The city of La Rochelle began again to repair its shattered walls, and La
Noue was unanimously appointed to the chief command of the Huguenots in
Saintonge and the adjacent regions. In the effort next made to prevent the
great Protestant leader from espousing the side of his brethren, and to
persuade the city of La Rochelle to rest content with the guarantees
offered by the edict of 1573, and remain neutral in the coming conflict,
Catharine and her advisers signally failed. The royal envoys--Biron,
Strozzi and Pinart--were, indeed, courteously treated by La Noue,
Frontenay, and Mirambeau, who repeatedly came out to meet them at the
village of Ernandes. But the Huguenots, in reply to their reiterated
request, declined absolutely to abate a single important point in their
demands. They would not hear the suggestion that by the Edict of Boulogne,
in 1573, previous ordinances had been repealed, but persisted in assuming
that Charles had always intended that the edict of 1570 should remain in
force, and, in proof of this, they alleged one of the king's own
declarations after the massacre. They insisted that the privileges
accorded to the three privileged cities of La Rochelle, Montauban, and
Nismes, should be extended to the Protestant nobility throughout the
kingdom; and when Biron and his companions reluctantly consented that the
right to have baptism and marriage celebrated in their houses be conceded
to all Protestant noblemen who enjoyed the right of "haute justice," and
who had always remained constant in their religious opinions, La Noue
protested against the restriction to baptism and marriage. "We desire to
worship God freely," he said, "and you give only a part of what we need
for the exercise of our religion. What you offer is a snare to catch us
again and expose us to greater peril than we were ever in before. But we
would much rather die with arms in our hands than be involved again in
such disasters."
In vain did the royalists assure them that the king was ready to grant the
Protestants complete liberty of conscience and protection against their
enemies, but could not give them what they demanded. In vain did they
repeat in substance the famous exclamation of Catharine de' Medici, and
say, among other arguments: "You could make no greater demands if the king
had nothing ready, and you had a large and powerful army, with all the
advantages you could desire; whereas, we know full well that you are
feeble in every direction, and that the king has great forces, as you
yourselves must be aware." The Huguenots had the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew's Day on their tongues continually,[1368] and could not be fed
with fair promises. They required securities. First, Charles must give
them a city in each province of the kingdom, as a refuge in case they were
assailed. Next, the maintenance of the promises made to them must be
guaranteed by the signatures of the princes of the blood and all the chief
nobles, by governors, by lieutenants-general, and by the gentry of the
provinces, as well as by the chief inhabitants of the towns. Hostages must
be interchanged. While the last and most remarkable proposal of all was,
"that his Majesty, on his part, and the Huguenots, on theirs, should place
a large sum of money in the hands of some German prince, who should
promise to employ it in levying and paying a body of reiters to be used
against that party which should violate the peace." All this was to be
registered in the various parliaments and in the inferior courts of the
bailiwicks and senechaussees. The king was further requested to call the
States General within three months, to give the royal edict of
pacification their formal sanction.[1369]
We need not be surprised that a conference to which the two parties
brought views so diametrically opposed, should have proved utterly
abortive.
[Sidenote: The "Politiques" make an unsuccessful rising.]
It scarcely falls within the province of this history to narrate in detail
the unsuccessful attempt of the Malcontents, made some weeks before the
negotiations just described, to overthrow the government, whose bad
counsels were believed to be the cause of the misery under which France
was groaning; for the alliance between the Malcontents and the Huguenots
was only fortuitous and partial. A few words of explanation, however, seem
to be necessary. The plan contemplated a simultaneous uprising on the
tenth of March. The day had been selected by La Noue himself, who rightly
judged that the license and uproar indulged in by the populace up to a
late hour in the night of "Mardi Gras" (Shrove Tuesday) would greatly
facilitate the military undertaking.[1370] Alencon and the King of
Navarre, who, since the massacre immediately succeeding his nuptials, had
found himself less a guest than a captive at court, were to flee secretly
to Sedan, where they would find safety under the protection of the Duc de
Bouillon. For the influence of this great nobleman, together with the
still more powerful support of the Montmorency family, was given to the
projected movement. But the timidity and vacillation of Alencon frustrated
the well-conceived design. Ten days or a fortnight before the set time for
the escape of the princes from court, Navarre, who, under pretext of
hunting, had been allowed to leave the royal palace of Saint Germain,
received a secret visit from M. de Guitry, a gentleman who had succeeded
in bringing into the vicinity an armed body of the confederates. The
meeting took place by night, in Navarre's bedchamber, in the little hamlet
of St. Prix.[1371] On the morrow Guitry found means to confer with M. de
Thore, Turenne, and La Nocle, "all in despair by reason of Alencon's
variable moods."[1372] This feeble prince, it would seem, was not even yet
decided, and trembled at the peril he might run in attempting to reach
Sedan. Under these circumstances the plan of flight was modified. Guitry
was instructed to bring his force nearer to St. Germain, and wait for
Alencon and Navarre, who, under his escort, were to gain Mantes, a little
farther down the Seine, and perhaps ultimately join the confederates near
La Rochelle. Guitry waited in vain: Alencon and Navarre never came.
[Sidenote: Flight of the court from St. Germain.]
Either Alencon himself, or La Mole, his favorite, in his name, betrayed
the project to the queen mother. The discovery of a body of armed men in
the vicinity, albeit they gave assurance that they meant no injury to the
king, threw the entire court into consternation. Catharine, reminding
Charles that her soothsayers had long since warned her of Saint Germain as
a place that boded no good to her or hers, was among the first to flee,
leaving the king, who was ill with quartan fever, to follow the next
day.[1373] The court partook of Catharine's terror, and imitated her
example. Layman and churchman vied in haste to gain Paris, whence in a few
days they retreated in a more leisurely manner to the safer refuge of the
castle of Vincennes. While some hurried by the main road, or picked their
way along the banks of the Seine, others took to boats as a less dangerous
means of conveyance. But, among those who joined in the disorderly flight,
there were some who retained their composure sufficiently to note the
ludicrous features of the scene. Long after they recalled with undisguised
amusement the terror-stricken countenances of the new chancellor and of
three French cardinals, as, mounted on fiery Italian or Spanish steeds,
they clung with both hands to the saddle-bow, evidently fearing their
horses even more than the dreaded Huguenot.[1374] It was a very pretty
farce; but the tragedy was yet to come.
[Sidenote: A second failure.]
[Sidenote: Alencon and Navarre examined.]
A second attempt at flight made by Alencon and Navarre also failed,
through the treachery of one of those to whom the secret had been
confided. Alencon and Navarre were now placed under close guard, and
subjected to long and repeated examinations before a royal commission.
Alencon was sufficiently craven in his bearing, and did not hesitate by
his admissions to involve in ruin the minor instruments in the execution
of the plan. Navarre, in his answers to the interrogatories, displayed a
courageous frankness. He was not, in truth, content with a simple denial
of the evil designs attributed to him. On the contrary, he availed himself
of the opportunity to rehearse the grievances under which he had been
suffering for nearly two years. Detained at court only to find himself an
object of suspicion, his ears had been filled with successive rumors of an
approaching massacre, a second St. Bartholomew's Day, when he would not be
spared in the general destruction. These rumors had, indeed, been declared
false by the Duke of Anjou, before the walls of La Rochelle, but that
prince had failed to keep the promises made before his departure for
Poland--to commend Navarre to the royal favor. Consequently he had been
subjected to the indignity of frequently being refused admission to the
presence of Charles, while seeing La Chastre, and others of those who had
figured most prominently among the actors in the Parisian matins, freely
received at the king's rising. He had at length resolved to leave the
court in company with his cousin of Alencon, partly in order to consult
his own safety, partly that he might restore order in his estates of Bearn
and Navarre, now suffering from his protracted absence. When his design
had come to the queen mother's knowledge, he had explained the motives of
his action to her, and obtained the promise of her protection.
Subsequently there had reached him the intelligence that he was to be
imprisoned with Alencon in the castle of Vincennes; whereupon he had
renewed the attempt to escape the impending peril. In his second
examination, in the presence of Catharine de' Medici and his uncle,
Cardinal Bourbon, Henry reiterated his statements respecting the alarming
reports that continually reached him. At one time he learned that it was
decided that, should Margaret of Navarre bear a son, the luckless father
would be put out of the way, in order that the child might inherit his
dignities. At another time, in the very chamber of King Charles, the
opinion had been boldly uttered, that, so long as a single member of the
house of Bourbon should survive, there would always be war in France. Nor
had the young prince dared to complain of these menaces.[1375]
It was no part of Catharine de' Medici's plan, at this juncture, to wreak
her vengeance for the blow that had been aimed at her authority, either
upon her son or upon her son-in-law. The Montmorencies, also, though
suspected and long since the objects of jealousy, ultimately escaped with
little difficulty. It is true that the eldest brother, Marshal Francois de
Montmorency, was enticed to the court, as was also another marshal, M. de
Cosse, and that both were thrown into the Bastile. But the younger
Montmorencies, Thore and Meru, had escaped, while their more energetic
brother Marshal Damville, was too firmly fixed in the governorship of
Languedoc, to be removed without a struggle. It was hardly prudent to
drive so influential a family to extremities. Moreover, Catharine was too
wise to desire the utter destruction of a clan whose authority might on
occasion be employed, as it had often been in the past, as a counterpoise
to the formidable power of the Guises.
[Sidenote: Execution of La Mole and Coconnas.]
Some victims of inferior rank were needed. They were found in the persons
of Joseph Boniface de la Mole and Hannibal, Count de Coconnas, who, with
one M. de Tourtray, expiated their error and that of their superiors, on
the Place de Greve. The cruel procedure known as the administration of
justice in the sixteenth century has no more striking illustration than in
the barbarous torture, including the terrible trial by water, inflicted
upon these wretched men. By such means it was not difficult to extort
admissions which the prisoner was likely to retract at a subsequent time.
Consequently it is not quite clear, even with the full record before us,
how far La Mole and Coconnas were really implicated. As for the sufferers
themselves, there was little about them to call forth our special
sympathy. La Mole, of handsome appearance, but of cowardly disposition,
was a firm believer in the magic that passed current in his day, and was
questioned on the rack respecting the object of a waxen figure found among
his effects. He admitted he had employed it for sorcery, to advance his
suit with a lady whose love he sought. Coconnas, an Italian, instead of
inviting contempt for his poltroonery, inspires aversion for his crimes.
No assassin had distinguished himself more at the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew's Day. We are inclined to believe the contemporary chronicler,
who states that Charles the Ninth himself averred that he had never liked
Coconnas since hearing the latter's sanguinary boast that he had redeemed
as many as thirty Huguenots from the hands of the populace, only that he
might induce them to abjure their religion, under promise of life, and
afterward enjoy the satisfaction of murdering them by inches under his
dagger.[1376]
Had Coconnas and La Mole been persons more entitled to our respect, we
might have pitied their misfortune in falling into the hands of a royal
commission with whom the evidence of the guilt of the prisoners was
apparently of less weight than the desire to gratify the court by their
condemnation. The first president of parliament, Christopher de Thou,
again headed the commission. The same pliant tool of despotism who had
signed the death-warrant of Prince Louis of Conde, just before the sudden
close of the brief reign of Francis the Second, and had congratulated
Charles the Ninth, twelve years later, in the name of the judiciary of the
kingdom, on the "piety" he had displayed in butchering his unoffending
subjects, again obeyed with docility the instructions of his superiors,
and suppressed those more generous sentiments, which, if we may credit his
son's account, he secretly entertained.
[Sidenote: Conde retires to Germany.]
Meantime the arrests and judicial proceedings at the capital did not delay
the military enterprise in which the Huguenots and Malcontents were alike
embarked. More fortunate than his cousin of Navarre, the Prince of Conde,
chancing to be in Picardy at the outbreak of the pretended conspiracy of
St. Germain, took Thore's advice and fled out of the kingdom to
Strasbourg.[1377] Himself free from the dangers encompassing his
confederates in France, he was able to assist them materially by
addressing personal solicitations to the German princes, and by
superintending the levy of auxiliary troops.
[Sidenote: Reasons for the success of the Huguenots in face of great
difficulties.]
The Huguenots were entering in good earnest upon the fifth religious war,
and used their successes with such moderation as to conciliate even
hostile populations. Their enemies, judging only from superficial
indications, might wonder at their strange recuperative energies.
Catharine might exclaim, in amazement at their progress and presumption,
that "the Huguenots were like cats, for, in falling, they always alighted
on their feet."[1378] But those who looked into the matter more closely
saw that this was no mere accident. A contemporary writer, who is also a
declared antagonist, praises their prudence and good conduct at the
present juncture. "We must not be astonished," he remarks, "if in a short
time the Protestants carry through such great repairs and so difficult to
be believed. No sooner have they set foot in a place than they consider
its position and deliberate as to what can be done to render it strong, or
at least tenable. In all diligence they execute their decisions and
enterprises, however great and difficult they may be, by the good order
they practise and by a prompt obedience to the commands given them. So
that I confess that they surpass us in prudence and conduct. Moreover, so
soon as they are in a place, they appoint persons in whom they have the
greatest confidence, to collect the king's revenues, as well as the income
of the ecclesiastics and of those bearing arms against them, without
regard for any save the gentilhommes. Their receipts are faithfully
applied to the benefit of their cause, and they know how to employ these
sums so well, that with little money they carry on great enterprises. So
far as possible they relieve the poor husbandmen. In this they conform to
the fashion of the Indians, who, in time of war, do not injure the
laborers, their families, their beasts of burden, and the implements used
in cultivating the earth, but abstain from burning their houses and
villages, and leave them in peace, deeming the tillers of the ground to be
ministers of the common weal and the nursing fathers of the other
estates.[1379] ... If necessity constrain them to make use of the
husbandmen, they bring them to it as freely and graciously as possible,
more by fair words than by force, employing caresses, and meantime
protecting their cattle, their harvests, and all their property. When
marching through the country, without indulging in insolence, abusive
language, or plunder, they eat what they find in the houses, and keep
their soldiers under good control. They instantly establish in the places
they hold a council of the most capable and experienced persons.... This
they convene daily and for so long a time as their affairs demand, and
here they listen to the complaints made to them, whether by word of mouth
or by written petition, and answer as well as they can to the satisfaction
of the plaintiffs."[1380]
[Sidenote: Montgomery lands in Normandy.]
[Sidenote: He is forced to surrender and is taken prisoner.]
About the same time that Conde was leaving France for Germany, another
Huguenot leader was entering it from the opposite quarter. Count
Montgomery, who from England had come to the island of Jersey, suddenly
made his appearance in western Normandy. In this province the Huguenots
had lately made themselves masters of the important town of Saint Lo, as
well as of Domfront on the borders of the province of Maine.[1381] To
these gains Montgomery soon added Carentan, an important point on the
north, which he took care to provision. He seemed likely, indeed, to bring
all this extensive territory under the power of the Protestants. His
brilliant career was, however, destined to be very brief. The royal forces
sent against him under Matignon were strong, his own troops were few.
From Saint Lo, where he was besieged, he succeeded by a bold dash in
escaping with a small company of horse; but at Domfront, whither he betook
himself in hope of receiving reinforcements from the south, his manly
defence availed nothing. Against an army of four thousand foot and one
thousand horse, besides a large number of Roman Catholic gentlemen serving
at their own charges, the little band of not over ninety arquebusiers and
fifty horse could offer no protracted resistance. Domfront, strong in
itself, was commanded by neighboring heights, and the walls, through long
neglect, had become so weak that they crumbled and fell at the very first
cannonade. Montgomery, deserted by some of his soldiers and enfeebled by
the loss of others, was compelled to surrender to the besieging army. The
story was current that he had received a pledge of life and liberty at the
hands of Matignon.[1382] But Agrippa d'Aubigne is undoubtedly correct in
declaring that the report was a mistaken one, and that Montgomery barely
received the assurance that he would be placed in the hands of the king
alone. "There have been only too many acts of perfidy in France, without
the invention of others," says this historian. "If there were any
infractions of the capitulation, they were in the case of some other
gentlemen and soldiers, who were maltreated or slain."[1383]
[Sidenote: Delight of Catharine de' Medici.]
There was one person to whom the capture of Count Montgomery was
peculiarly gratifying. Catharine de' Medici had never forgotten the
murderous wound Montgomery's lance had inflicted upon her husband in the
rough tournament held in honor of Isabella's nuptials. True, the count had
entered the lists with Henry only by the king's express command, and the
fatal effects of the blow that shattered Henry's visor and drove the
splintered stock into his eye, were due to no malicious intent.
Nevertheless, Montgomery was never sincerely forgiven; and when the slayer
of the father was captured fighting against the son, Catharine resolved
that no considerations of pity should prevent his expiating his unintended
crime. Nor was the Roman Catholic party loth to see summary punishment
inflicted upon Montgomery in revenge for the blow he had struck the
"noblesse" of Bearn and the frightful slaughter of their partisans he had
authorized, five years before, during the third civil war, at the storming
of Orthez.[1384] On the other hand, the Parisian populace was excited by
the revival of the false rumor already referred to, that Count Montgomery,
glorying in the mischance whereby France was robbed of her king, had
substituted for his ancestral coat of arms a novel escutcheon of his own
device, whereon was figured a broken lance.[1385] It need not surprise us,
therefore, that though guiltless of any crime of which the law of even
that cruel age ordinarily took cognizance, the Huguenot leader, after
being placed on the rack in the vain attempt to obtain from him admissions
criminating his associates, was condemned, as a traitor found in arms
against his king, to be beheaded and quartered, on the Place de Greve, on
the twenty-sixth of June, 1574.
[Sidenote: Execution of Montgomery on the Place de Greve.]
Both enemies and friends unite in testifying to the fortitude with which
Count Montgomery underwent the execution of his severe sentence. Roman
Catholic writers, indeed, hint that he may have received profit from the
ministrations of five or six theological doctors, to whom they represent
him as gladly listening.[1386] But Protestant historians give us a
circumstantial account that seems better entitled to credit, and leaves no
room for doubt that Gabriel de Montgomery died constant to the faith which
he had embraced in his retirement, after the death of Henry the Second. He
refused to confess to the famous Vigor, Archbishop of Narbonne, and would
neither kiss the crucifix offered to him by the priest who rode with him
in the tumbrel, nor listen to his words, nor even look at him. To a Gray
Friar, who attempted to convince him that he was in error and had been
deceived, he replied: "How deceived? If I have been deceived, it was by
members of your own order; for the first person that ever gave me a Bible
in French, and bade me read it, was a Franciscan like yourself. And
therein I learned the religion that I now hold, which is the only true
religion. Having lived in it ever since, I wish, by the grace of God, to
die in it to-day." On the scaffold, after a touching address to the
spectators, he recited in a loud voice the Apostles' Creed, in the
confession of which he protested that he died, and then, "having made his
prayer to God after the manner of those of the (reformed) religion,"[1387]
manfully offered his neck to the executioner's sword.[1388]
But the scene just described belongs strictly to the reign of the next
French monarch. The capture of Montgomery at Domfront had been followed,
within three days, by the death of the young king against whom the count
had been fighting.
[Sidenote: Last days of Charles IX.]
It is difficult to determine the exact proportions in which physical
weakness and remorse for the past entered as ingredients of the malady
that cut short the life of Charles the Ninth. It may not be prudent to
accept implicitly all the stories told by contemporaries respecting the
wretched fancies to which the king became a victim. But it would be
carrying historical scepticism to the very verge of absurdity to reject
the whole series of reports that come down to us respecting the strange
hallucinations of Charles during the last months of his life. De Thou,
perhaps the most candid and dispassionate historian of the period, has
left the statement on record that, ever since St. Bartholomew's Day,
Charles, who at no time slept well, used frequently to have his rest
broken by the sudden recollection of its dreadful scenes. To lull him to
repose, his attendants had no resource but singing, the king being
passionately fond of music and of poetry.[1389] Agrippa d'Aubigne
corroborates the statement, adding, on the authority of high noblemen who
had been present, that the king would awake trembling and groaning, and
that his agitation was sure to find expression in frightful imprecations
and words expressive of utter despair.[1390]
With the growing certainty of his approaching death, the mental distress
of Charles proportionately increased. His old Huguenot nurse, to whom he
talked without reserve, was the witness of the startling conflict through
which he was passing in his last hours. While sitting near his bedside on
one occasion, she was suddenly recalled from a revery by the sound of the
sighs and sobs of the royal patient. To her solicitous questions as to the
cause of his distress, she received the most piteous exclamations,
interrupted by weeping: "Ah, my nurse, my friend, how much blood! how many
murders! Ah, what wicked counsels have I had! My God, have pity upon me
and pardon me! I know not where I am; so perplexed and agitated have they
made me. What will become of me? What shall I do? I am lost; I know it
full well." The pious attendant's earnest exhortations and consoling words
had little effect in dispelling the gloom that had settled on the
termination of a life so auspiciously begun. She might pray, in his
hearing, that the blood of the murdered Huguenots might be on the heads of
those who gave the young king such treacherous advice. She might encourage
and urge him to rest in the confidence that, in view of his penitence, God
would not impute to him his crime, but cover him with the mantle of
Christ's righteousness.[1391] Her words had little power to dissipate his
extreme despondency.
[Sidenote: Distress of his young queen.]
For months the life of Charles had been despaired of. Now he was visibly
dying. The news of the capture of Montgomery, which his mother came to
announce to him with a delight she neither was able nor anxious to hide,
brought him no pleasure. He had, he said, ceased to care for these things.
Meanwhile, Catharine, if not altogether devoid of natural affection--if
not experiencing unmingled satisfaction at the prospect that the sceptre
was likely to pass into the hands of her favorite son, the King of
Poland--at least took care to provide for the contingency of Charles's
speedy death, by obtaining, on the twenty-ninth of May, letters to the
governors of provinces, and the next day the more authoritative letters
patent conferring upon her the regency until the return of Henry from
Poland.[1392] More sincere in her sorrow, the young Queen Elizabeth,
Charles's wife, endeavored to ward off the stroke of Heaven by solemn
processions. For nine successive days, laying aside all tokens of her
royal rank, simply clad, and with uncovered face, she walked barefooted,
and accompanied by a large number of poor boys and girls, from the wood of
Vincennes, where the court still lingered, to the city of Paris. After
devoutly praying for the king's recovery at the Sainte-Chapelle and at the
shrine of Notre Dame, she returned from her pilgrimage in the same painful
and humble manner, her ladies and the officers of her court following at a
respectful distance.[1393]
Upon Sorbin, the king's confessor, devolved the duty of administering to
Charles the last rites of religion--Sorbin, who was accustomed to speak of
the perfidy and cruelty of the massacre as true magnanimity and
gentleness. It has been well remarked that, in all the dark drama of guilt
and retribution upon which the curtain was about to fall, no part is more
tragic than the scene in which the last words preparing the soul for
judgment were spoken by such a confessor as Sorbin to such a penitent as
Charles.[1394] Under such spiritual guidance the unhappy boy-king may
possibly have expressed the sentiment which the priest ascribes to him at
the hour of death: that his greatest regret was that he had not seen the
Reformation wholly crushed.[1395]
On Sunday, May the thirtieth, 1574, the festival of Pentecost, Charles
died, late in the afternoon.[1396] Almost his last words had been of
congratulation that he left no son to inherit the throne, since he knew
very well that France had need of a man, and that under a child both king
and kingdom were wretched.[1397]
[Sidenote: Death of Charles.]
The general usage was not violated in the present instance. Charles, like
a host of prominent princes and statesmen of the sixteenth century, was
currently reported to have fallen a victim to the poisoner's art, then in
its prime. Nor did the examination made after his death, though clearly
proving that the event had a natural cause, suffice to clear away the
unhappy impression.[1398] The Huguenots had, perhaps, more reason than
others to regard the circumstances attending it as strange, if not
miraculous. That the king, whose guilty acquiescence in the murderous
scheme of Catharine, Anjou, and Guise, had deluged his realm in blood,
should himself have perished of a malady that caused blood to exude from
every pore in his body,[1399] was certainly sufficiently singular to
arrest the attention of the world. The phenomenon has been shown beyond
all question to have many parallels in the annals of medicine.[1400] But
the coincidence was so remarkable that we scarcely wonder that, in the
eyes of many, it partook of a supernatural character.
Thus perished, in the twenty-fourth year of his age, a prince whom fair
natural endowments seemed to have destined to play a creditable, if not a
resplendent part in the history of his period; but whom the evil counsels
and examples of his mother, and the corrupt education which, designedly or
through an unfortunate accident, she had given him, had so depraved, that
his morals were regarded with disgust and reprobation by an age by no
means scrupulously pure.[1401]
[Sidenote: The funeral rites.]
The forty days' funeral rites were performed in honor of the deceased king
with all the detail of pomp customary on such occasions. For forty days,
on a bed of cloth of gold, lay in state the life-like effigy of Charles of
Valois, dressed in crimson and blue satin, and in ermine, with a jewelled
crown upon its head, and with sceptre and other emblems of royalty at its
side. For forty days the service of the king's table remained unchanged,
and the pleasing fiction was maintained that the monarch was yet alive.
The gentlemen in waiting, the cupbearer, the pantler, the carver, and all
the retinue of servants who, as in feudal times, appeared at the royal
meals, discharged each his appointed office with punctilious precision.
Courses of viands were brought on in regular succession, and as regularly
removed from the board. A cardinal or prelate blessed the table before the
empty show of a meal, and rendered thanks at its conclusion. Only at the
close, by the sad repetition of the De profundis, and other psalms
appropriate to funeral occasions, did the pageant differ materially from
many a scene of convivial entertainment in which Charles had taken part.
When the prescribed term of waiting was at length over, the miserable show
ended, the effigy was replaced by the bier, funeral decorations took the
place of festive emblems, and the body of the late king was laid in its
last resting-place.[1402]
[Sidenote: Had persecution, war, and treachery succeeded?]
The courtiers had already turned their eyes from the dead monarch to the
successor whose speedy return from Poland all eagerly awaited. Henry the
Third had already precipitately fled from Cracow, and was on his way to
assume his ancestral throne. He was to find the kingdom plunged in
disquiet, a prey to internal discord fostered by foreign princes. Neither
Huguenot nor Roman Catholic was satisfied. A full half-century from the
first promulgation of the reformed doctrines by Lefevre d'Etaples found
the friends of the purer faith more resolute than ever in its assertion,
despite fire, massacre, and open warfare. No candid beholder could deny
that the system of persecution had thus far proved an utter failure. It
remained to be seen whether the new king would choose to repeat a
dangerous experiment.
FOOTNOTES:
[1253] Jean de Serres, Commentaria de statu rel. et reipublicae, iv., fol.
60 _verso_. I have made use, up to 1570, of the first edition of this
work, published in three volumes in 1571, my copy being one formerly
belonging to the library of Ludovico Manini, the last doge of Venice. From
1570 on I refer to the edition of 1575, which comprises a fourth and rarer
volume, bringing down the history to the close of the reign of Charles. A
comparison between this edition and the later edition of 1577 brings out
the interesting circumstance that many Huguenots of little courage, who at
first apostatized, afterward returned to their old faith. Thus, the
edition of 1575 reads (iv. 51 _v._): "Vix enim dici possit, quam multi ad
primum illum impetum a Religione resiluerint, mortis amittendarumque
facultatum metu, _quorum plerique etiamnum haerent in luto_." The words I
have italicized are omitted in the edition of 1577, as quoted by Soldan,
ii. 473.
[1254] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 61.
[1255] Ib., _ubi supra_.
[1256] Borrel, Histoire de l'eglise reformee de Nimes (Toulouse, 1856),
pp. 77, 78, from Archives of the Hotel-de-ville.
[1257] J. de Serres, iv., fols. 68-70; Borrel, Hist. de l'egl. ref. de
Nimes, 78, 79; De Thou, iv. 663.
[1258] See _ante_, chapter xviii., p. 480.
[1259] Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., ii. 38 (liv. i., c. 8). Neither De
Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 659, nor J. de Serres (either in his Commentaria de
statu rel. et reip., iv. 68, or in his Inventaire general de l'histoire de
France, Geneve, 1619), makes any allusion to Regnier's combat, while the
former expressly, and the latter by implication, refer to his agency in
persuading the inhabitants of Montauban to espouse the Protestant cause in
arms. I incline to think, nevertheless, that D'Aubigne has neither
misplaced nor exaggerated a brilliant little affair which was certainly to
his taste.
[1260] J. de Serres, De statu, etc., iv., fol. 63; De Thou, iv. (liv.
liii.) 647.
[1261] Reveille-Matin, 200; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi (1574), i. 57.
[1262] Arcere, Histoire de la Rochelle, i. 405. The records of the customs
showed that 30,000 casks of wine were brought in. An ample supply of
powder was also secured by offering a bonus of ten per cent, to all that
imported it from abroad.
[1263] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 65; De Thou, iv. 649.
[1264] "Affirmabant vero haudquaquam se facere contra officium et antiqua
sua privilegia, per quae illis tribueretur exemptio ab omni praeterquam ex
sua civitate delecto ab ipsis praesidio, et facultas sese suis armis
custodiendi." Such was the claim of the Rochellois in answer to Strozzi's
summons. Jean de Serres, iv. 63.
[1265] Arcere, i. 412.
[1266] Ibid., i. 422; De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 654; J. de Serres, iv.,
fols. 75, 76.
[1267] Delmas, Eglise ref. de la Rochelle, 105, 106. The same author cites
Henry IV.'s eulogy: "Il etait grand homme de guerre, et plus grand homme
de bien." See also De Thou's strong expressions, viii. (liv. cii.) 8.
[1268] See the detailed "Carte du Pays d'Aulnis, avec les Isles de Re,
d'Oleron, et Provinces voisines, dressee en 1756," prefixed to the first
volume of Arcere, Histoire de la Rochelle.
[1269] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 34, 35 (liv. i., c. 6); De Thou, iv. (liv.
liii.) 655-656; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 75; Arcere, i. 427-429.
[1270] Arcere, i. 429, partly on MS. authority.
[1271] Ibid., i. 430.
[1272] The attitude of the Huguenot general had been and yet was one of
the strangest. That he was able in the end to extricate himself without a
stain attaching to his honor is still more remarkable. Both king and
Protestants understood full well that he would counsel nothing which was
not for the interest of both; and it was, therefore, no violation of his
duty as envoy of Charles, if, as Jean de Serres informs us, when urging an
amicable arrangement, he privately advised the Rochellois to admit no one
into the city in the king's name, before receiving ample provisions for
their security. Commentarii de statu religionis et reipublicae, iv., fol.
75.
[1273] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 76.
[1274] Ibid., iv., fol. 81.
[1275] See the very clear account in the "Description chorographique de
l'Aulnis," by Arcere, prefixed to his history of La Rochelle, i. 97, etc.
[1276] Compare Arcere, i. 418, etc., and, especially, his plan of the city
in 1573. See also Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 83; De Thou, iv. (liv. lv.)
759-761; D'Aubigne, ii. 36, 37 (liv. i., c. 7).
[1277] De Thou, iv. (liv. lv.) 765; Arcere, i. 436.
[1278] De Thou, iv. 761; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 68.
[1279] _E.g._, of Virolet, Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 76.
[1280] Feb. 15th, according to J. de Serres, iv., fol. 83. Arcere (i. 452)
says Feb. 12th.
[1281] Arcere, i. 458.
[1282] So, at least, Brantome expressed himself. He was with the army
before La Rochelle.
[1283] Letter of Catharine, March 17th, Arcere, i. 466.
[1284] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 789; Arcere, i. 489, 490; Jean de Serres,
iv., fol. 99, etc.
[1285] The poor, according to Jean de Serres, came to use the shell-fish
in lieu of bread. If, as he assures us on the authority of men deserving
credit, the supply ceased almost on that precise day upon which the royal
army left the neighborhood, after the conclusion of peace, the reformed
may be pardoned for regarding the fact as a miracle little inferior to
that of the manna which never failed the ancient Israelites until they set
foot in Canaan. Commentarii de statu religionis et reipublicae, iv. 104
_verso_. "Dont lez reformez ont encores les tableaux en leurs maisons pour
memoire comme d'un miracle," writes Agrippa d'Aubigne, about forty years
later (Hist. universelle, 1616, ii. 53).
[1286] Arcere, i. 504, 505.
[1287] Arcere, _ubi supra_.
[1288] Arcere, i. 477, 480.
[1289] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 780; Arcere, i. 477; D'Aubigne, ii. 45
(liv. i., c. 9).
[1290] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 102; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 48 (liv. i.,
c. 9); De Thou, iv. 767, 786, 787, etc.
[1291] La Mothe Fenelon to Charles IX., June 3, 1573. Corresp. diplom., v.
339.
[1292] Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 87) states the length of the siege of
Sommieres as _four_ months, and the loss of men as five thousand killed.
The Recueil des choses memorables, 1598 (p. 485), ascribed to the same
author, reduces the loss one-half. Cf. De Thou, iv. 746-748.
[1293] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 88, 89; De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 749,
750.
[1294] "In ipso regni umbilico." Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 92.
[1295] Ibid., iv., fols. 72, 77, 79; Ag. d'Aubigne, ii. 40, 41; De Thou,
iv. (liv. liv.) 660-663.
[1296] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 93, 94.
[1297] "Ut Ierosolymitanae, Samaritanae, Saguntinae famis memoriam exaequare,
nisi et exsuperare videatur." Ibid., iv., fol. 92.
[1298] "Discours de l'extreme famine, cherte de vivre, chairs, et autres
choses non acoustumees pour la nourriture de l'homme, dont les assiegez
dans la ville de Sancerre ont ete affligez." 1574. Reprinted in Archives
curieuses, viii. 19-82.
[1299] Edward Smedley, History of the Reformed Religion in France (London,
1834), ii. 88.
[1300] "Fade et douceastre," p. 24.
[1301] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 796. As early as on the twelfth of April,
such was the discouragement felt in Paris, that orders were published to
make "Paradises" in each parish, and to institute processions, to
supplicate the favor of heaven, in view of the repulses experienced by the
Roman Catholics before La Rochelle. Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la
Fosse), p. 158.
[1302] Histoire du siege de La Rochelle par le duc d'Anjou en 1573, par A.
Genet, capitaine du genie; _apud_ Bulletin de la Societe de l'histoire du
prot. francais, ii. (1854) 96, 190.
[1303] Memoires de Claude Haton, ii. 722.
[1304] At Troyes, for instance, where the poor who had flocked to the city
were invited to meet at one of the gates, to receive each a loaf of bread
and a piece of money. This done, they saw the gates closed upon them, and
were informed from the ramparts that they must go elsewhere to find their
living until the next harvest. Claude Haton, ii. 729.
[1305] _Ante_, chapter xix., p. 552.
[1306] Here is his letter to Henry: "Mon frere. Dieu nous a fait la grasse
que vous estes ellu roy de Poulogne. J'en suis si ayse que je ne scay que
vous mander. Je loue Dieu de bon coeur; pardonnes moy, l'ayse me garde
d'escrire. Je ne sceay que dire. Mon frere, je avons receu vostre lestre.
Je suis vostre bien bon frere et amy, CHARLES." MS. Bibliotheque
nationale, _apud_ Haton, ii. 733.
[1307] The edict says expressly (Art. 5th): "Et y faire seulement les
baptesmes et mariages a leur facon accoustumee sans plus grande assemblee,
outre les parens, parrins et marrines, jusques au nombre de dix." Text in
Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 98, etc., and Haag, France protestante, x.
(Documents) 110-114. Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 107, etc.) and Von Polenz
(Gesch. des Franz. Calvinismus, ii. 632) give a correct synopsis; but
Soldan is wrong in including among the concessions "den Hausgottesdienst"
(ii. 536), and De Thou still more incorrect when he speaks of "les preches
et la Cene" (iv., liv. lvi. 796).
[1308] According to Davila, Sancerre was _not comprehended_ in the terms
made with the Rochellois, "because it was not a free town under the king's
absolute dominion as the rest, but under the seigniory of the Counts of
Sancerre." London trans. of 1678, 193.
[1309] Jean de Lery, Discours de l'extreme famine, etc., 25-27.
[1310] Jean de Lery, 38.
[1311] Styled also, in the articles of capitulation, "_le gouverneur par
election_ de ladite ville." He was an able and influential magistrate, who
had been elected to the governorship of his native city at the time of the
former troubles. Lery, 78-80.
[1312] Agrippa d'Aubigne (Hist. univ., ii. 104) distinctly represents La
Chastre as desirous of destroying the entire city; while Lery (p. 77) and
Davila (p. 193) are in doubt whether Johanneau's murder was not effected
by his orders. Yet Lery himself records a conversation he held about this
time with La Chastre (p. 67), in which the latter protested that he was
not, as commonly reported, of a sanguinary disposition, and appealed for
corroboration to his merciful treatment of some Huguenot prisoners that
fell into his hands in the third civil war, whom he refused to surrender
to the Parisian parliament when formally summoned to do so. Claude de la
Chastre's noble letter to Charles IX., of January 21, 1570 (Bulletin, iv.
28), seems to be a sufficient voucher for his veracity. See _ante_,
chapter xvi., p. 345.
[1313] Jean de Lery, 42.
[1314] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 104. It would be a great relief could we
believe that inordinate fondness for the dance was the chief vice of the
French court. Unfortunately the moral turpitude of the king and his
favorites rests upon less suspicious grounds than the revolting stories
told on hearsay by the unfriendly writer of the Eusebii Philadelphi
Dialogi (Edinburgi, 1574), ii. 117, 118. The "Affair of Nantouillet,"
occurring just about the time of the Polish ambassadors' arrival in Paris,
is only too authentic. The "Prevot de Paris," M. de Nantouillet (cf.
_ante_, chapter xv., page 258, note), grandson of Cardinal du Prat,
Chancellor of France under Francis I., offended Anjou by somewhat
contemptuously declining the hand of the duke's discarded mistress,
Mademoiselle de Chateauneuf. The lady easily induced her princely lover to
avenge her wounded vanity. One evening Charles IX., the new king of
Poland, the King of Navarre, the Grand Prior of France, and their
attendants, presented themselves at the stately mansion of Nantouillet, on
the southern bank of the Seine, opposite the Louvre, and demanded that a
banquet be prepared for them. Though the royal party was masked, the
unwilling host knew his guests but too well, and dared not deny their
peremptory command. In the midst of the carousal, at a preconcerted
signal, the king's followers began to ransack the house, maltreating the
occupants, wantonly destroying the costly furniture, appropriating the
silver plate, and breaking open doors and coffers in search of money. The
next day even Paris itself was indignant at the base conduct of its king.
To the first president of parliament, who that day visited the palace and
informed Charles of the current rumors respecting his having been present
and conniving at the pillage, the despicable monarch denied their truth
with his customary horrible imprecation. But when the president expressed
his great satisfaction, and said that parliament would at once institute
proceedings to discover and punish the guilty, Charles promptly responded:
"By no means. You will lose your trouble;" and he added a significant
threat for Nantouillet, that, should he pursue his attempt to obtain
satisfaction, he would find that he had to do with an opponent infinitely
his superior. Euseb. Phil. Dialogi, ii. 117, 118; Jean de Serres, iv.,
fol. 114, _verso_; D'Aubigne, ii. 104; De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 821.
[1315] Article 4th. Text in Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 98.
[1316] J. de Serres, iv., fol. 112.
[1317] This hamlet must not be confounded with the important town of
Milhaud, or Milhau-en-Rouergue, mentioned below, nearly seventy miles
farther west.
[1318] Histoire du Languedoc, v. 321.
[1319] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 113, 114; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 12,
13; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 107; Histoire du Languedoc, v. 322. It ought to
be noted that the Montauban assembly in reality did little more than
confirm the regulations drawn up by previous and less conspicuous
political assemblies of the Huguenots held at Anduze in February, and at
Realmont, in May, 1573. This clearly appears from references to that
earlier legislation contained in the more complete "organization" adopted
four months later at Milhau. See the document in Haag, France Protestante,
x. (Pieces justificatives) 124, 125. M. Jean Loutchitzki has published in
the Bulletin, xxii. (1873) 507-511, a list of the political assemblies
much fuller than given by any previous writer.
[1320] As it is of interest to fix the geographical distribution of the
provinces represented, I give the list contained in the preamble:
"Guyenne, Vivaretz, Gevaudan, Seneschaussee de Toloze, Auvergne, haute et
basse Marche, Quercy, Perigord, Limosin, Agenois, Armignac, Cominges,
Coustraux, Bigorre, Albret, Foix, Lauraguay, Albigeois, pais de Castres et
Villelargue, Mirepoix, Carcassonne, et autres pais et provinces
adjacentes."
[1321] Requete de l'assemblee de Montauban, in Haag, La France
Protestante, x. (Pieces just.) 114-121.
[1322] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 113, 114; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 12,
13; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 106.
[1323] Histoire du Languedoc, v. 322.
[1324] Agrippa d'Aubigne, _ubi supra_.
[1325] Jean de Serres, iv. (lib. xii.) fol. 114; D'Aubigne and De Thou,
_ubi supra_. See also Languet (Epistolae secretae, i. 216), who, writing
November 14, 1573, considers the Huguenots to be virtually demanding the
re-enactment of the edict of January, 1562.
[1326] De Thou and D'Aubigne, _ubi supra_. Hist. du Languedoc, v. 322:
"pourvu que lesdits de la religion donnent ordre de leur part, qu'il ne
soit entrepris aucune chose au contraire, comme il est avenu ces jours
passes, ce que je leur defens tres-expressement." Charles IX. to Damville,
Oct. 18, 1573. Unfortunately, neither the promise nor the condition was
observed over scrupulously.
[1327] The king's aunt, the Duchess of Savoy, his mother, and his brothers
of Anjou and Alencon.
[1328] Relazione di Giov. Michiel, 1561, Tommaseo, i. 418-420.
[1329] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 18.
[1330] Of this Queen Elizabeth reminded La Mothe Fenelon in a conversation
reported by him June 3, 1573, Corr. dipl., v. 345, 346.
[1331] La Mothe Fenelon to Charles IX., July 26, 1573, Corr. dipl., v.
382.
[1332] The story was certainly not invented by his mother, "comme il
estoit sorty de sa derniere maladye _aussy jaune que cuyvre, tout bouffy,
deffigure, bien fort petit et mince_." No wonder that Leicester, while
expressing the hope that the account might be false, hinted that it
operated against the proposed marriage. La Mothe Fenelon to Charles IX.,
November 11, 1573, Correspondance diplomatique, v. 443.
[1333] Despatch of Aug. 20, ibid., v. 394.
[1334] The correspondence of La Mothe Fenelon, as preserved, is not
destitute of interest. See volumes v. and vi., _passim_; as also Le
Laboureur, Additions a Castelnau, vol. iii., pp. 350, _seq._
[1335] De Thou, v. 12.
[1336] "Achten's dafuer dieweil es den Franzosen gelungen das sie das
Koenigreich Polen ann sich practicirt, das sie darvon so hochmuethig wordenn
das sie muessen nun Hern der ganze weltt werdenn."
[1337] Letters of Landgrave William, Sept. 8th, Oct. 17th and Nov. 6th,
1573, Groen van Prinsterer, iv. 116*, 118*, 123*. See also Soldan, ii.
552-556, who, as usual, is very full and satisfactory in everything
bearing upon the relations of France to Germany. Rudolph, Maximilian's
son, who succeeded his father three years later, was unfortunately far
from embodying the excellences desired by the landgrave. It may be
questioned whether the Protestants of Germany would have fared worse even
under a Valois than under this degenerate Hapsburger.
[1338] Louis of Nassau to William of Orange, December, 1573. Groen van
Prinsterer, iv. 278-281.
[1339] Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, ii. 534-538. J. de Serres, iv.,
fol. 134, gives the date as April 17th. This volume of Serres was
published in the succeeding year, 1575.
[1340] The writer of an anonymous letter (now in the library of Prince
Czartoryski), who saw Henry as he rode into Heidelberg, with Louis of
Nassau on his right hand, and Duke Christopher, the elector's son, on his
left, thus describes his personal appearance: "Homo procera statura,
corpore gracili, facie oblonga pallida, oculis paululum prominentibus,
vultu subtruculento, indutus pallio holoserico rubri coloris." Heidelberg
letter "de transitu Henrici," etc., Dec. 22, 1573, _apud_ Marquis de
Noailles, Henri de Valois et la Pologne (Paris, 1867), iii. (Pieces
justif.), 532.
[1341] Germany seems to have been full of blind rumors of treacherous
designs on the part of its French neighbors. I have before me a pamphlet
of little historical value, and evidently intended for popular
circulation, entitled "Entdeckung etlicher heimlichen Practicken, so
jetzund vorhanden wider unser geliebtes Vatterland, die Teutsche Nation,
was man gaentzlich willens und ins werck zubringen, gegen den Evangelischen
fuergenommen habe, durch einen guthertzigen und getrewen Christen unserm
Vatterland zu guetem an tag geben. M.D.LXXIII."
[1342] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.), 22; Mem. de Pierre de Lestoile (ed.
Michaud et Poujoulat), i. 27.
[1343] "Was sich in Franckreich zugetragen, weiss man auch."
[1344] The minute of the conversation drawn up by the elector palatine
with his own hand, and printed by Lalanne in the appendix to the fourth
volume of his edition of Brantome's Works (411-418), is by far the most
trustworthy source of information we possess. On the last count of the
elector's indictment, Anjou's defence was certainly very lame: "Dass ich
selbst an seines Altvatters Hof gesehen _que c'a ete une Cour fort
dissolue_, aber seines Brudern und Frau Mutter Hof demselbigen bey weitem
nicht zu vergleichen." Ibid., 414.
[1345] "C'est ce qui fit croire a bien des gens, que l'Electeur n'avoit
pas recu un hote comme Henri aussi poliment qu'il le devoit." De Thou, v.
(liv. lvii.) 22.
[1346] Heidelberg letter of Dec. 22, 1573, Czartoryski MSS., De Noailles,
Pieces justif., iii. 533. See _ante_, p. 485.
[1347] Heidelberg letter, _ubi supra_, iii. 534.
[1348] Jean de Serres (edit. 1571), iii. 284; A. d'Aubigne, i. 264,
"Pource que le Chancelier de l'Hospital ne pouvoit travailler de coeur en
mesme temps aux violentes depesches de Thavanes, de Montluc et autres, et
aux douceurs du Mareschal de Cosse, il ne fallut qu'un souspir de probite
pour lui faire oster les sceaux; ce que fit la Roine en le relegant en sa
maison pres Estampes jusques a la fin de ses jours." See also Languet's
letter of September 20, 1568.
[1349] Chancellor de l'Hospital to Charles IX., January 12, 1573, copy
discovered in the MSS. of the National Library, Paris, by Prof. Soldan,
and printed in Appendix XI. of his history.
[1350] _Ante_, chapter xv., p. 264, note.
[1351] "M. le chancelier de l'Hospital qui avoit les fleurs de lys dans le
coeur." Journal de Lestoile, p. 16.
[1352] "Politici (novum enim hoc nomen ex novo negotio sub hoc tempus
natum)." Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 132.
[1353] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 115-117. The dedication of Hotman's
Franco-Gallia to the elector palatine is dated August 21, 1573.
[1354] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 122. Serres gives an extended summary of
the work, whose author is unknown to him, fols. 119-128.
[1355] Eusebii Philadelphi Dialog., ii. 117, _et passim_. See also the
Tocsain contre les massacreurs, which, although published as late as 1579,
was written before the death of Charles the Ninth (see the address of the
printer, dated June 25, 1577), where the king is directly compared to the
Emperor Nero. Archives curieuses, vii. 162.
[1356] They had, however, generally retracted their admissions of
complicity made on the rack.
[1357] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 118; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 19, 20;
Arcere, Histoire de la ville de la Rochelle, i. 533-540; Languet, Letter
of Feb. 8, 1574, i. 229.
[1358] See the list of members in the protocol of the proceedings first
published in the Bulletin de la Societe de l'hist. du prot. francais, x.
(1862) 351-353.
[1359] In this, as in other particulars, the political assembly of Milhau
merely re-enacted the provisions of the assembly of Realmont. For the
dates of the early political assemblies of the Huguenots, which must of
course be carefully distinguished from their synods or ecclesiastical
assemblies, see the list in the Bulletin, etc., xxii. (1873) 508.
[1360] Text of the document embodying the resolutions of the political
assembly of Milhau, in Haag, La France protestante (vol. x.), Pieces
justificatives, 121-126. The correct date seems to be Dec. 17th, instead
of 16th; Bulletin, as above, x. 351. Cf. also Leonce Anquez, Histoire des
assemblees politiques des reformes de France (1573-1622), Paris, 1859,
7-11.
[1361] Lettres d'Auger Gislen, seigneur de Busbec, amb. de l'emp. Rodolphe
II. aupres de Henri III. Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses, x. 115.
[1362] "Dictitabat se Religionem reformatam minime probare; ensis tantum
sui mucronem esse Religiosum: id est, se non Religionis doctrinam, sed
Religiosorum causam sequi. Hujusmodi exemplis magnae offensiones adversus
Religiosos conflabantur." Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 118. The reader needs
perhaps to be reminded that _Religiosi_ here stands as the equivalent for
the French designation of the Huguenots as "ceux de la Religion."
[1363] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 113, 114 (liv. ii., c. 4); Jean de Serres,
iv., fol. 117. Of "La Grande Chartreuse," which lies ten miles north of
Grenoble, see a good account in R. Toepffer, Voyages en Zigzag, seconde
serie.
[1364] Languet, Epistolae secretae, i. 214, etc.
[1365] E. Arnaud, Histoire des protestants du Dauphine aux xvie, xviie et
xviiie siecles, Paris, 1875, i. 277-281; Ch. Charronet, Les guerres de
religion et la societe protestante dans les Hautes-Alpes (1560-1789),
Gap., 1861, p. 75, etc.
[1366] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 113; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.), 30.
[1367] "Fere omnes qui non fuerunt participes caedis Amiralii et aliorum,
dicunt, Huguenotos merito corripere arma ad tutandam suam salutem, cum
nihil observetur eorum quae hactenus fuerunt ipsis promissa." Languet,
letter of April 14, 1574, Epistolae secretae, i. 239.
[1368] "Et parmy leurs discours se representoient a chacun coup la journee
de St. Barthelemy."
[1369] The interesting particulars of the conference we obtain from two
long and very important despatches of Biron to Charles IX., dated, the
one, Ernandes, April 24th, the other, April 26th and 27th, 1574, MSS.
Imperial Lib. of St. Petersburg, communicated to the Bulletin de la Soc.
de l'hist. du prot. fr., xxii. (1873) 401-413, by M. Jean Loutchitzki.
[1370] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 117. Shrove Tuesday fell, in 1574, on March
9th.
[1371] Ten miles from the chateau de St. Germain, and about the same
distance from the palace of the Louvre. A part of the old forest yet
remains.
[1372] I follow Agrippa d'Aubigne, who here must be regarded as excellent
authority, for not only was he present, but it was by his means ("par ma
conduitte") that Guitry was introduced into Navarre's chamber. Hist.
univ., ii. 119.
[1373] Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 138) and the Memoires de l'estat
(Archives curieuses, "Discours de l'entreprise de St. Germain," viii.
107-118) give the last of February for the date of the discovery of the
undertaking of Alencon; but, from a comparison of letters, Prof. Soldan
has shown (ii. 580) that it really was March 1st.
[1374] It is Agrippa d'Aubigne (Hist. univ., ii. 119) who depicts the
scene. As he seems to have been present on the occasion, we may rely upon
the truthfulness of the groundwork of his sketch, while ascribing a little
of the coloring to the free hand of the artist.
[1375] The testimony of Navarre and others is preserved, and has been
published, together with the interrogatories, in the Archives curieuses,
viii. 127-221.
[1376] Pierre de Lestoile, Memoires (ed. Michaud et Poujoulat), 30.
Languet, letter of May 11, 1574, ii. 7, 8.
[1377] Jean de Serres, iv. 136; Languet, letter of May 11, 1574, ii. 8.
[1378] "Je scais bien que ce sont des chats que vos huguenots, qui se
retrouvent tousjours sur leurs pieds." Mem. de Pierre de Lestoile (ed.
Michaud et Poujoulat), 53.
[1379] "Ains les laissant en paix comme ministres de l'utilite commune, et
peres nourriciers des autres estats."
[1380] P. Brisson, Hist. et vray discours des guerres civiles es pays de
Poictou, _apud_ Histoire des protestants et des eglises ref. du Poitou,
par Auguste Lievre (Poitiers, 1856), i. 189, 190.
[1381] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 33.
[1382] De Thou, v. 44; Olhagaray, Hist. de Foix, etc., 638. Miss Freer
("Henry III., King of France, His Court and Times," i. 366) accepts the
statement without question, while Prof. Soldan, ii. 587, rejects it,
basing his action upon a passage in another treatise of D'Aubigne than
that referred to below, viz.: "Choses notables et qui semblent dignes de
l'histoire," in Archives curieuses, viii. 411.
[1383] Hist. univ., ii. 126. See a contemporary account: "La Prinse du
Comte de Montgommery dedans le Chasteau de Donfron ... le Jeudy xxvii. de
May, mil cinq cens soixante et quatorze. A Paris, 1574. Avec Privilege."
Archives curieuses, viii. 223-238.
[1384] Aug. 13, 1569; see Olhagaray, Histoire de Foix, Bearn, et Navarre
(Paris, 1609), pp. 616, 617. According to this author, "le voyage de
Bearn, et le coup de Navarreux sur la noblesse du pais luy cousta cela,"
_i.e._, his execution. Ib., p. 639.
[1385] Memoires d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), pp. 168, 169. See
_ante_, chapter xiii., p. 78. Chantonnay (despatch of May 6, 1562) speaks
of Montgomery as "se ventant que la plus belle et digne oeuvre que se soit
jamais faicte en France, fut le coup de lance dont il tua le roy Henry. Je
m'esbayhis comme la royne le peult dissimuler." Mem. de Conde, ii. 37.
[1386] "Discours de la Mort et Execution de Gabriel Comte de Montgommery,
par Arrest de la Court, pour les conspirations et menees par luy commises,
contre le Roy et son estat. Qui fut a Paris, le vingtsixiesme de Iuing,
1574. A Paris, 1574. Avec priv." (Archives cur., viii. 239-253.)
[1387] Doubtless repeating the words of the Confession of Sins, beginning:
"Seigneur Dieu, Pere Eternel et Tout-puissant," etc., a form loved by the
Huguenots, and often on the lips of martyrs for the faith.
[1388] Memoires de Lestoile, i. 38. Agrippa d'Aubigne gives us (ii. 131) a
full account of Montgomery's address, which he himself heard, mounted, as
he informs us, "en croupe" behind M. de Fervaques, to whom Montgomery bade
farewell just before his death. The Huguenot captain made but two requests
of the bystanders: "the first, that they would tell his children, whom the
judges had declared to be degraded to the rank of 'roturiers,' that, if
they had not virtue of nobility enough to reassert their position, their
father consented to the act; as for the other request, he conjured them,
by the respect due to the words of a dying man, not to represent him to
others as beheaded for any of the reasons assigned in his judicial
condemnation--his wars, expeditions, and ensigns won--subjects of
frivolous praise to vain men--but to make him the companion in cause and
in death of so many simple persons according to the world--old men, young
men, and poor women--who in that same place (the Place de Greve) had
endured fire and knife." D'Aubigne's narrative, as usual, is vivid, and
mentions somewhat trivial details, which, however, are additional pledges
of its accuracy; _e.g._, he alludes to the fact that, having spoken as
above to those who stood on the side toward the river, he repeated his
remarks to those on the other side of the Place de Greve, beginning with
the words, "I was saying to the men yonder," etc.
[1389] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 48.
[1390] Hist. univ., ii. (liv. ii.) 129.
[1391] Memoires de Pierre de Lestoile (ed. Michaud et Poujoulat), i. 31.
[1392] De Thou, v. 48; text in Isambert, Recueil des anc. lois fr., xiv.
262.
[1393] Memoires de Claude Haton, ii. 764
[1394] North British Review, Oct., 1869, p. 27.
[1395] Or, as Sorbin expressed it, "qu'il voyoit l'idole Calvinesque
n'estre encores du tout chassee." Le vray resveille-matin des Calvinistes,
88, ibid., _ubi supra_. The expression, it will be noticed, contains a
distinct reference to the anagram upon the name of "Charles de
Valois"--"va chasser l'idole," upon which the Huguenots had founded
brilliant hopes. See _ante_, chapter xiii., p. 123. On the other hand,
since the massacre, some Huguenot had discovered that from the same name
could be obtained the appropriate words "_chasseur deloyal_." Recueil des
choses memorables (1598), 506.
[1396] Languet, ii. 16.
[1397] Agrippa D'Aubigne, ii. 129; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 50. Charles
left but one legitimate child, a daughter, born Oct. 27, 1572, who died in
her sixth year.
[1398] Claude Haton, never more himself than when recounting the
circumstances of a case of murder, whether by sword or by poison, fully
credits the story; but the letter of Catharine to M. de Matignon, written
on the 31st of May, gives an intelligible account of the results of the
medical examination establishing the pulmonary nature of the king's
disease.
[1399] Jean de Serres, Comment de statu, etc., iv., fol. 137.
[1400] See examples given by White (Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 480) and
others.
[1401] De Thou and others ascribe to Albert de Gondy, Count of Retz, one
of Charles's early instructors and a creature of Catharine de' Medici, the
unenviable credit of having taught the young monarch never to tell the
truth, and to use those horrible imprecations which startled even the
profane when coming from the lips of a dying man. De Thou, v. 47, etc. See
also Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 137, and Brantome, Le roy Charles IXe.
[1402] See the contemporary pamphlet, "Le Trespas et Obseques du
tres-chrestien roy de France, Charles IXe. de ce Nom;" reprinted in Cimber
et Danjou, Archives curieuses.
INDEX.
A.
Abasement of the people, fruits of the, i. 15.
"Accommodating" the Huguenots of Rouen, ii. 521.
"Accord," the Protestants of Cateau-Cambresis claim the benefit
of the, ii. 190.
Acier, Baron d' (Jacques de Crussol), ii. 283, 335.
Acier, D', younger brother of Crussol, ii. 230, note.
Adrets, Francois de Beaumont, Baron des, a merciless general of
the Huguenots, ii. 49;
his vindication of his course, ii. 50, note;
his cruelty, ii. 50, 51;
deserts the Huguenots, ii. 102.
Adriani, Giovambatista, the historian, his assertion that
a plan for "Sicilian Vespers" was to have been executed at
Moulins, ii. 183;
on the rejoicing in Italy over the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's
Day, ii. 534.
Agen, in Guyenne, persecution at, i. 217.
Agenois, Protestantism in, i. 428.
"Agimus a gagne Pere Eternel," meaning of the expression, i. 345.
Aiguillon, ii. 350.
Airvault, ii. 336.
Aix, Parliament of, i. 19;
iniquitous order respecting the Waldenses or Vaudois, i. 235. See
Vaudois of Provence.
Alava, Frances de, Spanish ambassador at Paris, ii. 181.
Albi, refuses to admit a garrison, ii. 250.
Albigenses, i. 61;
accused of Manichaeism, i. 62.
Albret, Jeanne d'. See Navarre, Queen of.
Aleander, papal nuncio, his hopes respecting Lefevre d'Etaples, i. 94.
Alencon, city of, saved from becoming a scene of massacre by M. de
Matignon, ii. 526.
Alencon, Francis of, fourth son of Henry II., baptized Hercules, i. 415;
to be substituted for Anjou, as a suitor for the hand of Queen
Elizabeth, ii. 380;
his praise, ii. 398;
he takes no part in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, and is
threatened by his mother, ii. 476, 477;
his reply to her attempt to estrange him from the admiral, ii. 495;
La Mothe Fenelon instructed to press his suit with Queen
Elizabeth, ii. 606;
his disfigurement, ii. 607;
he is offered as candidate for election as King of the Romans, ii. 608;
the proposal is declined, ii. 609;
chosen by the party of the "Politiques" as their head, ii. 619;
his untrustworthy character, ii. 619, 620;
his irresolution, ii. 625.
Alessandria, the Cardinal of, despatched as legate to Paris, ii. 400;
Charles IX.'s assurances to him, ii. 400-403, 531.
Alexander III. dedicates the abbey of St. Germain-des-Pres, ii.
483, note.
Alienor, or Eleonore, last Duchess of Aquitaine, her charter given
to La Rochelle in 1199, ii. 270.
Allens, M. d', i. 238.
Alva, Duke of, is one of the ambassadors of Philip II., and a hostage
for the execution of the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, i. 325;
declines the joint expedition proposed by Henry II. for the destruction
of Geneva, i. 327;
is suspicious of the proposed conference at Bayonne, ii. 168
(see Bayonne, Conference of);
sent to Netherlands, ii. 195;
alarm caused by his march, ii. 196;
he is invited by Cardinal Lorraine to enter France, ii. 208;
he procrastinates, ib.;
insincerity of his offers, ii. 212;
sends a few troops under Count Aremberg, ii. 213;
is again called upon for aid, ii. 221;
his view of accommodations with heretics, ii. 222;
opposes the peace of Saint Germain, ii. 368;
he receives a signal rebuff from Charles IX., ii. 390, 391;
exults over the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, but hesitates
from policy to put the Huguenot prisoners to death, ii. 540;
earns the approval of Pius V. by his butcheries, ii. 564, 565.
Amboise, the peace of, March 19, 1563, terminating the first civil
war, ii. 115;
its terms condemned, ii. 116, 128;
Coligny's disappointment at, ii. 116, 117;
the terms in many places not observed, ii. 128;
commissioners sent out to enforce the execution of the edict, ii. 132;
the Parliament of Paris sternly reproved by the king for its failure
to record the edict, ii. 139, 140;
the edict infringed upon by interpretative declarations, ii. 160.
Amboise, the Tumult of, causes of, i. 375, seq.;
Assembly of Nantes, i. 300;
chronology of the Tumult, i. 381;
the plot betrayed, i. 382;
dismay of the royal court, i. 387;
bloody executions following, i. 391.
"Amende honorable," i. 172.
Amiens, one hundred and fifty Huguenots murdered at, ii. 249.
Amnesty, the Edict of, March, 1560, i. 385;
its terms ostensibly extended, but explained away, i. 390, 391.
Anagram of Charles de Valois (Charles IX.), ii. 123.
Andelot, Francois d', younger brother of Admiral Coligny, favors the
Reformation, i. 313;
denounced as a heretic by Cardinal Granvelle, i. 316;
his visit to Brittany, ib.;
he is summoned by Henry II., before whom he makes a manly defence
of his faith, i. 317, 318;
is imprisoned, i. 318;
his temporary weakness, i. 319;
disappointment of the Pope at his escape from the stake, i. 320, note;
is consulted by Catharine de' Medici, i. 383;
throws himself into Orleans, ii. 39;
returns with reinforcements from Germany, ii. 84;
is left in Orleans by Conde, ii. 85;
his warlike counsels at the outbreak of the second civil war prevail,
ii. 204;
sent to intercept Count of Aremberg, ii. 214;
spirited remonstrance (ascribed to him) addressed to Catharine
de' Medici, ii. 252, 253;
his escape from Brittany to La Rochelle, ii. 281;
his death ii. 312;
his character and exploits, ii. 313, 314.
Ange, L', orator for the tiers etat in the States General of
Orleans, i. 458.
Angers, massacre of, ii. 512, 513.
Anglois, Jacques l', a Protestant minister, murdered at Rouen, ii. 515.
Angouleme, ii. 283.
Angouleme, Bastard of, ii. 456, 459, 483.
Angouleme, Margaret of, afterward Queen of Navarre, sister of
Francis I., i. 74, 86;
birth and studies, i. 104;
personal appearance, i. 105;
political influence, i. 106;
married first to Duke of Alencon, ib.;
goes to Spain to visit her captive brother, ib.;
marriage to Henry, King of Navarre, i. 107;
corresponds with Bishop Briconnet, i. 108;
her Heptameron, i. 119;
her sanguine hopes, i. 133;
her correspondence with Count von Hohenlohe, ib.;
favors Protestant preachers, i. 151;
attacked in the College of Navarre, i. 152;
her "Miroir de l'ame pecheresse," ib.;
fruitless intercessions in the matter of the placards of 1534, i. 168;
she yields to the influence of the "Libertines," i. 195, 226;
her address to the Parliament of Bordeaux, i. 226.
"Annats," i. 25.
Anjou, Henry, Duke of (afterward Henry III., see Henry of Valois);
he is appointed by Charles IX. lieutenant-general, and placed in
supreme command of the army, ii. 217;
endeavors to prevent the junction of Conde and the Germans, ii. 220;
his forces at the beginning of the third civil war, ii. 285;
his army goes into winter quarters, ii. 286;
his growing superiority in numbers, ii. 298;
endeavors to prevent the southern Huguenots from reinforcing
Conde, ii. 299;
throws his troops in front of Conde, ii. 300;
obtains a victory at Jarnac, March 13, 1569, ii. 301, 302;
sends off exaggerated bulletins from the battle-field, ii. 307, 308;
receives congratulations and sanguinary injunctions from
Pius V., ii. 309;
he furloughs his troops, ii. 320;
relieves Poitiers, ii. 325;
his army strengthened, ii. 332;
defeats the Huguenots at Moncontour, ii. 332-336;
loses the advantages gained, through the mistake committed at St. Jean
d'Angely, ii. 340, seq.;
disbands a great part of his army, ii. 343;
leaves the remainder in the prince dauphin's hands, ib.;
his projected marriage to Queen Elizabeth, ii. 377, seq.;
machinations to dissuade him, ii. 379;
indignation of Charles at, ib.;
his new ardor, ii. 381;
papal and Spanish efforts, ii. 382;
the match abandoned, ii. 396;
his confession respecting the origin of the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew's Day ii. 433;
his jealousy of Coligny's influence, ib.;
he and his mother resolve upon the death of the admiral, ii. 434;
they call in the help of the Duchess of Nemours and Henry of
Guise, ib.;
he visits the wounded admiral, ii. 441;
plies Charles IX. with arguments to frighten him into authorizing
a massacre of the Huguenots, ii. 447, 448;
he rides through the streets of Paris encouraging the
assassins, ii. 472;
enriches himself from the plunder of the jeweller Baduere, ii. 485;
helps to persuade Charles IX. to assume the responsibility of the
massacre, ii. 491;
his letter to Montsoreau, Governor of Saumur, ii. 503;
sent to assume command of the army besieging La Rochelle, ii. 585;
issues stringent ordinances after the example of the Huguenots, ib.;
he is elected King of Poland, ii. 593;
his reception at Heidelberg by the Elector Palatine, Frederick the
Pious, ii. 610, seq.;
his personal appearance, ii. 610, note;
his lying assertions and the elector's frank remonstrance,
ii. 611, 612.
Antoine de Bourbon-Vendome, King of Navarre. See Navarre, Antoine,
King of.
Aosta, story of Calvin's labors at, i. 207.
Arande, Michel d', i. 74, 96;
his reply to Farel, i. 97.
Aremberg Count, sent by Alva to France, ii. 213, 214.
Arnay-le-Duc, battle of, June 25, 1570, ii. 354, seq.
Arras, Bishop of. See Granvelle, Cardinal.
Arras, execution of Vaudois at, i. 63.
Artois and Flanders, i. 66;
ii. 186.
Assembly, a political, of the Huguenots, held in Nismes, Nov.,
1562, ii. 86;
a military organization of the Huguenots provided for by the
assembly of Montauban, Aug., 1573, ii. 600;
previous assemblies, ii. 601, note;
the organization perfected in the assembly of Milhau, Dec. 17,
1573, ii. 617-619.
Astrology, popular belief in, i. 47.
Aubenas, a Huguenot place of refuge, ii. 280.
Aubigne, Agrippa d', at Amboise, i. 392;
his father's exclamation, i. 393;
his testimony as to Chancellor L'Hospital's complicity with the
conspirators of Amboise, i. 412;
his father appointed a commissioner for the execution of the edict
of pacification of Amboise, ii. 132;
his enlistment in the Huguenot army, ii. 275;
on the firing of Charles IX. on the Huguenots at the massacre, ii. 483;
on the magnanimous reply of the Viscount D'Orthez to the
king, ii. 528, note;
on the effect of the massacre on the king himself, ii. 560, 561;
his account of Regnier's deliverance of Montauban, ii. 575;
of the death of Count Montgomery, ii. 634, 635, note.
Aubigne, Merle d'. See Merle.
Audeberte, Anne her martyrdom, i, 278.
Auger, or Augier, Edmond, his violent sermons at Bordeaux, ii. 523.
Aumale, Claude, Duke of, i. 269;
marries a daughter of Diana of Poitiers, i. 273;
his jealousy of the Duke of Nemours, ii. 317;
pursues the Huguenots, ii. 336;
helps arrange the plan for assassinating Coligny, ii. 435;
receives a rough answer from Charles IX., ii. 446;
pursues Montgomery, ii. 482;
is killed before La Rochelle, March 3, 1573, ii. 585.
Aurillac, ii. 348.
Autun, the "mice" of, i. 238.
Auxerre, assassination of Huguenots at, ii. 249.
Avenelles, Des, betrays the designs of La Renaudie to the Guises, i. 382.
"Aventuriers," i. 44.
Avignon, i. 4;
popes at, i. 28.
Ayamonte, Marquis d', sent by Philip II. to congratulate Charles IX. on
the massacre of the Huguenots, ii. 540.
"Aygnos," for Huguenots, ii. 180, note.
B.
"Babylonish captivity," i. 28.
Baden, Marquis of, ii. 298, 334.
Baden, the Swiss Diet of, ii. 558.
Baduere, a rich jeweller in Paris and a Huguenot, great plunder obtained
by the Duke of Anjou from his shop, ii. 485, 613.
Ballads, Huguenot, ii. 120-125.
Balue, Cardinal, i. 34.
Barbaro, a Venetian ambassador, regards the conference of Saint Germain
as an efficient means of spreading heresy, ii. 9;
on Catharine de' Medici, ii. 370.
Barrier, a Franciscan monk and curate at Provins, his remarks to the
people when ordered to make proclamation of the king's tolerant
order, i. 477, note;
his seditious sermon on the edict of January, ii. 5, 6;
at the beginning of the third civil war, ii. 279.
Bassompierre, ii. 298.
Battle of Pavia, Feb 24, 1525, i. 122;
of Saint Quentin, Aug. 10, 1557, i. 302;
of Dreux, Dec. 19, 1562, ii. 93;
of Saint Denis, Nov. 10, 1567, ii. 213-215;
of Jarnac, March 13, 1569, ii. 301, 302;
of La Roche Abeille, ii. 319;
of Moncontour, Oct. 3, 1569, ii. 332-336;
of Arnay-le-Duc, June 25 and 26, 1570, ii. 354.
Baum, Professor, on the reply of Conde to the "petition" of the
Triumvirs, ii. 61.
Bayonne, Conference of, June, 1565, ii. 167, seq.;
proposed by Catharine de' Medici, ib.;
looked upon with suspicion by Philip II. and Alva, ii. 167, 168;
current misapprehensions respecting its object, ii. 168, 169;
what was actually proposed, ii. 171;
Charles declares himself against war, ii. 172;
the discussion between Alva, Catharine, and Isabella, ii. 172-175;
no plan of extermination adopted or even proposed, ii. 176;
festivities and pageantry, ii. 176-179;
the assertion of Adriani that the "Sicilian Vespers" projected at
Bayonne were to have been executed at Moulins, ii. 183;
some of the appointed victims, ii. 198, note.
Bearn, i. 108;
establishment of the Reformation in, ii. 148, seq.;
Montgomery takes a great part of, ii. 323.
Beaudine, ii. 352, 475.
Beaugency "loaned" by Conde to the King of Navarre, ii. 63;
retaken by the Huguenots, ii. 66.
Beauvais, riot at, occasioned by the suspected Protestantism of Cardinal
Chatillon, bishop of the city, i. 474, seq.
Beauvoir la Nocle, a Huguenot negotiator, ii. 357, 359, 363;
escapes from the massacre, ii. 481-483, 625.
Becanis, Vidal de, an inquisitor, i. 289.
Beda, or Bedier, Natalis, i. 23, 71, 151.
Belin, an agent in the massacre of Troyes, ii. 507, 508.
Bellay, Guillaume du, i. 150;
labors for conciliation, i. 160;
his representations at Smalcald to the German princes, i. 188;
makes in the name of Francis I., a Protestant confession, i. 189;
is instructed to investigate the history and character of the Waldenses
of Merindol, i. 239;
his favorable report, i. 240.
Bellay, Jean du, Bishop of Paris, leans to the reformed doctrine, i. 156.
Bellievre, his lying representations to the Swiss respecting the admiral,
the massacre, etc., ii. 558, 559.
Berchon, Governor of Orange, expelled, ii. 620.
Berne, canton of, intercedes for the relatives of Farel, but receives
a rough answer from Francis I., i. 156;
again applies to him, with similar results, i. 192;
intercedes for the Five Scholars of Lausanne, i. 284;
other intercessions, i. 286, 309, 310;
sends troops to the aid of the Huguenots, but afterward recalls
them, ii. 56.
Berquin, Louis de, i. 44;
his character, i. 128;
becomes a reformer, i. 129;
prosecuted and imprisoned but released by order of the king, i. 130;
becomes acquainted with Erasmus, ib.;
his second imprisonment, i. 131;
and release, i. 132;
intercessions of Margaret of Angouleme, i. 132;
his third arrest, i. 143, seq.;
his execution, i. 145;
elegies on, i. 157.
Berthault, an evangelical preacher, i. 151.
Bethisy, rue de, ii. 438, note.
Beza, or De Beze, Theodore, efforts in behalf of the persecuted
Protestants of Paris, i. 309;
consulted as to revolution, i. 377;
dissuades the French Protestants from armed resistance, i. 378;
his comment upon the edict of amnesty, i. 386;
invited by Antoine of Bourbon to Nerac, i. 431;
he returns to Geneva, i. 435;
he is invited to the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 494;
urged by the Protestants of Paris to come, i. 496;
his hesitation, but final consent, i. 497;
he reaches St. Germain, ib.;
his previous history, i. 497, 498;
he has a flattering reception, i. 502;
distrusts Chancellor L'Hospital, ib.;
has a discussion with Cardinal Lorraine, who professes to be
satisfied, i. 503, 504;
his diffidence, i. 512;
his retort to the sneer of a cardinal, i. 514;
his prayer and address, i. 514-521;
he is interrupted by an outcry of the theologians of the
Sorbonne, i. 519;
his brilliant success, i. 523;
his frankness justified, i. 524;
he asks a hearing to answer Cardinal Lorraine, i. 529;
his reply, i. 532, 533;
he skilfully parries the cardinal's demand that he should subscribe
to the Augsburg Confession, ib.;
his remarks on Romish "vocation," i. 534;
and a proper and amicable conference, i. 535;
he excites the anger of the prelates, i. 536;
replies to Lainez, i. 537;
at the conference of Saint Germain, i. 539, seq.;
is begged by Catharine de' Medici, Conde and Coligny to remain in
France, i. 559;
his anxiety to restrain the Protestants from violence, i. 565;
urges the Huguenots to obey the edict of January, ii. 4;
he demands the punishment of the authors of the massacre of
Vassy, ii. 27;
his noble answer to the King of Navarre, ii. 28;
he is the probable author of Conde's reply to the "petition" of the
Triumvirs, ii. 61;
his view of the practicability of taking Paris, ii. 88;
he is accused by Poltrot of having instigated the murder of the Duke
of Guise, ii. 105;
he vindicates his innocence, ii. 106;
he is moderator of the seventh national synod, ii. 388, note;
a price set on his head by the Duchess of Parma, ib.;
his remarks on Coligny's death, ii. 554;
his sermon on the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 555;
his lively sympathy with the persecuted Huguenots, ii. 556, note.
Bible, old translations of, unfaithful, i. 77, 78;
translation of Lefevre, i. 78;
eagerly bought, i. 79;
sale of French translations, i. 219;
translated by Olivetanus, i. 233.
Birague at the blood council, ii. 447.
Biron pursues the Huguenots after the battle of Moncontour, ii. 336;
negotiates with Coligny, ii. 359, 363;
carries to the Queen of Navarre the proposal of the marriage of Henry
of Navarre to Margaret of Valois, ii. 394;
in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 473;
sent to La Rochelle as governor, ii. 578;
is not received, ib.;
ii. 581, 582, 616, 617;
his new negotiations before La Rochelle ii. 621, 622.
Blamont, ii. 609.
Blasphemous taunts addressed to the Huguenots at Orleans in the
massacre, ii. 509;
See also, ii. 570, 571.
Blaye, ii. 283.
Blondel, executed at Toulouse, for singing a profane hymn of Marot at
Corpus Christi, i. 297.
Bochetel, Bishop of Rennes, his false representations to the German
princes respecting the Huguenots, ii. 217.
Boissiere, Claude de la, a minister at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 509.
Bombs, used by the Protestant garrison of Orleans, ii. 101.
Boniface VIII., Pope, i. 27.
Book-pedlers from Switzerland, i. 281.
Books, war upon, i. 280;
not to be sold by pedlers, i. 281.
Bordeaux, Parliament of, i. 19;
sanguinary action of, after the battle of Jarnac, ii. 310.
Bordeaux, the boldness of the "Lutherans" of, according to the
archbishop of the city, i. 221;
oppression to which the Protestants were subjected, ii. 164;
massacre of, Oct., 1572, ii. 522-524.
Boscheron des Portes, President, gives credit to an alleged admission
of disloyal intentions on the part of La Renaudie, i. 394-396.
Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux his admiration of the sagacity of the Cardinal
of Lorraine, i. 546.
Botzheim, Johann Wilhelm von his account of the massacre at
Orleans, ii. 569, seq.
Bouchavannes, ii. 453.
Bouchet, Jean, his "Deploration," i. 65.
Bouillon, Duc de, ii. 625.
Boulogne, edict of pacification of, July, 1573, ii. 593.
Bouquin, Jean, a minister at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 509.
Bourbon, Antoine of. See Antoine, King of Navarre.
Bourbon, Cardinal his speech to the notables i. 136;
exhorts Francis to prove himself "Very Christian," i. 137;
he is made governor of Paris in place of Marshal Montmorency, ii. 33;
his anger at L'Hospital's action in behalf of the scattered
Protestants, ii. 186.
Bourg, Anne du, a learned and upright member of the Parliament
of Paris, makes an eloquent plea for religious liberty in
the "mercuriale," i. 334;
his arrest, i. 335;
his trial and successive appeals, i. 368;
his officious advocate, i. 369;
his message to the Protestants of Paris, ib.;
his deportment in the Bastile, i. 370;
intercession of the Elector Palatine in his behalf, ib.;
his pathetic and eloquent speech i. 371;
his death, i. 372;
a disastrous blow to the established church, i. 373;
account of Florimond de Raemond, i. 373, 374.
Bourg, Jean du, a wealthy draper, executed, i. 172.
Bourges, captured by Marshal Saint Andre, ii. 71, 72;
violence at, ii. 249;
unsuccessful attempt upon, ii. 344;
massacre of Protestants at, ii. 511, 512.
Bourges, council of, i. 29;
provincial council of, i. 139.
Bourniquet, Viscount of, ii. 230, note.
Bourry, a Protestant captain, ii. 329.
Bouteiller, Abbe, confers with the Protestants at Poissy, i. 538;
his doctrinal views, i. 548.
Brandenburg, the Elector of, declines to help the Huguenots, ii. 217.
Brantome, the Abbe de, his eulogy of Renee de France, i. 206;
on the massacre of Vassy, ii. 24;
on the firing of Charles IX. on the Huguenots, ii. 482, note;
on the chief actors in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 562.
Brazil, a Protestant colony sent to, under Villegagnon, i. 291;
fails through Villegagnon's hostility to Protestantism, i. 294.
Bresse, i. 3, 66.
Bretagne, Jacques, "vierg" of Autun, his able speech for the "tiers
etat" at the States General of Pontoise, i. 489.
Briconnet, Guillaume, Bishop of Meaux, i. 72;
invites Lefevre and Farel, i. 73;
his warning, i. 77;
his weakness, i. 79, 80, 81;
his synodal decree, i. 80;
cited before parliament, i. 82;
becomes the jailer of the "Lutherans," i. 92;
his correspondence with Margaret of Angouleme, i. 108.
Briquemault, execution of, Oct. 27, 1573, for alleged complicity in a
Huguenot conspiracy against the king, ii. 548, 549.
Brouage, ii. 576.
Browning, W. S., his error as to the authorship of the "Vie de
Coligny," i. 418, note.
Brugiere, execution of, i. 276.
Bude, Guillaume, i. 144.
Burgundians, their intolerance of the Reformation, ii. 185.
Burleigh, Lord (see also Cecil), promotes the match between the Duke
of Anjou and Queen Elizabeth, ii. 381.
Busbec, his delineation of the character of the Duke of Alencon, ii. 620.
Bussy, or Bucy, Porte de, ii. 483.
Bussy d'Amboise murders the Marquis de Renel, ii. 472.
C.
Cabrieres, destruction of i. 248.
Caen, in Normandy, Protestant assemblies in, i. 408;
iconoclasm at, ii. 44;
saved from becoming a scene of massacre, by M. de Matignon, ii. 526.
Caillaud, President, exceptional fairness of, i. 219.
Calais, captured by Francis, Duke of Guise, i. 312.
Calvin, John, the real author of Rector Cop's address, i. 154;
his flight from Paris, i. 155;
his language respecting Francis I. and Charles V., i. 195;
becomes the apologist of the Protestants, i. 198;
his birth and training, ib.;
studies at Paris, Orleans, and Bourges, i. 199;
is a pupil of Melchior Wolmar, ib.;
translates Seneca "De Clementia," i. 200;
his flight to Angouleme, i. 201;
traditions respecting his preaching, ib.;
he resigns his benefices, ib.;
reaches Basle, i. 201;
writes his "Christian Institutes," i. 202;
the original edition in Latin, ib.;
the preface, i. 203, 204;
it has no effect in allaying persecution, but achieves distinction
for its author, i. 204;
he revises the Bible of Olivetanus, i. 205;
he visits Italy, ib.;
said to have labored at Aosta, i. 207;
passing through Geneva, is detained by the urgency of Farel, i. 208;
becomes the head of the commonwealth, i. 210;
his views respecting church and state, ib.;
respecting the punishment of heresy, i. 211;
approves of the execution, but not the burning of Servetus, i. 212;
his fault the fault of the age, ib.;
he shuns notoriety, i. 213;
his character and natural endowments, i. 214;
he is consulted by Protestants in every quarter of Europe, ib.;
his constant toils, ib.;
he encounters bitter opposition, but obtains the support of the
people, i. 215;
estimate of his character by Etienne Pasquier, i. 216;
his great influence, according to the Venetian Michiel, ib.;
writes against the Nicodemites and Libertines, i. 225;
consoles Protestant Church of Paris, i. 308;
and writes to stir up intercession in behalf of the prisoners, ib.;
his liturgy, i. 342, seq.;
pseudo-Roman edition of, i. 275, 344;
consulted as to revolution, i. 377;
dissuades from armed resistance, foreseeing civil war, i. 378;
endeavors to repress the tendency to iconoclasm, i. 487;
why he was not invited to the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 494;
his letter to Renee de France respecting the Duke of Guise, ii. 110.
Cambray, the Archbishop of, ii. 187, 189, 190;
his vengeance upon Cateau-Cambresis, ii. 191.
"Camisade," attempted, ii. 65.
Capilupi, author of "Lo stratagema," ii. 436, etc.
Caraffa, Cardinal, nephew of Paul IV., negotiates the breaking of the
truce of Vaucelles, i. 298;
his character, ib.
Carnavalet, M. de, ii. 220.
Caroli, Pierre, wearies out Beda, i. 118.
Caroline, a strong earthwork thrown up by the Huguenots in
Florida, ii. 200.
Carouge, M. de, at Rouen, ii. 519, seq.
Cartier, ii. 328.
Castelnau, Baron de, treacherous capture of, i. 388.
Castelnau, Michel de, Sieur de Mauvissiere, the historian, sent by
the Triumvirs to Catharine before the battle of Dreux, ii. 92;
sent by Charles IX. to congratulate Alva, ii. 206, note;
ii. 212, 213;
his sketch of Coligny's plan of march, ii. 348, 356.
Castel-Sarrasin, ii. 575.
Castres refuses to admit a garrison, in 1568, ii. 250;
a Huguenot place of refuge, ii. 280, 578.
Cateau-Cambresis, the peace of, April 3, 1559, i. 322;
its disgraceful and disastrous conditions, i. 323;
a secret treaty for the extermination of the Protestants
supposed, without sufficient reason, to have been drawn
up at the same time, i. 324-326;
the Reformation in, ii. 187-191;
iconoclasm at, ii. 190;
the Protestants claim the benefit of the "Accord," ib.
Cathari, i. 61, 62.