1584-5]

The League and Spain

37

Treaty of Fleix Mayenne was carrying on avowed hostilities in Dauphiné. The Catholics seized Périgueux in the summer of 1581; in 1583 there were risings in Languedoc. Duels and assassinations were matters of daily occurrence. The profligacy of the upper classes, as attested by unprejudiced witnesses, was appalling; nor was there much to choose in this respect between Catholics and Huguenots, though of the few seriousminded men who have left any record the majority are perhaps to be found among either the Protestants or the Politiques. Offices of every sort were freely bought and sold; indeed they were hardly to be obtained without payment, and justice suffered accordingly. The King, who, though himself one of the worst offenders, was in his better moments neither stupid nor callous, saw and deplored the disorder into which his realm had fallen, and made spasmodic efforts for reform. But the life he led was not of a kind to brace his will, while his own whims and the luxury of his favourites demanded never-ending supplies of money. The sale of offices went on, necessaries of life were subject to heavy and arbitrary taxation, public debts were unpaid. Swiss envoys, sent to demand the pay long overdue to their countrymen who had served in the royal armies, were told that the King had no money, though a million had just been spent on the celebration of Joyeuse's marriage with a sister of the Queen.

Anjou's death, followed a few weeks later by the assassination of the Prince of Orange, cleared the situation materially. No life, except that of the childless Henry III, now stood between Navarre and the Crown of France. The death of William left him without question the most prominent champion of Protestantism on the Continent, while it removed the leading advocate of French intervention in the Netherlands. At the same time the conjunction of events forced Elizabeth's hand. The fiction of amity with her "good brother" the King of Spain was worn very thin; while with the life of her suitor her great asset in negotiating a French alliance had disappeared. She made one more effort, sending an embassy in February, 1585, to invest Henry III with the Garter, at the time when a deputation from the Netherlands was in Paris with a last appeal to him to assume the sovereignty. For a moment the King seemed inclined to respond favourably, and returned a spirited answer to Spanish threats. But the activity of the League left him no choice, and the offer was declined. Before the end of the year Leicester, with an English force, had landed in the Low Countries.

Before these events, however, a definite alliance had been formed between the chiefs of the League and the King of Spain. On January 2, 1585, a treaty had been signed at Joinville, by which the succession to the Crown was vested in the Cardinal of Bourbon, to the exclusion of Navarre and Condé, his elder brothers' sons; Philip promised a monthly subsidy of 50,000 crowns to the funds of the party; and neither ally was to treat independently with the King of France.

38

The League and Henry III

[1584-5 Thus the League assumed the position of a sovereign Power, while the opposing forces were once more clearly divided, and in alliance with Spain confronted the Huguenots, supported by such aid as England could overtly or covertly afford them. The struggle, though localised for the moment, really embraced a good deal more than French interests. As the King of Navarre's secretary wrote to Walsingham, "France is the stage on which is being played a strange tragedy in which all Christendom has a share. Many persons will come on, if not in the earlier acts, at any rate in the later."

One important question still remained unsolved: which side would the King of France himself take? Henry's personal and political preferences drew him, and in a less degree his mother (who seems to have had some scheme for the devolution of the Crown to the children of one of her daughters, either of Spain or of Lorraine), towards Navarre and the English alliance. Yet he was, after all, "the eldest son of the Church," and as such could hardly join openly with those whom the Church regarded as her deadly foes.

At this juncture an event took place which at first seemed likely to prove of considerable advantage to the League. In April, 1585, Gregory XIII died, and was succeeded by Cardinal di Montalto, who owed his promotion to Pius V. He took the name of Sixtus V. Gregory had resisted the pressure of the Leaguers to give a formal sanction to their proceedings, and would go no further than a vaguely expressed verbal approval. "Neither bull nor brief will the League get from me," he is reported to have said not long before his death, "until I can see further into its game." Sixtus was at first in doubt. Much as he disapproved of heresy, he was little better disposed towards rebellion; and, though he had no great esteem for Henry III, he, like most Italians, had no desire to see the power of Spain increased. Finally, however, he yielded so far to the persuasions of the Duke of Nevers, as to send a brief to the Cardinal of Bourbon. As yet he would not issue the desired bull, nor proceed to the excommunication and deposition of Navarre.

Henry III himself, throughout the latter part of 1584 and the beginning of the following year, was struggling as best he could against the toils that were closing round him. As soon as it became clear that his brother's life was drawing to a close, he had sent Épernon to Gascony to try if Navarre might by any means be induced to cut the ground from under the feet of the League by returning to the Church. There were divided counsels at the Béarnese Court; but in the end Mornay and the stricter party prevailed. Navarre offered the King all the aid in his power against the disturbers of the realm, but declined either to change his creed or to come to Court. He was under no illusion as to his own position, and was taking his own precautions.

Towards the end of March, 1585, the King published an edict forbidding all armed assemblies; which was in a few days followed by a

1585]

Henry capitulates to the League

39

declaration dated from Péronne, in the name of the Cardinal of Bourbon. Beginning with complaints of the favour shown to the Huguenots, this document went on to recite the various grievances under which the country was suffering - sale of offices, excessive taxation, undue preference of favourites, and so forth- and to demand reforms. It concluded with an appeal to all persons for aid, calling on the towns to refuse to admit garrisons, and ending with a promise to abstain from hostilities save against "such as shall oppose us by force of arms." Active measures followed immediately. Guise had already secured Châlons-surMarne, whither he presently brought the Cardinal; this place, commanding the routes by which German levies would naturally enter France, became practically the headquarters of the League till Paris fell into its hands. Attempts on Bordeaux and Marseilles failed; but Verdun, Dijon, Lyons, Bourges, Orleans, Angers, formed a line of strongholds behind which the Huguenots were helpless; while even in the west and south, where their strength lay, they were of course in a minority. No time was lost by the League in getting to work. So early as April an English messenger reported that in the neighbourhood of Boulogne the Duke of Guise's horsemen had lain wait for and slain a minister and others on their way to the prêche. In Paris emissaries of the League were busy among the lawyers and the municipal officials; the University of the Sorbonne was on their side, as well as most of the clergy of the city. The King found it necessary to give orders for the closer guarding of the gates, and to forbid the promiscuous sale of arms; about this time, too, he engaged his famous bodyguard of forty-five gentlemen, mostly from Gascony.

Henry's courage was, however, nearly exhausted, nor could Elizabeth's exhortations and warnings delay much longer his surrender. At the end of March the Queen-Mother undertook a journey into Champagne to see what terms could be arranged with the Guises; and from then till late in June Miron, the King's physician, went to and fro between Épernay and Paris. So completely did the Leaguers feel themselves masters of the situation, that, even while negotiations were proceeding, Mayenne was sent to meet and stop, if necessary by force of arms, the Swiss levies expected by the King. An attempt to detach the Cardinal of Bourbon from the Guises precipitated matters; Catharine after many grumbles at the inconstancy and irresolution of "ces messieurs," was finally intimidated by the manifest strength of the party; and on July 7 a treaty was concluded at Nemours, and signed a few days later at Saint-Maur by the King and the heads of the League. It embodied a complete capitulation on Henry's part to all their demands, and bound him to abandon entirely the principle of toleration. The entire north-eastern half of France was placed in the power of the House of Guise, and large subsidies were promised to meet their expenses. It was currently said that, when the news of the treaty reached the King of Navarre, one-half of his moustache turned white.

40

The Eighth War.- Bull of Sixtus V

[1585

On July 19 effect was given to the Treaty of Nemours by an edict, revoking all that had preceded, and reducing the Protestants to the position of a proscribed and outlawed sect. The King did not disguise the fact that he had yielded only to superior force. His hatred of the Guises was only stimulated by his enforced surrender. To the Cardinal of Bourbon he said, “I signed the former edicts against my conscience, but with a good will; this one is in conformity with my conscience, but against my will." He left the palace of the Parlement with a gloomy countenance, returning no man's salutation.

Even the most experienced of the King's councillors now inclined to war; but first one more appeal was made to Navarre. Three days after the publication of the edict, Bishop Lenoncourt and Secretary Brulart went on this rather hopeless errand. The King's idea, however, was to gain time by any means, in the hope that either the resources of the League might be exhausted, or that their high-handed proceedings might show the real value of their affectation of concern for the people's welfare. Navarre himself had recently issued a skilfully worded remonstrance, contrasting the conduct of the House of Bourbon with that of the half-foreign Lorrainers, reasserting his loyalty and his willingness to be instructed in religion, and ending characteristically enough with a personal challenge to Guise. On receiving news of the edict he issued a further protest, putting his case with irresistible force.

But the time for paper warfare or peaceful negotiation had gone by. An army under Mayenne, with Matignon as second in command, speedily set forth for Guyenne; Biron was to command in Saintonge, Joyeuse in Gascony, while Épernon received the government of Provence. In this way the King could to some extent control the operations of the League in the south. Languedoc was left in the hands of Montmorency, who was too strong to be meddled with; though some friendly letters addressed to him about this time by Sixtus seem to show that efforts were being made to win him over. Guise took charge of the east, Mercœur of Brittany and Poitou, Elbeuf of Normandy, Aumale of Picardy. The "War of the Three Henrys" had begun.

The news of the Treaty of Nemours decided the Pope to take a step. to which in spite of Spanish urgency he had hitherto hesitated to commit himself. On September 9 a bull was launched declaring Navarre and Condé incapable of succeeding to the Crown of France, depriving them of their estates, and absolving their vassals from allegiance. The effect of this manifesto was not wholly that intended. It was generally regarded as an unprecedented interference with French rights and customs; the Parlement refused to publish it, and addressed a protest on the subject to the King. Navarre himself appealed from it to the Peers of France, giving the lie direct to "Monsieur Sixtus, self-styled Pope, saving his Holiness," and hoping to visit on him and his successors the insult done to the King of France and all the Parlements

1585-6]

Conference of Saint-Bris

41

of the realm. It is said that he contrived to get this document posted up in Rome, and that Sixtus was more delighted than offended by its audacity. He was himself by no means convinced of the policy of the step taken by him under a miscalculation of the sincerity of the King's adhesion to the League. In the earlier half of August, Navarre, Condé, and Montmorency had met at Saint-Paul, on the confines of Gascony and Languedoc, and concerted a plan of action. Condé went into Saintonge, and after a slight success over Mercœur at Fontenay, sat down to besiege Brouage, which was held by Saint-Luc. Unfortunately he allowed himself with a large part of his force to be drawn off to Angers, where the castle had been seized by a handful of Huguenots. Two days before he arrived, the place had been recaptured by part of Joyeuse's force; and Condé's army in presence of superior numbers had to disperse. He himself made his way to Avranches, and so to England; while Saint-Luc had little difficulty in beating off the reduced force before Brouage. Thus unfavourably did the war open for the Huguenots. In Dauphiné however Lesdiguières continued to hold his own; and Condé presently returned to Rochelle.

The winter of 1585-6 was occupied by Mayenne and Matignon with small captures. Navarre wisely confined himself to guerilla warfare, relieving places that were hard pressed, cutting off the enemy's stragglers, intercepting his supplies, and generally baffling the slow Mayenne by the rapidity of his movements. In the spring Biron arrived in Poitou with the intention of undertaking the siege of Marans, a place commanding the approaches to Rochelle on the north much as Brouage did on the south. Navarre at once hastened to Marans, and fortified it so effectually that when Biron appeared before it in June a short skirmish (in which he himself was wounded) showed him that the place could only be taken by regular siege. Meanwhile the negotiations of Ségur, who was now aided by Clervant, and backed by a promise of money from the Queen of England, had been so far successful that a powerful German force was set on foot.

At this juncture the Queen-Mother undertook the last, and not the least courageous, of her many journeys in the interests of peace. The King, still fretting under the yoke of the League, had invited Navarre to send some confidential person to the Court with whom he might discuss possible means of reconciliation. Rosny, afterwards known as the Duke of Sully, was chosen for this purpose. He had several interviews with the King and his mother, and found that the main obstacle was still religion. The envoy argued that by changing his creed Navarre would bring only himself to the King's side, whereas, if this point could be waived, the whole forces of the Huguenots would be at the King's disposal, and with such levies as he could make in the Catholic States of Germany and Switzerland, would be amply sufficient to suppress the League. An influential deputation of German Princes and nobles,