[1143] Request of Charles IX to the bishop of Mainz to permit the reiters to pass, December 9, 1567.—Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, No. 4. John Casimir, second son of the elector palatine, Frederick III, levied troops for the Protestants. When protest was made against this action, he gave an evasive reply. See Languet, Epist. secr., I, 27; Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, II, 163, 164; La Noue, ed. 1596, p. 897.
On the other hand the landgrave was hostile to the prince of Condé and was fearful also of compromising himself with the Emperor and Spain.—Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, III, 128, 164; Languet, Epist. secr., I, 35.
[1144] C. S. P. For., No. 1,864, December 15, 1567.
[1145] This is shown by a passage in which the elector of Saxony makes mention of an alliance which the French nobles had offered (Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, III, 131, 134). Although the prince of Condé in December declared that he had not entered into a treaty with the Flemish Calvinists (ibid., 143), it is probable that these proposals were accepted some months later. There is in existence the minute of a treaty with Condé and Coligny dated August, 1568 (ibid., III, No. 321, p. 285).
[1146] C. S. P. For., No. 1,756, October 10, 1567.
[1147] La Popelinière, XII, 52 bis; D’Aubigné II, 236. La Noue himself, with characteristic modesty, scarcely mentions this feat.
[1148] “Journal de Lépaulart relig. du monastère de Saint-Crepin-le-Grand de Soissons, sur la prise de cette ville par les Huguenots en 1567,” Bull. d. Soc. arch., XIV (Soissons, 1860).
[1149] C. S. P. For., No. 1,804, November 2, 1567. Metz was captured late in October by the Huguenots, but not the citadel.
[1150] Ibid., No. 1,822, November 16, 1567.
[1151] La Popelinière, XII, 52.