History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume II Part 62

[1311] Styled also, in the articles of capitulation, "_le gouverneur par election_ de ladite ville." He was an able and influential magistrate, who had been elected to the governors.h.i.+p of his native city at the time of the former troubles. Lery, 78-80.

[1312] Agrippa d'Aubigne (Hist. univ., ii. 104) distinctly represents La Chastre as desirous of destroying the entire city; while Lery (p. 77) and Davila (p. 193) are in doubt whether Johanneau's murder was not effected by his orders. Yet Lery himself records a conversation he held about this time with La Chastre (p. 67), in which the latter protested that he was not, as commonly reported, of a sanguinary disposition, and appealed for corroboration to his merciful treatment of some Huguenot prisoners that fell into his hands in the third civil war, whom he refused to surrender to the Parisian parliament when formally summoned to do so. Claude de la Chastre's n.o.ble letter to Charles IX., of January 21, 1570 (Bulletin, iv.

28), seems to be a sufficient voucher for his veracity. See _ante_, chapter xvi., p. 345.

[1313] Jean de Lery, 42.

[1314] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 104. It would be a great relief could we believe that inordinate fondness for the dance was the chief vice of the French court. Unfortunately the moral turpitude of the king and his favorites rests upon less suspicious grounds than the revolting stories told on hearsay by the unfriendly writer of the Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi (Edinburgi, 1574), ii. 117, 118. The "Affair of Nantouillet,"

occurring just about the time of the Polish amba.s.sadors' arrival in Paris, is only too authentic. The "Prevot de Paris," M. de Nantouillet (cf.

_ante_, chapter xv., page 258, note), grandson of Cardinal du Prat, Chancellor of France under Francis I., offended Anjou by somewhat contemptuously declining the hand of the duke's discarded mistress, Mademoiselle de Chateauneuf. The lady easily induced her princely lover to avenge her wounded vanity. One evening Charles IX., the new king of Poland, the King of Navarre, the Grand Prior of France, and their attendants, presented themselves at the stately mansion of Nantouillet, on the southern bank of the Seine, opposite the Louvre, and demanded that a banquet be prepared for them. Though the royal party was masked, the unwilling host knew his guests but too well, and dared not deny their peremptory command. In the midst of the carousal, at a preconcerted signal, the king's followers began to ransack the house, maltreating the occupants, wantonly destroying the costly furniture, appropriating the silver plate, and breaking open doors and coffers in search of money. The next day even Paris itself was indignant at the base conduct of its king.

To the first president of parliament, who that day visited the palace and informed Charles of the current rumors respecting his having been present and conniving at the pillage, the despicable monarch denied their truth with his customary horrible imprecation. But when the president expressed his great satisfaction, and said that parliament would at once inst.i.tute proceedings to discover and punish the guilty, Charles promptly responded: "By no means. You will lose your trouble;" and he added a significant threat for Nantouillet, that, should he pursue his attempt to obtain satisfaction, he would find that he had to do with an opponent infinitely his superior. Euseb. Phil. Dialogi, ii. 117, 118; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 114, _verso_; D'Aubigne, ii. 104; De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 821.

[1315] Article 4th. Text in Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 98.

[1316] J. de Serres, iv., fol. 112.

[1317] This hamlet must not be confounded with the important town of Milhaud, or Milhau-en-Rouergue, mentioned below, nearly seventy miles farther west.

[1318] Histoire du Languedoc, v. 321.

[1319] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 113, 114; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 12, 13; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 107; Histoire du Languedoc, v. 322. It ought to be noted that the Montauban a.s.sembly in reality did little more than confirm the regulations drawn up by previous and less conspicuous political a.s.semblies of the Huguenots held at Anduze in February, and at Realmont, in May, 1573. This clearly appears from references to that earlier legislation contained in the more complete "organization" adopted four months later at Milhau. See the doc.u.ment in Haag, France Protestante, x. (Pieces justificatives) 124, 125. M. Jean Loutchitzki has published in the Bulletin, xxii. (1873) 507-511, a list of the political a.s.semblies much fuller than given by any previous writer.

[1320] As it is of interest to fix the geographical distribution of the provinces represented, I give the list contained in the preamble: "Guyenne, Vivaretz, Gevaudan, Seneschaussee de Toloze, Auvergne, haute et ba.s.se Marche, Quercy, Perigord, Limosin, Agenois, Armignac, Cominges, Coustraux, Bigorre, Albret, Foix, Lauraguay, Albigeois, pas de Castres et Villelargue, Mirepoix, Carca.s.sonne, et autres pas et provinces adjacentes."

[1321] Requete de l'a.s.semblee de Montauban, in Haag, La France Protestante, x. (Pieces just.) 114-121.

[1322] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 113, 114; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 12, 13; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 106.

[1323] Histoire du Languedoc, v. 322.

[1324] Agrippa d'Aubigne, _ubi supra_.

[1325] Jean de Serres, iv. (lib. xii.) fol. 114; D'Aubigne and De Thou, _ubi supra_. See also Languet (Epistolae secretae, i. 216), who, writing November 14, 1573, considers the Huguenots to be virtually demanding the re-enactment of the edict of January, 1562.

[1326] De Thou and D'Aubigne, _ubi supra_. Hist. du Languedoc, v. 322: "pourvu que lesdits de la religion donnent ordre de leur part, qu'il ne soit entrepris aucune chose au contraire, comme il est avenu ces jours pa.s.ses, ce que je leur defens tres-express.e.m.e.nt." Charles IX. to Damville, Oct. 18, 1573. Unfortunately, neither the promise nor the condition was observed over scrupulously.

[1327] The king's aunt, the d.u.c.h.ess of Savoy, his mother, and his brothers of Anjou and Alencon.

[1328] Relazione di Giov. Michiel, 1561, Tommaseo, i. 418-420.

[1329] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 18.

[1330] Of this Queen Elizabeth reminded La Mothe Fenelon in a conversation reported by him June 3, 1573, Corr. dipl., v. 345, 346.

[1331] La Mothe Fenelon to Charles IX., July 26, 1573, Corr. dipl., v.

382.

[1332] The story was certainly not invented by his mother, "comme il estoit sorty de sa derniere maladye _aussy jaune que cuyvre, tout bouffy, deffigure, bien fort pet.i.t et mince_." No wonder that Leicester, while expressing the hope that the account might be false, hinted that it operated against the proposed marriage. La Mothe Fenelon to Charles IX., November 11, 1573, Correspondance diplomatique, v. 443.

[1333] Despatch of Aug. 20, ibid., v. 394.

[1334] The correspondence of La Mothe Fenelon, as preserved, is not dest.i.tute of interest. See volumes v. and vi., _pa.s.sim_; as also Le Laboureur, Additions a Castelnau, vol. iii., pp. 350, _seq._

[1335] De Thou, v. 12.

[1336] "Achten's dafur dieweil es den Franzosen gelungen das sie das Konigreich Polen ann sich practicirt, das sie darvon so hochmuthig wordenn das sie mussen nun Hern der ganze weltt werdenn."

[1337] Letters of Landgrave William, Sept. 8th, Oct. 17th and Nov. 6th, 1573, Groen van Prinsterer, iv. 116*, 118*, 123*. See also Soldan, ii.

552-556, who, as usual, is very full and satisfactory in everything bearing upon the relations of France to Germany. Rudolph, Maximilian's son, who succeeded his father three years later, was unfortunately far from embodying the excellences desired by the landgrave. It may be questioned whether the Protestants of Germany would have fared worse even under a Valois than under this degenerate Hapsburger.

[1338] Louis of Na.s.sau to William of Orange, December, 1573. Groen van Prinsterer, iv. 278-281.

[1339] Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, ii. 534-538. J. de Serres, iv., fol. 134, gives the date as April 17th. This volume of Serres was published in the succeeding year, 1575.

[1340] The writer of an anonymous letter (now in the library of Prince Czartoryski), who saw Henry as he rode into Heidelberg, with Louis of Na.s.sau on his right hand, and Duke Christopher, the elector's son, on his left, thus describes his personal appearance: "h.o.m.o procera statura, corpore gracili, facie oblonga pallida, oculis paululum prominentibus, vultu subtruculento, indutus pallio holoserico rubri coloris." Heidelberg letter "de transitu Henrici," etc., Dec. 22, 1573, _apud_ Marquis de Noailles, Henri de Valois et la Pologne (Paris, 1867), iii. (Pieces justif.), 532.

[1341] Germany seems to have been full of blind rumors of treacherous designs on the part of its French neighbors. I have before me a pamphlet of little historical value, and evidently intended for popular circulation, ent.i.tled "Entdeckung etlicher heimlichen Practicken, so jetzund vorhanden wider unser geliebtes Vatterland, die Teutsche Nation, was man gantzlich willens und ins werck zubringen, gegen den Evangelischen furgenommen habe, durch einen guthertzigen und getrewen Christen unserm Vatterland zu gutem an tag geben. M.D.LXXIII."

[1342] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.), 22; Mem. de Pierre de Lestoile (ed.

Michaud et Poujoulat), i. 27.

[1343] "Was sich in Franckreich zugetragen, weiss man auch."

[1344] The minute of the conversation drawn up by the elector palatine with his own hand, and printed by Lalanne in the appendix to the fourth volume of his edition of Brantome's Works (411-418), is by far the most trustworthy source of information we possess. On the last count of the elector's indictment, Anjou's defence was certainly very lame: "Da.s.s ich selbst an seines Altvatters Hof gesehen _que c'a ete une Cour fort dissolue_, aber seines Brudern und Frau Mutter Hof demselbigen bey weitem nicht zu vergleichen." Ibid., 414.

[1345] "C'est ce qui fit croire a bien des gens, que l'Electeur n'avoit pas recu un hote comme Henri aussi poliment qu'il le devoit." De Thou, v.

(liv. lvii.) 22.

[1346] Heidelberg letter of Dec. 22, 1573, Czartoryski MSS., De Noailles, Pieces justif., iii. 533. See _ante_, p. 485.

[1347] Heidelberg letter, _ubi supra_, iii. 534.

[1348] Jean de Serres (edit. 1571), iii. 284; A. d'Aubigne, i. 264, "Pource que le Chancelier de l'Hospital ne pouvoit travailler de coeur en mesme temps aux violentes depesches de Thavanes, de Montluc et autres, et aux douceurs du Mareschal de Cosse, il ne fallut qu'un souspir de probite pour lui faire oster les sceaux; ce que fit la Roine en le relegant en sa maison pres Estampes jusques a la fin de ses jours." See also Languet's letter of September 20, 1568.

[1349] Chancellor de l'Hospital to Charles IX., January 12, 1573, copy discovered in the MSS. of the National Library, Paris, by Prof. Soldan, and printed in Appendix XI. of his history.

[1350] _Ante_, chapter xv., p. 264, note.

[1351] "M. le chancelier de l'Hospital qui avoit les fleurs de lys dans le coeur." Journal de Lestoile, p. 16.

[1352] "Politici (novum enim hoc nomen ex novo negotio sub hoc tempus natum)." Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 132.

[1353] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 115-117. The dedication of Hotman's Franco-Gallia to the elector palatine is dated August 21, 1573.

[1354] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 122. Serres gives an extended summary of the work, whose author is unknown to him, fols. 119-128.

[1355] Eusebii Philadelphi Dialog., ii. 117, _et pa.s.sim_. See also the Tocsain contre les ma.s.sacreurs, which, although published as late as 1579, was written before the death of Charles the Ninth (see the address of the printer, dated June 25, 1577), where the king is directly compared to the Emperor Nero. Archives curieuses, vii. 162.

[1356] They had, however, generally retracted their admissions of complicity made on the rack.