CHAPTER VIII.
Henry III. King of France—Escape of Alençon—Rising of the Huguenots—Revival of the marriage negotiations—Suggested marriage of Queen Elizabeth and Don John of Austria—Efforts of Henry III. and Catharine to provide for Alençon abroad—Alençon’s negotiations with the Flemings—Flight of Alençon from Paris—Elizabeth’s distrust of French interference in Flanders—Her negotiations with Alençon on the subject—De Bacqueville and De Quincy’s mission to England—L’Aubespine and Rambouillet sent by the King—Spanish fears of the Alençon match—Alençon enters Flanders and clamours for English aid.
For the first year after the new King’s arrival in France, he and his brother seemed to hold rival Courts. The King’s, perhaps, was the more horribly and shamelessly licentious, but both were filled with quarrelsome, dissolute, and utterly unscrupulous young men, who gloried in their vices. Those who surrounded the King were mostly Catholics, whilst Alençon’s courtiers were oftener Huguenots and moderates. Between the two Courts quarrels, duels, and secret murders were incessant, and a fresh civil war was the inevitable outcome of such a rivalry.
At last matters came to a crisis, and Alençon, on the evening of September 15, 1575, walked out of the Louvre with his face covered, and accompanied only by a single attendant. Outside, in a quiet spot near the Porte Ste. Honoré, his faithful courtier, Jehan Simier, of whom more anon, was waiting with a fair lady’s carriage into which Alençon mounted, and was carried as fast as the horses could gallop to where a body of three hundred horsemen were ready to serve as his escort. They got two hours’ start before the King learnt of his brother’s flight, and orders were given in rage and panic to bring him back at any cost. But Alençon was the heir to the crown, and the courtiers did not care to risk his future displeasure by too much zeal, and he reached Dreux unharmed. There he issued his proclamation, demanding reform of abuses but taking care not to identify himself too closely with the Huguenot cause.
From town to town through Central France the Queen-mother followed her flying son, but he always escaped her. At last she had the boldness to appeal for aid to the moderates, and released their chief, Montmorenci, from the Bastille for the purpose of influencing Alençon. By this time the Huguenots were in arms everywhere. Wilkes, the clerk of Elizabeth’s Council, was sent to Condé and Montmorenci’s son, Meru, at Strasburg, with a large sum of money, and thence across the Rhine to raise, through Duke Casimir, “one of the finest armies that for twenty years has issued from Germany” to enable Alençon to hold his own against Henry III. and the Guises. But before reinforcements could reach him Marshal Montmorenci had induced him to patch up a six months’ truce with his brother at the end of November, and for the moment the danger of civil war was averted. But Henry III. found, as his brother Charles had found before him, that France was not large enough to hold both him and Alençon. The latter must be got rid of somehow. The Duke himself said that an attempt was made to poison him, but in any case his mother suggested to him that now that Elizabeth had been so ready to help him with money would be a good opportunity for reviving the marriage negotiations. Alençon, nothing loath, sent one of his friends, named La Porte, with two letters of thanks to Elizabeth dated at Montreuil on November 28, 1575.[94] They contain no word about marriage, but La Porte was instructed to co-operate with Castelnau de la Mauvissière, who was now the ambassador in England, in bringing it forward. Elizabeth insisted, however, as a preliminary, that a complete reconciliation should take place between the brothers and peace made with the Huguenots before she would again entertain the matter. The best way, said Catharine to Dale, to bring that about is for your mistress to desist from helping the rebels; and again the negotiations were shelved. Elizabeth’s new coolness is easily explained. Convinced, probably, of the inutility of an alliance with France in its present divided and unstable condition, she was for the moment actively engaged in making friends with Spain. Granvelle’s brother Champigny, who had come from Flanders as an envoy from Philip’s governor of the Netherlands to treat for a resumption of friendly relations, had been received with effusive civility. Philip’s fleet, under Pedro de Valdes, had been hospitably entertained at Plymouth, and Corbet had been sent to Flanders to arrange a commercial treaty between England and the Spanish States. Elizabeth had, moreover hastily recalled the English levies serving with Orange, although but few obeyed the call; and finally she had despatched young Henry Cobham as an envoy to Philip himself, in order to smooth matters over between them. In Philip’s notes of his interview with Cobham,[95] he says that the latter told him that Elizabeth had seen a letter from the King of France to the Prince of Orange, “making him many fine promises”; and then he said something about a marriage which I did not very well understand.” We shall probably not be far out if we guess that Cobham’s vague hint about marriage, which was so lost upon Philip, was not altogether unconnected with certain approaches which at the same time were made on Elizabeth’s behalf to Don John of Austria, Philip’s natural brother, the heroic young victor of Lepanto, who at that very time was dreaming of a marriage with the captive Queen of Scots. Don John, writing to his brother, says: “She (Elizabeth) has sent an agent to me, who has hinted at a marriage. I am, in my replies, putting the matter aside, but I beg your Majesty to tell me if I am to follow it up. Although I may be led thus to restore a Queen and her realm to the true faith, I would not for all the world make a dishonourable choice. I blush whilst I write this to think of accepting advances from a woman whose life and example furnish so much food for gossip.”[96] Philip told his brother that such an approach should not be neglected; but events marched quickly, and before anything could come of it another turn of the kaleidoscope made it impossible.
Alençon’s six months’ truce had not stopped Duke Casimir’s mercenaries with Condé from crossing the frontier. Navarre, too, had escaped from the Court, and had assumed the leadership of the Huguenots; and then Henry III., sorely against his will, was forced to let his mother make the best terms she could with the insurgents and their allies. Alençon was bought over with 100,000 livres and the rich duchies of Berri Touraine and Anjou; Casimir got 300,000 crowns, a pension of 40,000 livres a year and rich estates in France; Condé was promised the governorship of Picardy; the Chatillons, Montgomeri, and even poor dead La Mole and Coconas were rehabilitated, the crown jewels were pawned to pay the German troops, and so at last peace was made. But still the necessity for getting Alençon out of the way existed; and, in despair of Elizabeth, active negotiations were opened for him to marry elsewhere. Catharine of Navarre, a princess of Cleves, and a daughter of the Palatine were all mentioned, but the most tempting and diplomatic project was to marry him to Philip’s eldest daughter and give him the government of the Spanish Netherlands. This would have drawn his claws indeed. The Walloons and Catholic Flemings also approached him with similar suggestions, and Alençon deserted the Protestant cause entirely, and became suddenly a devout Catholic. He even accepted the command of a force against the Huguenots, upon whom he was implacable in his severity.[97]