The Wars of Religion in Europe E-Book

Adolphus Ward

• Herausgeber: Perennial Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 1966

Beschreibung

THE present volume, as its title imports, relates a complicated series of conflicts of which the origin or the pretext has for the most part to be sought in the great religious schism of Christianity. But the cause of the restoration of Catholic unity in the West was, in the minds of both the supporters and the opponents of that cause, inextricably interwoven with the purposes of dynastic ambition, and powerfully affected by influences traceable to the rapid advance of the monarchical principle and to the gradual growth of the conception of the modern national State. Although in graver peril than ever before from the persistent advance of the Ottoman Power, Europe no longer finds a real unifying force in either Papacy or Empire. The spiritual ardor of the Catholic Reaction, which might have served to strengthen the resistance to the general enemy of Christendom, is expended largely on internecine conflicts. It allies itself with the settled resolution of Philip of Spain to control the destinies of Western Europe; and thus there is not a phase of the religious and political struggle here described which remains unconnected with the rest. The Religious Wars of France, with an account of which this volume opens, furnish the most complete instance of the constant intersection of native and foreign influences; but it is illustrated by almost every portion of the narrative. Since, therefore, the story of no European country or group of countries in this troubled period admits of being told as detached from the contemporary history of its neighbors, allies, or adversaries, the same series of events must necessarily appear more than once in these pages as forming an organic part of the history of several countries, but treated in each case from a distinct point of view...

Leseprobe

THE WARS OF RELIGION IN EUROPE

Adolphus Ward and Martin Hume

PERENNIAL PRESS

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Copyright © 2016 by Adolphus Ward and Martin Hume

Published by Perennial Press

Interior design by Pronoun

Distribution by Pronoun

ISBN: 9781531263188

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY

THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE

FRENCH HUMANISM AND MONTAIGNE

THE CATHOLIC REACTION, AND THE VALOIS AND BÁTHORYELECTIONS, IN POLAND

THE HEIGHT OF THE OTTOMAN POWER

THE EMPIRE UNDER FERDINAND I AND MAXIMILIAN II

THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS

WILLIAM THE SILENT

MARY STUART

THE ELIZABETHAN NAVAL WAR WITH SPAIN

THE LAST YEARS OF ELIZABETH

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

TUSCANY

SAVOY

ROME UNDER SIXTUS V

THE END OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

SPAIN UNDER PHILIP II

SPAIN UNDER PHILIP III

BRITAIN UNDER JAMES I

IRELAND TO THE SETTLEMENT OF ULSTER

THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

HENRY IV OF FRANCE

THE EMPIRE UNDER RUDOLF II.

POLITICAL THOUGHT IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY

~

FIRST PERIOD.

1559.

Treaty of Cateau Cambresis between France and Spain (April).

Death of Henry II at a Tournament.

Accession of Francis II.

Supremacy of the Guises, uncles of the Queen.

1560.

La Renaudie’s Conspiracy, the Tumult of Amboise (March).

Edict of Romorantin against the Huguenots.

Arrest and sentence of Condé.

Death of Francis II (Dec.).

Accession of Charles IX under guardianship of Catherine di Medici and Anthony of Navarre.

1561.

Estates General of Orleans (Jan.).

The Catholic triumvirate—Guise, Montmorenci, S. André—Estates ofPontoise (Aug.).

Colloquy of Poissi between Catholic and Calvinist divines (Sept.).

1562.

The tolerant Edict of January. Navarre joins the Catholics.

Massacre of the Congregation of Vassi by Guise’s followers (March).

Condé and Coligni seize Orleans (April).

English at Havre. Capture of Rouen by Catholics (Oct.), and death of Navarre.

Defeat of Huguenots at Dreux.

Capture of Condé and Montmorenci. Death of S. André

1563.

Murder of Guise before Orleans by Poltrot (Feb.).

Peace of Amboise (March).

Capture of Havre from English (July).

1564.

Peace of Troyes with English. Tour of Catherine and Charles.

1565.

Their interview with Elizabeth of Spain and Alva at Bayonne (June).

1566.

Troubles in the Netherlands.

1567.

Second War. Attempt of Condé to seize the Court at Meaux (Sept.).

Condé attacks Paris. Battle of S. Denis. Death of Montmorenci (Nov.).

1568.

John Casimir’s Germans join Condé.

Peace of Longjumeau or Chartres (March).

Flight of Condé and Coligni (Aug.).

Third War.

1569.

Defeat of Huguenots at Jarnac (March).

Death of Condé. Invasion of Deux Fonts.

Defeat of Coligni at Moncontour (Oct.).

Defence of S. Jean d’Angely.

Louis of Nassau at Rochelle.

1570.

Peace of S. Germain (Aug.).

1571-2.

French schemes on Netherlands.

Anglo-French alliance.

Louis of Nassau with French aid seizes Valenciennes and Mons.

Marriage of Navarre and Margaret.

Massacre of S. Bartholomew (Aug.).

SECOND PERIOD.

1572.

Navarre and Condé abjure Reform.

Local resistance of Huguenot towns.

The Fourth War.

1573.

Sieges of Rochelle and Sancerre.

Negotiations of the Crown with Orange.

The Fair of Frankfort.

Election of Anjou to throne of Poland (May).

Peace of Rochelle (June).

1574.

Fifth War. Conspiracy of Navarre and Alençon—its discovery.

Execution of La Mole and Coconas.

Arrest of Marshals Montmorenci and Cosse.

Death of Charles IX (May).

Negotiations for marriage of Alençon with Elizabeth (1573-4)

Confederation of Huguenots and Politiques under Damville in Languedoc.

Return of Henry III from Poland (Sept.).

Death of Cardinal of Lorraine (Dec.).

1575.

Escape and revolt of Alençon. Invasion of John Casimir (Sept.).

1576.

Escape of Navarre (Feb.).

Alençon, John Casimir, and Condé march on Paris.

Peace of Monsieur (April). Its favorable terms for the Huguenots.

Catholic League of Picardy (June).

Estates General of Blois and Catholic revival.

1577.

The Sixth War (March).

Peace of Bergerac (Sept.).

1578.

Alençon in the Netherlands. Growing antagonism to the Crown.

1579.

Alençon in England. French occupation of Cambrai and La Fere.

1580.

Seventh or Lovers’ War (Feb.).

Peace of Fleix (Nov.).

Treaty of Plessis between Alen9on and United Provinces.

Henry recognizes Alençon’s expedition to Netherlands.

France to annex Artois.

1581.

Alençon lord of the Netherlands; his visit to England and betrothal to Elizabeth.

1582.

Alençon in the Netherlands.

Catherine interferes for independence of Portugal.

Defeat of French fleet off Azores.

1583.

Alençon’s treacherous attempt on Antwerp (Jan.).

Alençon’s death (June).

Assassination of Orange (July).

THIRD PERIOD.

1584.

The League of Paris (Dec.).

1585.

The Pact of Joinville between Guises, Cardinal Bourbon, and Spanish agents (Jan.).

Henry III refuses the sovereignty of the Netherlands (Feb.).

1587.

War of the Three Henries.

Navarre defeats Joyeuse at Coutras (Oct.).

The King makes terms with the German auxiliaries who are cut to pieces by Guise (Nov.).

Remarkable retreat of the Huguenot horse.

1588.

The day of the Barricades (May).

The King forced to fly from Paris.

The Estates General of Blois.

Murder of Henry of Guise and the Cardinal of Guise by the King (Dec.).

1589.

Death of Catherine di Medici (Jan.).

The Revolution at Paris.

League of the King and Navarre.

Their march on Paris. Murder of Henry III (Aug.).

FOURTH PERIOD.

1589.

Two Bourbon Kings, Henry IV and Charles X.

Henry’s retreat from Paris to Normandy.

Differences between Mayenne and the Sixteen at Paris.

Spanish influence in Paris.

1590.

Henry’s victory at Ivry (March).

Siege and starvation of Paris.

Death of Charles X. (May).

The Duke of Parma relieves the town (Sept.).

1591.

The Royalists capture S. Denis, blockade Paris, and take Chartres.

Terrorism of the Sixteen and their suppression by Mayenne.

1592.

Siege of Rouen and its relief by Parma. His retreat to the Netherlands and death (Dec.).

1593.

Estates of the League. Who is to be the Catholic King?

Struggle against Spanish influence.

Henry IV’s abjuration of heresy (July).

1594.

Henry IV enters Paris (March).

Gradual extinction of the League.

1595.

War declared against Spain (Jan.).

The King’s absolution by Clement VIII (Sept.).

1596.

Submission of Mayenne.

The Spaniards surprise Calais (April).

1597.

The Spaniards surprise Amiens (March). Its re-capture (Sept.).

1598.

Brittany conquered. The last of the League.

Edict of Nantes and Peace of Vervins with Spain

THE WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE

~

SMALL AS WAS THE MEASURE of toleration accorded to the Protestants by the Edict of January, it was too large for the zealots of the opposite party. Throughout the winter attacks upon Huguenot congregations had been taking place all over the country; but the chief impression was made by an incident which occurred on Sunday, March 1, 1562. The Duke of Guise, who was staying at his house of Joinville (in the modern Department of the Haute-Marne), went that day to dine at the little town of Vassy, attended after the fashion of the times by a large band of armed retainers. At Vassy they found a Huguenot service going on, and some of the Duke’s followers attempting to push their way into the barn where it was being held were met with shouts of “Papists! idolaters!” Stones began to fly; and the Duke was himself struck. His enraged attendants fired upon the crowd, with the result that out of six or seven hundred worshippers sixty were killed and many wounded.

The exasperation of the Protestants throughout France was great, nor was it abated by the line of apology which the opposite party adopted. Comparisons of the Duke to Moses and Jehu were not soothing to people who had been attacked when only exercising their legal right. Another slaughter of Huguenots at Sens, where the Cardinal of Guise was Archbishop, added fuel to the fire, and by April war was seen to be inevitable.

The first object of either party was to secure the presence of the King in its midst. Catharine, who wished to maintain her neutral position as long as possible, had withdrawn with him to Fontainebleau, after sending orders, which were not obeyed, to the Duke of Guise not to bring an armed force to Paris. He had entered the capital on March 20, and Condé, at the Queen-Mother’s desire, had immediately left it; retiring first to Meaux, then to la Ferté-sous-Jouarre. Then the King of Navarre, at the bidding of the Triumvirate, by whom he was now entirely ruled, had induced Catharine, partly by persuasion, partly by menaces, to consent to her own and the King’s return to Paris; a decision which, it is said, cost tears both to the child and to his mother.

The First War

Condé and Admiral de Coligny, on learning by a message from the Queen-Mother herself that they had been forestalled, made the best of their way to Orleans, which city d’Ahdelot, the second of theChâtillon brothers, was already trying to enter. The reinforcement which they brought at once terminated the half-hearted resistance of the town; and Orleans passed into the hands of the Huguenots without the usual preliminary sack. The first overt act of war had thus been committed by the weaker side; and the last voice of wisdom was silenced. The Chancellor L’Hôpital, who till now had with the assent of the Queen-Mother been making a final effort for conciliation, was met with insult and excluded from the Council, which was packed with creatures of the House of Guise. Orders were sent to the regular troops to be in readiness by May 15; the Huguenots replied by seizing the larger towns on the Rhone, theSaône, the Loire, and the lower Seine, with others in the south and centre. Negotiations did not on that account altogether cease; Condé offering more than once to withdraw to his own house, if the chiefs of the opposite party would do the like. To this, however, they would only consent on condition that the Edict of January was revoked - in other words, if the Protestants would surrender at discretion.

Early in June an interview took place between Condé and the Queen-Mother at Talsy, near Orleans. The Prince held to his conditions, which Catharine made another effort to induce the Guises to accept, but in vain; though the King of Navarre, if he had had any real power, would have been ready enough to close with them. The month was spent in parleying, while “two armies were helping the inhabitants of the district to get in their crops”. Finally, the King of Navarre met Condé at Beaugency, where the Prince offered to place himself in the King’s hands if his terms were accepted, as a hostage for their loyal observance by his party. The Queen-Mother at once declared it impossible for two religions to exist side by side in France. The Catholics were clearly the stronger party; the Edict of January must go. Condé then made a last offer. If the Edict were allowed to stand, he and the other leaders, as soon as the Guises had left the Court, would quit France altogether and remain abroad until they should be recalled. Somewhat to their surprise, Catharine closed with this proposal. The Catholic chiefs, with the exception of the King of Navarre, were ordered to leave the camp, handing over their forces to him; while Condé was called upon to fulfill his part of the contract. He went so far as to meet Catharine again at Talsy: but some intercepted letters, whether genuine or forged, fell into Huguenot hands, in which the King of Navarre was directed by the Lorraine party to seize his brother’s person. Hereupon the Admiral and the other Huguenot chiefs intervened, and practically bore their leader back to their camp (June 27).

The war now began in earnest. The Parlement of Paris declared the Huguenots rebels, and a few executions followed. The Huguenots, finding themselves outmatched, resolved on seeking foreign aid. Like their rivals, they had already applied for help from the German Princes, who, whatever their creed, were usually ready to furnish reiters and landsknechts if they got their price; in the present instance the Rhinegrave John Philip, who commanded the Germans on the Catholic side, was a Protestant, as were most of his men. The levy of reiters was almost a matter of course wherever warlike operations were on foot; but the Huguenots took a step which even in those days was felt by many to be hazardous. They invited the Queen of England to land a force on French soil.

The matter was negotiated in London by the Vidame de Chartres, a political adventurer who played a considerable part in the intrigues of the next twenty years; the Queen was to give a large subsidy in money on condition that in the event of the Huguenots proving victorious, Calais should be restored. Meanwhile the town and port of Havre-de-Grâce(which the English called Newhaven) were to be occupied by an English garrison. Accordingly Sir Adrian Poynings landed on October 4 with some 3000 men, 2000 of whom were immediately thrown into Rouen to reinforce the weak garrison; Ormesbywith 600 occupied Dieppe a few days later; and on the 29th the Earl of Warwick, in whose hands was placed the chief command of the expedition, brought over the remainder of the force, which now amounted to about 6000.

The English intervention had little result. The Royalist commanders strained every nerve to get possession of Rouen before d’Andelot, who with a strong force of hired troops was on his way from Germany, could arrive. Montgomery, who was in command, refused all terms; and on October 26, three days before the landing of the Earl of Warwick, Guise delivered his final assault, and after a short resistance the garrison were overpowered. In spite of strenuous efforts on the part of the Royalist commanders the usual sack followed, Catholics and Protestants being impartially pillaged and slaughtered. Montgomery escaped by boat, but three or four of the leaders were hanged. On December 17 the King of Navarre succumbed to a wound, received in the trenches, leaving, as head of the House of Bourbon and not very remote in the succession to the throne, his son, a boy of nine, brought up in the Protestant religion by a severely Protestant mother.

A desultory warfare was meanwhile going on in the south-east. At Orange the Catholics massacred the Huguenots; and the reprisals exacted by the Baron des Adrets fixed an indelible stain on his name. Chalon and Mâcon were retaken, but Lyons remained in the Huguenots’ hands. Joyeuse, the King’s lieutenant-general in Languedoc, laid siege to Montpellier, but a reverse sustained by the Catholics near Nîmes compelled him to withdraw. In spite of their enormous inferiority in numbers the Protestants were enabled by the ability of their leaders and the greater efficiency of what may be called their secret service almost to hold their own.

Attempt on Paris (1562)

Early in November, d’Andelot, having managed to elude the vigilance of the Duke of Nevers and Marshal Saint-André, who were looking out for him in Champagne, brought his Germans, 9000 in number, safely to Montargis, where he was joined by his brother the Admiral and Condé. Leaving d’Andelot in command at Orleans, the others made a bold dash for Paris, hoping to seize the capital by acoup-de-main before the bulk of the Royalist army could get back from Normandy. They reached Arcueil without opposition on November 23; but found Guise and Saint-André already there, and the city prepared for defence.

An assault was repulsed; but when Condé challenged the King’s forces to a pitched battle, the Queen-Mother, partly no doubt in order to give time for the arrival of reinforcements from the South, made overtures for peace. The Constable, the Duke of Montmorency, actually went into the Huguenot camp as a hostage while the Admiral was in Paris, and the negotiations continued for some days. No result was reached; and on December 10 Condé withdrew his forces in the direction of Chartres. The royal army followed, marching on a nearly parallel line to Étampes, thus threatening Orleans. The Huguenot chiefs were a little perplexed, and various moves were suggested. Condé, with whom valor was apt to be the better part of discretion, was for doubling back with all speed to Paris and seizing it before the other side could come up. The more wary Admiral pointed out that, even if they got into Paris, with the King’s army between them and Orleans, not only would that city be easily retaken, but they would be cut off from their main source of provisions. The reiters, too, as usual wanted their pay; and the money was in English hands at Havre. A march into Normandy would enable them to join hands with the English; and, since the enemy would be compelled to follow, Orleans would no longer be in danger. This counsel prevailed, and the Huguenots, who for three days had been making futile attempts to take the little town of Saint-Arnoul, proceeded in the direction of Dreux, a fortified town close to the frontier of Normandy, of which a detachment from their army had been sent to make sure. This operation, however, did not succeed, and only dislocated the formation of their forces.

(1562-December 19) Battle of Dreux.

The Huguenots reached the river Eure first and crossed it (as it would seem) on the morning of December 19, the Admiral’s division leading. The Catholics arrived later in the day, and, remaining unobserved in consequence of the bad scouting of Condé’s division, succeeded during the night in crossing about two miles higher up and placing themselves by a flank march between their opponents and the town of Dreux. This movement brought Saint-André, who commanded the advance-guard (the Duke of Guise choosing to serve that day as a simple captain) on the left wing of the royal army, opposite to Condé and somewhat outflanking him; while the Constable was opposed to his nephew the Admiral. Finding their road blocked, the Huguenots, though in considerably inferior force, were compelled to accept battle. “We must now look to our hands to save us, not to our feet”, observed the Admiral. The battle was hard fought, the lowest estimate of the slain being about 6000. On each side the left wing broke and routed the enemy’s right, but on the whole the victory was with the Royalists, who remained in possession of the ground. Their losses, however, were severe. The aged Constable, fighting after his wont like a private soldier, was wounded and taken prisoner, and carried straight to Orleans. Marshal Saint-André and the Duke of Nevers were killed; also the Constable’s youngest son, Gabriel de Montberon. The Huguenots also lost their chief, Condé having been compelled to surrender to the Duke of Aumale, who commanded the brigade of lancers jointly with the Constable’s second son, Henry de Damville. The command of the two forces thus devolved on Guise and on the Admiral, who brought off his men in good order to Beaugency.

Throughout January, 1563, Guise was engaged with preparations for the siege of Orleans. On February 5 he encamped before the town on its northern side. The Admiral who had thrown himself into the town, saw the imprudence of locking up his whole army in one place, and soon left the defence of it to d’Andelot, making his way into Normandy. He did not succeed in getting into touch with the English, already closely invested by the Rhinegrave, thoughThrogmorton contrived to reach him with a supply of English money. Indeed, his operations were confined to the left side of the Seine; but he took Caen and some smaller towns.

On February 18 an event happened which changed the whole position of affairs. The Duke of Guise, after effecting a lodgment in one of the suburbs of Orleans and planting guns on some islands, had made his arrangements for a night-attack, and was riding to his quarters, when he was shot in the back by Jean Poltrot de Méré, a kinsman of La Renaudie the conspirator of Amboise, and a fanatical Huguenot, who had attached himself to the royal army for the easier execution of his purpose. Both the Admiral and the theologian Beza were accused of having prompted the crime; but beyond Poltrot’s own statement under torture no evidence of their complicity was ever produced. Of the Triumvirate two were now dead, the third was a prisoner; while the Huguenots also had temporarily lost one of their chiefs. The Cardinal of Lorraine was at Trent; the Admiral, who might perhaps have been glad to push the advantage his party seemed for the moment to hold, was ten days’ march away. The opportunity was excellent for conciliation. The Queen-Mother, the Constable, Condé and d’Andelot met in Orleans, and by March 7 had agreed on terms, which were published in the form of an Edict on the 18th, at Amboise, where the Court then was. They were somewhat less favorable to the Huguenots than those of January, 1562, but their recognition of the Reformed Religio met with a good deal of opposition from some of the provincial Parlements; those of Paris, Toulouse, and Aix requiring some modification. The Admiral, too, who did not reach Orleans till the 23rd, was not entirely pleased to find that peace had been made in his absence.

Peace of Amboise. (1563)

The Queen-Mother’s next move was to consolidate the peace between the two parties by uniting them in a common task. English troops were still established on French soil, and all Frenchmen must combine to dislodge them. Marshal de Brissac was sent into Normandy at once; the Court following shortly after, with the Constable, his sons Marshal Montmorency andDamville, Condé, and other captains. The Admiral was thought better away. Warwick had taken steps to strengthen his position; but his army was being rapidly thinned by disease. Nor was it possible any longer to maintain the pretext that it had been sent solely to aid in delivering the King from coercion by a faction. The French nobles, most of whom had friends among Warwick’s officers, had no desire to exact hard terms of capitulation. On July 28 Warwick, who was that day wounded, agreed to surrender; and on the 31st the French were put into possession of the town. The capitulation had hardly been signed when an English fleet with reinforcements came in sight; but the only work it found was to carry home the remains of the garrison. The relations between France and England remained for some time rather strained; but a settlement was reached in a peace made at Troyes on the 13th of the following April. It was contended on the French side that Elizabeth’s action in occupying Havre had cancelled the clause in the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis which entitled her to claim 500,000 crowns if Calais were not restored within eight years. She finally agreed to abandon the claim and release the four gentlemen detained as sureties for the sum. As a token of amity Lord Hunsdon was sent to invest the French King with the Garter.

By the death of the King of Navarre, the Prince of Condé had become the senior “Prince of the Blood”. As such he had claimed to succeed his brother as lieutenant-general of the realm - an inconvenient claim, which Catharine and L’Hôpital evaded by having the King, though he had not completed his fourteenth year, declared of age and competent to rule. This was done by an Assembly held at Rouen on September 15, 1563. Peace was outwardly established, but the roots of strife were not cut off. Early in 1564- the Cardinal of Lorraine returned from Trent, where the Council had closed in December, 1563. On the 13th of the previous October Paul IV had, at the instigation of the King of Spain, cited the widowed Queen of Navarre to appear and answer to a charge of heresy; and in default had declared her excommunicated, her fiefs forfeited, and her children illegitimate. The Cardinal came back with feelings of bitter resentment against the Châtillons, whom he persisted in regarding as accessories to his brother’s murder. Moreover, the general effect of the Council was to strengthen the hands of those who were determined to root out Protestantism, and who looked upon the King of Spain as in some sense their temporal head.

(1564-5) Meeting of Bayonne. The ‘Politiques’

It was thought desirable that Charles should make personal acquaintance with his subjects throughout the realm; and in the early spring of 1664 the Court set out on a prolonged tour of France. The route was laid out so that, without rousing suspicion, conferences might be held with representatives of the Pope, the Duke of Savoy, and the King of Spain, the chief movers in the design of a Catholic League. Troyes was reached by the second week in April, and there the peace with England was concluded. At Nancy it is said that the scheme of the Catholic League was first laid before the young King. At present, however, he and his advisers were not prepared to listen to proposals emanating from Rome; for the Trent decrees had given great offence in France, and had been censured by the ParisParlement. The King therefore drily replied that the Edict of Orleans was recent, and that he was not yet prepared to quash it. On May 26 he was at Dijon with his mother on their way to Lyons. As the entrance to that part of France where Protestantism was most vigorous, Lyons needed careful treatment. A new governor was appointed, and a large fort was founded in the angle between theSaône and the Rhone. At Roussillon on the Rhone an Edict of partial toleration was issued, calling upon each side to respect the religion of the other; and an interview took place with the Duke of Savoy, at which the subject may have been differently dealt with. At any rate - whether an actual inspection of the relative strength of the two parties had shown the Queen-Mother that “the repose of the realm” could be as easily attained by extirpating the Protestants, whether the Nancy reply was intended from the first as a blind, or whether it was felt that conformity with the Pope’s wishes in one point might diminish his insistence as to the Trent decrees - it seems that in conference with the papal officials at Avignon the suppression of Calvinism was spoken of as a practical question.

The Court passed the winter in the south. In the spring progress was resumed through Languedoc, and Bayonne was reached in the beginning of June. The Queen of Spain, with the Duke of Alva in her suite, came to meet her mother and brother. Several weeks were spent in gaieties, with intervals of more serious business. No authentic record has been preserved of what took place, but Protestants both in France and elsewhere believed that the policy was then concerted which bore fruit in the “Blood Council” of the Netherlands and the St Bartholomew massacres.

It is about this time that a third party begins to emerge; that of the so-called ‘Politiques’. The term, originally, as it would seem, implying that those denoted by it acted from motives of policy rather than of principle, came to define the group which, while remaining within the Catholic religion and, when called upon, bearing arms on the side of the King, were opposed to all coercion in matters of religion. The greatest and most enlightened exponent of this view was, no doubt, the Chancellor L’Hôpital. “Let us get rid”, he had said to the Estates assembled at Orleans in December, 1560, “of these devilish words, these names of party, of faction, of sedition - Lutheran, Huguenot, Papist - let us keep unadulterated the name of Christian”. And again: “A man does not cease to be a citizen for being excommunicated”. Various motives doubtless actuated the various members of the group. Some felt keenly the state of impotence to which France had been reduced by these internal dissensions. “With the men whom we have lost in these wars”, said one a few years later, “we could have driven the Spaniards out of the Low Countries”. Another important section, of whom the great House of Montmorency may be taken as the type, were strongly moved by jealousy of the half-foreign Guises, and of the wholly foreign gang of Italians, from the Queen-Mother downwards, who held positions of power and influence at the Court. In the case of the Constable, strict orthodoxy and dread of innovation outweighed all other considerations, and, though not on good terms with the Guises, he never broke with them; but his eldest son, Marshal Montmorency, whom in 1563 Sir Thomas Smith, the English Envoy, described as “a Huguenot, or little it lacks”, though he never, like his cousins the Châtillons, actually joined the Reformed religion, was as tolerant as the Chancellor himself. In the period subsequent to the Massacre, when the Queen-Mother for a time threw in her lot with the Guises, he was imprisoned and his life was more than once in danger.

The King and his mother returned to the capital towards the end of 1565. Early in the following year a great Assembly was held at Moulins-sur-Allier, which was attended by most of the chief nobles, and by representatives of the provincial Parlements. Ordinances of lasting importance for the legal administration of France were drawn up by the Chancellor and passed by the Assembly. Reconciliations also took place between the widowed Duchess of Guise and Coligny, and between the Cardinal of Lorraine and Montmorency, who had forcibly opposed his entry into Paris; but they were felt to be merely formal, nor did the young Duke of Guise or his uncle, the Duke of Aumale, take part in them. Catharine was probably sincere in wishing to avoid war at this time by any means; but events were too strong for her.

(1567) The Second War. Peace of Longjumeau (1568)

The Huguenots had been uneasy since the Bayonne Conference, believing that it indicated a desire on the part of the King of Spain to associate the French Court with his crusade against Protestantism. His own affairs in the Netherlands were rapidly coming to a crisis. In October, 1565, he had definitely refused any religious toleration. Throughout 1566 the Low Countries were seething; and early in 1567 Alva was commissioned to raise an army in Lombardy and Piedmont for the restoration of order. The Admiral and Condé worked on the young-King’s suspicions so far as to persuade him to levy a force of Swiss under Colonel Pfyffer in order to watch Alva’s march through Franche-Comté and Lorraine. Alva, however, turned neither to the right nor to the left, “having his work cut out for him in the Netherlands”; and the Huguenot leaders began to see that the King’s Swiss might have other employment found for them in quarters where the voice of discontented Protestants was no less audible than in Flanders. As at the beginning of the last war, their first idea was to get possession of the King’s person. The Court, which had been for a few days at Monceaux, near Paris, moved on September 26 to Meaux, where it was thought the King might be seized unawares during the festivities of the Order of St Michael. On the 28th the Huguenot army under Condé, the Admiral, and d’Andelot, reached Lagny on the Marne, but some gentlemen of the Court succeeded in destroying the only bridge. Before they could cross the river the Swiss had been summoned, and the Huguenots could only watch the phalanx march past them, with the Constable at its head, escorting the King safely into Paris. They then took up a position in and about Saint-Denis, ravaging the country. As before, they secured Orleans, which was seized by La Noue with fifteen horsemen, and several towns in the South fell into their hands. The ‘Enterprise of Meaux’, as it was called, left a deep impression of resentment in the young King’s mind.

Partly, however, in order to gain time for reinforcements to arrive, the King and his mother were willing to hear such representations as the Huguenots had to make, and several interviews took place between their leaders and those of the other party; but with little result. The force in Paris was considerably straitened by the enemy’s command of the approaches, especially of the river, the Admiral having, by a bold stroke, seized Charenton. A messenger had been dispatched at the outset to Flanders for succour; but Alva, who probably had no wish to see France quieted too soon, declined to send Spanish troops, offering only landsknechts and local cavalry. Finally, some 1700 horse of good quality under Count Aremberg, reached Poissyon the 9th. Their approach was, however, known, and d’Andelot was detached, with Montgomery, to hold them. The Constable, judging the moment suitable for an attack on the main body, offered battle next day, the 10th. Condé met him in the plain between Aubervilliers and Saint-Ouin. The action was mainly one of cavalry, hard fought but indecisive. The Huguenots were driven back into Saint-Denis, but were able to come out next day and defy the royal forces, who had no inclination to renew the fight. The chief result was the loss of the Constable; who, fighting in spite of his seventy-five years like an ordinary trooper, was mortally wounded. His office was not filled up; but the King’s brother, Henry Duke of Anjou, a lad of sixteen, was presently appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom.

The Huguenot army now abandoned its hold on the rivers and moved eastward to meet a force of German mercenaries under the Count Palatine John Casimir. An attempt to bring them to battle near Châlons failed, owing, as some thought, to the reluctance of the politique MarshalCossé to push them too hard. The junction with John Casimir was effected on January 11 near Pont-à-Mousson. Encouraged by this reinforcement, the Huguenot leaders rejected a proposal for peace on the lines of the Orleans pacification, influenced mainly by their followers’ distrust of the Guises. Their forces entered Burgundy, and the royal army marched to Troyes; both making for Paris, but the Huguenots keeping in view the necessity of relieving Orleans. Meanwhile, Rochelle had opened its gates to the Huguenots, giving them a port, the possibility of a fleet, and a door of communication with their friends in England. The possession of this town, which became the citadel of the Religion, was most important.

In the course of February Condé succeeded in raising the siege of Orleans, and the Huguenot army, resolved to force the fighting which the other side seemed inclined to protract, proceeded to invest Chartres. The King had already sent to the Ernestine Duke John William of Saxony for reiters; and the Duke, who, as a rigid Lutheran, was quite ready to fight his Calvinistic brother-in-law, John Casimir, himself led 5000 horse as far as Rethel in Champagne. Before he arrived there, however, negotiations had begun; and, much to his annoyance, he was told that his services were not required. In fact, the presence of so many foreigners on French soil had alarmed both sides; the war was assuming a savage character, particularly in the south; the Huguenots were willing to accept the very favorable terms offered them, containing nearly all they asked; and peace was concluded at Longjumeau on March 23. The Duke of Saxony agreed to withdraw; but John Casimir at first declined; nor was it till the King undertook to guarantee the pay due to him and his men, that he consented to go.

The Peace of Longjumeau was in the main a confirmation of the edict of March, 1562. No one was really satisfied with it; Alva was both surprised and displeased; and it was generally felt to be no more than a truce. Fresh causes of quarrel arose at once. The King tried to extract from the Huguenot leaders the repayment of the money advanced by him to Casimir, forbidding them at the same time to levy it from their party; no one but himself, he said, should tax his people. Rochelle refused to admit a royal garrison, but fortified itself, and began to raise a fleet. The summer was passed in mutual recriminations; and finally, towards the end of August, a plan was formed of seizing Condé, and if possible, the Admiral also, at Noyers in Burgundy. They got wind of the scheme, it was said, through a hint dropped by Marshal Tavannes, and fled, with only a small escort, through the hill and forest country between the Loire and the Saône. Crossing the former atRoanne, they struck westward through the mountains of Auvergne, and safely reached Rochelle. There they were shortly joined by the Queen of Navarre with her son, a lad of fifteen, and by d’Andelot, La Noue, and the other Protestant chiefs, except the Cardinal de Châtillon, who escaped to England, there to spend the short remainder of his life as an honored guest.

(1568-9) The Third War

The Third War had now begun. This time the Catholics were the attacking party, and hostilities were clearly to be carried on with far more determination than hitherto. An inner council or Cabinet, the term seems to have been then used for the first time, had been formed. The Chancellor L’Hôpital had been included in this; but on the outbreak of war he was dismissed from all his offices and banished from the Court; so the most powerful voice on the side of toleration was silenced. His place as Chancellor was taken by Morvilliers, Bishop of Orleans, a creature of the Guises and a bitter enemy of the Protestants; and the edicts of toleration were revoked.

Anjou, who was in supreme command of the royal army, did not leave Paris until the beginning of November. About the same time the Duke of Montpensier, at Messignac inPerigord, met a Huguenot contingent coming from Languedoc, and defeated them with heavy loss, including that of their commander Mouvans; but he was unable to prevent the junction of the greater part with the Admiral and Condé, or to hold the ground himself. On the arrival of Anjou the two armies maneuvered for some time in close vicinity to one another, but neither side would risk a pitched battle. Finally the weather became very severe, with much sickness in both armies, and both sides went into winter-quarters; the Catholics at Chinon, the Huguenots at Niort, where they received munitions (for which they had to pay) from the Queen of England. During the winter they raided Perigord and Saintonge. At the beginning of March the Catholic army moved south. After securing their right flank by the capture of Ruffec and Molle, and crossing the Charente at some point between the former place and Angoulême, they followed its left bank as far as Châteauneuf, which surrendered at once. The bridge, however, was broken, and the time occupied in its repair was devoted to a reconnaissance, extending as far as Cognac, where the enemy was reported to be in strength. The Huguenot army was presently seen marching in the direction of Jarnac, separated by the river from the Catholics. Their van, under the Admiral, was already at Bassac, higher up the stream.

Anjou returned to Châteauneuf, and remained there the next day. By midnight of March 12 the restoration of the bridge was completed and a bridge of boats also thrown across; and before sunrise on Sunday, the 13th, Tavannes and Biron, who were the real commanders, had brought their army to the other side. They found the enemy in position, and having driven in the outposts came in sight of the left wing in the direction of Jarnac. The Admiral, who was in command, was not anxious to fight until Condé could arrive from Jarnac; but the impetuous charge of the Duke of Montpensier left him no time to retire, and in spite of desperate efforts on his own part and that of d’Andelot, La Noue and others in command under him, he was forced back. Condé presently came up, with the bulk of the Huguenot cavalry, and by a furious charge checked the Royalists for a moment; but was himself charged in flank by the renters under Tavannes and Anjou. The Huguenots were routed; Condé continuing to fight till he was surrounded and borne down. He had hardly given his sword to his captor, d’Argens, when Montesquieu, captain of Anjou’s guard, shot him dead. Among the prisoners were La Noue andRosny, father of the future Duke of Sully. But, though defeated, the Huguenots were not discouraged. Their leaders soon reassembled at Cognac, where the Queen of Navarre joined them. Her son, the Duke of Vendôme, then about fifteen years old, was proclaimed head of the party, and the young Prince of Condé associated with him. The command-in-chief of the army was entrusted to the Admiral.

The King and his mother were at this time at Metz, whither they had gone partly for security and partly for greater facility of communication with Alva in the Netherlands and with MargravePhilibert of Baden, from both of whom reinforcements were expected.

On the other side it was known that Duke Wolfgang ofZweibrücken (Deux-Ponts) was about to bring a powerful force of German troops to the aid of the Protestants; and it was all-important to prevent these, if possible, from crossing the Loire. The Dukes of Aumale and Nemours, who commanded in the east, though strengthened by the accession of nearly 5000 men duly sent by Alva, did nothing beyond feebly opposing the passage of theArmançon at Nuits by the German invaders.

About May 10 the Germans reached La Charité, which was taken by assault after a short bombardment, thus securing their passage of the Loire. Thence after crossing the Vienne a little above Limoges, they effected a junction with the Admiral’s forces at Saint-Yrieix on June 23. The Duke of Zweibrücken had, however, died a few days before; some thought from over-indulgence in the wines of southern France. He was succeeded in the command by CountWolrad of Mansfeld.

William of Orange, with his brothers Lewis and Henry of Nassau, was in the army. Anjou, who had been engaged in reducing some small places in Saintonge and Perigord, now brought his army to Limoges, where his mother joined him. He soon moved to La Rochelabeille, nearer to the Huguenot position, and a few indecisive skirmishes took place, chiefly notable as having afforded to the young Prince of Navarre his first experience of actual fighting. Before long, however, the wiser heads among the Catholics decided to leave the opposing forces to the disintegrating effects of a summer spent in a half-ravaged country, and withdrew their army to Touraine. The Protestant army, from which Montgomery had been detached for operations inGuienne and Gascony, followed into Poitou, where they recovered most of the smaller places that had surrendered after Jarnac, raised the siege of Niort, and on July 24 appeared before Poitiers, into which Anjou had but just time to throw a reinforcement under the young Duke of Guise, who now also began his military career. From July 24 till September 8 the siege and the defence were conducted with an equal display of spirit on both sides. Finally, Anjou effected a diversion by threatening Châtelhérault, and the siege of Poitiers was raised, after costing the Huguenots a loss of some 3000 men. On the whole, however, they had rather the best of the campaign of sieges which occupied the summer. Sansac failed to reduce La Charité, while on the other side Montgomery captured Orthez and gained some advantages in Guienne and Gascony. A decree of attainder published at this time against the Admiral and other Protestant chiefs only served to exasperate their followers.

(1569-70) Battle of Moncontour. Peace of Saint- Germain

The royal army in its retreat from Châtelhérault was closely followed by the Admiral, who in vain sought to bring it to battle. After a day or two the respective forces drew off, Anjou going to Chinon, while the Admiral led his troops first to Faie-la-Vineuse, and then further to Moncontour. The Catholic army, numbering about 22,000, of whom just one-third were French, now thoroughly rested and reorganized, followed in about a week’s time; and by October 1 the two forces were in position on either side of the little river Dive.

Anjou’s main object was to prevent the Huguenots from again moving south into Poitou, and effecting their junction with Montgomery. Moving to the left, he crossed the Dive near its source, and in the afternoon of October 3 found the opposing force drawn up in the level ground between it and the Thouet. Neither side had any advantage of position, and the battle resolved itself into a series of furious charges on the part of the royal troops, and of hand-to-hand encounters. The Admiral exchanged pistol-shots with the Rhinegrave, receiving a wound in the jaw, but mortally wounding his adversary. The Margrave of Baden also fell. Finally a charge of the Swiss upon the Huguenots landsknechts, who were butchered almost to a man, decided the day. The reiters under Count Lewis of Nassau and Count Wolrad of Mansfeld drew off in good order, but 3000 French surrendered, and the artillery and baggage fell into the victors’ hands. La Noue, with his usual ill-luck, was again taken prisoner, but was soon exchanged, and took the command at Rochelle.

Though Moncontour was the most crushing defeat the Huguenots had yet sustained, they were not prepared to surrender. In the course of November de Losses was sent to Rochelle to treat with the Queen of Navarre on the terms that full liberty of worship should be allowed to the Protestants, provided it were not exercised publicly. “If a peace be made on those terms”, she replied, “the names of Jeanne and Henry will not be found attached to it”. Nor, indeed, were their losses so heavy as might be inferred from the number of the slain. The French and German cavalry had not suffered very severely; the south was still unshaken, perhaps indeed confirmed, in its loyalty to the cause by Montgomery’s successful campaign. Moreover MarshalDamville, the second of the Montmorency brothers, who governed in Languedoc, had quarreled with Monluc, and was not more friendly than the rest of his House to the Guises.

Thus, when the Admiral, a few days after the battle, rallied his party at Niort, he had little difficulty in persuading them, after leaving garrisons in Rochelle, Saint-Jean-d’Angely, and Angoulême, to abandon Poitou and the adjacent districts to the King’s forces, and to march eastwards. Mouy was left with a small garrison in Niort, which held out for a short time against the Duke of Anjou; but on the treacherous murder of its commander by Maurevel, it opened its gates, and its example was followed by the other towns of Poitou and Saintonge, with the exception of those named above. Their loss was balanced by the capture of Nîmes, which took place about this time. Anjou next proceeded to besiege Saint-Jean-d’Angely, which after a gallant defence of forty-six days capitulated towards the end of the year. After this the Court retired to Angers, and the army was disbanded.

The desultory fighting which went on during the early part of 1570 was, on the whole, favorable to the Huguenots. La Noue, sallying out of Rochelle, recaptured several towns, including Niort and Saintes. Meanwhile the Admiral and the young Princes had, after a raid into Dauphiné, recrossed the Rhone, and were by the end of May at Saint-Etienne. Thither Marshal Biron and the Sieur de Malassise were sent to negotiate; but as the condition which prohibited public worship was still insisted on, no agreement was reached, and the Huguenot army, on June 25, reached Arnay-le-Duc in Burgundy, where they found Marshal Cossé (Anjou being absent through illness) waiting to offer battle. A smart though indecisive skirmish ensued; but after this both armies drew off, the Admiral to Autun,Cossé - alarmed for the safety of Paris, and, as a politique, unwilling to push matters to extremity - towards Sens. Negotiations were then resumed, and on August 8 peace was signed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, on terms if anything more favorable than the Protestants had hitherto obtained.

(1570-1) Marriage negotiations

It is possible that at the moment neither Charles IX nor his mother had any purpose in view beyond the restoration of peace to the country. There is no reason to suppose that either of them had any special antipathy to Protestantism. Religion was not a dominating influence with Catharine; while the two persons whom Charles probably loved best in the world, his foster-mother and his mistress, Marie Touchet, were Huguenots. Piety was not a marked characteristic of the French upper classes; nor, except possibly among a section of the clergy, was there any enthusiasm in the country at large for the See of Rome. On the other hand, in view of the growing danger of foreign intervention, it was felt by the rulers of France that internal unity was the most urgent necessity of the State; and the King and the Queen-Mother seem at first to have had some hopes of securing this unity by negotiation. Accordingly an old scheme originally proposed by Henry II, and more recently revived by Catharine, was again brought to the front, of a marriage between Henry of Bourbon, son of the Queen of Navarre, and, after the House of Valois, the next in succession to the throne of France, and Margaret, the King’s youngest sister.

At the same time, Charles himself was betrothed to Elizabeth, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian II, who had hitherto been in no great favor at either Rome or Madrid, although in this same year another daughter of his was married to Philip II of Spain. The alliance between Bourbon and Valois, promoted mainly by the Politiques, was not at first welcomed by the Huguenot leaders, some of whom had a scheme of their own for marrying Henry to the Queen of England. This, again, crossed a plan which had been in Catharine’s mind for the past two years, of securing the hand of Elizabeth for her second son Henry of Anjou; and, after some talk between the Huguenot agents and Francis Walsingham, the new English ambassador to the French Court, the matter was dropped. The negotiations for the Duke of Anjou’s marriage, on the other hand, were vigorously pushed forward during the first half of 1571. They were opened by a dispatch, dated January 2, from Sir Henry Norris, then ambassador in France, to the Queen, in which he mentioned that he had been sounded by Montmorency and others as to her matrimonial intentions. This revival of the scheme seems to have been due to the Vidame de Chartres as much as to anyone; for in the previous October he was urging Montmorency to forward the match, as offering an opportunity for the GallicanChurch to throw off the yoke of Rome - a phrase of no small significance as a key to the action of the Politiques. The Pope on his side did what he could to hinder the match. Norris added that, being “resolved thereof”, Monsieur intended to be a suitor to the Queen. The proposal was favorably received, the chief difficulty being the question of religion, or rather the “exercise” of it when Monsieur should be established as King Consort. About Easter Walsingham hopefully quoted a conversation between the King and Teligny, “who with the rest of his profession wished the match to proceed”. The King thought that if he could only get the Duke away from “certain superstitious friars that seek to nourish this new holiness in him”, he could soon put that right. Two days later, after another conversation with the Duke, Teligny was able to assure the King that he found him “so far in” that he hoped he would make no difficulty at religion. “No”, said the King; “observe my brother well, and you shall see him every day less superstitious”. By the beginning of June things were so far advanced that de Foix was sent over to negotiate in conjunction with the resident ambassador, La Mothe-Fénelon. Articles were drawn up; but in the end the religious difficulty proved insurmountable. Even the perusal of the Book of Common Prayer, duly translated into French, did not overcome the Duke’s scruples; and, though towards the end of July he expressed his regrets to Walsingham, he did not give way.

Foix remained in England till September, when, failing the marriage, he suggested a treaty of defensive alliance between France and England. This was favorably received; and in December the accomplished Secretary, Sir Thomas Smith, went over to negotiate it. But he found the Guises making every effort to prevent an English alliance, and Scottish agents earnestly soliciting aid in the interest of their Queen. On the other hand Smith had a valuable ally in Coligny, who had been at length induced to come to Blois, and whose presence at Court was connected with another intrigue, destined to have serious consequences. Count Lewis of Nassau, who had served in the Huguenot ranks during the last war, had at the conclusion of peace remained at Rochelle, occupied in organizing the privateers sent from the Low Countries to prey upon Spanish commerce in the Bay of Biscay, and to hinder communication by sea between Spain and their own ports. In the spring of 1571 there arrived at Rochelle a Genoese adventurer named Fregoso, in the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany; by whom he alleged that he had been sent to the Elector Palatine, and then into France in order to secure eventual support against Spain. He came apparently as an avowed messenger from the Huguenot agents in Paris to the Admiral, and at the same time with some kind of business on the Queen-Mother’s account - or so it was believed by suspicious Huguenots.

(1571-2) Alliance with England.

Fregoso had speech of Count Lewis, and returned to lay before the King and his mother certain proposals which rendered a personal interview with the Count desirable. The idea of an invasion of the Low Countries had for some time been growing in certain quarters. Even before the conclusion of peace, Alava, the Spanish ambassador, had warned Alva as to these rumors. On April 5 Walsingham wrote to Burghley referring in guarded terms, and unofficially, to the same subject, urging English cooperation, and pointing out its importance in connection with the scheme of marriage. The upshot was that on July 14 Count Lewis met the King at Lumignyin a house belonging to Madame de Mouy, widow of the Huguenot leader, and shortly to be married to La Noue, who was present himself, with Montmorency, his brother-in-law Teligny, and others of the anti-Spanish party. The Count’s plan was to rid the Netherlands of Spanish rule in the following manner. Flanders and Artois, ancient fiefs of the French Crown, were to revert to it; Brabant, Guelders, and Luxemburg in like manner to be restored to the Empire; while England was to have Zealand. Other arrangements would presumably be made as to Holland and the smaller States. Strozzi was to occupy the King of Spain by a raid on his coasts. Early in August Lewis saw Walsingham in Paris, reported the conference, and advocated the plan. The ambassador answered diplomatically, but wrote to Leicester in terms that showed his strong approval of both the scheme and its propounder.

On September 12 the last step, as it appeared, was taken towards the complete reconciliation between the King and his late rebels. The Admiral was at last persuaded by Marshal Cossé to come from Rochelle to the Court at Blois. Charles addressed him as “Monpère” and deferred to his judgment in everything, including the Netherlands enterprise. For the time the Guise influence seemed to be utterly annihilated; and the “amity” with England and the preparations for open hostility to Spain progressed steadily through the winter. In the course of the autumn Alava shook the dust of France off his feet and retired to Brussels; and the Spanish ambassador in England was desired to withdraw. At an interview in January, 1572, Smith and Walsingham spoke with much freedom to the King, pointing out that there was a Spanish party in England as well as in France. If they should take advantage of the delay to cause the treaty to be broken off, it might be hard to set it on foot again. “Break off”, said he; “I had rather die. I will satisfy the Queen my good sister, though you be never so stiff”.

Meanwhile the marriage negotiations were not forgotten. It was clear by the end of 1571 that Anjou must be given up; but Catharine was ready with a substitute in the person of his younger brother Alençon. In March we find her pressing for an answer as to whether the Queen could “fancy” him. The ambassadors also had an interview with the Queen of Navarre, who had followed Coligny to the Court, touching her son’s marriage, and gave her as a kind of precedent a copy of the marriage-contract between Edward VI and the French princess who ultimately married Philip II. But again the difference of religion stood in the way.

Finally, in April a defensive alliance, which was as far as Elizabeth would go, was concluded between the two Crowns. Although it only pledged each party to come to the other’s aid in the event of invasion, Charles felt sufficiently secure to allow the expedition to the Netherlands to go forward. About May 17, accordingly, Count Lewis left Paris, and on the 23rd was in possession of Mons. La Noue, following close in his wake, seized Valenciennes with a small force on the 29th. He was well received, but while he was engaged in reducing the citadel a message from the Count summoned him to Mons, and the Spaniards recaptured Valenciennes at once. Alva marched on Mons, and laid siege to it. Sieges in those days proceeded slowly, and Lewis had time to send for reinforcements. Unfortunately he selected for the purpose an incompetent officer, Jean de Hangest, Sieur deGenlis, whom Coligny had once had occasion to reprimand in the field.

Defeat of Genlis. Marriage of Navarre (1572)

On June 9 the Queen of Navarre, who had come to Paris in order to make the final arrangements for her son’s marriage, died of pleurisy after a short illness. A legend that she had been poisoned long formed one of the stock charges against the Queen-Mother. There is as little evidence for it as for most of the similar accusations brought in those days. Pius V had died about a month before. His successor Gregory XIII, though less rigidly severe, was not more favorable to the match.