42

The Sixteen

[1586-7

who arrived at Paris in the course of the summer, were prepared to add their persuasions. In October, 1586, Mayenne returned to Paris, "having done more for the King of Navarre's reputation than for his own," and in no friendly frame of mind towards the King. Finally an armistice was arranged in Saintonge; and in December Catharine and Navarre met at Saint-Bris near Cognac. She consented to a divorce between him and her daughter, who had now entirely deserted her husband and was carrying on some kind of hostilities on her own account; and she suggested a marriage with her grand-daughter Christine of Lorraine. Navarre was to be officially recognised as successor to the Crown, and other friendly offers were made. Nevers and Turenne also took an active part in the debate. But, as before, Henry would not agree to the one indispensable condition. A suggested compromise, of a truce for one year, during which the exercise of the Reformed religion was to cease, was not more acceptable. Disquieting reports of the state of affairs at Paris began to arrive, and Catharine set her face homewards, holding however further conferences with Turenne at Fontenay and Niort, whence the news of the Scottish Queen's execution recalled her to Paris.

Rumour had not exaggerated the threatening position of affairs in the capital. A revolutionary government had been secretly formed, called "the Sixteen," as representing the sixteen Sections of Paris. The leaders at first were mostly lawyers; Étienne de Neuilly, President of the Cour des Aides, who had attained that office by arranging for the murder of his predecessor on St Bartholomew's Day; his son-in-law, Michel Marteau de la Chapelle, a Master in the Chambre des Comptes; Jean (known as Bussi) le Clerc, a proctor in the Parlement; and Charles Hotman, collector to the Archbishop of Paris, brother to a more famous man, the eminent Protestant publicist. This body was in constant communication with the Spanish ambassador Mendoza, and took its orders from the Duke of Guise. One of their schemes was the seizure of Boulogne, with a view to facilitating the operations of the fleet which the King of Spain was fitting out for the invasion of England. This would have the further advantage of affording an easier entrance for a Spanish army into France than was offered by the route through Guyenne. Plans were also formed for the seizure of the King's person. Fortunately there was a traitor in their camp, in the person of one Nicholas Poulain, a superior police official, whom they proposed to use as an instrument of their schemes. This man, while ostensibly acceding to their requirements, contrived to keep the Chancellor Chiverny and the King regularly informed of all that went on; and the plots were for the present frustrated. The advance of the German army held Guise occupied in Champagne; and the King himself presently marched. with a force under his own command to take part in repelling them.

Marans fell in February, 1587; but Navarre lost no time in providing for the safety of the Huguenots' vital point in the west. Pushing boldly

1587-8]

The Duke of Guise in Paris

43

out into Poitou, in May he captured Talmont, Fontenay, Saint-Maixent, and Chizé. The news of the Germans' advance summoped him eastward, but before he had had time to do more than collect his army, Joyeuse, who had so far only retaken some small places in Poitou, and had retired to Saumur, advanced again with more determination. Navarre attempted to put himself behind the fortified line of the Dordogne, but was overtaken and forced to fight on October 20 at Coutras in the south of Saintonge, where his superior generalship in the face of an army twice as large as his own secured for the Huguenots their first victory in a pitched battle. The action lasted little more than an hour, but it resulted in the complete defeat of the royal army, Joyeuse himself being among the slain.

One week later the Germans under the command of Fabian von Dohna, who, having been headed off from the Loire by the King's army, had made their way as far as Vimory near Montargis, were badly shaken by a spirited night attack delivered by the Duke of Guise. They pushed on, however, as far as Auneau near Chartres, where Guise again fell upon them and routed them utterly; though the French contingent, under Châtillon, Coligny's eldest son, fought its way back to Languedoc.

The King returned to Paris for Christmas, 1587; while Guise, having pursued the remains of the German army as far as Montbéliard, retired to Nancy. Here future plans were discussed; the immediate upshot being that in February, 1588, the heads of the League, emboldened by Guise's recent exploits, presented a memorial to the King, insolently demanding that he should purge his Court and Council of all persons obnoxious to themselves, publish the decrees of Trent, and confiscate the estates of all Huguenots. Henry, as usual, temporised; but events were moving rapidly in Paris. The Sixteen were entirely under Guise's orders, given through his agent Mayneville. Nothing except Poulain's timely informations frustrated the continual plots against the King's life or liberty. Epernon, who had succeeded Joyeuse in the government of Normandy, secured most of that province, with the good-will of the Huguenots. Less success attended Secretary Villeroy's half-hearted attempts to detach Orleans and its governor Entragues from the League. The King summoned 4000 Swiss first to Lagny, then into the suburbs of the capital; and the Parisians in alarm sent to the Duke of Guise, imploring his presence. At Soissons he was met by Bellièvre, bearing the King's command not to enter the city a command which Guise, it was believed with the connivance of the Queen-Mother, chose to disregard. On May 9 he entered Paris amid the applause of the citizens, and proceeded to her house. She at once sent word to the King, who was much agitated, but rejected the proposal of some of those present that the Duke should be put to death on his entry into the Louvre. Presently, Guise himself arrived, accompanying the QueenMother. Henry received him with words of reprimand, but allowed him

44

The Barricades

[1588

to depart unhurt. The next day he came again to the Louvre, after taking counsel with his chief supporters, and in the afternoon conferred with the King at the Queen-Mother's house. On the 11th, an attempt to turn all suspicious persons out of the city having failed, the Swiss under Biron were ordered in. They entered early on the 12th, and were posted in various parts of the town. The citizens flew to arms and raised barricades in all directions, cutting off communication between the different detachments of the royal forces. The Swiss were attacked, and finding themselves incapable of resistance, surrendered. Marshals Biron and d'Aumont were received with musket-shots and retired into the Louvre, where the King was practically besieged. Guise rode through the streets unarmed, and showed his complete command of the situation by quieting the people. A long interview then took place at his house between him and the Queen-Mother, at which he repeated his former demands, with the further requirement that the conduct of the war against the Huguenots should be placed entirely in his hands. On the 13th they met again. During their discussion the King with a few followers walked quietly from the Louvre to the royal stables, took horse, rode out of Paris, swearing that he would enter it again only through the breach, and made his way to Chartres. The government of Paris remained wholly in the hands of the adherents of the League, appointed to the chief municipal offices under Guise's influence; La Chapelle-Marteau becoming Provost of the Merchants, or virtually Mayor of Paris. The two Queens remained, the Queen-Mother continuing to act as an intermediary between her son and the League. On July 11 a fresh treaty was concluded, by which the King practically granted all Guise's demands; undertaking once more to uproot heresy throughout the kingdom, and further to publish the decrees of Trent, to appoint the Duke lieutenant-general of the realm, and to convoke the States General at Blois in October. Épernon had already been removed from the Court and from his government of Normandy, and the King presently dismissed his chancellor Chiverny and his four principal secretaries; but refused entirely to go to Paris.

Immediately on receiving news of the doings at Paris, Elizabeth had sent Thomas Bodley on a confidential errand with condolences and offers of assistance. Henry III replied gratefully, but said that many of his own subjects had offered their services, and that he had no doubt of being able with his own forces to chastise his enemies. The world should see that he would not, as Stafford reported, "put up unavenged with so manifest indignities.' As a matter of fact, the value of English aid was just then uncertain. The Armada was ready to sail; and for the moment Henry was once more inclined to seek an escape from his difficulties in an understanding with Spain. The Legate Morosini, with the full approval of the Pope and the co-operation of Mendoza, suggested an alliance between the two great Catholic Powers. Philip was

99

1588-9] Murder of Guise.-Death of the Queen-Mother 45

sounded, but deferred any decision until he should be clear as to the motives of all parties to the proposal. Long before he could be satisfied the Armada had met its fate, and a Spanish alliance had less to recommend it.

On October 16 the King opened the session of the Estates with a speech betraying clearly enough his animosity towards the faction which for the moment was his master, and which held a vast preponderance in the assembly he was addressing. The speakers for the Three Estates, the Archbishop of Bourges, the Baron de Senece, and La Chapelle-Marteau, were all ardent Leaguers. The sessions of the Estates continued for the next two months, Guise taking steps for the confirmation of his appointment as lieutenant-general, which would give him supreme command of the forces, and the King revolving in his mind the scheme on which he had been bent since his humiliation in Paris. The Duke of Nevers, who was in command against the Huguenots in the west, was not a keen partisan of the League, and made no effort to press Navarre hard, or to weaken forces of which the King might yet have need. Soon after the destruction of the Spanish Armada informal communications seem to have passed between the Kings of France and Navarre through Épernon, who had retired to Angoulême. Finally Henry III deemed himself strong enough to act. Early in the morning of December 23 he sent for Guise and the Cardinal. The Duke went alone into the King's antechamber, where his body-guard were posted. He had hardly entered the room when he was stabbed and, unable to draw his sword, fell pierced with many wounds almost on the threshold of the royal closet. He wanted a few days of completing his thirty-eighth year. The Cardinal was arrested at the same time, and put to death the next day. The bodies of the two brothers were burnt, and their ashes thrown into the Loire, lest any relics of them should be preserved. The Cardinal of Bourbon, and the young Prince of Joinville (now become Duke of Guise), were arrested; together with the Archbishop of Lyons, La Chapelle-Marteau, and other prominent Leaguers.

Another, if less direct, victim of these fatal days was the Queer. Mother. She had been ailing for some time, and had already taken to her bed when her son in person brought her the news. According to one version he said, "Now I am King of France; I have killed the King of Paris." "God grant it may be so, my son," was the answer; "but have you made sure of the other towns?" On January 5, 1589, she passed away. She had been an indefatigable worker in the cause of peace in her adopted country. She had, however, had to contend with causes of strife that reached deeper than she could fathom. The result was that, though virtuous herself, she assented to and utilised the profligacy of perhaps the most profligate Court in history, and, with no natural tendency to cruelty, has come down to posterity as the main author of a most justly execrated massacre.

46

The Kings against the League

[1589

The news of Guise's death was brought to Paris by a special messenger from Mendoza, and reached the city on Christmas Eve. The fury of the Parisians was unbounded. The Duke of Aumale was appointed governor, and proceeded to plunder the houses of any citizens. who were suspected of favouring the King. The royal arms were torn down, and the insulting anagram of "Vilain Hérodes" (Henri de Valois) was freely bandied about. Preachers fulminated from all the pulpits, finally working up feeling to such a pitch that the Sorbonne pronounced that the King had forfeited all claim to the Crown, and that it was the duty of subjects to cast off their allegiance. The warning of the dying Queen-Mother was quickly justified; for, with the exception of Bordeaux, which Matignon saved, Caen, Blois, Tours, Saumur, and one or two more along the Loire, every town of importance in the country gave its adhesion to the League. An attempt to seize Mayenne at Lyons had failed, and the Duke presently came to Paris, entering the city with a powerful force on February 15. He was declared lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and took the chief command of the League.

The King had lost no time in communicating his action, through Saint-Goard, Marquis Pisani, his ambassador, to the Pope. Sixtus took the death of Guise easily enough; but the execution and arrest of Cardinals was a more serious matter. Henry sent Claude d'Angennes, Bishop of Le Mans, to ask for absolution; the heads of the League sent an envoy urging its refusal. Olivarez, the Spanish ambassador, added his persuasions; and Sixtus withheld absolution till the Archbishop of Lyons and the Cardinal of Bourbon should be released. About the same time Mendoza left the Court, and at Paris acted henceforth in full accord with, and indeed as an intimate adviser of, the League.

Henry was now forced to adopt the only course that promised him even personal safety. Negotiations were opened with Navarre, and on April 3 a truce was concluded, on the terms that Catholics should not be molested by the Huguenots, and that Navarre should bring his forces to the King's aid, receiving Saumur as a cautionary town, and to secure him a passage across the Loire. The matter was not arranged without some difficulty. Henry stood in fear of the papal censure that hung over his head; while many of Navarre's advisers dreaded some treachery. At length the advice of the King's half-sister, Diana of Angoulême, the widow of the late Marshal Francis de Montmorency, overcame his fears; while on the other side Duplessis-Mornay was actively encouraging Navarre to accept the King's overtures. Events, too, were pressing. Navarre was advancing by the usual road through Poitou; he had taken Niort and Châtelhérault, and made a dash to clear the League out of Argenton. On the other side Mayenne was marching from Paris and had reached and occupied Vendôme. The Legate Morosini was made the bearer of some despairing proposals to Mayenne, which were rejected; and he also left the Court. On April 28 the treaty with Navarre was