however, disputed this inheritance, and carried off the young René and his mother, but on the intervention of Louis XI. had to set them at liberty. René helped the Swiss during their wars with Charles the Bold, who invaded Lorraine and was killed under the walls of Nancy (1477). René’s last years were mainly spent in expeditions in Provence and Italy. He died in 1508, leaving by his second wife three sons—Anthony, called the Good, who succeeded him; Claude, count (and afterwards duke) of Guise, the ancestor of the house of Guise; and John (d. 1550), known as the cardinal of Lorraine. Anthony, who was declared of age at his father’s death by the estates of Lorraine, although his mother had tried to seize the power as regent, had been brought up from the age of twelve at the French court, where he became the friend of Louis XII., whom he accompanied on his Italian expeditions. In 1525 he had to defend Lorraine against the revolted Alsatian peasants known as rustauds (boors), whom he defeated at Lupstein and Scherweiler; and he succeeded in maintaining a neutral position in the struggle between Francis I. of France and the emperor Charles V. He died on the 14th of June 1544, and was succeeded by his son Francis I., who died of apoplexy (August 1545) at the very moment when he was negotiating peace between the king of France and the emperor.
Lorraine in Modern Times.—Francis’s son Charles III. or II., called the Great, succeeded under the tutelage of his mother and Nicholas of Vaudemont, bishop of Metz. Henry II. of France took this opportunity to invade Lorraine, and in 1552 seized the three bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun. In the same year the emperor laid siege to Metz, but was forced to retreat with heavy loss before the energetic resistance of Duke Francis of Guise. On leaving Lorraine, Henry II. took Charles to France, brought him up at the court and married him to his daughter Claude. After the accession of Francis II., the young duke returned to Lorraine, and, while his cousins the Guises endeavoured to make good the claims of the house of Lorraine to the crown of France by virtue of its descent from the Carolingians through Charles, the son of Louis d’Outremer, he devoted himself mainly to improving the administration of his duchy. He reconstituted his domain by revoking the alienations irregularly granted by his predecessors, instructed his chambre des comptes to institute inquiries on this subject, and endeavoured to ameliorate the condition of industry and commerce by reorganizing the working of the mines and saltworks, unifying weights and measures and promulgating edicts against vagabonds. His duchy suffered considerably from the passage of German bands on their way to help the Protestants in France, and also from disturbances caused by the progress of Calvinism, especially in the neighbourhood of the three bishoprics. To combat Calvinism Charles had recourse to the Jesuits, whom he established at Pont-à Mousson, and to whom he gave over the university he had founded in that town in 1572. To this foundation he soon added chairs of medicine and law, the first professor of civil law being the maître des requêtes, the Scotsman William Barclay, and the next Gregory of Toulouse, a pupil of the jurist Cujas. Charles died on the 14th of May 1608, and was succeeded by his eldest son Henry II., called the Good, who rid Lorraine of the German bands and died in 1624 without issue.
Henry was succeeded by his brother Francis II., who abdicated on the 26th of November 1624 in favour of his son Charles IV. or III. At the beginning of the reign of Louis XIII. Charles embroiled himself with France by harbouring French malcontents. Louis entered Lorraine, and by the treaty of Vic (31st of December 1631) bound over Charles to desist from supporting the enemies of France, and compelled him to cede the fortress of Marsal. Charles’s breach of this treaty led to a renewal of hostilities, and the French troops occupied St Mihiel, Bar-le-duc, Pont-à-Mousson and Nancy, which the duke was forced to cede for four years (1633). In 1632, by the treaty of Liverdun, he had already had to abandon the fortresses of Stenay and Clermont in Argonne. On the 19th of January 1634 he abdicated in favour of his younger brother Francis Nicholas, cardinal of Lorraine, and withdrew to Germany, the parlement of Paris declaring him guilty of rebellion and confiscating his estates. After vain attempts to regain his estates with the help of the emperor, he decided to negotiate with France; and the treaty of St Germain (29th of March 1641) re-established him in his duchy on condition that he should cede Nancy, Stenay and other fortresses until the general peace. This treaty he soon broke, joining the Imperialists in the Low Countries and defeating the French at Tuttlingen (December 1643). He was restored, however, to his estates in 1644, and took part in the wars of the Fronde. He was arrested at Brussels in 1654, imprisoned at Toledo and did not recover his liberty until the peace of the Pyrenees in 1659. On the 28th of February 1661 the duchies of Lorraine and Bar were restored to him by the treaty of Vincennes, on condition that he should demolish the fortifications of Nancy and cede Clermont, Saarburg and Pfalzburg. In 1662 Hugues de Lionne negotiated with him the treaty of Montmartre, by which Charles sold the succession to the duchy to Louis XIV. for a life-rent; but the Lorrainers, perhaps with the secret assent of their prince, refused to ratify the treaty. Charles, too, was accused of intriguing with the Dutch, and was expelled from his estates, Marshal de Créqui occupying Lorraine. He withdrew to Germany, and in 1673 took an active part in the coalition of Spain, the Empire and Holland against France. After an unsuccessful invasion of Franche-Comté he took his revenge by defeating Créqui at Conzer Brücke (11th of August 1675) and forcing him to capitulate at Trier. On the 18th of September 1675 died this adventurous prince, who, as Voltaire said, passed his life in losing his estates. His brother Francis, in favour of whom he had abdicated, was a cardinal at the age of nineteen and subsequently bishop of Toul, although he had never taken orders. He obtained a dispensation to marry his cousin, Claude of Lorraine, and died in 1670. He had one son, Charles, who in 1675 took the title of duke of Lorraine and was recognized by all the powers except France. After an unsuccessful attempt to seize Lorraine in 1676, Charles vainly solicited the throne of Poland, took an active part in the wars in Hungary, and married Eleanor of Austria, sister of the emperor Leopold I., in 1678. At the treaty of Nijmwegen France proposed to restore his estates on condition that he should abandon a part of them; but Charles refused, and passed the rest of his life in Austria, where he took part in the wars against the Turks, whom he defeated at Mohacz (1687). He died in 1690.
Leopold, Charles’s son and successor, was restored to his estates by the treaty of Ryswick (1697), but had to dismantle all the fortresses in Lorraine and to disband his army with the exception of his guard. Under his rule Lorraine flourished. While diminishing the taxes, he succeeded in augmenting his revenues by wise economy. The population increased enormously during his reign—that of Nancy, for instance, almost trebling itself between the years 1699 and 1735. Leopold welcomed French immigrants, and devoted himself to the development of commerce and industry, particularly to the manufacture of stuffs and lace, glass and paper. He was responsible, too, for the compilation of a body of law which was known as the “Code Léopold.” Some time after his death, which occurred on the 27th of March 1729, his heir Francis III. was betrothed to Maria Theresa of Austria, the daughter and heiress of the emperor Charles VI. France, however, could not admit the possibility of a union of Lorraine with the Empire; and in 1735, at the preliminaries of Vienna, Louis XV. negotiated an arrangement by which Francis received the duchy of Tuscany, which was vacant by the death of the last Medici, in exchange for Lorraine, and Stanislaus Leszczynski, the dethroned king of Poland and father-in-law of Louis XV., obtained Lorraine, which after his death would pass to his daughter—in other words, to France. These arrangements were confirmed by the treaty of Vienna (18th of November 1738). In 1736, by a secret agreement, Stanislaus had abandoned the financial administration of his estates to Louis XV. for a yearly subsidy. The intendant, Chaumont de la Galaizière, was instructed to apply the French system of taxation in Lorraine; and in spite of the severity of
