in which numbers of them perished, kept them in perpetual
alarm. Still more alarming was the meeting at Bayonne [of
Catherine de' Medici, the young king, her son, and the Duke of
Alva, representing Philip II. of Spain] in the summer of 1565.
... Amid the Court festivities which took place, it was known
that there had been many secret meetings between Alva,
Catherine, and, Charles. The darkest suspicions as to their
objects and results spread over France. It was generally
believed--falsely, as from Alva's letters it now appears--that
a simultaneous extermination of all heretics in the French and
Spanish dominions had been agreed upon. To anticipate this
stroke, Coligni proposed that the person of the King should be
seized upon. The Court, but slenderly guarded, was then at
Monceaux. The project had almost succeeded. Some time,
however, was lost. The Court got warning and fled to Meaux.
Six thousand Swiss arrived, and by a rapid march carried the
King to Paris. After such a failure, nothing was left to the
Huguenots but the chances of a second civil war. Condé entered
boldly on the campaign. Though he had with him but 1,500 horse
and 1,200 infantry, he marched to Paris, and offered battle to
the royal troops beneath its walls. The Constable
[Montmorency], who had 18,000 men at his command, accepted the
challenge, and on the 10th of November 1567, the battle of St.
Denis was fought. ... Neither party could well claim the
victory, as both retired from the field. The royal army had to
mourn the loss that day of its aged and gallant commander, the
Constable. Condé renewed next day the challenge, which was not
accepted. The winter months were spent by the Huguenots in
effecting a junction with some German auxiliaries, and in the
spring they appeared in such force upon the field that, on the
23d March 1568, the Peace of Longjumeau was ratified, which
re-established, free from all modifications and restrictions,
the Edict of Amboise. It was evident from the first that this
treaty was not intended to be kept; that it had been entered
into by the government solely to gain time, and to scatter the
ranks of the Huguenots. Coligni sought Condé at his château of
Noyers in Burgundy. He had scarcely arrived when secret
intelligence was given them of a plot upon their lives. They
had barely time to fly, making many a singular escape by the
way, and reaching Rochelle, which from this time became the
head-quarters of the Huguenots, on the 15th September 1568.
During the first two religious wars ... the seat of war was so
remote from her dominions that the Queen of Navarre [Jeanne
d'Albret,--see NAVARRE: A.D. 1528-1563] had satisfied herself
with opening her country as an asylum for those Huguenots
driven thither out of the southern counties of France. But
when she heard that Condé and Coligni ... were on their way to
Rochelle, to raise there once more the Protestant banner,
convinced that the French Court meditated nothing short of the
extermination of the Huguenots, she determined openly to cast
in her lot with her co-religionists, and to give them all the
help she could. Dexterously deceiving Montluc, who had
received instructions to watch her movements, and to seize
upon her person if she showed any intention of leaving her own
dominions, after a flight as precipitous and almost as
perilous as that of Condé and Coligni, she reached Rochelle on
the 29th September, ten days after their arrival. This town,
for nearly a century the citadel of Protestantism in France,
having by its own unaided power freed itself from the English
dominion [in the period between 1368 and 1380] had had
extraordinary municipal privileges bestowed on it in
return--among others, that of an entirely independent
jurisdiction, both civil and military.
{1201}
Like so many of the great commercial marts of Europe, in which
the spirit of freedom was cherished, it had early welcomed the
teaching of the Reformers, and at the time now before us
nearly the whole of its inhabitants were Huguenots. ... About
the very time that the Queen of Navarre entered Rochelle a
royal edict appeared, prohibiting, under pain of death, the
exercise of any other than the Roman Catholic religion in
France, imposing upon all the observance of its rites and
ceremonies; and banishing from the realm all preachers of the
doctrine of Calvin, fifteen days only being allowed them to
quit the kingdom. It was by the sword that this stern edict
was to be enforced or rescinded. Two powerful armies of nearly
equal strength mustered speedily. One was nominally under the
command of the Duke of Anjou, but really led by Tavannes,
Biron, Brissac, and the young Duke of Guise, the last burning
to emulate the military glory of his father; the other under
the command of Condé and Coligni. The two armies were close
upon one another; their generals desired to bring them into
action; they were more than once actually in each other's
presence; but the unprecedented inclemency of the weather
prevented an engagement, and at last, without coming into
collision, both had to retire to winter quarters. The delay
was fatal to the Huguenots." In the following spring (March
13, 1569), while their forces were still scattered and
unprepared, they were forced into battle with the
better-generaled Royalists, at Jarnac, and were grievously
defeated. Condé, wounded and taken prisoner, was treated at
first with respect by the officers who received his sword. But
"Montesquiou, captain of the Swiss Guard of the Duke of Anjou,
galloped up to the spot, and, hearing who the prisoner was,
deliberately levelled his pistol at him and shot him through
the head. The Duke passed no censure on his officer, and
expressed no regret at his deed. The grossest indignities were
afterwards, by his orders, heaped upon the dead body of the
slain. The defeat of Jarnac, and still more the death of
Condé, threw the Huguenot army into despair. ... The utter
dissolution of the army seemed at hand. The Admiral sent a
messenger to the Queen of Navarre at Rochelle, entreating her
to come to the camp. She was already on her way. On arrival,
and after a short consultation with the Admiral, the army was
drawn up to receive her. She rode along the ranks--her son
Henry on one side, the son of the deceased Condé on the
other." Then she addressed to the troops an inspiring speech,
concluding with these heroic words: "Soldiers, I offer you
everything I have to give,--my dominions, my treasures, my
life, and, what is dearer to me than all, my children. I make
here solemn oath before you all--I swear to defend to my last
sigh the holy cause which now unites us." "The soldiers
crowded around the Queen, and unanimously, as if by sudden
impulse, hailed young Henry of Navarre as their future
general. The Admiral and La Rochefoucauld were the first to
swear fidelity to the Prince; then came the inferior officers
and the whole assembled soldiery; and it was thus that, in his
fifteenth year, the Prince of Béarn was inaugurated as
general-in-chief of the army of the Huguenots." In June the
Huguenot army effected a junction at St. Yriex with a division
of German auxiliaries, led by the Duc de Deux-Ponts, and
including among its chiefs the Prince of Orange and his
brother Louis of Nassau. They attacked the Duke of Anjou at La
Roche-Abeille and gained a slight advantage; but wasted their
strength during the summer, contrary to the advice of the
Admiral Coligny, in besieging Poitiers. The Duke of Anjou
approached with a superior army, and, again in opposition to
the judgment of Coligny, the Huguenots encountered him at
Moncontour (October 3, 1569), where they suffered the worst of
their defeats, leaving 5,000 dead and wounded on the field.
Meanwhile a French army had entered Navarre, had taken the
capital and spread destruction everywhere through the small
kingdom; but the Queen sent Count de Montgomery to rally her
people, and the invaders were driven out. Coligny and Prince
Henry wintered their troops in the far south, then moved
rapidly northwards in the spring, up the valley of the Rhone,
across the Cevennes, through Burgundy, approaching the Loire,
and were met by the Marshal de Cosse at Arnay-le-Duc, where
Henry of Navarre won his first success in arms--Coligny being
ill. Though it was but a partial victory it brought about a
breathing time of peace. "This happened in the end of June,
and on the 8th of August [1570] the Peace of St.
Germain-en-Laye was signed, and France had two full years of
quiet."
W. Hanna,
The Wars of the Huguenots,
chapter 4.
ALSO IN:
Duc d'Aumale,
History of the Princes de Condé,
book 1, chapter 4-5 (volume 1-2).
M. W. Freer,
Life of Jeanne d'Albret,
chapters 8-10.
C. M. Yonge,
Cameos of English History,
5th series, chapter 8.
FRANCE: A. D. 1570-1572.
Coligny at court and his influence with the King.
Projected war with Spain.
The desperate step of Catharine de' Medici, and its
consequence in the plot of Massacre.
"After the Peace of 1570, it appeared as if a complete change
of policy was about to take place. The Queen pretended to be
friendly with the Protestants; her relations with the
ambitious Guises were distant and cold, and the project of
uniting the Houses of Bourbon and Valois by marriage [the
marriage of Henry of Navarre with the king's sister,
Marguerite] really looked as if she was in earnest. The most
distinguished leader of the Huguenot party was the Admiral
Caspar de Coligny. It is quite refreshing at this doleful
period to meet with such a character. He was a nobleman of the
old French school and of the best stamp; lived upon his estates
with his family, his little court, his retainers and subjects,
in ancient patriarchal style, and on the best terms, and
regularly went with them to the Protestant worship and the
communion; a man of unblemished morality and strict
Calvinistic views of life. Whatever this man said or did was
the result of his inmost convictions; his life was the
impersonation of his views and thoughts. In the late turbulent
times he had become an important person as leader and
organizer of the Protestant armies. At his call, thousands of
noblemen and soldiers took up arms, and they submitted under
his command to very strict discipline. He could not boast of
having won many battles, but he was famous for having kept his
resources together after repeated defeats, and for rising up
stronger than before after every lost engagement. ... Now that
peace was made, 'why,' he asked, 'excite further dissensions
for the benefit of our common enemies? Let us direct our
undivided forces against the real enemy of France--against
Spain, who stirs up intrigues in our civil, wars. Let us crush
this power, which condemns us to ignominious dependence.'
{1202}
The war against Spain was Coligny's project. It was the idea
of a good Huguenot, for it was directed against the most
blindly fanatical and dangerous foe of the new doctrines; but
it was also that of a good Frenchman, for a victory over Spain
would increase the power of France in the direction of
Burgundy. ... From September, 1571, Coligny was at court. On
his first arrival he was heartily welcomed by the King,
embraced by Catharine, and loaded with honours and favours by
both. I am not of opinion that this was a deeply laid scheme
to entrap the guileless hero, the more easily to ruin him.
Catharine's ideas did not extend so far. Still less do I
believe that the young King was trained to play the part of a
hypocrite, and regarded Coligny as a victim to be cherished
until the fête day. I think, rather, that Catharine, in her
changeableness and hatred of the Guises, was now really
disposed to make peace with the Protestants, and that the
young King was for the time impressed by this superior
personage. No youthful mind is so degraded as to be entirely
inaccessible to such influence. ... I believe that the first
and only happy day in the life of this unfortunate monarch was
when he met Coligny, who raised him above the degradation of
vulgar life; and I believe further, that this relation was the
main cause of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. A new influence
was threatening to surround the King and to take deep root,
which Catharine, her son Henry of Anjou, and the strict
Catholic party, must do their utmost to avert; and it was
quite in accordance with the King's weak character to allow
the man to be murdered whom he had just called 'Father.' ...
It appears that about the middle of the year [1572] the matter
[of war with Spain and help to the revolting Netherlands] was
as good as decided. The King willingly acceded to Coligny's
plan ... [and] privately gave considerable sums for the
support of the Flemish patriots, for the equipment of an army
of 4,000 men, composed of Catholics and Protestants, who
marched towards Mons, to succour Louis of Nassau. When in July
this army was beaten, and the majority of the Huguenots were
in despair, Coligny succeeded in persuading the King to equip
a fresh and still larger army; but the opposition then
bestirred itself. ...The Queen ... had been absent, with her
married daughter in Lorraine, and on her return she found
everything changed; the Guises without influence, herself
thrust on one side. Under the impression of the latest events
in Flanders, which made it likely that the war with Spain
would be ruinous, she hastened to the King, told him with
floods of tears that it would be his ruin; that the Huguenots,
through Coligny, had stolen the King's confidence,
unfortunately for himself and the country. She made some
impression upon him, but it did not last long, and thoughts of
war gained the upper hand again. The idea now (August, 1572),
must have been matured in Catharine's mind of venturing on a
desperate step, in order to save her supremacy and influence.
... The idea ripened in her mind of getting rid of Coligny by
assassination. ... Entirely of one mind with her son Henry,
she turned to the Guises, with whom she was at enmity when
they were in power, but friendly when they were of no more
consequence than herself. They breathed vengeance against the
Calvinists, and were ready at once to avenge the murder of
Francis of Guise by a murderous attack upon Coligny. An
assassin was hired, and established in a house belonging to
the Guises, near Coligny's dwelling, and as he came out of the
palace, on the 22nd of August, a shot was fired at him, which
wounded but did not kill him. Had Coligny died of his wound,
Catharine would have been content. ... But Coligny did not
die; the Huguenots defiantly demanded vengeance on the
well-known instigator of the deed; their threats reached the
Queen and Prince Henry of Anjou, and the personal fascination
which Coligny had exercised over King Charles appeared rather
to increase than to diminish. Thus doubtless arose, during the
anxious hours after the failure of the assassination, the idea of
an act of violence on a large scale, which should strike a
blow at Coligny and his friends before they had time for
revenge. It certainly had not been in preparation for months,
not even since the time that Coligny had been at Court; it was
conceived in the agony of these hours."
L. Hausser,
The Period of the Reformation,
chapter 27.
ALSO IN:
J. L. Motley,
The Rise of the Dutch Republic,
part 3, chapters 6-7 (volume 2).
L. von Ranke,
Civil Wars and Monarchy in France,
chapter 15.
FRANCE: A. D. 1572 (August).
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day.
"With some proofs, forged or real, in her hand that he was in
personal danger, the Queen Mother [August 24] presented
herself to her son. She told him that at the moment she was
speaking the Huguenots were arming. Sixteen thousand of them
intended to assemble in the morning, seize the palace, destroy
herself, the Duke of Anjou, and the Catholic noblemen, and
carry off Charles. The conspiracy, she said, extended through
France. The chiefs of the congregations were waiting for a
signal from Coligny to rise in every province and town. The
Catholics had discovered the plot, and did not mean to sit
still to be murdered. If the King refused to act with them,
they would choose another leader; and whatever happened he
would be himself destroyed. Unable to say that the story could
not be true, Charles looked enquiringly at Tavannas and De
Nevers, and they both confirmed the Queen Mother's words.
Shaking his incredulity with reminders of Amboise and Meaux,
Catherine went on to say that one man was the cause of all the
troubles in the realm. The Admiral aspired to rule all France,
and she--she admitted, with Anjou and the Guises, had
conspired to kill him to save the King and the country. She
dropped all disguise. The King, she said, must now assist them
or all would be lost. ... Charles was a weak, passionate boy,
alone in the dark conclave of iniquity. He stormed, raved,
wept, implored, spoke of his honour, his plighted word; swore
at one moment that the Admiral should not be touched, then
prayed them to try other means. But clear, cold and venomous,
Catherine told him it was too late. If there was a judicial
enquiry, the Guises would shield themselves by telling all
that they knew. They would betray her; they would betray his
brother; and, fairly or unfairly, they would not spare
himself. ... For an hour and a half the King continued to
struggle. 'You refuse, then,' Catherine said at last. ... 'Is
it that you are afraid, Sire?' she hissed in his ear. 'By
God's death,' he cried, springing to his feet, 'since you will
kill the Admiral, kill them all.
{1203}
Kill all the Huguenots in France, that none may be left to
reproach me. Mort Dieu! Kill them all.' He dashed out of the
cabinet. A list of those who were to die was instantly drawn
up. Navarre and Condé were first included; but Catherine
prudently reflected that to kill the Bourbons would make the
Guises too strong. Five or six names were added to the
Admiral's, and these Catherine afterwards asserted were all
that it was intended should suffer. ... Night had now fallen.
Guise and Aumale were still lurking in the city, and came with
the Duke of Montpensier at Catherine's summons. The persons
who were to be killed were in different parts of the town.
Each took charge of a district. Montpensier promised to see to
the Palace; Guise and his uncle undertook the Admiral; and below
these, the word went out to the leaders of the already
organised sections, who had been disappointed once, but whose
hour was now come. The Catholics were to recognise one another
in the confusion by a white handkerchief on the left arm and a
white cross in their caps. The Royal Guard, Catholics to a
man, were instruments ready made for the work. Guise assembled
the officers: he told them that the Huguenots were preparing
to rise, and that the King had ordered their instant
punishment. The officers asked no questions, and desired no
better service. The business was to begin at dawn. The signal
would be the tolling of the great bell at the Palace of
Justice, and the first death was to be Coligny's. The soldiers
stole to their posts. Twelve hundred lay along the Seine,
between the river and the Hotel de Ville; other companies
watched at the Louvre. As the darkness waned, the Queen Mother
went down to the gate. The stillness of the dawn was broken by
an accidental pistol-shot. Her heart sank, and she sent off a
messenger to tell Guise to pause. But it was too late. A
minute later the bell boomed out, and the massacre of St.
Bartholomew had commenced." The assassins broke into the
Admiral's dwelling and killed him as he lay wounded in bed.
"The window was open. 'Is it done?' cried Guise from the court
below, 'is it done? Fling him out that we may see him.' Still
breathing, the Admiral was hurled upon the pavement. The
Bastard of Angoulême wiped the blood from his face to be sure
of his identity, and then, kicking him as he lay, shouted, 'So
far well. Courage, my brave boys! now for the rest.' One of
the Duc de Nevers's people hacked off the head. A rope was
knotted about the ankles, and the corpse
was dragged out into the street amidst the howling crowd.
Teligny, ... Rochefoucault, and the rest of the Admiral's
friends who lodged in the neighbourhood were disposed of in
the same way, and so complete was the surprise that there was
not the most faint attempt at resistance. Montpensier had been
no less successful in the Louvre. The staircases were all
beset. The retinues of the King of Navarre and the Prince had
been lodged in the palace at Charles's particular desire.
Their names were called over, and as they descended unarmed
into the quadrangle they were hewn in pieces. There, in heaps,
they fell below the Royal window, under the eyes of the
miserable King, who was forced forward between his mother and
his brother that he might be seen as the accomplice of the
massacre. Most of the victims were killed upon the spot. Some
fled wounded up the stairs, and were slaughtered in the
presence of the Princesses. ... By seven o'clock the work
which Guise and his immediate friends had undertaken was
finished with but one failure. The Count Montgomery and the
Vidame of Chartres ... escaped to England. The mob meanwhile
was in full enjoyment. ... While dukes and lords were killing
at the Louvre, the bands of the sections imitated them with
more than success; men, women, and even children, striving
which should be the first in the pious work of murder. All
Catholic Paris was at the business, and every Huguenot
household had neighbours to know and denounce them. Through
street and lane and quay and causeway, the air rang with yells
and curses, pistol-shots and crashing windows; the roadways
were strewed with mangled bodies, the doors were blocked by
the dead and dying. From garret, closet, roof, or stable,
crouching creatures were torn shrieking out, and stabbed and
hacked at; boys practised their hands by strangling babies in
their cradles, and headless bodies were trailed along the
trottoirs. ... Towards midday some of the quieter people
attempted to restore order. A party of the town police made
their way to the palace. Charles caught eagerly at their
offers of service, and bade them do their utmost to put the
people down; but it was all in vain. The soldiers, maddened
with plunder and blood, could not be brought to assist, and
without them nothing could be done. All that afternoon and
night, and the next day and the day after, the horrible scenes
continued, till the flames burnt down at last for want of
fuel. The number who perished in Paris was computed variously
from 2,000 to 10,000. In this, as in all such instances, the
lowest estimate is probably the nearest to the truth. The
massacre was completed--completed in Paris--only, as it
proved, to be continued elsewhere. ... On the 24th, while the
havoc was at its height, circulars went round to the provinces
that a quarrel had broken out between the Houses of Guise and
Coligny; that the Admiral and many more had been unfortunately
killed, and that the King himself had been in danger through
his efforts to control the people. The governors of the
different towns were commanded to repress at once any symptoms
of disorder which might show themselves, and particularly to
allow no injury to be done to the Huguenots." But Guise, when
he learned of these circulars, which threw upon him the odium
of the massacre, forced the King to recall them. "The story of
the Huguenot conspiracy was revived. ... The Protestants of
the provinces, finding themselves denounced from the throne,
were likely instantly to take arms to defend themselves.
Couriers were therefore despatched with second orders that
they should be dealt with as they had been dealt with at
Paris; and at Lyons, Orleans, Rouen, Bordeaux, Toulon, Meaux,
in half the towns and villages of France, the bloody drama was
played once again. The King, thrown out into the hideous
torrent of blood, became drunk with frenzy, and let slaughter
have its way, till even Guise himself affected to be shocked,
and interposed to put an end to it; not, however, till,
according to the belief of the times, 100,000 men, women and
children had been miserably murdered. ... The number again may
be hoped to have been prodigiously exaggerated; with all large
figures, when unsupported by exact statistics, it is safe to
divide at least by ten."
J. A. Froude,
History of England: Reign of Elizabeth,
chapter 23 (volume 4).
ALSO IN:
H. White,
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew,
chapters 12-14.
Duke of Sully,
Memoirs,
book 1.
G. P. Fisher,
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew
(New Englander, January, 1880).
{1204}
FRANCE: A. D. 1572 (August-October).
The king's avowal of responsibility for the Massacre, and
celebration of his "victory."
Rejoicings at Rome and Madrid.
General horror of Europe.
The effects in France.
Changed character of the Protestant party.
"On the morning of the 26th of August, Charles IX. went to
hold a 'bed of justice' in the parliament, carrying with him
the king of Navarre, and he then openly avowed that the
massacre had been perpetrated by his orders, made ... excuse
for it, grounded on a pretended conspiracy of the Huguenots
against his person, and then directed the parliament to
commence judicial proceedings against Coligni and his
accomplices, dead or alive, on the charge of high treason. The
parliament obeyed, and, after a process of two months, which
was a mere tissue of falsehoods, they not only found all the
dead guilty, but they included in the sentence two of the
principal men who had escaped--the old captain Briquemaut,
and Arnaud de Cavaignes. ... Both were hanged at the Place de
Grève, in the presence of the king, who compelled the king of
Navarre also to be a witness of their execution. Having once
assumed the responsibility of the massacre of the protestants,
Charles IX. began to glory in the deed. On the 27th of August,
he went with the whole court to Montfaucon, to contemplate the
mutilated remains of the admiral. ... Next day, a grand
jubilee procession was headed by the king in celebration of
his so-called victory. ... The 'victory' was also celebrated
by two medals. ... Nevertheless, the minds of Charles and his
mother were evidently ill at ease, and their misgivings as to
the effect which would be produced at foreign courts by the
news of these proceedings are very evident in the varying and
often contradictory orders which they dispatched into the
provinces. ... The news of these terrible events caused an
extreme agitation in all the courts throughout Christian
Europe. Philip of Spain, informed of the massacres by a letter
from the king and the queen-mother, written on the 29th of
August, replied by warm congratulations and expressions of
joy. The cardinal of Lorraine, who was ... at Rome, gave a
reward of 1,000 écus of gold to the courier who brought the
despatches, and the news was celebrated at Rome by the firing
of the cannons of the castle of St. Angelo, and by the
lighting of bon-fires in the streets. The pope (Gregory XIII.)
and the sacred college went in grand procession to the
churches to offer their thanks to God. ... Not content with
these demonstrations, the pope caused a medal to be struck.
... Gregory dispatched immediately to the court of France the
legate Fabio d'Orsini, with a commission to congratulate the
king and his mother for the vigour they had shown in the
repression of heresy, to demand the reception in France of the
council of Trent, and the establishment of the Inquisition.
... But the papal legate found the court of France in a
different temper from that which he anticipated. Catherine,
alarmed at the effect which these great outrages had produced
on the protestant sovereigns, found it necessary to give him
private intimations that the congratulations of the pontiff
were untimely, and could not be publicly accepted. ... The
policy of the French court at home was no less distasteful to
the papal legate than its relations abroad. The old edicts
against the public exercise of the protestant worship were
gradually revived, and the Huguenots were deprived of the
offices which they had obtained during the short period of
toleration, but strict orders were sent round to forbid any
further massacres, with threats of punishment against those
who had already offended. On the 8th of October, the king
published a declaration, inviting such of the protestants as
had quitted the kingdom in consequence of the massacres to
return, and promising them safety; but this was soon followed
by letters to the governors of the provinces, directing them
to exhort the Huguenot gentry and others to conform to the
catholic faith, and declaring that he would tolerate only one
religion in his kingdom. Many, believing that the protestant
cause was entirely ruined in France, complied, and this
defection was encouraged by the example of the two princes of
Bourbon [Henry, now king of Navarre, his mother, Jeanne
d'Albret, having died June 9, 1572, and Henry, the young
prince of Condé], who, after some weeks of violent resistance,
submitted at the end of September, and, at least in outward
form, became catholics. It has been remarked that the massacre
of St. Bartholomew's-day produced an entire change in the
character of the protestant party in France. The Huguenots had
hitherto been entirely ruled by their aristocracy, who took
the lead and direction in every movement; but now the great
mass of the protestant nobility had perished or deserted the
cause, and from this moment the latter depended for support
upon the inhabitants of some of the great towns and upon the
un-noble class of the people; and with this change it took a
more popular character, in some cases showing even a tendency
to republicanism. In the towns where the protestants were
strong enough to offer serious resistance, such as La
Rochelle, Nimes, Sancerre, and Montauban, the richer burghers,
and a part at least of the municipal officers, were in favour
of submission, and they were restrained only by the resolution
and devotion of the less wealthy portion of the population."
T. Wright,
History of France,
book 3, chapter 7 (volume 1).
ALSO IN:
H. M. Baird,
History of the Rise of the Huguenots,
chapter 19 (volume 2).
A. de Montor,
Lives and Times of the Roman Pontiffs,
volume 1, pages 810-812.
{1205}
FRANCE: A. D. 1572-1573.
The Fourth Religious War.
Siege and successful defence of La Rochelle.
A favorable peace.
"The two Reformer-princes, Henry of Navarre and Henry de
Condé, attended mass on the 29th of September, and, on the 3d
of October, wrote to the pope, deploring their errors and
giving hopes of their conversion. Far away from Paris, in the
mountains of the Pyrenees and of Languedoc, in the towns where
the Reformers were numerous and confident ... the spirit of
resistance carried the day. An assembly, meeting at Milhau,
drew up a provisional ordinance for the government of the
Reformed church, 'until it please God, who has the hearts of
kings in His keeping, to change that of King Charles IX. and
restore the state of France to good order, or to raise up such
neighboring prince as is manifest marked out, by his virtue
and by distinguishing signs, for to be the liberator of this
poor afflicted people.' In November, 1572, the fourth
religious war broke out. The siege of La Rochelle was its only
important event. Charles IX. and his councillors exerted
themselves in vain to avoid it. There was everything to
disquiet them in this enterprise: so sudden a revival of the
religious war after the grand blow they had just struck, the
passionate energy manifested by the Protestants in asylum at
La Rochelle, and the help they had been led to hope for from
Queen Elizabeth, whom England would never have forgiven for
indifference in this cause. ... The king heard that one of the
bravest Protestant chiefs, La Noue, 'Ironarm,' had retired to
Mons with Prince Louis of Nassau. The Duke of Longueville ...
induced him to go to Paris. The king received him with great
favor ... and pressed him to go to La Rochelle and prevail
upon the inhabitants to keep the peace. ... La Noue at last
consented, and repaired, about the end of November, 1572, to a
village close by La Rochelle, whither it was arranged that
deputies from the town would come and confer with him. ...
After hearing him, the senate rejected the pacific overtures
made to them by La Noue. 'We have no mind [they said] to treat
specially and for ourselves alone; our cause is that of God
and of all the churches of France; we will accept nothing but
what shall seem proper to all our brethren.'" They then
offered to trust themselves under La Noue's command,
notwithstanding the commission by which he was acting for the
king. "La Noue did not hesitate; he became, under the
authority of the mayor, Jacques Henri, the military head of La
Rochelle, whither Charles IX. had sent him to make peace. The
king authorized him to accept this singular position. La Noue
conducted himself so honorably in it, and everybody was so
convinced of his good faith as well as bravery, that for three
months he commanded inside La Rochelle, and superintended the
preparations for defence, all the while trying to make the
chances of peace prevail. At the end of February, 1573, he
recognized the impossibility of his double commission, and he
went away from La Rochelle, leaving the place in better
condition than that in which he had found it, without either
king or Rochellese considering that they had any right to
complain of him. Biron first and then the Duke of Anjou in
person took the command of the siege. They brought up, it is
said, 40,000 men and 60 pieces of artillery. The Rochellese,
for defensive strength, had but 22 companies of refugees or
inhabitants, making in all 3,100 men. The siege lasted from
the 26th of February to the 13th of June, 1573; six assaults
were made on the place. ... La Rochelle was saved. Charles IX.
was more and more desirous of peace; his brother, the Duke of
Anjou, had just been elected King of Poland; Charles IX. was
anxious for him to leave France and go to take possession of
his new kingdom. Thanks to these complications, the peace of
La Rochelle was signed on the 6th of July, 1573. Liberty of
creed and worship was recognized in the three towns of La
Rochelle, Montauban, and Nimes. They were not obliged to
receive any royal garrison, on condition of giving hostages to
be kept by the king for two years. Liberty of worship throughout
the extent of their jurisdiction continued to be recognized in
the case of lords high-justiciary. Everywhere else the
Reformers had promises of not being persecuted for their
creed, under the obligation of never holding an assembly of
more than ten persons at a time. These were the most favorable
conditions they had yet obtained. Certainly this was not what
Charles IX, had calculated upon when he consented to the
massacre of the Protestants."
F. P. Guizot,
Popular History of France,
chapter 33.
FRANCE: A. D. 1573-1576.
Escape of Condé and Navarre.
Death of Charles IX.
Accession of Henry III.
The Fifth Civil War.
Navarre's repudiation of Catholicism.
The Peace of Monseur.
The King's mignons and the nation's disgust.
"Catherine ... had the address to procure the crown of Poland
for the son of her predilection, Henry duke of Anjou. She had
lavished her wealth upon the electors for this purpose. No
sooner was the point gained than she regretted it. The health
of Charles was now manifestly on the decline, and Catherine
would fain have retained Henry; but the jealousy of the king
forbade. After conducting the duke on his way to Poland the
court returned to St. Germain, and Charles sunk, without hope
or consolation, on his couch of sickness. Even here he was not
allowed to repose. The young king of Navarre formed a project
of escape with the prince of Condé. The duc d' Alençon,
youngest brother of the king, joined in it. ... The vigilance
of the queen-mother discovered the enterprise, which, for her
own purposes, she magnified into a serious plot. Charles was
informed that a huguenot army was coming to surprise him, and
he was obliged to be removed into a litter, in order to
escape. ... Condé was the only prince that succeeded in making
his escape. The king of Navarre and the duc d' Alençon were
imprisoned." The young king of Navarre "had already succeeded
by his address, his frankness, and high character, in rallying
to his interests the most honourable of the noblesse, who
dreaded at once the perfidious Catherine and her children; who
had renounced their good opinion of young Guise after the day
of St. Bartholomew; and who, at the same time professing
Catholicism, were averse to huguenot principles and zeal. This
party, called the Politiques, professed to follow the middle
or neutral course, which at one time had been that of
Catherine of Medicis; but she had long since deserted it, and
had joined in all the sanguinary and extreme measures of her
son and of the Guises. Hence she was especially odious to the
new and moderate party of the Politiques, among whom the
family of Montmorency held the lead. Catherine feared their
interference at the moment of the king's death, whilst his
successor was absent in a remote kingdom; and she swelled the
project of the princes' escape into a serious conspiracy, in
order to be mistress of those whom she feared. ... In this
state of the court Charles IX. expired on the 30th of May,
1574, after having nominated the queen-mother to be regent
during his successor's absence. ... The career of the new king
[Henry III.], while duke of Anjou, had been glorious. Raised
to the command of armies at the age of 15, he displayed
extreme courage as well as generalship.
{1206}
He had defeated the veteran leader of the protestants at
Jarnac and at Moncontour; and the fame of his exploits had
contributed to place him on the elective throne of Poland,
which he now occupied. Auguring from his past life, a
brilliant epoch might be anticipated; and yet we enter upon
the most contemptible reign, perhaps, in the annals of France.
... Henry was obliged to run away by stealth from his Polish
subjects [see POLAND: A. D. 1574-1590]. When overtaken by one
of the nobles of that kingdom, the monarch, instead of
pleading his natural anxiety to visit France and secure his
inheritance, excused himself by drawing forth the portrait of
his mistress, ... and declared that it was love which hastened
his return. At Vienna, however, Henry forgot both crown and
mistress amidst the feasts that were given him; and he turned
aside to Venice, to enjoy a similar reception from that rich
republic. ... The hostile parties were in the meantime arming.
The Politiques, or neutral catholics, for the first time
showed themselves in the field. They demanded the freedom of
Cossé and of Montmorency, and at length formed a treaty of
alliance with the Huguenots. Henry, after indulging in the
ceremony of being crowned, was obliged to lead an army into
the field. Sieges were undertaken on both sides, and what is
called the fifth civil war raged openly. It became more
serious when the king's brother joined it. This was the duke
of Alençon, a vain and fickle personage, of whom it pleased
the king to become jealous. Alençon fled and joined the
malcontents. The reformers, however, waited but languidly.
Both parties were without active and zealous leaders; and the
only notable event of this war was a skirmish in Champagne
[the battle of Dormans, in which both sides lost heavily],
where the duke of Guise received a slight wound in the cheek.
From hence came his surname of 'Le Balafré.'" In February,
1576, the king of Navarre made his escape from court. "He bent
his course towards Guienne, and at Niort publicly avowed his
adherence to the reformed religion, declaring that force alone
had made him conform to the mass. It was about this time that
the king, in lieu of leading an army against the malcontents,
despatched the queen-mother, with her gay and licentious
court, to win back his brother. She succeeded, though not
without making large concessions [in a treaty called the
'Peace of Monsieur']. The duke of Alençon obtained Anjou, and
other provinces in appanage, and henceforth was styled duke of
Anjou. More favourable terms were granted to the Huguenots:
they were allowed ten towns of surety in lieu of six, and the
appointment of a certain number of judges in the parliament.
Such weakness in Henry disgusted the body of the catholics;
and the private habits of his life contributed still more, if
possible, than his public measures, to render him
contemptible. He was continually surrounded by a set of young
and idle favourites, whose affectation it was to unite
ferocity with frivolity. The king showed them such tender
affection as he might evince towards woman; they even had the
unblushing impudence to adopt feminine habits of dress; and
the monarch passed his time in adorning them and himself with
robes and ear-rings. ... The indescribable tastes and
amusements of Henry and his mignons, as his favourites were
called, ... raised up throughout the nation one universal cry
of abhorrence and contempt."
E. E. Crowe,
History of France,
chapters 8-9 (volume 1).
ALSO IN:
Lady Jackson,
The Last of the Valois,
volume 2, chapters 2-6.
S. Menzies,
Royal Favourites,
volume 1, chapter 5.
FRANCE: A. D. 1576-1585.
The rise of the League.
Its secret objects and aims.
Its alliance with Philip II. of Spain.
The Pope's Bull against Navarre and Condé.
"The famous association known as the 'Catholic League' or
'Holy Union,' took its rise from the strangely indulgent terms
granted to the Huguenots by the 'Peace of Monsieur,' in April,
1576. Four years had scarcely elapsed since the bloodstained
Eve of St. Bartholomew. It had been hoped that by means of
that execrable crime the Reformation would have been finally
crushed and extinguished in France; but instead of this, a
treaty was concluded with the heretics, which placed them in a
more favourable situation than they had ever occupied before.
... It was regarded by the majority of Catholics as a wicked
and cowardly betrayal of their most sacred interests. They
ascribed it to its true source, namely, the hopeless
incapacity of the reigning monarch, Henry III.; a prince whose
monstrous vices and gross misgovernment were destined to
reduce France to a state of disorganization bordering on
national ruin. The idea of a general confederation of
Catholics for the defence of the Faith against the inroads of
heresy had been suggested by the Cardinal of Lorraine during
the Council of Trent, and had been favourably entertained at
the Court of Rome. The Duke of Guise was to have been placed
at the head of this alliance; but his sudden death changed the
face of affairs, and the project fell into abeyance. The
Cardinal of Lorraine was now no more; he died at Avignon, at
the age of 50, in December, 1574. ... Henry, the third Duke of
Guise, inherited in their fullest extent the ambition, the
religious ardour, the lofty political aspirations, the
enterprising spirit, the personal popularity, of his
predecessors. The League of 1576 was conceived entirely in his
interest. He was the leader naturally pointed out for such a
movement;--a movement which, although its ulterior objects
were at first studiously concealed, aimed in reality at
substituting the family of Lorraine for that of Valois on the
throne of France. The designs of the confederates, as set
forth in the original manifesto which was circulated for
signature, seemed at first sight highly commendable, both with
regard to religion and politics. According to this document, the
Union was formed for three great purposes: to uphold the
Catholic Church; to suppress heresy; and to maintain the
honour, the authority and prerogatives of the Most Christian
king and his successors. On closer examination, however,
expressions were detected which hinted at less constitutional
projects. ... Their secret aims became incontestably manifest
soon afterwards, when one of their confidential agents, an
advocate named David, happened to die suddenly on his return
from Rome, and his papers fell into the hands of the
Huguenots, who immediately made them public. ... A change of
dynasty in France was the avowed object of the scheme thus
disclosed. It set forth, in substance, that the Capetian
monarchs were usurpers,--the throne belonging rightfully to
the house of Lorraine as the lineal descendants of
Charlemagne. ...
{1207}
The Duke of Guise, with the advice and permission of the Pope,
was to imprison Henry for the rest of his days in a monastery,
after the example of his ancestor Pepin when he dethroned the
Merovingian Childeric. Lastly, the heir of the Carlovingians
was to be proclaimed King of France; and, on assuming the
crown, was to make such arrangements with his Holiness as
would secure the complete recognition of the sovereignty of
the Vicar of Christ, by abrogating for ever the so-called
'liberties of the Gallican Church.' ... This revolutionary
plot ... unhappily, was viewed with cordial sympathy, and
supported with enthusiastic zeal, by many of the prelates, and
a large majority of the parochial clergy, of France. ... The
death of the Duke of Anjou, presumptive heir to the throne, in
1584, determined the League to immediate action. In the event
of the king's dying without issue, which was most
probable,--the crown would now devolve upon Henry of Bourbon
[the King of Navarre], the acknowledged leader of the
Huguenots. ... In January, 1585, the chiefs of the League
signed a secret treaty at Joinville with the King of Spain, by
which the contracting parties made common cause for the
extirpation of all sects and heresies in France and the
Netherlands, and for excluding from the French throne princes
who were heretics, or who 'treated heretics with public
impunity.' ... Liberal supplies of men and money were to be
furnished to the insurgents by Philip from the moment that war
should break out. ... The Leaguers lost no time in seeking for
their enterprise the all-important sanction of the Holy See.
For this purpose they despatched as their envoy to Rome a
Jesuit named Claude Matthieu. ... The Jesuit fraternity in
France had embraced with passionate ardour the anti-royalist
cause. ... His Holiness [Gregory XIII.], however, was cautious
and reserved. He expressed in general terms his consent to the
project of taking up arms against the heretics, and granted a
plenary indulgence to those who should aid in the holy work.
But he declined to countenance the deposition of the king by
violence. ... At length, however [September 9, 1585], Sixtus
was persuaded to fulminate a bull against the King of Navarre
and the Prince of Condé, in which ... both culprits, together
with their heirs and posterity were pronounced for ever
incapable of succeeding to the throne of France or any other
dignity; their subjects and vassals were released from their
oath of homage, and forbidden to obey them."
W. H. Jervis,
History of the Church of France,
volume 1, chapter 3.
ALSO IN:
L. von Ranke,
Civil Wars and Monarchy in France,
chapter 21.
FRANCE: A. D. 1577-1578.
Rapid spread of the League.
The Sixth Civil War and the Peace of Bergerac.
Anjou in the Netherlands.
The League "spread like lightning over the whole face of
France; Condé could find no footing in Picardy or even in
Poitou; Henry of Navarre was refused entrance into Bordeaux
itself; the heads of the League, the family-party of the Dukes
of Guise, Mayenne and Nemours, seemed to carry all before
them; the weak King leant towards them; the Queen Mother,
intriguing ever, succeeded in separating Anjou from the
Politiques, and began to seduce Damville. She hoped once more
to isolate the Huguenots and to use the League to weaken and
depress them. ... The Court and the League seemed to be in
perfect harmony, the King ... in a way, subscribed to the
League, though the twelve articles were considerably modified
before they were shown to him. ... The Leaguers had succeeded
in making war [called the Sixth Civil War--1577], and winning
some successes: but on their heels came the Court with fresh
negotiations for peace. The heart's desire of the King was to
crush the stubborn Huguenots and to destroy the moderates, but
he was afraid to act; and so it came about that, though Anjou
was won away from them, and compromised on the other side, and
though Damville also deserted them, and though the whole party
was in the utmost disorder and seemed likely to disperse,
still the Court offered them such terms that in the end they
seemed to have even recovered ground. Under the walls of
Montpellier, Damville, the King's general, and Chatillon, the
Admiral's son, at the head of the Huguenots, were actually
manœuvring to begin a battle, when La Noue came up bearing
tidings of peace, and at the imminent risk of being shot
placed himself between the two armies, and stayed their
uplifted hands. It was the Peace of Bergerac [confirmed by the
Edict of Poitiers--Sept. 17, 1577], another ineffectual truce,
which once more granted in the main what that of Chastenoy [or
the 'Peace of Monseur'] had already promised: it is needless
to say that the League would have none of it; and
partisan-warfare, almost objectless, however oppressive to the
country, went on without a break: the land was overrun by
adventurers and bandits, sure sign of political death. Nothing
could be more brutalising or more brutal: but the savage
traits of civil war are less revolting than the ghastly
revelries of the Court. All the chiefs were alike--neither the
King, nor Henry of Navarre, nor Anjou, nor even the strict
Catholic Guise, disdained to wallow in debauch." Having
quarreled with his brother, the King, "Anjou fled, in the
beginning of 1578, to Angers, where, finding that there was a
prospect of amusement in the Netherlands, he turned his back
on the high Catholics, and renewed friendship with the
Huguenot chiefs. He was invited to come to the rescue of the
distressed Calvinists in their struggle against Philip, and
appeared in the Netherlands in July 1578."
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1577-1581, and 1581-1584.
G. W. Kitchin,
History of France,
volume 2, pages 370-373.
FRANCE: A. D. 1578-1580.
Treaty of Nérac.
The Seventh Civil War, known as the War of the Lovers.
The Peace of Fleix.
"The King, instead of availing himself of this interval of
repose [after the Peace of Bergerac] to fortify himself
against his enemies, only sank deeper and deeper into vice and
infamy. ... The court resembled at once a slaughter-house and
a brothel, although, amid all this corruption, the King was
the slave of monks and Jesuits whom he implicitly obeyed. It
was about this time (December 1578) that he instituted the
military order of the Holy Ghost, that of St. Michael having
fallen into contempt through being prostituted to unworthy
objects. Meanwhile the Guises were using every effort to
rekindle the war, which Catherine, on the other hand, was
endeavouring to prevent. With this view she travelled, in
August, into the southern provinces, and had an interview with
Henry of Navarre at Nérac, bringing with her Henry's wife, her
daughter Margaret; a circumstance, however, which did not add
to the pleasure of their meeting.
{1208}
Henry received the ladies coldly, and they retired into
Languedoc, where they passed the remainder of the year.
Nevertheless the negotiations were sedulously pursued; for a
peace with the Hugonots was, at this time, indispensable to
the Court. ... In February 1579, a secret treaty was signed at
Nérac, by which the concessions granted to the Protestants by
the peace of Bergerac were much extended. ... Catherine spent
nearly the whole of the year 1579 in the south, endeavouring
to avert a renewal of the war by her intrigues, rather than by
a faithful observance of the peace. But the King of Navarre
saw through her Italian artifices, and was prepared to summon
his friends and captains at the shortest notice. The
hostilities which he foresaw were not long in breaking out,
and in a way that would seem impossible in any other country
than France. When the King of Navarre fled from Court in 1576,
he expressed his indifference for two things he had left
behind, the mass and his wife; Margaret, the heroine of a
thousand amours, was equally indifferent, and though they now
contrived to cohabit together, it was because each connived at
the infidelities of the other. Henry was in love with
Mademoiselle Fosseuse, a girl of fourteen, while Margaret had
taken for her gallant the young Viscount of Turenne, who had
lately turned Hugonot. ... The Duke of Anjou being at this
time disposed to renew his connection with the Hugonots,
Margaret served as the medium of communication between her
brother and her husband; while Henry III., with a view to
interrupt this good understanding, wrote to the king of
Navarre to acquaint him of the intrigues of his wife with
Turenne. Henry was neither surprised nor afflicted at this
intelligence; but he laid the letter before the guilty
parties, who both denied the charge, and Henry affected to
believe their protestations. The ladies of the Court of Nérac
were indignant at this act of Henry III., 'the enemy of
women'; they pressed their lovers to renew hostilities against
that discourteous monarch; Anjou added his instances to those
of the ladies; and in 1580 ensued the war called from its
origin 'la guerre des amoureux,' or war of the lovers: the
seventh of what are sometimes styled the wars of 'religion'!
The Prince of Condé, who lived on bad terms with his cousin,
had already taken the field on his own account, and in
November 1579 had seized on the little town of La Fère in
Picardy. In the spring of 1580 the Protestant chiefs in the
south unfurled their banners. The King of Navarre laid the
foundation of his military fame by the bravery he displayed at
the capture of Cahors; but on the whole the movement proved a
failure. Henry III. had no fewer than three armies in the
field, which were generally victorious, and the King of
Navarre found himself menaced in his capital of Nérac by
Marshal Biron. But Henry III., for fear of the Guises, did not
wish to press the Hugonots too hard, and at length accepted
the proffered mediation of the Duke of Anjou, who was at this
time anxious to enter on the protectorate offered to him by
the Flemings. Anjou set off for the south, accompanied by his
mother and her 'flying squadron' [of seductive nymphs];
conferences were opened at the castle of Fleix in Périgord,
and on November 26th 1580 a treaty was concluded which was
almost a literal renewal of that of Bergerac. Thus an
equivocal peace, or rather truce, was re-established, which
proved of some duration."
T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 3, chapter 8 (volume 2).
ALSO IN:
Duc d'Aumale,
History of the Princes de Condé,
book 2, chapter 1 (volume 2).