Differences of religious opinion had been subordinated to the political and social interests of the French people.

The crown, with the aid of a succession of able ministers, suppressed a factious nobility at home, and gradually made France the dominant European Power.

A condition of the attainment of both of these objects was the loyal support of the French people, and the alliance with the monarchy, as the embodiment of French national life, of Frenchmen of ability and purpose.
The French monarchy, however, after it had become the dominant power in Europe, followed the bad example of previous states, and aroused the fear of its neighbors by a policy of excessive aggression.

In this instance French domineering did not stimulate the national development of any one neighbor, because it was not concentrated upon any one or two peoples.

But it did threaten the common interests of a number of European states; and it awakened an unprecedented faculty of inter-state association for the protection of these interests.