Boileau, Fénelon, Burnet, Leibnitz, Addison, Marlborough, Newton, Steele, Swift, Le Sage. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. SEE under the last century, page 355. THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. THIS important event, in which both religion and politics were concerned, continued from about 1618 to 1648, and consisted of a series of wars between the Roman Catholic and Protestant leagues in Germany, the house of Austria being at the head of the former party. Various powers of Europe were drawn into it to assist the Protestant princes of Germany; at first Denmark and Sweden, and later France. It was closed by the Treaty of Westphalia, 1648. The great sufferer by the war was Germany, becoming a mere loose collection of distinct governments of minor importance; and the Holy Roman Empire, becoming thoroughly weakened, ceased to exist, except in name. By the Treaty of Westphalia religious freedom was guaranteed to all the German states; the independence of Switzerland was formally acknowledged; Spain at last recognized the inde pendence of the United Netherlands (see page 366); France obtained Alsace, Metz, Verdun, and other possessions within the empire; Sweden also obtained territories within the empire. Thus the Peace of Westphalia formed an important turning-point in European history, marking the end of a long religious strife and the decline of the Austrian and Spanish houses of Hapsburg, and being followed by a great increase in the power of France. A desolating war of thirty years, which, from the interior of Bohemia to the mouth of the Scheldt, and from the banks of the Po to the coasts of the Baltic, devastated whole countries, destroyed harvests, and reduced towns and villages to ashes; which opened a grave for many thousand combatants, and for half a century smothered the glimmering sparks of civilization in Germany, and threw back the improving manners of the country into their pristine barbarity and wildness. Yet out of this fearful war Europe came forth free and independent. In it she first learned to recognize herself as a community of nations; and this intercommunion of states, which originated in the Thirty Years' War, would alone be sufficient to reconcile the philosopher to its horrors. The hand of industry has slowly but effectually effaced the traces of its ravages, while its beneficent influence still survives. - SCHILLER. UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. ON the death of Elizabeth, in 1603, the crowns of England and Scotland were united under James VI. of Scotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots, who ascended the English throne with the title of James I., and with whom originated the Stuart dynasty, which continued (with the interruption of the Commonwealth) during the rest of the century. The legislative union of England and Scotland took place early in the next century (1707). For greatness, Mr. Speaker, I think a man may speak it soberly and without bravery, that this kingdom of England, having Scotland united, Ireland reduced, the sea provinces of the Low Countries contracted, and shipping maintained, is one of the greatest monarchies, in forces truly esteemed, that hath been in the world. - LORD BACON. THE COMMONWEALTH IN ENGLAND. CROMWELL. THE arbitrary and despotic measures, and the tyranny and maladministration of the weak and obstinate Charles I. (1625-1649), who did his best to carry out the doctrine of the "Divine Right of Kings," brought on long struggles between him and the Parliament, which finally resulted in the execution of Charles, and the establishment by Parliament of a form of government called " the Commonwealth," which existed during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, until the abdication of the latter in 1659. On the Royalist side were most of the nobility, clergy, and gentry, who adhered to the Established Church, and also the Catholics. On the side of the Parliament were the middle classes of the kingdom, the country farmers, townspeople, and the dissenters, or Puritans. The adherents of the king were called Cavaliers; the Puritans wore the nickname of Roundheads, from the fashion of having the hair cropped. "After long struggles in Parliament and out of it, in Church and State, continued through successive reigns, the Puritans finally triumphed; and the despised sect of Separatists, swollen in numbers, and now under the denomination of Independents, with Oliver Cromwell at their head, and John Milton as his secretary, ruled England." |