Henry of Navarre
Throughout France the followers of John Calvin of Geneva organized
themselves into a powerful Protestant party. The Reformation in
Germany had been aristocratic in tendency, since it was mainly upheld
by princes whose politics led them to oppose the Papacy. The teaching
of Calvin appealed more directly to the ignorant, for his creed was
stern and simple. The Calvinists even declared Luther an agent of the
devil, in striking contrast to their own leader, who was regarded as
the messenger of God. For such men there were no different degrees of
sinfulness--some were held to be elect or "chosen of the Lord" at their
birth, while others were predestined for everlasting punishment. It
was characteristic of Calvin that he called vehemently for toleration
from the Emperor, Charles V, and yet caused the death of a Spanish
physician, Servetus, whose views happened to be at variance with his
own!
The Calvinists generally held meetings in the open air where they could
escape the restrictions that were placed on services held in any place
of worship. The middle and lower classes attended them in large
numbers, and the new faith spread rapidly through the enlightened world
of Western Europe. John Knox, the renowned Scotch preacher, was a firm
friend of Calvin, and {101} thundered denunciations from his Scotch
pulpit at the young Queen Mary, who had come from France with all the
levity of French court-training in her manners. The people of Southern
France were eager to hear the fiery speech that somehow captured their
imagination. As they increased in numbers and began to have political
importance they became known as Huguenots or Confederates. To
Catherine de Medici, the Catholic Regent of France, they were a
formidable body, and in Navarre their leaders were drawn mainly from
the nobles.
Relentless persecution would probably have crushed the Huguenots of
France eventually if it had been equally severe in all cases. As a
rule, men of the highest rank could evade punishment, and a few of the
higher clergy preached religious toleration. Thousands marched
cheerfully to death from among the ranks of humble citizens, for it was
part of Calvin's creed that men ought to suffer martyrdom for their
faith without offering resistance. Judges were known to die, stricken
by remorse, and marvelling at their victims' fortitude. At Dijon, the
executioner himself proclaimed at the foot of the scaffold that he had
been converted.
The Calvinist preachers could gain no audience in Paris, where the
University of the Sorbonne opposed their doctrines and declared that
these were contrary to all the philosophy of ancient times. The
capital of France constantly proclaimed loyalty to Rome by the pompous
processions which filed out of its magnificent churches and paraded the
streets to awe the mob, always swayed by the violence of fanatic
priests. The Huguenots did not attempt to capture a stronghold, where
it was boasted that "the novices of the convents and the priests'
housekeepers could have driven them out with broomsticks."
{102}
Such rude weapons would have been ineffectual in the South-East of
France, where all the most flourishing towns had embraced the reformed
religion. The majority of the Huguenots were drawn from the most
warlike, intelligent, and industrious of the population of these towns,
but princes also adopted Calvinism, and the Bourbons of Navarre made
their court a refuge for believers in the new religion.
Navarre was at this time a narrow strip of land on the French side of
the Pyrenees, but her ruler was still a sovereign monarch and owed
allegiance to no overlord. Henry, Prince of Bourbon and King of
Navarre, was born in 1555 at Béarns, in the mountains. His mother was
a Calvinist, and his early discipline was rigid. He ran barefoot with
the village lads, learnt to climb like a chamois, and knew nothing more
luxurious than the habits of a court which had become enamoured of
simplicity. He was bewildered on his introduction to the shameless,
intriguing circle of Catherine de Medici.
The Queen-Mother did not allow King Charles IX to have much share in
the government of France at that period. She had an Italian love of
dissimulation, and followed the methods of the rulers of petty Italian
states in her policy, which was to play off one rival faction against
another. Henry of Guise led the Catholic party against the Huguenots,
whose leaders were Prince Louis de Bourbon and his uncle, the noble
Admiral de Coligny. Guise was so determined to gain power that he
actually asked the help of Spain in his attempt to crush the "heretics"
of his own nation.
The Huguenots at that time had won many notable concessions from the
Crown, which increased the bitter hostility of the Catholics. The
Queen-Mother, however, {103} concealed her annoyance when she saw the
ladies of the court reading the New Testament instead of pagan poetry,
or heard their voices chanting godly psalms rather than the old
love-ballads. She did not object openly to the pious form of speech
which was known as the "language of Canaan." She was a passionless
woman, self-seeking but not revengeful, and adopted a certain degree of
tolerance, no doubt, from her patriotic counsellor, L'Hôpital, who
resembled the Prince of Orange in his character.
The Edict of January in 1562 gave countenance to Huguenot meetings
throughout France, and was, therefore, detested by the Catholic party.
The Duke of Guise went to dine one Sunday in the little town of Vassy,
near his residence of Joinville. A band of armed retainers accompanied
him and pushed their way into a barn where the Huguenots were holding
service. A riot ensued, in which the Duke was struck, and his
followers killed no less than sixty of the worshippers.
This outrage led to civil war, for the Protestants remembered bitterly
that Guise had sworn never to take life in the cause of religion. They
demanded the punishment of the offenders, and then took the field most
valiantly. Gentlemen served at their own expense, but they were, in
general, "better armed with courage than with corselets." They were
overpowered by the numbers of the Catholic League, which had all the
wealth of Church and State at its back, and also had control of the
King and capital. One by one the heroic leaders fell. Louis de
Bourbon was taken prisoner at Dreux, and Anthony of Bourbon died before
the town of Rouen.
The Queen of Navarre was very anxious for the safety of her son, for
she heard that he was accompanying {104} Catherine and Charles IX on a
long progress through the kingdom. She herself was the object of
Catholic animosity, and the King of Spain destined her for a grand
_Auto-da-fé_, longing to make an example of so proud a heretic. She
believed that her son had received the root of piety in his heart while
he was under her care, but she doubted whether that goodly root would
grow in the corrupt atmosphere which surrounded the youthful Valois
princes. Henry of Navarre disliked learning, and was fond of active
exercise. His education was varied after he came to court, and he
learnt to read men well. In later life he was able to enjoy the most
frivolous pastimes and yet could endure the privations of camp life
without experiencing discomfort.
Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, was killed at the battle of Jarnac,
and Henry de Bourbon became the recognized head of the Huguenot party.
He took an oath never to abandon the cause, and was hailed by the
soldiers in camp as their future leader. The Queen of Navarre clad him
in his armour, delighted that her son should defend the reformed
religion. She saw that he was brave and manly, if he were not a truly
religious prince, and she agreed with the loudly expressed opinion of
the populace that he was more royal in bearing than the dissolute and
effeminate youths who spent their idle days within the palaces of the
Louvre and the Tuileries.
The country was growing so weary of the struggle that the scheme for a
marriage between Henry of Navarre and Margaret of Valois was hailed
with enthusiasm. If Catholic and Huguenot were united there might be
peace in France that would add to the prosperity of the nation.
Catherine de Medici had intended originally that her daughter should
marry the {105} Catholic King of Portugal, and was angry with Philip II
of Spain because he had done nothing to assist her in making this
alliance. Charles IX longed to humble Philip, who was indignant that
the "heretics" had been offered freedom of worship in 1570, and had
expressed his opinion rather freely. Therefore the Valois family did
not hesitate to receive the leader of the Protestants, Henry de
Bourbon, whose territory extended from the Pyrenees to far beyond the
Garonne.
The Queen of Navarre disliked the match and was suspicious of the
Queen-Mother's motives. She feared that Catherine and Catherine's
daughter would entice Henry into a gay, dissolute course of life which
would destroy the results of her early training, and she could not
respond very cordially to the effusive welcome which greeted her at the
court when she came sadly to the wedding.
The marriage contract was signed in 1571, neither bride nor bridegroom
having much choice in the matter. Henry was probably dazzled by the
brilliant prospects that opened out to one who was mated with a Valois,
but he was only nineteen and never quite at ease in the shifting,
tortuous maze of diplomacy as conceived by the mind of Catherine de
Medici. Margaret was a talented, lively girl, and pleased with the
fine jewels that were given her. She did not understand the reasons
which urged her brother Charles to press on the match. He insisted
that it should take place in Paris in order that he might show his
subjects how much he longed to settle the religious strife that had
lately rent the kingdom. It was a question, of course, on which
neither of the contracting parties had to be more than formally
consulted.
The Queen of Navarre died suddenly on the eve of {106} the wedding, and
her son, with 800 attendants, entered the city in a mourning garb that
had soon to be discarded. Gorgeous costumes of ceremony were donned
for the great day, August 18th, 1572, when Margaret met her bridegroom
on a great stage erected before the church of Notre Dame.
Henry of Navarre could not attend the Mass, but walked in the nave with
his Huguenot friends, while Margaret knelt in the choir, surrounded by
the Catholics of the party. Admiral Coligny was present, the stalwart
Huguenot who appealed to all the finest instincts of his people. He
had tried to arrange a marriage between Elizabeth of England and Henry
of Anjou, the brother of the French King, but had not been successful,
owing to Elizabeth's politic vacillation. He was detested by Catherine
de Medici because he had great power over her son, the reigning
monarch, whom she tried to dominate completely. A dark design had
inspired the Guise faction of late in consequence of the Queen's enmity
to the influence of Coligny. It was hinted that the Huguenot party
would be very weak if their strongest partisan were suddenly taken from
them. All the great Protestant nobles were assembled in Paris for the
marriage of Navarre and Margaret of Valois. They were royally
entertained by the Catholic courtiers and lodged at night in fine
apartments of the Louvre and other palaces. They had no idea that they
had any danger to fear as they slept, and would have disdained to guard
themselves against the possible treachery of their hosts. They might
have been warned by the attempted assassination of Admiral Coligny, who
was wounded by a pistol-shot, had not the King expressed such concern
at the attempt on the life of his favourite counsellor. "My father,"
Charles IX declared when {107} he came to the Admiral's bedside, "the
pain of the wound is yours, but the insult and the wrong are mine."
The King had the gates of Paris shut, and sent his own guard to protect
Coligny. He was weak, and subject to violent gusts of passion which
made him easy to guide, if he were in the hands of an unscrupulous
person. His mother, who had plotted with Guise for the death of
Coligny, pointed out that there was grave danger to be feared from the
Protestants. She made Charles declare in a frenzy of violence that
every Huguenot in France should perish if the Admiral died, for he
would not be reproached with such a crime by the Admiral's followers.
The bells of the church nearest to the Louvre rang out on the Eve of St
Bartholomew--they gave the signal for a cruel massacre. After the
devout Protestant, Coligny, was slain in the presence of the Duke of
Guise, there was little resistance from the other defenceless Huguenot
nobles. They were roused from sleep, surprised by treacherous foes,
and relentlessly murdered. It was impossible to combine in their
perilous position. Two thousand were put to death in Paris, where the
very women and children acted like monsters of cruelty to the heretics
for three days, and proved themselves as cunning as the Swiss guards
who had slain the King's guests on the night of Saint Bartholomew. A
Huguenot noble escaped from his assailants and rushed into Henry's very
bridal chamber. He cried, "Navarre! Navarre!" and hoped for
protection from the Protestant prince against four archers who were
following him. Henry had risen early and gone out to the tennis-court,
and Margaret was powerless to offer any help. She fled from the room
in terror, having heard nothing previously of the Guises' secret
conspiracy.
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Charles IX sent for Navarre and disclosed the fact that he had been
privy to the massacre. He showed plainly that the Protestants were to
find no toleration henceforth. Henry felt that his life was in great
jeopardy, for most of the noblemen he had brought to Paris had fallen
in the massacre, and he stood practically alone at a Catholic court.
Henry understood that if he were to be spared it was only at the price
of his conversion, and with the alternatives of death or the Mass
before him, it is little wonder that he yielded, at least in
appearance, to the latter. There were spies and traitors to be feared
in the circle of the Medici. Even Margaret was not safe since her
marriage to a Protestant, but she gave wise counsel to her husband and
guided him skilfully through the perils of court life.
Catherine disarmed the general indignation of Europe by spreading an
ingeniously concocted story to the effect that the Huguenots had been
sacrificed because they plotted a foul attack on the Crown of France.
She had been hostile to Coligny rather than to his policy, and
continued to follow his scheme of thwarting Spain by alliances with
Elizabeth and the Prince of Orange.
Henry of Guise met the charge of excessive zeal in defending his King
with perfect equanimity. He was a splendid figure at the court,
winning popularity by his affable manners and managing to conceal his
arrogant, ambitious nature.
After 1572 the Huguenots relied mainly on the wealthy citizens of the
towns for support in the struggle against the Guise faction. In
addition to religious toleration they now demanded the redress of
political grievances. A republican spirit rose in the Protestant
party, who read eagerly the various books and pamphlets declaring that
a monarchy should not continue if it {109} proved incapable of
maintaining order even by despotic powers. More and more a new idea
gained ground that the sovereignty of France was not hereditary but
elective.
Charles IX, distracted by the confusion in his kingdom and the caprices
of his own ill-balanced temper, clung to Henry of Navarre because he
recognized real strength in him such as was wanting in the Valois.
Henry III, his successor, was contemptibly vain and feminine in all his
tastes, wearing pearls in his hair and rouging his face in order that
he might be admired by the foolish, empty courtiers who were his
favourite companions. He succeeded to the throne in 1575, and made
some display of Catholic zeal by organizing fantastic processions of
repentant sinners through the streets of Paris. He insisted on Navarre
taking part in this mummery, for it was to his interest to prevent the
Protestant party from claiming a noble leader.
Navarre had learnt to play his part well, but he chafed at his
inglorious position. He saw with a fierce disgust the worthless
prince, Alençon, become the head of the Protestant party. Then he
discovered that he was to have a chance of escape from the toils of the
Medici. In January, 1576, he received an offer from some officers--who
had been disappointed of the royal favour--that they would put him in
possession of certain towns if he would leave the court. He rode off
at once to the Protestant camp, leaving his wife behind him.
The Peace of Monsieur, signed in February 1576, granted very favourable
conditions to the Protestants, who had stoutly resisted an attack on
their stronghold of La Rochelle. Catherine and Henry III became
alarmed by the increasing numbers of their enemies, for a Catholic
League was formed by Henry of Guise and {110} other discontented
subjects in order to ally Paris with the fanatics of the provinces.
This League was by no means favourable to the King and Catherine, for
its openly avowed leader was Henry of Guise, who was greatly beloved by
the people. Henry III was foolish enough to become a member, thereby
incurring some loss of prestige by placing himself practically under
the authority of his rival. Bitterly hostile to the Protestants as
were the aims of the League, it was nevertheless largely used by the
Duke of Guise as a cloak to cover his designs for the usurpation of the
royal power. The hope of Henry III and his mother was that the rival
Catholics and Protestants would fight out their own quarrel and leave
the Crown to watch the battles unmolested.
The last of the Valois was closely watched by the bold preachers of
political emancipation. These were determined to snatch the royal
prerogatives from him if he were unworthy of respect and squandered too
much public money on his follies. It enraged them to hear that he
spent hours on his own toilette, and starched his wife's fine ruffs as
if he were her tire-woman. They were angry when they were told that
their King regarded his functions so lightly that he gave audiences to
ambassadors with a basketful of puppies round his neck, and did not
trouble to read the reports his ministers sent to him. They decided
secretly to proclaim Henry III's kinsman, the King of Navarre, who was
a fine soldier and a kindly, humane gentleman.
Navarre was openly welcomed as the leader of the Reformed Church party.
He was readmitted to Calvinist communion, and abjured the Mass. He
took the field gladly, being delighted to remove the mask he had been
obliged to wear. His brilliant feats of arms made him more popular
than ever.
{111}
When Anjou died, Navarre was heir presumptive to the throne, and had to
meet the furious hostility of the Guise faction. These said that
Navarre's uncle, Cardinal de Bourbon, "wine-tun rather than a man,"
should be their king when Valois died. They secured the help of Spain
before publishing their famous Manifesto. This document avowed the
intentions of those forming the Catholic League to restore the dignity
of the Church by drawing the sword, if necessary, and to settle for
themselves the question of Henry III's successor. He bribed the people
by releasing them from taxation and promised regular meetings of the
States-General.
The King hesitated to grant the League's demands, which were definitely
formulated in 1585. He did not wish to revoke the Edicts of Toleration
that had recently been passed, and might have refused, if his mother
had not advised him to make every concession that was possible to avoid
the enmity of the Guise faction. He consented, and was lost, for the
Huguenots sprang to arms, and he found that he was to be driven from
his capital by the Guises.
The King was accused of sympathy with the Protestant cause, which made
his name odious to the Catholic University of Paris. He had personal
enemies too, such as the Duchess of Montpensier, sister to Henry of
Guise, who was fond of saying that she would give him another crown by
using the gold scissors at her waist. There was some talk of his
entering a monastery where he would have had to adopt the tonsure.
One-half of Navarre's beard had turned white when he heard that Henry
III was revoking the Edicts of Toleration. Yet he was happiest in
camp, and leapt to the saddle with a light heart in May 1588 when the
{112} King fled from Paris and Guise entered the capital as the
deliverer of the people. He looked the model of a Gascon knight, with
hooked nose and bold, black eyes under ironical arched eyebrows. He
was a clever judge of character, and knew how to win adherents to his
cause. His homely garb attracted many who were tired of the weak
Valois kings, for there was no artificial grace in the scarlet cloak,
brown velvet doublet and white-plumed hat which distinguished him from
his fellows.
Henry III plotted desperately to regain his prestige, and showed some
of the Medici guile in a plot for Guise's assassination. When this
succeeded he went to boast to Catherine that he had killed the King of
Paris. "You have cut boldly into the stuff, my son," she answered him,
"but will you know how to sew it together?"
Paris was filled by lamentations for the death of Guise, and the
festivities of Christmas Eve gave way to funeral dirges. The
University of Sorbonne declared that they would not receive Henry of
Valois again as king. His only hope was to reconcile himself with
Navarre and the Protestant party. Paris was tumultuous with resistance
when the news came that Royalists and Huguenots had raised their
standards in the same camp and massed two armies. The Catholic League
was beloved by the poorer citizens because it released them from
rent-dues. The spirit of the people was shown by processions of
children, who threw lighted torches to the ground before the churches,
stamped on them, and cried, "Thus may God quench the House of Valois!"
The capital welcomed Spanish troops to aid them in keeping Henry III
from the gates. He was assassinated {113} by a Burgundian monk as he
approached the city "he had loved more than his wife," and Henry of
Navarre, though a heretic, now claimed the right of entrance.
Navarre was the lineal descendant of Saint Louis of France, but for ten
generations no ancestor of his in the male line had ruled the French
kingdom. He was the grandson of Margaret, sister of Francis I, and
Henry d'Albret, who had borne captivity with that monarch. Many were
pledged to him by vows made to the dying King, who had come to look on
him as a doughty champion; many swore that they would die a thousand
deaths rather than be the servants of a heretic master.
In February 1590, Henry laid siege to Dreux in order to place himself
between his enemies and Paris. Mayenne, the leader of the opposite
camp, drew him to Ivry, where a battle was fought on March 14th,
resulting in the complete discomfiture of the Catholic Leaguers. The
white plume of Navarre floated victorious on the field, and the black
lilies of Mayenne were trampled. The road to Paris lay open to the
heretic King, who invested the city on the northern side, but did not
attack the inhabitants. The blockade would have reduced the hungry
citizens to submission at the end of a month if the Duke of Parma had
not come to their relief at the command of the Spanish sovereign.
Philip II wished his daughter to marry the young Duke of Guise and to
ascend the French throne with her husband. For that reason he
supported Paris in its refusal to accept the Protestant King of
Navarre. It was not till March 1594, that the King, known as Henri
Quatre, was able to lead his troops into Paris.
Navarre had been compelled to attend Mass in public and to ask
absolution from the Archbishop of Bourges, {114} who received him into
the fold of the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church before the
coronation. He was now the "most Christian King," welcomed with blaze
of bonfires and the blare of trumpets. He was crowned at Chartres
because the Catholic League held Rheims, and he entered Paris by the
Porte Neuve, through which Henry III had fled from the Guises some six
years previously. The Spaniards had to withdraw from his capital,
being told that their services would be required no longer.
Henry IV waged successful wars against Spain and the Catholic League,
gradually recovering the whole of his dominions by his energy and
courage. He settled the status of the Protestants on a satisfactory
basis by the Edict of Nantes, which was signed in April 1598, to
consolidate the privileges which had been previously granted to the
Calvinists. Full civil rights and full civil protection were granted
to all Protestants, and the King assigned a sum of money for the use of
Protestant schools and colleges.
Henry introduced the silk industry into France, and his famous
minister, Sully, did much to improve the condition of French
agriculture. By 1598 order had been restored in the kingdom, but
industry and commerce had been crippled by nearly forty years of civil
war. When France's first Bourbon King, Henry IV, was assassinated in
April 1610, he had only begun the great work of social and economical
reform which proved his genuine sense of public duty.
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