[225] "La serenissima regina di Navarra ... è donna di molto valore, e spirito grande, e che intervienne in tutti i consigli." Relaz. di Francesco Giustiniano, 1538, Albèri, i. 203.
[226] The document contained a proviso that, should Francis be liberated, the Dauphin was to restore to him the sovereignty for the term of his natural life. It was dated Madrid, November, 1525. Isambert, Recueil des anciennes lois, etc., xii. 237-244.
[227] "Le mercredy penultiesme jour de janvier, au dict an, ils furent espousez an diet lieu de Saint Germain (en Laye). Après furent faictes jouxtes et tournois et gros triomphes par l'espace de huict jours ou environ." Journal d'un bourgeois, 302. Olhagaray states the date differently, viz., January 24th; ubi infra, 488.
[228] See Olhagaray, Histoire de Foix, Béarn, et Navarre (Paris, 1609), 487.
[229] He was born April, 1503, and was consequently eleven years younger than Margaret.
[230] Catharine's bitter reproach addressed to her husband has become famous: "Had I been king, and you queen, we had been reigning in Navarre at this moment." Prescott, Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, iii. 353. Olhagaray gives another of her speeches: "O Roy vous demeurés Jean d'Albret, et ne pensés plus au Royaume de Navarre que vous avez perdu par vostre nonchalance." Ubi supra, 455.
[231] The Spanish conquest of Navarre is narrated at length by Prescott, Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, iii. 347-367. See also Olhagaray, 454, etc., and Moncaut, Histoire des Pyrénées, iv. 233-271. It will be borne in mind that the great crime of John d'Albret was his adhesion to Louis XII. of France, in his determined struggle with Julius II.; and that Ferdinand's title was justified by a pretended bull of this Pope giving the kingdoms of his enemies to be a prey to the first invader that might seize them in behalf of the Pontifical See. The bull, however, is now generally admitted to be a Spanish forgery. See Prescott, ubi supra. Baron A. de Ruble observes (Mém. de La Huguerye, 1, note): "On sait aujourd'hui que cette bulle est apocryphe."
[232] Brantôme does, indeed, accuse Henry of using severity toward his wife, on account of her religious innovations, until threatened with the displeasure of Francis; but the truth seems to be that the King of Navarre was himself not ill-disposed to the religious reformation.
[233] M. Herminjard has been criticised for inserting too many of Bishop Briçonnet's epistles in the first volume of his Correspondance des réformateurs dans les pays de langue française. M. Génin also gives specimens of the bishop's bombast, observing maliciously: "Si Briçonnet argumenta en pareil style aux conciles de Pise et du Latran, il dut embarrasser beaucoup ses adversaires." Lettres de Marg. d'Angoulême, i. 128.
[234] "O impiam et inverecundam arrogantiam," etc. See chapter I., p. 24.