1859







PREFACE


The studies of the author of this work, for the last ten years, in
writing the "History of Napoleon Bonaparte," and "The French Revolution
of 1789," have necessarily made him quite familiar with the monarchies
of Europe. He has met with so much that was strange and romantic in
their career, that he has been interested to undertake, as it were, a
_biography_ of the Monarchies of Continental Europe--their birth,
education, exploits, progress and present condition. He has commenced
with Austria.

There are abundant materials for this work. The Life of Austria embraces
all that is wild and wonderful in history; her early struggles for
aggrandizement--the fierce strife with the Turks, as wave after wave of
Moslem invasion rolled up the Danube--the long conflicts and bloody
persecutions of the Reformation--the thirty years' religious war--the
meteoric career of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII. shooting athwart
the lurid storms of battle--the intrigues of Popes--the enormous pride,
power and encroachments of Louis XIV.--the warfare of the Spanish
succession and the Polish dismemberment--all these events combine in a