hold meetings for public worship outside the towns, and placed
their meetings under the protection of the law. ... The
Parliament of Paris refused to register the edict until after
repeated orders from the Queen-mother. The Parliament of Dijon
refused to register it. ... The Parliament of Aix refused.
Next, Antoine de Navarre, bribed by a promise of the
restoration of the Spanish part of his little kingdom,
announced that the colloquy of Poissy had converted him,
dismissed Beza and the reformed preachers, sent Jeanne back to
Beárn, demanded the dismissal of the Chatillons from the
court, and invited the Duke of Guise and his brother, the
Cardinal, who were at their château of Joinville, to return to
Paris. Then occurred--it was only six weeks after the Edict
of January--the massacre of Vassy. Nine hundred out of
3,000--the population of that little town--were Protestants.
Rejoicing in the permission granted them by the new law, they
were assembled on the Sunday morning, in a barn outside the
town, for the purpose of public service. The Duke of Guise and
the Cardinal, with their armed escort of gentlemen and
soldiers, riding on their way to Paris, heard the bells which
summoned the people, and asked what they meant. Being told
that it was a Huguenot 'prêche,' the Duke swore that he would
Huguenot them to some purpose. He rode straight to the barn
and entered the place, threatening to murder them all. The
people relying on the law, barred the doors. Then the massacre
began. The soldiers burst open the feeble barrier, and began
to fire among the perfectly unarmed and inoffensive people.
Sixty-four were killed--men, women, and children; 200 were
wounded. This was the signal for war. Condé, on the
intelligence, immediately retired from the court to Meaux,
whence he issued a proclamation calling on all the Protestants
of the country to take up arms. Coligny was at Chatillon,
whither Catharine addressed him letter after letter, urging
upon him, in ambiguous terms, the defence of the King.
{1199}
It seems, though this is obscure, that at one time Condé might
have seized the royal family and held them. But if he had the
opportunity, he neglected it, and the chance never came again.
Henceforward, however, we hear no more talk about Catharine
becoming a Protestant. That pretence will serve her no more.
Before the clash of arms, there was silence for a space. Men
waited till the last man in France who had not spoken should
declare himself. The Huguenots looked to the Admiral, and not
to Condé. It was on him that the real responsibility lay of
declaring civil war. It was a responsibility from which the
strongest man might shrink. ... The Admiral having once made
up his mind, hesitated no longer, and, with a heavy heart, set
off the next day to join Condé. He wrote to Catharine that he
took up arms, not against the King, but against those who held
him captive. He wrote also to his old uncle, the Constable
[Montmorency]. ... The Constable replied. There was no
bitterness between uncle and nephew. The former was fighting
to prevent the 'universal ruin' of his country, and for his
'petits maitres,' the boys, the sons of his old friend, Henry
II. Montmorency joined the Guises in perfect loyalty, and with
the firm conviction that it was the right thing for him to do.
The Chatillon fought in the name of law and justice, and to
prevent the universal massacre of his people. ... Then the
first civil war began with a gallant exploit--the taking of
Orleans [April 1562]. Condé rode into it at the head of 2,000
cavalry, all shouting like schoolboys, and racing for six
miles who should get into the city first. They pillaged the
churches, and turned out the Catholics. 'Those who were that
day turned outside the city wept catholicly that they were
dispossessed of the magazines of the finest wines in France.'
Truly a dire misfortune, for the Catholics to lose all the
best claret districts! Orleans taken, the Huguenots proceeded
to issue protestations and manifestoes, in all of which the
hand of the Admiral is visible. They are not fighting against
the King, who is a prisoner; the war was begun by the Guises.
... They might have added, truly enough, that Condé and the
Admiral held in their hands letters from Catharine, urging
them to carry on the contest for the sake of the young King.
The fall of Orleans was quickly followed by that of Rouen,
Tours, Blois, Bourges, Vienne, Valence, and Montauban. The
civil war was fairly begun. The party was now well organized.
Condé was commander-in-chief by right of his birth; Coligny
was real leader by right of his reputation and wisdom. It was
by him that a Solemn League and Covenant was drawn up, to be
signed by everyone of the Calvinist chiefs. These were,
besides Condé and the Chatillons, La Rochefoucauld, ...
Coligny's nephew and Condé's brother-in-law--he was the
greatest seigneur in Poitou; Rohan, from Dauphine, who was
Condé's cousin; the Prince of Porcian, who was the husband of
Condé's niece. Each of these lords came with a following
worthy of his name. Montgomery, who had slain Henry II.,
brought his Normans; Genlis, the Picards. ... With Andelot
came a troop of Bretons; with the Count de Grammont came 6,000
Gascons. Good news poured in every day. Not only Rouen, but
Havre, Caen, and Dieppe submitted in the North. Angers and
Nantes followed. The road was open in the end for bringing
troops from Germany. The country in the southwest was
altogether in their hands. Meantime, the enemy were not idle.
They began with massacres. In Paris they murdered 800
Huguenots in that first summer of the war. From every side
fugitives poured into Orleans, which became the city of
refuge. There were massacres at Amiens, Senlis, Cahors,
Toulouse, Angoulême--everywhere. Coligny advised a march upon
Paris, where, he urged, the Guises had but a rabble at their
command. His counsels when war was once commenced, were always
for vigorous measures. Condé preferred to wait. Andelot was
sent to Germany, where he raised 3,000 horse. Calvin
despatched letters in every direction, urging on the churches
and the Protestant princes to send help to France. Many of
Coligny's old soldiers of St. Quentin came to fight under his
banner. Elizabeth of England offered to send an army if Calais
were restored; when she saw that no Frenchman would give up
that place again, she still sent men and money, though with
grudging spirit. At length both armies took the field. The
Duke of Guise had under him 8,000 men; Condé 7,000. They
advanced, and met at the little town of Vassodun, where a
conference was held between the Queen-mother and Navarre on
the one hand, and Condé and Coligny on the other. Catharine
proposed that all the chiefs of both sides--Guise, the
Cardinal de Lorraine, St. Andre, Montmorency, Navarre, Condé,
and the Chatillon brothers--should all alike go into voluntary
exile. Condé was nearly persuaded to accept this absurd
proposal. Another conference was held at Taley. These
conferences were only delays. An attempt was made by Catharine
to entrap Condé, which was defeated by the Admiral's prompt
rescue. The Parliament of Paris issued a decree commanding all
Romanists in every parish to rise in arms at the sound of the
bell and to slay every Huguenot. It was said that 50,000 were
thus murdered. No doubt the numbers were grossly exaggerated.
... These cruelties naturally provoked retaliation. ... An
English army occupied Havre. English troops set out for Rouen.
Some few managed to get within the walls. The town was taken
by the Catholics [October 25, 1562], and, for eight days,
plundered. Needless to say that Guise hanged every Huguenot he
could find. Here the King of Navarre was killed. The loss of
Rouen, together with other disasters, greatly discouraged the
Huguenots. Their spirits rose, however, when news came that
Andelot, with 4,000 reiters, was on his way to join them. He
brought them in safety across France, being himself carried in
a litter, sick with ague and fever. The Huguenots advanced
upon Paris, but did not attack the city. At Dreux [December
19, 1562], they met the army of Guise. Protestant historians
endeavor to show that the battle was drawn. In fact both sides
sustained immense losses. St. André was killed, Montmorency
and Condé were taken prisoners. Yet Coligny had to retire from
the field--his rival had outgeneralled him. It was
characteristic of Coligny that he never lost heart. ... With
his German cavalry, a handful of his own infantry, and a small
troop of English soldiers, Coligny swept over nearly the whole
of Normandy. It is true that Guise was not there to oppose
him. Every thing looked well. He was arranging for a 'splendid
alliance' with England, when news came which stayed his hand.
{1200}
Guise marched southwards to Orleans. ... There was in Orleans
a young Huguenot soldier named Jean Poltrot de Méré. He was a
fanatic. ... He waited for an opportunity, worked himself into
the good graces of the Duke, and then shot him with three
balls, in the shoulder. Guise died three days later. ... Then
a peace was signed [and ratified by the Edict of Amboise,
March 19, 1563]. Condé, won over and seduced by the sirens of
the Court, signed it. It was a humiliating and disastrous
peace. Huguenots were to be considered loyal subjects; foreign
soldiers should be sent out of the country; churches and
temples should be restored to their original uses; the suburbs
of one town in every bailiwick, were to be used for Protestant
worship (this was a great reduction on the Edict of January,
which allowed the suburbs of every town); and the nobility and
gentry were to hold worship in their own houses after their
own opinions. The Admiral was furious at this weakness. 'You
have ruined,' he said to Condé, 'more churches by one stroke
of the pen than the enemy could have done in ten years of
war.'"
_W. Besant,
Gaspard de Coligny.
chapter 8._
ALSO IN:
_Duc d' Aumale,
History of the Princes de Condé,
book 1, chapter 3 (volume l)._
_E. Bersier,
Earlier Life of Coligny,
chapter 21-26._
FRANCE: A. D. 1563-1564.
Recovery of Havre from the English.
The Treaty of Troyes.
Under the terms on which the Huguenot leaders procured help
from Elizabeth, the English queen held Havre, and refused to
restore it until after the restoration of Calais to England,
and the repayment of a loan of 140,000 crowns. The Huguenots,
having now made peace with their Catholic fellow countrymen,
were not prepared to fulfill the English contract, according
to Elizabeth's claims, but demanded that Havre should be given
up. The Queen refusing, both the parties, lately in arms
against each other, joined forces, and laid siege to Havre so
vigorously that it was surrendered to them on the 28th of
July, 1563. Peace with England was concluded in the April
following, by a treaty negotiated at Troyes, and the Queen
lost all her rights over Calais.
_Duc d'Aumale,
History of the Princes of Condé,
volume 1, chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_J. A. Froude,
History of England: Reign of Elizabeth,
chapters 6 and 8 (volume 1-2)._
FRANCE: A. D. 1563-1570.
The conference at Bayonne.
Outbreak of the Second Civil War.
Battle of St. Denis.
Peace of Longjumeau.
The Third Civil War.
Huguenot rally at La Rochelle.
Appearance of the Queen of Navarre.
Battle of Jarnac.
Death of Condé.
Henry of Navarre chosen to command.
Battle of Moncontour.
Peace of St. Germain.
The religious peace established under the Edict of Amboise
lasted four years. "Not that the Huguenots enjoyed during
these years anything like security or repose. The repeated
abridgment even of those narrow liberties conferred by the
Edict of Amboise, and the frequent outbreaks of popular hatred
in which numbers of them perished, kept them in perpetual
alarm. Still more alarming was the meeting at Bayonne [of
Catherine de' Medici, the young king, her son, and the Duke of
Alva, representing Philip II. of Spain] in the summer of 1565.
... Amid the Court festivities which took place, it was known
that there had been many secret meetings between Alva,
Catherine, and, Charles. The darkest suspicions as to their
objects and results spread over France. It was generally
believed--falsely, as from Alva's letters it now appears--that
a simultaneous extermination of all heretics in the French and
Spanish dominions had been agreed upon. To anticipate this
stroke, Coligni proposed that the person of the King should be
seized upon. The Court, but slenderly guarded, was then at
Monceaux. The project had almost succeeded. Some time,
however, was lost. The Court got warning and fled to Meaux.
Six thousand Swiss arrived, and by a rapid march carried the
King to Paris. After such a failure, nothing was left to the
Huguenots but the chances of a second civil war. Condé entered
boldly on the campaign. Though he had with him but 1,500 horse
and 1,200 infantry, he marched to Paris, and offered battle to
the royal troops beneath its walls. The Constable
[Montmorency], who had 18,000 men at his command, accepted the
challenge, and on the 10th of November 1567, the battle of St.
Denis was fought. ... Neither party could well claim the
victory, as both retired from the field. The royal army had to
mourn the loss that day of its aged and gallant commander, the
Constable. Condé renewed next day the challenge, which was not
accepted. The winter months were spent by the Huguenots in
effecting a junction with some German auxiliaries, and in the
spring they appeared in such force upon the field that, on the
23d March 1568, the Peace of Longjumeau was ratified, which
re-established, free from all modifications and restrictions,
the Edict of Amboise. It was evident from the first that this
treaty was not intended to be kept; that it had been entered
into by the government solely to gain time, and to scatter the
ranks of the Huguenots. Coligni sought Condé at his château of
Noyers in Burgundy. He had scarcely arrived when secret
intelligence was given them of a plot upon their lives. They
had barely time to fly, making many a singular escape by the
way, and reaching Rochelle, which from this time became the
head-quarters of the Huguenots, on the 15th September 1568.
During the first two religious wars ... the seat of war was so
remote from her dominions that the Queen of Navarre [Jeanne
d'Albret,--see NAVARRE: A.D. 1528-1563] had satisfied herself
with opening her country as an asylum for those Huguenots
driven thither out of the southern counties of France. But
when she heard that Condé and Coligni ... were on their way to
Rochelle, to raise there once more the Protestant banner,
convinced that the French Court meditated nothing short of the
extermination of the Huguenots, she determined openly to cast
in her lot with her co-religionists, and to give them all the
help she could. Dexterously deceiving Montluc, who had
received instructions to watch her movements, and to seize
upon her person if she showed any intention of leaving her own
dominions, after a flight as precipitous and almost as
perilous as that of Condé and Coligni, she reached Rochelle on
the 29th September, ten days after their arrival. This town,
for nearly a century the citadel of Protestantism in France,
having by its own unaided power freed itself from the English
dominion [in the period between 1368 and 1380] had had
extraordinary municipal privileges bestowed on it in
return--among others, that of an entirely independent
jurisdiction, both civil and military.
{1201}
Like so many of the great commercial marts of Europe, in which
the spirit of freedom was cherished, it had early welcomed the
teaching of the Reformers, and at the time now before us
nearly the whole of its inhabitants were Huguenots. ... About
the very time that the Queen of Navarre entered Rochelle a
royal edict appeared, prohibiting, under pain of death, the
exercise of any other than the Roman Catholic religion in
France, imposing upon all the observance of its rites and
ceremonies; and banishing from the realm all preachers of the
doctrine of Calvin, fifteen days only being allowed them to
quit the kingdom. It was by the sword that this stern edict
was to be enforced or rescinded. Two powerful armies of nearly
equal strength mustered speedily. One was nominally under the
command of the Duke of Anjou, but really led by Tavannes,
Biron, Brissac, and the young Duke of Guise, the last burning
to emulate the military glory of his father; the other under
the command of Condé and Coligni. The two armies were close
upon one another; their generals desired to bring them into
action; they were more than once actually in each other's
presence; but the unprecedented inclemency of the weather
prevented an engagement, and at last, without coming into
collision, both had to retire to winter quarters. The delay
was fatal to the Huguenots." In the following spring (March
13, 1569), while their forces were still scattered and
unprepared, they were forced into battle with the
better-generaled Royalists, at Jarnac, and were grievously
defeated. Condé, wounded and taken prisoner, was treated at
first with respect by the officers who received his sword. But
"Montesquiou, captain of the Swiss Guard of the Duke of Anjou,
galloped up to the spot, and, hearing who the prisoner was,
deliberately levelled his pistol at him and shot him through
the head. The Duke passed no censure on his officer, and
expressed no regret at his deed. The grossest indignities were
afterwards, by his orders, heaped upon the dead body of the
slain. The defeat of Jarnac, and still more the death of
Condé, threw the Huguenot army into despair. ... The utter
dissolution of the army seemed at hand. The Admiral sent a
messenger to the Queen of Navarre at Rochelle, entreating her
to come to the camp. She was already on her way. On arrival,
and after a short consultation with the Admiral, the army was
drawn up to receive her. She rode along the ranks--her son
Henry on one side, the son of the deceased Condé on the
other." Then she addressed to the troops an inspiring speech,
concluding with these heroic words: "Soldiers, I offer you
everything I have to give,--my dominions, my treasures, my
life, and, what is dearer to me than all, my children. I make
here solemn oath before you all--I swear to defend to my last
sigh the holy cause which now unites us." "The soldiers
crowded around the Queen, and unanimously, as if by sudden
impulse, hailed young Henry of Navarre as their future
general. The Admiral and La Rochefoucauld were the first to
swear fidelity to the Prince; then came the inferior officers
and the whole assembled soldiery; and it was thus that, in his
fifteenth year, the Prince of Béarn was inaugurated as
general-in-chief of the army of the Huguenots." In June the
Huguenot army effected a junction at St. Yriex with a division
of German auxiliaries, led by the Duc de Deux-Ponts, and
including among its chiefs the Prince of Orange and his
brother Louis of Nassau. They attacked the Duke of Anjou at La
Roche-Abeille and gained a slight advantage; but wasted their
strength during the summer, contrary to the advice of the
Admiral Coligny, in besieging Poitiers. The Duke of Anjou
approached with a superior army, and, again in opposition to
the judgment of Coligny, the Huguenots encountered him at
Moncontour (October 3, 1569), where they suffered the worst of
their defeats, leaving 5,000 dead and wounded on the field.
Meanwhile a French army had entered Navarre, had taken the
capital and spread destruction everywhere through the small
kingdom; but the Queen sent Count de Montgomery to rally her
people, and the invaders were driven out. Coligny and Prince
Henry wintered their troops in the far south, then moved
rapidly northwards in the spring, up the valley of the Rhone,
across the Cevennes, through Burgundy, approaching the Loire,
and were met by the Marshal de Cosse at Arnay-le-Duc, where
Henry of Navarre won his first success in arms--Coligny being
ill. Though it was but a partial victory it brought about a
breathing time of peace. "This happened in the end of June,
and on the 8th of August [1570] the Peace of St.
Germain-en-Laye was signed, and France had two full years of
quiet."
_W. Hanna,
The Wars of the Huguenots,
chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_Duc d'Aumale,
History of the Princes de Condé,
book 1, chapter 4-5 (volume 1-2)._
_M. W. Freer,
Life of Jeanne d'Albret,
chapters 8-10._
_C. M. Yonge,
Cameos of English History,
5th series, chapter 8._
FRANCE: A. D. 1570-1572.
Coligny at court and his influence with the King.
Projected war with Spain.
The desperate step of Catharine de' Medici, and its
consequence in the plot of Massacre.
"After the Peace of 1570, it appeared as if a complete change
of policy was about to take place. The Queen pretended to be
friendly with the Protestants; her relations with the
ambitious Guises were distant and cold, and the project of
uniting the Houses of Bourbon and Valois by marriage [the
marriage of Henry of Navarre with the king's sister,
Marguerite] really looked as if she was in earnest. The most
distinguished leader of the Huguenot party was the Admiral
Caspar de Coligny. It is quite refreshing at this doleful
period to meet with such a character. He was a nobleman of the
old French school and of the best stamp; lived upon his estates
with his family, his little court, his retainers and subjects,
in ancient patriarchal style, and on the best terms, and
regularly went with them to the Protestant worship and the
communion; a man of unblemished morality and strict
Calvinistic views of life. Whatever this man said or did was
the result of his inmost convictions; his life was the
impersonation of his views and thoughts. In the late turbulent
times he had become an important person as leader and
organizer of the Protestant armies. At his call, thousands of
noblemen and soldiers took up arms, and they submitted under
his command to very strict discipline. He could not boast of
having won many battles, but he was famous for having kept his
resources together after repeated defeats, and for rising up
stronger than before after every lost engagement. ... Now that
peace was made, 'why,' he asked, 'excite further dissensions
for the benefit of our common enemies? Let us direct our
undivided forces against the real enemy of France--against
Spain, who stirs up intrigues in our civil, wars. Let us crush
this power, which condemns us to ignominious dependence.'
{1202}
The war against Spain was Coligny's project. It was the idea
of a good Huguenot, for it was directed against the most
blindly fanatical and dangerous foe of the new doctrines; but
it was also that of a good Frenchman, for a victory over Spain
would increase the power of France in the direction of
Burgundy. ... From September, 1571, Coligny was at court. On
his first arrival he was heartily welcomed by the King,
embraced by Catharine, and loaded with honours and favours by
both. I am not of opinion that this was a deeply laid scheme
to entrap the guileless hero, the more easily to ruin him.
Catharine's ideas did not extend so far. Still less do I
believe that the young King was trained to play the part of a
hypocrite, and regarded Coligny as a victim to be cherished
until the fête day. I think, rather, that Catharine, in her
changeableness and hatred of the Guises, was now really
disposed to make peace with the Protestants, and that the
young King was for the time impressed by this superior
personage. No youthful mind is so degraded as to be entirely
inaccessible to such influence. ... I believe that the first
and only happy day in the life of this unfortunate monarch was
when he met Coligny, who raised him above the degradation of
vulgar life; and I believe further, that this relation was the
main cause of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. A new influence
was threatening to surround the King and to take deep root,
which Catharine, her son Henry of Anjou, and the strict
Catholic party, must do their utmost to avert; and it was
quite in accordance with the King's weak character to allow
the man to be murdered whom he had just called 'Father.' ...
It appears that about the middle of the year [1572] the matter
[of war with Spain and help to the revolting Netherlands] was
as good as decided. The King willingly acceded to Coligny's
plan ... [and] privately gave considerable sums for the
support of the Flemish patriots, for the equipment of an army
of 4,000 men, composed of Catholics and Protestants, who
marched towards Mons, to succour Louis of Nassau. When in July
this army was beaten, and the majority of the Huguenots were
in despair, Coligny succeeded in persuading the King to equip
a fresh and still larger army; but the opposition then
bestirred itself. ...The Queen ... had been absent, with her
married daughter in Lorraine, and on her return she found
everything changed; the Guises without influence, herself
thrust on one side. Under the impression of the latest events
in Flanders, which made it likely that the war with Spain
would be ruinous, she hastened to the King, told him with
floods of tears that it would be his ruin; that the Huguenots,
through Coligny, had stolen the King's confidence,
unfortunately for himself and the country. She made some
impression upon him, but it did not last long, and thoughts of
war gained the upper hand again. The idea now (August, 1572),
must have been matured in Catharine's mind of venturing on a
desperate step, in order to save her supremacy and influence.
... The idea ripened in her mind of getting rid of Coligny by
assassination. ... Entirely of one mind with her son Henry,
she turned to the Guises, with whom she was at enmity when
they were in power, but friendly when they were of no more
consequence than herself. They breathed vengeance against the
Calvinists, and were ready at once to avenge the murder of
Francis of Guise by a murderous attack upon Coligny. An
assassin was hired, and established in a house belonging to
the Guises, near Coligny's dwelling, and as he came out of the
palace, on the 22nd of August, a shot was fired at him, which
wounded but did not kill him. Had Coligny died of his wound,
Catharine would have been content. ... But Coligny did not
die; the Huguenots defiantly demanded vengeance on the
well-known instigator of the deed; their threats reached the
Queen and Prince Henry of Anjou, and the personal fascination
which Coligny had exercised over King Charles appeared rather
to increase than to diminish. Thus doubtless arose, during the
anxious hours after the failure of the assassination, the idea of
an act of violence on a large scale, which should strike a
blow at Coligny and his friends before they had time for
revenge. It certainly had not been in preparation for months,
not even since the time that Coligny had been at Court; it was
conceived in the agony of these hours."
_L. Hausser,
The Period of the Reformation,
chapter 27._
ALSO IN:
_J. L. Motley,
The Rise of the Dutch Republic,
part 3, chapters 6-7 (volume 2)._
_L. von Ranke,
Civil Wars and Monarchy in France,
chapter 15._
FRANCE: A. D. 1572 (August).
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day.