[144] “A conspiracy to kill them both and then to take the King and give him masters and governors to bring him up in this wretched doctrine,” is the way the cardinal of Lorraine and his brother described it to the dowager queen of Scotland in a letter of March 20, 1560 (C. S. P. For., No. 870).
The King’s circular letter to the Parlements, bailiffs, and seneschals of the kingdom on March 30 declared that the conspirators “s’estoyent aidés de certains predicans venus de Genève.”—Mem. de Condé, I, 398.
[145] “It had been well if the Guises had not been so particularly named as the occasion of these unquietnesses, but that it had run in general terms,” wrote Throckmorton to Cecil (C. S. P. For., No. 954, April 6, 1560). Chantonnay advised the queen mother that, in order to avoid further difficulty, it was expedient for the Guises to retire from court for a season (La Place, 38).
[146] La Planche, 219, 20.
[147] Tavannes actually says she was privy to the conspiracy of Amboise, p. 247. During the reign of Henry II, Catherine de Medici had had no political influence. She was hated as an Italian (Rel. vén., I, 105). On one occasion only did she assert herself; “En 1557, à la nouvelle du désastre de Saint-Quentin, qui ouvrait à l’Espagne les portes de la France, il y eut un moment d’indicible panique. Hommes d’état, hommes de guerre, tous avaient perdu la tête. Par un hasard heureux, Catherine se trouvait à Paris; seule elle conserva son sang-froid, et, de sa propre initiative, courant en l’hôtel-de-ville et au parlement, et s’y montrant si éloquente et énergetique, elle arracha aux échevins et aux membres du parlement un large subside et rendit du cœur à la grande ville.”—La Ferrière “L’entrevue de Bayonne,” R. Q. H., XXXIV, 457.
[148] “Ut exorientes tumultus reprimeret,” Raynaldus, XXXIV, 72, col. 1; Chantonnay to Philip II, August 31, 1560, K. 1,493, No. 76; D’Aubigné, I, 27; La Planche, 269. Shortly before the death of Henry II, Coligny had sought to resign his government, wishing to retain only his office of admiral but Henry refused to accept the resignation (Delaborde, I, 362). Coligny then endeavored to have his government of Picardy given to his nephew, the prince of Condé (Rev. hist., XIV, 74). Meanwhile he continued to hold the office of governor to prevent the Guises getting control of it (La Planche, 216). Finally in January, 1560, the admiral again went to court to present his resignation, and at the same time to urge the appointment of his nephew. This time it was accepted, and the prince of Condé was appointed to the post (La Planche, 217; Rev. hist., XIV, 74, 75).
[149] La Place, 36; C. S. P. For., No. 952.
[150] La Place, 38. On L’Hôpital see Dupré-Lasale, Michel de l’Hôpital avant son elévation au poste de chancellier de France, 2 vols., 1875; Amphoux, Michel de l’Hôpital et la liberté de conscience au XVIe siècle; Guer, Die Kirchenpolitik d. Kanzlers Michel de l’Hôpital, 1877; Shaw, Michel de l’Hôpital and His Policy.
[151] La Place, 37.
[152] Castelnau, Book I, chap, xi; C. S. P. Ven., No. 174, 1560; Raynaldus, XXXIV, 66, col. 2; D’Aubigné, I, 274, n. 3; La Planche, 305; La Place, 468, gives the text. The edict was not published, though, until July 17 (K. 1,494, folio 6).