[558] Stanclift, Queen Elizabeth and the French Protestants (1559-60), Leipzig, 1892.
[559] Coll. des lettres autographes, Hotel Drouot, March 18, 1899, No. 19; Cardinal Châtillon to the queen mother, May 28, 1562, protesting that peace is impossible without the banishment of the Guises from court. Cf. R. Q. H., January 1879, 14, 15.
[560] “Tous jours sur le point que messieurs de Guise, conestable et mareschal de St. André se retirent de la cour.”—L’Aubespine, sécretaire d’état à son frère M. de Limoges, ambassadeur en Espagne, June 10, 1562; L’Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 22; cf. the same to the same, June 12, p 24. On these unsuccessful negotiations, see D’Aubigné, II, 33-35; La Popelinière, I, 323; Mém. de. Condé, 489; La Noue, Mém., Book I, chap, ii; Ruble, Antoine de Bourbon et Jeanne d’Albret, IV, chap. xix.
Condé further justified the revolt of the Huguenots on the ground that the King and his mother were “prisoners” in the hands of the Triumvirate, but the statement was too transparent to be believed. Catherine herself, in order to disprove it, took the King to Monceaux with her (Corresp. de Chantonnay, May 28, 1562, K. 1,497, No. 36), whence she wrote to the Parlement of Paris explaining the reason of her action. The Parlement promptly approved her course. Mém.—journaux du duc de Guise, 495, col. 2: “Acte par lequel la Reinemère et le Roy de Navarre declarent que la retraite voluntaire que font de la cour du duc de Guise, le Connestable et le mareschal de St. André, ne pourra porter préjudice à leur honneur” (May 28, 1562).
[561] “Nostre camps et à douse lyeu d’Orleans et byentot nous voyront set que en sera.”—Catherine de Medici to Elizabeth of Spain, June 13 or 14, 1562, in L’Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 31.
[562] A parley was held with the usual lack of success on June 21 between the prince of Condé and his brother at Beaugency, which was neutralized for the purpose (D’Aubigné, II, 37, and n. 4). The baron de Ruble discovered the correspondence of the principals in the interview. The king of Navarre exhorted his brother to accept the conditions offered by the King, i. e., to let the Huguenots dwell peaceably in their houses until a council settled the matters in dispute. He promised in any event that the Protestants should have liberty of conscience. But when the prince insisted on having the edict enforced in Paris even, Antoine replied that the crown would never consent to such terms (C. S. P. For., No. 329, §§1, 2, July 17, 1562). Even while the truce existed straggling prisoners were taken daily by either side. (For other military details, see Mém. de La Noue [ed. Panthéon litt.], 284; D’Aubigné, II, 39, 40; Beza, Histoire des églises réformées, I, 540, 541; and the “Discours ou récit des opérations des deux armées catholique et protestante dans les premiers jours de juillet,” in De Ruble, Antoine de Bourbon et Jeanne d’Albret, IV, 414).
[563] Not so the royal troops, which were quartered upon the towns of the region and nearly consumed the people by their exactions (Claude Haton, I, 279).
[564] The Catholics, in derision, called the Huguenot gentry “millers.” During the interview on June 9 between the prince and the queen mother, the latter said: “Vos gens sont meusniers, mon cousin,” a fling which the prince of Condé more than matched by the rejoinder: “C’est pour toucher vous asnes, madame!” This anecdote is related by D’Aubigné, II, 35.
[565] Cf. Guise’s letter to the cardinal of Lorraine, Appendix III; C. S. P. For., No. 238; No. 264, §3, June 29.
[566] Ibid., No. 425, August 5, 1562; Archives de la Gironde, XVII, 270. The constable seized Tours and Villars Châtellerault (D’Aubigné, II, 41-44). For the operations of Burie in Périgord, see Archives de la Gironde, XVII, 271. At Bazas a local judge, with the aid of Spanish troops actually crucified some Calvinists (ibid., XV, 57).