1564-5]

Meeting of Bayonne. - The Politiques

7

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.

It was thought desirable that Charles should make personal acquaintance with his subjects throughout the realm; and in the early spring of 1564 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 Paris Parlement. 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 the Saône 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

8

66

Ordinances of Moulins

[1565-7 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.

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

1567]

The Second War.

Saint-Denis

9

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 Poissy on 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.

10

Peace of Longjumeau

[1568

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 Marshal Cossé 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 favourable 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 at Roanne, they

1568-9]

The Third War

11

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 honoured guest.

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 in Périgord, 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. manoeuvred 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 Périgord 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