FRANCIS I.: HENRY II.--In France, the old faith had strong support in
the _Sorbonne_, the influential theological faculty of the
University of Paris, and in the Parliament. The new culture, the
influx of Italian scholars and Italian influences, produced a party
averse to the former style of education, and, to some extent,
unfriendly to the old opinions. The Lutheran doctrines were first
introduced; but it was _Calvinism_ which prevailed among the
French converts to Protestantism, and acquired a strong hold in the
middle and higher classes, although the preponderance of numbers in
the country was always on the Catholic side. _Francis I_. was a
friend of the new learning. His sister _Margaret_, Queen of
_Navarre_, who was of a mystical turn, was favorably inclined to
the new doctrines, and befriended preachers who were of the same
spirit. The king did the same until after the battle of _Pavia_,
when he helped on the persecution of them; for his conduct was
governed by the interest of the hour, and by political motives. It was
doubtful what course he would finally take amid the conflict of
parties; but his motto was, "One king, one code, one creed." He would
put down the new doctrine at home, and sustain it by force, if
expedient, abroad. _Henry II._, who acceded to the throne in
1547, unlike his father had no personal sympathy with
Protestantism. The _Huguenots_, as the Calvinists were called,
were led to the stake, and their books burned. Yet in 1558 they had
two thousand places of worship in France: they soon held a general
synod at _Paris_, and organized themselves (1559). That same
year, when, in the Peace of _Cateau-Cambresis, Henry_ had given
up all his conquests except the three bishoprics of _Metz, Toul_
and _Verdun_, and _Calais_, he suddenly died from a wound in
the eye, accidentally inflicted in a tilt.
CATHERINE DE MEDICI: THE TWO PARTIES.--The widow of Henry II. was
_Catherine de Medici_, to whom he had been married from political
considerations. She was a woman of talents, full of ambition which had
hitherto found no field for its exercise, trained from infancy in an
atmosphere of deceit, and void of moral principle. Her aim was to rule
by keeping up an ascendency over her sons, and by holding in check
whatever party threatened to be dominant. For this end she did not
scruple to accustom her children to debauchery, and to resort to
whatever other means, however false and however cruel, to effect her
purposes. She proved to be the curse of the house of _Valois_,
and the evil genius of France. _Francis II._ was a boy of
sixteen, and legally of age; but his mother expected to manage the
government. She was thwarted by the control over him exercised by the
family of _Guise_, sons of _Claude_ of Guise, a wealthy and
prominent nobleman of _Lorraine_, who had distinguished himself
at _Marignano_, and in later contests against _Charles
V. Francis_, the _Duke of Guise_, had defended _Metz_,
and had taken _Calais. Charles_, the Cardinal of Lorraine, was
the king's confessor. Their sister had married _James V._ of
Scotland. Her daughter, _Mary Stuart_, a charming young girl, was
married to _Francis II._, who was infirm in mind and body, and
easily managed by his wife and her uncles. The great nobles of France,
especially the _Bourbons_, sprung in a collateral line from
_Louis IX._, Montmorency, and his three nephews, among them a man
of extraordinary ability and worth, the Admiral _Coligny_, looked
on the _Guises_ as upstarts. The _Bourbons_ and the nobles
allied to them were, some from sincere conviction and some from
policy, adherents of _Calvinism_. Thus the Protestants in France
became a political party, as well as a religious body, and a party
with anti-monarchical tendencies. _Anthony_ of Bourbon, a weak
and vacillating person, had married _Jeanne d'Albret_, the
heiress of _Béarn_ and _Navarre_, a heroic woman and an
earnest Protestant, the mother of _Henry IV_. His brother
_Louis_, Prince of Condé, a brave, impetuous soldier, whose wife,
the niece of the Grand Constable _Montmorency_, was a strict
Protestant, joined that side.
CONSPIRACY OF AMBOISE.--_La Rénaudie_, a Protestant nobleman who
was determined to avenge the execution of a brother, contrived the
Conspiracy of Amboise (1560) in order to dispossess the Guises of
their power by force. The plan was discovered, and a savage revenge
was taken upon the conspirators. A great number of innocent persons,
who had no share in the plot, were put to death. The Estates were
summoned to _Orleans_, and the occasion was to be seized for
extirpating heresy throughout the kingdom. _Condé_ was under
arrest, and charged with high treason. Just then, on Dec. 5, 1560, the
young king died.
CHARLES IX.: EDICT OF ST. GERMAIN.--The coveted opportunity of the
queen-mother had come. _Charles IX_. (1560-1574) was only ten
years old. She assumed the practical guardianship over him, and with
it a virtual regency. The plan of the _Guises_ had failed, and
they had to give way. There were now two parties in the council. The
States-general were called together in 1561, and a great religious
colloquy was held before a brilliant concourse at _Poissy_, where
_Theodore Beza_, an eloquent and polished scholar and a man of
high birth, pleaded the cause of the Calvinists. In 1562 the _Edict
of January_ was issued, which gave up the policy that had been
pursued for forty years, of extirpating religious dissent. A very
restricted toleration was given to Protestants: they could hold their
meetings outside of the walls of cities, unarmed, and in the
daytime. _Calvin_ and his followers expected the largest results
from this measure of liberty. _Catherine_ wished for peace,
without a rupture with the _Pope_ and _Philip II_.
CIVIL WAR.--It was impossible to prevent outbreakings of violence
against the hated dissenters. The _Guises_ and their associates
were resolved not to allow toleration. The event that occasioned war
was the massacre of _Vassy_. On the 1st of March, 1562, the
soldiers of the _Duke of Guise_, who was passing through the town,
attacked some Huguenots who were worshiping in a barn at the village of
_Vassy_. A large number were slain, and some houses plundered, in
spite of the Duke's efforts to check his troops. The civil wars, so
begun, closed only with the accession of _Henry IV_. to the
throne. France was a prey to religious and political fanaticism. Other
nations mingled in the frightful contest, and the country was well-nigh
robbed of its independence. At first, there was petty warfare at
_Paris_, _Sens_, and other places. The Huguenots destroyed
altars and censers, monuments of art and sepulchers, which, as they
thought, ministered to idolatry. Rouen was captured by the Catholics
and sacked. At _Dreux_ (1562) the Protestants were defeated; but
in 1563 _Guise_, the leader of their adversaries, was assassinated
by a Huguenot nobleman. The charge that _Coligny_ had a part in
the deed was false; but he was considered responsible for it, and
vengeance was kept in store by the family of the slain chief. The
_Edict of Amboise_ (1563) was favorable to the Protestant nobles,
but less favorable to the smaller gentry and to the
towns. _Paris_, from which Calvinist worship was excluded, became
more and more a stronghold of the Catholic party. Another war ended in
the _Peace of Longjumeau_ (1568), which was essentially the same
as the Edict of Amboise. _Philip II._ and the _Duke of Alva_
spared no effort to induce France to set about the extermination of the
heretics. In the _third_ war, the Huguenots were beaten at
_Jarnac_, where _Condé_ fell, leaving his name to his son
_Henry_, a youth of seventeen (1569). The same year they were
defeated again at _Moncontour_. _La Rochelle_ was a place of
safety to the Protestants, who were strong in the wise leadership of
_Coligny_. There the Queen of Navarre held her court. Thence the
Huguenot cavalry with the young princes _Condé_, and _Henry of
Navarre_, her son, sallied forth and traversed France.
ENGLAND OR SPAIN.--The ambition of _Philip_ alarmed the French.
His complex schemes, if carried out, would involve the reduction of
their country under Spanish control. He wanted to liberate
_Mary_, Queen of Scots, then a prisoner of _Elizabeth_, to
marry her to his half-brother, _Don John_, and to marry his
sister to _Charles IX_. The court, in 1570, agreed to the
_Peace of St. Germain_, which, for the security of the Huguenots,
placed four fortified towns in their possession. Thus France became a
kingdom divided against itself. _England_, as well as France,
looked with alarm upon the ambitious projects of _Philip II_.,
who was now in union with _Venice_ and with the _Pope_, and
had beaten the _Turks_ at _Lepanto_. It was proposed to
marry the brother of Charles IX., the _Duke of Anjou_, to Queen
_Elizabeth_; and when this negotiation was broken off, it was
proposed that the _Duke of Alençon_, a younger brother, should
marry her. _Catherine de Medici_ fell in with this anti-Spanish
policy. It was agreed that her youngest daughter, _Margaret of
Valois_, should become the wife of _Henry of Navarre._ The
policy favored by the Huguenots was in the ascendant. Their leaders
were invited to _Paris_ to be present at the
nuptials. _Coligny_ came, with _Henry of Navarre_,
_Condé_, and a large number of their adherents. There was no
place where the animosity against them was so rancorous.
THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW.--The massacre of St. Bartholomew was
devised by _Catherine de Medici_, who brought to her aid the
_Duchess of Nemours_, widow of _Francis_ of Guise and mother
of _Henry_ of Guise, _Anjou_ (afterwards _Henry III_.),
and Italian counselors who were no strangers to plots of
assassination. The motive of the queen-mother was her dread of the
ascendency which she saw that _Coligny_ was gaining over the
morbid mind of the king, in whom the Huguenot veteran had inspired
esteem, and had stirred up a desire to enter into the proposed war
against _Philip II_. in the _Netherlands_. On the 22d of
August (1572), a shot was fired at _Coligny_, from a window of a
house, by an adherent of the Guises. He was wounded, but not
killed. _Charles_ was incensed. At a visit made to the wounded
chief, the king was warned by him, as Catherine quickly learned,
against her pernicious influence in the government. Thereupon she
arranged with her confederates for a general slaughter of the
Huguenots, and almost coerced the half-frantic and irresolute king to
acquiesce in the plan. Perhaps, in gathering them into the city, she
had foreseen the possible expediency of a change of policy, and that
such a crime as she now undertook to perpetrate might be found
desirable. In the night of the 24th of August, at a concerted signal,
the fanatical enemies of the Huguenots were let loose, and fell upon
their victims. Several thousands, including _Coligny_, were
murdered. Couriers were sent through the country, and like bloody
scenes were enacted in many other cities and towns. _Navarre_ and
_Condé_, to save their lives, professed conformity to the
Catholic Church. If these atrocious events excited joy in the mind of
_Philip II_., and of the numerous intolerant party of which he
was the head, they were regarded with horror and execration elsewhere,
among the Catholic as well as the Protestant nations.
THE POLITIQUES: THE LEAGUE: HENRY III.--The queen-mother did not even
now forsake her general policy. She stood aloof from the combinations
of _Philip_. A new party, the _Politiques_, or liberal
Catholics, in favor of toleration, arose. _Henry III_. (1574-1589)
was incompetent to govern a country torn by factions, with an exhausted
treasury, and a people groaning under the burdens of taxation. By his
double dealing he lost the confidence of both the religious parties. In
May, 1576, he agreed to allow the religious freedom which the
_Huguenots_ and _Politiques_ demanded. But he had to reckon
with the _Catholic League_ which was organized under _Henry of
Guise_. In 1584 _Henry of Navarre_ was left the next heir to
the throne. The _League_, with _Spain_ and _Rome_,
resolved that he should not reign. Together with _Condé_, he was
excommunicated. In the war of he "three Henrys," he was supported by
England, and by troops from Germany and Switzerland. _Henry III_.,
finding that _Henry of Guise_ was virtual master, and that the
States-general at _Blois_ (1588) reduced the royal power to the
lowest point, caused _Guise_ and his brother, the Cardinal of
Lorraine, to be assassinated. Excommunicated, and detested by the
adherents of the League, the king took refuge in the camp of _Henry
of Navarre_, where he was killed by a fanatical priest (1589).
ABJURATION AND ACCESSION OF HENRY IV.--The _Duke of Mayenne_,
brother of the slain _Guises_, was at the head of the government
provisionally established by the League. _Philip II_. was
intriguing to bring the Catholic nations under his sway. There was
discord in the League, from the jealousy of _Philip_ on the part
of _Mayenne. Henry_, a dashing soldier, gained a brilliant
victory at _Ivry_ in 1590. The grand obstacle in his way to the
throne was his adhesion to Protestantism. A Calvinist by birth and
education, but without profound religious convictions, a gallant and
sagacious man, but loose in his morals, he yielded, for the sake of
giving peace to France, to the persuasions addressed to him, and, from
motives of expediency, conformed to the Catholic Church. The nation
was now easily won to his cause.
REIGN OF HENRY IV.--When _Henry IV_. gained his throne, the
country was in a most wretched condition. In the desolating wars,
population had fallen off. Everywhere there were poverty and
lawlessness. Yet war with _Spain_ was inevitable. In this war,
_Henry_ was the victor; and the _Peace of Vervins_ restored
the Spanish conquests, and the conquests made by Savoy, to France
(1598). The idea of _Henry's_ foreign policy, which was that of
weakening the power of Spain and of the house of Hapsburg, was
afterwards taken up by a powerful statesman, _Richelieu_, and
fully realized. In the _Edict of Nantes_ (1598), the king secured
to the Huguenots the measure of religious liberty for which they had
contended. Fortified cities were still left in their hands. Security
was obtained by the Calvinists, but they became a defensive party with
no prospect of further progress. Order and prosperity were restored to
the kingdom. In all his measures, the king was largely guided by a
most competent minister, _Sully_. But the useful reign of
_Henry IV_. was cut short by the dagger of an assassin,
_Ravaillac_ (1610). For fifteen years confusion prevailed in
France, and a contest of factions, until _Richelieu_ took up the
threads of policy which had fallen from _Henry's_ hand.