[291] See next page, note 2.
[292] The date here assigned for the death of the French monarch, is incorrect. He died on the 5th, not the 15th of December 1560, (although Mezeray, the French historian, says it was on the 4th of that month,) after a short reign of sixteen months and twenty-four days, in the 17th year of his age.
[293] The writer of these verses is unknown. They occur in an anonymous work, containing much curious and important matter relating to the state of Religion in France, entitled, "Commentaires de l'Estat de la Religion et Republique soubs les Rois Henry et Francois seconds, et Charles neufieme. (1556-1561.)—M.D.LXV." 8vo. foll. 262. The above "Vers Latins faicts sur la mort du Roy Francois," are thus introduced at fol. 100:
"Non long temps apres furent divulguez quelques vers Latins faicts sur la mort dudict Roy Francois, du Roy Henry son pere, et de l'Empereur Charles cinquieme, qui m'ont semblé estre dignes de memoire, et d'estre conservez a la posterité: lesquels pourtant i'ay voulu icy adiouster, la superscription estant telle qu'il s'ensuit ey apres.
"AD HVIVS TEMPORIS
Monarchas προτρεπτικον Carmen.
Consiliis Christum oppugnans," &c.
There is a similar work entitled, "Commentariorum de Statu Religionis et Reipublicæ in Regno Franciæ, Pars I-V." by Joannes Serranus, a learned divine. The author of the "Commentaires," was Peter de la Place, an eminent lawyer, whom Henry the Second had appointed King's Advocate and President of the Court of Aids, in Paris. In 1560, he openly avowed himself a Protestant, which obliged him to leave Paris, and in the troubles that followed, his library and effects were pillaged or destroyed; and he himself eventually became one of the victims in the atrocious massacre of the Protestants on the eve of St. Bartholomew, 25th August 1572.
[294] The Emperor Charles the Fifth, and King of Spain. After having abdicated his throne to his son Philip the Second, in October 1555, he took up his retreat in the convent of St. Just, in the Province of Estramadura, in Spain. The change from an active life, and his mortified ambition, led to acts of fantastic devotion, which betrayed a weakness of understanding. He died 21st September 1558.
[295] Henry the Second, King of France. His death, on the 10th July 1559, is previously mentioned by Knox: see vol. i. p. 371.
[296] This projected alliance with Elizabeth was the chief object, as mentioned at page 130, for which the Parliament had sent ambassadors to the Court of England. This scheme being thus frustrated, the death of Francis the Second suggested a similar alliance with Queen Mary.