THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE.
(1562-1629.)
BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION IN FRANCE.--Before Luther posted his ninety-
five theses at Wittenberg, there appeared in the University of Paris and
elsewhere in France men who, from their study of the Scriptures, had come
to entertain opinions very like those of the German reformer. The land
which had been the home of the Albigenses was again filled with heretics.
The movement thus begun received a fresh impulse from the uprising in
Germany under Luther.
The Reformation in France, as elsewhere, brought dissension, persecution,
and war. We have already seen how Francis I., the second of the Valois-
Orleans dynasty, [Footnote: The Valois-Orleans sovereigns, whose reigns
cover the greater part of the period treated in the present chapter, were
Louis XII. (1498-1515), Francis I. (1515-1547), Henry II. (1547-1559),
Francis II. (1559-1560), Charles IX. (1560-1574), Henry III. (1574-1589).
The successor of Henry III.--Henry IV.--was the first of the Bourbons.]
waged an exterminating crusade against his heretical Waldensian subjects
(see p. 533). His son and successor, Henry II., also conceived it to be
his duty to uproot heresy; and it was his persecution of his Protestant
subjects that sowed the seeds of those long and woful civil and religious
wars which he left as a terrible legacy to his three feeble sons, Francis,
Charles, and Henry, who followed him in succession upon the throne. At the
time these wars began, which was about the middle of the sixteenth
century, the confessors of the reformed creed, who later were known as
Huguenots, [Footnote: This word is probably a corruption of the German
_Eidgenossen_, meaning "oath-comrades" or "confederates."] numbered
probably 400,000. The new doctrines found adherents especially among the
nobility and the higher classes, and had taken particularly deep root in
the South,--the region of the old Albigensian heresy.
THE CATHOLIC AND THE HUGUENOT LEADERS.--The leaders of the Catholic party
were the notorious Catherine de Medici, and the powerful chiefs of the
family of the Guises. Catherine, the queen-mother of the last three
Valois-Orleans sovereigns, was an intriguing, treacherous Italian.
Nominally she was a Catholic; but only nominally, for it seems certain
that she was almost destitute of religious convictions of any kind. What
she sought was power, and this she was ready to secure by any means. When
it suited her purpose, she favored the Huguenots; and when it suited her
purpose better, she incited the Catholics to make war upon them. Perhaps
no other woman ever made so much trouble in the world. She made France
wretched through the three successive reigns of her sons, and brought her
house to a shameful and miserable end.
At the head of the family of the Guises stood Francis, Duke of Guise, a
famous commander, who had gained great credit and popularity among his
countrymen by many military exploits, especially by his capture of Calais
from the English in the recent Spanish wars (see p. 553). By his side
stood a younger brother Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. Both of these men
were ardent Catholics. Mary Stuart, the queen of the young king Francis
II., was their niece, and through her they ruled the boy-king. The Pope
and the king of Spain were friends and allies of the Guises.
The chiefs of the Huguenots were the Bourbon princes, Anthony, king of
Navarre, and Louis, Prince of Condé, who, next after the brothers of
Francis II., were heirs to the French throne; and Gaspard de Coligny,
Admiral of France. Anthony was not a man of deep convictions. He at first
sided with the Protestants, probably because it was only through forming
an alliance with them that he could carry on his opposition to the Guises.
He afterwards went over to the side of the Catholics. A man of very
different character was Admiral Coligny. Early in life he had embraced the
doctrines of the reformers, and he remained to the last the trusted and
consistent, though ill-starred, champion of the Protestants.
THE CONSPIRACY OF AMBOISE (1560).--The foregoing notice of parties and
their chiefs will render intelligible the events which we now have to
narrate. The harsh measures adopted against the reformers by Francis II.,
who of course was entirely under the influence of the Guises, led the
chiefs of the persecuted party to lay a plan for wresting the government
from the hands of these "new Mayors of the Palace." The Guises were to be
arrested and imprisoned, and the charge of the young king given to the
Prince of Condé. The plot was revealed to the Guises, and was avenged by
the execution of more than a thousand of the Huguenots.
THE MASSACRE OF VASSY (1562).--After the short reign of Francis II. (1559-
1560), his brother Charles came to the throne as Charles IX. He was only
ten years of age, so the queen-mother assumed the government in his name.
Pursuing her favorite maxim to rule by setting one party as a counterpoise
to the other, she gave the Bourbon princes a place in the government, and
also by a royal edict gave the Huguenots a limited toleration, and forbade
their further persecution.
These concessions in favor of the Huguenots angered the Catholic chiefs,
particularly the Guises; and it was the violation by the adherents of the
Duke of Guise of the edict of toleration that finally caused the growing
animosities of the two parties to break out in civil war. While passing
through the country with a body of armed attendants, at a small place
called Vassy, the Duke came upon a company of Huguenots assembled in a
barn for worship. His retainers first insulted and then attacked them,
killing about forty of the company and wounding many more.
Under the lead of Admiral Coligny and the Prince of Condé, the Huguenots
now rose throughout France. Philip II. of Spain sent an army to aid the
Catholics, while Elizabeth of England extended help to the Huguenots.
THE TREATY OF ST. GERMAIN (1570).--Throughout the series of lamentable
civil wars upon which France now entered, both parties displayed a
ferocity of disposition more befitting pagans than Christians. But it
should be borne in mind that many on both sides were actuated by political
ambition, rather than by religious conviction, knowing little and caring
less about the distinctions in the creeds for which they were ostensibly
fighting. [Footnote: What are usually designated as the _First_,
_Second_, and _Third Wars_ were really one. The table below
exhibits the wars of the entire period of which we are treating. Some make
the Religious Wars proper end with the Edict of Nantes (1598); others with
the fall of La Rochelle (1628).
First War (ended by Peace of Amboise) . . . . . . . 1562-1563.
Second War (ended by Peace of Longjumeau) . . . . . 1567-1568.
Third War (ended by Peace of St. Germain) . . . . . 1568-1570.
Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, Aug. 24. . . . . . . .1572.
Fourth War (ended by Peace of La Rochelle). . . . . 1572-1573.
Fifth War (ended by Peace of Chastenoy) . . . . . . 1574-1576.
Sixth War (ended by Peace of Bergerac). . . . . . . . . .1577.
Seventh War (ended by Treaty of Fleix). . . . . . . 1579-1580.
Eighth War (War of the Three Henries) . . . . . . . 1585-1589.
Henry of Bourbon, King of Navarre, secures the throne . .1589.
Edict of Nantes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1598.
Siege and fall of La Rochelle . . . . . . . . . . . 1627-1628.
By the fall of La Rochelle the political power of the Huguenots was
completely prostrated.]
Sieges, battles, and truces followed one another in rapid and confusing
succession. Conspiracies, treacheries, and assassinations help to fill up
the dreary record of the period. The Treaty of St. Germain (in 1570)
brought a short but, as it proved, delusive peace. The terms of the treaty
were very favorable to the Huguenots. They received four towns,--among
which was La Rochelle, the stronghold of the Huguenot faith,--which they
might garrison and hold as places of safety and pledges of good faith.
To cement the treaty, Catherine de Medici now proposed that the Princess
Marguerite, the sister of Charles IX., should be given in marriage to
Henry of Bourbon, the new young king of Navarre. The announcement of the
proposed alliance caused great rejoicing among Catholics and Protestants
alike, and the chiefs of both parties crowded to Paris to attend the
wedding, which took place on the 18th of August, 1572.
THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY (Aug. 24, 1572).--Before the
festivities which followed the nuptial ceremonies were over, the world was
shocked by one of the most awful crimes of which history has to tell,--the
massacre of the Huguenots in Paris on St. Bartholomew's Day.
The circumstances which led to this fearful tragedy were as follows: Among
the Protestant nobles who came up to Paris to attend the wedding was the
Admiral Coligny. Upon coming in contact with Charles IX., the Admiral
secured almost immediately an entire ascendency over his mind. This
influence Coligny used to draw the king away from the queen-mother and the
Guises. Fearing the loss of her influence over her son, Catherine resolved
upon the death of the Admiral. The attempt miscarried, Coligny receiving
only a slight wound from the assassin's ball.
The Huguenots at once rallied about their wounded chief with loud threats
of revenge. Catherine, driven on by insane fear and hatred, now determined
upon the death of all the Huguenots in Paris as the only measure of
safety. By the 23d of August, the plans for the massacre were all
arranged. On the evening of that day, Catherine went to her son, and
represented to him that the Huguenots had formed a plot for the
assassination of the royal family and the leaders of the Catholic party,
and that the utter ruin of their house and cause could be averted only by
the immediate destruction of the Protestants within the city walls. The
order for the massacre was then laid before him for his signature. The
king at first refused to sign the decree, but, overcome at last by the
representations of his mother, he exclaimed, "I agree to the scheme,
provided not one Huguenot be left alive in France to reproach me with the
deed."
A little past the hour of midnight on St. Bartholomew's Day (Aug. 24,
1572), at a preconcerted signal,--the tolling of a bell,--the massacre
began. Coligny was one of the first victims. After his assassins had done
their work, they tossed the body out of the window of the chamber in which
it lay, into the street, in order that the Duke of Guise, who stood below,
might satisfy himself that his enemy was really dead. For three days and
nights the massacre went on within the city. King Charles himself is said
to have joined in the work, and from one of the windows of the palace of
the Louvre to have fired upon the Huguenots as they fled past. The number
of victims in Paris is variously estimated at from 3,000 to 10,000.
With the capital cleared of Huguenots, orders were issued to the principal
cities of France to purge themselves in like manner of heretics. In many
places the instincts of humanity prevailed over fear of the royal
resentment, and the decree was disobeyed. But in other places the orders
were carried out, and frightful massacres took place. The entire number of
victims throughout the country was probably between 20,000 and 30,000.
The massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day raised a cry of execration in almost
every part of the civilized world, among Catholics and Protestants alike.
Philip II., however, is said to have received the news with unfeigned joy;
while Pope Gregory XIII. caused a _Te Deum_, in commemoration of the
event, to be sung in the church of St. Mark, in Rome. Respecting this it
should in justice be said that Catholic writers maintain that the Pope
acted under a misconception of the facts, it having been represented to
him that the massacre resulted from a thwarted plot of the Huguenots
against the royal family of France and the Catholic Church.
REIGN OF HENRY III. (1574-1589).--The massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day,
instead of exterminating heresy in France, only served to rouse the
Huguenots to a more determined defence of their faith. Throughout the last
two years of the reign of Charles IX., and the fifteen succeeding years of
the reign of his brother Henry III., the country was in a state of turmoil
and war. At length the king, who, jealous of the growing power and
popularity of the Duke of Guise, had caused him to be assassinated, was
himself struck down by the avenging dagger of a Dominican monk. With him
ended the House of Valois-Orleans.
Henry of Bourbon, king of Navarre, who for many years had been the most
prominent leader of the Huguenots, now came to the throne as the first of
the Bourbon kings.
ACCESSION OF HENRY IV. (1589).--Notwithstanding that the doctrines of the
reformers had made rapid progress in France under the sons of Henry II.,
still the majority of the nation at the time of the death of Henry III.
were Roman Catholics in faith and worship. Under these circumstances, we
shall hardly expect to find the entire nation quietly acquiescing in the
accession to the French throne of a Protestant prince, and he the leader
and champion of the hated Huguenots. Nor did Henry secure without a
struggle the crown that was his by right. The Catholics declared for
Cardinal Bourbon, an uncle of the king of Navarre, and France was thus
kept in the whirl of civil war. Elizabeth of England aided the
Protestants, and Philip II. of Spain assisted the Catholics.
HENRY TURNS CATHOLIC (1593).--After the war had gone on for about four
years,--during which time was fought the noted battle of Ivry, in which
Henry led his soldiers to victory by telling them to follow the white
plume on his hat,--the quarrel was closed, for the time being, by Henry's
abjuration of the Huguenot faith, and his adoption of that of the Roman
Catholic Church (1593).
Mingled motives led Henry to do this. He was personally liked even by the
Catholic chiefs, and he was well aware that it was only his Huguenot faith
that prevented their being his hearty supporters. Hence duty and policy
seemed to him to concur in urging him to remove the sole obstacle in the
way of their ready loyalty, and thus bring peace and quiet to distracted
France.
THE EDICT OF NANTES (1598).--As soon as Henry had become the crowned and
acknowledged king of France, he gave himself to the work of composing the
affairs of his kingdom. The most noteworthy of the measures he adopted to
this end was the publication of the celebrated Edict of Nantes (April 15,
1598). This decree granted the Huguenots practical freedom of worship,
opened to them all offices and employments, and gave them as places of
refuge and defence a large number of fortified towns, among which was the
important city of La Rochelle.
The temporary hushing of the long-continued quarrels of the Catholics and
Protestants by the adoption of the principle of religious toleration,
paved the way for a revival of the trade and industries of the country,
which had been almost destroyed by the anarchy and waste of the civil
wars. France now entered upon such a period of prosperity as she had not
known for many years.
LOUIS XIII, AND HIS MINISTER, CARDINAL RICHELIEU.--Henry IV. was
assassinated by a fanatic named Ravaillac, who regarded him as an enemy of
the Roman Catholic Church. As his son Louis, who succeeded him as Louis
XIII. (1610-1643), was a child of nine years, during his minority the
government was administered by his mother, Mary de Medici. Upon attaining
his majority, Louis took the government into his own hands. He chose, as
his chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu, one of the most remarkable
characters of the seventeenth century. From the time that Louis admitted
the young prelate to his cabinet (in 1622), the ecclesiastic became the
virtual sovereign of France, and for the space of twenty years swayed the
destinies not only of that country, but, it might almost be said, those of
Europe as well.
[Illustration: CARDINAL RICHELIEU. (After a painting in the Louvre.)]
Richelieu's policy was twofold: first, to render the authority of the
French king absolute in France; secondly, to make the power of France
supreme in Europe.
To attain the first end, Richelieu sought to crush the political power of
the Huguenots, and to trample out the last vestige of independence among
the old feudal aristocracy; to secure the second, he labored to break down
the power of both branches of the House of Hapsburg,--that is, of Austria
and Spain.
For nearly the life-time of a generation Richelieu, by intrigue,
diplomacy, and war, pursued with unrelenting purpose these objects of his
ambition. His own words best indicate how he proposed to use his double
authority as cardinal and prime minister to effect his purpose: "I shall
trample all opposition under foot," said he, "and then cover all errors
with my scarlet robe."
In the following paragraph we shall speak very briefly of the cardinal's
dealings with the Huguenots, which feature alone of his policy especially
concerns us at present.
POLITICAL POWER OF THE HUGUENOTS CRUSHED.--In the prosecution of his
plans, Cardinal Richelieu's first step was to break down the political
power of the Huguenot chiefs, who, dissatisfied with their position in the
government, and irritated by religious grievances, were revolving in mind
the founding in France of a Protestant commonwealth like that which the
Prince of Orange and his adherents had setup in the Netherlands. The
capital of the new Republic was to be La Rochelle, on the southwestern
coast of France. In 1627, an alliance having been formed between England
and the French Protestant nobles, an English fleet and army were sent
across the Channel to aid the Huguenot enterprise.
Richelieu now resolved to ruin forever the power of these Protestant
nobles who were constantly challenging the royal authority and threatening
the dismemberment of France. Accordingly he led in person an army to the
siege of La Rochelle, which, after a gallant resistance of more than a
year, was compelled to open its gates to the cardinal (1628). That the
place might never again be made the centre of resistance to the royal
power, Louis ordered that "the fortifications be razed to the ground, in
such wise that the plough may plough through the soil as through tilled
land."
The Huguenots maintained the struggle a few months longer in the south of
France, but were finally everywhere reduced to submission. The result of
the war was the complete destruction of the political power of the French
Protestants. A treaty of peace, called the Edict of Grace, negotiated the
year after the fall of La Rochelle, left them, however, freedom of
worship, according to the provisions of the Edict of Nantes (see p. 578).
The Edict of Grace properly marks the close of the religious wars which
had desolated France for two generations (from 1562 to 1629). It is
estimated that this series of wars and massacres cost France a million
lives, and that between three and four hundred hamlets and towns were
destroyed by the contending parties.
RICHELIEU AND THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.--When Cardinal Richelieu came to the
head of affairs in France, there was going on in Germany the Thirty Years'
War (1618-1648), of which we shall tell in the following chapter. This was
very much such a struggle between the Catholic and Protestant German
princes as we have seen waged between the two religious parties in France.
Although Richelieu had just crushed French Protestantism, he now gives aid
to the Protestant princes of Germany, because their success meant the
division of Germany and the humiliation of Austria. Richelieu did not live
to see the end either of the Thirty Years' War or of that which he had
begun with Spain; but this foreign policy of the great minister, carried
out by others, finally resulted, as we shall learn hereafter, in the
humiliation of both branches of the House of Hapsburg, and the lifting of
France to the first place among the powers of Europe.