THK STYLES OF HENRY IV. AND LOUIS XIII. 211 



Grand Duke of Tuscany, but also allied himself with England and 

 Holland. 



REIGN OF Louis XIII. AND MINORITY OF Louis XIV. When 

 Henry was assassinated by a fanatic in the streets of Paris (1610), 

 his wise government had restored France to a state of prosperity 

 and order at home and of prestige abroad, and royalty to a degree 

 of popularity scarcely known for a century. These results were 

 compromised by the weak and spendthrift regency of Maria de' 

 Medici, but Louis XIII., on attaining manhood, gave all power 

 into the hands of his astute minister, Cardinal Richelieu (1624), 

 who revived Henry's policy with equal vigour, but less humanity and 

 economy. He checkmated Spain and the Empire, and increased the 

 royal power, extending its control into all departments of life, but in 

 doing so not only curbed the aristocracy but crushed the Huguenots 

 (1628-30), and destroyed constitutional liberties. His death (1642) 

 occurred but one year before that of Louis XIII. Under the regency 

 of Anne of Austria (1643-51) a last stand was made against the abso- 

 lutism of the crown by the Parlement and the Court nobles in the 

 risings of the Fronde (1648-53), which were quelled by a supple Italian, 

 Giulio Mazarini, whom Richelieu has raised to the ministry and car- 

 dinalate, and who maintained himself in power by adroit diplomacy and 

 his ascendancy over the Queen-Mother. He continued the work of his 

 predecessors to such purpose that at his death (1661) he was able to 

 hand over to Louis XIV. a sovereignty feared abroad and unchallenged 

 by any rival power at home. 



BOURBON POLICY IN ART MATTERS. The changed conception 'of 

 royalty under the Bourbons reacted upon the arts. The Valois, animated 

 by a strong personal enjoyment in art, had done much, though fitfully, 

 to encourage it. The Bourbons regarded art as one of the means of 

 giving dignity, and consequently efficiency, to the State, and, beyond that, 

 aimed at extending the control of the administration over artistic, as 

 well as other, matters. This policy reached its fullest development in 

 the reign of Louis XIV. under Colbert, but nearly all this minister's 

 methods had been initiated by Henry IV. and Sully, and continued to 

 some extent by Richelieu and Mazarin. 



Henry IV. was as ardent a builder as any of his predecessors, and 

 almost to the end of the monarchy there was little slackening in the 

 royal building operations. Occupation was thus afforded for a large 

 number of architects, decorators, and craftsmen of all sorts, and the 

 conduct of these works became a highly organised department of the 

 administration. He attempted to reform the trade and craft guilds, 

 introduced and fostered new manufactures of an artistic order, such as 

 those of stamped and gilded leather and of silk fabrics, and founded the 

 royal carpet and tapestry factory of the Savonnerie. He instituted the 



