THE FIRST CIVIL WAR (_Continued_). THE BATTLE OF DREUX (DECEMBER 19,
1562). THE PEACE OF AMBOISE (MARCH 19, 1563)
After the fall of Rouen, the chief military design of the Guises seems
to have been to protract the war, without giving battle, until the
Germans with D’Andelot and Condé either deserted for lack of pay or
were corrupted by them. Catherine’s wish, on the other hand, was to end
the war by composition and not by the sword, fearing to have either
party become flushed with success. In pursuance of this policy numbers
of the soldiers were permitted to go home, the war being considered to
be practically at an end until the spring, except that garrisons of
horse and foot were kept in the towns round about Orleans after the
manner of a flying siege (_siège volante_). But the rapid advance of
the prince toward Paris from Orleans, where he had been waiting for
D’Andelot, who mustered his German horse in Lorraine in the middle of
September, after he learned of his brother’s death, required the duke
of Guise to change his plans. Passing by Etampes, which the Guises
abandoned at his approach,[624] the prince of Condé marched toward
Corbeil in order to win the passage of the Seine, where 4,000 footmen
and 2,000 horse of the enemy lay in order to keep the Marne and the
Seine open above Paris for provisioning the capital. The Huguenot army
numbered about 6,000 footmen; 4,000 of them Germans, and nearly 3,000
horsemen. Most of the Germans were well armed and mounted, and all
“very Almain soldiers, who spoil all things where they go.”[625]
The duke of Guise, having received word of the approach of the
Huguenots upon Paris, abandoned his purpose of going to Havre, in
order to return to the succor of the city. Great difficulty was
experienced in accomplishing the return of the army, because it was
the depth of winter and the days were short and the roads heavy.
“Nevertheless everyone in camp took courage, because he was returning
to the good French wines and no more needed to drink the cider of
Normandy.”[626]
To combat the Protestant force, Guise and the constable had not
over 6,000 footmen and 1,000 horsemen at Paris, though this force
could be somewhat enlarged by drawing in the troops around Rouen
and before Havre-de-Grace. It was fully expected that the prince of
Condé would march upon the capital or else take the straight road
to Normandy in order to unite with the English and with their help
attempt to regain possession of Rouen and Dieppe. Paris was in the
greatest alarm. All the people living in the faubourgs were compelled
to abandon their houses. The state of the royal army was bad; the
soldiers were scattered and disorganized, for the spoil of Rouen had
induced every kind of license and debauchery. Moreover, the plague
was raging everywhere. In this exigency the duke of Guise abandoned
the country roundabout, within two or three leagues of Paris, to the
pillage of the Protestants, withdrew his scattered forces within the
walls, and feverishly employed every available person in the erection
of fortifications, principally upon the side toward Orleans, for which
certain unfinished erections of Francis I were utilized. The city
was so crowded with people even before the appearance of the troops
of the prince that it seemed to be in a state of siege. If Condé at
this time could have seized the river above and below the capital by
which provisions were received into Paris, the city could have been
speedily reduced to famine, as there was even at this time a scarcity
of food.[627]
But Louis of Condé was not a man of good judgment and, while
personally brave, he lacked political daring. To gain time for the
arrival of reinforcements, Catherine and the Guises wheedled him with
empty overtures for peace and sent the marshal Brissac’s brother to
the Protestant camp near Etampes to propose a plausible settlement,
saying that the Huguenots might have what they desired if they would
aid in expelling the Germans, and especially the English. The last
possibility was what the English agents in France had most feared, the
more because of the undeniable strength of the Catholic crown party,
which had won to itself a great number of the nobility, and because
of the approaching winter, the lack of money among the Huguenots, the
scarcity of food, and the weariness of the country. Such abandonment
of the English by the prince of Condé could hardly have been construed
as a breach of faith, seeing the apathy of the English participation
after the seizure of Havre-de-Grace and Elizabeth’s slowness in sending
him financial assistance. But the prince refused to treat with an
agent and continued his march toward Paris. On November 25 his cavalry
appeared in sight of the city and the queen mother and the constable
went out to parley further. The prince of Condé demanded the post of
lieutenant-general of the realm; for the Huguenots the right to have
churches in all towns except Paris and its _banlieue_ and frontier
towns; the right of all gentlemen to have private worship in their own
houses, and the retirement of the foreign troops. To these demands,
the queen replied that no one should have her authority, adding that
the government was already well made up of gentlemen, officers, and
ministers, among whom the responsibilities of state had been divided,
so that the government was capable of being well conducted until the
King had attained his majority. As to toleration, she declared that to
grant it would only be to encourage civil war.[628]
Too late Condé found that he had been trifled with[629] in order to
give the government time to bring up reinforcements[630] and that the
terms he offered had not even been considered. The blame for this
unfortunate turn in the war must rest, not upon the queen mother,
but upon the Guises. For the duke of Guise and his brother, with the
constable, could not but fear, that in the event of peace they would
be ruined, and the duke used his own popularity with the masses and
the enmity felt by the Parisians toward the queen to gain his ends.
When duplicity failed, then Catherine’s adversaries used intimidation,
and the Spanish ambassador at their instigation was sent to her,
“either threatening or protesting, or promising and offering aid,
and thus upsetting everything.”[631] When Paris was full of soldiers
negotiations were broken off, the prince of Condé declaring defiantly
that the Huguenots would sharpen their swords as they would have need
of them.
The only advantage the prince had gained was that he had been able
to draw his force close in toward Paris, so that in the last week in
November he was camped near the Pont de Charenton. On the 26th he
planted his camp on the left bank, a mile from the faubourgs. If the
prince of Condé had attacked Paris at once, instead of wasting time
at Corbeil in vain _pourparlers_, the whole Huguenot cause might have
triumphed, for the government would have been forced to yield almost
everything. He might have won the suburbs with little loss, although
in want of heavy artillery, and the city could not then have held out
long. But now the case was such that he either had to fight—with small
hope of winning, let alone of taking Paris—or else come to an accord
upon his enemy’s terms.[632]
The prevailing opinion was that the prince would not be able to keep
his army together for want of provisions and money, especially in
mid-winter.[633] This proved to be true. On December 9 he broke camp
and marched off crestfallen, toward Normandy, after burning the camp,
to effect a juncture with the English.[634] By this time he had barely
7,000 men, the time of the year telling hard upon the army, for it
was compelled to live in the open, while his adversaries had 15,000
or 16,000 men of all nations, one-quarter of whom were mounted. The
difficulty of his position was the greater because he was on the left
bank of the Seine, with no prospect of passing the river, for the duke
of Guise lay at Poissy,[635] while the Rhinegrave and Villebonne were
guarding Pont de l’Arche lower down. Warwick was unwilling to venture
forth from Havre to the prince’s assistance, but hoped, by stopping
the shipment of salt and other merchandise up the Seine, to be able
to compel the towns of Normandy, as Honfleur, Harfleur, Caudebec, and
Rouen, for necessity’s sake to come to terms.[636] Being unable to pass
the Seine, Condé drew off toward Chartres, followed at the distance of
about five leagues by the duke of Guise and the constable, and came to
a halt near Montfort not far from Evreux, while Guise lay at a point
about ten leagues west of St. Denis, from whence, including Paris,
he drew his supplies.[637] All around the two armies the country was
destroyed.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF DREUX, DECEMBER 19, 1562
(Bib. Nat., Estampes, _Histoire de France_, Q. b)]
The prince’s inability to secure provisions, combined with the failure
of English support, finally compelled him to give battle to the duke of
Guise near Dreux on December 19, the engagement being precipitated by
his attempt to force the passage of the Eure, although the odds were
against him in every particular, for the duke of Guise was posted at
a point so chosen that he could fall back on Dreux if compelled to do
so; his flank was protected by a stream and a wood; and his artillery
was more numerous than that of Condé.[638] The advance guard of the
Huguenots was commanded by the admiral; the “battle,” in which were the
German reiters, by D’Andelot; the rear guard by the prince of Condé
himself. The Huguenot ministers and preachers, armed and mounted,
moved about among the men, who sang their psalms in such a loud voice
that the camp of the King could easily hear them. On the Catholic side
the marshal St. André was pitted against D’Andelot; the constable
Montmorency commanded the rear guard, with instructions to hold off
until the Huguenot rear guard entered the fight; while the duke of
Guise himself commanded the advance guard against the admiral.[639]
The battle was begun about noon by a victorious charge of the Huguenot
horse, headed by Condé and Coligny, which drove back the Catholic Swiss
and resulted in the capture of six pieces of cannon and the constable
Montmorency who was slightly wounded in the mouth. His captors “sent
him to Orleans with such speed, that he drank but once by the way and
that on horseback.”[640] The second charge was less effective owing
chiefly to the slowness of the prince’s German reiters who had to have
their orders interpreted to them, and partly to the effective artillery
fire of the enemy, and culminated in the capture of Condé, whose horse
was shot under him. Too late to save the prince of Condé the admiral
made a partial rally of the French and German cavalry, in the course of
whose attack the marshal St. André was killed.[641] Even then the issue
might have been different if the Huguenot footmen had not behaved like
cowards.[642] The Protestant loss included about 800 of the noblesse,
and nearly 6,000 footmen and reiters according to those who buried the
dead.[643] The Catholic loss was about 2,000, the most conspicuous
among the fallen being the marshal St. André and Montbrun, the youngest
son of the constable Montmorency.[644]
The battle of Dreux was fought on the day of the feast of St.
Thomas—almost the shortest day of the year—and the Huguenots had to
thank the oncoming of darkness for saving them from pursuit. Under its
cover Coligny drew off toward Auneau where he pitched camp, but some
of the Huguenot horse galloped all night toward Orleans. Fortunate was
the Calvinist who could find a cross to put upon his clothing on the
morrow.[645] Twenty-two standards of the prince of Condé were found
upon the ground, which were sent to the King and hung in the cathedral
of Notre Dame. Almost all Condé’s German footmen were taken prisoners,
about 2,000, three-quarters of whom were sent back to Germany on
parole, without weapons, and bearing white rods in witness of their
abdication; the rest entered the service of the King and were joined
with the Rhinegrave’s forces under command of Bassompierre, an Alsatian
in the service of Charles IX.[646]
[Illustration:
CAMPAIGN OF DREUX
NOV.-DEC. 1562
_Methuen & Co._
]
[Illustration: BATTLE OF DREUX according to COMMANDANT de COYNART
_Methuen & Co._
]
The battle of Dreux, while not a complete rout of the Huguenots, was
no less a disaster, because it foiled the efforts of Coligny to effect
a junction with the English in Havre and compelled him to fall back
on Orleans. Even Spain breathed easier, for anxiety lest the English
get Calais was dispelled.[647] Moreover, the French Protestants were
in need of money, both Coligny’s and D’Andelot’s troops being in
arrears of pay, the latter’s reiters having gone three months without
wages.[648] On the other hand the government was in better financial
condition through the efforts of the cardinal of Lorraine, who
collected some money at the Council of Trent[649] in order to continue
the war, and the active efficiency of the Spanish ambassador and the
papal legate, who were excellent coworkers.[650] Yet, in spite of
defeat, Coligny was resolved to continue the fight, though uncertain
what policy to follow. At first he was inclined to go into Dauphiné and
join forces with Des Adresse against the duke of Nemours,[651] but the
prospect of Catholic relief from Germany in the early spring made it
advisable to abandon this plan.
The military situation was much as follows in mid-January, 1563: the
Huguenot center was at Orleans, where D’Andelot lay, in control of the
middle line of the Loire above Blois and as far northward as Chateaudun
and the vicinity of Chartres;[652] Coligny lay at Villefranche
(January 12); Montgomery was in Dieppe and the English in Havre. But
communication between the Protestant coreligionists was prevented by
the way in which the Catholic troops were disposed. Etampes, which the
duke of Guise recovered in January, restored the necessary connecting
link between Blois and Paris, and the whole line of the Seine was in
the hands of the Catholics; Warwick was being besieged in Havre by
Vieilleville (he had succeeded the Marshal St. André and was also
governor of Normandy), who lay at Caudebec.[653] The marshal Brissac
was at Rouen with seventeen ensigns. The marshal Bourdillon who had
been given the bâton of the late marshal Termes was in Piedmont. Paris
of course was in the government’s hands. In Berry where the upper
waters of the Loire and the Seine flow close together the lines of the
two hostile parties came in contact. The admiral in the second week in
January, 1563, passed the Loire at Beaugency and distributed his men
at St. Aignan, Celles, and Montrichard, which lay on the right bank
of the stream.[654] At the same time Guise had been minded to cross
the river the other way and attack Orleans. This move on the part of
each commander brought about a collision of forces near Cléry, in
which Guise was repulsed. The condition of the country at the time
was terrible, especially for the duke, whose troopers were so pressed
that they had to forage twelve leagues from camp.[655] Everywhere the
reiters were held in terror, for these raiders frequently made long
and rapid marches and fell suddenly upon places, carrying death and
destruction with them.
In the meanwhile, the constable had been kept in light captivity at
Orleans,[656] a treatment in contrast with that experienced by Condé,
who was first kept under strong guard by Damville in the little abbey
of St. Pierre at Chartres, both the windows and the street being
barred, and later, on January 24, 1563, brought to Paris.[657] Ever
since Dreux, the queen mother and the constable had been constantly
employed in the endeavor to make a settlement.[658] In the case of
the constable, self-interest was the chief motive: he chafed under
confinement and was envious of the duke of Guise.[659] On the other
hand, Catherine’s anxiety was of a political nature. She was fearful
lest England permanently acquire Havre-de-Grace. Her purpose was to
make peace with the Huguenots and then unite the parties in a war for
the recovery of Havre.[660] But the mistrust of the Huguenots that the
overtures of peace were meant to be an accord in appearance only; the
ambition of the Guises who saw their power thrive in the struggle; the
opposition of Paris, and perhaps above all, the opposition of Spain,
were difficulties in the way.[661] Philip II’s joy over Dreux was
tempered by his anxiety, and he secretly aimed to thwart any terms of
peace at all favorable to the Protestants.[662] Catherine probably
would have preferred to abide by anything rather than have the Guises
gain greater profit.[663] The queen mother urged the necessity of
peace on account of lack of funds to carry on the war.[664] But her
arguments were cast to the winds by the triumphant Guises when money
began to pour into France from Spain, Venice, the duke of Tuscany, and
from some of the Catholic German princes.[665]
On the other hand, the penury of the Protestants increased from day
to day. Coligny was in daily fear lest the reiters would desert
him on account of the delay in paying them.[666] In vain he wrote
to Elizabeth, urging the speedy remittance of money. The cautious
procrastination and niggardly policy of Elizabeth in the end was
fatal to his purpose. In vain her ambassador in France, the faithful
Throckmorton, urged immediate and liberal action. Warwick also added
his plea, informing the home government and the queen that the admiral
would be “ruined and unable to hold up his head without her aid in men
and money.”[667] Elizabeth’s notorious parsimony led her to deceive
the French Protestants with vague promises, a policy so short-sighted
that it ultimately lost England the support of the Huguenots and
compelled the evacuation of Havre-de-Grace, which otherwise they might
have made another Calais. By February the admiral’s patience was
well-nigh exhausted, and his troops in mutiny, the reiters raiding the
country to such an extent that the court and the foreign ambassadors
were compelled to retire from Chartres to Blois, not daring to try
to go to Paris. As his position became more desperate from want of
funds, Coligny determined to strike northward, if possible to effect a
juncture with the English on the coast of Normandy, and so while his
agents parleyed for peace in order to gain time and deceive the enemy,
the admiral, leaving his wagons and baggage behind him in order that
his reiters might ride unimpeded, stole away from Jargau on the night
of February 1 with 2,000 reiters, 1,000 mounted arquebusiers, and 500
gentry. His purpose was to join Warwick, but when he reached Dreux,
where the battle had been fought six weeks earlier, he discovered that
it was impossible for him to cross the Seine, and hence, after sending
word to the earl that he was in hard straits for money to pay his men
and had “much ado to keep them together,” he drew off toward Caen.[668]
While Coligny lay at Dives, Throckmorton—it must have been against
his own convictions—was sent to confer with him, informing him that
if the admiral counted that the payment of his army and the support of
the war depended upon Elizabeth alone, he was to understand that the
people of England would not willingly contribute to such an expense,
since the war was of little profit to them. Therefore Elizabeth advised
the Huguenots not to refuse reasonable conditions of peace, the English
queen including in the sphere of “reasonable conditions” Huguenot
insistence that Calais be restored to England.[669]
In the meantime, while Coligny’s position was growing worse and
worse, the position of D’Andelot in Orleans had also become serious.
The duke of Guise invested the city on February 4, and got possession
of Portereau (February 6), a faubourg of Orleans across the river,
which had been fortified during the previous summer. But the Huguenots
still held the town at their end of the bridge and broke several of
the arches down. A tiny island lay in the stream and this the duke
planned to reach by filling thousands of sacks with sand and gravel
and throwing them into the river between the banks at Portereau and
the island from whence he would be more able to attack Orleans with
cannon.[670] But it being winter time, the river was too deep and the
current too strong. Failing this, he planned to cut the river above
Orleans in order to let the water into the meadow lands.[671] The
spirited siege lasted many days. Every kind of metal was impressed into
service by those of Orleans, including shells made of brass, “which was
a new device and very terrible,” and their ammunition seemed likely to
outlast that of their enemy. The Catholic position around Orleans was
by no means an enviable one. Food, money, and ammunition were lacking.
All Guise’s men-at-arms and light horsemen lived at discretion—that
is, they quartered themselves on the surrounding villages and forced
the poor people of the country to feed them and their horses. The
court was doing the same at Blois to the “marvellous destruction” of
the country. The lack of powder bade fair to be fatal to the duke’s
success, for the government’s powder factories at Chartres, Chateaudun,
and Paris were all blown up, accidentally or otherwise, about this
time, that of Paris having occurred on January 28, 1563, with great
destruction of property and some lives.[672] In consequence of these
disasters, the Catholic artillery had to send all the way to Flanders
for gunpowder. Although some breaches were made in the wall by the
Catholics, the duke of Guise delayed final assault, for two reasons:
first, because the queen mother hoped to take the city by composition,
secondly, because Catholic reinforcements were looked for late in March
out of Germany, Switzerland, and Gascony, to the number of ten thousand.
No such silver lining lightened the cloud on the Huguenot horizon.
D’Andelot from Orleans, the princess of Condé, Eleanor de Roye, from
Strasburg, her imprisoned husband, and Coligny all implored the English
queen in vain for speedy relief. The admiral’s position by the end
of February was desperate. He had been compelled to move into the
western part of Normandy, for his 5,000 reiters were “in such rage
for their money that he could scarce keep them together,” and were
being so corrupted by the enemy that he might otherwise have lost
them utterly.[673] Powder also was wanting.[674] The condition of
Montgomery[675] in Dieppe and of Warwick in Havre was quite as bad.
In Havre food was so scarce that rations were reduced to a two-penny
loaf to four persons; wood was unprocurable; the water was bad.[676]
The spoiling of Normandy from the devastation of Coligny’s reiters who
were levying upon the country without law or order, and burning and
destroying villages without regard to religion, was terrible. “If
the reiters understand that another messenger has arrived here (Caen)
from the queen and the money not come,” wrote the admiral, “it will be
impossible to save our throats from being cut.” Fortunately the very
next day the English ambassador arrived in Caen with word for Coligny
to the effect that eight thousand pounds in English sovereigns, French
crowns, angels, and pistolets were on the way from Portsmouth to
Caen.[677] Fire opened on Caen castle on March 1, and the next day the
marquis D’Elbœuf surrendered it. Bayeux also capitulated.[678] The fall
of these two places and the fearful state of the country,[679] might
have broken the resolution of the crown to continue the war.[680] But
another fate intervened.
[Illustration: ASSASSINATION OF THE DUKE OF GUISE, FEBRUARY 18, 1563
(Tortorel and Perissin)]
Henry of Guise was mortally wounded on the night of February 18, 1563,
by a Huguenot assassin named Poltrot[681] and died on Ash Wednesday
following, February 24. The death of the duke of Guise was a heavy blow
to the Catholics. His following, because of his personal magnetism,
was greater than that of any other Catholic leader, for many noblemen
and gentlemen adhered to the Catholic cause more for love of him than
for loyalty to the established religion. Moreover, he was an able
general uniting quickness of intelligence, determination, experience,
popularity, and physical endurance in his talented person. Immediately
after Guise was hurt, the queen mother went to the camp with the
desire to see the constable. The prince of Condé and the constable
were obviously the men of the hour, and as they could not conduct
negotiations while they were prisoners, they were both liberated on
March 8, and held a conference together on that day.[682] On March 19
the King, with the assent of his council, formally decreed religious
toleration and appointed the prince of Condé lieutenant-general of the
realm with exemption for seizure of any of the royal revenues by him
during the troubles.[683] It was high time for peace to be made, for
the revolt of the provinces was increasing. In La Rochelle, Poitou,
Guyenne, and Picardy the “Howegenosys” had again rebelled in February,
and the lieutenants of these provinces sent to Blois for aid.[684]
[Illustration: INTERVIEW ON THE ILE-AUX-BŒUFS
(Bib. Nat., Estampes, _Histoire de France_, Q. b)]
The terms of Amboise are interesting because they mark the triumph of
the aristocratic element in the Huguenot party, whose interests were
identified with their political purposes and their feudal position,
over the “Geneva party,” who were austere Calvinists, and who had an
eye single to religion only.[685] D’Andelot, and to a less degree the
admiral, were representatives of this latter group.[686] The terms of
peace provided that the prince of Condé was to succeed to the place
of the late king of Navarre; that the Huguenot army was to be paid
by the government; that in all towns where the Reformed religion
prevailed, save Paris, it was to be protected; that in every bailiwick
the King was to appoint one town where the gospel might be preached;
that all gentlemen holding fiefs in low or mean justice might have
preaching in their houses for the benefit of their families; that all
nobles enjoying high justice might have preaching on their estates;
that property confiscated from either church was to be restored.[687]
Paris firmly refused at first to tolerate any terms of peace,[688] its
Catholic prejudices being aggravated by desire to revenge the murder of
the duke of Guise; but the King replied to the demur of the Parlement
that the city must make up its mind to accept the conditions.[689]
On the other hand, Lyons as obstinately refused to receive the mass,
so that the country round about it remained turbulent well into the
autumn.[690] Rouen, Dijon, Toulouse, encouraged by the opposition of
the Parlement, refused to recognize the edict.[691] The roads were
filled with robbers, and the continued presence of the reiters, to whom
an enormous sum in wages was due, was a perpetual menace.
The Germans who had been in the service of the King and those of the
prince of Condé fraternized on the road home. They made a great troop
to the number of 10,000 or 12,000, taking the road from Orleans by way
of Pluvières and Etampes to Paris, and arrived there in Easter week,
where they stayed for five weeks at least. When they left they were an
entire day crossing the bridge over the Seine, because of the enormous
amount of baggage which they had. After having crossed the Seine, the
reiters divided into two bands for better living, one of them skirting
the right bank of the Seine, the other crossing Brie to the Marne,
in order to find better provisions for themselves and their horses.
These latter traversed Champagne to the River Aube and encamped at
Montier-en-Der near Vassy for six entire weeks, marauding the country
for five or six leagues about. Their depredations drove the peasantry
to such despair that protective associations composed of the peasantry
and nobles were formed to resist their aggressions, and these fell upon
stragglers whenever they found a little group of them, and cut their
throats. Gradually, however, these despoilers were drawn off out of the
land, being accompanied to the frontier by the French infantry under
the command of the prince de Porcien, who was then at Metz, where he
had been stationed to foil any effort the Emperor might make for its
recovery.[692] The priest-historian of Provins has graphically depicted
the depredations of the reiters:
At the beginning of this war [he says] the people of the villages
were so rich and well provided for, so well furnished in their houses
with all kinds of furniture, so well provided with poultry and
animals, that it was noble to see.... But the soldiers destroyed their
beautiful tables, their shining brass-bound chests, and killed a great
quantity of poultry without paying for it, or else offering a paltry
sum in proportion to the number of soldiers who were lodged in the
house. It was all one whether one man or many were so lodged, because
the soldier who had a house to himself seized everything to his own
profit. The wives and daughters of the peasantry were compelled to
defend their honor. Property was seized and every sort of villainy was
done by the soldiers, within the space of the three or four days that
they might remain at a place.[693]
Not since the Hundred Years’ War had France beheld a people more
fearful and formidable than were these reiters. They plundered the
wretched people of all their goods, loading their horses and wagons
therewith. Amid their equipment they carried winnowing fans to winnow
the grain, flails to beat it in the granges, and sacks to bind it up
in. They had with them mills to grind the grain and little ovens to
bake bread in. Wherever they lodged they tore up floors, broke into
closets, and ransacked gardens, courts, and chimneys, in order to find
booty. They even fell upon the houses and châteaux of the nobles, where
they passed, if they saw they were not strong or well defended.[694]
For this reason those living in poorly fortified houses vacated them
and fled to the towns. Those who owned strong and well-fortified houses
levied soldiers for their defense. What happened at Provins happened,
doubtless, in many other places, too.
In the carrefours of Provins, it was proclaimed that no inhabitant of
the town, under pain of a fine of one hundred livres _tournois_ and
imprisonment, should leave it, and that every man at the hour of ten in
the morning must report with his arms before the house of his sergeant
(_dizainier_) for the purpose of mounting guard upon the walls, each in
his own part of the city. Everybody in the surrounding country began
to vacate their houses and to drive their cattle into the town. On the
evening before Easter messengers of Provins reported that the reiters
were near. At this news watchers were set upon the wall of the town,
and a _corps de garde_ posted by the town authorities. On the morning
of the morrow, which was Easter Sunday, the gates of the town were not
opened until eight o’clock, upon which there poured into the town an
infinite number of wagons and pack-animals laden with the possessions
of the villagers round about. There was hardly room to bestow so many
people and so many animals. Divine service was celebrated in the parish
churches, for it was expected that the reiters would take their course
toward the town, and the people were resolved not to let them enter,
but to resist to the very last drop of blood.
In order to ascertain what was the equipment and the arms of each
inhabitant of the town, a general meeting was called at midday for
a view of arms, but it was not possible to hold the meeting because
all the streets and squares were packed with the refugees and their
animals. In consequence of this, local meetings were held in each
of the quarters of the city. Thus the day wore on and consternation
abated only when it was learned that the reiters had gone off toward
the Marne, which they crossed above Coulumiers On the morrow, Easter
Monday, there was no procession in the streets as usual, for fear of
a surprise, and it was not until evening that the people who had found
refuge within the town, began to depart.[695]
But the undisguised hostility of Spain to the Edict of Amboise was
a greater source of danger to France than protests of the Parlement
or popular violence. “If the heretics obtain their demands with the
aid of the English queen,” Chantonnay had threatened on March 6, “the
Catholics in their turn will rise, and they will be sustained by the
King my master and by all the Catholic princes.”[696] But Catherine was
in no mood to be intimidated. She openly told him that he treated her
as if he governed the country, and charged him with wilful fabrication,
sarcastically adding that she could excuse him for so doing in some
degree because she knew from whom he derived his opinions, meaning the
constable and the two deceased members of the Triumvirate.[697] Philip
II’s religious convictions were outraged by the toleration of Calvinism
allowed in the Edict of Amboise, the more so because the queen mother,
in justification of the course of the government, compromised the
church at large by declaring that the sole practical solution of
the difficulty could be accomplished by a true general council of
the church, and _not_ by the one sitting at Trent, in defiance of
whose conclusions she asserted the legality and inviolability of the
edict.[698]
Catherine de Medici was deeply concerned over the conduct of the
Council of Trent. For the programme of zealous advocates of the
counter-Reformation there aimed at church consolidation and the
enlargement of papal authority to such an extent that the immemorial
liberties of the Gallican church, confirmed by the great concordat of
1516, and the rights of the crown over the temporalities of the church
in France were seriously threatened. The complication of the Huguenots
with England and the murder of the duke of Guise had brought this issue
to a head. In the month in which the duke was assassinated there was
a significant meeting of the ambassadors of the ultra-Catholic powers
resident at the French court, in which it was resolved to support
the Council in matters of religion; to prevent future appropriation
of church revenues by the state under pain of excommunication; to
stamp out heresy; and to avenge the murder of the duke of Guise.[699]
The cardinal of Lorraine was the chief representative of France at
Trent and perhaps the most conspicuous prelate there. He was bitter
against the policy of Charles IX, advocating utter suppression of the
Huguenots. His continuance at Trent, therefore, became a danger to
France and Catherine de Medici dexterously found means to remove him by
sending him on special errands to Vienna and Venice, leaving the case
of France at Trent in the hands of the sieur de Lansac, whose loyalty
to the Catholic faith did not subvert his patriotism.[700]
Aside from his religious antagonism, Philip II regarded his own
political interests as also jeopardized by the French situation. He
was alarmed at the possible recovery of Calais by England,[701] and
the progress of heresy and rebellion in the Netherlands, especially at
Valenciennes and Tournay, was certain to be encouraged by the example
of France, while a common effort of the Huguenots of Picardy and those
of the religion across the Flemish border was seriously feared.[702]