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was taken; Soubise fled to England. But the car

dinal was threatened by court intrigues and did

not follow up his advantage, renewing the settle

ment of Montpellier (February, 1626). The Protes

tant refugees in England resumed the conflict with

the aid of Buckingham, the favorite of Charles I.

An English fleet disembarked a force on the Island of

Rk in July, 1627. Richelieu displayed a prodigious

activity in collecting vessels of war, munitions, and

provisions, and forced the English to withdraw.

Then began the protracted siege of La Rochelle,

the stronghold of the Huguenots. Rochelle was not

an easy place to take; on the land side it was pro

tected by marshes and formidable fortifications,

and its harbor enabled it to reach the open sea.

Among the famous Huguenot leaders within the

city were the mayor Guiton, the admiral of the

Protestant fleet, the pastor Salbert, and the intrepid

dowager duchess of Rohan, who despite her eighty

years displayed amazing resolution and activity.

Richelieu, with a force of 25,000 men, blockaded

the place and threw up a line of entrenchments.

The greatest difficulty was to close the port to

outside assistance. In spite of the winter storms a

tremendous mole over 1,400 paces long was built

across the harbor. Two English relief fleets were

unable to force this colossal barrier. When all hope

of deliverance failed and the city was reduced to

starvation, Rochelle surrendered, on Oct. 28, 1628.

The historic city was condemned to lose its munici

pal privileges and franchises and to have its walls

razed. The war continued in the C6vennes, where

Henri Rohan for a time held out with the moun

taineer Calvinists and the aid of Spain-a most

anomalous alliance. The Edict of Nimes (q.v.) fixed

anew the situation of the Huguenots. The Edict

of Nantes (q.v.) was maintained in so far as it

guaranteed liberty of conscience and liberty of wor

ship, but the Huguenot strongholds were sur

rendered and their political assemblies forbidden.

The Protestants as a political party ceased to exist.

Since the death of Henry IV. in 1610 the chief

obstacle to the regular exercise of the royal au

thority had been the factions and the hopes of the

noblesse. The whole ministry of Richelieu was

filled with the conflict against them.

3. Struggle The cardinal has been accused of hav

Against ing been a bitter enemy of the privi

Conspiracy. leged order, but this is a mistake.

"It is necessary to consider the no

blesse as one of the chief sinews of the state," he

wrote in his "Political Testament." What he did

exact was obedience and the abandonment of

political activity by the nobles. Most of the in

trigues and plots against Richelieu were hatched

at court, and the instigators or accomplices were

often members of the royal family. Gaston of

Orl6ans, who for a long time had cherished the

hope of succeeding his brother, was the soul of all

these conspiracies; another was the queen-mother,

Marie de Medici, who became an implacable enemy

of the cardinal after his elevation. A third was the

queen herself, Anne of Austria, whose secret cor

respondenee with Spain Richelieu stopped. Mother,

wife, and brother brought all the pressure they

could upon Louis XIII. to dismiss his minister.