282 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY Switzerland was also formally acknowledged. Nevertheless, before the middle of the century Holland ranked as the most Dutch and considerable of the maritime powers, though her English. claim to that position was challenged by England immediately after the close of the Civil War. The energy which created for the English parliament troops which were a match for any in Europe restored her fleet also to the position which it had held at the end of Elizabeth's reign. It cannot be said that either English or Dutch could prove a clear superiority, but no one else could pretend to rival either. In virtue of the fleet, the little group of provinces which had fought so stubbornly against the might of Spain was able to take rank with the first- class European powers. Spain, though she was at no time during the seventeenth century an efficient power, generally succeeded in persuading herself and the world that she was still to be dreaded, and her recovery would in fact have been perfectly possible under vigorous rulers free from the domination of the clergy. But such power as she possessed was steadily on the wane, and she did little beyond distracting the attention of France and England from the war in Germany. In 1740 the house of Braganza reasserted its claim to the Portuguese Crown, which it recovered largely by French assistance after a prolonged struggle. Both in Sicily and in Naples there were popular revolts against the Spanish rule, though in both the government succeeded with some difficulty in recovering its authority. With the exception of Holland, the one power which actually advanced its position in Europe during this period was France. 7 France ^he act ^ ve intervention of Richelieu in the Thirty under Years' War was checked by the Huguenot revolt. Richelieu. rp^ j e( j tQ ^ j on g s e g e ending in the capture of La Rochelle, the great fortress and port of the Huguenots. Its overthrow broke the Huguenot resistance, but was not used for The the destruction of that party. The earlier treaties Huguenots. had left them in complete military control of several fortified cities, of which they were now deprived; but their ordinary rights as citizens remained to them. But the cardinal's determination to check abuses of administration were extremely
