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

by James Westfall Thompson

[1334] Ibid., For., No. 252, May 9, 1569; the prince of Navarre and other leaders of the Huguenot army in Saintonge to the duke of Deuxponts and certain noblemen in his camp, and to the prince of Orange, earnestly urging them to advance on the Loire, and declaring that notwithstanding the death of the prince of Condé their other losses have been small and that their forces are not diminished or disheartened thereby. Not published in Lettres missives de Henri IV.

[1335] Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, III, 316; Languet, Epist. ad Camer., 105; Epist. secr., I, 81. Copies of five letters written by De Francourt, the agent for the Huguenot party with the duke of Deuxponts’ and the prince of Orange, to the Huguenot leaders, expressing regret for the death of the prince of Condé, and assuring them of the continued adherence of the duke of Deuxponts and his reiters to their cause are cited in C. S. P. For., No. 207, April, 1569. The duke of Lorraine is said to have offered Deuxponts 100,000 crowns if he would withdraw his reiters (ibid., No. 234, April 18, 1569).

[1336] Claude Haton, II, 517.

[1337] D’Aubigné, III, 66.

[1338] Preparations looking forward to this movement had begun as far back as March, when the expulsion of all who would not conform to Catholicism was ordered by the cardinal of Lorraine as bishop of Metz and a prince of the empire (C. S. P. For., No. 194, March 26, 1569; cf. Charles IX’s proclamation to the same effect on April 6; see also Nos. 179, 197, the opposing petitions of the clergy of Metz and of the Protestants, dated March 19 and 30 respectively).

The correspondence of the duke of Alençon pertaining to the second civil war is in two volumes listed Nos. 36, 36 bis, in the St. Petersburg collection. The duke remained in Paris, and attended to the forwarding of powder, provisions, and money. In a letter of November 17, 1569, he writes to Charles IX that it is impossible for him to send the sums demanded unless he sells the plate and jewels of the King. In another he sends information of the duke of Tuscany, who was ready to loan 100,000 écus upon the jewels of the crown. He advises that this be done. According to his estimate they were worth 500,000 livres (La Ferrière, Rapport sur les recherches faites à la Bibliothèque imperiale de St. Pétersbourg, 27).

[1339] Proclamation by Charles IX: Commands all gentlemen and soldiers to repair to the camp of the duke of Anjou by the 20th of June, properly armed and equipped for service. Requires his officers to search out the names of such as disobey this order and send them to him, in order that they may be punished in such manner as he may think fit (C. S. P. For., No. 281, May, 1569). The King is levying a new army and is disfurnishing his garrisons in Picardy and Normandy (ibid., No. 287, June 3, 1569). Alva promised 4,000 Spanish troops (Nég. Tosc., III, 591).

[1340] Castelnau, Book VII, chap. v. Alva advised him to treat Coligny et al. as he had treated Egmont and Hoorne.

[1341] Ibid., loc. cit.; C. S. P. For., No. 236, April 23, 1569.

[1342] Duke of Anjou to Catherine de Medici, May 23, 1569, Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, No. 12; La Popelinière, Book XVI; Castelnau, Book VII, chaps. v, vi; D’Aubigné, III, 67 and note 2; Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, III, 317; La Noue, chap. xxiv; C. S. P. For., No. 286, June 3, 1569, Sir Henry Norris to the Queen: “The duke of Deuxponts’ army being before La Charité, he caused 600 French harquebusiers and certain companies of reiters to pass over the river, besieging the town on both sides, and having made a breach which was scant scalable, they made a proud assault, not without loss of some of their soldiers, and entered the town by force, and put to the sword as many as they found within the same. The Cardinal, to save his brother from the stigma of the loss of La Charité, made Count Montmeyo the scapegoat” (C. S. P. For., No. 293, June 7, 1569). For other details see Hippeau, “Passage de l’armée du duc des Deux-Ponts dans la Marche et le Limousin en 1569,” Rev. des Soc. savant des départ., 5^e série, V (1873), p. 571; Le Bœuf (Jean), Histoire de la prise d’Auxerre par les Huguenots, et de la délivrance de la mesme ville, les années 1567 et 1568, avec un recit de ce qui a précedé et de ce qui a suivi ces deux fameux événemens et des ravages commis à la Charité, Gien, Cosne, etc. et autres lieux du diocèse d’Auxerre, le tout précedé d’une ample préface sur les antiquités d’Auxerre et enrichi de notes historiques sur les villes, bourgs et villages et sur les personnes principales qui sont nommées dans cette histoire, par un chanoine de la cathédrale d’Auxerre, Auxerre, 1723.