[1087] C. S. P. For., No. 1,402, July 6, 1567. Sir Henry Norris writes to Cecil on March 25, 1567: “A better time than this could not be found to demand Calais, they being in such distrust of their own force, wherefore it might be understood that some preparation of arms was making in England.”—Ibid., No. 1,048. A year earlier than this Cecil had been advised to make common cause with the Emperor, the one to recover the Three Bishoprics, the other Calais (ibid., No. 326, April 29, 1566; cf. ibid., Ven., 394, July 3, 1567). There is a brief account of the negotiations in Bulletins de la Comm. royale d’histoire, séries IV, Vol. V, 386 ff. Cf. C. S. P. For. (1587), Nos. 1039, 1044, 1046, 1083.
[1088] Correspondance de Catherine de Médicis, III, Introd., iii; C. S. P. Ven., Nos. 389, May 16, 1567.
[1089] Correspondance de Catherine de Médicis, III, Introd., iv.
[1090] “The prince of Condé wrote to the queen mother against the king’s revoking the edict of pacification, who assured him on the faith of a princess that as long as she might prevail, she should never break it, and if he came to court, he would be as welcome as his heart could devise, and as for the Swiss they were to defend the frontiers in case the Spanish forces should attempt to surprise any peace.”—Norris to Queen Elizabeth, August 29, 1567, C. S. P. For., No. 1,644. Catherine de Medici ordered the dispersal of the Huguenot bands on the Picard border in 1567 (R. Q. H., January, 1899, p. 21).
[1091] The words are from a letter of Sir Henry Norris to the earl of Leicester in C. S. P. For., No. 1,537, July 21, 1567, and sound like a paraphrase of the admiral’s language. The implication is that Coligny’s withdrawal had some connection with the purported stealing of Alava’s cipher in the May before. See C. S. P. For., No. 1,230, May 24, 1567. But according to Fourquevaux, I, 227, the Spanish ambassador accused Catherine de Medici of the stealing, not Coligny. If this be true, then Coligny must have wanted to find a pretext for leaving the court without arousing the suspicion or animosity of the King, as might have been the case if he had done so openly out of sympathy for the prince of Condé. Claude Haton, I, 406, says that Coligny was piqued because Strozzi was given the command of the new forces instead of himself. The prince of Condé retired to Valéry, Coligny to Châtillon. D’Andelot soon afterward followed suit, resigning his post as colonel-general of infantry on the ground that the marshal Cossé refused to obey his orders, and retired to Tanlay near Tonnerre. The fine château is still standing.
Thenceforward it was of interest to the prince to stir up doubt and distrust among the Huguenots by misrepresenting the true reasons for the crown’s military preparation (Correspondance de Catherine de Médicis, III, Introd., vi; C. S. P. For., anno 1567, p. 305).
[1092] C. S. P. For., No. 1,629, August 23, 1567.
[1093] Claude Haton, I, 405.
[1094] C. S. P. Ven., July 12, 1567.
[1095] La Popelinière, XI, 36, 37.