Chapter VI: The CIVIL Wars in France, to the Death of Henry IV. (1610)

FRANCIS I.: HENRY II.--In France, the old faith had strong support in the _Sorbonne_, the influential theological faculty of the University of Paris, and in the Parliament. The new culture, the influx of Italian scholars and Italian influences, produced a party averse to the former style of education, and, to some extent, unfriendly to the old opinions. The Lutheran doctrines were first introduced; but it was _Calvinism_ which prevailed among the French converts to Protestantism, and acquired a strong hold in the middle and higher classes, although the preponderance of numbers in the country was always on the Catholic side. _Francis I_. was a friend of the new learning. His sister _Margaret_, Queen of _Navarre_, who was of a mystical turn, was favorably inclined to the new doctrines, and befriended preachers who were of the same spirit. The king did the same until after the battle of _Pavia_, when he helped on the persecution of them; for his conduct was governed by the interest of the hour, and by political motives. It was doubtful what course he would finally take amid the conflict of parties; but his motto was, "One king, one code, one creed." He would put down the new doctrine at home, and sustain it by force, if expedient, abroad. _Henry II._, who acceded to the throne in 1547, unlike his father had no personal sympathy with Protestantism. The _Huguenots_, as the Calvinists were called, were led to the stake, and their books burned. Yet in 1558 they had two thousand places of worship in France: they soon held a general synod at _Paris_, and organized themselves (1559). That same year, when, in the Peace of _Cateau-Cambresis, Henry_ had given up all his conquests except the three bishoprics of _Metz, Toul_ and _Verdun_, and _Calais_, he suddenly died from a wound in the eye, accidentally inflicted in a tilt.

CATHERINE DE MEDICI: THE TWO PARTIES.--The widow of Henry II. was _Catherine de Medici_, to whom he had been married from political considerations. She was a woman of talents, full of ambition which had hitherto found no field for its exercise, trained from infancy in an atmosphere of deceit, and void of moral principle. Her aim was to rule by keeping up an ascendency over her sons, and by holding in check whatever party threatened to be dominant. For this end she did not scruple to accustom her children to debauchery, and to resort to whatever other means, however false and however cruel, to effect her purposes. She proved to be the curse of the house of _Valois_, and the evil genius of France. _Francis II._ was a boy of sixteen, and legally of age; but his mother expected to manage the government. She was thwarted by the control over him exercised by the family of _Guise_, sons of _Claude_ of Guise, a wealthy and prominent nobleman of _Lorraine_, who had distinguished himself at _Marignano_, and in later contests against _Charles V. Francis_, the _Duke of Guise_, had defended _Metz_, and had taken _Calais. Charles_, the Cardinal of Lorraine, was the king's confessor. Their sister had married _James V._ of Scotland. Her daughter, _Mary Stuart_, a charming young girl, was married to _Francis II._, who was infirm in mind and body, and easily managed by his wife and her uncles. The great nobles of France, especially the _Bourbons_, sprung in a collateral line from _Louis IX._, Montmorency, and his three nephews, among them a man of extraordinary ability and worth, the Admiral _Coligny_, looked on the _Guises_ as upstarts. The _Bourbons_ and the nobles allied to them were, some from sincere conviction and some from policy, adherents of _Calvinism_. Thus the Protestants in France became a political party, as well as a religious body, and a party with anti-monarchical tendencies. _Anthony_ of Bourbon, a weak and vacillating person, had married _Jeanne d'Albret_, the heiress of _Béarn_ and _Navarre_, a heroic woman and an earnest Protestant, the mother of _Henry IV_. His brother _Louis_, Prince of Condé, a brave, impetuous soldier, whose wife, the niece of the Grand Constable _Montmorency_, was a strict Protestant, joined that side.

CONSPIRACY OF AMBOISE.--_La Rénaudie_, a Protestant nobleman who was determined to avenge the execution of a brother, contrived the Conspiracy of Amboise (1560) in order to dispossess the Guises of their power by force. The plan was discovered, and a savage revenge was taken upon the conspirators. A great number of innocent persons, who had no share in the plot, were put to death. The Estates were summoned to _Orleans_, and the occasion was to be seized for extirpating heresy throughout the kingdom. _Condé_ was under arrest, and charged with high treason. Just then, on Dec. 5, 1560, the young king died.

CHARLES IX.: EDICT OF ST. GERMAIN.--The coveted opportunity of the queen-mother had come. _Charles IX_. (1560-1574) was only ten years old. She assumed the practical guardianship over him, and with it a virtual regency. The plan of the _Guises_ had failed, and they had to give way. There were now two parties in the council. The States-general were called together in 1561, and a great religious colloquy was held before a brilliant concourse at _Poissy_, where _Theodore Beza_, an eloquent and polished scholar and a man of high birth, pleaded the cause of the Calvinists. In 1562 the _Edict of January_ was issued, which gave up the policy that had been pursued for forty years, of extirpating religious dissent. A very restricted toleration was given to Protestants: they could hold their meetings outside of the walls of cities, unarmed, and in the daytime. _Calvin_ and his followers expected the largest results from this measure of liberty. _Catherine_ wished for peace, without a rupture with the _Pope_ and _Philip II_.

CIVIL WAR.--It was impossible to prevent outbreakings of violence against the hated dissenters. The _Guises_ and their associates were resolved not to allow toleration. The event that occasioned war was the massacre of _Vassy_. On the 1st of March, 1562, the soldiers of the _Duke of Guise_, who was passing through the town, attacked some Huguenots who were worshiping in a barn at the village of _Vassy_. A large number were slain, and some houses plundered, in spite of the Duke's efforts to check his troops. The civil wars, so begun, closed only with the accession of _Henry IV_. to the throne. France was a prey to religious and political fanaticism. Other nations mingled in the frightful contest, and the country was well-nigh robbed of its independence. At first, there was petty warfare at _Paris_, _Sens_, and other places. The Huguenots destroyed altars and censers, monuments of art and sepulchers, which, as they thought, ministered to idolatry. Rouen was captured by the Catholics and sacked. At _Dreux_ (1562) the Protestants were defeated; but in 1563 _Guise_, the leader of their adversaries, was assassinated by a Huguenot nobleman. The charge that _Coligny_ had a part in the deed was false; but he was considered responsible for it, and vengeance was kept in store by the family of the slain chief. The _Edict of Amboise_ (1563) was favorable to the Protestant nobles, but less favorable to the smaller gentry and to the towns. _Paris_, from which Calvinist worship was excluded, became more and more a stronghold of the Catholic party. Another war ended in the _Peace of Longjumeau_ (1568), which was essentially the same as the Edict of Amboise. _Philip II._ and the _Duke of Alva_ spared no effort to induce France to set about the extermination of the heretics. In the _third_ war, the Huguenots were beaten at _Jarnac_, where _Condé_ fell, leaving his name to his son _Henry_, a youth of seventeen (1569). The same year they were defeated again at _Moncontour_. _La Rochelle_ was a place of safety to the Protestants, who were strong in the wise leadership of _Coligny_. There the Queen of Navarre held her court. Thence the Huguenot cavalry with the young princes _Condé_, and _Henry of Navarre_, her son, sallied forth and traversed France.

ENGLAND OR SPAIN.--The ambition of _Philip_ alarmed the French. His complex schemes, if carried out, would involve the reduction of their country under Spanish control. He wanted to liberate _Mary_, Queen of Scots, then a prisoner of _Elizabeth_, to marry her to his half-brother, _Don John_, and to marry his sister to _Charles IX_. The court, in 1570, agreed to the _Peace of St. Germain_, which, for the security of the Huguenots, placed four fortified towns in their possession. Thus France became a kingdom divided against itself. _England_, as well as France, looked with alarm upon the ambitious projects of _Philip II_., who was now in union with _Venice_ and with the _Pope_, and had beaten the _Turks_ at _Lepanto_. It was proposed to marry the brother of Charles IX., the _Duke of Anjou_, to Queen _Elizabeth_; and when this negotiation was broken off, it was proposed that the _Duke of Alençon_, a younger brother, should marry her. _Catherine de Medici_ fell in with this anti-Spanish policy. It was agreed that her youngest daughter, _Margaret of Valois_, should become the wife of _Henry of Navarre._ The policy favored by the Huguenots was in the ascendant. Their leaders were invited to _Paris_ to be present at the nuptials. _Coligny_ came, with _Henry of Navarre_, _Condé_, and a large number of their adherents. There was no place where the animosity against them was so rancorous.

THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW.--The massacre of St. Bartholomew was devised by _Catherine de Medici_, who brought to her aid the _Duchess of Nemours_, widow of _Francis_ of Guise and mother of _Henry_ of Guise, _Anjou_ (afterwards _Henry III_.), and Italian counselors who were no strangers to plots of assassination. The motive of the queen-mother was her dread of the ascendency which she saw that _Coligny_ was gaining over the morbid mind of the king, in whom the Huguenot veteran had inspired esteem, and had stirred up a desire to enter into the proposed war against _Philip II_. in the _Netherlands_. On the 22d of August (1572), a shot was fired at _Coligny_, from a window of a house, by an adherent of the Guises. He was wounded, but not killed. _Charles_ was incensed. At a visit made to the wounded chief, the king was warned by him, as Catherine quickly learned, against her pernicious influence in the government. Thereupon she arranged with her confederates for a general slaughter of the Huguenots, and almost coerced the half-frantic and irresolute king to acquiesce in the plan. Perhaps, in gathering them into the city, she had foreseen the possible expediency of a change of policy, and that such a crime as she now undertook to perpetrate might be found desirable. In the night of the 24th of August, at a concerted signal, the fanatical enemies of the Huguenots were let loose, and fell upon their victims. Several thousands, including _Coligny_, were murdered. Couriers were sent through the country, and like bloody scenes were enacted in many other cities and towns. _Navarre_ and _Condé_, to save their lives, professed conformity to the Catholic Church. If these atrocious events excited joy in the mind of _Philip II_., and of the numerous intolerant party of which he was the head, they were regarded with horror and execration elsewhere, among the Catholic as well as the Protestant nations.

THE POLITIQUES: THE LEAGUE: HENRY III.--The queen-mother did not even now forsake her general policy. She stood aloof from the combinations of _Philip_. A new party, the _Politiques_, or liberal Catholics, in favor of toleration, arose. _Henry III_. (1574-1589) was incompetent to govern a country torn by factions, with an exhausted treasury, and a people groaning under the burdens of taxation. By his double dealing he lost the confidence of both the religious parties. In May, 1576, he agreed to allow the religious freedom which the _Huguenots_ and _Politiques_ demanded. But he had to reckon with the _Catholic League_ which was organized under _Henry of Guise_. In 1584 _Henry of Navarre_ was left the next heir to the throne. The _League_, with _Spain_ and _Rome_, resolved that he should not reign. Together with _Condé_, he was excommunicated. In the war of he "three Henrys," he was supported by England, and by troops from Germany and Switzerland. _Henry III_., finding that _Henry of Guise_ was virtual master, and that the States-general at _Blois_ (1588) reduced the royal power to the lowest point, caused _Guise_ and his brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine, to be assassinated. Excommunicated, and detested by the adherents of the League, the king took refuge in the camp of _Henry of Navarre_, where he was killed by a fanatical priest (1589).

ABJURATION AND ACCESSION OF HENRY IV.--The _Duke of Mayenne_, brother of the slain _Guises_, was at the head of the government provisionally established by the League. _Philip II_. was intriguing to bring the Catholic nations under his sway. There was discord in the League, from the jealousy of _Philip_ on the part of _Mayenne. Henry_, a dashing soldier, gained a brilliant victory at _Ivry_ in 1590. The grand obstacle in his way to the throne was his adhesion to Protestantism. A Calvinist by birth and education, but without profound religious convictions, a gallant and sagacious man, but loose in his morals, he yielded, for the sake of giving peace to France, to the persuasions addressed to him, and, from motives of expediency, conformed to the Catholic Church. The nation was now easily won to his cause.

REIGN OF HENRY IV.--When _Henry IV_. gained his throne, the country was in a most wretched condition. In the desolating wars, population had fallen off. Everywhere there were poverty and lawlessness. Yet war with _Spain_ was inevitable. In this war, _Henry_ was the victor; and the _Peace of Vervins_ restored the Spanish conquests, and the conquests made by Savoy, to France (1598). The idea of _Henry's_ foreign policy, which was that of weakening the power of Spain and of the house of Hapsburg, was afterwards taken up by a powerful statesman, _Richelieu_, and fully realized. In the _Edict of Nantes_ (1598), the king secured to the Huguenots the measure of religious liberty for which they had contended. Fortified cities were still left in their hands. Security was obtained by the Calvinists, but they became a defensive party with no prospect of further progress. Order and prosperity were restored to the kingdom. In all his measures, the king was largely guided by a most competent minister, _Sully_. But the useful reign of _Henry IV_. was cut short by the dagger of an assassin, _Ravaillac_ (1610). For fifteen years confusion prevailed in France, and a contest of factions, until _Richelieu_ took up the threads of policy which had fallen from _Henry's_ hand.