1571-2]

Alliance with England. - Mons

17

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 "Mon père,' 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."

66

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. 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 de Genlis, whom Coligny had once had occasion to reprimand in the field.

On June 9 the Queen of Navarre, who had come to Paris in order

C. M. H. III.

2

18

Defeat of Genlis.- Marriage of Navarre

[1572

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 favourable to the match.

During this same month Montmorency went to England to carry out the final formalities in regard to the treaty, the former envoy, Foix, accompanying him. He was received with extreme friendliness, and took the opportunity of urging Alençon's suit with the Queen. The Earl of Lincoln went from England on a similar errand; and with him Philip Sidney. Coligny succeeded in raising a force for the relief of Mons. Alva was however kept duly informed of his movements, whether by the members of the King's Council who disapproved of the enterprise, or, according to one report, by Anthony Standen, an English refugee, said to be the paramour of Barbara Blomberg, mother of Don John of Austria. In any case, Genlis was on July 17 surprised at Quiévrain, two leagues from Mons, by Alva's son, Don Frederick of Toledo, his force was cut to pieces, and himself wounded and captured. A hundred of his men succeeded in reaching Mons, which was closely invested. The reverse was a serious blow to Catharine's plan of operations, for she was not herself prepared for open war with Spain. It was said that compromising documents had been found on Genlis, proving the King's complicity in the raid. Catharine was however a woman of resource. The enterprise had been undertaken largely with a view, if one may so say, to keeping the Admiral quiet. This method had failed; it was time to try another. She was certain of an ally; for in spite of a formal reconciliation which had recently at the King's instance taken place between Coligny and the young Duke of Guise, the Duke and his mother at any rate had no idea of forgoing the vengeance to which they conceived themselves entitled. There is little reason to suppose that Catharine bore the Admiral any special resentment, or was jealous of his influence over her son; nor would she have let her personal likes and dislikes, if she had such, interfere with the aim of her policy, directed wholly, so far as one can perceive, to keeping France tranquil, and the House of Valois secure on its throne. At this moment there was every prospect that the dynasty would be continued to another generation.

The marriage of Henry, now, by his mother's death, King of Navarre, to Margaret took place on August 18. The next few days were devoted to festivities. On Friday the 22nd, in the forenoon, the Admiral was, with a few friends, leaving the Louvre after an audience. As he walked along he read a letter. Before he reached his lodging, a shot was fired from a window of a house recognised as that of a retainer of the Guises. The ball carried away a finger of one hand

1572]

The Massacre of St Bartholomew

19

and broke the other arm. Before the house could be searched, the assassin was beyond the reach of pursuit. He was generally believed to be a bravo named Maurevel, the murderer of Mouy; an Italian named Tosingni was perhaps with him. The news reached the King as he was playing tennis. He swore roundly after his manner and started at once to visit the injured man, to whom he sent his own surgeon, the famous Ambrose Paré, himself a Huguenot. At the same time he promised a strict enquiry, and condign punishment of the culprit when caught.

Paris was full of Huguenot gentlemen who had come to celebrate the wedding. All that day and the next, consternation prevailed among them. Many meetings were held, but no definite plan of action was decided on. The Court was hardly less frightened. The deed had exasperated the Huguenots without depriving them of their head; all the fair words of the last two years had been thrown away, and the hostility of Spain and the Pope incurred for nothing. On the 23rd Catharine held a council, at which were present, so far as can be ascertained, her son Anjou, Marshal Tavannes, Nemours (Guise's stepfather), Nevers, Birago (now Chancellor), and Gondi, Count (afterwards Duke and Marshal) de Retz. It was afterwards noticed that out of the seven, four were Italians and one a Savoyard. Even Tavannes' family probably belonged to the Jura, which then was far from France.

The result of their deliberations was soon seen. In the early morning of the next day, August 24, the feast of St Bartholomew, the church bells rang. At the signal, armed bands, directed by the Guises, the Duke of Angoulême, bastard brother to the King, and other Catholic lords, left the Louvre and went into the streets of Paris. The municipal authorities had received warning of what was on foot; and the Paris mob, which needed as little encouragement to massacre Huguenots then as in later times it needed to murder priests, was ready to take its part. A party, led by the Duke of Guise in person, proceeded to the Admiral's house. A few armed men, headed by one Janovitch, a Bohemian (hence generally known as Besme), entered the room where the wounded man was lying, and after running him through with a pike, threw him out of the window into the courtyard where Guise was waiting. His body was brutally mutilated and treated with every indignity, being finally hung by the heels to the public gibbet at Montfaucon. During the remainder of that day and into the next the slaughter went on. The Huguenot nobles who were in the Louvre were brought into the court and killed. The King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé were spared, but presently compelled to profess themselves Catholics. Montgomery, the Vidame of Chartres, and other Huguenots, who were lodged on the south side of the river, got the alarm in time to fly. They were pursued by the Dukes of Guise and Aumale for nearly twenty miles, but effected their escape. It was doubtless owing to their being thus occupied that the Guises, as several historians of the Massacre

20

The Fourth War

[1572

have noted, took little part in it after gratifying their vengeance against the Admiral. The total number of victims has been variously estimated. In any case it amounted to several thousands in Paris alone. Three Englishmen only are reported to have perished.

How far the Massacre was premeditated has been a subject of discussion ever since. The Spanish ambassador Çuniga wrote that, except as concerned the Admiral, it was done on a sudden impulse. La Mothe-Fénelon was instructed to tell a similar story in England; and to Walsingham, Catharine insisted on the alleged Huguenot plots; to which the Privy Council reasonably replied that it would have been easy for the King to seize the persons suspected and have them regularly tried. Walsingham on his own account mentioned the fact that Montgomery, whom Catharine indicated as a chief object of suspicion, had been with him on the night following the attack on the Admiral, and had spoken gratefully of the King's expressed intention to enquire into and punish the crime. Protestants, not in France only, believed that the scheme had been forming in Catharine's mind since the conference at Bayonne in 1565. Cardinal Michael Bonetti, Pius V's nephew and confidant, had in the early part of the year been sent on a mission first into Spain and thence into France. He was at the Court for some weeks in February; and, though little is known of what then passed, it seems at least possible that some plan of the kind was discussed. The promptitude, again, with which many of the great towns followed the example of Paris points, in those days of slow communication, to a scheme of at any rate more than a few hours' conception.

Gregory XIII sung in Rome. Alva observed

The news was variously received throughout Europe. is said to have expressed dismay, but a Te Deum was Philip II laughed, for almost the only time on record. that in Coligny "France had lost a great captain, and Spain a great foe." The Emperor disapproved without reserve, as did most of the Princes of the Empire; and the Duke of Anjou on his way to take the Crown of Poland in the following year, had to listen to some home-truths. In spite of the indignation that was felt by several of her ministers, and in England at large, Elizabeth was quite ready, after some decorous expressions of surprise and regret, to accept explanations, and allow the alliance to stand, and the marriage negotiations to go on.

Left without leaders for besides those that had been slain, La Noue was shut up in Mons, and Montgomery had escaped to Jersey - the Huguenots throughout the country had to take what steps they could for local defence. Rochelle closed its gates first against Strozzi, then against Biron, sent as governor; Nîmes and Montauban resisted the entry of Joyeuse, left in charge during the absence in Paris of the governor, Marshal Damville; while Sancerre on the Loire served as a refuge to the Protestants of the centre; their usual stronghold, La Charité, having been promptly seized by order of the Duke of Nevers.

1572-3] Anjou King of Poland.-Peace of Rochelle

21

The operations for the reduction of these and the other towns held by the Protestants form the Fourth War. Of these Rochelle was by far the most important; and to its recovery the most energetic measures were addressed. At first Charles decided to try the effect of negotiation. He sent for La Noue, who since the capture of Mons in September had remained in Alva's camp, and induced him, somewhat against his will, to act as his envoy to the citizens. Biron, who had as yet done little beyond observing the town, in the hope that terms might be arrived at without the use of force, gave facilities for communication; and on November 19 some deputies from within met La Noue at a place outside the walls. The Rochellois were however in no mood for listening to any terms, and returned, remarking that they had supposed they were going to meet La Noue. The envoy, they admitted, was very like him, but they could not believe it was he. He then persuaded Biron to allow him to enter the town, in order to attempt a direct appeal. There, however, he had no more success, and finally was induced to take the command while continuing to negotiate with Biron, and to do all in his power to bring the citizens to a peaceful mind. In February the Duke of Anjou took command of the royal army, and the siege was more vigorously pressed. The Rochellois held out, vainly expecting succours from England, though Montgomery, with a fleet mainly equipped there, succeeded in landing stores. Unfortunately some jealousy (not unusual between Normans and Bretons) estranged him from La Noue, and the two chiefs did not co-operate. On the contrary, almost immediately after Montgomery's appearance, La Noue, finding that his mission as peacemaker only exposed him to insults, and on one occasion to blows, from some of the more hot-headed ministers, left the town and went into the camp of the besiegers, where he remained, taking no part in the operations. In June the election of Anjou to the vacant throne of Poland put an end to the siege and the war; and the Edict of Rochelle, issued in July, granted fair terms, though less generous than those of some past edicts, to the Huguenots.

Peace was not however to last long. One result of the Massacre had been to bring the Politiques more openly into line with the Huguenots. Different motives doubtless actuated the leaders; and it is difficult to suppose that the adhesion of the Duke of Alençon, who saw in his brother's absence his own opportunity, can have been due to any but the most purely selfish. But the main influence which consolidated the party and led them to seek common action with the Huguenots was unquestionably dislike of the methods adopted by the Queen-Mother and the Italians," and a keen perception of the helpless state to which France was being reduced by the depopulation and impoverishment inseparable from protracted civil war. It is worth noting that not only the Chancellor L'Hôpital, "who had the fleur de lys in his heart," but (after the death of Tavannes on his way to Rochelle) all