VII.] THE RELIGIOUS WARS. 129 for llie increase of the royal power at home. All his vast abilities were devoted to enlarging the power of the French crown, while he made its actual wearer one of his most obedient serva^nts, not out of love, but out of fear and helplessness. He allowed the king a personal friend, generally an insignificant youth ; but, as soon as the king and his companion showed any signs of a wish to shake off the yoke, the favourite was sure to fall, and the loss was borne with strange indifference. But Lewis was quite untainted with the usual royal vices ; he was religious and conscientious, and failed only from want of capacity and sluggishness of feeling which made him hard and dull. 28. The Siege of Rochelle, 1626. — In 1625 the king's sister Henrietta Maria was married to Charles the First of England. George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who came over to bring the bride to England, gave great offence at court by his presumptuous behaviour towards the queen. He then set on foot secret negotiations with the D'tike of Rohan, the leading Huguenot noble, and his party were encouraged by the promise of the help of an English force. Troops could easily be landed on the western coast as long as Rochelle was in possession of the Calvinists. Buckingham actually brought a fleet, which took the little island of Rhe as a stronghold whence to throw succours into Rochelle. On this the king and car- dinal set forth to besiege the place, while Buckingham went back to England for reinforcements. The fortifi- cations were admirable, and the besieged resisted nobly, encouraged by the Duke of Rohan and his mother, who shared the dangers and privations of the people with the greatest constancy. The cardinal on his side was equally determined ; he blockaded the city on the land side, and caused a mole to be built across the harbour to cut it off from aid by sea, a work v/hich lasted far on into the next year. Buckingham was embarking to bring relief, when he was murdered, and the hundred vessels sent under the Earl of Lindsey only arrived after the mole was finished. They could attempt nothing, and could only try to obtain favourable terms for the Rochellois. The lives of the besieged were granted, but the old freedom of the city was taken away, and Catholic worship was restored in the prin- cipal churches, though Calvinism was still tolerated. But Richelieu could congratulate himself on having taken away a source of disunion, weakness, and disaffection in the kingdom, whose removal was absolutely necessary K
