FOOTNOTES:
[1253] Jean de Serres, Commentaria de statu rel. et reipublicæ, iv., fol. 60 verso. I have made use, up to 1570, of the first edition of this work, published in three volumes in 1571, my copy being one formerly belonging to the library of Ludovico Manini, the last doge of Venice. From 1570 on I refer to the edition of 1575, which comprises a fourth and rarer volume, bringing down the history to the close of the reign of Charles. A comparison between this edition and the later edition of 1577 brings out the interesting circumstance that many Huguenots of little courage, who at first apostatized, afterward returned to their old faith. Thus, the edition of 1575 reads (iv. 51 v.): "Vix enim dici possit, quam multi ad primum illum impetum a Religione resiluerint, mortis amittendarumque facultatum metu, quorum plerique etiamnum hærent in luto." The words I have italicized are omitted in the edition of 1577, as quoted by Soldan, ii. 473.
[1254] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 61.
[1255] Ib., ubi supra.
[1256] Borrel, Histoire de l'église réformée de Nîmes (Toulouse, 1856), pp. 77, 78, from Archives of the Hôtel-de-ville.
[1257] J. de Serres, iv., fols. 68-70; Borrel, Hist. de l'égl. réf. de Nîmes, 78, 79; De Thou, iv. 663.
[1258] See ante, chapter xviii., p. 480.
[1259] Agrippa d'Aubigné, Hist. univ., ii. 38 (liv. i., c. 8). Neither De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 659, nor J. de Serres (either in his Commentaria de statu rel. et reip., iv. 68, or in his Inventaire général de l'histoire de France, Genève, 1619), makes any allusion to Regnier's combat, while the former expressly, and the latter by implication, refer to his agency in persuading the inhabitants of Montauban to espouse the Protestant cause in arms. I incline to think, nevertheless, that D'Aubigné has neither misplaced nor exaggerated a brilliant little affair which was certainly to his taste.
[1260] J. de Serres, De statu, etc., iv., fol. 63; De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 647.
[1261] Reveille-Matin, 200; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi (1574), i. 57.
[1262] Arcère, Histoire de la Rochelle, i. 405. The records of the customs showed that 30,000 casks of wine were brought in. An ample supply of powder was also secured by offering a bonus of ten per cent, to all that imported it from abroad.
[1263] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 65; De Thou, iv. 649.
[1264] "Affirmabant vero haudquaquam se facere contra officium et antiqua sua privilegia, per quæ illis tribueretur exemptio ab omni præterquam ex sua civitate delecto ab ipsis præsidio, et facultas sese suis armis custodiendi." Such was the claim of the Rochellois in answer to Strozzi's summons. Jean de Serres, iv. 63.
[1265] Arcère, i. 412.
[1266] Ibid., i. 422; De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 654; J. de Serres, iv., fols. 75, 76.
[1267] Delmas, Église réf. de la Rochelle, 105, 106. The same author cites Henry IV.'s eulogy: "Il était grand homme de guerre, et plus grand homme de bien." See also De Thou's strong expressions, viii. (liv. cii.) 8.
[1268] See the detailed "Carte du Pays d'Aulnis, avec les Isles de Ré, d'Oléron, et Provinces voisines, dressée en 1756," prefixed to the first volume of Arcère, Histoire de la Rochelle.
[1269] Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 34, 35 (liv. i., c. 6); De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 655-656; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 75; Arcère, i. 427-429.
[1270] Arcère, i. 429, partly on MS. authority.
[1271] Ibid., i. 430.
[1272] The attitude of the Huguenot general had been and yet was one of the strangest. That he was able in the end to extricate himself without a stain attaching to his honor is still more remarkable. Both king and Protestants understood full well that he would counsel nothing which was not for the interest of both; and it was, therefore, no violation of his duty as envoy of Charles, if, as Jean de Serres informs us, when urging an amicable arrangement, he privately advised the Rochellois to admit no one into the city in the king's name, before receiving ample provisions for their security. Commentarii de statu religionis et reipublicæ, iv., fol. 75.
[1273] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 76.
[1274] Ibid., iv., fol. 81.
[1275] See the very clear account in the "Description chorographique de l'Aulnis," by Arcère, prefixed to his history of La Rochelle, i. 97, etc.
[1276] Compare Arcère, i. 418, etc., and, especially, his plan of the city in 1573. See also Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 83; De Thou, iv. (liv. lv.) 759-761; D'Aubigné, ii. 36, 37 (liv. i., c. 7).
[1277] De Thou, iv. (liv. lv.) 765; Arcère, i. 436.
[1278] De Thou, iv. 761; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 68.
[1279] E.g., of Virolet, Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 76.
[1280] Feb. 15th, according to J. de Serres, iv., fol. 83. Arcère (i. 452) says Feb. 12th.
[1281] Arcère, i. 458.
[1282] So, at least, Brantôme expressed himself. He was with the army before La Rochelle.
[1283] Letter of Catharine, March 17th, Arcère, i. 466.
[1284] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 789; Arcère, i. 489, 490; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 99, etc.
[1285] The poor, according to Jean de Serres, came to use the shell-fish in lieu of bread. If, as he assures us on the authority of men deserving credit, the supply ceased almost on that precise day upon which the royal army left the neighborhood, after the conclusion of peace, the reformed may be pardoned for regarding the fact as a miracle little inferior to that of the manna which never failed the ancient Israelites until they set foot in Canaan. Commentarii de statu religionis et reipublicæ, iv. 104 verso. "Dont lez reformez ont encores les tableaux en leurs maisons pour mémoire comme d'un miracle," writes Agrippa d'Aubigné, about forty years later (Hist. universelle, 1616, ii. 53).
[1286] Arcère, i. 504, 505.
[1287] Arcère, ubi supra.
[1288] Arcère, i. 477, 480.
[1289] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 780; Arcère, i. 477; D'Aubigné, ii. 45 (liv. i., c. 9).
[1290] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 102; Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 48 (liv. i., c. 9); De Thou, iv. 767, 786, 787, etc.
[1291] La Mothe Fénélon to Charles IX., June 3, 1573. Corresp. diplom., v. 339.
[1292] Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 87) states the length of the siege of Sommières as four months, and the loss of men as five thousand killed. The Recueil des choses mémorables, 1598 (p. 485), ascribed to the same author, reduces the loss one-half. Cf. De Thou, iv. 746-748.
[1293] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 88, 89; De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 749, 750.
[1294] "In ipso regni umbilico." Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 92.
[1295] Ibid., iv., fols. 72, 77, 79; Ag. d'Aubigné, ii. 40, 41; De Thou, iv. (liv. liv.) 660-663.
[1296] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 93, 94.
[1297] "Ut Ierosolymitanæ, Samaritanæ, Saguntinæ famis memoriam exæquare, nisi et exsuperare videatur." Ibid., iv., fol. 92.
[1298] "Discours de l'extrême famine, cherté de vivre, chairs, et autres choses non acoustumées pour la nourriture de l'homme, dont les assiégez dans la ville de Sancerre ont été affligez." 1574. Reprinted in Archives curieuses, viii. 19-82.
[1299] Edward Smedley, History of the Reformed Religion in France (London, 1834), ii. 88.
[1300] "Fade et douceastre," p. 24.
[1301] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 796. As early as on the twelfth of April, such was the discouragement felt in Paris, that orders were published to make "Paradises" in each parish, and to institute processions, to supplicate the favor of heaven, in view of the repulses experienced by the Roman Catholics before La Rochelle. Journal d'un curé ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), p. 158.
[1302] Histoire du siége de La Rochelle par le duc d'Anjou en 1573, par A. Genet, capitaine du génie; apud Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire du prot. français, ii. (1854) 96, 190.
[1303] Mémoires de Claude Haton, ii. 722.
[1304] At Troyes, for instance, where the poor who had flocked to the city were invited to meet at one of the gates, to receive each a loaf of bread and a piece of money. This done, they saw the gates closed upon them, and were informed from the ramparts that they must go elsewhere to find their living until the next harvest. Claude Haton, ii. 729.
[1305] Ante, chapter xix., p. 552.
[1306] Here is his letter to Henry: "Mon frère. Dieu nous a fait la grasse que vous estes ellu roy de Poulogne. J'en suis si ayse que je ne sçay que vous mander. Je loue Dieu de bon cœur; pardonnés moy, l'ayse me garde d'escrire. Je ne sceay que dire. Mon frère, je avons receu vostre lestre. Je suis vostre bien bon frère et amy, Charles." MS. Bibliothèque nationale, apud Haton, ii. 733.
[1307] The edict says expressly (Art. 5th): "Et y faire seulement les baptesmes et mariages à leur façon accoustumée sans plus grande assemblée, outre les parens, parrins et marrines, jusques au nombre de dix." Text in Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 98, etc., and Haag, France protestante, x. (Documents) 110-114. Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 107, etc.) and Von Polenz (Gesch. des Franz. Calvinismus, ii. 632) give a correct synopsis; but Soldan is wrong in including among the concessions "den Hausgottesdienst" (ii. 536), and De Thou still more incorrect when he speaks of "les prêches et la Cène" (iv., liv. lvi. 796).
[1308] According to Davila, Sancerre was not comprehended in the terms made with the Rochellois, "because it was not a free town under the king's absolute dominion as the rest, but under the seigniory of the Counts of Sancerre." London trans. of 1678, 193.
[1309] Jean de Léry, Discours de l'extrême famine, etc., 25-27.
[1310] Jean de Léry, 38.
[1311] Styled also, in the articles of capitulation, "le gouverneur par élection de ladite ville." He was an able and influential magistrate, who had been elected to the governorship of his native city at the time of the former troubles. Léry, 78-80.
[1312] Agrippa d'Aubigné (Hist. univ., ii. 104) distinctly represents La Chastre as desirous of destroying the entire city; while Léry (p. 77) and Davila (p. 193) are in doubt whether Johanneau's murder was not effected by his orders. Yet Léry 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 noble 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 Léry, 42.
[1314] Agrippa d'Aubigné, 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 ambassadors' arrival in Paris, is only too authentic. The "Prévôt 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 Châteauneuf. 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 institute 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'Aubigné, ii. 104; De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 821.
[1315] Article 4th. Text in Agrippa d'Aubigné, 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'Aubigné, ii. 107; Histoire du Languedoc, v. 322. It ought to be noted that the Montauban assembly in reality did little more than confirm the regulations drawn up by previous and less conspicuous political assemblies of the Huguenots held at Anduze in February, and at Réalmont, 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 document in Haag, France Protestante, x. (Pièces justificatives) 124, 125. M. Jean Loutchitzki has published in the Bulletin, xxii. (1873) 507-511, a list of the political assemblies 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, Sénéschaussée de Toloze, Auvergne, haute et basse Marche, Quercy, Périgord, Limosin, Agenois, Armignac, Cominges, Coustraux, Bigorre, Albret, Foix, Lauraguay, Albigeois, païs de Castres et Villelargue, Mirepoix, Carcassonne, et autres païs et provinces adjacentes."
[1321] Requête de l'assemblée de Montauban, in Haag, La France Protestante, x. (Pièces just.) 114-121.
[1322] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 113, 114; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 12, 13; Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 106.
[1323] Histoire du Languedoc, v. 322.
[1324] Agrippa d'Aubigné, ubi supra.
[1325] Jean de Serres, iv. (lib. xii.) fol. 114; D'Aubigné and De Thou, ubi supra. See also Languet (Epistolæ secretæ, 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'Aubigné, ubi supra. Hist. du Languedoc, v. 322: "pourvû 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 passés, ce que je leur défens très-expressement." Charles IX. to Damville, Oct. 18, 1573. Unfortunately, neither the promise nor the condition was observed over scrupulously.
[1327] The king's aunt, the Duchess of Savoy, his mother, and his brothers of Anjou and Alençon.
[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 Fénélon in a conversation reported by him June 3, 1573, Corr. dipl., v. 345, 346.
[1331] La Mothe Fénélon 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 dernière maladye aussy jaune que cuyvre, tout bouffy, deffiguré, bien fort petit 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 Fénélon to Charles IX., November 11, 1573, Correspondance diplomatique, v. 443.
[1333] Despatch of Aug. 20, ibid., v. 394.
[1334] The correspondence of La Mothe Fénélon, as preserved, is not destitute of interest. See volumes v. and vi., passim; as also Le Laboureur, Additions à Castelnau, vol. iii., pp. 350, seq.
[1335] De Thou, v. 12.
[1336] "Achten's dafür dieweil es den Franzosen gelungen das sie das Königreich Polen ann sich practicirt, das sie darvon so hochmüthig wordenn das sie müssen 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 Nassau 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 Nassau on his right hand, and Duke Christopher, the elector's son, on his left, thus describes his personal appearance: "Homo 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. (Pièces 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, entitled "Entdeckung etlicher heimlichen Practicken, so jetzund vorhanden wider unser geliebtes Vatterland, die Teutsche Nation, was man gäntzlich willens und ins werck zubringen, gegen den Evangelischen fürgenommen habe, durch einen guthertzigen und getrewen Christen unserm Vatterland zu gütem an tag geben. M.D.LXXIII."
[1342] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.), 22; Mém. de Pierre de Lestoile (éd. 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 Brantôme'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: "Dass ich selbst an seines Altvatters Hof gesehen que ç'a été 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 à bien des gens, que l'Electeur n'avoit pas recu un hôte 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, Pièces justif., iii. 533. See ante, p. 485.
[1347] Heidelberg letter, ubi supra, iii. 534.
[1348] Jean de Serres (edit. 1571), iii. 284; A. d'Aubigné, i. 264, "Pource que le Chancelier de l'Hospital ne pouvoit travailler de cœur en mesme temps aux violentes depesches de Thavanes, de Montluc et autres, et aux douceurs du Mareschal de Cossé, il ne fallut qu'un souspir de probité pour lui faire oster les sceaux; ce que fit la Roine en le relegant en sa maison près Estampes jusques à 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 cœur." 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 passim. See also the Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 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.
[1357] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 118; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 19, 20; Arcère, Histoire de la ville de la Rochelle, i. 533-540; Languet, Letter of Feb. 8, 1574, i. 229.
[1358] See the list of members in the protocol of the proceedings first published in the Bulletin de la Société de l'hist. du prot. français, x. (1862) 351-353.
[1359] In this, as in other particulars, the political assembly of Milhau merely re-enacted the provisions of the assembly of Réalmont. For the dates of the early political assemblies of the Huguenots, which must of course be carefully distinguished from their synods or ecclesiastical assemblies, see the list in the Bulletin, etc., xxii. (1873) 508.
[1360] Text of the document embodying the resolutions of the political assembly of Milhau, in Haag, La France protestante (vol. x.), Pièces justificatives, 121-126. The correct date seems to be Dec. 17th, instead of 16th; Bulletin, as above, x. 351. Cf. also Léonce Anquez, Histoire des assemblées politiques des réformés de France (1573-1622), Paris, 1859, 7-11.
[1361] Lettres d'Auger Gislen, seigneur de Busbec, amb. de l'emp. Rodolphe II. auprès de Henri III. Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses, x. 115.
[1362] "Dictitabat se Religionem reformatam minime probare; ensis tantum sui mucronem esse Religiosum: id est, se non Religionis doctrinam, sed Religiosorum causam sequi. Hujusmodi exemplis magnæ offensiones adversus Religiosos conflabantur." Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 118. The reader needs perhaps to be reminded that Religiosi here stands as the equivalent for the French designation of the Huguenots as "ceux de la Religion."
[1363] Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 113, 114 (liv. ii., c. 4); Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 117. Of "La Grande Chartreuse," which lies ten miles north of Grenoble, see a good account in R. Töpffer, Voyages en Zigzag, seconde série.
[1364] Languet, Epistolæ secretæ, i. 214, etc.
[1365] E. Arnaud, Histoire des protestants du Dauphiné aux xvie, xviie et xviiie siècles, Paris, 1875, i. 277-281; Ch. Charronet, Les guerres de religion et la société protestante dans les Hautes-Alpes (1560-1789), Gap., 1861, p. 75, etc.
[1366] Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 113; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.), 30.
[1367] "Fere omnes qui non fuerunt participes cædis Amiralii et aliorum, dicunt, Huguenotos merito corripere arma ad tutandam suam salutem, cum nihil observetur eorum quæ hactenus fuerunt ipsis promissa." Languet, letter of April 14, 1574, Epistolæ secretæ, i. 239.
[1368] "Et parmy leurs discours se representoient a chacun coup la journée de St. Barthélemy."
[1369] The interesting particulars of the conference we obtain from two long and very important despatches of Biron to Charles IX., dated, the one, Ernandes, April 24th, the other, April 26th and 27th, 1574, MSS. Imperial Lib. of St. Petersburg, communicated to the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., xxii. (1873) 401-413, by M. Jean Loutchitzki.
[1370] Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 117. Shrove Tuesday fell, in 1574, on March 9th.
[1371] Ten miles from the château de St. Germain, and about the same distance from the palace of the Louvre. A part of the old forest yet remains.
[1372] I follow Agrippa d'Aubigné, who here must be regarded as excellent authority, for not only was he present, but it was by his means ("par ma conduitte") that Guitry was introduced into Navarre's chamber. Hist. univ., ii. 119.
[1373] Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 138) and the Mémoires de l'estat (Archives curieuses, "Discours de l'entreprise de St. Germain," viii. 107-118) give the last of February for the date of the discovery of the undertaking of Alençon; but, from a comparison of letters, Prof. Soldan has shown (ii. 580) that it really was March 1st.
[1374] It is Agrippa d'Aubigné (Hist. univ., ii. 119) who depicts the scene. As he seems to have been present on the occasion, we may rely upon the truthfulness of the groundwork of his sketch, while ascribing a little of the coloring to the free hand of the artist.
[1375] The testimony of Navarre and others is preserved, and has been published, together with the interrogatories, in the Archives curieuses, viii. 127-221.
[1376] Pierre de Lestoile, Mémoires (éd. Michaud et Poujoulat), 30. Languet, letter of May 11, 1574, ii. 7, 8.
[1377] Jean de Serres, iv. 136; Languet, letter of May 11, 1574, ii. 8.
[1378] "Je sçais bien que ce sont des chats que vos huguenots, qui se retrouvent tousjours sur leurs pieds." Mém. de Pierre de Lestoile (éd. Michaud et Poujoulat), 53.
[1379] "Ains les laissant en paix comme ministres de l'utilité commune, et pères nourriciers des autres estats."
[1380] P. Brisson, Hist. et vray discours des guerres civiles ès pays de Poictou, apud Histoire des protestants et des églises réf. du Poitou, par Auguste Lièvre (Poitiers, 1856), i. 189, 190.
[1381] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 33.
[1382] De Thou, v. 44; Olhagaray, Hist. de Foix, etc., 638. Miss Freer ("Henry III., King of France, His Court and Times," i. 366) accepts the statement without question, while Prof. Soldan, ii. 587, rejects it, basing his action upon a passage in another treatise of D'Aubigné than that referred to below, viz.: "Choses notables et qui semblent dignes de l'histoire," in Archives curieuses, viii. 411.
[1383] Hist. univ., ii. 126. See a contemporary account: "La Prinse du Comte de Montgommery dedans le Chasteau de Donfron ... le Jeudy xxvii. de May, mil cinq cens soixante et quatorze. A Paris, 1574. Avec Privilege." Archives curieuses, viii. 223-238.
[1384] Aug. 13, 1569; see Olhagaray, Histoire de Foix, Béarn, et Navarre (Paris, 1609), pp. 616, 617. According to this author, "le voyage de Béarn, et le coup de Navarreux sur la noblesse du païs luy cousta cela," i.e., his execution. Ib., p. 639.
[1385] Mémoires d'un curé ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), pp. 168, 169. See ante, chapter xiii., p. 78. Chantonnay (despatch of May 6, 1562) speaks of Montgomery as "se ventant que la plus belle et digne œuvre que se soit jamais faicte en France, fut le coup de lance dont il tua le roy Henry. Je m'esbayhis comme la royne le peult dissimuler." Mém. de Condé, ii. 37.
[1386] "Discours de la Mort et Exécution de Gabriel Comte de Montgommery, par Arrest de la Court, pour les conspirations et menees par luy commises, contre le Roy et son estat. Qui fut à Paris, le vingtsixiesme de Iuing, 1574. A Paris, 1574. Avec priv." (Archives cur., viii. 239-253.)
[1387] Doubtless repeating the words of the Confession of Sins, beginning: "Seigneur Dieu, Père Eternel et Tout-puissant," etc., a form loved by the Huguenots, and often on the lips of martyrs for the faith.
[1388] Mémoires de Lestoile, i. 38. Agrippa d'Aubigné gives us (ii. 131) a full account of Montgomery's address, which he himself heard, mounted, as he informs us, "en croupe" behind M. de Fervaques, to whom Montgomery bade farewell just before his death. The Huguenot captain made but two requests of the bystanders: "the first, that they would tell his children, whom the judges had declared to be degraded to the rank of 'roturiers,' that, if they had not virtue of nobility enough to reassert their position, their father consented to the act; as for the other request, he conjured them, by the respect due to the words of a dying man, not to represent him to others as beheaded for any of the reasons assigned in his judicial condemnation—his wars, expeditions, and ensigns won—subjects of frivolous praise to vain men—but to make him the companion in cause and in death of so many simple persons according to the world—old men, young men, and poor women—who in that same place (the Place de Grève) had endured fire and knife." D'Aubigné's narrative, as usual, is vivid, and mentions somewhat trivial details, which, however, are additional pledges of its accuracy; e.g., he alludes to the fact that, having spoken as above to those who stood on the side toward the river, he repeated his remarks to those on the other side of the Place de Grève, beginning with the words, "I was saying to the men yonder," etc.
[1389] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 48.
[1390] Hist. univ., ii. (liv. ii.) 129.
[1391] Mémoires de Pierre de Lestoile (éd. Michaud et Poujoulat), i. 31.
[1392] De Thou, v. 48; text in Isambert, Recueil des anc. lois fr., xiv. 262.
[1393] Mémoires de Claude Haton, ii. 764
[1394] North British Review, Oct., 1869, p. 27.
[1395] Or, as Sorbin expressed it, "qu'il voyoit l'idole Calvinesque n'estre encores du tout chassée." Le vray resveille-matin des Calvinistes, 88, ibid., ubi supra. The expression, it will be noticed, contains a distinct reference to the anagram upon the name of "Charles de Valois"—"va chasser l'idole," upon which the Huguenots had founded brilliant hopes. See ante, chapter xiii., p. 123. On the other hand, since the massacre, some Huguenot had discovered that from the same name could be obtained the appropriate words "chasseur déloyal." Recueil des choses mémorables (1598), 506.
[1396] Languet, ii. 16.
[1397] Agrippa D'Aubigné, ii. 129; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 50. Charles left but one legitimate child, a daughter, born Oct. 27, 1572, who died in her sixth year.
[1398] Claude Haton, never more himself than when recounting the circumstances of a case of murder, whether by sword or by poison, fully credits the story; but the letter of Catharine to M. de Matignon, written on the 31st of May, gives an intelligible account of the results of the medical examination establishing the pulmonary nature of the king's disease.
[1399] Jean de Serres, Comment de statu, etc., iv., fol. 137.
[1400] See examples given by White (Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 480) and others.
[1401] De Thou and others ascribe to Albert de Gondy, Count of Retz, one of Charles's early instructors and a creature of Catharine de' Medici, the unenviable credit of having taught the young monarch never to tell the truth, and to use those horrible imprecations which startled even the profane when coming from the lips of a dying man. De Thou, v. 47, etc. See also Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 137, and Brantôme, Le roy Charles IXe.
[1402] See the contemporary pamphlet, "Le Trespas et Obsèques du très-chrestien roy de France, Charles IXe. de ce Nom;" reprinted in Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses.