The History of Modern Europe, from the Commencement of the Sixteenth Century to the Year 1850

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Partridge & Oakley, 1851 - Europe - 332 pages
 

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Page 25 - To these were added religion, which mingled itself with every passion and institution during the Middle Ages, and, by infusing a large proportion of enthusiastic zeal, gave them such force as carried them to romantic excess. Men were trained to knighthood by a long previous discipline ; they were admitted into the order by solemnities no less devout than pompous.
Page 24 - European nations. The feudal state was a state of almost perpetual war, rapine, and anarchy, during which the weak and unarmed were exposed to insults or injuries. The power of the sovereign was too limited to prevent these wrongs; and the administration of justice too feeble to redress them.
Page 28 - They derived such advantages from this union, that other towns acceded to their confederacy, and in a short time eighty of the most considerable cities scattered through those extensive countries which stretch from the bottom of the Baltic to Cologne on the Rhine, joined in the famous Hanseatic league, which became so formidable, that its alliance was courted, and its enmity was dreaded by the greatest monarchs.
Page 140 - Orange should be declared King and Queen of England...
Page 74 - She then prepared for the block, by taking off her veil and upper garments ; and one of the executioners rudely endeavouring to assist, she gently checked him, and said with a smile, that she had not been accustomed to undress before so many spectators, nor to be served by such valets.
Page 139 - If, therefore, any future prince should endeavour to subvert the constitution by breaking the original contract between king and people, should violate the fundamental laws, and should withdraw himself out of the kingdom; we are now authorized to declare that this conjunction of circumstances would amount to an abdication, and the throne would be thereby vacant.
Page 75 - Effingham, a man oi great courage and capacity as lord admiral, took upon him the command of the navy. Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher, the most renowned seamen in Europe, served under him ; while a small squadron, consisting of forty vessels, English and Flemish, commanded by Lord Seymour, lay off Dunkirk, in order to intercept the Duke of Parma.
Page 19 - Europe ; and to these wild expeditions — the effect of superstition or folly— we owe the first gleams of light which tended to dispel barbarism and ignorance.
Page 23 - ... period when ecclesiastics carried on their encroachments with the greatest success. That scanty portion of science, which served to guide men in the ages of darkness, was almost entirely engrossed by the clergy. They alone were accustomed to read, to inquire, and to reason. Whatever knowledge of ancient jurisprudence had been preserved, either by tradition, or in such books as had escaped the destructive rage of barbarians, was possessed by them. Upon the maxims of that" (comparatively) "excellent...
Page 17 - The king or general, who led them to conquest, continuing still to be the head of the colony, had, of course, the largest portion allotted to him. Having thus acquired the means of rewarding past services, as well as...

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