History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume II Part 34

[678] Discours merveilleux de la vie de Catherine de Medicis (Cologne, 1683), 645. See the atrocious letter to Catharine, which the queen found upon her bed, Nov. 8, 1575, and which purports to have been written from Lausanne. In the copy published by Le Laboureur (ii. 425-429), it is signed "Grand Champ;" in that which the editor of Claude Haton gives in an appendix (p. 1111-1115) the name is "Emille Dardani." The date is doubtful. Le Laboureur is apparently more correct in giving it as "le troisieme mois de la quatrieme annee apres la trahison" (St. Bartholomew's Day).

[679] The Vie de Coligny (Cologne, 1686), p. 360, 361, says nothing to indicate that the author regarded D'Andelot's death as other than natural.

But Hotman's Gasparis Colinii Vita (1575), p. 75, mentions the suspicion, and considers it confirmed by the saying attributed to Birague, afterward chancellor, that "the war would never be terminated by arms alone, but that it might be brought to a close very easily by _cooks_." Cardinal Chatillon, in a letter to the Elector Palatine, June 10, 1569, alludes to his brother's having died of poison as a well-ascertained fact, "comme il est apparent tant par l'anatomie," etc. Kluckholn, Briefe Frederick des Frommen, ii 336.

[680] Since the outbreak of the present war, the court had undertaken to deprive D'Andelot of his rank, and had divided his duties between Brissac and Strozzi. Brissac had been killed, and Strozzi was now recognized by the court as colonel-general.

[681] The letter written from Saintes, May 18, 1569, is inserted in Gasparis Colinii Vita (1575) pp. 75-78, the author remarking, "quam ipsius manum, atque chirographum prae manibus jam habeo." The possession of so many family ma.n.u.scripts on the part of the anonymous writer of this valuable contemporary account, is explained by the fact that he was no other than the distinguished Francis Hotman, in whose hands the admiral's widow, Jaqueline d'Entremont, or Antremont, had placed all the doc.u.ments she possessed, entreating him to undertake the pious task of compiling a life of her husband. In a remarkable letter which has but lately come to light, dated January 15, 1572 (new style 1573), after an exordium full of those cla.s.sical allusions of which the age was so fond, she writes: "Ne trouvez etrange, je vous supplie, si j'ai essaye de reveiller vostre plume pour laisser a la posterite autant de temoignages de la vertu de feu monseigneur et mari, que nos ennemis la veulent designer," etc. Bulletin, vi. 29.

[682] "La France aura beaucoup de maux avec vous, et puis sans vous; mais en fin tout tombera sur l'Espagnol." Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 283.

[683] Agrippa d'Aubigne, _ubi supra_.

[684] Berger de Xivrey, Lettres missives de Henri IV. (Paris, 1843), i. 7.

[685] Histoire de Charles IX. par le sieur Varillas (Cologne, 1686), ii.

161, 162. I am glad to embrace this opportunity of quoting a historian in whose statements of facts I have as seldom the good fortune to concur as in his general deductions of principles. M. de Thou (iv. 182) remarks in a similar spirit: "Il fit voir a la France (et ses ennemis meme en convinrent) qu'il etoit capable de soutenir lui seul tout le parti Protestant dont on croyoit auparavant qu'il ne soutenoit qu'une partie."

[686] Ranke (Civil Wars and Monarchy), 241; the statement of Jean de Serres, iii. 325, would make the total number a little larger; the accounts of Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 285, and De Thou, iv. 185, make it somewhat smaller.

[687] Adviz, etc., La Mothe Fenelon, i. 363.

[688] De Thou, iv. 184; Jean de Serres, iii. 320-323. This was in February. It was the more natural for Wolfgang to defend his course, as he was himself an ancient ally of the King of Spain. In the Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle, ix. 567, we have the text of a compact formed Oct. 1, 1565: "Lettres de Service accordees par le roi d'Espagne a Wolfgang, comte Palatin et duc de Deux Ponts." According to this doc.u.ment, the duke was bound for three years to obey Philip's summons, although he refused to pledge himself to do anything directly or indirectly against the Augsburg Confession or its supporters.

[689] Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 104.

[690] Letter of Charles IX. to La Mothe Fenelon, May 14, 1569, Corresp.

dipl., vii. 20, 21. The same incredulity respecting the possibility of Deux Ponts's enterprise is expressed by the anonymous author of a memorandum of a journey through France, in Doc.u.ments inedits tires des MSS. de la bibl. royale, iv. 493. It is alluded to in the "Remonstrance"

of the Protestant princes presented after the junction of the armies. Jean de Serres, iii. 337.

[691] Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 5.

[692] De Thou, iv. 185-188; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 285; Anquetil, Esprit de la ligue, i. 297.

[693] Discours envoye de La Roch.e.l.le a la Royne d'Angleterre. La Mothe Fenelon, ii. 158, etc.

[694] De Thou, iv. 188; Lestoile, 22; J. de Serres, iii. 524; Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 6.

[695] Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 7; De Thou, iv. 192; Jean de Serres, iii.

327 (who states the Roman Catholic loss as higher than given in the text).

Brantome ascribes the defeat of Strozzi to the circ.u.mstance that the matches of _his_ troops were put out by the rain, and that his infantry, unsupported by cavalry, was at the mercy of Mouy and the Huguenot troopers. Colonnels fr., OEuvres, ed. Lalanne, vi. 60. But the "Discours envoye de la Roch.e.l.le a la Royne d'Angleterre" (La Mothe Fenelon, ii. 160) states that the Huguenots would have done much greater execution and perhaps put an end to the dispute, "n'eust ete que, tout ce jour la, la pluye fut si extreme et si grande que noz harquebouziers ne pouvoient plus jouer." La Roche Abeille, or La Roche l'Abeille, is a hamlet seventeen miles south of Limoges.

[696] According to J. A. Gabutius, the biographer of Pius V. (sec. 120, p.

646), the Pope sent 4,500 foot and 1,000 horse, and Cosmo, Duke of Florence, 1,000 foot and 200 horse. Besides these, many n.o.bles attached themselves to the expedition as volunteers. Santa Fiore was instructed to leave France _the moment he should perceive that the heretics were treated with_. "Quod si ipse summus copiarum Dux, vel de pace vel de rerum compositione quidquam Catholicae religioni d.a.m.nosum praesentiret; [Pius V.]

imperavit e vestigio aut converso itinere in Italiam remearet, aut ad Catholic.u.m exercitum in Belgio c.u.m haereticis bellantem sese conferret et adjungeret."

[697] De Thou, iv. 192; Vie de Coligny, 364; Gasparis Colinii Vita, 81; Jean de Serres, iii. 331. Charles IX. in a letter to La Mothe Fenelon, from St. Germains des Pres, July 27, 1569, alludes to the successes of the Huguenots, whom Anjou cannot resist, "ayant donne conge a la pluspart de sa gendarmerye de s'en aller faire ung tour en leurs maisons." Corresp.

diplom., vii. 35, 36. The furlough, which was to expire on the 15th of August, was afterward extended by Anjou to the 1st of October.

[698] See Vie de Coligny, 364; De Thou, iv. 192; Jean de Serres, iii. 345, 346.

[699] Yet the "Guisards" were never tired of a.s.serting the contrary. Sir Thomas Smith tells us that Cardinal Lorraine maintained to him that "they [the Huguenots] desired to bring all to the form of a republic, like Geneva." Smith records the conversation at length in a letter to Cecil, wis.h.i.+ng his correspondent to perceive "how he had need of a long spoon that should eat potage with the Devil." The discussion must have been an earnest one. Sir Thomas was not disposed to boast of being a finished courtier. In fact, he declares that, as to framing compliments, he is "the verriest calf and beast in the world," and threatens to get one Bizzarro to write him some, which he will get translated (for all sorts of people), and learn them by heart. He managed on this occasion to speak his mind to Lorraine pretty freely respecting the real origin of the war (the conversation took place in 1562), and told the churchman the uncomplimentary truth, that his brother's deed at Va.s.sy was the cause of all the troubles. Smith to Cecil, Rouen, Nov. 7, 1562, State Paper Office.

[700] Not to speak of Noyers, belonging to Conde, Coligny's stately residence at Chatillon-sur-Loing fell into the hands of the enemy. In direct violation of the terms of the capitulation, the palace was robbed of all its costly furniture, which was sent to Paris and sold at auction.

Chateau-Renard, which also was the property of Coligny, was taken by the Roman Catholics, and became the nest of a company of half-soldiers, half-robbers, under an Italian--one Fretini--who laid under contribution travellers on the road to Lyons. De Thou, iv. 198, 199; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 292.

[701] How deeply the Guises felt the taunt that they were strangers in France, appears from a sentence of the cardinal's to the Bishop of Rennes (Trent, Nov. 24, 1563), wherein, alluding to the recent birth of a son to the Duke of Lorraine and Catharine de' Medici's daughter, he says that he is "merveilleus.e.m.e.nt aise ... pource que sera occasion aux Huguenots de ne nous dire plus princes estrangers." Le Laboureur, ii. 313.

[702] "Copie d'une Remonstrance que ceulx de la Roch.e.l.le ont mande avoyr envoyee au Roy, apres l'arrivee du duc de Deux Ponts." La Mothe Fenelon, ii. 179-188. In Latin, Jean de Serres, iii. 333-345. Gasparis Colinii Vita, 80.

[703] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 6; Jean de Serres, iii. 345, 346; De Thou, _ubi supra_.

[704] "Lusignan la pucelle." De Thou, iv. 197; Jean de Serres, iii. 331; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 290.

[705] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 294; De Thou, iv. (liv. xlv.) 200-202; Jean de Serres, iii. 347.

[706] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 298: "Presse par les interests et murmures des Poictevins, il sent.i.t en cet endroit une des incommoditez qui se trouve aux partis de plusieurs testes; sa prudence donc cedant a sa necessite,"

etc.

[707] Letter of Sept. 8, 1569, Wright, Queen Elizabeth, i. 323.

[708] Jean de Serres, iii. 348, etc.; Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 7; De Thou, iv. 205-214; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 297, etc.

[709] Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 109.

[710] Jean de Serres, iii. 332; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 292; De Thou, etc.

[711] Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v., c. 13 (i. 293); De Thou, iv. (liv. xlv.) 204; Jehan de la Fosse, 108.

[712] That Renee was, like all the other prominent Huguenots, from the very first opposed to a resort to the horrors of war, is certain. Agrippa d'Aubigne goes farther than this, and a.s.serts (i. 293) that she had become estranged from Conde in consequence of her blaming the Huguenots for their a.s.sumption of arms: "blasmant ceux qui portoient les armes, jusques a estre devenus ennemis, le Prince de Conde et elle, sur cette querelle." I can scarcely credit this account, of which I see no confirmation, unless it be in a letter to an unknown correspondent, in the National Library (MSS. Coll. Bethune, 8703, fol. 68), of which a translation is given in Memorials of Renee of France (London, 1859), 263, 264. It is dated Montargis, Aug. 20, 1569: "Praying you ... to employ yourself, as I know you are accustomed to do, in whatsoever way shall be possible to you, in striving to arrive at a good peace, in which endeavor I, on my part, shall put forth all my power, if it shall please G.o.d. And if it cannot be a general one, _at least it shall be to those who desire it, and who belong to us_." Who, however, was the correspondent? The subscription, "Your good cousin, Renee of France," would appear to point to Admiral Coligny or some one of equal rank. Louis de Conde was no longer living.

[713] Letter of Villegagnon to the d.u.c.h.ess of Ferrara, Montereau, March 4, 1569, _apud_ Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. Appendix, 1109.

[714] It must be remembered that this was a different place from Chatillon-sur-Loing, Admiral Coligny's residence, which was not more than fifteen miles distant. The places are frequently confounded with each other. The Loing is a tributary of the Seine, into which it empties below Montereau, after flowing by Chatillon-sur-Loing, Montargis, and Nemours.

[715] The fullest and most graphic account of this interesting incident I find in Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 293 (liv. v., c. 13). See De Thou, iv. (liv.

xlv.) 204, and Memorials of Renee of France (London, 1859), 261-263. The Huguenot hors.e.m.e.n numbered not eight hundred, as the author last quoted states, but about one hundred and twenty--"six vingts."

[716] The "Discours de ce qui avint touchant la Croix de Gastines, l'an 1571, vers Noel" (Memoires de l'etat de France sous Charles IX., and Archives curieuses, vi. 475, etc.), contains the quaint decree of the parliament. See Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 107. As actually erected, the monument consisted of a high stone pyramid, surmounted by a gilt crucifix. Besides the decree in question, there were engraved some Latin verses of so confused a construction that it was suggested that the composer intended to cast ridicule both on the Roman Catholics and on the Huguenots. M. de Thou, who was a boy of sixteen at the time--and who, as son of the first President of Parliament, and himself, at a later time, a leading member and president _a mortier_ of that body, enjoyed rare advantages for arriving at the truth--declares (iv. 488) that the elder Gastines was a venerable man, beloved by his neighbors, and, indeed, by the entire city; and that the execution was compa.s.sed by a cabal of seditious persons, who, by dint of soliciting the judges, of exciting the people, of inducing them to congregate and follow the judges with threats as they left parliament, succeeded in causing to be punished with death, in the persons of the Gastines, an offence which, until then, had been punished only with exile or a pecuniary fine.

[717] Jehan de la Fosse, 107, 108.

[718] Journal d'un cure ligueur, 110; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 8; De Thou, iv. (liv. l) 216; Gasp. Colinii Vita (1569), 87; Memoirs of G. de Coligny, 140, etc. The arret of the parliament is in Archives curieuses, vi. 377, etc. The Latin life of Coligny (89-91) inserts a manly and Christian letter, in the author's possession, written (Oct. 16, 1569) by the admiral to his own children and those of his deceased brother, D'Andelot, who were studying at La Roch.e.l.le, shortly after receiving intelligence of this judicial sentence and of the wanton injury done to his palace at Chatillon-sur-Loing. "We must follow our Head, Jesus Christ, who himself leads the way," he writes. "Men have deprived us of all that it was in their power to take from us, and if it be G.o.d's will that we never recover what we have lost, still we shall be happy, and our condition will be a good one, inasmuch as these losses have not arisen from any harm done by us to those who have brought them upon us, but solely from the hatred they bear toward me for the reason that it has pleased G.o.d to make use of me in a.s.sisting His Church."

[719] Jean de Serres, iii. 356, 357; Mem. of Coligny, 136; De Thou, iv.

216, 217; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 302.

[720] Jean de Serres, iii. 363; De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvi.) 221; Castelnau, vii., c. 8.

[721] De Thou, iv. 216; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 302. The place was also known by the name of Foie la Vineuse.