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PREFACE

THE present volume, as its title imports, relates a complicated series of conflicts of which the origin or the pretext has for the most part to be sought in the great religious schism with which the preceding volume was concerned. But the cause of the restoration of Catholic unity in the West was, in the minds of both the supporters and the opponents of that cause, inextricably interwoven with the purposes of dynastic ambition, and powerfully affected by influences traceable to the rapid advance of the monarchical principle and to the gradual growth of the conception of the modern national State. Although in graver peril than ever before from the persistent advance of the Ottoman Power, Europe no longer finds a real unifying force in either Papacy or Empire. The spiritual ardour of the Catholic Reaction, which might have served to strengthen the resistance to the general enemy of Christendom, is expended largely on internecine conflicts. It allies itself with the settled resolution of Philip of Spain to control the destinies of Western Europe; and thus there is not a phase of the religious and political struggle here described which remains unconnected with the rest. The Religious Wars of France, with an account of which this volume opens, furnish the most complete instance of the constant intersection of native and foreign influences; but it is illustrated by almost every portion of the narrative. Since, therefore, the story of no European country or group of countries in this troubled period admits of being told as detached from the contemporary history of its neighbours, allies, or adversaries, the same series of events must necessarily appear more than once in these pages as forming an organic part of the history of several countries, but treated in each case from a distinct point of view.

Within the division of Modern History treated in this volume falls the adoption by the majority of European governments of the New Style introduced into the Calendar by Pope Gregory XIII. Events which happened in the history of any country after the adoption by it of the New Style are dated in that Style accordingly. For the con

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venience of readers a table showing the several dates of the adoption of the New Style by the chief European governments is printed at the close of this volume.

Among the chapters included in it we are fortunately able to print two, contributed by two eminent historians, whose loss we, in common with all British historical students, deeply deplore. The chapter by the late Mr T. G. Law had the benefit of his own revision; such was not the case with the contribution of the late Professor S. R. Gardiner, one of the earliest received in the course of our undertaking.

It is the intention of the Syndics of the University Press, after the issue of Vol. XII of this History, to supplement its narrative by the publication of a volume of Maps, and by that of another volume containing Genealogies and other auxiliary information, with a General Index to the entire work.

A. W. W.

G. W. P.

CAMBRIDGE,

November, 1904.

S. L.

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