house in which he was incarcerated was flanked by a tower whose
embrasures commanded the approach, the windows were newly barred, and
the door was half-walled up to preclude the possibility of escape.[944]
But Prince Louis stoutly maintained that it was not _he_ that was a
captive, since, though his body was confined, his spirit was free and
his conscience clean and guiltless; but rather _they_ were prisoners,
who, with the freedom of their body, felt their conscience to be
enslaved and harassed by a ceaseless recollection of their crimes.[945]
His wife, the virtuous Eleonore de Roye, fruitlessly applied for
admission in order to minister to his wants. She was rudely repulsed by
the king, at whose feet she had thrown herself in a flood of tears, with
the bitter remark that her husband was his mortal enemy, who had
conspired not only to obtain his crown, but his life also, and that he
could do no less than avenge himself upon him.[946] It was only by
special effort that the few who dared avow themselves friends of the
disgraced Bourbons, succeeded in obtaining for Conde legal counsel, and
that these were allowed to hold brief interviews with the prince in the
presence of two officers of the crown.[947] No others were admitted,
save a pretended friend, to sound his disposition toward the Guises.
Comprehending the motive of his visit, Conde begged him to inform those
who had sent him, "that he had received so many outrages at their hands
that there remained no path of reconciliation, save at the point of the
sword; and that, although he seemed to be at their mercy, he still had
confidence that God would avenge the injury done by them to a prince who
had come at the command and relying on the word of his king, but had
been shamefully imprisoned at their suggestion, in order to make in him
a beginning of the destruction of the royal blood."[948]
[Sidenote: Conde tried by a commission.]
[Sidenote: He is found guilty and sentenced to be beheaded.]
A commission, consisting of Chancellor L'Hospital, President De Thou,
Counsellors Faye and Viole, and a few others, was appointed, on the
thirteenth of November, to conduct the trial. Conde refused to plead
before them, taking refuge in his privilege, as a prince, to be tried
only before the king and by his peers.[949] His appeals, however, were
rejected by the privy council, and he was commanded, in the king's name,
to answer, under pain of being held a traitor. In view of the known
desire and intention of the king and his chief advisers, the trial was
likely to be expeditious and not over-scrupulous.[950] The most innocent
expressions of disapproval of the violent executions at Amboise were
perverted into open approval of a plot against the king. The prosecution
sought to establish the heresy of the prince, in order to furnish some
ground for finding him guilty of treason against Divine as well as royal
authority. Nor was this difficult. A priest, in full officiating
vestments, was introduced, as by royal command, to say mass in Conde's
presence. But the young Bourbon drove him out with rough words,
declaring "that he had come to his Majesty with no intention of holding
any communion with the impieties and defilements of the Roman
Antichrist, but solely to relieve himself of the false accusations that
had been made against him."[951] Before so partial a court the trial
could have but one issue. Conde was found guilty, and condemned to be
beheaded on a scaffold erected before the king's temporary residence, at
the opening of the States General.[952] The sentence was signed not
only by the judges to whom the investigation had been entrusted, but by
members of the privy council, by the members of the Order of St.
Michael, and by a large number of less important dignitaries, without
even a formal examination into the merits of the case--so anxious were
the Guises to involve as many influential persons as possible in the
same responsibility with themselves. Of the privy councillors, Du
Mortier and Chancellor de l'Hospital alone refused to append their
signatures without a longer term for reflection, and endeavored to ward
off the blow by procrastination.[953]
[Sidenote: Danger of the King of Navarre.]
Navarre was himself in almost equal danger. An attempt to poison him was
frustrated by its timely revelation; a plot to assassinate him on
leaving the king's residence, by the strength of his body-guard. A still
more atrocious scheme was concocted. Francis was to stab his cousin of
Navarre with his dagger, leaving his attendants to despatch him with
their swords. Such murderous projects can rarely be kept secret. Even
Catharine de' Medici is said to have attempted to dissuade Antoine from
going to the palace by warning him of the danger he would incur. At the
door of the king's chamber a friendly hand interposed, and a friendly
voice asked: "Sire, whither are you going to your ruin?" But the prince,
with a resolution which it had been well had he manifested at an earlier
period, paused only a moment to say to his faithful Renty: "I am going
to the spot where a conspiracy has been entered into to take my life....
If it please God, He will save me; but, if I die, I entreat you, by the
fidelity I have ever known in you, ... to carry the shirt I wear, all
covered with blood, to my wife and son, and to conjure my wife, by the
great love she has always borne me, and by her duty (since my son is
not yet old enough to avenge my death), to send it, torn by the dagger,
and bloody, to the foreign princes of Christendom, that they may avenge
my death, so cruel and treacherous."[954] These gloomy forebodings were
not destined to be realized. Francis's anger evaporated in words, or was
restrained by his mother's secret injunctions,[955] and Antoine of
Navarre was suffered to go away unharmed. The duke and cardinal, who
witnessed the scene from the recess of a window, are said to have
muttered half audibly as they left the room, "That is the most cowardly
heart that ever was!"[956]
[Sidenote: A plot for the utter destruction of the Huguenots.]
The assassination of the King of Navarre was, however, but a part of a
larger plot for the utter destruction of the Huguenots and of
Protestantism in France, the details of which are but imperfectly
known.[957] It is alleged that preliminary lists of those infected by
heresy had been obtained from all parts of France, and that a more exact
knowledge was to be obtained by compelling all classes--from the
nobility and members of the Order of St. Michael down to the simple
citizen--to subscribe to the articles of faith drawn up eighteen years
before by the Sorbonne.[958] At the close of the sessions of the States
General, the full forces at the command of the court were to be set on
foot, and four armies, under the Duke of Aumale and Marshals St. Andre,
Brissac, and Termes, were to serve as the instruments of destruction.
Termes was to effect a junction with a Spanish force entering France
through Bearn; and the Governor of Bayonne was instructed to surrender
that important city into the hands of Philip. The expenses of the
crusade were to be defrayed by the clergy, who, from cardinal down to
chaplain, were to retain of their income only the amount necessary for
their bare subsistence.[959] The recent publication of the Pope's bull,
renewing the Council of Trent, meanwhile served as a good excuse for
forbidding the discussion of religious questions by the States General,
then about to meet, by the king's direction, at Orleans instead of
Meaux.[960]
[Sidenote: Illness of the king.]
The moment for the execution of this widespread plan of destruction was
approaching, when its devisers were startled by the sudden discovery
that the health of their nephew, the king, was fast failing. Francis's
constitution, always frail, and now still further undermined, was giving
way in connection with a gathering in the ear, which resisted the
efforts of the most skilful physicians.[961] "This King," wrote the
English ambassador, on the twenty-first of November, giving to his
fellow-envoy at Madrid the first intimation of Francis's illness,
"thought to have removed hence for a fortnight, but the day before his
intended journey he felt himself somewhat evil disposed of his body,
with a pain in his head and one of his ears, which hath stayed his
removing from hence."[962] But the rapid progress of the disease soon
made it clear that the trip to Chenonceau, "the queen's house," whence
the king "was not to return hither until the Estates are assembled,"
would never be taken by Francis. The sceptre must pass into other hands
even more feeble than his.
[Sidenote: The queen mother rejects the advances of the Guises,]
[Sidenote: and makes terms with Navarre.]
The Guises in consternation proposed to Catharine to hasten the death of
Navarre and Conde,[963] and perhaps to put into immediate execution
their ulterior projects. But Catharine de' Medici little relished an
increased dependence[964] upon a family she had good reason to distrust.
Instead of accepting the advances of the Guises, she hastened to make
terms with the King of Navarre. In an interview with that weak prince, a
compact was made which proved the source of untold evils. He had been
forewarned by ladies in Catharine's interest, as he valued his life, to
oppose none of her demands; but the wily Florentine scarcely expected so
easy a triumph as she obtained. To the amazement of friend and foe,
Antoine de Bourbon ceded his right to the regency, without a struggle,
to the queen mother, a foreigner and not of royal blood. For himself he
merely retained the first place under her, as lieutenant-general of the
kingdom. He even consented to be reconciled to his cousins of Guise,
and, after publicly embracing them, promised to forget all past grounds
of quarrel.[965]
[Sidenote: Death of Francis II., Dec. 5, 1560.]
The vows which Francis made "to God and to all the saints of paradise,
male and female, and particularly to Notre-Dame-de-Clery, that, if they
should grant him restoration of health, he would never cease until he
had wholly purged the kingdom of those wicked heretics,"[966] proved
unavailing. On the fifth of December, 1560, he died in the eighteenth
year of his age and the seventeenth month of his reign. "God, who
pierced the eye of the father, had now stricken the ear of the
son."[967]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: "Epitre au Tigre de la Prance."]
The most annoying of the anonymous pamphlets against the Guises was
a letter bearing the significant direction: _Au Tigre de la
France_. Under this bloodthirsty designation every one knew that
the Cardinal of Lorraine alone could be meant, and the style of
the production showed that a master-hand in literature had been
concerned in the composition. The Guises were furious, but it was
impossible to discover the author or publisher of the libel. Both
succeeded admirably in preserving their incognito. Yet, as victims
were wanted to appease the anger of the ruling family, two unhappy
men expiated by their death a crime of which they were confessedly
innocent. The incident, which comes down to us attested not only by
the best of contemporary historians, but by the records of the
courts, recently brought to light, may serve to illustrate the
prevalent corruption of the judges and the occasional whimsical
application of the so-called justice wherein they were given to
indulging. Diligent search on the part of the friends of the Guises
led to the detection of only a single copy of the "Tigre," and this
was found in the house of one Martin Lhomme, or Lhommet, a printer
by trade, and miserably poor. There was no evidence at all that he
had had any part in printing or publishing it. None the less did
the judges of parliament, and particularly M. Du Lyon, to whom the
case was specially confided, prosecute the trial with relentless
ardor. On the 15th of July, the unfortunate Lhomme, after having
been subjected to torture to extract information respecting his
supposed accomplices, was publicly hung on a gibbet on the Place
Maubert, in Paris. The well-informed Regnier de La Planche (p. 313)
is our authority for the statement that Du Lyon having, at a
supper, a few days later, been called to account for the iniquity
of his decision, made no attempt to defend it, but exclaimed: "Que
voulez-vous? We had to satisfy Monsieur le Cardinal with something,
since we had failed to catch the author; for otherwise he would
never have given us any peace (il ne nous eust jamais donne
relasche)." Still more unreasonable was the infliction of the
death-penalty upon Robert Dehors, a merchant of Rouen, who had
chanced to ride into Paris just as Lhomme was being led to
execution. Booted as he still was, he became a witness of the
brutality with which the crowd followed the poor printer, and
seemed disposed to snatch him from the executioner's hands in order
to tear him in pieces. Indignant at this violation of decency,
Dehors had the imprudence to remonstrate with those about him,
dissuading them from imbruing their hands in the blood of a
wretched man, when their desire was so soon to be accomplished by
the minister of the law. The Rouen merchant little understood the
ferocity of the Parisian populace. The mob instantly turned their
fury upon him, and but for the intervention of the royal archers he
would have met on the spot the fate from which he had sought to
rescue another to whose person and offence he was an utter
stranger. As it was, he escaped instant death only to become a
victim to the perverse ingenuity of the same judges, and be hung on
the same Place Maubert, "for the sedition and popular commotion
caused by him, at the time of the execution of Martin Lhomme, by
means of scandalous expressions and blasphemies uttered and
pronounced by the said Dehors against the honor of God and of the
glorious Virgin Mary, wherewith the said prisoner induced the
people to sedition and public scandals." (See Registres du
parlement, July 13, 15, and 19, 1560, reprinted by Read in "Le
Tigre.")
It is not, perhaps, very much to be wondered at that a pamphlet so
dangerous to have in one's possession should have so thoroughly
disappeared that a few years since not a copy was known to be in
existence. It doubtless fared with the "Tigre" much as it did with
another outspoken libel--"Taxe des parties casuelles de la boutique
du Pape"--published a few years later, of which Lestoile (Read, p.
21) tells us that he was for a long time unsuccessful in the search
for a copy, to replace that which, to use his own words, "I burned
at the St. Bartholomew, _fearing that it might burn me_!"
By a happy accident, M. Louis Paris, in 1834, discovered a solitary
copy that had apparently been saved from destruction by being
buried in some provincial library. The discovery, however, was of
little avail to the literary world, as the pamphlet was eagerly
bought by the famous collector Brunet, only to find a place in his
jealously guarded cases, where, after a fashion only too common in
these days, a few privileged persons were permitted to inspect it
under glass, but not a soul was allowed to copy it. Fortunately,
after M. Brunet's death, the city of Paris succeeded in purchasing
the _seven printed leaves_, of which the precious book was
composed, for 1,400 francs! Even then the singular fortunes of the
book did not end. Placed in the Hotel-de-Ville, this insignificant
pamphlet, almost alone of all the untold wealth of antiquarian lore
in the library, escaped the flames kindled by the insane Commune.
M. Charles Read, the librarian, had taken it to his own house for
the purpose of copying it and giving it to the world. This design
has now been happily executed, in an exquisite edition (Paris,
1875), containing not only the text, illustrated by copious notes,
but a photographic fac-simile. M. Read has also appended a poem
entitled "Le Tigre, Satire sur les Gestes Memorables des Guisards
(1561), "for the recovery of which we are indebted to M. Charles
Nodier. Although some have imagined this to be the original "Tigre"
which cost the lives of Lhomme and Dehors, it needs only a very
superficial comparison of the two to convince us that the poem is
only an elaboration, not indeed without merit, of the more nervous
prose epistle. The author of the latter was without doubt the
distinguished _Francois Hotman_. This point has now been
established beyond controversy. As early as in 1562 the Guises had
discovered this; for a treatise published that year in Paris
(Religionis et Regis adversus exitiosas Calvini, Bezae, et Ottomani
conjuratorum factiones defensio) uses the expressions: "Hic te,
Ottomane, excutere incipio. Scis enim ex cujus officina _Tigris_
prodiit, liber certe tigride parente, id est homine barbaro,
impuro, impio, ingrato, malevolo, maledico dignissimus. Tu te
istius libelli auctorem ... audes venditare?" While an expression
in a letter written by John Sturm, Rector of the University of
Strasbourg, July, 1562, to Hotman himself (Tygris, immanis illa
bellua quam tu _hic_ contra Cardinalis existimationem divulgari
curasti), not only confirms the statement of the hostile Parisian
pamphleteer, but indicates Strasbourg as the place of publication
(Read, pp. 132-139).
The "Epistre envoyee au Tigre de la France" betrays a writer well
versed in classical oratory. Some of the best of modern French
critics accord to it the first rank among works of the kind
belonging to the sixteenth century. They contrast its
sprightliness, its terse, telling phrases with the heavy, dragging
constructions that disfigure the prose of contemporary works.
Without copying in a servile fashion the Catilinarian speeches of
Cicero, the "Tigre" breathes their spirit and lacks none of their
force. Take, for example, the introductory sentences: "Tigre
enrage! Vipere venimeuse! Sepulcre d'abomination! Spectacle de
malheur! Jusques a quand sera-ce que tu abuseras de la jeunesse de
nostre Roy? Ne mettras-tu jamais fin a ton ambition demesuree, a
tes impostures, a tes larcins? Ne vois-tu pas que tout le monde les
scait, les entend, les cognoist? Qui penses-tu qui ignore ton
detestable desseing et qui ne lise en ton visage le malheur de tous
tes [nos] jours, la ruine de ce Royaume, et la mort de nostre Roy?"
Or read the lines in which the writer sums up a portion of the
Cardinal's villainy: "Quand je te diray que les fautes des finances
de France ne viennent que de tes larcins? Quand je te diray qu'un
mari est plus continent avec sa femme que tu n'es avec tes propres
parentes? Si je te dis encore que tu t'es empare du gouvernement de
la France, et as derobe cet honneur aux Princes du sang, pour
mettre la couronne de France en ta maison--que pourras-tu repondre?
Si tu le confesses, il te faut pendre et estrangler; si tu le nies,
je te convaincrai."
A passage of unsurpassed bitterness paints the portrait of the
hypocritical churchman: "Tu fais mourir ceux qui conspirent contre
toy: et tu vis encore, qui as conspire contre la couronne de
France, contre les biens des veuves et des orphelins, contre le
sang des tristes et des innocens! Tu fais profession de prescher de
saintete, toy qui ne connois Dieu que de parole; qui ne tiens la
religion chretienne que comme un masque pour te deguiser; qui fais
ordinaire trafic, banque et marchandise d'evesches et de benefices:
qui ne vois rien de saint que tu ne souilles, rien de chaste que tu
ne violes, rien de bon que tu ne gates!... Tu dis que ceux qui
reprennent tes vices medisent du Roy, tu veux donc qu'on t'estime
Roy? Si Caesar fut occis pour avoir pretendu le sceptre injustement,
doit-on permettre que tu vives, toy qui le demandes injustement?"
With which terribly severe denunciation the reader may compare the
statements of a pasquinade, unsurpassed for pungent wit by any
composition of the times, written apparently about a year later.
Addressing the cardinal, Pasquin expresses his perplexity
respecting the place where his Eminence will find an abode. The
_French_ dislike him so much, that they will have him neither as
master nor as servant; the _Italians_ know his tricks; the
_Spaniards_ cannot endure his rage; the _Germans_ abhor incest; the
_English_ and _Scotch_ hold him to be a traitor; the _Turk_ and the
_Sophy_ are Mohammedans, while the cardinal believes in _nothing_!
_Heaven_ is closed against the unbeliever, the devils would be
afraid to have him in _hell_, and in the ensuing council the
Protestants are going to do away with _purgatory_! "Et tu miser,
ubi peribis?" Copy in State Paper Office (1561).
The peroration of "Le Tigre" is worthy of the great Roman orator
himself. The circumstance that, on account of the limited number of
copies of M. Read's edition, the "Tigre" must necessarily be
accessible to very few readers, will be sufficient excuse for here
inserting this extended passage, in which, for the sake of
clearness, I have followed M. Read's modernized spelling:
"Mais pourquoi dis-je ceci? Afin que tu te corriges? Je connais ta
jeunesse si envieillie en son obstination, et tes moeurs si
depravees, que le recit de tes vices ne te scauroit emouvoir. Tu
n'es point de ceux-la que la honte de leur vilainie, ni le remords
de leurs damnables intentions puisse attirer a aucune resipiscence
et amendement. Mais si tu me veux croyre, tu t'en iras cacher en
quelque tanniere, ou bien en quelque desert, si lointain que l'on
n'oye ni vent ni nouvelles de toy! Et par ce moyen tu pourras
eviter la pointe de cent mille espees qui t'attendent tous les
jours!
"Donc va-t'-en! Descharge-nous de ta tyrannie! Evite la main du
bourreau! Qu'attends-tu encore? Ne vois-tu pas la patience des
princes du sang royal qui te le permet? Attends-tu le commandement
de leur parolle, puisque leur silence t'a declare leur volonte? En
le souffrant, ils te le commandent; en se taisant, ils te
condamnent. Va donc, malheureux, et tu eviteras la punition digne
de tes merites!"
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 847: Reaching Paris early in May, 1560, Hubert Languet wrote
that suspicion was everywhere rife; men of any standing scarcely dared
to converse with each other; some great calamity seemed on the point of
breaking forth. The king's ministers evidently feared the great cities;
so the court proceeded from one provincial town to another. Disturbances
in Rouen and Dieppe had frightened the Guises away from Normandy,
whither they had intended leading their royal nephew. Letter from Paris,
May 15th, Epistolae secr., ii. 50.]
[Footnote 848: "En ce temps (Mars, 1560) furent appelles Huguenots."
Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 36.]
[Footnote 849: Soldan, Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, who, in an
appendix, has very fully discussed the whole matter (i. 608-625). There
is some force in the objection that has been urged against this view,
that, were it correct, Beza, himself a resident of Geneva, could not
have been ignorant of the derivation, and would not, in the Histoire
ecclesiastique, prepared under his supervision, if not by him, have
given his sanction to another explanation.]
[Footnote 850: La Planche, 262; Hist. eccles., i. 169, 170; De Thou, ii.
(liv. xxiv.) 766. This is also Etienne Pasquier's view, who is positive
that he heard the Protestants called Huguenots by some friends of his
from Tours full _eight or nine years_ before the tumult of Amboise; that
is, about 1551 or 1552: "Car je vous puis dire que huict ou neuf ans
auparavant l'entreprise d'Amboise je les avois ainsi ouy appeller par
quelques miens amis Tourengeaux." Recherches de France, 770. This is
certainly pretty strong proof.]
[Footnote 851: La Place, 34; Davila, i. 20; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 96.
See also Pasquier, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 852: Mem. de Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 7. A somewhat similar
reason had, in Poitou, caused them, for a time, to be called _Fribours_,
the designation casually given to a _counterfeit_ coin of debased metal.
Pasquier, 770.]
[Footnote 853: Advertissement au Peuple de France, _apud_ Recueil des
choses memorables (1565), 7. Also in the Complainte au Peuple Francois,
ibid., p. 10. Both of these papers were published immediately after the
Tumulte d'Amboise. The eminent Pierre Jurieu--"le Goliath des
Protestants"--tells us that, having at one time accepted the derivation
from "eidgenossen" as the most plausible, he subsequently returned to
that which connects the word Huguenot with Hugues or Hugh Capet. The
nickname confessedly arose, so far as France was concerned, first in
Touraine, and became general at the time of the tumult of Amboise,
nearly thirty years after the reformation of Geneva. "Qui est-ce qui
auroit transporte en Touraine ce nom trente ans apres sa naissance, de
Geneve ou il n'avoit jamais este cognu?" Histoire du calvinisme et celle
du papisme, etc. Rotterdam, 1683, i. 424, 425.]
[Footnote 854: J. de Serres, i. 67; Pasquier, 771: "Mot qui en peu de
temps s'espandit par toute la France."]
[Footnote 855: La Planche, 270. At Amboise, too, so soon as the court
had departed, the prisons were broken open, and the prisoners--both
those confined for religion and for insurrection--released. The gallows
in various parts of the place were torn down, and the ghastly
decorations of the castle, in the way of heads and mutilated members,
disappeared. Languet, letter of May 15th, Epist. secr., ii. 51.]
[Footnote 856: M. Archinard, conservator of the archives of the
Venerable Company of Pastors of Geneva, has compiled from the records a
list of 121 pastors sent by the Church of Geneva to the Reformed
Churches of France within eleven years--1555 to 1566. Many others have,
doubtless, escaped notice. Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr.,
viii. (1859) 72-76. Cf. also Ib., ix. 294 seq., for an incomplete list
of Protestant pastors in France, probably in 1567, from an old MS. in
the Genevan library.]
[Footnote 857: The high moral and intellectual qualifications of the
Protestant ministers were eulogized by the Bishop of Valence, Montluc,
in his speech before the king at Fontainebleau, to which I shall soon
have occasion to refer again. "The doctrine, sire," he said, "which
interests your subjects, was sown for thirty years; not in one, or two,
or three days. It was introduced by three or four hundred ministers,
diligent and practised in letters; men of great modesty, gravity, and
appearance of sanctity; professing to detest every vice, and,
particularly, avarice; fearless of losing their lives in confirmation of
their preaching; who always had Jesus Christ upon their lips--a name so
sweet that it gives an entrance into ears the most carefully closed, and
easily glides into the heart of the most hardened." "Harangue de
l'Evesque de Vallence," _apud_ Recueil des choses memorables (1565), i.
290; Mem. de Conde, i. 558; La Place, 55. The eloquent Bishop of Valence
must be regarded as a better authority than those persons who, according
to Castelnau, accused the Calvinist ministers of Geneva of "having more
zeal and ignorance than religion." Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iii., c. 3.]
[Footnote 858: Calvin, in a letter sent by Francois de Saint Paul, a
minister whom he induced to accept the urgent call of the church of
Montelimart, dissuaded that church from this step which was already
contemplated. Better is it, said he, to increase the flock, and to
gather in the scattered sheep, meanwhile keeping quiet yourselves. "At
least, while you hold your assemblies peaceably from house to house, the
rage of the wicked will not so soon be enkindled against you, and you
will render to God what He requires, namely, the glorifying of His name
in a pure manner, and the keeping of yourselves unpolluted by all
superstitious observances, until it please Him to open a wider door."
Lettres francaises (Bonnet), ii. 335, 336. The author of the Histoire
eccles. des eglises ref., i. 138, expresses a belief that had such wise
counsels been followed, incomparably the greater part of the district
would have embraced the Reformation.]
[Footnote 859: La Planche, 284-286.]
[Footnote 860: Letter of Francis II. to Gaspard de Saulx, Seign. de
Tavannes, April 12, 1560, _apud_ Negotiations relatives au regne de
Francois II., etc. (Collection de documents inedits), 341-343.]
[Footnote 861: With a label attached to their necks bearing this
inscription: "Voicy les chefs des rebelles."]
[Footnote 862: La Planche, 286-289.]
[Footnote 863: Letter of the Vte. de Joyeuse to the king, April 26,
1560, _apud_ Neg. sous Francois II., 361-363.]
[Footnote 864: La Planche, 293.]
[Footnote 865: Hence the festival of Corpus Christi witnessed in some
places serious riots, especially in Rouen, where a number of citizens of
the reformed faith refused to join in the otherwise universal practice
of spreading tapestry on the front of their houses when the host was
carried by. Houses were broken into, at the instigation of the priests,
and near a score of persons killed. Languet, Paris, June 16th, Epist.
sec., ii. 59, 60.]
[Footnote 866: La Planche, 294; Hist. eccles., i. 194; Floquet, Hist. du
parl. de Normandie, ii. 284, 288, 294, 302-306, etc. At Dieppe the
Huguenots had gone so far as to erect, with the pecuniary assistance
afforded by Admiral Coligny, an elegant and spacious "_temple_," as the
Protestant place of worship was styled. Vieilleville, much to his
regret, felt compelled to demolish it (Aug., 1560), for it stood in the
very heart of the city. I quote a part of his secretary's appreciative
description: "C'estoit ung fort brave edifice, _ressemblant au theatre
de Rome qu'on appelle Collisee, ou aux arenes de Nysmes_. On fut _trois
jours_ a le verser par terre, et ne partismes de Dieppe que n'en
veissions la fin." Mem. de Vieilleville, ii. 448, etc.; Floquet, ii.
318-336.]
[Footnote 867: De Felice, liv. i., c. 12 (Am. ed., p. 111).]
[Footnote 868: See La Planche, 312, 313, and the "Histoire des cinq
rois" (Recueil des choses mem), 1598, p. 99, for the punishment of the
possessor of a copy of a virulent pamphlet against the cardinal,
entitled _Le Tigre_ (see the note at the end of this chapter); and
Negociations sous Francois II., 456, for a letter from court ordering
search to be made for the author and publisher of the "Complaincte des
fideles de France contre leurs adversaires les papistes." "En ung lundy
apres Pasques, 15^e du moys, fut affiche devant S. Hilaire un papier
estant imprime d'autre impression de Paris, et y avoit a l'intitulation:
Les Estats opprimez par la tyrannie de MM. de Guise au roy salut."
Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 37. The piece referred to is inserted in
the Memoires de Conde, i. 405-410.]
[Footnote 869: La Planche, 299-302. The remonstrance, signed
_Theophilus_, which they addressed her, insisted on the ill-success of
the persecutions to which for forty years they had been subjected; for
one killed, two hundred had joined their assemblies; for ten thousand
open adherents, the Reformation had one hundred thousand secret
upholders. The Edict of Forgiveness answered no good purpose: "_c'estoit
bien peu d'oster pour un instant la douleur d'une maladie, si quant et
quant la cause et la racine n'en estoit ostee_."]
[Footnote 870: La Place, 41-45; La Planche, 316, 317; Mem. de Castelnau,
l. ii., c. 7; De Thou, ii., liv. xxv. 788-791. I confess, however, that
the careful perusal of La Planche's bold speech has nearly convinced me
that the ascription of the anonymous "Hist. de l'estat de Fr. sous
Francois II." to his pen is erroneous. I shall not insist upon the fact
that the description of La Planche as "homme politique plustost que
religieux" is inappropriate to the author of this history. But I can
scarcely conceive of La Planche correcting errors in his own speech, and
not only expressing an utter dissent from the account which he himself
gave the queen of the motives that led La Renaudie to engage in the
enterprise that had for its object the overthrow of the Guises, but even
accusing himself of falling into a grave mistake with regard to the
importance of the differences of creed between the Protestants and the
Roman Church: "s'abusant en ce qu'il meit en avant des differends de la
religion." La Planche had suggested a conference of
theologians--ostensibly to make a faithful translation of the Bible, in
reality to compare differences--and had expressed the opinion that there
would be found less discord than there appeared to be. The condemnation
of this view certainly does not mark a man of political rather than
religious tendencies! I fear that we must look elsewhere for the author
of this excellent history.]
[Footnote 871: It has been ascribed to the virtuous and tolerant
Chancellor L'Hospital, who, it is said, drew it up in order to defeat
the project of the Guises to introduce the Spanish Inquisition. (La
Planche, 305; cf. also De Thou, ii. 781.) But the edict was published
_before_ the appointment of L'Hospital, and while Morvilliers, a
creature of the Guises, provisionally held the seals after Chancellor
Olivier's death; and the spiritual jurisdiction it established differed
little in principle from an inquisition. In fact, three of the French
prelates, the Cardinals of Lorraine, Bourbon, and Chatillon, had, as we
have seen, been constituted a board of inquisitors of the faith; and,
soon after the publication of the Edict of Romorantin, the Cardinal of
Tournon was set over them as inquisitor-general. The subject has been
well discussed by Soldan, Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, i.
338-342. The Duc d'Aumale, in his usually accurate Histoire des Princes
de Conde (i. 113), repeats the blunder of La Planche and De Thou.]
[Footnote 872: Recueil des anc. lois fr., xiv. 31-33; La Planche, 305,
306; La Place, 46, 47. It is, of course, "an edict holily conceived and
promulgated," in the estimation of Florimond de Raemond, v. 113. The only
redeeming feature I can find in it is the article by which malicious
informers made themselves liable to all the penalties they had sought to
inflict on others.]
[Footnote 873: La Place, 36 (who states that the burning of Du Bourg was
an occasion of deep remorse in Olivier's last hours); La Planche, 266;
J. de Serres, De statu rel. et reip., i., fol. 35; De Thou, ii. (liv.
xxiv.), 775; Hist. du tumulte d'Amboise, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 874: La Planche, 305.]
[Footnote 875: If we may credit that professed panegyrist, Scaevola de
St. Marthe, L'Hospital was of an august appearance, of a dignified and
tranquil countenance, and, if his intellectual constitution had a
philosophic stamp, his features bore a not less remarkable resemblance
to the head of the Stagirite as delineated on ancient medals. Elogia
doctorum in Gallia virorum qui nostra patrumque memoria floruerunt
(Ienae, 1696), lib. ii., p. 95.]
[Footnote 876: This remarkable statement is made by Agrippa d'Aubigne,
Memoires, 478 (Ed. Pantheon Lit.). He tells us that he had inherited
from his father, himself one of the conspirators, the original papers of
the enterprise of Amboise. The suggestion was made by a confidant, that
the possession of the proof of L'Hospital's complicity would certainly
secure him 10,000 crowns, either from the chancellor or from his
enemies; whereupon the youth threw all the papers into the fire lest he
might in an hour of weakness succumb to the temptation. In his Hist.
universelle, i. 95, D'Aubigne makes the same assertion with great
positiveness: "L'Hospital, homme de grand estime, luy succeda, quoyqu'il
eust este des conjurez pour le faict d'Amboise. Ce que je maintiens
contre tout ce qui en a este escrit, pource que l'original de
l'entreprise fut consigne entre les mains de mon pere, ou estoit son
seing tout du long entre celuy de Dandelot et d'un Spifame: chose que
j'ai faict voir a plusieurs personnes de marque."]
[Footnote 877: La Planche, 305; La Place, 38; De Thou, ii. 776; Davila,
p. 29. I cannot refrain from inserting La Planche's worthy estimate of
his course and its results: "Car pour certain, encores que s'il eust
prins un court chemin pour s'opposer virilement au mal, il seroit plus a
louer, et Dieu, peut-estre, eust beny sa Constance, si est-ce qu'autant
qu'on en peut juger, _luy seul, par ses moderes deportemens a este
l'instrument duquel Dieu s'est servy pour retenir plusieurs flots
impetueux, ou fussent submerges tous les Francois_." _Ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 878: Throkmorton to Cecil, June 24, 1560, State Paper Office;
printed in Wright, Queen Elizabeth, i. 32, 33.]
[Footnote 879: La Planche, 338-343.]
[Footnote 880: Ibid., 315; De Thou, ii. 787, 788.]
[Footnote 881: The long address delivered to the two brothers at Nerac,
and reproduced verbatim by La Planche (318-338), is a very complete
summary of the views of the Huguenots at this juncture.]
[Footnote 882: Letter of Cardinal Lorraine to the Bishop of Limoges,
French ambassador to Philip the Second, July 28, 1560. The council "we
hold to be the sole and only remedy for our ills," is the minister's
language. Although the state of affairs was better than it had been, yet
"so many persons were imbued with these opinions, that it was not
possible to find out on whom reliance could be placed." Negociations
sous Francois II., 442-444.]
[Footnote 883: Ibid., _ubi supra_; La Planche, 349; De Thou, ii. 782.]
[Footnote 884: La Planche, _ubi supra_. An assembly of notables was, as
the term imports, a body consisting, not of representatives of the three
orders, regularly summoned under the forms observed in the holding of
the States General, but of the most prominent men of the kingdom,
arbitrarily selected and invited by the crown to act as its advisers on
some extraordinary emergency. "Telles assemblees," says Agrippa
d'Aubigne, "ont este appelees _petits estats_." Hist. univ., i. 96.]
[Footnote 885: "This house is both beautiful and larger than any I had
before seen in France or England. I may resemble the state thereof to
the honour of Hampton Court, which as it passeth Fontainebleau with the
great hall and chambers, so is it inferior in outward beauty and
uniformity," etc. The Journey of the Queen's Ambassadors to Rome, Anno
1555, Hardwick, State Papers, i. 67.]
[Footnote 886: Charles Maximilian, now a boy of ten, was the successor
of Francis, known as Charles the Ninth. Edward Alexander, Duke of
Alencon, had his name changed in 1565 to Henry, and became Duke of
Anjou. He was at this time not quite nine years of age. He was
subsequently king, under the title of Henry the Third. Hercules became
Francis of Alencon in 1565, and was the only one of the brothers that
never ascended the throne. He was now a little over six years old.]
[Footnote 887: La Place, 53; La Planche, 350, 351; De Thou, ii. 706;
Mem. de Castelnau, 1. ii., c. 8; Davila, 29. Minor discrepancies between
these accounts need not be noted.]
[Footnote 888: "As if," says Calvin to Bullinger, "finding himself at
his wits' end, he had called in a consultation of state doctors."
(Bonnet, iv. 135.)]
[Footnote 889: "Deux requestes de la part des Fideles de France, qui
desirent viure selon la reformation de l'Euangile, donnees pour
presenter au Conseil tenu a Fontainebleau au mois d'Aoust, M.D.LX."
Recueil des choses memorables faites et passees pour le faict de la
Religion et estat de ce Royaume, depuis la mort du Roy Henry II. iusques
au commencement des troubles. _Sine loco_, 1565, vol. i. 614-619.]
[Footnote 890: La Place, 54, 55, and La Planche, 351, are, as usual in
this reign, our best authorities in reference to Coligny's address and
the presentation of the petition; see also Hist. eccles., i. 173, 174;
De Thou, ii. 797; Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 8; Davila, bk. ii., p. 30. La
Place and Jean de Serres, De statu, etc., i. 96 (who are followed by De
Thou, etc.), seem to be more correct in assigning the address to the
_second_ session, than La Planche, the Hist. eccles., etc., who place it
at the very commencement of the _first_. Calvin, in a letter to
Bullinger, Oct. 1, 1560 (Bonnet, iv. 135) describes the scene in the
same manner as La Place. Vita Gasparis Colinii (1575), 27, etc.; Vie de
Coligny (Cologne, 1686), p. 213, etc. Mr. Browning (Hist. of the
Huguenots, i. 29) erroneously attributes the authorship of the last
mentioned work to Francis Hotman (who died in 1590); whereas the author
wrote after Maimbourg and Varillas, whose statements he controverts.
(Pref., p. ii., and p. 86.) Hotman, as noticed elsewhere, was the author
of the preceding and much more authentic book.]
[Footnote 891: Not, however, precisely in the ranks of the clergy.
Marillac was a layman, whose success in negotiation had been rewarded
with the archiepiscopal see of Vienne. In his youth he had been
suspected of composing an apology for a "Lutheran" burned at the stake
in Paris; and he died broken-hearted, seeing the ruin to which both
church and state were tending, two months after the Assembly of
Fontainebleau. La Place, 72, 73; La Planche, 360, 361. Neither was
Montluc of Valence a clergyman. Paris, Negotiations sous Francois II.,
Notice, p. xxxvii.]
[Footnote 892: It was not unfrequently recommended, as a species of
panacea for the evils in the church, that the bishops should all be sent
off to their dioceses. An edict to that effect had recently been
promulgated, and it was supposed that the parish curates would soon be
directed to follow their example. (Languet, ii. 68.) "What else will
result from this I know not," quietly adds the sensible diplomatist,
"but that they will betray their ignorance and baseness, and that the
contempt and hatred already entertained for them by the people will be
augmented." Elsewhere, in expressing the same view of the absurdity of
the order, he gives this unflattering description of the prelates: "cum
plerique sint plane indocti et praeterea luxu, libidinibus, et aliis
sceleribus perditissimi," etc. (Ibid., ii. 73.)]
[Footnote 893: "Autant de deux escus que les banquiers avoyent envoyes a
Rome, autant de cures nous avoyent-ils renvoyes," adds Montluc. La
Place, 56.]
[Footnote 894: The harangue of Montluc is contained word for word,
though with erroneous date, in the Recueil des choses memorables (1565),
pp. 286-305; also in La Place, 55-58; Mem. de Conde, 557-562. Summary in
De Thou, ii. 797-800; Jean de Serres, De statu rel. et reip. (1571), i.
99-106.]
[Footnote 895: "Et qu'en tout evenement nous ne voulons perir pour luy
complaire." La Place, 60; La Planche, 354.]
[Footnote 896: "Et sur ce, ne fault espargner les Italiens qui occupent
la troisiesme partie des benefices du royaume, ont pensions infinies,
succent nostre sang comme sangsues," etc. La Place and La Planche, _ubi
supra_.]
[Footnote 897: La Place, 64; La Planche, 359. Both historians give the
speech _verbatim_. J. de Serres, i. 106-126; Letter of Calvin to
Bullinger, Oct. 1, 1560, _ubi supra_; Hist. eccles., i. 174-178. Would
that these words of wholesome advice and sound philosophy had not been
left unheeded by royalty and _noblesse_! The course of politic humanity
to which they pointed might have saved a monarch his head, the noblesse
countless lives and the loss of large possessions, and France a bloody
revolution.]
[Footnote 898: La Planche, 361; La Place, 66; De Thou, ii. 802; Mem. de
Castelnau, liv. ii. c. 8; Hist. eccles., i. 178; Jean de Serres, i.
127.]
[Footnote 899: La Planche, 361, 362; La Place, 67. The latter and J. de
Serres, i. 129, are certainly wrong in attributing this passionate
menace to the Cardinal of Lorraine. De Thou, ii. 802; Castelnau, 1. ii.,
c. 8.]
[Footnote 900: La Planche, etc., _ubi supra_. Calvin to Bullinger, Oct.
1, 1560 (Bonnet, iv. 136).]
[Footnote 901: La Planche, 362, 363; La Place, 67; J. de Serres, De
statu rel. et reip., i. 128-131; De Thou, ii. 802, 803. After seeing the
head instigator of persecution, still gory with the blood of the recent
slaughter, assume with such effrontery the language of pity and
toleration, we may be prepared for his duplicity at the interview of
Saverne. The compiler of the Hist. eccles. (i, 179) explains the consent
of the Guises to the convocation of the estates by supposing them to
have hoped by this measure not merely to take away the excuse of their
opponents, but, by obtaining a majority, to secure the declaration of
Navarre and Conde as rebels, whether they came or declined to appear.
Calvin (letter to Bullinger, _ubi supra_, p. 137) gives the same view.
So does Barbaro: "Forse non tanto per volonta che s'avesse d'esseguirle
quanto per adomentare gli risvegliati, et guadagnar, come si fece." The
Pope and Philip violently opposed the plan "perche ne l'uno ne l'altro
sapeva il secreto." "By the plan of the council, ... they succeeded in
feeding with vain hopes (dar pasto) those who sought to make innovations
in the faith." Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 524, etc.]
[Footnote 902: La Planche, 363, 364; La Place, 68; De Thou, ii. 803
(liv. xxv). Cf. the edict in full _apud_ Negociations sous Francois II.,
486-490; also a letter of Francis in which he explains his course to
Philip II., ib. 490-497.]
[Footnote 903: The cardinal had, however, made a somewhat similar
discourse, just about six months before, to Throkmorton, much to the
good knight's disgust. He had expressed a recognition of the faults
prevalent in the church, and pretended to be desirous of reforming it in
an orderly manner. "I am not so ignorant," he said, "nor so led with
errors that reigne, as the world judgeth." He declared himself in favor
of a general council, and spoke with satisfaction of an edict just
despatched to Scotland, "to surcease the punishment of men for
religion." "And of this purpose," adds the ambassador with pardonable
sarcasm, "he made suche an oration as it were long to write, _evon as
thoughe he had bene hired by the Protestants to defend their cause
earnestly_!" Despatch to the queen, Feb. 27, 1559/60, Forbes, State
Papers, i. 337, 338.]
[Footnote 904: Sommaire recit de la calomnieuse accusation de M. le
prince de Conde, Memoires de Conde, ii. 373; Languet, ii. 66.]
[Footnote 905: Throkmorton to Cecil, Sept. 3, 1560, State Paper Office;
La Place, 68, 69; La Planche, 345, 346; De Thou, ii. 804-806; Castelnau,
1. ii., c. 7.]
[Footnote 906: La Planche, p. 375. Instructions to M. de Crussol, going
by order of the king to the King of Navarre, Aug. 30, 1560, _apud_
Negoc. sous Francois II., pp. 482-486. The beginning of this paper,
directing Crussol to express regret that Navarre had not come to the
council of Fontainebleau, and to announce the result of its
recommendations, is sufficiently conciliatory. If, however, Navarre
should hesitate to obey the summons, the agent was bidden to frighten
him into compliance. On the first show of resistance, Francis would
collect his own troops, consisting of thirty thousand or forty thousand
foot, and seven hundred or eight hundred horse, expected levies of ten
thousand Swiss, and six thousand or seven thousand German lansquenets.
Philip had assured him of the assistance of all his forces, foot and
horse, both from the side of Netherlands and of Spain. The Dukes of
Lorraine, Savoy, and Ferrara would bring fourteen thousand to sixteen
thousand foot and one thousand five hundred horse. The king's
arrangements were complete, and he was resolved to make an example. The
arrest of La Sague was, however, not to be mentioned. Letter of Francis
to the King of Navarre, Aug. 30, in Recueil des choses mem. (1565), 75,
76, and Mem. de Conde, i. 573.]
[Footnote 907: See the message in cipher appended to a despatch to the
French ambassador at Madrid, Aug. 31, 1560, _apud_ Neg. sous Francois
II., pp. 490-497. The discovery is said to have been made within five or
six days. Conde is implicated. Against Navarre there is as yet no proof.
The Queen of England, is suspected of complicity, despite the recent
treaty (of July 23d, by which Mary, Queen of Scots, renounced her claims
upon the crown of England). The affright of the Guises may be judged
from the circumstance that two copies of the despatch were
forwarded--one by Guyenne, the other by Languedoc--so that at least one
might reach its destination.]
[Footnote 908: Thomas Shakerly, the Cardinal of Ferrara's organist, sent
him budgets of news not less regularly than the secretary of the Duke of
Savoy's ambassador at Venice supplied the English agent copies of all
the most important letters his master received. See the interesting
letter of John Shers to Cecil, Venice, Jan. 18, 1561, State Paper
Office.]
[Footnote 909: Throkmorton to queen, Poissy, Oct. 10, 1560, State Paper
Office.]
[Footnote 910: In a despatch to his ambassador at Madrid, Sept. 18, 1560
(Negoc. sous Francois II., 523, etc.), Francis states that 1,000 or
1,200 armed soldiers had been posted in sixty-six houses, ready to sally
out by night, capture the city, and open the gates to 2,000 men waiting
outside. Of course, according to the king or his ministers, the object
was plunder, and the enterprise a fair specimen of Huguenot sanctity.]
[Footnote 911: La Planche, 365-368; La Place, 69; Neg. sous Francois
II., _ubi supra_; Mem. de Castelnau, 1. ii., c. 9; Languet, ii. 70; De
Thou, ii. 806. Calvin, in a letter to Beza (Sept. 10, 1560), seems to
allude, though not by name, to Maligny, and to condemn his rashness; but
the passage is purposely too obscure to throw much light upon the
matter. Bonnet, iv. 126, etc.]
[Footnote 912: Letter of the king, _apud_ Negoc. sous Francois II., 580,
581.]
[Footnote 913: The curious reader may task his ingenuity in deciphering
the somewhat remarkable spelling in which the count quaintly relates the
occurrence in question: "Aytant o Pont-Sainct-Esperit, je trouvis entre
les mains de Rocart, capitayne de la, deux charges de mulles de _livres
de Genaive, fort bien reliez_: toutefoys cela ne les en carda que je ne
les fice toux bruler, comensent le prumier a les maytre o fu; de coe je
fu bien suivi de monsieur de Joyeuse, vous asseurent qu' _ill i en avoet
beocoup de la copagnie qu'il les playnoet fort_, les estiment plus de
mille aycus: pour sayte foys-la je ne les voullus croere." Letter of
Villars to the constable, Oct. 12, 1560, _apud_ Negoc. sous Francois
II., p. 655.]
[Footnote 914: On Sunday, the 28th of July, a gathering composed almost
entirely of women was discovered. Nothing daunted, 1,200 persons met the
next night, with torches and open doors, in the large school-rooms,
where their pastor, Maupeau, preached an appropriate sermon from Rev.
vi. 9, on "the souls of them that were slain for the word of God." Soon
the same place was resorted to by day. Summoned before the magistrates,
judge, and consuls, the Huguenots declared their loyalty, but said that
they had no idea that the king wanted to dictate to the conscience,
which belongs to God. Presently the church of St. Michael was seized.
Then the Cardinal of Lorraine (Oct. 14th) wrote to the bishop, telling
him to call upon M. de Villars for aid in suppressing assemblies and the
preaching. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 207-210.]
[Footnote 915: They are Nismes, Montpellier, Montagnac, Annonay,
Castres, Marsillargues, Aigues Mortes, Pezenas, Gignac, Sommieres, St.
Jean de Gardonnenches, Anduze, Vauvers (Viviers?), Uzes, and Privas.]
[Footnote 916: Sommaire des instructions donnees a Pignan envoye au roy
par Honorat de Savoye, Cte. de Villars, Oct. 15, 1560, _apud_ Negoc.
sous Francois II., 659-661.]
[Footnote 917: On hearing of the seizure of Aigues Mortes by treachery.
Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 211.]
[Footnote 918: Letters of De Villars to the Guises, Oct. 27 and 29,
1560. Neg. sous Francois II., 671.]
[Footnote 919: Letter of the king to the Cte. de Villars, November 9,
1560. Ib., p. 673.]
[Footnote 920: H. Barnsleye to Cecil, August 28, 1560, State Paper
Office.]
[Footnote 921: I know of no more scathing exposure of the morals of the
clergy than that given by Francois Grimaudet, the representative of the
Tiers Etat of Anjou, and inserted _verbatim_ in La Planche, 389-396. It
was honored by being made the object of a special censure of the
Sorbonne!]
[Footnote 922: La Planche, 387-397; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i.
199.]
[Footnote 923: Remonstrances, plaintes, et doleances de l'estat eccles.,
MSS. Arch. du depart, de la Vienne, Hist. des Protestants et des eglises
ref. du Poitou, par A. Lievre (Poitiers, 1856), i. 84, 85.]
[Footnote 924: Geneva MS., _apud_ Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 110.]
[Footnote 925: See the interesting passage in the Hist. eccles. des egl.
ref., i. 204.]
[Footnote 926: "As touching the occurrents of this Court, it may please
your Majesty to be advertised, that the King of Navarre being on his way
to this Court, hath had letters, as I am informed, written unto him, of
great good opinion conceived of him by this King, with all other kind of
courtesies, to cause him to repair thither." Despatch of Sir Nicholas
Throkmorton, Orleans, Nov. 17, 1560, Hardwick, State Papers, i. 138.]
[Footnote 927: The portrait of this personage is painted in no
flattering colors by Calvin in two letters, to Sulcer, Oct. 1, 1560
("whose mind is more lumpish than a log, unless when it is a little
quickened by wine"), and to Bullinger, of the same date ("one whom you
might easily mistake for a cask or a flagon, so little has he the shape
of a human being"). Bonnet, Eng. tr., iv. 131-135.]
[Footnote 928: The despatches that passed between the court and the
French ambassador in Spain reveal the general alarm. Oct. 4th, Cardinal
Lorraine expects Navarre and Conde within the first half of the month,
"dont je suis fort ayse." Oct. 5th, Francis writes that, within two
days, he has heard that they intend carrying out their enterprise. Oct.
9th, the secretary of state complains of "fresh alarm daily." Negoc.
sous Francois II., 604-607, 610, 650. Others were, in the end, as much
astounded as the Guises at Navarre's pacific attitude. Throkmorton,
writing to the privy council that this king was looked for shortly at
Orleans, adds that all bruits of trouble by him were clean appeased,
_which caused great marvel_. Despatch to privy council, Paris, Oct. 24,
1560, State Paper Office.]
[Footnote 929: Letter of Bishop of Limoges to the Cardinal of Lorraine,
Sept. 26, 1560, _apud_ Negotiations sous Francois II., 562: "Je vous
supplie de croire que le roy et mes seigneurs de son conseil [_i. e._,
Francis and the Guises] ne feront rien pour extirper un tel mal qui ne
soit icy [in Spain] bien pris et receu _a_ _l'endroict de qui que ce
soit_ [sc. Navarre and Conde]: tant ceux-cy craignent qu'il y ait
changement en notre religion et estat." Cf. also pp. 551, 552.]
[Footnote 930: Negociations sous Francois II., 553, 554.]
[Footnote 931: Instructions of the king to M. de La Burie, commanding in
Guyenne, Sept., 1560, _apud_ Negociations sous Francois II., 578-580;
also Ib., 644.]
[Footnote 932: La Planche, 377.]
[Footnote 933: La Planche, 375; Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 120-123, whose
account of this episode in the reformer's life is well written and
interesting. For the general facts above stated the best authority is,
as usual, La Planche, 373-377; see also La Place, 71; De Thou, ii. 807,
827; Hist. eccles., i. 205; Castelnau, l. ii., c. 9; Davila, 34, 35;
Calvin's Letters (Bonnet), iv., pp. 132, 137, 143, 147-151.]
[Footnote 934: Calvin to Bullinger, Dec. 4th, and to Sulcer, Dec. 11,
1560 (Bonnet, iv. 149 and 151).]
[Footnote 935: La Planche, 377; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. ii., c. 19.]
[Footnote 936: La Planche, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 937: Sommaire recit de la calomnieuse accusation de M. le
prince de Conde, in the Recueil des choses mem. (1565), 722-754, and
Memoires de Conde, ii. 373-395--a contemporaneous account by one who
speaks of himself as "ayant assiste a la conduicte de la plus grand part
de tout le negoce."]
[Footnote 938: "Nevertheless, upon his coming, being accompanied with
his brethren, the Cardinal of Bourbon and Prince of Conde, after they
have [had] done their reverence to the king and queens, the Prince of
Conde was brought before the council, who committed him forthwith
prisoner to the guard of Messrs. de Bresy and Chauveney, two captains of
the guard, and their companies of two hundred archers." Despatch of Sir
Nicholas Throkmorton, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 939: "The King of Navarre goeth at liberty, but as it were a
prisoner." Despatch of Sir Nich. Throkmorton, _ubi supra_. "Tanquam
captivus." Same to Lord Robert Dudley, same date, State Paper Office.]
[Footnote 940: La Place, 73; La Planche, 380, 381; Castelnau, 1. ii., c.
10.]
[Footnote 941: La Place, 74: La Planche and Castelnau, _ubi supra_;
Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_. "Madame de Roy (Roye), the Admiral of
France his sister ... is taken and constituted prisoner." Despatch of
Sir Nich. Throkmorton, Orleans, November 17, 1560, Hardwick, State
Papers, i. 139.]
[Footnote 942: "The Dutchess of Ferrara, mother to the Duke that now is,
according to that I wrote heretofore to your Majesty, is arrived at this
Court, the 7th of this present, and was received by the King of Navarre,
the French King's brethren, and all the great Princes of this Court."
_Ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 943: Brantome, Femmes illustres, Renee de France; La Planche,
381; La Place, 74; "que si elle y eust este, elle l'eust empesche, et
que ceste playe saigneroit long temps apres, d'autant que jamais homme
ne s'estoit attache au sang de France, qu'il ne s'en fust trouve mal."
De Thou, ii. 830.]
[Footnote 944: "He remaineth close in a house, and no man permitted to
speak with him; and his process is in hand. And I hear he shall now be
committed to the castle of Loches, the strongest prison in all this
realm." Sir Nich. Throkmorton, November 17, 1560, _ubi supra_, i. 138.]
[Footnote 945: La Place, 75, _ubi supra_; De Thou, ii. 832, 833 (liv.
26); Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 946: La Planche, 402.]
[Footnote 947: Ib., 401; La Place, 75; Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 948: La Planche, 400; Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 10.]
[Footnote 949: Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_. "For, being a prince of the
blood, he said, his process was to be adjudged either by the Princes of
the blood or by the twelve Peers; and therefore willed the Chancellor
and the rest to trouble him no further." Throkmorton, Nov. 28, 1560,
Hardwick, State Papers, i. 151. Castelnau (liv. ii., c. 11) has, by a
number of precedents, proved the validity of this claim.]
[Footnote 950: Memoires de Conde, i. 619, containing the royal _arret_
of Nov. 20th, rejecting Conde's demand; Sommaire recit. The (subsequent)
First President of parliament, Christopher de Thou, was, after
Chancellor L'Hospital, the leading member of the commission. His son,
the historian, may be pardoned for dismissing the unpleasant subject
with careful avoidance of details. La Planche makes no mention of the
chancellor in connection with the case, but records Conde's indignant
remonstrance against so devoted a servant of the Guises as the first
president acting as judge.]
[Footnote 951: La Planche, 399.]
[Footnote 952: La Planche, 401; Davila, 37, 38; Castelnau, l. ii., c.
12. The unanimous voice of contemporary authorities, and the accounts
given by subsequent historians, are discredited by De Thou alone (ii.
835, 836), who expresses the conviction, based upon his recollection of
his father's statement, that the sentence was drawn up, but never
signed. He also represents Christopher de Thou as suggesting to Conde
his appeal from the jurisdiction of the commission, and opposing the
violent designs of the Guises.]
[Footnote 953: La Planche, 401; Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 12.]
[Footnote 954: La Planche, 405, 406, has preserved this striking speech,
which I have somewhat condensed in the text. Agrippa d'Aubigne, Histoire
universelle, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 955: La Planche, it may be noticed, leans to this supposition.
Ibid., 405.]
[Footnote 956: Ibid., 406; D'Aubigne, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 957: See Michele Suriano's account, Rel. des Amb. Ven., i.
528. The ambassador seems to have entertained no doubt of the complete
success that would have crowned the movement had Francis's life been
spared: "Il quale, se vivea un poco piu, non solamente averia ripresso,
_ma estinto dal tutto_ quell' incendio che ora consuma il regno." The
Spanish ambassador, Chantonnay, writing to his master, Nov., 1560,
confirms the statements of Protestant contemporaries respecting the plan
laid out for the destruction of the Bourbons, and then of the admiral
and his brother D'Andelot; but the wily brother of Cardinal Granvelle,
much as he would have rejoiced at the destruction of the heads of the
Huguenot faction, was alarmed at the wholesale proscription, and
expressed grave fears that so intemperate and violent a course would
provoke a serious rebellion, and perhaps give rise to a forcible
intervention in French affairs, on the part of Germany or England. "Pero
a mi paresce que seria mas acertado castigar poco a poco los culpados
que prender tantos de un golpe, porque assi se podrian meter en
desesperacion sus parientes, y causar alguna grande rebuelta y admitir
mas facilmente las platicas de fuera del reyno ... o de Alemania o de
Inglaterra." Papiers de Simancas, _apud_ Mignet, Journal des Savants,
1859, p. 39.]
[Footnote 958: Mem. de Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 12; La Planche, 404;
Memoires de Mergey (Collection Michaud and Poujoulat), 567. The Count of
La Rochefoucauld, hearing through the Duchess of Uzes--a bosom confidant
of Catharine, but a woman who was not herself averse to the
Reformation--that Francis had remarked that the count "must prepare to
say his _Credo_ in Latin," had made all his arrangements to pass from
Champagne into Germany with his faithful squire De Mergey, both
disguised as plain merchants.]
[Footnote 959: La Planche, 404; De Thou, ii. 835 (liv. xxvi.). The
latter does not place implicit confidence in these reports, while
conceding that subsequent events would induce a belief that they were
not destitute of a foundation. According to Throkmorton, also, writing
to Cecil, Sept. 3, 1560, the chief burden was to rest with the clergy,
who gave eight-tenths of the whole subsidy. State Paper Office.]
[Footnote 960: Ibid., 403; De Thou, iii. 82.]
[Footnote 961: Throkmorton's despatches from Orleans, several frequently
sent off on a single day, acquaint us with the rapid progress of the
king's disease, and the cold calculations based upon it. "The
constitution of his body," he writes in the third of his letters that
bear date Nov. 28th (Hardwick, State Papers, i. 156), "is such, as the
physicians do say he cannot be long-lived: and thereunto he hath by his
too timely and inordinate exercise now in his youth, added an evil
accident; so as there be that do not let to say, though he do recover
this sickness, he cannot live two years; _whereupon there is plenty of
discourses here of the French Queen's second marriage_; some talk of the
Prince of Spain, some of the Duke of Austrich, others of the Earl of
Arran." No wonder that cabinet ministers and others often grew weary of
the interminable debates respecting the marriages of queens regnant, and
that William Cecil, as early as July, 1561, wrote respecting Queen Bess:
"Well, God send our Mistress a husband, and by time a son, that we may
hope our posterity shall have a masculine succession. This matter is too
big for weak folks, and too deep for simple." Hardwick, State Papers, i.
174.]
[Footnote 962: Throkmorton to Chamberlain, Nov. 21, 1560. British
Museum.]
[Footnote 963: De Thou, ii. 833, etc. (liv. 26); D'Aubigne, liv. ii., c.
20, p. 103.]
[Footnote 964: On the 17th of Nov. Throkmorton had written: "The house
of Guise practiseth by all the means they can, _to make the Queen Mother
Regent of France_ at this next assembly; _so as they are like to have
all the authority still in their hands, for she is wholly theirs_."
Hardwick, State Papers, i. 140. D'Aubigne (_ubi supra_), who attributes
to the sagacious counsel of Chancellor de l'Hospital the credit of
influencing Catharine to take this course.]
[Footnote 965: I must refer the reader for the details of this
remarkable interview and its results, which, it must be noted, Catharine
insisted on Antoine's acknowledging over his signature, to the _Histoire
de l'Estat de France, tant de la republique que de la religion, sous le
regne de Francois II._, commonly attributed to Louis Regnier de la
Planche (pp. 415-418)--a work whose trustworthiness and accuracy are
above reproach, and respecting which my only regret is that its valuable
assistance deserts me at this point of the history.]
[Footnote 966: Ibid., 413.]
[Footnote 967: The words in the text are those of Calvin, in a letter to
Sturm, written Dec. 16, 1560, not many days after the receipt of the
astonishing intelligence. "Did you ever read or hear," he says, "of
anything more opportune than the death of the king? The evils had
reached an extremity for which there was no remedy, when suddenly God
shows himself from heaven! He who pierced the eye of the father has now
stricken the ear of the son." Bonnet, Calvin's Letters, Am. ed., iv.
152.]