March, speaks of the general pardon offered the insurgents if they
should disperse quietly, and goes on to say: “Although things be thus
calmed, yet the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine live still
in marvelous great fear, and know not whom they may well trust.”
Forbes, i.
[126]
Las nous estions du temps que la fureur françoise
Commença nos malheurs au tumulte d’Amboise,
Nous en avons l’horreur encor peinte en nos cœurs,
Malheureuse aux vaincus, dommageable aux vainqueurs.
Jean Vauquelin de la Fresnaye: _Les Foresteries_.
[127] Taillandier: _Nouv. Recherches sur de l’Hopital_, p. 273
(Paris, 1861). “Les _Huguenots de religion_, pour ne pouvoir
supporter plus la rigueur et cruauté exercées à l’encontre d’eux; et
les _Huguenots d’état_, pour ne plus comporter l’usurpation faite
par lesdits de Guise.” _Commentaires_, p. 63. This is what Regnier
de la Planche told the queen-mother.
[128] There has been much dispute about the origin of this word, but
it probably came from Geneva, where the citizens had long been divided
into two politico-religious parties, known as the _Mamelukes_
and _Huguenots_. Merle d’Aubigné: _Reformation in Time of
Calvin_, vol. i. p. 118.
[129] Claude repeats all the popular scandals against the Protestants,
but he speaks _generally_, refraining from charging with such
infamies those of his own town (Provins), whom he knew from personal
observation.
[130] See note at end of chapter.
[131] “Pauperculus librarius.” De Thou.
[132] Regnier de la Planche: _De l’Estat de France_, pp. 312, 313
(Coll. du Panthéon).
[133] Wright’s _Elizabeth_, i. p. 33.
[134] _Aubespine Correspondence_, pp. 431, 433, 434, 442, 501.
[135] The instructions were signed by the King and Catherine, Guise,
Montmorency, the Cardinal of Lorraine, L’Hopital, and Charles of
Bourbon. See Le Plat, v. p. 561.
[136] _Aubespine: Corresp._ 12th April, 1560, pp. 342, 361.
[137] _Ibid._ 1st October, 1560.
[138] _Ibid._ p. 655.
[139] Aubespine: _Corresp._ 14th October, 1560.
[140] Regnier de la Planche, p. 290.
[141] “Quand un homme ayant mauvaise opinion faisait l’amende
honorable, et prononçait les mots d’icelle, il ne changeait pour cela
son cœur, _l’opinion se muant par oraisons à Dieu_, parole, et
raison persuadée.” _Commentaires_, p. 73 verso.
[142] _Commentaires_, p. 101 verso. Regnier assigns the duke’s
retort to his brother the Cardinal. See also Mignet, _Journal des
Savants_, 1859, p. 25; Bouillé: _Hist. Guise_, ii. p. 86.
[143] “Sans être perpétuellement damné.” Mayer, _États gén._ x.
296.
[144] Baschet, p. 506.
[145] Mayer: _Coll. États gén._ x. p. 310.
[146] Letter of Francis II. to Anthony, April 15: _Colbert_,
_MSS._ vol. xxviii.
[147] Castelnau in his _Mémoires_ says, that the queen-mother
assured them they might come “without fear,” and would be as safe in
Orleans as in their own houses. Both stories may be true, and this is
not the only time when her public and private opinions were at variance.
[148] Voltaire: _Essai sur les Guerres civiles_.
[149] _Comment. de l’Estat_, p. 112. Regnier adds: “Dont il (the
cardinal) fut tellement contristé qu’il n’eut recours qu’ á ses larmes.”
[150] Hardwicke: _State Papers_, i. p. 129; Letter to the Queen,
17th of November, 1560.
[151] The duke and the cardinal openly boasted that, at two blows, they
would cut off the heads of heresy and rebellion. Davila, liv. ii.
[152] “Seria mas acertado castigar poco á poco los culpados que prender
tantos de un golpe.” _Simancas Archives_: Journ. des Savants,
1839, p. 39.
[153] I give this incident as I find it, but hold it to be a fiction.
It is inconsistent with the king’s character and the state of his
health at the time.
[154] Throckmorton to Chamberlayne, 21st November, 1560; Wright’s
_Elizabeth_, i. p. 57.
[155] _Vie de Coligny_, p. 221.
[156] Calvin to Sturm, 16th Dec. 1560. Bonnet: _Lettres de Calvin_.
[157] “Non minus fœdo quam inexpectato mortis genere sustulit. Mortuo
nullus, ut regi, honos habitus.... Lutherano more sepultus Lutheranorum
hostis.” Beza to Bullinger, 22d Jan. 1561; Baum’s _Theodor Beza_,
ii. p. 18, _Suppl._
[158] Paris: _Cabinet historique_, ii. p. 57.
[159] The following were the twelve leading provinces: Normandy,
governed by the Dauphin; Brittany, by the Duke of Etampes; Gascony, by
the King of Navarre; Languedoc and the Isle of France, by Constable
Montmorency; Provence, by the Count of Tende; Dauphiny and Champagne,
by Guise; Lyonnais and the Bourbonnais, by Marshal St. André; Burgundy,
by the Duke of Nevers; and Picardy, by Coligny.
[160] _Mém. de Marguérite de Valois_, p. 18.
[161] There were rewards for killing these beasts: 5 sols for a wolf,
10 sols for a she-wolf. MS. penes auct.
[162] Du Tillet: _Recueil des Roys_, ii p. 192; _Chronique_
(4to. 1618).
[163] MS. penes auct.
[164]
S’il lui reste encor de sa pauvre cueillette,
Quelque petit amas que sa femme discrette
Aura par un long temps, pour l’aider en saison,
Reservé chichement au coin de sa maison,
Le soldat lui survient, pire que n’est l’orage.
_Le Contr’ Empire des Sciences._ Lyon, 1599.
[165] “Un douzième de la prisaie du produit.” _Monteil MSS._ i.
250.
[166] MS. penes auct.
[167] From a list of delicacies supplied in December, 1578, to the
wife of Charles de Vienne, Governor of Burgundy, when in childbed,
we learn that a Mayence ham cost 50 sols, Italian sausages 15 sols
a lb., olives 12 sols, an ounce of musk 18 crowns of the sun, fine
white sugar 23 sols a lb., inferior sort 22 sols, dried currants 12
sols, and preserved pears 3 sols. At Mende, in 1568, a quintal of
hay at 20 sols, and of straw at 8 sols, were reckoned very dear; the
horse-soldier’s pay being arranged on the supposition that he could get
those quantities of hay and straw for 8 and 4 sols, and a setier of
oats for 25. (L’Abbé Bosse: _Le Gevaudan pendant la dernière Guerre
civile_. Mende, 1864.) At Toulouse a soldier’s food cost 4 sols a
day, probably equivalent to rather more than 20 sols or a franc now.
About this time the salary of a president in the Toulouse Parliament
was 100 sols a day, and of his huissier or beadle 30 sols.
[168] “Sans ce grain (le sarrasin) qui nous est venu depuis 60 ans, les
pauvres gens auraient beaucoup á souffrir.” _Contes d’Eutrapel._
[169] “Celui-là même que nous avons en délices ès jours maigres.”
Bélon: _Observations_, etc. 1563.
[170] Champier wonders how people could eat such an _insect_.
[171] Without going to the Pyrenees, or even to Burgundy, the English
traveler may still see relics of the old time in the high cap of the
Normande _bonne_ and in the dress of the fishing-classes in the
Pas de Calais, where the girl who ventures to wear a bonnet is looked
upon as lost.
[172] The Ordonnance of Orleans (1560) forbids the “manans et habitans
de nos villages toutes sortes de dorures sur plomb, fer, ou bois.”
[173] St. Allais: _Ancienne France_, i. 558, gives extracts from
the edicts of 1561.
[174]
Qui vit jamais porter bas des chausses de soye
De 8 ou 10 escus, au lieu d’avoir du pain
Pour les pauvres....
... On eust veu femme
Porter dessus son ventre un _miroir_ en l’église.
Artus Desiré: _Le Dèsordre de France_. Paris, 1577.
[175] De Thou describes his mother “in equo post tergum sessoris
domestici tapeti et stapedæ insidens.”
[176] Corrozet: _Antiquités de Paris_, p. 210 (ed. 1577).
[177] Calculating the actual value of the livre tournois at francs
4·50, according to the quantity of corn it represented, on the average
of frs. 31·71 the setier.
[178] In 1540 the _marc d’or_ (= 8 onces, or 244·75 grammes) was
worth £165 7_s._ 6_d._ of our money; in 1561 it had risen to
£185, and in 1573 to £200.
[179] The _sol par livre_ seems to have been the constitutional
tax, which Francis raised to two sols. The _Traicté des Aydes_, by
L. du Crot, may be consulted with advantage.
[180] Francis I. took away the silver rails that had been set by Louis
XI. round the tomb of St. Martin of Tours.
[181] Du Crot: _Traicté des Aydes_, ad fin.
[182] The salt tax, oppressive enough by itself, was made more so by
the way in which it was levied. It sometimes reached 25 sols the pound,
and purchasers were forced to buy a certain quantity, and renew their
store every three months, whether it was consumed or not. Bernard
Palissy gives a curious account of the working of this tax.
[183] A relic of this custom still exists in the practice of closing
Temple Bar on the accession of a new sovereign.
[184] “Sono stati forzati ad abbandonnar il paesi.” _Relazione_,
iii. (Ser. I.) p. 423. Du Crot confirms this: _Traicté des Aydes_,
p. 114.
[185] La Noue sets it down at twenty million francs.
[186] _Mém de Condé_, tom. vi. p. 603 (Collect. Michaud).
[187] “Fas esse interficere ... nisi obedire evangelio Calviniano.”
_De justa Reipubl. Christi in Regis Auctorit._ 386 recto. See
Labitte: _Démoc. de la Ligue_, p. li.
[188] Arcère: _Hist. Rochelle_ (4to. 1756), i. p. 333.
[189] “Il prete francese [non] molto libidinoso e inclinato solo al
vizio della crapula (gluttony).” The sense requires the addition of the
negative _non_.
[190] _Révue rétrospective_, i. 1833.
[191] _Démonomanie_, p. 152. This man, according to Mezeray, gave
Charles the names of 1200 of his associates. In Bodin and L’Estoile the
numbers are set down at 30,000 and 3000; Boguet says “trois cents mil.”
[192] The following title of a libelous pamphlet throws a curious light
upon the subject in the text: _Les Sorcelleries de Henri de Valois,
et les Oblations qu’il faisoit au Diable dans le Bois de Vincennes,
avec la Figure des Démons d’Argent doré auxquels il faisoit Offrande,
et lesquels se voyent encore en ceste Ville_. Paris, 1589.
[193]
Le lion jeune le vieux surmontera;
En champ bellique par singulier duel,
Dans cage d’or les yeux lui crèvera,
Deux plaies une, puis mourir, mort cruelle.
[194] Isambert: _Anciennes Lois Franç_, xiv. p. 71; Ordonnance of
Orleans, January, 1560.
[195] Gregorius: _Tertia Syntag. Juris Univ. Pars_, lib. 74, c.
21. The evidence would hardly satisfy an English jury.
[196] Gregorius: _Tertia Syntag. Juris Univ. Pars_, lib. 74, c. 21.
[197] Coryat, _Crudities_, p. 8.
[198] Joannes Millæus: _Praxis Criminis persequendi_ (fol. Paris,
1541), contains well-executed plates representing various kinds of
torture.
[199] Claude Haton, ii. 704.
[200] Giovanni Soranzo (1558) says 400,000 or more.
[201] Corrozet (dd. 1568) says: “... Cette ville est de unze portes....
Lequel enclos sept lieues lors contient.” See also Tommaseo, p. 43;
Coryat’s _Crudities_, p. 17.
[202] Brun and Hogenburg: _Théâtre des principales Villes_.
[203] _Mém. de Vieilleville_ (Panthéon Litt.), 1836, p. 510.
[204]
Miror et innumeras forma præstante puellas,
Tam lascivo habitu cultas, adeoque facetas
Ut Priamum aut veterem succendere Nestora possint.
_La Fleur des Antiquitez_, Paris, 1533.
[205] Marino Giustiniano in Tommaseo.
[206] _C’est la déduction du sumptueux ordre de Rouen, etc._ Small
4to. Rouen, 1551.
[207] Favin: _Hist. de Navarre_, an. 1565; Godefroy: _Cérémonial de
France_, i. p. 909; Aubigné: _Hist._ liv. iv. ch. 5; Popelinière, i.
liv. 10; Abel Jouan: _Voyage de Charles IX._
[208]
Et ainsi Dijon a le bruit
D’être l’une, sans point de tache,
Des plus belles villes qu’on sache.
_Blason et Louenge de la noble Ville de Dyjon._
[209] _Régistres du Conseil de Toulon_, B, No. 10, fol. 247.
[210] _A General Hist. of France_, by John de Serres (Serranus).
Fol. Lond. 1624, p. 692.
[211] Beza had a favorable opinion of the boy-king, but not of the
mother: “De rege optimam spem esse, et hoc tibi, ut certissimum,
confirmo. Sed puer est et matrem habet.” Beza to Haller, 24th January,
1561, in Baum’s _Beza_, ii. p. 25, App.
[212] Baschet, p. 510.
[213] Aubespine _Négotiations_, p. 781. The translation of this
unctuous letter is from Miss Freer’s _Elizabeth of Valois_, i. p.
230.
[214] Walsingham describes her as “naturally timid;” Travannes
(_Mém._ ii. 256): “ambitieuse et craintive;” Suriano: “timida e
irresoluta;” and again, “per paura di se stessa;” and Languet (Epist.
i. 41): “Regina, ut est mulier, territa.”
[215] Baschet, p. 518.
[216] The chief members of this council were Anthony of Navarre; the
Cardinals of Bourbon, Lorraine, Tournon, Guise, and Chatillon; the
Prince of Roche-sur-Yon; the Dukes of Guise and Aumale, the Chancellor,
Marshals St. André and Brissac, with the Bishops of Orleans, Valence,
and Amiens. Condé could not act, being in prison.
[217] The lawyers and parliaments were always jealous of the
States-General. Pasquier, who was a “parliamentarian,” calls the appeal
to the Three Estates a “vieille folie courant en l’esprit français.”
[218] F. Bourquelot: _Hist. de Provins_, ii. p. 132. An ordonnance
of 1565 throws a curious light on the morals of the clergy:--“Ad
instantiam promotoris inhibitum fuit omnibus et singulis hujus ecclesiæ
[St. Quiriace at Provins], canonicis, capellariis, vicariis, et aliis
habituatis (?) ne, quovis quæsito colore, audeant mulieres scandalosas
de lapsu et incontinentia carnis, quovis modo suspectas, in eorum domos
claustrales introducere vel intromittere, et si quas habeant, illico
et incontinenti ejiciant et expellant, sub pœna excommunicationis et
amendæ summæ decem librarum et amplius.”
[219] On the calculation that a livre would purchase as much in 1560
as twelve francs would now, the debt was equivalent to twenty millions
sterling.
[220] MSS. _L’Ordre et Séance, etc._
[221] “Ipsius audaciam nobilitas et plebs magno cum fremitu
repulissent.” Beza to Bullinger; Baum’s _Beza_, ii. p. 20, App.
[222] “Habere quædam in mandatis quæ contra ipsum card. promere
jubebantur.” Thuanus, v. lib. 27, p. 14 (Paris, 1609).
[223] The assembly acted up to this principle by ordering (7th January)
the release of all prisoners confined on account of religion; but it
was done secretly “for fear of scandal.”
[224] The language of their cahiers was more moderate than Quentin’s
speech; but in the text they have, for obvious reasons, been treated as
one document.
[225] “Ut auferatur malum de medio nostri.”
[226] Lobineau, _Hist. Bretagne_, ii. 280; Bertrand d’Argentré to
the Duke of Estampes.
[227] Chantonnay to Catherine, 22d April, 1561; _Mém de Condé_,
ii. p. 6.
[228] It is hinted in a contemporary letter, that many feared to
speak their minds lest they should be treated like Du Bourg. Languet
disapproves of the Edict of July, and says of Catherine: “Non mihi
videtur caute egisse.” Lib. ii. Ep. liv. p. 137.
[229] _Mém. de Castelnau_; see also Mignet, _Journ. des Savants_, 1847,
pp. 651–659. In a letter (dated 1565) Castelnau says of Elizabeth: “Je
ne la vis jamais plus belle ni plus jolie, et vous promets qu’il y a
telle fille de quinze ans, qui pense être belle, qui n’en approche
point. Au reste, elle a de grandes et rares vertus, et _un grand
royaume_” (no doubt in his eyes her greatest virtue).
[230] “Elle leur donne à entendre qu’elle veut faire instruire le roi
son fils en leur religion.” _Discours Merveilleux_, p. xxi. On
this matter we may suppose the writer of that scurrilous pamphlet to
be well informed, though we may doubt Catherine’s sincerity. See also
Agrippa d’Aubigné (liv. iv. ch. 3) on the “langage de Canaan” the queen
employed in her conversations with the Protestant pastors. Sec also
_Laboureur_ (i. p. 283), where she is described as “infected with
this venom.”
[231] Chantonnay advised that the heretics should be punished,
Catherine replied: “Il n’était pas possible, vu le grand nombre ...
sans ruiner toute chose et exciter une guerre civile.” Lett. of 8th
January, 1561; _Mém. de Condé_, ii. p. 601.
[232] _Mém. de Condé_, ii. p. 11.
[233] “Vestido como putas.” Chantonnay to Philip II., 28th October,
1561; Simancas Archives: _Journal des Savans_, 1859, p. 159.
[234] In 1561, Micheli, the Venetian embassador, says that
three-fourths of the kingdom are filled with heresy. They met and
preached without any regard to the royal prohibition; and he notes
it as very remarkable, that “priests, monks, and nuns, and even
bishops, and many of the most distinguished prelates, had caught the
infection.... Excepting the common herd, all have fallen away.”
[235] The queen-mother was specially excepted.
[236] There were actually six confederates, the three others being
Cardinal Tournon, Marshal Brissac, and M. de Montpensier. Chantonnay to
Philip II., 9th April, 1561; Bouillé, ii. 132.
[237] “Tous articles ... soient décidés et résolus par la seule parole
de Dieu.” Bibl. Impér. 8927, États de Pontoise.
[238] “Audio Reginam curasse scribi formam emendationis ecclesiarum.”
Languet (11th December, 1561), _Epist._ ii. 184. Also Chantonnay
(22d January, 1561): “Aussi verrez-vous un discours que l’on sème
faussement avoir été envoyé par la Reine au Pape.” He hints that it was
written by Montluc, Bishop of Valence, “pour (sous prétexte de piété)
semer la fausse doctrine.” _Mém. de Condé_, ii. 20.
[239] Alberi: _Vita di Caterina de’ Medici_ (Firenze, 1838), p.
291. See also letter in Bayle’s _Dictionary_, art. _Marot_,
dated 26th August, 1559.
[240] Calvin writes to P. Martyr: “Audio quidem Regis matrem ita esse
tui audiendi cupidam.” 17th August, 1561. Baum’s _Theodor Beza_,
ii. p. 40, App. Peter Martyr, who had a great reputation for eloquence,
waited upon Catherine as soon as he reached Paris. After a long and
friendly interview she dismissed him saying: “Quod deinceps sæpius
mecum sed secreto colloqui vellet.” P. Martyr Senatui Turicensi, 12th
September, 1561. _Ibid._ p. 63.
[241] Bèze à M. d’Espeville, 25th August, 1561; Baum’s _Theodor
Beza_, ii. p. 45, Append. There is a Latin copy of this letter which
differs in several respects from the French.
[242] Beza tells us that his escort numbered a hundred horsemen, and
that the Duke of Guise received him “vultu quam maximè potuit ad
humanitatem composito.” Beza Calvino, 12th September, 1561, Baum. ii.
p. 60, App.
[243] Chantonnay’s dispatch confirms this. He says that the king and
the chancellor “ne bougeraient de là, que l’on n’eut trouvé ordre pour
apaiser les tumultes de ce royaume.” _Mém. de Condé_, ii. 16.
[244] Some historians reckon twelve ministers and a score of lay
delegates; but the difference is unimportant. Besides Beza and Peter
Martyr there were present Viret, Marlorat and Jean Malo, ex-priests,
Reimond, and others.
[245] Beza afterward found it necessary to explain himself more fully
upon this point in a letter to the queen-mother: “Il y a grande
différence de dire que Jésus-Christ est présent en la Sainte Cène, en
tant qu’il nous y donne veritablement son corps et son sang; et de dire
que son corps et son sang sont conjoints avec le pain et le vin. J’ai
confessé le premier, j’ai nié le dernier.”
[246] “Adeo exasperati atque exacerbati sunt, ut proruperint:
Blasphemavit, blasphemavit Deum!” Struckius ad Hubertum, 18th
September, 1561; Baum ii. p. 66, App. Catherine, writing to the
Bishop of Rennes, embassador to the emperor, complains of Beza’s
speech: “Etant enfin tombé sur le fait de la Cène il s’oublia en une
comparaison si absurde et tant offensive des oreilles de l’assistance,
que peu s’en fallut que je ne lui imposasse silence.” (14th September,
1561.)
[247] “Ut saltem æquiores nobis fiant.” Beza Calvino, 27th September,
1561.
[248] His orthodoxy was suspected. “Homo quidem doctus, sed nullius
religionis, ut verè dicam ἄθεος.” Belcarius: _Rer. Gall. Comment._
p. 937. “Il cancelliere che è scoperto nemico della religione
cattolica.” Tommaseo, i. 530.
[249] De Lisle to the king, 6th November, 1561. _Mém pour le Concile
de Trente_ (4to ed.), p. 110.
[250] “Una gran parte del popolo crede a costoro talmente che col mezzo
loro si potranno ridurre alla via buona, come che altrimente siano per
diventare Anabatisti o peggio.” Santa Croce to Cardinal Borromeo.
[251] _Vie de Coligny_, p. 242; La Noue, p. 350 (Engl. transl.).
Pasquier writes of 8000 and 9000 assembling in October, and of an
“incredible concourse.” _Lettres_, p. 233. Languet speaks of
12,000 to 13,000 present at a sermon in Orleans (_Arcana Secreta_,
Ep. lv.); in Ep. lxii. he describes a meeting at which he was present:
“non ducenti aut trecenti, sed duo, tria, et interdum novem aut decem
millia ... hodie vero existimo non pauciores 15,000 interfuisse.” p.
155.
[252] After the massacre of Vassy (February, 1562), Condé offered
the queen-mother the support of 2150 Reformed churches. Montfauçon,
_Monumens de la Monarchie_, fol. 1733, v. p. 109. In 1598, the
date of the Edict of Nantes, it was calculated that there were in
France 694 public chapels and 257 private, over which 2800 ministers
and 400 curates presided. There were 274,000 families, making about
1,250,000 souls, and of those families 2468 were noble. In 1561 there
may have been 250,000 more.
[253] “Maxima nobilium parte ad eos accedente adeo ut cœtus
Calvinistarum magna frequentia omnibus prope et nobilissimis quidem
regni urbibus habebantur palam.” Eytzinger: _Leo Belg._ p. 25
(anno 1560).
[254] Beza Calvino, 23d October, 1561; in Baum: _Leben Bezas_, p.
210.
[255] Castelnau, p. 68.
[256] Baum (30th October, 1561), p. 117. Languet writes (26th October,
1561). “Dummodo non plures quam 200 conveniant, et sine armis.” _Arc.
Secr._ ii. p. 153.
[257] “Admodum severe nunc exequuntur edictum de usu armorum
interdicto.” Languet (26th October, 1561): _Arc. Secr._ ii. p.
153. The Huguenots were allowed to retain their arms: “Sotto pretesto
che non avrebbe a seguir qualche seditione ... gli Ugonotti la
portassero per sicurtà sua.” Barbaro: _Relazione_, 1564.
[258] “Calvinistis infestissimo doctore.” Sanctesius: _Resp. ad
Apolog. Bezæ_ (ap. Lannoium, _Hist. Gym. Navarræ_, p. 770).
[259] _Sermon cath. sur les Dimanches_, ii. p. 25. This sermon,
though actually of a later date, is a fair specimen of the style of the
day.
[260] Sanctesius: _Ad Edicta vet. princ. de Licentia Sect._ 1561.
[261] _Complainte apologétique au Roi_, p. 288.
[262] Thierry: _Recueil des Monumens inéd. de l’Hist. du Tiers
État_, ii. p. 683 (4to. Paris).
[263] Thierry: _Tiers État_, ii. p. 712.
[264] “Nostros potius quam adversarios metuo.” (4th Nov. 1561). Baum’s
_Beza_.
[265] “Me non minus severe in rabiosos istos impetus vindicaturum.”
_Ibid._ ii. _Anhang_, 129.
[266] This was Pierre Craon, called Nez d’Argent, because he had lost
his nose in a drunken brawl, and it was replaced by one of silver. He
was at one time Professor of Humanity at Rheims, but resigned his chair
on turning Protestant, and removed to Paris. The children used to sing
a song about him. He was “fort renommé en science,” and worked quite a
revolution in pronunciation and orthography, sounding _c_ like _ch_,
and substituting _k_ for _c_ in calendrier, Catherine, etc. He also
introduced parentheses, commas, accents, diphthongs, and apostrophes.
One account says he was hanged in December, 1561. See Jean Lefèvre:
_Hist. des Troubles_, i. p. 140.
[267] _Arrêt du Parlement_; _Archives curieuses_, tom. iv.;
_Histoire véritable_ (a Huguenot account): _ibid._ p. 49–75.
[268] “Un altro simile spettacolo.” Lett. to Card. Borromeo.
[269] Forbes, ii. pp. 337–338.
[270] Davila: _Hist. Guerres civiles de France_, I. p. 78 (4to.
Paris, 1657).
[271] Psalm xci. (_Vulgate_, xc.): “Non timebis ab incursu et
dæmonio meridiano.”
[272] Beza Calvino, 6th January, 1562. Baum. App. The _Posidonius_
of the text is evidently the admiral.
[273] See Varillas, i. p. 121; Gacon: _Cour de Cath. d. Méd._
[274] “A rigidioribus pontificiis accusatur Lutheranismi ... jam
pulchre simulet ... videatur non multum a nostris dissentire.” Languet,
_Epist._ 44, lib. 2. p. 112; 45, p. 116; 63, p. 159 (26th
November, 1561).
[275] The original report of the Saverne Conference is given in the
_Bulletin de l’Hist. Prot. Français_, iv. p. 184.
[276] It is hardly necessary to caution the reader against accepting
these numbers literally.
[277] A print in Montfauçon, which has been often copied, represents
the duke himself stabbing a woman.
[278] There are many contemporary and contradictory accounts of the
Vassy massacre. _Description du Saccagement exercé cruellement en
la Ville de Vassy_. Caen, 1562; _Discours au Vrai de ce qui est
dernièrement advenu à Vassi_. Paris, 1562. This account says that
the duke heard mass at Dampmartin, and then went on to Vassy, where
he alighted at the convent. The _Discours entier de la Persecution
... en la Ville de Vassy, le 1 mars 1562_, says that the duke was
disturbed at mass by the singing of the Huguenots [who were outside the
walls], and that on his sending to desire them to “wait until mass was
over, when they might sing till they burst,” they sang all the louder.
See also Alberi: _Vita di Caterina de Medici_, p. 92, note. Dr.
Lingard asserts that Brantome was present at the massacre, but the
abbé says plainly, “Je n’y étais pas.” The account in the text is
substantially Davila’s; the duke’s own statement is in Castelnau.
[279] The duke afterward attempted to justify himself on the ground
that the Protestants had begun the attack; but it is not probable
that a body of unarmed persons, including many women and children,
would have provoked an armed body of men commanded by one of the first
soldiers in France. If what Davila says is true, the duke did not
regret this opportunity of showing how much he detested the January
edict (liv. iii.).
[280] Ste Croix, 15th March, 1562; Cimber, vi. 51.
[281] “Magnifico apparatu,” says Eytzinger; “with 2000 gentlemen and
3000 horses,” says Brulart. The date is uncertain, the authorities
giving 15th, 16th, and 20th March.
[282] Monceaux was an undefended country-house, 1½ leag. S.W. of St.
Denis, and ¾ leag. E. of Neuilly.
[283] Letter of 12th April, 1562; _Mém. de Condé_, ii. 53.
[284] La Noue: _Politicke Discourses_, Lond. 1587. This translation
preserves much of the spirit of the original French.
[285] Luillier to Lymoges, 20th April, 1562. Paris: _Cabinet
Historique_, ii. p. 291.
[286] In spite of the disarming edicts, the arms had not been given up,
the Huguenots retaining theirs in some districts. Accordingly, on 28th
April, 1562, the king wrote to De la Mothe Gondrin, ordering the arms
to be restored to the Catholics, “pour leur sûreté et conservation,
_leur défendant néanmoins très-expressement_, de par moy, _de
n’en mal user_, et de n’entreprendre aucune chose de mauvais,
_sous peine d’être punis et châtiés exemplairement_.” Ordinances
and letters of Charles IX. in Archives of Lyons.
[287] This statement, if correct, must be the number on paper merely,
and even then it would be one in four of the whole population of Paris.
[288] From the _Enqueste sur la Profession religieuse de noble homme
Jehan de Montruillon_, 1570, it would appear, that the certificate
required to be signed by the parish priest and his curate, the
church-wardens and sexton, the district judges and others. It states
that the bearer attends mass and confession, that he is married, and
that his children were christened in the parish church.
[289] “Ut occidendorum penuria interficiendi finem fecerit.” Eytzinger:
_Leo Belg._ p. 31.
[290] It may be objected that, as some of the cases cited in the text
occurred after Condé’s revolt, they can not be used to justify it. They
are introduced to show the state of public feeling at the time.
[291] See also letter to church of Blois, 18th September, 1557.
[292] “Nobis bellum non esse bonæ voluntatis, ut pax, sed necessitatis
... necessitas quæ nos premit nullam patitur legem contra naturam.”
[293] The reformer Brentius was at one time a decided advocate of
the principle of non-resistance; but as he grew older, and witnessed
the terrible persecutions of the emperor, he altered his mind, and
contended that the subordinate powers, as being also of God, were
called upon to resist the higher powers, if they should turn their
swords against the people of God.
[294] “Fuerunt aliqui, qui maluerint, plagas accipere quam stringere
gladios, ego non fui in ea sententia.” _Epist._ ii. 149 (12th
October, 1562).
[295] Trebutien: _Caen, Précis de son Histoire_; also, _Recherches et
Antiquités de Caen_.
[296] Talcy (dép. Loir et Cher) is on the right bank of the Loire,
not far from Beaugency. One room in the chateau is still called the
“chambre de Médicis.” There is a tradition that the Bartholomew
Massacre was planned here. It is now in the possession of a Protestant;
but, owing to frequent alteration, little remains of the original
building, except the donjon and a tower or two.
[297] This edict is computed to have caused the death of 50,000
persons. Jean de Serres (Engl. transl.), p. 703; _Mém. de Condé_;
Brulart’s _Journal_ (13th June, 1562); _Gacon_, i. 58. Castelnau speaks
of the “licence débordée de mal faire.”
[298] Medicis MSS.
[299] Claude Haton reckons that 800 or 900 heretics were killed in
Paris in June, 1562, and adds: “God knows that many porters and
rag-gatherers were made rich, and many Huguenots poor.”
[300] The Pincourt or Paincourt of the plans. It was in the Faubourg
St. Jacques, beyond the walls, and on the road to Ménilmontant. The Rue
Popincourt forms the chief communication between the Rue Ménilmontant
and the Faubourg St. Antoine.
[301] Les Tragiques: _Les Fers_, p. 226 (ed. Jannet, Paris, 1857).
[302] Pasquier: _Lettres_, p. 272; Bayle, _sub voce_ “Lorraine.”
[303] _Revue Retrospective_, v. p. 81.
[304] _Sommaire des Choses accordées entre les Ducs de Guise, de
Montmorenci et Marèchal Saint-André._ Capefigue recognizes the
authenticity of this atrocious document.
[305] Chaloner writes from Madrid (1st May, 1562): “They devise how
the Guisians may be assisted, for ... the prevailment of that side
importeth them as the ball of their eyes.” Haines: _State Papers_,
p. 382.
[306] Throckmorton writes: “The Pope hath lent 100,000 crowns, and doth
monthly pay besides 6000 soldiers.” Forbes: _State Papers_, ii. p.
4.
[307] Forbes: _State Papers_, ii. pp. 16–20, 22–25.
[308] _Ibid._ p. 54; see Latin version of letter, pp. 55–57.
[309] The popular tradition says that Chassebœuf was hanged
_after_ the St. Bartholomew, by order of Henry of Guise.
[310] In order to disappoint the enemy, the clergy often appropriated
the church treasures, and thus the circulating medium of the kingdom
was quadrupled. Brantome declares that “there was now in France more
millions of gold than there had previously been livres of silver.”
[311] Paris: _Cab. Hist._ vi. p. 205. Perissin’s vigorous
engraving, “Le massacre fait à Tours par la populace, 1562,” represents
dead bodies lying naked on the river bank gnawed by dogs and birds;
men in boats braining with clubs such as tried to save themselves by
swimming, soldiers shooting at them in the water; men tied to trees and
disemboweled, etc.
[312] _Vie de Coligny_, p. 269.
[313] For an English account of the siege, see Forbes: _State
Papers_, pp. 117–127.
[314] La Poupelière, whom some writers have confounded with the
historian, La Popelinière, says: “En tous les rencontres de ceux de la
religion, il a fait piller, ne laissant que les murailles et que les
terres qui ne se pouvaient emporter.” _Canton d’Athis_, p. 44.
[315] Cf. De Bras de Bourgeville, a contemporary. _Mém. de l’Acad. de
Caen_, 1852.
[316] “Par l’oreille, l’épaule, et l’œil Dieu a mis trois rois au
cercueil;” meaning Francis II., Navarre, and Henry II.
[317] Jean de Troyes, abbot of Gastines, and Sapin, a councillor of
parliament. The life of a third, Odo de Selves, was spared, but he died
a few days after of fright.
[318] “Errants et vacables par les champs.” Floquet: _Hist. du Parl.
de Norm._ ii. p. 408. The _Registres_ of the Hôtel-de-Ville of
Rouen (4th Nov., 1562) contain a conciliatory letter from Catherine
worthy of more attention than it has hitherto received.
[319] Castelnau, p. 125; Throckmorton to Queen, 3d January, 1563, in
Forbes, _State Papers_, pp. 251, 263, 276.
[320] “The cavalry left their ranks, thinking it no shame to enrich
themselves with the spoils of the Papists.” _Vie de Coligny_, p.
277.
[321] Montaigne, liv. i. ch. xlv. (_De la Battaille de Dreux_),
highly extols this movement, comparing it with that where Philopœmen
defeated Machanidas.
[322] Damville was the constable’s second son.
[323] “The constable, so hated by the Reformed, had met with the same
fate, but for the interference of a gentleman named Vesines, who showed
them the baseness of the act.” _Vie de Coligny_, p. 277.
[324] “Ita tantæ pugnæ exitum moderatus est Deus, neutra uti pars victa
aut victrix dici possit.” Eytzinger, p. 43; Throckmorton’s letter in
Forbes, p. 251; and Andelot’s on p. 263.
[325] Paré: _Œuvres_, p. 796 (fol. Lyons, 1641). La Noue estimates
the killed alone at 9000; but nothing can be more hap-hazard than the
way in which writers of the period speak of numbers. Jean de Serres
says the prince lost about 2200 foot and 150 horse. 800 gentlemen
alone were killed. Forbes, p. 276. Beza speaks of 150 horse killed and
taken; but on the enemy’s side “infinita sunt vulnera et cædes maxima.”
Walsingham reckons the admiral’s force after the battle as 5000 horse
and 2000 foot, while Guise had 3000 horse and 16,000 foot. Forbes, p.
259. Coligny writes to Elizabeth: “Notre cavalerie est intacte.”
[326] Martin thinks the account of the Bishop of Riez “evidemment
arrangé, surtout en ce qui regarde Vassi.” _Hist. France_, ix. p.
152, note.
[327] Forbes, p. 277.
[328] _Ibid._ pp. 339 and 343.
[329] Schardius redivivus (fol. 1673): _Responsio_, iii. p. 113;
_Epistola_, iii. 119.
[330] Labitte, p. 15.
[331] Paris: _Cab. Hist._ ii. p. 289; iii. p. 48; _Vie de
Coligny_, p. 289; _Recueil des Chants Hist._ Paris, 1842.
[332] Wright’s _Elizabeth_, i. 125.
[333] Letter dated 29th March, 1563.
[334] Correro, the Venetian embassador, writes: “Come cominciorno
a rubare, rovinare e ammazzare, usando mille crudeltà, questo fu
avvertimento alle povere gente, che da loro istessi cominciorno a dire:
Ma che religione è questa? Costoro che fanno professione d’intender
meglio l’evangelio di nissuno altra, e dove trovano mai che Cristo
comandasse che se pigliasse la robba del prossimo e si ammazzasse
il compagno? E con simili considerazioni si frenevano, ne piu si
precipitavano come prima.” Tommaseo, ii. p. 118.
[335] Jean de Serres puts a similar reply into the mouth of the Duke
of Guise, when a complaint was made to him that, in these “uncivil
tumults” many Catholics were slain: “There is no remedy,” he made
answer; “we have too much people in France. I will deal so as victuals
shall be good cheap.” _Hist._ p. 703 (transl.).
[336] The particulars of this plot are given in a letter from Claude of
Lorraine to Damville, the date of which has been fraudulently altered
from 1563 to 1560. See Vauvilliers, i. 315. Tavannes says the plot was
concocted at Trent by the cardinal, and Lestoile dates the League from
this period.
[337] Blaise de Montluc: _Commentaires_ (Panthéon Littéraire,
Paris, 1836). His shattered monument may still be seen at Estillac
near Agen. The warrior, armed from head to foot, lies bare-headed on a
marble slab, his arms crossed over his breast; his features are coarse
and bold, his beard and mustache thick and long.
[338] The Abbé Caveyrac in his _Apology for Louis XIV._ (note, p.
7) says of the subsequent recantation of this blood-thirsty renegade,
that “he returned _sincerely_ to God.” Let us hope he did, but on
better grounds than Caveyrac’s word for it.
[339] Le Baron de Chapuys-Montlaville: _Hist. de Dauphiné_, ii. p.
358 (8vo. Paris, 1829).
[340] “Ruboribus interfusa, ut lutum sanguine maceratum.” Thuanus:
_De Vita sua_, lib. i. p. 1165.
[341] _Archives curieuses_, iii. 227; Varillas: _Hist. Charles
IX._ (Cologne, 1684).
[342] Discours de ce qui a été faict ès villes de Vallence et Lyon.
1562. A party pamphlet to be read with great caution.
[343] In one of these convents was found “La machination écrite
et signée faisant rôles des maisons des évangelistes et de toutes
autres personnes (qui n’avaient point de maison), pour les mettre à
mort, hommes, femmes et enfants, dans le 4 du dit mois de Mai.” This
“machination” had no existence but in the imagination of the writer.
[344] Pilot: _Occupation de Grenoble par les Protestants_.
[345] Arcère: _Hist. de la Ville de Rochelle_, i. p. 358 (4to.
Rochelle, 1756); Vincent: _Recherches sur les commencements de
Rochelle_: “La maladie d’abattre les images était quasi universelle.”
[346] One George Bosquet wrote a justification of this massacre:
“_Hugoneorum heret. Tolosæ conjur. profligatio memoriæ posita_,”
which was condemned by the council as a defamatory libel (18th June,
1563).
[347] Imberdis, p. 3.
[348] Jean de Serres (Serranus) adds that in the following year, 1563,
a troop of fifty horse surprised the town, tied Ralet to the top of his
house, and fired at him until they killed him (p. 701).
[349] Vitet: _Hist. Dieppe_, p. 77. (Paris, 1844.)
[350] De Bras: _Antiquités de Caen_, p. 170.
[351] The whole of this frightful catalogue will be found in the
“Théâtre des cruautés des hérétiques de notre temps, 1588.” Reprinted
in the _Archives curieuses de France_ (Cimber and Danjou), tom.
vi. series 1. p. 299. See also in the same collection, chap. xiv. of
the _Discours sur le Saccagement des Églises, etc. en 1562_, by
Claude de Sainctes, and the _Vrai Tocsain_. We must not accept for
truth all recorded by this writer, but after the most ample deduction
from his narrative there remains much to lament and condemn.
[352] Wright’s _Elizabeth_, i. 118.
[353] _Ibid._ i. 131.
[354] This letter was partly the composition of L’Hopital, and was
written by Montaigne, the essayist, at that time one of the royal
secretaries.
[355] Langueti Epist. ii. 281, (20th January, 1564): “Se enim satis
expertum quantum malorum.... Reginam nihil jam minus cogitare quam....”
[356] Instructions dated 1562, in Le Plat, v. pp. 151, 155.
[357] See a remarkable dispatch on this subject in the Rouen Library,
Leber, Bundle D, No. 5725.
[358] A portrait of Alva, by Titian, is at Warwick Castle.
[359] See Freer: _Elizabeth de Valois_, ii. ch. 2. In this chapter
we prefer to call the queen by her Spanish name, Isabella.
[360] Per il gran caldo. _Li Grandissimi Apparati_, etc. Padova,
1565.
[361] Walsingham to Smith, 14th September, 1572. Digges: _Compleat
Ambassador_, p. 241.
[362] The attendants of the court were so numerous, that they could not
be accommodated in the town, but had to lodge in the adjacent villages
or live in tents pitched in the surrounding fields.
[363] Abel Jouan: _Voyage de Charles IX._, printed by Baschi,
Baron d’Aubais, in his _Pièces fugitives pour servir à l’histoire de
France_. 4to. Paris, 1759. See also _Mém. de Marguerite_.
[364] _Recueil des choses notables qui ont esté faites à Bayonne_,
etc. 8vo. Paris, 1566; _Li Grandissimi Apparati e Reali Trionfi fatti
nella città di Baiona_. 8vo. Padova, 1565.
[365] Raumer: _Illustrations_, i. p. 121.
[366] _Papiers d’État_ de Granvelle, ix. p. 298. 4to. Paris, 1852,
ed. Weiss.
[367] “Che a loro sono occorse questi ruine per non aver voluto creder
e far quello che lui più di 8 anni li avvisò,” etc. 7th May, 1568.
[368] Davila gives the same idea in different words: lib. iii. Mathieu
(_Hist. France_, i. 283) says his authority was Calignon, a
Catholic, whose Memoirs were published by Gomberville in his Supplement
to the _Memoirs of Nevers_.
[369] Baschet: _La Diplomatie Vénitienne_, p. 522. Paris, 1862.
[370] It is clear from Alva’s letters first published in the _Papiers
d’Etat du Cardinal Granvelle_, ix. pp. 281–330, that the general
belief in a league to exterminate the Huguenots is erroneous, although
Adriani (_Storia Fiorent._) says expressly that Catherine had
agreed upon what they called “Sicilian Vespers,” and that the king was
to retire to the strong castle of Moulins in the Bourbonnais, where he
would be safe. But Adriani is the only person who ever saw the MSS. in
which he professed to read this. De Thou evidently did not believe the
story (ii. 377, _scribunt_ is his word); and Castelnau (liv. vi.
ch. 1) implies as much.
[371] Monitorium et Citatio in _Mém. de Condé_. 4to. 1743.
The French protest and remonstrance are in the same collection. A
remarkable memoir by Bapt. Dumesnil is given in Bouchel: _Bibl. du
Droit Franç._ p. 549; and _Preuves des lib. Egl. Gall._ chap.
iv. No. 27.
[372] The cardinal had occasioned great scandal by taking a wife and
calling her Countess of Beauvais, after his diocese.
[373] Some authorities give “Paris,” for even in a matter which ought
to be well known do the contemporary accounts differ.
[374] Paris: _Cab. Hist._ iii. p. 56.
[375] “Qu’il n’avait fait, ni fait faire l’homicide, et qu’il ne
l’avait approuvé ni approuvait.” Brulart’s _Journal_, 29th
January, 1566. This is hardly consistent with what he wrote at the time
of the murder: supra, p. 222.
[376] Jean de Serres.
[377] _Lettres_, liv. v. lett. 3.
[378] _Remonstrance envoyée au Roi par la Noblesse de la R. R. du
Maine_. 1565.
[379] Cimber, vi. 309; _Discours des troubles_ (5th June, 1566).
[380] This was said in the hearing of L’Hopital. Davila, i. 163 (Fr.
transl.).
[381] “Il y sera comme s’il était mort.” Archives de l’Empire,
_Papiers Simancas_, carton B. In reading Catherine’s letters to
her daughter we must not forget that they were to be seen by Philip
also, and that she could not be truthful, even when writing to her own
children.
[382] Brantome speaks in rapture of this “gentille et gaillarde armée,”
which was accompanied by “quatre cents courtisanes à cheval, belles et
braves comme princesses, et huit cents à pied, bien en point aussi.”
[383] Had Coligny’s proposal to stop Alva’s march been adopted, France
might have been saved much misery; for among other things it would have
satisfied the craving for war felt by that restless nation: “A quoi
(_sc._ la guerre) la plûpart étaient portés par le génie de la
nation, qui ne saurait demeurer en repos.” _Vie de Coligny_, p.
319.
[384] Schardius: _De Rebus gest. sub. Maximil._ ii. 64.
[385] Bouillon: _Mém._ i. p. 21.
[386] Capefigue: _La Réforme_, ch. xxxii., gives the text of the
“Instruction à M. Feuquières.” La Noue speaks of “certain intercepted
letters coming from Spain,” p. 389 (Engl. transl.).
[387] La Noue, p. 390 (Engl. transl.); De Thou, liv. xlii.
[388] La Popelinière, xiii. 81.
[389] Alva to king, 28th June, 1567: “Es increible el contentamiente
con que estan los catolicos de Francia de ver pasar estas fuerzas de
VM. en Flandres, que les paresce ser esta su redempcion; y así me dijo
un secretario del Card. de Lorena ... que el Card. su amo y toda la
casa de Guisa estavan resueltos como las fuerzas de VM. estuviesen en
Flandres, irse ellos á la corte, donde entien que esto les hará tan
gran sombra que serán vistos diferentemente de como lo han sido hasta
aqui.” Navarrete: _Docum. ined._ vi. 371.
[390] “Certo sciverunt Pontif. Rom. et reliquos principes ...
constituisse jam tentare Galliam ... conduxit itaque rex ad eam rem
perficiendam xx. signa Helvetiorum.”--To the same purport writes
Castelnau, 383.
[391] “Habillé en ménagier faisant ses vendanges.” Pasquier,
_Lettres_, ii. 117 (ed. 1723).
[392] La Noue, p. 395 (Engl. transl.).
[393] Had the Huguenots succeeded, they would have burned Paris. For
the proofs of such an improbable story see _Hist. relig. pol. etc. de
la Comp. de Jésus_, by J. Crétineau-Joly (3 éd. Paris, 1859), ii.
ch. ii. p. 85.
[394] Gachard: _Corresp. Philippe II._, tom. i. p. 593.
[395] “Car tant plus de morts, moeingz d’ennemys.” Letter of 8th
October, 1567. _Livre du Roy_. Grenoble MS. Gordes proving too
merciful in carrying out these harsh instructions, the cruel and
intemperate Maugiron was appointed his colleague.
[396] As crowds of American ladies are reported to have gone out to
witness the first battle of Bull Run.
[397] The Huguenots adopted white, the king’s color, to indicate their
loyalty; their opponents chose red, the emblem of Spain.
[398] One account says that the constable was really killed by “un
autre Ecossais,” who shot him in the loins.
[399] “Expetebat pacem, et ob eam rem adduxerant eum in suspicionem
apud vulgus ii qui sperant se ex calamitatibus publicis aucturos suas
opes et suam potentiam.... Fuit amans patriæ et moderatior,” etc.
Languet, _Epist._ i. 33
[400] “Edoctus suo malo ... omnino hoc incumbit ut Edictum ubique
mandetur executioni.” Languet, _Epist._ ii. 357.
[401] Borrel: _Hist. de l’Église Réf. de Nimes_, 12mo. Toulouse,
1856, p. 51.
[402] Baragnon: _Hist. de Nimes_, tom. ii.; an anonymous
_Histoire de la Ville de Nimes_, 8vo. Amsterd. 1767.
[403] Charronet: _Les Guerres de Religion dans les Hautes Alpes_,
p. 50. (8vo. Gap, 1863).
[404] “Ce qui restait du pillage des Huguenots était repillé par les
Catholiques.” Castelnau.
[405] “Discours des Raisons,” etc., in _Anc. Collect. Mém.
France_, xlviii. p. 224.
[406] La Noue, p. 409.
[407] Longjumeau is about four leagues south of Paris, on the old
coach-road to Orleans.
[408] Mezeray: _Abrégé_, iii. p. 1051. Montluc says: “Le prince et
l’amiral firent un pas de clerc, car ils avaient l’avantage des jeux.”
_Comment._
[409] Memoirs of Gaspar de Coligny (Edin. 1844), p. 116.
[410] Die Menschen verwilderten mit den Ländern.
[411] Archives of Tours. Luzarche (Victor): _Lettres historiques_,
p. 81 (Tours, 1861).
[412] Archives of Tours. Luzarche (Victor): _Lettres historiques_,
p. 89 (Tours, 1861).
[413] Languet, i. 58.
[414] “Reclamarunt autem quantum potuerunt legati pontif. Rom. et reg.
Hisp. immo aiunt eos Regi minitatos esse bellum, si hæreticis pacem
concederet, sed Regem ita respondisse ut eos terruerit.” Languet, i. 62.
[415] Gachard: _Corresp. de Philippe II._, vol. i. p. 609 (4to.
Bruxelles, 1848).
[416] Archives of Provins: Registres de Baptême. Charronnet: _Guerres
de Religion_, p. 60. Comptes consulaires de Gap. 1569.
[417] Claude Haton, p. 534.
[418] Thierry: _Tiers-État_, ii. 726.
[419] _Laderchii Ann. Eccles._ xxiii. 125, in Sismondi, xix. p. 21.
[420] _Journal de Lestoile._ The Orange Societies were originally
bound by a similar oath to “pay allegiance to the king and his
successors so long as they support the Protestant ascendancy.” The
loyal Catholics threatened to shut up Charles in a convent, and put
another in his place, if he tried to protect the Huguenots. De Thou, v.
p. 516.
[421] Dom Vaissette: _Hist. Languedoc_, tome v. p. 216, _note_.
[422] On the vaulted ceiling of the Tour de la Ligue is a striking
fresco representing Condé as Mars, Biragne as Vulcan, Catherine as
Juno, Margaret of Valois as a Muse, with other well-known historic
=characters=.
[423] Of this passage, Jean de la Haize, orator of La Rochelle, said:
“La faveur du ciel s’étant déclarée si miraculeusement pour votre
conservation, que la délivrance des enfans d’Israël par la Mer Rouge
n’est point plus admirable et extraordinaire.” _Second Discours
bref_, in Arcère, i. p. 369, _note_. Villegomblain (_Mém._
i. p. 16), says they crossed “near Les Rosiers,” four leagues below
Saumur, which must be a mistake. A spot just above Cosne was pointed
out to me by a lineal descendant of one of the sharers of this flight.
[424] In the Cotton MSS. (_Caligula_ E, vi. fol. 90) there is an
inventory of jewels and trinkets mortgaged to Elizabeth by Joan of
Navarre, Condé, and the admiral, 12th June, 1569.
[425] Champernon married a daughter of the famous Count of Montgomery.
[426] Raleigh’s Works, vi. pp. 157–158, 211.
[427] Mezeray describes the frost of 1570–71 as lasting three months,
during which the fruit-trees, even in Languedoc, were frozen down to
their roots. In March, 1572, Smith, the English embassador, writes from
Blois, complaining of “thirty days’ continued frost and snow.”
[428] Leicester to Randolph (March 13), blames Condé’s “overmuch
rashness,” and says his arm was broken by a shot. Wright’s
_Elizabeth_, i. 313.
[429] Champollion-Figéac: _Documents hist. inédits_, iv. p. 486
(4to. Paris, 1848).
[430] When Charles heard the news of Condé’s death “surgit e lecto,
properat ad summam ædem, alta voce depromit canticum _Te Deum_,
jubet campanas omnes solenniter pulsari.”
[431] One of the medals struck at Rome to commemorate this victory
represents the pope and cardinals kneeling and receiving from heaven an
answer to their prayers: the inscription is from the _Te Deum_:
“Fecit potentiam in brachio suo; dispersit superbos.” Bonanni:
_Numism. Pontif. Rom._ No. 14 (2 vols. fol. Romæ, 1699).
[432] Catena, _Vita di Pio V._ p. 85. He wrote to Catherine to
fight the enemies of God “_ad internecionem usque_;” and to Anjou
to show himself “_omnibus inexorabilem_.” He describes Coligny
as “_exsecrandum illum ac detestabilem hominem_, si modo homo
appellandus est.” See also No. xi. to Charles (6th March, 1569), in
Potter’s _Lettres de Pio V._ (8vo. Paris, 1826), where “punire
hæreticos eorumque duces omni severitate” will hardly support the
writer in the _Dublin Review_ (October, 1865), who contends that
the Church exulted over the St. Bartholomew massacre, not because the
victims were _heretics_, but because they were _rebels_. In
the prayer ordered by Clement IX. to be read on 1st May, Pius V. is
described as elect “ad conterendos ecclesiæ hostes.”
[433] “Death or Victory” had been Henry’s motto in certain court
masques, until Catherine, whose curiosity was piqued by the three Greek
initials he used, ordered him to discontinue them.
[434] Some years ago there was in the cabinet of Alfred de Vigny,
the author of _Cinq Mars_, a portrait, by an unknown painter,
of Prince Henry, when not more than three years old. It was full of
character and life.
[435] Sir James Stephen says that Andelot was slain at Moncontour.
_Lectures, Hist. France_, ii. p. 123. He died at Saintes, 27th
May; Moncontour was fought 3d October.
[436] D’Acier was ransomed for 10,000 crowns, on hearing of which
the pope wrote angrily to Count Santa Fiore, “che non avesse il
comandamento di lui osservato _d’ammazzar subito qualunque
heretico_ gli fosse venuto alle mani.” Catena: _Vita Pio V._
[437] _Simancas Archives_, Bouillé, ii. 448.
[438] Henry of Nassau had left his studies to join his brothers:
“dantem operam literis Argentorati fratres secum abduxerunt.” Languet:
_Epist. Secr._ i. 117.
[439] Raleigh: _Hist. World_, bk. v. ch. ii. sec. 8, p. 356 (fol.
1614).
[440] _Mém. de Perussis_ in Aubais, p. 106. The furniture
and valuables--sculptures by Goujon, and pictures by Italian
artists--filled 80 wagons, and produced 400,000 dollars by public
auction in Paris.
[441] _Epist. Pii papæ V._ Edid. Gouban, Antwp. 1640: “Nihil est
eâ misericordià crudelius.” Lib. iii. ep. 45, Octob. 20.
[442] _Hist. France_ (Le Fère and Piguerre), fol. 1581, p. 119,
_b_.
[443] De Thou. v. p. 610.
[444] Villegomblain: _Mém. des Troubles_, i. 255.
[445] Gilbert de Voisins: _Traité de Géognosie_.
[446] Weld’s _Auvergne and Piedmont_ contains an interesting and
picturesque description of a portion of this district.
[447] Henry and the Prince of Condé had each a regiment at the head of
which they made their apprenticeship in arms.
[448] Matthieu, i. liv. v. p. 327.
[449] Chatillon-sur-Loing (not _sur-Loire_), is in Loiret, five
leagues S.E. of Montargis, and 16 leagues E. of Orleans, on the left
bank of the Loing.
[450] _Simancas Archives_: Bouillé, ii. p. 454.
[451] Le Pipre: _Abrégé chron. de la Maison du Roi_, p. 30. (4to.
ed.).
[452] See also J. Rondinelli: _Oratio in exequiis Karoli IX._
Florentiæ, 1574.
[453] Walsingham to Leicester, 29th August, 1570.
[454] Digges: _Compleat Ambassador_, p. 7.
[455] Ad Camer. p. 132. “Omnes affirmant esse eximiæ voluntatis regem;
sed potentes sunt factiones eorum qui pacem improbant ... omnia sunt
hic tranquilla, nec dubitat quisquam regem esse pacis cupidissimum.” p.
136.
[456] Baschet, p. 252.
[457] “Nullam luci cum tenebris communionem, nullamque catholicis cum
hæ. reticis ... compositionem esse posse.” Letter of 29th January,
1570, Potter.
[458] Tours Archives. Luzarche: _Lettres historiques_ (1861), p.
129.
[459] “Voyant maintenant les affaires de mon royaume réduites au bon
état qu’elles sont (Dieu merci), après qu’il lui a plu pacifier des
troubles qui y étaient.” MSS. Bibl. Imp. in Soldan: _Frankreich und
die Bartholomæusnacht_.
[460] Bouillé, ii. 456, _note_. See also _État de France_, i.
12 _b_ (ed. 1579). _Le Tocsain_, p. 93 (ed. 1579).
[461] “Non sine magna procerum indignatione.” Elsewhere he is described
as a “monstrum nulla virtute redemptum.”
[462] “Miroir de la Justice divine.” L’Estoile.
[463] Davila, i. p. 500.
[464] He was made Duke of Nevers after his marriage with Henrietta of
Nevers, sister of Catherine of Cleves, the widow of Prince Porcien.
Henrietta was the eldest daughter of the Duke of Nevers and Margaret of
Bourbon, sister to Anthony of Navarre. Maria, the youngest daughter,
married Henry of Condé in 1572.
[465] Capefigue.
[466] He is reported to have spent several hours at his forge on the
very eve of the massacre.
[467] Under date 22d March, 1751, Smith writes to Burghley from Blois:
“Inordinate hunting, so early in the morning and so late at night,
without sparing frost, snow, or rain, and in so despotic a manner as
makes her (Catherine) and those that love him to be often in great
fear.”
[468] “Sanguineum reddebat in feras, _non_ in homines.” Raumer (i.
p. 271) suggests the omission of _non_, as being at variance with
history.
[469] The _Archives curieuses_ (viii.) contain a statement of the
sums paid by the king for the animals thus slain.
[470] _Recueil de ce qui a été faict à l’entrée_, etc., in the
Library of Ste. Geneviève.
[471] _Hist. de France_ (by Le Fère de Laval and Piguerre), fol.
1581. _Mém. État de France_, i. 40.
[472] Charronet, p. 65.
[473] A “chanson” of this period strikingly prefigures the massacre of
1572. Here is one verse:
Nos capitaines, corporiaux,
Ont des corselets tout nouveaux
Et des cousteaux
Pour Huguenots egorgetter
Et une escharpe rouge
Que tous voulons porter, etc.
_Le Roux de Lincy_, ii. 295.
In another chanson (No. xvii.) Coligny is threatened:
Pendu à une potence,
Paissant de sa chair et peau
Le corbeau.
[474] “There were men near to his sovereign (Charles IX.) who wished to
bring him up in the Reformed religion; but he (Philip) would anticipate
them, and embroil all the world beforehand.” Letter in Le Plat: _Mon.
Hist. Concil. Trident. Collect._ v. p. 571 (4to. Lovain, 1781–1787).
[475] Walsingham, 25th June, 1571.
[476] “Che ’l Francese sia quasi necessitato desiderare la guerra con
Spagnuoli.” Tommaseo: _Relations Vénitiennes_, ii. p. 171.
[477] Walsingham to Leicester, 5th March, 1572; Digges, p. 49.
[478] Alberi: _Vita di Caterina de’ Medici_.
[479] Walsingham (6th August, 1571) gives an account of this interview
from the report of the prince himself. Digges, p. 174. The _État de
France_ (i. 44.) says Catherine was present, which is a mistake.
[480] Walsingham to Burleigh, 12th August, 1571. “Galli apud Hispanos
in tantum suspicionem vivere.” _Schardius Rediv._ iv. p. 177.
[481] Walsingham to Leicester (22d April, 1571) shows Teligny’s footing
with the king. The embassador hints at opposition to the war against
Spain lest it should give the management to other hands and parties.
[482] After Teligny’s murder she married William of Orange. The present
Count of Paris is descended from Louisa of Coligny, through his mother
Helena of Mecklenburg.
[483] She admired in Coligny “un assortiment rare de vertus et de
talens qui lui rendaient la haute idée de l’ancien héroïsme.” Arcère:
_Hist. Rochelle_ (4to. 1756), i. p. 392. In order to prevent the
marriage, the nuncio Salviati proposed her assassination: “Le remède
serait de se débarrasser, par tous les moyens possibles, de cette
méchante fiancée.” Coquerel: _La Sainte-Barthélemy_ (Paris, 1859),
p. 27, _note_.
[484] Digges, p. 122. Walsingham to Burghley, 12th August, 1571.
[485] About this time Catherine wrote to La Mothe-Fénelon: “L’amiral
est ici avec nous, qui ne désire rien plus que d’aider en tout ce qu’il
peut ... comme aussi à s’employer en toutes choses concernant le bien
du service du roi comme son fidèle sujet.” 27th September, 1571.
[486] Fénelon to the king, 30th September, 1571, repeating Walsingham’s
dispatch to his own government.
[487] _Mém. of Coligny._ Translated by D. D. Scott (12mo.
Edinburgh, 1844).
[488] Fénelon’s Dispatches, October, 1571.
[489] “La maison de Montmorency étaient ceux qui en avaient porté les
premières paroles.” _Mém. de Marguerite._
[490] Chantonnay’s letter of 23d May, 1562; also hinted at in
Aubespine, p. 844.
[491] Walsingham to Leicester, 17th February, 1571.
[492] He was married 17th September, 1570.
[493] Popelinière, ii. fol. 44 _b_.
[494] Charles to De Ferrals, 5th October, 1571. “The most eminent and
faithful of my servants agree with me that, in the present condition of
my kingdom, this marriage is the best means of ending all troubles.”
Raumer, i. 277. The correspondence in Digges is to the same effect.
[495] Walsingham writes 16th August: “The queen-mother had provided
both jewels and wedding.” Digges, p. 135.
[496] _Le Tocsain_ (ed. 1579), p. 77.
[497] “Linerolles, who by the house of Guise and the rest of the
Spanish faction was made an instrument to dissuade his master....” (8th
December, 1571.) “Linerolles, the chief dissuader of the marriage.”
31st December, 1571, in Digges. For another account see Freer’s
_Henry III._ i. p. 72. Sorbin (_Le vray Resveille-Matin_)
says he was killed at Bourgueil, _not_ at Blois.
[498] “Toutes marques, vestiges, et monumens des dites exécutions, etc.
... ordonnons le tout estre osté et effacé.”
[499] Felibien, ii. p. 1112.
[500] There is a letter from Charles to Marshal Cossé (6th November,
1571): “Je veux que vous fassiez ôter la pyramide, et _que vous me
fassiez obéir_, car le temps est venu qu’il le faut faire.” Soldan,
ii. p. 423.
[501] It stood here until destroyed in the Revolution.
[502] Anquetil, Peyrat, and others say _May_, but Sir Thomas
Smith, writing from Blois, 3d March, 1572, says: “This day the Queen
of Navarre is looked for;” and Walsingham (29th March) reports an
interview with her at Blois. Charles writes to Fénelon (8th March) that
the Queen of Navarre arrived eight or nine days ago.
[503] L’Estoile (_Journ. Henri III._) and Sully both give the same
story, evidently from common gossip.
[504] The whole tenor of Charles’s letter to Fénelon (8th March, 1572)
is in contradiction to the story given in the text. He says: “My aunt
shows a good disposition to conclude the marriage.... There is a very
good appearance of it.”
[505] _Lettres du Card. d’Ossat_ (fol. Paris, 1641), Lettre 185,
p. 426. The Edinburgh reviewer (June, 1826) pressed this very unfairly
against Dr. Lingard. The “enemies” might have been Spain. Catena, who
had been secretary to the cardinal, speaks out more distinctly, but
his report will not bear examination: “Io voglio punir questi malvaggi
e felloni, facendogli tagliar tutti a pezzi, o non esser re, perdendo
affatto la corona.” _Vita del Papa Pio V._ p. 196 (Roma, 1647).
[506] Davila, liv. v.; Capilupi: _Lo Stratagema_; and De Thou give
this story, but the latter does not believe it. Ant. Gabut (_Vita
Pii V._) gives the inscription on the ring which Charles sent to
Alessandrino after the death of Pius V.: “Non minus hæc solida est
pietas, ne solvi.” In the _Mém. Etat de France_, the legate “s’en
allait bien content.” I. 150.
[507] Digges, 3d March, 1572, p. 193.
[508] “Il est du tout impossible de l’y disposer si chaudement.” L.
Paris: _Cab. Hist._ ii. p. 231.
[509] Soldan treats it as a fable, _note_ 142.
[510] Mackintosh: _Hist. England_, iii. Appendix D. Raumer, i.
p. 281. After a description of the admiral’s murder and the massacre,
the king “hopes that _now_ the holy father will make no more
difficulties about the dispensation.”
[511] “Con alcuni particolari che io porto, de’ quali ragguaglierò N.
S^{ne} a bocca, posso dire di non partirmi affatto male expedito.”
Letter to Rusticucci (6th March, 1572), in _Lettere del Sr. Ch.
Alessandrino_, quoted by Ranke, _Franz. Gesch._ bk. iv. ch. 3.
[512] Her description of Catherine’s facility of lying is short and
graphic: “Elle me le renie _comme beau meurtre_ et me rit au nez.”
[513] Baschet, p. 488.
[514] Walsingham to Burghley, 29th March, 1572; Digges.
[515] “Capitis sui jacturam facturum esse” Gabut: _Vita Pii V._ in
_Acta Sanctorum_ (Maii), I. cap. v. § 240 (fol. Antverp. 1580).
[516] _Journal de L’Estoile_, p. 73. The words are rather
different in the _Reveille-Matin_, but the sense is the same.
[517] Grabut, _Vita Pii V._ cap. v. § 244. If Charles was not
misleading the pope, these “designs” may have been the Flemish war.
[518] Bouillé: _Hist. Guise_, ii. 492.
[519] Claude Haton: _Mém._ ii. p. 663.
[520] This is clear from her despairing language to Fénelon: “Vous êtes
sur le point de perdre un tel royaume et grandeur pour mes enfans ...
nous pourrions avoir ce royaume entre les mains d’un de nos enfans.” 2d
February, 1571, _Corresp. diplom._ Paris, 1840–41, ed. by Teulet.
[521] The nuncio promised him 100,000 crowns. Walsingham to Cecil, 8th
February, 1572, in Wright’s _Elizabeth_, p. 386. See also letter
of 17th February, in Digges, p. 43.
[522] Charles, writing to Fénelon (19th Jan. 1572), mentions a
discussion about inserting the words “_of attacks under pretext of
religion_,” and what Walsingham had said on the matter about a
general Protestant Confederation. See Digges, pp. 169–173.
[523] There is abundant evidence in the Fénelon correspondence. On the
20th March, 1572, Charles writes that Queen Mary “had exhorted the Duke
of Alva to hasten to send ships to Scotland to seize her son,” and
that “she would commit herself to the King of Spain.” He bids Fénelon
tell her to write no more such ciphers, and “de se départir de telles
pratiques et menées.” Walsingham’s correspondence shows that Spain,
Guise, the pope, and others were conspiring to prevent Elizabeth from
helping Flanders by an invasion of Ireland, “to which the king was not
privy.” Digges, p. 36 (Letter of 8th February), p. 38.
[524] Charles to Fénelon, 20th March, 1572: “We are in great hope of
the marriage (of Alençon).... If it be accomplished, I shall not be
ungrateful.”
[525] Raumer, i. 196.
[526] _Simancas_ Archives. Paris: _Cab. Hist._ iii. 67.
[527] Gachard: _Bull. Acad. Brux._ xvi. 1849 (pte. 1).
[528] _Simancas Archives._ Paris: _Cab. Hist._ iii. 67.
[529] “Quelque bon jeu.” Bouillé.
[530] Gachard: _Corresp. de Philippe II._ 4to. Bruxelles, 1848, t.
ii. p. 269.
[531] Ellis’s _Letters_, p. 10; see also pp. 16 and 18.
[532] _Mém. de Duplessis-Mornay_, Paris, 1824.
[533] Walsingham to Burghley, 18th July, 1572. Grotius, _Ann._ p.
37, says 5000 foot and 500 horse.
[534] Alva’s letters of 13th and 21st June, and 18th July.
[535] The Grand Seignor heard of the proposed Flemish war, and offered
to help Charles with two galleys and some troops. Sully: _Mém._ i.
p. 15 (Engl. ed.).
[536] Baschet, p. 540: “La guerra per quattro o sei di continui fu
tenuta deliberata.” Tommaseo: _Relations Vénitiennes_, ii. p. 171.
[537] “Tuttavia ne far ogni maggiore istanza.” See also his letters
dated 20th and 23d August. Alberi: _Vita di Caterina de Medici_,
4to. Florence, 1838.
[538] Digges, p. 231.
[539] Letter to Burghley. Digges, pp. 231–234.
[540] Sir Thomas Smith writes 22d August: “There is no revocation
(recall of troops) done nor meant.” Digges, p. 237.
[541] The Memoirs of Tavannes put this beyond a doubt.
[542] Digges, p. 234.
[543] Favyn says 10th June; an inscription in the _État de France_
gives _Idus Junii_ (13th).
[544] Letter to Mdlle. de Guillerville, 12 June, 1572; Paris. _Cab.
Hist._ ii. p. 227. Sir H. Norris testifies to the unhealthiness of
Paris: he took a house beyond the walls, “to be out of the corrupt
air of the town, which surely is such as none other to be compared
to Paris.” Wright: _Elizabeth_, i. 306. See also Coryat:
_Crudities_.
[545] Mdlle. Vauvilliers, whose conscientious biography of Joan of
Navarre is marred by the absence of dates and authorities, says that an
autopsy was _several times ordered, but never made_ (iii. p. 194).
On the other hand, the _Chronologie Novennaire_ expressly states
that Caillard, her physician, and Desnœuds, her surgeon, dissected the
queen’s brain, which they found in a sound state. On her death, see
Villegomblain: _Mém. des Troubles_, i. 259; Bury: _Hist. Henri
IV._ (4to. Paris, 1765); Favyn: _Hist. Navarre_, p. 863 (fol.
Paris, 1612).
[546] _Lettres missives de Henri IV._ i. p. 31. _Collect. des
Doc. Hist. France._
[547] Matthieu, I. liv. vi. p. 343. A long list of these warnings will
be found in the _Reveille-Matin_.
[548] “Non solo con le parole ma con gli effetti;” and Michieli adds,
“quanto agli effetti, quello che è poi seguito contra gli Ugonotti.”
[549] Michieli: _Relazione_; Baschet. Salviati wrote (24th
August): “Quando scrissi ai giorni passati che l’ammiraglio _s’avanza
troppo_, e che gli darebbero sù l’unghe (a rap on the knuckles), già
mi era accorto che non lo volevano più tollerare.” Walsingham was quite
of Coligny’s opinion about the war.
[550] Tavannes says: “There was no other resolution for the massacre
than what the admiral and his adherents occasioned.”
[551] Grabut says the marriage took place, “Gregorii XIII. permissu.”
_Acta Sanctorum._
[552] “Lunedì (25 Agosto) la corte se ritira a Fontanablo, dove la
regina farà il suo parto.” Petrucci, letter 20th August. On the 23d,
giving Duke Cosmo an account of the attempt on the admiral’s life, he
says: “Si pensava che la corte partisse martedì prossimo” (26th August).
[553] Davila says that when she was asked whether she would take Henry
for her husband, she made no reply, and that Charles with his own hand
bent her head as if to nod assent. Margaret is silent on the matter.
[554] Charles IX. to Ferrails, 24th August: “All my subjects have
exhibited the greatest joy and contentment” at the marriage. It is
clear from this letter that the dispensation had not arrived. Raumer,
i. 281.
[555] This is in direct contradiction to Tavannes, who says: “il
continue ses audaces, importune, se fâche, _menace de partir_,”
etc. P. 416.
[556] We abridge rather than translate Anjou’s narrative, whose
authenticity is doubtful. It will not bear minute comparison with other
statements of indisputable truthfulness.
[557] See Salviati’s letter of 24th August. Mackintosh: _Hist.
England_. Anjou does not mention the presence of the duke at this
meeting.
[558] “Maurevers et non pas Maurevel,” according to the _Art de
Vérifier_, but erroneously; he is also called Moruel, Montravel,
Maurevert, and Moureveil. His real name was Louvier, sire de Maurevert
en Brie. For his murderous services he was rewarded with two good
abbeys. L’Estoile’s _Journal_. He accompanied Marshal de Retz
on his embassy to England in 1573, and on his arriving at Greenwich,
where the court was staying, he was recognized by a page, and pointed
out as “the admiral’s murderer!” A shout of execration was raised, he
was chased by the rabble, and never dared show himself again. _Etat
de France_, ii. 217. He was killed in 1583, in the Rue St. Honoré,
by young Arthur Mouy, who was immediately after shot by one of the
guards who always attended the _tueur du roi_. Villegomblain,
_Mém._ p. 144. _Journal du Règne de Henri III._ p. 71, ed.
Cologne, 1672. This last epithet could hardly have been earned by the
commission of one murder--that of Mouy. At the siege of Rochelle, none
of the principal officers would associate with him, and he was sent to
an isolated post. See Bouillon’s _Memoirs_, p. 14.
[559] Some writers have supposed that through her daughter Margaret,
Catherine discovered a scheme concerted between Charles and Coligny to
banish both her and the Guises from court; and that a common danger
made her combine with Duke Henry to crush the Huguenots, trusting to
find the means afterward of counterbalancing the house of Lorraine.
[560] It was the hotel of the Counts of Ponthieu; and in the 18th
century became an inn, under the title, “Hotel de Lisieux.” _Hommes
illustres de la France_, 1747.
[561] He left with a “sad and dejected countenance,” says the
_Reveille-Matin_: “Si facesse pallido e restasse smarrito
oltro modo, e senza dir parola si ritirasse.” Giovanni Michieli,
_Relazioni_, November, 1572.
[562] Letter of Petrucci, 23d August. _Archiveo Mediceo._
[563] Cimber, vii. p. 211.
[564] Michieli, the Venetian embassador, says that Guise had nothing
to do with it (Baschet: _Relazioni_, p. 551), and adds that on
_Friday_ night the queen and Anjou told Charles of the plot.
[565] The Neustadt letter has “Brüdern und Mütter.” _Archiv. f.
Geschichte, etc._ xvii. 1826 p. 278 (8vo. Wien). This periodical
contains a curious letter from an eye-witness of the massacre addressed
to L. Gruter, bishop of Wiener-Neustadt, entitled _Relation der
franz. auff St. Bartholomäi Tag vorgegangenen erschröcklischen
Execution über die Hugenoten, 1572, den 24 Augusti, anno 1572_.
[566] With a few verbal changes, the account of this interview is taken
from Golding’s _Life of Jasper Coligny_. London, 1576.
[567] La Chapelle des Ursins made the same reproach to Catherine, July,
1572. St. Foix: _Hist. Ordre Saint-Esprit_, i. p. 203.
[568] “So ime auf den Füss trette, wolle er demsellben auf die Versen
tretten.” _Neustadt Letter_, p. 278.
[569] “Hic regi in arcano quædam a Colinio insinuata divulgatum est;
alii tamen negant et secretum hoc de industria a regina impeditum,
ne....” De Thou.
[570] This is from Anjou’s narrative; but whether proceeding from him,
or De Retz (as some think), there are no means of testing it.
[571] “Il avait alentour de lui neuf médecins et onze chirurgiens.”
_Mém. de l’État de France_, ii. 31 _b._
[572] La Noue.
[573] The Hôtel de Clisson, afterward de la Miséricorde, was purchased
by the Duchess of Guise in 1553. The old gate-way forms the entrance to
the modern École des Chartes.
[574] “Le malheur avait voulu que Maurevel avait failli son coup.”
_Mém. de Marguerite._
[575] “Se l’archibugiata ammazava subito l’ammiraglio, non mi risolvo a
credere che si fosse a un pezzo.” Salviati’s letter of August 24.
[576] This meeting is not mentioned in Anjou’s narrative; but there
must have been some such preliminary consultation between the
conspirators.
[577] Catherine afterward asserted that she had desired the death of
six men only: “Reginam dictitare se tantum sex hominum interfectorum
sanguinem in suam conscientiam recipere.” Serranus: _Status
Reipubl._ x. 29.
[578] It is stated in the Neustadt letter that the Swiss soldiers of
Navarre mounted guard inside the house, while the French guard were
posted outside, immediately after the king’s visit on Friday, and that
the pass-word was very strict, in order to prevent any fresh attempt on
the admiral’s life. _Archiv. für Geschichte_, etc. xvii. 1826, p.
278.
[579] Paris: _Cabinet Hist._ ii. 259.
[580] _Archives de Mons._
[581] Digges, p. 254.
[582] Brantome calls De Retz the first and principal adviser of the
deed; Davila says that he obtained the king’s consent to the massacre;
and Margaret states that the queen-mother sent him to Charles between
nine and ten o’clock at night, “because he (De Retz) had more influence
with him,” and that he justified his mother and Anjou for trying to
get rid of that pest “the admiral.” Tavannes partly supports these
statements. I give the preference (reluctantly) to Anjou’s narrative,
because it removes much of the confusion which would otherwise envelop
the remainder of this eventful day.
[583] On this Menselius remarks, that if the account be true, “Ipse
(Anjou) cum matre minime cædis detestandæ particeps habendus esset,
sed solus rex Carolus eandem animo concessisset.” _Bibliotheca
Historica_, vii. pars 2^a, p. 213. Lipsiæ, 1795. Few will agree with
the conclusion.
[584] Juan de Olaegni says that Marcel, “cabeça de los vezinos,”
was sent for, but the city registers say Le Charron. Gachard:
_Particularités inédites_ in _Bull. Acad. Sci. Bruxelles_,
xvi. 1849, p. 235. If the “au soir bien tard” of Anjou’s narrative
means “late in the afternoon,” there were probably two meetings, at the
latter of which Marcel was present.
[585] “Envoiez et portez ... de fort grand matin.” _Registres_ in
Cimber’s _Archives Curieuses_.
[586] _Réveille-Matin._ Margaret, writing twenty-four years after
the event, says that Henry, by the king’s advice, had invited them to
the Louvre, where they would be safer in case of tumult. I give the
preference to her statement.
[587] Mr. Froude (x. 397) writes _Malin_, which is probably a
misprint.
[588] Favyn (_Hist. Navarre_, p. 867) says that after supper,
“about eleven o’clock,” the king went down to his forge with Navarre,
Condé, and others, where they all worked as usual, until between one
and two, when the tocsin was rung.
[589] The _Réveille-Matin_ and the _Mém. État de France_ say,
“attended only by a fille-de-chambre.”
[590] “Ainsi que le jour commençait à poindre.” Now as the sun rose
that day at five o’clock, this would make it a little after four, which
does not harmonize with other statements.
[591] We must remember that Anjou is vindicating himself, and that his
narrative, like the confession of a criminal, endeavors to extenuate
his crime.
[592] According to Burg, he, Koch, and Grunenfelder were the admiral’s
murderers; he does not mention Dianowitz. “At unus [M.K.] e tribus
audacior bipenni (_i. e._, halberd) ilium miserum transfixit,
tertio ipse [C.B.] eum graviter percussit, itaque septimo tactus
tandem (mirum!) in caminum cecidit.” Letter of August 26, from Joachim
Opserus, then at the College of Clermont, to the Abbot of St. Gall.
_Archives de l’Hist. Suisse_, Zürich, ii. 1827. The Neustadt
letter does not corroborate this account.
[593] The Neustadt letter says the admiral was in bed, pretending to be
asleep: “Danach wider zu Beth gelegt, und schlaffendt angenomen, dan er
woll gedacht es wurde ime ietzo gelten.” P. 279.
[594] A similar story--too well founded on the traditions of Würtemberg
to admit of doubt--is told of the reformer Brenz (Brentius); but in his
case the period during which the hen supplied him with food was eight
days.
[595] “Tened piedad de la vejez,” writes Olaegui.
[596] Beza: _Mors Ciceronis_.
[597] Juan de Olaegui says that Guise “le dió un pistoletazo en la
cabeza,” and then flung him from the window. This is probably the
pistol-shot which so alarmed the royal murderers at the Louvre, though
another report (Alva’s _Bulletin_) says it was fired at the body
as it lay dead in the court-yard. The Neustadt letter represents
Coligny as struggling vigorously against four Swiss soldiers (das irer
vier kümmerlich ime bezwingen mögten), and that a French soldier killed
him by shooting him in the mouth. Behm was rewarded with the hand of
a natural daughter of Cardinal Lorraine, and Philip II. gave him 6000
scudi (ostensibly as a dowry) for his life. See Petrucci’s letter
(September 16, 1572), in Alberi, _Vita di Caterina_, p. 149. In
1575 he was captured by the Huguenots near Jarnac, as he was returning
from Spain, and put to death.
[598] Alva’s _Bulletin_. Tavannes says: “embrasse la fenêtre;”
Serranus: “brachio fenestræ columnam complectitur, ibi acceptis aliquot
vulneribus.”
[599] It is uncertain to whom the disgrace of this last indignity
attaches, some imputing the cowardly act to Angoulême. Alva, who was
instructed by Gomicourt, says Guise did it; so also the _Journal de
Henri III._: “Le roi donna un coup de pied ... ainsi que le Duc de
Guise en avait donné au feu amiral,” p. 118. (Cologne, 1672.)
[600] The Neustadt letter says it was cut off for the sake of the
reward: “damit noch 2000 Kronen zu gewinnen.” Alva says: “la mettant au
bout de son épée, la portait par la ville, criant, Voilà la tête d’un
méchant.” _Bulletin_, p. 563. He adds the body was torn in pieces
by the mob, so that “jamais on n’en sût recouvrer pièce.” At the time
Gomicourt wrote to Alva, it was not known what had become of it.
[601] Malgaigne, the latest biographer of Paré, does not believe the
tradition that the great surgeon was specially saved from massacre, and
denies that he was a Huguenot.
[602] Some writers make him two or three years younger.
[603] _De Civilibus Galliæ dissentionibus_, lib. 2, Nos. 39 and
52, apud Martene, _Veter. Script._ tom. v. 1459. Jacques Coppier,
in a versified pamphlet on the massacre, called the _Déluge des
Huguenots_, calls the admiral “Ce grand Caspar au curedent.”
[604] Harleian MSS. No. 1625. In the _Complainte et Regretz du G.
de C._ (Paris, 1572) the dead admiral is supposed to express his
regret: “J’ai honni ma maison en trahissant la France--Et ruiné les
miens par mon outrecuidance.” See also another abusive pamphlet: _Le
Discours sur la Mort du G. de C._, Paris.
[605] Coryat (p. 16) describes it as “the fairest gallows” he ever saw.
It was on a hill, and consisted of fourteen pillars of freestone, and
was “made in the time of the Guisian massacre to hang the admiral.”
In this he is wrong; other authorities reckon sixteen pillars on a
stone platform, tied together by two rows of beams. The bodies were
left a prey to beasts and birds; and the bones fell into a charnel
where the filth of the streets was shot. _Le Gibet de M._
by Firmin-Maillard, 18mo. Paris, 1863; _Des Anciennes fourches
patibulaires de M._, by M. de la Villegille, Paris, 1836.
[606] “After the massacre his body was exposed with the eternal
_tooth-pick in his mouth_.” _Edinb. Review_, cxxiv. 1866, p.
369. This is a mistake, the body was headless.
[607] “Graveolentiam scilicet hostilium cadaverum, quibusvis odoribus
et pigmentis esse sibi fragrantiorem.”
[608] Even Brantome is disgusted: he says the smell is certainly not
sweet; “point bonne, et la parole aussi mauvaise.”
[609] The Neustadt letter says that Teligny offered to ransom his life
for 1000 crowns, which the captain agreed to accept if Guise would
permit him. “I am a poor fellow, and 1000 will be of great use to
me.”--“You are a fool,” answered the duke; “don’t you think the king
will reward you better?” Teligny and his wife were poniarded. Teligny’s
wife was _not_ killed; she afterward married William of Orange.
[610]
At furiis agitata novis regina superba
Signa cani properat, venturæ nuncia cædis,
Ne regis mutata loco sententia cedat.
_Tragica historia de miseranda laniena_, by R. Fresner, Emdæ, 1583.
[611] The tower on the Quai de l’Horloge, pointed out to strangers as
that from which the signal was given, is of later date.
[612] “Á las iij horas de la mañana.” Olaegui. Beza’s account would
place it a little later. “C’était au point du jour.” _Mém. de l’État
de France_, i. 217.
[613] Jean de Gorris, years after his conversion, was so terrified at
seeing his litter surrounded by soldiers, whom he imagined about to
repeat the heresies of the Saint Bartholomew, that he was struck with
paralysis.
[614] The sun rose at 5h. 6m. on August 24.
[615] There are great difficulties in fixing the time of this murderous
scene. Davila and the Neustadt letter (p. 272) place it _before_
the ringing of the tocsin, that is to say, before day-light; while it
is hard to believe that Margaret could be mistaken, or that the murders
were committed _after_ the tocsin. Probably it was a little after
four o’clock, as from an experiment made last 24th August, it would not
have been possible to distinguish the king’s features earlier.
[616] The Neustadt letter says the night was far advanced (folgentz
spädt in der Nacht) when the king sent for Henry, after which the
Duke of Bouillon posted the soldiers told off to murder the Huguenot
gentlemen.
[617] Margaret says thirty or forty, which is more probable.
[618] French history has an unfortunate habit of repeating itself in
its worst characteristics:--“He is at the outer gate, conducted into a
howling sea; forth under an arch of wild sabres, axes, and pikes; and
sinks hewn asunder. And another sinks, and another, and there forms a
piled heap of corpses, and the kennels were red.” Carlyle: _French
Revolution_ (September 4–6, 1792), pt. 3, bk. 1.
[619] _Etat de Fr._ i. 209 _b_; at ii. 25. Henry of Navarre
is said to have witnessed the murders.
[620] _Discours simple et véritable_, p. 36. Only two days before
this, Charles and De Pilles had bathed together in the Seine, the
latter holding the king’s chin and teaching him how to swim. Brantome:
_Hom. Ill._ x. p. 193.
[621] _De Furoribus Gallicis_; _Réveille-Matin, etc._
[622] “Non sine magno et effuso risu.” Serranus.
[623] The name of this individual is not of importance; but he is
called _Lerac_ by Brantome, and _Teyran_ by Mongez. _Hist.
Marg. de Valois._ He was probably Gabriel de Levis, Viscount of
Léran, the “Leiranus” of De Thou, and Leyran of Laval and Piguerre.
[624] Some accounts place this scene on the 26th, after Charles
returned from the _lit de justice_. Did he threaten them twice?
A similar threat is recorded on September 9, when Elizabeth his queen
intervened with tears.
[625] The same figure is used by the author of the _Illustre
Orbandole, où Hist. de Châlons-sur-Saone_. Lyon, 1672, b. 1, pt. 2,
p. 10. “Une saignée fut si sagement ordonnée pour éteindre la chaleur
d’une fièvre que des remèdes plus doux n’avait (_sic_) fait
qu’irriter.”
[626] Cimber, _Arch. Cur._ vii. 217, Registres. _Réveille-Matin_, 64.
Mezeray, iii. p. 258. _Mém. État de France_, i. 216.
[627] _Comptes de l’Hotel-de-Ville_, Félibien, ii. 1121.
[628] Bussy thus effectually gained his suit about the earldom of
Renel. “Hérite-t-on, Seigneur, de ceux qu’on assassine?”
[629]
Comme les autres Pluviaut
A, faute de vin, bu de l’eau.
[630] It is written Odet Petit in Duplessis-Mornay’s _Memoirs_.
[631] Supra, p. 343.
[632] Pasquier, _Lettres_, p. 363. Some Englishmen are reported to
have defended themselves successfully.
[633] In a receipt for his stipend (_penes auct._) dated 1563,
he is called “Seigneur de la Ramée,” and a “noble et scientifique
personne.”
[634] There is a picture by Robert Fleury, exhibited about 1840, in
which Ramus is represented sitting up in a bed on the floor, while his
servant listens anxiously at the door.
[635] _Chronographia_, p. 776, fol. Paris, 1600.
[636] “Nobis vel potius reip. satis pœnarum dedit.” In the dedication
of his “Comparison between Plato and Aristotle,” published in January,
1573, Charpentier compliments the Cardinal of Lorraine on the
“brilliant and sweet day that shone over France in the month of August
last.” Dorat says of Ramus punningly: “Maximum _ramum_ maxima
furca decet.”
[637] Claude Haton says he was killed “more than a week after the
declaration,” as he was riding to his court.
[638] Now the Quai de la Mégisserie, between the Pont Neuf and the Pont
au Change.
[639] Jacques Coppier jests on the bodies “envoyés à Rouen sans
bateau.” Another writer thus plays on the memorable _mot_ of
Charles IX.:
Cumque tuæ passim submersa cadavera plebis
Volvat in æquoreas Sequana tristis aquas,
Tu pisces illis vesci, qui mandere pisces
Noluerint, Roma præcipiente, refers.
_Illustr. aliquot Germ. Carm. lib. de immani laniena._ Vilnæ, 1573,
p. 8.
A pamphleteer declares:
Ha! vous serez ingrats, poissons, vous auriez tort,
Si ne les recevez, du moins, après la mort,
Puisque tant ils vous ont donné de courtoisie,
De ne vouloir jamais vous manger en leur vie.
_Discours sur les Guerres intestines_; par I. T., Paris, 1572.
[640] Agrippa d’Aubigné gives us the sequel of this man’s history. He
assumed a hermit’s frock, and murdered the passengers he lured to his
hermitage, “so unquenchable was his thirst for blood.” He met his tardy
reward on the gibbet.
[641] _Journ. de Henri III._, i. p. 32 (anno 1574).
[642] _Le Tocsain_, p. 145 (Rheims, 1579).
[643] Fronde says hastily, that the story rests only on the “worthless
authority of Brantome.” _Hist. Engl._ x. 406. Now Brantome was a
terrible gossip, but what could induce him to coin such a detestable
story? Smedley (_Prot. Ref. France_, ii. 367) also says, “the fact
is not mentioned by D’Aubigné,” which a subsequent note will show to
be a mistake. Mezeray (_Abrégé_, 1665) says: “Le roy ... tâchait
de les canarder;” Bossuet: “Le roi qui les tirait par les fenêtres.”
The _Réveille-Matin_, published in 1574, mentions it: so that the
story was at least contemporaneous.
[644] _Mém. État de France_, i. 1579 (2d ed.), 212 _b_.
[645] “De laquelle ce prince _giboyait_ de la fenêtre,” ed. 1626,
p. 548. In his poem of _Les Tragiques_ he refers to the same
report, using the same characteristic expression:
Ce roy, non juste roy, mais juste harquebusier,
Giboyait aux passans trop tardif à noyer,
Vantant ses coups heureux.
_Les Fers_, p. 240.
This paints the king firing on the yet living bodies as they floated
down the river. Agrippa is not an authority for the fact; but it is
something to show that the report existed so early. I am told that a
plate of the time represents this window as walled up. If this be true,
why was it closed?
[646] Du Cerceau farther tells us that, at the time when the first part
of his work appeared, the great gallery intended to unite the Louvre
with the Tuileries had been begun.
[647] The time was about five, which gave him two hours’ start of Guise.
[648] _Memoirs of Sully_ (transl.), 4to. London, 1761, p. 27.
[649] _Mém. et Corresp. de Duplessis-Mornay_ (8vo. Paris,
1824–34), i. p. 45. He escaped to Rye, which, after suffering from a
severe pestilence, had been “replenished by the French, who sheltered
themselves here from the great massacre ...; so that, in 1582, were
found inhabiting here 1534 persons of that nation.” Jeake (Sam.):
_Charters of the Cinque Ports_ (Lond. 1728), p. 108.
[650] Granvelle, hearing that L’Hopital and his wife were murdered,
writes exultingly, and hopes that Catherine will soon be disposed of.
See Michelet: _La Ligue_, p. 475.
[651] _Mém. authentiques de Jacques Nompar de Caumont_: ed. by
Marquis de la Grange, 8vo. Paris, 1843. Voltaire in his poetry adopts
Mezeray’s account, that the father and his two sons lay in the same
bed; that two were killed, and the third saved as by a miracle: but in
his notes to the _Henriade_ accepts the true version. De Thou and
Sismondi also adopt the erroneous story.
[652] Mezeray says that he saved “more than 100 Huguenots.”
_Abrégé_, v. 157.
[653] Burghley to Walsingham in Digges, September 9, 1572.
[654] To them of the Castle of Edinburgh, August 25, at noon. _MSS.
Mary Q. of Scots_, Record Office.
[655] Ad Annam Æstensem.
[656] Mezeray, who half believes in the miracle, tries to account
for it on natural causes: “On pourrait dire que la cause qui avait
excité dans les esprits ce violent et extraordinaire accès de fureur,
était aussi celle qui avait échauffé cet arbre, soit qu’elle procédât
de la terre, soit qu’elle vînt de quelque influence des astres.”
_Abrégé_, iii. 1085. Favyn (_Hist. Navarre_), then a boy six
years old, was taken to see the thorn. His memory must have been very
strong to retain the circumstances he records.
[657] Henault, _Abrégé_, p. 443.
[658] Sully, _Mém._ i. p. 30.
[659] Charles reminds us of Nero after his mother’s murder: “modo per
silentium defixus, sæpius pavore exsurgens, et mentis inops lucem
opperiens tanquam exitium allaturam.” Tacitus, _Annal._ xiv. 10.
[660] Agr. d’Aubigné (_Hist. Univ_.) heard the story from Henry
himself.
[661] _De Statu Religionis_, iv. 33. Guise also said “qu’on avait
fait plus qu’il ne voulait ... qu’il n’en voulait qu’à l’amiral.”
_Mélanges: Journ. de Leipsic_ (June, 1693), p. 293. This is
confirmed by a sort of newsletter from Paris, preserved in the Record
Office (_MSS. France_, September, 1572.) “For the admiral’s death
he was glad; but he thought for the rest that the king had put such to
death as, if it pleased him, might have done good service.”
[662] The Catholics condemned “non tanto il fatto quanto il modo e la
maniera del fare ... chiamano questa via di procedere con assoluta
potestà, senza via di giudizio, via di tirannide, _attribuendolo alla
regina come Italiana_.” Baschet: _Relazioni_, p. 295.
[663] _Corresp. de Charles IX. et de Mandelot_, p. 39. _Mém. de
l’État de France_, f. 215. _Recueil de Lettres, etc._, ed. by
Merlet.
[664] “Lasché la main à MM. de Guise.” _Fénelon Corresp._ See also
_Revue Rétrosp._ v. 1834, p. 358, Charles to Matignon, August 26.
[665] “Nous préservant de leurs mains.” Cath. to Philip, August 25.
_Simancas Papers_ (_Bibl. Nat._), B, No. 144.
[666] See the “Official Declaration.”
[667] “_Ces grimaces_ n’imposèrent à personne,” says Bossuet.
Montluc disbelieved the story; “Je sais bien ce que j’en crus.”
[668] _Discours sur les Causes de l’Exécution, etc._ Rouen, 1572.
[669] In a circular to the churches dispatched in his name on the 23d,
Coligny really used this phrase, but it was to quiet, not to excite
them.
[670] This was the meeting at which Bouchavannes played the spy.
[671] Eytzinger got his information from a pamphlet, probably the royal
justification, published at Paris, “cui lector tantum fidei tribuat
quantum volet,” which is pretty plain, considering he was a Catholic.
_Leo Belg._ p. 127.
[672] Félibien, a Benedictine monk, evidently disapproves of the
“discours sur lequel il ne nous appartient pas de porter notre
jugement” (ii. 1122).
[673] It is said in the _Mém. de l’État de France_, that one
Rouillard was killed “at the instigation of the first president,” a
statement we gladly believe unfounded.
[674] Statius: _Silv._ v. 2, l. 88.
[675] Others call him Bishop of Orleans.
[676] An account of this violation of asylum must have been reported
by Walsingham, but I have sought for it in vain. Sir Philip Sydney was
then in Paris: Charles had appointed him one of his gentlemen of the
bed-chamber only a few days before.
[677] Tacitus: _Agricola_. _Choisnin_ in his _Mémoires_ describes the
king and Anjou as “marris de ce que les exécuteurs n’étaient assez
cruels.”
[678] Walsingham to Smith, November 1, 1572. Digges, p. 278.
[679] The cost of this banquet is given by Sauvai, iii. 368.
[680] The Bull (6 Kal. November, 1572) was never registered in
Parliament. I may add that Sureau, unable to stifle his conscience,
fled to Germany, recanted, and died neglected by all.
[681] Digges, p. 267. Letter to Smith, October 8. On September 7 he had
written, “that there is a compact to destroy all persons that be of the
religion.” _Archæologia_, xxii. 1829, p. 325.
[682] See _Martyrologue_, respecting Orleans, p. 712 _recto_;
respecting Bourges, 724 _recto_; respecting Bordeaux, “il
n’entendait pas que cette exécution passât outre et s’étendît plus
avant que Paris,” p. 730 _recto_.
[683] It is given in Olagharray, p. 628, and the _Réveille-Matin_.
[684] _Vita di C. de’ Medici_, p. 155.
[685] Tom. vi. lib. 52, p. 421.
[686] Paris: _Cabinet Hist._ ii. 258.
[687] Raumer, i. 282.
[688] _Revue rétrospect._ v. (1834) p. 359.
[689] Raumer: _Hist. 16th and 17th Cent._, Letter 31.
[690] When the Duke of Alençon revolted against Henry III., and the
city rose in arms, Matignon was sent to reduce it, and as soon as the
Protestants saw his banners, they opened the gates to him. Odolant
Desnos: _Mém. Hist. d’Alençon_, ii. p. 285 (8vo. Alençon, 1787).
[691] The account in the _État de France_ varies from that in the
text.
[692] There is a curious story of an apothecary who discovered that the
fat of the bodies was valuable and would fetch a high price, and of a
general scramble for the bodies in the river, which were dragged out,
that the fat might be extracted and sold. _Mém. État de France_,
i. 263 _b_.
[693] “In one day,” says one account, which is not probable. A
contemporary _brochure_ more moderately sets down the total
at 1800. _Massacre de ceux de la Rel._ 1572: _Mém. État de
France_.
[694] De Thou says that the Huguenots who fled to the Celestine
monastery were killed; but Golnitz affirms the contrary: “In hanc
evangelicorum truculentam necem noluisse etiam consentire dicuntur
canonici in æde Cœlestinorum.” _Ulysses_, p. 331. So also _Mém.
État de France_, i. 260 _b_.
[695] Ten leaves, probably containing an account of the massacre, are
suspiciously torn out of the _Actes Consulaires_ of the city. The
Catholic historian says briefly: “Huit jours après, le même massacre
fut fait à Lyon; je n’ai rien à dire là-dessus.” An expressive silence!
Montfalcon, _Hist. Lyon_, ii. p. 685.
[696] The order for the massacre was transmitted by Sorbin, the king’s
preacher. The author of the _Martyrologue_ says the murders began
without orders. P. 712, _recto_.
[697] See Martin: _Hist. France_, t. ix. p. 337, _note_.
[698] “Ne voulait que aulcune chose fust attentée ni innovée contre
l’édict de la paix.” _Registre des Conseils_, iv. p. 137. See also
the _Registre du Parlement_ for 1572. “Questi ordini (says Homero
Tortora) non giunsero a tempo in molti luoghi per che la fama che vola
per tutto il reame di quanto era avvenuto a Parigi invita cattolici di
molte città a fare il medesimo.” _Ist. di Francia_, 4to. Venezia,
1619.
[699] _Memoirs of Latomy, MSS._ The autograph copy differs
materially from the printed text, which is of little value. Jacques
Gâches, a Huguenot, has left memoirs, portions of which would repay
publication.
[700] Félice in a paragraph of a few lines manages to include almost as
many mistakes. The arrests did not take place on August 31; the number
of victims was not 300, and d’Affis gave no order for their execution.
The magistrates, having no regular police or armed force at their
disposal, were unable to resist the mob and the soldiers. _Archives
of Toulouse_, ad ann.
[701] This curious story will be found in the Dulaure MSS., preserved
in the public library of Clermont-Ferrand. This (to say nothing of the
instances already given) disposes of Capefigue’s “inability to find
any proof of orders issued by the king to massacre in the provinces.”
_Hist. de la Réforme_, iii. p. 229, _note_.
[702] Capefigue says the letter is a forgery of the age of Louis XIV.;
but it is published by Agrippa d’Aubigné in 1618. Adiram d’Aspremonte,
Vicomte d’Orte (as he is sometimes called), was a cruel man, cruel to
both parties. Even Charles IX. was forced to write to him in 1574, and
tell him to be more moderate.
[703] The bishop is said to have been in Paris at this time with the
court as almoner. This, if true, is fatal to the correctness of the
anecdote. I do not lay much stress upon the language of his epitaph:
“Contre lesquels [the Huguenots] il ne faisait pas faute de se montrer.”
[704] De Thou, tom. vi. p. 432 (4to ed.). See also, La Virotte:
_Annales d’Arnay_, 8vo. 1837.
[705] Journal of Mallet and Vautier, _Esprit de la Ligue_, ii. p.
51 (Paris, 1808).
[706] Long: _Guerres de Religion dans le Dauphiné_. De Thou (vi.
428) says Gordes excused himself on the ground that the Huguenots were
too strong.
[707] Chorier: _Hist. Dauphiné_, fol. ii. p. 647.
[708] Long. The historian gives a circular (December 6, 1572), in
which Gordes exhorts the Huguenots to return to the Romish religion,
“parceque le roi s’est résolu à n’en endurer autre.”
[709] Borrel: _Hist. Église Réf. de Nimes_, 8vo. Toulouse, 1856.
[710] To them of the Castle. Record Office, _MS. Queen of Scots_.
He writes at noon on the 25th.
[711] “Seint pleiben bey 1000 Personen und sonst gemeiner Personen über
5000 welche meisten theills ebendig, theils todt ins Wasser geworffen,
theils heuffig in Campo Clericorum vergraben worden.”
[712] “Plus de 7000 personnes _bien connues_, sans autres jetées
dans la rivière qui ne furent connues.” P. 679.
[713] See note to M. Ath. Coquerel’s monograph, “La St.-Barthélemy,” in
the _Nouvelle Revue de Théologie_.
[714] In the _Mém. État de France_ (vol. i.) the names of nearly
eight hundred victims all over the kingdom are given. See also ii. 20
and 25.
[715] Bonanni: _Numism. Pontif._ i. 336. Mezeray, iii. 256.
_Abrégé_, iii. 1082.
[716] “Fu il sacco e la preda grandissima per due milioni d’oro.”
Baschet, p. 549. It is evident that these are mere guesses.
[717] “Il faut juger un temps d’après son esprit, ses émotions et ses
mœurs.” Gachard.
[718] “Ut porci cecidere proci.” Exulting over Coligny, he says, with a
coarse play upon words:
Parte sacerdotes solitus mutare pudenda,
Cuncta pudenda gerens, nulla pudenda gerit.
[719] The year before (1572) he published a _Chant d’Allégresse sur
la Mort de Coligny_, with the motto of Judas: “He went to his own.”
[720] He charges Beza with giving orders “qu’on coupast τὰ αἰδοῖα aux
prestres et aux moynes, ajoutant qu’il en vouloit remplir un puy.” From
the date of the letter (September 15), some are of opinion that it must
have been written before the massacre. Portès’s answer is given in vol.
ii. of the _Mém. État de France_.
[721] Sorbin was chaplain to Charles IX., and wrote a eulogistic
account of his life, in which he skips over the massacre thus: “Le jour
de la St.-B. se passe, où les principaux chefs furent châtiés selon
leurs mérites, au grand regret de ce bon roy.”
[722] See vignette on title-page.
[723] Ellis: _Letters_ (sec. ser.) iii. p. 23.
[724] Rommel: _Corresp. inéd. de Henri IV._ Paris, 1840.
[725] Bruxelles, _Bulletin_, ix. 1841 (pt. 1), p. 560.
[726] March, 1573; _Revue rétrospect._ iii. 1835, p. 195. Sir
Henry Ellis (_Archæologia_, xxii. 1829, p. 323) held it to be “a
strong proof of a deliberate plot,” that the documents on this subject
had disappeared from the Public Records in France; but we have given
ample evidence that such is not the case.
[727] Mezeray and De Sancy call the pope, Innocent XIII.; Brantome and
Sully, Pius V.; but the latter died on 1st May, 1572.
[728] Twelve months after the massacre, the cardinal publicly applauded
Charles to his face for his “holy dissimulation.” Dale’s dispatch:
Macintosh, _Hist. Engl._ iii. 226, _note_.
[729] The genuineness of this medal has been disputed on very
insufficient grounds. It is engraved in Bonanni’s _Numismata
Pontificum_ (2 vols. fol. Romæ, 1689) tom. i. p. 336. It is No. 27
of the series of Gregory XIII. L’Estoile mentions it, under “Lundi, 30
juin, 1618,” as the “pièce que le pape Grégoire XIII. fit faire à Rome
l’an 1572.”
[730] “In Constantini quæ nunc et visitur aula.” Thuanus Posteritati.
The outline of one of these frescoes in the frontispiece to this volume
is taken from De Potter’s _Lettres de Pie V._
[731] See _Dublin Review_ for October, 1865.
[732] Lucan, iv. 192.
[733] In Gregory’s instructions to Cardinal des Ursins (Fabio Orsini),
he is to exhort Charles “ut cœptis insistat fortiter, neque curam
asperis remediis inchoatam prospere, perdat leniora miscendo.” Bonanni,
i. p. 323, 336, No. xxvii. _Ann. Eccles._ ad ann. 1572, in Potter.
_Hist. du Christ._ vii. p. 330.
[734] “Who otherwise never laughed.” St. Goar to Queen; Raumer, i. p.
199.
[735] “Deconcertaron todos los planes del gabinete de Isabel [Elizabeth
of England] é impedieron que se realizase su famosa liga con Francia.”
_Mem. Acad. Madrid_, vii. p. 374.
[736] Juan de Cuniga, embassador at Rome, writes to Philip II. that
“the French _here_ declare that the king meditated this stroke
since the day he made peace;” but in another place he adds, that “he
was credibly informed, if the assault on the admiral was projected a
few days before, and authorized by the king, all the rest was inspired
by circumstances.” _Bulletin Acad. Sci. Bruxelles_, xvi. (1849) p.
250.
[737] “Uno de los mayores contentamientos que he recibido en mi vida.”
[738] Letter of August 25. _Simancas Archives._
[739] “La mejor y mas alegre nueve que al presente me pudiera venir.”
Gachard: _Simancas Archives_.
[740] Burghley to Walsingham, September 9, 1572, in Digges, p. 247.
[741] M’Crie: _Life of Knox_ (1841), p. 337.
[742] Brandt: _Hist. Ref. of Low Countries_ (Chamberlayne’s
transl.), fol. Lond. 1720, vol. i. p. 329.
[743] Walsingham to Smith, 16th and 24th September.
[744] Ranke: _Franz. Gesch._ t. iv. ch. 4. This is said in one
account to have occurred on the eve of the massacre, when he was
playing with Henry of Navarre. St. Foix: _Essais hist. sur Paris_,
i. 74.
[745] Agrippa d’Aubigné, unless he refers to another story, says the
child was “disinterred and then devoured” by its parents, who were
condemned, the man to be burned alive, and the woman to be hanged. See
also _Mém. État de France_, ii. 224. Jean de Leri: _Hist. Siége
de R._; Paris: _Cab. Hist._ vii. There is a Latin version,
Heidelbg. 1576.
[746] _Discours de l’extrême Famine, etc._ par Jean Leri:
_Archives curieuses_, viii. p. 19. _Mém. État de France_, ii.
219 _b_ (ed. 1578).
[747] Among other charges, La Mole was accused of endeavoring to
destroy the king’s life by witchcraft; by means of a waxen image having
a needle pierced through the heart, which an Italian astrologer, Cosmo
Ruggieri, had prepared for him.
[748] “Mollis vita, mollior interitus.” Punning epitaph on La Mole.
[749] His defense was written by his wife Margaret, “God giving her the
grace to compose it.” _Mémoires._
[750] This bloody sweat is an ordinary though rare pathological
phenomenon. Dr. Bourdin describes the case of a farm-servant,
thirty-three years old, from whose forehead blood suddenly began to
issue and continued to flow for half an hour (April, 1859). In No. 40
of the _Gazette Hebdomadaire_ (1859), Dr. Jules Parrot gives the
case of a lady who had suffered from these hemorrhages from six years
of age, and which continued after her marriage. Chemical analysis and
microscopic examination combine to prove that the liquid thus secreted
is truly blood.
[751] _Journal de L’Estoile._ I am afraid the authority is not
very good. See also Peleus: _Vie de Henri IV._ ii. pp. 385–390.
[752] Better known as the translator of Plutarch than as Grand Almoner
of France.
[753] The nuncio wrote to the pope that Charles was killing himself
with the chase; that he had nearly killed 5000 dogs and broken the
wind of all his horses, valued at 30,000 francs. Salviati Cavalli
writes to the same effect: “mal modo di vivere,” etc. See Drelincourt:
_Libitinæ Trophæa_. Lugd. Bat. 1680. He broke out in large
pustules and buboes all over his body: Villegomblain. His stomach was
covered with livid spots: De Thou.
[754] There is an old prophecy: “Væ et iterum væ! quando puer sedebit
in sede lilii.”
[755] His first tutors were the virtuous Carnavalet, the learned Amyot,
and M. de Cipierre, a man of antique type and probity. The latter was
succeeded by Gondi, “fin, corrompu, menteur,” who taught Charles to
swear and blaspheme, “et le pervertit du tout.” Brantome. “Princeps
præclara indole et magnis virtutibus, nisi....” De Thou.
[756] Among others Claude Haton: “fut une grâce de Dieu comment le roi
sut si bien dissimuler.”
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.
2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the
original.
3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.
4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.
5. Bold print is shown as =xxx=.