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opposite side. By this edict all their priv leges were guarantied to the reformers. Its spirit is evident from one important article. This is-The king appoints the governors of the fortresses of surety, but the colloque, or assembly of reform, must approve the appointment, ere it be valid.

Despite the veneration of the Protestants for the edict of Nantes, and their just indignation at its total and final repeal, it must nevertheless be allowed, that such a system of organized anarchy, as that which it established, could not endure. A representative assembly, with a religion adverse to that of the sovereign and the capital, possessed of fortresses, of funds, with a militia trained to war, and taught the doctrine of resistance, formed an imperium in imperio, or one empire within another, as the Catholics justly termed it, as incompatible with any regular government as with monarchy. Even Henry IV. perceived this. The annual assemblies of the Huguenots kept the flame of treason alive. The pretext for holding them was, to watch over the interests of the new religion, to offer advice, and make remonstrances thereon to the sovereign. Henry bade them, in lieu of assembling and debating continually, to appoint two or three of their body to reside at court, and act as deputies or ambassadors from the Protestant body. The Huguenots grasped at the offer of having ambassadors; a trap in which their power fell a sacrifice to their vanity. Their deputies were appointed for three years. The king afterwards obtained, that six should be chosen, of which he would select two; by which means those tribunes near his person were less turbulent and odious.

Such materials of opposition to the sovereign power, without any prospect or possibility of their assuming a legal, a fixed, or constitutional shape, formed a state of things sufficiently dangerous and insecure. The independence and frowardness of the nobility, always supplying leaders and instigators to the malcontent religionists, rendered it still more dangerous. It has been seen that the noblesse, humbled under Louis XI., recovered its influence under Charles VIII. and Louis XII. Francis favored the order, whilst he wisely kept down its chiefs. But these the Guises for example, and the Montmorencies-rose up during the civil wars. Henry IV. whose ideas and policy in this respect were those of Francis, wished also to favor the order at the expense of its chiefs. But his position compelled him, instead of humbling the latter, to make compromises with them, and to distribute the remaining force of the monarchy, towns, appanages, and provinces, amongst an aristocracy already too powerful. Their attempt to consolidate this power, and to re-establish the old feudal

1610.

THE REGENCY.

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■ysten, has been mentioned; hut Henry, if he could not humble them, at least prevented them from out-topping the crown, and the execution of Biron was a menace and an example, which answered its intentions, and kept the ambitious caste of nobles for the time in quiet.

Of this aristocracy, by far the greater part drew additional strength from their orthodoxy, their attachment to Rome, and the consequent support of Spain whilst others professed the Huguenot doctrines, and aspired to lead this formidable party. When the house of Bourbon, in the person of Henry, became converted to Catholicism, the young prince of Condé was at the same time taken and educated in the now orthodox creed of the court. The first rank amongst the reformers thus fell to La Tour d'Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne, and by his marriage duc de Bouillon. He was powerful by possessing the independent sovereignty and fortress of Sedan. The noble house of Rohan professed the same creed, as well as Sully, D'Aubigné, De Mornay, and other distinguished families. It is singular to remark, that in little more than half a century's time, all these had abjured the Protestant belief; so great was either the fickleness of the nation, the influence of the court, or the natural distaste of the nobly born to the democratic spirit of Calvinism.

The last dispositions of Henry, on his intended departure to head his army, had appointed his queen, Mary of Medicis, regent: this was strongly in her favor as dowager; and she now found little difficulty in assuming the same authority. The duke of Epernon, her partisan, summoned the parliament, and procured their acquiescence, not, however, without having made some show of menace. This seemed unnecessary: of the princes of the blood, three in number, who could alone have pretended to the regency, Condé was absent in the Netherlands, his brother of Conti was imbecile, whilst their uncle, the count of Soissons, also absent, was at enmity with every influential personage.

It was to Sully that Henry's death came as the greatest blow. The duke had ridden from the arsenal, and was coming to the rencontre of the court, when he heard the fatal tidings: Sully was panic-struck; he saw in the murder a Catholic plot, and dreaded a renewal of the massacres of St. Bartholomew's eve; he accordingly turned back, and shut himself up with his followers in the Bastile, which he hastily provisioned by carrying off all the bread from the bakers' shops around. By the morrow, however, his suspicions had subsided, and he appeared at the court of the regent.

Mary of Medicis was of a weak character; she was simple

womanhood, unenforced by either firmness or sagacity. She had come to France a stranger; and wanting both charms and wit, she had never acquired any influence either with her husband, or amongst the followers of his court. Mary, therefore, shrunk back into her private circle, and made confidants and counsellors of two domestics of her country, Galigai, a female attendant, and Concini, the husband of this woman These upstart personages, full of all the meanness and nar rowness of their calling, had frequently fanned the pett jealousies of the queen against Henry; and now it was to be feared their influence would be perniciously felt. Mary, however, was as yet too conscious of her weakness and inability. She had a vague idea of the justice of the late king's policy in keeping down the noblesse, that now pressed around her, and terrified her with their pretensions and their quarrels. She therefore had recourse to those best fitted to guide herthe ministers of the late monarch, Villeroi the secretary, Sillery the chancellor, the president Jeannin, and Sully, superintendent of finances: these, except Sully, had none of the pretensions and haughty bearing of the noblesse; and Mary felt not deprived of her will and authority in being guided by them.

The warlike measures of the late king first fell under the consideration of the government. Henry had provided two puissant armies; one destined to invade Italy, the other to conquer Flanders. It is singular that the design of the great Henry was the identical one that is still the darling project of French warriors,-to annex Savoy to France, and make the Rhine the boundary of the kingdom by the conquest of Flanders. Henry intended to recompense the duke of Savoy by the territories of Milan. To humble the house of Austria, and confine that, family to its German dominions, made part of the project. But even the enterprising Henry slumbered over designs so vast, and paused to undertake them, till the chance flight of the prince and princess of Condé, and their protection by the vice-regal court of Flanders, induced him to draw the sword. This latter motive of course ceased to be one with the queen-regent, to whose narrow mind and timid spirit the profound and daring views of the monarch's policy were equally incomprehensible. The army intended for Italy was accordingly dismissed; the more speedily, as its Huguenot commander, Lesdiguières, was thus deprived of power. The force in Champagne was still kept on foot for the sake of dignity and defence.

Foreign enemies were not the great. objects of dread tc Mary of Medicis. It was against the princes of the blood,

1611.

SULLY IN DISGRACE.

13

the rivals of her power, that she felt need of fortifying herself. The absence of the count of Soissons from Paris had been owing to a fit of discontent, occasioned by observing the fleur-de-lis embroidered on the gown of the duchess of Vendôme at the ceremony of the queen's coronation. The duke being but an illegitimate son of the king, the purer blood of Soissons was indignant. On learning Henry's fate, the count hurried to the capital, too late to contest the regency, but not too late to utter formidable discontent at the queen's ascendency. The government of Normandy, and a pension of 50,000 crowns, appeased for the time the resentment of the count of Soissons. The prince of Condé next came to play the same part: he entered Paris at the head of 1500 armed gentlemen. The present of a magnificent hotel, the county of Clermont, and 200,000 livres pension, were the price of his submission. The nobles, it may well be imagined, did not leave such examples unimitated; and the regent soon found it as troublesome to be pressed by such powerful claimants, as to be menaced by their hostile rivalry.

As long, however, as the rigid Sully held the finances under his care, there was a check to spoliation, as well as a generous voice in the council to support the sage, the firm, and yet conciliating measures of the late monarch. He was at first retained, indeed, for the sake of the stern negative which he was wont to put on the demands of the greedy courtiers, as well as from fear or respect of his influence with the Huguenots. But his economical temper became soon a disagreeable restraint upon the queen herself; and the duc de Bouillon, an indefatigable votary of intrigue, offering to effect more than even Sully in conciliating and quieting the Huguenots, this old and upright minister of the great Henry was dismissed. Despite his probity, his able administration, and the esteem of Henry, a cloud would rest on the character of Sully, but for the honest and simple exculpation contained in his own memoirs. His austere and rude manners made him many enemies. Most of his contemporaries unite in accusing him; and, strange to say, the only family beyond his own, whose friendship and good-will he preserved in his retreat, was that of Guise.

The disgrace of Sully left the treasure of the late king completely at the regent's disposal, who dissipated it by bribing prince and noble to remain quiet. The favor of Eleanor Galigai and her husband Concini, now mareschal d'Ancrę, became more apparent. The avarice of these foreigners knew no bounds: not content with the purchase of a marquisate, and the dignity of marshal, Concini contrived to get some of

the principal fortresses of the kingdom in his possession; Peronne amongst others, and the citadel of Amiens. Epernon, on his side, secured Metz; whilst the count of Soissons and the prince of Condé, despite their pensions and their submission, by turns thwarted the court, and threw it into disorder by their private quarrels. Although the mareschal d'Ancre and his wife were the chief favorites of the queen regent, Vieroi was nevertheless the counsellor whose views, in mat ters of serious policy, she principally adopted. Villeroi, say the memoirs attributed to Richelieu, bred in the civil wars, had imbibed their virulence, which he repressed during the life of Henry. Instead of now recommending that monarch's conciliating policy, which Sully upheld, Villeroi said that that there were but two parties in the state, Catholic and Protestant, and that the government must necessarily embrace one or the other. He leaned to the Catholic side, and supported the project of strengthening it by marrying the young king to a daughter of Spain, rather than to a princess of Lorraine or Savoy, as had been the advice of Henry. The prince, however, urged by the duke of Bouillon, opposed the ministry in this, for no reason, apparently, except the sake of making opposition. And for the time, Louis XIII. being as yet but nine years of age, the project was allowed to slumber.

The assembly of the Protestant representatives took place at Saumur. The duc de Bouillon was called on to make good his promises of allaying any hostility that might lurk therein towards the court: the government of Poitou and a pension were to be his reward. But De Bouillon had over-estimated his influence. Sully, and his son-in-law the duc de Rohan, countermined and defeated his intrigues. The assembly showed itself refractory, and, instead of rendering the Protestant body well disposed towards the regent, it had a very contrary effect; betrayed suspicions, drew up remonstrances, and displayed a lively resentment at the disgrace of Sully. Bouillon accordingly went unrewarded; and he became again hostile to the court, against which he united, and exasperated the princes.

All the largesses of Mary of Medicis had not secured the attachment of a single magnate; and she had now left herself without the support of any one influential personage amongst the Huguenots. She had exhausted the treasure; the provinces were all bestowed; the fortresses in powerful and independent hands. Nothing preserved to her the shadow of authority, but the division and mutual enmity of princes and nobles. Standing alone, and uncompromised by the rapacity and folly of her favorite, Mary might have succeeded

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