Volume II Part 17 (1/2)

[296] Mem. de Conde (Bruslart), Sept., 1563, i. 133-135.

[297] Ibid., _ubi supra_. ”Ces parolles la sont venues de la boutique de Monsieur le Chancellier et non du Roy.”

[298] Ibid., i. 136. Even after Charles's lecture and a still more intemperate address of Montluc, Bishop of Valence, when parliament came to a vote there was a tie. To please Catharine, whose entire authority was at stake, the royal council of state gave the extraordinary command that the minute of this vote should be erased from the records of parliament, and the edict instantly registered. This last was forthwith done. De Thou, iii. (liv. x.x.xv.) 426, 427. Bruslart (_ubi supra_, i. 136) denies that the erasure was actually made as Charles had commanded.

[299] De Thou, iii. (liv. x.x.xv.) 441, etc.

[300] Letter of Card. de la Bourdaisiere, Rome, Oct. 23, 1563, in which sentence is said to have been p.r.o.nounced, the day before, on the Archbishop of Aix, and the bishops of Uzes, Valence, Oleron, Lescar, Chartres, and Troyes. Le Laboureur, i. 863, 864.

[301] Monitorium et citatio officii sanctae Inquisitionis contra ill.u.s.trissimam et serenissimam dominam Joannam Albretiam, reginam Navarrae, Mem. de Conde, iv. 669-679; and Vauvilliers, Histoire de Jeanne d'Albret, iii. Pieces justif., 221-240. It is dated Tuesday, September 28, 1563. De Thou, iii. (liv. x.x.xv.) 442. The Card. de la Bourdaisiere (_ubi supra_) merely says: ”Tout le monde dit a Rome, que la Reine de Navarre fut aussi privee audit Consistoire, mais il n'en est rien, bien est-elle citee.”

Mem. de Castelnau, liv. v., c. ix.

[302] It needed no very extraordinary penetration to read ”Philip” under the words of the monitorium: ”Ita ut in casu contraventionis (quod Deus avertat) et contumaciae, regnum, princ.i.p.atus, ac alia cujuscunque status et dominia hujuscemodi, dentur et dari possint _cuilibet illa occupanti, vel illi aut illis quibus Sanct.i.tati suae et successoribus suis dare et concedere magis placuerit_.”

[303] Summary of the protest in De Thou, iii. (liv. x.x.xv.) 441-447; and Vauvilliers, ii. 7-17; in full in Mem. de Conde, iv. 680-684. ”Quant au fait de la Reine de Navarre, qui est celuy qui importe le plus, ledit sieur d'Oysel aura charge de luy faire bien entendre,” says Catharine in a long letter to Bishop Bochetel (_ubi infra_), ”qu'il n'a nulle autorite et jurisdiction sur ceux qui portent t.i.tre de Roy ou de Reine, et que ce n'est a luy de donner leur estats et royaumes en proye au premier conquerant.”

[304] See the interesting letter of Catharine to Bochetel, Bishop of Rennes, French amba.s.sador at Vienna, Dec. 13, 1563, in which the papal a.s.sumption is stigmatized as dangerous to the peace of Christendom. ”De nostre part nous sommes deliberez de ne le permettre ny consentir,” she says, and she is persuaded that neither Ferdinand nor Maximilian will consent. Le Laboureur, i. 783.

[305] De Thou, iii. (liv. x.x.xv.) 447. Castelnau (liv. v., c. ix.) gives a wrong impression by his a.s.sertion that ”the Pope could never be induced to reverse the sentence against the Queen of Navarre.”

[306] Le Laboureur, ii. 610, 611; Brantome, Hommes ill.u.s.tres (OEuvres, ix.

259). We cannot accept, without much caution, the portraits drawn of the prince by the English while they were still smarting with resentment against him for concluding peace with the king without securing the claims of Elizabeth upon Calais. ”The Prince of Conde,” wrote Sir Thomas Smith, April 13, 1563, ”is thought ... to be waxen almost a new King of Navarre.

So thei which are most zelous for the religion are marvelously offendid with him; and in great feare, that shortly all wil be worse than ever it was. Et quia nunc prodit causam religionis, as they say, dia ten rhathumian autou kai psychroteta pros ta kala, and begynnes even now gunaikomanein, as the other did; they thinke plainly, that he will declare himself, ere it be long, unkiend to G.o.d, to us, and to himself; being won by the papists, either with reward of Balaam, or ells with Cozbi the Midianite, to adjoigne himself to Baal-peor.” Forbes, State Papers, ii.

385.

[307] ”Le bon prince,” says Brantome, ”estoit aussi mondain qu'un autre, et aimoit autant la femme d'autruy que la sienne, tenant fort du naturel de ceux de la race de Bourbon, qui ont este fort d'amoureuse complexion.”

Hommes ill.u.s.tres, M. le Prince de Conde. Granvelle wrote to the Emperor Ferdinand from Besancon (April 12, 1564), that word had come from France, ”que le prince de Conde y entendoit au service des dames plus qu'en aultre chose, et a.s.sez froid en la religion des huguenotz.” Papiers d'etat, vii.

467.

[308] See Bayle's art. on Isabeau de Limueil; J. de Serres, iii. 45, 46; De Thou, iii. (liv. x.x.xv.) 42.

[309] Jean de Serres, iii. 50, 51; De Thou, iii. (liv. x.x.xv.) 412, 413.

Cf. Bolwiller to Cardinal Granvelle, Sept. 4, 1564, Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granvelle, viii. 305. See, however, the statements in chapter xvi. of this history.

[310] His revenue from his county of Soissons was not 1,000 crowns a year, and he had little from his other possessions (Le Laboureur, ii. 611).

Secretary Courtewille, in his secret report (Dec., 1561), states that the Huguenot n.o.bles of the first rank were in general poor--Vendome, Conde, Coligny, etc.--and that were it not for a monthly sum of 1,200 crowns, which the Huguenots furnished to Conde, and 1,000 which the admiral received in similar manner, they would hardly know how to support themselves. Papiers d'etat du card. de Granv., vi. 440.

[311] Mary herself, however, writing to her aunt, the d.u.c.h.ess of Aerschot (Nov. 6, 1564), represents the offer of marriage as made by Conde, both to her grandmother and to her uncle the cardinal: ”a qui il a fait toutes les belles offres du monde.” Papiers d'etat du card. de Granv., viii. 481.

[312] Jean de Serres, iii. 32, 33.

[313] Ibid., iii. 45, 46; De Thou, iii. (liv. x.x.xv.) 414; D'Aubigne, Hist.

univ., i. 197.

[314] On the upper Tarn, in the modern department of the Aveyron.

[315] The very important doc.u.ments which exhibit these facts at great length are in the archives of the ”Mairie” of Milhau and in the Bibliotheque nationale, and were inedited until printed in the Bulletin, ix. (1860) 382-392. Among the names of the Huguenots of Milhau figuring here is that of Benoit Ferragut, apothecary.

[316] Graignan, pour l'eglise de Someyre, a la Venerable Compagnie, 19 juin, 1563, Gaberel, Hist. de l'eglise de Geneve, i., Pieces justificatives, 153. ”Et pourtant, je ne peux pas suffire a tout. Les paysans se baptisent les enfants les ungs les autres, ou sont contraincts de les laisser a baptiser.”