The young Béarnais, with his good-humoured, sunburned face, his broad shoulders, and his wiry frame strengthened and developed by the manly, out-door life which he had led amid the keen and bracing air of the Pyrenees, presented a singular contrast to his slight, delicate-looking, grave cousin. The Queen of Navarre had charged him to love Condé as a brother and “cultivate with him an affection cemented by the ties of blood and religion which should never be severed.” But, though the prince, ever a dutiful son, seems to have made some effort to follow her instructions, and though, during the remainder of the Queen’s life, an appearance of close intimacy was strictly maintained between the cousins, their characters and tastes were far too dissimilar for much sympathy to have existed between them, and, in later years, their relations became at times very strained indeed.
The summer and autumn of 1569 were disastrous to the Protestant cause. Although, owing to the jealousy between the Court generals, in May, the Duke of Zweibrücken’s German mercenaries were able to cross the Loire and join the main Huguenot army, the combined forces effected comparatively little, and at the beginning of October they experienced a crushing defeat in the bloody battle of Moncontour.
If the Royalists had followed up their success, this might have proved a fatal blow to the Protestants; but Charles IX., jealous of the success of Anjou, the nominal commander at Moncontour, himself took command of the army, and frittered its strength away in besieging Saint-Jean-d’Angely, thus giving the Huguenots time to reorganize their forces. Always greatest in adversity, Coligny, taking with him Henry of Navarre and the young Condé, started southwards from Parthenay (6 October), on that wonderful march afterwards known as the “Journey of the Princes.” A month later saw him at Montauban, where he stayed for a while to rest his troops, and then, crossing the Garonne, he mercilessly ravaged the country south of that river. Recrossing to the north bank, where he was joined by Montgommery with reinforcements, he swept down on Toulouse, burned the country houses of the members of the Parlement in revenge for the judicial murder of one of the late Prince de Condé’s gentlemen two years before, passed by the walls of Carcassonne and Montpellier, and entered Nîmes. Here he turned to the North, and marched through Dauphiné and the Lyonnais to the very heart of France, carrying terror and devastation wherever he went.
Meanwhile, a Catholic force under the Maréchal de Cossé had gathered in the Orléannais and marched eastwards to intercept his advance. At Arnay-le-Duc, on 26 June 1570, the two armies met. The Royalists outnumbered their adversaries by more than two to one, and were well provided with artillery, whereas the Huguenots had not a single gun. But Coligny took up a masterly position, which prevented the enemy either from employing their cannon or from outflanking him, and drove them back with heavy loss.
It was in this engagement that the two young princes received their “baptism of fire.” Hitherto, notwithstanding their urgent entreaties, Coligny had refused to allow them to expose themselves. Thus, though they had been with the army at Moncontour, they had been ordered to the rear before the battle actually began, accompanied by so large an escort that, according to d’Aubigné, the Huguenot forces were thereby seriously weakened. On the present occasion, however, Coligny’s position was too critical for him to spare an escort, and Henri of Navarre was accordingly given the nominal command of the first line of cavalry, while Condé was at the head of the second. Both took part in several charges, and gave abundant proof that they had inherited the bravery of their warlike ancestors.
The victory of Arnay-le-Duc, following closely as it did on a series of Huguenot successes in the West of France, had important consequences. The miserable condition of the country, the exhausted finances, the enmity between the Montmorency and Lorraine factions of the Catholic party, the jealousy between Charles IX. and Anjou, and the fear of active intervention by England, had all combined to persuade Catherine that it was impossible to carry on the war much longer; and she now decided that peace must be made with as little delay as possible. Pius V. and Philip II. made every effort to dissuade her, the former warning her that “there could be no communion between Satan and the sons of light;” but their remonstrances were unheeded, and on 8 August, the Peace of Saint-Germain put an end to the war, and accorded the Protestants infinitely greater concessions than any which they had yet obtained.[90]
The two years which followed “la paix boiteuse et malassise,”[91] as the Peace of Saint-Germain was wittily called, were passed by Condé chiefly at La Rochelle, which had now become the headquarters of the Huguenots, and was one of the four towns which they were permitted to hold as security for the strict observance of the edict. The religious earnestness and gravity so far beyond his years which the young prince showed had gained him the entire confidence of Coligny, who had decided to delegate to him the direction of the Protestants of the West; and it was Condé who, in the Admiral’s absence, executed his orders in Poitou and Saintonge and kept him informed of all that was passing there.
During the greater part of the year 1571, Jeanne d’Albret and Henri of Navarre were also at La Rochelle. If Condé had little affection for his cousin, to his aunt he was warmly attached, while she, on her side, seems to have looked upon him almost as a second son. As for his step-mother, the dowager-princess, his feelings towards her were the reverse of cordial. Not only had she never shown him any sympathy or affection, but, having recently abandoned the Reformed faith herself, she had surrendered her sons and stepsons to their uncle, the Cardinal de Bourbon, to be brought up in the Catholic religion. Her conduct, which was denounced by the Huguenots as an act of infamous treachery to her dead husband, had naturally occasioned Condé the most intense indignation, but, since it had occurred during the war, he had, of course, been powerless to interfere.
In order to flatter the Huguenots and allay their suspicions, while, at the same time, weakening their power of offence, by bringing their nominal chief directly under her own influence, Catherine de’ Medici was now anxious to arrange a marriage between her only unmarried daughter, Marguerite de Valois, and Henri of Navarre; and from the beginning of 1571 active negotiations were carried on between the Court and La Rochelle, and Biron, Cossé, and Castelnau were in turn despatched thither to confer with Jeanne d’Albret and the Protestant leaders. Jeanne received the overtures of the Court with mixed feelings. She was intensely ambitious for her idolized son and desirous of doing everything in her power to promote the interests of her party. But she hated Catherine and all the Valois, and entertained the most profound distrust of their professions of friendship; and, had the decision rested with her alone, the proffered alliance would most certainly have been rejected. However, the Huguenot leaders were practically unanimous in urging her to consent; the nobility of her own little kingdom likewise pronounced for the marriage; and Henri himself added his persuasions to theirs. And so, with a very bad grace, the Queen yielded, and early in January, 1572, left Pau for Blois, to settle the preliminaries with Catherine.
The negotiations for the marriage of Henri of Navarre had been preceded by the arrangement by Jeanne d’Albret of a very advantageous match for the young Prince de Condé. The wife selected for him was his cousin, Marie de Clèves, Marquise d’Isles, the youngest of the three daughters of François de Clèves, Duc de Nevers, and Marguerite de Bourbon.[92] Marie de Clèves was not only a great heiress, but an extremely beautiful girl, and Condé considered himself a very fortunate young man. He had reason to think differently, however, before he had been married many weeks.