XXVI. estates as looked for Spanish subsidies refused them CHAP. in this shape; and there was no more ready money than sufficed to supply Mayenne's immediate wants, and those of the more hungry democrats of the Paris municipality.* Mayenne affected content with the payments made him†, and promised to support the election of the infanta, which he allowed Feria to proceed to Paris to accomplish alone. The latter in return reinforced the army of Mayenne by 6000 men under the Count of Mansfeld, and both immediately sat down before Noyon. The Duke of Feria had his solemn audience of the estates on the 2nd of April. He recapitulated the succours which the King of Spain had repeatedly given to the Catholic cause, and especially to Paris, with the sums that he had expended, and wound up by entreating them to elect a thoroughly Catholic sovereign. Although the desire of Philip was thus ambiguously expressed, it was known to the estates that he required the election of the infanta, in the teeth of the salic law, with the liberty of subsequently choosing her own husband.‡ This arrogance came in marked contrast to the conciliatory offers of Henry. And no sooner had the Spanish envoy withdrawn, than, in lieu of discussing his demands, the estates consented to the conference with the royalists, a decision which Mayenne himself had recommended.§ The zealots and the Sixteen exerted themselves to prevent the meeting. They obtained a condemnation of it by the Sorbonne, whilst the preachers made it the subject of their daily anathemas. But as the capital became more and more straightened for provisions, whilst the armies did not advance to * Simancas Papers, Philip's correspondence quoted by Poirson. + Which amounted to 140,000 crowns, part payment of 600,000. Envoy of Savoy's letter to his master. MSS. De Mesmes, 12,8981. XXVI. CHAP. its succour, the desire for holding the conference prevailed. Mayenne and Mansfeld had succeeded in taking Noyon, but this trifling success, instead of encouraging them to march to rescue St. Denis, as the Parisians insisted, was the signal for their separation, nay, of Mayenne's troops deserting him, and Count Mansfeld, "who had not a sou,' withdrawing within his own Belgian frontier. The conferences of Suresne opened on the 29th of April, between twelve commissioners on either side. Epignac, Archbishop of Lyons, Villeroy, and Jeannin were the chiefs of the Parisian deputation; the historian De Thou, Schomberg, and De Baune, Archbishop of Bourges, the principal persons who represented the king. The result of their third meeting was the conclusion of a truce for Paris and its vicinity, which allowed provisions to pass on the payment of certain duties. In the negotiation which ensued, the archbishops were the speakers, he of Lyons directing his eloquence to show that a heretic king could not reign, and that final peace could only be preserved by his Catholic partisans quitting him. This was met by Henry's offers of conversion, which he had formally despatched to the Pope through the Grand Duke of Tuscany. The king had also personally announced this to D'O, but recently returned from Paris, where he had frequent interviews with the leading men.† The Archbishop of Lyons pleading that the Pope could be the only judge of the validity and sincerity of Henry's conversion, the progress of the conference was brought to a stand. The estates wavered; the people clamoured for peace.‡ The Duke of Feria demanded to make new proposals, and these were received on the 14th of May by a commission, of which the Duke of Mayenne was chief. *Letter of Mayenne to Diou, April 1st. MSS. De Mesmes, 11,8131. + L'Estoile. Dinterville to Nevers. MS. Bethune, 9120. The Spanish envoy promised 10,000 men to relieve Paris within a month, 10,000 more in September; and in addition to this, Philip the Second would pay the 10,000 men of Mayenne, provided his daughter was elected queen. The news of these large proffers of aid was immediately carried to Mantes, where the royal quarters were, and the king, in fear of their being accepted, instantly (on the 15th) issued decrees for the convocation of a council of prelates, as well as of an assembly of nobles and dignitaries, to meet at Mantes in two months. He offered to prolong the truce for that period, and the Protestants were summoned to send a statement of the guarantees which they would require under a Catholic Sovereign. means СНАР. The Duke of Mayenne, who had received the first offer of the Duke of Feria on the 14th, did not think fit or find time to communicate it to the estates till the 28th; but two days previous, on the 26th, he wrote to the Duke of Mercœur, the League chief of Britanny,* e that "Peace with the pretended king was necessary. Our intelligences weaken," added he, "our diminish, our divisions are notorious." In previous letters he had depicted the deputies of the estates as impoverished and discontented for want of funds, and the Spanish minister as too necessitous to pay either them or the army. Mayenne, therefore, saw the recognition of Henry as inevitable, but he still expressed his hopes to Mercœur, that the League would be maintained and the towns retain their attachment to the union. In other words the Duke of Mayenne was prepared to accept Henry the Fourth, as he had done Henry the Third, with the freedom and faculty for subsequently conspiring and rebelling, as circumstances might allow. Although Mayenne had made up his mind that * MSS. Baluze, 9675. XXVI. CHAP. Henry must be accepted, he had still appearances to preserve with the Spanish envoys, who seemed to be either marvellously ill informed of the opinions of the members of the estates, or else tied down by the instructions of their sovereign to insist on what was unacceptable. They augmented their offers of succour, and the Duke of Feria asked for a solemn audience of the assembly, in order to try the effect of his eloquence. For the purpose probably of overcoming the pertinacity of the envoys, and pointing out to them the only way of success, the deputies of the clergy and of the noblesse sent to ask the Duke of Feria whether, in case the infanta were chosen queen, she would promise to take a French prince for her husband. Could the Spanish envoy have answered this in the affirmative, it is possible the vote of the estates might have been for the infanta. Instead, however, of acquiescing in such a demand, the Duke of Feria, on the day of his solemn harangue, proposed the election of the Archduke Ernest of Austria to the kingdom of France, on the understanding that he should marry the infanta. Thus, instead of advancing or conciliating, the Spanish duke receded, and, from whatever cause, rendered the attainment of the object which he sought hopeless. Immediately after this untoward proposition of De Feria (June 11) arrived from Mantes demands of the Catholic royalists for an answer to their proposals. The king had promised his conversion, convoked an assembly for the purpose, and offered a truce. The estates had deferred, rather than given a reply, alleging that the acceptation of Henry's conversion belonged to the Pope. His holiness, however, had refused to receive Henry's ambassador. It was for the estates therefore at once to declare would they have the truce, or would they have war?* This demand was most em *Letter of the King's Councillors to the Archbishop of Lyons. De Mesmes, 4, 8777, f. 143. barrassing to the clerical and Spanish party. The sit- СНАР. tings of the conference instead of being held at Suresne XXVI. had been transferred to the vicinity of Paris. They took place at La Roquette, near the gate of St. Antoine, and subsequently at La Villette (June 12), in the house of De Thou. The Parisians crowded round the doors, and clamoured for the acceptance of the truce. They were the more urgent, as tidings had just arrived that Henry, angered by the rejection of all his proposals, had laid siege to Dreux, and was mustering forces for the investment of Paris itself. This resumption of his military activity by the king alarmed Mayenne. He might be prepared to recognise a monarch who surrendered his creed and the cause of his fellow religionists, but to one triumphant in the field he shrank from submitting. He was also alarmed by his own growing unpopularity and that of the legate. He therefore rallied to the Spanish envoys, and representing to them the election of either the infanta alone or of the Archduke Ernest as impossible, persuaded them to consent to the simultaneous election of the infanta and a French prince. With this offer the Spaniards closed as far as their instructions would permit, and Feria, on June 21, proposed to the estates in the Louvre, that the infanta should be declared queen, on the express condition that the King of Spain should within two months select from amongst the French princes, those of Lorraine included, a husband who should reign solidairement with her. The immediate election of the queen, and adjournment of that of the king, instead of meeting the views of the estates, filled them with suspicion and alarm. The commission nevertheless offered to vote the simultaneous elevation of the infanta and her husband to be queen and king after the marriage and its consummation. This did not suit the views of the Duke of Feria, who knew that the infanta's election would not bear delaying. What he demanded |