England and Germany, established a printing-press at Moscow, and raised the standing army of the Strelitzes to curb his turbulent nobles. It was in his reign that Siberia was discovered and annexed to the Russian dominions, but the complete reduction of that country belongs to the reign of his son Fédor (A. D. 1587), who founded the city of Tobolsk.

On the death of Fédor, without any issue (A. D. 1598), Russia was involved in a series of calamitous civil wars, which ended in the elevation of Michael Fedrowetsch to the crown. He found his dominions exhausted by the late commotions, and could only procure peace from Sweden and Poland by the cession of many valuable provinces (A. D. 1634).

During the reigns of the Jagellons, Poland was one of the most flourishing northern powers. The reformation was favored by Sigismond Augustus II., the last of this dynasty; but the want of a middle order of society, which has ever been the cause of Polish misery, prevented evangelical principles from taking deep root in the country, and producing the benefits that had resulted from them in other states. When the male line of the Jagellons became extinct on the death of Sigismond (A. D. 1572), the throne of Poland became elective (without any restriction), and the right of voting was given to all the nobles, who met in arms to choose a sovereign. These elections were generally marked with violence and bloodshed; but though the nobles were divided among themselves, they readily united to restrict the royal authority; every sovereign, on his accession, was obliged to sign certain capitulations, which greatly limited his rule, and secured the chief powers of the state to the aristocracy. Under its new constitution, Poland was internally weak and miserable, though some of its monarchs still distinguished themselves by foreign conquests, especially Vladislaus IV., who wrested the dutchy of Smolensko from Russia.

SECTION XII.-Progress of the Turkish Power in Europe.

THE successors of Mohammed II. on the throne of Constantinople imitated the vigorous policy of that conqueror, and for nearly a century were the terror of Christendom. Bayezíd II. subdued Bessarabia, and acquired some important provinces in Asia. He was forced to resign the throne by his son Selim (A. D. 1510), and was murdered in prison. Selim I., surnamed Gavúz, or the Savage, was obliged to maintain the throne Le had so criminally gained, by a series of sanguinary wars with the other members of his family. Having triumphed over these competitors, he turned his arms against the Persians, and gained a complete victory over Ismael Sofí at Tabríz (A. D. 1514). In consequence of this and other successes, Diarbekr and several other provinces beyond the Tigris were annexed to the Turkish empire. The Mameluke sultans of Egypt having assisted the Persians in this war, Selim led an army into Syria, and encountered Sultan Gaurí near Aleppo. After a sanguinary engagement, the Mamelukes were defeated and their leader slain, upon which Aleppo and Damascus submitted to the Turks. This

• See page 486.

success opened the way for invading Egypt: Túmán Bey, who had been elected sultan in place of Gaurí, assembled the remnants of the Mamelukes under the walls of Cairo, and having procured some auxiliary forces from the Arabs, prepared to meet the enemy. Selim advanced steadily, and attacked the hostile camp. The battle was obstinate and bloody, but the superior fire of the Turkish artillery, which was served principally by Christian gunners, decided the fate of the day; and Túmán Bey, after having done everything that could be expected from an able officer and a brave warrior, was driven into Cairo (A. D. 1517). Selim stormed the city; but Túmán, not yet disheartened, fled across the Nile, and by incredible exertions once more collected an army. The Turks pursued him closely, and forced him to a final engagement, in which the Mamelukes were utterly routed, and their gallant sultan taken prisoner. Selim was at first disposed to spare the captive, but his officers, who feared and envied Túmán, persuaded him that such clemency might inspire the Mamelukes with the hope of recovering their dominions, and the unfortunate sultan was hanged at the principal gate of Cairo.

Soleyman, usually surnamed the Magnificent, succeeded his father Selim, and emulous of the fame acquired by the conquest of Egypt, resolved to turn his arms against the princes of Christendom. Hungary, during the reign of Matthew Corvinus, had become a powerful and flour ishing kingdom. Inspired by the example of his father, the renowned Hunniades, Corvinus wrested Bosnia from the Turks, and maintained his supremacy over Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia. But during the reigns of his indolent successors, Uladislaus II. and Louis, who were also kings of Bohemia, Hungary was distracted by factions, and ravaged by the Turks. Soleyman took advantage of the minority of Louis, and the weakness of Hungary, to invade the kingdom. He captured, with little difficulty, the important fortress of Belgrade, justly deemed the bulwark of Christian Europe (A. D. 1521). Inspired by his first success, he returned to the attack; having traversed the Danube and the Drave, without meeting any resistance, he encountered the Christians in the field of Mohatz, and gained over them one of the most signal victories that the Turks ever won (A. D. 1526). King Louis, and the principal part of the Hungarian nobility, fell in this fatal battle, the entire country was laid at the mercy of the invaders; but Soleyman, instead of securing a permanent conquest, laid waste the land with fire and sword, and carried myriads of the inhabitants as slaves to Constantinople.

A triumph of even greater importance was gained by the Turks during the Hungarian war. Rhodes, the seat of the heroic knights of St. John, was besieged by Soleyman's vizier. All the arts of assault and defence that had yet been devised by human ingenuity were used in this siege, which lasted more than five months. The assailants and the garrison fought with such fury that it seemed a contest rather for the empire of the world than the possession of a single city. The sultan himself came in person to superintend the operations of his army, while the knights were not only neglected by the Christian powers, but exposed to the open hostilities of the Venetians. They protracted their resistance until every wall and bulwark had crumbled beneath the over

whelming fire of the Turkish batteries, when they surrendered on hon orable conditions; and on Christmas day (A. D. 1522), Soleyman made his triumphant entry into what had been a city, but was now a shapeless mass of ruins.

On the death of Louis, Ferdinand of Austria, who had married the sister of the unfortunate monarch, claimed the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia. He received quiet possession of the latter kingdom; but the Hungarians chose for their sovereign John Zapolya, prince palatine of Transylvania. Zapolya, finding himself unable to resist the power of Ferdinand, claimed the protection of the Turks. Soleyman marched ir. person to his aid, and, not satisfied with expelling the Austrians from Hungary, pursued them into their own country, and laid siege to Vienna (A. D. 1529). He failed in this enterprise, and was compelled to retreat after having lost eighty thousand men.

The emperor Charles V., alarmed at the progress of the Turks, tried to form a general confederation of the German princes against them, but found that the troubles occasioned by the progress of the Reformation would prevent any cordial union. He resolved, however, to check the growth of their naval power in the Mediterrenean, where Khair-ed-dín,* or Barbarossa, a pirate whom Soleyman had taken into his service, captured Tunis and Algiers, and was collecting a formidable naval force. Charles took advantage of Soleyman's being engaged in conquering the pachalic of Bagdad from the Persians, to invade Africa, where he made himself master of Tunis. Soleyman, returning victorious from Asia, was so enraged at his losses in Africa, that he resolved to attempt the conquest of Italy. The imprudence of a Venetian captain turned the wrath of the sultan upon the republic of Venice; he attacked two Turkish galleys in the Adriatic, for some mistake about their signals, and satisfaction being refused, Soleyman proclaimed war.

But while thus engaged in the west, Soleyman did not neglect the enlargement of his eastern dominions. His generals conquered the whole of Arabia, and his admirals issuing from the Red sea, attacked but without success, the Portuguese dominions in India. In the mean. time the Venetian senate entered into an alliance with the emperor Charles V., and the pope, Paul III.; their united navies were placed under the command of the celebrated Doria, but his success was fai from according with the expectations that the allies had formed. The war, however, led to no decisive result; it was suspended by occa sional truces, during which Soleyman took the opportunity of enlarging his Asiatic dominions at the expense of Persia.

The knights of St. John, expelled from Rhodes, obtained a settlement in the island of Malta; they directed their attention to naval affairs, and inflicted severe damages on the Turks by sea. Soleyman, roused by the complaints of his subjects, resolved that Malta should share the fate of Rhodes, and collected all his forces for the siege (A. D. 1565). The knights maintained their character for obstinate valor with more success than on the former occasion: after a sanguinary contest for five months, the Turks were forced to retire, with the loss of twenty-four thousand men and all their artillery. Soleyman prepared to take revenge by comKhair-ed-din signifies "the goodness of the faith." This terror of the Christians was named Barbarossa, on account of his "red beard."

pleting the conquest of Hungary; but while besieging Sigeth, he fell a victim to disease, produced by old age and fatigue (A. D. 1566), after having raised the Turkish empire to the highest pitch of its greatness.

Selim II., soon after his accession, made peace with the Germans and Persians, but renewed war with the Venetians, from whom he took the important island of Cyprus (A. D. 1571). But while the Turkish army was thus engaged, their fleet was utterly destroyed in the battle of Lepanto, by the allied Venetian, imperial, and papal navy. The allies neglected to improve their victory, and Selim soon repaired his losses. But this sultan sank into the usual indolence of oriental sovereigns, his successors followed his example, and the Ottoman power began rapidly to decline. The Austrian rulers became convinced of the impolicy of harsh measures, and conceded to the Hungarians full security for their political and religious liberties, at the diet of Presburg. Hungary was henceforth united to Austria, and the last war, directly resulting from he Reformation, happily terminated.

CHAPTER VII.

THE AUGUSTAN AGES OF ENGLAND AND
FRANCE.

SECTION I.-State of the Continental Kingdoms after the Peace of Westphalia.

THOUGH the treaty of Westphalia restored tranquillity to northern Europe and Germany, France and Spain continued the war in which they had originally but a secondary share, with all the obstinacy of principals. At the same time, France was distracted by civil broils less fatal than those of England, but scarcely less sanguinary. The prime mover in these disturbances was the coadjutor-archbishop of Paris, afterward known as the Cardinal de Retz; he wished to gain the post of prime minister from Cardinal Mazarine, and he induced several princes of the blood, with a large portion of the nobility, to espouse his quarrel. The parliaments of France resembled those of England only in name; they were colleges of justice, not legislative assemblies, and the members purchased their seats. This was the body with which Retz commenced his operations; instigated by the ambitious prelate, the parliament of Paris thwarted all the measures of the queen-regent and her minister, until Anne of Austria, irritated by such factious opposition, ordered the president and one of the most violent councillors to be arrested. Her orders were scarcely executed when the populace arose, barricaded the streets, threatened the cardinal and the regent, and procured the release of the prisoners. Alarmed by the repetition of similar outrages, the queen, attended by her children and her minister, retired from Paris to St. Germains, where their distress was so great that they were obliged to pawn the crown jewels to procure the common necessaries of life. These intrigues led to a desultory civil war, which began to assume a serious aspect after the arrest of the ambitious duke of Condé, who had repeatedly insulted the queen and the cardinal; the factious took up arms in all the provinces, and the duke of Orleans, uncle to the young king, placed himself at the head of the malcontents (A. D. 1650). Mazarine was unable to resist the confederacy; he liberated Condé and his associates, in the vain hope of conciliating their favor, but was obliged to fly to Cologne, where he continued to govern the queen-regent as if he had never quitted Paris. By his intrigues, which were now seconded by de Retz, the duke of Bouillon, and his brother Turenne, were detached from the confederates, and by their aid Mazarine was enabled to enter the kingdom at the head of an army, and resume his former authority. Condé, proclaimed a traitor by the parliament of Paris, threw himself upon the