History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume I Part 40

[Footnote 710: The date is variously given as the 25th or 26th of May.

The latter, adopted by the Histoire ecclesiastique, is probably correct.

See Triqueti, Premiers jours du protestantisme en France (Paris, 1859), 253, 254.]

[Footnote 711: "Confession de Foy faite d'un commun accord par les Francoys, qui desirent vivre selon la purite de l'Evangile," etc. In the Recueil des choses memorables (1565) this doc.u.ment is published with the preface and the supplicatory letter addressed to the king (Francis II.) after the "Tumulte d'Amboise."]

[Footnote 712: The proceedings of the first French National Synod are best given in Aymon, Tous les synodes nationaux des eglises ref. de France (La Haye, 1710), i. 1-12; Hist. univ. du sieur d'Aubigne, liv.

ii., c. iii., t. i., pp. 56-64. They are faithfully, although not always literally, translated in Quick's Synodicon in Gallia Reformata (London, 1692), i., viii.-xv., 2-7. See also Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 108-121; La Place, Com. de l'estat de la religion, et republique soubs les roys Henry et Francois Seconds, etc., 14-16.]

[Footnote 713: See the history of the Hotel des Tournelles and the plan of Paris in the reign of Francis I., in Dulaure, Hist. de Paris, iii.

355-357, and Atlas.]

[Footnote 714: "Duquel lieu tous les prisonniers de leans pouvoyent ouir les clairons, hault-bois et trompettes dudict tournoy." Discours de la mort du Roy Henry II., Recueil des choses memorables, p. 5; Memoires de Conde, i. 216.]

[Footnote 715: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 716: "I am credibly enformed, that the Frenche King, after the perfection of the ceremonies toching his doughter and King Philip, and his suster to the Duke of Savoy, myndeth himself to make a journey to the countreis of Poictou, Gascoigne, Guyon, and other places, for the repressing of religion; and to use th' extremest persecution he may against the protestants in his countreys, and the like in Scotlande; and that with celerite, ymediatly after the finishing of the same ceremonies." Throkmorton to Cecil, May 23, 1559, Forbes, State Papers, i. 101.]

[Footnote 717: "Paix blasmable, dont les flambeaux de joye furent les torches funebres du roy Henry II." Mem. de Tavannes, ii. 242.]

[Footnote 718: "The last of this present." Throkmorton to Council, June 30 and July 1, 1559. Forbes, State Papers, i. 151. So in a subsequent letter, relating a message to him from the constable on July 1st, he speaks of "the mischaunce happened the daie before to the king." Ibid., i. 154.]

[Footnote 719: Hist. eccles., i. 123, 124. Catharine de' Medici's dream, in which the Huguenots saw a parallel to that of Pilate's wife, was not a fabrication of theirs. According to her daughter Margaret, Catharine had many such visions on the eve of important events. "Mesme _la nuict devant la miserable course de lice_, elle songea comme elle voyoit le feu Roy mon pere blesse a l'il, comme il fust; et estant esveillee, elle le supplia _plusieurs fois_ de ne vouloir point courir ce jour, et vouloir se contenter de voir le plaisir du tournoi, sans en vouloir estre. Mais l'inevitable destin ne permit tant de bien a ce royaume, qu'il put recevoir cet utile conseil." Memoires de Marguerite de Valois (edition of French Hist. Soc.), 42.]

[Footnote 720: Pierre de Lestoile, 14.]

[Footnote 721: Lettere di Principi, iii. 196, apud Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France in the 16th and 17th centuries, Am. tr., p. 167. Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, who alone of the diplomatic corps was an eye-witness, thus describes the scene in a letter written the same evening: "Wherat it happened, that the King, after he had ronne a good many courses very well and faire, meeting with yong Monsieur de Lorges, capitaine of the scottishe garde, received at the said de Lorge his hands such a counterbuff, as, the blow first lighting upon the King's head, and taking away the pannage which was fastened to his hedpece with yron, he dyd break his staff withall; and so with the rest of the staff hitting the King upon the face gave him such a counterbuff, as he drove a splinte right over his eye on his right side: the force of which stroke was so vehement, and the paine he had withall so great, as he was moch astonished, and had great ado (with reling to and from) to kepe himself on horseback; and his horse in like manner dyd somwhat yeld.

Wherupon with all expedition he was unarmed in the field, even against the place where I stode.... I noted him to be very weake, and to have the sens of all his lymmes almost benommed; for being caryed away, as he lay along, nothing covered but his face, he moved nether hand nor fote, but laye as one amased." Letter to the Council, June 30 and July 1, 1559, Forbes, State Papers, i. 151.]

[Footnote 722: Discours de la mort du Roy Henry II., _in fine_. Recueil des choses memorables, and Mem. de Conde, i. 216.]

[Footnote 723: Hist. eccles., i. 123, 124. The singular coincidence is no invention of the Protestants. It is confirmed by a contemporary pamphlet by the "king-at-arms of Dauphiny" (Paris, 1559), _Le Trespas et Ordre des Obseques, ... de feu de tresheureuse memoire le Roy Henry deuxieme_, etc., which says: "La dicte salle, ensemble lesdicts theatres, estoient tendus tout autour d'une tap.i.s.serie d'or et de soie a grandes figures, _des actes des apostres_." (Reprint of Cimber et Danjou, iii. 317.)]

[Footnote 724: De Thou, ii. 674. Yet Francis II., in the preamble to the commission as lieutenant-general given to Guise, March 17, 1560, seems incidentally to vouch for the contrary: "Voire de telle sorte que nostredit seigneur et _pere, a son decez_, ne nous auroit rien tant recommande, que d'user a nosdits subjets de toutes gracieusetez," etc.

Recueil de choses mem., 20. Card. Santa Croce speaks of him as "ita ex vulnere concussus, ut primo die sensum fere omnem amiserit." De civilibus Galliae dissentionibus commentaria (Martene et Durand, Ampliss.

Collectio), v. 1438, 1439.]

[Footnote 725: Discours de la mort du Roy Henry II., Recueil des choses mem., _in initio_, and Mem. de Conde, i. 213-216; La Planche, 202; La Place, Commentaires, etc., 20; J. de Serres, De statu rel., etc. (1570), i., fol. 18; Hist. eccles., i. 123; De Thou, ii. 674; Davila (Cottrell's tr.), p. 11; Santa Croce, v. 1438, etc. It is characteristic that so important a date as that of the fatal tournament should be differently stated; La Place, the Hist. eccles., and De Thou making it June 29th.

The confusion is increased by subsequent writers. Motley (Rise of the Dutch Republic, i. 204) making Henry die on the 10th of July of the wound inflicted _eleven_ days before, and Prescott (Philip the Second, i. 295) representing him as lingering _ten_ days and dying on the _ninth_ of July.]

[Footnote 726: Professor Baum published the "Maniere et Fa.s.son," on the occasion of the Tercentenary of the French Reformed Church, in 1859, in an elegantly printed pamphlet, itself a fac-simile of the original in all respects, except the use of Roman in place of Gothic letters. This pamphlet in turn is out of print, and it is to Professor Baum's kindness that I am indebted for the copy of which I have made use.]

[Footnote 727: Printed with marginal notes giving all modifications in other early editions in Joh. Calvini Opera (Baum, Cunitz, et Reuss), 1867, v. 164-223--a work which is the result of almost incredible labor and research. In February, 1868, the distinguished senior editor wrote to me: "Nous avons deja maintenant copie de notre main et collationne a Neufchatel, a Geneve et autres endroits, quelque chose comme _six mille pieces, lettres et consilia et autres calviniana_."]

[Footnote 728: The beautiful pet.i.tions for "all our poor brethren who are dispersed under the tyranny of Antichrist," and for prisoners and those persecuted by the enemies of the Gospel, were not in the original edition, but appear in that of 1558. Calv. Opera, Baum, Cunitz and Reuss, vi. 177, note.]

CHAPTER IX.

FRANCIS THE SECOND AND THE TUMULT OF AMBOISE.

[Sidenote: The victims breathe more freely.]

[Sidenote: Epigrams on the death of Henry.]

The plans carefully matured by Henry for the suppression of the reformed doctrines were disarranged by his sudden death. The expected victims of the Spanish Inquisition, which he was to have established in France, breathed more freely. It was not wonderful that the "Calvinists,"

according to an unfriendly historian, preached of the late monarch's fate as miraculous, and magnified it to their advantage;[729] for they saw in it an interposition of the Almighty in their behalf, as signal as any ill.u.s.trating the Jewish annals. Epigrams of no little merit were composed on the event, and were widely circulated. One likened the lance of Montgomery to the stone from David's sling, which became "the unexpected salvation of the saints."[730] In another, Henry is the soldier who pierces the Crucified through the side of those whom He styles His members; but the impious weapon--such is Heaven's avenging decree--shall be stained with the murderer's own blood.[731] These verses, and others like them, obtaining great currency, offended the ears of the late king's favorites and of the devoted adherents of the Roman Catholic Church, who ceased not for years to pour forth lamentations over the untimely death of Henry the Second, and the ill-starred peace with which it was so closely connected.[732]

[Sidenote: The young king.]

From the hands of a monarch in the prime of life, the sceptre had pa.s.sed into those of a stripling of sixteen, who was unfortunately endowed neither with his grandfather's intellect nor with his father's vigor of body; but who inherited the enfeebled mental and physical const.i.tution which was, perhaps, the result of the excesses of both. Although married to the beautiful Queen of Scots, some time before his father's reign came to its tragic conclusion, Francis the Second exhibited few of the instincts of a man and of a king, and showed himself to be even more of a minor in intelligence than in years. Content to leave the cares of government to his favorites, he sought only for repose and pleasure. Yet in this, as has been the case in more than one other instance, the most turbulent lot fell to him who would gladly have chosen quiet and sloth.

[Sidenote: Fall of the constable's power.]

With Henry's last breath, the supremacy of Constable Montmorency in the councils of state came to an end. In view of the minority of the successor to the throne, two measures were dictated by the customs of the realm--the appointment of the nearest prince of royal blood as regent, and the immediate convocation of the States General to confirm the selection, and to a.s.sign to the regent a competent council of state.[733] Unfortunately for the interests of France during the succeeding half-century, there were powerful personages interested in opposing this most natural and just arrangement, and there were specious excuses behind which their ambitious designs might shelter themselves.

The Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise, with the queen mother, maintained that Francis was in all respects competent to rule; that he had already pa.s.sed the age at which previous kings had a.s.sumed the reins of government; that the laws had prescribed the time from which the majority of subjects, not of the monarch, should be reckoned;[734]

that, if too young himself to bear the entire burden of the administration, he could delegate his authority to those of his own kin in whom he reposed implicit confidence. There was, therefore, no necessity for establishing a regency, still less for a.s.sembling the States General--an impolitic step even in the most quiet times, but fraught with special peril when grave dissensions threaten the kingdom.

[Sidenote: Catharine de' Medici a.s.sumes an important part.]

With the advent of her eldest son to the throne, Catharine de' Medici first a.s.sumed a prominent position, although not an all-controlling influence at court. During the reign of Francis the First she had enjoyed little consideration. Her marriage with Henry, in 1533, had given, as we have seen, little satisfaction to the people, who believed that her kinsman, Pope Clement the Seventh, had deceived the king; and Francis himself, disappointed in his ambitious designs by the pontiff's speedy death, looked upon her with little favor. For several years she had borne no children, and Henry was urged to put her away on the ground of barrenness. Nor was she more happy when her prayers had been answered, and a family of four sons and three daughters blessed her marriage. Her husband's infatuation respecting Diana of Poitiers embittered her life when dauphiness, and compelled her as queen to tolerate the presence of the king's mistress, and pay her an insincere respect. Excluded from all partic.i.p.ation in the control of affairs, she fawned upon power where her ambitious nature would have sought to rule.

Concealing her chagrin beneath an exterior of contentment, she exhibited, if we may believe the Venetian Soranzo, such benignity of disposition, especially to her own countrymen, that it would be impossible to convey an idea of the love entertained for her both by the court and by the entire kingdom.[735]

[Sidenote: Her timidity and dissimulation.]

[Sidenote: She dismisses Diana of Poitiers.]

Hypocrisy is the vice of timid natures. Such, we have the authority of a contemporary, and one who knew her well, for stating the nature of Catharine was.[736] In her, however, dissimulation was a well-known family trait, which she possessed in common with her kinsman, Pope Leo the Tenth, and all her house.[737] And it must be admitted that the idiosyncrasy had had a fair chance to develop during the five-and-twenty years she had spent in France, threatened with repudiation, contemned as an Italian upstart, suffering the gravest insult at the hands of her husband, but forced to dissemble, and to hide the pain his neglect gave her from the eyes of the curious world. Nor was her position altogether an easy one even now. It is true that her womanly revenge was gratified by the instant dismissal of the d.u.c.h.ess of Valentinois, who, if she retained the greater part of her ill-gotten wealth, owed it to the joint influence of Lorraine and Guise, whose younger brother, the Duke of Aumale, had married Diana's daughter.[738] But her ambitious plan, while securing the authority of her children, to rule herself, was likely to be frustrated by the pretensions of the two families of Montmoreney and Guise, raised by the late monarch to inordinate power in the state, and by the claim to the regency which Antoine of Bourbon-Vendome, King of Navarre, might justly a.s.sert. To establish herself in opposition to all these, her sagacity taught her was impossible. To prevail by allying herself to the most powerful and those from whom she could extort the best terms seemed to be the most politic course. Her choice was quickly made. It was unfortunate for France that her prudence partook more of the character of low cunning than of true wisdom, and that, in seeking a temporary ascendancy, she neglected the true interests of her own children and of the kingdom they inherited.

[Sidenote: Her alliance with the Guises.]

In order to prevent the convocation of the States and the appointment of the King of Navarre as regent, but one course appeared to be open to Catharine: she must throw herself into the arms of the Guises. Only thus could she become free from the odious dictation of the constable, under which she had groaned during her husband's reign. The Guises had had a narrow escape, it was said; for Henry the Second, having tardily discovered the insatiable ambition of the Lorraine family, had definitely made up his mind to banish them from court.[739] Now availing themselves of the great influence of their niece, Mary Stuart, over her royal husband, the duke and the cardinal prepared, by a bold stroke, to become masters of the administration, and made to Catharine such liberal offers of power that she readily acquiesced in their plans.

Of their formidable rivals, the King of Navarre was at a distance, in the south. The constable alone was dangerously near. But an immemorial custom furnished a convenient excuse for setting him aside. The body of the deceased monarch must lie in state for the forty days previous to its interment, under protection of a guard of honor selected from among his most trusty servants. Upon Montmorency, as grand master of the palace, devolved the chief care of his late Majesty's remains.[740]

Delighted to have their princ.i.p.al rival so well occupied, the cardinal and the duke hastened from the Tournelles to secure the person of the living monarch.

[Sidenote: The Guises make themselves masters of the king.]

When the delegates of the parliaments of France came, a few days later, to congratulate Francis on his accession, and inquired to whom they should henceforth address themselves, the programme was already fully arranged. The king had been well drilled in his little speech. He had, he said, committed the direction of the state to the hands of his two uncles, and desired the same obedience to be shown to them as to himself.[741]

[Sidenote: The court fool's sensible remark.]

The Cardinal of Lorraine was intrusted with the civil administration and the finances. His brother became head of the department of war, without the t.i.tle, but with the full powers, of constable.[742] Of royalty little was left Francis but the empty name.[743] There was sober truth lurking beneath the saucy remark of Brisquet, the court fool, who told Francis that in the time of his Majesty's father he used to put up at the "_Crescent_," but at present he lodged at the "_Three Kings_!"[744]

[Sidenote: Montmorency retires to his own estates,]