[From "The Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 22."]

ART. IV. Briefe aus Paris, zur Erläuterung der Geschichte des sechzehnten und siebzehnten Jahrhunderts. Von FRIEDRICH VON RAUMER.

(Letters from Paris, illustrative of the History of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. By FREDERIC VON RAUMER.) 2 vols. 12mo. Leipzig. 1831.

We have already introduced Raumer to our readers, and can have no need to recall to their recollection his instructive and interesting "History of the Hohenstauffen Emperors," and the period, so important to Europe, during which they reigned. Upon this second occasion of bringing him before the British public, afforded by the present publication, it may be desirable to preface our account of it, with some few details respecting the author.

Friedrich von Raumer is of noble birth; his father was employed in the civil service of Prussia; and the son, after acquiring distinction at the university of Berlin, held several successive appointments in the public service, in which he acquitted himself so satisfactorily, that the Prime Minister Hardenberg received him, not only into his office, but into his own house, there, by daily intercourse, the better to fit him for the discharge of the more important functions of the financial administration. Raumer soon perceived that the high official duties, the path to which seemed opening to him, must engross the energies, mental and physical, of the whole man; and unwilling to abandon his favorite historical pursuits, he requested of his patron and of his sovereign a professor's chair at a Prussian university, instead of one of those exalted posts, for the attainment of which the one half of mankind is ready to tear the other half to pieces. The request was reluctantly granted. In 1811, at the age of thirty, he began his professorial career in the chair of History, at Breslau; in 1819 he was called to Berlin to occupy that of Political Science, which we believe he still holds; enjoying amongst his learned brethren, as well as in the larger circles of the capital, the high celebrity he has acquired as an historian.

This reputation, far from lulling our author to sleep under the shade of his laurels, has, it should seem, stimulated him to further activity. He has long been meditating a History of Europe during the last three centuries, and preparing for his task with the extraordinary industry and judgment for which he is so distinguished. The materials, we understand, are now collected and sifted; the first three volumes are written, and in their progress through the press, whilst the remainder are proceeding as fast as the writer's, we fear, rather delicate health will allow; and we trust it may not be very long ere we have the satisfaction of offering some account of this work to the British public.

The "Letters illustrative of the History of the Sixteenth and Seventeeth Centuries" consist wholly of that portion of the materials for the history of those centuries which the author collected from MSS. at Paris, perhaps we might say, of so much of the very large appendix to his forthcoming work. Of a publication so novel in kind, it seems necessary to relate the origin as given us by we know not whether to say the author or the editor. Raumer visited Paris in 1830 for the express purpose of exploring the MSS. in the Bibliothèque du Roi, in search, as well of additional matter for the history of the Hohenstauffens, as of original matter for the new history he was then meditating. And although during his visit the revolution of July occurred, concerning which this indefatigable writer has published another series of letters, descriptive of the events which then took place, he did not the less devote the allotted time to the MSS., fairly dividing his hours, as he tells us, "between the past and the present." In the library he revelled amidst MSS. nearly unknown to preceding historians; and such of his extracts from these as he deemed most interesting, he determined forthwith to publish. The difficulty lay in the "how"; and we must explain his views in his own words. The letters are addressed to the celebrated Ludwig Tieck, in the first of which he says:

"The detached and insulated extracts were neither capable of being wrought into a connected historical work, nor could I (save at great length, and a disproportionate expense of time,) annex the requisite fillings up and elucidations. In consequence, I adopted the idea of parcelling out my stock into a series of letters, which, indeed, scarcely half deserve that name, but offer other advantages and conveniences. As, for instance, that I may begin and end according to the quantity of matter, and, by writing to you, can address myself to a reader whose accurate knowledge of history will enable him, without further explanation, to understand and arrange everything in its proper connexion with what is already known. At all events, you will see, in my thus dedicating these letters to you, a proof of old and faithful friendship although none such be needed!”

*

"As I have, for the most part, closely followed the MSS., even to the sacrifice of a flowing style, I have, to spare room, only added the words of the original language in cases of importance and difficulty.

The materials thus appropriated, and consisting chiefly of extracts from the correspondence of French and a few Italian diplomatists at different courts, are divided and arranged according to both Geography and Chronology. The first letter, already cited, serves both as a preface and a dedication. The following ten relate to German affairs, including Denmark. The next ten are allotted to Spain; then two to the United Provinces, twenty-four to France, three to Italy, twenty-six to England, and seven to miscellaneous subjects. Of such a heterogeneous mass of matter, to give any thing like an analysis or abstract is manifestly out of the question. The most superficial reader of history must be suffi

ciently aware of what subjects the extracts refer to, from the knowledge of the period they embrace, to wit, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including the great religious wars in Germany and the Netherlands, the grandeur and decline of Spain, the rise of the United Provinces, France from Francis I. to Cardinal Richelieu, and England from Henry VIII. to Charles II. Of the collective character of the extracts, it will be enough to say that they are, for the most part, exceedingly curious. Many are of general interest, as throwing new light upon points long involved in obscurity, or made darker by controversy, or as affording instructive and entertaining illustrations of the known characters of historical personages; whilst others will, it must be owned, appear indifferent to all but the especial historical student. The only way in which we can give our readers a correct and fair notion of these volumes, is to select some one of the most interesting points that Raumer has investigated, and, alternately translating and abstracting, lay before them what he has thereupon brought to light. The first that presents itself, is the fate of Don Carlos, son of Philip II. of Spain

As we are not writing to Ludwig Tieck, we doubt it may be expected of us to add some little of the explanation he did not require, and we shall, therefore, begin by briefly stating what is known, and what has been conjectured, concerning the unfortunate Spanish prince. The certain facts respecting him are merely these that when he had barely attained the age of thirteen, a marriage was arranged between him, and Elizabeth de Valois, daughter of Henry II. of France; that a few months afterwards, Mary of England dying, Philip II., who had then scarcely seen two and thirty summers, took the French princess to himself as his third wife; that during the Netherlands insurrection Carlos fell under his father's displeasure or suspicion, was imprisoned, deprived of arms, and watched with great apparent apprehension of his committing suicide; and that in this captivity he died.

Philip II. was, perhaps, the very beau idéal of intolerant bigotry. In the eyes of contemporary Protestants, he was a sort of avatar of the embodied spirit of cruelty and persecution; whilst even to moderate Catholics his intolerance was repugnant, and to all Europe, setting religious considerations aside, his vast possessions, his seemingly boundless power, and his grasping ambition, rendered him an object of dread. Any action of such a monarch that could be regarded under two aspects, was not likely to be contemplated under the most favorable by foreign historians; and Don Carlos's fate has been conceived and related accordingly. Protestant writers have generally represented the prince as an enthusiast for liberal opinions in religion and politics, who opposed the baneful influence of the Duke of Alva, wished to be appointed Viceroy of the Low Countries, in order to befriend the oppressed Netherlanders, and was, therefore, either put to death by his father's express command, or by him delivered over to the Inquisition, to

be dealt with, according to the tender mercies of that tribunal, as a heretic. French writers, detesting Philip as an enemy to France, but not as yet impassioned for such notions as the Protestants imputed to Carlos, sought a more romantic cause for his misfortunes. They represent him as ardently enamoured (at thirteen!) of his stolen bride, and persevering in his hopeless passion after she had become his stepmother, as tenderly, though innocently, beloved in return by the French Princess, both before and after her marriage, and as abhorred and murdered by his father, through the outrageous jealousy of a suspicious old man (of forty!) with a young wife; which jealousy further prompted Philip a few weeks later to poison his unhappy queen.* This last version of the story, as the most pathetic, has been generally adopted by poets and novelists, and the two combined have afforded to Alfieri, and to Schiller, the subject of their splendid tragedies of "Filippo II.," and "Don Karlos." Spanish historians, on the other hand, depict Don Carlos as deformed in person, vicious in disposition, and weak, if not disordered, in intellect. They ascribe his imprisonment to the double, but thoroughly paternal motive of restraining and of correcting his follies and excesses; and state that he died of a malady, brought on, intentionally or unintentionally, by alternations of immoderate abstinence and as immoderate intemper

ance.

Can it be necessary that we should here pause to comment upon these contradictory statements? Need we direct the reader's attention to the plain, straight-forward probability of the Spanish accounts? Accounts too, given by men who, if they had no access to Philip's cabinet, to his conferences with his most trusted counsellors, or to that more secret cabinet, the recesses of his own mind, where alone his most important resolutions were taken, were yet thoroughly, often personally, acquainted with the character and conduct of Don Carlos; and public report, be it remembered, is generally indulgent to heirs. Need we compare these accounts with the private or the public romance of Philip's enemies? A few words upon the subject may, however, be allowed us. That a prince, esteemed at his father's court half-witted, or half-mad, should have thought himself capable of ruling and tranquillizing an insurgent province, is certainly very possible; but who would be at the trouble of seeking any other motive for the royal father's refusal to intrust such a son with such a charge, except the natural one, of his real unfitness for it, and the certain evils that unfitness must produce to that province? For, be it observed, Philip, however tyrannical, seems to have been honest in his bigotry. He appears to have really believed that he was doing his best to save his subjects' souls, by inflicting tortures on their bodies; and he repeatedly prayed for grace and fortitude to prefer the loss of his

It should be stated, that the Prince of Orange, in his Apology, distinctly charges Philip with the murder of his wife as well as of his son.

realms to power obtained by reigning over heretics or misbeievers. As to the love-tale, the supposititious ardent and lasting assion of a school-boy for a princess whom he had never even seen, is too absurd even to laugh at; and, with regard to the fair oride herself, we suspect that there are few princesses, who, placed in her situation and permitted to choose for themselves, would not prefer a reigning king, in the prime of manhood, to a boy-heir, who could not in the course of nature expect to ascend the throne in less than thirty or forty years. But without further discussion, let us now turn to Raumer, and see what additional light is thrown upon this mysterious transaction, or rather how far the plain Spanish statement is confirmed by his extracts from the letters addressed by the French ambassadors at Philip's court to the brother and the mother of the young queen.

It

The first extract he gives, is, however, from another source. is taken from a relation by the Venetian Badoero, written in 1557, when Carlos was only twelve years old, and gives an account of him from which either a lofty or a savage character, perhaps a mixture of the two, might have been prognosticated. He says, amongst other things, that he had an animo fiero, which Raumer, to our surprise, renders stolzer Sinn, or proud spirit; proud is undoubtedly one meaning of fiero, but fierce is another, and considering that the instances adduced are the young prince's liking to see hares roasted alive, and his biting off the head of a lizard that had bitten his finger, there is, to our mind, little doubt as to the sense in which Badoero used the word. Charles V. is herein represented as much pleased with his grandson; and so he might well be, though it is certain that he was perfectly aware of his faults, and charged Philip not to let the Netherlanders see him until he should be better behaved.

At

In 1561, Guibert, the French ambassador, announces to Catherine of Medicis the hopeless state of the prince's health. In November of the same year we find him, still far from well, sent to study at Alcalà, with Don Juan of Austria, and the Prince of Parma; and learn, still from Guibert, that the Queen of Bohemia had written to Queen Isabel, as, in compliance with Spanish custom, we must henceforward call Elizabeth de Valois, to propose a marriage between her daughter, the Archduchess Anne, and the Prince of Spain; a proposal which Isabel did not encourage, because she wished to unite her step-son to her own sister. Alcalà, Carlos, who had now, in May, 1562, completed his seventeenth year, and whose passions of all sorts were alike unbridled, in stealing out by some unfrequented way to visit the pretty daughter of a gardener, fell down stairs and dangerously injured his head. His life was long despaired of; St. Sulpice,, a new French ambassador, writes on the 10th of May that he is to be trepanned; and some Spanish historians relate that Philip effected his cure miraculously, through the personal intervention of a peculiarly holy image of the Blessed Virgin. It should seem that the cure scarcely ex