Rocroi

On May 19, 1643, a victory came to establish the new authority of the Queen Regent, the first of a long series of French victories which was unbroken till the days of Marlborough and Blenheim.

The Spaniards had crossed the frontier of the Netherlands and were besieging Rocroi.

The command of the French forces was held by the Duke d'Enghien, better known to the world by the title which he afterwards inherited from his father as the Prince of Condé.

Next to Gaston, Duke of Orléans, the late King's brother, he and his father stood first in succession to the throne and had for this reason attached themselves to Richelieu when he was opposed by the great bulk of the aristocracy.

Those who placed him at the head of the army probably expected that a prince so young and so inexperienced would content himself with giving his name to the campaign and would leave the direction of the troops to older heads.

The older heads, after reconnoitering the Spanish position at Rocroi, advised Enghien not to fight.

But there was a certain Gacion among the officers who had served under Gustavus and who had seen the solid legions of Tilly break down before the swift blows of the Swedish King at Breitenfeld.

Gacion had learned to look upon that close Spanish formation with contempt and he strove hard to persuade Enghien to give orders for the attack.

Do you go by these names? asks the superintendent.

My name is Lucien Guillet and I was born in Rocroi in 1874, the concerned party replies.

Do you know two women by the names of Colombe and Buisson? Guillet nods his head in agreement.

These women who you promised to marry disappeared after they followed you to Gombe.

The Spanish branch had lost its old influence in Italy.

Its armies had been shattered at Rocroi and Nördlingen.

It had been compelled through sheer weakness to abandon the struggle with the United Provinces, and it was hampered by domestic troubles.

While the German branch, territorially and politically dissociated from the Spanish, had now to relax completely her failing grasp upon the princes of the Empire and the free towns.

Mazarin was a foreigner, scarce able to speak the language of the country he aspired to rule, and his task was, while his mind was filled with far-off design, to uphold without flinching, sometimes in exile and in danger of his life, at a period when every turbulent and selfish element of political life held riot, the authority of an infant king.

At the outset of their career, the hands of Mazarin and the Queen Regent were strengthened by an opportune event.

On May 19th, 1643, the desperate valor of Enghien and his horsemen swept away the renowned Spanish infantry at Rocroi.

By this feat of arms, which marks the transference of military supremacy from the Spanish to the French race, a luster was thrown upon the policy of Richelieu, which was of course reflected on the new government.

On May 19, 1643, a victory came to establish the new authority of the Queen Regent, the first of a long series of French victories which was unbroken till the days of Marlborough and Blenheim.

The Spaniards had crossed the frontier of the Netherlands and were besieging Rocroi.

The command of the French forces was held by the Duke d'Enghien, better known to the world by the title which he afterwards inherited from his father as the Prince of Condé.

Next to Gaston, Duke of Orléans, the late King's brother, he and his father stood first in succession to the throne and had for this reason attached themselves to Richelieu when he was opposed by the great bulk of the aristocracy.

Those who placed him at the head of the army probably expected that a prince so young and so inexperienced would content himself with giving his name to the campaign and would leave the direction of the troops to older heads.

The older heads, after reconnoitering the Spanish position at Rocroi, advised d'Enghien not to fight.

But there was a certain gasion among the officers who had served under Gustavus and who had seen the solid legions of Tilly break down before the swift blows of the Swedish King at Breitenfeld.

Gassion had learned to look upon that close Spanish formation with contempt, and he strove hard to persuade Enghien to give orders for the attack.

Family interest thrust forward such men as Edward the Black Prince, the fifth Harry of England, and the fourth Henri of France.

This too thrust forward the great Conte to offer to France the first fruits of his heroism when victor at Rocroi at twenty-two.

So too with Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne, Eugene of Savoy, and Frederick the Great.

Family interest not of the most credible kind turned the courtier Churchill into the conquering Marlboro, and his nephew the gallant young Berwick found that being somewhat irregularly the son of an English king helped him much in obtaining the command of the armies of France.