CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
I.Europe at the beginning of the Seventeenth Century,[1]
II.France under Henry iv.,[14]
III.The Counter-Reformation and religious troubles in Germany,[39]
IV.The beginning of the Thirty Years’ War,[53]
V.The Thirty Years’ War from the peace of Lübeck to the peace of Prague,[78]
VI.The aggrandisement of France,[106]
VII.France under Richelieu and Mazarin,[133]
VIII.Northern Europe to the treaty of Oliva,[166]
IX.Louis xiv. and Colbert,[185]
X.Louis xiv. and the United Provinces,[207]
XI.Louis xiv. and William iii.,[235]
XII.South-eastern Europe,[266]
XIII.The Northern Nations from the treaty of Oliva to the peace of Utrecht,[290]
XIV.The Partition Treaties and the Grand Alliance,[312]
XV.The War of the Spanish Succession and the death of Louis xiv.,[342]