HELP! "I met a man upon the stairs..."

[Will Richter]

Anyone know the poem and/or poet?

"I met a man upon the stairs..."

Thanks for your help!

Will Richter

[Scott Swentex]

On Fri, 07 Jun 1996 22:42:03 GMT, rich...@earthlink.net (Will Richter) wrote:

>
>Anyone know the poem and/or poet?
>
>"I met a man upon the stairs..."

yesterday upon the stair
i met a man who was not there
he was not there again today
i wish that man would go away

[DocBeebe]

As I was going down the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish that man would stay away

An old nursery rhyme I believe. Like most, useful for scaring the
bejeebers out of children.
DocBeebe

[JesiAna]

My mother used to recite:

I saw a man upon the stair
I looked again, he wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
Gee I wish he'd go away.

[Tim Ruckle]

Va negvpyr <4paf12$o...@ecuador.it.earthlink.net>
rich...@earthlink.net (Will Richter) jevgrf:

}
} Anyone know the poem and/or poet?
}
} "I met a man upon the stairs..."
}
}

} Thanks for your help!
}
} Will Richter
}

Hi Will, perhaps you are looking for:

As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish, I wish he'd stay away.

It is attributed to one Hughes Mearns (one of the many pen names of
Edward Alexander Crowley aka Aleister Crowley) in his _The Psychoed_.

More recently, versions have appeared in various psuedo-fictional
works by the local author who claims to be Robert Anton Wilson. It
is also reported used in the initiation into the 13th degree of the
Most Royal Order of the Garter and, according to the coroner's report,
tattooed on Madame Blavatsky's ample posterior.

According to tradition this Ur-cabalistic riddle was first brought to
the western world by the Templars, who in turn learned it from Egyptian
prostitutes. However, in his thesis _The Phallus as a Phallic Symbol_
Dr. John Dee maintains that the knights were too drunk and stoned on
hashish to get the translation correct, and the "poem" is really a bill
of lading for ladies undergaments.

I.N.R.I.

John Timothy

--
Merovingians (dynasty)
----------------------

The Merovingians were the first dynasty of FRANKS to rule most of what is
today considered France and parts of western Germany and the Low Countries.

This dynasty took its name from Merovech, a chief of the Salian Franks. He
was the father of Childeric I (d. 481), whose son CLOVIS reined from 481 to
511 and established Frankish rule over most of GAUL and converted to Roman
Christianity.

When Clovis died, his kingdom was divided--according to Frankish custom--among
his four sons: Theodoric (d. 534), Chlodomer (d. 524), Childebert I (d. 558),
and Chlotar I (d. 561), who made their respective headquarters at Metz, Orleans,
Paris, and Soissons. Only "Chlotar I" survived the bitter conflicts of the next
half century, and from 558 to 561 the Frankish territories were reunited under
him.

On Chlotar's death, however, the kingdom was divided again. His own sons,
Charibert I (d. 567), Sigibert I (d. 575), Guntran (d. 592), and Chilperic I
(d. 584), received the territories of AQUITAINE, AUSTRASIA, BURGUNDY, and
NEUSTRIA, respectively. Sigibert and Chilperic began a long and savage war
with each other, which was continued after their deaths by their respective
queens Brunhild (d. 613) and Fredegund (d. 597). The war was ultimately won
by Chilperic's family, and his grandson Dagobert I, king of all the Franks
from 629 to 639, was the last Merovingian king of any public consequence...

After Dagobert's death the kings of the Merovingian dynasty became captives
of various magnate families. The most successful of these families, the
CAROLINGIANS, finally overthrew the Merovingians in 751 and established their
own dynasty.

But in some quarters the Merovingian bloodline is still considered the only
legitimate claimant to...

Franks
------

The Franks were a group of GERMANIC PEOPLES inhabiting the lower and middle
Rhine Valley by the 3d century AD, when they are first mentioned by classical
authors. Identified by these writers as the Salians, Ripuarians, and Chatti,
they are said to have shared the same language and to have had many similar
laws.

Toward the middle of the 3d century the Franks began penetrating the Roman
frontier around MAINZ. They were driven back by Emperor Probus. In 358,
JULIAN THE APOSTATE handed over Toxandria, the region between the Meuse and
the Scheldt rivers, to the Salian Franks, who became Roman allies and provided
troops for the imperial army.

The Salian Franks were divided into several groups led by chiefs (reguli). One
of these groups, the MEROVINGIANS, which took its name from the chief Merovech
(Merowen), was particularly successful. Merovech and his successor, Childeric
(d. 481), extended Salian domination to the south, perhaps as far as the Somme
River. Childeric aided the Romans, but after the death (461) of Emperor
Majorian he sought to overthrow Aegidius, the imperial governor in northern
Gaul. Aegidius forced Childeric into exile among the Thuringians, but he
returned after a few years and, in alliance with some Saxons, defeated the
Romans.

Syagrius, Aegidius's son and successor, was able to keep Childeric from moving
his people south of the Somme, but another regulus took control of Le Mans.
Cambrai and Therouanne were also held by Salian reguli. CLOVIS, Childeric's
son, conquered most of Gaul and unified the Franks under the Merovingian
dynasty. Clovis also converted to Christianity.

The Ripuarian Franks and the Chatti raided across the middle Rhine frontier
during the first quarter of the 5th century. In the wake of the Hunnic invasion
of Gaul, a band of Ripuarians gained control of Cologne. By c.470, Trier was in
Ripuarian hands, and thereafter Metz, Toul, and Verdun fell to the Franks. The
CAROLINGIAN dynasty, which succeeded the Merovingians, is considered to have
been of Ripuarian origin.

Under the Carolingians, the Franks formed a vast empire that reached its
pinnacle in the reign (768-814) of CHARLEMAGNE. This empire was divided in
the mid-9th century, from it emerging the West Frankish kingdom (France)
and the East Frankish kingdom (Germany).

Much is now known about the material civilization of the Franks during the
period before they became Christians. Thousands of old graves have been
discovered in which have been found not only skeletons but various kinds of
weapons, jewelry, and even bits of cloth and leather. The most celebrated
find was the grave of Childeric, discovered at Tournai in 1653.

A great wealth in gold, including a signet ring with his portrait on it, and
the severed head of his horse were among its contents.

Carolingians
------------

{kair-oh-lin'-jee-uhnz}

The Carolingians, a family of Ripuarian FRANKS that took its name from CHARLES
MARTEL, the grandfather of CHARLEMAGNE, were the most important dynasty in early
medieval Europe. They had their origins in the union of the family of Arnulf,
bishop of Metz, with that of Pepin of Landen (d. c.640), hereditary mayor of the
palace in AUSTRASIA, during the early 7th century.

As mayors of the palace, the Carolingians were de facto rulers of the Frankish
territories under the later MEROVINGIAN kings. An attempt to seize the kingship
in the mid-7th century failed, but in the next 100 years Pepin of Heristal (d.
714) and his illegitimate son, Charles Martel (d. 742), restored the family's
fortunes. Charles's son PEPIN THE SHORT deposed Childeric III, the last of the
Merovingian monarchs; with papal support, he became king of the Franks in 751.
Pepin had two sons, Carloman and Charles (Charlemagne), who succeeded him
jointly in 768. The former died in 771, leaving Charlemagne in control of the
entire realm.

He more than doubled its size and obtained the titles of king of the Lombards
(774) and emperor (800) and generally "rocked the world"...

Charlemagne's sole surviving son, LOUIS I, inherited (814) all his lands and
titles but also his monumental problems--Viking invasions, Muslim raids, and
the everpresent nobles. The situation worsened because Louis had three heirs:
LOTHAIR I, LOUIS THE GERMAN, and CHARLES II (Charles the Bald).

When Louis died in 840, the bloody civil wars that had begun during his reign
continued, resulting in the division of the empire into three kingdoms by the
Treaty of Verdun (843; see VERDUN, TREATY OF). The kingdoms were redivided by
the Treaty of Mersen (870). After interruptions, Carolingian rule in what is
now France came to an end in 987; in what is now Germany, it ended in 911.

Palatinate
----------
{puh-lat'-i-nayt}

The Palatinate (German: Pfalz), one of the major principalities of the Holy
Roman Empire, comprised an area astride the middle Rhine that is now in the
German states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Wurttemberg, and Hesse.

In 1156, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I conferred the title count palatine on
his half-brother Conrad, who controlled extensive territories along the Rhine.
In 1214 the title and territories passed to the WITTELSBACH family, which
divided (1329) into two major branches: one holding the Rhenish Palatinate and
the area now in northeastern Bavaria called the Upper Palatinate; the other,
Bavaria. In 1356 the counts palatine were designated electors of the Holy Roman
Empire.

In 1546, Elector Frederick II became a Lutheran, and, in 1562, Frederick III
made the Palatinate Calvinist. It became the center of radical religious
movements in Germany, and the electors intervened in both the French and
Netherlands civil wars. The election of FREDERICK V (the Winter King) to the
throne of Bohemia in 1619 helped to precipitate the THIRTY YEARS' WAR. The
Palatinate became one of the principal battlegrounds of the war, and by the
Peace of Westphalia (1648) Frederick lost the Upper Palatinate and his electoral
title to Bavaria. A new electorate was created, however, for his son, Charles
Louis.

The Palatinate was devastated in 1688-89 by the troops of Louis XIV in the War
of the GRAND ALLIANCE. In 1803, under Napoleon's auspices, the Palatinate was
divided between Bavaria and Baden. The modern state of Rhineland-Palatinate
(created in 1946) has an area of 19,850 sq km (7,664 sq mi) and a population
of 3,880,965 (1992 est.). Its capital is MAINZ.

Frederick V, Elector Palatine (the Winter King)
-----------------------------------------------

Frederick V, b. Aug. 26, 1596, d. Nov. 29, 1632, elector palatine (1610-20)
and king of Bohemia (1619-20), called the Winter King, was largely responsible
for the outbreak of the THIRTY YEARS' WAR.

A member of the Calvinist Palatine branch of the house of WITTELSBACH, Frederick
V was the nephew of MAURICE OF NASSAU, virtual ruler of the Netherlands. In
1613 he married Elizabeth, daughter of JAMES I of England. The couple shared
religion, personal charm, ambition, and political incompetence. In 1619 the
rebellious Bohemians elected Frederick king. Failing to receive support from
his powerful relatives, Frederick was defeated in 1620 by the armies of the
Holy Roman emperor and the Catholic League and fled.

His generals and other allies continued the war, but that dang two-timing
Emperor bestowed the Upper Palatinate and the electorate on Frederick's
distant relative, MAXIMILIAN, duke of Bavaria.

Stuart (family)
--------------------------------
The Stuart (also spelled Stewart and Steuart) family provided Scotland and,
later, Britain with numerous monarchs. The family can be traced to a Breton,
Alan, the son of Flaald, who migrated to England about the beginning of the 12th
century. Walter, d. 1177, his youngest son, was made steward (official in the
household) by David I of Scotland, who granted him lands in Renfrewshire.
The 6th steward, Walter, d. 1326, married Marjory, daughter of Scotland's King
Robert I, and in 1371 their son Robert II became the first Stuart king of
Scotland. His successors were Robert III, JAMES I, James II, James III, JAMES
IV, JAMES V, MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, and James VI. In 1603, James VI became JAMES
I of England as well. His Stuart successors on the thrones of England and
Scotland were CHARLES I, CHARLES II, JAMES II, MARY II, and ANNE. With the
death of Anne in 1714, the Stuart dynasty was replaced by the Hanoverians (whose
claim to the throne also sprang from the Stuarts). However, male descendants of
James II--most notably James Francis Edward STUART (the Old Pretender) and
Charles Edward STUART (the Young Pretender)--attempted unsuccessfully to recover
the throne for the family.

A strong branch of the family held the earldom and later dukedom of Lennox. The
4th earl, Matthew Stewart (1516-71), married Margaret Douglas, daughter of
Margaret Tudor and the 6th earl of Angus; their son Henry Stewart, Lord
DARNLEY, stood next to Mary, Queen of Scots, in the English succession. When
Darnley married Mary in 1565, the branches of the powerful Stuart family united.
The dukedom of Lennox was created in 1581 for Esme Stuart (c.1542-83) by his
cousin James VI.

James II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland
------------------------------------------------
James II, b. Oct. 4, 1633, d. Sept. 5, 1701, the second son of CHARLES I,
reigned as king of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1685 to 1688, when he was
overthrown by the GLORIOUS REVOLUTION. In Scotland he was known as James VII.
James, a Stuart (see STUART family), was in exile from 1648 in the aftermath of
the English Civil War. He served with distinction in the armies of France and
Spain during the 1650s. After his brother, CHARLES II, was restored to the
throne in 1660, James fought bravely as lord high admiral in the ANGLO-DUTCH
WARS. James's conversion (about 1671) to Roman Catholicism caused the House of
Commons to attempt, unsuccessfully, to exclude him from the throne. He
succeeded Charles unopposed, however, on Feb. 6, 1685.

James's reign lasted only 4 years. In 1687 and 1688, in a tactless attempt to
procure liberty of conscience for all his Christian subjects, he issued two
declarations of indulgence, which alienated the Church of England. He also
evaded the TEST ACT of 1673 by promoting Catholics to high office and military
commissions. In 1688 he put seven bishops on trial for refusing to order his
declarations to be read in all the churches, but the bishops were acquitted. All
of these actions contributed to his overthrow, which was finally precipitated by
the birth of his son in June 1688. The prospect of a Catholic succession led the
Protestant opposition to invite James's Dutch Protestant nephew and son-in-law,
William of Orange, to come to England. He assumed the crown as WILLIAM III, and
his wife, James's older daughter, became MARY II.

Although James's opponents saw him as a tyrant, acting as a tool of the
expansionist Catholic LOUIS XIV of France, it was not tyranny but stupidity and
cowardice that brought his downfall. After fleeing to France early in 1689, he
assembled an Irish-French army in an attempt to restore himself, but in 1690 his
army was defeated by William at the Battle of the BOYNE in Ireland. James spent
his last years in France, hoping that his renunciation of the throne would merit
him eternal salvation.

Anne, Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland
---------------------------------------------
Queen Anne, b. Feb. 6, 1665, was the last English monarch to preside over
cabinets and veto parliamentary legislation. The daughter of JAMES II, she
remained devoted to the Church of England despite her father's conversion to
Roman Catholicism. To uphold the Anglican church, she unhesitatingly joined her
brother-in-law, WILLIAM III, when he invaded (1688) England and forced her
father into exile. During William's reign, Anne became great friends with the
strong-minded Sarah Churchill, later duchess of MARLBOROUGH, whom she called
"Mrs. Freeman." When Anne came to the throne in 1702, she gave Sarah the highest
court appointments and made her husband, the duke of MARLBOROUGH, commander in
chief in the War of the SPANISH SUCCESSION.

Anne had a mind of her own. After seven years of the war against France, she
realized her subjects were tiring of it. In 1710, therefore, she employed her
influence to overthrow the Whig government, which was committed to an
uncompromising peace treaty, and instituted a Tory government instead. Like
her, the Tories staunchly supported the Church of England and favored an
immediate peace. Anne ruthlessly broke with the Churchills, turning for comfort
to other women friends and to her chief minister, Robert HARLEY, who concluded
the Peace of Utrecht (1713).

Anne adored her husband, Prince George of Denmark. Despite frequent
pregnancies, however, none of her children survived childhood. Suffering from
constant ill health, she enjoyed cards and gossip as distractions. Through
overeating she grew fat and finally had to be hoisted into her coach. Patriotic
and conscious of her rights, she aimed at improving her people's welfare, and
they loved her. She died on Aug. 1, 1714, as members of her privy council
jostled for power around her deathbed. She was succeeded by the Hanoverian
GEORGE I.

George I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland
------------------------------------------------
George I, elector of Hanover, succeeded to the British throne on the death of
Queen ANNE in 1714. The succession was determined by the Act of SETTLEMENT of
1701, which passed over the legitimate but Roman Catholic representatives of the
STUART line in favor of the Protestant house of HANOVER, descended from the
daughter of James I.

Born on Mar. 28, 1660, in Hanover, George received a thorough education in the
military and diplomatic arts. He became elector in 1698. After succeeding to the
British throne, he remained staunchly German in his attachments and objectives.

His constant aim was the aggrandizement of Hanover, and it was due largely to
his use of the British fleet that he successfully completed the acquisition of
Bremen and Verden for Hanover in the Great NORTHERN WAR. In England George
caused much controversy by his uncompromising support for the WHIG PARTY against
the Tories and by his tendency to take advice on matters of state from his
Hanoverian counselors. The uprising of the JACOBITES in 1715, several Jacobite
conspiracies, and the SOUTH SEA BUBBLE in 1720 all presented threats to the
security of his dynasty.

George quarreled both with his wife, Sophia Dorothea (1666-1726), whom he
divorced and incarcerated (from 1694 until her death) in punishment for her
alleged infidelity, and with his son, Prince George, who consorted with his
political opponents. The prince succeeded to the throne as George II when George
I died on June 12, 1727.

Jacobites
---------
{jak'-uh-byts}

After Britain's GLORIOUS REVOLUTION of 1688 the adherents of the exiled STUART
king JAMES II and his Roman Catholic descendants were known as Jacobites. The
major support for their cause was in Scotland and Ireland, where the Jacobites
continued to resist after the accession to the throne of WILLIAM III and MARY II
in 1689. William, however, defeated the Scottish Jacobites under Viscount
DUNDEE at Killiecrankie (1689) and the Irish Jacobites in the Battle of the
BOYNE (1690).

When James II died in 1701, his son, James Edward (known as the Old Pretender;
see STUART, JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD), was recognized as king of England and
Scotland by Spain and France. He first attempted an invasion of Scotland in
1708, but it was a total fiasco. More serious was the Jacobite rising of 1715,
which took place after the accession of the Hanoverian GEORGE I and had support
in England as well as Scotland. Nonetheless, the Scottish Jacobites were
defeated at Preston in Lancashire on November 13, and by the time James Edward
landed in Scotland on Dec. 22, 1715, the cause was lost. He departed on Feb.
4, 1716.

In 1745 his son, Charles Edward (Bonnie Prince Charlie or the Young Pretender;
see STUART, CHARLES EDWARD), sailed to Scotland and raised certain Highland
clans. He defeated Sir John Cope at Prestonpans on Sept. 21, 1745, but was
later routed at Culloden Moor on Apr. 16, 1746. Charles Edward fled from
Scotland, and with him went the last of the Jacobite hopes.

Stuart, Charles Edward (Bonnie Prince Charlie)
----------------------------------------------

Charles Edward Stuart, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie and as the Young
Pretender, b. Rome, Dec. 31, 1720, d. Jan. 31, 1788, laid claim to the
British throne through his Stuart grandfather, King JAMES II. Charles Edward
was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender). In 1744
he went to France hoping to participate in an invasion of Britain. When it
failed to materialize, he and his companions--the seven men of Moidart--left
France for Scotland and landed in the Hebrides in July 1745. They launched the
JACOBITE rebellion known as the '45, the last Stuart attempt to regain power in
Britain.

Charles Edward raised his standard in the Highlands and attracted a number of
loyal clans. His support, however, was not broadly based, especially in the
Lowlands and the eastern Highlands. He defeated Sir John Cope at Prestonpans on
Sept. 21, 1745, and with an army of 7,000 to 8,000 men he marched toward London.
He stopped at Derby and waited in vain for promised French and English aid;
then, accepting his officers' advice, he retreated to Scotland. Outside of
Inverness, at Culloden Moor, Charles Edward's army was badly defeated on Apr.
16, 1746, by troops led by the duke of Cumberland. With the help of Flora
Macdonald, Charles Edward fled to France. He was later expelled from France and
traveled about Europe, finally settling in Italy and styling himself the count
of Albany. Bonnie Prince Charlie has been the subject of many romantic legends.

Marie de Medicis
----------------

{may-dee-sees'}

Marie de Medicis, b. Apr. 26, 1573, d. July 3, 1642, was the second wife
of HENRY IV of France and regent after his death. She was the daughter of
Grand Duke Francesco I of Tuscany and a member of the MEDICI family. On
her marriage in 1600 she came to France with a large Italian retinue. She
and Henry quarreled constantly, and Marie had to share the king's affections
with his mistresses. She has been accused of knowing of the plot behind her
husband's assassination (in 1610), which occurred on the very _day_ after her
coronation as queen. Her complicity, however, remains *officially* uncertain.

As regent during the minority of her son, LOUIS XIII, she reversed Henry's
anti-Habsburg policy. She came to rely on the Italian statesman Concino
Concini, marquis d'Ancre, whom she made (1613) a marshal of France; Concini
was the husband of her confidante, Leonora Galigai. Although Louis came of
age in 1614, Marie's regency remained in effect until 1617, when Concini was
murdered at the king's direction. Thereafter Marie frequently plotted armed
resistance to her son. She regarded Cardinal RICHELIEU as her protege when
he entered the royal council in 1624, but he proved to be her implacable foe.

Soon after her unsuccessful effort in November 1630 to secure Richelieu's
dismissal, Louis banished her to Compiegne, but she fled to Brussels in the
Spanish Netherlands.

Henry IV, King of France
------------------------

Henry IV, the first BOURBON king of France (1589-1610), ended the French Wars of
Religion (see RELIGION, WARS OF) and began the reconstruction of a country
devastated by years of civil war. Born on Dec. 14, 1553, Henry was the son of
Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret, heiress to the throne of Navarre.

Raised a Calvinist, he succeeded his father as titular leader of the HUGUENOT
(Protestant) faction in France. By 1572, when he became king of Navarre on the
death of his mother, he was the effective leader. In that year Henry married
MARGARET OF VALOIS, sister of kings Francis II, Charles IX (then reigning), and
Henry III. During the wedding festivities many of the Protestant leaders were
murdered (by order of the dowager queen, Catherine de MEDICIS) in the SAINT
BARTHOLOMEW's DAY MASSACRE (Aug. 24, 1572). Henry of Navarre was spared, but
forced to convert to Catholicism. He soon renounced his conversion and resumed
leadership of the Huguenot armies.

The murder of Henry III in 1589 ended the line of Valois kings and brought
Henry of Navarre to the throne as Henry IV. The extreme Catholics, however,
who had earlier formed the Catholic League (a military grouping led by the
powerful GUISE family) refused to recognize him. Unable to overcome their
resistance militarily, Henry finally converted to Catholicism in 1593. This
gained him the support needed to capture Paris in 1594 (he reputedly said,
"Paris is worth a Mass"), and by 1598 he was in firm control of his kingdom.

In that year he issued the Edict of Nantes (see NANTES, EDICT OF), granting
freedom of worship and other civil rights to the Huguenots. Thus was ended
half a century of war. The process of reconstruction that followed was
directed largely by Henry's able minister the duc de SULLY.

Henry was then hostile to Spain, which had earlier supported his Catholic
opponents. He secretly encouraged the rebellion in the Netherlands against
Spanish rule and was preparing to go to war with Spain at the time of his
death. He was assassinated on May 14, 1610, by a Catholic fanatic, Francois
Ravaillac. ``Le bon roi Henri'' (Good King Henry), as he came to be known,
was succeeded by his son LOUIS XIII under the regency of his second wife,
MARIE DE MEDICIS.

Louis XIII, King of France
--------------------------

Louis XIII, b. Sept. 27, 1601, d. May 14, 1643, allowed his minister Cardinal
RICHELIEU to rule France for most of his reign. The son of HENRY IV and MARIE
DE MEDICIS, he succeeded to the throne in 1610 at the age of eight. Louis was
stubborn and sickly as a boy and grew up to be proud, secretive, and devout.
However, he was determined to be just and showed genuine concern for his
subjects. In 1615, while still under his mother's regency, the young king
married ANNE OF AUSTRIA, daughter of Philip III of Spain. Two years later he
ended the regency, exiling his mother to Blois and suppressing the two
subsequent attempts she made to recover her authority. In 1620, Louis annexed
the formerly autonomous and largely Protestant province of Bearn, and he
commanded his troops in several campaigns to reimpose Catholicism there and in
French Navarre. His chief advisor in this period was his falconer, Charles
d'Albert, duc de Luynes, who died in 1621.

In 1624, Louis entrusted Richelieu with total authority. While the cardinal
crushed the French Protestants (HUGUENOTS), he allied France with the Protestant
powers against Spain during the THIRTY YEARS' WAR. Richelieu made himself so
indispensable that he survived the many plots to undermine his influence with
the king.

Louis largely ignored his wife, who for a time dallied with the English duke of
BUCKINGHAM (the incident fictionalized in Alexandre Dumas Pere's The Three
Musketeers). The king formed "close friendships" with several other women and,
from 1639, with the young marquis de Cinq-Mars. In 1642, however, he sanctioned
the latter's execution when Richelieu proved that Cinq-Mars was plotting with
Spain.

The cardinal died in December 1642, and Louis survived him by only six months
(repeat after me: there IS *no* conspiracy).

He was succeeded by his young son, Louis XIV.

Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal et Duc de
-----------------------------------------------------

{ree-shel-yu'}

Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, b. Sept. 9, 1585, d. Dec. 4, 1642,
ruled France as the principal minister of LOUIS XIII from 1624 to 1642. He
helped to establish the basis of royal absolutism in France and of French
preeminence in Europe. Richelieu became bishop of Lucon in 1607. He was named
a spokesman for the clergy in the States-General and so won the favor of the
regent and queen mother, MARIE DE MEDICIS, that he became secretary of state for
foreign affairs in 1616. Expelled from office when King Louis XIII overthrew
(1617) his mother's authority, Richelieu then acquired importance as a
peacemaker in the continuing disputes between Marie and her son, gaining a
cardinalate in 1622 and becoming chief of the royal council in 1624. His title
was changed to first minister in 1628.

Richelieu's policy was to develop the absolute authority of the crown and to
crush the independent power of the HUGUENOTS (French Protestants) while
thwarting the European hegemony of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs by allying
France with Protestant states in the THIRTY YEARS' WAR. He captured La Rochelle
from the Huguenots and in 1629 deprived them of their military capacity while
continuing to tolerate their religion. Although he took pains to justify his
actions, for Richelieu the interests of the state overrode religion, ordinary
morality, and constitutional procedures. As a result he alienated the devout
Catholic party, the nobility, and the judicial hierarchy. Several noble
conspiracies were raised against him, all of which he frustrated; they were
usually supported by the king's brother, Gaston d'Orleans (see ORLEANS family).

Among the lower classes heavy taxation to support war caused an endemic state of
revolt in the provinces. To control local privilege and disorder, Richelieu
employed commissioners sent by the royal council, known as INTENDANTS. He also
took an interest in literary and theological matters and founded the ACADEMIE
FRANCAISE in 1635.

In the Thirty Years' War the cardinal supported the Dutch, the Danes, and
the Swedes in the struggle against the Habsburgs. He also checked Spanish
pretensions in Mantua and tried to block Spanish communications through
eastern Switzerland. After the defeat of his Swedish and Protestant German
allies, he declared war against Spain in 1635. In 1640, Richelieu backed
anti-Spanish revolts in Catalonia and Portugal. His actions led to a sharp
decline of Spanish power.

Anne of Austria
---------------

Anne of Austria, b. Sept. 22, 1601, d. Jan. 20, 1666, was the wife of LOUIS
XIII of France and, after his death (1643), regent for their son LOUIS XIV.
The daughter of Philip III of Spain, she went to France upon her marriage in
1615. In 1637 she was found by the principal minister, Cardinal RICHELIEU,
to be secretly corresponding with the rulers of Spain, with whom France was
at war. As regent, however, she continued Richelieu's anti-Spanish policy,
relying upon his successor, Cardinal MAZARIN.

Her support for Mazarin enabled him to survive the revolts of the FRONDE
(1648-53), and they governed France together until his death in 1661.

Mazarin, Jules
--------------

{mah-zah-ran', zhool}

Jules Mazarin, originally Giulio Mazarini, b. July 14, 1602, d. Mar. 9, 1661,
a French statesman and Roman Catholic cardinal, ruled France as the first
minister of the regent ANNE OF AUSTRIA. He was born near Rome, the son of a
Sicilian nobleman in the service of the Colonna family. Educated at the Jesuit
college in Rome and the Spanish university of Alcala de Henares, he entered the
papal diplomatic service. He made several journeys to France, where his
abilities impressed the ruling minister, Cardinal RICHELIEU. On Oct. 26, 1630,
Mazarin attracted international attention by riding between the French and
Spanish armies as they were about to engage in battle at Casale to proclaim a
truce he had negotiated. His reputation as a skillful negotiator was further
enhanced over the years. He settled permanently in France in 1640. The
following year Mazarin was made a cardinal on the recommendation of LOUIS XIII,
even though he had never been ordained a priest.

When Richelieu's death (1642) was followed by that of the king in 1643, Anne
of Austria, regent for her five-year-old son LOUIS XIV, turned to Mazarin as her
principal minister. A strong affection existed between them and it was rumored
that they were secretly married. The cardinal continued Richelieu's policies,
but, being a foreigner and lacking his predecessor's ruthless personality, he
relied upon subtlety and persuasion. Despite Mazarin's concessions, opposition
from the judicial hierarchy and groups of dissident nobles led to the civil
wars of the FRONDE in the years 1648-53.

Mazarin split and manipulated the factions, but in 1651 and again in 1652 he
had to leave France for several months at a time. Though the minister emerged
triumphant from these conflicts, forcing one of his main opponents, Louis II
de Bourbon, prince de Conde (see CONDE family), to join the Spanish armies and
obliging another, Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz, to endure an
imprisonment and exile.

Mazarin's main achievements were in diplomacy. His negotiations at the end of
the THIRTY YEARS' WAR in Germany led to the Peace of Westphalia (1648; see the
WESTPHALIA, PEACE OF) and at the end of the war with Spain to the Treaty of the
Pyrenees (1659). Mazarin died at Vincennes while still in power, leaving Louis
XIV with the most powerful kingdom of continental Europe.

Louis XIV
---------
Overview
--------

Louis XIV, France's Sun King, had the longest reign in European history
(1643-1715). During this time he brought absolute monarchy to its height,
established a glittering court at VERSAILLES, and fought most of the other
European countries in four wars. The early part of his reign (1643-61), while
Louis was still young, was dominated by the chief minister Cardinal MAZARIN.
In the middle period (1661-85) Louis reigned personally and innovatively, but
the last years of his personal rule (1685-1715) were beset by problems.

Minority
--------

Born on Sept. 5, 1638, Louis was the first, regarded as "god-given," child of
the long-married Louis XIII and his Habsburg wife, ANNE OF AUSTRIA. He
succeeded his father on the throne at the age of four. While his mother was
regent the great nobles and the judges of the PARLEMENT of Paris launched a
major but uncoordinated revolt (the FRONDE of 1648-53) in reaction to the
centralizing policies of Louis XIII's minister Cardinal RICHELIEU and his
successor, Mazarin. The royal family was twice driven out of Paris, and at one
point Louis XIV and Anne were held under virtual arrest in the royal palace in
Paris.

Mazarin finally suppressed the Fronde and restored internal order. The Peace of
Westphalia (1648; see WESTPHALIA, PEACE OF) which ended the Thirty Years' War,
together with the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659), which concluded prolonged
warfare with Spain, made France the leading European power. The latter treaty
was sealed by Louis XIV's marriage (1660) to Marie Therese (1638-83), the
daughter of PHILIP IV of Spain.

Personal Administration
-----------------------

On Mazarin's death in 1661, Louis astounded his court by becoming his own chief
minister, thereby ending the long "reign of the cardinal-ministers." A
sensational 3-year trial (1661-64) of the powerful and corrupt finance minister
Nicolas FOUQUET sent the would-be chief minister to prison for life. The king
thereafter controlled his own government until his death, acting through his
high state council (conseil d'en haut) and a few select ministers, whom he
called or dismissed at will. The most famous and powerful of the ministers were
Jean Baptiste COLBERT in internal affairs and the marquis de LOUVOIS in military
matters.

Breaking with tradition, Louis excluded from his council the members of his
immediate family, great princes, and others of the old military nobility
(noblesse d'epee); his reliance on the newer judicial nobility (noblesse de
robe) led the duc de SAINT-SIMON to call this, perhaps mistakenly, "the reign
of the lowborn bourgeoisie." Local government was increasingly placed under
removable INTENDANTS.

Period of Glory
---------------

The early personal reign of Louis was highly successful in both internal and
foreign affairs. At home the parlements lost their traditional power to
obstruct legislation; the judicial structure was reformed by the codes of civil
procedure (1667) and criminal procedure (1669), although the overlapping and
confusing laws were left untouched. Urban law enforcement was improved by
creation (1667) of the office of lieutenant general of police for Paris (later
imitated in other towns). Under Colbert commerce, industry, and overseas
colonies were developed by state subsidies, tight control over standards of
quality, and high protective tariffs (the bobt/Pat Buchanan platform for a
Brave New America).

And as controller general of finances, Colbert sharply reduced the annual
treasury deficit by economies and more equitable, efficient taxation, although
tax exemptions for the nobility, clergy, and some members of the bourgeoisie
continued (rediscoverinG the newt wOrlD order).

Colbert and the king shared the idea of glorifying the monarch and monarchy
through the arts (Like the Limousine Liberals who're all hot and bothered
by NEA cuts). Louis was a discriminating patron of the great literary and
artistic figures of France's classical age, including Jean Baptiste MOLIERE,
Charles LEBRUN, Louis LE VAU, Jules MANSART, and Jean Baptiste LULLY. His
state established or developed in rapid succession academies for painting and
sculpture (1663), inscriptions (1663), French artists at Rome (1666), and
science (1666), followed by the Paris Observatory (1667) and the academies
of architecture (1671) and music (1672). The literary *Academie Francaise*
also came under formal royal control in 1671.

Money was lavished on "proto-New-Deal" buildings. In Paris the LOUVRE was
essentially completed with the classical colonnade by Claude PERRAULT. At
Versailles, Louis XIII's hunting lodge was transformed into a remarkable
palace and park, which were copied by Louis's fellow monarchs across Europe.
When the king moved permanently to Versailles in 1682, an elaborate court
etiquette was established that had the aristocracy, including former rebel
princes, vying to participate in Louis's rising (leve) and retiring (couche).
These ceremonies led to the saying that, at a distance, one could tell what
was happening at the palace merely by glancing at an almanac and a watch.

In foreign affairs, the young Louis XIV launched the War of DEVOLUTION (1667-68)
against the Spanish Netherlands, claiming that those provinces had "devolved" by
succession to his Spanish wife rather than to her half brother CHARLES II, who
had inherited the Spanish crown. The war brought him some valuable frontier
towns in Flanders. Louis turned next against the United Provinces of the
Netherlands in the third ANGLO-DUTCH WAR (1672-78). The intent this time was to
take revenge against Dutch intervention in the previous war and to break Dutch
trade. By the Peace of Nijmegen (1678-79) he gained more territory in Flanders,
and the formerly Spanish FRANCHE COMTE was added to France's eastern frontier,
now fortified by the great siege expert, Sebastien Le Prestre de VAUBAN. Now at
the height of his power, the king set up "courts of reunion" to provide legal
pretexts for the annexation of a series of towns along the Franco-German border.
More blatantly, he seized both the Alsatian city of Strasbourg and Casale, in
northern Italy, in 1681.

Orleans
-------

Overview
--------

{ohr-lay-ahn'}

Orleans was the family name of cadet (or collateral) branches of both the
Valois and Bourbon royal dynasties of France.

Valois-Orleans
--------------

The house of Valois-Orleans was founded by Louis, duc d'Orleans, b. Mar. 13,
1372, who was granted (1392) the duchy of Orleans by his brother King CHARLES
VI. When Charles went mad, Louis entered into a power struggle with PHILIP THE
BOLD, duke of Burgundy. The murder of Louis (Nov. 23, 1407) precipitated civil
war between his followers, called the Armagnacs, and the Burgundians (see
ARMAGNACS AND BURGUNDIANS). Louis's son, Charles, duc d'Orleans, b. May 26,
1391, d. Jan. 4, 1465, was titular leader of the Armagnacs, but he was captured
by the English at the Battle of Agincourt (1415) and held prisoner until 1440.
He is remembered primarily as a poet. Charles's son ascended the throne (1498)
as LOUIS XII but died without having produced a son.

Bourbon-Orleans
---------------

The Bourbons first adopted the Orleans title in 1626, when Louis XIII granted
the title and the Orleanais area to his brother, Jean Baptiste Gaston, duc
d'Orleans, b. Apr. 25, 1608, d. Feb. 2, 1660. Gaston conspired against
Cardinal Richelieu and was later a leader of the revolt known as the FRONDE.
He was the father of the duchesse de MONTPENSIER but had no male heir.

The founder of the modern house of Bourbon-Orleans was Philippe I, duc
d'Orleans, b. Sept. 21, 1640, d. June 9, 1701, brother of Louis XIV.
Married to Henrietta, sister of King Charles II of England, he was a
notorious libertine and had no political influence.

He was the father of Philippe II, duc d'Orleans (see ORLEANS, PHILIPPE II,
DUC D'), and great-great grandfather of Louis Philippe Joseph, duc d'Orleans
(see ORLEANS, LOUIS PHILIPPE JOSEPH, DUC D'). The latter's son LOUIS PHILIPPE
became king as a result of the July Revolution of 1830 but was overthrown in
1848. Thereafter, although France was a republic (and briefly an empire under
Napoleon III), the descendants of Louis Philippe continued to claim the throne.
When the senior, or Legitimist, Bourbon line died out in 1883, its claim, too,
settled on the house of Orleans. The last serious claimant was Louis Philippe
Robert, duc d'Orleans, b. Feb. 6, 1869, d. Mar. 28, 1926. Forced to live
in exile, he became a notable explorer in the Arctic and East Africa.

Orleans, Philippe II, Duc d'
----------------------------

Philippe II d'Orleans, b. Aug. 2, 1674, d. Dec. 2, 1723, the freethinking and
dissolute regent during the minority of LOUIS XV (1715-23), when France was
reacting against LOUIS XIV's absolutism, made the Regency period synonymous in
popular opinion with decadence. He was the son of Philippe I d'Orleans (see
ORLEANS family) and nephew of Louis XIV, whose legitimized daughter,
Mademoiselle de Blois, he married. First prince of royal blood and nominal
regent by Louis XIV's will, Orleans had the Parlement of Paris break the will
and give him full governing powers. Reversing the policies of Louis XIV, Orleans
restored that tribunal's right--nullified since 1673--to remonstrate against
legislation. He also tried unsuccessfully to replace ministries with
noble-dominated councils. Orleans backed financier John LAW's ill-fated
MISSISSIPPI SCHEME and checked antiregent intrigues by his former ally Philip
V of Spain, a claimant to the French throne.

Orleans, Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc d'
--------------------------------------

(Philippe Egalite)

Louis Philippe Joseph, 5th duc d'Orleans, b. Apr. 13, 1747, d. Nov. 6, 1793,
attempted the impossible task of allying himself with the FRENCH REVOLUTION. By
birth a prince of the Orleans family, a cadet branch of the royal family, he was
by inclination liberal. In 1787 and 1788 he openly opposed LOUIS XVI's attempts
to overrule the law courts; in 1789 he acquired great popularity by promoting
the union of the liberal nobles with the commoners. More inept thereafter, he
ostentatiously associated with the extreme left and was suspected of fomenting
violence in order to gain the throne for himself. In 1792 he accepted the name
Philippe Egalite and was elected a delegate from Paris to the National
Convention, at which he voted for the death of the king. Already under attack by
the GIRONDISTS, Egalite was arrested in April 1793, when his son, later King
LOUIS PHILIPPE, defected to the Austrians with Gen. Charles Francois DUMOURIEZ.
Imprisoned at Marseille, Egalite was brought back to Paris during the Reign of
Terror and guillotined.

Poussin, Nicolas
----------------

{poo-san'}

Nicolas Poussin, b. June 1594, d. Nov. 19, 1665, a French painter who spent
most of his career in Rome, was renowned as the great painter-philosopher of the
baroque age. Born in the small town of Les Andelys on the Seine, Poussin had
gone to Paris by 1613 and studied there under Ferdinand Elle and Georges
Lallemand, also being influenced by works of the late French Mannerist school
and by those of Frans Pourbus, the younger. Poussin's career in Paris, where he
developed his early style, is known only in brief outline, as some of the more
important commissions of 1622 and 1623 have been lost.

Poussin is documented as having been in Rome by 1624. There he studied the art
of the ancients and of Renaissance painters, working at first in obscurity and
poverty. Gradually he won the attention of the city's leading intellectuals and
patrons such as Cassiano Dal Pozzo and Cardinal Francesco Barberini. By about
1630, Poussin was admired for such works as The Death of Germanicus (1627;
Minneapolis Institute of Arts) and The Triumph of Flora (1627; Louvre, Paris),
had executed the important commission for an altarpiece for Saint Peter's
Basilica, The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus (1629), and with his reputation firmly
established, took his place as the rival of the architect and painter Pietro da
Cortona.

Although the chronology of individual works is difficult to establish, it is
clear that the decade of the 1630s represented an especially fruitful and
progressive stage in Poussin's development as a painter. At the beginning of
this period, after a severe illness, he withdrew from competition for large,
demanding public commissions and devoted himself to easel pictures on themes of
his own choice. He intensified his studies of literary and theoretical
knowledge--which he had always possessed to a remarkable degree--studied
ancient statuary, painting, mathematics, and optics and gave new importance
to the role of landscape in his compositions: The Adoration of the Golden
Calf (c.1633-34; National Gallery, London), The Triumph of Neptune (c.1636;
Philadelphia Museum of Art), and Venus Bringing Arms to Aeneas (c.1639;
Art Gallery of Toronto).

Poussin based his painting style on the example of classical art, on controlled
method, and on carefully conceived doctrine. At the heart of his aesthetic
doctrine was the belief in reason as the key to beauty. Poussin viewed painting
as a fundamentally rational discipline, whose ultimate, poetic goals could be
achieved by penetrating the underlying logic of nature. He sought an ideal,
harmonious beauty through moderation, control, and dignity of subject. Relying
on meditation and theory, Poussin was able to transform the raw material of
nature into superbly abstract and philosophical visions.

In 1640, Poussin went to France at the invitation of Louis XIII, where he was
received with great enthusiasm and given the title First Painter. The demanding
and critical atmosphere at court, as well as his expected role as creator of
large-scale official projects, proved uncongenial to Poussin's contemplative
nature, and he returned to Rome permanently in 1642.

His subsequent life was relatively uneventful. Having achieved status as an
eminent authority--consulted by aspiring artists, writers, and intellectuals and
commanding high prices for his works--Poussin again dedicated himself almost
exclusively to a studio practice devoted to the contemplation and resolution of
self-imposed problems. After his return to Rome, Poussin worked, for
approximately a decade, in a severe and monumental style--evident in Holy Family
on the Steps (1648; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) and Achilles
Among the Daughters of Lycomedes (1648-50; Boston Museum of Fine Arts). He also
created a type of "heroic landscape," that was remarkable for its depiction of
figures and architecture in dramatically rendered landscapes--as, for example,
Saint John on Patmos (c.1643-44; Art Institute of Chicago) and The Body of
Phocion Carried from Athens (1648; Collection of the Earl of Plymouth, Oakley
Park, Shropshire).

In his last period, after about 1654, Poussin was plagued by ill health and
became increasingly introspective. A heightened interest in human emotion was
added to the statuesque monumentality of his designs, often resulting in works
charged with great power of mood and psychological drama, such as The Arcadian
Shepherds (c.1656; Louvre, Paris) and The Birth of Bacchus (1657; Fogg Art
Museum, Cambridge, Mass.). The mythological landscapes created during this
period rank among Poussin's most visionary and imaginative productions; they
include Landscape with Orion (1658; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City)
and The Four Seasons (1660-64; Louvre).

Despite Poussin's commanding reputation, his austere, severely classical style
had little immediate influence in Italy, where the vogue was for the bold and
energetic art of the Roman baroque. In France, however, Poussin's ideas were
enthusiastically received and became the basis of teaching at the Academie
Royale de Peinture et Sculpture under the directorship of Charles Le Brun.

Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
--------------------------------

Ferdinand II, b. July 9, 1578, d. Feb. 15, 1637, was Holy Roman emperor from
1619 to 1637 and the principal champion of the Roman Catholic cause in the
THIRTY YEARS' WAR. Educated by the Jesuits, Ferdinand was determined to reign
as a Roman Catholic monarch. As archduke of Styria he banished the Protestant
leaders of the Styrian estates. As king of Bohemia (from 1617) and as emperor
he worked to crush the rebellion of the Bohemian Protestants, who elected (1619)
the elector palatine, FREDERICK V, as a rival king of Bohemia. Ferdinand
crushed this rebellion with military help from the Spanish Habsburgs and from
Bavaria but thereby precipitated the Thirty Years' War.

After 1626, Albrecht von WALLENSTEIN organized a huge imperial army that made
Ferdinand the virtual military master of Germany. Ferdinand and his advisors,
however, had failed to think out a rational and consistent imperial policy.
Ferdinand was therefore content with the restoration of ecclesiastical property
through the Edict of Restitution (1629) and with supporting Spanish ambitions in
the Netherlands.

The jealous imperial electors blackmailed Ferdinand into dismissing Wallenstein
in 1630; but the victories of GUSTAV II ADOLF, king of Sweden, forced him to
recall his hated general. After Gustav's death, Wallenstein's enemies accused
him of treason, and Ferdinand consented to Wallenstein's murder in 1634. The
Spanish-imperial victory of Nordlingen in 1634 led most German princes to
conclude (1635) the Peace of Prague with Ferdinand. By this agreement, the
Edict of Restitution was rescinded, but the princes' armies were placed under
imperial command. Ferdinand's son, Ferdinand III, succeeded to this apparently
strong position but also inherited the hostility of Sweden and France and the
doubtful loyalty of the German princes.

==============================================================================

Religion, Wars of
-----------------

The Wars of Religion were religious and political civil wars fought in France
intermittently from 1562 to 1598, at a time when French Calvinists (HUGUENOTS)
formed a strong and often aggressive minority. The wars were caused and
prolonged by the alignment of rival aristocratic factions along opposing
religious lines during the rule of two weak monarchs, Charles IX (r. 1560-74)
and HENRY III (r. 1574-89). From 1562 to 1576, the Huguenots, led at first
by Louis I de CONDE and Gaspard de COLIGNY, were supported only by external
Protestant armies in their conflict with the Catholic crown. After 1572, when
several thousand Huguenots were killed in the SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY MASSACRE,
a third party of moderate Catholics, known as the Politiques, emerged under the
family of Montmorency.

An ultra-Catholic party called the Holy League, led by the house of GUISE, was
formed in 1576 to oppose a peace favorable to the Protestants accorded by Henry
III. When the Bourbon Protestant leader, Henry of Navarre (later HENRY IV),
became heir to the throne in 1584, the league grew more militant against both
king and Huguenots. It procured the assassination of Henry III in 1589 and
continued to fight against Henry IV (r. 1589-1610), even after his conversion
to Catholicism in 1593. Henry IV eventually defeated the league, and in 1598
the Huguenots received a more stable form of toleration under the Edict of
Nantes (see NANTES, EDICT OF).

During the period of the Wars of Religion, the French crown began to depend on
ennobled lawyer-administrators, who held their offices almost as private
property and alienated the warrior aristocracy. As the wars continued, however,
the emergence of urban and peasant protest movements caused the higher orders to
draw together and look to the crown for protection. The French social structure
became less flexible, and the monarchy was able to initiate the system of
absolutism that governed France for the next two centuries.

Fronde
------

{frohnd}

The Fronde (1648-53) was a series of major revolts in France during the minority
of LOUIS XIV. They temporarily blocked the continuation by the regent ANNE OF
AUSTRIA and her able but hated advisor, Cardinal MAZARIN, of the harsh policies
of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu. Merchants, artisans, and peasants disliked
the spiraling taxation caused by the Thirty Years' War, the PARLEMENTS and
taxing bureaus resented loss of their functions to the intendants (financial
administrators), and great nobles were frustrated by erosion of their
traditional powers.

During the first, or parlementary, Fronde (1648-49) the Parlement of Paris,
joined by more specialized Parisian tribunals and backed by street rioting (Days
of Barricades, August 1648), forced the regent to abolish most intendancies,
many taxes not registered with parlements, and arbitrary detention. A brief
winter siege of Paris by the royal army of Louis II, prince de Conde (see CONDE
family), ended inconclusively.

The second, or princely, Fronde (1650-53) began as an unsuccessful military
uprising in Normandy and Guienne by noble followers of Conde; Conde himself had
been imprisoned for seeking to assume Mazarin's powers. In 1651 a coalition of
Conde's party, the Parlement of Paris, and a rival noble faction under Cardinal
de Retz (1613-79) obtained Conde's release and Mazarin's exile abroad. Rivalry
between Conde and Retz, however, as well as basic political differences between
the cautious, legalistic judges of the Parlement and the bolder warrior-nobles,
allowed Mazarin to return. Conde, although defeated by the vicomte de TURENNE in
July 1652, established a brief dictatorship over Paris, but he abandoned the
city in October to join the Spanish troops that he had invited into the country.
The rebellion soon collapsed, and Mazarin overturned most of the reforms of
1648.

Louis XIV, reacting to the rebellion and his subjects' yearning for order, made
his long personal reign the high point of royal absolutism. He took into account
the Frondeurs' grievances, however, by making his financial administrative
machinery more efficient and less burdensome than Louis XIII's.

The Thirty Years' War
---------------------

The Thirty Years' War (1618-48) was the last major European war of religion and
the first all-European struggle for power. It was, in fact, a series of wars
fought mainly on German soil and was only part of a larger struggle to alter the
European balance of power.

The religious wars that had divided Germany and the Holy Roman Empire as a
result of the Protestant REFORMATION ended in compromise with the Peace of
Augsburg (1555), and there was peace between the Protestant and Roman Catholic
states of the empire for the next 50 years. In the early 17th century, however,
tensions between the rival faiths revived.

The Bohemian War
----------------

Hostilities broke out on May 23, 1618, when a number of Protestant Bohemian
noblemen threw two royal governors of their country out of the windows of the
Hradcany Palace in Prague (an event known as the Defenestration of Prague). It
was a rebellion typical of this period by men of great privilege and power who
saw a threat in the advance of royal power: in this case in the absolutist and
Catholic policies of their king, Ferdinand of HABSBURG, soon to be elected Holy
Roman Emperor FERDINAND II. Both sides were convinced that they were fighting
for a holy cause, and both feared not only political defeat but annihilation if
the other won. Therefore, both sides looked for allies and widened the conflict,
entangling it with the religious and political struggles of their neighbors.
The Bohemians appealed to Gabor BETHLEN, Protestant prince of Transylvania, who,
with the encouragement of his overlord, the Ottoman sultan of Turkey, was hoping
to win the crown of Hungary from the Habsburgs. They also elected FREDERICK V of
the Palatinate as their new king. They hoped that Frederick's father-in-law,
JAMES I of England, and his uncle, MAURICE OF NASSAU, virtual ruler of the
United Provinces of the Netherlands, would lend him support.

Ferdinand called on Poland but especially on his cousins MAXIMILIAN, duke of
Bavaria (leader of the Catholic League of German princes), and on the Habsburg
king of Spain, PHILIP III. On Nov. 8, 1620, Maximilian's general, Graf von
TILLY, defeated the Bohemians at White Mountain near Prague, and Frederick--the
Winter King--lost his crown as suddenly as he had won it. He continued to fight,
employing various mercenary leaders, including Ernst, Graf von MANSFELD, and
relying on some English and a great deal of Dutch help. In 1623, however, the
Palatinate was overrun by Spanish and Bavarian troops, and Frederick's electoral
vote was transferred to Maximilian of Bavaria.

Expansion of the War
--------------------

In 1621 the Dutch and Spanish had renewed the war that had started two
generations previously with the revolt of the Netherlands (see DUTCH REVOLT).
This struggle remained an important factor in the Thirty Years' War. It ranged
to the Caribbean, the South Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. The Dutch captured
the Gold Coast, parts of Angola, and half of Brazil from the Portuguese, only to
lose Angola and Brazil to Portugal, after that kingdom reasserted its
independence from Spain, in 1640.

In Europe, Dutch and Spanish money and military expertise fueled the fighting.
Spanish troops fought in Germany, Italy, and France. The Dutch, with a much
smaller population, preferred to finance military allies. After Frederick's
generals these allies included, first, CHRISTIAN IV of Denmark, who feared the
continued victories of Tilly's armies. In April 1626, Mansfeld met defeat at
Dessau Bridge by a new imperial army raised by a wealthy and ambitious former
Protestant Bohemian, Albrecht von WALLENSTEIN. Four months later Christian was
routed by Tilly at Lutter am Barenberge. With victory apparently in hand,
Emperor Ferdinand issued (Mar. 29, 1629) the Edict of Restitution, which
restored to the Catholic church all property taken by the Protestants since
1552.

After Denmark's withdrawal (May 1629) from the war, however, another
Scandinavian power joined the fray. Encouraged by France, Sweden concluded a
truce with its Baltic rival Poland, and in July 1630 the Swedish king GUSTAV II
ADOLF landed in Pomerania to begin a series of victorious campaigns against the
imperial armies. At Breitenfeld (Sept. 17, 1631) and at the Lech River (Apr. 15,
1632) he defeated Tilly, and at Lutzen (Nov. 16, 1632) the Swedes defeated
Wallenstein, although Gustav Adolf was killed.

Throughout these years, the Catholic King LOUIS XIII of France, the traditional
rival of the house of Habsburg for preeminence in Europe, had observed Tilly's
and Wallenstein's victories with increasing concern, although he had waged
several civil wars against his own Protestant subjects, the Huguenots. Despite
some help from England, the Huguenots were defeated, and France turned to fight
Spain, with only partial success, in northern Italy. After Gustav Adolf's death
and after the Swedes suffered a severe defeat at Nordlingen (Sept. 6, 1634),
France openly declared (1635) war on Spain, in alliance with the United
Provinces, Sweden, and some German Protestant princes.

The ring of alliances was virtually complete; no treaty between any two states,
or even group of states, could now end the war. The intervention of France on
the "Protestant" side cut across the religious alignments of the combatants.

More and more, religious motivation and aims dropped into the background. In
1640 both Catalonia and Portugal rebelled against Spain, although all three were
Catholic. In 1643 the Protestant Christian of Denmark, fearing the increasing
power of Protestant Sweden, restarted the old Danish-Swedish rivalry for the
control of the Sound (Oresund), the northwestern entrance to the Baltic. Once
more the Danes were heavily defeated and lost their monopoly control over the
Sound.

Peace Settlements
-----------------

From 1643 the ambassadors of the combatants met in peace congresses in the
Westphalian cities of Munster and Osnabruck. Because there was no truce, the
relative position of parties continued to change; all wanted to negotiate from
strength. It therefore took 5 years to conclude peace--in January 1648 between
Spain and the United Provinces and in October 1648 between France, Sweden, the
Holy Roman emperor, and the German princes (see WESTPHALIA, PEACE OF). The war
between France and Spain continued until 1659 (Peace of the Pyrenees), with
Britain joining France against Spain in 1656; the wars between Sweden and Poland
and between Sweden and Denmark flared up again and were not settled until 1660
(Peace of Oliva and Peace of Copenhagen).

The Peace of Westphalia solved some problems. The Habsburgs had failed to
Reassert imperial power, and the German princes were left with virtual political
independence and with the right to choose their religion. Their subjects were
given no such choice but were allowed to emigrate. In European power politics,
religion no longer determined alliances, nor did it lead countries into war.
Sweden had become the dominant power in the Baltic, and France had displaced
Spain as the dominant power in western Europe.

The common people bore the real cost of the war. Historians disagree on precise
figures, but in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, the Palatinate,
Wurttemberg, and parts of Bavaria, civilian population losses may have been 50
percent or more. The horrors of the Thirty Years' War lived on in popular memory
as those of no other war in Europe before the 20th century.

The City of Orleans
-------------------

Orleans is a city in north central France, on both banks of the Loire River,
about 112 km (70 mi) southwest of Paris.

The Gallic Genabum was conquered by Caesar in 52 BC and was rebuilt by Emperor
Aurelian as Aurelianum, from which the present name derives. It was the second
leading city in France (after Paris) in the 10th and 11th centuries. The city
is famous for JOAN OF ARC, the peasant girl who drove the English from Orleans
in 1429, ending a siege of nearly a year during the Hundred Years' War. During
the Wars of Religion, Catholics took control of the city in 1572.

More than half of the city was destroyed in World War II, first by the Germans
in 1940 and then by Allied bombing in 1944.

Nautonnier Extraoardinier
Enfants de Saint Magdalen
69th degree of Separation

John XXIII Timothy P.H.de
..
Rock-El

--
* Cf. de Selby: ``Footnotes are loved by academics, not because they are
necessary, but because they are intimations of infinity: prose commenting
on prose adumbrates mind contemplating mind and opens an exuberance of
mirrors.''
--Golden Hours, I, 33

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