CHAPTER XVIII

HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES. THE PEACE OF MONSIEUR (1576)

The attention of Europe was fixed upon France by these events. What

was going to happen in the absence of the heir to the throne? Would

a frightful wave of retaliatory vengeance for the massacre of St.

Bartholomew and the process of Vincennes sweep over the land? These

were the questions that were asked, not only everywhere in France,

but in many quarters of Europe. The Tuscan ambassador wrote that the

châteaux of the Montmorencys were filled with provisions and munitions

of war.[1657]

The Politiques, as a class, being imbued with Hotman’s teachings

in the _Franco-Gallia_, inveighed against Catherine for having

assumed the regency without consent of the estates. They and the

political Huguenots were at one, and demanded searching reform.

It was their hope to prevail upon the queen mother to come to a

definite agreement before the arrival of Henry III in France, in the

expectation that the King upon his arrival would find it expedient

to accept it. They demanded the reorganization of justice and the

army; they condemned the alienation of the crown lands, increase of

the tithe, and the new taxes; they insisted upon an examination of

the accounts of those who had managed the public finances and the

royal revenue, this investigation to include not only the ministers

who had enriched themselves, but also the superintendents of finance

from Henry II down to the present time, not excepting the cardinal

of Lorraine. They demanded the expulsion of the “foreigners,” naming

the chancellor Biragues, the marshal de Retz, and the duke of Nevers

who were all Italians. They hated the Guises as a foreign house and

quasi-German.[1658]

It was high time for some sort of settlement. The country was crying

out against the thieves and brigands, who frequented the roads in great

numbers under the guise of war and pretended to be in the service of

the King.[1659]

But Catherine refused to deal with any matter of state until the

arrival of the King. She showed an almost feverish anxiety for her

son’s coming, fearing that the duke of Alençon would be put forward

for the crown by the Politiques.[1660] In Germany, at the same time,

the Orange party, with the aid of Schomberg, labored to promote the

cause of the Politiques and liberal Huguenots, and in September a

deputation came from the count palatine to urge the cause of toleration

in France.[1661] But it was slow and hard work, for as La Noue had

bitterly said the year before: “The iron of the German nation was heavy

and hard to work; it was silver that made things move.”[1662] Moreover,

the agents of Spain and the Guises were encountered at every turn.

In the meantime Henry III had left Cracow on June 16, running away

from his kingdom like a thief in the night,[1663] and came home by

way of Italy, via Venice, where he was extravagantly entertained by

the senate,[1664] Ferrara (July 29), Mirandola, Mantua, and Turin,

which he left on August 28, and arrived at Lyons on September 6.[1665]

Catherine, who showed great impatience, met him there (she arrived

at Lyons on August 27). So fearful was she lest Alençon and Henry of

Navarre would escape that the young princes had traveled in the coach

with her.[1666] The procession moved as if through a hostile country by

way of Burgundy and Chalons-sur-Saône, some of the guard marching in

advance, the rest bringing up the rear. “Marshal de Retz was always on

the wing of her. Some of the guard marched two leagues before and some

two leagues after.”[1667]

Those who were at all optimistic had clung to the belief, until the

development of events shattered their hopes, that Henry III would

endeavor to pacify his subjects, arguing that if he were inclined to

war, he would not have refused the assistance proffered him in Italy of

men and money, and that the French crown could not further hazard the

reduction of the kingdom piecemeal.[1668] Damville had met the King at

Turin, having come there under a safe-conduct of the duke of Savoy, to

persuade Henry III to adopt a conciliatory policy, which he at first

inclined to follow.

But the moment he came under the sinister influence of Catherine de

Medici, he cast this prudent advice to the winds. It was she who

dissuaded him from what was wisely counseled[1669] and in advance

of his arrival had made military preparations to resume the war

by importing Swiss mercenaries and German reiters again.[1670]

Accordingly, instead of extending the olive branch, the King expressed

his determination to wage unremitting war upon the Huguenots and

Politiques rather than grant the demands they made. The deputies of

La Rochelle who came to Lyons, requesting a surcease of arms, were

repulsed by the King and told it was but a scheme of the Huguenots

to gain time for preparation. The establishment of three camps was

ordered, one in Dauphiné, the second in Provence and Languedoc, and the

third in Poitou. At the same time Schomberg and Fregoso were sent into

Germany for assistance.[1671]

When Henry III definitely resolved to follow out a policy of

suppression Damville was summoned to Lyons to answer for his

governorship. It was a fatal blunder on the part of the King, for

the action of the crown hardened the tentative co-operation of the

Protestants and the Politiques into a positive alliance. At Milhau,

in August, 1574 the Protestants recognized Damville, while he in

turn admitted their leaders into his council. The form of government

established at Montauban the year before acquired new strength and

greater extent. Provincial and general assemblies were formed without

distinction between Protestants and Politiques, upon the basis of

mutual toleration; in places where the two creeds obtained each side

promised to observe the peace and Damville engaged not to introduce the

Catholic religion in any town of which the Huguenots were masters.

The men who took this step justified it by alleging that a foreign

faction had acquired control over the sovereign; that it was destroying

the kingdom, the nobles, the princes of the blood, and with them the

very institutions and civilization of France; and that it was their

hope to arrest this process. The programme of the Huguenot-Politique

party, in addition to complete religious toleration, insisted upon the

abolition of the practice of selling offices, the convocation of the

States-General, the reduction of the taxes. In this demand they were

supported by the provincial states of Dauphiné, Provence, and Burgundy.

The confessional idea was deliberately kept in the background. Men no

longer talked of a war of religion, but of a “Guerre du Bien Public” as

in the reign of Louis XI.

With the nobles Damville’s was a name to conjure with. A large portion

of the Catholic nobility, who for a long time had been severely

reproached for not seriously opposing the Huguenots, sympathized

with his attitude. If the bench and bar of France was strongly

attached to the principles of the Catholic religion, the nobility

who were hereditary enemies of the legists, whose teachings had for

three centuries tended to abridge their feudal rights, out of sheer

self-interest, aside from any other motives, now inclined toward the

Calvinists. Only radical Calvinists, like Du Plessis-Mornay, opposed

the union and were bitter in denunciation of the overtures made by

their more moderate brethren, notably La Noue, to Damville and the

Politiques.[1672]

A royal edict let the Huguenots understand what was to be expected. The

King’s determination was to clear the valley of the Rhone from Lyons

to Avignon with the aid of the Swiss and then to subdue Languedoc on

the one side and Dauphiné on the other. Such a plan was more bold than

practicable, and Henry was likely to find it too hard to accomplish,

especially by winter sieges. The Protestants had fortified themselves

in Livron on the left bank of the Rhone and at Pouzin across the river,

which was inaccessible except by one approach and then only four men

could advance abreast.

But there was another matter, the difficulty of which Henry III

underestimated, namely the army. The Protestants were so entrenched

in their strongholds as to make the use of horsemen against them

impracticable. The Swiss were low-class mercenaries, good as ordinary

footmen but useless for a siege. Moreover, all of them, reiters and

Swiss, were not disposed to move unless they saw their pay in their

hands and were utter strangers to discipline, wasting the country “to

make a Christian man’s heart bleed.”[1673] In one case the wretched

peasantry followed their despoilers to the confines of Lyons and fell

upon them in desperation, recovering what had been taken from them.

What did the King do? He actually had to punish these wretched subjects

of his in order to retain the services of the reiters at all!

Yet the King for a moment showed some of the old fire he displayed at

Moncontour and amazed the Protestants by taking Pouzin after three

weeks of siege. The victory was marred, though, by the shameful conduct

of the Swiss, the reiters, and the Italians in the royal army, who

sacked and burned it. Much the same state of things prevailed wherever

these riotous plunderers penetrated—in Picardy, in Champagne, in

Poitou. But Henry III having reached Avignon, discovered that he was

no better off for his success. Meanwhile Damville, with whom the duke

of Savoy had honorably dealt, returned from Turin, and reached the

vicinity of Montpellier and Beaucaire before the King was aware of

it.[1674]

When the King sent the cardinal of Bourbon to talk with him, Damville

sent back word that he thought the example of his brother “too

dangerous to come to court where they who sought the ruin of his

house had too much credit,”[1675] and advised the King to remove

the strangers within his gates, meaning Biragues and De Retz.[1676]

Henry III could accomplish nothing at Avignon and yet knew not how

to get away. He could not go up-river on account of the current. The

Huguenots at Livron barred the road on the left bank; Montbrun was

in the hills in Auvergne; La Noue’s men were stopping the King’s

post daily and Damville controlled Provence and Languedoc; La Haye,

King’s lieutenant in the _séné-chaussée_ of Poitou seceded to the

Politiques.[1677] Vivarais declared its neutrality and refused to side

with King or Politiques. The people of Tulle refused to pay taxes

either to Catholics or Protestants until overpowered by the latter,

and thus the country continued to endure a war which it hated. Henry

truly was in a plight. He was without money, too, and could not hope to

get any so far from Paris. He even feared that the soldiery with him

might be bribed to desert.[1678] To crown the royal anxiety Damville’s

declaration was so public and so bold that the King feared that foreign

aid would soon be forthcoming in the Protestant service. The fear

was not without ground. For the marshal actually proposed to make a

league with the Sultan and introduce a Turkish fleet into the harbor

of Aigues-Mortes.[1679] Coupled with this possibility was a projected

enterprise against Spain in Franche-Comté in which the Huguenots of

Champagne and Burgundy were interested, but which was primarily the

project of the elector palatine and the prince of Orange.[1680]

It is a significant fact that the war has now lost almost all

confessional character and become a factional conflict between the

rival houses of Guise and Montmorency. Catholicism and political

corruption on the one hand were opposed to administrative reform and

religious toleration. After the creation of the Politique party, the

Huguenots of state had merged with them. Except in the case of radical

Calvinists and bigoted Catholics, religion had become a minor issue

with the French unless it were artificially exaggerated.[1681] It was

a mortal enmity on either side, and one which there was slight hope of

settling. The hostility of the Guises and the Montmorencys was the real

seed of the civil war.[1682] It depended upon the individual in almost

every case whether his participation one way or the other was motived

by convictions as to the public good or by private interests. The

number of those who directly or indirectly were attached to the warring

houses almost divided the realm between them and the wretched people

were badly treated by both parties.[1683] So widespread and deep rooted

was this mutual enmity throughout France, that the Venetian ambassador,

no mean observer, wondered when it would end, because it was to the

interest of each to sustain it. The King was a shuttlecock in this

game of political battledore. The ruin of the crown, instead of being

feared by them, was regarded as a possible way to give their enmity

freer rein. Each party counted not only upon paying its debts, which

were enormous, by victory, but in establishing the power of its house

more permanently than ever for the future. While the war cost the King

and the country _écus par milliers_, it cost them nothing, at least of

their own. The weakness of the crown was the strength of the rivals.

They fattened on war, for peace deprived them of their authority, their

power, and their partisans. Until one or the other faction was crushed,

the hostility was certain to endure, and thus the war seemed doomed to

last indefinitely. If, as the result of fatigue or a truce, a respite

was made, the time was brief, and was terminated as soon as one or the

other side had accumulated some substance again. The only remedy for

such a state of affairs was to be found in a foreign war, either in

Flanders or Italy.[1684]

The union of the Huguenots and the Politiques made them very strong,

especially in the south. But on the other hand the duke of Guise

received much assistance from Flanders. When the successor of Alva,

Requesens, learned of the death of Charles IX, he had offered the aid

of Spanish troops to Catherine de Medici.[1685] Although the proffer

was declined, the practical result was the same, for owing to lack of

pay in the Low Countries, thousands of reiters and Walloon and German

footmen flocked across the border in the summer and autumn, where they

were welcomed by the duke of Guise, who, somewhere and somehow, found

the means to pay them.[1686] But below the stratum of professional

soldiers in France there was another class in arms which feudal society

was not used to see in such a capacity. This was the people; not town

militia, for town and provincial leagues had made men familiar with

them, but the peasantry. The protracted wars by economically ruining

and morally debauching this class had generated a breed of men who

sprang from the soil like the dragon’s teeth of Greek fable, men who

by observation and practice were used to the matchlock and the sword,

brutalized by oppression, long made desperate by burdensome taxes and

the wrongs of war.[1687]

[Illustration: PIKEMAN AND COLOR-BEARER

(Tortorel and Perissin)]

The weariness of vigil in the depth of winter and overconfidence seem

to have relaxed the alertness of Henry III’s foes. At any rate, having

extorted 50,000 francs from the noblemen and gentlemen in his train

in order to pay the soldiery around him, the King, raising the siege

of Livron on January 24, 1575, managed to slip through the defiles to

Rheims for his coronation. The coronation was a triumph of the Guises.

For far from being set back by the death of the cardinal of Lorraine

on December 29, at Avignon[1688] their star seemed to be higher than

before. The cardinal of Guise took the place of his deceased uncle as

primate of Rheims; the duke of Guise was grand chamberlain; and the

duke of Mayenne and the marquis d’Elbœuf were the chief lay peers.

The sole outsider was De Retz who officiated as constable for the

occasion. The crowning took place on February 15. Shortly after the

event, apparently in a sudden whim of passion, Henry III married Louise

de Vaudmont, whose father was uncle of the duke of Lorraine and whose

mother had been sister of the unfortunate Egmont. But the marriage was

without political significance—indeed the new queen was of so little

station that Catherine de Medici, in a letter to Queen Elizabeth,

expressed her humiliation at her son’s marriage.[1689]

[Illustration: ARQUEBUSIER

(Tortorel and Perissin)]

The main issues of France, religious toleration and political reform,

were now more obscured than ever by the rivalry of the factions around

the throne. The queen mother bore the Guises greater hatred than before

because of their new ascendency and had little less spleen toward the

Montmorencys, but carefully dissimulated and sought on one pretext

and another to remove them from around her son. For this purpose

Bellegarde, who was an old attaché of the house of Montmorency and

owed his popularity with the King to a handsome face and a well-turned

leg, was made a special ambassador to Poland in order to get him out

of the way. His comrade on the mission was Elbœuf—an ill-matched

pair indeed. Their business was to carry 200,000 crowns of the Paris

bourgeois to Poland to bribe the Polish diet not to elect a successor

to the absent Henry. If the Poles were obdurate, Elbœuf was to advocate

the election of the duke of Ferrara, who had Guisard blood in his

veins. At the same time Biron and Matignon were made marshals to

counterpoise the influence of De Retz who forthwith resigned his office

and vowed he would “meddle no more.” There were heart-burnings, also,

over the bestowal of the government of Normandy, vacated by the death

of the duke of Bouillon. The duke of Nevers claimed that it had been

promised him while in Poland; the duchess of Nemours demanded the post

for the duke and declared that Nevers was “a foreigner.” Henry III

finally sought to compromise by giving the office to his insignificant

father-in-law, whereupon the duke of Nevers quit the court in a rage.

Squabbles of precedence, too, vexed the King’s mind. Montpensier

challenged the claims of the Guises to court precedence before the

Parlement, and Madame de Nemours therefore quarreled with her daughter.

“They were all bent to preparations of war,” quaintly wrote Dale to

Walsingham, “but these domestic discords do tame them. It is a very

hell among them, not one content or in quiet with another, nor mother

with son, nor brother with brother, nor mother with daughter.”[1690]

The state of the finances was deplorable, and Henry resorted to various

devices to provide himself with funds. The mission of Elbœuf and

Bellegarde to Poland was delayed, while the King implored the Pope,

the duke of Savoy, and Venice for the money needed;[1691] the pay

of the King’s household servants was nine months in arrears and the

last money wages of his guards had been paid by an assessment levied

by the King upon the noblemen and gentlemen of the court. Paris, as

usual, was heavily mulcted by a forced loan of 600,000 francs, besides

heavy contributions extorted from the foreign merchants there. But the

mass of the money had to come from the church lands. A letter-patent

in the form of an edict was forced through the Parlement authorizing

the alienation of 200,000 livres de rente of the temporalities of

the clergy, the King reckoning to raise a million and a half of

francs by the process, but few were ready purchasers. In addition to

these practices the “parties casuelles” were farmed to a Florentine

money-broker named Diaceto for 60,000 francs per month. Henry III

resorted to worse expedients than these, though. He sold four seats

in his council for 15,000 livres each; forced the collectors of

the revenue to anticipate the revenue for a twelve-month and then

dispossessed them of their posts after he had deprived them of the

profits thereof and sold them to others; and dilapidated the forest

domain by selling two trees in each arpent.[1692]

The position and conduct of Damville afforded the greatest hope for

the future if Henry III could have been made to see things in the

right way. Damville himself dominated all Languedoc and Provence;

his lieutenant, Montbrun, controlled Dauphiné; Turenne was in

possession of Auvergne; the Rochellois had agents at court seeking

for a firm settlement of affairs; even the cardinal Bourbon and the

duke of Montpensier leaned to the side of the Politiques. In 1575 the

existence of the old party of Huguenots, the Huguenots of religion,

was practically at an end. Individual radical Calvinists there were

in plenty but the Protestant _organization_ was that of the political

Huguenots.

It was manifest by the spring of 1575 that the prince of Condé and

Henry of Navarre on the one hand, and Damville and his brother,

together with Alençon, were bound to join hands in the common purpose

to establish permanent religious and greater civil liberty in France.

“Liberty and reform” was the policy of the hour, if not the watchword.

The declaration of the assembly of Milhau in August of the previous

year had been the handwriting on the wall—a message which the

misguided Henry III obdurately refused to read. On April 25, 1575, that

message was repeated in even clearer terms in the form of a manifesto

issued by Damville which defined the joint policy of the Politiques and

the political Huguenots. It was the declaration of a patriot, and not

a partisan, least of all a rebel, who, like Cromwell, found himself

compelled to lead a movement for political reform against an obstinate

crown that either would not or could not understand the issues.[1693]

Reading between the lines of the constitution agreed upon at Nîmes,

the republican nature of the government therein provided for is

noticeable.[1694] The right to exercise the sovereign rights of

legislation, of justice, of taxation, of making war and peace, of

regulating commerce no longer were vested in the King where the Act of

Union prevailed, but in a representative body. Languedoc, Provence, and

Dauphiné were _de facto_ independent of the crown.[1695] Supplementary

articles of Condé and Damville, and of the Catholics and Protestants of

Languedoc, Provence, and Dauphiné demanded (1) that freedom of exercise

of religion without distinction be permitted; (2) that the parlements

should be composed half of Catholics, and half of Protestants, the

latter to be nominated by the prince of Condé; (3) that justice be

done upon the authors of the massacre of St. Bartholomew and the

forfeit and attainder of the admiral be reversed; (4) that the places

at present held by the Huguenots be retained besides Boulogne and La

Charité, and that for additional defense the King should give them in

each province two out of three towns to be named to him by the prince

of Condé; (5) that the King pay 200,000 crowns for expenses of the

war; (6) that neither the marshal de Retz, nor the chancellor Biragues

should have any part in the negotiations for peace; (7) that the duke

of Montmorency and the marshal Cossé should be set at liberty, and

their innocence declared in full Parlement “en robe rouge;” (8) that

the heirs of those who have been murdered should have their estates

returned to them; (9) that the queen of England, the elector palatine,

and the dukes of Savoy and Deuxponts should be parties to the peace;

(10) that within three months after peace the States-General be

assembled to establish good order in France.[1696]

For a while there seemed to be a prospect of the King yielding to these

demands. He was growing jealous of the influence of the Guises, and

began to perceive that coercion was impossible.[1697] At the first

audience Henry received the deputies graciously, saying he “liked

their speech, but their articles were hard.” The articles were debated

_seriatim_ by the King, both with the deputies and with the council.

The chief hitch was upon the fourth demand. The King was willing to

permit exercise of Protestant worship in _one_ town in each bailiwick,

_except closed_ towns, whereas the deputies demanded freedom of worship

in all places _in the suburbs_ as provided by the Edict of January. As

a matter of prudence, it would seem to have been better policy for the

crown to permit worship in the suburbs of all towns rather than exact

a provision requiring concentration of the Protestants in one place in

each bailiwick; however, the King probably thought Calvinism would be

less likely to spread under such a restriction than if the Huguenots

enjoyed numerous places of worship.[1698] The queen mother sought to

persuade Montmorency to use his influence to abate the demands with

promise of release from the Bastille as his reward. But the duke

replied that “if his imprisonment might do the King pleasure or profit

he was content to be there all his life; but to meddle in the peace,

or to write of that matter, never understanding their doings, were to

make himself guilty in it, and to be thought to make himself to be an

instrument to their ruin, and therefore it were ill for him.”[1699]

Thereupon Henry III broke off the negotiations hoping still, as

earlier, to be able to separate the Huguenots and the united Catholics.

Events thereafter thickened rapidly. Narbonne, Perigueux, and Tournon

in Lyonnais were taken by the Huguenot-Politique armies. The last place

was got by Damville himself. Tournon was an especially strong town on

the Rhone about three leagues from Valence, with Livron to the south

of it. The capture so discouraged the duke d’Uzes that he requested

leave to resign on account of the desertions among his following.[1700]

Instead command was given him, “to spoil Languedoc in order to famish

them against winter.” But the duke was too wise to obey and Damville

was permitted to gather in the harvest without molestation. For if

the King had tried ravaging, the whole country would have risen

against him. St. Jean-d’Angély, Angoulême, and Nérac revolted so far

as to expel the garrisons in the town. In Burgundy, where Tavannes

had founded the League of the Holy Spirit, a Politique league was

formed.[1701] The narrow escape Damville had at this time from death

by poison drew men more than ever to him. As a climax to the woes of

Henry III on July 15, 1575, the Polish diet declared the throne vacant,

absolving all from allegiance to him.[1702]

The _spontaneous_ nature of the rising of the country in the summer

of 1575 is an interesting historical phenomenon. It was by no means

confined to the south of France. In Champagne, the nobles, some of

them vassals of Guise, and _peasants_ united to fall upon the reiters.

Madame de Guise fled from Joinville in fear of being surprised by a

sixteenth-century Jacquerie. In Brittany there was a similar stir

when the King attempted to confiscate the extensive lands of the duke

of Rohan upon his death. Certain things remind one of happenings in

the French Revolution. Many in Champagne left the land and went into

the borders of Germany like the “émigrés” after August 4, 1789. In

Paris there were house-to-house visits not unlike those of September,

1793. There was universal feeling against the reiters. In Normandy

an association of gentlemen was formed for the special purpose of

protecting the country from them.[1703]

The anxiety of the government was all the greater because it was

not exactly known what relations existed between the Huguenots and

Politiques and the English. The treaty which had obtained between

Charles IX and Elizabeth was renewed by the latter on April 1, 1575,

and confirmed by Henry III on May 4.[1704] But Elizabeth was not the

person to be bound by official word. On the Picardy-Flemish border

mutual distrust prevailed. In December, 1574, Requesens had advised

Philip II of his fear of the renewal of Huguenot activity in the Low

Countries, which had been dead since the Genlis disaster,[1705] and the

garrisons on the frontiers had been increased accordingly. The marriage

of Henry III to Louise de Vaudemont gave the Spanish governor great

inquietude, for the unfortunate Egmont was her uncle, and Egmont’s

eldest son, in March, visited his royal cousin of France.[1706]

Requesens was apprehensive, too, of a marriage between the duke of

Alençon and the daughter of William of Orange,[1707] and over the fact

that the French envoy in Flanders, the sieur de Mondoucet, prudently

avoided using the official post, but employed his own couriers in

dispatching missives to Paris.[1708] “All the neighboring states are

actuated by malicious intentions,” he wailed to Philip II. “The French

and the English are in correspondence, and both are inspired by the

same spirit of hostility against the Catholic religion and against your

majesty, as the sole protector thereof.”[1709]

The arrest of a secretary of Montmorency at Boulogne in March, as

he arrived from England, and who admitted he was going to find

Damville,[1710] coupled with the absence of the prince of Condé and

Charles de Meru, the youngest Montmorency, in Germany, so disquieted

the King that early in June Schomberg was dispatched across the Rhine

to discover what Condé was doing; if he found that levies of cavalry

were being made for service in France, he was instructed to enroll

8,000 soldiers for the service of the King.

Schomberg proved a good agent, for he shortly afterward wrote that he

believed a secret engagement existed between Queen Elizabeth, some of

the German princes, and the enemies of the French King at home; and

that Condé, having expended 30,000 crowns, had raised 8,000 cavalry

which might be expected to arrive at the frontier by the middle of

August, although it was given out, and believed by some, that these

reiters were intended for service in the Netherlands.[1711] On the

strength of these suspicions, especially when the duke of Guise sent

word in the first week of September that 2,500 reiters had crossed

the Rhine, the English ambassador, Dr. Dale, who hitherto had lodged

in the Faubourg St. Germain, was advised to remove into the city,

ostensibly for his greater security, but really to prevent him from

receiving unknown persons secretly at night, as was possible where he

resided.[1712]

At this juncture, when everything was tense and everybody was on

edge, the duke of Alençon managed to make his escape from the

court (September 15). While not actually confined, like the duke

of Montmorency, he and Henry of Navarre had both been kept under

continuous surveillance for months and various efforts made by them

to get away had failed. Dismay prevailed at court when the escape was

known. The King was “as a man out of courage,” and betook himself to

extravagant religious demonstration, as before, when at Avignon, “going

from church, as though deserted by all his people.”[1713] He knew that

his brother’s presence would draw many of the gentry, who were yet

hesitating, to the ranks of the Politiques.[1714] He had no means to

levy an army, nor the resources to sustain it.

In this crisis Catherine de Medici kept the clearest head of all at

the court. While she sought to wheedle the runaway prince with smooth

words, going as far as Dreux to meet him, detachments were ordered out

from Rouen, Orleans, and Chartres to surround him. But Alençon was not

to be trapped and rode swiftly off toward the Loire in the hope of

falling in with La Noue or the viscount of Turenne. At the same time

the duke of Guise was ordered to make a vigorous resistance against

the coming of Condé’s reiters. But even his army was in a bad state

on account of the defection of officers and men, who had gone over

to Alençon, so that new troops had to be sent him.[1715] Almost all

the soldiery in the service of the King was withdrawn from Dauphiné

and Languedoc and concentrated in Burgundy and Champagne.[1716] Much

depended upon the result of the coming battle with the reiters. If the

King’s troops were beaten, Paris would be in a serious strait between

the King’s enemies. Already, in consequence of the withdrawal of

troops, all Auvergne, Bourbonnais, Nivernais, Gâtinais, and the Beauce

were in arms, and the gentlemen of these regions had gone over to the

duke of Alençon. Only the vigilance of the garrisons at Orleans and

Tours, Moulins and Nevers, enabled the crown to maintain the line of

the Loire river.

The reiters attempted to evade Guise and find another way of entrance

into France, so that the duke left his artillery in Lorraine and by

forced marches went to Sedan, with the intention of giving battle

there. But the reiters, about 2,500, under Thoré, avoided an engagement

and maneuvered to join a Protestant force of 2,000 Picards, and Guise

fell back on Rheims in order to hold the crossing of the Aisne,

meantime asking the King for reinforcements which were so slow in

coming that the duke was compelled to retire to the Marne. On October

9 he established his headquarters between Château-Thierry and Epernay,

near Port-à-Pinson. The encounter took place near Fismes, on the Marne,

above Dormans, on October 10. Not more than fifty were killed on either

side and the combat did not deter the reiters from continuing their

course and crossing the Seine near Nogent-sur-Seine, which they were

able to do on account of low water. Their chief loss was of two or

three cornets of reiters whom Guise bribed to desert. De Thoré owed

his easy escape, however, to the serious wound which the duke of Guise

sustained. For a bullet struck him in the side of the face, tearing his

ear clear away and so mangling the cheek that he was fearfully scarred

for the rest of his life and always wore a velvet mask.[1717]

The insignificance of the victory of the duke, however, did not deter

the King from proclaiming a solemn procession and _Te Deum_ in honor of

the day. The “victory” also was made the justification of a new tax.

On October 12, 1575, by command of the King, the burgesses of Paris

assembled in the grand room of the Hôtel-de-Ville where the provost of

the merchants, Charron, made known a new demand of the King for aid in

the form of a capitation tax upon the burgesses of the city and other

places in the _prévôté_ of Paris for the payment of 3,000 Swiss, making

half of the 6,000 which the King required for defense of the realm, in

addition to the sum of 15,000 francs expected for each of the ensuing

months.

Once again were the people of Champagne made the victims of the

spoiler. All the horses of the poor laborers whom the reiters

encountered on the road were forcibly seized, as was also the case in

the hostelries where they lodged. A single parish lost thirty horses.

The only payment the poor peasantry got was to be beaten for their

protests.

For the space of three or four days one might see along the roads and

in the villages soldiers all of the time, making for the crossing

of the Seine at La Motte de Tilly. Two troopers rode one horse and

their presence was hard upon the merchants and the priests, whom

they met in the way. The smaller merchants were despoiled of their

property, and those known to be wealthy had their riches extorted from

them by force, or else were held prisoner until ransomed. To make

matters worse, in the wake of the army came a rabble of looters and

plunderers, mostly French.[1718]

It was obvious that as long as the reiters were in the field, the King

could send no force against his brother. He blamed the queen mother

for everything that had happened, especially for the escape of Alençon,

and Catherine, by way of reply, is said to have sent him a copy of

Commines to read with the advice to emulate the policy of his crafty

predecessor. But as a contemporary scornfully observed, Henry of Valois

was not Louis XI. What could be expected from a King who spent his time

“going from abbey to abbey and devising with women.”[1719] In sorrow

and anxiety, sustained by the dukes of Montmorency and Montpensier and

the fine old marshal Cossé, Catherine made earnest efforts to negotiate

a truce with the duke of Alençon.

Prefacing his demands by the caution that he could not negotiate

finally without Condé or Damville, Alençon demanded surrender of

Pont-de-Cé on the Loire, besides La Charité, Bourges, Angoulême,

Niort, Saumur, and Angers for the Huguenots; and Mezières in

Champagne, Langres in Burgundy, or La Fère in Picardy for the prince

of Condé;[1720] a large settlement for himself; a promise that the

States-General should be convened for the Politiques; the crown to pay

200,000 crowns to the Protestant reiters; the exercise of Calvinist

worship in as ample terms as obtained in 1570 (till more fully provided

for in the ultimate articles of peace); the revolted provinces to

remain in arms, except in the case of mercenaries, it being understood

that no acts of hostility be done and commerce and trade to be free

during the interim. The King’s council, when these sweeping terms

were laid before it, advised the King to yield, seeing no way out on

account of lack of means to carry on the war. But Henry III was furious

and threw the articles in the fire. In defiance of the advice of his

friends, who told him to employ what few funds he had in corrupting the

reiters with Condé, he sent 30,000 crowns more to Germany to purchase

assistance.

In this strait, money came suddenly, as from heaven. The papal nuncio

proffered 100,000 crowns at once and promised 200,000 more, while the

Venetian government, in memory of his visit there in the year previous,

made him a gift of his jewels that were in pawn. Finally, to crown

the King’s jubilation at this sudden turn of events, word came from

Germany that the reiters hired by Schomberg and Bassompierre were

coming “and would not be stayed by the truce.” Henry III at once broke

off negotiations. The hope was to sever Alençon from the prince of

Condé and then, preferably by bribery, by war if necessary, overcome

the latter, for Schomberg persuaded the King that this course was

practicable. To this end commissioners were sent abroad to levy new

taxes.[1721] Great ingenuity was shown in the devising of new forms of

taxation. In June, 1575, two edicts had been issued, one requiring the

fixing of new seals to bolts of woolen cloth and the establishment of

a _greffier des tailles_ in each parish;[1722] the other creating the

office of four _arpenteurs_ (land commissioners) in each jurisdiction

of the realm. The number of notaries was also augmented.[1723] In

December the King made a pretext of the coming of the reiters to demand

a new subsidy from the pliant and obedient people of France, under

cover of raising men for the war. Of the Parisians he demanded the sum

of 200,000 livres, to pay three thousand Swiss. Another pretext was the

repair of the bridge at Charenton, which the Huguenots had broken in

1567.[1724] These taxes fell all the more heavily because in addition

to the ruin of the country by war, the crops were short throughout the

land on account of the dry summer. “The rivers everywhere were so low

that in many places one could wade them. Every morning the sun rose and

every evening it set red and inflamed.”[1725]

In the meantime, fear prevailed in Paris lest the forces of Damville

and the viscount of Turenne would effect a junction with those of the

duke of Alençon and the united body march upon Paris, and garrisons

were hastily put in Montereau, Corbeil, Charenton, St. Cloud, and St.

Denis. The old trenches on both sides of the river were repaired and

platforms erected in the fields around the city. Montmartre especially

was fortified. The townspeople of the capital as well as villagers

from the outside were impressed into the work with picks, shovels,

and baskets. Mills were erected within the city, and the city was

provisioned. The King issued an edict ordering the peasantry within

thirty leagues around the capital to thrash their grain and to store it

in fortified towns known to be faithful to the crown, unless they were

dwelling within nine leagues of Paris, in which case the grain was to

be brought into the city. All the passages of the Loire were guarded.

The result of all this was a reign of terror in the Ile-de-France.

The soldiery indulged in all sorts of brigandage, so that in sheer

desperation the villagers sometimes fired their towns. Provisions

were commandeered without recompense. To such outrages were the poor

people subjected that the inhabitants of one town, Jogny, begged the

commander to have mercy upon them. But instead of so doing, Puygaillard

loaded the little deputation with reproaches and had them beaten by the

soldiers in the presence of all.[1726]

With the memory of the elder prince of Condé’s presence before the

walls of Paris, and the battle of St. Denis, where the constable

Montmorency was killed, the Parisians were willing to labor in the

trenches for the safety of Paris. But they were not willing to be taxed

further. In a remarkable remonstrance, joined in by the clergy, the

Parlement, the Chambre des Comptes, the Cour des Aides, the provost of

Paris, and the bourgeois and citizens of every quarter of the city,

protest was made against the extortion of 200,000 livres, which Henry

III proposed to raise in this hour of extremity. After reciting that

civil discord had prevailed in France since 1560, and that during the

space of fifteen years the crown had obtained 36,000,000 francs from

Paris and other towns, and 60,000,000 from the clergy, besides other

gifts and subsidies, with little progress to show either in politics

or religion, the memorial proceeded to point out some of the causes of

this universal corruption in scathing terms:

Simony is openly permitted. Benefices are held by married gentlewomen

who employ the revenues far differently to the intention of the

founders. The people are left without religious instruction and

thus stray from the true religion. There is but little justice to

be obtained through the venality of the tribunals, causing their

neighbors to hold them in abomination. The number of those holding

office is very great and part of them notoriously incapable and the

rest poor, being thereby prone to evil actions. Justice is further

impeded by the impunity with which murder is committed. Great

cruelties and barbarities are committed by the foot soldiers and

by the gendarmerie, which does not now consist of gentlemen but of

persons of vile condition. Not only by these, but by the soldiers of

his guard, is pillage made on the houses of his people, ecclesiastical

holdings, and hospitals even in Paris itself, so that the poor cannot

obtain common necessaries.[1727]

During these weeks Montmorency had earnestly labored in favor of peace,

pleading, arguing, expostulating both with his own younger brothers

and Alençon. He was as earnestly supported by Catherine de Medici, now

converted to a peace policy by the force of events,[1728] but both

were continually thwarted either by the King’s inconstancy or the

machinations of the Guises.

The illness of the queen mother—she suffered so much from sciatica

that often she was unable to leave her chamber—and the frivolity of

the King were a positive advantage to the Guises’ policy.

It will be remembered that the fortress of La Fère had been tentatively

demanded of the King for the prince of Condé. Henry III had replied

offering Doulens in Picardy instead of either La Fère or Peronne, which

was later suggested, on the plea that he could not exact obedience from

the inhabitants of the latter places. This demand for a border fortress

near Flanders was made by the duke of Alençon, in reality to further

his own advantage in the Spanish Netherlands, and he took the method

of having Condé take title to it as a means of concealing his purpose.

The possible disposal of any border fortress in Picardy in such a way

tremendously alarmed the king of Spain and the Guises who concerted to

break the peace.[1729] This plan is the true origin of the formation

of the famous Holy League, which, although it assumed organized form

only after the peace of Bergerac (September 17, 1576), nevertheless

existed in a tentative state this early, in the combined action of the

dukes of Guise, Nemours, Mayenne, and Nevers, Biragues the chancellor,

and other satellites of the house of Guise to prevent peace being made

on such terms, and to break it in event of its being made.[1730] Twice

this cabal called upon the King to give battle before all the forces

of the opposition were united and twice the queen mother foiled their

purpose by securing delay. On February 22 a violent scene took place

between her and the council—Henry III was sick—in which Catherine

branded those who said her son was a traitor as liars and declared that

in spite of opposition “it shall be peace.”

The indifference of Henry III to the gravity of the situation and

his supreme egotism are remarkable, yet thoroughly in keeping with

his character. For hours together he would prate of poetry and

philosophy—“de primis causis, de sensu et sensibili and such like

questions”—with his favorites, in the retirement of a cabinet, while

the realm was going to rack and ruin. The Venetian ambassador describes

one of these symposiums with minute care in a dispatch of February 3,

1576.

For the last few days [he says] his Majesty has taken his pleasure

by retiring into a small apartment which has no window, and to his

apartment his Majesty summons four or five youths of the city who

follow the profession of poets and light literature, and to meet

these people his Majesty invites the Duke of Nevers, the Grand Prior,

Biragues, Monseigneur, De Soure, the queen of Navarre, his sister,

Madame de Nevers, and the marshal de Retz, all of whom profess to

delight in poetry. When they are thus assembled his Majesty orders one

of these youths to speak in praise of one of the virtues, exalting it

above all the others, and as soon as he has concluded his reasoning

each person in turn argues against the proposal which has been made.

His Majesty consumes many hours in this exercise, to the small

satisfaction of the queen mother and everybody else, who would desire

to see in times so calamitous his Majesty attending to his urgent

affairs, and not to amusements, which, however praiseworthy at other

times, are now from the necessity of the case condemned by all, seeing

that the King for this cause fails to be present at his council and

there to discuss matters which are of the greatest importance and

which having regard to his own position and that of his kingdom can

easily be imagined to require attention.[1731]

Strange as it may seem, the Guises’ determination to continue the war

comported with the wishes of some of their enemies—a circumstance

which illustrates how singular was the alliance existing between

the Huguenots and the Politiques. The religious Huguenots already,

in the middle of December, had remonstrated against the terms of

peace proposed on the ground that the offers made did not promise

as much of advantage or security as a continuation of the war. It

was argued that the truce would result in greater prejudice to them

since the King would still be prepared for war and that if they now

let the opportunity pass of establishing their fortune by the aid of

the reiters, the result would bring calamity to them.[1732] These

narrow-minded dissidents looked with ill favor upon the politic course

of the duke of Alençon in avoiding the pillage of the towns he took,

even of trusting to their loyalty and refraining from putting garrisons

in them (some of these towns were Dreux, Romorantin, Thouars, and

Loudun), and censured him for his pacific overtures to the Parlement

of Paris.[1733] Accordingly they hailed with delight the escape of

Henry of Navarre (February 5, 1576), and his immediate abjuration[1734]

of the Catholic faith which he had been forced to confess on St.

Bartholomew’s Day, and the renewed advance of the reiters into

Burgundy and Auvergne and thence across the Loire into Bourbonnais,

notwithstanding the fact that these mounted mercenaries “made a

terrible spoil with fire and fagots” wherever they went.

The reiters took the road toward Langres, crossed the Seine above

Châtillon into Auxerre, making for the passage of the Loire River at

La Charité, in order to effect a junction with the duke of Alençon,

who was in Berry, not far from Bourges. Champagne and Brie were filled

with robbers in the wake of their advance, who, pretending that they

were soldiers, plundered the townspeople and robbed wayfarers and

travelers. There were regular bands of these freebooters, the members

of which were paid regular wages by their captains. But the anarchy

in the provinces did not compel the King to stop his dallying with

philosophy, or his love for mad-cap pranks. He went off on a Shrovetide

frolic in March, “riding about the town to cast eggs and such other

disorders,” leaving Mayenne to labor with those nobles who refused to

be commanded “by a boy that never saw wars and a soldiery whose pay

was a whole quarter in arrears.”[1735] Mayenne made his headquarters at

Moulins to prevent the reiters uniting with Alençon and the Huguenots

of Poitou and Guyenne. It required all the address of the marshal Biron

to restrain the young commander from throwing himself upon them, almost

careless of the outcome, for defeat could have been little worse than

the daily shrinkage of his army from desertion.[1736]

Henry III at first had pretended to make light of the escape of his

cousin. But the presence of Henry of Navarre in the field soon had

an important influence. It was the one thing needful to complete the

organization of the Huguenots, many of whom looked upon the prince of

Condé more as a Politique than as one of them. The harmonious working

of the two parties opposed to the crown was now possible in greater

degree than before. Henry of Navarre, the prince of Condé, the duke

of Alençon, and Damville united, were in a position to bring things

to a focus. The actual territory controlled by Henry III at this time

was little, if any, greater than the ancient Ile-de-France, Burgundy,

and Champagne of his ancestors in the twelfth century. The Huguenots

and Politiques so divided the realm among themselves that a map of

the kingdom at this time reminds one of that of France in the feudal

age. Henry of Navarre had made his headquarters at Saumur and thus

was able easily to control Anjou; the allegiance of Guyenne, Béarn,

and Poitou was certain; the duke of Alençon was in occupation of

the “midlands”—Berry (except Bourges) and most of Bourbonnais and

Nivernais. Young Coligny, who had succeeded Montbrun, was in Dauphiné,

and his fealty to the religion was unswerving; Damville and his

lieutenants controlled all Languedoc, Provence, and Auvergne; young

Montgomery was in Lower Normandy where English assistance secretly

helped him, while the prince of Condé, backed by the count palatine,

endangered Picardy.

The winning cards were all in the hands of the Huguenots and the

Politiques. Without territory, without funds, with an unpaid army or

hireling mercenaries only, the crown had no other recourse than to

accept the situation and make peace unless Henry III and the queen

mother stooped to the worse humiliation of receiving the support of

Philip II. And so it came to pass that while Paris daily expected to

withstand a siege and the faubourgs and gates were so crowded with

those living outside the walls and refugees from the environs “that

a man could scarce enter the gates for the people, carriages, and

cattle,”[1737] Henry III signed the Act of Peace, May 2, 1576.

The peace of 1576, sometimes called the Peace of Monsieur, from the

duke of Alençon’s prominent part in its formation, was the most

complete and elaborate charter yet given the Huguenots, embodying

the wisdom that experience had taught. It is to be noticed that the

settlement involved both toleration of the religion and political

reform. The provisions of this composite peace may be classified

under four heads, each of which was an essential element in the late

opposition to the crown, viz:—the Huguenots, Henry of Navarre, the

duke of Alençon, the Politiques.

The King granted to the Huguenots public exercise of the Calvinist

religion throughout France except within two leagues of the court and

four leagues of Paris. The Huguenots were declared eligible to all

offices and dignities without discrimination on account of religion.

As a security for the King’s justice against possible abuse of these

rights, the crown engaged to establish mixed parlements, half Catholic,

half Protestant, at Poitiers, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier,

Grenoble, Aix, Dijon, Rheims, and Rouen, and a new chamber in the

Parlement of Paris with two presidents and eighteen councilors,

nine of them Catholic, nine Protestant. Protestant advocates,

_procureurs-généraux_ and _greffiers_ civil and criminal were to be

connected with each of these mixed parlements.

For further protection of the Huguenots, eight cautionary towns were

to be ceded to them, to wit: Aigues-Mortes and Beaucaire in Languedoc;

Périgueux and Le Mas de Verdun in Guyenne; La Rochelle in Poitou;

Yssoire in Auvergne; Nions and Serres (château included) in Dauphiné;

Cennes “la grande tour et le circuit” in Provence. Additional demands

were for general oblivion for all conduct and action by persons of

either side; revocation of all decrees, judgments, and proclamations

hitherto made; rehabilitation of the memory of Admiral Coligny and

restoration of their livings and honors to his children as well as

in the cases of Montgomery, Montbrun, Bricquemault, and Cavagnies.

No prosecution was to be made with regard to the actions done at St.

Germain-en-Laye and Bois de Vincennes.

Two of these provisions were received with great dissatisfaction by

the Huguenot deputies and when published were decried by many of the

Protestants. The first of them was the prohibition of Protestant

worship within the faubourgs of Paris, the act specifically declaring

that St. Denis, St. Maur-des-Fosses, Pont-de-Charenton, Bourg-la-Reine

and Port de Neuilly were within the prohibited confines. The other

one which met with great objection was that touching the security

towns.[1738] The deputies demanded two towns in every government (there

were fourteen governments). But the King would yield only eight, these

to be chosen from the towns already in possession of the Huguenots, a

proviso which eliminated such important points as Niort, Angoulême, and

Cognac. In the case of La Charité and Saumur, over which the longest

discussion arose, a compromise was reached by giving them to Alençon

in appanage. Long and acrimonious debate was made over this article,

and at one stage the negotiations were so nearly broken off that Paris

was notified to be prepared for a renewal of the war. The crown’s

demands in this matter were really not unreasonable, for these eight

towns were not included in the number given to Henry of Navarre or the

prince of Condé, or in the appanage of the duke of Alençon.[1739]

If the demands of the Huguenots were excessive, those of Henry of

Navarre were still more sweeping. He not only aimed to live like a king

in the future in his own country of Béarn, but sought to commit the

crown to the recovery of the kingdom of Navarre as well. All the past

claims and grievances of his ancestry were embodied. He demanded: That

the King of Navarre command in his government of Guyenne extending from

Pilles to Bayonne, in such manner as his ancestors had done; that all

captains and governors obey him as the governor and lieutenant-general

of the King; that he have the providing of the necessary garrisons;

that all his lands and seignories should recognize no other government

than he appointed and that all towns and fortresses belonging to

him should be at once surrendered; that his right to his kingdom be

preserved, and that his subjects should not be taxed for the services

of the king of France, according to their ancient immunities; that all

gentlemen being his servants, officers, or subjects should come and go

and traffic freely through all France without molestation; that his

officers and servants should enjoy such privileges as if they served

the royal family of France; that he and his heirs should be discharged

from the guarantee given by himself and his mother toward the purchases

of ecclesiastical property, and for the payment of the reiters; that in

view of the fact that the late king had granted 200,000 livres to his

mother, the late queen of Navarre, for the celebration of the nuptials

of himself and his queen, the King’s sister, which has never been paid,

and furthermore, because there was also yet due 120,000 livres, arrears

of the pension of the late king of Navarre, he prayed the King to deal

with him as favorably as he could for payment; that if any offices or

benefices fell vacant in seignories of the king of Navarre, he should

have the nominating and presenting of such persons; that the King

would preserve to him in his lands and seignories his privileges and

accustomed sources of revenue, such as the _droit de tabellionage_ and

_de sceaux_.

Having so far required everything that could conceivably be based

upon things present, Henry endeavored to revive the ancient claims of

his house in a startling fashion. The old feudal spirit of William

of Aquitaine and Raymond of Toulouse seems to have been reincarnated

in his person at this time. For Henry demanded further that he be

recompensed for the 6,000 livres promised in time past, in virtue of

the right that Françoise de Bretagne, wife of Aleyne, sieur d’Albret,

father of John of Navarre, had had to the duchy of Brittany.[1740] But

even this was not all, for Henry of Navarre finally made the demand

that the pension of 46,000 livres which his grandfather had enjoyed in

recompense for the loss of Navarre, from which his great grandfather

had been expelled in 1512 by Ferdinand of Aragon, be continued to him,

and _that the King of France should promise to help him to recover

Navarre!_[1741]

In the nature of things, not a tithe of these demands could be granted

by the crown, least of all the last. The massacre of St. Bartholomew

had proved how perilous it was to try to drive Catholic France into a

war with Spain, and France was less ready now than in 1570-72 to join

battle with Philip. Perforce Henry of Navarre had to be content with a

restoration of things as they were on August 24, 1572.[1742]

The duke of Alençon had created for him a position stronger than that

of Henry of Navarre. As a prince of the blood and as a Politique

he occupied middle ground between the crown and the Huguenots;

in consequence, many of the places which neither of the chief

principals was willing to resign were included in the grant to him.

While technically all the territories so concerned were regarded

as appanages,[1743] it is plain that a distinction may easily be

made between the duchies of Alençon, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and

La Roche—which had originally been given him as a prince of the

blood—and places like Bourges, Moulins, Loches, Saumur, La Charité,

Pont-de-Sel, Amiens, Moulans, and Mantes. These latter possessions were

practically a class apart of security cities intrusted by compromise to

the duke. This was particularly true of Saumur and La Charité, which

insured the Protestants of passage across the lower and upper Loire,

and so linked the South with Normandy on the North and the Palatinate

and the German Protestant states to the east. Moreover, Moulins in

Bourbonnais and Bourges in Berry assured the Protestants of position

there, so that the whole left bank of the Loire from Auvergne to Nantes

was in their control. Mantes was meant to compensate the Huguenots in

the vicinity of Paris for the loss of Charenton.

The King yielded the government of Picardy again to the prince of

Condé, but the matter of what town should be his created much heated

argument. The prince himself at first stoutly contended for Boulogne,

although he did not say that its convenience to England was the chief

reason for his desire. But Henry III as stoutly refused. Then Amiens

was suggested, and as compromise this city was given to the King’s

brother. Condé then demanded Peronne. Although the King would have

preferred Doulens or even St. Quentin to this concession, he yielded.

The only other detail concerning the prince was the obligation to pay

his and his father’s debts in Germany, which the crown assumed.

Damville did not come in for as much honor as his colleagues, but

was far from being ignored. As the chief of the Politiques or “les

catholiques associez,” as they were defined in the interest of peace,

Damville was and remained the leading man in Languedoc. Aside from

the retention of Damville in his government, promise was made the

Politiques to summon the States-General at Blois within six months for

the reformation and reorganization of the administration.[1744]

It follows as a matter of course that the maintenance and protection of

the multitude of social and civil rights that made the web and woof of

a civilized society was guaranteed, such as the validity of Protestant

marriage, land and property titles, freedom of education, commerce and

trade, etc.

A very delicate matter to adjust was the future relation of the

electoral count palatine and the duke John Casimir, his son. A

secret alliance had existed between the count palatine, England, and

the prince of Condé since July, 1575. In November, Alençon and the

Politiques joined the alliance. One of the terms of that alliance was

that Metz, Toul, and Verdun were to pass to Casimir as the price of

his support and both Huguenots and Politiques—at least Alençon—stood

pledged to assist him in securing these Three Bishoprics. But it

was manifestly impossible to expect the French crown to grant such

a cession, nor is it probable, now that peace had come, that any in

France looked with amiability upon this article of the contract of

Heidelberg. It were too great a humiliation to have this brilliant

conquest of 1552 thus passively surrendered. Fortunately it was found

possible to placate John Casimir with less distinguished sacrifices.

His claims were purchased for an enormous sum of money—or at least

the promise of it; no less than two million florins (three million

francs), part to be paid in the coming June and the balance at the next

two fairs at Frankfurt, in addition to which he received the whole

seigneury of Château-Thierry[1745]—worth 20,000 francs per annum—a

perpetual colonelcy of 4,000 horse, a company of 100 men-at-arms and

12 reitmeisters, all of which was confirmed by Henry III’s declaration

that he would “repute and esteem the count palatine and Duke Casimir as

good neighbors.”

The terms of the Peace of Monsieur[1746] were exceedingly unpopular

in Paris, whose citizens had been the heaviest contributors to the

expenses of the war thus closed and who had made strenuous military

preparations in defense of the capital, and the unpopularity of Henry

III was not enhanced in the eyes of the Parisians by the King’s

repudiation of a part of the _rentes_, the incomes of which were the

chief means of support with many. But when Charron, the provost of

the merchants, and the counselor Abot, at the head of a deputation

of the foremost citizens of the capital protested against this

high-handed action to the King’s own face, Henry III with a sneer which

carried with it a covert threat rejoined: “Hang a man and he tells no

tales.”[1747]

The camps of the duke of Alençon and the Protestants were broken up

when the peace was published. The soldiery around La Rochelle and in

Poitou, Anjou, and Berry, returned home, except some troops which were

reserved until it was seen what Casimir and his reiters, who were near

Langres, would do. These marauders with many French of Champagne and

Brie, crossed the Yonne above Sens and arrived in Champagne between

May 10 and 11 and remained there for a week, living on the land.

After having sojourned six or seven days between the Seine and the

Vauluisant, on the 16th they moved on to a place between Troyes and the

village of Mery-sur-Seine, where they remained for fifteen days to the

distress of the people and absolutely destroyed the little village of

Marigny, which had but two persons left in it. In order to find food

they foraged for miles. The peasantry turned their cattle loose or

drove them, together with their possessions, into the fortified towns

or châteaux. But the gentry were less safe than the peasantry even,

for the latter had already been so despoiled that nothing was left to

be taken. Out of this frightful state of affairs rose an organized

resistance which is very interesting to observe, for the nobility and

gentry of the region and the local peasantry, forgetting their class

antagonism, made common cause together. Whenever these “vigilance

committees” found themselves to be stronger or happened upon stragglers

from the main band, they threw themselves upon them; sometimes the

victims were bound and cast alive in the river Aube or Seine. Between

St. Loup-de-la-Fosse-Gelane and St. Martin-de-Bossenay, a group of ten

or twelve reiters were thus set upon and only one escaped. But the

vengeance their comrades meted out upon the offenders was terrible, for

the troopers, numbering over a hundred horsemen, the next night burned

all the villages round about.[1748]

Not until September was this scourge removed from the land. By that

time they were bought off and were conducted to the frontier by

Bassompierre, the Alsatian gentleman in the King’s service, who was

well rewarded, as he deserved to be, for the accomplishment of the

perilous task. But the licensing of the regular troops immediately

afterward still prolonged the agony of the province for a season.[1749]

The Peace of Monsieur may fittingly be said to have terminated the

period of the _religious_ wars of France. The dominant issue of the

succeeding years of conflict from 1576 to 1598 was not a religious,

but a political one. Why permanent peace did not result it is not the

work of this volume to narrate. Suffice to say that Spain and Spain’s

instrument, the Holy League, were to blame for the ensuing years of

strife.

The germ of the provincial Catholic leagues had been the desire, on the

part of the Catholics of France, to resist the progress of Calvinism.

But in the hands of the French nobles these local leagues, controlled

by the aristocracy and welded into one mighty organization under the

leadership of the duke of Guise, backed by Spanish gold, became a new

league of the public weal, which, under the cloak of religion revived

the feudal ambition of the French nobility to acquire power at the

expense of the crown.

CHÂTILLON—COLIGNY

John III, † 1480

│

├——————————————————┐

│ │

James II Gaspard I, married

† 1512 † 1522

│

┌——————————————————┼————————————————————————┐

│ │ │

Odet, Gaspard II, Admiral Coligny François d’Andelot

bishop of murdered at † 1569

Beauvais St. Bartholomew, 1572

† 1571 │

│

Louise m. _a_) Charles de Teligny, † 1572

_b_) William the Silent

MONTMORENCY

William, † 1531

│

┌————————————————————————————————┤

│ │

Louise of Anne, d. of Montmorency and constable of France,

Montmorency killed at battle of St. Denis, 1567

│

┌—————————————————┬———————————┴—————┬—————————————┬——————————┐

│ │ │ │ │

Francis, Marshal Henry Damville, Gabriel, sieur de Charles, William,

Montmorency governor of Montberon, killed sieur sieur

† 1579 Languedoc at battle of Dreux de Méru de Thoré

† 1614 1562

│

┌————————┴——————————┐

│ │

Henry II, Charlotte, m. Henry II,

† 1632 Prince of Condé

│

Louis II, The Great Condé

HOUSE OF LORRAINE AND GUISE

René le Bon, d. of Anjou and titular

king of Naples and Sicily. m.

Isabella, d. of _Lorraine_

│

┌—————————————————┬————————————————————————————┤

│ │ │

Margaret, m. John II, d. of Yolande, d. of Lorraine, m.

Henry VI, k. of _Lorraine_ and Ferri II, c. of Vaudemont,

England Bar _Guise_, etc.

│ │

│ │

Nicholas, d. of _Lorraine_ René II, d. of _Lorraine_

and Bar. † 1473, no and Bar, c. of Vaudemont,

male issue _Guise_, etc. † 1508

│

┌—————————————————————————————————————————┴——————┐

│ │

Antoine, d. of _Lorraine_ Claude I, c. of Aumale,

and Bar, † 1544 d. of _Guise_, † 1527

│ │

│ ┌———————┬————————┬——————┬———┴———┐

│ │ │ │ │ │

Francis I, d. of │ Charles, Card. │ Louis, Card. │

_Lorraine_ and Bar │ of _Lorraine_, │ of _Guise_, │

│ │ † 1574 │ † 1578 │

│ │ │ │

│ Francis, d. of Claude, d. Mary, m. James V

│ _Guise_, assassinated of Aumale of Scotland

│ before Orleans, 1563 │

│ │ │

Charles I, m. │ Mary, queen of

Claude of France │ Scots, † 1587

│ │

│ │

│ ├—————————————————┬——————————————┐

│ │ │ │

Charles II, d. Henry, d. of _Guise_, Charles, d. Louis, Cardinal

of _Lorraine_ assassinated of Mayenne, of _Guise_,

and Bar, † 1608 1588 † 1611 † 1588

HOUSE OF BOURBON

Louis IX, † 1270

│

┌——————————————————┴———————————————┐

│ │

Philip III, † 1285 Robert, c. of

│ Clermont, m.

┌———————————┴—————————————┐ Beatrix, heiress

│ │ of Bourbon, † 1317

Philip IV, † 1314 Charles, c. of │

│ Valois., † 1325 Louis, d. of

┌———————┼————————————┐ │ Bourbon, † 1341

│ │ │ │ │

Louis X Philip V Charles IV Philip VI, ┌———————┴———————┐

† 1316 † 1322 † 1328 † 1350 │ │

│ │ Peter, d. James, c. de la

│ John II, of Bourbon, Marche, † 1361

John I, † 1364 † 1356 │

† 1431 │ │ John, c. de la

│ Louis, d. Marche, † 1393,

┌——————————┬—————————┬————┴——┐ of Bourbon, m. Catharine

│ │ │ │ † 1410 heiress of

Charles V, Duke of Duke of Duke of │ Vendôme

† 1380 Anjou Berri Burgundy │ │

│ │ │

┌————┴————————————————┐ John, d. ┌———————┴—┐

│ │ of Bourbon, │ │

Charles VI, Louis, d. of † 1433 │ Louis, c.

† 1422 Orleans, † 1407 │ │ of Vendôme,

│ │ │ │ † 1446

│ │ │ │ │

Charles VII, │ │ James, c. de la │

† 1461 │ │ Marche, † 143 │

│ │ │ │

│ ┌———————┴—————┐ ┌———┴————————┐ John, c. of

│ │ │ │ │ Vendôme,

│ │ │ │ │ † 1478

│ │ │ │ │ │

│ Charles, d. John, c. of Charles, Louis, c. of │

Louis XI, of Orleans, Angoulême, d. of Montpensier │

† 1483 † 1467 † 1467 Bourbon, │ │

│ │ │ † 1456 │ Francis, c.

│ │ │ │ │ of Vendôme,

│ │ │ │ │ † 1495

│ │ │ │ │ │

│ │ │ │ Gilbert, c. o │

│ │ │ │ Montpensier, │

│ │ │ │ † 1496 │

Charles VIII Louis XII Charles, c. ┌——┴—┬————┐ │ │

† 1498 † 1515 of Angoulême, │ │ │ │ │

† 1496 │ Charles │ │ │

│ │ † 1488 │ │ Charles, d.

│ │ │ │ of Vendôme,

│ John II Peter II │ † 1537

│ † 1488 │ │

│ │ │

┌————————————————————————————┘ ┌————————————————┘ ┌————┘

│ │ │

Francis I, ┌———————————————┴———————┐ │

† 1547 │ │ │

│ Charles, constable Francis, │

│ of France, † 1527 † 1525 │

│ │

│ ┌—————————————┬———————————┬——————————————┬————————┴————┐

│ │ │ │ │ │

│ Antoine, d. Francis, c. Charles, Louis, prince Marguerite,

│ of Vendôme, of Enghien cardinal of Condé, m. Duke of

│ m. Jeanne † 1546 of Bourbon killed at Nevers.

│ d’Albret, q. Charles (X) Jarnac, 1569

│ of Navarre, │

│ † 1562 │

│ │ │

Henry II, │ Henry I, of Condé, † 1588

† 1559 │ │

│ │ │

│ Henry IV, † 1610. │

│ m. (1) Margaret of Henry II, of Condé,

│ Valois m. (2) Mary m. Charlotte of Montmorency,

│ de Medici of whom was born the Great Condé.

│

├——————┬——————┬——————┬———————┬————————┬———————┐

│ │ │ │ │ │ │

Francis II │ Henry III │ Elizabeth m. │ Margaret m.

† 1560 │ † 1589 │ Philip II │ Henry IV

│ │ │

Charles IX Francis, d. of Claude m.

† 1574 Alençon † 1584 Charles, d.

of Lorraine

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I

[P. 49, n. 2]

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN

ELIZABETH, VOL. XIII, NO. 456

[_The Cardinal of Lorraine and Duke of Guise to the Queen-Dowager of

Scotland_]

Madame nous avons receu votre lettre par ce marinier present porteur et

sceu par icelle lestat en quoy sont les affaires de dela [_two pages in

cipher_].

Quant aux nouvelles de deca nous voullons bien que vous sachez que

depuis quinze ou vingt jours aucuns malheureux ont essaye icy demectre

a fin une conjuration quilz avoient faicte pour tuer le Roy et ne nous

y oublyoient [pas][1750] tout cela fonde sur la religion dont aucuns

des principaulx autheurs [ont este pris] et pugniz. Maiz tant plus

nous allons avant et plus trouvons nous [que ceste conspiration] a

longue queue ayant este bastie de longue main et appuyee par daucuns

gr[andz qui se] sont trouvez bien trompez. Car nostre Seigneur a bien

sceu defendre sa cause. S’est quasi le mesmes train qui ont prins voz

Rebelles mais ilz voulloient commancer par le sang et lespee une autre

fois vous en scaurez plus par le menu. Et pour fin de ceste lettre vous

dirons madame que la compaignye faict Dieu mercy tresbonne chere et

nous recommandons treshumblement a votre bonne grace, Priant Dieu ma

dame vous donner en sante tresbonne et treslongue vye. De Marmoustre le

ixº jour davril 1559.

[_Signed_] Voz treshumbles et tresobeissans freres

C. Car^[al] de Lorraine Francoys s^[r] de Lorraine.

[_Addressed_] A la Royne

Douairiere et regente Descosse.

[_Not endorsed_]

[_Pencil note by editor_] This is dated “more Gallicano” which

commences the year at Easter. In 1560, Easter day fell on the 14 of

April, consequently this letter dated on the 9th would appear to be,

as it is dated, in 1559, being in fact 1560.

No. 460

[“_A portion of the previous letter in French_” (Calendar)]

Estant que avecques plus de commodité et de moyen vous navez esté et

nestez secourue autant que nous voyons et jugeons trop bien quil seroit

necessaire ce que n’a pas este retardi par faulte de debvoir de soing

et de diligence. Car nous en avons cherche ...[1751] moyenes possibles

et mesmes po^[r] essayer si ceste Royne dangleterre s ... addoucir et

contenir par quelques remedes qui n’ont ... en son endroict, car apres

avoir faict du cousté du Roy tout ... de penser po^[r] luy oster la

jalousie et le soupcon qu’elle monstre au ... nous y avons employe

le Roy catholicque tant que par son ambassadeur il luy ... quil ne

souffriroit pas que elle donnast faveur aux rebelles ... aulcune

chose au preiudice des droictz et authorite du Roy et de ... fille en

Escosse. Depuis y a este envoyé l’evesque de Valence conseillier au

... po^[r] luy rendre raison plus pertinente de l’intention du Roy, et

quil ne ch ... l’obeissance de ses subiectz, resolu de retirer ses

forces apres qu ... restablies au bon chemin, tout cela n’a de rien

servi si elle n’a ... vous avez peu veoir par les articles qu’elle a f

... son Ambassadeur si honteux que nous croyons qu’elle sass ... nous

n’en ferions rien et par ainsy elle passeroit oultre ... qui est de

la guerre, dont nous veryons peu de moyen de ... si ce n’est po^[r] ...

refuge l’ ... de Sieur de Glayon ques^[r] les ... y envoye po^[r] luy en

parler des grosses contz ayant delibere si ... obstinee de secourir le

Roy de tout ce de luy qu’il vouldra et ... a accorde luy bailler gens

et vaiss ... po^[r] remettre lobeissance ... dont il a este prins au mot.

Et y a este envoye ... scavoir de la duchesse de Parme de quel nombre

ou ... lad. dame charge expresse d’en accommoder le Roy de tout....

Cependant Madame nous ne perdons point le temps a faire ad ... qui sera

dun si bon nombre de vaisseaulx et si bien formy de gens et de toutes

choses convenables que nous esperons que lad. Royne ne ses forces

n’auront pas le moyen de les garder de vous secourir tout le p ...

veryons est qu’elle ne peult estre preste que vers la fin de Iuillet.

Mais si ferons nous tout ce que sera possible au monde po^[r] la mettre

plustost a la voyle et ne espargner argent soing ni diligence comme

nous nous asseurons que vous croyez bien. Et neantmoins cherchons nous

tous aultres moyens de vous faire secourir de deniers soit de Flandres

ou d’ailleurs et aussy ne craindrons nous en adventurer par petites

pommes cependant et pour y commencer avons nous advise vous renvoyer

... eur dedans vng aultre petit vaisseau que luy avons faict equipper,

ne luy ... espargne aussy argent car il a eu po^[r] estre venu icy et

le hazard qu’il a douze centz francz que le Roy luy a donnes et trois

centz escus po^[r] son retour. Avecq luy nous vous envoyons par ung clerc

qui l’accompaigne la somme de mille livres et vingt cacques de pouldre

menue grevée par ce que nous avons sceu par les lettres des sieurs de

la Brosse et Doysell qui vous en avez besoing par dela ce sera pour

attendre toutz jours mieulx estantz bien deliberez de ... perdre une

seule occasion de vous secourir ainsy par le menu au danger ... perdre

quelque chose.

Cependant, Madame, il fauldra que de vostre coste vous faciez le mieulx

... pourrez et sur tout qu’il soit donné ordre a tenir les places

bien.... rnies louant sa ma^[te] bien fort la defensive sur la quelle

les capitaines de dela sont d’advis que vous vous mettiez qui est ung

moyen pour avoir la raison de la legerete et mal consyderée entreprise

de lad. Royne dont nous esperons que le mal tombera a la fin sur elle

et qui Dieu ne laissera impunye la faulte qu’elle faict.

... a este grande consolation au Roy et a toute ceste compaignie

d’avoir entendu ... les souldatz de dela ayent si bonne volonté, cela

nous faict ... Dieu qui tout yra mieulx qu’elle ne vouldroit car si

led.... gneur Roy catholicque chemine en cecy de bon pied dont il nous

asseure il est impossible que la chose ne tourne a sa confusion.

Quant aux nouvelles de ca nous voulons bien que vous scachez que

depuis xv ou vingt jo^[rs] aulcuns malheureux ont essaye icy de mettre

a fin une conjuration quilz avoient faicte po^[r] tuer le Roy et ne

nous y oublioient pas. Tout cela fondé sur religion dont aulcuns des

principaulx autheurs ont esté pris et punis. Mais tant plus nous allons

avant et plus trouvons nous que ceste conspiration a longue queue ayant

este bastie de longue main et appuyee par daulcuns grandz qui se sont

trouvez bien trompez. Car nostre Seign^[r] a bien sceu defendre sa cause.

Ceste [quasi le mesmes][1752] train qui ont prins voz rebelles, mais

ilz vouloient [commancer par le] sang et l’espee. Un autre foys vous en

scaurez [plus par le menu] Et po^[r] fin de ceste lettre.

[_Not signed_]

[_Not addressed_]

[_Endorsed_] 12 April, 1559[1753] (1560) Card. & D of Guise to the

queen Dowager whereof another copy was sent to the Q. Ma^[te] the 3 of

Aprill and was dated at Mayremoustier the viij^[th] of the same.

STATE PAPERS, SCOTLAND

ELIZABETH, VOL. III, NO. 58. (Translation. The parts in italics have

been deciphered.)[1754]

[_The cardinall of Lor: and duke of Guise to the Quene douag_:][1755]

[April 29]

Madame This bearar hath made verie good diligence to bring us yo^[r]

lettres wherof we wer verie gladde, for that by the same we understoode

yo^[r] newes, and the rath^[r], for that we had receyvid none from yo^[w],

sins the comminge of _Protestant the courrone_. Sins which tyme the

_Quene of England_ hath ever kept us in allarme to begynne the _warre_

and to shew _by all her dealinges that she_ had sent to be doinge and

sturringe the coles. We beleeve she hath forgotten nothinge, wherby

she might thinke to draw anye fruict of her evell disposicion: yf

she had fownde thinges in cace to go through w^[th] her businesse.

Neverthelesse shee hath gyven us the fairest wordes of the world.

_Wherunto the Frenche King hath not so muche trustyd_ but that he hathe

advertisid the king of Spaine of all that _she hath doon_ who having

well considered the mater, hath made answer that there is no cause why

to disalow his entent specially to go through w^[th] the maters on that

side, and that to chastise the Rebelles he will gyve the King, as manye

vessells, men, and vitailes, as he will, and so hath writen to the said

queene, who knowing that she can hope for nothing of that, that she

maketh a rekening of, begynnithe to use oth^[r] languaige, and causythe

her ambassad^[r] to saye that that she hath done hath ben for none oth^[r]

cause, but for the jalousye she hath of her Realme, and fearinge to be

sodaynly taken unwares. So that it seemithe, that she repentethe to

have gon so farre furth in the mater. And we beleeve that before theese

lettres come to yo^[r] handes, yo^[w] shall have well perceyved, that her

intentes ar waxed verye colde. And yf that which she hathe caused to

be said by her Ambassado^[r] be true, yo^[w] shall have understand all the

hole storie, by a man whome the S^[r] de Sevre the kinges ambassad^[r] in

Englande, hathe sent unto yo^[w]. Neverthelesse we have thought good

to sende yo^[w] backe againe this said bearar, by the waye of Flandres

to advertise yo^[w], that we thinke that your Rebelles wilbe farre

from their rekeninge, yf they make their accompte of the said Ladyes

protection. Or elles there is much dissimulation.

And yet the King knowing after what sorte he must trust Englishemen,

leavithe not of, to prepare xxiiij great ships to thintent (yf neede

requyre, and that it do appeere, that the sayd Ladye doth contynue

her evell disposicion) to gyue ordre w^[th] the same and oth^[r] forces

w^[ch] he keepith in a readinesse, to souccour yo^[w] in such sorte, as

he shall have the reason that he requyrethe, of thone and thoth^[r].

Yn the meane tyme he hathe sent the busshoppe of Valence, counsello^[r]

in the K^[es] pryvie counsell, towardes the Queene, to understande

plainely her meaninge, and in cace that the same be good, then to come

to yo^[w] w^[th] good and large memorialles, to assaye to appease thinges

on that side and to fynde the meanes to wynne tyme.

The thing (Madame,) that greevithe us most, is, that the meanes is

hindred and stopped, to soucco^[r] yow w^[th] money as ofte and as

readily as we wold be glad to do, and as yo^[w] have neede of it. Which

we durst not aventure, nor also o^[r] brother Mons^[r] le Marquis for the

evident danger that might happen. But yt cannot be longe before we see

some waye open, and yow maye be sure (Madame) that we will not lose one

quarter of an houre.

Now (Madame) we must w^[th] yo^[w], lament the Evell, that the mater

of religion maye bring into a Realme, which hath so gone to worke on

this side, that w^[th]in these xij or xv dayes, there is discouvered

a conspiracy, made to kill us bothe, and then to take the King, and

gyve him masters and gouvernours to instruct and bring him up in this

wretched doctryne. For which pourpose there shuld assemble a great

nombre of personnes heerabowtes who ar not w^[th]out the comforte

and favour of some great ones. And betwixt the sixth and xv^[th] of

this monethe, they shuld execute the same. So that w^[th]out the

healpe of God and thintelligences w^[ch] we have had from all partes

of christendome, and also of some of the conspiratours, that have

disclosed it, the matter had taken effect. But God hath provyded heerin

for us. The mater being discouvered, and manye beinge prissoners,

we hope that the same shall be bowlted out, and so the danger

avoyded. Wherof, and how the same shall breake out, yo^[w] shalbe more

particularly advertised heerafter, specially if the waye be freer,

then hitherto it hath ben. Yn the meane tyme yo^[w] shall receyve (if

yt please yo^[w]) our humble commendacions prayeng God &c. Montignac is

presently arryved upon the depeche, wherupon ordre shall be taken out

of hande.

[_Not signed_]

[_Not addressed_]

[_This and other deciphered letters_ (Queen Dowager of Scotland to MM.

d’Oysel and de la Brosse 29 [April] and “a private man’s letter to

d’Oysell” [29 April] 1560) _are written on the same sheets of paper,

and are endorsed together_: “The interceptyd lettres discyphred,”

_and endorsed in Burghley’s hand_: “B. 12. Martii. 20. Martii lettres

deciphred from France to the Q. dowag.”[1756]]

APPENDIX II

[P. 98, n. 1]

ARCHIVES NATIONALES,

K. 1,494, PIÈCE NO. 70

[_L’Ambassadeur de France, Mr. de L’Aubespine, évêque de Limoges, au

Roi d’Espagne, Philippe II_]

Tolède, 4 avril 1561

[_Suscription_] Au Roy.

[_Au dos, alia manu_] A Su Magestad. Del obispo de Limoges, a IIIIº de

Abril 1561.

Sire, par ce que la Royne aura peu escrire à Vostre Majesté et Monsieur

le Prince d’Evoly aussi, vous aurez entendu l’estat auquel les choses

se retrouvoient parmy les Estatz particuliers en France il y a vingt

jours par la malice de quelques ungs mal sentans de la foy, lesquelz

avoient faict une menée en certaines provinces afin que l’on feist

tomber le gouvernement du royaume en autre main que celuy de la Royne

vostre mere, la sentans ferme et constante a n’endurer leurs erreurs

et a les punir. Depuis est arrivé l’un de mes gens avec deux pacquetz

de Monsieur de Chantone, lesquelz j’ay faict mectre entre les mains de

Sajas.[1757] M’advertissant ladicte dame par le mesme courrier que le

Roy de Navarre s’est monstré si conforme en tout ce qu’elle a desiré

et peu approuvant la temerité de telles entreprinses, qu’il s’est

accommodé pour aussi recevoir quelque lieu et contentemant d’estre seul

lieutenant general du Roy vostre bon frere en France soubz ladicte

dame, afin que la multitude des autres seigneurs et gouverneurs de

tout le royaume n’amenast point la confuzion qui y estoit, que l’on

eust quelque adresse, et que, par ce moien aussi il feust plus honnoré

et respecté d’ung chascun sans aucune diminution de l’authorité de

ladicte dame, laquelle, Sire, demeure chef de toutes choses, ayant

les quatre secrétaires d’Estat soubz elle, les pacquetz, finances,

dons et autres graces avec la personne du Roy, et commande au conseil

ainsi que de coustume, tellement que chacun espere, comme aussi faict

Sa Majesté et ainsi qu’elle me commande vous dire, Sire, que desormès

il y a certaine apparance de toute tranquilité et repos, car ce que

dessus est passé, arresté et signé entre eulx et de leurs mains pour

articles irrevocables, ayant pour ceste cause mandé aux Estatz qu’ilz

eussent à ne penser ne disputter plus sur telz pointz, ains seulement

en ce qui concerne le mesnaige du royaume, les reculans et remettans

a s’assambler a la fin de l’esté prochain. Et ce pendant, suivant

l’instante requeste du peuple, le Roy vostre bon frere, Sire, partira

de Fontainebleau incontinent après ce Quasimodo pour se faire sacrer

à Reims dedans le XX^[e] de May, et incontinent après sus le mois de

Juing faire son entrée à Paris, d’autant que ces deux actes sollemnelz

donnent plus d’authorité et contentement à tous nos subjectz, et que,

cela faict, la Royne vostre mère pourra aussi, comme elle désire,

plus soigneusement user de la main forte et justice en tout ce qui

se presentera. Ce que dessus, Sire, amandera, s’il vous plaist, en

vostre endroit l’opinion mauvaise que nous avions quant je parlay a

Monsieur le prince d’Evoly de l’yssue de noz Estatz, lesquelz, par ce

remede, sont frustrez de plus rien toucher ne negotier qui concerne le

gouvernement. Me commandant tres expressement la Royne de remercier

fort affectionneement Vostre Majesté des bons et roiddes offices

desquelz Monsieur de Chantoné a usé près d’elle pendant ces disputz, et

asseurant Vostre Majesté que ce luy est obligation telle qu’elle peult

faire estat de son amour et affection autant que de sa propre mère,

comme de son costé elle se confie tant en sa bonté et amitié que, si

l’on eust voulu faire plus de tord a son honneur et preminance, elle

eust usé de ce que Dieu a mis. Sire, soubz vostre obeissance, comme

de son meilleur amy, desirant que Vostre Majesté face en semblable

estat de tout ce que sera en elle. Ceulx, Sire, qui avoient tramé ce

que dessus pensoient remuer en nostre conseil et autres endroitz les

hommes et honneurs à leur guise; mais, par ce moien, ilz sont hors de

leurs desseings. S’estant Monsieur le prince de Condé contenté d’une

declaration qu’on luy a donnée pour sa justification, à la charge qu’il

peust, quant bon luy sembleroit, estre à la Court près ladicte dame,

ainsi qu’il y a esté permis. Monsieur le connestable a, Sire, faict

de bons et saiges offices en cet establissement, me chargeant de vous

presenter ses tres humbles recomandations, vous requerant, comme font

Leurs Majestez, qu’il vous plaise en sa faveur confirmer en Flandres

une abbaie de dames à l’une de ses parentes que les religieuses

desirent fort depuis le decez de feu madame de Lallain, comme j’éscris

à Monsieur le conte d’Horne. Ce que, Sire, j’eusse de bouche esté

faire entendre à Vostre Majesté; mais la crainte que j’ay eu de le

troubler parmy ces sainctz et devots jours m’excusera s’il luy plaist,

et commandera á Monsieur le prince d’Evoly qui cy est, de me faire

donner quelque responce sur ceste lettre et sus une precedente que je

vous escrivis il y a deux jours, afin que je puisse faire entendre

à la Royne vostre bonne mère le contentement que recevrez de ce que

dessus et vostre bon conseil. Quant mon courrier partit, Monsieur le

conte d’Heu avoit desja esté licencié du Roy et de la Royne mère, et

suis attendant, Sire, Monsieur de Montrueil, lieutenant de Monsieur

le prince de la Roche-sur-Yon, lequel arrivera icy dedans quatre ou

cinq jours, venant devant pour preparer ce qu’il sera de besoing et

pour aussi visiter la Royne, qui me faict estimer que ledict seigneur

Conte ne sera pas en ceste ville que quatre ou cinq jours après

Quasimodo,[1758] dont noz dames ne sont pas contentes, la Royne pour le

desir qu’elle a de reveoir Vostre Majesté plustost, et les autres pour

leur interest particulier

Sire, je me recommande très humblement à vostre bonne grâce, priant le

Créateur vous donner entres bonne santé tres heureuse et longue vye.

De Toledo, ce IIII^[e] d’avril 1561.

Vostre tres humble serviteur

S. DE L’AUBESPINE

E[vesque] de Lymoges

APPENDIX III

[P. 153, n. 1]

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN

ELIZABETH, VOL. XXXVIII, NO. 179

[_Letter of the duke of Guise to the cardinal of Lorraine_]

[_1562, June 25_]

Extraict de la lettre de Guyse escripte de sa main au cardinal.

Ie vous envoye ce porteur en dilligence pour vous advertir que tout

fut yer accorde. Et puis vous dire que le commancement est l’honneur

de Dieu service du Roy bien et repoz de ce royaume. Cedit porteur est

suffisant et nauront noz chers cardinaulx que part ceste lettre comme

aussi nostre mareschal de Brissac qui congnoistra quil y en a qui sont

bien loing de leurs desseins. Nostre mere et son frere ne jurent que

par la foy quilz nous doibvent et quilz ne veullent plus de conseil

que de ceulx que scavez qui vont le bon chemyn. Conclusion la Religion

reformee en nous conduisant et tenant bon sen va a baz leaue et les

amyraulx mal ce qui est de possible. Toutes noz forces nous demeurent

entierement les leurs rompues les billeez rendues sans parler dedictz

ne de preches et administracion des sacremens a leur mode. Ces bons

seigneurs croiront sil leur plaist cedit porteur de ce quil leur dira

de la part de trois de leurs meilleurs amys et bayse la main. De

Baugency ce xxv^[e] jour de Iuing 1562.

[_No signature_]

[_No address_]

[_Endorsed_] Extraict d’une lettre escripte de

la main de m^[r] de Guyse au

Cardinal de Lorraine deXXV^[e]

Iuing 1562.

APPENDIX IV

[P. 155, n. 2]

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN

ELIZABETH, VOL. XXXIX, NO. 211, vj

[_Letter of the duke of Aumale to Catherine de Medici_]

[_1562, Iuly 9_]

Madame, je viens presentement de recevoyr la lettre quil vous a pleu

mescripre touchant quelques marchandz anglois que lambassadeur de leur

Royne vous a faict entendre avoyr este prys par les gens de guerre qui

sont icy pres de moy pour le service du Roy et le vostre. Dont encores

Madame je navois ouy parler, bien de quelques soldatz anglois qui

furent pris y a assez long temps par le s^[r] Dallegre qui voulloient

entrer a Rouen et lesquelz tost aprez je feiz renvoyer sinon quelques

ungs qui se sont voluntairement mys a vostre service parmy noz bandes

vous pourrant asseurer Madame, que tant sen fault que je permecte

telles choses Que tout ce que jay en plus grande recommendation, est

de les laisser librement et tous les autres estrangers qui sont icy

mesmes voz subiectz de quelque religion quilz soient de trafficquer et

negotier comme ilz faisoient au paravant ses troubles, sachant trop

bien de quelle consequence cella est pour vostre service. Et ne puis

penser dou viendroit ceste prise si ce nest par ceulx mesmes de Rouen

Dieppe et le Havre qui pillent et prennent indifferemment sur les ungs

et les autres sans aucune exception. Toutesfois Madame, je mectray

peyne de faire si bien rechercher parmy ses trouppes que sil y en a

aucuns qui en ayent quelque chose je la feray delivrer et nen sera

perdu ung seul denyer, ainsy que je lay faict entendre a ce present

porteur que ledit ambassadeur ma envoye expres.

Madame je prye Dieu vous avoyr en sante et donner tresbonne et longue

vye. Au Mesnil devant S^[te] Catherine le ix^[e] jour de Juillet 1562.

Vostre treshumble et tresobeissant

serviteur et subiect

CLAUDE DE LORAYNE

[_No address_]

[_Endorsed_] 9 Iulii 1562.

The coppye of the duke d’aumalles

letter to the Quene mother.

[_Enclosed in a letter from Throckmorton to the Queen, from Paris, 12

July, 1562_ (_No. 211_)]

APPENDIX V

[P. 177, n. 3]

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN

ELIZABETH, VOL. XLVI, NO. 973

[_Letter of the prince of Condé to the earl of Warwick_]

[_1562, December 14_]

Mons^[r] le Conte. Attendant que la commodite se presente plus propre

de vous pouvoir voir et diviser privement avecques vous envoiant

maintenant ceste depesche en Angleterre je nay voulu oublier a vous

ramentevoir le besoing que nous avons de joir en vostre secours,

auquel jespere moiennant la grace de Dieu me joindre de brief pour

par apres mectre quelque fin a tant de calamitez. Si Mons^[r] le Conte

de Montgoumery est de retour avecques quelques forces, je serois

bien dadvis se pour nous devancer, vous vous acheminissiez droict a

Honnefleur pour plus faciliter le chemin et a lune et a laultre armee.

Me recommandant sur ceste esperance a vostre bonne grace je supplieray

le Createur vous donner Mons^[r] le Conte avecques sa tressaincte grace

ce que plus desirez. Escript au camp de S^[t] Arnoul ce xiiij^[e] jour de

Decembre 1562.

Vostre plus afecsionne et parfayt amy

LOYS DE BOURBON

[_Addressed_] A Mons^[r]

Mons^[r] le Conte de Quarruich.

[_Endorsed in Cecil’s hand_] 184 December. Prince of Cond. to the Er.

of Warwyk.

APPENDIX VI

[P. 203, n. 2]

STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC

ELIZABETH, VOL. XXIX, NO. 50

[_Admiral Clinton to Cecil_]

S^[r] I am sure that yo^[w] are advertysed of the Appoyntement for New

haven I would gladly understand the quenes ma^[tes] plesure for my

farther Servyce. I lefte the Philipp and Mary the Lyon the Sakar and

twoo gales w^[th] viij victualers wyth m^[r] Wynter in the roade of New

haven to joyne w^[th] the shipps under his charge for the Dyspayche

of the men and such thinges as is to be brought thense and lefte m^[r]

Holstocke to assyste m^[r] Winter and I w^[th] the Elizabeth Jonas and

the Victorie cam hither this evenyng and synse my comyng w^[th] the

advyse of m^[r] vycechamberlen I have dyspayched a suffycyent nomber of

shippes that I founde presentely here to goo to New haven to fetch all

thinges thense that is to be brought. I cam to New haven yester day at

one a cloke in the after none & departyd thense at twoo a clok this

morning fyndyng my lord of Warwycke a shippborde redy to departe and at

my fyrst coming Edward Horsey came to me w^[th] monser de Lynerols from

the Frenche King the quene and the constable as he sayd to vysyt me

w^[th] offer of any thing that was their for my comoditie and sayd that

the king desyryd me to com on land to hym and their w^[th] he tould me

the Appoyntement for New haven. I sayd to hym that the plage of dedly

infexion had don for them that I thynke all the force of France could

never a don for yf the mortalitie had not taken a way and consumynyd

our Captens & Soldiors in so grete nombers they could never a prevailyd

nor a proched so neare the towne yet ys it apparant vnto yo^[w] the noble

coraige of the lorde lyevetenaunt and the valeantnes of his soldiors

hath bene shewyd as moch as might be in men having fought agaynst an

unsesable plage of pestylence & the whole force of France. And as I

doo reioyce that my contreymen hath so worthely behavyd them selfes so

am I hartely sorry that yo^[r] chanse is to recover that towne, and so

I desyryd hym to geve my humble thankes to the King the quene & the

constable for their corteous mesaige and offer sent to me but I having

charge by the quenes Ma^[tes] comandement my mistres of thes shipps

and nombers of men I can not departe from them and so we departyd

and afore the comyng of Edward Horsey & the sayd frenshe man to me I

not knowyng at that tyme where my L of Warwyk was sent William Drury

w^[th] a Trompet to New haven to speke w^[th] my lord from me. And at

his landing the Prynce of Condy & dyverse of the noble men found hym

their and usyd hym verey curteosly and offeryd hym a horse to ryde to

se the towne and a jentilman to attend on hym and declaryd to hym that

my lord of Warwyk was gone to the See and had taken a shipp to departe.

And this moche I thought mete to let yo^[w] understand prayng yo^[w] that

I may know the quenes Ma^[tes] plesure for my dyspayche hense. Thus I

take my leave. From Portesmowth the last of Iuly a^[o] 1563.

[_Signed_] Your assured friend to comand

E. CLYNTON

[_Addressed_] to the right hono^[r]able

S^[r] William Cicill Knight

pryncipall Secretare

to the quenes Ma^[ty].

[_Endorsed_] xxxj. July 1563.

to m^[r] Secretary from the

L. admyrall.

APPENDIX VII

[P. 253, n. 1]

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN

ELIZABETH, VOL. LXXVII, NO. 846

[_Letter of the prince of Condé to his sister_]

[_1565, March_]

The copy of the Prynce of Condes letter to his sister the Abbesse of

Chelis.[1759]

Ma Soeur, lennuy ou je suis de linjure que lon a faict a Monsieur le

Cardinal de Lorraine m’a mis au lict, comme vous dira vostre homme, de

la fascherie que jay de veoir ainsy traicter les Princes. Qui me faict

dire que lunion de noz maisons est plus que necessaire; comme il le

peult bien congnoistre a ceste heure, et sil leust plustost faict, il

leust tenu en peur et crainte ceulx qui nous doibvent obeissance et non

par les armes eussent puissance de commandement. Surquoy jay faict a

ce porteur entendre mon oppinion, et de la facon que mondict seigneur

le Cardinal se doibt gouverner. Qui me gardera vous en faire plus

longue lettre, hors mir que je veux confesser que si jeusse sceu ce qui

cy est passe; jeusse veu lhistoire pour empescher une telle honte et

oultraige, qui est plus grand que je nay jamais ouy parler que Prince

ayt eu. Je luy suis et seray, tel que je luy ay promis. Et si jeusse

este aupres de luy, je luy eusse faict prevue de ma volunte, plus par

effect que par parolle. Je vous iray veoir quand le me manderez. Qui

sera la fin apres avoir prie Dieu etc.

[_No signature_]

[_No address_]

[_Endorsed in Cecil’s hand_] March 1565.

Copy[1760] of a letter from the Marischall

Montmorency to the Duke

of Montpensyar

and a letter from the Prince of Conde

to the Abbass of Cheliss.

APPENDIX VIII

[P. 259, n. 1]

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN

ELIZABETH, VOL. CXI, NO. 612

[_Montluc’s Treason_]

[1570, March 27]

[Sidenote: Ont deferes avec luy les sieurs de Larride de Mirepoix et

Negrepelice]

[Sidenote: Le sieur de Marchassetel est ung jeune gentilhomme dune

maise de xii a xv. mille livres tournois de rente et a fiance nagueres

la soeur de Monsieur de Crussol]

Le sieur de Montluc charge davoir intelligence avec le Roy despaigne

pour mettre en ses mains le pais de Guienne de quoy il reste accuse

envers le Roy de France et la Royne sa mere par le sieur de Peres en

Quercy et son filz le sieur de Marchassetel beau frere du sieur de

Crussol qui ont envoye tout expres ung gentilhomme en court a ceste

fin instruit de lettres et memoires par lesquelles est porte que le

seneschal de Quercy a dit ausdits sieurs de Peres et Marchassetel quil

avoit este solicitte de faire mutiner la ville de Montaubain a fin de

donner occasion audit de Montluc de la piller se plaignant que ses

services nestoient recongneuz mais quil sen vengeroit et plusieurs

autres propos sembles quilz veullent maintenir avoir este proferez

par ledit de Montluc qui est aussi charge de sestre assemble lieu ung

lieu nomme Granale distant quatre lieues de Tholose avec le cardinal

Darmaignac et ung seigneur despaigne pour conferer de cest affaire d

aultre part que les prelats de Guyenne et Languedoc ont fait certaines

assemblees et accorde entre eulx quelques levees de deniers et

contribucions necessaires a cest entreprise et ont deputte secrettement

levesque de Lodene vers le roy despaigne.

Le seneschal de Quercy arrivant nagueres en court adverti de ce que

dessus se veult purger a levesque de Vallence frere dudit sieur de

Montluc disant ne scavoir que cestoit et quon le mettoit a tort en

cest affaire. Toutesfoys ledit sieur de Vallence homme collere de

son naturel et passionne et laffaire de son frere aisne estant de

telle consequence obtient du roy que lesdits seneschal de Quercy et

gentilhomme seroient ouis au conseil prive ou le seneschal a nye

publicquement ce que dessus Neantmoings le bruit est quen particulier

parlant a la royne luy aie dit beaucoup de grandes choses. Le

gentilhomme apersevere monstrant sesdites lettres et memoires et quil

estoit prest se rendre prisonnier ou submettre a telle autre peine pour

soustenir son dire. Comme aussi feroient ceulx qui lavoient envoye

lesquelz viennent maintenant en court pour maintenir tout le contenu

desdites memoires et proposer plusieurs aultres griefs contre ledit de

Montluc tel est le bruit la royne apres avoir ouy lesdits seneschal et

gentilhomme depesche ung nomme Duplessis varlet de chambre du roy vers

ledit sieur de Montluc. Pour entendre la veritte lequel de Montluc au

lieu de se purger commenca a hault louer ses faicts et services et a

se plaindre de la mescognoissance quen avoit le roy et dont pouvoit

venir quon soubson de luy et mauvaise oppinion que sestoit tousjours

honnestement acquicte des charges quon luy avoit donnees. Bien aict

confesse avoir parle a Granale avec le Cardinal Darmagnac mais que

cestoit en passant chemin pour aller a Tholose et communicquer avec luy

des affaires du roy ou lon dit sestre trouve ou ung nomme Don Pierre de

Navarre bastard dalbert evesque de Cominges. Ce quencores est trouve

mauvais pour ce que lun et lautre nen ont rien escript au roy ny a la

royne. Pourquoy sont mandez en court lesdits de Montluc et Marchassetel

pour se representer devant leurs maiestez.

Cest la cause pourquoy le sieur de Montluc a envoye cartel contre tous

ses adversaires &c. disant que tous ceulx que vouldront maintenir quil

aict intelligence avec le roy despaigne ont menty sauf et excepte les

princes du sang et autres ses superieurs ausquelz il doit honneur et

reverence quil est prest de les combatre a toutes sortes darmes en quoy

il espere ne faire moings de devoir que il navoit que vingt ung ans &c.

[_No signature_]

[_No address_]

[Endorsed] 27º Martii. Informacion

contre Mons^[r] de Monluc.

APPENDIX IX

[P. 303, n. 2]

BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE

FONDS FRANÇAIS, MS. NO. 3,197, F^[O] 92, RECTO

[_The Cardinal’s War_]

[2 juillet 1565]

[_Au dos_] Coppie. De Mons^[r] de Salzede à Mons^[r] d’Auzances, du II^[e]

Juillet 1565.

Cause de l’empeschement faict à Monseigneur le Cardinal par le S^[r] de

Salcede.

Monsieur, comme le diable qui ne cerche jamais que de mectre des choses

en avant, il est survenu que, estant arrivé Monseigneur le cardinal de

Lorraine a Ramberviller, ses officiers m’ont dict aultre commandement

de publier et attacher par touttes les villes et chastellenyes la

protection et sauvegarde qu’il a recouvert de l’Empereur, le double de

laquelle je vous envoye signé et collationné de son chancellyer. Et

avec cela, je suis esté adverty de bon lieu certainement qu’il veult et

a despeché capitaines pour mettre ès place lesquelles je conserve il y

a environ dix ans aux despens du Roy et avec ses soldatz; et veoir à

ceste heure ung remuement devant moy avec ceste saulvegarde et[1761]

une particularité que je sçay je ne suis deliberé de le souffrir que

premièrement le Roy et la Royne ou vous (comme les representans) vous

n’ayez bien pensé le faict et la consequence que cela peult advenir

pour l’advenir.[1762] Je vous asseure, Monsieur, que je suis bien mary

qu’ayant tant faict de services à Monseigneur le Cardinal et à sa

maison, comme tout le monde sçayt bien, il[1763] me contraigne pour mon

honneur de thumber en sa malle grace. Et quant luy au aultre vouldront

mectre quelques particularitez en avant, vous vous bien asseurer avec

tous mes seigneurs et amys que je mouray et me coustera ma vye et

mon bien que je ne serviray jamais aultre que à monseigneur et roy,

auquel je suis tant tenu. S’il vous plaist de me envoyer la coche de

madame d’Auzances[1764] par Florymont,[1765] je vous envoyeray à Metz

en charge ma femme et enffans avec le peu de bien que j’ay en France,

pour vous asseurer que je ne feray jamais chose qui ne soit pour le

service du Roy, synon pour sa grandeur et authorité. Et, en ce pendant

que j’aurai de voz nouvelles, j’entretiendray les choses en l’estat que

j’ay deliberé, avec la plus grande modeste que je pouray, sy je ne suis

contrainct aultrement. Et sur ce, je me recommande de bien bon cuer a

vostre bonne grace et prye Dieu

Monsieur, vous donner très heureuse et longue vye.

De Vic, ce II^[e] jour de Juillet. Ainsy signé:

P^[O] DE SALCEDE.

APPENDIX X

[P. 307, n. 7]

STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC

ELIZABETH, ADDENDA, VOL. XIII, NO. 71

[_George Poulet to Sir Hugh Poulet_]

[1567, April 22]

It may pleas yo^[u] to be advertysed that wheras (aswell at my last being

w^[th] yowe, as by your severall letters) yowe have geven me specyall

charg for then quyring of such currauntes as might be learned from the

frenche partyes, wherin having hetherto desysted, rather for want of

convenient matter then of dew remembraunce, I have therefore thought yt

my duty w^[th] all convenyent speede to advertise yo^[u] of soche newes,

as I have benne presently enfourmed of by certeyne of this isle w^[ch]

came upon Satterday last from Normandy, who have declared that there

was a greate rumo^[r] of warres, and the newes so certayne as a boy of

myne being at Constaunces for the recovery of a grief w^[ch] he hath,

was hydden by his host the space of one day, and so pryvely w^[th]

dyvers others of this Isle conveyed over with all speede. Moreover I

understand that there were taken up at Constaunces and theraboutes

iij^[c] soldio^[r]s w^[ch] ar now in garrisson at Graundville and that

there ar viij^[xx] soldio^[r]s in Shawsey and two greate shippes well

appointed. Also that a servaunte of the frenche Kinges hath passed

alongest the sea coastes of Normandy and hath taken the names of the

principall masters and marryners in thos partes. The leke brute of

warres and preparacion for the same ys in Bryttayne as I have learned

by a barke of Lyme w^[ch] came from S^[t] Malos and aryved in this

Isle upon Sonday last at night, who declareth that they were prevely

admonished w^[th] all speede to departe from thens, and that Mons^[r]

Martigues governo^[r] of Bryttayne was appointed to com this present

Tusday with a greate company in to the sayd towne of S^[t] Malos where

greate preparacion was made for the receyving of him and his retynewe.

Thes ar the specialst and most credybel yntellygences w^[ch] I have

as yet lerned from thos partes, the presumpcions wherof as they ar

very manyfest and dangeros so can they not be to myche credyted and

dylligently prevented, wherefore I have w^[th] all speede sent this

bearer unto yo^[u] w^[th] thes my advertysementes whom I have charged

not to slacke his duty in conveyaunce of the same, to thend that yo^[u]

being enfourmed of thes premysses may returne youre pleasure and

advise for ower better procedinges in the same, as to yo^[r] discrete

wysdom may seme most expedyent, beseching yo^[u] yt may be as briefly

as ys possyble. And in this meane tyme I shall not fayle God willing

to enforce and make redy the power of this castle and isle for the

resisting of all daungers and sudden attemptes w^[ch] may be geven by

the ennymy to the uttermost of ower power. Although the estate and

furnyture of this castle ys not unknowen unto yo^[u], yet have I thought

good to send herew^[th] enclosed a byll of suche necessaryes as ar

specyally wanting in the same. There ys no other speciall matter worthy

the certifyeng for this present from this yo^[r] charge where all thinges

remayne in the accoustomed good and quyet estate thankes be to God,

whom I beseche long to preserve yo^[u]. From Iersey the xxij^[th] of

Aprill 1567.

Yowr most obedyent sonne

GEORGE POULET

[_Addressed_] To his right wurshipfull father

S^[r] Hugh Poulet Knight.

[_Endorsed_] 22 April, 1567.

M^[r] George Poulett to his father

S^[r] Hugh Poulet from Jersey.

APPENDIX XI

[P. 326, n. 3]

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN

ELIZABETH, VOL. XCIV, NO. 1,338

[_Sir Henry Norris to Queen Elizabeth_]

Yt may like yo^[r] Maiesty to be advertized.... Wryttin at Paris this

last of Septemb^[r] 1567, in haste.

Yt is here reported for truthe that Amyans Abevill and Calleis are

takin to the princes beholfe wherof I doubte not by y^[r] Ma^[ty] is

advertized or this. Also they have Lanne[1766] Soyzon[1767] Abevill

Bollein[1768] Ameins and so alonge the riuer of Sene which be the best

appointid townes of Artillery in Fraunce.

By y^[r] highnes most humble and

obedient subiect and servant

HENRY NORREYS

[_Addressed_] To the Quene’s most excellent

Maiesty:

[_Endorsed_] 30 September 1567

S^[r] H. Norreys to the

Q. Ma^[ty].

APPENDIX XII

[P. 334, n. 1]

STATE PAPERS, FOREIGN

ELIZABETH, VOL. XCV, NO. 1,457

[_Printed Pamphlet of 6 pages_]

LETTRES DU ROY, | PAR LESQUELLES | IL

ENIOINT DE FAI | RE DILIGENTE PERQUISITION

& RE | CHERCHE DE TOUS LES GENTILS-HOM | MES,

TANT D’VN PARTY QUE D’AUL | TRE, QUI SE SONT

RETIREZ EN LEURS | MAISONS DEPUIS LA

BATAILLE DONN | EE PRES S. DENYS.

A. PARIS,

PAR ROB. ESTIENE IMPRIMEUR DU ROY

M. D. LXVII

AUEC PRIUILEGE AUDICT SEIGNEUR

DE PAR LE ROY.

Nostre amé & | feal, Pource que | nous desirons sça | voir & entendre

à | la vérité quels Ge | ntils hommes de vo | stre s’y sont retirez

depuis | la bataille dernièrement donnee | pres S. Denys, tant ceulx

qui e | stoyent en nostre armee, ou ail | leurs pour nostre service,

que les | aultres qui ont suyvi le party du | Prince de Condé: |

A ceste cause nous vous | mandons, & tres-expresseement en | joignons,

Que incontinent la pre | sente receue, vous ayez à faire di | ligente

perquisition & recherche par tout vostredict ressort, de tous |

lesdicts Gentils-hommes tant d’un | costé que d’aultre, qui se sont,

ain | si que dict est, retirez en leurs mai | sons. Et ceulx que vous

trouverez | estants de la Religion pretendue | reformee, lesquels

se seront pre | sentez ou Greffe de vostre siege, & | faict les

submissions portees par nostre Ordonnance & Declaration | sur ce,

qui est de vivre paisible | ment en leurs maisons sans jamais | ung

se mouvoir à prendre les armes, | sinon avec nostre exprès comman |

dement & lesquels au demeurant | observeront en cela nostredicte |

Ordonnance & Declaration, ne | faisants aucun monopole, ne cho | se qui

tende à sedition: Vous don | nerez ordre & tiendrez la main | quils

soyent maintenus en la joys | sance du contenu en icelle Ordonnance

& Declaration, pour vivre | & demeurer doucement en leurs | dictes

maisons, sans souffrir ne | permettre qu’il leur soit mesfaict | ne

mesdict en corps ne en biens. | Et là où il s’en trouveroit qui feis |

sent autrement, vous leur interdi | rez ladicte joyssance, les faisant

| punir & chastier selon que vous | sçaurez le cas le requerir.

Et au regard de ceulx desdicts | Gentils-hommes qui seront venus | en

nostre armee, ou auront esté | employez ailleurs pour nostre ser |

vice & en nostre obeissance, s’e | stans semblablement retirez en |

leurs maisons apres la bataille, | vous les manderez venir par de |

uers vous, ou bien les advertirez | par lettres, & leur remonstrerez

de | nostre part le tout qu’ils font à no | stredict service & à leur

honneur | & reputation, n’estant maintenant | heure de nous abandonner

en ce | ste occasion: Les exhortant de ve | nir incontinent retrouver

nostre | camp & armee, & les asseurant qu’il | ne se presentera

paradventure ja | mais occasion où nos bons, fidèl | les & affectionnez

subiects puis | sent faire meilleure preuve de | leur bonne volonté &

affection en | nostre service, que en ceste cy, & dont nous recevions

plus de con | tentement, que nous sçaurons bien | recognoistre envers

eulx. Et | au contraire vous leur ferez sça | voir que oultre la juste

cause d’in | dignation, que nous aurons alen | contre de ceulx qui

y defauldront, | nous ferons proceder au saisisse | ment en nostre

main de tous & | chascuns leurs fiefs & tenemens | nobles, pour estre

regis par Con | missaires. Mais sur tout ne fail | lez de nous envoyer

incontinent | les noms & surnoms, qualitez & | demeurances de tous

les dessus | dicts Gentils-hommes de costé & | d’aultre retirez en

leursdictes mai | sons. Et vous nous ferez service | tresaggreable.

Donné à Paris le douziesme jour de Decembre, | mil cinq cens soixante

sept.

[_Signé_] CHARLES

[_Et au dessous_] ROBERTET

[_Et sur la superscription est es | cript_]

A nostre ami & fealle le Prevost de | Paris, ou son Lieutenant.

Leves & publiees à son de trompe | & cry public par les carrefours de

ce | ste ville de Paris, lieux & places ac | coustumez à faire cris &

publications, | par moy Pasquier Rossignol sergent, cri | eur juré pour

le Roy ès ville, Prevosté | & Viconté de Paris, accompaigné de | Michel

Noiret commis par le Roy pour | trompete esdicts lieux, & d’un aultre

| trompete, le dixseptieme iour de Decem | bre, l’an mil cinq cens

soixante sept.

ROSSIGNOL

APPENDIX XIII

[P. 352, n. 2]

BIBLIOTECA BARBERINIANA

VATICAN LIBRARY, NO. 5,269, FOLIO 63

[_Discorso sopra gli humori del Regno di Francia, di Mons. Nazaret_]

Quante uolte il Rè Christianissimo ha ricerco Nostro Sig^[re] di

danari contanti, ò di permissioni di cauarne somme maggiori, et

grossissime dal Clero di Francia, ò di soccorso di gente Italiana, ò

di altro aiuto, che si potesse cauare da sua Beatitudine, tante n’è

stato in somma compiaciuto, conciosia, che la bontà del Papa, et la

prontezza, et uolontà grande, che Sua Santità ha del continuo hauuto

d’ impiegare ogni sua forza, et autorità a salute di quella Corona, et

ad esterminatione degli Heretici gli ha fatto prestare più fede alle

promesse, che loro M^[ta], faceuano a parole del ben futuro che alle

uere ragioni di coloro, i quali predicauano il Male, et la corruttione

presente, et palpabile tale, secondo essi da mettere per perduto

qualunque cosa si donaua ò porgeua per quel aiuto con il medesimo zelo

ha proceduto sua Santità nell’ aduertire al Re, alla Reina, et alli

altri Ministri suoi fideli, et Catholici degl’ inganni, et male opere

di certi, i quali si uedeua chiaramente, come proponendo fallacie, et

usando falsità et tradimenti, cercauano con sommo artificio di leuare

l’ obedienza al Rè, et corrompere la giustitia, et Religione di quel

Regno, come in gran parte è loro riuscito, cosi non ha mancato di

mettere qualche uolta in consideratione qualche rimedio per troncare

i disegni delli Ugonotti, parendoli, come Papa et Padre commune,

che se gli appartenesse di ricordar quello tocca al bene de fideli,

et come Vicario di Christo in Terra di doversi intromettere in cosa

appartenente all’ uffitio suo per quanto concerne il riformare la

Chiesa di Dio, cioè renderle in quel Paese la sua debita forma, et

dignità essendouene il bisogno, ò la necessità grandissima, mà in parte

alcuna non è mai riuscito di far frutto, anzi quando le loro M^[ta]

non hanno hauto per fine di ualersi degli aiuti; et autorità del Papa,

manco hanno tenuto conto, nè pur mostro di curarsi di corrispondere con

quella dimostratione di parole, che ci conuiene ad ubedienti fig^[li]

et deuoti a questa Santa Sede; Perciochè all’ altre cose, che l’hanno

dechiarato, lo fece manifesto, et palpabile, quando dopo la battaglia

ultima di Mócontor, essendo il tempo appunto proprio de uenire a dare

castigo à chi lo meritaua, come ricordauano i Ministri di Nostro

Sig^[re] per parte sua, che era tempo di fare, et ne mostrauano il

modo, fu risposto loro dalla Reina propria con parole assai espresse,

come il Rè si trouaua in età di autorità, et con forze, et prudenza di

saper gouernare lo Stato suo, da sè, senza hauere à pigliare consiglio,

nè Legge da Principi esterni. Onde meritamente da quel tempo in quà è

parso a Sua Santità di uolere andare un poco più consideratamente, non

giudicando che se gli conuenisse di doversi ingenire in cosa d’altri

più oltre di quelche fosse grato alli Padroni, sperando pure, che come

l’ era affirmato, così asseueratamente l’età del Rè con il ualoroso

animo suo, et con le prouisioni, che loroM^[ta] presumeuano di fare

più che à bastanza per trouarsi al sicuro in ogni accidente, potessero

superare la peruersità de Ribaldi, et ogni altra difficultà.

Hora che dalli intollerabili Capitoli da questa ultima impia pace

apparisce tutto il contrario, ueggendosi come restano del tutto

oppressi i Cat^[ci] et gli Ugonotti tanto solleuati, che non si

preuagliano in qualche parte: mà che mettano necessità, et in loro

soggettione il Rè medesimo.

Non può ne deue sua Beatitudine mancare di tutti quei Uffity, che

si appartengono al grado suo per aprire la mente del Rè con modo,

che sia cauato dalle tenebre, oue altri cerca di tenerlo, et sia

illuminato delle prouisioni, che Sua M^[ta] può porgere per la salute,

et conseruatione dello Stato, et uita di tutti i buoni, che senza

pronto, et potente rimedio se ne andranno in perditione, non potendo

mai reggersi quel Regno senza buona giustistia, et religione; le

quali sono corrottissime con l’Intervento delli Heretici in esse,

li quali Heretici non accade dubitare, che hanno sempre hauuta, et

hanno tutavia più che mai la principale mira loro fissa alla rouina

del Rè et uaglionsi apparentemente di quelle due cose, che sono

generalissime per chiunque cerca di distruggere un Dominio, ò una

Monarchia, cioè la prima di mettere in diffidenza à chi lo regge quei

Prencipi massimamente, che lo possono sostenere, et porgere consigli;

et aiuti da conseruarsi il suo debito imperiò, come si sà, che hanno

tanto tempo procurato di conseguire più, et sopra ogni altra cosa li

Ugonotti del Rè di Spagna con dar ombra, et metter gelosia, che Sua

M^[ta] Catt.^[ca] et suoi Ministri ancor d’auantaggio fussero sempre

per procurare, non che desiderare la divisione della Francia; perchè

la bassezza del Rè Christianissimo, redondaua à grandezza del l’altro

interpretando perpetuamente, et le parole, et i fatti, che ueniuano da

quella parte al peggior senso, il quale argomento, sebene in superficie

hauesse del propabile in qualche parte, nondimeno la natura del Rè

Cat.^[co] tanto inclinata al bene, et alla quiete, fà conoscere a pieno

il contrario, come dimostra pur troppo chiaramente l’occasione, che ha

lassato passare, con il non havere con effetto animo di nuocere alla

Francia per pensiero di accrescere se stesso; Ma è assai alli Ugonotti

di hauere messo Zizania da ogni parte, tanto che l’uno non si fidi

dell’ altro, sicome hanno cerco, che gli riesca di consequire del Papa,

sebene non è uenuto loro fatta, perche Sua Beat.^[ne] per sua troppa

bontà pospone ogni altra occasione, hauendo risguardo solo al seruitio

di Dio, et al bene di quella Corona et del Rè.

L’altra seconda cosa è di mettere diuisione nel Popolo, che di ciò

non accade produrne ragioni, ueggendosi pur troppo per gl’ istessi

capitoli dell’ accordo. E necessaria adunque inanzi ad ogni altra cosa

di provare con buone ragioni, come la setta delli Ugonotti con li suoi

capi, sono sforzati a tenere in perpetuo la persona del Rè per inimica

implacabile, perchè oltre à quello che è detto di sopra l’hanno troppo

grauemente offesa, nello Stato nell’ honore, et quanto ad essi nella

uita sicome testifica quella giornata di Meos, nella quale fu forza a

Sua M^[ta] trottare sino a Parigi nel modo che è notorio.