Cardinal Richelieu by Richard Lodge

Author:Richard Lodge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ozymandias Press

REVERSES AND TRIUMPHS 1635-1640

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FRENCH ALLIANCES—MILITARY PREPARATIONS—DISASTERS OF 1635 in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and at sea—Causes of failure— Campaign of 1636—Invasion of Picardy—Panic in Paris— Richelieu’s courage—Repulse of the Spaniards—Conspiracy of Orleans and Soissons—Risings in Normandy and Guienne—Episode of Louise de la Fayette—Campaign of 1637—More French reverses—Loss of the Valtelline—The French fleet recovers the Lérins—Series of triumphs begin in 1638—Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar takes Breisach—His death—France becomes his heir—The Spaniards in Piedmont—Battle and capture of Turin—Naval victories—Destruction of Spanish fleet in the Downs—Relations with England—Revolt of Catalonia and Portugal—Capture of Arras—Extent of Richelieu’s triumphs—Birth of the dauphin—Death of Father Joseph.

RICHELIEU had long contemplated the possibility of France being forced to take direct part in the war, and he had made ample preparations, so far as they could be effected by diplomacy. He had failed, it is true, to maintain the alliance between Sweden and the Lutheran princes of Germany, and he had never been able to detach the members of the Catholic League from their union with the emperor. On the other hand, he had arranged an offensive and defensive alliance with the United Provinces, by which the combined forces of the two states were to be placed under the command of Frederick Henry, the stadtholder. He had hopes of a rising in the Netherlands, where many of the nobles were discontented with the direct rule of Spain, which had been re-established on the death of the Infanta. The neutrality of England was assured by Charles I.’s resolution to dispense with a parliament, without which he could not hope to obtain the supplies for a war. With Oxenstiern, who visited Paris in person for the purpose, a treaty was concluded by which France and Sweden pledged themselves to conclude no separate peace with either Austria or Spain. Richelieu’s aptest pupil in diplomacy, the count d’Avaux, had foiled the confident attempt of Austria to hamper Sweden by reviving the old feelings of jealousy on the part of Poland and Denmark. The truce between Sweden and Poland, originally concluded by French mediation, was prolonged for another twenty-five years by the same agency. In Italy, Richelieu arranged a league with Savoy, Parma, and Mantua for the partition of the duchy of Milan, and he had hopes that Urban VIII., always jealous of Spanish domination, might be brought to regard the scheme without disfavour. Finally, the duke de Rohan, who had been skilfully converted from a dangerous opponent into a loyal agent, was despatched, with the approval of the Grisons, to occupy the Valtelline, and thus to prevent assistance being sent from Germany to the Milanese. If these grand schemes had all been attended with success, the power of Spain beyond the limits of the peninsula would have been almost annihilated.

But the most active and far-seeing diplomacy could create neither a trained and disciplined army, nor competent generals in a country which for the last generation had been engaged in nothing but short outbursts of civil war, varied by an occasional brief expedition to Italy.

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