12

Battle of Jarnac

[1569 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 reiters 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 Montesquiou, captain of Anjou's guard, shot him dead. Among the prisoners were La Noue and Rosny, 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 Margrave Philibert of Baden, from both of whom reinforcements were expected. On the other side it was known that Duke Wolfgang of Zweibrücken (DeuxPonts) 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 the Armançon 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 Count Wolrad 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 Périgord, 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 in Guienne and Gascony, followed into

1569]

Battle of Moncontour

13

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.

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 reorganised, 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

14

Peace of Saint-Germain

[1569-70

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 Marshal Damville, the second of the Montmorency brothers, who governed in Languedoc, had quarrelled 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, favourable 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 SaintÉtienne. 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 favourable than the Protestants had hitherto obtained.

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

1570-1]

Marriage negotiations

15

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 favour 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 Gallican Church 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 favourably 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

16

Proposed action in the Netherlands

[1571

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 favourably 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 organising 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.

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 rumours. On April 5 Walsingham wrote to Burghley referring in guarded terms, and unofficially, to the same subject, urging English co-operation, 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 Lumigny in 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.