Volume II Part 40 (2/2)

[843] Walsingham to Burleigh, Aug. 12, 1571, Digges, 122. The amba.s.sador informs Elizabeth, in this letter, of the intense desire of the French Protestants that she should express to the French envoy her approval of the invitation extended to the princes and Coligny, and should say ”that so rare a subject as the admiral is was not to be suffered to live in such a corner as Roch.e.l.le.” It was thought that her commendations would greatly advance his credit with the king.

[844] I know not on what authority Miss Freer states (Henry III. of France, his Court and Times, i. 70) that ”even Coligny was startled at the ominous significance of these words; the shadow, however, vanished before the warmth and frankness of Charles's manner.” Compare Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 5.

[845] Walsingham's account in a letter of La Mothe Fenelon (Corresp.

dipl., iv. 245, 246), its accuracy being vouched for by a letter of Charles IX. himself (ibid., vii. 268); Tocsain contre les ma.s.sacreurs, Cimber et Danjou, vii. 34, 35; De Thou, iv. (liv. l.) 493.

[846] Charles IX. to Emmanuel Philibert, Blois, Sept. 28, 1571, _apud_ Leger, Hist. gen. des eglises vaudoises (Leyden, 1669), i. 47, 48.

[847] ”Durant ce moys, Gaspard de Coligny, remis par l'edit de pacification en l'estat d'admiral, fut mande par le roy et vint de la Roch.e.l.le trouver le Roy a Bloys, et se retira hors de la cour toute la maison de Guise, de sorte que le Roy estoit gouverne par ledit admiral et Montmorency.” Jehan de la Fosse, Journal d'un cure ligueur, 132.

[848] Walsingham to Cecil, March 5, 1571. Digges, 48, 49.

[849] ”And as for conference had with the Count Lewis of Na.s.sau, he told him, that he was misinformed;” first letter of Walsingham to Burleigh, of Aug. 12th, Digges, 122. Yet the second letter of the same date gives a detailed account of this conference. It must be admitted that the diplomacy of the sixteenth century was sufficiently barefaced in its impostures. Louis of Na.s.sau told Walsingham of an enterprise of Strozzi against Spain, determined upon by Charles IX. ”onely to amaze the king there;” but, as to Strozzi, ”the king here meaneth notwithstanding to disallow [him] openly.” Ibid., 125.

[850] Digges, 122.

[851] Jehan de la Fosse, 134.

[852] ”Et que ceulx qui estoient a la fenestre estoient bien aises de veoir jouer le jeu a mes despens.” It is scarcely necessary to say that this characteristic expression alludes primarily to the King of Spain and the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands.

[853] Charriere, Negociations de la France dans le Levant, Doc.u.ments inedits (publ. by the Imperial Government), Paris, 1853, iii. 200. Cf. Sir James Mackintosh, Hist. of England, vol. iii., App. A., pp. 345, 346, audience of Sr. de la Bourdaiziere at Rome, cir. Sept., 1571.

[854] Margaret being born May 14, 1552, and Henry of Navarre, Dec. 13, 1553.

[855] Letter of March 21, 1556/7, Rochambeau, Lettres d'Antoine de Bourbon et de Jehanne d'Albret (Paris, 1877), 145. The story of the promise of Margaret by her father to Henry of Navarre is confirmed by a letter of Charles IX., now in the National Library, dated October 5, 1571. ”The Queen of Navarre,” he writes to Ferralz (Ferrails), at Rome, ”has several times invited me to do her son the honor to marry him to my sister, _whereby also the promise would be fulfilled which my father gave to the late King of Navarre_.” Fr. von Raumer, Briefe aus Paris (Leipsic, 1830), i. 290.

[856] Mlle. Vauvilliers, Hist. de Jeanne d'Albret (Paris, 1818), i. 106.

[857] Soldan, Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, ii. 413.

[858] ”I thinke,” wrote Sir Thomas Smith, as early as January 17, 1563, ”your Majestie hath understood of the marriage practized betwixt the Prince of Portugall and Madame Margaret, the king's sister.” Forbes, State Papers, ii. 287.

[859] Memoires et Lettres de Marguerite de Valois, edited by M. F.

Guessard (Publications of the French Historical Society), Paris, 1842, 23.

[860] De Thou, iv. (liv. l.) 491, 492. Notwithstanding the frequent a.s.sertions in royal letters (as, for instance, in one which I have already quoted), that the Queen of Navarre herself urged the marriage, it is certain that she did not initiate it, while it is even maintained that she was only brought to consent by threats. ”La reine fut ouie un temps sans vouloir approuver ledit mariage, jusqu'a cette extremite qu'on la menaca de faire declarer son fils illegitime, a cause du mariage qui avoit ete contracte entre elle et le Duc de Cleves. Enfin vaincue, elle declare qu'elle n'en esperait que tout malheur.” Fr. von Raumer, Briefe aus Paris, i. 291.

[861] Memoires de Marg. de Valois, 24. The absurdity of the story that Margaret was averse to this marriage, because of a romantic attachment to young Henry of Guise, is sufficiently clear from the circ.u.mstance that the Duke of Guise had been married for some time when the match between the Prince of Navarre and Margaret of Valois was first talked of in earnest.

He married, on the 17th of September, 1570, Catharine of Cleves, widow of Prince Porcien. (”_Hodie_ celebrantur Lutetiae Ducis Guisii, qui ducit in uxorem viduam principis Portiani,” etc. Languet, Sept. 17, 1570, Epist.

secr., i. 163.) It is not probable that Margaret would object to the advantageous marriage with Henry of Navarre on account of her affection for a former lover, who, at the time of her nuptials, had been for two years married to another woman.

[862] Digges, 122.

[863] ”La Reyna mi madre,” said Anjou one day to a lady, ”muestra tener pena de que esta desbaratado mi casamiento, y yo estoy el mas contento hombre del mundo de haber escapado de casar con una puta publica.” Francis de Alava to Philip, May 11, 1571, _apud_ Froude, Hist. of Eng., x. 224.

[864] She gravely proposed to her council to have a stipulation for the rest.i.tution of Calais inserted in the articles of marriage, and Burleigh, Suss.e.x, and Leicester had some difficulty in persuading her to omit the mention. Lord Burleigh, June 5, 1571, Digges, 104.

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