THE FOURTH CIVIL WAR
The massacre of St. Bartholomew, like a bolt out of a clear sky,
precipitated a new storm—the fourth civil war. La Rochelle was the
storm center, though Sancerre and Montauban were rocks of safety for
the Huguenots of the center and south of France, no less than three
thousand Protestants and Politiques of Toulouse finding refuge in the
latter place.[1544] When Charles IX’s murderous passion was overpast
and reason returned, he attempted to avert a new war by offering
favorable terms to the Rochellois.[1545] But when the town fortified
itself and refused to trust the “favorable” terms offered by Biron and
turned toward England for aid, the marshal was commanded to take the
city by storm.[1546] The government was heavily embarrassed in its
military preparations. Money was scarce and the rate of interest 15
per cent.[1547] Soldiers of judgment and experience pointed out that
without either Swiss or Germans the King could not successfully batter
the town, “for Frenchmen were not fit for the keeping of artillery,
or to make the body of the ‘battle’ of footmen,” and the Swiss diet
refused to let France draw more mercenaries from the Alpine lands. The
King was equally unsuccessful in his endeavor to recruit footmen in
Germany.[1548]
The enigmatical policy of Elizabeth was also a deterrant in the
beginning of the war. While she sent the earl of Worcester into France
in January, 1573, to treat of commerce and to dangle the prospect of
her marrying Charles IX’s youngest brother, the duke of Alençon, before
the eyes of the French court,[1549] the English queen did not turn a
deaf ear to the petition of the Rochellois.[1550] If after the massacre
there was less fear of strengthening France by giving aid to the Low
Countries, on the contrary it became doubly necessary for England not
to break with Spain, so that the policy of Queen Elizabeth was a timid
and hesitating one.
When England’s policy was perceived to be so weak, the government
pushed forward its military preparations against the city and the
Italian artillery commander, Strozzi, in mid-December, took Marans,
not far from La Rochelle, and put the garrison to the sword. But
the Rochellois maintained the ramparts against all onslaught. The
attacking army, under command of the duke of Anjou, lay in the dike
under the curtain of the town walls, but could get no farther. To add
to the discomfiture of the Catholics, the King’s army was in want
of foodstuffs on account of the rising of the country roundabout,
especially Poitou and Limousin.[1551]
The dearth, however, was more than local. The winter of 1572-73 was
again a hard one, and though the spring of 1573 opened early and mild,
there came recurrence of cold; so much so that processions were held,
imploring the grace of God upon the fields where much of the grain was
killed. The ensuing high prices of grain were made higher owing to
the fact that great amounts of it were stored by the dealers against
the market. There were bread riots and popular tumults in various
localities and many towns fixed a maximum price. This condition of
things aggravated the state of war throughout the country. Multitudes
of people crowded the towns. These refugees brought their possessions
with them, their linen and household goods, their sheep and their
cattle, which they were forced to sell for a song in order to buy bread.
The hard times also led to the migration of people from province to
province and increased the vagabondage that already existed. The hunger
was so great that men and women devoured vegetables, and even grain,
raw. In consequence of the lack of food or the way in which it was
consumed, suffering and disease ensued. Those who were fortunate enough
to possess a garden plot with a few vines or fruits or vegetables were
compelled to guard them by night and by day against the spoiler. It
was considered an act of charity for those who had fruit trees, after
themselves gathering the fruit, to permit those more wretched than
they to strip the branches of their leaves and consume them. Paris
suffered with the rest of France, for it was impossible to supply
the city with food from the Beauce and Picardy and Champagne. Grain
was imported from Spain and even from the Barbary coast, the timely
arrival of six vessels, on one occasion, saving the capital from the
pinch of famine.[1552] The “hard times,” which lasted more than a
year, naturally bore heaviest upon the poorer classes, whose wretched
condition contrasted with the luxury and vanity of the wealthier
classes, with whom extravagance reached an extreme.[1553]
During the winter there was a complete cessation of hostilities before
La Rochelle. Not a cannon was discharged all through the months of
December, January, and February.[1554] In derision of the King’s camp,
some of the more daring of the Huguenot soldiery strutted about adorned
with cards and dice to signify that the King’s troops were better
gamesters than soldiers.[1555] The truth is, Protestant France was not
all of one mind to continue the resistance. There were two parties
in the Huguenot capital, the irreconcilables, who wanted war to the
knife and favored looking to England for support; and a more moderate
faction led by that Bayard of the Protestants, the heroic La Noue,
who, believing that the great enemy of France and of the Huguenots was
Spain,[1556] with proper guarantees stood ready to forget and forgive
the massacre, so far as it was possible for human memory and feeling
to do so, recognizing that that event was a catastrophe to Catholic
as well as to Protestant France; that, however monstrous it was as a
crime, as a blunder its effects were even more calamitous.
As for the crown, it was even more anxious than the moderate Huguenots
to avoid a protracted siege and come to some form of settlement.[1557]
With this aim Charles IX, through the medium of the duke of
Longueville, governor of Picardy, early in October had made overtures
to La Noue, who was still in Flanders. After some hesitation La Noue
came to Paris where he had a conference with the King and the queen
mother. So trusted and so capable was he that Charles IX gave him
practically discretionary powers to bring about a settlement, and in
the middle of November La Noue went to La Rochelle.
For days the intrepid leader vainly endeavored to secure entrance into
the city.[1558] Finally, on November 26 he was reluctantly admitted.
During the cold and weary weeks of December, January, and February,
while besieged and besiegers were lying on their arms upon the walls
or in the trenches, La Noue alternately entreated and expostulated,
urging the necessity of peace in the face of vilification, the Huguenot
minister La Place even calling him “perfide traistre, déserteur de
son parti.” “The word of the King,” said Catherine de Medici, to the
deputies of the Reformed on one occasion, “ought to be sufficient for
you.” “No,” replied one of them, “not since St. Bartholomew.”[1559]
Even La Noue’s influence could not overcome the radical party in La
Rochelle which imprisoned as many as advocated capitulation no matter
what the terms might be. At last on March 12, 1573, the brave man gave
up hope of persuading the zealot populace and returned to the King’s
camp. Angry at the failure of these pacific overtures, the government
forces redoubled their attacks. On March 22 the royal artillery opened
a terrible fire upon the city, more than 1,500 cannon-balls being
thrown. On April 7 there was a furious assault, even women fighting on
the wall, and the attack was repeated on the 10th, 13th, and 14th, on
the last day there being five separate attempts to take the city by
storm.
Montgomery, who had been sent to England for assistance,[1560] appeared
with about seventy ships, and was on the point of giving battle in
the bay, when a fleet of forty vessels from the ports of Brittany and
Normandy hove in sight. These ships, with what Anjou could muster,
made too great a body for Montgomery to risk an engagement, and so he
retired to Belle-Ile, which was made a Protestant naval base.[1561]
[Illustration:
Plan de la
Rochelle en M·D·LXXII.
From _Histoire au siège de La Rochelle en 1573_, traduite du Latin de
Philippe Cauriana (La Rochelle, 1856).]
Meanwhile, the Swiss in camp had toiled in the trenches and “swamp
angel” guns were established in the marshes to batter the port of St.
Nicholas. On June 11 the supreme assault on La Rochelle was made and
repulsed. The attacking force by an escalade gained possession of
the rampart but found a mighty trench before them, so that they were
constrained to beat their way along the rampart in the hopes of finding
a place to cross it. Those in the camp, seeing their comrades gain the
ramparts, cried, “ville gaignée!” But the Rochellois lured the enemy
along the wall “and when they were entered set upon them both before
and behind with such fury that they were all either slain or hurt, and
the rest who were coming to succor the foremost were repulsed with
great loss.”[1562]
After the failure of the great assault, because the soldiery without
was so much discouraged by failure, angry for lack of pay,[1563] and
weakened by losses and disease, the only recourse of the crown was
to capitulate with the Rochellois[1564] with as much reservation as
possible. Villeroy’s report on the condition of things before La
Rochelle was too convincing to be ignored[1565]. In the first week
of July, after two days’ deliberation, Charles IX signed the terms,
although they were not published at once.[1566]
The general provisions were that those of La Rochelle should have life,
goods, and liberty of conscience and that the town, together with
Montauban, Sancerre, and Nîmes should also have “free exercise of
the religion and find a garrison for themselves.” The edict declared
that the memory of all things which had happened since the 24th of
August should be extinguished; that the Catholic religion was to be
established throughout the country, except at the four cities named.
Bailiffs and judges ordinary were to see to the decent interment of
those who died in the Reformed religion. Those who gave security
that they would change their religion should be admitted to the
universities, schools, hospitals, without hindrance, and finally that
any French Protestant might sell or alienate his goods and retire to
any country he pleased, provided it were not to the territory of any
princes where war obtained, a provision obviously intended to protect
Spain in the Netherlands.[1567]
But the fourth war of religion was not yet entirely over. While La
Rochelle with 2,000 men daily labored to repair its battered walls,
Sancerre was not to be tempted by the terms, and the south of France
still held out. The heroic resistance of Sancerre, perched like an
eagle’s nest on a steep hill above the Loire, is one of the epic
stories of the sixteenth century. For nearly eight months (January 3 to
August 19, 1573) the city withstood every assault and only succumbed
at last when reduced to direst famine. Horses, asses, dogs, cats, rats
were all consumed. Soup made of boiled parchment became a luxury. The
inhabitants ate “pain de paille haschée et d’ordorze y meslant du
fumier de chevaux et tout ce qu’ils pensoient avoir quelque suc.” Even
the bodies of the dead were disinterred and consumed. When human nature
could endure no more, Sancerre threw itself upon the mercy of its
conqueror. It was granted liberty of worship and the people spared from
massacre and pillage for the price of forty thousand livres; but its
mediaeval glory was shorn from it. The splendid clock-tower of the town
was destroyed, its ramparts razed.[1568]
In spite of the pacification at La Rochelle and the fall of Sancerre,
the Midi still resisted. In Languedoc and Dauphiné the Huguenots were
especially strong.[1569] Their harvests were garnered into walled
towns; their army included 2,000 arquebusiers besides the Huguenot
gentry and they were well prepared for further war.[1570] On the
anniversary of the massacre (August 24, 1573) deputies of all the
churches of the south convened at Montauban and took the preliminary
steps in the formation of the great Huguenot confederation which in
December assumed the direction of the war, the regulation of finances,
civil administration, and religious protection.[1571]
Languedoc was divided into two governments with Montauban and Nîmes as
centers under the authority of the viscounts of Paulin and St. Romain,
each assisted and controlled by a council. The councils, in turn, in
all important matters were required to consult the local assemblies
of Protestants. All these assemblies were elective. The Protestant
organization thus constituted an all but full-fledged state within a
state, asserting its own power to lay taxes, to administer justice, to
carry on war, and to make peace. It was estimated that 20,000 men in
these regions were able to bear arms.
In consequence of the continuance of the war in the south the Swiss
and the rest of the soldiery not yet licensed were sent from the camp
before La Rochelle into Dauphiné and Languedoc. But the government
was heavily embarrassed financially and had been compelled to resort
to forced loans in Paris and the old shift of mortgaging the revenue
until the grant of the clergy was made in June.[1572] Even then it did
not urge war. Charles IX, jealous of the Guises and of the military
reputation which his brother had acquired, was again manifesting his
hatred of the restraint imposed upon him, and desirous of recovering
his independence.
The tendency of France was to return to its earlier policy which
had been interrupted by the massacre.[1573] Charles again inclined
to sustain Holland in its rebellion against Spain,[1574] at least
underhandedly. To strike Spain was at the same time to strike at all
the influences which he hated. Accordingly France made overtures anew
to the prince of Orange, although it was not without repugnance that
William of Orange brought himself to listen to them.[1575] But the
voice of policy was stronger than sentiment.[1576] For on December
11, 1572, the famous siege of Haarlem had begun. It was Alva’s purpose
by the capture of this city to cut the communications between south
Holland, where the prince of Orange was, and north Holland.[1577]
From Germany the faithful and far-sighted Schomberg earnestly urged
the project and so artfully did he fulfil his mission that the elector
palatine, the landgrave, and the archbishop of Cologne all espoused
it.[1578] “The repose of the kingdom, the security of the state, the
ruin of the great enemy of France, direct and firm alliance with the
princes of Germany, the subversion of all the designs of the house
of Austria, and the culmination of your desires, is in the hands of
your majesty,” he wrote to Catherine on March 23.[1579] At last,
after months of deliberation and delay, the threads of these tortuous
negotiations were all drawn together at a secret interview of Catherine
de Medici with Louis of Nassau at Blamont in Lorraine, in December,
1573.[1580]
But there was yet another reason why the crown of France was desirous
of closing the conflict at home, which goes far to explain the
government’s willingness to compromise with La Rochelle. The throne
of Poland had become vacant upon the death of Sigismund Augustus, the
last of the Jagiello house, on July 7, 1572. The crown of Poland was
an elective one, the suffrage being in the hands of the diet, composed
solely of the two privileged orders. In the factional strife that too
often ensued, the deadlock was sometimes broken by the election of an
outside prince. This vicious and unnational policy triumphed in 1573.
The Emperor, the King of Spain, and France had each a candidate. But
Poland had no mind to experience the fate of Bohemia and pass under
the suzerainty of the Hapsburgs. Spain, too, in the person of her
ambassador, was deprived of a hearing and compelled to make overtures
in writing. In this wise the way was cleared for French diplomacy. In
the autumn of 1572, Charles IX had been sounded by the Poles as to the
candidacy of the duke of Anjou and had intimated the conditions to be
expected.[1581] On December 19, the secretary of the bishop of Valence,
the French agent who had been hastily dispatched to Poland, arrived
in Paris, and gave great hope for the election of the duke of Anjou,
though the Polish diet had not met yet on account of the plague.[1582]
When it convened on April 15, 1573, the dexterous feat was accomplished
by the papal legate, Cardinal Commendone, who, for his spiritual
master, was hostile to the Emperor for having lately made a three
years’ truce with the Turks and thus marred the glory of Lepanto, and
opposed in principle to the widening of Spain’s activities anywhere,
in view of the supreme struggle of the faith in France and the Low
Countries, where the cause of Rome was in sore need of Spanish support.
The French envoys[1583] then skilfully introduced the name of the
duke of Anjou, lauding his Catholic virtues in the ears of a Catholic
populace; promising that if elected Henry of Valois would spend all
his revenues—how little these were the Poles could not know—in
Poland for the benefit of the kingdom; they promised, too, that the
prospective king would recover from the Muscovite all the territories
whereof the kingdom of Poland had been despoiled in times past, as well
as Wallachia from the Turks.[1584] The arguments told, and on May 19,
1573, the duke of Anjou was elected king of Poland.
On August 8, 1573, the official deputation of Polish nobles sent to
France to notify the duke of Anjou of his election reached Metz, and
soon afterward (June 24, St. John’s Day) arrived at Paris. They were
the advance guard of almost two thousand Polish nobles and gentry who
visited the kingdom during this summer. They were all magnificently
lodged and entertained in the city at the expense of the crown, or
rather at the expense of the people, for a new tax was imposed for
purposes of entertainment. The appearance of the Poles struck the
French with amazement. They were all tall, handsome men, “speaking
Latin down to the very hostlers,” but marvelously given to drink and
great gourmands. The wine-shops of the capital were almost drunk dry.
Two Poles, the saying went, drank more wine and consumed more meat than
six Frenchmen.[1585]
The honor of the crown of Poland salved the wounded pride of Anjou,
still before La Rochelle. But the army murmured so much that a royal
mandate was issued making it a misdemeanor to argue or to discuss the
Polish election in the streets of Paris, or to discountenance the
election of the duke of Anjou to the throne of Poland in written work
or speech.[1586] Without victory, without pay, without even enough to
eat, the soldiers grumbled to the point of mutiny and averred that the
government was bribed, and took the Huguenot money in order to provide
funds for the King’s trip to Poland.[1587] Henry dared not openly
leave the camp for fear of their rebellion and was compelled to make a
feint of going boating in the bay and then effect an escape by sea to
Nantes.[1588]
Distance lent enchantment to the view. Poland was in a wretched
condition through the dissensions of the nobility. The Emperor was
angry and talked of stopping the duke _en route_.[1589] Lithuania
seceded and entered into an alliance with the duke of Prussia, the
king of Sweden, and Russia, to overthrow the Polish government.[1590]
The Hanseatic cities, too, like Dantzig, Riga, and Revel, were very
dissatisfied, for it was open knowledge that Poland aspired to the
control of their commerce.[1591] The Poles themselves soon discovered
that their new king was a goose without a golden egg. For the French
lawyers found an interpretation of the promise that the French would
discharge the debts of the realm to the effect that the promise meant
only those arising since the death of the late king. The Polish
agents in Paris made wry faces at the finding, but so the agreement
was registered by the Parlement of Paris on September 17, 1573.[1592]
In the same month the duke of Anjou set out for his new kingdom,
going via Nancy, Heidelberg, and Frankfurt to Cracow. Metz he avoided
because the Emperor, still sullen and still smarting from the loss of
the city twenty-one years before (1552), had commanded the imperial
commissioners appointed to conduct him, to receive him in Metz as
though it were a free city of the empire, which the French naturally
refused to permit.
Again the foolish affection of Catherine de Medici for one of her
children,[1593] again her political fatuity, threw France far off
from the course she should have followed. As before the massacre, so
now that course was the path to Italy.[1594] Instead of narrowing the
field of her ambition for her children and concentrating her power,
not content with Poland for the duke of Anjou, she even dreamed of the
Hapsburg crown for Charles IX,[1595] and that of England for Alençon.
Schomberg’s missions in 1572-73 to Germany[1596] were not merely to
dispose the German princes in favor of France’s projected enterprise
in the Netherlands, but also to persuade them, especially the electors
of Cologne and the Palatinate, in favor of the French King’s imperial
ambition. France’s policy in Poland[1597] and her policy in Germany
were two parts of one grand design and in a large sense had to stand
or fall together. Peace with the Huguenots was an essential element in
the forwarding of this project, especially with the Protestant German
princes, as Schomberg pointed out.[1598]
But there were two great obstacles in the way of advance—German
resentment because of the massacre of St. Bartholomew[1599] and
the counter-diplomacy of Spain.[1600] The Guisard-Spanish party at
home naturally exerted itself to thwart the prosecution of these
designs.[1601] Morvilliers warned Charles IX that their continuance
would involve France in a war with Spain.[1602]