Author: F. M. Nikal

Publisher: Theclassics.Us

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 58

ISBN-13: 9781230313931

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 edition. Excerpt: ... LOUIS XIV. 1643--1715. Part I. Louis XIV. was only five years old when he ascended the throne. Anne of Austria, supported by the Duke de Vendome, his son (the Due de Beaufort), and the Duke of Orleans, easily broke the will of Louis XIII., and took the power into her own hands. During four years her reign prospered. The war with Austria was continued, and five days after the death of Louis XIII., the Due d'Enghien, a youth of twenty-one years of age, won the battle of Rocroi over the Spanish infantry. In 1644 he gained another victory over the Imperialist general Mercy, at Fribourg. Mercy, however, defeated Turenne, in May, 1645, and d'Enghien was ordered to the Rhine to repair this defeat; Gassion and Turrenne commanded under his orders. Mercy had fortified himself near Nordlingen, in Bavaria, aided by the famous John der Werth. The conflict was long and desperate, and d'Enghien despaired of victory, but Mercy was .slain and the enemy forced to retreat. Conde took Dunkirk, but failed at the siege Lerida. He repaired his defeat by gaining the battle of Lens, 1648. Before the engagement he cried out to his troops, "Friends, remember Rocroi, Fribourg, and Nordlingen." The treaty of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years war in Germany; it secured to France the possession of Alsace, Metz, Toul, and Verdun. "The War of the Thirty Years was the last struggle sustained for the cause of the reformed religion, which, for a hundred years, had served as a pretext for all the trouble that had overwhelmed Europe, from the revolt of the peasants of Swabia, under Charles V., to the peace of Westphalia. It is usually divided into four periods: 1st, the Palatinate, from the defenestration of Prague to the ruin of the Elector Frederick; 2nd, the Danish...