The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576 / The Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip II

by James Westfall Thompson

[855] It was rumored also that the queen mother was ready to sacrifice the Italian protégés of France to curry favor with Spain (Papiers d’état du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 395-400, note; L’Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 300, 335).

[856] “Traité et renouvellement d’alliance entre Charles IX, roi de France, et Messieurs les Ligues de Suisse, faite et conclué en la ville de Fribourg, le 7 jour de Déc., 1564” (Dumont, Corps dip., V, Pt. I, 129).

[857] Abridged from Rott, “Les missions diplomatiques de Pomponne de Bellièvre en Suisse et aux Grisons (1560-74),” Rev. d’histoire diplomatique, XIV, 26-41 (1900); cf. Papiers d’état du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 630, 631; D’Aubigné, II, 210. M. Rott admirably observes (p. 42): “Ainsi donc, cinquante ans et plus avant Richelieu, la politique confessionnelle de la France s’inspirait déjà dans les rapports avec l’étranger, de principes fort différents de ceux qui dirigeaient son action à l’interieur du royaume.”

[858] Papiers d’état du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 72. The prince of Condé had secured leave to leave the court in order to visit her at Vitry in May, where she then lay ill. Her mother was Madeleine de Mailly, sister of the admiral and granddaughter of Louise de Montmorency, sister of the old constable (ibid., VII, 630, and note; cf. C. S. P. For., 592, August 4, 1564).

[859] “All go and come by the cardinal of Lorraine, for without him nothing is done.”—Smith to Cecil, November 13, 1564, C. S. P. For., 793, §2.

[860] Granvella to Mary Stuart, November, 1564, Papiers d’état du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 570; cf. 550, 591, 599.

Randolph to the earl of Leicester: “The prince of Condé is become a suitor here, supported by the cardinal.”—C. S. P. Scotland, IX, 67, November 7, 1564. Mary Stuart expressed her repugnance at such a prospect by saying: “Trewlye I am beholding to my uncle: so that yt be well with hym, he careth not what becommethe of me.”—Randolph to Cecil, C. S. P. Scot., II, 117, November 9, 1564. Another match, proposed simply for the purpose of leading Condé along, was between the young duke of Guise and the prince’s daughter, Margaret, who was a little child.—C. S. P. For., No. 642, §3; Smith to Cecil from Valence, September 1, 1564; No. 650, ibid., September 3, 1564; No. 784, November 7, 1564. Smith to Cecil: “News is that the prince of Condé and the cardinal of Lorraine have intervisited each other.” Cf. Papiers d’état du cardinal de Granvelle, VIII, 127. Bolwiller who disapproved of these plans in the interest of Philip II (ibid., VIII, 381, note) evidently believed the prince won over to Catholicism (ibid., VIII, 156). A propos of Condé’s relapse he sarcastically wrote to Granvella on July 8, 1564: “Ce que l’on est en oppinion que L’Admiral et D’Andelot se doibvent renger et hanger leur robbe, si le font, lors me semblera-il veoir une vraye farce, et pourront les femmes dire lors estre dadvantaige constante que les hommes, mesme madame de Vandosme et duchesse de Ferrare demeurans en l’oppinion où l’on les void.”—Ibid., VIII, 129.

[861] Corresp. de Catherine de Médicis, II, 106, note; L’Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 164; C. S. P. Scot., II, 153, Randolph to Cecil, March 1-3, 1565. Mary Stuart in 1564 was twenty-two years of age, Charles IX barely fourteen (Papiers d’état du card. de Granvelle, VIII, 347, note).

[862] Cf. the luminous letter of Philip to Granvella, August 6, 1564, in Papiers d’état du card. de Granvelle, VIII, 215, 216.

[863] C. S. P. Ven., November 6, 1575.