1575]

Escape of Monsieur

27

was to figure in all similar proposals-of the condemnation of the Massacre and the reversal of all sentences pronounced on the victims and their families. The King was inclined to reject the terms at once; but it was thought more expedient to try what could be done to destroy the cohesion of the insurgent provinces. Fair promises were separately made to Rochelle and La Noue, to Condé, and to those of the south, on the condition that they should abandon Damville, now the prime object of dislike to the Catholic party, and stronger than ever, owing to the assistance given him by Turenne, who was busy in Auvergne. The only result seemed to be to stiffen the deputies' demands. The King was to pay 200,000 crowns towards their expenses; the Marshals Montmorency and Cossé were to be released; the Queen of England, the Elector Palatine, the Duke of Savoy, and the Swiss were to be parties to the peace; the Italians, Retz and Birago, were to have no hand in the negotiations. This last clause was doubtless aimed specially at the Queen-Mother, who, as Dale reported, worked entirely with the Chancellor Birago. In the end the deputies departed unsatisfied, though the King was ready to yield on such points as the assembling of the States General. Warlike preparations were resumed; and meantime efforts were made, Dale thought by the Duke of Guise, to breed jealousy between Navarre and Alençon, now Duke of Anjou and "Monsieur," by means of the notorious Madame de Sauve, wife of one of the Secretaries of State, an early instance of that employment of affairs of gallantry as a political instrument which the Queen-Mother was presently to develop into a fine art. At the same time Guise, possibly foreseeing the result of a conflict between himself and the King, endeavoured to win over Navarre.

The English ambassador's reports during the summer describe a state of complete disorganisation throughout the country. Paris was full of brawls and murders; no money could be got for State purposes; desultory fighting went on in the provinces. The capture and execution of Montbrun in July did nothing to loosen the grip of the Huguenots on Dauphiné; La Noue failed in an attempt on Niort, but captured Benon, a stronghold commanding the route by which supplies reached Rochelle from Poitou, and extended a hand to Turenne; the whole of Périgord was reported to be in arms. The King began to suspect a fresh attempt of his brother to escape, this time with the connivance of their mother, who seems to have been pleading the cause of her youngest son. If the brothers were to become hopelessly estranged, the game would be wholly in the hands of the Guises; and this she was determined to prevent. Nor did she wish to see the dormant negotiations for his marriage with the Queen of England and with them the English alliance altogether fall through.

Matters were brought to a head by the escape of Monsieur on the night of September 15. Guitry and other gentlemen joined him; and by the time he reached Dreux he had a following of three or four hundred.

28

Fight of Dormans.—

Truce

[1575

Consternation reigned in the Court; the Queen-Mother started to try persuasion; but before she reached Dreux the fugitive had issued a proclamation announcing the loyalty of his intentions and his desire for nothing but the reform of abuses, and was on his way to join La Noue and Turenne in the West. Immediately on the arrival of the news at Strassburg, Condé, though mistrustful of Anjou as an ally, ordered Thoré and Clervant to start at once with such force as he had. Guise, who was watching the passes of the Vosges, but owing to the disaffection of Champagne, with an inadequate force, fell back before him, keeping on the right flank of the invaders. On October 9 both armies were about sixty miles from Paris, Guise at Fismes, Thoré at la Fère-en-Tardenois. Thence Thoré turned south to cross the Seine, but by this time the King had succeeded in sending considerable reinforcements under Biron and Retz; and Guise with a force double that of the invaders drove them back to the Marne at Dormans. After a sharp fight, in which Guise himself received a severe wound in the face, of which he bore the scar to his dying day, the reiters were routed. Clervant was taken prisoner, but Thoré with some 1200 horsemen made his way to the Seine, which he crossed at Nogent, and after cutting up a force under Martinengo at Montargis joined Monsieur at Vatan, having effected his main object in drawing the royal force eastward.

Meanwhile the Queen-Mother, more vexed, as reported, than she had ever been in her life, continued her pursuit of her son; and on September 30, being at Chambord, he came to meet her in the neighbourhood of Blois. His conduct during this period was regarded as discreet, and Catharine was willing to agree to his terms. The first of these was the release of Montmorency; and on October 3 he and Cossé were allowed to go to their own houses on parole, which was presently exchanged for complete freedom. Their services were at once required to conduct the negotiations with Monsieur. Dale considered that the situation was not unlike that of the Wars of the Bien public, but with the difference that there was now no Louis XI alive. Monsieur continued his retreat to Châtillon-sur-Indre, whence he returned as far as Loches for another meeting with his mother. No conclusion was arrived at, and he went further into Poitou, while she repaired to a house of the Duke of Montpensier's at Champigny. On November 8 a truce, to last till about Christmas, was agreed to at Marigny. Certain towns were to be granted. to Monsieur, and a large contribution was to be made towards the pay of Condé's reiters. Montpensier, Montmorency, and Cossé were appointed to execute the terms, which were ratified at Champigny on the 21st. Anjou at once notified the Queen of England, somewhat apologetically. At the same time he expressed to Walsingham a hope, which the King in a subsequent dispatch endorsed, for a successful issue to the marriage negotiation.

From truce to peace was however yet a long way. The Queen

1575-6] Invasion of German troops.-Escape of Navarre 29 Mother might "labour for it tooth and nail," but Condé was no party to the arrangement, and had no confidence in the King's good faith. Nor was it easy to persuade the reiters to forgo the facilities for a profitable campaign offered by the defenceless state of France. The Huguenots thought that the presence of their chief with a powerful army would be a better guarantee than any number of towns in the hands of Monsieur. On the other hand, the Pope was not expected to approve; while the Guises and the Italians were against any sort of peace. Then the people of Paris, though desirous of peace, objected to being taxed for the benefit of the reiters; and some of the towns assigned to Monsieur demurred strongly to being thus disposed of. When the year ended no one had much hope.

About the beginning of January, 1576, Condé, Méru, and John Casimir entered France near Sédan. They marched rapidly through Champagne, Burgundy, and the Bourbonnais, Mayenne helplessly watching them; they reached Vichy about the beginning of February. The King and his mother, who returned to Paris on January 25, fortified the capital as best they could and sent to Germany for troops. Anjou, who was lying in the Limousin, began to move eastward on learning that Condé had reached the centre of France. On March 11 the two forces joined at Villefranche (Allier).

The beginning of February was marked by another incident, which, though it created some perturbation, did not at once affect the course of events. On February 3 the King of Navarre, under pretext of a sporting expedition, escaped from the Court with a few friends, and riding hard reached Alençon in time to attend the Protestant service on Sunday the 5th. A few days later, at Tours, he publicly abjured Catholicism. No attempt was made to bring him back; on the contrary, his sister was allowed to join him, with anyone else who cared to do so; and his personal property was sent after him. Contrary to the general expectation, and indeed to an intention expressed by himself, he did not join. Condé and Anjou, but remained in Poitou. He sent, however, his own demands, to be forwarded with those of the confederates, including a request to the King to aid him in recovering from Spain the part of his kingdom annexed by Ferdinand the Catholic.

The armies, numbering some 30,000 men, lay at Moulins till the end. of March. John Casimir, who never in his life trusted Frenchmen, least of all French Catholics, took up his quarters in a house at La Guerche, belonging to the Duke of Nevers, with his army between the Allier and the Loire, and set to work to throw a bridge over the river below that point. From Moulins a memorial in ninety-three articles was sent in which the demands of the Huguenots and their Politique allies were embodied. They comprised the usual requests for freedom of religion, subject however to the prohibition of any but the two at present professed; for indemnity on account of acts committed in the war; for

30 Peace of Monsieur.-Beginnings of the League [1576

the addition to the Parlements of "chambres mi-parties," composed of Catholics and Protestants in equal numbers; and for the restoration of civil status and privileges. One clause is remarkable, and was probably due to Damville, who in a former memorial had complained of the lack of education in France. The King is requested "to appoint in every cathedral church the revenue of one prebend to provide a college for the teaching of children." This is marked "Cannot be granted.”

The

The Queen of England was in communication with both John Casimir and Anjou, and in April sent over Randolph to watch the course of events, especially to find out whether the King had any designs on Holland and Zealand. Montmorency, much broken in health from his imprisonment, went to Moulins; and the Queen-Mother hovered between that place and Paris, finally establishing herself near Sens. Huguenots continued to levy contributions on Berry and the Nivernais, and some of Condé's horsemen pushed nearly to Montereau. The King was ready enough to grant peace, which was delayed mainly by Casimir's suspicions. Finally, terms were agreed to on Easter Eve, April 21, and ratified by the Edict of Beaulieu on May 6. They were the best on the whole that the Protestants had hitherto obtained. The exercise of their religion was allowed everywhere, save within two leagues of Paris; in no case were private houses to be searched; chambres mi-parties were to be set up; amnesty was carried back as far as the negotiations for the surrender of Havre in 1562; eight towns of refuge were granted. Certain other concessions, sworn to by the King, were not included in the Edict; of these the most important were the grant of La Charité to Monsieur and that of Péronne to Condé. The peace was known as "the Peace of Monsieur." Casimir obtained promises of lands and a pension from the King, the town of Château-Thierry from Monsieur, various honours and dignities, and pay for his men. The summer was, however, far advanced before they were got out of France; and a longer time elapsed before they saw their pay.

It became at once apparent that the peace was not destined to last. The Guises refused from the first to be parties to it. The Edict was not published in any Parlement save that of Paris; and at Paris and elsewhere the clergy preached a "boycott" against the Huguenots. Persuasion and intimidation were alike resorted to. At Rouen the archbishop, Cardinal de Bourbon, with the most benevolent intentions, entered a Protestant place of worship, and mounting the pulpit began to address. an exhortation to those present, only to see the congregation disperse in some panic. Guise hanged two Protestant captains serving under him. Near Bordeaux Protestants were massacred. Picardy entirely refused to receive Condé; and Humières, the Governor of Péronne, who had a private quarrel with the Montmorencys, founded a league of the province for his exclusion, which being adopted as a precedent by other provinces, rapidly developed into the formidable organisation

1576-7]

The Sixth War

States General at Blois. 31 which kept civil war alive in France for twenty years. It was believed that the original outline of this league was due to the Cardinal of Lorraine, and dated from the termination of the Council of Trent; and that its full development was only delayed till the young Duke of Guise should be of age to take the control of it. Beginning with a statement that it was formed for the protection of Henry III and his successors, its articles established an imperium in imperio, claiming an allegiance more peremptory than that due to the King, and even threatening the lives and goods of recalcitrant members. These articles were secretly circulated and received many signatures, including in December that of the King himself. He was practically forced to adopt this course as the only means of taking the wind out of the sails of the Guises, in whose interest the League had almost avowedly been formed. Its formation was duly reported to and approved by the King of Spain and the Pope.

The States General had been convoked to Blois, and held their first meeting on December 6. The elections had been looked after by the Guises; and the deputies for the nobility and the third Estate were almost exclusively such as were opposed to the Edict. The cahiers or memorials sent up by the provincial Estates were without exception adverse to toleration. The fears of Du Plessis seemed likely to be better justified than the more sanguine anticipations of La Noue, who had spent the autumn in efforts to maintain the good understanding between the King, Monsieur, and the Huguenot chiefs. His head was still full of a scheme of intervention in the Netherlands; to which Monsieur, it was thought with the King's assent, was again turning his thoughts.

On Sunday, October 7, Dale had presented his successor, Sir Amyas Poulet, to the King and Queen-Mother. Both ambassadors received assurances that the ill-treatment of Protestants in Paris should be checked, accompanied by friendly phrases as to the "amity" between the countries. Yet the pendulum was undoubtedly beginning to swing towards Spain. In the latter part of October Don John of Austria, passing incognito through France to take up the government of the Netherlands, had seen the Queen-Mother at Chenonceau and Guise at Joinville. About the same time La Noue had found it expedient to quit the Court, his views in regard to the Low Countries having brought him into disfavour. Approach to Spain necessarily involved coolness towards England; and while in May, 1576, immediately after the peace, Dale had reported that "her Majesty's friends are much increased in countenance and force," just a year later Poulet writes, " England never had fewer friends at the French Court than at this present."

The Estates declared almost unanimously in favour of one religion only; and on January 1, 1577, the King announced in their assembly that the edict had been extorted from him by force, and that he did not intend to keep it. The Huguenots at once prepared for war, which indeed had been already begun with the capture by de Luynes of