THE FIRST CIVIL WAR. THE MASSACRE OF VASSY (MARCH 1, 1562). THE SIEGE
OF ROUEN
The progress of events had developed so rapidly as to bely the Edict
of January almost as soon as it was passed. The continued absence of
the Guises from the court made them open to suspicion, particularly
as messengers were passing frequently between Joinville and St.
Germain.[474] The nets of conspiracy woven by the Triumvirate were
daily being drawn tighter around France. Directed by Chantonnay and the
cardinal of Ferrara (who generally spoke in Spanish when together in
public, that those near by might not understand),[475] the plans of the
Triumvirate were concerted, the Spanish ambassador looking ahead to the
day when force would supplant diplomacy.[476]
Ever since its formation, as we have seen, the Triumvirate had sought
to win over the king of Navarre. As he was, therefore, sought by both
parties, he was much inflated with a sense of his own importance.
Antoine still lived in hope of compounding with Philip for the
kingdom of Navarre, and to that end still negotiated both with the
Vatican and with Spain.[477] But he was getting very tired of the
procrastination of the Spanish king, so that there was danger of the
thread of his patience being snapped.[478] If war broke out in France
and found him in such a mood, an attempt might possibly be made to
overrun Navarre.[479] In consequence, it became necessary to make a
more tangible proposition to the Bourbon prince. It took the form of
a demand and a promise. The demand was that every Huguenot should
be banished from court and the Protestant clergy expelled from the
country together with the prince of Condé, the Châtillon brothers,
the chancellor, and Montluc, the bishop of Valence. In return Antoine
was to receive the “kingdom of Tunis” as a reward. This was the new
prize used by Spain to bait the hook, and gradually Antoine was drawn
over to the side of Spain and the Triumvirate. The amusing feature
of this proffer was not so manifest to the men of that day as to us.
Geographical knowledge, even of the Mediterranean coast, was hazy. The
constable, for example, thought that Tunis was an island! But Antoine
knew more history and geography than Montmorency; he knew that Tunis
was a Turkish possession which Charles V had vainly tried to seize, and
had to be beguiled with visions of oriental splendor and large plans
for its conquest before he became passive. Pending its acquisition,
Philip II renewed the offer of Sardinia. Meanwhile Antoine received
instruction in the Catholic faith from a teacher recommended to him by
the general of the Jesuits,[480] and quarreled with Jeanne d’Albret
because she would not let the future Henry IV be taken to mass, or
permit him to be present at the christening of the infant son of the
Spanish ambassador.[481] By March (1562) it was evident that the king
of Navarre was “never so earnest on the Protestant side as he was now
furious on the other.”[482]
But if the Spanish ambassador used smooth words to the king of
Navarre, his language was quite otherwise toward Catherine de Medici.
In the name of his sovereign he demanded the banishment of Jeanne
d’Albret from court, the compulsory education of Henry of Navarre
in the Catholic religion, and so soundly rated her for harboring
Coligny and D’Andelot at court that the outraged queen mother
demanded his retirement,[483] ordered the marshal St. André back
to his government,[484] and the constable to retire to Chantilly,
and contemplated doing the same with the old cardinal Tournon. This
procedure offended Antoine who imputed her conduct to Coligny and his
brother, and in consequence he inclined more than ever toward the
Triumvirate.[485] Finally on Palm Sunday (March 22) Antoine cast the
die and went to mass, coming from the service with the emblem of the
celebration in his hand.[486]
A superficial aspect of peace still prevailed at court, but in the
provinces a state of war already prevailed. Sens,[487] Abbeville,[488]
Tours, Toulouse, Marseilles, Toul in Lorraine,[489] and most of all
Cahors and Agen,[490] where the terrible Montluc figured, were all
scenes of riot and bloodshed during the winter months, in which the
Huguenots were generally worsted.[491] In Agen it was so bad that the
government had to take more than ordinary notice of the situation.
Charles IX called upon the governor of Guyenne to repress “les excès,
forces, violences, sacagements d’églises, séditions et escandalles
advenus en nôtre pays d’Agenais,” and ordered the consuls of the city
to send him the names of those who disturbed the peace.
In this condition of things only a spark was needed to throw the whole
country into flames. Force alone could settle the irreconcilable
conflict, and it was soon to be invoked. War was certainly anticipated
by both parties. But contrary to expectation it was not precipitated
by Spanish intervention, but by outbreak within France. It was the
massacre of Vassy on March 1, 1562, that threw the country into civil
war.
[Illustration: THE MASSACRE OF VASSY, MARCH 1, 1652
(Bib. Nat., Estampes. _Histoire de France_, Q. b.)]
The duke of Guise had spent the winter, as we have seen, working
in the interest of the Triumvirate. On February 15, 1562, he had a
conference at Saverne with the duke of Württemberg, whom he adroitly
persuaded into the belief that the Calvinists were aiming to involve
the German Protestants in their own quarrel, thereby securing his
neutrality in event of civil war. Shortly after his return to France
the duke left Joinville with the intention of rejoining the court. As
he was passing through Vassy,[492] his retinue encountered a Huguenot
congregation worshiping in a barn outside of the town. Though the
service was strictly in conformity with the Edict of January, the
sight angered the duke, whose followers fell upon the company, and the
famous massacre ensued. It was March 1, 1562. How much provocation
was made by the Protestants for this attack is a matter of dispute.
The duke himself and Catholic partisans ever since have asserted that
stones were first thrown at him. Probably the absolute truth will never
be known. Ranke, perhaps, sums up the verdict of history best in the
statement that “whether the duke intended the massacre or not, it is
enough that he did not prevent it.”[493] Two weeks later, on March 16,
the duke of Guise, accompanied by the chief members of his house, save
the cardinal of Lorraine and the duke of Elbœuf, arrived in Paris. The
capital, which long since had learned the news of Vassy, received him
joyfully.[494] At the St. Denis gate he was met by the constable and
his four stalwart sons, the eldest of whom was governor of the city,
the four marshals of France, and twenty-one knights of the Order.
Having arrived at his hotel, the provost of the merchants, who was
syndic of Paris, accompanied by many of the chief merchants, visited
him, “testifying his joyful welcome,” which was further attested by
the proffer of two millions of gold in favor of the Catholic cause.
The duke made an adroit reply, assuring them that the queen mother and
the king of Navarre, with the aid and advice of the King’s council,
would pacify the realm; that he, as a faithful and loyal subject, must
abide where the King commanded, and that he hourly expected a summons
to court. On the same day the prince of Condé, returning from the court
to Paris with the intention of going to Picardy, finding the duke of
Guise in the capital, changed his plans and tarried in Paris, though
offering to leave the town by one gate if the duke, the constable, and
the marshal St. André would leave by the other.[495] When the Guises
perceived that the Huguenots were undismayed by the events, they began
to increase their adherents in the city, so that in a short time, it
was thronged with nearly ten thousand horsemen. It was impossible, on
the other hand, for the Huguenots to concert measures of defense in
Paris, and accordingly the prince of Condé soon quitted the capital
(March 23) “like another Pompey,”[496] going to Meaux, where Coligny
and D’Andelot soon joined him.[497]
Meanwhile Catherine de Medici, fearful lest the person of the King
would be forcibly seized by the Guises, and recognizing that the king
of Navarre had surrendered completely to the Triumvirate, endeavored to
remove the King to Blois. But Antoine hotly protested against so overt
a move in favor of the Huguenots and Spain’s ambassador fulminated
so strongly against “the evil reputation” of L’Hôpital,[498] that
the court was compelled to go to Fontainebleau instead.[499] Even
this place met with small favor on the part of the Guises, who would
have preferred keeping the court in Paris. But when they urged the
necessity of the queen’s presence in the council in consideration of
the grave state of affairs, Catherine caustically rejoined that she
thought “it more meet to have regard to the health of the King than to
inform so many wise men what was necessary to be done.” This speech
of the queen mother, however, was not said altogether in sarcasm. For
instead of following the advice of the constable, who showed signs of
resenting the Guise ascendency, that the crown repudiate and condemn
the massacre of Vassy and announce its determination to maintain the
Edict of January,[500] Catherine in her alarm lest the rising of the
Huguenots sweep the Valois dynasty from the throne began to incline
toward Spain.[501] For the time being the Triumvirate professed itself
satisfied, intending after Easter to compel the court to repair to
Bois de Vincennes, in order to have the King in their midst and thus
strengthen with his name the authority of their actions.[502] Great
was the alarm, therefore, when the prince of Condé, accompanied by
the admiral Coligny and D’Andelot, appeared before the gates of Paris
on March 29 with three thousand horse.[503] Immediately all the
bridges were drawn up and preparations made to meet an attack.[504]
Already extraordinary arrangements had been made for the defense of
Paris. Strangers were compelled to leave the city; no persons except
gentlemen were permitted to wear arms and these were limited to sword
and dagger; only six gates were open and these were under double
guard.[505] Failing to enter the city, the prince quartered his troops
at St. Cloud and took possession of the highroad from Paris to Orleans
at Longjumeau, while in Paris the duke of Guise, the king of Navarre,
and the constable hastened forward the preparations for war.[506]
But the prince of Condé refrained from the use of force. He gave out
that he had as much right to enter the city under arms as had Guise,
and complained of the fact that Guise and his following, on March 27,
which was Good Friday, had visited the King and Queen at Fontainebleau,
where the latter “made them strange countenance because the train
came in arms to the court.”[507] The apparent purpose of the prince
of Condé was to cut Fontainebleau off from Paris, for the admiral lay
at Montreuil, but four leagues distant, and thus force a reasonable
settlement, or push matters to an extremity by making himself master
of the Loire, thus cutting France in twain and having all Guyenne and
Poitou and much of Languedoc at his back. Color was lent to this belief
by the fact that so many men from the northern and eastern provinces
were passing southward that a special body of troops was set to guard
the line of the Seine.[508]
[Illustration:
HUGUENOT MARCH
TO
ORLEANS
March 29.-April 2. 1562
Methuen &. Co.
]
But the Catholic leaders guessed Condé’s purpose and by a _coup
de main_ seized the King and his mother and carried them off from
Fontainebleau to Melun, a town strong enough to be withheld against any
sudden enterprise. Thereupon the prince, perceiving that he had been
outreached, marched toward Orleans[509] in spite of an order sent from
the King, and undoubtedly inspired by Guise, that he should lay down
his arms. An attempt to prevent him from reaching Orleans was blocked
by a rapid advance of D’Andelot.
Meanwhile the constable had assumed the direction of affairs in
Paris, where on April 5 the Huguenot house of worship near the Port
St. Antoine was torn down, the pulpit, forms, and choir burned, and
fragments carried away as souvenirs by the mob. Troops patrolled the
streets, arresting suspects, and a house to house visitation was made
in search of Calvinist preachers. The same day the court came to Bois
de Vincennes. During the next few days vain overtures were made to
the prince. Coligny and D’Andelot offered to meet the queen mother at
such a place as she would appoint, provided the prince of Navarre, the
future Henry IV, Damville, the constable’s second son, and one of the
Guises, were given into Orleans as hostages for them. Catherine was
willing to accept the offer, but was overruled by Antoine of Bourbon,
the duke of Guise, and Montmorency.[510] Those who were least alarmed
still looked for settlement at the hands of the General Council. But
there were serious political difficulties, as well as those religious,
in the way of this, the three principal ones being: (1) the summons of
the council, which many Catholics even wished to be convoked by the
Emperor, and not by the Pope; (2) the place of the council; (3) the
authority of the council, which many Catholics wished to be above the
Pope.[511]
On April 12, 1562, at Orleans, the prince of Condé formally assumed
command of the Huguenot forces,[512] his chief lieutenants being the
admiral Coligny and D’Andelot.[513] The first civil war was a reality.
The city on the Loire for some years to come was destined to be the
capital of the Protestants, dominating all the surrounding country.
Blois and its château, Tours and its castle, Amboise, Saumur, Angers,
and many other towns on the Loire and in Maine, were occupied by the
Protestants. Orleans was reputed to have bread and wine enough in
store to withstand a two years’ siege,[514] and the Huguenots seemed
to have plenty of money for immediate necessities, thanks to their
despoilment of the churches of the region, especially the rich abbey
of Marmoutier.[515] Although the purposes of the Huguenots were
clandestinely more political than religious, it was expedient to cloak
them under a mantle of faith.[516] The political organization of the
Huguenots was effected through the medium of an association, a form
of organization of which there are many examples, both Protestant and
Catholic, during this troubled period. The preamble of the instrument
of government disclaimed any private motives or considerations on
the part of those who were parties to the association, and asserted
that their sole purpose was to liberate the King from “captivity” and
punish the insolence and tyranny of the disloyal and the enemies of
the church. Idolatry, blasphemy, violence, and robbery, were forbidden
within the territory of the association, in order that all might know
that it had “the fear of God before it.” The association was to expire
after the King had attained his majority.[517]
The essential difficulties in the situation as it obtained at this
time are manifest. The Huguenots declared the King to be a captive in
the hands of the Guises and themselves claimed to be loyal subjects
in rebellion against tyranny.[518] The Guises, on the other hand,
branded the Huguenots as rebels and schismatics, although Catherine de
Medici still had a lingering hope of restoring peace, and in official
utterances carefully refrained from alluding to the prince of Condé as
a rebel.[519] Neither side would agree to lay down its arms without
the other doing likewise, and neither dared take the initiative in
this matter. The situation, therefore, was an irreconcilable one,
which nothing but war could settle. The political determinations of
the Huguenots were quite as fixed as their religious convictions, for
part of their platform was the article agreed upon by the estates
at Orleans to the effect that the cardinal of Lorraine, the duke of
Guise, the constable, and the marshals Brissac and St. André, should
render an account of their stewardship.[520] How far politics governed
the situation is evidenced by the fact that late in April the king of
Navarre and Montmorency began to weaken in their attitude when it was
known that Condé dominated the middle Loire country, Touraine, Maine,
Anjou, and much of Normandy; when it was learned that the cities of
Lyons,[521] Toulouse, Caen, Rouen,[522] Dieppe, Troyes, Bourges,[523]
and the provinces of Dauphiné, Provence, and Poitou, had declared
for the Huguenot cause; and when troops were pouring into Orleans by
thousands.[524]
If the Guises and the marshals Brissac and St. André could have
acquitted themselves with so little discredit as Antoine of Bourbon
or the constable, it is possible that a compromise might have been
made even yet.[525] But such an issue was impossible under the
circumstances. The guilt of Vassy still hung over the duke, for he had
not yet been absolved either by the Court of Parlement or by the peers
of France. Having appealed to force, force remained the only method
of settling the great dispute that divided France, and Guise daily
assembled horse and foot in Paris in expectation of battle.[526]
The formidable nature of the Huguenot rising by this time had so
increased the fear of Catherine de Medici that she completely
surrendered to the Triumvirate and resolved to appeal to Spain for
help. On April 19 she sent for Antoine of Navarre, the duke of Guise,
the constable, and the two marshals, Brissac and St. André, to whom
she declared that she had been badly advised hitherto, and that she
now trusted to their support. Montmorency at once proposed to ask the
nuncio to petition His Holiness to send money and troops to the help
of Catholic France. But Spain, not Rome, was the political cornerstone
of the Catholic world, and it was now that the momentous resolution
was taken to invite Philip II to lend assistance. Catherine de Medici,
who shortly before this time had looked upon the prospect of Spanish
intervention with apprehension, was now in favor of it. At Catherine’s
instance the Triumvirate formally invited Spain’s support in a joint
letter which was accompanied by Antoine of Navarre’s written profession
of the Catholic faith.[527] Two weeks later, May 8, Charles IX himself
formally solicited military assistance of Philip II.[528] Catholic
Switzerland,[529] Catholic Germany,[530] Savoy, the Pope,[531] and
other princes of Italy were also looked to.[532] The queen mother
did not know that already the Triumvirate had anticipated her request
by asking the Spanish King to instruct the regent of Flanders to
hold the troops there in readiness “because Madame de Parma would not
let a single horse go out of Flanders without orders.”[533] By the
end of June these troops were ready. They were almost all Spaniards
and Italians, then universally regarded as the best soldiers in the
world.[534] Philip II, though, was actuated by other motives besides
zeal for Catholicism.[535] He feared lest the south of France might
attack Navarre, owing to the identification of Jeanne d’Albret with the
Huguenot cause, and so sent reinforcements to Fontarabia and Pampeluna;
a movement which weakened the prince of Condé by preventing Grammont’s
Gascon troops from going to Orleans.[536]
The war went forward in spite of lack of funds on both sides. In order
to pay the expenses of the war in Brittany Catherine authorized the
seizure of the plate in the churches. But the duke of Etampes, who was
governor of Brittany, was cautious about carrying out this order. “The
people are so religious and scrupulous in these things,” he wrote,
“that if they found out that we wanted to take it, they would not
readily endure it, especially in Lower Brittany.” Instead he advised
that the plate of the churches be deposited in some principal town in
each bishopric, “under color of retaining and guarding it there, and
that a tax of from 15 to 20 livres be imposed upon each person for this
purpose,” figuring that this expedient would produce from 15 to 20,000
livres.[537] The Huguenots let no money pass from the provinces under
their control, even going so far as to destroy the government registers
in the towns they took.[538]
Every day increased the interest of the populace in the struggle.[539]
“If the prince of Condé should come to Paris,” wrote an Englishman
in Paris, “they could not tarry there, on account of the fury of
his soldiers and the populace.”[540] In Dauphiné, De la Mothe
Gondrin, lieutenant of the duke of Guise, was slain at Valence by the
Protestants. It is just to say, however, that he was the aggressor.
Accompanied by sixty or eighty gentlemen he went out into the country
and came upon a worshiping company of Calvinists “and left not one
of them alive.” A Huguenot nobleman, Des Adresse who styled himself
“lieutenant of the King in Dauphiné,” acquired a reputation in the
region as sinister as that of Montluc in Gascony. The whole southeast
of France seemed up in arms.[541] Grenoble, Macon in Burgundy, Châlons
in Champagne, Moulins in Bourbonnais, where they destroyed the tombs
of Antoine’s ancestors,[542] were taken by the Huguenots. Lyons, by
reason of its proximity to Geneva, was radically Huguenot, and this
sentiment was stimulated still more by the great discontent that
prevailed among the lower classes, engaged in silk manufacturing and
other industries.[543] In Normandy it was even worse. At Rouen the
Huguenots routed the Catholics and seized the government.[544] On May
14 Maligny took Havre-de-Grace, which astonished and affrighted the
Catholics because it stood at the mouth of the Seine and made open
communication between the Huguenots and the English easy. At Caen,[545]
Bayeux, and most places in Lower Normandy, the inhabitants defaced
the images in the monasteries and parish churches, and arrested the
King’s revenues coming to Paris.[546] Caudebec, which revolted on May
15, was besieged by the Guisards, but had placed men in it previously
and so saved itself. In Dieppe, where the revolt followed hard upon
news of Vassy, a conflict between Protestants and Catholics resulted
in the death of 150 persons.[547] Terrible cruelties were committed at
Angers[548] by the Protestants.
Amid this almost spontaneous insurrection involving provinces widely
separated from one another, the Ile-de-France and Burgundy adhered to
the crown and the Catholic cause, the former wholly from inclination,
the latter in part because of the adroitness of Tavannes, the
brilliant captain, who foiled the Huguenot assault upon Dijon,[549] and
saved Châlons-sur-Saône.[550]
In spite of these occurrences, however, abortive negotiations for peace
filled the ten days between the 18th and the 28th of May.[551] In Paris
it was expected that Condé would attack the city. The government’s
force was not sufficient to take the field, and twenty-five pieces
of artillery were paraded through the streets to make an impression
and to induce the clergy and Parisians to contribute money for this
religious war-making.[552] Popular opinion in Paris was bitterly
hostile to the Huguenots, but the bourgeois were not inclined to go
down into their pockets and so, when the cowardly king of Navarre
published a proclamation on May 26[553] expelling all Protestants from
Paris and leaving their goods at the mercy of their adversaries, it
was hailed with delight by the capital. Mobs of Catholics forcibly
expelled Huguenots from the city and destroyed their goods. The city
was so full of men-at-arms, highwaymen, and robbers at this time that
every householder was required to keep a light in his street window
until daybreak.[554] Risings in many parts of the country continued to
be heard of;[555] Vendôme, La Charité, Auxerre, Montargis, Poitiers,
together with most of the towns of Saintonge and Angoumois,[556] either
declared for the prince of Condé or were taken by him. But at Toulouse
the Huguenots suffered heavily.[557] In Normandy, there was great fear
of English intervention.[558]
Overtures for peace came to nothing because the Huguenots made the
withdrawal of the Triumvirate a condition precedent to their laying
down of arms.[559] The prince contended that he could not be secure
unless the duke of Guise, the constable, and the marshal St. André
retired from the court. The queen mother in reply represented that it
was not right, during the King’s minority, to remove from him such
important personages; that the Catholics in Paris had taken up arms to
oppose the Edict of January, and that if the Huguenot soldiery would
retire to their homes they might live there as they liked, while a
council (of which he should be a member) considered some better means
of settlement.[560] Gradually the hostile armies—the prince of Condé
at the head of the Huguenots and the duke of Guise, the constable,
the marshal St. André and the recreant king of Navarre with the
Catholic host—drew near to each other.[561] An attempt was made to
take Jargeau, eight miles from Orleans; but fearing lest its capture
would cut supplies off from Orleans, Coligny and D’Andelot destroyed
the bridge there. This forced the Catholic captains to change their
intention, and they traversed the Beauce so as to surprise Beaugency,
fourteen miles from Orleans, midway between Orleans and Blois, where
there was a bridge across the river. On June 15 the two forces arrived
near the bridge at almost the same time and a fight seemed imminent.
The two armies were about five miles apart, and about the same distance
from Orleans. Both being south of the Loire, there was no river to
hinder an engagement. There were many vineyards between them, which
was an advantage to the prince, who had more infantry than cavalry,
while Guise had 7,000 horse, D’Aumale having come from Normandy with
his force. The Catholic forces were divided: Guise lay north of the
river, beyond Beaugency, Paris-ward; D’Aumale’s detachment was on
the other side of the river at Clerie, midway between Orleans and
Beaugency, having the town and the bridge in his hands; while Navarre
was established at Vernon, a league from Beaugency.[562]
The condition of the country around Orleans at this time, considering
that a state of war existed, was not bad. Condé had plenty of money
for the moment, having secured the riches of the churches of Bourges.
Food was good and plentiful in Orleans and bread was cheap. Everything
the Huguenots took they paid for, as a matter of policy,[563] although
large funds were not in sight and they looked anxiously to England for
100,000 crowns, offering the notes of the leaders as security or else
the bonds of some of the most notable Reformed churches, as Rouen and
Lyons. The Huguenot army made a brave display. Many of the gentlemen
were rich and wore long white coats (_casaque blanche_) of serge,
kersey, or stramell, after the old manner, with long sleeves over
their armour.[564] The truce expired on June 21 (Sunday), but only
light skirmishing was indulged in while specious negotiations were
continued by Montmorency.[565] But the Catholic leaders offered such
hard conditions that Condé would not accept them. Among others it was
demanded that all preachers should be banished from France, together
with the prince himself, the brothers Châtillon, and the other Huguenot
leaders, until the King was of age.
During this delay the prince lost the advantage he had possessed. For
the duke of Guise, the constable and Marshal St. André returned from
Chartres to the camp again, which was between Beaugency and Blois,
which lends color to the theory that it was they who overruled Antoine
of Navarre and Catherine. After the rupture of the truce, the Catholic
army marched to Blois, which they battered for a day and a night,
assaulted and entered, although the inhabitants offered to let them in
at the gates. When the magistrates of the city offered the keys to the
duke of Guise, he pointed to the cannon with him, saying they were the
keys he would enter by. At the same time St. André took Poitiers and
Angoulême and drove La Rochefoucauld into Saintonge with the aid of
Spanish troops.[566] When informed of the duke’s proceedings at Blois,
Condé marched to Beaugency, which, after bombardment, was entered
on July 3, the most part of those who were left to guard it being
killed.[567] Then seeing his own fortunes diminishing daily, he retired
to Orleans, with scarcely 3,000 horse and 6,000 footmen. The prince
was in doubt what next to do; whether to retire to Lyons and join
with the baron des Adresse,[568] who had acquired Grenoble, Valence,
and Châlons in Burgundy, despite Tavannes who kept the field with his
forces,[569] and was reputed to have 8,000 foot and 1,500 horse besides
6,000 Swiss sent from Bern and Lucerne, or to retire to Gascony where
the queen of Navarre was, or thirdly to go to Rouen and thereby keep
Normandy. In the end, however, he and Coligny stayed in Orleans. The
remainder of his force was either dispersed in the various towns or
dismissed.
The Protestants stood in dire need of outside aid during this
summer.[570] A few days after Condé had retired within Orleans,
D’Aumale took Honfleur (July 21). In Paris mobs killed almost hourly
men, women, and children, notwithstanding an edict to the contrary
under pain of death. Arms were in the people’s hands, not only in Paris
but in the villages. Neither the King nor the queen mother had the
means to rule them, for the king of Navarre and the duke of Guise were
then at Blois, with the result that Paris did much as it pleased. The
leaders contemplated the recovery of Touraine, Anjou, and Maine, and
all the towns upon the Loire, and then proposed to go into Normandy
and recover Havre-de-Grace, Dieppe, and Rouen. In pursuance of this
project the duke of Guise took Loudon and Chinon in Touraine. In the
same month Mondidier was entered by the Catholics upon assurance that
all the Protestants therein should live safely; but notwithstanding the
promises they were all cut to pieces, robbed, or driven forth. Numbers
of men, women, and children were drowned in the night with stones
about their necks, at Blois, Tours, and Amboise, and those towns which
surrendered to the king of Navarre.
While these events were taking place in the Loire country, the duke
of Aumale again approached Rouen on the 29th of June, and planted his
batteries before St. Catherine’s Mount, but succeeded in doing little
in spite of his long battery. He hoped to recover Havre-de-Grace after
Guise had seized the towns upon the Loire. The great fear of the French
was lest Havre-de-Grace should be given by the Huguenots into the hands
of the English, and the atrocious practice of D’Aumale was likely to
further such conduct on the part of the Huguenots,[571] for he promised
the peasantry not only the privilege of sacking the châteaux of the
nobles, but also to relieve them of all taxes. As a result of this
vicious policy, trade was dead and whole families of the nobility
retired to Dieppe, abandoning their homes.[572]
Violence increased both in the cities and in the provinces. In the
southeast Somarive committed great cruelties in Orange, killing men,
women, and children wherever he went.[573] But the achievements of
Montluc, “the true creator of the French infantry”[574] were the
conspicuous feature of the war in the south. By his own confession
this famous soldier “rather inclined to violence than to peace, and
was more prone to fighting and cutting of throats than to making of
speeches.”[575] The war in the southern provinces, it is plain, was
one of both politics and religion. The practices of the Huguenots
penetrated the whole administrative machinery. The sieur de Burie,
king’s lieutenant in Guyenne, was old and overcautious, and not without
suspicion of Calvinism,[576] while Duras, the Huguenot leader was so
active that the crown had sent the veteran of the siege of Sienna into
Guyenne in January, 1560, with a special commission.[577] The Huguenots
tried to buy Montluc off through one of their captains formerly with
him before Sienna, who came to him saying that the church at Nérac had
made him their captain. Montluc’s reply nearly took the captain off his
feet. “What the devil churches are those that make captains?” was his
fierce question.[578] He speedily began to make his name formidable by
hanging six Huguenots without process of law “which shook great fear
into the whole party.”
Montluc’s arrival was in the nick of time for the Catholics of the
south. He thought that if the Huguenots had been more led by soldiers
and not so “guided by ministers, they had not failed of carrying
Bordeaux and Toulouse. But God preserved those two forts, the
bulwarks of Guyenne, to save all the rest.” Montluc was everywhere at
once, never resting long in any place, holding his foes in suspense
everywhere, and not only was himself in continual motion, but also
with letters and messages perpetually solicited and employed all the
friends he had.[579] His troops were few in numbers and so ill-paid
that he sometimes was reluctantly compelled to ransom his prisoners.
“We were so few that we were not enough to kill them all,” he
comments. “Had the King paid his companies I should not have suffered
ransom to have been in use in this quarrel. It is not in this case as
in a foreign war where men fight for love and honor. In a civil war we
must either be master or man, being we live as it were, all under a
roof.” He was as good as his word and “shook a great terror into the
country everywhere.” When he appeared before Agen he “wondered that the
people should be so damnably timorous and did not better defend their
religion.” Instead “they no sooner heard my name but they fancied the
rope already about their necks.” Yet terrible as the old war-dog was,
he still waged war according to the rules of the game. He is outspoken
in condemnation of the conduct of the Spanish companies sent by Philip
II which joined him before Agen.[580] The importance of Montluc’s
services in the south was great. He helped save Toulouse and Bordeaux
to the government and the subsequent capture of Lectoure, and the
notable battle of Vergt in Périgord (October 9, 1562) prevented the
Huguenots south of the Loire from joining the forces of the prince of
Condé, who thus narrowly lost the battle of Dreux.[581]
As the Catholic cause mended, the situation of the Huguenots darkened.
Four thousand Swiss in June had joined Tavannes in Burgundy and
thereby Dijon, Macon, and Châlons-sur-Saône were made safe. Late in
July 6,000 lansquenets passed through Paris toward the camp at Blois.
Pope Pius IV sent his own nephew to the aid of Joyeuse with 2,500
footmen, one thousand of whom were “Hispainolz.”[582] The Huguenots
impatiently awaited the coming of German pistoleers and footmen, to be
brought by Casimir, the second son of the count palatine, accompanied
by D’Andelot who had been sent into Germany for assistance. But the
German princes were slow in responding, especially to the demand for
money,[583] so that the prince of Condé actually promised to give them
the pillage of Paris![584] D’Andelot passed the Rhine on September
22, 1562—three weeks too late to relieve Bourges—with 2,000 German
horse and 2,000 musketeers, who figured in the battle of Dreux in the
next December.[585] France had seen nothing like these reiters in days
heretofore. Their coming created both consternation[586] and curiosity.
Claude Haton in vain sought the meaning of the word.
The word reiter had never had vogue in France within the life of the
oldest of men, and one had never used the word until the present,
although the kings of France had been served in all their wars by
Germans, Swiss, and lansquenets, who are included under this word
and name of Germany or Allemaigne. I have taken pains to inquire
of numerous persons, who are deemed to know much what was the
signification of this word “reiter,” but I have not found a man who
has been wise enough to tell me what I wished to know.[587]
In order to pay the reiters and to find money, a _taille_ was imposed
upon the Huguenots of all classes, in all towns and villages under
their control, upon nobles, priests, merchants, bourgeois, and
artisans. But as this means was very tedious, the prince had recourse
to the gold and silver vessels, chalices, and crosses of the churches
which the Huguenots had pillaged. He also seized upon the government
receipts from the _gabelle_ and other taxes of the King in all the
villages and _élections_ controlled by the Huguenots, even the moneys
of the royal domain, and the revenues of the churches.[588]
Meanwhile on August 19 the siege of Bourges had begun. The city was
defended by about 3,500 soldiers, but the circuit of its walls was
very great. It was well provisioned for a time, and had considerable
munitions and artillery of an inferior sort, but neither cannon nor
culverin. Half the town was protected by a great marsh near by; the
other half was fortified. It was the plan of D’Andelot, who had
entered Lorraine with 2,000 horse and 4,000 foot, commanded by the
duke of Deuxponts, feeling he could do nothing in time for Bourges,
to cut off Paris by securing the passages of the river at St. Cloud
and Charenton.[589] Accordingly the constable and the duke of Guise,
learning of the approach of the reiters, dispatched D’Aumale with a
commission to levy all men of war in Champagne, Brie, and Burgundy,
both foot and horse, and to sound the tocsin for the purpose of raising
new levies for the King if those which he first raised should not
suffice, and to make a great camp of all these men for the purpose of
combating the reiters.[590] But D’Aumale dallied so long,[591] to the
intense chagrin of his army, which clamored to “frapper dessus les
lif-lof de reistres,”[592] that the German troopers were able to cross
the river Seine at Chanceaux, whence they took the road above Auxerre,
crossed the Yonne, and so joined the prince of Condé at Orleans.
It would have been much better for France, and especially for the
provinces of Champagne, Brie, and Burgundy, if D’Aumale had attempted
to repulse the reiters, for his soldiers were the ruin of the villages
where they lodged, and any action, even defeat, would have been better
than license and idleness. When it was known that the reiters had
evaded the force sent against them, the King, seeing new villages of
France taken every day, sent orders to all those who still adhered
to the crown to the effect that they should be on their guard night
and day, for fear of being taken by surprise. For greater security
commissions were dispatched authorizing the election of a gentleman of
honor and credit to be town-captain in every town.[593]
The Catholic and Huguenot position with reference to each other
between Paris and the Loire was now somewhat as follows: the former
held Chartres, Bonneval, Chateaudun, Blois; the latter St. Marthurin,
Montargis, and Gien. On August 31, 1562, the surrender of Bourges
took place. The crown guaranteed life, property, and liberty of
conscience to the commandant and soldiers and inhabitants of the town,
in consideration of an indemnity of 50,000 livres “pour avoir été si
gracieusement traités.”[594] But the Catholic leaders were in doubt
what next to do, for all the Huguenots were within the towns, neither
occupying the open country nor having a camp outside the walls. The
king of Navarre urged the siege of Orleans, but the council was not in
agreement with him for two reasons: first, on account of the plague
which was there; secondly because they had hopes that Navarre might
prevail upon his brother to desert the Huguenot cause, and so spare
them the exercise of force. For these reasons it was resolved not to
push the siege of Orleans and to attack Rouen instead, where the duke
of Aumale was already.[595]
The Guises were now fully aware of the formidable nature of the revolt
of Normandy, there being danger of their also losing western Normandy,
where the duke de Bouillon held Caen castle, but was disposed to be
neutral. They planned, therefore, to send the greater portion of their
new forces, Germans and Swiss, to the aid of D’Aumale, who had advanced
against Rouen after D’Andelot gave him the slip, for they were little
needed in the Loire country. Roggendorf, Guise’s chief German agent,
at this time arrived in Paris with 1,200 German pistoleers, well armed
and mounted; the Swiss captain, Froelich had brought fifteen ensigns of
Swiss, and the Rhinegrave was in Champagne with two regiments of foot
and three hundred pistoleers.[596]
The constable and the duke of Guise in fear of English support,
resolved to concentrate the greatest part of their force against Rouen
and Havre-de-Grace. Another motive lay in the fact that Paris was
in want; for the Huguenots recognized that if Rouen, Havre-de-Grace
and Dieppe were well held, coercion of Paris was not impossible. The
condition at Dieppe and Havre-de-Grace was the source of more anxiety
to the government than any other matter. These towns, owing to their
situation, were the chief keys to France, without which neither Paris
nor Rouen could be free. Havre-de-Grace was of more use to France than
Calais as a port of supply, and daily all those who escaped from Pont
Audemer, Honfleur, Harfleur, and the Protestants between Dieppe[597]
and Rouen were flocking thither.
The chief hope of the French Protestants was based upon the expected
aid of England. Early in April, 1562, the prince of Condé and the
admiral had solicited her support.[598] But the anxiety of Elizabeth
in the welfare of Protestantism beyond sea was not disinterested,
any more than Philip II’s catholicism. The legality of her position
as queen required her adherence to everything anti-Catholic, to
which may be added the influence of the political aims of Philip II
with reference to England, especially his interest in the doings of
Mary Stuart and Spanish tyranny in the Low Countries, both of which
jeopardized England. Her ambassador in France observed truly when he
wrote her: “It standeth Your Majesty, for the conservation of your
realm in the good terms it is in, to countenance the Protestants as
much as you may.”[599] Another practical end to be gained by English
support of the Huguenots was the possibility of recovering Calais.[600]
Yet in spite of their deep religious animosity and their political
hostility to one another, England and Spain were in so peculiarly
complicated a relation that neither state wished to go to war. Philip
II assured Charles IX that although Elizabeth would squirm at sight
of Spanish assistance given to France, she dared not strike back in
aid of the Huguenots, and would have to compel herself to view things
from afar.[601] The key to this extraordinary situation is to be found
in the commerce of the Low Countries. The duke of Alva flatly said
that his master could not afford to break with the English because
of the commercial injury he would sustain in the Netherlands.[602]
The same proposition, reversed, was in like stead true of England;
her commercial interests in Holland and Flanders were too great to be
risked.
But the good prospect of regaining Calais coupled with the fear lest
the reduction of France to Spanish suzerainty would entail greater
danger to England in the long run than the loss of her commerce
beyond sea, at last persuaded Elizabeth to support the Huguenots,
upon certain conditions, the ultimate one being restoration of Calais
to England.[603] Accordingly, in September, 1562, the queen offered
to land 6,000 men to guard the towns in Normandy, to take Havre and
Dieppe under her protection, and receive into them the refugees of the
Reformed church, and promised not to abandon Havre without the prince’s
consent, nor receive Calais from the opposite party. The vidame of
Chartres agreed to deliver the custody of Havre-de-Grace to the queen’s
lieutenant on condition that the latter would recompense him and Condé
by annual pensions or assigned lands, because of the loss of their
estates and goods in France. In pursuance of this compact, on September
24, 1562, the English proclamation for the expedition into Normandy
was published. It was time, if success were to crown the enterprise,
for in Havre troubles and enemies multiplied and patience with the
English was on the point of breaking. “No prey happens to a sleeping
fox,” wrote the vidame impatiently to the English admiral. On October
1, 1562, the English sailed from Portsmouth for Havre, and on Sunday,
October 4, entered the roadstead of Havre at three in the afternoon,
and immediately landed as many men as they could with the tide.
The English occupation of Havre-de-Grace startled the government
into new activity before Rouen, and the King determined to take it
before English assistance could be afforded.[604] The town was well
supplied with provisions and had plenty of small arms, but was short
of artillery and gunpowder. The garrison numbered about 4,000, under
command of Montgomery, the guardsman who had accidentally killed Henry
II in tournament, for Morvilliers, the former chief in command in
Rouen, had hesitated about the introduction of English soldiers and had
been replaced.
In the first week of October the attack of the royal forces upon Rouen
was renewed with fury and the fortress on St. Catherine’s Mount was
taken by them. Desperation soon prevailed in the beleaguered city and
there was talk of conditional surrender if that could be effected,
until the arrival of a few companies of English revived the courage
of the Rouennais and the fight was renewed. But the procrastinating
caution of the English by this time overreached itself. In spite
of the importunities of Throckmorton,[605] the English government
was reluctant to venture its arms beyond the seaboard,[606] although
Throckmorton’s arguments were reinforced by every other English agent
in France, Rouen being represented as “such a jewel for them that by
no means is it sufferable to become an enemy.”[607] All urgency was in
vain. The instructions to the earl of Warwick, the English commander
in Havre-de-Grace, were to the effect that if requested to send aid to
Rouen or other places he should make some “reasonable delay,” without
offending them.[608] It is easy to see from such instructions and the
policy pursued by the English government in France that its interest
was purely practical and in no sense sentimental or religious. England
wanted to hold Havre-de-Grace in pawn for Calais, under cover of
pretending to support the Huguenots.
By mid-October, however, it had become plain that this narrow policy
could not be so rigidly adhered to. The success of the Catholic armies
in Normandy was even endangering Havre-de-Grace, and Havre-de-Grace was
not nearly so favorable a point of vantage for the English as Calais
had been, for there the pale protected the city proper; in the city at
the Seine’s mouth the fortifications were weak and, worst of all, the
location was a poor one for defense.[609] With the coming of winter,
it would be possible for the French with slight effort to prevent much
intercourse by sea between Havre and the English ports, while already
the country roundabout was being devastated by the German reiters.
D’Aumale was reported to have said—and there was justification of the
statement—that the English garrison might make merry as it pleased,
the winter and famine would cause them to pack homeward faster than
they had come. Too late the English at last determined to succor
Rouen after the fall of St. Catherine’s Mount,[610] and relief troops
were sent forward to Rouen from Havre-de-Grace and Dieppe. An intrepid
English captain named Leighton (he was afterward made governor of
Guernsey), with a handful of men, made his way into the city, but
substantial assistance did not come until the middle of October. Even
then misfortune overtook the English. The approach was made by the
river in six small ships, but one of them struck on a sand bar near
Caudebec and was intercepted by Damville, so that only 600 English got
into the town.[611]
On the morning of the 16th, Montgomery and two of the chief men of
the city came out of Rouen, under a flag of truce, and spoke with
the queen, returning a second time with fresh proposals, but nothing
resulted. The Huguenots demanded, first of all, liberty of preaching,
and of living according to their religion. Besides this, they insisted
that the King should not put a garrison in Rouen, and as security for
the observance of these conditions they required hostages from the
King, to be kept by them at Havre-de-Grace. In the second interview
they enlarged the conditions; namely, that the Edict of January might
be observed and that they might preach freely _in the cities_, although
by the edict preaching was permitted only _outside_ of cities.[612]
Moreover, they insisted on this agreement being extended to _all_ towns
of France; and in order to give this convention a general effect, the
prince of Condé was to confirm it. For the observance of all these
conditions they demanded as hostages the prince de Joinville, eldest
son of the duke of Guise, and brother of the marshal Brissac,[613]
superintendent of the King’s revenues.
Although Montgomery was unaware of it, the government already, alarmed
by the English intervention, had made overtures to the prince of
Condé in Orleans. But in each case, a condition required would not
be yielded. The demand of the Rouennais that the Edict of January be
revised so as to permit Protestant worship _in all towns_ broke off
negotiations with them. In the overtures made to Condé and Coligny,
restitution of all in rebellion to their estates and offices was
promised, as also the assurance to the Huguenots that they might enjoy
their religion peaceably _in their houses_, but _public_ worship, even
without the towns, was not to be permitted. The Protestant leaders seem
to have been inclined to yield to these terms, although they implied a
reduction of their religious privileges, but insisted that the crown
should assume the payments due to Condé’s German auxiliaries. The
government balked at this proposal, and the prince and the admiral
themselves balked when the king of Navarre declared that D’Andelot’s
German troopers and the Huguenots should unite to expel the English
from France, so that in the end neither set of negotiations was
successful.[614]
During the successful assault upon Fort St. Catherine which followed
the rupture of these negotiations both Antoine of Navarre and the duke
of Guise were wounded, the former by an arquebus-shot in the joint of
the shoulder, as it proved, mortally, because mortification of the
wound could not be stayed.[615] Montgomery fought furiously in the
assault, which lasted seven hours, and threatened to use his sword
upon any who might seek to yield. It was a desperate and vain battle,
however.[616] The King’s forces mined clear to the walls of the town,
and the havoc of their explosions could not be remedied. The breach
in the walls made by both mine and shot was so wide that some of the
royal force rode through on horseback.[617] On Monday, October 26, the
besiegers fought their way through and over the walls. In this supreme
movement the English and the Catholic Germans came sharply together.
No quarter was given the English in the town, the command being given
“that they should all pass the sword.” Many of them were stripped
naked by the victors. The wounded English who were found had their
throats cut; the rest were sent to the galleys. The King entered Rouen
the day after its capture, making his way over dead bodies which had
been spoiled by the soldiers.[618] The royal forces now had unlimited
control of the Seine below Rouen; at Caudebec they staked half the
river, so that ships and boats were compelled to pass close under their
guns.
The Guises now anticipated a swift collapse of the Huguenot cause. All
the chief towns in France save Orleans[619] and Lyons were either by
inclination or compulsion obedient to the crown, which found powerful
support from the property-owning and lawyer class. Politically and
financially the government was stronger, although the court was in want
of money at this time. The duke of Guise, the most notable captain and
soldier in France, the constable and veteran marshals like Brissac
and St. André, had made a combination too strong to be overcome. In
this strait, the Huguenot leaders grasped at the last straw—the
hope that the prince of Condé might succeed the king of Navarre as
lieutenant of the realm by winning the support of liberal Catholics
and the anti-Guisard element.[620] There was ground for this hope if
the Calvinists could be persuaded to be a little less radical, and if
the Catholic religion would be suffered without criticism to be and
remain the religion of France, and the Huguenots would make no further
alteration in their form of worship than the English Reformation had
done.[621]
Antoine of Bourbon, since sustaining the wound received at Rouen, had
been gradually sinking, and died on board a boat on his way to Paris,
October 26, after prolonged suffering.[622] Condé now, by virtue of
the arrangement made at the meeting of the States-General at Orleans,
legally succeeded to his brother’s office as lieutenant of the realm,
and proceeded forthwith to send out commissions to the constable,
marshals, and to all the governors of provinces and places, to repair
to him as the King’s lieutenant-general and governor of France. But in
spite of the regulation of the estates, the court and Catholic party,
by the advice of the cardinals of Ferrara, Lorraine, and Guise, the
duke of Guise, the constable, and marshal St. André, with the special
solicitation of the Spanish ambassador who voiced his master’s wishes
with “a lusty swelling tongue,” resolved to establish the cardinal of
Bourbon in the authority the king of Navarre had held.[623]