Richelieu did but carry out the policy on which Henry
IV. had determined: and when the two branches of the Austrian family had
united their powers, and it seemed that the effect of their reunion
would be to place Europe at their command, the great Cardinal-Duke had
no choice but to follow the ancient course of France. But the contest on
which he entered, though in one sense fatal to his enemy, was not
decided in his time, nor till he had been in his grave more than sixty
years. He died just before the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV., and
that monarch took up and continued the contest which Richelieu may be
said to have renewed. For an unusually long period the Bourbons were
successful, though without fully accomplishing their purpose. From the
battle of Rocroy, in 1643, to the battle of Blenheim, in 1704, France
was the first nation of Europe, and the Bourbons could boost of having
humiliated the Hapsburgs. They obtained the crowns of Spain and the
Indies; and the Spanish crowns are yet worn by a descendant of Louis le
Grand, while another family reigns in France. But Spain and her
dependencies apart, all was changed by the result at Blenheim. The
Austrian house was there saved, and re-established; and it was there
that the policy of Richelieu had its final decision.
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