e 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