The rise of the League.
Its secret objects and aims.
Its alliance with Philip II. of Spain.
The Pope's Bull against Navarre and Condé.
"The famous association known as the 'Catholic League' or
'Holy Union,' took its rise from the strangely indulgent terms
granted to the Huguenots by the 'Peace of Monsieur,' in April,
1576. Four years had scarcely elapsed since the bloodstained
Eve of St. Bartholomew. It had been hoped that by means of
that execrable crime the Reformation would have been finally
crushed and extinguished in France; but instead of this, a
treaty was concluded with the heretics, which placed them in a
more favourable situation than they had ever occupied before.
... It was regarded by the majority of Catholics as a wicked
and cowardly betrayal of their most sacred interests. They
ascribed it to its true source, namely, the hopeless
incapacity of the reigning monarch, Henry III.; a prince whose
monstrous vices and gross misgovernment were destined to
reduce France to a state of disorganization bordering on
national ruin. The idea of a general confederation of
Catholics for the defence of the Faith against the inroads of
heresy had been suggested by the Cardinal of Lorraine during
the Council of Trent, and had been favourably entertained at
the Court of Rome. The Duke of Guise was to have been placed
at the head of this alliance; but his sudden death changed the
face of affairs, and the project fell into abeyance. The
Cardinal of Lorraine was now no more; he died at Avignon, at
the age of 50, in December, 1574. ... Henry, the third Duke of
Guise, inherited in their fullest extent the ambition, the
religious ardour, the lofty political aspirations, the
enterprising spirit, the personal popularity, of his
predecessors. The League of 1576 was conceived entirely in his
interest. He was the leader naturally pointed out for such a
movement;--a movement which, although its ulterior objects
were at first studiously concealed, aimed in reality at
substituting the family of Lorraine for that of Valois on the
throne of France. The designs of the confederates, as set
forth in the original manifesto which was circulated for
signature, seemed at first sight highly commendable, both with
regard to religion and politics. According to this document, the
Union was formed for three great purposes: to uphold the
Catholic Church; to suppress heresy; and to maintain the
honour, the authority and prerogatives of the Most Christian
king and his successors. On closer examination, however,
expressions were detected which hinted at less constitutional
projects. ... Their secret aims became incontestably manifest
soon afterwards, when one of their confidential agents, an
advocate named David, happened to die suddenly on his return
from Rome, and his papers fell into the hands of the
Huguenots, who immediately made them public. ... A change of
dynasty in France was the avowed object of the scheme thus
disclosed. It set forth, in substance, that the Capetian
monarchs were usurpers,--the throne belonging rightfully to
the house of Lorraine as the lineal descendants of
Charlemagne. ...
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The Duke of Guise, with the advice and permission of the Pope,
was to imprison Henry for the rest of his days in a monastery,
after the example of his ancestor Pepin when he dethroned the
Merovingian Childeric. Lastly, the heir of the Carlovingians
was to be proclaimed King of France; and, on assuming the
crown, was to make such arrangements with his Holiness as
would secure the complete recognition of the sovereignty of
the Vicar of Christ, by abrogating for ever the so-called
'liberties of the Gallican Church.' ... This revolutionary
plot ... unhappily, was viewed with cordial sympathy, and
supported with enthusiastic zeal, by many of the prelates, and
a large majority of the parochial clergy, of France. ... The
death of the Duke of Anjou, presumptive heir to the throne, in
1584, determined the League to immediate action. In the event
of the king's dying without issue, which was most
probable,--the crown would now devolve upon Henry of Bourbon
[the King of Navarre], the acknowledged leader of the
Huguenots. ... In January, 1585, the chiefs of the League
signed a secret treaty at Joinville with the King of Spain, by
which the contracting parties made common cause for the
extirpation of all sects and heresies in France and the
Netherlands, and for excluding from the French throne princes
who were heretics, or who 'treated heretics with public
impunity.' ... Liberal supplies of men and money were to be
furnished to the insurgents by Philip from the moment that war
should break out. ... The Leaguers lost no time in seeking for
their enterprise the all-important sanction of the Holy See.
For this purpose they despatched as their envoy to Rome a
Jesuit named Claude Matthieu. ... The Jesuit fraternity in
France had embraced with passionate ardour the anti-royalist
cause. ... His Holiness [Gregory XIII.], however, was cautious
and reserved. He expressed in general terms his consent to the
project of taking up arms against the heretics, and granted a
plenary indulgence to those who should aid in the holy work.
But he declined to countenance the deposition of the king by
violence. ... At length, however [September 9, 1585], Sixtus
was persuaded to fulminate a bull against the King of Navarre
and the Prince of Condé, in which ... both culprits, together
with their heirs and posterity were pronounced for ever
incapable of succeeding to the throne of France or any other
dignity; their subjects and vassals were released from their
oath of homage, and forbidden to obey them."
_W. H. Jervis,
History of the Church of France,
volume 1, chapter 3._
ALSO IN:
_L. von Ranke,
Civil Wars and Monarchy in France,
chapter 21._
FRANCE: A. D. 1577-1578.
Rapid spread of the League.
The Sixth Civil War and the Peace of Bergerac.
Anjou in the Netherlands.
The League "spread like lightning over the whole face of
France; Condé could find no footing in Picardy or even in
Poitou; Henry of Navarre was refused entrance into Bordeaux
itself; the heads of the League, the family-party of the Dukes
of Guise, Mayenne and Nemours, seemed to carry all before
them; the weak King leant towards them; the Queen Mother,
intriguing ever, succeeded in separating Anjou from the
Politiques, and began to seduce Damville. She hoped once more
to isolate the Huguenots and to use the League to weaken and
depress them. ... The Court and the League seemed to be in
perfect harmony, the King ... in a way, subscribed to the
League, though the twelve articles were considerably modified
before they were shown to him. ... The Leaguers had succeeded
in making war [called the Sixth Civil War--1577], and winning
some successes: but on their heels came the Court with fresh
negotiations for peace. The heart's desire of the King was to
crush the stubborn Huguenots and to destroy the moderates, but
he was afraid to act; and so it came about that, though Anjou
was won away from them, and compromised on the other side, and
though Damville also deserted them, and though the whole party
was in the utmost disorder and seemed likely to disperse,
still the Court offered them such terms that in the end they
seemed to have even recovered ground. Under the walls of
Montpellier, Damville, the King's general, and Chatillon, the
Admiral's son, at the head of the Huguenots, were actually
manœuvring to begin a battle, when La Noue came up bearing
tidings of peace, and at the imminent risk of being shot
placed himself between the two armies, and stayed their
uplifted hands. It was the Peace of Bergerac [confirmed by the
Edict of Poitiers--Sept. 17, 1577], another ineffectual truce,
which once more granted in the main what that of Chastenoy [or
the 'Peace of Monseur'] had already promised: it is needless
to say that the League would have none of it; and
partisan-warfare, almost objectless, however oppressive to the
country, went on without a break: the land was overrun by
adventurers and bandits, sure sign of political death. Nothing
could be more brutalising or more brutal: but the savage
traits of civil war are less revolting than the ghastly
revelries of the Court. All the chiefs were alike--neither the
King, nor Henry of Navarre, nor Anjou, nor even the strict
Catholic Guise, disdained to wallow in debauch." Having
quarreled with his brother, the King, "Anjou fled, in the
beginning of 1578, to Angers, where, finding that there was a
prospect of amusement in the Netherlands, he turned his back
on the high Catholics, and renewed friendship with the
Huguenot chiefs. He was invited to come to the rescue of the
distressed Calvinists in their struggle against Philip, and
appeared in the Netherlands in July 1578."
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1577-1581, and 1581-1584.
_G. W. Kitchin,
History of France,
volume 2, pages 370-373._
FRANCE: A. D. 1578-1580.
Treaty of Nérac.
The Seventh Civil War, known as the War of the Lovers.
The Peace of Fleix.
"The King, instead of availing himself of this interval of
repose [after the Peace of Bergerac] to fortify himself
against his enemies, only sank deeper and deeper into vice and
infamy. ... The court resembled at once a slaughter-house and
a brothel, although, amid all this corruption, the King was
the slave of monks and Jesuits whom he implicitly obeyed. It
was about this time (December 1578) that he instituted the
military order of the Holy Ghost, that of St. Michael having
fallen into contempt through being prostituted to unworthy
objects. Meanwhile the Guises were using every effort to
rekindle the war, which Catherine, on the other hand, was
endeavouring to prevent. With this view she travelled, in
August, into the southern provinces, and had an interview with
Henry of Navarre at Nérac, bringing with her Henry's wife, her
daughter Margaret; a circumstance, however, which did not add
to the pleasure of their meeting.
{1208}
Henry received the ladies coldly, and they retired into
Languedoc, where they passed the remainder of the year.
Nevertheless the negotiations were sedulously pursued; for a
peace with the Hugonots was, at this time, indispensable to
the Court. ... In February 1579, a secret treaty was signed at
Nérac, by which the concessions granted to the Protestants by
the peace of Bergerac were much extended. ... Catherine spent
nearly the whole of the year 1579 in the south, endeavouring
to avert a renewal of the war by her intrigues, rather than by
a faithful observance of the peace. But the King of Navarre
saw through her Italian artifices, and was prepared to summon
his friends and captains at the shortest notice. The
hostilities which he foresaw were not long in breaking out,
and in a way that would seem impossible in any other country
than France. When the King of Navarre fled from Court in 1576,
he expressed his indifference for two things he had left
behind, the mass and his wife; Margaret, the heroine of a
thousand amours, was equally indifferent, and though they now
contrived to cohabit together, it was because each connived at
the infidelities of the other. Henry was in love with
Mademoiselle Fosseuse, a girl of fourteen, while Margaret had
taken for her gallant the young Viscount of Turenne, who had
lately turned Hugonot. ... The Duke of Anjou being at this
time disposed to renew his connection with the Hugonots,
Margaret served as the medium of communication between her
brother and her husband; while Henry III., with a view to
interrupt this good understanding, wrote to the king of
Navarre to acquaint him of the intrigues of his wife with
Turenne. Henry was neither surprised nor afflicted at this
intelligence; but he laid the letter before the guilty
parties, who both denied the charge, and Henry affected to
believe their protestations. The ladies of the Court of Nérac
were indignant at this act of Henry III., 'the enemy of
women'; they pressed their lovers to renew hostilities against
that discourteous monarch; Anjou added his instances to those
of the ladies; and in 1580 ensued the war called from its
origin 'la guerre des amoureux,' or war of the lovers: the
seventh of what are sometimes styled the wars of 'religion'!
The Prince of Condé, who lived on bad terms with his cousin,
had already taken the field on his own account, and in
November 1579 had seized on the little town of La Fère in
Picardy. In the spring of 1580 the Protestant chiefs in the
south unfurled their banners. The King of Navarre laid the
foundation of his military fame by the bravery he displayed at
the capture of Cahors; but on the whole the movement proved a
failure. Henry III. had no fewer than three armies in the
field, which were generally victorious, and the King of
Navarre found himself menaced in his capital of Nérac by
Marshal Biron. But Henry III., for fear of the Guises, did not
wish to press the Hugonots too hard, and at length accepted
the proffered mediation of the Duke of Anjou, who was at this
time anxious to enter on the protectorate offered to him by
the Flemings. Anjou set off for the south, accompanied by his
mother and her 'flying squadron' [of seductive nymphs];
conferences were opened at the castle of Fleix in Périgord,
and on November 26th 1580 a treaty was concluded which was
almost a literal renewal of that of Bergerac. Thus an
equivocal peace, or rather truce, was re-established, which
proved of some duration."
_T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 3, chapter 8 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_Duc d'Aumale,
History of the Princes de Condé,
book 2, chapter 1 (volume 2)._
FRANCE: A. D. 1584-1589.
Henry of Navarre heir apparent to the throne.
Fresh hostility of the League.
The Edict of Nemours.
The Pope's Brutum Fulmen.
War of the Three Henrys.
Battle of Coutras.
The Day of Barricades at Paris.
Assassination of Guise.
Assassination of Henry III.
"The Duc d'Anjou ... died in 1584; Henri III. was a worn-out
and feeble invalid; the reports of the doctors and the known
virtue of the Queen forbad the hope of direct heirs. The King
of Navarre was the eldest of the legitimate male descendants
of Hugues Capet and of Saint-Louis [see BOURBON, HOUSE OF].
But on the one hand he was a relapsed heretic; on the other,
his relationship to the King was so distant that he could
never have been served heir to him in any civil suit. This
last objection was of small account; the stringent rules which
govern decisions in private affairs cannot be made applicable
to matters affecting the tranquillity and well-being of
nations. ... His religion was the only pretext on which
Navarre could be excluded. France was, and wished to remain,
Catholic; she could not submit to a Protestant King. The
managers of the League understood that this very wide-spread
and even strongly cherished feeling might some day become a
powerful lever, but that, in order to use it, it was very
needful for them to avoid offending the national amour-propre;
and they thought that they had succeeded in finding the means
of effecting their object. Next to Navarre, the eldest of the
Royal House was his uncle the Cardinal de Bourbon; the Guises
acknowledged him as heir to the throne and first Prince of the
Blood, under the protection of the Pope and of the King of
Spain. ... The feeble-minded old man, whom no one respected,
was a mere phantom, and could offer no serious resistance,
when it should be convenient to set him aside. ... In every
class throughout the nation the majority were anxious to
maintain at once French unity and Catholic unity, disliking
the Reformation, but equally opposed to ultramontane
pretensions and to Spanish ambition. ... But ... this great
party, already named the 'parti politique,' hung loosely
together without a leader, and without a policy. For the
present it was paralyzed by the contempt in which the King was
held; while the dislike which was entertained for the
religious opinions of the rightful heir to the throne seemed
to deprive it of all hope for the future. Henry III. stood in
need of the assistance of the King of Navarre; he would
willingly have cleared away the obstacle which kept them
apart, and he made an overture with a view to bring back that
Prince to the Catholic religion. But these efforts could not
be successful. The change of creed on the part of the Béarnais
was to be a satisfaction offered to France, the pledge of a
fresh agreement between the nation and his race, and not a
concession to the threats of enemies. He was not an
unbeliever; still less was he a hypocrite; but he was placed
between two fanatical parties, and repelled by the excesses of
both; so he doubted, honestly doubted, and as his religious
indecision was no secret, his conversion at the time of which
we are now speaking would have been ascribed to the worst
motives."
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As it was, he found it necessary to quiet disturbing rumors
with regard to the proposals of the King by permitting a plain
account of what had occurred to be made public. "Henry III.,
having no other answer to make to this publication, which
justified all the complaints of the Catholics, replied to it
by the treaty of Nemours and by the edict of July [1585].
These two acts annulled all the edicts in favour of
toleration; and placed at the disposal of the League all the
resources and all the forces of the monarchy." Soon afterwards
the Pope issued against Navarre and Condé his bull of
excommunication. By this "the Pontiff did not deprive the
Bourbons of a single friend, and did not give the slightest
fresh ardour to their opponents; but he produced a powerful
reaction among a portion of the clergy, among the magistracy,
among all the Royalists; wounded the national sensibility,
consolidated that union between the two Princes which he
wished to break off, and rallied the whole of the Reformed
party round their leaders. The Protestant pamphleteers replied
with no less vehemence, and gave to the Pontiff's bull that
name of 'Brutum fulmen' by which it is still known. ... Still
the sentence launched from the Vatican had had one very
decided result--it had fired the train of powder; war broke
out at once."
_Duc d'Aumale,
History of the Princes of Condé,
book 2, chapter 1._
"The war, called from the three leading actors in it [Henry of
Valois, Henry of Navarre, and Henry of Guise] the War of the
Three Henrys, now opened in earnest. Seven powerful armies
were marshalled on the part of the King of France and the
League. The Huguenots were weak in numbers, but strong in the
quality of their troops. An immense body of German 'Reiter'
had been enrolled to act as an auxiliary force, and for some
time had been hovering on the frontiers. Hearing that at last
they had entered France, Henry of Navarre set out from
Rochelle to effect a junction with them. The Duke of Joyeuse,
one of the French King's chief favourites, who had the charge
of the army that occupied the midland counties, resolved to
prevent their junction. By a rapid movement he succeeded in
crossing the line of Henry's march and forcing him into
action. The two armies came in front of each other on a plain
near the village of Coutras, on the 19th of October, 1587. The
Royalist army numbered from 10,000 to 12,000, the Huguenot
from 6,000 to 7,000--the usual disparity in numbers; but
Henry's skilful disposition did more than compensate for his
numerical inferiority. ... The struggle lasted but an hour,
yet within that hour the Catholic army lost 3,000 men, more
than 400 of whom were members of the first families in the
kingdom; 3,000 men were made prisoners. Not more than a third
part of their entire army escaped. The Huguenots lost only
about 200 men. ... Before night fell he [Navarre] wrote a few
lines to the French King, which run thus: 'Sire, my Lord and
Brother,--Thank God, I have beaten your enemies and your
army.' It was but too true that the poor King's worst enemies
were to be found in the very armies that were marshalled in
his name."
_W. Hanna,
The Wars of the Huguenots,
chapter 6._