Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/596

 560 FRANCE [HISTORY. 1560. Charles IX. troubles was played oy the Huguenots, who in 15GO, guided by La Renaudie, a Ferigord gentleman, formed a plot to carry off the young king ; for Francis II. had already treated them with considerable severity, and had dismissed from his councils both the princes of the blood royal and the Constable Montmorency. The plot failed miserably, and La Renaudie lost his life ; it only secured more firmly the authority of the Guises. As a counterpoise to their influence, the queen-mother now conferred the vacant chancellorship on one of the wisest men France has ever seen, her Lord Bacon, Michel L Hopital, a man of the utmost prudence and moderation, who, had the times been better, might have won constitutional liberties for his country, and appeased her civil strife. As it was, he saved her from the Inquisition ; his hand drew the edicts which aimed at enforcing toleration on France ; he guided the assembly of notables which gathered at Fontainebleau, and induced them to attempt a compromise which moderate Catholics and Calvinists might accept, and which might lessen the power of the Guises. This assembly was followed by a meeting of the States-General at Orleans, at which the prince of Conde and the king of Navarre were seized by the Guises on a charge of having had to do with LaRenaudie s l&amp;gt;lot. It would have gone hard with them had not the sickly king at this very time fallen ill and died (1560). This was a grievous blow to the Guises ; they had their hands on their rivals, and would have got rid of them in a few days ; they had laid their plans to crush the south, and put down the Huguenots by martial law ; the queen- mother was powerless, the middle party behind her was as nothing. Now, as in a moment, all was shattered ; Catherine tie Medici rose at once to the command of affairs ; the new king, Charles IX., was only ten years old, and her position as regent was assured. The Guises would gladly have ruled with her ; but she had no fancy for that ; she and Chancellor L Hopital were not likely to ally themselves with all that was severe and repressive. Still, parties made a kind of armistice for a while ; the queen-mother drew towards easy-tempered Antony of Navarre; the Guises retained much of their power ; Conde&quot; was set free ; the cxtremer measures proposed by the Huguenots, who wished the king of Navarre to seize the regency for himself, were not regarded with any favour. While the Guises had been omnipotent, the discontented parties excluded by them from power and office were held together by the bonds of a com mon adversity; the change of affairs loosened their friend ship. They fell into three groups: the princes of the blood, with the queen-mother ; the constable Anne of Montmor ency and his Catholic friends ; and thirdly, the Huguenot nobles and cities of the south and west. The princes of the blood, through Antony of Navarre, had close connexions with the Huguenots; and when the queen-mother had secured him, she doubtless deemed that she would at least be able to neutralize their influence on affairs. She there fore set herself to secure also the constable and his party, and created a kind of triumvirate (composed of herself, Antony of Navarre, and Anne of Montmorency), with which she hoped to rule the country, and to keep the Guises in check. Here was a splendid field for those intrigues in which she had her being ; yet the queen s ultimate aim was a good one, for she really desired the tranquillity of France, and hoped to see Catholics and Huguenots dwell ing like brethren side by side. It must not be forgotten that the best part of her policy was inspired by the Chan cellor L Hopital. Now it was that Mary Stewart, the queen-dowager, was compelled to leave France for Scotland; her departure clearly marks the fall of the Guises, and it also showed Philip of Spain that it was no longer necessary for him to refuse aid and counsel to the Guises ; their claims were no longer formidable to him on the larger sphere of European 156] politics ; no longer could Mary Stewart dream of wearing the triple crown of Scotland, France, and England. The tolerant language of L Hopital at the States-General of Orleans in 1561 satisfied neither side. The Huguenots were restless ; the Bourbon princes tried to crush the Guises, in return for their own imprisonment the year before ; the constable was offended by the encouragement shown to the Huguenots; it was plain that new changes impended. Montmorency began them by going over to the Guises ; and the fatal triumvirate of Francis, duke of Guise, Mont- The morency, and St Andre, the marshal, was formed. We find the king of Spain forthwith entering the field of French intrigues and politics, as the support and stay of this triumvirate. Parlies take a simpler form at once, one party of Catholics, and another of Huguenots, with the queen-mother and the moderates left powerless between them. These last, guided still by L Hopital, once more convoked States-General at Pontoise : the nobles and the third estate seemed to side completely with the queen and the moderates ; a controversy between Huguenots and Jesuits at Poissy only added to the discontent of the Catholics, who were now joined by foolish Antony king of Navarre. The edict of January 1562 is the most remark able of the attempts made by the queen-mother to satisfy the Huguenots ; but party-passion was already too strong for it to succeed; civil war had become inevitable. The recall of the duke of Guise from Lorraine by his party made an outbreak certain. The Guises themselves were not without Lutheran sympathies ; their border-position between France and Germany, their literary tastes, and relations with German princes, made this natural enough. Still they were Catholics, and Lutheran sympathies were very different from Huguenot politics. The sudden out break at Vassy on the borders of Champagne, which marked the entry of the Guises into France proper, and the murder of Huguenots in the granary in which they were holding service, a massacre condemned by Francis of Guise him self, mark the opening of the civil wars (1st March 1562). The period may be divided into four parts : (1) re the wars before the establishment of the League (1562- of 1570); (2) the period of the St Bartholomew (1570-1573); civ (3) the struggle of the new Politique party against the Leaguers (1573-1589) ; (4) the efforts of Henry IV. to crush the League and reduce the country to peace (1589- 1598). The period can also be divided by that series of agreements, or peaces, which break it up into eight wars. 1. The war of 1562, on the skirts of which Philip of Th Spain interfered on the one side, and Queen Elizabeth with wa the Calvinistic German princes on the other, showed at once that the Huguenots were by far the weaker party. The English troops at Havre enabled them at first to com mand the lower Seine up to Rouen ; but the other party, after a long siege which cost poor Antony of Navarre his life, took that place, and relieved Paris of anxiety. The Huguenots had also spread far and wide over the south and west, occupying Orleans; the bridge of Orleans was their point of junction between Poitou and Germany. While the strength of the Catholics lay to the east, in Picardy, and at Paris, the Huguenot power was mostly concentrated in the south and west of France. Conde, who commanded at Orleans, supported by German allies, made an attempt on Paris, but finding the capital too strong for him, turned to the west, intending to join the English troops from Havre. Montmorency, however, caught him at Dreux : and in the battle that ensued the marshal of France, St Andre,, perished ; Concl6 was captured by the Catholics, Mont morency by the Huguenots. Coligny, the admiral, drew off his defeated troops with great skftl, and fell back to beyond the Loire ; the duke of Guise remained as sole