personal danger, the Queen Mother [August 24] presented
herself to her son. She told him that at the moment she was
speaking the Huguenots were arming. Sixteen thousand of them
intended to assemble in the morning, seize the palace, destroy
herself, the Duke of Anjou, and the Catholic noblemen, and
carry off Charles. The conspiracy, she said, extended through
France. The chiefs of the congregations were waiting for a
signal from Coligny to rise in every province and town. The
Catholics had discovered the plot, and did not mean to sit
still to be murdered. If the King refused to act with them,
they would choose another leader; and whatever happened he
would be himself destroyed. Unable to say that the story could
not be true, Charles looked enquiringly at Tavannas and De
Nevers, and they both confirmed the Queen Mother's words.
Shaking his incredulity with reminders of Amboise and Meaux,
Catherine went on to say that one man was the cause of all the
troubles in the realm. The Admiral aspired to rule all France,
and she--she admitted, with Anjou and the Guises, had
conspired to kill him to save the King and the country. She
dropped all disguise. The King, she said, must now assist them
or all would be lost. ... Charles was a weak, passionate boy,
alone in the dark conclave of iniquity. He stormed, raved,
wept, implored, spoke of his honour, his plighted word; swore
at one moment that the Admiral should not be touched, then
prayed them to try other means. But clear, cold and venomous,
Catherine told him it was too late. If there was a judicial
enquiry, the Guises would shield themselves by telling all
that they knew. They would betray her; they would betray his
brother; and, fairly or unfairly, they would not spare
himself. ... For an hour and a half the King continued to
struggle. 'You refuse, then,' Catherine said at last. ... 'Is
it that you are afraid, Sire?' she hissed in his ear. 'By
God's death,' he cried, springing to his feet, 'since you will
kill the Admiral, kill them all.
{1203}
Kill all the Huguenots in France, that none may be left to
reproach me. Mort Dieu! Kill them all.' He dashed out of the
cabinet. A list of those who were to die was instantly drawn
up. Navarre and Condé were first included; but Catherine
prudently reflected that to kill the Bourbons would make the
Guises too strong. Five or six names were added to the
Admiral's, and these Catherine afterwards asserted were all
that it was intended should suffer. ... Night had now fallen.
Guise and Aumale were still lurking in the city, and came with
the Duke of Montpensier at Catherine's summons. The persons
who were to be killed were in different parts of the town.
Each took charge of a district. Montpensier promised to see to
the Palace; Guise and his uncle undertook the Admiral; and below
these, the word went out to the leaders of the already
organised sections, who had been disappointed once, but whose
hour was now come. The Catholics were to recognise one another
in the confusion by a white handkerchief on the left arm and a
white cross in their caps. The Royal Guard, Catholics to a
man, were instruments ready made for the work. Guise assembled
the officers: he told them that the Huguenots were preparing
to rise, and that the King had ordered their instant
punishment. The officers asked no questions, and desired no
better service. The business was to begin at dawn. The signal
would be the tolling of the great bell at the Palace of
Justice, and the first death was to be Coligny's. The soldiers
stole to their posts. Twelve hundred lay along the Seine,
between the river and the Hotel de Ville; other companies
watched at the Louvre. As the darkness waned, the Queen Mother
went down to the gate. The stillness of the dawn was broken by
an accidental pistol-shot. Her heart sank, and she sent off a
messenger to tell Guise to pause. But it was too late. A
minute later the bell boomed out, and the massacre of St.
Bartholomew had commenced." The assassins broke into the
Admiral's dwelling and killed him as he lay wounded in bed.
"The window was open. 'Is it done?' cried Guise from the court
below, 'is it done? Fling him out that we may see him.' Still
breathing, the Admiral was hurled upon the pavement. The
Bastard of Angoulême wiped the blood from his face to be sure
of his identity, and then, kicking him as he lay, shouted, 'So
far well. Courage, my brave boys! now for the rest.' One of
the Duc de Nevers's people hacked off the head. A rope was
knotted about the ankles, and the corpse
was dragged out into the street amidst the howling crowd.
Teligny, ... Rochefoucault, and the rest of the Admiral's
friends who lodged in the neighbourhood were disposed of in
the same way, and so complete was the surprise that there was
not the most faint attempt at resistance. Montpensier had been
no less successful in the Louvre. The staircases were all
beset. The retinues of the King of Navarre and the Prince had
been lodged in the palace at Charles's particular desire.
Their names were called over, and as they descended unarmed
into the quadrangle they were hewn in pieces. There, in heaps,
they fell below the Royal window, under the eyes of the
miserable King, who was forced forward between his mother and
his brother that he might be seen as the accomplice of the
massacre. Most of the victims were killed upon the spot. Some
fled wounded up the stairs, and were slaughtered in the
presence of the Princesses. ... By seven o'clock the work
which Guise and his immediate friends had undertaken was
finished with but one failure. The Count Montgomery and the
Vidame of Chartres ... escaped to England. The mob meanwhile
was in full enjoyment. ... While dukes and lords were killing
at the Louvre, the bands of the sections imitated them with
more than success; men, women, and even children, striving
which should be the first in the pious work of murder. All
Catholic Paris was at the business, and every Huguenot
household had neighbours to know and denounce them. Through
street and lane and quay and causeway, the air rang with yells
and curses, pistol-shots and crashing windows; the roadways
were strewed with mangled bodies, the doors were blocked by
the dead and dying. From garret, closet, roof, or stable,
crouching creatures were torn shrieking out, and stabbed and
hacked at; boys practised their hands by strangling babies in
their cradles, and headless bodies were trailed along the
trottoirs. ... Towards midday some of the quieter people
attempted to restore order. A party of the town police made
their way to the palace. Charles caught eagerly at their
offers of service, and bade them do their utmost to put the
people down; but it was all in vain. The soldiers, maddened
with plunder and blood, could not be brought to assist, and
without them nothing could be done. All that afternoon and
night, and the next day and the day after, the horrible scenes
continued, till the flames burnt down at last for want of
fuel. The number who perished in Paris was computed variously
from 2,000 to 10,000. In this, as in all such instances, the
lowest estimate is probably the nearest to the truth. The
massacre was completed--completed in Paris--only, as it
proved, to be continued elsewhere. ... On the 24th, while the
havoc was at its height, circulars went round to the provinces
that a quarrel had broken out between the Houses of Guise and
Coligny; that the Admiral and many more had been unfortunately
killed, and that the King himself had been in danger through
his efforts to control the people. The governors of the
different towns were commanded to repress at once any symptoms
of disorder which might show themselves, and particularly to
allow no injury to be done to the Huguenots." But Guise, when
he learned of these circulars, which threw upon him the odium
of the massacre, forced the King to recall them. "The story of
the Huguenot conspiracy was revived. ... The Protestants of
the provinces, finding themselves denounced from the throne,
were likely instantly to take arms to defend themselves.
Couriers were therefore despatched with second orders that
they should be dealt with as they had been dealt with at
Paris; and at Lyons, Orleans, Rouen, Bordeaux, Toulon, Meaux,
in half the towns and villages of France, the bloody drama was
played once again. The King, thrown out into the hideous
torrent of blood, became drunk with frenzy, and let slaughter
have its way, till even Guise himself affected to be shocked,
and interposed to put an end to it; not, however, till,
according to the belief of the times, 100,000 men, women and
children had been miserably murdered. ... The number again may
be hoped to have been prodigiously exaggerated; with all large
figures, when unsupported by exact statistics, it is safe to
divide at least by ten."
_J. A. Froude,
History of England: Reign of Elizabeth,
chapter 23 (volume 4)._
ALSO IN:
_H. White,
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew,
chapters 12-14._
_Duke of Sully,
Memoirs,
book 1._
_G. P. Fisher,
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew
(New Englander, January, 1880)._
{1204}
FRANCE: A. D. 1572 (August-October).
The king's avowal of responsibility for the Massacre, and
celebration of his "victory."
Rejoicings at Rome and Madrid.
General horror of Europe.
The effects in France.
Changed character of the Protestant party.
"On the morning of the 26th of August, Charles IX. went to
hold a 'bed of justice' in the parliament, carrying with him
the king of Navarre, and he then openly avowed that the
massacre had been perpetrated by his orders, made ... excuse
for it, grounded on a pretended conspiracy of the Huguenots
against his person, and then directed the parliament to
commence judicial proceedings against Coligni and his
accomplices, dead or alive, on the charge of high treason. The
parliament obeyed, and, after a process of two months, which
was a mere tissue of falsehoods, they not only found all the
dead guilty, but they included in the sentence two of the
principal men who had escaped--the old captain Briquemaut,
and Arnaud de Cavaignes. ... Both were hanged at the Place de
Grève, in the presence of the king, who compelled the king of
Navarre also to be a witness of their execution. Having once
assumed the responsibility of the massacre of the protestants,
Charles IX. began to glory in the deed. On the 27th of August,
he went with the whole court to Montfaucon, to contemplate the
mutilated remains of the admiral. ... Next day, a grand
jubilee procession was headed by the king in celebration of
his so-called victory. ... The 'victory' was also celebrated
by two medals. ... Nevertheless, the minds of Charles and his
mother were evidently ill at ease, and their misgivings as to
the effect which would be produced at foreign courts by the
news of these proceedings are very evident in the varying and
often contradictory orders which they dispatched into the
provinces. ... The news of these terrible events caused an
extreme agitation in all the courts throughout Christian
Europe. Philip of Spain, informed of the massacres by a letter
from the king and the queen-mother, written on the 29th of
August, replied by warm congratulations and expressions of
joy. The cardinal of Lorraine, who was ... at Rome, gave a
reward of 1,000 écus of gold to the courier who brought the
despatches, and the news was celebrated at Rome by the firing
of the cannons of the castle of St. Angelo, and by the
lighting of bon-fires in the streets. The pope (Gregory XIII.)
and the sacred college went in grand procession to the
churches to offer their thanks to God. ... Not content with
these demonstrations, the pope caused a medal to be struck.
... Gregory dispatched immediately to the court of France the
legate Fabio d'Orsini, with a commission to congratulate the
king and his mother for the vigour they had shown in the
repression of heresy, to demand the reception in France of the
council of Trent, and the establishment of the Inquisition.
... But the papal legate found the court of France in a
different temper from that which he anticipated. Catherine,
alarmed at the effect which these great outrages had produced
on the protestant sovereigns, found it necessary to give him
private intimations that the congratulations of the pontiff
were untimely, and could not be publicly accepted. ... The
policy of the French court at home was no less distasteful to
the papal legate than its relations abroad. The old edicts
against the public exercise of the protestant worship were
gradually revived, and the Huguenots were deprived of the
offices which they had obtained during the short period of
toleration, but strict orders were sent round to forbid any
further massacres, with threats of punishment against those
who had already offended. On the 8th of October, the king
published a declaration, inviting such of the protestants as
had quitted the kingdom in consequence of the massacres to
return, and promising them safety; but this was soon followed
by letters to the governors of the provinces, directing them
to exhort the Huguenot gentry and others to conform to the
catholic faith, and declaring that he would tolerate only one
religion in his kingdom. Many, believing that the protestant
cause was entirely ruined in France, complied, and this
defection was encouraged by the example of the two princes of
Bourbon [Henry, now king of Navarre, his mother, Jeanne
d'Albret, having died June 9, 1572, and Henry, the young
prince of Condé], who, after some weeks of violent resistance,
submitted at the end of September, and, at least in outward
form, became catholics. It has been remarked that the massacre
of St. Bartholomew's-day produced an entire change in the
character of the protestant party in France. The Huguenots had
hitherto been entirely ruled by their aristocracy, who took
the lead and direction in every movement; but now the great
mass of the protestant nobility had perished or deserted the
cause, and from this moment the latter depended for support
upon the inhabitants of some of the great towns and upon the
un-noble class of the people; and with this change it took a
more popular character, in some cases showing even a tendency
to republicanism. In the towns where the protestants were
strong enough to offer serious resistance, such as La
Rochelle, Nimes, Sancerre, and Montauban, the richer burghers,
and a part at least of the municipal officers, were in favour
of submission, and they were restrained only by the resolution
and devotion of the less wealthy portion of the population."
_T. Wright,
History of France,
book 3, chapter 7 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_H. M. Baird,
History of the Rise of the Huguenots,
chapter 19 (volume 2)._
_A. de Montor,
Lives and Times of the Roman Pontiffs,
volume 1, pages 810-812._
{1205}
FRANCE: A. D. 1572-1573.
The Fourth Religious War.
Siege and successful defence of La Rochelle.
A favorable peace.
"The two Reformer-princes, Henry of Navarre and Henry de
Condé, attended mass on the 29th of September, and, on the 3d
of October, wrote to the pope, deploring their errors and
giving hopes of their conversion. Far away from Paris, in the
mountains of the Pyrenees and of Languedoc, in the towns where
the Reformers were numerous and confident ... the spirit of
resistance carried the day. An assembly, meeting at Milhau,
drew up a provisional ordinance for the government of the
Reformed church, 'until it please God, who has the hearts of
kings in His keeping, to change that of King Charles IX. and
restore the state of France to good order, or to raise up such
neighboring prince as is manifest marked out, by his virtue
and by distinguishing signs, for to be the liberator of this
poor afflicted people.' In November, 1572, the fourth
religious war broke out. The siege of La Rochelle was its only
important event. Charles IX. and his councillors exerted
themselves in vain to avoid it. There was everything to
disquiet them in this enterprise: so sudden a revival of the
religious war after the grand blow they had just struck, the
passionate energy manifested by the Protestants in asylum at
La Rochelle, and the help they had been led to hope for from
Queen Elizabeth, whom England would never have forgiven for
indifference in this cause. ... The king heard that one of the
bravest Protestant chiefs, La Noue, 'Ironarm,' had retired to
Mons with Prince Louis of Nassau. The Duke of Longueville ...
induced him to go to Paris. The king received him with great
favor ... and pressed him to go to La Rochelle and prevail
upon the inhabitants to keep the peace. ... La Noue at last
consented, and repaired, about the end of November, 1572, to a
village close by La Rochelle, whither it was arranged that
deputies from the town would come and confer with him. ...
After hearing him, the senate rejected the pacific overtures
made to them by La Noue. 'We have no mind [they said] to treat
specially and for ourselves alone; our cause is that of God
and of all the churches of France; we will accept nothing but
what shall seem proper to all our brethren.'" They then
offered to trust themselves under La Noue's command,
notwithstanding the commission by which he was acting for the
king. "La Noue did not hesitate; he became, under the
authority of the mayor, Jacques Henri, the military head of La
Rochelle, whither Charles IX. had sent him to make peace. The
king authorized him to accept this singular position. La Noue
conducted himself so honorably in it, and everybody was so
convinced of his good faith as well as bravery, that for three
months he commanded inside La Rochelle, and superintended the
preparations for defence, all the while trying to make the
chances of peace prevail. At the end of February, 1573, he
recognized the impossibility of his double commission, and he
went away from La Rochelle, leaving the place in better
condition than that in which he had found it, without either
king or Rochellese considering that they had any right to
complain of him. Biron first and then the Duke of Anjou in
person took the command of the siege. They brought up, it is
said, 40,000 men and 60 pieces of artillery. The Rochellese,
for defensive strength, had but 22 companies of refugees or
inhabitants, making in all 3,100 men. The siege lasted from
the 26th of February to the 13th of June, 1573; six assaults
were made on the place. ... La Rochelle was saved. Charles IX.
was more and more desirous of peace; his brother, the Duke of
Anjou, had just been elected King of Poland; Charles IX. was
anxious for him to leave France and go to take possession of
his new kingdom. Thanks to these complications, the peace of
La Rochelle was signed on the 6th of July, 1573. Liberty of
creed and worship was recognized in the three towns of La
Rochelle, Montauban, and Nimes. They were not obliged to
receive any royal garrison, on condition of giving hostages to
be kept by the king for two years. Liberty of worship throughout
the extent of their jurisdiction continued to be recognized in
the case of lords high-justiciary. Everywhere else the
Reformers had promises of not being persecuted for their
creed, under the obligation of never holding an assembly of
more than ten persons at a time. These were the most favorable
conditions they had yet obtained. Certainly this was not what
Charles IX, had calculated upon when he consented to the
massacre of the Protestants."
_F. P. Guizot,
Popular History of France,
chapter 33._
FRANCE: A. D. 1573-1576.
Escape of Condé and Navarre.
Death of Charles IX.
Accession of Henry III.
The Fifth Civil War.
Navarre's repudiation of Catholicism.
The Peace of Monseur.
The King's mignons and the nation's disgust.
"Catherine ... had the address to procure the crown of Poland
for the son of her predilection, Henry duke of Anjou. She had
lavished her wealth upon the electors for this purpose. No
sooner was the point gained than she regretted it. The health
of Charles was now manifestly on the decline, and Catherine
would fain have retained Henry; but the jealousy of the king
forbade. After conducting the duke on his way to Poland the
court returned to St. Germain, and Charles sunk, without hope
or consolation, on his couch of sickness. Even here he was not
allowed to repose. The young king of Navarre formed a project
of escape with the prince of Condé. The duc d' Alençon,
youngest brother of the king, joined in it. ... The vigilance
of the queen-mother discovered the enterprise, which, for her
own purposes, she magnified into a serious plot. Charles was
informed that a huguenot army was coming to surprise him, and
he was obliged to be removed into a litter, in order to
escape. ... Condé was the only prince that succeeded in making
his escape. The king of Navarre and the duc d' Alençon were
imprisoned." The young king of Navarre "had already succeeded
by his address, his frankness, and high character, in rallying
to his interests the most honourable of the noblesse, who
dreaded at once the perfidious Catherine and her children; who
had renounced their good opinion of young Guise after the day
of St. Bartholomew; and who, at the same time professing
Catholicism, were averse to huguenot principles and zeal. This
party, called the Politiques, professed to follow the middle
or neutral course, which at one time had been that of
Catherine of Medicis; but she had long since deserted it, and
had joined in all the sanguinary and extreme measures of her
son and of the Guises. Hence she was especially odious to the
new and moderate party of the Politiques, among whom the
family of Montmorency held the lead. Catherine feared their
interference at the moment of the king's death, whilst his
successor was absent in a remote kingdom; and she swelled the
project of the princes' escape into a serious conspiracy, in
order to be mistress of those whom she feared. ... In this
state of the court Charles IX. expired on the 30th of May,
1574, after having nominated the queen-mother to be regent
during his successor's absence. ... The career of the new king
[Henry III.], while duke of Anjou, had been glorious. Raised
to the command of armies at the age of 15, he displayed
extreme courage as well as generalship.
{1206}
He had defeated the veteran leader of the protestants at
Jarnac and at Moncontour; and the fame of his exploits had
contributed to place him on the elective throne of Poland,
which he now occupied. Auguring from his past life, a
brilliant epoch might be anticipated; and yet we enter upon
the most contemptible reign, perhaps, in the annals of France.
... Henry was obliged to run away by stealth from his Polish
subjects [see POLAND: A. D. 1574-1590]. When overtaken by one
of the nobles of that kingdom, the monarch, instead of
pleading his natural anxiety to visit France and secure his
inheritance, excused himself by drawing forth the portrait of
his mistress, ... and declared that it was love which hastened
his return. At Vienna, however, Henry forgot both crown and
mistress amidst the feasts that were given him; and he turned
aside to Venice, to enjoy a similar reception from that rich
republic. ... The hostile parties were in the meantime arming.
The Politiques, or neutral catholics, for the first time
showed themselves in the field. They demanded the freedom of
Cossé and of Montmorency, and at length formed a treaty of
alliance with the Huguenots. Henry, after indulging in the
ceremony of being crowned, was obliged to lead an army into
the field. Sieges were undertaken on both sides, and what is
called the fifth civil war raged openly. It became more
serious when the king's brother joined it. This was the duke
of Alençon, a vain and fickle personage, of whom it pleased
the king to become jealous. Alençon fled and joined the
malcontents. The reformers, however, waited but languidly.
Both parties were without active and zealous leaders; and the
only notable event of this war was a skirmish in Champagne
[the battle of Dormans, in which both sides lost heavily],
where the duke of Guise received a slight wound in the cheek.
From hence came his surname of 'Le Balafré.'" In February,
1576, the king of Navarre made his escape from court. "He bent
his course towards Guienne, and at Niort publicly avowed his
adherence to the reformed religion, declaring that force alone
had made him conform to the mass. It was about this time that
the king, in lieu of leading an army against the malcontents,
despatched the queen-mother, with her gay and licentious
court, to win back his brother. She succeeded, though not
without making large concessions [in a treaty called the
'Peace of Monsieur']. The duke of Alençon obtained Anjou, and
other provinces in appanage, and henceforth was styled duke of
Anjou. More favourable terms were granted to the Huguenots:
they were allowed ten towns of surety in lieu of six, and the
appointment of a certain number of judges in the parliament.
Such weakness in Henry disgusted the body of the catholics;
and the private habits of his life contributed still more, if
possible, than his public measures, to render him
contemptible. He was continually surrounded by a set of young
and idle favourites, whose affectation it was to unite
ferocity with frivolity. The king showed them such tender
affection as he might evince towards woman; they even had the
unblushing impudence to adopt feminine habits of dress; and
the monarch passed his time in adorning them and himself with
robes and ear-rings. ... The indescribable tastes and
amusements of Henry and his mignons, as his favourites were
called, ... raised up throughout the nation one universal cry
of abhorrence and contempt."
_E. E. Crowe,
History of France,
chapters 8-9 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_Lady Jackson,
The Last of the Valois,
volume 2, chapters 2-6._
_S. Menzies,
Royal Favourites,
volume 1, chapter 5._