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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3840.txt b/3840.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1bee40b --- /dev/null +++ b/3840.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2275 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, Volume +III., by Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, Volume III. + A History of the House of Valois + +Author: Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre + +Release Date: September 27, 2006 [EBook #3840] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARGUERITE DE VALOIS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +MARGUERITE DE NAVARRE + +MEMOIRS OF MARGUERITE DE VALOIS + + + +MEMOIRS OF MARGUERITE DE VALOIS QUEEN OF NAVARRE + +Being Historic Memoirs of the Courts of France and Navarre + + + +BOOK III. + + + +HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF VALOIS. + +[Author unknown] + + +CHARLES, COMTE DE VALOIS, was the younger brother of Philip the Fair, and +therefore uncle of the three sovereigns lately dead. His eldest son +Philip had been appointed guardian to the Queen of Charles IV.; and when +it appeared that she had given birth to a daughter, and not a son, the +barons, joining with the notables of Paris and the, good towns met to +decide who was by right the heir to the throne, "for the twelve peers of +France said and say that the Crown of France is of such noble estate that +by no succession can it come to a woman nor to a woman's son," as +Froissart tells us. This being their view, the baby daughter of Charles +IV. was at once set aside; and the claim of Edward III. of England, if, +indeed, he ever made it, rested on Isabella of France, his mother, sister +of the three sovereigns. And if succession through a female had been +possible, then the daughters of those three kings had rights to be +reserved. It was, however, clear that the throne must go to a man, and +the crown was given to Philip of Valois, founder of a new house of +sovereigns. + +The new monarch was a very formidable person. He had been a great feudal +lord, hot and vehement, after feudal fashion; but he was now to show that +he could be a severe master, a terrible king. He began his reign by +subduing the revolted Flemings on behalf of his cousin Louis of Flanders, +and having replaced him in his dignities, returned to Paris and there +held high state as King. And he clearly was a great sovereign; the +weakness of the late King had not seriously injured France; the new King +was the elect of the great lords, and they believed that his would be a +new feudal monarchy; they were in the glow of their revenge over the +Flemings for the days of Courtrai; his cousins reigned in Hungary and +Naples, his sisters were married to the greatest of the lords; the Queen +of Navarre was his cousin; even the youthful King of England did him +homage for Guienne and Ponthieu. The barons soon found out their +mistake. Philip VI., supported by the lawyers, struck them whenever he +gave them opening; he also dealt harshly with the traders, hampering them +and all but ruining them, till the country was alarmed and discontented. +On the other hand, young Edward of England had succeeded to a troubled +inheritance, and at the beginning was far weaker than his rival; his own +sagacity, and the advance of constitutional rights in England, soon +enabled him to repair the breaches in his kingdom, and to gather fresh +strength from the prosperity and good-will of a united people. While +France followed a more restricted policy, England threw open her ports to +all comers; trade grew in London as it waned in Paris; by his marriage +with Philippa of Hainault, Edward secured a noble queen, and with her the +happiness of his subjects and the all-important friendship of the Low +Countries. In 1336 the followers of Philip VI. persuaded Louis of +Flanders to arrest the English merchants then in Flanders; whereupon +Edward retaliated by stopping the export of wool, and Jacquemart van +Arteveldt of Ghent, then at the beginning of his power, persuaded the +Flemish cities to throw off all allegiance to their French-loving Count, +and to place themselves under the protection of Edward. In return Philip +VI. put himself in communication with the Scots, the hereditary foes of +England, and the great wars which were destined to last 116 years, and to +exhaust the strength of two strong nations, were now about to begin. They +brought brilliant and barren triumphs to England, and, like most wars, +were a wasteful and terrible mistake, which, if crowned with ultimate +success, might, by removing the centre of the kingdom into France, have +marred the future welfare of England, for the happy constitutional +development of the country could never have taken place with a sovereign +living at Paris, and French interests becoming ever more powerful. +Fortunately, therefore, while the war evoked by its brilliant successes +the national pride of Englishmen, by its eventual failure it was +prevented from inflicting permanent damage on England. + +The war began in 1337 and ended in 1453; the epochs in it are the Treaty +of Bretigny in 1360, the Treaty of Troyes in 1422, the final expulsion of +the English in 1453. + +The French King seems to have believed himself equal to the burdens of a +great war, and able to carry out the most far-reaching plans. The Pope +was entirely in his hands, and useful as a humble instrument to curb and +harass the Emperor. Philip had proved himself master of the Flemish, +and, with help of the King of Scotland, hoped so to embarrass Edward III. +as to have no difficulty in eventually driving him to cede all his French +possessions. While he thought it his interest to wear out his antagonist +without any open fighting, it was Edward's interest to make vigorous and +striking war. France therefore stood on the defensive; England was +always the attacking party. On two sides, in Flanders and in Brittany, +France had outposts which, if well defended, might long keep the English +power away from her vitals. Unluckily for his side, Philip was harsh and +raw, and threw these advantages away. In Flanders the repressive +commercial policy of the Count, dictated from Paris, gave Edward the +opportunity, in the end of 1337, of sending the Earl of Derby, with a +strong fleet, to raise the blockade of Cadsand, and to open the Flemish +markets by a brilliant action, in which the French chivalry was found +powerless against the English yeoman-archers; and in 1338 Edward crossed +over to Antwerp to see what forward movement could be made. The other +frontier war was that of Brittany, which began a little later (1341). The +openings of the war were gloomy and wasteful, without glory. Edward did +not actually send defiance to Philip till 1339, when he proclaimed +himself King of France, and quartered the lilies of France on the royal +shield. The Flemish proved a very reed; and though the French army came +up to meet the English in the Vermando country, no fighting took place, +and the campaign of 1339 ended obscurely. Norman and Genoese ships +threatened the southern shores of England, landing at Southampton and in +the Isle of Wight unopposed. In 1340 Edward returned to Flanders; on his +way he attacked the French fleet which lay at Sluys, and utterly +destroyed it. The great victory of Sluys gave England for centuries the +mastery of the British channel. But, important as it was, it gave no +success to the land campaign. Edward wasted his strength on an +unsuccessful siege of Tournia, and, ill-supported by his Flemish allies, +could achieve nothing. The French King in this year seized on Guienne; +and from Scotland tidings came that Edinburgh castle, the strongest place +held by the English, had fallen into the hands of Douglas. Neither from +Flanders nor from Guienne could Edward hope to reach the heart of the +French power; a third inlet now presented itself in Brittany. On the +death of John III. of Brittany, in 1341, Jean de Montfort, his youngest +brother, claimed the great fief, against his niece Jeanne, daughter of +his elder brother Guy, Comte de Penthievre. He urged that the Salic law, +which had been recognised in the case of the crown, should also apply to +this great duchy, so nearly an independent sovereignty. Jeanne had been +married to Charles de Blois, whom John III. of Brittany had chosen as his +heir; Charles was also nephew of King Philip, who gladly espoused his +cause. Thereon Jean de Montfort appealed to Edward, and the two Kings +met in border strife in Brittany. The Bretons sided with John against +the influence of France. Both the claimants were made prisoners; the +ladies carried on a chivalric warfare, Jeanne de Montfort against Jeanne +de Blois, and all went favourably with the French party till Philip, with +a barbarity as foolish as it was scandalous, tempted the chief Breton +lords to Paris and beheaded them without trial. The war, suspended by a +truce, broke out again, and the English raised large forces and supplies, +meaning to attack on three sides at once,--from Flanders, Brittany, and +Guienne. The Flemish expedition came to nothing; for the people of Ghent +in 1345 murdered Jacques van Arteveldt as he was endeavouring to persuade +them to receive the Prince of Wales as their count, and Edward, on +learning this adverse news, returned to England. Thence, in July, 1346, +he sailed for Normandy, and, landing at La Hogue, overran with ease the +country up to Paris. He was not, however, strong enough to attack the +capital, for Philip lay with a large army watching him at St. Denis. +After a short hesitation Edward crossed the Seine at Poissy, and struck +northwards, closely followed by Philip. He got across the Somme safely, +and at Crecy in Ponthieu stood at bay to await the French. Though his +numbers were far less than theirs, he had a good position, and his men +were of good stuff; and when it came to battle, the defeat of the French +was crushing. Philip had to fall back with his shattered army; Edward +withdrew unmolested to Calais, which he took after a long siege in 1347. +Philip had been obliged to call up his son John from the south, where he +was observing the English under the Earl of Derby; thereupon the English +overran all the south, taking Poitiers and finding no opposition. Queen +Philippa of Hainault had also defeated and taken David of Scotland at +Neville's Cross. + +The campaign of 1346-1347 was on all hands disastrous to King Philip. He +sued for and obtained a truce for ten months. These were the days of the +"black death," which raged in France from 1347 to 1349, and completed the +gloom of the country, vexed by an arbitrary and grasping monarch, by +unsuccessful war, and now by the black cloud of pestilence. In 1350 King +Philip died, leaving his crown to John of Normandy. He had added two +districts and a title to France: he bought Montpellier from James of +Aragon, and in 1349 also bought the territories of Humbert, Dauphin of +Vienne, who resigned the world under influence of the revived religion of +the time, a consequence of the plague, and became a Carmelite friar. The +fief and the title of Dauphin were granted to Charles, the King's +grandson, who was the first person who attached that title to the heir to +the French throne. Apart from these small advantages, the kingdom of +France had suffered terribly from the reign of the false and heartless +Philip VI. Nor was France destined to enjoy better things under John +"the Good," one of the worst sovereigns with whom she has been cursed. He +took as his model and example the chivalric John of Bohemia, who had been +one of the most extravagant and worthless of the princes of his time, and +had perished in his old age at Crecy. The first act of the new King was +to take from his kinsman, Charles "the Bad" of Navarre, Champagne and +other lands; and Charles went over to the English King. King John was +keen to fight; the States General gave him the means for carrying on war, +by establishing the odious "gabelle" on salt, and other imposts. John +hoped with his new army to drive the English completely out of the +country. Petty war began again on all the frontiers,--an abortive attack +on Calais, a guerilla warfare in Brittany, slight fighting also in +Guienne. Edward in 1335 landed at Calais, but was recalled to pacify +Scotland; Charles of Navarre and the Duke of Lancaster were on the Breton +border; the Black Prince sailed for Bordeaux. In 1356 he rode northward +with a small army to the Loire, and King John, hastily summoning all his +nobles and fief-holders, set out to meet him. Hereon the Black Prince, +whose forces were weak, began to retreat; but the French King outmarched +and intercepted him near Poitiers. He had the English completely in his +power, and with a little patience could have starved them into +submission; instead, he deemed it his chivalric duty to avenge Crecy in +arms, and the great battle of Poitiers was the result (19th September, +1356). The carnage and utter ruin of the French feudal army was quite +incredible; the dead seemed more than the whole army of the Black Prince; +the prisoners were too many to be held. The French army, bereft of +leaders, melted away, and the Black Prince rode triumphantly back to +Bordeaux with the captive King John and his brave little son in his +train. A two years' truce ensued; King John was carried over to London, +where he found a fellow in misfortune in David of Scotland, who had been +for eleven years a captive in English hands. The utter degradation of +the nobles, and the misery of the country, gave to the cities of France +an opportunity which one great man, Etienne Marcel, provost of the +traders at Paris, was not slow to grasp. He fortified the capital and +armed the citizens; the civic clergy made common cause with him; and when +the Dauphin Charles convoked the three Estates at Paris, it was soon seen +that the nobles had become completely discredited and powerless. It was +a moment in which a new life might have begun for France; in vain did the +noble order clamour for war and taxes,--they to do the war, with what +skill and success all men now knew, and the others to pay the taxes. +Clergy, however, and burghers resisted. The Estates parted, leaving what +power there was still in France in the hands of Etienne Marcel. He +strove in vain to reconcile Charles the Dauphin with Charles of Navarre, +who stood forward as a champion of the towns. Very reluctantly did +Marcel entrust his fortunes to such hands. With help of Lecocq, Bishop +of Laon, he called the Estates again together, and endeavoured to lay +down sound principles of government, which Charles the Dauphin was +compelled to accept. Paris, however, stood alone, and even there all +were not agreed. Marcel and Bishop Lecocq, seeing the critical state of +things, obtained the release of Charles of Navarre, then a prisoner. The +result was that ere long the Dauphin-regent was at open war with Navarre +and with Paris. The outbreak of the miserable peasantry, the Jacquerie, +who fought partly for revenge against the nobles, partly to help Paris, +darkened the time; they were repressed with savage bloodshed, and in 1358 +the Dauphin's party in Paris assassinated the only great man France had +seen for long. With Etienne Marcel's death all hope of a constitutional +life died out from France; the Dauphin entered Paris and set his foot on +the conquered liberties of his country. Paris had stood almost alone; +civic strength is wanting in France; the towns but feebly supported +Marcel; they compelled the movement to lose its popular and general +character, and to become a first attempt to govern France from Paris +alone. After some insincere negotiations, and a fear of desultory +warfare, in which Edward III. traversed France without meeting with a +single foe to fight, peace was at last agreed to, at Bretigny, in May, +1360. By this act Edward III. renounced the French throne and gave up +all he claimed or held north of the Loire, while he was secured in the +lordship of the south and west, as well as that part of Northern Picardy +which included Calais, Guines, and Ponthieu. The treaty also fixed the +ransom to be paid by King John. + +France was left smaller than she had been under Philip Augustus, yet she +received this treaty with infinite thankfulness; worn out with war and +weakness, any diminution of territory seemed better to her than a +continuance of her unbearable misfortunes. Under Charles, first as +Regent, then as King, she enjoyed an uneasy rest and peace for twenty +years. + +King John, after returning for a brief space to France, went back into +his pleasant captivity in England, leaving his country to be ruled by the +Regent the Dauphin. In 1364 he died, and Charles V., "the Wise," became +King in name, as he had now been for some years in fact. This cold, +prudent, sickly prince, a scholar who laid the foundations of the great +library in Paris by placing 900 MSS. in three chambers in the Louvre, had +nothing to dazzle the ordinary eye; to the timid spirits of that age he +seemed to be a malevolent wizard, and his name of "Wise" had in it more +of fear than of love. He also is notable for two things: he reformed the +current coin, and recognised the real worth of Du Guesclin, the first +great leader of mercenaries in France, a grim fighting-man, hostile to +the show of feudal warfare, and herald of a new age of contests, in which +the feudal levies would fall into the background. The invention of +gunpowder in this century, the incapacity of the great lords, the rise of +free lances and mercenary troops, all told that a new era had arrived. It +was by the hand of Du Guesclin that Charles overcame his cousin and +namesake, Charles of Navarre, and compelled him to peace. On the other +hand, in the Breton war which followed just after, he was defeated by Sir +John Chandos and the partisans of Jean de Montfort, who made him +prisoner; the Treaty of Guerande, which followed, gave them the dukedom +of Brittany; and Charles V., unable to resist, was fair to receive the +new duke's homage, and to confirm him in the duchy. The King did not +rest till he had ransomed Du Guesclin from the hands of Chandos; he then +gave him commission to raise a paid army of freebooters, the scourge of +France, and to march with them to support, against the Black Prince, the +claims of Henry of Trastamare to the Crown of Castile. Successful at +first by help of the King of Aragon, he was made Constable of Spain at +the coronation of Henry at Burgos. Edward the Black Prince, however, +intervened, and at the battle of Najara (1367) Du Guesclin was again a +prisoner in English hands, and Henry lost his throne. Fever destroyed +the victorious host, and the Black Prince, withdrawing into Gascony, +carried with him the seeds of the disorder which shortened his days. Du +Guesclin soon got his liberty again; and Charles V., seeing how much his +great rival of England was weakened, determined at last on open war. He +allied himself with Henry of Trastamare, listened to the grievances of +the Aquitanians, summoned the Black Prince to appear and answer the +complaints. In 1369, Henry defeated Pedro, took him prisoner, and +murdered him in a brawl; thus perished the hopes of the English party in +the south. About the same time Charles V. sent open defiance and +declaration of war to England. Without delay, he surprised the English +in the north, recovering all Ponthieu at once; the national pride was +aroused; Philip, Duke of Burgundy, who had, through the prudent help of +Charles, lately won as a bride the heiress of Flanders, was stationed at +Rouen, to cover the western approach to Paris, with strict orders not to +fight; the Aquitanians were more than half French at heart. The record +of the war is as the smoke of a furnace. We see the reek of burnt and +plundered towns; there were no brilliant feats of arms; the Black Prince, +gloomy and sick, abandoned the struggle, and returned to England to die; +the new governor, the Earl of Pembroke, did not even succeed in landing: +he was attacked and defeated off Rochelle by Henry of Castile, his whole +fleet, with all its treasure and stores, taken or sunk, and he himself +was a prisoner in Henry's hands. Du Guesclin had already driven the +English out of the west into Brittany; he now overran Poitou, which +received him gladly; all the south seemed to be at his feet. The attempt +of Edward III. to relieve the little that remained to him in France +failed utterly, and by 1372 Poitou was finally lost to England. Charles +set himself to reduce Brittany with considerable success; a diversion +from Calais caused plentiful misery in the open country; but, as the +French again refused to fight, it did nothing to restore the English +cause. By 1375 England held nothing in France except Calais, Cherbourg, +Bayonne, and Bordeaux. Edward III., utterly worn out with war, agreed to +a truce, through intervention of the Pope; it was signed in 1375. In +1377, on its expiring, Charles, who in two years had sedulously improved +the state of France, renewed the war. By sea and land the English were +utterly overmatched, and by 1378 Charles was master of the situation on +all hands. Now, however, he pushed his advantages too far; and the cold +skill which had overthrown the English, was used in vain against the +Bretons, whose duchy he desired to absorb. Languedoc and Flanders also +revolted against him. France was heavily burdened with taxes, and the +future was dark and threatening. In the midst of these things, death +overtook the coldly calculating monarch in September, 1380. + +Little had France to hope from the boy who was now called on to fill the +throne. Charles VI. was not twelve years old, a light-wined, handsome +boy, under the guardianship of the royal Dukes his uncles, who had no +principles except that of their own interest to guide them in bringing up +the King and ruling the people. Before Charles VI. had reached years of +discretion, he was involved by the French nobles in war against the +Flemish cities, which, under guidance of the great Philip van Arteveldt, +had overthrown the authority of the Count of Flanders. The French cities +showed ominous signs of being inclined to ally themselves with the civic +movement in the north. The men of Ghent came out to meet their French +foes, and at the battle of Roosebek (1382) were utterly defeated and +crushed. Philip van Arteveldt himself was slain. It was a great triumph +of the nobles over the cities; and Paris felt it when the King returned. +All movement there and in the other northern cities of France was +ruthlessly repressed; the noble reaction also overthrew the "new men" and +the lawyers, by whose means the late King had chiefly governed. Two years +later, the royal Dukes signed a truce with England, including Ghent in +it; and Louis de Male, Count of Flanders, having perished at the same +time, Marguerite his daughter, wife of Philip of Burgundy, succeeded to +his inheritance (1384.) Thus began the high fortunes of the House of +Burgundy, which at one time seemed to overshadow Emperor and King of +France. In 1385, another of the brothers, Louis, Duc d'Anjou, died, with +all his Italian ambitions unfulfilled. In 1386, Charles VI., under +guidance of his uncles, declared war on England, and exhausted all France +in preparations; the attempt proved the sorriest failure. The regency of +the Dukes became daily more unpopular, until in 1388 Charles dismissed +his two uncles, the Dukes of Burgundy and Berri, and began to rule. For +a while all went much better; he recalled his father's friends and +advisers, lightened the burdens of the people, allowed the new ministers +free hand in making prudent government; and learning how bad had been the +state of the south under the Duc de Berri, deprived him of that command +in 1390. Men thought that the young King, if not good himself, was well +content to allow good men to govern in his name; at any, rate, the rule +of the selfish Dukes seemed to be over. Their bad influences, however, +still surrounded him; an attempt to assassinate Olivier de Clisson, the +Constable, was connected with their intrigues and those of the Duke of +Brittany; and in setting forth to punish the attempt on his favourite the +Constable, the unlucky young King, who had sapped his health by +debauchery, suddenly became mad. The Dukes of Burgundy and Berri at once +seized the reins and put aside his brother the young Duc d'Orleans. It +was the beginning of that great civil discord between Burgundy and +Orleans, the Burgundians and Armagnacs, which worked so much ill for +France in the earlier part of the next century. The rule of the uncles +was disastrous for France; no good government seemed even possible for +that unhappy land. + +An obscure strife went on until 1404, when Duke Philip of Burgundy died, +leaving his vast inheritance to John the Fearless, the deadly foe of +Louis d'Orleans. Paris was with him, as with his father before him; the +Duke entered the capital in 1405, and issued a popular proclamation +against the ill-government of the Queen-regent and Orleans. Much +profession of a desire for better things was made, with small results. So +things went on until 1407, when, after the Duc de Berri, who tried to +play the part of a mediator, had brought the two Princes together, the +Duc d'Orleans was foully assassinated by a Burgundian partisan. The Duke +of Burgundy, though he at first withdrew from Paris, speedily returned, +avowed the act, and was received with plaudits by the mob. For a few +years the strife continued, obscure and bad; a great league of French +princes and nobles was made to stem the success of the Burgundians; and +it was about this time that the Armagnac name became common. Paris, +however, dominated by the "Cabochians," the butchers' party, the party of +the "marrowbones and cleavers," and entirely devoted to the Burgundians, +enabled John the Fearless to hold his own in France; the King himself +seemed favourable to the same party. In 1412 the princes were obliged to +come to terms, and the Burgundian triumph seemed complete. In 1413 the +wheel went round, and we find the Armagnacs in Paris, rudely sweeping +away all the Cabochians with their professions of good civic rule. The +Duc de Berri was made captain of Paris, and for a while all went against +the Burgundians, until, in 1414, Duke John was fain to make the first +Peace of Arras, and to confess himself worsted in the strife. The young +Dauphin Louis took the nominal lead of the national party, and ruled +supreme in Paris in great ease and self-indulgence. + +The year before, Henry V. had succeeded to the throne of England,--a +bright and vigorous young man, eager to be stirring in the world, brave +and fearless, with a stern grasp of things beneath all,--a very +sheet-anchor of firmness and determined character. Almost at the very +opening of his reign, the moment he had secured his throne, he began a +negotiation with France which boded no good. He offered to marry +Catharine, the King's third daughter, and therewith to renew the old +Treaty of Bretigny, if her dower were Normandy, Maine, Anjou, not without +a good sum of money. The French Court, on the other hand, offered him +her hand with Aquitaine and the money, an offer rejected instantly; and +Henry made ready for a rough wooing in arms. In 1415 he crossed to +Harfleur, and while parties still fought in France, after a long and +exhausting siege, took the place; thence he rode northward for Calais, +feeling his army too much reduced to attempt more. The Armagnacs, who +had gathered at Rouen, also pushed fast to the north, and having choice +of passage over the Somme, Amiens being in their hands, got before King +Henry, while he had to make a long round before he could get across that +stream. Consequently, when, on his way, he reached Azincourt, he found +the whole chivalry of France arrayed against him in his path. The great +battle of Azincourt followed, with frightful ruin and carnage of the +French. With a huge crowd of prisoners the young King passed on to +Calais, and thence to England. The Armagnacs' party lay buried in the +hasty graves of Azincourt; never had there been such slaughter of nobles. +Still, for three years they made head against their foes; till in 1418 +the Duke of Burgundy's friends opened Paris's gates to his soldiers, and +for the time the Armagnacs seemed to be completely defeated; only the +Dauphin Charles made feeble war from Poitiers. Henry V. with a fresh +army had already made another descent on the Normandy coast; the Dukes of +Anjou, Brittany, and Burgundy made several and independent treaties with +him; and it seemed as though France had completely fallen in pieces. +Henry took Rouen, and although the common peril had somewhat silenced the +strife of faction, no steps were taken to meet him or check his course; +on the contrary, matters were made even more hopeless by the murder of +John, Duke of Burgundy, in 1419, even as he was kneeling and offering +reconciliation at the young Dauphin's feet. The young Duke, Philip, now +drew at once towards Henry, whom his father had apparently wished with +sincerity to check; Paris, too, was weary of the Armagnac struggle, and +desired to welcome Henry of England; the Queen of France also went over +to the Anglo-Burgundian side. The end of it was that on May 21,1420, was +signed the famous Treaty of Troyes, which secured the Crown of France to +Henry, by the exclusion of the Dauphin Charles, whenever poor mad Charles +VI., should cease to live. Meanwhile, Henry was made Regent of France, +promising to maintain all rights and privileges of the Parliament and +nobles, and to crush the Dauphin with his Armagnac friends, in token +whereof he was at once wedded to Catharine of France, and set forth to +quell the opposition of the provinces. By Christmas all France north of +the Loire was in English hands. All the lands to the south of the river +remained firmly fixed in their allegiance to the Dauphin and the +Armagnacs, and these began to feel themselves to be the true French +party, as opposed to the foreign rule of the English. For barely two +years that rule was carried on by Henry V. with inflexible justice, and +Northern France saw with amazement the presence of a real king, and an +orderly government. In 1422 King Henry died; a few weeks later Charles +VI. died also, and the face of affairs began to change, although, at the +first, Charles VII. the "Well-served," the lazy, listless prince, seemed +to have little heart for the perils and efforts of his position. He was +proclaimed King at Mehun, in Berri, for the true France for the time lay +on that side of the Loire, and the Regent Bedford, who took the reins at +Paris, was a vigorous and powerful prince, who was not likely to give way +to an idle dreamer. At the outset Charles suffered two defeats, at +Crevant in 1423, and at Verneuil in 1424, and things seemed to be come to +their worst. Yet he was prudent, conciliatory, and willing to wait; and +as the English power in France--that triangle of which the base was the +sea-line from Harfleur to Calais, and the apex Paris--was unnatural and +far from being really strong; and as the relations between Bedford and +Burgundy might not always be friendly, the man who could wait had many +chances in his favour. Before long, things began to mend; Charles wedded +Marie d'Anjou, and won over that great house to the French side; more and +more was he regarded as the nation's King; symptoms of a wish for +reconciliation with Burgundy appeared; the most vehement Armagnacs were +sent away from Court. Causes of disagreement also shook the friendship +between Burgundy and England. + +Feeling the evils of inaction most, Bedford in 1428 decided on a forward +movement, and sent the Earl of Salisbury to the south. He first secured +his position on the north of the Loire, then, crossing that river, laid +siege to Orleans, the key to the south, and the last bulwark of the +national party. All efforts to vex or dislodge him failed; and the +attempt early in 1429 to stop the English supplies was completely +defeated at Bouvray; from the salt fish captured, the battle has taken +the name of "the Day of the Herrings." Dunois, Bastard of Orleans, was, +wounded; the Scots, the King's body-guard, on whom fell ever the grimmest +of the fighting, suffered terribly, and their leader was killed. All +went well for Bedford till it suited the Duke of Burgundy to withdraw +from his side, carrying with him a large part of the fighting power of +the besiegers. Things were already looking rather gloomy in the English +camp, when a new and unexpected rumour struck all hearts cold with fear. +A virgin, an Amazon, had been raised up as a deliverer for France, and +would soon be on them, armed with mysterious powers. + +A young peasant girl, one Jeanne d'Arc, had been brought up in the +village of Domremy, hard by the Lorraine border. The district, always +French in feeling, had lately suffered much from Burgundian raids; and +this young damsel, brooding over the treatment of her village and her +country, and filled with that strange vision-power which is no rare +phenomenon in itself with young girls, came at last to believe with warm +and active faith in heavenly appearances and messages, all urging her to +deliver France and her King. From faith to action the bridge is short; +and ere long the young dreamer of seventeen set forth to work her +miracle. Her history is quite unique in the world; and though probably +France would ere many years have shaken off the English yoke, for its +strength was rapidly going, still to her is the credit of having proved +its weakness, and of having asserted the triumphant power of a great +belief. All gave way before her; Charles VII., persuaded doubtless by +his mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, who warmly espoused her cause, +listened readily to the maiden's voice; and as that voice urged only what +was noble and pure, she carried conviction as she went. In the end she +received the King's commission to undertake the relief of Orleans. Her +coming was fresh blood to the defence; a new spirit seemed to be poured +out on all her followers, and in like manner a deep dejection settled +down on the English. The blockade was forced, and, in eight days the +besiegers raised the siege and marched away. They withdrew to Jargeau, +where they were attacked and routed with great loss. A little later +Talbot himself, who had marched to help them, was also defeated and +taken. Then, compelling Charles to come out from his in glorious ease, +she carried him triumphantly with her to Rheims, where he was duly +crowned King, the Maid of Orldans standing by, and holding aloft the +royal standard. She would gladly have gone home to Domremy now, her +mission being accomplished; for she was entirely free from all ambitious +or secondary aims. But she was too great a power to be spared. Northern +France was still in English hands, and till the English were cast out her +work was not complete; so they made her stay, sweet child, to do the work +which, had there been any manliness in them, they ought to have found it +easy to achieve for themselves. The dread of her went before her,--a +pillar of cloud and darkness to the English, but light and hope to her +countrymen. Men believed that she was called of God to regenerate the +world, to destroy the Saracen at last, to bring in the millennial age. +Her statue was set up in the churches, and crowds prayed before her image +as before a popular saint. + +The incapacity and ill-faith of those round the King gave the English +some time to recover themselves; Bedford and Burgundy drew together +again, and steps were taken to secure Paris. When, however, Jeanne, +weary of courtly delays, marched, contemptuous of the King, as far as St. +Denis, friends sprang up on every side. In Normandy, on the English line +of communications, four strong places were surprised; and Bedford, made +timid as to his supplies, fell back to Rouen, leaving only a small +garrison in Paris. Jeanne, ill-supported by the royal troops, failed in +her attack on the city walls, and was made prisoner by the Burgundians; +they handed her over to the English, and she was, after previous +indignities, and such treatment as chivalry alone could have dealt her, +condemned as a witch, and burnt as a relapsed heretic at Rouen in 1431. +Betrayed by the French Court, sold by the Burgundians, murdered by the +English, unrescued by the people of France which she so much loved, +Jeanne d'Arc died the martyr's death, a pious, simple soul, a heroine of +the purest metal. She saved her country, for the English power never +recovered from the shock. The churchmen who burnt her, the Frenchmen of +the unpatriotic party, would have been amazed could they have foreseen +that nearly 450 years afterwards, churchmen again would glorify her name +as the saint of the Church, in opposition to both the religious liberties +and the national feelings of her country. + +The war, after having greatly weakened the noblesse, and having caused +infinite sufferings to France, now drew towards a close; the Duke of +Burgundy at last agreed to abandon his English allies, and at a great +congress at Arras, in 1435, signed a treaty with Charles VII. by which +he solemnly came over to the French side. On condition that he should +get Auxerre and Macon, as well as the towns on and near the river Somme, +he was willing to recognise Charles as King of France. His price was +high, yet it was worth all that was given; for, after all, he was of the +French blood royal, and not a foreigner. The death of Bedford, which +took place about the same time, was almost a more terrible blow to the +fortunes of the English. Paris opened her gates to her King in April, +1436; the long war kept on with slight movements now and then for several +years. + +The next year was marked by the meeting of the States General, and the +establishment, in principle at least, of a standing army. The Estates +petitioned the willing King that the system of finance in the realm +should be remodelled, and a permanent tax established for the support of +an army. Thus, it was thought, solidity would be given to the royal +power, and the long-standing curse of the freebooters and brigands +cleared away. No sooner was this done than the nobles began to chafe +under it; they scented in the air the coming troubles; they, took as +their head, poor innocents, the young Dauphin Louis, who was willing +enough to resist the concentration of power in royal hands. Their +champion of 1439, the leader of the "Praguerie," as this new league was +called, in imitation, it is said, of the Hussite movement at Prague, the +enthusiastic defender of noble privilege against the royal power, was the +man who afterwards, as Louis XI., was the destroyer of the noblesse on +behalf of royalty. Some of the nobles stood firmly by the King, and, +aided by them and by an army of paid soldiers serving under the new +conditions, Charles VII., no contemptible antagonist when once aroused, +attacked and overthrew the Praguerie; the cities and the country people +would have none of it; they preferred peace under a king's strong hand. +Louis was sent down to the east to govern Dauphiny; the lessons of the +civil war were not lost on Charles; he crushed the freebooters of +Champagne, drove the English out of Pontois in 1441, moved actively up +and down France, reducing anarchy, restoring order, resisting English +attacks. In the last he was loyally supported by the Dauphin, who was +glad to find a field for his restless temper. He repulsed the English at +Dieppe, and put down the Comte d'Armagnac in the south. During the two +years' truce with England which now followed, Charles VII. and Louis drew +off their free-lances eastward, and the Dauphin came into rude collision +with the Swiss not far from Basel, in 1444. Some sixteen hundred +mountaineers long and heroically withstood at St. Jacob the attack of +several thousand Frenchmen, fighting stubbornly till they all perished. + +The King and Dauphin returned to Paris, having defended their +border-lands with credit, and having much reduced the numbers of the +lawless free-lances. The Dauphin, discontented again, was obliged once +more to withdraw into Dauphiny, where he governed prudently and with +activity. In 1449, the last scene of the Anglo-French war began. In that +year English adventurers landed on the Breton coast; the Duke called the +French King to his aid. Charles did not tarry this time; he broke the +truce with England; he sent Dunois into Normandy, and himself soon +followed. In both duchies, Brittany and Normandy, the French were +welcomed with delight: no love for England lingered in the west. Somerset +and Talbot failed to defend Rouen, and were driven from point to point, +till every stronghold was lost to them. Dunois then passed into Guienne, +and in a few-months Bayonne, the last stronghold of the English, fell +into his hands (1451). When Talbot was sent over to Bordeaux with five +thousand men to recover the south, the old English feeling revived, for +England was their best customer, and they had little in common with +France. It was, however, but a last flicker of the flame; in July, 1453, +at the siege of Castillon, the aged Talbot was slain and the war at once +came to an end; the south passed finally into the kingdom of France. +Normandy and Guienne were assimilated to France in taxation and army +organisation; and all that remained to England across the Channel was +Calais, with Havre and Guines Castle. Her foreign ambitions and +struggles over, England was left to consume herself in civil strife, +while France might rest and recover from the terrible sufferings she had +undergone. The state of the country had become utterly wretched. + +With the end of the English wars new life began to gleam out on France; +the people grew more tranquil, finding that toil and thrift bore again +their wholesome fruits; Charles VII. did not fail in his duty, and took +his part in restoring quiet, order, and justice in the land. + +The French Crown, though it had beaten back the English, was still +closely girt in with rival neighbours, the great dukes on every frontier. +All round the east and north lay the lands of Philip of Burgundy; to the +west was the Duke of Brittany, cherishing a jealous independence; the +royal Dukes, Berri, Bourbon, Anjou, are all so many potential sources of +danger and difficulty to the Crown. The conditions of the nobility are +altogether changed; the old barons have sunk into insignificance; the +struggle of the future will lie between the King's cousins and himself, +rather than with the older lords. A few non-royal princes, such as +Armagnac, or Saint-Pol, or Brittany, remain and will go down with the +others; the "new men" of the day, the bastard Dunois or the Constables Du +Guesclin and Clisson, grow to greater prominence; it is clear that the +old feudalism is giving place to a newer order, in which the aristocracy, +from the King's brothers downwards, will group themselves around the +throne, and begin the process which reaches its unhappy perfection under +Louis XIV. + +Directly after the expulsion of the English, troubles began between King +Charles VII. and the Dauphin Louis; the latter could not brook a quiet +life in Dauphiny, and the King refused him that larger sphere in the +government of Normandy which he coveted. Against his father's will, +Louis married Charlotte of Savoy, daughter of his strongest neighbour in +Dauphiny; suspicion and bad feeling grew strong between father and son; +Louis was specially afraid of his father's counsellors; the King was +specially afraid of his son's craftiness and ambition. It came to an +open rupture, and Louis, in 1456, fled to the Court of Duke Philip of +Burgundy. There he lived at refuge at Geneppe, meddling a good deal in +Burgundian politics, and already opposing himself to his great rival, +Charles of Charolais, afterwards Charles the Bold, the last Duke of +Burgundy. Bickerings, under his bad influence, took place between King +and Duke; they never burst out into flame. So things went on +uncomfortably enough, till Charles VII. died in 1461 and the reign of +Louis XI. began. + +Between father and son what contrast could be greater? Charles VII., +"the Well-served," so easygoing, so open and free from guile; Louis XI., +so shy of counsellors, so energetic and untiring, so close and guileful. +History does but apologise for Charles, and even when she fears and +dislikes Louis, she cannot forbear to wonder and admire. And yet Louis +enslaved his country, while Charles had seen it rescued from foreign +rule; Charles restored something of its prosperity, while Louis spent his +life in crushing its institutions and in destroying its elements of +independence. A great and terrible prince, Louis XI. failed in having +little or no constructive power; he was strong to throw down the older +society, he built little in its room. Most serious of all was his action +with respect to the district of the River Somme, at that time the +northern frontier of France. The towns there had been handed over to +Philip of Burgundy by the Treaty of Arras, with a stipulation that the +Crown might ransom them at any time, and this Louis succeeded in doing in +1463. The act was quite blameless and patriotic in itself, yet it was +exceedingly unwise, for it thoroughly alienated Charles the Bold, and led +to the wars of the earlier period of the reign. Lastly, as if he had not +done enough to offend the nobles, Louis in 1464 attacked their hunting +rights, touching them in their tenderest part. No wonder that this year +saw the formation of a great league against him, and the outbreak of a +dangerous civil war. The "League of the Public Weal" was nominally +headed by his own brother Charles, heir to the throne; it was joined by +Charles of Charolais, who had completely taken the command of affairs in +the Burgundian territories, his father the old duke being too feeble to +withstand him; the Dukes of Brittany, Nemours, Bourbon, John of Anjou, +Duke of Calabria, the Comte d'Armagnac, the aged Dunois, and a host of +other princes and nobles flocked in; and the King had scarcely any forces +at his back with which to withstand them. His plans for the campaign +against the league were admirable, though they were frustrated by the bad +faith of his captains, who mostly sympathised with this outbreak of the +feudal nobility. Louis himself marched southward to quell the Duc de +Bourbon and his friends, and returning from that task, only half done for +lack of time, he found that Charles of Charolais had passed by Paris, +which was faithful to the King, and was coming down southwards, intending +to join the Dukes of Berri and Brittany, who were on their way towards +the capital. The hostile armies met at Montleheri on the Orleans road; +and after a strange battle--minutely described by Commines--a battle in +which both sides ran away, and neither ventured at first to claim a +victory, the King withdrew to Corbeil, and then marched into Paris +(1465). There the armies of the league closed in on him; and after a +siege of several weeks, Louis, feeling disaffection all around him, and +doubtful how long Paris herself would bear for him the burdens of +blockade, signed the Peace of Conflans, which, to all appearances, +secured the complete victory to the noblesse, "each man carrying off his +piece." Instantly the contented princes broke up their half-starved +armies and went home, leaving Louis behind to plot and contrive against +them, a far wiser man, thanks to the lesson they had taught him. They +did not let him wait long for a chance. The Treaty of Conflans had given +the duchy of Normandy to the King's brother Charles; he speedily +quarrelled with his neighbour, the Duke of Brittany, and Louis came down +at once into Normandy, which threw itself into his arms, and the whole +work of the league was broken up. The Comte de Charolais, occupied with +revolts at Dinan and Liege, could not interfere, and presently his +father, the old Duke Philip, died (1467), leaving to him the vast +lordships of the House of Burgundy. + +And now the "imperial dreamer," Charles the Bold, was brought into +immediate rivalry with that royal trickster, the "universal spider," +Louis XI. Charles was by far the nobler spirit of the two: his vigour +and intelligence, his industry and wish to raise all around him to a +higher cultivation, his wise reforms at home, and attempts to render his +father's dissolute and careless rule into a well-ordered lordship, all +these things marked him out as the leading spirit of the time. His +territories were partly held under France, partly under the empire: the +Artois district, which also may be taken to include the Somme towns, the +county of Rhetel, the duchy of Bar, the duchy of Burgundy, with Auxerre +and Nevers, were feudally in France; the rest of his lands under the +empire. He had, therefore, interests and means of interference on either +hand; and it is clear that Charles set before himself two different lines +of policy, according as he looked one way or the other. + +At the time of Duke Philip's death a new league had been formed against +Louis, embracing the King of England, Edward IV., the Dukes of Burgundy +and Brittany, and the Kings of Aragon and Castile. Louis strained every +nerve, he conciliated Paris, struck hard at disaffected partisans, and in +1468 convoked the States General at Tours. The three Estates were asked +to give an opinion as to the power of the Crown to alienate Normandy, the +step insisted upon by the Duke of Burgundy. Their reply was to the +effect that the nation forbids the Crown to dismember the realm; they +supported their opinion by liberal promises of help. Thus fortified by +the sympathy of his people, Louis began to break up the coalition. He +made terms with the Duc de Bourbon and the House of Anjou; his brother +Charles was a cipher; the King of England was paralysed by the antagonism +of Warwick; he attacked and reduced Brittany; Burgundy, the most +formidable, alone remained to be dealt with. How should he meet him?--by +war or by negotiation? His Court was divided in opinion; the King +decided for himself in favour of the way of negotiation, and came to the +astonishing conclusion that he would go and meet the Duke and win him +over to friendship. He miscalculated both his own powers of persuasion +and the force of his antagonist's temper. The interview of Peronne +followed; Charles held his visitor as a captive, and in the end compelled +him to sign a treaty, of peace, on the basis of that of Conflans, which +had closed the War of the Public Weal. And as if this were not +sufficient humiliation, Charles made the King accompany him on his +expedition to punish the men of Liege, who, trusting to the help of +Louis, had again revolted (1469). This done, he allowed the degraded +monarch to return home to Paris. An assembly of notables of Tours +speedily declared the Treaty of Perrone null, and the King made some +small frontier war on the Duke, which was ended by a truce at Amiens, in +1471. The truce was spent in preparation for a fresh struggle, which +Louis, to whom time was everything, succeeded in deferring from point to +point, till the death of his brother Charles, now Duc de Guienne, in +1472, broke up the formidable combination. Charles the Bold at once +broke truce and made war on the King, marching into northern France, +sacking towns and ravaging the country, till he reached Beauvais. There +the despair of the citizens and the bravery of the women saved the town. +Charles raised the siege and marched on Rouen, hoping to meet the Duke of +Brittany; but that Prince had his hands full, for Louis had overrun his +territories, and had reduced him to terms. The Duke of Burgundy saw that +the coalition had completely failed; he too made fresh truce with Louis +at Senlis (1472), and only, deferred, he no doubt thought, the direct +attack on his dangerous rival. Henceforth Charles the Bold turned his +attention mainly to the east, and Louis gladly saw him go forth to spend +his strength on distant ventures; saw the interview at Treves with the +Emperor Frederick III., at which the Duke's plans were foiled by the +suspicions of the Germans and the King's intrigues; saw the long siege of +the Neusz wearing out his power; bought off the hostility of Edward IV. +of England, who had undertaken to march on Paris; saw Charles embark on +his Swiss enterprise; saw the subjugation of Lorraine and capture of +Nancy (1475), the battle of Granson, the still more fatal defeat of Morat +(1476), and lastly the final struggle of Nancy, and the Duke's death on +the field (January, 1477). + +While Duke Charles had thus been running on his fate, Louis XI. had +actively attacked the larger nobles of France, and had either reduced +them to submission or had destroyed them. + +As Duke Charles had left no male heir, the King at once resumed the duchy +of Burgundy, as a male fief of the kingdom; he also took possession of +Franche Comte at the same time; the King's armies recovered all Picardy, +and even entered Flanders. Then Mary of Burgundy, hoping to raise up a +barrier against this dangerous neighbour, offered her hand, with all her +great territories, to young Maximilian of Austria, and married him within +six months after her father's death. To this wedding is due the rise to +real greatness of the House of Austria; it begins the era of the larger +politics of modern times. + +After a little hesitation Louis determined to continue the struggle +against the Burgundian power. He secured Franche Comte, and on his +northern frontier retook Arras, that troublesome border city, the "bonny +Carlisle" of those days; and advancing to relieve Therouenne, then +besieged by Maximilian, fought and lost the battle of Guinegate (1479). +The war was languid after this; a truce followed in 1480, and a time of +quiet for France. Charles the Dauphin was engaged to marry the little +Margaret, Maximilian's daughter, and as her dower she was to bring +Franche Comte and sundry places on the border line disputed between the +two princes. In these last days Louis XI. shut himself up in gloomy +seclusion in his castle of Plessis near Tours, and there he died in 1483. +A great king and a terrible one, he has left an indellible mark on the +history of France, for he was the founder of France in its later form, as +an absolute monarchy ruled with little regard to its own true welfare. He +had crushed all resistance; he had enlarged the borders of France, till +the kingdom took nearly its modern dimensions; he had organised its army +and administration. The danger was lest in the hands of a feeble boy +these great results should be squandered away, and the old anarchy once +more raise its head. + +For Charles VIII., who now succeeded, was but thirteen years old, a weak +boy whom his father had entirely neglected, the training of his son not +appearing to be an essential part of his work in life. The young Prince +had amused himself with romances, but had learnt nothing useful. A head, +however, was found for him in the person of his eldest sister Anne, whom +Louis XI. had married to Peter II., Lord of Beaujeu and Duc de Bourbon. +To her the dying King entrusted the guardianship of his son; and for more +than nine years Anne of France was virtual King. For those years all +went well. + +With her disappearance from the scene, the controlling hand is lost, and +France begins the age of her Italian expeditions. + +When the House of Anjou came to an end in 1481, and Anjou and Maine fell +in to the Crown, there fell in also a far less valuable piece of +property, the claim of that house descended from Charles, the youngest +brother of Saint Louis, on the kingdom of Naples and Sicily. There was +much to tempt an ambitious prince in the state of Italy. Savoy, which +held the passage into the peninsula, was then thoroughly French in +sympathy; Milan, under Lodovico Sforza, "il Moro," was in alliance with +Charles; Genoa preferred the French to the Aragonese claimants for +influence over Italy; the popular feeling in the cities, especially in +Florence, was opposed to the despotism of the Medici, and turned to +France for deliverance; the misrule of the Spanish Kings of Naples had +made Naples thoroughly discontented; Venice was, as of old, the friend of +France. Tempted by these reasons, in 1494 Charles VIII. set forth for +Italy with a splendid host. He displayed before the eyes of Europe the +first example of a modern army, in its three well-balanced branches of +infantry, cavalry, and artillery. There was nothing in Italy to +withstand his onslaught; he swept through the land in triumph; Charles +believed himself to be a great conqueror giving law to admiring +subject-lands; he entered Pisa, Florence, Rome itself. Wherever he went +his heedless ignorance, and the gross misconduct of his followers, left +behind implacable hostility, and turned all friendship into bitterness. +At last he entered Naples, and seemed to have asserted to the full the +French claim to be supreme in Italy, whereas at that very time his +position had become completely untenable. A league of Italian States was +formed behind his back; Lodovico il Moro, Ferdinand of Naples, the +Emperor, Pope Alexander VI., Ferdinand and Isabella, who were now welding +Spain into a great and united monarchy, all combined against France; and +in presence of this formidable confederacy Charles VIII. had to cut his +way home as promptly as he could. At Fornovo, north of the Apennines, he +defeated the allies in July, 1495; and by November the main French army +had got safely out of Italy. The forces left behind in Naples were worn +out by war and pestilence, and the poor remnant of these, too, bringing +with them the seeds of horrible contagious diseases, forced their way +back to France in 1496. It was the last effort of the King. His health +was ruined by debauchery in Italy, repeated in France; and yet, towards +the end of his reign, he not merely introduced Italian arts, but +attempted to reform the State, to rule prudently, to solace the poor; +wherefore, when he died in 1498, the people lamented him greatly, for he +had been kindly and affable, brave also on the battle-field; and much is +forgiven to a king. + +His children died before him, so that Louis d'Orleans, his cousin, was +nearest heir to the throne, and succeeded as Louis XII. By his accession +in 1498 he reunited the fief of Orleans County to the Crown; by marrying +Anne of Brittany, his predecessor's widow, he secured also the great +duchy of Brittany. The dispensation of Pope Alexander VI., which enabled +him to put away his wife Jeanne, second daughter of Louis XI., was +brought into France by Caesar Borgia, who gained thereby his title of +Duke of Valentinois, a large sum of money, a French bride, and promises +of support in his great schemes in Italy. + +His ministers were men of real ability. Georges d'Amboise, Archbishop of +Rouen, the chief of them, was a prudent and a sagacious ruler, who, +however, unfortunately wanted to be Pope, and urged the King in the +direction of Italian politics, which he would have done much better to +have left alone. Louis XII. was lazy and of small intelligence; Georges +d'Amboise and Caesar Borgia, with their Italian ambitions, easily made +him take up a spirited foreign policy which was disastrous at home. + +Utterly as the last Italian expedition had failed, the French people were +not yet weary of the adventure, and preparations for a new war began at +once. In 1499 the King crossed the Alps into the Milanese, and carried +all before him for a while. The duchy at first accepted him with +enthusiasm; but in 1500 it had had enough of the French and recalled +Lodovico, who returned in triumph to Milan. The Swiss mercenaries, +however, betrayed him at Novara into the hands of Louis XII., who carried +him off to France. The triumph of the French in 1500 was also the +highest point of the fortunes of their ally, Caesar Borgia, who seemed +for a while to be completely successful. In this year Louis made a +treaty at Granada, by which he and Ferdinand the Catholic agreed to +despoil Frederick of Naples; and in 1501 Louis made a second expedition +into Italy. Again all seemed easy at the outset, and he seized the +kingdom of Naples without difficulty; falling out, however, with his +partner in the bad bargain, Ferdinand the Catholic, he was speedily swept +completely out of the peninsula, with terrible loss of honour, men, and +wealth. + +It now became necessary to arrange for the future of France. Louis XII. +had only a daughter, Claude, and it was proposed that she should be +affianced to Charles of Austria, the future statesman and emperor. This +scheme formed the basis of the three treaties of Blois (1504). In 1500, +by the Treaty of Granada, Louis had in fact handed Naples over to Spain; +now by the three treaties he alienated his best friends, the Venetians +and the papacy, while he in fact also handed Milan over to the Austrian +House, together with territories considered to be integral parts of +France. The marriage with Charles came to nothing; the good sense of +some, the popular feeling in the country, the open expressions of the +States General of Tours, in 1506, worked against the marriage, which had +no strong advocate except Queen Anne. Claude, on intercession of the +Estates, was affianced to Frangois d'Angouleme, her distant cousin, the +heir presumptive to the throne. + +In 1507 Louis made war on Venice; and in the following year the famous +Treaty of Cambrai was signed by Georges d'Amboise and Margaret of +Austria. It was an agreement for a partition of the Venetian +territories,--one of the most shameless public deeds in history. The +Pope, the King of Aragon, Maximilian, Louis XII., were each to have a +share. The war was pushed on with great vigour: the battle of Agnadello +(14th May, 1509) cleared the King's way towards Venice; Louis was +received with open arms by the North Italian towns, and pushed forward to +within eight of Venice. The other Princes came up on every side; the +proud "Queen of the Adriatic" was compelled to shrink within her walls, +and wait till time dissolved the league. This was not long. The Pope, +Julius II., had no wish to hand Northern Italy over to France; he had +joined in the shameless league of Cambrai because he wanted to wrest the +Romagna cities from Venice, and because he hoped to entirely destroy the +ancient friendship between Venice and France. Successful in both aims, +he now withdrew from the league, made peace with the Venetians, and stood +forward as the head of a new Italian combination, with the Swiss for his +fighting men. The strife was close and hot between Pope and King; Louis +XII. lost his chief adviser and friend, Georges d'Amboise, the splendid +churchman of the age, the French Wolsey; he thought no weapon better than +the dangerous one of a council, with claims opposed to those of the +papacy; first a National Council at Tours, then an attempted General +Council at Pisa, were called on to resist the papal claims. In reply +Julius II. created the Holy League of 1511, with Ferdinand of Aragon, +Henry VIII. of England, and the Venetians as its chief members, against +the French. Louis XII. showed vigour; he sent his nephew Gaston de Foix +to subdue the Romagna and threaten the Venetian territories. At the +battle of Ravenna, in 1512, Gaston won a brilliant victory and lost his +life. From that moment disaster dogged the footsteps of the French in +Italy, and before winter they had been driven completely out of the +peninsula; the succession of the Medicean Pope, Leo X., to Julius II., +seemed to promise the continuance of a policy hostile to France in Italy. +Another attempt on Northern Italy proved but another failure, although +now Louis XII., taught by his mishaps, had secured the alliance of +Venice; the disastrous defeat of La Tremoille, near Novara (1513), +compelled the French once more to withdraw beyond the Alps. In this same +year an army under the Duc de Longueville, endeavouring to relieve +Therouenne, besieged by the English and Maximilian, the Emperor-elect, +was caught and crushed at Guinegate. A diversion in favour of Louis +XII., made by James IV. of Scotland, failed completely; the Scottish King +was defeated and slain at Flodden Field. While his northern frontier was +thus exposed, Louis found equal danger threatening him on the east; on +this aide, however, he managed to buy off the Swiss, who had attacked the +duchy of Burgundy. He was also reconciled with the papacy and the House +of Austria. Early in 1514 the death of Anne of Brittany, his spouse, a +lady of high ambitions, strong artistic tastes, and humane feelings +towards her Bretons, but a bad Queen for France, cleared the way for +changes. Claude, the King's eldest daughter, was now definitely married +to Francois d'Angouleme, and invested with the duchy of Brittany; and the +King himself, still hoping for a male heir to succeed him, married again, +wedding Mary Tudor, the lovely young sister of Henry VIII. This marriage +was probably the chief cause of his death, which followed on New Year's +day, 1515. His was, in foreign policy, an inglorious and disastrous +reign; at home, a time of comfort and material prosperity. Agriculture +flourished, the arts of Italy came in, though (save in architecture) +France could claim little artistic glory of her own; the organisation of +justice and administration was carried out; in letters and learning +France still lagged behind her neighbours. + +The heir to the crown was Francois d'Angouleme, great-grandson of that +Louis d'Orleans who had been assassinated in the bad days of the strife +between Burgundians and Armagnacs, in 1407, and great-great-grandson of +Charles V. of France. He was still very young, very eager to be king, +very full of far-reaching schemes. Few things in history are more +striking than the sudden change, at this moment, from the rule of +middle-aged men or (as men of fifty were then often called) old men, to +the rule of youths,--from sagacious, worldly-prudent monarchs--to +impulsive boys,--from Henry VII. to Henry VIII., from Louis XII. to +Frangois I, from Ferdinand to Charles. + +On the whole, Frangois I. was the least worthy of the three. He was +brilliant, "the king of culture," apt scholar in Renaissance art and +immorality; brave, also, and chivalrous, so long as the chivalry involved +no self-denial, for he was also thoroughly selfish, and his personal aims +and ideas were mean. His reign was to be a reaction from that of Louis +XII. + +From the beginning, Francois chose his chief officers unwisely. In +Antoine du Prat, his new chancellor, he had a violent and lawless +adviser; in Charles de Bourbon, his new constable, an untrustworthy +commander. Forthwith he plunged into Italian politics, being determined +to make good his claim both to Naples and to Milan; he made most friendly +arrangements with the Archduke Charles, his future rival, promising to +help him in securing, when the time came, the vast inheritances of his +two grandfathers, Maximilian, the Emperor-elect, and Ferdinand of Aragon; +never was a less wise agreement entered upon. This done, the Italian war +began; Francois descended into Italy, and won the brilliant battle of +Marignano, in which the French chivalry crushed the Swiss burghers and +peasant mercenaries. The French then overran the north of Italy, and, in +conjunction with the Venetians, carried all before them. But the +triumphs of the sword were speedily wrested from him by the adroitness of +the politician; in an interview with Leo X. at Bologna, Francois bartered +the liberties of the Gallican Church for shadowy advantages in Italy. The +'Pragmatic Sanction of Bourgea', which now for nearly a century had +secured to the Church of France independence in the choice of her chief +officers, was replaced by a concordat, whereby the King allowed the +papacy once more to drain the wealth of the Church of France, while the +Pope allowed the King almost autocratic power over it. He was to appoint +to all benefices, with exception of a few privileged offices; the Pope +was no longer to be threatened with general councils, while he should +receive again the annates of the Church. + +The years which followed this brilliantly disastrous opening brought +little good to France. In 1516 the death of Ferdinand the Catholic +placed Charles on the throne of Spain; in 1519 the death of Maximilian +threw open to the young Princes the most dazzling prize of human +ambition,--the headship of the Holy Roman Empire. Francois I., Charles, +and Henry VIII. were all candidates for the votes of the seven electors, +though the last never seriously entered the lists. The struggle lay +between Francois, the brilliant young Prince, who seemed to represent the +new opinions in literature and art, and Charles of Austria and Spain, who +was as yet unknown and despised, and, from his education under the +virtuous and scholastic Adrian of Utrecht, was thought likely to +represent the older and reactionary opinions of the clergy. After a long +and sharp competition, the great prize fell to Charles, henceforth known +to history as that great monarch and emperor, Charles V. + +The rivalry between the Princes could not cease there. Charles, as +representative of the House of Burgundy, claimed all that had been lost +when Charles the Bold fell; and in 1521 the war broke out between him and +Francois, the first of a series of struggles between the two rivals. +While the King wasted the resources of his country on these wars, his +proud and unwise mother, Louise of Savoy, guided by Antoine du Prat, +ruled, to the sorrow of all, at home. The war brought no glory with it: +on the Flemish frontier a place or two was taken; in Biscay Fontarabia +fell before the arms of France; in Italy Francois had to meet a new +league of Pope and Emperor, and his troops were swept completely out of +the Milanese. In the midst of all came the defection of that great +prince, the Constable de Bourbon, head of the younger branch of the +Bourbon House, the most powerful feudal lord in France. Louise of Savoy +had enraged and offended him, or he her; the King slighted him, and in +1523 the Constable made a secret treaty with Charles V. and Henry VIII., +and, taking flight into Italy, joined the Spaniards under Lannoy. The +French, who had again invaded the Milanese, were again driven out in +1524; on the other hand, the incursions of the imperialists into Picardy, +Provence, and the southeast were all complete failures. Encouraged by +the repulse of Bourbon from Marseilles, Francois I. once more crossed the +Alps, and overran a great part of the valley of the Po; at the siege of +Pavia he was attacked by Pescara and Bourbon, utterly defeated and taken +prisoner (24th February, 1525); the broken remnants of the French were +swept out of Italy at once, and Francois I. was carried into Spain, a +captive at Madrid. His mother, best in adversity, behaved with high +pride and spirit; she overawed disaffection, made preparations for +resistance, looked out for friends on every side. Had Francois been in +truth a hero, he might, even as a prisoner, have held his own; but he was +unable to bear the monotony of confinement, and longed for the pleasures +of France. On this mean nature Charles V. easily worked, and made the +captive monarch sign the Treaty of Madrid (January 14, 1526), a compact +which Francois meant to break as soon as he could, for he knew neither +heroism nor good faith. The treaty stipulated that Francois should give +up the duchy of Burgundy to Charles, and marry Eleanor of Portugal, +Charles's sister; that Francois should also abandon his claims on +Flanders, Milan, and Naples, and should place two sons in the Emperor's +hands as hostages. Following the precedent of Louis XI. in the case of +Normandy, he summoned an assembly of nobles and the Parliament of Paris +to Cognac, where they declared the cession of Burgundy to be impossible. +He refused to return to Spain, and made alliances wherever he could, with +the Pope, with Venice, Milan, and England. The next year saw the ruin of +this league in the discomfiture of Clement VII., and the sack of Rome by +the German mercenaries under Bourbon, who was killed in the assault. The +war went on till 1529, when Francois, having lost two armies in it, and +gained nothing but loss and harm, was willing for peace; Charles V., +alarmed at the progress of the Turks, was not less willing; and in +August, 1529, the famous Treaty, of Cambrai, "the Ladies' Peace," was +agreed to by Margaret of Austria and Louise of Savoy. Though Charles V. +gave up all claim on the duchy of Burgundy, he had secured to himself +Flanders and Artois, and had entirely cleared French influences out of +Italy, which now became firmly fixed under the imperial hand, as a +connecting link between his Spanish and German possessions. Francois +lost ground and credit by these successive treaties, conceived in bad +faith, and not honestly carried out. + +No sooner had the Treaty of Cambrai been effectual in bringing his sons +back to France, than Francois began to look out for new pretexts and +means for war. Affairs were not unpromising. His mother's death in 1531 +left him in possession of a huge fortune, which she had wrung from +defenceless France; the powers which were jealous of Austria, the Turk, +the English King, the members of the Smalkald league, all looked to +Francois as their leader; Clement VII., though his misfortunes had thrown +him into the Emperor's hands, was not unwilling to treat with France; and +in 1533 by the compact of Marseilles the Pope broke up the friendship +between Francois and Henry VIII., while he married his niece Catherine +de' Medici to Henri, the second son of Francois. This compact was a real +disaster to France; the promised dowry of Catherine--certain Italian +cities--was never paid, and the death of Clement VII. in 1534 made the +political alliance with the papacy a failure. The influence of Catherine +affected and corrupted French history for half a century. Preparations +for war went on; Francois made a new scheme for a national army, though +in practice he preferred the tyrant's arm, the foreign mercenary. From +his day till the Revolution the French army was largely composed of +bodies of men tempted out of other countries, chiefly from Switzerland or +Germany. + +While the Emperor strove to appease the Protestant Princes of Germany by +the Peace of Kadan (1534), Francois strengthened himself with a definite +alliance with Soliman; and when, on the death of Francesco Sforza, Duke +of Milan, who left no heirs, Charles seized the duchy as its overlord, +Francois, after some bootless negotiation, declared war on his great +rival (1536). His usual fortunes prevailed so long as he was the +attacking party: his forces were soon swept out of Piedmont, and the +Emperor carried the war over the frontier into Provence. That also +failed, and Charles was fain to withdraw after great losses into Italy. +The defence of Provence--a defence which took the form of a ruthless +destruction of all its resources--had been entrusted to Anne de +Montmorency, who henceforward became Constable of France, and exerted +great influence over Francois I. Though these two campaigns, the French +in Italy and the imperialist in Provence, had equally failed in 1536, +peace did not follow till 1538, when, after the terrible defeat of +Ferdinand of Austria by the Turks, Charles was anxious to have free hand +in Germany. Under the mediation of Paul III. the agreement of Nice was +come to, which included a ten years' truce and the abandonment by +Francois of all his foreign allies and aims. He seemed a while to have +fallen completely under the influence of the sagacious Emperor. He gave +way entirely to the Church party of the time, a party headed by gloomy +Henri, now Dauphin, who never lost the impress of his Spanish captivity, +and by the Constable Anne de Montmorency; for a time the artistic or +Renaissance party, represented by Anne, Duchesse d'Etampes, and Catherine +de' Medici, fell into disfavour. The Emperor even ventured to pass +through France, on his way from Spain to the Netherlands. All this +friendship, however, fell to dust, when it was found that Charles refused +to invest the Duc d'Orleans, the second son of Francois, with the duchy +of Milan, and when the Emperor's second expedition against the sea-power +of the Turks had proved a complete failure, and Charles had returned to +Spain with loss of all his fleet and army. Then Francois hesitated no +longer, and declared war against him (1541). The shock the Emperor had +suffered inspirited all his foes; the Sultan and the Protestant German +Princes were all eager for war; the influence of Anne de Montmorency had +to give way before that of the House of Guise, that frontier family, half +French, half German, which was destined to play a large part in the +troubled history of the coming half-century. Claude, Duc de Guise, a +veteran of the earliest days of Francois, was vehemently opposed to +Charles and the Austro-Spanish power, and ruled in the King's councils. +This last war was as mischievous as its predecessors no great battles +were fought; in the frontier affairs the combatants were about equally +fortunate; the battle of Cerisolles, won by the French under Enghien +(1544), was the only considerable success they had, and even that was +almost barren of results, for the danger to Northern France was imminent; +there a combined invasion had been planned and partly executed by Charles +and Henry VIII., and the country, almost undefended, was at their mercy. +The two monarchs, however, distrusted one another; and Charles V., +anxious about Germany, sent to Francois proposals for peace from Crespy +Couvrant, near Laon, where he had halted his army; Francois, almost in +despair, gladly made terms with him. The King gave up his claims on +Flanders and Artois, the Emperor his on the duchy of Burgundy; the King +abandoned his old Neapolitan ambition, and Charles promised one of the +Princesses of the House of Austria, with Milan as her dower, to the Duc +d'Orleans, second son of Francois. The Duke dying next year, this +portion of the agreement was not carried out. The Peace of Crespy, which +ended the wars between the two great rivals, was signed in autumn, 1544, +and, like the wars which led to it, was indecisive and lame. + +Charles learnt that with all his great power he could not strike a fatal +blow at France; France ought to have learnt that she was very weak for +foreign conquest, and that her true business was to consolidate and +develop her power at home. Henry VIII. deemed himself wronged by this +independent action on the part of Charles, who also had his grievances +with the English monarch; he stood out till 1546, and then made peace +with Francois, with the aim of forming a fresh combination against +Charles. In the midst of new projects and much activity, the marrer of +man's plots came on the scene, and carried off in the same year, 1547, +the English King and Francois I., leaving Charles V. undisputed arbiter +of the affairs of Europe. In this same year he also crushed the +Protestant Princes at the battle of Muhlberg. + +In the reign of Francois I. the Court looked not unkindly on the +Reformers, more particularly in the earlier years. + +Henri II., who succeeded in 1547, "had all the faults of his father, with +a weaker mind;" and as strength of mind was not one of the +characteristics of Francois I., we may imagine how little firmness there +was in the gloomy King who now reigned. Party spirit ruled at Court. +Henri II., with his ancient mistress, Diane de Poitiers, were at the head +of one party, that of the strict Catholics, and were supported by old +Anne de Montmorency, most unlucky of soldiers, most fanatical of +Catholics, and by the Guises, who chafed a good deal under the stern rule +of the Constable. This party had almost extinguished its antagonists; in +the struggle of the mistresses, the pious and learned Anne d'Etampes had +to give place to imperious Diane, Catherine, the Queen, was content to +bide her time, watching with Italian coolness the game as it went on; of +no account beside her rival, and yet quite sure to have her day, and +ready to play parties against one another. Meanwhile, she brought to her +royal husband ten sickly children, most of whom died young, and three +wore the crown. Of the many bad things she did for France, that was +perhaps among the worst. + +On the accession of Henri II. the duchy of Brittany finally lost even +nominal independence; he next got the hand of Mary, Queen of Scots, then +but five years old, for the Dauphin Francois; she was carried over to +France; and being by birth half a Guise, by education and interests of +her married life she became entirely French. It was a great triumph for +Henri, for the Protector Somerset had laid his plans to secure her for +young Edward VI.; it was even more a triumph for the Guises, who saw +opened out a broad and clear field for their ambition. + +At first Henri II. showed no desire for war, and seemed to shrink from +rivalry or collision with Charles V. He would not listen to Paul III., +who, in his anxiety after the fall of the Protestant power in Germany in +1547, urged him to resist the Emperor's triumphant advance; he seemed to +show a dread of war, even among his neighbours. After he had won his +advantage over Edward VI., he escaped the war which seemed almost +inevitable, recovered Boulogne from the English by a money payment, and +smoothed the way for peace between England and Scotland. He took much +interest in the religious question, and treated the Calvinists with great +severity; he was also occupied by troubles in the south and west of +France. Meanwhile, a new Pope, Julius III., was the weak dependent of +the Emperor, and there seemed to be no head left for any movement against +the universal domination of Charles V. His career from 1547 to 1552 was, +to all appearance, a triumphal march of unbroken success. Yet Germany +was far from acquiescence; the Princes were still discontented and +watchful; even Ferdinand of Austria, his brother, was offended by the +Emperor's anxiety to secure everything, even the imperial crown for his +son Philip; Maurice of Saxony, that great problem of the age, was +preparing for a second treachery, or, it may be, for a patriotic effort. +These German malcontents now appealed to Henri for aid; and at last Henri +seemed inclined to come. He had lately made alliance with England, and +in 1552 formed a league at Chambord with the German Princes; the old +connection with the Turk was also talked of. The Germans agreed to +allow' him to hold (as imperial vicar, not as King of France) the "three +bishoprics," Metz, Verdun, and Toul; he also assumed a protectorate over +the spiritual princes, those great bishops and electors of the Rhine, +whose stake in the Empire was so important. The general lines of French +foreign politics are all here clearly marked; in this Henri II. is the +forerunner of Henri IV. and of Louis XIV.; the imperial politics of +Napoleon start from much the same lines; the proclamations of Napoleon +III. before the Franco-German war seemed like thin echoes of the same. + +Early in 1552 Maurice of Saxony struck his great blow at his master in +the Tyrol, destroying in an instant all the Emperor's plans for the +suppression of Lutheran opinions, and the reunion of Germany in a +Catholic empire; and while Charles V. fled for his life, Henri II. with +a splendid army crossed the frontiers of Lorraine. Anne de Montmorency, +whose opposition to the war had been overborne by the Guises, who warmly +desired to see a French predominance in Lorraine, was sent forward to +reduce Metz, and quickly got that important city into his hands; Toul and +Verdun soon opened their gates, and were secured in reality, if not in +name, to France. Eager to undertake a protectorate of the Rhine, Henri +II. tried also to lay hands on Strasburg; the citizens, however, +resisted, and he had to withdraw; the same fate befell his troops in an +attempt on Spires. Still, Metz and the line of the Vosges mountains +formed a splendid acquisition for France. The French army, leaving +strong garrisons in Lorraine, withdrew through Luxemburg and the northern +frontier; its remaining exploits were few and mean, for the one gleam of +good fortune enjoyed by Anne de Montmorency, who was unwise and arrogant, +and a most inefficient commander, soon deserted him. Charles V., as soon +as he could gather forces, laid siege to Metz, but, after nearly three +months of late autumnal operations, was fain to break up and withdraw, +baffled and with loss of half his army, across the Rhine. Though some +success attended his arms on the northern frontier, it was of no +permanent value; the loss of Metz, and the failure in the attempt to take +it, proved to the worn-out Emperor that the day of his power and +opportunity was past. The conclusions of the Diet of Augsburg in 1555 +settled for half a century the struggle between Lutheran and Catholic, +but settled it in a way not at all to his mind; for it was the safeguard +of princely interests against his plans for an imperial unity. Weary of +the losing strife, yearning for ease, ordered by his physicians to +withdraw from active life, Charles in the course of 1555 and 1556 +resigned all his great lordships and titles, leaving Philip his son to +succeed him in Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, and his brother +Ferdinand of Austria to wear in his stead the imperial diadem. These +great changes sundered awhile the interests of Austria from those of +Spain. + +Henri endeavoured to take advantage of the check in the fortunes of his +antagonists; he sent Anne de Montmorency to support Gaspard de Coligny, +the Admiral of France, in Picardy, and in harmony with Paul IV., +instructed Francois, Duc de Guise, to enter Italy to oppose the Duke of +Alva. As of old, the French arms at first carried all before them, and +Guise, deeming himself heir to the crown of Naples (for he was the eldest +great-grandson of Rene II., titular King of Naples), pushed eagerly +forward as far as the Abruzzi. There he was met and outgeneraled by +Alva, who drove him back to Rome, whence he was now recalled by urgent +summons to France; for the great disaster of St. Quentin had laid Paris +itself open to the assault of an enterprising enemy. With the departure +of Guise from Italy the age of the Italian expeditions comes to an end. +On the northern side of the realm things had gone just as badly. +Philibert of Savoy, commanding for Philip with Spanish and English +troops, marched into France as far as to the Somme, and laid siege to St. +Quentin, which was bravely defended by Amiral de Coligny. Anne de +Montmorency, coming up to relieve the place, managed his movements so +clumsily that he was caught by Count Egmont and the Flemish horse, and, +with incredibly small loss to the conquerors, was utterly routed (1557). +Montmorency himself and a crowd of nobles and soldiers were taken; the +slaughter was great. Coligny made a gallant and tenacious stand in the +town itself, but at last was overwhelmed, and the place fell. Terrible +as these mishaps were to France, Philip II. was not of a temper to push +an advantage vigorously; and while his army lingered, Francois de Guise +came swiftly back from Italy; and instead of wasting strength in a +doubtful attack on the allies in Picardy, by a sudden stroke of genius he +assaulted and took Calais (January, 1558), and swept the English finally +off the soil of France. This unexpected and brilliant blow cheered and +solaced the afflicted country, while it finally secured the ascendency of +the House of Guise. The Duke's brother, the Cardinal de Lorraine, +carried all before him in the King's councils; the Dauphin, betrothed +long before, was now married to Mary of Scots; a secret treaty bound the +young Queen to bring her kingdom over with her; it was thought that +France with Scotland would be at least a match for England joined with +Spain. In the same year, 1558, the French advance along the coast, after +they had taken Dunkirk and Nieuport, was finally checked by the brilliant +genius of Count Egmont, who defeated them at Gravelinea. All now began +to wish for peace, especially Montmorency, weary of being a prisoner, and +anxious to get back to Court, that he might check the fortunes of the +Guises; Philip desired it that he might have free hand against heresy. +And so, at Cateau-Cambresis, a peace was made in April, 1559, by which +France retained the three bishoprics and Calais, surrendering Thionville, +Montmedy, and one or two other frontier towns, while she recovered Ham +and St. Quentin; the House of Savoy was reinstated by Philip, as a reward +to Philibert for his services, and formed a solid barrier for a time +between France and Italy; cross-marriages between Spain, France, and +Savoy were arranged;--and finally, the treaty contained secret articles +by which the Guises for France and Granvella for the Netherlands agreed +to crush heresy with a strong hand. As a sequel to this peace, Henri II. +held a great tournament at Paris, at which he was accidentally slain by a +Scottish knight in the lists. + +The Guises now shot up into abounded power. On the Guise side the +Cardinal de Lorraine was the cleverest man, the true head, while +Francois, the Duke, was the arm; he showed leanings towards the +Lutherans. On the other side, the head was the dull and obstinate Anne +de Montmorency, the Constable, an unwavering Catholic, supported by the +three Coligny brothers, who all were or became Huguenots. The +Queen-mother Catherine fluctuated uneasily between the parties, and +though Catholic herself, or rather not a Protestant, did not hesitate to +befriend the Huguenots, if the political arena seemed to need their +gallant swords. Their noblest leader was Coligny, the admiral; their +recognised head was Antoine, King of Navarre, a man as foolish as +fearless. He was heir presumptive to the throne after the Valois boys, +and claimed to have charge of the young King. Though the Guises had the +lead at first, the Huguenots seemed, from their strong aristocratic +connections, to have the fairer prospects before them. + +Thirty years of desolate civil strife are before us, and we must set it +all down briefly and drily. The prelude to the troubles was played by +the Huguenots, who in 1560, guided by La Renaudie, a Perigord gentleman, +formed a plot to carry off the young King; for Francois II. had already +treated them with considerable severity, and had dismissed from his +councils both the princes of the blood royal and the Constable de +Montmorency. The plot failed miserably and La Renaudie lost his life; it +only secured more firmly the authority of the Guises. As a counterpoise +to their influence, the Queen-mother now conferred the vacant +chancellorship on one of the wisest men France has ever seen, her Lord +Bacon, Michel de L'Hopital, a man of the utmost prudence and moderation, +who, had the times been better, might have won constitutional liberties +for his country, and appeased her civil strife. As it was, he saved her +from the Inquisition; his hand drew the edicts which aimed at enforcing +toleration on France; he guided the assembly of notables which gathered +at Fontainebleau, and induced them to attempt a compromise which moderate +Catholics and Calvinists might accept, and which might lessen the power +of the Guises. This assembly was followed by a meeting of the States +General at Orleans, at which the Prince de Conde and the King of Navarre +were seized by the Guises on a charge of having had to do with La +Renaudie's plot. It would have gone hard with them had not the sickly +King at this very time fallen ill and died (1560). + +This was a grievous blow to the Guises. Now, as in a moment, all was +shattered; Catherine de Medici rose at once to the command of affairs; +the new King, Charles IX., was only, ten years old, and her position as +Regent was assured. The Guises would gladly have ruled with her, but she +had no fancy for that; she and Chancellor de L'Hopital were not likely to +ally themselves with all that was severe and repressive. It must not be +forgotten that the best part of her policy was inspired by the Chancellor +de L'Hopital. + +Now it was that Mary Stuart, the Queen-dowager, was compelled to leave +France for Scotland; her departure clearly marks the fall of the Guises; +and it also showed Philip of Spain that it was no longer necessary for +him to refuse aid and counsel to the Guises; their claims were no longer +formidable to him on the larger sphere of European politics; no longer +could Mary Stuart dream of wearing the triple crown of Scotland, France, +and England. + +The tolerant language of L'Hopital at the States General of Orleans in +1561 satisfied neither side. The Huguenots were restless; the Bourbon +Princes tried to crush the Guises, in return for their own imprisonment +the year before; the Constable was offended by the encouragement shown to +the Huguenots; it was plain that new changes impended. Montmorency began +them by going over to the Guises; and the fatal triumvirate of Francois, +Duc de Guise, Montmorency, and St. Andre the marshal, was formed. We +find the King of Spain forthwith entering the field of French intrigues +and politics, as the support and stay of this triumvirate. Parties take +a simpler format once, one party of Catholics and another of Huguenots, +with the Queen-mother and the moderates left powerless between them. +These last, guided still by L'Hopital, once more convoked the States +General at Pontoise: the nobles and the Third Estate seemed to side +completely with the Queen and the moderates; a controversy between +Huguenots and Jesuits at Poissy only added to the discontent of the +Catholics, who were now joined by foolish Antoine, King of Navarre. The +edict of January, 1562, is the most remarkable of the attempts made by +the Queen-mother to satisfy the Huguenots; but party-passion was already +too strong for it to succeed; civil war had become inevitable. + +The period may be divided into four parts: (1) the wars before the +establishment of the League (1562-1570); (2) the period of the St. +Bartholomew (1570-1573); (3) the struggle of the new Politique party +against the Leaguers (1573-1559); (4) the efforts of Henri IV. to crush +the League and reduce the country to peace (1589-1595). The period can +also be divided by that series of agreements, or peaces, which break it +up into eight wars: + +1. The war of 1562, on the skirts of which Philip of Spain interfered on +one side, and Queen Elizabeth with the Calvinistic German Princes on the +other, showed at once that the Huguenots were by far the weaker party. +The English troops at Havre enabled them at first to command the lower +Seine up to Rouen; but the other party, after a long siege which cost +poor Antoine of Navarre his life, took that place, and relieved Paris of +anxiety. The Huguenots had also spread far and wide over the south and +west, occupying Orleans; the bridge of Orleans was their point of +junction between Poitou and Germany. While the strength of the Catholics +lay to the east, in Picardy, and at Paris, the Huguenot power was mostly +concentrated in the south and west of France. Conde, who commanded at +Orleans, supported by German allies, made an attempt on Paris, but +finding the capital too strong for him, turned to the west, intending to +join the English troops from Havre. Montmorency, however, caught him at +Dreux; and in the battle that ensued, the Marshal of France, Saint-Andre, +perished; Conde was captured by the Catholics, Montmorency by the +Huguenots. Coligny, the admiral, drew off his defeated troops with great +skill, and fell back to beyond the Loire; the Duc de Guise remained as +sole head of the Catholics. Pushing on his advantage, the Duke +immediately laid siege to Orleans, and there he fell by the hand of a +Huguenot assassin. Both parties had suffered so much that the +Queen-mother thought she might interpose with terms of peace; the Edict +of Amboise (March, 1563) closed the war, allowing the Calvinists freedom +of worship in the towns they held, and some other scanty privileges. A +three years' quiet followed, though all men suspected their neighbours, +and the high Catholic party tried hard to make Catherine sacrifice +L'Hopital and take sharp measures with the Huguenots. They on their side +were restless and suspicious, and it was felt that another war could not +be far off. Intrigues were incessant, all men thinking to make their +profit out of the weakness of France. The struggle between Calvinists +and Catholics in the Netherlands roused much feeling, though Catherine +refused to favour either party. She collected an army of her own; it was +rumoured that she intended to take the Huguenots by surprise and +annihilate them. In autumn, 1567, their patience gave way, and they +raised the standard of revolt, in harmony with the heroic Netherlanders. +Conde and the Chatillons beleaguered Paris from the north, and fought the +battle of St. Denis, in which the old Constable, Anne de Montmorency, was +killed. The Huguenots, however, were defeated and forced to withdraw, +Conde marching eastward to join the German troops now coming up to his +aid. No more serious fighting followed; the Peace of Longjumeau (March, +1568), closed the second war, leaving matters much as they were. The +aristocratic resistance against the Catholic sovereigns, against what is +often called the "Catholic Reaction," had proved itself hollow; in +Germany and the Netherlands, as well as in France, the Protestant cause +seemed to fail; it was not until the religious question became mixed up +with questions as to political rights and freedom, as in the Low +Countries, that a new spirit of hope began to spring up. + +The Peace of Longjumeau gave no security to the Huguenot nobles; they +felt that the assassin might catch them any day. An attempt to seize +Condo and Coligny failed, and served only to irritate their party; +Cardinal Chatillon escaped to England; Jeanne of Navarre and her young +son Henri took refuge at La Rochelle; L'Hopital was dismissed the Court. +The Queen-mother seemed to have thrown off her cloak of moderation, and +to be ready to relieve herself of the Huguenots by any means, fair or +foul. War accordingly could not fail to break out again before the end +of the year. Conde had never been so strong; with his friends in England +and the Low Countries, and the enthusiastic support of a great party of +nobles and religious adherents at home, his hopes rose; he even talked of +deposing the Valois and reigning in their stead. He lost his life, +however, early in 1569, at the battle of Jarnac. Coligny once more with +difficulty, as at Dreux, saved the broken remnants of the defeated +Huguenots. Conde's death, regarded at the time by the Huguenots as an +irreparable calamity, proved in the end to be no serious loss; for it +made room for the true head of the party, Henri of Navarre. No sooner +had Jeanne of Navarre heard of the mishap of Jarnac than she came into +the Huguenot camp and presented to the soldiers her young son Henri and +the young Prince de Conde, a mere child. Her gallant bearing and the +true soldier-spirit of Coligny, who shone most brightly in adversity, +restored their temper; they even won some small advantages. Before long, +however, the Duc d'Anjou, the King's youngest brother, caught and +punished them severely at Moncontour. Both parties thenceforward wore +themselves out with desultory warfare. In August, 1570, the Peace of St. +Germain-en-Laye closed the third war and ended the first period. + +2. It was the most favourable Peace the Huguenots had won as yet; it +secured them, besides previous rights, four strongholds. The Catholics +were dissatisfied; they could not sympathise with the Queen-mother in her +alarm at the growing strength of Philip II., head of the Catholics in +Europe; they dreaded the existence and growing influence of a party now +beginning to receive a definite name, and honourable nickname, the +Politiques. These were that large body of French gentlemen who loved the +honour of their country rather than their religious party, and who, +though Catholics, were yet moderate and tolerant. A pair of marriages +now proposed by the Court amazed them still more. It was suggested that +the Duc d'Anjou should marry Queen Elizabeth of England, and Henri of +Navarre, Marguerite de Valois, the King's sister. Charles II. hoped thus +to be rid of his brother, whom he disliked, and to win powerful support +against Spain, by the one match, and by the other to bring the civil wars +to a close. The sketch of a far-reaching resistance to Philip II. was +drawn out; so convinced of his good faith was the prudent and sagacious +William of Orange, that, on the strength of these plans, he refused good +terms now offered him by Spain. The Duc d'Alencon, the remaining son of +Catherine, the brother who did not come to the throne, was deeply +interested in the plans for a war in the Netherlands; Anjou, who had +withdrawn from the scheme of marriage with Queen Elizabeth, was at this +moment a candidate for the throne of Poland; while negotiations +respecting it were going on, Marguerite de Valois was married to Henri of +Navarre, the worst of wives [?? D.W.] to a husband none too good. +Coligny, who had strongly opposed the candidature of Anjou for the throne +of Poland, was set on by an assassin, employed by the Queen-mother and +her favourite son, and badly wounded; the Huguenots were in utmost alarm, +filling the air with cries and menaces. Charles showed great concern for +his friend's recovery, and threatened vengeance on the assassins. What +was his astonishment to learn that those assassins were his mother and +brother! Catherine worked on his fears, and the plot for the great +massacre was combined in an instant. The very next day after the King's +consent was wrung from him, 24th August, 1572, the massacre of St. +Bartholomew's day took place. The murder of Coligny was completed; his +son-in-law Teligny perished; all the chief Huguenots were slain; the +slaughter spread to country towns; the Church and the civil power were at +one, and the victims, taken at unawares, could make no resistance. The +two Bourbons, Henri and the Prince de Conde, were spared; they bought +their lives by a sudden conversion to Catholicism. The chief guilt of +this great crime lies with Catherine de' Medici; for, though it is +certain that she did not plan it long before, assassination was a +recognised part of her way of dealing with Huguenots. + +A short war followed, a revolt of the southern cities rather than a war. +They made tenacious and heroic resistance; a large part of the royal +forces sympathised rather with them than with the League; and in July, +1573, the Edict of Boulogne granted them even more than they, had been +promised by the Peace of St. Germain. + +3. We have reached the period of the "Wan of the League," as the four +later civil wars are often called. The last of the four is alone of any +real importance. + +Just as the Peace of La Rochelle was concluded, the Duc d'Anjou, having +been elected King of Poland, left France; it was not long before troubles +began again. The Duc d'Alencon was vexed by his mother's neglect; as +heir presumptive to the crown he thought he deserved better treatment, +and sought to give himself consideration by drawing towards the middle +party; Catherine seemed to be intriguing for the ruin of that +party--nothing was safe while she was moving. The King had never held up +his head since the St. Bartholomew; it was seen that he now was dying, +and the Queen-mother took the opportunity of laying hands on the middle +party. She arrested Alencon, Montmorency, and Henri of Navarre, together +with some lesser chiefs; in the midst of it all Charles IX. died (1574), +in misery, leaving the ill-omened crown to Henri of Anjou, King of +Poland, his next brother, his mother's favourite, the worst of a bad +breed. At the same time the fifth civil war broke out, interesting +chiefly because it was during its continuance that the famous League was +actually formed. + +Henri III., when he heard of his brother's death, was only too eager to +slip away like a culprit from Poland, though he showed no alacrity in +returning to France, and dallied with the pleasures of Italy for months. +An attempt to draw him over to the side of the Politiques failed +completely; he attached himself on the contrary to the Guises, and +plunged into the grossest dissipation, while he posed himself before men +as a good and zealous Catholic. The Politiques and Huguenots therefore +made a compact in 1575, at Milhaud on the Tarn, and chose the Prince de +Conde as their head; Henri of Navarre escaped from Paris, threw off his +forced Catholicism, and joined them. Against them the strict Catholics +seemed powerless; the Queen-mother closed this war with the Peace of +Chastenoy (May, 1576), with terms unusually favourable for both +Politiques and Huguenots: for the latter, free worship throughout France, +except at Paris; for the chiefs of the former, great governments, for +Alencon a large central district, for Conde, Picardy, for Henri of +Navarre, Guienne. + +To resist all this the high Catholic party framed the League they had +long been meditating; it is said that the Cardinal de Lorraine had +sketched it years before, at the time of the later sittings of the +Council of Trent. Lesser compacts had already been made from time to +time; now it was proposed to form one great League, towards which all +should gravitate. The head of the League was Henri, Duc de Guise the +second, "Balafre," who had won that title in fighting against the German +reiters the year before, when they entered France under Condo. He +certainly hoped at this time to succeed to the throne of France, either +by deposing the corrupt and feeble Henri III., "as Pippin dealt with +Hilderik," or by seizing the throne, when the King's debaucheries should +have brought him to the grave. The Catholics of the more advanced type, +and specially the Jesuits, now in the first flush of credit and success, +supported him warmly. The headquarters of the movement were in Picardy; +its first object, opposition to the establishment of Conde as governor of +that province. The League was also very popular with the common folk, +especially in the towns of the north. It soon found that Paris was its +natural centre; thence it spread swiftly across the whole natural France; +it was warmly supported by Philip of Spain. The States General, convoked +at Blois in 1576, could bring no rest to France; opinion was just as much +divided there as in the country; and the year 1577 saw another petty war, +counted as the sixth, which was closed by the Peace of Bergerac, another +ineffectual truce which settled nothing. It was a peace made with the +Politiques and Huguenots by the Court; it is significant of the new state +of affairs that the League openly refused to be bound by it, and +continued a harassing, objectless warfare. The Duc d'Anjou (he had taken +that title on his brother Henri's accession to the throne) in 1578 +deserted the Court party, towards which his mother had drawn him, and +made friends with the Calvinists in the Netherlands. The southern +provinces named him "Defender of their liberties;" they had hopes he +might wed Elizabeth of England; they quite mistook their man. In 1579 +"the Gallants' War" broke out; the Leaguers had it all their own way; but +Henri III., not too friendly to them, and urged by his brother Anjou, to +whom had been offered sovereignty over the seven united provinces in +1580, offered the insurgents easy terms, and the Treaty of Fleix closed +the seventh war. Anjou in the Netherlands could but show his weakness; +nothing went well with him; and at last, having utterly wearied out his +friends, he fled, after the failure of his attempt to secure Antwerp, +into France. There he fell ill of consumption and died in 1584. + +This changed at once the complexion of the succession question. Hitherto, +though no children seemed likely to be born to him, Henri III. was young +and might live long, and his brother was there as his heir. Now, Henri +III. was the last Prince of the Valois, and Henri of Navarre in +hereditary succession was heir presumptive to the throne, unless the +Salic law were to be set aside. The fourth son of Saint Louis, Robert, +Comte de Clermont, who married Beatrix, heiress of Bourbon, was the +founder of the House of Bourbon. Of this family the two elder branches +had died out: John, who had been a central figure in the War of the +Public Weal, in 1488; Peter, husband of Anne of France, in 1503; neither +of them leaving heirs male. Of the younger branch Francois died in 1525, +and the famous Constable de Bourbon in 1527. This left as the only +representatives of the family, the Comtes de La Marche; of these the +elder had died out in 1438, and the junior alone survived in the Comtes +de Vendome. The head of this branch, Charles, was made Duc de Vendome by +Francois I. in 1515; he was father of Antoine, Duc de Vendome, who, by +marrying the heroic Jeanne d'Albret, became King of Navarre, and of +Louis, who founded the House of Conde; lastly, Antoine was the father of +Henri IV. He was, therefore, a very distant cousin to Henri III; the +Houses of Capet, of Alencon, of Orleans, of Angouleme, of Maine, and of +Burgundy, as well as the elder Bourbons, had to fall extinct before Henri +of Navarre could become heir to the crown. All this, however, had now +happened; and the Huguenots greatly rejoiced in the prospect of a +Calvinist King. The Politique party showed no ill-will towards him; both +they and the Court party declared that if he would become once more a +Catholic they would rally to him; the Guises and the League were +naturally all the more firmly set against him; and Henri of Navarre saw +that he could not as yet safely endanger his influence with the +Huguenots, while his conversion would not disarm the hostility of the +League. They had before, this put forward as heir to the throne Henri's +uncle, the wretched old Cardinal de Bourbon, who had all the faults and +none of the good qualities of his brother Antoine. Under cover of his +name the Duc de Guise hoped to secure the succession for himself; he also +sold himself and his party to Philip of Spain, who was now in fullest +expectation of a final triumph over his foes. He had assassinated +William the Silent; any day Elizabeth or Henri of Navarre might be found +murdered; the domination of Spain over Europe seemed almost secured. The +pact of Joinville, signed between Philip, Guise, and Mayenne, gives us +the measure of the aims of the high Catholic party. Paris warmly sided +with them; the new development of the League, the "Sixteen of Paris," one +representative for each of the districts of the capital, formed a +vigorous organisation and called for the King's deposition; they invited +Henri, Duc de Guise, to Paris. Soon after this Henri III. humbled +himself, and signed the Treaty of Nemours (1585) with the Leaguers. He +hereby became nominal head of the League and its real slave. + +The eighth war, the "War of the Three Henries," that is, of Henri III. +and Henri de Guise against Henri of Navarre, now broke out. The Pope +made his voice heard; Sixtus excommunicated the Bourbons, Henri and +Conde, and blessed the Leaguers. + +For the first time there was some real life in one of these civil ware, +for Henri of Navarre rose nobly to the level of his troubles. At first +the balance of successes was somewhat in favour of the Leaguers; the +political atmosphere grew even more threatening, and terrible things, +like lightning flashes, gleamed out now and again. Such, for example, +was the execution of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, in 1586. It was known +that Philip II. was preparing to crush England. Elizabeth did what she +could to support Henri of Navarre; he had the good fortune to win the +battle of Contras, in which the Duc de Joyeuse, one of the favourites of +Henri III., was defeated and killed. The Duc de Guise, on the other +hand, was too strong for the Germans, who had marched into France to join +the Huguenots, and defeated them at Vimroy and Auneau, after which he +marched in triumph to Paris, in spite of the orders and opposition of. +the King, who, finding himself powerless, withdrew to Chartres. Once +more Henri III. was obliged to accept such terms as the Leaguers chose to +impose; and with rage in his heart he signed the "Edict of Union" (1588), +in which he named the Duc de Guise lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and +declared that no heretic could succeed to the throne. Unable to endure +the humiliation, Henri III. that same winter, assassinated the Duc and +the Cardinal de Guise, and seized many leaders of the League, though he +missed the Duc de Mayenne. This scandalous murder of the "King of +Paris," as the capital fondly called the Duke, brought the wretched King +no solace or power. His mother did not live to see the end of her son; +she died in this the darkest period of his career, and must have been +aware that her cunning and her immoral life had brought nothing but +misery to herself and all her race. The power of the League party seemed +as great as ever; the Duc de Mayenne entered Paris, and declared open war +on Henri III., who, after some hesitation, threw himself into the hands +of his cousin Henri of Navarre in the spring of 1589. The old Politique +party now rallied to the King; the Huguenots were stanch for their old +leader; things looked less dark for them since the destruction of the +Spanish Armada in the previous summer. The Swiss, aroused by the threats +of the Duke of Savoy at Geneva, joined the Germans, who once more entered +northeastern France; the leaguers were unable to make head either against +them or against the armies of the two Kings; they fell back on Paris, and +the allies hemmed them in. The defence of the capital was but languid; +the populace missed their idol, the Duc de Guise, and the moderate party, +never extinguished, recovered strength. All looked as if the royalists +would soon reduce the last stronghold of the League, when Henri III. was +suddenly slain by the dagger of a fanatical half-wined priest. + +The King had only time to commend Henri of Navarre to his courtiers as +his heir, and to exhort him to become a Catholic, before he closed his +eyes, and ended the long roll of his vices and crimes. And thus in crime +and shame the House of Valois went down. For a few years, the throne +remained practically vacant: the heroism of Henri of Navarre, the loss of +strength in the Catholic powers, the want of a vigorous head to the +League,--these things all sustained the Bourbon in his arduous struggle; +the middle party grew in strength daily, and when once Henri had allowed +himself to be converted, he became the national sovereign, the national +favourite, and the high Catholics fell to the fatal position of an +unpatriotic faction depending on the arm of the foreigner. + +4. The civil wars were not over, for the heat of party raged as yet +unslaked; the Politiques could not all at once adopt a Huguenot King, the +League party had pledged itself to resist the heretic, and Henri at first +had little more than the Huguenots at his back. There were also +formidable claimants for the throne. Charles II. Duc de Lorraine, who +had married Claude, younger daughter of Henri IL, and who was therefore +brother-in-law to Henri III., set up a vague claim; the King of Spain, +Philip II., thought that the Salic law had prevailed long enough in +France, and that his own wife, the elder daughter of Henri III. had the +best claim to the throne; the Guises, though their head was gone, still +hoping for the crown, proclaimed their sham-king, the Cardinal de +Bourbon, as Charles X., and intrigued behind the shadow of his name. The +Duc de Mayenne, their present chief, was the most formidable of Henri's +opponents; his party called for a convocation of States General, which +should choose a King to succeed, or to replace, their feeble Charles X. +During this struggle the high Catholic party, inspired by Jesuit advice, +stood forward as the admirers of constitutional principles; they called +on the nation to decide the question as to the succession; their Jesuit +friends wrote books on the sovereignty of the people. They summoned up +troops from every side; the Duc de Lorraine sent his son to resist Henri +and support his own claim; the King of Spain sent a body of men; the +League princes brought what force they could. Henri of Navarre at the +same moment found himself weakened by the silent withdrawal from his camp +of the army of Henri III.; the Politique nobles did not care at first to +throw in their lot with the Huguenot chieftain; they offered to confer on +Henri the post of commander-in-chief, and to reserve the question as to +the succession; they let him know that they recognised his hereditary +rights, and were hindered only by his heretical opinions; if he would but +be converted they were his. Henri temporised; his true strength, for the +time, lay in his Huguenot followers, rugged and faithful fighting men, +whose belief was the motive power of their allegiance and of their +courage. If he joined the Politiques at their price, the price of +declaring himself Catholic, the Huguenots would be offended if not +alienated. So he neither absolutely refused nor said yes; and the chief +Catholic nobles in the main stood aloof, watching the struggle between +Huguenot and Leaguer, as it worked out its course. + +Henri, thus weakened, abandoned the siege of Paris, and fell back; with +the bulk of his forces he marched into Normandy, so as to be within reach +of English succour; a considerable army went into Champagne, to be ready +to join any Swiss or German help that might come. These were the great +days in the life of Henri of Navarre. Henri showed himself a hero, who +strove for a great cause--the cause of European freedom--as well as for +his own crown. + +The Duc de Mayenne followed the Huguenots down into the west, and found +Henri awaiting him in a strong position at Arques, near Dieppe; here at +bay, the "Bearnais" inflicted a heavy blow on his assailants; Mayenne +fell back into Picardy; the Prince of Lorraine drew off altogether; and +Henri marched triumphantly back to Paris, ravaged the suburbs and then +withdrew to Tours, where he was recognised as King by the Parliament. His +campaign of 1589 had been most successful; he had defeated the League in +a great battle, thanks to his skilful use of his position at Arques, and +the gallantry of his troops, which more than counterbalanced the great +disparity in numbers. He had seen dissension break out among his +enemies; even the Pope, Sixtus, had shown him some favour, and the +Politique nobles were certainly not going against him. Early in 1590 +Henri had secured Anjou, Maine, and Normandy, and in March defeated +Mayenne, in a great pitched battle at Ivry, not far from Dreux. The +Leaguers fell back in consternation to Paris. Henri reduced all the +country round the capital, and sat down before it for a stubborn siege. +The Duke of Parma had at that time his hands full in the Low Countries; +young Prince Maurice was beginning to show his great abilities as a +soldier, and had got possession of Breda; all, however, had to be +suspended by the Spaniards on that side, rather than let Henri of Navarre +take Paris. Parma with great skill relieved the capital without striking +a blow, and the campaign of 1590 ended in a failure for Henri. The +success of Parma, however, made Frenchmen feel that Henri's was the +national cause, and that the League flourished only by interference of +the foreigner. Were the King of Navarre but a Catholic, he should be a +King of France of whom they might all be proud. This feeling was +strengthened by the death of the old Cardinal de Bourbon, which reopened +at once the succession question, and compelled Philip of Spain to show +his hand. He now claimed the throne for his daughter Elisabeth, as +eldest daughter of the eldest daughter of Henri II. All the neighbours +of France claimed something; Frenchmen felt that it was either Henri IV. +or dismemberment. The "Bearnais" grew in men's minds to be the champion +of the Salic law, of the hereditary principle of royalty against feudal +weakness, of unity against dismemberment, of the nation against the +foreigner. + +The middle party, the Politiques of Europe,--the English, that is, and +the Germans,--sent help to Henri, by means of which he was able to hold +his own in the northwest and southwest throughout 1591. Late in the year +the violence of the Sixteen of Paris drew on them severe punishment from +the Duc de Mayenne; and consequently the Duke ceased to be the recognised +head of the League, which now looked entirely to Philip II. and Parma, +while Paris ceased to be its headquarters; and more moderate counsels +having taken the place of its fierce fanaticism, the capital came under +the authority of the lawyers and citizens, instead of the priesthood and +the bloodthirsty mob. Henri, meanwhile, who was closely beleaguering +Rouen, was again outgeneralled by Parma, and had to raise the siege. +Parma, following him westward, was wounded at Caudebec; and though he +carried his army triumphantly back to the Netherlands, his career was +ended by this trifling wound. He did no more, and died in 1592. + +In 1593, Mayenne, having sold his own claims to Philip of Spain, the +opposition to Henri looked more solid and dangerous than ever; he +therefore thought the time was come for the great step which should rally +to him all the moderate Catholics. After a decent period of negotiation +and conferences, he declared himself convinced, and heard mass at St. +Denis. The conversion had immediate effect; it took the heart out of the +opposition; city after city came in; the longing for peace was strong in +every breast, and the conversion seemed to remove the last obstacle. The +Huguenots, little as they liked it, could not oppose the step, and hoped +to profit by their champion's improved position. Their ablest man, +Sully, had even advised Henri to make the plunge. In 1594, Paris opened +her gates to Henri, who had been solemnly crowned, just before, at +Chartres. He was welcomed with immense enthusiasm, and from that day +onwards has ever been the favourite hero of the capital. By 1595 only +one foe remained,--the Spanish Court. The League was now completely +broken up; the Parliament of Paris gladly aided the King to expel the +Jesuits from France. In November, 1595, Henri declared war against +Spain, for anything was better than the existing state of things, in +which Philip's hand secretly supported all opposition: The war in 1596 +was far from being successful for Henri; he was comforted, however, by +receiving at last the papal absolution, which swept away the last +scruples of France. + +By rewards and kindliness,--for Henri was always willing to give and had +a pleasant word for all, most of the reluctant nobles, headed by the Duc +de Mayenne himself, came in in the course of 1596. Still the war pressed +very heavily, and early in 1597 the capture of Amiens by the Spaniards +alarmed Paris, and roused the King to fresh energies. With help of Sully +(who had not yet received the title by which he is known in history) +Henri recovered Amiens, and checked the Spanish advance. It was noticed +that while the old Leaguers came very heartily to the King's help, the +Huguenots hung back in a discontented and suspicious spirit. After the +fall of Amiens the war languished; the Pope offered to mediate, and Henri +had time to breathe. He felt that his old comrades, the offended +Huguenots, had good cause for complaint; and in April, 1598, he issued +the famous Edict of Nantes, which secured their position for nearly a +century. They got toleration for their opinions; might worship openly in +all places, with the exception of a few towns in which the League had +been strong; were qualified to hold office in financial posts and in the +law; had a Protestant chamber in the Parliaments. + +Immediately after the publication of the Edict of Nantes, the Treaty of +Vervins was signed. Though Henri by it broke faith with Queen Elizabeth, +he secured an honourable peace for his country, an undisputed kingship +for himself. It was the last act of Philip II., the confession that his +great schemes were unfulfilled, his policy a failure. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +From faith to action the bridge is short +Much is forgiven to a king +Parliament aided the King to expel the Jesuits from France +The record of the war is as the smoke of a furnace + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, +Volume III., by Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARGUERITE DE VALOIS *** + +***** This file should be named 3840.txt or 3840.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/4/3840/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + +MARGUERITE DE VALOIS QUEEN OF NAVARRE, v3 + +HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF VALOIS. +[Author unknown] + + +CHARLES, COMTE DE VALOIS, was the younger brother of Philip the Fair, and +therefore uncle of the three sovereigns lately dead. His eldest son +Philip had been appointed guardian to the Queen of Charles IV.; and when +it appeared that she had given birth to a daughter, and not a son, the +barons, joining with the notables of Paris and the, good towns, met to +decide who was by right the heir to the throne, "for the twelve peers of +France said and say that the Crown of France is of such noble estate that +by no succession can it come to a woman nor to a woman's son," as +Froissart tells us. This being their view, the baby daughter of Charles +IV. was at once set aside; and the claim of Edward III. of England, if, +indeed, he ever made it, rested on Isabella of France, his mother, sister +of the three sovereigns. And if succession through a female had been +possible, then the daughters of those three kings had rights to be +reserved. It was, however, clear that the throne must go to a man, and +the crown was given to Philip of Valois, founder of a new house of +sovereigns. + +The new monarch was a very formidable person. He had been a great feudal +lord, hot and vehement, after feudal fashion; but he was now to show that +he could be a severe master, a terrible king. He began his reign by +subduing the revolted Flemings on behalf of his cousin Louis of Flanders, +and having replaced him in his dignities, returned to Paris and there +held high state as King. And he clearly was a great sovereign; the +weakness of the late King had not seriously injured France; the new King +was the elect of the great lords, and they believed that his would be a +new feudal monarchy; they were in the glow of their revenge over the +Flemings for the days of Courtrai; his cousins reigned in Hungary and +Naples, his sisters were married to the greatest of the lords; the Queen +of Navarre was his cousin; even the youthful King of England did him +homage for Guienne and Ponthieu. The barons soon found out their +mistake. Philip VI., supported by the lawyers, struck them whenever he +gave them opening; he also dealt harshly with the traders, hampering them +and all but ruining them, till the country was alarmed and discontented. +On the other hand, young Edward of England had succeeded to a troubled +inheritance, and at the beginning was far weaker than his rival; his own +sagacity, and the advance of constitutional rights in England, soon +enabled him to repair the breaches in his kingdom, and to gather fresh +strength from the prosperity and good-will of a united people. While +France followed a more restricted policy, England threw open her ports to +all comers; trade grew in London as it waned in Paris; by his marriage +with Philippa of Hainault, Edward secured a noble queen, and with her the +happiness of his subjects and the all-important friendship of the Low +Countries. In 1336 the followers of Philip VI. persuaded Louis of +Flanders to arrest the English merchants then in Flanders; whereupon +Edward retaliated by stopping the export of wool, and Jacquemart van +Arteveldt of Ghent, then at the beginning of his power, persuaded the +Flemish cities to throw off all allegiance to their French-loving Count, +and to place themselves under the protection of Edward. In return Philip +VI. put himself in communication with the Scots, the hereditary foes of +England, and the great wars which were destined to last 116 years, and to +exhaust the strength of two strong nations, were now about to begin. +They brought brilliant and barren triumphs to England, and, like most +wars, were a wasteful and terrible mistake, which, if crowned with +ultimate success, might, by removing the centre of the kingdom into +France, have marred the future welfare of England, for the happy +constitutional development of the country could never have taken place +with a sovereign living at Paris, and French interests becoming ever more +powerful. Fortunately, therefore, while the war evoked by its brilliant +successes the national pride of Englishmen, by its eventual failure it +was prevented from inflicting permanent damage on England. + +The war began in 1337 and ended in 1453; the epochs in it are the Treaty +of Bretigny in 1360, the Treaty of Troyes in 1422, the final expulsion of +the English in 1453. + +The French King seems to have believed himself equal to the burdens of a +great war, and able to carry out the most far-reaching plans. The Pope +was entirely in his hands, and useful as a humble instrument to curb and +harass the Emperor. Philip had proved himself master of the Flemish, +and, with help of the King of Scotland, hoped so to embarrass Edward III. +as to have no difficulty in eventually driving him to cede all his French +possessions. While he thought it his interest to wear out his antagonist +without any open fighting, it was Edward's interest to make vigorous and +striking war. France therefore stood on the defensive; England was +always the attacking party. On two sides, in Flanders and in Brittany, +France had outposts which, if well defended, might long keep the English +power away from her vitals. Unluckily for his side, Philip was harsh and +raw, and threw these advantages away. In Flanders the repressive +commercial policy of the Count, dictated from Paris, gave Edward the +opportunity, in the end of 1337, of sending the Earl of Derby, with a +strong fleet, to raise the blockade of Cadsand, and to open the Flemish +markets by a brilliant action, in which the French chivalry was found +powerless against the English yeoman-archers; and in 1338 Edward crossed +over to Antwerp to see what forward movement could be made. The other +frontier war was that of Brittany, which began a little later (1341). +The openings of the war were gloomy and wasteful, without glory. Edward +did not actually send defiance to Philip till 1339, when he proclaimed +himself King of France, and quartered the lilies of France on the royal +shield. The Flemish proved a very reed; and though the French army came +up to meet the English in the Vermando country, no fighting took place, +and the campaign of 1339 ended obscurely. Norman and Genoese ships +threatened the southern shores of England, landing at Southampton and in +the Isle of Wight unopposed. In 1340 Edward returned to Flanders; on his +way he attacked the French fleet which lay at Sluys, and utterly +destroyed it. The great victory of Sluys gave England for centuries the +mastery of the British channel. But, important as it was, it gave no +success to the land campaign. Edward wasted his strength on an +unsuccessful siege of Tournia, and, ill-supported by his Flemish allies, +could achieve nothing. The French King in this year seized on Guienne; +and from Scotland tidings came that Edinburgh castle, the strongest place +held by the English, had fallen into the hands of Douglas. Neither from +Flanders nor from Guienne could Edward hope to reach the heart of the +French power; a third inlet now presented itself in Brittany. On the +death of John III. of Brittany, in 1341, Jean de Montfort, his youngest +brother, claimed the great fief, against his niece Jeanne, daughter of +his elder brother Guy, Comte de Penthievre. He urged that the Salic law, +which had been recognised in the case of the crown, should also apply to +this great duchy, so nearly an independent sovereignty. Jeanne had been +married to Charles de Blois, whom John III. of Brittany had chosen as his +heir; Charles was also nephew of King Philip, who gladly espoused his +cause. Thereon Jean de Montfort appealed to Edward, and the two Kings +met in border strife in Brittany. The Bretons sided with John against +the influence of France. Both the claimants were made prisoners; the +ladies carried on a chivalric warfare, Jeanne de Montfort against Jeanne +de Blois, and all went favourably with the French party till Philip, with +a barbarity as foolish as it was scandalous, tempted the chief Breton +lords to Paris and beheaded them without trial. The war, suspended by a +truce, broke out again, and the English raised large forces and supplies, +meaning to attack on three sides at once,--from Flanders, Brittany, and +Guienne. The Flemish expedition came to nothing; for the people of Ghent +in 1345 murdered Jacques van Arteveldt as he was endeavouring to persuade +them to receive the Prince of Wales as their count, and Edward, on +learning this adverse news, returned to England. Thence, in July, 1346, +he sailed for Normandy, and, landing at La Hogue, overran with ease the +country up to Paris. He was not, however, strong enough to attack the +capital, for Philip lay with a large army watching him at St. Denis. +After a short hesitation Edward crossed the Seine at Poissy, and struck +northwards, closely followed by Philip. He got across the Somme safely, +and at Crecy in Ponthieu stood at bay to await the French. Though his +numbers were far less than theirs, he had a good position, and his men +were of good stuff; and when it came to battle, the defeat of the French +was crushing. Philip had to fall back with his shattered army; Edward +withdrew unmolested to Calais, which he took after a long siege in 1347. +Philip had been obliged to call up his son John from the south, where he +was observing the English under the Earl of Derby; thereupon the English +overran all the south, taking Poitiers and finding no opposition. Queen +Philippa of Hainault had also defeated and taken David of Scotland at +Neville's Cross. + +The campaign of 1346-1347 was on all hands disastrous to King Philip. He +sued for and obtained a truce for ten months. These were the days of the +"black death," which raged in France from 1347 to 1349, and completed the +gloom of the country, vexed by an arbitrary and grasping monarch, by +unsuccessful war, and now by the black cloud of pestilence. In 1350 King +Philip died, leaving his crown to John of Normandy. He had added two +districts and a title to France: he bought Montpellier from James of +Aragon, and in 1349 also bought the territories of Humbert, Dauphin of +Vienne, who resigned the world under influence of the revived religion of +the time, a consequence of the plague, and became a Carmelite friar. +The fief and the title of Dauphin were granted to Charles, the King's +grandson, who was the first person who attached that title to the heir to +the French throne. Apart from these small advantages, the kingdom of +France had suffered terribly from the reign of the false and heartless +Philip VI. Nor was France destined to enjoy better things under John +"the Good," one of the worst sovereigns with whom she has been cursed. +He took as his model and example the chivalric John of Bohemia, who had +been one of the most extravagant and worthless of the princes of his +time, and had perished in his old age at Crecy. The first act of the new +King was to take from his kinsman, Charles "the Bad" of Navarre, +Champagne and other lands; and Charles went over to the English King. +King John was keen to fight; the States General gave him the means for +carrying on war, by establishing the odious "gabelle" on salt, and other +imposts. John hoped with his new army to drive the English completely +out of the country. Petty war began again on all the frontiers,--an +abortive attack on Calais, a guerilla warfare in Brittany, slight +fighting also in Guienne. Edward in 1335 landed at Calais, but was +recalled to pacify Scotland; Charles of Navarre and the Duke of Lancaster +were on the Breton border; the Black Prince sailed for Bordeaux. In 1356 +he rode northward with a small army to the Loire, and King John, hastily +summoning all his nobles and fief-holders, set out to meet him. Hereon +the Black Prince, whose forces were weak, began to retreat; but the +French King outmarched and intercepted him near Poitiers. He had the +English completely in his power, and with a little patience could have +starved them into submission; instead, he deemed it his chivalric duty to +avenge Crecy in arms, and the great battle of Poitiers was the result +(19th September, 1356). The carnage and utter ruin of the French feudal +army was quite incredible; the dead seemed more than the whole army of +the Black Prince; the prisoners were too many to be held. The French +army, bereft of leaders, melted away, and the Black Prince rode +triumphantly back to Bordeaux with the captive King John and his brave +little son in his train. A two years' truce ensued; King John was +carried over to London, where he found a fellow in misfortune in David of +Scotland, who had been for eleven years a captive in English hands. The +utter degradation of the nobles, and the misery of the country, gave to +the cities of France an opportunity which one great man, Etienne Marcel, +provost of the traders at Paris, was not slow to grasp. He fortified the +capital and armed the citizens; the civic clergy made common cause with +him; and when the Dauphin Charles convoked the three Estates at Paris, it +was soon seen that the nobles had become completely discredited and +powerless. It was a moment in which a new life might have begun for +France; in vain did the noble order clamour for war and taxes,--they to +do the war, with what skill and success all men now knew, and the others +to pay the taxes. Clergy, however, and burghers resisted. The Estates +parted, leaving what power there was still in France in the hands of +Etienne Marcel. He strove in vain to reconcile Charles the Dauphin with +Charles of Navarre, who stood forward as a champion of the towns. Very +reluctantly did Marcel entrust his fortunes to such hands. With help of +Lecocq, Bishop of Laon, he called the Estates again together, and +endeavoured to lay down sound principles of government, which Charles the +Dauphin was compelled to accept. Paris, however, stood alone, and even +there all were not agreed. Marcel and Bishop Lecocq, seeing the critical +state of things, obtained the release of Charles of Navarre, then a +prisoner. The result was that ere long the Dauphin-regent was at open +war with Navarre and with Paris. The outbreak of the miserable +peasantry, the Jacquerie, who fought partly for revenge against the +nobles, partly to help Paris, darkened the time; they were repressed with +savage bloodshed, and in 1358 the Dauphin's party in Paris assassinated +the only great man France had seen for long. With Etienne Marcel's death +all hope of a constitutional life died out from France; the Dauphin +entered Paris and set his foot on the conquered liberties of his country. +Paris had stood almost alone; civic strength is wanting in France; the +towns but feebly supported Marcel; they compelled the movement to lose +its popular and general character, and to become a first attempt to +govern France from Paris alone. After some insincere negotiations, and a +fear of desultory warfare, in which Edward III. traversed France without +meeting with a single foe to fight, peace was at last agreed to, at +Bretigny, in May, 1360. By this act Edward III. renounced the French +throne and gave up all he claimed or held north of the Loire, while he +was secured in the lordship of the south and west, as well as that part +of Northern Picardy which included Calais, Guines, and Ponthieu. The +treaty also fixed the ransom to be paid by King John. + +France was left smaller than she had been under Philip Augustus, yet she +received this treaty with infinite thankfulness; worn out with war and +weakness, any diminution of territory seemed better to her than a +continuance of her unbearable misfortunes. Under Charles, first as +Regent, then as King, she enjoyed an uneasy rest and peace for twenty +years. + +King John, after returning for a brief space to France, went back into +his pleasant captivity in England, leaving his country to be ruled by the +Regent the Dauphin. In 1364 he died, and Charles V., "the Wise," became +King in name, as he had now been for some years in fact. This cold, +prudent, sickly prince, a scholar who laid the foundations of the great +library in Paris by placing 900 MSS. in three chambers in the Louvre, had +nothing to dazzle the ordinary eye; to the timid spirits of that age he +seemed to be a malevolent wizard, and his name of "Wise" had in it more +of fear than of love. He also is notable for two things: he reformed the +current coin, and recognised the real worth of Du Guesclin, the first +great leader of mercenaries in France, a grim fighting-man, hostile to +the show of feudal warfare, and herald of a new age of contests, in which +the feudal levies would fall into the background. The invention of +gunpowder in this century, the incapacity of the great lords, the rise of +free lances and mercenary troops, all told that a new era had arrived. +It was by the hand of Du Guesclin that Charles overcame his cousin and +namesake, Charles of Navarre, and compelled him to peace. On the other +hand, in the Breton war which followed just after, he was defeated by Sir +John Chandos and the partisans of Jean de Montfort, who made him +prisoner; the Treaty of Guerande, which followed, gave them the dukedom +of Brittany; and Charles V., unable to resist, was fair to receive the +new duke's homage, and to confirm him in the duchy. The King did not +rest till he had ransomed Du Guesclin from the hands of Chandos; he then +gave him commission to raise a paid army of freebooters, the scourge of +France, and to march with them to support, against the Black Prince, the +claims of Henry of Trastamare to the Crown of Castile. Successful at +first by help of the King of Aragon, he was made Constable of Spain at +the coronation of Henry at Burgos. Edward the Black Prince, however, +intervened, and at the battle of Najara (1367) Du Guesclin was again a +prisoner in English hands, and Henry lost his throne. Fever destroyed +the victorious host, and the Black Prince, withdrawing into Gascony, +carried with him the seeds of the disorder which shortened his days. +Du Guesclin soon got his liberty again; and Charles V., seeing how much +his great rival of England was weakened, determined at last on open war. +He allied himself with Henry of Trastamare, listened to the grievances of +the Aquitanians, summoned the Black Prince to appear and answer the +complaints. In 1369, Henry defeated Pedro, took him prisoner, and +murdered him in a brawl; thus perished the hopes of the English party in +the south. About the same time Charles V. sent open defiance and +declaration of war to England. Without delay, he surprised the English +in the north, recovering all Ponthieu at once; the national pride was +aroused; Philip, Duke of Burgundy, who had, through the prudent help of +Charles, lately won as a bride the heiress of Flanders, was stationed at +Rouen, to cover the western approach to Paris, with strict orders not to +fight; the Aquitanians were more than half French at heart. The record +of the war is as the smoke of a furnace. We see the reek of burnt and +plundered towns; there were no brilliant feats of arms; the Black Prince, +gloomy and sick, abandoned the struggle, and returned to England to die; +the new governor, the Earl of Pembroke, did not even succeed in landing: +he was attacked and defeated off Rochelle by Henry of Castile, his whole +fleet, with all its treasure and stores, taken or sunk, and he himself +was a prisoner in Henry's hands. Du Guesclin had already driven the +English out of the west into Brittany; he now overran Poitou, which +received him gladly; all the south seemed to be at his feet. The attempt +of Edward III. to relieve the little that remained to him in France +failed utterly, and by 1372 Poitou was finally lost to England. Charles +set himself to reduce Brittany with considerable success; a diversion +from Calais caused plentiful misery in the open country; but, as the +French again refused to fight, it did nothing to restore the English +cause. By 1375 England held nothing in France except Calais, Cherbourg, +Bayonne, and Bordeaux. Edward III., utterly worn out with war, agreed to +a truce, through intervention of the Pope; it was signed in 1375. In +1377, on its expiring, Charles, who in two years had sedulously improved +the state of France, renewed the war. By sea and land the English were +utterly overmatched, and by 1378 Charles was master of the situation on +all hands. Now, however, he pushed his advantages too far; and the cold +skill which had overthrown the English, was used in vain against the +Bretons, whose duchy he desired to absorb. Languedoc and Flanders also +revolted against him. France was heavily burdened with taxes, and the +future was dark and threatening. In the midst of these things, death +overtook the coldly calculating monarch in September, 1380. + +Little had France to hope from the boy who was now called on to fill the +throne. Charles VI. was not twelve years old, a light-wined, handsome +boy, under the guardianship of the royal Dukes his uncles, who had no +principles except that of their own interest to guide them in bringing up +the King and ruling the people. Before Charles VI. had reached years of +discretion, he was involved by the French nobles in war against the +Flemish cities, which, under guidance of the great Philip van Arteveldt, +had overthrown the authority of the Count of Flanders. The French cities +showed ominous signs of being inclined to ally themselves with the civic +movement in the north. The men of Ghent came out to meet their French +foes, and at the battle of Roosebek (1382) were utterly defeated and +crushed. Philip van Arteveldt himself was slain. It was a great triumph +of the nobles over the cities; and Paris felt it when the King returned. +All movement there and in the other northern cities of France was +ruthlessly repressed; the noble reaction also overthrew the "new men" +and the lawyers, by whose means the late King had chiefly governed. +Two years later, the royal Dukes signed a truce with England, including +Ghent in it; and Louis de Male, Count of Flanders, having perished at the +same time, Marguerite his daughter, wife of Philip of Burgundy, succeeded +to his inheritance (1384.) Thus began the high fortunes of the House of +Burgundy, which at one time seemed to overshadow Emperor and King of +France. In 1385, another of the brothers, Louis, Duc d'Anjou, died, with +all his Italian ambitions unfulfilled. In 1386, Charles VI., under +guidance of his uncles, declared war on England, and exhausted all France +in preparations; the attempt proved the sorriest failure. The regency of +the Dukes became daily more unpopular, until in 1388 Charles dismissed +his two uncles, the Dukes of Burgundy and Berri, and began to rule. For +a while all went much better; he recalled his father's friends and +advisers, lightened the burdens of the people, allowed the new ministers +free hand in making prudent government; and learning how bad had been the +state of the south under the Duc de Berri, deprived him of that command +in 1390. Men thought that the young King, if not good himself, was well +content to allow good men to govern in his name; at any, rate, the rule +of the selfish Dukes seemed to be over. Their bad influences, however, +still surrounded him; an attempt to assassinate Olivier de Clisson, the +Constable, was connected with their intrigues and those of the Duke of +Brittany; and in setting forth to punish the attempt on his favourite the +Constable, the unlucky young King, who had sapped his health by +debauchery, suddenly became mad. The Dukes of Burgundy and Berri at +once seized the reins and put aside his brother the young Duc d'Orleans. +It was the beginning of that great civil discord between Burgundy and +Orleans, the Burgundians and Armagnacs, which worked so much ill for +France in the earlier part of the next century. The rule of the uncles +was disastrous for France; no good government seemed even possible for +that unhappy land. + +An obscure strife went on until 1404, when Duke Philip of Burgundy died, +leaving his vast inheritance to John the Fearless, the deadly foe of +Louis d'Orleans. Paris was with him, as with his father before him; the +Duke entered the capital in 1405, and issued a popular proclamation +against the ill-government of the Queen-regent and Orleans. Much +profession of a desire for better things was made, with small results. +So things went on until 1407, when, after the Duc de Berri, who tried to +play the part of a mediator, had brought the two Princes together, the +Duc d'Orleans was foully assassinated by a Burgundian partisan. The Duke +of Burgundy, though he at first withdrew from Paris, speedily returned, +avowed the act, and was received with plaudits by the mob. For a few +years the strife continued, obscure and bad; a great league of French +princes and nobles was made to stem the success of the Burgundians; and +it was about this time that the Armagnac name became common. Paris, +however, dominated by the "Cabochians," the butchers' party, the party of +the "marrowbones and cleavers," and entirely devoted to the Burgundians, +enabled John the Fearless to hold his own in France; the King himself +seemed favourable to the same party. In 1412 the princes were obliged to +come to terms, and the Burgundian triumph seemed complete. In 1413 the +wheel went round, and we find the Armagnacs in Paris, rudely sweeping +away all the Cabochians with their professions of good civic rule. The +Duc de Berri was made captain of Paris, and for a while all went against +the Burgundians, until, in 1414, Duke John was fain to make the first +Peace of Arras, and to confess himself worsted in the strife. The young +Dauphin Louis took the nominal lead of the national party, and ruled +supreme in Paris in great ease and self-indulgence. + +The year before, Henry V. had succeeded to the throne of England,--a +bright and vigorous young man, eager to be stirring in the world, brave +and fearless, with a stern grasp of things beneath all,--a very sheet- +anchor of firmness and determined character. Almost at the very opening +of his reign, the moment he had secured his throne, he began a +negotiation with France which boded no good. He offered to marry +Catharine, the King's third daughter, and therewith to renew the old +Treaty of Bretigny, if her dower were Normandy, Maine, Anjou, not without +a good sum of money. The French Court, on the other hand, offered him +her hand with Aquitaine and the money, an offer rejected instantly; and +Henry made ready for a rough wooing in arms. In 1415 he crossed to +Harfleur, and while parties still fought in France, after a long and +exhausting siege, took the place; thence he rode northward for Calais, +feeling his army too much reduced to attempt more. The Armagnacs, who +had gathered at Rouen, also pushed fast to the north, and having choice +of passage over the Somme, Amiens being in their hands, got before King +Henry, while he had to make a long round before he could get across that +stream. Consequently, when, on his way, he reached Azincourt, he found +the whole chivalry of France arrayed against him in his path. The great +battle of Azincourt followed, with frightful ruin and carnage of the +French. With a huge crowd of prisoners the young King passed on to +Calais, and thence to England. The Armagnacs' party lay buried in the +hasty graves of Azincourt; never had there been such slaughter of nobles. +Still, for three years they made head against their foes; till in 1418 +the Duke of Burgundy's friends opened Paris's gates to his soldiers, and +for the time the Armagnacs seemed to be completely defeated; only the +Dauphin Charles made feeble war from Poitiers. Henry V. with a fresh +army had already made another descent on the Normandy coast; the Dukes of +Anjou, Brittany, and Burgundy made several and independent treaties with +him; and it seemed as though France had completely fallen in pieces. +Henry took Rouen, and although the common peril had somewhat silenced the +strife of faction, no steps were taken to meet him or check his course; +on the contrary, matters were made even more hopeless by the murder of +John, Duke of Burgundy, in 1419, even as he was kneeling and offering +reconciliation at the young Dauphin's feet. The young Duke, Philip, now +drew at once towards Henry, whom his father had apparently wished with +sincerity to check; Paris, too, was weary of the Armagnac struggle, and +desired to welcome Henry of England; the Queen of France also went over +to the Anglo-Burgundian side. The end of it was that on May 21,1420, was +signed the famous Treaty of Troyes, which secured the Crown of France to +Henry, by the exclusion of the Dauphin Charles, whenever poor mad Charles +VI., should cease to live. Meanwhile, Henry was made Regent of France, +promising to maintain all rights and privileges of the Parliament and +nobles, and to crush the Dauphin with his Armagnac friends, in token +whereof he was at once wedded to Catharine of France, and set forth to +quell the opposition of the provinces. By Christmas all France north of +the Loire was in English hands. All the lands to the south of the river +remained firmly fixed in their allegiance to the Dauphin and the +Armagnacs, and these began to feel themselves to be the true French +party, as opposed to the foreign rule of the English. For barely two +years that rule was carried on by Henry V. with inflexible justice, and +Northern France saw with amazement the presence of a real king, and an +orderly government. In 1422 King Henry died; a few weeks later Charles +VI. died also, and the face of affairs began to change, although, at the +first, Charles VII. the "Well-served," the lazy, listless prince, seemed +to have little heart for the perils and efforts of his position. He was +proclaimed King at Mehun, in Berri, for the true France for the time lay +on that side of the Loire, and the Regent Bedford, who took the reins at +Paris, was a vigorous and powerful prince, who was not likely to give way +to an idle dreamer. At the outset Charles suffered two defeats, at +Crevant in 1423, and at Verneuil in 1424, and things seemed to be come to +their worst. Yet he was prudent, conciliatory, and willing to wait; and +as the English power in France--that triangle of which the base was the +sea-line from Harfleur to Calais, and the apex Paris--was unnatural and +far from being really strong; and as the relations between Bedford and +Burgundy might not always be friendly, the man who could wait had many +chances in his favour. Before long, things began to mend; Charles wedded +Marie d'Anjou, and won over that great house to the French side; more and +more was he regarded as the nation's King; symptoms of a wish for +reconciliation with Burgundy appeared; the most vehement Armagnacs were +sent away from Court. Causes of disagreement also shook the friendship +between Burgundy and England. + +Feeling the evils of inaction most, Bedford in 1428 decided on a forward +movement, and sent the Earl of Salisbury to the south. He first secured +his position on the north of the Loire, then, crossing that river, laid +siege to Orleans, the key to the south, and the last bulwark of the +national party. All efforts to vex or dislodge him failed; and the +attempt early in 1429 to stop the English supplies was completely +defeated at Bouvray; from the salt fish captured, the battle has taken +the name of "the Day of the Herrings." Dunois, Bastard of Orleans, was, +wounded; the Scots, the King's body-guard, on whom fell ever the grimmest +of the fighting, suffered terribly, and their leader was killed. All +went well for Bedford till it suited the Duke of Burgundy to withdraw +from his side, carrying with him a large part of the fighting power of +the besiegers. Things were already looking rather gloomy in the English +camp, when a new and unexpected rumour struck all hearts cold with fear. +A virgin, an Amazon, had been raised up as a deliverer for France, and +would soon be on them, armed with mysterious powers. + +A young peasant girl, one Jeanne d'Arc, had been brought up in the +village of Domremy, hard by the Lorraine border. The district, always +French in feeling, had lately suffered much from Burgundian raids; and +this young damsel, brooding over the treatment of her village and her +country, and filled with that strange vision-power which is no rare +phenomenon in itself with young girls, came at last to believe with warm +and active faith in heavenly appearances and messages, all urging her to +deliver France and her King. From faith to action the bridge is short; +and ere long the young dreamer of seventeen set forth to work her +miracle. Her history is quite unique in the world; and though probably +France would ere many years have shaken off the English yoke, for its +strength was rapidly going, still to her is the credit of having proved +its weakness, and of having asserted the triumphant power of a great +belief. All gave way before her; Charles VII., persuaded doubtless by +his mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, who warmly espoused her cause, +listened readily to the maiden's voice; and as that voice urged only what +was noble and pure, she carried conviction as she went. In the end she +received the King's commission to undertake the relief of Orleans. Her +coming was fresh blood to the defence; a new spirit seemed to be poured +out on all her followers, and in like manner a deep dejection settled +down on the English. The blockade was forced, and, in eight days the +besiegers raised the siege and marched away. They withdrew to Jargeau, +where they were attacked and routed with great loss. A little later +Talbot himself, who had marched to help them, was also defeated and +taken. Then, compelling Charles to come out from his in glorious ease, +she carried him triumphantly with her to Rheims, where he was duly +crowned King, the Maid of Orldans standing by, and holding aloft the +royal standard. She would gladly have gone home to Domremy now, her +mission being accomplished; for she was entirely free from all ambitious +or secondary aims. But she was too great a power to be spared. Northern +France was still in English hands, and till the English were cast out her +work was not complete; so they made her stay, sweet child, to do the work +which, had there been any manliness in them, they ought to have found it +easy to achieve for themselves. The dread of her went before her,--a +pillar of cloud and darkness to the English, but light and hope to her +countrymen. Men believed that she was called of God to regenerate the +world, to destroy the Saracen at last, to bring in the millennial age. +Her statue was set up in the churches, and crowds prayed before her image +as before a popular saint. + +The incapacity and ill-faith of those round the King gave the English +some time to recover themselves; Bedford and Burgundy drew together +again, and steps were taken to secure Paris. When, however, Jeanne, +weary of courtly delays, marched, contemptuous of the King, as far as St. +Denis, friends sprang up on every side. In Normandy, on the English line +of communications, four strong places were surprised; and Bedford, made +timid as to his supplies, fell back to Rouen, leaving only a small +garrison in Paris. Jeanne, ill-supported by the royal troops, failed in +her attack on the city walls, and was made prisoner by the Burgundians; +they handed her over to the English, and she was, after previous +indignities, and such treatment as chivalry alone could have dealt her, +condemned as a witch, and burnt as a relapsed heretic at Rouen in 1431. +Betrayed by the French Court, sold by the Burgundians, murdered by the +English, unrescued by the people of France which she so much loved, +Jeanne d'Arc died the martyr's death, a pious, simple soul, a heroine of +the purest metal. She saved her country, for the English power never +recovered from the shock. The churchmen who burnt her, the Frenchmen of +the unpatriotic party, would have been amazed could they have foreseen +that nearly 450 years afterwards, churchmen again would glorify her name +as the saint of the Church, in opposition to both the religious liberties +and the national feelings of her country. + +The war, after having greatly weakened the noblesse, and having caused +infinite sufferings to France, now drew towards a close; the Duke of +Burgundy at last agreed to abandon his English allies, and at a great +congress at Arras, in 1435, signed a treaty with Charles VII. by which +he solemnly came over to the French side. On condition that he should +get Auxerre and Macon, as well as the towns on and near the river Somme, +he was willing to recognise Charles as King of France. His price was +high, yet it was worth all that was given; for, after all, he was of the +French blood royal, and not a foreigner. The death of Bedford, which +took place about the same time, was almost a more terrible blow to the +fortunes of the English. Paris opened her gates to her King in April, +1436; the long war kept on with slight movements now and then for several +years. + +The next year was marked by the meeting of the States General, and the +establishment, in principle at least, of a standing army. The Estates +petitioned the willing King that the system of finance in the realm +should be remodelled, and a permanent tax established for the support of +an army. Thus, it was thought, solidity would be given to the royal +power, and the long-standing curse of the freebooters and brigands +cleared away. No sooner was this done than the nobles began to chafe +under it; they scented in the air the coming troubles; they, took as +their head, poor innocents, the young Dauphin Louis, who was willing +enough to resist the concentration of power in royal hands. Their +champion of 1439, the leader of the "Praguerie," as this new league was +called, in imitation, it is said, of the Hussite movement at Prague, the +enthusiastic defender of noble privilege against the royal power, was the +man who afterwards, as Louis XI., was the destroyer of the noblesse on +behalf of royalty. Some of the nobles stood firmly by the King, and, +aided by them and by an army of paid soldiers serving under the new +conditions, Charles VII., no contemptible antagonist when once aroused, +attacked and overthrew the Praguerie; the cities and the country people +would have none of it; they preferred peace under a king's strong hand. +Louis was sent down to the east to govern Dauphiny; the lessons of the +civil war were not lost on Charles; he crushed the freebooters of +Champagne, drove the English out of Pontois in 1441, moved actively up +and down France, reducing anarchy, restoring order, resisting English +attacks. In the last he was loyally supported by the Dauphin, who was +glad to find a field for his restless temper. He repulsed the English at +Dieppe, and put down the Comte d'Armagnac in the south. During the two +years' truce with England which now followed, Charles VII. and Louis drew +off their free-lances eastward, and the Dauphin came into rude collision +with the Swiss not far from Basel, in 1444. Some sixteen hundred +mountaineers long and heroically withstood at St. Jacob the attack of +several thousand Frenchmen, fighting stubbornly till they all perished. + +The King and Dauphin returned to Paris, having defended their border- +lands with credit, and having much reduced the numbers of the lawless +free-lances. The Dauphin, discontented again, was obliged once more to +withdraw into Dauphiny, where he governed prudently and with activity. +In 1449, the last scene of the Anglo-French war began. In that year +English adventurers landed on the Breton coast; the Duke called the +French King to his aid. Charles did not tarry this time; he broke the +truce with England; he sent Dunois into Normandy, and himself soon +followed. In both duchies, Brittany and Normandy, the French were +welcomed with delight: no love for England lingered in the west. +Somerset and Talbot failed to defend Rouen, and were driven from point to +point, till every stronghold was lost to them. Dunois then passed into +Guienne, and in a few-months Bayonne, the last stronghold of the English, +fell into his hands (1451). When Talbot was sent over to Bordeaux with +five thousand men to recover the south, the old English feeling revived, +for England was their best customer, and they had little in common with +France. It was, however, but a last flicker of the flame; in July, 1453, +at the siege of Castillon, the aged Talbot was slain and the war at once +came to an end; the south passed finally into the kingdom of France. +Normandy and Guienne were assimilated to France in taxation and army +organisation; and all that remained to England across the Channel was +Calais, with Havre and Guines Castle. Her foreign ambitions and +struggles over, England was left to consume herself in civil strife, +while France might rest and recover from the terrible sufferings she had +undergone. The state of the country had become utterly wretched. + +With the end of the English wars new life began to gleam out on France; +the people grew more tranquil, finding that toil and thrift bore again +their wholesome fruits; Charles VII. did not fail in his duty, and took +his part in restoring quiet, order, and justice in the land. + +The French Crown, though it had beaten back the English, was still +closely girt in with rival neighbours, the great dukes on every frontier. +All round the east and north lay the lands of Philip of Burgundy; to the +west was the Duke of Brittany, cherishing a jealous independence; the +royal Dukes, Berri, Bourbon, Anjou, are all so many potential sources of +danger and difficulty to the Crown. The conditions of the nobility are +altogether changed; the old barons have sunk into insignificance; the +struggle of the future will lie between the King's cousins and himself, +rather than with the older lords. A few non-royal princes, such as +Armagnac, or Saint-Pol, or Brittany, remain and will go down with the +others; the "new men" of the day, the bastard Dunois or the Constables +Du Guesclin and Clisson, grow to greater prominence; it is clear that the +old feudalism is giving place to a newer order, in which the aristocracy, +from the King's brothers downwards, will group themselves around the +throne, and begin the process which reaches its unhappy perfection under +Louis XIV. + +Directly after the expulsion of the English, troubles began between King +Charles VII. and the Dauphin Louis; the latter could not brook a quiet +life in Dauphiny, and the King refused him that larger sphere in the +government of Normandy which he coveted. Against his father's will, +Louis married Charlotte of Savoy, daughter of his strongest neighbour in +Dauphiny; suspicion and bad feeling grew strong between father and son; +Louis was specially afraid of his father's counsellors; the King was +specially afraid of his son's craftiness and ambition. It came to an +open rupture, and Louis, in 1456, fled to the Court of Duke Philip of +Burgundy. There he lived at refuge at Geneppe, meddling a good deal in +Burgundian politics, and already opposing himself to his great rival, +Charles of Charolais, afterwards Charles the Bold, the last Duke of +Burgundy. Bickerings, under his bad influence, took place between King +and Duke; they never burst out into flame. So things went on +uncomfortably enough, till Charles VII. died in 1461 and the reign of +Louis XI. began. + +Between father and son what contrast could be greater? Charles VII., +"the Well-served," so easygoing, so open and free from guile; Louis XI., +so shy of counsellors, so energetic and untiring, so close and guileful. +History does but apologise for Charles, and even when she fears and +dislikes Louis, she cannot forbear to wonder and admire. And yet Louis +enslaved his country, while Charles had seen it rescued from foreign +rule; Charles restored something of its prosperity, while Louis spent his +life in crushing its institutions and in destroying its elements of +independence. A great and terrible prince, Louis XI. failed in having +little or no constructive power; he was strong to throw down the older +society, he built little in its room. Most serious of all was his action +with respect to the district of the River Somme, at that time the +northern frontier of France. The towns there had been handed over to +Philip of Burgundy by the Treaty of Arras, with a stipulation that the +Crown might ransom them at any time, and this Louis succeeded in doing in +1463. The act was quite blameless and patriotic in itself, yet it was +exceedingly unwise, for it thoroughly alienated Charles the Bold, and led +to the wars of the earlier period of the reign. Lastly, as if he had not +done enough to offend the nobles, Louis in 1464 attacked their hunting +rights, touching them in their tenderest part. No wonder that this year +saw the formation of a great league against him, and the outbreak of a +dangerous civil war. The "League of the Public Weal" was nominally +headed by his own brother Charles, heir to the throne; it was joined by +Charles of Charolais, who had completely taken the command of affairs in +the Burgundian territories, his father the old duke being too feeble to +withstand him; the Dukes of Brittany, Nemours, Bourbon, John of Anjou, +Duke of Calabria, the Comte d'Armagnac, the aged Dunois, and a host of +other princes and nobles flocked in; and the King had scarcely any forces +at his back with which to withstand them. His plans for the campaign +against the league were admirable, though they were frustrated by the bad +faith of his captains, who mostly sympathised with this outbreak of the +feudal nobility. Louis himself marched southward to quell the Duc de +Bourbon and his friends, and returning from that task, only half done for +lack of time, he found that Charles of Charolais had passed by Paris, +which was faithful to the King, and was coming down southwards, intending +to join the Dukes of Berri and Brittany, who were on their way towards +the capital. The hostile armies met at Montleheri on the Orleans road; +and after a strange battle--minutely described by Commines--a battle in +which both sides ran away, and neither ventured at first to claim a +victory, the King withdrew to Corbeil, and then marched into Paris +(1465). There the armies of the league closed in on him; and after a +siege of several weeks, Louis, feeling disaffection all around him, and +doubtful how long Paris herself would bear for him the burdens of +blockade, signed the Peace of Conflans, which, to all appearances, +secured the complete victory to the noblesse, "each man carrying off his +piece." Instantly the contented princes broke up their half-starved +armies and went home, leaving Louis behind to plot and contrive against +them, a far wiser man, thanks to the lesson they had taught him. They +did not let him wait long for a chance. The Treaty of Conflans had +given the duchy of Normandy to the King's brother Charles; he speedily +quarrelled with his neighbour, the Duke of Brittany, and Louis came down +at once into Normandy, which threw itself into his arms, and the whole +work of the league was broken up. The Comte de Charolais, occupied with +revolts at Dinan and Liege, could not interfere, and presently his +father, the old Duke Philip, died (1467), leaving to him the vast +lordships of the House of Burgundy. + +And now the "imperial dreamer," Charles the Bold, was brought into +immediate rivalry with that royal trickster, the "universal spider," +Louis XI. Charles was by far the nobler spirit of the two: his vigour +and intelligence, his industry and wish to raise all around him to a +higher cultivation, his wise reforms at home, and attempts to render his +father's dissolute and careless rule into a well-ordered lordship, all +these things marked him out as the leading spirit of the time. His +territories were partly held under France, partly under the empire: the +Artois district, which also may be taken to include the Somme towns, the +county of Rhetel, the duchy of Bar, the duchy of Burgundy, with Auxerre +and Nevers, were feudally in France; the rest of his lands under the +empire. He had, therefore, interests and means of interference on either +hand; and it is clear that Charles set before himself two different lines +of policy, according as he looked one way or the other. + +At the time of Duke Philip's death a new league had been formed against +Louis, embracing the King of England, Edward IV., the Dukes of Burgundy +and Brittany, and the Kings of Aragon and Castile. Louis strained every +nerve, he conciliated Paris, struck hard at disaffected partisans, and in +1468 convoked the States General at Tours. The three Estates were asked +to give an opinion as to the power of the Crown to alienate Normandy, the +step insisted upon by the Duke of Burgundy. Their reply was to the +effect that the nation forbids the Crown to dismember the realm; they +supported their opinion by liberal promises of help. Thus fortified by +the sympathy of his people, Louis began to break up the coalition. He +made terms with the Duc de Bourbon and the House of Anjou; his brother +Charles was a cipher; the King of England was paralysed by the antagonism +of Warwick; he attacked and reduced Brittany; Burgundy, the most +formidable, alone remained to be dealt with. How should he meet him?-- +by war or by negotiation? His Court was divided in opinion; the King +decided for himself in favour of the way of negotiation, and came to the +astonishing conclusion that he would go and meet the Duke and win him +over to friendship. He miscalculated both his own powers of persuasion +and the force of his antagonist's temper. The interview of Peronne +followed; Charles held his visitor as a captive, and in the end compelled +him to sign a treaty, of peace, on the basis of that of Conflans, which +had closed the War of the Public Weal. And as if this were not +sufficient humiliation, Charles made the King accompany him on his +expedition to punish the men of Liege, who, trusting to the help of +Louis, had again revolted (1469). This done, he allowed the degraded +monarch to return home to Paris. An assembly of notables of Tours +speedily declared the Treaty of Perrone null, and the King made some +small frontier war on the Duke, which was ended by a truce at Amiens, in +1471. The truce was spent in preparation for a fresh struggle, which +Louis, to whom time was everything, succeeded in deferring from point to +point, till the death of his brother Charles, now Duc de Guienne, in +1472, broke up the formidable combination. Charles the Bold at once +broke truce and made war on the King, marching into northern France, +sacking towns and ravaging the country, till he reached Beauvais. There +the despair of the citizens and the bravery of the women saved the town. +Charles raised the siege and marched on Rouen, hoping to meet the Duke of +Brittany; but that Prince had his hands full, for Louis had overrun his +territories, and had reduced him to terms. The Duke of Burgundy saw that +the coalition had completely failed; he too made fresh truce with Louis +at Senlis (1472), and only, deferred, he no doubt thought, the direct +attack on his dangerous rival. Henceforth Charles the Bold turned his +attention mainly to the east, and Louis gladly saw him go forth to spend +his strength on distant ventures; saw the interview at Treves with the +Emperor Frederick III., at which the Duke's plans were foiled by the +suspicions of the Germans and the King's intrigues; saw the long siege of +the Neusz wearing out his power; bought off the hostility of Edward IV. +of England, who had undertaken to march on Paris; saw Charles embark on +his Swiss enterprise; saw the subjugation of Lorraine and capture of +Nancy (1475), the battle of Granson, the still more fatal defeat of Morat +(1476), and lastly the final struggle of Nancy, and the Duke's death on +the field (January, 1477). + +While Duke Charles had thus been running on his fate, Louis XI. had +actively attacked the larger nobles of France, and had either reduced +them to submission or had destroyed them. + +As Duke Charles had left no male heir, the King at once resumed the duchy +of Burgundy, as a male fief of the kingdom; he also took possession of +Franche Comte at the same time; the King's armies recovered all Picardy, +and even entered Flanders. Then Mary of Burgundy, hoping to raise up a +barrier against this dangerous neighbour, offered her hand, with all her +great territories, to young Maximilian of Austria, and married him within +six months after her father's death. To this wedding is due the rise to +real greatness of the House of Austria; it begins the era of the larger +politics of modern times. + +After a little hesitation Louis determined to continue the struggle +against the Burgundian power. He secured Franche Comte, and on his +northern frontier retook Arras, that troublesome border city, the "bonny +Carlisle" of those days; and advancing to relieve Therouenne, then +besieged by Maximilian, fought and lost the battle of Guinegate (1479). +The war was languid after this; a truce followed in 1480, and a time of +quiet for France. Charles the Dauphin was engaged to marry the little +Margaret, Maximilian's daughter, and as her dower she was to bring +Franche Comte and sundry places on the border line disputed between the +two princes. In these last days Louis XI. shut himself up in gloomy +seclusion in his castle of Plessis near Tours, and there he died in 1483. +A great king and a terrible one, he has left an indellible mark on the +history of France, for he was the founder of France in its later form, +as an absolute monarchy ruled with little regard to its own true welfare. +He had crushed all resistance; he had enlarged the borders of France, +till the kingdom took nearly its modern dimensions; he had organised its +army and administration. The danger was lest in the hands of a feeble +boy these great results should be squandered away, and the old anarchy +once more raise its head. + +For Charles VIII., who now succeeded, was but thirteen years old, a weak +boy whom his father had entirely neglected, the training of his son not +appearing to be an essential part of his work in life. The young Prince +had amused himself with romances, but had learnt nothing useful. A head, +however, was found for him in the person of his eldest sister Anne, whom +Louis XI. had married to Peter II., Lord of Beaujeu and Duc de Bourbon. +To her the dying King entrusted the guardianship of his son; and for more +than nine years Anne of France was virtual King. For those years all +went well. + +With her disappearance from the scene, the controlling hand is lost, and +France begins the age of her Italian expeditions. + +When the House of Anjou came to an end in 1481, and Anjou and Maine fell +in to the Crown, there fell in also a far less valuable piece of +property, the claim of that house descended from Charles, the youngest +brother of Saint Louis, on the kingdom of Naples and Sicily. There was +much to tempt an ambitious prince in the state of Italy. Savoy, which +held the passage into the peninsula, was then thoroughly French in +sympathy; Milan, under Lodovico Sforza, "il Moro," was in alliance with +Charles; Genoa preferred the French to the Aragonese claimants for +influence over Italy; the popular feeling in the cities, especially in +Florence, was opposed to the despotism of the Medici, and turned to +France for deliverance; the misrule of the Spanish Kings of Naples had +made Naples thoroughly discontented; Venice was, as of old, the friend of +France. Tempted by these reasons, in 1494 Charles VIII. set forth for +Italy with a splendid host. He displayed before the eyes of Europe the +first example of a modern army, in its three well-balanced branches of +infantry, cavalry, and artillery. There was nothing in Italy to +withstand his onslaught; he swept through the land in triumph; Charles +believed himself to be a great conqueror giving law to admiring subject- +lands; he entered Pisa, Florence, Rome itself. Wherever he went his +heedless ignorance, and the gross misconduct of his followers, left +behind implacable hostility, and turned all friendship into bitterness. +At last he entered Naples, and seemed to have asserted to the full the +French claim to be supreme in Italy, whereas at that very time his +position had become completely untenable. A league of Italian States was +formed behind his back; Lodovico il Moro, Ferdinand of Naples, the +Emperor, Pope Alexander VI., Ferdinand and Isabella, who were now welding +Spain into a great and united monarchy, all combined against France; and +in presence of this formidable confederacy Charles VIII. had to cut his +way home as promptly as he could. At Fornovo, north of the Apennines, he +defeated the allies in July, 1495; and by November the main French army +had got safely out of Italy. The forces left behind in Naples were worn +out by war and pestilence, and the poor remnant of these, too, bringing +with them the seeds of horrible contagious diseases, forced their way +back to France in 1496. It was the last effort of the King. His health +was ruined by debauchery in Italy, repeated in France; and yet, towards +the end of his reign, he not merely introduced Italian arts, but +attempted to reform the State, to rule prudently, to solace the poor; +wherefore, when he died in 1498, the people lamented him greatly, for he +had been kindly and affable, brave also on the battle-field; and much is +forgiven to a king. + +His children died before him, so that Louis d'Orleans, his cousin, was +nearest heir to the throne, and succeeded as Louis XII. By his accession +in 1498 he reunited the fief of Orleans County to the Crown; by marrying +Anne of Brittany, his predecessor's widow, he secured also the great +duchy of Brittany. The dispensation of Pope Alexander VI., which enabled +him to put away his wife Jeanne, second daughter of Louis XI., was +brought into France by Caesar Borgia, who gained thereby his title of +Duke of Valentinois, a large sum of money, a French bride, and promises +of support in his great schemes in Italy. + +His ministers were men of real ability. Georges d'Amboise, Archbishop of +Rouen, the chief of them, was a prudent and a sagacious ruler, who, +however, unfortunately wanted to be Pope, and urged the King in the +direction of Italian politics, which he would have done much better to +have left alone. Louis XII. was lazy and of small intelligence; Georges +d'Amboise and Caesar Borgia, with their Italian ambitions, easily made +him take up a spirited foreign policy which was disastrous at home. + +Utterly as the last Italian expedition had failed, the French people were +not yet weary of the adventure, and preparations for a new war began at +once. In 1499 the King crossed the Alps into the Milanese, and carried +all before him for a while. The duchy at first accepted him with +enthusiasm; but in 1500 it had had enough of the French and recalled +Lodovico, who returned in triumph to Milan. The Swiss mercenaries, +however, betrayed him at Novara into the hands of Louis XII., who carried +him off to France. The triumph of the French in 1500 was also the +highest point of the fortunes of their ally, Caesar Borgia, who seemed +for a while to be completely successful. In this year Louis made a +treaty at Granada, by which he and Ferdinand the Catholic agreed to +despoil Frederick of Naples; and in 1501 Louis made a second expedition +into Italy. Again all seemed easy at the outset, and he seized the +kingdom of Naples without difficulty; falling out, however, with his +partner in the bad bargain, Ferdinand the Catholic, he was speedily swept +completely out of the peninsula, with terrible loss of honour, men, and +wealth. + +It now became necessary to arrange for the future of France. Louis XII. +had only a daughter, Claude, and it was proposed that she should be +affianced to Charles of Austria, the future statesman and emperor. This +scheme formed the basis of the three treaties of Blois (1504). In 1500, +by the Treaty of Granada, Louis had in fact handed Naples over to Spain; +now by the three treaties he alienated his best friends, the Venetians +and the papacy, while he in fact also handed Milan over to the Austrian +House, together with territories considered to be integral parts of +France. The marriage with Charles came to nothing; the good sense of +some, the popular feeling in the country, the open expressions of the +States General of Tours, in 1506, worked against the marriage, which had +no strong advocate except Queen Anne. Claude, on intercession of the +Estates, was affianced to Frangois d'Angouleme, her distant cousin, the +heir presumptive to the throne. + +In 1507 Louis made war on Venice; and in the following year the famous +Treaty of Cambrai was signed by Georges d'Amboise and Margaret of +Austria. It was an agreement for a partition of the Venetian +territories,--one of the most shameless public deeds in history. The +Pope, the King of Aragon, Maximilian, Louis XII., were each to have a +share. The war was pushed on with great vigour: the battle of Agnadello +(14th May, 1509) cleared the King's way towards Venice; Louis was +received with open arms by the North Italian towns, and pushed forward to +within eight of Venice. The other Princes came up on every side; the +proud "Queen of the Adriatic" was compelled to shrink within her walls, +and wait till time dissolved the league. This was not long. The Pope, +Julius II., had no wish to hand Northern Italy over to France; he had +joined in the shameless league of Cambrai because he wanted to wrest the +Romagna cities from Venice, and because he hoped to entirely destroy the +ancient friendship between Venice and France. Successful in both aims, +he now withdrew from the league, made peace with the Venetians, and stood +forward as the head of a new Italian combination, with the Swiss for his +fighting men. The strife was close and hot between Pope and King; Louis +XII. lost his chief adviser and friend, Georges d'Amboise, the splendid +churchman of the age, the French Wolsey; he thought no weapon better than +the dangerous one of a council, with claims opposed to those of the +papacy; first a National Council at Tours, then an attempted General +Council at Pisa, were called on to resist the papal claims. In reply +Julius II. created the Holy League of 1511, with Ferdinand of Aragon, +Henry VIII. of England, and the Venetians as its chief members, against +the French. Louis XII. showed vigour; he sent his nephew Gaston de Foix +to subdue the Romagna and threaten the Venetian territories. At the +battle of Ravenna, in 1512, Gaston won a brilliant victory and lost his +life. From that moment disaster dogged the footsteps of the French in +Italy, and before winter they had been driven completely out of the +peninsula; the succession of the Medicean Pope, Leo X., to Julius II., +seemed to promise the continuance of a policy hostile to France in Italy. +Another attempt on Northern Italy proved but another failure, although +now Louis XII., taught by his mishaps, had secured the alliance of +Venice; the disastrous defeat of La Tremoille, near Novara (1513), +compelled the French once more to withdraw beyond the Alps. In this same +year an army under the Duc de Longueville, endeavouring to relieve +Therouenne, besieged by the English and Maximilian, the Emperor-elect, +was caught and crushed at Guinegate. A diversion in favour of Louis +XII., made by James IV. of Scotland, failed completely; the Scottish King +was defeated and slain at Flodden Field. While his northern frontier was +thus exposed, Louis found equal danger threatening him on the east; on +this aide, however, he managed to buy off the Swiss, who had attacked the +duchy of Burgundy. He was also reconciled with the papacy and the House +of Austria. Early in 1514 the death of Anne of Brittany, his spouse, a +lady of high ambitions, strong artistic tastes, and humane feelings +towards her Bretons, but a bad Queen for France, cleared the way for +changes. Claude, the King's eldest daughter, was now definitely married +to Francois d'Angouleme, and invested with the duchy of Brittany; and the +King himself, still hoping for a male heir to succeed him, married again, +wedding Mary Tudor, the lovely young sister of Henry VIII. This marriage +was probably the chief cause of his death, which followed on New Year's +day, 1515. His was, in foreign policy, an inglorious and disastrous +reign; at home, a time of comfort and material prosperity. Agriculture +flourished, the arts of Italy came in, though (save in architecture) +France could claim little artistic glory of her own; the organisation of +justice and administration was carried out; in letters and learning +France still lagged behind her neighbours. + +The heir to the crown was Francois d'Angouleme, great-grandson of that +Louis d'Orleans who had been assassinated in the bad days of the strife +between Burgundians and Armagnacs, in 1407, and great-great-grandson of +Charles V. of France. He was still very young, very eager to be king, +very full of far-reaching schemes. Few things in history are more +striking than the sudden change, at this moment, from the rule of middle- +aged men or (as men of fifty were then often called) old men, to the rule +of youths,--from sagacious, worldly-prudent monarchs--to impulsive boys, +--from Henry VII. to Henry VIII., from Louis XII. to Frangois I, from +Ferdinand to Charles. + +On the whole, Frangois I. was the least worthy of the three. He was +brilliant, "the king of culture," apt scholar in Renaissance art and +immorality; brave, also, and chivalrous, so long as the chivalry involved +no self-denial, for he was also thoroughly selfish, and his personal aims +and ideas were mean. His reign was to be a reaction from that of Louis +XII. + +From the beginning, Francois chose his chief officers unwisely. In +Antoine du Prat, his new chancellor, he had a violent and lawless +adviser; in Charles de Bourbon, his new constable, an untrustworthy +commander. Forthwith he plunged into Italian politics, being determined +to make good his claim both to Naples and to Milan; he made most friendly +arrangements with the Archduke Charles, his future rival, promising to +help him in securing, when the time came, the vast inheritances of his +two grandfathers, Maximilian, the Emperor-elect, and Ferdinand of Aragon; +never was a less wise agreement entered upon. This done, the Italian war +began; Francois descended into Italy, and won the brilliant battle of +Marignano, in which the French chivalry crushed the Swiss burghers and +peasant mercenaries. The French then overran the north of Italy, and, in +conjunction with the Venetians, carried all before them. But the +triumphs of the sword were speedily wrested from him by the adroitness of +the politician; in an interview with Leo X. at Bologna, Francois bartered +the liberties of the Gallican Church for shadowy advantages in Italy. +The 'Pragmatic Sanction of Bourgea', which now for nearly a century had +secured to the Church of France independence in the choice of her chief +officers, was replaced by a concordat, whereby the King allowed the +papacy once more to drain the wealth of the Church of France, while the +Pope allowed the King almost autocratic power over it. He was to appoint +to all benefices, with exception of a few privileged offices; the Pope +was no longer to be threatened with general councils, while he should +receive again the annates of the Church. + +The years which followed this brilliantly disastrous opening brought +little good to France. In 1516 the death of Ferdinand the Catholic +placed Charles on the throne of Spain; in 1519 the death of Maximilian +threw open to the young Princes the most dazzling prize of human +ambition,--the headship of the Holy Roman Empire. Francois I., Charles, +and Henry VIII. were all candidates for the votes of the seven electors, +though the last never seriously entered the lists. The struggle lay +between Francois, the brilliant young Prince, who seemed to represent the +new opinions in literature and art, and Charles of Austria and Spain, who +was as yet unknown and despised, and, from his education under the +virtuous and scholastic Adrian of Utrecht, was thought likely to +represent the older and reactionary opinions of the clergy. After a long +and sharp competition, the great prize fell to Charles, henceforth known +to history as that great monarch and emperor, Charles V. + +The rivalry between the Princes could not cease there. Charles, as +representative of the House of Burgundy, claimed all that had been lost +when Charles the Bold fell; and in 1521 the war broke out between him and +Francois, the first of a series of struggles between the two rivals. +While the King wasted the resources of his country on these wars, his +proud and unwise mother, Louise of Savoy, guided by Antoine du Prat, +ruled, to the sorrow of all, at home. The war brought no glory with it: +on the Flemish frontier a place or two was taken; in Biscay Fontarabia +fell before the arms of France; in Italy Francois had to meet a new +league of Pope and Emperor, and his troops were swept completely out of +the Milanese. In the midst of all came the defection of that great +prince, the Constable de Bourbon, head of the younger branch of the +Bourbon House, the most powerful feudal lord in France. Louise of Savoy +had enraged and offended him, or he her; the King slighted him, and in +1523 the Constable made a secret treaty with Charles V. and Henry VIII., +and, taking flight into Italy, joined the Spaniards under Lannoy. The +French, who had again invaded the Milanese, were again driven out in +1524; on the other hand, the incursions of the imperialists into Picardy, +Provence, and the southeast were all complete failures. Encouraged by +the repulse of Bourbon from Marseilles, Francois I. once more crossed the +Alps, and overran a great part of the valley of the Po; at the siege of +Pavia he was attacked by Pescara and Bourbon, utterly defeated and taken +prisoner (24th February, 1525); the broken remnants of the French were +swept out of Italy at once, and Francois I. was carried into Spain, a +captive at Madrid. His mother, best in adversity, behaved with high +pride and spirit; she overawed disaffection, made preparations for +resistance, looked out for friends on every side. Had Francois been in +truth a hero, he might, even as a prisoner, have held his own; but he was +unable to bear the monotony of confinement, and longed for the pleasures +of France. On this mean nature Charles V. easily worked, and made the +captive monarch sign the Treaty of Madrid (January 14, 1526), a compact +which Francois meant to break as soon as he could, for he knew neither +heroism nor good faith. The treaty stipulated that Francois should give +up the duchy of Burgundy to Charles, and marry Eleanor of Portugal, +Charles's sister; that Francois should also abandon his claims on +Flanders, Milan, and Naples, and should place two sons in the Emperor's +hands as hostages. Following the precedent of Louis XI. in the case of +Normandy, he summoned an assembly of nobles and the Parliament of Paris +to Cognac, where they declared the cession of Burgundy to be impossible. +He refused to return to Spain, and made alliances wherever he could, with +the Pope, with Venice, Milan, and England. The next year saw the ruin of +this league in the discomfiture of Clement VII., and the sack of Rome by +the German mercenaries under Bourbon, who was killed in the assault. The +war went on till 1529, when Francois, having lost two armies in it, and +gained nothing but loss and harm, was willing for peace; Charles V., +alarmed at the progress of the Turks, was not less willing; and in +August, 1529, the famous Treaty, of Cambrai, "the Ladies' Peace," was +agreed to by Margaret of Austria and Louise of Savoy. Though Charles V. +gave up all claim on the duchy of Burgundy, he had secured to himself +Flanders and Artois, and had entirely cleared French influences out of +Italy, which now became firmly fixed under the imperial hand, as a +connecting link between his Spanish and German possessions. Francois +lost ground and credit by these successive treaties, conceived in bad +faith, and not honestly carried out. + +No sooner had the Treaty of Cambrai been effectual in bringing his sons +back to France, than Francois began to look out for new pretexts and +means for war. Affairs were not unpromising. His mother's death in 1531 +left him in possession of a huge fortune, which she had wrung from +defenceless France; the powers which were jealous of Austria, the Turk, +the English King, the members of the Smalkald league, all looked to +Francois as their leader; Clement VII., though his misfortunes had thrown +him into the Emperor's hands, was not unwilling to treat with France; and +in 1533 by the compact of Marseilles the Pope broke up the friendship +between Francois and Henry VIII., while he married his niece Catherine +de' Medici to Henri, the second son of Francois. This compact was a real +disaster to France; the promised dowry of Catherine--certain Italian +cities--was never paid, and the death of Clement VII. in 1534 made the +political alliance with the papacy a failure. The influence of Catherine +affected and corrupted French history for half a century. Preparations +for war went on; Francois made a new scheme for a national army, though +in practice he preferred the tyrant's arm, the foreign mercenary. From +his day till the Revolution the French army was largely composed of +bodies of men tempted out of other countries, chiefly from Switzerland or +Germany. + +While the Emperor strove to appease the Protestant Princes of Germany by +the Peace of Kadan (1534), Francois strengthened himself with a definite +alliance with Soliman; and when, on the death of Francesco Sforza, Duke +of Milan, who left no heirs, Charles seized the duchy as its overlord, +Francois, after some bootless negotiation, declared war on his great +rival (1536). His usual fortunes prevailed so long as he was the +attacking party: his forces were soon swept out of Piedmont, and the +Emperor carried the war over the frontier into Provence. That also +failed, and Charles was fain to withdraw after great losses into Italy. +The defence of Provence--a defence which took the form of a ruthless +destruction of all its resources--had been entrusted to Anne de +Montmorency, who henceforward became Constable of France, and exerted +great influence over Francois I. Though these two campaigns, the French +in Italy and the imperialist in Provence, had equally failed in 1536, +peace did not follow till 1538, when, after the terrible defeat of +Ferdinand of Austria by the Turks, Charles was anxious to have free hand +in Germany. Under the mediation of Paul III. the agreement of Nice was +come to, which included a ten years' truce and the abandonment by +Francois of all his foreign allies and aims. He seemed a while to have +fallen completely under the influence of the sagacious Emperor. He gave +way entirely to the Church party of the time, a party headed by gloomy +Henri, now Dauphin, who never lost the impress of his Spanish captivity, +and by the Constable Anne de Montmorency; for a time the artistic or +Renaissance party, represented by Anne, Duchesse d'Etampes, and Catherine +de' Medici, fell into disfavour. The Emperor even ventured to pass +through France, on his way from Spain to the Netherlands. All this +friendship, however, fell to dust, when it was found that Charles refused +to invest the Duc d'Orleans, the second son of Francois, with the duchy +of Milan, and when the Emperor's second expedition against the sea-power +of the Turks had proved a complete failure, and Charles had returned to +Spain with loss of all his fleet and army. Then Francois hesitated no +longer, and declared war against him (1541). The shock the Emperor had +suffered inspirited all his foes; the Sultan and the Protestant German +Princes were all eager for war; the influence of Anne de Montmorency had +to give way before that of the House of Guise, that frontier family, half +French, half German, which was destined to play a large part in the +troubled history of the coming half-century. Claude, Duc de Guise, a +veteran of the earliest days of Francois, was vehemently opposed to +Charles and the Austro-Spanish power, and ruled in the King's councils. +This last war was as mischievous as its predecessors no great battles +were fought; in the frontier affairs the combatants were about equally +fortunate; the battle of Cerisolles, won by the French under Enghien +(1544), was the only considerable success they had, and even that was +almost barren of results, for the danger to Northern France was imminent; +there a combined invasion had been planned and partly executed by Charles +and Henry VIII., and the country, almost undefended, was at their mercy. +The two monarchs, however, distrusted one another; and Charles V., +anxious about Germany, sent to Francois proposals for peace from Crespy +Couvrant, near Laon, where he had halted his army; Francois, almost in +despair, gladly made terms with him. The King gave up his claims on +Flanders and Artois, the Emperor his on the duchy of Burgundy; the King +abandoned his old Neapolitan ambition, and Charles promised one of the +Princesses of the House of Austria, with Milan as her dower, to the Duc +d'Orleans, second son of Francois. The Duke dying next year, this +portion of the agreement was not carried out. The Peace of Crespy, which +ended the wars between the two great rivals, was signed in autumn, 1544, +and, like the wars which led to it, was indecisive and lame. + +Charles learnt that with all his great power he could not strike a fatal +blow at France; France ought to have learnt that she was very weak for +foreign conquest, and that her true business was to consolidate and +develop her power at home. Henry VIII. deemed himself wronged by this +independent action on the part of Charles, who also had his grievances +with the English monarch; he stood out till 1546, and then made peace +with Francois, with the aim of forming a fresh combination against +Charles. In the midst of new projects and much activity, the marrer of +man's plots came on the scene, and carried off in the same year, 1547, +the English King and Francois I., leaving Charles V. undisputed arbiter +of the affairs of Europe. In this same year he also crushed the +Protestant Princes at the battle of Muhlberg. + +In the reign of Francois I. the Court looked not unkindly on the +Reformers, more particularly in the earlier years. + +Henri II., who succeeded in 1547, "had all the faults of his father, with +a weaker mind;" and as strength of mind was not one of the +characteristics of Francois I., we may imagine how little firmness there +was in the gloomy King who now reigned. Party spirit ruled at Court. +Henri II., with his ancient mistress, Diane de Poitiers, were at the head +of one party, that of the strict Catholics, and were supported by old +Anne de Montmorency, most unlucky of soldiers, most fanatical of +Catholics, and by the Guises, who chafed a good deal under the stern rule +of the Constable. This party had almost extinguished its antagonists; in +the struggle of the mistresses, the pious and learned Anne d'Etampes had +to give place to imperious Diane, Catherine, the Queen, was content to +bide her time, watching with Italian coolness the game as it went on; of +no account beside her rival, and yet quite sure to have her day, and +ready to play parties against one another. Meanwhile, she brought to her +royal husband ten sickly children, most of whom died young, and three +wore the crown. Of the many bad things she did for France, that was +perhaps among the worst. + +On the accession of Henri II. the duchy of Brittany finally lost even +nominal independence; he next got the hand of Mary, Queen of Scots, then +but five years old, for the Dauphin Francois; she was carried over to +France; and being by birth half a Guise, by education and interests of +her married life she became entirely French. It was a great triumph for +Henri, for the Protector Somerset had laid his plans to secure her for +young Edward VI.; it was even more a triumph for the Guises, who saw +opened out a broad and clear field for their ambition. + +At first Henri II. showed no desire for war, and seemed to shrink from +rivalry or collision with Charles V. He would not listen to Paul III., +who, in his anxiety after the fall of the Protestant power in Germany in +1547, urged him to resist the Emperor's triumphant advance; he seemed to +show a dread of war, even among his neighbours. After he had won his +advantage over Edward VI., he escaped the war which seemed almost +inevitable, recovered Boulogne from the English by a money payment, and +smoothed the way for peace between England and Scotland. He took much +interest in the religious question, and treated the Calvinists with great +severity; he was also occupied by troubles in the south and west of +France. Meanwhile, a new Pope, Julius III., was the weak dependent of +the Emperor, and there seemed to be no head left for any movement against +the universal domination of Charles V. His career from 1547 to 1552 was, +to all appearance, a triumphal march of unbroken success. Yet Germany +was far from acquiescence; the Princes were still discontented and +watchful; even Ferdinand of Austria, his brother, was offended by the +Emperor's anxiety to secure everything, even the imperial crown for his +son Philip; Maurice of Saxony, that great problem of the age, was +preparing for a second treachery, or, it may be, for a patriotic effort. +These German malcontents now appealed to Henri for aid; and at last Henri +seemed inclined to come. He had lately made alliance with England, and +in 1552 formed a league at Chambord with the German Princes; the old +connection with the Turk was also talked of. The Germans agreed to +allow' him to hold (as imperial vicar, not as King of France) the "three +bishoprics," Metz, Verdun, and Toul; he also assumed a protectorate over +the spiritual princes, those great bishops and electors of the Rhine, +whose stake in the Empire was so important. The general lines of French +foreign politics are all here clearly marked; in this Henri II. is the +forerunner of Henri IV. and of Louis XIV.; the imperial politics of +Napoleon start from much the same lines; the proclamations of Napoleon +III. before the Franco-German war seemed like thin echoes of the same. + +Early in 1552 Maurice of Saxony struck his great blow at his master in +the Tyrol, destroying in an instant all the Emperor's plans for the +suppression of Lutheran opinions, and the reunion of Germany in a +Catholic empire; and while Charles V. fled for his life, Henri II. with +a splendid army crossed the frontiers of Lorraine. Anne de Montmorency, +whose opposition to the war had been overborne by the Guises, who warmly +desired to see a French predominance in Lorraine, was sent forward to +reduce Metz, and quickly got that important city into his hands; Toul and +Verdun soon opened their gates, and were secured in reality, if not in +name, to France. Eager to undertake a protectorate of the Rhine, Henri +II. tried also to lay hands on Strasburg; the citizens, however, +resisted, and he had to withdraw; the same fate befell his troops in an +attempt on Spires. Still, Metz and the line of the Vosges mountains +formed a splendid acquisition for France. The French army, leaving +strong garrisons in Lorraine, withdrew through Luxemburg and the northern +frontier; its remaining exploits were few and mean, for the one gleam of +good fortune enjoyed by Anne de Montmorency, who was unwise and arrogant, +and a most inefficient commander, soon deserted him. Charles V., as soon +as he could gather forces, laid siege to Metz, but, after nearly three +months of late autumnal operations, was fain to break up and withdraw, +baffled and with loss of half his army, across the Rhine. Though some +success attended his arms on the northern frontier, it was of no +permanent value; the loss of Metz, and the failure in the attempt to take +it, proved to the worn-out Emperor that the day of his power and +opportunity was past. The conclusions of the Diet of Augsburg in 1555 +settled for half a century the struggle between Lutheran and Catholic, +but settled it in a way not at all to his mind; for it was the safeguard +of princely interests against his plans for an imperial unity. Weary of +the losing strife, yearning for ease, ordered by his physicians to +withdraw from active life, Charles in the course of 1555 and 1556 +resigned all his great lordships and titles, leaving Philip his son to +succeed him in Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, and his brother +Ferdinand of Austria to wear in his stead the imperial diadem. These +great changes sundered awhile the interests of Austria from those of +Spain. + +Henri endeavoured to take advantage of the check in the fortunes of his +antagonists; he sent Anne de Montmorency to support Gaspard de Coligny, +the Admiral of France, in Picardy, and in harmony with Paul IV., +instructed Francois, Duc de Guise, to enter Italy to oppose the Duke of +Alva. As of old, the French arms at first carried all before them, and +Guise, deeming himself heir to the crown of Naples (for he was the eldest +great-grandson of Rene II., titular King of Naples), pushed eagerly +forward as far as the Abruzzi. There he was met and outgeneraled by +Alva, who drove him back to Rome, whence he was now recalled by urgent +summons to France; for the great disaster of St. Quentin had laid Paris +itself open to the assault of an enterprising enemy. With the departure +of Guise from Italy the age of the Italian expeditions comes to an end. +On the northern side of the realm things had gone just as badly. +Philibert of Savoy, commanding for Philip with Spanish and English +troops, marched into France as far as to the Somme, and laid siege to St. +Quentin, which was bravely defended by Amiral de Coligny. Anne de +Montmorency, coming up to relieve the place, managed his movements so +clumsily that he was caught by Count Egmont and the Flemish horse, and, +with incredibly small loss to the conquerors, was utterly routed (1557). +Montmorency himself and a crowd of nobles and soldiers were taken; the +slaughter was great. Coligny made a gallant and tenacious stand in the +town itself, but at last was overwhelmed, and the place fell. Terrible +as these mishaps were to France, Philip II. was not of a temper to push +an advantage vigorously; and while his army lingered, Francois de Guise +came swiftly back from Italy; and instead of wasting strength in a +doubtful attack on the allies in Picardy, by a sudden stroke of genius he +assaulted and took Calais (January, 1558), and swept the English finally +off the soil of France. This unexpected and brilliant blow cheered and +solaced the afflicted country, while it finally secured the ascendency of +the House of Guise. The Duke's brother, the Cardinal de Lorraine, +carried all before him in the King's councils; the Dauphin, betrothed +long before, was now married to Mary of Scots; a secret treaty bound the +young Queen to bring her kingdom over with her; it was thought that +France with Scotland would be at least a match for England joined with +Spain. In the same year, 1558, the French advance along the coast, after +they had taken Dunkirk and Nieuport, was finally checked by the brilliant +genius of Count Egmont, who defeated them at Gravelinea. All now began +to wish for peace, especially Montmorency, weary of being a prisoner, and +anxious to get back to Court, that he might check the fortunes of the +Guises; Philip desired it that he might have free hand against heresy. +And so, at Cateau-Cambresis, a peace was made in April, 1559, by which +France retained the three bishoprics and Calais, surrendering Thionville, +Montmedy, and one or two other frontier towns, while she recovered Ham +and St. Quentin; the House of Savoy was reinstated by Philip, as a reward +to Philibert for his services, and formed a solid barrier for a time +between France and Italy; cross-marriages between Spain, France, and +Savoy were arranged;--and finally, the treaty contained secret articles +by which the Guises for France and Granvella for the Netherlands agreed +to crush heresy with a strong hand. As a sequel to this peace, Henri II. +held a great tournament at Paris, at which he was accidentally slain by a +Scottish knight in the lists. + +The Guises now shot up into abounded power. On the Guise side the +Cardinal de Lorraine was the cleverest man, the true head, while +Francois, the Duke, was the arm; he showed leanings towards the +Lutherans. On the other side, the head was the dull and obstinate Anne +de Montmorency, the Constable, an unwavering Catholic, supported by the +three Coligny brothers, who all were or became Huguenots. The Queen- +mother Catherine fluctuated uneasily between the parties, and though +Catholic herself, or rather not a Protestant, did not hesitate to +befriend the Huguenots, if the political arena seemed to need their +gallant swords. Their noblest leader was Coligny, the admiral; their +recognised head was Antoine, King of Navarre, a man as foolish as +fearless. He was heir presumptive to the throne after the Valois boys, +and claimed to have charge of the young King. Though the Guises had the +lead at first, the Huguenots seemed, from their strong aristocratic +connections, to have the fairer prospects before them. + +Thirty years of desolate civil strife are before us, and we must set it +all down briefly and drily. The prelude to the troubles was played by +the Huguenots, who in 1560, guided by La Renaudie, a Perigord gentleman, +formed a plot to carry off the young King; for Francois II. had already +treated them with considerable severity, and had dismissed from his +councils both the princes of the blood royal and the Constable de +Montmorency. The plot failed miserably and La Renaudie lost his life; +it only secured more firmly the authority of the Guises. As a +counterpoise to their influence, the Queen-mother now conferred the +vacant chancellorship on one of the wisest men France has ever seen, her +Lord Bacon, Michel de L'Hopital, a man of the utmost prudence and +moderation, who, had the times been better, might have won constitutional +liberties for his country, and appeased her civil strife. As it was, he +saved her from the Inquisition; his hand drew the edicts which aimed at +enforcing toleration on France; he guided the assembly of notables which +gathered at Fontainebleau, and induced them to attempt a compromise which +moderate Catholics and Calvinists might accept, and which might lessen +the power of the Guises. This assembly was followed by a meeting of the +States General at Orleans, at which the Prince de Conde and the King of +Navarre were seized by the Guises on a charge of having had to do with La +Renaudie's plot. It would have gone hard with them had not the sickly +King at this very time fallen ill and died (1560). + +This was a grievous blow to the Guises. Now, as in a moment, all was +shattered; Catherine de Medici rose at once to the command of affairs; +the new King, Charles IX., was only, ten years old, and her position as +Regent was assured. The Guises would gladly have ruled with her, but she +had no fancy for that; she and Chancellor de L'Hopital were not likely to +ally themselves with all that was severe and repressive. It must not be +forgotten that the best part of her policy was inspired by the Chancellor +de L'Hopital. + +Now it was that Mary Stuart, the Queen-dowager, was compelled to leave +France for Scotland; her departure clearly marks the fall of the Guises; +and it also showed Philip of Spain that it was no longer necessary for +him to refuse aid and counsel to the Guises; their claims were no longer +formidable to him on the larger sphere of European politics; no longer +could Mary Stuart dream of wearing the triple crown of Scotland, France, +and England. + +The tolerant language of L'Hopital at the States General of Orleans in +1561 satisfied neither side. The Huguenots were restless; the Bourbon +Princes tried to crush the Guises, in return for their own imprisonment +the year before; the Constable was offended by the encouragement shown to +the Huguenots; it was plain that new changes impended. Montmorency began +them by going over to the Guises; and the fatal triumvirate of Francois, +Duc de Guise, Montmorency, and St. Andre the marshal, was formed. We +find the King of Spain forthwith entering the field of French intrigues +and politics, as the support and stay of this triumvirate. Parties take +a simpler format once, one party of Catholics and another of Huguenots, +with the Queen-mother and the moderates left powerless between them. +These last, guided still by L'Hopital, once more convoked the States +General at Pontoise: the nobles and the Third Estate seemed to side +completely with the Queen and the moderates; a controversy between +Huguenots and Jesuits at Poissy only added to the discontent of the +Catholics, who were now joined by foolish Antoine, King of Navarre. The +edict of January, 1562, is the most remarkable of the attempts made by +the Queen-mother to satisfy the Huguenots; but party-passion was already +too strong for it to succeed; civil war had become inevitable. + +The period may be divided into four parts: (1) the wars before the +establishment of the League (1562-1570); (2) the period of the St. +Bartholomew (1570-1573); (3) the struggle of the new Politique party +against the Leaguers (1573-1559); (4) the efforts of Henri IV. to crush +the League and reduce the country to peace (1589-1595). The period can +also be divided by that series of agreements, or peaces, which break it +up into eight wars: + +1. The war of 1562, on the skirts of which Philip of Spain interfered on +one side, and Queen Elizabeth with the Calvinistic German Princes on the +other, showed at once that the Huguenots were by far the weaker party. +The English troops at Havre enabled them at first to command the lower +Seine up to Rouen; but the other party, after a long siege which cost +poor Antoine of Navarre his life, took that place, and relieved Paris of +anxiety. The Huguenots had also spread far and wide over the south and +west, occupying Orleans; the bridge of Orleans was their point of +junction between Poitou and Germany. While the strength of the Catholics +lay to the east, in Picardy, and at Paris, the Huguenot power was mostly +concentrated in the south and west of France. Conde, who commanded at +Orleans, supported by German allies, made an attempt on Paris, but +finding the capital too strong for him, turned to the west, intending to +join the English troops from Havre. Montmorency, however, caught him at +Dreux; and in the battle that ensued, the Marshal of France, Saint-Andre, +perished; Conde was captured by the Catholics, Montmorency by the +Huguenots. Coligny, the admiral, drew off his defeated troops with great +skill, and fell back to beyond the Loire; the Duc de Guise remained as +sole head of the Catholics. Pushing on his advantage, the Duke +immediately laid siege to Orleans, and there he fell by the hand of a +Huguenot assassin. Both parties had suffered so much that the Queen- +mother thought she might interpose with terms of peace; the Edict of +Amboise (March, 1563) closed the war, allowing the Calvinists freedom of +worship in the towns they held, and some other scanty privileges. A +three years' quiet followed, though all men suspected their neighbours, +and the high Catholic party tried hard to make Catherine sacrifice +L'Hopital and take sharp measures with the Huguenots. They on their side +were restless and suspicious, and it was felt that another war could not +be far off. Intrigues were incessant, all men thinking to make their +profit out of the weakness of France. The struggle between Calvinists +and Catholics in the Netherlands roused much feeling, though Catherine +refused to favour either party. She collected an army of her own; it was +rumoured that she intended to take the Huguenots by surprise and +annihilate them. In autumn, 1567, their patience gave way, and they +raised the standard of revolt, in harmony with the heroic Netherlanders. +Conde and the Chatillons beleaguered Paris from the north, and fought the +battle of St. Denis, in which the old Constable, Anne de Montmorency, was +killed. The Huguenots, however, were defeated and forced to withdraw, +Conde marching eastward to join the German troops now coming up to his +aid. No more serious fighting followed; the Peace of Longjumeau (March, +1568), closed the second war, leaving matters much as they were. The +aristocratic resistance against the Catholic sovereigns, against what is +often called the "Catholic Reaction," had proved itself hollow; in +Germany and the Netherlands, as well as in France, the Protestant cause +seemed to fail; it was not until the religious question became mixed up +with questions as to political rights and freedom, as in the Low +Countries, that a new spirit of hope began to spring up. + +The Peace of Longjumeau gave no security to the Huguenot nobles; they +felt that the assassin might catch them any day. An attempt to seize +Condo and Coligny failed, and served only to irritate their party; +Cardinal Chatillon escaped to England; Jeanne of Navarre and her young +son Henri took refuge at La Rochelle; L'Hopital was dismissed the Court. +The Queen-mother seemed to have thrown off her cloak of moderation, and +to be ready to relieve herself of the Huguenots by any means, fair or +foul. War accordingly could not fail to break out again before the end +of the year. Conde had never been so strong; with his friends in England +and the Low Countries, and the enthusiastic support of a great party of +nobles and religious adherents at home, his hopes rose; he even talked of +deposing the Valois and reigning in their stead. He lost his life, +however, early in 1569, at the battle of Jarnac. Coligny once more with +difficulty, as at Dreux, saved the broken remnants of the defeated +Huguenots. Conde's death, regarded at the time by the Huguenots as an +irreparable calamity, proved in the end to be no serious loss; for it +made room for the true head of the party, Henri of Navarre. No sooner +had Jeanne of Navarre heard of the mishap of Jarnac than she came into +the Huguenot camp and presented to the soldiers her young son Henri and +the young Prince de Conde, a mere child. Her gallant bearing and the +true soldier-spirit of Coligny, who shone most brightly in adversity, +restored their temper; they even won some small advantages. Before long, +however, the Duc d'Anjou, the King's youngest brother, caught and +punished them severely at Moncontour. Both parties thenceforward wore +themselves out with desultory warfare. In August, 1570, the Peace of St. +Germain-en-Laye closed the third war and ended the first period. + + +2. It was the most favourable Peace the Huguenots had won as yet; it +secured them, besides previous rights, four strongholds. The Catholics +were dissatisfied; they could not sympathise with the Queen-mother in her +alarm at the growing strength of Philip II., head of the Catholics in +Europe; they dreaded the existence and growing influence of a party now +beginning to receive a definite name, and honourable nickname, the +Politiques. These were that large body of French gentlemen who loved the +honour of their country rather than their religious party, and who, +though Catholics, were yet moderate and tolerant. A pair of marriages +now proposed by the Court amazed them still more. It was suggested that +the Duc d'Anjou should marry Queen Elizabeth of England, and Henri of +Navarre, Marguerite de Valois, the King's sister. Charles II. hoped thus +to be rid of his brother, whom he disliked, and to win powerful support +against Spain, by the one match, and by the other to bring the civil wars +to a close. The sketch of a far-reaching resistance to Philip II. was +drawn out; so convinced of his good faith was the prudent and sagacious +William of Orange, that, on the strength of these plans, he refused good +terms now offered him by Spain. The Duc d'Alencon, the remaining son of +Catherine, the brother who did not come to the throne, was deeply +interested in the plans for a war in the Netherlands; Anjou, who had +withdrawn from the scheme of marriage with Queen Elizabeth, was at this +moment a candidate for the throne of Poland; while negotiations +respecting it were going on, Marguerite de Valois was married to Henri of +Navarre, the worst of wives [?? D.W.] to a husband none too good. +Coligny, who had strongly opposed the candidature of Anjou for the throne +of Poland, was set on by an assassin, employed by the Queen-mother and +her favourite son, and badly wounded; the Huguenots were in utmost alarm, +filling the air with cries and menaces. Charles showed great concern for +his friend's recovery, and threatened vengeance on the assassins. What +was his astonishment to learn that those assassins were his mother and +brother! Catherine worked on his fears, and the plot for the great +massacre was combined in an instant. The very next day after the King's +consent was wrung from him, 24th August, 1572, the massacre of St. +Bartholomew's day took place. The murder of Coligny was completed; his +son-in-law Teligny perished; all the chief Huguenots were slain; the +slaughter spread to country towns; the Church and the civil power were at +one, and the victims, taken at unawares, could make no resistance. The +two Bourbons, Henri and the Prince de Conde, were spared; they bought +their lives by a sudden conversion to Catholicism. The chief guilt of +this great crime lies with Catherine de' Medici; for, though it is +certain that she did not plan it long before, assassination was a +recognised part of her way of dealing with Huguenots. + +A short war followed, a revolt of the southern cities rather than a war. +They made tenacious and heroic resistance; a large part of the royal +forces sympathised rather with them than with the League; and in July, +1573, the Edict of Boulogne granted them even more than they, had been +promised by the Peace of St. Germain. + + +3. We have reached the period of the "Wan of the League," as the four +later civil wars are often called. The last of the four is alone of any +real importance. + +Just as the Peace of La Rochelle was concluded, the Duc d'Anjou, having +been elected King of Poland, left France; it was not long before troubles +began again. The Duc d'Alencon was vexed by his mother's neglect; as +heir presumptive to the crown he thought he deserved better treatment, +and sought to give himself consideration by drawing towards the middle +party; Catherine seemed to be intriguing for the ruin of that party-- +nothing was safe while she was moving. The King had never held up his +head since the St. Bartholomew; it was seen that he now was dying, and +the Queen-mother took the opportunity of laying hands on the middle +party. She arrested Alencon, Montmorency, and Henri of Navarre, together +with some lesser chiefs; in the midst of it all Charles IX. died (1574), +in misery, leaving the ill-omened crown to Henri of Anjou, King of +Poland, his next brother, his mother's favourite, the worst of a bad +breed. At the same time the fifth civil war broke out, interesting +chiefly because it was during its continuance that the famous League was +actually formed. + +Henri III., when he heard of his brother's death, was only too eager to +slip away like a culprit from Poland, though he showed no alacrity in +returning to France, and dallied with the pleasures of Italy for months. +An attempt to draw him over to the side of the Politiques failed +completely; he attached himself on the contrary to the Guises, and +plunged into the grossest dissipation, while he posed himself before men +as a good and zealous Catholic. The Politiques and Huguenots therefore +made a compact in 1575, at Milhaud on the Tarn, and chose the Prince de +Conde as their head; Henri of Navarre escaped from Paris, threw off his +forced Catholicism, and joined them. Against them the strict Catholics +seemed powerless; the Queen-mother closed this war with the Peace of +Chastenoy (May, 1576), with terms unusually favourable for both +Politiques and Huguenots: for the latter, free worship throughout France, +except at Paris; for the chiefs of the former, great governments, for +Alencon a large central district, for Conde, Picardy, for Henri of +Navarre, Guienne. + +To resist all this the high Catholic party framed the League they had +long been meditating; it is said that the Cardinal de Lorraine had +sketched it years before, at the time of the later sittings of the +Council of Trent. Lesser compacts had already been made from time to +time; now it was proposed to form one great League, towards which all +should gravitate. The head of the League was Henri, Duc de Guise the +second, "Balafre," who had won that title in fighting against the German +reiters the year before, when they entered France under Condo. He +certainly hoped at this time to succeed to the throne of France, either +by deposing the corrupt and feeble Henri III., "as Pippin dealt with +Hilderik," or by seizing the throne, when the King's debaucheries should +have brought him to the grave. The Catholics of the more advanced type, +and specially the Jesuits, now in the first flush of credit and success, +supported him warmly. The headquarters of the movement were in Picardy; +its first object, opposition to the establishment of Conde as governor of +that province. The League was also very popular with the common folk, +especially in the towns of the north. It soon found that Paris was its +natural centre; thence it spread swiftly across the whole natural France; +it was warmly supported by Philip of Spain. The States General, convoked +at Blois in 1576, could bring no rest to France; opinion was just as much +divided there as in the country; and the year 1577 saw another petty war, +counted as the sixth, which was closed by the Peace of Bergerac, another +ineffectual truce which settled nothing. It was a peace made with the +Politiques and Huguenots by the Court; it is significant of the new state +of affairs that the League openly refused to be bound by it, and +continued a harassing, objectless warfare. The Duc d'Anjou (he had taken +that title on his brother Henri's accession to the throne) in 1578 +deserted the Court party, towards which his mother had drawn him, and +made friends with the Calvinists in the Netherlands. The southern +provinces named him "Defender of their liberties;" they had hopes he +might wed Elizabeth of England; they quite mistook their man. In 1579 +"the Gallants' War" broke out; the Leaguers had it all their own way; but +Henri III., not too friendly to them, and urged by his brother Anjou, to +whom had been offered sovereignty over the seven united provinces in +1580, offered the insurgents easy terms, and the Treaty of Fleix closed +the seventh war. Anjou in the Netherlands could but show his weakness; +nothing went well with him; and at last, having utterly wearied out his +friends, he fled, after the failure of his attempt to secure Antwerp, +into France. There he fell ill of consumption and died in 1584. + +This changed at once the complexion of the succession question. +Hitherto, though no children seemed likely to be born to him, Henri III. +was young and might live long, and his brother was there as his heir. +Now, Henri III. was the last Prince of the Valois, and Henri of Navarre +in hereditary succession was heir presumptive to the throne, unless the +Salic law were to be set aside. The fourth son of Saint Louis, Robert, +Comte de Clermont, who married Beatrix, heiress of Bourbon, was the +founder of the House of Bourbon. Of this family the two elder branches +had died out: John, who had been a central figure in the War of the +Public Weal, in 1488; Peter, husband of Anne of France, in 1503; neither +of them leaving heirs male. Of the younger branch Francois died in 1525, +and the famous Constable de Bourbon in 1527. This left as the only +representatives of the family, the Comtes de La Marche; of these the +elder had died out in 1438, and the junior alone survived in the Comtes +de Vendome. The head of this branch, Charles, was made Duc de Vendome by +Francois I. in 1515; he was father of Antoine, Duc de Vendome, who, by +marrying the heroic Jeanne d'Albret, became King of Navarre, and of +Louis, who founded the House of Conde; lastly, Antoine was the father of +Henri IV. He was, therefore, a very distant cousin to Henri III; the +Houses of Capet, of Alencon, of Orleans, of Angouleme, of Maine, and of +Burgundy, as well as the elder Bourbons, had to fall extinct before Henri +of Navarre could become heir to the crown. All this, however, had now +happened; and the Huguenots greatly rejoiced in the prospect of a +Calvinist King. The Politique party showed no ill-will towards him; both +they and the Court party declared that if he would become once more a +Catholic they would rally to him; the Guises and the League were +naturally all the more firmly set against him; and Henri of Navarre saw +that he could not as yet safely endanger his influence with the +Huguenots, while his conversion would not disarm the hostility of the +League. They had before, this put forward as heir to the throne Henri's +uncle, the wretched old Cardinal de Bourbon, who had all the faults and +none of the good qualities of his brother Antoine. Under cover of his +name the Duc de Guise hoped to secure the succession for himself; he also +sold himself and his party to Philip of Spain, who was now in fullest +expectation of a final triumph over his foes. He had assassinated +William the Silent; any day Elizabeth or Henri of Navarre might be found +murdered; the domination of Spain over Europe seemed almost secured. The +pact of Joinville, signed between Philip, Guise, and Mayenne, gives us +the measure of the aims of the high Catholic party. Paris warmly sided +with them; the new development of the League, the "Sixteen of Paris," one +representative for each of the districts of the capital, formed a +vigorous organisation and called for the King's deposition; they invited +Henri, Duc de Guise, to Paris. Soon after this Henri III. humbled +himself, and signed the Treaty of Nemours (1585) with the Leaguers. He +hereby became nominal head of the League and its real slave. + +The eighth war, the "War of the Three Henries," that is, of Henri III. +and Henri de Guise against Henri of Navarre, now broke out. The Pope +made his voice heard; Sixtus excommunicated the Bourbons, Henri and +Conde, and blessed the Leaguers. + +For the first time there was some real life in one of these civil ware, +for Henri of Navarre rose nobly to the level of his troubles. At first +the balance of successes was somewhat in favour of the Leaguers; the +political atmosphere grew even more threatening, and terrible things, +like lightning flashes, gleamed out now and again. Such, for example, +was the execution of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, in 1586. It was known +that Philip II. was preparing to crush England. Elizabeth did what she +could to support Henri of Navarre; he had the good fortune to win the +battle of Contras, in which the Duc de Joyeuse, one of the favourites of +Henri III., was defeated and killed. The Duc de Guise, on the other +hand, was too strong for the Germans, who had marched into France to join +the Huguenots, and defeated them at Vimroy and Auneau, after which he +marched in triumph to Paris, in spite of the orders and opposition of. +the King, who, finding himself powerless, withdrew to Chartres. Once +more Henri III. was obliged to accept such terms as the Leaguers chose to +impose; and with rage in his heart he signed the "Edict of Union" (1588), +in which he named the Duc de Guise lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and +declared that no heretic could succeed to the throne. Unable to endure +the humiliation, Henri III. that same winter, assassinated the Duc and +the Cardinal de Guise, and seized many leaders of the League, though he +missed the Duc de Mayenne. This scandalous murder of the "King of +Paris," as the capital fondly called the Duke, brought the wretched King +no solace or power. His mother did not live to see the end of her son; +she died in this the darkest period of his career, and must have been +aware that her cunning and her immoral life had brought nothing but +misery to herself and all her race. The power of the League party seemed +as great as ever; the Duc de Mayenne entered Paris, and declared open war +on Henri III., who, after some hesitation, threw himself into the hands +of his cousin Henri of Navarre in the spring of 1589. The old Politique +party now rallied to the King; the Huguenots were stanch for their old +leader; things looked less dark for them since the destruction of the +Spanish Armada in the previous summer. The Swiss, aroused by the threats +of the Duke of Savoy at Geneva, joined the Germans, who once more entered +northeastern France; the leaguers were unable to make head either against +them or against the armies of the two Kings; they fell back on Paris, and +the allies hemmed them in. The defence of the capital was but languid; +the populace missed their idol, the Duc de Guise, and the moderate party, +never extinguished, recovered strength. All looked as if the royalists +would soon reduce the last stronghold of the League, when Henri III. was +suddenly slain by the dagger of a fanatical half-wined priest. + +The King had only time to commend Henri of Navarre to his courtiers as +his heir, and to exhort him to become a Catholic, before he closed his +eyes, and ended the long roll of his vices and crimes. And thus in crime +and shame the House of Valois went down. For a few years, the throne +remained practically vacant: the heroism of Henri of Navarre, the loss of +strength in the Catholic powers, the want of a vigorous head to the +League,--these things all sustained the Bourbon in his arduous struggle; +the middle party grew in strength daily, and when once Henri had allowed +himself to be converted, he became the national sovereign, the national +favourite, and the high Catholics fell to the fatal position of an +unpatriotic faction depending on the arm of the foreigner. + + +4. The civil wars were not over, for the heat of party raged as yet +unslaked; the Politiques could not all at once adopt a Huguenot King, the +League party had pledged itself to resist the heretic, and Henri at first +had little more than the Huguenots at his back. There were also +formidable claimants for the throne. Charles II. Duc de Lorraine, who +had married Claude, younger daughter of Henri IL, and who was therefore +brother-in-law to Henri III., set up a vague claim; the King of Spain, +Philip II., thought that the Salic law had prevailed long enough in +France, and that his own wife, the elder daughter of Henri III. +had the best claim to the throne; the Guises, though their head was gone, +still hoping for the crown, proclaimed their sham-king, the Cardinal de +Bourbon, as Charles X., and intrigued behind the shadow of his name. The +Duc de Mayenne, their present chief, was the most formidable of Henri's +opponents; his party called for a convocation of States General, which +should choose a King to succeed, or to replace, their feeble Charles X. +During this struggle the high Catholic party, inspired by Jesuit advice, +stood forward as the admirers of constitutional principles; they called +on the nation to decide the question as to the succession; their Jesuit +friends wrote books on the sovereignty of the people. They summoned up +troops from every side; the Duc de Lorraine sent his son to resist Henri +and support his own claim; the King of Spain sent a body of men; the +League princes brought what force they could. Henri of Navarre at the +same moment found himself weakened by the silent withdrawal from his camp +of the army of Henri III.; the Politique nobles did not care at first to +throw in their lot with the Huguenot chieftain; they offered to confer on +Henri the post of commander-in-chief, and to reserve the question as to +the succession; they let him know that they recognised his hereditary +rights, and were hindered only by his heretical opinions; if he would but +be converted they were his. Henri temporised; his true strength, for the +time, lay in his Huguenot followers, rugged and faithful fighting men, +whose belief was the motive power of their allegiance and of their +courage. If he joined the Politiques at their price, the price of +declaring himself Catholic, the Huguenots would be offended if not +alienated. So he neither absolutely refused nor said yes; and the chief +Catholic nobles in the main stood aloof, watching the struggle between +Huguenot and Leaguer, as it worked out its course. + +Henri, thus weakened, abandoned the siege of Paris, and fell back; with +the bulk of his forces he marched into Normandy, so as to be within reach +of English succour; a considerable army went into Champagne, to be ready +to join any Swiss or German help that might come. These were the great +days in the life of Henri of Navarre. Henri showed himself a hero, who +strove for a great cause--the cause of European freedom--as well as for +his own crown. + +The Duc de Mayenne followed the Huguenots down into the west, and found +Henri awaiting him in a strong position at Arques, near Dieppe; here at +bay, the "Bearnais" inflicted a heavy blow on his assailants; Mayenne +fell back into Picardy; the Prince of Lorraine drew off altogether; and +Henri marched triumphantly back to Paris, ravaged the suburbs and then +withdrew to Tours, where he was recognised as King by the Parliament. +His campaign of 1589 had been most successful; he had defeated the League +in a great battle, thanks to his skilful use of his position at Arques, +and the gallantry of his troops, which more than counterbalanced the +great disparity in numbers. He had seen dissension break out among his +enemies; even the Pope, Sixtus, had shown him some favour, and the +Politique nobles were certainly not going against him. Early in 1590 +Henri had secured Anjou, Maine, and Normandy, and in March defeated +Mayenne, in a great pitched battle at Ivry, not far from Dreux. The +Leaguers fell back in consternation to Paris. Henri reduced all the +country round the capital, and sat down before it for a stubborn siege. +The Duke of Parma had at that time his hands full in the Low Countries; +young Prince Maurice was beginning to show his great abilities as a +soldier, and had got possession of Breda; all, however, had to be +suspended by the Spaniards on that side, rather than let Henri of Navarre +take Paris. Parma with great skill relieved the capital without striking +a blow, and the campaign of 1590 ended in a failure for Henri. The +success of Parma, however, made Frenchmen feel that Henri's was the +national cause, and that the League flourished only by interference of +the foreigner. Were the King of Navarre but a Catholic, he should be a +King of France of whom they might all be proud. This feeling was +strengthened by the death of the old Cardinal de Bourbon, which reopened +at once the succession question, and compelled Philip of Spain to show +his hand. He now claimed the throne for his daughter Elisabeth, as +eldest daughter of the eldest daughter of Henri II. All the neighbours +of France claimed something; Frenchmen felt that it was either Henri IV. +or dismemberment. The "Bearnais" grew in men's minds to be the champion +of the Salic law, of the hereditary principle of royalty against feudal +weakness, of unity against dismemberment, of the nation against the +foreigner. + +The middle party, the Politiques of Europe,--the English, that is, and +the Germans,--sent help to Henri, by means of which he was able to hold +his own in the northwest and southwest throughout 1591. Late in the year +the violence of the Sixteen of Paris drew on them severe punishment from +the Duc de Mayenne; and consequently the Duke ceased to be the recognised +head of the League, which now looked entirely to Philip II. and Parma, +while Paris ceased to be its headquarters; and more moderate counsels +having taken the place of its fierce fanaticism, the capital came under +the authority of the lawyers and citizens, instead of the priesthood and +the bloodthirsty mob. Henri, meanwhile, who was closely beleaguering +Rouen, was again outgeneralled by Parma, and had to raise the siege. +Parma, following him westward, was wounded at Caudebec; and though he +carried his army triumphantly back to the Netherlands, his career was +ended by this trifling wound. He did no more, and died in 1592. + +In 1593, Mayenne, having sold his own claims to Philip of Spain, the +opposition to Henri looked more solid and dangerous than ever; he +therefore thought the time was come for the great step which should rally +to him all the moderate Catholics. After a decent period of negotiation +and conferences, he declared himself convinced, and heard mass at St. +Denis. The conversion had immediate effect; it took the heart out of the +opposition; city after city came in; the longing for peace was strong in +every breast, and the conversion seemed to remove the last obstacle. The +Huguenots, little as they liked it, could not oppose the step, and hoped +to profit by their champion's improved position. Their ablest man, +Sully, had even advised Henri to make the plunge. In 1594, Paris opened +her gates to Henri, who had been solemnly crowned, just before, at +Chartres. He was welcomed with immense enthusiasm, and from that day +onwards has ever been the favourite hero of the capital. By 1595 only +one foe remained,--the Spanish Court. The League was now completely +broken up; the Parliament of Paris gladly aided the King to expel the +Jesuits from France. In November, 1595, Henri declared war against +Spain, for anything was better than the existing state of things, in +which Philip's hand secretly supported all opposition: The war in 1596 +was far from being successful for Henri; he was comforted, however, by +receiving at last the papal absolution, which swept away the last +scruples of France. + +By rewards and kindliness,--for Henri was always willing to give and had +a pleasant word for all, most of the reluctant nobles, headed by the Duc +de Mayenne himself, came in in the course of 1596. Still the war pressed +very heavily, and early in 1597 the capture of Amiens by the Spaniards +alarmed Paris, and roused the King to fresh energies. With help of Sully +(who had not yet received the title by which he is known in history) +Henri recovered Amiens, and checked the Spanish advance. It was noticed +that while the old Leaguers came very heartily to the King's help, the +Huguenots hung back in a discontented and suspicious spirit. After the +fall of Amiens the war languished; the Pope offered to mediate, and Henri +had time to breathe. He felt that his old comrades, the offended +Huguenots, had good cause for complaint; and in April, 1598, he issued +the famous Edict of Nantes, which secured their position for nearly a +century. They got toleration for their opinions; might worship openly in +all places, with the exception of a few towns in which the League had +been strong; were qualified to hold office in financial posts and in the +law; had a Protestant chamber in the Parliaments. + +Immediately after the publication of the Edict of Nantes, the Treaty of +Vervins was signed. Though Henri by it broke faith with Queen Elizabeth, +he secured an honourable peace for his country, an undisputed kingship +for himself. It was the last act of Philip II., the confession that his +great schemes were unfulfilled, his policy a failure. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +From faith to action the bridge is short +Much is forgiven to a king +Parliament aided the King to expel the Jesuits from France +The record of the war is as the smoke of a furnace + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Memoirs of Marguerite de Navarre, v3 +(A History of the House of Valois, author unknown) + diff --git a/old/cm03b10.zip b/old/cm03b10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a84b693 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cm03b10.zip |