important towns, the majority preferred trusting to the pay Henry's provocation of the Protestants thus went for little, and procured him few of the advantages he expected. Catherine was indignant, and exclaimed against the absurdity of insisting upon but one religion in the kingdom without any means of enforcing it. The deputies themselves became many of them aware and ashamed of the extravagance of provoking war. Bodin, deputy for the Vermandois, and author of the famous work on the Republic, exerted his eloquence and his good sense in proving this. The Duke of Montpensier, an ardent Catholic, who had just returned from a mission of peace to the King of Navarre, openly represented to the estates the madness of insisting upon maintaining the papal religion exclusively in the face of Protestantism in arms. And the commons in obedience to his suggestion rescinded their vote. There is still extant full reports of the opinions delivered by each member of the royal council on the course to be pursued; whether that of peace or of war with the Huguenots.* The Chancellor Birague considered, that if there was any hope of Marshal Damville in Languedoc, and of the King of Navarre in Guyenne, accepting terms and not making resistance, it would be expedient to crush Protestant resistance by the sword. As Catherine had reason to entertain no such hopes, she also pressed for war, not merely with the view to reduce the more refractory Huguenots, but to place the king in command of an army, and thus restore his authority, enabling him to impose peace upon both parties.† This army she proposed * In vol. xxix. of MSS. Colbert, † Chancellor Birague writes in V. C., which indeed contains most of April to the Duc de Nevers, that if the documents relative to the period. La Charité be taken, there will be СНАР. XXV. XXV. CHAP. to collect both from the "garrisons" and the "associations," a mixed force, in fact, of the regular gendarmerie and the feudal regiments of the ultra-Catholics. Whilst adopting and patronising the League, Henry continued to fence with its chiefs. Those in PicardyRubempré, Crévecœur, and Guise-endeavoured to introduce clauses the most offensive to royalty. They proposed an oath to obey the decision of the Estates, or a commission of them, at the time when these had decreed the existence of but one religion. Henry sought to substitute "obedience to the king, after he had heard the remonstrances of his Estates." They required that the gens-d'armes, or regular troops, should swear to the League, and obey its orders, during the four months of the year, the term of feudal service. Henry inserted the proviso that it should be only in case that those troops were not employed by himself. Even in Picardy the king might have seen how much the civic class were inclined to rally to him against the pretensions of the leagued noblesse, had he been moderate in his demands or in his expenditure, and had he shown his word to be trustworthy. The citizens of Amiens refused to sign the League, and despatched envoys to Henry, offering him a large sum if he would dispense them from signing it. They saw themselves completely at the mercy of the noblesse if they did so, and looked forward to be far more heavily mulcted by them than by the crown if they consented. The people of Amiens were not able to protect themselves like the Parisians. The king, far from hearkening to their complaints, recommended their submission.* Henry was not without peace by mid-May. MS. Bethune, For this affair of Amiens and deriving some benefit from He was able to demand towns in the name of the the League, with Henry's letter, see MSS. Bethune, vol. 8820. 185 And CHAP. League, as well as in that of the government. And though such sums were grudgingly bestowed, the Parisians giving but 100,000 livres, still this was sufficient to gratify his armies with a month's pay. Guise was the chief instrument in raising the army which marched to Poitou, but whilst he and his brother Aumale served in it, the supreme command was given to Alençon, styled the Duke of Anjou since the last treaty. The western army was given to the Duke of Mayenne, the least dreaded of the Guise brethren. There was somewhat of treachery in Anjou's singling out the objects of his attack. These were the towns of La Charité and Issoire, both of which had recently applied to him, when he was in Huguenot interests, to furnish them with men and supplies, without which they declared themselves unable to resist the Catholics.* The people of La Charité would not believe that the prince, who was so lately of their party, was now marching against them, and they took such small precautions that not more "than forty-five gentlemen, with three followers each," threw themselves into the town to defend it.† When the walls were beaten in by the duke's artillery, there were but fifteen men at arms, and thirty-five arquebusiers to defend each breach. La Charité of course fell. The king then ordered the victorious army to march through Auvergne into Languedoc, to destroy the abundant harvest of the year. If this were not done, he wrote, the southerners would not give in for three or four years. The Duke of Anjou having gone to court to be feasted, Henry appointed the Duke of Nevers to succeed him, but he declining, the court, rather than appoint Guise, induced Anjou to return to the command, and lay siege to Issoire. On the breach being made, its defenders * Letter of Alençon to Condé, Oct. 1576, in MS. Colbert, 29. + D'Aubigné. Henry's letter to Anjou, May 3, 1577. MSS. Bethune, 8840. XXV. CHAP. were found to be in a great part women. The besiegers carried it, and exercised their right of victory to the full, sparing neither sex nor age. Whilst the Duke of Anjou with an inconsiderable army was thus victorious over the Huguenots in the centre of France, the Duke of Mayenne, with no greater force, was equally successful against them in the west. Instead of exciting the zeal of the people of La Rochelle against the common enemy, Condé quarrelled continually with its ministers and townsmen, whom the licence of some of his bands disgusted.* The Duke of Mayenne, finding himself from these causes unresisted, captured town after town, and at last laid siege to that of Brouage. His army consisting chiefly of gentry feudally raised, he had not infantry to storm a breach. But Henry, after his brother's capture of Issoire, recalled him, and directed his army to Perigueux, from which its lansquenets and French foot were ordered to join the Duke of Mayenne. Thus beset by the two Catholic armies united, Brouage was forced to capitulate. This prostration of the Huguenot party, by no very strenuous efforts of the Catholics and of the court, was due not merely to the unpopularity of Condé with the Rochellois, but to the fact, that the Maréchal Damville, hitherto the successful leader of the Huguenots and moderate Catholics in Languedoc, had become partially reconciled to the court; whilst the King of Navarre, witness of so important a defection, showed himself more inclined to follow the example than support the resistance of Condé. Damville and Navarre, however at first resentful of the breach of the Edict of Pacification, were soon made to perceive that the acts of the king were dictated more by a desire to shake off the ascendency of the Guises, *D'Aubigné, 1. iii. c. 8. † Letters to and from Damville, copied into Fontanieu. MSS. 346, also MSS. Bethune, 8836. , than to crush the Huguenots. It was the League, and The King of Navarre was swayed by similar, but * The Duke of Alençon, in his speech on peace or war (Colbert, 29), hints that Damville must rally to the crown for fear of losing the family heritage, about to descend to him. Damville did succeed to the † MSS. Bethune, 8836. CHAP. XXV. |
