XXIII at once passed from the husband of Mary Stuart to his CHAP. next brother, Charles the Ninth, and to the queen mother, to whom alone a boy prince could look for counsel. The premature death of the young king counteracted the plans and overthrew. the power of the Guises. Their aim had been to embark Catherine with them in irredeemable enmity towards the Bourbons. This aim the Chancellor De l'Hôpital defeated by bringing about a reconciliation between her and the King of Navarre. When the council met on the day after the royal demise, and Catherine assumed, rather than claimed, supreme power, as guardian of her son, the King of Navarre appeared as her adherent and ally. The Guises could but acquiesce; and the Cardinal of Lorraine gave up the seal, a new one being ordered by the queen mother for herself. The captains of the guard and of the Swiss took the oath of obedience to her, as did the secretaries of state, the intendants of finance, and the knights of the order.* Catherine enjoined functionaries at court or in the capital to address themselves to the king of Navarre, who would report all to her; more remote commanders were to address their despatches to her directly, she consulting Navarre and the council.† The Duke of Guise continued to fill the place of grand master, and the constable resumed the authority of his office by dismissing the king's guard. The Prince of Condé was allowed to withdraw to Ham, one of his own castles in the north. The wish of Catherine was to lull every discontent, and distribute an equal share of dignity and emolument to each. The first acts of her foreign policy displayed the same wish for conciliation. She did not participate in the rival feeling of the Guises towards Elizabeth, and *La Court's account. Laubespine's Journal. † Account of what took place VOL. III. D after the death of Francis the Se- XXIII. CHAP. conveyed to that queen the desire of the French court to be at peace, a desire the sincerity of which she was prepared to prove by sending away to the Levant the galleys that were collected in the channel. Elizabeth replied to such advances by corresponding amity. She declared her annoyance at the assumption of English arms by Francis to be removed by his death. Catherine promised to observe the treaty of Cateau Cambresis, the clause respecting Calais included*; and Elizabeth gave the young French monarch, through his ambassador, De Seurre, the following most remarkable piece of advice:"Tell your master," said Elizabeth, "that war is only fit for poor devils of princes who have their fortune to make, and not for the sovereigns of two great countries, like France and England."† Charles the Ninth was a boy of eleven years of age, bright-eyed, vivacious, fond of movement and action, but weak of appetite and strength, shortness of breath obliging him to repose after any lengthened efforts. A brief and febrile reign might already be augured. The first act of the young king was to open the assembly of the estates, on the 13th of December. The chancellor harangued them in his name, and promised a halcyon reign of peace and concord. The accession of Charles he depicted as the rising sun, which dissipated every cloud. The old custom of holding the estates, discontinued during eighty years, would now be resumed, and persevered in. To regard such assemblies as objects of fear and suspicion was to hold language applicable to tyranny, not to the reign of a legitimate prince who could but profit by the councils of his subjects. Familiarity with these never hurt a king of France. Other monarchs were served on the knee; they were not more This had been refused by † Letters of the Chevalier de Seurre in the Bibliothéque of Grenoble, MSS. No. 203. Relazione da G. Michele. Relazione Venete. XXIII. beloved than the French king, who mingled with all CHAP. ranks, and was approached by them. There was at present no cause of discord but religion, which was strange, as the essence of Christianity was peace. Differences with regard to it ought to be settled in council, not in the field. And the attempt to accomplish, by costly armies, by violence and bloodshed, what should be effected by fair means and by reform of abuses, would damage still more and not restore Christianity.* The three estates severally answered by their orators. Quintin, Procureur of the Paris University, speaking for the clergy, indulged in violent animadversions upon Coligny and the Protestants. He complained that the books and preaching of the Huguenots were favoured by many of the royal judges and functionaries, who rendered ecclesiastical prosecutions null. In several places the heretics had grown bold, and even went armed. Whilst demanding the repression of such audacity of opinion and conduct, the clerical orator did not deny the necessity of reforms in the Church, to which he declared the true road and commencement would be to abolish the Concordat, and restore the right of election to the clergy. In this both the other estates agreed, recommending, however, that the lay population should take part in the election, the lord and inhabitants of a district choosing the curé. The commons proposed in addition that the church revenues should be divided, as in olden time, between the clergy, the poor, and the reparation of the church. "The principal point of the maintenance of every state being the instruction of youth," they insisted on the prelates furnishing funds and masters for diocesan schools, and equally insisted on princes and nobles affording education to their pages. * Collections of Reports and Documents entitled "Des Etats Généraux," published in 1789, vols. XXIII. CHAP. Tolerance until the meeting of a national council was their remedy for religious dissidence. And this they subsequently carried so far as to demand the public use of their temples for the Protestants. Such were the liberal votes and opinions uttered by the representatives of the French people at the commencement of Charles the Ninth's reign, these representatives chosen at a time when the Guises were predominant, and the Huguenot chiefs in misfortune and disgrace. No doubt the converse and persuasions of the Chancellor De l'Hôpital had great weight with the assembly; but that it was open to listen to such persuasion and utter such advice, proved what great progress the French had then made in their views of at least religious government. Still, the sentiments of the northern provinces were as evidently orthodox, as those of Touraine were frankly Huguenot, the Normans wavering between the two opinions. The only marked difference between nobles and commons regarded judicial matters, the delegates of the aristocracy being desirous of maintaining their own jurisdiction without appeal, their class being amenable to none save royal baillis, who were to be of the short robe, that is, gentlemen of the country, of position and birth. They also demanded the right of chase and of the arquebus, with the monopoly of military and other functions. The commons did not seem to dispute this; but they insisted upon having royal and not seignorial justice. And they, moreover, strongly opposed and remonstrated against the corvée and other modes of exaction and repression practised by the noble on the peasant. Whilst thus abounding in religious remonstrance and political advice, the estates were not prepared to take in hand the great subject for which they were chiefly called together, that of meeting the arrears and exorbitance of public expenditure. A debt of 42,600,000 livres frightened them. They pleaded the want of XXIII. power to deal with such a demand, suggested that the CHAP. good towns might contribute to immediate wants, and begged to be sent home to consult those who had elected them. In this they were gratified, the estates being dismissed at the end of January, on the understanding that each class was to elect one member from every province to meet in November, and transact the business, which, far from terminating, they had not even commenced. De l'Hôpital proceeded to carry out these principles by embodying in an edict issued from Orleans the chief recommendations of the assembly. This edict operated a complete reform both in the clerical and judicial bodies. It applied to both the principles of election. It abolished the concordat, forbade the payment of annates to the Pope, or the sale by him of benefices or reversions. Archbishops were to be chosen by bishops, bishops by the clergy, joined with twelve lay notables. The venality of the offices of the parliament was also abrogated. The judges were to choose three candidates to succeed to a vacant place, and the crown was to select one. All extraordinary courts of justice were abolished, and the number of both judicial and financial offices were reduced to the number existing under Louis the Twelfth. Judges were forbidden to receive pensions from prelates, De l'Hôpital endeavouring to break the link by which the Church had sought to establish the dependence of the bar.* The provisions for education were equally remarkable, the revenues of all communities, except what was necessary for divine service, being taken, and applied to the establishment of schools. Such was the great effort of De l'Hôpital to save the Church, by reforming it, and at the same time restore One third of the parliament was already clerical, according to the Mémoires de Guise. |