CONTENTS
[ CHAPTER XXXV.] HENRY IV., PROTESTANT KING. (1589-1593.)
[ CHAPTER XXXVI.] HENRY IV., CATHOLIC KING. (1593-1610.)
[ CHAPTER XXXVII.] REGENCY OF MARY DE’ MEDICI. (1610-1617.)
[ CHAPTER XXXVIII.] LOUIS XIII., CARDINAL RICHELIEU, AND THE COURT.
[ CHAPTER XXXIX.] LOUIS XIII., CARDINAL RICHELIEU, AND THE PROVINCES.
[ CHAPTER XL.] LOUIS XIII., RICHELIEU--CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS.
[ CHAPTER XLI.] LOUIS XIII., CARDINAL RICHELIEU, AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
[ CHAPTER XII.] LOUIS XIII., RICHELIEU, AND LITERATURE.
[ CHAPTER XLIII.] LOUIS XIV., THE FRONDE--CARDINAL MAZARIN.
[ CHAPTER XLIV.] LOUIS XIV., HIS WARS AND HIS CONQUESTS. 1661-1697.
[ CHAPTER XLV.] LOUIS XIV., HIS WARS AND HIS REVERSES. (1697-1713.)
[ CHAPTER XLVI.] LOUIS XIV. AND HOME ADMINISTRATION.
[ CHAPTER XLVII.] LOUIS XIV. AND RELIGION.
[ CHAPTER XLVIII.] LOUIS XIV., LITERATURE AND ART.ILLUSTRTIONS
[ “Do Not Lose Sight of My White Plume.”——30 ]
[ Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma——32 ]
[ Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne——35 ]
[ Lemaitre, Mayenne, and the Archbishop of Lyons——53 ]
[ Henry IV.‘s Abjuration——56 ]
[ The Castle of Monceaux——91 ]
[ The Castle of St. Germain in the Reign Of Henry IV.—107 ]
[ The Castle of Fontainbleau——124 ]
[ Henry IV. And his Ministers——138 ]
[ The Arsenal in the Reign of Henry IV.——143 ]
[ Concini, Leonora Galigai, and Mary De’ Medici——149 ]
[ Louis XIII. And Albert de Luynes——154 ]
[ Murder of Marshal D’Ancre——155 ]
[ “Tapping With his Finger-tips on the Window-pane.”——191 ]
[ Henry, Duke of Montmorency, at Castelnaudary——199 ]
[ The King and the Cardinal——204 ]
[ Cinq-Mars and de Thou Going to Execution——215 ]
[ The Parliament of Paris Reprimanded——217 ]
[ The Abbot of St. Cyran——234 ]
[ Demolishing the Fortifications——244 ]
[ The Harbor of La Rochelle—-248 ]
[ The King and Richelieu at La Rochelle——250 ]
[ The Defile of Suza Pass——278 ]
[ Richelieu and Father Joseph——280 ]
[ Death of Gustavus and his Page——290 ]
[ The Tomb of Richelieu——308 ]
[ Descartes at Amsterdam——316 ]
[ The Representation of “The Cid.”——335 ]
[ Corneille at the Hotel Rambouillet—-342 ]
[ “Ah, Wretch, if Thy Father Saw Thee!”——354 ]
[ The Great Mademoiselle——373 ]
[ Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin——394 ]
[ Louis XIV. Dismissing Fouquet——407 ]
[ William III., Prince of Orange——434 ]
[ An Exploit of John Bart’s——446 ]
[ Duquesne Victorious over Ruyter—446a ]
[ Battle of St. Vincent 465a ]
[ The Battle of Neerwinden——465 ]
[ “Here is the King of Spain.”——475 ]
[ News for William III.——481 ]
[ Bivouac of Louis XIV.——503 ]
[ Marshal Villars and Prince Eugene——512 ]
[ Colonnade of the Louvre 525a ]
[ Misery of the Peasantry——543 ]
[ The Torture of the Huguenots—552 ]
[ Revocation of the Edict Of Nantes——556 ]
[ Death of Roland the Camisard——569 ]
[ Fenelon and the Duke of Burgundy——610 ]
[ La Rochefoucauld and his Fair Friends——629 ]
[ Corneille Reading to Louis XIV.——642 ]
[ La Fontaine, Boileau, Moliere, and Racine——657 ]
A POPULAR HISTORY OF FRANCE
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES.
CHAPTER XXXV.
HENRY IV., PROTESTANT KING. (1589-1593.)
On the 2d of August, 1589, in the morning, upon his arrival in his quarters at Meudon, Henry of Navarre was saluted by the Protestants King of France. They were about five thousand in an army of forty thousand men. When, at ten o’clock, he entered the camp of the Catholics at St. Cloud, three of their principal leaders, Marshal d’Aumont, and Sires d’Humieres and de Givry, immediately acknowledged him unconditionally, as they had done the day before at the death-bed of Henry III., and they at once set to work to conciliate to him the noblesse of Champagne, Picardy, and Ile-de-France. “Sir,” said Givry, “you are the king of the brave; you will be deserted by none but dastards.” But the majority of the Catholic leaders received him with such expressions as, “Better die than endure a Huguenot king!” One of them, Francis d’O, formally declared to him that the time had come for him to choose between the insignificance of a King of Navarre and the grandeur of a King of France; if he pretended to the crown, he must first of all abjure. Henry firmly rejected these threatening entreaties, and left their camp with an urgent recommendation, to them to think of it well before bringing dissension into the royal army and the royal party which were protecting their privileges, their property, and their lives against the League. On returning to his quarters, he noticed the arrival of Marshal de Biron, who pressed him to lay hands without delay upon the crown of France, in order to guard it and save it. But, in the evening of that day and on the morrow, at the numerous meetings of the lords to deliberate upon the situation, the ardent Catholics renewed their demand for the exclusion of Henry from the throne if he did not at once abjure, and for referring the election of a king to the states-general. Biron himself proposed not to declare Henry king, but to recognize him merely as captain-general of the army pending his abjuration. Harlay de Sancy vigorously maintained the cause of the Salic law and the hereditary rights of monarchy. Biron took him aside and said, “I had hitherto thought that you had sense; now I doubt it. If, before securing our own position with the King of Navarre, we completely establish his, he will no longer care for us. The time is come for making our terms; if we let the occasion escape us, we shall never recover it.” “What are your terms?” asked Sancy. “If it please the king to give me the countship of Perigord, I shall be his forever.” Sancy reported this conversation to the king, who promised Biron what he wanted.
Though King of France for but two days past, Henry IV. had already perfectly understood and steadily taken the measure of the situation. He was in a great minority throughout the country as well as the army, and he would have to deal with public passions, worked by his foes for their own ends, and with the personal pretensions of his partisans. He made no mistake about these two facts, and he allowed them great weight; but he did not take for the ruling principle of his policy and for his first rule of conduct the plan of alternate concessions to the different parties and of continually humoring personal interests; he set his thoughts higher, upon the general and natural interests of France as he found her and saw her. They resolved themselves, in his eyes, into the following great points: maintenance of the hereditary rights of monarchy, preponderance of Catholics in the government, peace between Catholics and Protestants, and religious liberty for Protestants. With him these points became the law of his policy and his kingly duty, as well as the nation’s right. He proclaimed them in the first words that he addressed to the lords and principal personages of state assembled around him. “You all know,” said he, “what orders the late king my predecessor gave me, and what he enjoined upon me with his dying breath. It was chiefly to maintain my subjects, Catholic or Protestant, in equal freedom, until a council, canonical, general, or national, had decided this great dispute. I promised him to perform faithfully that which he bade me, and I regard it as one of my first duties to be as good as my word. I have heard that some who are in my army feel scruples about remaining in my service unless I embrace the Catholic religion. No doubt they think me weak enough for them to imagine that they can force me thereby to abjure my religion and break my word. I am very glad to inform them here, in presence of you all, that I would rather this were the last day of my life than take any step which might cause me to be suspected of having dreamt of renouncing the religion that I sucked in with my mother’s milk, before I have been better instructed by a lawful council, to whose authority I bow in advance. Let him who thinks so ill of me get him gone as soon as he pleases; I lay more store by a hundred good Frenchmen than by two hundred who could harbor sentiments so unworthy. Besides, though you should abandon me, I should have enough of friends left to enable me, without you and to your shame, with the sole assistance of their strong arms, to maintain the rights of my authority. But were I doomed to see myself deprived of even that assistance, still the God who has preserved me from my infancy, as if by His own hand, to sit upon the throne, will not abandon me. I nothing doubt that He will uphold me where He has placed me, not for love of me, but for the salvation of so many souls who pray, without ceasing, for His aid, and for whose freedom He has deigned to make use of my arm. You know that I am a Frenchman and the foe of all duplicity. For the seventeen years that I have been King of Navarre, I do not think that I have ever departed from my word. I beg you to address your prayers to the Lord on my behalf, that He may enlighten me in my views, direct my purposes, bless my endeavors. And in case I commit any fault or fail in any one of my duties,—for I acknowledge that I am a man like any other,—pray Him to give me grace that I may correct it, and to assist me in all my goings.”
On the 4th of August, 1589, an official manifesto of Henry IV.‘s confirmed the ideas and words of this address. On the same day, in the camp at St. Cloud, the majority of the princes, dukes, lords, and gentlemen present in the camp expressed their full adhesion to the accession and the manifesto of the king, promising him “service and obedience against rebels and enemies who would usurp the kingdom.” Two notable leaders, the Duke of Epernon amongst the Catholics, and the Duke of La Tremoille amongst the Protestants, refused to join in this adhesion; the former saying that his conscience would not permit him to serve a heretic king, the latter alleging that his conscience forbade him to serve a prince who engaged to protect Catholic idolatry. They withdrew, D’Epernon into Angoumois and Saintonge, taking with him six thousand foot and twelve thousand horse; and La Tremoille into Poitou, with nine battalions of Reformers. They had an idea of attempting, both of them, to set up for themselves independent principalities. Three contemporaries, Sully, La Force, and the bastard of Angouleme, bear witness that Henry IV. was deserted by as many Huguenots as Catholics. The French royal army was reduced, it is said, to one half. As a make-weight, Saucy prevailed upon the Swiss, to the number of twelve thousand, and two thousand German auxiliaries, not only to continue in the service of the new king, but to wait six months for their pay, as he was at the moment unable to pay them. From the 14th to the 20th of August, in Ile-de-France, in Picardy, in Normandy, in Auvergne, in Champagne, in Burgundy, in Anjou, in Poitou, in Languedoc, in Orleanness, and in Touraine, a great number of towns and districts joined in the determination of the royal army. The last instance of such adherence had a special importance. At the time of Henry III.‘s rupture with the League, the Parliament of Paris had been split in two; the royalists had followed the king to Tours, the partisans of the League had remained at Paris. After the accession of Henry IV., the Parliament of Tours, with the president, Achille de Harlay, as its head, increased from day to day, and soon reached two hundred members, whilst the Parliament of Paris, or Brisson Parliament, as it was called from its leader’s name, had only sixty-eight left. Brisson, on undertaking the post, actually thought it right to take the precaution of protesting privately, making a declaration in the presence of notaries “that he so acted by constraint only, and that he shrank from any rebellion against his king and sovereign lord.” It was, indeed, on the ground of the heredity of the monarchy and by virtue of his own proper rights that Henry IV. had ascended the throne; and M. Poirson says quite correctly, in his learned Histoire du Regne d’Henri IV. [t. i. p. 29, second edition, 1862], “The manifesto of Henry IV., as its very name indicates, was not a contract settled between the noblesse in camp at St. Cloud and the claimant; it was a solemn and reciprocal acknowledgment by the noblesse of Henry’s rights to the crown, and by Henry of the nation’s political, civil, and religious rights. The engagements entered into by Henry were only what were necessary to complete the guarantees given for the security of the rights of Catholics. As touching the succession to the throne, the signataries themselves say that all they do is to maintain and continue the law of the land.”
There was, in 1589, an unlawful pretender to the throne of France; and that was Cardinal Charles de Bourbon, younger brother of Anthony de Bourbon, King of Navarre, and consequently uncle of Henry IV., sole representative of the elder branch. Under Henry III., the cardinal had thrown in his lot with the League; and, after the murder of Guise, Henry III. had, by way of precaution, ordered him to be arrested and detained him in confinement at Chinon, where he still was when Henry III. was in his turn murdered. On becoming king, the far-sighted Henry IV. at once bethought him of his uncle and of what he might be able to do against him. The cardinal was at Chinon, in the custody of Sieur de Chavigny, “a man of proved fidelity,” says De Thou, “but by this time old and blind.” Henry IV. wrote to Du Plessis-Mornay, appointed quite recently governor of Saumur, “bidding him, at any price,” says Madame de Mornay, “to get Cardinal de Bourbon away from Chinon, where he was, without sparing anything, even to the whole of his property, because he would incontinently set himself up for king if he could obtain his release.” Henry IV. was right. As early as the 7th of August, the Duke of Mayenne had an announcement made to the Parliament of Paris, and written notice sent to all the provincial governors, “that, in the interval until the states-general could be assembled, he urged them all to unite with him in rendering with one accord to their Catholic king, that is to say, Cardinal de Bourbon, the obedience that was due to him.” The cardinal was, in fact, proclaimed king under the name of Charles X.; and eight months afterwards, on the 5th of March, 1590, the Parliament of Paris issued a decree “recognizing Charles X. as true and lawful king of France.” Du Plessis-Mornay, ill though he was, had understood and executed, without loss of time, the orders of King Henry, going bail himself for the promises that had to be made and for the sums that had to be paid to get the cardinal away from the governor of Chinon. He succeeded, and had the cardinal removed to Fontenay-le-Comte in Poitou, “under the custody of Sieur de la Boulaye, governor of that place, whose valor and fidelity were known to him.” “That,” said Henry IV. on receiving the news, “is one of the greatest services I could have had rendered me; M. du Plessis does business most thoroughly.” On the 9th of May, 1590, not three months after the decree of the Parliament of Paris which had proclaimed him true and lawful King of France, Cardinal de Bourbon, still a prisoner, died at Fontenay, aged sixty-seven. A few weeks before his death he had written to his nephew Henry IV. a letter in which he recognized him as his sovereign.