[1675] C. S. P. For., No. 1,584, October 23, 1574.
[1676] Schomberg’s comment is amusing: “Monsieur le mareschal Damphille se contint sagement, dont les ennemis de ceste maison s’arrachent la barbe.”—August 28, 1574, in Arch. de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, 49.
[1677] Chroniques fontenaisiennes, 228-32; L’Estoile, I, 37; Weill, 137, note 3.
[1678] “A little piece of money might win the reiters to join with them of the religion.”—C. S. P. For., No. 1,623, December 23, 1574.
[1679] Aigues-Mortes was a strong port and the staple of salt for Languedoc, Dauphiné, the Lyonnais, and Burgundy (ibid., No. 17, January 25, 1575). Dr. Dale thought that the project was to connive at a Turkish attack in Germany for the purpose of embarrassing the Catholic princes there (ibid., No. 1,620, December 23, 1574).
[1680] The plot was an old one and long in preparation. See a letter of St. Goard to the King, May 20, 1573 (Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, IV, Appendix, No. 59). The Spanish had been advised by word from Besançon, on April 3, that those of Geneva and Bern had confederated with the Lutheran cantons and secured the favor of the duke John Casimir, whose purpose was to overcome Besançon and the free county of Burgundy (cf. letter of De Grantyre, the French agent in the Grisons, to Bellièvre, April 8, 1573, Coll. Godefroy, CCLVIII, No. 52, and the letter of Charles IX to Bellièvre, May 9, 1573, ibid., No. 55). The author of the plan was a Dr. Butterich, councilor of the elector (Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, V, 89, 99, 101, 107, 120-3). The Swiss cantons were also appealed to, but Beza hesitated (ibid., 111). Spain had secret information of the plot (ibid., 89). It finally failed (see a letter of Butterich to John of Nassau, June 6, 1575, ibid., 214; cf. Languet, Epist. secr., I, Part II, 106, July 11, 1575).
[1681] An example of eccentric partisanship is afforded by the duke d’Uzes, who was a Huguenot, but who for enmity toward Damville joined the King. Henry III made him a marshal and left him in chief command when he went to Rheims (C. S. P. For., No. 1,617, December 23, 1574; No. 13, January 16, 1575). Bellegarde was also made marshal in this year (ibid., No. 1,570, September 29, 1574).
[1682] “Seminario della guerra.”—Rel. vén., II, 230.
[1683] Claude Haton, I, 782, 783.
[1684] See the luminous Relazione del Giovanni Michel, the Venetian ambassador in France in 1575, ed. Tommaseo, II, 229-33.