Chapter IX: The Reformation and the CIVIL Wars in France (3)

In dealing with the justification of Henry’s ‘conversion’ it must always be remembered that, although by no means a disbeliever, he had no strong convictions as to the relative merits of Catholicism and Calvinism, and was a man on whom religious scruples sat somewhat lightly. To him, therefore, the question would necessarily be one to be decided on the grounds of political expediency. But some may be disposed to think that, even if Henry had been convinced of the superiority of the Huguenot faith, it would still have been his duty to guide his policy by the same considerations. Any one in his position, it has been said, would have been justified in accepting Catholicism as the State religion if he had good grounds for believing: first, that there was no other way of giving peace to his country; and secondly, that he could, while officially recognising Catholicism, secure complete and lasting toleration for the Huguenots. Of the first, it was not difficult to convince himself. He had attempted to win France by arms and had failed. We must remember also that the Huguenots, after all, represented but a small minority of the nation, and that a large number of the Catholics preferred the Duke of Guise with his Spanish wife to a heretic King. Nor is it easy to believe that, if Henry had been willing to efface himself, any settlement which the Huguenots would have accepted could have been arrived at. On the second point, opinions will probably always differ. The danger was that in accepting Catholicism, he would revive the idea as to the intimate connection between Church and State in France which led men to look on heresy as treason. We know that the Edict of Nantes did not last; but whether the Revocation was inevitable, and, if so, whether Henry ought to have foreseen it, may well be questioned.

| Henry secures Rouen, March 17; and enters Paris,
| March 21, 1594.

The King of Navarre was thus at last acknowledged King of France. By his ‘conversion’ he won to his side all Catholics except the most fanatical of the Leaguers, and those who, like the Dukes of Mayenne and of Mercœur, were intent on their personal interests. While, therefore, Henry restrained as far as possible all hostile operations, he steadily pursued a policy which he had long adopted of buying over those whose opposition was still to be dreaded. The governors of provinces were confirmed in their governorships, or offered pensions; the smaller nobility were tempted by subordinate offices and money; the cities were promised exemption from extraordinary taxation and freedom from Huguenot worship within their walls. The wisdom, and indeed the necessity, of this course have been disputed, and certainly the evil results of it--the independence of the nobility, the venality of the government, the serious straining of the finances--long outlived the King himself. Yet at least it must be confessed that the policy succeeded. On March 17, Rouen surrendered, and Henry secured all Normandy. Four days later Brissac, just appointed Governor of Paris by the Duke of Mayenne, accepted the offers of Henry, brought over the Parisian magistrates, and opened the gates. The Duke himself had already left, the Spanish troops were forced to evacuate the city with some sixty of the more prominent Leaguers, and Henry was at last master of his capital. ‘That which is Cæsar’s has been given unto Cæsar,’ said one to the King. ‘Given?’ said he, looking at Brissac; ‘No, sold, and for a goodly price.’

| Dukes of Lorraine and Guise come to terms.

| Jesuits expelled. Dec. 1594. War declared against
| Spain. Jan. 17, 1595.

Henry, anxious to secure his eastern frontier which was always threatened from the Netherlands, next laid siege to Laon, which surrendered on the 2nd of August, 1594. A fortnight later Amiens, and other towns of Picardy, followed its example. The spring of the year 1595 was marked by a far more important event. Henry succeeded in conciliating the Duke of Lorraine and the young Duke of Guise. The former restored the cities of Toul and Verdun; the latter surrendered his governorship of Champagne in exchange for that of Provence, where he shortly proved his loyalty by driving out Épernon, one of Henry III.’s ‘Mignons,’ who, after joining Henry IV., had played him false. The only important nobles who still held out were the Dukes of Mayenne and of Mercœur, both members of the House of Guise, and the Duke of Nemours. The two first were loth to abandon the ambitions of their family, and hoped, by the aid of Spain, to turn their governorships of Burgundy and of Brittany into hereditary principalities. The Duke of Nemours, with the support of Savoy, threatened the country round Lyons. Henry, therefore, after some futile negotiations with Spain, in which the idea of Henry’s marrying the Infanta was entertained, determined to declare open war against Spain. An open war, he held, was far preferable to a continuation of unavowed hostilities; the national enthusiasm against the foreigner might be aroused; all those who continued to resist would incur the charge of treachery to their country; while the English and the Dutch promised their assistance. The war was preceded by the expulsion of the Jesuits. Introduced into France by Henry II. they had made many enemies; the ‘Parlement’ objected to their extravagant assertions of papal supremacy, and to their attacks on the prerogatives of the crown; the Bishops resented their claim to be free from episcopal authority; the older orders grudged them their popularity, the University their educational success. Although it does not appear that the Jesuits had taken any prominent part in the organisation of the League, and though they were, as a matter of fact, at this time out of favour in Spain, where they opposed the tyranny of the Inquisition, they were nevertheless denounced as the tools of Philip. An attempted assassination of Henry IV. by one of their pupils, though not apparently instigated by them, brought matters to a crisis. They were convicted by the ‘Parlement’ of attempting to subvert the laws of Church and State, of instigating to rebellion and assassination, and were expelled the kingdom (December 29, 1594).

| The Duke of Mayenne driven from Burgundy.

| Fuentes takes Doullens, July 1595; and besieges
| Cambray.

| The Duke of Mayenne submits. Jan. 1596.

War was declared against Spain on January 17, 1595. The young Marshal Biron, who had been intrusted with the governorship of Burgundy, succeeded in driving Mayenne from that province. The King, on marching to support him against the attack of a Spanish force under Don Fernan de Velasco, the Constable of Castile, was nearly surprised at Fontaine-Française. He, however, saved himself by his intrepidity; and the Spanish general retreated, much to the disgust of Mayenne. Henry now entered Franche-Comté; but the Swiss who were guarantors of the neutrality of the country, remonstrated, and the King, unwilling to incur their hostility, retreated. His presence was indeed needed elsewhere. The Duke of Longueville, after a successful campaign in Artois, had died in April; and Turenne, the Duke of Bouillon, had suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Spaniards under Fuentes, in an attempt to raise the siege of Doullens (July 24, 1595). Doullens fell, and Fuentes laid siege to Cambray, which had been in French hands since the expedition of the Duke of Anjou in 1581 (cf. p. 361). The King, too late to save Cambray, which capitulated in October, besieged La Fère, a fortress on the Oise, which the League had surrendered to the Spaniards, and the siege dragged on through the winter. The success of Henry in the field had not been brilliant. He was more successful in diplomacy. In September, 1595, Clement VIII. at last consented to grant him absolution, and in the following January, the Duke of Mayenne finally made his peace. The terms he received were too high. His debts, which were enormous, were paid; he was made Governor of the Isle de France, and received three fortresses as places of security. Épernon, who soon followed the example of Mayenne, was equally well rewarded. Truly Henry was teaching his people that rebellion, if prolonged, was the way to royal favour.

There now remained no other important noble in arms except the Duke of Mercœur; and the winning of Marseilles by the young Duke of Guise, which also took place in January, caused Henry to declare ‘that God had indeed pity for France.’ Yet the outlook was not very promising. The financial straits were severe: Elizabeth would not, and the Dutch could not, render any efficient help; while the Huguenots were becoming very troublesome. They were scandalised at the desire of Henry IV. to get a divorce from his faithless and hated wife, Margaret of Valois, that he might marry his mistress, Gabrielle d’Estrées; they were outraged by the delay of the King in dealing with their grievances, while the rebellious Leaguers were receiving all that they could desire, and they even talked of enforcing their claims by arms.

| Archduke Albert takes Calais. April, 1596.

| Sully’s financial reforms.

In April, 1596, the new Governor of the Netherlands, the Cardinal Archduke Albert, invaded France and inflicted a serious blow on the prestige of Henry’s army by taking Calais. The town might have been saved if Elizabeth had not demanded its possession as a price of her assistance, and higgled till it was too late. In the ensuing month, Henry, in a measure, balanced this serious loss by taking La Fère, and by driving the Archduke across the frontier; but he was quite unable to dislodge the Spanish garrisons from Calais or from Doullens. If the war was to be continued with vigour, money at least must be found; and to this object the Baron de Rosny (Sully), who had lately been appointed ‘surintendant’ of the finances, now turned his attention. New offices were created, which were sold to the highest bidder. Loans were extorted from the rich. Those who had filled their pockets by frauds on the exchequer were forced to disgorge part of their ill-gotten gains, and some attempt was made to put a stop to such corruption in the future. The tax on salt was raised, and in the autumn an Assembly of Notables granted the King the ‘Pancarte,’ or duty of 5 per cent. on all goods offered for sale.[83]

| Porto Carrero seizes Amiens. Mar. 11, 1597.

| Amiens recovered. Sept. 19, 1597.

| Philip agrees to a truce.

| The Duc de Mercœur submits. Mar. 20, 1598.

Yet what Henry gained with one hand he was, with his usual recklessness, ready to spend with the other. Much of the money thus obtained was being thrown away on expensive festivities in Paris, when the news suddenly arrived that Porto Carrero, the Governor of Doullens, had seized the important town of Amiens by a clever _coup de main_ (March 11, 1597). ‘Enough,’ said Henry, ‘of playing the King of France; ’tis time to be the King of Navarre again.’ Biron was despatched to besiege Amiens forthwith. In June, the King followed himself with an army, in which the presence of Montmorenci, Mayenne, and Épernon showed that the old factions had been well-nigh extinguished. The English and the Dutch also sent reinforcements, in pursuance of a treaty of alliance which they had made in the previous year (August-October, 1596). On September 3, Porto Carrero died. The Archduke Albert, unable to raise supplies even on credit, owing to Philip’s late act of repudiation, could not advance to the relief of the garrison till September 12; then, finding himself in the presence of a superior force, he retreated ‘like a priest,’ and on September 19, 1597, Amiens was at last recovered. Henry now determined to take advantage of his success to negotiate with Spain. Philip did not refuse his offer. Tortured by disease, knowing that his end was approaching, that Spain could no longer bear the strain of war, and that his feeble son was not likely to succeed where he had failed, he was anxious to leave his country at peace. He accordingly agreed to a truce, and to hold a conference at Vervins in the following January for finally settling the terms of peace. The affairs of Brittany Henry was determined to settle without any foreign interference; and this he succeeded in doing without drawing the sword. The Bretons, despairing of successful resistance now that the aid of Spain was withdrawn, deserted the Duke of Mercœur, who was forced to come to terms at Angers (March 20). He surrendered the governorship of Brittany, with the hand of his daughter, to Cæsar, the illegitimate son of the King by Gabrielle d’Estrées, and received a pension in return. Thus at last all resistance had ended, and France was once more united.

| The Edict of Nantes. April 15, 1598.

The King was now in a position to attend to the grievances of the Huguenots. On entering Paris he had republished the Edict of 1576, with the amendments added thereto by the treaties of Bergerac and Fleix. Since he could no longer be their Protector, nor allow any other to hold that position, he had also authorised the Huguenots to organise themselves into a federative system for defence, and ten provinces had been formed, each with its elected assembly and a General Council of ten nominated by the assemblies. But the Huguenots were not satisfied; they complained that these concessions were not sufficient, and that they were often violated. All members of the League, whether noble or town, who came to terms were allowed to forbid the exercise of the Protestant religion within their jurisdiction, and what security had the Huguenots that one who could so lightly change his own religion would care or dare to protect that of others? They therefore had demanded more formal ratification of the privileges already granted them, an extension of the system of ‘Chambres mi-parties’ to all the ‘Parlements’ of France, and admission to all offices. The King, in spite of the grave discontent which at times threatened to break out in open war, had hitherto refused to satisfy their demands; until the Catholics were completely reconciled such a policy might be dangerous, and certainly would be futile, since Henry was not strong enough to enforce his promises. Now, however, that he was really master of France, he had neither the excuse nor the wish to delay any longer. Negotiations had, indeed, been going on for some time, and finally led to the Edict of Nantes, which was published on April 15, 1598. The clauses of this famous Edict followed closely on the lines of the Treaty of Bergerac of 1577. The Huguenots were permitted to hold divine service in all towns specified by that treaty, or in which it had been held in 1596 and 1597; and besides this, in one town in each bailiwick and in the fiefs of Protestant nobles. In these privileged towns they were also allowed to found colleges and schools, and to print books. Paris, however, as before, with a circuit of five leagues, was especially exempted till 1606, when the King allowed a temple to be built at Charenton, five miles distant. Huguenot ministers were to be exempt from military service, and the King promised to contribute an annual sum for their support; while the Protestants, on their part, were to pay tithes. In the ‘Parlements’ of Paris, Rouen, and Rennes, special ‘Chambres de l’Édit’--one of the judges of which was to be a Protestant--were to be established to try cases in which Huguenots were concerned; while three ‘Chambres mi-parties’ at Castres, Bordeaux, and Gap were to exercise a similar jurisdiction in the south. Finally, the Huguenots were to be allowed to hold synods, to have admission to all colleges and schools; all offices were to be open to them, and they were to suffer in no way for their religion. They were to hold the eight cities they possessed for eight years, but to allow the Catholic worship to continue there. Considering that the Huguenots did not number more than one-twelfth of the population of France, the terms they thus obtained were as favourable as they could expect, and all that was perhaps possible in the existing condition of France.

But the principle on which the Edict was based was radically faulty. It can scarcely be called an Edict of general toleration, for no other religion but that of Calvinism was allowed. Moreover, the concession of the privilege of worship to individual nobles, and to congregations in special towns, tended to accentuate the independence and isolation of the Huguenots, and to perpetuate the centrifugal tendencies, both of feudalism and of federative republicanism, which the wars of religion had intensified, and which were yet to give trouble to France. As long as there was a King on the throne willing and able to enforce the Edict, the compromise continued fairly satisfactory. But after he was gone, the chances that the Edict would be permanent day by day became less. The Huguenots, partly in self-defence, partly in pursuance of political aims which the Edict had fostered, attempted to form those towns which had been granted them into a semi-independent federation; and when, to check this, Richelieu deprived them of these pledges for the fulfilment of the Edict, he left them to fall defenceless before the tyranny and bigotry of Louis XIV.

| Peace of Vervins. May 2, 1598.

While Henry was thus removing the last traces of opposition in France, the negotiations with Spain had been going on; and, on May 2, the Peace of Vervins was signed. Spain evacuated all the conquests she had made in France during the last war with the exception of Cambray; Henry, on his part, restoring the county of Charolais. The Duke of Savoy came to terms at the same time; he surrendered Berre, the only place he held in Provence; while the question as to the Marquisate of Saluces, which he had seized in 1588, was referred to the arbitration of the Pope.[84] Neither the Dutch nor the English were included in the Peace. The Dutch refused to enter into any treaty which did not recognise their independence, while Elizabeth was not unwilling to see the war continue between France and Spain. She had even attempted to make capital out of the negotiations, going so far as to suggest to Philip that he should cede Calais in exchange for Brille and Flushing, which she still held. Henry accordingly contented himself with securing the right of his allies to become parties to the treaty within six months.

Conclusion.

| Condition of Europe at the Peace of Vervins.

| Decline of Spain.

The Treaty of Vervins scarcely made any alteration in the political geography of Europe. Its importance lies rather in the changed conditions which accompanied it, and followed it. A few months after the signing of that treaty, Philip II. died (September 12, 1598) in his seventy-second year, at the Escurial--that magnificent though somewhat strange mixture of ‘a palace, a monastery, and a tomb,’ which is the chief architectural monument of his reign. Had Philip been a wiser man, he might have retained the obedience of the Netherlands, and profited by their industry and their colonies. He might have developed the resources and the constitutional liberties of his country, and enriched her by commerce with America. He might have turned her arms against the Turk, made himself master of the Mediterranean, and left Spain consolidated and prosperous. Intent, however, on more magnificent schemes, he had failed disastrously. His attempt to lead the Catholic reaction, and to re-establish the unity of the Church on the basis of Spanish supremacy, had ended in disaster. The defeat of the Armada had saved England from both Spain and Rome. The United Provinces had virtually won their religious and political freedom, and Henry IV. had bowed the Spaniard from his doors. Meanwhile Spain, exhausted by the constant drain which the vast attempts involved, and ruined by the disastrous policy pursued at home (cf. ch. vii.), was fast declining. After Philip’s death her royal race degenerated rapidly; and with a shrinking population, paralysed industries, and attenuated resources, she was forced to step aside and leave the struggle for supremacy to others.

| Successes of the Catholic Reaction.

And yet the Catholic reaction, of which Philip had been the leading spirit, had not been without its successes. If England, the United Netherlands, and the Scandinavian kingdoms had decisively broken away from Rome, Protestantism had been completely crushed out in Spain and in Italy, and in 1587, Catholicism was finally restored in Poland by Sigismund. In France, if the Huguenots had secured toleration, that toleration was not to last; and Catholicism had not only captured the King, but had again been recognised as the religion of the State. In Germany, too, the advance of Protestantism had, since the middle of the century, been arrested. The Jesuits had by this time made their influence felt, not only by their missionary and educational work among the people, but also on the policy of the Princes. In Bavaria, Albert III. (1550-1579) drove out the Protestants, and made his Duchy a stronghold of Catholicism. In 1576, Rudolf II. succeeded his father, Maximilian II., in the most important of the Austrian dominions,[85] and was elected Emperor. Maximilian had been half-inclined towards Lutheranism. Rudolf, educated under the influence of his mother, the daughter of Charles V., and subsequently at the Spanish Court, was strongly Catholic. He dismissed the Protestant preachers from Vienna, and supported a Catholic policy in the Empire. The advance of Catholicism was also favoured by the dissensions between the Lutherans and the Calvinists, who were respectively headed by the Electors of Saxony and of the Palatinate. Under these circumstances, quarrels over the controverted clauses of the Peace of Augsburg were inevitable (cf. pp. 248-9). The Catholics questioned the right of the Bishop of Magdeburg to a seat in the Diet, and, in 1581, had driven Gebhard Truchsess from his Electoral See of Cologne, because these two prelates had embraced Protestantism.

| Disorganised condition of Germany.

Day by day the relations between the adherents of the two creeds became more strained. Already the Thirty Years’ War was looming in the distance--a war in which Protestantism was indeed to hold her own, but at the price of the destruction of German nationality and unity, almost of German independence, and of the crippling of national prosperity and intellectual growth for more than a century.

| Condition of France.

| Revival of the Royal authority.

France, it is true, had suffered severely from her civil war of thirty-six years. Trade and industry had been ruined, and her finances heavily strained. The venality of her administrative system had been increased. The Estates-General and the ‘Parlements,’ the representatives of constitutional life, had been discredited; the former by the extreme views it had at times adopted, both by their subservience to the League. The power and self-importance of the nobles had been increased during the civil wars, and by the system adopted by Henry IV. of buying off their opposition. The desire for federative republicanism had grown with the growth of Calvinism. All these things had been the results of the religious wars. Yet after all, it was the royal power and prestige which in the end had benefited most from the internal discords. It was Henry who had given his country peace at last, and thereby earned the gratitude of his people; he it was who chiefly gained by the discredit into which the organs of constitutional life had fallen, and by the divisions and dissensions of his subjects. The nobles, indeed, were dangerous, but Henry IV. was successful in defeating their intrigues. His able, though self-sufficient and egotistical minister, Sully, reorganised the finances, and did something to check the venality and corruption which existed. The marvellous recuperative powers of the country came to his assistance; and France under the clever, though somewhat cynical, rule of her great King became once more a first-rate Power. Had Henry lived longer, or had he been succeeded by a capable son, the Thirty Years’ War would probably not have occurred, or would have been ended sooner. The House of Hapsburg might have been humbled to the dust, and France might have established a dangerous supremacy in Europe. The assassination of Henry IV. in 1610 prevented this; France, on his death, became the victim of a weak minority, and a troubled regency; and Europe was not threatened with a French supremacy until the reign of Louis XIV.

FOOTNOTES:

[80] Probably a corruption of the German word ‘Eidgenossen’
(confederates), first applied to the Protestant party in Geneva.

[81] Cf. Appendix I. for meaning of this.

[82] Henry held Lower Navarre and the Principality of Béarn in
his own right, and, as fiefs, the Duchies of Vendôme, Beaumont,
and Albret; the Counties of Bigorre, Armagnac, Rouergue,
Perigord, and Marle; the Viscounties of Limoges, and other
lordships. See Map of France.

[83] While Sully had been doing something to replenish the
exchequer of King Henry, his antagonist, Philip, attempted a more
summary method. On November 20, 1596, he publicly revoked all
assignments, or mortgages by which the taxes on the royal domain
had been pledged for money advanced to him. The pretext for this
wholesale repudiation was that his exertions for Christianity had
reduced him to beggary, while the money-lenders had been growing
rich at his expense. The deed, however, produced a panic. The
chief merchants and bankers suspended payment, and the credit of
Spain received a shock from which it did not easily recover.

[84] The Marquisate of Saluzzo in Piedmont had been ceded to
France by the Treaty of Cateau Cambrésis, cf. p. 257. Henry IV.
in 1601 exchanged it with the Duke of Savoy for Bresse, Bugey,
and Gex.

[85] His brothers, Ferdinand and Charles, received Tyrol and
Styria. These were reunited to Austria proper under Ferdinand
II., and the Austrian dominions were declared indivisible, 1621.