but, in consequence of the disputes, which arose on the succession to the dutchies of Cleves and Juliers, the religious differences broke out with fresh animosity:—­the Protestant princes formed a confederacy called the Evangelical Union, and placed, at its head, the Elector Palatine; the Catholics formed a confederacy called the Catholic League, and placed, at its head, the Duke of Bavaria.  In the year 1618, they burst into open war; every state in Europe, and even the Ottoman princes, at one time or other, took a part in it.  France was the soul of the Protestant cause; she assisted it with her armies, and her subsidies:—­it may be truly said, that, if there be a Protestant state from the Vistula to the Rhine, or a Mahometan, state between the Danube and the Mediterranean, its existence is owing to the Bourbon monarchs.  From the period of its duration, it has been called the WAR OF THIRTY YEARS:  it is divided, by its Palatine, Danish, Swedish, and French periods.

[Sidenote:  CHAP.  XI. 1634-1645.]

1.  Frederick, the fifth Elector Palatine of that name, being elected King of Bohemia, by the states of that kingdom, made war on the emperor Ferdinand the Second.  Being defeated in 1620, at the battle of Prague, and abandoned by his allies, he was driven from Bohemia, and deprived of his other states.

2.  Christian the Fourth of Denmark, then placed himself at the head of the confederacy against the emperor; but, having in 1626, lost the battle of Lutter, in which Tilly commanded the Austrian forces; he signed, three years after that event, a separate peace with the emperor.

In the following year, Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, was placed at the head of the confederacy.  Their cause appeared desperate:  Walstein, the Austrian general, had been uniformly successful, and almost the whole of Germany had submitted to the emperor:  but the Austrians soon experienced a severe reverse of fortune.

[Sidenote:  Embassy of Grotius to the Court of France.]

3.  Lewis XIII filled at that time, the throne of France; his councils were guided by Cardinal Richelieu, one of the ablest statesmen that has appeared upon the theatre of the world.  Vast, but provident in his designs; daring, but considerate in his operations; capable of the largest views and the most minute attentions; he formed three immense projects, and succeeded in all.

“When your Majesty,” he thus addresses the monarch in his celebrated Testament Politique, “resolved at the same time to admit me into your councils, and to give me a great portion of your confidence, I can say with truth that the Hugonots divided the state with you; that the great, conducted themselves, as if they were not your subjects, and the governors of the provinces, as if they were the sovereigns of them; and that France was contemned by her foreign allies.”