Chapter I: Preface

No one acquainted with the history of historical writing can have failed to observe how transitory are its achievements. Mark Pattison’s aphorism that “history is one of the most ephemeral forms of literature” has much of truth in it. The reasons of this are not far to seek. In the first place, the most laborious historian is doomed to be superseded in course of time by the accumulation of new material. In the second place, the point of view and the interpretation of one generation varies from that which preceded it, so that each generation requires a rewriting of history in terms of its own interest.

These reasons must be my excuse for venturing to write a new book upon an old subject. It is now nearly thirty years since the appearance of the late Professor Henry M. Baird’s excellent work, _The Rise of the Huguenots_ (New York, 1879), and little that is comprehensive has since been written upon the subject in English, with the exception of Mr. A. W. Whitehead’s admirable _Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France_ (London, 1904). But the limitations imposed by biographical history compel an author inevitably to ignore movements or events not germane to his immediate subject, which, nevertheless, may be of great importance for general history. Moreover, a biography is limited by the term of life of the hero, and his death may not by any means terminate the issue in which he was a factor—as indeed was the case with Coligny.

An enumeration of the notable works—sources and authorities—which have been published since the appearance of Professor Baird’s work may serve to justify the present volume. First and foremost must be mentioned the notable _Lettres de Catherine de Médicis_, the lack of which Ranke deplored, edited by the late Count Hector de la Ferrière and M. Baguenault de la Puchesse (9 vols.), the initial volume of which appeared in 1880. Of diplomatic correspondence we have the _Ambassade en Espagne de Jean Ebrard, seigneur de St. Sulpice de 1562 à 1565_ (Paris, 1902), edited by M. Edmond Cabié, and thé _Dépêches de M. Fourquevaux, ambassadeur du roi Charles IX en Espagne, 1565-72_, in three volumes, edited by the Abbé Douais (Paris, 1896). Other sources which have seen the light within the last three decades are M. Delaborde’s _Vie de Coligny_ (3 vols., 1877-), the title of which is somewhat misleading, for it is really a collection of Coligny’s letters strung upon the thread of his career; the Baron Alphonse de Ruble’s _Antoine de Bourbon et Jeanne d’Albret_ (4 vols., 1881); M. Ludovic Lalanne’s new annotated edition of _D’Aubigné_ (1886), and the new edition of Beza’s _Histoire ecclésiastique_ (ed. of Baum, 1883). Finally, among sources should be included many volumes in the “Calendar of State Papers.” Professor Baird has rightly said that “Too much weight can scarcely be given to this source of information and illustration.” His praise would probably have been even greater if he could have used the correspondence of Dale and Smith as freely as he did that of Throckmorton and Norris.

When we pass from sources to authorities the list of notable works is even longer. La Ferrière’s _Le XVI^[e] siècle et les Valois_—the fruit of researches in the Record Office in London—appeared in 1879; M. Forneron’s _Histoire de Philippe II_ (4 vols.) was published in 1887, and is even more valuable than his earlier _Histoire des ducs de Guise_ (1877). Besides these, in the decade of the 80’s, are Durier’s _Les Huguenots en Bigorre_ (1884); Communay’s _Les Huguenots dans le Béarn et la Navarre_ (1886); Lettenhove’s _Les Huguenots et les Gueux_ (1885); the baron de Ruble’s _Le traité de Cateau-Cambrésis_ (1889), and the abbé Marchand’s _Charles de Cossé, Comte de Brissac_ (1889). M. de Crue’s notable _Anne, duc de Montmorency_ appeared in the same year and his no less scholarly _Le parti des politiques au lendemain de Saint Barthélemy_ three years later. M. Marlet’s _Le comte de Montgomery_ was published in 1890; M. Georges Weill’s _Les théories sur le pouvoir royal en France pendant les guerres de religion_, in 1891; M. Henri Hauser’s _François de La Noue_ in 1892; M. Bernard de Lacombe’s _Catherine de Médicis entre Guise et Condé_ in 1899, and, most recently of all, M. Courteault’s _Blaise de Montluc_ (1908). Many contributions in the _Revue historique_, the _Revue des questions historiques_, the _English Historical Review_, the _Revue d’histoire diplomatique_, the _Revue des deux mondes_, and one article in the _American Historical Review_, January, 1903, by M. Hauser, “The Reformation and the Popular Classes in the Sixteenth Century,” are equally valuable, as the notes will show. I have also consulted many articles in the proceedings of various local or provincial historical societies, as the Société de Paris et de l’Ile de France; the Société de l’histoire de Normandie, the Société d’histoire et d’archéologie de Genève, etc., and the admirable series known as the _Bulletin de la Société du protestantisme français_, which is a mine of historical lore.

While the present work falls in the epoch of the French Reformation, no attempt has been made to treat that subject in so far as the Reformation is assumed primarily to have been a religious manifestation. Doctrine, save when it involved polity, has been ignored. But into the political, diplomatic, and economic activities of the period I have tried to go at some length. As to the last feature, it is not too much to say that our interpretation of the sixteenth century has been profoundly changed within the last twenty years by the progress made in economic history. Such works as Weiss’s _La chambre ardente_ and Hauser’s _Ouvriers du temps passé_ have revolutionized the treatment of this subject.

Such an interpretation is merely a reflection of our own present-day interest in economic and social problems. In this particular it is the writer’s belief that he is the first to present some of the results of recent research into the economic history of sixteenth-century France to English readers. My indebtedness to M. Hauser is especially great for the help and suggestion he has given me in the matter of industrial history. But I have tried to widen the subject and attempted to show the bearing of changes in the agricultural régime, the influence of the failure of crops owing to adverse weather conditions, and the disintegration of society as the result of incessant war and the plague, upon the progress of the Huguenot movement. In an agricultural country like France in the sixteenth century, the distress of the provinces through the failure of the harvests was sometimes nearly universal, and the retroactive effect of such conditions in promoting popular discontent had a marked influence upon the religious and political issues.

It has been pointed out that “the religious wars of France furnish the most complete instance of the constant intersection of native and foreign influences.”[1] The bearing of the Huguenot movement upon Spanish and Dutch history was intimate and marked, and this I have also attempted to set forth. In so doing the fact that has impressed me most of all is the development and activity of the provincial Catholic leagues and their close connection with Spain’s great Catholic machine in France, the Holy League.

The history of the Holy League in France is usually represented as having extended from 1576 to 1594. This time was the period of its greatest activity and of its greatest power. But institutions do not spring to life full armed in a moment, like Athené from the head of Zeus. “The roots of the present lie deep in the past,” as Bishop Stubbs observed. Institutions are a growth, a development. The Holy League was a movement of slow growth and development, although it has not been thus represented, and resulted from the combination of various acts and forces—political, diplomatic, religious, economic, social, even psychological—working simultaneously both within and without France during the civil wars. I have tried to set forth the nature and extent of these forces; to show how they originated; how they operated; and how they ultimately were combined to form the Holy League. Certain individual features of the history here covered have been treated in an isolated way by some writers. The late baron de Ruble and M. Forneron have disclosed the treasonable negotiations of Montluc with Philip II. M. Bouillé and more recently M. Forneron have followed the tortuous thread of the cardinal of Lorraine’s secret negotiations with Spain. Various historians, chiefly in provincial histories or biographies like Pingaud’s _Les Saulx-Tavannes_, have noticed the local work of some of the provincial Catholic associations. But the relation of all these various movements, one to the other, and their ultimate fusion into a single united movement has not yet been fully brought out. What was the number and form of organization of these local Catholic leagues? What influenced their combination? What bearing did they have upon the course of Montluc and the cardinal of Lorraine? Or upon Philip II’s policy? How did the great feud between the Guises and the Montmorencys influence the formation of the Holy League and its hostile counterpart—the Association of the Huguenots and the Politiques? These questions I have tried to answer and in so doing two or three new facts have been brought to light. For example, an undiscovered link in the history of the Guises’ early secret intercourse with Philip II has been found in the conduct of L’Aubespine, the French ambassador in Spain in 1561; the treasonable course of the cardinal of Lorraine, it is shown, began in 1565 instead of 1566, a fact which makes the petty conflict known as the “Cardinal’s War” of new importance; the history of the Catholic associations in the provinces, hitherto isolated in many separate volumes, has been woven into the whole and some new information established regarding them.[2]

The notes, it is hoped, will sufficiently indicate the sources used and enable the reader to test the treatment of the subject, or guide him to sources by which he may form his own judgment if desired.

In the matter of maps, the very complete apparatus of maps in Mr. Whitehead’s _Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France_, has greatly lightened my task, and I express my cordial thanks to Mr. Whitehead and Messrs. Methuen & Co., his publishers, for permission to reproduce those in that work. My thanks are also due to M. Ch. de Coynart and MM. Firmin Didot et Cie for permission to reproduce the map illustrating the battle of Dreux from the late Commandant de Coynart’s work entitled _L’Année 1562 et la bataille de Dreux_; and to M. Steph. C. Gigon, author of _La bataille de Jarnac et la campagne de 1569 en Angoumois_, for permission to use his two charts of the battle of Jarnac. Those illustrating the Tour of the Provinces in 1564-66, the march of the duke of Alva and Montgomery’s great raid in Gascony are my own. Some lesser maps and illustrations are from old prints which I have gathered together, in the course of years, except that illustrating the siege of Havre-de-Grace and the large picture of the battle of St. Denis, which have been photographed from the originals in the Record Office.

During the preparation of this volume, which has entailed two prolonged visits to Paris and other parts of France, and to London, I have become the debtor to many persons. Among those of whose courtesy and assistance I would make special acknowledgment are the following: His Excellency, M. Jean-Jules Jusserand, French ambassador at Washington; M. Henri Vignaud, chargé d’affaires of the American legation in Paris; MM. Charles de la Roncière and Viennot of the Bibliothèque Nationale; MM. Le Grand and Viard of the Archives Nationales, where I chiefly worked in the K. Collection. At the Record Office, Mr. Hubert Hall and his assistant, Miss Mary Trice Martin, were unfailing in the aid given me. For the transcript of the “Discorso sopra gli humori del Regno di Francia,” from the Barberini Library in Rome, I am indebted to P. Franz Ehrle, prefect of the Vatican archives. I also hold in grateful memory the friendship and assistance of the late Woodbury Lowery, author of _The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the United States: Florida_ (1562-74), New York, 1905, with whom I was a fellow worker at the Archives Nationales in the spring and early summer of 1903.

Finally, I owe much to the suggestive criticism of my friend and colleague, Professor Ferdinand Schevill, and my friends, Professor Herbert Darling Foster, of Dartmouth College, and Professor Roger B. Merriman, of Harvard University, each of whom has read much of the manuscript.

JAMES WESTFALL THOMPSON

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
January 1909

CONTENTS

PAGE

LIST OF MAPS AND PLATES xv

CHAPTER

I. THE BEGINNING OF THE HUGUENOT REVOLT. THE CONSPIRACY OF
AMBOISE 1

II. CATHERINE DE MEDICI BETWEEN GUISE AND CONDÉ. PROJECT OF A
NATIONAL COUNCIL 40

III. THE STATES-GENERAL OF ORLEANS 69

IV. THE FORMATION OF THE TRIUMVIRATE 91

V. THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY. THE ESTATES OF PONTOISE. THE EDICT
OF JANUARY, 1562 106

VI. THE FIRST CIVIL WAR. THE MASSACRE OF VASSY (MARCH 1, 1562).
THE SIEGE OF ROUEN 131

VII. THE FIRST CIVIL WAR (_Continued_). THE BATTLE OF DREUX
(DECEMBER 19, 1562). THE PEACE OF AMBOISE (MARCH 19, 1563) 172

VIII. THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. THE PEACE OF TROYES (1563-64) 198

IX. EARLY LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL CATHOLIC LEAGUES 206

X. THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES. THE BAYONNE EPISODE 232

XI. THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES (_Continued_). THE INFLUENCE
OF THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS UPON FRANCE. THE AFFAIR
OF MEAUX 283

XII. THE SECOND CIVIL WAR (1567-68) 326

XIII. THE THIRD CIVIL WAR (1568). NEW CATHOLIC LEAGUES. THE
BATTLE OF JARNAC 349

XIV. THE THIRD CIVIL WAR (_Continued_). THE PEACE OF ST. GERMAIN 378

XV. THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 422

XVI. THE FOURTH CIVIL WAR 454

XVII. THE LAST DAYS OF CHARLES IX. THE CONSPIRACY OF THE
POLITIQUES 469

XVIII. HENRY III AND THE POLITIQUES. THE PEACE OF MONSIEUR (1576) 486

GENEALOGICAL TABLES 525

APPENDICES 529

INDEX 605

LIST OF MAPS AND PLATES

VIEW OF PARIS _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

HUGUENOT MARCH TO ORLEANS, MARCH 29-APRIL 2, 1562 139

CAMPAIGN OF DREUX, NOVEMBER TO DECEMBER, 1562 180

BATTLE OF DREUX, ACCORDING TO COMMANDANT DE COYNART 181

SKETCH MAP OF THE FORTIFICATIONS OF HAVRE-DE-GRACE 202

THE TOUR OF THE PROVINCES, 1564-66 232

MARCH OF THE DUKE OF ALVA THROUGH SAVOY, FRANCHE COMTÉ, AND
LORRAINE 308

EXECUTION OF EGMONT AND HOORNE IN THE MARKET SQUARE AT BRUSSELS 314

PARIS AND ITS FAUBOURGS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 327

BLOCKADE OF PARIS BY THE HUGUENOTS, OCTOBER-NOVEMBER, 1567 328

HUGUENOT MARCH TO PONT-À-MOUSSON AFTER THE BATTLE OF ST.
DENIS 329

THE BATTLE OF ST. DENIS _between_ pp. 332, 333

AUTUMN CAMPAIGN OF 1568 368

CROQUIS DU THÉATRE DE LA GUERRE POUR LA PÉRIODE DU 24 FÉVRIER AU
13 MARS 1569, ACCORDING TO M. S. C. GIGON 376

BATAILLE DE JARNAC, ACCORDING TO M. S. C. GIGON 377

CAMPAIGN OF THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1569 380

POITIERS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 386

PLAN OF THE FORTRESS OF NAVARRENS MADE BY JUAN MARTINEZ
DESCURRA, A SPANISH SPY 398

VOYAGE OF THE PRINCES AFTER THE BATTLE OF MONCONTOUR; MONTGOMERY’S
ITINERARY IN BIGORRE AND GASCONY; UNION OF COLIGNY AND MONTGOMERY
IN DECEMBER, 1569, AT PORT STE. MARIE 402

THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 422

PLAN DE LA ROCHELLE EN 1572 458

LETTER OF HENRY III OF FRANCE TO THE DUKE OF SAVOY 484

LETTER OF HENRY III TO THE SWISS CANTONS 485

MAP OF FRANCE SHOWING PROVINCES 602