Interview of Walsingham and Smith with Catharine de Medici
respecting Alençon--Treaty between England and France--
Cavalcanti’s negotiations--Montmorenci’s mission to London
--Walsingham’s description of Alençon--La Mole’s visit to
the Queen--The Alençon match prospers--The St. Bartholomew
--Resumption of negotiations--Alençon’s first letter to the
Queen--Maisonfleur’s mission--Special embassy of Castelnau
de la Mauvissière--Civil war in France--Anjou elected King
of Poland--Disappears as a suitor for Elizabeth’s hand.
On the 21st of March Walsingham, who had now returned to his post,
was walking with Smith in the park at Blois, when by accident or
design they met the Queen-mother. A quaint account of the interview
with her is given in a letter from Smith to Cecil dated the following
day. They were speaking of the Duke of Norfolk’s conspiracy, when the
Queen-mother seized the opportunity of once more trying to urge the
suit of her youngest son. “I would,” she said, “that the Queen were
quiet from all these broils; doe you (Smith) know nothing how she can
fancie the marriage with my son the Duke of Alençon?” “Madam,” said
Smith, “you know me of old; I can affirm nothing except I have some
good ground. Why, if she be disposed to marrie, I do not see where she
shall marrie so well; and yet, saith she, I may as a mother be justly
accounted partial, but as for those which I have heard named, as the
Emperor’s son or Don John, they be both lesser than my son is, and of
less stature by a good deal, and if she should marrie it were pity
any more time were lost. Madam, quoth I, if it pleased God that she
were married and had a child, all these braggs and all these treasons
would soon be appalled, and on condition that she had a child by M.
d’Alençon, for my part I care not if ye had the Queen of Scotland here,
for you would then take as good care of her as we do.” Catharine de
Medici confirmed this view, and said that there was no reason why they
should not have several children. “And if the Queen,” she said, “could
have fancied my son Anjou, why not this one, of the same house, father
and mother, and as vigorous and lusty as he, and rather more? And now
he beginneth to have a beard come forth, for that I told him the last
day that I was angry with it, for I was now afraid he would not be so
high as his brethren. Yea, Madam, I said, a man doth commonly grow in
height to his years, the beard maketh nothing. Nay, said she, he is not
so little; he is as high as you, or very near. For that, Madam, quoth
I, I for my part make small account, if the Queen’s Majesty can fancie
him, for Pepin the short did not reach his wife’s girdle and yet had
Charlemagne. It is true, said she, that it is heart and courage and
activity that is to be looked for in a man. But have you no word of
your Queen’s affection that way? Can you give me no comfort?” But Smith
was not to be drawn out of his reserve without special instructions
from England, and these did not come; so that although the conversation
continued in the same strain for a long time, Catherine could get
nothing definite in the way of encouragement to Alençon.
In the meanwhile the “rough hewing” of the treaty had been steadily
going on, and on the 19th of April the draft protocol was signed at
Blois. Aid was to be given unofficially by both nations to the revolted
Hollanders; the fleets of Protestant privateers in the Channel were
to be sheltered and encouraged, and, above all, the Huguenot Henry of
Navarre was to marry Margaret of Valois, the King’s sister. Catharine
wrote a letter to Elizabeth on the 22nd of April, through Smith,
expressing her joy at the prospect of peace and harmony in France,
which the treaty and her daughter’s marriage held out, and Marshal de
Montmorenci and de Foix were sent as a special embassy to England for
the ratification of the formal alliance, whilst Lord Admiral Clinton,
the Earl of Lincoln, was to proceed to France for a similar purpose.
The Protestant party in France were thus for the moment victorious
all along the line, and the connection between England and France
closer than it had been for many years. Catharine, naturally desirous
of securing a double hold upon England whilst these relations lasted,
by settling her youngest son as Elizabeth’s consort, instructed
Montmorenci to make a formal offer of his hand to the Queen. As usual,
Cavalcanti was sent over as a harbinger, and took with him a flattering
portrait of the Prince, which was given to the Queen through Leicester.
Alençon was deeply pitted with the small-pox from which he had recently
suffered, and otherwise was far inferior in appearance to his brother
Anjou, so that to a person of Elizabeth’s temperament he was less
likely to be acceptable. She had, moreover, obtained by the treaty
of Blois the close alliance with France and the predominance of the
Huguenots which she desired, and could therefore afford to hold off
somewhat in the marriage negotiations in which she personally had never
been sincere. She accordingly instructed Lord Lincoln[72] that if any
mention were made to him of the marriage, he might say that he believed
she considered she had not been well treated in the Anjou business;
and moreover the disparity of years between herself and Alençon was so
great as in her opinion to be a complete “stay” to the match.
Montmorenci and de Foix arrived in London on the 13th of June and were
lodged at Somerset House, their entertainment being the most lavish
and splendid that had been seen in England for many years. After the
swearing of the alliance on the 15th at Westminster, the ambassadors
had audience of the Queen and presented her with Catharine’s letter
offering the hand of her son. She again objected to her suitor’s
youth, and sustained the discussion with Montmorenci until supper was
announced. Subsequently, at Windsor, he returned to the charge, when
Elizabeth once more raised the religious question. The ambassador said
they would be contented with the concessions which Smith had offered
at Blois when Anjou was under discussion. But matters were changed
now, and the Queen said she did not recollect to have made any such
concessions; besides which the difference of age was so great as to be
an obstacle. De Foix replied that the disproportion was not so very
great after all. Alençon was strong and vigorous, capable of begetting
children, whilst she who was used to command would be better pleased
with a young and docile husband than with an older one. There was much
beating about the bush on the religious question, but the ambassadors
made it evident that Alençon was not a bigot like his brother, and
that no great stand would be made on that point. On their departure,
therefore, at the end of the month the matter was still left in
suspense.
As soon as they had gone Burleigh sent some account of their visit
to Walsingham in France. “They were,” he says, “entertained as never
before in man’s memory. The honour done them also by the Queen was
such as she could do no more. All the higher nobility attended them,
the only difference from the Lord Admiral’s entertainment in France
being that no lord but my Lord Leicester entertained them, saving
I at Midsummer eve did feast them and all their gentlemen with a
collation of all things I could procure, not being flesh to observe
their manner.” He deplores that the presents of plate given to the
ambassadors were not so great as he would have wished, although they
both got “cupboards of plate and Montmorenci also a great gold cup of
111 ounces.” With regard to Alençon, “they got neither yea nor nay,
only a month’s delay.”
But at the end of the letter it is clear that Elizabeth, who was not
now in such a hurry, was determined if she did marry to drive as hard a
bargain as possible. Walsingham is instructed to get full information
of the Prince’s age, stature, condition, devotion, &c., with all
speed, for the Queen; and Burleigh assures his correspondent that he
sees no lack of will in the Queen but on account of Alençon’s age.
“If we could counter-balance that defect with some advantage such as
Calais for their issue, he being governor for life.”[73] Otherwise, he
says, he doubts the result, as the Queen mislikes Alençon’s youth and
appearance.
In the meanwhile Lincoln came back from Paris loaded with 2,800 ounces
of gilt plate, worth, says Walsingham, 10s. per ounce, and full of the
magnificence and gaiety of his entertainment in France. His stay had
been one succession of splendid feasts, and Alençon especially had
treated him with marked distinction. Coligny and the great Huguenot
chiefs had emphatically praised the young Prince to him, and Lincoln
came back to his mistress greatly impressed with all he had heard and
seen, and assured her that Alençon, far from being inferior, was better
than his brother, both in bearing and credit. She characteristically
objected that he was not nearly so good-looking, and that the small-pox
had not improved him. Lincoln’s favourable opinion was to a great
extent confirmed by Walsingham’s report to Cecil. The Duke, he said,
was born on the 25th of April, 1555, and his stature is about the same
as that of Lord Lincoln. He was reputed to be prudent and brave, but
also somewhat feather-headed, which, says Walsingham, is a common fault
with his countrymen. Coligny was in great hope of him in religion,
and thought he might soon be brought to a knowledge of the truth; and
Walsingham concludes his good character of the Prince by hinting that
he was really in love with the Queen. But it will be noticed that he
says not a word as to his physical charms, which indeed could not
compare with his brother Anjou’s somewhat effeminate beauty. He is
thus described at the time by the Venetian ambassador in Paris. “His
complexion is swarthy and his face pitted with small-pox, his stature
small but well set, his hair black and curling naturally. He wears it
brushed up from the forehead, which lengthens the oval of his face. He
affects popular manners, but his prodigal promises of reforms are only
a cloak for his unbridled desire for trouble and dissension.”[74]
On the 20th of July the Queen sent instructions to Walsingham saying
that “although the forbearing of her Majesty’s consent to the motion
of Marshal Montmorenci for a marriage with the Duke of Alençon was
grounded on their ages, yet a greater cause of misliking proceeds
from the report made by all of his great blemish in his face by means
of small-pox, which is such that none dare affirm to her Majesty the
good liking of him in that respect,”[75] and Walsingham is directed
to let this view be known to the Queen-mother, as if coming from
himself without instructions. The Queen herself wrote a letter to
Walsingham at the same time, going over the whole ground. She says she
was moved by the importunity of Montmorenci to consider the match,
notwithstanding her treatment in the matter of Anjou and the youth of
Alençon, but “has now spoken to Lord Lincoln and others from France,
and finds the conditions and qualities of the said Duke nothing
inferior to the Duke of Anjou, but rather better liked. But as to
visage and favour everybody declares the same to be far inferior, and
especially for the blemishes of small-pox; so, the youngness of his
years being considered, she cannot bring herself to like this offer,
especially finding that no other great commodity is offered with him,
whereby the absurdity that the general opinion of the world might
grow, might in some measure be recompensed.” Walsingham is to decline
with thanks. She has no lack of desire for their friendship but,
really, the ages of her suitor and herself were too disproportionate,
particularly “as she cannot hear of anything which may countervail the
inconvenience.”[76] She again repeats that although the _official_
objection is Alençon’s youth, yet his pock-marked visage has had a
large share in personally influencing her to refuse the offer, unless
indeed some great countervailing advantage--such as the restoration
of Calais--could make her forget it. In another letter, a few days
later, she enlarges upon these points, but says that the only way to
overcome the difficulty will be for them to meet and see whether they
could fancy each other. But she knew that this trick to feed her vanity
was getting stale, and foresaw the answer. If, she says, the King and
Queen-mother reply that it is not usual for princes of the house of
France thus to go on approval, and that she only makes the suggestion
for the purpose of increasing her own reputation and not to marry
him, Walsingham is to point out that the prize he aims at is a great
one and worth some small sacrifice. If they hold out on the point,
Walsingham is to propose that the question of religion should be left
open, so that it may be used as an excuse for breaking off, if she and
Alençon do not fancy each other when they meet, and thus the Prince’s
_amour propre_ may be saved. The reason why Elizabeth was again
presenting the bait of marriage is not far to seek. A few days before
this letter was written an answer came from Charles IX. to the Queen’s
letter taken by Montmorenci. The French king was already beginning to
cry off of his bargain about aiding the revolted Netherlands against
Philip. Pressure was being brought to bear upon him from the Pope and
the Emperor, whispers of Huguenot plots and treasons against him were
instilled into his ear from morn till night by his Catholic nobles;
and the Queen-mother herself had taken fright at the arrogance of the
now dominant Protestant party, who were riding roughshod over their
enemies. Paris was in a ferment at the supersession of its beloved
Guises; and Charles IX. and his mother felt that in avoiding the Scylla
of Catholic subjection they had fallen into the Charybdis of complete
Huguenot thraldom. Their connection with the “Englishwoman” had gone
too far for the patience of Paris, and the King’s throne was in danger.
As usual, the cooler he grew towards the English alliance the more
openly was the bait of marriage held out by the Queen. There was an
additional reason, too, for his holding back. The Huguenot force under
Genlis, which had entered Flanders, had been completely crushed and
routed by Don Fadrique de Toledo, and it was clear to Charles IX. that
unless he could disconnect himself from the unsuccessful attempt, he
might be dragged down by the overthrow of the Huguenot party. On the
day, therefore, that the news of Genlis’s defeat reached Paris the
King was closeted for hours with Montmorenci, and the result of this
conference was the dispatch the same night of a young noble named La
Mole to England. He was a mere lad, a great friend of Alençon’s, and
the reason for choosing him was that he might fittingly seem to be
pressing Alençon’s suit, and so keep Elizabeth from quite breaking
away, whilst really his object was to dissociate the King from any
act of hostility against Spain in Flanders, and thus practically to
withdraw from the treaty of alliance of which the ink was hardly yet
dry.
La Mole travelled post night and day, and arrived in London only on the
fourth day after he had left Paris: he brought flattering letters of
introduction from Walsingham, Montmorenci, and Coligny, whose main hope
it is clear to see by his letter, now rested upon Alençon’s marriage
with the Queen. La Mole arrived in London on the 27th of July, and
on the following night at eleven o’clock Burleigh had a long private
interview with him and La Mothe Fénélon at the house of the latter. The
Queen was on her progress towards the splendid visit to Kenilworth, and
it was some days before her decision with regard to receiving La Mole
could arrive. He started from London with La Mothe Fénélon on the 1st
of August, and reached the Queen on the night of the 3rd, Sunday. He
was at once secretly introduced into the Queen’s chamber, Leicester,
Smith, and La Mothe Fénélon alone being present. The Queen, we are
told, was full of graciousness and caresses,[77] for the envoy was
young and gallant, but she could hardly have been pleased with his
mission. “His King,” he said, “could not openly declare himself in the
matter of Flanders, as she desired ... as otherwise it would provoke
a league of the Pope, the King of Spain, the Venetians, and others
against which he could not defend himself. He was against any rash
action. The King of Portugal had a large force of 12,000 or 15,000
men, and he was assured the Duke of Savoy was fully armed--all this
must be considered before any bold step was taken.”[78] The next day
La Mole went openly to the palace ostensibly only as an emissary from
Alençon, “with all the tricks and ceremonies of the French and these
people. He is still at Court, being feasted and made much of.”[79]
The Queen, indeed, was so pleased with him that she carried him to
Kenilworth where a grand supper was given specially in his honour, at
which Elizabeth herself presided and drank the young envoy’s health.
The next day he and La Mothe were entertained at dinner by Cecil, and
Elizabeth was again present. After dinner she fully explained her new
position towards the Alençon match with her usual nimble _volte face_,
to suit the changed circumstances. La Mothe Fénélon gives an account of
the conversation as if the Queen’s expressions were quite spontaneous;
but it is instructive to note that everything she said was carefully
drawn up by Cecil, and the interesting paper is still at Hatfield.[80]
They (the French), she said, had quite misunderstood Walsingham. It
would have been absurd for her to have said that her marriage with
Alençon was impossible and immediately afterwards to have suggested a
meeting between them. She only raised certain difficulties as to their
ages, religion, and the like, but these might doubtless be overcome.
And so she again holds out her hand, smooths away obstacles, suggests
a meeting between the Duke and herself, proposes the adoption of the
Anjou articles, with the exception of religion, which she and Alençon
will settle between them, and generally opens wide once more the door
for negotiation. At this and subsequent interviews at Kenilworth she
exerted all her powers of fascination upon La Mole and La Mothe, who
were both ready enough to flatter her to the top of her bent. She
played her spinet to them, sighed that she was determined to marry
and must see the Duke at once, and persistently set her cap at young
La Mole as proxy for his master. Solid Cecil and jocose Smith appear
to have been almost as much carried away as La Mole. They both wrote
to Walsingham the belief that at last the affair would prosper in
good earnest, if only the lover would take the trouble to run over
to England and see the object of his affection. There are plenty of
ways, said Smith, of coming over; and he would do more in an hour than
we could do in two years--“Cupido ille qui vincit omnia in oculis
insidet,” and so on. Everything seemed to be prospering in the wooing,
though the Queen herself was no more in earnest than before; and
doubtless she and Leicester laughed in their sleeves at the way they
were hoodwinking some of the keenest eyes of both nations. One person
they certainly did not deceive, and that was Catharine de Medici;
for at the very moment when all this billing and cooing was going on
the massacre of St. Bartholomew was being planned, and the person who
was being kept in hand and cajoled into a false sense of security,
notwithstanding the refusal of Charles IX. to help the Hollanders, was
Elizabeth herself. But deceived though she was, she had prudence enough
to mistrust the curious new attitude adopted by the French, whose one
object was to draw her into a position of overt enmity to Spain in the
Netherlands, whilst Charles IX. deprecated taking up such a position
for himself. La Mole’s blandishments were not powerful enough for this;
and after twenty days’ stay he and La Mothe left the Queen with great
professions of love and affection and a gold chain worth 500 ducats
for the young envoy, and came to London, where they arrived on the
27th of August. On the same day there arrived at Rye two couriers from
Paris, one with letters from Walsingham to the Queen, and the other
with despatches for La Mothe Fénélon, the French ambassador. Acting
by order the English courier immediately on his arrival caused the
authorities of the port to seize the papers of the other courier and
send them together with Walsingham’s letters in all haste to the Queen
at Kenilworth. The Queen was out hunting when they arrived, and read in
them first as she rode the news of St. Bartholomew--overwhelmed with
the great tragedy which seemed to be as much directed against herself
as against the French Huguenots. All rejoicings were stopped, mourning
garb was adopted, and long, anxious conferences took the place of gay
diversion. Before the Queen herself received the news the dire calamity
had become known in London. Terrified Huguenots by the hundred, flying,
as they thought, from a general massacre, were scudding across the
Channel to the English ports in any craft they could get. From mouth
to mouth spread the dreadful story, growing as it spread, and for a
time London and the Court were given up to panic at what was assumed
to be a world-wide murderous conspiracy against Protestantism. The
treachery of the French was especially condemned, and La Mole lost
no time in getting away from a country where he could be of no more
use. La Mothe was ordered by Elizabeth to keep in his house until the
safety of her ambassadors in France could be ascertained, and for
several days La Mothe himself was but imperfectly informed as to what
had happened on Navarre’s terrible wedding-day. It was not until the
7th of September that the Queen received him at Woodstock on her way
to Windsor. She and her Court were in deep mourning, and La Mothe was
received in silence and with no greeting from the Queen except a cold
inquiry whether the news she had heard was true. He made the best of
the sad story; repeated the assertion that there was a plot of Coligny
and the Huguenots to seize the Louvre; urged that the massacre was
unpremeditated, and that the King was obliged to sacrifice Coligny to
save himself. In the midst of his reading the King’s letter Elizabeth
interrupted the ambassador and said that her knowledge of events
would suffice to prevent her from being deceived, or giving entire
credit to the King’s assertions; but even if they were all true, she
did not understand why harmless women and children should have been
murdered.[81] La Mothe urged the continuance of the French friendship,
but Elizabeth knew that such friendship would be a false one so long as
the Guises ruled in the Councils of the King, and dismissed La Mothe
with a plain indication of her opinion.
Philip and the Catholics were of course overjoyed, and the Guises
soon made their heavy hands felt. And then, not many days after the
massacre, Catharine de Medici saw the mistake she had made, and tried
so far as she could to retrace her steps, by again raising hopes of
the Huguenots and redressing the balance of parties. She accordingly
sent Castelnau de la Mauvissière, a moderate man known in England, to
Walsingham for the purpose of once again bringing the Alençon match
forward. Walsingham, sick with the horrors he had lately witnessed,
bluntly told him he had no belief in their sincerity, and in a
subsequent interview with Catharine he repeated the same to her, much
to her indignation. But Walsingham carefully reported that Alençon
himself was entirely free from complicity in the massacre, which he
openly and loudly condemned, taking the side of the Huguenots and
swearing with Henry of Navarre to avenge the murdered admiral. He was
closely watched at Court, and was for long meditating an escape and
flight to England. On the 21st of September he had a private interview
with Walsingham, whom he satisfied of his good faith personally, and
on the following day he signed a letter to Elizabeth which was the
beginning of the extraordinary correspondence which continued for
years, most of which still may be found at Hatfield.[82] The body of
the letter is written by a secretary, and is full of the most fulsome
flattery of Elizabeth, of “her rare virtues and infinite perfections.”
“His affection and fidelity for her are such that there is nothing in
the world, however great or difficult it may be, that he would not
willingly do in order to render her more certain thereof;” and with
this he begs her to listen to what will be said on his behalf by the
bearer of the letter, a certain L’huillier, seigneur de Maisonfleur.
At the bottom Alençon has scrawled a postscript himself in his
ridiculously illiterate boyish French, saying, “Madame je vous supli
mescuser si sete letre nest toute escripte de ma min, et croies que
nay peu faire autrement.” Maisonfleur was a strangely chosen emissary
for such a mission. He had been a follower of the Guises and a
sergeant-carver to Catharine, and was now a Protestant and an equerry
of Alençon. It was arranged that after seeing Elizabeth, he should
return to Dover and receive Alençon, who had planned to escape and sail
for England. When Maisonfleur arrived at Court he found the Huguenot
nobles who were with the Queen had told her something of his history
and she refused to give him audience. Either for this reason or from
the Duke’s misgivings Alençon’s flight to England on this occasion
fell through, and Maisonfleur returned to London from Dover without
having seen his master. After his return he managed to obtain access
of the Queen, and gradually broke down her distrust. In a letter of
great length, dated December 1st, he wrote to his master under the
name of Lucidor, giving him an encouraging account of Elizabeth’s
attitude, and urging him to fulfil his former intention of escaping
to England. He says: “She would not use the short word you desire,
but her heart seemed to speak to me through her eyes--'Tell him to
come and to despair of nothing; if I marry any prince in the world it
will be he.’”[83] He urges Alençon that it will be useless to attempt
to bring about the match by ordinary diplomacy, and above all by the
intervention of Madame la Serpente, as he calls Catharine de Medici,
the deepest distrust prevailing of the ruling powers in France since
St. Bartholomew. The only way, he says, will be for Don Lucidor to
strike out a line independent of his relatives, to break with the
Catholics, draw to his side the Huguenots, and the German and Swiss
Protestants, come over and marry Madame L’isle (Elizabeth) and become
a great sovereign. Maisonfleur, in a postscript which he showed to
Burleigh, laid down full instructions for Alençon’s escape and urged
him to bring Navarre and Condé with him, but only a few attendants,
amongst whom should be La Mole, to whom he also wrote begging him to
urge his master to escape.
A few days before this letter was written Castelnau de la Mauvissière
arrived in London with great ostentation, as a special ambassador from
the King of France. He was a _persona grata_ with Elizabeth, and his
task on this occasion was to smooth down the distrust and asperity
caused by the St. Bartholomew and thus to induce her to refrain from
actively helping the Huguenots in France. Stern Rochelle, Protestant
to the backbone, was still held firmly against the Catholics, Guienne,
Languedoc and Gascony, where the reformers were strongest, had now
recovered the panic of St. Bartholomew and were arming for the fray;
Portsmouth, Plymouth, and the eastern ports of England were swarming
with shipping, being fitted out for Rochelle and the Netherlands;
privateers in the interest of Orange held command of the North Sea,
and emissaries were going backwards and forwards between England and
Germany to plan concerted action for the defence of Protestantism the
world over. Henry of Navarre, Condé, and Alençon were looked upon by
the Catholics in France with daily growing suspicion, whilst Montgomeri
and the Vidame de Chartres, at the Court of Elizabeth, were unceasing
in their vigilance to pledge the young princes ever deeper to the cause
of England and the Protestants. Castelnau’s task was therefore not
an easy one, and was only partially successful. Elizabeth consented
to stand sponsor to Charles IX.’s infant daughter, and the personal
relations between the sovereigns became somewhat less strained, but
not for a moment did Elizabeth’s ministers slacken in their aid to
beleaguered Rochelle and the stubborn Dutchmen in the North. Anjou
was at the head of the Catholic army before Rochelle and his brother
Alençon, much against his will, was forced to accompany him. Over and
over again he planned to escape to Montgomeri’s fleet outside, and
prayed his mother to place him in command of the King’s ships. But
the Catholics well knew they dared not trust him, and he was never
allowed out of sight. Month after month Anjou cast his men fruitlessly
against the impregnable walls of Rochelle; well supplied with stores
from England by Montgomeri’s fleet, the townspeople bade defiance
to the Catholics, and the reformers through the rest of France were
rendered the more confident thereby. It was clear to Catharine and
her son that Protestantism had not been extinguished in the blood of
St. Bartholomew, and they began to think it time to make terms with
an enemy they saw they could not crush. On the 7th of March, 1573,
therefore, La Mothe Fénélon saw Elizabeth and assured her that “his
King would most faithfully continue in the league and confederation
which he had sworn to her, and would strictly uphold it without
departing therefrom for any reason in the world.” He begged her to
lay aside her distrust of him, and then again broached the subject of
her marriage with Alençon. The King and Queen-mother, he said, would
never trouble her with the matter again if she would only let them
know her pleasure now. They reminded her that she had said that she
would be obliged to marry for the sake of her subjects, and that the
only question at issue was that of religion. Although Alençon was a
purely Catholic prince, and she would be the first person to reject
him as unworthy if he changed his religion out of the mere ambition to
marry her, yet he would be content to perform his religious exercises
behind closed doors, guarded by one of her own ushers.[84] The Queen
thought these approaches afforded her a good opportunity for striking
a bargain in favour of Protestantism, and said she would proceed no
further in the matter of the marriage unless fair terms were given to
the Huguenots and peace made at Rochelle. There was nothing Catharine
desired more. Anjou was heartily sick of his unsuccessful siege.
The heroic Rochellais ostentatiously feasted out of their meagre
store, and danced round the maypole on May-day, under his very eyes.
Montogomeri’s swift smacks threaded their way safely through the
King’s blockading fleet outside, and it was seen that the starving,
plague-stricken, and disheartened besiegers were in far worse case
than the heroic besieged. The elective crown of Poland, moreover, was
already within Anjou’s grasp, and both he and his mother were only
too glad to end a bad business by granting to the Protestants some of
the terms they demanded. The draft treaty was signed by Anjou on the
25th of June and ratified a fortnight later by the King. A general
amnesty was granted, full religious liberty was accorded in the towns
of Rochelle, Montauban, and Nismes, and private household worship
elsewhere in France. Anjou was then elected to the throne of Poland,
which he changed for that of France a year later (May 24, 1574) and
thenceforward disappears as one of the possible suitors for Elizabeth’s
hand.
[Illustration]