The State Policy of Modern Europe from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Present Time . (Volume 1) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1857. Excerpt: ... SECOND PERIOD, 1618 TO 1715. HEROIC AGE OF DIPLOMACY, AND COMMENCEMENT OF ITS DECLINE. CHAPTER III. 1618--1648. THE THIRTY YEARS WAR AND. THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. We have now arrived at the threshold of a war, which, but for its comparative proximity to our own times, and the invention of the art of printing, would appear as fabulous as the siege and fall of Troy, and which, though resulting in the far-famed peace of Westphalia, the first fundamental charter of Modern Europe, derives its particular interest more from the incidents and councils with which it is connected than the outward events themselves. No war, perhaps, ever produced either more illustrious rivals on the field, or a greater concourse of deeds, both noble and atrocious, than the Thirty Years' War. The dazzling achievements and heroic death of Gustavus, the wrath and tragic end of Wallenstein, the heart-rending fall of Magdeburg, and the whole desolation of Germany, would be as monotonous and unsatisfactory without the intrigues and wisdom of a Richelieu, as Homer's Iliad would appear, despite the wrath of Achilles, the bravery of Hector, and the fall of Troy, without the councils and intrigues of the gods. With the Protestant Union intimidated and silenced into a truce, and marriage schemes briskly and successfully carried on, on the one hand, between Spain and France, and on the other between Spain and England, --schemes which thus seemed to secure peace in the south and west, while the yet unknown states of the north were a prey to petty wars among themselves, --the throwing out of the window of three imperial councillors at Prague, would have resulted in anything but a long European war, had it not been for the steady purpose, the vast powers and unconquerable will of the ambitious eccl...