Volume II Part 19 (1/2)

[376] Cartas que el Duque de Alba scrivio, etc. Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle, ix. 315.

[377] ”Yo me altere _terriblemente_ de oirselo, y le dixe que me maravillava mucho.” Ibid., ix. 317.

[378] ”La junta pa.s.sada de adonde comencaron todas las desverguencas que al presente ay en este reyno.” Ibid., ix. 317.

[379] ”En la otra el cardenal de Lorena havia sido el que avia hecho todo el dano, pensando poder persuadir a los ministros.” Ibid., _ubi supra_.

[380] ”Parecenos que quiere con esta semblea (i.e., a.s.semblee), que ellos llaman, remendar lo que falta en el rigor necessario al remedio de sus vasallos, y plega a Dios no sea,” etc. Ibid., ix. 318.

[381] Letter of Granvelle, Aug. 20, 1565, Papiers d'etat, ix. 481.

[382] ”Depuis l'arrivee n'y eust mention que de festins, recreations et pa.s.se-temps de diverses manieres.” Relation du voyage de la reine Isabelle d'Espagne a Bayonne, MSS. Belgian Archives, Compte Rendu de la commission royale d'histoire, seconde serie, ix. (1857) 159. This paper was drawn up by the Secretary of State Courtewille, and sent to President Viglius.

[383] Over the first triumphal arch was a representation of Isabella (or Elizabeth) trampling Mars under foot, with the mottoes _Sacer hymen pacem n.o.bis contulit_ and _Deus n.o.bis haec otia fecit_, and below the lines:

elizabeth, de roy fille excellente, Vous avez joint ung jour deux rois puissans; France et l'Espaigne, en gloire permanente, Extolleront voz ages triumphans, etc.

Over a second arch at the palace gate, which was reached by a street hung with tapestry and decorated with the united arms of France and Spain, was suspended a painting of Catharine with her three sons and three daughters, and the inscription:

C'est a l'entour de royalle couronne Que le jardin hesperien floronne: Ce sont jardins de si belle feconde, Qui aujourd'huy ne trouve sa seconde; Ce sont rameaux vigoureux et puissans; Ce sont florons de vertu verdissans.

Royne sans per (paire), de grace decoree, Vous surmontez Pallas et Cytheree.

Catharine's portraits scarcely confirm the boast of her panegyrist that she surpa.s.sed Venus, however well she might match Minerva in sagacity.

[384] Agrippa d'Aubigne, Histoire universelle, i. 1.

[385] ”Le feu bon homme Monsieur de La Gaucherie y marchoit en rondeur de conscience, et mesme mon filz lui doibt et aux siens cette rasine (racine) de piete qui lui est, par la gra.s.se de Dieu, si bien plantee au cueur par bonnes admonitions, que maintenant, dont je loue ce bon Dieu, elle produit et branches et fruitz. Je lui suplie qu'il luy fa.s.se ceste gra.s.se qu'il continue de bien en mieulx.” Letter of Dec. 6, 1566, MSS. Geneva Library, Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, xvi. (1867) 65.

[386] ”Ung tournoy a pied.”

[387] It will be remembered that the Spaniards never acknowledged the claim of Antoine or his wife to the t.i.tle of sovereigns of Navarre. In all Spanish doc.u.ments, therefore, such as that which we are here following, their son Henry is designated only by the dukedom of Bourbon-Vendome which he inherited from his father.

[388] Relation du voyage de la reine Isabelle a Bayonne, MSS. Belgian Archives, _ubi supra_, ix. 161, 162.

[389] See Jean de Serres, iii., 53, for the fraternities of the Holy Ghost in Burgundy. Blaise de Montluc's proposition of a league with the king as its head had been declined; the monarch needed no other tie to his subjects than that which already bound them together. Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., liv. iv., c. v. (i. 206.)

[390] Letter of Charles IX. to M. de Matignon, July 31, 1565, _apud_ Capefigue, Hist. de la Reforme, de la Ligue, etc., ii. 419, 420. The same letter stipulated for the better protection of the Protestants by freeing them from domiciliary visits, etc.

[391] Maniquet to Gordes, August 1, 1565, Conde MSS. in Aumale, i. 528.

[392] Letter of Villegagnon to Granvelle, May 25, 1564, Papiers d'etat, vii. 660. The Huguenots figure as ”les _Aygnos_, c'est-a-dire, en langue de Suisse, rebelles et conjures contre leur prince pour la liberte.”

[393] Letter of May 27, 1564, Ibid., vii., 666.

[394] Letter of N. de St. Remy, June 5, 1564. Ibid., viii. 24, 25. ”Le peuple l'aymeroit trop mieulx pour roy que nul aultre de Bourbon.”

[395] Catharine never forgave Amba.s.sador Chantonnay for having boasted that, with Throkmorton's a.s.sistance, he could overturn the State. ”Jusqu'a dire que Trokmarton, qui estoit amba.s.sadeur d'Angleterre au commencement de ces troubles, pour l'intelligence qu'il a avec les Huguenots, et luy pour celle qu'il a avec les Catholiques de ce royaume, sont suffisans pour subvertir cet Estat.” Letter to the Bishop of Rennes, Dec. 13, 1563, La Laboureur, i. 784.

[396] Granvelle to Philip II., July 15, 1565. Papiers d'etat, ix. 399, 402, etc.

[397] See Alex. Sutherland's Achievements of the Knights of Malta (Phila., 1846), ii. 121, which contains an interesting popular account of this memorable leaguer.