d the _Frondeurs_, as the members of the party were
called, to children with slings, who let fly stones and then
hide or run away.

This outbreak followed closely upon the conclusion of the Peace
of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War. To Mazarin
the great advantages gained by France through that treaty were
mainly due. The whole period is remarkable for its antagonisms
and cross-purposes, and these are brought to view by Hassall
with much subtlety of insight and felicity of observation.

The Peace of Westphalia constitutes an important epoch in the history of
Europe. It marked the close of the struggle in Central and Northern
Europe between the Reformation and Counter-reformation movements, and
the failure of the attempts of Emperor Ferdinand III to form all Germany
into an Austrian and Roman Catholic empire. After the Peace of
Westphalia, commercial rather than religious motives regulated the
policy of the chief states of Europe. But the peace did not merely mark
a revolution in men's ways of thought; it also signalized a remarkable
change in the balance of forces on the Continent. For upward of a
century the Hapsburgs, supreme in Vienna and Madrid, and closely united
by family ties, had threatened to impose their will upon Europe. After
1648 the danger ceased. The weakness of the Emperor and the strength and
independence of the German princes rendered any close union with Spain
impossible, while Spain herself, though she struggled till 1659 against
her impending fate, was already a declining power.

From another point of view, the Peace of Westphalia had a special
interest. It affords an admirable illustration of a successful effort on
the part of the German princes to strengthen their own position at the
expense of the central power. All over Europe the monarchical principle
was being assailed. In Holland the power of the stadtholder depended
entirely on the will of the merchant aristocracy; in England a republic
was shortly to be established; in Italy the revolt of Masaniello seemed
at one time likely to lead to the formation of a Neapolitan government
independent of Spain; and even in Russia aristocratic discontent against
the Czar existed. Thus the movement in France against Mazarin, which
shortly developed into the Fronde struggle, was but one of many similar
manifestations of a general tendency all over Europe to attack
monarchical institutions.

Mazarin w