They did by Choler, the Protestants because they had been so ill used, in the time of Francis I. and Henry II. and lately by the Guisians. And the discontented, for to pull down their power, it was also by an intestine hatred, because the Constable could not brook to be dispossessed of his Office of great Master, which was given to the Duke of Guise; and the others to see themselves from the management of Affairs, and the Protestants by the spirit of a contrary Religion.
Their conspiracy tended to expel the Guisians, and to seise upon the Queen, the King, and his Brothers.
To compass their end, they secretly sent some trusty persons of their own, who nevertheless feigned to be their Enemies; insomuch that the King of Navarre sent them word, that he would be always of their party, though apparently he took the Courts part.
But the Old his own, saith the fourth Verse, that is to say, the Kings old friends shall raise Sedition against them, which happened in the year 1650. when the Guisians having discovered the conspiracy that was made at Nantes, the 1. of February 1560. whose chief Ring-leader was the Lord La Renaudie; they presently got the King out of Blois, and carryed him to Amboise, caused the Town to be fortified, and set strong Guards upon all the passages.
The day appointed for the execution of the conspiracy at Blois, was the 10th of March: But the King being got to Amboise, the Conspirators went thither in such great numbers, and under such specious pretences, that had they not been betrayed, no body would have suspected them. All the Suburbs and the Countrey Towns thereabouts were full of them. The Prince of Condé, the Admiral, d’Andelot, and his Brother the Cardinal, were all there.
Then the Guisians began to fall to work, and to set upon the Conspirators on all sides.
Abundance were taken, some in the City, some in the Suburbs, others in the Countrey round about.
Most of these were slain before they could come to Town, or be carried to Prison. And their process was so short that they were hanged in their Boots and Spurs.
The Scouts did every where kill those they met withall. To conclude, it proved a very Bloody Tragedy.
La Renaudie the Chief of the Conspirators, was met with by the Lord Pardaillan a Gascon. At the first approach La Renaudie killed him; but himself was killed by Pardeillan’s Servant, and his dead body brought and hanged at Amboise.