In the next reign, however, an effort was made to secure greater
equality of burthens. On the meeting of the States-General--the only
popular assembly possessed by France--Louis XIII., however, after
hearing the complaints, and promising to consider them, shut the
doors against the deputies, made no further answer, and dismissed
them to their houses without the slightest redress. The Assembly was
never to meet again till the day of reckoning for all, a hundred and
seventy years later.
Under the mighty hand of Cardinal Richelieu the nobles were still
more effectually crushed, and the great course of foreign war begun,
which lasted, with short intervals, for a century. The great man
died, and so did his feeble master; and his policy, both at home and
abroad, was inherited by his pupil Giulio Mazarini, while the regency
for the child, Louis XIV., devolved on his mother, Anne of Austria--a
pious and well-meaning, but proud and ignorant, Spanish Princess--who
pinned her faith upon Mazarin with helpless and exclusive devotion,
believing him the only pilot who could steer her vessel through
troublous waters.
But what France had ill brooked from the high-handed son of her
ancient nobility was intolerable from a low-born Italian, of graceful
but insinuating manners. Moreover, the war increased the burthens of
the country, and, in the minority of the King, a stand was made at
last.
The last semblance of popular institutions existed in the Parliaments
of this was the old feudal Council of the Counts of Paris, consisting
of the temporal and spiritual peers of the original county, who had
the right to advise with their chief, and to try the causes
concerning themselves.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25