The Wars of Religion

THE WARS OF RELIGION At the commencement of these eight fratricidal wars, neither Protestants nor Catholics had any intention of overthrowing the king's authority, but rather sought to control it with a view to strengthening their cause. But as the contest became more and more embittered, Catholicism itself became a revolutionary force and a menace to the dynasty. The fanaticism of both parties rendered the struggle peculiarly ferocious, as witness the terrible cruelties of Montluc and Des Adrets in the south of France. In capable of destroying each other each party sought allies outside the kingdom, and thus the struggle became international rather than national. The Protestants received the support of the Ger man Lutherans, the Calvinists of the Low Countries, and the protestant subjects of Queen Elizabeth. In support of the Catho lics, Philip II. of Spain rallied the pope, Spain, Italy, and the duke of Savoy. The two camps were divided, not by patriotism, but by religion. The war was fought in three principal theatres, the northern, Normandy and the Loire valley where Orleans, the centre of the Reformers, guarded the line of communication be tween Germany and the south ; the south-eastern, Lyons and the Vivarais ; and the south-western, Gascony and Guienne.

The first war lasted a year and cost the lives of the majority of the leaders. Threatened by an English invasion, which Coligny and Conde had purchased by ceding Havre, Guise captured Rouen by assault, but in the attack Antoine de Bourbon lost his life. At Dreux, fought to close the road to German reinforcements hastening to join the English, Saint-Andre was killed, but the victor, Montmorency, and Conde were taken prisoners. Guise was assassinated by Poltrot de Mere as he was attacking Orleans (Feb. 1563) . Freed from his uncomfortable tutelage and head of a Catholic party of tried strength, Catherine was able to destroy the unity of the Huguenots in the Peace of Amboise (March 1563), by which Conde demanded freedom of worship only for the Protestant aristocracy; Catholics and Protestants then united to drive the English out of Havre.

The Second War.—A breathing-space of four years, during which Charles IX. attained his majority, followed upon this peace which satisfied neither party. Catherine, who desired peace at home and abroad, endeavoured in the conference of Bayonne (June 1565) to win over Philip II. to a sort of Catholic Holy Al liance that should combat heresy without using force. That the hour for moderation had not yet struck is shown by Conde's at tempt to kidnap the king and Catherine, and to hold Paris. He failed, and the second religious war broke out in Sept. 1567. Dur ing the siege of Paris Montmorency was killed (Nov. 1567) ; the peace of Longjumeau, which followed in March 1568, sought to re-establish the settlement of Amboise.

The Third War.—The peace was of short duration. The fall of Michel de l'Hopital, who had so often guaranteed the loyalty of the Huguenots, destroyed the moderate party (May 1568). Stirred up by the monks and the Jesuits, the Catholic reaction dis played itself everywhere. The leadership of the movement was entrusted by the cardinal of Lorraine to Catherine's favourite son, the duke of Anjou, the future Henry III. This disquieted Conde, who was in the west, where the Reformation was firmly estab lished. Thanks to Tavannes, Anjou gained easy victories at Jarnac over Conde, who was slain, and at Moncontour over Coligny, vic tories that were nullified through the jealousy of Charles IX. (March–Oct. 1569). Coligny replied with a bold thrust at Paris and defeated the royal army at Arnay-le-Duc in Burgundy. Lacking resources and exasperated by the overweening conceit of the Lorraine family, Catherine signed the peace of Saint-Germain on Aug. 8, 157o. More generous than that of Amboise, it guaran teed to the Huguenots, for the first time, four fortified cities : La Rochelle, the key to the sea ; La Charite, in the centre of France; and Cognac and Montauban in the south.

St. Bartholomew.—Charles IX., now 20 years of age and the husband of Elizabeth of Austria, set up as his own master, but merely exchanged the tutelage of his mother for that of Coligny, through whose eyes he viewed everything. The monarchy had negotiated with the rebellious Huguenots as though with a belliger ent power. For its success, this policy demanded a complete reconciliation between the parties. This Charles attempted by seeking to marry his sister, Marguerite de Valois, to the son of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre, that Henry who was both head of the Huguenots and heir to the crown should Charles IX. and his young brothers die childless. Coligny, a Huguenot but first of all a Frenchman, declared war against Spain in order to unite all patriotic Frenchmen and to divert the nation from civil war to the conquest of Flanders. Un fortunately his troops were defeated in the Low Countries, while the marriage of Marguerite—the first "mixed marriage"—scandal ized the Catholics who were already jealous of the growing power of the Huguenots.

The attempted murder of Coligny, instigated by Henry of Guise as a reprisal for that of his father, was the first intimation of the general unrest. Charles IX. was incensed and the Huguenots wished to avenge their chief ; but Catherine, alarmed at the im minence of war with Spain and fearing lest the Guises, as leaders of the Catholic reaction, should master the kingdom, persuaded her son, distraught with fear of both Guises and Protestants, to forestall the former by crushing the latter. The signal was given in Paris and throughout the provinces for a wholesale massacre of the Huguenots (Aug. 24, 1572).

The Fourth Civil War.

The massacre of St. Bartholomew settled nothing. It is true that Calvinism lost its greatest leader by the death of Coligny. The other chiefs, Henry of Navarre and Conde, as well as the wealthy middle classes, abjured their re ligion under pain of death at the very moment when the reforms effected by the Council of Trent cut away the ground from be neath their feet. But the pastors, relieved of the aristocratic poli ticians, and supported by the Protestant democracy, sounded the call to arms. This fourth war was chiefly remarkable for the siege of La Rochelle. During the war the Huguenots organized themselves and formed a State within the State. They were saved by the excesses of the reaction. A third party, which drew mod erate men from both camps, was inspired even more by jealousy of the ambitions of the Guises than by horror at the massacres. Its leader was the king's brother, the duke of Alencon, who was supported by the brothers Montmorency, the parents of Coligny, the king of Navarre and Conde. The edict of Boulogne put an end to the war, and the Catholics lost their chief by the election of the duke of Anjou to the throne of Poland (May Henry III. 1574-89.—Anjou had scarcely arrived in Poland before the news of Charles IX.'s death recalled him in haste to France. He found the kingdom divided into rival groups. His young brother, Alencon, abandoned the court to place himself at the head of the Politiques, or Third Party. Henry of Navarre re sumed his Calvinism and imitated Alencon by placing himself at the head of the Protestants. A compact was concluded between them at Millau. Thus broke out the fifth religious war. Notwith standing the victory won by Guise at Dormans, Henry III. in the peace of Monsieur (May 6, 1576) yielded all that the coalition demanded. Alencon received the appanage of Anjou, Touraine and Berry; the king of Navarre, Guienne; Conde, Picardy; while the Protestants obtained the restoration of their fortified cities and liberty of worship throughout the kingdom, with the exception of the neighbourhood of Paris. Seats were granted to them in the parlements and the massacre of St. Bartholomew was disavowed.

This was going too fast. In the reaction that followed upon this seeming abandonment of the kingdom by the king there arose a fourth party, the Holy League, of which Henry of Guise was popu larly considered the leader. This league was organized on the lines of the Huguenot provincial associations, but with this difference— that it was designed to be offensive. The membership was prima rily recruited from among the upper middle classes and the lesser nobility—men of honesty and caution. In the name of a people menaced by heresy it demanded from the States-General at Blois the re-establishment of unity of faith, and opposed to the divine right of incapable or evil monarchs the religious right of the nation.

In order to oust his rival, Henry of Guise, Henry III. deter mined to reveal himself an ultra-Catholic, but by declaring him self head of the League he lowered himself to the level of a party leader. Enraged by this trick, the League refused to finance his war against the Huguenots. Next Henry abolished the Edict that had placed Huguenots and Catholics on the same footing. The Huguenots, however, were not to be intimidated by the "packed" States-General of Blois, and, after a brief campaign, obtained in the Peace of Bergerac (15 77) the restoration in a somewhat cur tailed version of the previous peace. This was later renewed at Fleix (158o) after the so-called "Lovers' War," which arose out of the intrigues of the wanton Marguerite, wife of Henry of Navarre.

Would the Holy League succumb? The death of the duke

of Anjou after his foolish attempt to carve out a kingdom for himself in the Low Countries, coupled with the certainty of the accession to the throne of the heir of the effeminate Henry III., Henry of Navarre, upset the theories of both parties. The Huguenots found themselves again the supporters of the hereditary principle and the divine right of kings. The Catholics and the Guises, the latter inspired with a personal and selfish arriere-pensee, became the upholders of elective monarchy and the sovereignty of the people. Was it not unthinkable that the crown of the eldest daughter of the Church should be allowed to pass to a relapsed heretic ? In order to facilitate their possible accession to the throne, the Guises, who had already fabricated a genealogy that led them back to Charlemagne, entered into an understanding at Joinville (Dec. 1584) with Philip II. and the pope to set aside Henry of Navarre and to substitute for him the old cardinal de Bourbon who, on his death, would leave the crown to Henry of Guise. But patriots, lawyers, members of the Politiques and Huguenots alike joined to protest against this management of French policy by Spain. Civil war was renewed. The three Henries : Henry of Navarre, Henry III., and Henry of Guise, faced each other. Henry III. was in a difficult position. He did not dare to ask from the protestant Elizabeth of England the men and money which he needed. As the crafty Henry of Navarre did not mean to alienate the Huguenots, except by an apostasy profitable to himself, Henry III., while feigning .to surrender everything to Henry of Guise, sought to play off the Huguenots against the Catholics and vice versa. But his favourite, Joyeuse, who should have easily defeated the king of Navarre, was himself defeated at Coutras, and Guise, whom he had hoped to see crushed by the German levies sent by Elizabeth to aid Henry of Navarre, was victorious at Vimory (Oct.) and Auneau (Nov. 1585). The League believed that nothing remained to be feared. It had organized in Paris a com mittee of action—the Committee of Sixteen—whose influence was felt throughout France. At the same time, from every pulpit the preachers were hurling insults at the king. On the threat of their arrest Paris revolted and called upon Guise, who entered the city despite the opposition of the king. The king's troops also having entered, a St. Bartholomew of the Catholics seemed possi ble. Barricades were set up in the streets. Henry III., besieged in the Louvre, was forced to appeal to Guise to suppress the rising, and took the opportunity of escaping to Chartres. Postponing his revenge for the moment, he yielded by the Edict of Union (July 1588) what he had refused in face of the barricades. But infuriated by insults and by the States-General at Blois, composed entirely of members of the League, and emboldened by the de struction of Philip II.'s invincible Armada, Henry III. resorted, like Charles IX., to political assassination. He imprisoned the old cardinal de Bourbon, and caused Henry of Guise and his brother, the cardinal of Lorraine, to be murdered (Dec. 23, 1588). On Jan. 5, 1589, Catherine de' Medici died. "Now I alone am king"— cried Henry III. But he was ruler of a sadly attenuated kingdom : Blois, Tours and Bordeaux. In order to win back his realm and, above all, Paris, he was reconciled with Henry of Navarre. The dagger of Jean Clement put an end to his work (Aug. 1, 1589). With his dying breath he named Henry of Navarre as his suc cessor.