[1576] In the same month William of Orange dispatched to France the Seigneur de Lumbres, whose popularity with the King was so great that he even offered to take him into his service (Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, Introd., p. 21, and p. 165), and another agent with instructions to treat with the King and the queen mother (ibid., IV, 119-24, May, 1573). William stipulated for the preservation of the rights and privileges of whatever provinces and towns might be conquered by France, and that in case of open war by France upon Spain, in lieu of an annual subsidy of 400,000 florins, France should give assistance with men and ships of war, besides the sum mentioned, to be paid within two years after the conclusion of peace (ibid., IV, 116-19; cf. the prince of Orange to Louis of Nassau upon the proposed French alliance, June 17, 1573).
[1577] Ibid., IV, 33. On May 15, 1573, the prince of Orange concluded a treaty with England, permitting the English to enter the Scheldt in return for which the prince was to be permitted to purchase arms and ammunition and powder in England (Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, IV, 94). For William of Orange’s connection with La Rochelle see ibid., 43 and 56. Compare letter of Charles IX to the duke of Anjou, March 18, 1573, complaining of the depredations of the “Wartegeux” on the Norman coast (Coll. Godefroy, CCLVIII, No. 49).
[1578] Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, IV, 273, 274; Correspondance de Catherine de Médicis, IV, 270, 271, note.
[1579] Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, IV, 270 and Appendix 43. Schomberg and Louis of Nassau drew up the articles of the proposed treaty. In Appendix 44 will be found the articles as originally drawn up, and on p. 116 the modified form of them as they were changed by the prince of Orange. The most important change is that whereby the prince altered the word “subjection” as applied to the Netherlands to “protectorate.” The further idea is expressed that these negotiations would be fruitless unless the Edict of Pacification were established with full force in France (ibid., IV, 270, 271). On the whole subject of French negotiations in Germany after St. Bartholomew see Waddington, Rev. hist., XLII, 269 ff.
[1580] De Thou, VII, 37 (cf. Louis of Nassau’s letter to his brother on the subject in Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, IV, 278 ff.). Charles IX was ill at the time and the queen mother went alone to Blamont (ibid., IV, 276, 277; Mém. du duc de Bouillon). The Spanish ambassador in France was not unobservant of the favorable policy of Charles toward the Netherlands and so informed the duke of Alva (Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, IV, 132). The peace of La Rochelle was a hard blow to Spain (Languet, Epist. secr., I, 201; St. Goard to Charles IX, July 17, 1573 in Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, IV, 164-69). These negotiations of the prince of Orange and his brother with England and France, however, came too late to save Haarlem. On July 12 the unhappy city succumbed. On the 14th the Spaniards entered and began a regular massacre, in which nearly 1,800 persons were either slain with the sword, hanged, or drowned (ibid., IV, 173; cf. a letter of the prince of Orange to Louis of Nassau, giving details of the surrender on July 22, 1573, ibid., 175).
[1581] C. S. P. For., No. 686 (1572).
[1582] Ibid., No. 673, December 20, 1572.
[1583] These were Montluc, bishop of Valence, and M. de Rambouillet. The former’s speeches (April 10 and 22), are printed in Mém. de l’estat de France, II, 147, 224, in a French translation. The original discourses were in Latin. In Arch. cur., IX, 137, is a letter of one of Rambouillet’s suite.
[1584] See the account of the election in C. S. P. For., No. 1,082, June 5, 1573; cf. Languet, Epist. secr., I, 189; Castelnau, ed. Le Laboureur, III, 298. The news of the duke of Anjou’s success was naturally received with greater pleasure in Paris than anywhere else in Europe. Bonfires were lighted and the Te Deum sung in honor of his election (C. S. P. For., No. 1,027, June 9, 1573). The clergy, in the assembly of the clergy which took place soon after the news arrived, voted the duke a subsidy of 300,000 crowns (ibid., No. 992).
[1585] Claude Haton, II, 734; Nég. Tosc., III, 886, 887.